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[Hypertension induced by adrenocorticotropin (ACTH)].
Studies of ACTH-induced hypertension in sheep have enabled the hypertensinogenic actions of steroid hormones to be separated from their classical glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid actions. In man ACTH produces systolic hypertension which can be reproduced by infusion of cortisol, but not deoxycorticosterone, at rates appropriate for conditions of ACTH stimulation. Whether steroids raise blood pressure in man by a hypertensinogenic action distinct from their glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid activities remains to be determined.
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2023-11-28T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/9873
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Q:
The definition of a normal subgroup
There are a whole bunch of equivalent definitions of a normal subgroup. Is it logically sound (with respect to the usual definitions) to include as a definition of normal, "$N$ is the kernel of some homomorphism $f$"?
A:
It's logically sound.
Let $G$ be group, $N$ a normal subgroup of $G$.
$N$ is the kernel of the canonical homomorphism $G \rightarrow G/N$.
Conversely let $f\colon G \rightarrow G'$ be a group homomorphism.
$Ker(f)$ is a normal subgroup of $G$.
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2023-10-22T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/2607
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Both Kawhi Leonard trades will always be remembered (Photos via Twitter)
As the 2010s come to a close, the San Antonio Spurs have enjoyed a remarkable amount of success this decade. However, with the start of the next decade looming, they will be hard pressed to replicate it.
The front office — consisting of RC Buford, Gregg Popovich and new GM Brian Wright — deserves a lot of credit for the past success. That said, they can’t escape the blame for the bad moves.
The past few years haven’t been as well managed as the first several seasons of the decade. The team has suffered as a result. Several decisions have led to varying levels of failure — and a future than is uncertain.
5. The Nikola Milutinov Situation
While the Spurs 2015 offseason was highly successful, there was a misstep that occurred before free agency even began. The Spurs drafted Nikola Milutinov with the 26th pick in the draft. Five seasons later, he has yet to play a game for the Spurs.
It’s clear that Milutinov was partly selected because he was willing to stay overseas for at least a season, as the goal for that offseason was to preserve cap space in order to sign LaMarcus Aldridge to a max contract.
The salary cap rose several million more than the initial projections, however. It was indeed possible that both Aldridge, Kawhi Leonard and the salary of the 26th pick would’ve fit under the salary cap. Players such as Larry Nance Jr, Kevon Looney, Montrezl Harrell and Josh Richardson were available had the front office decided against the draft-and-stash route.
Milutinov is nearly 25 and in the final season of his contract with Olympiacos. He’s turned into a solid center, averaging 11.1 points and 9.3 rebounds in 26.3 minutes per game in EuroLeague.
Should he finally join the Spurs next season, he will no longer bound to the rookie scale salary structure. That means that Milutinov could ask for significantly more than what most centers are worth in the NBA. As he’s become a top player in Europe, there’s little incentive for him to come over if the Spurs don’t offer a competitive salary.
There are also overlap concerns with Jakob Poeltl, who is both younger and a proven NBA center. Milutinov is an excellent finisher and a strong rebounder but he’s not as mobile as Poeltl, so he may struggle to defend out on the perimeter.
San Antonio may be better off re-signing Poeltl, signing a center in free agency or seeing if Chimezie Metu can develop further. It’s looking increasingly likely that the Spurs wasted a first round pick.
4. The 2017 Offseason
Following consecutive 60-win seasons and a Western Conference Finals run, the Spurs had a chance to build upon their success. San Antonio did the opposite, however, with a series of poor moves in the summer of 2017.
The Spurs replaced the successful pairing of David Lee and Dewayne Dedmon by re-signing Pau Gasol and signing Joffrey Lauvergne. Gasol’s three-year, $48 million deal, with $39 million guaranteed, marked a drastic overpay for a 37-year-old center.
It’s possible that the contract was a result of the Spurs returning the favor for Gasol opting out of his $16 million player option. The goal was to pursue other free agents — but the Spurs struck out. In any case, what resulted was a wildly overpriced contract for Gasol. The deal was made worse when considering he wasn’t significantly better than Lee or Dedmon.
Buford stated that “we never envisioned that he (Lauvergne) would become available.” It quickly became apparent why he was available. Lauvergne struggled early, on both ends, and was out of the rotation by January. Even with only two other big men on the roster, Lauvergne remained in the dog house. After the season, he (luckily) declined his player-option and signed with a team in EuroLeague.
Also at the start of the 2017 offseason, Patty Mills signed with a four-year, $50 million deal. The contract has become polarizing, with some viewing it as an overpay and others viewing it as a worthwhile investment for a top-flight bench player and a team leader. With Mills’ solid play, and yearly raises to the salary cap, the deal may fall somewhere in the middle now. Still, re-signing Mills felt more like a fallback option than the main goal. There were rumors of Chris Paul or even Mike Conley being linked to the Spurs.
Brandon Paul was signed as a potential 3-and-D wing. Paul essentially replaced Jonathan Simmons, who the Spurs let walk after a solid postseason performance. While letting Simmons sign elsewhere worked out, Paul didn’t. He never shot the ball well enough to fill a role on a team that desperately needed shooting.
The Spurs did draft Derrick White and signed Rudy Gay in the same offseason, preventing it from being a complete disaster. However, with Kevin Durant joining Golden State and Chris Paul joining up with James Harden, the lackluster offseason likely didn’t sit well with Kawhi Leonard.
3. The Davis Bertans Trade
San Antonio traded Davis Bertans to the Washington Wizards as part of a three-team deal that also included the Brooklyn Nets trading DeMarre Carroll to the Spurs. The trade allowed for the Spurs to preserve their mid-level exception and sign Marcus Morris. That, of course, never happened and what resulted was a mess. Bertans is currently having a career-year with the Wizards while Carroll is chained to the bench with the Spurs.
Morris deserves plenty of blame for going back on his word, as well as the pettiness of the New York Knicks for pursuing him. Unfortunately for the Spurs, Morris is having a career year for the Knicks, averaging 18.7 points, while shooting 47.2% on 5.9 three-pointers per game.
In hindsight, it’s also fair to blame San Antonio for not fully utilizing Bertans. He’s been fully unleashed in Washington — taking more three-pointers per game than in each of the last two seasons combined. At 44.7%, Bertans is shooting a career-high on threes, along with a scoring average of 15.6 points per game. Bertans never had that freedom in San Antonio, despite his clear positive impact on the Spurs offense.
Getting both Morris and Carroll was meant to bolster the Spurs defense, after finishing 20th last season, as well as add two high volume three-point shooters. Instead, San Antonio got only Carroll, who has barely played thus far.
Trey Lyles was signed to try and fill the void left by the Bertans trade and Morris not signing — but the results have been mixed. Lyles has flashed some utility but is currently shooting below league average from three-point range.
2. The Richard Jefferson Contract
Richard Jefferson — then an athletic, high-scoring wing — was traded to the Spurs for the expiring deals of Bruce Bowen, Fabricio Oberto and Kurt Thomas. There were high expectations for the 29-year-old Jefferson, who was supposed to help San Antonio extend their title window. It didn’t exactly work out that way.
He struggled to fit in playing alongside Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker — and was essentially a fourth option. Playing without the ball in his hands, Jefferson was relegated to spotting up. Add in inconsistent defense and an underwhelming playoff performance, and Jefferson’s first season with the Spurs went about as poorly as could’ve been expected.
Despite that, Jefferson and the Spurs came to an agreement on a new four-year, $39 million deal. While Jefferson worked hard to improve his three-point shot, shooting over 40% in the final season and a half of his Spurs career, he never fit in and was ultimately sent packing.
With the emergence of Kawhi Leonard, Richard Jefferson became expendable and was traded along with a first-round pick to Golden State for Stephen Jackson. The move allowed for Leonard to become a full-time starter, however the move cost the team a first rounder.
The pick ultimately ended up being the 30th pick. Then again, San Antonio lost out on several potential players as a result of re-signing an ill-fitting player. Players drafted in the second round that year include Draymond Green, Khris Middleton, Jae Crowder and Will Barton.
1. The Kawhi Leonard Trade
The Spurs-Raptors trade is, far and away, the worst front office decision of the decade for the Spurs. Leonard demanded a trade in the summer of 2018, forcing San Antonio’s hand and limiting their options. It was clear that Leonard wanted to play in L.A. and even clearer that the Spurs didn’t want to send him there. That decision appears to have hurt the Spurs in the long run.
According to reports, the Clippers were willing to move Tobias Harris as well the 14th and/or 15th pick in a package for Leonard. Boston reportedly offered as many as three first rounders, while the Lakers reportedly offered Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and picks.
Ultimately, the Spurs settled on Toronto’s package of DeMar DeRozan, a first round pick and Jakob Poeltl. Initially, it was rumored that Gasol would be in the deal. Had that been the case then it would’ve been a significantly better deal for the Spurs. In in the end, the Spurs traded Danny Green instead of Gasol.
DeRozan’s fit with the Spurs would’ve been far better playing alongside Derrick White and Danny Green in the starting lineup. Having two above average defenders on the perimeter would’ve allowed for DeRozan to hide more easily on defense.
Had that been the case, DeRozan’s biggest weakness would’ve been minimized. Instead, Green had an excellent season in Toronto, playing outstanding defense while shooting a career-high 45.5% on three-pointers.
Poeltl became a solid rotation player (and a possible future starter) while Keldon Johnson, the player selected with the Raptors’ pick, shows promise. DeRozan has lived up to his reputation as a very talented but deeply flawed player. Averaging 21.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists, DeRozan has struggled to shoot threes and struggled to play winning basketball in his 105 games in San Antonio.
Making the Raptors deal has led directly to the mediocrity that the Spurs find themselves in. Pairing Aldridge and DeRozan together was a poor decision, guaranteeing the Spurs would have spacing issues and thus limiting the types of players that can play alongside them.
San Antonio ranks 15th in offense, 22nd in defense and dead last in three-pointers attempted en route to a 12-17 record. DeRozan shares blame for all three categories. The front office will have their work cut out for them trying to right the ship heading into the 2020s.
In the end, the decade’s best trade and worst trade both involved Kawhi Leonard. The trade to acquire Leonard propelled the Spurs back into into title contention. Unfortunately, the trade that sent Leonard away ensured that San Antonio wouldn’t compete for a championship in the near future.
|
2024-04-24T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/9066
|
NtRING1, putative RING-finger E3 ligase protein, is a positive regulator of the early stages of elicitin-induced HR in tobacco.
NtRING1 is a RING-finger protein with a putative E3 ligase activity. NtRING1 regulates HR establishment against different pathogens. Loss-/gain-of-function of NtRING1 altered early stages of HR phenotype establishment. Plant defence responses against pathogens often involve the restriction of pathogens by inducing a hypersensitive response (HR). cDNA clones DD11-39, DD38-11 and DD34-26 were previously obtained from a differential screen aimed at characterising tobacco genes with an elicitin-induced HR-specific pattern of expression. Our precedent observations suggested that DD11-39, DD38-11 and DD34-26 might play roles in the HR establishment. Only for DD11-39 a full-length cDNA sequence was obtained and the corresponding protein encoded for a type-HC RING-finger/putative E3 ligase protein which we termed NtRING1. The expression of NtRING1 was upregulated upon HR induction by elicitin, Ralstonia solanacearum, or tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) in tobacco. Silencing of NtRING1 remarkably delayed the establishment of elicitin-induced HR in tobacco as well as the expression of different early induction genes in tissues undergoing HR. Accordingly, transient overexpression of NtRING1 accelerated the HR launching upon elicitin treatment. Taking together, our data suggests that NtRING1 plays a functional role in the early establishment of HR.
|
2023-11-15T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/4914
|
One of the suspects worked with the fire department's youth program
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Frank Meyer, of West Haven, and Brett Bartolotta, of Cavendish, Vt., were arraigned in Windsor County Court in Vermont Thursday. They were both affiliated with the West Haven Fire Department.
Updated at 6:50 AM CST on Friday, Mar 1, 2013
A current and former firefighter from the West Haven Fire Department were arrested, accused of forcing a 12 year-old boy into sex slavery in Vermont until he was 25, according to a spokesman for the West Haven Police Department.
Vermont State Police arrested Frank Meyer, 39, and Brett Bartolotta, 42, in Ludlow, Vermont on Wednesday after a sting operation in which the victim wore a wire.
Police said the firefighters bribed the boy with money and gifts since 2001 to get him to perform sexual favors.
The victim had been in a sexual relationship with the two men for the past 12 years, police said.
Meyer is currently a volunteer firefighter for the West Haven Fire Department at Engine 23 and a 911 dispatcher for the city of West Haven, Fire Chief James O'Brien said.
He has also been involved with the explorer program, a department program for youths and photos online show him standing in front of Explorer Post 3.
The Engine 23 company has been shut down as a precaution, officials said.
Bartolotta was a former volunteer firefighter for the department several years ago and lives in Cavendish, Vermont, according to O'Brien said.
Meyers and Bartolotta are charged with aggravated sexual assault and slave trafficking. Their bail is set at $50,000 and both are being held.
Joseph Michael Carilli, 55 of Coventry, the department’s training officer, was charged with sexual assault in the second degree and risk of injury to a minor. No court records are available on Carilli's next court date.
Joe Fragoso, 35 of Coventry, a second lieutenant, was charged with second-degree sexual assault.
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2023-10-27T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/8212
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Top Day Turning To Night Quotes
Favorite Day Turning To Night Quotes
1. "For it was Saturday night, the best and bingiest glad-time of the week, one of the fifty-two holidays in the slow-turning Big Wheel of the year, a violent preamble to a prostrate Sabbath. Piled up passions were exploded on Saturday night, and the effect of a week's monotonous graft in the factory was swilled out of your system in a burst of goodwill. You followed the motto of 'be drunk and be happy,' kept your crafty arms around female waists, and felt the beer going beneficially down into the elastic capacity of your guts."Author: Alan Sillitoe
2. "Burnout is grist to the mill. I write every day, for most of the day, so it's just about turning into metaphor whatever's going on in my life, in the world, and in my head. Every nightmare, every moment of grief or joy or failure, is a moment I can convert into cash via words."Author: Grant Morrison
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2024-02-09T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/6659
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1. Introduction {#sec1-sensors-20-02160}
===============
There are many devices participating in wireless communications that are constrained in nature, for instance, sensors from wireless body area networks (WBANs), sensors and actuators in smart homes, IoT (Internet of things) devices in Industrial IoT (IIoT), Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, smart meters, etc. \[[@B1-sensors-20-02160]\]. In all these settings, in order to ensure secure communication, a common shared key should be first negotiated between the device and a more powerful entity like gateway or server. During this key agreement protocol, it is important to also offer anonymity and unlinkability as otherwise location tracking of a particular device becomes possible and thus might lead to privacy intrusion, especially when the device is linked to a certain user like in WBANs. Moreover, as these devices are mostly battery powered, it is very important to handle the process as efficiently as possible in order to extend the battery life as long as possible. Current proposals in literature on key agreement protocols are based on hash operations, symmetric key, and public key based mechanisms. Hash operations are in general the most efficient \[[@B2-sensors-20-02160]\] and, as we aim for the most efficient approach, we limit our proposed protocols to only hash based constructions and investigate new methods to decrease this number of hash operations. In particular, we exploit the nice feature of the variable output length of the Keccak hash function, which has been standardized in 2015 as the new hash function SHA3. At the moment, this hash function has not the best performance compared to other hash functions in literature, but it has a well proven security strength and the first implementations on chip are already available on the market, resulting in a better overall performance.
We propose two key agreement protocols. In the first protocol, key material is explicitly stored on the server side, resulting in high storage requirements and a lot of overhead for each new registration of device. In addition, during the protocol run, the server needs to look up the particular device into its database in order to find the corresponding key material, which limits the scalability of the system. In the second protocol, there is no storage required on the server side and still the same security features can be obtained, but at some additional communication and computation cost as now the lengths of the transmitted messages are longer and there is one additional hash operation required. In this scheme, the scalability is much larger as now the server only needs to verify if the client belongs to the list of revoked devices, which is typically much shorter compared to the whole set of registered devices. The protocol is proven in the random oracle model, where the hash function is replaced by a random oracle. This type of proof is typically used when no weaker assumptions on the cryptographic hash can be made.
The paper is outlined as follows. In [Section 2](#sec2-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="sec"}, we give an overview of relevant related work. [Section 3](#sec3-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="sec"} deals with preliminaries. In [Section 4](#sec4-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="sec"}, we present our protocols. The security strength of both protocols, together with a comparison with other related protocols in literature, is discussed in [Section 5](#sec5-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="sec"}. The comparison in performance between our proposed protocols and related work is provided in [Section 6](#sec6-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="sec"}. Finally, we end the paper with some conclusions in [Section 7](#sec7-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="sec"}.
2. Related Work {#sec2-sensors-20-02160}
===============
There is a huge amount of papers on authentication and key agreement protocols in a client--server based architecture, both for general settings and application specific domains. In order to limit the related work, we focus on the most recently proposed symmetric key based protocols, consisting of two types of devices able to operate without user interaction. Note that also many schemes exist in literature where password and biometrics related information is required in order to get access to the secret information stored in the device \[[@B3-sensors-20-02160],[@B4-sensors-20-02160]\].
In the domain of smart home automation, the scheme of \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160]\] in 2017 was the first to enable mutual authentication and key agreement between sensors on the one hand and home gateway on the other hand in an anonymous way and without linkability using solely symmetric key based operations. The system is based on asymmetric key distribution between sensors and home gateway in the scheme. The scheme is not resistant against known session temporary specific information because the whole security on the sensor side depends on the knowledge of the random value generated in the beginning of the protocol. It requires the usage of hash functions, symmetric key encryptions, and xor operations.
In the area of Industrial IoT applications, we can distinguish the recent work of \[[@B6-sensors-20-02160]\] in which a lightweight authentication and key distribution (LAKD) scheme has been proposed built of only hash functions, xoring, addition, and subtraction. Their work was inspired on the protocol of \[[@B7-sensors-20-02160]\] in which several weaknesses have been identified by \[[@B8-sensors-20-02160],[@B9-sensors-20-02160],[@B10-sensors-20-02160]\], being a lack of protection against tracking, offline identity guessing, impersonation, and replay attacks. Their scheme \[[@B6-sensors-20-02160]\] consists of four communication phases and a lot of hash calls should be made at the sensor node. It is not clear in their protocol how the gateway remains synchronized with the sensor node and how it can resist synchronization attacks. They show that their scheme outperforms other related work in literature \[[@B11-sensors-20-02160],[@B12-sensors-20-02160],[@B13-sensors-20-02160],[@B14-sensors-20-02160]\] with respect to computational performance. Only \[[@B7-sensors-20-02160]\] is slightly more efficient. In addition, the communication cost of \[[@B6-sensors-20-02160]\] is still lower compared to \[[@B12-sensors-20-02160],[@B13-sensors-20-02160],[@B14-sensors-20-02160]\], but slightly higher than \[[@B7-sensors-20-02160],[@B11-sensors-20-02160],[@B14-sensors-20-02160]\]. However, it has also been clearly shown that all of the schemes \[[@B7-sensors-20-02160],[@B11-sensors-20-02160],[@B12-sensors-20-02160],[@B13-sensors-20-02160],[@B14-sensors-20-02160]\] suffer significant weaknesses with respect to attacks like for instance tracking attack \[[@B7-sensors-20-02160],[@B11-sensors-20-02160],[@B13-sensors-20-02160],[@B14-sensors-20-02160]\], offline identity guessing attack \[[@B7-sensors-20-02160],[@B11-sensors-20-02160],[@B12-sensors-20-02160],[@B14-sensors-20-02160]\], impersonation attack \[[@B7-sensors-20-02160],[@B14-sensors-20-02160]\], denial of service attack \[[@B7-sensors-20-02160],[@B11-sensors-20-02160],[@B12-sensors-20-02160],[@B13-sensors-20-02160],[@B14-sensors-20-02160]\], etc.
In \[[@B15-sensors-20-02160]\], another privacy enabled authentication and key agreement scheme for wearable sensors in wireless body area networks has been proposed, consisting of only xor and hash operations. The scheme is an improvement of \[[@B16-sensors-20-02160]\] in which offline identity guessing, node impersonation, and hub node spoofing attacks have been identified. However, the scheme is not resistant against known session temporary specific information as if the random generated data $r_{n}$ of the tag is known, the identity can be derived of the tag. If the session data of the reader is also retrieved, the whole system is broken. The scheme consists of three hash calls at the side of the sensor. They show that their scheme is more performant with respect to other related schemes in literature \[[@B16-sensors-20-02160],[@B17-sensors-20-02160],[@B18-sensors-20-02160],[@B19-sensors-20-02160]\]. Only the scheme of \[[@B20-sensors-20-02160]\] is more performant but does not offer anonymity and and unlinkability and is not resistant against insider and impersonation attacks. In addition, the scheme of \[[@B18-sensors-20-02160]\] also offers no anonymity and unlinkability. The scheme of \[[@B17-sensors-20-02160]\] suffers from insider attacks.
A recent authentication and key agreement scheme for RFID use cases has been proposed in \[[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\], in which an improvement is made on \[[@B22-sensors-20-02160]\] as it has been shown to not be resistant against collision, denial of service, and stolen verifier attacks. However, their scheme is also not resistant against known session temporary attacks and synchronization attacks. In addition, replay attacks are also possible as the timestamp in the first message is not included in the verification hash of the message and thus can be easily modified and replayed. They compare their scheme with \[[@B23-sensors-20-02160],[@B24-sensors-20-02160],[@B25-sensors-20-02160],[@B26-sensors-20-02160]\] and find that their scheme outperforms the schemes satisfying anonymity \[[@B22-sensors-20-02160],[@B25-sensors-20-02160]\] and are slightly worse than the schemes without anonymity \[[@B23-sensors-20-02160],[@B24-sensors-20-02160],[@B26-sensors-20-02160]\]. Moreover, in all these schemes, several security related problems have been identified.
In order to finally compare our scheme with related work, we will thus focus on the schemes of \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160],[@B6-sensors-20-02160],[@B15-sensors-20-02160],[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\], which represent the latest state-of-the art in the field satisfying the most relevant security features and have already a very good efficiency compared to other work in their respectively application fields.
3. Preliminaries {#sec3-sensors-20-02160}
================
We first discuss the security architecture, attack model, and security features addressed in this scheme. Then, we shortly describe the Keccak hash function and the corresponding security strength that it offers.
3.1. Security Architecture {#sec3dot1-sensors-20-02160}
--------------------------
The set-up of the system is very simple and consists solely of three entities, being a service provider, a more constrained client, being typically the sensor and a more powerful server being responsible for the authentication. The service provider plays only a role in the initialization phase of the process. The actual authentication and key agreement is between the last two entities. The server is typically split up in two entities with a secure channel in between. One part is responsible for the handling of the authentication requests and the other part for the storage. To ease the notations and explanations, we consider them here as one entity. Note that we define a generic scheme such that, in our scheme, the client can be any type of sensor or even RFID tag, depending on the use case of smart home, industrial IoT, etc., as mentioned before in related work. From now on, we call it sensor and server, respectively.
3.2. Attack Model and Security Features {#sec3dot2-sensors-20-02160}
---------------------------------------
First of all, we consider the service provider, responsible for the initial sharing of key material between server and sensor, to be completely honest and trustworthy. Moreover, after the initialization process, it removes all generated data out of its memory. Therefore, the initialization process is not included in the security analysis.
### 3.2.1. Attack Model {#sec3dot2dot1-sensors-20-02160}
The execution of attacks by the adversary is limited to the communication channel between sensor and server. We consider an adversary $\mathcal{A}$ that satisfies the following listed characteristics. For each characteristic, the type of attack linked to it is also mentioned.
- The adversary can be a passive or active attacker, and thus is able to listen and collect data on the one hand or actively intercept, modify, or replay data on the other hand. As a consequence, protection should be obtained against replay, impersonation, man-in-the-middle, desynchronization, and denial of service attacks.
- The attacker is able to get access to the session specific variables by means of timing attacks, both on the server and sensor sides. As a consequence, protection must be offered against the known session specific temporary information attack.
- The adversary can capture any sensor and is able to retrieve the data stored on the sensor by means of power analysis techniques. Consequently, perfect forward secrecy is a very important security feature to be addressed since it avoids the attacker to be able to reveal the previously generated session keys.
### 3.2.2. Assumptions {#sec3dot2dot2-sensors-20-02160}
Note that we do not consider an adversary to get access to the secret key data of the server. This is a reasonable assumption as the server typically is more powerful to be able to offer strong protection. However, in the first protocol with storage, the amount of data to protect is much larger, compared to the second protocol, where the secret key material is only presented by one parameter.
### 3.2.3. Goals of the Attacker/Security Features {#sec3dot2dot3-sensors-20-02160}
As the ultimate goal of the attacker is to reveal the common shared key generated in the protocol, it is important to construct this key through a mutual authenticated process, where both server and sensor participate in the construction.
The attacker can also be interested in revealing the identity of the sensor in order to provide for instance location tracking of its owner. Therefore, in the latest generation of the schemes, anonymity and unlinkability are two other security features which are often included. In particular, unlinkability avoids activity tracking of its users and is closely related to anonymity.
Furthermore, we also show that our proposed protocols offer perfect forward secrecy and resistance against replay, desynchronization, denial of service, and specific temporary information attacks. Moreover, they do not need synchronized clocks to obtain these features.
3.3. SHA3-Keccak {#sec3dot3-sensors-20-02160}
----------------
In our scheme, we will limit the usage of operations to xor operations and hashing. For the hash function, we make use of the latest SHA3 standard from 2015 and more in particular the underlying Keccak scheme \[[@B27-sensors-20-02160]\]. SHA3 has been developed in the course of an open call for new hash functions, launched by NIST, due to the fact that the previous variant SHA1 was broken. However, the other previous variant SHA2 is not yet broken, and SHA3 has the main strength that it is open source and the complete design rationale is specified, in contrast to SHA2 which was developed behind closed doors at NSA.
Keccak is based on the interesting concept of sponge construction introduced by its inventors \[[@B28-sensors-20-02160]\]. In this type of construction, any amount of data are first absorbed into the sponge, and then any amount of data are squeezed out without loss in security strength. This last feature in particular will be exploited in our scheme. [Figure 1](#sensors-20-02160-f001){ref-type="fig"} illustrates the process in the sponge construction.
One of the standardized versions is the SHAKE128$\left( M,d \right)$ function on message *M* with variable input size and variable output size *d*. It has been shown that this function has a resistance of at least min$\left( 2^{d/2},128 \right)$ on collision attacks, preimage, and second preimage attacks. As a consequence, even if the output length is larger than 256, the resistance will still be at least 128 bits. Note that the security strength of a hash function is independent of the input length *M*. For ease of notation, we denote SHAKE128$\left( M,d \right)$ as $H\left( M \right)$.
4. Proposed Protocol {#sec4-sensors-20-02160}
====================
We propose two protocols with similar underlying structure and building blocks. The first one requires permanent storage and update of the key material on the server side, while the second one does not need any storage of individual key material but has a slightly higher communication cost. We distinguish in both protocols an initialization phase and an actual authentication and key agreement phase of the session key $SK$. Both protocols are also illustrated in [Figure 2](#sensors-20-02160-f002){ref-type="fig"} and [Figure 3](#sensors-20-02160-f003){ref-type="fig"}.
4.1. With Storage {#sec4dot1-sensors-20-02160}
-----------------
### 4.1.1. Initialization Phase {#sec4dot1dot1-sensors-20-02160}
In this phase, each sensor receives an identity $ID_{n}$ and a secret key $K_{n}$. These values are stored on the sensor. The index *n* refers to the *n*-th update of identity and key related material. In the database at the server's side, there are four columns containing the values corresponding with the parameters $ID_{n},K_{n},ID_{n + 1},K_{n + 1}$. For each new registration of the sensor at the server, the first two columns are completed. The other columns are completed after the first successful authentication and key agreement phase.
### 4.1.2. Authentication and Key Agreement Phase {#sec4dot1dot2-sensors-20-02160}
To start the process, the sensor sends a triggering request to the server. This is replied by the server with a Hello message, containing a random value $R_{1}$. Note that, in the context of RFID based schemes, the server (reader) starts the communication and this triggering event is not required.
Upon reception of this value, the sensor first derives a new random value $R_{2}$ and computes $$\begin{array}{rcl}
{H\left( R_{1},R_{2},ID_{n},K_{n} \right)} & = & \left( c_{1},c_{2},c_{3},c_{4},c_{5} \right) \\
\end{array}$$ The sensor then stores these values temporary in its memory. Next, it sends $M_{1} = \left\{ ID_{n},R_{2},c_{3} \right\}$ to the server.
After receiving $M_{1}$, the server checks the existence of $ID_{n}$ in its database in the columns of $ID_{n}$ or $ID_{n + 1}$. If so, it takes the corresponding variable $K_{n}^{*}$, being either $K_{n}$ or $K_{n + 1}$ in order to also compute $$\begin{array}{rcl}
{H\left( R_{1},R_{2},ID_{n},K_{n}^{*} \right)} & = & \left( c_{1}^{*},c_{2}^{*},c_{3}^{*},c_{4}^{*},c_{5}^{*} \right) \\
\end{array}$$
There are now three options.
- If $c_{3}^{*} = c_{3}$ and $ID_{n}^{*} = ID_{n}$, the table contents are updated as follows: $\left. ID_{n + 1}\leftarrow ID_{n},K_{n + 1}\leftarrow K_{n},ID_{n}\leftarrow c_{1}^{*},K_{n}\leftarrow c_{2}^{*} \right.$. The session key is defined as $SK = c_{4}^{*} \oplus c_{5}^{*}$. The server sends $c_{4}^{*}$ to the sensor.
- If $c_{3}^{*} = c_{3}$ and $ID_{n}^{*} = ID_{n + 1}$, only the following table contents need to be updated $\left. ID_{n}\leftarrow c_{1}^{*},K_{n}\leftarrow c_{2}^{*} \right.$ and $SK = c_{4}^{*} \oplus c_{5}^{*}$. The server sends $c_{4}^{*}$ to the sensor.
- If $c_{3}^{*}$ is different from $c_{3}$, the server aborts the process.
When $c_{4}^{*}$ arrives at the sensor, it checks if this value corresponds with the stored value. If so, it also updates its key material $\left. ID_{n}\leftarrow c_{1},K_{n}\leftarrow c_{2} \right.$ and derives the session key as $SK = c_{4} \oplus c_{5}$.
4.2. Without Storage {#sec4dot2-sensors-20-02160}
--------------------
### 4.2.1. Initialization Phase {#sec4dot2dot1-sensors-20-02160}
In this scheme, the server only stores a list of revoked sensors $\left( ID_{n} \right)_{R}$ with static identity $ID_{n}$. The server possesses a master key $K_{m}$.
The sensor needs to store the parameters $a_{n},b_{n},ID_{n},N$. The parameter $a_{n}$ represents a random nonce and is unique for each sensor. The parameter $b_{n} = H\left( a_{n},K_{m} \right) = \left( b_{n1},b_{n2} \right)$ is thus split up into two parts. Finally, the fixed identity of each sensor is defined by $ID_{n} = H\left( N,K_{m} \right)$, with *N* a unique nonce and $K_{m}$ the master key of the server.
### 4.2.2. Authentication and Key Agreement Phase {#sec4dot2dot2-sensors-20-02160}
The protocol starts again with a Hello message from the server containing the random value $R_{1}$ after a triggering request of the sensor.
Next, the sensor chooses its own random value $R_{2}$ and defines $R_{2}^{n} = \left( N,R_{2} \right)$. It computes $d_{1} = \left( d_{1,1},d_{1,2} \right) = R_{2}^{n} \oplus b_{n} = \left( N \oplus b_{n1},R_{2} \oplus b_{n2} \right)$ and $$\begin{array}{rcl}
{H\left( a_{n},ID_{n},R_{1},R_{2} \right)} & = & \left( c_{1},c_{2},c_{3},c_{4},c_{5} \right) \\
\end{array}$$ The values $\left( c_{1},c_{2},c_{3},c_{4},c_{5} \right)$ are stored in the sensor before sending $M_{1} = \left\{ a_{n},d_{1},c_{3} \right\}$ to the server.
The server first defines $H\left( a_{n},K_{m} \right) = b_{n}^{*}$ and derives from $d_{1}$ both $N^{*},R_{2}^{*}$, resulting also in $ID_{n}^{*} = H\left( N^{*},K_{m} \right)$. Then, the server checks the freshness of $R_{2}^{*}$. For instance, suppose that it uses in a given interval the same $R_{1}$, then all received values $R_{2}^{*}$ should be fresh. Next, if $ID_{n}^{*}$ does not belong to the list of revoked sensors, the process continues; otherwise, the protocol stops. Next, the server can also compute $$\begin{array}{rcl}
{H\left( a_{n},ID_{n}^{*},R_{1},R_{2}^{*} \right)} & = & \left( c_{1}^{*},c_{2}^{*},c_{3}^{*},c_{4}^{*},c_{5}^{*} \right) \\
\end{array}$$ There are now two possibilities. In case $c_{3} \neq c_{3}^{*}$, the server aborts the process. Otherwise, the server defines $$\begin{array}{rcl}
{SK} & = & c_{2}^{*} \\
b_{n + 1} & = & {\left( b_{n + 1,1},b_{n + 1,2} \right) = H\left( c_{1}^{*},K_{m} \right)} \\
d_{2} & = & {\left( d_{2,1},d_{2,2} \right) = \left( b_{n + 1,1} \oplus c_{4}^{*},b_{n + 1,2} \oplus c_{5}^{*} \right)} \\
d_{3} & = & {H\left( b_{n + 1},c_{1}^{*},c_{2}^{*} \right)} \\
\end{array}$$ The message $M_{2} = \left\{ d_{2},d_{3} \right\}$ is sent to the sensor.
Finally, the sensor derives $\left. b_{n}\leftarrow\left( d_{2,1} \oplus c_{4}^{*},d_{2,2} \oplus c_{5}^{*} \right) \right.$ using the stored values $\left( c_{1},c_{2},c_{3},c_{4},c_{5} \right)$. Next, it checks the validity of $d_{3}$ by computing $H\left( b_{n + 1},c_{1}^{*},c_{2}^{*} \right)$. If not correct, it aborts the process. Otherwise, the variable $\left. a_{n}\leftarrow c_{1} \right.$ is updated and the common shared secret key $SK = c_{2}$.
Note that we kept the same flow for both protocols in order to be able to easily switch from one to another and to use the same type of proof structure. It is very easy to reshape the protocol into a 2-phase protocol using similar ideas.
5. Security Evaluation {#sec5-sensors-20-02160}
======================
First of all, we give a formal proof of the protocol under the random oracle model for the adversary $\mathcal{A}$ defined in [Section 3](#sec3-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="sec"}. Based on this proof, we discuss the design choice of the lengths of the parameters in order to obtain a security strength of 128 bits. Then, we define the strength of both protocols in an informal way with respect to the main security attacks and security features. Finally, we compare our protocol from a security point of view with respect to other related and recent protocols as mentioned in [Section 2](#sec2-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="sec"}.
5.1. Security Strength and Concrete Parameters {#sec5dot1-sensors-20-02160}
----------------------------------------------
Let us denote the minimum output length of the hash function by $n_{d}$ and the minimum output length of a variable by $n_{v}$. We now prove the security of our proposed protocols in the random oracle model, following the method described in \[[@B30-sensors-20-02160]\] and applied in e.g., \[[@B31-sensors-20-02160]\] with an adversary $\mathcal{A}$ as defined in [Section 3](#sec3-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="sec"}. We focus on the actual key agreement and not on the initialization phase, as we consider the service provider to be a fully trusted entity.
The participants *U* in the scheme are the Sensor T and server R on the one hand and a random oracle *O* on the other hand, i.e., $U = \left\{ R,T,O \right\}$. Taking into account the properties of the adversary, we assume that the attacker can run the following queries:Hash queries $H\left( m \right)$. If *m* already exists in the list $L_{H}$, the value $H\left( m \right)$ will be returned. Otherwise, a random value will be generated, added to the list $L_{H}$, and returned.Send queries. These queries simulate active attacks, where an adversary can modify the transmitted messages. As a result, a corresponding reply will be generated: -Send($0,R$). First, a random variable $R_{1}$ is chosen and sent to the sensor.-Send($R_{1}$,T). In addition, a random variable $R_{2}$ is chosen. A message $M_{1}$ containing the outcome of the hash function on the random data, identity and key related data and also information to identify the sensor and corresponding key material is generated and sent to the server. The outcome of the hash function is stored by the sensor.-Send($M_{1}$,R). The correctness of the message $M_{1}$ can be verified by checking the outcome of the hash value. For that, the server should look up or derive the identity related data of the sensor and the corresponding key material. If correct, the session key is defined. In the protocol without storage, also new identity related data are defined and masked in order to send it to the sensor. Finally, message $M_{2}$, based also on the output of the hash function derived in the previous step, is sent to the sensor.-Send($M_{2}$,T). The received values of $M_{2}$ are checked for correctness using the stored values of the hash function. If correct, the session key is also computed and the key agreement protocol has been successfully ended.Execute queries. These queries simulate the passive attacks, where an adversary can eavesdrop onto the channel and collect the transmitted messages. There are three different execute queries resulting from the first three send queries defined above.Session specific state reveal queries (SSReveal). According to the adversary model of $\mathcal{A}$, the attacker is able to retrieve session specific state information, derived by the T and R, respectively. For the protocol with storage, no more information already available from the execute queries, can be found in this way. For the protocol without storage, $R_{2}$ is revealed, since it is hidden in the variable $d_{1}$ of $M_{1}$.Corrupt queries. These queries give the secret key material of the entity as result and need to be added to prove the perfect forward security feature. Note that only Corrupt (T) is defined in the adversary model $\mathcal{A}$. As the service provider is considered to be a trusted entity and not included in the security model, there are no corrupt queries with regard to the service provider.Session key reveal query (SKReveal). In this query, the established symmetric SK between T,R is returned if it has been successfully generated.Test query. In this query, either the established SK or a random value is returned, dependent on the output $c = 1$ or $c = 0$ respectively of a flipped coin *c*. Note that the test query cannot be issued when SKReveal or corrupt queries have been executed.
In order to prove the semantic security of the scheme, we consider the following two definitions:The entities T and R are partners if they are able to successfully derive in a mutual authenticated way a common shared SK.The established shared secret key is said to be fresh if the SK has been established without SKReveal queries by the adversary or Corrupt queries of T.
The final goal of the adversary $\mathcal{A}$ is to successfully predict the outcome of the test query, defined above. Consequently, a successful attacker is able to distinguish the difference between a real secret session key and a random value. The advantage of the adversary $\mathcal{A}$ in breaking the semantic security of the proposed scheme equals to $\left. Adv\left( \mathcal{A} \right) = \middle| 2Pr\left\lbrack succ \right\rbrack\left. - 1 \right| \right.$, with $Pr\left( succ \right)$ being the probability that the adversary has success. As a result, we can say that the proposed protocols offer semantic security under the random oracle model for adversaries $\mathcal{A}$ if $Adv\left( \mathcal{A} \right) \leq \epsilon$, for any sufficiently small $\epsilon$ \>0.
In the proof below, we make use of the following difference lemma, defined in \[[@B32-sensors-20-02160]\].
*(Difference Lemma) Let $E_{1},E_{2}$ be the events of winning Game 1 and Game 2. Denote an error event by E, such that $E_{1}\left| \neg E \right.$ occurs if and only if $E_{2}\left| \neg E \right.$. Then, $\left| Pr \right.\left\lbrack E_{1} \right\rbrack - Pr\left\lbrack E_{2} \right\rbrack\left| \leq Pr \right.\left\lbrack E \right\rbrack$.*
*Let $\mathcal{A}$ be a polynomial time adversary against the semantic security, which makes a maximum of $q_{s}$ Send queries, $q_{e}$ Execute queries and $q_{h}$ Hash queries. The advantage of $\mathcal{A}$ is bounded by $Adv\left( \mathcal{A} \right) \leq \frac{O\left( q_{s} + q_{e} \right)^{2}}{2^{n_{v} + 1}} + \frac{O\left( q_{h} \right)^{2}}{2^{n_{d}}} + \frac{O\left( q_{s} \right)^{2}}{2^{n_{d} + 1}}$.*
We proof the theorem by means of game hopping \[[@B32-sensors-20-02160]\] and by applying Lemma 1. As a consequence, we exploit the fact that an attacker's success probability only increases by a negligible amount when moving between the games. Five games {GM0,GM1,GM2,GM3,GM4} are defined and their corresponding probability of the attacker winning the game is denoted by $succ_{i}$ for $0 \leq i \leq 4$. Game GM0. This is the original and real game defined in the semantic security framework and is defined as $$\begin{array}{r}
{\left. Adv\left( \mathcal{A} \right) = \middle| 2Pr \right.\left\lbrack succ_{0} \right\rbrack\left. - 1 \middle| . \right.} \\
\end{array}$$Game GM1. In GM1, the random oracle simulates the different queries and outputs the corresponding results in the lists. Following the definition of random oracle model, we have that $$\begin{array}{r}
{Pr\left\lbrack succ_{1} \right\rbrack = Pr\left\lbrack succ_{0} \right\rbrack.} \\
\end{array}$$Game GM2. In this game, all oracles are also simulated, but now with avoiding collisions in the output of the hash function and the selection of random values $R_{1},R_{2}$ among the different sessions. Consequently, due to the difference lemma and birthday attacks, it holds that $$\begin{array}{l}
{\left| Pr \right.\left\lbrack Succ_{2} \right\rbrack - Pr\left\lbrack Succ_{1} \right\rbrack\left| \leq \right.} \\
{\frac{O\left( q_{s} + q_{e} \right)^{2}}{2^{n_{v} + 1}} + \frac{O\left( q_{h} \right)^{2}}{2^{n_{d} + 1}}.} \\
\end{array}$$Game GM3. In this game, the adversary $\mathcal{A}$ is able to find the hash value ($c_{3}^{*}$ or $d_{3}$ for protocol with and without storage respectively) without input of the random oracle Send queries. In this case, the scheme is simply stopped. Consequently, GM2 and GM3 are indistinguishable, except when the T rejects this value. Thus, by applying the difference lemma, we have that $$\begin{array}{r}
{\left| Pr \right.\left\lbrack Succ_{3} \right\rbrack - Pr\left\lbrack Succ_{2} \right\rbrack\left| \leq \right.\frac{O\left( q_{s} \right)^{2}}{2^{n_{d} + 1}}.} \\
\end{array}$$Game GM4. In this game, we consider the specific adversary model in which either the session state variables (corresponding to SKReveal query) can be revealed or the secret variables (corresponding to Corrupt query) at T. The adversary can perform Execute and Hash queries in order to find the SK: -In the case of SKReveal(T) and SKReveal(R), the SK can still not be retrieved if the hash function is secure for collision and preimage attacks as it is constructed based on the output of the hash function, which includes both session state variables and secret key variables of both entities as input.-If Corrupt(T) is applied, the previously generated session keys cannot be retrieved as they require the secret key information, which are the input of a hash function with the new key material as output. Again, the usage of a hash function resistant for collision and preimage attacks avoids the success of this attack.Consequently, the difference between GM3 and GM4 is negligible as long as the hash function is secure for collision and preimage attacks. Therefore, $$\begin{array}{r}
{\left| Pr \right.\left\lbrack Succ_{4} \right\rbrack - Pr\left\lbrack Succ_{3} \right\rbrack\left| \leq \right.\frac{O\left( q_{h} \right)^{2}}{2^{n_{d} + 1}}.} \\
\end{array}$$ Finally, applying Lemma 1 on the games GM0, GM1, GM2, GM3, and GM4, taking into account Equations ([1](#FD1-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="disp-formula"}), ([2](#FD2-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="disp-formula"}), ([3](#FD3-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="disp-formula"}), and ([5](#FD5-sensors-20-02160){ref-type="disp-formula"}), results in the final proof of the theorem. □
*In order to obtain 128 bits of security in the protocol without storage, $\left| I \right.D_{n}\left| , \right|K_{n}\left| , \right|R_{1}\left| , \right|R_{2}\left| , \middle| SK \right| \geq 128$ bits and $|c_{3}\left| \geq 256 \right.$ bits.*
From Theorem 1, we should avoid collisions in the hash output and thus $|c_{3}\left| \geq 256 \right.$ bits. As also collisions in the random variables and resistance against exhaustive search should be offered, it follows that $\left| I \right.D_{n}\left| , \right|K_{n}\left| , \right|R_{1}\left| , \right|R_{2}\left| \geq 128 \right.$ bits. □
*In order to obtain 128-bit of security in the protocol with storage, $|K_{m}\left| , \right|R_{1}\left| , \right|R_{2}\left| , \middle| SK \middle| , \middle| N \middle| , \right|b_{n2}\left| , \right|d_{2,2}\left| \geq 128 \right.$ bits and $\left| I \right.D_{n}\left| , \right|b_{n}\left| , \right|d_{1}\left| , \right|c_{3}\left| , \right|d_{2}\left| , \right|d_{3}\left| , \right|b_{n1}\left| , \right|d_{2,1}\left| \geq 256 \right.$ bits.*
From Theorem 1, we should avoid collisions in the hash output and thus clarifies the restrictions on the sizes of $ID_{n},d_{1},c_{3},d_{3}$. Since we also need to protect against the session reveal attacks, it follows that $b_{n1},d_{2,1}$ should also both have the same restriction. □
The size of the other variables $K_{m},R_{1},R_{2},N,SK,b_{n2},d_{2,2}$ are chosen in such a way that they avoid collisions and exhaustive search and thus clarify the minimum size of 128 bits.
5.2. Informal Security Analysis {#sec5dot2-sensors-20-02160}
-------------------------------
[Table 1](#sensors-20-02160-t001){ref-type="table"} summarizes the security strength for both protocols with respect to the most important and relevant security features and attacks.
The protection against replay attacks, session specific temporary information attacks and denial of service attacks is similar as both protocols rely on the same building blocks and structure. In addition, in order to obtain mutual authentication, the strength of the Keccak protocol is exploited in the two protocols.
Dynamic identities of the sensor are used in both protocols to obtain anonymity and unlinkability. However, the process how to construct these identities is completely different in the two protocols. In the protocol with storage, a synchronized version needs to be stored and updated at the server side, and the sensor is able to update its key material independent of additional input of the server. In the protocol without storage, the identity of the sensor should be updated using additional data of the server as its master key is involved in the construction. Consequently, protection against desynchronization attacks is different for the two protocols. While this protection naturally follows from the derivation of the key material in the protocol without storage, it requires additional storage of the previous identity and key of the sensor at the server for the protocol with storage.
Both protocols offer perfect forward secrecy of the sensor, but not for the server. For the protocol without storage, only one parameter needs to be perfectly protected in order to avoid this attack. If this master key is revealed, all previous session keys and identities can be retrieved. In the protocol with storage, the devastating consequences are less as only at most two last session keys per sensor can be revealed, but it also requires the protection of the whole database containing this identity and secret key material of the sensors.
5.3. Comparison of Security Features of Different Protocols {#sec5dot3-sensors-20-02160}
-----------------------------------------------------------
[Table 2](#sensors-20-02160-t002){ref-type="table"} compares the two proposed security protocols, with and without storage on the server side, with the schemes proposed in \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160],[@B6-sensors-20-02160],[@B15-sensors-20-02160],[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\]. Therefore, we take into account the different security features mentioned in [Table 1](#sensors-20-02160-t001){ref-type="table"}. Consequently, from [Table 2](#sensors-20-02160-t002){ref-type="table"}, we can conclude that our proposed protocols are able to offer most of the required security features. The only feature that is not addressed is the perfect forward secrecy on the server side. The other schemes in literature without storage \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160],[@B15-sensors-20-02160]\] also do not satisfy this feature. However, in the schemes where the feature is addressed \[[@B6-sensors-20-02160],[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\], there is no protection against synchronization attacks. Note that recently, in \[[@B33-sensors-20-02160]\], a symmetric key based authentication scheme has been proposed which satisfies at the same time complete perfect forward secrecy and a solution for potential desynchronization problems. However, this scheme does not provide anonymity and consists of five phases with multiple hash functions.
In addition, we want to explicitly note that, for both protocols, there is no need for synchronized clocks on both sensor and server side in order to resist for replay or synchronization attacks. This is typically a very difficult requirement to realize in practice and in particular when constrained devices are involved.
6. Performance {#sec6-sensors-20-02160}
==============
In this section, we will discuss the efficiency of our protocol with respect to both computational and communicational costs and compare again with the related work of \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160],[@B6-sensors-20-02160],[@B15-sensors-20-02160],[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\].
For the computational complexity, we restrict the analysis to the most constrained device participating in the authentication and key agreement protocol, being the sensor. We also neglect xor operations and other low cost operations like concatenations, comparisons, splitting, etc, since their impact is negligible compared to the cost of a hash function and encryption operation. In all protocols in order to achieve mutual authentication, one random value should be generated on the sensor side. Therefore, we do not explicitly included this operation in [Table 3](#sensors-20-02160-t003){ref-type="table"}, summarizing the comparison of the performance of the different protocols. As a consequence, only the amount of hashes and encryptions/decryptions is taken into account. From [Table 3](#sensors-20-02160-t003){ref-type="table"}, we can conclude that our two proposed protocols have the lowest amount of hash functions and thus the lowest computational complexity, compared to state of the art related work. Only \[[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\] has the same amount as hash functions than our protocol without storage, but this protocol only offers limited security strength as shown in [Table 2](#sensors-20-02160-t002){ref-type="table"}.
To give an idea of the feasibility and performance of such hash operation on a device, we consider the performance results of \[[@B34-sensors-20-02160]\], where the efficiency of both SHA2 and SHA3 is analyzed on the MAXREFDES♯100 health sensor platform \[[@B35-sensors-20-02160]\], which uses the MAX32620 96 MHz ARM Cortex-M4F microcontroller consisting of 2 MB flash and 256 KB RAM. They measured a timing of 108 $\mathsf{\mu}$s and 438 $\mathsf{\mu}$s for one SHA2 and SHA3 call, respectively. Note that the maximum input size of the algorithms is equal to 55B for SHA2 and 135B for SHA3. Taking these numbers into account, [Table 3](#sensors-20-02160-t003){ref-type="table"} shows that, in case of SHA2 implementation, Refs. \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160],[@B15-sensors-20-02160]\] become more efficient than our protocol without storage using SHA3. On the other hand, our protocol with storage is still the most efficient one. However, note that researchers are actively working on the construction of more efficient sponge functions in hash functions. Moreover, if SHA3 dedicated chips are used, these numbers would also drastically change and thus it shows the importance of decreasing the number of hash operations to the maximum.
In order to compare the communicational complexity of our protocols with \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160],[@B6-sensors-20-02160],[@B15-sensors-20-02160],[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\], we also assume 128 bit security in these protocols thus resulting in output hashes of 256 bits in length. In addition, we consider timestamps with length equal to 32 bits. [Table 4](#sensors-20-02160-t004){ref-type="table"} shows that our protocol with storage on the server side behaves most optimally and has the lowest amount of sent and received bits from the sensor. The protocol without storage behaves a bit worse than \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160],[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\], but, as can be seen from [Table 1](#sensors-20-02160-t001){ref-type="table"}, offers also more security features.
7. Conclusions {#sec7-sensors-20-02160}
==============
In this paper, we have proposed two authentication and key agreement protocols to be applied in any type of client--server architecture, which is in particular very interesting in case the client is resource constrained. The protocols exploit the variable output length of the Keccak algorithm. The security of the protocol is explicitly proven in the random oracle model, which also allows for deriving the sizes of the different parameters used in the scheme. We have shown that our protocols outperform the state of the art with respect to computational cost by requiring only one execution of the hash function on the client side for the protocol with storage and two hash functions for the protocol without storage. In addition, the communication cost is low compared to related work and takes into account the available security features. It is still an open question how to include the perfect forward secrecy from the server side in an efficient way into the schemes.
The author would like to thank Ruben De Smet for pointing out the interesting features of Keccak to be applied in security protocols.
The author declares no conflict of interest.
![Message M is broken into *n* consecutive *r* bit pieces $M_{1},...,M_{n}$. The output, after applying the permutation *f* several rounds, is denoted by $c_{1},c_{2},...$. The size of the state on which the function *f* works, is called the rate *r*, while the capacity *c* denotes the size of the part that is untouched by input or output \[[@B29-sensors-20-02160]\].](sensors-20-02160-g001){#sensors-20-02160-f001}
{#sensors-20-02160-f002}
{#sensors-20-02160-f003}
sensors-20-02160-t001_Table 1
######
Informal security analysis of both protocols.
Characteristic Protocol with Storage Protocol without Storage
---------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mutual authentication Only the entities knowing the secret key $K_{n}$ or $K_{n + 1}$ can derive the correct authentication values $c_{3}$ and $c_{4}$ respectively. Note that thanks to this feature, also protection against impersonation and man-in-the-middle attacks is offered. The server is the only entity, who is able to derive $b_{n}$ and thus $R_{2}$ from the received value $a_{n}$. The sensor is ensured about the authentication of the server by checking the correctness of $d_{3}$, which cannot be manipulated without knowledge of $K_{m}$. Consequently, the protocol is also resistant for impersonation and man-in-the-middle attacks.
Anonymity and unlinkability The identity $ID_{n}$ sent in the protocol is dynamic and not linked to a certain static sensor. Its content changes after each successful run of the protocol and therefore no tracking of a specific sensor can be obtained. In addition, the other parameters sent in the protocol have no link with identity related information. The identity related information sent in the protocol, $a_{n},d_{1}$ is dynamic and updated after each successful run of the protocol. Without knowledge of the secret key $K_{m}$, the attacker is not able to reveal the real identity of the sensor. Moreover, as there is no relation between consecutive parameters $a_{n},d_{1}$, an attacker cannot perform location tracking attacks.
Perfect forward secrecy of sensor. If an attacker captures the sensor and gets access to $\left( ID_{n},K_{n} \right)$, it will not be able to generate the previous session keys as they were built using the hash function of the previously secure keys $K_{n - 1}$, which are overwritten in memory with the current version $K_{n}$. Note that perfect forward secrecy does not hold at the server side. If an attacker gets access to the database, it is able to generate using the collected random values sent in clear in the transmission channel the last established session keys. If the secret information $a_{n},b_{n},ID_{n},N$ is leaked from the sensor, the previous session keys cannot be revealed as they require the knowledge of the previous $b_{n}$ and also $R_{2}$ values. Without knowledge of $K_{m}$, this data cannot be revealed from the transmitted messages. In addition, the anonymity and unlinkability features will still be valid as the parameters $a_{n},d_{1}$ change after each successful authentication. In addition, here, no perfect forward secrecy on the server side is obtained because if $K_{m}$ is retrieved, the values $b_{n},ID_{n}$ can be derived from the message $M_{1}$ sent by the sensor, resulting in the derivation of SK.
Replay attacks The value $R_{1}$ can be replayed, but randomness will still be guaranteed by the generation of the random value $R_{2}$ by the sensor. Moreover, as the parameters $\left( ID_{n},K_{n} \right)$ change after each protocol run and a synchronized version is kept at the database, replay attacks are avoided. In addition, here, $R_{1}$ can be replayed, but randomness will still be guaranteed by the generation of the random value $R_{2}$ by the sensor, whose uniqueness is specifically tested by the server. As a consequence, an attacker cannot obtain two times the same outcome of the hash value.
Desynchronization attack Suppose the message $M_{1}$ is dropped by the attacker. In this case, both server and sensor are not updated. However, in case the last message $c_{4}^{*}$ is dropped, the server gets updated and not the sensor. Therefore, in order to overcome potential desynchronization in the next call of the protocol, we need to store always the previous values of identity and key material too at the side of the server, which is considered to be the most powerful device. Due to the nature of the protocol by the specific construction of the key material, there is no synchronization required. In particular, the usage of the static master key $K_{M}$ will always lead to common shared key material.
Denial of service attack The only place where a potential denial of service attack can appear is in the first step of sending the random value $R_{1}$. However, the sensor can built in a mechanism to block in case more than a threshold of invalid responses are sent back. All the other messages can be specifically verified for the correctness as they include checks on the existence of the key material. Consequently, as the protocol only consists of three phases, the server can never be blocked by having too many open sessions. The same reasoning for protection against the denial of service attack also holds in this protocol.
Session specific temporary information In this protocol, there is no additional session specific temporary information that can be revealed in order to be exploited for the generation of the SK. If also $R_{2}$ is leaked, $b_{n_{2}}$ can be retrieved and thus a collision attack on $b_{n1}$ can be executed. However, the size of $b_{n1}$ is chosen in such a way that it still offers 128-bit protection.
sensors-20-02160-t002_Table 2
######
Comparison of security strength with related and recent literature with respect to the following features: F1: Mutual authentication, F2: Anonymity and unlinkability, F3: Perfect forward secrecy, F4: Resistance against replay attacks, F5: Resistance against desynchronization attacks, F6: Resistance against denial of service attacks, F7: Resistance against specific temporary information, F8: No need for synchronized clocks (Y: Yes, N: No).
Scheme (Authors+Year) F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8
-------------------------------------------------- ---- ---- ---- -------- ---- ---- ---- ----
Kumar et al., 2017 \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160]\] Y Y Y Y(T) Y Y N N
Chen et al., 2018 \[[@B15-sensors-20-02160]\] Y Y Y Y(T) Y Y N N
Mansoor et al., 2019 \[[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\] Y Y Y N(T,R) N N N N
Lara et al., 2020 \[[@B6-sensors-20-02160]\] Y Y Y Y(T,R) N Y Y N
With storage Y Y Y Y(T) Y Y Y Y
Without storage Y Y Y Y(T) Y Y Y Y
sensors-20-02160-t003_Table 3
######
Comparison of computational cost with related and recent literature. $N_{H}$ equals the number of hashes and $N_{e}$ the number of encryption operations.
Scheme (Authors+Year) Nr of Operations With SHA2 ($\mathbf{\mathbf{\mu}}$s) With SHA3 ($\mathbf{\mathbf{\mu}}$s)
-------------------------------------------------- ------------------- -------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
Kumar et al., 2017 \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160]\] $2N_{H} + 2N_{E}$ 564 1116
Chen et al., 2018 \[[@B15-sensors-20-02160]\] $5N_{H}$ 1080 2190
Mansoor et al., 2019 \[[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\] $2N_{H}$ 540 786
Lara et al., 2020 \[[@B6-sensors-20-02160]\] $9N_{H}$ 1944 3942
With storage $1N_{H}$ \- 438
Without storage $2N_{H}$ \- 876
sensors-20-02160-t004_Table 4
######
Comparison of communication cost with related and recent literature.
Scheme (Authors+Year) Nr of Sent Bits Nr of Received Bits Total Sent+Received Bits
-------------------------------------------------- ----------------- --------------------- --------------------------
Kumar et al., 2017 \[[@B5-sensors-20-02160]\] 704 416 1120
Chen et al., 2018 \[[@B15-sensors-20-02160]\] 1056 1024 2080
Mansoor et al., 2019 \[[@B21-sensors-20-02160]\] 672 416 1088
Lara et al., 2020 \[[@B6-sensors-20-02160]\] 1088 1088 2176
With storage 512 384 896
Without storage 786 640 1426
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2024-02-02T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/5560
|
What takes electricity, turns most of the energy into heat, and releases a small amount of light? That’s the incandescent lightbulb, a proven if rather inefficient technology from the 1800s but still found in millions of America’s light sockets today. The old-fashioned incandescent bulb lights a room, but it wastes more than 90 percent of the electricity it uses as heat, which increases our electric bills.
The good news is that we now have energy-saving alternatives for just about every type of bulb we use in our homes and businesses: LEDs, in particular, use a fraction of the electricity to make the same amount of light.
ADVERTISEMENT
But the Trump administration’s Energy Department wants to go backward and embrace a clearly obsolete bulb – proposing recently to roll back efficiency standards that would put more varieties of high-efficiency bulbs on store shelves next year. If it succeeds, we’ll all be stuck with extra energy costs, and our climate will suffer as we needlessly waste more energy for years to come.
We started this debate in 2007, when Congress overwhelmingly passed – and President George W. Bush signed – comprehensive energy legislation that helped usher in many of the more efficient lightbulb options we have today.
The law set energy efficiency standards for the traditional pear-shaped bulbs, meaning new bulbs sold had to produce a minimum amount of light for each unit of electricity they consumed. Those standards helped drive the rapid growth of the LED market, and prices dropped quickly. The public has benefited from buying less electricity and polluting less.
