Document
stringlengths 87
1.67M
| Source
stringclasses 5
values |
|---|---|
young couple looking at a bookIf you have decided to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive a child, you can use your own eggs or the eggs of a donor. Because egg quality declines as you age, using donor eggs is especially helpful for older women with low egg number, women who are not getting pregnant with their own eggs, and women who are having miscarriages due to genetic errors in the embryos. Egg donors are usually between the ages of 21 and 31, a time of life when both egg quantity and quality are high. As a result, you may have a better chance of succeeding with donor eggs than you do if you use your own eggs. Here is what you can expect from IVF with an egg donor.
Step #1: Selecting a Donor
The first step in this process is deciding whether you will use eggs from an anonymous donor or someone you know. All donors, whether they are known or anonymous undergo the same genetic, medical, and psychological screening before they donate. You will work with a donor coordinator to describe the qualities in a donor that are most important to you. Together, you review donor profiles that include physical characteristics, educational and professional achievements, and prior fertility and donation history.
Step #2: Synching Your Cycles
After you select a donor, you will synchronize your cycles so that your uterus is ready for the coming embryos from the donor’s eggs. The donor will take fertility drugs to stimulate the recruitment of mature eggs. You will take hormones to prepare your body to support a pregnancy. Your doctor will remove the eggs from the donor’s ovaries as soon as they are ready.
Step #3: Getting In-Vitro Fertilization
Once the donor’s eggs have been collected, the process is the same as doing IVF with your own eggs. An embryologist will combine the donor’s eggs and sperm in the laboratory. Once the resulting embryos have developed for a few days in the lab, your doctor will use a thin catheter to put one or two embryos into your uterus. The other good quality embryos can be frozen in case you want to use them in the future.
You will take hormone supplements to support the uterus as the embryo or embryos implant. Approximately two weeks after the doctor places the embryos in your uterus, you will be able to take a pregnancy test to see if you are pregnant.
Step #4: Planning the Treatment
One IVF cycle takes approximately four weeks to complete once we find the right donor and ensure your cycles sync properly. The time before the cycle while selecting your donor can be spent getting physically and mentally prepared for pregnancy. During this time, your doctor will discuss your individual chance of pregnancy using donor eggs, and what you can do to increase your chances for success.
Step #5: Starting the Process
If you are ready to start the process of IVF with an egg donor, we can help. Contact Atlantic Reproductive Medicine Specialists at (919) 328-2956 to speak with one of our staff members. We will be happy to answer any questions you have about building your family.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
jython234 jython234 - 11 months ago 40
C Question
Array pointer from C to D
I'm using D and interfacing with some C libraries. As a result I have to convert D arrays to pointers for C (ex. short*). Currently I just cast them like this:
int[] dArray = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4];
myCFunction(cast(int*) dArray);
Is this unsafe? I tried to do:
myCFunction(&dArray);
But doing that gives the function an int[]* instead of int*. I see that in C++ some people take the first element like this:
myCFunction(&dArray[0]);
But wouldn't that pointer only point to the first element? I am new to pointers and references as I have come from the world of Java.
How would I convert an array to a pointer so I can pass it to a C function?
Answer
In D, an array is actually (conceptually) this:
struct {
size_t length;
void* ptr;
};
The usual way of getting a pointer from an array is to use the .ptr field. In your case: myCFunction(dArray.ptr);
But wouldn't that pointer only point to the first element
Because the elements are stored contiguously in memory, a pointer to the first element is all we need. We just add an offset to that pointer if we want to get the addresses of other elements.
One other point: usually if a C function wants an array pointer, it also has an argument for the array length. In most cases you can give it dArray.length, but sometimes it's actually asking for the size in bytes, rather than the number of elements.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
[][src]Crate spirit_daemonize
A spirit helpers and configuration fragments for daemonization.
The helpers in here extend the spirit configuration framework to automatically go into background based on user's configuration and command line options.
Examples
extern crate spirit;
extern crate spirit_daemonize;
#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_derive;
#[macro_use]
extern crate structopt;
use spirit::Spirit;
use spirit_daemonize::{Daemon, Opts as DaemonOpts};
// From config files
#[derive(Default, Deserialize)]
struct Cfg {
#[serde(default)]
daemon: Daemon,
}
impl Cfg {
fn daemon(&self) -> Daemon {
self.daemon.clone()
}
}
// From command line
#[derive(Debug, StructOpt)]
struct Opts {
#[structopt(flatten)]
daemon: DaemonOpts,
}
impl Opts {
fn daemon(&self) -> &DaemonOpts {
&self.daemon
}
}
fn main() {
Spirit::<Opts, Cfg>::new()
.config_helper(Cfg::daemon, spirit_daemonize::with_opts(Opts::daemon), "daemonize")
.run(|_spirit| {
// Possibly daemonized program goes here
Ok(())
});
}
Added options
The program above gets the -d command line option, which enables daemonization. Furthermore, the configuration now understands a new daemon section, with these options:
• user: The user to become. Either a numeric ID or name. If not present, it doesn't change the user.
• group: Similar as user, but with group.
• pid-file: A pid file to write on startup. If not present, nothing is stored.
• workdir: A working directory it'll switch into. If not set, defaults to /.
• daemonize: Should this go into background or not? If combined with the Opts, it can be overridden on command line.
Multithreaded applications
As daemonization is done by using fork, you should start any threads after you initialize the spirit. Otherwise you'll lose the threads (and further bad things will happen).
The daemonization happens inside the config_validator callback. If other config validators need to start any threads, they should be plugged in after the daemonization callback. However, the safer option is to start them inside the run method.
Structs
Daemon
A configuration fragment for configuration of daemonization.
Opts
Command line options fragment.
UserDaemon
A stripped-down version of Daemon without the user-switching options.
Enums
SecId
Configuration of either user or a group.
Functions
with_opts
Wraps an extractor of an Opts struct to form a transformation closure for Daemon config helper.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Category:Middle schools in New Orleans
This category includes current middle schools in New Orleans. If a high school is listed the school includes middle school grades.
|
WIKI
|
Polyelasmoceratidae
Polyelasmoceratidae is a family of oncocerid nautiloids characterized by rapidly expanding endogastrically curved shells, curved such that the ventral side is longitudinally concave. In cross section shells are typically tear-drop in shape to subtriangular. The siphuncle is typically nummuloidal, like a string of beads, with outwardly flared septal necks, and located between the center and the venter. Most contain radially lamellar actinosiphonate deposits.
The Middle Silurian Danaoceras is probably the ancestral genus, which give rise to the contemporary Codoceras and ultimately the subsequent Devonian genera.
|
WIKI
|
Ford Freeway
Ford Freeway can refer to:
* Bishop Ford Freeway, part of I-94 in the Chicago area
* Edsel Ford Freeway, part of I-94 in Detroit
* Gerald R. Ford Freeway (Omaha), part of I-480 in Nebraska
* Gerald R. Ford Freeway (Grand Rapids), part of I-196 in Michigan
|
WIKI
|
login script map network drive...
Hi:
i need a login script to map network drives,so i wrote a script using wscript.shell(vbs),
then use the net use command to disconnect drive first then remap these drive,
i need map three network drive,but when i reboot the computer,the map drive just appear two...
if i logout then login these network drives map success,and i can see all three network drive...
anyone know how to solve it??
thanks
LVL 6
darkeryuAsked:
Who is Participating?
glennbrown2Connect With a Mentor Commented:
i use this to map my drives
***********************************
On Error Resume Next
'Declare variables
Dim wshNetwork, fso, strComputer, objUser, objPolicy, objFirewall
'Set variables
Set wshNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set strComputer = WshNetwork.ComputerName
'check existing drives if connected
If fso.DriveExists ("G:") = True Then
WshNetwork.RemoveNetworkDrive "G:"
End If
If fso.DriveExists ("H:") = True Then
WshNetwork.RemoveNetworkDrive "H:"
End If
'map network drives
wshNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "G:", "\\SERVER1\Company"
wshNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "H:", "\\SERVER1\" & wshNetwork.UserName&"$"
'reset variables to nothing
Set wshNetwork = Nothing
Set fso = Nothing
Set objUser = Nothing
Set strComputer = Nothing
***************************************************************
0
glenn_1984Commented:
You could also use a simple batch file.
net use f: /d (disconnect drive first)
net use f: //servername/sharename (map drive f:)
net use //servername/sharename (map directly to share)
0
canaliCommented:
::mapThreeDrive.cmd
@echo off
::delete shares if exist
if exist f:\NUL net use f: /d
if exist g:\NUL net use g: /d
if exist h:\NUL net use h: /d
:: map network drives
net use f: \\servername\one
net use g: \\servername\two
net use h: \\servername\three
0
darkeryuAuthor Commented:
hi all:
i know how to map it,but when i map network drive,not all network drives remap,if client reboot...
but when users loginout and login again all network drives will be map...
thanks
0
glenn_1984Commented:
are you using
net use f: /d (delete the mapping - before you try to create the mapping?)
or have you tried
net use f: /persistent:yes
0
Question has a verified solution.
Are you are experiencing a similar issue? Get a personalized answer when you ask a related question.
Have a better answer? Share it in a comment.
All Courses
From novice to tech pro — start learning today.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Ivana Střondalová
Ivana Střondalová (born 22 October 1970) is a former ice dancer who competed for Czechoslovakia. With partner Milan Brzý, she placed in the top ten at the 1990 European Championships and won the bronze medal at the 1991 Winter Universiade. She studied at the Silesian University, obtaining a Master's degree in January 2001.
Competitive highlights
(with Brzý)
|
WIKI
|
Superior of Posterior Mediastinum Flashcards Preview
JK Hu A&P > Superior of Posterior Mediastinum > Flashcards
Flashcards in Superior of Posterior Mediastinum Deck (58):
1
Sup/Infer Mediastinum is divided by
sternal angle (angle of louis)
2
sternal angle is at the level of:
t4/t5
3
Inferior is divided into
ant/med/post
4
directly behind sternum would be:
thymus fat
5
ant to post behind sternum
left brachiocephalic
6
left brachiocephalic passes over:
3 branches off aorta trunk
7
3 main branches of aorta move:
ant to post
8
Ant to Post the main structures are :
TBSATE (tenor bass, sop alto, teach everyone)
9
Left Vagus nerve is grouped in next to:
Left Common Corotid (post of phrenic, ant of left recurrent laryngeal)
10
Left phrenic is grouped in next to:
left brachiocephalic (most ant nerve) ph in phrenic and phalic same goes for right side, btw
11
upper part of the esophagus is:
skeletal muscle
12
lower esophagus is:
both skeletal and smooth
13
post ganglion in esophagus is:
in the wall of the organ
14
mucosa is made of :
stratified squamous (non keratonized)
15
lymph drains from bronchi to
nodes located in the hilum
16
there are also lymph nodes in the
biforcation of the bronchi
17
phrenic nerve innervates the:
diaphram
18
the diaphram is
skeletal muscle under somatic motor control
19
there is an area in the brain that unconsciously fires the diaphram, but it is;
under somatic control
20
the vegus nerve on the left descends _____to the aorta, and _______ to the subcalavian on the right;
arch of the aorta, anterior to the subcalavian
21
descending vegus: a component loops under and back up to the neck, called:
recurrent laryngeal: major motor nerve to the muscles of the larynx (
22
after the recurrent laryngeal splits, the rest of the vegus continues down carrying:
preganglionic, parasympathetic fibers, some visceral afferent information (not pain, just sensory info about pressure, etc)
23
the vegus descends:
posterior to the root of the lung
24
there are several cardiac nerves in the mediastinum that act to regulate the heart: branches from the vegus are:
sympathetic (postganglionic) increase output: preganglianic parasympathetic form a plexus called cardiac plexus (over arch of aorta
25
superficial on right side, deep cardiac plexus is on:
the bifurcation of the trachea
26
posterior mediastinum includes:
azygos veins, thoracic aorta (descending), thoracic duct, esophagus, sympathetic chain
27
thoracic sympathetic chain is:
paravertebral ganglia, communicating branches with spinal nerves,
28
there is a ganglion associated with each;
cranial nerve
29
the communication between ganglion and cranial nerve is known as
rami communicantes
30
azygos system; main system is on the:
right side
31
azygos veins loop around and drain into the:
svc
32
on the left side, there is a similar system:
5-8 join and form the accessory hemiazygos,
33
the accessory hemiazygos drains:
4,6,7,8,9,10,11
34
first four intercostals drain into:
into left brachiocephalic or an alternate location
35
there is a system of veins around the ____ that communicate and run all the way up to the ____
vertebral column, skull
36
the plexus around the vertebrate can allow:
blood, pathogens, etc can move up plexus to the skull (breast cancer) via azygos
37
azygos vein plexus allow for ____ to move to brain, etc
cancer
38
post mediastinum has lymphatic system called:
thoracic duct
39
thoracic duct collects all lymph from legs, lower abdominal column called:
cersternic chilai sac behind beginning of diaphram
40
thoracic duct ascends ______ the esophogus, ____ of azygos vein, and ____ of descending aorta
behind, left of azygos, right of descending aorta
41
the thoracic duct then _____ l brachiocephalic, ____ jugular vein, and into venus angle
behind, behind
42
collect lymph from ____ of thoracic wall, part of left lung, gi tract
left side, most all of lymph on left side and below neck
43
for thorax on right there are _____
bronchomediastinal ducts that drain to right lymphatic duct at right venous angle (otherwise thoracic collects everything below neck)
44
esophogus is ____ to trachea, and
posterior
45
runs to the ____ of the descending aorta, to the ____ of the azygos, and through the _____ of the diaphram at ____
right, left, hiatus of diaphram 10th thoracic vertabrae
46
runs to the ____ of the descending aorta, to the ____ of the azygos, and through the _____ of the diaphram at ____
right, left, hiatus of diaphram 10th thoracic vertabrae
47
______ atrium is ____ to the esophagus
left anterior
48
blood supply of esophogus is:
1st couple intercostal vessels, then plexus,
49
venus drainage of esophogus is:
back into azygus system
50
vegus runs ____ to the lung and then, at the base of the esophogus, the left goes _____, the right goes______
posterior to the root of the lung, anterior, posterior and form vegal trunks
51
greater splanchinic nerve:
preganglionic, lateral horn cell, motor, white communicating ramus, doesn't communicate
52
doesnt carry post ganglionic, synapse in abdomen at preganglionic synapses (celiac) on thorax
prevertebral on
53
lesser from lateral horn cells :
T10. T11
54
least splanchnc:
T12
55
splanchnic nerves
visceral sensory fibers coming back, following dorsal root, synapse in dorsal horn (pain fibers)
56
cardiac nerves:
some axons come onto chain, ascend to cervical ganglion, synapse, then cardiac nerves descend return back to the neck,
57
visceral branches in the thorax are all:
postganglionic, no sympathetic ganglia in walls of those organs
58
these are not communications to spinal nerves:
they go out to the wall, limbs, etc, from their roots, and they are branches of chain that distribute within the body cavities
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Singapore Summit: Qatar National Bank's Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari on conflict in region
The Arab countries that have cut ties with Qatar may have more to lose from the spat compared to the gas-rich state they are targeting, according to the group chief executive of the Middle East's largest bank by assets. The blockade, which first unfolded in June, saw Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism and allying with regional foe Iran. Qatar denied those claims, but its stock market and currency suffered from the initial shock of the crisis. The country also experienced the largest fall in non-resident deposits in almost two years right after the rift began. Data by the Qatar Central Bank showed that non-resident deposits declined 7.6 percent to 170.6 billion Qatari riyals ($46 billion) in June from the month before. Part of the money that left Qatar originated from the countries that initiated the blockade. But that was expected and represents only 3 to 4 percent of total deposits in the banking system, noted Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari, group CEO of Qatar National Bank. "I think to replace 3 to 4 percent is not a big deal and let me also remind you there is a two-way relationship. So there's deposits coming from the countries to Qatar and vice versa, Qatar has investments in these economies so it's fair to say for every dollar lost on one side, there's a dollar lost on the other side," he told CNBC. "Sometimes it's a dollar and a half or two dollars from one side over the other because Qatar is not dependent on these economies, while some countries are dependent on trade flows with Qatar. So it's important to say this: Qatar also has deposits in the region," he said. Other than outflows in deposits, Al-Kuwari said business is pretty much running as usual in the country despite the blockade, with the economy and financial system still strong. He acknowledged that the standstill could continue for some time, but posited that it is a good opportunity for Qatar to press on with strengthening its economy. Qatar, the world's largest gas exporter, has started diversifying its growth model away from the energy sector and is growing sectors such as education, healthcare and tourism. Qatari banks have also started tapping international markets for funds, turnings to markets in Asia and Europe. Qatar National Bank itself just closed a bond issuance in Taiwan worth $630 million on Wednesday, Al-Kuwari said. "This is an ongoing exercise for us, with or without the crisis, to tap into the markets and help us fund our books," he said.
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
Talk:Diminutive
Pre-2005 comments
What is the direct opposite of ", in language? Enlargative? Increasimal? English doesn't seem to use a big version of words, but other languages do. —Michael Z.
* My OED doesn't offer "maximative"... Will this be for an encyclopedia article? Or more of a Wiktionary definition? --Wetman`
* No plans to write about it at this time. It came to mind when discussing something completely unrelated. —Michael Z. 17:30, 2004 Nov 5 (UTC)
* Augmentative --Schuetzm 18:22, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)
* Thank you. I finally needed this, and remembered where to look! —Michael Z. 2008-03-30 07:42 Z
English diminutives
From the introduction (3 June 2005): A diminutive is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object named, intimacy, or endearment.
I find the discussion of English diminutives a bit strange. From a selection of diminutives from the article (undies, movies, hottie, ambos, firies, perhaps with the exception of the Australian -za forms, which I'm unfamiliar with) I don't see how any of them have anything to do with the definition I quote. Slight? Smaal? Intimacy? Endearment? Furthermore, I see no mention of English diminutives along the lines of pig -> piglet - which is what I thought would be mentioned. I don't consider my quoted list (undies, etc.) as diminutives - they are merely short forms of the word (or do people consider "States" to be a diminutive for the USA?). True diminutives (like the ones from the germanic languages, and probably things like piglet) really carry a definite meaning difference compared to the normal form. As I see it "undies" is just another (albeit less formal) word for underwear. Forgive me if the only problem is my lack of knowledge about English.
I'll leave it to someone English to make appropriate changes. --(Alias at af.wp) 05:52, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
It seems to me that the world "diminutive" is used in a broader and more vague sense when speaking about English than when referring to "non-english" languages. In the non-english languages I have some slight knowledge of (German, Latin, Czech, Polish, Russian) the basic meaning of diminution by diminutive suffixes is "smallness of the object named"; endearment, intimacy etc. is secondary and dependent on context. For example, the name of the last Roman emperor of the western part of the Roman Empire - Romulus Augustus - was diminuted to Romulus Augustulus (little Augustus) to emphasize the contrast between the grandness of the name and political insignificance of its bearer, in this case the connotation of diminution is derogatory, no endearment here.
I have edited the definition to be more applicable to non-english languages. Consequently it is now less applicable to English which does not have "true diminutives" formed in regular way, except for some words like your example of "piglet". The basic problem is how to reconcile the fact that this is English language Wikipedia, but the subject of the article is a general linguistic phenomenon for which the English does not provide very good examples. By the way, we do not have any examples of diminutives in languages which do not belong to the indo-european group.--Georgius 15:13, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I agree with the objections made in this section. Perhaps we should take as starting point that English does not have diminutives, or at least not in a way it works in other languages. Therefore, this entry might be claried when restructured by illustrating the morphology and use of diminutive in languages other than English. At the end then, we could still have a section "Diminutives in English", but it should first become clear what diminutives are by examples from other languages. Dutch and German for instance are much more systematic and clear in this regard, but perhaps I'm not Anglocentric enough to even think about it in this way. Finally, can't diminutives in English be seen as hypocoristics? —<IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 12:00, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
I was confused by the article text re English. This discussion clears that up - but it would be good if someone could edit the article. I'm hoping someone from the field will take this on, otherwise I will have a go. --<IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 19:04, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
It's 13 years later and the article is still (or again) in a bad state. "ringlet" is a good example. "doggie" and "Chuck" are not. Those things have nothing to do with the concept of diminutives. Yes, it can be used for endearment (or as was pointed out above, mocking, or whatever else), but if it doesn't come close to making sense as interpreted as just a small something, it is a linguistically separate phenomenon. "That ring is so small, it's more like a ringlet" makes sense. "That dog is so small, it's more like a doggie" does not. Don't get me started on "Maccas".
If the English language does truly call both of these phenomena by the same name, I expect that stems from a sort of anglocentricism in linguistics being described in English, where "literal" diminutives are rare.
I don't know how to find good sources for this. Acofokay (talk) 16:09, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
Non-English languages with regular use of diminutive suffixes
Due to a technical error I have posted this edit without a summary, sorry. I hope it may be a step toward making the meaning of diminution more clear. See also Talk above. All the languages listed in this section up to now fit the description "regular use of diminutive suffixes". If someone adds a language in which diminutives are formed in some other way, the structure of the article would have to be changed accordingly. --Georgius 6 July 2005 15:36 (UTC)
I've forgotten too much since I learned Russian, so I don't dare to correct the article directly. Yet I am 100 % sure that кот means tomcat, i.e., male cat, and кошка means female cat. The word for kitten is котёнок. The suffix -ёнок is probably reserved solely to youngs of animals (лиса (fox) — лисёнок (fox puppy)), so it is not a regular diminutive suffix.
The suffixes -ка, -чка, -шка apply only to feminine nouns. Using вода as an example is rather misleading due to the other meaning of водка (and I am not sure that водка is really a diminutive of вода). A better example could be собака (dog) — собачка (little dog, doggie, but not puppy, that would be щенок), although it involves the change of the stem-ending "к" to "ч", which is a regular change shared with other Slavic languages. I can't now recall examples for the other suffixes.
The diminutive suffixes applicable to masculine nouns are -ик, -ек, -ок, and probably -ёк. Examles could be дом (house) — домик (little house), кусок (piece) — кусочек (little piece) (which is also another example of the "к"-to-"ч" change), круг (circle) — кружок (little circle) (featuring another stem-ending change: "г" to "ж").
At the moment, I can't recall the suffixes and devise examples for neuter nouns. — Ján Kľuka, 2005-08-14T22:35Z
* Mostly you are right. I've fixed it. "Vodka" (водка) is not a diminutive of "water" (вода). Interestingly, they have very similar diminutives вода→водичка, водка→водочка, it is a basis of one story about Russian joke.--<IP_ADDRESS> 20:37, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
Bunny vs Rabbit
But how to describe Bunny and Rabbit? Is bunny a diminutive? <IP_ADDRESS> 19:42, 30 September 2005 (UTC) (originally placed on article page, moved by —Felix the Cassowary ( ɑe hɪː jɐ ) 23:36, 30 September 2005 (UTC))
* It strikes me as being like an English diminutive/hypocoristic, but (of course) not like a proper diminuitive. —Felix the Cassowary ( ɑe hɪː jɐ ) 23:36, 30 September 2005 (UTC)
* Not linguistically, anyway. In any case, the term "bunny" could also be used to describe a hare, as well as a rabbit, so there's not a one-to-one correlation. samwaltz 20:28, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
-ling suffix in German is not used for the diminutive
The article claimed:
* There is another suffix (corresponding with English ling), that appears figuratively but that is not simply used to modify existing words:
* -ling e.g. "Lehrling" for apprentice (though literally teachlet), and "Feigling" for coward (feig/feige cowardly + -ling = Feigling little cowardly [one])
This is incorrect. The "-ling" suffix is not used to form diminutives. "Lehrling" means "one who is being teached" and is derived from "Lehre" (teaching). "Feigling" means "one who is cowardly". There is no diminution involved, and, tellingly, the German Wikipedia entry on the diminutive does not even mention the "-ling" suffix. Aragorn2 16:16, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Dutch example diminuitives that should be corrected or just left out
* groen (green)- "groentje" (lit. little green" meaning rookie) - this is true
adverbs:
* groen (green) - "groentjes" (lit.little green meaning greenish") - absolutely not true. "groentjes" is multiple for "groentje" ("greenish" would be "groenig", "alike green")
* net (tidy) - "netjes" (lit little tidy meaning "tidy-ish") - There is no difference in meaning for "net" and "netjes"
* zacht (soft) - "zachtjes" (lit.little soft meaning "softly") - true
Some nouns have two different diminutives, each with a different meaning.
* bloem (flower) - bloempje (lit. "small/little flower") meaning little/small flower) - true
* bloem (flower) - bloemetje (lit. "small/little flower" meaning bouquet) - not true. "bloemetje" can also mean "little flower"
My English isn't that good, so I don't dare to edit the page. Will someone please correct this? --<IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 01:10, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
Expert expansion
It looks to me that the article needs expansion by a knowledgeable person. The English section is woefully small (given this is the English Wikipedia). Also, the coverage of other languages is very uneven; French for instance should mention "-elle", shouldn't it? Non-European languages have little coverage; Japanese might be interesting. Does Chinese not have an equivalent because it doesn't use affixes, or is there a multi-word equivalent? I'll add an "expert" tag. -R. S. Shaw 19:54, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
* Shaw, you are taxing my brain, but -ette seems the vastly more used suffix to provide a diminutive. -elle is used, but it is a definite minority. This article attempts, necessarily so, only the broad strokes. If anything it attempts to cover too much ground. It can not possibly cover, to a thorough degree, all of these languages. I am not sure an expert is needed, but rather just additional edits. However, I would also favor deleting all of the individual language examples for many languages and summarize that most, if not all, langauages use dimiuitives. I will delete the tag, but will not be insistent should another editor think it needs to return. Storm Rider (talk) 08:26, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
* Shaw, the fact this is English wikipedia means that all the articles should be in English, not that English language should be in the middle of linguistic attention. The English diminutive system if fairly simple, barely used and not so interesting, compared, for example, to Bulgarian. Glamdring 17:21, 7 February 2007 (UTC)Glammy
* I agree with you that the article should give balanced coverage to all languages, not just English, but saying that English is "not so interesting" is a POV personal judgment that has no place in Wikipedia. —Lowellian (reply) 14:03, 3 October 2007 (UTC)
* In this particular case it's pretty much a neutral fact—he said that the diminutive system in English is barely used, not that English as a language in general is uninteresting. Therefore it makes sense for the article on diminutive to give more space to languages that actually have grammatical diminutive forms and use them extensively. --Delirium 19:14, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
Category change
I have changed the Category:Given names on this article to Category:Names; I am trying to group all the articles about naming - types of names, naming schemes, etc - there, while keeping all the articles on actual names in Category:Given names and Category:Surnames. --Brianyoumans 08:34, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
The division of languages: English vs non-English
In terms of linguistics such a division (English vs non-English) is inconsistent - English is not very reasonable. So I suppose that the English is put as one of the Germanic languages, and a more scientific introduction is suggested.
Glamdring 17:17, 7 February 2007 (UTC)Glammy
* We have not only English vs non-English but English vs Australian English vs non-English. Grouping languages in a more consistant way makes good sense to me. Let's do it. Jimp 01:45, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
Sanskrit
Sort of off-topic, but does anybody know the dimunutive suffix, if there is one, in Sanskrit? I'm thinking it's -ka, but I can't find anything conclusive. Specifically, is -ya(h) one? I'd appreciate if anyone could find this out--and add it to the article! —Feerique 22:34, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
Latin diminutives
Perhaps -idium should be included on the list? It's derived from the Greek -ιδιο, but appears a lot (for one thing) in scientific taxonomy, such as Armadillidium, or "little Armadillo" (pill bug or roly-poly or slater). PubliusFL 16:09, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
On the subject of Latin diminutives borrowed in English, might it be worth mentioning words such as 'molecule', where the -culus suffix has been anglicized? The OED has -cule as a diminutive suffix, but it's not obvious whether it's ever been a productive suffix in English. --<IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 17:17, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
Genders
I think we need to consistently mention the gender of diminished words, as it varies from langauge to language. German -chen is always neuter; French -ette is always feminine. Latin -ul-, however is inserted after the stem, before the inflected ending, and the gender remains unchanged. samwaltz 20:31, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
Australia section
I see there's a nice general catch-all discussion of English usage, but a rather more chatty, wordy section of Australian use below. Problem is, the multiple Australian examples are a bit redundant given what comes above. I'm sure in the UK there are many celebrities nicknamed similarly to Becks or Gazza; we do not list them all here. I think the Australia section can be easily cut right down and incorporated into the list above it.
Some thing like "Australian usage sees much use of -o, such as garbo. Multiple examples aren't really needed. Format (talk) 21:53, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
Celtic language diminutives
Are the Irish diminutives missing fadas? Autarch (talk) 16:59, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
Polish diminutives question
The section on Polish diminutives currently says this:
* Similarly, koteczek (little kitty) is derived from kotek (kitty), which is itself derived from kot (cat). Note that in this case, the suffix -ek is used twice, but changes to ecz once due to palatalization.
Are we certain this is correct? Palatalization is a productive (indeed, obligatory) phonological process. If it were to be triggered by the /ke/ sequence, it would entail that Polish has no [ke] clusters, which is not the case. Is 'palatalization' intended here as a description of some diachronic process rather than a synchronic rule? If so, that should be made clear.
MJM74 (talk) 03:01, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
* To my understanding (I am not a linguist) this particular item and the explanation is correct. What happens here is a modification of a consonant called assibilation. This happens (in the contemporary language) depending on the context in which the consonant (in the root or suffix) finds itself after inflection. Not sure if it is (or also involves) palatalization, but it looks synchronic to me. It is certainly common in Polish. Some examples from the diminutive field: mak-maczek (poppy), ssak-ssaczek (mammal), oko-oczko (eye), auto-autko-auteczko (car, dear car, even dearer car), noga-nóżka (leg), stopa-stopka-stopeczka-stópcia (foot). Examples from non-diminutive inflection: mogę-możesz (I can-you can), ręka-ręce (a hand-hands). Hope it helps. Cheers. Stan J. Klimas (talk) 23:20, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
Retrofit topic year headers/subpages
04-Dec-2008: I have added subheaders above as "Topics from 2004" (etc.) to emphasize the dates of topics in the talk-page. Older topics might still apply, but using the year headers helps to focus on more current issues as well. Afterward, I dated/named unsigned comments and moved 1 entry (topic "Sanskrit") into date order for 2007. Then I added "Talk-page subpages" beside the TOC. -Wikid77 (talk) 12:40, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
Diminutive versus Diminutive form
04-Dec-2008: In trying to find source references for the article, I used a source that broadens the term "diminutive" to mean a multi-word name (such as "Tiny Tim" or "Little Dorrit"), so I also added the alternate title "diminutive form" to handle the single-word case. I think the 2 terms ("diminutive" and "diminutive form") can co-exist in the one article, but it is a jumbling of terms, such as "gerund" with "verb phrase". Meanwhile, the remainder of the article still treats "diminutive" as a one-word form. Don't ya hate it when reality vastly expands the scope of an article? If it does become too jumbled, I think it could be years before needing to split "diminutive" and "diminutive form" as 2 separate articles. -Wikid77 (talk) 12:40, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
The Diminuitive in 17th century Dutch Pietism
[Pietism] made its adherents use lots of diminutives, and this is detectable in modern Dutch, according to Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe by Peter Burke. Hardly qualifies for the main article though, eh? JoshNarins (talk) 23:18, 10 May 2010 (UTC)
Russian: diminutive in public media - read this!
In Russian, there is a difference with the diminutive compared to other languages, and that is less about linguistic specialities than usage. Ever read a Russian newspaper text? If an Anastasia or a Katya is, say, a well-known singer, you will even find the diminutive "Nastya" or "Katyusha" in an OFFICIAL text!! Yes, even in an intellectually sophisticated magazine or newspaper. Nobody would ever dare do that in an English or a French newspaper, but always use the "basic" name! But in Russian, it's common. -andy <IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 17:23, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
* In English it is natural to use the "unofficial", diminutive name even in the official reports: Bill Clinton actually should sound like William Clinton, Bob Marley should be Robert Marley, Tony Blair should be Anthony Blair. Have you ever heard of Anthony Blair or William Clinton? No. In Russia it is impossible, that some newspaper, even yellow press, calls the president Dimka or Dima Medvedev instead of Dmitry Medvedev. Diminutive form of address to a person is used in Russian only amongst good friends. Schütze (talk) 10:18, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
Double dimunitive
I was looking for what "Double dimunitive" means. There is an redirect, which sends you to this page, but there is no section or explanation on what one is, making the redirect rather unhelpful.
I could hazard a guess and make the section myself, but it would be much better if someone expert in linguistics could perhaps contribute a small section. Thanks. <IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 08:48, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
* Double diminutive means two diminutive suffixes, like -ock-ie in the Scots section. I've added a sentence on that, though it could use a good everyday example, which I can't think of. — Eru·tuon 15:11, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
* Thanks. "Kittenish"? <IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 13:17, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
Double diminutives are also possible in German. As an example: You can add up to 3 diminutive suffixes to the word "Schatz" (darling), the 3 diminutives would be -i -lein -chen, so you'll get the word "Schatzileinchen", it works also with names like Thomas for example, the diminutive is "tommi" and you can easily make it "Tommileinchen" by adding two more suffixes (-lein -chen). Please note, Germans also use the suffix -i as a diminutive! --<IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 14:51, 19 April 2012 (UTC)
Diminutives in Romanian
I'm going to change the first suffix for the feminine nouns as it's not correct. It should be "ea" instead of "ia". I'm going also to change the example to ramură (tree branch) / rămurea, as jucărea is hardly used in Romanian.<IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 19:56, 28 June 2011 (UTC)Apass
Baron/Baronet?
Shouldn't that be on the list, too, as well as star/starlet? -- megA (talk) 10:07, 10 March 2012 (UTC)
Indian Language Diminutives
The Indian language diminutives seem to off topic and not what anyone is looking for. I myself do not know the answers but I do not believe that diminutives of names are at all appropriate in context with the rest of the page. --SumilBhatt (talk) 22:15, 7 October 2012 (UTC)
Typo
There was a misspelling of the word "diminutive" as "dimunitive" in the last sentence of section 1.1.3 entitled "Dutch". I fixed it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by <IP_ADDRESS> (talk) 00:18, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
As Gendered Designations
It appears to me that this section was hastily added and in need of some formatting; in fact, it appears to have been lifted straight from another source and subsequently inserted here in the (justified) hopes of calling attention to the lack of mention of the topic. I'm not overly familiar with Wikipedia's formatting guidelines, but as an outside reader I found such an addition a little jarring. Also, while I do think there needs to be mention of diminutives and gender, some of the language in this piece appears to be loaded. For instance, I take issue with the statement, "Diminutive terminology like -ess and -ette is used to define women or the feminine as lesser than the norm (male) or less significant in general," because I think there's a case to be made that the "-ess" suffix is a means of distinguishing the gender of the agent noun and in conjunction with the parallel male construction "-er" or "-or" (i.e. "waiter/waitress", "actor/actress") in the same vain as gender distinction in other languages (French "acteur/actrice") rather than as a diminutive. The use of "-ette", I think, does have a diminutive sense, being a loan suffix from French and a parallel to the masculine "-et", which occasionally has use in English (i.e. "baronet"). Especially for "-ette", I think there's a case for a link between the diminutive form and the agent's gender ("major/majorette" as opposed to, as one might expect, "majoret/majorette") and this section on gendered diminutives is certainly necessary, especially since there have been motions to standardize or else do away with gender distinctions entirely that deserve mention. It just needs to be revised a little. Anyway, thought I'd bring this up here and start discussion. -Walker 05:15, 04 December 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by <IP_ADDRESS> (talk)
Chinese
Kindly do not restore the passage about Pekingese erhua in the section on Chinese diminutives. It has nothing whatsoever to do with diminutives and is simply something that happens to open vowels in any word encountered by the locals. — Llywelyn II 23:02, 4 October 2015 (UTC)
English
Needs to focus primarily and clearly on what is productive in modern English: primarily, clipping words or adding an sounding suffix.
Removed
* ...feature sidling and sibling diminutives...
as the links (a) have nothing to do with diminutives and (b) seem entirely random, unconnected in any way with the words that are being linked. Before reincluding them, rewrite the sentence to express the intended idea with more clarity and with direct, helpful links. — Llywelyn II 23:22, 4 October 2015 (UTC)
The treatment of Australian English was particularly bad: it was comparing the dearth of diminutive methods in other dialects with the number of diminutive words in Australian English, an apples-to-orange-colored-tennis-shoes comparison. The source also did not state that Australian English has only 5000 diminutive words: it said that a single scholar had written a single book on the dialect which happened to include 5000 examples. The figure is meaningless and shouldn't be included. — Llywelyn II 23:33, 4 October 2015 (UTC)
External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Diminutive. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081227150101/http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/respub/mflframework/appendices/glossary_of_terms/d_to_f/ to http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/respub/mflframework/appendices/glossary_of_terms/d_to_f/
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 20:19, 10 September 2017 (UTC)
The Italian example looks incorrect
I am not a native speaker of Italian (or even a speaker at all), so I'd rather someone confirm this. But I don't think " piano → pianissimo → pianississimo" is an example of diminutive suffixes. Wiktionary says that it is an intensifier suffix (i.e. pianissimo means "very piano") []. Sources list other diminutives for Italian, such as -ino.
2620:0:1002:13:104F:DBF4:3BCF:6DE0 (talk) 21:31, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
|
WIKI
|
Talk:Lake St. Clair, North America
Are there other Lake St. Clairs not in North America? -- Zoe
Yep. -- Hephaestos
True or false??
True or false: There is a reason not to consider this lake one of the Great Lakes BESIDES being small in size.
* True. First of all, part of what makes the 5 Great Lakes "great" is their size -- they are all among the largest lakes in the world -- they aren't "great" because of any other quality. But to go to your guestion, the Great Lakes are as well-defined in common parlance as is New England. Few would argue that New York (especially Long Island) or New Jersey should also be part of New England because they were primarily settled by English Congregationalists in the mid 1600s. Growing up in Michigan (the Great Lake State) we were taught about the five Great Lakes, that you could use the word "HOMES" to remember their names, etc. Lake St. Clair is a much smaller lake, and is never thought of as a "great lake."
Somehow in all the recent moves the actual article went missing.
I restored the article to Lake Saint Clair, North America. I don't really have any strong opinion about what the title should be -- but please make sure that the article is actually there after you're done moving and "fixing" redirects. Bkonrad | Talk 22:26, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I just wanted to point out that I think it's pretty silly that this article is at Lake Saint Clair, North America. This article should be at Lake Saint Clair or Lake St. Clair given that (a) this lake crosses an international border (making it a significant lake), (b) the other Lake Saint Clairs don't even have their own articles yet, (c) this lake is part of the Great Lakes system, which makes it significant (you wouldn't put Lake Geneva at Lake Geneva, Europe or Lake Geneva, France and Switzerland), even though there is a Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and a Lake Geneva, Florida). Darkcore 09:20, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
* 1) Lots of lakes cross borders. It doesn't make them significant.
* 2) The other Lake Saint Clairs don't have articles yet because, in part, we've been too busy on talk pages to write them
* 3) It is as much a part of the Great Lakes System as a lot of canals that don't have their own articles yet either.
- Hephaestos|§ 09:23, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
The other Lake Saint Clairs that we're not writing about "because we're too busy on talk pages to write them," as you say, are not as significant as this one. This lake is larger than the other Lake Saint Clairs AFAIK, which to me, says that this Lake Saint Clair is more significant than the others. But, whatever -- I'm not going to argue this point anymore. Darkcore 10:00, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Nonsense, Darkcore. The Tasmanian one is very well known indeed, as it forms the southern end of the most famous national park in the whole of Tasmania. Tannin
|
WIKI
|
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/50
VI.
return to the conditions under which the railway from Albany to Beverley was constructed. The West Australian Land Company received a land grant of 12,000 acres for every one of the 243 miles of line they built. This they were permitted to select within a belt of 40 miles east and west of the line, subject to the important condition that the Government retain half the frontage to the line in blocks alternating with those chosen by the Company. The latter thus had a wide area of selection for the 3,000,000 acres odd of which their concession consists. The West Australia Land Company have sold the comparatively small acreage of which they have yet disposed at an advance of about 50 per cent. on the Government price of 10s., but they have done "bigger" things out of the town-sites, which they have laid out at judicious intervals along the line. These are up to date eight in number, and in each case give their names to stations, viz.: Lakeside, Mount Barker, Cranbrook, Broomehill, Katanning, Wagin, Narrogin and Pingelly. Taking them in order—
Lakeside, so called from being situated on a large fresh-water lake, is about nine miles from Albany. Here a town-site has been laid out upon the northern slopes of the lake, affording a healthy and excellent site for residential purposes. A reserve of 100 acres, on the west side of the lake, has been set apart by the Company for a public park and for recreation purposes, and land has been offered to the Albany Horticultural Society as a show ground. Steps are also being taken to make Lakeside a holiday resort, the banks of the lake, which is
|
WIKI
|
The State of NEW YORK and the City of New York, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED PARCEL SERVICE, INC., Defendant.
No. 15-cv-1136 (KBF).
United States District Court, S.D. New York.
Signed Sept. 16, 2015.
Christopher Kin Leung, Dana Hope Biberman, Isaac C. Cheng, New York State Office of the Attorney General, John Turrettini, Office of New York State Attorney General, John P. Oleskp, Nixon, Peabody, LLP, Eric Proshansky, NYC Law Department, Leonard... Matthew Braman, Lilia Isobel Toson, New York. City Law Department, New York, NY, for Plaintiffs.
Gregory B. Koltun, Morrison & Foerster, Los Angeles, ■ CA, Mark David McPherson, Amanda Aikman, Kendall Manlove, Morrison & Foerster LLP, New York, NY, Paul T. Friedman, Morrison & Foerster LLP, San Francisco, CA, for Defendant.
OPINION & ORDER
KATHERINE B. FORREST, District Judge:
In this action, the State of New York (“State”) and the City of New York (“City”) allege that defendant United Parcel Service, Inc; (“UPS”), a package delivery company, has delivered and continues to deliver hundreds of thousands of contraband untaxed packs of cigarettes to persons within the State and' City, in violation of federal and state law. (Am. Compl., ECF No. 14.) Plaintiffs’ amended complaint (“Amended Complaint”) seeks injunctive relief, damages and penalties under the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2341 et seq. (“CCTA”), and the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, 15 U.S.C. § 375 et seq. (“PACT Act”), as well as treble damages and attorneys’ fees under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq. (“RICO”), injunctive relief and penalties under New York Executive Law § 63(12) (“N.Y. Exec. Law § 63(12)”) and New York Public Health Law § 1399-ll (“N.Y. PHL § 1399-ZZ ”), and penalties under an Assurance of Discontinuance (“AOD”) with the New York State Attorney General (“NYAG”). (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 2, 89-168.)
Pending before the Court is UPS’s motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). (ECF No. 21.) UPS raises several arguments in its motion, including that (l) all claims must be dismissed for failure to plausibly allege that UPS delivered cigarettes or that UPS knew those deliveries contained cigarettes, (2)the CCTA claims fail because there are no allegations that UPS engaged in any single transaction involving the shipment of more than 10,000 unstamped cigarettes, (3) the PACT Act claims fail'because UPS is exempt from' suit based on its AOD, and (4) the N.Y. PHL § 1399-ZZ claims fail because that statute is preempted by the PACT Act and the bulk of plaintiffs’ claims nonetheless fail on retroactivity grounds. For the reasons that follow, UPS’s motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. The Court dismisses plaintiffs’ claims brought under the PACT Act and N.Y. PHL § 1399 — ZZ. All other claims may proceed.
I. BACKGROUND
A. Factual Background
1. New York’s cigarette taxation regime.
Like- the federal government, the State and the City tgx the sale and use of tobacco products, such as cigarettes. (Am. Compl. ¶ 9.) Under New York law, all cigarettes possessed for sale or use are presumed to be taxable and therefore must bear a tax stamp, unless an exemption applies. (Id. ¶ 12.) State and City cigarette excise taxes must be pre-paid by licensed “stamping agents” who are usually wholesale cigarette dealers licensed by the State and the City to purchase and affix tax stamps to each pack of cigarettes possessed by the agent for sale within the State and/or the City. (Id. ¶¶ 13-14.) At all times relevant to this suit, the State’s excise tax has been either $2.75 or $4.35 per pack and the City’s excise tax has been $1.50 per pack. (Id. ¶ 16.)
The most common and longstanding form of tax evasion in the State has been the sale of untaxed cigarettes by Indian reservation retailers to non-tribal members. (Id. ¶¶ 19-21.) Such reservation sellers have long refused to participate in the tax stamping system for the collection of cigarette taxes. (Id. ¶19.) Although courts have upheld application of the State’s cigarette taxation regime to Indian cigarette sales to the public, some reservation smoke- shops continue to sell cigarettes, including through mail,' telephone, and Internet orders, without affixing the tax stamps of any of the jurisdictions -into which the stores make sales. (Id., ¶ 24.)
2.The NYAG’s first investigation of UPS.
In 2004, the NYAG began investigating residential cigarette deliveries made by UPS in violation of N.Y. PHL § 1399-K, which prohibits the delivery of cigarettes by common carriers to persons who are not licensed cigarette wholesalers and retailers or government officials. (Id. ¶ 25.) The NYAG’s investigation found that UPS regularly delivered unstamped and untaxed cigarettes to New York residential customers and that such deliveries originated principally from sellers located on New York State Indian reservations. (Id. ¶27.) Many of these sellers advertised their cigarettes as “tax-free” and accepted orders over the Internet or by telephone for later delivery by UPS to residences throughout the State. (Id.)
3.UPS’s Assurance of Discontinuance.
Following the NYAG’s investigation, UPS and the NYAG entered into an
Assurance of Discontinuance (“AOD”) on October 21, 2005. (Am. Compl. ¶ 28; see McPherson Decl. Ex. 1 (“AOD”), EOF No. 23-1.) Under the AOD, UPS agreed, inter alia, to comply with N.Y. PHL § 1399-ll by prohibiting cigarette deliveries to unauthorized recipients in the State and undertaking measures to ensure compliance among its employees.' (Am. Compl. ¶ 28.) The AOD subjects UPS to a $1,000 stipulated penalty for each violation of its terms, provided that no penalty would be imposed if: (a) the violation involved the shipment of cigarettes to a person, located within the State of New York, who was not otherwise authorized to possess such unstamped cigarettes, and (b) UPS established to the reasonable satisfaction of the NYAG that UPS did not know and had no reason to know that the shipment was prohibited. (AOD ¶ 42). In. the AOD, UPS also represented that in June 2003 it informed approximately 400 shippers having accounts with UPS that it would no longer accept packages containing cigarettes for delivery to unauthorized recipients in the State. (Id. ¶ 12.) As a result of the AOD, the NYAG declined to commence a" civil action against UPS for its alleged past violations of § 1399-11. (Id. ¶ 15.) In a report to the NYAG dated on or around December 20, 2005, UPS confirmed that it would give nationwide effect to the AOD and that it no longer shipped cigarettes to consumers and would only deliver tobacco products from licensed entities. (Am. Compl. ¶ 29.)
4.UPS’s alleged ongoing delivery of cigarettes after the AOD.
Plaintiffs allege that despite the assurances UPS made in the AOD, from at least 2010 through the present, UPS knowingly shipped and delivered thousands of cartons of unstamped cigarettes from manufacturers to unlicensed wholesalers and retailers, and delivered such cigarettes from smoke shops (including some shops that have been the subject of federal criminal prosecution for trafficking in contraband cigarettes) to residences in the State and the City. (E.g., Am. Compl. ¶¶ 30, 48-49.) In 2012, an undercover City investigator placed an Internet order for cigarettes from a company located in Bason, New York, which is located on the Seneca Indian Nation Reservation. (Id. ¶31.) UPS delivered the order, which contained unstamped cigarettes, in a package bearing the return address of “Seneca Cigars.” (Id.)
UPS records obtained by plaintiffs indicate that UPS made over 17,000 deliveries to residences for four smoke shops as recently as February 2014. (Id.) In November 2014, plaintiffs obtained additional records showing that between January 2010 and September 2014, UPS made 61,000 additional deliveries to residents throughout the State and the City on behalf of several other smoke shops and illegal cigarette distributors located on New York State Indian reservations.1 (Id. ¶ 32.) Plaintiffs allege that based on an analysis of the weights of the delivered packages, UPS delivered millions of packs of contraband cigarettes throughout the State over that time period. (Id. ¶ 34.)
Plaintiffs allege that UPS knew these deliveries contained unstamped, untaxed cigarettes, based on, inter alia, UPS’s prior experience in connection with the NYAG investigation and the AOD, numerous court decisions regarding Indian reservation smoke shops’ non-compliance with the State’s cigarette tax regime, widespread media reporting, UPS’s entering into tobacco delivery contracts with most or all of the Indian reservation smoke shops that UPS shipped and delivered cigarettes for, by visiting, observing,, and picking up packages for Indian reservation smoke shops, and as a result of UPS’s general practice of enmeshing itself deeply in its customers’ businesses. (E.g., id. ¶¶ 20, 24, 33, 40, 42-44, 47.)
B. Procedural Background
On February 18, 2015, plaintiffs filed their original complaint against UPS (ECF No. 1), and filed the Amended Complaint on May 1, 2015 (ECF No. 14). The Amended Complaint alleges fourteen causes of action seeking various forms of relief under federal and New York law, including under the CCTA, the PACT Act, RICO, N.Y. Exec. Law § 63(12), N.Y. PHL § 1399 — ZZ, and pursuant to the AOD. On May 22, 2015, UPS filed a motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). . (ECF No. 21.) The Court held oral argument on the motion on July 30, 2015. On August'26, 2015, the Court issued an Order inviting the parties to file supplemental briefs addressing an interpretation of the PACT ACT that had not previously been raised by either party. (ECF No. 37.) The parties submitted supplemental briefs on September 9, 2015. (ECF Nos. 44, 45.)
II. LEGAL STANDARDS
A. Motion to Dismiss
Under Rule 12(b)(6), a defendant may move to dismiss a complaint for “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, a plaintiff must provide grounds upon which his claim rests through “factual allegations sufficient ‘to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.’ ” ATSI Commc’ns, Inc. v. Shaar Fund, Ltd., 493 F.3d 87, 98 (2d Cir.2007) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). In other words, the complaint must allege “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its. face.” Starr v. Sony BMG Music Entm’t, 592 F.3d 314, 321 (2d Cir.2010) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955). “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).
In applying this standard, the Court accepts as true all well-pled factual allegations, but does not credit “mere eonclusory statements” or “[t]hreadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action.” Id. The Court will give “no effect to legal conclusions couched as factual allegations.” Port Dock & Stone Corp. v. Oldcastle Ne., Inc., 507 F.3d 117, 121 (2d Cir.2007) (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955). Knowledge and other conditions of a person’s mind may be alleged generally. Fed. R.Civ.P. 9(b). A plaintiff may plead facts alleged upon information and belief “where the facts are peculiarly within the possession and control of the defendant.” Arista Records, LLC v. Doe 3, 604 F.3d 110, 120 (2d Cir.2010). But, if the Court can infer no more than the mere possibility of misconduct from the factual averments — in other words, if the well-pled allegations of the complaint have not “nudged [plaintiffs] claims across the line from conceivable to plausible” — dismissal is appropriate. Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955; Starr, 592 F.3d at 321 (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937). Where necessary, the Court may supplement the allegations in the complaint with facts from documents either referenced therein or relied upon in framing the complaint. See DiFolco v. MSNBC Cable L.L.C., 622 F.3d 104, 111 (2d Cir.2010).
B. CCTA
The CCTA provides that “[i]t shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to ship, transport, receive, possess, sell, distribute, or purchase contraband cigarettes____”18 U.S.C. § 2342(a). The CCTA defines “contraband cigarettes” .as “a quantity in excess of 10,000 cigarettes, which bear no evidence of the payment of applicable State or local cigarette taxes in the State or locality where such cigarettes are found ... and which are in the possession of’ a non-exempt person. 18 U.S.C. § 2341(2). Thus, a violation of the CCTA requires the following elements: (1) a person must knowingly ship, transport, -received, possess, sell, distribute or purchase, (2) more than ,10,000, “cigarettes”, (3) that do not bear stamps,., (4) under circumstances in which state, or local tax law requires that such cigarettes bear stamps. 18 U.S.C. §§ 2341-42; see New York v. BB’s Corner, Inc., No. 12 Civ. 1828(KBF), 2012 WL 2402624, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. June 25, 2012).
C. PACT Act
“The PACT Act regulates remote sales of cigarettes, and imposes a variety pf requirements on sellers of cigarettes with the aim of ensuring that taxes are paid and cigarettes are not sold to children.” City of New York v. Wolfpack Tobacco, No. 13 Civ. 1889(DLC), 2013 WL 5312542, at *3 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 9, 2013). The PACT Act provides that “no person who delivers cigarettes' or smokeless tobacco to consumers, shall knowingly complete, cause to be completed, or complete its portion of a delivery of any package for any person whose name and address are on the [ATF Non-Compliance] list.” 15'U.S.C. § 376a(e)(2)(A).
The PACT Act contains a number of provisions exempting certain entities from suit, including one that is relevant here. The act provides that “any requirements or restrictions placed directly on common carriers ..; shall not apply to a common carrier that'... • is subject to a settlement agreement described' in subparagraph (B).” 15 U.S.C. § 376a(e)(3)(A). It defines such settlement agreements to include “the Assurance of Discontinuance entered into by the Attorney General of New York and United Parcel Service, Inc. on or about October 21, 2005, ... if [that agreement] is honored throughout the United States to block illegal deliveries of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to consumers.” 15 U.S.C. § 376a(e)(3)(B). The PACT Act also states that “[n]o State may enforce against a common carrier a law prohibiting the delivery of cigarettes or other tobacco products to individual consumers or personal residences without proof that the common carrier is not exempt under [§ 376a(e)(3) ].” Id. § 376a(e)(5)(C)(ii).
