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Q:
Configurating an archiva repository to never allow to update a old version of an artifact
Due a requirement of one of our clients We need garantee that our developers can not update a published version of an artifact in Archiva. They will be enable to publish a new version of the same artifact.
Is it possible to have this configuration in archiva?
A:
Yes. As an administrator, click the "Repositories" link on the left, then "Edit" the managed repository you wish to configure it for. You will find the option "Block Re-deployment of Released Artifacts". This option is available on version 1.3 and above.
|
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Q:
ASP.NET MVC posted file model binding when parameter is Model
Is there any way to get posted files (<input type="file" />) to take part in model binding in ASP.NET MVC without manually looking at the request context in a custom model binder, and without creating a separate action method which only takes a posted file as input?
I would have thought that this would work:
class MyModel {
public HttpPostedFileBase MyFile { get; set; }
public int? OtherProperty { get; set; }
}
<form enctype="multipart/form-data">
<input type="file" name="MyFile" />
<input type="text" name="OtherProperty" />
</form>
public ActionResult Create(MyModel myModel) { ... }
But given the above scenario, MyFile isn't even part of the value provider values in the binding context. (OtherProperty is, of course.) But it works if I do this:
public ActionResult Create(HttpPostedFileBase postedFile, ...) { ... }
So, why does no binding occur when the parameter is a model, and how can I make it work? I have no problem with using a custom model binder, but how can I do this in a custom model binder without looking at Request.Files["MyFile"]?
For consistency, clarity and testability, I'd like my code to provide automatic binding of all properties on a model, including those bound to posted files, without manually inspecting the request context. I am currently testing model binding using the approach Scott Hanselman wrote about.
Or am I going about this in the wrong way? How would you solve this? Or is this not possible by design due to the history of separation between Request.Form and Request.Files?
A:
It turns out the reason is that ValueProviderDictionary only looks in Request.Form, RouteData and Request.QueryString to populate the value provider dictionary in the model binding context. So there's no way for a custom model binder to allow posted files to participate in model binding without inspecting the files collection in the request context directly. This is the closest way I've found to accomplish the same thing:
public ActionResult Create(MyModel myModel, HttpPostedFileBase myModelFile) { }
As long as myModelFile is actually the name of the file input form field, there's no need for any custom stuff.
A:
Another way is to add a hidden field with the same name as the input:
<input type="hidden" name="MyFile" id="MyFileSubmitPlaceHolder" />
The DefaultModelBinder will then see a field and create the correct binder.
A:
Have you looked at this post which he links to from the one you linked to (via another one...)?
If not, it looks quite simple. This is the model binder he uses:
public class HttpPostedFileBaseModelBinder : IModelBinder {
public ModelBinderResult BindModel(ModelBindingContext bindingContext) {
HttpPostedFileBase theFile =
bindingContext.HttpContext.Request.Files[bindingContext.ModelName];
return new ModelBinderResult(theFile);
}
}
He registers it in Global.asax.cs as follows:
ModelBinders.Binders[typeof(HttpPostedFileBase)] =
new HttpPostedFileBaseModelBinder();
and posts with a form that looks like this:
<form action="/File/UploadAFile" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post">
Choose file: <input type="file" name="theFile" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
All the code is copied straight off the blog post...
|
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Elizabeth Ann Schweikhard
Thank you for your gift to Dry Bones Denver in honor of Elizabeth Ann Schweikhard.
Dry Bones has been blessed as an organization to call Elizabeth Ann, friend, supporter, and “Grandmother” for more than 13 years.
Thank you for honoring her life with your gift.
If you would like to learn more about this ministry that Elizabeth Ann loved, we suggest you start with the About Us page. You might also be interested in this video interview between her granddaughter Nikki and “Little Joe”.
DONATE USING A CREDIT CARD
DONATE BY MAIL
Checks* should be made out to:
Dry Bones Denver
455 S. Youngfield Ct.
Lakewood, CO 80228
*Please write “EA Schweikhard” in the memo line of your check or attach a note.
Dry Bones staff and volunteers are committed to serving the large population of homeless teens and young adults living in downtown Denver. The youth who live on the streets of Denver range in age from 12 into their mid-twenties. Dry Bones connects these young people with resources, nutrition, entertainment, and new friends.
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22.10.13
WON'T SOMEONE SAY SOMETHING?
For years, photographer Terry Richardson has become increasingly popular. Vogue, H&M, Obama (yes, Obama!) and countless others have all worked with Richardson to help create their visions. His iconic glasses and white background with harsh lighting has become an epitome in the Richardson brand. However the 48 year-old photographer's career may be coming to an end, after almost 6, 000 and counting have signed a petition, for big name brands such as Vogue and H&M to stop hiring him. Only now has one brand stepped forward, H&M. The Swedish chain answered queries on the work and the photographer himself: "If these accusations are true, it's totally unacceptable to us. Currently we're not working with Terry Richardson." But will that one tweet be enough?
The recent work of Terry Richardson included artist Miley Cyrus, strutting around in leotards and featured on the famous white background.
It's strange how for years Richardson has been accused of sexual harassment and being a pervert, yet clients still want and book him. I'm incredulous to the very idea. I have read numerous articles where models have confessed his style of working, years after the incident happened, in order to keep their footing in the fashion industry. Models as young and innocent as 18 have to keep the most horrific encounters with Richardson a secret, because either they're too ashamed or reluctant to tell anyone. "Eventually, he had me go down on him and took pictures of him cuming on my face, which I had never done before, and when I went to the bathroom to clean up I could hear him and an assistant joking about it which is when I decided to never tell anyone." Disgusting. These young girls are already being exposed to something so horrid, after only a short period of being thrown into the modelling world. I can't even bring myself to imagine what they must've felt.
Please find the * at the bottom of this post
After attending a networking party in the last month, I met a photographer called Alan Davies. I will never forget his opinions on Richardson's work. He and I both agree that Richardson allows the connotations that, all male photographers are unprofessional pigs. Which they aren't, Nick Knight, Patrick Demarchelier and Bruce Weber are all male photographers, who do not have this connotation. But, with the idea that they are, young models and clients may refuse to hire a male photographer, thus throwing away genius ideas.
Terry Richardson's work is somehow still appreciated for it's candid-style. But even the idea of a white background and harsh lighting has only a finite number, before it loses it's originality and creativeness. Hopefully, with the growing number of supporters against Richardson and his work, the Kardashian for Sears collection will be the last of his works.
Same, I had no idea that Terry was like this. Before, I bought the Terry X Gaga book that they released together, thinking that Terry was a good photographer. But then I came across this topic which really disgusts me, and now they plan to release a second volume!
So that means, that more Gaga fans with buy that book, funding Terry's career. I plan to boycott anything related to Terry in order for this to stop.
Great post, Victor, I've never like Terry Richardson - not his photography and definitely not him as a person. I've head many rumours about him and by using that picture, I hope people understand exactly what kind of "photography" Terry Richardson prides himself in. I'm definitely signing that petition!
I had honestly no idea about any of this; I have never liked him as a person, but I really liked Richardson's work as a photographer. After reading this my mind has changed completely, absolutely disgusted.
Woow so informative! I didnt know that about T.R. ! That's fucking discunting :( I really like his tumblr but now... I dont know, because maybe those girls naked were forced to be naked... I dont know what to think about him now
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Doctor Who: "The Zygon Inversion"Review
“The Zygon Inversion” brings this two-part story to a close, while also arranging a happy ending that unfortunately seems far less likely for the real-world situations that the episodes have been commenting on.
Sure, I was glad to see the Doctor “win” this round, talking down the Zygon Bonnie (a.k.a. Evil Clara, a.k.a. Zygilla) and actually getting through to her to the point where they “broke the cycle” and she joined the Doctor, Osgood and UNIT’s cause. If only it were so easy in reality to convince a suicide bomber or an ISIS terrorist or a would-be martyr of the endless cycle of pain and suffering that they are perpetuating.
Evil Clara clearly feels that she and her people have been persecuted, and that what they’ve gone through somehow justifies her extreme actions now. The Doctor begs to differ.
“Oh, it's not faaaair!” Peter Capaldi mocks/screams in that singularly dry-mouthed Capaldi way. “These things have happened, Zygilla. They are facts. You just want cruelty to beget cruelty. You aren’t superior to the people who were cruel to you. You’re just a whole bunch of new cruel people.”
In the end, the only key to finding peace is forgiveness. But it takes the Doctor’s painful recollection of the war he fought in -- the ultimate war -- to convince Evil Clara, to get her to start to see things his way. “When I close my eyes, I hear more screams than anyone could ever be able to count,” he says. And suddenly Evil Clara isn’t so evil anymore, as she realizes her and the Doctor are more alike than they are different.
The Doctor’s commitment to peace in the wake of the Time War is impressive, and this entire climactic scene with Kate and Evil Clara facing off over the Osgood boxes while the Doctor debates them and lectures them and finally, finally breaks through to them, is engrossing and kind of great. Not just because of Capaldi’s typically strong performance, but also because of Jenna Coleman’s turn as Evil Clara. What started as an out and out bad guy last week becomes something more in this scene, as Coleman very subtly transforms Evil Clara into a more compassionate being through the slightest facial changes and flickers of her eyes. As the Doctor says, he has her at a disadvantage since he knows that face. As do we.
What's in the box?
So this was a very strong way to end the conflict of this story, but unfortunately most of the rest of this episode felt like filler. All the business with the real Clara being trapped in a cocoon basically went nowhere, and the promise of her controlling Evil Clara from within -- while clever -- kind of petered out. As such, Clara herself didn’t get a ton to do here, and with so few episodes left for the character, that’s sort of a bummer.
The bit where the Zygon (disguised as a human) was being stalked by Evil Clara was a fun tribute to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, right down to the human dust balls being swept up and the Zygon running around in a panic Kevin McCarthy style. “They’re here already! You’re next!” His Zygon brothers and sisters affected a very pod-like take on the situation, too. I guess they were all devoted to Evil Clara’s cause? (Or just, as Morrissey once said, would rather not get involved?)
As for the Doctor and Osgood’s escape from the certain doom of last week’s cliffhanger, that seemed particularly cheap even by cheap cliffhanger save standards. It also serves as a reminder that the Doctor really should travel by TARDIS whenever possible… or at least have the TARDIS nearby at all times.
And speaking of Osgood, while it was nice of the Doctor to invite her on as a companion, I was surprised by it. She seems a bit too fanboy for his tastes. But regardless, Osgood lives on! Actually, two Osgoods live on, as Zygilla has replaced the dead Osgood. Which, really, seems kind of weird for the other Osgood… I mean, she can just fully embrace this new Osgood as a replacement sister to the one who died, the one she was so close to? Easy come, easy go, I guess.
Lastly, we closed things out this week with another moment in the TARDIS between the Doctor and Clara where the Doctor seems to be contemplating death. Does it hint at Clara’s impending fate? Only time will tell…
Some notes:
Why does Kate get stuck with the memory wipe? After all, she was the first one to close the box!
And the Doctor pseudonyms continue with Dr. John Disco!
“This is toothpaste.”
WHAT? Osgood doesn't know what TARDIS stands for!?
Man, these morphing effects are really poor.
The Verdict
This Zygon two-parter has definitely been the low point of the ninth season so far. Still, the terrorism metaphor was given a hopeful finale here, and the Doctor’s torment over the Time War continues to be a wellspring of drama and fine acting moments. Though one has to wonder, at what juncture is it time to move on and stop going back to the Time War as a reference point?
Good
What’s in Osgood’s box? The low point so far of Doctor Who’s otherwise strong Season 9, unfortunately.
|
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Littleover
Littleover is a village and suburb in the city of Derby, in Derbyshire, England, between Rose Hill, Normanton, Sunny Hill and Mickleover, about southwest of Derby city centre.
History
The history of Littleover's name is simple. It is derived from 'Little Ufre' (Domesday book) and in Old English "Ofer" which meant a slope or little hill, whilst neighbouring Mickleover, is known to be from 'Mickle Ufre' meaning large hill. Littleover was also formerly known as Parver Over.
The village, like many settlements in England, is partially of Saxon and partially of Roman origin; the Burton Road is a Roman road linking the A38 to the city centre. Its Roman origin is easily confirmed due to its direct route. Burton Road, the A5250, leaves the A38 as Rykneld Road and becomes Pastures Hill just past Heatherton Village. At the top of Pastures Hill it crosses a junction with Hillsway and Chain Lane, whereupon it becomes Burton Road and remains so up to its junction with Babington Lane in Derby city centre. Despite the attraction of the Burton Road-Babington Lane route, it is possible that the course of the original Rykneld Way did not deviate but continued in a straight line through the rear of what was the Crest Motel.
Littleover was in the parish of Mickleover until 1866, when the residents of Littleover rejected parish rule and formed their own authority.
Littleover's main shopping area is situated around Burton Road as the village is entered from the ring road.
The village's main public house is called the Half Moon and is notable as being one of two inns in the village in 1577; it still serves as a community hub where residents gather and socialise. The older part of the village around St Peter's Church was built in the 14th century. The village has another public house, the White Swan which can be found on Shepherd Street also near the older part of Littleover. Directly opposite the White Swan is Church Street which takes its name from the aforementioned St Peter's Church and links up with the Hollow which is believed to be of medieval origin. The age of the Hollow and Church Street are evidenced by the buildings that can be found there; even today the former contains the beautiful thatched roofed Littleover Cottage (very rare in Derbyshire), whilst on Church Street can be found a detached white house, which in its time has been called the White House and would probably have been there before most of the buildings around it. Residential properties in Littleover are generally attractive, well-maintained and spacious properties which are highly desired within the Derby area. The White House, it is believed, may date in part from the 16th century, whereupon it probably would have stood alone with the thatched cottage and church. In earlier times this area was the centre of activity in the village where the square was used for markets, proclamations and general celebrations on public holidays.
The Crest Hotel, built around the late 19th century on a site previously occupied by a windmill, burnt down in 2002. Today a housing development stands where the hotel used to be.
Education
The final location of Derby School was in Littleover on Moorway Lane, the site is now occupied by Derby Moor Community Sports College.
Infant, junior and primary schools:
St Georges Catholic Voluntary Academy
Gayton Junior School
Ridgeway Infant School
Carlyle Infant School
Griffe Field Primary School built as part of the Heatherton Village estate in 1999
St Peter's CofE Junior School
Secondary and sixth form schools:
Derby Grammar School (Boys independent school)
Derby High School (Girls independent school)
Derby Moor Community Sports College (Comprehensive School)
Littleover Community School (Comprehensive School)
Notable residents
Simon Wilson (quantity surveyor) was born here
Lee Camp, goalkeeper
Judith Hann, TV presenter (Tomorrow's World) was born here
Fiona May, athlete
Michael Socha, actor
Harry Slack FRSE zoologist
Lucy Ward, musician, grew up in Littleover
Kelli Young, member of British pop group, Liberty X
Keiran Lee, Pornographic actor.
William Alexander (Alec) Onslow Martin, Deputy Chief Designer Rolls Royce Rocket Division Derby, particularly Rolls-Royce RZ.2 engine for Blue Streak. 1914–1963, interred St Peter's Littleover
References
External links
Focus on Littleover
Derby Guide
Category:Areas of Derby
Category:Former civil parishes in Derbyshire
Category:Wards of Derby
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Q:
What's the best way to get the top N, then everything else as n + 1
For example, if I've got this query:
select top 10 medication_name, count(1)
from DimMedical
group by medication_name
order by count(1) desc
I can easily get a count of the ten most popular prescriptions.
I can add 'everything else' with a Union like so:
select top 10 medication_name, count(1)
from DimMedical
group by medication_name
order by count(1) desc
union
select 'other', count(1)
from DimMedical
where medication_name not in (
select top 10 medication_name, count(1)
from DimMedical
group by medication_name
order by count(1) desc)
but this hits my table up three times! It's also hard to support, since the same where clause must be in the subquery. It would be easy for the next developer to change one and not the other.
https://www.brentozar.com/pastetheplan/?id=Bk4IqFo9m
Question: What is the best way to get the top N, then everything else?
Sample data (holy whitespace! I've got some normalization to do!):
create table DimMedical (medication_name varchar(255))
insert into DimMedical(medication_name)
values ('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('METHOCARBAMOL '),
('IBUPROFEN '),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('ZIPSOR '),
('CELEBREX '),
('GABAPENTIN '),
('MELOXICAM '),
('TRAMADOL HCL '),
('BACLOFEN '),
('XODOL '),
('NAPROXEN '),
('CELEBREX '),
('CLONAZEPAM '),
('OXYCODONE HCL-ACETAMINOPHEN '),
('LYRICA '),
('LIDODERM '),
('AMOXICILLIN/CLAVULANATE POTASSIUM '),
('CIPROFLOXACIN '),
('CLINDAMYCIN HCL '),
('OXYCODONE HCL-ACETAMINOPHEN '),
('OXYCODONE HCL-ACETAMINOPHEN '),
('LYRICA '),
('OXYCODONE HCL-ACETAMINOPHEN '),
('CELEBREX '),
('DICLOFENAC SODIUM '),
('ACETAMINOPHEN-CODEINE PHOSPHATE '),
('VOLTAREN GEL '),
('ZIPSOR '),
('FENTANYL CITRATE '),
('OPANA ER '),
('CLARINEX '),
('NASONEX '),
('IPRATROPIUM BROMIDE-ALBUTEROL SULFA'),
('PROAIR HFA '),
('ADVAIR DISKUS 250/50 '),
('SPIRIVA '),
('OXYCODONE HCL-ACETAMINOPHEN '),
('IBU '),
('GABAPENTIN '),
('NAPROXEN '),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('TIZANIDINE HCL '),
('GABAPENTIN '),
('CYCLOBENZAPRINE HCL '),
('ENDOCET '),
('ENDOCET '),
('ZOLPIDEM TARTRATE '),
('KADIAN '),
('TRAMADOL HCL '),
('CYCLOBENZAPRINE HCL '),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('TRAMADOL HCL '),
('GABAPENTIN '),
('TRAMADOL HCL '),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('NAPROXEN '),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('ZYPREXA '),
('LEXAPRO '),
('AMITRIPTYLINE HCL '),
('CYMBALTA '),
('MIRTAZAPINE '),
('LIDODERM '),
('KADIAN '),
('MELOXICAM '),
('CYCLOBENZAPRINE HCL '),
('GABAPENTIN '),
('TRAZODONE HYDROCHLORIDE '),
('DIAZEPAM '),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('DEMEROL '),
('TRAMADOL HCL '),
('AMITRIPTYLINE HCL '),
('LITHIUM CARBONATE '),
('ENDOCET '),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('Unknown'),
('NASONEX '),
('XOPENEX HFA '),
('ACETAMINOPHEN-CODEINE PHOSPHATE '),
('MELOXICAM '),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('OXYCODONE HCL '),
('OXYCONTIN '),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('CARISOPRODOL '),
('OXYCODONE HCL-ACETAMINOPHEN '),
('METHOCARBAMOL '),
('OXYCONTIN '),
('AMITRIPTYLINE HCL '),
('HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE-ACETAMINOPHE'),
('HYDROXYZINE PAMOATE '),
('ALPRAZOLAM '),
('CARISOPRODOL '),
('CITALOPRAM HYDROBROMIDE ')
A:
How does this work for you?
SELECT medication_name, SUM(medication_count) medication_count
FROM (
SELECT CASE WHEN CountOrder < 11 THEN medication_name ELSE 'other' END medication_name, medication_count
FROM (
SELECT medication_name, COUNT(1) medication_count, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY COUNT(1) DESC) CountOrder
FROM DimMedical
GROUP BY medication_name
) subquery2
) subquery1
GROUP BY medication_name
|
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Have specific subject questions for one of our experts, click the arrow to the right.
Web Content Publishing Schedule
Section 207(f)(2) of the E-Government Act of 2002 requires federal agencies to develop an inventory of information to be published on their Web sites, establish a schedule for publishing information, make those schedules available for public comment, and post the schedules and priorities on the Web site.
I Want To
More State Features
USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service
Idaho Field Office (Part of the Northwest Regional Field Office)
About Us
Who We Are and What We Do
The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The agency's primary responsibility is to prepare official estimates of agriculture for the nation, and for each state. There are 45 field offices that serve all 50 states. The Idaho Field Office is located in Boise, ID.
Field offices collect, verify, and analyze data which are used to prepare statistical estimates. Farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses are the grassroots source of information, collected through voluntary surveys conducted by each state office throughout the year. Survey data are collected and summarized at the state level to provide statistical indications. These indications are analyzed by statisticians in each state office who then make recommendations to the national headquarters in Washington, D.C.. Statisticians in headquarters review the state recommendations and issue the state and national estimates to the public on scheduled dates throughout the year. About 300 national and 9,000 state reports are issued annually. Idaho Field Office publications are available by subscription. Cooperative agreements with State governments also permit preparation and publication of county-level estimates of crops and livestock for many states. In addition, many field offices conduct surveys for other government agencies and private organizations.
Idaho's Agriculture:
Agriculture with a farm gate value of production of approximately $4.0 billion is the number one industry in the Gem State . Most people associate Idaho with our "Famous Potatoes" slogan that adorns our license plates. While this provides much notoriety and recognition for Idaho 's number one crop, Idaho with its scenic beauty and agricultural diversity has much more to offer than the "best" potato in the world.
Traveling the state you will find Idaho 's agriculture is as diverse as its landscape. In the North are the vast dry land grain, dry pea, lentil, and hay fields. The Southwest's traditional crops are mixed with fruit orchards, vegetables, and specialized commodities such as mint, hops, and seed crops. Swinging east along the Snake River , the landscape is dotted with large irrigated fields of alfalfa hay, dry beans, potatoes, small grains, and sugarbeets. The Southeast and East are a mixture of dry land and irrigated grain, hay, and potato fields. We can see cattle and sheep grazing on the vast rangelands throughout the State, and Idaho 's dairy and commercial cattle feeding industries have made tremendous gains during the past decade.
Idaho's agriculture is not only diverse, but it is also a leader in several commodities nationally. Idaho is the number one potato state with more than 29 percent of the U.S. crop produced within our borders. Idaho also leads the Nation in specialty products such as food sized trout, Austrian winter peas, several varieties of dry beans, and is ranked second in the production of sugarbeets, and all dry peas. In total, Idaho is among the top ten for 18 crops, trout, milk production, American cheese, honey, and sheep and lambs. Also, our important cattle feeding industry is ranked 11th in the country.
Yes, we are proud of our "famous potatoes," but we are equally proud of the many other crops and livestock products grown in the beautiful and agriculturally diverse Gem State.
|
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|
Technical Field
The instant disclosure relates to a cursor system and, more particularly, to a cursor generation system, a cursor generation method, and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium.
Related Art
People usually use computers for brief reports on conference proceedings. Generally, a computer can be connected to a projector in order to project report data to a curtain or a wall. Alternatively, the computer can be connected to an external display (e.g., a large TV screen) in order to directly display report data on the display.
During a lecture, a speaker may use a laser pointer emitting laser beam to a curtain or a display on which report data display for indicating relative contents on the curtain or the display that the speaker talks about and wants to show attendees. However, during the use of the laser pointer, the laser beam may cause people being injured if the laser beam hits any one of the attendees' eyes accidently. Even reflection of a laser dot of the laser beam on the curtain or the display may lead to risks to human eyes.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
PROJECT SUMMARY ABSTRACT Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) is a major cancer drug target that is overexpressed in multiple tumor types. FAK is a critical regulator of tumor survival, invasion, proliferation, metastasis, and immune evasion. Current FAK inhibitors that target the ATP-binding pocket of the kinase domain do no effectively inhibit FAK in cancer because FAK also functions as a scaffolding protein. The Focal Adhesion Targeting (FAT) domain of FAK is an interesting alternative drug target due to its requirement for FAK localization, activity, and downstream effects. Disruption and mutation of the FAT domain causes significant effects on tumor cell apoptosis, proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. Specifically, the FAT domain interacts with the alpha helical LD2 and LD4 motifs of Paxillin to promote its biological effects. The structure of the FAT-Paxillin complex has been solved by x-ray crystallography however has been challenging to target with small molecules. In this project, we will use hydrocarbon stapled alpha helical peptides that have the advantage of enhanced proteolytic stability, cell permeability, and potent inhibition of the entire protein interaction interface. We have preliminary data of Stapled Peptide 3 showing low micromolar inhibition of FAK-Paxillin binding and NMR/SPR data validating the binding site of the peptide. In the first specific aim, we will perform structure-activity relationships (SAR) on stapled alpha helical peptides for enhanced binding and competitive inhibition. We will perform SAR on stapled peptides by changing hydrocarbon stapling strategy, modifying N- and C-terminal amino acids, and adding alternative amino acids. In addition, we will utilize molecular modeling to optimize peptide-protein contacts, synthesize stapled peptides of homologous peptide sequences, and characterize biophysical/biochemical properties of stapled peptides. In the second specific aim, we will characterize and optimize lead peptides for cellular effects. We will perform robust assays to measure cell permeability of stapled peptides, characterize peptides for protease resistance and effects on membrane lysis, and test peptides in cellular efficacy assays to assess the effects of stapled peptides on cancer cells. In the third specific aim, we will test lead peptides with in vitro DMPK assays and preliminary in vivo efficacy models. We will characterize peptides using plasma binding, metabolic stability, and CYP inhibition/assays. We will also test lead peptides in mouse xenograft models alone and in combination with chemotherapy. In all, these specific aims will be used to discover peptide inhibitors of FAK non-catalytic function that can be the basis for future clinical development.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "NIH ExPorter"
}
|
Q:
Image factorisations in abelian categories
Let $\mathcal{C}$ be an abelian category and $f:A\longrightarrow B$ a morphism of $\mathcal{C}$. Suppose you have a factorisation $f=i\circ p$, with $p$ a strong epi, $i$ a mono and $\operatorname{cod}(p)=\operatorname{dom}(i)$ "the" cokernel of the kernel of $f$.
hen by duality uou get a second factorisation $f=i'\circ p'$ with $p'$ a strong epi, $i'$ a mono and $\operatorname{cod}(p')=\operatorname{dom}(i')$ the kernel of the cokernel of $f$.
Could you please explain the meaning of the second paragraph, the one starting with "by duality" till the end?
Second question: call $I=\operatorname{cod}(p)=\operatorname{dom}(i)$ and $I'=\operatorname{cod}(p')=\operatorname{dom}(i')$. Can I say $I=I'$ or only that $I$ and $I'$ are isomorphic?
A:
The duality will become meaningful only if we assume the factorization for all morphisms $f$ in all Abelian categories $\mathcal C$.
So, it's a theorem, and since being Abelian is a self-dual condition ($\mathcal C^{op}$ will be Abelian again), the dual of the theorem will hold (that is the theorem applied to $\mathcal C^{op}$).
No, only isomorphic: $I\cong I'$.
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Thursday, February 12, 2009
Hammer Fan Art
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Happy Thursday, Hammerheads!
We've got some crazy cool fan art here from Zuda stalwarts RKB and Rudy. One collabo featuring the desperate electioneering antics of Team Hammer and one knocked out by Rudy on his own featuring the messy outcome of a meeting between Calvin and Rudy's own Children of Bighand!
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Cav Scouts!
Im a scout, in the same unit as rammstein. This squadron will definitely make you hate life. Where you go and who you're with will make a difference. Back at Ft Hood I really enjoyed what I did.... then I came here. Now I just want out, go back home and start welding again so I can make some real money. It can be pretty fun though but pray that you go light. I hate this mounted cav bull****
When I was in a thousand years ago, the leadership seemed to think we worked very well as live bait. I'm guessing that hasn't changed much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kida2
expect a lot of bull<del>****</del>.
They don't call us "19-Detail" for nothing. Any crappy little job nobody wants to be bothered with gets handed off to the Scouts, any piddly detail, all the BS that's supposed to be spread evenly... and isn't. Apparently training time for Scouts is less important than it is for everyone else, right?
Heavy Cav is freaking awesome... living out of a Brad is waaaaayyyyyy better than living out of a HMMWV. Plus there is the better armor and that beast of a gun up there. Oh and the optics make me really nervous about doing anything dismounted against tanks or mech anything.
If only the Army would give us real Scout vehicles like the Armored Knights that the Fisters get.
If I had it my way they'd break 19D into two MOSs, Cav and Scouts. Scouts would be light with Armored Knights, HMMWVs, ATVs, UAVs and other more stealthy kinds of things... Cav would be Brads, Strikers, Tanks and ****. That way one would focus on gathering intelligence and calling for fire and the other could focus on mech warfare tactics and such.
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I want to rage against the world. I want to beat it into submission. I want it to see the hate in my eyes, to feel the rage pouring out of me in blow after blow delivered in a fury that could only be fueled by insanity. I want to shake it so violently that it's afraid it may break and I want to scream with such primal ferocity that it reaches back into the darkest parts of an age when men cowered in caves at the sound of demons. Then, after the wave has subsided and I let go I want to watch it slump into a broken mass, whimpering. When the word "why?" crosses it's bloody swollen lips the only reply that will come is "yes... why?".
2: brads are ****ing bad *** and any time there are rounds incoming you are going to want them around.
3: Scouts have a much more varried job than either tankers or infantry.
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I want to rage against the world. I want to beat it into submission. I want it to see the hate in my eyes, to feel the rage pouring out of me in blow after blow delivered in a fury that could only be fueled by insanity. I want to shake it so violently that it's afraid it may break and I want to scream with such primal ferocity that it reaches back into the darkest parts of an age when men cowered in caves at the sound of demons. Then, after the wave has subsided and I let go I want to watch it slump into a broken mass, whimpering. When the word "why?" crosses it's bloody swollen lips the only reply that will come is "yes... why?".
hahahaha ok you wont be saying that you hate tracks when your *** is walking around all night with a heavy *** rucksack also being fully kitted. and then once you see that bradley go by. I bet you wont be saying that.
hahahaha ok you wont be saying that you hate tracks when your *** is walking around all night with a heavy *** rucksack also being fully kitted. and then once you see that bradley go by. I bet you wont be saying that.
Except riding there makes more sense. The only reason to walk when you could have ridden is to avoid detection.
I don't there there is a single dude out there who would say "25k... keep your vehicle I'll walk".
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I want to rage against the world. I want to beat it into submission. I want it to see the hate in my eyes, to feel the rage pouring out of me in blow after blow delivered in a fury that could only be fueled by insanity. I want to shake it so violently that it's afraid it may break and I want to scream with such primal ferocity that it reaches back into the darkest parts of an age when men cowered in caves at the sound of demons. Then, after the wave has subsided and I let go I want to watch it slump into a broken mass, whimpering. When the word "why?" crosses it's bloody swollen lips the only reply that will come is "yes... why?".
__________________
I want to rage against the world. I want to beat it into submission. I want it to see the hate in my eyes, to feel the rage pouring out of me in blow after blow delivered in a fury that could only be fueled by insanity. I want to shake it so violently that it's afraid it may break and I want to scream with such primal ferocity that it reaches back into the darkest parts of an age when men cowered in caves at the sound of demons. Then, after the wave has subsided and I let go I want to watch it slump into a broken mass, whimpering. When the word "why?" crosses it's bloody swollen lips the only reply that will come is "yes... why?".
The only thing about a Bradley that is bad *** as you say is its weapon system. Im a dismount in a Bradley and effing hate it. Rather ride in a maxxpro than those things. You can hear them coming mile away and riding in them is the most uncomfortable thing ive done since being in the army. Theyre useless in todays war, all track vehicles are. The striker is sick, wish I was in a striker unit. I smell a PCS when I get back to the states
I'm an 11c in a mech unit HHC (Which is honestly the ****tiest thing ever) so I'm always around them scouts. All they do is drive their humvees and bradleys around and scout ****, which compared to what we do makes me jealous as ****.
I'm an 11c in a mech unit HHC (Which is honestly the ****tiest thing ever) so I'm always around them scouts. All they do is drive their humvees and bradleys around and scout ****, which compared to what we do makes me jealous as ****.
No they don't
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My...My...My.. My culture brings all the Terrorists to the yard and they're like, Allah Akbhar! Damn right, put a bomb in your car! I'd preach to you but I have to Hajj
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Q:
What are some secondary texts, in the form of online articles, to read about Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics?
What are some secondary texts, in the form of online articles, to read about Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics before I jump into the text and to ease myself into understanding it?
It would be preferable these web articles were written by Kant scholars and could be finished in around ~15 minutes.
I'm using the translation by Paul Carus as the Prolegomena, if that is of any relevance.
This is the version:--
(https://www.amazon.com/Kants-Prolegomena-any-Future-Metaphysics-ebook/dp/B004UO69DE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525052190&sr=8-1&keywords=1420938266)
Citation for the link above:--
Kant, Immanuel. Kant's Prolegomena to any future metaphysics. No. 53. Open court publishing Company, 1912.
A:
1) Not an article but there's a YouTube talk on the Prolegomena which might get you launched :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEAqr_8PJqI
2) http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/prolegomena/section4/
It is worth a browse.
3) https://www.gradesaver.com/prolegomena-to-any-future-metaphysics/study-guide/summary-preamble
It is pretty basic but useful.
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Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
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http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
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See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
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The present invention relates generally to trip units. More specifically, the present invention relates a method of instantaneous protection in an electronic trip unit.
Electronic trip units are well known. Electronic trip units typically comprise voltage and current sensors which provide analog signals indicative of the power line signals. The analog signals are converted by an A/D (analog/digital) converter to digital signals which are processed by a microcontroller. The trip unit further includes RAM (random access memory), ROM (read only memory) and EEPROM (electronic erasable programmable read only memory) all of which interface with the microcontroller. The ROM includes trip unit application code, e.g., main functionality firmware, including initializing parameters, and boot code. The EEPROM includes operational parameters for the application code.
These trip units are required to meet certain standards, e.g., UL/ANSI/IEC, which define trip time curves specifying under what conditions a trip must occur, i.e., short time, long time, instantaneous, or ground fault, all of which are well known. These standards also specify a short time delay from the instant power is applied to when a trip unit must be ready to trip.
The present invention is being directed to the instantaneous trip condition. Various electronic circuits (analog electronics) and customized integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)) have been employed to perform instantaneous protection. The microcontroller of the present trip units has also been programmed to execute algorithms which implement a protection curve, such curves are typically specified by the aforementioned standards.
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First LNG Shipment From US Reaches Maharashtra
The first shipment of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Cheniere Energy Inc., Louisiana reached GAIL (India) Ltd’s Dabhol Terminal here on Maharashtra’s Konkan coast on Friday, an official said.
The shipment is part of the two 20-year LNG supply agreements worth around $32 billion for US LNG Exports, signed by GAIL with the Dominion Energy Cove Point project in Maryland and the Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass Project in Louisiana.
The first of the shipments under the agreement was received from Cheniere Energy Inc., at Dabhol, in the presence of US Minister Counsellor for Commercial Affairs Patrick Santillo, US Consul-General to Kolkata Craig Hall and Union Minister for Petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan.
“The US continues to partner with India across the broad range of energy collaboration, whether through traditional energy sources like oil – the first crude oil shipment from US to India arrived in October 2017 in Odisha – or LNG or others like coal and renewables,” said Santillo on the occasion. Read More…
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Spontaneous intramural esophageal hematoma.
We report the case of an 80-year-old woman who developed a spontaneous intramural esophageal hematoma and review the available literature. Spontaneous intramural esophageal hematoma (SIOH) is a rare but important condition. Because the cardinal symptom is severe chest pain, the condition is often initially misdiagnosed as an acute cardiac event or aortic dissection. Increased awareness of SIOH may prevent misdiagnosis on the basis of endoscopic and radiological appearances.
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Ready Player One is a 2018 American science fiction adventure film that was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, and written by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline, and is based on Cline’s 2011 novel of the same name. The film features Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cookie, Ben, Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Mark Rylance.
The film takes place in 2045, when much of humanity uses the virtual reality software OASIS to escape the desolation of the real world. Orphaned teenager Wade Watts (Sheridan) discovers clues to a hidden game within the program that promises the winner full ownership of the OASIS, and joins several allies to try and complete the game before a large company that’s run by businessman Nolan Sorrento (Mendelsohn) can do so.
Ready Player One premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2018, and theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on March 29, 2018, in 2D, Real D 3D, IMAX, and IMAX 3D. It grossed $582 million worldwide, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2018. Overall, the film received positive reviews from critics, with praise directed toward the visuals, brisk pacing, and Rylance’s performance. The film was noted to have significant differences from the book, with some critics calling the film’s plot an overall improvement over the source material.
The Film Itself (4/5):
Ready Player One is a movie, that once I heard was being made, I knew that I would have wanted to check out; if at least for the various elements of nostalgia that were presented from my childhood. Providing audiences with a very nicely done thrill ride that really captures Spielberg’s strengths, it lets audiences explore the adventure that it really sets out to tell. There are a lot of elements to this movie that it really makes it difficult to properly relay the experience. It’s been quoted as being more of an “overstuffed cultural recycling bin”, but the fact that the world of the OASIS exists in the dystopian world that it takes place in, really gives its audiences a nice opportunity to escape reality too. It’s packed to the brim with amusement from start to finish, that I really think that if you too were a product of the mid-to-late 80s or 90s, you too will find this movie to be enjoyable too.
Picture Quality (5/5):
The Blu-ray release of Ready Player One absolutely shines on home theater setups. Even though it doesn’t offer the nice wide range of color options as the 4K UHD release would, this movie provides audiences an extremely colorful look into the imagination and video game world that was created in this fictional story. Boasting several bright colors that were notorious in the late 1980s and 1990s, this movie was simply jaw-droppingly beautiful as it played on my living room television. The CGI that was used for the in-game elements were nicely done enough to make the animation feel significantly lifelike and it allows for the audience to really feel as if they too were part of the video game.
Audio Quality (4/5):
I was surprised to see that Ready Player One was packaged with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, especially with the overall presentation that was attempted with this movie. Personally speaking, I would have thought that this movie would have been bundled with either an Atmos or DTS:X mix. However, despite its inclusion of the surround channels, the transitions between the front and rear channels really did a nice job at putting my wife and I right into the middle of everything and offering an all out immersive experience. The volume levels did not require any sort of increase in volume because of their choice to go with the 5.1 mix, and the overall experience was absolutely phenomenal. The dialogue is cleanly presented, and really does a great job at making sure that the characters are heard and understood without any issue.
The Packaging (3/5):
The Blu-ray release of Ready Player One comes packaged in your standard two-disc Blu-ray amaray case. Within the case is the standard Blu-ray copy of the movie as well as the standard DVD. Neither of the discs feature any artwork that’s related to the movie outside of the standard release text and solid colored background. There is also a digital copy redemption pamphlet that’s been included for the various streaming options as well as a slipcover that features the same piece of artwork that’s been provided on the case art that’s been made available during the original pressing of the release.
Special Features (5/5):
There are some really extensive features included with the Blu-ray release of Ready Player One. The content that was included not only offers a nice look into the story, but a look into the work that went into the film as well as some aspects of the original story line from which the film was adapted from. There is also one feature that I absolutely loved and that was the one that really explored the audible Easter eggs that were placed throughout the film that’s really making me want to go back and re-watch it to see if I catch them. Included with this release is:
The ’80s: You’re The Inspiration – Explore the vibrant and creative decade that gave birth to Ernie Cline’s grand imagination and timeless novel.
– Explore the vibrant and creative decade that gave birth to Ernie Cline’s grand imagination and timeless novel. Game Changer: Cracking The Code – Journey alongside Steven Spielberg, his cast and creative team, as they push the boundaries of the imagination and moviemaking to bring Ready Player One to the screen.
– Journey alongside Steven Spielberg, his cast and creative team, as they push the boundaries of the imagination and moviemaking to bring Ready Player One to the screen. Effects For A Brave New World – The most story-centric visual effects ever created for a movie seamlessly blend the practical with the virtual to visualize the two distinct worlds of Ready Player One.
– The most story-centric visual effects ever created for a movie seamlessly blend the practical with the virtual to visualize the two distinct worlds of Ready Player One. Level Up: Sound For The Future – Uncover the hidden secrets that can only be heard in Ready Player One.
– Uncover the hidden secrets that can only be heard in Ready Player One. High Score: Endgame – The majesty of The Oasis is brought to life and an incredible journey comes to a close.
– The majesty of The Oasis is brought to life and an incredible journey comes to a close. Ernie & Tye’s Excellent Adventure – Have fun with Tye Sheridan and Ernie Cline as they reunite in their hometown of Austin, TX to reminisce on the excellent adventure they’ve had in making Ready Player One.
Technical Specs:
Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish
Runtime
Original Film: 140 minutes
Final Thoughts:
I absolutely loved watching Ready Player One. Not only did I find the story enjoyable; but, the overall experience and sense of adventure that was provided was one that I loved. The video and audio presentation of the Blu-ray release was absolutely phenomenal, and after watching through this, I think I want to check out the 4K UHD release at some point because I can only imagine how much this release shines with HDR. The special features are really extensive and should be explored by anyone and everyone who picks this release up. If you’re considering grabbing this release for your collection, I would hands down recommend picking up the 4K UHD release. Even if you don’t have a 4K TV or player, it does come packaged with the Blu-ray release and will put you one step closer to having something ready to watch when you do eventually upgrade your setup for 4K UHD. Ready Player One will be available on 4K UHD, 3D-Blu-ray, and Blu-ray beginning on Tuesday, July 24, 2018.
Note: This Blu-ray was sent to us for review. This has not affected our judgement or editorial process in any way. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this process.
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The present invention relates to a new and distinctive soybean variety, designated 90B72 which has been the result of years of careful breeding and selection. There are numerous steps in the development of any novel, desirable plant germplasm. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection of germplasm that possess the traits to meet the program goals. The goal is to combine in a single variety an improved combination of desirable traits from the parental germplasm. These important traits may include higher seed yield, resistance to diseases and insects, tolerance to drought and heat, and better agronomic qualities.
Field crops are bred through techniques that take advantage of the plant's method of pollination. A plant is self-pollinated if pollen from one flower is transferred to the same or another flower of the same plant. A plant is cross-pollinated if the pollen comes from a flower on a different plant. Soybean plants (Glycine max), are recognized to be naturally self-pollinated plants which, while capable of undergoing cross-pollination, rarely do so in nature. Insects are reported by some researchers to carry pollen from one soybean plant to another and it generally is estimated that less than one percent of soybean seed formed in an open planting can be traced to cross-pollination, i.e. less than one percent of soybean seed formed in an open planting is capable of producing F.sub.1 hybrid soybean plants, See Jaycox, "Ecological Relationships between Honey Bees and Soybeans," appearing in the American Bee Journal Vol. 110(8): 306-307 (August 1970). Thus intervention for control of pollination is critical to establishment of superior varieties.
A cross between two different homozygous lines produces a uniform population of hybrid plants that may be heterozygous for many gene loci. A cross of two plants each heterozygous at a number of gene loci will produce a population of hybrid plants that differ genetically and will not be uniform. Regardless of parentage, plants that have been self-pollinated and selected for type for many generations become homozygous at almost all gene loci and produce a uniform population of true breeding progeny.
Soybeans, (Glycine max), can be bred by both self-pollination and cross-pollination techniques. Choice of breeding or selection methods depends on the mode of plant reproduction, the heritability of the trait(s) being improved, and the type of variety used commercially (e.g., F.sub.1 hybrid variety, pureline variety, etc.). For highly heritable traits, a choice of superior individual plants evaluated at a single location will be effective, whereas for traits with low heritability, selection should be based on mean values obtained from replicated evaluations of families of related plants. Popular selection methods commonly include pedigree selection, modified pedigree selection, mass selection, and recurrent selection.
The complexity of inheritance influences choice of the breeding method. Pedigree breeding and recurrent selection breeding methods are used to develop varieties from breeding populations. Pedigree breeding starts with the crossing of two genotypes, each of which may have one or more desirable characteristics that is lacking in the other or which complements the other. If the two original parents do not provide all the desired characteristics, other sources can be included in the breeding population. In the pedigree method, superior plants are selfed and selected in successive generations. In the succeeding generations the heterozygous condition gives way to homogeneous lines as a result of self-pollination and selection. Typically in the pedigree method of breeding five or more generations of selfing and selection is practiced: F.sub.1 .fwdarw.F.sub.2 ; F.sub.2 .fwdarw.F.sub.3 ;F.sub.3 .fwdarw.F.sub.4 ; F.sub.4 .fwdarw.F.sub.5, etc.
Pedigree breeding is commonly used for the improvement of self-pollinating crops. Two parents that possess favorable, complementary traits are crossed to produce an F.sub.1. An F.sub.2 population is produced by selfing one or several F.sub.1 's or by intercrossing two F.sub.1 's (sib mating). Selection of the best individuals may begin in the F.sub.2 population; then, beginning in the F.sub.3, the best individuals in the best families are selected. Replicated testing of families can begin in the F.sub.4 generation to improve the effectiveness of selection for traits with low heritability. At an advanced stage of inbreeding (i.e., F.sub.6 and F.sub.7), the best lines or mixtures of phenotypically similar lines are tested for potential release as new varieties.
Backcross breeding has been used to transfer genes for simply inherited, highly heritable traits into a desirable homozygous variety or inbred line that is utilized as the recurrent parent. The source of the traits to be transferred is called the donor parent. After the initial cross, individuals possessing the desired traits of the donor parent are selected and repeatedly crossed (backcrossed) to the recurrent parent. The resulting plant is expected to have the attributes of the recurrent parent (e.g., variety) and the desirable traits transferred from the donor parent. This approach has been used extensively for breeding disease resistant varieties.
Each breeding program should include a periodic, objective evaluation of the efficiency of the breeding procedure. Evaluation criteria vary depending on the goal and objectives, but should include gain from selection per year based on comparisons to an appropriate standard, overall value of the advanced breeding lines, and number of successful varieties produced per unit of input (e.g., per year, per dollar expended, etc.).
Various recurrent selection techniques are used to improve quantitatively inherited traits controlled by numerous genes. The use of recurrent selection in self-pollinating crops depends on the ease of pollination, the frequency of successful hybrids from each pollination, and the number of hybrid offspring from each successful cross.
Promising advanced breeding lines are thoroughly tested and compared to appropriate standards in environments representative of the commercial target area(s) for three or more years. The best lines are candidates for new commercial varieties; those still deficient in a few traits may be used as parents to produce new populations for further selection.
Publically available or newly-released varieties of soybean can also be used as parental lines or starting materials for breeding or as source populations from which to develop other soybean varieties or breeding lines. These varieties or lines derived from publically available or newly-released varieties can be developed by using breeding methods described earlier, such as pedigree breeding, backcrossing and recurrent selection.
These processes, which lead to the final step of marketing and distribution, can take from eight to twelve years from the time the first cross is made. Therefore, development of new varieties is a time-consuming process that requires precise forward planning, efficient use of resources, and a minimum of changes in direction.
A most difficult task is the identification of individuals that are genetically superior, because for most traits the true genotypic value is masked by other confounding plant traits or environmental factors. One method of identifying a superior plant is to observe its performance relative to other experimental plants and to a widely grown standard variety. Generally a single observation is inconclusive, so replicated observations are required to provide a better estimate of its genetic worth.
In addition to the preceding problem, it is not known how the genotype will react with the environment. This genotype by environment interaction is an important, yet unpredictable, factor in plant breeding. A breeder of ordinary skill in the art cannot predict the genotype, how that genotype will interact with various environments or the resulting phenotypes of the developing lines, except perhaps in a very broad and general fashion. A breeder of ordinary skill in the art would also be unable to recreate the same line twice from the very same original parents, as the breeder is unable to direct how the genomes combine or how they will interact with the environmental conditions. This unpredictability results in the expenditure of large amounts of research resources in the development of a superior new soybean variety.
The goal of soybean breeding is to develop new, unique and superior soybean varieties. In practical application of a chosen breeding program, the breeder initially selects and crosses two or more parental lines, followed by repeated selfing and selection, producing many new genetic combinations. The breeder can theoretically generate billions of different genetic combinations via crossing, selfing and mutations. The breeder has no direct control at the cellular level. Therefore, two breeders will never develop the same line, or even very similar lines, having the same soybean traits.
Each year, the plant breeder selects the germplasm to advance to the next generation. This germplasm is grown under unique and different geographical, climatic and soil conditions, and further selections are then made during and at the end of the growing season. The varieties which are developed are unpredictable for the reasons already mentioned.
Mass and recurrent selections can be used to improve populations of either self- or cross-pollinated crops. A genetically variable population of heterozygous individuals is either identified or created by intercrossing several different parents. The best plants are selected based on individual superiority, outstanding progeny, or excellent combining ability. The selected plants are intercrossed to produce a new population in which further cycles of selection are continued.
The single-seed descent procedure in the strict sense refers to planting a segregating population, harvesting a sample of one seed per plant, and using the one-seed sample to plant the next generation. When the population has been advanced from the F.sub.2 to the desired level of inbreeding, the plants from which lines are derived will each trace to different F.sub.2 individuals. The number of plants in a population declines each generation due to failure of some seeds to germinate or some plants to produce at least one seed. As a result, not all of the F.sub.2 plants originally sampled in the population will be represented by a progeny when generation advance is completed.
In a multiple-seed procedure, soybean breeders commonly harvest one or more pods from each plant in a population and thresh them together to form a bulk. Part of the bulk is used to plant the next generation and part is put in reserve. The procedure has been referred to as modified single-seed descent or the pod-bulk technique.
The multiple-seed procedure has been used to save labor at harvest. It is considerably faster to thresh pods with a machine than to remove one seed from each by hand for the single-seed procedure. The multiple-seed procedure also makes it possible to plant the same number of seeds of a population each generation of inbreeding. Enough seeds are harvested to make up for those plants that did not germinate or produce seed.
Descriptions of other breeding methods that are commonly used for different traits and crops can be found in one of several reference books (e.g., Allard, 1960; Simmonds, 1979; Sneep et al., 1979; Fehr, 1987).
Proper testing should detect major faults and establish the level of superiority or improvement over current varieties. In addition to showing superior performance, there must be a demand for a new variety. The new variety must be compatible with industry standards, or must create a new market. The introduction of a new variety may incur additional costs to the seed producer, the grower, processor and consumer, for special advertising and marketing, altered seed and commercial production practices, and new product utilization. The testing preceding release of a new variety should take into consideration research and development costs as well as technical superiority of the final variety. For seed-propagated varieties, it must be feasible to produce seed easily and economically.
Soybean (Glycine max), is an important and valuable field crop. Thus, a continuing goal of soybean breeders is to develop stable, high yielding soybean varieties that are agronomically sound. The reasons for this goal are obviously to maximize the amount of grain produced on the land used and to supply food for both animals and humans. To accomplish this goal, the soybean breeder must select and develop soybean plants that have the traits that result in superior varieties.
Pioneer soybean research staff create over 500,000 potential new varieties each year. Of those new varieties, less than 50 and more commonly less than 25 are actually selected for commercial use.
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Monday, October 13, 2008
Your life here was short but I did everything I could to make it as comfortable and pleasant as possible. Having you in my barn was an honor. Every time I walked in, you serenaded me with your beautiful voice and it brought back fond memories of Jackie, the first donkey that I had who was also a rescue from 20 years ago. I am at peace with knowing that you are no longer in pain. Even though I only got to know you for just a short amount of time you will be remembered.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
We had more visitors here from some local mini fans. They brought their equine vaccuume and spent a great deal of time trying to vaccuume the lice eggs and dermatitis off of Mocha and Tornado. The eggs proved to be tougher than any vaccuume or comb so they ended up having to roach off both horse's manes. Even though neither of those horses had been handled much they both were really good about standing there and allowing everyone to vaccuume, clip, bathe and brush them. After all that hard work they bothed looked like champions.
Later in the day, I got a call from a great family that wanted to adopted a couple of my minis. They came and looked at Mocha and Tornado and decided to take them both. They showed me pictures of their pasture and housing facilities they have set up and it all looked great. These people came recommended by one of my volunteers who knows them personally so I am confident that they will provide an excellent home. I made sure they had plenty of feed supplies to get them started and sent them on their way. They don't have a lot of experience with horses but their grand daughter does so I'll keep in contact with them to make sure it's all working out.
One thing that I like to make sure of is that all of my rescued horses have good homes. All I really ask of my adoptive families is that they provide adequate shelter, safe pasure, good food and lots of love. I follow up with all of the horses that I adopt out to make sure that eveyone is happy and I make sure that everyone knows that I have a revolving door here. If for ANY REASON you can't keep the horse or it doesn't work out just bring it back NO QUESTIONS ASKED and I will take it back. I'd rather take any horse back then have the horse or the people unhappy.
I am a firm believer that my prescreening process, no questions asked return policy and the fact that all of my rescues are FREE are what makes my rescue so sucessful for me, the horses and my adoptive homes.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Tornado is doing so much better! Just take a look at this photo and you can see for yourself that he is already gaining weight and just looks so much happier.
Here also is a shot of Mocha and Tornado enjoying their breakfast this morning
And here is little Stormy enjoying a run with is adoptive mom Gigi
Lightening finaly enjoying a turnout with his new friend Kayla!
Jasmin was pulled from Foster Care last night and placed in her new permanent home. Her new owners called me after they got her home to let me know that she settled in very well and is getting along great with her new companion, a halflinger. I'm hoping that they will send me pictures soon.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Every day there are people comming and going. Some to come look at the rescues, some to drop off supplies for them, some to donate some time working with them, cleaning stalls, brushing etc. A lot of people bring a friend or two with them and this is all good because the more people that know about what I'm doing here, the more support I get. The more support I get, the more horses I can help.
Tornado continues to do well since his visit with the dentist Wednesday.Mocha is getting a little more friendly.Stormy is still a little stinker but he's fun to pet and play with.Lightning needs his bandage changed today.
Today promises to be another busy day, I like staying busy so this is a good thing!
About Me
I live out in beautiful Yamhill County, Oregon with my husband of 21 years, my mother and a large array of animals. We have a great time out here on our ranch with our friends and family and are well known for throwing some great parties with our friends that we call "The Oyster Club.” My husband and I spend a lot of time with our hobbies of horses, cars and grandchildren. This blog will be a documentary of my journeys and good times to be shared for all who care to take the time to read.
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Originally, computers were programmed in binary code. The programmer had to program the bits (1s and 0s) individually. This was not a very efficient system, and soon led to the development of assembly language. Assembly language allowed programmers to use instructions that represented specific sequences of bits; when executed in sequence, the assembly language instructions constituted a program.
One feature of assembly language programming is the ability to jump from one location in the program to another. This functionality allows for the implementation of branching code, such as the “if-then” and “if-then-else” statements of higher level programming languages, where code was executed only if certain conditions were met. This functionality also enables the execution of subroutines—portions of code that can be invoked repeatedly, and from different places within the program.
Most computers implement the call of a subroutine using a concept call a stack. A stack is a portion of memory which is accessed on a “last in, first out” basis. When a transfer of processing to a subroutine is to be performed, the computer “pushes”, or places, certain information on the stack. This information includes, among other data, some memory needed for variables used in the subroutine and the address to which control is to be returned when the subroutine is finished.
As a design for managing memory used in program execution in the computer, this model works quite well. But many modern operating systems are programmed in a particular higher level programming language: C. One of the features of C is that C does not check whether writes to memory are compliant with how the memory is allocated. For example, C does not verify whether the data being written to memory is of the type for which the memory space was allocated, or that the data being written will fit into the allocated memory space. Some programmers consider this a strength of the language, in that the program does not spend time enforcing such conditions. If the programmer considers type-checking or buffer overflow to be important, the programmer can test for such conditions in the program; otherwise, the programmer can trust that the program will not be misused.
But this strength is also a potential weakness. For example, Microsoft® releases many patches to its Windows® family of operating systems specifically to patch security flaws relating to buffer overflow issues. (Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.) The problem is that if more data is written than the target memory address can hold, the excess ends up overwriting other values in memory allocated for other purposes.
Hackers often use buffer overflow vulnerabilities to try and take control of user's computers. Specifically, the hackers attempt to overflow a buffer by writing a particular piece of data into the buffer. The hackers design the data so that it includes the code they use to take over the computer, along with an address where their code will be located in memory. If the hackers can overflow the buffer so that the address where their code is located overwrites the return address on the stack, then the hacker's code will be executed when the subroutine completes. The hacker can then gain control of the computer.
A need remains for a way to addresses these and other problems associated with the prior art.
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Diplomacy (game)
Diplomacy is an American strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released commercially in the United States in 1959. Its main distinctions from most board wargames are its negotiation phases (players spend much of their time forming and betraying alliances with other players and forming beneficial strategies) and the absence of dice and other game elements that produce random effects. Set in Europe in the years leading to the Great War, Diplomacy is played by two to seven players, each controlling the armed forces of a major European power (or, with fewer players, multiple powers). Each player aims to move his or her few starting units and defeat those of others to win possession of a majority of strategic cities and provinces marked as "supply centers" on the map; these supply centers allow players who control them to produce more units. Following each round of player negotiations, each player can issue attack orders and take control of a neighboring province when the number of provinces adjacent to the attacking province that are given orders (written down and declared in advance) to support the attacking province exceeds the number of provinces adjacent to the province under attack that are given orders to support the province under attack.
Diplomacy was the first commercially published game to be played by mail (PBM); only chess, which is in the public domain, saw significant postal play earlier. Diplomacy was also the first commercially published game to generate an active hobby scene with amateur fanzines; only science-fiction, fantasy and comics fandom saw fanzines earlier. Competitive face-to-face Diplomacy tournaments have been held since the 1970s. Play of Diplomacy by e-mail (PBEM) has been widespread since the late 1980s.
Diplomacy has been published in the United States by Games Research, Avalon Hill, and Hasbro; the name is currently a registered trademark of Hasbro's Avalon Hill division. Diplomacy has also been licensed to various companies for publication in other countries. Diplomacy is also played on the Internet, adjudicated by a computer or a human gamemaster.
In its catalog, Avalon Hill advertised Diplomacy as John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger's favorite game. Kissinger described it as his favorite in an interview published in a games magazine. Authors Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, and American broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite were also reported to be fans of the game. British journalist, broadcaster, and former Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo is known to have played the game while studying at Harrow County School for Boys.
History
The idea for Diplomacy arose from Allan B. Calhamer's study at Harvard of nineteenth-century European history under Sidney B. Fay inter alia, and from his study of political geography. The rough form of Diplomacy was created in 1954, and its details were developed through playtesting until the 1958 map and rules revisions. Calhamer paid for a 500-game print run of that version in 1959 after rejection by major companies. It has been published since then by Games Research (in 1961, then a 1971 edition with a revised rulebook), Avalon Hill (in 1976), by Hasbro's Avalon Hill division (in 1999), and now by Wizards of the Coast (in 2008) in the US, and licensed to other boardgame publishers for versions sold in other countries. Among these are Parker Brothers, Waddingtons Games, Gibsons Games, Asmodée Editions.
Basic setting and overview
The board is a map of 1914 Europe plus portions of Western Asia and North Africa. It is divided into fifty-six land regions and nineteen sea regions. Forty-two of the land regions are divided among the seven Great Powers of the game: Austria-Hungary, England, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Turkey. The remaining fourteen land regions are neutral at the start of the game.
Thirty-four of the land regions contain "supply centers", corresponding to major centers of government, industry or commerce (e.g., Vienna and Rome); twenty-two of these are located within the Great Powers and are referred to as "home" supply centers. The remaining twelve are located in provinces which are neutral at the start of the game. The number of supply centers a player controls determines the total number of armies and fleets a player may have on the board, and as players gain and lose control of different centers, they may build (raise) or must remove (disband) units accordingly.
The land provinces within the Great Powers which contain supply centers are generally named after a major city in the province (e.g. London, Moscow) while the other land provinces within the Great Powers are generally named after a region (e.g. Bohemia, Apulia). Neutral land provinces are generally named after countries (e.g. Serbia, Belgium). Finland and Syria are both parts of Great Powers as Finland was part of the Russian Empire and Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire in 1914. Tunis is used rather than Tunisia on most boards and North Africa is a single province covering parts of Algeria and Morocco. Although for game purposes the game starts in 1901, the map generally reflects the political boundaries of Europe in 1914 just before the outbreak of the Great War, with Bosnia already annexed to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Balkans reflecting the results of the wars of 1912 and 1913 in the region (except that Montenegro is shown as part of Austria-Hungary). On the other hand, North Africa and Tunis start the game as neutral, despite these regions being part of the French colonial empire in 1914.
All players other than Britain and Russia begin the game with two armies and one fleet; Britain starts with two fleets and one army, and Russia starts with two armies and two fleets (making it the only player to start the game with more than three units). Only one unit at a time may occupy a given map region. Balancing units to supply center counts is done after each game-year (two seasons of play: Spring and Fall). At the beginning of the game, the twelve neutral supply centers are all typically captured within the first few moves. Further acquisition of supply centers becomes a zero sum dynamic with any gains in a player's resources coming at the expense of a rival.
Comparison with other war games
Diplomacy differs from the majority of war games in several ways:
Players do not take turns sequentially; instead all players secretly write down their moves after a negotiation period, then all moves are revealed and put into effect simultaneously.
Social interaction and interpersonal skills make up an essential part of the game's play.
The rules that simulate combat are strategic, abstract, and simple—not tactical, realistic, or complex—as this is a diplomatic simulation game, not a military one.
Combat resolution contains no random elements—no dice are rolled, no cards are drawn.
Each military unit has the same strength.
It is especially well suited to postal play, which led to an active hobby of amateur publishing.
Internet Diplomacy is one of the few early board games that is still played on the web.
Gameplay
Diplomacy proceeds by seasons, beginning in the year 1901, with each year divided into two main seasons: the "Spring" and "Fall" (Autumn) moves. Each season is further divided into negotiation and movement phases, followed by 'retreat' or 'disband' adjustments and an end-of-the-year Winter phase of new builds or removals following the Fall adjustments.
Negotiation phase
In the negotiation phase, players communicate with each other to discuss tactics and strategy, form alliances, and share intelligence or spread disinformation about mutual adversaries. Negotiations may be made public or kept private. Players are not bound to anything they say or promise during this period, and no agreements of any sort are enforceable.
Communication and trust are highly important for this strategy game. Players must forge alliances with others and observe their actions to evaluate their trustworthiness. At the same time, they must convince others of their own trustworthiness while making plans to turn against their allies when least expected. A well-timed betrayal can be just as profitable as an enduring, reliable alliance.
Cheating can be a large part of certain diplomacy games. Some hosts allow for players to submit false copies of sheets for other players, thus changing their moves. This only works if the person who has their moves replaced is not paying attention when the host is reading out the moves.
Movement phase
After the negotiation period, players write secret orders for each unit; these orders are revealed and executed simultaneously. A unit can move from its location to an adjacent space, support an adjacent unit to hold an area in the event of an attack, support another unit to attack a space into which it could move itself, or hold defensively. In addition, fleets may transport armies from one coast space to another when in a chain called a "convoy". Armies may only occupy land regions, and fleets occupy sea regions and the land regions that border named seas. Only one unit may occupy each region. If multiple units are ordered to move to the same region, only the unit with the most support moves there. If two or more units have the same highest support, a standoff occurs and no units ordered to that region move. A unit ordered to give support that is attacked has those orders canceled and is forced to hold, except in the case that support is being given to a unit invading the region from which the attack originated.
Certain countries on the board have two coasts and if this is the case a player must specify which one of the coasts he wants his fleet to occupy. A fleet of a specific coast can only move to coasts and oceans that border the coast that it is on. For example, a fleet occupying the southern coast of Bulgaria cannot move into Rumania or the Black Sea, but a fleet on the east coast could.
End-of-year and supply centers
After each Fall move, newly acquired supply centers become owned by the occupying player, and each power's supply center total is recalculated; players with fewer supply centers than units on the board must disband units, while players with more supply centers than units on the board are entitled to build units in their Home centers (supply centers controlled at the start of the game). Players controlling no supply centers are eliminated from the game, and if a player controls 18 or more (that is, more than half) of the 34 SCs, that person is declared the winner. Players may also agree to a draw; this also happens when (infrequent) stalemates occur.
Variants
Several boardgames based on Diplomacy have been commercially published. Additionally, many fans of the game have created hundreds of variants of their own, using altered rules on the standard map, standard rules on a different map, or both.
Rulebook provision for fewer than seven players
The rules allow for games with two to seven players, closing parts of the standard board, but these are used only in casual play, and are not considered standard Diplomacy in tournament, postal, or most forms of online play. For example, if there are six players, everyone plays one country and Italy is not used; for five players, Italy and Germany are not used. The original rules did not include additional guidelines, but the Avalon Hill set included suggestions, such as individual players using multiple countries, and additions.
Another approach to solving the problem of fewer than seven players is the use of the Escalation Variant Rules by Edi Birsan:
Players start with no pieces on the board
Players put one piece down on the board in any province one at a time (starting with the youngest player)
After reaching the maximum number of pieces the players start the game with ownership of their starting provinces.
At the end of Fall 1901 with their adjustments players write down their three HOME centers for the rest of the game.
This is done without negotiations and may result in two players declaring the same province. However, in order to build there they still must own it and the province must be open. Players may choose any supply center as a HOME for example: EDI, DEN, ROM
It is suggested that for the number players the following starting pieces are used:
Two – 12 units
Three – 8 units
Four − 6 units
Five – 5 units
Six – 4 units
It is also suggested that for games with 2–4 players that the 'Gunboat' rule applies which means that there are no discussions.
For 4 or 5 players, it is suggested that the 'Wilson' or 'Public Press' rule applies which means that all discussions must take place in the open at the table with no whispers or secret signals.
For 5 or 6 players, it is suggested that regular negotiation rules apply.
The following are the current official suggestions:
Alternative way to play
The following is an alternative way to play the game of Diplomacy when fewer than seven players are present.
Six Players: Eliminate Italy. Italian units hold in position and defend themselves, but don't support each other. Units belonging to any of the players can support them in their holding position. If Italian units are forced to retreat, they're disbanded.
Five Players: Eliminate Italy and Germany (as described for Italy above).
Four Players: One player plays Britain, and the other three play the following pairs: Austria/France, Germany/Turkey, and Italy/Russia.
Three Players: One player controls Britain/Germany/Austria; the second, Russia/Italy; and the third, France/Turkey. Or one player plays Britain/Austria; one plays France/Russia; one plays Germany/Turkey. In this version Italy is not played.
Three Players (alternative): One person plays Russia while the other two control Britain/France/Germany and Austria/Italy/Turkey.
Two Players: This version can be played as a World War I simulation. One player controls Britain/France/Russia while the other plays Austria/Germany/Turkey. Italy is neutral and Italian territory can't be entered. The game begins in 1914. Before the Fall 1914 adjustments, flip a coin. Italy joins the winner of the toss in Spring 1915. The first player to control 24 supply centers wins. This is also a way for two new players to learn the rules.
In games for 2, 3, or 4 players, supply-center ownership is computed for each individual country, even though the same person plays more than one country. As with the regular rules, adjustments must be made by each country in accordance with its supply-center holdings.
Commercially published Diplomacy variants
There have been six commercially released variants of Diplomacy — Machiavelli, Kamakura, Colonial Diplomacy, Hundred, Ard-Rí and Classical. Imperial is a boardgame with enough similarities to be described as a Diplomacy variant by some.