But pear-shaped bulbs make up only about half of the bulbs in U.S. households; what about the globe-shaped bulbs common over bathroom vanities, the cone-shaped bulbs in recessed lights, or the flame-shaped candelabra models? There are no efficiency standards for most of these bulbs, and the old energy-wasting types are still dominant on many store shelves and in homes and businesses.
Congress, in the bipartisan law passed 12 years ago, ordered the Energy Department to evaluate which other shapes of bulbs were being used for general lighting purposes – based in part on sales data – and include them in future efficiency standards. The department did just that in 2017, concluding that several types, including the globe, cone, and candelabra shapes, should be subject to efficiency standards as well.
That update was set to go into effect this coming January – meaning stores would be filled with more efficient bulbs of many shapes. But the Trump administration is now proposing to repeal that update, which would keep us firmly in the era of the energy-wasting bulbs.
The consequences are big. The Trump administration’s rollback, if successful, would needlessly saddle Americans with an enormous amount of energy waste for years to come. The extra electricity required would be equal to the amount produced by 25 coal power plants – or enough to power all the homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania combined. And the average household would miss out on about $100 in guaranteed electricity savings every year.
The rollback wouldn’t just be bad economically; it would be a nightmare for our climate – requiring more polluting fossil fuel power plants to work to provide the extra electricity just to waste it on old-fashioned bulbs.
This is a time when we should be unleashing innovation, not arbitrarily putting up impediments to it. This Trump proposal is about as anti-innovation as you get.
The solution is easy: the administration should withdraw the rollback plan so households and businesses will keep the energy savings they were due to enjoy. We urge Congress and all who like saving energy and money while protecting the environment to weigh in against this plan by the public comment deadline on Friday. Now’s your chance.
Andrew deLaski is executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. Jason Hartke is President of the Alliance to Save Energy. Noah Horowitz is director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Center for Energy Efficiency Standards. Steve Nadel is executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
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2024-07-04T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/6557
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All NGS files are available from the Zenodo database: <https://zenodo.org/record/44605>. DOI: [10.5281/zenodo.44605](http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.44605).
Introduction {#sec001}
============
Characterization of hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission patterns remains challenging due to the long incubation periods, asymptomatic course of infection and the scarcity of samples from donor and recipient around the time of transmission \[[@pone.0150311.ref001], [@pone.0150311.ref002]\]. In up to 40% of HCV infections, no clear risk factor can be identified \[[@pone.0150311.ref003]\].
Horizontal transmission of HCV from spouse to spouse has been shown in a number of publications \[[@pone.0150311.ref004]--[@pone.0150311.ref008]\]. Such studies require HCV sequence comparison followed by phylogenetic analysis to verify the common ancestry of HCV strains \[[@pone.0150311.ref004]\]. However, HCV similarity assessment has usually been done by analyzing the consensus sequence only, and such an approach does not take into account high viral diversity \[[@pone.0150311.ref009]\]. Analysis of the entire spectrum of genetic variants (quasispecies) could be more informative particularly in the light of the high turnover rate of the virus, which may result in rapid changes in the spectrum of circulating viral variants. Furthermore, infection of the recipient is often initiated by a single donor variant \[[@pone.0150311.ref010]\].
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques, which allow for the evaluation of a wide spectrum of quasispecies including minor variants, is uniquely suited for the investigation of transmission \[[@pone.0150311.ref011]\]. This approach has been successfully applied in a wide range of viral analyses including human papilloma virus (HPV) genotyping, characterization of HCV and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) quasispecies, and detection of minor drug-resistant HIV, HCV, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) variants \[[@pone.0150311.ref012]--[@pone.0150311.ref015]\].
Recently, several studies approached in-depth analysis of hepatitis C virus transmission patterns, using single-genome or next-generation sequencing \[[@pone.0150311.ref016], [@pone.0150311.ref017]\]. However, these studies were focused on molecular identification of putative transmitter/founder variants and not on comparing viral populations of donor and recipient \[[@pone.0150311.ref018], [@pone.0150311.ref019]\].
The aim of the current study was to use NGS to analyze transmission and selection of HCV variants from chronically infected female spouse (donor) to her male spouse (recipient) who subsequently developed acute infection and chronic hepatitis C. We studied two different HCV genomic regions: HVR1 (hypervariable region 1) and 5'UTR (5' untranslated region). HVR1 is a highly exposed fragment of envelope 2 glycoprotein and a major target for specific antiviral response and its variability facilitates immune evasion and reflects the immune pressure of the host \[[@pone.0150311.ref020]\]. In contrast, the highly conserved 5'UTR is a non-coding region harboring internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) and its variability impacts the efficiency of translation \[[@pone.0150311.ref021], [@pone.0150311.ref022]\]. Our study provides evidence for the selective transmission of a minor HCV variant and its subsequent rapid molecular evolution in the recipient.
Materials and Methods {#sec002}
=====================
The study involved serum samples from a 53-year old female (donor) who had documented chronic hepatitis C for 10 years (most likely due to iatrogenic infection) and her 58-year old male spouse who developed an acute infection evolving to chronic hepatitis (recipient). Both were infected by the same subtype 1b and samples were collected at baseline (October 2012), which was the time of acute infection in the male (month 0) and after 9 and 13 months. Some clinical and virological data on both spouses are presented in [Table 1](#pone.0150311.t001){ref-type="table"}.
10.1371/journal.pone.0150311.t001
###### Clinical and Virological Characteristics of Female and Male Spouses Infected with Hepatitis C Virus.
{#pone.0150311.t001g}
Female (chronic hepatitis C) Male (acute hepatitis C evolving to chronic hepatitis C)[^c^](#t001fn003){ref-type="table-fn"}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Age (years) 53 58
Alanine aminotransferase levels \[U L^-1^\]; ref. values: 10--40 U L^-1^ 50 58 69 1447 \>2000 \>1000
Liver histology[^a^](#t001fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} staging F0/F1 F1
Viral load \[IU mL^-1^\][^b^](#t001fn002){ref-type="table-fn"} 0.23×10^6^ 1.43×10^6^ 5.24×10^6^ 0.21×10^6^ 0.27×10^6^ 4.13×10^6^
^a^METAVIR Histologic Scoring System \[[@pone.0150311.ref023]\].
^b^Roche Cobas Taqman HCV assay (Roche, Indianapolis, IN, USA).
^c^Patient was treated for acute HCV infection with interferon alfa-2b (Intron A, Schering Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ, USA) for 6 months right after baseline sample collection.
Following recommendations the male spouse was treated for 6 months with interferon alfa-2b (Intron A, Schering Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ, USA) 3 mln IU given daily for the first 4 weeks and three times per week thereafter for 20 weeks, but without success ([Table 1](#pone.0150311.t001){ref-type="table"}). Except for the exposure to infected spouse, no other risk factors were identified.
Sera from 10 randomly selected, chronic hepatitis C patients were used as controls for phylogenetic and genetic distance analysis. These patients were of similar age, were infected with same HCV subtype, and were recruited at the same time as the study subjects. The study was approved by the Bioethical Committee of the Medical University of Warsaw (Approval Number KB/17/2013) and all patients provided written informed consent.
HVR1 and 5'UTR amplification {#sec003}
----------------------------
HVR1 and 5'UTR amplifications were performed as described previously \[[@pone.0150311.ref024], [@pone.0150311.ref025]\]. In brief, total RNA was extracted from 250 μl of serum by a modified guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol/chlorophorm method using Trizol (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA). RNA was subjected to reverse transcription at 37°C for 30 minutes using AccuScript High Fidelity Reverse Transcriptase (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA). A region of 175 nt encompassing HVR1 and 250 nt covering 5'UTR were amplified in two-step PCR using FastStart High Fidelity Taq DNA Polymerase (Roche, Indianapolis, IN, USA). Primers used for reverse transcription and first round HCV HVR1 amplification were as follows: `5′-CATTGCAGTTCAGGGCCGTGCTA-3′` (nt 1632--1610) and `5′-GGTGCTCACTGGGGAGTCCT-3′` (nt 1389--1408). Primers used for reverse transcription and first round HCV 5'UTR amplification were as follows: `5’-TGRTGCACGGTCTACGAGACCTC-3’` (nt 342--320) and `5’-RAYCACTCCCCTGTGAGGAAC-3’` (nt 33--55). Primers employed in the second round PCR contained tags recognized by GS Junior sequencing platform, standard 10-nucleotide multiplex identifiers and target-complementary sequence \[[@pone.0150311.ref024]\]. Target-complementary sequences of primers for the second round PCR for HVR1 amplification were as follows: `5′- TCCATGGTGGGGAACTGGGC-3′` (positions 1428--1447) and `5′-TGCCAACTGCCA TTGGTGTT-3′` (nt 1603--1584). Target-complementary sequences of primers for the second round PCR for 5'UTR amplification were as follows: `5’-ACTGTCTTCACGCAGAAAGCGTC-3’` (nt 57--79) and `5’-CAAGCACCCTATCAGGCAGTACC-3’` (nt 307--285).
Pyrosequencing {#sec004}
--------------
The amount of DNA equivalent to 3×10^7^ amplicons was subjected to emulsion PCR using GS Junior Titanium emPCR Lib-A Kit (454 Life Sciences, Branford, CT, USA). Pyrosequencing was carried out according to the manufacturer's protocol for amplicons using GS Junior System (454 Life Sciences).
Data analysis {#sec005}
-------------
Sequencing errors (mismatches, insertions and deletions) were corrected and haplotypes inferred using the program diri_sampler from the Shorah software (<https://www1.ethz.ch/bsse/cbg/software/shorah>) \[[@pone.0150311.ref026]\]. Haplotypes that had posterior probability \> 95% and were represented by at least 10 reads were extracted with LStructure (<https://github.com/ozagordi/LocalVariants/blob/master/src/LStructure.py>).
Additionally, although error correction allows for a reliable estimation of variants at a lower frequency, we applied a 1.5% frequency cut-off to improve the specificity of our analysis \[[@pone.0150311.ref027]\]. As demonstrated in our earlier study based on sequencing of cloned HVR1 sequences, this particular cut-off value corresponds to the aggregate error of amplification and sequencing with the GS Junior platform \[[@pone.0150311.ref027]\]. Subsequently, 5'UTR and HVR1 haplotypes were aligned to the 1b HCV reference sequences (GenBank accession number AJ242654 and AJ406073, respectively) and the latter was translated into amino acid sequences by MEGA (*Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis)*, version 5.0 (<http://www.megasoftware.net/>) \[[@pone.0150311.ref028]\]. Phylogenetic trees of both regions were constructed according to the Maximum Likelihood method based on the Tamura-Nei model \[[@pone.0150311.ref029]\] using MEGA 5.0. Molecular clock analysis was performed in MEGA 5.0. Genetic diversity and distance parameters were assessed by DNA SP version 5 (<http://www.ub.edu/dnasp/>) and MEGA 5.0. Sequence similarity was compared using Clustal 2.1 Percent Identity Matrix (<http://www.clustal.org/omega/>) \[[@pone.0150311.ref030]\]. Amino acid sequence logos were generated by Web Logo (<http://weblogo.berkeley.edu/>) \[[@pone.0150311.ref031]\].
Results {#sec006}
=======
Altogether, 71,923 reads were obtained from 6 analyzed samples, 13,410 for HVR1 and 58,513 for 5'UTR region. After reconstruction, 7 to 49 variants were inferred per sample for HVR1 and from 6 to 10 for 5'UTR. Application of the cut-off lowered the number of inferred variants as there were now 4 to 20 variants per sample for the HVR1 and from 1 to 2 for the 5'UTR. For the unrelated 10 chronic hepatitis C patients, 33,810 HVR1 reads were obtained (4 to 16 variants per sample).
HVR1 sequence variability {#sec007}
-------------------------
### Similarity between spouses {#sec008}
No identical HVR1 variants were identified to be present in both spouses (either above or below the 1.5% cut-off value), but a minor baseline donor variant (1.7% frequency) was found to be closely related to all recipient variants present at baseline (97.1%--98.3% sequence similarity). Furthermore, recipient consensus sequence at baseline differed only by two nucleotide substitutions and one insertion when compared to the putative infecting variant of 1.7% frequency. Only one amino acid difference was present between the infecting minor variant and the recipient major variant (substitution S to A within the epitope for neutralizing antibodies, described below as Epitope 1 \[[@pone.0150311.ref032]\]).
### Recipient male spouse {#sec009}
When employing the 1.5% cut-off, the number of variants in the male recipient increased from four (baseline) to five at month 9 and to seven at month 13. At baseline, the HVR1 population was composed of one predominant variant (62.5%), one variant of 24.7% frequency and two minor (defined as \<10% frequency) variants. Sequence similarity of the predominant variant to other baseline variants was from 97.7%, to 98.9%. None of the variants present in the initial sample were found in the two follow-up samples, and only one variant was present both at 9 and 13 months (constituting 76.0% and 2.8% of the total, respectively). At 9 months, the frequency of predominant variant was 76.0% but at month 13 the population became more dispersed, with two most abundant variants constituting 52.8% and 23.0% of the population, and five minor variants. Nucleotide diversities per site within HVR1 populations are shown in [Table 2](#pone.0150311.t002){ref-type="table"}. Genetic distances between HVR1 populations (intrahost) were 0.020 (baseline and month 9), 0.028 (month 9 and month 13) and 0.021 (baseline and month 13).
10.1371/journal.pone.0150311.t002
###### Nucleotide Diversity Parameters of 5'UTR and HVR1 HCV Variants in Analyzed Spouses.
{#pone.0150311.t002g}
5'UTR HVR1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- ------------ -------------- ------------ -------------- ------------ -------------- ------------ -------------- ------------ -------------- ------------
Analysis of variants Cut-off 1.5% No cut-off Cut-off 1.5% No cut-off Cut-off 1.5% No cut-off Cut-off 1.5% No cut-off Cut-off 1.5% No cut-off Cut-off 1.5% No cut-off
Number of variants in female (donor) 2 9 2 9 2 8 14 41 19 38 20 49
Number of variants in male (recipient) 1 10 1 6 1 7 4 7 5 11 7 17
Number of nucleotide substitutions[^a^](#t002fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} in female (donor) 1 2 1 5 1 1 50 55 56 52 55 50
Number of nucleotide substitutions[^a^](#t002fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} in male (recipient) 1 3 1 1 1 3 35 35 37 45 38 39
Nucleotide diversity per site[^a^](#t002fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} in female (donor) 0.003 0.002 0.003 0.006 0.003 0.002 0.066 0.048 0.067 0.047 0.061 0.044
Nucleotide diversity per site[^a^](#t002fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} in male (recipient) 0.004 0.002 0.004 0.001 0.004 0.004 0.082 0.055 0.080 0.056 0.062 0.038
^a^With respect to AJ242654 (for 5'UTR) and AJ406073 (for HVR1) reference sequences.
Without the cut-off, the number of variants in the recipient increased from seven (baseline) to 11 at month 9 and 17 at month 13. At baseline, HVR1 population was composed of one predominant variant (62.5%), one variant of 24.7% frequency and five minor variants (defined as \<10% frequency). Sequence similarity of the predominant variant to other baseline variants ranged from 97.1%, to 99.4%. None of the variants present in the initial sample was found in the follow-up samples, and only one variant was present both at month 9 and 13 (constituting 76.0% and 2.8%, respectively). At 9 months the frequency of predominant variant was 76.0% but at month 13 the population became more dispersed, with the two most abundant variants constituting 52.8% and 23.0% of the population, and 15 minor variants. These populations gave rise to a steep curve on the cumulative distribution plots ([Fig 1](#pone.0150311.g001){ref-type="fig"}). Nucleotide diversities per site within HVR1 populations are presented in [Table 2](#pone.0150311.t002){ref-type="table"}. Genetic distances between HVR1 populations (intrahost) were 0.017 (baseline and month 9), 0.029 (month 9 and month 13) and 0.019 (baseline and month 13).
{#pone.0150311.g001}
### Donor female spouse {#sec010}
The number of variants above the cut-off value of 1.5% increased in the donor during the follow-up from 14 (baseline) to 19 (month 9) and 20 (month 13). The baseline HCV population consisted of one predominant variant (33.2%), followed by a variant representing 13.6% and 12 minor variants. At 9 months, the contribution of minor variants increased to 17, while the frequency of the major variant declined to 20.9%. At 13 month, the population was even more dispersed with the most abundant variant constituting only 12.8% of the population and 18 different variants of lower frequency. Seven of the baseline variants were also present at month 9 (36.8% of population) and six baseline variants were still detectable at month 13 sample (30.0% of variants). The frequency of variants found in at least two donor samples ranged from 1.5% to 33.2%. Nucleotide diversity per site within HVR1 in the donor are presented in [Table 2](#pone.0150311.t002){ref-type="table"}. Intrahost genetic distances between HVR1 populations were 0.051 (baseline *vs* month 9), 0.048 (month 9 *vs* month 13) and 0.050 (baseline *vs* month 13).
Genetic distance between donor's and recipient's baseline populations (interhost) was 0.054, remained the same at month 9 and increased to 0.057 at month 13.
When conducting the analysis without the cut-off, the number of variants in the donor fluctuated during the follow-up from 41 (baseline) to 38 (month 9) and 49 (month 13). The baseline HCV population consisted of one predominant variant (33.2%), followed by a variant representing 13.6% and 39 minor variants (\< 10% each). At 9 months, the number of minor variants was 37, while the proportion of the major variant decreased to 20.9%. At 13 months the population was even more dispersed with the most abundant variant constituting only 12.8% of the population and the presence of 48 different minor variants. These populations resulted in a flatter curves on the cumulative distribution plots when compared to the recipient spouse ([Fig 1](#pone.0150311.g001){ref-type="fig"}). Eighteen of the baseline variants were also present at month 9 (47.4% of population) and 13 were still detectable at month 13 (26.5% of all variants). Variants found in at least two donor samples had frequencies of 0.3% to 33.2%. Nucleotide diversities per site in the donor are presented in [Table 2](#pone.0150311.t002){ref-type="table"}. Intrahost genetic distances between HVR1 populations were 0.038 (baseline *vs* month 9), 0.041 (month 9 *vs* month 13) and 0.040 (baseline *vs* month 13).
Genetic distance between donor's and recipient's populations (interhost) were 0.037 at baseline, 0.041 at 9 months, and increased to 0.053 at 13 months.
5'UTR sequence variability {#sec011}
--------------------------
### Recipient male spouse {#sec012}
When conducting the analysis with 1.5% cut-off, one predominant HCV variant, which was identical to one of donor baseline variants, was present in all samples (92.3%, 95.7% and 95.9% frequency).
Conducting the analysis without the cut-off did not change the frequency of the predominant variant, but there were now nine minor variants at baseline, five at 9 months and six at 13 months. Their frequency ranged from 0.1% to 1.4% of the total population.
### Donor female spouse {#sec013}
Two variants of similar frequency (46.5% and 51.0%) were present in the donor spouse serum at baseline and during the follow-up period (49.4% and 47.2% at month 9); (54.4% and 41.7% at month 13). Interhost genetic distance between baseline populations was 0.002, and remained the same at month 9 and 13.
When conducting the analysis without the cut-off, the above two dominant variants were present at identical frequency at baseline (46.5% and 51.0%), at 9 months (49.4% and 47.2%), and at 13 months (54.4% and 41.7%). However, there were now also minority variants present: seven at baseline, seven at 9 months, and six at 13 months, ranging in frequence from 0.1% to 1.1%. Genetic distance between baseline populations (interhost) was 0.007, 0.006 at month 9 and 0.004 at month 13.
Minor variants in both spouses mostly differed by deletions and/or insertions in the homopolymeric cytosine region within 5'UTR (positions 127--129 of the AJ242654 reference genome) and at positions 66--71 (AJ242654 reference genome).
Phylogenetic analysis of HVR1 variants {#sec014}
--------------------------------------
Phylogenetic analysis revealed that HVR1 recipient variants were highly similar to one minor donor variant of 1.7% frequency ([Fig 2](#pone.0150311.g002){ref-type="fig"}). Based on the estimated mutation rate of HVR1 sequence (8.6 × 10^−2^ substitutions per site per year, \[[@pone.0150311.ref033]\]), molecular clock analysis suggested that the major recipient (62.5%) variant had a common ancestor with the putative infecting variant of 1.7% frequency approximately 1.5 months prior to baseline sample. Furthermore, there was no clustering of variants from any particular time point.
![Phylogenetic analysis of HVR1 variants.\
(A) Variants present in serum at baseline (m0) in the female donor (F, black dot) and recipient male (M, open circle); (B) Variants present in serum over time of observation (m0, month 0; m9, month 9; m13, month 13) in the recipient (M); ultimately unsuccessful interferon monotherapy was given for six months starting immediately after drawing the baseline (m0) sample (C) variants present in the female donor (F) serum at baseline (m0), 9 months (m9) and 13 months (m13). Left panels show variants ≥ 1.5% cut-off, whereas the right panels show all reconstructed variants. Variant frequencies are expressed as percent values and follow time point of sample collection. The evolutionary history was inferred by using the Maximum Likelihood method based on the Tamura-Nei model \[[@pone.0150311.ref029]\]. Evolutionary analyses were conducted using MEGA 5.0 \[[@pone.0150311.ref028]\].](pone.0150311.g002){#pone.0150311.g002}
### Phylogenetic comparison of HVR1 with non-related chronic hepatitis C patients {#sec015}
Baseline viral variants from both spouses were compared to sequences from 10 non-related chronic hepatitis C subjects ([Fig 3](#pone.0150311.g003){ref-type="fig"}). As seen, donor and recipient variants clustered together and were divergent from HCV variants in all 10 unrelated subjects. Mean distances between these control populations and those of the recipient were 0.280, 0.274, 0.294, 0.292, 0.341, 0.276, 0.316, 0.322, 0.242 and 0.211.
![Phylogenetic analysis of HVR1 variants present in both spouses at baseline (m0) and 10 unrelated patients.\
F, black dot denotes female spouse (F), while the open circle denotes the male spouse (M). Unrelated patients come from the same area and time and were infected with the same HCV subtype 1b. Variant frequencies are expressed as percent values and follow time point of sample collection. The evolutionary history was inferred by using the Maximum Likelihood method based on the Tamura-Nei model \[[@pone.0150311.ref029]\]. Evolutionary analyses were conducted using MEGA 5.0 \[[@pone.0150311.ref028]\].](pone.0150311.g003){#pone.0150311.g003}
Evolution of HVR1 epitopes {#sec016}
--------------------------
Close to the C-terminus of HVR1 amino acid sequence, two overlapping epitopes for neutralizing antibodies were described, encompassing amino acid positions 394--404 (Epitope 1) and 397--407 (Epitope 2) \[[@pone.0150311.ref032], [@pone.0150311.ref034]\]. In the recipient, the majority of these positions (57.1%) were homogeneous, i.e. composed of only one amino acid across the population. The remaining positions were heterogeneous: positions 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14 at month 0, positions 2, 6, 7, 10 and 14 at month 9, and positions 2, 6, 10, 11 at month 13. Over time, nine positions were found to be unstable (change in amino acid composition: positions 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14 ([Fig 4](#pone.0150311.g004){ref-type="fig"}).
![Amino acid sequence logos of HVR1 epitopes generated from populations of HVR1 sequence variants circulating in the male (M) and female (F) spouse.\
Serum samples were collected at baseline (m0), and at 9 (m9) and 13 months (m13). The male spouse was treated for 6 months with interferon starting immediately after the baseline serum was drawn, but the therapy was ultimately unsuccessful. Epitope 1 comprises positions 1--11 (codon positions 394--404) and epitope 2 comprises positions 4--14 (397--407) \[[@pone.0150311.ref032], [@pone.0150311.ref034]\]. Height of letters within the stack indicates the relative frequency of each amino acid at this position. The analysis was conducted on variants ≥ 1.5% cut-off.](pone.0150311.g004){#pone.0150311.g004}
In the donor, 40.5% of positions were homogenous. Nine positions were heterogeneous at baseline (positions 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12), eight at month 9 (positions 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12) and eight at month 13 (positions 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11 and 12). Over the time of follow up, seven positions were unstable (positions 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11).
Discussion {#sec017}
==========
The increased risk of transmission from HCV-positive patients to household members, including siblings, parents, offspring as well as homo- and heterosexual partners, has been well documented \[[@pone.0150311.ref035]--[@pone.0150311.ref040]\]. It is of note, that the intrafamilial exposure to infection is high, as over 50% of the seronegative sexual partners of hepatitis C patients develop a specific cellular immune response against the virus without seroconversion or HCV-RNA presence in serum \[[@pone.0150311.ref041]\].
The actual prevalence of HCV among family members of infected patients was found to be very diverse ranging from 1.3% to 36.4% and depends on the studied population \[[@pone.0150311.ref038], [@pone.0150311.ref042]\]. In the majority of epidemiological studies, no analysis was done to confirm that partners were indeed infected with the same virus \[[@pone.0150311.ref036], [@pone.0150311.ref042]--[@pone.0150311.ref046]\], and even genotyping was done only occasionally \[[@pone.0150311.ref037], [@pone.0150311.ref039], [@pone.0150311.ref047]\]. However, genotyping is largely unreliable as it is likely to be similar for a given population in a certain area. Confirmation that a horizontal transmission event has occurred could be demonstrated by a high homology between the respective HCV genomes. Nevertheless, few of the previous studies included phylogenetic analysis \[[@pone.0150311.ref048]--[@pone.0150311.ref051]\] and sequence comparison was done only on the consensus sequence level \[[@pone.0150311.ref005], [@pone.0150311.ref051]--[@pone.0150311.ref053]\].
In our study phylogenetic analysis has demonstrated much more similarity between HCV strains in spouses than between unrelated subjects, supporting the occurence of intrafamilial transmission \[[@pone.0150311.ref008]\]. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first using NGS to demonstrate intrafamilial spouse-to--spouse HCV transmission by a minor frequency variant. Already at baseline (acute infection in the male recipient), no identical HVR1 variants were present in spouses. However, high similarity (98.3%) of one out of the minor donor variants (1.7% frequency) to the most abundant recipient variant, as well as phylogenetic linkage and low interhost distance of baseline HVR1 populations when compared with 10 unrelated patients imply a common ancestry of donor and recipient variants. Indeed, the molecular clock analysis suggested a divergence from a common ancestor 1.5 months prior to baseline, which is compatible with the timing of infection.
Importantly, this minor donor variant would have been overlooked with the use of classical Sanger sequencing approach as it would require sequencing of 175 clones in order to detect a variant of 1.7% frequency with 95% probability. This observation is of special importance for transmission studies, because relationship traits between viral populations may be rapidly lost, especially when using Sanger-based techniques with the lowest detectable variants typically having ≥ 10--20% of frequency \[[@pone.0150311.ref018], [@pone.0150311.ref054], [@pone.0150311.ref055]\].
It must be noted that the frequency of the variant putatively transmitted to a new host (1.7%) was close to the applied 1.5% cut-off. This particular cut-off value corresponds to the error rate of the amplification and sequencing procedures determined previously by analysing of cloned HVR1 \[[@pone.0150311.ref027]\]. Of note, HVR1 and 5'UTR contain several homopolymeric regions (consecutive repeats of identical bases) and pyrosequencing chemistry is highly susceptible to errors at these regions \[[@pone.0150311.ref027], [@pone.0150311.ref056]\]. Importantly, despite repeating the analysis without application of the cut-off, no common HVR1 variants were detectable in both spouses.
The baseline HVR1 population found in the recipient was very narrow which is compatible with the bottleneck phenomenon and is consistent with some other studies in which only a single variant established infection \[[@pone.0150311.ref010], [@pone.0150311.ref018], [@pone.0150311.ref019]\]. In our study, the putative infecting variant constituted a small minority of the donor variants (1.7% of frequency) which suggests it may have had some major advantage in the new host. Interestingly, it contained high basic amino acid residues content (29.6%, data not shown) and the presence of basic residues in HVR1 have been previously shown to aid viral entry \[[@pone.0150311.ref057]\].
Despite the high sensitivity of NGS, it is impossible to determine the exact transmission route, but both sexual and household transmissions seem plausible. We collected cervical-vaginal lavage (CVL) to verify the presence of viral RNA, but neither 5'UTR nor HVR1 could be amplified, which is in line with some previous finding of low prevalence of HCV RNA in genital tract of HCV-monoinfected women \[[@pone.0150311.ref058]\]. Interestingly, among couples in long-term monogamous heterosexual relationships, the risk of sexual transmission of HCV has been assessed to be very low (0--0.6% per year) \[[@pone.0150311.ref059], [@pone.0150311.ref060]\] and has been even found to be null in a recent metaanalysis of more than 80 studies \[[@pone.0150311.ref061]\].
Molecular evolution of HCV HVR1 was strikingly different in the chronically infected donor and acutely infected recipient. Recipient\'s population showed increased complexity (number of variants) over time as well as change in variants composition, with only a few variants dominating the population. This change, called selective sweep, could be the result of selection pressures and is common for such pathogens as influenza \[[@pone.0150311.ref062]\], HCV \[[@pone.0150311.ref063], [@pone.0150311.ref064]\] and HIV \[[@pone.0150311.ref065]\]. Furthermore, there was a marked turnover of amino acids within the analyzed epitopes for neutralizing antibodies over time. This observation is compatible with immune selection pressure in acute infection.
After an unsuccessful antiviral treatment was attempted, the composition of variants was entirely changed (baseline *vs* 9 months). While interferon activates cellular rather than humoral response and thus would be expected to have a limited impact on the variability of the HVR1, rapid evolution of this region during therapy is common and predictive with respect to outcome \[[@pone.0150311.ref066]--[@pone.0150311.ref069]\]. However, a similar change occurred also between month 9 and month 13 when the patient was not receiving any antiviral treatment.
In contrast, the majority of female spouse variants were present in subsequent samples, most of them at a higher frequency. This could be due to virus adaptation and/or limited immune pressure possibly due to immune exhaustion, which is common in chronic HCV infection \[[@pone.0150311.ref070]\]. Similarly, amino acid composition within two HVR1 epitopes was largely conserved over time.
The 5'UTR sequence remained relatively stable, probably due to lack of selective pressures.
In conclusion, it seems that intrafamilial HCV transmission may be established by a very minor variant and thus the investigation of this phenomenon requires high-sensitivity assays, such as NGS.
[^1]: **Competing Interests:**The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
[^2]: Conceived and designed the experiments: KC TL MR OZ JJ AP. Performed the experiments: KC AP KP IB NK. Analyzed the data: KC KP OZ RP IB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KP JJ MR TL RP NK. Wrote the paper: KC OZ TL MR AP.
|
2024-01-22T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/5028
|
#-- encoding: UTF-8
#-- copyright
# ChiliProject is a project management system.
#
# Copyright (C) 2010-2013 the ChiliProject Team
#
# This program 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 2
# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
#
# See doc/COPYRIGHT.rdoc for more details.
#++
class IssueRelation < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :issue_from, :class_name => 'Issue', :foreign_key => 'issue_from_id'
belongs_to :issue_to, :class_name => 'Issue', :foreign_key => 'issue_to_id'
TYPE_RELATES = "relates"
TYPE_DUPLICATES = "duplicates"
TYPE_DUPLICATED = "duplicated"
TYPE_BLOCKS = "blocks"
TYPE_BLOCKED = "blocked"
TYPE_PRECEDES = "precedes"
TYPE_FOLLOWS = "follows"
TYPES = { TYPE_RELATES => { :name => :label_relates_to, :sym_name => :label_relates_to, :order => 1, :sym => TYPE_RELATES },
TYPE_DUPLICATES => { :name => :label_duplicates, :sym_name => :label_duplicated_by, :order => 2, :sym => TYPE_DUPLICATED },
TYPE_DUPLICATED => { :name => :label_duplicated_by, :sym_name => :label_duplicates, :order => 3, :sym => TYPE_DUPLICATES, :reverse => TYPE_DUPLICATES },
TYPE_BLOCKS => { :name => :label_blocks, :sym_name => :label_blocked_by, :order => 4, :sym => TYPE_BLOCKED },
TYPE_BLOCKED => { :name => :label_blocked_by, :sym_name => :label_blocks, :order => 5, :sym => TYPE_BLOCKS, :reverse => TYPE_BLOCKS },
TYPE_PRECEDES => { :name => :label_precedes, :sym_name => :label_follows, :order => 6, :sym => TYPE_FOLLOWS },
TYPE_FOLLOWS => { :name => :label_follows, :sym_name => :label_precedes, :order => 7, :sym => TYPE_PRECEDES, :reverse => TYPE_PRECEDES }
}.freeze
validates_presence_of :issue_from, :issue_to, :relation_type
validates_inclusion_of :relation_type, :in => TYPES.keys
validates_numericality_of :delay, :allow_nil => true
validates_uniqueness_of :issue_to_id, :scope => :issue_from_id
attr_protected :issue_from_id, :issue_to_id
def validate
if issue_from && issue_to
errors.add :issue_to_id, :invalid if issue_from_id == issue_to_id
errors.add :issue_to_id, :not_same_project unless issue_from.project_id == issue_to.project_id || Setting.cross_project_issue_relations?
errors.add_to_base :circular_dependency if issue_to.all_dependent_issues.include? issue_from
errors.add_to_base :cant_link_an_issue_with_a_descendant if issue_from.is_descendant_of?(issue_to) || issue_from.is_ancestor_of?(issue_to)
end
end
def other_issue(issue)
(self.issue_from_id == issue.id) ? issue_to : issue_from
end
# Returns the relation type for +issue+
def relation_type_for(issue)
if TYPES[relation_type]
if self.issue_from_id == issue.id
relation_type
else
TYPES[relation_type][:sym]
end
end
end
def label_for(issue)
TYPES[relation_type] ? TYPES[relation_type][(self.issue_from_id == issue.id) ? :name : :sym_name] : :unknow
end
def before_save
reverse_if_needed
if TYPE_PRECEDES == relation_type
self.delay ||= 0
else
self.delay = nil
end
set_issue_to_dates
end
def set_issue_to_dates
soonest_start = self.successor_soonest_start
if soonest_start && issue_to
issue_to.reschedule_after(soonest_start)
end
end
def successor_soonest_start
if (TYPE_PRECEDES == self.relation_type) && delay && issue_from && (issue_from.start_date || issue_from.due_date)
(issue_from.due_date || issue_from.start_date) + 1 + delay
end
end
def <=>(relation)
TYPES[self.relation_type][:order] <=> TYPES[relation.relation_type][:order]
end
private
# Reverses the relation if needed so that it gets stored in the proper way
def reverse_if_needed
if TYPES.has_key?(relation_type) && TYPES[relation_type][:reverse]
issue_tmp = issue_to
self.issue_to = issue_from
self.issue_from = issue_tmp
self.relation_type = TYPES[relation_type][:reverse]
end
end
end
|
2023-10-30T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/4507
|
Oculomotor behavior of hemianopic chronic stroke patients in a driving simulator is modulated by vision training.
Visual Restorative function training aims to decrease visual field defect size after acquired brain damage. Some chronic stroke patients regain permission to drive a car after training. This points to a concomitant change in oculomotor behavior, because visual field enlargement is hardly ever large enough for legal driving. This study investigated vRFT-induced changes in oculomotor behavior, using a driving simulator. Driving performance and oculomotor behavior were measured before and after training in 6 hemianopia patients who had trained 65 hours with vRFT on a PC at home. Two patients showed negligible visual field enlargement (VFE) and four showed moderate to substantial VFE. Because less visual cortex is devoted to the processing of peripheral than central visual field the same VFE corresponds to less functional restoration of cortex when the defect is at high eccentricity. When this is taken into account, then precisely the two patients that showed the largest cortical gains made significantly more eye movements in the direction of their visual field defect after training. vRFT with mandatory eye fixation can result in increased eye movement behavior towards the defect. Our study suggests that a threshold amount of cortical functional restoration is required for this effect.
|
2024-02-15T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/3676
|
Identification of the glutathione conjugate of 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide formed in the reaction catalyzed by murine glutathione transferases.
The product of the enzyme-catalyzed conjugation of glutathione and 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide was isolated and its structure determined by MS and NMR. The results indicate that the cysteine sulfur of glutathione replaces the nitro group of 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide in the reaction with the formation of 4-(glutathion-S-yl)-quinoline 1-oxide. No evidence was found for the binding of glutathione to any other position of 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide or through any group other than the cysteine sulfur.
|
2023-12-13T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/5270
|
Integrin αvβ3 is required for cathepsin B-induced hepatocellular carcinoma progression.
The cysteine protease cathepsin B (Cat B) is important in the progression of tumor cells, however, the function and molecular mechanisms of Cat B in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain to be elucidated. Our previous study demonstrated that integrin αvβ3 regulated the biological behavior of HCC. The present study demonstrated that Cat B was also important in cell proliferation and apoptosis in HCC. Notably, Cat B was observed to activate the phosphoinositide 3‑kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway to promote HCC proliferation. Furthermore, inhibition of integrin αvβ3 significantly prevented Cat B‑induced activation of PI3K/Akt and the progression of HCC. Thus, the results of the present study suggested the presence of a Cat B/integrin αvβ3/PI3K/Akt axis in the regulation of the progression of HCC.
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2023-09-04T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/9777
|
Please note: All personalized items require 5 to 7 business days for processing. If the item has personalized tags and stickers, these arrive unattached and require assembly.
Kate Aspen’s Personalized Directional Sign gets a whimsical makeover with the Chalk Wedding design! The chalk personalized directional sign for weddings has a chalkboard look with "Wedding this way" over top of a white arrow and surrounded by multi-colored chalk-drawn flowers. Your names and event date can be found in two lines of personalized text at the bottom of each sign!
Features and facts:
Personalized sign in a Chalk Wedding design
Sign measures approximately 12"h x 18"w
Includes mounting tape and wire stand
Wire stand measures approximately 30"h x 8.1"w
Some assembly required. Assembly directions included with shipped purchase.
|
2024-02-10T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/2168
|
My technical site
Menu
Tag Archives: pandoc
This is more in the way of a note to myself. I was just starting to write a bash completion script for Pandoc when I came upon this in the Pandoc documentation:
--bash-completion
Generate a bash completion script. To enable bash completion with pandoc, add this to your .bashrc:
eval "$(pandoc --bash-completion)"
So no need for me to write one. Neat trick, generate your own bash completion script. John McFarlane really is a god. Oh, and the completion is top quality, it knows when you’ve typed an option that takes an input or output format and completes on those and other little tricks. I may end up using some of his tricks for my completions.
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2023-10-27T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/6746
|
Blog
Herb Haven
The Farm Tour has many “favorites”—farms that get 500-600 visitors each day, where kids can ogle giant hogs, pecking chickens, and herding-dog puppies. But not all Farm Tourists enjoy wading through a crowd for Mapleview Ice Cream or trekking past multiple pastures to gather eggs at the Fickle Creek Egg Mobile. Want to get away from the hubbub? Head to the southwest corner of the tour for a peaceful visit to Suki Roth’s Herb Haven.
This is Suki’s first year back on the tour in her new location. “After I sign up, I think I’m insane, but I love being on the Farm Tour,” Suki says. She’s worked hard to get Herb Haven up-and-running since she moved in 2008. She’s replanted natural habitats and added medicinal herbs to the landscaping. The six-acre setting is protected in a bowl of land—it wasn’t flat enough to clear for fields, so many old hardwoods survive. Down a long driveway, you’ll pass a nice-sized garden with raised beds before arriving at the house. There is a lower pasture area, but the rest is woods.
Suki acknowledges a local nonprofit, SWOOP, for their help relocating her garden. “If it wasn’t for them,” she recalls, “I’d still be working on the garden.” Based in Raleigh, Strong Women Organizing Outrageous Projects (SWOOP) began as a group of women friends helping each other clean up after Hurricane Fran in 1996. The women decided to keep going after their own yards were fixed; they now have 1100 members and do monthly clean-up projects. A $25,000 grant has enabled their “Ramp It Up” program: building wheelchair ramps for those in need. (Learn more here.)
In 2009, Suki applied to SWOOP for help. A representative came to her house to assess the project. SWOOP mostly works with nonprofits, but Suki explained her work as a mentor and teacher, and the herbal products she sells at health food stores and donates to nonprofits, and they agreed to take on her garden as a project. Thirty-four women came out one Saturday from 8 AM to 6 PM. A neighbor had cleared brush with his tractor; SWOOP cleared paths and tilled the ground. “The main challenge of that project was the deer fence,” remembers Lisa Wilson, Co-Executive Director of SWOOP.
“SWOOP was excellent,” says Suki. “I can’t say enough about them.” Suki bought the fence materials, rented an auger, and provided lunch for the SWOOP volunteers. “You all [Weaver Street Market] donated fifty dollars worth of bread, and my friends cooked a fabulous concoction of vegan and vegetarian healthy foods,” she recalls. “A lot of the women didn’t know what they were eating, but they liked it.”
Stop by Herb Haven on the Farm Tour and join Suki on an ongoing herb walk in the garden. Some of her students will be on hand selling Suki’s teas, salves, and tinctures. You can also visit her apothecary in the basement, where she makes Suki’s Blends: herbal teas like Cold and Flu Tea and Gentle Detox Chai, tinctures of medicine extracted from plants, compound tinctures like Sleep Tight and UTI Relief, and oils and salves like Miracle Mend. Suki’s favorite part of her job is, “I get to work with all these wonderful plants, and get to talk to people about them all the time.” The Farm Tour is a great chance to meet Suki.
Learn more about Suki, her workshops, classes, and herb walks, and her consultations at her website. Many of Suki’s teas and tinctures are available at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro and Hillsborough.
|
2024-02-13T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/3599
|
{{Editing|[[User:Leadman|LeadMan]]|08:05, 12 November 2009 (UTC)|ADDING LAST NEWS BEFORE RELEASE, SHOULD TAKE ABOUT 2 HOURS, please do not release this CU yet.}}
+
−
+
====='''Period 2009-10-29 to 2009-11-11'''=====
====='''Period 2009-10-29 to 2009-11-11'''=====
−
−
==Distributions==
−
{{DistributionBox|
−
Name=Distro Name [version]|
−
Description=Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.|
−
Screenshot=System_boot.png|
−
Codename='codename'|
−
Homepage=http://www.homepage.org|
−
Image=[http://www.homepage.org/path/to/ images]|
−
Works={{Works}}
−
}}
−
==Applications==
==Applications==
===New Applications===
===New Applications===
−
{{ApplicationBox|
{{ApplicationBox|
Name=NeronGPS 0.5.0-1|
Name=NeronGPS 0.5.0-1|
Line 37:
Line 13:
{{ApplicationBox|
{{ApplicationBox|
−
Name=Oh you were Lucky 0.1|
+
Name=oywl 0.1|
Description=A simple perl script that plays a youtube video depending on a searchstring|
Description=A simple perl script that plays a youtube video depending on a searchstring|
* The last patch needed to boot the Freerunner [http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=f5fb9b1a15285fde54c6b70cf35d328333e5b519 landed] in Linux right before 2.6.32-rc6. While support for many features present in the modified versions of Linux running on most Freerunners still is missing it is verified to [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/openmoko-kernel/2009-November/010696.html boot].
+
* The last patch needed to boot the Freerunner [http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=f5fb9b1a15285fde54c6b70cf35d328333e5b519 landed] in Linux right before 2.6.32-rc6. While support for many features present in the modified versions of Linux running on most Freerunners still is missing it is verified to '''[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/openmoko-kernel/2009-November/010696.html boot]'''.
−
* Thommas Zimmerman wrote a great summary of what is going on in SHR land for those that aren't reading the SHR mailing lists. You can read full thread [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2009-November/057462.html here].
+
* Sebastian Spaeth wrote a great summary of what is going on in SHR land for those that aren't reading the SHR mailing lists. You can read full thread '''[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2009-November/057462.html here]'''.
−
* Matthias Breuel and Michael Tansella did a research project with the openmoko at the KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) in Germany. They developed a Indoor navigation system with the Freerunner in C++/Qt. You can see a picture from the BNN newspaper [http://www.flickr.com/photos/44512237@N08/4087173946/ here]. They want to thank the great support received from the Openmoko community. Special thanks go to Andy(-tracking) who solved some Acc Kernel troubles over night and Mickey+ (freesmartphone team) whose dbus services did the low level programming for us.
+
* Matthias Breuel and Michael Tansella did a research project with the openmoko at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. They developed a Indoor navigation system with the Freerunner in C++/Qt. You can see a '''[http://www.flickr.com/photos/44512237@N08/4087173946/ picture]''' from the BNN newspaper. They want to thank for great support received from the Openmoko community. Special thanks go to Andy, who solved some Acc Kernel troubles over night and Mickey (freesmartphone team) whose dbus services did the low level programming.
−
* Michael 'Mickey' Lauer wrote accelerometer plugin for fsodeviced. It will ease getting accelerometers data just by using DBUS. Instructions how to get and use it are [http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2009-September/054953.html here]
+
* Michael 'Mickey' Lauer wrote accelerometer plugin for fsodeviced. It will ease getting accelerometers data just by using DBUS. Instructions how to get and use it are '''[http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2009-September/054953.html here]'''.
pidgin-vibr is a plugin for Pidgin and other applications based on libpurple running on Openmoko's `Neo' series of smartphones. pidgin-vibr allows the Neo's vibrator to be used to notify the user of various IM events, such as incoming messages, buddy-logons. It does this via the freesmartphone.org D-Bus API.
Launcher provides an elegant way of grouping and launching applications. It features events notification too - missed calls and messages at the moment. It also has built in apps for contacts, sms and phonelog. Changes
The last patch needed to boot the Freerunner landed in Linux right before 2.6.32-rc6. While support for many features present in the modified versions of Linux running on most Freerunners still is missing it is verified to boot.
Sebastian Spaeth wrote a great summary of what is going on in SHR land for those that aren't reading the SHR mailing lists. You can read full thread here.
Matthias Breuel and Michael Tansella did a research project with the openmoko at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. They developed a Indoor navigation system with the Freerunner in C++/Qt. You can see a picture from the BNN newspaper. They want to thank for great support received from the Openmoko community. Special thanks go to Andy, who solved some Acc Kernel troubles over night and Mickey (freesmartphone team) whose dbus services did the low level programming.
Michael 'Mickey' Lauer wrote accelerometer plugin for fsodeviced. It will ease getting accelerometers data just by using DBUS. Instructions how to get and use it are here.
Editing: (08:05, 12 November 2009 (UTC)) This page is being edited by LeadMan: ADDING LAST NEWS BEFORE RELEASE, SHOULD TAKE ABOUT 2 HOURS, please do not release this CU yet.
If this note persists without edits in the history, feel free to remove the Editing template from the page.
Period 2009-10-29 to 2009-11-11
Distributions
Distro Name [version]
Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.Here comes some additional text to show you guys, how Template:DistributionBox will behave under heavy load of text. It is copied several times on purpose. This way you can see how layout would looke like if description of distribution is very complex or expanded.
pidgin-vibr is a plugin for Pidgin and other applications based on libpurple running on Openmoko's `Neo' series of smartphones. pidgin-vibr allows the Neo's vibrator to be used to notify the user of various IM events, such as incoming messages, buddy-logons. It does this via the freesmartphone.org D-Bus API.
Launcher provides an elegant way of grouping and launching applications. It features events notification too - missed calls and messages at the moment. It also has built in apps for contacts, sms and phonelog. Changes
Community
The last patch needed to boot the Freerunner landed in Linux right before 2.6.32-rc6. While support for many features present in the modified versions of Linux running on most Freerunners still is missing it is verified to boot.
Thommas Zimmerman wrote a great summary of what is going on in SHR land for those that aren't reading the SHR mailing lists. You can read full thread here.
Matthias Breuel and Michael Tansella did a research project with the openmoko at the KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) in Germany. They developed a Indoor navigation system with the Freerunner in C++/Qt. You can see a picture from the BNN newspaper here. They want to thank the great support received from the Openmoko community. Special thanks go to Andy(-tracking) who solved some Acc Kernel troubles over night and Mickey+ (freesmartphone team) whose dbus services did the low level programming for us.
Michael 'Mickey' Lauer wrote accelerometer plugin for fsodeviced. It will ease getting accelerometers data just by using DBUS. Instructions how to get and use it are here
|
2024-01-10T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/9776
|
Chapter Eleven
A big decision was about to be made tonight, a decision that was years in the making. It was a decision that would shape the future of these two girls' lives from here on out, and after a lot of soul searching, and long conversations, the couple were about to make their final decision.
This was it, today was the day Elsa put in her application to North Mountain University.
Anna had sent in her own applications to both North Mountain and Arendelle U, she had sent in the latter first even though she already knew that she would go with her girlfriend to NMU. Now she was just helping Elsa with her own application. They discussed their future many times over the past few weeks, and while Elsa still wasn't sure what she would do degree-wise, she at least knew that going to a college was her best bet to truly figure out where she was going to go next in life.
North Mountain University wasn't Anna's first choice. After going on a tour to both schools, reading through their curriculums, and personally contacting culinary professors at each school, she was still certain that Arendelle University was the better option. But she decided that staying with Elsa, having a future with her, was more important.
Anna sat at Elsa's dining room table scrolling through the rest of Elsa's application essay to check for any grammar or spelling mistakes, noting that it was nearly unblemished and amazingly thorough. Elsa had a knack for words, she always had. "Remind me again why you needed me to read through this? It's pretty much perfect, Elsa.", she asked.
"It's not perfect! But it will be once you work your magic on it.", Elsa replied from her kitchen. "And how in the hell are we already out of milk?", she muttered to herself.
"Magic? Please, judging by this essay, if anyone has magic it's you."
"You can turn raw eggs and flour into something people would gladly pay hundreds of dollars for, if that's not magic then I don't know what is." Elsa continued to peer into the fridge, hoping that if she looked hard enough something she actually wanted to eat would appear. She sighed and slammed the fridge door shut, causing three folded pieces of paper to flutter to the ground in front of her. Elsa picked them out of their descent, waved away the thin layers of dust, and eyed the papers curiously. The first page had her name on it, and it was dated two years ago, but they didn't look very familiar. It was only until she started to read through the first few sentences that she realized the treasure she had stumbled upon.
"Yeah funny story about that, turns out that baking skills don't translate very well when it comes to writing essays. I'm serious Elsa, this essay looks fine, better than fine actually. NMU would be a fool not to take you in." Anna waited for Elsa to quip back but no response came.
"Elsa?" Still no answer. She got up out of the chair and walked towards the kitchen, only to see the blonde looking through the old papers with a dumbfounded expression on her face, as if she had just found the cure to cancer on top of her fridge. "Elsa, what's up?"
Elsa looked at Anna, and then back to the papers, and then back at Anna again with her expression unchanged. "This is my essay…", she said breathlessly, "This is my essay from freshmen year, remember the one I wrote about me wanting to be a CEO?"
Anna blinked, trying to remember back to two years ago. "I…kinda remember it, yeah. What about it?"
"Anna, there's…a lot of things here that I forgot I wrote. I was so motivated to become a CEO and suddenly I wasn't, but reading through this is making me realize that that determination isn't all gone." There was a brightness in Elsa's eyes and in her smile that Anna hadn't seen before, it looked great on her but at the same time it made Anna anxious to see where Elsa was going with this. "Anna…ever since we started dating you're the only one I ever thought about; I'm starting to realize that that's why it's been so hard for me to know what I want to do after high school, because all this time I just cared about being with you."
She excitedly pointed to the essay, "But reading this, and realizing who I was and what I wanted before we were together, I finally remember what I want to do with my life. I want to be a CEO!"
Anna wanted nothing more than to be fully supportive and excited for Elsa, but the anxiety was still there. So when she replied with "Elsa, that's great! I'm so happy for you!", she said so with a weariness that couldn't be contained.
Elsa picked up on it right away, she set paper down on the kitchen counter and looked at her girlfriend concerned, "Anna what's wrong? No offense, but you don't sound very happy for me."
"No I am, I really am! It's just…", Anna sighed. "…what does that mean for us?" Anna felt that she had reason to be nervous, Elsa did sound like she was setting off on a new plan that didn't sound like Anna had any room in. If that was the case, she just wanted to be told now instead of figuring it out later.
"What does it mean for us?" It took a second for Elsa to realize what Anna was really asking, and once she did she laughed. "Anna, it means that when we go to NMU, we're both going to know exactly what we're doing there. It means that I finally know what my dream is: to become a CEO, and to do it with you at my side."
"You mean that?"
Elsa looked at the overly concerned redhead with amusement and endearment, and she kissed her as a means of showing her that she was speaking the truth. "Of course I mean it. You're gonna be the best damn baker in the world, and I'll be the one writing your checks…probably."
Anna scoffed, but didn't say anything.
"You and I are gonna run this city, and we're gonna do it together."
Elsa tried to shake that particular memory from her mind, trying instead to focus on not flipping this damn table over, grabbing this redhead by the shoulders, and getting the answers that she wanted.
…wow, okay that was…a little aggressive.
As far as opening lines go, commenting on the inner machinations of a cash register wasn't the best; it also wasn't the worst, but it certainly wasn't the best. Elsa needed a way to get Anna's attention, though, and that's how she got it.
However, they were both now caught in a spiraling sense of awkwardness and aggravation that engulfed them and rendered them unable to get the next appropriate word in. All they could do was stare at each other, Anna looking like she had seen a ghost and Elsa looking like she'd rather be a ghost, so she could she just fade away instead of suffering through this.
After all the bravado, the determination, the confidence she mustered just walking over here, Elsa was finally realizing the stupidity of coming over here without a plan. What she wanted to say, and what she had to say, were at war in her mind. The stalemate that occurred had kept her from speaking.
She knew that intimidating someone who was technically her employee would brutally damage her reputation, and it would most likely make Anna less, not more, inclined to answer her. All she could reasonably do was start off casually and somehow ramp the conversation up in a short amount of time.
Apparently, Anna had the same idea.
"How are you?", both women said at the exact same time, making this even more awkward than before.
The two were silent once again, but time was not on Elsa's side, and so she took it upon herself to break the tension. She cleared her throat and put her hands behind her back, "I trust that business has been going well, Ms. Dawson."
Anan regretted letting Elsa be the one to start the conversation as soon as she addressed her as "Ms. Dawson". It guaranteed that nothing real was going to come out of her flawless lips. But if that's the game Elsa wanted to play, if they were going to try and fake professionalism and pretend there wasn't something else underneath the surface, then Anna would do the same. Even if she wasn't as good as the literal CEO.
"Business has been…fine, thank you for asking Els-Ms. Andersen. Thank you for having us.", Anna replied politely.
"I'm glad to hear that." Elsa said, dismissing Anna's pretend gratitude. "The Arendelle Festival is all about boosting the revenue of local businesses, hopefully the both of you have been doing just that. The end of the month isn't that far off."
Anna was now both intrigued and anxious. Was Elsa about to address the elephant in the room? She decided to test the waters, "Me and Rapunzel are very aware of that, but trust me when I say that we're gonna get your money." Unfortunately, Anna had no idea how to continue being a legitimate professional.
Her completely unsubtle remark seemed to take Elsa by surprise, however, judging by the furrowing of her brow and how she opened her mouth to speak but didn't.
Elsa coughed, "Well, uh…that's also good to hear. We have high standards here at ArenCorp and…I'm sure that…how much for something to eat?"
Anna knew now that she had no idea what was going on anymore. At first it seemed like Elsa just wanted to pretend that nothing had happened, and now it seemed like they were going to be…ugh, it just didn't make sense anymore. Regardless, Anna continued to play along, even though she still didn't know what she truly wanted to say to Elsa. "Well this isn't…really a restaurant. I mean we've got a menu so I guess it might be, but you kinda just tell me what you want and if it's not up here I can get it from the back."
"Oh…cool.", Elsa scanned the display cases- did she really just say "cool"?- and pointed to one in particular. "I'll take that chocolate chip cookie right there, it looks good."
"Sure, coming right up.", Anna said as she got to work grabbing a cookie for Elsa instead of clearing the air and saying…whatever it is she wanted to say.
Elsa hated herself for letting it come to this. Despite her feelings, she did actually want to warn Anna about SIBC, then somehow transition this into having the conversation they should have had years ago, but she got cold feet at the worst possible time and instead decided to act like things were perfectly fine. She had dug herself into a pretty big hole, she even said cool.
As Anna went to grab the cookie from the display case, put it into a paper bag with the bakery logo stamped on the front, all that Elsa could think was, "I don't want this damn cookie."
And as Anna struggled with the cash register and punched in the code to make a transaction, all that Elsa could think was, "I really don't want this damn cookie."
And as Anna finally succeeded in making the transaction, and awkwardly handed her the cookie, all Elsa could think as she took a bite without trying to make eye contact was, "I don't want this damn, delicious cookie."
It had been years since she'd had one of Anna's baked goods, she hated that she loved every bite of it. Worst of all was that- whether it was on purpose or not- Anna looked at her with that same expectant look she would always have whenever Elsa taste-tested any of her batches.
Anna would always experiment with her formulas- tweaking the amount of baking soda she used, setting the oven at different temperatures than before, etc.- and every time she would ask Elsa how that certain batch tasted, she would always give her honest opinion. She would tell Anna if they tasted a little burnt, or just a little more bitter than before, sometimes she would even say that Anna should stop tweaking the formula because she had gotten it down perfectly (of course, whenever Elsa would say that Anna would go ahead and make a new modified batch anyway). This time, however, as Elsa finished her cookie, all she said was "It's…good."
And she could see it in Anna's eyes, she could see that Anna was thinking back to the exact same memories, back to the comments of old, back to…before. She could see the shadow of disappointment behind those emerald eyes, even if it was only for a second. "Thank you.", was all Anna could say.
After swallowing her food, Elsa decided to ditch any pretense and finally start saying what she came here to say. She was running out of time, and needed to get actual prepared words out of her lips before she retreated back into her bitterness and accomplished nothing out of this encounter.
"Why'd you do it?"
The word suddenly got a lot smaller for Anna; she wasn't sure if she had heard Elsa correctly. Did she just ask Anna the one question she was waiting, eagerly and anxiously, to hear?
And then, as Anna shuffled out of her failed façade as a consummate professional, and willed herself to answer, she realized that she had no idea why she was so eager to hear that. It meant digging through the skeletons in her closet and pulling out the biggest, most wedged in one, and finally coming clean to not only Elsa, but to herself.
Why in the world did she think she was prepared for this?
The short answer was that she didn't. So instead of answering Elsa straight away, Anna decided to stall. She let out the fakest cough she could and stuttered out "Wh-what?"
But by the look in Elsa's eyes, one she had been all-too-familiar with before, she knew that this was a woman on a mission, a woman determined to get an answer one way or another. "You heard me, Anna."
Anna. She had heard her name come out of the mouths of hundreds of people before, but no one said it like Elsa did. No one said it in a way that sounded like they had rehearsed it to perfection, no one said it in a way that made her this breathless, hopeless, and helpless. Anna knew she was in trouble, and took one cautious step away from the table. "I…hardly think this is the right place or time to talk about this."
"Then when will it be the right time and place? It's been four years, Anna, and the fact that we keep running into each other like this…it can't be a coincidence. Aren't you tired of lying to yourself? Because I know I am."
This wasn't good, when this finally happened Anna was hoping she would have more control than this, a stupid idea in hindsight. She backed away from the table completely and walked over to the other side of the booth. "I…Elsa I want to tell you, but I just-"
"You just what?", Elsa quickly made her way to where Anna was like a fox encircling a rabbit that strayed too far from its burrowing grounds. "You just can't? You can't tell me why you did what you did? Do you think the truth will hurt me? Because I'm telling you it won't, nothing you can say could hurt more than…"
There it was, the opportunity Anna needed to gain some leverage, it was short and fleeting but still better than nothing. Deciding not to waste any time, she pressed further, "More than what, Elsa?"
Elsa. She had heard her name come out of the mouths of thousands of people before, but no one said it like Anna did. No one said it in a way that made it seem like she was the only one in the world who mattered. No one said it in a way that made her feel empowered, safe…and helpless. Elsa knew that she had given up a bit of leverage in…whatever was going on between them right now, and regretted it completely.
Once again, her emotions had gotten the best of her, made her reckless, and made her say things she didn't mean to. Once again, she was paying for it. Why couldn't she just stick to only warning her about SIBC?
"More than what, Elsa?", Anna asked her with a genuine look of concern.
Elsa had to look away, it sickened her that after all that had happened between them, Anna would still show her emotions like concern. There was no way she would tell Anna that nothing she said would hurt her more than the four years of not knowing a damn thing, that would be giving up too much leverage; and if she was going to get the information she needed, then she had to have as much of that as possible.