D. N.Y. PHL § 1399-11
N.Y. PHL § 1399-/7 makes it unlawful “for any common or contract carrier to knowingly transport cigarettes to any person in [New York] reasonably believed by such carrier to be other than a person described in [§ 1399-/7(1) ].” N.Y. PHL § 1399 — ZZ(2). Section 1399 — ZZ(1) lists categories of persons to whom cigarettes may lawfully be shipped, including persons licensed as a cigarette tax agent or wholesale dealer, export warehouse proprietors, and persons who are officers, employees, or agents of the United States government or New York State (or a political subdivision thereof) acting in accordance with their official duties. Id. § 1399 — ZZ(1).
As originally enacted in 2000, § 1399-11 authorized New York’s Commissioner of Health to impose a civil penalty for each violation of the statute. See N.Y. PHL § 1399 — ZZ(5) (McKinney 2001). On September 27, 2013, the statute was amended in two significant respects. First, § 1399-ll was amended to increase the amount of civil penalties recoverable under the statute. Id. § 1399 — ZZ(5). Second, the statute was amended to explicitly provide that “[t]he attorney general may bring an action to recover the civil penalties provided by [§ 1399-/7(5) ] and for such other relief as may be deemed necessary” and that “the corporation counsel of any political subdivision that imposes a tax on cigarettes may bring an action to recover the civil penalties provided by [§ 1399 — ZZ(5) ] and for ■ such other relief as may be deemed necessary with respect to any cigarettes shipped ... in violation of this section to any person located within such political subdivision.” Id. § 1399-11(6).
III. DISCUSSION
A. Sufficiency of Allegations That UPS Delivered Cigarettes and Knew of Such Deliveries
UPS argues that the Amended Complaint does not adequately plead that UPS (1) delivered packages containing cigarettes to unauthorized recipients or (2) did so knowingly. As to the CCTA and RICO claims, UPS argues these claims independently fail because the Amended Complaint does not adequately plead that the allegedly delivered cigarettes were unstamped. The Court disagrees.
The Amended Complaint alleges that UPS knowingly delivered enormous quantities of unstamped, untaxed cigarettes to persons throughout the United States, including the State and the City. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 1-2, 25-168.) That is sufficient to provide the grounds upon which plaintiffs’ claims rest and allows the Court to “draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937; see also ATSI Commc’ns, Inc., 493 F.3d at 98 (A plaintiff must provide grounds upon which his claim rests through “factual allegations sufficient to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” (quotation marks omitted)). UPS’s contention that many of the more than 78,000 deliveries alleged in the Amended Complaint may have contained tobacco products other than unstamped cigarettes (such as cigars or little cigars) is a merits-based argument as to what the evidence will show.. UPS raises a factual issue not ripe for determination at this stage. See Bernheim v. Litt, 79 F.3d 318, 321 (2d Cir.1996) (On a Rule 12(b)(6) motion,, “the issue is not whether a plaintiff will ultimately prevail but whether the claimant is entitled to offer evidence to support the claims.” (quotation marks and alterations omitted)). Furthermore, the possibility that some of the 78,000 deliveries alleged in the Amended Complaint contained tobacco products other than unstamped, untaxed cigarettes does not eliminate UPS’s liability for those deliveries that did include unstamped cigarettes.
UPS also claims that the Amended Complaint does not sufficiently plead knowledge. Rule 9(b) states that knowledge and conditions of a person’s mind may be alleged generally, but “plaintiffs must still plead the events which they claim give rise to an inference of knowledge.” In re DDAVP Direct Purchaser Antitrust Litig., 585 F.3d 677, 695 (2d Cir.2009); see also Fed.R.Civ.P. 9(b). The Amended Complaint alleges that UPS knew that packages it was delivering contained unstamped cigarettes because, inter alia, UPS employees had observed and picked up those packages from smoke shops located on New York State Indian reservations, UPS’s policy is to enmesh itself deeply in its customers’ businesses, and UPS delivered cigarettes for businesses that have been the subject of federal criminal prosecution for trafficking in contraband cigarettes. (E.g., Am.' Cómpl. ¶¶ 30, 42-49.) These allegations are sufficient to give rise to an inference of knowledge.
B. CCTA
UPS argues that plaintiffs’ CCTA claims fail because the Amended Complaint does not- allege that UPS participated in any single transaction in which it -shipped more than 10,000 unstamped cigarettes. That argument conflicts with the plain language of the CCTA, which imposes no single transaction requirement, and, as UPS acknowledges, with every court in this district to have taken up the question. City of New York v. FedEx Ground Package Sys., Inc., 91 F.Supp.3d 512, 519-21 (S.D.N.Y.2015); City of New York v. LaserShip, Inc., 33 F.Supp.3d 303, 313 (S.D.N.Y.2014); City of New York v. Gordon, 1 F.Supp.3d 94, 105 (S.D.N.Y.2013); BB’s Corner, Inc., 2012 WL 2402624, at *5, In fact, no court in the Second Circuit has adopted the statutory construction for which UPS advocates. Furthermore, UPS has not presented any: compelling reason for this Court to • deviate from the ample and well-reasoned decisions of courts within this Circuit allowing aggregation of multiple’ cigarette ■ shipments to meet the CCTA’s threshold quantity. This Court declines to do so. • -
C. PACT Act
The PACT Act explicitly exempts UPS from suit based on its' AOD with the -
NYAG. 15 U.S.C. § 376a(e)(3)(B). That exemption, • however, only applies “if [the AOD] is honored throughout the' United States to block illegal deliveries of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to consumers.” Id. § 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(I). The Amended Complaint alleges that UPS is not entitled to the exemption because “[i]t is self-evident from this complaint that UPS does not ‘honor’ its agreement.” (Am. Compl. ¶79.) Plaintiffs argue that the “is honored” language refers to whether UPS — a signatory of the AOD — has complied with the terms of the AOD, and assert that this allegation means, in essence, that UPS has not “honored” it and is therefore not exempt. The Court disagrees.
Based on a careful review of the statutory language and structure of § 376a(e)(3), and upon review of the PACT Act’s legislative history and apparent purpose, see Abramski v. United States, — U.S. -, 134 S.Ct. 2259, 2267, 189 L.Ed.2d 262 (2014) (stating that courts should look “to the statutory context, ‘structure, history, and purpose’ ” when interpreting a statute (quoting Maracich v. Spears, — U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 2191, 2209, 186 L.Ed.2d 275 (2013))), the Court concludes that § 376a(e)(3)(B) is a definitional provision that merely defines the types of settlement agreements that qualify for exemption. In other words, this provision does not purport to reach questions of compliance or noncompliance with obligations assumed under any particular agreement. In accordance with that reading, UPS is deprived of its exemption if plaintiffs show that the AOD is not recognized throughout the United States. Because the Amended Complaint fails to include such an allegation, plaintiffs’ PACT Act claims must be dismissed.
The language and structure of § 376a(e)(3) show that the provision serves to define the types of agreements intended to confer exemptions of carriers. Use of the word “includes” at the start of § 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii) signals that what follows is a list of that which is encompassed. See Samantar v. Yousuf, 560 U.S. 305, 317, 130 S.Ct. 2278, 176 L.Ed.2d 1047 (2010) (“[U]se of the word ‘include’ can signal that the list that follows is meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive.”). Section 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(I) enumerates three settlement agreements, including UPS’s AOD with the NYAG, that exempt the common carrier parties to those agreements “if each of those agreements is honored throughout the United States — ”15 U.S.C. § 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(I).
In the Court’s view, § 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(I)’s conditional clause “if each of those agreements is honored throughout the United States” means that UPS is exempt from the PACT Act if the AOD has appropriate breadth. That is, if and only if the agreement has nationwide effect does a carrier obtain the benefit of the exemption. In this regard, the phrase “is honored throughout the United States” means “recognized by” all states in the nation. Put otherwise, “is honored” means “is recognized,” and has nothing to do with a common carrier’s compliance with the specific terms of any particular settlement agreement. See HONOR, Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed.2014) (defining honor as “[t]o recognize” among other definitions). The statute’s use of the passive voice in the conditional clause is consistent with that use of “honored.” As UPS points out in its supplemental brief, Congress has used the term “honored” in this sense before. See 25 U.S.C. § 1041b(b)(5) (providing that cooperative funding agreements between the Shawnee Tribe and the Cherokee Nation “shall be honored by Federal agencies”).
The reading adopted by the Court is, moreover, supported by the language of § 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(II), which serves to identify the types of unenumerated agreements that qualify for exemption; That provision is instructive, because it acts in parallel to- the provision under which UPS claims exemption here and it is also relevant under the noscitur'a sociis canon of construction. See Gustafson v. Alloyd Co., 513 U.S. 561, 575, 115 S.Ct. 1061, 131 L.Ed.2d 1 (1995) (“[A] word is known by the company it keeps.”). Section 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(II) states that a qualifying agreement includes .“any other active agreement between a cómmon carrier and a State that operates throughout the United States to ensure that no deliveries of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco shall.be made to consumers .. without payment to the States ... where the consumers are located of all taxes-on the tobacco products.” 15 U.S.C. § 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(II) (emphasis added). The phrase “that oper¿tes- throughout the United States,” even more so than the phrase “is honored throughout the United States” at issue here, suggests that the -language is directed at geographic breadth rather than the signatory’s degree of compliance with the agreement. Read in tandem, it seems clear that § 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(I) & (II) merely define the contours of a qualifying settlement agreement and that, the exemption .is not dependent on the extent to which a common carrier is actually in compliance.
. Plaintiffs’ policy arguments are similarly unconvincing. ■ The Court rejects plaintiffs’ characterization of .a nationwide breadth requirement as “draconian.” The Court also rejects plaintiffs’ contention that the Court’s reading is unsupportable because the statute lacks any description of a procedure or explanation as to how a .state might honor such an agreement. By requiring, nationwide recognition, Congress merely sought to codify the status quo with respect to carriers who had already agreed to curb illegal cigarette deliveries. The evidence before Congress was that the three settlement agreements enumerated in § 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(I)-already had effect across the nation. Given that context, Congress need not have been concerned as to how a state might hypothetically “hon- or” an agreement. ■ Regardless, based on the lack of any allegation in the Amended Complaint. that the AOD has not been recognized by states nationwide, the Court need not determine the precise procedure by which a state must honor an agreement.. ■
Significantly, plaintiffs’ proposed intérpretation fares no better in creating a consistent workable scheme. For instance, plaintiffs’ interpretation mixes both the type of agreement encompassed and a compliance component into the same'provision. The Court doubts that such an interpretation corresponds with Congressional intent and principles of statutory interpretation. The Concepts of breadth and behavior are quite different. Further, it would place- a difficult burden on a carrier seeking to invoke the exemption if such carrier would always (according to plaintiffs’ argument) be' subject to suit under the PACT Act so long as a plaintiff could include a plausible allegUtion of non-compliance in the complaint. This seemingly guts the exemption, which was- created to prevent the imposition of onerous burdens on those common carriers who had previously agreed to halt the delivery of contraband cigarettes. See 155 Cong. Rec. S5822-01, 2009 WL 1423723, at *104 (May 21, 2009) (statement of Sen. Kohl, sponsor of Senate version of bill) (“It is important to point out that this bill has been carefully negotiated with the common carriers, including UPS, to ensure that it does not place any unreasonable burdens on these businesses. In recognition of UPS and other common carriers’ agreements to not deliver cigarettes to individual consumers on a nationwide basis, pursuant to agreements with the State of New York, we have exempted them from the bill provided this agreement remains in effect.”).
Even if the Court were to determine that § 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(I) is ambiguous as between the interpretations advanced by the parties, the PACT Act’s-legislative history strongly supports the reading adopted by the Court. The 'legislative history shows that in light of the commitments made by UPS, Federal Express and DHL prior to the PACT Act’s enactment, the statute was aimed primarily at eliminating deliveries of illegal,- untaxed cigarettes by the U.S. Postal Service (“USPS”). See 2008 Hearing at 79 (statement of David S. Lapp) (explaining that states “have curbed deliveries by all the major carriers except one: the U;S. Postal Service, which asserts it has no legal authority to refuse cigarette shipments-”); 156 Cong. Rec. H1526-01, 2010 WL 956208, at *27 (Mar. 17, 2010) (statement of Rep. Weiner, House sponsor of the PACT Act) (“There’s' only one common carrier that today still delivers tobacco through the mail — the United States Postal Service.”); 2008 Hearing at 9 (testimony of Rep. Weiner) (“Right now, the only one that is carrying [untaxed cigarettes], ironically, is [USPS]. So the only one who would actually be covered by this in a real practical sense is [USPS]. Everyone else would already be following their status quo operations.”). Because the ill that Congress was attempting to correct was the USPS’s refusal to halt the delivery of illegal cigarettes, the purpose of § 376a(e)(3) was to exempt from the PACT Act the common carriers who had already pledged to act in conformity with the PACT Act’s goals. See 15 U.S.C. § 376a(e)(3).
Finally, it is worth noting that the Court’s reading does not leave state attorneys general without any remedy to prevent the unlawful delivery of cigarettes to individual consumers and personal residences. The AOD' contains its own remedies in the event of UPS’s breach, providing a $1,000 stipulated penalty for each violation of its terms. (AOD ¶42.) The fact that plaintiffs will still be able to pursue remedies under the AOD means that plaintiffs are only barred from obtaining duplicative recovery. In sum, because the Amended Complaint fails to allege that the AOD is not accepted nationwide, the PACT Act claims must be dismissed.
D. N.Y. PHL § 1399-11
As noted above, the PACT Act provides that “[n]o State may enforce against a common carrier a law prohibiting the delivery of cigarettes or other tobacco products to individual consumers or personal residences without proof that the common carrier is not exempt under [15 U.S.C. § 376a(e)(3) ].” 15 U.S.C. § 376a(e)(5)(C)(ii). UPS argues that because the AOD qualifies it for exemption from the PACT Act, and N.Y. PHL § 1399-ll is a state law “prohibiting the delivery of cigarettes ... to individual consumers or personal residences,” the PACT Act preempts enforcement of § 1399-11 against UPS. The Court agrees. The PACT Act provision referenced in § 376a(e)(5)(C)(ii) is the same as that discussed above, pursuant to which the Court has concluded that UPS is exempt from suit for violations of the PACT Act. Because plaintiffs have not raised any argument disputing that N.Y. PHL § 1399-/7 is preempted if UPS qualifies for exemption under the PACT Act, plaintiffs’ § 1399-ll must be dismissed.
IV. CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth above, defendant’s motion to dismiss is GRANTED as to plaintiffs’ claims arising under the PACT Act and N.Y. PHL § 1399-H and DENIED as to all other claims.
The Clerk of Court is directed to close the motion at ECF No. 21.
SO ORDERED.
. The following facts, which the Court accepts as true for púrposes of this motion, are alleged in the Amended Complaint and documents referenced by and therefore incorporated into the Amended Complaint. The Court here recounts only those facts relevant to resolving the pending motion to dismiss, or to providing helpful background information.
. The AOD is publicly available at: http:// www. ag.ny. gov/sites/defauMiles/pressreleases/archived/9tmpsaodfinal.oct.pdf (last visited August 3, 2015).
. Pursuant to another exemption in the PACT Act, a common-carrier is not subject to civil penalties for violating § 376a(e) if "the common carrier ... has implemented and enforces effective policies and practices for complying with [§ 376a(e)].” Id. § 377(b)(3)(B)(i).
. UPS does not dispute that if separate shipments may be aggregated for purposes of calculating the 10,000 cigarette threshold, the allegations that UPS made more than 78,000 deliveries of unstamped- cigarettes are suffi- ’ cient at this stage.
. Initially, UPS similarly assumed that the "is honored” language relates to its compliance with the AOD and contested only the extent to which plaintiffs were required to prove its failure to "honor” or comply with the PACT Act before it would lose the benefit of the exemption. In its supplemental brief filed in response to this Court’s August 26, 2015 Order, UPS advocates for the interpretation adopted in this Opinion & Order.
. Although there are alternative definitions of "honor” that do not necessarily support the statutory reading adopted by the Court, see HONOR, Oxford English Dictionary (OED Third Ed., March 2014) (available at http:// www,oed.com/view/Entry/88228?rskey=6pwt 3c&result=2&isAdvanced=false# eid) defining honor as "[t]o fulfill (a duty or obligation); to abide by the terms of (an agreement); to keep (one’s word or promise)”; HONOR, Merriam Webster Dictionary (available at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ honor) (defining honor as "to live up to or fulfill the terms of” and "to accept as valid or conform to the request or demands of (an official document)”), those definitions do not accord with the context, structure or the aims sought to be achieved by the PACT Act. See King v. Burwell, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 2480, 2483, 192 L.Ed.2d 483 (2015) (Where a word is susceptible to more than one interpretation, "the Court must read the words in their context and with a view to their place in the overall statutory scheme.” (quotation marks omitted)); see also Abramski, 134 S.Ct. at 2267.
. Section 376a(e)(3)(A)(ii), which addresses the circumstance in which a qualifying agreement is no longer operative, does not support plaintiffs’ interpretation. The fact that a carrier may keep its exemption by voluntarily adhering to the terms of an agreement even after that agreement has terminated or has otherwise become inactive does not mean that § 376a(e)(3)(B)(ii)(I) speaks to the degree of a carrier’s compliance.
. See, e.g., Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2007, and the Smuggled Tobacco Prevention Act of 2008: Hearing on H.R. 4081 & H.R. 5689 Before the Subcomm. on Crime, Terrorism, & Homeland Sec. of the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 110th Cong. 79 (2008) ("2008 Hearing"), at 79 (Statement of David S. Lapp, Chief Counsel, Tobacco Enforcement Unit, Office of the Attorney Gen. of Md., testi- ' fyingon behalf of NAAG) ("Along with other State attorneys general, we have attained agreements with ... the major delivery companies, including UPS, FedEx and DHL, all to stop Internet sales of cigarettes."); 2008 Hearing at 124 (Statement of Eric Proshansky, Deputy Chief, Division of Affirmative Litigation, New York City Law Department) ("The states, acting through the [NAAG], and with the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, negotiated - an unprecedented set of agreements with ... common carriers in which members of those industries have pledged to end any participation in the Internet cigarette business.”).
. Section 376a(e)(5)(C)(ii), which precludes a state from enforcing a law prohibiting the . delivery of cigarettes to individual consumers “without-proof that the common carrier is not exempt .under paragraph (3) of this subsection,”. 15 -U.S.C. § 376a(e)(5)(C)(ii) (emphasis added), is not inconsistent with the Court’s understanding of the PACT ACT’s chief aim. This "proof” requirement suggests that Congress intended to confer on qualifying carriers broad exemption from legal obligations arising from outside of their nationwide settlement agreements. Section 376a(e)(5)(C)(ii), which applies to both enumerated and unenumerated agreements as- defined in § 376a(e)(3), imposes the burden on a plaintiff to show that the carrier has not entered into a settlement agreement that qualifies for . one of , the categories - of exemption, in . § 376a(e)(3).
. The Court finds no unfairness to plaintiffs in this result. It is worth noting that Representative Anthony Weiner of New York sponsored the House version of the PACT Act and both of New York’s Senators, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, were co-sponsors of the Senate version, see 155 Cong. Rec. S6030-03. One can assume that New York's Senators sought to promote, rather than inhibit, New York's interests in supporting the legislation. See Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1, 13, 84 S.Ct. 526, 11 L.Ed.2d 481 (1964) (noting that Senators were intended to be considered "state emissaries” under the Constitutional design).
. Because the Court holds that the PACT Act exempts UPS from suit for violations of § 13 99 — 7Í, the Court does not address UPS’s argument that plaintiffs lack standing to enforce § 1399-ll for the bulk of the time period at issue in the Amended Complaint,
|
CASELAW
|
Katharina Morik
Katharina Morik (born 1956) is a retired German computer scientist specializing in machine learning and data mining, focusing on green computing in machine learning. She is the former chair for artificial intelligence at the Technical University of Dortmund.
Education and career
Morik completed a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) in 1981 at the University of Hamburg, with the dissertation Validierung von Überzeugungssystemen der künstlichen Intelligenz vor dem Hintergrund linguistischer Theorien über implizite Äußerungen supervised by Walther von Hahn.
After habilitating at the Technical University of Berlin in 1988, she became the founding chair of artificial intelligence at the Technical University of Dortmund in 1991. She retired in 2023.
Recognition
Morik was named to acatech, the German National Academy of Science and Engineering, in 2015. She has been a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts since 2016. In 2019 she was elected as a fellow of the German Informatics Society.
|
WIKI
|
Mars Opposition 2018: How to See Its Closest Approach to Earth
For the past few weeks, the red planet has been growing brighter in the night sky. A lunar eclipse with a “blood moon” will also be visible, mainly to those outside the Western Hemisphere. Perhaps you’ve already noticed the dazzling red dot dancing in the night sky. That’s Mars, our planetary neighbor. And for the past few weeks it has been growing brighter as it slowly approached a state that astronomers call opposition, when it and the sun are on opposite sides of Earth. It’s like we’re in between the two right now in a cosmic game of monkey in the middle. This occurred on Friday. It is now being followed by Mars’s closest approach to Earth Monday into Tuesday, and everyone in the world can watch, weather permitting. Earth and Mars align with the sun in opposition about once every two years. But truly jaw-dropping midnight views of Mars happen every 15 to 17 years. That’s when opposition occurs when Mars is at perihelion, or its closest position to the sun, according to Rich Zurek, project scientist for NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This upcoming opposition will be one of those moments. [Sign up to get reminders for space and astronomy events on your calendar.] Mars will be at its closest to Earth before sunrise on July 31 at around 4 a.m. Eastern Time, according to EarthSky.org. Because Mars and Earth have elliptical orbits rather than perfectly circular ones, opposition and the closest approach between the two planets do not happen at the same time. Mars’s orbit around the sun takes about two Earth years to complete. If the two planets orbited the sun along perfectly circular orbits that were in the same plane, then Mars’s closest approach would happen on the same day as opposition. In 2003, Mars was at its closest approach to Earth in about 60,000 years, Dr. Zurek said. At that point, it was only about 34.65 million miles away from Earth, according to EarthSky.org. On average, Mars is about 140 million miles from Earth, according to NASA, and at the farthest, they are about 250 million miles apart, according to Space.com. The close approach happening this month will be the closest since 2003, at a distance of about 35.8 million miles away from Earth, according to NASA. NASA tends to launch its space missions to Mars during times of closest approach, or every two years. For example, the Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, were launched in 2003, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2005 and the Mars Phoenix Lander in 2007. The next closest approach will be in October 2020, and the next super-close opposition will be in September 2035. Far into the future, Earth and Mars will have another record-breaking meet-up in 2287, when the two will be about 34.60 million miles apart. The InSight spacecraft is heading to Mars to listen for marsquakes and study the planet’s structure. During these events, Mars will appear as a brilliant crimson orb sticking out amid the white stars that sprinkle the heavens. It will be slightly brighter during opposition than during its closest approach because of the angle at which the sunlight is hitting it. After the moon, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky, followed by Jupiter. But during this period, Mars will appear as bright or brighter than the gas giant, according to Dr. Zurek. Just look up. Mars has been extra bright all month, and it will remain that way for about a month following Opposition. After that it will fade back to its normal glow as it gets farther from Earth. Mars will be at its brightest between July 27 and July 30, according to NASA. Mars is in the middle of a planet-consuming dust storm. Normally, when people gaze upon the red planet’s surface through a powerful telescope, they can discern its dark spots, like the Syrtis Major region, and lighter areas, too. Early astronomers once confused these features for oceans and continents. But the dust storm is shrouding the surface. Because the dust particles are flying high in the atmosphere, they will reflect sunlight and make Mars look as if it has more bright spots than it normally does, Dr. Zurek said. “It’s going to be a hazy object and they won’t see some of the classically dark markings that are so prominent on the planet,” he said. Though some skygazers may be disappointed, the colossal dust storm is rare — and the worst NASA scientists have seen on the planet. The harsh conditions have silenced the Opportunity Rover, which is facing the most serious struggle of its 14-year mission. The solar-powered robot last made contact with NASA in June, and some scientists are concerned they may never hear from it again. For part of the world, Mars won’t be the only orb shining red on the night of July 27. People living in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australia will get an extra treat: a lunar eclipse. The moon will turn a copper color as it moves into Earth’s shadow. It will be the longest lunar eclipse of this century, lasting about an hour and 43 minutes in its complete stage, according to EarthSky.org. That’s almost half an hour longer than the lunar eclipse that occurred in January. The eastern parts of South America may catch a glimpse as well. But for most of us in the Western Hemisphere and all of us in North America, we’ll miss out on the eclipse and have to settle for just one beautiful red marble in the night sky.
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
Metabolic pathways and genes identified by RNA-seq analysis of barley near-isogenic lines differing by allelic state of the Black lemma and pericarp (Blp) gene
Anastasiya Y. Glagoleva, Nikolay A. Shmakov, Olesya Y. Shoeva, Gennady V. Vasiliev, Natalia V. Shatskaya, Andreas Börner, Dmitry A. Afonnikov, Elena K. Khlestkina
Результат исследования: Научные публикации в периодических изданияхстатьярецензирование
11 Цитирования (Scopus)
Аннотация
Background: Some plant species have 'melanin-like' black seed pigmentation. However, the chemical and genetic nature of this 'melanin-like' black pigment have not yet been fully explored due to its complex structure and ability to withstand almost all solvents. Nevertheless, identification of genetic networks participating in trait formation is key to understanding metabolic processes involved in the expression of 'melanin-like' black seed pigmentation. The aim of the current study was to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in barley near-isogenic lines (NILs) differing by allelic state of the Blp (black lemma and pericarp) locus. Results: RNA-seq analysis of six libraries (three replicates for each line) was performed. A total of 957 genome fragments had statistically significant changes in expression levels between lines BLP and BW, with 632 fragments having increased expression levels in line BLP and 325 genome fragments having decreased expression. Among identified DEGs, 191 genes were recognized as participating in known pathways. Among these were metabolic pathways including 'suberin monomer biosynthesis', 'diterpene phytoalexins precursors biosynthesis', 'cutin biosynthesis', 'cuticular wax biosynthesis', and 'phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, initial reactions'. Differential expression was confirmed by real-time PCR analysis of selected genes. Conclusions: Metabolic pathways and genes presumably associated with black lemma and pericarp colour as well as Blp-associated resistance to oxidative stress and pathogens, were revealed. We suggest that the black pigmentation of lemmas and pericarps is related to increased level of phenolic compounds and their oxidation. The effect of functional Blp on the synthesis of ferulic acid and other phenolic compounds can explain the increased antioxidant capacity and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance of black-grained cereals. Their drought tolerance and resistance to diseases affecting the spike may also be related to cuticular wax biosynthesis. In addition, upregulated synthesis of phytoalexins, suberin and universal stress protein (USP) in lemmas and pericarps of the Blp carriers may contribute to their increased disease resistance. Further description of the DEGs haplotypes and study of their association with physiological characteristics may be useful for future application in barley pre-breeding.
Язык оригиналаанглийский
Номер статьи182
Страницы (с-по)182
Число страниц9
ЖурналBMC Plant Biology
Том17
Номер выпускаSuppl 1
DOI
СостояниеОпубликовано - 14 ноя 2017
Fingerprint Подробные сведения о темах исследования «Metabolic pathways and genes identified by RNA-seq analysis of barley near-isogenic lines differing by allelic state of the Black lemma and pericarp (Blp) gene». Вместе они формируют уникальный семантический отпечаток (fingerprint).
Цитировать
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Redemption (Fast novel)
Redemption is a 1999 novel written by Jewish writer Howard Fast, who wrote the novel Spartacus in the 1950s. Redemption is both a romance, a legal drama, and Fast's first suspense novel, depicting Ike Goldman, an old professor emeritus falling in love with a woman named Elizabeth, who is later accused of her ex-husband's murder. The novel is published by Harcourt Brace & Company.
|
WIKI
|
Magnolia School District
Magnolia School District may refer to:
* Magnolia School District (Arkansas)
* Magnolia School District (California)
* Magnolia School District (New Jersey)
|
WIKI
|
-- European Debt Costs to Fall as Defaults Rise, IACPM Survey Says
High-yield debt will become cheaper
in Europe in the next three months even as the outlook for
corporate defaults in the region remains “sharply negative,”
according to the International Association of Credit Portfolio
Managers. About 47 percent of IACPM members expect yield spreads on
European speculative-grade debt will narrow, according to a
survey conducted by the organization at the beginning of the
year. Its 88 members include banks, insurance companies and
money managers in 17 countries. While sentiment relating to credit spreads in Europe was
positive for the first time since June 2011, lenders remain
concerned about the region’s three-year-old debt crisis, the
survey shows. The 12-month outlook for European corporate
defaults, though improved, remained the most negative of all
areas of the world. “There are still a lot of underlying problems that are
still unsolved,” Som-lok Leung, the New York-based executive
director of the IACPM, said in a telephone interview. “There
are still some people who think that things will get worse.” The survey shows that 18 percent see spreads on European
high-yield debt widening in the next three months, while 35
percent say borrowing costs will be unchanged. The global speculative-grade default rate will climb to 3
percent by the end of this year, from 2.6 percent at the end of
December, remaining below the 4.8 percent average since 1983,
according to Moody’s Investors Service. European Defaults “While European spreads are at a five-year low, we
nevertheless expect a slight increase in defaults going
forward,” said Albert Metz, a managing director of credit
policy research at Moody’s, in a Jan. 9 statement from the
ratings firm. Europe ’s default rate will rise to 3.3 percent by the end
of this year, from 1.8 percent at the end of 2012, according to
Moody’s. The company estimates that speculative-grade defaults
in the U.S. will decline to 3 percent, from 3.2 percent at the
end of December. “The outlook for the U.S. is considerably more positive
than it is for Europe but few are predicting a robust economic
recovery,” the IACPM said. A majority, or 57 percent, of its members see spreads
narrowing on high-yield debt in North America in the next three
months, the survey shows. The rate on U.S. high-yield bonds was 495 basis points more
than comparable Treasuries as of yesterday, while European junk-
bond margins averaged 497 basis points on Jan. 15, Bank of
America Merrill Lynch indexes show. A basis point is 0.01
percentage point. Leveraged Loans The cost of U.S. leveraged loans sold to non-bank lenders
averaged 4.52 percentage points more than lending benchmarks at
the end of last year, the lowest since 4.25 percentage points in
September, according to Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ Leveraged
Commentary & Data. Leveraged-loans are a type of high-yield, or junk, debt
rated below Baa3 by Moody’s and less than BBB-by S&P. The spread on European loans with a single B rating
averaged 4.91 percentage points in the second half of last year,
down from 5.33 percentage points for loans sold to non-bank
lenders in first six months of 2012, data from S&P Capital IQ
LCD show. To contact the reporter on this story:
Christine Idzelis in New York at
cidzelis@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Faris Khan at
fkhan33@bloomberg.net
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
The Golden Keel
The Golden Keel is the debut novel by English author Desmond Bagley, first published in 1963. Written in the first person narrative, the introductory biography of the protagonist is closely patterned after that of the author.
Plot introduction
Peter Halloran, a migrant to South Africa after the end of World War II is a successful and profitable designer and builder of yachts and small watercraft. Life is good – business is good, and he has a beautiful wife and daughter. One day, in the local yacht club bar, he meets Walker, an alcoholic ex-soldier, who tells him an improbable tale of a hidden treasure. Walker was a prisoner of war in Fascist Italy, but escaped with a small band of Allied prisoners, including an Afrikaner named Coertze and some Italian partisans, and waged a guerilla campaign for several months in the hills of Liguria against the Nazi Germans. Toward the end of the war, their band ambushed a truck convoy, which contained a massive treasure in gold bars, jewels, and the State Crown of Ethiopia. Rather than turn the treasure over to the authorities, they hid the trucks in an abandoned mine and sealed the entrance. Now, with the war over, the treasure is for the claiming, provided they can smuggle it past Italian customs.
Halloran thinks little of the tale until several years later, after life turns sour. His wife killed in a traffic accident, he needs a change. A chance re-encounter with Walker leads to a meeting with Coertze, and with the three men agreeing to a partnership to recover the treasure. Walker and Coertze know where it is, and Halloran has the perfect solution to getting it out of the country. But questions worry Halloran – why are only Walker and Coertze survivors of the much larger group of guerillas, and why is Walker terrified of Coertze? The mystery deepens as the men travel to Tangiers, thence to ports around the Mediterranean, their steps dogged by unsavory characters. It is soon clear they are not the only group after the treasure.
This tale was inspired by the true story of the Flight of the Norwegian National Treasury, the smuggling of their gold reserves out of Norway during the Second World War.
|
WIKI
|
You are here: Start » Extensibility » Creating User Types
Creating User Types
Adaptive Vision Studio allows for defining user's own types. This can be especially useful when it is needed to pass multiple parameters conveniently throughout your application or when creating User Filters.
The user can define a structure with named fields of specified type as well as his own enumeration types (depicting several fixed options).
For example, the user can define a structure which contains such parameters as: width, height, value and position in a single place. Also, the user can define named program states by defining an enumeration type with options: Start, Stop, Error, Pause, etc.
Usage
In an example project information such as: part name, part width, part height and its tolerance is needed for checking product quality. All this data must be accessed during image analysis.
This problem can be solved without user defined types, but creating a lot of connections can make the program structure too complex. Images below show a comparison between working with a user's structure and passing multiple values as separate parameters.
A solution without user types – more connections, less readable.
A solution with user types – fewer connections, more readable.
Creating User Types in Program
To create your own type use the graphical editor described below. Alternatively you can save your project, open the main AVCODE file (e.g. with Notepad) and at the beginning of the file enter a type declaration:
struct Part
{
String Name
Real Width
Real Height
Real Tolerance
}
Save your file and reload the project. Now the newly created type can be used as any other type in Adaptive Vision Studio.
After reloading the project the custom made type is available in Adaptive Vision Studio.
Also custom enumeration types can be added. Such types can represent a list of predefined options. To create a custom enumeration type add the code below to the top of your AVCODE file.
enum PartType
{
Nut
Bolt
Screw
Hook
Fastener
}
Custom enumeration types can be used like other types.
Graphical User Type Editor
Beginning with Adaptive Vision Studio 4.10 a graphical user type editor is available. It can be used to create and change user types during application runtime and doesn't require you to manually edit code files.
Graphical user type editor.
You can open the editor from the Project Explorer window.
Use this icon to open the graphical editor.
Accessing Structure Fields
To access information contained in a user structure its fields must be expanded. The picture below shows how to expand a type on an input of a macrofilter.
User type fields expanded on a macrofilter's inputs.
User type objects can be created with the CopyObject filter.
User type fields expanded on the CopyObject input.
User defined types can also be accessed with formulas.
Computation using the user defined type.
Saving User Types
User defined types work in Adaptive Vision Studio, so filters such SaveObject, WriteToString, WriteToXmlNode or TcpIp_WriteObject can be used to store and transfer user data.
Related Program Examples
User defined types can be studied in the following Program Examples: Brick Destroy, User Defined Types, User Filter With User Defined Types.
Previous: Debugging User Filters Next: Designing HMI
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Cyclopticbob
User:Morganenos
* Suspected sockpuppeteer
* Suspected sockpuppets
Zedla (talk) 01:18, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
* Report submission by
similar v edits with references to "dwarf tossing" and "russian roulette"
* Evidence
* Morganenos (perm banned for persistent v)
* diff1
* Cyclopticbob
* diff2
* diff3
also reference suspected ipsocks at suspected socks with similar behavioral patterns.
- listing ipsocks and diffs, all are through satellite ISP Wildblue with apparently dynamic user assignment. Zedla (talk) 06:04, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
* <IP_ADDRESS>: diff
* <IP_ADDRESS>: diff
* <IP_ADDRESS>: diff
* <IP_ADDRESS>: diff
* <IP_ADDRESS>: diff
* <IP_ADDRESS>: diff
* <IP_ADDRESS>: diff
Agree Given the references and the similarities in styles (vandalism of possibly rival schools and use of similar words), Cyclopticbob should be indef blocked as a sock of Morganenos. — BQZip01 — talk 00:42, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
* Comments
* Agree with additional IPs as the same user with the same style of disruption. — BQZip01 — talk 06:01, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
Inconclusive. Lots of school articles get vandalized by rival schools. Not enough here to prove same person. — Rlevse • Talk • 19:05, 2 February 2008 (UTC)
* Conclusions
|
WIKI
|
User:Vitthalsg/Shri Atmananda Swamiji
Shri Swami Atmananda was born in 1904 in a rich Paknak Reddy patil family, at Manihal-Sureban, a village in Ramdurg taluka of Belgaum district in Karnataka. He lost his mother when he was five years old. His father was a realised soul and was called by the name Shri Swami Shivananda of Nagnur-Gadag. He realised his real nature of existence-Knowledge-Bliss by recollecting the experience of his first intuition. Shri Swami Shivananda dedicated his whole life for preaching vedanta in Karnataka. Shri Swami Atmananda was brought up by special care of his father, Shri Swami Shivananda. He had spiritual bent of mind since his childhood. When Shri Swami Atmananda was a boy of primary and secondary school, Shri Swami Shivananda (his father) was attaining super-conscious state which lasted days together many times. He was not much interested in his school studies. When shri Atmananda was a boy of secondary school, he used to meditate at his school nearby Gonnagar village. He completed his primary field education at Manihal and Naganur of Ramadurg and Navalgund talukas of Belgaum and Dharwad districts respectively. Later he studied in Basel Mission high school at Dharwad. He passed his matriculation examination in first class. Later Shri Swami Atmananda completed his first year and interArts in Karnataka college of Dharwad.
He observed the superconscious state of Shri Swami Shivananda very carefully and understood its meaning completely. Shri Swami Atmananda passed B. A. (English, Sanskrit & Ancient Indian history & culture) degree in 1930 and M. A. (Ancient Indian history & culture) degree in 1932 from Banaras Hindu University. Then, by the special encouragement and guidance of his father and due to his efforts of his past lives to know his real nature, he determined to attain superconscious state. All power, riches, luxuries and fame were left aside without a murmer. He spent all his time for spiritual sadhana of abidance in his real nature at Tirthgudi near Badami of Bagalkot district. He attained superconscious state in 1936. He married a very pious lady by name Devaki. She co-operated during his spiritual sadhana in all ways of his likeness. He had two sons and two daughters. The second son died of typhoid fever when he was a college student. Now his eldest son Shri Niranjan swami is continuing the spiritual heritage of his father and his two daughters are quite pious and moral in their householder's life. Shri Swami Atmananda preached Vedanta philosophy since forty five years, to all people, for the welfare of the world. He is one of the great apostles of Vedanta philosophy. He was extremely polite even to the lowest. He was always cheerful.
His main teachings can be summerised as follows: "Man is desiring happiness through his own experience of happiness of first intuition. No knowledge of scriptures is necessary to attain self-realisation. Universe is a mental creation which is non-existent. Universe is insentient and is of the nature of unhappiness. So all learning about Universe is quite useless. You are happiness yourself. But, you have forgotten your real nature of happiness. Your real nature is not affected by the three states of experience i. e. waking, dream and deep sleep. These three states are mere appearances (the creations of nescience) on your real nature, having no real existence at all. You can recollect your real nature of happiness and abide in it. To attain one's own real nature, the attainment of superconscious state is absolutely necessary. Only by attaining perfect control over the senses and transcending the sleep one becomes qualified to attain superconscious state. Man is an architect of his own fortune. His own intuition is his own preceptor. Merely change in dress or leading a life without a wife cannot make one to attain one's real nature. So to recollect our real self and remain as the self is the only way. Social harmony can be attained by observance of moral values. Mental peace can be attained by dispassion of sensory objects. Eternal bliss can be obtained by attaining superconscious state.
His Holiness Shri swami Shivananda and his son, His Holiness Shri Atmananda were like the ancient sages Vyasa and Sukadeva. His Holiness Shri swami Shivananda and His Holiness Shri Atmananda attained superconscious state while delivering the spiritual lectures. His Holiness Shri Atmananda preached about eternal bliss that he attained to all the human individuals without making any distinction of high and low, literate and illiterate, and rich and poor, for forty five years for the welfare of the world. For sometime he worked as high school teacher of Ramadurga State High school and Siddeswara High school of Bijapur and taught English. And also for some time he worked as police and mulki patil of Manihal village of Ramadurga taluka. He preached Vedanta philosophy in a very simple language so that any lay man can understand it. His preached principles are eternal and universal.
He led a very simple life. He used to wear a pair of white cotton shirts and a pair of dhotis and a towel on his head. He used to take one meal a day at around one P.M and he used to take little milk and fruits at night at nine-thirty P.M
He used to call all people ‘God’ and ‘himself a worshiper’ while preaching. And all people ‘his preceptors’ and ‘himself a disciple’. So proudless he was.
His routine life was as follows: he used to get up at Brahmi muhurtha at four A.M After attending the natural calls, he used to walk about two kilometres and was returning by five-thirty A.M He used to preach eternal and universal principles from five thirty A.M to seven-thirty A.M He used to take his bath at seven-thirty A.M Later he used to meditate from eight A.M to twelve noon. At twelve he used to discuss about spirituality with the visitors, and the people who came to get relieved by ghostly agonies. So at one P.M he used to take meal. During meal he was taking half-roti (bread), little sajjaka, leafy vegetables and vegetables, little milk and fruits. He used to have only those vegetables which were grown from rainfed areas. All grains were powdered by the village grinders only. He used to take little salty and pungent food. He used to take rest from two P.M to three-thirty P.M Again he used to preach the devotees from three-thirty P.M to five-thirty P.M Then he used to go for walk from five-thirty P.M to seven P.M Then from seven to nine P.M a spiritual discourse. Then he used to listen to the sufferings of the devotees from nine P.M to nine-thirty P.M Then he used to have little fruits and milk at nine-thirty P.M He used to go to bed by ten P.M Usually we thought that he was taking rest during sleep but was remaining in his real self (bliss eternal) during that time.
Though he had seventy acres of land, he didn’t cultivate. Some agriculturists used to cultivate land and share little produce with him. He was contented with that only. Part of it was given as charity to the poor and the needy. He didn’t receive a paise from anybody during his life. He was not even accepting the salutes from others. He didn’t expect any name, fame, respect from others. As he was a realised soul, the occult powers were at his feet. The ghostly sufferings of people were relieved at his own mere presence. The diseases of many were relieved by his mere touch. He left his mortal coin at nine-thirty P.M of December 19, 1983 and remained as eternal self.
During all his life time he sincerely attained superconscious state for three or four hours daily. Even on 19th December 1983, he attained superconscious state from eight to eleven A.M
He offered two mantras namely “Om Namah Sukhaya” “Om Namah Nanave”. The mantra “Om Namah Sukhaya” reminds us that the aim of all beings is eternal happiness which is formless, but ignorant people seek happiness in forms which are of the nature of unhappiness and quarrel among themselves. The mantra “Om Namah Nanave” reminds us that our true nature is happiness, but ignorant people seek happiness outside their own real nature. So to attain eternal bliss, we have to know our real nature.
He actually lived whatever the principles he preached
|
WIKI
|
Moretz Stadium
Helen and Leonard Moretz Stadium is an 8,500-seat stadium located in Hickory, North Carolina. It serves as home to the Lenoir-Rhyne University Bears of the South Atlantic Conference. Moretz Stadium is the fourth oldest stadium in continuous use in NCAA Division II and one of the oldest in the country. It was built in 1924. Games played there are said to be played "between the bricks" as the walls separating the seating area from the field are built with brick which was part of the design of the stadium since it opened in 1924.
The Stadium currently serves as the home field for L-R football as well as men's and women's lacrosse team. It and also houses the university's spring commencement exercises. The Lenoir-Rhyne baseball team also used the facility as its home field until a baseball-specific ground was built across the street.
In 1960, it was the site for the NAIA National Semifinal football game, which Lenoir-Rhyne won on its way to their only national championship in school history. Moretz Stadium was also home of a 1962 NAIA National Semifinal game and an NCAA Division II Semifinal game in 2013. The stadium has hosted four NCAA Playoff games in its history, all of which came in either 2012 or 2013.
A July 2019 assessment discovered problems with the structural integrity of the home stand. As a result of the findings, the university has decided to tear down the stand and replace it with a temporary stand for the 2019 season. The school built a permanent replacement in 2020.
|
WIKI
|
Nervous Diseases
Causes
Nervous diseases may have been triggered by a variety of factors such as poor nutrition, injury or infection. Certain conditions may have a genetic link and be caused by mutated genes. Some come about due to the way that the nervous system develops; cerebral palsy occurs when there has been some form of damage to the developing brain before the age of 5. Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s occur when there has been impairment to the nerves. Neuropathy can also be a problem that affects people who already have diabetes. (https://medlineplus.gov/neurologicdiseases.html)
Symptoms
Neurological disorders can affect the central or peripheral nervous systems, potentially creating symptoms all over the body. There are hundreds of different types, some of which affect young people, others that are generally only present later in life. Mood swings, anxiety and depression are included in the possible emotional impacts. Physiological symptoms can include: headaches and other pain; trouble reading, writing and learning; fatigue; weakness, paralysis or seizures and blurry vision. Signs of cerebral palsy in a young child can include feeding difficulties, disturbed sleep and abnormal posture. They may struggle with learning problems and lack the ability to communicate effectively with others. (https://bioresonance.com/neurological-illnesses-and-bioresonance/)
Bicom Programs to be Used
Nervous Disease Min N°/Seq. Pag
A.N.System disorders 960.4 14
TW – Triple Warmer chronic 271.1 89
NS – Nervous system acute
NS – Nervous system chronic
3
230.1
231.1
89
89
CNS disorders 940.2 25
Supplements to take
Acetyl-L-carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, vitamin B-12
Other therapies
Medication and physiotherapy may be appropriate to provide symptomatic pain relief and doing stretches will help to maintain as much range of movement as possible. The use of mobility aids and supportive orthoses may help a person to keep a level of independence. Cognitive behavioural therapy may help a person to deal with the psychological impact of their condition. Surgery may be an option for some people and can include selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) which helps to reduce muscle spasms in people with cerebral palsy as does the implantation of a pump to deliver the drug Baclofen directly into the tissue surrounding the spinal cord. Keeping properly hydrated by drinking around 2 litres of water per day is essential. If possible, regular exercise should be carried out that is appropriate for the individual’s physical capabilities. The diet should include a variety of fruits and vegetables, while limiting consumption of saturated fat. (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetic-neuropathy/in-depth/diabetic-neuropathy-and-dietary-supplements/art-20095406) (https://bioresonance.com/treatment-of-serious-neurological-diseases-of-children-showing-two-cases-including-video-demonstration-of-cerebral-palsy-cp/)
Experiences and case studies
44 polyneuropathy patients, including 7 with diabetes and 1 with Guillain Barré syndrome, were treated with bioresonance therapy. After treatment had been completed, 25 patients no longer had any symptoms, while the remaining 19 had all had a reduction in their symptoms and were showing no signs of a progression of the illness. (https://bioresonance.com/polyneuropathies/)
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Mountain gazelle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Mountain gazelle[1]
Gazella gazella.jpg
Mountain gazelle (male)
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Antilopinae
Genus: Gazella
Species:
G. gazella
Binomial name
Gazella gazella
(Pallas, 1766)
The mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) is a species of gazelle widely but unevenly distributed[3].
Byzantine-era mosaic of gazelle in Caesarea, Israel
Physical description[edit]
Mountain gazelles are one of the few mammals in which both sexes have horns. Males have significantly larger horns with rings around them. Females will also have horns, but they will be thinner and shorter. Along with the horns, mountain gazelles are sexually dimorphic, meaning that males are larger than females. A wild male can range from 17-29.5 kg, while females are 16–25 kg in weight.[4] Mountain gazelles can reach running speeds up to 80 km/h (50 mph).[5]
Population and range[edit]
Mountain gazelles are most abundant in Israel, but are found in parts of Jordan, Turkey . While there are not accurate estimates of the number of individuals in the wild, Israel estimated there to be only 3,100 endangered gazelles in their country.[6] Less than 3,000 mountain gazelles are left within their natural range.
Habitat[edit]
Gazelles have adapted to live in dry, desert-like conditions.[7] They spend most of their time at the top of mountains and hills Living in an annual average temperature of 21-23 °C, gazelles prefer to bed on the tops of the hills/mountains to avoid the heat during the day. Around dawn and dusk, these mammals will be found traversing the hills to eat in light forests, fields, or desert plateaus.[4] It is less well adapted to hot, dry conditions than the Dorcas gazelle, which appears to have replaced the mountain gazelle through some of its range during the late Holocene in a period of climatic warming.
Ecology[edit]
The mountain gazelle is a diurnal species, they are awake during the day and sleep at night. They are also very territorial and with their herds, but typically stay in herds of three to eight individuals. There are three main groups in the mountain gazelle community: maternity herds, bachelor male herds, or territorial solitary males.[4]
Survival and reproduction[edit]
In the wild, mountain gazelles rarely survive past the age of eight but can live up to 15 years in captivity when taken care of. By 12 months, a female gazelle can begin breeding.[8] For males, 18 months is when they will start breeding.[4] Being polygamous,[8] not spending their lives with one other individual, mountain gazelles' typical breeding season is during the early winter months. Females will give birth to one offspring per year mostly between the months of April and May.[4] A few days prior to giving birth the mother will leave her herd and live in solitary. For up to two months, the mother and her offspring will stay by themselves while the mother watches out for predators. Common predators include foxes, jackals, and wolves that will try to attack the fawn.[9] While young males will stay with their mother for only six months before departing to a herd of young males, young females will sometimes join their mother with a herd.[4]
Food[edit]
Its range coincides closely with that of the acacia trees that grow in these areas.[dubious ] It is mainly a grazing species, though this varies with food availability. They can survive for long periods of time without a water source. Instead, they acquire freshwater from succulents and dew droplets from plants.[4]
History[edit]
In 1985, a large population of mountain gazelles built up through game conservation in two Israeli reserves, in the southern Golan Heights and Ramat Yissachar, was decimated by foot and mouth disease. To prevent such occurrences, a plan was drawn up to stabilize the female population at 1,000 in the Golan and 700 in Ramat Yissachar.[10]
Threats and conservation[edit]
Mountain gazelles were hunted throughout Israel because they were thought of as a pest until 1993. Their numbers are still low for multiple reasons. In some areas, they face predation from feral dogs and jackals. They also face poachers for their skin, meat, and horns. As with other animals, mountain gazelles are harmed by road accidents, habitat degradation, and habitat fragmentation. Mountain gazelles are now a legally protected species, but often there is not enough enforcement to protect the species.[7]
Subspecies[edit]
The Levantine mountain gazelleG. gazella[11] – resides largely in three areas: the Golan Heights, West Bank, Ramot Naftali and the Galilee. In the coastal plain, there is a small population of gazelles but the numbers are decreasing in the wake of accelerated urbanization. The population decreased greatly throughout its natural range in the first part of the 20th century due to poaching.[12] but increased thereafter thanks to conservation efforts.[12] Gazelle Valley in Jerusalem preserves a small herd.[13]
The Hatay mountain gazelle is the subspecies which lives the northeast. They live in Syrian border of Turkey in Hatay Province.[14]
Historically, some others such as the Cuvier's gazelle (G. cuvieri) were included as a subspecies,[15] but recent authorities consistently treat them as separate species.[16]
References[edit]
1. ^ Grubb, P. (2005). "Gazella gazella". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 637–722. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
2. ^ IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group (2017). "Gazella gazella". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017: e.T8989A50186574. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T8989A50186574.en. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
3. ^ "The story of gazelles in Jerusalem and what I want for them… – Kaitholil.com". Retrieved 2019-01-11.
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lee, Kari. "Gazella gazella mountain gazelle". Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
5. ^ Lee, K. "Gazella gazella". Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
6. ^ "Gazella gazella (Ha'tsviha'Israeli, Idmi, Mountain Gazelle)". www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
7. ^ a b "Gazelle gazelle". The IUCN Red List. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
8. ^ a b Baharav, Dan (January 1974). "NOTES ON THE POPULATION STRUCTURE AND BIOMASS OF THE MOUNTAIN GAZELLE, GAZELLA GAZELLA GAZELLA". Israel Journal of Zoology. 23 (1): 39–44. doi:10.1080/00212210.1974.10688395 (inactive 2019-03-15).
9. ^ "Mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella)". Wildscreen Arkive. Archived from the original on 2018-05-01. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
10. ^ Mountain gazelle management in northern Israel in relation to wildlife disease control. (PDF) . oie.int.
11. ^ IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group. (2008). Gazella gazella. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T8970A12942665.en
12. ^ a b Kaplan, D. (December 2002). "Langfristige Bestandsschwankungen der Edmigazelle (Gazella gazella gazella) in Nordisrael". Zeitschrift für Jagdwissenschaft. 48 (Supplement 1): 167–171. doi:10.1007/BF02192405.
13. ^ Kaitholil, Girish. "Mountain gazelles of the Gazelle Valley in Jerusalem – an urban nature reserve". Kaitholil.com. Kaitholil.com.
14. ^ Wildlife Extra News – 250 endangered Mountain gazelles found in Turkey – First record in Turkey. Wildlifeextra.com. Retrieved on 2015-09-25.
15. ^ ADW: Gazella gazella: INFORMATION. Animaldiversity.org. Retrieved on 2015-09-25.