Machiavelli
Machiavelli was published by Battleline Publications, later taken over by Avalon Hill. Set in Renaissance Italy, the board is controlled by the Republic of Florence, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, the Papacy, Valois France, Habsburg Austria, and the Ottoman Turks. The game introduces many rules changes such as money, bribery, three seasons per year, garrisons, and random events such as plague and famine. It features scenarios tailored for as few as four and as many as eight players.
Kamakura
Kamakura was published by West End Games in the early 1980s. Its setting is feudal Japan.
Colonial Diplomacy
Published by Avalon Hill in 1994. It is set in Asia in the late 19th century, and much of the board is controlled by various colonial powers: the United Kingdom, the Russian Empire, the Empire of Japan, Holland, Ottoman Empire, China, and France. The game introduces three special features:
The Trans-Siberian railroad extends across Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok. The railroad can be used by Russia to move armies anywhere along the railroad. The TSR may only be used by Russia. Russian armies are allowed to move through other Russian armies, but foreign armies can block the passage of armies on the TSR.
The Suez Canal is the only way to move between the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Use of the Suez Canal is controlled by whoever is in control of Egypt. The use of the Suez Canal increases in importance later in the game as expansion becomes both more important and more difficult.
The ownership of Hong Kong counts as a supply center for any country except China.
This map was used as the basis of the Imperial Asia expansion map.
Colonial Diplomacy won in a tie the Origins Award for Best Pre-20th Century Board Game of 1995.
Hundred
Hundred is a map for three players by Andy D. Schwarz based on the Hundred Years' War created in 1996 and published by Stupendous Games in 2000.
Ard-Rí
Ard-Rí is a map by Stuart John Bernard based on pre-Christian Ireland (though it anachronistically includes Vikings), created in 1998, and published by Stupendous Games in 2000. Ard-Rí happens to also be the name of a hnefatafl variant played in Ancient Ireland.
Classical
Classical is a map by Andy D. Schwarz and Vincent Mous based on the ancient world after the death of Alexander the Great, created in 1998, and published by Stupendous Games in 2000.
Diplomacy of the Three Kingdoms
Based on the Three Kingdoms in Ancient China, it was created by Edi Birsan to introduce the basic ideas of the main game to a Chinese audience with a setting more close to their own historical experience. It was published by MJS Creations in 2008.
Diplomacy variants not commercially published
A wide range of other variants of Diplomacy have been created and played without being commercially published. These include settings such as the ancient and renaissance world. Some variants use new maps and rules, while others simply vary the original game, such as the Fleet Rome variant which replaces the starting Italian army in Rome with a fleet. One of the most notable non-commercially published is the Youngstown variant which is an extension of the normal map, including Asia and colonies there. For example, in addition to the usual home centers, France starts with a fleet in Saigon (in Cochinchina). Three new Powers were added – India, China, and Japan - with powers without historical Asian colonies being given more home centers. The variant was named after the city of Youngstown, Ohio where the variant was invented.
Tournaments
Diplomacy is played at a number of formal tournaments in many nations. Most face-to-face Diplomacy tournaments longer than one day are associated with either a Diplomacy-centered convention (such as DipCon or Dixiecon) or a large multi-game convention (such as the Origins Game Fair or the World Boardgaming Championships). Some conventions are centered on the games and have a highly competitive atmosphere; others have more focus on meeting and socializing with other players from the postal or e-mail parts of the hobby.
Tournament play
In some tournaments, each game ends after a specified number of game-years, to ensure that all players can play in all rounds without limiting the tournament structure to one round per day. At other events, a game continues until a winner is determined or a draw is voted. Tournaments in Europe are generally played with a specific end year whereas tournaments in North America more often are played until someone wins or a draw is agreed.
Major championship tournaments
The World Diplomacy Convention (WDC or World DipCon) is held annually in different places in the world. The winner of WDC is considered to be the World Champion of Diplomacy. WDC was first held in 1988 in Birmingham, England, and was held at two-year intervals before becoming an annual event. WDC's site moves among four regions: North America, Europe, Australasia, and the rest of the world, with a requirement that successive WDC's are always held in different regions.
The North American Diplomacy Convention (DipCon) is held annually in different places in North America, to determine the North American Champion of Diplomacy. DipCon was first held in 1966 in Youngstown, Ohio. DipCon's site rotates among West, Central, and East regions.
The European Diplomacy Convention (Euro DipCon) is held annually in different places in Europe, to determine the European Champion of Diplomacy.
Over a dozen other countries hold face-to-face national championship tournaments.
Other major face-to-face tournaments
Many of the larger multi-game conventions, such as the World Boardgaming Championships, Gen Con, Origins, ManorCon, TempleCon, and Dragonflight also host Diplomacy tournaments. On occasion, WDC or DipCon will be held in conjunction with one of these conventions.
In addition, many of the larger local and regional clubs host tournaments on an annual basis and always encourage visitors from the local area as well as any travelers from around the globe.
Major play-by-email tournaments
The play-by-email field is constantly changing. There are numerous tournaments generally associated with different websites. As of 2008 there were no official events sanctioned by the manufacturer (Wizards/Avalon Hill). There have been and continue to be events with various sizes and self designated titles such as:
World Masters – every two years in the Worldmasters E-mail Tournament composed of both team and individual events
Diplomacy World Cup – modeled after a Soccer World Cup (players are in teams competing by countries), there have been two world cups so far and a third is under way. The first took place 2007-9 and was won by France, the second 2010-12 and was won by Ireland, and the third version started in January 2013.
Winter Blitz – The 4th Annual Winter Blitzis became open to join in 2011.
Other ways to play
Despite the length of face-to-face Diplomacy games, there are people who organize ad-hoc games, and there are also various clubs that have annual tournaments and monthly club games.
To overcome the difficulty of assembling enough players for a sufficiently large block of time together, a play-by-mail game community has developed, either via Postal or Internet Diplomacy, using either humans to adjudicate the turns or automatic adjudicators.
Postal play and postal hobby
Since the 1960s, Diplomacy has been played by mail through fanzines. The play-by-mail hobby was created in 1963 in carbon-copied typed flyers by John Boardman in New York, recruiting players through his science fiction fanzine Knowable. His flyers became an ongoing publication under the Graustark title, and led directly to the formation of other zines. By May 1965 there were eight Diplomacy zines. By the end of 1967 there were dozens of zines in the US, and by 1970 their editors were holding gatherings. In 1969, Don Turnbull started the first UK-based Diplomacy zine, Albion. By 1972, both the US and UK hobbies were forming organizations. In the 1980s, there were over sixty zines in the main list of the North American Zine Poll, peaking at 72 zines in 1989; and there were nearly as many in the major Zine Poll of the British part of the hobby. In the 1990s and 2000s, the number of postal Diplomacy zines has reduced as new players instead joined the part of the hobby that plays over the internet via e-mail or on websites. In April 2010, Graustark itself ceased publication.
As of 2011, there are only a few active postal zines published in the US, one each in Canada and Australia, and several in the UK and elsewhere. In order to reduce postage and printing costs, as well as for environmental reasons, several zines (e.g. 'Western Front', 'Maniacs Paradise' ) are distributed to subscribers via emailed links to the zine's web page when a new issue appears, or are emailed out as pdf files, for subscribers to read on screen, or print out as they choose. Some zines maintain a dual existence as paper and digital publications.
Online
Diplomacy has been played through e-mail on the Internet since the 1983 debut of The Armchair Diplomat on Compuserve. From 1986–1990, Peter Szymonik started and moderated dozens of simultaneously running Online Diplomacy games on the GEnie Network with hundreds of players worldwide. This later included the first online Colonia variant games and later branched into and gave birth to Jim Dunnigan's related Hundred Years War Online multiplayer wargame. Adjudication by computer started in 1988. A multitude of play-by-email (PBEM) communities and online tournaments were developed over the coming years, and recent online Diplomacy sites such as webDiplomacy and PlayDiplomacy also allow entirely web-based games of Diplomacy.
In addition to e-mail and web-adjudicated games, numerous variations – ranging from player numbers and slight differences (such as placing an extra Italian fleet in Rome) to entirely fictitious maps set in worlds from pop-culture exist, played with either messaging servers or forums, often hosted by the Diplomacy sites themselves.
There are also apps available for mobile devices, such as Conspiracy, which is designed to play just like Diplomacy. It is developed by badfrog team. Another app named Subterfuge is a more modern adaptation of Diplomacy.
Diplomacy computer games
Avalon Hill released a computer game version of Diplomacy in 1984 for the IBM PC. Computer Gaming World in 1994 described it as "a flop".
Hasbro Interactive released a computer game version of Diplomacy in 1999 under the MicroProse label, and developed by Meyer/Glass Interactive. A major fault, like with the Avalon Hill version, was that the computer AI was considered poor, one reviewer remarking "Gamers of any skill level will have no trouble whatsoever whaling on the computer at even the highest difficulty setting."
Paradox Interactive released a new computer version in 2005, which was given negative reviews, partly due to the odd grunts the game used to express the reactions of the AI players during the Movement phase. None of the computer games supported either text or voice chat, which limited the possibilities for complicated alliances.
Reception
Larry Harris commented: "I am convinced that Allan Calhamer's masterpiece should be part of every high school curriculum. Don't tell the kids, but it teaches history, geography, the art of political negotiation, and something else — some healthy critical skepticism. By the time you get into high school, you have a pretty good idea that not everyone always tells the truth. But a good game of Diplomacy helps you to understand how skillful some people can be at fooling you!"
Diplomacy was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Adventure Hall of Fame in 1994.
See also
Diplomacy Briefing
Diplomacy World
Internet Diplomacy
Lepanto opening
Slobbovia
References
Further reading
Calhamer, Allan. "Diplomacy" chapter of The Games & Puzzles Book of Modern Board Games. Games & Puzzles Publications, London, UK, 1975. . pp. 26–44.
Kostick, Conor. The Art of Correspondence in the Game of Diplomacy. Curses & Magic, Dublin, Ireland, 2015. .
External links
"World Domination: the Game" — article in the Washington Post, November 14, 2004
Category:Avalon Hill games
Category:Board games introduced in 1959
Category:Historical board games
Category:Multiplayer games
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It’s a dramatic turn for a once mild-mannered bureaucrat, who ascended to power in part because of his ability to ease tensions with Arab countries and pursue diplomatic backchannels. “I say to the Israeli leadership and to the Israeli people,” Abbas declared in his inaugural address 13 years ago this month, “we are two peoples destined to live side by side, and to share this land between us.” Since then, he’s lost a parliamentary election and governance of Gaza to Hamas, his Islamist rivals. Over a decade into his reign, most Palestinians no longer support him.
Frustration, it seems, has led Abbas to reveal his true colors. In recent years, he’s accused Israeli rabbis of supporting the poisoning of Palestinian water wells, claimed Jews had “fabricated” history, and insisted he would “never recognize the Jewishness of the state of Israel.” This dalliance with anti-Semitism brings to mind his controversial PhD thesis, which downplayed the number of victims of the Holocaust and suggested a link between Zionism and Nazism. Though he later backtracked on the claims in his thesis, his recent diatribes call into question his sincerity.
Abbas—the man who became president on the pledge to finally make a deal with the Israelis through public diplomacy and nonviolence—has morphed into Arafat, the very figure he pledged not to become. It’s a remarkable fall from grace for a leader who started with such potential.
At the time of Abbas’s ascension, Western leaders could not have imagined a more ideal Palestinian leader. In the last years of his presidency, Arafat had drawn the Palestinians into a bloody intifada, or uprising, which provoked an Israeli siege of his headquarters in Ramallah and the construction of a separation barrier between parts of the West Bank and Israel. Towards the end of the intifada, many in the Palestinian leadership knew it was a mistake. “We told Arafat he was gambling with [the intifada],” one senior Fatah official recalled later. “We told him he would turn the whole world against us.”
Abbas, too, had turned against Arafat, campaigning against the violence and admonishing local chiefs in Gaza for the “destruction of all we have built.” This endeared him to Israel and the West, paving the way for him to become Arafat’s prime minister in 2003, and later president in 2005. And it was his resignation in defiance of Arafat that garnered him acclaim from his peers, ultimately leading to his selection as Arafat’s successor.
Now, the roles have been reversed. For years now, a majority of Palestinians have wanted Abbas to resign. The cornerstone of his foreign policy—seeking international recognition for an independent Palestinian state—has largely proven fruitless. At home, he has curbed the space for dissent, enacting laws allowing the arrest of citizens for criticizing his government on social media. His Fatah party is split between rivals who challenge his rule outright, like the exiled former strongman Muhammad Dahlan, and those like vice president Mahmoud al-Aloul, who declared “all forms of resistance” legitimate after Trump gave a speech in which he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Through it all, Abbas has maintained a firm commitment to security coordination with Israel, despite the fact that this is a deeply unpopular, emotive issue for Palestinians. His “sacred” commitment has only further alienated him from his people.
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SEATTLE — On April 25, 2015, a disastrous 7.8-magnitude earthquake rattled around eight million people in Nepal. Around 9,000 people lost their lives and more than 22,000 people were injured.
The earthquake’s destruction was extensive, destroying many residential and government buildings, schools, roadways and water supply systems. The Post Disaster Recovery Framework, dated May 2016, valued the earthquake-related damages and losses at $8.6 billion.
In Nepal, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) created for fiscal years 2014 through 2018 the Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS). The program fosters “a more democratic, prosperous and resilient Nepal.”
The organization declared that if Nepalese institutions become more effective at delivering services, engaging citizens and strengthening the communities’ economic, environmental and human capacity, then Nepal will be a more strong, robust and democratic nation.
For more than a decade, Nepal was under armed insurgency, until 2006, when Nepal signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. By assisting with the agreement, the USAID promotes, at the national level, institutions like the Election Commission, the Constituent Assembly and political parties to help ensure an effective government.
At the local level, the USAID helps develop direct citizen participation in elections to also help ensure an inclusive government. A democratic governance provides global accord, which is just one of the U.S. benefits from foreign aid to Nepal.
The mission of the CDCS also indicated that a major earthquake would be a “game changer” that would affect proper implementation of the organization’s strategy. Following the earthquake, the CDCS integrated a Transition Objective (TO) into its program. The objective captured USAID’s financial, human and programmatic earthquake recovery goals that could not be accommodated within the original program.
USAID Nepal, including the CDCS and the TO, supports the idea that United States foreign assistance is best used to implement and strengthen Nepali institutions like recovery assistance. For fiscal year 2017, the total U.S. foreign assistance to Nepal was $115 million and the total spent on disaster readiness was $10.5 million.
Foreign assistance provides and sustains education, healthcare, sustainable resources and disaster relief in the recipient country. Senior Brookings Fellow George Ingram explained that “foreign aid is an investment in helping to educate and improve health of children and others in developing countries.”
Ingram declared that foreign aid is a bipartisan issue because it “advances three fundamental U.S. interests: it keeps us safe, it meets a moral imperative and builds economic prosperity.” He also indicated that this investment could also be considered a kind of insurance, which describes one of the U.S. benefits from foreign aid to Nepal after the 2015 earthquake.
After the earthquake, U.S. Air Force C-17 went to Kathmandu, Nepal with a 136-person Disaster Assistance Response Team, deployed by the USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. The team helped coordinate immediate recovery efforts in Nepal. Their teams assisted in two rescues: the first, a boy pulled from rubble five days after the earthquake hit and the other involved a woman saved from a collapsed building.
However, before the earthquake, the USAID had provided training and tools for more than two decades. The Program for the Enhancement of Emergency Response, supported by USAID, helped Nepal’s disaster management agencies organize and conduct training on medical first response, collapsed structure search-and-rescue and hospital preparedness for mass casualties following a disaster.
This investment in the Nepalese disaster management agencies helped the people become more self-sufficient in their ability to efficiently respond to disaster. Many Nepalese people saved lives in their communities following the earthquake with emergency response tactics. Assisting the Nepalese people’s natural disaster response techniques lent to one of the U.S. benefits from foreign aid to Nepal by reducing the total amount spent on resources supplied to the country.
Bill Berger, the Senior Regional Advisor for the South Asia for USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, indicated that these preparedness investments, initiated prior to the earthquake, helped saved many lives in Nepal.
The main U.S. benefits from foreign aid to Nepal are support for inclusive governance along with the tools provided for them to overcome natural disasters. Democratic governance proves to be effective in Nepal, and the U.S. training and programs for disaster relief preparedness equipped them for the inevitable.
– Andrea Quade
Photo: Flickr
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FANTASTICKS Audition Information
What
Landmark Musical Theatre is happy to announce auditions and callbacks for its first show of 2018, the classic and long-running romantic musical, The Fantasticks. Please read this entire page as it
contains valuable information about auditions and callbacks.
Audition PreparationSinging roles: please prepare both an upbeat Broadway show tune and a Broadway ballad (NOT from Fantasticks, please). Please provide sheet music in the proper key. An accompanist will be provided.Everyone: please be prepared to move/dance, and please be ready to do cold readings from the script. Please bring your resume and a current headshot, and be prepared to fill out our conflict schedule for ALL dates (not just the ones that are currently planned for rehearsals and perforrmances) between March 1 and June 30, 2018.
Audition Conflicts
If you are unable to make callbacks, please come to auditions anyway (if you can). Just let us know about the conflict when you sign in.
If you are unable to make the auditions, but can make the callbacks, please email us at auditions (at) landmarkmusicals (dot) com with your resume and picture and an explanation of the conflict and we will try to accommodate you.
Rehearsals (tentative)
March 24 - May 11
Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday at 7 PM - 11 PM
Saturday or Sunday (TBD) at 10 AM - 5 PM
Principal rehearsals at the Shelton TheaterSome rehearsals may be held elsewhere in San Francisco (TBD)
Performances
May 12 - June 23 at the Shelton Theater
Thursdays/Fridays/Saturdays at 7 PM
Sundays at 2 PM
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---
abstract: 'The Landau-Selberg-Delange method provides an asymptotic formula for the partial sums of a multiplicative function whose average value on primes is a fixed complex number $v$. The shape of this asymptotic implies that $f$ can get very small on average only if $v=0,-1,-2,\dots$. Moreover, if $v<0$, then the Dirichlet series associated to $f$ must have a zero of multiplicity $-v$ at $s=1$. In this paper, we prove a converse result that shows that if $f$ is a multiplicative function that is bounded by a suitable divisor function, and $f$ has very small partial sums, then there must be finitely many real numbers $\gamma_1$, $\dots$, $\gamma_m$ such that $f(p)\approx -p^{i\gamma_1}-\cdots-p^{-i\gamma_m}$ on average. The numbers $\gamma_j$ correspond to ordinates of zeroes of the Dirichlet series associated to $f$, counted with multiplicity. This generalizes a result of the first author, who handled the case when $|f|\le 1$ in previous work.'
address:
- |
Département de mathématiques et de statistique\
Université de Montréal\
CP 6128 succ. Centre-Ville\
Montréal, QC H3C 3J7\
Canada
- |
Department of mathematics\
Stanford University\
450 Serra Mall, Building 380\
Stanford, CA 94305-2125\
USA
author:
- Dimitris Koukoulopoulos
- 'K. Soundararajan'
title: The structure of multiplicative functions with small partial sums
---
Introduction
============
Throughout this paper $f$ will denote a multiplicative function and $$L(s,f) =\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{f(n)}{n^s}$$ will be its associated Dirichlet series, which is assumed to converge absolutely in Re$(s)>1$. We then have $$-\frac{L^{\prime}}{L} (s,f) =\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{\Lambda_f(n)}{n^s},$$ for certain coefficients $\Lambda_f(n)$ that are zero unless $n$ is a prime power.
Let $D$ denote a fixed positive integer. We shall restrict attention to the class of multiplicative functions $f$ such that [ $$\label{Lambda_f}\begin{split}
|\Lambda_f (n) |\le D\cdot \Lambda(n)
\end{split}$$ ]{} for all $n$. This is a rich class of functions that includes most of the important multiplicative functions that arise in number theory. For example, the M[" o]{}bius function, the Liouville function, divisor functions, and coefficients of automorphic forms (or if one prefers an axiomatic approach, $L$-functions in the Selberg class) satisfying a Ramanujan bound are all covered by this framework.
When $f(p)\approx v$ in an appropriately strong form, Selberg [@selberg] built on ideas of Landau [@landau; @landau2] to prove that [ $$\label{Selberg}\begin{split}
\sum_{n\le x} f(n) = \frac{c(f,v)}{\Gamma(v)} x(\log x)^{v-1} + O_f(x(\log x)^{v-2}) ,
\end{split}$$ ]{} where $c(f,v)$ is some a non-zero constant given in terms of an Euler product. Delange [@delange] strengthened this theorem to a full asymptotic expansion: $$\sum_{n\le x} f(n) = x(\log x)^{v-1} \sum_{j=0}^{J-1} \frac{c_j(f,v)}{\Gamma(v-j)(\log x)^j}
+ O(x(\log x)^{v-1-J})$$ for any $J\in{\mathbb{N}}$, where $c_0(f,v)=c(f,v)$. In particular, if $v\in\{0,-1,-2,\dots\}$, then the partial sums of $f$ satisfy the bound [ $$\label{f-small}\begin{split}
\sum_{n\le x} f(n) \ll \frac{x}{(\log x)^A} \qquad(x\ge 2)
\end{split}$$ ]{} for any $A>0$.
This paper is concerned with the converse problem: assuming that holds for some $A>D+1$, what can be deduced about $f(p)$? If we already knew that $f(p)\approx v$ on average, then relation would imply that $|v|\le D$. Comparing with , we conclude that $v\in\{0,-1,-2,\dots,-D\}$. The goal of this paper is to prove such a converse result to the Landau-Selberg-Delange theorem without assuming prior knowledge of the average behavior of $f(p)$.
This problem was studied in the case $D=1$ by the first author [@dk-gafa]. If holds for some $A>2$, then by partial summation one can see that $L(s,f)$ converges (conditionally) on the line Re$(s)=1$. The work in [@dk-gafa] established that on the line Re$(s)=1$ the function $L(s,f)$ can have at most one simple zero. If $L(1+it, f) \neq 0$ for all $t$, then $$\lim_{x\to\infty} \frac{1}{\pi(x)} \sum_{p\le x} f(p)=0,$$ while if $L(1+i\gamma,f)=0$ for some (unique) $\gamma\in{\mathbb{R}}$ then $$\lim_{x\to\infty} \frac{1}{\pi(x)} \sum_{p\le x} (f(p) + p^{i\gamma}) =0 .$$ In this paper we establish a generalization of this result for larger values of $D$.
\[converse-thm\] Fix a natural number $D$ and a real number $A>D+2$. Let $f$ be a multiplicative function such that $|\Lambda_f|\le D\cdot\Lambda$, and such that $$\sum_{n\le x}f(n) \ll \frac{x}{(\log x)^A}$$ for all $x\ge2$. Then there is a unique multiset $\Gamma$ of at most $D$ real numbers such that $$\Big| \sum_{p\le x} \Big( f(p) + \sum_{\substack{ \gamma \in \Gamma \\ |\gamma| \le T}} p^{i\gamma}\Big) \log p \Big| \le C_1 \frac{x}{\sqrt{\log x}} + C_2 \frac{x}{\sqrt{T}}$$ for all $x,T\ge2$, where $C_1 = C_1(f,T)$ is a constant depending only on $f$ and $T$, and $C_2$ is an absolute constant. In particular, $$\lim_{x\to\infty} \frac{1}{x} \sum_{p\le x}\Big( f(p) + \sum_{\gamma \in \Gamma} p^{i\gamma}\Big) \log p = 0 .$$
The multiset $\Gamma$ consists of the ordinates of the zeroes of $L(s,f)$ on the line ${{\rm Re}}(s)=1$, repeated according to their multiplicity. Its rigorous construction is described in Proposition \[Prop1\]. The constant $C_1=C_1(f,T)$ in Theorem \[converse-thm\] can be calculated explicitly in terms of upper bounds for the Dirichlet series $L(s,f) \prod_{\gamma \in \Gamma, |\gamma|\le T} \zeta(s-i\gamma)$ and its derivatives, together with a lower bound for this quantity on the line segment $[1-iT, 1+iT]$.
Qualitatively Theorem \[converse-thm\] establishes the kind of converse theorem that we seek. There are two deficiencies in the theorem: first, the range $A > D+2$ falls short of the optimal result $A > D+1$ (which in the case $D=1$ was attained in [@dk-gafa], and which we can attain in a special case – see Section 5); and second, one would like an understanding of the uniformity with which the result holds. On the other hand, the proof that we present is very simple, and we postpone the considerably more involved arguments needed for more precise versions of the theorem to another occasion.
Acknowledgements {#acknowledgements .unnumbered}
----------------
The first author was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery Grants 435272-2013 and 2018-05699) and by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Nature et Technologies (Établissement de nouveaux chercheurs universitaires 2016-NC-189765; Projet de recherche en équipe 2019-PR-256442). The second author was supported in part by the National Science Foundation Grant and through a Simons Investigator Grant from the Simons Foundation. The paper was completed while the second author was a senior Fellow at the ETH Institute for Theoretical Studies, whom he thanks for their warm and generous hospitality.
The classes ${\mathcal{F}}(D)$ and ${\mathcal{F}}(D;A)$
=======================================================
We introduce the classes of multiplicative functions ${\mathcal F}(D)$ and ${\mathcal F}(D;A)$, and establish some preliminary results. Throughout $\tau_D$ will denote the $D$-th divisor function, which arises as the Dirichlet series coefficients of $\zeta(s)^D$.
\[def1\] Given a natural number $D$, we denote by ${\mathcal{F}}(D)$ the class of all multiplicative functions such that $|\Lambda_f|\le D\cdot\Lambda$.
\[lem:f-bound\] Let $f$ be an element of ${\mathcal F}(D)$. Then its inverse under Dirichlet convolution $g$ is also in ${\mathcal F}(D)$, and both $|f(n)|$ and $|g(n)|$ are bounded by $\tau_D(n)$ for all $n$.
Note that $$L(s,f) = \exp\bigg\{ \sum_{n=2}^\infty \frac{\Lambda_f(n)}{n^s\log n} \bigg\}
= \sum_{j=0}^\infty \frac{1}{j!} \bigg( \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\Lambda_f(n)}{n^s\log n} \bigg)^j,$$ so that by comparing coefficients [ $$\label{f-Lambda_f}\begin{split}
f(n) = \sum_{j=1}^\infty \frac{1}{j!} \sum_{n_1\cdots n_j=n} \frac{\Lambda_f(n_1)\cdots \Lambda_f(n_j)}{\log n_1\cdots \log n_j} .
\end{split}$$ ]{} Thus, by the definition of ${\mathcal F}(D)$, $|f(n)|$ is bounded by the coefficients of $$\sum_{j=0}^{\infty} \frac 1{j!} \bigg( \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{D\Lambda(n)}{n^s \log n} \bigg)^{j} = \zeta(s)^D.$$ This shows that $|f(n)| \le \tau_D(n)$ for all $n$. Since the inverse $g$ may be defined by setting $\Lambda_g(n) = -\Lambda_f(n)$, it follows that $g$ is in ${\mathcal F}(D)$ and that $|g(n)| \le \tau_D(n)$ as well.
For later use, let us record that if $f\in {\mathcal F}(D)$, then for $\sigma >1$ we have [ $$\label{2.2}\begin{split} \log L(s, f) = \sum_{n=2}^{\infty} \frac{\Lambda_f(n)}{n^s \log n} = \sum_{p} \frac{\Lambda_f(p)}{p^s \log n} + O(1)
= \sum_{p} \frac{f(p)}{p^s}+ O(1).
\end{split}$$ ]{}
We now introduce the class ${\mathcal F}(D;A)$, which is the subclass of multiplicative functions in ${\mathcal F}(D)$ with small partial sums.
\[def2\] Given a natural number $D$, and positive real numbers $A$ and $K$, we denote by ${\mathcal F}(D;A,K)$ the class of functions $f\in {\mathcal{F}}(D)$ such that $$\Big| \sum_{n\le x} f(n) \Big| \le K \frac{x}{(\log x)^{A}}\qquad\text{for all}\quad x\ge 3.$$ The class ${\mathcal F}(D;A)$ consists of all functions lying in ${\mathcal F}(D;A,K)$ for some constant $K$.
The following proposition about the class ${\mathcal{F}}(D;A)$ is an important stepping stone in the proof of Theorem \[converse-thm\]. In particular, it gives a description of the multiset $\Gamma$ appearing in Theorem \[converse-thm\].
\[Prop1\]Suppose $f$ is in the class ${\mathcal F}(D;A)$ with $A >D+1$.
1. The series $L(s,f)$ and the series of derivatives $L^{(j)}(s,f)$ with $1\le j < A-1$ all converge uniformly in compact subsets of the region ${{\rm Re}}(s)\ge 1$.
2. For any real number $\gamma$, there exists an integer $j\in[0,D]$ with $L^{(j)}(1+i\gamma, f) \neq 0$. If $L(1+i\gamma,f)=0$, then $1+i\gamma$ is called a *zero* of $L(s,f)$ and the *multiplicity* of this zero is the smallest natural number $j$ with $L^{(j)}(1+i\gamma,f) \neq 0$.
3. Counted with multiplicity, $L(s,f)$ has at most $D$ zeros on the line ${{\rm Re}}(s) =1$.
4. Let $\Gamma$ denote the (possibly empty) multiset of ordinates $\gamma$ of zeros $1+i\gamma$ of $L(s,f)$, so that $\Gamma$ has cardinality at most $D$. Let ${\widetilde \Gamma}$ denote a (multi-)subset of $\Gamma$, and let $\widetilde{m}$ denote the largest multiplicity of an element in $\widetilde{\Gamma}$. The Dirichlet series $$L(s,f_{\widetilde \Gamma}) = L(s,f) \prod_{\gamma \in {\widetilde \Gamma}} \zeta(s-i\gamma )$$ and the series of derivatives $L^{(j)} (s,f_{\widetilde \Gamma})$ for $1 \le j < A-{\widetilde m}-1$ all converge uniformly in compact subsets of the region ${{\rm Re}}(s)\ge 1$.
We next establish the following lemma which contains part (a) of Proposition \[Prop1\] and more. The remaining parts of the proposition will be established in Section 4.
\[lem:L-der-bound\] Let $f \in {\mathcal F}(D;A,K)$ with $A >1$, and consider an integer $j\in[0,A-1)$. For any $M\ge N \ge 3$ and any $s\in{\mathbb{C}}$ with ${{\rm Re}}(s)\ge1$, we have $$\label{L-der-bound1}
\bigg| \sum_{N<n\le M} \frac{f(n)(\log n)^j}{n^s}\bigg| \ll_{A,D} \frac{K(1+|s|)}{(\log N)^{A-j-1}}.$$ In particular, the series $L^{(j)}(s,f)$ converges uniformly in compact subsets of the region ${{\rm Re}}(s)\ge 1$. Furthermore, it satisfies the pointwise bound $$\label{L-der-bound2}
|L^{(j)}(\sigma+ it, f)| \ll_{A,D} (K(1+|t|))^{\frac{D+j}{D+A-1}}$$ for $s=\sigma+it$ with $\sigma\ge1$ and $t\in{\mathbb{R}}$.
Since $|f|\le\tau_D$ by Lemma \[lem:f-bound\], all claims follow in the region ${{\rm Re}}(s)\ge2$ from the bound $\sum_{n>N}\tau_D(n)/n^2\ll_D(\log N)^{D-1}/N$.
Let us now assume we are in the region $1\le {{\rm Re}}(s)\le2$. Using partial summation, we have $$\begin{aligned}
\sum_{N<n\le M} f(n) \frac{(\log n)^j}{n^{\sigma+it}}
&= \Big(\sum_{N<n\le M} f(n)\Big) \frac{(\log M)^j}{M^{\sigma+it}} - \int_N^M \Big( \sum_{N<n\le y} f(n) \Big)
\bigg( \frac{(\log y)^j}{y^{\sigma+ it}} \bigg)^{\prime} {\mathrm{d}}y.
\label{eqn:f-der-ps}
\end{aligned}$$ We estimate both terms on the right hand side of using our assumption on the partial sums of $f$, thus obtaining that $$\begin{aligned}
\sum_{N<n\le M} f(n) \frac{(\log n)^j}{n^{\sigma+it}}
&\ll \frac{K}{M^{\sigma-1}(\log M)^{A-j}}+ \int_N^M \frac{Ky}{(\log y)^A}\cdot \frac{(\log y)^j (1+|t|)}{y^{\sigma +1}} {\mathrm{d}}y \label{PS}\\
&\ll \frac{K(1+|t|)}{(\log N)^{A-j-1}}. \nonumber
\end{aligned}$$ This establishes . In particular, $L^{(j)}(s,f)$ converges uniformly in compact subsets of the region $1\le{{\rm Re}}(s)\le2$ by Cauchy’s criterion.
To obtain , we let $M\to\infty$ in to find that $$\label{L-der-bound3}
L^{(j)}(s,f) = \sum_{n\le N} \frac{f(n)(-\log n)^j}{n^s}+ O_{A,D}\bigg(\frac{K(1+|t|)}{(\log N)^{A-j-1}}\bigg) .$$ Since $|f(n)|\le \tau_D(n)$ by Lemma \[lem:f-bound\], the first term on the right side of is bounded in size by $$(\log N)^j \sum_{n\le N} \frac{\tau_D(n)}{n} \ll (\log N)^{D+j}.$$ Choosing $N = \exp((K(1+|t|)^{\frac{1}{D+A-1}})$ yields the desired bound.
Three lemmas
============
Here we collect together three disparate lemmas that will be used in the future. All of these lemmas are of a standard nature, and proofs are provided for completeness. We begin with an asymptotic formula for partial sums of generalized divisor functions.
\[lem:DivisorSums\] Let ${\mathcal A} = \{ \alpha_1, \ldots, \alpha_m\}$ be a multiset, consisting of $k$ distinct elements, and arranged so that $\alpha_1,\dots,\alpha_k$ denote these $k$ distinct values. Suppose that these distinct values $\alpha_j$ appear in ${\mathcal A}$ with multiplicity $m_j$. Let $\tau_{\mathcal A}(n)$ denote the multiplicative function $$\tau_{\mathcal A}(n) = \sum_{d_1 \cdots d_m =n} d_1^{i\alpha_1} \cdots d_{m}^{i\alpha_m}.$$ Then for large $x$ we have $$\sum_{n\le x} \tau_{\mathcal A}(n) = \sum_{j=1}^{k} x^{1+i\alpha_j} P_{j,{\mathcal A}}(\log x) + O(x^{1-\delta}),$$ where $P_{j, {\mathcal{A}}}$ denotes a polynomial of degree $m_j-1$ with coefficients depending on ${\mathcal{A}}$, and $\delta=\delta({\mathcal{A}})$ is some positive real number.
Note that in the region Re$(s)> 1$ $$\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{\tau_{\mathcal A}(n)}{n^s} = \prod_{j=1}^{k} \zeta(s-i\alpha_j)^{m_j}.$$ Now the lemma follows by a standard application of Perron’s formula to write (with $c>1$) $$\sum_{n\le x} \tau_{\mathcal A}(n) = \frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{c-i\infty}^{c+i\infty} \prod_{j=1}^{k} \zeta(s-i\alpha_j)^{m_j} \frac{x^s}{s} {\mathrm{d}}s,$$ and then shifting contours to the left of the $1$-line and evaluating the residues of the poles of order $m_j$ at $1+i\alpha_j$.
The next lemma is a quantitative version of Dirichlet’s theorem on Diophantine approximation.
\[lemDirichlet\] Let $\lambda_1,\dots, \lambda_k$ be $k$ real numbers. For $j=1,\dots,k$, let $\delta_j \in [0,1/2)$ be given. Then for all $T>0$, the set of $t \in [-T,T]$ such that $\Vert \lambda_j t \Vert \le \delta_j$ for $j=1,\dots,k$ has measure at least $ T\delta_1 \cdots \delta_k$. Here $\Vert x \Vert$ denotes the distance of $x$ to the nearest integer.
Given $\delta \in [0,1/2)$, define the function $f_\delta$ by letting $f_\delta(t) =\max(0, 1- |t|/\delta)$ when $t \in (-1/2,1/2)$, and then extend $f_\delta$ to a 1-periodic function on ${\mathbb{R}}$. Note that $f_\delta(t)$ minorizes the indicator function of $t$ with $\Vert t \Vert \le \delta$. Moreover, the Fourier coefficients of $f_\delta$ are all non-negative and satisfy the bound $\widehat{f_{\delta}}(n) \ll 1/n^2$ for $n\in{\mathbb{Z}}\setminus\{0\}$.
Now the measure of the set in the lemma is $$\ge \int_{-T}^{T} \Big( 1- \frac{|t|}{T} \Big) \prod_{j=1}^{k} f_{\delta_j}(\lambda_j t) dt = \sum_{n_1, \ldots, n_k} \prod_{j=1}^{k} \widehat{f_{\delta_j}}(n_k) \int_{-T}^{T}
\Big(1- \frac{|t|}{T}\Big) e((n_1\lambda_1+\ldots +n_k\lambda_k ) t) {\mathrm{d}}t.$$ Since the Fourier transform of the function $\max(0, 1-|t|/T)$ is always non-negative, we conclude that the above is $$\ge \prod_{j=1}^{k} \widehat{f_{\delta_j}}(0) \int_{-T}^{T} \Big(1-\frac{|t|}{T}\Big) {\mathrm{d}}t = T \delta_1 \cdots \delta_k,$$ thus completing our proof.
Our final lemma gives a variant of the Brun–Titchmarsh theorem for primes in short intervals. Define $\Lambda_j(n)$ by means of $$(-1)^{j} \frac{\zeta^{(j)}(s)}{\zeta(s)} = \sum_{n} \frac{\Lambda_j(n)}{n^s}.$$ Thus $\Lambda_0(n)=1$ if $n=1$ and $0$ for $n >1$, while $\Lambda_1(n) = \Lambda(n)$ is the usual von Mangoldt function. Using the identity $$\label{N3.1}
(-1)^{j+1} \frac{\zeta^{(j+1)}}{\zeta} = - \Big( (-1)^j \frac{\zeta^{(j)}}{\zeta}\Big)^{\prime} + \Big( -\frac{\zeta^{\prime}}{\zeta} \Big)
\Big( (-1)^j \frac{\zeta^{(j)}}{\zeta}\Big),$$ one can check easily that $\Lambda_j(n) \ge 0$ for all $j$ and $n$. In addition, $\Lambda_j(n)$ is supported on integers composed of at most $j$ distinct prime factors, and is bounded by $C_j (\log n)^j$ on such integers for a suitable constant $C_j$.
\[lem:BT\] Fix ${\varepsilon}>0$ and $j\in{\mathbb{N}}$. Uniformly for $x\ge2$ and $x^{{\varepsilon}} < y \le x$, we have $$\sum_{x < n \le x+y} \Lambda_j(n) \ll_{j,{\varepsilon}} y (\log x)^{j-1}.$$
We argue by induction on $j$. The base case $j=1$ is a direct corollary of the classical Brun-Titchmarsh inequality (for example, see [@MV Theorem 3.9]). Now suppose that $j\ge 2$ and that the lemma holds for $\Lambda_1,\dots, \Lambda_{j-1}$.
The number of integers in $(x,x+y]$ all of whose prime factors are $\ge \sqrt{y}$ may be bounded by $\ll y/\log y \ll_{{\varepsilon}} y/\log x$ (see [@MV Theorem 3.3]). Therefore, with $P^{-}(n)$ denoting the least prime factor of the integer $n$, we have that $$\label{N3.2}
\sum_{\substack{ x< n\le x+y \\ P^{-}(n) >\sqrt{y}}} \Lambda_j(n)
\ll_j (\log x)^{j} \sum_{\substack{ x< n\le x+y \\ P^{-}(n) >\sqrt{y}}} 1
\ll_{j,{\varepsilon}} y (\log x)^{j-1}.$$ To establish the lemma, it remains to show that $$\label{N3.3}
\sum_{\substack{ x< n\le x+y \\ P^{-}(n) \le \sqrt{y}}} \Lambda_j(n) \ll_{j,{\varepsilon}} y (\log x)^{j-1}.$$
Let $p$ be a prime and suppose $n= p^a m$ with $a\ge 1$ and $p \nmid m$. Note that $$\begin{aligned}
\Lambda_j(n)
&= \sum_{d|n} \mu(d) \log^j(n/d)
= \sum_{d|m} \mu(d) \Big( \log^j(p^a m/d) - \log^j(p^{a-1}m/d)\Big)\\
&= \sum_{\ell=1}^{j} \binom{j}{\ell} \big( \log^\ell(p^a) - \log^\ell(p^{a-1}) \big)
\sum_{d|m} \mu(d) \log^{j-\ell}(m/d) \\
&=\sum_{\ell=1}^{j} \binom{j}{\ell} \big( \log^\ell(p^a) - \log^\ell(p^{a-1}) \big)
\Lambda_{j-\ell}(m). \end{aligned}$$ If $a=1$, then we deduce that $$\label{lambda-recurrence}
\Lambda_j(n) \ll_j (\log p) \big( \Lambda_0(m) + \Lambda_1(m) +\ldots +\Lambda_{j-1}(m)\big).$$ On the other hand, if $a>1$, then we use the bound $\Lambda_{j-\ell}(m)\ll_j (\log m)^{j-\ell}$ to conclude that $$\label{lambda-recurrence2}
\Lambda_j(n) \ll_j \log(p^a) (\log n)^{j-1}.$$
We now return to the task of estimating , using the above two estimates. Let $p$ denote the smallest prime factor of $n$, so that $p\le \sqrt{y}$. The terms with $p\Vert n$ contribute, using the induction hypothesis and , $$\begin{aligned}
\label{N3.4}
&\ll_j \sum_{p\le \sqrt{y}} (\log p) \sum_{x/p < m \le (x+y)/p} (\Lambda_0(m) +\Lambda_1(m) + \ldots +\Lambda_{j-1}(m))
\nonumber \\
&\ll_j \sum_{p\le \sqrt{y}} (\log p) \cdot \frac{y}{p} (\log x)^{j-2}
\ll y (\log x)^{j-1}. \end{aligned}$$ Lastly, using , we find that the terms with $p^2|n$ contribute $$\begin{aligned}
\label{N3.5}
&\ll (\log x)^{j-1} \mathop{\sum\sum}_{\substack{p \le \sqrt{y} ,\, a \ge 2 \\ p^a \le x+y} }
\log(p^a) \sum_{x/p^a \le m \le (x+y)/p^a} 1 \nonumber\\
& \ll
(\log x)^{j-1} \mathop{\sum\sum}_{\substack{p \le \sqrt{y} ,\, a \ge 2 \\ p^a \le x+y} }
\log(p^a) \Big( \frac{y}{p^a} + 1 \Big)\ll y(\log x)^{j-1}.\end{aligned}$$ Combining and yields , completing the proof of the lemma.
Proof of Proposition \[Prop1\]
==============================
Recall that part (a) of Proposition \[Prop1\] was already established in Lemma \[lem:L-der-bound\]. We now turn to the remaining three parts of the proposition, with the next lemma settling part (b).
\[lem:logL\] Let $f\in {\mathcal F}(D;A)$ with $A> D+1$. For any real number $\gamma$, there exists an integer $j\in[0,D]$ with $L^{(j)}(1+i\gamma, f)\neq 0$. The *multiplicity* of the zero of $L(s,f)$ at $s=1+i\gamma$ is defined as the smallest such $j$ with $L^{(j)}(1+i\gamma, f)\neq 0$. If $m$ is the multiplicity of $1+i\gamma$ (we allow the possibility that $m =0$, which occurs when $L(1+i\gamma, f)\neq 0$), then $$\Big| \sum_{p\le x} \frac{m+{{\rm Re}}(f(p)p^{-i\gamma})}{p}\Big| \le C$$ for some constant $C=C(f,\gamma)$.
As $\sigma \to 1^+$, Taylor’s theorem shows that $$L(\sigma+ i\gamma, f) = \sum_{j=0}^{D} \frac{(\sigma-1)^j}{j!} L^{(j)}(1+i\gamma, f) + o((\sigma -1)^D).$$ But since ${{\rm Re}}(f(p)p^{-i\gamma}) \ge -D$ for all $p$, relation implies that $$|L(\sigma+i\gamma,f)| \gg \exp\Big(\sum_{p}\frac{ {{\rm Re}}(f(p)p^{-i\gamma})}{p^{\sigma}}\Big) \gg (\sigma -1)^D.$$ Therefore $L^{(j)}(1+i\gamma, f) \neq 0$ for some $0\le j\le D$, and the notion of multiplicity is well defined.
If $m\le D$ denotes the multiplicity, then a new application of Taylor’s theorem gives $$L(\sigma +i\gamma, f) = \frac{(\sigma -1)^m}{m!} L^{(m)}(1+i\gamma, f) + o((\sigma -1)^m).$$ Writing $\sigma =1+1/\log x$ and taking logarithms, we find that $$\Big|\sum_{p \le x} \frac{m+{{\rm Re}}(f(p)p^{-i\gamma})}{p} \Big| =\Big| \log |L(1+1/\log x+i\gamma, f)| + m \log \log x + O(1) \Big|
\le C(f,\gamma),$$ as desired.
We now turn to the task of proving part (c) of Proposition \[Prop1\]. Suppose $1+i\gamma_1,\dots,1+i\gamma_k$ are distinct zeros of $L(s,f)$, and let $m_j$ denote the multiplicity of the zero $1+i\gamma_j$. We wish to show that $m _1+ \cdots + m_k \le D$, so that part (c) would follow. A key role will be played by the auxiliary function $$A_N(x) = \lim_{T\to \infty} \frac{1}{2T} \int_{-T}^{T} | 1 + e^{it\gamma_1} + \ldots +e^{i t \gamma_k}|^{2N} e^{it x} {\mathrm{d}}t,$$ where $N$ is an integer that will be chosen large enough. By expanding the $(2N)$-th power, it is easy to see that $A_N(x)$ is non-zero only for those real $x$ that may be written as $j_1 \gamma_1 + \cdots + j_k \gamma_k$ with $|j_1| + \cdots + |j_k| \le N$. Note that there may be linear relations among the $\gamma_j$, so that $A_N(x)$ could have a complicated structure. The following lemma summarizes the key properties of $A_N(x)$ for our purposes.
\[lem:A\_N(x)\] Let $N$ be a natural number.
1. For each $1/2\ge \delta>0$ and each $N$, we have $A_N(0) \gg_k \delta^k (k+1-\delta)^{2N}$.
2. Let ${\varepsilon}>0$ and $j\in\{1,\dots,k\}$. If $N$ is large enough in terms of ${\varepsilon}$ and $k$, then $A_N(\gamma_j) \ge (1-{\varepsilon}) A_N(0)$.
\(a) Put $\lambda_j = \gamma_j/(2\pi)$ and consider the set of $t\in [-T,T]$ such that $\Vert \lambda_j t \Vert \le \delta/(\pi k)$ for $j=1,\dots,k$. By Lemma \[lemDirichlet\], this set has measure $\ge T (\delta/(\pi k))^k$. Moreover, for such $t$ we have $|e^{i\gamma_j t} - 1 | =|\sin(\pi\lambda_jt)|\le \delta/k$ for each $1\le j\le k$, so that $|1+e^{it\gamma_1} + \cdots +e^{it\gamma_k}| \ge (k+1-\delta)$. Part (a) of the lemma follows at once.
\(b) Let ${\mathcal{T}}$ denote the set of $t\in[-T,T]$ such that $\cos (t \gamma_j) \le 1-4\delta$. Then $|1+e^{it\gamma_j}|\le2\sqrt{1-2\delta}\le2-2\delta$, whence $|1+e^{it \gamma_1} + \cdots +e^{it\gamma_k}| \le k+1- 2\delta$. Therefore, in view of part (a), we have that $$\frac{1}{2T}\int_{{\mathcal{T}}}
|1+e^{it\gamma_1} + \cdots + e^{it\gamma_k}|^{2N} {\mathrm{d}}t
\le (k+1-2\delta)^{2N} \le \delta A_N(0),$$ provided that $N$ is large enough. Hence, if $T$ is sufficiently large, [$$\begin{aligned}
\frac{1}{2T}\int_{-T}^{T} \cos(t\gamma_j)
|1+e^{it\gamma_1} + \cdots + e^{it\gamma_k}|^{2N} {\mathrm{d}}t
& \ge
\frac{1-4\delta}{2T} \int_{[-T,T]\setminus {\mathcal{T}}} |1+e^{it\gamma_1} + \cdots + e^{it\gamma_k}|^{2N} {\mathrm{d}}t \\
&\qquad
- \frac{1}{2T}\int_{{\mathcal{T}}} |1+e^{it\gamma_1} + \cdots + e^{it\gamma_k}|^{2N} {\mathrm{d}}t \\
&\ge (1-4\delta)(1-\delta)A_N(0) - \delta A_N(0).
\end{aligned}$$ ]{} Taking $\delta$ suitably small in terms of ${\varepsilon}$ completes the proof of the lemma.
Let $N$ be a large integer to be chosen later, and consider the behavior of $$\label{eqn:lambda-dfn}
\lambda_N(x):= \frac{1}{\log \log x} {{\rm Re}}\Big( \sum_{p\le x} \frac{f(p)}{p} |1+p^{i\gamma_1} + \cdots + p^{i\gamma_k}|^{2N}\Big),$$ as $x\to \infty$. Since $|f(p)| \le D$ always, on the one hand we have that $$\label{eqn:lambda-lb}
\lambda_N(x)
\ge \frac{ -D}{\log \log x} \sum_{p\le x} \frac{1}{p} |1+p^{i\gamma_1} + \cdots + p^{i\gamma_k}|^{2N}
= - D A_N(0) +o(1),$$ with the second relation following from the Prime Number Theorem.
On the other hand, we may expand $|1+p^{-i\gamma_1} + \cdots +p^{-i\gamma_k}|^{2N}$ to find that $$\lambda_N(x) = \frac{1}{\log \log x}\sum_{\substack{0\le j_1,\dots,j_{2N}\le k \\ \gamma=\sum_{n\le N}\gamma_{j_n}-\sum_{n>N}\gamma_{j_n}}}
\sum_{p\le x} \frac{{{\rm Re}}(f(p)p^{-i\gamma})}{p}$$ with the convention that $\gamma_0=0$. If now $\gamma=\gamma_\ell$ for some $\ell$, then the sum over $p$ equals $-m_\ell\log\log x+O(1)$. The number of choices of $j_1$, $\ldots$, $j_{2N}$ that lead to $\gamma= \gamma_\ell$ is exactly $A_N(\gamma_\ell)$. If $\gamma$ is not $\gamma_\ell$ for some $1\le \ell \le k$, then by Lemma \[lem:logL\] we see that the sum over $p$ is bounded above by a constant. Indeed if $\gamma$ is not an ordinate of a zero of $L(s,f)$ on the $1$–line, then the sum over $p$ is simply $O(1)$; [*a priori*]{}, there could be other zeros of $L(s,f)$ besides $1+i\gamma_1$, $\ldots$, $1 +i\gamma_k$ and $\gamma$ could be one of these zeros, but nevertheless the sum over $p$ is bounded above by $O(1)$. In conclusion, $$\lambda_N(x) \le - \sum_{\ell=1}^k m_\ell \sum_{\substack{0\le j_1,\dots,j_{2N}\le k \\ \sum_{n\le N}\gamma_{j_n}-\sum_{n>N}\gamma_{j_n} = \gamma_\ell}}1+o(1)
= - \sum_{\ell=1}^k m_\ell A_N(\gamma_\ell) +o(1).$$ Comparing the above inequality with , we infer that $$\label{eqn:multiplicities-ineq}
\sum_{\ell=1}^{k} m_\ell A_N(\gamma_\ell) \le D A_N(0).$$ To complete the proof, we apply Lemma \[lem:A\_N(x)\](b) with ${\varepsilon}=1/(m_1+\cdots+m_k+1)$ to find that the right hand side of is $>A_N(0)(m_1+\cdots+m_k-1)$, as long as $N$ is large enough. Since $A_N(0)>0$, we conclude that $m_1+\cdots+m_k<D+1$, as desired.
It remains lastly to prove part (d) of Proposition \[Prop1\]. Suppose that the multiset $\widetilde \Gamma$ consists of $k$ distinct values, and has been arranged so that $\gamma_1,\dots, \gamma_k$ are these distinct values, and each such $\gamma_j$ occurs in $\widetilde \Gamma$ with multiplicity ${\widetilde}{m}_j$. As in Lemma \[lem:DivisorSums\], put $\tau_{\widetilde \Gamma}(n) = \sum_{d_1 \cdots d_m = n} d_1^{i\gamma_1} \cdots d_m^{i\gamma_m}$ and define $f_{\widetilde \Gamma}$ to be the Dirichlet convolution $f * \tau_{\widetilde \Gamma}$.
\[lem:f-tau\] With the above notations, we have $$\sum_{n\le x} f_{\widetilde \Gamma}(n) \ll C(f) \frac{x}{(\log x)^{A- \widetilde{m}}} + \frac{x (\log \log x)^{2D}}{(\log x)^A},$$ for some constant $C(f)$, and with ${\widetilde m}$ denoting the maximum of the multiplicities ${\widetilde}{m}_1,\dots,{\widetilde}{m}_k$.
As in the hyperbola method we may write, for some parameter $2\le z\le \sqrt{x}$ to be chosen shortly, $$\sum_{n\le x} f_{\widetilde \Gamma}(n) = \sum_{a\le x/z} f(a) \sum_{b\le x/a} \tau_{\widetilde \Gamma}(b) + \sum_{b\le z} \tau_{\widetilde \Gamma}(b) \sum_{x/z \le a \le x/b} f(a).$$ Using our hypothesis on the partial sums of $f$, and since $\sqrt{x} \le x/z \le x/b$, we see that the second term above is $$\label{eqn:f-tau-1}
\ll \sum_{b\le z} |\tau_{\widetilde \Gamma}(b)| \frac{x}{b (\log x)^A} \ll \frac{x (\log z)^D}{(\log x)^A},$$ since $|\tau_{\widetilde \Gamma}(b)|$ may be bounded by the $D$-th divisor function. On the other hand, using Lemma \[lem:DivisorSums\], the first term equals $$\label{eqn:f-tau-2}
\sum_{a\le x/z} f(a) \sum_{j=1}^{k} \frac{x^{1+i\gamma_j}}{a^{1+i\gamma_j}} P_{j,\widetilde\Gamma}(\log x/a) + O\Big( x^{1-\delta} \sum_{a\le x/z} \frac{|f(a)|}{a^{1-\delta}} \Big),$$ where $P_{j,\widetilde \Gamma}$ denotes a polynomial of degree $\widetilde{m}_j-1$ with coefficients depending on $f$ and $\widetilde \Gamma$. Since $|f(a)|$ is bounded by the $D$-th divisor function, the error term in is easily bounded by $\ll x(\log x)^D/z^{\delta}$. Now consider the main term in . Applying (with $N=x/z$ and $M\to \infty$ there), for any $0 \le \ell \le m_j-1$ we have $$\sum_{a \le x/z} \frac{f(a)}{a^{1+i\gamma_j}} (\log a)^\ell = (-1)^{\ell} L^{(\ell)}(1+i\gamma_j) + O_f\Big( \frac{1}{(\log x)^{A-\ell-1} }\Big) \ll_f \frac{1}{(\log x)^{A-\ell-1}},$$ since $L^{(\ell)}(1+i\gamma_j) =0$ for all $0\le \ell \le m_j-1$. Therefore $$\sum_{a\le x/z} \frac{f(a)}{a^{1+i\gamma_j}} P_{j,\widetilde \Gamma}(\log x/a) \ll \frac{1}{(\log x)^{A-m_j}},$$ and we conclude that the quantity in is $$\ll \frac{x}{(\log x)^{A-\widetilde{m}}} + \frac{x(\log x)^D}{z^{\delta}}.$$ Combine this with , and choose $z=\exp((\log \log x)^2)$ to obtain the lemma.
Combining Lemma \[lem:f-tau\] with the argument of Lemma \[lem:L-der-bound\], part (d) of Proposition \[Prop1\] follows.
Proof of Theorem \[converse-thm\] in a special case
===================================================
In this section we establish Theorem \[converse-thm\] in the special case when $L(s,f)$ has a zero of multiplicity $D$, say at $1+i\gamma$. By Proposition \[Prop1\] there can be no other zeros of $L(s,f)$ on the $1$-line. In this special case, we can in fact prove a stronger result, obtaining non-trivial information in the optimal range $A>D+1$. In the next section, we shall consider (by a very different method) the remaining cases when the multiplicity of any zero is at most $D-1$.
Write $g(n) = f(n) n^{-i\gamma}$, and consider $G= \tau_D *g$. We begin by establishing some estimates for $\sum_{n\le x} G(n)$ and $\sum_{n\le x} |G(n)|/n$. Note that $G(n) = n^{-i\gamma} f_{\Gamma}$ for the multiset $\Gamma$ composed of $D$ copies of $\gamma$. Hence, Lemma \[lem:f-tau\] and partial summation imply that [ $$\label{eq:g-bound1}\begin{split}
\sum_{n\le x} G(n) \ll_f \frac{x}{(\log x)^{A-D}}.
\end{split}$$ ]{}
By Lemma \[lem:logL\] we have $$\Big| \sum_{p\le x} \frac{{{\rm Re}}(G(p))}{p} \Big| = \Big| \sum_{p\le x} \frac{D+{{\rm Re}}(g(p))}{p} \Big| = \Big| \sum_{p\le x} \frac{D+ {{\rm Re}}(f(p)p^{-i\gamma})}{p} \Big|
\ll_f 1.$$ Since $|D+g(p)|^2 = D^2+ 2D{{\rm Re}}(g(p)) + |g(p)|^2 \le 2D (D+{{\rm Re}}(g(p)))$, an application of Cauchy-Schwarz gives $$\label{N5.2}
\sum_{p\le x}\frac{|D+g(p)|}{p} \ll_f \sqrt{\log\log x}.$$ It follows that $$\label{N5.3}
\sum_{n\le x}\frac{|G(n)|}{n} \ll \exp\Big( \sum_{p\le x} \frac{|G(p)|}{p} \Big) \ll \exp\big(O_f\big(\sqrt{\log\log x}\,\big)\big).$$
After these preliminaries, we may now begin the proof of Theorem \[converse-thm\] in this situation. We shall consider the function $G*\overline{G} = \tau_{2D}*g*\overline{g}$. Note that $\Lambda_{G*\overline{G}}(n)
= 2D \Lambda(n) + \Lambda_g(n) + \Lambda_{\overline{g}}(n)$ is always real and non-negative. Thus $G*\overline{G}$ is also a real and non-negative function, and we have $$2\sum_{p\le x} (D+ {{\rm Re}}(g(p))) = \sum_{p\le x} (G*{\overline G})(p) \le \sum_{n\le x} (G*\overline{G})(n).$$ We bound the right side above using the hyperbola method. Thus, using and , $$\begin{aligned}
\sum_{n\le x} (G*{\overline{G}})(n)
&= 2{{\rm Re}}\Big(\sum_{a\le \sqrt{x}} G(a) \sum_{b\le x/a} {\overline{G}}(b) \Big)- \Big|\sum_{a\le \sqrt{x}}G(a)\Big|^2 \\
&\ll_f \frac{x}{(\log x)^{A-D}} \sum_{a\le x} \frac{|G(a)|}{a} + \frac{x}{(\log x)^{2(A-D)}} \ll_{f,{\varepsilon}} \frac{x}{(\log x)^{A-D-{\varepsilon}}}\end{aligned}$$ for any fixed ${\varepsilon}>0$. Thus $$\sum_{p\le x} \big(D+ {{\rm Re}}(g(p)) \big)
\ll_{f,{\varepsilon}} \frac{x}{(\log x)^{A-D-{\varepsilon}}},$$ and using $|D+g(p)|^2 \le 2D (D+{{\rm Re}}(g(p)))$ and Cauchy-Schwarz we conclude that $$\label{N5.4}
\sum_{p\le x} |D+ f(p)p^{-i\gamma}| \log p = \sum_{p\le x} |f(p) + Dp^{i\gamma}| \log p
\ll_{f,{\varepsilon}} \frac{x}{(\log x)^{(A-1-D-{\varepsilon})/2}}.$$
Once the estimate has been established, it may be input into the above argument and the bound may be tidied up. Partial summation starting from leads to the bound $\sum_{p\le x} |D+g(p)|/p \ll_f 1$ in place of . In turn this replaces by the bound $\sum_{n\le x} |G(n)|/n \ll_f 1$. Using this in our hyperbola method argument produces now the cleaner bound $$\label{N5.5}
\sum_{p\le x} |D+ f(p)p^{-i\gamma}| \log p = \sum_{p\le x} |f(p) + Dp^{i\gamma}| \log p \ll_f \frac{x}{(\log x)^{(A-1-D)/2}}.$$
As mentioned earlier, the estimate obtains non-trivial information in the optimal range $A>D+1$. If we suppose that $A> D+2$, then the right side of is $\ll_f x/\sqrt{\log x}$, and Theorem \[converse-thm\] follows in this special case if $|\gamma|\le T$. If $|\gamma| >T$ then note that $$\sum_{p\le x} p^{i\gamma} \log p = \frac{x}{1+i\gamma} + O_f\Big( \frac{x}{\log x}\Big) \ll \frac{x}{T} + C(f) \frac{x}{\log x},$$ so that the theorem holds as stated in this case also.
Proof of Theorem \[converse-thm\]: The general case
===================================================
In the previous section we established Theorem \[converse-thm\] in the special situation when $L(s,f)$ has a zero of multiplicity $D$ on the $1$-line. We now consider the more typical situation when all the zeros (if there are any) of $L(s,f)$ on the line Re$(s)=1$ have multiplicity $\le D-1$. The argument here is based on some ideas from [@GHS].
Throughout we put $c=1+1/\log x$, and $T_0 =\sqrt{T}$. Let ${\widetilde \Gamma}$ denote the multiset of zeros of $L(s,f)$ lying on the line segment $[1-iT, 1+iT]$, and let $f_{\widetilde \Gamma} = f * \tau_{\widetilde \Gamma}$ denote the multiplicative function defined for Lemma \[lem:f-tau\]. We start with a smoothed version of Perron’s formula: $$\begin{aligned}
\label{4.1}
\frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{(c)} \bigg(-\frac{L^{\prime}}{L}\bigg)^{\prime}(s,f_{\widetilde \Gamma}) \frac{x^s}{s}
\bigg(\frac{e^{s/T_0}-1}{s/T_0}\bigg)^{10} {\mathrm{d}}s
&= \sum_{n\le x} \Lambda_{f_{\widetilde \Gamma}}(n) \log n
+ O\Big( \sum_{x < n < e^{10/T_0} x} \Lambda(n) \log n\Big) \nonumber\\
&= \sum_{p\le x} \Big(f(p) + \sum_{\substack{\gamma \in \Gamma \\ |\gamma| \le T}} p^{i\gamma}\Big) (\log p)^2
+ O\Big( \frac{x\log x}{T_0}\Big). \end{aligned}$$ Our goal now is to bound the left hand side of , and to do this we split the integral into several ranges. There is a range of small values $|t| \le T$, and the range of larger values $|t| >T$, which we further subdivide into dyadic ranges $2^rT < |t| \le 2^{r+1} T$ with $r\ge 0$.
Small values of $|t|$
---------------------
We start with the range $|t|\le T$. Since $A>D+2$ and all zeroes of $L(s,f)$ are assumed to have multiplicity $\le D-1$, we have $A-{\widetilde m} -1 >2$. Therefore, by Proposition \[Prop1\](d) $L^{(j)}(s,f_{\widetilde \Gamma})$ exists for ${{\rm Re}}(s)\ge 1$ and $j\in\{0,1,2\}$, and is bounded above in magnitude on the segment $[1-iT,1+iT]$. Further, $|L(s,f_{\widetilde \Gamma})|$ is bounded away from zero on the compact set $[1-iT, 1+iT]$ since all the zeros of $L(s,f)$ in that region are accounted for in the multiset $\widetilde \Gamma$. Therefore there is some constant $C(f,T)$ such that for all $|t|\le T$ one has $$\bigg| \bigg(\frac{L^{\prime}}{L}\bigg)^{\prime}(c+it,f_{\widetilde \Gamma}) \bigg| \le C(f,T).$$ We deduce that $$\label{eqn:perron-bound1}
\bigg| \int_{\sigma=c,\, |t|\le T}\bigg(\frac{L^{\prime}}{L}\bigg)^{\prime}(s,f_{\widetilde \Gamma})
\cdot \frac{x^s}{s} \cdot
\bigg( \frac{e^{s/T_0}-1}{s/T_0}\bigg)^{10} {\mathrm{d}}t \bigg|
\le x C_1(f,T),$$ for a suitable constant $C_1(f,T)$.
Large values of $|t|$
---------------------
Now we turn to the larger values of $|t|$, namely when $2^r T < |t| \le 2^{r+1} T$ for some $r\ge 0$. Writing $$\bigg( \frac{L^{\prime}}{L}\bigg)^{\prime}(s,f_{\widetilde \Gamma})
= \bigg( \frac{L^{\prime}}{L} \bigg)^{\prime}(s,f)
+ \sum_{\gamma \in \widetilde\Gamma} \bigg( \frac{\zeta^{\prime}}{\zeta} \bigg)^{\prime}(s-i\gamma) ,$$ the desired integral splits naturally into two parts. Now for $|t| \ge T$ we have $$\bigg( \frac{\zeta^{\prime}}{\zeta} \bigg)'(c+it -i\gamma)
\ll \Big( \frac{1}{(\log x)^2} + |t-\gamma|^2 \Big)^{-1} + |t|^{{\varepsilon}},$$ so that $$\label{4.12}
\bigg| \int\limits_{\substack{\sigma=c \\ 2^{r}T \le |t| \le 2^{r+1}T}}
\sum_{\gamma\in \widetilde\Gamma}
\bigg( \frac{\zeta^{\prime}}{\zeta} \bigg)^{\prime}(s-i\gamma)
\cdot \frac{x^s}{s} \cdot
\bigg( \frac{e^{s/T_0}-1}{s/T_0} \bigg)^{10} {\mathrm{d}}s \bigg|
\ll \frac{x\log x}{2^r T_0}.$$
It remains now to estimate $$\label{4.13}
\bigg| \int\limits_{\substack{\sigma=c \\ 2^{r}T \le |t| \le 2^{r+1}T}}
\bigg(\frac{L^{\prime}}{L}\bigg)^{\prime}(s,f)
\cdot \frac{x^s}{s}
\cdot \bigg(\frac{e^{s/T_0}-1}{s/T_0}\bigg)^{10} {\mathrm{d}}s \bigg|.$$ To help estimate this quantity, we state the following lemma whose proof we postpone to the next section.
\[lem2.5\] Let $X \ge 2$ and $\sigma >1$ be real numbers. Let $f\in {\mathcal F}(D)$ and suppose $j\ge 1$ is a natural number. Put $G_j(s) = (-1)^j L^{(j)}(s,f)/L(s,f)$. Then $$\int_{-X}^X |G_j(\sigma +it)|^2 {\mathrm{d}}t \ll X (\log X)^{2j} + \Big( \frac{1}{\sigma -1} \Big)^{2j-1}.$$
Returning to , in the notation of Lemma \[lem2.5\], we have $$\bigg(\frac{L^{\prime}}{L}\bigg)^{\prime}(s,f)
= G_2(s) - G_1(s)^2.$$ Using this identity, the integral in splits into two parts, and using Lemma \[lem2.5\] we may bound the second integral (with $X=2^{r}T$) by $$\begin{aligned}
\label{4.2}
\frac{x}{X (X/T_0)^{10}} \int_{X< |t| \le 2X} |G_1(c+it)|^2 {\mathrm{d}}t
& \ll \frac{x}{X(X/T_0)^{10}} \Big( X (\log X)^2 + \log x \Big)
\ll \frac{x \log x}{2^r T_0}.