Instead she backtracked, tried to bring the conversation around to how it started. "Why'd you do it, Anna?", she repeated.
Anna knew what she was doing, she knew that Elsa wasn't going to disclose anything else, so she had two options: she could either continue to question Elsa further and possibly drive her farther away than before, or concede defeat and finally answer the question.
And even though she knew it was wrong, Anna chose the former.
She shook her head, "No…that's not…you don't get to do that, Elsa. You don't get to clam up just as we're about to finally get this all out in the open."
"Gee that's a little rich coming from you, don't you think?", Elsa bit back right away. "You telling me to explain myself when I've been waiting for an explanation for so long. No more running, Anna, you're gonna tell me why you did what you did. And you're gonna tell me now."
Anna's throat grew dry as she found herself at a loss for words at the worst possible time. She wanted to argue against Elsa's accusations but found herself physically and realistically unable to do so. Because Elsa was right, she was running away from this, but the relentless pursuit from Elsa was making her less inclined to speak instead of more.
"Why did you do it, Anna?"
She felt trapped, no she was trapped. Trapped inside the confines of her booth, unable to escape; and sure she could just as easily duck underneath the tables and blend in with the festival crowd, but she knew that Elsa would find her. Elsa would always find her.
"Why did you do it?!"
The need to actually speak to Elsa and the need for her to just get away from all this was tearing her up. She looked at Elsa with pleading eyes, on the verge of tears even, just begging for some reprieve, but all she found in Elsa's eyes was a woman hell-bent on getting the answers she rightfully deserved. With her heart racing and her brain on overdrive, Anna opened her mouth to speak, hoping that some sort of divine force would take over and just speak for her.
"Ms. Andersen!"
But before that could happen, another saving grace came their way in the form of the family she had helped out before.
Elsa heard her name, her professional name, being called by an unfamiliar voice. She quickly wiped away the look on her face and turned away from the booth with the pseudo-genuine smile she practiced in the mirror every day.
In front of her stood a father carrying two overflowing bags, a daughter with muffin crumbs on her dress, and a mother with an apologetic look on her face. "So sorry to bother you…", the mother said, "but our daughter is a big fan of yours and if it wasn't any trouble we were wondering if she could get a picture with you."
At first Elsa was taken aback at the request, she had been asked to have her picture taken before, but never with a child. Being a young CEO obviously meant a lot of exposure, she had been interviewed by more magazines and talk shows than she could count, but she had no idea that she had reached the kind of celebrity status that warranted even children being fans of hers. It wasn't as if she was in movies or TV shows or anything, all she did was make corporate decisions all day and do paperwork, not exactly a glamorous job to have, and not one she expected children to aspire to be.
Did this make her a role model now? Because if that was the case, then…this kid probably needed to find a better one.
She would be crazy to say all this to a family, and especially to a child. So all she did was nod and say, "It's no problem at all."
"Oh thank you so much!", the mother replied excitedly. She took her daughter's hand and led her towards Elsa, wiping the crumbs off her dress. "Just stay right there honey, okay?"
As the parents fumbled for one of their phones, Elsa looked down at the little girl by her side, who was looking at her wide-eyed and excited like she was meeting a superhero. It felt a little weird, but if Elsa was being honest with herself it felt a little good too. She hadn't been looked at with that much genuine admiration in a long time.
"Alright honey, just look at the camera and smile!"
Elsa looked away from the little girl, folded her hands in front of her, and smiled politely. She waited for the mother to finish taking as many pictures as she wanted. Once she was done, Elsa loosened up her posture and the little girl walked back towards her family, still star-struck.
"Thank you once again for doing this for us, our daughter gets so excited everytime we see you on TV."
"Oh, well it's no problem at all. And I'm glad to hear that.", Elsa couldn't help the blush forming on her cheeks after hearing such unexpected flattery. And as much as she may have wanted to hear more, she regrettably had to make sure this conversation finished soon. She was still, after all, in the middle of something a bit more important. "It's so nice to know that I may have just taken a picture with the next CEO of ArenCorp."
Seeing the little girl's face light up, and hearing the parents let out a chuckle, Elsa knew that her amusing comment had hit the mark. "Well we should probably get going, thank you so much Ms. Andersen, for the festival and for the picture."
"It's my pleasure.", Elsa replied. As she waited for the family to walk away, she noticed a faint, familiar glimmer from one of the bags, and the unmistakable shine reflecting off a sapphire orb.
Elsa let out a sigh of relief and rolled her shoulders, ready to get back to her previous, scathing conversation from before.
But when she turned around towards the bakery booth, she found herself completely alone. Anna was nowhere to be found.
Anna stayed as silent as possible inside the back tent of the bakery, which was incredibly difficult amidst her own panicked breaths and the volunteers continuously asking if she was alright.
No, Anna was definitely not alright, her scorned lover was just behind the tent flap waiting for her to give her the answers she couldn't even say herself. The words were ninety-nine there, but it was that one percent that was holding her back. That one percent that told her she wasn't ready for the blowback, that one percent that said that if Elsa was acting like this without knowing the whole truth, imagine how she would act like once she did.
So instead of speaking to anyone or acknowledging that anyone else was inside this tent with her, she continued to try and catch her breath and pretend she was literally anywhere else, in a different time or place where she didn't have any problems, where she hadn't ruined everything.
The world passed all around her in a muted blur. Minutes passed, maybe even hours or days, she wasn't entirely sure. She stayed in her not-so-secluded corner until two hands on her shoulders shook her back to reality, Rapunzel's hands.
"Anna!", Rapunzel cried out. "Holy crap what happened to you? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Anna took a minute to remind herself of her surroundings; she had taken shelter below a table with a dwindling supply of donuts, and joining the group of concerned volunteers was Rapunzel and a new guy she had only seen once in passing talking to one of the volunteers. Slowly, Anna got up, wiping the dirt off her jeans and looked at her friend with eyes glazed over. "I…may as well have." she replied.
"What are you…oh…she finally came around here, huh?" Rapunzel's face changed from one of concern to one of what seemed like disappointment over how Anna handled the situation she knew she would have to face today.
"Who came around here?" the new guy asked curiously.
"It's uh…some girl that Anna was with a few years back, it was a messy breakup and all that, you know how it is." Rapunzel replied. Anna wanted to correct her, but felt it wasn't necessary, plus it would mean giving out information she hadn't even told her yet.
The man nodded and looked towards Anna, "So are you okay? I can go get one of the EMTs here to check you out."
Anna shook her head, "No thanks, I'll be fine. It's just…it still hurts a little bit, even now. I'm okay, really, and I'm ready to get back to work. We don't want the customers thinking we've closed up shop, right?"
Rapunzel didn't reply, she looked back at her new friend and then back at Anna like a doctor about to administer bad news. "That's kinda what we wanted to talk to you about."
Another jolt ran down Anna's spine, this one a bit more dulled and she wasn't sure whether that was because the first one was worse, or because it had already taken its toll before and she was less susceptive to the shock. "What happened? How long was I out? Is the festival already over?"
"No no, it's only been like ten minutes we're still okay.", Rapunzel reassured her before continuing. "But, well, you've heard of the Southern Isles Baking Company, right?"
"Of course I have, I used that panini press I bought from them back in college pretty much 24/7. Not sure what they have to do with us though."
"Well me and Flynn were walking around the festival a bit, and it turns out they have a booth set up today. It looked like they had just gotten here recently since they were still setting things up, but once they get rolling Anna…we're gonna be in big trouble. Everyone knows who they are, and they have like a whole kitchen set-up like they're hosting Iron Chef or something."
"That…", Anna took a second to let their new dilemma sink in. "…yeah that does sound like a problem. You're the business expert here, what do you think we should do?"
If there wasn't doubt in Rapunzel's eyes before, there definitely was now. She knew this uphill battle they were facing had just gotten a lot steeper. Still, behind the doubt Anna could see the gears turning in her friend's mind. "We just have to keep doing what we're doing, but also make sure that people know that this is a festival made to celebrate the local businesses of Arendelle. I'm not even sure how they even got a booth, but they did. We can't bash on their product because it's unfortunately really good and they just had that recent campaign to promote how organic they were, we need to let people know, though, that they can find that same quality right here in Arendelle."
"You really think our food is just as good as the SIBC?", Anna said wearily.
"Not as good, but better.", Rapunzel smiled. "The question is if you think our food's better than theirs. You're what makes this all work, remember? I can talk a big game, but in the end it's you who has to deliver."
"Gee thanks for not putting so much pressure on me.", Anna replied sarcastically. "But…you've got a point, and I do believe in us and what this place can be."
Rapunzel smiled and patted Anna's shoulder, "There's the Anna I know and love, now let's get out there and do what we do best."
"I can help too, by the way.", Flynn spoke up before they could open the curtain and return to the outside world. "I can already tell that you two have something special here, and I'd be kind of a jerk if I didn't lend you both a hand."
Rapunzel let go of Anna's shoulders and looked at Flynn with an admiration and infatuation that Anna had never seen from her friend before, it actually made her feel a bit happier in the process. "We'd love your help!" Rapunzel exclaimed without even consulting her partner, who honestly didn't mind in the slightest. "But how?"
Flynn winked and simply said "Just trust me." before walking out to do whatever it was he was going to do. At his exit, the rest of the volunteers continued working as well with an instilled sense of determination to help out in any way they could as well, leaving Anna and Rapunzel standing in front of the curtain awkwardly.
"Well that just kinda happened." Anna remarked. "So that's Flynn, huh?"
"Yup, that's Flynn.", Rapunzel replied dreamily. "Isn't he great?"
Anna was still happy for her friend for finding a guy who made her glow with just a smile and a few choice words, but she also found it a bit strange. She just chalked that up to never seeing her friend act like this before, however, and conceded that it would take some getting used to if this went the distance. "So you ready to get back to work?", she said changing the subject.
Rapunzel snapped out of her trance, "Right! Work! We have a job to do, sorry." She rolled her shoulders and let out a deep breath, "Are you ready?"
That was a more loaded question than it had any business being, because Anna knew that saying yes meant she had to be more engaged and focused than she ever had been to fight for this bakery, to fight for their future. But she also knew that saying yes meant saying she was ready for whatever would happen for their bakery, for their future, and…for when Elsa inevitably found her again. What if she was still at their booth?
She didn't know if she was strong enough to open that curtain, all she knew was that she had to. So when Rapunzel asked her if she was ready, all she could do was push through all the doubts and fears in her mind, and say "Ready."
Elsa didn't stick around for too long after Anna's disappearing act, Hannah had come back to make sure they were on time to see the rest of the booths, and she figured that there was still time in the day to circle back to the bakery anyway.
She wandered around the rest of the festival with her assistant, who did most of the talking for them. Elsa just did her best to keep on a professional smile as to not arouse any suspicion by any of the festival-goers. Her thoughts, obviously, were still on the bakery, and unfortunately with Anna, but didn't want to bring any attention to herself.
After the adrenaline fell of, she wondered if she had handled that situation well. Someone could have seen them, and probably did. By all accounts, she should have handled that situation much better, but she just couldn't with Anna. After so long, she deserved to get some answers by any means possible.
For now, however, she needed to at least pay a little bit of attention to her surroundings instead of someone that shouldn't be so prevalent in her mind. After visiting a booth that exclusively sold carpets, she and Hannah were on the move again.
"We're making good time, only a few booths left that I feel you should definitely visit and then we'll be done.", Hannah remarked as she typed something on her tablet. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine.", Elsa replied monotonously.
Hannah, persistent and observant as she was, didn't find that answer convincing at all. "Are you sure? Because you usually don't tell me to go busy myself while you go do…whatever it is you went to do. And about that, is there something you're not telling me?"
"Hannah I don't pay you to bug me about my personal life.", Elsa said coldly. "Let's just keep going, you said we're almost done right?"
"Y-yeah…I did."
Elsa immediately regretted the harsh words she had said to Hannah, this whole Anna thing was messing with her mind too much. She wanted to tell Hannah that she was doing fine as her assistant, and that she herself was caught up in a big mess and was taking it out on her, but all she did instead was spit out a quick "I'm sorry."
Hannah didn't respond, and they continued to walk in silence until they found a booth that caught Elsa's eye, and she made her way over there without waiting for Hannah to realize where she was going.
Because her life wasn't already a big pile of crap, she realized that in her tirade against Anna she forgot to mention the fact that there was some unneeded competition here at the festival. And now, as she found herself at the front of the booth for the Southern Isles Baking Company, she realized just how big of a mistake she made.
The first thing she noticed about the booth was that it didn't have any of the signature Arendelle purple and green, the navy blue and crimson stood out mockingly as much as the name written in gold calligraphy. The front end was as large as an actual storefront, there was no need for tables to set the blue display cases on since they were tall enough to stand on their own, two cash registers were set at both ends of a wooden table and in the middle of them was a cookie decorating station for people to have their cookies customized with frosting and decorations.
She also noticed that they weren't even done setting up yet; the front end was mostly ready aside for the food being stacked into the display cases, but the massive back tent was still being stocked with not just food, but also high-end baking equipment to make even more food in case the truckload they brought wasn't enough. Apparently, they didn't understand the meaning of the word "overkill".
The workers wore navy blue polos with the gold logo stitched onto the left side and black pants, they all had plastered-on smiles like they got paid for how much teeth they showed. Everything about the set-up and the people made it look so fake, but they knew that everyone would buy their product anyway so they kept with the charade because it worked. It made Elsa's blood boil.
Everything about the Southern Isles conglomerate made her uneasy, business-wise they stood for all the things that she didn't. They made money at the sake of their integrity, they gave up on the idea of being real just to make a few more cents. Watching this scene unfold caused Elsa to unconsciously clench her fists like she was going to tear this temple down, and maybe she would have if someone hadn't noticed her standing there this whole time.
"Hey lady, you just gonna stand there the whole time?"
Elsa looked to see one of the workers manning the cash register staring at her like she had something on her face. He was a chubby, middle-aged man with a bushy, black beard with a face perpetually stuck being as pissed off as possible, like an anti-Santa Claus. She wanted to fire back and remind this ignoramus about who she was, but she had to keep her cool, if not for her, then for her company. "I'm sorry, I just didn't expect any new arrivals to come this late to the festival. This is…quite a booth that you have set up here."
"Yeah well if you think this is big, you should see the HQ back home." He opened the register and counted the money inside. "So what are you, like the supervisor or something?"
"Uh, no actually. My name's Elsa Arendelle, I'm the CEO of ArenCorp.", she did her best to hide the smugness in her voice but couldn't contain all of it.
"Oh yeah now I remember, saw you a couple weeks ago on TV.", he looked up and sleazily eyed Elsa from top to bottom. "Lemme tell ya, you look even better in person."
"…thank you?", Elsa instinctively hugged herself to cover her clothed chest, finding anti-Sana Claus' gaze uncomfortable. "So, uh…who authorized your bakery to be here today?"
The man shrugged, "I'm just here so I can get paid, you think I know anything about any authorizing? All I know is the boss man gets a call early in the morning, and next thing I know I'm on a truck on my way to…what's this place called again?"
"Arendelle.", Hannah replied.
"Yeah, Aren…whatever. If I had my way, I'd be back home right now sleeping the day away, but a paycheck's a paycheck. I'm sure you know what that's like, right Ms. CEO?"
Elsa bit her tongue, she knew that nothing nice or professional would come out of her mouth if she spoke right now, so Hannah spoke for her. "You guys do know that this festival is meant to celebrate the local businesses here in Arendelle, right? Last time I checked, the Southern Isles Baking Company isn't anywhere near our city."
"Yeah and last time I checked I'll do anything for an extra payday.", the man quipped back. "Look if you've got any complaints, don't take them up to me I just work here. Talk to the manager if you want some answers."
It was then that Elsa noticed that amidst the sea of blue shirts preoccupied with unloading the truck and setting up the booth was a man in an Arendelle Festival shirt, with a baseball cap and jeans casually walking away from the crowd of people and towards the truck.
"And where is your manager?", Hannah asked.
"Back home.", the man let out a belly-rattling laugh like that was the funniest joke ever told. "Yeah it's his kid's birthday today, little guy's turning seven."
Elsa kept her attention shifting between the rude cashier and this new development unfolding just a few feet away from them. He looked vaguely familiar, but Elsa didn't know why, and there was something wrapped in a cloth in his right hand. He walked confidently and without suspicion, so no one stopped him as he got closer and closer to the truck.
"So then who's the one in charge today?"
"Well, that would be the assistant manager, but she's got some 'important business to attend to.' And then there's the supervisors, which would be me and some kid who just got promoted like a week ago. But I…don't think I saw him on the truck so I guess he's not on the clock today either.", he talked as if nothing in the world mattered but getting paid and going home. "Yeah so…huh, I guess I'm in charge."
The sheer inadequacy on display right in front of her made Elsa more pissed off than she had been before. At first, she wondered why the SIBC would tarnish their reputation by sending someone so incompetent at answering the simplest of questions, and then she realized that this festival was so below their radar that they didn't care for sending anyone even semi-decent at their job. Which is why she didn't say anything as the suspicious man, now next to the open driver-side door of the truck, unfolded the cloth to unveil a brick, hopped into the truck, and hop out as it started to roll forward.
"If you're the one in charge…", Elsa started, taking the reins back in this conversation, "…then why don't you know who authorized you guys to be here? I feel like your higher-ups should have at least told you that."
"Yeah well they didn't, all they said was to load a truck with some stuff we couldn't sell this week and go to this festival in Arendill."
"Arendelle."
"Whatever, my point is that you two are being a real big distraction right now. So if you excuse us, we gotta get to work-"
Suddenly he was interrupted as the truck crashed right through the fence and started rolling towards the intersection. Frantic volunteers and SIBC workers alike ran towards the runaway truck as its contents started to spill out onto the grass- baking equipment was being tossed around, cookies and donuts were knocked out of their boxes, and workers still in the back of truck bailed out.
And Elsa, once again, bit her tongue, not to keep from saying something crass, but to keep her from laughing. Because even though the truck may have hit someone, and even though it could crash into one of the buildings or into a car, it was still a wonderful sight to behold, a bit of karmic justice. Even the incompetent supervisor had ditched his station to run as fast as he could towards the truck.
Elsa looked at Hannah, who, just like the rest of the festivalgoers who had stopped in their tracks, stood slack-jawed and dumbfounded at the events that were unfolding. She patted her shoulder and walked away from the scene of the crime. "We should go.", she said without looking back.
As it turned out, Anna and Rapunzel didn't need to work too hard trying to elevate their bakery over Southern Isles'. An accident involving a runaway truck caused the SIBC to close shop before they could sell a single pastry, so customers came flocking to their booth by the baker's dozen. Rapunzel, being the consummate professional that she was, took on the challenge with great ease, and even Anna to her credit hung in there as well. Together they functioned like a well-oiled machine, selling baked goods left and right as the remaining hours of the day continued to tick down.
Before they knew it, the day was over. As she heard the final band on stage play their final song, Anna helped Rapunzel serve the remaining customers left who weren't at the stage. Elsa came on immediately after and gave the concluding speech to officially end the day; and much like at the beginning of the day, Anna didn't find herself near the stage at all even though the storeowners were supposed to be there to hear it. Rapunzel didn't go either, partially to help the volunteers load up the van but mostly so Anna would have someone to lean on if she couldn't handle Elsa's voice coming from the speakers.
The sun had barely set over the Arendelle skyline, purple and green flags waved in the twilight's breeze, the lights on the fairgrounds illuminated the area which allowed people to still see where they were going as they flooded out of another successful Arendelle Festival. Anna couldn't help but watch the people walk out with a content smile on her face, sure today started off rocky and just got worse as it went on, but just being done made her feel relieved, maybe even a tiny bit happy.
The crowd got smaller and smaller until it was barely a trickle walking towards the exit. Some waved at her, others recognized the bakery from earlier and thanked Anna for her service for the day, which worked to brighten her mood some more.
She felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and saw her partner in crime looking out at the crowd with her, a genuine look of happiness on her own face. "What a day, am I right?", Rapunzel asked.
Anna let out a chuckle, "Yeah you could say that. How are the volunteers?"
"They're doing okay, judging by their faces though they're probably pretty beat. Most of the stuff is packed in the van and ready to go."
"That's good to hear. I think without them we probably would have gone insane today.", Anna said, with the irony of that statement not being lost on her.
"Yeah…", Rapunzel added dismissively. "How are you holding up?"
Anna sighed, "I…" She didn't want to lie to her best friend, but she also didn't know how to answer that. The impending conversation with Elsa over what happened four years ago was on the horizon, and if today was any indication, she was nowhere near ready for that conversation. "…I'm getting there.", she finally decided to say.
Rapunzel hugged her tighter, saying without words that she would be there for her no matter what; Anna, also, had no words to express how grateful she was to have her by her side. "We should get going, tomorrow's another day."
"I'll be right there, I just wanna stay out here a little longer.", Anna said. "I won't be too long."
"No it's okay, take as much time as you need. I should probably call Flynn before we get out of here anyway.", Rapunzel let go of Anna and went back inside the tent, leaving Anna alone once again to reflect on everything that happened.
Even though, she realized, there was nothing more she could reflect on. In fact, she had done way too much reflecting, she had spent way too much time thinking over what she'd done and what she'd say. Maybe, just maybe, she was more ready for this conversation than she first thought. The burden was becoming too much to bear at this point anyway, she had carried it for four years now, and the shock of seeing Elsa was starting to wear off, even if it was just a tiny bit.
Perhaps it was time for her to finally grow a spine and realize that there was no more running from this, it was no longer a matter of her being ready or not, she just had to do it. She just had to talk to Elsa, tell her everything. And whether that be in two weeks or two months, this had to all be out in the open.
No matter how uneasy she felt, this had to happen, one way or the other. With one more sigh to herself she uncrossed her arms and walked away from the plastic table, taking one last look out towards the nearly empty fairground. She turned to walk back towards the tent…
"Anna."
She had only taken one step before being stopped by an all-too-familiar voice. Anna turned back around and, for an unprecedented second time today, found herself face to face with Elsa under a circumstance that felt both similar and different from their recent encounters. Similar in the sense that seeing Elsa caused her to suddenly be out of breath and her heart to race, but different in the sense that she actually knew what Elsa was here for and what she was going to say.
"No more running, and no more hiding.", Elsa said coldly, her face partially hidden under the cover of darkness. "You're going to tell me why you did what you did, and you're going to tell me now."
A/N: I should put like a reference page after every chapter because you have no idea how much crap I don't know before writing each one. Like I had no idea what a panini press was before this chapter. Anyway, I'll see you guys again in like three months when I finally write the big reveal of why Elsa has such a big stick up her butt. Prepare for disappointment.
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2024-02-20T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/5702
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Abnormality in the cerebellar folial pattern of C57BL/6J mice.
The characteristic folial pattern of the mouse cerebellum is formed during postnatal development. We observed this process in C57BL/6J (B6) mice in detail, and found an abnormal folial pattern in a specific region (lobules VIII and IX of the vermis) in a substantial number of B6 mice. The frequency of this abnormality increased during postnatal development and reached 55% in the adult. Thus, the present study showed an abnormality in the cerebellar folial pattern of B6 mice, a mouse widely used in knockout studies, and called for caution in the phenotypic analysis of knockout mice of the B6 genetic background.
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2024-06-17T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/4497
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Phase change materials (PCMs) are used to store and release thermal energies through phase transformations—most commonly melting and crystallization. The energy which is stored and released in these transitions is known as latent heat, and latent heat storage is among the most effective techniques for storing thermal energy.
In commercial and industrial settings, several distinct classes of PCMs are used for heat storage. Different temperature ranges between the classes of PCMs generally dictates which type of PCM will be suitable for a specific application. PCMs are most often divided into classifications based on their chemical composition. Inorganic PCMs such as hydrated and molten salts are commonly used for high temperature applications, while organic PCMs such as fatty acids and paraffin waxes are used at lower temperatures. Paraffin waxes are one of the most widely used PCMs. The melting point of a paraffin wax is dependent on the number of carbon atoms in the paraffin and generally increases with the average carbon number.
Due to the environmental implications and increasing economic costs associated with limited oil reserves and corresponding increasing costs associated with petrochemicals, renewable alternatives for paraffin wax are attracting significant attention. Analysis of the constituents of paraffin waxes in candles shows that they also contain hazardous materials such as toluene, trichloroethylene, and a variety of alkanes and alkenes, many of which have unknown safety implications. Due to these toxicity issues and the non-renewability of the feedstock, interest and demand for other types renewable PCMs has been growing. Fatty acid derived materials are suitable candidates for the substitution of paraffin wax in many applications—they may be non-toxic, are renewable, and are less corrosive than inorganic PCMs. However, the fatty acid derived PCMs produced to date have melting temperature and latent heat values lower than those of paraffin wax, resulting in lower energy storage densities. For example, triglycerides have been transesterified with a short chain alcohol to create fatty acid alkyl esters for use as PCMs. In such applications, modifications of the feedstock's oil or hydrogenation of the double bond was reported to provide blends of fatty esters with varying melting points and latent heat values between 110-140 J/g. Although the PCMs that were produced are derived from renewable feedstocks, the melting points and latent heat values compare unfavorably with paraffins. Thus, use of these fatty acid alkyl ester PCMs would require a significantly larger PCM mass to store the same amount of thermal energy as paraffin waxes, which have been reported to have latent heats between about 146-210 J/g.
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2023-09-27T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/2597
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Fosdem folks
After some mails on the OSDEM mailing list, some people want to give their free times to feed the FOSDEM site with cool articles about previous edition, speakers that will come, open source and free software news.
You can contact these people thru the FOSDEM mailing list or directly for all suggestion/comment you want to see here.
There are of course many other people helping us to do lots of things. We especially need to thank the Cercle Informatique of the ULB who has helped us from the start and without who the FOSDEM would not be what it is today.
Other people we need to thank:
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2024-05-09T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/8995
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Michael Flynn informed the committee in a letter Tuesday he will provide some documents related to his two businesses,. | AP Photo Flynn to provide some documents in response to Senate subpoenas
Michael Flynn has now agreed to provide some documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation into Russia’s meddling in the presidential election.
The decision by President Donald Trump's former national security adviser comes after initially refusing last week to comply with an initial subpoena.
Flynn informed the committee in a letter Tuesday he will provide some documents related to his two businesses, along with some personal materials, according to a source close to Flynn who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Flynn is expected to begin providing documents on a rolling basis by June 6, the source said.
Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, informed the Senate Intelligence panel last week that Flynn would not comply with its first subpoena, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
But the panel’s leaders, Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), responded a day later by slapping Flynn with two new subpoenas aimed at his businesses, which the senators said were not shielded by the Fifth Amendment.
A spokesman for Warner declined to comment, and a spokeswoman for Burr did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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2024-02-06T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/2045
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Code.require_file "../../../installer/test/mix_helper.exs", __DIR__
defmodule PageController do
def init(opts), do: opts
def call(conn, _opts), do: conn
end
defmodule PhoenixTestWeb.Router do
use Phoenix.Router
get "/", PageController, :index, as: :page
end
defmodule PhoenixTestOld.Router do
use Phoenix.Router
get "/old", PageController, :index, as: :page
end
defmodule Mix.Tasks.Phx.RoutesTest do
use ExUnit.Case, async: true
test "format routes for specific router" do
Mix.Tasks.Phx.Routes.run(["PhoenixTestWeb.Router"])
assert_received {:mix_shell, :info, [routes]}
assert routes =~ "page_path GET / PageController :index"
end
test "prints error when explicit router cannot be found" do
assert_raise Mix.Error, "the provided router, Foo.UnknownBar.CantFindBaz, does not exist", fn ->
Mix.Tasks.Phx.Routes.run(["Foo.UnknownBar.CantFindBaz"])
end
end
test "prints error when implicit router cannot be found" do
assert_raise Mix.Error, ~r/no router found at FooWeb.Router or Foo.Router/, fn ->
Mix.Tasks.Phx.Routes.run([], Foo)
end
end
test "implicit router detection for web namescape" do
Mix.Tasks.Phx.Routes.run([], PhoenixTest)
assert_received {:mix_shell, :info, [routes]}
assert routes =~ "page_path GET / PageController :index"
end
test "implicit router detection fallback for old namescape" do
Mix.Tasks.Phx.Routes.run([], PhoenixTestOld)
assert_received {:mix_shell, :info, [routes]}
assert routes =~ "page_path GET /old PageController :index"
end
end
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2023-12-20T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/9983
|
I’ve been working on this post for longer than I’d like to admit. It all began with a lovely book I received for Christmas called Quench: Handcrafted Beverages to Satisfy Every Occasion. The photos are gorgeous and it has everything from shrubs to eggnog. I followed the Blood Orange Shrub recipe to the letter and enjoyed the tangy flavor it added to sparkling water.
However, my boyfriend likened it to drinking the liquid used to dye Easter eggs, so I decided to tweak the recipe a bit. Using rosemary simple syrup in place of sugar adds another flavor profile and sweetens it up a bit to balance the vinegar. I like this version better, though I haven’t persuaded him. More for me! My favorite way to drink this shrub is to pour a glug of it in a tall glass with a bit of ice and a lot of sparkling water. You may also use it for an alcoholic beverage by shaking 1 shot gin and 1 shot shrub over ice; strain into a cocktail glass and top with sparkling water.
Rosemary Simple Syrup
1 cup sugar 1 cup water 3 sprigs rosemary, mine were 3-4 inches long
Place ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer until the liquid has reduced in half, yielding a cup of syrup.
Blood Orange Rosemary Shrub
Combine ingredients in a large jar or other beverage container. Give it a shake. Add 1-2 tablespoons of shrub to flat or bubbly water. Store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months, though I don’t think it’ll take you that long to drink it down!
I spent a week in Arizona around the New Year holiday with a dear old friend who moved there a couple years ago. If you’re going to live in Seattle, it’s fortunate to have friends in sunny places. I’m blessed with friends in Arizona, California and Hawaii. The sun is always just a friend away.
There are lots of great reasons to visit Arizona during the winter and my favorite is picking ripe citrus fruit right from the tree. My friends have trees in their side yard, heavy with lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit. For a girl from the Northwest, I can liken this to Charlie being let loose in the Chocolate Factory. No matter how many we picked, the stash appeared unchanged. The concept of actually picking and eating all the fruit was impossible. Neighbors leave bags full of citrus by the mailboxes in hopes they’ll find good homes. It reminded me of what can happen with heaping zucchini harvests during the summer here in Seattle.
So, we had bowls of fruit at breakfast, Greyhounds and Moscow Mules for happy hour and this wonderful salad with dinner. Arriving home, I promptly purchased the ingredients and made it again. It tasted like a ray of sunshine on a grey January day, but it didn’t taste as good as when we picked the fruit ourselves. How could it? Make it anyway and dream of the blue skies citrus grows under.
Citrus Avocado Salad
To segment the citrus fruit, I cut away the peel and pith with a serrated knife. Then I remove each segment by cutting as close to the membrane as possible. What’s left is a juicy citrus skeleton of sorts. There’s a nice tutorial here.
“Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.” ~ George Carlin
When thinking of the future, it’s natural to look to the past to predict what’s to come. Surely, that’s a purpose of our lifelong experiences. After being burned, we learn to stay away from the fire. Unfortunately, this logic doesn’t leave much room for hope and possibility.
There are Seattle gardeners who grow large red tomatoes every year. I am not one of them. My cherry tomatoes ripen, but all the other varieties I’ve planted thrive into beautiful plants, heavy with green fruit. It doesn’t stop me from trying. I tell myself my garden doesn’t get enough sun (not now, nor in the half dozen other places I’ve lived).
Thus, I decided to make green tomato salsa again this year, well before the ripening season had ended. I have green tomatoes now, why wait for the red ones that may never come? This perspective may be considered negative or cynical, yet there’s something positive here too. I’m taking what I have now and making it great. And what do you know? Some of my romas are turning red after all.
Combine the tomatoes, onions, peppers, apples, garlic, vinegar, and salt in a large, nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about an hour.
Stir in the jalapenos and cumin and simmer for 5 more minutes. Add the cilantro. Carefully purée the mixture until still somewhat chunky. Keeps in the refrigerator for 3 weeks.
We’ve had quite a weather change in the last week. Fall is becoming undeniable. As I type, my dog is cowering from the pouring rain, thunder and lightning. I don’t want to see the summer weather end, but fall is always an exciting time for me. My birthday is in the fall, school begins, it truly feels like a new cycle. I’m interested in beginning projects or recommiting to the things that fell by the wayside during summer. I don’t get the same feeling on January 1st. Nothing dramatic seems to shift between December 31st and the new year. Right now though, that brisk air, blowing down the leaves, brings with it possibility.
Another thing I love about the fall is the abundance of produce. People are literally giving it away, which is how I came across these plums which grow all over the place in Seattle. Honestly, I hadn’t given them much attention before. I’m so glad I did this year because they are sweet and the skins aren’t too thick or tangy, something I don’t enjoy about other plum varieties. I’ve been making this clafouti recipe from Eating Well magazine for years, though this is the first time I’ve used the Amaretto it calls for. It adds so much flavor, I won’t go back to omitting it. In addition, I plan to revisit my 20s by making Amaretto sours with the leftovers.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10-inch round baking dish with butter. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar evenly over the bottom. Drain the plums, reserving the syrup. Arrange plums cut side down in the baking dish.
Use a whisk or handheld mixer to combine the eggs and 1/3 cup sugar until pale yellow. Add milk, flour, almond extract, salt, lemon zest, and the reserved syrup; beat well. Pour the batter over the plums, sprinkle with almonds and bake until puffed and golden, about 45 minutes. Let sit for 20 minutes, then dust with powdered sugar and serve warm or at room temperature.
I’ve been accused of taking my own sweet time. Some years ago, as I lagged behind, I was reprimanded for it, being told in an exasperated voice, “you have no sense of urgency!” It certainly wasn’t meant as a compliment and I had a hard time believing it could be true since being non-urgent sounded pretty terrible.
When I think back to that experience, it makes me laugh, because it is true! Relatively speaking, I have little sense of urgency. And it’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. In this world of busy people with booked schedules and harried lives, it may even be a revolutionary act.
Stir fry recipes like this red rice dish are relaxing for me as everything may be prepped ahead of time, at my leisure. Pour a glass of wine, turn up the music and chop. Order all your ingredients by the stove and calmly, expertly, add them one by one until you have this delicious meal. The recipe is adapted from The New Whole Grains Cookbook by Robin Asbell.
Fill a 4 quart saucepan 3/4 of the way with water and a pinch of salt. Put on the stove to boil. Once the water is boiling, add the red rice and turn down to a controlled boil, medium high should do it. Cook until the rice is tender to taste. Drain the water and set aside. I cook, peel and halve my eggs while the rice is boiling.
In a wok or large saute pan, heat oil over medium-high. Add the shallots, garlic, chile, ginger, coriander, carrot and green beans. Stir fry until the vegetables are brightly colored and crisp-tender.
Add the coconut milk, tamari and molasses to the wok and bring to a boil. Push the vegetables over to one side to make room for the eggs. Place eggs in the boiling sauce, cut sides down. Simmer for 2 minutes. Add cooked rice to the pan and combine the ingredients gently, until everything is heated through. Garnish with lime wedge, basil and macadamia nuts.
I did a definition search for the word decadent and was surprised to see that the least damning definition could still use some explaining.
Decadentnoun: 1. a person who is luxuriously self-indulgent
It’s actually a good fit, once I tell you that time is the greatest luxury. Time can’t be bought or sold. When time runs short, we can’t print off more like the central bank. I’ll also admit to being self-indulgent with my time. As we are so often reminded, there are only 24 hours in a day, and to spend a good portion of it strolling through the farmer’s market, cooking, eating and washing dishes feels luxurious to me. Well, maybe not the washing dishes part.
The pesto recipe I used is from Feeding the Young Athlete by Cynthia Lair. It’s a flavorful basic recipe that comes together quickly. I went a bit overboard with the pesto, practically finger painting it on all the ingredients. I suggest you learn from my delicious, yet heavy, mistake by setting half of it aside prior to assembling the gratin. Use leftover pesto with pasta, sandwiches, potatoes, eggs, meat, etc.
Breadcrumbs
3 ounces stale artisan bread
1 tablespoon butter
Warm a sauté pan to medium low heat. Slice bread into 2 inch cubes. Pulse in food processor until desired consistency, I like mine a little chunky. Melt butter in sauté pan and then add bread crumbs. Stir until fragrant and golden. Set aside.
Before measuring, remove stems from basil leaves. Rinse and spin dry the basil. Blend first five ingredients together in a blender or food processor until smooth. Place in a bowl and stir the parmesan into the basil mixture.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9″ baking dish with pesto. Line the bottom of the dish with alternating slices of zucchini, potatoes and summer squash; using half of these ingredients. Top this layer with all your cherry tomatoes and drizzle with pesto. Add one more layer of squash and potatoes. Drizzle on more pesto. Now add the breadcrumbs and bake for 40 minutes.
Purchasing a rotisserie chicken is a good way to limit your time in the kitchen on warm summer evenings. I’m a dark meat kinda gal and the legs go quick. I like to use the drier meat around the breastbone in soups and salads. I served this chicken salad on red leaf lettuce, though it would work in a sandwich or wrap as well.
Make dressing by whisking together mayo, honey, mustard, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper and paprika. Set aside. Use a small mixing bowl to combine chicken, grapes, celery and green onion. Drizzle dressing over the salad ingredients and mix well. Top with almonds.
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2023-11-27T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/3190
|
Pages
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Am I Missing Something?
I was reading a recent decision by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The question was whether an illegal alien enjoys the "right of the people to keep and bear arms." The Court of Appeals decided that he did not. I don't find their reasoning very persuasive, but what really confuses me is the sentence that Portillo-Munoz received for being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm: "The district court sentenced him to ten months imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release." I see no sign that the court ordered him deported.
This is a guy who was convicted of a crime in which a rather important component of the crime was being illegally in the United States--and yet I can't see any sign that anyone made any effort to deport him. Am I just stupid? What's the point of having someone on "supervised release" if he has been deported? And if he was not deported--what's going on here? I feel like a large white rabbit and a little English girl chasing him are going to run past me at any moment.
5 comments:
Both parties are making too much money and gaining too much power by milking the illegal alien problem for their personal gain.... That's my guess as to the answer of the question of why this problem is never fixed.
Now we have the border states so overrun with illegals that everyone elected in those states and national politicians are afraid to say or do anything that would offend the illegals in those states.
Short of putting the military (army and marines) on the border and going door-to-door in those states to round them up and deport them nothing is going to change. Even without the legal prohibition against that sort of thing doesn't seem very likely that will ever happen...
What if the tables were reversed and Americans of anglo descent were to illegally swarm into Mexico for jobs and social benefits? Does anyone think Mexico would tolerate it or would they put the Federales and Mexican Army on the border and machine gun those aglo-americans trying to illegally swarm into their country!
Who knows....with the way the economy is going thanks to idiots of both parties running DC that fantasy could become reality as Anglo-Americans lose their economic standing!
I fear the drug war and the money being made from that (not just from the selling of the drugs but also the so-called justice system) is another reason the illegal problem won't get fixed. After all if the borders were shut down the money from the war on drugs would slow down if not completely dry up!
There is a separate parallel structure for Immigration matters starting at the level of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers who can in certain cases order a deportation, going on to Asylum Officers who investigate asylum requests then to Immigration Judges who can order deportation in cases brought before them and culminating with the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). Normally in cases where a criminal charge which could make him deportable is lodged against an alien a detainer is filed with the arresting agency by an ICE or CBP officer. The detainer is an order to present the subject to the immigration authorities instead of releasing him when the subject has completed his sentence.
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2024-07-18T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/8377
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Scots couple face £135,000 bill for house they never owned
A COUPLE are facing a bill of more than £134,000 – for a home they didn’t buy.
In a landmark decision which could have profound implications for the property market inScotland, Dominic and Claire Taddei have been asked to pay the enormous sum by a construction company – despite not purchasing a house.
The couple could be landed with the massive bill after a misunderstanding about an offer they put in on a luxury property in Melrose in the Borders.
Dominic Taddei and his wife Claire thought their offer had not been accepted to buy the house
They believed their offer had not been accepted so they walked away from the deal – while the company selling the house believed the sale was going ahead.
And when the developers later sold the same property to a different buyer for a lower price, they sued the Taddeis for their lost earnings.
Experts yesterday said the ruling by a Scottish judge served as a stark warning to other would-be buyers about the unexpected dangers of negotiating to purchase a new home.
For the Taddeis, the case means they are facing a huge bill – without having anything to show for it.
Last night Mr Taddei, 34, who works for a mortgage company, said that what should have been the happy experience of buying a new home had become an ordeal.
Horrible
He said: ‘It’s still dragging on. It’s just been an absolute nightmare. It’s horrible.’
The saga began when Mr and Mrs Taddei became interested in buying a new home at the exclusive Trimontium Heights development being built by Pinecraven Construction at Melrose in the Scottish Borders.
In April 2007, they selected Plot 25 of the premium site, which sits above the town among woodland with views stretching out across the local golf course.
Pinecraven offered to sell the spot, with its soon-to-be-built spacious, modern home, for £445,000 and gave the couple a two-week deadline to respond.
After 13 days, the Taddeis accepted the developer’s offer on the condition part of a clause relating to resale would be deleted from the contract.
The time limit – of noon the following day – passed without further correspondence, which the couple took to mean that their offer had become null and void.
Although a £5,000 deposit was paid, the buyers formally withdrew their bid in June 2008.
When Pinecraven demanded completion of the sale in December of the same year, the pair refused, saying there was no contractual basis for doing so.
Market
Pinecraven Construction later managed to sell the property to another buyer but, as the UK property market slumped, the company received just £320,000.
Mr and Mrs Taddei, who have a young family, were then stung with court action asking them to make up the shortfall of £120,000 plus interest and expenses totalling more than £14,000.
They argued ‘no binding offer’ was made between the parties.
However, in a legal ruling in the Court of Session’s outer house, Lord Kinclaven decided in favour of the developer.
He ruled the term ‘qualified acceptance’ was no different from ‘acceptance’ and the couple had entered a legally binding contract.
Experts yesterday said the case served as a warning to other would-be buyers.
‘It’s essential you know you can proceed with the purchase at the end, because if not the loss and damages can be huge.
‘When you sign a contract, or allow a contract to be signed on your behalf, it is legally binding and you really should have done your homework beforehand because if you don’t you might find yourself bankrupt.’
Explaining the ruling, Mr Ferguson said: ‘The essential thing in dispute in this case is a technical point over a time limit inserted in the builder’s offer to sell.
‘While there was a qualified acceptance within the two-week time limit it was not an unqualified acceptance and the builder’s solicitors then issued an acceptance without either party deleting the original offer’s time limit.
‘The couple’s argument was that it was a condition there had to be completed missives by that date and there wasn’t, therefore the contract fell.
‘But the judge’s decision was that a qualified acceptance could count as an acceptance for the purposes of that time limit clause.
Sheriff Court
‘This case sets a precedent as it’s got more prestige than, say, a sheriff court having made that decision because the Outer House of the Court of Session is a tier above, but it could still go to the Inner House and I suppose it could go to the Supreme Court.
‘At the same time it’s now an authority on that point where there was no authority before.’
Mr Ferguson said the case is likely to divide opinion among the legal profession but believes the payment of a deposit indicates the buyers felt missives were concluded.
Scott Brown, partner at Warners Solicitors and Estate Agents, said: “It is no wonder people do not take a risk on going after a property if they can lose so much if they can’t honour the terms of their missives.
“When the market was much stronger, people were very happy to take a measured gamble on buying first and then feeling very confident that they could sell their own property in good time to complete the missives. But in today’s market, that risk is just too great.
“The case involving the Melrose property is thankfully an extreme example but it illustrates the sums that can be lost because the court can impose unlimited damages.”
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2024-01-17T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/3326
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Q:
Django switch database dynamically
I'd like to switch databases upon user login. I've created this login signal.. but it doesn't work
from django.dispatch import receiver
from django.contrib.auth.signals import user_logged_in
from django.db import connections
@receiver(user_logged_in)
def db_switch(sender, **kwargs):
user_db = 'userdb_%s' % kwargs['user'].username
cursor = connections[user_db].cursor()
The databases are defined in settings.py. Do I have to make this cursor global? Or is this all the way wrong way of doing it?
Thanks!
A:
It's the wrong way of doing it.
Honestly I don't think there is a straightforward, stable way of doing this in Django. It's just not designed for it.
Instead, I'd set up a settings_username.py file for each user, which specifies a secondary database called personal or something. Then, after logging, have them redirect to a new domain, like username.example.com, which uses a unique .wsgi file that pulls in the settingsusername.py file.
Now, as far as the system is concerned, each website is totally separate and unique to that user. Just make sure to set the session cookie to example.com so that they're still logged in when they go to their user website.
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2024-07-18T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/5549
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comment
September always feels a bit like the new year in a way -- with back to school and back to a routine, it's the start of life afresh And that means lots of newcomers to the Westchester dining scene.
Here's a recap of some of the restaurant openings you may have missed as well as a preview of what's to come. Feel free to add any we've missed to our Comments or on Facebook.
Aesop's Fable, Chappaqua:
This vegetable-centric restaurant boasts a backyard with 10 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, 50 basil plants and rows of snap peas, squash, zucchinis, cucumbers and green beans -- all organic. The goal, according to Chef Matthew Cook, is to offer eclectic, seasonal fare in a healthy and positive manner, locally sourced from farms no more than 100 miles away. Brunch was recently added to the menu. The restaurant, open since July 10, is at 13 King St., 914-238-3858. See earlier Daily Voice story
here
.
Capers Restaurant, Port Chester:
This new eatery, where Cafe MIrage used to be, opened Sept. 1. The cuisine revolves around Italian, Greek, and Spanish food. The concept is Mediterranean with plenty of seafood and a few vegetarian options. The owner also runs Appétit Bistro in Port Chester. For right now, they are only open for dinner. Lunch and brunch will start the end of September.The restaurant is at 531 N. Main Street, 914-481-8833.
Barley on the Hudson, Tarrytown:
Open since July, this waterfront spot took over where Striped Bass was seemingly overnight. It features 30 beers on tap and a menu inspired by different states. It is located at 265 West Main Street. Go
here
for previous Daily Voice story.
City Perch Kitchen + Bar, Dobbs Ferry:
You don't have to attend a movie to enjoy this restaurant, located at the iPic Theater in Dobbs Ferry. The menu is contemporary comfort food with ingredients sourced from nearby farms. It has been open since June and is at Rivertowns Square (1 Livingstone Ave.). Go
here
for story.
Morton's The Steakhouse, White Plains:
In operation since June 23
,
the new Morton’s has parted with its traditional steakhouse appearance and adopted a vibrant, contemporary style. What hasn't changed: The same commitment to serving “The Best Steak… Anywhere." Diners can expect USDA prime-aged beef as well as fresh fish and seafood, and hand-picked produce. Morton's is at 5 Mamaroneck Ave., 914-683-6101. Daily Voice story
here
.
The Birch Collective, White Plains:
This new gastropub -- open since late August --is all about mixing American cuisine with a French Canadian flair. And yes, that means inventive cocktails as well as beyond the usual pub grub. Go
here
for Daily Voice story.
The Granola Bar, Armonk:
Salads, avocado toast and -- of course, granola -- are on the menu at this healthy eatery, open since Aug. 19. The Westport, Conn.-based eatery, with locations in Greenwich and Stamford, is at 575 Main Street in Armonk. Go
here
for earlier Daily Voice story.
The Taco Project, Yonkers:
This Tarrytown fav, known for its traditional Mexican street food, has opened a second location at the new Boyce Thompson Center at 1086 N Broadway, 914-375-4000.
The Village Beer Garden, Port Chester:
Say hello to a German Biergarten at the Metro-North Train Station. Open since June, you'll find an extensive beer list as well as creative cocktails complimented by an Oktoberfest-style menu. See Daily Voice story
here
.
Pub Street, Pleasantville:
Owned by the Village Social Restaurant Group (known for its restaurants in Rye and Mount Kisco), the eatery, steps from Metro North, specializes in seafood (oysters are big) and American comfort food. The address is 20 Wheeler Ave., 914-741-0717. Previous Daily Voice story
here
.
And coming soon:
Colony Grill, Port Chester:
This Stamford favorite (some would say "obsession") will open on Abendroth Avenue in early 2018. The casual eatery is known for its thin-crust pizzas and signature hot oil.
Finn and Brew, Peekskill:
A seafood focused New American restaurant, located on the waterfront, will open sometime in October. Expect lots of beers thanks to The River Outpost Brewery, a new brewery headed by Scott Vaccaro, owner and brewmaster behind Captain Lawrence Brewing Co., Diners will find eight to 10 different brews on tap at both the brewery and the restaurant. The location is Factoria, 5 John Walsh Blvd.
Worth noting: Starting Saturday, Sept. 30 the Factoria space will feature the on site brands (Finn and Brew, River Outpost) as well as other Peekskill favorites (such as Buns & Bourbon, Gleason’s, Taco Dive Bar), as well as beer from Captain Lawrence. The events are planned to start around 2 p.m. and be family oriented during the day, with entertainment beginning at 7 p.m.
The Whitlock, Katonah:
This new American eatery promises a menu that supports local farms, purveyors, and businesses to bring diners a hyperlocal and authentic experience. The eatery, located at 17 Katonah Ave., plans a late September opening. Go
here
for the earlier story.
Walter's Hot Dogs, White Plains:
The iconic Mamaroneck landmark will have a new location opening sometime later this year (most likely December) in White Plains at 186 Mamaroneck Ave.
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2023-12-23T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/6321
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Some of 16,579 children under the age of 18 living in 406 orphanages in the Kingdom last year, almost 80 per cent have a living mother or father, a United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) report says
Now, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation has set a goal to return 30 per cent of these children to their families. It also released two roadmaps on Thursday to reform the Kingdom’s child welfare system in collaboration with Unicef.
The Capacity Development Plan (CDP), a publication supported by Unicef suggests key actions to be taken from now until 2023 to improve foster care, adoption and support for orphans...
Læs hele artiklen i Phnom Penh Post her.
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2024-05-01T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/5103
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Home - 50Sense - For women not afraid of growing olderhttps://www.50sense.net/home/Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:32:04 +0000en-USSite-Server v6.0.0-17332-17332 (http://www.squarespace.com)So Just Shop: Meet the ethical brand helping to lift women out of povertyFashion & beautyElizabeth Carr-EllisWed, 20 Mar 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/so-just-shop-meet-the-ethical-brand-helping-to-lift-women-out-of-poverty5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c902ae04e17b65b7befd643From jewellery to homeware, the products on So Just Shop are empowering
women in some of the most deprived areas of the world. Founder Jennifer
Georgeson tells us the power of retail with a heart
Having fun at Badala, a not-for-profit organisation in East African and Central America. The money the artisans earn has revolutionised their families’ lives
“Success must include two things: the development of an individual to his utmost potentiality and a contribution of some kind to one’s world.” So said my all-time heroine Eleanor Roosevelt – and she could have been speaking about the founder of online ethical retailer So Just Shop and the amazing women she is empowering.
Jennifer Georgeson has spent her life working to help others. In her 44 years she has worked (deep breath):
on researching the prevention of mother-to-baby transmission of HIV in Zambia (while she also studied for her PhD);
on preventing early childhood malnutrion and training traditional midwives in India and Pakistan, and
After two years with the foundation, Jennifer could see no improvement in children’s nutrition. So she began chatting to the mums and finding out more about their social customs.
Through this, she realised that women were key. That if they could provide sustainable economic opportunities for the women, many of whom were incredible artisans, they could turn things around.
Within two months, using local government grants and putting schemes into place, they began seeing improvements.
However, the grants were short-lived and not sustainable, so Jennifer began working on a system that would help give the communities their own economic sustainability by exporting their goods to other countries for sale.
And so, in 2015, she launched So Just Shop, a fashion accessories, homeware and gifting site that works directly with women-led artisans in 35 of the most vulnerable communities in the world.
Through So Just Shop, the women’s beautiful goods are sold online, in pop-ups – they had one in Bloomingdales – and via wholesale sales (one line was even carried in Anthropologie). Each piece is ethically and, where possible, sustainably made.
To get around this, she came up with an innovative way to make sure the money went straight to the women: everyone is paid directly in phone-app credits. Despite living in poverty, almost everyone in these communities has a mobile phone. Jennifer’s scheme means the women can use phone credits to buy the likes of food from the local markets – and that means everyone benefits.
“Women are more likely to invest in their family and local community,” says Jennifer. “Economic empowerment of women saves lives, increases education and improves the social indicators of whole communities.”
Obviously one who enjoys a challenge, Jennifer has set herself a fairly hefty goal – to raise 250,000 women and their families from some of the poorest communities in the world out of poverty.
She’s also taking So Just Shop on to new levels with its own brand of jewellery called Just. Each delicate piece is handmade or casted by cooperatives in Delhi and Jaipur, using women-led departments to teach entrepreneurial, design and management skills.
I caught up with Jennifer earlier this month to find out how retail is helping women change the world
Tell us about yourself…
I have an unusual background combining international development and start-up tech. I live in South London with a bouncing eight-year-old child and an even bouncier eight-month-old puppy.
But I’ve lived and worked across seven countries and three continents and I consider my life to be full of amazing life experiences surrounded by the most wonderful friends and family.
Why did you start So Just Shop?
I started So Just Shop with the aim of economically empowering vulnerable women throughout the world.
In many places the world over, women have little control of the family income and because of that they often have no control over the food that's bought for the family or decisions taken around children's health – “Well, I’d love to go and vaccinate my children but I can’t afford the bus fare.”
There are so many layers that end up blocking not just the child’s health, but the development of the whole community because if you think about the issues that affect the children, they will also be affecting the mother. She won’t be able to access birth control because she doesn’t have the money to get to the clinic so then she’s in a situation where there are more mouths to feed, that affects her health.
There are so many knock-on implications. That got me to the core of So Just Shop, which is that I want to find a global and scalable way to economically empower women because if we can do that, all of the other issues fall into place.
It’s been shown that if you put money into the hands of women, 90 per cent of it stays in the community, paying for health care, food and education. If you put money into the hands of men, only 50 per cent of it does.
Click on each image to enlarge
How do you decide which artisans to work with?
I’m extremely lucky that through my work, I have a great network that I can tap into – women's groups that I have previously worked with or that I've been introduced to. The world is full of extremely talented ladies making the most fabulous products.
We try and showcase as many traditional skill sets as we can, while making the products contemporary in their look and feel. So we hunt down artisans who are adept in different skills, reflecting their community.
What has been the most difficult part?
We have had little external investment to date and as an online business, this means we've had little advertising budget so we've had to work very hard to find our – extremely loyal – customer base.
This has meant doing a lot of small market stalls and pop-up events and a lot of lugging boxes and getting very cold hands and feet!
However, it has also given us the opportunity to speak to customers and hear their invaluable feedback on our products, which in the long run has strengthened us as a business.
And what has been the best?
I've just been visiting some of our artisans and I met this amazing young lady called Sonia. She was due to be married off at the age of 16 but through working with our artisan group, she’s earned a valuable income that has given her a much stronger voice in the family home.
She’s still working for the artisan group six years later, has completed a degree and is now doing a part-time MA. That's definitely worth a bit of frostbite!
How has your business grown?
The first 18 months were tough, but we saw a big leap last year – 2.5 times the sales on the previous year – and we’re looking at an even bigger one this year. We’ve expanded our market from consumer to encompass selling into retail and corporate/bespoke gifting.
I read that you came face-to-face with the Taliban in Pakistan…
I didn't! I was working with an amazing group of ladies based out of Peshawar, Pakistan, providing technical support for a project they were running looking at training traditional birth attendants.
We had been running this project for more than two years when the Taliban turned up at their local community office and told them to leave and never come back.
I’ve come face-to-face with community leaders that have been strongly linked with the Taliban, but this was a far more challenging situation – these women risked their lives to educate birth attendants (midwives) and educate girl children.
They are far and away the bravest and most unassuming women you could ever met.
(A warning not to believe all you read. Unless it’s on 50Sense, of course!)
Click on each image to enlarge
What are you proudest of?
That I’ve built this business from nothing. That I look around and have the most brilliant people working with me and supporting the business, both financially and with advice and other support. And that we have the opportunity to make such a positive impact in the world.
And finally, what advice would you give to women wanting to start their own business?
It's hard work and you’re the only one responsible, so the drive for it to succeed can only come from you – you know this already.
So surround yourself by people who want you to succeed; those who will pick you up when you are at your lowest, those that will pick your children up from school because you have a last-minute meeting, those that will take you out for a glass of wine or cup of coffee and listen to you endlessly talk about cash flow.
Ask for help, ask for support and someone will be there to help you get where you need to.
Many thanks to Jennifer for taking the time out to talk to 50Sense. What an amazing woman! What do you think of Jennifer’s work? Should we be putting more women in charge?
If you’ve enjoyed this, please like and subscribe below and share with your friends.
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50Sense will use your information to provide updates and marketing.You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at fiftysenseuk@gmail.com. We will treat your information with respect. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our website. By signing up, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.
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xxx
]]>So Just Shop: Meet the ethical brand helping to lift women out of povertyMcTavish Collection: Beautiful jewellery that's making the newsFashion & beautyElizabeth Carr-EllisMon, 18 Mar 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/mctavish-collection-beautiful-jewellery-thats-making-the-news5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c8e5ce471c10b4ed9c4add5Rachel McTavish is a regular face presenting the news on Scottish
television, but did you know she also runs thriving jewellery range
McTavish Collection? Read all about her fascinating story and find out her
tips on the best pieces to have you making the headlines
Have you ever watched a TV programme and really wanted what the person is wearing? Well, if it’s a glitzy accessory you’re after, look no further.
McTavish Collection is a range of necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets and scarves that are often seen on TV. That’s because the woman behind the brand, Rachel McTavish, is a sophisticated newsreader who delivers the headlines to Scotland.
Her background is as glamorous as she is. After starting on a local news channel in Liverpool, she went on to present nationwide on the likes of ITV News, GMTV and Five News.
However, despite handling such big news events as 9/11 with ease, Rachel had a problem. While she always looked good, it was difficult to find stylish jewellery to wear on screen and give a new look to her favourite outfits.
And so, in 2008, she began McTavish Collection, sourcing beautiful but affordable costume jewellery both to wear and sell.
Over the years, the business has grown – which is no real surprise. Rachel is not only gorgeous (which I note with a sigh every time I look at her Facebook posts, as I sit there in my fluffy dressing gown working from home), but she has a great sense of style.
Her choice of products on McTavish Collection reflects this. They’re classic, elegant pieces – but that doesn’t mean boring nor unfashionable. Among the collection are some fabulous tennis necklaces, which are massive at the moment – Amy Adams sported one to the Oscars last month.
Rachel’s tennis necklaces will set you back a maximum £65. Amy’s Cartier piece was probably a little bit more.
In addition, there is a beautiful range of soft leopard-print scarves. I’m not a huge fan of large amounts of animal print (as you’ll have seen on my post about Absence of Colour) but I love it on accessories. Scarves are a great way to add your personality to an outfit and these will have you bang up-to-date with one of the biggest trends that will hit the spring. There are also some beautiful animal-print cuff bracelets, which will look great layered up.
Here, Rachel, who now lives in Glasgow with her husband Paul and their twin sons, tells us more about her move into jewellery, shares her favourite pieces and gives her thoughts on fashion rules.
Tell us about your life in journalism…
I started as video-journalist – a reporter who shoots their own pictures – and presenter for a Cable TV station called Channel One Liverpool.
It was a very small operation where everyone did absolutely everything. One minute I could be reading the news and the next, I could be operating the studio cameras for someone else’s programme.
It was the sort of job that I’d find exhausting now but back then, when I was starting out, it was totally exhilarating.
I left Channel One to go to ITN, where I continued as a video journalist. But one day a presenter didn’t turn up to read the news at Channel 5 and I immediately borrowed a jacket and volunteered to do it.
After that, I was a regular filling in on bulletins when they were short-staffed.
It was around this time that I heard that ITN wanted to start up a 24-hour news channel, so I went up to see the chief executive with a carrier bag of my showreels and pleaded with him to give me a chance.
When ITN Newschannel eventually launched, I was part of the team of presenters alongside big names such as John Suchet, Julia Somerville and Carol Barnes.”
It was a steep learning curve. Sometimes I was on air for six hours at a time and when there was breaking news, we didn’t have any internet in the studio to check facts.
I was on air on 9/11 and that is a memory that will stay with me forever.
Why did you start a “second job”?