16. ^ Mallon, D.P. & Cuzin, F. (2008). "Gazella cuvieri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2008. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
External links[edit]
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Sample information curated by ChIP-Atlas
Antigen
Antigen Class
TFs and others
Antigen
EPAS1
Cell type
Cell type Class
Kidney
Cell type
Renal cell carcinoma
NA
NA
Attributes by original data submitter
Sample
source_name
ccRCC cell line
transcription factor
HIF2A
chip antibody
HIF2A (NB100-122, Novus Bio, lot# BY-6)
source
patient tumor derived cell line
Sequenced DNA Library
library_strategy
ChIP-Seq
library_source
GENOMIC
library_selection
ChIP
library_construction_protocol
For each transcription factor, ~3x107 cells were cross-linked with 1% formaldehyde for 10 min at room temperature, and stopped by adding glycine to a final concentration of 0.2M. Chromatin was extracted and sonicated to ~500bp (Vibra cell, SONICS). The total volume of immunoprecipitation was 1.5 ml and the amount of antibody used was 15 µg. The input DNA was precleared with protein G Dynabeads (LifeTechnologies) for 2 hr at 4°C and then incubated with antibodies conjugated protein G beads overnight at 4°C. The beads were washed 6 times with wash buffer at room temperature. Amplified DNA was used with NEBNext ChIP-Seq library prep reagent set (NEB)
Sequencing Platform
instrument_model
Illumina HiSeq 2500
hg19
Number of total reads
48001833
Reads aligned (%)
72.2
Duplicates removed (%)
25.5
Number of peaks
3335 (qval < 1E-05)
hg38
Number of total reads
48001833
Reads aligned (%)
74.1
Duplicates removed (%)
24.2
Number of peaks
3845 (qval < 1E-05)
Base call quality data from DBCLS SRA
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
The Rocky Horror Glee Show
"The Rocky Horror Glee Show" is the fifth episode of the second season of the American television series Glee, and the twenty-seventh episode overall. It was written by series creator Ryan Murphy, from a story by Murphy and Tim Wollaston, directed by Adam Shankman, and premiered on Fox on October 26, 2010. The episode features the glee club paying tribute to the 1973 musical The Rocky Horror Show, with elements of its 1975 film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show, by staging it as a school musical. While cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) attempts to sabotage the production, glee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) dwells on his feelings for guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays), and club members Finn (Cory Monteith) and Sam (Chord Overstreet) deal with body image issues. Barry Bostwick and Meat Loaf, who star in the original film, appear in cameo roles in this episode.
Elements of Rocky Horror were sanitized for the episode, including the costumes and lyrics. Creator Richard O'Brien expressed disappointment in the dilution of the musical's themes, and a spokesperson for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation criticized the episode for its use of the term "tranny". Watched by 11.76 million US viewers, "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" was the fifth consecutive episode of Glee to become the top-rated program on the night of broadcast in the 18–49 demographic. It received a mixed response from critics, was alternatively deemed the series' best ever themed-episode by Rolling Stone Erica Futterman, and was described as the worst hour in the show's history by Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club.
The episode featured cover versions of seven Rocky Horror songs, which were released on an extended play album. Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show reached number six on the Billboard 200. It marked the lowest debut and sales for the Glee cast in the US, but the highest position ever reached for a Rocky Horror album. The songs attracted mixed commentary, particularly the performance of "Time Warp", which was given a grade of "A+" by Entertainment Weekly Tim Stack, but derided by Matt Zoller Seitz of Slant Magazine as "very possibly the weakest, most uninspired rendition" he had ever heard.
Plot
The episode opens with the red lips of glee club member Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) against a black background as she sings "Science Fiction/Double Feature". In the school auditorium, the glee club members rehearse The Rocky Horror Show, performing "Over at the Frankenstein Place". They are interrupted by Dr. Carl Howell (John Stamos), who accuses club director Will Schuester of trying to steal his girlfriend, school guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury. The episode continues in flashback format, with Will recalling the events leading up to Carl's accusation.
Will learns that Emma and Carl attended a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which helped to lessen some of her obsessive–compulsive behaviors. As Emma is a fan, Will decides to direct the glee club in a production of the musical, casting co-captains Finn Hudson and Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) in the lead roles of Brad and Janet, Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr.) as Dr. Frank N. Furter, and Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) as Rocky. While Sam is proud of his physique and secure in his own body-image, Finn feels self-conscious at the prospect of appearing in his underwear, as the role necessitates.
Cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester is approached by news station managers Tim Stanwick (Barry Bostwick) and Barry Jeffries (Meat Loaf) about producing an undercover exposé of the play, and convinces Will to involve her in the production. When Mike's parents refuse to let him play Frank N. Furter, a transvestite, Sue manipulates Carl into saving the musical. He auditions with the song "Hot Patootie", but feels that it would be more appropriate for him to play Eddie. The role of Frank, traditionally played by a male, is instead claimed by Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley).
Will grows increasingly jealous of Carl as he joins the production. When Sam becomes hesitant to wear his skimpy costume, Will decides that he will play Rocky instead, and asks Emma to rehearse the suggestive "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" with him. Will is later called into Principal Figgins' (Iqbal Theba) office, where he learns that Finn has been suspended for walking through the hallway in his underwear, attempting to become comfortable with his costume. He convinces Figgins to reduce Finn's punishment, and the episode returns to the opening scene as Carl confronts Will over his private rehearsal with Emma. Alerted to Sue's planned exposé, Will concedes that his motivations in putting on the production were questionable. He tells Emma that he will cease interfering with her relationship. Though he cancels the play, he has the glee club perform it for themselves, and the episode ends with a group rendition of "Time Warp".
Production
When casting Glee, series creator Ryan Murphy required that auditioning actors without theatrical experience demonstrate their ability to sing and dance as well as act. Mays, who was cast as guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury, auditioned with the song "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In April 2009, Murphy told the Los Angeles Times that he would like to have Mays perform the song on Glee. In October 2009, cast member Chris Colfer deemed "Time Warp" the song he would most like to perform on the show, and suggested a Rocky Horror-themed Halloween episode. Colfer re-iterated his desire to perform "Time Warp" at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, which prompted Murphy to reveal that a Glee episode devoted to Rocky Horror was planned for the show's second season. At the 2010 Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour, Murphy stated he would be directing the episode, and also revealed that Adam Shankman would guest-direct one of the first ten episodes of the season. Shankman later revealed via the social networking website Twitter that he would in fact be directing the Rocky Horror episode, and commented, "Rocky Horror, while really risqué, is perfect for Glee because they all, in theory, feel like misfits."
Elements of Rocky Horror were sanitized for the episode, and Shankman believes that he was sought out in order to make the production more audience appropriate. Stamos was initially set to play Dr. Frank N. Furter, but the role was recast due to network resistance. Costumes used in the episode were inspired by the Rocky Horror musical and film, but were adapted for the Glee cast and cost over $30,000. The tight gold lamé underwear worn by Peter Hinwood in the 1975 film were replaced by board shorts for Overstreet. In dressing Riley as Frank, series costume designer Lou Eyrich found it challenging to select outfits which would be acceptable for a primetime series, yet would still appeal to all audiences. To appeal to younger viewers, Eyrich updated the costume worn by Colfer as Riff Raff, pairing a tailcoat with jeans and a J.Crew henley shirt. Michele's costuming as Janet was similar to her regular wardrobe as Rachel, with Eyrich commenting, "That's why she was the perfect Janet." Prior to broadcast, cast member Mark Salling claimed that he would play Rocky Horror talking lips. In the event, however, Salling did not appear in the episode. He was temporarily absent from the series, reportedly for creative reasons, and returned in November 2010. The lips were instead played by Rivera.
Original Rocky Horror cast members Barry Bostwick and Meat Loaf guest-starred in the episode. Bostwick deemed their roles "stunt casting", but suggested his character may return to the show in future and become involved with Sue. Susan Sarandon told People she was open to appearing in the episode depending on the role, and stated that she was flattered by the planned Glee tribute, but was not approached about appearing. An advance midnight screening of the episode was previewed on October 21, 2010 at the Angelika Film Center in New York City.
Ratings
In its original broadcast, "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" was watched by 11.76 million US viewers and attained a 4.9/13 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. For the fifth consecutive episode, Glee was the top-rated program of the night among adults aged 18–49. Both viewership and ratings rose from the previous episode, "Duets", which was watched by 11.36 million viewers and attained a 4.7/13 rating/share among adults aged 18–49. In the weekly program rankings, Glee was the fifth most-viewed show among adults 18–49, and the second scripted show behind only Modern Family. In overall viewers, it placed twentieth for the week.
In Canada, the episode was watched by 2.48 million viewers, ranking as the fourth most-watched program for the week of broadcast. Viewership was again up on "Duets", which attained 2.25 million viewers and ranked seventh. The episode's Australian broadcast drew 1.34 million viewers, making Glee the fifth most-watched show of the night and the most-watched with viewers aged under 50. It placed eleventh in the weekly program rankings. There also, "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" registered a rise on the previous episode, which was watched by 1.04 million viewers, placed ninth on the night and twenty-eighth for the week. In the UK, the episode was watched by 2.50 million viewers—2.121 million on E4, and 385,000 on E4+1 —becoming the most-watched show on cable for the week. Viewership remained static from "Duets", which also attained an audience of 2.50 million.
Critical response
Rocky Horror creator Richard O'Brien was disappointed that the episode diluted the themes of the musical, and was puzzled that the word "transsexual" was censored. Matt Kane, entertainment media manager for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, criticized the use of the pejorative term "tranny" in its place, and found it "particularly alarming" given that the season one episode "Theatricality" presented a negative reaction to the use of a homophobic slur." Critics had a mixed reaction to the episode. Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club graded it an "F" and said it was "the worst hour this show has ever produced". She felt that it was overly ambitious, and that in attempting to skirt humorously around the issue of transsexuals, the end result was "more offensive than if the show had simply ignored the whole thing to begin with." Matt Zoller Seitz of Slant Magazine called it a "travesty" and criticized "the arms-length treatment of the Frank N. Furter character", and Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times deemed the episode flawed through its sanitization, despite initially having found the two shows "a particularly promising match".
"The Rocky Horror Glee Show" received several favorable comparisons to previous themed episodes; Erica Futterman of Rolling Stone deemed it the best yet. Both Entertainment Weekly Tim Stack and Jarett Wieselman of the New York Post preferred it to the Britney Spears tribute episode "Britney/Brittany"; Wieselman hailed it as a "run-away success" that would satisfy Rocky Horror fans without being a "homage for homage's sake" like the Spears episode, and Stack felt that Rocky Horror was a "perfect fit" for Glee, due to thematic similarities between the two. While previous Glee tributes attracted criticism for their focus on musical numbers to the detriment of plot, Jenna Mullins of E! Online and CBS News' Jessica Derschowitz appreciated that "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" was more story-driven.
Critics generally disliked the focus the episode placed on the adult characters, with many objecting to Will's characterisation. VanDerWerff wrote that his storyline with Emma "misplac[ed] what made either of the characters enjoyable in the first place", and IGN's Robert Canning—who otherwise enjoyed the episode, and rated it 8.5/10—observed that Will was presented as being selfish and a "terrible educator", in contrast to his former role as the moral centre of the show. Lisa de Moraes of The Washington Post initially found the focus on the adults a welcome change, but felt their storyline rapidly became convoluted. Anthony Benigno of the Daily News liked Will less as the episode progressed, and deemed it overall, "Creepy, vaguely uncomfortable, in slightly poor taste but well-intentioned, and ultimately, thoroughly entertaining to watch for reasons I can't quite put into words." CNN's Lisa Respers France actually enjoyed the episode for the additional depth it brought to Will and his feelings for Emma, as well as Finn and his body image issues. While Stack commended the male body image storyline, and found it refreshing for a program to examine the objectification of men, de Moraes derided it, and likened Finn and Sam's discussion about eating healthily and working out to an "after school special".
The episode's conclusion—in which Will declares that the original Rocky Horror fans and New Directions members are united by their outcast status—was widely criticized, with VanDerWerff deeming it a "series lowpoint", and "a muddled, terrible message, particularly in an episode that seems to have an uneasy relationship with actual outcasts, transsexuals." Both Reiter and Aly Semigran of MTV questioned the resolution, with Reiter stating that it was unclear what message the creators were attempting to convey, and Semigran finding it disjointed, suggesting "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" to be a "rare Glee misstep".
Performances
Seven Rocky Horror songs were covered in the episode. The opening number of "Science Fiction/Double Feature", performed by Rivera and represented by a disembodied pair of red lips, mirrored the opening to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The song segued into a rehearsal of "Over at the Frankenstein Place", which was followed by a rehearsal of "Dammit Janet"—the former with Michele on lead vocals, and the latter featuring Michele, Monteith, Colfer, Agron and Riley. Stamos' first vocal performance for the series followed, as he gave a rendition of "Hot Patootie". Stamos reportedly feigned illness in order to work with a private vocal coach and dance instructor on the number, and hired his own studio in which to rehearse. The performance entailed a shot-by-shot recreation of the original choreography. "Sweet Transvestite" featured Riley on lead vocals, and "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" showcased Mays, in her first lead performance since "I Could Have Danced All Night" in season one. The episode then closed with a group rendition of "Time Warp".
Commentary
Musical performances in the episode attracted mixed commentary, particularly "Time Warp". Stack rated all of the songs a "B" grade or higher, and gave "Time Warp" the highest grade of an "A+". He called it his favorite moment of the episode, and praised its energy; he wrote that Quinn made a "surprisingly good" Magenta. Semigran also praised the number, and commended the performances by Morris, Monteith, Agron and particularly Colfer, who, she wrote, "looked and sounded the part so well, you'd swear you were watching the original Rocky Horror Picture Show". In a generally negative review of the episode, Reiter commented that despite her dissatisfaction, she found herself singing along to "Time Warp" with "disconcerting enthusiasm", and was "nostalgically transported against [her] better judgment". In contrast, VanDerWerff stated that she would have increased her review of the episode from an "F" to a "D" had "Time Warp" been better, as she had "never seen a more lifeless version". Zoller Seitz similarly called it "very possibly the weakest, most uninspired rendition" he had ever seen, and criticized the side-lining of Colfer in favor of Monteith.
Semigran said the song "Dammit Janet" was "spirited and spot-on", and Benigno graded it an "A", though observed that it was "painfully obvious" Michele and Monteith were lip-syncing. Futterman described the performance as "fully engaged, campy to the max and totally on point". "Hot Patootie" resulted in praise for Stamos, with Stack grading it an "A" and comparing it favorably to the actor's singing on Full House, and Semigran recommending that he be cast in a Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show. Benigno wrote that his voice lacked Meat Loaf's "rock n' roll howl", but praised his charisma and dancing, and graded the performance an "A−".
Critics disagreed over the casting of Mercedes as Frank. Semigran felt that, as sung by a female, "Sweet Transvestite" lost its shock value. Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal would have preferred Salling's Puck in the role, but praised Riley's vocals, writing that her solo "woke us all up from the timid pacing". Benigno also enjoyed the number, and found that while Mercedes lacked the stage presence of Tim Curry, Riley did something "completely remarkable" as Frank, giving a largely flawless performance. He named "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" the best song of the episode, and graded it "A+". Despite finding the episode "abrupt, uneven [and] sanitized", Flandez felt that it was saved by this performance. Futterman remarked that having Emma in the role of Janet was "ideal", but preferred the song visually to vocally. Zoller Seitz disliked the change in Emma's characterization which brought about the number, and while he wrote that "Mays was so charming that she almost, almost saved it", he ultimately found the "motivational contortions" insulting to the audience.
Chart history
Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show, an extended play accompanying the episode, was released on October 19, 2010. Its track list includes each of the seven songs covered. The soundtrack debuted at number six on the Billboard 200, with 48,000 copies sold. It marked the lowest debut and sales for the Glee cast in the US, but the highest position ever reached for a Rocky Horror album. The EP attained lower chart positions internationally, peaking at number eight in Australia, ten in Canada, fifteen in Ireland, and twenty-three in the UK. "Time Warp" was the only song from the EP to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, attaining a position of eighty-nine. Internationally, its highest peak was in Ireland, where it reached number forty-two. "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" was the only other track from the EP to place on the singles charts, peaking at number seventy-two in the UK.
|
WIKI
|
DZone Snippets is a public source code repository. Easily build up your personal collection of code snippets, categorize them with tags / keywords, and share them with the world
Snippets has posted 5883 posts at DZone. View Full User Profile
GCD: Divide Et Impera
09.28.2007
| 3136 views |
• submit to reddit
Calculates the Greatest Common Denominator (GCD) of an array of ints using a Divide at Impera approach.
Time: O(lg(n))
Memory: O(n)
#include <stdio.h>
int gcd(int a, int b) {
int r = a % b;
while (r) {
a = b;
b = r;
r = a % b;
}
return b;
}
int gcdv(int *v, int p, int r) {
if (r == p + 1) {
//printf("%d,%d: %d\n", p, r, gcd(v[p], v[r]));
return gcd(v[p], v[r]);
}
if (r == p) {
//printf("%d: %d\n", r, v[r]);
return v[p];
}
int q = (p + r) / 2;
//printf("%d,%d: %d\n", p, r, gcd(gcdv(v, p, q), gcdv(v, q + 1, r)));
return gcd(gcdv(v, p, q), gcdv(v, q + 1, r));
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
int v[] = {45, 60, 125, 345, 65, 9875, 4555};
printf("GCD: %d\n", gcdv(v, 0, 6));
return 0;
}
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Exclusive: Japan to buy at least 20 more F-35A stealth fighters - sources
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan plans to buy at least 20 additional F-35A stealth fighters over the next six years, some or all of which it may purchase directly from Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) in the United States rather than assemble locally, three sources said. “In view of budgets and production schedules a new acquisition of around 25 planes is appropriate,” said one of the sources with knowledge of the plan. The sources asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media. The sources said buying complete aircraft from the United States, at about $100 million each, will save Japan about $30 million per airframe. The purchase will add to an earlier order for 42 of the fighters, most of which are being constructed at a “final assembly and check out” plant in Japan operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T), the country’s leading defense contractor. That plant is one of only two such factories outside the United States. The other, in Italy, is operated by Leonardo Spa (LDOF.MI). As China fields ever more advanced aircraft, including stealth planes, and as North Korea pushes ahead with its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs, adding F-35s will further increase Japan’s reliance on U.S. military technology to give it an edge over potential foes in East Asia. Japanese military planners are also considering buying F-35Bs, the vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) version of the aircraft. Those models can operate from small islands skirting the East China Sea or from ships such as the Izumo-class helicopter carriers. “We have not yet made any plan and we are evaluating what fighter aircraft we need,” Itsunori Onodera said at a news briefing on Tuesday when asked whether Japan planned to buy more F-35s. Onodera’s ministry will release two defense reviews by the end of the year that will outline Japan’s security goals and military procurement plans for the five years beginning in April 2019. The first of the 42 F-35As ordered by Japan’s Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) are being deployed to Misawa Air Base in northern Japan. Japanese government officials and Lockheed Martin executives are set to attend a ceremony there on Saturday to mark the entry of the first Japanese F-35 into service. The F-35 accounts for about a quarter of Lockheed Martin’s total revenue. The company is hiring 1,800 workers for its Fort Worth, Texas, factory to build a fleet that is expected to grow to more than 3,000 jets worldwide. Lockheed Martin is scheduled to nearly triple annual production to more than 160 jets by 2023. The first Japanese F-35s will replace aging F-4 Phantom fighters that date back to 1960s. The next batch will allow Japan to retire some of the aging 200 F-15s flown by the ASDF that are the main interceptor workhorse of the nation’s air defenses. Japan also wants to build its own stealth fighter, dubbed the F-3, although the high cost of military aircraft development means it will probably need to find foreign partners to share the expense. Reporting by Tim KellyEditing by Gerry Doyle
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/189
Rh the Origin of Species appeared to him, as he read it, to give the death blow to teleology in the domain of life-phenomena. Teleology has, unfortunately, come to life again, and nourishes all too abundantly in the pages of this book.
The treatment of consciousness is vacillating (13 f., 190 f., 257 ff., etc.). There is ground for making consciousness a form of energy, and using it as such in causal explanation. It is legitimate also to adopt the working principle of parallelism, and to leave consciousness out of account in dealing with the material world of physics and physiology. Both positions are defended by competent psychologists, and both have weighty arguments in their favor. The author takes a sort of middle course between the two views. Consciousness is the product of natural selection, and has been preserved because it is useful; yet "it is safer not to assume conscious states until all the simpler and more demonstrable factors in behavior have been given due weight" (p. 13). Why 'simpler'? Why should consciousness be a complex factor in behavior? "In general, the function of consciousness is not to actually do things but to adjust apparatus for doing them, note the results, and readjust as needed" (p. 205). The function would, then, be simple or complex according as the apparatus are crude or delicate. Cf. p. 178: "in racial development consciousness in the form of rudimentary feeling indicating the necessity or non-necessity of movement may be present momentarily even in the lowest organisms and help to produce more prompt and effective reactions." Here the function of consciousness would be extremely simple; nothing more, in fact, than the saying of Yes or No to a motor impulse.
A final word may be said with regard to the writer's four levels of adaptive activity or 'intelligence'. First in order comes physiological intelligence, shown especially in nutritive and growth processes, and concerned with the direction of activities taking place within the body in such a way as to preserve life. Next follows sensory-motor intelligence, with or without consciousness, directing movements of a part or of the whole body in response to external stimulation in such a way that favorable results may be secured. In the third place stands representative intelligence, of which imagination and memory are characteristic manifestations, making possible economy of movement, ministering to psychical needs, and teaching by way of imitation. Last of all comes conceptual intelligence, which not only makes it possible to accomplish certain purposes more quickly and effectively than by sensory motor or representative intelligence, and to meet new situations which could not be reacted to effectively by any other form of intellectual process, but also enables its possessor to go beyond what can be experienced or even represented. It seems clear that we have, in this hierarchy of faculties, a logical construction of the kind dear to Romanes and his contemporaries, rather than an actual picture of the course of mental evolution.
It is natural for a critic, writing in a technical journal, to estimate the worth of a book from the purely scientific point of view. The present writer can, however, conceive (as he indicated above) that the Genetic Psychology, despite all its sins of scientific omission and commission, may serve a very useful purpose as a popular introduction to its subject. Many a student has been attracted to a science by some general treatise, to which he will acknowledge a real debt of gratitude on that account, even though in later years he reject or essentially modify its teaching.
|
WIKI
|
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Pedro PEREZ-PARTIDA, Defendant.
No. 10-CR-2473 MV.
United States District Court, D. New Mexico.
March 28, 2011.
Norman Cairns, United States Attorney’s Office, Albuquerque, NM, for Plaintiff.
Margaret E. McLean, Santa Fe, NM, for Defendant.
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
MARTHA VAZQUEZ, District Judge.
THIS MATTER comes before the Court on Defendant’s Motion to Suppress Evidence Obtained as a Result of Violations of the Fourth Amendment [Doc. 17]. The Court conducted a hearing on the Motion on February 3, 2011. After considering the Motion, the Government’s Response [Doc. 20], Defendant’s Reply [Doc. 24], the relevant law, the evidence and arguments presented at the hearing, and being otherwise fully advised of the premises, the Court finds the Motion should be GRANTED for the reasons stated herein.
BACKGROUND
1. Defendant’s Arrest and the Subsequent Discovery of his Identity
The relevant facts of this case are not in dispute. On May 26, 2010, the Albuquerque police department received an anonymous tip regarding possible drug activity at the intersection of San Mateo Boulevard Northeast and Palo Duro Avenue Northeast. The caller told police that someone in a gold Chevrolet Cavalier was “meeting with” drivers in other vehicles. Doc. 20 at 2. Albuquerque Police Detective Dennis Tafoya and another detective established surveillance in the location described by the tipster. They observed a gold Chevrolet Cavalier parked behind another car. A man got out of the front car and entered the gold Cavalier, and then quickly left and returned to his car.
Shortly thereafter, both cars left the area. Detective Tafoya followed the Cavalier for three miles, after which he requested that another officer, Detective Rogers, assist him in making a traffic stop. The officers stopped the vehicle and the driver, later identified as Defendant, gave them a Mexican drivers license. Detective Tafoya spoke to Defendant in broken Spanish. The parties have stipulated that the defense’s transcription of this exchange, as well as its translation into English, are accurate. The relevant parts of this exchange are as follows:
Officer: Ok. Like I’m saying, I’ve been wat ... I’m uh watching you for one day. You drive all here in Albuquerque ok.... I know that y ... that there is smack inside car, derstand?
Defendant: Yes, yes I understand you.
Officer: Ok, uh. You gives me. You give me me ... of your permission for check the car right!.... I can’t hear you. Yes or no? ...
Defendant: Yes.
Officer: Ok, uh. You know that that ... if you don’t ... I have a dog. Imma come in a little while. If he comes and he he find it, you go straight to the the jail first and then immigration. It’s that it’s ... you want that?
Doc. 17, Attach. B. After Defendant gave what the officers interpreted as his consent to search the vehicle, they discovered cocaine and heroin in the vehicle, and subsequently arrested Defendant.
The officers transported Defendant to the Albuquerque Prisoner Transport Center. Pursuant to Mayor Richard Berry’s immigrant policy, ICE agents interviewed Defendant, and he admitted that he was illegally present in the United States. The agents took his fingerprints and discovered his immigration file (hereinafter referred to as Defendant’s “A-file”), which named him as Pedro Perez-Nava, aka Pedro Perez-Partida. The agents discovered that Defendant had been previously deported following a drug conviction, and they lodged a federal detainer. Defendant now faces charges for illegally reentering the United States following a conviction for an aggravated felony, in violation of 8 U.S.C. §§ 1326(a) & (b).
II. City of Albuquerque Prisoner Transport Center Policy and Partnership with ICE
Shortly after taking office, Mayor Richard Berry of Albuquerque issued an address at the dedication of the newly built Albuquerque Prisoner Transport Center (“PTC”), titled “Ending Sanctuary for Criminals.” Doc. 17, Attach. D. In his address, he explained the overarching goal of the PTC: “[T]o expand our capabilities and to create efficiencies by bringing multiple agencies together in one location with the overall goal of reducing costs and improving public safety.” Id. at 1. The “multiple agencies” involved include local and state law enforcement agencies as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). Id. Mayor Berry listed the following primary functions of the PTC: (1) it reduces the transport time of the average arrestee’s trip to jail; (2) it saves arresting officers driving and processing time; (3) it allows Albuquerque to process multiple prisoners at one time; (4) it allows for the fingerprinting of “every prisoner that walks through these doors” for purposes of screening for immigration violations; (5) the facility’s added space permits pretrial services to process and screen prisoners, securing the immediate release of those who meet certain criteria; and (6) the opening of the PTC has allowed for ICE to work out of the facility. Id. at 1-2. The mayor clarified that ICE would be screening every arrestee, regardless of their nationality, race, or the language they speak. Id. at 3.
After listing these main functions, May- or Berry concluded: “This agreement with ICE and its implementation will end Albuquerque’s status as a sanctuary for criminals.” Id. at 2. The mayor proceeded to focus heavily on the issue of illegal immigration; indeed, the remainder of his remarks focus solely on this issue, rather than the other functions listed above. See id. at 2-5. Mayor Berry framed the opening of the PTC as an important reversal of Albuquerque’s previous policy of restricting police officers’ ability to check the immigration status of those individuals they arrested. See id. at 2. He stated that the policy ensures “that our police officers and the public know that anytime someone is arrested in Albuquerque for a crime their immigration status is always pertinent.” Id. at 3 (emphasis in original). However, he explained: “I have been clear from the start that for me this is not an immigration issue, this is about public safety.... Immigrants from any nation are welcome in Albuquerque — criminals are not.” Id. at 2-3 (emphasis removed). He then described ICE’s function at the PTC: whereas ICE’s sporadic presence at Albuquerque’s Metropolitan Detention Center (“MDC”) does not permit it to screen every arrestee, at the PTC ICE efficiently screens every arrestee and further employs “biometric technology ... to quickly identify people using fictitious names that may be wanted for violent crimes.” Id. at 5.
III. Evidentiary Hearing Testimony
At the hearing on February 3, 2011, Detective Tafoya did not testify, nor did any other officer who was present or involved in Defendant’s arrest. Albuquerque Police Officer Andrew Dominguez testified regarding the booking procedures at the PTC. His role is to take custody of and fingerprint prisoners after the arresting officer completes a form called a “pre-booker” as well as a criminal complaint. 2/3/11 Tr. at 9. He then copies the prisoner’s identifying information from the pre-booker — including the name, date of birth, and place of birth — and inputs this information into the Department of Justice’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (“AFIS”). Officer Dominguez followed this procedure with Defendant following his arrest, and he then fingerprinted Defendant. The Government introduced Defendant’s fingerprint card, and Officer Dominguez confirmed that he had completed it. On cross-examination, Officer Dominguez confirmed that he has nothing to do with the investigation into the offense of arrest, nor the arrestee’s immigration status. He knows that ICE officers are federal immigration officers who are present at the PTC for the purpose of interviewing every arrestee, but he has no knowledge beyond this as to ICE’s duties at the PTC.
Following Officer Dominguez’s testimony, ICE Agent Nancy Rogers testified as to her duties at the PTC. She stated that she goes to jails “to interview everybody that’s being arrested to determine their alienage.” 2/3/11 Tr. at 34. Prior to questioning prisoners, she does not give them any form of warnings nor does she tell them they are free not to talk to her; however, if they refuse to talk to her, she concludes the interview.
Agent Rogers explained that after the Albuquerque Police Department books a prisoner, she interviews the prisoner to determine his or her place of birth. If the prisoner claims to have been born in the United States, Agent Rogers proceeds to the next prisoner. If the prisoner states he or she was born outside the United States, Agent Rogers asks his or her immigration status. She then runs the individual through the immigration central index system to determine whether or not he or she is legally present. She takes the prisoner’s fingerprints electronically, and they are stored in the Department of Homeland Security’s Automated Biometric Identification System (“IDENT”). Agent Rogers described the IDENT system as “sophisticated” and she explained that once a prisoner’s electronic prints are in the system, it returns information “immediately,” including that person’s prior immigration arrests. Id. at 46-48.
If Agent Rogers’s investigation indicates that a prisoner is illegally present in the United States, she further interviews the prisoner and lodges an immigration detain-er. On cross-examination, she explained that the purpose of this investigation and interview is to determine whether or not the individual has committed an immigration crime. At no point during this interview does she administer Miranda warnings. Agent Rogers testified that in her twenty-two years as an ICE officer, never has she suspected an arrestee is lying when he or she claims to be a United States citizen.
Following Agent Rogers’s testimony, ICE deportation officer James Heinlein testified. Whereas his knowledge of the policies and procedures at the PTC is “very limited,” id. at 59, he has substantial knowledge of this particular case because he is the assigned case agent. Officer Heinlein testified that normally, in an immigration prosecution, ICE utilizes its own fingerprint data from its electronic system, and does not request a fingerprint card from the local agency that arrested the individual. However, in the instant case, in December of 2010 (roughly seven months after Defendant’s arrest and four months following the commencement of the federal criminal prosecution), at the prosecuting attorney’s request, Officer Heinlein retrieved the Albuquerque Police Department’s fingerprint records of Defendant.
As noted above, the parties did not present the testimony of Defendant’s arresting officer, nor any other police officers who might conduct arrests in Albuquerque, as Officer Dominguez works within the PTC. Agent Rogers testified, based on her own knowledge, that Albuquerque police officers who conduct arrests on the street know that the ICE will interview the arrestee, provided that an officer is present at the PTC when the arrestee is booked.
DISCUSSION
I. Scope of the Court’s Inquiry
In his Motion to Suppress, Defendant first argues that the initial stop and search of his car were unlawful. The Government concedes that “[t]he stop of the Cavalier was not supported by a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, and therefore the subsequent warrantless search of the Cavalier violated [Defendant’s] Fourth Amendment rights.” Doc. 20 at 4. The Government further “chooses not to argue that [Defendant’s] consent [to search the Cavalier] was so attenuated from the arrest as to cleanse the taint of an unlawful detention.” Id. at 6. For these reasons, the Government agreed to dismissal of all federal drug charges against Defendant. At the evidentiary hearing, AUSA Norm Cairns stated that the Assistant District Attorney assigned to Defendant’s state case agreed that the arrest was “indefensible.” 2/3/11 Tr. at 67.
Notwithstanding their agreement regarding the illegality of Detective Tafoya’s initial stop, the parties dispute whether or not the Government may introduce evidence of Defendant’s identity for the purposes of establishing his guilt under 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Defendant moves to suppress all evidence of his identity, including his fingerprints and A-file, that staff gathered during Defendant’s detention at the PTC. The Government opposes the Motion. The issue this case presents is whether or not the identity evidence is sufficiently attenuated from the illegal stop so as to cure the taint of the initial illegality.
II. Fourth Amendment Law and “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” Doctrine
The ordinary remedy in a criminal case for violation of the Fourth Amendment is the suppression of any evidence obtained during the illegal police conduct. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 648, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961). In Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 487, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963), the Supreme Court held that when evidence is the product of an illegal search, the prosecution may introduce it against the defendant only if it was “come at ... by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.” This rule is widely recognized as the doctrine of “fruit of the poisonous tree.” See, e.g., United States v. Jarvi, 537 F.3d 1256, 1259 (10th Cir.2008) (citing Wong Sun’s “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine). Once a defendant establishes that the search leading to the evidence in question was unlawful,
the government [must] prove that the evidence sought to be suppressed is not “fruit of the poisonous tree,” either by demonstrating the evidence would have been inevitably discovered, was discovered through independent means, or was so attenuated from the illegality as to dissipate the taint of the unlawful conduct.
United States v. Nava-Ramirez, 210 F.3d 1128, 1131 (10th Cir.2000) (citations omitted). Here, the Government argues that the identity evidence it seeks to introduce was sufficiently attenuated from the initial illegality such that it is untainted by Defendant’s unlawful arrest. The Government seeks only to introduce Officer Dominguez’s fingerprint card, and does not seek to introduce ICE’s fingerprint records.
III. Exclusionary Rule’s Application to Identity Evidence
This case requires the Court to determine the extent to which identity evidence obtained at the PTC pursuant to Mayor Berry’s policy may be suppressed under the doctrine of the fruit of the poisonous tree. At the hearing in this matter, AUSA Norm Cairns acknowledged that the Tenth Circuit’s case law examining this question does not resolve the instant inquiry. See 2/3/11 Tr. of Proceedings at 70 (“[W]e hope to get some clarification from this Court, potentially from the Tenth Circuit, one way or the other.... [This] was something of a test case[J”). The Court has therefore looked beyond Tenth Circuit authority to out-of-circuit case law, as well as a district court opinion from elsewhere in this Circuit, for guidance. Whereas the Tenth Circuit has expressly held that identity evidence may be suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree, other circuit courts have held precisely the opposite. See, e.g., United States v. Farias-Gonzalez, 556 F.3d 1181, 1182 (11th Cir.2009) (holding that “identity-related evidence is not suppressible when offered in a criminal prosecution only to prove who the defendant is”); United States v. Garcia-Beltran, 443 F.3d 1126, 1132 (9th Cir.2006) (“[Evidence concerning the identity of a defendant, obtained after an illegal police action, is not suppressible as ‘fruit of the poisonous tree.’ ”). The Court will not consider case law from those circuits whose holdings directly conflict with binding Tenth Circuit authority.
A thorough summary of the relevant authority is necessary before the Court may apply this authority — some of which is in slight tension — to the facts of the instant case. In United States v. Olivares-Rangel, 458 F.3d 1104 (10th Cir.2006), the Tenth Circuit held that identity-related evidence discovered after an illegal arrest could be suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree. There, the defendant was arrested after Border Patrol agents received a tip that undocumented immigrants were living in a trailer park and committing burglaries. Id. at 1106. The agents apprehended the defendant as he was leaving his trailer to drive out of the park. Id. They positioned their car so as to block the defendant from driving out of the driveway, and questioned him about his citizenship. Id. Prior to receiving Miranda warnings, the defendant admitted that he was illegally present in the United States. Id. Agents arrested him and took him to the Border Patrol station for fingerprinting, where his A-file revealed prior deportations and a criminal record. Id. In the ensuing illegal reentry prosecution, the district court suppressed all evidence of the defendant’s identity, finding that the arrest was illegal and the identity evidence constituted fruit of the poisonous tree. Id. at 1107.
On appeal in Olivares-Rangel, the Government conceded that the stop and subsequent arrest were illegal. Id. However, the Government argued that identity evidence could never be suppressed in a criminal proceeding. Id. at 1109. The Tenth Circuit held that suppression of identity evidence was barred only insofar as the purpose of the suppression was to establish a defense to jurisdiction. Id. at 1109-12 (citing I.N.S. v. Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. 1032, 104 S.Ct. 3479, 82 L.Ed.2d 778 (1984)). In other words, “the defendant cannot suppress the entire issue of his identity,” id. at 1111, but evidence of identity may be suppressed in a criminal case, depending on the circumstances, as fruit of the poisonous tree following an illegal arrest. Id. at 1112.
The Olivares-Rangel court described the proper inquiry for determining whether suppression of identity evidence is warranted:
[W]e distinguish between fingerprints that are obtained as a result of an unconstitutional governmental investigation and fingerprint evidence that is instead obtained merely as part of a routine booking procedure. In doing so, we hold that fingerprints administratively taken in conjunction with an arrest for the purpose of simply ascertaining or confirming the identity of the person arrested and routinely determining the criminal history and outstanding warrants of the person arrested are sufficiently unrelated to the unlawful arrest that they are not suppressible....
[I]n determining whether the fingerprint evidence in this case should be suppressed, we must determine the original purpose for arresting and later fingerprinting Defendant; that is, was Defendant fingerprinted merely as part of a routine booking or processing procedure or was the illegal arrest in part for the purpose of obtaining unauthorized fingerprints so Defendant could be connected to additional alleged illegal activity.
Id. at 1112-16.
Ultimately, the Tenth Circuit concluded that the evidence before the court was insufficient for it to determine whether the identity evidence was the product of routine booking or an illegal arrest whose purpose was to connect the defendant to additional illegal activity. Id. at 1116. The court remanded to the district court for an evidentiary hearing, explaining as follows:
The precise circumstances under which Defendant was arrested and his fingerprints taken are not clear from the record .... [Tjhere is no evidence in the record before us to support the Government’s assertion that the illegal arrest was not in part for the purpose of obtaining Defendant’s fingerprints to link him to criminal activity. Because, on the record before us, we do not know whether the illegal arrest was purposefully exploited for the objective of obtaining Defendant’s fingerprints, we remand for an evidentiary hearing on this issue.
Id. This Court interprets the Tenth Circuit’s language as requiring suppression if Defendant’s arrest in the instant case was at least in part for the purpose of obtaining his fingerprints to further link him to illegal activity.
In United States v. Oscar-Torres, 507 F.3d 224, 230 (4th Cir.2007), the Fourth Circuit cited Olivares-Rangel in support of its conclusion that fingerprint evidence is inadmissible in a criminal proceeding “[w]hen police officers use an illegal arrest as an investigatory device in a criminal case for the purpose of obtaining fingerprints without a warrant or probable cause.” (quotation omitted). The court further quoted Olivares-Rangel for the proposition that “when fingerprints are ‘administratively taken ... for the purpose of simply ascertaining the identity’ or immigration status of the person arrested, they are ‘sufficiently unrelated to the unlawful arrest that they are not suppressible.’ ” Id. at 231 (ellipses in original).
In Oscar-Torres, the Fourth Circuit deviated from the Tenth in that it drew a distinction between the exploitation of an unlawful arrest for purposes of introducing identity evidence in civil deportation proceedings, as opposed to such exploitation for purposes of investigating potential criminal immigration violations. From the principles announced in Olivares-Rangel, as well as Supreme Court precedent, the Fourth Circuit concluded:
This emphasis on the criminal context in which the fingerprints were obtained, and the intended investigative purpose for which they were procured, at least suggests that fingerprints obtained for administrative purposes, and intended for use in an administrative process— like deportation — may escape suppression.
Fingerprinting conducted as part of an arrest intended to lead only to an administrative deportation simply does not present the same concerns as ... fingerprinting [that leads] to criminal prosecutions ....
Accordingly, we adopt the rule articulated by our sister circuits [including the Tenth]. We note that when applying this rule, a court must focus on the “purpose” for the illegal arrest and fingerprinting. ... Thus, an alien’s fingerprints taken as part of routine booking procedures but intended to provide evidence for a criminal prosecution are still motivated by an investigative, rather than an administrative, purpose. Such fingerprints are, accordingly, subject to exclusion.
Id. at 231-32 (citations omitted).
The Fourth Circuit ultimately found it had insufficient evidence to determine whether criminal prosecution or deportation was the primary purpose of the Os-ear-Torres defendant’s arrest; however, it pointed to the following facts that could support a finding that the purpose of the arrest was purely administrative (ie. deportation proceedings): “immigration agents testified that they arrested Oscar-Torres simply to deport him, that they fingerprinted him as part of the ‘normal processing for an alien,’ and that authorities only contemplated a criminal prosecution” when they discovered he had a prior felony conviction. Id. at 232. On remand, the Fourth Circuit instructed as follows: “We recognize that the [district] court may conclude that both investigative and administrative purposes motivated the illegal arrest and fingerprinting, in which case the fingerprint and attendant record evidence must be suppressed.” Id.
In a case that significantly predates both Osear-Torres and Olivares-Rangel, United States v. Guevara-Martinez, 262 F.3d 751 (8th Cir.2001), the Eighth Circuit addressed the question of whether fingerprint evidence was suppressible as fruit of the poisonous tree. There, the defendant was arrested in an illegal traffic stop and officers discovered methamphetamine in his car. Id. at 752. Officers transported him to jail where, “[s]uspeeting that he might be an illegal alien, [they] informed a special agent of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) of the arrest.” Id. INS determined that he was illegally present in the United States and that he had been previously deported. Id.
As a threshold issue, the Eighth Circuit determined that identity evidence could indeed be suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree. Id. at 753-54. Like the Tenth Circuit, the Eighth Circuit distinguished between two types of fingerprint evidence; however, the distinction it drew was somewhat different: fingerprints gathered during “routine booking procedures” versus those gathered “for the purpose of pursuing INS-related proceedings.” Id. at 753. The court held that identity evidence obtained by exploitation of an illegal arrest must be suppressed, “even when the detention is not for the sole purpose of gathering that evidence.” Id. at 755.
The court proceeded to evaluate whether the arresting officers in the Guevara'r- Martinez defendant’s case obtained his fingerprints through the exploitation of his unlawful arrest. It concluded that the identity evidence should be suppressed for various reasons: (1) the defendant had not consented to the fingerprinting; (2) the fingerprinting took place during the unlawful detention, as opposed to a situation where the arresting officer “merely recommends investigation of a particular individual based on suspicions arising serendipitously from an illegal search” and a separate investigation ensues; and (3) the fingerprinting occurred only after the INS had interviewed the defendant, rather than “as a matter of course through routine booking procedures.” Id. at 755-56.
In United States v. Rodriguez-Martinez, 2009 WL 2372850 (D.Colo. July 30, 2009) (unpublished), the Colorado district court looked to Olivares-Rangel and Guevarar-Mariinez to resolve a motion to suppress identity evidence in an illegal reentry case. There, the court denied the Government’s motion for reconsideration of its previous decision granting the defendant’s motion to suppress. Id. at *2-3. The court declined to conduct a full analysis of the merits of its decision to suppress the fingerprint evidence, as it had done so in the underlying order. Accordingly, this Court has looked to that order for guidance. See Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, United States v. Armando Rodriguez-Martinez, No. 08-CR-0281-WYD (D.Colo. Feb. 20, 2009) (ECF Doc. No. 31) (hereinafter cited as “Findings & Concl.”).
The defendant in Rodriguez-Martinez lived next door to another immigrant who ICE was preparing to arrest. Findings & Concl. at 1-2. ICE agents erroneously believed that the target might be able to escape through the defendant’s apartment, so they knocked on his door, guns drawn, and identified themselves as immigration police. Id. at 3-4, 6 & 9-10. The defendant confessed his undocumented status and admitted to a prior deportation, and the agents arrested him and obtained his fingerprints. Id. at 6.
The Rodriguez-Martinez district court found the defendant’s arrest was not supported by probable cause or reasonable suspicion and further found that his confession was fruit of the poisonous tree. Id. at 7 & 13. The court found that the defendant’s fingerprints and A-file were obtained by exploitation of his unlawful detention. In so concluding, it relied on Olivares-Rangel as well as Guevara-Martinez. The court focused on Guevara-Martinez’s language regarding the purpose of obtaining the suspect’s fingerprints: “The absence of evidence that the fingerprinting resulted from routine booking, and the concomitant inference that an INS-related purpose motivated the fingerprinting, ... counsel in favor of applying the exclusionary rule.” Id. at 15 (quoting Guevara-Martinez, 262 F.3d at 756). The court concluded that the fingerprint evidence and A-file must be suppressed because: (1) “an INS related purpose motivated the fingerprinting”, and (2) law enforcement officials obtained the defendant’s fingerprints during an unlawful detention in order to investigate a criminal immigration law violation. Id. at 15-16.
IV. Analysis
At the outset, it is important to acknowledge that the objective of the exclusionary rule is to deter police misconduct. See, e.g., Hudson v. Michigan, 547 U.S. 586, 608-09, 126 S.Ct. 2159, 165 L.Ed.2d 56 (2006) (Kennedy, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment) (“[T]he driving legal purpose underlying the exclusionary rule [is] the deterrence of unlawful government behavior ... [and to] compel respect for the constitutional guaranty ... by removing the incentive to disregard it.”). At the evidentiary hearing, the Government argued that the deterrent function was satisfied in this case: Detective Tafoya conducted an unlawful search, and as a result, his illegal drug arrest will not lead to a criminal prosecution. According to the Government, Defendant “reaped some benefit [of the exclusionary rule], in the sense that he doesn’t face narcotics charges.” 2/3/11 Tr. at 69. However, the Government’s argument is incomplete. The purpose of the exclusionary rule would be equally served in cases where the evidence shows that the arresting officer was in fact motivated by a desire to transport a prisoner to the PTC in order to investigate possible immigration violations. Although the evidence presented here unequivocally establishes that all prisoners are subject to ICE screening at the PTC regardless of their perceived race or national origin, no such evidence was presented with respect to the arrest itself. In other words, given Albuquerque police officers’ knowledge of ICE’s presence at the PTC, the exclusionary rule should be applied to identity evidence where doing so would serve the purpose of deterring officers from pursuing unlawful arrests based on an arrestee’s perceived immigration status.
A. “Routine Booking” versus “Exploitation”
With the exclusionary rule’s purpose in mind, the Court turns to the circumstances leading up to and following Defendant’s arrest, and endeavors to faithfully apply the legal principles discussed above to the unique facts of this case. The Court must highlight the difficulty and novelty this case presents, in that the PTC screening policy at issue in the instant case does not fall neatly into either of the categories the Tenth Circuit articulated in Olivares-Rangel. The objectives of the policy, by May- or Berry’s own description, go beyond the standard routine booking procedures contemplated in Olivares-Rangel, whose purpose the Tenth Circuit described as “simply ascertaining or confirming the identity of the person arrested and routinely determining the criminal history and outstanding warrants of the person arrested.” 458 F.3d at 1113. Indeed, the mayor stated that the purpose of ICE’s presence at the PTC was specifically to screen for immigration violations, which demonstrates that the PTC policy was promulgated for the specific purpose of identifying the subset of the arrestee population who are also noncitizens. However, he further made clear that all arrestees, regardless of their actual or perceived race or immigration status, would be subject to the same screening process at the PTC. Whereas Mayor Berry emphasized his position that immigrants were welcome in Albuquerque, he further stated that anytime someone is arrested, his or her immigration status is always pertinent. It is clear from the mayor’s remarks that the policy now in place at the PTC is not consistent with what the Tenth Circuit described in Olivares-Rangel as “routine booking procedures.”
Nor can it be said that the PTC’s screening policy by definition amounts to a purposeful exploitation of an illegal arrest for the objective of obtaining fingerprints. An immigration presence in this nation’s jails can serve important objectives, and the Court would be unwise to conclude that in every case in which an arrestee is illegally arrested and then fingerprinted at the PTC, the illegal arrest is exploited for the purpose of obtaining unauthorized fingerprints and connecting the arrestee to additional alleged illegal activity. This Court must accordingly decide where the PTC screening policy falls on the spectrum between these two extremes — routine booking versus exploitation of an illegal arrest — articulated by the Tenth Circuit.
From the authority discussed above, the Court has drawn two general conclusions regarding the application of the “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine to identity evidence obtained in the PTC’s screening process. First, the evidence must be suppressed if even part of the purpose of the initial illegal arrest was to obtain the arrestee’s fingerprints in the hopes of further connecting him to illegal activity. Second, the identity evidence in any given case must be suppressed if the staff at PTC purposefully exploited an unlawful arrest in order to obtain the arrestee’s fingerprints. Because Defendant here has met his burden of establishing the illegality of the search of his vehicle, the Government bears the burden of proving that the identity evidence in question “was so attenuated from the illegality as to dissipate the taint of the unlawful conduct.” United States v. Nava-Ramirez, 210 F.3d 1128, 1131 (10th Cir.2000). In other words, it is the Government’s burden to prove: (1) that the initial arrest and search were not conducted in part for the purpose of obtaining evidence of Defendant’s identity to establish his unlawful presence in the United States; and (2) that the staff at PTC did not exploit Defendant’s arrest for the purpose of obtaining his fingerprints.
B. Tension between Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuit Authority
Of course, this Court is bound by the law as interpreted by the Tenth Circuit, and to the extent the Fourth and Eighth Circuit’s eases are inconsistent with Olivares-Rangel, the Court must not follow those decisions. In this regard, the Court notes one particular problem with the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Oscar-Torres. In that case, the court drew a distinction between the exploitation of an unlawful arrest for purposes of introducing identity evidence in civil deportation proceedings, as opposed to such exploitation for purposes of investigating potential criminal immigration violations, a distinction for which Olivares-Rangel offers no support. The Oscar-Torres court held that when fingerprints are taken for the purpose of “ ‘ascertaining the identity’ or immigration status of the person arrested, they are ‘sufficiently unrelated to the unlawful arrest that they are not suppressible.’ ” 507 F.3d at 231 (quoting Olivares-Rangel, 458 F.3d at 1112-13). In contrast, Olivares-Rangel draws no distinction between the investigation of civil and criminal immigration violations; rather, it refers broadly to the exploitation of an arrest for the purpose of investigating “additional alleged illegal activity.” 458 F.3d at 1116. Indeed, it is noteworthy that the court directly quoted Olivares-Rangel in support of its holding, yet did not include in the quotation marks that portion of the holding specifically regarding immigration status. See 507 F.3d at 231. (“when fingerprints are ‘administratively taken ... for the purpose of simply ascertaining ... the identity’ or immigration status of the person arrested, they are ‘sufficiently unrelated to the unlawful arrest that they are not suppressible.’ ”).
In significant tension with the Fourth Circuit’s extension of Olivares-Rangel, the Eighth Circuit draws a distinction between fingerprints “obtained as a matter of course through routine booking procedures” and those obtained “for the purpose of assisting [an] INS investigation.” Guevara-Martinez, 262 F.3d at 756. The Guevarar-Martinez court concluded that the defendant’s fingerprints should be suppressed in part because of “[t]he absence of evidence that the fingerprinting resulted from routine booking, and the concomitant inference that an INS-related purpose motivated the fingerprinting.” Id. Although the Fourth Circuit cited Guevarar-Martinez twice in its opinion in Oscar-Torres, it did not address the Eighth Circuit’s distinction between routine booking and immigration-related investigations.
The Colorado district court took guidance from both Olivar es-Rang el and Guevarar-Martinez, but did not draw upon or in any way distinguish Oscar-Torres. See generally Rodriguez-Martinez, Findings & Concl. The court focused on the Eighth Circuit’s emphasis on fingerprinting motivated by “an INS-related purpose,” see id. at 15 (quoting Guevara-Martinez, 262 F.3d at 756), and ultimately concluded that such a purpose was dispositive in that case.
C. When “Routine Booking” Involves an “INS-Related Purpose”
This Court has carefully examined the rationales offered by both the Fourth and Eighth Circuits in support of their respective conclusions regarding the application of the “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine to identity evidence. It appears from Oscar-Torres that the Fourth Circuit arrived at its conclusion in part because the Supreme Court has established a general rule that the exclusionary rule simply does not apply in civil proceedings. See 507 F.3d at 229-30 (citing Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. at 1042-47, 104 S.Ct. 3479). The court further relied upon the Supreme Court cases of Hayes v. Florida, 470 U.S. 811, 105 S.Ct. 1643, 84 L.Ed.2d 705 (1985) and Davis v. Mississippi, 394 U.S. 721, 89 S.Ct. 1394, 22 L.Ed.2d 676 (1969), where “police suspected [the defendants] of criminal activity, and [illegally] detained and fingerprinted them for the clear investigatory purpose of connecting them to specific crimes,” Oscar-Torres, 507 F.3d at 231; from the Supreme Court’s central focus on the criminal nature of the investigations, the Eighth Circuit concluded that “[f]ingerprinting conducted as part of an arrest intended to lead only to an administrative deportation simply does not present the same concerns as the fingerprinting at issue in Hayes and Davis, which was meant to (and did in fact) lead to criminal prosecutions.” Id.
The circumstances surrounding the instant case caution against a hard-line rule allowing the remedy of suppression in a criminal proceeding only when the motivation for taking the fingerprints was for the purpose of pursuing said criminal proceeding, as opposed to civil deportation proceedings. The PTC screening policy embodies a recent trend of blurring the line between the “purely civil” nature of immigration proceedings and the distinctly punitive nature of criminal punishment. Compare I.N.S. v. Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. 1032, 1037, 104 S.Ct. 3479, 82 L.Ed.2d 778 (1984) (“A deportation proceeding is a purely civil action to determine eligibility to remain in this country, not to punish an unlawful entry”) with Padilla v. Kentucky, — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 1473, 1480, 176 L.Ed.2d 284 (2010) (“Changes to our immigration law ... confirm our view that, as a matter of federal law, deportation is an integral part — indeed, sometimes the most important part — of the penalty that may be imposed on noncitizen defendants” (footnote omitted)). Mayor Berry himself titled his address “Ending Sanctuary for Criminals.” Doc. 17, Attach. D. This title, which stems from the label of “sanctuary city” that some placed on Albuquerque prior to Mayor Berry taking office, conveys the mayor’s position that a “sanctuary” for immigrants is in fact a sanctuary for criminals. In fact, the policy to which Mayor Berry referred when he described Albuquerque as a “sanctuary for criminals” is the Albuquerque Police Department’s Standard Operating Procedure (“APD SOP”) regarding the extent to which officers may question suspects or prisoners about their immigration status. See Sean Olson & Dan McKay, Mayor’s Race Turns Nasty, Albuquerque Journal, Sept. 24, 2009 (“What Berry calls a sanctuary city policy actually is a[n Albuquerque Police Department] policy.... Berry is the only [mayoral] candidate who says Albuquerque is a sanctuary city.”). The APD SOP provides:
Officers shall not stop, question, detain or arrest any person solely on the ground that they may be undocumented and deportable foreign nationals____Officers shall not inquire about or seek proof of a person’s immigration status, unless the person is in custody or is a suspect in a criminal investigation for a non-immigration criminal violation and the immigration status of the person or suspect is pertinent to the criminal investigation .... Officers are not required to notify federal immigration officials and shall not call federal immigration officials to the scene of a stop or investigation, except in the case of suspected human trafficking.... Officers do not have the authority to place an “ICE” hold on individuals suspected of having violated federal immigration laws.