\end{aligned}$$
Finally, we must bound the integral arising from $G_2(s)$. To this end, we define $$\label{4.3}
I(j;X,\alpha) = \Big| \int\limits_{\substack{\sigma=c \\ X \le |t| \le 2X}}
G_j(s+\alpha) \frac{x^s}{s} \Big( \frac{ e^{s/T_0}-1}{s/T_0} \Big)^{10} {\mathrm{d}}s \Big|,$$ so that we require a bound for $I(2;2^rT,0)$. We shall bound $I(j;X,\alpha)$ in terms of $I(j+1;X, \alpha+\beta)$ for suitable $\beta>0$, and iterating this will eventually lead to a good bound for $I(2;X,0)$.
\[lem4.1\] Let $X\ge T$, and $\alpha\ge 0$ be real numbers. For $j\ge 2$ and all $k\ge 1$ we have $$I(j;X,\alpha) \ll_k \int_0^1 I(j+k;X,\alpha+\beta)\beta^{k-1} {\mathrm{d}}\beta + \frac{x}{(X/T_0)^2}
\Big(\frac{1}{\log x} +\alpha\Big)^{-(j-1)} .$$
Note that $$G_{j}(s)^{\prime} = - G_{j+1} (s) + G_1(s) G_j(s),$$ so that $$\begin{aligned}
G_j(s+\alpha) & = - \int_{0}^{1} G_{j}^{\prime}(s+\alpha+\beta) {\mathrm{d}}\beta + O(1) \\
&= \int_0^1 (G_{j+1}(s+\alpha+\beta) -G_1(s+\alpha+\beta) G_j(s+\alpha+\beta)) {\mathrm{d}}\beta + O(1).
\end{aligned}$$ Using this in the definition of $I$, we obtain that $$\begin{aligned}
I(j;X,\alpha) &\ll \int_{0}^{1} I(j+1;X,\alpha+\beta) {\mathrm{d}}\beta \\
&+ \frac{x}{X(X/T_0)^{10}} \Big( X + \int_0^1
\int_{X}^{2X} |G_1(c+\alpha+\beta+ it) G_j(c+\alpha+\beta+it)| {\mathrm{d}}t {\mathrm{d}}\beta\Big).
\end{aligned}$$
Using Cauchy–Schwarz and Lemma \[lem2.5\], the second term above is (since $j\ge 2$) $$\begin{aligned}
&\ll \frac{x}{X(X/T_0)^{10}} \Big( X + X (\log X)^{j+1} + \int_0^{1} \Big(\frac{1}{\log x} + \alpha +\beta\Big)^{-j} {\mathrm{d}}\beta \Big) \\
&\ll \frac{x}{(X/T_0)^2} \Big( \frac{1}{\log x} + \alpha\Big)^{-(j-1)}.
\end{aligned}$$ Thus we conclude that $$\label{4.4}
I(j;X,\alpha) \ll \int_{0}^{1} I(j+1;X,\alpha+\beta) {\mathrm{d}}\beta + \frac{x}{(X/T_0)^2} \Big( \frac{1}{\log x} + \alpha\Big)^{-(j-1)}.$$
This establishes the lemma in the case $k=0$, and the general case follows by iterating this argument $k-1$ times. In doing so, we make use of the following estimate: $$\label{eqn:int-bound}
\int_0^1 \frac{\beta^{m-1}}{(\alpha+\beta+1/\log x)^{j+m-1}}{\mathrm{d}}\beta \ll_{m,j} \frac{1}{(\alpha+1/\log x)^{j-1}}$$ for all $m=1,2,\dots$ and all $\alpha\in[0,1]$. This may be seen by dividing the range of integration into two parts, according to whether $\beta\le \alpha+1/\log x$ or $\beta>\alpha+1/\log x$.
We now return to the task of bounding $I(2;2^r T, 0)$. Applying Lemma \[lem4.1\], we see that for any $k\ge 1$ we have $$\label{4.5}
I(2;2^r T,0) \ll_k \int_0^1 I(2+k;2^rT, \beta) \beta^{k-1} {\mathrm{d}}\beta + \frac{x \log x}{2^r T_0}.$$ We choose $k$ to be the largest integer strictly smaller than $A-3$. Since $A>D+2$, we have $$D-1\le k<A-3.$$ Applying Lemma \[lem:L-der-bound\], we find that $L^{(2+k)}(c+\beta+it,f) \ll (1+|t|)$. Furthermore, since $f \in {\mathcal F}(D)$, we have $$\frac{1}{|L(c+\beta+it,f)|} \ll \prod_{p} \Big(1 -\frac{1}{p^{c+\beta}}\Big)^{-D} \ll \Big( \frac{1}{\log x} + \beta\Big)^{-D}.$$ Thus, with this choice of $k$, it follows that $$I(2+k;2^r T, \beta) \ll x \Big( \frac{1}{\log x} + \beta\Big)^{-D} \int_{2^r T}^{2^{r+1}T} \frac{1}{(T/T_0)^{10}} {\mathrm{d}}t
\ll \frac{x}{2^r T_0} \Big( \frac{1}{\log x} +\beta\Big)^{-D} .$$ Since $k\ge D-1$, we infer that $$\int_0^1 I(2+k;2^r T, \beta) \beta^{k-1} {\mathrm{d}}\beta \ll \frac{x\log x}{2^r T_0},$$ by a similar argument to the one leading to . In conclusion, $$I(2;2^{r} T, 0 ) \ll \frac{x\log x}{2^r T_0}.$$ Combining this with , and summing over all $r\ge 0$, we obtain $$\label{4.6}
\bigg| \int_{\sigma=c,\, |t|>T} \bigg(\frac{L^{\prime}}{L}\bigg)'(s,f) \cdot \frac{x^s}{s} \cdot \bigg( \frac{e^{s/T_0} -1}{s/T_0} \bigg)^{10}
{\mathrm{d}}s \bigg| \ll \frac{x\log x}{T_0}.$$
Combining with summed over all $r$, we conclude that $$\label{4.10}
\bigg| \int_{\sigma=c,\, |t|>T} \bigg(\frac{L^{\prime}}{L}\bigg)'(s,f_{\widetilde \Gamma}) \cdot \frac{x^s}{s} \cdot
\bigg( \frac{e^{s/T_0} -1}{s/T_0} \bigg)^{10}
{\mathrm{d}}s \bigg| \ll \frac{x\log x}{T_0}.$$
Completing the proof.
---------------------
Combining with and , it follows that $$\sum_{p\le x} \Big( f(p) + \sum_{\substack{ \gamma \in \Gamma \\ |\gamma| \le T}} p^{i\gamma} \Big) (\log p)^2 \le xC_1(f,T) + O\Big( \frac{x\log x}{T_0} \Big).$$ Partial summation now finishes the proof of Theorem \[converse-thm\].
Proof of Lemma \[lem2.5\]
=========================
Write $g_j(n)$ for the Dirichlet series coefficients of $G_j(n)$. We claim that $|g_j(n)| \le D^j \Lambda_j(n)$ for all $n$. For $j=1$ this is just the definition of the class ${\mathcal F}(D)$. To see the claim in general, we use induction on $j$, noting that $$\label{2.5}
G_{j+1}(s) = - G_j'(s) + G_1(s) G_j(s),$$ and now comparing this with . Using this bound for $|g_j(n)|$, we have $$\bigg| \sum_{n\le X^2} \frac{g_j(n)}{n^{c+it}}\bigg|\le \sum_{n\le X^2} \frac{D^j\Lambda_j(n)}{n} \ll (\log X)^j,$$ so that $$\int_{-X}^{X} \bigg| \sum_{n\le X^2} \frac{g_j(n)}{n^{c+it}}\bigg|^2 {\mathrm{d}}t \ll X (\log X)^{2j}.$$
Next, putting $\Phi(x) = (\frac{\sin x}{x})^2$ so that the Fourier transform ${\widehat \Phi}(x)$ is supported on $[-1,1]$, we obtain $$\begin{aligned}
\int_{-X}^{X} \bigg| \sum_{n > X^2} \frac{g_j(n)}{n^{c+it}}\bigg|^2 {\mathrm{d}}t
&\ll \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \Big| \sum_{n>X^2} \frac{g_j(n)}{n^{c+it}}\Big|^2 \Phi\Big( \frac{x}{X} \Big) {\mathrm{d}}x \\
&\ll \sum_{m,n>X^2} \frac{\Lambda_j(m)\Lambda_j(n)}{(mn)^c} X \widehat{\Phi}(X \log (m/n)). \end{aligned}$$ Since ${\widehat \Phi}$ is supported on $[-1,1]$ for a given $m >X^2$, the sum over $n$ is restricted to the range $|m-n| \ll m/X$, and so, using the variant of the Brun-Titchmarsh theorem Lemma \[lem:BT\], we deduce that the above is $$\ll X \sum_{m >X^2} \frac{\Lambda_j(m)}{m^{2c}} \sum_{|m-n|\ll m/X} \Lambda_j(n) \ll \sum_{m >X^2} \frac{\Lambda_j(m)}{m^{2c}} m (\log m)^{j-1}
\ll \Big( \frac{1}{c-1} \Big)^{2j-1}.$$ Lemma \[lem2.5\] follows upon combining these two estimates.
[99]{}
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|
{
"pile_set_name": "ArXiv"
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All relevant data are within the paper.
Introduction {#sec001}
============
*Staphylococcus aureus* is a commensal of the skin and mucous membranes, especially the anterior nares (nostrils) in humans and animals. It can cause opportunistic infections following trauma of the skin and mucous membranes \[[@pone.0232913.ref001]\]. There is an increased interest in strains of *S*. *aureus* because these organisms are associated with a wide variety of zoonotic infections ranging from mild skin infections to life-threatening invasive diseases \[[@pone.0232913.ref002], [@pone.0232913.ref003]\]. In addition, they exhibit resistance to many antibiotics, with methicillin-resistant *S*. *aureus* (MRSA) strains being resistant to most β-lactam antibiotics \[[@pone.0232913.ref004]\]. *S*. *aureus* may also be resistant to other classes of antibiotics such as fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides and tetracyclines; resistance has also been reported to last-resort drugs for resistant *S*. *aureus* infections such as vancomycin, a glycopeptide \[[@pone.0232913.ref005]\] and inducible-clindamycin-resistant *S*. *aureus* strains are increasingly reported \[[@pone.0232913.ref006]\]. Infections caused by strains resistant to three or more classes of antimicrobial agents, also known as multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains, are increasingly difficult to treat \[[@pone.0232913.ref007]\].
MRSA has been identified as a key pathogen in nosocomial (hospital-associated \[HA\]), community-associated (CA), and livestock-associated (LA) infections \[[@pone.0232913.ref008]\]. CA strains commonly carry the Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL), a putative virulence factor that induces pore formation in the membranes of cells and is encoded by *lukS* and *lukF* genes \[[@pone.0232913.ref009]\]. This toxin is common in *S*. *aureus* identified in Africa \[[@pone.0232913.ref010]\]. Globally, MRSA constitutes a significant health threat. It was estimated to cause 84,000 invasive infections and 11,000 deaths in United States in 2011 \[[@pone.0232913.ref011]\], 17,000 blood stream infections and 5,400 deaths in Europe in 2007 \[[@pone.0232913.ref012]\], and a reported 32% mortality from MRSA bacteraemia cases in Hong Kong \[[@pone.0232913.ref013]\]. The threat is likely equal or more in developing countries \[[@pone.0232913.ref014]\]. Thus, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently classified MRSA as "high priority 2 pathogens" that are a threat to the health of humans and animals, and against which new management strategies and research documenting their occurrence in different reservoirs are urgently needed.
Although there is evidence of zoonotic transmission of MRSA, the source(s) of MRSA in humans is an ongoing question, and additional evidence to support animal-to-human transmission is still needed \[[@pone.0232913.ref008]\]. Thus there is an increased interest in tracking, identifying and understanding the diversity of *S*. *aureus* in various settings \[[@pone.0232913.ref010]\]. The identification of bacterial clones with enhanced virulence or increased ability to spread is very important. Molecular epidemiological studies involving animal and human reservoirs are crucial for determining the sources of *S*. *aureus* and MRSA in an ecological niche, deducing the pathogenic characteristics of the strains, and developing effective control strategies, while the determination of antimicrobial susceptibility of *S*. *aureus* isolates is important for targeted empirical therapy \[[@pone.0232913.ref010],[@pone.0232913.ref015]\]. Currently, PCR-based techniques are commonly used for the characterization of isolates as they are fast and easy to use. Among such techniques, staphylococcal protein A (*spa*) gene typing also known as *spa* typing, is the most promising sequence-based method for the epidemiological studies of *S*. *aureus* \[[@pone.0232913.ref016]\]. The *spa* gene, which encodes a surface coat protein known as Protein A, is conserved among *S*. *aureus* strains. This gene provides suitable short sequence repeat region (known as the X- region), which contains variable number tandem repeat (VNTRs) that are highly polymorphic and are used as a target for single-locus sequence typing (SLST), popularly known as *spa* typing \[[@pone.0232913.ref017]\]. Unfortunately, these molecular techniques have not been well-utilized in Nigeria, especially at the animal-human interface.
Elsewhere, there are several studies on molecular characterization of *S*. *aureus* isolated from pigs and raw pork, chickens and chicken meats, and human handlers \[[@pone.0232913.ref018],[@pone.0232913.ref019]\]. In Nigeria, although live pigs and poultry at slaughter or farm are screened for MRSA \[[@pone.0232913.ref020]\], phenotypic detection based on conventional biochemical tests are used for identification. This testing may not be reliable, especially in Nigeria where biochemical reagents are often purchased from traders. However, only Nworie et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref021]\] in Ebonyi State, Southeast Nigeria and Ayeni et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref022]\] in Ogun State, in the Southwest used genotypic characterization techniques to detect *S*. *aureus* isolates from poultry while Odetokun et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref023]\] in the Southwest and, Momoh et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref024]\] as well as Otalu et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref025]\] in the Northcentral also reported the molecular epidemiology of *S*. *aureus* from food animals and occupationally-exposed humans in Nigeria. Molecular epidemiological data on *S*. *aureus* contaminating raw meat meant for human consumption and humans with occupational contact are limited in Nigeria. This study was therefore undertaken to investigate the prevalence and genotypes of *S*. *aureus* in chicken and pig carcasses, and occupationally-exposed humans at slaughterhouses in Enugu State, Southeast Nigeria.
Materials and methods {#sec002}
=====================
Ethical statement {#sec003}
-----------------
All procedures used in this study were in accordance with the revised version of the Animals Scientific Procedures Act of 1986 for the care and use of animals for research purposes. Permission to conduct this study was also given by the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the Medical Research Ethics Committee of the University of Nigeria.
Study area {#sec004}
----------
This study was conducted in Enugu State in Southeast Nigeria. The state is geographically located between latitudes 5°56\' North and 7°55\' North, and longitudes 6°53\' East and 7°55\' East. It is comprised of 3 agricultural zones: Awgu, Enugu, and Nsukka. The 3 zones are made up of 17 local government areas. The population of Enugu state is 3,267,837 \[[@pone.0232913.ref026]\]. Poultry and pigs are the main sources of animal protein for the Enugu State populace.
Sampling {#sec005}
--------
This cross-sectional study was conducted from January to August, 2018. In each of the agricultural zones, a slaughterhouse per agricultural zone was selected based on the average slaughter capacity. Each of the selected slaughterhouses was visited once per week. From each agricultural zone, 200 each of freshly processed pigs and chicken carcasses consisting of 10% of total slaughter within the period of the study were selected using a 1 in 4 systematic random sampling technique. After processing, each chicken carcass was dipped in the same container of water for washing while for pig carcasses, each was washed using a separate container of water. These carcasses do not undergo any form of treatment like chilling (as is done in developed countries) before being sold to the general public. Swab samples were collected from 1,200 randomly selected carcasses (600 chicken and 600 pigs) which represent 10% of the total carcasses processed during the sampling period. Sterile swabs were used to swab the surfaces and inner cavities of the freshly processed carcasses after evisceration. During the visits to each agricultural zone, 15 adult volunteers each in contact with poultry and pig carcasses who gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki \[[@pone.0232913.ref027]\] were randomly selected per agricultural zone. These individuals slaughter the animals and process the carcasses through de-feathering/de-hairing, evisceration, washing and packaging. Nasal swabs were collected from each of the subject volunteers using sterile swabs. A total of 90 nasal swab samples were collected (45 from persons in contact with poultry carcass and 45 in contact with pig carcass), and these represent 5% of the total occupationally-exposed humans sampled during the sampling period. The swab samples were transported with ice packs to the laboratory and processed within one hour after collection for *S*. *aureus* isolation.
Bacterial isolation and identification {#sec006}
--------------------------------------
The swabs were inoculated into 5ml nutrient broth (Oxoid, Bangistoke UK) containing 6.5% NaCl and incubated at 37°C for 24 hours in ambient air. A loopful of the broth culture was inoculated onto Baird-Parker agar (BPA) (Oxoid, Bangistoke UK) containing egg yolk tellurite (EYT) and incubated at 37°C for 48 hours in ambient air. Presumptive *S*. *aureus* isolates (shiny black colonies with clear halos with or without opaque zones) were purified on BPA with EYT at 37°C for 24 hours. The isolates were Gram stained, subjected to catalase test, slide and tube coagulase tests, *S*. *aureus* latex agglutination assay (Pastorex Staph-plus, Bio rad) and haemolysis test (inoculating onto Columbia colistin nalidixic acid agar with 5% sheep blood and incubated at 37°C for 24 hours in ambient air). Isolates phenotypically identified as *S*. *aureus* were subjected to further species confirmation and molecular characterization at the Smith Emerging Infections laboratory, Kent State University, Ohio.
Molecular characterization {#sec007}
--------------------------
Genomic DNA was extracted using the Wizard Genomic DNA preparation kit (Promega, Madison WI) following the manufacturer's instructions. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was done on all the isolates. The presence of *mecA* was determined by PCR using *mecA*-F (`5'-AAA ATC GAT GGT AAA GGT TGG C-3'`) and *mecA*-R (`5'-AGT TCT GCA GTA CCG GAT TTG C-3'`) primers, following previously described protocol \[[@pone.0232913.ref028]\] while the presence of PVL gene (*lukF*, *lukS*) was determined using *luk*-PV-F (`5'-ATC ATT AGG TAA AAT GTC TGG ACA TGA TCC A-3'`) and *luk*-PV-R (`5'-GCA TCA AST GTA TTG GAT AGC AAA AGC-3'`) primers following previously described procedures \[[@pone.0232913.ref029]\]. The polymorphic X-region of the *spa* gene was amplified (*spa* typing) from all *S*. *aureus* isolates using the primers *spa*F (`5'-GAA CAA CGT AAC GGC TTC ATC C-3'`) and *spa*1514R (`5'-CAG CAG TAG TGC CGT TTG CCT-3'`) by adopting previously described methods \[[@pone.0232913.ref017],[@pone.0232913.ref030]\]. The *spa* typing technique uses the polymorphic VNTR sequence in the 3ʹ coding region of the *spa* gene. Each new base of the polymorphic repeat found in a strain of *S*. *aureus* is assigned a unique repeat numeric code known as the repeat succession, which invariably determines the *spa* type (t) of that strain \[[@pone.0232913.ref017],[@pone.0232913.ref030]\]. The *spa* types were assigned using Ridom StaphType software ([http://spaserver.ridom.de](http://spaserver.ridom.de/)) version 2.2.1 (Ridom GmbH, Wurzburg, Germany). The Based Upon Repeat Pattern (BURP) algorithm implemented by the software was applied to *spa* types to group *S*. *aureus* isolates, based on their genetic proximity, into larger related genetic clusters known as *spa*-cluster complex (*spa*-CC) \[[@pone.0232913.ref031]\]. Since excellent concordance between *spa* types and MLST results have been established in previous studies \[[@pone.0232913.ref032]\], only *spa* typing was done. *spa* types (t) were placed into particular clonal complexes (CC) using information in the Ridom StaphType software. Positive (USA 300, \[[@pone.0232913.ref033]\]) and negative controls (reaction mixture without DNA template) were used for PVL, *mecA* and *spa* PCR.
Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) {#sec008}
------------------------------------------
The isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility (AST) using VITEK 2 System (BioMerieux, Durham, NC) following the manufacturer's instructions and in accordance with the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines \[[@pone.0232913.ref034]\]. The isolates were tested against a panel of 18 antimicrobial agents belonging to 13 classes: β-lactam: benzylpenicillin (PEN), oxacillin (OXA) and ceftaroline (CFR); aminoglycosides: gentamicin (GEN); fluoroquinolone: ciprofloxacin (CIP), levofloxacin (LEV), and moxifloxacin (MOX); macrolide: erythromycin (ERY); lincosamide: clindamycin (CLI); oxazolidinone: linezolid (LIN); lipopeptide: daptomycin (DPT); glycopeptide: vancomycin (VAN); tetracycline: minocycline (MIN) and tetracycline (TET); glycylcycline: tigecycline (TIG); nitroheterocyclics: nitrofurantoin (NIT); ansamycin: rifampicin (RIF); and folate pathway antagonists: sulphamethoxazole/ trimethoprim (SXT). USA300 was used as a reference strain. Results (minimum inhibitory concentration \[MIC\]) of the AST were provided and interpreted by the VITEK2 system according to the CLSI guidelines using MIC breakpoints for staphylococci \[[@pone.0232913.ref035]\]. Intermediately-susceptible isolates were classified as resistant. An isolate resistant to three or more classes of antimicrobial agents, or to methicillin/oxacillin, was considered MDR \[[@pone.0232913.ref036]\]. Inducible clindamycin resistance was tested using the VITEK2 system.
Statistical analysis {#sec009}
--------------------
The frequencies of occurrence of *S*. *aureus* and resistance of the isolates to antimicrobial agents were entered into Microsoft Excel version 2010 (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, USA) and subjected to descriptive statistics to determine their percentages. Association between categorical variables was tested using Chi-square (Fisher's exact and Pearson's) test with Graph Pad Prism. Statistical significance was accepted at p\< 0.05.
Results {#sec010}
=======
Prevalence of *S*. *aureus* and MRSA {#sec011}
------------------------------------
A total of 1,290 samples were examined for the presence of *S*. *aureus*. The overall prevalence of *S*. *aureus* was 4.1% (53/1,290; 95% confidence interval \[CI\] 3.0%--5.2%) see ([Table 1](#pone.0232913.t001){ref-type="table"}). Chicken carcasses had a significantly higher prevalence of *S*. *aureus* when compared to pig carcass and carcass handlers (P = 0.0256).
10.1371/journal.pone.0232913.t001
###### Prevalence of *S*. *aureus* and MRSA in food animal carcass and carcass handlers.
{#pone.0232913.t001g}
Sample Samples processed (N) *S*. *aureus* (%; 95% CI) MRSA (%; 95% CI) MSSA (%; 95% CI)
---------------------------------------- ----------------------- --------------------------- ------------------------ ------------------------
Chicken carcass 600 28 (4.7%; 3.8%--5.6%) 9 (1.5%; 0.84%--2.16%) 19 (3.2%; 1.8%--4.6%)
Pig carcass 600 17 (2.8%; 1.5%--4.12%) 3 (0.5%; 0.12%--0.89%) 14 (2.3%; 1.1%--3.5%)
Chicken carcass handlers (Nasal swabs) 45 5 (11.1%; 2.2%--19.8%) 0 (0.0; 0.0%--0.0%) 5 (11.1%; 1.9%--20.3%)
Pig carcass handlers (Nasal swabs) 45 3 (6.7%; 0.6%--14.0%) 0 (0.0%; 0.0%--0.0%) 3 (6.7%; 0.0%--14.0%)
Total 1,290 53 (4.1%; 3.0%--5.2%) 12 (0.9%; 0.4%--1.4%) 41 (3.2%; 2.2%--4.1%)
CI = Confidence interval; methicillin resistance in *S*. *aureus* was based on detection of the *mecA* gene.
The *mecA* gene was detected in 12 (22.6%; 95% CI 11.3%--33.9%) of the 53 *S*. *aureus* strains identified. Thus, the overall prevalence of methicillin-resistant *S*. *aureus* (MRSA) based on the detection of the *mecA* gene, was 0.9% (12/1,290; 95% CI 0.41%--1.45%) with prevalence rates of 1.5% (9/600; 95% CI 0.84%--2.16%) in chicken carcasses and 0.5% (3/600; 95% CI 0.12%--0.89%) in pig carcasses, respectively; none of the *S*. *aureus* isolates from the chicken and pig carcass handlers was positive for the *mecA* gene ([Table 1](#pone.0232913.t001){ref-type="table"}). Even though chicken carcasses had higher prevalence of MRSA when compared to pig carcasses, this was not significant (P = 0.488).
Clustering of isolates by *spa* typing and Based Upon Repeat Pattern (BURP) algorithm analyses {#sec012}
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The sequencing of the *spa* genes revealed that among the 53 *S*. *aureus* isolates, 19 *spa* types were identified, including 4 *S*. *aureus* isolates (7.5%) that did not match any known sequence. These novel *spa* sequences, with repeat successions 26-16-20-17-12-12-17-16 and 26-12-21-17-13-34-34-34, were submitted to the Ridom SpaServer through the Ridom StaphType website and were assigned new *spa* types (t18345 and t18346). The two most predominant *spa* types were t311 (12; 22.6%) and t084 (9; 17.0%), representing 40% of all the isolates detected. The remaining 17 *spa* types each represented 7.5% or less of all isolates. These include t786 (7.5%), t1931 (5.7%), t448 (5.7%), t18345 (5.7%), t085 (3.8%), t2393 (3.8%), t304 (3.8%), t355 (3.8%), t5562 (3.8%), t934 (3.8%), t14223 (1.9%), t18346 (1.9%), t2216 (1.9%), t279 (1.9%), t346 (1.9%), t4690 (1.9%) and t491 (1.9%). The 19 *spa* types were grouped into 6 clonal complexes (CC) ([Table 2](#pone.0232913.t002){ref-type="table"}).
10.1371/journal.pone.0232913.t002
###### *spa* cluster complex of *S*. *aureus* isolates from food animal carcasses and occupationally-exposed persons in Enugu State, Southeast Nigeria.
{#pone.0232913.t002g}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Source (N)* Cluster complex (representative *spa* type) Number of isolates (%) *spa* types (N) MRSA (N, %) *spa* type MSSA (N, %) *spa* type N (%) PVL-positive strain
-------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- ------------------------ ----------------- ------------------------ ------------------------ ---------------------------
*Poultry carcass (28)* CC15 (t084) 9 (32.1) t084 (7)\ **2 (7.1)**\ **7 (28.0)**\ **6 (21.4)**\
t085 (2) t085 (1)\ t084 (6)\ MSSA (4)\
t084 (1) t085 (1) MRSA (2)
CC1 4 (14.3) t1931(2)\ **2 (7.1)**\ **2 (7.1)**\ **2 (7.1)**\
t934 (2) t1931(2) t934 (2) MRSA
CC5 (t311) 3 (10.7) t311 (3) **2 (7.1)**\ **1 (3.6)**\ **0 (0.0)**
t311 (2) t311 (1)
CC8 (t304) 2 (7.1) t304 (2) 0(0.0) **2 (7.1)**\ **0 (0.0)**
t304 (2)
CC88 7 (25.0) t448 (2)\ **3 (10.7)**\ **4 (14.2)**\ **0 (0.0)**
t2393 (1)\ t5562 (1)\ t448 (2)\
t5562 (2)\ t786 (2) t2393(1)\
t786 (2) t5562 (1)
CC152 2 (7.1) t355 (1)\ **0 (0.0)** **2 (7.1)**\ **2 (7.1)**\
t4690 (1) t355\ MSSA
t4690
CC-ND 1 (3.6) t18345 (1) 0 (0.0) **1 (3.6)**\ **1 (3.6)**\
t18345 (1) MSSA
***Total*** **28 (52.8)** **9 (32.1)** **19 (67.9)** **11 (39.3)**\
**MSSA = 7 (63.6)**\
**MRSA = 4 (36.4)**
*Pig carcass (17*) CC5(t311) 6 (35.3) t311 (6) **0 (0.0)** **6 (35.3)**\ 1 (5.9), MSSA
t311 (6)
CC1(t1931) 1 (5.9) t1931 (1) **1 (5.9)**\ **0 (0.0)** 1 (5.9), MRSA
t1931 (1)
CC15 2 (11.8) t2216 (1)\ **0(0.0)** **2 (11.8)**\ 0 (0.0)
t346 (1) t2216 (1) t346 (1)
CC88 4 (14.3) t448 (2)\ **2 (11.8)**\ **2 (11.8)**\ 0 (0.0)
t786 (2) t786 (2) t448
CC152 (t355) 2 (11.8) t355 (2) **0 (0.0)** **2 (11.8)**\ 1 (5.9),MSSA
t304 (2)
CC-ND (t18345) 2 (11.8) t18345(2) **0 (0.0)** **2 (11.8)**\ 2 (11.8), MSSA
t18345 (2)
*Total* **3 (17.6)** **14 (82.4)** **5 (29.4)**\
**MSSA = 4 (80.0)**\
**MRSA = 1 (20.0)**
*Chicken carcass handlers (5)* CC15 (t084) 3 (40.0) t084\ 0 (0.0) **3 (40.0)**\ **1 (20.0)**\
t491 t084 (2)\ MSSA
t491 (1)
CC5 (t311) 1 (20.0) t311 (1) 0(0.0) **1 (20.0)**\ **0 (0.0)**
t311
CC-ND (t18346) 1 (20.0) t18346 (1) 0(0.0) **1 (20.0)**\ **1 (20.0)**\
t18346 (1) MSSA
*Total* **5 (100.0)** **0 (0.0)** **5 (100.0)** **2 (40.0)**\
**MSSA = 2 (40.0)**\
**No MRSA = 0**
*Pig carcass handlers (3)* CC5 (t311) 2 (66.7) t311 (2) **0 (0.0)** **2 (66.7)**\ **0 (0.0)**
t311
CC15 (t279) 1 (33.3) t279 (1) **0 (0.0)** **1 (33.3)**\ **1 (33.3)**\
t279 (1) MSSA
*Total* **3 (100.0)** **0 (0.0)** **3 (100.0)** **1 (20.0)**\
**MSSA = 1 (20.0)**\
**No MRSA = 0**
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The BURP algorithm is used to group *spa* types into larger genetic clusters known as *spa*-cluster complex (*spa*-CC). It sums up "costs" (a measure of the relatedness based on the *spa* types) to define a founder score for each *spa* type in a *spa*-CC. The founder *spa* type (represented by a blue node) ([Fig 1](#pone.0232913.g001){ref-type="fig"}) is the *spa* type with the highest founder score in its *spa*-CC. The BURP analysis of the *spa* types clustered almost half (49%) of the isolates into 2 *spa*-CCs, with 28% of the isolates clustered in *spa*-CC084 and 21% in *spa*-CC448 ([Fig 1](#pone.0232913.g001){ref-type="fig"}). Thirty-two percent of all *spa* types were clustered into *spa*-CC084 (founder t084) and 21% in *spa*-CC448 (founder t448). *spa* types that differ from all other *spa* types in the sample by more than four repeats could not reasonably be clustered into a *spa*-CC and were termed singletons. Nine *spa* types (27 isolates) which make up 51% of all the isolates were classified as singletons. They were t304, t311, t355, t934, t1931, t4690, t14223, including the 2 novel *spa* types (t18345 and t18346) ([Fig 1](#pone.0232913.g001){ref-type="fig"}).
{#pone.0232913.g001}
Isolates with *spa* types belonging to CC5 and CC15 were identified in all sample types processed in this study. Isolates with *spa* types belonging to CC1, CC88 and CC152 were identified in chicken and pig carcasses only and not in carcass handlers.
The 28 isolates from chicken carcasses belonged to 13 *spa* types and 6 major clonal complexes: CC15 (n = 9; 32.1%), C88 (n = 7; 25.0%), CC1 (n = 4, 14.3%), CC5 (n = 3; 10.5%), CC8 and CC152 (n = 2 each; 7.1%), and an undetermined CC (CC-ND) with a new *spa* type t18345 (n = 1; 3.6%). Seventeen isolates from pig carcass belonged to 8 *spa* types and 5 major clonal complexes: CC5 (n = 6, 35.3%), CC88 (n = 4, 23.5%), CC15, CC152 and CC-ND with a new *spa* type, t18345 (n = 2 each, 11.8%) and CC1 (n = 1, 5.9%). Five isolates from chicken carcass handlers belonged to 4 *spa* types and 2 major clonal complexes: CC15 (n = 3; 60.0%), CC5 and CC-ND with a new *spa* type t18346 (n = 1 each; 20.0%) while the 3 isolates from pig carcass handlers belonged to 2 *spa* types in CC5 (n = 2; 66.7%) and CC15 (n = 1, 33.3%) ([Table 2](#pone.0232913.t002){ref-type="table"}).
Detection of PVL genes among *S*. *aureus* isolates {#sec013}
---------------------------------------------------
Out of 53 *S*. *aureus* isolates detected, 19 (35.8%) were PVL-positive; these comprised 14 (73.6%) MSSA and 5 (26.3%) MRSA. Eleven (39.3%; 95% CI 21.2%--57.4%) out of the 28 *S*. *aureus* isolates from chicken were PVL-positive, 4 of which also harbored the *mecA* gene ([Table 2](#pone.0232913.t002){ref-type="table"}). Among the 17 *S*. *aureus* isolates from pig carcasses, 5 (29.5%, 95% CI 7.8%--51.2%) were PVL-positive, and one harbored *mecA*. Only 1 (33.3%, 95% CI 20.0%--86.6%) PVL-positive strain was detected among the 3 *S*. *aureus* isolates from pig carcass handlers whereas 2 (40.0%, 95% CI 18.1%--61.9%) of the 5 *S*. *aureus* isolates from chicken carcass handlers were PVL-positive ([Table 2](#pone.0232913.t002){ref-type="table"}). PVL-positive *S*. *aureus* (MSSA or MRSA) strains generally occurred more frequently in chicken than in pig carcasses and the human handlers. However, the association between occurrence and source was not significant (χ^2^ = 0.4958; *P* = 0.9198).
The 4 (36.4%) PVL-positive isolates from chicken that harbored *mecA* genes belonged to CC15: t084, t085 and CC1: t1931 (2) while the other 7 (63.6%) were MSSA and belonged to C15 (n = 4; t084), CC152 (n = 2; t355, t4690) and an undetermined CC with new *spa* type (n = 1; t18345) ([Table 2](#pone.0232913.t002){ref-type="table"}).
From pigs, only 1 (20.0%) out of the 5 PVL-positive isolates harbored *mecA* genes (MRSA) and still belonged to CC1 (n = 1; t1931). The remaining 4 (80.0%) PVL-positive belonged to CC5 (n = 1; t311), CC152 (n = 1; t304) and an undetermined CC with novel *spa* type (n = 2; t18345). Two (2) PVL-positive isolates from chicken carcass handlers were MSSA in CC15 (n = 1; t084) and an undetermined CC with new *spa* type (n = 1; t18346) while 1 MSSA in CC15 (t279) was identified among isolates from pig carcass handlers ([Table 2](#pone.0232913.t002){ref-type="table"}).
Antimicrobial susceptibility of *S*. *aureus* isolates {#sec014}
------------------------------------------------------
The antimicrobial resistance profiles (ARPs) of 53 *S*. *aureus* isolates to 18 antimicrobial agents revealed that all the isolates were resistant to penicillin while 31 (58.5%) and 26 (49.1%) were resistant to sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim and tetracycline, respectively. Resistance to erythromycin, oxacillin and clindamycin was demonstrated by 26.4%, 18.9% (only 10 out of the 12 *mecA* positive isolates were oxacillin-resistant) and 17.0% of the isolates, respectively. Levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin resistance was demonstrated by 11.3% each of the isolates while 5.7% of the isolates were resistant to gentamicin and minocycline. None of the isolates was resistant to ceftaroline, moxifloxacin, linezolid, daptomycin, vancomycin, tigecycline, nitrofurantoin and rifampicin.
The ARPs of the isolates correlated with the clonal lineages are shown in [Table 3](#pone.0232913.t003){ref-type="table"}. All the isolates except for isolates belonging to CC8 exhibited MDR, with CC1 (100%) showing the highest MDR, followed by CC88 (90.9%), CC5 and CC152 (66.7%), and CC15 (60.0%). TET resistance was observed for more than half of the tested isolates belonging to CC8 (100%), CC1 (80%), CC88 (72.7%) and CC15 (53.3%). SXT resistance (93.3%) was highest for isolates belonging to CC15 while ERY resistance (58.3%) was highest for CC5. However, isolates belonging to CC8 showed 100% susceptibility to SXT and ERY. Overall, CC15 and CC1 even though in different lineages showed the same major characteristic ARPs (PEN,SXT,TET) while CC5 replaced resistance to TET with ERY (PEN,SXT,ERY) and CC88 added ERY (PEN,SXT, TET,ERY).
10.1371/journal.pone.0232913.t003
###### Correlation of the antimicrobial resistance profiles with the clonal lineages.
{#pone.0232913.t003g}
Clonal Lineage No. of isolates \% of isolates resistant to specified antimicrobials ARPs
---------------- ----------------- ------------------------------------------------------ ------ ------ ------ ------ -----------------
CC5 12 100 50.0 16.7 58.3 66.7 PEN,SXT,ERY
CC15 15 100 93.3 53.3 6.7 60.0 PEN,SXT,TET
CC88 11 100 54.5 72.7 45.5 90.9 PEN,SXT,TET,ERY
CC1 5 100 40.0 80.0 0.0 100 PEN,SXT,TET
CC152 3 100 100 33.3 0.0 66.7 PEN,SXT
CC8 2 100 0.0 100 0.0 0.0 PEN,TET
\*PEN = penicillin, SXT = sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim, TET = tetracycline, ERY = erythromycin, MDR = multidrug resistance, ARPs = antimicrobial resistance profiles
It was observed that 64.3%, 41.2%, 40.0% and 33.3% of the isolates from chicken carcass, pig carcass, chicken carcass handlers and pig carcass handlers, respectively were multidrug resistant *S*. *aureus* ([Table 4](#pone.0232913.t004){ref-type="table"}). Also, the *S*. *aureus* isolates from chicken carcass, pig carcass, chicken carcass handlers and pig carcass handlers exhibited 14, 7, 4 and 3 antimicrobial resistance patterns, respectively, with PEN-TET-SXT being the predominant in chicken carcass and PEN-ERY-SXT in pig carcasses.
10.1371/journal.pone.0232913.t004
###### Antimicrobial resistance patterns of *S*. *aureus* isolates from food animal carcasses and occupationally exposed persons in Enugu State Southeast Nigeria.
{#pone.0232913.t004g}
*Source (N)* Number of antimicrobials Resistance pattern (Number of isolate) Number of antimicrobial class MDR (N, %)
-------------------------------- -------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- ------------
*Chicken carcass (28)* 1 PEN(2) 1 18 (64.3%)
2 PEN-SXT(1) 2
PEN-TET(1)
3 PEN-CIP-LEV(1)
PEN-MIN-TET(2)
PEN-OXA-TET(2)
PEN-TET-SXT(9) 3
PEN-CLI-SXT(1) 3
4 PEN-OXA-TET-SXT(3) 3
4 PEN-OXA-MIN-TET(1) 2
4 PEN-ERY-CLI-SXT(1) 4
5 PEN-OXA-GEN-MIN-TET(1) 3
6 PEN-CIP-LEV-ERY-CLI-TET(2) 5
7 PEN-CIP-GEN-LEV-ERY-CLI-TET(1) 6
*Pig carcass (17)* 1 PEN(4) 1 7 (41.2%)
2 PEN-SXT(3) 2
3 PEN-OXA-TET(1) 2
3 PEN-OXA-SXT(2) 2
3 PEN-ERY-SXT(5) 3
6 PEN-CIP-LEV-ERY-CLI-TET(1) 5
7 PEN-CIP-GEN-LEV-ERY-CLI-TET(1) 6
*Chicken carcass handlers (5)* 1 PEN(2) 1 2 (40.0%)
2 PEN-SXT(1) 2
3 PEN-TET-SXT(1) 3
5 PEN-ERY-CLI-TET-SXT(1) 5
*Pig carcass handlers (3)* 1 PEN(1) 1 1 (33.3%)
2 PEN-SXT(1) 2
3 PEN-ERY-SXT(1) 3
Discussion {#sec015}
==========
In this study, the molecular epidemiology, genetic diversity and antimicrobial resistance of *S*. *aureus* in food animal carcasses and occupationally exposed individuals were investigated. *S*. *aureus* prevalence rates of 4.7% and 11.1% in chicken carcasses and chicken carcass handlers, and 2.8% and 6.7% in pig carcasses and pig carcass handlers, respectively, suggest that chicken meat/ carcasses and chicken carcass handlers are more contaminated with *S*. *aureus* than pig carcasses and pig carcass handlers. The chicken meat and handlers therefore constitute a higher risk in the transmission of *S*. *aureus* to the public than pig carcasses and the handlers in Enugu State, South East Nigeria. The higher prevalence of *S*. *aureus* in chicken carcasses and the handlers could be attributed to the increased urban poultry farming than pig farm. Humans now raise birds in the same environment where they live and so there is more contact with birds than pigs. Again, the method of processing may also be a factor contributing to the increase prevalence in chicken and the handlers, as almost all the processed chicken carcasses were washed by dipping in the same container of water. This could facilitate the contamination of chicken carcasses and the handlers unlike the pig carcasses that were washed using different containers of water because of their size. Lower isolation rates of 0.72% and 0.86% have been reported in food samples including meat from Nujiang and Yuxi provinces, respectively, in China \[[@pone.0232913.ref037]\]. The high level of contamination observed in this study could also be attributed to the poor state (lack of regular source of water for hygienic dressing of carcasses and cleaning the environment, no proper disposal of waste arising from the dressing carcasses, lack of drainages for proper channeling of the waste water, flies and rodent infestations among others) of the slaughterhouses in Nigeria, especially the poultry slaughterhouses, coupled with the unhygienic practices of the uneducated butchers (open defaecation in nearby bushes, dressing of birds with very dirty clothes on dirty wooden tables, open sneezing and coughing while dressing birds among others).
In this study, 41 (77.4%) of the 53 *S*. *aureus* isolates studied were MSSA while 12 (22.6%) were MRSA. Although MSSA is perceived to be less virulent than MRSA, it has been reported as the most frequently-encountered bacterial pathogen in microbiology laboratories in Nigeria where it is associated with human diseases, including urinary tract infections \[[@pone.0232913.ref014], [@pone.0232913.ref038]\].
Prevalence rates of MRSA in chicken and pig carcasses were 1.5% and 0.5% respectively while no MRSA was detected among the carcass handlers. The 1.5% prevalence rate of MRSA in pig carcasses in this study contrasts the report of Momoh et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref024]\] who, using the same isolation method as in this study, did not detect MRSA among *S*. *aureus* isolates from pigs in Jos, North-central Nigeria. The prevalence rate recorded in this study is similar to the 1.1% prevalence of MRSA in ready-to-slaughter pigs reported by Odetokun et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref023]\] in Ibadan, Oyo State Southwest Nigeria. Absence of nasal carriage of MRSA by handlers of chicken and pig carcasses in this study is similar to the findings of Momoh et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref024]\] among pig workers in Jos Nigeria, but it contrasted the results of other studies in Nigeria where MRSA detection ranged from 3.4--51% among butchers and meat sellers at abattoirs and meat selling points \[[@pone.0232913.ref039]--[@pone.0232913.ref041]\]. Higher prevalence rates of between 43% and 84% have been reported in food animals in Nigeria \[[@pone.0232913.ref042],[@pone.0232913.ref043]\] by researchers whose MRSA detection was based on phenotypic rather than the genotypic technique used in this study. This could have increased the specificity of our finding and reduced false positives.
Several studies have reported high levels of MRSA from farms in the United States of America and Europe \[[@pone.0232913.ref015],[@pone.0232913.ref044],[@pone.0232913.ref045]\]. The MRSA prevalence rates from raw retail meat products was reported to be ranging from less than 1% in Asia \[[@pone.0232913.ref046]\] to 11.9% in the Netherlands \[[@pone.0232913.ref047]\]. The reason for these higher prevalence rates than those reported in Africa and especially Nigeria is unknown and calls for further studies considering the fact that drugs are readily available and are used indiscriminately by farmers for growth promotion and prevention of diseases in livestock production.
Our data showed that 19 (35.8%) of the 53 *S*. *aureus* identified were PVL-positive, only 5 (26.3%) of these were MRSA. The high PVL prevalence in the MSSA isolates supports the findings of some researchers in Africa that also reported very high occurrence of PVL genes (*luk*-PV) in MSSA \[[@pone.0232913.ref014],[@pone.0232913.ref048]\]. This is a consistent finding in Africa where the prevalence of PVL-positive MSSA is reported at between 17% and 74% \[[@pone.0232913.ref049]\], and it is a sharp contrast to what is reported in Europe and America, where the prevalence of PVL-positive MSSA is low and reported at between 0.9% and 1.4% \[[@pone.0232913.ref050]\].
Most of the PVL-positive MSSA isolates were obtained from chicken carcasses and chicken carcass handlers. They were classified in clonal complexes CC15, CC152 and undetermined clonal complex (CC-ND) with novel *spa* type t18345 and t18346. Okon et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref051]\] reported that PVL-positive ST152 was the predominant clone in a study conducted in North-eastern Nigeria while Ruimy et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref052]\] noted that it was the second most prevalent clone in a carriage study conducted in Mali, another West-African country. Bruerec et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref049]\] has described the high prevalence of PVL-positive MSSA ST152 emerging in the community as well as in hospitals in West Africa. PVL-positive MSSA isolates from pig carcasses/pig carcass handlers in this study are in clonal complexes CC5, CC15 and CC152 with CC-ND: novel t18345 being the most common (2/5; 40.0%). The documentation of novel PVL-positive MSSA strains in this study suggests that new lineages of *S*. *aureus* capable of disseminating *luk-*PV genes have emerged in the study area.
Molecular studies such as *spa* typing and BURP algorithm enable the grouping of isolates into clonal lineages \[[@pone.0232913.ref031]\]. Nineteen *spa* types were detected in this study with t311 being the predominant *spa* type.
*spa* type t311 is a member of CC5. It is a common and widespread human lineage that has found its way into poultry where it is frequently being encountered and from where it has spread to other livestock \[[@pone.0232913.ref053]--[@pone.0232913.ref055]\]. It was recently detected in swab samples collected from the nasal cavity of farm animals (cattle and goats) and abattoir workers where these animals as well as pigs are processed \[[@pone.0232913.ref023]\], and in poultry in Ebonyi State, Nigeria \[[@pone.0232913.ref021]\] as well as from pigs in Senegal \[[@pone.0232913.ref056]\]. It has also been reported in clinical isolates from humans in Nigeria \[[@pone.0232913.ref014],[@pone.0232913.ref057]\]. Egyir et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref048]\] reported this clone as one of the predominant clones among healthcare institutions in Ghana. It is also reported as one of the predominant clones causing blood stream infections in Europe \[[@pone.0232913.ref058],[@pone.0232913.ref059]\], Asia \[[@pone.0232913.ref060],[@pone.0232913.ref061]\] and South America \[[@pone.0232913.ref062]\].
The second most common *spa* type recorded in this study, t084 (CC15), also a 'human' type clone, has been reported as one of the predominant *spa* types among isolates from food animals in Nigeria \[[@pone.0232913.ref023],[@pone.0232913.ref024]\]. This *spa* type was also reported among clinical isolates of *S*. *aureus* in Africa \[[@pone.0232913.ref014],[@pone.0232913.ref048],[@pone.0232913.ref056],[@pone.0232913.ref057],[@pone.0232913.ref063]\] and Europe \[[@pone.0232913.ref064]\].
Detection of *S*. *aureus* strains in CC1, CC88 and CC152 in chicken and pig carcasses but not in persons in contact with the animal carcasses, even though they were originally human lineages, suggests the circulation of these clones in food animals only in the study area. It is noteworthy that CC1 (t1931) harbored *luk*-PV and *mecA* genes, CC88 (t786) harbored *mecA* gene only while CC152 (t355 and t4690) harbored *luk*-PV gene only. This suggests that these clones are reservoirs of resistance (*mecA*) and virulence (*luk*-PV) genes. This is of public health concern as *mecA* gene is associated with increased antimicrobial resistance \[[@pone.0232913.ref065]\] while *luk*-PV gene is associated with skin and soft tissue infections and necrotizing pneumonia \[[@pone.0232913.ref066]\].
*spa* type t1931 (CC1) reported in this study had been detected in nasal swabs of goats and on processing/display table surfaces for sale in Southwestern Nigeria \[[@pone.0232913.ref023]\], and in nasal swabs of pig workers in north-central Nigeria \[[@pone.0232913.ref024]\]. CC1 has also been reported to be widely circulating in clinical settings in Africa \[[@pone.0232913.ref014],[@pone.0232913.ref048]\], Europe \[[@pone.0232913.ref067]\] and Asia \[[@pone.0232913.ref068]\]
Momoh et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref024]\] and Egyir et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref048]\] also detected MSSA CC152 (t355) among isolates from pigs/pig workers and clinical samples in Nigeria and Ghana, respectively. CC152 is speculated to be widespread in West Africa but comparatively rare elsewhere unlike many other clonal complexes that are distributed worldwide \[[@pone.0232913.ref014],[@pone.0232913.ref069]\].
CC88, the only clonal complex detected by Otalu et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref025]\] in pigs and pig workers in Kogi State, North-central, Nigeria, also harbored *mecA* gene. CC88 has also been sporadically reported in some hospitals in Portugal \[[@pone.0232913.ref070]\] and Sweden \[[@pone.0232913.ref071]\].
Generally, CC1, CC88 and CC152 have been reported to be widely circulating in hospitals in Nigeria and Africa among immunocompromised patients \[[@pone.0232913.ref014],[@pone.0232913.ref072]\]. This calls for monitoring and molecular epidemiological studies of these clonal complexes in order to know their actual sources and how to control them, since they are potential reservoirs of *luk*-PV and *mecA* genes and can be transmitted to the immunocompromised in the public through the food chain.
MSSA CC8 (t304) was detected among isolates from poultry carcasses only. Momoh et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref024]\] equally detected MSSA CC8 (t304) in pigs but at a lower prevalence than reported in our study. This is a common lineage among humans \[[@pone.0232913.ref073],[@pone.0232913.ref074]\] and is the origin of several MRSA clones \[[@pone.0232913.ref075]\]. It is one of the most prevalent clones in the United States of America \[[@pone.0232913.ref076]\].
In this study, 3 MSSA strains with two new *spa* types: t18345 and t18346, were detected among isolates from chicken/pig carcasses, and among persons in contact with chicken carcasses, respectively. This is a novel finding in this study and suggests that new lineages of *S*. *aureus* capable of disseminating *luk*-PV gene are emerging in the study area, similar to other recent findings \[[@pone.0232913.ref021],[@pone.0232913.ref023],[@pone.0232913.ref024]\].
A potential limitation of this study is that the findings cannot be used to draw a firm conclusion as to the ultimate source of the isolates in the sampled food animal carcasses and occupationally exposed individuals. This is because "human" types of *S*. *aureus* were found in the animal carcasses and the prototypic livestock-associated methicillin resistant *S*. *aureus*---CC398 was not detected in this study
The marked resistance to penicillin, tetracycline, sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim and erythromycin is perhaps not surprising because these drugs are inexpensive, orally administered, and are available from diverse sources where they are sold with or without prescription. These antibiotics are indiscriminately used in livestock production in Nigeria \[[@pone.0232913.ref077]\] where backyard production of food animals is still common and where standard and hygienic farming practices are still not feasible \[[@pone.0232913.ref078]\]. The low levels of compliance with biosecurity practices in addition to poor husbandry practices necessitate the overdependence and indiscriminate use of these antibiotics in feed and water as growth promoters and for the prevention of diseases in poultry, piggery and other livestock production in Nigeria. Therefore, these antibiotics have found wide clinical and veterinary applications and so have been abused in Nigeria \[[@pone.0232913.ref014],[@pone.0232913.ref077],[@pone.0232913.ref079]\]. In fact, the drugs were listed in many developing countries as among the antibacterial agents that have been rendered ineffective, or for which there are serious concerns regarding bacterial resistance \[[@pone.0232913.ref014]\]. In pigs and poultry production in Nigeria, these drugs are commonly used for growth promotion as well as for disease prevention and control. Moreover, antimicrobial agents sold in Nigeria and other developing countries are manufactured by combining several active ingredients of these antimicrobials at subtherapeutic/ substandard doses, so that no single drug has only one active ingredient at a required dose. Thus, lack of policies on the regulation of drug acquisition and use of cocktail of drug preparations may be contributing to the antimicrobial resistance observed in this study and other studies in Africa and Asia. Similar reports of resistance to these antibiotics have been previously reported in both human and veterinary settings as well as from retail meat products in developing countries like Ghana \[[@pone.0232913.ref048],[@pone.0232913.ref080],[@pone.0232913.ref081]\], South Africa \[[@pone.0232913.ref082]\] and Bangladesh \[[@pone.0232913.ref083]\].
Fortunately, *S*. *aureus* isolates in this study were highly susceptible to linezolid, daptomycin, rifampin, vancomycin, tigecycline, moxifloxacin, ceftaroline and nitrofurantoin. These are highest priority critically important antimicrobial agents in human medicine \[[@pone.0232913.ref084]\]. This agrees with the findings of Shittu et al. \[[@pone.0232913.ref014]\] who reported similar susceptibility among *S*. *aureus* isolated from clinical settings in Southwest, Nigeria. The high susceptibility observed could be attributed to the fact that these drugs do not have veterinary preparations and so are not available for veterinary use, and also are not routinely used in clinical setting.
Multidrug resistance was observed the most among isolates from chicken carcasses (64.3%). This indicates that chickens are more exposed to antimicrobials than pigs and humans. The *S*. *aureus* isolates from the chicken carcasses exhibited 14 antimicrobial resistance patterns with PEN-TET-SXT as the predominant one. Interestingly, the predominant resistance pattern was observed in one chicken carcass handler. This therefore suggests the transfer of antimicrobial resistance organisms from chicken carcasses to the chicken carcass handler. Multidrug resistance was also observed among pig carcasses (41.2%) which exhibited 7 antimicrobial resistance patterns with PEN-ERY-SXT as the predominant one. Also, the only isolate in pig carcass handlers that showed multidrug resistance exhibited a similar antimicrobial resistance pattern. This also suggests a transfer of resistance organisms to a pig carcass handler from pig carcasses.
The association of *S*. *aureus* antimicrobial resistance profile with their molecular characteristics and clonal lineages can provide useful information for the clinical selection of antibiotics \[[@pone.0232913.ref060]\]. All the clones detected in this study showed MDR except CC8. They exhibited varying degrees of resistance to tetracycline but more importantly is the high degree of resistance of CC5 to erythromycin, and C15 to sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim. This was also reported in tertiary hospitals in China \[[@pone.0232913.ref060]\].
Nonetheless, the multidrug resistance results are high and therefore calls for serious concern because of the health risk associated with colonization of individuals with these MDR strains. These organisms could potentially transfer resistance genes, not only to humans in their environment but to the public/ general population, thereby jeopardizing antimicrobial therapy in carriers/infected individuals.
Conclusion {#sec016}
==========
Food animal carcasses (chicken and pig) processed as meat for human consumption in Enugu State South East, Nigeria, are potential reservoirs of PVL-producing multiple-drug resistant and methicillin-resistant *S*. *aureus*. This could constitute a serious public health risk. Public health intervention programs at pre- and post-slaughter stages should be considered in Nigerian slaughterhouses.
We appreciate the kind assistance of Martha Idogwu and Mr. Ndubuisi Igwe who helped to convince the carcass handlers in their dialect to submit their nasal swabs for the study. The authors are grateful to Kimberly Yodice and Brent Christman for their assistance.
10.1371/journal.pone.0232913.r001
Decision Letter 0
de Lencastre
Herminia
Academic Editor
© 2020 Herminia de Lencastre
2020
Herminia de Lencastre
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License
, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
17 Feb 2020
PONE-D-20-02752
Molecular epidemiology, genetic diversity and antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus in chicken and pig carcasses and carcass handlers
PLOS ONE
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Reviewer \#1: Partly
Reviewer \#2: Partly
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Reviewer \#1: No
Reviewer \#2: Yes
\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
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Reviewer \#1: Yes
Reviewer \#2: Yes
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5\. Review Comments to the Author
Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)
Reviewer \#1: Comments:
1\. There are sloppy mistakes in the abstract including not abbreviating Staphylococcus after the first use, even the capitalization in the title is inconsistent.
2\. Inconsistent tense in lines 97-98
3\. Line 162 they use t045, t002, and CC5 without any prior explanation. they need to write for a broader audience that doesn't understand their jargon.
4\. Line 187-190: I don't think you can use Chi-square on percentages. There are much more applicable tests.
5\. Line 194 don't repeat numbers in the text that are already in Table 1.
6\. Table 1: add a more explanatory description of the contents, including what is CI. How is chicken 28/600 = 0.93%. I don't need a calculator to know that is less than 0.5%. Same for 17 out of 600 for pig
7\. Line 201: presence of the MecA doesn't necessarily mean resistant to methicillin.
8\. Line 211: tell the readers why you used the spa gene! Not everyone is a Staph person. Same for the significance of the repeat successions.
9\. Line 214: what is the significance of saying they were "automatically" submitted?
10\. Finally on line 221 they define CC. They do list a bunch of t numbers but they have not adequately defined the importance of t numbers. I work in a different species of Staph and I don't know what the importance of t numbers, or spa types. Thus, the impact factor of the findings is minimized. How does ANY of this relate to the global picture of S. aureus? Place Nigeria in the context of the S. aureus pan genome.
11\. BURP is used many times before it is defined in the title to Figure 1. Figure 1 is very uninformative and poorly introduced. Evidently CC084 and t084 are related some how? What is the significance of the size of the circles or the colors?
12\. I am perplexed why the spa typing was not related to the drug resistance profiles. That seems to be a serious under-utilization of what they have set up. They could relate spa profiles with drug resistance but they ignore it and only focus on the host source.
13\. I know there is still pervasive antibiotic use in Nigeria but that is not mentioned. Was there any survey of antibiotic administration in the flocks/herds they sampled or are they all on AGP (antibiotic growth promoters)?
14\. Finally at line 356 they start explaining the relevance of spa typing and BURP. But after they used it.
15\. Line 361 they start to bring in a more global perspective but then dodge away.
16\. They intimated that they did MLST but they did not. they used single locus typing. I actually had to go to the Ridom server and find the Home page to figure that out.
Overall: the results are worth publishing but not in the form presented. They need to go back and reanalyze their data without solely focusing on Nigeria. There is a big literature about clades of S. aureus out there. They could place the Nigeria samples in that context, without making it all just about Nigeria. They can re-work this paper and make it more readable for a wider audience and focus on the need to understand the population structure of S. aureus clades in Nigeria domestic animals and the handlers. It is not at all surprising that they can isolate pig or chicken isolates from handlers. There are numerous examples of that, but are any of them causing disease? See the PNAS paper by Ross Fitzgerald many years ago for an example.
Reviewer \#2: This is a report of a cross-sectional study of S. aureus contamination of 600 chicken and 600 pig carcasses from slaughterhouses in Nigeria. There was an appropriate sampling strategy and the swabs were taken from the surface of the carcass. The chicken carcasses were handled differently (dipped in a communal water bath) than the pig carcasses which could explain the higher prevalence of contamination. In addition, they report on anterior nares colonization of 45 workers with chicken carcass contact and 45 workers with pig carcass contact. The prevalence of contamination was 4.7% in chicken carcasses, 2.8% in pig carcasses. Prevalence of anterior nares colonization was 11.0% and 6.7% respectively among the worker which is low. The low colonization rates suggests that these workers are not at increased risk because of their occupations. Spa typing, detection of the mec and PVL genes and antibiotic susceptibility was performed and analyzed appropriately. The results are presented in a very detailed fashion.
Suggestions for improving the discussions:
1\. The rationale for the study is to look at animal-to-human transmission. There are overlapping spa types between workers and carcasses; however, you do not know whether the workers contaminated the carcass with SA or the carcasses transmitted SA to the workers because of the cross-sectional design. This limitation is not mentioned. There was no clear mention of what proportion of the SA isolates were livestock associated spa types; it appears from the discussion at least some were human spa types. This key point should be given more attention.
2\. There was no discussion of how this compares to contamination with optimal slaughterhouse practices and what might change this contamination. The conclusion that this is an urgent public health threat is overstated.
Suggestions for improving the abstract:
1\. Include the % of carcasses and workers contaminated/colonized
2\. Overall \#'s are distracting e.g. 1200 food animals and 90 workers- just include 600 chickens and 600 pigs and 45 chicken workers and 45 pig workers
Suggestions for Methods:
1\. Include how the carcasses were swabbed -- for example how much of the carcasses was sampled? How does this compare to other studies that have been done?
\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
6\. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article ([what does this mean?](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/editorial-and-peer-review-process#loc-peer-review-history)). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.
If you choose "no", your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.
**Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review?** For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.plos.org/privacy-policy).
Reviewer \#1: Yes: Douglas Duane Rhoads
Reviewer \#2: No
\[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link \"View Attachments\". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files to be viewed.\]
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10.1371/journal.pone.0232913.r002
Author response to Decision Letter 0
1 Apr 2020
Reviewer \#1: Comments:
1\. There are sloppy mistakes in the abstract including not abbreviating Staphylococcus after the first use, even the capitalization in the title is inconsistent.
Response: This was changed to all lowercase and the abstract was edited.
2\. Inconsistent tense in lines 97-98
Response: This has been edited.
3\. Line 162 they use t045, t002, and CC5 without any prior explanation. they need to write for a broader audience that doesn't understand their jargon.
Response: This has been edited.
4\. Line 187-190: I don't think you can use Chi-square on percentages. There are much more applicable tests.
Response: We did not use Chi-square on percentages. It was an error on our part. We have edited the statement
5\. Line 194 don't repeat numbers in the text that are already in Table 1.
Response: We removed all but the overall prevalence and significant difference between handlers and instructed readers to see Table 1.
6\. Table 1: add a more explanatory description of the contents, including what is CI. How is chicken 28/600 = 0.93%. I don't need a calculator to know that is less than 0.5%. Same for 17 out of 600 for pig
Response: These were typographical errors and have been corrected. We included the term confidence interval to indicate CI is an abbreviation but did not define it as we expect readers will be familiar with the term.
7\. Line 201: presence of the MecA doesn't necessarily mean resistant to methicillin.
Response: By the definition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains, they are Staphylococcus aureus (S. aurues) strains that have an oxacillin MIC of \>4µg/ml or harbor the mecA gene (Kumar et al., 2013). Chambers et al. (1997) also stated that methicillin resistance in Staphylococci is determined by mecA gene and that there is no mecA homolog in a susceptible strain of S. aureus, and so methodologies based on the detection of mecA gene are the most accurate.
However, S. aureus isolates that carry the mecA gene but appear phenotypically methicillin/ oxacillin susceptible have been increasingly reported (Ikonomidis et al., 2008) and so it has been suggested that such isolates be classified as a new type of MRSA, designated oxacillin-susceptible methicillin-resistant S. aureus (OS-MRSA).
Hence, Ikonomidis et al. (2008) reported that for whatever underlying reasons, the mecA gene detection and expression are prerequisites for methicillin resistance, even though such a genotype may not guarantee phenotypic methicillin resistance. However, he warned that precautions should be taken when treating OS-MRSA strains with beta-lactam antibiotics as this may result in the emergence of highly resistant MRSA, which is attributable to the presence of the mecA gene
Based on this, many researchers (Shittu et al., 2011; Thapaliya et al., 2017; Dalman et al., 2019), including us in this paper, reported and are still reporting MRSA based on the detection of the mecA gene
8\. Line 211: tell the readers why you used the spa gene! Not everyone is a Staph person. Same for the significance of the repeat successions.
Response: We have added an explanation of what the spa gene is and the importance of the repeat successions in the introduction
9\. Line 214: what is the significance of saying they were "automatically" submitted?
Response: This is merely to note they have been added to the database. This has been edited slightly.
10\. Finally on line 221 they define CC. They do list a bunch of t numbers but they have not adequately defined the importance of t numbers. I work in a different species of Staph and I don't know what the importance of t numbers, or spa types. Thus, the impact factor of the findings is minimized. How does ANY of this relate to the global picture of S. aureus? Place Nigeria in the context of the S. aureus pan genome.
Response: This is done in the discussion section, where we believe it is more appropriate. However, the spa types (t) and clonal complexes (CC) have been given prior explanation and definition in the introduction section. We have also related the spa types we got to the global picture of S. aureus, placing Nigeria in the context of the S. aureus pan genome
11\. BURP is used many times before it is defined in the title to Figure 1. Figure 1 is very uninformative and poorly introduced. Evidently CC084 and t084 are related some how? What is the significance of the size of the circles or the colors?
Response: This has been edited. BURP has been defined and explained in the materials and methods.
Figure 1 is very uninformative and poorly introduced-
Response: This has been edited
The significance of the size of the circle is already noted in the text: "\*\* Each node represents a spa type. The size of a node represents the number of isolates assigned to that spa type". We have also explained the significance of the colours
12\. I am perplexed why the spa typing was not related to the drug resistance profiles. That seems to be a serious under-utilization of what they have set up. They could relate spa profiles with drug resistance but they ignore it and only focus on the host source.
Response: This has been done
13\. I know there is still pervasive antibiotic use in Nigeria but that is not mentioned. Was there any survey of antibiotic administration in the flocks/herds they sampled or are they all on AGP (antibiotic growth promoters)?
Response: This was mentioned in Lines 309-402 and 405-406. Nevertheless, we added more explanations
14\. Finally at line 356 they start explaining the relevance of spa typing and BURP. But after they used it.