Fast-forward a good few years and I’d got married and had the twins and moved from London to Glasgow. Once again I was reading the news, this time for STV (Scottish Television).
All the time, Paul had been telling me I should have another job on the go in case my TV career finished. And sure enough, in 2008, I found myself looking for another job after my contract came to an end.
I admit that I floundered for quite some time. TV had never felt like proper work as such, and so I wanted to find something else that would also fit in with small children but which was fun.
So why was this selling jewellery?
My family have a strong background in retail and that, combined with my love of jewellery, led me to think about starting a jewellery company.
As a presenter, you always have your favourite go-to jacket that you seem to wear frequently. I used to try and change my look by wearing different pieces of costume jewellery to shake it up a bit. But I found the choice very limited – and the prices seemed a bit steep – so I thought that might be a good area to start.
I found it incredibly difficult at the beginning to show people the pieces I’d selected to sell. When you think about it, jewellery is such a personal thing and I was terrified that the ladies I approached wouldn’t like my taste.
I gradually plucked up the courage to take a stall at a local nursery night and couldn’t believe it when almost all my stock sold out. That gave me more confidence to pick more and widen my choices.
How do you find your pieces?
I have a really clear idea in mind what I want. I have only ever sold jewellery that I love. I don’t think I could sell anything that I couldn’t envisage wearing.
I feel really strongly that as well as being stylish, my pieces should be good quality and good value for money.
What pieces do you like the most?
One of my biggest successes has probably been my range of tennis necklaces (above – click on any of the pieces to be taken to its page) and bracelets.
For years and years I’d hankered after a “believable” tennis necklace with stones that weren’t so big that it screamed “fake”.
I finally found a manufacturer who understood exactly what I was asking for and I now sell a classic tennis necklace for £50. The 3mm stones are set in a four-prong setting and it looks like the real thing.
My most popular seller is definitely the adjustable tennis bracelets. At £25, they come in gold, silver and rose gold and make the perfect gift as you know they’ll fit the recipient perfectly, no matter what their wrist size.
Newspaper and magazines often tell us the “rules” about how to wear jewellery, especially for older women. What are your thoughts?
I don’t think there are any “rules” as such for what jewellery to wear, I personally don’t wear matching sets and like to mix styles up and layer different necklaces and bracelets together.
But I also have a strong core of customers who I know will always ask for the matching necklace, earrings and bracelet as that’s what they like, so I try to cater for everyone.
What advice would you give women thinking of starting their own business?
I’d say: “Just go for it.” That might sound a tad gung-ho, but you can spend an age sitting there and thinking about all the whys and wherefores. Nothing beats just starting.
I would also suggest trying to build your own website. I’ve recently built a new website using Shopify that really was incredibly simple to do.
Good photography is another must. I’ve had varying degrees of success over the years but have finally found a camera and lightbox that suit me well.
Eleven years down the line, my jewellery has really taken over from the TV. I still read the news regularly and host conferences and have even started presenting a car programme, but the jewellery is where I know my future lies.
I’d love to hear what you think about Rachel’s story. Please leave me a comment. And if you’ve enjoyed this and want to be kept up-to-date with all 50Sense posts, don’t forget to subscribe and share with your friends.
Subscribe to 50Sense now!
Sign up with your email so you don’t miss out on new posts, exclusive content and occasional updates...
Email Address
50Sense will use your information to provide updates and marketing.You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at fiftysenseuk@gmail.com. We will treat your information with respect. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our website. By signing up, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.
Thank you for subscribing!
Please make sure to add 50Sense to your list of contacts so we don’t disappear in your spam box!
See you soon
Elizabeth
xxx
]]>McTavish Collection: Beautiful jewellery that's making the newsChi Fit teas and coffees: Rosalind Beere on brewing up the perfect businessCelebrating womenElizabeth Carr-EllisFri, 15 Mar 2019 07:29:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/chi-fit-teas-and-coffees-rosalind-beere-on-brewing-up-the-perfect-business5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c88088308522912e940a7baIn the latest of our Celebrating Women series, Dr Rosalind Beere tells us
how a car accident lead to her completely overhauling her life and creating
Chi Fit teas and coffees – while expecting her third babyChi Fit teas sent as press sample for review
Starting a business has been compared to having a baby. Dr Rosalind Beere went one better and was giving birth to her business baby – Chi Fit teas and coffees – while actually giving birth to her third child.
Yup, she was in the labour ward and firing off emails. Now that’s an inspirational woman!
Christian – her real baby – is now one year old and enjoying life in Dublin with his big sister Catherine, seven, and six-year-old brother Senan. Oh, and daddy Cian, of course!
Chi Fit, meanwhile, is officially a month older and also going great guns.
Ros who has two Masters degrees and a PhD in strategy, which she gained by studying part-time, began her tea company after being badly injured in 2015.
Wanting to overhaul her health, the 42-year-old lecturer decided to quit her addictive fizzy drinks in favour of tea. However, she couldn’t find any she liked – and so she began experimenting in her kitchen.
The result was Chi Fit Original Tea Blend, a delicious mix of ten ingredients, including green tea, mint, rose-petal tea, pu'erh and oolong.
Ros sent me some to sample – I won’t put anything on 50Sense I don’t like – and it is gorgeous.
When I was a little girl, my family nickname was Teapot because all I ever wanted was “a tup of tea”. I still love tea, but herbals…? Hand on heart, I can’t get away with them. I buy them – mainly because I love the boxes and I know they’re “good” for you – and then they lie there, gathering dust. Mint does not make tea.
However, because Ros’s teas have proper tea in them, they were proper tea to drink. (Bit bad English there but you get my drift.) I drank them without milk and they tasted great. I found myself reaching for them over my usual PG Tips without even thinking about it.
However, the best seal of approval came from Mr 50Sense. He is weird and doesn’t like tea or coffee (I know! How did I marry him?), but because he suffers from stomach problems, he forces himself to drink herbal and fruit teas. But he loved Chi Fit. “It really helps when my stomach’s playing up,” he said.
For the first time in 22 years, I found myself uttering those immortal words of love: “Do you want a cuppa tea?”
In addition, I tried the Sleep Tea Blend after a string of nights when the menopause was hitting hard and I was awake for several hours. It looks as lovely as it tastes, with ingredients including rose petals, chamomile, hibiscus, lavender, jasmine, valerian root and lily.
It had me feeling so chilled I read one paragraph of my book before falling asleep. And while I still woke up, I was much more relaxed. It was kinda like: “Yeah, I’m awake. Now I’m going to go back to sleep” and I did.
Chi Fit is also environmentally friendly and each bag can be used four to five times. I recommend four times, when I left it in around three minutes to get the full flavour.
Plus I love that there is an eating programme on the website for those people wanting to truly overhaul their lifestyle.
A quick disclaimer – this isn’t some sort of “get thin fast by drinking 15 cups of tea each day” programme. Instead, Ros worked with a nutritionist to create a proper healthy eating plan, with real food. It gives around a good 1,450 calories a day, which is what I aim for when I want to lose weight. (This is my goal after working out my TDEE – Total Daily Energy Expenditure. If you want to lose weight, believe me it is the best way to go.)
I’m not the only one who is impressed. From next month, Chi Fit will be available in Boots and Ros is also in talks with two UK distributors.
Here, Ros tells us more about the horrendous accident that made her want to overhaul her life, shares her top tips for starting a business and reveals how she was inspired by her little girl…
What is Chi Fit?
My Chi Fit journey began after a series of events events in my life rather than one big “eureka moment”.
Firstly, I was knocked down by a drink-driver in Donnybrook, close to Dublin city centre, in 2015 and I was lucky to come out of that alive.
Plus, after a 20-year addiction to highly caffeinated drinks and what turned out to be a bad back, four bulging discs and a bad left knee, I knew I needed to change my lifestyle and diet.
I’d heard lots of good things about green tea and pu’erh tea etc, but I hated them. However, I knew were good for me, so I started blending in my own kitchen.
My first blend was the Chi Fit Original Tea Blend, which has ten ingredients and eight teas. It has a lovely minty freshness and it gives you a great energy boost, plus so many other health and fitness benefits.
Once I had my business idea, I did a lot of research into the market and found there was a gap for an everyday tea that tasted delicious and was good for you
How did you come up with the name?
Finding a name took me a few goes. I knew I wanted something that connected the product to the ancient and authentic heritage of Chinese teas (not the negative connotations sometimes associated with “Made in China”). I also wanted a name people could identify with.
So I thought of Tai Chi and how people understand it’s an ancient form of physical movement and fitness. This gave me the Chinese word “Chi”, meaning energy and balance, and the “Fit” was to emphasis the idea of health and wellbeing.
How did you find your suppliers?
After a number of months searching, I found an amazing organic producer in Yunnan, south-west China. Then it took more time to translate my blend ratio from my kitchen into the final product. It involved lots of samples and me tasting and tweaking until I got it exactly how I wanted it.
I wanted the loose-leaf tea to be in teabags for convenience, so you can use them four to six times each and they still retain their taste and benefits. The teabags themselves are made from biodegradable Zein fibre, which was important to me – it’s convenience, but not at a cost to the environment.
It’s been the same process of development for every product in the range. I start with the product idea and blend it in my kitchen with the ingredients I choose. So say my Chi Fit Sleep Tea Blend – I didn’t like the taste of chamomile, so I blended 11 ingredients to get it to a lovely mint/rose flavour, but with body and a calming soothing effect.
It was the same with the Turmeric latte. I started with high-grade turmeric powder and blended it with non-dairy creamer and eight extracts, such as lotus leaf, cactus plant etc. So it has a lovely soft vanilla-like taste – nothing like turmeric – but it has all of turmeric’s benefits.
Why did you add a healthy eating plan?
I decided to get this developed so customers could also look at ways to improve other aspects of their life, such as health and fitness. I developed it with a nutritionist and it also contains 14 delicious recipes
In the testimonials on our website, customers say the Original Tea Blend helps reduce hunger, sugar cravings and aids digestion. It gives a great natural energy boost, which allows you to be more active in your everyday life. So if you drink the tea and follow our healthy eating plan, your overall health and fitness will improve and this will help you with your individual goals of being your best self.
But you can just drink it as a normal tea, too!
What has been the best part of running your own business?
I think initially, it was developing something that I needed myself. And then, as friends and family tried my blend, they loved the taste and noticed the health and fitness benefits. Some were even able to reduce eight cups of regular tea or coffee down to more moderate one or two. That’s a huge improvement.
I even have a Chi Fit coffee, so it’s not that I’m against anything. It’s more helping people to make small changes in their lives, like I did; to help them become healthier. If I can help even one person to feel more energised or sleep better – well then, I go to bed thinking: “I’ve done something good today,” and it’s incredibly satisfying.
What inspires you?
People. I love people and I love helping people.
I’ve always wanted to own my own business, ever since I was a child really, and I’ve had a few successes and false starts. But I’ve learnt something from each one.
Also, now I’m focused on my family and I’d like to have more of a balance in my own life.
I think I’ve found my passion in Chi Fit and I have so many ideas around new products for the future. It’s exciting and challenging at the same time.
I do have to sometimes listen to advice when given advice and try to slow down a bit and do one thing at a time!
What has been the hardest part about setting up your own business?
The hardest thing? Well, it’s time. It’s finite and if you want to make a business work, you’ve got to go full speed ahead and that may mean some sacrifice, meetings or tastings at the weekend, which take away from family time and time with friends.
But I always say to my children: “I’m sorry. I’ll be gone this Saturday, but you know I’m working on my tea and I’m doing my best for us all.” I think they get it and they love popping along to a tasting event and seeing mummy there with her stand!
I think if I’m written about online or in a magazine, then they will be really proud! (Kids, be proud!!!! – 50Sense.)
What are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of showing my children that you can do what you love and if you work hard – whether that was my job or my PhD – and do your best, it pays off.
Nothing comes easy so you’ve got to put everything you have into what you want to achieve, no matter how big or small.
I’d been doing a tasting event one Saturday and I came home and my daughter had set up a little shop outside our house! Everything was €1/£1 and she had put signs up and was selling little things she had made herself.
She was shy, so she left an honesty box and passers-by left money for her. But she was overjoyed that she had made some money and it was wonderful that complete strangers had bought things.
That was one of my “wow” moments; of: “Maybe she was inspired a little by me.” And in return, I was so inspired by her.
As well as that, one of my proudest moments was seeing my product on the shelf of my first retailer in Dublin and getting 200 online orders after an influencer posted that she loved the tea. That was February 2018 and I’d only launched the business a month before. And then I had my third baby a couple of weeks later.
It was crazy, but amazing. I thought: “I’m on to something.”
And finally, what advice would you give to women wanting to start their own business?
Go for it!!! Figure out what you’re passionate about, research the market, ask people what they think and then start to work away on developing your concept.
I’ve always worked full-time so whether doing my PhD part-time or developing a business, it was always in the evening or at weekends, in my own time. So make the time and just get started.
Stay committed. Don’t give up at the first hurdle or think: “Oh, this won’t work.” Keep going and believe in yourself.
It’s critical to have confidence in yourself. And if you can find a product or service you believe in, that you’re passionate about, that will shine through. People buy from people so if you aren’t passionate about it, how will anyone else be?
My first business idea was making and selling candles at 16 in local markets to family and friends – and given how popular candles are now, I probably should have skipped the 14 years in college and stuck with them!
But seriously, I believe things happen for a reason and I’m ready to run and grow Chi Fit more than I’ve ever been before.
And I’m a little older and wiser – I hope – and maybe a little more confident and don’t care as much about what people think of me.
You’ve one life so live it to the full. Do what you love and you will never work another day in your life – that’s my new motto.
What do you think of Ros’s story? Isn’t she great! Leave her a “hello” in the comments below.
Additional photo: Jill O’Meara Photography
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]]>Chi Fit teas and coffees: Rosalind Beere on brewing up the perfect businessLulu Guinness x Bobbi Brown: A Pretty Powerful link-up to help women in needFashion & beautyElizabeth Carr-EllisWed, 13 Mar 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/lulu-guinness-x-bobbi-brown-a-pretty-powerful-link-up-to-help-women-in-need5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c87be044e17b645c8b6f4beLulu Guinness and Bobbi Brown are helping women in need look their best for
interviews. Find out how you can support Smart Works and the Pretty
Powerful campaign, too
It’s pretty fair to say I’m a Lulu Guinness fan. My diary is Lulu Guinness and is nestled in a Lulu Guinness Moon Face bag next to my passport, which has a Lulu Guinness cover, my Lulu Guinness umbrella and my iPhone – which is safely ensconced in a Lulu Guinness Doll case (although I picked up one for an iPhone 6, rather than an iPhone 7, and had to attack the camera hole to make it fit properly. The perils of going shopping when you live miles from the shop!)
Lulu Guinness has a chic playful style that I adore – grown-up fun that is suitable for women of any age. It’s helped by the fact Lulu herself is 59 and eschews trends in favour of following your own style.
“My mission in life through my brand is to cheer women up,” she once told Image magazine. “Give them a moment of humour when maybe they’re going through a difficult time and to feel pretty and feminine.”
It is not only humour that Lulu uses to help women, however. She has teamed up with Bobbi Brown for their annual Pretty Powerful campaign in support of Smart Works.
If you haven’t heard of them, Smart Works is a brilliant charity that helps more than 1,800 women a year in its London sites. It’s so good, in fact, that Meghan Markle, aka the Duchess of Sussex, chose it as one of her first patronages.
I think I have a thing for Lulu Guinness… (Diary in the handbag and I also forgot my Lulu Guinness T-shirt! Menopause brain at work!!)
You’ll know from my piece on the charity ALICAS, which helps domestic abuse survivors, how important clothes can be to making women feel ready to take on the world. Well, Smart Works takes this to the next level, helping victims of domestic abuse, as well as homeless and former prisoners, dress for interviews.
They also provide styling advice and interview tips so the women are confident and assured – or as confident and assured as you can be for an interview!
I also love that it’s not just London based. There are sites across the UK, including my beloved Newcastle and Edinburgh, as well as Birmingham, Reading and Manchester.
Lulu and Bobbi – yes, I’m call them by their first names! – have teamed up to create a too-cute-for-words limited-edition make-up bag. It features the classic Lulu Guinness Lip Confetti print and a classic red-lip zip puller so it’ll look sleek and stylish on your dressing table.
But that’s not all you get. Inside the bag is Bobbi Brown Smokey Eye Mascara and an Art Stick in Bare, a beautiful shade that suits all skin tones. It retails for £35, which all – bar the VAT – goes to Smart Works.
A successful businesswoman running a company with a strong female workforce, Lulu says she felt a real personal connection with the charity.
“I know [women] can overcome anything when we feel good in ourselves and positive,” she says. “It’s wonderful to see that Smart Works are helping women feel this way.
“The values of the charity are what I hold true to myself and my brand – to empower, give confidence and inspire positivity in women.”
Pretty Powerful is a pretty amazing campaign. It’s been running for seven years and has raised more than £250,000 for Smart Works. That means they’ve been able to open six more centres across the UK, helping loads more women. Incredibly, 60 per cent of the women Smart Works helps go on to get a job.
Smart Works chief Kate Stephens says: “The Pretty Powerful campaign has been part of the Smart Works story since we launched in 2013 and a crucial factor in enabling us to help more women.
“Both have shared the belief in that when a woman looks and feels her best, she can achieve anything. Over the last five years, the campaign has allowed us to do just that, raising over £250,000 to allow women in need to reconnect to the best version of herself, succeed at her job interview and transform her life.”
Smart Works gives its clients a personalised styling session with two volunteer stylists. They then receive a complete outfit of high-quality clothes and accessories for their specific job interview, right down to tights. Even better, the clothes are free and hers to keep, so she’ll always have an amazing outfit to give her confidence.
After they’ve found the right clothes, the women each get a one-to-one coaching session with an experienced HR professional or senior manager on how to prepare for their interview. Together, they look at the woman’s strengths, help her answering questions more effectively and understand what she is expected to do in an interview.
If she gets the job, she then gets another five outfits so she doesn’t have to worry about what to wear until her first pay cheque comes through.
I have to admit, I had never given this aspect of getting a job a thought, but it is quite genius. I mean, how are you supposed to look good at work if you can’t afford suitable clothing? Well done, Smart Works. I can see why Meghan was impressed.
One of Smart Works’s clients, Tina, says her confidence was at an “all-time low” when she was referred to the charity.
“I had no smart clothes to wear for interviews,” she says.“The dressers at Smart Works made me look super sharp. They were so kind and friendly. They knew how to dress me and gave me lots of styling advice. They really were experts.”
Together with the interview training, it worked – Tina was offered a job as a catering assistant the very next month.
“Everyone at Smart Works made me feel worthy,” she adds. “They really built up my confidence.”
As well as treating yourself to the Bobbi Brown x Lulu Guinness make-up bag, there are many ways you can help Smart Works.
You could run a clothing or accessories drive in your company, where colleagues donate high-quality products suitable for interviews or you can donate clothes yourself. Or you could volunteer and help style clients or give interview tips, or make sure the clothes are clean and looked after in the storerooms, or help with admin.
Or – and the one I’m most excited about – you can go shopping at the Smart Works designer sale. As well as top-end names, they also feature vintage, samples and high street brands so there’s something for everyone.
It obviously works – last year, more than 600 shoppers helped raised an incredible £70,000.
What do you think about the collaboration? Let me know in the comments below…
Main image: Michaela Tornoritis
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]]>Lulu Guinness x Bobbi Brown: A Pretty Powerful link-up to help women in needHow to talk to your doctor about the menopauseHealth & FitnessElizabeth Carr-EllisMon, 11 Mar 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/how-to-talk-to-your-doctor-about-the-menopause5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c8535f7eef1a1afdbc8a2b1It’s not always easy talking to your doctor about the menopause, but there
are things you can do to help. Find out how you can can make the most out
of your appointment
Going to the doctor is rarely a nice experience, but menopause can make it even worse.
I went to my doctor when my menopause symptoms got too much to bear. After bursting into tears while talking to the receptionist, I wasn’t in the best frame of mind and didn’t get the most from my time there. I was just so grateful that someone was listening that I didn’t proffer any thoughts of my own. (I don’t think I had any, to be honest. It was more: “I don’t care what you do, stop me feeling like this.”)
Several disappointing visits later and I never go to the doctor without a notebook in my handbag – I’m an old-fashioned girl – and research done. It has finally got me the treatment I think is helping.
If you’re starting to feel as if you need medical help with your menopause, here is how you can help yourself and your doctor and get the most from your appointment.
Know the symptoms
While you may recognise the headline symptoms, such as hot flushes and irregular periods, there are many others signs that you’re peri menopausal – and some are quite surprising.
Menopause has a drip-drip effect so sometimes you don’t realise you’re going through it until they’ve all mounted up.
Don’t wait
Don’t feel you’re wasting the doctor’s time or that the menopause is natural and therefore something we just have to go through. We do have to go through it, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean we have to have a bad time.
There is absolutely no need to suffer in silence. Medical help and advice is there; go and get it.
Find the right doctor
Few GP surgeries have an expert in menopause in them (don’t get me started on why not – there are not enough pages on the internet for my rant.) However, that’s no reason not to get the best doctor you can.
Ask the receptionist if any doctor does specialise in menopause. Failing that, ask if any of them has a specific interest in women’s health (you can often find this out on the GPs’ website, too).
If you know other menopausal women, ask them what they think about their doctor and if they can recommend them.
Be prepared
As I said, I have a notebook now with symptoms, questions, reminders of things I want to talk about, doodles (I get bored waiting. I don’t think the doctor appreciates my clown faces, sadly).
Write down everything – even if you don’t think they’re menopausal. Feeling extra farty? That’s a symptom so write it down. Better that than letting it blow…
Things to note:
When was your last period?
What symptoms are you having and when did they start?
Does anything trigger them?
How often do they happen?
Are they affecting your life a lot?
As for questions, you may want to ask:
What are your thoughts on hormone replacement therapy (HRT)?
What are my options for treatment?
Are there alternative or natural remedies that could help?
What does this treatment do?
What are possible side effects?
How do I take it?
I also go armed with my family history. We have an incidence of breast cancer in our family, as well as DVT (deep-vein thrombosis). I always make sure to mention them as they can have an impact on what medication the doctor gives me.
Finally, note down any other medication you’re on and the dosage. It will be on your records, but belt and braces is best.
Get researching
If we can’t expect expert advice at the doctors, then we have to become the expert ourselves. Thankfully, there are lots of resources out there to help.
NICE (the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence) has set guidelines on the diagnosis and management of menopause. This covers issues such as diagnosis, symptoms, treatments etc and is an excellent place to start learning more about what you’re going through and the type of treatment you should expect to receive.
Take your time
Don’t be embarrassed
Whatever it is, your doctor has seen it, heard it, smelt it, touched it. We may be different shapes and sizes, but our bodies are the same. So don’t feel embarrassed about what you are going through.
Review your doctor
After your appointment, take some time to review how good or bad your doctor was.
Did you feel your doctor listened to you?
Are you happy with how your doctor spoke to you about menopause?
Were they able to answer your questions?
Do you feel happy going back to them for follow-up appointments? Don’t be afraid to hurt your doctor’s feelings. If you think you aren’t getting the help you need, ask for a second opinion or to change doctor.
Keep a diary
Once your treatment starts, continue the notes you made before your appointment. Write down any psychological or physical changes, good days and bad days, weight gain or weight loss.
Having facts and figures at your side will help you decide if the treatment you’ve been given is right or wrong for you.
What advice would you add to this? Let me know in the comments below.
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]]>How to talk to your doctor about the menopauseArtist Samantha Louise Emery: Getting International Women’s Day off to a fine (st)artCelebrating womenElizabeth Carr-EllisFri, 08 Mar 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/artist-samantha-louise-emery-getting-international-womens-day-off-to-a-fine-start5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c7ffba68165f5233b6210daBright, bold and complex, Samantha Louise Emery’s IKONA portraits are a
celebration of women, capturing the spirit of inspirational females from
Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai to an Anatolian vegetable seller
Happy International Women’s Day – 24 hours of celebrating women and their amazing achievements (although you can get that all year round on 50Sense!) And I can’t think of a better story to bring you today than by introducing artist Samantha Louise Emery and her beautiful IKONA Mirrored Interior portraits.
Samantha has a prestigious heritage. Her maternal great-grandfather, Arthur Wontner, played Sherlock Holmes in several films in the 1930s while her grandfather, Arthur’s son Sir Hugh Wontner, was Lord Mayor of London in 1973. In fact, 50-year-old Samantha can remember being in his home, London’s incredible Mansion House, during that time.
“My earliest memories are of walking down the hallway,” she says. “Looking in through an open doorway, I remember seeing my grandfather’s eyes quickly glimpse over to me and smile, with a wink, while still holding a conversation about some official business with one of his employees.”
Her parents were no less noteworthy. Mum Jennifer Wontner was a model and her dad is the Canadian Olympic gold medallist Vic Emery. So it’s little wonder that Samantha moved into a creative life herself, modelling and being photographed by the likes of Patrick Lichfield and – girl crush alert – the amazing Annie Leibovitz.
Nevertheless, because the real world is not a Hollywood film, life was not going smoothly. Setting off to explore South America after her A-levels, Samantha discovered she was pregnant – and she was no longer with her boyfriend.
Now it seems incredible, but I remember that time in the 1980s and single mothers, especially single teenage mothers, did not have it easy, no matter how illustrious their heritage.
IKONA 4 – Germaine Greer
Struggling to bring up her child and feeling the shame that all single mothers were made to feel at that time, Samantha turned to art for solace, enrolling on a foundation course at Amersham College in Buckinghamshire. In time, that led to her being offered a place at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
After interning with fashion designer Paul Costelloe to make ends meet, Samantha moved to Toronto upon graduation – she’d spent many years of her childhood in Canada – and began working as an artist.
She also had another child, became a step-mum to another two, travelled, divorced and then moved to Turkey with her younger daughter. It wasn’t easy.
“I received a great deal of criticism, as a mother and as a woman,” she says. “I’d never felt so low and as much of a failure as a person for what I had created.”
Throughout it all, however, she kept working. Painting allowed her a way to express her emotions and pour out what she was feeling, especially when she moved back to Toronto to deal with family matters.
Eventually, the therapeutic nature of art helped her find her purpose. “I began to see my life in terms of participating in other people’s journeys,” she says. “This was not only liberating for me, but through it I discovered a new wealth of experiences that enriched my life.”
And then, one evening over a birthday dinner, Samantha realised what she really wanted to do – celebrate the power of women, in part because of the deep gratitude she felt for all those she’d met who had added to her life experiences and also because of the strength she saw in her growing daughters.
From this was born IKONA Mirrored Interiors, a series of ten interpretative portraits capturing the spirit of women who Samantha has either known or been inspired by.
IKONA 10 – Lucy
The women chosen are widely diverse figures, including feminist Germaine Greer, jewellery designer Krystyne Griffin, Samantha’s godmother, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and singer and activist Angélique Kidjo (check out her version of Talking Heads’ Once In A Lifetime – fantastic). There is even a “matter-of-fact, maternal Anatolian vegetable seller” who Samantha met on her travels.
“Some of these women I have known quite well and have participated in my evolution as a woman and an artist,” she says. “Others have inspired me from afar. And yet all of them share something in common – they exercise their bold vulnerability with courage and dignity.”
Samantha appears in each portrait, to represent how the women have touched her life. She also created a self-portrait as No.10, “Lucy” – her father’s nickname for her as the alter ego to Samantha.
The paintings are bright, bold and complex pieces with many layers – “Is that how you see women?” I ask. “Absolutely,” Samantha replies emphatically – and I love their energy and spirit.
I particularly adore how it is only when you get up close that you can distinguish their features. After all, isn’t it only when we get close to people that we see the real them?
As well as celebrating women, the portraits also help them. A portion of all the income from IKONA is being donated to the charity Working Chance, the only recruitment consultancy for women leaving the criminal justice and care systems, and the Malala Fund, which works to give all girls the chance to an education.
In a message that couldn’t be more pertinent to today, Samantha adds: “We’ve been graced with living in a time when many women have asserted their feminine selves and have inspired others through their actions. Yet there is still much more awareness to be brought to the world about feminine solidarity, education and the positive effects it can have for girls and women today and future generations.”
Here, Samantha tells us more about IKONA, how she creates her portraits and the message she hopes it gives women on International Women’s Day.
What is IKONA?
It is a woman who is comfortable in her skin; who knows her self worth. Someone who inspires women to be true to themselves for the betterment of mankind and future generations.
How did you choose your subjects?
It began with my godmother and continued on from her. I instinctively chose women who struck a chord in my evolution as a woman, at that time, entering her 50s.
IKONA 6 – Krystyne Griffin
I love the portrait of your godmother…
Krystyne has been a major influence on my sense of personal style and creative outlook from an early age. She’s observed my highs and lows and remained consistently supportive in a very matter-of-fact way. She’s been a huge influence on my ability to feel safe with being vulnerable.
The portrait portrays her respect and compassionate love she has given to my evolution as a woman. Blue is prominent as it is my favourite colour, as well as hers.
Can you describe the artistic process?
My process is very instinctive after having done my research on each subject. Once I selected the image of my subject, I entered a meditative process that led me to understand them from afar in a spiritual and personal way.
Finally, what message do you want women to take from IKONA?
Fearlessly wear your colours and love the unique woman that you are. (I think I’m taking that as my motto for life – 50Sense)
If you live in London and would like to see IKONA Mirrored Interiors, you’re in luck. The portraits are currently being shown – and sold – at Mediaworks in White City Place until 15 March. In addition, to mark International Women’s Day, Samantha will be there today from 12-2pm to discuss her work and the women who inspired it.
Which women would you celebrate in paint? Let me know in the comments below.
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Elizabeth
xxx
]]>Artist Samantha Louise Emery: Getting International Women’s Day off to a fine (st)artGrace Jones is a goddess – but that has nothing to do with her being 70LifestyleElizabeth Carr-EllisWed, 06 Mar 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/grace-jones-is-a-goddess-but-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-her-being-705b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c7ead0fec212da9bb373688Disco icon Grace Jones put on an amazing display at Paris Fashion Week, yet
all the newspapers could talk about was her age. It’s time to stand up to
casual ageism
When it comes to female icons, few have lasted in my pantheon for as long as Grace Jones. Usually, something comes along to dull my admiration – the weight-loss video, for example, or an overdose of plastic surgery. But that never happened with Grace.
For me, when I saw Grace boogie her way down the catwalk, I was blown away by a strong, confident woman loving life. Forget scowling with a model pout or walking as if she were a prancing pony on steroids; Grace put the Gigis, Kendalls and Bellas to shame.
Yet the media could only see a woman of retirement age who incredibly was still able to dance and look good in fashionable clothes. (They obviously hadn’t read my piece on dancer Dee Quemby!)
After they’d focussed on her age in the headlines, the news reports were filled with admiration about her “age-defying physique” and “ageless body”. “Its hard to believe Grace is 70,” said one caption. (And yes, I know that should be “It’s”, but that is how it was written. Bet 70-year-old Grace knows how to use an apostrophe…)
Shortly after Grace’s performance, I heard about the death of Doña Mercedes Junco Calderon, the founder of ¡Hola! (Spain’s Hello! magazine), at the age of 98. I had the pleasure of working with Doña Mercedes on the fashion specials when I lived in Madrid. She came into the office every day, dressed so smartly that it put everyone to shame, and had just finished the spring/summer fashion special before she died.
Heaven knows what the tabloids would have made of that!
Nor of the woman I met at the Women’s Institute last month – 90 and walking on her treadmill for 30 minutes each morning to keep fit and active. Or the lady Mr 50Sense and I met on the train in 2013, just before – anxious about all we had given up – we set off to Toronto for a six-month sabbatical before starting a new life in London.
She was in her early 80s and waiting for a double hip transplant, but was heading off on holiday with her friends because “life just gets boring, otherwise”. She then proceeded to tell us all her travels, her visits to places in the world I dream of, and left us feeling both ashamed that we had been so anxious and also inspired to start a new adventure.
How did we become so ageist?
Ageism seems to be embedded in our society even though, almost every day, I see older people defying expectations about how they should behave and act.
One of my favourite podcasts regularly – and unconsciously – targets “older people” or (my particular pet peeve and one that often drives me to tweet them) “older feminists” for today’s ills or to dismiss views not considered “woke”.
Now I know this may be a shock, but incredibly – and just like young people – we’re not a homogenous group.
However, subconsciously, we all view older people in a certain way – and it’s not good. While I scowled at Donald Trump (72) telling Brigitte Macron (65) she was “in such good shape” (the subtext being “for your age” – see below), I’ve certainly expressed disbelief over how young/old someone looks. “She’s never that age, is she? Wow!” In the same way, I get told I don’t look 52 and I preen. I’m sorry, but I do.
Consumerism has a major role to play in this. Creams are sold to us as “anti-ageing”, as if ageing – or certainly looking as if you’re ageing – is something to be avoided. Diversity in the modelling world rarely stretches to having older models, unless the clothing range is specifically targeted at that age group (because anyone over the age of 40 should not be going into Topshop or H&M, obviously).
Birthday cards make jokes about “not being another year older” and YouTube tutorials tell us the make-up tricks to look younger.
All in all, the message is that youth is good, age is bad.
Well, I’ve got bad news for you – day by day, we’re all ageing. And it’s pretty good.
What can we do to fight ageism?
Among the many things ageing has taught me is that nothing is forever. There is no reason for these antiquated attitudes to continue. We just need to take a few simple steps:
Rethink “old”
Just as we don’t expect someone 20 to be the same as someone 30, we shouldn’t lump 60 year olds in with people who are 90.
Stop assuming younger is better
No, we’re not like fine wines, thank you Hallmark Cards. But each day does bring new experiences, emotions, conversations and thoughts that help us grow. We celebrate young children growing older, it’s time to do that every year of our lives. Wisdom is amazing.
Forget stereotypes
We can’t all be Grace Jones or Doña Mercedes, but that is what makes us so amazing. Everyone of us is unique so stop expecting people to be a certain way.
Be optimistic
More of us are living longer than ever before and in better health than ever before, which is something to celebrate. Make sure you eat well, exercise and activate your brain and look forward to life because you could have a lot of it left.
Fight back
If someone is ageist, call them out on it – nicely. A simple: “What do you mean?” will do!
Mind your language
Most importantly, we have to change the way we talk about growing older because words have a huge impact on our mental state of being. After all, if someone keeps telling you something is bad, you start believing it.
So don’t say someone is “XX years young” or that you’re having a “nana nap” (we all know they’re disco naps anyway) and don’t call an older person a cutsie name like “love” or “sweetheart” (they have a name. Use it.)
And definitely – DEFINITELY – do not deliver any of these false compliments:
You’re never that old?
Fifty is the new 40
She’s amazing for her age
I’m young at heart
I’m having a senior moment
She’s over the hill
You’re still doing that at your age? Wow…
What phrases about growing older do you like or dislike? Let me know in the comments below
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]]>Grace Jones is a goddess – but that has nothing to do with her being 70Dry skin: How to combat itchy skin in the cold monthsFashion & beautyElizabeth Carr-EllisMon, 04 Mar 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/dry-skin-how-to-combat-itchy-skin-in-the-cold-months5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c7be994652dea887eab7a09Changing temperatures and harsh winds can dry your skin and make it itchy.
Award-winning skincare brand Epionce shares its top tips to keeping your
skin moisturised and hydrated
Itchy skin has been preying on my mind a lot this week so when I received these top tips and advice from Epionce I knew I had to share them.
Being itchy can be a symptom of menopause, but it can be made worse by cold weather and changes of temperature (and boy, have we seen this in the UK this week. It was my birthday last Tuesday and we sat outside in a beer garden celebrating – in February!)
We think of March being the start of spring in the UK, but it’s still officially winter – and anyway, we all know that the British weather pays no heed to what the calendar says. I’m not expecting any warmer weather until the end of April at least even then, apart from climate change, I’m being optimistic.
Until then, we can more or less bet on it being cold, wet and windy and this can make your skin uncomfortably dry or chapped – the delightful “winter itch”. Colder temperatures constrict your pores and this is what can lead to dryness and dull skin. Some people prone to acne can even find the colder weather causes them to breakout more.
Top tips to fight winter skin
avoid hot showers that pull moisture from your skin. It’s tempting to turn the thermometer up when it’s cold outside, but believe me you’re not doing your skin any good at all. Keep it lukewarm;
that also goes for your central heating. Lowering your indoor temperature will stop your skin suffering from a sudden jump from the UK cold outside to the balmy Med in your living room.
wear sunscreen every day – even if it doesn’t look sunny outside.
you can also consider buying a humidifier to help regulate moisture levels in your house. Not only will it keep your skin’s moisture levels balanced, I find humidifiers help me breathe a little easier, and finally
eat nutrient-dense foods and drink plenty of water.
Why you need to wear sunscreen
Out of all of these, I think sunscreen is the one most of us forget about. I find many women my age are dismissive of the need to wear sunscreen in winter – or, in fact, any time or location that isn’t summer at the beach (and rarely a UK beach). It’s easy to see why. When I was a teen, I’d smother my skin in cooking oil (yes, honestly) to get a tan. That’s how we grew up and it’s still a mind-set I see too much, sadly.
Harmful UVA rays are around all year round. They penetrate through clouds and windows and reflect off surfaces such as grass, asphalt and cement – all the things around us. They can also reflect off snow, so watch out you skiers.
Snow reflects the sun’s UVA rays so if you’re heading off for a skiing break, don’t forget the sunscreen
You need to be even more careful if you live at a higher altitude or head off somewhere high for a winter break because UVA rays are stronger the higher up you go. Don’t be confused that this means mountains or the like. I used to live in Madrid, which is about 667mor 2,188ft above sea level. I know it’s Spain, but winter in Madrid is freezing so I was hit with all these factors – cold air, UVA rays because it’s still incredibly sunny and the central heating in offices and at home.
So basically, wearing sunscreen with at least an SPF 30 should become a daily habit, no matter what the calendar says.
How do I treat dry skin?
Washing can also strip away your body’s oils, so go for a soft, gentle cleanser. Forget soaps – they’re too drying. Instead, I love Superdrug’s Vitamin E Hot Cloth Cleanser. It’s a dupe for the Liz Earle cleanser, only this one doesn’t make my sensitive skin break out. Oh, and be gentle when you dry your face. Gentle pressing is better than a vigorous exfoliation! Yes, we want to remove the dead skin cells, but you should exfoliate in a gentle way, not via a lack of fabric conditioner!
This time of year should also see you up the level of thickness in your moisturiser to protect and quench thirsty skin. However, I’ve been using the Boots No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Advanced Day Cream (Christmas present) and I have to say, I’m not feeling the love at all. I like the Night Cream, but the Day Cream seems thin and weak and doesn’t nourish my skin at all, so if you have any recommendations, send them my way!
When it comes to my body, I’m a good old E45 girl – especially at the minute, as my hormones are rocking away and I have extremely itchy dry skin. I go for the thick cream as I love how sumptuous it feels in winter and it works wonders on my hands and feet. In summer, I go for a lighter body lotion, such as Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Deep Moisture Body Lotion For Sensitive Skin. Neither of these are fancy or sweet-smelling – that’s what my perfume is for – but they’re the only ones that do the job for me. Good old drugstore!
Skincare ingredients to look out for
As well as following these tips, you should also look out for the following ingredients in your skincare products to help:
Step it up with a face mask
Masks are an excellent way to give your skin some much-needed TLC at this time of year. Go for something hydrating and smoothing, such as the Epionce Enriched Firming Mask, to counter the harsh weather and help repair the damage.
As well as hyaluronic acid and shea butter, which together help moisturise and hydrate your skin, the Epionce mask also contains willow bark to help the skinshed dead cells, clear pores and stimulate new cell formation.
Apply after cleansing and leave on for 5-20 minutes. You can also leave it on overnight to get maximum hydration.
If you’re in the UK, you may not be familiar with Epionce. It’s a relatively new brand over here, but its founder, Dr Carl R Thornfeldt, is an award-winning dermatologist in the US with more than 30 years’ experience. Thankfully, that means there’s none of that “my skin feels like it’s been kissed by a million unicorns” type hype.
Best of all, Epionce doesn’t use animal testing, either directly or indirectly, and instead its clinical studies are performed on people. The results are then peer reviewed and published before a product goes out.
What do you use to help your skin in winter? I’d love to know – especially any moisturisers! Leave me a comment below…
Also, you may have been wondering what happened to last Friday’s post… Well, I had to go into London for a couple of days for something very special that I can’t share with you right now as I’m sworn to secrecy. Honestly, I had to sign forms and everything. But I can tell you it was extremely emotional and exciting and nerve-racking all at once and I’ll be able to tell you all about it next month.
Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss out!
Additional photos: Kcxd (CC BY 2.0) No “gifting”, sponsorship or payment was involved in this post.
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]]>Dry skin: How to combat itchy skin in the cold monthsMenopause brain fog: Top tips to beat memory lossHealth & FitnessElizabeth Carr-EllisWed, 27 Feb 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/menopause-brain-fog-top-tricks-to-beat-the-memory-loss5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c753181085229b900521197Forgetfulness, unable to concentrate, indecisive – the menopause can hit
your brain in many ways and leave you feeling drained and fuzzy. But you
don’t have to put up with it. Here are the practical ways you
can help control the symptoms and feel more like yourself
So there I am, upstairs in the bathroom, repeating to myself: “Don’t forget to take the rubbish downstairs. Don’t forget to take the rubbish downstairs. Don’t forget to take the rubbish downstairs.” And then I’m downstairs, cursing to myself because I forgot to bring the rubbish with me.
The next day, I was on my way to work when I suddenly realised I’d left my handbag at home.
MY HANDBAG!
Not a bus pass, not my keys (they were all in my lunch bag), but my handbag, an item I’ve carried just about every day since I was 14.
This, my dear friends, is what the menopause does to you.
Memory issues – or “brain fog”, as it’s more often called – is a common menopause symptom. According to one study into menopausal brains, 60 per cent of middle-aged women have some form of difficulty concentrating and it’s higher among peri menopausal women (that period just before your periods stop completely, which is where I am).
As well as that, menopausal women also have difficulties when it comes to tasks such as reading instructions or listening to new facts or coordination, as well as… Oh, a pretty kitten video… sorry, as well as attention span.
When you think about it, it’s obvious why. While we think of oestrogen and progesterone controlling our fertility – so your womb and ovaries – there are receptors for them throughout our body, including the brain. Consequently, when their levels fall, it affects the brain as much as our ovaries. And you get brain fog.
Thankfully, studies have shown this is not a permanent loss and that your memory will improve in time.
There’s also some thought that our brain fog may not be as bad as we think it is, but that we’re more aware of it because we’re more aware of the negative impact the menopause is having on us. So because we know there are changes, we’re hyper-aware of being more forgetful or not being able to find the word we want.
(Saying that, if your memory loss is really bad and having a major impact on you and others, go to your doctor to make sure it isn’t an early sign of dementia or something else.)
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can help you overcome memory loss by restoring the levels of oestrogen and progesterone in your body. But there are other ways you can help ease your symptoms, too…
Eat a balanced diet
I know, I know. It seems the answer to everything. Well, that’s because it often is!
Food is fuel for our body so it makes sense that if you’re eating the wrong fuel, your body is going to react. After all, you wouldn’t put diesel in an unleaded car and expect it to work as well, would you?
So eating the right things is important.
When I lived in Spain, I was amazed at the number of fit old people around. One friend had a great-grandmother who was in hospital with a broken leg and couldn’t wait to get back to her mountain village. She was in her late 90s but was as active and mentally competent as ever.
Rich in omega-3, which has been linked to helping decrease mental decline, the Mediterranean diet means eating things such as:
fish, especially tuna, sardines, salmon and rainbow trout;
whole grains such as 100 per cent wholewheat bread or pasta, brown rice, buckwheat, bulgar wheat and quinoa (it’s not just for bearded hipsters. Honest). I eat this bulgar salad with cucumbers, red peppers and chickpeas for lunch in the summer and it’s gorgeous and so filling;
keep your room cool. Your body temperature naturally lowers when you sleep. By having your room cool, you help stimulate sleep and you can move through the sleep cycles easier. And you know, those hot flushes are gonna heat the place up too…
relax before you go to bed – try some yoga, meditation or talk to whichever woman “upstairs” you believe in. Anything that gets you in a relaxed state of mind and not thinking about the day-to-day problems you might have.
If you suffer from restless legs syndrome through the menopause, where your legs feel itchy or hurt when you relax, go and see your doctor. I suffered for years and it was so stupid of me because there is help out there.
Exercise
A mere 30 minutes of cardio each day will do wonders for you – and it doesn’t have to be in the gym. A brisk walk will do the trick (think of all those elegant Spanish women doing their paseo around the town at night.)
Exercise opens your blood vessels to get the blood flowing and increases your oxygen levels and this all drastically improves your ability to think and act.
Do a mental workout
Exercising your brain is just as important for keeping the little grey cells fit and well. Mental challenges help create and strengthen your neural pathways and networks, which makes your brain stronger. They can also make it more flexible and adaptable to change.
Good ways to do this are to try:
learning something new. From playing an instrument to learning to speak Icelandic, it doesn’t matter what you choose just so long as you stretch your mind;
writing with your “wrong” hand. It sounds nuts, I know, but this is a great way to increase your brain activity and stimulate new parts. I had to do it at work for a while when I broke my right arm horse-riding and it really, really makes you concentrate;
connect with others. Sitting at home alone is a sure way to vegetate. By talking to others and interacting with them, you’re going to engage more parts of the brain than you will watching Judge Rinder. (You can always talk to them about Judge Rinder.) Why not start a monthly Menopause Café so you can share your experiences and help other women in your situation?
meditate. No, this isn’t another hipster fad. There are plenty of scientific reasons to meditate, from boosting your overall health to making you happier. As far as brain fog is concerned, mediation increases your focus and attention plus your ability to multitask (ooooh, I remember doing that!). It will also help you keep a check on those rages that can flare up by making you more aware of what is going on in your mind. Headspace is a great app to get you started.
Most of all, remember you’re not alone. If you’re having a menopause brain fog day, say so – you’ll be surprised how many people will sympathise.
How do you beat the brain fog? I’d love to hear your top tips in the comments below…
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]]>Menopause brain fog: Top tips to beat memory lossCelebrating Women: Get into the groove with Dee QuembyCelebrating womenElizabeth Carr-EllisMon, 25 Feb 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/celebrating-women-actress-and-dancer-dee-quemby5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c729ebfe4966b4ed52e4461After landing a lead role in a new film when she thought her career was
over, the dancer and actress tells us how she’s still tripping the light
fantastic
On top of the likes of the Dames – Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Joan Plowright and on and on – it’s such a change from the days when Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were told they were “washed-up” by their early 50s.
Now I can add another name to the list: today’s Celebrating Women star Dee Quemby.
Dee has spent her life in showbusiness. She started learning to tap dance when she was 18 months old and appeared in her first show a few months later, became a tap teacher when she was 19, was one of the first women stand-up comedians to work professionally – including being one of only two female comics to appear on The Comedians – and starred as Tallulah “Lulu” Dingle in Emmerdale.
She’s now in her 70s, but has to intention of slowing down.
Dee not only runs Tap Works & Co, a weekly dance workshop in her native Loughborough, but later this year she starts shooting a full-length feature film.
Dee as Tallulah 'LuLu' Dingle in Emmerdale
How incredible is that?
I particularly love what her director, James Smith of Raya Films, has to say about her character: “The lead actor plays a lonely, but tough woman who refuses to conform to any norm of settling down, retirement or the usual stereotypes.”
Sounds like the perfect 50Sense woman!
I tried to get more details, but they’re keeping their cards close to their chests and all I could find out was it’s a thriller sent in a rural location, with “a number of unsettling incidents”.
But I think I fell in love with James when he told me: “Having Dee on board lends experience to the cast.”
Yes! Yes! Yes! A woman being praised and valued for her years and experience! I think I may have to lie down…
I also have a confession about the other reason I asked Dee to be on 50Sense: I did tap dancing when I was a young girl, too. We used to meet at the old Co-op Buildings on Heaton Road under the “tutelage” (she wasn’t that good) of an old music-hall dancer and I loved it. I still get itchy feet when I watch Strictly Come Dancing (although that could be my menopausal skin).
Here, Dee tells us more about her early days, her career and why we should all show off our fancy footwork…
How did you begin dancing?
I was taken to dance classes in Loughborough, in Leicestershire, in 1947 at the age of 18 months and I appeared in my first show – a pantomime – when I was two.
None of my family were involved in entertainment at all, but my mother had always wanted to dance. However, my grandparents couldn’t afford for her to go in the 1920s. So as soon as she could, she enrolled me in a dancing school.
My granddad was the landlord of the pub where we lived in Shepshed and he would sit me on a table as he mopped the floors and we would sing all the old music-hall songs together. I remember going into the bar with my tap shoes and dancing for the regulars!
What happened after that?
I qualified as a dance teacher when I was 19. At that time, in the 1960s, tap was considered very old-fashioned and not many schools taught it. But I felt passionate about it and had many children in my tap classes.
I taught at a school for 50 years and then started Tap Works & Co five years ago as I didn’t want to stop tapping.
Tap dancing is a great way to keep fit and active and having to remember routines is also a great to keep the brain going.
Tell us more about Tap Works…
Tap Works is a weekly drop-in workshop so many former pupils, some in their 50s, have come back to me. I also have two ladies in their 70s.
I absolutely love the tap workshops and I love having older beginners come along – we have such fun.
Dee with her former student Stephen Mear
Have you taught anyone famous?
I won a teacher-and-pupil award in 1979 with Stephen Mear, the West End and Broadway choreographer and director. He was my pupil from the age of three to 17.
He’s since won two Oliviers and other awards and this year, he’s reuniting with Sir Matthew Bourne for a new production of Mary Poppins in the West End. I’m so proud of him.
Plus many other pupils have joined amateur companies and now choreograph the shows.
What else have you done?
I worked for 28 years as a comic – I met Jayne Tunnicliffe that way – and I played Lulu Dingle in Emmerdale. I also played Judy Garland in “Death By Excess” Hollywood Godessses for Sky and I’ve appeared in The Last of the Summer Wine, The Comedians and a few films.
It must have been very exciting to get a lead in a film at this stage in your career…
I’m so thrilled that someone has written a film with an older woman in the lead and I can’t wait to get started with it. I haven’t acted for a while and as I’m now 73, I thought that was the end of my acting career.
Finally, what would you say to my readers who are thinking about learning to dance?
A lot of people tell me they would have loved to have learnt tap dancing but say they are too old now. I always encourage them to come along as it is never too late and I’m so proud of what they can do after a few weeks.
Plus tap has brought me many friends. My husband died ten years ago and we had no family, but some of the pupils I taught as children now live nearby and they really look after me if I need it and we go to shows, which is so lovely.
I count myself very lucky to have such wonderful friends.
I’d love to know what sort of dancing you’d like to learn? Or what you can do! Leave me a comment below. If you’ve enjoyed this, please like and subscribe and share with your friends.
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]]>Celebrating Women: Get into the groove with Dee QuembyIssara’s sustainable fashion tips: How to look good and help save the planetFashion & beautyElizabeth Carr-EllisFri, 22 Feb 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/issara-sustainable-fashion-tips-how-to-look-good-and-help-save-the-planet5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c6d6ba4652deaed87b8efa6Fast fashion has a huge impact on the environment and the world around us.
Here are the simple ways you can turn back the tide in style
Sustainable fashion is one of the major talking points at any fashion industry event these days. When I visited Pure London fashion trade show this month, there were several interesting talks on the issue, while LFW saw the likes of Stella Tennant (girl crush), Stephanie Grainger (girl crush) and Yasmin Le Bon (yup, her too) walk in second-hand outfits at Oxfam’s Fashion Fighting Poverty show to show how good clothes never go out of style.
Fashion has gone wild over the last few years. According to Greenpeace, global clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014, with the average person buying 60 per cent more items of clothing each year – but only keeping them for about half as long as 15 years ago. That’s a huge amount of waste.
Issara founder Rosh Govindaraj
However, there are things we can do – five easy steps, in fact, as luxury and environmentally friendly sustainable leather brand Issara tells us.
Issara is a new company founded by Rosh Govindaraj, a former management consultant, just two years ago.
Rosh’s job meant she was surrounded by professionals carrying expensive, fashionable designer bags that needed to be changed each season to stay on-trend.
Concerned about the environmental and humanitarian impact such fast-fashion was having, she set up Issara (the name means “freedom” in Thai) to deliver quality products using full-grain leather that would age gracefully so you could use them season after season.
After visiting a Javanese leather workshop in 2014, she also wanted to protect traditional crafts and help the communities that make them. As a result, the artisans are now paid three times the minimum wage, enjoy good working conditions in a safe environment and have health insurance and savings plans.
To minimise its environmental footprint, Issara sources recycled materials that are eco-friendly for its packaging, lining and hardware and uses leather from tanneries that comply with stringent international water and effluent management standards.
Of course, none of that means much if you don’t have a product shoppers want – but Issara’s totes, purses, travel bags are gorgeous. Classic and elegant, they’re pieces that will go with everything and will never date – no-brainers, when it comes to accessories.
Plus Rosh’s business model and wise supply chains mean they’re a lot more affordable than other luxury bags.
I’m particularly in love with the tangerine tote above. As I said here, with a wardrobe of mainly dark colours, I adore adding pops of colour through handbags. That beautiful orange tone is perfect.
Check out the gallery below (click on a pic to make it bigger). In the meantime, here are five easy ways you can look good while helping save the planet:
Know your style and buy less
There are more and more ethical fashion labels to choose, but the best approach to saving the planet is simple: buy better and buy less.
Moving around so much means I’ve had to be cut-throat with what I wear – we left our lives in Madrid with one backpack each – and you know what? You can manage. The trick is to buy better.
When you shop, think about your style and check that what you’re wearing will go with at least four other pieces in your wardrobe. This not only makes it easier to get ready in the morning, but will help minimize your environmental impact.
Do this and, to paraphrase Marie Kondo, you’ll be sparking joy in your wardrobe and the world.
Quality beats quantity
Neon is going to be huge for the next two seasons – but what about after that? It’s doubtful. When you’re shopping, consider whether the piece can still be worn next season and preferably many seasons after that.
Check the fabric to see how durable it is and make sure the stitching will not come away. High quality may cost more in the short term, but cost-per-wear will be much better so you’ll save in the long run. That’s better than an impulse purchase that will end up in landfill after a couple of wears.
Check the fashion brand’s ethical background
We buy free-range eggs because we want chickens to have a good life, so why does this concern often go out the window when it comes to clothes? Dirt-cheap clothes mean someone isn’t getting a fair deal – and you can bet your bottom dollar it isn’t the shop or the clothing brand.
Before you go shopping, spend a few minutes to check out the websites of your favourite labels and make sure you’re comfortable with how they work – their environmental policy and impact, their carbon footprint and how they treat their workers.
And remember, more expensive does not always mean more ethical.
Most recently, I’ve been impressed by Pala Eyewear, which donates a pair of prescription glasses for every pair of sunglasses you buy, and Sundried Activewear, which has green principles at its very root.
Wear ethical fabrics
Buying a long-lasting piece of clothing that can be recycled is infinitely better than something that is going to end up in landfill because it can’t be reused or repurposed.
When it comes to fabric, go for something that has a smaller environmental footprint, such as:
organic cotton, which requires fewer pesticides and is often free from bleach and synthetic dyes. It can be expensive, however, because it uses more land;
hemp, which uses very few agrochemicals and doesn’t need much water. As a fabric, it’s also breathable, moisture-wicking and warm.
organic wool that has been produced without toxic sheep dips. To be organic, too, the sheep have to be kept in humane conditions.
Donate unwanted items
Finally, take some time to clear out your wardrobe and home and consider donating your unused pieces to charity. With charity stores on so many high streets, it is so simple and yet only 15 per cent of clothes are reused or recycled.
H&M Garment Collection is a great programme to get rid of your unwanted clothes in a green way. Take your items in to a recycling spot by the till and you’ll receive a £5 voucher to be used on sales over £25. Every piece you donate is then recycled, reworn or reused.
Do you have any other tips? Let me know how you stay sustainable in the comments below.
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]]>Issara’s sustainable fashion tips: How to look good and help save the planetNutritionist Emily Fawell's guide to healthy eating during the menopauseHealth & FitnessElizabeth Carr-EllisWed, 20 Feb 2019 08:00:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/healthy-eating-during-the-menopause-an-experts-guide5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c6c4aa8eef1a1309216ef22Registered nutritional therapist Emily Fawell from 4Well People gives her
top tips for how to eat well during the menopause
We all know that “you are what you eat” and the importance of a healthy balanced diet. But there is so much conflicting advice around about what is good for you that this simple adage is actually very confusing, especially when it comes to what to eat in the menopause.
Over the last year, I’ve been told to eat black cohosh, oily fish, saturated fat – the list is endless. It seems someone somewhere has an opinion about any food group going.
And while “just have some chocolate” pops up regularly on advice forums, I’m a bit dubious about the long-term benefits myself.
After witnessing a threads-long argument on Facebook about the health benefits – or not – of soya, I decided to ask an expert.
Emily Fawell is a registered nutritional therapist specialising in women’s health. She’s been practising for ten years, after becoming interested in the power of nutrition to help her debilitating endometriosis symptoms.
Now peri menopausal for about three years, Emily’s been managing symptoms through her diet and lifestyle, as well as helping a large number of clients to manage their symptoms at her clinic 4Well People in Ealing, West London.
Like many of us who have investigated the menopause further, her experiences have sparked off a real passion in her for spreading the word about the changes that happen and how to cope.
In February, she hosted a full-day workshop called Managing the Menopause Naturally, bringing together a wide range of speakers and exhibitors to share their expertise and solutions.
Emily Fawell DipION
There’s another workshop planned for 19 October – World Menopause Day – and I have it in my diary already.
Here, Emily tells us about the importance of eating well, weight gain and the truth about soya…
Why is nutrition important for women during the menopause?
It’s important for women to eat well at every stage of their lives. However, because uncontrolled menopausal symptoms can be so disruptive to how we function and feel, then it’s doubly important.
While the primary cause of many symptoms is the change in hormones, some symptoms could be exacerbated by nutrient deficiencies. Fatigue could be due to a lack of iron or magnesium, anxiety could be more acute because of a lack of magnesium. Hormone balance can be improved through diet and we need good liver function and good gut function for balanced hormones, too.
Good sex-hormone balance also relies on our other hormones, particularly stress hormones being in balance, which could be a challenge at a stage in our lives when there are many demands on us.
And how can we eat better?
Our Menopause Diet involves looking beyond hormone balance. When I work with clients, I look at the body as a whole and ensure that different systems are functioning optimally so the body can be in balance. This means looking at nutrients that support adrenal health, sex hormone metabolism, liver health, gut health, brain function, bone health and cardiovascular function and ensuring that the diet encompasses all of these.
Is there one thing menopausal women are lacking in their diet?
Every one woman is different and our diets can vary enormously, as can our nutrient requirements. I use dietary and symptom analysis to determine what each woman needs more of and create a plan accordingly. I can also use functional tests to determine specific nutrient deficiencies.
Generally speaking, though, most women need more good fats and more vegetables in their diet and many are not aware of the benefits of eating more phytoestrogens
Edemame beans are a great source of soya
Is there a common nutrient menopausal women need in their diet?
Again this will vary for each of us. If a woman is experiencing heavier periods and more frequent bleeding in the perimenopause, her iron levels could be low. If she is experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety and having trouble sleeping then she could be lacking in magnesium.
What is the most common misconception about nutrition and the menopause?
That there is a magic bullet and one nutrient could be the answer! [Hmmm, think I’m a little guilty of this one – 50Sense!]
Can supplements help?
Yes, supplements can help. But the trick is to find the right ones for each woman as we are all biochemically different.
Supplements can be great for alleviating hot flushes. But I often find I have to try two to three different supplements with one woman until we find the one that works for her.
There are so many to choose from that it can seem overwhelming to someone who is going through this alone. And what works for someone else might not work for you.
Can what you eat make symptoms worse?
Definitely! A poor diet will exacerbate hormone imbalance and can impact gut and liver health. It might also be lacking in the nutrients you desperately need to manage your symptoms. A high sugar diet with fast-releasing carbohydrates and lots of alcohol will not help if you are suffering with hot flashes, night sweats and low mood.
What is the truth about soya and the menopause?
There is a lot of research to support the use of soya for menopausal symptoms as it contains good levels of specific phytoestrogens. I would always advise eating it in as natural a form as possible and to check the food labels to ensure that it is not genetically modified. Edamame – soya beans – are a great place to start.