Albuquerque Police Department, Procedural Orders at 2-14 (effective 8/6/07) (emphasis in original). As is evident from the APD SOP, the policy to which Mayor Berry referred as a “sanctuary” policy never placed any restrictions on ICE’s presence in Albuquerque jails nor its capacity to question prisoners in custody regarding their immigration status. Rather, it limited the ability of Albuquerque police officers to investigate suspected immigration violations except in cases where this information was relevant to their criminal investigation.
It is clear from Mayor Berry’s address, and the evidentiary hearing testimony, that the new screening policy at the PTC is in place to identify immigrants for the dual purpose of pursuing civil deportation proceedings and criminal immigration proceedings wherever possible. An immigrant without legal status, and with no claim to legal status, is always deportable, whereas criminal proceedings may only be pursued against those found illegally crossing the border or those found in the United States after having previously been deported. See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1227, 1325 & 1326. The PTC screening policy aims to identify those arrestees who are “violating federal laws,” including those who have “[c]ommitted an immigration crime.” 2/3/11 Tr. at 42 (testimony of ICE Agent Nancy Rogers). This demonstrates that, even under the law in the Fourth Circuit, the dual purpose of the PTC policy may require the suppression of identity evidence. See Oscar-Torres, 507 F.3d at 232 (“[If the district court concludes] that both investigative and administrative purposes motivated the illegal arrest and fingerprinting, ... the fingerprint and attendant record evidence must be suppressed.”).
For these reasons, the Court finds that the Fourth Circuit’s extension of the Tenth Circuit’s holding is incompatible with the true import of Olivares-Rangel. The Court declines to conclude that identity evidence is never suppressible when its purpose was to “ascertainf ] the identity or immigration status of the person arrested.” Oscar-Torres, 507 F.3d at 231. Instead, the proper inquiry is whether or not the Government has proven that no part of Defendant’s arrest or subsequent fingerprinting involved an exploitation of his unlawful detention for the purpose of linking him to any illegal activity, including his suspected unlawful presence in the United States.
D. The Government Has Failed to Meet its Burden of Proving that the Identity Evidence it Seeks to Introduce Is not “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree”
After careful consideration of the principles this Court derives from Olivares-Rangel as well as those consistent principles from the Tenth Circuit’s sister circuits, the Court concludes that the Government has failed to meet its burden. First, the circumstances surrounding Defendant’s initial arrest are highly suspect. Upon seeing Defendant’s Mexican driver’s license, Detective Tafoya warned Defendant that if he discovered drugs in the car, Defendant would go straight to jail and then to immigration. This raises an inference that the officer was at least in part motivated by an immigration-related purpose. Not only did Agent Rogers testify that Albuquerque police officers know of ICE’s presence in the PTC, but Detective Tafoya’s statement itself demonstrates that he knew ICE would fingerprint Defendant when he arrived at the PTC. Moreover, two separate prosecuting authorities have concluded that there is simply no question that this arrest amounted to a violation of Defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights. Although trained police officers understandably make mistakes regarding the precise contours of Fourth Amendment protections, this case presents a strikingly blatant violation, suggesting that the officer might have been motivated by more than simply the drug evidence he suspected he would find in Defendant’s car. Although the Government argued at the evidentiary hearing that Defendant “was brought into the PTC for purposes of processing his arrest on the state charges of possession of heroin,” 2/3/11 Tr. at 68, the Court cannot credit this conclusory statement without hearing testimony from Detective Tafoya. Given the Government’s failure to present any evidence to rebut the inference that Detective Tafoya arrested Defendant in part to aid in the investigation of possible immigration violations, it has not met its burden of disproving that “the illegal arrest [was] in part for the purpose of obtaining unauthorized fingerprints so Defendant could be connected to additional alleged illegal activity.” Olivares-Rangel, 458 F.3d at 1116.
Second, the testimony of Agent Rogers confirms the Court’s suspicions that the screening policy at the PTC can, in certain cases in which a defendant’s initial arrest is unlawful, amount to an exploitation of the arrest. Throughout her testimony, Agent Rogers referred to her duties as investigative or responded to counsel’s questions regarding her “investigation” without questioning this label. 2/3/11 Tr. at 39, 42, 44, 47, 48, 52 & 53. Given the Fourth and Tenth Circuits’ distinction between “investigative” and “administrative” purposes, this testimony is significant. Also corroborating the investigative nature of ICE’s presence at the PTC is Agent Rogers’s testimony that her purpose in interviewing prisoners is to determine if they have committed an immigration crime. While it appears that she may have used the word “crime” to encompass civil immigration violations as well, this simply demonstrates the heavily criminal nature of modern day immigration law enforcement. The most recent United States Sentencing Commission data show that nearly seventy-seven percent of federal criminal sentencings in New Mexico are for immigration crimes. U.S. Sentencing Comm’n, Statistical Information Packet Fiscal Year 2009 District of New Mexico, available at http://www.ussc.gov/Data^_ ancLStatistics/Federal_Senteneing_ Statisties/State_District_Circuit/JP2009. htm. Given the heavy volume of illegal reentry cases in this District that come directly from ICE’s screening process at the PTC, the Government has not met its burden of proving that neither “investigatory objectives,” Olivares-Rangel, 458 F.3d at 1117 nor “an INS-related purpose,” Guievara-Martinez, 262 F.3d at 756, motivated the fingerprinting. Even under the Fourth Circuit’s more lenient standard under which fingerprints taken for the purpose of ascertaining one’s immigration status are not suppressible, the Government has not met its burden of showing that the fingerprinting was not motivated in part by investigative purposes. See Oscar-Torres, 507 F.3d at 232 (evidence must be suppressed if “both investigative and administrative purposes motivated the illegal arrest and fingerprinting”).
Finally, the Court wishes to address the Government’s contention that it does not actually seek to introduce evidence from Agent Rogers’s investigation, but rather will only introduce the Albuquerque Police Department’s fingerprint card. The Court agrees with counsel for Defendant that “the Government can’t whitewash [the process of ICE’s investigation] by hiding behind the city’s fingerprint cards.” 2/3/11 Tr. at 72. Defendant was taken into federal custody on July 20, 2010, yet it was not until after receiving notice of the instant motion in November that the Government sought out an alternative means to prove Defendant’s identity. See 2/3/11 Tr. at 72. The Court can contemplate no reason other than evasion of the potential illegality of the evidence for the Government to introduce the city’s fingerprint card in place of ICE’s “sophisticated” electronic evidence. Id. at 46. Just as the Eighth Circuit concluded in Guevara-MaHinez, the Government’s ability to obtain “a set of untainted fingerprints” does not vitiate the principle that “the most important thing is that those administering the criminal law understand that they must obtain the evidence the right way.” 262 F.3d at 756 (quoting Davis, 394 U.S. at 726 n. 4, 89 S.Ct. 1394 (alterations omitted)). Particularly because ICE’s unlawfully obtained fingerprints — and the policy of fingerprinting prisoners for the specific purpose of identifying non-citizens — propelled this prosecution, the Court finds that the Government’s ability to find another means of securing evidence of Defendant’s identity does not remove the evidence’s taint.
CONCLUSION
The Court concludes that the Government has not met its burden of demonstrating that the evidence of Defendant’s identity is sufficiently attenuated from Defendant’s unlawful arrest so as to dissipate the taint of the initial illegality. As the evidence of Defendant’s identity amounts to fruit of the poisonous tree, the Fourth Amendment demands that it be suppressed.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion to Suppress Evidence Obtained as a Result of Violations of the Fourth Amendment [Doc. 17] shall be GRANTED.
. As noted, the transcript demonstrates that Detective Tafoya does not speak Spanish well. The English translation also contains grammatical errors, which the certified translator states accurately reflect the rudimentary nature of the officer’s Spanish. Doc. 29.
. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the agency formerly known as INS combined with that known as the United States Customs Service to form the Department of Homeland Security, whose sub-agencies now include the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE”), United Slates Customs and Border Protection, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Although the INS no longer exists, portions of this opinion refer to it when necessary to expand upon the Eighth Circuit's analysis in Oscar-Torres.
. The opinion alternatively refers to "illegal activity" and "criminal activity,” but the precise holding refers to "illegal activity.”
. The district court's complete holding was that the defendant’s identity evidence was suppressible due to the INS-related purpose behind the fingerprinting as well as the fact that the fingerprints were obtained through exploitation of the defendant’s unlawful detention. However, the wording of the opinion strongly suggests that the INS-related purpose would have been an adequate basis for suppression: "I find that an INS related purpose motivated the fingerprinting, and as such, the exclusionary rule should apply.” Findings & Concl. at 15.
. See, e.g., Dan McKay, Sanctuary Policy Change Delayed, Albuquerque Journal, Dec. 17, 2009 (“Berry’s campaign repeatedly described Albuquerque as a 'sanctuary city’ for illegal immigrants ...”); see also KOAT Online, Albuquerque No Longer a Sanctuary City, May 14, 2010, available at http://www.koat. com/news/23549511/detail.htm.
|
CASELAW
|
Google Calendar went out for three hours and we all had an existential crisis
(CNN)Google Calendar went down for a few hours this morning. That much we know. What we don't know is all that we lost. When the popular calendar tool went offline mid-morning on Tuesday, it took with it a sense of time and stability in offices and households across the country (and parts of Europe, South America, Asia and Africa). Three hours later, the glitch was resolved. But not before leaving mayhem and infuriated, liberated and eventually disappointed users in its wake. 10 a.m. EST Tuesday: This is the moment users first notice the outage. It began sweeping across desktops and phones as morning briefings let out and others were getting started. Many began to wonder: Where should I be? At what time? Who am I? Why am I? Google quickly noticed and announced it was working on the problem. A general sense of direction and purpose falters. The day quickly devolves into chaos as once cluttered calendars suddenly open up. 11:40 a.m. ET: Almost two hours later, Google says it's "continuing to investigate." Somewhere, someone was wondering why they didn't write down the time of their kid's midday dentist appointment. Is it happening at noon? Tomorrow? Did it already happen? Wandering lost without a road map: It's enough to make one question their place in the astral plane. Somewhere else a dentist sat mildly annoyed at the empty chair. 12:40 p.m. ET: An update finally comes -- Google knows what's up with Calendar now, and they'll fix the unidentified glitch within the hour. Don't tell its users too much, though: the shreds of sweet freedom have only begun to pierce through the blackout. Did you forget that conference call? It's okay -- you're not alone. It's only 9:40 a.m. on the West Coast — some workers may have forgotten to come into work entirely. They weren't reminded. But who could blame them? 1:15 p.m. ET: Google revives Calendar, it announces, right in the thick of the post-lunch slog, and the nationwide sick day comes to an end. Sweet, sweet freedom dissolves into responsibilities as looming deadlines and appointments surge back into our lives, all at once. "We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support," the company said. "Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better."
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 44 Part 2.djvu/545
SIXTY-NINTH CONGRESS. Sass. I. Cn. 286, 1926. 505 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY mB¤,g§*¤·*1¤¤¤¤¤B¤· samuzms For chief of bureau and other personal services in the District of MS2? and dm pw Columbia in accordance with the Classification Act of 1923 and for personal services in the field, $641,000. omrnaaa zxrmrsns, norman or Ammu. mcoscmr Omg °x°°°°°°’ For carryin out the revisions of the Act a proved May 29, 1884, v°1' zi °' 3L establishing adiureau oi) Animal Industry and) the rovisions of the VOL m’ p' m` Act approved March 3, 1891, providingitor the sage transport and humane treatment of export cattle from the United States to foreign VOL m_ p_ M countries, and for other purposes; the Act_ approved August—80, 18943 ¥§?`é€ii¥ §?§§Z‘ZsL‘?`%’li“fi2“§$£§?§§SJ?i‘i§hZg‘2?ir§§“@鑧2 “*‘·°·‘°‘*· extending the inspdction of meats to process butter, and prohiding for the inspection of factories,. mar ' of acka, and so forth; ,, P gas Vol. 32, p. 791. and the provisions of the Act approv February 2, 1903, to enable the Secretary; of Agriculture more eifectually and prevent the spread 0 contagious and infectious diseases o ivestock, and for VOL 33* p_ lm: other purposes, an also the provisions of the Act approved March came qummem. & ge;1h82 Seéretbzry of A£gric‘;l1ltu1;:el]totestés;1 lish and mtaini nc permi an re a e e movemen i o cattle and other livestockitherefrom, and for other purposes; and for von. 34, p. wv. carrying out the provisions of the Act of June 29, 1906, entitled "An ;,;]"°“‘”i‘h‘ “°“‘ Ait to prevexgz cruelty rttpt anipials gvgiile in transit btyil railroad or otermeanso trans ion ·an orcarryingout eprovisions _ _ _ of the Act approved §arch 4, 1913, regulating the preparation, sale, €*’?•i¤» °°°· b‘2§‘.f"€S‘°h“”g%" T itipw °ii“*’t’L,i i§‘2§1E.f““?i’ Exit °’ ;2‘;‘2*°g°“i p uc manuacu m e_m an eimpo none sméh prodgilitstiiiliteéigled for usp Xigihelpreatment of domestic animals; Coummg and dm an to en e e cretary o ic ture to collect and disseminate samiminz mr - information crénaiming livestock, dairy, and other animal products; "°F$$°§i¤mp1¤ye;irl]B to repare an `ssemmate reports on animal industry· to employ and) from the appropriation herein made as many persons in the momma, mums, city o Washington or elsewhere as he mzpl deem necessary; to °"°··‘°°“’· purchase 111 the open imarht samples of _ tuberculin, serums, antitoxins, or analogous products, of foreign or domestic manu- facture, which are sold in the United States, for the detection, prevention, treatment, or cure of diseases of domestic animals, to test thehsamayaxéd to clibglemtipztgrtlplzrmpgtp gis t in such manner i,,mhm_ dmmw as e ma oem ‘ C se T0 sease or exposed wp, etc-, of diseased animals or quarantind the same whenever in his judgment essential °”“”“1”‘ 33 "’°"°£i “*° il’§'§€ °€¤’“§¥‘Z.‘€5‘€§“»',E3?§2’ ““b¥”§0°"i“’ °’ °“‘°’ seasesamm me rasowszs-»· For in?ection and _ quarantine work, Lixicluding · all necessary mi°a{€°.$°§P£ md qu"` expenses ori the lpradicattilou pif scabmes in shpep and cattle, the inspection o sout ern cat e t e su rvision o e transportation of livestock, and the insperitionofptivessels, the erecuticn or the ZlY?£,ZiS“5iZiu}&i£T§ iiZ'$ii2i?;?§§2°‘Et3“£3E&1°§§L€°°?f&L”r£°;’$$ stations, and repairs, alterations, improvements, or additions to buildings thereon; the inspection work relative to the existenceof contagious diseases, and the mallein testing of animals, $630,000.. For investigating the disease of tuberculosis of animals for its m’§gb¤f¤¤*¤¤*= 0* wi- control and eradication, forsthe tuberculin testing of auimals,cand i¤`vemrm¤g for researches concerning the cause. of the disease, its modes of §‘2§Y°“°'°l’°’°d‘°°"°”*
|
WIKI
|
WestLB Wins Appeal to Pursue Nomura Lawsuit Over $22.3 Million
WestLB AG, the German lender bailed
out during the financial crisis, said a U.K. appeals court gave
it permission to challenge a ruling dismissing its lawsuit
against a Nomura Holdings Inc. (8604) unit over $22.3 million in notes. A lower-court judge, which ruled against WestLB in trial in
November, declined to grant it permission to appeal, instead
allowing the appeals court to decide. The appeals court granted
permission yesterday, WestLB said in a statement today. “We look forward to the case receiving a vigorous
reappraisal in the Court of Appeal,” WestLB spokesman Richard
Bassett said in an e-mail. The bank feels “vindicated in
choosing to pursue this matter,” he said. While Judge Nigel Teare ruled in November that Nomura
International “acted irrationally” in valuing securities in an
investment fund after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings
Inc., he said WestLB failed to prove it lost money it wouldn’t
have otherwise. The dispute involves the 2003 purchase of $26
million in shares of Global Opportunities Fund. To contact the reporter on this story:
Erik Larson in London at
elarson4@bloomberg.net . To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net .
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
Opinion | School Districts Fight Segregation on Their Own
Editorial The Trump administration made a terrible decision this spring when it killed a modest grant program that was intended to promote integration in this country’s profoundly segregated public schools. Fortunately, districts in scores of states — including Dallas, a segregated city with a lurid history of fighting desegregation — have recognized the dangers of racial and socioeconomic isolation and are taking steps to bring together children of different backgrounds. It may come as a surprise to many Americans who grew up in an era of court-ordered integration, but this country’s public schools are more racially segregated today than a half century ago, with three-quarters of black and Hispanic children attending schools where most students come from low-income families. That’s true for only about a third of white children. Resourceful educators have achieved stellar results with some high poverty schools. But generally speaking, economic isolation undermines academic achievement among the poor while depriving all young people of experiences that would prepare them for living and working in a multiracial society. A growing number of school districts are refusing to accept segregation. One hundred school districts and charter school networks in 32 states, particularly in California, Florida, Iowa, New York, Minnesota and North Carolina, are promoting integration by taking socioeconomic status into account as they assign children to schools, according to a 2016 analysis by The Century Foundation. Just two districts were doing that 20 years ago. These districts typically go about this by redrawing attendance boundaries or creating magnet schools. Under Dallas’s ambitious plan, the district would start 35 new schools — including science-centered, Montessori and International baccalaureate schools — to attract white, college-educated families who are flocking to the region to work in the financial services and health care industries. Some schools will set aside seats for students from middle-class families who may already have moved to the suburbs or chosen private schools. While the goal is to restore middle-class faith in the district, the program is rooted in the awareness that low-income students fare better in economically mixed classrooms and that high poverty schools struggle to teach children effectively. Dallas has come a long way from the 1970s, when school officials proposed a faux integration plan in which white and minority students would view each others’ schools via television screens while never meeting in the flesh. The current administration, by contrast, has realized that racial isolation poses a threat, not just to children, but to the civic and economic viability of the city itself. That has yet to happen in the hypersegregated city of New York, where Mayor Bill de Blasio put forward a “diversity” plan in which the word “segregated” fails to appear at all. The first step in grappling with such a problem is summoning the courage to call it by its rightful name.
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
Using Computational Fluid Dynamics and Machine Learning to Predict Sled Profile During High Speed Water Braking at Holloman High Speed Test Track
Jose Armando Terrazas, University of Texas at El Paso
Abstract
Accurate prediction of a rocket sled test profile and water braking phenomena has potential to result in radical changes in designs of specific sleds and provide greater confidence of braking mechanism and recovery of critical infrastructures. Understanding the water’s behavior with the sled is critical to predicting how the water could damage the sled and affect recoverability of the sled and determine success of the missions. Traditionally, sled design for the test missions had been guided by empirical/hand calculations to estimate the forces on various components. The calculations involved various approximations to arrive at the force balance law and predict the acceleration/deceleration profile. In partnership with the Holloman High Speed Test Track (HHSTT), we performed preliminary simulations to develop a predictive model for the HHSTT sled tests for various velocity regimes. The CFD results from various geometry configurations for the sled and modeling parameters will be presented. The main goals of the CFD investigations are to improve the accuracy of the predicted profile that often depends on the complexity of the design and operating conditions. Having an atmospheric turbulence deconvolution model would be of great utility for the Air Force in its mission to maintain space situational awareness. The purpose or goal of this study is to increase US Air Force capability in space situational awareness, through the construction of a deconvolution model that, once trained, can remove turbulent effects and provide clearer images in a small amount of time (expedient), with relatively good accuracy (effective), and with a relatively low computational resource requirement (efficient). To develop a deconvolution model a Conditional Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN) will be used. The cGAN will make use of two Neural Nets (NN) that will be pitted against each other, one will be an image generator and the other an image discriminator. The Generator will be given turbulent images and will generate turbulent images while converging towards a 'pristine (non-turbulent)' image as it attempts to 'trick' the Discriminator. The discriminator will be given pristine, blurred, and generated (fake) images, its goal will be to distinguish whether images are generated or from the pristine dataset. By combining CFD with machine learning, cGANs specifically, we can train a net to produce CFD results, eliminating time and resources required to run CFD models.
Subject Area
Computational physics|Artificial intelligence|Fluid mechanics
Recommended Citation
Terrazas, Jose Armando, "Using Computational Fluid Dynamics and Machine Learning to Predict Sled Profile During High Speed Water Braking at Holloman High Speed Test Track" (2020). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI28090665.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI28090665
Share
COinS
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
-- Average Housing Price Declines in China's Hainan Province, Xinhua Reports
The average home price in China’s
southern province of Hainan has fallen to 8,000 yuan per square
meter from 14,000 yuan, Xinhua News Agency said, citing Cai
Renjie, director of the provincial housing department.
Prices surged from 6,200 yuan per square meter last summer
after China’s central government announced plans to turn the
island province into a global tourist destination by 2020, the
official news agency said. The provincial government has drawn
up a medium-to-long-term plan for the real estate industry,
Xinhua said.
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
Egyptian Sudan
Egyptian Sudan may refer to:
* Ottoman Egyptian Sudan (1820–1885), Sudan administered by Egypt under nominal Ottoman sovereignty
* Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899–1956), Sudan as a condominium between Egypt and the United Kingdom
|
WIKI
|
Road to a Cure
AA
A A
Organ Sources
Organ Sources
Your hepatologist at the transplant center will discuss the sources of livers that are available.
Most transplanted livers are from deceased donors who have met the criteria for brain death. This is called a DBD liver, for donation after brain death. Sometimes the donated liver is divided and two recipients receive a portion. The split liver regenerates to normal size quickly in each recipient, within weeks of surgery.
Extended criteria organs (ECD) are those from older donors or those with certain health conditions, many unrelated to liver disease. During the early years of transplant, only livers from donors up to a certain age with no other health issues were offered. Recent research has shown that ECD organs perform well and can be used. Another term you may hear is for a DCD liver, or donation after cardiac death, in which the donor’s death is caused by irreversible cardiac arrest, which may have happened suddenly. These livers and the outcomes in their transplantation are fairly recent and are currently being evaluated.
At most centers you have the right to discuss the offered ECD or DCD liver with the surgeon and to refuse it if you wish. You need to make a decision that is right for you, weighing your condition, the length of your wait, and the particular characteristics of the donated liver. Refusal of a specific liver should not jeopardize your position on the waiting list. Discuss these issues with your team.
Directed donation occurs when donor families ask that a certain organ be directed to a family member, close relative, or friend that is in need of an organ, and is listed for transplant. Your medical team can assist you in discussing this topic.
Living donation
Another source of donated livers is from a living donor in whom a portion of a liver is given to you from a living person, usually a relative or a friend. The donor’s remaining liver regenerates quickly and the portion given to you does also.
Living donation (LDLT) is done in a limited number of transplant centers. If you decide to have a living donation you will need to investigate the transplant center further. Experts in the field recommend that a center should have performed a certain number of surgeries of this type (15-20 living donations) to achieve proficiency. The center should maintain its expertise by continuing to do living donor transplants once it achieves that level of competence. Outcomes for the donor and the recipient improve if a transplant center has reached a sufficient volume of surgeries. Ask about the history of the center’s experience with this surgery.
There are donor-recipient matching criteria and the process can become complicated. The donor needs to be evaluated as thoroughly as you have been, by a different medical team at the center. Discuss with your hepatologist whether living donation is an option for you. The advantages are that you know the complete medical history of the donor and often you can choose the time of the surgery, assuming your MELD score is above a certain level, usually at 14 or 15. Donating to someone with a very low MELD may be problematic for the recipient, according to recent research.
The national organization regulating organ allocation, UNOS, does not permit payment or compensation for organs from a living person. It is unethical and illegal—reputable transplant centers will not take part in this type of transplant situation. Our national system relies on voluntary organ donation only. Similarly, transplant centers do not recommend going overseas for this surgery, because transplant experts believe outcomes are frequently poorer.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Common Myths About Bipolar Disorder and Their Truths
Posted on June 15, 2018
Bipolar
Thanks to new national awareness programs, more and more people are beginning to understand the importance of mental health checkups. However, several myths still surround the condition called bipolar disorder. Keep reading to learn more from the mental health experts at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Suffolk County, NY.
Myth 1: Bipolar Disorder is Rare
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, bipolar disorder affects nearly 6 million Americans over the age of 18. That’s nearly 3 percent of the total US population. To put that in perspective, the population of Los Angeles as of 2018 was 4 million. In other words, more people have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder than live in Los Angeles. The official statistics don’t include those who haven't been diagnosed by a medical professional and are instead struggling with their condition privately. The actual number of people who have bipolar disorder is probably much higher.
Myth 2: Jekyll-Hyde Mood Shifts
When people think of bipolar disorder, they usually imagine frequent and sudden mood shifts. However, the Jekyll-Hyde misconception couldn’t be further from the truth. The two states of bipolar disorder are depression and mania. Mania and depression aren't mutually exclusive. For example, someone with bipolar disorder might have abnormal reactions like laughing at bad news or crying at good news, regardless of their current mood.
Psychiatrist
Myth 3: Mania Equates to Happiness
Depression is often associated with feelings of sadness and lethargy. When it comes to mania, however, people assume it means that a person is very happy or easily excited. Mania is considered an elevated mood, but, for some people, it's also a phase characterized by irritability and paranoia. People experiencing mania can have difficulty concentrating, sleeping, and controlling their thoughts and actions. They're more likely to make spontaneous and sometimes dangerous decisions like going on a shopping spree or a drinking binge. They're also more prone to taking illicit drugs and making risky choices.
Myth 4: Limited Treatment Options
When it comes to treating bipolar disorder, some people feel their options are limited to medication and psychotherapy. While these are two very important treatment options, there are several therapy methods that patients can employ to help manage their symptoms. Active strategies include exercising to stimulate the production of endorphins, eating healthy, going to bed at the same time every day, and keeping track of your mood through journaling. Writing is therapeutic, and, over time, patients can learn to identify warning signs and triggers once they’ve established a written history.
If you think you may have bipolar disorder, talk to your doctor about your symptoms as soon as possible. Make an appointment with your mental health physician at Peconic Bay Medical Center, the largest medical center in Suffolk County, NY, to develop a treatment plan. Visit https://www.pbmchealth.org to learn more.
Comments
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Electrocardiographic intervals associated with incident atrial fibrillation: Dissecting the QT interval
Heart Rhythm. 2017 May;14(5):654-660. doi: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2017.02.005. Epub 2017 Feb 9.
Abstract
Background: Prolongation of the QT interval has been associated with an increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF), but the responsible mechanism remains unknown.
Objectives: The aims of this study were to subdivide the QT interval into its components and identify the resultant electrocardiographic interval(s) responsible for the association with AF.
Methods: Predefined QT-interval components were assessed for association with incident AF in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study using Cox proportional hazards models. Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated per 1-SD increase in each component. Among QT-interval components exhibiting significant associations, additional analyses evaluating long extremes, defined as greater than the 95th percentile, were performed.
Results: Of the 14,625 individuals, 1505 (10.3%) were diagnosed with incident AF during a mean follow-up period of 17.6 years. After multivariable adjustment, QT-interval components involved in repolarization, but not depolarization, exhibited significant associations with incident AF, including a longer ST segment (HR 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14-1.41; P < .001) and a prolonged T-wave onset to T-wave peak (T-onset to T-peak) (HR 1.13; 95% CI 1.07-1.20; P < .001). Marked prolongation of the ST segment (HR 1.31; 95% CI 1.04-1.64; P = .022) and T-onset to T-peak (HR 1.36; 95% CI 1.09-1.69; P = .006) was also associated with an increased risk of incident AF.
Conclusion: The association between a prolonged QT interval and incident AF is primarily explained by components involved in ventricular repolarization: prolongation of the ST segment and T-onset to T-peak. These observations suggest that prolongation of phases 2 and 3 of the cardiac action potential drives the association between the QT interval and AF risk.
Keywords: Arrhythmia; Atrial fibrillation; Electrocardiography; Epidemiology; QT interval.
Publication types
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
• Action Potentials / physiology*
• Atrial Fibrillation / diagnosis
• Atrial Fibrillation / etiology
• Atrial Fibrillation / physiopathology*
• Electrocardiography*
• Heart Conduction System / physiopathology
• Humans
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Tom Fleming (baseball)
Thomas Vincent Fleming (November 20, 1873 – December 26, 1957) nicknamed "Sleuth", was a professional baseball player. He played parts of three seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily as an outfielder. His minor league baseball career spanned seventeen seasons, from 1894 until 1910.
|
WIKI
|
Importing Potential Duplicate Records
Bristolyc
Participant
0 Votes
I want to import a spreadsheet of contact records, including an email for each record, into my CC environment. I suspect there might be existing records in CC for some of the records I want to import. The existing data in CC is MORE accurate and up-to-date that the data in the spreadsheet that I want to import. Thus if one of the records I import matches an existing record in CC I want the data in CC to persist and I want the data I am importing for that record to be tossed out. Can I set this up in CC? If not I can probably find a hack to do this in XLS and a massive export of all the records in my CC environment but that might be a big pain in the you-know-what. Thoughts?
1 REPLY 1
William_A
Administrator
0 Votes
Hello @Bristolyc ,
Anytime you import a file into your CTCT account, our system will treat that as the most up-to-date info - including for re-imports. Therefore, if you're wanting to not have your file import overwrite the information in place for already-imported contacts, you'll need to make sure they're not in that file.
One potential way this can easier is if you:
1. Export your current CTCT contacts and all info
2. Import the new list of contacts
3. Import the exported CTCT contacts to overwrite that new list's changes to the pre-existing contacts
For more info regarding contact file imports:
Format contact files for import
Duplicate contact removal suggestions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William A
Community & Social Media Support
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Breathing Exercises for Relaxation
Sometimes you just need a moment to catch your breath. In fact, many doctors recommend controlled breathing for both short- and long-term relaxation. Here are five simple breathing exercises you can do anytime, even at your desk during the workday.
Alternate nostril breathing
This easy breathing technique is done in a meditative pose and is said to be like a jolt of caffeine that sharpens your focus.
To do this, hold your thumb over your right nostril while you inhale through the left nostril. At the height of the inhalation, close off the right nostril with the middle finger of the same hand while releasing the thumb. Then, exhale through the right nostril. Repeat
Bellows breath
According to the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), this breathing exercise can be used to improve energy throughout the workday. It’s also known as the stimulating breath and relies on short, fast rhythmic breathing.
Sit in an upright position with your spine straight. Gently close your mouth and quickly inhale and exhale through your nose, like you are pumping air into a tire. Do this for no longer than 15 seconds for beginners and up to one minute for more advanced practitioners to avoid hyperventilating.
Abdominal breathing
Known as diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal breathing reduces tension while improving the flow of blood and lymph within your body by expanding the lung’s air pockets, reports AMSA. Do this technique twice a day or as needed when you’re feeling stressed or in physical pain.
Take a deep breath with one hand placed on your chest and the other on your abdomen. The latter hand should rise further than the one on your chest, indicating you’re using your diaphragm to push the air to the bases of your lungs. As you inhale deeply and slowly though your nose, focus on a word like “relaxation,” and hold it for a count of seven. Exhale for a count of eight while thinking of a word associated with the feeling or emotion you want to release, such as “stress,” AMSA suggests. Repeat the cycle five times total, aiming for a rate of six inhale/exhale combinations per minute.
Counting the breath
Use this breathing technique when you have longer periods of time to spare, recommends holistic guru Dr. Andrew Weil.
Sit upright with your spine straight and head slightly tilted forward. With eyes closed, take a few deep breaths to regulate your rhythm. Begin the exercise by counting “one” as you exhale. Count to two and up to five for each subsequent exhale before repeating the cycle. Do not exceed five counts while meditating on this technique for 10 minutes or longer.
Equal Breathing
Slip into your bed with the purpose of balancing your body and mind after a long day. Experts equate this yoga breath to counting sheep because it distracts you from anxious or racing thoughts.
Inhale through your nose for a count of four; then exhale for a count of four. Repeat this for as little or as long as you desire, eventually building up to eight counts. All the while, you should focus your breath and thoughts on calming your nervous system.
Relaxation breathing can take as little as five minutes or a hour, depending on your needs and time. The best part is you can do these exercises anywhere and anytime. All you need is to focus and, of course, get those lungs pumping.
Includes copyrighted material of IMakeNews, Inc. and its suppliers.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Classical modal logic
In modal logic, a classical modal logic L is any modal logic containing (as axiom or theorem) the duality of the modal operators
* $$\Diamond A \leftrightarrow \lnot\Box\lnot A$$
that is also closed under the rule
* $$\frac{ A \leftrightarrow B }{\Box A\leftrightarrow \Box B}.$$
Alternatively, one can give a dual definition of L by which L is classical if and only if it contains (as axiom or theorem)
* $$\Box A \leftrightarrow \lnot\Diamond\lnot A$$
and is closed under the rule
* $$\frac{ A \leftrightarrow B }{\Diamond A\leftrightarrow \Diamond B}.$$
The weakest classical system is sometimes referred to as E and is non-normal. Both algebraic and neighborhood semantics characterize familiar classical modal systems that are weaker than the weakest normal modal logic K.
Every regular modal logic is classical, and every normal modal logic is regular and hence classical.
|
WIKI
|
Cm To Inches
7350 cm to in
7350 Centimeters to Inches
7350 Centimeter to Inch converter
cm
=
in
How to convert 7350 centimeters to inches?
7350 cm *0.3937007874 in= 2893.7007874 in
1 cm
A common question is How many centimeter in 7350 inch? And the answer is 18669.0 cm in 7350 in. Likewise the question how many inch in 7350 centimeter has the answer of 2893.7007874 in in 7350 cm.
How much are 7350 centimeters in inches?
7350 centimeters equal 2893.7007874 inches (7350cm = 2893.7007874in). Converting 7350 cm to in is easy. Simply use our calculator above, or apply the formula to change the length 7350 cm to in.
Convert 7350 cm to common lengths
UnitUnit of length
Nanometer73500000000.0 nm
Micrometer73500000.0 µm
Millimeter73500.0 mm
Centimeter7350.0 cm
Inch2893.7007874 in
Foot241.141732284 ft
Yard80.3805774278 yd
Meter73.5 m
Kilometer0.0735 km
Mile0.0456707826 mi
Nautical mile0.0396868251 nmi
What is 7350 centimeters in in?
To convert 7350 cm to in multiply the length in centimeters by 0.3937007874. The 7350 cm in in formula is [in] = 7350 * 0.3937007874. Thus, for 7350 centimeters in inch we get 2893.7007874 in.
7350 Centimeter Conversion Table
7350 Centimeter Table
Further centimeters to inches calculations
Alternative spelling
7350 cm to in, 7350 cm in in, 7350 cm to Inches, 7350 cm in Inches, 7350 Centimeter to in, 7350 Centimeter in in, 7350 cm to Inch, 7350 cm in Inch, 7350 Centimeters to in, 7350 Centimeters in in, 7350 Centimeters to Inch, 7350 Centimeters in Inch, 7350 Centimeter to Inches, 7350 Centimeter in Inches
Further Languages
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
User:Rajendra sharad Jaykar/sandbox
Kisan mahadev alias abasaheb veer- (11 August 1906-27 December 1979) is the great freedom fighter of Indian freedom movement. He is from wai in satara district(Maharashtra). He was a strong Congress leader, co-operative leader, social activist. He was popularly known as Leader of Common People. He advocated social democracy in his speeches and was instrumental in establishing co-operatives in Maharashtra specially in satara for the betterment of the farmers. He was a leader of Indian National Congress from Maharashtra. He served as member of the Lok Sabha representing Satara (Lok Sabha constituency).He was elected to 3rd Lok Sabha
|
WIKI
|
Difference between high mileage oil and synthetic
Top 5 synthetic motor oil FAQs
Is synthetic oil better than conventional oil? Should I consider changing from conventional oil to synthetic oil? What’s the real difference between full synthetic, synthetic blend and conventional oil? Find the answers to the most frequently asked questions here.
5. Is synthetic oil better for my engine than conventional oil?
Yes, synthetic oil is better for your engine than conventional oil. Although conventional oil (i.e., mineral oil) can provide adequate lubrication performance, it can’t compete with the overall engine performance and protection provided by synthetics.
Synthetics use higher quality base oils as compared to the less-refined base oils used in conventional oils which makes conventional oils:
• Less chemically stable
• Oxidize and acidify more easily
• Quicker to break down and lose protective qualities
Overall, full synthetic oils provide better engine performance and protection than conventional and synthetic blend motor oils. Mobil 1™ advanced full synthetic motor oils are specially formulated with a tailored additive system that provides additional performance benefits above and beyond those found with conventional and synthetic blend oils by:
• Combating sludge and deposit buildup
• Reducing wear
• Protecting against high temperatures
• Controlling oil breakdown
So all of the chemistry that starts in a lab really makes a big difference on the road.
4. What are the advantages of synthetic oil over conventional oil?
Synthetic oils are created through complex processes, including being chemically developed from petrochemicals, to have the exact molecular qualities needed for a specific application.
These processes remove impurities from the crude oil and enable individual molecules to be tailored to the demands of modern engines. These customized molecules in synthetic oils provide higher levels of performance and protection than conventional oils.
So how do synthetic oils outperform conventional oils?
• By offering greater engine wear protection
Engine parts are in constant contact with each other and moving at high speeds. In the extreme environment of your engine, components can wear and break down. Your motor oil is the only protective barrier between these components.
As conventional and synthetic blend oils break down, typically, their ability to prevent engine wear diminishes. But Mobil 1 full synthetic oils retain their wear protection properties for a much longer time, helping to increase engine life by keeping important engine parts in excellent condition for 250,000 miles.*
*Total engine miles. Tested in vehicles primarily in city and highway driving conditions with respective product recommended oil change intervals.
• By keeping your engine cleaner
As oil circulates through your engine, it can pick up deposits. Over time, conventional oils can form sludge, which can reduce your engine's efficiency and, ultimately, reduce the life of your engine. Mobil 1 full synthetic oils contain fewer impurities compared to conventional and synthetic blend oils and can better resist the formation of sludge and deposits in your engine. If your engine already has sludge, Mobil 1 motor oils clean up virtually all engine sludge in just one oil change.
• By flowing better in low temperatures
When your vehicle is not being driven, the oil settles. But when you fire up the ignition, it begins flowing through critical engine parts to protect against friction. Conventional and synthetic blend oils take more time until they are able to flow smoothly through the engine. During cold winter months, or if you live in an extremely cold environment, this flow process takes even longer. Mobil 1 full synthetic oils are engineered to flow quickly even at low temperatures, and they start protecting your engine right after you start your vehicle.
• By protecting better at high temperatures
When running, engines are hot. Over time, the high temperatures in your engine can cause conventional and synthetic blend oils to break down or evaporate, exposing your engine to wear. Mobil 1 full synthetic oils are engineered to resist these high temperatures, which is especially important if you’re driving in hot climates or requiring your engine to work harder such as while towing or hauling.
• By protecting critical turbocharger parts
Automakers are building cars with smaller engines (for greater fuel efficiency) and turbochargers (to boost power). Turbocharged engines run even hotter than non-turbo engines. Oil in a turbocharger can exceed 400° Fahrenheit and the shaft inside a turbocharger can spin upwards of 200,000 revolutions per minute, so it’s important that motor oil flows quickly to these critical parts for proper lubrication.
Conventional and synthetic blend oils can break down faster under extreme turbo conditions and leave deposits on turbocharger components, which can lead to failure. Mobil 1 full synthetic oils can protect these components much better than conventional oils, keeping them operating at peak performance and boosting engine power. conventional oils, keeping them operating at peak performance and boosting your engine’s power.
3. Does synthetic oil have longer oil change intervals than conventional oil?
Yes, generally, synthetic oil can provide longer oil change intervals than conventional oil. But this is often dependent upon the brand of motor oil and several other factors, such as driving style and driving conditions. Please follow the recommendations in your owner's manual while your vehicle is under warranty.
Some synthetic motor oil brands still recommend oil changes every 3,000 or 5,000 miles. The Mobil 1 lineup includes full synthetic motor oils that support oil change intervals ranging from 7,500 miles, to 20,000 miles or one full year .†
†Whichever comes first.
2. What is the difference between a full synthetic oil and a synthetic blend?
While there are no firm industry definitions, full synthetic motor oils typically use the highest quality base oil combination as a starting point. Synthetic blend motor oils will typically be either a blend of high-quality and lower-quality conventional base oils or all high-quality (higher than conventional) base oils. But the synthetic base oil is only half the story. The correct blend of additives must go into the mix to create the oil.
The tailored additive system in Mobil 1 full synthetic oils gives the additional performance benefits above and beyond those found with synthetic blend oils. And while full synthetics as a motor oil category provide better protection than conventional and synthetic blend oils, not all synthetics are created equal.
1. My car doesn’t require synthetic motor oil. Can I change from conventional motor oil to full synthetic motor oil?
Switching from conventional motor oil to full synthetic motor oil is perfectly acceptable. Mobil 1 full synthetic motor oils are compatible with conventional oils, oils for high mileage vehicles, synthetic blends and other full synthetic oils. Engine flushing is not required.
For high mileage engines
However, if your vehicle has a high mileage engine (e.g., engine with more than 75,000 miles) that has never used synthetic motor oil, or one that has been poorly maintained with infrequent oil changes, we recommend easing into extended oil change intervals to allow Mobil 1 oil to clean up the engine. In these cases you should still follow the same basic oil change procedures (drain the old oil, remove the old oil filter, put in new Mobil 1 oil and put on a new oil filter).
Follow your OEM’s recommended maintenance practices regarding oil changes, but you should follow more frequent (one or two non-extended drain) oil changes when first switching to synthetic oil. The reasoning behind these shortened oil change intervals is that a high mileage engine, or one that has had a lack of maintenance (including infrequent oil changes), will likely have a considerable buildup of sludge and deposits.
Mobil 1 oil will help clean the engine as you drive, but it will have to work much harder in a very “dirty” engine and so it is best to change the oil more frequently for those first several thousand miles. After that, you can rest assured that Mobil 1 oil is continuing to keep your engine running clean and well lubricated for mile after mile.
A quick word from eHow’s Auto Center
Synthetic? Conventional? Hear automotive expert Chris Duke share his knowledge on the topic.
Should I use high mileage oil or synthetic?
High mileage oil is designed for vehicles with more than 75,000 miles. Such oil features additives that help protect seals. This leads to less leakage and oil burn-off, which can be common in older cars. If your vehicle is high-mileage and high performance, it's suggested that you go with this type of synthetic oil.
Is high mileage oil and synthetic the same?
High mileage oils are usually synthetic oils. They are typically based on either full-synthetic oil or a blend of synthetic and conventional oil.
Is high mileage oil change same as synthetic blend?
A synthetic blend utilizes a combination of conventional and synthetic oils. They feature a few of the advantages of full synthetics but at a lower cost. Finally, high-mileage oils are designed specifically for older vehicles. These oils include special additives and a higher viscosity for enhanced protection.
Can I use full synthetic oil on a high mileage car?
Myth: Full synthetic oil is not good for high mileage cars or older vehicles. The myth is rooted in the idea that synthetic oil is “slipperier”—lower in viscosity, or not as compatible with seals and will therefore leak or leak more in places conventional oil might not. Again, completely untrue.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Blindman
Blindman (also known in Italian as Il Pistolero Cieco, lit. "The Blind Gunfighter") is a 1971 Spaghetti Western film directed by Ferdinando Baldi and co-written and co-produced by Tony Anthony. The film's protagonist, played by Anthony, is an homage to Kan Shimozawa's Zatoichi character: a blind transient who does odd jobs and is actually a high-skilled warrior.
The film has achieved cult status over the years, mainly due to the involvement of Ringo Starr, a former member of the Beatles, in one of the roles.
Plot
A blind but deadly gunman is hired to escort 50 mail order brides to their miner husbands. When he is double-crossed by his friends and a Mexican bandit, he heads for Mexico to settle scores and save the women.
Cast
* Tony Anthony as Blindman/Ciego
* Ringo Starr as Candy
* Lloyd Battista as Domingo
* Magda Konopka as Sweet Mama
* Raf Baldassarre as El General
* Agneta Eckemyr as Pilar
* David Dreyer as Dude
* Marisa Solinas as Margherita
* Gaetano Scala as Domingo Henchman
* Franz von Treuberg as Pilar's Father
* Carla Brait as Maid
* John Frederick as Sheriff
* Guido Mannari as Mexican Officer
* Fortunato Arena as Mexican Officer
* Salvatore Billa as Domingo Henchman
* Renato Romano as Skunk (uncredited)
* Tito García as Train Engineer (uncredited)
* Allen Klein as Fat Rifleman (uncredited)
* Mal Evans as Bearded Rifleman (uncredited)
Brides
* Mary Badin
* Dominque Badou
* Shirley Corrigan
* Giuliana Giuliani
* Katerina Lindfelt
* Malisa Longo
* Alice Mannell
* Krista Nell
* Helen Parker
* Elena Pedemonte
* Janine Reynaud
* Karin Skarreso
* Solvi Stubing
* Melù Valente
|
WIKI
|
Mohamed Lazhari
Mohamed Lazhari-Yamani (born 12 April 1938) is a former Algerian gymnast who competed in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome for France and at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where he was Algeria's first ever Olympic athlete.
|
WIKI
|
Orthotics for Flat Feet
Orthotics for Plantar Fasciitis
Having flat feet can affect foot function and lead to discomfort or pain. It’s important to find the right support to alleviate these issues and improve overall foot health. One effective solution for individuals with flat feet is orthotics. Orthotics are specially designed inserts or devices that provide support, stability, and alignment for the arches of the feet. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the benefits, types, and considerations of using orthotics for flat feet. By understanding the role of orthotics in supporting flat feet, you can make informed decisions to enhance your foot function and alleviate discomfort. Let’s delve into the world of orthotics for flat feet and discover the path to better foot health.
What are orthotics for flat feet?
Orthotics for flat feet are specialized devices or inserts that are worn inside shoes to provide support and improve the alignment of the feet. They are designed to compensate for the lack of arches or low arches in individuals with flat feet. By supporting the arches and redistributing pressure, orthotics help improve foot function and reduce discomfort.
Orthotics can be made from various materials such as foam, gel, or rigid plastic, depending on the specific needs of the individual. They come in different shapes and sizes to fit various shoe types and foot sizes.
How do orthotics help with flat feet?
Orthotics play a crucial role in supporting and aligning the arches of flat feet. By providing the necessary support, orthotics help distribute the weight evenly across the feet, reducing strain on specific areas. They also help in stabilizing the foot and preventing overpronation, a common issue in individuals with flat feet.
Additionally, orthotics can improve foot biomechanics by realigning the foot and ankle joints. This can alleviate issues such as shin splints, plantar fasciitis, and Achilles tendonitis that are often associated with flat feet.
Can orthotics correct flat feet?
While orthotics cannot permanently correct flat feet, they can provide significant relief and support. It’s important to note that flat feet are primarily caused by the structure of the foot, and orthotics address the symptoms rather than altering the foot’s anatomy.
Orthotics can help improve foot function, reduce discomfort, and enhance overall mobility for individuals with flat feet. However, for severe cases or if there are underlying medical conditions contributing to flat feet, it is recommended to consult with a podiatrist for a comprehensive treatment plan.
Are custom orthotics necessary for flat feet?
Custom orthotics are not always necessary for flat feet. Many individuals with flat feet find relief and support with over-the-counter orthotics, also known as off-the-shelf orthotics. These are pre-made inserts that are designed to provide general support and comfort for flat feet.
However, in some cases, custom orthotics may be recommended. Custom orthotics are individually crafted to match the specific contours of an individual’s feet. They offer a more tailored and precise fit, addressing unique foot characteristics and providing optimal support. Healthcare professionals can assess the need for custom orthotics based on the severity of the flat feet, associated symptoms, and individual requirements.
Orthotics for Flat Feet
Do orthotics provide long-term relief for flat feet?
Orthotics can provide long-term relief for flat feet when used consistently and in conjunction with proper foot care. By supporting the arches and improving foot alignment, orthotics help reduce strain and discomfort associated with flat feet.
However, it’s important to understand that orthotics are not a permanent solution or a cure for flat feet. They provide ongoing support and symptom management. Regular use of orthotics, along with exercises, stretches, and other recommended treatments, can help maintain foot function, alleviate discomfort, and prevent further complications associated with flat feet.
Can orthotics be used in combination with other treatments for flat feet?
Yes, custom orthotics can be used in combination with other treatments for flat feet to achieve better outcomes. Flat feet management often involves a multi-faceted approach that may include exercises, physical therapy, stretching, and footwear modifications in addition to orthotics.
By combining orthotics with exercises and therapies that strengthen the foot muscles and improve flexibility, individuals with flat feet can enhance foot function and overall stability. It’s important to consult with healthcare professionals or specialists who can provide personalized guidance on incorporating orthotics into a comprehensive treatment plan.
Best Orthotics for flat feet and Plantar Fasciitis
Are there any side effects or drawbacks of using orthotics for flat feet?
Orthotics are generally safe to use, but like any medical intervention, they may have some side effects or drawbacks. It’s important to note that these side effects are usually minimal and temporary, and most individuals find the benefits of orthotics outweigh any potential drawbacks. Here are a few considerations:
1. Initial Discomfort: Some individuals may experience mild discomfort or soreness when first using orthotics. This is normal as the feet and muscles adjust to the new support. Gradually increasing the usage time can help the feet adapt more comfortably.
2. Shoe Fit: Depending on the design and thickness of the orthotics, they may slightly alter the fit of your shoes. It’s essential to choose footwear that accommodates the additional space needed for the orthotics, ensuring a comfortable fit.
3. Dependency: While orthotics provide support and relief, some individuals may become reliant on them. It’s important to continue incorporating exercises and stretches to strengthen the foot muscles and maintain natural foot function. Working with healthcare professionals can help strike a balance between orthotic use and maintaining foot strength.
4. Cost: Custom orthotics can be more expensive than over-the-counter options. However, they are tailored to your specific foot needs, providing a personalized fit and targeted support. It’s important to weigh the benefits against the cost and consult with healthcare professionals to determine the most suitable option for you.
Remember, any concerns or questions about orthotics should be discussed with healthcare professionals who can provide personalized advice based on your individual needs and foot condition. With proper guidance, orthotics can be an effective tool in managing flat feet and promoting better foot health.
How often should orthotics for flat feet be worn?
The frequency of orthotic use for flat feet may vary depending on individual needs and recommendations from healthcare professionals. Generally, it is recommended to wear orthotics consistently throughout the day, especially during weight-bearing activities such as walking, running, or standing for extended periods.
It’s important to follow the guidance provided by your healthcare professional or orthotics specialist. They may suggest starting with shorter usage periods initially and gradually increasing the duration as your feet adapt to the orthotics. Regular usage, as advised, will help maintain proper foot alignment and maximize the benefits of orthotics.
It’s worth noting that orthotics are not typically required to be worn while resting or sleeping, as the feet are not subjected to weight-bearing stress during those times. However, it’s essential to follow the specific instructions provided by your healthcare professional to ensure optimal usage and effectiveness.
Can orthotics be used for children with flat feet?
Yes, orthotics can be used for children with flat feet, but it’s important to seek guidance from a healthcare professional specializing in pediatric foot conditions. Children’s feet are still developing, and their treatment needs may differ from those of adults.
A healthcare professional will assess the child’s foot structure, severity of the flat feet, and any associated symptoms to determine if orthotics are appropriate. In some cases, children may outgrow flat feet as they mature, and orthotics may not be necessary. However, for children experiencing significant discomfort or functional limitations due to flat feet, orthotics can provide support and relief.
Custom Orthotics for Flat Feet
Orthotics for children are designed with their specific needs in mind, considering factors such as foot growth, comfort, and flexibility. Healthcare professionals will ensure proper fitting and provide guidance on usage and any additional treatments or exercises that may benefit the child’s foot health.
Do orthotics need to be replaced regularly?
Yes, orthotics may need to be replaced periodically, although the specific timeline can vary based on factors such as usage, foot condition, and material durability. Over time, orthotics can lose their effectiveness and support as materials wear down or lose their shape.
It’s important to monitor the condition of your orthotics and regularly assess for signs of wear and tear. If you notice visible signs of deterioration, such as cracks, thinning, or deformation, or if the orthotics no longer provide adequate support and comfort, it may be time to consider replacing them.
The frequency of replacement depends on individual factors, but a general guideline is to consider replacing orthotics every 1 to 2 years. However, it’s essential to consult with your healthcare professional or orthotics specialist for personalized recommendations based on your specific needs and usage patterns.
Proper care and maintenance can also help prolong the lifespan of orthotics. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning and storage, and avoid exposing them to excessive heat or moisture. Regularly inspecting and taking care of your orthotics will ensure optimal performance and longevity.
Conclusion
Understanding the role of orthotics in supporting flat feet is key to managing foot discomfort and promoting better foot function. By providing the necessary support and alignment, orthotics can alleviate symptoms, improve foot biomechanics, and enhance overall foot health. Whether you opt for over-the-counter orthotics or custom-made ones, consulting with healthcare professionals will help determine the most suitable approach for your individual needs.
Remember to incorporate a holistic approach to managing flat feet, which may include exercises, stretches, and other treatments in combination with orthotics. By working closely with healthcare professionals, you can find the right balance and achieve long-term relief and optimal foot health. Prioritize your foot well-being and embark on a journey towards improved comfort and mobility with orthotics for flat feet.