Response: We believe a discussion of this is most appropriate in this current location. However, we explained the relevance of spa typing in the introduction and BURP in the materials and methods, so that this would be most appropriate here
15\. Line 361 they start to bring in a more global perspective but then dodge away.
Response: We have added more global perspectives
16\. They intimated that they did MLST but they did not. they used single locus typing. I actually had to go to the Ridom server and find the Home page to figure that out.
Response: We have modified it
Overall: the results are worth publishing but not in the form presented. They need to go back and reanalyze their data without solely focusing on Nigeria. There is a big literature about clades of S. aureus out there. They could place the Nigeria samples in that context, without making it all just about Nigeria. They can re-work this paper and make it more readable for a wider audience and focus on the need to understand the population structure of S. aureus clades in Nigeria domestic animals and the handlers. It is not at all surprising that they can isolate pig or chicken isolates from handlers. There are numerous examples of that, but are any of them causing disease? See the PNAS paper by Ross Fitzgerald many years ago for an example.
Response: We thank the reviewer for this comment. However, we think working to fill in the data gap in developing countries including Nigeria is a critical aspect of understanding the global epidemiology of this pathogen, and is the niche and audience we are aiming for in this publication.
This study was not designed to analyze disease, but carriage/colonization/contamination of carcasses. We agree disease is an important aspect but is much more difficult to examine even in wealthy countries (see eg Smith & Wardyn review, Human Infections with Staphylococcus aureus CC398). We agree this would be ideally examined in future studies.
Reviewer \#2: This is a report of a cross-sectional study of S. aureus contamination of 600 chicken and 600 pig carcasses from slaughterhouses in Nigeria. There was an appropriate sampling strategy and the swabs were taken from the surface of the carcass. The chicken carcasses were handled differently (dipped in a communal water bath) than the pig carcasses which could explain the higher prevalence of contamination. In addition, they report on anterior nares colonization of 45 workers with chicken carcass contact and 45 workers with pig carcass contact. The prevalence of contamination was 4.7% in chicken carcasses, 2.8% in pig carcasses. Prevalence of anterior nares colonization was 11.0% and 6.7% respectively among the worker which is low. The low colonization rates suggests that these workers are not at increased risk because of their occupations. Spa typing, detection of the mec and PVL genes and antibiotic susceptibility was performed and analyzed appropriately. The results are presented in a very detailed fashion.
Suggestions for improving the discussions:
1\. The rationale for the study is to look at animal-to-human transmission. There are overlapping spa types between workers and carcasses; however, you do not know whether the workers contaminated the carcass with SA or the carcasses transmitted SA to the workers because of the cross-sectional design. This limitation is not mentioned. There was no clear mention of what proportion of the SA isolates were livestock associated spa types; it appears from the discussion at least some were human spa types. This key point should be given more attention.
Response: This has been added
2\. There was no discussion of how this compares to contamination with optimal slaughterhouse practices and what might change this contamination.
Response: This has been added
The conclusion that this is an urgent public health threat is overstated.
Response: This has been edited
Suggestions for improving the abstract:
1\. Include the % of carcasses and workers contaminated/colonized
2\. Overall \#'s are distracting e.g. 1200 food animals and 90 workers- just include 600 chickens and 600 pigs and 45 chicken workers and 45 pig workers
Response: We have modified this.
Suggestions for Methods:
1\. Include how the carcasses were swabbed -- for example how much of the carcasses was sampled? How does this compare to other studies that have been done?
Response: This has been done
######
Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx
######
Click here for additional data file.
10.1371/journal.pone.0232913.r003
Decision Letter 1
de Lencastre
Herminia
Academic Editor
© 2020 Herminia de Lencastre
2020
Herminia de Lencastre
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License
, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
9 Apr 2020
PONE-D-20-02752R1
Molecular epidemiology, genetic diversity and antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from chicken and pig carcasses and carcass handlers
PLOS ONE
Dear Dr. Okorie-Kanu,
Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE's publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised by reviewer \#1.
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To enhance the reproducibility of your results, we recommend that if applicable you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io, where a protocol can be assigned its own identifier (DOI) such that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: <http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols>
Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:
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Please note while forming your response, if your article is accepted, you may have the opportunity to make the peer review history publicly available. The record will include editor decision letters (with reviews) and your responses to reviewer comments. If eligible, we will contact you to opt in or out.
We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.
Kind regards,
Herminia de Lencastre, Ph.D.
Academic Editor
PLOS ONE
\[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.\]
Reviewers\' comments:
Reviewer\'s Responses to Questions
**Comments to the Author**
1\. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the "Comments to the Author" section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the "Confidential to Editor" section, and submit your \"Accept\" recommendation.
Reviewer \#1: (No Response)
Reviewer \#2: All comments have been addressed
\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
2\. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?
The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.
Reviewer \#1: Yes
Reviewer \#2: Yes
\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
3\. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?
Reviewer \#1: Yes
Reviewer \#2: Yes
\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
4\. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?
The [PLOS Data policy](http://www.plosone.org/static/policies.action#sharing) requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data---e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party---those must be specified.
Reviewer \#1: Yes
Reviewer \#2: Yes
\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
5\. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?
PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.
Reviewer \#1: No
Reviewer \#2: Yes
\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
6\. Review Comments to the Author
Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)
Reviewer \#1: Review PONE-D-20-02752R1
Molecular epidemiology, genetic diversity and antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from chicken and pig carcasses and carcass handlers
Comments to authors:
1\. Need a comma after carcasses in article title
2\. Line 31: Unnecessary to include '(S. aureus)'
3\. Line 32: This study not The study
4\. Line 34: include punctuation to properly associate the conjunctions. Perhaps they need a copy editor to clean up the punctuation and English.
5\. Line 38, 46, 101: same problem. I will leave this issue to the editor to resolve, and not comment further.
6\. Line 50-51: using abbreviations for antibiotics that are not defined.
7\. Line 58 same problem as line 31
8\. Line 130: purposively is not needed
9\. Lines 227-228: Suggest the section title as: Clustering of isolates by spa typing and BURP analyses
10\. Line 297 vs 305: antimicrobial resistance profile changes to antibiotic resistant profile and then they define an acronym. Suggest you choose one term and define early. Makes it cleaner.
11\. Line 68, 201 and 307: MDR defined already
12\. Line 320-321 vs 297-299: they already indicated earlier that 'All the isolates from the four sources were resistant to penicillin' and they seem to be repeating information in a slightly different manner in these two places. Suggest they compare these two paragraphs and remove redundancies.
13\. Line 330-1: what is the point and what is the basis for the beta-lactamase screening. They just seem to be repeating numbers from the tables and they would be better just pointing to where they are drawing results from. The results still seem to just be a recitation of numbers. Just trying to encourage them to consider their readers for the importance of some of the numbers.
14\. Line 334: they are back to using Staphylococcus aureus!
15\. Line 366: don't need to redefine MSSA and MRSA.
16\. The bibliography needs cleaning up, to meet PLoS One format. Only some journal titles are abbreviated. I am certain the editors will catch this on acceptance.
Overall: the manuscript is far superior and highlights the importance of the work, with a focus on fitting into the global and African importance of the work. They need to clean up the coverage in the results, fix some punctuation, and get it published.
Reviewer \#2: This is a report of a cross-sectional study of S. aureus contamination of 600 chicken and 600 pig carcasses from slaughterhouses in Nigeria. There was an appropriate sampling strategy and the swabs were taken from the surface of the carcass. The chicken carcasses were handled differently (dipped in a communal water bath) than the pig carcasses which could explain the higher prevalence of contamination. In addition, they report on anterior nares colonization of 45 workers with chicken carcass contact and 45 workers with pig carcass contact. The prevalence of contamination was 4.7% in chicken carcasses, 2.8% in pig carcasses. Prevalence of anterior nares colonization was 11.0% and 6.7% respectively among the worker which is low. The low colonization rates suggests that these workers are not at increased risk because of their occupations. Spa typing, detection of the mec and PVL genes and antibiotic susceptibility was performed and analyzed appropriately. The results are presented in a very detailed fashion.
All of my prior suggestions have been incorporated.
\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
7\. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article ([what does this mean?](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/editorial-and-peer-review-process#loc-peer-review-history)). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.
If you choose "no", your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.
**Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review?** For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.plos.org/privacy-policy).
Reviewer \#1: Yes: Douglas Duane Rhoads
Reviewer \#2: No
\[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link \"View Attachments\". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files to be viewed.\]
While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, <https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/>. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email us at <figures@plos.org>. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.
10.1371/journal.pone.0232913.r004
Author response to Decision Letter 1
22 Apr 2020
We thank reviewer 1 for his thorough revisions, and all have been addressed in the revised manuscript. We really gained from his wealth of knowledge in this area. We are indeed thankful.
We are also thankful to Reviewer 2 for his comments.
######
Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx
######
Click here for additional data file.
10.1371/journal.pone.0232913.r005
Decision Letter 2
de Lencastre
Herminia
Academic Editor
© 2020 Herminia de Lencastre
2020
Herminia de Lencastre
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License
, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
24 Apr 2020
Molecular epidemiology, genetic diversity and antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from chicken and pig carcasses, and carcass handlers
PONE-D-20-02752R2
Dear Dr. Okorie-Kanu,
We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements.
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With kind regards,
Herminia de Lencastre, Ph.D.
Academic Editor
PLOS ONE
Additional Editor Comments (optional):
Reviewers\' comments:
10.1371/journal.pone.0232913.r006
Acceptance letter
de Lencastre
Herminia
Academic Editor
© 2020 Herminia de Lencastre
2020
Herminia de Lencastre
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License
, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
4 May 2020
PONE-D-20-02752R2
Molecular epidemiology, genetic diversity and antimicrobial resistance of *Staphylococcus aureus* isolated from chicken and pig carcasses, and carcass handlers
Dear Dr. Okorie-Kanu:
I am pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.
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PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff
on behalf of
Dr. Herminia de Lencastre
Academic Editor
PLOS ONE
[^1]: **Competing Interests:**The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
}
|
Sunday, August 02, 2015, 5:36 p.m.
In the news
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the majority leader, condemned on the Senate floor the billionaire Republican contributors Charles and David Koch as “un-American” as he questioned the veracity of ads from Koch backed groups that feature individuals sharing stories about the apparent hardships they’ve faced because of the health-care overhaul.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
/*
* (C) Copyright 2006-2011 Nuxeo SA (http://nuxeo.com/) and others.
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*
* Contributors:
* bstefanescu
*/
package org.nuxeo.ecm.automation.core.operations.services;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.List;
import org.nuxeo.ecm.automation.OperationContext;
import org.nuxeo.ecm.automation.core.Constants;
import org.nuxeo.ecm.automation.core.annotations.Context;
import org.nuxeo.ecm.automation.core.annotations.Operation;
import org.nuxeo.ecm.automation.core.annotations.OperationMethod;
import org.nuxeo.ecm.automation.core.annotations.Param;
import org.nuxeo.ecm.core.api.DocumentModel;
import org.nuxeo.ecm.core.api.DocumentModelList;
import org.nuxeo.ecm.platform.audit.api.AuditLogger;
import org.nuxeo.ecm.platform.audit.api.LogEntry;
/**
* @author <a href="mailto:bs@nuxeo.com">Bogdan Stefanescu</a>
*/
@Operation(id = AuditLog.ID, category = Constants.CAT_SERVICES, label = "Log Event In Audit", description = "Log events into audit for each of the input document. The operation accept as input one ore more documents that are returned back as the output.", aliases = { "Audit.Log" })
public class AuditLog {
public static final String ID = "Audit.LogEvent";
@Context
protected AuditLogger logger;
@Context
protected OperationContext ctx;
@Param(name = "event", widget = Constants.W_AUDIT_EVENT)
protected String event;
@Param(name = "category", required = false, values = { "Automation" })
protected String category = "Automation";
@Param(name = "comment", required = false, widget = Constants.W_MULTILINE_TEXT)
protected String comment = "";
@OperationMethod
public DocumentModel run(DocumentModel doc) {
String uname = ctx.getPrincipal().getActingUser();
LogEntry entry = newEntry(doc, uname, new Date());
logger.addLogEntries(Collections.singletonList(entry));
return doc;
}
@OperationMethod
public DocumentModelList run(DocumentModelList docs) {
List<LogEntry> entries = new ArrayList<>();
Date date = new Date();
String uname = ctx.getPrincipal().getActingUser();
for (DocumentModel doc : docs) {
entries.add(newEntry(doc, uname, date));
}
logger.addLogEntries(entries);
return docs;
}
protected LogEntry newEntry(DocumentModel doc, String principal, Date date) {
LogEntry entry = logger.newLogEntry();
entry.setEventId(event);
entry.setEventDate(new Date());
entry.setCategory(category);
entry.setDocUUID(doc.getId());
entry.setDocPath(doc.getPathAsString());
entry.setComment(comment);
entry.setPrincipalName(principal);
entry.setDocType(doc.getType());
entry.setRepositoryId(doc.getRepositoryName());
entry.setDocLifeCycle(doc.getCurrentLifeCycleState());
return entry;
}
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Q:
How can I find WPF controls by name or type?
I need to search a WPF control hierarchy for controls that match a given name or type. How can I do this?
A:
I combined the template format used by John Myczek and Tri Q's algorithm above to create a findChild Algorithm that can be used on any parent. Keep in mind that recursively searching a tree downwards could be a lengthy process. I've only spot-checked this on a WPF application, please comment on any errors you might find and I'll correct my code.
WPF Snoop is a useful tool in looking at the visual tree - I'd strongly recommend using it while testing or using this algorithm to check your work.
There is a small error in Tri Q's Algorithm. After the child is found, if childrenCount is > 1 and we iterate again we can overwrite the properly found child. Therefore I added a if (foundChild != null) break; into my code to deal with this condition.
/// <summary>
/// Finds a Child of a given item in the visual tree.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="parent">A direct parent of the queried item.</param>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of the queried item.</typeparam>
/// <param name="childName">x:Name or Name of child. </param>
/// <returns>The first parent item that matches the submitted type parameter.
/// If not matching item can be found,
/// a null parent is being returned.</returns>
public static T FindChild<T>(DependencyObject parent, string childName)
where T : DependencyObject
{
// Confirm parent and childName are valid.
if (parent == null) return null;
T foundChild = null;
int childrenCount = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(parent);
for (int i = 0; i < childrenCount; i++)
{
var child = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(parent, i);
// If the child is not of the request child type child
T childType = child as T;
if (childType == null)
{
// recursively drill down the tree
foundChild = FindChild<T>(child, childName);
// If the child is found, break so we do not overwrite the found child.
if (foundChild != null) break;
}
else if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(childName))
{
var frameworkElement = child as FrameworkElement;
// If the child's name is set for search
if (frameworkElement != null && frameworkElement.Name == childName)
{
// if the child's name is of the request name
foundChild = (T)child;
break;
}
}
else
{
// child element found.
foundChild = (T)child;
break;
}
}
return foundChild;
}
Call it like this:
TextBox foundTextBox =
UIHelper.FindChild<TextBox>(Application.Current.MainWindow, "myTextBoxName");
Note Application.Current.MainWindow can be any parent window.
A:
You can also find an element by name using FrameworkElement.FindName(string).
Given:
<UserControl ...>
<TextBlock x:Name="myTextBlock" />
</UserControl>
In the code-behind file, you could write:
var myTextBlock = (TextBlock)this.FindName("myTextBlock");
Of course, because it's defined using x:Name, you could just reference the generated field, but perhaps you want to look it up dynamically rather than statically.
This approach is also available for templates, in which the named item appears multiple times (once per usage of the template).
A:
You can use the VisualTreeHelper to find controls. Below is a method that uses the VisualTreeHelper to find a parent control of a specified type. You can use the VisualTreeHelper to find controls in other ways as well.
public static class UIHelper
{
/// <summary>
/// Finds a parent of a given item on the visual tree.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of the queried item.</typeparam>
/// <param name="child">A direct or indirect child of the queried item.</param>
/// <returns>The first parent item that matches the submitted type parameter.
/// If not matching item can be found, a null reference is being returned.</returns>
public static T FindVisualParent<T>(DependencyObject child)
where T : DependencyObject
{
// get parent item
DependencyObject parentObject = VisualTreeHelper.GetParent(child);
// we’ve reached the end of the tree
if (parentObject == null) return null;
// check if the parent matches the type we’re looking for
T parent = parentObject as T;
if (parent != null)
{
return parent;
}
else
{
// use recursion to proceed with next level
return FindVisualParent<T>(parentObject);
}
}
}
Call it like this:
Window owner = UIHelper.FindVisualParent<Window>(myControl);
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
6 Next-Generation Firewall Policy Tips
We have entered the application age and while there are plenty of productivity benefits for most organizations, there are also risks. In addition to the increased use of applications, a more mobile workforce and more sophisticated threats have driven an evolution in the way we must secure the gateway.
Enter next-generation firewalls, which Gartner predicted in its IT Market Clock for Infrastructure Protection 2011 will increase the commoditization of stateful firewalls within the next couple of years.
However, while NGFWs provide you with more granular control, they also in turn can increase the complexity of your policies and require some additional planning and considerations. In a recent survey, The State of Network Security 2012, 84% of respondents stated that NGFWs help them feel more secure, but 76.1% noted a cost of managing next-generation firewalls in terms of administrative burden.
For example, without careful design and maintenance, a poorly optimized NGFW policy could take what was a single rule allowing http and become a policy that includes 10,000 new rules, one per application – creating more opportunity for error and risk.
Next-Generation Firewalls: Their Place in the Network
Next-generation firewalls go beyond filtering traffic from port 80 or 443 and deliver more control by providing the ability to filter by application type and user identity. With this added granularity you can define what groups of users can do with a particular application, which allows for better security and ultimately a business advantage (i.e. the marketing team needs to be able to post to Facebook, but a developer does not).
The first and primary point to focus on in the network for NGFW deployment is for external Internettraffic because many applications areInternetapplications, such as Facebook, P2P, email and Web meeting tools.
Deploying at the edge is where NGFWs can significantly improve your security if the right policies are applied. From there, you can add as necessary to branch offices and to the data center, where you should know what applications are running on data center servers and who has been granted access.
Firewall Policy Considerations
With more granular control comes more complexity. The more complex your network policies are, the greater opportunity there is for misconfigured firewalls. And according to Gartner, 95% of firewall breaches are due to misconfigurations – as opposed to flaws with the firewalls. If policies are set at an application level, you must understand each application, its business value to different users and any potential risks that come with it.
Firewall policy decisions are no longer black or white. As the rule sets and features increase, so does the complexity. Some questions you must ask yourself (and answer!) before leveraging the application and user-aware policies available to you in a next-gen firewall are:
How many more change requests per week should you expect to process?
Can your existing team handle the extra load without degradation to turnaround time?
Will you require additional headcount?
What is the impact if you define policy via rules like “block social networks, file sharing and video streaming, and allow all other Web traffic”?
IT must understand what applications are needed by what users and provide access – without slowing down business productivity and without opening security gaps for data leakage or malware.
Here are six tips for managing next-generation firewall policies:
Tune your policies. Run regular reports to spot new applications in use on the network and understand any trends and impact from a security and performance perspective. Actionable intelligence regarding application usage is extremely helpful in optimizing policies and removing unused applications from policies. Identify rules that can be tightened based on application and user/user group needs. For example, if an application is only required by one group of users (i.e. marketing team needs access to Facebook) then that application can be opened up to that specific group and can be restricted from others.
Reorder rules to improve performance. Since firewalls sequentially sift through endless rule sets to identify the rule that matches every packet, another way to optimize your next-generation firewall policy is to reorder rules based on throughput (rules where there is heavier application usage should be on top). This can help address any potential performance issues and delay what otherwise would be necessary hardware purchases.
Identify rules to remove from the rule base. Oftentimes firewall rules are forgotten about and even duplicated through change requests. Being able to identify these types of rules can significantly help you reduce the overhead on your admin team and on the firewall.
Run regular risk queries. Whether running a query from your DMZ to Internal or against specific applications, there are a lot of known risks and configuration best practices you can leverage (i.e. NIST, PCI, etc.) to identify vulnerable rules and understand the remedies. You should also define acceptable applications for your organization and then create exceptions or segment by users/user groups as needed. Additionally, recent research has shown that common risks in firewall policies are lax outbound policies.
Ensure continuous compliance. Run reports to ensure that your policies are in compliance with regulatory requirements such as PCI DSS, SOX, etc., and also your own internally defined standards.
Automate the firewall change request process. Maintain your optimized and risk-free policy over time by automating the firewall change request process. With traditional firewalls, the primary fields for change management consist of source, destination and port, but with NGFWs it expands to source, destination, port AND users and applications, creating more opportunities for change requests to pile up very quickly.
Next-generation firewalls certainly provide some additional benefits over traditional firewalls, but in order to truly reap the benefits without adding complexity and in turn risk, you must map out a plan in advance of your implementation and have a process to manage these policies over time in the context of your broader network environment.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
WOONGO, Stories about Masks
Photos by Selim Harbi
May 28, 2015 Perception
— Issue 1
The mask is an ambiguous and mystical object, an instrument of metamorphosis and deceit. It embodies beauty and terror, symbolises the gods, and manifests the invisible and the supernatural.
It is more than a simple disguise behind which man seeks to hide, but a visible manifestation of the spirit, African civilisations have always favoured the mask’s function and shape; it’s beauty is defined by necessity: the mask’s value is based on its usefulness.
At the beginning of the century the Surrealists called it “negro art”.
Thus relegating the mask to being merely a carved head seen through the aesthetic prism, and distorting its meaning.
In WOONGO people engage in subtle, games to tell the story of their lives…behind a mask.
Exploring a fine line between documentary and production, reality emerges for a brief moment to remind us that the two worlds from both sides of the mask finally become one. What about African masks today? How are they perceived in African societies? As simple wooden objects or artefacts for worship with supernatural powers? As artwork or ornaments? Is the mask not the best tool to understand the contemporary realities of the continent considering how it has witnessed time?
WOONGO introduces a broad spectrum of reflection on contemporary African reality, a sense of time, tradition and identity.
*Woongo means “masks” in the Moré language, which is spoken widely in Burkina Faso.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Heightened cocaine and food self-administration in female rats with neonatal isolation experience.
Previously, we demonstrated that the early life stress of neonatal isolation facilitates acquisition of cocaine and food self-administration in adult female rats. We now test whether it enhances responding for these reinforcers after operant performance is established. Adult female rats were derived from litters that were either subjected to neonatal isolation (1 h/day isolation; postnatal days 2-9) or were nonhandled and assigned to one of two experiments. In Experiment 1, female rats well trained to self-administer cocaine were tested under a fixed-ratio 3 (FR3) schedule with several cocaine doses (0.0625-1.0 mg/kg/infusion) and under a progressive-ratio (PR) schedule (0, 0.5, and 1.0 mg/kg/infusion cocaine). In Experiment 2, female rats well trained to respond for food reinforcers under an FR15 schedule were tested under two PR schedules. Results show that neonatal isolation enhanced responding for cocaine under both schedules of reinforcement and increased responding for food under a PR schedule of reinforcement. These data extend our previous acquisition study in female rats to show that neonatal isolation enhances responding under maintenance conditions. These enduring behavioral changes may relate to the ability of neonatal isolation to increase striatal dopamine responses to psychostimulants, effects we showed previously in infant and juvenile rats. Neuropsychopharmacology (2006) 31, 70-76. doi:10.1038/sj.npp.1300779; published online 1 June 2005.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
1. Field of the Art
The present invention relates to an apparatus adapted for observing an image composed of secondary electrons generated in a recessed portion when the charged particle beam is focused on a specimen having recessed portions, such as through holes formed in the processes carried out in an LSI production line, and a method for observing a surface by a charged particle beam.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Recently, there has arisen the problem of disconnection in wiring due to the residue of a photoresist on the bottom of a specimen having through holes, capacitive grooves, recesses and so on (all of which are referred to simply as "through holes" hereinafter in this specification) so that there has been a strong demand for an apparatus capable of observing the bottoms of through holes by a charged particle beam in the LSI production process.
FIG. 1 shows a column of an apparatus for observing a surface by utilizing a charged particle observation reported by Y. Furuya, T. Ohtaka, S. Yamada, H. Mori, M. Yamada, T. Watanabe and K. Ishikawa in "Model S-6000 Field Emission CD Measurement SEM", the 93rd study reference disclosed at the 132nd committee held on Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (November 8-9, 1985), p. 1.
Electrons 1 (to be referred to as "the primary electrons" hereinafter in this specification) emitted from a cathode 2 are accelerated by a first anode 3 and a second anode 4 and are focused on the upper surface of a specimen 8 through a condenser lens 5 and an objective lens 6. The focusing point on the surface of the specimen 8 at which the primary electrons 1 are focused is controlled by a deflection coil 7. Secondary electrons 9 produced in response to the impingement of the primary electrons 1 on the surface of the specimen 8 pass through the objective lens 6 and are detected by a secondary electron detector 10. The secondary electron image over the surface of the specimen 8 can be observed with the secondary electron detector 10 by detecting the secondary electrons 9 while the primary electrons 1 are caused to scan the surface of the specimen by using the deflection coil 7.
However, in order to observe the through holes with the above-mentioned conventional apparatus utilizing charged particle beam observation, almost all the secondary electrons emitted from the bottoms of through holes will not come out therefrom because the secondary electrons impinge the side walls of through holes. For instance, the trajectory of the secondary electrons emitted from a cylindrical through a hole 1 .mu.m in depth and 0.5 .mu.m in diameter is shown in FIG. 2. An insulating layer 12 is formed over the surface of a substrate 11 and the specimen 8 shown in FIG. 1 is composed of the substrate 11 and the insulating layer 12. The insulating layer 12 is formed with a through hole 0.5 .mu.m in diameter (D) and 1 .mu.m in depth (T). Corresponding to the following reference numerals: 13 represents the central axis of the through hole; 14 represents the trajectory of the secondary electron emitted at an angle of 5.degree. with respect to the central axis 13 from the center of the through hole; 15 represents the trajectory of the secondary electron emitted at an angle of 10.degree. with respect to the central axis 13 from the center of the through hole; and 16 represents the trajectory of the secondary electron emitted from the center of the through hole at an angle between 15.degree. and 85.degree. with respect to the central axis 13. The energy of the secondary electrons 14-16 is 5 eV. In the through hole, there exists magnetic flux of 1.times.10.sup.4 AT/m corresponding to the leakage flux of the objective lens 6 in parallel with the axis 13. It is seen that the secondary electrons emitted at angles in excess of about more than 15.degree. with respect to the axis 13 impinge on the side wall of the through hole and cannot come out therefrom. As described above, in the case of the conventional apparatus utilizing charged particle beam, almost all the secondary electrons cannot reach the secondary electron detector so that there is the problem that the secondary electron image at the bottom of the through hole cannot be observed.
The same inventors proposed to observe the secondary electrons by applying a strong magnetic field perpendicular to the bottom of the through hole and causing the secondary electrons to come out of the through hole by winding the secondary electrons around lines of the magnetic force as disclosed in "Low-energy-electron ray tracing and its application" in the 97th study reference (November 14-15, 1986) of the 132nd committee held on Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, pp. 118-123. In order to observe the secondary electron image at the bottom of the through hole formed during the LSI production process, it is estimated that the magnetic field of about higher than 10.sup.6 AT/m must be applied perpendicularly to the surface of the specimen.
In the case of the apparatus as shown in FIG. 1, the magnetic field applied perpendicularly to the surface of the specimen 8 is of the order of about 1.times.10.sup.4 AT/m. In order to observe the bottom of the through hole by the above-mentioned method for applying a strong magnetic field to draw the secondary electrons, the magnetic field applied to the specimen 8 must be increased by about 100 times so that the excitation current of the objective lens 7 must be increased also of the order of about 100 times.
However, in the above-mentioned surface observation apparatus utilizing a charged particle beam, when the excitation current for the objective lens 6 is increased, the focusing point of the primary electrons which has been located on the surface of the specimen 8 is moved upwardly so that the secondary electron image of the specimen becomes out of focus as shown in FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, corresponding to the following reference numerals 1 represents the trajectory of the primary electrons prior to the increase of the excitation current for the objective lens 6; 17 represents a point at which the primary electrons 1 converge; 18 represents a trajectory of the primary electrons after the excitation current for the objective lens 6 is increased; and 19 represents the point of convergence or focusing point of the primary electrons when the excitation current is increased. Before the excitation current for the objective lens 6 is increased, the focusing point 17 is at the upper surface of the specimen 8, but when the excitation current for the objective lens 6 is increased, the focusing point 19 of the primary electrons shifts upwardly of the specimen 8. As a result, the diameter of the primary electron beam impinged on the surface of the specimen 8 is increased so that there is the problem that the secondary electron image to be observed becomes out of focus.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
Introduction
============
Diamond-Blackfan Anemia (DBA) is a congenital disease, charactereized by a defective erythroid progenitor maturation and is associated with physical malformations.
Majority of cases are sporadic and dominant with 10% of the patients demonstrating recessive inheritance.
Mutations in the gene encoding for ribosomal protein RPS19 (DBA1) have been found in 25% of patients with either the dominant or the sporadic traits \[[@B1],[@B2]\].
It is noteworthy that these mutations are associated with mental retardation as well as with learning disabilities in DBA patients \[[@B1],[@B3]\].
Somatic abnormalities have been found in 47% of the patients registered with the DBA Registry of North America \[[@B4],[@B5]\].
Associated physical anomalies and growth retardation are common and outstanding even in patients with multifactorial etiology such as long term steroid treatment \[[@B3]\].
The combination of clinical and molecular findings suggests a contiguous gene syndrome with a gene focus for mental retardation and skeletal malformations.
Repetitive and stereotyped behaviors are as common as mental retardation and in some cases their manifestations reach the threshold for diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) (according to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disease IV edition Text Revised DSM-IV TR criteria) \[[@B6]\].
In the following case we present a DBA patient with comorbidity of OCD. This case has tremendous significance due to the demonstration of the clinical and the pathophysiologic as well as therapeutic implications, involved in the assessment of behavioral abnormalities in DBA.
Case presentation
=================
L. is a 22 year old Italian male, diagnosed with DBA at the age of two. Since being diagnosed with DBA, L has been treated with monthly blood transfusions and subcutaneous injections of deferoxamine mesylate. Years later, he developed iatrogenic hepatitis due to multiple blood transfusions. Despite attending a special education program for children with learning disabilities, the patient has experienced major difficulties in carrying out daily activities since the age of six. He showed attention deficit at school, social isolation and, since the age of 12, verbal and motor repetitive behaviors, apparently cyclically worsening during mood instability episodes.
L was reluctant to speak about his repetitive behaviors. L\'s parents attributed their child\'s behaviours to the developmental disabilities. A standard psychiatric diagnosis was not reached, no treatment was established during childhood.
L\' s grandfather was diagnosed with OCD (checking compulsions) in comorbidity with an Impulsive Control Disorder (Intermittent Explosive Disorders), his grandmother was depressed and alcohol addict.
At the age of sixteen the patient had an episode of herpetic encephalitis with symptoms of delirium and therefore, he was treated for two years with carbamazepine. One year later he was diagnosed with polyendocrinopathy of hypothyroidism, hypoparathyroidism and hypogonadism. The encephalitis process had no consequences. Neither mental state nor cognition alteration were reported following the episode.
At the age of twenty one repetitive behaviors increased in frequency to a level that required psychiatric attention and pharmacological management. Trying to address both mood symptoms and repetitive behaviors, a treatment with low doses of olanzapine and venlafaxine was established, with no improvement in symptoms and a strong deterioration of patient\'s anemia. L was hospitalized and a more thorough psychiatric assessment was conducted.
The patient is in the lower normal range of height (164 cm) and IQ (87). He complained of impulsive sexual and aggressive thoughts that were intrusive, repetitive and distressing. He also complained of compulsive behaviors and rituals, such as hoarding, arranging, ordering, preoccupations with symmetry, exactness, rewriting and doubting. Interrupting the patient while carrying out his rituals lead to violence. The patient had moderate insight of his illness.
He fulfilled the DSM-IV TR criteria for OCD and diagnosis was established by the Structural Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) \[[@B7]\]. In order to determine the severity level of obsessive compulsive symptoms, the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive scale (YBOCS) \[[@B8]\], a clinician rated 10 item scale, each rated from 0 (no symptoms) to 4 (extremely severe symptoms), was performed on him and revealed a score of 28, which corresponds to a severe form. A treatment with sertaline 200 mg/day (addressing OCD symptoms) and valproic acid 600 mg/day (with the aim of reducing the impulsive features linked to obsessions and according to its efficacy reported in treatment of DBA) \[[@B9]\] has been started.
In the meantime an MRI exam was done as well and it showed low signal areas due to accumulation of paramagnetic substances in the right temporal lobe and in the ventricular choroid plexus, asymmetric sphenoid sinus and hypoplastic pituitary gland. Sellar region and parasellar structures appeared in a regular pattern. No anomalies in encephalic parenchyma were demonstrated after contrast medium injection.
The patient was assessed 12 weeks after the administration of the YBOCS and demonstrated an improved total score of 15, which corresponds to a mild form of OCD with a reduction of more than 45% of the symptoms.
Discussion
==========
For the first time we have described DBA with comorbid OCD. The above described case could demonstrate heuristically valuable clinical, therapeutic and pathophysiological implications if more DBA patients with comorbid OCD would be screened by hematologists and therefore deserves further discussion.
There is a great importance in the assessment of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in DBA patients with mental or behavioral disturbances. Since OCD often goes undiagnosed in the presence of more pervasive disturbances \[[@B10]\], our report assumes a \"Caveat\" value.
Distinguishing between mental retardation, learning disabilities, Asperger Syndrome and OCD can be challenging, especially when treating children. Precocious diagnosis of OCD can make a tremendous difference in terms of evolutionary trajectory and improved life quality of patients and their families.
Pediatricians should bear in mind the possibility of OCD when treating DBA children with behavioralor learning disabilities even in the absence of other malformations.
It has been shown that when adequate screening tools were adopted in clinical disciplines other than psychiatry (for instance in dermatology and immunology), a larger than expected number of undiagnosed OCD patients was revealed \[[@B11]\].
Also, OCD is potentially linked to brain iron accumulation in DBA. Studies done in animals demonstrated that brain iron accumulation leads to damage of neuronal dopaminergic function.
Intranigral iron injection in rats have shown a detrimental effect on dopamine (DA) release and concentration in the caudate putamen (CPu) as well as selective decrease of striatal dopamine (95%), 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid serotogenic activity (82%), and homovanillic acid (45%) with related behavioral changes, characterized by increased repetitive and compulsive behaviors.
Thus, hemosiderosis might be contributing to psychiatric symptoms in DBA patients \[[@B12]\]. In fact, OCD symptoms may be linked to hemosiderin deposition in the brain and the pituitary gland, just as hypopituitarism has been shown to be linked to hemosiderin deposition in the pituitary as it was hypothesized previously by Berdel \[[@B13],[@B14]\].
Moreover, since OCD has been related also to multiple regions of cortical thinning \[[@B15]\], the MRI imaging in our case of paramagnetic substance accumulation in the right temporal lobe, ventricular plexus and the hypoplastic pituitary gland is suggestive of the importance of neuroimaging assessment and recognition of complications caused by iron deposition due to long term blood transfusions in the management of DBA.
However a conclusion can not be drawn without a verification through larger studies on populations that have undergone blood transfusions at a young age.
Presenting this case report we have shown that OCD symptoms are treatable in DBA as effectively as in other conditions such as mental retardation \[[@B16]\] and Down Syndrome \[[@B17]\].
Despite the fact that some psychiatric medications have shown a worsening of the symptoms of anemia, SSRIs and valproate have been extremely beneficial and safe.
Authors\' contributions
=======================
SP established the treatment of the patient, conceived the case-report and drafted the manuscript, SM drafted the manuscript, SB drafted the manuscript, MM drafted the manuscript, AI collected information about the case and drafted the manuscript, EH drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
================
Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this Case Report.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
}
|
I really enjoyed the first chapter
of this piece immensely. This article was an accumulation of a few of my
passions regarding teaching. It touched upon allowing the students to decide
what they would be learning based on their interests and prior knowledge. It
also talked about how important participation in the world is in helping
students know first-hand how their help makes a difference. It talks about encourages
students to become empowered by asking questions and seeking out the answers.
By standing up for what they believe and fighting for the change that will give
them what they deserve. Liberation is as praxis: the action and reflection of
people upon their world in order to transform it” (Shor, 33)
The tools we need in order to empower
our students have been given to us this semester has we read through the
articles each week and then blogged about them. As I read through this article
I kept stumbling upon connections with all of the texts we had read. Some had
one more than one author that related to the passage but here I just put down
the author that came to mind first. I flagged them and will share them here:
·August’s “Creating Safe Spaces: “Our
role as teachers is to create a safe environment in which students can express
opinions and most importantly, generate their own language materials for
learning and peer-teaching” (Shor, 43).
August’s Advocacy &
Protection: “From a critical point of view, existing cannons
of knowledge and usage are not a common culture; they have ignored the multicultural
themes, idioms and achievements of non-elite groups such as woman, minorities,
homosexuals and working people.
·Christensen’s Media Control: “The hostile
reception in the mass media and in academic circles in the United States to
feminist and multicultural studies since the 1960’s exemplifies the political nature
of apparently neutral knowledge” (Shor, 34).
·Collier’s “Code-Switching”: “As
writing teachers to Afro-Caribbean students, they taught the community idiom,
Creole and standard English simultaneously. They did not install white English
as the preferred idiom in the classroom. Instead they developed bilingual
literacy and a political awareness of the relationship between the dominant and
the community languages” (Shor, 48).
Collier’s Acceptance of Home Language: “Their
class in Creole and standard English is an example of multicultural language
arts seeking a critical and democratic balance between community speech and the
dominant usage, without denying either” (Shor, 50)
·Delpit’s “Rules and Codes of Power”: “As
conscious human beings, we can discover how we are conditioned by the dominant
ideology. We can gain distance on our moment of existence…we can struggle free precisely
because we know we aren’t free! That is why we can think of transformation.
Human beings are capable of overcoming limits if they can openly examine them.
The participatory class offers that possibility” (Shor, 22-23)
Delpit’s “Rules and Codes of
Power”: “Most kids like the sound of their home language better…we talk about
why it might be necessary to learn standard English…asking my students to
memorize the rules without asking who makes the rules, who enforces the rues,
who benefits from the rules, who loses from the rules…legitimates a social
system that devalues my students’ knowledge and language” (Shor, 53).
·Johnston’s “Say the Words”: “Politics
reside not only in subjects matter but in the discourse of the classroom; in
the way teachers and students speak to each other. The rules for talking are a
key mechanism for empowering or disempowering students” (Shor, 14).
·Kohl’s “I Won’t Learn From You Technique”: “Many
students do not like the knowledge, process or rules set out for them in class.
In reaction, they drop out or withdraw into passivity or silence in the
classroom. Some become self-educated; some sabotage the curriculum by misbehaving”
(Shor, 14).
Kohl’s “I Won’t Learn From You Technique”: The
Performance Strike: Until students experience lively participation, mutual
authority and meaningful work, they will display depr4essed skills and knowledge,
as well as negative emotions. Teachers will be measuring and reacting to an artificially
low picture of student abilities” (Shor, 21)
Kohl’s “I Won’t Learn From You Technique”: “The authoritarian
traditional curriculum itself generate bad feelings with lead many students to
resist or sabotage the lessons” (Shor, 24)
Kohl’s “I Won’t Learn From You Technique”: Some
follow instructions, others go around them; some manipulate the teacher; still
others undermine the class. In such an environment, many students become
cynical, identifying intellectual life with dullness and indignity” (Shor, 26).
·Kohn’s “Manipulating Children”: “Education
can socialize students into critical through or into dependence on authority,
that is, into autonomous habits of mind into passive habits of following authorities,
waiting to be told what to do and what things mean” (Shor, 13).
Kohn’s “Reducing Achievement”: “The
typical classroom is framed by competition. Star charts on the wall announce who
has been successful at learning…competition encourages people to survey other
people’s differences for potential weak spots” (Shor, 23-24)
·Kozol’s The Poor Remain Poor Theory: “School
funding is another political dimension of education, because more money had
always been invested in the education of upper-class children and elite
collegians than has been spent on students from lower-income homes and in
community college” (Shor, 15).
·Kozol’s Stereotyping Theory: “Low
status traditionally ascribed to everyday language…the medium of expression of
those colonized was always viewed by the colonists as something inferior, ugly,
poverty-stricken, incapable for example of conveying scientific or
technological ideas, as if languages did not change historically in step with
actual developments in the forces of production” (Shor, 52).
McIntosh’s Privileges: “Instead
of blaming themselves, they learned that the problem of doing well in school is
a problem of an unequal society that devalues the idiom spoken by ordinary
people” (Shor, 53)
·Westheimer’s Reflecting Upon Service Learning: “Piaget
says ‘Knowledge is derived from action…to know an object is to act upon it and
to transform it…to know is therefore to assimilate reality into structures of
transformation and these are the structures that intelligence constructs as a
direct extension of our actions.’ With a Deweyan emphasis, Piaget reiterated
that we learn by doing and thinking
about our experience” (Shor, 17).
Other than all the quotes I listed above, I found
six more that really stood out for me that I will continue to discuss here. They
touched upon everything from empowerment to reflecting to participating to
keeping an open mind in order to accept differences and things we at first don’t
understand. These are all key elements in teaching in my opinion. “Schools need
to be defended as an important public service that educates students to be
critical citizens who can think, challenge, take risks and believe that their
actions will make a difference in a larger society” (Shor 16).
The aspect I have always struggled with the most is
that balance between teaching what I think is right whilst not enforcing my
beliefs on my students, instead encouraging them to think and feel for
themselves. “By limiting creative and critical questioning, the banking model
makes education into an authoritarian transfer instead of a democratic
experience. Any material imposed by authority as doctrine stops being knowledge
and becomes dogma. Critical learning and democratic education end where
orthodoxy begins” (Shor, 34).
“In the social setting of education, passive curricula
help prepare students for life in undemocratic institutions. Students do not
practice democratic habits in co-governing their classroom, schools or
colleges. There, they learn that unilateral authority is the normal way things
are done in society. They are introduced in school to the reality of management
holding dominant unelected power. At the same time they are told that they live
in freedom and democracy” (Shor, 19). The rules and code of power keep the
students opinions at bay. They are taught that their needs and thoughts do not
matter. This is why it’s so important to run a democratic classroom, where we
can show our students that their voice doe sin fact matter greatly.
“To help move students away from passivity and
cynicism, a powerful signal has to be sent from the very start, a signal that
learning is participatory, involving humour, hope and curiosity. A strong
participatory and affective opening broadcasts optimistic feelings about the
students’ potential and about the future; students are people whose voices are
worth listening to, whose minds can carry the weight of serious intellectual
work, whose thought and feeling can entertain transforming self and society” (Shor,
26) This is important because we must allow students to know how much their opinions
matter. They must be taught that their voice is powerful and needs to be used.
By having open discussion forums in class, they can feel the rush and
excitement of adding to the conversation!
I would like to sum up this piece with two quotes. I’ll reward you with a video and the middle. “People
begin life as motivated learners, not as passive beings. Children naturally join
the world around them. They learn by interacting, by experimenting and by using
play to internalize the meaning of words and experience. Language intrigues
children; they have needs they want met; they busy the older people in their
lives with questions and requests for show me, tell me. But year by year their
dynamic learning erodes in passive classrooms not organized around their
cultural backgrounds, conditions or interests. Their curiosity and social instincts
decline until many become nonparticipants” (Shor, 17). This touched me so
deeply because I have always subscribed to the theory that children know more
than we could ever know. They are so much wiser than we are because they are
untainted by society still. They still believe in their hopes and dreams and
goodness and Santa Claus. Then we slowly strip away their confidence and
passion for play and life. They do love to learn, they want to learn and grow
much more so than most adults. So why not allow them to?
This video of Sir Ken Robinson speaking on Changing Education Paradigms, edited and drawn by the RSA team plays to the
very themes in the above quote. It also touches upon all of the issues brought
up in this piece as well as lots of other pressing education issues like the
lack of the arts, creativity and the old industrial revolution format of our
education system. It’s only eleven minutes long. Please watch it. Robinson is funny, smart, witty and
passionate about what we all care about.
The last thing I’d like to share (I
know I’m dragging it out, it’s our final blog post after all!) is a quote from
this piece which I refer to as the holy grail. This is why knowledge
is power and why it’s so important that we how our students that they have
the power to make great change! “Knowledge has always been a place where forces
contend for power, as Galileo discovered in his conflicts with the Vatican, as
slaveholders in the American south understood when they made it illegal to
teach slaves to read or write and as the Bush White House demonstrated when it imposed
strict censorship on the coverage of the Gulf War. In no society is knowledge a
neutral terrain. Because some groups in history have had the power to establish
standard knowledge and standard usage, these canons need to be studied
critically, not absorbed as a bogus common culture” (Shor, 34-35). Food for
thought indeed!
Questions For Class:
·The aspect I have always struggled with the most is
that balance between teaching what I think is right whilst not enforcing my
beliefs on my students, instead encouraging them to think and feel for
themselves. What are some ways that I can use in order to not allow my passion
to persuade others to believe what I do while still sharing what I believe is
right to encourage them to do what’s right?
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
I found the powerpoint presentation of my IEP study but I don't know how to attach it here, anyone knows who can help me?
For now, I can at least share something. On slide seven I put a youtube link. It's a xtranormal video that someone made to show what how a parent can be really confused during an IEP meeting (one-on-one here). You'll only need to watch the first minute to get the gist! It's copied and pasted it here too:
As Chelsea pointed out in her post, this article
was difficult to get through. I think this is because we now can read article
like this with new lens. Lens we have honed with the tools we have gathered in
reading other pieces that focused on aspects like the rules and culture of
power, safe spaces and privilege. We will never see the world the same ever
again. As we have found out in reading this article, that is both a blessing
and a curse. A curse because our antennas are now up and receptive much more
clearly to what is really going on around us and so we can no longer ignore it without
feeling something about it first. A blessing for the same reason because now we
can do something about it! In this article we learn about teachers who have
done just that in their classrooms with children who have Down syndrome. Chelsea
talks about three such students; Lee, Isaac and John. I will take it a step
farther by comparing these stories to the theories of Bilken, my man Vygotsky
and the super cool Dewey.
The story of Lee illustrates how we automatically stereotype
those students who simply look different. Lee’s teacher points this out when he
is singled out saying “anybody who knows Lee knows he’s gifted in how he solves
problems, cares about others, reads, loves math. So I guess what I’m arguing is
that if you did pick Lee out, you wouldn’t be seeing Lee. It’s not Lee you are
picking out. It’s your stereotype, your mind-set. It’s you and it has nothing
to do with Lee” (pg. 84). “The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people
with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the
barriers for people with disabilities” (pg. 73) says Kingsley.
We can do this by changing the rules and codes of
power that Delpit speaks of and Bilken points out because it is they that sort
everyone out into compartments they can label and it is they who controls where
they are all placed. I agree with Kozol when he says that if we don’t, we end
up paying a tremendous intellectual, emotional, spiritual and economic cost”
(pg. 73). “Society is hurt when schools act as cultural sorting machines justifying
a competitive ethic that marginalizes certain students that legitimize
discrimination and devaluation on the basis of the dominant society’s
preferences in matters of ability, gender, ethnicity and race and that endorse
an elaborate process of sorting by perceived ability and behaviour” (pg. 73).
This perceived ability and behaviour can also be
seen in Isaac’s story. Isaac’s teacher Shayne saw early on how
he understood lessons in his own way. She didn’t see his movements and
outbursts as behavioural disobedience but instead saw it as his flair for the
dramatic because he enjoyed the “drama of life.” As Chelsea also points out “the
presumed defectiveness exists not as an intrinsic commodity of the child who
thoughts fail to fit within the perceived static border of normality. Rather
the idea of defect emerges from culturally devalued sets of relationships
that that child has with his or her surroundings” (pg. 82). Vygotsky would
agree as he believed that children constructed their knowledge by having
relationships with others and then learning to understand them through their
engagements.
When Isaac is tested with blocks and spoons and
doesn’t follow directions to a tee, the evaluator, who doesn’t know him at all,
misreads his actions. “He separated the blocks from the spoons and tasted each
spoon before throwing it aside. He was not even given credit by the psychologist,
who noted that Isaac had not conformed to the specific directions of the test
item and so he didn’t even get credit for it because he didn’t do it right but
he clearly knew which was the block, which was the spoon and he followed
directions in an organizing sense” (pg. 84). Shayne saw this incompetence as a perception
ascribed to a child by others who misunderstood the meaning of the child’s
performance” (pg. 83). As Kohn points out, the student isn’t going to learn
from you if you don’t respect what they have to say or how they handle learning
themselves.
As Shayne points out “the notion of
Down syndrome often obscures out ability to recognize the child as a child”. John
Mcgough knew this first hand when he lived in North Hollywood where he did not
know what it was like to be “accepted for what he is, not what he isn’t”. When
he moved with his family to Mendocino, John was able to really throw himself
into the community because they welcomed him with open arms and didn’t treat
him as someone who was lacking abilities of any kind and instead were able to “see
past his chromosomal anomaly to his humanity”. As one of his siblings pointed
out “here he is safe-what he calls a safe space and he can concentrate on what
he can do instead of being shown or being told what he can’t do” (all pg. 86) August
touches upon this as well, cited how in created a safe space for students, they
are able to feel more comfortable in their skin so that they can focus on
learning.
Dewey too mentions a safe space in
the way of a community, which is what Mendocino is to John. Most importantly
how a democratic community can help value individuality. In the realization of
human reciprocity we can see democracy as “more than a form of government it is
primarily a mode of associate living, of conjoint communicated experience”,
which can also be seen in Shayne teaching in an inclusive classroom with Isaac
and other Down syndrome students. Just as Shayne too points out how the
students learn from one another, Dewey took notices “democracy as a way of life
in which community both establishes and is derived from each individual’s
recognition of the value of every other individual.” This is the most important
part to remember because “democracy can only occur when no person’s voice is
deterministically silenced” (pg. 72).
In Chelsea’s blog, she address key
points in this article including why students with down syndrome should be
place in inclusive classes because they learn from one another, what it means
when we accept people for who they are instead of who they aren't and how
common traits in all of us help us to relate to other's who are different than
us. I posted a YouTube video below called We’re More Alike Than Different. I
think it shows that is certainly true of people with Down syndrome, other
learning disabilities, ablebodyiness and any other aspect that makes them
different that the so called “norm” (up, there’s that word I so despise again).
Shanye has been teaching that way for years. Kliewer is bringing it to our
attention here. Now it’s our job to take our lens out and go make the necessary
changes to show why schools should constitute inclusive classrooms because the “dialogic
of democracy is ultimately a set of values based upon respect, humility and
creative listening” (pg. 73).
Question For Class:
I really appreciated how this article compared the inclusive
classroom to the fundamental framework of a democracy. The question left is how
a democratic country, which is based on accepting one and all and treating
everyone the same has turned into a place of segregation, privilege, labels and
opportunities to point out what is different. How can we fix this and make
America what is was intended to be all along-a place for all?
Sunday, November 10, 2013
I keep watching this...sometimes I just listen. I can't get enough of it. Perhaps it's Radiohead's (a favourite band of mine) soothing sounds pushing you towards forward thinking or Sir Ken Robinson's (a hero of mine) welcoming voice reminding us that it is we who are responsible for removing the idea that we are creative ourselves. Perhaps it's because it's a subject that moves me. Perhaps it's because it's important. Perhaps is a accumulation of these things-in fact I know it is. All of the subjects in school should meld into one another to show how everything is connected because it is. We are. The arts shows us this is true.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
As I took my seat at one of our class’s circle of tables, I couldn’t help but feel like I was part of a bonded group. We all sought each other out and even those of us who sat with other friends, sat close by. I’m sure part of the bond came from our Thursday class supportive discussion on college and our teaching professions but as we learned at the conference, a foundation must be laid before you build upon it. Attending this conference together was a way to add to the strong foundation we have collectively built in class all ready.
I noticed how we all jotted down notes and kept our reactions to our self for the first hour. Perhaps it was because we were getting restless or because the Mayor said the hot point words that hit a chord with us, but an hour into the panel, we were all starting to show our feelings on what we were hearing and experiencing. All we had to do was make eye contact with one another in order to understand that the told Dr. Bogad had given us in class where at work, applying themselves as a way to connect what we were hearing to what we were feeling.
I have lot of random notes from this panel, which can be read out like a beat poem. In order to hone in on some ideas, I went through and highlighted aspects that jumped out. These notes are a mix of what I was hearing and the connections I was making to what I was hearing. Here they are: cohesive collaboration within the community, show them a better logic-build the ground-now secure it, take ideas and actually put them into action-real purpose in the real world, needs are connected, can’t just fix one-must fix all-only way to prevent the band-aid (Kozol-Mott Haven), don’t use socioeconomic achievement as an excuse BUT you must guide them through-they can’t do it alone, whole needs of a family-not just teaching but food and housing too, America isn’t the best anymore-we need incentives to be the best (Kohn-Good Job), stop changing theories and foundations every 3-4 years-look at basics and bring them into the digital future, take the parents and encourage them to exceed and then their children will want to do the same-show by example.
I just delivered those ideas to you in the order I heard them. I’d like to point out the first and last idea. It starts with a cohesive collaboration in the community which is how we can help to encourage parents to strive for a better life by going after a better career. Then their children will see them as an example and follow suit. The point I’m making in joining these two ideas’ together is that in order to put the parent in a position where they can change their socioeconomic status and be a good role model for their children, we must collaborate ideas together in order to connect with them so we can give them guidance and help lead them to better opportunities. Show them a better logic model, build from the ground up. Stop changing theories every 3-4 years and look, focus, on the basics. Take ideas and actually put them into action. See a pattern here? The observations are in place. The ideas are swirling. Now it’s time to add a bit of action to them, like our good friend Benjamin Franklin suggested centuries ago!
This pattern of collaborate, connect and reflect continued throughout the sessions I took and key-note address. In Artistic Approaches in Cultivating Community the instructor gave us an artsy model of civic pride through collaborative work. A 6th grade class in New Bedford, MA studied the history of their area and then brainstormed on what they learned. In their conversation, they created a list of pictures from the past, present and their hopes for the future that they joined together with a common element for a mural in their cafeteria.This helped the students to not only feel proud of where they came from but also build a personal sense of ownership to their part in the community. Even the parents got involved, prepping the panel with whitewash and painting alongside their children. They were given enough patience, persistence and time to complete the project, which garnered the attention of the Historical Society. They students were given an opportunity to look around and notice the place they came from and then to make changes in their environment.
The group that presented The Community Lens showed their students civic engagement through collaborative engagement. They asked their students to visualize peace and justice and to write, talk and capture through photographs what that looked like to them. In working with kids from Providence through City Arts and from Ecuadorthey were able to show how similar the ideas around peace and justice were. They showed that through reciprocal and enduring relationships, there could be conflict resolution. By using photographs, you didn’t have to speak the same language. Instead you could use non-verbal’s to be together, to communicate together. Stereotypes could be squashed, like they were in the Kahne and Westheimer piece, once the students were able to see the existing humanity in other countries. They discovered that peace and justice looks the same in all places. Perhaps this is a great way to actually help peace and justice on earth come into fruition.
During the keynote address, our presenter focused on the charity versus change model that Kahne and Westhemier shares with us. He does this by flipping the idea of service learning on its head by titling his presentation “Why Service Learning Is Bad.” He spoke about how we needed to engage with our communities again and that service could “solve” that need but only if we started to focus on the whole of the problem instead of the individuals within in the problem or, just as Kozol pointed out, we are only making a temporary fix. He said that we need to change the oppressive elements of reality by redistributing the power because right now we are living in an economic contradiction. McIntosh and Johnson also point this out when they talk about white privilege as well as Delpit in her culture of power. Well-being in the way of success is based on your zip code because those zip codes are often zoned by race and the minorities are always left with the bottom of the heap. The presenter recommended that we combine the work of anthropology, sociology, geography and community studies in order to focus on the whole problem.
My last session was a combination of two subjects. The first was a quick study in Service Learning. They used a design, implement and assess model. Just like in Kahne and Westhemier, the focus is not only on the actual volunteer work but the reflection of it as well. The presenter adds education to the community service umbrella and focuses on two needs; that of the community and that of the student. He shared a story about a student’s experience who discovered that the water in town was toxic so they did further investigation, brought up the issue and worked towards cleaning it up, which they did. But connecting service, education and community they were able to fix a problem that mattered.
The second part of the last session was probably my favourite. In Critical Stance or Critical Dance we learned how to evaluate possibilities and envision alternatives. To take a stance means to speak your opinion at another person and then moving on-it’s not a conversation, instead it’s just spewing out words. While dancing is a form of collaboration where something is created together-it’s a relationship that acts. Dance has elements of fluidity, variation and improv. So a critical dance is a way to share out in the open your opinions and then listen to other’s view as well. The presenter shared a story from the school she works at called School One. A few years ago students had put up posters in the hallway advocating for equal marriage rights. One female student was very upset about and took it up with the Principle. The Principle said that she had every right to her feelings but that a discussion had to take place in order to discuss how they would handle the struggle between her feelings and the students who put up the posters as well as the rest of the student body. Upset, she left the room and ripped down all the posters.
The school had an assembly where they discussed how to handle the subject of hanging posters and also the disciple that should be given to the girl who pulled the posters down. The treated the school as a democracy, one where the students had a say. They decided that the student should make a hate speech poster to show how she made the students who put up the posters feel when she ripped them down. They then discussed how to handle political speech and put rules into place. They would designated an area where students could put up any message they wanted as long as it only focused on your opinion. No words of opposition from the other side of the issue were allowed on the poster, it had to remain positive. The girl saw how her actions affected others and learned from her punishment. Later on she ended up coming to terms with her sexuality and came out. This story showed how to deal with an unavoidable dance through care ethics that ended up transforming the entire school!
As I have mentioned above the themes I saw throughout this conference are collaboration, connection and reflection. I believe these themes have also been prevalent in our classroom throughout all of our discussions on the texts we have read and the experiences we’ve had during out service learning. Topics we have covered in class also came up throughout the conference. Ideas on white privilege (Johnson and McIntosh) and the culture of power (Delpit). The change vs. change model of service learning (Kahne & Westhemier). The look of education and life of those in the low class (Kozol). The safe spaces we can create for LQGBTV students (August). And actually tuning our minds in order to notice and analyze all of this (Christensen). As Dr. Bogad pointed out in the beginning of the semester, if you had bad eyesight, why wouldn’t you want to wear glasses so you could see better? Through the topics we have worked on in class, we now have super charged glasses which give us the power to see clearly what is really going on in our country. Together through collaboration, connection and reflection, we can make the changes we truly wish to see!
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Reflections
on The Smithsonian exhibit of Brown v. Board of Education, Tim Wise’s radio
interview and Bob Herbert’s Separate but
Unequal article
The
Smithsonian website of Brown v. Board of Education was full of components to
the build-up of and the actual event. I think they were trying to show how important
events that led up to this case were in building a foundation for a favoured
vote. They show how everything in the past is a basis and are connected to how
we live in the present and what will come in the future. Because of this, I
needed to do some background digging. So I searched Wikipedia.
The next key moment in history came with the
case of Plessy
v. Ferguson in 1896, which was about a man who was considered Black (he was
actually 7/8th’s White and 1/8’s Black) who was encouraged by the
Committee of Citizens to board a white railroad car. He was arrested and stated
the 14th amendment as his defence. Plessy lost the case as the
Supreme Court stated that the separation of races was public policy and that in
this defence it “stamps
the coloured race with a badge of inferiority.” Yes, I know, I’m fired up
too! The court said that
segregation made every one equal. But as we learn from the Smithsonian tour,
what transpired was actually more like separate and unequal.
Meanwhile behind the scenes after Plessy
v. Ferguson, Charles Houston gathered a group of budding lawyers to find a way
to prove that segregation laws (Jim Crow laws) were enforcing unequal treatment.
Houston decided after this case that the justices on the Supreme Court were not
going to overturn separation. When he passed the reigns over to Thurgood
Marshall in 1936, various other lawsuits on transportation, teaching salaries
and schools were filed in an attempt to prove their point. The time was ripe to
overturn segregation because American was questioning was being a Democracy
really meant which lead to a deeper focus on racial justices. Finally, in 1951,
with Brown v. Board of Education, he felt they had a strong case.
In the fall of 1951 parents of Topeka, Kansas,
encouraged by the NAACP, attempted to enroll their children in a closer school
to their home, which just happened to be a White school. When they were
refused, they filed suit against the education board of their city and put
Oliver L. Brown at the helm, who was trying to enroll his daughter. Not only
was the school closer but it was better. At the time states funded White
schools better than any other. Often books for the White schools, outdated and
replaced, were given to the Black, Mexican, Asian, etc. schools. These races
also had to fundraise through BBQ’s and dig into their own pockets in order to
raise money for their schools. They often built the schools and hired their own
teachers. I’d call that pretty unequal.
During
the case, people starting spreading the word of what was going on in their
world. Whites were either ignoring the problem or ignorant. Hoping that the
majority was doing the latter, they hung flags whenever a Black man was hung.
They were saying the words in order to spread consciousness. Allan Johnson said
“if we dispense with the words we make it impossible to talk about what’s
really going on and what it has to do with us” which is why it’s important to
keep the conversation going about what is happening in our country. The case
was won in favour of Brown in a unanimous vote. Most of us are familiar with
the Norman Rockwell’s (an artist most known for paintings of American life)
painting of the black girl being escorted by white U.S. Marshalls to school with
her book and school supplies in hand. The Smithsonian makes mention of this
picture because it depicts that even after a law is passed, how much opposition
it can still have. Something I hadn’t even recognized before was the smashed tomato
against the wall where the girl had just passed. Just appalling.
At
the end of the virtual high school level tour of the Smithsonian exhibit, the curators
along with a historian answer questions from students. I found these very
informative because they addressed how the case of Brown v. Board of Education has
influenced other minority disadvantages that came after. Almost like a full
circle gathering of historical context, showing how everything is influential
and connected. One student was told after their question how this case paved
the way for woman (workplace), disabled (ADA laws) and LGBQTV (marriage) individuals
of today. Alonzo Smith mentioned after a question was posed how Dr. Kenneth
Clark went into schools to test how students felt about race by using a Black
and a White skinned doll. This study proved how segregation affected
self-esteem in Black children and dislike of Blacks in White children and was a
key component in the case. Smith goes on to say that “you can’t make money
without good education and so your life chances are severely restricted.” This
reminds me of the Kozol article where the Mott Haven residents are faced with
the same vicious circle kind of situation.
Bob
Herbert addresses some of these same issues in his article Separate and Unequal. His focus is more on the idea of rich and
poor schools and how that usually relates to race. He points out that studies
have shown low-income students performing better in schools that were more advantaged.
In fact “studies have shown that it is not the race
of the students that is significant, but rather the improved all-around
environment of schools with better teachers.” These poorer students can keep up
with those who have more money, they just aren’t being given the opportunity to
because they are given less expectations and forced to attend a school with
lowered budgets. In order to change this throughout the country, there has to
be ethnic and racial as well as diverse income statuses of students’ integration
of schools. That way truly there is no child left behind in every sense of the
phrase and it becomes a program that actually works.
Tim
Wise takes these ideas a step further by pointing out that we may have overcome
our racism 1.0 but that we have graduated to racism 2.0. What he means by this
is that we may have a Black President so we could say that we aren’t racist but
that we actually are because it’s a certain kind of Black person who we accept;
one, who comes from a great educational background, is well versed and erudite.
He alludes to colour comfort idea as well but doesn’t come right out stating
that which none of us have really said-Barack Obama has light brown skin. Would
he have been elected if he was a darker shade? Would he have been elected if
sounded as hillbilly as George W. Bush? Wise says no because in order for
an ethnic person to break the glass ceiling, they have to be truly exceptional.”
As we saw yesterday at the Promising Practices conference during the panel and
as Wise says being
poor is not an excuse but it is a reason for why changes must take place in our
schools. Poor students must be given the tools in order to give them the opportunity
to not use their socioeconomic status as an excuse and that it is our
responsibility to do so.
Wise
wants us to be reminded that just because but an ethnic person may not present
themselves the same way Obama does, doesn’t mean they aren’t intelligent and
that by ignoring them, we are supressing someone who may have something to say.
We have to stop judging from the surface, just as Peggy McIntosh points out in
her article. Wise also points out a common theme in all three of these
presentations and articles which is that we must remember about how much work
still needs to be done and that it’s no good remaining in a denial state. We
must, as Johnston also mentions, say the words! We deny the problems at hand by
trying hard to be racist by being nice but remaining oblivious to our actions
and the actions of others. He points out that in 1962 most people didn’t think
there was a racism problem in our country. There clearly was but most were too
ignorant to recognize it.
The reason it is important to learn
about cases like Brown v. Board of Education is to see what changes can be
made. The reason it is important to explore the case and be reminded of it
fifty years later is to recognize the changes that still need to be made. This
is made clear by the Smithsonian exhibit, Bob Herbert and Tim Wise. Harry
Rubinstein sums this point up perfectly; “it’s not just about passing the law,
it requires more like on-going vigilance and participation.” This case affects
everyone in America because we are all diverse in different ways. We all must continue
to fight for equal rights by participating in the conversation and striving for
changes that truly make us all equal.
Questions For Class:
·At
the conference yesterday, a hot point was Mayor Angel Taveras comment about how
being poor isn’t an excuse. These articles show us that it is the education
system and essential we as citizens, not as teachers, are making an excuse by
not addressing the reasons why poor students have trouble. These article show
point out ways we can change this like socioeconomic, ethnic and race mixed
classrooms but how do we actually make it happen?
About Me
I live in New England where we get all four seasons and where the colours change throughout the year!
I love all of the arts; music, dance, theatre, paintings, photography & writing! I love to read books, teach and learn; ancora imparo (Latin for I am still learning)! I love to watch films and listen to music most of all. I am obsessed with colour and music is my life! I love kid things like watching cartoons and the Disney Channel! I have been an Anglophile since I was little! I love walking while taking in the nature around us! I am a tree hugger quite literally! I love Story People, Jane Austen and Young Adult Books. I love New York City and Lighthouses. My hobbies are singing, writing, reading, walking, collaging, cake decorating, and just simply creating.
I am currently a full-time student in college studying Secondary English Education. I want to teach English literature and writing to high school aged young adults while incorporating all of the arts into my lessons because they are where students can create for themselves. I worry as the art seem to be disappearing rapidly from the curriculum. I also work part time!
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Experimental model of myocardial infarction induced by isoproterenol in rats.