If you could only give one piece of advice about diet and the menopause, what would it be?
Introduce a tablespoon of ground flaxseed a day into your diet. Flaxseed is high in lignans, which support hormone balance. It is also high in good fats and fibre, which will support good gut health. And it’s great for keeping you regular which is important for hormone balance and lowering toxicity levels.
Lastly, the big one – we all know about middle-age spread. Is it inevitable that women will put on weight during their menopause years?
No. It is true that a change in hormone levels can make it harder for some women to avoid weight gain. But there are many things we can change in our diets and lifestyle to combat this, so it doesn’t have to be inevitable.
What do you eat to help you with the menopause? Leave me a comment below.
And don’t forget, it you’ve enjoyed this, please like and subscribe below and share with your friends.
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]]>Nutritionist Emily Fawell's guide to healthy eating during the menopauseSnag: Tights that won’t fall down and leave you doing the Hosiery HulaFashion & beautyElizabeth Carr-EllisMon, 18 Feb 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/snag-tights-that-wont-fall-down-and-leave-you-doing-the-hosiery-hula5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c698d878165f5f2b28aee70Tights that fit every body shape and won’t leave you looking like Norah
Batty or with a saggy crotch? Sounds like a dream, right? Meet Snag…
When it comes to the world’s biggest lies, “one size fits all” has to be up there at the top.
I mean, how often have you bought leggings, T-shirts, knickers etc that promise to deliver amazing looks on all body shapes only to find they’re too short in the body, too long in the crotch or just perfect – if you’re Thumbelina?
For me, it’s tights. Being 5ft and 0.5ins on a good day, it is difficult to find tights that don’t make me look like I’m wearing my big sister’s hand-me-downs. Usually they’re too long. I pull them up as high as possible – great for keeping your boobs warm in the winter – but they slide down throughout the day and end up bunched up around my ankles.
If that’s not enough, there’s the crotch. Now I didn’t do great at Biology at school, but I’m pretty sure your crotch isn’t halfway down to your knees. And yet that’s where it ends up with most tights leaving you having to do the Hosiery Hula.
You know the Hosiery Hula, don’t you? It’s when you’re walking along, looking glam and sophisticated, and you start feeling your tights slipping down your legs. So you do the little shimmy, grab the top and try to surreptitiously pull them up and get the gusset into your crotch area. Or somewhere close.
There are hacks to keep your tights up, but they usually involve wearing another pair of knickers over your tights (NB: do not try this with thongs. Ouch.)
Whoever came up with that hack was not a woman wearing a slimline dress and so needs body shaping knickers on. Or even a woman wearing any sort of dress or skirt and wants to eat. Unless you’re wearing a full skirt, you’re just replacing a saggy crotch with VPL overdrive.
And every woman I know has these problems, no matter how tall or short they are, whether they’re size zero or plus-size.
Which is why I was curious about Snag, a new online size-inclusive and body-positive tights brand.
Its ethos is simple: everyone deserves to be able to wear tights that fit them properly, regardless of their size, height, shape or disability.
Amen to that!
“For too long, women have had to put up with tights that just don’t fit,” says their website. “And we’re not just talking about plus size – this is a problem for big women, small women, short women, tall women.”
To that end, they offer tights that vary in height, width and body shape. And forget S, M and L, their size guide gives you a choice of curvy and smooth and A-G, covering sizes 4 to 28 and women struggling to count every inch on their height like me to those goddesses over 5ft 9ins.
Brie Read (second from left), the founder of Snag tights
Snag was founded ten months ago by Edinburgh lass Brie Read after she struggled to find a pair of tights that fit. Talking to pals, she discovered that it was a problem they all shared, regardless of their shape.
“Traditional tights vary in length, but not by width, so it can be a real struggle for women who don’t have a ‘normal’ body shape to find tights that fit,” she says. “For many of these women, a lack of tights that fit properly can lead to a major restriction in clothes that can be worn with comfort and confidence.
“Our tights are designed by women for women and cater to all different shapes and sizes – from very tiny to super curvy. We listen to our customers and create tights which will allow them to love their bodies and express their personalities by the way they dress.”
You can see how women were desperate for tights that fit. Since it started, Snag has sold more than 200,000 pairs of tights and has in excess of 50,000 customers.
They’re also a great way to add a pop of colour into your wardrobe. Colour-blocking is going to be huge this spring and after a visit to Pure London last week to see the autumn/winter trends, I can tell you it’s going to continue for the rest of the year. If, like me, your wardrobe is 50 shades of black and you’re wary of bright hues, Snag’s colourful tights will let you drip-feed a pantone shade into your daily look.
They also have beautiful sheer tights, too, for that transitional stage when it’s too warm for opaque but not warm enough for bare legs.
Now I hear what you’re saying: “Bet they’re not cheap.” Because that’s exactly what I thought, too.
But actually, they’re only £6.99 a pair and a discount scheme means the more you buy, the cheaper they become.
Sad news for Norah Batty, but great for the rest of us.
How to look after your tights
Careful washing is essential to look after your tights. It’s best to wash them inside out and use a hosiery wash bags. Always use a cool wash or, ideally, hand-wash and never tumble-dry or wring them out. Also, don’t do what I did for years and put them on a radiator to dry as the heat affects the stretch.
Try not to wash them after every wear. If they’re not stained or smelly, you can get away with 2-3 wears before washing them. The more you wash your tights, the more damage you do the fabric.
A squirt of hairspray before you wear them will help prolong their life. It also gets rid of annoying static electricity.
Put them on carefully. Bunch them up to the toe, gently put on and make sure the seam is over the toes. Then carefully roll up.
Follow Marie Kondo and fold your tights rather than roll them up to keep them in shape. (I do this now. It also saves loads of space.)
Do you have any tips for top tights? Let me know below.
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]]>Snag: Tights that won’t fall down and leave you doing the Hosiery HulaMenopause Musings – or why the change can be a laughing matterHealth & FitnessLifestyleElizabeth Carr-EllisFri, 15 Feb 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/menopause-musings-or-why-the-change-can-be-a-laughing-matter5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c644a7de4966b4d0edeb6feWhen there are so many health benefits to laughing, we shouldn’t be so
serious about discussing the menopause
Women experience the menopause in many different ways. Some sail through it, the rest of us have a tougher time, as you can see here.
Which is why I’m delighted to bring you the humorous poem Menopausal Musings from Lorraine Mace, who was featured on Celebrating Women recently.
Lorraine wrote this when she was mid-menopause and “going insane”. It went on to win the Petra Kenney Award and feature in Chicken Soup for the Soul in Menopause so I was thrilled when she asked if I’d like to share it with my readers.
I think I’ve gone through the symptoms in each stanza and that’s why I wanted to share it and share a smile or two.
Research shows that humour is often the best way to get through a time of stress, even grief. It can be hard to find something to laugh about in the menopause at times, but it is true that laughter is the best medicine. It decreases our levels of stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline and releases endorphins, which reduce pain and trigger a positive feeling in the body.
No wonder Menopause the Musical has been such a hit with menopausal women and their husbands in the US, where they’ve been talking about the “ch-ch-change” for a lot longer than we have.
We should be able to have fun with this time in our lives. Menopause should not be something to be feared. While it was great that the beautiful Viola Davis was talking about how her body was changing on Jimmy Kimmel last month, I turned a bit frowny when she said: “Menopause is hell.”
We need to know the truth about the menopause – the good and the bad – but describing it as “hell” isn’t helpful. How many women avoid a smear test because they’ve heard someone describe it in a negative way? And for some women, of course, it is a breeze.
I feel much better when I’m laughing about the menopause with friends, sharing our experiences and trying to find something – anything – positive from the situation. Giggling like schoolgirls at vaginal dryness, night sweats, farting when you sneeze and how our boobs have gone from giant balloons (her) to fried eggs (someone else. Not me. Honest.)
By laughing at our menopausal symptoms, we take away their power to control us – remember the Riddikulus spell in Harry Potter? The menopause is our Boggart (and if that name doesn’t get you grinning, you’re a lost cause.) It’s a time when your periods stop, not your sense of humour and laughter should be prescribed by any reputable menopause specialist.
I have no doubt Lorraine’s poem will bring at the very least a wry smile to your face if you’re having one of those menopause days, or a rip-roaring guffaw if you’re having one of the other menopause days. Think of it as a form of cognitive behavioural therapy.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Menopausal Musings
Who is this batty woman, with hormones all unstable,who used to feel so confident, but now is quite unableto handle even simple tasks with confidence and flair,who cries and yells and rages that life is so unfair?Dear God, I think it’s me.
Who is this dreadful woman, who once was so delightfulto spend an hour or two with, but now is just so frightful,that seconds seem like hours and days turn into years,who sobs and storms and threatens, then covers you with tears?Oh Lord, I fear it’s me.
Who is this happy woman, who thinks that life’s a laugh,whose confidence is huge and there’s no blockage in her pathto writing epic novels at ten thousand words a daywith wild euphoric feelings that she wishes could just stay?Oh yes, that could be me.
Who is this frenzied woman who’s trying to containher mood swings and hot flushes, which really are a pain?So many times she’s woken, to find herself on fire,with bedclothes drenched, but feeling – not one atom of desire.Oh dear, I know it’s me.
Who is this nutty woman with her crazy sense of humour,who terrifies her husband, or is that just a rumour?He’s male and he should suffer, we ladies know the cause.Our monthly curse is followed by the blasted menopause!You’ve guessed, of course, it’s me.
If you’ve enjoyed this, please leave a comment and like and subscribe below. Pass it on to your friends, too.
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]]>Menopause Musings – or why the change can be a laughing matter50Sense wins the Versatile Blogger Award – but there's a twist…LifestyleElizabeth Carr-EllisWed, 13 Feb 2019 08:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/50sense-wins-the-versatile-blogger-award-but-theres-a-twist5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c606cbbf4e1fc3c525b5ff3I’m overjoyed to have been named, but now I have to share seven secrets
with you!
Well, this is very nice. I am thrilled to announce that 50Sense has been awarded The Versatile Blogger Award! As I never win anything (apart from a tin of Danish Butter Cookies, two seconds after saying how much I hated Danish Butter Cookies), I have to say I’m utterly delighted.
A huge big thank you to Trace at the wonderful The Fashn Collectr for the nomination. It’s great to hear when someone enjoys 50Sense and gets something from it. Trace has a brilliant blog so check it out.
But watch out, girl, I’ll be coming for coffee when I’m next in New York.
What makes The Versatile Blogger Award special is it comes from fellow bloggers to reward other blogs for their unique content, quality writing and the level of love they show for their subject.
There are, however, some rules, one of which is to reveal seven facts about myself that my readers may not know.
So without further ado…
Seven facts about 50Sense
I have a Bacon number of 3
At school, I studied drama and still dream of a life in the theatre. I directed, did lights, stage managed, I wrote a subplot for Gregory’s Girl for a school production (Lee “Billy Elliot” Hall wrote the music) and acted.
And in one of those acting forays, I was on stage with my friend Dave Nellist, who played Mike Stamford in Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch, who appeared in Black Mass with Kevin Bacon.
So, I have a Bacon number of 3. Not bad. Not bad at all…
I can ask for two beers in six languages
I blagged my way into the VIP section of a posh exhibition
Fashion is an artform to me – I once argued that I should be allowed to buy and frame a pair of Gucci shoes because they were so beautiful. Mr 50Sense, who at the time was only Boyfriend 50Sense, disagreed. So when Louis Vuitton held their Series 3: Past, Present, Future exhibition in London, I was there and seeing everything twice.
And somehow, on my second trip around, as I drooled on the display cabinets and asked the bagmaker if she got a discount, I ended up with a group that had something to do with Vogue. They were being given a guided tour and, wanting to learn more, I just sort of tagged on at the end. Even though I worked full-time for HELLO!.
Next thing I know, I’m being offered a choice of drinks and nibbles (I chose non-alcoholic. I have some ethics) and my choice of Louis Vuitton-designed stick-on letters. I chose an E for me and a G for Mr 50Sense and they’re still on the front of my computer today.
The bagmaker didn’t get much of a discount, by the way.
I am incredibly shy
People I know wouldn’t agree, but I am a shy and quite introverted person. I think lots of journalists are at heart, as I wrote in my piece on being lonely.
But I also believe in fake it till you make it so when I go somewhere new, I adopt a confident persona and she does the talking, mingling and laughing.
It still doesn’t completely stop the feelings that I’m boring or the worrying about what I’ve said, but it helps.
Growing older is also an advantage because I now have more experience to draw on when it comes to meeting new people. Plus I can recognise when other people feel shy and nervous and make an effort to talk to them.
I was the first female night editor at The Scotsman
A night editor is the person in charge of a newspaper after the editor and all the other chiefs have gone home. They stay with the paper throughout the night, deciding what breaking stories go in, what old stories come out, and then leave after the final edition has gone to press and go home to collapse.
In 2001, I ended a 184-year run of men being the night editor of Scotland’s leading newspaper.
At the end of 2004, I became the last woman to hold the post when I left to go to Spain.
Shame on you for not having another woman in the position since then, The Scotsman.
I was once a Womble
Remember my acting dreams? I think they stem from my first Nativity play at school. All the main parts had been given out, so what do you do with the children who are left? There are only so many angels you can have…
Being the early 1970s, you make the littlest one into a Womble, of course.
So I took to the stage, with a papier maché head and a purple outfit (don’t ask me), and cleaned up the rubbish around the manger.
I think that eco-friendly performance will get me right past St Peter and into The Good Place no problem.
I failed my Maths O-level five times
E the first time, U the second (unclassified – I don’t think I even got my name right), E again, X the fourth and then a D, at which point I jumped around the school corridors because that was the best fail I’d had and told everyone I was stopping at that high point.
The X? I was sunbathing the day before the exam and got sunstroke. When I woke up to go to school, I fainted and collapsed on to the kitchen sink while making a cup of tea.
My sister heard the noise and came rushing in.
“What you doing down there?” she asked.
“Trying to get up,” I replied.
Even in agony, there’s always time for a funny…
That was quite fun, actually. I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me a fact about yourself that no one else knows in the comments below.
And again, a huge thank you to Trace at The Fashn Collectr. I am truly honoured to know my writing sparks a light in someone else.
The rules also state that as well as thanking the blogger who nominated me and share their links, I must forward, nominate and inform seven bloggers who provide similar inspiration.
So as well as the menopause blogs I go to, the blogs I nominate for the Versatile Blogger Award and recommend you check out are:
If you’ve enjoyed this, then subscribe so you never miss out on another post from the “award-winning” (!) 50Sense – and don’t forget to share with your friends.
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Thank you for subscribing!
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xxx
]]>50Sense wins the Versatile Blogger Award – but there's a twist…Running towards happiness: How a coffee with friends changed Emma's lifeCelebrating womenHealth & FitnessElizabeth Carr-EllisMon, 11 Feb 2019 07:29:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/running-towards-happiness-how-a-coffee-with-friends-changed-emmas-life5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c602734971a1829e8f82313Emma Brunel Smith tells us how she went from feeling lost to finding a new
purpose – and love for her body – after joining a running club
We’ve all taken leaflets about something of interest and then stuffed them at the bottom of the handbag along with a lippie that’s lost its lid and an unused sanitary towel, forgotten until you’re at airport security and get stopped and they go all over (oh, just me then…)
However, for 44-year-old Emma Brunel Smith from Oxford, picking up a flyer when having a coffee with friends led to a new career, a fitter body and a whole new outlook on life.
Emma – aka Embot – is one of the inspirational women in my life. She features in my From a couch potato to the Great North Run post and I think I can truly say I would never have ran the GNR if it hadn’t been for her.
Her story begins a little under eight years ago, when she was at a loss after leaving the world of academic publishing behind following the birth of her daughter Evie, now nine.
“I was really overweight, bigger than I've ever been in my life, and not doing any exercise at all,” she tells me.
Out with friends one day, she saw a flyer for the Garden Cafe Runners running group, inviting new members to join. “It was very welcoming and friendly and they accepted all levels of runner,” Emma says. “And it happened to be on a Wednesday morning, when I wasn't working and Evie was in nursery, and it was very near to where I live. So I went along.”
Fast forward a few years and that chance flyer has resulted in Emma running several marathons, making lots more friends and setting up her own business combining physical activity with a therapy service.
Plus, she says, the strength and conditioning has made her reassess her body image.
“It's totally changed my attitude to my body, which I spent a lot of my life punishing. Now I love it,” says Emma, who is now also the mum to four-year-old son Joe – and two cats – with husband Matt.
“I'm not Claudia Schiffer – nobody is, not even Claudia Schiffer probably really looks like that – but I'm my best me. And I love my body for what it can do now.”
Tell us how you started running…
It was a chance picking-up of a leaflet. Evie was about 18 months old and to be honest, despite having the most gorgeous baby girl ever to have been born in the world ever (no I'm not biased), I was a bit miserable and lost.
I'd decided not to go back to my career in academic publishing to retrain as a psychotherapist, so was permanently stressed out, working hard on a second degree I'd foolishly decided was a good idea, in an unpaid work placement as an NHS therapist.
Anyway, I was at a baby group with my NCT friends and I saw this flyer for the Garden Cafe Runners. So along I went and met this amazing group of utterly inspiring women.
Are they all lithe super-fit goddesses?
Some of them are retired, some work from home or part-time, some are on maternity leave and have a baby in a running buggy, as I did when I returned with Joe.
We have a few therapists in there too actually proving my TOTAL belief of how good exercise is for your mental health!
How did you start off?
That first run I wore a pair of old maternity joggers that were falling down with every step, a Judge Dredd T-shirt with massive holes in it and a pair of 15-year-old trainers. But I never looked back. I just loved it and from there I worked my up to my first 10k and then my first half-marathon and then I joined my running club Headington RoadRunners and the obsession was born.
Now I'm one of the leaders of Garden Cafe Runners, am training for my fifth marathon and am a qualified running coach and a qualified therapist. I’m extremely involved in my running club and this morning, me and Evie did Park Run together – and she knocked over a minute of her previous personal best!
What made you decide to go for your coaching licence?
It seemed like the logical next step, really. I got my Leader in Running Fitness Qualification so I could help out with Garden Cafe Runners, but I'm also heavily involved with Headington RoadRunners and was helping out at a ridiculously early-morning track session run by my friend and coaching mentor Tony. The club needed more qualified coaches and as I was already doing a bit of coaching and leading a lot of runs, I decided to go for it.
I have to say, it was a big step up in terms of the work and the commitment, but it was worth it. I really enjoy it and along with the track sessions, Tony and I also have an online group where we work with Headington RoadRunners training for their first marathons and half-marathons. It's very rewarding.
I'm also on the books of We Run Coaching and am VERY much available for one-to-one running coaching in the Oxfordshire area. #shamelessplug
What do you get from running?
Ooh, a lot!! To flip that around, you should see how HORRIBLE I am when I'm not running, if I'm injured or something. Ask my husband about that one!
What I get from running is more than just the physical exercise, although that is a big part of it. I realise now I'm in my mid-40s that I need a LOT of exercise. I feel so much happier and freer when I'm exercising. I love the endorphins, the buzz I get from working hard, getting a really good sweat on.
But it's a lot more than that. The feeling of accomplishment after finishing a marathon – knowing you gave it everything and that you worked really hard and put yourself through a lot of physical discomfort to achieve something you really wanted - definitely changes you.
Plus I have made some amazing friends. Running all those miles with someone bonds you. As does the mainlining cake and coffee afterwards and moaning about lost toenails and swapping tips on how to combat intimate chafing.
Do you think running changes as you get older?
Menopause affects women as we lose muscle mass etc – although I have to say, no one has told that to some of the women of Headington RoadRunners, some of whom are breaking club records on a regular basis into their 70s.
Maybe, as you get older, slowing down is inevitable, but only as much as you let it. The fitter you are and the more you do, the slower the decline will be. And I fully intend to keep running for a VERY long time.
I figure that by keeping myself fit, letting myself recover properly and eating the right fuel, I’m giving myself the best shot at being one of those 80-year-old runners.
What advice would you give older women who want to start running?
If you live in Oxford, give me a shout and come along to Garden Cafe Runners! For anyone who doesn't live in Oxford, I would advise starting with the wonderful Couch to 5K (C25k) and just build up really slowly. C25K starts with a minute walking, a minute running and you build up gradually until you're running for 30 minutes.
Or if you have a local running club, see if they have a beginners’ group that you could try.
But actually the biggest advice really is to just go for it. You are literally never too old to start. Be gentle on yourself, but just give it a go.
How has it felt to change careers in your 40s?
Well, I'm still very much mid-change and finding my way to a new career. But the short answer is that it's REALLY liberating.
I know I'm very lucky to have such an understanding husband who completely supported my not going back to publishing. My job for the last few years has been to raise our amazing, feisty, cheeky kids.
I met up with a friend the other day who is still at the company that I was working for at the end of my publishing career and she was admiring my purple hair (it’s now blue) and remarked that I didn't do it like that when I worked in publishing. She asked if I was ever tempted to go back to corporate life and I'm not even sure you can print my answer, which was: "HAHAHAHA! F*** no!"
There were elements of my job that I really liked – I worked with some lovely people – but I'm just not a corporate person. I can't physically spend that much of my day inside.
What happens next?
Well, that is the big question right now as I’ve set up a running therapy practice in Oxford.
When you're on a long run with someone, or even a long walk, you seem to be able to discuss things with a depth and an intimacy that just doesn't seem to work within four walls. There’s something about being outside and moving forward alongside each other that opens up the conversation in a better way than face-to-face, which can be slightly intimidating to some. I want to replicate that in a therapeutic way.
In terms of running, I'm training for the Manchester marathon and will almost certainly do Abingdon marathon in the autumn, too. And in between I want to start doing triathlons so I'm having swimming lessons at the moment, too (I can swim if “not drowning” counts). I'm learning to do front crawl like a PROPER swimmer, I have goggles that make me look like an angry wasp and a sporty black cossie as opposed to my turquoise frilly one with Day of the Dead skulls on it.
I also have a big mad crazy dream to do a full Iron Man in my 50th year. My husband thinks I've gone entirely mental and him and my mum both asked me if I didn't think that was a bit extreme, which obviously made me more determined to do it because I'm a contrary f****r like that.
Let me know what you think of this or any other 50Sense post in the comments below. And like and subscribe so you never miss out on a post – don’t forget to share with your friends.
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]]>Running towards happiness: How a coffee with friends changed Emma's lifeGrowing old gracefully and disgracefully – and why you shouldn't careLifestyleElizabeth Carr-EllisFri, 08 Feb 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/growing-old-gracefully-or-disgracefully-why-do-we-have-to-choose5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c5afa79971a184de7167915Women should be freer than ever to do what they like, so why are we still
being told there is a correct way to age?
When it comes to icons, Drew Barrymore is up there with the best of them in my book. Smart, witty and drop-dead gorgeous, she is an incredible role model for women.
So why did I end up frowning over an interview she gave with Glamour magazine last month?
In it, the 43-year-old Charlie’s Angels star talked as frankly as ever about her past demons and why this meant she would never have plastic surgery.
“I have an extremely addictive personality,” she said. “I’ve never done heroin and I don’t want to get plastic surgery because I feel like they’re both very slippery slopes. I feel if I try either, I’m going to be dead really soon.”
All well and very good, but it was what she said next that got me: “I feel ageing is a privilege. It’s about how to do it gracefully, with humour, self-love and a respect for the process, and that’s always been really important to me.”
Of course the papers picked it up, with the Evening Standard in London declaring: “Drew Barrymore: I’d get addicted to plastic surgery so I’m growing old gracefully.”
And it was that line that got me – “growing old gracefully”.
Stereotypes and the language around growing older have been bugging me a lot recently, spurred on by the magnificent Grandmother Williams.
She is the woman who told Philip Schofield off for telling her she was “young at heart”. Such language, she rightly said, is ageist. She is not young at heart because her heart, like the rest of her, is 81 years old. She is as old as she is – heart and all – and proud of it (one look at her bio and you can see why).
There are whole dictionaries and thesauruses (thesaurusii?) projecting this idea that there is a right and a wrong way to talk about getting older – and “growing old gracefully” is among them.
The Daily Telegraph has a whole gallery praising women it has deemed as growing old gracefully, women who look amazing without having any work done to them.
I’m snookered. I’ve had fillers in my eyebags and botox on my frown lines and crows’ feet. The first left me with bumps around my eyes that I now hate and the second just made me feel weird (I have an expressive face that too easily shows my emotions – Mr 50Sense is always asking what I’m laughing at or frowning about when I write. Botox stopped me doing that and oooh, I suffered.)
They didn’t work for me, but that certainly doesn’t mean other women shouldn’t try them if they want. Nor does it mean they’re not growing old gracefully.
Sorry, Drew.
Of course, men have always had a “get-out-of-old-age-stereotypes-free” card. George Clooney is a silver fox, Daniel Craig is ruggedly handsome and Keith Richards is a rock god for – well, for just being Keith Richards.
I admit, I love the fact that the women in the Telegraph’s gallery are embracing their age and yes, the phrase “growing old gracefully” sounds wonderful. I get images of demure dames in M&S dresses and American tan tights making jam and cakes for the grandchildren.
It’s all very genteel and nice and acceptable and Miss Marple-ish. It’s about being pleasing and attractive, in a grandma sort of way.
Not making a nuisance of yourself demanding to be treated the same as young people, not complaining about becoming invisible once you hit 45, not speaking out while someone 30 years younger explains how a computer works…
By growing old “gracefully”, you’re expected to accept how society sees older people. And that is as someone whose time has past and they accept that with good grace.
Stop complaining and wanting a life and pass the Werther’s Originals.
Also, I’m intrigued as to how you grow old disgracefully, because if you can grow old gracefully then you must be able to grow old the other way, too?
But how? By still loving punk and disco, as in my vision of the OAPs home of the future? By wearing skirts above the knee and the latest fashion trends? By being interested in politics and wanting a say on your society?
One of my favourite memories of living in Spain is seeing the old women at our local bar, drinking glasses of wine or beer and laughing uproariously at life – louder with each glass.
That’s what I plan to do. I’ve been going out since I was 16 and I don’t plan to stop when I’m 60 and beyond. Nor will I stop shouting at PMQs, listening to Depeche Mode or drooling over the latest catwalks.
And if someone can find me a way of getting rid of these eyebags without leaving behind lumps, I’m at the front of the queue even if I have to push everyone out of my way to get there.
As long as I enjoy what I’m doing, I’m going to keep doing it because growing older is about being who you are…
Whether that’s disgraceful or not is down to you.
What do you think? Do you plan to grow old gracefully or disgracefully – or just grow old? Leave me a comment below.
If you’ve enjoyed this, I’d love it if you gave me a like and subscribe and share with your friends.
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]]>Growing old gracefully and disgracefully – and why you shouldn't careJayne Tunnicliffe: From soap star to Street artistCelebrating womenLifestyleElizabeth Carr-EllisWed, 06 Feb 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/jayne-tunnicliffe-from-soap-star-to-street-artist5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c571df1652dead327843537Actress Jayne Tunnicliffe tells us how she left the cobbles of Coronation
Street behind to immortalise its famous faces in art
If you’re from the UK, then I challenge you to look at Jayne Tunnicliffe’s artwork without smiling - especially if you’re a Coronation Street fan.
I first came across Jayne’s work on Twitter, when a grinning Hilda Ogden beamed up at me as I scrolled through the doom and gloom of Brexit posts.
For those of you not familiar with Hilda, she was one of the mainstays of a British soap opera called Coronation Street, which has been running since the 1960s. It was a must-see in my house when I was little (hey, who am I kidding? I watched it right up until I left the UK for Madrid and then followed it online. Hayley’s death had me in tears.)
Set in the North and with matriarchs such as Hilda, Bet Lynch, Annie Walker and Elsie Tanner running the show, Corrie was one of the most realistic TV shows for many years.
Consequently, when I saw this fantastic rendition of Hilda, obviously drawn by someone who loved the character as much as I did, I had to find out more so I pinged Jayne a DM. After all, she looked like a nice, friendly woman. Reminded me of someone…
Well, it only turned out that that was because she was in Corrie herself. I watched her just before we left for Spain, when she strutted the cobbles as Yana Lumb, the best mate of Cilla Battersby-Brown (Wendi Peters).
I’ve approached and talked to many celebs, but one from Corrie… I went all shy. I mean, Corrie is such an institution it’s like meeting royalty.
But Jayne proved to be as friendly and helpful as she appeared in her avatar and was more than happy to speak to 50Sense about following a creative career.
Jayne first got her break on The James Whale Radio Show – which was on the telly, natch – and has been a regular in many comedy shows, appearing with the likes of Lily Savage and Peter Kay, who she met along with his fellow Phoenix Nights writers Dave Spikey and Neil Fitzmaurice (Ray Von) on the Manchester comedy circuit in the 1990s, when she was ukulele-strumming stand-up Mary Unfaithful.
Now 51, she marries acting, writing and comedy with her art collections, creating colourful portraits of famous faces past and present. I particularly love the mugs (the Bette Davis one is my current favourite and the link Mr 50Sense is getting sent to him ahead of my birthday!)
Along with writing, drama was my love at school, but it felt like something a working-class girl like me could never do as a career (you can read how I ended up a journalist here). That’s why I find it so inspirational to see people like Jayne following their dreams and moving into visual arts.
Here, she tells me more about her career, the ups and downs of a creative life – and what the Corrie stars think of her work…
Tell us about yourself…
I was born in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, and grew up in the Bingley area – a little market town between Bradford and Haworth surrounded by beautiful countryside. I spent my art student years in 1980s Liverpool and then I lived in Manchester for eight years in the Noughties. Now I now live in North Yorkshire, surrounded by my lovely friends and family, and combine running my art and craft businesses – Crafted Creatures and Voodooville – with acting and writing.
I was last seen on screen last year, in the BBC’s Moving On and before that in the film Funny Cow with Maxine Peake, but I'm perhaps best known for playing Yana in Coronation Street between 2004 and 2007.
I’ve also appeared in That Peter Kay Thing and Phoenix Nights, when I played reporter Debra Quinn, who interviews Brian Potter while Half a Shilling are singing Send the Buggers Back in the Phoenix Club.
And I’ve acted in Clocking Off, written and appeared in two series of Lily Live as one of Lily Savage’s sidekicks, went on to tour with Phil Cool and gigged with Lonnie Donegan, Little and Large, Labi Siffre, Steve Coogan, Les Dennis, Margi Clarke, Lee Evans, Steve Coogan, Jo Brand, Peter Kay, Jason Manford, Lee Mack, Johnny Vegas…
How did you move into art?
I’ve always drawn and painted. I have a BA Hons in art and along the way I’ve added other creative skills like sewing into my repertoire.
I have international buyers and love making art and sculptures for people. No two days are ever the same.
Can you remember your first portrait?
The first person I drew or painted would have been John Lennon. I was a teenage Beatles fan!
What do your former Coronation Street co-stars think of your work?
I had an exhibition of Corrie-inspired paintings in Manchester in 2006 and it was attended by a few cast members, including Wendi Peters and David Neilson, and also the creator, Tony Warren. Plus Suranne Jones, who played Karen McDonald, has my painting of Steve and Karen McDonald in her kitchen.
Away from the show, Paul O’Grady – Lily Savage – has bought my painting of Bet Lynch, as well as paintings of Diana Dors and Tara King from The Avengers.
Count Arthur Strong, Tony Maudsley (Mr Kenneth in Benidorm), John Challis (Boycie in Only Fools and Horses) and DJ Sara Cox have also bought art or mugs from me.
Whose mug do you drink your tea out of?
I drink my tea out of a mug that has my portrait of Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice in The Entertainer on it.
Many people are put off a creative career as they think it’s unstable. What do you think?
Pursuing a creative career can be quite a rollercoaster and at times I’ve done various day jobs along the way to supplement my earnings. But I also managed to buy my first property with my earnings from writing and acting in Lily Live, so I truly believe the saying: Do what you love and the money will follow.
I thank my lucky stars every day that I'm not trapped in a job I hate. I love the autonomy of being a freelancer – and it's probably no more insecure these days than working in a bank or a supermarket.
It will probably sound cheesy, but I can't imagine my life without creativity in it.
If you want to see more of Jayne’s art, visit her at Folksy, while her Crafted Creatures can be found here. Also, give her a follow on Twitter and say Hi.
Who’s face would you like on your mug? Let me know in the comments below. And don’t forget to like and subscribe and pass on Jayne’s story to your friends.
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]]>Jayne Tunnicliffe: From soap star to Street artistGym make-up: Look good while you work outFashion & beautyHealth & FitnessElizabeth Carr-EllisMon, 04 Feb 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/gym-make-up-how-to-look-good-while-you-work-out5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c56e79cfa0d6079fe9d2410Make up a beauty gym bag with sweat-proof products that will stop you
breaking out while working out – and at a price you’ll like
I’m a great believer that if you look good, you feel good, especially when it comes to the gym.
Let’s face it, when you’re working hard and then you look up and catch sight of a red-faced mess in the mirror, your motivation takes a bit of a dive – you think you’re a gym bunny when in fact you’re a rabbit stew.
I love my workout clothes from Sundried – which you can read about here – but recently, with my hormones fluctuating and affecting my skin, I need a bit more help to stop me looking as if I’m about to keel over before I’ve even started.
Some people say that wearing make-up to the gym is bad and hand on heart, I used to be one of them. And then I realised that I went to the gym straight from work with my make-up on – hypocrite, your name was 50Sense!
However, I don’t want to put on a full face and clog up my pores while I’m sweating it out in the Big Boys’ Room (free weights). At the same time, I don’t want something so light it starts running down my face, especially if I’m going on somewhere post-workout.
If your normal day make-up is too heavy for the gym, make up a budget-friendly sweat-proof selection for when you’re working out so you can still look good without breaking the bank. (Links to retailer sites in each title.)
I used to think it was a marketing gimmick, but a good primer is essential for keeping your face in place. I’ve used E.L.F. for years, right back to when you could only order it online, and while the price has gone up, it’s still a great bargain brand and being able to buy it on the high street is the icing on the cake.
I’ve tried this primer for a couple of months now and it’s part of my make-up arsenal. I have combination skin and this is wonderful for moisturising where I need it. It gives my skin a boost and keeps my foundation looking good all day long. Use sparingly.
Okay, I’ve cheated with this, but everything else is so cheap that you can splurge a little on your base. This is a brilliant tinted moisturiser – and believe me, I’ve tried loads. It comes out white and then adjusts to your skin colour to give a natural tint. I look sunkissed but not orange. It’s great for my sensitive, combination skin and gives my face an instant punch of moisture.
For a real budget bargain, last summer I picked up Primark’s PS My Perfect Colour Tinted Moisturiser. It gives a nice, light, natural look and doesn’t feel gloopy or thick. If you see it, give it a try – I got mine on sale for £2!
Brows are the bane of my life. When I was younger, I used to pluck away. Now I cry at the memory because they’ve faded away to nothing and a face just doesn’t look right without eyebrows - it’s the only beauty tip that I consistently agree with. Together with my eyelashes, brows are the part of my face I will always make-up – even though you often can’t see it under my fringe!
If you haven’t heard of W7, you’re missing out. It’s a great, budget range that is perfect for your dropping into your gym bag. The Brow Bar is a set of four shades to allow you to get your perfect tone and shape and they won’t move throughout your workout.
My mascara of choice for every day and while you can get sports waterproof mascara, I’d plump for this over any of them. I mentioned it before in my Etmore Beauty review and it’s my go-to for every occasion now.
It gives long, clump-free lashes and each lash stands alone. The brush is a mix of long and short bristles, so even the annoying little lashes at the inside of my eye get covered, and it doesn’t come off at all. Use a micellar water or a make-up remover to wash it off.
To be honest, my biggest hang-up with lips at the gym is the air-con, which seems to dry them out and leave them cracked. Go for a lip oil to give a subtle sheen with moisture that isn’t sticky. W7’s has argan oil in it for added hydration. Plus it was also named best value buy lip gloss in the Beauty Shortlist Awards of 2016, so know you’re in good hands.
What products do you have to have when you work out? Let me know in the comments below.
If you’ve enjoyed this, please like and subscribe and share with your friends.
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]]>Gym make-up: Look good while you work outHow to take care of your skin in winterFashion & beautyElizabeth Carr-EllisMon, 28 Jan 2019 07:30:00 +0000https://www.50sense.net/home/how-to-take-care-of-your-skin-in-winter5b7daaa836099bdf85fb2aa7:5b7daba321c67c1bee8189a4:5c4c1e1b40ec9a53af34f74bCold winds and central heating can dry out your skin, leaving you looking
less than your best. Here’s how to tackle the winter skin bluesAfter the longest autumn I think I’ve ever had, winter has arrived in the UK and with it comes cold air biting at your skin. As if that isn’t bad enough, you’re then subjected to the dry air of the central heating.
Mature skin in particular needs an extra touch of TLC in the winter months. Here’s the five best ways of giving your skincare regime a bit of love…
Studies show CBD oil is an anti-inflammatory that could help with acne. Because acne is a result of inflammation of the hair follicles and the sebaceous glands, the oil works to calm the skin, which reduces breakouts and redness. There are reports that it could also help with oil production.
I know what you’re thinking – acne is for youngsters. Well believe me, it’s not. When my hormones started to flux (makes me sound like Back to the Future’s DeLorean!), my skin broke out like it had never done in my teens and 20s. Spots AND wrinkles – life’s a bitch at times.
However, CBD oil is a powerful antioxidant, which means it could also help lessen the signs of ageing by diminishing wrinkles and dull skin. Wish I’d known about it five years ago.
(By the way, CBD oil is not a drug. Yes, it comes from the cannabis plant but it should not contain the psychoactive – and illegal – cannabinoids THC & CBN. There’s a tiny chance it might, however, so make sure you buy from a reputable brand. So no, you won’t get a high – unless you really love what it does to your skin.)
Eat fruit and vegetables
I grew up eating fruit every day* and I really notice a difference in my skin if I stop doing it – probably because I end up snacking on sugary snacks such as chocolate and boiled sweets instead.
“What we eat has an effect on the mechanisms that are associated with ageing of the body and these benefits will be reflected not only in terms of good health, but also in the condition of the skin,” nutritionist Dr Marilyn Glenville, the author of andNatural Alternatives to Sugar, says.
“Vitamin C is the most important nutrient as this vitamin helps in the manufacturing of collagen so a good intake of fruits and vegetables is important and should be eaten on a daily basis.”
The importance of fruit and vegetables in a healthy diet can’t be overstated, especially when we get older. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables have been tied to fewer menopause symptoms, while they’re also essential for bone health.
I also find that I look after myself better when I eat better – it gives me the energy I need to do things like take my make-up off properly at night and put on all my lotions and potions. Plus there is nothing tastier than a ripe strawberry or a handful of sugarsnap peas.
(* My mam is of the old-school method of boiling veg until it’s mush so while we also had vegetables with every meal, all the goodness had long since disappeared.)
Add a touch of seaweed to your diet
When I was a teenager, a boy tried to scare me with seaweed on the beach at Whitley Bay. I remember us both being bemused when I took it out of his hand and asked what I was supposed to do with it! He’d be even more incredulous that I now eat seaweed. When we go out for a Chinese meal, they have to whirl the lazy susan away from me when it’s placed down on the table.
I’m glad I do because seaweed is swimming (sorry) in beauty benefits. Antioxidants help protect against free-radicals, fighting the signs of ageing from the inside out, while it’s also packed with vitamins, minerals and salts to nourish your skin.
Learn to manage your stress levels
My skin is the first thing to suffer when I feel stressed. I look dull, get furrow lines from frowning and I develop under-eye bags so deep I feel like I could carry potatoes in them. I’ve tried meditation and mindfulness but I never feel relaxed, which means I end up getting more stressed – especially in the dark, cold months. The one thing that does it for me is yoga.
I have enthused about Chaz Rough’s Yogamazing podcast (above) for years. Mr 50Sense started me on it after it helped his back. The focus and Chaz’s calming voice means it is just 20 minutes of bliss, where I can truly let my mind go. Yoga is the only exercise where I honestly get an exercise high afterwards. It leaves me feeling great.
It’s also cheap – all you need is a mat. Make sure you choose one that’s light and flexible so you can carry it around if needs be and also test it’s stickiness. You don’t want to slip in the crow pose.
Exfoliate your skin
Two times a week, I exfoliate both my face and my body to remove dry, flaky and dead skin. At the minute, I’ve fallen in love with Mr 50Sense’s Bulldog Original Face Scrub (that’s between you, me and the bathroom). It contains aloe vera, camelina oil and green tea and feels so smooth – which is weird, because it’s a scrub! But it’s not one of those scrubs that tears away from your skin. It’s soft and gentle and I can notice the difference afterwards. Let’s hope Mr 50Sense doesn’t notice it going down quicker than it should…
For the rest of me, I’ve been converted to the Rabot 1745 Coffee Body Scrub from Hotel Chocolat. I first saw this at a press event and tried in against my hand and I was amazed at how hydrating and creamy it felt, which is perfect for the dry, winter months. Plus it smells of coffee – but in a nice way, not that horrible chemically sense that so often plagues food-based beauty products.
Apply both on wet skin in the shower or bath, using gentle, circular motions. For a start, just massaging your skin feels wonderful and you’re left feeling refreshed and clean.
And while you may want a hot shower after being out in the cold, make sure to use warm water and gentle body washes so you don’t strip your natural oils away any more.
What are your top tips for taking care of winter skin? Let me know below.
Don’t forget to like and subscribe and share these skincare tips with your friends.
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2024-01-04T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/3026
|
/*
* Copyright 2016 Facebook, Inc.
*
* 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.
*/
#pragma once
#include <cstdint>
#include <glog/logging.h>
namespace folly {
/***
* SparseByteSet
*
* A special-purpose data structure representing an insert-only set of bytes.
* May have better performance than std::bitset<256>, depending on workload.
*
* Operations:
* - add(byte)
* - contains(byte)
*
* Performance:
* - The entire capacity of the set is inline; the set never allocates.
* - The constructor zeros only the first two bytes of the object.
* - add and contains both run in constant time w.r.t. the size of the set.
* Constant time - not amortized constant - and with small constant factor.
*
* This data structure is ideal for on-stack use.
*
* Aho, Hopcroft, and Ullman refer to this trick in "The Design and Analysis
* of Computer Algorithms" (1974), but the best description is here:
* http://research.swtch.com/sparse
* http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.30.7319
*/
class SparseByteSet {
public:
// There are this many possible values:
static constexpr uint16_t kCapacity = 256;
// No init of byte-arrays required!
SparseByteSet() : size_(0) { }
/***
* add(byte)
*
* O(1), non-amortized.
*/
inline bool add(uint8_t i) {
bool r = !contains(i);
if (r) {
DCHECK_LT(size_, kCapacity);
dense_[size_] = i;
sparse_[i] = size_;
size_++;
}
return r;
}
/***
* contains(byte)
*
* O(1), non-amortized.
*/
inline bool contains(uint8_t i) const {
return sparse_[i] < size_ && dense_[sparse_[i]] == i;
}
private:
uint16_t size_; // can't use uint8_t because it would overflow if all
// possible values were inserted.
uint8_t sparse_[kCapacity];
uint8_t dense_[kCapacity];
};
}
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2023-12-11T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/5545
|
4 Reasons To Hire A Personal Injury Lawyer In DC
30 Jul 4 Reasons To Hire A Personal Injury Lawyer In DC
If you’ve suffered from an injury, hiring a personal injury lawyer might be the best course of action. This is especially true when dealing with insurance companies that refuse to give you what you’re truly owed.
If any of the following apply to you, we recommend getting in touch with us.
Your Injury Requires Long-Term Care If you require long-term care after your injury, you need to contact a personal injury lawyer right away. The best personal injury lawyers can make sure you’re receiving the compensation that you’re owed by law and by the insurance companies. Additionally, a personal injury attorney has the resources and skills to calculate how your injury with impact your earnings over the long term, and take action to compensate for those lost earnings.
Your Injuries Are Permanent And/Or Life-Threatening Compensation for your injuries is largely dictated by the severity of your injuries.
Insurance companies typically use the following factors to determine how much compensation you’re entitled to: The type of injury you experienced The cost of your medical bills Your recovery time If your injuries were permanent
If the compensation you need exceeds that of the at-fault party’s insurance policy, you should hire an attorney to make sure you receive the money you deserve.
Your Situation Is Complicated When more than two parties were involved in any sort of accident, the insurance companies are dealing with a complex situation; most laypeople do not understand what they’re owed in those complex situations.
In those situations, an insurance company may find you “partially at-fault” for an accident, which could end up reducing the amount of compensation you receive.
It’s critical to contact an attorney if you suspect you may be found partially at fault for your own injury. An attorney can make sure the insurance company fairly assess the situation, and that your case is effectively stated.
You Suspect The Insurance Company Is Being Dishonest Unfortunately, insurance companies will often look for loopholes to get out of giving you the compensation you’re owed; they may also bow to pressure from the other party. If for any reason you believe you’re not getting fairly compensation, you need an experienced personal injury lawyer to advocate for your personal interests.
Are you in need of a Personal Injury Lawyer In DC? Super Lawyers, the legal ranking division of Reuters, has listed the Pawnee Davis Law Firm as a Top Rated Firm in the Tristate Area–a distinction that only 2.5% of law firms in the area are qualified to receive. Our attorneys are experts in all aspects of Personal Injury Law, and we are ready to harness that expertise to your benefit.
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2024-01-23T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/3527
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Mobile, Alabama, in the heart of America’s south coast, has a long history, a rich culture and a reputation as a popular tourist destination. It is the birthplace of American Mardi Gras and home of Wintzell’s oysters. The people of coastal Alabama identify themselves by their proximity to the water, by the culture of seafood, sail boats and salt winds. However, it is an area that only recently realized what a rich, unusual ecosystem it possesses, and so today is an active example of resurgent preservation.The Mobile Bay and its associated Mobile-Tensaw River Delta are 285,000 acres of open water that contain an astounding array of wildlife, due to the rich environment of fresh river water mixed with saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico. According to the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP), this estuary contains more food per acre than America’s richest farmland. The area is a haven for fishers, boaters and birders, and is a major port of trade and center for coastal homebuilding. The water system also contributes $3 billion to the state’s annual economy.
In 1995, Mobile Bay was designated one of the U.S.” 28 estuaries of national significance by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Since then, MBNEP has been conducting research and developing a strategy to maintain the fine balance of human use and restoration of habitat. The Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan received final approval from the EPA on Earth Day 2002, and involves government and environmental organizations, local businesses and individual citizens.
David Yeager, director of the MBNEP, is excited about the program’s progress. “People need to feel ownership, so they care about the land and the bay and want to protect it,” he says. From the beginning, citizens have been involved in developing the restoration programs, and in conservation and cleanup projects.
Birds and Battles
Beyond that, Alabama is encouraging citizens to take pride in their environmental riches with enhanced public recreation areas. The Mobile area already boasts plenty of outdoor activities, including Blakely State Park, a Civil War battle site. Jackson’s Oak in nearby Daphne is an ancient tree from the crook of which, as the story goes, General Andrew Jackson addressed his troops before they headed out to battle in the War of 1812. There are also camping and picnicking areas as well as coastal boardwalks that display the wild beauty of the delta.
Another recreation area that has gained more notice in recent years is the bird sanctuary on Dauphin Island, a branch of the Alabama Coastal Birding Tour. The island was recently designated a Globally Important Bird Area by the American Bird Conservancy. It is a major stop for hundreds of bird species, some of which migrate up to 18,000 miles, from the tip of South America to the arctic tundra. Every spring, the island is the first landfall for birds that have made the long flight across the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1999 and 2000, severe weather over the Gulf exhausted the birds to such a degree that “fall outs’ occurred. “Birders of more than 40 years had never seen anything like it,” says John Porter, executive director of the Friends of Dauphin Island Audubon Sanctuary. “Birds covered the ground.” Once fed and rested, the birds fly on and don’t return until autumn, when they are heading south.
Another project of interest is a series of canoe routes that recently opened to the public. The Alabama State Lands Division has collaborated with David Hastie to create the Bartram Canoe Trail in honor of naturalist William Bartram, who embarked on a five-year journey to observe wildlife and wilderness from Florida to Mississippi in the 1770s. Today, canoe routes are mapped through Alabama’s state-owned lands in one or multiple day trips, allowing visitors to gain a wilder glimpse of the delta.
Yet another project in its initial phases is the Greenway Trail, which the MBNEP hopes will eventually be a 50-mile walking trail weaving through the south coast’s towns and open spaces. It will be made of permeable pavement and planted with native species.
While Mobile still has considerable restoration and preservation work ahead, it has come a long way. Alabamians are working hard to take care of the natural environment they call home.
From Our Twitter Feed…
Support Our Work
Help get others’ heads out of the sand by making a secure tax-deductible donation to EarthTalk Inc., the 501(c)3 behind Emagazine.com, the syndicated EarthTalk Q&A column and Sea Change Radio. Help up keep preaching beyond the choir on green living, sustainability and climate change with your contribution today.
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2024-06-26T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/3528
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---
author:
- 'Alvaro Sanchez$^1$, Carles Navau$^1$, Nuria Del-Valle$^1$, and Du-Xing Chen$^{2,1}$'
title: 'Self-fields in thin superconducting tapes: implications to the thickness effect in coated conductors'
---
[**Most applications of superconductors, such as power transmission lines, motors, generators, and transformers, require long cables through which large currents circulate. Impressive progress has recently been achieved in the current-carrying capability in conductors based on high-temperature superconductors. Coated conductors are likely the best examples, consisting of very good quality thin layers of YBa$_2$Cu$_3$0$_{7-\delta}$ (YBCO) superconductor grown on top of a metallic tape with some intermediate layers. However, there is an important problem for achieving large currents: a large decrease in transport critical-current density $J_{\rm c}$ when increasing film thickness has been observed in coated conductors made by all available techniques [@foltynnature; @larbalestiernature; @luborsky; @foltynAPL93; @foltynAPL99; @kang; @emergo; @civale; @foltynAPL05; @kim; @takahashi; @foltynsust2009]. Here, we theoretically explain the nature and the ubiquitous presence of this so-called thickness effect by analyzing the self-field created by the transport currents in the superconductor, assuming a realistic field-dependent $J_c$. This knowledge can help finding new ways to improve transport current in thick superconducting films.** ]{}
The most typical manifestation of the thickness effect occurs when measuring the transport $J_{\rm c}$ of superconducting tapes at self-field (no externally applied magnetic field) as function of the tape thickness. Several explanations have been proposed to partially account for some of the effects, such as enhancement of flux pinning near the heteroepitaxial interface between YBCO and the substrate or interlayer [@foltynsust2009], difference in intergrain coupling for films with different thicknesses [@solovyov; @feldmann], or non-uniform distribution of pinning sites across the thickness [@feldmannapl] . However, the fact that this effect is common for all combination of substrates, preparation technologies, and HTS deposition techniques [@vmpan; @peer] suggests that there is an underlaying phenomenon that is present in all the studied cases. In this work, we argue that the effect of the self-field of transport currents in thin films is an underlying basis for all the thickness dependence experiments in coated conductors. The existence of this ’universal’ geometry-related thickness effect does not mean that the other mentioned effects (inhomogeneities, interface effects, etc) do not play an important role in particular cases. However, only after understanding the geometrical effects can the rest of phenomena be properly studied.
We consider an infinitely long type-II superconducting strip of rectangular cross-section located at $-w/2\leq y\leq w/2$ and $-t/2\leq z \leq t/2$, which obeys the critical-state model, with a field-dependent critical-current density $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm i})$, where $H_{\rm i}$ is the modulus of the total magnetic field. We calculate the self-field and the local current density at every point of the superconductor cross-section by an iterative process described in the Methods section (similar procedures were used in [@bbclem; @rostila]).
What can the model explain about the thickness effect? To answer this question we plot in Fig. 1 as dots the experimental points corresponding to collected data for different YBCO coated conductors, obtained from the review paper Ref. [@foltynnature]. These data can be considered a typical systematic study of thickness dependence in state-of-the-art YBCO conductors. The line in Fig. 1 corresponds to the $J_{\rm c}$ calculated by our model, assuming an intrinsic Kim-type $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm i})$ dependence $$\label{eq.kim}
J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm i})= {{J_{\rm c0}}\over{1+{H_{\rm i}}/{H_0}},}$$ with values $J_{\rm c0}=12$ MA/cm$^2$ and $\mu_0 H_0=0.006$ T, and using the actual film dimensions of the experiments (Kim model is chosen becauese it has been shown to fit well the $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm a})$ measured in thin YBCO films [@suenaga]). The calculated critical-current density follows well the drop observed in the thickness-dependence experiments. The standard thickness dependence is therefore very well reproduced just by assuming a (realistic, see below) $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm i})$ function and calculating the transport current at self-field for the exact dimensions used in the experiments, without any extra parameter. The explanation has no need resorting to a spatially dependent $J_{\rm c}({\bf r})$ function including an extra distance parameter, as in some previous models [@foltynAPL05; @foltynsust2009]; although this spatial dependence may indeed by present in some cases, it is not logical that it appears for so many sample preparation conditions in which the effect has been observed [@peer].
The next question to answer is how the Kim-model $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm i})$ function we have used represents the actual field dependence in the real samples. In Fig. 2 we plot as dashed line the $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm i})$ dependence used in Fig. 1 \[Eq. (1)\] and as solid line the expected measured $J_{\rm c}$ as a function of applied field $(H_{\rm a})$ calculated by our model taking into account the self-field, for the case of thickness $t=1\;\mu$m. When comparing the calculated $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm a})$ with a typical experimental dependence (as in Fig. 8 of the same review paper [@foltynnature]), one can see that the theoretical curve has the same behavior as the experimental one, showing a plateau region up to an applied field $\mu_0H_{\rm a}\sim 0.01 $ T and then decreasing with applied field [@foltynnature]. In contrast, the intrinsic $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm i})$ dependence is larger at low fields than the plateau value and merges with the calculated $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm a})$ for fields larger than around 0.03 T, because in this region the self-field created by currents is much less than the applied field value, so the internal field is basically $H_{\rm a}$ [@chengoldfarb; @peak; @bbclem; @rostila].
Another conclusion can be obtained from the results in Fig. 2: although the measured value of $J_c$ at applied field $H_{\rm a}$=0 is the plateau value $J_{\rm {c,plat}}\sim$3.3 MA/cm$^2$ for a thickness $t=1\mu$m, our model shows that intrinsic $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm i})$ can have larger values (a maximum of 12 MA/cm$^2$ in this case). This means that, following our model, when measuring transport current at self-field in the coated conductor, there are regions that actually have a current density larger than the value of the plateau. This is shown in Fig. 3 where we plot the local values of $J_{\rm c}$ (Fig. 3a) and $\mu_0H_{\rm z}$ (Fig. 3b) for the conductor with $t=1\mu$m in the conductor midplane, corresponding to Fig. 2, for different $H_{\rm a}$ values. One can see that in the central region of the sample the local $J_{\rm c}$ exceeds the plateau value $J_{{\rm c,plat}}\sim$3.3 MA/cm$^2$ (dotted line); actually, exactly at the conductor center, the magnetic field is zero (according to Ampere’s law) and therefore current density has there the maximum value of the intrinsic $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm i})$, 12 MA/cm$^2$. The fact that there are regions in the sample with local $J_{\rm c}$ larger than the plateau value opens a path for improving transport $J_{\rm c}$ in these conductors. It is also interesting to note that the maximum magnetic field in the sample for $H_{\rm a}$=0, which occurs at film edges, corresponds rather well to the product $J_{{\rm c,plat}} t$ [@bbclem], and not to $J_{{\rm c0}} t$ (in the studied case $J_{{\rm c0}}=12$ MA/cm$^2$, around four times larger than $J_{{\rm c,plat}}\sim$ 3.3MA/cm$^2$) . When the applied field is increased, the maximum in local $J_{\rm c}$ first moves to one side and then eventually smears out and local $J_{\rm c}$ and field become both basically constant.
The model for the thickness effect presented in this work also explains the results deduced from the incremental model presented in [@foltynAPL05; @foltynsust2009]. This model artificially assumed a spatially dependent $J_{\rm c}({\bf r})$ function, which decreases linearly with the vertical distance to the substrate up to a given distance, and then it is constant. From our results, the drop of incremental $J_{\rm c}$ naturally arises from the field dependence of $J_{\rm c}$, with the property that $J_{\rm c}$ would not decrease in general with the distance from the substrate but with the distance from the center of the sample.
Because the described effects are geometrical and then always present in films, is it therefore impossible to have a thickness-independent $J_{\rm c}$? The answer is not; a possible solution is to try to achieve superconductors such that its intrinsic $J_{\rm c}(H_{\rm i})$ is roughly constant from 0 to at least the self-field, of the order $J_{{\rm c,plat}} t$. Probably this is the situation in some measurements of films that show almost no thickness dependence of $J_{\rm c}$ [@foltynsust2009].
In view of the above results, we can conclude that an explanation for the ubiquitous thickness effect has been given. It is because of its geometrical nature that it is present in striking similar form for a variety of deposition techniques (PLD, MOCVD, [*ex situ*]{} MOD films, etc. [@peer]). However, we would like to remark that our model, although it describes the typical thickness dependence experiments, does not explain some particular experimental data. These cases may thus become the key for finding new strategies of optimizing current capabilities of thick tapes. In one of such cases [@foltynAPL05], Foltyn et al present large values of $J_{\rm c}$ for multilayers composed of alternating YBCO and CeO$_2$ layers. The values of $J_{\rm c}$ for a (thick) multilayer composed of six 0.55$\mu$m-thick layers of YBCO, with a layer separation of only around 40nm, were very close to the values of a single (thin) YBCO layer. This cannot be explained by our model, since the six YBCO layers separated such short distances should have a $J_{\rm c}$ similar to that of the whole block, and smaller than that of a single layer. Another example of results which our model cannot explain is the observation of thickness dependent $J_{\rm c}$ at fields of the order of 1T or more, far above the self-field of currents [@kim]. Since our model for homogeneous samples fail there, this probably indicates that in these cases spatial inhomogeneities are indeed present, such as enhancement of $J_{\rm c}$ at the interface [@foltynAPL05]. Also, the presence of other effects such as anisotropy or surface barriers may yield results departing for our model predictions, therefore signaling the presence of these phenomena. The described examples show that there are very promising routes to increase $J_{\rm c}$ in thick YBCO samples. However, these strategies can only succeed if the geometrical effects, for which we have provided analyzing tools in this work, are properly taken into account.
In conclusion, we have explained the existence of a thickness effect in many measurements in superconducting tapes and why this effect appears in samples prepared and measured under many different conditions. Only after this geometrical effect is correctly analyzed in a given experiment, the intrinsic properties of the studied superconductor can be extracted, and in general paths towards large values of transport current in thick superconductors can be properly explored.
We thank Anna Palau, Carlos Monton, Teresa Puig, Xavier Obradors, Alejandro Silhanek, Joffre Gutierrez, and Boris Maiorov for conversations. We thank Consolider Project NANOSELECT (CSD2007-00041) for financial support.
[99]{}
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Foltyn, S. R., Wang, H., Civale, L., Maiorov, B., and Jia, Q. X. The role of interfacial defects in enhancing the critical current density of YBa2Cu3O7-d coatings. [*Supercond. Science and Techn.*]{} [**22**]{}, 125002 (2009).
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Feldmann, D. M. et al. Mechanisms for enhanced supercurrent across meandered grain boundaries in high-temperature superconductors. [*J. Appl. Phys.*]{} [**102**]{}, 083912 (2007).
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Tretiatchenko, C. G. and Pan, V. M. A pehonomenological model for the thickness dependence of the critical current density in high temperature superconducting epitaxial films. [*Supercond. Science and Techn.*]{} [**22**]{}, 045026 (2009). Foltyn, S. R. and Civale, L. in [*US Department of Energy Superconductivity for Electric Systems Annual Peer Review*]{} (Arlington, Virginia, 2006); available at <http://www.energetics.com/meetings/ supercon06/agenda.html>. Babaei Brojeny, A. A. and Clem, J. R. Self-field effects upon the critical current density of flat superconducting strips. [*Supercond. Sci. Technol.*]{} [**18**]{}, 888–895 (2005).