Related Posts
Ultimate Guide to Ankle Stabilization
Ultimate Guide to Ankle Stabilization
Introduction A stable ankle forms the foundation of a solid posture and effective movement, especially in physical activities. Ankle stabilization,...
Understanding Diabetes and Swollen Feet
Understanding Diabetes and Swollen Feet
What is Diabetes? Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects the body's ability to use insulin effectively or produce enough of it, leading to...
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
next previous
Up: Stellar population synthesis diagnostics
Subsections
2 Method
2.1 The chi-squared merit function
The method is based on minimizing a chi-squared merit function between all the observed points in a CMD which have a corresponding point in the synthetic CMD within a $3-5\sigma(c_i,m_i)$ error ellipse. In this range one can assume that the errors follow a Normal distribution. The $\chi^2$is a measure for the goodness of the fit for N observed points in a CMD and is defined as:
\begin{eqnarray}
\quad \chi^2(O,S) & = & \sum_{i=1}^N
{(c_{i,O}-c_{i,S})^2
\ove...
...{{\delta m(c_i,m_i)}\over{\sigma_i(c_{i,O},m_{i,O})}}\right)^2 \;,\end{eqnarray} (1)
(2)
where the subscripts (O,S) refer respectively to the observed and synthetic CMD, (ci,mi) respectively to the colour and magnitude for each point i in the CMD, $\sigma_i(c_{i,O},m_{i,O})$ is the error ellipse around each point i, and $\delta m(c_i,m_i)$ is the (colour,emmagnitude) difference between the observed and the synthetic star. In addition, the reduced merit function $F_\chi$ is defined as:
\begin{displaymath}
\quad F_\chi = \overline{\chi^2} = \sqrt{\chi^2(O,S)/N_{\rm match}} \;,\end{displaymath} (3)
where $N_{\rm match}$ refers to the number of points found within $3-5\sigma(c_i,m_i)$ of the error ellipse for each point between the observed and the synthetic CMD. Depending on the selection criteria $\overline{\chi^2}$ is defined to be smaller than or equal to 5. In general this is one of the functions that should be minimized. Acceptable models are those with $F_\chi\!\mathrel{\mathchoice {\vcenter{\offinterlineskip\halign{\hfil
$\display...
...\offinterlineskip\halign{\hfil$\scriptscriptstyle ... , i.e. models for which the difference in the (colour, magnitude) of the matched points between the observed and synthetic CMDs is on average less than 1$\sigma$.
2.2 The Poisson merit function
There are some points which do not have counterparts in the observed or the synthetic CMD, due to the limits imposed in the comparison. For a good fit the number of unmatched points, observed and simulated (respectively $N_{O,\rm not}$ and $N_{S,\rm not}$), should in the ideal case be smaller than the Poisson uncertainty for the total number of NO observed and NS synthetic points:
\begin{displaymath}
\quad N_{O,\rm not} + N_{S,\rm not} \mathrel{\mathchoice {\v...
...riptstyle ... (4)
or written as the Poisson merit function $F\rm _P$
\begin{displaymath}
\quad F_{\rm P} = {{N_{O,\rm not} +
N_{S,\rm not}}\over{\sqr...
...halign{\hfil$\scriptscriptstyle ... (5)
All the residual points can be placed in a CMD. This diagram contains indications about parameters that need to be optimized. In practice $F\rm _P$ will not be smaller than 1, due to simplifications adopted for the model CMD, to a not optimum representation of some evolutionary phases or even to limitations in the transformation from the theoretical to the observational plane. In Sect. 3 the diagnostics derived from the CMD filled with the residuals are explained in more detail. The CMDs filled with the residuals are hereafter also referred to as the diagnostic diagrams.
2.3 The global merit function
Both $F_\chi$ and $F\rm _P$ span a two-dimensional plane, see for example Fig. 2, which displays the merit for the various models (see Sect. 3). An acceptable model is obtained when both $F_\chi$ and $F\rm _P$ are about 1 or smaller. The best fit can therefore be obtained by minimizing the global merit function F, which is defined as
\begin{displaymath}
\quad F = F_\chi^2 + F\rm _P^2 \;.\end{displaymath} (6)
Both $F\rm _P$ and $F_\chi$ are in units of $\sigma$, say $\sigma\rm _P$ and $\sigma_\chi$respectively. The difference between the observed and synthetic points is therefore on average about $\sqrt{F}\sigma$,where $\sigma\!=\!\sigma(F_{\rm P},F_\chi)$ is a function of the average chi-squared difference of the matched points combined with the Poisson uncertainty of the unmatched points. In general the minimization of the global merit function is mainly due to minimization of the Poisson merit function, i.e. the reduction of the number of unmatched points. An acceptable fit of the data is obtained when $F\!\simeq\!2$ or smaller.
Note that this procedure is not limited to finding the best fit for a single-colour, magnitude diagram. It can easily be adjusted to fit multi-colour, magnitude diagrams.
2.4 Speeding up
A comparison between the observed and the synthetic CMD on a point by (nearest) point basis can slow down the fitting procedure considerably, especially when a CMD consists of many data points. To speed up the whole procedure one can make a concession in accuracy by binning the N data points in M average, colour-magnitude boxes $(\overline{c}_j,\overline{m}_j)$, each with its own average error ellipse. Equation (1) can then be re-written to
\begin{eqnarray}
\chi^2(O,S) & = & \sum_{j=1}^M
k_j\left(
{(\overline{c}_{j,O}-...
...ne{\sigma}_j(\overline{c}_{j,O},\overline{m}_{j,O})}}\right)^2 \;,\end{eqnarray} (7)
(8)
where M is the resolution of the binned CMD, i.e. the number of colour-magnitude bins, and kj is the number of points in each bin. This method has not been applied here, because the gain is small for the low number of objects used for the examples in Sect. 3.
2.5 Optimizing with a genetic algorithm
This paper does not deal with the actual implementation of an automated search program, which will be the subject of a forthcoming paper (Ng et al., in preparation). The following part has been included for completeness as an example for a possible approach.
Genetic algorithms are a class of heuristic search techniques, capable of finding in a robust way the optimum setting for a problem (Charbonneau 1995; Charbonneauem&emKnapp 1996 and references cited therein). The optimum setting is searched with a so-called fitness parameter f, which ranges from zero (worst) to one (best). The fitness parameter f can be expressed as follows in terms of the global merit function:
\begin{displaymath}
\quad f = {1\over{1+F}} \;.\end{displaymath} (9)
Acceptable solutions yield $F\!\mathrel{\mathchoice {\vcenter{\offinterlineskip\halign{\hfil
$\displaystyle...
...\offinterlineskip\halign{\hfil$\scriptscriptstyle ... or $f\!\mathrel{\mathchoice {\vcenter{\offinterlineskip\halign{\hfil
$\displaystyle...
...ineskip\halign{\hfil$\scriptscriptstyle ... . An estimate of the uncertainty of the input parameters can be obtained by doing multiple, time consuming simulations. However, another way to estimate the uncertainty is to vary for the fittest solution one parameter at a time. The fitness $f_{\sigma,k}$for each parameter k is defined in such a way that the global merit F changes with 1$\sigma(F_{\rm P},F_\chi)$ when this parameter is varied:
\begin{displaymath}
\quad f_{\sigma,k} = {1\over{1+\vert\sqrt{F_k}-\sqrt{F_{\rm min}}-1\vert}} \;,\end{displaymath} (10)
where Fk is the merit for parameter k and $F_{\rm min}$ is the merit obtained for the fittest population. This procedure corresponds in Fig. 2 with a jump in the ($F_{\rm P},F_\chi$)-plane from the contour of the optimum solution to a contour displaced by exactly 1$\sigma(F_{\rm P},F_\chi)$.
Note that the contour of the fittest population has the value $f_{\sigma,k}\!=\!{1\over2}$ for $F_k\!=\!F_{\rm min}$,while the contour for the estimated uncertainty has the value $f_{\sigma,k}\!=\!1$ for $\sqrt{F_k}\!=\!\sqrt{F_{\rm min}}+1$.
next previous
Up: Stellar population synthesis diagnostics
Copyright The European Southern Observatory (ESO)
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
2019 Gainesville mayoral election
The 2019 Gainesville mayoral election took place on March 19, 2019 to elect the Mayor of Gainesville.
Incumbent Mayor Lauren Poe was reelected with 61.82% of the popular vote for 2nd term in a 4-way race.
Declared
* Lauren Poe, incumbent mayor of Gainesville, former city commissioner
* Jenn Powell, member of the housing and community development block grant advisory board
* Jennifer Reid, legal assistant
* Marlon Bruce, leasing agent
|
WIKI
|
Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 106 Part 1.djvu/671
PUBLIC LAW 102-325—JULY 23, 1992 106 STAT. 639 "(11) A pattern of student complaints pursuant to subsection (j) related to the management or conduct of the programs established by this title or relating to misleading or inappropriate advertising and promotion of the institution's program, which in the judgment of the Secretary are sufficient to justify review of the institution. "(c) USE OF RECENT DATA. — The criteria provided for in subsection (b) shall be measured on the basis of the most recent data available to the Secretary. Institutions may request verification of the data used by the Secretary. "(d) REVIEW STANDARDS.—Institutions which meet 1 or more of the criteria in subsection (b) shall be reviewed by the appropriate State entity in accordance with published State standards that Eire consistent with the constitution and laws of the State, developed in consultation with the institutions in the State, and subject to disapproval by the Secretary. Such review shall determine the following: "(1) The availabihty to students and prospective students of catalogs, admissions requirements, course outlines, schedules of tuition and fees, policies regarding course cancellations, and the rules and regulations of the institution relating to students and the accuracy of such catalogs and course outlines in reflecting the courses and programs offered by the institution. "(2) Assurance that the institution has a method to assess a student's ability to successfully complete the course of study for which he or she has applied. "(3) Assurance that the institution maintains and enforces standards relating to academic progress and maintains adequate student and other records. "(4) Compliance by the institution with relevant safety and health standards, such as fire, building, and sanitation codes. "(5) The financial and administrative capacity of the institution as appropriate to a specified scale of operations and the maintenance of adequate financial and other information necessary to determine the financial and administrative capacity of the institution. "(6) For institutions financially at risk, the adequacy of provisions to provide for the instruction of students and to provide for the retention and accessibility of academic and financial aid records of students in the event the institution closes. "(7) If the stated objectives of the courses or programs of the institution are to prepare students for employment, the relationship of the tuition and fees to the remuneration that Can be reasonably expected by students who complete the coiu-se or program and the relationship of the courses or programs (inclu(fing the appropriateness of the length of such courses) to providing the student with quality training and useful employment in recognized occupations in the State. "(8) Availability to students of relevant information by institutions of higher education, including— "(A) information relating to market £m.d job availability for students in occupational, professional, and vocational programs; and "(B) information regarding the relationship of courses to specific standards necessary for State licensure in specific occupations.
�
|
WIKI
|
First things first: Whether you do or don't want to lose weight is totally personal; if you want to, great, but if you don't, that is perfectly fine as well. If weight loss is one of your goals this year and you don't know where to start, you're not alone. Nearly a quarter of the Americans who resolve to change something about their lives this New Year’s will be hoping to shed some pounds—and preying on these doe-eyed resolvers will be all manner of “fast weight loss solutions.” They’ll guarantee instantaneous results or promise to make the pounds melt off without you having to change a thing. The reality is, losing weight in a safe, healthy, and effective way is a lot more complicated than that.
Cutting carbs altogether can often cause a guilt-ridden binge that will leave you unmotivated and packing on the pounds. Instead of prohibiting yourself from eating the foods you love, set a carb curfew. “For dinner, contestants always have a high-protein, high-fat meal with plenty of fibrous veggies,” Chris Powell of ABC’s reality series Extreme Weight Loss tells us in Chris Powell’s Behind-The-Scenes Extreme Weight Loss Tips. “If they have a post-dinner snack, they stick to protein-rich, high-fat foods like almonds or 2 percent milkfat string cheese.” Nixing carbs at night flips the fat-burning switch by increasing the amount of fat-burning hormones released while we’re asleep, Powell adds.
Cancer, a very common and sometimes fatal cause of unexplained (idiopathic) weight loss. About one-third of unintentional weight loss cases are secondary to malignancy. Cancers to suspect in patients with unexplained weight loss include gastrointestinal, prostate, hepatobiliary (hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer), ovarian, hematologic or lung malignancies.
Tennessee Fitness Spa recently had the honor of hosting VickyFlipFlop, a travel blogger who writes "for people who want to make the most of their annual leave, weekends, money and friends, by exploring the world, and a festival or two." Creating a video about her stay, we're excited to share that Vicky had a fun – and productive! – stay at our fitness camp for adults. If you'd like to hear Vicky's thoughts about her time at Tennessee Fitness Spa, click on the video above!
Not in an extreme, Atkins sort of way, but having a little protein at every meal fires up your metabolism. "Your digestive system uses more energy to break it down, so you burn more calories," explains Lisa Dorfman, R.D. However, keep protein levels to between 20 and 35 percent of your diet; eating too much of it can cause kidney strain and may cause your body to store too much fat.
Lifehouse Spa & Hotel focuses on alternative health care with laboratory analysis to identify issues contributing to weight concerns, including nutritional deficits and food intolerance. Treatments range from naturopathy and kinesiology to acupuncture, and a resident spiritual guru is on hand to guide meditation. Programs focus on healthy aging, locally sourced fine dining, and juice cleansing. There are “Fast and Lean” programs for a quick start on a new wellness commitment, structured Detox Retreats, as well as bespoke retreats to target what you most want and need.
It's truly disturbing when doctors come up with seemingly fad diets that could prove dangerous, but that appears to be happening all the time and most of them are also pretty successful. The latest to join the trend is an American doctor who is providing a drastic and quick weight-loss method, the K-E Diet. It involves putting food into your body through the nose, using a dripping tube.
best way to lose stomach fat woman
×
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
User:Ferviani
Black Maternal Mortality in the United States:
This topic is interesting to me due to the fact that I am aspiring to work in medical field, but am troubled by the health disparities caused by discrimination. I would revise the current Wikipedia article on black maternal mortality in the United States. To revise this article, I would update the information and add any information that has now been newly discovered using scholarly references. Also, I would better the organization of the article by rearranging or splitting the article into different sections.
FitzGerald, Chloë, and Samia Hurst. "Implicit bias in healthcare professionals: a systematic review." BMC medical ethics 18, no. 1 (2017): 1-18.
Bridges, Khiara M. "Racial Disparities in Maternal Mortality." NYUL Rev. 95 (2020): 1229.
Lister, Rolanda L., Wonder Drake, Baldwin H. Scott, and Cornelia Graves. "Black maternal mortality-the elephant in the room." World journal of gynecology & womens health 3, no. 1 (2019).
Yearby, Ruqaiijah. "Exploitation in medical research: the enduring legacy of the Tuskegee syphilis study." Case W. Res. L. Rev. 67 (2016): 1171.
Nuriddin, Ayah, Graham Mooney, and Alexandre IR White. "Reckoning with histories of medical racism and violence in the USA." The Lancet 396, no. 10256 (2020): 949-951.
Penner, Louis A., John F. Dovidio, Tessa V. West, Samuel L. Gaertner, Terrance L. Albrecht, Rhonda K. Dailey, and Tsveti Markova. "Aversive racism and medical interactions with Black patients: A field study." Journal of experimental social psychology 46, no. 2 (2010): 436-440.
Singh, Gopal K. "Trends and social inequalities in maternal mortality in the United States, 1969-2018." International Journal of Maternal and Child Health and AIDS 10, no. 1 (2021): 29.
Wynn, Gabrielle T. "The impact of racism on maternal health outcomes for Black women." U. Miami Race & Soc. Just. L. Rev. 10 (2019): 85.
Davis, Dána-Ain. "Reproducing while Black: The crisis of Black maternal health, obstetric racism and assisted reproductive technology." Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online 11 (2020): 56-64.
Chinn, Juanita J., Iman K. Martin, and Nicole Redmond. "Health equity among Black women in the United States." Journal of Women's Health 30, no. 2 (2021): 212-219.
Link to WikiProject: WikiProject Discrimination
Link to WikiProject: WikiProject Black Lives Matter
|
WIKI
|
Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish printmaker and painter of the Romantic era, whose magnificent production awarded him the position of one of the most pivotal Western painters in art history. While being considered one of the last Old Masters, he is also regarded as one of the first modern artists; from execution to subjects, Goya inspired and paved the way for a whole generation of artists to come. Although also a masterful portraitist, Goya's romantic drawing, paintings, and prints became especially known for their visceral execution and subject matters, including mythological paintings, executions, and the horrors of war. These elements were epitomized in his Black paintings, executed during his later years when the artist was suffering from emotional and psychological turmoils. The Spanish artist also masterfully utilized the contrast between light and shadows to convey emotions. He often created well-defined portions of dark and bright regions in the composition, creating a "spotlight effect" that greatly enhanced the overall theatricality and seriousness of the subject matter. This technique is beautifully exemplified by one of his masterpieces, The Third of May.
The Spanish painter Francisco Goya was born in March 1746, with the full name Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, in the town of Fuendetodos, Aragon. His parents, Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador and José Bendito de Goya y Franque had recently moved there from the capital city, Zaragoza. Goya had two older sisters, an older brother, as well as two younger brothers as well. Around 1749, their family would return to Zaragoza, where they bought a house. In 1760, Goya, who was only fourteen, began studying painting under José Luzán and continued with his teacher for the next four years.
After that, he decided to take what he learned and apply that on his own. The painter moved to Madrid and applied twice to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes of San Fernando, but didn't qualify, in 1763 and 1766. During this period, he studied with an artist of the Spanish royalty, Anton Raphael Mengs, but was confrontational against him.
Because of his frustration with the academy in Madrid, Goya decided to move to the cultural capital of Europe, Rome, where he was able to absorb Italian art. Many historians have speculated about his life during this period, but since he was still an unknown artist, not much is certain. In 1771, the Spanish painter was prized in a painting competition in Parma. The same year, he completed two of his early mythological paintings: The Sacrifice of Pan and Sacrifice to Vesta.
Goya got married to Josefa Bayeu y Subias on July 1773 - sister of his painting professor at the time, Francisco Bayeu y Subías. The couple had their first child about a year after getting married and named him Antonio Juan Ramon Carlos. The bond Goya had with his brother-in-law helped his artistic career, as Bayeu became a member of the San Fernando Real Academia de Bellas Artes in 1765 and years later became director of the tapestry works.
Goya was commissioned to conclude a series of illustrations to transfer onto the Royal Tapestry from 1777 to the next five years. During this period, he created more than forty designs in the Rococo art style, and although this kind of work wasn't very valued, it increased his popularity. The artist was also receiving commissions to produce copies of artworks from past masters in metal etchings - including prints from artists like Velazquez and Marcantonio Raimondi. Through etching - a craft he beautifully mastered - Goya was also able to spread his name as an artist.
Throughout the 1780s, the painter began receiving commissions from members of the Royal circle, like the portrait of The Count of Floridablanca in 1783. In 1786, he was given an official position as Charles III's painter, and three years later, he became the court painter. Goya completed the controversial portrait of the Royal family entitled Charles IV and His Family, giving the Queen the spotlight.
Another artwork that was not only controversial but also scandalous was the Maja Desnuda or The Nude Maja. According to scholars, Goya's use of a nude figure was greatly inspired by the artworks of the distinguished Spanish Baroque painter Diego Velazquez. The composition was greatly criticized by the lack of mythological or allegorical themes behind the painting. It was also denounced for, surprisingly, the depiction of the woman's pubic hair without negative connotations, which was associated with bad traits. The backlash was so that Goya would later create a clothed version of the painting, known as La Maja Vestida or The Clothed Maja.
By the early 1790s, Goya became ill and eventually completely deaf, which caused him to isolate himself and think he was going mad. The painter ended up having a complete breakdown, both mental and physical, a few weeks after the War of France against Spain was declared. Although many historians speculate on a series of diseases that the artist may have had, some find it possible he was suffering from lead poisoning - commonly found in paint and other painting and etching materials of the time.
The beginning of the Peninsular War was marked by the French invasion on Spanish grounds in 1808. By 1812, Goya had lost his beloved wife and painted two of his masterpieces in the same year: The Second of May and The Third of May.
The Third of May is a striking composition depicting a French firing squad about to execute Spanish people. This artwork is often considered the earliest modern war painting. The picture is made with Goya's masterful work of light and shadow to direct the viewer's eyes and intensify the dramatic qualities and pictorial impact of his paintings.
The composition is divided into two clear sections. On the right stands a line of French riflemen holding their bayonets. They are looking away from the viewer, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, shrouded in darkness, rendering them an anonymous and malicious presence. These elements contrast with the left portion of the composition, where a group of unarmed civilians stands in the light, as if under a spotlight. They are in despair as they are about to meet their demise in the hands of the French firing squad.
As opposed to the anonymous executioners, the Spanish people's faces are apparent and personified by a man with a white shirt on his knees as he holds his hands up high in surrender. He is the brightest region of the composition, becoming the main focus of the artwork, embodying and displaying the horrors of war through his horrified expression.
By the end of his career, he lived alone in his studio outside of Madrid. Goya completed his final series of fourteen Black Paintings, including Saturn Devouring His Sons, during a tense phase of mental distress at the age of seventy-five. All of the paintings were done directly onto the walls of his house and are his most dramatic works, with both intense execution and subjects, creating almost nightmarish fantasy art. According to scholars, these would be highly personal artworks since the artist did not provide any information regarding its creation, neither texts nor names. Their meaning ultimately became a matter of speculation.
One of the paintings is known as the Witches Sabbath. Much like the others, this artwork is executed with a somber color palette and an equally dark subject. It depicts, in the foreground, the silhouette of the devil embodied in a goat-headed figure. His dark figure and glowing white eyes intensify the fallen angel's evil nature. Circling him there's what is thought to be a coven of witches. The predominantly dark composition is only brightened to show the women's haggish faces, intensifying the overall sense of eerieness and dread that emanates from the canvas. The brushwork is now much rougher and loosely executed than Goya's earlier production, seeming they were made in a quick and frenzied manner, encompassing with his decaying state of mind.
Considered one of the greatest Spanish artists of all time, Goya passed away in April 1828 at the age of 82, while in Bordeaux, France. Francisco Goya is seen as one of the most pivotal painters of his generation, for his influence in art can still be felt to this day.
His production embodies a unique combination of modernity and tradition. Due to the reverence and inspiration drawn from his great predecessors such as Rembrandt and Velazquez, Goya worked in a traditional manner, as is evidenced in his court paintings. However, he also boldly questioned contemporary artistic and social conventions, rendering him as one of the first modern painters. Although he did not have any direct followers, Goya paved the way for a whole generation of artists to come.
Goya's social satires expressed especially through his prints heavily influenced the distinguished Belgian printmaker and painter James Ensor, whose artworks also mocked the powerful figures of his time. His broad and apparent brushstrokes would lead to the spontaneous painting execution of the Impressionists. He also influenced Expressionist and Surrealist artists, especially with his Black Paintings, for their dreamlike, almost nightmarish atmosphere. Salvador Dali would create his own take on Goya's Caprichos in 1973.
|
FINEWEB-EDU
|
Mother Nature's Own Brand of Bioterror
We've been hearing a lot about smallpox lately, as a possible bioterror attack. But Mother Nature has her own brand of bioterror. Smallpox has been with us for about ten thousand years, since the earliest agricultural settlements in Africa. From there it spread to Egypt and on into Europe and Asia. Smallpox victims have a high fever, ache all over, and get a terrible rash that usually leaves disfiguring scars. Often the rash spreads to the eyes, leading to blindness. As many as half of the victims die.
Pharoah Ramses V of Egypt appears to have died of smallpox, as his well-preserved mummy shows the characteristic scarring. The Greek historian Thucydides noted that people who survived smallpox were later immune to it (but the Greeks did not invent vaccination). Epidemics of smallpox hastened the decline of the Roman empire.
But the most catastrophic smallpox epidemics befell the natives of the New World, for smallpox had not reached the Western Hermisphere until the Europeans brought it in the 15th century. The native americans, having no experience with it, had no resistance and died by the thousands. Since none of them had ever had it before, nobody was immune, and everybody in the community got sick. It is thought that as many as 90% of the native american population died of European diseases, including smallpox.
About the Author
Sandy Becker, MA
Sandy Becker received a BA in history from Pomona College. She then earned two MAs in Biology, and now has 25 years of experience in developmental biology research, working with mouse embryonic stem cells. Sandy began writing science articles about ten years ago to share her knowledge of science. She is currently studying for her third MA, in science journalism.
|
FINEWEB-EDU
|
User:JessicaVoiceDisorders/sandbox
Laryngopharyngeal Reflux
LPR is the retrograde flow of gastric contents into the larynx, oropharynx and/or the nasopharynx.LPR causes respiratory symptoms such as cough and wheezing and is often associated with head and neck complaints such as dysphonia, globus pharyngeus, and dysphagia. LPR may play a role in other diseases such as sinusitis, otitis media, and rhinitis,[6] and can be a comorbidity of asthma.[5] While LPR is commonly used interchangeably with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), it presents with a different pathophysiology.
Signs and Symptoms
LPR is a chronic and intermittent disease in children. LPR in children is commonly concomitant with laryngeal disorders such as laryngomalacia, subglottic stenosis and recurrent papillomatosis.
Diagnosis
LPR presents with non-specific symptoms and signs that make differential diagnosis difficult to achieve. Furthermore, symptoms of the disorder overlap greatly with symptoms of other disorders. Therefore, LPR is under-diagnosed and under-treated.
There is no agreed-upon assessment technique to identify LPR in children. Of these debated diagnostic tools, multichannel intraluminal impedance with pH monitoring (MII-pH) demonstrates relative strengths as it recognizes both acid and non-acid reflux. A more common technique that is used is 24-h dual probe pH monitoring. Both of these tools are expensive and are therefore not widely used.
Questionnaires can be administered to receive information about the patient's medical history as well as their symptomatology. The following questionnaires may be used: Reflux Symptom Index (RSI), Quality-of-Life Index (QLI) for LPR, Glottal Closure/Function Index (GCI) and Voice Handicap Index (VHI). Other, more invasive tests, such as fibre-optic transnasal laryngoscopy, 24-hour ambulatory dual probe pHmetry, pharyngeal pHmetry, transnasal esophagoscopy (TNE) and biopsy may be used. A noninvasive test for diagnosis of LPR is the collection of refluxate where the refluxed material is collected and analyzed.[7] Another noninvasive diagnostic test that can be used is an empirical trial of proton-pump inhibitor therapy; however, this test is mostly successful in diagnosing GERD.
In the laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) page, I plan to add the following:
1) Make a clear distinction between LPR and GERD.
2) Discuss the prevalence of LPR.
3) Add a section on LPR in the paediatric population, focusing on assessment.
4) Discuss the role of helicobactor pylori in LPR.
|
WIKI
|
PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP OF NEW JERSEY, INC., et al. v. GAF CORPORATION.
Civ. A. No. 89-2283.
United States District Court, D. New Jersey.
Feb. 28, 1991.
Jeffrey A. Cohen, Hannoch Weisman, Roseland, N.J., for defendant.
Edward Lloyd, Trenton, N.J., Bruce Terris, Terris Pravlik & Wagner, Washington, D.C., for plaintiffs.
DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT/PLAINTIFF’S CROSS-MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT
HAROLD A. ACKERMAN, District Judge.
I. Introduction
On May 24, 1989, the plaintiffs, Public Interest Research Group of New Jersey, Inc. (“NJPIRG”), and Friends of the Earth, Inc. (“FOE”), filed this citizens’ suit against the defendant, GAF Corporation (“GAF”), under Section 505 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1365 (the “Clean Water Act”). The complaint was filed subsequent to the expiration of sixty days following the issuance of the plaintiffs’ notice of intent to sue GAF. In the one-count complaint, the plaintiffs allege that beginning in August 1985, and running through March, 1989, GAF violated certain effluent limitations contained in the permits issued to it by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (the “DEP”), under the authority delegated to the DEP by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, (the “EPA”). See Complaint, filed May 24,1989, paras. 14,15, and Exhibit B. The plaintiffs further allege that “neither EPA nor DEP has commenced an administrative civil penalty action ... to redress the violations prior to the issuance of the March 21, 1989 notice letter.” Id. para. 4.
On June 22, 1989, the defendant, GAF, moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6). Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). At that time, GAF claimed that the plaintiffs’ complaint was barred by Sections 309(g)(6)(A) and 505(b)(1)(B) .of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1319(g)(6)(A), 1365(b)(1)(B), because the DEP had commenced and was diligently prosecuting an administrative proceeding against GAF. In particular, GAF demonstrated that the DEP issued a notice of violation to GAF on March 15, 1989, (prior to the issuance of the plaintiffs’ notice of intent to sue), and further, that on May 19, 1989, (prior to the filing of the plaintiffs’ complaint), an Administrative Consent Order was executed between GAF and the DEP concerning the violations that are the subject of the plaintiffs’ complaint. A hearing was held on GAF’s motion on July 26, 1989, at which time this court held that GAF’s Rule 12(b)(6) motion must be converted into a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment since matters outside of the pleadings had been submitted. At that time, the case had only been pending for two months. Also, the plaintiffs claimed they needed discovery and it appeared that a number of discovery requests were outstanding. Therefore, this Court denied GAF’s motion, without prejudice, pending completion of discovery relevant to any subsequently filed motion for summary judgment.
A scheduling order was entered by the Magistrate on June 13, 1990, indicating that the discovery period on the issue of liability had closed and that all dispositive motions should have been filed prior to July 27, 1990. In accordance with this directive, the defendant filed a motion for summary judgment and the plaintiffs cross-moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability, which motions are presently before the court. In its motion, the defendant, GAF, argues that it is entitled to summary judgment on the grounds that this action is barred by Section 309(g)(6) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1319(g)(6). It appears that GAF has abandoned its claims that this action is barred by 505(b)(1)(B) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1365(b)(1)(B). The plaintiffs argue that based upon GAF’s discharge monitoring reports (“DMRs”) and supporting laboratory documentation they are entitled to partial summary judgment on the issue of the defendant’s liability for 118 discharge violations and 5 reporting violations of the Clean Water Act.
In considering these motions, I shall keep in mind the Rule 56 standard of review. Rule 56 of the Federal Rules provides that “judgment ... shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The moving party has the initial burden of demonstrating that this summary judgment standard has been satisfied (see Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 585-86, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1355-56, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986)), which can be accomplished by simply pointing out to the court that there is an absence of evidence to support the non-moving party’s case. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2553-54, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); see Peters Tp. School Dist. v. Hartford Acc. and Indem. Co., 833 F.2d 32, 34 (3d Cir.1987).
In opposing summary judgment, the non-moving party must come forward with evidence supporting a claim that there is a genuine issue of material fact in dispute which requires resolution by the trier of fact. First Nat’l Bank v. Cities Serv. Co., 391 U.S. 253, 289, 88 S.Ct. 1575, 1592, 20 L.Ed.2d 569 (1968). The judge’s role is “not to weigh the evidence and determine the truth of the matter,” but to determine whether the evidence may reasonably be resolved in favor of either party. Metzger v. Osbeck, 841 F.2d 518, 519 (3d Cir.1988). “Credibility determinations, the weighing of the evidence, and the drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts are jury functions, not those of a judge.” Williams v. Borough of West Chester, 891 F.2d 458, 460 (3d Cir.1989) (citing Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)). All inferences to be drawn from the facts should be resolved in favor of the nonmoving party. Peters Tp. School Dist., 833 F.2d at 34.
With these standards in mind, I turn to a discussion of the legal and factual issues involved in these motions. I shall address the defendant’s motion first, as resolution of that motion could obviate the need to consider the plaintiffs’ motion, although the converse is not true.
II. The Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment
A. Facts
The basic, material facts relative to the defendant’s motion for summary judgment are undisputed, although the parties dispute the legal significance of those facts. It is undisputed that the discharge permit which is the subject of the plaintiffs’ action was issued to GAF on October 30, 1985, to become effective on December 1, 1985. See Certification of Jeffrey A. Cohen, Esq., filed June 30, 1990, Exhibit A. The DEP issued this permit to GAF under the authority delegated to it by the EPA. The permit allows GAF to discharge pollutants into the Preakness Brook in Wayne, New Jersey, from one outfall point only—DSN 001. Id., at 5. Effluent limitations as to the amount of designated pollutants that could legally be discharged from this outfall point are set forth in the permit, and GAF was required to monitor and report to the DEP the amount of its discharges so that the DEP and others could determine whether GAF was complying with those effluent limitations.
On March 15, 1989, the DEP issued a Notice of Violation (“NOV”) to GAF stating that GAF exceeded the limitations contained in its discharge permit on various occasions during the period running from February, 1988, through February, 1989, in violation of the New Jersey Water Pollution Control Act, N.J.StakAnn. § 58:10A-1 to -60 (West 1982 & Supp.1991). It appears that negotiations immediately ensued between GAF and the DEP concerning the exceedences set forth in the Notice of Violation, among others. See, e.g., March 20, 1989 letter from Ed Hoek of GAF to Peter Jordan of the DEP, Certification of Jeffrey A. Cohen, Esq., filed June 30, 1990, Exhibit C.
On April 12, 1989, the DEP contacted GAF and notified it that an Administrative Order would issue for the violations set forth in the Notice of Violation unless GAF wished to negotiate and enter into an Administrative Consent Order (“ACO”). See Affidavit of Leonard P. Pasculli, Esq., filed June 30, 1989, para. 4. Rather than resist the citations made by the DEP and require the initiation of formal, adversarial proceedings, GAF capitulated and entered into an ACO following two informal meetings with DEP representatives. See id. paras. 5-8.
The ACO was signed by GAF on May 18, 1989, and executed by the DEP on May 19, 1989. See Certification of Jeffrey A. Cohen, Esq., filed June 30, 1990, Exhibit B. Prior to the issuance of the ACO, certain factual findings were made by the DEP that were incorporated therein. In particular, the DEP found that
[a] review of the DMRs submitted to the Department by GAF, in accordance with Part 1(11) and Part III-B/C(1A) of the DSW Permit, for the period beginning December 1985 and ending April 1989 indicated that GAF had violated its final effluent limitations for various parameters during this period. GAF also failed to report certain parameters on its DMRs. The violations are summarized in Appendix I which is attached hereto and made a part hereof.
ACO, at 2, para. 5, Certification of Jeffrey A. Cohen, Esq., filed June 30, 1990, Exhibit B.
On Appendix I of the ACO, a number of discharge violations (in excess of forty-eight) are listed for the period beginning in August, 1985 and ending April, 1989. In addition, an unspecified number of monitoring and/or reporting violations are listed for the period beginning in April, 1986 and ending July, 1986. In addition to making specific findings as to the violations committed by GAF, the ACO recites a history of relations between GAF and the DEP. In particular, the Order indicates that, over the years, the DEP has been monitoring GAF’s facility for compliance with its effluent limitations. In 1987, the DEP notified GAF that its facility was rated “unacceptable” and in response, GAF retained a consultant to assist in preparing and implementing remedial action. See ACO, para. 6. In March, 1988, GAF’s facility was again rated “unacceptable” by the DEP and again, GAF made operating changes to improve the effluent quality. Id. paras. 7, 8. However, although improvements were implemented by GAF, it still failed to achieve compliance which ultimately resulted in the referenced March 1989 NOY and May 1989 ACO.
Under the ACO, GAF was required to further upgrade its waste water treatment facilities and a schedule of compliance was set forth. Improvements were required to be made and completed by July 8, 1990, at which time GAF must have attained full compliance with its effluent limitations set forth in its New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NJPDES”) permit. See AGO, para. 15. Subsequently, GAF requested and received from the DEP two extensions of the date set for final compliance with the ACO (one until August 8, and another until August 27, 1990). See Affidavit of Leonard P. Pasculli, Esq., filed September 5, 1990, paras. 3, 5.
In the interim, however, the DEP recognized that GAF did not have the capability to meet its effluent limitations. Thus, interim effluent limitations were set, see ACO para. 16, and a penalty was imposed for GAF’s past violations as well as the anticipated further violations that would occur during the period that construction was ongoing. In particular, the DEP found,
based on information submitted by GAF, as well as information in the possession of the Department, the Department finds that GAF may not be able to comply with the effluent limitations of its NJPDES DSW Permit without undertaking improvements to and/or upgrading its facility. Therefore, to amicably resolve the matters described in the above FINDINGS, the Department and GAF enter into this Administrative Consent Order without trial or adjudication of any of the facts or issues contained herein.
ACO para. 14.
With regard to the amount of the penalty which the DEP chose to assess, the ACO provides:
Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 58:10A-10(d) and N.J.A.C. 7:14-8.1 et seq., and based upon the above FINDINGS, the Department has determined that GAF cannot meet the final effluent limitations contained in the DSW Permit, will with a high degree of probability discharge in violation of these final effluent limitations until the improvements to the Facility are completed, and will be liable for maximum statutory penalties for violations of these final effluent limitations until the date of completion of the improvements to the Facility.
However, in light of the cooperation of GAF in the formulation of this agreement, the Department will compromise its claim for a maximum civil administrative penalty and accept a penalty settlement from GAF in the amount of $227,-000.
ACO para. 19.
Thus, the DEP was clearly aware that it could have, if it so chose, assess maximum statutory penalties of $50,000.00 for each violation occurring after December, 1986, and of $5,000 for each prior violation. See NJ.Stat.Ann. § 58:10A-10d (authorizing commissioner of DEP to assess penalties up to $50,000.00 per violation.) However, the ACO states that the DEP chose to forego such maximum penalties “in light of the cooperation of GAF” and the schedule for upgrading GAF's waste water treatment plant.
As I indicated above, on March 21, 1989, NJPIRG sent to GAF, the DEP and the EPA a notice that it intended to sue GAF under the citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act for violations of its NJPDES occurring between August, 1985 and March, 1989. This notice of intent was sent to GAF and the agencies subsequent to the issuance of the March 15, 1989 NOV by the DEP. The instant suit was filed on May 24, 1989, subsequent to the execution of the aforementioned ACO. The plaintiffs argue that the ACO does not list all of the defendant’s violations of its permit during the period covered by that document. The plaintiffs have provided a list of all the violations for which they seek to recover penalties, and after a careful review of the ACO and the plaintiffs’ exhibits, it appears that there are fifty-two violations cited by plaintiffs which are not covered by the ACO.
B. Legal Issues
The defendant argues that the plaintiffs’ complaint is barred, in its entirety, by recent amendments to Section 309 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1319(g)(6). Since “the starting point for interpreting a statute is the language of the statute itself,” Consumer Product Safety Com’n v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., 447 U.S. 102, 108, 100 S.Ct. 2051, 2056, 64 L.Ed.2d 766 (1980), I note that the statutory provision at issue provides as follows:
(6) Effect of order
(A) Limitation on actions under other sections
Action taken by the Administrator or the Secretary, as the case may be, under this subsection shall not affect or limit the Administrator's or Secretary’s authority to enforce any provision of this chapter; except that any violation—
(i) with respect to which the Administrator or the Secretary has commenced and is diligently prosecuting an action under this subsection,
(ii) with respect to which a State has commenced and is diligently prosecuting an action under a State law comparable to this subsection, or
(iii) for which the Administrator, the Secretary, or the State has issued a final order not subject to further judicial review and the violator has paid a penalty assessed under this subsection, or such comparable State law, as the case may be,
shall not be the subject of a civil penalty action under subsection (d) of this section or section 1321(b) of this title or section 1365 of this title.
(B) Applicability of limitation with respect to citizen suits
The limitations contained in subparagraph (A) on civil penalty actions under section 1365 of this title shall not apply with respect to any violation for which—
(i) a civil action under section 1365(a)(1) of this title has been filed prior to commencement of an action under this subsection, or
(ii) notice of an alleged violation of section 1365(a)(1) of this title has been given in accordance with section 1365(b)(1)(A) of this title prior to commencement of an action under this subsection and an action under section 1365(a)(1) of this title with respect to such alleged violation is filed before the 120th day after the date on which such notice is given.
33 U.S.C. § 1319(g)(6)(AHB).
Obviously, Section 309(g)(6)(A)(i) does not apply here because the EPA has apparently taken no action with respect to GAF’s violations. In addition, I find that the plaintiffs’ suit is not barred by Section 309(g)(6)(A)(ii), 33 U.S.C. § 1319(g)(6)(A)(ii), but rather, if any subsection to Section 309 bars plaintiffs' suit, it is subsection 309(g)(6)(A)(iii), 33 U.S.C. § 1319(g)(6)(A)(iii).
Subsection (g)(6)(A)(ii) of Section 309 speaks in the present tense. It states that if a state “is diligently prosecuting an action” for violations of the Clean Water Act, then a citizen suit for such violations shall be barred. 33 U.S.C. § 1319(g)(6)(A)(ii) (emphasis added). Notably, the statutory provision does not state that a citizen suit is barred if a state has prosecuted an action with respect to such violations, although Congress could have easily so provided. In contrast, subsection (g)(6)(A)(iii) of Section 309 provides that a citizen suit shall be barred if the State “has issued a final order ... and the violator has paid a penalty assessed under this subsection” for such violations. 33 U.S.C. § 1319(g)(6)(A)(iii) (emphasis added).
The undisputed facts of this case, as discussed above, reveal that the DEP is not presently prosecuting an administrative action against GAF, and it was not prosecuting an action against GAF at the time suit was filed. Rather, the DEP had already entered into an ACO and assessed penalties against GAF at the time suit was filed. Accordingly, subsection (g)(6)(A)(iii) of Section 309 applies, if any.
A distinction must be made between these two provisions, because otherwise, they would be superfluous.
The plaintiffs argue that their suit is not barred by Section 309(g), because: (1) the administrative agency proceedings were not commenced prior to the issuance of their notice letter and/or the commencement of this suit; (2) the state law is not “comparable” to the Clean Water Act, within the meaning of Section 309; and (3) the DEP did not diligently prosecute the administrative proceeding.
C. Analysis
Subsection (g)(6)(B) relates back to subsections (A)(ii) and (iii)—all of which relate to the “commencement” of administrative proceedings. Certain administrative proceedings, which are ongoing, do not bar citizen suits. However, once the agency obtains a final order and collects penalties as to a certain violation under the Clean Water Act, or under a comparable state law, the citizen suit is barred. The penalties would be paid to the government in any event. If the government has already assessed those violations and determined to assess a certain amount of penalties under the Clean Water Act or a comparable state law, there is no reason to step on the agency’s toes and impose an additional penalty which the agency chose to forego. I find, however, that the state administrative action that was brought against GAF by the DEP was not “comparable” to an action brought under the Clean Water Act, within the meaning of Section 309.
The powers of the DEP to enforce the New Jersey Water Pollution Control Act are expansive. Section 58:10A-10 authorizes the DEP to assess the fines and penalties which are at issue in this case.
Section 58.T0A-10 provides:
Violations; remedies, fines and penalties; enforcement; forfeiture of conveyances a. Whenever, on the basis of any information available to him, the commissioner finds that any person is in violation of any provision of this act, or any rule, regulation, water quality standard, effluent limitation, or permit issued pursuant to this act he shall:
(3) Levy a civil administrative penalty in accordance with subsection d. of this section;
Subsection d. provides:
d. The commissioner is authorized to assess a civil penalty of not more than $50,000.00 for each violation and each day during which such violation continues shall constitute an additional, separate, and distinct offense. Any amount assessed under this subsection shall fall within a range established by regulation by the commissioner for violations of similar type, seriousness, and duration. No assessment shall be levied pursuant to this section until after the discharger has been notified by certified mail or personal service. The notice shall include a reference to the section of the statute, regulation, order or permit condition violated; a concise statement of the facts alleged to constitute a violation; a statement of the amount of the civil penalties to be imposed; and a statement of the party’s right to a hearing. The ordered party shall have 20 days from receipt of the notice within which to deliver to the commissioner a written request for a hearing. After the hearing and upon finding that a violation has occurred, the commissioner may issue a final order after assessing the amount of the fine specified in the notice. If no hearing is requested, then the notice shall hecome a final order after the expiration of the 20-day period. Payment of the assessment is due when a final order is issued or the notice becomes a final order. The authority to levy an administrative order is in addition to all other enforcement provisions in this act, and the payment of any assessment shall not be deemed to affect the availability of any other enforcement provisions in connection with the violation for which the assessment is levied. Any civil penalty assessed under this section may be compromised by the commissioner upon the posting of a performance bond by the violator, or upon such terms and conditions as the commissioner may establish by regulation.
N.J.Stat.Ann. § 58:10A-10 (underline in original indicating last additions in text) (emphasis supplied).
The New Jersey Water Pollution Control Act clearly sets forth a procedure for the assessment of civil administrative penalties and provides for notice to the violator before a penalty is assessed, as well as the opportunity for a hearing on the penalty. Nowhere does it provide for notice to the public. In contrast, Section 309(g)(4)(A) of the Clean Water Act provides for public notice and participation before the assessment of a civil order.
Section 309(g)(4)(A) provides:
(A) Public Notice
Before issuing an order assessing a civil penalty under this subsection the Administrator or Secretary, as the case may be, shall provide public notice of and reasonable opportunity to comment on the proposed issuance of such order.
33 U.S.C. § 1319(g)(4) (emphasis supplied).
The ACO issued by the DEP in May 1989 was issued pursuant to the New Jersey Water Pollution Control Act, NJ.Stat.Ann. 58:10A-1 to -60. ACO, p. 1. Civil administrative penalties were assessed against GAF under Section 58:10A-10a(3), d. Neither the New Jersey Pollution Control Act nor the regulations promulgated under this Act provided the public with the opportunity for public comment or a hearing on the proposed ACO. Had GAF requested a hearing, the DEP would have been required to notify the public and allow intervention as of right to interested citizens. N.J.Admin.Code tit. 7, § 7:14A-8.13 (Supp. 7-17-89). These notice and hearing procedures were not applicable in this case because GAF did not request a hearing. Because GAF did not request a hearing and agreed to a settlement, the public did not have an opportunity to participate.
In response to comments on proposed amendments to NJ.Admin.Code tit. 7, § 7:14A-8.4 that the regulations should provide citizens with the same rights to adjudicatory hearings as permittees, the DEP stated:
The Department does not believe that the statutory scheme established in the Water Pollution Control Act provides anyone other than the violator with a right to an adjudicatory hearing on a notice of civil administrative penalty assessment or an administrative order issued pursuant thereto.
Plaintiffs’ Brief in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment, Exhibit 7 at 11.
This court notes that the New Jersey Water Pollution Control Act does not provide the public with notice and opportunity to participate in the assessment of civil administrative fines and penalties, and for this reason this court finds that the state administrative action that was brought against GAF by the DEP was not comparable to action under the Clean Water Act within the meaning of Section 309. Because the state administrative action against GAF was not comparable to an administrative action under the Clean Water Act, the plaintiffs’ citizen suit is not barred under Section 309(g)(6)(A)(iii).
For these reasons I deny the defendant’s motion for summary judgment. I will now address the plaintiffs’ cross-motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability.
III. The Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment
A. Jurisdiction
This Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 33 U.S.C. § 1365(a). The plaintiffs have correctly pleaded in the complaint that GAF has continuously or intermittently violated the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permit issued to GAF by the DEP and continues to be in violation of the Clean Water Act. See Gwaltney v. Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Inc., 484 U.S. 49, 108 S.Ct. 376, 98 L.Ed.2d 306 (1987); Complaint, filed May 24, 1990, paras. 15, 20.
B. Legal Issues
The plaintiffs argue that they have standing under Section 505 of the Clean Water Act to bring this action. The plaintiffs contend that they have satisfied the standing requirements to bring this suit by demonstrating that as a result of the alleged effluent discharges by GAF their members are being and will be adversely affected with regard to their health, economic, recreational, aesthetic and environmental interests in the Preakness Brook, the Passaic River, and tidally related waters. See Complaint, filed May 24, 1990, para. 7, and Plaintiffs’ Brief in Support of Their Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, Exhibit 1.
Moreover, the plaintiffs assert that they are entitled to partial summary judgment on the issue of liability for 123 violations by GAF of their NPDES permit including: 1) 118 effluent discharge violations during the period December, 1985 through June, 1990, and 2) 5 reporting violations during the period January, 1986 through December, 1988. See Plaintiffs’ Revised Exhibits 5-6.
In opposition to the plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment the defendant argues that the plaintiffs have not established standing to maintain a citizen suit under the Clean Water Act because the plaintiffs are unable to demonstrate: (1) A distinct and palpable injury to its members, (2) that can fairly be traced to the defendant, and (3) that is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision. Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United, 454 U.S. 464, 472-75, 102 S.Ct. 752, 758-60, 70 L.Ed.2d 700 (1982). Also, the defendant revives its argument that this suit is barred in its entirety by Section 309 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1319(g)(6). Accordingly, the defendant contends that the plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment should be denied and this suit dismissed.
C. Standing
The standing provisions of Section 505 of the Clean Water Act which authorizes suit “against any person ... who is alleged to be in violation of [a NPDES/ NJPDES permit or condition thereof]” by “any person or persons having an interest which is or may be adversely affected,” 33 U.S.C. §§ 1365(a)(1), (g), were based upon the Supreme Court’s holding in Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 92 S.Ct. 1361, 31 L.Ed.2d 636 (1972). See Senate Consideration of Conference Report, 93rd Cong., 1st Sess. (1972) reprinted in A Legislative History of the Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, Senate Comm, on Public Works, Vol. I, at 221 (1973). In Morton, the Court recognized that standing can be based on environmental, aesthetic and non-eeonomic injury, as well as the more traditional notions of economic and physical injury. Morton, 405 U.S. at 738, 92 S.Ct. at 1367. Of course standing under the Clean Water Act must be in accord with the Constitutional requirements for standing which the defendant correctly laid out in its argument. With these Constitutional standards in mind, this court has repeatedly held that injury for standing purposes can be injury to aesthetic, recreational or environmental values. SPIRG v. P.D. Oil & Chemical Storage, Inc., 627 F.Supp. 1074, 1082 (D.N.J.1986). See SPIRG v. AT & T Bell Laboratories, 617 F.Supp. 1190, 1199-2000 (D.N.J.1985). “These injuries need not be large, an ‘identifiable trifle’ will suffice.” PIRG v. Powell Duffryn Terminals, Inc., 913 F.2d 64, 71 (3d Cir.1990) (quoting United States v. Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures, 412 U.S. 669, 689 n. 14, 93 S.Ct. 2405, 2417 n. 14, 37 L.Ed.2d 254 (1973)) cert. denied, — U.S.-, 111 S.Ct. 1018, 112 L.Ed.2d 1100 (1991).
While the plaintiffs have demonstrated a distinct and palpable injury to their members’ use and enjoyment of the Passaic River, the defendant argues that the alleged injuries to the plaintiffs are insufficient to confer standing to sue because the defendant does not discharge directly into the Passaic River. The defendant asserts that because it does not discharge directly into the Passaic River, the plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that their members have suffered actual harm fairly traceable to GAF’s alleged permit violations. This court does not agree.
The defendant’s argument does not have a legal basis. The Clean Water Act does not place any milage limits on standing. Nor does the Clean Water Act require the plaintiffs to demonstrate that they use the exact tributary into which the defendant discharges rather than the waters into which that tributary flows. Recently, Judge Thompson of this court addressed the issue of whether the standing provisions of Section 505 of the Clean Water Act require the plaintiffs to demonstrate that they utilize the waterway into which the defendant directly discharges. In PIRG v. Yates Industries, Inc., 757 F.Supp. 438, 443 (D.N.J.1991), my colleague held that, “[i]t is enough to show that plaintiffs’ members have suffered injuries through waters directly affected by any illegal discharges.” Id.
I too reject this argument by the defendant and hold that the plaintiffs have established standing to bring this suit under Section 505 of the Clean Water Act. The defendant has conceded that it discharges into the Preakness Brook which flows through a pond, empties into the Singac Brook and flows into the Passaic River. See Defendant’s Brief in Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment, at 5. Were I to accept the defendant’s argument, the effect would be to prohibit any citizen suits against violators of the Clean Water Act unless the violation was so great or the waterway so small that the direct impact of the discharges could be pinpointed. This interpretation of the Clean Water Act would be contrary to its intent. See PIRG v. Yates Industries, Inc., 757 F.Supp. at 443; SPIRG v. Jersey Central Power & Light Co., 642 F.Supp. 103, 106-107 (D.N.J.1986); SPIRG v. Tenneco Polymers, Inc., 602 F.Supp. 1394, 1397 (D.N.J.1985).
Moreover, as recently expressed by the Third Circuit in PIRG v. Powell Duffryn Terminals, Inc., 913 F.2d at 73 n. 10, the plaintiffs need not show “to a scientific certainty” that the pollution that they saw in the Passaic River came from GAF’s effluent. Such tort-like causation is not required to establish standing under Article III. To negate the plaintiffs’ affidavits establishing injury to the aesthetic, recreational or environmental values of NJPIRG and FOE members, GAF must show either: 1) That it does not discharge pollutants into the Passaic River or its tributaries; or 2) that the plaintiffs’ statements that the river is foul-smelling and polluted are in fact untrue. GAF has not made this requisite showing. Accordingly, I find that the aesthetic injury suffered by the plaintiffs may fairly be traced to GAF’s effluent discharges, establishing plaintiffs’ standing to bring this suit.
D. Liability
Next, I will address the issue of liability. In opposition to the plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability, the defendant restates the argument that this suit is barred in its entirety by Section 309 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1319(g)(6) because the violations at issue were the subject of a prior administrative enforcement action by the DEP. As discussed earlier, this court holds that the state administrative action that was brought against GAF by the DEP was not comparable to the Clean Water Act within the meaning of Section 309, and does not bar this citizen suit under Section 309(g)(6)(A)(iii).
The plaintiffs assert that they are entitled to partial summary judgment on the issue of liability for 123 violations by GAF of their NPDES permit since there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
It is well established that records required to be kept by law, such as DMRs, may be deemed to be admissions for purposes of establishing civil liability. Garner v. United States, 424 U.S. 648, 665, 96 S.Ct. 1178, 1188, 47 L.Ed.2d 370 (1976). This rule has been specifically applied to records kept pursuant to requirements of the Clean Water Act. United States v. Ward, 448 U.S. 242, 254, 100 S.Ct. 2636, 2644, 65 L.Ed.2d 742 (1980). Consequently, there can be no question that the data disclosed in the defendant’s DMRs may be accepted as true.