To evaluate and validate, in our laboratory, the essay of myocardial infarction induced by isoproterenol in rats by means of analysis of hematological, biochemical, oxidative stress markers and histopathological parameters. Thirty young, male, Wistar rats (145 to 230 g) were randomly allocated in two groups: Sham group, which underwent a virtual myocardial infarction induction, and the Infarction group, which underwent a myocardial infarction induction with isoproterenol. The administrations for the infarction induction were performed during two consecutive days and a 24-hour interval between them. Twenty-four hours after the last administration, rats from both groups were anesthetized and sacrificed for blood sample collection to evaluate complete blood count (CBC) and biochemical parameters (SGOT, SGPT, troponin I, urea and creatinin), obtain myocardial fragments for oxidative stress markers analyses (catalase activity and glutathione concentrations) as well as histopathological examinations. There were no death cases in the Sham group, while the mortality rate in the Infarction group was 25%. Myocardial infarction induction with isoproterenol raised leukocytes and neutrophils counts, SGOT, troponin I and urea concentrations, reduced catalase enzyme activity and glutathione concentrations in the myocardium and let to histopathological concentrations as well. It did not exert alterations in terms of hemoglobin, SGPT and creatinin concentrations. The isoproterenol-induced myocardial infarction essay in rats was adequately reproduced in our laboratory, causing alterations in hematological, biochemical, oxidative stress markers and histopathological parameters.
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Ja'Von Rolland-Jones watched the NFL Draft's rounds pass with a growing frustration.
Fourth round. Fifth round. Sixth.
The former Arkansas State University defensive end was told by his agent and NFL representatives that he would most likely be picked between the fourth and seventh rounds.
The Rolland-Jones family had thrown a party in its home in Mesquite, Texas, 30 miles away from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, where the draft was held.
Rolland-Jones held tight to his phone as other pass rushers' names were selected in the seventh round.
No. 230: Leon Jacobs, Wisconsin's All-Big Ten honorable mention outside linebacker. Picked by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
No. 248: Kendall Donnerson (Maumelle High School), a Southeast Missouri State outside linebacker who ranked 19th all-time at the program for sacks. Picked by the Green Bay Packers.
Rolland-Jones had been named the Sun Belt Conference's overall player of the year twice. His 43½ career sacks trail just Terrell Suggs (44) for most all-time in the NCAA Football Subdivision.
What did they have that he didn't?
"It was definitely frustrating seeing guys going before me that didn't do anything close to what I did," Rolland-Jones said. "But God has a plan. I always follow him and listen to his word."
Before the round concluded, Rolland-Jones sent out a tweet at 5:05 p.m.: "GOD got a plan."
Just before the Washington Redskins used the draft's final pick on someone else, Rolland-Jones' phone rang.
It was Cincinnati Bengals head Coach Marvin Lewis, who had coached Rolland-Jones in the East-West Shrine Game in January.
Lewis extended an offer to sign as an undrafted free agent.
"He was what I can do, and he liked me from then on," said Rolland-Jones, who hadn't yet arranged the details of his contract. "It's a blessing. Even though I didn't get drafted like I wanted to, it shows other young men that they can do this. You can go to the NFL without being drafted."
An Arkansas State player has not been drafted since 2014, when Ryan Carrethers was selected by the then-San Diego Chargers in the fifth round. Rolland-Jones is the sixth player to sign as an undrafted free agent since then.
Rolland-Jones said he will fly to Cincinnati in two weeks and will continue to train on his own until his flight.
"Hey, it's grind time. Just know it's coming," he said. "I read this book before. Nobody believed in me going into college, and nobody believed in me in the NFL except the Bengals, and I'll just keep going with the Bengals until the wheels fall off."
Former Arkansas State tight end Blake Mack and defensive tackle Dee Liner both signed as undrafted free agents with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Mack recorded 1,505 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in his four seasons with the Red Wolves, and Liner recorded 15 tackles for loss in his two seasons after transferring from Alabama in 2015.
Sports on 04/29/2018
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While “Terrace House: Opening New Doors” didn’t have the greatest final season, we still have to recognize the love that went inside the house.
And while Shion and Tsubasa, which many people rooted for, are no longer a couple, there are two couples that are still going strong.
Tanaka Yui and Fukuda Aio are still together and if one thing we love about this couple, they aren’t afraid to show how much they care and love each other on their Instagram.
View this post on Instagram 雨だったけど。 雨だったから？☔️ 楽しかった。 朝から行く予定だったけど結局13:00から。 アイオンファミリーありがとうございました😊 #3枚目の私の横顔がなぁー。失敗。 A post shared by tanaka (@heisei_8nen) on Jul 7, 2019 at 5:19am PDT
View this post on Instagram お揃いのカッパでディズニーへ 晶子とネスも一緒に💯💯💯💯 最高に楽しかった🙈🙈 #ディズニーランド A post shared by Aio 愛大 (@aiofukuda_) on Jul 7, 2019 at 5:23am PDT
View this post on Instagram めちゃ懐かしい写真あった 付き合う全然前の事だね ほぼ毎日家にいるの2人だけだったからね A post shared by Aio 愛大 (@aiofukuda_) on Jun 30, 2019 at 3:06am PDT
View this post on Instagram ケーキ、あーん ゆい真顔の時怖い。 せめて笑って。 #田中優衣顔怖い A post shared by Aio 愛大 (@aiofukuda_) on May 19, 2019 at 5:37am PDT
And what about the Shimabukuro Seina and Ishikura Noah, yep, they still look like a model couple (literally!).
View this post on Instagram 日焼けしたね😛 サイパン満喫してます💙💙 A post shared by 島袋聖南 (@seina4444) on Jul 14, 2019 at 3:10am PDT
View this post on Instagram シーに連れて行ってもらった⚓️ ノアさんありがとう☺️💜 A post shared by 島袋聖南 (@seina4444) on May 7, 2019 at 6:50pm PDT
And what about the others?
They’re still partying with their fellow TH:OND cast members:
View this post on Instagram 久しぶりに揃っても昨日の続きみたいにお話しできるのがこれまた素敵❤️❤️❤️ 朝から久しぶりのゆいちゃんご飯でしっかりお腹いっぱい🤭💭 ジム行ってこよっと💪 それにしても笑いすぎたな〜〜みんな個性強すぎて面白すぎるんだよな〜〜 みんなのオフ感😂😂😂 A post shared by Maaaya (@maaayaofficial) on Jul 20, 2019 at 7:52pm PDT
But guess who reconnected many months after the show had ended? Tanigawa Risako and Wada Masao. Still friends, but still good to see these two hang out together!
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Generous WA business owner salvages yachts at Shute Harbour
GETTING the job done and helping people is what it's all about for Geographe Marine Salvage Rescue director Luke Purdy.
Forty two tonnes of yacht wreckage was salvaged from the Shute Harbour shoreline, as $80,000 worth of work was completed by the team at Geographe Marine Salvage.
The Pacific Dragon and North Star stranded on the shores at Shute Harbour.Tamera Francis
The clean-up operation wasn't a profitable one for Mr Purdy, who trekked back to Western Australia earlier this year with his car and canine companion, Mr Bent.
"I worked flat out for five months so I could come back and help," Mr Purdy said.
After another commute across the country with his dog, Mr Purdy returned to Shute Harbour on Friday.
A love of salvaging boats has driven Mr Purdy to the edge of bankruptcy,.
"I just wanted to do as much as I could for as many people as I could," he said.
Usually contracted through insurance companies, Mr Purdy sought out private funding from a production company so he could continue to help people of the Whitsunday community, at no cost to the boat owners.
Owners of stranded ships such as that of Pacific Dawn and North Star faced hefty fines from Marine Safety Queensland should their vessels have remained stranded on the shores of Shute Harbour.
Proserpine local Stephen Banks helped Mr Purdy through the use of his time and heavy machinery.
"That guy is the ultimate bloke," Mr Purdy said.
Luke and his team salvaging The Pacific Dragon and the North Star, stranded on the shores at Shute Harbour.Tamera Francis
To give an idea of the salvage operation's scale, the custom truck Mr Purdy uses cost half-a-million- dollars and burns $500 an hour in diesel.
The most recent salvage operation per boat would usually cost $40,000, but Mr Purdy was funded just $10,000.
"People say I'm absolutely crazy," he said.
"We are helping these people the best we can, with no cost to them."
Edge's Boat Yard was the final destination for the two shipwrecked boats that will now be scrapped.
With the tide against them and darkness closing in on Friday, Mr Purdy and his team set out to salvage both boats on behalf of the thankful owners.
Steve Banks assisting the salvage crew.Tamera Francis
After overcoming many obstacles the North Star yacht was salvaged from the shore and refloated on Sunday.
Unfortunately the Pacific Dawn was snapped in half and is now destined for landfill.
Pacific Dawn's owners are battling insurance companies who rejected a payout to salvage the boat.
Battered at Bundaberg in a storm five years ago, the Pacific Dawn was repaired and relocated to Shute Harbour by its owners only to be left high and dry by Cyclone Debbie.
Mr Purdy is passionate about helping people and supporting a worthy cause, as he does publicly with the Sea Shepherd organisation and describes the shift from engineering to salvaging boats as a natural progression.
What stood out to Mr Purdy and prompted him to cross the country to help the Whitsundays was "the struggle within the community".
Despite the tough journey, he hoped "somehow it all pays off," so he could continue to do what he loved and help people.
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Example embodiments generally relate to producing non-detonable explosive samples and, more particularly, to producing such samples for use as training aids.
Non-detonable training aid materials have been developed for allowing training of explosives detection dogs (EDD), dolphins, or other living or non-living entities that can detect presence of explosives through emitted vapors. The training aid materials desirably exude the same odor as bulk quantities of real explosives, but lack the detonable properties of real explosives and are otherwise safe to handle. Furthermore, the training aid materials can preferably produce vapors that exude the odor for at least a specific period of time after opening the package (e.g., 2 hours). Such training aid materials have been developed for peroxide-based homemade explosives (HME) allowing for training EDDs to detect such explosives in various environments.
Some training aid materials are formed by coating materials with layers of the explosive molecules as dissolved in a solvent. These materials can similarly produce off-odors, however, due to addition of the solvent.
The article “The Education of a Bomb Dog” by Joshua Levine in the July 2013 issue of Smithsonian Magazine provides the state of technology information reproduced below.
Top training academy works double time to meet skyrocketing demand for canines who can sniff out danger.
Then I first meet a likable young Labrador named Merry, she is clearing her nostrils with nine or ten sharp snorts before she snuffles along a row of luggage pieces, all different makes and models. They're lined up against the back wall of a large hangar on a country road outside Hartford, Conn. This is where MSA Security trains what are known in the security trade as explosive detection canines, or EDCs. Most people call them bomb dogs.
Dogs are recognized as premier explosives detection systems. They are reliable, friendly, love to work, and are portable. Dogs have some intrinsic weaknesses such as sensory fatigue and limited detection lifespan, but still are preferred by law enforcement and the military for illicit substance detection. For example, the ATF have K-9s deployed for detection in over 13 different countries. Training K-9s is difficult because of limited targeted training aids and contamination (training on the impurity). In addition, shape recognition is not fully employed.
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Hello folks, this attachment is about RX-DK-DIY351026_close-off-clip_s4x3 (charming How To Install Curtain Rails #2). It is a image/jpeg and the resolution of this image is 1242 x 932. This attachment's file size is only 89 KB. Wether You desired to download It to Your laptop, you may Click here. You also also download more photos by clicking the following image or read more at this post: How To Install Curtain Rails.
The colour impression hasbeen confirmed as a choice for that creation of emotional feeling feeling, style, and also the style or figure of a place. Shades might be shown with all furniture's reputation, wall colour types, accessories comfortable furnishings, ornaments home, even picture home.
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Q:
woocommerce get order details after checkout
I need to get the following information after checkout:
order ID
order date
customer name (F/L)
customer phone
customer email
Which will be put into the session array and then stored in a seperate database. Currently in my theme's functions.php file I have the following:
//get completed order data:
add_action( 'woocommerce_order_status_completed', 'my_function' );
function my_function($order_id) {
$order = new WC_Order( $order_id );
$_SESSION['kiosk_data']['order_number'] = $order->[what would I use here?];
$_SESSION['kiosk_data']['order_date'] = $order->[what would I use here?];
$_SESSION['kiosk_data']['f_name'] = $order->[what would I use here?];
$_SESSION['kiosk_data']['l_name'] = $order->[what would I use here?];
$_SESSION['kiosk_data']['phone'] = $order->[what would I use here?];
$_SESSION['kiosk_data']['email'] = $order->[what would I use here?];
//for testing:
$kioskDataFile = './testFile.txt';
$kioskData = "kioskID: ".$_SESSION['kiosk_data']['kioskID']."\n";
$kioskData.= "order date: ";
$kioskData.= $order->order_date;
$kioskData.= "\n";
$kioskData.= "order ID: ";
$kioskData.= $order->id;
$kioskData.= "\n";
$kioskData.= "order key: ";
$kioskData.= $order->order_key;
$kioskData.= "\n";
$kioskData.= "first name: ";
$kioskData.= $order->billing_first_name;
$kioskData.= "\n";
$kioskData.= "last name: ";
$kioskData.= $order->billing_last_name;
$kioskData.= "\n";
$kioskData.= "phone: ";
$kioskData.= $order->billing_phone;
$kioskData.= "\n";
$kioskData.= "email: ";
$kioskData.= $order->billing_email;
$kioskData.= "\n\n\n";
file_put_contents($kioskDataFile, $kioskData, FILE_APPEND);
}
Being very new to WP/woocommerce I'm really not sure how to go about capturing this data (tried several google searches to no avail).
A:
Got it working by changing the code as follows and removing the 'add_action' component and function, and moved it to the "thankyou.php" page under child theme/woocommerce/checkout.
$kioskDataFile = './logs/kiosk_log';
$kioskData['description'] = "kiosk site - thankyou.php";
$kioskData['kiosk_id'] = $_SESSION['kiosk_data']['kioskID'];
$kioskData['order_date'] = $order->order_date;
$kioskData['month'] = date("m");
$kioskData['year'] = date("Y");
$kioskData['order_number'] = $order->get_order_number();
$kioskData['order_id'] = $order->id;
$kioskData['order_key'] = $order->order_key;
$kioskData['first_name'] = $order->billing_first_name;
$kioskData['last_name'] = $order->billing_last_name;
$kioskData['phone'] = $order->billing_phone;
$kioskData['email'] = $order->billing_email;
$s_kioskData = serialize($kioskData);
$s_kioskData.= "\n";
file_put_contents($kioskDataFile, $s_kioskData, FILE_APPEND);
I've serialized the array data so I can load it into an array via file() from the log file and sort/parse it.
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What is the best public policy to counter the health risk from the Coronavirus, COVID-19? This is the question on everyone’s mind.
It is wise to try and learn from the current situation in China, where the rate of COVID-19 infections was extinguished as a result of a lockdown, and Italy, where hospitals are full and doctors have to make life-death decisions about patients because there are not enough beds to treat everyone in need. The mortality fraction of infected people appears to be higher by an order of magnitude when hospitals are overcrowded, so suppressing the rate of new infections serves the important purpose of allowing those in need to be treated.
If we do nothing, the current state of affairs is likely to worsen dramatically in the coming weeks. To gauge how bad circumstances may become, let’s examine publicly available data.
Our first plot shows the reported number of infections over time. For each country, Wikipedia has a continuously updated Web site with links to the original official sources such as the World Health Organization, research institutes and health ministries. The plotted curves show the cumulative number of known infections per country as a function of date. Colored points show the current situation as of this writing on March 15.
Credit: Andi Burkert
The data exhibit exponential growth in all countries, except for China and South Korea. Because of the rapid growth, early action is crucial in moderating the number of infections. Extrapolating the curves all the way to the edge of the box implies that the United States will reach a million infections at the beginning of April, with four million for Spain and about 0.1 million for the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Sweden, respectively. If no effective action is taken by April 10, the U.S. and the European countries could reach the 10 million mark.
The doubling times appear to evolve, as shown in our second plot. These values represent the slopes of the growth curves, averaged over a period of eight days.
Credit: Andi Burkert
But the number of reported cases must be smaller than the actual number of infections. Many countries, including the U.S., were limited until recently by the availability of COVID-19 test kits. It is possible that there are many more cases than those in public reports. We label those “invisible infections.” South Korea performed many more tests than the U.S. and succeeded in flattening its curve. The COVID-19 tests in the U.S. had a positive fraction that was three to 10 times larger than in South Korea, implying a substantial invisible population.
If the correction factor due to the "invisible population" is a factor of approximately 10 and only about 20 percent of people infected show symptoms (based on the Diamond Princess cruise ship statistics), then the actual number of people exposed to the coronavirus at this time is already five million. This implies: (i) with an approximately 2 percent mortality fraction out of the infected population, at least 100,000 people will die; and (ii) we are only about 10 doubling times away from having most of the worldwide population being infected if no social distancing is established. Given that the measured doubling time is a few days, this implies that uninhibited exponential growth will saturate within a month, leading up to some 100 million deaths. But if many countries flatten the curve, as we all hope, then saturation will take a much longer time and the number of deaths could be reduced.
What does all of this imply? The wisest policy at the moment is to “flatten the curves” and lengthen the doubling times as much as possible by suppressing social interactions. The virus does not move on its own. It is transmitted by humans and survives a few days on contaminated surfaces. To flatten the curves, all nations must engage immediately in social distancing as well as in extensive testing and comprehensive isolation of patients with COVID-19 symptoms and people who had been in contact with such patients.
This policy will reduce crowding in hospitals and minimize the mortality rate in the short term. But one should keep in mind that it does not eliminate the virus and will likely lead to a yo-yo behavior—where, as soon as mobility of people is enabled months from now, the spread of COVID-19 will resume. The spread will saturate once most of the population is infected, as forecast by Angela Merkel, or a vaccine is widely distributed in about a year.
This short-term policy does not take into consideration the economic impact that could lead to a major recession due to loss of income by small businesses, tourism, travel and entertainment, over an extended period of time. The financial implications, combined with the societal and psychological impact of a lockdown, could deteriorate the livelihood of many communities. Bad economic times could lead to deaths of people with low income who are most vulnerable to an economic downturn. There must be a sweet spot that balances the negatives associated with crowding of hospitals versus economic downturn. This sweet spot should be the long-term goal that policy makers aim at.
Overall, there is no doubt that many people will be exposed to COVID-19. As of now, delaying the growth is crucial for reducing the total number of deaths that the COVID-19 will amass. The situation is analogous to waiting after rush hour before driving our cars in order to minimize the death toll from collisions. The optimal strategy of policy makers must be to buy as much time as possible, so that hospitals will not be overcrowded. Let’s all work together to flatten the growth curves shown above. By doing so, we could save many lives. And as stated in the Talmud: “whoever saves a single life, saves the whole world.”
Read more about the coronavirus outbreak here.
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Nearly all the remaining question marks in TVLine’s 2015 Renewal Scorecard have just been answered, courtesy of CBS.
The Eye network on Monday renewed 15 series for the 2015-16 season, including established bubble dramas Person of Interest, Hawaii Five-0 and Elementary, as well as freshman entries CSI: Cyber and The Odd Couple.
Also scoring pickups were NCIS, Blue Bloods, NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, The Good Wife, Survivor, Undercover Boss, The Amazing Race, 60 Minutes and 48 Hours.
They join previously renewed Eye programs Madam Secretary, NCIS: New Orleans, Scorpion, The Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly, Mom and 2 Broke Girls.
With the recent cancellations of Battle Creek, Stalker and The McCarthys, that leaves CSI as the only remaining CBS series in limbo. According to reports, the network is finalizing plans to bring the long-running procedural back for an abbreviated final season.
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Numbers of beam angles required for near-optimal IMRT: theoretical limits and numerical studies.
To derive limits on the numbers of beams needed to deliver near-optimal IMRT, and to assess the accuracy of the limits. The authors four different limits have been derived. One, K(A), has been obtained by coupling Fourier techniques with a proof used to obtain Bortfeld's limit, K, that if all the cross-profiles of a many-field plan can be represented as polynomials of order (K-1) over the range [-R, + R], then within the radius R circle an identical dose-distribution can be created using just K fields. Two further limits, K(H) and K(N), have been obtained using sampling theory, the K(N) limit describing fields spaced at the Nyquist frequency. K(N) can be generalized to K(N,Fbeamlet), a limit that accounts for the finite size of the beamlets from which modulated fields are constructed. Using Bortfeld's theoretical framework, the accuracy of the limits has been explored by testing how well the cross-profiles of an 8 MV double-Gaussian pencil beam and of 1 and 4 cm wide fields can be approximated by polynomials of orders equal to the different limits minus one. The dependence of optimized cost function values of IMRT plans, generated for a simple geometry and for a head-and-neck (oropharynx) case, on the numbers of beams used to construct the plans has also been studied. The limits are all multiples of R/W (W being the 20%-80% penumbra-width of a broad field) and work out at K = 27, K(A) = 43, K(H) = 34, and K(N) = 68 fields for R = 10 cm and W = 5.3 mm. All and none of the cross-profiles are approximated well by polynomials of order K(N)-1 and K-1, respectively, suggesting some inaccuracy in the assumptions used to derive the limit K. Order K(A)-1 polynomials cannot accurately describe the pencil beam profile, but do approximate the 1- and 4-cm profiles reasonably well because higher spatial frequencies are attenuated in these wider fields. All the profiles are represented well by polynomials of order K(N,Fbeamlet(-1)), which decreases from K(N) as beamlet width increases. Cost functions generated in the IMRT planning study fall as greater numbers of fields are used, before plateauing out around K(N,Fbeamlet) fields. Numerical calculations suggest that the minimum number of fields required for near-optimal IMRT lies around the generalized Nyquist limit K(N,Fbeamlet). For a clinically realistic 20%-80% penumbra-width of 5.3 mm and a radius of interest of 10 cm, K(N,Fbeamlet) falls from 68 to 47 fields as the beamlet width rises from 0 to 1 cm.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
March 20, 2010
It's Official!
Hope you get out to celebrate the beginning of the season! Heading out to our garden now to plant some lettuce, beets, spinach and to prepare the potato beds (can never have enough potatoes)! Enjoy!
Wait, am i forgetting something? Now what was it i was supposed to do today? Hmm...OH YEAH! Post the winners of the giveaway! But first, i want to thank you all so very much for helping to spread the word, but mostly for getting better connected on twitter and in blogland. Btw, i'm not really fond of the word "follower" because i think we're all leaders and followers in our own ways : ) I've truly enjoyed visiting many of your blogs and reading about you and seeing the various projects you're working on. So much creativity! Annnd it's extra special for me to see Verna out there being loved.
Speaking of love...i was overwhelmed by so much Burgundy Buttons love! A special thanks to you, Leah, for sending so many people my way. How thoughtful and fun! Good luck to everyone who is entered to win Verna charm packs over at BB!
One last thing...you're right. It's way too hard to narrow it down to just one favorite flower. To be fair, mine would have to be lilacs. But tulips and meadow rue are a close second. And magnolia blossoms, peonies and coneflowers and, and, and...orchids! Anyway, thank you for sharing your favorites. It was like getting a springy bouquet in my email each day. Without stretching this out any longer...the winner of the Verna layer cake is....
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{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Q:
Plotting position of robot joint graph does not work
I want to write a command to display equation of robot position and its graph. This is my command, but it did not display the graph:
clear;
clc;
% initial position
theta1s=-150;
theta2s=-80;
theta3s=-50;
theta4s=-100;
theta5s=-180;
% final position
theta1f=20;
theta2f=100;
theta3f=80;
theta4f=50;
theta5f=180;
% time taken for movement
tf=input('time=')
% acceleration for every link
acc1=(4.*(20-(-150)))./(tf^2)
acc2=(4.*(100-(-80)))./(tf^2)
acc3=(4.*(80-(-50)))./(tf^2)
acc4=(4.*(50-(-100)))./(tf^2)
acc5=(4.*(180-(-180)))./(tf^2)
% blending time for every link
tb1=((0.5.*(tf))-(0.5.*(sqrt((((tf^2).*acc1)-(4.*(20-(-150))))./acc1))))
t = 0;
for x = 0:tf;
t = t + 0.1;
if 0<t<=tb1;
y = theta1s+((0.5.*acc1).*(t^2));
elseif tb1<t<=tf-tb1;
y = (theta1s-((0.5.*acc1).*(tb1^2)))+(acc1.*tb1.*t);
else tf-tb1<t<=tf;
y = theta1s-((0.5.*acc1).*(tf.*t)^2);
end
plot(x,y,'r')
title('Position Versus Time');
xlabel('time in s');
ylabel('position in m');
grid on;
drawnow;
end
disp(y);
A:
You can replace plot(x,y,'r') by plot(x,y,'r*'). So, you will be able to see sepparate points.
Also you will need to add "hold on" after plot function to be able to overlay plots for all iterations.
If you want to draw line but not sepparate points, you should better move the visualization out of the loop. Here is the modified code:
clear;
clc;
% initial position
theta1s=-150;
theta2s=-80;
theta3s=-50;
theta4s=-100;
theta5s=-180;
% final position
theta1f=20;
theta2f=100;
theta3f=80;
theta4f=50;
theta5f=180;
% time taken for movement
tf=input('time=')
% acceleration for every link
acc1=(4.*(20-(-150)))./(tf^2)
acc2=(4.*(100-(-80)))./(tf^2)
acc3=(4.*(80-(-50)))./(tf^2)
acc4=(4.*(50-(-100)))./(tf^2)
acc5=(4.*(180-(-180)))./(tf^2)
% blending time for every link
tb1=((0.5.*(tf))-(0.5.*(sqrt((((tf^2).*acc1)-(4.*(20-(-150))))./acc1))))
t = 0;
% allocate memory for array
y = zeros(1, tf+1);
for x = 0:tf;
t = t + 0.1;
if 0<t<=tb1;
y(x+1) = theta1s+((0.5.*acc1).*(t^2));
elseif tb1<t<=tf-tb1;
y(x+1) = (theta1s-((0.5.*acc1).*(tb1^2)))+(acc1.*tb1.*t);
else tf-tb1<t<=tf;
y(x+1) = theta1s-((0.5.*acc1).*(tf.*t)^2);
end
end
plot(0:tf,y,'r')
title('Position Versus Time');
xlabel('time in s');
ylabel('position in m');
grid on;
drawnow;
disp(y);
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Neuris Delgado Ramírez
Neuris Delgado Ramírez (born 1981) is a Cuban-Paraguayan chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2002.
Delgado Ramírez played for Cuba at the Chess Olympiad in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Since 2014 he has been representing Paraguay in this competition.
He played in the FIDE World Cup 2017, and was knocked out by Vidit Santosh Gujrathi in the first round.
External links
Neuris Delgado Ramirez games at 365Chess.com
Neuris Delgado games (1997–2007) at 365Chess.com
Neuris Delgado Ramírez team chess record at Olimpbase.org
Category:1981 births
Category:Living people
Category:Chess grandmasters
Category:Cuban chess players
Category:Paraguayan chess players
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
}
|
Several conserved microRNAs, or short, highly conserved noncoding RNAs that are targeted to and inhibit expression of specific genes, may be involved in the regulation of limb regeneration across evolutionarily distant species, according to a study published June 29, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Benjamin King and Viravuth Yin from Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory and the University of Maine.
Although there are species throughout the animal kingdom capable of regeneration in some capacity, this defining characteristic is not equally distributed throughout evolution. Unlike mammals, some amphibian and fish species have the ability to regenerate fully functional tissue or appendages after loss, including bone, muscle, nerves, and blood vessels. While it is known that this regeneration requires the formation of an unspecialized tissue known as "blastemal," little is known about the genetic regulation of blastema formation.
To determine whether the genetic control of blastema formation may be conserved across species, the authors of this study conducted RNA sequencing of regenerating limb tissues from three evolutionarily distant species, one salamander and two ray-finned fish, at various times following amputation, when regeneration may be occurring.
The authors found a core group of conserved microRNAs and their posited target genes that may be involved in regulation of blastema formation in all three species, including some microRNAs not previously known to act in regeneration.
###
The authors suggest that limb regeneration across species may involve a common regulatory genetic pathway across evolutionarily distant organisms that diverged in evolution ~420 million years ago.
In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper: http://dx. plos. org/ 10. 1371/ journal. pone. 0157106
Citation: King BL, Yin VP (2016) A Conserved MicroRNA Regulatory Circuit Is Differentially Controlled during Limb/Appendage Regeneration.
PLoS ONE 11(6): e0157106. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0157106
Funding: This work was supported by Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant numbers P20 GM103423 and P20 GM104318 to BLK and VPY, and US Department of Defense grant W81XWH-BAA-1 to VPY. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
# Copyright 2019 The dm_control Authors.
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
# limitations under the License.
# ============================================================================
"""Composer entities corresponding to props.
A "prop" is typically a non-actuated entity representing an object in the world.
"""
from dm_control.entities.props.duplo import Duplo
from dm_control.entities.props.position_detector import PositionDetector
from dm_control.entities.props.primitive import Primitive
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
AMD Ryzen 3 3300X CPU Review
The Ryzen 3 3300X lands three years after the first Ryzen hit the world and AMD is still fighting strong.
Our Verdict
Budget gaming just got a new hero. The Ryzen 3 3300X represents incredible value for money and strong performance across the board.
For
Incredible value and performance
PCIe Gen 4 and Zen 2 architecture
Includes Wraith Stealth cooler
Against
Limited overclocking
Awaiting B550 motherboards
AMD has now launched the Zen 2-powered Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X, offering the same core and thread counts but for $99 and $120 respectively. These budget chips might have slightly lower clocks than a $350 Core i7 7700K, but are serious gaming CPUs and come with PCIe 4.0 support, for those speedy M.2 PCIe SSDs. Three years is clearly a long time in computing.
Ryzen 3 3100 specifications
Three years ago AMD released its first Ryzen CPUs into the wild. At that time the top gaming processor was the Core i7 7700K. Intel's 4-core, 8-thread CPU was the go to chip for gaming, and at a reasonable $350 found itself at the top of most CPU buying guides. It was fast in games, and that healthy thread count meant it could turn its hand to what some might call more serious tasks too.
In that time we've seen three generations of Ryzen CPUs, and while it's fair to say the first generation had their issues (patchy memory support and lackluster gaming performance), the latest generation has confined those problems to the history books. AMD Ryzen 3000 CPUs are now in a very good place, and a genuine alternative to Intel throughout the stack.
AMD Ryzen 3000 CPU Stack
Processor
Cores/Threads
Base/Turbo clocks
Cache
TDP
Price
Ryzen 9 3950X
16 / 32
3.5 / 4.7GHz
72MB
105W
$749
Ryzen 9 3900X
12 / 24
3.8 / 4.6GHz
70MB
105W
$499
Ryzen 7 3800X
8 / 16
3.9 / 4.5GHz
36MB
105W
$399
Ryzen 7 3700X
8 / 16
3.6 / 4.4GHz
36MB
65W
$329
Ryzen 5 3600X
6 / 12
3.8 / 4.4GHz
35MB
95W
$249
Ryzen 5 3600
6 / 12
3.6 / 4.2GHz
35MB
65W
$199
Ryzen 3 3300X
4 / 8
3.8 / 4.3GHz
18MB
65W
$120
Ryzen 3 3100
4 / 8
3.6 / 3.9GHz
18MB
65W
$99
Intel does still have the slimmest of edges in gaming, and its imminent Comet Lake Core i9 10900K will hold the title as the 'fastest gaming processor', but only by drawing ungodly amounts of power. Elsewhere Intel has another iteration of its 14nm production node, with the rest of the 10th Gen roundup, which will see its own core counts increase and HyperThreading support make a welcome return across the range. The Core i3 10100 in particular is a dead ringer for these new chips from AMD, with four core and eight threads too.
Into this somewhat odd market, AMD has decided to release a budget-focused pair of chips that punch well above the price weight. Both featuring SMT (Simultaneous Multi-Threading), meaning these quad-core chips are capable of handling eight threads at once. They're basically in the same ballpark as that venerable Core i7 7700K, but cost around a third the price. They don't overclock as well, but that seems like a reasonable hit for the cash being asked.
Apart from the Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X, there's more AMD goodness on the way in the form of the B550 chipset, which should be making its way to an affordable motherboard near you on the 16th June. This is important, because if there is an issue with these CPUs right now, is that in order to get the most from them, you're limited to using an X570 motherboard, which generally start at the $250 mark—double the price of the CPU. You can use an X470 or a B450, but you'll miss out on support for PCIe Gen4 if you do so.
AMD B550 chipset
B450 Chipset
B550 Chipset
X570 Chipset
CPU Graphics Support
x16 PCIe Gen 3
x16 PCIe Gen 4
x16 PCIe Gen 4
CPU Storage Support
PCIe Gen 3
PCIe Gen 4
PCIe Gen 4
CPU USB Ports
USB 3.1 Gen 1
USB 3.2 Gen2
USB 3.2 Gen2
Dual Graphics Support
No
Yes
Yes
General Purpose Lanes
PCIe Gen 2
PCIe Gen 3
PCIe Gen 4
CPU Chipset Uplink
PCIe Gen 3
PCIe Gen 3
PCIe Gen 4
Overclocking Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
There's no indication on the pricing of these B550 motherboards yet, but given B450 motherboards start around the $75 mark, I'm hopeful these will be roughly about the $100-$125 mark. When looking at the value proposition of these chips, that's what I've got in mind, rather than having to drop money on a X570 at the same time.
Both CPUs come with Wraith Stealth Coolers, which are the shortest versions of the Wraith available, and lack the RGB lighting of the top-end coolers, but like all the Wraiths they do the job well. This isn't a cooler designed to handle serious overclocking, but in testing temperatures only reached 66C for the 3300X and only 64C for the 3100 under full load, both of which are absolutely fine. It isn't a noisy cooler either.
One thing that may be of interest to those trying to save cash is Eco Mode, which effectively reduces the TDP (and the performance) of the 3100 and 3300X from 65W down to 45W. Useful if your machine is on all the time or if you simply want to reduce power draw.
Another thing of note is that despite the fact that the Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X have the same number of cores and threads, they are actually configured very differently. The Ryzen 3 3100 has two active cores per CCX, while the Ryzen 3 3300X has all four cores in one CCX (and the other one is redundant). This gives the 3300X a further advantage over the higher clock speeds as there is less potential core-to-core latency.
The Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X have very different core configurations. (Image credit: AMD)
Before we get to the testing, a quick note on our benchmarks: The impact of the coronavirus means that a lot of our usual testing hardware is trapped in the office, and like the rest of us, that office is in lockdown. This primarily impacts the graphics card we use for testing, so instead of turning to a 2080 Ti for the usual barrage of benchmarks, we've instead reached for a trusty GTX 1070. We already have comparable results for for some relevant chips, namely the Core i7 7700K (4-core, 8-threads, $350 at launch) and the Core i5 8400 (6-cores, 6-threads, $182 at launch). Intel's 10th Gen processors are on the way though, so expect more benchmarks when they do finally arrive.
(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: Future)
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Ryzen 3 3300X testbed
The takeaway from these benchmarks is that the Ryzen 3 3300X compares favorably to both the 7700K and the 6-core 8400. It scores much higher in serious tests like Cinebench R15, X264 v5.0 and PCMark, while also maintaining the lead in games. Admittedly the difference there is often slight and in some cases within the margin of error, but importantly it isn't any slower.
The Ryzen 3 3100 puts in an impressive show as well, although the core configuration does seem to affect it adversely in gaming. It's still a good chip, but it doesn't quite have the performance chops of its bigger brother. Given there's only $20 between these two CPUs, the Ryzen 3 3300X is just the better option.
Recent Ryzen 3000 processors haven't wowed with their overclocking prowess, and the same is true here. The fact of the matter is that it doesn't really help performance. Both chips are unlocked, so if you do fancy playing around with the clocks to get the most from them, then it is at least an option.
You can overclock in the BIOS, but the AMD Ryzen Master software makes the whole process a little easier. Precision Boost should be your first port of call as that can improve clocks fairly easily, while Auto can potentially push it even further. Alternatively you can enter the murky waters of manual overclocking.
In testing, this is what I saw from trying these out on the 3300X. It's something that I'll revisit, potentially with a beefier cooler, but right now these chips appear to stick to the general ethos that this generation of Ryzen doesn't overclock very well. Importantly though, they don't really need to.
(Image credit: Future)
So in summary, the Ryzen 3 3300X is an impressive chip. AMD has taken its excellent Zen 2 architecture and given it a new lease of life for the budget-conscious gamer. It's fast, supports PCI Express 4.0, has enough cores and threads for current gaming, and doesn't cost the earth. It does need a B550 motherboard to really make the value proposition make sense, but those board should be here very shortly.
Is the Ryzen 3 3300X the best processor ever? No, of course not, it's a budget CPU that has half as many cores as our top recommendation. But that doesn't stop it being an incredible CPU for gaming, and for the money, there's nothing out there right now that's close. In fact the next best thing would be the six-core, 12-thread Ryzen 5 3600. At least that's the case until the Core i3 10100 drops.
Should you consider building a system around the 3300X? Absolutely. Processor pricing has been creeping up for a while now (as the power has increased to be fair), but these two chips reset that. Paired with a budget motherboard, a cheap but speedy SSD, and affordable memory (the faster the better), and you have a great base to plug your graphics card of choice into. Something like an AMD 5600 XT would make for a solid, yet affordable system.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Q:
Evaluate integral with integer part
I have to evaluate $$\int _0^2\:\frac{x-\left[x\right]}{2x-\left[x\right]+1}dx$$
Where $[x] = floor(x)$
I tend to write it like this, but I think i'm missing the point $x = 2$
$$\int _0^2\:\frac{x-\left[x\right]}{2x-\left[x\right]+1}dx=\int _0^1\:\frac{x}{2x+1}dx+\int _1^2\:\frac{x-1}{2x}dx = 1 - \frac{1}{4} \cdot \ln 3$$
The correct answer is $1 - \frac{1}{4} \cdot \ln 12$
A:
That's correct, the value at the extremes of the interval is irrelevant, as long as the function can be extended by continuity at the end points. There would be more relaxed conditions, but in this case this is enough.
However
$$
\int_0^1\frac{x}{2x+1}\,dx=\frac{1}{2}\int_0^1\frac{2x+1-1}{2x+1}\,dx
=\frac{1}{2}\Bigl[x-\frac{1}{2}\ln(2x+1)\Bigr]_0^1=
\frac{1}{2}\left(1-\frac{1}{2}\ln 3\right)
$$
and
$$
\int_1^2\frac{x-1}{2x}\,dx=
\frac{1}{2}\int_1^2\left(1-\frac{1}{x}\right)dx=
\frac{1}{2}\Bigl[x-\ln x\Bigr]_1^2=\frac{1}{2}(2-\ln2-1)
$$
so your integral is
$$
\frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{4}\ln3+\frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{2}\ln2=1-\frac{1}{4}\ln12
$$
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
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|
One landowner in Mt Lyford village really wants to sell a 4000sqm section. The price has been knocked back to $55,000. Most other sections of the same size are on the market between $95,000-$150,000.
If a section doesn't appeal, then one real estate agency has 15 homes for sale in the village. Priced between about $375,000 and $550,000, they are all built of logs and all sit on sections of 4000sqm and larger. There are log palaces up there too.
About 100 sections were carved out of a high country farm by Doug and Jenny Simpson back in the 1990s and about 60 have homes on them – villagers can't quite agree on the number. Most are baches that accommodate skiers at Mt Lyford skifield. But they are used other times of the year, especially during Christmas and school holidays.
Mt Lyford Alpine Resort Winter scenes at Mt Lyford village at the base of the Mt Lyford Alpine Resort.
Central Christchurch is two hours south, Hanmer Springs 45 minutes away. On a warm Wednesday in mid October, Mt Lyford is quiet. A couple lingers at an outdoor table at Mt Lyford Lodge and the occasional car passes on the Inland Rd to or from Kaikoura.
There are maybe 10 homes with permanent residents – again, there's no consensus on the number. Lyford has its own pace. Things proceed on "mountain time".
READ MORE:
* Rare, indigenous Lyford forest protected forever
* Mount Lyford skifield to be sold (2008 story)
* 250 skiers stranded on Mt Lyford (2011 story)
* A supercar production outfit shapes up in unlikely Waiau
GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ Mt Lyford Lodge owners Jenny Yeoman and Angela Hunt.
Lyford isn't Tekapo, that booming bach and tourist centre that's got a skifield, ice rink, hot springs, star observatory, water sports, a remarkably scenic church and much passing traffic.
Lyford is more like Castle Hill, the little subdivision on the state highway to Arthur's Pass, or even Terrace Downs, the golf resort near Windwhistle that includes some private residences.
They have an attraction or two. They are less visited, less well known, struggling perhaps.
GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ Founder of the My Lyford ski field and village, Doug Simpson.
Actually, says permanent resident Ross Barnes, that's the appeal of Lyford. He throws his arms high and wide and exclaims, "Look around! Where else can you live like this?"
It is beautiful country: Towering mountains, regenerating bush, no traffic, no noise.
The baches are far apart on those big sections (one acre by the old measures) and further subdivision is banned by covenants. These also direct that houses must be built of logs, have roofs pitched at 45 degrees and have a rustic, mountain chalet look. That's perhaps changing slightly.
GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ Eco-lodge and holiday homes website owners, Claudine and Ross Barnes.
The holiday homes are clustered a kilometre or two above the valley bottom. There are no shops, no amenities, only houses. High above is the Mt Lyford Alpine Resort, the skifield built and still owned by the Simpson family. Below is the Mt Lyford Lodge, surely one of the most ambitious log buildings in New Zealand. It too was built by the Simpsons, on behalf of its first owner.
In early July, the lodge was bought by Jenny Yeoman, her younger sister Angela Hunt and Angela's partner Tony Hunt, all from the North Island. Tony stumbled across the lodge while on summer motor biking trip and fell in love.
He's now the cook and handyman, Angela does a little of everything. Jenny is a retired teacher and academic who pooled her money with her sister to buy the lodge. "I love it. I've never poured a beer or made a coffee in my life. Now I do all that," she says. "This is an adventure for me."
GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ Mt Lyford Village, a tiny North Canterbury town with big ambitions.
They have ambitious plans to regenerate business in the lodge, which can sleep 30 in hotel, motel and backpacker rooms. There's a restaurant and bar and space for weddings, birthdays and small conferences.
An early challenge is getting word out that the lodge is open seven days. It has been open irregularly over the years as a succession of owners passed through. And they've got to drum up more off-season business.
This is where the Ross and Claudine Barnes come in. She runs the Mt Lyford Holiday Homes website, which co-ordinates bach rentals on behalf of 14 owners. She's selling isolation, quiet and rest, often to families.
Mt Lyford Alpine Resort Mt Lyford skifield from the air in winter.
There's also day hikes, tennis, kayaking on a small lake, skating in winter. There's a rural golf course down the road. Biking looks promising. Ross is trying to create the Hurunui Heartland Cycle Route, a 160-kilometre circuit through the district. The physically fit could cycle it in a day, but others might take three or four days and overnight in Lyford.
The Barnes have also persuaded a nearby farmer to allow a mountain bike track across his land. The Mountain Bike Mt Lyford track is a "quiet private trail" that has to be booked through Claudine's holiday homes website. Only once that's complete do customers get directions to the trail head. The farmer is nervous about letting strangers onto his land and wants to test the idea for a while.
Ross Barnes hopes that the farmer's unease – and those of others in the area – will ease over a few years and Lyford can build a mountain bike mecca.
GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ Lyford resident Gary Morton, a lover of all things American, including Donald Trump, is restoring a car once owned by President Harry Truman.
The Barnes also built and own an Eco Lodge that's outside of the covenanted alpine village and so doesn't need to be built of logs. It's perhaps a chipping away of the original plan for a chalet village.
This sort of thing is watched with interest by Doug Simpson, the guy who founded it all.
Simpson bought the farm that became Lyford in 1979. The terrain always made farming a challenge. He jokes about buying merino sheep, some of which were last seen heading over the tops to Molesworth Station.
Then Rogernomics hit and farming communities were in crisis. "I'd send stock to the meatworks and get an invoice back [instead of a cheque]," he says. He remembers thinking, "We've got to do something for the district because Waiau [the nearest town] is going to die".
The only reliable thing on his farm was snow. Why not start a skifield?
His first attempt was a modest affair down the mountain from the current site. It would have needed snow-making to be viable, so after a few years Simpson moved the skifield about 330 metres higher up. To attract customers, he drew up those one acre lots, came up with the mountain chalet theme and founded a log house construction company.
It built many of the Lyford baches, expanded across the South Island and even built a few log houses in Japan. That's the company that built Lyford lodge. Simpson sold that company to its managers a few years ago.
He's also moved the skifield onto to his sons Hamish and Tim. They live in and own hospitality businesses in Kaikoura – as do their parents Doug and Jenny – and come back to Lyford for the ski season.
Doug Simpson, now 65, is kind of slowing down. He's got resource consent to bottle water from high up the mountain and plans to sell it nationally and overseas. That would create jobs at Lyford but Simpson watched the recent furore over bottling Ashburton water and is proceeding slowly.
He's also subdivided more of the old farm into five super sections – three of them larger than existing Lyford village. They front onto the skifield access road above the village. But that's proceeding slowly as well because of a failed attempt a few years ago by a different landowner to carve 149 sections out of land adjacent to Lyford village.
Most would have been – shock, horror – about 800sqm and wouldn't have carried the log building covenant. Many villagers opposed the plan and it did not proceed.
Over coffee in the lodge, Doug is asked if building Lyford made him rich. Son Tim chips in: "He's asset rich".
"I've had a damn rich life," says Doug. "We've worked with family. We realise how lucky we are." Some days during the ski season, three generations of Simpsons gather in the office to chat and socialise.
Lyford would never have proceeded under the Resource Management Act, he says. Grubbing the access road up the mountain, the stream crossings, sewage disposal – they would have been too much.
Would he do it again? "Yes absolutely ... and not a lot differently."
EVERY VILLAGE HAS A CHARACTER
"I've got five American cars, all black, says Mt Lyford permanent resident Gary "Tex" Morton.
A lover of all things American – and Donald Trump – Tex is restoring a car once owned by American president Harry Truman. One of his muscle cars hit 160 miles per hour at the quarter mile, good enough to win the Kaikoura Hop last year he says.
Tex also breeds canaries and sells about 50 a year. Exotic pheasants he once owned still live in Mt Lyford village after he let them go a while back.
Tex makes a unique living by manufacturing wheel rims and spokes in a workshop under his home. It's a Dickensian sort of place, but Tex seems at home.
Early cars, motorbikes and aircraft had spoked wheels and Tex is one of the few people in the world who can make them. Spoked wheels Tex contributed to were used on cars that appeared in The Great Gatsby and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang films.
He's made spoked rims for Sopwith Camel and Fokker vintage aircraft. If you look closely at some of Peter Jackson's vintage planes, there's a good chance Texs made or contributed to the rims.
"I can make any wheel in the world," he says without boasting.
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By BROOKS BARNES
July 15, 2017
Bob Chapek, the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, hinted last November that major changes were coming to Epcot, which sprawls across 300 acres as part of the four-park Disney World complex near Orlando, Fla. At an event for Disney fans, Mr. Chapek said the 35-year-old Epcot, best known for the giant golf ball-looking sphere at its entrance, would one day become “more Disney, timeless, relevant, family-friendly.”
Mr. Chapek is expected to announce specific plans on Saturday at D23 Expo, a biennial convention for Disney fans that attracts an estimated 100,000 people to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif., over three days. A major new roller coaster — perhaps themed to “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the hit Marvel movie series — is planned for Epcot’s front section. Also expected are a ride based on the Pixar film “Ratatouille” and at least one new country pavilion (most likely Brazil) for the park’s World Showcase area.
Analysts also expect Mr. Chapek to unveil more “Star Wars”-related offerings at Disney World. In recent months Disney has surveyed visitors about interest in a luxury hotel that makes guests feel as if they are sleeping on an actual “Star Wars” starship.
Disney is counting on its theme park division to help offset slowing growth at ESPN. Last year, Disney parks generated $17 billion in revenue, a 5 percent increase compared with a year earlier, and $3.3 billion in operating income, a 9 percent increase.
In particular, Disney has been pouring money into Disney World. Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, wants to use technology to make its parks more immersive and relevant to a new generation of children. The expansions are also designed to make each of Disney World’s four major parks — the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom — an equally powerful draw for tourists. That might help better distribute crowds across the resort.
Most people, for instance, make a beeline for the 110-acre Magic Kingdom, where attendance totaled roughly 20.4 million last year, and then add on half-days at parks like Epcot, which hosted about 11.7 million visitors last year despite being more than twice the size of the Magic Kingdom.
Disney World, which is gearing up for its 50th anniversary in 2021, also faces stronger competition from nearby Universal Orlando, which is undergoing a building boom of its own.
In 2012, Disney opened a $500 million expansion of Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom. Animal Kingdom recently unveiled a $500 million addition, with an “Avatar” theme, that has been mobbed by visitors. (Lines for some of the new “Avatar” rides initially stretched to three hours.) Hollywood Studios is in the midst of what Bank of America Merrill Lynch has estimated is a $1 billion project to add myriad “Toy Story” and “Star Wars” rides.
Epcot has not been entirely ignored. Last year, Disney gave an older boat ride housed in the park’s Norway pavilion a “Frozen” retrofit. But large areas of Epcot have become painfully outdated. One ride (scheduled to be replaced) is essentially a 45-minute celebration of fossil fuel; slow-moving vehicles move past dioramas explaining the history of oil, natural gas and coal. A boat ride called Living With the Land takes riders past agricultural scenes.
Many Disneyphiles love that certain Epcot attractions (Spaceship Earth, a jerky tour through world history that is housed inside that golf ball) have remained trapped in amber. But the recent popularity of the new “Frozen” ride has sent an unmistakable message to Disney’s corporate offices: Epcot needs more character-themed attractions to compete for the attention of children.
In many ways, Epcot is Disney’s quirkiest park. It was initially conceived by Walt Disney himself as an actual city called the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. The company eventually scrapped that plan after his death but kept an educational focus, dividing the park into two main areas, Future World and World Showcase, a constellation of pavilions representing the food, architecture and history of nations like Japan, China, Canada and France. The park was called Epcot Center until a mid-1990s rebranding.
Epcot has lately been best known as a type of festival grounds, with offerings aimed at older visitors that include a lavish flower and garden gathering in the spring and a popular food and wine event in the late summer and fall.
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Q:
Out of Stack Space Issue - Can I Repeat a Sub Without Recursing It?
I'm working on a fun project in Excel making a game. It works perfectly except that after about a minute of run time it errors because it's out of stack space. I realized this was because technically I'm using recursion in the stepEvent function, which looks like this:
Private Sub stepEvent()
' All the game code
start = Timer
Do While Timer < start + 0.15
DoEvents
Loop
stepEvent
End Sub
None of the instances of stepEvent ever resolve until either the player loses, or it runs out of stack space and errors. My question is if there's a way to either resolve the recursed subs, but somehow retain control, or if there's an alternate method to repeat that sub without using recursion.
A:
Try looping
Sub asDoWhileLoop()
Do While True
Call stepEvent
Loop
End Sub
Sub stepEvent()
'Do game stuff and wait at end
End Sub
But remember to clean up at the end of your stepEvent(), i.e. set your objects to NOTHING, close recordsets, whatever you are playing with. You can quit using END instead of EXIT SUB. But it's all up to you to ensure it terminates.
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Q:
Translate this quote from The Producers?
In the Broadway play The Producers (and subsequent movie), the character Max Bialystock recalls a quote from his dying mentor. He says it's in Yiddish, but more than one person has told me that, in fact, it's German. I don't speak either, so please bear with me.
Linked here is the exact location in this video where he says the words. I will also attempt a transliteration, though it will certainly be inaccurate:
Alle mensche musse machen, haden tugagatzen kashen pichen pippin
kachen.
Initial research shows that it is not a high-minded quote, and coming from Mel Brooks, it's bound to be comedic in nature. No lyrics sites I found have the entire quote written out, they shorten it for some reason (probably all copying from one bad source).
A:
I'm pretty sure second half is babbling, as people have suggested. The OP has given:
"...haden tugagatzen kashen pichen pippin kachen."
I would transliterate it a bit differently:
"...heden to the gantzen kasha'n pischen pippik kachen."
"Heden" isn't a word. "Kasha" (buckwheat groats) is the iconic food of poverty in Jewish culture, and it is here juxtaposed ungrammatically with the word for "pissing". This is also in close proximity to "kachen", which is probably supposed to be "kacken" (to defedcate) altered to rhyme with "machen".
Finally, the "pippik" is the belly-button, and it is universally considered a funny word in Yiddish. One of its most picturesque applications is in the following couplet taken from Isaac Rosenfeld's Yiddish paroday of t.s. eliots' "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":
"Ich wer' (=werde) alt, ich wer' alt
Un der pippik wert mir kalt."
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Late recurrence and progression in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancers after 5-year tumor-free periods.
To evaluate the recurrence and progression in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder tumors who remained tumor-free for at least 5 years, which should assist in the development of schedules of their follow-up evaluations. Non-muscle-invasive bladder tumors that recur or progress at a late time point are not rare. Between 1985 and 2002, 814 cases diagnosed with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer were treated with transurethral resection. Of these 814 cases, 262 patients with no tumor recurrence for more than 5 years were included in the study. The median follow-up interval was 10.0 years. During the follow-up period, 39 tumors (14.9%) showed tumor recurrence. The 5- and 10-year recurrence-free survival rates were 81.6% and 76.0%, respectively. There was no significant difference in tumor recurrence among the low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups based on the current clinical guideline. Only the use of intravesical mitomycin C was determined to be a significant unfavorable risk factor for late recurrence. Five patients (1.9%) experienced stage progression, 3 of whom did not have metastases at the time of diagnosis of the progression but died because of bladder cancer disease. After a 5-year tumor-free period, even in the low-risk group, recurrence occurred at a late time point to a degree that was the same as that for the intermediate- and high-risk groups. Finally, some of the high-risk patients experienced late progression with a high degree of malignant behavior, suggesting longer follow-up is needed for each patient.
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In two weeks or less, the National Hockey League will have an unexpected Stanley Cup champion.
When the toughest tournament in sports started almost two months ago, nobody expected the new Jersey Devils or Los Angeles Kings to reach the Final.
New Jersey, seeded sixth in the East, was in a draw with Boston, the defending champions; the top-seeded New York Rangers; and the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers, two of the game's hottest teams heading into the postseason. None of those teams are left in the East, though, with New Jersey ushering the Flyers and Rangers out of the playoffs. In the first round, New Jersey outlasted the third-seeded Florida Panthers, winning in double overtime in Game 7.
The Devils are in their fifth Final since 1995 and will be looking for their fourth championship and first since 2003.
The march of the Kings, in the Final for the first time since 1993, has been even more unexpected and, perhaps, more impressive. Los Angeles did not secure its postseason spot until the penultimate day of the season and lost its final two games to fall to the No. 8 seed. No matter, the Kings marched through the Presidents' Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks, the second-seeded St. Louis Blues and the third-seeded Phoenix Coyotes -- amazingly losing just twice during their perilous journey. They are a perfect 8-0 on the road this postseason, and dating back to last year's playoffs, have won 10 straight road playoff games.
Now, one of these teams will continue its incredible journey to the Stanley Cup. The other, sadly, will see its magical quest fall just short.
There is little to be gleaned from the regular season as to which team will prevail. The clubs met twice in October and New Jersey won both games, 3-0 shootout and 2-1 in a shootout. The 3-0 game featured backup goalies Johan Hedberg and Jonathan Bernier -- 3-0.
Forwards
Much like Kings coach Darryl Sutter, Devils coach Peter DeBoer has had the luxury in the postseason of rolling four lines that are all aggressive on the forecheck. DeBoer has juggled his lines after losses, but the only major lineup change he made was after Game 3 against the Rangers, when he inserted a healthy Jacob Josefson to center the third line.
The Devils' attack starts with Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk, who are playing on separate lines after spending most of the season together. Kovalchuk leads the Devils with 18 points in the playoffs, while Parise has 14.
Travis Zajac, the top-line center between Parise and Dainius Zubrus, looks fresh and is playing probably better than expected considering he skated in only 15 regular-season games due to an Achilles injury.
Patrik Elias has struggled to find his scoring touch in the playoffs after putting up 78 points in the regular season, but he has been effective as a center and left wing on the second line.
DeBoer is able to roll his lines because of the atypical play of his fourth line. Stephen Gionta, Ryan Carter and Steve Bernier made up a big piece of the Devils' puzzle in their series win against the Rangers because they were able to keep up the attack and the pressure. Carter had a goal in Game 5 and another in Game 6. For a team that struggled to score goals so much during the regular season, the Kings have run remarkably deep in the playoffs. They have had 15 different players score at least one goal and another 15 players register at least one assist.
With that said, the Kings' offense is driven by its top-six forwards.
Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar hold the key to the first line and each is having a Conn Smythe-worthy playoff run. Brown, who has a team-high 16 points, has scored big goals, delivered big hits and played air-tight defense for his club.
Dustin Penner, who won a Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2007, scored the overtime goal that delivered the Kings into the Final. His linemates, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, each has four goals.
The Kings also are getting depth scoring. Minor-league call-up Dwight King has been a revelation, scoring five goals. Jarrett Stoll, meanwhile, gives the Kings a three-headed center model that almost is impossible to scheme against for most teams.
Defensemen
Just like the Kings, the Devils have balance on their blue-line with three pairs of equal parts offense and defense, righty and lefty.
Bryce Salvador and Marek Zidlicky make up the top pair. Zidlicky is the one expected to provide offense, but Salvador has discovered an offensive bent to his game with three goals and eight assists in the playoffs. Zidlicky leads the Devils in average ice time per game.
DeBoer uses his second pair of Andy Greene and Mark Fayne for more than 20 minutes a game, and they've stayed true to their defensive roots. Greene has the ability to give more in the offensive end.
The third pair of Anton Volchenkov and Peter Harrold is very much like the top two, only it plays less. Volchenkov leads the Devils in shorthanded ice time per game. The Kings don't get a lot of offensive production from defensemen not named Drew Doughty.
Doughty has 10 points in 14 games, while the other five defensemen have combined for just 11 points in those same 14 games.
The Kings' defense prides itself on being sound in its own end. Each of the six defensemen boasts a plus rating, led by Doughty's plus-10. He leads the team in ice time, averaging 25:52 per game. Veteran Willie Mitchell, making his first Cup Final appearance at 35, is second, just 25 seconds behind Doughty. Rob Scuderi, who won a Cup with Pittsburgh in 2009, is the only other defenseman logging more than 20 minutes per game.
Goalies
Martin Brodeur enters his fifth Stanley Cup Final as the record-holder in just about every major goaltending category, but also as the underdog to Jonathan Quick. Regardless, Brodeur has been good enough to get the Devils here by playing the way he did when they last won the Cup in 2003.
Brodeur celebrated his 40th birthday May 6 with a win in Game 4 of the conference semifinals against the Flyers. It was one of 13 games in the playoffs in which he allowed two goals or fewer.
To many, Jonathan Quick has been the best goaltender in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. His 1.54 goals-against average and .946 save percentage certainly are impressive credentials in that argument.
But for Quick, it's about more than that. Eight of his 12 wins have come on the road this postseason, and he has allowed one or fewer goals In six of his 14 games. Even more impressive is how good Quick has been after he has lost this postseason. Despite it being a small two-game sample, Quick has recorded a .941 save percentage in outings following a loss, stopping 64 of 68 shots in those two games.
Simply, Quick gives his Kings teammates the belief that they can win any game.
Coaches
Peter DeBoer has preached an aggressive forecheck since he was hired July 19, 2011. New Jersey is reaping the rewards of it now as a heavy team that plays fast and strong on the walls.
DeBoer has made all the right moves in the playoffs.
After losing Game 1 against the Flyers, DeBoer felt rookie defenseman Adam Larsson would be a better fit than Peter Harrold. Larsson scored in Game 2 and the Devils won the game and the series. After losing Game 1 to the Rangers, DeBoer went back to Harrold, who was a plus player for the rest of the series.
When DeBoer felt the Devils needed fresh legs after losing Game 3 to the Rangers, he put Josefson in for Petr Sykora, and that worked, as well. Darryl Sutter has been quite the talisman for the Kings. Since he joined the team in mid-December, the Kings have gone 37-19-7, including a 12-2 run in the postseason.
Sutter has demanded much from his team, but also has rewarded the players that have responded. Dustin Brown is Exhibit A of this process, as he found a grove with Sutter and has played his best hockey since the Trade Deadline in late February.
Tactically, Sutter's biggest contribution has been to implement a far more aggressive forecheck. Not only has that forecheck pinned opponents in the defensive zone, but it's created numerous turnovers. As a result, the Kings are getting far more offensive opportunities and capitalizing on a far more frequent basis.
Special Teams
The Devils are fortunate their power play and penalty kill have not burned them this spring because they have not been a special-teams dynamo.
They had the NHL's best PK in the regular season at 89.6 percent, but it is just XXX in the playoffs. Their power play, which was 17.2 percent in the regular season, is at 18.2 percent in the playoffs. They are 9-for-43 on the power play in the first two rounds, but scored just three times on 23 chances against the Rangers.
They've survived by being a plus-13 in five-on-five situations this spring. The Kings' power play has been an utter disaster in the postseason. It is clicking at 8.1 percent for the postseason, scoring just six times in 74 opportunities. More damning is the fact that half of those power-play goals have come during five-on-three play. Richards and Carter each has two power-play goals.
So how have the Kings survived such an ineffective power play? Their penalty kill simply has been impenetrable. Not only have they killed 52 of 57 man-disadvantage situations, but they also have struck for five shorthanded goals, with Brown and Kopitar scoring two each.
Series Changer
Patrik Elias -- Elias is a two-time Cup winner and the Devils' all-time leader in points. He hasn't been producing at his usual rate this spring, but if he finds his touch the Devils probably will find themselves in a great position. He's a dangerous forward that the Kings have to pay attention to. He had 78 points in the regular season, including a goal and an assist in New Jersey's 3-0 win at L.A. on Oct. 25. He can light it up
Dustin Penner -- If Penner comes to play, like he did against Phoenix, there are few teams that have an answer for him. The 6-foot-4, 242-pound left wing opens a ton of space for his linemates, while his ability to work the boards keeps the cycle going. Most importantly, though, he is impossible to keep away from the slot, the very place from which he shoveled home the series-deciding goal against Phoenix in overtime of Game 5.
What If ...
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Findings
========
We reviewed all clinical cases of CT-MDE at a tertiary referral center to present the cases as a case series. All clinical cardiac CT exams which utilized CT-MDE imaging between January 1, 2005 and October 1, 2010 were collected as a series and their findings were also compared with available myocardial imaging to assess for myocardial abnormalities, including echocardiography (wall motion, morphology), cardiac MRI (delayed enhancement, morphology), SPECT MPI (perfusion defects) 5,860 clinical cardiac CT exams were performed during the study period. CT-MDE was obtained in 18 patients and was reported to be present in 9 patients. The indications for CT-MDE included ischemic and non-ischemic heart diseases. In segments positive for CT-MDE, there was excellent agreement of CT with other modalities: echocardiography (n=8) demonstrated abnormal morphology and wall motion (k=1.0 and k=0.82 respectively); prior MRI (n=2) demonstrated abnormal delayed enhancement (MR-MDE) (k=1.0); SPECT MPI (n=1) demonstrated fixed perfusion defects (k=1.0). In the subset of patients without CT-MDE, no abnormal segments were identified by echocardiography (n=8), MRI (n=1) and nuclear MPI (n=0).
Introduction
------------
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with gadolinium can detect myocardial delayed enhancement (MDE) \[[@B1]\] and has become the clinical imaging standard for the evaluation of myocardial infarction and scar. MDE is also useful in identifying myocardial injury and in the assessment of infiltrative, inflammatory diseases of the heart , ischemic heart disease and even in cardiac neoplasm \[[@B2]\]. However, there are numerous contraindications to cardiac MRI, including severe claustrophobia, several arrhythmias, metal implants and severe renal insufficiency (a risk factor for nephrogenic systemic fibrosis). In these patients, the clinical need for an alternative diagnostic tool for scar/injury imaging occasionally arises.
Cardiac computed tomography (CT) can identify MDE with iodinated contrast material because the pharmacokinetics of iodinated agents are very similar to those of gadolinium-DTPA \[[@B3],[@B4]\]. Both agents are retained in tissue with an increased volume of distribution including myocardial infarction and scar. A number of studies are underway to assess the role of cardiac CT using MDE. In this report, we review our clinical experience where CT-MDE was performed to yield insights into application of this novel technique.
We retrospectively reviewed all clinical cases of CT-MDE at a tertiary care referral center to present our experience as a series of cases.
Methods
=======
Study design
------------
A waiver was obtained from our Institutional Review Board (Partners Healthcare IRB) for this retrospective study. All clinical cardiac CT exams performed from January 1, 2005 to October 1, 2010 were included, regardless of indication. Cases performed for research purposes were excluded.
The text of all reports was screened for the use of a delayed enhancement protocol. Reports were then manually reviewed to refine the list to those patients who underwent delayed imaging purely for the purpose of MDE assessment. For example, early or immediate delayed phase images obtained for thrombus detection in the cardiac chambers were excluded (i.e. 2-minute delayed scans for atrial appendage thrombus exclusion). The cardiac CT images, reports and electronic records were also reviewed for technique, technical parameters (tube voltage, tube current, gating, timing, slice thickness), radiation dose (dose length product as obtained from the dose exposure record), and image quality (subjective assessment as dictated by interpreting reader). Images were analyzed to determine the contrast-to-noise ratio using regions of interest in the abnormal myocardium and the remote normal myocardium.
Using the AHA 17 segment model \[[@B5]\], myocardial segments on CT images were then identified. To corroborate CT-MDE findings in patients, all cardiac imaging modalities performed within a period of three months were retrieved and reviewed. These included 2-dimensional echocardiography, cardiac MRI, and single photon emission cardiac tomogram (SPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) scans. Clinical reports were reconciled into standardized segmental readings by physicians with appropriate training in cardiac CT and MRI (B.B.G & S.U.), 2-dimensional echocardiography (N.K.), and nuclear imaging (S.U.).
Imaging methods
---------------
Cardiac CT was performed with 64-detector-row and higher multidetector single- and dual-source scanners (Somatom Sensation 64, Somatom Definition, and Somatom Definition Flash; Siemens, Forchheim, Germany). Standard parameters were set for arterial phase scans for image acquisition as per clinical protocol. All scans were performed using the timing bolus method to determine contrast material transit time, usually with a 20 mL standard test bolus dose of the contrast medium at 4-7 mL/second, followed by 20-40 mL of normal saline flush. An intravenous bolus of contrast agent, tailored to scan parameters, usually 60-90 mL (iopamidol 76% \[370 mg of iodine per milliliter\] Isovue; Bracco Diagnostics, Princeton, New Jersey was administered by using a dual-head power injector and was usually followed by 40 mL of normal saline at 4-7 mL / sec. Tube voltage and tube current were varied according to the patient size and institutional protocols.
Additional contrast was given after the arterial phase scan at a slow rate of up to 2 mL / second, usually between 50 and 90 mL, for a total of approximately 150 mL. The amount, rate, and timing were determined on a case-by-case basis by the supervising physician.