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![Transport critical-current density $J_c$ of coated-conductor YBCO films of width 200$\mu$m as function of film thickness $t$. Points are experimental data obtained from Ref. \[1\] and solid line is the theoretical calculation.[]{data-label="fig.1"}](fig1.pdf){width="100.00000%"}
![Critical-current density $J_c$ of coated-conductor YBCO films of width 200$\mu$m and thickness 1$\mu$m as function of applied field $\mu_0H_{\rm a}$. The solid line is the theoretically calculated $J_c$ and the dashed to the assumed $J_c$ dependence as function of internal $\mu_0 H_{\rm i}$ field \[Eq. (1)\].[]{data-label="fig.2"}](fig2.pdf){width="100.00000%"}
![Calculated local critical-current density $J_c$ (a) and vertical component of magnetic field $\mu_0 H_z$ (b) as function of horizontal position for a coated-conductor YBCO film of width 200$\mu$m and thickness 1$\mu$m (as in Fig. 2) in the film midplane, for appplied field values $\mu_0 H_{\rm a}$=0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.02, 0.04, and 0.06T. The thin dotted line in (a) shows the $J_c$ plateau value for this film.[]{data-label="fig.3"}](fig3.pdf){width="100.00000%"}
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2024-06-11T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/6185
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Actor Terry Crews on Friday posted an apology letter he received from the powerful Hollywood agent he accused of groping his genitals at a party in 2016.
Though Crews noted that the letter from Adam Venit was delivered in March, he tweeted that he “accepted” it only because of the agent’s decision to leave talent agency William Morris Endeavor.
“It meant nothing without a resignation,” he told Deadline.
While Venit did not explicitly address the groping allegation in his letter, he did ask for forgiveness.
“I am sure that this whole situation is an unwanted experience for you,” he wrote. “I have no right to expect your forgiveness, but I am asking for it nonetheless.”
Venit has previously denied any wrongdoing.
“The intent of this letter is to start a dialogue in service of taking responsibility for the emotional challenge that this experience has caused you and your family,” Venit added in his letter. “I take responsibility for us being here now, together in this situation. I am sorry for all of it.”
When contacted for additional information, Crews’ representatives told BuzzFeed News they had nothing more to add.
Crews went on Good Morning America last year and publicly confirmed that Venit was his alleged assaulter, a claim Venit denied.
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2023-08-01T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/4150
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%
% This file is part of Logtalk <https://logtalk.org/>
% Copyright 1998-2020 Paulo Moura <pmoura@logtalk.org>
%
% 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.
%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
:- object(tests,
extends(lgtunit)).
:- info([
version is 1:0:0,
author is 'Paulo Moura',
date is 2014-10-14,
comment is 'Unit tests for the ISO Prolog standard atom_length/2 built-in predicate.'
]).
:- discontiguous([
succeeds/1, fails/1, throws/2
]).
% tests from the ISO/IEC 13211-1:1995(E) standard, section 8.16.1.4
succeeds(iso_atom_length_2_01) :-
{atom_length('enchanted evening', N)},
N == 17.
succeeds(iso_atom_length_2_02) :-
{atom_length('enchanted\
evening', N)},
N == 17.
succeeds(iso_atom_length_2_03) :-
{atom_length('', N)},
N == 0.
fails(iso_atom_length_2_04) :-
{atom_length('scarlet', 5)}.
throws(iso_atom_length_2_05, error(instantiation_error,_)) :-
{atom_length(_Atom, 4)}.
throws(iso_atom_length_2_06, error(type_error(atom,1.23),_)) :-
{atom_length(1.23, 4)}.
throws(iso_atom_length_2_07, error(type_error(integer,'4'),_)) :-
{atom_length(atom, '4')}.
% tests from the Prolog ISO conformance testing framework written by Péter Szabó and Péter Szeredi
throws(eddbali_atom_length_2_08, error(domain_error(not_less_than_zero,-4),_)) :-
{atom_length(atom, -4)}.
% the following test is disabled as there is no portable
% way to specify a supporting text encoding such as UTF-8
% for all Logtalk supported backend Prolog compilers
- succeeds(sics_atom_length_2_09) :-
{atom_length('Bartók Béla', L)},
L == 11.
:- end_object.
|
2023-12-26T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/9563
|
Selectmen got a sneak peak at the layout of the new WWII Veterans Memorial Nature Trails, which residents can access through the bike paths off Branch Street. Selectman Olivier Kowzlowski said the park will be managed by the National Resources Trust and is a good addition to the town’s paved bike path that runs about 1.6 miles from East Street to Fruit Street and continues on in a less-improved path to Taunton. The new park includes walking trails and other passive recreation uses.
|
2023-10-14T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/8427
|
Preparation of glycyrrhetic acid beta-glycosides having beta (1-->2)-linked disaccharides by the use of 2-O-trichloroacetyl-beta-D-pyranosyl chlorides and their cytoprotective effects on hepatic injury in vivo.
Stepwise glycosidation was adopted for the construction of glycyrrhetic acid beta-glycosides (27-30) having beta (1-->2)-linked disaccharides such as 2-O-beta-D-glucuronopyranosyl-beta-D-glucopyranose, 2-O-beta-D-glucuronopyranosyl-beta-D-galactopyranose, 2-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-beta-D-glucuronopyranose and 2-O-beta-D-galactopyranosyl-beta-D-glucuronopyranose. In the first glycosidation, 2-O-trichloroacetyl-beta-D-payranosyl chlorides (9-11) were utilized as starting sugar derivatives to react with methyl glycyrrhetinate (5): Glycosidation of 5 with 9 and 10 gave beta- and alpha-monoglycosides (12) and (13), and (15) and (16), respectively. Treatment of the beta-glycosides 12 and 15 with ammonia-saturated ether gave products (14) and (17), respectively. The glycosidation of 5 with 11 followed by treatment with ammonia-saturated ether gave compounds (18) and (19), respectively. The second step glycosidations of 14 and 17 with methyl 2,3,4-tri-O-acetyl-alpha-D-glucuronatopyranosyl bromide (20) gave diglycoside derivatives (23) and (24), respectively, and that of 18 with 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl bromide (21) and -alpha-D-galactopyranosyl bromide (22) gave diglycoside derivatives (25) and (26), respectively. The removal of the protecting groups of 23-26 gave diglycosides 27-30, respectively, having a beta-D-glucuronopyranose (beta-D-glcUA) as one of two sugar components in the molecules. The cytoprotective effects of the synthesized glycosides 27-30 on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced hepatotoxicity in vivo were compared with diglycosides 31-33 having only neutral sugar components and naturally occurring glycyrrhizin (34) having two acidic sugar components (beta-D-glcUA).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
|
2024-01-20T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/9103
|
21st Century Insurance Customer Service Phone Number
Phone Number of 21st Century Insurance is +1-800-327-6377, 1-877-310-5687, Fax : +1 866-447-2611 .21st Century originally 21st Century Insurance is an American insurance company specialized in vehicle insurance. The company is a part of the 'Farmers Insurance Group of Companies' that also provides insurance services to the people of the country. The company was established in the year 1958 with the efforts of Louis W. Foster as an inter-insurance exchange in the state of California. At that time it was known with the name of 20th Century Insurance and at the beginning of the 21st century its was changed to 21st Century Insurance. The company was bought by American International Group, Incorporation (AIG) in the year 2005 and again sold out to Farmers Insurance Group of Companies in the year 2009. The company have contracts with many renowned companies for using repair facilities of theirs in case an individual file claim for his/her vehicle and these repair center provides excellent repair services and havin 2,200 repair facilities throughout the country. As of March, 2013 the company had 10 million customers who own more than 20 million active individual policies. The same service of 21st Century Insurance listed above is also used for 21st Century Insurance phone number, 21st Century Insurance roadside assistance, 21st Century Insurance homeowners, 21st Century Insurance locations, 21st Century Insurance fax number, 21st Century Insurance careers, 21st Century Insurance review and 21st Century Insurance claims.
data-ad-slot="7829909793">
21st Century Insurance Address
The address of 21st Century Insurance is 3 Beaver Valley Road, Wilmington, DE 19803, United States.
The postal and official address, email address and phone number (helpline) of 21st Century Insurance Service Center and 21st Century Insurance customer service phone number is given below. The helpline of 21st Century Insurance customer service phone number may or may not be toll free.
Keep in Touch With Us
21st Century Insurance Customer Service Number Delineated Here With Complaints and Reviews
No complaints and reviews so far for 21st Century Insurance.To add review or complaint against 21st Century Insurance Click Here. We advise you to express your problem or complaint against 21st Century Insurance. your phone number should be mentioned in your comment, so that 21st Century Insurance will communicate to you on your phone number mentioned in your comment.
|
2023-08-05T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/5841
|
Extremists lure young minds
MANY Turkish-Australians were stunned to hear that one of their own was allegedly involved in an attack on a Muslim convert.
Tolga Cifci, 20, was one of three men charged this month over the attack on Christian Martinez, who was allegedly lashed 40 times with an electric cable as a religious punishment under sharia for drinking alcohol.
The general manager of the Auburn-based Affinity Intercultural Foundation, Ahmet Keskin, said that ''people around here could hardly believe that a Turk might be involved in that [incident] because this is an extremely tolerant community.
''Turkish Muslims preach love and acceptance, like the overwhelming majority of Muslims.''
Advertisement
Auburn is the heartland of Sydney's Turkish community. But in the past 18 months at least three new Muslim groups, including the Auburn Islamic Centre, have set up operations in the suburb, a documentary-maker and peace activist, Kuranda Seyit, said.
You will now receive updates fromAM & PM Update Newsletter
AM & PM Update Newsletter
Mr Seyit, the director of the Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations, said one of them, loosely supervised by the controversial Sheikh Feiz Mohammad at the Bukhari House Islamic Book Store, had been trying to recruit emotionally vulnerable young men of Turkish heritage.
A plan by another, the Islamic Dawah Centre of Australia, to build a large mosque on a $1.8 million, 3882-square-metre plot on Chisholm Road, is considered the latest example of the push into the area.
Mr Seyit said all the groups practised Salafism - considered a hardline Islam embracing a literal reading of the Koran and rejects many mainstream scholarly interpretations.
''If you look at this particular Salafi group [belonging to Sheikh Feiz] - in the past 12 months, you can see there has been an increase in their activities in Auburn, which has more Muslims now than Lakemba,'' Mr Seyit said. ''Strategically they've decided to move to western Sydney to recruit people from an area populated by tolerant, Turkish Muslims.
''You have to remember that Salafis are a tiny minority in the Muslim community and their beliefs are not in any way representative of the majority.
''But I do worry that their influence will increase as they try to push their ideology here.'' Some anxious parents have begun sending their children to Turkey for long periods to steer them away from Salafi influences, one leading figure said on condition of anonymity.
Staff at the Bukhari House Islamic Book Store would not answer questions last week and a man who answered Sheikh Feiz's mobile phone claimed to be called ''Abdullah'' and refused to discuss the matter.
Sheikh Feiz has caused controversy by referring to Jews as pigs and saying children should be encouraged to take up jihad. He has apologised for the former comment and said the latter was misunderstood.
The president of the Islamic Dawah Centre of Australia, Ihssan Wehbe, said he was reluctant to use the world ''Salafi'' when describing his way of Islam.
''My approach is simply the true approach,'' he said. ''There's no tension between the Lebanese and Turkish Muslims in Auburn,'' Mr Wehbe said.
''Religion is about education and understanding and, if there's a problem, we can sit down around the table and talk about it.''
But Levent Gunaydin, a spokesman for the suburb's moderate Gallipoli mosque, predicted that ''these things [the alleged attack on Mr Martinez] are going to happen more and more because they're coming into Auburn''.
''It's still isolated and the numbers of these people are minuscule but their influence is increasing here,'' Mr Gunaydin said.
|
2024-07-06T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/8137
|
Q:
Pass the ViewBag as a Paramerter
If I have a value inside the Dynamic ViewBag, why can't I pass it to a method? So for simplicity's sake, lets say I have ViewBag.SomeValue, and I want to pass the ViewBag.SomeValue to an HTML Helper. If the HTML helper accepts dynamic as a variable, why wont it accept my ViewBag.SomeValue?
@Html.SimpleHelper(ViewBag.SomeValue)
public static string SimpleHelper(this HtmlHelper html, dynamic dynamicString)
{
return string.Format("This is my dynamic string: {0}", dynamicString);
}
A:
As the error message tells you, extension methods cannot be dynamically dispatched. It's just not supported in .NET. It has nothing to do with ASP.NET MVC or Razor. Try writing an extension method to some type that takes a dynamic argument and then try invoking this extension method passing it a dynamic variable and you will get a compile time error.
Consider the following console application example which illustrates this:
public static class Extensions
{
public static void Foo(this object o, dynamic x)
{
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
dynamic x = "abc";
new object().Foo(x); // Compile time error here
}
}
So you need to cast:
@Html.SimpleHelper((string)ViewBag.SomeValue)
Actually, as Adam said you need to use strongly typed view model and never use ViewBag. It's just one of the millions of reasons why ViewBag shouldn't be used.
A:
Even more importantly since ViewBag is somewhat of a bad practice to use because of magic strings as properties on viewbag - what are you trying to send to it. Maybe there is a better way? You should be able to use the helper instance to reference it via:
helper.ViewContext.Controller.ViewBag
but I'm not one for using ViewBag except only for Title
http://completedevelopment.blogspot.com/2011/12/stop-using-viewbag-in-most-places.html
|
2024-01-05T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/7557
|
{
"____comment": "This file was generated by eosio-abigen. DO NOT EDIT - 2018-08-15T13:40:22",
"version": "eosio::abi/1.0",
"types": [],
"structs": [{
"name": "profile",
"base": "",
"fields": [{
"name": "account",
"type": "name"
},{
"name": "username",
"type": "string"
},{
"name": "age",
"type": "uint32"
},{
"name": "bio",
"type": "string"
}
]
},{
"name": "callme",
"base": "",
"fields": [{
"name": "account",
"type": "name"
}
]
},{
"name": "create",
"base": "",
"fields": [{
"name": "account",
"type": "name"
},{
"name": "username",
"type": "string"
},{
"name": "age",
"type": "uint32"
},{
"name": "bio",
"type": "string"
}
]
},{
"name": "get",
"base": "",
"fields": [{
"name": "account",
"type": "name"
}
]
},{
"name": "update",
"base": "",
"fields": [{
"name": "account",
"type": "name"
},{
"name": "username",
"type": "string"
},{
"name": "age",
"type": "uint32"
},{
"name": "bio",
"type": "string"
}
]
},{
"name": "remove",
"base": "",
"fields": [{
"name": "account",
"type": "name"
}
]
},{
"name": "byage",
"base": "",
"fields": [{
"name": "age",
"type": "uint32"
}
]
},{
"name": "agerange",
"base": "",
"fields": [{
"name": "young",
"type": "uint32"
},{
"name": "old",
"type": "uint32"
}
]
}
],
"actions": [{
"name": "callme",
"type": "callme",
"ricardian_contract": ""
},{
"name": "create",
"type": "create",
"ricardian_contract": ""
},{
"name": "get",
"type": "get",
"ricardian_contract": ""
},{
"name": "update",
"type": "update",
"ricardian_contract": ""
},{
"name": "remove",
"type": "remove",
"ricardian_contract": ""
},{
"name": "byage",
"type": "byage",
"ricardian_contract": ""
},{
"name": "agerange",
"type": "agerange",
"ricardian_contract": ""
}
],
"tables": [{
"name": "profile",
"index_type": "i64",
"key_names": [
"account"
],
"key_types": [
"name"
],
"type": "profile"
}
],
"ricardian_clauses": [],
"error_messages": [],
"abi_extensions": []
}
|
2023-10-11T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/7590
|
Q:
Definition of exterior boundary of compact set
In potential theory, there is a result which states,
Support of equilibrium measure of compact set belongs to exterior boundary of the compact set.
But what is the definition of exterior boundary of a set?
A:
Let $K$ be a compact subset of $\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\ge 2$. Its complement $U = \mathbb{R}^n\setminus K$ is an open set. For sufficiently large $R>0$, the set $V = \{x:|x|>R\}$ is contained in $U$. Since $V$ is connected, there exists a connected component of $U$ that contains $V$. You may want to notice that this is the unique unbounded connected component of $U$.
By definition, the exterior boundary of $K$ is the boundary of the unbounded connected component of $\mathbb{R}^n\setminus K$.
|
2024-03-08T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/3525
|
SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect - galapago
http://steamdb.info/blog/34/
======
sandGorgon
I'm seriously curious about their sound and graphics framework more than the
actual games (unless it is HL3).
I am betting (and hoping) that they are going to start using Wayland as well
as a custom sound framework.
I also wonder if they are using a custom packaging format based on top of .deb
.
~~~
jcastro
From what they've said publicly they're pushing OpenGL and SDL, I don't see
why they would make up another sound framework.
~~~
sandGorgon
This is taken from their website - I dont know what they intended, but it sure
looks like a possibility.
_In SteamOS, we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics
processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input
latency at the operating system level._
~~~
jcastro
They have a guy working on SDL directly, and they've been doing a bunch of
work around GL and working with driver manufacturers:
\-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btNVfUygvio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btNVfUygvio)
\- [http://www.paranormal-
entertainment.com/idr/blog/posts/2012-...](http://www.paranormal-
entertainment.com/idr/blog/posts/2012-07-19T18:54:37Z-The_zombies_cometh/)
You could take the statement on the site to seem that they could be working on
their own stuff, but if you watch their video it seems that they are keen on
working on existing things like SDL and participating in the Khronos group
than building things from scratch.
~~~
cheald
They don't just have "a guy", they have Sam Lantinga, the guy who created SDL.
I don't know if he's working on it or not, but the fact that they have him at
the company speaks volumes about where they're headed.
------
sliverstorm
I'm surprised more people aren't talking about in-home streaming. To me, this
is something I've wanted for years. I've got a state-of-the-art machine I like
to keep in my basement (cooling), and with this I'll (hopefully) be able to
play hardware-intense games on my media center PC upstairs.
Just crossing my fingers that my 5-10Mbit powerline network is good enough.
~~~
nwh
Not something I've ever desired. Either in the home or externally rendered. In
the home there's absolutely no way my consumer hardware is going to to keep up
with 1080p or 2160p streaming over a network (heck HDMI barely manages), and
externally there's no way you can possibly play a game with the sort of
latency (400ms+) you get on Australian internet connections.
I can see why it would be attractive if you had a basement, but why not just
run a DisplayPort cable and USB?
~~~
jcastro
Consumer hardware handles 1080p streaming over a network just fine, have you
ever seen an Nvidia shield?
It streams PC games in 1080p to the mobile device and the control is then sent
back to the PC game. It works surprisingly well.
~~~
TsiCClawOfLight
He was talking about the future, and he's correct - what's gonna happen with
4k?
~~~
recursive
One of two things. 1) Network speeds and latency never improve, and it remains
forever impossible to stream 4k video. In this scenario, we can still stream
current "HD" video. 2) Network capacity improves, like it always has. 4k video
is no problem.
~~~
TillE
> The bit rate of the uncompressed 4K video stream can exceed 6 Gbit/s, which
> can be transmitted via a 10 Gbit/s network
[http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=444594...](http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4445944&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D4445944)
So we're already there, as long as you're set up for 10Gbit ethernet.
------
timc3
My serious hope for this is XBMC/Plex integrated and not some homegrown
TV/Video playback mechanism (Or the APIs for me to do it).
XBMC has many of the problems of video/movie/TV playback and library support
sorted and they can't hope to match it in the early days.
~~~
cbhl
Would codec patents would prevent them from bundling XBMC wholesale into
SteamOS?
~~~
Nikker
If it has a repo it could be easily installed via a meta package or a GUI
element. Integration of 'apt' and the Steam Store would be cool.
I may be incorrect but I believe most codec patents revolve around the
hardware implementations which would be covered through the hardware
acceleration components that exist in most modern CPU/GPUs.
------
thenomad
Hmm, I wonder if they'll manage to find some way to include Netflix support?
I know it's tricky for any Linux-based distribution to do, but if they did, I
know I'd be looking seriously at a Steam Box as my next media center,
replacing the PS3 that currently gently warms my TV stand.
------
je_bailey
Understanding that this is conjecture, I'm wondering if the list of games that
have steam controller configurations are indicators of games that they are
planning on running directly on the steam box itself. i.e. running native on
linux
~~~
valarauca1
I'll just go down the list and try to hit each item.
Counter-Strike: All versions are already linux supported.
Half-Life 2: Most are ported, the game engine is ported to linux.
Team Fortress 2: Ported to linux.
Left 4 Dead 2: Used as the original test bed of steam for linux [1], I'm
unware of if it has been ported.
Portal 2: Game Engine Ported, unaware of game's state.
Natural Selection 2: Developer has plans too, but game engine needs Direct3D
layer. Claims it can be over come. [2]
Bioshock Infinite: Has no plans to be ported to linux, but has been ported to
mac [3].
Civ V: Apparently supports PC/Mac/Linux/Unix according to its amazon page.
Serious Same BFE: Ported.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Can run in linux via wine [4] if you trust
that source, seems sketchy. But the publisher isn't linux friendly. [5] or
maybe it is [6]. We don't know for sure, this is a developping story.
Metro LL: Is ported.
DiRT3: Uses Games for Windows Live. There's a few non-legal hacks to get it
working but nothing offical.
BoardLands 2: Unreal Supports Linux [7], but there are no developer statements
A:tDD: Ported
Skyrim: Is actually Unsupported by their Developers (they've moved on to other
projects). So porting it now seems unlikely. [8]
At this point we can say Controller =/= Linux Support.
[1] [http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-
zombies/](http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/)
[2] [http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/spark-engine-questions-and-
answ...](http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/spark-engine-questions-and-answers-1-2/)
[3] [http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?221791-Please-port-
Biosh...](http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?221791-Please-port-Bioshock-
Infinite-to-Linux!&p=3056926#post3056926)
[4]
[http://community.callofduty.com/thread/200382760#.UqstR7TyRH...](http://community.callofduty.com/thread/200382760#.UqstR7TyRHY)
[5]
[http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTU0MTA](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTU0MTA)
[6]
[http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTU0MjE](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTU0MjE)
[7]
[http://www.unrealengine.com/licensing/faq/](http://www.unrealengine.com/licensing/faq/)
[8]
[http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/8469626270...](http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/846962627045969760/)
~~~
simoncion
NS2 is currently ported and works on Linux. They have an OGL, D3D9, and D3D11
renderer for the game: [http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/reinforced-expansion-
released/](http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/reinforced-expansion-released/)
(Search for "OpenGL")
~~~
TsiCClawOfLight
But it's AFAIK unplayable because of abysmal performance and random crashes.
~~~
simoncion
Yikes. It _is_ unplayable on ATI cards on the latest Ubuntu. I'll try rolling
a Gentoo install to see if the latest work on Mesa makes any of that shit
better.
FWIW, the OGL renderer works fine on Windows, albeit more slowly than the D3D9
renderer.
------
fit2rule
I'm totally ready to buy a Steam box. As soon as I possibly can, here in
Austria, Europe, I will.
Hurry up, because the only thing stopping me from doing it is the Valve Inc.'s
inability to navigate all the regulatory/cultural nonsense from: DELIVERING.
Steam delivers, so far. When it manifests in the hardware sense, it has got to
be global. The perception of locality is a real drag.
------
galapago
SteamOS will be available here:
[http://steampowered.com/steamosbeta](http://steampowered.com/steamosbeta)
(now it's 404)
------
Shorel
Yes, they have to make a custom distro.
Currently Ubuntu's Unity in Saucy has big drawbacks for gaming. I just tried
last night to play Brutal Legend, to test my new gamepad.
Unity makes the game unable to fully be fullscreen.
The same happens with any Windows game via Wine.
I love Ubuntu for developing stuff, but they need to fix a lot of stuff to
compete with Windows in gaming.
~~~
k_bx
Removing Unity is completely different from removing whole Ubuntu, really.
p.s.: I hope Unity gets these sorted out, since it's really the best DE I
know.
~~~
TsiCClawOfLight
try awesome, it's awesome. :P
------
jljljl
I'm sure this has already been described somewhere, but if I install SteamOS,
do they provide a compatibility layer so that I can play games without Linux
support? Or will I need to dual boot Windows?
~~~
fluffyllemon
Well, there's this:
"In-home Streaming
You can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too. Just
turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have - then your
SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your
TV!"
[http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/](http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/)
------
paigosa
Are the steam-specific parts open or closed source? If closed is there any
chance of them providing a blob for other distros?
------
philliphaydon
Based on Valves inability to update DOTA2 without 3-5 days of no server
accesss, every time they update... I have absolutely NO hope for SteamOS...
~~~
philliphaydon
Clearly theres no gamers posting in this thread then.
~~~
TsiCClawOfLight
Valve is doing a pretty good job in my experience. I don't play DOTA, but I
was pretty hardcore CS gamer for a time.
~~~
philliphaydon
The last 4 major updates to DOTA 2, have been unplayable for about 2-5 days.
They did an update earlier today, my friend in Australia hasn't played all day
because servers are down. I can't play in Singapore at 2-10am, servers are
still down...
[http://steamcommunity.com/app/570/discussions/0/648814395709...](http://steamcommunity.com/app/570/discussions/0/648814395709439676/)
|
2023-12-13T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/4455
|
Source and sink dynamics in meta-ecosystems.
We present a theory extending the source-sink concept with an ecosystem perspective. We analyze a model for meta-ecosystem dynamics in a heterogeneous environment to study how the spatial flows of materials such as inorganic nutrients and nutrients sequestered into producers, herbivores, and detritus affect the community dynamics. We show that spatial flows of an inorganic nutrient (direct nutrient flow) and organic matter (indirect nutrient flow) through detritus, producer, or herbivore compartments can reverse the source-sink dynamics of a local ecosystem. More precisely, the balance between such direct and indirect nutrient flows determines the net direction of nutrient flows between two ecosystems of contrasted productivities. It allows a sink to turn into a source and vice versa. This effect of nutrient flows on source and sink dynamics is robust to the ecosystem structure (with and without herbivores) and to specific ecosystem compartments contributing to nutrient flows (primary producers, herbivores, or detritus). Ecosystems in distinct localities thus interact together with the structure at one place influencing that of the other. In meta-ecosystems, the source-sink dynamics of an organism is not only constrained by its dispersal from the source to the sink, but also by the fertility and community composition in the neighborhood responsible for spatial flows of nutrients and energy. The meta-ecosystem perspective provides a powerful theoretical framework to address novel questions in spatial ecosystem ecology.
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2024-05-12T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/6049
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Overexpression of ErbB2 receptor inhibits IGF-I-induced Shc-MAPK signaling pathway in breast cancer cells.
Overexpression of the ErbB2 receptor in one-third of human breast cancers contributes to the transformation of epithelial cells and predicts poor prognosis for breast cancer patients. We report that the overexpression of ErbB2 inhibits IGF-I-induced MAPK signaling. IGF-I-induced MAPK phosphorylation and MAPK kinase activity are reduced in ErbB2 overexpressing MCF-7/HER2-18 cells relative to control MCF-7/neo cells. In SKBR3/IGF-IR cells, reduction of ErbB2 by antisense methodology restores the IGF-I-induced MAPK activation. The inhibition of IGF-I-induced MAP kinase activation in ErbB2 overexpressing breast cancer cells is correlated with decreased IGF-I-induced Shc tyrosine-phosphorylation, leading to a decreased association of Grb2 with Shc and decreased Raf phosphorylation. However, IGF-I-induced tyrosine-phosphorylation of IGF-I receptor and IRS-I and AKT phosphorylation were unaffected by ErbB2 overexpression. Consistent with these results, we observed that the proportion of IGF-I-stimulated proliferation blocked by the MAPK inhibitor PD98059 fell from 82.6% in MCF-7/neo cells to 41.2% in MCF-7/HER2-18 cells. These data provide evidence for interplay between the IGF-IR and ErbB2 signaling pathways. They are consistent with the view that the IGF-IR mediated attenuation of trastuzumab-induced growth inhibition we recently described is dependent on IGF-I-induced PI3K signaling rather than IGF-I-induced MAPK signaling.
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2024-07-16T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/3555
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Q:
How do you document a REST API?
How do you document a REST API? Not just the documentation of what the resources are, but really what is the data that gets sent in the request and what the data is that gets sent back in the response. It is not useful enough to know that something expects XML to be sent and returns XML; or JASN; or whatever. How do you document the data that gets sent in the request and the data sent back in the response?
Best I could find so far is the Enunciate tool where you can document your REST API and the data elements. Is Enunciate the right type of tool for this and am I missing out on any other tools that offer this that I should look at?
Consumers of my REST API can be in any language python, Java, .NET, etc
A:
The approach that I've decided on for my project is Enunciate. Seems to be the de facto standard for REST API documentation.
A:
I've experience using Enunciate which is great but I don't really like the clients that you can generate with it.
On the other hand, I've been using swagger on my last projects and it seems to fit my needs, it's really cool you should give a try!
UPDATE 03/08/2016: Looks like you can use Enunciate to build swagger docs.
See this.
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2024-07-20T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/3972
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okay wait a minute, 1 awesome, 2 freaking awesome, and three i have to change my pants. why does everyone assume the blonde is anya, hey guys u ever take a gues that it could be the carmine sister, duh, anya is no warrior, i see that dom has let himself get scruffy, i know that the timeframe between the first and second games is like two years so there has probably been some time to pass since we last saw the heroes, also we sank jacinto so they have probably not been getting a whole lot of sleep. "Spoiler" also they beeter not forget that somehow the queen knew/knows adam fenix, epic please wrap the game up nicely with awesomeness and not make it a mess like god of war 3s narrative
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2023-11-16T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/5776
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Arctic Cute Evolution! By mengymenagerie Watch
165 Favourites 27 Comments 4K Views
Glaceon Crochet Plushie - Pokedex sized
As a protective technique, it can completely freeze its fur to make its become more cute!
I made Glaceon quite awhile ago (When B&W2 came out and I had a full Eevee evolution team) and I realized I never wanted to work with 'textured' yarn again. Working with the fuzzy yarn nearly made me go insane! It was so hard to find my stitches! (But it also hides the stitches, giving it more of a 'plushie' look)
Glaceon is made with baby yarn (and is very soft and cuddly) and is as close to lifesize as I could come. She is about a 1.5ft high (if standing and not including ears) and about 2 ft long (a little longer including her tail)
IMAGE DETAILS Image size 3677x2556px 4.09 MB Show More
Published : Aug 23, 2013
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2023-08-06T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/6403
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Boba Fett? Boba Fett? Where? This article would benefit from the addition of one or more new images.
Sorry about the mess. This article or section needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of article quality.
"Moi moi, I love you!"
"You almost got us killed. Are you brainless?"
"I spake!"
"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent." ―Jar Jar Binks and Qui-Gon Jinn [src]
Jar Jar Binks was a Gungan male military commander and politician who played a key role in the Invasion of Naboo and the Clone Wars that culminated in the fall of the Galactic Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire. Once an outcast from Gungan society due to his clumsy behavior, he regained favor with his people by helping secure an alliance between the Gungan boss Rugor Nass and Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo, an alliance vital in ending the Trade Federation's invasion of their shared homeworld. In the years that followed, Binks became a Junior Representative for his people in the Galactic Senate, serving alongside Amidala once she became the planet's senator.
Ten years after the Naboo Crisis, growing tensions between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems threatened an outbreak of full-scale galactic war. In the absence of Senator Amidala, whose life was under threat by Separatist assassins, Binks was convinced by Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine to propose that the chancellor receive emergency executive powers to raise a Grand Army of the Republic. The proposal passed, leading to the outbreak of the Clone Wars, during which time Binks participated in a number of diplomatic missions for the Galactic Senate.
The emergency powers Binks proposed were ultimately used by the chancellor, secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, to amass total power and transform the Republic into the Empire. In the years that followed, Binks once again became an outcast on Naboo due to his role in the rise of the Empire. By the time of the Battle of Jakku, Binks was a street performer in the capital city of Theed, where he was scorned by adults but beloved by the children who came to watch his antics.
Contents show]
Biography
The Invasion of Naboo
"You were banished because you were clumsy?" ―Obi-Wan Kenobi [src]
Boss Nass banished Jar Jar Binks from his home of Otoh Gunga, an underwater city that lay beneath the Mid Rim planet of Naboo's Lake Paonga, for crashing his personal heyblibber submarine. During the time of the Trade Federation's invasion of Naboo, Binks was out foraging for food when he stumbled across OOM-9's invasion force. Panicking, he bumped into the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, an ambassador who had been sent to resolve the crisis between the Naboo and the Federation. Jinn saved the Gungan from being run over by a passing Multi-Troop Transport. As a result of this act, Binks believed that he owed Jinn a life debt and insisted on following Jinn, much to the Jedi's annoyance. Both Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, needed to contact Queen Padmé Amidala in the capital Theed but had no way of reaching her. Despite fearing for his life, Binks reluctantly agreed to take them there.[1]
Upon reaching Otoh Gunga, Binks was arrested by his old friend Tarpals and brought before Boss Nass, the city's ruler. Since he had unlawfully returned to his home city, Binks faced punishment. However, Master Qui-Gon, who needed a guide to take them to Theed, convinced Boss Nass to commute Binks' punishment, stating that the Gungan owed him a life debt. Nass reluctantly complied and provided them with a bongo submarine to travel through the planet's watery planetary core. After two perilous escapades with an Opee sea killer and a Colo claw fish, Binks and his companions reached Theed, only to discover that the city had already been occupied by Trade Federation forces.[1]
After Master Qui-Gon and his Padawan Kenobi managed to free Queen Amidala and several of her entourage, Binks and his companions fled aboard a Naboo Royal Starship. Despite escaping the Trade Federation's naval blockade, the Royal Starship sustained damage to its hyperdrive, forcing them to land on the desert planet of Tatooine. This marked Binks' first trip off-world. Binks joined the two Jedi and Amidala when they disembarked from the cruiser to visit Mos Espa to obtain parts. They tried to buy the parts from a Toydarian dealer named Watto, but Watto refused to accept their Republic credits.[1]
While returning to their starship, Binks was accosted by a local Dug podracer named Sebulba, who was angered when Binks accidentally ruined his meal by spitting out the leg of a Gorg rather than pay for it. A local human boy named Anakin Skywalker defended Binks and offered the Gungan and his companions shelter at his family home, where he lived with his mother, Shmi, and his protocol droid, C-3PO. Binks and his companions learned that Anakin and his mother were slaves and that the boy wanted to compete in the upcoming Boonta Eve podracing event.[1]
Later, Master Qui-Gon made a bargain with Watto to sell him the parts and free Anakin if the boy won the Boonta Eve race. Qui-Gon also discovered that Anakin was Force-sensitive and decided to train him as a Jedi. Despite a challenging race, Anakin won the Boonta event, and Watto reluctantly supplied the parts and freed Anakin. Binks' trip to Tatooine marked his first encounter with Skywalker. After making the necessary repairs to Queen Amidala's starship, Binks and his traveling companions traveled to the galactic capital, Coruscant. Following a failed attempt to get the Galactic Senate to end the suffering of her people, Amidala turned to Binks, who revealed that the Gungans had a Grand Army.[1]
Armed with this information, Queen Amidala and her Jedi protectors traveled back to Naboo. Binks visited Otoh Gunga only to discover that his people had evacuated to a Sacred Place. After leading them there, Queen Amidala convinced the Gungans to put aside their difference and join forces with the Naboo to oust the Trade Federation's droid army. Boss Nass agreed and subsequently promoted Binks to the position of Bombad General. During the Battle of Naboo, General Binks led his forces against the Federation's droid army at the Great Grass Plains. The droid army overwhelmed Binks' forces and forced them to surrender. However, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory when Skywalker destroyed the Droid Control Ship orbiting Naboo, disabling the Federation's droid forces on Naboo.[1]
Searching for treasure
"…a treasure mappen! To a sobig powerful Gungan relic? Will you be helpin me find it?" ―Jar Jar Binks to Queen Padmé Amidala [src]
Boss Nass sent Binks a map leading to a soshinyday blobball. Binks asked Queen Padmé Amidala to help him collect the blobball. Queen Amidala said that she wished not to intrude into Boss Nass' territory, but Binks replied that it was Boss Nass' idea. Eventually, she joined Binks for the hunt. A few minutes later, Binks and Queen Amidala rode kaadus through a jungle, where they ran into a cluster of slitherfish. They escaped by bringing in light, which frightened slitherfish. When they entered the cave where the blobball was located, they faced many obstacles before reaching the blobball. When Queen Amidala lifted it, a gundark entered and tried to kill them both. Binks screamed, which defeated the gundark because it had keen hearing. They then both delivered the blobball to Boss Nass. When Binks and Queen Amidala arrived, Boss Nass ate it and revealed it was just an old Gungan delicacy.[9]
The Separatist Crisis
"It's-a clear desa Separatists made a pact wesa desa Federation du Trade. Senators! Dellow felegates! In response to this direct threat to the Republic, mesa propose that the Senate give immediately emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor!" ―Representative Jar Jar Binks [src]
Ten years after the Naboo crisis, Jar Jar Binks had ascended to the position of Representative in the Naboo delegation to the Galactic Senate. In transitioning to his new role, he notably had to learn Diplodialect.[10]
Representative Binks rose to prominence after the now Senator Padmé Amidala was forced into hiding after a series of assassination attempts on Coruscant. At the request of Amidala, Representative Binks agreed to stand in for her in the Senate. In her absence, however, Binks was easily manipulated by more experienced politicians, and as they preyed on his innocence, they convinced him that the creation of a Grand Army of the Republic was a course of action that Amidala would have taken. In fact, the creation of an army was exactly what Amidala had been fighting against. Feeling that it was his duty to act in her stead, he suggested that the Senate give the now Supreme Chancellor Palpatine the emergency powers required to create the Grand Army of the Republic. The motion passed, and soon afterward, with the First Battle of Geonosis, the Clone Wars began.[5]
The Clone Wars
Battle of Mimban
"Mesa'd being grand proud to, cap'n." ―Jar Jar Binks to Rex [src]
Jedi Master Laan Tik was the commander of the Battle of Mimban. When Tik died, Binks took command. Several hours later, Binks saved Clone Captain Rex using Laan Tik's lightsaber. At first, Rex thought it was Laan Tik, but Binks revealed it was him. Rex then took the lightsaber from Binks for safekeeping.[11]
Mission to Toydaria
Following the Separatist invasion of Ryloth, Representative Binks traveled to the planet Toydaria with the Alderaanian Senator Bail Organa to ask King Katuunko for permission to use the planet as a supply staging base for Republic forces to relieve Ryloth. Their negotiations with King Katuunko were complicated by the presence of the Trade Federation's Senator Lott Dod, who convinced the king to deny the Republic access to Toydaria's facilities on the grounds that such military activity would violate the planet's strict policy of neutrality. In private, however, Katuunko was sympathetic to the plight of the Twi'leks of Ryloth and agreed to load Senator Organa's ship with provisions if the Senator could conceal Toydaria's involvement. While Binks distracted Senator Dod during a banquet, Organa loaded his ship with supplies for Ryloth. Following this event, the king announced that he would reconsider his government's policy of neutrality.[12]
Negotiations on Rodia
"I think Jar Jar's dead, Threepio."
"Oh, not again." ―Padmé Amidala and C-3PO Listen (file info) [src]
Later, Representative Binks accompanied Senator Amidala and C-3PO on a mission to Rodia to ensure the planet's allegiance to the Republic. Senator Amidala was a close friend of the Rodian Senator Onaconda Farr, whom she referred to affectionately as "Uncle Ono." However, Senator Farr had already made a deal with the Separatist leader Nute Gunray, who offered to deliver food supplies to Rodia in return for securing the planet's allegiance. Senator Amidala was promptly taken prisoner by Gunray, who wanted to execute her.[13]
Binks tried to communicate with some jungle natives, and in response, a fruit was flung at C-3PO. Binks and C-3PO were then attacked by several Separatist B1-series battle droids and a crab droid. While attempting to escape, Binks accidentally destroyed Amidala's yacht with a magnetic crane, ruining their chance to call for help. He donned a Jedi robe Amidala had stored in her back closet, which led the droids to mistake him for a Jedi. While fleeing the Separatist droids, Binks fell down a grate that led to the sea. Meanwhile, C-3PO was captured and thought that Binks had died.[13]
After escaping a Kwazel Maw, Binks attempted to rescue Amidala, only to discover that she had already escaped. Later, Binks caught up with Amidala only to be spotted by a B2-series super battle droid. Fleeing underwater to escape the droid's thermal detonators, he encountered the Kwazel Maw again but managed to befriend the creature, which he nicknamed "Bogey." He and Bogey rescued Senator Amidala and C-3PO and defeated Nute Gunray's battle droids. Shortly, Republic reinforcements arrived on Rodia and arrested Nute Gunray. Senator Farr revealed that his collaboration with the Separatists was only a ruse to trap Gunray.[13] Despite their efforts, Gunray later escaped Republic custody with the aid of the bounty hunter Asajj Ventress and the traitorous Senate Commando Faro Argyus.[14]
Dealing with pirates
"He's probably going to get himself killed."
"Don't worry. He's smarter than he looks." ―A clone trooper and Commander Stone on Jar Jar Binks Listen (file info) [src]
After the Separatist leader Count Dooku was captured by a Weequay pirate gang led by Hondo Ohnaka, the Republic agreed to pay a hefty sum as a reward for capturing the Sith Lord. Representative Binks along with the Gran Senator Kharrus were dispatched to the Weequay pirates' lair with a bounty of spice as a ransom for Count Dooku. However, one of the pirates, Turk, decided to deal with the Separatists and shot down the shuttle carrying Binks and Kharrus. The pilots and Kharrus were killed in the ensuing crash, leaving Representative Binks in command of the surviving clone troopers.[15]
Binks and the survivors evaded pursuit by Turk and his men by hiding near several acid geysers. While his clone charges wanted to wait for reinforcements, Binks decided to fight the pirates. He succeeded in taming several skalders and managed to defeat Turk and his pirates. They then made their way to the pirate base, where Commander Stone sent Binks to "negotiate" with the pirates, knowing that his ineptitude would be useful. Before the pirates could take him hostage, Binks managed to ram one of their tanks into another, shutting down their power grid. The Weequays attempted to kill Binks only to be restrained by the clone troopers. During the ensuing blackout, Dooku and the two Jedi Kenobi and Skywalker escaped while Turk was killed.[15]
The Blue Shadow Virus crisis
Following the discovery of several Separatist droids on Naboo, Representative Binks and Senator Amidala along with C-3PO were summoned back to Naboo by Queen Neeyutnee, who demanded that the Republic assist them in eliminating the Separatist presence there. Binks was present when his companions interrogated a captured T-series tactical droid, which had its photoreceptors removed to confuse it. Through C-3PO, Binks and his companions learned that a secret laboratory was producing some sort of virus. Before they could extract any more information, Binks' clumsiness destroyed the droid.[16]
Despite this setback, Binks noticed a blue bug emerging from the tactical droid's body. Deducing that the droids came from the Eastern swamps, Binks and Amidala traveled there to continue their investigation. During their travels, a local Gungan farmer named Peppi Bow attacked them, believing that Binks and his companions were responsible for the deaths of her herd of shaaks. After Amidala convinced Bow that they were not a threat, the farmer informed them that a nearby river was polluted. Binks and his companions then entered a swamp where they found a secret hatch.[16]
They were captured by several Separatist battle droids led by a Faust scientist named Nuvo Vindi. He revealed that the Separatists had a secret laboratory on Naboo and that he had been developing an airborne version of the deadly Blue Shadow Virus. Binks and his companions were later rescued by the Jedi Obi-Wan, Skywalker, and his new Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who overpowered Dr. Vindi and his droids. During the struggle, Binks and Amidala stopped one of Dr. Vindi's droids from escaping into Naboo, thus containing the Blue Shadow Virus within his secret bunker.[16]
Despite Dr. Vindi's capture, one of his servant droids hid one of the virus bombs and released the virus throughout the facility. The Jedi and the clone troopers locked down the facility, preventing the virus from spreading to the rest of Naboo. While Anakin and Kenobi traveled to the planet Iego to find the antidote reeksa root, Binks, Amidala, Ahsoka, and the clone troopers stayed behind to trap Dr. Vindi's remaining droids and to prevent them from reaching the surface. During the fighting, Amidala accidentally ripped her envirosuit while tackling Jar Jar to save him from blaster fire, exposing herself to the virus. Fortunately for Binks and his companions, Anakin and Kenobi returned with the antidote. Binks and his companions survived their ordeal in Dr. Vindi's laboratory.[17]
War on Mon Cala
Following the assassination of the Mon Calamari King Yos Kolina, tensions broke out between the Mon Calamari and Quarren species, the two dominant species of the ocean world of Mon Cala. The Quarrens regarded Kolina's successor, Prince Lee-Char, as too inexperienced to rule. The Separatist ambassador, the Karkarodon Riff Tamson, stirred up trouble between the Mon Calamari and Quarren. In response, the Republic sent Senator Amidala and the two Jedi Skywalker and Kit Fisto to mediate between the two parties. With Separatist backing, the Quarren overthrew the Mon Cala Government and waged war against the Mon Calamari and their Republic allies.[18]
The Republic was unable to commit sufficient Clone SCUBA troopers to Mon Cala and decided to dispatch Master Kenobi to seek the help of the Gungans, an amphibious species with a Grand Army. At Kenobi's urging, Binks convinced the Gungan High Council to send the Grand Army to relieve Republic forces on Mon Cala. Binks and the Gungan reinforcements arrived just in time to render valuable aid to Skywalker, Amidala, and Lee-Char. However, the Separatist Commander Tamson counterattacked by using his Trident-class assault ships to create whirlpools, which disoriented the Gungan forces. During the fighting, Binks and the Gungan reinforcements were captured by Tamson's Separatist forces.[19]
Following their defeat, Representative Binks along with Skywalker, Amidala, and Kit Fisto were brought before Commander Tamson, who interrogated them about the whereabouts of Prince Lee-Char. During the interrogation, Tamson cracked Amidala's faceplate, but Binks was able to seal it by spitting slimy mucus onto her faceplate, which was generated by his Gungan physiology. Meanwhile, Prince Lee-Char and Anakin's Padawan Ahsoka succeeded in freeing the Mon Calamari prisoners and convincing the Mon Calamari and Quarrens to work together to drive out the Separatist invaders. During the ensuing battle, Binks and the other prisoners were rescued while Tamson was killed by Lee-Char. Following the fighting, Lee-Char was recognized as the new King of Mon Cala by both the Mon Calamari and Quarren species.[20]
Strife on Naboo
As the Clone Wars dragged on, tensions grew between the Gungans and Naboo's human population due to rumors that the Gungans were planning to aid a Separatist invasion of the planet. Tensions further escalated when the ruling Boss Lyonie announced that the Gungan Grand Army would march on Theed, the Naboo's capital. In response to escalating tensions, Representative Binks arranged to rendezvous with his old friends Senator Amidala and the Jedi Knight Skywalker at Paonga. From there, they traveled to Otoh Gunga to confront Lyonie. Skywalker discovered that Lyonie was being controlled by a mind-control necklace that had been given by his new Minister Rish Loo, who was secretly in cahoots with Count Dooku.[3]
During a confrontation between Lyonie, the Jedi, and Loo, Binks accidentally donned Lyonie's crown of office, causing Amidala and Skywalker to note his striking resemblance to the Boss. Skywalker then hatched a plan to use Binks, disguised as Boss Lyonie, to command the Grand Army to call off their attack on Theed. Skywalker's plan work, but Loo managed to escape. Shortly, a Separatist landing craft arrived and addressed Binks, believing him to be Boss Lyonie and thinking that everything was going according to Dooku's plan. Forced to maintain his role, Binks and his old friend General Tarpals boarded the ship to "coordinate the attack" only to discover that the Separatist commander was the cyborg General Grievous.[3]
Flustered and terrified, Jar Jar Binks stalled for time while dispatching Tarpals to inform Amidala of Grievous' presence. At Amidala's advice, the two agreed to shut down the General's droid forces and capture him. Grievous quickly deduced that Lyonie was an impostor but the two Gungans succeeded in disabling the Separatist droid army. The Gungans then attacked Grievous and managed to capture him following a fierce struggle that ended with the death of Tarpals, Binks' best friend. However, the Gungans were forced to release General Grievous after Count Dooku succeeded in luring Skywalker into a trap and holding him ransom. Despite this setback, Binks was praised by both Boss Lyonie and Queen Neeyutnee for restoring peace between the Gungans and the Naboo.[3]
Mission to Bardotta
Following the near civil war on Naboo, Representative Jar Jar Binks was called upon by the Galactic Republic to deal with a new crisis on the planet Bardotta. Several Dagoyan Masters had mysteriously disappeared. There was a prophecy that if the Masters were not returned, a great darkness would descend on the planet. Distrusting the Jedi Order for inducting Bardottan children, Queen Julia had requested a special meeting with Binks to discuss the crisis. Despite the queen's request that Binks travel to Bardotta alone, the Jedi Master Mace Windu suspected something was afoot and accompanied Binks by posing as his servant.[21]
Binks met with the queen, but she was kidnapped during the meeting. In response, the remaining Dagoyan Masters convened the Bahk-tov Council, where High Seneschal Peteen informed them of a prophecy that if the queen was not found within three rotations, she would be gone forever and an era of darkness would descend on the galaxy. Binks and Windu also learned from another Council member named Savatte that the prophecy originated from the malevolent Frangawl Cult, whose shrine to the demon Malmourral was underneath the Dagoyan temple. While exploring the catacombs below the temple, Binks was captured by a Frangawl cultist, who blew a glowing powder into his face which temporarily made him invisible.[21]
The cult members placed Binks in a cage suspended above a lava pit, where he found the other captured Dagoyan masters, who informed him that they were to be sacrificed to Malmourral. Binks managed to contact Master Windu with his comlink and transmit his location. However, the Frangawl cult leader discovered it and had it destroyed. Binks also encountered Julia, who revealed that the Frangawl cultists were stealing the Force from the Dagoyan masters. The Frangawl cultists then attempted to sacrifice Binks. However, Master Windu arrived and managed to fight off the cult members and free Binks. However, the cult leader escaped the planet with the queen in a starship. In response, Binks vowed to rescue Queen Julia with the help of Master Windu.[21]
While traveling through space, Binks recounted to Master Windu how he had witnessed the cultists sacrificing one of the Dagoyan Masters and extracting the Living Force from his body, which they stored inside a living sphere. Based on this information, Windu deduced that the cultists would extract the Living Force from Queen Julia and used his Force powers to track her. Their travels took them to a market square on the moon Zardossa Stix. Amidst the crowd, Binks caught up with the screaming Julia but found himself cornered by several of the cultists. Binks managed to flee his pursuers and tried to pursue the group with the captive queen. During the ensuing chaos, Windu saved Binks from being gunned down by a cultist armed with an EWHB-12 heavy repeating blaster.[22]
Continuing their pursuit, Binks and Windu were set upon by an animal trainer and his two gundarks. During the fray, the trainer relieved Windu of his lightsaber using his whip. Binks then punched the trainer and retrieved the lightsaber with his tongue, and returned it to the Jedi Master. Windu managed to stun one of the gundarks and kill the other. Binks continued the pursuit, but the cultists escaped in two speeders. After questioning the trainer, Binks and Windu continued their rescue mission on an eopie and dalgo. Meanwhile, the cultists arrived at a Zardossan temple, where they were joined by the Nightsister Mother Talzin, who wanted to sacrifice Queen Julia in order to steal her Force energy.[22]
After tangling with the temple's stone guardians, Windu and Binks stormed the temple. While Windu and Mother Talzin fought, Binks used one of the stone guardians' weapons to blast the cult members and to free Queen Julia from her bonds. While Binks grappled with the cult leader, the planets aligned and a beam of energy blasted through a series of lenses. While the cult leader was killed by the blast of energy, Julia pushed Binks out of harm's way. The Force sphere fell from its pedestal and shattered, releasing a powerful explosion. Binks along with Windu and Julia survived this explosion and escaped the temple. Following her rescue, Queen Julia thanked Binks and Windu and expressed hope that these events would lead to a better understanding between the Bardottans and the Jedi.[22]
Fall of the Republic
During the last days of the Galactic Republic, Jar Jar Binks continued to serve as the Gungan Representative on the Naboo delegation. Following the Battle of Coruscant, Binks was among the many politicians who greeted Chancellor Palpatine after he had been successfully rescued by Kenobi and Skywalker. Later, Binks was present in the Chancellor's office along with the rest of the senators when they presented the Petition of 2,000 to Palpatine and Anakin, acting as his personal bodyguard.[7]
Binks was present in the Galactic Senate Chamber when Palpatine transformed the Galactic Republic into the first Galactic Empire, thus changing the Galactic Senate into the Imperial Senate. Following the death of his colleague and close friend Senator Amidala, Binks was among the chief mourners attending her funeral, along with Boss Nass.[7]
Age of the Empire
During the occupation of Mon Cala, the Jedi Padawan Ferren Barr had his droid Endee show a holographic image of a list of files compiled in his previous exploits. Among these was a file on Binks that was placed directly under a file for Darth Plagueis and above the file for Amidala.[23]
New Republic era
"Desa hisen Naboo tink I help the uh-oh Empire. My no know."
"I don't think you helped the Empire. Maybe you just don't belong anywhere, like me." ―Jar Jar Binks and Mapo on Theed during the Galactic Civil War [src]
Because of his role in abetting the rise of the Empire, Binks was once again exiled by his people. After the Battle of Endor and the rise of the New Republic, he performed in the streets of Theed as a clown who was popular with children but not so much with their parents. Many Gungan and Naboo adults refused to speak to him or say his name. Binks entertained the children by performing numerous antics including wagging his tongue, juggling glombo shells, spitting fish up in the air and catching them, dancing around, and swallowing and flushing out water through his ears.[24]
In 5 ABY, Binks encountered a young refugee boy named Mapo while performing in Theed's Plaza of the Catalan. Mapo was a charge at a nearby orphanage who had been badly burned after the Empire had bombed his home on the fuel depot Golus Station. Due to hideous burns, Mapo found few people who were willing to talk to him, let alone adopt him. After Binks caught a pik-pok fish with his long tongue, he asked the boy where he came from. Mapo related how he had lost his parents during the Imperial bombardment of Golus Station. Taking pity on the boy, Binks did another trick by swallowing water and spraying it out through his ears.[24]
When Mapo told Binks that nobody talked to him, Binks revealed that he was an outcast because many Gungans and Naboo believed he had helped the Empire. A sympathetic Mapo opined that he did not think that Binks had aided the Empire, and suggested that they were both outcasts. While Binks appeared to accept his fate, Mapo pointed out that he had a low chance of being adopted due to his disfigurement. When Mapo suggested that the two could go nowhere together, Binks replied that that was a "bombad"—or great—idea. When Mapo asked Binks if he could teach him to be a clown, Binks gratefully accepted Mapo's request and the boy's friendship.[24]
Legacy
"Speaking of Naboo sardine fritters, did you know that Senator Jar Jar Binks and Lord Vader were the same person?" ―Redy [src]
Sometime after the fall of the Empire, some individuals wrongly believed that Binks and Darth Vader were the same person.[25]
Binks was remembered after the Galactic Civil War's Battle of Endor, and he was mentioned by a member of the Whills as someone to be remembered in galactic history.[26]
Personality and traits
"What is to become of Jar Jar Binks here?"
"Hisen to be pune-ished."
"I saved his life. He owes me what you call a life debt. Your gods demand that his life belongs to me now." ―Qui-Gon Jinn and Boss Nass on the fate of Jar Jar Binks [src]
Jar Jar Binks was often regarded by his peers as clumsy and annoying, traits that led many people to deride and underestimate him. His clumsiness led to his banishment from his home city of Otoh Gunga. On another occasion, his tendency to grab food with his tongue got him into trouble with a local bully on Tatooine named Sebulba. Despite these flaws, Binks was also capable of being brave, loyal, and dependable. Binks played an important role in turning the tide of the Invasion of Naboo by helping Queen Amidala to win the support of the Gungans in driving out the Trade Federation invaders. Due to his role in the Battle of Naboo, the former Gungan outcast won much respect among both his people and the Naboo.[1]
Despite his good and humble nature, Binks was naïve and easily manipulated. Chancellor Palpatine exploited Binks' naïvety by convincing him to support the creation of a Grand Army of the Republic, which enabled Palpatine to destroy the Jedi Order and to establish the first Galactic Empire.[5] Binks was also good at making friends, as shown by his friendship with Master Qui-Gon Jinn[1] and in winning over a Kwazel Maw called "Bogey" during a mission on Rodia.[13] On other occasions, Binks was able to use his humble, unassuming nature to outsmart stronger foes.[12][15]
Binks was also dependable in the most challenging of situations. On one occasion, Binks displayed courage when he impersonated Boss Lyonie during a mission to stop the Separatists from turning the Gungans against the Naboo.[3] Later, Binks displayed much courage, loyalty, and endurance when he and Mace Windu took part in a dangerous mission to rescue his friend Queen Julia of Bardotta from the malevolent Frangawl Cult. Binks' actions helped restore relations between the Jedi Order and the Bardottans.[22]
Due to his role in aiding the rise of the Galactic Empire, Binks was ostracized by many Gungans and Naboo after the Battle of Endor. While not comprehending the gravity of the situation, Binks was vaguely aware of the reasons he had been ostracized. Binks was popular with refugee children due to his funny antics and a good sense of humor. Binks found an unlikely friend in the form of the disfigured refugee boy Mapo, who was one of the few people willing to speak to him. After Mapo opined that Binks was not to blame for helping the Empire, the Gungan gratefully accepted the boy's request to receive training to be a clown.[24]
Skills and abilities
"Can you teach me to be a clown, too?"
"Bein clowning is bombad, too. My teaching yousa, pallo. Wesa maken the whole galaxy smilin, huh?" ―Mapo and Binks; the latter found redemption in his work as a street performer and clown [src]
As a Gungan, Jar Jar Binks was capable of living comfortably both on land and underwater. He had a long tongue which he used for grabbing food and other objects. Binks also knew how to pilot a bongo sub and had a good navigational knowledge of Naboo's watery core.[1] While Binks was not a skilled fighter, he was courageous, loyal, and dependable under even the most difficult circumstances. On one occasion, he used his slime to seal Senator Amidala's damaged faceplate during a mission to Mon Cala, saving her from drowning in the oceans of that watery planet.[20] Binks was also good at communicating with animals, as shown when he tamed several skalders, beasts of burden which provided him and his clone trooper comrades with transportation.[15]
Following the Battle of Endor, Binks was cast out by the Gungans and ostracized by the Naboo. Homeless, Binks found work in Theed as a clown and street performer. Binks' funny antics and acrobatic exercises in a water fountain made him popular with refugee children.[24]
Behind the scenes
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please help Wookieepedia by adding references.
Jar Jar Binks was played by Ahmed Best in the prequel trilogy. Viewer response to the character in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace was deeply negative: Best stated the criticism "hurt me emotionally and it was hard to take at the time, [although] it wasn't debilitating for me. I just put my shoes on and went back to work." In response to the negativity, George Lucas jokingly titled the first draft of Episode II Jar Jar's Great Adventure.[27]
Because of the negative criticism that the character received in both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, during the development of Revenge of the Sith Ahmed Best recommended George Lucas kill off Jar Jar by having Anakin Skywalker hack him to pieces.[28] Although Lucas rejected Best's idea, Jar Jar's role in the finished film was reduced to just a cameo with two lines. According to Best, there was going to be a scene in which Palpatine thanked Binks for granting him the emergency powers that allowed him to take over the galaxy, but it was deleted from the final cut.[29]
Best also voiced the character for some episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, although BJ Hughes is credited for a few episodes. (Best claims that this was Phil LaMarr.[30])
Jar Jar's fate following the events of the prequels was finally revealed in 2017 when Binks made a cameo appearance in Chuck Wendig's novel Aftermath: Empire's End, the final installment of The Aftermath Trilogy, which is set after the events of Return of the Jedi. According to book reviewer and author Chris Taylor, Binks' popularity with children and ostracism by adult Naboo and Gungans was a subtle commentary on the polarized attitudes towards the character within the Star Wars fan community.[31]
In late October 2015, a Reddit user by the name of "Lumpawarroo" speculated that Binks was originally written as a major antagonist of the series, as Darth Jar Jar, and a prominent collaborator with Sheev Palpatine, before being redacted from the villain's role due to the character's initial (and ongoing) negative reception.[32] The post quickly became viral and received significant media coverage internationally by independent bloggers and major news outlets like Forbes, The Washington Post, The Guardian and The New York Times that included analysis of his actions during The Phantom Menace.[33][34][35][36] After the speculation went viral, Ahmed Best tweeted his thoughts on how it "feels good" when the truth comes out.[37]
Non-canon history
"These men have prejudice deep within their hearts, For looking upon me, they see savagery. A 'native,' 'local,' 'piteous,' 'buffoon'; With such dark slurs they slander my whole race." ―Jar Jar Binks [src]
In William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace: Star Wars Part the First, Jar Jar Binks was portrayed as a wise character who played the role of the clown publicly to those such as the Jedi to mask his cunning insights regarding culture and politics. He was cast out from Gungan society for his radical opinions regarding uniting the Gungan culture with that of the humans of Naboo, but maintained to Qui-Gon Jinn that he was ejected due to being "clumsy." While he played the role of the fool, his frequent asides revealed his true nature and his contempt for those who would to his face refer to him using terms such as "native" or "buffoon." Despite this, he joined with the Jedi in the hopes of obtaining the greater understanding between the two cultures which he sought.[38]
In the LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales episode "Exit from Endor," Jar Jar Binks is swept into space during the escape from Naboo.[39] Later, in "Gambit on Geonosis," he is seen floating outside the Second Death Star.[40]
Appearances
Non-canon appearances
Sources
Notes and references
|
2024-01-22T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/7420
|
Unusually short chalcogen bonds involving organoselenium: insights into the Se-N bond cleavage mechanism of the antioxidant ebselen and analogues.