Furthermore, it is clear that failure to comply with a limitation in a NPDES permit is a violation of the Act. 33 U.S.C. § 1311 (1988). SPIRG v. P.D. Oil & Chemical Storage, Inc., 627 F.Supp. 1074, 1087-1088 (D.N.J.1986). Section 505 of the Act authorizes citizen suits for violations of effluent standards or limitations. 33 U.S.C. § 1365(a). “Effluent standard or limitation” is defined in Section 505(f)(6) of the Act to include “a permit or a condition thereof issued under Section 402.” 33 U.S.C. § 1365(f). Section 402(a)(2) provides that the Administrator shall prescribe conditions for permits to assure compliance with the requirements of the Act, “including conditions on data and information collection, reporting and such other requirements as he deems appropriate.” 33 U.S.C. § 1342(a)(2) (1988). The monitoring and reporting requirements of a permit, like the discharge limitations, are therefore fully enforceable effluent limitations.
This court and other federal courts have regularly granted summary judgment to plaintiffs in citizen suits under the Clean Water Act in cases based on discharge monitoring reports and violations of monitoring and reporting requirements of NPDES permits. PIRG v. Witco, 31 E.R.C. 1571, 1990 WL 66178 (D.N.J.1990); SPIRG v. Jersey Central Power and Light Co., 642 F.Supp. 103, 105-106 (D.N.J.1986); SPIRG v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., 615 F. Supp. 1419, 1429-1430 (D.N.J.1985); SPIRG v. Fritzsche, Dodge & Olcott, Inc., 579 F.Supp. 1528, 1539, n. 14 (D.N.J.1984) aff'd on other grounds, 759 F.2d 1131 (3d Cir.1985).
Having found no genuine issue of material fact as to defendant’s liability under the Clean Water Act for 118 discharge violations and 5 reporting violations by GAF of the permits issued to it by the DEP, I hereby grant the plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability for these 123 violations.
IV. Conclusion
The defendant’s motion for summary judgment is denied. The plaintiffs’ cross-motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability is granted. The plaintiffs have reserved the right to seek a preliminary injunction and permanent injunctive relief. In addition, plaintiffs seek civil penalties and costs, including attorneys’ fees and will request a hearing to address these issues. See Plaintiffs’ Brief in Support of Their Motion for Summary Judgment, at 1-2.
. (1988).
. It appears that this notice was sent on or about March 21, 1989, and that an amended notice was sent on March 29, 1989 in which FOE joined. The notice was sent to the EPA and the DEP, as well as GAF.
. The EPA delegated responsibility to the DEP for administering the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program in New Jersey on April 13, 1982. See 47 Fed.Reg. 17,331 (April 22, 1982).
. (1988).
. Discovery on damages was stayed.
. Prior to the issuance of this permit, GAF’s discharges were regulated by a permit issued by the EPA on April 30, 1976. See Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 2.
. The New Jersey Water Pollution Control Act was amended, effective December, 1986, and the statutory maximum penalty amount was increased from $5,000.00 to $50,000.00. As amended, the statute authorizes such a penalty for "each day during which such violation continues" as such continuing violations "constitute an additional, separate and distinct offense.” § 58:10A-10d.
. It appears that plaintiffs have abandoned their claims which are based upon violations occurring between August 1985 and December 1, 1985. See plaintiffs’ Revised Exhibit 5 (listing violations for which plaintiffs seek civil penalties dating from December 2, 1985).
. As the above discussion makes clear, the ACO encompasses those violations occurring during the period between the execution of the ACO (May 19, 1989), and July 8, 1990. Thus, these fifty-two violations "missed” by the DEP are those on plaintiffs’ Exhibit 5 which are preceded by the following numerical prefixes: 1 through 23, 25 through 39, 43, 44, 47, 49, 50, 57, 59, 61, 69, 76, 83, and 86. Compare ACO, Appendix I.
Forty-four of these violations are based not upon the DMRs, but upon the plant logs. (Although plaintiffs argue that the DEP must have neglected to review GAF’s plant logs, this is rebutted by the violations numbered 24 and 85 on plaintiffs' Exhibit 5. Plaintiffs indicate that they must base these violations on the plant logs while they are also cited by the DEP in the ACO.)
The remaining seven violations basically concern what appear to be relatively minor deviations. (For example, violation numbered 44 involved a discharge of 50.30 mg/1 COD, when the permit required a maximum of 50.00 mg/1; violation numbered 49 involved a discharge of 1.30 mg/1 TRC when the permit required a maximum of 1.00 mg/1 TRC; violation numbered 57 involved a discharge of 8.50 mg/1 TSS when the permit required a maximum of 8.0 mg/1 TSS; violation numbered 59 involved a flow discharge of .13 MGD when the permit required a maximum flow of .10 MGD; violation numbered 61 involved a discharge of 8.0 mg/1 BOD when the permit required a maximum of 8.0 mg/1 BOD, and violation numbered 69 involved a discharge of 8.30 mg/1 BOD when the permit required a maximum of 8.0 mg/1 BOD. The last violation "missed" by the DEP and not based upon the plant logs—violation numbered 83—is more substantial as it involves a discharge of 4.09 mg/1 Amm(NHaN), when the permit required a maximum discharge of 2.0 mg/1.)
. Plaintiffs have submitted 4 affidavits of individual members of NJPIRG and FOE who engage in recreational activities, such as walking, jogging, boating, swimming, and fishing in specific portions of the Passaic River downstream from defendant’s facility and in nearby lands, or would engage in such activities in those areas if the Passaic River were not so polluted. See Plaintiffs’ Brief in Support of Their Motion for Summary Judgment, Exhibit 1.
. Originally, plaintiffs argued that based upon GAF’s discharge monitoring reports ("DMRs”) and supporting laboratory documentation they were entitled to partial summary judgment on the issue of defendant’s liability for 121 discharge violations, 8 reporting violations, and 33 monitoring violations of the Clean Water Act. As the result of additional discovery, plaintiffs have amended their motion for partial summary judgment and are seeking civil penalties for 118 discharge violations and 5 reporting violations by GAF of their NPDES permit. See Plaintiffs’ Revised Exhibits 5-6.
|
CASELAW
|
Peacehaven
Peacehaven is a town and civil parish in the Lewes district of East Sussex, England. It is located above the chalk cliffs of the South Downs approximately six miles (6 mi) east of Brighton city centre, on the A259 road. Its site coincides with the point where the Greenwich meridian crosses the English south coast. Peacehaven is next to Telscombe Cliffs, a later western extension to Peacehaven, which lies within a separate parish and has a separate town council.
History
A Bronze Age barrow (burial mound) lies very close to the cliff top, which has been under investigation by local societies. The barrow represents evidence of the occupation of Peacehaven at least 3,500 years ago. A 2007 excavation of the new Bovis Homes site to the west of Peacehaven Community School's playing fields unearthed a large range of evidence for a prehistoric settlement throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Peacehaven was established in 1916 by entrepreneur Charles Neville, who had purchased land in the parish of Piddinghoe; he then set up a company to develop the site (he also eventually built nearby towns Saltdean and parts of Rottingdean). He advertised it by setting up a competition in virtually every newspaper in England to name the development. The name of the winners who chose the name 'New Anzac-on-Sea' (to commemorate the ANZAC's involvement in the Battle of Gallipoli) were Mr West of Ilford, Essex and Mr Kemp of Maidstone, Kent.
The Daily Express later sued Neville over the competition, holding that it was a scam, since he was offering "free" plots of land in the town as runner-up prizes but issuing them only on the payment of a conveyancing fee. The Express won the case, but the publicity brought the scheme to a large audience. The idea was then to sell plots of land cheaply for people to build on themselves.
Initially, the town was New Anzac-on-Sea, but less than a year later, on 12 February 1917, it was renamed Peacehaven.
In 1927, the directors of Peacehaven Estates Ltd, of South Coast Road, Peacehaven, and 7, Pall Mall, Westminster, were Lord Teynham (Chairman), C. W. Neville (managing director), and G. Kay Green.
Although it has been claimed that the town was originally formed for retiring World War I veterans in order for them to escape and recover from the effects of the war, this is not proven. Mr Neville's publicity promoted the town as being an idyllic setting; sea air and simple lifestyle were thought to have aided good health. The land was also cheap and, as a result, working-class families from the city started to purchase plots and gradually build makeshift homes for weekends and holidays. This movement of frontier-style buildings made with whatever materials were available at the time was termed as the Plotlands movement. Inhabitants felt a sense of freedom in living off what they needed and enjoying a simpler life away from the busy, polluted city. The Plotlands provided the working class an opportunity that might not have been available otherwise.
By 1924, there were 3,000 people living in Peacehaven. Original houses were often very temporary affairs (some were old railway carriages). Others were constructed from former army huts, brought from North Camp near Seaford, a few of these still survive, having been given an outer concrete block wall (they can be identified by their oblong shape that tends to be end-on to the road). Eventually the local council invested in water and electrical services and so people started to build more substantial houses. After World War II, the local council introduced a zoning scheme in order to distinguish areas for improvement along the coast road. In 1974 the Town Centre Map and Action Plan was formed to aid development.
There are two listed farmsteads in the town: Halcombe Farm House built in the 17th century, and Hoddern Farm House from the 18th century. Another old building is the Shepherds Cot, now part of a private residential property in The Compts in north Peacehaven. This tiny cabin dates from the 1880s when it was built on farmland to shelter shepherds during the lambing season.
The popular singer and comedian Gracie Fields bought a home in Peacehaven overlooking the sea.
Geography
Peacehaven is located on fairly flat coastal land which is elevated around 40 to 50 m above sea level. The pebble beach below the cliffs can be reached by a stairs and concrete driveway and sea walk. There are a number of green spaces along the A259 and the cliffs, one of which is called The Dell. A cinema formerly stood on this site, and now it holds events such as car boot sales, fireworks, fairgrounds, motorhome exhibitions, the Donkey Derby and an annual carnival (though in 2005 the carnival was held on the Joff field located behind the Meridian shopping centre). In the 1950s, the carnival stalls were located on the then vacant land on the NW corner of the South Coast Road (A259) and Dorothy Avenue.
Neville was influenced by the American grid system of planning. There were originally no "Streets" in Peacehaven; only "Roads" and "Avenues". With very few exceptions, "Roads" ran east to west, and "Avenues" north to south, most forming crossroads where they intersected the South Coast Road (A259). Apart from this road, Roderick Avenue, running roughly up the centre, was the only surfaced road (except for the area of Local Authority housing around Friars Avenue (north) in Peacehaven until the late 1950s, when the process of making-up the roads began. This started in Telscombe Cliffs and worked eastwards. As part of this, many of the Avenues had their junction with the main road blocked off to reduce the number of junctions and crossroads. The town still retains its original "grid" layout (apart from the newer development to the west called Telscombe Cliffs and above Firle Road): rectangular plots of land on both sides of the main road. Aerial photographs from the 1930s clearly show the "grid" pattern and, at that time, the scattered nature of the community.
The parish includes part of the Brighton to Newhaven Cliffs Site of Special Scientific Interest. The cliffs are mainly of geological interest, containing many Santonian and Campanian fossils. The SSSI listing includes flora and fauna biological interest too.
The point where the Prime meridian of the world crosses the coast is marked by a 3.5 m tall obelisk, commissioned by Charles Neville. It was unveiled on 10 August 1936, and has been relocated twice due to erosion of the cliffs.
Governance
Peacehaven's lowest tier of government is the Peacehaven Town Council who are responsible for local planning, highways and other amenities. The council consists of 17 elected councillors from three wards, North, West and East Peacehaven. The May 2007 election returned 17 Conservative Party councillors.
The next level of government is Lewes District Council with responsibilities for the wider ranging areas such as council tax collection, environmental health and democratic services. Peacehaven provides six councillors to the district council, representing the same three wards as the parish council. Elections are held every four years, the May 2007 election returned six Conservative Party councillors; the May 2023 local elections returned six Labour Party councillors for these six seats.
The county council for East Sussex has responsibility for education, libraries, social services, civil registration, trading standards and transport. Elections for the county council are held every four years. Peacehaven parish is combined with the neighbouring Telscombe parish forming the Peacehaven & Telscombe Towns electoral division which elects two councillors to the council. The May 2013 election returned two UKIP councillors. Peacehaven is in the Brighton Kemptown constituency for the UK parliamentary elections. In June 2017 Lloyd Russell-Moyle was elected Labour MP for the constituency.
Prior to Brexit in 2020, Peacehaven was represented by the South East region, in the European Parliament.
Economy and retail
Peacehaven is twinned with the French town of Épinay-sous-Sénart and the German town of Isernhagen.
The Co-operative Meridian Shopping Centre is in the town. There is also a leisure centre, several pubs, coffee shops, cafés and restaurants located throughout the town.
Religious buildings
There are four churches in Peacehaven and one in Telscombe Cliffs. The Church of the Ascension, build by L. Keir Hett to replace Peacehaven's Anglican church, replaced a temporary building which had been erected in 1922. The Roman Catholic Church, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, was also founded in a temporary building in the 1920s; this survives as the church hall of the present brick structure. A Jehovah's Witnesses' Kingdom Hall and an Evangelical church are also in use. Telscombe Cliffs United Reformed Church serves the population of both communities.
Education
The town has one secondary school, Peacehaven Community School. There are also three primary schools: Peacehaven Heights Primary School, Meridian Primary School, and Telscombe Cliffs Primary School and Nursery. The library located in the Meridian Centre hosts various training talks for adults and educational activities for children, as well as hosting a regular citizens' advice bureau.
Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC South East and ITV Meridian. Television signals are received from the Whitehawk Hill TV transmitter and the local relay transmitter situated in Newhaven.
Local radio stations are BBC Radio Sussex on 95.0 FM, Heart South on 96.9 FM, and Seahaven FM, a community based station which broadcasts to the town on 96.3 FM.
The town is served by the local newspapers, Sussex Express and The Argus (formerly South Coast Leader).
Sport and leisure
Peacehaven has a Non-League football club Peacehaven & Telscombe F.C. who play at the Sports Park. The club hosts a variety of football tournaments that range from age U10–U16 every summer. There is also a small leisure centre and a bowls club and dance schools such as Harlequin and Studio 54, as well as football and martial arts clubs.
Several special interest groups operate. The Women's Institute meets regularly at the Meridian Centre along with various other community groups.
Delivered on 30 acres of land given over by Southern Water and funded by financial contributions from Southern Water and Bovis Homes a new community led recreation destination 'The Big Parks Project' was completed in 2015. Designed by architects Kaner Olette and engineers HOP & Crofton Consulting, the project includes a central activity café, children’s playgrounds, new cycle paths, skate park, and sports facilities. The project has received many accolades since it was completed, including Constructing Excellence Sustainability Award – Winner 2015; Architects Journal Retrofit Award – Winner 2015; RIBA South East Award – Winner 2016; Sussex Heritage Trust Public & Community – Highly Commended 2016.
Peacehaven in film and fiction
The town plays a part in Graham Greene's 1938 novel ''Brighton Rock. ''
The 1979 film Quadrophenia starring Phil Daniels in the leading role as a mod named Jimmy also ended up in Peacehaven. At the end of the film he finds out his idol, the suave mod "poster boy" Ace Face (played by Sting), is in reality a bellboy. He steals Ace's scooter and heads out to Peacehaven Cliffs and an uncertain fate.
Peacehaven was selected for the site at which a car is pushed over the cliff in the TV thriller series The Level, while earlier Tiffany Mitchell's ashes were portrayed to be cast over the cliffs, in the BBC soap EastEnders in 1999, with viewers having been told at her funeral that she had spent happy childhood holidays there.
Miodrag Kojadinović has a short story about a search for an ancestor in Peacehaven that plays with the concept of a "haven of peace", which won a prize for stories with Jewish themes and appeared in Serbian and Hungarian, both out of Novi Sad.
Music
Punk band Peter and the Test Tube Babies formed in Peacehaven in 1978 and recall calling themselves the banchood group for a short period of time.
Twin towns
* 🇫🇷 Épinay-sous-Sénart, France
* 🇩🇪 Isernhagen, Germany
|
WIKI
|
Achouffe
Achouffe (）) is a small village of Wallonia in the municipality of Houffalize, district of Wibrin, located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium.
Location
It is located in the forested Ardennes region.
Situated within the Bastogne district of Luxembourg province, it lies between the towns of Wibrin, and Mont on the Rue de la Grève (also known as the Rue d'Achouffe).
Food and Drink Products
Outside of the region, Achouffe is primarily known as the home of the Brasserie d'Achouffe, producers of La Chouffe craft beer as well as a liqueur distilled from their beer.
A soft-ripened cheese called Patachouffe, that has been matured in their beer is also available from a local producer.
|
WIKI
|
Olanzapine Versus Risperidone in Youth w/ Psychosis: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Lei Xia, Wen-Zheng Li, Huan-Zhong Liu, Rui Hao, Xiang-Yang Zhang
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology 2018, 28 (4): 244-251
OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of olanzapine and risperidone in children and adolescents (aged ≤18 years) with psychosis by conducting a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
METHODS: Several English and Chinese databases were searched for studies published before February 8th, 2017. Two independent investigators screened the studies according to prespecified criteria and extracted the data. Review Manager 5.3 was used to conduct the data synthesis.
RESULTS: Eight RCTs involving 457 participants (225 participants in the olanzapine group and 232 participants in the risperidone group) were included. No significant differences were observed in the mean scores on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale/Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (standard mean difference [SMD] = -0.06, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = [-0.31, 0.19], p = 0.63), the positive symptom scores (SMD = -0.09, 95% CI = [-0.32, 0.15], p = 0.48), or the negative symptom scores (SMD = -0.11 95% CI = [-0.34, 0.13], p = 0.38) between the two groups. Regarding adverse effects, the mean increases in weight (MD = 2.90, 95% CI = [1.41, 4.39], p = 0.0001), body mass index (MD = 0.90, 95% CI = [0.42, 1.38], p = 0.0003), and incidence of hypersomnia (risk ratios [RR] = 1.98, 95% CI = [1.15, 3.43], p = 0.01) were higher in the olanzapine group, while the incidence of insomnia (RR = 0.31, 95% CI = [0.11, 0.85], p = 0.02), prolactin elevation (RR = 0.11, 95% CI = [0.01, 0.85], p = 0.03), myotonia (RR = 0.12, 95% CI = [0.03, 0.49], p = 0.003), tremor (RR = 0.22, 95% CI = [0.08, 0.63], p = 0.005), and akathisia (RR = 0.27, 95% CI = [0.12, 0.57], p = 0.0007) was higher in the risperidone group.
CONCLUSIONS: There is no significant difference in efficacy between olanzapine and risperidone for the treatment of children and adolescents with psychosis, but the side effect profiles of these two medications differ. High-quality RCTs are needed before recommending clinical treatment in children and adolescents.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Distinction (law)
Distinction is a principle under international humanitarian law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict, whereby belligerents must distinguish between combatants and protected civilians. Combatant in this instance means persons entitled to directly participate in hostilities and thus are not afforded immunity from being directly targeted in situations of armed conflict. Protected civilian in this instance means civilians who are enemy nationals or neutral citizens outside of the territory of a belligerent power.
Article 51.3 of Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions explains that "Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this section, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities". Distinction and proportionality are important factors in assessing military necessity in that the harm caused to protected civilians or civilian property must be proportional and not "excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated" by an attack on a military objective.
Codification
Distinction is covered by Protocol I (Additional to the Geneva Conventions), Chapter II: "Civilians and Civilian Population". Article 48 set forth the principle of distinction by establishing that "[T]he Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants." Article 50 defines who is a civilian and what is a civilian population; article 51 describes the protection which should be given to civilian populations; and chapter III regulates the targeting of civilian objects. Article 8(2)(b)(i) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court also prohibits attack directed against civilians. Not all states have ratified Protocol I or the Rome Statute, but it is an accepted principle of international humanitarian law that the direct targeting of civilians is a breach of the customary laws of war and is binding on all belligerents.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo was the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court who investigated allegations of war crimes during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He published an open letter containing his findings; in a section titled "Allegations concerning War Crimes", he elucidates this use of distinction:
|
WIKI
|
Hong Kong Philharmonic Society
Hong Kong Philharmonic Society may refer to:
* the pre-war music society which organised various kind of music performances Hong Kong Philharmonic Society (1895-1941)
* the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra which is rooted from Sino-British Orchestra (1947-1957)
|
WIKI
|
Talk:Aziz Behich
External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on Aziz Behich. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090912175233/http://www.greengully.com/images/juniors05g-large.jpg to http://www.greengully.com/images/juniors05g-large.jpg
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090918233656/http://www.greengully.com/images/u15sl2005.jpg to http://www.greengully.com/images/u15sl2005.jpg
Cheers.—cyberbot II Talk to my owner :Online 06:46, 30 January 2016 (UTC)
External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 12 one external links on Aziz Behich. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120327110846/http://www.greengully.com/seniors/u212007-large.jpg to http://www.greengully.com/seniors/u212007-large.jpg
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20091226215851/http://www.mvfcblog.com:80/category/aziz-behich/ to http://www.mvfcblog.com/category/aziz-behich/
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100328104519/http://www.melbournevictory.com.au:80/default.aspx?s=yleague_team to http://www.melbournevictory.com.au/default.aspx?s=yleague_team
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070706044557/http://a-league.com.au/default.aspx?s=hal_newsdisplay to http://www.a-league.com.au/default.aspx?s=hal_newsdisplay&id=25851&pageid=2776
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110403124928/http://www.a-league.com.au/default.aspx?s=yleague_newsdisplay&id=26013 to http://www.a-league.com.au/default.aspx?s=hal_newsdisplay&id=26009&pageid=2776
* Added tag to http://www.heidelbergunitedsc.com.au/rnd809.htm
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090912150038/http://www.greengully.com/ssl/article_89.shtml to http://www.greengully.com/ssl/article_89.shtml
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120218223142/http://www.greengully.com/seniors/seniors08.jpg to http://www.greengully.com/seniors/seniors08.jpg
* Added tag to http://www.melbournevictory.net/forum/showthread.php?t=56047
* Added tag to http://www.melbournevictory.com.au/default.aspx?s=yleague_profile&pid=1726&tid=268
* Added tag to http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/2009Australia/default.aspx?s=aus_news_news_display&id=39831
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110928022417/http://www.greengully.com/ssl/article_237.shtml to http://www.greengully.com/ssl/article_237.shtml
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121011145330/http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/2009InsideFFA/default.aspx?s=insideffa_newsfeatures_newsitem_new&id=40051 to http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/2009InsideFFA/default.aspx?s=insideffa_newsfeatures_newsitem_new&id=40051
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121011145341/http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/2009InsideFFA/default.aspx?s=insideffa_newsfeatures_newsitem_new&id=40122 to http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/2009InsideFFA/default.aspx?s=insideffa_newsfeatures_newsitem_new&id=40122
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121109060137/http://www.footballaustralia.com.au:80/news-display/rogic-gets-qantas-socceroos-call-up/52203 to http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news-display/rogic-gets-qantas-socceroos-call-up/52203
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121011145212/http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/MensU23/default.aspx?s=aus_u23men_player_profile&pid=2350&tid=112 to http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/MensU23/default.aspx?s=aus_u23men_player_profile&pid=2350&tid=112
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 02:26, 23 October 2016 (UTC)
External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 3 external links on Aziz Behich. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20170724170755/http://tournament.fifadata.com/documents/FCC/2017/PDF/FCC_2017_SQUADLISTS.PDF to http://tournament.fifadata.com/documents/FCC/2017/PDF/FCC_2017_SQUADLISTS.PDF
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120503131125/http://www.sportal.com.au/football-news-display/behich-staying-with-heart-100799 to http://sportal.com.au/football-news-display/behich-staying-with-heart-100799
* Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121215222721/http://turkish-football.com/news_read.php?id=3221 to http://www.turkish-football.com/news_read.php?id=3221
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 09:12, 14 September 2017 (UTC)
|
WIKI
|
DEV Community 👩💻👨💻
Cover image for How to implement Google OAuth2 in an Ionic/Capacitor app
Mariana Costa
Mariana Costa
Posted on • Originally published at mariana-costa.web.app
How to implement Google OAuth2 in an Ionic/Capacitor app
I've recently developed a cross-platform application with Ionic, Vue and Capacitor, and had some difficulties implementing Google OAuth2. Thus, I decided to write this article hoping that it may be useful for someone facing the same issues.
Capacitor is native runtime for building cross-platform mobile apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It provides a native mobile app that wraps a web view that hosts our web application. In the end, you have a web app running inside a mobile app, which in certain cases may have as disadvantages some performance loss.
To implement Google OAuth in a Capacitor app, there are two main steps to consider:
• Configure your project in Google Cloud Platform
• Implement the code needed for Google OAuth2
Configure your project in Google Cloud Platform
First, create a new project at https://console.cloud.google.com/. Then, on sidebar menu, go to API and services -> Credentials and add OAuth Client ID.
Create project at Google cloud platform
Now choose Android in the application type field. This form needs the information that was the most difficult for me to obtain: the correct SHA-1 fingerprint.
Google cloud platform form to get credentials for android
An android app can have 2 SHA-1 keys: debug and release keys. In the Google Cloud Platform Project, store the correct SHA-1 key, according to the apk you generate to test the app in an android device. I.e. if the apk was generated for build variant debug store debug SHA-1 key; if the apk was generated for release store release SHA-1 key.
Get debug SHA-1 key:
In Android Studio, open your project and click on the Gradle Bar, on the right side panel (1). Click on Tasks -> android and double-click on signingReport (2). The debug key will be displayed in your terminal (3).
How to get SHA1 for debug apk
Get release SHA-1 key:
When you generate an apk using Android Studio, you must defined a keystore and a key alias. At this time, you must define an alias for the generated certificate and where to store it. Keep it safe because it contains important information.
Create apk configuration
To get your release key, you need to use the keytool command. Go to the JDK Directory in your file system e.g. /Program Files/Java/jre-10.0.2/bin, open a terminal there and run the command keytool -list -v -keystore <path_to_the_certificate_with_keystore> -alias <alias_assigned_to_the_certificate>.
How to get SHA1 for release apk
Configure your OAuth consent screen
Add the scopes that you need for your app (e.g. email, profile), so they are presented on sign-in screen and the user can decide to grant or not your app the required permissions. Fill the other info in the form, if needed.
Create a OAuth Client ID for web application
You should also create an oAuth Client Id for web by choosing Web application in the application type field, after clicking on add OAuth Client ID.
Implement the code needed for Google OAuth2
I tested two plugins to implement Google OAuth in my app: @byteowls/capacitor-oauth2@2.1.0 and @codetrix-studio/capacitor-google-auth. Here are the implementations that I've made for both of them:
Using Capacitor OAuth2 plugin
Install the plugin yarn add @byteowls/capacitor-oauth2@2.1.0 (see docs for more details) and sync the new plugin by running npx cap sync.
<template>
<ion-button
expand="block"
class="submit-button"
@click="authenticateWithGoogle"
>
Authenticate with Google
</ion-button>
</template>
<script>
import { IonButton } from '@ionic/vue'
import { OAuth2Client } from '@byteowls/capacitor-oauth2'
export default {
components: {
IonButton,
IonIcon,
},
setup() {
const oauth2Options = {
authorizationBaseUrl: 'https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth',
accessTokenEndpoint: 'https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v4/token',
scope: 'email profile',
resourceUrl: 'https://www.googleapis.com/userinfo/v2/me',
logsEnabled: true,
web: {
appId: process.env.VUE_APP_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID_WEB,
responseType: 'token',
accessTokenEndpoint: '',
redirectUrl: 'http://localhost:8100',
windowOptions: 'height=600,left=0,top=0'
},
android: {
appId: process.env.VUE_APP_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID_ANDROID,
responseType: 'code',
redirectUrl: '<your_package_name:/>'
},
ios: {
appId: process.env.VUE_APP_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID,
responseType: 'code',
redirectUrl: '<your_package_name:/>'
}
}
const authenticateWithGoogle = async () => {
try {
const userData = await OAuth2Client.authenticate(oauth2Options)
const userData = {
fullName: userResponse.name || userResponse.displayName,
avatar: userResponse.picture,
accessToken: userResponse.access_token,
refreshToken: userResponse.authorization_response?.refresh_token
}
// add the code for the functionality your need
} catch (error) {
console.error(error)
}
}
const logout = async () => {
try {
await OAuth2Client.logout()
} catch (error) {
console.error(error)
}
}
onMounted(() => GoogleAuth.init())
return { authenticateWithGoogle, logout }
},
}
</script>
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
For Android, the documentation indicates to add the following configuration in AndroidManifest.xml
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data android:scheme="@string/custom_url_scheme" android:host="oauth" />
</intent-filter>
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
While testing my the app, I was not being able to install its apk in my android device. After some trial and error attempts, I figured out that if replaced the setup described in the docs by the code below, everything worked as expected.
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
Using Capacitor Google OAuth plugin
Install the plugin yarn add @codetrix-studio/capacitor-google-auth (see docs for more details) and sync the new plugin by running npx cap sync.
<template>
<ion-button
expand="block"
class="submit-button"
@click="authenticateWithGoogle"
>
Authenticate with Google
</ion-button>
</template>
<script>
import { IonButton } from '@ionic/vue'
import { onMounted } from 'vue'
import { GoogleAuth } from '@codetrix-studio/capacitor-google-auth'
export default {
components: {
IonButton,
IonIcon,
},
setup() {
const authenticateWithGoogle = async () => {
try {
const userResponse = await GoogleAuth.signIn()
const userData = {
fullName: userResponse.name || userResponse.displayName,
avatar: userResponse.picture,
accessToken: userResponse.access_token,
refreshToken: userResponse.authorization_response?.refresh_token
}
// add the code for the functionality your need
} catch (error) {
console.error(error)
}
}
const logout = async () => {
try {
await OAuth2Client.logout()
} catch (error) {
console.error(error)
}
}
return { authenticateWithGoogle, logout }
},
}
</script>
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
For Android app, add the following configuration to capacitor.config.json file:
{
"plugins": {
"GoogleAuth": {
"scopes": ["profile", "email"],
"serverClientId": "YOUR_WEB_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID",
"forceCodeForRefreshToken": true
}
}
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
Be aware that you must use the Web OAuth Client ID for these configurations, otherwise you'll not be able to sign-in when testing on a real android device.
For Android app, add the following configuration to strings.xml file:
<resources>
<string name="server_client_id">YOUR_WEB_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID</string>
</resources>
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
The documentation also indicates to add the following configuration to MainActivity.java file:
package <your_package_name:/>;
import android.os.Bundle;
import com.getcapacitor.BridgeActivity;
import com.getcapacitor.Plugin;
import com.codetrixstudio.capacitor.GoogleAuth.GoogleAuth;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class MainActivity extends BridgeActivity {
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
this.init(savedInstanceState, new ArrayList<Class<? extends Plugin>>() {{
add(GoogleAuth.class);
}});
}
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
However, this configuration was causing errors for the other plugins implemented in the app, and apparently they needed to be activated in the same way as capacitor-google-auth plugin in MainActivity.java file. After some experiments, I found out that Google OAuth was working without this configuration, so I removed it. Just be sure that you have the plugin registered on android\app\src\main\assets\capacitor.plugins.json file.
{
"pkg": "@codetrix-studio/capacitor-google-auth",
"classpath": "com.codetrixstudio.capacitor.GoogleAuth.GoogleAuth"
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
And that's all I had to share. If you want to check the implementation of Google OAuth in the Ionic/Capacitor app I developed, you can check the code here and download the app here. Hope to "see" you in my next post 👋.
Latest comments (0)
🤯
"I made 10x faster JSON.stringify() functions, even type safe"
☝️ Must read for JS devs
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Woman with curly hair smiling
Everything you still don't know about the Ludwig scale for female alopecia
We know that the scale Hamilton–Norwood It is the scale that measures the degrees of progression of male alopecia, however today we come to talk to you about the Ludwid scale that measures the advance of female alopecia.
What is the Ludwig scale?
The Ludwig scale was born in the 70s by Dr. Erich Ludwig who realized the need to create a way to measure female alopecia, just as Dr. O'Tar Norwood had already done to measure male alopecia.
With the Ludwig scale, it is possible to measure the progression of alopecia by looking at the localized areas in which loss of density begins to be observed.
Androgenetic alopecia, when it affects women, usually begins to manifest itself in the center of the upper part of the head, coinciding with the part of the hair and from there it begins to expand.
Grades of female alopecia according to the Ludwid scale
Degrees to which the Ludwig scale classifies female alopecia
The Ludwid scale is divided into 3 degrees in which we can differentiate female alopecia according to its degree of progress.
Mild grade
At this point what occurs is a slight widening of the hair line.
Moderate grade
Upon reaching this case there is already a noticeable widening of the hair line.
Severe grade
The loss of capillary density is very marked throughout the frontoparietal region.
Why does female alopecia appear?
Why does female alopecia appear?
There are different reasons why female alopecia can appear and damage to the hair should be minimized so that it becomes as less obvious as possible. For this we must provide our hair with the appropriate care.
Aggressive hair treatments
Abusing the heat of the dryers and irons does not benefit our hair since it makes it more brittle and weak. Perms or some accessories such as keratin extensions promote hair loss and breakage.
Detangling our hair with pulls
We must use products that are respectful of our hair and apply masks that help us undo the knots that may form.
When we brush our hair we must always do so by grasping the lock by the part closest to the scalp so as not to exert all pressure on the root of the hair and thus prevent the hair from remaining on the brush.
We must avoid very tight hairstyles
Very tight ponytails and bows
Hairstyles such as high ponytails, buns or very tight braids can cause what is known as traction alopecia. Stretching hair in such an aggressive way for a long time can damage the hair follicle until it is completely weakened and ends up losing hair.
A diet lacking in vitamins and nutrients
Our hair needs a diet rich in vitamins and nutrients that enhance the maintenance and growth of hair. With a balanced diet we can nourish the hair from the inside, helping it to stay healthy and regenerate properly.
Pregnancy and menopause
The hormonal changes that we undergo both in pregnancy and in menopause can lead to a more pronounced hair loss.
The difference between the two is that after pregnancy there comes a time when the hair begins to regenerate and we gain the lost density. In menopause, however, the level of alopecia is higher and it can be more difficult to recover from it.
Genetics also play a role
Alopecia can be genetically transmitted, so if there are women in your family who suffer from alopecia, it could be that you suffer from it too. In these cases it is always advisable to consult a specialist as soon as possible in order to avoid or slow down its progress.
Solutions to treat alopecia
Solutions to treat alopecia
An early diagnosis can make a big difference for those who suffer or will suffer from alopecia throughout their lives. As well as detecting the first signs, we must make an appointment with a specialist who can assess the state of our scalp and measure the degree of alopecia with the Ludwig scale of female alopecia.
Hair treatments
En Hospital Capilar We have various treatments that can help alopecia progress much more slowly and that will help us improve the condition of our hair as well as redensify it.
The demanded treatments that we offer are PRP or Platelet Rich Plasma and HRT or Hair Redensification Treatment, among others.
Our specialists will assess which is the one that best suits your case and with which you will be able to notice the greatest improvement.
Hair graft
En Hospital Capilar we can help you get your hair back. Our doctors must assess whether the case allows a graft to be carried out and treat the area previously if it is necessary to prepare it so that the scalp accepts the intervention.
If you want more information about hair grafting or other solutions that we can offer you, do not hesitate to ask us for more information.
Hospital Capilar Madrid
Your hair diagnosis at NO COST
En Hospital Capilar we are at your fingertips to give you all the information about the graft and hair solutions. In addition, we have a free diagnosis to determine your case in a personalized way. We will wait for you!
🌐
REQUEST YOUR DIAGNOSIS
By submitting the form you accept the Privacy Policy
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/165
shall find it difficult to recover it. I intend this day to show you the miserable state of relapsing sinners; that is, of those who, after confession, miserably fall back into the sins which they confessed. 1. Since, then, dearly beloved Christians, you have made a sincere confession of your sins, Jesus Christ says to you what he says to the paralytic: “Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee." (John v. 14.) By the confessions which you have made your souls are healed, but not as yet saved; for, if you return to sin, you shall be again condemned to hell, and the injury caused by the relapse shall be far greater than that which you sustained from your former sins. “Audis," says St. Bernard, "recidere quam incidere, esse deterius." If a man recover from a mortal disease, and afterwards fall back into it, he shall have lost so much of his natural strength, that his recovery from the relapse will be impossible. This is precisely what will happen to relaxing sinners; returning to the vomit that is, taking back into the soul the sins vomited forth in confession they shall be so weak, that they will become objects of amusement to the devil. St. Anselm says, that the devil acquires a certain dominion over them, so that he makes them fall, and fall again as he wishes. Hence the miserable beings become like birds with which a child amuses himself. He allows them, from time to time, to fly to a certain height, and then draws them back again when he pleases, by means of a cord made fast to them. Such is the manner in which the devil treats relapsing sinners. "Sed quia ab hoste tenentur, volantes in eadem vitia dejiciuntur." 2. St. Paul tells us, that we have to contend not with men like ourselves, made of flesh and blood, but with the princes of hell. “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers." (Ephes. vii. 12.) By these words he wishes to admonish us that we have not strength to resist the powers of hell, and that, to resist them, the divine aid is absolutely necessary: without it, we shall be always defeated; but, with the assistance of God’s grace, we shall, according to the same apostle, be able to do all things and
|
WIKI
|
No-Big-Silence
No-Big-Silence (often abbreviated as "NBS"), originally known as Aggressor, is an Industrial metal/rock band from Estonia.
Early years as Aggressor (1989–1995)
The beginnings of Aggressor date back to 1989 when Villem Tarvas, Marek Piliste, Kristo Kotkas and Marko Atso started playing together as an unnamed band. At the start of 1990 they released their first demo album named Indestructible – the music on this recording was influenced by German thrash metal band Kreator. Their first big performance was on 17 April 1990, and a year later they put together a 4 track demo which resulted in the recording of their first album, Procreate the Petrifactions at the end of 1992. Later on they played several shows in Moscow and in 1994 they released their second album Of Long Duration Anguish. The band was first introduced to a wider audience in the summer of 1995 at the Rock Summer festival in Estonia, where Aggressor headlined the B-stage – the crowd gave them a warm welcome.
Change of style and renaming to No-Big-Silence (1995–1996)
In 1994 bass guitarist Cram (Marek Piliste) sung a cover version of Corrosia Metalla's "Russian Vodka" for the album Of Long Duration Anguish. This later resulted in the idea of changing the band's name and style.
In 1995 the band went to studio (still as Aggressor) and were suggested a name-change. In 1995 they wrote lyrics to a song titled "No-Big-Silence 99" (a street in the USA where a mass murder was committed) – so the album was titled 99 and band renamed to "No-Big-Silence".
Success (1996–present)
After the 1995 Rock Summer festival, No-Big-Silence has successfully performed at larger festivals as well as at smaller clubs in Estonia, the Baltic States, Russia and Scandinavia. No-Big-Silence is valued as a live-act with an impressive show, esteemed by world class bands such as Metallica, Iron Maiden, Rammstein, HIM, Motörhead, Waltari, etc., who have chosen NBS to be their supporting act.
The chairman of the concert agency Baltic Development Group, Peeter Rebane, the local promoter for Metallica, Iron Maiden and Rammstein, comments: "In our opinion, No-Big-Silence is the most professional industrial band in the Baltics. Besides, they are a great live-act."
Their second release Successful, Bitch & Beautiful was already the album of current hit-songs such as "On the Hunt" and "Vamp-o-Drama". In 2001 the album was sold in Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and other European countries through the Finnish label Cyberware Productions. The homepage of Cyberware states that this album of No-Big-Silence is a magnificent masterpiece and regards it as one of the label's strongest releases today. According to Cyberware, the bonus video "Star DeLuxe" on the western version of the album gives a good overview of the band's glamorous live-show and enthusiastic fanbase. The Scandinavian music magazine Prospective Magazine thinks that Successful, Bitch & Beautiful is a "must listen to"-album. The review in the same magazines gives No-Big-Silence 8 out of 10 points. Johan Carlsson, a reviewer for the Swedish Release Magazine distinguishes the even and uniform quality of the album. "Metal riffs melded with electronic sounds on top of rock song structures make an interesting mixture, and the vocals fit perfectly." He continues: "It is nice to see an Estonian band, but don't buy it because of that. Buy it because it is good."
Musical style
The music of NBS has been variously described as sounding very much like Marilyn Manson and at times even Rammstein or Nine Inch Nails.
The band's style saw small changes throughout their albums apart from their first two, Procreate the Petrifactions and Of Long Duration Anguish, which are death metal. "99", recorded in 1995, featured a more thrash metal sound, but at the time of the album's release the band had taken on an industrial sound which was reflected in the supposed following album "new race" which was never released until 2003 under the compilation title Unreleased.
Successful, Bitch & Beautiful can be considered their softest album as it contains a mix of metal, rock and electronic. Unreleased is their heaviest and most electronic album and War in Wonderland is one of the darker and most "metal" of the band's albums. Starstealer, released in 2009, shows the band turning darker and heavier. The artwork of the album shows a darker side of the band and the music bears much darker sound and a small hint of thrash metal from the old days.
"No-Big-Silence, unlike most of the hard rock bands, that get their inspiration from mysticism, concentrates on expressing the twists and turns of human psychology in the language of pop music. It is a great achievement in itself – to sound tough and delicate at the same time."
* – Marko Mägi from Eesti Ekspress weekly
As Aggressor
* Villem Tarvas – vocals, guitar (1989–1995)
* Marek Piliste – bass (1989–1995)
* Kristo Kotkas – guitar (1989–1995)
* Marko Atso – drums (1989–1995)
As No-Big-Silence
* Marek Piliste (a.k.a. Cram) – lead vocals (1995–present)
* Villem Tarvas (a.k.a. Willem) – bass, guitar, backing vocals (1995–present)
* Kristo Kotkas (a.k.a. Kristo K) – guitar, keyboards and programming (1995–present)
* Rainer Mere – drums (2008–present)
Former members
* Marko Atso – drums (1995–2000)
* Kristo Rajasaare (a.k.a. Kristo R) – drums (2000–2008)
* Raimo Jussila – bass (1994–1996)
As Aggressor
* 1990: Indestructible (demo)
* 1993: Procreate the Petrifactions
* 1994: Of Long Duration Anguish
* 2004: Procreate the Petrifactions 2004 (re-release with 4 bonus tracks)
Singles
* 1994: Path of the lost god
As No-Big-Silence
* produced 1995 but released as late as 1997: 99
* 2000: Successful, Bitch & Beautiful
* 2003: Unreleased (late internet-only release of tracks recorded between 1996–1999)
* 2004: Kuidas kuningas kuu peale kippus (with Kosmikud)
* 2006: War in Wonderland
* 2007: Suurte Masinate Muusika (with Tiit Kikas) (live DVD of their concert at Leigo Järvemuusika in 2005)
* 2009: Starstealer
Singles
* 1996: Come
* 1997: New Race
* 1999: Vamp-O-Drama
* 2000: On The Hunt
* 2001: Star Deluxe
* 2001: The Fail
* 2006: Robot Super Lover Boy
* 2009: Chain Me
* 2011: Это не любовь (This Is Not Love) (Kino cover)
* 2011: üks imelik masin (A strange machine) (Gunnar Graps cover)
* 2013: The Falling
* 2013: Kõnetraat (Speaker cable) (Ummamuudu cover)
* 2014: Supersonic Night
* 2016: A Question of Time (Depeche Mode cover)
|
WIKI
|
The Coppersmith's Bride
The Coppersmith's Bride (クプルムの花嫁) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by namo. It began serialization in Enterbrain's seinen manga magazine Harta in May 2020.
Publication
Written and illustrated by namo, The Coppersmith's Bride began serialization in Enterbrain's seinen manga magazine Harta on May 15, 2020. Its chapters have been collected into five tankōbon volumes as of March 2024. The series is licensed in English by J-Novel Club.
Reception
The series was nominated for the eighth and ninth Next Manga Awards in 2022 and 2023, respectively, in the print category.
|
WIKI
|
Talk:Thornthwaite climate classification
Other languages
This page has versions in other languages but, when I try to add them, it says there's a conflict. I don't have the time to learn how it works right now but it would be appreciated if someone else makes the necessary changes. CasperBraske (talk) 05:10, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
|
WIKI
|
Gas parameters
The primary distinction between Acala EVM+ and the legacy EVM lies in the usage of encoded gasPrice and gasLimit, together referred to as "gas parameters".
Context
Acala EVM+ operates on a substrate chain. Consequently, the gas parameters must encode four substrate parameters: gasLimit, storageLimit, validUntil, and tip. It's crucial to supply precise gasPrice to gasLimit values to ensure accurate decoding into substrate parameters. Arbitrary changes to these parameters could lead to incorrect decoding.
For instance, when a user sends a transaction with the following gas parameters:
{
gasPrice: 100.004623375 gwei,
gasLimit: 100106,
}
These parameters are decoded into substrate parameters as follows:
{
validUntil: 4623375,
gasLimit: 30000,
storageLimit: 64,
tip: 0,
}
Despite being inconsistent with the legacy EVM, this aspect is advantageous for Acala EVM+. It utilizes features unavailable in the legacy EVM. For example, the validUntil parameter prevents transactions from indefinitely lingering in the transaction pool. Additionally, the storageLimit encourages developers to remove redundant data from the chain, thereby reducing chain bloat.
Retrieving Gas Parameters
for users
Users are not required to calculate gas parameters:
• When sending tokens, MetaMask automatically retrieves the correct gas parameters by calling ETH RPC endpoints.
• During transaction signing, dApps provide the correct gas parameters to MetaMask, enabling users to sign a valid transaction.
However, users should avoid arbitrary modification of transaction parameters within MetaMask, as it could lead to transaction failure due to incorrect decoding. We recommend highlighting this warning within your dApp's user interface.
for developers
Most tools and libraries (like ethers, hardhat, truffle) automatically calculate the correct gas parameters when sending a transaction. Developers typically do not need to intervene.
If gas parameters are not auto-computed, developers can calculate them as follows:
const gasPrice = await provider.getGasPrice();
const gasLimit = await contractInstance.estimateGas.functionName(...args);
Gas Decoding Details
without tip (default case)
Assume the Ethereum gasLimit is encoded as aaaabbbcc and gasPrice is encoded as 100yyyyyyyyy. They can be decoded into substrate gas parameters as follows:
• validUntil = yyyyyyyyy
• gasLimit = 30000 * bbb
• storageLimit = 2^min(21, cc)
for example:
{
gasPrice: 100004623375, // 100yyyyyyyyy, where yyyyyyyyy = 004623375
gasLimit: 100106, // aaaabbbcc, where bbb = 001 and cc = 06
}
will be decoded as
{
validUntil: 4623375, // yyyyyyyyy
gasLimit: 30000, // 30000 * bbb = 30000 * 1 = 30000
storageLimit: 64, // 2 ^ min(21, cc) = 2 ^ 6 = 64
tip: 0,
}
with tip
The gasLimit remains unaffected by the tip, as the tip is encoded into gasPrice as ab0yyyyyyyyy.
• tip = (ab0 / 100 - 1)% of the original cost
for example:
{
gasPrice: 120004623375, // ab0yyyyyyyyy, where ab0 = 120
gasLimit: 100106, // same as above
}
will be decoded as
{
validUntil: 4623375, // same as above
gasLimit: 30000, // same as above
storageLimit: 64, // same as above
tip: 20%, // ab0 / 100 - 1 = 120 / 100 - 1 = 20%
}
Modifying Gas Parameters
for users
Users generally should avoid manually modifying gas parameters to prevent incorrect decoding. dApps should initiate signature requests with valid gas parameters, relieving users of any concern about gas calculation. Nonetheless, knowledgeable users can manually modify the ab0 part of the gasPrice to increase the tip, which can expedite the transaction when the network is busy.
for developers
Developers can offer different priority options to users and compute the corresponding gasPrice, eliminating the need for users to manually modify gas parameters. For instance:
• default priority: ab0 = 100, in which case gasPrice is calculated automatically by the toolings
• high priority: ab0 = 120, in which case tip = 20% of the original cost
• super high priority: ab0 = 200, in which case tip = 100% of the original cost
If developers choose not to offer such options, they can use the default gasPrice directly.
When prompting user signatures, developers should also calculate a valid gasLimit. Most often, the tools should auto-calculate the gasLimit. If not, developers can hardcode a valid gasLimit (a rare occurrence, but if it happens, please report to the Acala team). For example, if an auto-calculated gasLimit = 100106 fails the transaction with an error like storage limit not enough, it implies the transaction requires more storage than the auto-computed storageLimit = 2 ^ 6 = 64. If the actual storage cost is 100, developers can use cc = 7, making gasLimit = 100107.
Last updated
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
User:Jason Rees/SHEM naming history
SWIO
* Wragge started it off in around 1892 naming all weather systems after politicians etc but his system died away after he retired.
* Latter stages of World War 2 - Some tropical cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere were named by United States Armed Forces.
* 1958-59 - The New Caledonia Meteorological Service introduced a naming scheme and started to assign female names to tropical cyclones in order to identify them in their public bulletins.
* November 1962 - The New Caledonia Meteorological Service proposes to the third session of the World Meteorological Organizations Regional Association V, that all tropical cyclones in the region should be named using female names. Members of the association suggested that male names might have to be used instead of female names, in order to avoid any confusion with those names used in the Northern Hemisphere. These proposals were examined by the association, which realised that any naming or numbering scheme used on a regional basis, would need very close coordination to avoid confusion or duplication. The association suggested that there was no real need for a regional naming scheme in the Southern Hemisphere, but had no objections to members using a national naming scheme assuming that the names were not duplicated.
* March 1, 1963 - The BoM established a tropical cyclone warning centre at Darwin.
* October 1963 - The BoM holds a conference in Melbourne where they decide to follow international practises and name tropical cyclones using female names.
* January 6, 1964 - TCWC Perth names Tropical Cyclone Bessie which was the first tropical cyclone to be formally named by the BoM.
I believe that what became Meteo France started naming in the SWIO at this stage.
* 1969-70 - The Nadi office of the NZMS starts naming tropical cyclones.
* January 4, 1970 - The Nadi Weather Office names Tropical Cyclone Alice.
* October 10, 1970 - Fiji declares its independence from the United Kingdom.
* December 21, 1974 – TCWC Darwin names Tropical Cyclone Tracy.
* February 24. 1975 - The Australian Science Minister Bill Morrison announces that the BoM will use both male and female names from October 1, 1975.
* During the 1970's, PNG appears to have had an annual list of names, while French Polynesia also appears to have named some systems in the 70s & 80s (Most notably TC Orama which along with Nisha is strangely not retired...)
* September 16, 1975 - Papua New Guinea becomes independent from Australia.
* October 1, 1975 - Male names start to appear
* October 1, 1975 - The FMS becomes independent from the NZMS on October 1, 1975 and takes over the responsibility for naming tropical cyclones.
* 1979-80 - The FMS starts using a rotating list of names.
* 1979-80 - Papua New Guinea's list of names for the season was Kas, Lena, Mike, Noe, Owen, Peso, Hob, Suzy, Tau and Ati.
* 1980-81 - The BoM appears to move to a circular list of names for each of its three TCWCs.
* February 1983 - The French Polynesian Meteorological Service names Tropical Cyclone Nisha: Orama.
* In 1985 the combination of TCs Nigel, Eric, Odette, Gavin and Hina impacting Vanuatu/Fiji prompt the formation of the RA V TCC.
* January 1986 - The first session of the RA V Tropical Cyclone Committee takes place in Nadi, Fiji.
* July 1988 - RA V TCC meets in Brisbane, Australia and updates the naming lists for Aus/SPAC.
* October 1989 - The RA I TCC meets for its Ninth Session in Harare, Zimbabwe and invites the Seychelles Meteorological Service to submit names at its next sessions for the cyclone seasons between 1992-93 and 1999-2000.
* 1996-97 - The BoM refreshes its naming liststhe
* October 9 - 16, 1996 - At its sixth session, the RA V TCC prepares a list of names that have been retired/deleted from usage in RSMC Nadi's AOR between 1972-73 & 1995-96. THe names included were: Anne (1988), Bebe (1972), Betsy (1992), Bola (1988), Eric (1985), Esau (1992), Fran (1992), Harry (1989), Ima (1986), Issac (1982), Kina (1992-93), Joni (1992), Lin (1992), Lili (1989), Namu (1986), Nigel* (1985), Nina* (1992-93), Ofa (1990), Oscar (1983), Peni (1990), Polly (1993), Raja (1986-87), Sally, (1986-87), Theodore (1994), Tia (1991), Uma (1987), Val (1991), Veena (1983), Wally (1980), Wasa (1991).
* February 25, 1997 - A tropical depression moved into MetService's area of responsibility on February 25, where it started to bear the hallmarks of a tropical cyclone, which prompted New Zealand's MetService to discuss naming the system with the Fiji Meteorological Service. At the time there was no precident of a tropical cyclone being named in the South Pacific to the south of 25°S, while nobody was quite sure if MetService should take a name from the FMS list of names for the region or make one up. As a result, it was decided to treat the system as a depression operationally, before it was later classified as an unnamed tropical cyclone in post analysis.
* September 8 - 12, 1998 - In its country report to the RA V Tropical Cyclone Committee's Seventh Session, MetService requests the right to name tropical cyclones in consulation with the FMS within its area of responsibility.
* 1998-99 - New Zealand's MetService names TC Gita in conjunction with the FMS.
* September 21 -27, 1999 - At the 14th RA I TCC, the committee decided the following:
* A tropical cyclone would be named when its 10-minute average wind speeds reached 34 kn over half the circulation near the centre or the majority of the depression's circulation.</ref
* In the absence of any objective measurements, naming was to take place as soon as the disturbance had been assigned a T2.5 number on the Dvorak scale for more than 6 consecutive hours.