MDE acquisitions were performed after a variable period of 5-10 minutes after the initial contrast administrations (mean delay time 7.0 minutes), at physician discretion. To minimize the radiation exposure and increase the myocardial contrast, decreased tube voltage (100 kVp or 80 kVp) and prospective ECG triggering were used for the delayed acquisition in all patients.
Routine clinical 2-dimensional echocardiograms, SPECT-MPI images, and cardiac MRI exams were acquired according to standard institutional protocols.
Data analysis
-------------
Axial source CT images were transferred to a dedicated image processing workstation (Osirix MD v 1.0.1, Pixmeo, Bernex, Switzerland) for analysis. Cardiac CT clinical reports and DICOM image headers were also parsed for the technique, radiation dose, and indications. Images were analyzed on the workstation for image quality, and contrast to noise ratio in the areas of delayed enhancement. The contrast-to-noise ratio of the cardiac CT images was calculated as the signal intensity difference between enhanced and remote myocardium divided by the standard deviation of the signal intensity (attenuation) within the remote normal myocardium \[[@B6]\]. Total effective dose was calculated as a product of the dose-length product and a standard conversion coefficient for the chest (k=0.014 mSv/ \[mGy\*cm\]) \[[@B7]\].
In cases where MDE was reported, myocardial segments on CT images were identified using the AHA 17-segment model. The segments with increased signal intensity on the delayed scan were identified as segments with MDE. Wall motion of each segment was analyzed and was visually graded as normal (0), hypokinetic (1), or akinetic/dyskinetic (2) respectively by physicians with appropriate training in cardiac CT (S.U. /B.B.G).
2-Dimensional echocardiograms (done within 3 months of the CT scans) were then retrieved and analyzed at a dedicated DICOM viewing workstation (Xcelera Philips, Michigan). Using the standardized AHA 17 segment model, the wall motion of each segment was analyzed and was visually graded as normal (0), hypokinetic (1), or akinetic/dyskinetic (2) respectively by a physician with American College of Cardiology level III training in echocardiography (N.K.). The morphology of the segment (abnormal wall thickness/abnormal echogenicity) was also analyzed and recorded on a segmental basis.
Any previous or intercurrent cardiac MRI scans (performed for any reason) were also retrieved to the image processing workstation for analysis. The segments were analyzed by physicians with appropriate training in cardiac MRI (S.U., B.B.G.) for presence or absence of MR-MDE.
SPECT-MPI images were retrieved to a dedicated viewing workstation (Invia medical imaging solutions, Corridor 4D, Michigan) and the images were analyzed for presence or absence of fixed perfusion defects. Readers of the various exams were blinded to the results of the exams.
Statistical analysis
--------------------
All continuous variables are presented as means +/- standard deviations. Agreement between CT (abnormal myocardial delayed enhancement, and separately abnormal segmental wall motion abnormality) and echocardiogram (morphology and separately LV regional wall motion) was calculated and mean kappa values were determined (\<0.20 = poor agreement; 0.21--0.40= fair; 0.41 -0.60 = good; 0.61-0.80 = very good; 0.81-1.0 = excellent agreement). Agreement between CT and MRI with regard to presence of MDE was also calculated and mean kappa values were determined using the same scale. Agreement between CT and SPECT-MPI with regards to presence of fixed perfusion defects was also calculated and mean kappa values were determined using the same scale. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 17 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL).
Results
=======
Of the 5,860 total cardiac clinical CT exams performed during the study period, an MDE protocol was performed in 18 cases. The characteristics of the patient population are contained in Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}. The clinical indications for MDE protocol included assessment for the presence or progression of myocardial scarring due to ischemic heart disease (n=9), non-ischemic causes i.e. infiltrative disease (n=3), non ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (n=3), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (n=2), and prior surgery (n=1).
######
Demographics and baseline characteristics (+CT MDE = positive delayed enhancement on CT, -CT MDE = no delayed enhancement on CT)
**All** **Positive CT MDE** **Negative CT MDE**
------------------- --------- --------------------- ---------------------
Age (Years) 57 ± 17 61 ± 16 54 ± 17
Diabetes 2 1 1
Hypertension 11 6 5
Dyslipidemia 5 3 2
Medications
Statins 8 5 3
Aspirin 13 7 6
Beta Blockers 9 5 4
CAD 8 4 4
Smoking 4 3 1
Obesity 4 2 2
Revascularization 3 1 2
A summary of the findings in each patient, in the segments with abnormal delayed enhancement on cardiac CT as well as all other available modalities is listed in Table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"}.
######
Correlation between the myocardial segments showing delayed enhancement on cardiac CT and at least one other imaging modality i.e. TTE, SPECT, or cardiac MRI
**Clinical indication** **Contraindication to a Cardiac MRI at the time of Cardiac CT** **Myocardial segments with Delayed enhancement** **Comparative imaging modality** **Myocardial segments on comparative modality**
--- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 CAD \-- Chest pain and inconclusive cardiac MRI. (MRI was not able to predict the cause of DE) Anxiety causing incomplete and inconclusive Cardiac exam Inferior wall (Transmural) SPECT MRI SPECT - Fixed perfusion defect in the inferior wall MRI -- Delayed enhancement in Inferior wall. CTA -- Obstructive disease in the dominant RCA
2 CM \-- Progression of Sarcoidosis (new pacemaker precluded followup MRI) Permanent Pacemaker Lateral wall Apical LV wall (Patchy foci) MRI Lateral Apical left ventricular wall (Patchy foci)
3 CAD \-- Assessment of ischemic scar Permanent Pacemaker Basal wall Mid lateral wall TTE Basal, lateral wall (severe hypokinesis) Apical wall (Hyper-reflective/ Increased echogenicity)
4 CM \-- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and scar assessment AICD Basal, Mid inferior, Inferolateral, Anterolateral LV wall TTE Asymmetric septal hypertrophy.
5 CAD \-- Scar mapping for ventricular tachycardia ablation AICD Basal, Mid inferolateral wall TTE Basal Mid inferolateral wall (Hyper-reflective/ increased echogenicity)
6 CM \-- Idiopathic cardiomyopathy and Worsening ventricular arrhythmias. AICD Mid to apical anterior, Anteroseptal, Anterolateral LV wall TTE Apical (Akinesis) Anteroseptal (Akineis) Anterolateral wall (Hypokinesis) Septum and apex (Hyper-reflectivity/Increased echogenicity)
7 CM \-- HCM, recurrent AICD shocks AICD Mid myocardium in anteroseptal Basal wall TTE Marked asymmetric LV hypertrophy.
8 CM \-- Progression of Sarcoidosis Permanent Subepicardial portion of antero-septal mid ventricular wall Mid myocardial basal, Anteroseptal wall and Sub endocardial mid inferolateral wall. TTE Mid myocardial wall (Hypokinesis) Inferoposterior (Hyper-reflective/increased echogenicity)
Pacemaker
9 CAD \-- Ventricular tachycardia storm; scar assessment AICD Inferior wall and Basal to apical LV, Anterior wall at basal, mid ventricular level. TTE Inferior, septal, apical (Akinesis) Inferior and posterior wall. (Hyper-reflective/increased echogenicity)
*AICD* = Automated Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator, *CAD* = Coronary artery disease, *CM* = Cardiomyopathy, *C-MRI* = cardiac *MRI, DE* = Delayed enhancement, *HCM* = Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, *LV* = Left ventricle, *PM* = Pace maker, *TTE* = Transthoracic echocardiogram, *VT* = Ventricular Tachycardia.
MDE images were acquired at a mean of 6.6 +/- 3.1 minutes after a mean contrast dose of 147 +/-15 ml. Decreased tube voltage was used in all patients (100 kVp, n=11, 80 kVp, n=7). The imaging parameters of the MDE scans are summarized in Table [3](#T3){ref-type="table"}. All CT-MDE images were deemed interpretable and of diagnostic quality by the clinical reader.
######
Imaging parameters
**Tube voltage** **100 kVp: 11 patients, 80 kVp: 7 patients**
------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------
Tube Current (mAs) 669 +/- 229
Contrast amount (ml) 147 +/-15
Timing of Scan (minutes after injection) 6.6 +/- 3.1
Contrast to Noise ratio (CNR) 1.6 +/- 0.7
Effective radiation dose (mSv) 4.1+/- 2.6
At the time of cardiac CT, patients had either a contradiction to MRI (n=15), or a prior suboptimal or unsuccessful cardiac MRI (n=3) (Table [4](#T4){ref-type="table"}). Nine of the 18 cases were reported as positive for CT-MDE. Out of these nine positive cases, CT scans were performed for assessment of ischemic myocardial scar in five patients. Of the remaining four positive cases, two were performed to assess suspected infiltrative disease; one was performed for scar identification in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and one for scar identification in non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy.
######
Shows patient distribution and indications for the delayed enhancement with Cardiac CT (AICD = Implantable cardiac defibrillator, MDE = Myocardial Delayed Enhancement)
------------------------------------------ --- ---
AICD / Pacemaker 8 5
Non diagnostic/ inconclusive cardiac MRI 1 2
Patient discomfort/Claustrophobia 0 1
Contrast contraindication (Gadolinium) 0 1
All of the nine positive cases had echocardiograms available for comparison, each of which was performed within 12 weeks of the CT exam. Two patients had previous cardiac MRIs (within 1 week and 12 weeks of the CT) and one patient had additional SPECT-MPI (within 1 week of the CT) for comparison.
In one patient, the wall motion assessment by cardiac CT was not possible due to the use prospectively ECG-triggered technique.
A total of 136 segments were analyzed for wall motion abnormality; 32 of these segments were clinically interpreted as positive for CT-MDE. The kappa statistics for the agreement of wall motion abnormality between 2-dimensional echocardiography and wall motion abnormality by cardiac CT for all segments was 0.83 and the kappa statistics for agreement of segments with abnormal wall motion between 2-dimensional echocardiography and segments with abnormal CT-MDE with cardiac CT was 0.82 (Tables [5](#T5){ref-type="table"} and [6](#T6){ref-type="table"}).
######
Relative agreement of all segments between 64-slice MDCT and echocardiography scores
**All segment** **Echocardiography score**
----------------- ---------------------------- ---- ---- ----- ----
CT score 0 64 4 0 68
1 3 42 1 46
2 4 2 16 22
Total 71 48 17 136
Kappa = 0.83.
Wall motion by MDCT and echocardiography showed excellent agreement (k=0.83).
Wall motion scores of 0 to 2 were assigned to the different segments. 0 = normal wall motion; 1 = hypokinesia; 2 = Akinesia, MDCT, multidetector CT.
######
Relative agreement of CT DE positive only segments between 64-slice MDCT and echocardiography scores
**D+segment** **Echocardiography score**
--------------- ---------------------------- ---- --- ---- ----
CT score 0 15 2 0 17
1 1 13 0 14
2 0 0 1 1
Total 16 15 1 32
Kappa = 0.82.
Wall motion by MDCT and echocardiography showed excellent agreement (k=0.82).
Wall motion scores of 0 to 2 were assigned to the different segments. 0 = normal wall motion; 1 = hypokinesia; 2 = Akinesia. DE, delayed enhancement, MDCT, multidetector CT.
In the two cases positive for CT-MDE in which a prior cardiac MRI was available, the kappa statistics for agreement between the segments showing MDE with CT and MRI was 1.0 (i.e. in both cases, the same segments were positive for delayed enhancement on both exams) (Figures [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"} and [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}).
{#F1}
{#F2}
In the single case for which SPECT-MPI was available, there was a fixed perfusion defect in the same segments in which the cardiac CT identified CT-MDE. The kappa statistics for agreement between the segments of CT-MDE and SPECT-MPI was therefore 1.0 (Figure [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}).
In the cases reported as negative for CT-MDE (n=9), each had concordant imaging and no abnormal segments were found by other imaging modalities.
Discussion
==========
Cardiac MRI is the standard of reference for scar detection and myocardial characterization with late gadolinium enhancement, also known as myocardial delayed enhancement imaging (MR-MDE). However, numerous situations arise in routine practice whereby cardiac MRI is contraindicated, or not feasible. When the detection of myocardial scar / injury is clinically relevant in these patients, a cardiac CT-MDE protocol may offer a practical alternative. Our data demonstrates that while delayed imaging for myocardial indications with cardiac CT in clinical practice is requested infrequently, the presence of abnormal delayed enhancement in myocardial segments with cardiac CT has an excellent correlation with regional abnormalities detected on other concurrent cardiac imaging exams.
To our knowledge, this is the largest series of clinical cases imaged with CT-MDE for both ischemic and non-ischemic causes. Although pathologic proof of scar or other corresponding myocardial abnormalities was not obtained, comparison of the abnormal segments by other modalities (echocardiography, SPECT-MPI, and cardiac MRI) demonstrated that in all cases, the myocardial segments with positive MDE were abnormal by at least one other imaging modality. This suggests that the CT evidence of MDE was due to a true myocardial abnormality. Several animal and human studies have demonstrated that delayed CT imaging can identify myocardial scar \[[@B8]-[@B10]\].
All patients referred for cardiac CT had a contraindication to MRI or an unsuccessful cardiac MR exam. All modern CT scanners are capable of imaging the heart and are widely available. However, several challenges exist. MRI-MDE benefits from high contrast-to-noise ratios, made possible by "nulling" of signal in the normal, healthy myocardium at delayed image acquisition. The inability of CT to null normal myocardium results in significantly lower CNR values on MDE images with CT \[[@B5]\]. While the CNR values calculated in our study are indeed low, the image quality was deemed adequate and clinically interpretable in all cases. Also, the use of radiation necessary for cardiac CT is a concern. However, newer CT systems and consistent use of existing dose reduction strategies can lower the radiation dose per acquisition to sub-mSv levels \[[@B11],[@B12]\].
The chief limitation of our study is the retrospective design. Any analysis of clinical cases performed for various indications during a 5-year period will result in heterogeneous scan techniques and equipment. Tube voltage, tube current, and radiation doses were selected according to the available scanner, patient body habitus, heart rate, and the clinical indication. Despite these variations, we found that the studies all had interpretable image quality.
Another limitation of our study is a small number of clinical patients in whom CT-MDE protocol was performed. These scans were performed only as a last resort to answer a difficult clinical question. Although the results are encouraging, it is important to note that each case was an off-label use of contrast and a non-routine, unproven utilization of cardiac CT.
If confirmed in large-scale studies, myocardial characterization with delayed enhancement may eventually become an accepted indication for cardiac CT. Validation of this application of cardiac CT could perhaps lead to the development of comprehensive cardiac CT protocols demonstrating coronary artery anatomy, ventricular function, and scar detection. This rich dataset could be obtained in a single brief examination, facilitating diagnoses and guiding patient management \[[@B13],[@B14]\]. Abnormal delayed enhancement has been shown to provide incremental diagnostic value to other cardiac MRI findings, and cardiac CT with MDE imaging could bring this diagnostic benefit to an even greater number of patients \[[@B15]\].
Abbreviations
=============
CT: Computed Tomography; MDE: Myocardial Delayed Enhancement; MPI: Myocardial Perfusion Imaging; MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging; SPECT: Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography; TTE: Transthoracic Echocardiogram.
Competing interests
===================
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
======================
BBG and MSS = equal contributions in manuscript preparation and revision. SU = CT image review, NK = ECHO image review, LCE = collection of the images, HMZ & VV = Formulation of tables and data analysis, YV = Concept analysis, UH & RCC = critique of the manuscript, SA = manuscript editing, TJB = manuscript, editing and approval for submission. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
}
|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for accessing a storage medium and, more particularly, to a baseline correction apparatus for correcting a baseline of input signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the area of disk drives, attention has recently been focused on disk storage apparatuses of vertical magnetic recording system which are capable of increasing the recording density. With the conventional disk drives of longitudinal magnetic recording method, a magnetization corresponding to binary recorded data is formed in the longitudinal direction of the disk medium. In contrast to this, with the disk drives of vertical magnetic recording method, the same magnetization is formed in the depth direction of the disk medium.
Generally, with disk drives, data are recorded on the disk medium by a NRZ (non-return-to-zero) record encoding method. When the recorded data are read by the head from the surface of the disk medium, the reproduced signals (read signals) are a dipulse signal sequence for a longitudinal magnetic recording system. For a vertical magnetic recording system, on the other hand, the same reproduced signals are a pulse signal stream including a direct current (DC) low-frequency component.
Generally, the read channel system (reproduced signal processing system including a read amplifier) of a disk drive is such that the analog front-end circuit of a read amplifier, AC coupling, and the like has a low-frequency cutoff characteristic. This is intended in part to improve the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) of reproduced signals by removing unnecessary low-frequency noise component from reproduced signals.
In a vertical magnetic recording system, the reproduced signals contain low-frequency components, and thus a phenomenon in which the baselines of reproduced signals are varied is observed when the low-frequency noise components are cut off by the analog front-end circuit having a low-frequency cutoff characteristic. If such variation in the baseline of reproduced signals occurs, a problem of higher decoding error rate will arise when the recorded data are decoded from the reproduced signals.
To resolve this problem, one possible solution may be to lower the low-frequency cutoff frequency of the read channel system. However, simply widening the passband will lead to an SNR deterioration of reproduced signals because it cannot cut off the low-frequency noise components. Moreover, the read amplifier, in particular, is normally sensitive to the low-frequency noise, such as 1/f noise, so that it is even more subject to the SNR deterioration. Hence, with a vertical magnetic recording system, simply lowering the low-frequency cutoff frequency of the read channel will rather result in raising the error rate.
As a conventional method for countering the baseline variation, there has been a proposed technique in which an ideal value of baseline and the difference of it from the actual value of baseline are determined and correction is made by feeding back the value of difference to a process before the input side of the A-D converter (See Reference (1) in the following Related Art List, for instance). Also, another proposed technique achieves a baseline without variation by first obtaining reverse characteristics of varying components of the baseline and then finding the differences from the varying baseline (See Reference (2), for instance). Also, there is a proposed method for correcting the baseline variation by the use of the total value of detected direct current components of analog signals (See Reference (3), for instance).
Related Art List
(1) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-127409.
(2) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei11-185209.
(3) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei11-266185.
Under these circumstances, the inventors have come to realize the following problem. Conventionally, baseline correction has been done by calculating the necessary amount of correction and feeding it back to a preceding stage, which results in a delay in the timing of correction as much as the time taken to calculate the amount of correction. And this delay can be fatal and unacceptable to storage apparatuses of recent years which must make access for read and write at a speed exceeding 1 Gbps. In other words, a baseline correction, when done by the conventional method, can be inaccurate because the amount of correction to be used in the correction is based on past data. The problem therefore is that where access at higher speed is required, this baseline variation can adversely affect the subsequent circuits for error correction and the like.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
Q:
How to make a default package eclipse
I am very new to java and when I create a project, it makes the src and the JRE System Library. What it doesn't create is a default package. When i make a class in the src it names it after the project. it requires me to put package (name of project). I don't want to. How do i make the default package.
A:
New -> class
Delete the package field and name the class whatever you want. Make sure it's in the right project.
If you have a class that is already in the wrong package, simply delete the package name from the top of the file and drag the file in the file viewer to the src folder itself.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Q:
Potential of metric tensor
As I understand so far, the metric tensor of a Riemannian manifold is an $n \times n$ matrix in many specific examples. As such it could formally be the curl of some vector potential or just the derivative.
I wonder if this is indeed possible and if yes, if it is interesting or really just a formal coincidence.
A:
If I do not misunderstand your question your are asking if it is possible to define a more primitive object than the metric tensor, on a smooth manifold $M$, from which we can derive the metric tensor $g$, isn't it?. Such a more primitive object of course must be called potential. This approach recall me the so called Kaehler manifolds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A4hler_manifold
Kaehler manifolds form a subclass of Riemannian manifolds. For them there is indeed a concept of potential. Namely, around each point of a Kaehler manifold the metric tensor can be recovered from a function called potential. The recovering procedure is something like taking the Hessian of the potential.
The following post develops the idea of Hessian type metric on a Riemannian manifold: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/122308/when-a-riemannian-manifold-is-of-hessian-typ
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
t - 9. Suppose -2*n = -4*u + 30, 2*u - 17 = 3*n - 0*n. Let w be g(u). Let o = 106/15 - 20/3. Which is the biggest value? (a) o (b) 4 (c) w
b
Let j be (8 + -2)/18*-3. What is the second smallest value in j, -0.5, -5, -8?
-5
Let h be -1 - 3*(-2)/3. Let s = -12/5 + 19/10. Let n be ((-7)/14)/(18/8). Which is the second smallest value? (a) n (b) s (c) h
a
Let r = -1.613 + -2.387. Which is the fourth smallest value? (a) 3 (b) r (c) 16 (d) 0.03
c
Let y = -1153 - -1152. Which is the smallest value? (a) -3/5 (b) 0.4 (c) -0.17 (d) y
d
Let f = 728 + -727.84. What is the biggest value in -0.4, f, -10, 0.5?
0.5
Suppose 0 = k + p, -2*p = -5*k - 7 + 14. What is the biggest value in 1/2, -3, k, -55?
k
Let u = -220/63 + 25/9. Which is the smallest value? (a) 0.04 (b) u (c) 1
b
Let l = -1.1 + 1.1. Let j = -408/7 + 58. Which is the third smallest value? (a) l (b) 3 (c) j (d) 1/15
d
Let h(t) = -9*t**2 - 40*t + 22. Let y be h(-5). What is the fourth smallest value in y, 1/5, -3/4, 1/3?
1/3
Let r = 172 - 178. Let q = -4 - r. Let z(m) = -4*m + 2. Let p be z(-2). Which is the second smallest value? (a) p (b) 0.4 (c) q
c
Suppose 3*q - u - 2 = 0, -4*u + 7 + 13 = 2*q. Let c(o) = -3*o**2 - o + 2. Let b be c(q). Let h be (-4)/(-8) - (-10)/b. What is the smallest value in 4, 0.5, h?
h
Let q = 70 - 194. Let m = q + 127. Which is the fourth biggest value? (a) 0.1 (b) m (c) -5 (d) -3/7
c
Let h = 1 + -0.99. Let t = h + -0.07. Let f be (2 - (-4)/(-3)) + -1. Which is the third smallest value? (a) t (b) 3/8 (c) f
b
Let h(y) = -100*y**3 + y. Let q be h(1). Let z be 3 - 0 - q/(-21). Let v = z - -46/35. Which is the second smallest value? (a) -5 (b) v (c) -1
c
Let j = 63.65 - 64.95. Let y be 1/(-3) - 2/(-15). Which is the fourth biggest value? (a) 5 (b) j (c) y (d) 2/9
b
Let s = 641.81 - 642. Which is the third biggest value? (a) s (b) -0.1 (c) -5
c
Let s = 507.9 - 508. Which is the third smallest value? (a) -18 (b) s (c) -1/2 (d) -1/3
d
Suppose 8*s - 86 = 6*s. Let u = 128/3 - s. Which is the second biggest value? (a) u (b) -3 (c) -1
c
Let n = -3.8 - -4. Let w = 501 + -498. What is the third biggest value in w, n, 1, 0.07?
n
Suppose 0 = -u + 1 + 31. Let n be (-4)/(-10) - u/130. Let p be (-70)/(-44) - (-2 - (-23)/11). Which is the smallest value? (a) n (b) -2/3 (c) p
b
Let x be (426 + -442)*2/(-96). Let w = -2 - 0. What is the smallest value in w, x, 2/17?
w
Let u = -2943 + 2942.9. Let j be (1/(-7))/(2 + -1). What is the smallest value in 1/7, j, u, -1/3?
-1/3
Let y be ((-2)/(-2))/(5/(-30)). What is the second biggest value in 0.08, y, 0.4?
0.08
Let k be (-648)/2112 - (-3)/24. Which is the second smallest value? (a) k (b) -9 (c) 2/19
a
Let i = -106 - -105.7. Let g = 0.3 - 1.3. Let s = g + 0. Which is the smallest value? (a) s (b) i (c) 2/11
a
Let g = -5/18 - 1/18. Let c = -1 - -6. What is the second biggest value in c, 16, g?
c
Let u be (-21)/5 - 1110/(-925). Let i = -15/4 + 41/12. Which is the third biggest value? (a) i (b) u (c) -0.5
b
Let k = 12 + 2. Let f = 14.227 - -0.073. Let t = f - k. Which is the smallest value? (a) -1 (b) -0.4 (c) t
a
Let g = -20.9 + 19.4. Which is the smallest value? (a) 2/11 (b) g (c) -0.2 (d) 0.4
b
Let q = 2608 + -2604. What is the fourth smallest value in -0.4, 1/5, q, -4?
q
Let o be -4*(-3)/4 + -65. Let q = 190/3 + o. Let d = 59 + -58.6. What is the biggest value in d, q, -2?
q
Let h = -0.296 - 8.704. What is the second biggest value in -2, 3, -0.1, h?
-0.1
Let r = -0.2 + 0.3. Let w = 26969 - 134353/5. Let x = w - 98. Which is the third smallest value? (a) 0.3 (b) r (c) x
c
Let o be ((-7)/(245/10))/(-11). Which is the biggest value? (a) 0.1 (b) 0.2 (c) o
b
Let m = 155.7 + -164. Let r = m + 8.6. Which is the second smallest value? (a) 5 (b) 4 (c) 2/9 (d) r
d
Let q = 7.3 - 0.5. Let z = 6 - q. Let p = 1.2 - z. What is the second smallest value in -2, 1/4, p?
1/4
Let l = -1.509 - -1.809. Let s be 4/(-10)*-5*1. What is the third biggest value in s, l, -6?
-6
Let f be 4/(-60)*6 + 27/5. What is the smallest value in 0.1, -0.5, 4, f?
-0.5
Let a = 48 - 52. Let q = 181/440 - 2/55. Let s(w) = 5*w**3 - w - 1. Let c be s(-1). What is the smallest value in q, a, c?
c
Let m = -0.0189 - -0.2189. Suppose 4 - 2 = -2*b. What is the third smallest value in 1, b, m?
1
Let r = 629 + -6921/11. Which is the second smallest value? (a) 5 (b) r (c) 0.05
c
Let a be (-3)/(-12)*(8/6 + -2). Suppose 64 + 14 = 26*s. Suppose 0*i + 5*i - 20 = 0. What is the second smallest value in s, a, i?
s
Let u = 139 + -965/7. Let l = -26/35 + u. What is the third biggest value in l, 2, -4?
-4
Let u = -0.7 + -0.3. Let p = 6208 - 6207. Let o = 0.5 - 0. What is the second biggest value in u, o, p?
o
Let a = 30 - 29.75. Let y = a + 0.05. What is the third smallest value in 4, -0.04, 3, y?
3
Let g = 1/77 - -3/11. Which is the biggest value? (a) -0.4 (b) 1 (c) g (d) -0.0607
b
Suppose b - 14 = -0*b. Let u = b - 18. Let c be u + (3 - 5) + 0. What is the second biggest value in c, 1/6, 0?
0
Suppose -13 - 7 = 4*l. Suppose 5*y + 3*n - 27 = 0, 4*y + n + 3*n = 28. Let t be 5/y - 14/21. What is the biggest value in t, l, -0.4?
t
Let v = -310.97 + 311. Which is the second biggest value? (a) -107 (b) v (c) 5
b
Let v = 55.73 + -56. Let n = 0.2 + v. Let y = n - -1.07. Which is the third biggest value? (a) y (b) 1/5 (c) 4
b
Let m = 1 - 1.15. Let h = m + 0.2. Let i = h + 0.05. Which is the third smallest value? (a) i (b) 0.3 (c) -1
b
Let x = 3.8 + -2. Let k = -1.4 + x. What is the third biggest value in -3, 0.02, k?
-3
Let i = 138 + -138. Let d = -128 + 509/4. Let w = -7 - -2. What is the second biggest value in w, d, i?
d
Let p = 20 - 19.3. Let w(q) = -q**3 - q**2 + 3*q + 3. Suppose -k = -2*j - 2, -3*k = -2*j - k. Let x be w(j). What is the biggest value in p, -0.3, x?
x
Let n = -8.6 - -8.6. Let s = 0.06 - -1.24. Let y = s + 0.7. What is the second smallest value in y, 2/3, n?
2/3
Let q = 11.9 - 11.7. Which is the third biggest value? (a) 4 (b) 0.14 (c) 1/3 (d) q
d
Let p = 50 - 44. Let r(u) = u**3 - 7*u**2 + 8*u - 7. Let q be r(p). What is the second biggest value in q, -5, 1/10?
1/10
Suppose 0 = -z - 3, 2*x - 3*z = 7*x + 69. Let g be 8/(-6) + (-8)/x. What is the smallest value in -1, g, -5?
-5
Let j = -0.4 + -0.3. Let g = j - -0.76. Let v = 0.56 - g. What is the third biggest value in v, -0.3, -3/2?
-3/2
Let y = -1/162 - -109/162. Let o = 93/20 - 17/4. Which is the third biggest value? (a) y (b) o (c) 2
b
Let r = -4/15 - 2/5. Suppose -22*b + 27*b - f = 19, -5*b - 5 = 5*f. Let v = 3 + -4. What is the second smallest value in v, b, r?
r
Suppose 0 = -5*f + 10 + 10. Let u be (8/10)/(7/105). Let o = -17 + u. What is the biggest value in -3, o, f?
f
Let a be 1/(28/8) - (-207)/(-945). What is the third smallest value in a, 1, 0.4, -0.4?
0.4
Let p = 91237/71 + -1285. What is the second biggest value in p, 0, -0.2?
0
Let a be 0 + ((-2)/(-12)*16 - 2). Let p = 0.03 - 0.53. What is the biggest value in a, 1/7, p, -0.4?
a
Suppose k + 136 = -4*v, -21*k - 20 = -26*k. Which is the fourth smallest value? (a) v (b) 2/13 (c) -2 (d) 5/4
d
Suppose -12 = 4*s, 0 = w + 4*s - 449 + 456. Let m = 11 + 47. What is the second smallest value in m, w, -2/13?
w
Let z = 42.9 - 43. Let d(q) = -q**3 - 5*q**2 - q - 5. Let v be d(-5). What is the third smallest value in z, 1/2, v?
1/2
Suppose -2*k + 8 = -0*k. Let m = k + -8. Let g be (-68)/16 + 1 - -3. Which is the biggest value? (a) -1 (b) m (c) g
c
Let z = 5.8 - 10.48. Let g = z + 4.3. Let h = g + -0.02. Which is the third biggest value? (a) -1/2 (b) h (c) -3
c
Let i = -0.51 - -0.51. Suppose 0*f = -8*f - 40. Let z = 0 - -0.2. Which is the second biggest value? (a) f (b) z (c) i
c
Let o = 1/4 + -3/4. Let h = -27.569 + 27.469. What is the smallest value in h, -2, o?
-2
Let j = -166.7 + 30.7. Let r = -135 - j. Which is the third smallest value? (a) -9 (b) 2 (c) r
b
Let w = -12 - -8. Suppose -2*l = 2*n + 4, 0 = -n - 3*l + 3 - 1. Let f be (-2)/n + 27/8 + -4. Which is the third biggest value? (a) w (b) f (c) 3
a
Let s = -0.47 + -2.53. Which is the third smallest value? (a) 4 (b) 0.11 (c) -2/5 (d) s
b
Let m(y) = -2*y**2 + 6*y - 5. Let n be m(2). Let z = -2569/17 - -151. What is th
|
{
"pile_set_name": "DM Mathematics"
}
|
/******************************************************************************
*
* Copyright 2014 Paphus Solutions Inc.
*
* Licensed under the Eclipse Public License, Version 1.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*
******************************************************************************/
package org.botlibre.thought;
import java.util.Queue;
import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentLinkedQueue;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import org.botlibre.api.knowledge.MemoryEventListener;
import org.botlibre.api.knowledge.Network;
import org.botlibre.api.knowledge.Vertex;
import org.botlibre.knowledge.Primitive;
import org.botlibre.thought.BasicThought;
/**
* A sub-conscious thought that processes active memory in the background.
*/
public abstract class SubconsciousThought extends BasicThought {
public int threshold = 200;
public int delay = 0;
protected Queue<Vertex> activeMemoryBackLog = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue<Vertex>();
protected MemoryEventListener listener;
public SubconsciousThought() { }
/**
* Determine if the thought should first wait for conscious thoughts to process the input.
*/
public boolean isConsciousProcessingRequired() {
return false;
}
/**
* Add a listener to the memory to be notified when new active memory.
*/
@Override
public void awake() {
super.awake();
this.listener = new MemoryEventListener() {
public void addActiveMemory(Vertex vertex) {
if (isStopped || !isEnabled || !bot.mind().isConscious()) {
return;
}
if (getActiveMemoryBackLog().size() > SubconsciousThought.this.threshold) {
bot.log(this, "Subconscious backlog threshold reached, clearing backlog", Level.WARNING);
getActiveMemoryBackLog().clear();
}
getActiveMemoryBackLog().add(vertex);
}
};
this.bot.memory().addListener(this.listener);
}
public void stop() {
super.stop();
this.bot.memory().removeListener(this.listener);
}
/**
* Analyze the active memory.
* Output the active article to the senses.
*/
@Override
public void think() {
if (this.isStopped || !this.isEnabled || !this.bot.mind().isConscious()) {
getActiveMemoryBackLog().clear();
return;
}
Vertex vertex = getActiveMemoryBackLog().poll();
if (vertex != null) {
try {
Thread.sleep(this.delay);
if (this.isStopped || !this.isEnabled || !this.bot.mind().isConscious()) {
getActiveMemoryBackLog().clear();
return;
}
Network memory = this.bot.memory().newMemory();
vertex = memory.createVertex(vertex);
int abort = 0;
if (isConsciousProcessingRequired()) {
while ((abort < 20) && !vertex.hasRelationship(Primitive.CONTEXT)) {
Thread.sleep(1000);
if (this.isStopped || !this.isEnabled || !this.bot.mind().isConscious()) {
getActiveMemoryBackLog().clear();
return;
}
memory = this.bot.memory().newMemory();
vertex = memory.createVertex(vertex);
abort++;
}
}
if (abort < 20) {
boolean commit = processInput(vertex, memory);
if (commit && isEnabled() && !isStopped() && this.bot.mind().isConscious()) {
memory.save();
}
}
} catch (Exception failed) {
log(failed);
}
}
}
/**
* Process the active memory in the isolated memory in the background.
* Return if memory should be saved, or discarded.
*/
public abstract boolean processInput(Vertex vertex, Network network);
/**
* Thoughts can be conscious or sub-conscious.
* A conscious thought is run by the mind single threaded with exclusive access to the short term memory.
* A sub-conscious thought is run concurrently, and must run in its own memory space.
*/
@Override
public boolean isConscious() {
return false;
}
public Queue<Vertex> getActiveMemoryBackLog() {
return activeMemoryBackLog;
}
public void setActiveMemoryBackLog(Queue<Vertex> activeMemoryBackLog) {
this.activeMemoryBackLog = activeMemoryBackLog;
}
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Q:
dask loading multiple parquet files with different column selections
I want to use Dask to load specific columns from many parquet files that are stored in different directories and each parquet needs to load different columns. I want to use Dask so that I can use multiple cores on a single machine. I see how you can pass a list of files or wildcards to dd.read_parquet to indicate multiple files (e.g. *.parquet), but I do not see a way of passing different sets of columns to be read for each file. I'm wondering if this can be done using dask.delayed.
My specific situation is:
I'm storing large single cell gene expression datasets (~30,000 rows/genes by ~10,000 columns/cells) as parquet files in different directories. Each directory has two parquet files 1) the large gene expression data (cells as columns) and 2) cell metadata (cells as rows and cell metadata as columns). I'm using the smaller metadata parquet files to look up the columns/cells that I need in the larger file. For instance, I'll find all the cells that are of a specific cell type using the metadata parquet file, then load only those cells from the larger file. I'm able to do this using Pandas, but I would like to use Dask for parallelism.
A:
If you can do this using Pandas .read_parquet, while specifying columns, then one possible approach is to delay your existing Pandas-specific approach by replacing
pd.read_parquet(..., columns=[list_of_cols])
by
dask.delayed(pd.read_parquet)(..., columns=[list_of_cols])
as you had suggested.
EDIT
I had to do something similar for a single directory of paired .csv files - metadata and corresponding spectra. My filtering logic was minimal so I created a Python dict whose keys were the metadata logic (that produced a file name) and the value was the list of columns. I looped over the dictionary key-value paris and
read in the corresponding list of columns from the associated spectrum file using dd.read_csv(..., columns=[list_of_cols])
appended the ddf to a blank list (obviously followed by dd.concat() to vertically concatenate them all together after the loop)
In my case, though, the metadata contents changed in a predictable manner which is why I could programmatically assemble the dict using dictionary comprehension.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
[Respiratory and intensive care aspects of muscular dystrophies].
Among the various myopathies, Duchenne muscular dystrophy represents the myopathy with the most stereotypical respiratory evolution. This progressive respiratory failure is going to develop in a parallel way of motor deficit, conducting patients to mechanical ventilation at the end of their second decade. In the absence of curative therapeutics, respiratory cares like home ventilation and prevention of respiratory complications, in a systematic and organized way, allowed to decrease the morbidity and the mortality of these patients. It is not exceptional to meet patients with life expectancy of which overtakes about forty. Besides axial stabilization, cough assistance techniques and swallowing disorders management need to be associated to mechanical ventilation. Invasive techniques of ventilation as tracheostomy keep their place in this pathology even if alternative techniques allowing full day non-invasive ventilation were generalized these last years.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Dario Argento's World of Horror
Il Mondo dell'orrore di Dario Argento (Dario Argento's World of Horror) is a 1985 Italian documentary film that chronicles the career of Italian horror and suspense film director Dario Argento. It was the directorial debut of Michele Soavi, who later went on to direct the cult classic Dellamorte Dellamore in 1994.
The documentary features candid interviews with Argento and various stars from films he has directed, as well as extensive clips and behind-the-scenes footage of his films. The film includes segments focused on subjects as the soundtrack work, coloring and color filtering, and camerawork in Suspiria, the soundtrack for Inferno, the camerawork and insect effects in Phenomena, Tom Savini's make-up work in Dawn of the Dead, and the special effects, make-up and robotics in Dèmoni as well as interviews with Argento on a variety of esoteric subjects. Because most of Argento's films were only available in heavily edited form at the time, Dario Argento's World of Horror was sought after by many fans of the director's work because it contained numerous clips of footage removed from the released films, most notably the opening double murder sequence from Suspiria.
External links
Category:1985 films
Category:Films directed by Michele Soavi
Category:Documentary films about film directors and producers
Category:Italian films
Category:Directorial debut films
Category:Documentary films about horror
Category:Dario Argento
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Wikipedia (en)"
}
|
Richie McCaw calls it a "game-changer", but the International Rugby Players' Association still has a lot to do to get its latest proposal for an integrated global season over the line.
The association today issued a press release urging the game's leaders to renew efforts to address player welfare and competition issues by developing integrated seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres.
Under the IRPA proposal, the June test window would be moved to the last three weeks in July, beginning in 2016, when the competitions structures in both hemispheres will be on the table.
Under the plan, formulated after a recent conference in Australia, the northern hemisphere club competitions would start a month later than usual, "enabling more of their domestic competitions to be played after the Christmas break, potentially provide more breathing space for finals series and improving player availability for test matches".
In the south, the change would enable Super Rugby to be completed before the test tours by northern hemisphere nations, and also potentially extend the off-season break.
"If the game's leaders give this idea, or a variation of it, serious consideration, it could be a game-changer for professional rugby," World Cup-winning All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said.
"It would be fantastic to address this longstanding season structure debate once and for all. The players and the game would be so much better for it."
McCaw's sentiments were endorsed by Ireland and Lions playmaker Johnny Sexton, who said in the IRPA press release that he was confident a breakthrough could be made.
"We see this initiative as beneficial for the global game," he said.
"From a player perspective, we urge our leaders to get in a room together, take a positive attitude and see what can be done."
Association chairman Damian Hopley said the game was in a "unique" position to make the change.
"For the first time since rugby went professional, the major northern and southern hemisphere competition and commercial structures are on the table at the same time," he said.
"This is the ideal time to seriously consider change that will secure player welfare initiatives."
Under the players' proposal, the 2017 tour by the British and Irish Lions to New Zealand would be in a clear post-Super Rugby window, allowing full-strength midweek line-ups to be fielded.
IRPA says existing windows for World Cups, Six Nations, the Rugby Championship and November tests would not need to change.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
//
// BIM IFC library: this library works with Autodesk(R) Revit(R) to export IFC files containing model geometry.
// Copyright (C) 2012 Autodesk, Inc.
//
// This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
// modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
// License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
// version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
//
// This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
// Lesser General Public License for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
// License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
// Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
//
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Autodesk.Revit.DB.IFC;
using Revit.IFC.Export.Exporter;
using Revit.IFC.Export.Toolkit;
namespace Revit.IFC.Export.Utility
{
/// <summary>
/// Used to keep a cache of the elements contained in another element.
/// For example, by default, IFCPROJECT would have one item, IFCSITE.
/// </summary>
public class ContainmentCache : Dictionary<IFCAnyHandle, ICollection<IFCAnyHandle>>
{
Dictionary<IFCAnyHandle, string> m_ContainerGUIDs = new Dictionary<IFCAnyHandle, string>();
/// <summary>
/// Define the GUID for the IFCRELAGGREGATES.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="container">The container.</param>
/// <param name="guid">The guid.</param>
public void SetGUIDForRelation(IFCAnyHandle container, string guid)
{
string existingGUID;
if (m_ContainerGUIDs.TryGetValue(container, out existingGUID))
throw new InvalidOperationException("GUID is already set.");
m_ContainerGUIDs[container] = guid;
}
/// <summary>
/// Get the GUID for the IFCRELAGGREGATES.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="container">The container.</param>
/// <returns>The GUID, if it exists.</returns>
public string GetGUIDForRelation(IFCAnyHandle container)
{
string existingGUID = null;
m_ContainerGUIDs.TryGetValue(container, out existingGUID);
return existingGUID;
}
/// <summary>
/// And an object to a container.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="container">The container.</param>
/// <param name="objectHnd">The object to add.</param>
public void AddRelation(IFCAnyHandle container, IFCAnyHandle objectHnd)
{
ICollection<IFCAnyHandle> containedItems;
if (!TryGetValue(container, out containedItems))
{
containedItems = new HashSet<IFCAnyHandle>();
this[container] = containedItems;
}
containedItems.Add(objectHnd);
}
/// <summary>
/// And a collection of objects to a container.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="container">The container.</param>
/// <param name="objectHnds">The objects to add.</param>
public void AddRelations(IFCAnyHandle container, ICollection<IFCAnyHandle> objectHnds)
{
foreach (IFCAnyHandle objectHnd in objectHnds)
AddRelation(container, objectHnd);
}
}
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Three Baltimore teenagers have been arrested and charged with robbing a woman at gunpoint as she was holding her five-week-old son in her arms, CBS Boston reported.
Raemiyah Haws, 19, was charged with armed robbery, assault, and theft. Taquan Benson, 16, was hit with the same charges as Haws and will also be charged as an adult. The third, a 15-year-old girl, will be charged as a juvenile despite that police said she pistol-whipped the victim.
Raemiyah Haws, 19, and Taquan Benson, 16, will be charged as adults with Armed Robbery, Assault, and Theft. A 15-year-old girl who police say pistol whipped the woman with a BB gun will be charged as a juvenile. pic.twitter.com/TMeGom1N2K — Paul Gessler (@PaulGessler) July 26, 2019
The youngest was not publicly identified because she is a juvenile.
The victim said the three attacked her in South Baltimore on the 1700 block of Webster Street on the afternoon of July 23. One assailant grabbed her from behind while the others began taking her belongings. Then the youngest hit her with a gun that police later identified as a BB gun.
All three suspects were apprehended in the Inner Harbor, police reported.
The victim was treated at the scene by first responders and released. She suffered several cuts and abrasions.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
Share this article
Fear turned to disbelief on Monday afternoon at a hairdressing salon in the city of St Gallen when a masked man stormed the building shouting ‘terrorist attack'.
Trainee hairdresser Severine Tschirren was in the Coiffure X salon at the time and told local paper the St Gallen Tagblatt that she initially thought he was going to raid the till.
But instead the man went to the window display, tore down a curtain and grabbed one of two cardboard cut-outs of the Star Wars character Chewbacca.
He then ran out of the building with the giant cut-out, dropping a note on the floor that said he must free the hairy creature “because he suffers from Stockholm Syndrome”, referring to the psychological condition where a victim feels attached to their captor.
Tschirren, 20, told the paper she was “full of shock” and didn't know what to do.
Staff called the police who at first didn't believe them, she said, adding that she found that pretty funny. “You cannot invent something like that,” she said.
St Gallen police confirmed the existence of the handwritten note and said they attended the scene on Monday, but hadn't received an official complaint.
“I had to laugh when I heard the story for the first time,” a police spokesman told radio station FM1 Today.
Tschirren told the radio station police advised her to tie up the thief should he come back to steal the second cut-out figure, and that she had now equipped herself with pepper spray just in case.
Salon owner Ivan Herb told the media he thought the thief either had psychological troubles or was carrying out a student prank.
“If it was supposed to be a joke, it wasn't funny,” he told newspaper 20 Minutes.
The salon is known in the city for its window displays. Photo: Coiffure X
Speaking to The Local, Herb said staff at the salon were initially scared after the man said it was a terrorist attack.
“In the first moments yes,” he said, before quickly realizing it was no such thing.
He told the media he did not lodge an official complaint to police because he felt “that would probably do nothing” but is offering a 100 franc reward for the return of Chewbacca, which is about the value of the cut-out.
“We hope we will get Chewbacca back,” Herb told The Local, adding that he is making a ‘Chewbacca Wanted' poster to put up in the shop.
He also admitted that the incident has whipped up plenty of interest for the salon, which has been running for 30 years.
“It's great for us!” he laughed.
It's not the only theft of a fictional character in the St Gallen area this week.
A duck-shaped garden ornament known as ‘little Picozzo' was stolen from the garden of a 60-year-old in Bad Ragaz sometime between last Friday and Monday, St Gallen police said in a statement.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Nick Chapman, chief executive of NHS Direct: "The new helpline will be better and more cost effective than NHS Direct"
The government has confirmed it is planning to scrap the NHS Direct telephone service in England and replace it with an alternative service.
A new 1-1-1 helpline is already being piloted in north-east England.
It was previously reported that the new service may replace NHS Direct, but now the Department of Health has confirmed it will definitely do so.
The move comes as the government curtails public spending, even though it has promised to protect the NHS.
The change will not affect existing NHS helpline services in Scotland and Wales.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced the plan to scrap NHS Direct in England during a hospital visit this week.
NHS Direct currently employs more than 3,000 staff, 40% of whom are trained nurses. It is understood the ratio on the 1-1-1 helpline is "slightly less" in the pilot, but no figures are yet available for what will happen when the scheme is rolled out nationally.
Critics claim the change would undermine the quality of the service by reducing the number of qualified nurses answering calls, but chief executive of NHS Direct Nick Chapman told the BBC the new helpline would be better and more cost effective than NHS Direct.
The health secretary's statement will stun people across the NHS Andy Burnham, Shadow health secretary
He said: "More value for money doesn't necessarily mean that something will be worse. It will be a more seamless service."
He said the 1-1-1 helpline's telephone number would also be easier for callers to remember than the current NHS Direct one.
In June GPs urged the government to get rid of NHS Direct, claiming it was not cost effective.
The plan has provoked an angry reaction from Labour, with shadow health secretary Andy Burnham using it as evidence of what he claims is the government's intention to "dismantle" the NHS.
He said: "The health secretary's statement will stun people across the NHS.
"It is yet more evidence that Andrew Lansley is on a vindictive mission to break up the NHS, ruthlessly dismantling services before alternatives are in place."
Mr Burnham told the BBC that the government had shown "arrogance" and acted in a "cavalier" way by choosing to scrap NHS Direct without consulting the public.
He said the service saved the NHS £200m a year and played a key role in taking pressure off the health service.
He said: "It's been a proven success for a decade and simply to scrap it is no way to run the NHS."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Lord Prescott: "You know you are talking to a nurse or a doctor; to have a call service will not be the same."
Roughly 14,000 people a day call NHS Direct for medical advice, with the service costing £123m a year to run.
Former Labour health secretary Frank Dobson, who helped establish NHS Direct in 1998, told the BBC the decision to replace the service was "crackers," and said the professionally staffed advice line would be replaced with a "call centre".
His views were echoed by former deputy prime minister, Lord Prescott, who urged the public to sign an online petition he initiated to save the helpline.
He said people would lose trust in using the new service if it was staffed by fewer qualified nurses.
He told the BBC: "It will be a lesser service determined by saving money.
"(The government) told us they would cut the deficit, not the NHS. This is another promise broken."
Staff will be 'devastated'
Dr Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of The Royal College of Nursing , said reducing the number of specialist nurses who worked on the new helpline was "short-sighted."
He said: "We urge the government to consult fully and look at all the evidence before enacting changes which could leave people without expert advice from trained nurses."
Gail Adams, head of nursing for the public service union Unison, told the BBC that NHS Direct staff would be "devastated" by news that the service was to be scrapped.
She said the service's success was based on "compassionate nurses providing sensitive care," and that less qualified staff could not offer the same level of expertise and reassurance to the public.
BBC political correspondent Arif Ansari said NHS Direct had a "mixed record," with critics complaining that its staff were too cautious in their advice to callers.
"There are people who have used NHS Direct and say they did not get a lot from it," he said.
Mr Ansari said GPs were unhappy that many callers were unnecessarily referred to their local hospital when they did not require treatment there.
Mr Chapman said staff involved with the 1-1-1 helpline "pathfinder" in north-east England were currently working with the local ambulance service to handle calls relating to health information or inquiries about medicines.
He said the service would also be tested in the East Midlands and in the East of England, where helpline staff would also assist with nurse assessment, health information and referrals.
"When detailed plans are made to roll out the service nationally, we hope NHS Direct staff will be able to contribute their experience to the new service," he said.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
A fluorometric screening assay for drug efflux transporter activity in the blood-brain barrier.
To examine the capability of a fluorometric assay to identify and characterize the drug efflux interactions of a broad spectrum of drug agents in an in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Various concentrations of drug agent (1, 10, and 100 microM) were evaluated for their effect on the cellular accumulation of the P-glycoprotein (P-gp) probe R123 (3.2 microM), and the mixed P-gp and multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) probe, BCECF (1 microM), in bovine brain microvessel endothelial cell (BBMEC) monolayers. Drugs demonstrating a significant effect were further quantitated using an expanded concentration range and a nonlinear regression curve fit to determine the potency (IC50) and efficacy (Imax) of the drug for P-gp and/or MRP. Several of the 36 therapeutic agents examined showed drug efflux transporter interactions in BBMEC monlayers. Melphalan and risperidone significantly enhanced the accumulation of R123 over control (1.47- and 1.82-fold, respectively) with resulting IC50s of 1.4 and 14.6 microM, respectively. Chlorambucil and valproic acid significantly enhanced the accumulation of BCECF compared to control monolayers (2.02- and 4.01-fold, respectively) with resulting IC50s of 146.1 and 768.5 microM, respectively. The current study demonstrates the feasibility of a fluorometric assay consisting of R123 and BCECF in assessing the drug efflux interactions of a variety of drugs in the BBB.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
This group is for in-memory computing (IMC) users and those using (or interested in) IMC-related technologies and solutions (and distributed computing). This meetup was designed for technical decision-makers, implementers and developers who work with in-memory computing, Big Data, Fast Data, IoT and HPC solutions. If you would like to speak at an upcoming meetup, please fill out this speaker request form.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
/* Arduino SdFat Library
* Copyright (C) 2009 by William Greiman
*
* This file is part of the Arduino SdFat Library
*
* This Library is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
* the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
* (at your option) any later version.
*
* This Library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with the Arduino SdFat Library. If not, see
* <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
*/
#include "SdFat.h"
#ifdef __AVR__
#include <avr/pgmspace.h>
#endif
#include <Arduino.h>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// callback function for date/time
void (*SdFile::dateTime_)(uint16_t* date, uint16_t* time) = NULL;
#if ALLOW_DEPRECATED_FUNCTIONS
// suppress cpplint warnings with NOLINT comment
void (*SdFile::oldDateTime_)(uint16_t& date, uint16_t& time) = NULL; // NOLINT
#endif // ALLOW_DEPRECATED_FUNCTIONS
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// add a cluster to a file
uint8_t SdFile::addCluster() {
if (!vol_->allocContiguous(1, &curCluster_)) return false;
// if first cluster of file link to directory entry
if (firstCluster_ == 0) {
firstCluster_ = curCluster_;
flags_ |= F_FILE_DIR_DIRTY;
}
return true;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Add a cluster to a directory file and zero the cluster.
// return with first block of cluster in the cache
uint8_t SdFile::addDirCluster(void) {
if (!addCluster()) return false;
// zero data in cluster insure first cluster is in cache
uint32_t block = vol_->clusterStartBlock(curCluster_);
for (uint8_t i = vol_->blocksPerCluster_; i != 0; i--) {
if (!SdVolume::cacheZeroBlock(block + i - 1)) return false;
}
// Increase directory file size by cluster size
fileSize_ += 512UL << vol_->clusterSizeShift_;
return true;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// cache a file's directory entry
// return pointer to cached entry or null for failure
dir_t* SdFile::cacheDirEntry(uint8_t action) {
if (!SdVolume::cacheRawBlock(dirBlock_, action)) return NULL;
return SdVolume::cacheBuffer_.dir + dirIndex_;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Close a file and force cached data and directory information
* to be written to the storage device.
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include no file is open or an I/O error.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::close(void) {
if (!sync())return false;
type_ = FAT_FILE_TYPE_CLOSED;
return true;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Check for contiguous file and return its raw block range.
*
* \param[out] bgnBlock the first block address for the file.
* \param[out] endBlock the last block address for the file.
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include file is not contiguous, file has zero length
* or an I/O error occurred.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::contiguousRange(uint32_t* bgnBlock, uint32_t* endBlock) {
// error if no blocks
if (firstCluster_ == 0) return false;
for (uint32_t c = firstCluster_; ; c++) {
uint32_t next;
if (!vol_->fatGet(c, &next)) return false;
// check for contiguous
if (next != (c + 1)) {
// error if not end of chain
if (!vol_->isEOC(next)) return false;
*bgnBlock = vol_->clusterStartBlock(firstCluster_);
*endBlock = vol_->clusterStartBlock(c)
+ vol_->blocksPerCluster_ - 1;
return true;
}
}
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Create and open a new contiguous file of a specified size.
*
* \note This function only supports short DOS 8.3 names.
* See open() for more information.
*
* \param[in] dirFile The directory where the file will be created.
* \param[in] fileName A valid DOS 8.3 file name.
* \param[in] size The desired file size.
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include \a fileName contains
* an invalid DOS 8.3 file name, the FAT volume has not been initialized,
* a file is already open, the file already exists, the root
* directory is full or an I/O error.
*
*/
uint8_t SdFile::createContiguous(SdFile* dirFile,
const char* fileName, uint32_t size) {
// don't allow zero length file
if (size == 0) return false;
if (!open(dirFile, fileName, O_CREAT | O_EXCL | O_RDWR)) return false;
// calculate number of clusters needed
uint32_t count = ((size - 1) >> (vol_->clusterSizeShift_ + 9)) + 1;
// allocate clusters
if (!vol_->allocContiguous(count, &firstCluster_)) {
remove();
return false;
}
fileSize_ = size;
// insure sync() will update dir entry
flags_ |= F_FILE_DIR_DIRTY;
return sync();
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Return a files directory entry
*
* \param[out] dir Location for return of the files directory entry.
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::dirEntry(dir_t* dir) {
// make sure fields on SD are correct
if (!sync()) return false;
// read entry
dir_t* p = cacheDirEntry(SdVolume::CACHE_FOR_READ);
if (!p) return false;
// copy to caller's struct
memcpy(dir, p, sizeof(dir_t));
return true;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Format the name field of \a dir into the 13 byte array
* \a name in standard 8.3 short name format.
*
* \param[in] dir The directory structure containing the name.
* \param[out] name A 13 byte char array for the formatted name.
*/
void SdFile::dirName(const dir_t& dir, char* name) {
uint8_t j = 0;
for (uint8_t i = 0; i < 11; i++) {
if (dir.name[i] == ' ')continue;
if (i == 8) name[j++] = '.';
name[j++] = dir.name[i];
}
name[j] = 0;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/** List directory contents to Serial.
*
* \param[in] flags The inclusive OR of
*
* LS_DATE - %Print file modification date
*
* LS_SIZE - %Print file size.
*
* LS_R - Recursive list of subdirectories.
*
* \param[in] indent Amount of space before file name. Used for recursive
* list to indicate subdirectory level.
*/
void SdFile::ls(uint8_t flags, uint8_t indent) {
dir_t* p;
rewind();
while ((p = readDirCache())) {
// done if past last used entry
if (p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_FREE) break;
// skip deleted entry and entries for . and ..
if (p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_DELETED || p->name[0] == '.') continue;
// only list subdirectories and files
if (!DIR_IS_FILE_OR_SUBDIR(p)) continue;
// print any indent spaces
for (int8_t i = 0; i < indent; i++) Serial.print(' ');
// print file name with possible blank fill
printDirName(*p, flags & (LS_DATE | LS_SIZE) ? 14 : 0);
// print modify date/time if requested
if (flags & LS_DATE) {
printFatDate(p->lastWriteDate);
Serial.print(' ');
printFatTime(p->lastWriteTime);
}
// print size if requested
if (!DIR_IS_SUBDIR(p) && (flags & LS_SIZE)) {
Serial.print(' ');
Serial.print(p->fileSize);
}
Serial.println();
// list subdirectory content if requested
if ((flags & LS_R) && DIR_IS_SUBDIR(p)) {
uint16_t index = curPosition()/32 - 1;
SdFile s;
if (s.open(this, index, O_READ)) s.ls(flags, indent + 2);
seekSet(32 * (index + 1));
}
}
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// format directory name field from a 8.3 name string
uint8_t SdFile::make83Name(const char* str, uint8_t* name) {
uint8_t c;
uint8_t n = 7; // max index for part before dot
uint8_t i = 0;
// blank fill name and extension
while (i < 11) name[i++] = ' ';
i = 0;
while ((c = *str++) != '\0') {
if (c == '.') {
if (n == 10) return false; // only one dot allowed
n = 10; // max index for full 8.3 name
i = 8; // place for extension
} else {
// illegal FAT characters
uint8_t b;
#if defined(__AVR__)
PGM_P p = PSTR("|<>^+=?/[];,*\"\\");
while ((b = pgm_read_byte(p++))) if (b == c) return false;
#elif defined(__arm__)
const uint8_t valid[] = "|<>^+=?/[];,*\"\\";
const uint8_t *p = valid;
while ((b = *p++)) if (b == c) return false;
#endif
// check size and only allow ASCII printable characters
if (i > n || c < 0X21 || c > 0X7E)return false;
// only upper case allowed in 8.3 names - convert lower to upper
name[i++] = c < 'a' || c > 'z' ? c : c + ('A' - 'a');
}
}
// must have a file name, extension is optional
return name[0] != ' ';
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/** Make a new directory.
*
* \param[in] dir An open SdFat instance for the directory that will containing
* the new directory.
*
* \param[in] dirName A valid 8.3 DOS name for the new directory.
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include this SdFile is already open, \a dir is not a
* directory, \a dirName is invalid or already exists in \a dir.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::makeDir(SdFile* dir, const char* dirName) {
dir_t d;
// create a normal file
if (!open(dir, dirName, O_CREAT | O_EXCL | O_RDWR)) return false;
// convert SdFile to directory
flags_ = O_READ;
type_ = FAT_FILE_TYPE_SUBDIR;
// allocate and zero first cluster
if (!addDirCluster())return false;
// force entry to SD
if (!sync()) return false;
// cache entry - should already be in cache due to sync() call
dir_t* p = cacheDirEntry(SdVolume::CACHE_FOR_WRITE);
if (!p) return false;
// change directory entry attribute
p->attributes = DIR_ATT_DIRECTORY;
// make entry for '.'
memcpy(&d, p, sizeof(d));
for (uint8_t i = 1; i < 11; i++) d.name[i] = ' ';
d.name[0] = '.';
// cache block for '.' and '..'
uint32_t block = vol_->clusterStartBlock(firstCluster_);
if (!SdVolume::cacheRawBlock(block, SdVolume::CACHE_FOR_WRITE)) return false;
// copy '.' to block
memcpy(&SdVolume::cacheBuffer_.dir[0], &d, sizeof(d));
// make entry for '..'
d.name[1] = '.';
if (dir->isRoot()) {
d.firstClusterLow = 0;
d.firstClusterHigh = 0;
} else {
d.firstClusterLow = dir->firstCluster_ & 0XFFFF;
d.firstClusterHigh = dir->firstCluster_ >> 16;
}
// copy '..' to block
memcpy(&SdVolume::cacheBuffer_.dir[1], &d, sizeof(d));
// set position after '..'
curPosition_ = 2 * sizeof(d);
// write first block
return SdVolume::cacheFlush();
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Open a file or directory by name.
*
* \param[in] dirFile An open SdFat instance for the directory containing the
* file to be opened.
*
* \param[in] fileName A valid 8.3 DOS name for a file to be opened.
*
* \param[in] oflag Values for \a oflag are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive
* OR of flags from the following list
*
* O_READ - Open for reading.
*
* O_RDONLY - Same as O_READ.
*
* O_WRITE - Open for writing.
*
* O_WRONLY - Same as O_WRITE.
*
* O_RDWR - Open for reading and writing.
*
* O_APPEND - If set, the file offset shall be set to the end of the
* file prior to each write.
*
* O_CREAT - If the file exists, this flag has no effect except as noted
* under O_EXCL below. Otherwise, the file shall be created
*
* O_EXCL - If O_CREAT and O_EXCL are set, open() shall fail if the file exists.
*
* O_SYNC - Call sync() after each write. This flag should not be used with
* write(uint8_t), write_P(PGM_P), writeln_P(PGM_P), or the Arduino Print class.
* These functions do character at a time writes so sync() will be called
* after each byte.
*
* O_TRUNC - If the file exists and is a regular file, and the file is
* successfully opened and is not read only, its length shall be truncated to 0.
*
* \note Directory files must be opened read only. Write and truncation is
* not allowed for directory files.
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include this SdFile is already open, \a difFile is not
* a directory, \a fileName is invalid, the file does not exist
* or can't be opened in the access mode specified by oflag.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::open(SdFile* dirFile, const char* fileName, uint8_t oflag) {
uint8_t dname[11];
dir_t* p;
// error if already open
if (isOpen())return false;
if (!make83Name(fileName, dname)) return false;
vol_ = dirFile->vol_;
dirFile->rewind();
// bool for empty entry found
uint8_t emptyFound = false;
// search for file
while (dirFile->curPosition_ < dirFile->fileSize_) {
uint8_t index = 0XF & (dirFile->curPosition_ >> 5);
p = dirFile->readDirCache();
if (p == NULL) return false;
if (p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_FREE || p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_DELETED) {
// remember first empty slot
if (!emptyFound) {
emptyFound = true;
dirIndex_ = index;
dirBlock_ = SdVolume::cacheBlockNumber_;
}
// done if no entries follow
if (p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_FREE) break;
} else if (!memcmp(dname, p->name, 11)) {
// don't open existing file if O_CREAT and O_EXCL
if ((oflag & (O_CREAT | O_EXCL)) == (O_CREAT | O_EXCL)) return false;
// open found file
return openCachedEntry(0XF & index, oflag);
}
}
// only create file if O_CREAT and O_WRITE
if ((oflag & (O_CREAT | O_WRITE)) != (O_CREAT | O_WRITE)) return false;
// cache found slot or add cluster if end of file
if (emptyFound) {
p = cacheDirEntry(SdVolume::CACHE_FOR_WRITE);
if (!p) return false;
} else {
if (dirFile->type_ == FAT_FILE_TYPE_ROOT16) return false;
// add and zero cluster for dirFile - first cluster is in cache for write
if (!dirFile->addDirCluster()) return false;
// use first entry in cluster
dirIndex_ = 0;
p = SdVolume::cacheBuffer_.dir;
}
// initialize as empty file
memset(p, 0, sizeof(dir_t));
memcpy(p->name, dname, 11);
// set timestamps
if (dateTime_) {
// call user function
dateTime_(&p->creationDate, &p->creationTime);
} else {
// use default date/time
p->creationDate = FAT_DEFAULT_DATE;
p->creationTime = FAT_DEFAULT_TIME;
}
p->lastAccessDate = p->creationDate;
p->lastWriteDate = p->creationDate;
p->lastWriteTime = p->creationTime;
// force write of entry to SD
if (!SdVolume::cacheFlush()) return false;
// open entry in cache
return openCachedEntry(dirIndex_, oflag);
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Open a file by index.
*
* \param[in] dirFile An open SdFat instance for the directory.
*
* \param[in] index The \a index of the directory entry for the file to be
* opened. The value for \a index is (directory file position)/32.
*
* \param[in] oflag Values for \a oflag are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive
* OR of flags O_READ, O_WRITE, O_TRUNC, and O_SYNC.
*
* See open() by fileName for definition of flags and return values.
*
*/
uint8_t SdFile::open(SdFile* dirFile, uint16_t index, uint8_t oflag) {
// error if already open
if (isOpen())return false;
// don't open existing file if O_CREAT and O_EXCL - user call error
if ((oflag & (O_CREAT | O_EXCL)) == (O_CREAT | O_EXCL)) return false;
vol_ = dirFile->vol_;
// seek to location of entry
if (!dirFile->seekSet(32 * index)) return false;
// read entry into cache
dir_t* p = dirFile->readDirCache();
if (p == NULL) return false;
// error if empty slot or '.' or '..'
if (p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_FREE ||
p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_DELETED || p->name[0] == '.') {
return false;
}
// open cached entry
return openCachedEntry(index & 0XF, oflag);
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// open a cached directory entry. Assumes vol_ is initializes
uint8_t SdFile::openCachedEntry(uint8_t dirIndex, uint8_t oflag) {
// location of entry in cache
dir_t* p = SdVolume::cacheBuffer_.dir + dirIndex;
// write or truncate is an error for a directory or read-only file
if (p->attributes & (DIR_ATT_READ_ONLY | DIR_ATT_DIRECTORY)) {
if (oflag & (O_WRITE | O_TRUNC)) return false;
}
// remember location of directory entry on SD
dirIndex_ = dirIndex;
dirBlock_ = SdVolume::cacheBlockNumber_;
// copy first cluster number for directory fields
firstCluster_ = (uint32_t)p->firstClusterHigh << 16;
firstCluster_ |= p->firstClusterLow;
// make sure it is a normal file or subdirectory
if (DIR_IS_FILE(p)) {
fileSize_ = p->fileSize;
type_ = FAT_FILE_TYPE_NORMAL;
} else if (DIR_IS_SUBDIR(p)) {
if (!vol_->chainSize(firstCluster_, &fileSize_)) return false;
type_ = FAT_FILE_TYPE_SUBDIR;
} else {
return false;
}
// save open flags for read/write
flags_ = oflag & (O_ACCMODE | O_SYNC | O_APPEND);
// set to start of file
curCluster_ = 0;
curPosition_ = 0;
// truncate file to zero length if requested
if (oflag & O_TRUNC) return truncate(0);
return true;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Open a volume's root directory.