Structural studies on the polymorphs of the organoselenium antioxidant ebselen and its derivative show the potential of organic selenium to form unusually short Se⋅⋅⋅O chalcogen bonds that lead to conserved supramolecular recognition units. Se⋅⋅⋅O interactions observed in these polymorphs are the shortest such chalcogen bonds known for organoselenium compounds. The FTIR spectral evolution characteristics of this interaction from solution state to solid crystalline state further validates the robustness of this class of supramolecular recognition units. The strength and electronic nature of the Se⋅⋅⋅O chalcogen bonds were explored using high-resolution X-ray charge density analysis and atons-in-molecules (AIM) theoretical analysis. A charge density study unravels the strong electrostatic nature of Se⋅⋅⋅O chalcogen bonding and soft-metal-like behavior of organoselenium. An analysis of the charge density around Se-N and Se-C covalent bonds in conjunction with the Se⋅⋅⋅O chalcogen bonding modes in ebselen and its analogues provides insights into the mechanism of drug action in this class of organoselenium antioxidants. The potential role of the intermolecular Se⋅⋅⋅O chalcogen bonding in forming the intermediate supramolecular assembly that leads to the bond cleavage mechanism has been proposed in terms of electron density topological parameters in a series of molecular complexes of ebselen with reactive oxygen species (ROS).
|
2024-03-01T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/4431
|
package controllers_test
import (
"context"
"time"
. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo"
. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
"github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime/apis/core/v1alpha1"
appsv1 "k8s.io/api/apps/v1"
corev1 "k8s.io/api/core/v1"
metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime"
"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/intstr"
"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client"
logf "sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/log"
"github.com/crossplane/oam-kubernetes-runtime/apis/core/v1alpha2"
"github.com/crossplane/oam-kubernetes-runtime/pkg/oam/util"
)
var (
varInt32_60 int32 = 60
)
var _ = Describe("HealthScope", func() {
ctx := context.Background()
namespace := "health-scope-test"
trueVar := true
falseVar := false
ns := corev1.Namespace{
ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
Name: namespace,
},
}
BeforeEach(func() {
logf.Log.Info("Start to run a test, clean up previous resources")
// delete the namespace with all its resources
Expect(k8sClient.Delete(ctx, &ns, client.PropagationPolicy(metav1.DeletePropagationForeground))).
Should(SatisfyAny(BeNil(), &util.NotFoundMatcher{}))
logf.Log.Info("make sure all the resources are removed")
objectKey := client.ObjectKey{
Name: namespace,
}
res := &corev1.Namespace{}
Eventually(
// gomega has a bug that can't take nil as the actual input, so has to make it a func
func() error {
return k8sClient.Get(ctx, objectKey, res)
},
time.Second*30, time.Millisecond*500).Should(&util.NotFoundMatcher{})
// recreate it
Eventually(
func() error {
return k8sClient.Create(ctx, &ns)
},
time.Second*3, time.Millisecond*300).Should(SatisfyAny(BeNil(), &util.AlreadyExistMatcher{}))
})
AfterEach(func() {
logf.Log.Info("Clean up resources")
// delete the namespace with all its resources
Expect(k8sClient.Delete(ctx, &ns, client.PropagationPolicy(metav1.DeletePropagationForeground))).Should(BeNil())
})
It("Test an application config with health scope", func() {
healthScopeName := "example-health-scope"
// create health scope definition
sd := v1alpha2.ScopeDefinition{
ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
Name: "healthscope.core.oam.dev",
},
Spec: v1alpha2.ScopeDefinitionSpec{
AllowComponentOverlap: true,
WorkloadRefsPath: "spec.workloadRefs",
Reference: v1alpha2.DefinitionReference{
Name: "healthscope.core.oam.dev",
},
},
}
logf.Log.Info("Creating health scope definition")
Expect(k8sClient.Create(ctx, &sd)).Should(SatisfyAny(BeNil(), &util.AlreadyExistMatcher{}))
// create health scope.
hs := v1alpha2.HealthScope{
ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
Name: healthScopeName,
Namespace: namespace,
},
Spec: v1alpha2.HealthScopeSpec{
ProbeTimeout: &varInt32_60,
WorkloadReferences: []v1alpha1.TypedReference{},
},
}
logf.Log.Info("Creating health scope")
Expect(k8sClient.Create(ctx, &hs)).Should(SatisfyAny(BeNil(), &util.AlreadyExistMatcher{}))
By("Check empty health scope is healthy")
Eventually(func() v1alpha2.HealthStatus {
k8sClient.Get(ctx, client.ObjectKey{Namespace: namespace, Name: healthScopeName}, &hs)
return hs.Status.ScopeHealthCondition.HealthStatus
}, time.Second*30, time.Millisecond*500).Should(Equal(v1alpha2.StatusHealthy))
label := map[string]string{"workload": "containerized-workload"}
// create a workload definition
wd := v1alpha2.WorkloadDefinition{
ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
Name: "containerizedworkloads.core.oam.dev",
Labels: label,
},
Spec: v1alpha2.WorkloadDefinitionSpec{
Reference: v1alpha2.DefinitionReference{
Name: "containerizedworkloads.core.oam.dev",
},
ChildResourceKinds: []v1alpha2.ChildResourceKind{
{
APIVersion: corev1.SchemeGroupVersion.String(),
Kind: util.KindService,
},
{
APIVersion: appsv1.SchemeGroupVersion.String(),
Kind: util.KindDeployment,
},
},
},
}
logf.Log.Info("Creating workload definition")
// For some reason, WorkloadDefinition is created as a Cluster scope object
Expect(k8sClient.Create(ctx, &wd)).Should(SatisfyAny(BeNil(), &util.AlreadyExistMatcher{}))
// create a workload CR
wl := v1alpha2.ContainerizedWorkload{
ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
Namespace: namespace,
Labels: label,
},
Spec: v1alpha2.ContainerizedWorkloadSpec{
Containers: []v1alpha2.Container{
{
Name: "wordpress",
Image: "wordpress:4.6.1-apache",
Ports: []v1alpha2.ContainerPort{
{
Name: "wordpress",
Port: 80,
},
},
},
},
},
}
// reflect workload gvk from scheme
gvks, _, _ := scheme.ObjectKinds(&wl)
wl.APIVersion = gvks[0].GroupVersion().String()
wl.Kind = gvks[0].Kind
// Create a component definition
componentName := "example-component"
comp := v1alpha2.Component{
ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
Name: componentName,
Namespace: namespace,
Labels: label,
},
Spec: v1alpha2.ComponentSpec{
Workload: runtime.RawExtension{
Object: &wl,
},
Parameters: []v1alpha2.ComponentParameter{
{
Name: "instance-name",
Required: &trueVar,
FieldPaths: []string{"metadata.name"},
},
{
Name: "image",
Required: &falseVar,
FieldPaths: []string{"spec.containers[0].image"},
},
},
},
}
logf.Log.Info("Creating component", "Name", comp.Name, "Namespace", comp.Namespace)
Expect(k8sClient.Create(ctx, &comp)).Should(BeNil())
// Create application configuration
workloadInstanceName1 := "example-appconfig-healthscope-a"
workloadInstanceName2 := "example-appconfig-healthscope-b"
imageName := "wordpress:php7.2"
appConfig := v1alpha2.ApplicationConfiguration{
ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
Name: "example-appconfig",
Namespace: namespace,
Labels: label,
},
Spec: v1alpha2.ApplicationConfigurationSpec{
Components: []v1alpha2.ApplicationConfigurationComponent{
{
ComponentName: componentName,
ParameterValues: []v1alpha2.ComponentParameterValue{
{
Name: "instance-name",
Value: intstr.IntOrString{StrVal: workloadInstanceName1, Type: intstr.String},
},
{
Name: "image",
Value: intstr.IntOrString{StrVal: imageName, Type: intstr.String},
},
},
Scopes: []v1alpha2.ComponentScope{
{
ScopeReference: v1alpha1.TypedReference{
APIVersion: gvks[0].GroupVersion().String(),
Kind: v1alpha2.HealthScopeGroupVersionKind.Kind,
Name: healthScopeName,
},
},
},
},
{
ComponentName: componentName,
ParameterValues: []v1alpha2.ComponentParameterValue{
{
Name: "instance-name",
Value: intstr.IntOrString{StrVal: workloadInstanceName2, Type: intstr.String},
},
{
Name: "image",
Value: intstr.IntOrString{StrVal: imageName, Type: intstr.String},
},
},
Scopes: []v1alpha2.ComponentScope{
{
ScopeReference: v1alpha1.TypedReference{
APIVersion: gvks[0].GroupVersion().String(),
Kind: v1alpha2.HealthScopeGroupVersionKind.Kind,
Name: healthScopeName,
},
},
},
},
},
},
}
logf.Log.Info("Creating application config", "Name", appConfig.Name, "Namespace", appConfig.Namespace)
Expect(k8sClient.Create(ctx, &appConfig)).Should(BeNil())
// Verification
By("Checking deployment-a is created")
objectKey := client.ObjectKey{
Name: workloadInstanceName1,
Namespace: namespace,
}
deploy := &appsv1.Deployment{}
logf.Log.Info("Checking on deployment", "Key", objectKey)
Eventually(
func() error {
return k8sClient.Get(ctx, objectKey, deploy)
},
time.Second*15, time.Millisecond*500).Should(BeNil())
// Verify all components declared in AppConfig are created
By("Checking deployment-b is created")
objectKey2 := client.ObjectKey{
Name: workloadInstanceName2,
Namespace: namespace,
}
deploy2 := &appsv1.Deployment{}
logf.Log.Info("Checking on deployment", "Key", objectKey2)
Eventually(
func() error {
return k8sClient.Get(ctx, objectKey2, deploy2)
},
time.Second*15, time.Millisecond*500).Should(BeNil())
By("Verify that the parameter substitute works")
Expect(deploy.Spec.Template.Spec.Containers[0].Image).Should(Equal(imageName))
// Verification
By("Checking service is created")
service := &corev1.Service{}
logf.Log.Info("Checking on service", "Key", objectKey)
Eventually(
func() error {
return k8sClient.Get(ctx, objectKey, service)
},
time.Second*15, time.Millisecond*500).Should(BeNil())
healthScopeObject := client.ObjectKey{
Name: healthScopeName,
Namespace: namespace,
}
healthScope := &v1alpha2.HealthScope{}
By("Verify health scope")
Eventually(
func() v1alpha2.ScopeHealthCondition {
*healthScope = v1alpha2.HealthScope{}
k8sClient.Get(ctx, healthScopeObject, healthScope)
logf.Log.Info("Checking on health scope",
"len(WorkloadReferences)",
len(healthScope.Spec.WorkloadReferences),
"health",
healthScope.Status.ScopeHealthCondition)
return healthScope.Status.ScopeHealthCondition
},
time.Second*120, time.Second*5).Should(Equal(v1alpha2.ScopeHealthCondition{
HealthStatus: v1alpha2.StatusHealthy,
Total: int64(2),
HealthyWorkloads: int64(2),
}))
})
})
|
2024-01-30T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/5060
|
Johnny Weir’s Big Gay Divorce Gets GaNasty
Johnny Weir’s big gay divorce from husband Victor Voronov is getting real after a shocking reveal that Voronov defaced Weir’s Birkin bags. Apparently the disgruntled top took out his rage on the sparkly pixie bottom by writing “Fuck You” on his expensive designer handbags. That’s just uncalled for. You can punch a guy in the maw, kick him in the balls even, but you do not deface a man’s purse. Writing on a Birkin with a Sharpie is the worse kind of abuse. Weir sent Voronov an angry email saying,
“If you decide to wreck things, please wreck cheaper things than Birkins. The fuck you on the Birkin is kinda cool, though, you artist. I know you don’t care about Hill I’ll survive if you divorce me, but please leave my Birkin bags, Celine bags and Chanel bags alone.”
When you read a note like that from your husband, you can be pretty clear the marriage is coming to an end. He might as well say he’s going to kiss a girl, at a ball game, while wearing a flannel shirt and jeans. There are certain lines you just don’t cross. It’d be easy to feel sorry for these two former sweethearts and the death of romance, but I mostly feel like I’m the one who got shafted with all the Weir-Voronov signature line wedding memorabilia I purchased on QVC.
|
2024-01-16T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/3675
|
UPDATE 1-March Networks to be bought for C$90.1 mln
Dec 9 (Reuters) - Canada’s March Networks Corp , agreed to be bought by China’s Infinova for C$90.1 million ($88.63 million) in an all cash deal, as Infinova looks to access the company’s surveillance technology and expand its customer base.
March Networks, which makes video surveillance equipment for companies like Wal-Mart, said Infinova has offered it C$5 per share, which is a 2.24 percent premium to March’s Thursday closing price.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, the company said in a statement.
Separately, March Networks also announced its quarterly financial results. For the second-quarter, the company reported a loss of C$2.3 million, or 13 Canadian cents per share, compared with earnings of C$1.2 million, or 7 Canadian cents per share, a year ago.
Infinova, which manufactures security products like video cameras and other surveillance and security equipment, is listed on the Shenzen stock exchange.
Shares of March Networks closed at C$4.89 on Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. ($1 = 1.0166 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Maneesha Tiwari in Bangalore; Editing by Hezron Selvi)
|
2024-04-27T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/6024
|
No Decision on Re-Opening of Book of Kells Exhibition, Says Trinity
The exhibition, which brings in around €12 million a year, has been closed since early March.
Emer MoreauNews Editor
Alex Connolly for The University Times
College has not yet made a decision on when the Book of Kells exhibition, which has been closed since March, will re-open for visitors.
Provost Patrick Prendergast ordered the closure of the exhibition on March 10th, along with the Science Gallery and Douglas Hyde museum.
In an email statement to The University Times, Trinity media relations officer Catherine O’Mahony said that “the decision regarding the reopening of the Book of Kells exhibition has not yet been taken”.
ADVERTISEMENT
In March, TheJournal.ie reported that Trinity could stand to lose out on up to €3 million in revenue over the coming months due to the closure of the Book of Kells exhibition. It is reported to bring in around €12 million per year.
Trinity’s campus re-opened for current residents on Monday, after shutting down on March 12th along with schools and colleges around the country. Provost Patrick Prendergast told staff and students in a College-wide email that staff should not return to College yet despite a government directive that says they can come in to prepare online learning.
Prendergast acknowledged the government’s five-step plan for a phased re-opening of the country, which says schools and colleges would be opened on May 18th “for access by teachers for organisation and distribution of remote learning”.
But Prendergast said: “At this stage, teaching staff in Trinity should continue to work from home for this purpose and should not come into college.”
Residents will be allowed to return to the campus, and outside contractors working on building sites in the College will resume work “where social distancing is possible and in line with the government’s plan”.
At this time it is unclear just what the return to work for Trinity staff will entail. Prendergast has already confirmed that online classes are likely to continue into next year, along with a return to real-life contact “in a responsible way”.
While large lectures will be delivered online, smaller lectures, seminars and tutorials will return to campus, Prendergast said, in a video released on Twitter earlier this month. Groups will, however, be moved into larger lecture theatres to allow for social distancing.
|
2024-04-26T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/5656
|
[Possibilities and limits of computer-assisted cardiotocogram analysis].
The interpretation of cardiotocograms still relies primarily on visual analysis. This form of monitoring remains labour intensive and, being dependent on the training and experience of the specialist responsible, also subject to erroneous interpretation. Computer-aided cardiotocogram analysis has, in spite of encouraging successes, still not found wide application in everyday clinical routine. To achieve this, the programming system must be easy to operate, userfriendly and reliable. A program system for fully automatic cardiotocogram analysis is envisioned which runs on standard commercially-available personal computers. A clear graphic representation of the traces also permits visual assessment on the computer screen. The system described integrates the main assessment criteria of cardiotocogram analysis which can then be extended owing to the open system architecture used in the programming. Completely new analysis algorithms have given the evaluating system the capability of fully-automatic pattern recognition of fetal heart rate signals and uterine motility. An essential requirement of computer-aided cardiotocogram analysis is thereby fulfilled. Work is now focusing on the exact classification of the various types of deceleration and an extension of the capabilities of tocogram analysis. There should be nothing to hinder integration of the system into everyday clinical routine and connect it to obstetrical databases.
|
2024-05-04T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/6302
|
That really is hot off the press. I was searching through to read the FBI report itself. Just realized it'd make sense not to release the full thing. Interesting to read that the FBI is "Trumpland" and they find Trump is looking the wrong way. Anywho, maybe hiding it's a good idea.
|
2024-05-31T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/4217
|
Pages
Nov 3, 2009
Ministry: Giving Others What They Don’t Already Have
What Should a Congregation Following Jesus Look Like? By James Lee, with special thanks to my brother Gene Parunak (Scripture Citations from the KJV).
(This essay was written as an entry for the Energion Publications essay contest. It coincides with the release of Dave Alan Black’s new book ‘Christian Archy’ which is now set for release. Please feel free to comment, as I really desire your feedback on this entry. I sure could have put much more into it, but due to my procrastination I barely made the deadline.)
--
One of the greatest responsibilities a believer can have is their obligation of obedience to the master, our Lord Jesus Christ (Lk 9:23). Today service to the Lord is distinguished by many different labels. The modern understanding of ‘the ministry’ has become inseparable from professional vocation. Those who earnestly desire to serve within the capacity seen as the ministry may only do so through the charge of academic accomplishment and scholarly attribution.
The question of what ministry should look like in a congregation following Jesus Christ should be answered carefully. Any response to the previously made statement may draw a stark contrast to what is understood as ministry in our modern church mindset. One major point that most would agree upon is that the Lord is a perfect example of what ministry looks like. A safe assumption that most could agree upon is that ministry is a calling inseparable from the walk that Christ draws us into through salvation. This ministry of our Lord is rightly labeled servitude, and this example should be our primary foundation.
In the New Testament (majority text), I have found the word diakonia is consistently translated ministry, or a form thereof. A few examples illustrate that the translators have responded to the context of its usage by using the word serving (Lk 10:40), ministration (Acts 6:1, 2Co 3:7,8,9, 9:13), relief of service (Acts 11:29), office (Rom 11:13), service or serving (Rom 15:31, 2Co 11:8, Rev 2:19), and administrations (1Co 12:5, 2Co 9:12). These variations are not empirical evidence that ministry is a responsibility of any particular individual of special accomplishment, but that service or ministry is a task given individuals of varying capabilities amongst all those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is these followers that are given diverse gifts and abilities in which they may perform the acts of ministry in cooperation with God that works with all in all (1Co 12:6).
The concept of what ministry looks like is much simpler than we have made it in our modern context. One must only appeal to the example of ministry in the scripture. It is often a travesty that cultural contextualizing and argumentation dismiss the specific yet simple demonstrations given to us through the teachings of our Lord, the doctrine of the Apostles, and the clear power of the Holy Spirit moving through the ministry performed by true followers of the Way. The truth of ministry is not fundamentally about what we are or what we do. It is the power of the Gospel transforming hearts and minds and the renewal of true compassion for those who are lost and dying. The ministry of a congregation following Jesus Christ today is a restored definition in a depraved mind of who mankind really is before a Holy and Wrath filled Judge. With this new understanding, ministry therefore becomes a calling for all those who have seen what they have been spared from, and then compels them so powerfully in the soul that it drives us to serve others. And, of higher significance, the ministry to each other, the called out ones, becomes one of such importance that without the building up, edification, and equipping of the saints we will wither away and become useless salt that has lost its savour (Mt 5:13).
The answer that we must return to a replicated state of practice that mirrors the exact practices of the 1st century church is admirable and serves as a measuring line. But, the truth is that community now is different than community then and we must make provision for this. Regardless of the pragmatism employed today or tomorrow we should not lose sight of what ministry is. Edmund P. Clowney in "The Church (Contours of Christian Theology)" stated,
Critics of 'churchianity' hold that institutional structure freezes the flowing streams of the Spirit. The task of the church is indeed spiritual, as we have seen: to worship God, to nurture the people of God, and to bear witness to the world in mission. Yet no less spiritual are the means that Christ has provided by which we are to achieve these three goals. The Spirit of Christ brings order, as well as ardour. (p. 199)
The truth of the matter is simple is it not? Should it be as simple as continuing steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking bread, and in prayers (Acts 2:42)? Of course we should! But, we must not become too far removed, nor too religious with our practice of order through the power of man, but seek that which will glorify Christ through the instruction of the Spirit. It is my premise that ministry in a modern congregation following Jesus can be described as merely giving to others what they do not already have. Visiting the inspired words of scripture to seek an example that will draw out just that could show us how and what we need to exemplify as believers that may 'serve' and 'minister' to others and our brethren what they do not already have.
Ministry in today's context should be powerful and able to convict leaders and rulers of their wickedness. We as believers must be faithful to the conviction of the Spirit through the proclamation of truth from God's word.
But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, "Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you."
(Acts 24:24-25)
Ministry in today's context should be powerful and able to convict false prophets of their error and stir them to fear the truth of the Living God.
Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
(Acts 13:9-12)
Ministry in today's context should be wrought through the example of its members and create an example that warrants attention for its vast departure from the ways of the world, and by doing so exhibits things that become sound doctrine (Titus 2:1).
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.
(Tit 2:11-15)
So, with reluctant conclusion to the points made here, service and ministry are very much one in the same. While they can be labeled with different characteristics, forms, and functions, they should achieve the same purpose. This purpose is often confused or much too often separated so far from each other that there is more 'service' than 'ministry' or vice versa. I admire Edmund P. Clowney's writings for the sheer fact that his words are sound and exhibit a true desire to retain a 'true ministry' that glorifies God. He says,
The three goals of the church are to be sought not only through the Word, but also in the obedience of love. When they are so sought, a ministry of order with result. The Lord rejects the worship of those who honor him with their lips, but who do not love and honour him in their hearts and lives (Is. 26:13). We nurture one another by deeds of love, not just by sharing Scripture texts. In the mission of the church, deeds and words combine in our witness (Phil. 2:15). Love that is real requires accountability, and accountability means order. The discipline of the church appears in the love that Christians show for one another, in encouraging, counselling, asking, 'How are you doing?' and looking for answer. (p. 200)(sic)
This aptly demonstrates the need for our ministry to each other and provides a point of commonality that will equip us to be true salt and light in the world while loving each other. We cannot accomplish the tasks of discipleship and proclamation of the Gospel through political agendas, legislated morality, bully pulpits, and sectarian distinctions that scream we are right and you are wrong. We can only accomplish true ministry in this century through the power of Christ, His Holy Spirit, and a love for one another that strengthens us to face the enemy head on, and storm the gates of hell with the victory that was wrought in the spotless Lamb's blood.
1 comment:
"The truth of ministry is not fundamentally about what we are or what we do. It is the power of the Gospel transforming hearts and minds and the renewal of true compassion for those who are lost and dying."
What we are=a special serving position and what we do= some form of ministry over and above the other.
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2024-02-10T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/5346
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Q:
Have Concourse only build new docker containers on file diff not on commit
So I have a pipeline that builds multiple docker containers from a single git repo. It looks something like this:
---
resources:
- name: resource-docker
type: git
source:
uri: https://github.com/$MYUSER/$MYREPO.git
branch: master
# docker-image resources
- name: first-container
type: docker-image
source:
repository: $MYUSER/first-container
- name: second-container
type: docker-image
source:
repository: $MYUSER/second-container
jobs:
# image-update jobs
- name: first-container-image-update
public: true
serial_groups:
- serial_lock
plan:
- get: resource-docker
serial: true
- put: first-container
params:
build: resource-docker/first-container-path
- name: second-container-image-update
public: true
serial_groups:
- serial_lock
plan:
- get: resource-docker
serial: true
- put: second-container
params:
build: resource-docker/second-container-path
The problem is that running a resource-docker task is taking up a significant portion of system resources and rebuilding the containers from scratch on each commit to the master (which contains more code than just the docker containers).
I would like to make these tasks instead compare the old and new files used to build the containers, and only rebuild a container if there is a diff in the files.
Note: that separating the files out into different repos is an option I want to avoid.
A:
your resource can be configured to trigger new builds only with changes to specific files in the repo:
- name: resource-docker
type: git
source:
uri: https://github.com/$MYUSER/$MYREPO.git
branch: master
paths:
- <path/to/Dockerfile/or/whatever>
- <path/to/other/triggering/diffs>
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2023-10-09T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/3279
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Background {#Sec1}
==========
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) represents a substantial health, social and economic burden, with a worldwide estimated of 257 million chronic HBV carriers \[[@CR1]\]. In Brazil, 218,257 confirmed cases of HBV were reported from 1999 to 2017. The majority of these cases are concentrated in the Southeast (35.2%), followed by South (31.6%), North (14.3%), Northeast (9.7%) and Midwest (9.2%). The incidence of HBV cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017 was 11.3 in North, 2.8 in Northeast, 5.4 in Southeast, 14.3 in South and 6.7 in Midwest regions \[[@CR2]\].
Screening of infected, cured and vaccinated individuals is necessary to identify the presence of chronically infected reservoirs, immune and susceptible individuals \[[@CR3]\]. Diagnosis of HBV infection is made using serum or plasma samples \[[@CR4]\] collected by venipuncture, which is invasive, expensive and potentially painful and arduous for some individuals including drug users, patients under hemodialysis, the obese and the elderly. In regions where financial resources are scarce, it would be beneficial to use methods with low cost and biological risk, such as oral fluid samples. Their collection is less invasive, less painful, simpler and safer than blood collection, allowing collection of a vast number of samples for epidemiological and prevalence studies \[[@CR5]--[@CR9]\].
Oral fluid contains saliva from the salivary glands and gingival crevicular fluid, which is a transudate plasma derived from the capillary bed beneath the tooth--gum margin \[[@CR10], [@CR11]\]. The primary drawback of this sample source however, is that the concentration of IgG in oral fluid has been reported to be substantially lower (average 300 times) when compared to its concentration in serum \[[@CR12]--[@CR15]\].
The use of oral fluid samples as a noninvasive alternative to blood for the detection of virus-specific antibodies was first promoted by Parry et al. \[[@CR16]\]. Since then these samples have been used to detect Varicella, Herpes simplex, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Hepatitis A virus (HAV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) markers \[[@CR11], [@CR15]--[@CR21]\]. HBV markers have previously been detected in oral fluid samples, especially the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus (HBsAg) \[[@CR5], [@CR7], [@CR22]--[@CR29]\]. However, few studies have evaluated the utility of oral fluid samples in detecting antibodies directed against the core protein (anti-HBc marker). In these studies, sensitivities vary from 13.0 to 85.9% and specificities range from 78.0 to 100.0% \[[@CR9], [@CR30]--[@CR32]\].
Anti-HBc appears shortly after HBsAg in acute infection (Anti-HBc IgM) and remains detectable in patients with resolved HBV infections and among chronic cases (anti-HBc IgG) of HBV infection \[[@CR4]\]. Since total anti-HBc marker indicates previous contact with the virus, assessment using oral fluid sample could help the surveillance and control of HBV.
This study aims to optimize one commercially available assay for detecting total anti-HBc marker in oral fluid samples and to evaluate its utility under real life conditions in different settings for the purposes of prevalence and diagnostic studies.
Methods {#Sec2}
=======
Study population {#Sec3}
----------------
Individuals were recruited at the National Reference Laboratory for Viral Hepatitis (NRLVH) in the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) to give paired serum and oral fluid samples for the optimization of assay conditions. These individuals were recruited in a non-probabilistic method using consecutive sampling and these samples were used only for optimization of the assay conditions.
To evaluate the anti-HBc assay for oral fluid under real life conditions, a total of 1296 individuals were recruited from different serological profiles and different regions.
Serological profiles showed 57 individuals with active infection (HBsAg^+^/anti-HBc^+^/anti-HBs^−^ or HBsAg^+^/anti-HBc^−^/anti-HBs^−^), 37 individuls with anti-HBc isolate (HBsAg−/Anti-HBc+/anti-HBs-), 119 individuals with previous HBV exposure (HBsAg−/anti-HBc+/anti-HBs+), 347 individuals vaccinated for HBV (HBsAg−/ anti-HBc^−^/Anti-HBs^+^) and 736 susceptible individuals (HBsAg^−^/Anti-HBc^−^/Anti-HBs^−^).
The individuals were recruited from different sample collection events as explained below:
Group I (GI) was composed by 291 individuals recruited from the NRLVH ambulatory. The inclusion criteria for this group were acute, chronic or suspected cases of hepatitis B infection and aged more than 18 years. Samples were collected in a non-probabilistic fashion using consecutive sampling.
Group II (GII) was composed by 1005 individuals living in different regions of Brazil. Of these: 441 individuas from Southeast (95 from Macaé and Petrópolis cities, 277 professional beauticians, and 69 crack-cocaine users, all of them residents of Rio de Janeiro state), 336 individuals from North (Tocantins State) and 228 individuals from Midwest (Mato Grosso do Sul State). None of these individuals were recruited in viral hepatitis ambulatory care settings or had been previously diagnosed as HBV infected.
According to the Brazilian Health Ministry, the HBV prevalence rates per 100,000 inhabitants were 2.8 in Rio de Janeiro, 4.6 in Mato Grosso do Sul and 6.3 cases in Tocantins State \[[@CR2]\]. In previous reports, incidence of HBsAg in these groups varied from 0.2 to 0.7% and the prevalence of anti-HBc/anti-HBs varied from 9.7 to 12.6% \[[@CR7], [@CR33], [@CR34]\]. In Brazil, HBsAg prevalence among crack cocaine users was 6.2% \[[@CR35]\], and among beauty professionals prevalence ranged from 0 to 8% \[[@CR36], [@CR37]\].
Those recruited from Macaé/RJ, Petrópolis/RJ, Tocantis and Mato Grosso do Sul lived in remote areas and/or deprived communities and reported neither parenteral exposure (i.e. did not inject drugs) nor repeated unprotected sexual intercourse. Recruitment of these individuals was previously described \[[@CR7], [@CR33], [@CR34]\].
Beauticians more than 18 years of age were recruited at a fair aiming to promote knowledge, to encourage technical improvement and to stimulate entrepreneurship among beauticians while crack-cocaine users aged 18--24 were recruited when they reported using crack-cocaine on 3 or more days/week in the last 3 months. Further information about recruitment was described previously \[[@CR35], [@CR37]\].
A questionnaire comprising demographic (gender and age) and socioeconomic (education level, family income, and home characteristics) status was applied to these individuals to assess associations in the HBV groups evaluated. Data collection took place directly before sample collection.
Samples were collected in a non-probabilistic manner using consecutive sampling. Data concerning the severity of HBV infection in infected participants were unknown at the time of collection. All study participants gave informed consent obtained from the Ethics Committee of Oswaldo Cruz Institute under CAAE number 34055514.9.0000.5248. Each participant (or legal guardian) gave informed consent before entering the study. Laboratory results were sent to participants and, in the case of carriers, they were referred to health services for orientation and treatment.
Sample collection and laboratory analysis {#Sec4}
-----------------------------------------
Blood samples were collected by venipuncture and centrifuged to obtain serum. Oral fluid was obtained using a commercial device (Salivette, Sarstedt, Germany) and processed as previously described \[[@CR28]\]. All samples were stored at − 20 °C until analysis.
All serum samples were submitted to commercial Enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) to detect total anti-HBc antibodies directed against HBV surface antigen (anti-HBs) and HBsAg, (ETI-AB-COREK-PLUS, ETI-MAK-4, and ETI-AB-AUK-3, Diasorin, Italy, respectively) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Reactive samples were retested to confirm these results.
All oral fluid samples were also tested with the EIA ETI-AB-COREK-PLUS (Diasorin, Italy), designed to detect total anti-HBc in serum. The cut off was calculated according to the manufacturer's instructions for both serum and oral fluid samples. Samples with optical density / cutoff values (OD/CO) above 1.100 were considered non-reactive and those below 0.900 were considered reactive Samples with values between 0.900 and 1.100 were considered indeterminate and retested in duplicate, those that remained undetermined were excluded from the analysis.
Serum samples from the field study were also tested for the presence of antibody against hepatitis C virus (Murex anti-HCV -version 4.0, Diasroin, Italy) and anti-HCV positivity was evaluated in the performance of anti-HBc detection in oral fluid samples.
Optimization of anti-HBc assay in the panel of oral fluid samples {#Sec5}
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The first parameter evaluated to optimize EIA using oral fluid to detect anti-HBc was the transport buffer. In this analysis ten paired serum and oral fluid samples were obtained from five anti-HBc reactive individuals and five anti-HBc negative individuals \[[@CR38]\]. Five transport buffers were evaluated: (T1) phosphate buffered saline (PBS) pH 7.2; (T2) PBS/Tween 20 0.05%; (T3) PBS/Tween 20 0.05%/ 0.005% sodium azide; (T4) PBS/Tween20 0.2%/ bovine serum albumin (BSA) 5%, and (T5) PBS/BSA 0.5%. These buffers were chosen as they have previously been used to evaluate HBsAg marker in oral fluid \[[@CR28]\].
The second parameter was sample volume and in this analysis, 15 anti-HBc reactive and 16 anti-HBc negative individuals were tested. Two volumes were tested: (V1) 100 μL of oral fluid sample + 50 μL of neutralization buffer; (V2) 100 μL of oral fluid sample + 25 μL of neutralization buffer (in sera: 50 μL of sample + 50 μL of neutralization buffer + 50 μL of sample dilution).
All assays were done in duplicate and positive results in serum samples were retested to confirm the results. Only reactive samples were included in this analysis.
Data analysis {#Sec6}
-------------
Using anti-HBc detection in serum samples from commercial standard EIA as the benchmark, we cross-compared standard results with actual findings with respect to sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values. In addition, ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics) curves were fitted seeking optimal cut-offs, as explained in the classic paper by Van der Schouw et al. \[[@CR39]\].
Descriptive statistics comprise the mean ± the standard deviation, with a preliminary assessment using contingency tables and respective statistics. Categorical variables were compared between groups using the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test, and continuous variables were analyzed using the Mann--Whitney U test. A *p*-value of \< 0.05 was considered significant.
Concordance between the results obtained for the paired oral fluid and sera samples was assessed using the Kappa index (k). According to international standards, findings should be interpreted as follows: \< 0.20 corresponds to poor agreement; 0.21--0.40 as fair agreement; 0.41--0.60 as moderate agreement; 0.61--0.80 as good agreement, and 0.81--1.00 corresponds to very good agreement \[[@CR40]\].
Bivariate analysis addressed and cross-compared sociodemographic characteristics, stratifying data for groups I, II and II. The serological profile of seromarkers (i.e. HBsAg, anti-HBc and anti-HBs) of the patients was analyzed by subgroup and serological status.
Analyses were performed using GraphPad InStat 3.01 (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA), MedCalc 9.2.1.0 (MedCalc Software, Mariakerke, Belgium), as well as the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS for Windows, release 10.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL).
Each figure combines one scatter plot ("dotplot"), with the respective correlation index (R^2^), as well as the relevant ROC curve (plotting standard and specific D.O., yielding a curve cross-comparing false-positive and true-positive samples). Graphs were fitted using the open source software R 3.5.0, specifically using the ggplot 2 and plotROC libraries.
Results {#Sec7}
=======
Laboratory parameters evaluation {#Sec8}
--------------------------------
Transportation buffer and volume of sample in the assay were evaluated to detect total anti-HBc marker using oral fluid samples in a commercial EIA. The transport buffer PBS/BSA 0.5% was chosen as the OD values were closer to the OD values among serum samples (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). A 100 μL sample volume of oral fluid and 25 μL of neutralization buffer was chosen by virtue of their lower OD values in positive samples (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}).Fig. 1DotPlot Optical Density obtained in oral fluid samples according to transport buffer. Transport Buffers: (1) PBS pH 7.2; (2) PBS/Tween 20 0.05%; (3) PBS/Tween 20 (0.05%)/Sodium azide (0.005%); (4) PBS/Tween 20 (0.2%)/BSA 5%; (5) PBS/BSA 0.5%. Notes: (a) Correlation coefficient Pearson: 0.961; (b) Mean and standard deviation not shown due to the low number of observations among those transfer buffersFig. 2DotPlot Optical Density obtained according to different volumes of oral fluid sample on assay and their respective ROC curves
Field study evaluation {#Sec9}
----------------------
### Demographic characteristics {#Sec10}
The predominant gender among all individuals was female however it was not a significant variable. Mean age ± standard deviation was 50.5 ± 13.4; 35.6 ± 17.5; 36.8 ± 17.8 in GI, GII and all population, respectively. Most individuals were aged less than 40 years (53.3%), had completed high school (29.6%), received a monthly income U\$276.00 to 828.00 (32.2%) and did not have hepatitis C virus. There was an association observed between these characteristics and the three groups evaluated (Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}).Table 1Socio-demographic characteristics according to each group and HBV serological profileDataGI Ambulatory (291) n(%)GII Regions (1005) n(%)Active infection (57) n (%)Anti-HBc isolate (37) n (%)Previous HBV exposure (119) n (%)Vaccinated HBV individuals (347) n (%)Susceptible individuals (736) n (%)Total (1296) n (%)Gender Female175 (60.1)565 (56.2)39 (68.4)23 (62.2)63 (52.9)195 (56.2)446 (60.6)740 (57.1) Male108 (37.1)385 (38.3)18 (31.6)13 (35.1)46 (38.7)135 (38.9)263 (35.7)493 (38.0)Age (years) \< 4063 (21.6)628 (62.5)12 (21.0)22 (59.5)55 (46.2)166 (47.8)387 (52.5)691 (53.3) ≥ 40219 (75.3)295 (29.4)45 (78.9)13 (35.1)47 (39.5)157 (45.2)306 (41.6)514 (39.7)Mean ± standard deviation50.5 ± 13.435.6 ± 17.549.6 ± 14.744.3 ± 17,536.4 ± 19.838.3 ± 17.136.9 ± 17.736.8 ± 17.8Education level Basic education64 (22.0)130 (12.9)15 (26.3)7 (18.9)27 (22.7)47 (13.5)98 (13.3)194 (15.0) Elementary School77 (26.5)125 (12.4)17 (29.8)9 (24.3)19 (16.0)54 (15.6)103 (14.0)202 (15.6) High school88 (30.2)296 (29.4)16 (28.1)10 (27.0)18 (15.1)105 (30.2)235 (31.9)384 (29.6) Graduate28 (9.6)87 (8.6)4 (7.0)2 (5.4)6 (5.4)35 (10.1)55 (7.5)105 (8.8)Income (according to Brazilian Minimum salary) \< US\$276.0014 (4.8)38 (3.8)3 (5.3)3 (8.1)7 (5.9)12 (3.5)27 (3.7)52 (4.0) U\$276.00 to 828.00152 (52.2)266 (26.5)16 (28.1)16 (43.2)36 (30.2)101 (29.1)249 (33.8)418 (32.2) \> U\$828.0061 (20.9)241 (24.0)9 (15.8)6 (16.2)14 (11.8)108 (31.1)165 (22.5)302 (23.3)Anti-HCV presence Reactive197 (68.4)18 (1.8)2 (3.5)17 (45.9)22 (18.5)50 (14.4)124 (16.8)215 (16.7) Non-reactive91 (31.6)984 (97.9)52 (91.2)20 (54.0)97 (81.5)296 (85.3)610 (82.9)1075 (83.3)
### Anti-HBc testing in oral fluid according to HBV marker {#Sec11}
Among 1296 individuals, anti-HBc marker was detected in 211 serum samples and undetected in 1085. The serological profiles obtained from individuals collected were: active infection (*n* = 57), anti-HBc isolate (*n* = 37), previous HBV exposure (*n* = 119), vaccinated HBV individuals (*n* = 347) and susceptible individuals (*n* = 736).
Overall anti-HBc sensitivity in oral fluid was 52.6%, but differences were observed according to the group and subgroups under study. High concordance was observed in GI (67.7%) followed by Southeast region of GII (42.9%), North region of GII (39.9%) and MidWest region of GII (30.4%). Specificity values were above 94.2% for all groups and subgroups from GII whereas sensitivities vary from 21.6 to 70.6% (Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}).Table 2Quality parameters of anti-HBc detection in oral fluid samples using commercial EIA according to locality of sample collection and serological profileProfileTPFNTNFPSensitivity% (CI%)Specificity% (CI%)PPV% (CI%)NPV% (CI %)k (CI)GI) Ambulatory population (291)72301781170.6 (60.7--79.2)94.2 (89.8--97.1)86.7 (77.5--93.2)85.6 (80.0--90.0)67.7 (58.5--76.8)G2) Various Brazilian regions (1005)39708643230.0 (21.2--39.9)96.4 (95.0--97.5)48.4 (37.3--59.6)92.5 (91.6--93.3)31.8 (19.2--44.3)MidWest region subgroup (228)829190121.6 (9.8--38.2)99.5 (97.1--99.9)88.9 (51.7--99.7)86.8 (81.5--90.9)30.4 (7.1--53.6)North region subgroup (336)1731279935.4 (22.2--50.5)96.9 (94.1--98.7)65.4 (44.3--82.8)90.0 (86.1--93.1)39.9 (22.4--57.4)Southeast region subgroup (441)14103952258.3 (36.6--77.9)94.7 (92.1--96.7)38.9 (27.2--51.9)97.5 (96.1--98.4)42.9 (23.9--61.9)Active infection (57)5141193.1 (83.3--98.1)50.0 (1.26--98.7)98.2 (93.1--99.5)20.0 (4.46--57.2)25.0 (0--87.9)Anti-HBc isolate (37)1621----43.2 (27.1--60.5)--------Previous HBV exposure (119)4475----36.9 (28.3--46.3)--------Vaccinated HBV individuals (347)----32819--94.5 (91.6--96.7)------Susceptible individuals (736)----71323--96.9 (95.3--98.0)------All Individuals (1296)11110010424352.6 (45.6--59.5)96.0 (94.7--97.1)72.1 (64.3--79.0)91.2 (89.4--92.8)54.6 (47.6--61.6)Legends: *TP* True positive, *FN* False-negative, *TN* True negative, *FP* False-positive, *PPV* Positive Predictive Value, *NPV* Negative Predictive Value, *k* kappa index, *n* number of samples, *CI* confidence interval, --: not determined
According to the virological profile, higher sensitivity values were observed in individuals with active infections (92.7%) when compared to anti-HBc isolate (43.2%) and past infection (36.9%) (Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}). Additionally, the presence of HBsAg (active infection) was less observed among false-negative samples (*n* = 4) compared to true-positive samples (*n* = 51) (Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}).
Additionally, sensitivity was higher in individuals without anti-HCV (55.4%) compared to individuals with the infection (41.5%) but no statistical association was observed (*p* = 0.1196). However, these results were particularly high in GI (90.2% vs 41.0%, respectively) and a statistical association was observed (*p* \< 0.001) (Data not shown).
Mean ± standard deviation values of OD/CO in serum samples were calculated between true-positive and false-negative oral fluid samples in each group in order to observe differences between values. Values of OD/CO in serum samples were higher in false-negative oral fluid samples than those seen in true-positive samples, as follows: 1.516 ± 0.251 vs. 0.074 ± 0.333 (*p* \< 0.0001) in GI; 0.116 ± 0.219 vs.0.020 ± 0.036 in GII and 1.493 ± 0.473 vs. 0.392 ± 0.338 (*p* \< 0.0001) among all individuals from the field study. Negative serum samples showed higher OD values than negative oral fluid samples. Similarly, positive serum samples showed lower OD values than oral fluid samples (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}).Fig. 3OD ratios of each serum and oral fluid sample plotted according to EIA in negative and positive samples. The y-axis represents the OD ratio. The solid lines represent the average OD ratios for the serum and oral fluid samples, which were 0.881 ± 0.239 and 0.392 ± 0.130 for negative serum and oral fluid samples respectively, and 0.144 ± 0.100 and 0.021 ± 0.048 for positive serum and oral fluid samples respectively
Discussion {#Sec12}
==========
In this study, a commercial EIA was optimized for anti-HBc detection in oral fluid samples demonstrating good performance in ambulatory group compared to other populations/individuals living in different settings. Primarily, the commercial EIA was adapted for oral fluid samples using elution buffer PBS /BSA 0.5% (buffer 5) - the most appropriate to anti-HBc detection as demonstrated by OD/CO values. This was likely due to the presence of bovine albumin's minimizing effect upon non-specific reactions. The same buffer has also been used for HBsAg detection in oral fluid samples using optimized commercial EIAs \[[@CR28]\]. In addition, the volume of oral fluid sample added to the test was twofold increased in assay compared to serum, probably due to the low amount of antibodies in the former, as seen in similar studies measuring viral hepatitis markers in oral fluid \[[@CR5], [@CR21], [@CR32], [@CR41]\].
When anti-HBc assay in oral fluid was evaluated in different groups, good concordance was observed in group I (k = 67.7%) and fair concordance in group II (group, k = 31.8%). These differences could be due to the presence of active infection (acute or chronic cases), since individuals from the ambulatory group tend to have a high probability of presenting serum HBsAg. It is important to note that the oral fluid anti-HBc assay had high sensitivity in individuals presenting active infection compared to those with anti-HBc isolate and past HBV infection. This is in agreement with prior observations of the best HBV assay performance using oral fluid samples from ambulatory settings \[[@CR31]\] and among those with active infection with 90.5% sensitivity when only HBV infected individuals were included in the study \[[@CR9]\].
The use of the anti-HBc assay with oral fluid samples demonstrated high specificities in all groups/subgroups (over 94.2%). These findings are congruent with studies in different settings, such as viral hepatitis clinics \[[@CR9], [@CR32]\], blood donors and injecting drug users \[[@CR31]\]. Sensitivities of the anti-HBc assay using oral fluid vary between groups and subgroups; from 21.6% in the Midwest region of Brazil (subgroup from GII) to 70.6% in the ambulatory group (GI), probably due to the high number of active infections in group I. Previous studies also demonstrated low sensitivity of anti-HBc detection in oral fluid samples; 13 and 43% reported by Amado et al. \[[@CR32]\] and Nokes et al. \[[@CR30]\] respectively. High sensitivity was found among the injecting drug user group (85.9%) \[[@CR30]\] which could also be the result of the high number of active infections this group possesses.
Differences in anti-HBc testing performance between the present study and past studies could also be the result of distinct oral fluid collector devices and types of EIA used. In the present study, the Salivette device and Diasorin EIA were used while Nokes et al. used the Oracol collector (Malvern Medical Developments) and Organon Teknika EIA \[[@CR29]\]; Fisker et al. used the Omni-SAL® (Saliva Diagnostic Systems, Singapore) and Murex ICE HBc EIA (Murex Biotech Ltd., UK) \[[@CR30]\] and Amado et al. used the Orasure® device (Orasure Technologies Inc., Bethlehem, PA, USA) and Organon Teknika EIA \[[@CR31]\].
Previous studies have demonstrated the difference of HBV and HCV testing according to oral device \[[@CR7], [@CR21], [@CR41], [@CR42]\], but no study has evaluated different devices for anti-HBc testing in oral fluid samples. In the present study, the Salivette device was chosen due to low cost and availability in the Brazilian Market. In addition, this device has been previously used for HBsAg and anti-HCV detection in oral fluid samples with good results \[[@CR7], [@CR21]\].
It is interesting to observe that low numbers of false-negative results for oral fluid were found in the Southeast region compared to other regions of Group II. Scalioni et al. \[[@CR7]\] have shown that HBsAg titers diminished between 15 and 30 days when stored at 37 °C, the same temperature recorded for several months in the Midwest and North regions of Brazil. However, to our knowledge, no evaluation of the stability of anti-HBc in saliva was performed. The low number of FN in the Southest region samples was probably due to the short interval (at most a few hours) between sample collection and transportation to the laboratory, while in North and Midwest regions, in some cases, the sample interval between collection and transportation to the laboratory was several days (though less than 10 days).
As expected, the OD values were lower in the saliva samples when compared to serum, however, false-negative samples demonstrated in their paired serum samples both low and high OD values, demonstrating that serum anti-HBc concentration was probably not associated with saliva anti-HBc detection. We also observed high sensitivity in the ambulatory group, when HCV subjects were excluded (90.2%), showing the impact of these infections upon the anti-HBc assay using oral fluid samples. Low sensitivity values of the anti-HBc assay were observed in HIV infected individuals, particularly among those receiving antiretroviral treatment \[[@CR9]\], where they suggest interference by the presence of HIV or ARV treatment. To our knowledge, the interference of HCV infection in anti-HBc assays using oral fluid samples has not been previously observed.
The present study has some limitations, such as the absence of additional information on clinical history and status and putative therapeutic regimens. There is no information either on HBV DNA and HBsAg titers in HBsAg reactive serum samples or about problems in the procedures actually implemented in the storage and shipping of samples from distant/remote locations to the reference lab.
Conclusions {#Sec13}
===========
In conclusion, it was possible to optimize a commercial EIA for detecting anti-HBc in oral fluid samples where the highest concordance was found in ambulatory settings and among individuals with active infection.
Anti-HBc IgG
: Antibodies directed against the core antigen IgG
Anti-HBc IgM
: Antibodies directed against the core antigen IgM
Anti-HBc total
: Antibodies directed against the core antigen
Anti-HBs
: Antibodies directed against hepatitis B surface antigen
BSA
: Bovine serum albumin
CI
: Confidence interval
CO
: Cut-off value
EIA
: Enzyme immunoassay
FN
: False negative result (negative in DBS and positive in sera)
FP
: False positive result (positive in DBS and negative in sera)
HAV
: Hepatitis A virus
HBsAg
: Surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus
HBV
: Hepatitis B virus
HCV
: Hepatitis C virus
HIV
: human immunodeficiency Vírus
k
: Kappa index
LRNHV
: National Reference Laboratory for Viral Hepatitis
n
: number of samples
NPV
: Negative predictive value
OD
: Optical density
PBS
: phosphate buffer saline
PPV
: Positive predictive value
SD
: standard deviation
TN
: True negative result (negative in both DBS and sera)
TP
: True positive result (positive in both DBS and sera)
**Publisher's Note**
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
The authors would like to acknowledge technicians of Viral Hepatitis Laboratory, especially, Juliana Custódio Miguel Cruz, Raphael Rangel das Chagas, Letícia de Paula Scalioni, Renata Tourinho dos Santos, Jaqueline Correia de Oliveira for technical assistance in the sample collection.
LMV conceived the study; LMV, HMC and EL designed the study protocol; LLLX, FIB, KMRO, FAPM, PPF, ErL, MSC, ARCMC carried out the clinical assessment, subject selection and recruitment; HMC, EFS performed the immunoassays; HMC, LMV performed analysis, interpretation of these data and drafted the manuscript; JCM and FIB made statistical analysis, FIB, JCM, VSP, LMV, PPF, LLLX, EL critically revised the manuscript for intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
This research was supported by the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Brazilian National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq), CAPES and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ). These agencies were not responsible for the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.
The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the subjects but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
This study was conducted according to the ethical principles described in the Helsinki Declaration. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. This study was reviewed and approved by a local ethics committee, National Ethics Council under the number of CAAE 34055514.9.0000.5248.
Not applicable.
The authors disclose no actual or potential conflicts of interest, including any financial, personal or other relationships with people or organisations, within 2 years of the beginning of this study that could inappropriately influence the study.
|
2024-07-23T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/1254
|
// Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
// Licensed under the MIT License.
namespace Microsoft.Quantum.Measurement {
open Microsoft.Quantum.Intrinsic;
internal operation BasisChangeZtoY(target : Qubit) : Unit is Adj + Ctl {
H(target);
S(target);
}
/// # Summary
/// Sets a qubit to a given computational basis state by measuring the
/// qubit and applying a bit flip if needed.
///
/// # Input
/// ## desired
/// The basis state that the qubit should be set to.
/// ## target
/// The qubit whose state is to be set.
///
/// # Remarks
/// As an invariant of this operation, calling `M(q)` immediately
/// after `SetToBasisState(result, q)` will return `result`.
operation SetToBasisState(desired : Result, target : Qubit) : Unit {
if (desired != M(target)) {
X(target);
}
}
/// # Summary
/// Measures a single qubit in the Z basis,
/// and resets it to a fixed initial state
/// following the measurement.
///
/// # Description
/// Performs a single-qubit measurement in the $Z$-basis,
/// and ensures that the qubit is returned to $\ket{0}$
/// following the measurement.
///
/// # Input
/// ## target
/// A single qubit to be measured.
///
/// # Output
/// The result of measuring `target` in the Pauli $Z$ basis.
operation MResetZ (target : Qubit) : Result {
let result = M(target);
if (result == One) {
// Recall that the +1 eigenspace of a measurement operator corresponds to
// the Result case Zero. Thus, if we see a One case, we must reset the state
// have +1 eigenvalue.
X(target);
}
return result;
}
/// # Summary
/// Measures a single qubit in the X basis,
/// and resets it to a fixed initial state
/// following the measurement.
///
/// # Description
/// Performs a single-qubit measurement in the $X$-basis,
/// and ensures that the qubit is returned to $\ket{0}$
/// following the measurement.
///
/// # Input
/// ## target
/// A single qubit to be measured.
///
/// # Output
/// The result of measuring `target` in the Pauli $X$ basis.
operation MResetX (target : Qubit) : Result {
let result = Measure([PauliX], [target]);
// We must return the qubit to the Z basis as well.
H(target);
if (result == One) {
// Recall that the +1 eigenspace of a measurement operator corresponds to
// the Result case Zero. Thus, if we see a One case, we must reset the state
// have +1 eigenvalue.
X(target);
}
return result;
}
/// # Summary
/// Measures a single qubit in the Y basis,
/// and resets it to a fixed initial state
/// following the measurement.
///
/// # Description
/// Performs a single-qubit measurement in the $Y$-basis,
/// and ensures that the qubit is returned to $\ket{0}$
/// following the measurement.
///
/// # Input
/// ## target
/// A single qubit to be measured.
///
/// # Output
/// The result of measuring `target` in the Pauli $Y$ basis.
operation MResetY (target : Qubit) : Result {
let result = Measure([PauliY], [target]);
// We must return the qubit to the Z basis as well.
Adjoint BasisChangeZtoY(target);
if (result == One) {
// Recall that the +1 eigenspace of a measurement operator corresponds to
// the Result case Zero. Thus, if we see a One case, we must reset the state
// have +1 eigenvalue.
X(target);
}
return result;
}
}
|
2024-01-19T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/5039
|
#ubuntukylin-devel 2013-07-16
<sk1994> 人好å°ãã
<suiang> Good morning...
<jwu> ä¸è½½ç³»ç»å¢
<jwu> æç®è¯ä¸ä¸ è¿ä¸ª distro
<jwu> æå¨ç¨çä¹ï¼
<jwu> åºè¯¥æ¾ä¸ä¸ªimage å»dropbox æè
ubuntuone
<jwu> å¨å½å¤ä¸è½½å¾æ
¢
#ubuntukylin-devel 2014-07-14
<JackYu> happyaron, ping
#ubuntukylin-devel 2014-07-15
<Moon_Cheetah> hi~大家好
#ubuntukylin-devel 2014-07-16
<happyaron> JackYu: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AronXu/DeveloperApplication
<JackYu> ok, thanks
#ubuntukylin-devel 2014-07-17
<happyaron> JackYu: adobeåºäºåææºé»ä½
<happyaron> åºäºä¸ª
<happyaron> çä¸å»ç¸å½ä¸éå
<happyaron> JackYu: ping
#ubuntukylin-devel 2014-07-18
<pishuilu> happyaron:ubuntukylin-default-settingså
ä¸ä¿®æ¹os-releaseæ件çæä½ï¼ä½ ä¸æ¬¡å»æäºï¼ç°å¨æ¯ä¸æ¯è¦æ该æä½æ¢å¤ï¼å 为ç°å¨indictor-sessionä¸æ¸¸å·²ç»æ¥æ¶äºukå¢éçä¿®æ¹äº
<happyaron> pishuilu_: ä¹åæ¯ç´æ¥æ¿ä¸ªæ件è¦çäºï¼ä¸æ¯ä¿®æ¹ã
<happyaron> pishuilu_: è¦çä¸è¡ã
<pishuilu_> happyaron: ä½ çæææ¯å¨hooks/chrootæå®è£
åèæ¬ä¸ä¿®æ¹os-releaseï¼
<happyaron> pishuilu_: 对ï¼æ好æ¯å®è£
èæ¬å§ã
<pishuilu_> happyaron: 好çï¼ç¥éäº
<happyaron> :)
<freeflying> ypwong: hi
#ubuntukylin-devel 2014-07-20
<Moon_Cheetah> uk qtcreator can not debug ?
#ubuntukylin-devel 2018-07-16
<carlito> Hello
|
2024-06-30T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/8222
|
Irvine White Shaker Catalog
Irvine White Shaker RTA Kitchen Cabinets
The Irvine White Shaker cabinets are a great choice for anyone looking for the ever popular white shaker look. Our Irvine White Shaker is a smooth matte white with a very traditional shaker detail groves in the frame. The white color is not glossy but still manages to be very smooth to the touch. The simple white of these doors will lend a cool and clean feel to your kitchen.
As a shaker style cabinet, the doors on the Irvine White Shaker are a simple five piece frame and panel design. What this means is that each door has a flat recessed center panel held in place like a frame by the other four pieces that make up the door. The purpose of this five piece design is to keep the doors from warping over time. The simple and minimalist shaker style has been one of the most popular door styles for a while now.
The Irvine White Shaker cabinets use bodies that are made from 1/2 inch thick premium plywood. The doors and frames of each cabinet are made from solid birch wood. All of the Irvine White Shaker cabinets use soft close hinges and soft close undermount drawer tracks.
White is one of the easiest colors to match. As such, the Irvine White Shaker cabinets can be pared up with so many different color options when you choose your new countertops or kitchen flooring you can go with dark colors or light grays or rich cream colored tiles. Also most appliances will match the Irvine White Shaker with ease.
If you are looking for a clean white shaker cabinet choice that will lighten your kitchen and be easy to clean and wipe down, the Irvine White shaker is a great choice for you. These cabinets are classy and sophisticated without being flashy or expensive.
|
2023-08-16T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/1928
|
/* Area: ffi_call
Purpose: Check return value double.
Limitations: none.
PR: none.
Originator: <andreast@gcc.gnu.org> 20050212 */
/* { dg-do run } */
#include "ffitest.h"
static double return_dbl(double dbl1, double dbl2, unsigned int in3, double dbl4)
{
return dbl1 + dbl2 + in3 + dbl4;
}
int main (void)
{
ffi_cif cif;
ffi_type *args[MAX_ARGS];
void *values[MAX_ARGS];
double dbl1, dbl2, dbl4, rdbl;
unsigned int in3;
args[0] = &ffi_type_double;
args[1] = &ffi_type_double;
args[2] = &ffi_type_uint;
args[3] = &ffi_type_double;
values[0] = &dbl1;
values[1] = &dbl2;
values[2] = &in3;
values[3] = &dbl4;
/* Initialize the cif */
CHECK(ffi_prep_cif(&cif, FFI_DEFAULT_ABI, 4,
&ffi_type_double, args) == FFI_OK);
dbl1 = 127.0;
dbl2 = 128.0;
in3 = 255;
dbl4 = 512.7;
ffi_call(&cif, FFI_FN(return_dbl), &rdbl, values);
printf ("%f vs %f\n", rdbl, return_dbl(dbl1, dbl2, in3, dbl4));
CHECK(rdbl == dbl1 + dbl2 + in3 + dbl4);
exit(0);
}
|
2024-01-15T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/4470
|
RCB vs SRH: When de Villiers defies gravity with stunning catch
Royal Challengers Bangalore kept their playoff hopes alive as Sunrisers Hyderabad’s skipper Kane Williamson (81 off 42) and Manish Pandey’s (62 not-out off 38) blistering knock went in vain in a crucial Indian Premier League (IPL) clash at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Thursday.