* A new code to identify tropical disturbances for operational monitoring and global climatology was to be introduced.
* Two lists of names from A-Z containing both Male and Female first names were proposed for the 2000-2001 & 2001-2002 cyclone seasons.
* 2000-01 - Ando, Bindu, Charly, Dera, Evariste, Francois, Gaby, Hans, Idriss, Jakoba, Kiran, Lanto, Mathieu, Nancy, Oda, Premnath, Quirin, Rakoto, Suzy, Tovo, Ursula, Vimla, Wenda, Xino, Yul and Zoe.
* 2001-02 - Andre, Bako, Cyprien, Dina, Eddy, Francesca, Guillaume, Hary, Ikala, Jery, Kesiny, Lalita, Mirana, Naly, Orelie, Parina, Quincy, Roger, Solo, Teddy, Usha, Vero, Wendy, Xora, Yolande, Zaza.
* It was proposed that tropical cyclones moving into the South-West Indian Ocean would not be renamed and would instead retain their original name. The committee agreed to examine this question more deeply and in detail during the following session of the committee.
* The Committee noted a request from RSMC La Reunion to be given the role of naming tropical cyclones in the region and modified the procedures of naming a tropical cyclone to read: A tropical disturbance is named when reaching the stage of moderate tropical storm (validated T-number 2.5 on the Dvorak Scale over six consecutive hours). As soon as one of the two subregional Tropical Cyclone Advisory Centres (Madagascar if the storm is centred to the west of 55E and Mauritius if the storm is centred between 55E and 90E.) decides to name a disturbance, the RSMC La Reunion - TCC shall be informed immediately via fax and if necessary, by any other appropriate means to ensure that the given name appears in the bulletins issued by the RSMC.
* It was proposed that the naming scheme would be reviewed at the next session.
* The RA I TCC invited RA V TCC to consider a proposal for a single list of names in the Southern Indian Ocean, for use by each of the warning centres in the region.
* In order to standardise the operational area of responsibility for tropical cyclones in the South-West Indian Ocean and the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System, the RA I TCC invited RA V TCC to consider a proposal to move the boundary for the SWIO and the Australian region from 90E to 95E.
* September 2001 - At the 15th RA I TCC, the RA V TCC and RSMC La Reunion proposed that a tropical cyclone retained its original name when it moved into the SWIO from the Australian Region. RSMC La Reunion also proposed that the boundary of the Aus/SWIO be moved from 90E to 95E, that the basin adopts a single list of names that rotated from year to year and that the date of when the tropical cyclone year changed from August 1 to July 1. With the exception of the change to when the tropical cyclone year changed, these proposals were rejected by the RA I TCC who went on to approve the list of names for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 tropical cyclone years.
* March 2004 - A tropical cyclone developed within the South Atlantic
During March 2004, a rare tropical cyclone developed within the Southern Atlantic, about 1010 km to the east-southeast of Florianópolis in southern Brazil. As the system was threatening the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, a newspaper used the headline "Furacão Catarina," which was presumed to mean "furacão (hurricane) threatening (Santa) Catarina (the state)". However, when the international press started monitoring the system, it was assumed that "Furacão Catarina" meant "Cyclone Catarina" and that it had been formally named in the usual way.
* November 2007 - The PNG NWS names TC Guba, which is automatically retired.
* April 22, 2008 - TCWC Jakarta names their first tropical cyclone: Durga.
* October 2008 - The RA I Tropical Cyclone Committee meets in Malawi for its eighteenth session.
At its 18th Session, the RA I TCC rejected a proposal that a tropical cyclone retained its original name, when it moved into the SWIO from the Australian Region but decided to discuss it at their next meeting after various consultations had taken place.
* 2008-09 - TCWC Jakarta issues a naming list for its AOR.
* 2008-09 - The BoM merges its three naming lists into one national list.
* March 10, 2010 - Brazillian Weather Services name TC Anita
* July 1, 2012 - The Mauritius Meteorological Service stops renaming tropical cyclones when they cross 90E.
* September 2015 - At its 21st session in September 2015, the RA I TCC reviewed the procedures for naming tropical cyclones over the SWIO and decided that the procedures were in need of an overhaul. This was because it was felt that they did not take into account, significant improvements in the science around tropical cyclones and were biased by links to some national warning systems. As a result, they decided to form a task force which compromised off representatives from RSMC La Reunion, as well as the meteorological services of Mauritius and Madagascar, to develop an alternative procedure. They also decided that there would now be three list of names that rotated on an annual basis with the names used automatically retired.
* December 2018 - Concerns were raised by the JMA about names overlapping.
* October 2019 - At the 23rd RA I TCC, the committee acknowledges that RSMC La Reunion has the right to name tropical cyclones.
* 2021-22 - New Zealand's MetService names TC Eva in conjunction with the FMS.
|
WIKI
|
Configuration Settings for Portal Applications
Each portal application should have a portal.cfg configuration file in the config directory for the application. The format of the file is the same as the standard Speck application configuration files, i.e. Windows ini file, with a settings section and optionally a database section.
Almost any setting which is allowed in a standard Speck application configuration file is allowed in a portal configuration file (the exceptions being appName and keywords). Some of the settings from standard Speck applications have different defaults for portal applications and there are also a number of additional settings which are exclusive to portal applications.
The standard Speck application settings which have different defaults for portal applications are:
• labelRoles - spSuper,spEdit=r (empty string in non-portal apps).
• keywordRoles - spSuper,spEdit=r (empty string in non-portal apps).
• sesSuffix - .html (empty string in non-portal apps).
• securityZones - portal (defaults to application name in non-portal apps).
• sesUrls - yes (no in standard Speck apps).
• manageKeywords - yes (no in standard Speck apps).
The settings which are exclusive to portal applications are as follows:
Setting
Required Description
name No Name of web site - used for things like sending welcome emails etc. and may also be used in document titles. Defaults to application name.
template No Default template to use when generating content. Default "". If not set, the Blurb content type is used to generate content in sections where no template has been specified.
layout No Default layout to use when rendering pages. Default "". If not set, no layout is used.
stylesheet No Path to main/screen stylesheet to use when rendering pages. Defaults to either /stylesheets/screen.css or /stylesheets/main.css if not set and one or other exists.
importStyles No Comma-delimited list of paths to additionl stylesheets to include using @import syntax
printStylesheet No Path to print stylesheet. Defaults to /stylesheets/print.css if file exists.
popupStylesheet No Path to stylesheet to use in popup windows. Defaults to /stylesheet/popup.css if exists.
pngfix No Add a hack for IE6 to provide support for transparent backgrounds in png images. Default "no".
prototype No Enable Prototype javascript and ajax API. Default "no".
scriptaculous No Enable scriptaculous library of javascript UI effects. Default "no". Note: this setting also accepts a list of the names of the scriptaculous libraries to include (e.g. builder,effects).
lightbox No Enable lightbox for images. Note: automatically loads prototype and scriptaculous libraries as required. Default "no".
seoIdentifiers No Tells templates to avoid using UUIDs in URLs where possible and use more search engine friendly things like labels as identifiers. Only supported by articles and events at the moment. Default "no".
rewriteEngine No Use rewrite engine style URLs (e.g. /go/news-irish rather than /index.cfm/spKey/news.irish.html). Note that you have to have rewrite on at the web server and have rules set up for the app / virtual host. See the .htaccess and speck_rewrite.common files included with the Speck download for more details. Note: when the rewrite engine is enabled, the sesSuffix (e.g. .html) is only appended to identifiers for content items (see the way the .html is dropped in the example above, that's because the path is to a site section, not a specific content item).
rewritePrefix No Prefix for rewrite URLs. Default go/. Using a prefix makes it a lot easier to set up some URL rewriting rules at the web server, but you can get rid of the prefix if you really, really want to. Have a look at the speck_rewrite.common file included with the Speck download. Note: whatever your prefix is, it should not end with a dash - if Speck finds a dash at the end of the prefix, it assumes an old, ugly, rewrite URL format (it's a long story, you don't wanna hear it, just don't use dash, right!).
passwordEncryption No Function to use to encrypt passwords. By default passwords are stored plain text. If you need encrypted passwords and aren't sure what to set this to, just set it to "hash"
fileManager No Enable the integrated file manager (CFFM speckified, with some additional features hacked into it too). Default yes. Note: even if the file manager is enabled, you need to have spSuper role and access from an allowed IP or be listed file manager user, i.e. it's enabled but locked down by default.
fileManagerIps No List of IP addresses from which to allow access to the file manager. Default 127.0.0.1
fileManagerUsers No List of users who have access to the file manager. Default "". Note: users must also have spSuper role.
trackUserActivity No Track when a user was last active in spUsers database table (use with caution, results in an update statement every 90 seconds or so for each logged on user).
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Page:Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth (Macmillan, 1897) (IA cu31924104001478).pdf/146
the top of White Moss Near ten when we came in. William and Molly had dug the ground and planted potatoes in my absence. We wrote to Coleridge; sent off bread and frocks to the C.'s. Went to bed at half-past eleven. William very nervous. After he was in bed, haunted with altering The Rainbow.
Saturday, 15th.—A very cold and cheerless morning. I sate mending stockings all the morning. I read in Shakespeare. William lay very late because he slept ill last night. It snowed this morning just like Christmas. We had a melancholy letter from Coleridge at bedtime. It distressed me very much, and I resolved upon going to Keswick the next day.
(The following is written on the blotting-paper opposite this date:—)
Sunday, 16th.—William was at work all the morning. I did not go to Keswick. A sunny, cold, frosty day. A snowstorm at night. We were a good while in the orchard in the morning.
Monday, 17th May.—William was not well, he went with me to Wytheburn water, and left me in a post-chaise. Hail showers, snow, and cold attacked me. The people were graving peats under Nadel Fell. A lark and thrush singing near Coleridge's house. Bancrofts there. A letter from M. H.
Tuesday, 18th May.—Terribly cold, Coleridge not well. Froude called, Wilkinsons called, C. and I
|
WIKI
|
Women in Bulgaria
Women in Bulgaria refers to women who live in and are from Bulgaria. Women's position in Bulgarian society has been influenced by a variety of cultures and ideologies, including the Byzantine and Ottoman cultures, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, communist ideology, and contemporary globalized Western values.
Emancipation
While Bulgaria is often described as a patriarchal society, women do have substantial authority in household budgeting or agricultural decision making. Both men and women have the right to vote and own property. In part due to decades of socialist ideology of gender equality (when representation of women in STEM sector was fostered) but also because the intellectual contribution of women is traditionally valued, Bulgaria boasts the highest representation of women in the IT sector. Women remain responsible for most household chores and represent more than half the registered unemployed. Vesna Nikolić-Ristanović points out how at women made up two thirds of the unpaid workers present in Bulgaria during the 1990s. They also occupy public and private leadership positions less frequently than men. In 1996, fewer than 14 percent of post-socialist parliamentary representatives have been women, and only one in five municipal councilors were women in that year. By 2019, women represented 25.8% of the Parliament.
Voting and government
Limited women's suffrage was first granted in 1937, and women obtained full voting rights in 1944. During the communist era, civil rights and freedoms for both women and men were equal, no matter how limited they were due to the authoritarian nature of the government. In 1945 the first women were elected in parliament. Between 1960 and 1990 the number of women in parliament varied between 16% and 21% and in 1990 it dropped down to 8.5%. As of 2017, there were 25.8% women in parliament.
Employment
Many women entered paid employment during the socialist era, when an ideology of gender equality was promoted, and they made up nearly half the workforce in the late twentieth century. Women are frequently employed as teachers, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, software developers, and in human resources, public administration, law, and as notaries. Furthermore, Bulgaria ranks number one in the world in representation of women in the IT sector. Women are also largely responsible for household tasks—child care, cooking, cleaning, and shopping. Agricultural labor is divided according to gender, with men working with animals and machinery and women doing more hand labor in crop production, although flexibility exists in response to specific situations.
Mariya Stoilova found that women's economic activity in post-socialist Bulgaria was most affected by the age of the women, with older women who were in employment during the socialist system having the lowest rate of economic activity in post-socialist Bulgaria, and while younger women still faced sexist discrimination in employment opportunities, they were more economically active than older age groups of women. Despite this, the gender segregation in the workforce is somewhat less pronounced in Bulgaria than in other European countries. Compared to the European average, Bulgarian women have a higher involvement in traditionally male fields such as science, maths, computing and engineering; and a lower involvement in the service field. Also, the gender pay gap (in 2013) is 13.0% in Bulgaria, which is lower than the European Union average of 16.2%.
As of 2014, the employment rate (age 15–64) for women was 58.2% while for men it was 63.9%. However, in 2023 only 44% of the unemployed are women (compared to 56% for men). The employment rate for both sexes has been relatively low during the past two decades, due to hardships experienced by the national economy after the fall of the communism. Nevertheless, the exact involvement in the labour force is quite difficult to determine, due to the presence of the unregulated informal sector. According to World Bank, women in 2014 made up 46.6% of the total labour force, pretty much the same as in 1990 (47.9%). Bulgarian women's strong involvement in the economy can be seen in the fact that almost all employed women work full-time - the highest percentage among employed women in the EU.
Before the communist era, Bulgaria (like other Eastern European countries) was a largely rural agricultural society, with women being integrated in the rural agricultural work. As such, they occupied a relatively high status in society (although not equal to men). Under the communist regime, the country was industrialized and "modernized", and people came from rural areas to urban areas. The communist new ideology and economy integrated women in paid employment - in the late 1970s, Bulgaria had the highest percentage of working women in the world. Women were integrated in almost all fields, including science and medicine, nevertheless they were strictly under the control of the state, were educated to be submissive to the state authorities (who were mostly male), and had very little power of self-expression. The fall of the communist had mixed results for women: while their economic security was affected (although this affected men too - as both men and women lost, in large numbers, their state-guaranteed jobs), women got the newly discovered freedom to open business, freely pursue artistic and cultural activities, and have freedom of speech.
While the newly emerging, 'wild', unrestricted capitalism of the 1990s was often hostile to women, many women have, in fact, succeeded: one-third of company owners and top managers in Bulgaria are women. The high involvement of women in business is common to countries in the Eastern European region: "Overall, Eastern Europe continues to top the rankings in gender equality, with 35 percent of senior roles in the region held by women and just 16 percent of businesses with no women in senior management", according to a 2007 study.
Education
The literacy rate is slightly lower for women compared to men: the literacy rate is 98.1% for females, while for males it is 98.7% (aged 15 or older, data from 2015). Illiteracy is particularly high among Roma women, as well as, Roma men.
Constitutional rights
The Constitution of Bulgaria provides for gender equality: Art. 6.(1) All persons are born free and equal in dignity and rights. (2) All citizens shall be equal before the law. There shall be no privileges or restriction of rights on the grounds of race, national or social origin, ethnic self-identity, sex, religion, education, opinion, political affiliation, personal or social status or property status".
International obligations
Being part of the European Union (since 2007), Bulgaria is subject to its directives. Bulgaria is also a party to CEDAW. Bulgaria has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings in 2007.
Anti-discrimination laws
Discrimination is legally prohibited. The Protection Against Discrimination Act (2004) is Bulgaria's main anti-discrimination law. At Article 4 it states: "Any direct or indirect discrimination on grounds of gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, human genome, citizenship, origin, religion or belief, education, convictions, political affiliation, personal or social status, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status, property status, or on any other grounds established by law or by an international treaty to which the Republic of Bulgaria is a party, shall be banned."
Property inheritance
Women and men have equal legal rights. Both men and women own property such as land, buildings, and animals, and inheritance is partible (i.e., property is divided among all heirs rather than going to a single heir). In practice, some heirs may be disinherited or may receive more land than their siblings, and daughters traditionally inherited less land than sons. The latter was sometimes explained in terms of the often large dowries of household goods and sometimes land or livestock that women traditionally took into marriage. Houses were traditionally often inherited by youngest sons, who brought their wives to live in the family home.
Reproductive rights and health
The maternal mortality rate in Bulgaria is 11 deaths/100,000 live births (as of 2010). The total fertility rate (TFR) in Bulgaria is 1.45 children born/woman (2015 estimates), which is below the replacement rate, and one of the lowest in the world. Abortion in Bulgaria is legal on request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and at later stages for medical reasons.
Marriage and family life
While marriage was traditionally very important in Bulgaria, there has been a rapid increase in unmarried cohabitation after the fall of communism. The transition from communism to market economy had a great impact on the demographic behavior of the population. After the fall of communism, the legal and social pressure to get married has declined, and the population has started to experience new life styles. As of 2014, 58.8% of children were born to unmarried mothers. In the European Values Study (EVS) of 2008, the percentage of Bulgarian respondents who agreed with the assertion that "Marriage is an outdated institution" was 27.2%. A new Family Code came into effect in 2009, modernizing family law. Legally, Bulgaria has long recognized the equality of men and women in family law. This is explicitly stipulated in the Family Code, Art 2, which defines seven principles of family relations, one of which is "equality between the man and the woman". This is reinforced at Art 13, titled, "Equality between spouses" which states: "The spouses shall have equal rights and obligations in the matrimony." Despite legal equality, societal norms of the Balkan culture often consider the wife to be in a position of subordination to the husband.
In terms of maternity leave, from the beginning of the 1970s women in Bulgaria enjoyed two years of paid leave and one year of unpaid leave. In the early 1990s it was reduced to one year paid leave and one year unpaid leave.
Violence against women
Bulgaria is part of the paradox of many Eastern European societies: a long tradition of involvement of women in public working life, and high professional status for women; but at the same time leniency towards domestic violence. A 1996 report stated: "Society recognizes women's intellectual abilities. For fifty years now, women constitute half of the labour force in the country. The situation in the family is different. The relationship model is a patriarchal one."
In the 21st century, with the entry in the EU, Bulgaria has revised its policy on family violence, particularly by enacting its first domestic violence law, the 2005 Protection against Domestic Violence Act. In 2015, Bulgaria repealed Article 158 of the Penal Code, which stated that a perpetrator of several sexual offences could escape prosecution by marrying the victim.
Women's movement
In the 19th century, small local women's groups started to form in Bulgaria. The women's movement was united and organized in the Bulgarian Women's Union in 1901, which campaigned for equal rights, among them women's suffrage, which was partially obtained in 1937. With the Communist take over in 1944, the women's movement was placed under government control through the state organization Bulgarian National Women's Union, and equal rights between men and women were introduced in law. An independent women's movement again resurfaced after 1989.
|
WIKI
|
The Fred Factor: Fred Hassan - CNN.com
(CNN) -- If your drug company is on its death-bed, this is the man you want as your corporate doctor. He's Fred Hassan, the CEO of drug giant Schering-Plough. In the past 25 years, he has turned around his fair share of ailing pharmaceutical firms, including the recovery and subsequent 56 billion dollar sale of Pharmacia. He's so renowned within his industry that they coined a phrase for his brand of management: The Fred Factor. Hassan tells The Boardroom's Maggie Lake how he is able to assess, diagnose and cure. Fred Hassan, CEO of Schering-Plough Lake: You've built a reputation as a turn-around expert in the pharmaceutical industry. Why do you succeed where others fail? Hassan: Well, I do have a good reputation as a turnaround person, but I'd like to say that I am more a turnaround-and-transform person. I like to also build for the long term. Managers in a conventional environment are pretty good at dealing with issues. But when you have multiple issues, that's where the biggest challenge is. So the first thing is to identify the problem and to be brutally honest about the issue and to share that with the people. Because being brutally honest, you actually build trust and build credibility. Lake: It sounds like all very tough stuff, being brutally honest, in some cases cutting costs aggressively. I know you changed the commission setup at Schering-Plough, and yet you are described as very amicable, very inclusive -- Those two things don't seem to go together to me. Hassan: I think it's very important that people in the corner office have a humanity in them. And they cannot build trust, they cannot get people to rally behind them, if there is not that personal trust. You need to be in tune, and that comes partly from the inside. If you care about people, and if you know that your way to success is through people, then you have to be a decent human being to start with. Lake: Do you think your employees have to like you? Hassan: Not necessarily because you can't be a person who does polling and pandering. You have to be a leader. And leaders sometimes have to be unpopular. Lake: I notice you talk about leaders, not managers. What's the difference? Hassan: Manager means you administer, you execute, against the plan, you get people organized, it's a very important part of management. But leadership is the element where you build the emotional connection. Where you build the passion to go for the wind. That's something where it really does matter, because if you can get people to rally behind the cause, you can get extraordinary energy built up in the system. Lake: Did you always have a goal being a CEO, or is something that just sort of happened along the career path? Hassan: It happened along the career path. My focus always was to focus on the job in front of me and not focus on the next promotion. Because if you focus on the job in front of you, people give you more of their trust. And you get more out of the people around you. If people think you have another agenda, then they don't support you as much. Lake: People call it The Fred Factor. What do you think that means, the Fred Factor? Hassan: There were a lot of people who wanted this place to be broken up and sold off, and I just feel that my coming in there, showing a sense of confidence working with the people, making them feel good about themselves, I could say, maybe that's what's the Fred Factor is at Schering-Plough. E-mail to a friend All About Schering-Plough Corporation • Fred Hassan
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
Enhancing Scalability in Telecom BSS: Strategies and Solutions
telecom infrastructure
Share This Post
In the fast-paced world of telecom, Business Support Systems (BSS) need to be scalable to handle growing demands. Scalability ensures that systems can manage more users, data, and transactions without slowing down. This article explores various strategies and solutions to enhance scalability in telecom BSS, including cloud-based solutions, architectural strategies, and future trends.
Key Takeaways
• Scalability is essential for telecom BSS to handle increasing loads efficiently.
• Both horizontal and vertical scaling techniques are crucial for improving system performance.
• Cloud-based solutions provide flexibility and efficiency for scalable telecom BSS.
• Effective load balancing and caching are key practices for smooth operations.
• Future technologies like 5G, IoT, and AI will significantly impact the scalability of telecom BSS.
Architectural Strategies for Enhancing Scalability
Microservices and Modular Design
In the realm of telecom Business Support Systems (BSS), architectural strategies play a pivotal role in achieving scalability. By adopting modern architectural paradigms, we can address the inherent challenges and bottlenecks that impede system performance and growth.
Service-Oriented Architectures
When designing for scalability, it is crucial to adopt a forward-thinking approach. This involves anticipating future growth and ensuring that the system architecture can handle increased loads without compromising performance. Modular design principles are essential, allowing for components to be independently scaled and updated. Additionally, leveraging cloud-native technologies can provide the flexibility needed to adapt to changing demands.
Event-Driven Architectures
Scalability is of utmost importance in the Telecom BSS landscape. As telecom operators and SaaS businesses continue to grow and expand their operations, the need for scalable solutions becomes paramount. Scalability ensures that the systems and platforms can handle increasing volumes of data, users, and transactions without compromising performance or stability.
Leveraging Cloud-Based Solutions for Scalability
Benefits of Cloud-Native Architectures
In our quest to improve scalability in Telecom BSS, cloud-based solutions play a crucial role. These solutions provide unmatched flexibility and scalability, enabling us to adjust resources dynamically to meet changing demands. By adopting cloud-native architectures, we can achieve higher scalability and elasticity, which are vital for keeping up with the fast-changing telecom industry.
Scalability in Hybrid Cloud Environments
Hybrid cloud environments offer a blend of on-premises and cloud-based resources, giving us the best of both worlds. This approach allows for greater flexibility and cost-efficiency. We can scale workloads across different environments based on specific needs, ensuring optimal performance and resource utilization.
Cloud-Based Load Balancing Techniques
Effective load balancing is essential for maintaining system performance and reliability. Cloud-based load balancing techniques distribute traffic across multiple servers, preventing any single server from becoming a bottleneck. This not only enhances performance but also ensures high availability and fault tolerance. Implementing these techniques can significantly improve the scalability of Telecom BSS.
Implementing Horizontal and Vertical Scaling
telecom infrastructure
Horizontal Scaling Techniques
Horizontal scaling involves adding more machines to handle increased load. This method is often preferred for its flexibility and ability to manage large-scale operations without a single point of failure. By distributing the load across multiple machines, we can ensure that our system remains robust and efficient even as demand grows.
Vertical Scaling Approaches
Vertical scaling focuses on enhancing the capacity of existing machines. This approach is beneficial for applications that require high computational power and memory. By upgrading the hardware, such as adding more CPU or RAM, we can improve the performance of our existing infrastructure.
Balancing Between Horizontal and Vertical Scaling
Balancing between horizontal and vertical scaling is crucial for optimal performance. While horizontal scaling offers flexibility, vertical scaling provides the necessary power for resource-intensive tasks. Finding the right balance ensures that we can handle varying loads efficiently without compromising on performance.
In the realm of telecom BSS, scalability and flexibility are key. Whether we are expanding our customer base or introducing new services, our systems must be designed to scale seamlessly.
Role of Distributed Systems in Telecom BSS
Distributed Databases
In the realm of Telecom BSS, distributed databases play a crucial role in managing vast amounts of data efficiently. By spreading data across multiple servers, we can ensure high availability and fault tolerance. This approach not only enhances performance but also provides a scalable solution to handle the ever-growing data volumes, especially with the integration of 5G and IoT technologies.
Decentralized Processing
Decentralized processing allows us to distribute computational tasks across various nodes, reducing the load on any single server. This method is particularly beneficial in exploring scalability challenges in telecom BSS architectures due to 5G and IoT integration. By leveraging decentralized processing, we can achieve better resource utilization and improved system resilience.
Fault Tolerance and Redundancy
Fault tolerance and redundancy are essential components of a robust Telecom BSS. By implementing redundant systems and failover mechanisms, we can ensure continuous service availability even in the event of hardware or software failures. This strategy is vital for maintaining high availability and reliability, which are critical for telecom operations.
As we transition from legacy systems to cloud-native architectures, addressing data volume, connectivity, and high availability becomes increasingly important. Distributed systems offer a scalable and resilient solution to meet these demands, ensuring that our Telecom BSS can support future growth and technological advancements.
Best Practices for Load Balancing and Caching
Load Balancing Algorithms
Effective load balancing is vital for distributing workloads evenly across servers, preventing any single server from becoming a bottleneck. Techniques such as round-robin, least connections, and IP hash can be employed to optimize resource utilization. Implementing load balancers at multiple levels, including application and network layers, ensures redundancy and high availability.
Caching Strategies
Caching mechanisms play a significant role in enhancing scalability by reducing the load on backend systems. By storing frequently accessed data in memory, response times are significantly improved. In-memory caches like Redis and Memcached are popular choices for their high performance and ease of integration. It is important to strategically determine what data to cache and establish appropriate expiration policies to maintain data consistency.
Real-World Applications of Load Balancing
In real-world scenarios, load balancing and caching are essential for achieving scalability in telecom BSS. By implementing these best practices, telecom operators can ensure their systems remain robust and efficient. As the telecom landscape continues to evolve with advancements like 5G and IoT, staying ahead with scalable solutions will be crucial.
Future Trends Impacting Scalability in Telecom BSS
Influence of 5G on BSS Scalability
The arrival of 5G technology is set to change the telecom industry, offering faster speeds and better connectivity. This shift means that BSS architectures need to be scalable to handle more data and higher service demands. Telecom operators must update their systems to make the most of 5G, ensuring smooth integration and performance.
Impact of IoT on Scalability
The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly expanding, connecting a multitude of devices and generating vast amounts of data. To manage this influx, BSS systems must be highly scalable and efficient. Implementing IoT solutions in telecom BSS can lead to improved service delivery and operational efficiency.
Role of AI in Enhancing Scalability
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing a crucial role in enhancing the scalability of telecom BSS. AI-driven analytics and automation can optimize network performance, predict and mitigate issues, and streamline operations. By leveraging AI, telecom operators can achieve greater scalability and reliability in their BSS systems.
The future of telecom BSS is intertwined with technological advancements like 5G, IoT, and AI. Embracing these trends is essential for developing scalable, efficient, and future-proof BSS solutions.
The telecom industry is rapidly evolving, and staying ahead means understanding future trends that impact scalability in Telecom BSS. Our platform is designed to help you navigate these changes effortlessly. Visit our website to learn more about how we can support your business in this dynamic landscape.
Conclusion
In summary, making Telecom BSS scalable is key to keeping up with the industry’s growing needs. By using strategies like horizontal and vertical scaling, and adopting distributed systems, telecom companies can keep their systems strong and efficient. Practices such as load balancing and caching help make operations smoother. As new technologies like 5G and IoT come into play, having scalable solutions will be more important than ever. By planning ahead and using the right tools, telecom operators can ensure their systems are ready for the future.
More To Explore
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Baselworld 2018: Fortune's 5 Hottest Watches
By Daniel Bentley 11:05 AM EDT
The largest event on the horological calendar—Baselworld—came to a close this week, leaving watch fans with a taste of what the world’s premier manufacturers have in store for the rest of 2018. Hundreds of watches were unveiled at the show, from new Casio G-Shocks (don’t sleep on their retro tribute to the very first model ) all the way up million-dollar pieces from haute horology’s most exclusive makers. These were our favorite pieces from the show—and they all happen to be under $10,000.
Tudor Black Bay 58
The unofficial winner of Baselworld 2018 was from Rolex sister brand Tudor. Borrowing on the aesthetics of the parent company’s iconic Submariner, the Black Bay 58 is an appeal to watch enthusiasts who like the classic diver style but are turned off by the 40-millimeter-or-more case sizes of modern dive watches. Measuring just 39 mm across and 11.9 mm thick–thanks to Tudor’s new in-house MT5402 movement—and priced at around $3,500 on a bracelet, we recommend getting on the waiting list, well, yesterday.
Advertisement Rolex GMT Master II
The “GMT” complication is one of the most useful and elegant in all of watchmaking, allowing the wearer to set the time in three separate timezones with minimal visual fuss. For 2018, Rolex has updated its GMT Master II in its proprietary stainless steel, with a ceramic red-and-blue “Pepsi” bezel, and a jubilee link bracelet. The GMT Master II will retail for 8,800 Swiss francs, or approximately, $9,200. (Tudor also released a GMT model to much acclaim , starting at around $3,500.)
Omega Seamaster 1948 Limited Editions
The trend of watchmakers creating modern interpretations of their vintage pieces is not slowing anytime soon. Omega perhaps more than any other brand has jumped in feet first, having unveiled tributes to their 1957 Speedmaster, Seamaster, and Railmaster at Baselworld 2017. For 2018 the brand has looked nine years earlier in its history with a pair of watches to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its Seamaster. At a 38 mm case size, the watches lean more toward vintage territory but behind their display caseback is a thoroughly modern movement: Omega’s co-axial master chronometer calibers 8806 (for the version sporting a center seconds hand) and 8806 (for the model with a small seconds hand in the subdial). Both editions are limited to 1,948 pieces each and will start at 5,700 Swiss francs, or approximately $6,000.
Advertisement NOMOS Glasshütte Tangente Neomatik 41 Update
For those with more modern-minimalist tastes, German brand NOMOS has updated their 41 mm Tangente model with one of the sleekest date complications on any watch. Instead of displaying the date as many others do, in a window at the 3 o’clock or 6 o’clock positions, for the Tangente NOMOS placed the date numerals on the outermost rim of the dial and used two red markers to indicate today’s date. The Tangente Neomatik 41 Update will be available in the first half of 2018, priced at $4,100.
Advertisement Grand Seiko Caliber 9S 20th Anniversary Limited Editions
Don’t tell the Swiss, but one of the finest watches announced at Baselworld 2018 was from Japanese manufacturer Grand Seiko. Honoring the 20th anniversary of their “hi-beat” 9S movements , which tick 36,000 times per hour or 10 times per second, Grand Seiko revealed three stunning limited watches in platinum ($53,000, limited to 20 pieces), yellow gold ($27,000, limited to 150 pieces) and stainless steel ($6,300, limited to 1,500). It’s the more affordable of the three that caught our eye, with its patterned blue dial, golden second hands and GS logo, and impeccable polished stainless steel case.
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
How to Make Homemade Wi-Fi Signal Receivers
A homemade Wi-Fi range extender functions on the same principle as a large satellite dish.
Homemade receivers can boost your Wi-Fi signal reception with the application of a little science. Radio waves, like those used in Wi-Fi, degrade over distance and when passing through obstacles; they also reflect off of metal. A Wi-Fi signal receiver can be any kind of metal surrounding your Wi-Fi antenna to help bounce the radio waves toward it. You can use a metal food can or a foil-lined chip canister to make your signal receiver.
Step 1
Thoroughly clean out your metal object. For example, wash a food can and let it dry completely.
Step 2
Measure the diameter of the opening for your metal receiver. The larger the diameter of the can, the closer to the unopened base you want the antenna to be. A 3-inch diameter can should have the antenna 3.75 inches from the bottom. A 4-inch diameter can should have the antenna only 1.75 inches from the bottom. Most food cans are in that range. Mark the spot on the can where the antenna will go.
Step 3
Hold the USB adapter against the can with the connector side away from the can and trace the outline at the mark you made. Drill a hole or otherwise cut out the place needed to insert the antenna. Tape the edges of the hole to prevent cuts to you or the antenna. Insert the antenna in the can and tape it in place.
Step 4
Connect the USB extension cord to the USB adapter and then plug the cord into your computer. Point the can at the Wi-Fi hotspot, and the signal will be much stronger. Note that if you aren't pointed at the hotspot, your signal strength will decrease significantly, as the metal deflects anything not entering the mouth of the can.
Things You'll Need
• Tape measure
• Pen
• USB Wi-Fi adapter
• USB extension cord
• Metal receiver -- food can, etc.
• Saw, drill or scissors
• Electrical tape
Tip
Tape or file the edges of a food can to prevent accidental cuts.
Attach the can to a tripod for better stability and more accurate aim.
references
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Project 8
Problem 1
There's a special class of sparse graphs called expander graphs. These graphs, while being sparse, still have a number of strong connectivity properties.
The goal of this problem is to create a function which constructs an example of an expander graph. There are a few strategies used to do this; we'll follow an "algebraic" approach due to Margulis, Gabber and Galil. The construction goes like this:
We'll construct a graph on $n^2$ nodes, where the nodes, call them $(i,j)$ correspond to points in $Z_n \times Z_n$. Each node $(i,j)$ will have eight neighbors given by:
$$ (i \pm 2j, j) \\ (i \pm (2j+1), j) \\ (i, j \pm 2i) \\ (i, j \pm (2i+1)) $$
Try using this description to implement a function which constructs an expander graph on $n^2$ nodes. (Careful to make sure the neighbor computations are taken "mod n" or in $Z_n \times Z_n$.)
Problem 2
Suppose that the company "All-Star Sporting Goods" opens a new store. Shortly after opening, the store has hired 50 employees. After some times, management decides to check on how things are going and wants ensure that "team spirit" is alive amoung the employees.
In particular, they want to get a sense of how many employees know each other and whether or not anyone is feeling isolated.
After doing a careful survey of the employees, management has made a log of the employees "employees.txt" and a log of people who a friends with each other "friends.txt".
Using this data, construct a graph with nodes representing the employees and the edges representing friends. (You can assume that the employees are "good, honest people" and that there are no one-sided friendships.)
Now, the company wants to do some analysis on the connections between people. For each employee, use the shortest_path_length function to compute their connection length to everyone else. Then, find how many people are at most distance 3 away. (That is, a friend, a friend of a friend or a friend of a friend of a friend.)
Problem 3
Suppose a hosptial has a list of willing kidney donors and people who are need of transplants. Due to genetic constraints, not every donor is compatible with every receiver. In particular, suppose a specific attribute, not unlike blood type, has been singled out to determine compatibility. This attribute comes in 4 types with the following property:
Donor type A can give to receiver type A, B, C, or D.
Donor type B can give to receiver type B or D.
Donor type C can give to receiver type C or D
Donor type D can only give to receiver type D.
A list of people marked donor or receiver along with their type is provided in "donor-receiver.txt".
Use this data to construct a graph of donors and receivers. Notice that this is a bipartite graph!
Now, we'd like to compute the maximum number of donor-receiver pairs which exist. In more formal terms, we'd like to compute a maximum bipartite matching.
In order to do this, we'll provide an interesting solution via max-cut as follows:
1. Create a bipartite graph between donors and receivers such that all edges have capacity 1.
2. Add a special source node connected to all donors by an edge of capacity 1.
3. Add a special sink node connected to all receivers by an edge of capacity 1
4. Compute the maximum flow from the added source to the added sink.
The result from the last step turns out to provide a maximum bipartite matching.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Marina Geli
Marina Geli i Fàbrega (born 12 September 1958, Sant Gregori) is a Spanish medical professional. She was the health minister of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 2003 to 2010. She is considered one of the most prominent members of the Catalanist wing of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia.
Geli obtained her medical degree from the University of Barcelona. She was an intern at the Hospital Josep Trueta in Girona from 1981 to 1990. She became a specialist in the treatment of infectious diseases and AIDS. She was also involved in several associations related to the fight against AIDS.
She also was town councillor for Sant Gregori (1982–1990) and county councillor for Girona, during the same period.
She is president of the Committee for Social Policy in the period 1996-1999 in the Catalan Parliament and Spokesperson for Social Policy in the sixth legislature.
She became policy manager and First Secretary of the PSC for the region of Girona in 2000.
Ms. Geli is married with two children.
|
WIKI
|
Casey McQuiston
Casey McQuiston (born January 21, 1991) is an American author of romance novels in the new adult fiction genre, best known for their New York Times best-selling debut novel Red, White & Royal Blue, in which the son of America's first female president falls in love with a prince of England, and sophomore book One Last Stop.
Red, White & Royal Blue (2019)
* New York: St. Martin's Griffin. All quotes are from the 2019 hardcover first edition.
* It's not a grudge, really. It's not even a rivalry. It's a prickling, unsettling annoyance. It makes his palms sweat. The tabloids- the world- decided to cast Alex as the American equivalent of Prince Henry from day one, since the White House Trio is the closest thing America has to royalty. It has never seemed fair. Alex's image is all charisma and genius and smirking wit, thoughtful interviews and the cover of GQ at eighteen; Henry's is placid smiles and gentle chivalry and generic charity appearances, a perfectly blank Prince Charming canvas. Henry's role, Alex thinks, is much easier to play. Maybe it is technically a rivalry. Whatever.
* p. 10
* She tosses the magazine aside, folding her arms on the table. "Please, tell me another joke," Ellen says. "I want so badly for you to explain to me how this is funny." Alex opens his mouth and closes it a couple of times. "He started it," he says finally. "I barely touched him- and he's the one who pushed me, and I only grabbed him to try and catch my balance and-" "Sugar, I cannot express to you how much the press does not give a fuck about who started what," Ellen says. "As your mother, I can appreciate that maybe this isn't your fault, but as the president, all I want is to have the CIA fake your death and ride the dead-kid sympathy into a second term."
* p. 20
* Alex clenches his jaw. He's used to doing things that piss his mother off- in his teens, he had a penchant for confronting his mother's cilleagues with their voting discrepancies at friendly DC fundraisers- and he's been in the tabloids for things more embarrassing than this. But never in quite such a cataclysmically, internationally terrible way. "I don't have time to deal with this right now, so here's what we're gonna do," Ellen says, pulling a folder out of her padfolio. It's filtered with some official-looking documents punctuated with different colors of sticky tabs, and the first one says: AGREEMENT OF TERMS. "Um," Alex says. "You," Ellen says, "are going to make nice with Henry." You're leaving Saturday and spending Sunday in England." Alex blinks. "Is it too late to take the faking-my-death option?" "Zahra can brief you on the rest," Ellen goes on, ignoring him. "I have about five hundred meetings right now." She gets up and heads for the door, stopping to kiss her hand and press it to the top of her head. "You're a dumbass. Love you."
* p. 20
* Outside Kensington Palace, Alex takes Henry's phone out of his hand and swiftly opens a blank contact page before he can protest or sic a PPO on him for violating royal property. The car is waiting to take him back to the royals' private airstrip. "Here," Alex says. "That's my number. If we're gonna keep this up, it's going to get annoying to keep going through handlers. Just text me. We'll figure it out." Henry stares at him, expression blankly bewildered, and Alex wonders how this guy has any friends. "Right," Henry says. "Thank you." "No booty calls," Alex tells him, and Henry chokes on a laugh.
* p. 46
* Alex wouldn't say he likes Henry, but he does enjoy the quick rhythm of arguments they fall into. He knows he talks too much, hopeless at moderating his feelings, which he usually hides under ten layers of charm, but he ultimately doesn't care what Henry thinks of him, so he doesn't bother. Instead, he's as weird and manic as he wants to be, and Henry jabs back in sharp flashes of startling wit.
* p. 60
* "That's not your emails-from-Zahra face," Nora says, nosing her way over his shoulder. He elbows her away. "You keep doing that stupid smile every time you look at your phone. Who are you texting?" "I don't know what you're talking about, and literally no one," Alex tells her. From the screen in his hand, Henry's message reads, In world's most boring meeting with Philip. Don't let the papers print lies about me after I've garroted myself with my tie.
* p. 63
* Alex rolls his eyes and sends back, the harrowing struggle of managing the empire's blood money. Henry's response comes a minute later. That was actually the crux of the meeting- I've tried to refuse my share of the crown's money. Dad left us each with more than enough, and I'd rather cover my expenses with that than the spoils of, you know, centuries of genocide. Philip thinks I'm being ridiculous. Alex scans the message twice to make sure he's read it correctly. i am low-key impressed. He stares at the screen, at his own message, for a few seconds too long, suddenly afraid it was a stupid thing to say. He shakes his head and puts the phone down. Locks it. Changes his mind, picks it up again. Unlocks it. Sees the little typing bubble on Henry's side of the conversation. Puts the phone down. Looks away. Looks back. One does not foster a lifelong love of Star Wars without knowing an "empire" isn't a good thing. He would really appreciate it if Henry would stop proving him wrong.
* p. 64
* "It's public knowledge. It's not my problem you just found out," his mother is saying, pacing double-time down a West Wing corridor. "You mean to tell me," Alex half shouts, jogging to keep up, "every Thanksgiving, those stupid turkeys have been staying in a luxury suite at the Willard on the taxpayers' dime?" "Yes, Alex, they do-" "Gross government waste!" "-and there are two forty-pound turkeys named Cornbread and Stuffing in a motorcade on Pennsylvania Avenue right now. There is no time to reallocate the turkeys." Without missing a beat, he blurts out, "Bring them to the house." "Where? Are you hiding a turkey habitat up your ass, son? Where, in our historically protected house, am I going to put a couple of turkeys until I pardon them tomorrow?" "Put them in my room. I don't care." She outright laughs. "No." "How is it different from a hotel room? Put the turkeys in my room, Mom." "I'm not putting turkeys in your room." "Put the turkeys in my room." "No." "Put them in my room, put them in my room, put them in my room, put them in my room-" That night, as Alex stares into the cold, pitiless eyes of a prehistoric beast of prey, he has a few regrets.
* p. 66-67
* Even before Alex's parents split, they both had a habit of calling him by the other's last name when he exhibited particular traits. They still do. When he runs his mouth off to the press, his mom calls him into her office and says, "Get your shit together, Diaz." When his hard-headedness gets him stuck, his dad texts him, "Let it go, Claremont."
* p. 74
* "I was hoping you two would start talking dirty," Pez says. "Please, do go on." "I don't think you could keep up, Pez," Alex tells him. "Oh really?" The picture returns to Pez. "What if I put my co-" "Pez," comes the sound of Henry's voice, and a hand with a signet ring on the smallest finger covers Pez's mouth. "I beg of you. Alex, what part of 'nothing he cannot do' did you think was worth testing? Honestly, you are going to get us all killed." "That's the goal," Alex says happily. "So what are y'all gonna do today?" Pez frees himself by licking Henry's palm and continues talking. "Frolic naked in the hills, frighten the sheep, return to the house for the usual: tea, biscuits, casting ourselves upon the Thighmaster of love to moan about Claremont-Diaz siblings, which has become tragically one-sided since Henry took up with you. It used to be all bottles of cognac and shared malaise and 'When will they notice us'-" "Don't tell him that!" "-and now I just ask Henry, 'What is your secret?' And he says, 'I insult Alex all the time and that seems to work.'" "I will turn this car around."
* p. 160-161
* All in all, finals come and go with much less fanfare than Alex imagined. It's a week of cramming and presentations and the usual amount of all-nighters, and it's over. The whole college thing in general went by like that. He didn't really have the experiences everyone else has, always isolated by fame or harangued by security. He never got a stamp on his forehead on his twenty-first birthday at the Tombs, never jumped in Dahlgren Fountain. Sometimes it's like he barely went to Georgetown, merely powered through a series of lectures that happened to be in the same geographical area.
* p. 161
* "So, as I've warned you," Henry says as they approach the doors to the Royal Box, "Philip will be there. And assorted other nobility with whom you may have to make conversation. People named Basil." "I think I've proven that I can handle royals." Henry looks doubtful. "You're brave. I could use some of that."
* p. 184
* "Just so we're clear," Alex says, "I'm about to have sex with you in this storage closet to spite your family. Like, that's what's happening?" Henry, who has apparently been carrying his travel-size lube with him this entire time in his jacket, says, "Right," and tosses it over his shoulder. "Awesome, fuckin' love doing things out of spite," he says without a hint of sarcasm, and he kicks Henry's feet apart. And it should be- it should be funny. It should be hot, stupid, ridiculous, obscene, another wild sexual adventure to add to the list. And it is, but... it shouldn't also feel like last time, like Alex might die if it ever stops. There's a laugh in his mouth, but it won't get past his tongue, because he knows this is him helping Henry get through something. Rebellion. You're brave. I could use some of that.
* p. 188
* "Someone else's choice doesn't change who you are."
* p. 198
* Alex groans. "Please, for the love of God, do not ask me. I'm on vacation. I want to get drunk and eat barbecue in peace." His dad laughs ruefully. "You know, in a lot of ways, your mom and me were a stupid idea. I think we both knew it wouldn't be forever. We're both too fucking proud. But God, that woman. Your mother is, without question, the love of my life. I'll never love anyone else like her. It was wildfire. And I got you and June out of it, best things that ever happened to an old asshole lke me. That kind of love is rare, even if it was a complete disaster." He sucks his teeth, considering. "Sometimes you just jump and hope it's not a cliff."
* p. 221
* "Well. It will matter, you know. It will always matter."
* p. 226
* "Get some shoes, we're running," Zahra tells him. "Priority one is damage control, not feelings. He grabs a pair of sneakers, and they take off while he's still pulling them on, running west. His brain is struggling to keep up, running through about five thousand possible ways this could go, imagining himself ten years down the road being frozen out of Congress, plummeting approval ratings, Henry's name being scratched off the line of succession, his mother losing reelection on a swing state's disapproval of him. He's so screwed, and he can't even decide who to be the angriest with, himself or the Mail or the monarchy or the whole stupid country. He nearly crashes into Zahra's back as she skids to a stop in front of a door. He pushes the door open, and the whole room goes silent. His mother stares at him from the head of the table and says flatly, "Out." At first he thinks she's talking to him, but she cuts her eyes down to the people around the table with her. "Was I not clear? Everyone, out, now," she says. "I need to talk to my son."
* p. 280-281
* "You listen to me," she says. Her jaw is set, ironclad. It's the game face he's seen her use to stare down Congress, to cow autocrats. Her grip on his hand is steady and strong. He wonders, half-hysterically, if this is how it felt to charge into war under Washington. "I am your mother. I was your mother before I was ever the president, and I'll be your mother long after, to the day they put me in the ground and beyond this earth. You are my child. So, if you're serious about this, I'll back your play." Alex is silent. But the debates, he thinks. But the general. Her gaze is hard. He knows better than to say either of those things. She'll handle it. "So," she says, "Do you feel forever about him?" And there's no room left to agonize over it, nothing left to do but say the thing he's known all along. "Yeah," he says, "I do." Ellen Claremont exhales slowly, and she grins a small, secret grin, the crooked, flattering one she never uses in public, the one he knows best from when he was a kid around her knees in a small kitchen in Travis County. "Then, fuck it."
* p. 283
* Shaan lookes like he hasn't slept in thirty-six hours. Well, he looks perfectly composed and groomed, but the tag is sticking out of his sweater and the strong smell of whiskey is emanating from his tea. Next to him, in the back of the incognito van they're taking to Buckingham Palace, Zahra has her arms folded resolutely. The engagement ring on her left hand glints in the muted London morning. "So, uh," Alex attempts. "Are you two in a fight now?" Zahra looks at him. "No. Why would you think that?" "Oh. I just thought because-" "It's fine," Shaan says, still typing on his iPhone. "This is why we set rules about the personal-slash-professional lines at the outset of this relationship. It works for us." "If you want a fight, you should have seen it when I found out he had known about you two all along," Zahra says. "Why do you think I got a rock this big?" "It usually works for us," Shaan amends. "Yep," Zahra agrees. "Plus, we banged it out last night." Without looking up, Shaan meets her hand in a high five.
* p. 300-301
* Today, Henry goes back to London. Today, Alex goes back to the campaign trail. They have to figure out how to do this for real now, how to love each other in plain sight. Alex thinks they're up for it.
* p. 333
* There are no fireworks out here, no music, no confetti. Just sleeping, single-family homes, TVs switched off. Just a house where Alex grew up, where he saw Henry's picture in a magazine and felt a flicker of something, a start. "Hey," Alex says. Henry turns back to him, his eyes silver in the wash of the streetlight. "We won." Henry takes his hand, one corner of his mouth tugging gently upward. "Yeah. We won." Alex reaches down into the front of his dress shirt and finds the chain with his fingers, pulls it out carefully. The ring, the key. Under winter clouds, victorious, he unlocks the door.
* p. 361
* Go outside, stay safe, be gay. Have a Shiner on me.
* Acknowledgements, p. 364
I Kissed Shara Wheeler (2022)
* New York: Wednesday Books. All quotes are from the 2022 hardcover first edition.
* Chloe Green is going to put her first through a window. Usually when she has a thought like that, it means she's spiritually on the brink. But right now, squared up to the back door of the Wheeler house, she's actually physically ready to do it. Her phone flashes the time: 11:27 a.m. Thirty-three minutes until the end of the late service at Willowgrove Christian Church, where the Wheelers are spending their morning pretending to be nice, normal folks whose nice, normal daughter didn't stage a disappearing act at prom twelve hours ago. It has to be an act, is the thing. Obviously, Shara Wheeler is fine. Shara Wheeler is not missing. Shara Wheeler is doing what she does: a doe-eyed performance of blank innocence that makes everyone think she must be so deep and complex and enchanting when really, she's the most boring bore in this entire unbearably boring town. Chloe is going to prove it. Because she's the only one smart enough to see it.
* p. 1
|
WIKI
|
For some time now, the "traditional" option has been soft gels. The main advantage of soft capsules is that they are formed, filled, and sealed in one operation. Tamper-resistant; easy to swallow; and available in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors.
That said, there are many reasons why two-piece hard capsules should be considered a liquid-filled option, and may often be the better option.
What is the reason for the popularity of LFHC?
Less Infrastructure: One of the greatest advantages of LFHC is that manufacturing does not require a large investment in expensive gelatin preparation equipment, and has a correspondingly large facility footprint, which is required for soft capsules. LFHC manufacturing also eliminates the need to retain raw materials for this gelatin formulation. With LFHC, capsules are pre-manufactured and can be filled using off-the-shelf and easy-to-use filling equipment. By contrast, the capital equipment requirements for soft gels result in the need to use a specialized third-party manufacturer and incorporate the associated cost and timeline issues into your plan.
Faster manufacturing: While soft gels take three to four days from gelatin preparation to blister packaging, all steps in the LFHC process cycle are completed within one day, including capsule bundling or sealing.
Less complex manufacturing: Softgel manufacturing is done by only a limited number of facilities; LFHC manufacturing is usually done in-house. Compared to soft gel manufacturing equipment, equipment to produce LFHC is cheaper and takes up less space; uses less than one-third of the electricity; requires less expertise to operate, and can be run with fewer people. The simpler process of LFHC also makes this dosage form easier to expand.
Less stringent manufacturing conditions: For the manufacture of soft gels, the relative humidity at room temperature must be maintained between 20% and 30%. Compare this too hard capsule filling, which can be performed at room temperature up to 60% relative humidity.
No wasted gelatin material: Softgel manufacturing results in wasted gelatin up to 40% of the web size. Gelatin-based hard capsules do not waste gelatin.
Options for filling with nitrogen atmosphere: As with soft gels, inert gases such as nitrogen can be used to add an additional protective layer to the filling material when manufacturing LFHC.
Xinchang Hexin Capsules Co., Ltd. is a China-based Empty Gelatin Capsules Supplier and Empty HPMC Capsules Wholesaler, with Empty HPMC Capsules, Empty Gelatin Capsules for sale.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
The 2016 Emmy nominees are coming out
The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards, presented by Anthony Anderson and Lauren Graham, unveiled the nominees this year on Thursday. "The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story," "Game of Thrones" and "Fargo" all scored a large number of nominations. Streaming services are continuing to take center stage. Netflix snagged a record 54 nominations with returners like "House of Cards" and "Bloodline" along with newcomers "Master of None" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," according to The Emmy website. Amazon had a total of 16 nominations. Last year, the binge watching phenomenon also prevailed when Netflix and Amazon nabbed 34 and 21 nominations, respectively. The word-of-mouth buzz generated by on-demand streaming companies could be more effective than other marketing campaigns, Sam Toles, the vice president of Vimeo told CNBC last year. The Hollywood ceremony will be hosted by talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who was an emcee of the awards in 2012. These are the 2016 Emmy nominations announced by Anderson and Graham:
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
Language to rewards for robotic ability synthesis – Google Analysis Weblog
Empowering end-users to interactively educate robots to carry out novel duties is a vital functionality for his or her profitable integration into real-world purposes. For instance, a consumer might need to educate a robotic canine to carry out a brand new trick, or educate a manipulator robotic find out how to set up a lunch field based mostly on consumer preferences. The latest developments in large language models (LLMs) pre-trained on in depth web information have proven a promising path in direction of reaching this objective. Certainly, researchers have explored various methods of leveraging LLMs for robotics, from step-by-step planning and goal-oriented dialogue to robot-code-writing agents.