*
* \param[in] vol The FAT volume containing the root directory to be opened.
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include the FAT volume has not been initialized
* or it a FAT12 volume.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::openRoot(SdVolume* vol) {
// error if file is already open
if (isOpen()) return false;
if (vol->fatType() == 16) {
type_ = FAT_FILE_TYPE_ROOT16;
firstCluster_ = 0;
fileSize_ = 32 * vol->rootDirEntryCount();
} else if (vol->fatType() == 32) {
type_ = FAT_FILE_TYPE_ROOT32;
firstCluster_ = vol->rootDirStart();
if (!vol->chainSize(firstCluster_, &fileSize_)) return false;
} else {
// volume is not initialized or FAT12
return false;
}
vol_ = vol;
// read only
flags_ = O_READ;
// set to start of file
curCluster_ = 0;
curPosition_ = 0;
// root has no directory entry
dirBlock_ = 0;
dirIndex_ = 0;
return true;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/** %Print the name field of a directory entry in 8.3 format to Serial.
*
* \param[in] dir The directory structure containing the name.
* \param[in] width Blank fill name if length is less than \a width.
*/
void SdFile::printDirName(const dir_t& dir, uint8_t width) {
uint8_t w = 0;
for (uint8_t i = 0; i < 11; i++) {
if (dir.name[i] == ' ')continue;
if (i == 8) {
Serial.print('.');
w++;
}
Serial.write(dir.name[i]);
w++;
}
if (DIR_IS_SUBDIR(&dir)) {
Serial.print('/');
w++;
}
while (w < width) {
Serial.print(' ');
w++;
}
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/** %Print a directory date field to Serial.
*
* Format is yyyy-mm-dd.
*
* \param[in] fatDate The date field from a directory entry.
*/
void SdFile::printFatDate(uint16_t fatDate) {
Serial.print(FAT_YEAR(fatDate));
Serial.print('-');
printTwoDigits(FAT_MONTH(fatDate));
Serial.print('-');
printTwoDigits(FAT_DAY(fatDate));
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/** %Print a directory time field to Serial.
*
* Format is hh:mm:ss.
*
* \param[in] fatTime The time field from a directory entry.
*/
void SdFile::printFatTime(uint16_t fatTime) {
printTwoDigits(FAT_HOUR(fatTime));
Serial.print(':');
printTwoDigits(FAT_MINUTE(fatTime));
Serial.print(':');
printTwoDigits(FAT_SECOND(fatTime));
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/** %Print a value as two digits to Serial.
*
* \param[in] v Value to be printed, 0 <= \a v <= 99
*/
void SdFile::printTwoDigits(uint8_t v) {
char str[3];
str[0] = '0' + v/10;
str[1] = '0' + v % 10;
str[2] = 0;
Serial.print(str);
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Read data from a file starting at the current position.
*
* \param[out] buf Pointer to the location that will receive the data.
*
* \param[in] nbyte Maximum number of bytes to read.
*
* \return For success read() returns the number of bytes read.
* A value less than \a nbyte, including zero, will be returned
* if end of file is reached.
* If an error occurs, read() returns -1. Possible errors include
* read() called before a file has been opened, corrupt file system
* or an I/O error occurred.
*/
int16_t SdFile::read(void* buf, uint16_t nbyte) {
uint8_t* dst = reinterpret_cast<uint8_t*>(buf);
// error if not open or write only
if (!isOpen() || !(flags_ & O_READ)) return -1;
// max bytes left in file
if (nbyte > (fileSize_ - curPosition_)) nbyte = fileSize_ - curPosition_;
// amount left to read
uint16_t toRead = nbyte;
while (toRead > 0) {
uint32_t block; // raw device block number
uint16_t offset = curPosition_ & 0X1FF; // offset in block
if (type_ == FAT_FILE_TYPE_ROOT16) {
block = vol_->rootDirStart() + (curPosition_ >> 9);
} else {
uint8_t blockOfCluster = vol_->blockOfCluster(curPosition_);
if (offset == 0 && blockOfCluster == 0) {
// start of new cluster
if (curPosition_ == 0) {
// use first cluster in file
curCluster_ = firstCluster_;
} else {
// get next cluster from FAT
if (!vol_->fatGet(curCluster_, &curCluster_)) return -1;
}
}
block = vol_->clusterStartBlock(curCluster_) + blockOfCluster;
}
uint16_t n = toRead;
// amount to be read from current block
if (n > (512 - offset)) n = 512 - offset;
// no buffering needed if n == 512 or user requests no buffering
if ((unbufferedRead() || n == 512) &&
block != SdVolume::cacheBlockNumber_) {
if (!vol_->readData(block, offset, n, dst)) return -1;
dst += n;
} else {
// read block to cache and copy data to caller
if (!SdVolume::cacheRawBlock(block, SdVolume::CACHE_FOR_READ)) return -1;
uint8_t* src = SdVolume::cacheBuffer_.data + offset;
uint8_t* end = src + n;
while (src != end) *dst++ = *src++;
}
curPosition_ += n;
toRead -= n;
}
return nbyte;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Read the next directory entry from a directory file.
*
* \param[out] dir The dir_t struct that will receive the data.
*
* \return For success readDir() returns the number of bytes read.
* A value of zero will be returned if end of file is reached.
* If an error occurs, readDir() returns -1. Possible errors include
* readDir() called before a directory has been opened, this is not
* a directory file or an I/O error occurred.
*/
int8_t SdFile::readDir(dir_t* dir) {
int8_t n;
// if not a directory file or miss-positioned return an error
if (!isDir() || (0X1F & curPosition_)) return -1;
while ((n = read(dir, sizeof(dir_t))) == sizeof(dir_t)) {
// last entry if DIR_NAME_FREE
if (dir->name[0] == DIR_NAME_FREE) break;
// skip empty entries and entry for . and ..
if (dir->name[0] == DIR_NAME_DELETED || dir->name[0] == '.') continue;
// return if normal file or subdirectory
if (DIR_IS_FILE_OR_SUBDIR(dir)) return n;
}
// error, end of file, or past last entry
return n < 0 ? -1 : 0;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Read next directory entry into the cache
// Assumes file is correctly positioned
dir_t* SdFile::readDirCache(void) {
// error if not directory
if (!isDir()) return NULL;
// index of entry in cache
uint8_t i = (curPosition_ >> 5) & 0XF;
// use read to locate and cache block
if (read() < 0) return NULL;
// advance to next entry
curPosition_ += 31;
// return pointer to entry
return (SdVolume::cacheBuffer_.dir + i);
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Remove a file.
*
* The directory entry and all data for the file are deleted.
*
* \note This function should not be used to delete the 8.3 version of a
* file that has a long name. For example if a file has the long name
* "New Text Document.txt" you should not delete the 8.3 name "NEWTEX~1.TXT".
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include the file read-only, is a directory,
* or an I/O error occurred.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::remove(void) {
// free any clusters - will fail if read-only or directory
if (!truncate(0)) return false;
// cache directory entry
dir_t* d = cacheDirEntry(SdVolume::CACHE_FOR_WRITE);
if (!d) return false;
// mark entry deleted
d->name[0] = DIR_NAME_DELETED;
// set this SdFile closed
type_ = FAT_FILE_TYPE_CLOSED;
// write entry to SD
return SdVolume::cacheFlush();
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Remove a file.
*
* The directory entry and all data for the file are deleted.
*
* \param[in] dirFile The directory that contains the file.
* \param[in] fileName The name of the file to be removed.
*
* \note This function should not be used to delete the 8.3 version of a
* file that has a long name. For example if a file has the long name
* "New Text Document.txt" you should not delete the 8.3 name "NEWTEX~1.TXT".
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include the file is a directory, is read only,
* \a dirFile is not a directory, \a fileName is not found
* or an I/O error occurred.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::remove(SdFile* dirFile, const char* fileName) {
SdFile file;
if (!file.open(dirFile, fileName, O_WRITE)) return false;
return file.remove();
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/** Remove a directory file.
*
* The directory file will be removed only if it is empty and is not the
* root directory. rmDir() follows DOS and Windows and ignores the
* read-only attribute for the directory.
*
* \note This function should not be used to delete the 8.3 version of a
* directory that has a long name. For example if a directory has the
* long name "New folder" you should not delete the 8.3 name "NEWFOL~1".
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include the file is not a directory, is the root
* directory, is not empty, or an I/O error occurred.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::rmDir(void) {
// must be open subdirectory
if (!isSubDir()) return false;
rewind();
// make sure directory is empty
while (curPosition_ < fileSize_) {
dir_t* p = readDirCache();
if (p == NULL) return false;
// done if past last used entry
if (p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_FREE) break;
// skip empty slot or '.' or '..'
if (p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_DELETED || p->name[0] == '.') continue;
// error not empty
if (DIR_IS_FILE_OR_SUBDIR(p)) return false;
}
// convert empty directory to normal file for remove
type_ = FAT_FILE_TYPE_NORMAL;
flags_ |= O_WRITE;
return remove();
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/** Recursively delete a directory and all contained files.
*
* This is like the Unix/Linux 'rm -rf *' if called with the root directory
* hence the name.
*
* Warning - This will remove all contents of the directory including
* subdirectories. The directory will then be removed if it is not root.
* The read-only attribute for files will be ignored.
*
* \note This function should not be used to delete the 8.3 version of
* a directory that has a long name. See remove() and rmDir().
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::rmRfStar(void) {
rewind();
while (curPosition_ < fileSize_) {
SdFile f;
// remember position
uint16_t index = curPosition_/32;
dir_t* p = readDirCache();
if (!p) return false;
// done if past last entry
if (p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_FREE) break;
// skip empty slot or '.' or '..'
if (p->name[0] == DIR_NAME_DELETED || p->name[0] == '.') continue;
// skip if part of long file name or volume label in root
if (!DIR_IS_FILE_OR_SUBDIR(p)) continue;
if (!f.open(this, index, O_READ)) return false;
if (f.isSubDir()) {
// recursively delete
if (!f.rmRfStar()) return false;
} else {
// ignore read-only
f.flags_ |= O_WRITE;
if (!f.remove()) return false;
}
// position to next entry if required
if (curPosition_ != (32*(index + 1))) {
if (!seekSet(32*(index + 1))) return false;
}
}
// don't try to delete root
if (isRoot()) return true;
return rmDir();
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Sets a file's position.
*
* \param[in] pos The new position in bytes from the beginning of the file.
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::seekSet(uint32_t pos) {
// error if file not open or seek past end of file
if (!isOpen() || pos > fileSize_) return false;
if (type_ == FAT_FILE_TYPE_ROOT16) {
curPosition_ = pos;
return true;
}
if (pos == 0) {
// set position to start of file
curCluster_ = 0;
curPosition_ = 0;
return true;
}
// calculate cluster index for cur and new position
uint32_t nCur = (curPosition_ - 1) >> (vol_->clusterSizeShift_ + 9);
uint32_t nNew = (pos - 1) >> (vol_->clusterSizeShift_ + 9);
if (nNew < nCur || curPosition_ == 0) {
// must follow chain from first cluster
curCluster_ = firstCluster_;
} else {
// advance from curPosition
nNew -= nCur;
}
while (nNew--) {
if (!vol_->fatGet(curCluster_, &curCluster_)) return false;
}
curPosition_ = pos;
return true;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* The sync() call causes all modified data and directory fields
* to be written to the storage device.
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include a call to sync() before a file has been
* opened or an I/O error.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::sync(void) {
// only allow open files and directories
if (!isOpen()) return false;
if (flags_ & F_FILE_DIR_DIRTY) {
dir_t* d = cacheDirEntry(SdVolume::CACHE_FOR_WRITE);
if (!d) return false;
// do not set filesize for dir files
if (!isDir()) d->fileSize = fileSize_;
// update first cluster fields
d->firstClusterLow = firstCluster_ & 0XFFFF;
d->firstClusterHigh = firstCluster_ >> 16;
// set modify time if user supplied a callback date/time function
if (dateTime_) {
dateTime_(&d->lastWriteDate, &d->lastWriteTime);
d->lastAccessDate = d->lastWriteDate;
}
// clear directory dirty
flags_ &= ~F_FILE_DIR_DIRTY;
}
return SdVolume::cacheFlush();
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Set a file's timestamps in its directory entry.
*
* \param[in] flags Values for \a flags are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive
* OR of flags from the following list
*
* T_ACCESS - Set the file's last access date.
*
* T_CREATE - Set the file's creation date and time.
*
* T_WRITE - Set the file's last write/modification date and time.
*
* \param[in] year Valid range 1980 - 2107 inclusive.
*
* \param[in] month Valid range 1 - 12 inclusive.
*
* \param[in] day Valid range 1 - 31 inclusive.
*
* \param[in] hour Valid range 0 - 23 inclusive.
*
* \param[in] minute Valid range 0 - 59 inclusive.
*
* \param[in] second Valid range 0 - 59 inclusive
*
* \note It is possible to set an invalid date since there is no check for
* the number of days in a month.
*
* \note
* Modify and access timestamps may be overwritten if a date time callback
* function has been set by dateTimeCallback().
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::timestamp(uint8_t flags, uint16_t year, uint8_t month,
uint8_t day, uint8_t hour, uint8_t minute, uint8_t second) {
if (!isOpen()
|| year < 1980
|| year > 2107
|| month < 1
|| month > 12
|| day < 1
|| day > 31
|| hour > 23
|| minute > 59
|| second > 59) {
return false;
}
dir_t* d = cacheDirEntry(SdVolume::CACHE_FOR_WRITE);
if (!d) return false;
uint16_t dirDate = FAT_DATE(year, month, day);
uint16_t dirTime = FAT_TIME(hour, minute, second);
if (flags & T_ACCESS) {
d->lastAccessDate = dirDate;
}
if (flags & T_CREATE) {
d->creationDate = dirDate;
d->creationTime = dirTime;
// seems to be units of 1/100 second not 1/10 as Microsoft states
d->creationTimeTenths = second & 1 ? 100 : 0;
}
if (flags & T_WRITE) {
d->lastWriteDate = dirDate;
d->lastWriteTime = dirTime;
}
SdVolume::cacheSetDirty();
return sync();
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Truncate a file to a specified length. The current file position
* will be maintained if it is less than or equal to \a length otherwise
* it will be set to end of file.
*
* \param[in] length The desired length for the file.
*
* \return The value one, true, is returned for success and
* the value zero, false, is returned for failure.
* Reasons for failure include file is read only, file is a directory,
* \a length is greater than the current file size or an I/O error occurs.
*/
uint8_t SdFile::truncate(uint32_t length) {
// error if not a normal file or read-only
if (!isFile() || !(flags_ & O_WRITE)) return false;
// error if length is greater than current size
if (length > fileSize_) return false;
// fileSize and length are zero - nothing to do
if (fileSize_ == 0) return true;
// remember position for seek after truncation
uint32_t newPos = curPosition_ > length ? length : curPosition_;
// position to last cluster in truncated file
if (!seekSet(length)) return false;
if (length == 0) {
// free all clusters
if (!vol_->freeChain(firstCluster_)) return false;
firstCluster_ = 0;
} else {
uint32_t toFree;
if (!vol_->fatGet(curCluster_, &toFree)) return false;
if (!vol_->isEOC(toFree)) {
// free extra clusters
if (!vol_->freeChain(toFree)) return false;
// current cluster is end of chain
if (!vol_->fatPutEOC(curCluster_)) return false;
}
}
fileSize_ = length;
// need to update directory entry
flags_ |= F_FILE_DIR_DIRTY;
if (!sync()) return false;
// set file to correct position
return seekSet(newPos);
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Write data to an open file.
*
* \note Data is moved to the cache but may not be written to the
* storage device until sync() is called.
*
* \param[in] buf Pointer to the location of the data to be written.
*
* \param[in] nbyte Number of bytes to write.
*
* \return For success write() returns the number of bytes written, always
* \a nbyte. If an error occurs, write() returns -1. Possible errors
* include write() is called before a file has been opened, write is called
* for a read-only file, device is full, a corrupt file system or an I/O error.
*
*/
size_t SdFile::write(const void* buf, uint16_t nbyte) {
// convert void* to uint8_t* - must be before goto statements
const uint8_t* src = reinterpret_cast<const uint8_t*>(buf);
// number of bytes left to write - must be before goto statements
uint16_t nToWrite = nbyte;
// error if not a normal file or is read-only
if (!isFile() || !(flags_ & O_WRITE)) goto writeErrorReturn;
// seek to end of file if append flag
if ((flags_ & O_APPEND) && curPosition_ != fileSize_) {
if (!seekEnd()) goto writeErrorReturn;
}
while (nToWrite > 0) {
uint8_t blockOfCluster = vol_->blockOfCluster(curPosition_);
uint16_t blockOffset = curPosition_ & 0X1FF;
if (blockOfCluster == 0 && blockOffset == 0) {
// start of new cluster
if (curCluster_ == 0) {
if (firstCluster_ == 0) {
// allocate first cluster of file
if (!addCluster()) goto writeErrorReturn;
} else {
curCluster_ = firstCluster_;
}
} else {
uint32_t next;
if (!vol_->fatGet(curCluster_, &next)) return false;
if (vol_->isEOC(next)) {
// add cluster if at end of chain
if (!addCluster()) goto writeErrorReturn;
} else {
curCluster_ = next;
}
}
}
// max space in block
uint16_t n = 512 - blockOffset;
// lesser of space and amount to write
if (n > nToWrite) n = nToWrite;
// block for data write
uint32_t block = vol_->clusterStartBlock(curCluster_) + blockOfCluster;
if (n == 512) {
// full block - don't need to use cache
// invalidate cache if block is in cache
if (SdVolume::cacheBlockNumber_ == block) {
SdVolume::cacheBlockNumber_ = 0XFFFFFFFF;
}
if (!vol_->writeBlock(block, src)) goto writeErrorReturn;
src += 512;
} else {
if (blockOffset == 0 && curPosition_ >= fileSize_) {
// start of new block don't need to read into cache
if (!SdVolume::cacheFlush()) goto writeErrorReturn;
SdVolume::cacheBlockNumber_ = block;
SdVolume::cacheSetDirty();
} else {
// rewrite part of block
if (!SdVolume::cacheRawBlock(block, SdVolume::CACHE_FOR_WRITE)) {
goto writeErrorReturn;
}
}
uint8_t* dst = SdVolume::cacheBuffer_.data + blockOffset;
uint8_t* end = dst + n;
while (dst != end) *dst++ = *src++;
}
nToWrite -= n;
curPosition_ += n;
}
if (curPosition_ > fileSize_) {
// update fileSize and insure sync will update dir entry
fileSize_ = curPosition_;
flags_ |= F_FILE_DIR_DIRTY;
} else if (dateTime_ && nbyte) {
// insure sync will update modified date and time
flags_ |= F_FILE_DIR_DIRTY;
}
if (flags_ & O_SYNC) {
if (!sync()) goto writeErrorReturn;
}
return nbyte;
writeErrorReturn:
// return for write error
//writeError = true;
setWriteError();
return 0;
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Write a byte to a file. Required by the Arduino Print class.
*
* Use SdFile::writeError to check for errors.
*/
size_t SdFile::write(uint8_t b) {
return write(&b, 1);
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Write a string to a file. Used by the Arduino Print class.
*
* Use SdFile::writeError to check for errors.
*/
size_t SdFile::write(const char* str) {
return write(str, strlen(str));
}
#ifdef __AVR__
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Write a PROGMEM string to a file.
*
* Use SdFile::writeError to check for errors.
*/
void SdFile::write_P(PGM_P str) {
for (uint8_t c; (c = pgm_read_byte(str)); str++) write(c);
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Write a PROGMEM string followed by CR/LF to a file.
*
* Use SdFile::writeError to check for errors.
*/
void SdFile::writeln_P(PGM_P str) {
write_P(str);
println();
}
#endif
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Q:
How to pop Nth item in the stack [Befunge-93]
If you have the befunge program 321&,how would you access the first item (3) without throwing out the second two items?
The instruction \ allows one to switch the first two items, but that doesn't get me any closer to the last one...
The current method I'm using is to use the p command to write the entire stack to the program memory in order to get to the last item. For example,
32110p20p.20g10g@
However, I feel that this isn't as elegant as it could be... There's no technique to pop the first item on the stack as N, pop the Nth item from the stack and push it to the top?
(No is a perfectly acceptable answer)
A:
Not really.
Your code could be shortened to
32110p\.10g@
But if you wanted a more general result, something like the following might work. Below, I am using Befunge as it was meant to be used (at least in my opinion): as a functional programming language with each function getting its own set of rows and columns. Pointers are created using directionals and storing 1's and 0's determine where the function was called. One thing I would point out though is that the stack is not meant for storage in nearly any language. Just write the stack to storage. Note that 987 overflows off a stack of length 10.
v >>>>>>>>>>>12p:10p11pv
1 0 v<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
v >210gp10g1-10p^
>10g|
>14p010pv
v<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
v >210g1+g10g1+10p^
>10g11g-|
v g21g41<
v _ v
>98765432102^>. 2^>.@
The above code writes up to and including the n-1th item on the stack to 'memory', writes the nth item somewhere else, reads the 'memory', then pushes the nth item onto the stack.
The function is called twice by the bottom line of this program.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Today is a very busy day on the Redmond campus: the Creators Update has now started to roll out to all Windows 10 users, and we’re also getting other Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 10 version 1607 (aka the Anniversary Update) and Windows 10 version 1703 (which is the Creators Update). In addition, Windows 10 Mobile is also getting a cumulative update today with the mobile build 14393.1066, which is now rolling out to users on the Release Preview and Production rings.
We’re not sure what’s new with this build, as the detailed changelog that Microsoft published for the builds 14393.1066 and 14393.1083 (we’re not seeing this last one on any of our devices, to be clear) mostly mentions PC-related stuff such as Internet Explorer, printers and more. That’s pretty much the inconvenient with these combined changelogs, unfortunately.
Anyway, you can download this cumulative update by checking Windows Update on your phone settings, and let us know in the comments if you notice any improvements. If you’re a Windows Insider on the Fast Ring, we remind you that you can download the Windows 10 Mobile Insider build 15063.138, which was curiously not announced by Microsoft today.
Share This Post:
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
Late gastrointestinal morbidity in patients with stage I-II testicular seminoma treated with radiotherapy.
To define the incidence and risk factors for late gastrointestinal (GI) morbidity in patients with testicular seminoma treated with radiotherapy (RT). A retrospective review was conducted of 251 patients with stage I or II testicular seminoma treated with curative-intent RT at our institution from 1974 to 2009. All patients underwent orchiectomy and postoperative external beam RT to the involved nodal basin or at-risk nodal basin or both. Potential late GI morbidities that were assessed included endoscopically confirmed peptic ulcer disease (PUD), small bowel obstruction (SBO), and biopsy-confirmed malignancy of the GI tract. The probabilities of these GI morbidities were estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate analyses were performed to examine for associated predictive factors using the Cox proportional hazards model. Median age at diagnosis was 36 years (range 18-80). Clinical stage was I (n = 199) or II (n = 52). Median abdominopelvic RT dose was 26Gy (interquartile range = 25-30). Median follow-up was 15 years (range = 0.1-38). PUD risk at 10, 20, and 30 years was 4%, 7%, and 9%, respectively. Age at diagnosis (per y, HR = 1.05, 95% CI 1.00-1.09, P = 0.04) and RT dose (per Gy, HR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.09-1.31, P<0.01) were associated with risk of PUD. SBO risk at 10, 20, and 30 years was 2%, 2%, and 3%, respectively. History of inflammatory bowel disease was associated with risk of SBO (HR = 43, 95% CI 7-325, P<0.01). GI second malignancy risk at 10, 20, and 30 years was 0.5%, 3% and 16%, respectively. Age at RT was associated with risk of GI malignancy (per y, HR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.02-1.14, P = 0.01). In this patient population, late GI morbidity was relatively uncommon, but clinically significant. Refinements of treatment strategies may reduce this risk.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Story Highlights More than six in 10 say corporations, upper-income Americans pay too little
Views that middle-income earners pay too much have increased
14% say lower-income pay too little; down from high of 24% five years ago
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As President Donald Trump and Republican leaders strategize about tax reform, the majority of U.S. adults believe that upper-income people and corporations are paying too little in taxes. In contrast, about half of Americans say middle- and lower-income people pay too much, while the other half says these groups are currently paying their fair share or are not paying enough.
Americans Say Upper-Income and Corporations Pay Too Little in Taxes Please tell me if you think these groups are paying their fair share in federal taxes, paying too much or paying too little? Fair share Too much Too little % % % Middle-income people 40 51 6 Lower-income people 35 48 14 Upper-income people 24 10 63 Corporations 19 9 67 Sorted by "fair share" Gallup, April 5-9, 2017
These results are based on Gallup's 2017 Economy and Finance survey, conducted April 5-9.
The view that middle-income people pay too much in taxes has been higher each of the past two years -- at just over 50% -- than at any point since the George W. Bush tax cuts went into effect in the early 2000s.
Because few Americans say middle-income individuals pay too little in taxes, the major changes over the years have been shifts between the "too much" and "fair share" categories.
When Gallup began asking this question in the 1990s, the "too much" viewpoint dominated. By 2003, after the first round of Bush tax cuts and the nation's increased focus on the war on terrorism, the percentage saying middle-income people paid too much fell significantly. At the same time, the perception that middle-income people's taxes were fair increased.
In 2014, the public once again showed more concern that middle-income taxpayers paid too much. Since then, Americans have continued to be more likely to say this group pays too much, rather than their fair share in taxes.
Half Say Lower-Income Pay Too Much
Americans' views of lower-income people's taxes are broadly similar to their views of taxes on those who are middle income. About half say both groups pay too much.
At the same time, Americans are more likely to believe lower-income people pay too little than say this about middle-income people. The belief that lower-income people pay too little in taxes rose from 10% in 2005, during the Bush administration, to as high as 24% during the Barack Obama administration in 2012 -- before dropping to 14% this year.
These shifts mainly reflect Republicans' shifting views. In 2005, 15% of Republicans said lower-income people pay too little in taxes. This rose to 40% by 2012, but fell back to 24% this year. Few Democrats have held the belief that lower-income people pay too little in taxes in any of these years.
More Than Six in 10 Say Upper-Income and Corporations Pay Too Little in Taxes
Slightly more than six in 10 Americans in recent years have consistently said that upper-income people pay too little in taxes. The view was even more widely held at points in the past, including in the early 1990s when three-quarters expressed this. This suggests that Trump faces a challenge in positioning or justifying tax reform efforts if they effectively end up lowering taxes for upper-income Americans.
Trump has also talked about lowering the tax rate on corporations. But two-thirds of Americans today say corporations pay too little in taxes, with less than one in 10 saying corporations pay too much. The public's attitudes about corporations' tax burden have been stable in recent years.
Implications
These findings provide insight into Americans' basic beliefs about the tax system at a time when tax reform is a major item on the legislative agenda. Other questions included in Gallup's April survey show that only about a third of Americans say their own personal tax burden is unfair, and roughly half say their taxes are too high.
This ends up as a quintessential "half empty or half full" situation. Clearly some Americans are dissatisfied with the tax system, both in terms of their perception of what others pay, and in terms of their assessments of their own tax situation. But no more than half of Americans are dissatisfied, leading to the conclusion that the need for relief from burdensome tax rates is, by no means, a universally held attitude.
Also, it is not clear how these basic beliefs about taxes may affect the public's acceptance of specific components of any tax plan that Trump will put forth in the future. For example, it appears that some of those who hold the view that middle-income people are paying their fair share could still support tax cuts for that group. Separate research shows that 61% of Americans agree with a proposal to significantly cut federal income taxes for the middle class.
A significant majority of Americans believe that upper-income people and corporations pay too little in taxes, supporting other research showing that well less than half of Americans -- 38% -- agree with a proposal to cut corporate income taxes, and that the majority favor heavier taxes on the rich.
These data are available in Gallup Analytics.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
Q:
How can I fix this java code to play an audio file?
I am attempting to learn how to play an audio file and came up with the code below. There are no errors and I put in a path for a .wav file, but the sound file does not play. How can I fix this?
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.sound.sampled.AudioFormat;
import javax.sound.sampled.AudioInputStream;
import javax.sound.sampled.AudioSystem;
import javax.sound.sampled.Clip;
import javax.sound.sampled.DataLine;
import javax.sound.sampled.LineUnavailableException;
import javax.sound.sampled.UnsupportedAudioFileException;
public class RunPlayer {
public void runner(String audioFilePath) throws UnsupportedAudioFileException, IOException, LineUnavailableException {
File audioFile = new File(audioFilePath);
AudioInputStream audioStream = AudioSystem.getAudioInputStream(audioFile);
AudioFormat format = audioStream.getFormat();
DataLine.Info info = new DataLine.Info(Clip.class, format);
Clip audioClip = (Clip) AudioSystem.getLine(info);
audioClip.open(audioStream);
audioClip.start();
audioClip.close();
audioStream.close();
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws UnsupportedAudioFileException, IOException, LineUnavailableException {
RunPlayer run = new RunPlayer();
run.runner("thefilepathIentered");
}
}
A:
The problem must be the fact that you're closing the audioClip and audioStream immediately after you start the clip.
You want the clip to run, and then probably have some sort of button or function that will close the clip once it has finished playing.
Take a look at this SO answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11025384/815086
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Pages
Pages
Monday, January 15, 2018
Button organization ideas
While my main crafty goal for 2018 is destashing (you can read about it here), a better organization system of craft supplies will also go a long way to improve the status of my crafts closet. So...I decided to start with buttons.
While I'm not exactly a button collector, I do own a lot of buttons. Some of them were inherited from my grandmother, others were passed along by my mother. And, of course, a lot of them were bought by me. Previously they were all stored in an old tin can whose lid had the unpleasant habit of slipping out of place at the worst times, allowing the buttons to spread all over.
Here's the before:
After a lot of brainstorming and some online research, I chose to buy a wooden box with a clear lid.
It has several divisions to better organize the buttons and it snaps securely shut, which is a huge bonus also. And since I got in at the Chinese store, it was pretty inexpensive too.
Here's the after:
See? a very easy solution to a problem that had been nagging me for ages. And a significant step towards a more streamlined and organized 2018.
5 comments:
Truth be told I've got some similar boxes, but I've never been 100% happy with them. If I'm looking for a specific button, the buttons tend to jump from one section into the next and I've got the feeling I can never see all buttons really. I do like seperate boxes which I can tip the buttons out onto a tray or a plate and sift through them.
For now I'm happy with this one, as it's a great improvement over my previous system. I want to streamline my craft supplies this year, so I also want to limit the number of storage boxes. If I have too much room, I'll be tempted to buy more stuff. But I'll keep your suggestion in mind and see how this box works for me in the coming months.
We do have to begin somewhere with craft room organization. I'm participating in a craft room makeover challenge and can attest to the word 'challenge'! My buttons are in repurposed jars. Love the little chest you found! Thanks for sharing this idea with us at Merry Monday. Please come again!
A challenge it is, and I'm just starting. I thought about jars too, but I wanted to keep all the buttons in one place and with a minimum of compartments to sort by color. Thank you for hosting, and for stopping by!
I used to have lots of lovely buttons, but the last time I shifted and downsized the button lost out. Your ideas are very good, you have some great buttons, don't throw them out especially the ones handed down to you, I am sure they are interestingly lovely.KathleenBlogger's Pit Stop
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Reflections and images from my travels
Hello again everyone. Courtesy of a very nice locum physician I have the next 2 1/2 weeks off. Thank you Diana.
What better way to celebrate then to get back into skiing. I skied quite a bit when I was younger but lost interest over 30 years ago when I started University. I transitioned to cross country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, running and eventually adventure traveling.
Last year I took an introduction to backcountry skiing through the University of Calgary and also completed my Avalanche Skills Training I and II. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and rediscovered the joy of skiing through unmanaged snow in the glorious backcountry. I was smitten!
This year I decided to purchase my own equipment and start to get some practical experience. I must admit, I was somewhat overwhelmed with all of the different equipment choices. I finally settled on a system but boy was it a lot of work to purchase, fit and pick everything up. I finally got everything settled two days before I left West!
I organized two days with a mountain guide but wanted to get some downhill experience before I joined him. Luckily, the backcountry gear that I purchased can be used for resort skiing. I have always loved Lake Louise. It just happened that when I was having my boots punched (don’t ask- I really have a melodramatic right foot) at Lou’s Performance Ski Centre, he mentioned a great deal for a private lesson with a level 3/4 instructor at Lake Louise. I thought, this must be fate! I purchased the lesson and called Lake Louise and they happened to have a spot available on January 12 at 830 in the morning.
Saturday and Sunday prior to leaving was crazy! I couldn’t believe how much I had to organize in order to get out for this week. This does seem to get harder as one becomes older. Maybe it is indecision. I’d like to think that is the case and not cognitive decline. I was exhausted when I went to sleep at 930 PM on Sunday night, of course, because I was exhausted I was up at 3 AM on Monday morning. Why, oh why!
I met my instructor Ai (Japanese, not artificial intelligence) and we went out for 90 minutes to check and critique my technique. It was very helpful. I always suspected that I leaned forward too much with my turns. She picked up on this right away and we worked on improving my technique. I then had a glorious day to explore the hill. It brought back great memories. I even remembered most of my favourite runs. There were spectacular views from the top of the Summit T-bar of an enormous cloud bank in the valley below and brilliant blue sky above. I remembered why I love Lake Louise so much.
All of the equipment worked perfectly. Even my right foot did not complain! I was thrilled with my purchases.
I drove to Golden BC afterwards and settled into a hotel after some shopping, a nice dinner and an even nicer hot tub! I got in touch with my mountain guide Mark Klassen- alpinism.com- and we will be heading out to Rogers Pass to try some real Alpine touring and skiing. I hope I am up for it. Certainly the mind is but as I age the body keeps questioning my choices. Hopefully, I will have a much better sleep tonight. We head out early tomorrow morning and our destination is Balu Pass. I think Mark wants to check out my abilities before he offers me more challenging terrain. Smart man.
Comments on: "I’m Back Baby, I’m Back……Skiing!" (2)
Hi Stevie you are correct brings back a lot of good memories skiing at Lake Louise all those years and decades ago LOL. I seriously considered taking up skiing once again but thought better of it. Now looking at those pictures you took from the summit tee bar I am wondering if I made the right choice? Ah to be young and foolish once again.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Exhaust emission of automotives using oil fuel is the main source of air pollution in cities. Promoting the replacement of gasoline and diesel with natural gas as the new fuel of automotives is the important way to effectively reduce the exhaust pollution of automotives. With the country's emphasis on clean energy and the enhancement of people's environmental protection consciousness, as the best alternative source the natural gas is gradually entering into every aspect of our daily life. It is most widely used in automotive industry. Mass flowmeter is one of the most important technological means of trade settlement in CNG industry. Study on high pressure gas flowmeter technology is the inevitable trend of our country to develop automotives with clean and environment-friendly natural gas.
An important standard deciding the quality of flowmeter performance is whether the design of vibration isolation system is reasonable. The main function of the vibration isolation system is to separate the vibration frequency of the measuring tube, and avoid the impact of external vibration on vibration of measuring tube. At present, the mass flowmeter on the market usually adopts the single vibration isolation system, which is a single vibration isolation block (as shown in FIG. 1). Some mass flowmeters use double vibration isolation system (as shown in FIG. 2). It means that two pieces of vibration isolation blocks with the same mass, size and shape are used to form the vibration isolation system.
Through the theoretical research and experiment, it is found that the two kinds of vibration isolation systems have different stress distribution. The stress area of the first vibration isolation form is mainly concentrated on the axis with the same direction of the vibration of measuring tube. The stress form is mainly normal stress (as shown in FIG. 3). The stress area of the second vibration isolation form is mainly concentrated on the axis perpendicular to the vibration of measuring tube. The stress form is mainly shear stress. It has asymmetric distribution (as shown in FIG. 4).
In fact, the stress area on these vibration isolation systems is the welding part of the measuring tube and vibration isolation block. Its strength is determined by the welding material and process. Therefore, whether it is normal stress or shear stress, as long as stress concentration is formed in the welding area, the defects in welding material and process will influence the vibration of the measuring tube.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
Q:
Debian Firmware bug TSC_DEADLINE disabled due to Errata
On Debian, when machine is boots,
it shows error:
[Firmware Bug]: TSC_DEADLINE disabled due to Errata;
please update microcode to version: 0xb2 (or later)
I did
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
and it didn't help
A:
First, you should check if there is an update available for your BIOS/UEFI. If you are lucky your motherboard manufacturer provides an update.
BIOS updates sometimes include processor firmware updates.
(That is the best case, as it would be persistent after an OS reinstall.)
Then, depending on your processor brand, the following command line :
sudo apt-get install intel-microcode
or
sudo apt-get install amd64-microcode
will automatically apply the latest processor firmware when the linux kernel is booting. This is a non persistent solution, but here you rely on Intel/AMD/Debian/Ubuntu, not anymore on your motherboard manufacturer.
To know the firmware version applied by your Linux kernel (maybe), use that command :
dmesg | grep microcode
A:
I found that need install intel-microcode packages, Just do
sudo apt-get install intel-microcode
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
Now Commenting On:
After snowfall, skies clear for pregame ceremonies
4/1/13: The Pirates join all of MLB in honoring those affected by the events in Newtown, Conn. with a moment of silence before the game
By Tom Singer
/
MLB.com |
PITTSBURGH - Andrew McCutchen was promised the awards months ago. But he didn't actually get them until Monday, when the Pirates' star received his 2012 Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards as part of Opening Day ceremonies at PNC Park.
Proving once again that heavenly skies operate on Baseball Time, sunshine flooded the field when the Cubs and the Pirates were introduced.
Only two hours earlier, snow flurries were blocking the view of the wonderful Pittsburgh skyline and of the Roberto Clemente Bridge.
But the skies cleared, on the perennial celestial cue, and the pregame pageantry set a suitable festive table for the main course the National League Central foes soon served up.
The memorable occasion was dedicated to others' memory as, sadly, moments of silence were observed for victims of the December Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy and to members of the Pirates' alumni who passed away since the last Opening Day.
In honor of the Newtown, Conn., victims, managers Clint Hurdle of the Pirates and Dale Sveum of the Cubs, players of both teams, umpires and all on-field personnel wore a symbolic ribbon patch on their sleeves.
After the presentation of colors by a joint guard of all four branches of the military, both "America The Beautiful" and the national anthem were masterfully rendered on violin by Noah Bendix-Balgley, concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Standing by the violinist's side was United States Marine Corporal Brandon Rumbaugh, the first of Pittsburgh club chairman Bob Nutting's guests in what will be a season-long practice of hosting members of the Wounded Warriors. A native of Uniontown, Pa., Rumbaugh is a double-amputee after losing both legs during his second tour of duty in Afghanistan.
As part of the celebration, the Bucs had everyone in house to take a bow during the pregame introductions. That included a quartet of disabled players who even had assigned lockers, but will be heading back to Florida to resume rehabilitations: pitchers Charlie Morton, Jeff Karstens and Francisco Liriano and infielder Brandon Inge.
Also in uniform and sitting in front of his locker was Jose Contreras, who, alas, was not eligible to line up along the third-base foul line with everyone else: As neither on the 40-man roster nor the disabled list -- Contreras was invited here from the Minor League camp -- rules prevented the Cuban right-hander from actively participating in pregame ceremonies.
Jim Rohr, the retiring chairman and CEO of PNC Bank, delivered the ceremonial first pitch. A little later, A.J. Burnett delivered the authentic first pitch, and season No. 127 of the Bucs was under way.
Tom Singer is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog Change for a Nickel. He can also be found on Twitter @Tom_Singer. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
import 'dart:async';
import 'package:angel_orm/angel_orm.dart';
import 'package:logging/logging.dart';
// import 'package:pool/pool.dart';
import 'package:sqljocky5/connection/connection.dart';
import 'package:sqljocky5/sqljocky.dart';
class MySqlExecutor extends QueryExecutor {
/// An optional [Logger] to write to.
final Logger logger;
final Querier _connection;
MySqlExecutor(this._connection, {this.logger});
Future<void> close() {
if (_connection is MySqlConnection) {
return (_connection as MySqlConnection).close();
} else {
return Future.value();
}
}
Future<Transaction> _startTransaction() {
if (_connection is Transaction) {
return Future.value(_connection as Transaction);
} else if (_connection is MySqlConnection) {
return (_connection as MySqlConnection).begin();
} else {
throw StateError('Connection must be transaction or connection');
}
}
@override
Future<List<List>> query(
String tableName, String query, Map<String, dynamic> substitutionValues,
[List<String> returningFields]) {
// Change @id -> ?
for (var name in substitutionValues.keys) {
query = query.replaceAll('@$name', '?');
}
logger?.fine('Query: $query');
logger?.fine('Values: $substitutionValues');
if (returningFields?.isNotEmpty != true) {
return _connection
.prepared(query, substitutionValues.values)
.then((results) => results.map((r) => r.toList()).toList());
} else {
return Future(() async {
var tx = await _startTransaction();
try {
var writeResults =
await tx.prepared(query, substitutionValues.values);
var fieldSet = returningFields.map((s) => '`$s`').join(',');
var fetchSql = 'select $fieldSet from $tableName where id = ?;';
logger?.fine(fetchSql);
var readResults =
await tx.prepared(fetchSql, [writeResults.insertId]);
var mapped = readResults.map((r) => r.toList()).toList();
await tx.commit();
return mapped;
} catch (_) {
await tx?.rollback();
rethrow;
}
});
}
}
@override
Future<T> transaction<T>(FutureOr<T> Function(QueryExecutor) f) async {
if (_connection is Transaction) {
return await f(this);
}
Transaction tx;
try {
tx = await _startTransaction();
var executor = MySqlExecutor(tx, logger: logger);
var result = await f(executor);
await tx.commit();
return result;
} catch (_) {
await tx?.rollback();
rethrow;
}
}
}
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
Washington Gardener Magazine is the publication for MD, DC & VA area gardeners.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Smell the Roses
At the end of the Brookland House & Garden Tour on Sunday, we dropped by the Franciscan Monastery for a stroll. The roses are perfection right now -- run, don't walk over there asap to catch them at their peak. The Monastery grounds are free and open to the public -- plus it is very near the Brookland metro stop on the red line. (Yes, it is all up hill to get there, but then all down hill on way back ;-) The grounds of the Monastery are open daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Here are a few rose pics I took there on Sunday.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Are coping styles consistent in the teleost fish Sparus aurata through sexual maturation and sex reversal?
Individual differences in behaviour and physiological responses to stress are associated with evolutionary adaptive variation and thus raw material for evolution. In farmed animals, the interest in consistent trait associations, i.e. coping styles, has increased dramatically over the last years. However, one of limitations of the available knowledge, regarding the temporal consistency, is that it refers always to short-term consistency (usually few weeks). The present study used an escape response during a net restraining test, previously shown to be an indicative of coping styles in seabream, to investigate long-term consistency of coping styles both over time and during different life history stages. Results showed both short-term (14 days) consistency and long-term (8 months) consistency of escape response. However, we did not found consistency in the same behaviour after sexual maturation when the restraining test was repeated 16, 22 and 23 months after the first test was performed. In conclusion, this study showed consistent behaviour traits in seabream when juveniles, and a loss of this behavioural traits when adults. Therefore, these results underline that adding a life story approach to data interpretation as an essential step forward towards coping styles foreground. Furthermore, a fine-tuning of aquaculture rearing strategies to adapt to different coping strategies may need to be adjusted differently at early stages of development and adults to improve the welfare of farmed fish.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "PubMed Abstracts"
}
|
Q:
How to Handle Objects required failures in QTP/UFT
Iam testing a web service in UFT using Microsoft XML DOM and HTTP
When i trigger the request XML, i get response in two ways
Way 1 when it success
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<soap:Body>
<SearchResourceResponse xmlns="http://www.ICLNBI.com/ICLNBI.xsd">
<MessageElements xmlns="">
<MessageStatus>SUCCESS</MessageStatus>
<MessageAddressing>
<from>ICL</from>
<to>QPortal</to>
<messageId>1234</messageId>
<action>SearchResource</action>
<timestamp>2013-07-29T17:05:17.860Z</timestamp>
<ServiceName>SearchResource</ServiceName>
<ServiceVersion>2.0</ServiceVersion>
</MessageAddressing>
</SearchResourceResponse>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
Way 2 when it fails
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<soap:Body/>
</soap:Envelope>
Iam capturing the <MessageStatus>SUCCESS</MessageStatus> by using the xpath
set ObjXml = Createobject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
Set ObjNode= ObjXml.SelectSingleNode("/soap:Envelope/soap:Body/*/MessageElements/MessageStatus")
ResultText=ObjNode.text
when it is success it works damn good and when it fails and response appears as shown in way 2, i get a error like Object Required and it wont continue further.
is there any way so that if object not found it should not come out of function and it should return Status as failed and continue further
VB scipt iam using is
Set ObjNode= ObjXml.SelectSingleNode("/soap:Envelope/soap:Body/*/MessageElements/messageStatus")
ResultText=ObjNode.text
If ResultText="SUCCESS" or ResultText="Success" Then
TcStatus = "Passed"
Else if
ResultText="FAIL" or ResultText= "FAILURE" Then
TcStatus = "Passed"
But it is failing in Step 1 it self :( can we handle this ?
A:
I doubt you are getting the error on the SelectSingleNode, perhaps that's just a typo in your question?
I suspect you are really getting the failure when trying to access ObjNode.Text. This is because SelectSingleNode will return Nothing if it can't find the node requested. So you just need to check the return value before deciding whether to access .Text.
Set ObjXml = Createobject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
'Presumably you have a step to load the XML here.
Set ObjNode = ObjXml.SelectSingleNode("/soap:Envelope/soap:Body/*/MessageElements/MessageStatus")
If ObjNode Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "Oh no! Failure!"
Else
ResultText = ObjNode.text
End If
Oh, and you can probably shorten your XPath to //MessageStatus if that element never appears elsewhere in the document.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
About Para Systems and Minuteman
Founded in 1982, Para Systems, Inc. is a privately held corporation that manufactures the Minuteman line of Power Protection products. Our product lines include single phase Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs), Surge Protectors, Remote Power Managers (RPMs), and Power Distribution Units (PDUs). Headquartered in Carrollton, Texas, our products are sold throughout the US, Canada, and Central and South America.
We strive to deliver high-value products that fit customer demands, and back them up with responsive, personal support before and after the sale.
Our products are sold through our network of quality distributors and resellers.
Uninterruptible Power Supplies
Standby UPS Systems
Minuteman® standby UPS systems are our most inexpensive backup power option, and are ideal for small load systems including workstations, small phone systems, and small security devices such as DVRs and intrusion systems. The Enspire™ Standby UPS is available in 350 to 900VA models, with 8 to 10 total outlets, ensuring a space for every device in your system. In addition, each unit is wall-mountable for added versatility.
Line Interactive UPS Systems
Minuteman line-interactive UPS systems represent the next step up in protection. The ultra compact Entrust LCD Series UPS is available in 550 to 1500VA, and provides a simulated sine wave that is ideal for network devices, security, and telephone systems. For devices with sensitive electrical components, Minuteman's EnterprisePlus LCD Series UPSs offer pure sine wave output, which mirrors utility power. These rack/tower systems are available in 750VA to 3kVA, suitable for a wide range of applications.
On-line UPS Systems
Minuteman's on-line UPS products provide the absolute best power quality for the most critical applications, including large servers and network devices, sensitive industrial equipment, and more. Three versions of the Endeavor On-line UPS are available, including the Endeavor® 5-10kVA rack/tower UPS, Endeavor® 1-3kVA rack/tower UPSs, and Endeavor® 6 & 10kVA tower UPSs. Each of these products offers extended runtime capability, and are available in numerous configurations, voltages, and runtimes, ensuring the right solution for your large application.
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Minuteman's UPS products carry exceptional warranty coverage, including 3-year parts & labor coverage with non-prorated battery protection on most single phase units. 5-year extended warranty plans are also available on most of these units, and can include free replacement batteries. These plans add significantly to the value of the Minuteman UPS system, and ensure a trouble-free ownership experience.
Surge Suppressors
Minuteman's MMS Series surge suppressors offer features including rotating outlets, slimline designs, long power cords, and substantial joule ratings. These combine with value-pricing and a phenomenal connected equipment warranty to provide users with peace of mind for protecting non-vital equipment from crippling surges and spikes in utility power.
Remote Power Management
Minuteman Remote Power Managers are ip-addressable PDUs that allow administrators and technicians to remotely control the power to connected servers, network equipment, and security devices. This ability eliminates the need for wasteful service calls to reboot locked devices. In addition, each RPM also has the capability to perform regularly scheduled shutdowns and startups, offering cost savings via reduced energy consumption.
Power Distribution Units (PDU)
A number of Minuteman power distribution units are available with up to 24-outlet units, along with 15 and 20Amp receptacles. Both vertical and/or horizontal mounting units are available. All units have 15-foot power cords. Some units offer surge protection, amp metered and IP addressing,
When considering the purchase of a Power Protection product, make sure it's a Minuteman UPS.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Using some of the Earth’s most powerful telescopes and supercomputers, Japanese researchers have made a discovery about black holes which may force a rewrite of the world’s astronomy textbooks.
Takuma Izumi, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), led a team of astronomers who were investigating the theorized ‘donut’ shaped structures at the gaping mouth of the universe’s supermassive black holes.
Specifically, the team pointed the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) at the central black hole in the Circinus Galaxy, located roughly 14 million light-years away from Earth.
The team then compared the observations with a simulation produced by the Cray XC30 ATERUI supercomputer and they discovered that the rings of gas around supermassive black holes, which are millions or even billions of times as heavy as our sun, found at the centers of galaxies are not quite the simple donut shapes that were previously theorized.
Instead, the gas expelled from the black holes combines with additional gas that is falling inwards creating a circulating pattern not dissimilar to the water in a public drinking fountain.
According to Izumi’s team’s model, the initial cold, falling gas forms a disc at the mouth of the black hole.
As it falls it heats until the molecules break up into their constituent atoms and ions which are then expelled above and below the disc.
The hot atomic gas fired upwards then falls back on top of the disc creating a tumultuous three dimensional structure.
READ MORE: Massive black hole’s spectacular spin ‘may rotate space around it’
“By investigating the motion and distribution of both the cold molecular gas and warm atomic gas with ALMA, we demonstrated the origin of the so-called ‘donut’ structure around active black holes,” Izumi said in a press release. “Based on this discovery, we need to rewrite the astronomy textbooks.”
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
|
{
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
}
|
Farrell Dobbs
AFL and CIO Conventions
(December 1940)
As the delegates from the unions of the AFL and CIO
gathered in separate national conventions on November 18th, Roosevelt’s
War Deal was rapidly unfolding in all its ugly reality. The aims of
American imperialism in the present world conflict, and Wall Street’s
program for the regimentation of the workers in the war machine had
been made abundantly clear. These circumstances must serve as a point
of departure in analyzing the decisions of the AFL at New Orleans and
the CIO at Atlantic City.
To all practical intents and purposes, the United States is already
in the war. Its alleged neutrality is a pure myth. True, Congress has
not yet declared war, but that formal system of international conflict
has become generally outmoded in 1940. The United States is giving
wholesale aid to Great Britain against Germany and Italy and in an
increasingly open and unconcealed manner. Diplomatic relations with
Japan are constantly strained almost to the breaking point. Thinly
veiled maneuvers are being carried out to assure the dominance of
United States imperialism over the Latin-American countries. All that
remains to make this country’s participation in the war open and
complete is the actual outbreak of hostilities which can occur anytime
in any one of several places. The “peacetime” conscript army is being
mobilized for war and for no other purpose. The same is true of the
gigantic armaments program.
When the huge armament appropriations were cleared through Congress,
the Administration prepared to offer production contracts to the
industrialists. But they found very few capitalists ready to accept
their offers. The corporations, backed up by the big bankers, refused
to accept the contracts until they were given full guarantees of
super-profits from the production of war materials. Congressmen and
Administration officials, alike, were quick to champion the cause of
big business. Only a few isolated voices in the apparatus of government
were raised against the demands of the capitalists. The reaping of huge
profits by the industrialists and the bankers was fervently defended as
the “American way.” Insinuations of “pro-Nazi tendencies” were raised
against those few in the governmental apparatus who half-heartedly
opposed the bosses’ demands. An understanding was reached between the
government and the industrialists on the terms laid down by big
business. Then, and only then, did the corporations agree to accept the
war contracts.
Now Comes the Anti-Labor Drive
Now that the bosses are ready to begin production, all
efforts of the workers to fight for the preservation and improvement of
their living standards in the face of the war program are labelled
“sabotage.” The boss-defined “American way” now calls for the
dragooning of the workers into the capitalist-controlled armed forces
and the war industries. Big business has sounded the keynote for the
attitude of the Administration toward labor. C.E. Wilson, who succeeded
Knudsen as president of General Motors, advises the workers that they
must be prepared to sacrifice some material standard of living or some
of their leisure. Knudsen, now heading the “National Defense Advisory
Commission,” acting from inside the Administration apparatus, has
successfully led big business’s fight for its super-profits.
Alfred P. Sloan, chairman of the board of General Motors, has spoken
much more bluntly about the attitude of capitalism toward labor and the
war. He demands the revival of the six-day week and advises against
increases in the workers’ wages, stating that wages must lag behind
prices. If this advice is not followed, says Sloan, there will be
danger of inflation. This clap-trap which is palmed off on the workers
as profound economic theory is coupled with an appeal for the workers
to show their “patriotism” by keeping the war industries in operation.
The boss-controlled daily press has taken its cue from the Wilsons
and the Sloans. Elaborate editorials appear in almost every issue,
propagandizing the bosses’ line. Headlines in the newspapers smear the
striking workers. Almost every strike action is depicted as against the
armaments program. This hue and cry against trade union action reached
violent proportions upon the outbreak of the Vultee strike in
California.
The Government Joins the Drive
The stooges of the bosses in the House of
Representatives were also quick to pick up the cue, using the boss
press as their forum. “Treason, sabotage,” they shouted against the
Vultee strikers, “You are hijacking the government.” They took up the
infamous Roosevelt slogan: “You can’t strike against the government,”
and are attempting to apply it against the striking workers in the war
industries. They demand that such strikes be outlawed. “The strikes are
the program of communism by the CIO,” shouts Representative Ford of
California. Hoffman of Michigan sees in the CIO Ford campaign, “further
subversive activity.” Sumners of Texas, Chairman of the powerful House
Judiciary Committee, has this advice to offer: “Give the strike leaders
a double dose of the kind of violence they understand.”
When the Dies Committee announced that it would investigate the
Vultee strike, Attorney General Jackson rushed into print to inform the
waiting world that the FBI had already investigated and found that
“Communist influence caused and prolonged the strike.” The Dies
Committee charges that the National Labor Relations Board is helping
the “campaign of sabotage” by blocking the bosses from firing suspected
workers. The Committee urges the bosses to use its files to prepare
black-lists against the workers.
The AFL Convention passed a resolution protesting against the
prosecution of trade unions under the anti-trust laws. Thurman Arnold,
in charge of that division of the Department of Justice, replied that
he was “not influenced by the resolutions of any special group.”
The Gallup Survey reports that 60% of the population wants more
regulation of the trade unions. This announcement was given a big play
in the press. The capitulatory attitude of the trade union officialdom
on the war question has, no doubt, confused the minds of many members
and sympathizers of the trade union movement. This would be reflected
in such a survey. But even under such circumstances the accuracy of
this reported finding is highly dubious. In any event, it is certain
that if the trade union leadership took a clear-cut class position on
the question of the workers and the war the entire working class, with
the exception of an occasional fink, would be solidly lined up behind a
program of independent working class policy and against regimentation
of the trade unions. The Gallup survey undoubtedly raised the question
as a trial balloon on behalf of the forces seeking government
regulation of the unions.
Representatives Hoffman of Michigan and Smith of Virginia have
prepared new bills for rigid control of the unions. They would impose
compulsory arbitration upon the workers and brand picketing or delay of
production as an “oppressive labor practice.” They would revive and
extend the system of individual yellow-dog contracts between the
workers and the bosses. They demand life imprisonment for “sabotage.”
The workers are not saboteurs, and these philistines know it. They
intend this provision as a medium for the preparation of frame-ups
against the workers. And to doubly guarantee the throttling of the
unions they would prohibit the soliciting of union membership in the
war industries.
NLRB as an Anti-Labor Weapon
An “informal” statement has emanated from the conference
room of the House Judiciary Committee to the effect that the
enforcement of the National Labor Relations Act in the war industries
is “at variance with the declared policy of Congress.” This Committee,
under the chairmanship of Representative Sumners, who wants to give
strike leaders “a double dose of violence,” is also working on a
measure whereby the workers would automatically lose deferment from
military service if they go on strike.
The appointment of Dr. Harry A. Millis to the National Labor
Relations Board signalizes a turn to the right for this government
agency. William Green is reported to be “enthusiastic” about the Millis
appointment. So is the Wall Street Journal. And with good reason. The
new policy of the NLRB has been outlined by a Washington correspondent
of the New York Post. “Conciliation” will be
substituted for enforcement of the Wagner Act, which is now to be
construed as an instrument for avoiding labor disputes, rather than a
means to protect the rights of organized labor. The Board will now
attempt to “settle” disputes without issuing complaints against the
bosses, considering that its “first duty” is to “avoid production
delay.” This means that the NLRB, which was originally declared to be
an agency for the enforcement of the workers’ right to organize and
bargain collectively, is now switching over to a policy of outright
strikebreaking.
Roosevelt, on his part, warns that “labor must make sacrifices.” He
has stated plainly that he “intends to keep the war industries
running.” This threat, not made against the corporations when they were
holding up his war program over their demand for guarantees of huge
profits, is directed at the trade union workers. Roosevelt says that he
has no new plan for labor legislation, “as of today.” He will
first give the class-collaborationist trade union officialdom a chance
to whip the workers into line. If this is not done to his satisfaction,
he will not hesitate to resort to drastic measures in his efforts to
regiment the workers in the war machine.
Citrine Peddles the Bosses’ Line
Sir Walter Citrine, Secretary of the British Trade Union
Congress, came to New Orleans to address the AFL Convention and the
American workers over a nation-wide radio hookup. This gladiator,
knighted by the crown for his treachery to the British workers, came to
the United States to do double duty, to serve the interests of the
British bosses and the interests of the American bosses. He did not
come in the interests of the American workers or the British workers.
Sir Walter proudly related how the British trade union leadership had
agreed “without haggling” to submit the British workers to the “war
sacrifices” demanded of them by the British bosses. He told how the
British workers had “voluntarily” given up their right to strike; how
they had “accepted” longer hours of work. “We” insisted, he said, that
these rights were not to be taken away “without labor’s consent.” In
other words, Citrine and his ilk were demanding the democratic right to
give away the workers’ gains. Labor yielded these rights, he
said, on the condition that “the sacrifices would be temporary.” What
guarantees did the Citrines demand? That the British trade union
leaders have “a full voice in all questions of policy.” What policies?
Nothing more nor less than the war policies of British imperialism.
Citrine explained all this to lead up to his main point: “The American
workshops are the first line of defense for world democracy.” This
explains why Sir Walter was sent here. He is trying to shove the
class-collaborationist war program of the British trade union leaders
down the throats of the American working class.
“British society,” said Sir Walter, “is no longer divided into
classes. Look at my own case. I left school at twelve and went to work.
Now I am a member of the Privy Council.” What about the British workers
who are not on the Privy Council and who have not had the dubious
benefits of rubbing shoulders with the flower of knighthood? They are
constantly reminded by their miserable conditions of existence that
there are two classes in British society and that there is a class
struggle. Four million workers in British industry are today pushing
demands for wage increases. Pressure for strike action against the
bosses is becoming quite strong in several sections of the British
trade union movement. The Citrines and the Ernest Bevins are striving
desperately to head off this movement.
It is only in the light of this background of events – the role of
the United States in the war, the rising tide of reaction against the
trade union movement, the rapid shift in policy by the Administration,
the increasingly violent campaign for the regimentation of labor in the
war machine – that the significance of the convention actions of the
two great sections of the trade union movement can be properly
understood.
Green Takes Citrine’s Cue
William Green, comfortably ensconced in the AFL
presidency at a salary of $20,000 per year, was visibly moved by the
oratory of Sir Walter Citrine and the pleadings of the long list of
government and employer representatives who addressed the New Orleans
gathering. He heard only Citrine, and not the voice of the struggling
British workers. Nor did he show the slightest sign of understanding
the vital problems of the more than four million AFL workers whom he is
supposed to represent.
Green informed the workers that to furnish aid to Britain is their primary
responsibility. There will be no production stoppages in American
industry, he said, “for trivial reasons.” And then, as if to give
double assurance to the capitalist overlords, he added, “or for any
reason.” It is Green’s stated opinion that arbitration tribunals
can satisfactorily adjust all of the workers’ grievances. Holding that
the question of longer hours of work can be taken up “when the
situation requires,” Green expressed the opinion that the payment of
time and a half for overtime over 40 hours “will meet the present
needs.” He hastened to add that the cost of such overtime would be “insignificant,”
so that the bosses would understand that he was not making any harsh
demands upon them. The question of the 30 hour week, said Green, can be
taken up after the war is over to serve as a cushion against
unemployment. The essence of this program outlined by Green was
subsequently adopted by the Convention.
This brief examination of the policy of the AFL leadership is
necessary in approaching the question of unity between the AFL and CIO.
Unity on AFL terms would place the mass production workers, who are
most completely involved in the war industries, under the complete
dominance of such a thoroughly capitulationist leadership.
The Key Question: Industrial Unionism
And this is only half of the question. What about the
preservation of the industrial form of organization in the mass
production industries? A clear example of the present AFL attitude on
this question is to be found in the action taken against the Federal
locals of the AFL at the New Orleans Convention. The Federal locals,
which are chartered under the direct supervision of the AFL Executive
Council, were used as a stop-gap measure when the fight for industrial
unionism was first breaking into the open inside the AFL. After the
split, out of which the CIO was formed, the AFL Executive Council
continued the use of the Federal locals as an instrument for its
organizational struggle against the CIO. There are today a number of
such local unions in the AFL, having a quasi-industrial jurisdiction.
A resolution was passed at New Orleans which authorizes the craft
international unions to make immediate jurisdictional raids upon the
Federal locals. The delegates from the Federal locals protested
strongly against this resolution. The Electrical Union World,
official organ of Local No.3 of the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, AFL, quotes from a protest speech made by a Federal
union delegate from Philadelphia: “Please leave us alone,” said this
delegate, “We are O.K. and better than a whole lot that are regimented
into craft unions.” Green sought to smother the debate by stating that
the recommendation was “not mandatory.” This statement is nothing more
nor less than utter duplicity and Green knows it. The craft
internationals are not forced by the resolution to make jurisdictional
demands upon the Federal locals, but the action makes it mandatory upon
the Federal locals to yield up their members to the craft
internationals on demand. And the demand will be made or the resolution
would not have been introduced and adopted by the craft internationals.
This is the kind of “unity” that the craft union hierarchy on the AFL
Executive Council has in mind for the industrial unions.
A second example of the AFL’s unchanged attitude on the question of
industrial unionism is contained in its proposition for amendments to
the Wagner Act. It demands that the Act be changed to permit the
recognition of craft units as bargaining agencies in the industrial
plants. These craft units would be carved out of the existing
industrial unions. The AFL wants the Wagner Act changed to provide for
direct court appeals by the unions against the decisions of the NLRB.
The craft unionists want to go to court against the industrial unions.
Guarantees are demanded for the preservation of craft agreements. This
demand arises from the action of the NLRB in outlawing some craft union
contracts in industrial plants. The Board contended, in handing down
its decision, that these contracts had been secured through collusion
between the craft union officialdom and the corporation management.
The craft unionists want to carve up the industrial unions by
whatever means they find at hand. In pressing these demands, the AFL is
blinded by the motivations of petty craft and personal interests. In
their desire to strike at the CIO, the craft unionists would jeopardize
the few remaining beneficial provisions of the Wagner Act, in the face
of the rising tide of reaction and the sharp turn to the right on the
part of the administration which is responsible for the enforcement of
the Act.
Industrial Unionism Must Predominate
Unity of the trade union movement is highly desirable in
the interests of the workers. But the CIO cannot unite with the AFL
until it is given full guarantees for the preservation and
extension of the industrial form of organisation. Despite the
wishes of a broad section of the rank and file, the official hierarchy
in the AFL is obviously not prepared to give any such guarantees. Nor
will they be prepared to yield on this fundamental point until the CIO
is much stronger than it is today. Even then, it is not assured in
advance that the craft unionists will yield.
The co-existence of craft unionism and industrial unionism in a
united organization is not at all a 50-50 proposition. It is
conceivable that the craft unions and industrial unions can live side
by side without internecine conflict. But the very nature of the
present-day methods of production makes it mandatory that industrial
unionism must be the dominating factor in the trade union movement.
Craft unionism can play only a secondary role.
The whining
of the deserters, Dubinsky and Zaritsky, who call upon the industrial
unions to “come back to the AFL”; and the shallow arguments of the
Hillmanites, who plead for an exploration of the minds of the craft
union leaders, cannot in any way alter these facts. It is this
fundamental issue in the AFL-CIO conflict which gave Phillip Murray,
the CIO President, the courage to make a “mild protest” to Roosevelt
against any “shotgun unity” with the AFL.
The Conflict Will Continue
It is clear that the internal conflict in the trade
union movement will continue and grow sharper. The action of the AFL,
in rescinding the special one cent tax originally imposed for the
declared purpose of fighting the CIO, was a phoney peace gesture,
calculated mainly to save face for Dubinsky. By increasing the regular
per capita tax from one cent to two cents, the AFL retains its special
fund with which to fight the CIO. One of the reasons why the AFL
leaders prostrated themselves so brazenly before the capitalist war
mongers was an attempt to gain a cloak of “respectability” which they
hope will aid them in their fight against the industrial unions.
The CIO is increasing its organization staff and appropriating
special funds for an organization campaign right in the heart of the
war industries – in steel, Ford, aircraft, rubber, aluminum, chemicals
and shipbuilding. The CIO victory in the Vultee strike will give strong
impetus to this drive, Although the Vultee strikers made heavy
compromises from their original demands, it must be recognized that in
the face of the great pressure brought to bear upon the strikers and
upon the class-collaborationist leadership of the CIO, the workers
achieved definite gains. The success of the strike is emphatically
demonstrated by the fact that it has forced “voluntary” wage increases
for the workers in the Douglas, North American, Lockheed and other
aircraft plants. The CIO News now carries the slogan,
“No matter what you do, there is a CIO union for you.” This indicates
an orientation toward war with the AFL on all fronts. However, the main
CIO drive will be concentrated in the basic industries.
CIO is More Dynamic
The AFL reports a membership of 4,247,443, which is the
highest in AFL history. The CIO indicates that it has a membership of
about 4,000,000; however, no exact official figures have been given.
The CIO may be somewhat weaker than the AFL in the number of paid
members, but it is much more dynamic than the AFL and that is what is
decisive. The press coverage at the two conventions reflects this
contrast between the two organizations. 105 newsmen covered the CIO
Convention at Atlantic City, and a London correspondent filed 1,000
words a day to his paper on the news of the CIO deliberations. On the
other hand, fewer newsmen were sent to cover the New Orleans convention
and, in general, the second-string men were sent to the AFL gathering,
while the first-string men covered the sessions of the CIO. There was a
continuous parade of stuffed-shirts before the AFL delegates at New
Orleans. But this was not true at Atlantic City where trade unionists
did the speaking. Good, bad or indifferent, they were trade unionists
and that is an important point. The qualitative difference between the
AFL and the CIO was graphically reflected on the Negro question. A.
Phillips Randolph, the president of the Sleeping Car Porters,
introduced a resolution at New Orleans asking for the creation of an
inter-racial committee to end racial discrimination in the AFL. The
Resolutions Committee sidestepped the issue, bringing in a
recommendation that the international unions give “most sincere
consideration” to the problem. Speaking against the report of the
Committee, Randolph made a forty minute plea to the Convention, urging
the delegates to show courage and face the issue. He cited, as an
example, a case in a Tampa, Florida shipyard where, upon the signing of
an AFL closed shop contract, all the Negro workers were fired and
replaced by white workers. He told how, when the Negro workers
attempted to organize a protest, the local AFL leaders aligned
themselves with the Ku Klux Klan in opposition to the Negroes. “The
trade unions,” said Randolph, “have taken over the capitalistic,
imperialistic idea of inferior races.” When Randolph had finished
speaking, Matthew Woll moved the previous question, shutting off debate.
The New Orleans AFL Central Labor Council was in charge of
Convention arrangements. The various local unions in New Orleans,
including the Negro locals of longshoremen, made contributions toward a
fund for the entertainment of the delegates. The Central Labor Council
gave a check to the Negro locals and suggested that they arrange a
separate program of entertainment for the Negro delegates to the
Convention. This proposition was rejected by the Negro trade unionists.
“We may not participate in the entertainment of the other delegates,”
said Randolph, “but we won’t accept any Jim Crow program.”
Negroes Feel at Home in CIO
The reception accorded the Negro delegates in the CIO
Convention stood in sharp contrast to the AFL attitude. There was no
sign of the customary – in the AFL – ripple of laughter when a Negro
delegate rose to speak. It was not considered a light moment in the
meeting, as is so often true in those craft unions which do permit
Negroes in their ranks. The Negro delegates at Atlantic City spoke
without any feeling of constraint. They did not display that attitude
of subservience often seen in an AFL union. They evidenced a belief
that the CIO is really their union, that the convention was their
convention. And, as they spoke, they poured forth the pent-up wrath of
their persecuted race. They were equals among the delegates and their
remarks were seriously received. This bond of solidarity between the
Negro workers and the white workers reflects the great strength of the
industrial union movement.
Green Swears by Capitalism
A select group of AFL officials, with Green as their
spokesman, gave a special interview to the press in which they declared
that they “support capitalism as vigorously as they support the trade
unions and the right to organize and bargain collectively.” They
appealed to big business to understand Roosevelt. And on numerous
occasions the AFL officials expressed the opinion that the
class-conscious militants >were opposed to the
industrial unions capitulating to the AFL craft unionists because “the
left wing fears loss of authority in a united movement.” Having
declared their undying allegiance to capitalism, this was the AFL
officials’ way of serving notice that they want no critics of
capitalism in their ranks.
The CIO passed a resolution on political action in which the
executive officers and executive board were instructed to “look towards
the formulation of a program to assure an independent role for labor.”
Ambiguous as this statement is, as little meaning as it will have if
not followed up by a militant program of action, it stands in sharp
contrast to the pronouncement of the AFL hierarchy. Green saw in the
defeat of Willkie after his endorsement by John L. Lewis the
“vindication of the traditional non-partisan policy of the AFL.”
Disregarding the fact that the real meaning of Lewis’s action was a
desertion of the interests of the workers whom he is supposed to
represent, which, of course, Green does not understand, Green read into
the results of Lewis’s performance> a justification
for his own peculiar method of tying the workers to the political
leadership of their class enemy.
Stalinists Vote to Condemn Communism
A comparison of the attitude of the two organizations
towards radical tendencies in the trade union movement is evidenced by
their action on the question of the Communist Party. The AFL bans
members of the Communist Party from membership, and it passed a
resolution at New Orleans, requesting the government to outlaw the
Communist Party. The CIO Convention passed a resolution condemning
“communism,” for which the Stalinist delegates voted. The
resolution added, however, that there is “room for all of us” in the
CIO. At least a part of the top strata of the CIO leadership is in full
accord with the AFL attitude toward radicals generally. But they are
not in a position to indulge in any large-scale campaign of
red-baiting. This is partly due to the exigencies of the fight with the
AFL but also, in no small measure, a result of the pressure from the
CIO rank and file which is by and large more class-conscious than the
membership of the AFL.
Green and the Secretary-Treasurer George Meany got huge raises from
the AFL Convention. This question was not on the agenda at Atlantic
City. The high-salaried CIO officials are paid by their own unions. The
wages of the CIO staff men are generally low by comparison with the AFL
standard. The CIO has in the course of its existence found many willing
workers ready to do everything they could to promote the welfare of the
organization for “coffee and.” This is
always true of a dynamic movement. The top layer of the CIO staff men
dream of better days with higher salaries but a well-knit machine
leadership is necessary before this dream can be translated into
reality.
Such a machine is attempting to form itself in the new CIO unions.
However, machine leadership is well entrenched only in the older unions
of the CIO, such as the United Mine Workers and the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers. The pie-card artists who covet large salaries may
never realize their desires in the CIO. They are preparing a start in
that direction as evidenced by the phoney demonstrations put on for the
leaders at the Atlantic City convention. But these demonstrations were
largely hollow.
Why CIO Is More Progressive
The sharp and continuous struggle between the workers
and the big corporations in the mass production industries maintains a
heavy and healthy pressure on the leadership of the CIO. The big
corporations are not willing to hand out even the small crumbs that
class-collaborationist methods can obtain for the more privileged
sections of the craft union organizations. Therefore the CIO leadership
is forced to support policies that are somewhat more progressive than
those of the AFL officialdom. Yet the program of the AFL and the CIO is
basically the same on many fundamental questions. This flows from the
fact that the top officialdom in both organizations has the same
class-collaborationist ideology. Both groups are supporters of the
capitalist system and the war program of American imperialism.
The AFL, as well as the CIO, has raised a demand for the enforcement
of labor legislation in the war industries. But both sets of leaders
also agree on a policy of collaboration with the bosses’ government.
They urge “union-management cooperation” as against trade union action.
Neither group has learned anything from Hillman’s role in the “Defense
Commission.” His feeble efforts to get a crumb for the workers from the
table where the big industrialists were cutting up the fat war profits
was an inglorious failure. He stood unmercifully exposed as a
“representative of labor” sitting in the camp of the workers’ enemy.
But he stays there. Hillman can do this because, as he very bluntly
admits, above all else he is out to promote the “defense
program.” The AFL and CIO leaders completely ignore the significance of
this experience. Instead, they demand more boards, one for each
industry, a board of review above each of these boards and a
super-board at the top on which, as Murray put it, the president might
sit. And they reaffirm their loyalty to capitalism.
As the war crisis sharpens, capitalism will make increasingly heavy
demands upon the officials in the hierarchy of the AFL and CIO. They,
in turn, will yield repeatedly before this pressure. They will serve
the bosses more and more, the workers less and less. The already big
gap between the officialdom and the membership will grow increasingly
wide. The workers will begin to look for new methods of struggle. They
will feel the need for a new leadership, a fighting leadership.
The class-conscious militants must be prepared to step into this
gap, to give the workers a class-struggle program, to lead them in the
fight to preserve their industrial unions, to show them the way onto
the road of independent working class political action, to give them
leadership in the class war to end imperialist war and exploitation
forever, to show them how, as the vanguard class of society, to fight
for the emancipation of the human race.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
|
Q:
How to use find and exec to execute multiple commands
I have such a need:
In the directory video, I need to
find ./video -type f | while read myfile; do
tmp=`basename $myfile` #example.mp4
tmp="${tmp/.mp4/.html}" #example.html
cp index.html "$tmp"
sed -i '' "s#sceneFilePath:.*#sceneFilePath: \"$myfile\",#g" $tmp
#done;
Here is my directory:
dir
|--- video
| |--- example.mp4
|--- index.html
|--- generateHtml.sh
generateHtml.sh is just like above.
Here is what it does:
find the example.mp4 file in video, then cp index.html example.html and change a string in the example.html.
It works well.
But now for some path and name of .mp4 files, there are some special characters, such as &, , -. It doesn't seem that while read works for these cases.
I've heard that find -exec can handle all of special characters but I don't know how to use it for this case.
A:
See Using Find for detailed discussion.
find ./video -type f -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' myfile; do
tmp=$(basename "$myfile") #example.mp4 -- consider also tmp=${myfile##*/}
tmp="${tmp%.mp4}.html" #example.html
sed "s#sceneFilePath:.*#sceneFilePath: \"$myfile\",#g" \
<index.html >"$tmp"
done
Note:
-print0 is used on the find end, and IFS= read -r -d '' is used on the read end; this ensures that all possible filenames (including names with newlines, including names with leading or trailing whitespace) are supported.
The former substitution, which replaced the first instance of .mp4 anywhere in the filename with .html, has been replaced with one which strips .mp4 off the end of the filename, and appends .html.
"$myfile" is quoted in invoking basename. This was your most substantial immediate bug in the original code, as previously a filename could be split into multiple separate arguments to basename.
$() is used instead of backticks. This modern (and yes, POSIX-compliant) command substitution syntax can be easily nested and has much clearer semantics for backslash escapes within.
sed -i, which is nonstandard and nonportable (the above was valid for MacOS but not for GNU), is unneeded here; one can skip the cp and do the transform in-line.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
1. Field of Invention
This invention is in the area of paint equipment cleaning methods, specifically a paint roller cleaning method that uniformly wipes excess paint or solvent from rollers having different diameters and different nap thicknesses, that requires only one pass down the roller to effectively wipe the roller clean, and that can be easily used while the roller is on the roller frame.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Paint roller cleaning methods are known in the art, and fall into five general categories:
A. Formed-Wire Roller Wipers
Formed-wire roller wipers, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,631 to Marrs and U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,392 to Evans, have inherent drawbacks, among the largest being that the wire lacks a flange-like surface to retain the paint below the wire as the device is drawn down the roller. Consequently, the wire does not force paint downward off the roller well enough, and excess paint can ride up over the wire as the device is drawn down the roller. Second, the formed wire, because of its round cross section, does not engage the nap surface of the roller squarely, and thus does not provide optimal wiping action. Third, the wire does not surround a large enough portion of the roller's outer circumference; hence, multiple passes are needed to effectively clean the roller. For all the above reasons, the wiping action of these devices is far from optimal.
Another key disadvantage of these devices is that they are not suitable for use with both standard diameter roller and "mini-size" rollers, since the roller-engaging curves in the wire are sized to optimally fit rollers of one diameter only. Marrs's device also exerts different degrees of spring tension, and hence friction, on rollers of different nap thicknesses, so that even different nap thicknesses of the same size roller cannot be wiped uniformly.
Finally, the device of Marrs cannot easily perform the wiping task in the optimal way--that is, wiping in a single pass from the handle end of the roller, down and off the non-handle end of the roller. Either the roller must be removed from its frame (dirtying the hands) to allow single-pass wiping, or the device must be placed on the non-handle end of the roller and wiped downward toward the handle end of the roller. This method of wiping tends to coat the roller handle and frame with paint wiped from the roller, which is not at all satisfactory. Moreover, Marrs's device must then be passed back up the roller to remove it--a cumbersome and unnecessary extra step.
B. Semi-Circular Roller Wipers
U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,018 to Olsson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,471 to Bannan, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,625 to Mealey, Sr. exemplify this type of roller wiper. These devices also have significant disadvantages.
First, because these devices do not surround a large enough portion of the roller circumference, multiple passes of the tool are necessary to effectively clean the roller.
Second, in operation the user must exert pressure with the tool against the roller while simultaneously moving the tool down the roller. This results in an uneven wiping action, particularly since multiple passes are necessary. It is difficult to exert the same pressure against the roller on each pass, and so a varying, uneven wiping action results.
Third, these devices cannot optimally clean both standard diameter rollers and "mini-size" rollers, since the roller-engaging curve in each device is sized to optimally fit rollers of one diameter only.
C. Fully-Circular Roller Wipers
U.S. Pat. No. 3,707,740 to Demers, U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,782 to Hutt, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,567 to Washburn are examples of this type of roller wiper. A key disadvantage of the devices of Hutt, Washburn, and the preferred embodiments (FIGS. 1-3) of Demers, is that they are not suitable for use with both standard diameter roller and "mini-size" rollers, since the roller-engaging aperture is sized to optimally fit rollers of one diameter only. Even different nap thicknesses of the same size roller cannot be handled optimally, since these devices exert different degrees of friction on rollers of different nap thicknesses.
The non-preferred embodiments (FIGS. 4-6) of Demers do provide for adjusting the diameter of the cleaning tool to handle different size rollers; however, the FIGS. 4-5 adjustment methods are cumbersome, time-consuming, and inconvenient to use.
A major drawback of all the embodiments of Demers is that they cannot easily perform the wiping task in the optimal way--that is, wiping in a single pass from the handle end of the roller, down and off the non-handle end of the roller. Either the roller must be removed from its frame (dirtying the hands) to allow single-pass wiping, or the device must be placed on the non-handle end of the roller and wiped downward toward the handle end of the roller. This method of wiping tends to coat the roller handle and frame with paint wiped from the roller, which is not at all satisfactory. Moreover, Demers's embodiments must then be passed back up the roller to remove them--a cumbersome and unnecessary extra step.
A further drawback of the device of Washburn is that it is difficult and time-consuming to place on the roller, and its multiple-piece construction is needlessly complex.
D. spinning-Type Roller Cleaners
U.S. Pat. No. 3,731,697 to Yost and U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,938 to Hutt are illustrative of this type of device, which spins the roller to centrifugally force off paint or solvent. These devices are complex and costly, and since the paint or solvent flies off the roller, they are also messy to use. Further, because these devices do not first wipe the excess paint from the roller, use of these devices does not save paint, nor does it reduce the use of solvent.
These devices also take a long time to remove the paint or solvent from the roller, since the centrifugal force they generate is inadequate to do the job quickly and effectively. In sum, these devices take longer to effectively clean the roller than would a cleaning method which uses my invention to first wipe excess paint from the roller, followed by a simple washing of the roller under a tap.
E. Roller Washers
These devices, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,153 to Doherty and U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,777 to Brow, spray or otherwise force solvent against the roller to achieve a cleaning action. Like the spinning-type roller cleaners discussed above, these devices are complex, costly, and messy. These devices also do not first wipe the excess paint from the roller; thus, using them will not save paint, nor will it reduce the use of solvent.
These devices also take a long time to remove the paint or solvent, since the excess paint is not first wiped from the roller. As with the spinning-type roller cleaners, these devices take longer to effectively clean the roller than would a cleaning method which uses my invention to first wipe excess paint from the roller, followed by a simple washing of the roller under a tap.
Thus, it can be appreciated that a paint roller cleaning method that uniformly wipes excess paint or solvent from rollers having different diameters and different nap thicknesses, that requires only one pass down the roller to effectively wipe the roller clean, and that can be easily used while the roller is on the roller frame, would be a significant improvement over the prior art.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
|
Q:
What would happen if we removed Earth's moon?
This question is an object of fascination of mine. There are a few different angles to take to it. My favorite is blasting the moon out of existence while its moving away from Earth.
What would happen if Earth's moon was removed?
A:
This has sat untouched for a while, so I did a quick search and found this article which sums it up nicely.
They key factors with regard to earth science would be:
1) Less extreme tides. The tides would only be linked to the sun and would not be as strong. They would also peak at noon. This has obvious implications for any coastal processes that rely on the tides. Many industries would be impacted. For one, the Bay of Fundy wouldn't be quite the tourist attraction it is.
2) Day length would potentially shorten at a greater rate. Our tidal lock to the moon helps to stabilize the slowing rotation of the Earth. In terms of Earth Science, this would have implications on any diurnal processes (weather), with compounding long-term effects (the climate).
3) The axial tilt of the Earth would change quite a bit. The moon helps to maintain our reasonably stable tilt. Greater tilt would result in more extreme seasonal changes, which in turn would affect all sorts of processes.
Those are the bigger ones from an Earth Science perspective.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "StackExchange"
}
|
/*
* Copyright 2016 The TensorFlow Authors. All Rights Reserved.
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
package org.tensorflow.demo;
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.Bitmap.Config;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Matrix;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.graphics.Typeface;
import android.media.ImageReader.OnImageAvailableListener;
import android.os.SystemClock;
import android.util.Size;
import android.util.TypedValue;
import android.view.Display;
import android.view.Surface;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Vector;
import org.tensorflow.demo.OverlayView.DrawCallback;
import org.tensorflow.demo.env.BorderedText;
import org.tensorflow.demo.env.ImageUtils;
import org.tensorflow.demo.env.Logger;
import org.tensorflow.demo.R; // Explicit import needed for internal Google builds.
public class ClassifierActivity extends CameraActivity implements OnImageAvailableListener {
private static final Logger LOGGER = new Logger();
protected static final boolean SAVE_PREVIEW_BITMAP = false;
private ResultsView resultsView;
private Bitmap rgbFrameBitmap = null;
private Bitmap croppedBitmap = null;
private Bitmap cropCopyBitmap = null;
private long lastProcessingTimeMs;
// These are the settings for the original v1 Inception model. If you want to
// use a model that's been produced from the TensorFlow for Poets codelab,
// you'll need to set IMAGE_SIZE = 299, IMAGE_MEAN = 128, IMAGE_STD = 128,
// INPUT_NAME = "Mul", and OUTPUT_NAME = "final_result".
// You'll also need to update the MODEL_FILE and LABEL_FILE paths to point to
// the ones you produced.
//
// To use v3 Inception model, strip the DecodeJpeg Op from your retrained
// model first:
//
// python strip_unused.py \
// --input_graph=<retrained-pb-file> \
// --output_graph=<your-stripped-pb-file> \
// --input_node_names="Mul" \
// --output_node_names="final_result" \
// --input_binary=true
private static final int INPUT_SIZE = 224;
private static final int IMAGE_MEAN = 117;
private static final float IMAGE_STD = 1;
private static final String INPUT_NAME = "input";
private static final String OUTPUT_NAME = "output";
private static final String MODEL_FILE = "file:///android_asset/tensorflow_inception_graph.pb";
private static final String LABEL_FILE =
"file:///android_asset/imagenet_comp_graph_label_strings.txt";
private static final boolean MAINTAIN_ASPECT = true;
private static final Size DESIRED_PREVIEW_SIZE = new Size(640, 480);
private Integer sensorOrientation;
private Classifier classifier;
private Matrix frameToCropTransform;
private Matrix cropToFrameTransform;
private BorderedText borderedText;
@Override
protected int getLayoutId() {
return R.layout.camera_connection_fragment;
}
@Override
protected Size getDesiredPreviewFrameSize() {
return DESIRED_PREVIEW_SIZE;
}
private static final float TEXT_SIZE_DIP = 10;
@Override
public void onPreviewSizeChosen(final Size size, final int rotation) {
final float textSizePx = TypedValue.applyDimension(
TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, TEXT_SIZE_DIP, getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
borderedText = new BorderedText(textSizePx);
borderedText.setTypeface(Typeface.MONOSPACE);
classifier =
TensorFlowImageClassifier.create(
getAssets(),
MODEL_FILE,
LABEL_FILE,
INPUT_SIZE,
IMAGE_MEAN,
IMAGE_STD,
INPUT_NAME,
OUTPUT_NAME);
previewWidth = size.getWidth();
previewHeight = size.getHeight();
sensorOrientation = rotation - getScreenOrientation();
LOGGER.i("Camera orientation relative to screen canvas: %d", sensorOrientation);
LOGGER.i("Initializing at size %dx%d", previewWidth, previewHeight);
rgbFrameBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(previewWidth, previewHeight, Config.ARGB_8888);
croppedBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(INPUT_SIZE, INPUT_SIZE, Config.ARGB_8888);
frameToCropTransform = ImageUtils.getTransformationMatrix(
previewWidth, previewHeight,
INPUT_SIZE, INPUT_SIZE,
sensorOrientation, MAINTAIN_ASPECT);
cropToFrameTransform = new Matrix();
frameToCropTransform.invert(cropToFrameTransform);
addCallback(
new DrawCallback() {
@Override
public void drawCallback(final Canvas canvas) {
renderDebug(canvas);
}
});
}
@Override
protected void processImage() {
rgbFrameBitmap.setPixels(getRgbBytes(), 0, previewWidth, 0, 0, previewWidth, previewHeight);
final Canvas canvas = new Canvas(croppedBitmap);
canvas.drawBitmap(rgbFrameBitmap, frameToCropTransform, null);
// For examining the actual TF input.
if (SAVE_PREVIEW_BITMAP) {
ImageUtils.saveBitmap(croppedBitmap);
}
runInBackground(
new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
final long startTime = SystemClock.uptimeMillis();
final List<Classifier.Recognition> results = classifier.recognizeImage(croppedBitmap);
lastProcessingTimeMs = SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - startTime;
LOGGER.i("Detect: %s", results);
cropCopyBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(croppedBitmap);
if (resultsView == null) {
resultsView = (ResultsView) findViewById(R.id.results);
}
resultsView.setResults(results);
requestRender();
readyForNextImage();
}
});
}
@Override
public void onSetDebug(boolean debug) {
classifier.enableStatLogging(debug);
}
private void renderDebug(final Canvas canvas) {
if (!isDebug()) {
return;
}
final Bitmap copy = cropCopyBitmap;
if (copy != null) {
final Matrix matrix = new Matrix();
final float scaleFactor = 2;
matrix.postScale(scaleFactor, scaleFactor);
matrix.postTranslate(
canvas.getWidth() - copy.getWidth() * scaleFactor,
canvas.getHeight() - copy.getHeight() * scaleFactor);
canvas.drawBitmap(copy, matrix, new Paint());
final Vector<String> lines = new Vector<String>();
if (classifier != null) {
String statString = classifier.getStatString();
String[] statLines = statString.split("\n");
for (String line : statLines) {
lines.add(line);
}
}
lines.add("Frame: " + previewWidth + "x" + previewHeight);
lines.add("Crop: " + copy.getWidth() + "x" + copy.getHeight());
lines.add("View: " + canvas.getWidth() + "x" + canvas.getHeight());
lines.add("Rotation: " + sensorOrientation);
lines.add("Inference time: " + lastProcessingTimeMs + "ms");
borderedText.drawLines(canvas, 10, canvas.getHeight() - 10, lines);
}
}
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{
"pile_set_name": "Github"
}
|
All datasets generated for this study are included in the manuscript and/or the Supplementary Information Files. Furthermore, we have provided the dataset of the sequences obtained from the observed shoots and that were used to estimate the models. The data is publicly available and hosted on the Harvard dataserve repository. The DOI for the dataset is: <https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/YJN3EK>. The URL is as follows: <https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/YJN3EK>.
Introduction {#sec001}
============
The architecture of temperate fruit trees is characterized by high-order branching structures composed of multiple axes of different lengths and complexities. This structure results from the differentiation and organogenetic activity of axillary meristems located at each metamer (composed of node its corresponding leaf and axillary bud plus the subtending internode) along the parent shoot. Axillary buds may have different fates leading to various shoot types with different rates and timings of outgrowth \[[@pone.0235347.ref001], [@pone.0235347.ref002], [@pone.0235347.ref003]\]. The relationship between the bud position and fate along the annual shoots determines the branching and flowering patterns \[[@pone.0235347.ref004], [@pone.0235347.ref005], [@pone.0235347.ref006]\]. Morphogenetic gradients during tree ontogeny are characterized by a decrease in shoot growth over successive years and branching orders, leading to a progressive simplification of branching pattern within trees \[[@pone.0235347.ref001], [@pone.0235347.ref007], [@pone.0235347.ref008], [@pone.0235347.ref009], [@pone.0235347.ref010]\]. Ontogeny can be tuned by the environmental stress factors, such as high temperature, water and nutrient availability \[[@pone.0235347.ref011], [@pone.0235347.ref012], [@pone.0235347.ref013], [@pone.0235347.ref014]\] affecting bud development \[[@pone.0235347.ref015], [@pone.0235347.ref016], [@pone.0235347.ref017]\]. Studying growth and branching patterns are thus crucial to understand tree bearing behaviors which are of agronomic importance \[[@pone.0235347.ref018], [@pone.0235347.ref019]\]. This knowledge has led to genotype classification \[[@pone.0235347.ref020], [@pone.0235347.ref021]\] and is also useful for breeding. Though the large majority of fruit are born on short (spurs) or medium (brindles) shoots, cultivar behaviors need to be further understood \[[@pone.0235347.ref022], [@pone.0235347.ref023], [@pone.0235347.ref024], [@pone.0235347.ref025]\].
Hidden semi-Markov chains (HSMCs) have been proposed to analyze branching and axillary flowering patterns over time and space \[[@pone.0235347.ref004], [@pone.0235347.ref005], [@pone.0235347.ref006], [@pone.0235347.ref010]\]. These models aim at segmenting the shoots into consecutive zones of homogenous composition in terms of axillary bud fates. HSMCs have been widely applied to compare different fruit species or cultivars, at different development stages, including apple \[[@pone.0235347.ref006], [@pone.0235347.ref010], [@pone.0235347.ref026]\], apricot \[[@pone.0235347.ref027]\] peach \[[@pone.0235347.ref028]\] and almond trees \[[@pone.0235347.ref014]\].
In Rosaceae fruit trees, branching and axillary flowering patterns largely vary among species \[[@pone.0235347.ref029]\]. While all these species are characterized by rhythmic growth \[[@pone.0235347.ref001]\], they differ in the location of reproductive and vegetative buds and therefore in the shoot structure \[[@pone.0235347.ref029]\]. While flowers are in terminal position in apple tree \[[@pone.0235347.ref030]\], *Prunus* species are characterized by axillary flower bud position along annual shoots \[[@pone.0235347.ref028], [@pone.0235347.ref031]\]. Flowers are located in upper position along the shoot in apricot, peach and almond trees, whereas they are located at the basis position of the shoot in cherry trees \[[@pone.0235347.ref029]\]. Moreover, the majority of *Prunus* species is able to produce additional flowers associated to either vegetative or central flower buds. These differences in axillary bud fates lead to different branching patterns in peach \[[@pone.0235347.ref028]\], apricot and cherry trees \[[@pone.0235347.ref032]\]. In apricot tree, a sympodial branching (i.e. branching from an axillary bud, after the mortality of the terminal meristem; for more detail description of the terminology, see also \[[@pone.0235347.ref001], [@pone.0235347.ref033]\]), has been related to a frequent terminal bud mortality \[[@pone.0235347.ref034]\]. While differences in branching pattern can be found among cultivars of a species \[[@pone.0235347.ref006], [@pone.0235347.ref010], [@pone.0235347.ref031]\], there is no evidence so far of a possible variability among clones of a same cultivar.
In the present study, the axillary bud fates were analyzed along annual shoots on a set of apricot cultivars, including the standard apricot cultivar 'Velkopavlovická', that is the most cultivated in Czech Republic and a set of its clones \[[@pone.0235347.ref035]\] using HSMCs. The differences in the shoot structures were analyzed with respect to three effects: genotype, shoot length and successive years. The objective of the study was to deepen our understanding of branching and flowering patterns in adult apricot trees by the detail description of vegetative and reproductive bud development along annual shoots in a set of cultivars and clones.
Materials and methods {#sec002}
=====================
Plant material and orchard environment {#sec003}
--------------------------------------
The experimental orchard was planted in spring 2001 at 6 x 3.5 m spacing at the Horticultural faculty of Mendel University in Lednice (Czech Republic). The orchard was situated in clay-loam black soils. All trees were grafted on apricot seedlings from cv Yulskiy (with middle Asian origin). After planting the trees were pruned in open vase. However, during the trial the trees were not pruned and the orchard was left without irrigation.
Eight genotypes of apricot trees (*Prunus armeniaca* L.) with similar growth and fruiting habits were considered for this study. Among them, we considered four cultivars (cvs): 'Bergeron', LE-97, NS-2 and 'Velkopavlovická' (VP), represented by reference clone VP-LE-12/2 \[[@pone.0235347.ref035]\]. This reference clone was compared with four other VP clones (Doc. Blatny, LE-111, LE-130 and LE-285). They all belong to Group 5, which corresponds to relatively small trees which axes bend easily and bear fruit mainly on medium shoots \[[@pone.0235347.ref021]\]. They are characterized by equilibrium among different shoot types that all bear fruit and are considered as the most suitable for agronomic cultivation. 'Bergeron' is a well-known random seedling from Rhône valley, France. Genotype LE-97 was obtained by random pollination of VP cv and NS-2 originates from Novi Sad, Serbia as a nature population from Vojvodina region. 'Velkopavlovická' is an apricot originating from South Moravia (Czech Republic) near Velké Pavlovice. In previous studies, 'Velkopavlovická' was considered as a clone of the cultivar 'Magyar Kajszi' belonging to the group of 'Hungarian Best' cultivars \[[@pone.0235347.ref036], [@pone.0235347.ref037]\].
In the two years during which the observed shoots had developed (2010 and 2011), the maximum, minimum and mean temperatures were 21.4 °C, −3.1 °C, 9.4 °C and 24.3 °C, −0.9 °C, 10.6 °C, respectively. The dynamics over each year was typical of temperate climate ([S1 Fig](#pone.0235347.s001){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). The cumulative rainfalls during these two years were 710.4 mm and 442.4 mm, respectively with a maximum in May 2010 and in July for 2011.
Shoot observations {#sec004}
------------------
Four to six trees per genotype were observed in two consecutive years, 2011 and 2012. Six lateral branches (one or two per tree) per genotype were selected ([S2 Fig](#pone.0235347.s002){ref-type="supplementary-material"}) according to the following rules: (1) the branches were situated on periphery of the trees at 1.5--2.0 m from the ground, (2) the length of three-year-old part of these branches were in the range of 150--300 mm, (3) their basal angle did not exceed -10 to 45° with the horizontal plane, (4) these branches were at the third branching order at the tree level and (5) the shoot in the continuation of each branch was longer than 10 cm. Along these branches, all annual shoots developed over three years (from three- to one-year-old shoots) were described retrospectively at the metamer scale twice, i.e. in 2011 and 2012 ([S3 Fig](#pone.0235347.s003){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Moreover, the year during which each shoot had developed was noted to enable studying the year effect.
Bud fates were described node by node along the shoots. The central buds were coded "L", "V" or "F" for latent (i.e. buds that do not outgrow in the next year), vegetative (i.e. buds that are more developed than latent buds and are expected to outgrow a vegetative shoots in the next year) or floral fate, respectively and the number of associated flower buds noted (0, 1 or ≥ 2 associated flower buds). During the observation years, the development of flowers into fruit was assessed as the mean number of fruit per shoot. However, because this number was low, this variable was not considered afterwards in the modelling approach.
Data analysis and model building {#sec005}
--------------------------------
The central bud fate and the number of associated flower buds were organized as bivariate sequences indexed by node rank. Following previous studies \[[@pone.0235347.ref005], [@pone.0235347.ref006], [@pone.0235347.ref026]\], a HSMC was built for each genotype on the basis of bivariate sequences pooled for the different orders and growing years considering all shoot together. A HSMC is a two-scale segmentation model whose aim is to segment observed sequences into successive homogeneous zones both in terms of central bud fate and number of associated flower buds. In this framework, the succession and length (in number of metamers) of zones (coarse scale not directly observable) are represented by a non-observable semi-Markov chain, whereas the central bud fate and the number of associated flower buds within each zone (fine scale) are represented by categorical distributions attached to each state of the semi-Markov chain. A semi-Markov chain is defined by three subsets of parameters:
1. Initial probabilities to model which is the first zone in the shoot,
2. Transition probabilities to model the succession of zones along the shoot,
3. Occupancy distributions attached to non-absorbing states (a state is said to be absorbing if, after entering this state, it is impossible to leave it) to model lengths of zones in number of nodes/*metamers*.
A HSMC adds a fourth subset of parameters to the three subsets of parameters previously defined for the underlying semi-Markov chain:
1. Categorical observation distributions to model either the central bud fate or the number of associated flower bud. This entails that a probability mass was directly estimated for each possible category of each observed variable.
A 'left-right' HSMC composed of successive transient states followed by a final absorbing state was built on the basis of bivariate sequences corresponding to a given genotype. A state is said to be transient if after leaving this state, it is impossible to return to it. In a 'left-right' model, the states are thus ordered and each state can be visited at most once. In this study, it was chosen to assume that the end of an observed sequence systematically coincides with the transition from the current state to an extra absorbing 'end' state modeling implicitly the growth cessation (no observation model is associated with this end state; see \[[@pone.0235347.ref010]\]). Hence, at the end of an observed sequence, the process systematically jumps to the absorbing end state. In this way, it was possible to model explicitly the length of the most distal zone. Each estimated model was used to compute the most probable state sequence for each observed sequence \[[@pone.0235347.ref038]\]. This restored state sequence can be viewed as the optimal segmentation of the corresponding observed sequence into sub-sequences, each corresponding to a given zone. On the basis of the optimal segmentations of the observed sequences, "contextual" model parameters (e.g. probability of transition between two zones or distribution of the central bud fate for a given zone) or characteristic distributions (e.g. probability of occurrence of a given zone) specific to 2010 or 2011 shoots were extracted \[[@pone.0235347.ref010]\] in order to compare them.
Comparison of shoots depending on the genotype, year and shoot types {#sec006}
--------------------------------------------------------------------
To compare the shoot branching structures among genotypes and years, the shoots were classified into three types depending on their length: a) short shoots (SS) up to 2 cm, b) medium shoots (MS) from 2.1--10 cm and c) long shoot (LS) above 10 cm. Such classification was based on previous studies which considered axes polymorphisms based on the concepts of preformation and neoformation \[[@pone.0235347.ref033]\]. Even though overlap between classes remained ([S1 Table](#pone.0235347.s004){ref-type="supplementary-material"}), this approach allowed us to compare the "contextual" model outputs with respect of a given class of shoot length. For each shoot type, the year and genotype effects on the number of metamers per shoot and per zone, the number of associated flower buds and fruit per shoot were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test (ANOVA by ranks), and further compared among genotypes, years or shoot types using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. The probabilities of zone occurrence were compared using a Pearson χ^2^ test. After the optimal segmentation of all the observed sequences in successive zones, the relationship between the number of metamers of two zones as well as between the number of metamers of each zone and the total number of metamers of the shoot was analyzed using Spearman rank correlation coefficients. Among all genotypes, the longevity of the lateral shoots along the branches was analyzed depending on the year of shoot development using the Pearson χ^2^ test.
The HSMC and all associated statistical methods are implemented in the Structure Analysis module of the Openalea software platform \[[@pone.0235347.ref039]\].
Results {#sec007}
=======
Number and types of shoots {#sec008}
--------------------------
The total number of developed shoots on the selected branches ranged from 81 to 153 and 129 to 227 depending on the genotype, in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Considering the relatively old tree age, short and medium shoots were in higher proportions than long shoots. In 2010, the proportion of shoot types ranged from 0.34 to 0.53 of SS, from 0.35 to 0.51 of MS and from 0.08 to 0.17 of LS depending on the genotype ([Fig 1](#pone.0235347.g001){ref-type="fig"}), with 'Bergeron' exhibiting the highest proportion of MS and LS. In 2011, all genotypes developed a similar proportion of shoot types, with a majority of SS, some MS and few LS, even though 'Bergeron' had the highest increase of SS proportion and LE-97 the lowest. This means that the proportion of MS and LS significantly decreased between 2010 and 2011 whereas SS significantly increased (according to a Pearson's χ^2^ test, p = 8.51E^-20^).
{#pone.0235347.g001}
Estimation of the hidden semi-Markov chains {#sec009}
-------------------------------------------
The shoots varied from 2 to 26 metamers, depending on the type, genotype and year ([S1 Table](#pone.0235347.s004){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). The HSMC estimated for each genotype were composed of three transient states modeling three successive zones and a final absorbing end state (see [Fig 2](#pone.0235347.g002){ref-type="fig"}). The first (basal) zone was composed of latent buds, exclusively. The second (median) zone contained mainly central flower buds with some associated flower buds. The third (distal) zone contained mainly vegetative shoots sometimes with few associated flower buds. The mean number of metamers was similar for the basal and distal zones, these zones having a higher mean number of metamers than the median zone. The first zone containing latent buds was always present whereas the two other zones may be skipped leading to shoots without flowering zone and/or shoots without distal vegetative zone depending on the genotype.
{#pone.0235347.g002}
Comparison of shoot structure among genotypes {#sec010}
---------------------------------------------
The genotypes differed in the mean number of metamers of the basal and median zones exhibiting highly significant differences ([Table 1](#pone.0235347.t001){ref-type="table"}). Among cvs, the highest mean number of metamers in the basal zone, over the two years, was observed in NS-2. Among the VP clones, the variability was relatively large with the highest mean value found in LE-285 and the lowest in VP-LE-12/2. Despite a relatively low variability in the number of metamers of this zone (less than 2), the groups overlapped between cvs and clones ([Table 1](#pone.0235347.t001){ref-type="table"}). For the median zone, the highest mean number of metamers over the two years was observed in 'Bergeron' and LE-97 for the cvs, whereas the lowest was in Doc. Blatny among clones, even though similar to all the VP clones.
10.1371/journal.pone.0235347.t001
###### Mean number of metamers in the basal and median zones (when present), mean number of metamers per shoot and mean number of associated flowers and fruit per shoot depending on the genotype (cvs and VP clones) and year of shoot development.
Genotype and year effects were analyzed using a Kruskal-Wallis test. Comparisons among genotypes and years were performed with a Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. Different letters in a same variable indicate significant difference (p \< 0.05) among cvs and VP clones and between years. The distributions extracted for the two years jointly were compared among genotypes separately.
{#pone.0235347.t001g}
Genotypes Basal zone Median zone Shoot Associated flower buds Fruit
------------------------ ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- --------- --------- --------- ---------- --------- --------
**Cultivars** **Bergeron** 4.22 bcde 3.57 fg 3.83 c 2.79 a 1.64 bc 2.50 a 9.75 ab 7.26 c 1.27 a 0.44 bc 0.96 a 0.01 e
**LE-97** 3.97 cdef 3.68 efg 3.80 c 2.84 a 1.39 cd 2.57 a 9.01 ab 7.37 c 1.32 a 0.01 d 0.63 b 0.02 e
**NS-2** 3.56 fg 4.94 b 4.38 b 1.88 b \- 1.88 b 8.77 b 8.53 b 0.64 b 0.02 d 0.50 bcd 0.00 e
**VP reference clone** **VP-LE-12/2** 3.23 h 3.92 def 3.68 c 1.83 bc 1.20 d 1.66 bc 7.84 bc 7.34 c 0.47 bc 0.03 d 0.58 bc 0.00 e
**Doc. Blatny** 3.88 defg 4.75 bc 4.41 b 1.77 bc 1.27 d 1.56 c 8.83 b 8.72 b 0.55 bc 0.31 bc 0.59 bc 0.01 e
**LE-111** 4.41 bcd 4.09 cdef 4.22 bc 1.87 b 1.00 d 1.86 bc 9.01 ab 7.29 c 0.16 c 0.00 e 0.53 bcd 0.00 e
**LE-130** 4.55 bcd 3.42 gh 3.88 c 1.56 bcd 1.71 bc 1.64 bc 8.59 b 7.29 c 0.20 c 0.29 bc 0.22 d 0.00 e
**LE-285** 5.96 a 4.67 bcd 5.13 a 1.86 bc 1.60 bc 1.71 bc 10.29 a 8.78 b 0.22 c 0.22 c 0.30 cd 0.02 e
**Genotypic effect** [\*\*\*](#t001fn005){ref-type="table-fn"} [\*\*\*](#t001fn005){ref-type="table-fn"} ns. [\*\*\*](#t001fn005){ref-type="table-fn"} [\*\*\*](#t001fn005){ref-type="table-fn"}
**Year effect** [\*](#t001fn003){ref-type="table-fn"} [\*\*\*](#t001fn005){ref-type="table-fn"} [\*](#t001fn003){ref-type="table-fn"} [\*\*\*](#t001fn005){ref-type="table-fn"} [\*\*\*](#t001fn005){ref-type="table-fn"}
The statistical difference among genotypes and years (particular variable) was signed with different letters (p = 0.05) with the values.
ns. = not significant,
\* = significance at α = 0.05,
\*\* = significance at α = 0.01,
\*\*\* = significance at α = 0.001.
Differences among genotypes were also found in the transition probabilities between the median and distal zones ([Fig 2](#pone.0235347.g002){ref-type="fig"}), and consequently in the occurrence of these zones ([Table 2](#pone.0235347.t002){ref-type="table"}). The median zone occurred more frequently in cvs 'Bergeron' and LE-97, while it occurred less frequently in NS-2 and VP-LE-12/2 over the two years. Among clones of 'Velkopavlovická', the occurrence of the median zone was more frequent in LE-130 and LE-285 than in LE-111 and VP-LE-12/2. Almost all cultivars were characterized by a relatively high frequency of occurrence of the distal zone except LE-97. The most frequent occurrences of the distal zone among VP clones were found in VP-LE-12/2 and Doc. Blatny, whereas the less frequent occurrences were in LE-111 and LE-285.
10.1371/journal.pone.0235347.t002
###### Frequency of occurrence of the median and distal zones per shoot depending on the genotype and year of shoot development.
The year effect was tested by Pearson χ2 test. Comparisons among genotypes (cvs and VP clones) and between years were performed with a Pearson χ2 test. Different letters in a same variable indicate significant difference (p \< 0.05). The two-year proportion of zone occurrence among cultivars and VP clones was compared separately.
{#pone.0235347.t002g}
Genotype Median zone Distal zone
----------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ------------- ------------------------------------------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------
**Cultivars** **Bergeron** 0.76 a 0.17 f 0.41 b 0.92 ab 0.91 ab 0.91 ab
**LE-97** 0.74 ab 0.11 fg 0.36 bc 0.66 d 0.86 bc 0.78 d
**NS-2** 0.66 abc 0.00 h 0.27 de 0.85 abc 0.89 abc 0.87 abc
**Velkoplavlovicka clones** **VP-LE-12/2** 0.51 d 0.10 g 0.24 e 0.89 abc 0.94 a 0.92 a
**Doc. Blatny** 0.62 bc 0.30 e 0.42 b 0.90 abc 0.91 ab 0.91 ab
**LE-111** 0.75 ab 0.01 h 0.32 cd 0.83 c 0.87 abc 0.85 c
**LE-130** 0.52 d 0.49 d 0.50 ab 0.87 abc 0.92 ab 0.90 abc
**LE-285** 0.58 cd 0.48 d 0.51 a 0.83 c 0.88 abc 0.86 bc
**Year effect** [\*\*\*](#t002fn005){ref-type="table-fn"} \- [\*\*\*](#t002fn005){ref-type="table-fn"} \-
The statistical difference among genotypes and years (particular variable) was signed with different letters (p = 0.05) with the values.
ns. = not significant,
\* = significance at α = 0.05,
\*\* = significance at α = 0.01,
\*\*\* = significance at α = 0.001.
The proportions of central flower buds within the median zone differed depending on the genotype ([Fig 2](#pone.0235347.g002){ref-type="fig"}), the highest being observed in NS-2 whereas the lowest were in LE-97. The metamers with associated flower buds were few and scattered between the median and distal zones in all genotypes. However, the number of metamers with associated flower buds was higher in the median zone than in the distal one ([Fig 2](#pone.0235347.g002){ref-type="fig"}), especially in cvs 'Bergeron' and LE-97. In all the genotypes, metamers with a single associated flower bud were more numerous than those with several associated flower buds.
Comparison between the two observed years {#sec011}
-----------------------------------------
By comparing shoots developed in the different years, further differences were found. The mean number of metamers per shoot decreased significantly between the two years in cvs 'Bergeron' and LE-97, as well as in VP clones LE-111, LE-130 and LE-285 ([Table 1](#pone.0235347.t001){ref-type="table"}). In contrast, it remained similar between years in NS-2, VP clones Doc. Blatny and VP-LE-12/2. These changes impacted the shoot structure, especially, the mean number of metamers per zone. The length of the basal zone decreased with the years in cvs and clones with a decreasing number of metamers per shoot, whereas it was higher in those which shoot length remained stable. A decrease in distal zone length was also slightly significant between the two years, but only when all genotypes were considered together (p value = 0.04). The mean number of metamers in the median zone as well as the mean number of associated flower buds and fruit significantly decreased in a majority of genotypes between the two years, except in VP clones LE-130 and LE-285 ([Table 1](#pone.0235347.t001){ref-type="table"}), having similar number of flower buds and fruit per shoot in both years.
The changes in shoot length between years also impacted the occurrence of the median and distal zones. The frequency of occurrence of the median zone varied between years depending on cvs and VP clones and significantly decreased between the two years in a majority of genotypes ([Table 2](#pone.0235347.t002){ref-type="table"}). The distal zone occurred less frequently in cv LE-97 whatever the year, and in VP clones LE-111 and LE-285 when the two years were considered jointly ([Table 2](#pone.0235347.t002){ref-type="table"}). The occurrence of the distal zone changed only slightly between the two years ([Table 2](#pone.0235347.t002){ref-type="table"}), with significant increase between the years in LE-97 only.
Comparison of the shoot organization among different shoot types {#sec012}
----------------------------------------------------------------
The mean number of metamers per shoot mirrors the shoot category, increasing from SS to MS and from MS to LS. It did not change between the two years in SS and MS, but tend to decrease in LS ([S1 Table](#pone.0235347.s004){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). There are few significant correlations between the numbers of metamers of each zone. Significant correlations were found negative between the basal and the median zones and the median and the distal zones while positive between the basal and the distal zones ([Table 3](#pone.0235347.t003){ref-type="table"}). It should be noted that these significant correlations coefficients are often in absolute value just slightly above the limit corresponding to no correlation. The total number of metamers of the shoot correlated with those in the basal and the distal zones but not the median zone ([Table 3](#pone.0235347.t003){ref-type="table"}), except in the two cultivars Bergeron and LE-97 which exhibited the highest mean number of metamers per median zone.
10.1371/journal.pone.0235347.t003
###### Spearman rank correlation coefficients between the number of metamers of pairs of zones chosen among basal, median and distal zone, and the number of metamers of each zone and the total number of metamers of the shoot, depending on the genotypes (cvs and VP clones) and years.
{#pone.0235347.t003g}
Genotype Year Basal vs. Median Median vs. Distal Basal vs. Distal Basal vs. Shoot Median vs. Shoot Distal vs. Shoot Limits
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------------ ------------------- ------------------ ----------------- ------------------ ------------------ --------
**Cultivars** Bergeron 2010 ns. ns. 0.3 0.57 0.36 0.8 ±0.16
Bergeron 2011 ns. ns. 0.18 0.55 0.19 0.83 ±0.13
LE-97 2010 ns. ns. ns. 0.26 0.38 0.73 ±0.17
LE-97 2011 −0.15 ns. ns. 0.3 ns. 0.87 ±0.14
NS-2 2010 ns. −0.2 0.28 0.5 ns. 0.9 ±0.17
NS-2 2011 \- \- 0.39 0.8 \- 0.84 ±0.14
**Velkoplavlovicka clones** VP-LE-12/2 2010 ns. ns. ns. 0.49 ns. 0.85 ±0.22
VP-LE-12/2 2011 ns. ns. 0.21 0.7 ns. 0.82 ±0.16
Doc. Blatny 2010 −0.29 ns. ns. 0.47 ns. 0.82 ±0.19
Doc. Blatny 2011 ns. ns. 0.22 0.76 0.2 0.75 ±0.15
LE-111 2010 −0.53 −0.26 ns. 0.53 −0.22 0.86 ±0.2
LE-111 2011 ns. ns. ns. 0.65 ns. 0.64 ±0.17
LE-130 2010 −0.28 ns. 0.3 0.71 ns. 0.81 ±0.16
LE-130 2011 −0.21 −0.3 ns. 0.44 ns. 0.78 ±0.14
LE-285 2010 ns. ns. ns. 0.75 ns. 0.68 ±0.19
LE-285 2011 −0.19 ns. ns. 0.62 ns. 0.64 ±0.14
ns. = correlation coefficients not significantly different from 0 at α = 0.05 which are between the two limits indicated in the last column.
The median zone was not present for cv NS-2 in 2011.
The shoot types impacted the mean number of metamers per zone. The basal and median zone tended to be lower in SS than in MS and LS ([Table 4](#pone.0235347.t004){ref-type="table"}). However, the median zone tended to have a slightly higher number of metamers in MS than in LS, at least in Doc. Blatny and LE-130 ([Table 4](#pone.0235347.t004){ref-type="table"}). Consistently with the strong relationship found between the number of metamers per shoot and the number of metamers of the distal zone, the mean number of metamers in that zone differs significantly among shoot types. The correlation between the total number of metamers per shoot and the number of associated flower buds per shoot is moderate with *r* = 0.37, confirming the increase of the number of associated flower buds per shoot with the shoot length, with differences among cvs and clones ([Table 4](#pone.0235347.t004){ref-type="table"}). The highest mean number of associated flower buds in all shoot types was in 'Bergeron' whereas, the mean number of associated flowers was low in all the VP clones, especially on SS. The mean number of fruit was usually lower in SS and the genotypes differed in MS and LS only ([Table 4](#pone.0235347.t004){ref-type="table"}).
10.1371/journal.pone.0235347.t004
###### Mean number of metamers of the basal, median and distal zones (when present), and mean number of associated flower buds and fruit per shoot type depending on the genotypes (cvs and VP clones) on shoots developed in years 2010 and 2011.
Shoot type effect was estimated with a Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. Comparisons among genotypes and shoot types for a given zone were performed using a Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. Different letters for a given zone indicate significant difference (p \< 0.05).
{#pone.0235347.t004g}
Genotype Basal zone Median zone Distal zone Associated flower buds Fruit
------------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- --------- --------- ---------- -------- -------- --------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------
**Cultivars** **Bergeron** 3.32 d 4.25 cd 5.09 abc 1.76 c 2.87 ab 2.78 ab 1.99 e 3.88 d 9.94 b 0.06 f 0.89 b 4.55 a 0.15 cde 0.63 ab 0.82 a
**LE-97** 3.56 cd 4.11 cd 4.00 cd 1.79 c 3.38 a 3.20 a 1.37 e 4.26 cd 11.23 ab 0.01 g 0.65 c 3.29 a 0.15 cde 0.41 ab 0.35 ab
**NS-2** 3.72 cd 4.98 bc 5.86 ab 1.76 c 1.93 c 2.17 bc 1.63 e 4.74 cd 12.48 a 0.01 g 0.35 d 1.59 b 0.14 cde 0.32 abc 0.14 cde
**VP reference clones** **VP-LE-12/2** 3.25 d 4.34 cd 4.59 bcd 1.50 c 1.95 c 1.40 cd 1.95 e 4.97 c 9.59 b 0.02 g 0.18 e 1.53 b 0.10 de 0.30 a-d 0.65 ab
**Doc. Blatny** 3.96 cd 4.87 bc 4.95 bc 1.46 cd 1.70 c 1.27 d 1.65 e 4.46 cd 12.64 a 0.01 g 0.27 e 3.59 a 0.12 de 0.33 ab 0.50 ab
**LE-111** 3.66 cd 5.05 bc 4.45 bcd 2.00 bc 1.75 c 1.50 c 1.73 e 4.35 cd 11.36 ab 0.02 g 0.06 f 0.73 bc 0.22 b-e 0.25 a-d 0.09 de
**LE-130** 3.38 d 4.37 cd 5.17 abc 1.70 c 1.65 c 1.00 d 1.56 e 4.37 cd 9.00 b 0.02 g 0.35 d 1.89 b 0.10 de 0.08 de 0.11 de
**LE-285** 4.56 bcd 5.74 ab 6.67 a 1.69 c 1.75 c 1.56 c 1.53 e 4.18 cd 12.90 a 0.01 g 0.13 e 3.19 a 0.08 e 0.21 b-e 0.05 e
**Shoot type effect** [\*\*\*](#t004fn005){ref-type="table-fn"} [\*\*](#t004fn004){ref-type="table-fn"} [\*\*\*](#t004fn005){ref-type="table-fn"} [\*\*\*](#t004fn005){ref-type="table-fn"} [\*\*\*](#t004fn005){ref-type="table-fn"}
The statistical difference among genotypes and shoot types (particular variable) was signed with different letters (p = 0.05) with the values.
ns. = not significant,
\* = significance at α = 0.05,
\*\* = significance at α = 0.01,
\*\*\* = significance at α = 0.001.
SS---short shoots, MS---medium shoots, LS---long shoots.
The shoot types also impacted the frequency of occurrence of the zones. The frequency of shoots with median and distal zone tended to be lower in SS than in MS and LS, but with differences depending on the genotype ([Table 5](#pone.0235347.t005){ref-type="table"}).
10.1371/journal.pone.0235347.t005
###### Frequency of occurrence of the median and distal zones depending on the shoot type and genotypes (cvs and VP clones) on shoots developed in years 2010 and 2011.
The difference among genotypes and shoot types were estimated for each variable with a Pearson χ2 test.
{#pone.0235347.t005g}
----------------------------- ----------------- ------------------------------------------------ ---------- ------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------
**Median zone**
**Genotype** SS MS LS Shoot type effect (SS/MS/LS)
**Cultivars** **Bergeron** 0.245 cd[^1^](#t005fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} 0.565 ab 0.697 a y/x/x[^2^](#t005fn002){ref-type="table-fn"}
**LE-97** 0.328 c 0.419 bc 0.323 bc x/x/x
**NS-2** 0.216 d 0.364 c 0.207 c y/x/x
**Velkoplavlovicka clones** **VP-LE-12/2** 0.204 d 0.284 c 0.294 bc x/x/x
**Doc. Blatny** 0.336 bc 0.519 b 0.500 ab y/x/xy
**LE-111** 0.281 cd 0.376 c 0.364 bc x/x/x
**LE-130** 0.479 a 0.537 ab 0.444 ab x/x/x
**LE-285** 0.436 ab 0.657 a 0.429 ab y/x/y
**Distal zone**
**Genotype** SS MS LS Shoot type effect (SS/MS/LS)
**Cultivars** **Bergeron** 0.840 ab 0.993 a 1 a y/x/x
**LE-97** 0.635 c 0.960 b 1 a y/x/x
**NS-2** 0.767 b 0.992 a 1 a y/x/x
**Velkoplavlovicka clones** **VP-LE-12/2** 0.871 a 1.000 a 1 a y/x/x
**Doc. Blatny** 0.832 ab 0.991 ab 1 a y/x/x
**LE-111** 0.773 b 0.953 b 1 a y/x/x
**LE-130** 0.819 ab 0.993 a 1 a y/x/x
**LE-285** 0.761 b 0.990 ab 1 a y/x/x
----------------------------- ----------------- ------------------------------------------------ ---------- ------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------
^1^The statistical difference among genotypes (columns) is indicated by different letters (p = 0.05).
^2^Statistical difference among shoot types in each genotype (rows) is indicated by letters as well (x, y, z).
SS---short shoots, MS---medium shoots, LS---long shoots.
Shoot life span {#sec013}
---------------
In both years (2010 and 2011), the shoots longevity along the observed branches depended on their length. LS were always alive two years after their development whereas a proportion between 0.80 and 0.95 of MS was alive one year after their development, whatever the genotypes and years. In contrast, the proportion of SS remaining alive one year after their development was much lower than in MS and LS. SS developed in 2009 remained alive in 2010 with a proportion ranging from 0.64 (NS-2) to 0.23 (LE-97; [Table 6](#pone.0235347.t006){ref-type="table"}). No significant difference was observed in VP clones for this trait. SS developed in 2010 remained alive in 2011 with a proportion ranging from 0.79 (VP-LE-12/2) to 0.22 to (LE-97). The reference clone VP-LE-12/2 had a higher proportion of living SS than all other VP clones. The proportion of shoots remained alive over two years varied from 0.57 (VP-LE-12/2) to 0.17 (LE-97). Here again the ranking of genotypes with respect to SS survival was similar with VP-LE-12/2 having the highest survival and LE-97 the lowest.
10.1371/journal.pone.0235347.t006
###### Proportion of short shoots developed in 2009 and 2010 still alive along the branch axis in 2010 (2009/2010) and 2011 (2010/2011), respectively.
The survival of all shoots, either one and two years old, developed either in 2009 or 2010, and observed in 2011 are represented with (2009-10/2011). Comparisons between cultivars/clones and survival year for shoots living in the next year were performed using a Pearson χ2 test. The proportion of two-year surviving short shoots among cultivars and VP clones was compared separately.
{#pone.0235347.t006g}
Genotype Proportion of living short shoots (development years / observation year)
----------------------------- ---------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- ---------
**Cultivars** **Bergeron** 0.37 cd 0.36 cd 0.24 bc
**LE-97** 0.23 cd 0.22 d 0.17 c
**NS-2** 0.64 ab 0.45 bc 0.36 b
**Velkoplavlovicka clones** **VP-LE-12/2** 0.46 bc 0.79 a 0.57 a
**Doc. Blatny** 0.41 cd 0.47 bc 0.38 ab
**LE-111** 0.44 bc 0.33 cd 0.38 ab
**LE-130** 0.45 bc 0.32 cd 0.34 b
**LE-285** 0.29 cd 0.36 cd 0.30 b
The statistical difference among genotypes and particular years was signed with different letters (p = 0.05) with the values.
Discussion {#sec014}
==========
Characteristics of the shoot structure {#sec015}
--------------------------------------
The HSMC estimated for each genotype was composed of three successive states modeling zones with different bud fates from the base to the top of the parent shoot. The relative simplicity in this structure and the low number of zones found is due to the dominance of short and medium shoots in the dataset. Shoots structured in consecutive zones have been previously observed in several Prunus \[[@pone.0235347.ref004], [@pone.0235347.ref027], [@pone.0235347.ref031]\] and Malus species (\[[@pone.0235347.ref005], [@pone.0235347.ref010]\]; see \[[@pone.0235347.ref029]\] for a review).
The basal zone contains latent buds which constitute a pool of buds that enables the tree to react to damages, pruning, and aging by developing epicormics shoots (i.e. shoot that outgrow from dormant buds) \[[@pone.0235347.ref002], [@pone.0235347.ref003]\]. The median zone is composed of central flower buds, which are the result of reproductive differentiation of the buds located at the leaf axils along the parent shoots \[[@pone.0235347.ref023]\]. The distal zone is composed of vegetative buds as the basal one, but usually those buds allow shoot growth in the next vegetation season. The preferential development of axillary buds close to the top of the parent shoot contributes to acrotony (i.e. long laterals located in the upper part of the parent shoot, for terminology see also \[[@pone.0235347.ref001]\] and \[[@pone.0235347.ref033]\]) \[[@pone.0235347.ref032]\]. The presence of associated flower buds along median and to a lower extent distal zones in adult trees is consistent with previous finding in young apricot, peach and almond trees \[[@pone.0235347.ref027], [@pone.0235347.ref028], [@pone.0235347.ref029], [@pone.0235347.ref031]\]. This structure was similar for all genotypes and is common for all apricot trees in full bearing stage.
Differences in shoot structure depending on total shoot length {#sec016}
--------------------------------------------------------------
The analysis of the shoot structure points out differences in the frequency of occurrence and the number of metamers of particular zones as a function of the total number of metamers of the shoot. The systematic occurrence of the basal zone is likely related to preformation \[[@pone.0235347.ref001], [@pone.0235347.ref004]\] building the shoot base \[[@pone.0235347.ref004], [@pone.0235347.ref031]\]. Since the number of preformed organs has been estimated about 10 foliar primordia in peach tree \[[@pone.0235347.ref009]\], it is likely that a large part of the shoots observed in the present study, located at the third or fourth branching orders was preformed within the winter buds.
The decrease in the number of metamers per shoot mainly from MS to SS or between years led to the shortening or disappearance of the median and/or distal zones. The progressive disappearance of median zone, skipping the development of central flowers and/or the shoot vegetative prolongation has been previously pointed out in apple trees \[[@pone.0235347.ref004], [@pone.0235347.ref010]\]. Despite the lack of correlation between the number of metamers of the shoot and of the median zone, the number of associated flower buds increased with shoot length. The higher number of associated flower buds along the neoformed part of medium and long shoots suggests that these flower buds may differentiate in locations less specific than the central floral buds and during a longer period along the vegetation season. The correlation between the number of metamers of the distal zone and the total number of metamers of the shoot likely results from the timing of growth cessation. The extreme reduction in shoot structure and the disappearance of the distal zone could lead to the mortality of short shoots. Since apricot tree has a tendency to sympodial growth due to frequent apical bud mortality \[[@pone.0235347.ref029], [@pone.0235347.ref034]\], such abortion of apical bud concomitant to the absence of vegetative buds able to regrow in the next spring is likely leading the shoot mortality. Therefore the maintenance of a pool of vegetative buds in the distal zone may be crucial to ensure shoot survival and its growth continuation.
In this study, the year effect was particularly strong, affecting all zones and the total number of metamers of the shoot. The reduction in the total number of metamers per shoot can be partly attributed to tree ontogeny \[[@pone.0235347.ref001], [@pone.0235347.ref010]\]. Moreover, insufficient water or nutrition availability in 2011 ([S1 Fig](#pone.0235347.s001){ref-type="supplementary-material"}) could have further limited shoot growth, since these two environmental factors influence the whole tree growth \[[@pone.0235347.ref011], [@pone.0235347.ref014]\] and bearing \[[@pone.0235347.ref022], [@pone.0235347.ref023], [@pone.0235347.ref024]\].
Altogether, our results suggest that the risk of irregular bearing of the trees could be enhanced when shoot growth is excessively reduced, either by environmental conditions or high crop load \[[@pone.0235347.ref025]\]. Consistently with previous studies that have shown that the abundance of associated and central flowers is linked to total shoot growth \[[@pone.0235347.ref004], [@pone.0235347.ref040]\], we can assume that 10 metamers per shoot, as mean number across the shoot population, could constitute a minimum number of metamers for maintaining the production in apricot trees, in order to avoid alternate bearing.
Structural differences among the genotypes {#sec017}
------------------------------------------
The genotypes differed in their ability to develop the median and distal zone, in the number of metamers of all three zones and in their compositions in terms of central bud fate and number of associated flower buds. One of the main differences among genotypes concerns the median zone. The trees of cvs Bergeron and LE-97 showed in a given conditions higher flowering and bearing potential considering the higher number of central and associated flower buds per shoot. However, the higher production of central flowers within the median zone in SS may negatively affect the distal zone occurrence. Such behavior suggests a different ability of the cultivars ([Table 5](#pone.0235347.t005){ref-type="table"}) to promote central flower buds formation upon the maintenance of vegetative growth in spurs. In particular, LE-97 appears prone to a competition between the bearing potential of the median zone and the distal zone occurrence as it exhibits a long and fruiting median zone ([Fig 2](#pone.0235347.g002){ref-type="fig"}, Tables [1](#pone.0235347.t001){ref-type="table"} and [4](#pone.0235347.t004){ref-type="table"}) while the lowest occurrence of the distal zone and lowest rate of SS survival ([Fig 2](#pone.0235347.g002){ref-type="fig"}, Tables [5](#pone.0235347.t005){ref-type="table"} and [6](#pone.0235347.t006){ref-type="table"}). This reduced distal zone occurrence, that further promotes the SS mortality rate, can be considered as an additional mechanism controlling the shoot population, like in almond trees \[[@pone.0235347.ref024]\].
Due to a significant decrease in the number of metamers and frequency of the median zone as well as in the mean number of associated flower buds per shoot in most cultivars and clones, the second year of observation can be considered as an "off" year. The difference among cultivars and clones in the occurrence of the median zone, as well as its fluctuation between the two years is likely to refer, in addition to genetic effect, to several factors such as their physiological reaction to unfavorable environmental conditions in non-irrigated orchard \[[@pone.0235347.ref015], [@pone.0235347.ref016]\] and the fruit load at the branch or tree level \[[@pone.0235347.ref017], [@pone.0235347.ref018], [@pone.0235347.ref019], [@pone.0235347.ref024]\].
The mentioned differences among the cultivars and clones could further allow differentiating among apricots depending on their flowering abundance and shoot mortality rate, complementing the classification of group 5, as defined by \[[@pone.0235347.ref021]\]. Since our study was performed on two years only, further analysis of the cultivars at different tree age, in different environmental and orchard management conditions would be relevant.
Conclusions {#sec018}
===========
In our study, we demonstrated that, in apricot adult trees, shoots are structured in three different and successive zones composed of latent buds (basal zone), flower buds (median zone) and vegetative buds (distal zone). While the basal zone is always present, the last two zones may not develop leading to no flowering or shoot mortality or even both. The median zone length and flower abundance increase with shoot length. The higher number of associated flower buds along the neoformed part of medium and long shoots suggests that these flower buds may differentiate in locations less specific than the central floral buds and during a longer period along the vegetation season. The length of the distal zone likely results from the timing of growth cessation. Our results suggest that the median zone could partly compete with the distal zone, at least in some genotypes, through its flowering/fruiting potential and crop load leading to ealier growth cessation. This mechanism strongly affects short shoot longevity and the maintenance of a minimal shoot length appears crucial to avoid short shoot mortality and alternate bearing.
Supporting information {#sec019}
======================
###### Monthly maximum, minimum and mean temperature as well as the monthly amount of rainfall during the shoot development in 2010 and 2011.
(TIF)
######
Click here for additional data file.
###### Three-years-old branch of cv 'Velkopavlovická', clone VP-LE-12/2 spring 2011 \[[@pone.0235347.ref037]\].
(TIF)
######
Click here for additional data file.
###### Scheme of branching organization and sampling of annual shoots for model estimation.
(TIF)
######
Click here for additional data file.
###### Number of shoots and minimum-maximum number of metamers (within the brackets) per shoot type (according to particular length class, i.e. SS, MS and LS), genotype and year.
(DOCX)
######
Click here for additional data file.
cv/cvs
: cultivar/cultivars
HSMC
: Hidden semi-Markov chains
LS
: long shoot above 10 cm
MS
: medium shoots from 2.1--10 cm
SS
: short shoot up to 2 cm
VP
: Velkopavlovická
[^1]: **Competing Interests:**The authors declare that they have no competing interest.
|
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"pile_set_name": "PubMed Central"
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