Whereas these strategies impart new modes of compositional generalization, they deal with utilizing language to hyperlink collectively new behaviors from an existing library of control primitives which are both manually engineered or realized a priori. Regardless of having inner data about robotic motions, LLMs wrestle to instantly output low-level robotic instructions because of the restricted availability of related coaching information. In consequence, the expression of those strategies are bottlenecked by the breadth of the obtainable primitives, the design of which frequently requires in depth knowledgeable data or large information assortment.
In “Language to Rewards for Robotic Skill Synthesis”, we suggest an strategy to allow customers to show robots novel actions by pure language enter. To take action, we leverage reward capabilities as an interface that bridges the hole between language and low-level robotic actions. We posit that reward capabilities present an excellent interface for such duties given their richness in semantics, modularity, and interpretability. In addition they present a direct connection to low-level insurance policies by black-box optimization or reinforcement studying (RL). We developed a language-to-reward system that leverages LLMs to translate pure language consumer directions into reward-specifying code after which applies MuJoCo MPC to search out optimum low-level robotic actions that maximize the generated reward operate. We exhibit our language-to-reward system on quite a lot of robotic management duties in simulation utilizing a quadruped robotic and a dexterous manipulator robotic. We additional validate our technique on a bodily robotic manipulator.
The language-to-reward system consists of two core parts: (1) a Reward Translator, and (2) a Movement Controller. The Reward Translator maps pure language instruction from customers to reward capabilities represented as python code. The Movement Controller optimizes the given reward operate utilizing receding horizon optimization to search out the optimum low-level robotic actions, resembling the quantity of torque that must be utilized to every robotic motor.
LLMs can not instantly generate low-level robotic actions on account of lack of information in pre-training dataset. We suggest to make use of reward capabilities to bridge the hole between language and low-level robotic actions, and allow novel complicated robotic motions from pure language directions.
Reward Translator: Translating consumer directions to reward capabilities
The Reward Translator module was constructed with the objective of mapping pure language consumer directions to reward capabilities. Reward tuning is extremely domain-specific and requires knowledgeable data, so it was not stunning to us once we discovered that LLMs educated on generic language datasets are unable to instantly generate a reward operate for a selected {hardware}. To handle this, we apply the in-context learning capacity of LLMs. Moreover, we break up the Reward Translator into two sub-modules: Movement Descriptor and Reward Coder.
Movement Descriptor
First, we design a Movement Descriptor that interprets enter from a consumer and expands it right into a pure language description of the specified robotic movement following a predefined template. This Movement Descriptor turns doubtlessly ambiguous or obscure consumer directions into extra particular and descriptive robotic motions, making the reward coding job extra steady. Furthermore, customers work together with the system by the movement description area, so this additionally gives a extra interpretable interface for customers in comparison with instantly exhibiting the reward operate.
To create the Movement Descriptor, we use an LLM to translate the consumer enter into an in depth description of the specified robotic movement. We design prompts that information the LLMs to output the movement description with the correct quantity of particulars and format. By translating a obscure consumer instruction right into a extra detailed description, we’re capable of extra reliably generate the reward operate with our system. This concept can be doubtlessly utilized extra usually past robotics duties, and is related to Inner-Monologue and chain-of-thought prompting.
Reward Coder
Within the second stage, we use the identical LLM from Movement Descriptor for Reward Coder, which interprets generated movement description into the reward operate. Reward capabilities are represented utilizing python code to profit from the LLMs’ data of reward, coding, and code construction.
Ideally, we want to use an LLM to instantly generate a reward operate R (s, t) that maps the robotic state s and time t right into a scalar reward worth. Nonetheless, producing the right reward operate from scratch remains to be a difficult drawback for LLMs and correcting the errors requires the consumer to grasp the generated code to supply the proper suggestions. As such, we pre-define a set of reward phrases which are generally used for the robotic of curiosity and permit LLMs to composite completely different reward phrases to formulate the ultimate reward operate. To realize this, we design a prompt that specifies the reward phrases and information the LLM to generate the right reward operate for the duty.
The interior construction of the Reward Translator, which is tasked to map consumer inputs to reward capabilities.
Movement Controller: Translating reward capabilities to robotic actions
The Movement Controller takes the reward operate generated by the Reward Translator and synthesizes a controller that maps robotic remark to low-level robotic actions. To do that, we formulate the controller synthesis drawback as a Markov decision process (MDP), which could be solved utilizing completely different methods, together with RL, offline trajectory optimization, or model predictive control (MPC). Particularly, we use an open-source implementation based mostly on the MuJoCo MPC (MJPC).
MJPC has demonstrated the interactive creation of various behaviors, resembling legged locomotion, greedy, and finger-gaiting, whereas supporting a number of planning algorithms, resembling iterative linear–quadratic–Gaussian (iLQG) and predictive sampling. Extra importantly, the frequent re-planning in MJPC empowers its robustness to uncertainties within the system and allows an interactive movement synthesis and correction system when mixed with LLMs.
Examples
Robotic canine
Within the first instance, we apply the language-to-reward system to a simulated quadruped robotic and educate it to carry out varied abilities. For every ability, the consumer will present a concise instruction to the system, which is able to then synthesize the robotic movement by utilizing reward capabilities as an intermediate interface.
Dexterous manipulator
We then apply the language-to-reward system to a dexterous manipulator robotic to carry out quite a lot of manipulation duties. The dexterous manipulator has 27 levels of freedom, which could be very difficult to regulate. Many of those duties require manipulation abilities past greedy, making it tough for pre-designed primitives to work. We additionally embody an instance the place the consumer can interactively instruct the robotic to position an apple inside a drawer.
Validation on actual robots
We additionally validate the language-to-reward technique utilizing a real-world manipulation robotic to carry out duties resembling selecting up objects and opening a drawer. To carry out the optimization in Movement Controller, we use AprilTag, a fiducial marker system, and F-VLM, an open-vocabulary object detection device, to establish the place of the desk and objects being manipulated.
Conclusion
On this work, we describe a brand new paradigm for interfacing an LLM with a robotic by reward capabilities, powered by a low-level mannequin predictive management device, MuJoCo MPC. Utilizing reward capabilities because the interface allows LLMs to work in a semantic-rich area that performs to the strengths of LLMs, whereas guaranteeing the expressiveness of the ensuing controller. To additional enhance the efficiency of the system, we suggest to make use of a structured movement description template to higher extract inner data about robotic motions from LLMs. We exhibit our proposed system on two simulated robotic platforms and one actual robotic for each locomotion and manipulation duties.
Acknowledgements
We want to thank our co-authors Nimrod Gileadi, Chuyuan Fu, Sean Kirmani, Kuang-Huei Lee, Montse Gonzalez Arenas, Hao-Tien Lewis Chiang, Tom Erez, Leonard Hasenclever, Brian Ichter, Ted Xiao, Peng Xu, Andy Zeng, Tingnan Zhang, Nicolas Heess, Dorsa Sadigh, Jie Tan, and Yuval Tassa for his or her assist and help in varied elements of the challenge. We’d additionally prefer to acknowledge Ken Caluwaerts, Kristian Hartikainen, Steven Bohez, Carolina Parada, Marc Toussaint, and the larger groups at Google DeepMind for his or her suggestions and contributions.
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
asplenium
Etymology
A genericization of, from Linnaeus's adjustment of , from , from + + , from its use to cure anthrax in livestock.
Noun
* : any plant of the genus.
Etymology
Linnaeus's adjustment of, from.
Noun
* 1) a spleenwort
* 2) the spleenworts collectively
|
WIKI
|
Greece–Palestine relations
Greece–Palestine relations are bilateral relations between the Hellenic Republic and the State of Palestine. Due to the historical ties between the two countries, Greece and Palestine today enjoy excellent diplomatic relations. Palestine has a representative office in Athens and Greece's consulate general in Jerusalem is accredited to Palestine. The two countries are members of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum.
History
During the 60s-90s (peaking during the 70s), Palestinian organisations carried out a wave of terrorist attacks in Greece. In 1981 Greece established diplomatic relations with the PLO, but maintained relations with Israel at only the consular level until Greece's formal recognition of Israel in 1990 under Mitsotakis. Since the formation of current foreign policy under George Papandreou and especially under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece has seen a rapid improvement in relations with Israel, following the deterioration of Israel's relations with Turkey caused by the Gaza flotilla raid.
In 2001, there were 4,000 Palestinians residing in Greece.
Diplomatic recognition
Greece has not fully formalized its relations with Palestine due to many geopolitical disputes, despite the pledges of then-Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras who is a member of the left-wing Syriza Party known for its support for the Palestinian cause, to make such changes.
In December 2015, the Hellenic parliament voted unanimously in the presence of President Mahmoud Abbas to recommend to the government the full recognition of the state of Palestine on 4 June 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Palestinian question
President Karolos Papoulias has stated that Greece ultimately supports the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Under previous governments, Greece garnered a reputation as a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause. Within the wider Arab–Israeli conflict, Andreas Papandreou maintained a stronger stand against Israel than any other government in the European Community.
On 15 May 2023, 41 municipalities in Greece raised the Palestinian flag on their buildings in solidarity with the Palestinian people marking the 75th Anniversary of the Nakba.
|
WIKI
|
Talk:Theo Stavropoulos
Noting
This article was inspired by a post at the help desk, Help_desk/Archives/2023_January_14. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:00, 9 August 2023 (UTC)
* @Michael D. Turnbull, after some heroic procrastination, it's an article. @Vexations, new article, if you're interested. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:22, 9 August 2023 (UTC)
* @Less Unless, just wanted you to know that the undeletion was not in vain ;-) Thanks again! Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:04, 9 August 2023 (UTC)
|
WIKI
|
blob: 847432950b3c093de4d56cf1e2bddafa301073f0 [file] [log] [blame]
// Copyright 2016 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
// found in the LICENSE file.
#include "cc/trees/effect_node.h"
#include "base/trace_event/traced_value.h"
#include "cc/layers/layer.h"
#include "cc/trees/property_tree.h"
namespace cc {
EffectNode::EffectNode()
: id(EffectTree::kInvalidNodeId),
parent_id(EffectTree::kInvalidNodeId),
stable_id(INVALID_STABLE_ID),
opacity(1.f),
screen_space_opacity(1.f),
backdrop_filter_quality(1.f),
blend_mode(SkBlendMode::kSrcOver),
cache_render_surface(false),
has_copy_request(false),
hidden_by_backface_visibility(false),
double_sided(false),
trilinear_filtering(false),
is_drawn(true),
subtree_hidden(false),
has_potential_filter_animation(false),
has_potential_backdrop_filter_animation(false),
has_potential_opacity_animation(false),
is_currently_animating_filter(false),
is_currently_animating_backdrop_filter(false),
is_currently_animating_opacity(false),
has_masking_child(false),
is_masked(false),
effect_changed(false),
subtree_has_copy_request(false),
is_fast_rounded_corner(false),
render_surface_reason(RenderSurfaceReason::kNone),
transform_id(0),
clip_id(0),
target_id(1),
mask_layer_id(Layer::INVALID_ID),
closest_ancestor_with_cached_render_surface_id(-1),
closest_ancestor_with_copy_request_id(-1) {}
EffectNode::EffectNode(const EffectNode& other) = default;
EffectNode::~EffectNode() = default;
bool EffectNode::operator==(const EffectNode& other) const {
return id == other.id && parent_id == other.parent_id &&
stable_id == other.stable_id && opacity == other.opacity &&
screen_space_opacity == other.screen_space_opacity &&
backdrop_filter_quality == other.backdrop_filter_quality &&
cache_render_surface == other.cache_render_surface &&
has_copy_request == other.has_copy_request &&
filters == other.filters &&
backdrop_filters == other.backdrop_filters &&
backdrop_filter_bounds == other.backdrop_filter_bounds &&
backdrop_mask_element_id == other.backdrop_mask_element_id &&
filters_origin == other.filters_origin &&
rounded_corner_bounds == other.rounded_corner_bounds &&
is_fast_rounded_corner == other.is_fast_rounded_corner &&
// The specific reason is just for tracing/testing/debugging, so just
// check whether a render surface is needed.
HasRenderSurface() == other.HasRenderSurface() &&
blend_mode == other.blend_mode &&
surface_contents_scale == other.surface_contents_scale &&
unscaled_mask_target_size == other.unscaled_mask_target_size &&
hidden_by_backface_visibility == other.hidden_by_backface_visibility &&
double_sided == other.double_sided &&
trilinear_filtering == other.trilinear_filtering &&
is_drawn == other.is_drawn && subtree_hidden == other.subtree_hidden &&
has_potential_filter_animation ==
other.has_potential_filter_animation &&
has_potential_backdrop_filter_animation ==
other.has_potential_backdrop_filter_animation &&
has_potential_opacity_animation ==
other.has_potential_opacity_animation &&
is_currently_animating_filter == other.is_currently_animating_filter &&
is_currently_animating_backdrop_filter ==
other.is_currently_animating_backdrop_filter &&
is_currently_animating_opacity ==
other.is_currently_animating_opacity &&
has_masking_child == other.has_masking_child &&
is_masked == other.is_masked &&
effect_changed == other.effect_changed &&
subtree_has_copy_request == other.subtree_has_copy_request &&
transform_id == other.transform_id && clip_id == other.clip_id &&
target_id == other.target_id && mask_layer_id == other.mask_layer_id &&
closest_ancestor_with_cached_render_surface_id ==
other.closest_ancestor_with_cached_render_surface_id &&
closest_ancestor_with_copy_request_id ==
other.closest_ancestor_with_copy_request_id;
}
const char* RenderSurfaceReasonToString(RenderSurfaceReason reason) {
switch (reason) {
case RenderSurfaceReason::kNone:
return "none";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kRoot:
return "root";
case RenderSurfaceReason::k3dTransformFlattening:
return "3d transform flattening";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kBlendMode:
return "blend mode";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kBlendModeDstIn:
return "blend mode kDstIn";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kOpacity:
return "opacity";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kOpacityAnimation:
return "opacity animation";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kFilter:
return "filter";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kFilterAnimation:
return "filter animation";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kBackdropFilter:
return "backdrop filter";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kBackdropFilterAnimation:
return "backdrop filter animation";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kRoundedCorner:
return "rounded corner";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kClipPath:
return "clip path";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kClipAxisAlignment:
return "clip axis alignment";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kMask:
return "mask";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kRootOrIsolatedGroup:
return "root or isolated group";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kTrilinearFiltering:
return "trilinear filtering";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kCache:
return "cache";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kCopyRequest:
return "copy request";
case RenderSurfaceReason::kTest:
return "test";
default:
NOTREACHED() << static_cast<int>(reason);
return "";
}
}
void EffectNode::AsValueInto(base::trace_event::TracedValue* value) const {
value->SetInteger("backdrop_mask_element_id",
backdrop_mask_element_id.GetInternalValue());
value->SetInteger("id", id);
value->SetInteger("parent_id", parent_id);
value->SetInteger("stable_id", stable_id);
value->SetDouble("opacity", opacity);
if (!backdrop_filters.IsEmpty()) {
value->SetString("backdrop_filters", backdrop_filters.ToString());
}
value->SetDouble("backdrop_filter_quality", backdrop_filter_quality);
value->SetBoolean("is_fast_rounded_corner", is_fast_rounded_corner);
if (!rounded_corner_bounds.IsEmpty()) {
MathUtil::AddToTracedValue("rounded_corner_bounds", rounded_corner_bounds,
value);
}
value->SetString("blend_mode", SkBlendMode_Name(blend_mode));
value->SetBoolean("cache_render_surface", cache_render_surface);
value->SetBoolean("has_copy_request", has_copy_request);
value->SetBoolean("double_sided", double_sided);
value->SetBoolean("trilinear_filtering", trilinear_filtering);
value->SetBoolean("is_drawn", is_drawn);
value->SetBoolean("has_potential_filter_animation",
has_potential_filter_animation);
value->SetBoolean("has_potential_backdrop_filter_animation",
has_potential_backdrop_filter_animation);
value->SetBoolean("has_potential_opacity_animation",
has_potential_opacity_animation);
value->SetBoolean("has_masking_child", has_masking_child);
value->SetBoolean("is_masked", is_masked);
value->SetBoolean("effect_changed", effect_changed);
value->SetBoolean("subtree_has_copy_request", subtree_has_copy_request);
value->SetString("render_surface_reason",
RenderSurfaceReasonToString(render_surface_reason));
value->SetInteger("transform_id", transform_id);
value->SetInteger("clip_id", clip_id);
value->SetInteger("target_id", target_id);
value->SetInteger("mask_layer_id", mask_layer_id);
value->SetInteger("closest_ancestor_with_cached_render_surface_id",
closest_ancestor_with_cached_render_surface_id);
value->SetInteger("closest_ancestor_with_copy_request_id",
closest_ancestor_with_copy_request_id);
}
} // namespace cc
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Talk:Just a Kiss (song)/GA1
GA Review
The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.''
Reviewer: AJona1992 (talk · contribs) 14:09, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
* Comments from AJona1992
* According to this report, there is one WP:DAB link. Please fix.
* According to this report, there is a WP:DEADLINK, please fix.
* In the lead, why is single wikilink? Why not wikilink instead lead single?
* Wikilink beats per minute
* File:Lady Antebellum Just a Kiss.ogg needs a "further reasoning" rational. Look at File:Amor Prohibido.ogg and File:Rolling in Deep.ogg for an example.
* In the "Music and lyrics" please wikilink Billboard and delink the one in "Chart performance" and "Music video"
* "on the chart dated May 21, 2011." - needs to be rewritten ---> ""Just a Kiss" debuted on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart at number 28 on May 21, 2011"
* the couple farewell each other. - this sentence is missing a word
* "on April 2011" are you sure that sounds right?
* whole song on the tenth season of US reality television show American Idol. - is missing a word
* TV Guide Canada needs to be in italics
* This source (currently FN#31) does not verify that the song received any certification from RIAA.
* FN#5 "[CD album]" ---> "[CD]", also delink United States
* FN#12 wikilink About.com
* FN#13 wikilink Billboard like the way you did it to FN#27
* FN#23 "Billboard Music Awards: Britney Spears joins Rihanna, Beyonce runs the world, Cee Lo spins in Space" ---> "Billboard Music Awards: Britney Spears joins Rihanna, Beyonce runs the world, Cee Lo spins in Space"
* FN#28, FN#29, FN#30, FN#40 be consistent in weather or not you wikilink works and publishers all the time or only once.
* FN#50 italic TV Guide Canada
* FN#68 be consistent in the way you retrieve dates.
* What makes this a reliable source?
* I will take care of this. Jivesh 1205 (Talk) 14:11, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
* Alright :-) Best, Jona yo! Selena 4 ever 14:12, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
* Fixed issues. As for the RIAA link, we have to enter the artist and song manually. Amazon.com is being used to show that the single received a CD single, nothing else. Novice7 (talk) 04:14, 23 December 2011 (UTC)
* Everything has been fixed. Jivesh 1205 (Talk) 15:16, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
* @Novice7 Amazon.com is clearly not a WP:RS at all. You don't need a retail to verify its existence, rather, the artwork, Billboard peak positions, certifications and music reviews can do that. Once this source can be fixed, I'll pass the article. Best, Jona yo! Selena 4 ever 16:07, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
* Amazon can be used for release dates. RIAA cannot be fixed. You have to search for it by adding the artist's name and the song. Jivesh 1205 (Talk) 16:19, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
* According to RIAA, the certifications for "Just a Kiss" are for digital sales, please represent them as such. Best, Jona yo! Selena 4 ever 16:28, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
* I have added the release notes ref (with ISSN) too, and added note for the RIAA ref. Novice7 (talk) 16:30, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
* I haven't removed the Amazon ref, yet, I can if you want me to. Novice7 (talk) 16:31, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
* According to this you need to add "digital" to the certification template, also the "Certifications" does not follow Template:Certification Table Entry. Yes, remove all instances of Amazon as per this discussion with User:Jezhotwells. Best, Jona yo! Selena 4 ever 16:38, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
* I haven't used the certification template on the article. Removed Amazon.com ref. Thanks for reviewing the article :) Novice7 (talk) 16:42, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
* Well it will only work if you do use it. Best, Jona yo! Selena 4 ever 16:44, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
* It's been seven (7) days since I put this article on hold and the only issue remained was about the certifications. Since I did notified Novice7 and Jivesh that if issues are not resolved I would have to fail the article. Best, Jona yo! Selena 4 ever 03:04, 28 December 2011 (UTC)
* I did make the necessary fixes on December 23. The only remaining issue was the certification template issue, which I would've fixed today morning (I live in a different time zone). I have nominated the article again. <b style="white-space:nowrap; text-shadow:gray 5px 3px 1px; font-family:Arial; color:#4169E1;">Novice7</b> (<b style="font-family:Arial; color:#B0C4DE;">talk</b>) 04:26, 28 December 2011 (UTC)
* Comment from another editor
* There is nothing rigid about the seven days. If editors are still working on the article, the time period should be extended, according to the GA "rules".
* Also, there is nothing in the WP:WIAGA that requires Template:Certification Table Entry. MathewTownsend (talk) 03:26, 28 December 2011 (UTC)
|
WIKI
|
Socrates was born in 470/469 a.c. from Sofronisco, sculptor, and Fenarete, a midwife. At first, he perhaps practiced his father’s profession, but later he abandoned it to devote himself exclusively to philosophical investigation. Not infrequently he had to resort to the financial help of friends. He married Santippe, who a certain tradition tends to present as a nagging and unbearable woman: it has come to think that Socrates was always in the streets not so much to philosophize as to stay away from Xantippe and his continuous lectures: it seems that Socrates has succeeded in letting everyone reason except Xantippe. From her, he had three children. Socrates never left Athens except for brief military expeditions: in fact, in 432 he participated in the expedition against Potidea, rescuing wounded Alcibiades, and in 424 he fought in Delio alongside Laches during the Athenians’ retreat before the Beoti. Later in 421, he fought at Amphipolis. In 406 in accordance with the principle of the rotation of the offices, he was part of the Pritani, that is the Council group which was responsible for deciding what problems to submit to the Assembly and opposed the illegal proposal to try all the winning generals together in the offshore naval battle Arginuse, because they had not collected the castaways. With this stance, he placed himself in contrast with the Democrats, but in 404, having passed the power in the hands of the oligarchy headed by the Thirty, he refused to obey the order to arrest one of their adversaries, Leo of Salamis.
In 403 the restored democracy, while granting an amnesty, continued to recognize in Socrates a figure hostile to the new order, also due to the relations he had maintained in the past with figures such as Alcibiades and Critias. In 399 Meleto presented an indictment against Socrates, but among his accusers were also Licone and above all Anito, one of the most influential figures of restored democracy. The indictment is as follows: “Socrates is guilty of refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the city and introducing other new deities. He is also guilty of having bribed young people. The death penalty is required”. The prosecutors probably counted on a voluntary exile by Socrates, as had happened in the past for Protagoras or Anaxagoras, but he did not abandon the city and underwent the trial. The majority of the judges voted for the death sentence which was carried out in prison through the administration of hemlock. We can insert Socrates in the sophistical era (although he sided against the sophists) because like the Sophists he became interested in ethical and anthropological problems, putting aside the search for the principle and cosmogony. Socrates never wrote anything and so to reconstruct his thinking we have to resort to other authors. The main sources on the life of Socrates are four 1) Plato 2) Xenophon 3) Aristotle 4) Aristophanes. 1) Plato is certainly the most reliable source: he was a direct disciple of Socrates and with him he always shared the idea of philosophy as a continuous research.
Xenophon is the most banal and least interesting source: the Socrates of Xenophon’s writings is a loyal citizen to tradition, the true interpreter of current values, the essay that aims at the good of his fellow citizens and is obsequious to the city and its divinities. It must immediately be specified that Xenophon was a great general, brave and valiant, but he was certainly not an eagle: his writings themselves are certainly not obvious examples of Greek literature: they are redundant and repetitive. Xenophon also made military campaigns with Socrates and in his writings he exalts its value by saying that he never stood still, he was always in action, he suffered nothing (he even walked on nud on the ice). Xenophon of philosophy cared nothing for him and with Socrates, of whom he was a great friend, he never dealt with philosophical subjects, only military ones: this allows us to understand that Socrates modulated the discourse according to the character he had before him: with a philosopher he spoke of philosophy, with a general of war. 3) The testimony of Aristotle has long been considered the most reliable because Socrates is not charged with symbolic meanings: Aristotle speaks to us in an objective way. However, the Aristotelian testimony has its limits: first, it is the least “artistic” of the 4 and is the only one of a non-contemporary. It must then be said that in Aristotle Socrates we are presented almost as a “robot”: the Socratic philosophy is presented as a succession of arguments and no space is given to philosophizing in public, to open dialogue. 4) Aristophanes is the closest character to Socrates as an age: he presents us with a relatively young Socrates (around 40 years). It should be remembered that Aristophanes was a playwright and it follows that the image he gives us of Socrates is strongly impregnated with sarcastic traits. In “The clouds” he presents it to us as a sophist who studies nature (the opposite of what it actually was), with his head in the clouds. In short, Aristophanes is the only one to give us a strongly negative image of Socrates (in fact Aristophanes was one of the first accusers of Socrates). In reality we must not think that Aristophanes wanted to discredit Socrates or tease him out of malice: after all he was only doing his work as a playwright, which consisted of making people laugh. In reality, with the figure of Socrates he wants to mock not Socrates, but the whole category of philosophers. The testimony of Plato remains the best and the other three must be exploited as support. Plato really knew him well and he was a great philosopher himself: the big limitation is that since he was a philosopher, Plato could have reworked Socrates’ speeches, and that’s exactly what he does as he gets older. “Apologia”, fortunately, remains a youthful dialogue in which Plato describes the process that decreed the condemnation to death of Socrates.
It is precisely in this dialogue that the difference between Socrates and the sophists strongly emerges: the sophists gave refined and elegant speeches, but totally devoid of truth: for them the important thing was to speak well, to have a good effect on the ears of the listeners. For Socrates, on the other hand, what matters most is the truth: he proclaims himself incapable of responding to such elegant and well-formulated (but false) speeches. Socrates, while not holding a refined oration, says the truth: the criticism of the sophists will then be taken up by Plato himself. The sophists aimed to amaze the listener, since they were convinced that the truth did not exist (especially Gorgia. Socrates does not deliver a speech (like the sophists) to defend himself in court, but sets up a dialogue of response and response: it is from the speech that the truth comes to light (Plato will say that the discourse between two or more individuals is like the clash between two stones from which the flame of knowledge is born.) Socrates’ oratory style is meager, dry and almost familiar, modulated according to the The starting point of the Socratic discourse is the so-called “Socratic irony”, that is the total self-reduction, “I do not know, you know”. Thus also “Apologia” begins: the question “what is x ? “and the interlocutor falls into the trap and responds, feeling superior to Socrates. Socrates, as we have said speaking of Xenophon, speaks of arguments known to the interlocutor: for example if he speaks with a general he will ask him” what is it courage? “That will answer, for example, saying that courage is never backing down. Then Socrates will intervene by saying that this is not courage, but madness. Criticism becomes an incentive for the interlocutor to provide a second, more articulated answer: the game can go on for a long time and often remain open This method is called “maieutic”: Socrates used to say that he did the same job as his mother, who was a midwife: she gave birth to women, he gave birth to souls, and how midwives evaluate whether the baby is “good”, so Socrates assesses whether ideas, definitions are good. Not all interlocutors were intelligent and recognized their mistakes: they often preferred to avoid Socrates. Socrates was also referred to as a “torpedo” by an interlocutor as the meeting with Socrates it is shocking because it overturns the conceptions of those who were convinced they knew and showed that in reality they did not know. Socrates himself compared himself to a big man who stimulates the horse: he stimulated men to reason. Socrates, with the self-depreciation process, claims to know nothing, while he claims that the sophists know everything: he says that perhaps the education he imparts is useless compared to the sophistry, but it is certainly more important. The calumnies against Socrates began when he called himself wise because the oracle of Delphi had told him that he was the wisest of men. He had been shocked by this affirmation and could not believe it: then he started traveling around Athens to see if he actually found people more knowledgeable than he. So he went to those who thought themselves wise: politicians, poets, artisans. Socrates noticed that all three categories were convinced they knew, but in reality they knew nothing: politicians were the worst of all, not as politicians (Socrates himself, if he wanted to, was a politician because he carried out his activity in public) but because they are not able to teach their knowledge: a true scholar must explain what he knows: even the best politicians (Pericles) do not know how to transmit their knowledge. The same was true for the poets, who starting from Homer were considered wise and educators: Socrates blames them both because they say absurdity, and because theirs is not a knowledge, but a form of “inspired madness”: it was the divinity who spoke for their mouth. The least worse turned out to be the artisans, who at least knew how to do different things of public utility: theirs is a “techno”, that is a practical wisdom. But even the artisans had their flaws: they were competent in their field, but they were presumptuous because they were convinced that their knowledge was universal and unlimited, rather than limited. Moreover they acted without thinking and pondering. Socrates came to the conclusion that the Delphic oracle was right: he himself is the wisest, knowing he does not know. His should not be interpreted as an attitude of renouncing the search for truth, but as a sign of intellectual modesty: it is precisely the fact of being aware of one’s own knowledge that drives man to strive to reach knowledge; if you are convinced that you already know everything, you will not try to improve. Among the various accusations that are made against Socrates there is also that of bribing young people in the square making them worse: he replies to this accusation saying that he would have no reason to do so. In fact, if he corrupted young people he would end up living in a city of corrupt youth, which would backfire against himself. The so-called “ethical intellectualism” of Socrates must certainly be remembered: according to him, no one can do evil knowing that he is actually doing it: no one could ever hurt himself voluntarily. A robber robs not thinking of doing harm, but of doing good: it is an intellectual mistake to think well of what is bad. It is a typically Christian-Catholic attitude that one can choose between good and evil without distinction. Thus Socrates introducing ethical intellectualism proves that he acted for the good of his city. Socrates has discovered the modern concept of soul (yuch): previously it meant “vital breath”, what makes things live; the term yuch then assumed the meaning of “image in Hades”, a weakened existence. For the Orfics it meant “demon”. From Socrates to the present day the soul has become our self: we identify ourselves with the soul. According to Socrates we can divide the goods and the evils into three categories a) of the soul b) of the body c) of the outside. The body is the instrument as well as the prison of the soul. Money, for example, is an external good. In some situations it seems that Socrates (and even Plato) rejects material and body goods, choosing those of the soul; on other occasions it seems that both can be accepted. Socrates, for example, does not seem to despise wine. This ambiguity between the goods of the body and the goods of the soul can be explained by affirming that goods are all goods until they come into conflict with others: the search for physical pleasure becomes bad when it is placed before the search for intellectual pleasure. This is true not only for goods, but also for the relationship between soul and body: the body for Socrates and Plato should not be despised, rather it should be appreciated because it serves the soul. For Christianity wealth is bad, for Socrates and Plato it is a good as long as it does not enter into conflict with other goods. The Socratic concept of injustice is interesting: it does not harm those who suffer it, but those who commit it. Justice in fact gives a sense of inner pleasure and those who are unjust lose this pleasure, while those who suffer injustice continue to experience it. This also applies to Plato. Among the things that Socrates says he does not know is the knowledge of the afterlife, of what is there after death (Plato will say he can prove the existence of an afterlife). For him it is not that if you live a just life you will be rewarded: you are already satisfied by living rightly, the happiness that you feel because you are right is already a sort of prize: Socrates says that maybe there could be an afterlife, but he does not know it . Among the various accusations made there was also that of atheism and impiety: Socrates in fact believed in demons, which he proclaimed “sons of gods”. He shows that it is a wrong accusation saying that if he believes in demons who are children of gods, it is obvious that he also believes in gods: for there to be a son (demon), there must also be the father and mother (the other deities ) But what was this demon? We have two divergent testimonies: for Plato he was a sort of guardian angel – a personal conscience that intervened whenever Socrates was about to make a mistake: it would be a sort of “privileged help” that not everyone has: only good people. It is a divine gift for the good. It is as if the divinity participated in human life. For Xenophon instead the demon is an entity that pushes him to act in certain ways: Xenophon intends to anchor Socrates strongly to the belief in a divine order and in a divine intervention in human life. For Socrates the important thing is not to live, but to live well: when our soul is healthy, just, then we are fine too. Still Xenophon in the “Memorable Sayings” summarizes the proof of the existence of God formulated by Socrates in these terms: what is not the work of chance postulates an intelligent cause, with particular regard to the human body which has a non-random organized structure. Because of its origin, man is considered superior to all other animals and is the object of God’s interest, as can also be deduced from the possibility of knowing his projects on man by resorting to the art of divination. It should be noted that the Socratic God (understood as a finalizing intelligence) is a sort of elevation to an absolute entity of the human psyche. Many have noticed that the accusers did not actually want to sentence him to death, but simply to silence him. But Socrates cannot accept being silenced: his destiny is to go around talking to people. Living well for Socrates means carrying out this activity and not refusing to be guilty meant not losing meaning to his life. Since he was already old and had only a few years of life left, he might as well end it, but not give up his ideals. While Plato’s research will go into another dimension, that of Socrates remains firmly anchored to the earthly world: its mission is to make citizens understand what they are doing. In Socrates there is also a rejection of politics (which we will also find in Plato): he points out that he himself had had several problems with politics: first the oligarchists had been thrown against him, and now the democrats (in the accusation) to the detriment of Socrates one can see political instances: he was an aristocrat and the democrats wanted to punish him). Despite having problems with politics, Socrates does not say that it should be abolished. Before the execution of the death penalty, Socrates had been presented with the possibility of escaping from prison, but he had refused: in fact in him there was the utmost respect for the law, which should not be broken under any circumstances. The law can be criticized, but not broken: in the face of an unjust law we must not break it, but we must fight to make it change. Socrates states that it was his duty to change the law and that if he failed, it was right for him to die. The Athenians are convinced that they got rid of Socrates having physically eliminated him, but in reality to get rid of them completely they would have had to “kill him philosophically”, beat him in words. In reality they wanted to shut him up, but they had the opposite effect: Plato, in fact, who was intent on devoting himself to political life, will be upset by the master’s condemnation and will devote himself to philosophy. In Socrates there is a vague idea of divine providence, but not a collective one, but an individual one: the divinity helps only the best. The conclusion of the Apology is very famous, in which Socrates addresses his disciples before being executed: “But now it is time to leave: I to death, you to life. Those of us who walk to a higher goal are obscure to anyone: not to my god. ” In the “Symposium” of PlatoPlatone Alcibiades states that Socrates does not resemble any of the men of the past and present: he is a new figure. He is not interested in politics, but does not disdain it, does not reject feasts, but does not identify himself with it (in the “Symposium” all the guests fall asleep, Socrates does not). Let us now focus more on the discursive technique of Socrates: the refutation is the technique that demonstrates the inconsistency of the knowledge of one’s interlocutors. But to arrive at this result we must start from the question and answer method. “What is justice?” May be the starting point for the debate: asking this or any other question of this kind means asking for the definition of the things in question, which however must be valid for all particular cases. In this sense, Socrates’ research has been interpreted by Aristotle as a search for the universal, in the context of concepts and moral problems. Socrates’ interlocutors prove incapable of responding correctly to the question either because they underestimate Socrates (who claims to be inferior) and because they respond by citing particular cases, rather than the universal definition. We have already mentioned the case of the question “What is courage?”: To answer “never indignit” is wrong, as well as to say “to attack the enemy”: one can also be courageous in dealing with a disease or a question: a correct definition must cover all possible cases. In its negative function, the question and answer method is characterized as a refutation, that is, demonstration of the falsehood or contradiction of the answers given by the interlocutor. The effects produced by the exercise of this method are compared to those of the marine torpedo, which numbs those it touches. In the face of the refutation one can react by refusing it, as do various interlocutors of Socrates. But, if it is accepted, it can free itself from the false opinions one has on the various subjects and therefore act as a form of purification. The situation, which results from the refutation, is called aporia, that is literally situation with no way out. It consists in realizing that the attempts made so far to respond to a particular problem have led to a blind alley. But in this new situation, free from false knowledge and above all from the presumption of knowing, one can go about searching for true knowledge, trying new ways that can lead to it. In this new orientation the question and answer method can perform a positive function. It is compared to the function performed by the maieutics, capable of giving birth to everyone, through appropriately directed questions, the truth, of which each is pregnant. Socrates incessantly insists on making his interlocutors converge in the admission of a fundamental point: in order to know how to act well, that is virtuously, in a given area, it is necessary to possess the knowledge that makes them capable of this. To this result he arrives through the analogy with the techniques: the good craftsman who knows how to carry out his activity well possesses a knowledge that can guide him to this result. The same thing must be true in the ethical-political sphere: this is the crux of the famous thesis that virtue is science. This thesis leads to some consequences. First, those who know what is good and therefore also what is good for him cannot but do it. The good is endowed with an indisputable power of attraction. This does not mean that Socrates disregards the importance of passions and emotions in human life, but only that in every area of human life the only instrument capable of directing towards correct behavior is recognized in knowledge. Socrates’ ethical position should not be confused with forms of ascetic rigor. Instead it can be defined as a form of eudemonism, because it sets the pursuit of happiness as its fundamental objective (in Greek eudaimonia). It is knowledge that is able to perform a correct calculation of the same pleasures, measuring the pleasant or painful consequences that they can cause. This is knowledge, of which Socrates declares not to be in possession, but precisely for this reason it is the knowledge he pursues. It makes no sense then to distinguish the various virtues clearly from each other: virtue is one, as only one is the knowledge in which they are summarized: knowing what is good and what is bad.
|
FINEWEB-EDU
|
Silverio García Lara
Silverio García Lara is a researcher and head of AgroBio Unit and a professor of Nutri-Omics Group with the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies, Campus Monterrey within the National School of Science. Silverio García-Lara obtained his PhD in Experimental Biology from the Autonomous Metropolitan University during which he develop a PhD stay the University of Ottawa in Canada and subsequently Postdoctoral studies at the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement, CIMMYT, Int.
From 2006 to 2008 he was the head of Entomology Unit at the Global Maize Program of CIMMYT and in 2009 he was invited as a visiting scientist at Global ICARDA-CIMMYT-IITA Maize Program. He is currently an Associate Professor and Senior Scientist at the National School of Science and Technology at Tecnologico de Monterrey. Among its main achievements he had developed, improved and characterized storage pests resistant corn and corn with nutraceutical properties. He has developed several comprehensive technologies of global food security to reduce post-harvest problems for Latin America, Africa and Asia. García Lara has worked on ways reduced the amount of food loss in storage, especially corn, coffee and rice. He and two students have also discovered anti-cancer properties in Mexican oregano and corn. He has received financial support from agencies and foundations such as FEMSA, CONACYT, SAGARPA, USDA-USA, CIDA-CANADA, CIMMYT MasAgro, GrainPro, Monsanto, and Kelloggs, among others.
His work in molecular breeding, postharvest biotechnology and nutraceutical bio-characterization has been recognized and awarded by the Canadian Foundation for the International Conference on Agricultural Biotechnology (ABIC), The Consultative Group on International Agriculture (CGIAR), AGROBIO Mexico and the Institute of Nutrition of BIMBO Group. He was recognized at the second Convención Latinoamericana hermetic Storage in Guatemala for the testing of special plastic bags for grain storage. In 2012 he got the Teaching and Research Award by Tecnologico de Monterrey. He is a regular member of the Mexican Academy of Science since 2014.Mexico's Sistema Nacional de Investigadores has recognized his work with Level 3 membership.
García Lara has more than 200 abstracts presented at national and international conferences and currently has more than 100 publications, ten book chapters, three books, four patents, and dozens of outreach lectures at various national and international forums.
|
WIKI
|
Don't Fight the Fed but Stay Alert
Here we go again. After a couple of down days and indications of a lower opening for a third straight day, the chatter has started again. Talk of “a major correction” is everywhere. Bubble spotting has become a national pastime; biotech, alternative energy, social media... somebody, somewhere can be found to shout “Bubble!” whenever a sector is doing well. To some extent, I’ll hold my hands up and admit some guilt.
Valuations in the periphery of social media in particular are somewhat worrying and some kind of slowdown or correction in that area looks overdue, but here’s the thing about bubbles; they inflate before they pop. Some of us are old enough to remember that at the end of 1998, after the Nasdaq composite had risen 38.9% in a year, the warnings that this represented a bubble. In the end, I guess they were right, but the index climbed over 100% from there before collapsing.
Nasdaq Composite
People have been calling the current market “frothy” or “overvalued” ever since talk of the infamous “double dip” began back in early 2010, when the S&P’s march towards 1200 was offered as evidence that the market was overvalued. How did that work out? The S&P 500 is up over 50% since then which means that those that ignored the doom-mongers could absorb a 30% collapse from here and still be better off than those who stayed on the sidelines and worried.
The tendency of some in the financial media to be more bearish than the situation warrants is understandable. After two bursting bubbles in recent memory caused a lot of pain, investors are frequently worried, and you will never be out of work if you play to their fears. Nobody wants to be seen as the cheerleader for Wall Street when everything falls apart, but the sustained recovery in the stock market over the last few years has really been based on general economic recovery, not unwarranted optimism or overpowering greed.
Multiples of earnings have increased along with earnings during that time and are now just over average levels, suggesting that the market is fairly valued and any further increase will have to come from increased earnings. That is possible, but with current conditions, there could be more multiple expansion to come as well based on one simple thing; the Fed is still supporting the market. Obviously, despite tapering the amount of bond purchases, QE is still with us but even as that reduces, the prospect of a sustained zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) lends support to stocks. Faced with negative real returns from short term rates the big money is coerced into the market.
Obviously, that creates a volatile situation. Money that is effectively forced into stocks (or anything for that matter) is nervous money and will exit at the first hint of a change in policy. That day will come, but given signs of renewed weakness in the housing market and an overall economic recovery that is steady at best, it is unlikely to be soon.
So, in an environment where some sectors and individual stocks look to be fully valued, even overvalued, but the market as a whole still has upside, what is a poor investor to do? Conventional wisdom, which I have heard often, particularly from mutual fund managers, is that active management (i.e. mutual funds) is the way to go. It is, so the stock pickers say, a stock picker’s market. I disagree.
There is likely to be some volatility in individual stocks and sectors, but overall the market is likely to stumble upwards. In that scenario broad exposure makes more sense. Given that any indication of a change in Fed policy could cause a rapid sell-off at some time in the future, the liquidity that index ETFs such as QQQ, SPY and DIA offer is also a plus.
Over the next couple of years, however, investors cannot fall into the trap that many do when invested in index funds. Buying them and then forgetting about them will probably be fine over a couple of decades, but, as I said, at some point the Fed’s implied support for the market will end, so those with a shorter time horizon than that should stay alert to news. You can ignore much of the noise in the interim, but is there is any indication of the Fed abandoning ZIRP, at the very least some profit taking will be wise. I short, don’t fight the Fed and stay invested, but stay alert!
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
6 Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Smile by Preventing Cavities
Keep cavities away.
Practical Ways To Protect Your Smile
A vibrant, cavity-free smile is more than just aesthetically pleasing—it’s crucial for your overall oral health.
Cavities, the unfortunate result of tooth decay, are among the most common health problems in the world, yet they are also one of the most preventable. Beyond causing discomfort and pain, untreated cavities can lead to serious dental issues, including infections and tooth loss. That’s why keeping cavities at bay should be a focus of your oral hygiene routine.
Our Bedford dental team believes in empowering patients with knowledge and practical tips to prevent dental woes before they arise. So, let’s dive into the daily practices that will fortify your smile and ensure your teeth remain healthy, strong, and radiant.
How Cavities Are Formed
Cavities result from a process that begins with the interaction between sugar and the bacteria in your mouth. Many assume that it’s the sugar itself that directly causes tooth decay, but in fact, sugar just acts as a catalyst for bacteria.
When you consume sugary foods and beverages, the bacteria that naturally reside in your mouth feast on the sugar and produce acid. This acid is the true culprit behind cavity formation. Over time, its attacks weaken the enamel, eventually creating a small hole, or cavity.
If left untreated, a cavity will penetrate deeper into the tooth, affecting the soft dentin and potentially harming the tooth’s nerve, causing pain and risking tooth loss.
6 Tips for Keeping Your Smile Healthy
Maintaining a cavity-free smile isn’t difficult. Adopt these 6 simple steps into your routine, and you’ll be well on your way to achieving and supporting lifelong optimal oral health.
1. Brush your teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste.
Fluoride toothpaste is an essential component of dental care because it fights cavities and reverses the early stages of tooth decay. Fluoride, a naturally occurring mineral, helps rebuild and strengthen tooth enamel, making it more resistant to acid attacks from bacteria and sugars in the mouth. This remineralization process hinders cavity formation but can also help repair the very early stages of tooth decay before the damage becomes permanent.
2. Floss daily to remove plaque between teeth.
Flossing is vital for removing plaque from between teeth where a toothbrush cannot reach. It prevents plaque buildup and minimizes the risk of gum inflammation (gingivitis) and cavities. Additionally, flossing helps maintain healthy gums, which are fundamental to supporting strong, cavity-free teeth.
3. Limit sugary and acidic foods and drinks.
You know now that when sugar comes into contact with bacteria, it produces acid that can erode tooth enamel. So to protect your teeth, avoiding or limiting items such as candies, desserts, and sodas is advisable, as they contribute to tooth decay and enamel erosion. Surprisingly, some seemingly healthy beverages, like 100% fruit juice, can be just as damaging as a soda, particularly acidic citrus varieties. Although these juices may be rich in vitamins, their high sugar content and acid levels, like those of carbonated soft drinks, can attack the tooth enamel.
4. Rinse your mouth with water after consuming sugary or acidic items.
Rinsing with water immediately after consuming sugary or acidic foods and drinks can help wash away leftover particles and neutralize acids. This practice helps to minimize the contact time these substances have with tooth enamel, thus reducing the potential for decay and enamel erosion. Because of the dip in oral pH, wait 30 to 45 minutes after eating or drinking these items to brush your teeth.
5. Visit your dentist regularly for check-ups and cleanings.
Regular dental checkups and dental cleanings are crucial for maintaining optimal oral health. Dentists can detect and address issues early during these visits before they evolve into more significant problems. Professional dental cleanings are also essential to remove plaque and tartar buildup that daily brushing and flossing might miss. These appointments also provide an opportunity for expert advice on personal dental care routines and preventive measures for oral health preservation.
6. Consider dental sealants or fluoride treatments for added protection.
Dental sealants and fluoride treatments are preventive measures that offer extra layers of protection against tooth decay. Sealants are thin coatings applied to the chewing surfaces of the back teeth to keep food and bacteria from getting stuck in the grooves and causing cavities. Topical fluoride applications strengthen tooth enamel and can reverse early signs of tooth decay. Both treatments are quick and painless, and your dentist or hygienist can perform these during a routine visit.
What To Do If You Think You Have a Cavity
If you suspect that you might have a cavity due to tooth pain or sensitivity to hot or cold temperatures, it’s best to take action immediately.
Don’t adopt a wait-and-see approach hoping the discomfort will disappear. Instead, schedule an appointment with your dentist as soon as possible. Early detection and treatment are key to preventing further decay and minimizing the complexity of any necessary treatment.
Book a checkup and cleaning at Davis Family Dental Care.
Safeguarding your teeth from cavities preserves a healthy smile and supports your overall well-being. Remember: Prevention is always better than cure. By incorporating the 6 tips outlined in this blog post, you’re investing in the long-term health of your teeth and gums.
Don’t let tooth decay disrupt your life. Take the necessary steps today to ensure your oral health is in top condition. If you’re looking for experienced dentists in Bedford, Texas, to help you stay on top of your dental care, Davis Family Dental Care is here to support you. Contact us to schedule a checkup and cleaning and take a positive stride toward a healthy, radiant smile.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
UPDATE 1-Canada's Onex, Brookfield drop pursuit of UK office firm IWG
(Add details on deal, trading update and background) Feb 1 (Reuters) - Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp and Brookfield Asset Management said on Thursday they do not intend to make an offer for IWG plc , sending shares of the British serviced office provider down more than 20 percent. IWG, the company behind the Regus brand which runs offices in about 3,000 locations in over 1,000 cities, said in December it had received a bid approach from Onex and Brookfield Asset Management but did not disclose details. The consortium had until 1700 GMT on Feb. 2 to formally bid for the company, after the UK’s Takeover Panel extended the deadline last month. The Canadian consortium said that following discussions with the board and management of IWG it had decided not to make an offer. Shares of IWG had jumped 27 percent when the bid approach was announced. They fell as much as 23.2 percent on Thursday and were down 15.5 percent at 224.4 pence at 1539 GMT. IWG confirmed that discussions had ended and said it remained confident in its prospects as an independent company. The bid approach came after IWG warned on full-year profit in October, citing a weaker London market and disruption due to natural disasters in the United States. In a separate trading update on Thursday, IWG said it saw an improvement in its business in the final months of 2017 and it expected its results for the year ended Dec. 31 to be in line with previous guidance. (Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Adrian Croft and Susan Fenton)
|
NEWS-MULTISOURCE
|
What you need to know about Electric Bike batteries
Electric Bike Batteries
Simple question really, what do you need to know about electric bike batteries?
And the answer is simple too…not much. However, you will find that bike specification sheets and more technical experts than me (not an expert on anything really) will give you long and quite confusing answers.
So here’s what you need to know.
• An electric bike needs a battery
• It affects the length of time your bike can assist you in cycling
• Its power output is assisting the electric motor to spin and drive your bike forward
• It will need recharging every 30-50 miles
• They come in different cases and can be located on different parts of the bike
• You can buy extra ones and replacement ones
• You can usually take it off the bike to keep it safe or recharge it
What specification do you need?
Brand name
Like most things in life you’re probably more assured by a brand name, so a battery made by Samsung or Yamaha will give you confidence in it’s quality. They don’t produce any more power than an unbranded battery but they may have a longer lifespan, think Duracell battery for example. However, that’s not always the case.
Volts (V)
Usually next to the battery brand it will say something like 36V, which means 36 volts. Electric bike batteries typically come in 24V, 36V, 48V, and 72V. With 36v now the standard. In the UK bikes that assist you above 25kmph are illegal so really you don’t need a battery more powerful than 36v. However, if you have a higher spec mountain bike, or a cargo electric bike which pushes more weight then you might require a 48v or 72v battery.
So the more volts the faster and more powerful the flow of energy from the battery to the motor.
Amps (ah)
Amps are designated with an “ah” on the description, and it designates the volume of fuel you have readily available. So a battery with 10ah, which is pretty standard, will have 10 amp hours of power to deliver. Now how fast that 10ah gets used up depends on a lot of factors, mainly how much weight is being shifted, how efficient the motor is, how much pedal assistance you’re asking it to provide, and whether you’re climbing hills. So when a company makes a claim that the 36V 10ah battery will provide 50 hours of pedal assistance that’s usually under good conditions. If you were to add on a pannier with a picnic in it, and climb a few hills on the way to your picnic site using the pedal assistance at maximum you’d probably find you only get about 20 miles out of the battery.
You can get batteries with 15ah or 20ah volume which can be handy for people who travel longer distances, or an alternative is to buy a second battery and swap them around when drained.
A 36v 10ah battery should get you most places
Watts & Watt Hours (Wh)
Some electric bike specifications refer to Watt Hours (Wh), which is basically a measurement of the energy capacity of your battery. It’s calculated by multiplying the Volts x Amps. So a 36V battery with 10ah has 360 Watt Hours. Each mile you travel can utilise between 5 and 30 Wh depending on several factors mentioned elsewhere in this post. So really this figure isn’t much help!
Li-ion
Li-ion isn’t about the roaring noise the bike will make when you accelerate…sorry! It’s Lithium-ion which is basically the chemical component filling the battery. Li-ion batteries are preferred for rechargeable batteries because compared to alternatives such as NiMH and NiCd batteries, they retain the charge longer. NiMH and NiCd batteries can lose anywhere from 1-5% of their charge per day, which means while your bikes sat there unused the battery charge is slowly eaking down. Li-ion batteries also have a higher energy density than most other rechargeable batteries types which means that for their size and weight they can store more energy…important for electric bikes. The disadvantage of Li-ion batteries is they are more expensive than other batteries and need a dedicated charger, which does increase the cost of electric bikes. So while you may be able to buy a cheaper battery which isn’t Li-ion, be aware of the cons of that.
Locks
Some electric bikes have lockable battery cases which does make it harder for someone to steal them. Worth thinking about if you lock your bike up in a public place.
Cost of recharging
If you want to know about the cost of recharging electric bike batteries please see my post on how much it costs to run an electric bike.
Why do they look different?
A question some people ask is why batteries look better on some electric bikes than others. Basically what you’re seeing is the case the battery is in. Some companies have managed to disguise the battery somewhat as a water bottle (see the Gtech eBike) or made it look more slimline and part of the bike (see the HaiBike Sduro Trekking). All of this is aesthetic really, but is a big challenge for electric bike manufacturers as the sight of the battery is the major turn off for new buyers of electric bikes. Really its the only thing that visually differentiates a standard bicycle from an ebike. Hopefully, we’ll see advancements in this in the future with less visible slim line or frame-concealed batteries.
Summary
I’m sure, and I hope some more technical people than I will correct any wrong terms I’ve used here. I’m also positive there’s much more to be said about electric bike batteries. But this article is for people making a decision on which electric bike to buy, possibly their first ebike purchase. So all you need to know really is what is contained in the image above with the map background! If you’re buying an electric bike and it has a standard 36V 10ah Li-ion battery then you should be pretty pleased with the results.
2 Comments:
1. What battery does your electric bike have, and how many miles do you get out of each charge? Look forward to hearing from electric bike owners…
2. Although the Ah rating of a battery is the most common, Wh discloses the energy available without further calculation. For instance a 36v 10Ah battery stores 50% more energy than a 24v 10Ah battery and therefore has potentially 50% greater range. As 36v seems to be becoming the standard this shouldn’t be much of an issue but buyers need to beware that 24v batteries need 50% greater Ah capacity to compete with 36v ones. Also losses in the wiring are much less with higher voltages so a 48v battery with the same Wh capacity as a 36v will be more efficient.
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
|
ESSENTIALAI-STEM
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.