It was once again Williamson, who along with Pandey forged a crucial partnership to take Hyderabad on the verge of another nail-biting win. However, it was the hosts who clinched the issue by 14 runs to keep their playoff dream alive.
Dhawan- Hales gave SRH a quick start:
Chasing the massive 219-run target, Hyderabad openers Shikhar Dhawan (18) and Alex Hales (37) took their side to a quick start, accumulating 47 runs in the first five overs.
However, the decent start was short-lived as Yuzvendra Chahal drew the first blood for the hosts in the sixth over when Dhawan came down the track but chipped back to the bowler.
With addition of another 17 runs in Hyderabad’s scorecard, AB de Villiers took a stunning catch at deep midwicket to pack back Hales off a Moeen Ali delivery.
Skipper Williamson and Pandey then took the command, taking their side to touch the three-figure mark in 11.3 overs.
Meanwhile, the Hyderabad captain slammed his half-century off 28 balls, helping his side inch closer to the target.
The duo went on to forge a crucial 135-run partnership for the third wicket, lifting the visitors to 199 runs in 19.1 overs.
Mohammed Siraj’s final strike:
With 19 needed off the final over, Mohammed Siraj jolted Hyderabad dismissing the visiting skipper to bring back Bangalore in the game.
Williamson’s knock was laced with seven fours and five sixes.
Pandey and incoming batsman Deepak Hooda could only manage five runs off the final five deliveries as the hosts sealed the match by 14 runs to keep them afloat in the league.
For Bangalore, Chahal, Siraj and Ali bagged one wicket each.
It was de Villiers ft Moeen Ali show for RCB:
Earlier, de Villiers and Moeen Ali smacked breezy half centuries to help Bangalore overcome a shaky start and post a mammoth 218/6 against Hyderabad in a must-win tie.
De Villiers (69 from 39 balls; 4×12, 6×1) and Moeen (65 from 34; 4×2, 6×6) put on a 107-run third wicket stand to resurrect RCB’s innings which fell apart after the early loss of the opening duo of Parthiv Patel (1) and skipper Virat Kohli (12).
Put in to bat, Parthiv failed to take advantage of the dropped chance off the very first ball and departed off the final ball off Sandeep Sharma, caught by Siddharth Kaul at third man.
Kohli followed his opening partner soon after adding 32 runs with de Villiers, as the India skipper’s struggle with the spinners continued in this edition of the IPL. The right-hander attempted to slog Rashid Khan’s fuller length delivery hoping for a googly only to find his stumps re-arranged.
Struggling at 32/2, de Villiers and Moeen changed the complexion of the innings in no time, with both batsmen trying to outscore each other as it started raining boundaries at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
De Villiers started with two consecutive boundaries off Shakib Al Hasan before sending the other Hyderabad bowlers to the leather hunt, before Moeen joined the party by welcoming rookie pacer Basil Thampi with two consecutive sixes.
In no time, the South African veteran brought up his half century in mere 32 balls, when he pulled medium pacer Kaul for a boundary before Moeen, who was dropped on 23 by Dhawan off Sandeep, turned on the heat by meting out some special treatment to Thampi.
The English southpaw mercilessly smacked Thampi for a boundary to bring up his maiden IPL half century off just 25 balls before Afghan leg-spinner Rashid came back to break the partnership in a span of three balls.
Rashid first saw the back of de Villiers brilliantly caught by Dhawan at deep backward square before packing Moeen one ball later, caught behind by Shreevats Goswami.
With both the set batsmen back in the dug out, the visitors sniffed at a smaller total when they packed an in-form Mandeep Singh (4) cheaply.
But New Zealander Colin de Grandhomme (40 from 17; 4×1, 6×4) and teenaged Sarfaraz Khan (22 not out from 8; 4×3, 6×1) lit up the stadium with some late order fireworks, to ensure the home side crossed the 200-run mark with a quick-fire 34-run stand.
For the tourists, Rashid once again emerged the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/27, while Siddharth and Sandeep chipped in with two and one wickets, respectively.
|
2024-05-02T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/4570
|
A COALITION MP who has turned our national flag into a fashion atrocity now wants burning the banner to be outlawed.
Member for the Queensland seat of Dawson, George Christensen, today introduced a private member’s bill he said would “end the hate crime against Aussies that is burning our flag”.
Mr Christensen’s bill would not cover using the flag as an item of clothing, as he has done with a shiny shirt. He also has spoken at rallies where many of those listening used the flag as capes, T-shirts and headwear.
media_camera This is not OK. Picture: Marc Robertson media_camera This is OK.
At other rallies called to attack extremist Islam, those gathered have even used the flag design for shorts.
Flag burning has been an issue bothering Mr Christensen for some time.
Last April, after a rally of his ideological opponents, he wrote: “Many people were surprised it is not against the law to burn the Australian flag in such a manner and they feel offended and threatened when they see these actions taking place in Australia and broadcast on the news.
“I have asked the Racial Discrimination Commissioner to investigate the protests to see if they are unlawful under Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
media_camera Australian flags used as capes, shirts and boardshorts at the Take Back Australia Rally in Mackay. George Christensen MP was the guest speaker. Picture: Daryl Wright
“According to the Act, it is unlawful to perform any action in public that is likely to offend people of a particular race, religion, or national background. If sections of the Act can be applied to one race or nationality it must apply to all, whether a minority or the majority.”
Now he wants a specific law. He wants legislation “to make desecration of our national flag an illegal act, with potential jail time as a penalty”.
The issue has come up several times before and in January, 2006, then prime minister John Howard argued against criminalisation.
“I don’t think we achieve anything by making it a criminal offence. We only turn yahoo behaviour into martyrdom,” Mr Howard said.
Originally published as MP wants jail for flag burners
|
2024-03-15T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/8384
|
As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 432 people, 238 households, and 117 families residing in the town. The population density was 942.3 people per square mile (362.6/km²). There were 264 housing units at an average density of 575.9 per square mile (221.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 93.29% White, 4.63% African American, 0.23% Asian, 0.23% Pacific Islander, 0.69% from other races, and 0.93% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.69% of the population.
There were 238 households out of which 18.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.0% were married couples living together, 12.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.8% were non-families. 49.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 31.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.82 and the average family size was 2.57.
In the town the population was spread out with 18.5% under the age of 18, 4.6% from 18 to 24, 22.7% from 25 to 44, 23.4% from 45 to 64, and 30.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48 years. For every 100 females there were 70.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 66.0 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $25,781, and the median income for a family was $40,938. Males had a median income of $27,232 versus $19,464 for females. The per capita income for the town was $23,557. About 10.4% of families and 13.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.5% of those under age 18 and 16.9% of those age 65 or over.
Two Floyd County Public Schools are located in the town limits. Floyd is home to Floyd County High School, the only high school in the county, and Floyd Elementary School, one of Floyd County's four K-7 institutions. There is no Middle School in Floyd County.
The Town of Floyd is becoming known as a regional destination for music, especially bluegrass music, and old-time music. The Floyd Country Store's Friday Night Jamboree, which features local and area bands, has been held each Friday night for many years, gaining in popularity during the past decade. In fair weather, the indoor stage performances and dancing are joined by simultaneous banjo-and-fiddle-centered jam sessions in driveways and seating areas along South Locust Street.[9] Floyd is also home to a very large counter-culture movement. There are other musical venues and stages in the town, featuring many different styles of music. The Winter Sun, a complex in downtown Floyd, frequently hosts shows for bands. Floyd is also home to an increasing amount of classical music, including the National Music Festival, which will host its first season in Floyd in 2011. The Town also is home to County Sales, a notable music distribution company founded by David Freeman focusing on old-time, bluegrass and related music.[10]
Floyd is also becoming a popular location for film production. In the fall of 2013, a low-budget romantic comedy written and directed by Mike Kravinsky was filmed in Floyd.[11]
|
2024-06-25T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/4868
|
Q:
Configure Webpack with Electron to use ES6 imports?
I am trying to use Webpack since I want to use ES modules in my Electron application but having some hurdles. I just want to use import in my main as well as renderer processes.
My application structure is as follows -
- src/ // contains basic html, css & js
- index.html // <h1>Hello World</h1>
- style.css // is empty
- app.js // console.log('it works ')
- app/ // contains electron code
- main_window.js
- custom_tray.js
- index.js // entry point for electron application
- dist/ // output bundle generated from webpack
- bundle.js
My index.js file looks like -
import path from "path";
import { app } from "electron";
import MainWindow from "./app/main_window";
import CustomTray from "./app/custom_tray";
let win = null,
tray = null;
app.on("ready", () => {
// app.dock.hide();
win = new MainWindow(path.join("file://", __dirname, "/src/index.html"));
win.on("closed", () => {
win = null;
});
tray = new CustomTray(win);
});
My main_window.js file looks like -
import { BrowserWindow } from "electron";
const config = {
width: 250,
height: 350,
show: false,
frame: false,
radii: [500, 500, 500, 500],
resizable: false,
fullscreenable: false
};
class MainWindow extends BrowserWindow {
constructor(url) {
super(config);
this.loadURL(url);
this.on("blur", this.onBlur);
this.show();
}
onBlur = () => {
this.hide();
};
}
export default MainWindow;
My custom_tray.js looks like -
import path from "path";
import { app, Tray, Menu } from "electron";
const iconPath = path.join(__dirname, "../src/assets/iconTemplate.png");
class CustomTray extends Tray {
constructor(mainWindow) {
super(iconPath);
this.mainWindow = mainWindow;
this.setToolTip("Thirsty");
this.on("click", this.onClick);
this.on("right-click", this.onRightClick);
}
onClick = (event, bounds) => {
const { x, y } = bounds;
const { width, height } = this.mainWindow.getBounds();
const isMac = process.platform === "darwin";
if (this.mainWindow.isVisible()) {
this.mainWindow.hide();
} else {
this.mainWindow.setBounds({
x: x - width / 2,
y: isMac ? y : y - height,
width,
height
});
this.mainWindow.show();
}
};
onRightClick = () => {
const menuConfig = Menu.buildFromTemplate([
{
label: "Quit",
click: () => app.quit()
}
]);
this.popUpContextMenu(menuConfig);
};
}
export default CustomTray;
And my webpack.main.config.js looks like -
const path = require("path");
const config = {
entry: "./index.js",
output: {
path: path.resolve(__dirname, "dist"),
filename: "bundle.js"
},
module: {
rules: [{ test: /\.js$/, exclude: /node_modules/, use: "babel-loader" }]
},
stats: {
colors: true
},
target: "electron-main",
devtool: "source-map"
};
module.exports = config;
And my webpack.renderer.config.js looks like -
const path = require("path");
const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require("html-webpack-plugin");
const CopyWebpackPlugin = require("copy-webpack-plugin");
const config = {
entry: "./src/app.js",
output: {
path: path.resolve(__dirname, "dist/renderer"),
filename: "app.js"
},
module: {
rules: [
{
test: /\.js$/,
exclude: /node_modules/,
use: "babel-loader"
},
{
test: /\.css$/,
use: {
loader: "css-loader",
options: {
minimize: true
}
}
},
{
test: /\.(png|jpe?g|gif|svg)(\?.*)?$/,
use: {
loader: "url-loader",
query: {
limit: 10000,
name: "imgs/[name].[ext]"
}
}
},
{
test: /\.(woff2?|eot|ttf|otf)(\?.*)?$/,
use: {
loader: "url-loader",
query: {
limit: 10000,
name: "fonts/[name].[ext]"
}
}
}
]
},
stats: {
colors: true
},
target: "electron-renderer",
devtool: "source-map",
plugins: [
new CopyWebpackPlugin([
{ from: "src/app.css" },
{ from: "src/assets", to: "assets/" }
]),
new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
filename: "index.html",
template: path.resolve(__dirname, "./src/index.html"),
minify: {
collapseWhitespace: true,
removeAttributeQuotes: true,
removeComments: true
}
})
]
};
module.exports = config;
My scripts in package.json look like
"scripts": {
"dev:main": "webpack --mode development --config webpack.main.config.js",
"dev:renderer": "webpack --mode development --config webpack.renderer.config.js",
"dev:all": "npm run dev:main && npm run dev:renderer",
"build:main": "webpack --mode production --config webpack.main.config.js",
"build:renderer": "webpack --mode production --config webpack.renderer.config.js",
"build:all": "npm run build:main && npm run build:renderer",
"prestart": "npm run build:all",
"electron": "electron dist/index.js",
"start": "npm run electron",
}
Currently my application creates a dist/bundle.js but when I run electron dist/bundle.js it doesn't work. I get it, it might be because it does not contain src folder but when I copy src folder into dist it still doesn't work.
Firstly, I run npm run dev:main to generate dist/bundle.js then I run npm run dev:renderer to generate dist/renderer/bundle.js & then I run npm run start to start my electron application.
It gives me error "Uncaught Exception: Error: Requires constructor call at new MainWindow" which is in index.js where I call constructor new MainWindow()
I just want to use ES6 in all my JS files. Is there any boilerplate because the ones I found have tons of additional stuff like React JS & all plus a huge number of optimizations ?
A:
After 8 days I found the answer finally. It works with ESM in Electron.
I've made a repo that is minimum & lets you write ESM with Electron.
The complete code can be found at https://github.com/deadcoder0904/electron-webpack-sample
Its very minimal so it should be easy to understand.
|
2024-06-14T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/5557
|
This case traces the development of the voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) campaign in Nyanza Province, Kenya as it transformed from the subject of a randomized clinical trial into national policy. After providing some background on the cultural, political, and scientific context surrounding male circumcision, the case traces the PEPFAR-funded implementers' advances in delivering male circumcision in Nyanza. It examines the various delivery models used in Nyanza and the evolution of the relationship between implementers as well as on the development of the national strategic plan for VMMC released in 2009. The case ends with the implementers having come together successfully for two rapid, aggressive, 30-day implementation campaigns and the head of Kenya's National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Control Programme wrestling with how to make such campaigns sustainable and what lessons from the campaign to pass on to the national program. This is a condensed version of the case Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in Nyanza Province, Kenya.
Learning Objectives: To understand how a randomized controlled trial may be translated into a large-scale public health program; how a surgical campaign was designed and implemented for rapid impact; the role of national and international collaboration in large-scale health delivery; and the ethical tradeoffs that arise in large-scale public health programs.
This case traces the development of the voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) campaign in Nyanza Province, Kenya as it transformed from the subject of a randomized clinical trial into national policy. After providing some background on the cultural, political, and scientific context surrounding male circumcision, the case traces the PEPFAR-funded implementers' advances in delivering male circumcision in Nyanza. It examines the various delivery models used in Nyanza and the evolution of the relationship between implementers as well as on the development of the national strategic plan for VMMC released in 2009. The case ends with the implementers having come together successfully for two rapid, aggressive, 30-day implementation campaigns and the head of Kenya's National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Control Programme wrestling with how to make such campaigns sustainable and what lessons from the campaign to pass on to the national program.
Learning Objectives: To understand how a randomized controlled trial may be translated into a large-scale public health program; how a surgical campaign was designed and implemented for rapid impact; the role of national and international collaboration in large-scale health delivery; and the ethical tradeoffs that arise in large-scale public health programs.
This case describes key elements of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) campaign in India and explores the challenges faced in eliminating polio from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Throughout the 1990s, India began implementing coordinated national polio immunization days to supplement routine immunization in health clinics in an effort to eliminate polio from the nation. The case provides contextual information about India and Uttar Pradesh as well as polio and polio vaccines. It then examines the roles of key partners in the GPEI, including Rotary International, the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and UNICEF, and it describes the local operational challenges of the mass immunization campaign in Uttar Pradesh. The campaign has been unable to eliminate polio from this state, and the program leaders grapple with ways to improve the campaign’s performance there.
Learning Objectives: To understand the political and operational challenges of implementing a nation-wide disease elimination program and to appreciate how local, contextual factors influence the delivery of health interventions.
|
2024-03-11T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/5107
|
Regional election watchdog bark against doubters of indelible ink
Asian polls watchdog defends use of indelible ink
Using indelible ink on the finger will not pose a health risk if its content conforms with the recommendations of the World Health Organisation, said election watchdog Asian Network for Free Elections (Anfrel).
This means that the essential ingredient in the indelible ink, silver nitrate, should not exceed four percent of the total content, Anfrel officer Ichal Supriadi said in an email interview with Malaysiakini.
This was recommended because synthetic silver nitrate content exceeding four percent can harm the nerve system.
Some countries, he said, have gone further to require that the silver nitrate content be derived from natural sources so as to reduce the likelihood of itchiness.
“Indonesian indelible ink uses less than four percent (silver nitrate) and is strictly controlled, with only natural or herbal extracts, which are anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial, used.
“Itchiness and skin irritation can be avoided with the natural extracts. I believe Malaysian scientists can formulate this (to suit the country’s specifications),” Ichal said.
India and China are the largest manufacturers of indelible ink and many other countries have now begun manufacturing the ink on their own because of cost constraints.
Manufacturing the ink locally will also allow a country to tailor the ink to local needs, such as religious constraints.
However, Ichal said, there must be rigorous testing of the quality of the ink, since some producers may try to cut corners for a quick buck.
“Indelible ink is good business. For example, US$2.7 million was spent to buy 1,149,890 bottles of indelible ink for 574,945 polling stations in the Indonesian presidential election of 2009,” he said.
Not completely foolproof
Last week, The Star reported that a Europe-based firm had demonstrated to the daily that indelible ink could be easily removed using off-the-shelf stain removers.
In the report, the newspaper also quoted the unnamed firm’s spokesperson as saying that the ink has been disallowed in the US and Europe because of health concerns.
Ichal said the ink was not used in these places because of higher levels of voter confidence in the electoral rolls and the neutrality of the polling officers.
“Many countries use indelible ink to prevent multiple voting… it is mostly implemented because of a lack of confidence in the quality of electoral roll or voter enrolments and the neutrality of the polling officers,” he said.
The use of the ink did not mean there were no drawbacks and that it was foolproof safeguard against fraud.
“The performance of indelible ink is important to safeguard the polling, but the most important is the professionalism of the polling officers.
“A good and safe ink cannot stop multiple voting if the polling officers commit fraud. Therefore, the presence of observers is crucial to guarantee the sanctity of the election,” Ichal said.
Bangkok-based Anfrel is a regional network established in 1997, and has acted as official election observer in numerous countries that use indelible ink in elections, including Afghanistan, India and Indonesia.
|
2024-05-28T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/4417
|
Izvođač:
Kay Martin
Kay Martin was born in Bakersfield, California and is part Cherokee Indian. As a pin-up / centerfold in exotic photo shoots she met Jess Hotchkiss and Bill Elliott. They worked out a nightclub act, and began billing themselves as "Kay Martin And Her Bodyguards". From 1953 to 1963 , they headlined in Las Vegas and Reno casinos and travelled inbetween Hawaii and Fort Lauderdale where much of their "adult entertainment" material was recorded - most of which were sold after the show in the lounge.
|
2023-12-19T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/1734
|
declare interface Dictionary<T> {
[index: string]: T
}
|
2024-06-05T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/8291
|
INTRODUCTION
============
Pain in the spine is the most common musculoskeletal cause of physical problems, and 80% of the affections are located in the lumbar region.[@b01] Mancin et al.[@b02] stated that 50 to 80% of the population is affected by low back pain during their life, which makes it a public health issue in modern society. Another important aspect is the elevated public and private costs generated by absence from work, insurance and healthcare.[@b03]
Chronic low back pain causes a significant impact on the lives of workers, who may become depressed, anxious, unsatisfied and, often, afraid to be dismissed from work.[@b01]
Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of life of patients who suffer from low back pain with the use of the SF-36 questionnaire (functional capacity, physical aspects, pain, general health status, vitality, social aspects, emotional aspects and mental health) before and after physiotherapeutic interventions and a two-month follow-up reassessment.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
=====================
This study was characterized as a quantitative experimental study. The research was developed at the Palmas Orthopedic Institute (Instituto Ortopédico de Palmas - IOP) and the Multifunctional Assistance Center (Núcleo de Atendimento Multifuncional - NAC) of Centro Universitário Luterano de Palmas - CEULP/ULBRA, both located in the city of Palmas - TO, Brazil.
This study was approved by the CEULP/ULBRA Ethics Committee for research under case number 13/2009. The orthopedic doctors used the criteria of the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology[@b05] to diagnose chronic nonspecific low back pain (CNSBP).
Fifty volunteers diagnosed with CNLBP were recruited from the waiting list of IPO and NAC\'s Outpatient Physical Therapy clinic. These volunteers underwent an initial screening and thirty patients were selected, according to criteria described below.
Criteria for inclusion: thirty people who had chronic nonspecific low back pain diagnosed by doctors specialized in spinal column disorders, followed by complementary exams (CT scan or MRI), were included in the sample. These patients had ages ranging between 19 and 60 years, from both genders, presented low back pain for more than twelve weeks, without radicular symptoms (pain radiating to the knee, numbness, muscle dysfunction or hyporeflexia) as characterized by the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology.[@b05] They consented to participate in the study by signing the Free and Informed Consent Form in fully able physical, mental and intellectual conditions; they had sufficient cognitive capacity, which was tested with the use of Folstein\'s Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE),[@b06] to comprehend the procedures and follow the given instructions. All of them were sedentary and inexperienced in the practice of GPR and Isostretching methods.
Criteria for exclusion: the following subjects were excluded from the trial: those who had nerve root compression, prolapse or disc herniation, spondylolisthesis or retrolisthesis, severe scoliosis or significat changes in the alignment of the spine, advanced spondyloarthrosis, tumors, history of surgery and other specific and/or serious causes of back pain; presence of respiratory or neurological diseases, polio sequelae, prosthesis, discrepancy of limbs, umbilical hernia, pregnancy, infectious diseases; incapacity to respond to the questionnaires: mentally disabled and those who had cerebrovascular accidents (CVA); depression (diagnosed with the Beck scale). Patients who were smokers, exercised regularly or refused to participate in the study, as well as those that could not answer the questionnaires due to mental illness or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) were also excluded.
We established as criteria for discontinuation: patients who, for any reason, were absent for more than two consecutive weeks from the physical therapy techniques intervention or refused to participate in the study until its conclusion.
The thirty volunteers included in this study where randomly distributed into three groups of ten subjects each (the randomization was done by a random number table): one group (Iso) was submitted to the Isostretching protocol; another (GPR) was submitted to global stretching in two postures of the Global Postural Reeducation method; and the third group (Iso+GPR) was submitted to the Global Postural Reeducation method and the Isostretching protocol. All the subjects who participated in this study were treated individually by the researcher of this study who was trained in both Isostretching and GPR methods.
After signing the Free and Informed Consent Form, subjects were submitted to a sequence of procedures by an independent and previously trained examiner. The volunteers were submitted to a physical-functional evaluation using a specific form, as described by Alexandre et al.[@b07]
To quantify low back pain, we used the Visual Analog Scale of Pain (VASP). To assess quality of life, we used the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). This multidimensional instrument was developed in 1992 by Ware and Sherbourne and validated in Brazil by Ciconelli et al.[@b08] The evaluation of the results was done by attributing scores to each question, which were then transformed into a scale ranging from 0 to 100, where 0 corresponds to the worst quality of life and 100 to the best. Each dimension was analyzed separately. Random assignment to interventions.
Random assignment to one of the 3 groups was done at the beginning of the interventions. For such, we established three groups of intervention: Iso Group (group treated only with the Isostretching method), GPR Group (group treated only with the GPR method) and Iso+GPR Group (group treated with both the Isostretching and the GPR methods).
Physiotherapeutic intervention:The physiotherapeutic interventions were conducted at the Instituto Ortopédico de Palmas, Palmas, TO, where there are a GPR and Iso clinic . All subjects with chronic nonspecific low back pain (CNLBP) were treated by the researcher, reducing the likelihood of personal interference on the results.
Interventions with the Isostretching method (Iso Group)
-------------------------------------------------------
The subjects of the Isostretching group performed seven exercises from Redondo\'s concept.[@b09] Each exercise was repeated eight times. The time for remaining in the posture was according to a deep and prolonged exhalation for about six to ten seconds. After each exhalation, only the tension was relaxed, and the the isometric contraction was maintained without modifying the base position. We observed an increase in the muscular tension by stretching with the isometric contraction, with deep and prolonged exhalation, pelvis repositioning, lowering of the scapula (isometric fixation) and self-growth of the spine.[@b09]
Treatment occurred during three months in individual sessions twice a week for 60 minutes each, totalizing 24 sessions.[@b09]
Interventions with the GPR method (GPR Group)
---------------------------------------------
The subjects of the GPR group were treated with stretches of the static anterior internal muscle strings of the hip, the posterior master string and the respiratory string.[@b10] In each session, two global postures were performed with no weight on the supine, and were maintained for twenty minutes each: one posture for the anterior string and another for the posterior one.
Treatment lasted for three months in individual sessions once a week for 60 minutes, totalizing 12 sessions.
Intervention by Isostretching method+GPR method (Iso+GPR Group)
---------------------------------------------------------------
The subjects were treated with the GPR method once a week and with the Isostretching method twice a week for three months (a total of 12 GPR sessions and 24 Isostretching sessions).
The physical therapist who assisted with data collection received previous training. We also conducted a pre-test to adjust the research instruments, the time of application of the questionnaires and the physical-functional exam. To prepare for work field, a pilot project was conducted with six subjects who had CNLBP, two of them having been treated by the GPR method, two by the Isostretching method and two by Iso+GPR. These subjects were not included in the statistical analysis.
Patients in both groups were instructed not to seek other forms of treatment for relief of chronic low back pain during the study period. After three months of treatment, subjects in both groups were assessed with the VASP and the SF-36 questionnaire. In order to verify the effectiveness of the physiotherapeutic interventions, these instruments were reapplied two months after the end of treatment (follow-up) by the same examiner responsible for the initial data collection.
Statistical Analysis
--------------------
To analyze the data we used the following software: Excel(r) 2007 and SPSS(r) v13 for Windows(r). We used a mixed design ANOVA model with the factors Group (factor among groups - Independent variable with three degrees of freedom) and Assessment (three degrees - repeated measures). The values of the degrees of freedom were corrected using the Greenhouse-Geisser method to determine the statistical significance value of the test when the criterion for sphericity was not assumed. However, in the results we described the non-corrected degrees of freedom. The *post hoc* (repeated measure of ANOVA) analyses were developed to evaluate the significant effects when authorized by the mixed design ANOVA test. In the multiple comparisons procedure we used the Bonferroni method to correct the level of statistical significance. The value of statistical significance was set at p≤0.05 for all tests.
RESULTS
=======
[Table 1](#t01){ref-type="table"} shows a summary of the sociodemographic variables of the sample.
Table 1Distribution of the sociodemographic variables of the sample.**VariablesIsoGroup GPRIso + GPRGender**Female Male Total6 (60%)7 (70%)7 (70%)4 (40%)3 (30%)3 (30%)10 (100%)10 (100%)10 (100%)**Marital status**Single Married Divorced2 (20%)4 (40%)1 (10%)8 (80%)5 (50%)9 (90%)0 (0%)1 (10%)0 (0%)**Education**Primary school Secondary school College/University2 (20%)1 (10%)0 (0%)4 (40%)5 (50%)3 (30%)4 (40%)4 (40%)7 (70%)
The results obtained with the Visual Analog Scale of Pain (VASP) showed that the index of chronic nonspecific low back pain decreased in a statistically significant manner after the first and second assessments (p\<0.001). ([Table 2](#t02){ref-type="table"})
Table 2Summary of the analysis of the effect of treatments in pain measured by VASP.**GroupVASFp-value1^st^2^nd^3^rd^**Iso5 .3 (2 .6)0 .9 (1 .2)1 .4 (1 .5)GPR5 .5 (2 .7)0 .4 (0 .7)0 .4 (0 .9)164.169\<0 .001Iso + GPR6 .6 (1 .8)0 .1 (0 .3)0 .3 (0 .6)Total5 .8 (2 .4)0 .5 (0 .9)0 .7 (1 .2)
The VASP proved to be useful, since we observed a reduction of pain for most subjects. Subjects treated with the Isostretching technique, at the start of treatment had an average rating of 5.3; after treatment the average was 0.9; and, 60 days after the end of treatment, pain was measured at an average of 1.4. Subjects who were treated with the GPR technique had an average of 5.5 at the start of treatment; at the end it decreased to 0.4; and, after 60 days, the average was maintained at 0.4. For subjects who were treated with the Iso+GPR techniques, the average VAS value at the start of treatment was 6.6; decreasing to 0.1 at the end; and, after 60 days, increasing to 0.3. This result indicates an improvement after physiotherapeutic intervention in all treatment groups ([Figure 1](#f01){ref-type="fig"}), and indicates that treatment was most effective when both techniques (Iso+GPR) were combined.
Figure 1Comparison of mean measures of pain (VAS) in the first assessment, after treatment (second assessment) and two months after interventions (third assessment).
We also observed that subjects who underwent treatment with the GPR method showed a tendency to maintain the improvement 60 days after intervention. When we compared the Iso group to the Iso+GPR group, we observed a tendency of increasing pain in the follow-up for the Iso group. ([Figure 1](#f01){ref-type="fig"})
When assessing the quality of life, according to the domains of the SF-36, we found a statistically significant effect of the Time factor on the scores of the SF-36 questionnaire on the items functional capacity, physical aspects, pain, general health, vitality, social aspects, emotional aspects and mental health. ([Table 3](#t03){ref-type="table"}) The procedure for multiple comparisons showed that all items of the evaluation were significantly lower in the first evaluation, when compared to the second and third evaluations (p\<0.009 in all cases). There was no difference between the second and third evaluations (p\>0.392, in all cases). We did not observe a significant effect of the factor Group, nor of the interaction Group *vs* Time.
Table 3Summary of the analysis of the effect of the three types of treatment on the scores of the SF-36 questionnaire.**ItemsAssessmentIsoGPRIso + GPRF between assessmentsp-valor**Functional capacity1^st^58.5 (27.5)50.5 (15.2)47.5 (27)2^nd^98 (4.8)89 (20.4)93.5 (13.3)34.283\<0.0013^rd^98 (4.8)78 (33.7)87.5 (31.4)Physical aspects1^st^20 (38.7)-2.5 (24.9)-5 (35)2^nd^50 (0)47.5 (7.9)50 (0)41.303\<0.0013^rd^50 (0)41.5 (16.7)45 (15.8)Pain1^st^43.5 (20.3)29.7 (8.8)32.4 (19.5)2^nd^91 (9.9)82.6 (24.6)95.8 (9.2)82.598\<0.0013^rd^91 (9.9)73.1 (34.5)86.4 (31.3)General health1^st^62.2 (17.9)59.2 (23)57.9 (23.5)2^nd^85.3 (9.9)87.9 (15.1)91.4 (10.9)16.153\<0.0013^rd^86.1 (10)79.3 (31.5)85.2 (30.8)Vitality1^st^55 (24.5)45 (17) 50(25.5)2^nd^85.5 (3.7)82.5 (11.1)87.5 (7.5)27.347\<0.0013^rd^85.5 (3.7)74.5 (28.5)82 (29)Social aspects1^st^78.8 (15.6)60 (25.5)58.8 (25)2^nd^98.8 (4)95 (15.8)98.8 (4)20.245\<0.0013^rd^100 (0)85 (33.7)88.8 (31.4)Emotional aspects1^st^56.7 (44.6)30 (42.9)56.7 (47.3)2^nd^96.7 (10.5)100 (0)96.7 (10.5)22.573\<0.0013^rd^100 (0)90 (31.6)90 (31.6)Mental health1^st^66.4 (12.8)67.2 (19.8)65.6 (23)2^nd^92.4 (6.4)88.8 (9.9)94.4 (6)15.186\<0.0013^rd^92.4 (6.4)82.8 (30)86.8 (31)
DISCUSSION
==========
Pain is a personal experience that can only be evaluated by others through verbal or behavioral activities of the sufferer. To measure and accurately quantify the degree of low back pain or sciatic pain in patients with chronic low back pain before and after clinical treatment has been the target of studies by authors who seek a better correlation between clinical findings and imaging[@b11]. There are several questionnaires that subjectively measure pain. The top five with most potential to identify the limitations of back pain that are self-administered, easy to understand and assess points (scores) and that can be applied within thirty minutes are: a) Oswestry Disability Questionnaire, b) Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale, c) Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire, d) Waddel Disability Index, e) Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF- 36).[@b12] ^,^ [@b13]
Assessments that measure a patient\'s general state of health are not able to tell a healthcare professional exactly what to do, but they are able to demonstrate whether patients can perform certain activities they normally do and how they feel when they are performing them. The repeated application of these instruments over a period of time may determine improvement or worsening of a patient in different aspects, both physical and emotional, which makes it useful for evaluating a specific intervention.[@b08]
As a resource used in strategies to control low back pain, physical therapy programs have been recommended, especially exercise therapy, as they have proven to be effective in reducing the intensity of low back pain, increasing mobility and function, producing gains in resistance and muscle strength, reducing chronicity, dysfunction and medical care, especially in chronic patients.[@b07]
Stabilization programs involving the rehabilitation of stabilizing muscles of the torso, in various postures and positions associated with pain, are described in the literature as effective methods for treating chronic low back pain.[@b13] Physical exercise has been characterized as a treatment to reduce low back pain, because it is low cost, noninvasive and is a physiological activity that can be used as a therapeutical resource for the patient.[@b07]
In the last decades the forms of treatment have been modified, however there are few well documented studies on the subject. Many therapeutic procedures are used without proof of their efficiency.[@b14]
Studies have examined the mechanisms by which physical activity maintains, improves and/or prevents musculoskeletal symptoms. However, precise explanations for these occurrences are not known. Weisel et al.[@b15] reviewed the literature and presented two theories about the relationship between exercise and the presence of musculoskeletal symptoms. The first is that exercise causes physiological changes in muscle structures. One of these changes is related to intramuscular density. Individuals with chronic and intermittent pain show lower density when compared to healthy individuals, indicating that the former have high fat levels and high levels of low contractile tissue (characteristics related to inactivity), which facilitates the appearance of lesions. Other changes generated by inactivity are a decrease in the ability to withstand static and repetitive loads, and a decrease in the potential action of oxidative enzymes and the activity of catecholamines. The second theory is that physical activity produces many side effects that indirectly improve musculoskeletal discomfort, because they improve mood, increase a sense of control and self-reliance and improve balance and skill acquisition.[@b16]
Many scholars are aware of the positive effects of physical activity and have begun to investigate the effects of its decrease on the body. Scholars agree that most of the training effects on cardio respiratory, biochemical and metabolic abilities are lost within a relatively short period of time after training is suspended. Measurable reductions were observed (6-7%) in VO~2max~, in physical work capacity, hemoglobin and blood volume after only one week of complete bed rest.[@b16] In general, the rate of decline of the fitness benefits is completely lost after four to eight weeks of no training.[@b17]
Our study demonstrated that the reduction in pain continued for two months after the interventions when the GPR method was used. These findings are in agreement with the study of Barr et al.[@b18] that compared a program of lumbar stabilization with manual therapy in patients with sub acute and chronic low back pain and noted an improvement in pain and function after three and twelve months of intervention. Clinical trials have shown that training muscles that stabilize the trunk reduces short and long term symptoms of chronic low back pain.[@b19]
Reduction of pain intensity in patients undergoing lumbar stabilization exercises can be attributed to better support and stability of the lumbar spine and the adaptation of cognitive strategies to avoid the pain and improve proprioception related to the dysfunction.[@b20]
The results of this study suggest that physiotherapeutic interventions by Isostretching and GPR methods, and their combination (GPR+Iso), improved functional capacity, physical aspects, general health, vitality, social and emotional aspects and mental health as well as reducing pain. Their contribution to the increase in scores was statistically significant (p\<0.001). Scientific research shows a set of data demonstrating the importance of exercise in modifying the parameters of quality of life. Spirdurso and Cronin[@b21] draw attention to the importance of healthy behaviors, including the practice of physical exercises.
Positive effects of therapies, like those applied in this study on low back pain, have already been reported by other studies using different exercise protocols.[@b11]
We did not find studies in the literature that proposed a program for assessing quality of life using the SF-36 in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain and comparing Isostretching and GPR methods.
This instrument has been used in several studies to evaluate quality of life, including in patients with chronic low back pain.[@b02] The instruments for QL assessment should enable the detection of changes in health status, as well as evaluate the prognosis, risks and benefits of a particular therapeutic intervention.
Regarding the results on \"general aspects\", shown in [Table 3](#t03){ref-type="table"}, we observed that the groups of interventions progressed satisfactorily with treatment. The Iso Group had a score of 62.2 at baseline, which increased to 85.3 at the end of treatment and then 86.1 after 60 days of intervention. The GPR Group had a score of 59.2 at baseline, 87.9 at the end of the treatment and 79.3 60 days after the interventions. The Iso+GPR Group exhibited a score of 57.9 at baseline, 91.4 at the end of treatment and 85.2 after 60 days. This domain evaluates how the patients feels about their health in general.[@b22] We also observed the need for continued maintenance of physical activity. Often, patients will start treatment but stop due to lack of time, lack of interest or little motivation.
The best results after physiotherapeutic interventions were observed on \"social aspects\" and \"emotional aspects\". According to Matsudo et al.[@b23], exercising should be included in healthy life habits, in addition to other general health measures. Thus, the practice of systematic physical activity has often been indicated by doctors and specialists, both for prevention and for rehabilitation of different types of diseases, such as cardiovascular, endocrine-metabolic, diseases of the bone-muscular system or psychological conditions.[@b24]
Another aspect that drew our attention was \"functional capacity\" ([Table 3](#t03){ref-type="table"}). We observed that the groups had a satisfactory progression because the scores increased from the second assessment in relation to the first and after the interventions, especially when both physiotherapy techniques were associated (Iso+GPR). This item assesses the presence and extent of limitations related to physical capacity.[@b23]
According to Tsukimoto et al.,[@b25] functional evaluations should describe functional status, integrating data on performance in view of activities performed and allow for more appropriate and timely interventions when necessary, in order to enhance independence and personal autonomy. These evaluations are an important health marker, useful in identifying clinical and functional results, as they make it possible to relate functional improvement with the decrease of difficulties in daily activities, including caring for oneself, communication and mobility, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), which include everyday household activities, such as going to the bank, shopping, managing medication; work and leisure activities.
The data in [Table 3](#t03){ref-type="table"} allows us to conclude that the physiotherapeutic interventions used in this study contributed to the increase in scores (p\<0.001), which were statistically significant results. Alexandre et al.[@b07] believe that exercise can reduce pain, increase mobility and function and reduce chronicity.
In this study, we evaluated quality of life two months after exercising ceased and noted that the Iso method was superior when compared to the other techniques, GPR and GPR+Iso, in the physical functioning, physical aspects, pain, general health, vitality, social aspects, emotional aspects and mental health categories.
Isostretching is a French technique, created in 1974 by Bernard Redondo, and is also known as Gymnastics Maintenance. It can be defined as a postural workout, because most of the exercises are performed with correct spinal position; a global exercise, since the body as a whole exercises at each position; and an upright technique, as it calls for self-growth, maintains and controls the body in space, in a non-traumatic manner, and is sufficiently complete to relax the rigid muscles and strengthen weaknesses. It also requests maximum muscle command, induces body awareness in the brain and ensures proper breathing control and active participation of the individual.[@b09]
The Isostretching method works with stretching and isometric contraction exercises maintaining postures during expiration in order to promote greater joint mobility and muscle tone, development of awareness of the correct positions of the spine and breathing capacity, development of proprioception and improvement of body functioning to improve posture and balance and, consequently, gait and quality of life parameters.[@b09]
The ultimate goal of any physical therapy is the acquisition of pain-free movement and functioning. Therefore, understanding the lesion process and using valid tools for evaluating results are essential for the proper development of a physical therapy plan of care.
CONCLUSION
==========
We conclude that the physical therapy techniques reduced pain after the interventions. When both techniques (Iso+GPR) were associated, improvement was more significant; however, at the two month follow-up, GPR proved to be most effective. The physiotherapy techniques were effective in improving the quality of life according to SF-36. The Isostretching method was more effective when patients were reevaluated during follow-up. We conclude that the physical therapy techniques used in this study were effective to treat patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain, because they reduced pain and improved quality of life.
Acta Ortop Bras. \[online\]. 2013;21(4):202-7. Available from URL: http://www.scielo.br/aob.
Work performed at Laboratory of Neuroscience and Behavior, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade de Brasília.
[^1]: All the authors declare that there is no potential conflict of interest referring to this article.
|
2024-03-28T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/1703
|
{
"name": "Loom Network",
"website": "https://loomx.io",
"source_code": "https://github.com/loomnetwork",
"white_paper": "https://medium.com/loom-network/introducing-loom-network-scaling-ethereum-today-9ea26b5b57c",
"short_description": "The next-generation blockchain platform for large-scale online games and social apps.",
"description": "Loom Network (LOOM) is a Platform as a Service intended to allow Ethereum-based Solidity applications to be run on side chains. With the belief that applications should be allowed to have more relaxed consensus mechanisms depending on their needs and potential threat model, Loom aims to make scaling decentralized applications faster and easier while remaining on the Ethereum network. Loom Network’s DPoS sidechains allow for truly scalable blockchain games and DApps with the security of Ethereum mainnet.",
"socials": [
{
"name": "Twitter",
"url": "https://twitter.com/loomnetwork",
"handle": "loomnetwork"
},
{
"name": "Reddit",
"url": "https://reddit.com/r/loomnetwork",
"handle": "loomnetwork"
}
],
"explorer": "https://etherscan.io/token/0xa4e8c3ec456107ea67d3075bf9e3df3a75823db0"
}
|
2023-12-22T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/3520
|
Roasted to Order & Delivered to You
Baratza Encore Electric Grinder
Regular price
$145.00
Quantity
{}
When it comes to brewing delicious coffee, nailing the grind is crucial. The Baratza Encore Grinder uses high-quality burrs to give your coffee a uniform grind size and minimal fines. Easy to adjust and calibrate, this grinder is a great value for the coffee enthusiast looking to take their homebrewing to the next level.
|
2024-07-15T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/8033
|
#Paraules que s'escriuen amb accent diacrític sempre segons la norma tradicional
adeu=adéu
adeu-siau=adéu-siau
adeus=adéus
almon=almón
arenosol=arenosòl
arenosols=arenosòls
besnet=besnét
besneta=besnéta
besnetes=besnétes
besnets=besnéts
coms=cóms
contrapel=contrapèl
cotompel=cotompèl
cotompels=cotompèls
empel=empèl
entresol=entresòl
entresols=entresòls
inframon=inframón
litosol=litosòl
litosols=litosòls
marededeu=marededéu
marededeus=marededéus
matamon=matamón
mol·lisol=mol·lisòl
mol·lisols=mol·lisòls
paleosol=paleosòl
paleosols=paleosòls
pergelisol=pergelisòl
pergelisols=pergelisòls
pregadeu=pregadéu
pregadeus=pregadéus
quadrinet=quadrinét
quadrineta=quadrinéta
quadrinetes=quadrinétes
quadrinets=quadrinéts
rebesnet=rebesnét
rebesneta=rebesnéta
rebesnetes=rebesnétes
rebesnets=rebesnéts
redeu=redéu
regosol=regosòl
regosols=regosòls
remolt=remòlt
remolta=remòlta
remoltes=remòltes
remolts=remòlts
renet=renét
reneta=renéta
renetes=renétes
renets=renéts
repel=repèl
repels=repèls
rodamon=rodamón
semideu=semidéu
semideus=semidéus
sobresol=sobresòl
sobresols=sobresòls
submon=submón
subsol=subsòl
subsols=subsòls
vertisol=vertisòl
vertisols=vertisòls
vicedeu=vicedéu
vicedeus=vicedéus
|
2024-04-30T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/4236
|
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:provider/provider.dart';
import 'package:change_notifier_provider_sample/todo_list_model.dart';
import 'package:todos_app_core/todos_app_core.dart';
import '../details_screen.dart';
import '../models.dart';
class TodoListView extends StatelessWidget {
final void Function(BuildContext context, Todo todo) onRemove;
TodoListView({Key key, @required this.onRemove}) : super(key: key);
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Selector<TodoListModel, List<Todo>>(
selector: (_, model) => model.filteredTodos,
builder: (context, todos, _) {
return ListView.builder(
key: ArchSampleKeys.todoList,
itemCount: todos.length,
itemBuilder: (context, index) {
final todo = todos[index];
return Dismissible(
key: ArchSampleKeys.todoItem(todo.id),
onDismissed: (_) => onRemove(context, todo),
child: ListTile(
onTap: () {
Navigator.push(
context,
MaterialPageRoute(
builder: (_) {
return DetailsScreen(
id: todo?.id,
onRemove: () {
Navigator.pop(context);
onRemove(context, todo);
},
);
},
),
);
},
leading: Checkbox(
key: ArchSampleKeys.todoItemCheckbox(todo.id),
value: todo.complete,
onChanged: (complete) {
Provider.of<TodoListModel>(context, listen: false)
.updateTodo(todo.copy(complete: complete));
},
),
title: Text(
todo.task,
key: ArchSampleKeys.todoItemTask(todo.id),
style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.title,
),
subtitle: Text(
todo.note,
key: ArchSampleKeys.todoItemNote(todo.id),
maxLines: 1,
overflow: TextOverflow.ellipsis,
style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.subhead,
),
),
);
},
);
},
);
}
}
|
2023-08-09T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/6817
|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer software. More particularly, the present invention relates to improving the placement of data in memory to increase the speed with which the data may be accessed.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Cache memory is often used in conjunction with a main memory to provide an increased memory speed. Typically, portions of data are copied from the main memory so that the cache contains a copy of these portions of main memory. When the CPU attempts to read a word, a check is made to determine if the word is in the cache. If the word is in the cache, the word is read from the cache. Otherwise, a number of words are read from the main memory to be stored in the cache and the word is provided to the CPU.
When a word is not in the cache, it must be read from main memory, which increases memory access time. In order to increase the probability that requested data is present in the cache, caches typically use heuristics to guess which data will be accessed and copy this data into the cache. Thus, computer memory systems often rely on caches to keep the most frequently accessed items close to processors.
Since multiple words are simultaneously stored in the cache, the placement of data in memory can affect the efficiency of caches, thereby affecting the overall speed at which a computer system operates. It is therefore important to efficiently lay out data (e.g., objects) in memory to maximize speed. Previously proposed techniques have large overheads or cannot be used in a dynamic environment such as that executing Java bytecodes.
In order to eliminate objects that are no longer referenced from memory, garbage collection is often performed. Two commonly used methods of performing garbage collection are the xe2x80x9cmark and sweepxe2x80x9d method and the xe2x80x9ccopying garbage collectionxe2x80x9d method. As will be described in further detail below, the relocation of data in memory may be performed to some degree during the garbage collection process.
FIG. 1A is an exemplary block diagram illustrating the placement of objects in memory during a conventional mark and sweep garbage collection process. As shown in FIG. 1A, objects 102, 104, 106, and 108 are illustrated. More particularly, the object 102 references both the objects 104 and 106, and is referenced by a thread of execution. Mark and sweep garbage collection is typically performed in two passes. During the first pass, each object that is not referenced by any objects is marked. For instance, object 108 is not referenced by any of the objects 102, 104, or 106 and is therefore marked for deletion. During the second pass, the memory for each object that is not marked is reclaimed.
FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating the memory of FIG. 1A upon completion of a conventional mark and sweep garbage collection process. As shown, the object 108, marked in FIG. 1A, is deleted and therefore not shown in FIG. 1B. The objects 102, 104, and 106 remain after completion of the garbage collection process. It is important to note that objects are not usually relocated during mark and sweep garbage collection.
Another method of garbage collection, copying garbage collection, is also commonly used. FIG. 2A is an exemplary block diagram illustrating objects in memory during a conventional copying garbage collection process. As shown, within memory 200 are multiple objects. For instance, a first object 202, xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, a second object 204, xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d, and a third object 206, xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d, are stored in memory and all are reachable from a root. In addition, a fourth object 208, xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d, is stored in the memory 200 but is not referenced by any other objects in memory.
FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating the memory of FIG. 2A upon completion of a conventional copying garbage collection process. During copying garbage collection, all objects that are referenced by one or more objects are copied while those objects that are not referenced by any other objects are not copied. Thus, all objects that are not copied are garbage. For instance, as shown in FIG. 2B, the fourth object 208, xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d, is not copied. Once copied, the memory for the original objects shown in FIG. 2A may then be reclaimed.
During copying garbage collection, the objects may be placed in various orders during the copying process. FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of objects in memory. As shown, a memory 300 stores a first object 302, xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, a second object 304, xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d, a third object 306, xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d. The first object 302 references both the second object 304 and the third object 306. A fourth object 308, xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d, is referenced by none of the objects.
Since the first object 302 references both the second and third objects 304 and 306, the objects may be placed in two different orders. FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating one possible configuration of the objects of FIG. 3A upon completion of copying garbage collection. As shown, the second object 304 may be placed adjacent to the first object 302 while the third object 306 may be placed adjacent to the second object 304.
FIG. 3C is a block diagram illustrating another possible configuration of the objects of FIG. 3A upon completion of copying garbage collection. As shown, rather than placing the second object 304 adjacent to the first object 302, the third object 306 is placed adjacent to the first object 302. In the simplified examples illustrated in FIG. 3B and FIG. 3C, the objects may be placed in two different orders. It would be beneficial if a mechanism were designed to enable the objects to be ordered while maximizing the speed of access of the objects in memory.
In object-oriented programming, code and data are merged into objects. Each object is defined via its class, which determines the properties of an object. In other words, objects are individual instances of a class. Moreover, each object may include various fields as well as methods.
As disclosed in the article entitled xe2x80x9cUsing Generational Garbage Collection To Implement Cache-Conscious Data Placementxe2x80x9d by Trishul M. Chilimbi and James R. Larus, which appeared in International Symposium on Memory Management (ISMM ""98), October, 1998, objects accessed closely together in time may be stored in memory so that they will be fetched in the same cache line. The process disclosed in Chilimbi will be briefly described with reference to FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C. FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary set of objects stored in memory and associated fields. As shown, a first object 400, xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, includes a first field 402, xe2x80x9cxxe2x80x9d, and a second field 404, xe2x80x9cyxe2x80x9d. Similarly, a second object 406, xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d, includes a first field 408, xe2x80x9cwxe2x80x9d, and a second field 410, xe2x80x9czxe2x80x9d. A third object 412, xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d, includes a field 414, xe2x80x9cexe2x80x9d, and a fourth object 416, xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d, includes a field 418, xe2x80x9cfxe2x80x9d.
FIG. 4B is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary log of memory accesses that may be produced during the execution of a computer application accessing the objects and fields shown in FIG. 4A. In Chilimbi, a computer application is instrumented such that memory references (e.g., load and store commands) are logged. When the instrumented computer application is executed, a log of memory accesses 420 is produced. More specifically, an object 422 is logged for each memory access. For instance, when a field (e.g., the first field 402) of the first object 400, xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, is fetched from memory, this memory access is logged as shown in entry 426.
The memory access log is then used to create a temporal reference graph modeling the reference locality between objects. FIG. 4C is an exemplary temporal reference graph illustrating the accesses of objects in memory and the temporal relationships of these memory accesses that may be produced from the log of memory accesses shown in FIG. 4B. As shown in temporal reference graph 428, accesses of the objects are placed in the graph according to the temporal relationships of the memory accesses shown in the log of memory accesses 420. The temporal reference graph 428 may then be used to achieve the proper placement of objects so that those objects that are accessed closely in time are placed in close proximity to one another. More particularly, the temporal reference graph 428 is used to guide the order in which the objects are copied during copying garbage collection. However, it is important to note that Chilimbi ignores the specific field accessed within the corresponding memory accesses. Moreover, since the creation of the log requires substantial overhead for every memory reference, the creation of this log requires time and memory resources.
Although Chilimbi discloses reordering objects in memory, the specific fields accessed within these objects is ignored. Although Chilimbi ignores the accesses of the fields, the reordering of fields within a single object has been contemplated and will be described with reference to FIG. 5A, FIG. 5B, and FIG. 5C.
FIG. 5A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary set of objects stored in memory and associated fields. As shown, a first object 500, xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, has a first field 502, xe2x80x9cyxe2x80x9d, a second field 504, xe2x80x9cxxe2x80x9d, and a third field 506, xe2x80x9cvxe2x80x9d. In addition, a second object 508, xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d, has a first field 510, xe2x80x9czxe2x80x9d, and a second field 512, xe2x80x9cwxe2x80x9d.
FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary log of memory accesses that may be produced during the execution of a computer application accessing the objects and fields shown in FIG. 5A. A log of memory accesses 514 in which each object 516 and associated field 518 accessed in memory are identified and logged. For instance, as shown, when the second field 504, xe2x80x9cxxe2x80x9d, is accessed in the first object 500, xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, the object accessed 520, xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, and the field accessed 522, xe2x80x9cxxe2x80x9d, are logged.
Once the log of memory accesses is created, the log is then used to determine the temporal relationship between the logged memory accesses. A temporal reference graph modeling the reference locality between objects is then created. FIG. 5C is an exemplary temporal reference graph 524 illustrating the temporal relationship between the field references shown in the log of FIG. 5B. Rather than illustrating the relationship between the objects accessed, the graph 524 illustrates the relationship between the fields accessed. As shown, the first and second fields 502 and 504, x and y, of the first object 500, A are graphed. The temporal reference graph 524 is then used to reorder the fields x and y within the object A. As shown, the temporal reference graph 524 indicates that the order of the fields x and y with respect to one another is irrelevant. However, the storage of the third field 506, v, should not interfere with the storage of x and y so that x and y are in close proximity to one another. In this manner, fields within a particular object may be reordered. Although fields have been reordered within a single object, field accesses have not been analyzed to reorder the objects those fields reference.
Rather than instrumenting each memory reference, it is possible to instrument the paths of control flow encountered by an executing program through path profiling. FIG. 6A is an exemplary block diagram illustrating all possible paths during execution of a computer application. In this example, each block represents one or more computer instructions. Block 600 is executed prior to conditional statement 602. For instance, the conditional statement 602 may be an if-then-else statement. There are two branches that may be executed depending upon the result of the if-then-else statement. The first branch includes blocks 604 and 606. The second branch includes blocks 608 and 610.
When path profiling is performed, the paths of control flow are instrumented. FIG. 6B is a diagram illustrating an exemplary path profile illustrating the possible paths associated with the computer application of FIG. 6A. As shown, rather than instrumenting each load and store command as performed in Chilimbi, code is inserted at decision points as shown at block 612. Since the paths of control flow are instrumented, path profiling can determine how often each branch (i.e., path) is taken. Thus, path profiling is advantageous since it requires less overhead than instrumenting each load and store command within each path.
In view of the above, it would be desirable if objects in memory could be reordered through a process such as copying garbage collection to maximize the speed with which the fields of the objects may be accessed. Moreover, it would be beneficial if the frequency and proximity of accesses of the fields of the objects could be analyzed with reduced overhead using a process such as path profiling to determine the order in which the objects are to be copied.
The present invention generates a mechanism for reordering objects in memory in accordance with information obtained in relation to accesses of fields of the objects from memory. For instance, this may be accomplished through modifying the order of traversal of fields during copying garbage collection. In this manner, objects may be ordered in memory to minimize the speed with which the objects are later retrieved from memory.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a mechanism for rearranging a plurality of objects in memory is created. A frequency of accesses in memory of one or more fields associated with the plurality of objects with respect to one another during execution of a computer application are determined. A mechanism for rearranging the plurality of objects in the memory in accordance with the determined frequency of accesses in memory of the one or more fields associated with the plurality of objects with respect to one another is then generated.
According to one aspect of the invention, the mechanism that is generated includes garbage collection code for rearranging the plurality of objects during garbage collection. Garbage collection may be implemented in a variety of ways. For instance, copying garbage collection or some variation of copying garbage collection may be performed.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, a mechanism for reordering objects in memory may be created from information that indicates frequency and proximity of field references across all instances of a single class. According to one embodiment, a mechanism for modifying the order in which fields of objects are visited during garbage collection is created. First, field reference information is obtained for all instances of a class, where the field reference information indicates frequency and proximity of references of objects referenced to by fields of the class with respect to one another. A class field order is then determined from the associated field reference information, where the class field order identifies an order in which fields of the class are to be traversed during garbage collection. The process may be repeated for multiple classes such that the class field order is associated with each corresponding class.
According to another aspect of the invention, garbage collection is performed using the reordering mechanism. According to one embodiment, an object is identified and a class associated with the object is ascertained. A class field order associated with the class of the object is determined, where the class field order identifies an order in which fields of the class of the object are to be traversed during garbage collection. The fields of the object are then visited during garbage collection (e.g., copying garbage collection) in accordance with the class field order associated with the class of the object. For instance, for each field visited, each object pointed to directly or indirectly may be copied.
The present invention enables objects to be reordered in accordance with information that indicates proximity and frequency of references of fields of the objects in memory. In this manner, those objects referenced by these fields may be reordered in memory during garbage collection. Thus, objects accessed closely in time to one another may be stored in close proximity in memory. This is particularly advantageous in those systems implementing a cache, since this increases the probability that the objects will be retrieved and stored in the same cache line. Accordingly, the time to retrieve objects accessed in close proximity to one another may be dramatically decreased.
|
2024-03-06T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/6681
|
Genomic metrics analyses indicate that Paenibacillus azotofixans is not a later synonym of Paenibacillus durus.
Paenibacillus durusand Paenibacillus azotofixans, both Gram-stain-positive and endospore-forming bacilli, have been considered to be a single species. However, a preliminary computation of their average nucleotide identity (ANI) values suggested that these species are not synonyms. Given this, the taxonomic attributions of these species were evaluated through genomic and phylogenomic approaches. Although the identity of 16S rRNA gene sequences of P. durus DSM 1735T and P. azotofixans ATCC 35681T are above the circumscription species threshold, genomic metrics analyses indicate otherwise. ANI, gANI and OrthoANI values computed from their genome sequences were around 92 %, below the species limits. Digital DNA-DNA hybridization and MUMi estimations also corroborated these observations. In fact, in all metrics, Paenibacillus zanthoxyli JH29T seemed to be more similar to Paenibacillus azotofixans. ATCC 35681T than P. durus DSM 1735T. Phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated core-proteome and concatenated gyrB, recA, recN and rpoB genes confirmed that P. zanthoxyli is the closest Paenibacillus species to P. azotofixans. A review of the phenotypic profiles from these three species revealed that their biochemical repertoires are very similar, although P. azotofixans ATCC 35681T can be differentiated from P. durus DSM1735T in 13 among more than 90 phenotypic traits. Considering phylogenetic and genomic analyses, Paenibacillus azotofixans should be considered as an independent species, and not as a later synonym of Paenibacillus durus.
|
2024-01-06T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/9792
|
HAb18G/CD147 inhibits starvation-induced autophagy in human hepatoma cell SMMC7721 with an involvement of Beclin 1 down-regulation.
HAb18G/CD147, a transmembrane glycoprotein highly expressed in various types of malignant cells, mainly functions as an inducer of matrix metalloproteinases to promote tumor growth, invasion and metastasis. However, whether there are other mechanisms underlying the role of HAb18G/CD147 in tumor progression remains to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated the functional effects of HAb18G/CD147 on autophagy in hepatoma cell line SMMC7721 using immunofluorescence staining, Western blot and transmission electronmicroscopy. Our data showed that specific small interference RNA (siRNA) considerably down-regulated the expression of HAb18G/CD147 in SMMC7721 cells at both messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels. The down-regulation of HAb18G/CD147 significantly promoted starvation-induced autophagy in a dose-dependent manner. Using trypan blue exclusion assay, we found that HAb18G/CD147 notably enhanced the survival of SMMC7721 cells through inhibiting starvation-induced autophagy. In addition, we demonstrated that HAb18G/CD147 down-regulated the expression of autophagy-regulating protein Beclin 1 in SMMC7721 cells. Furthermore, our data indicated that HAb18G siRNA-transfected SMMC7721 cells had a significantly decreased level of phosphorylated serine/threonine protein kinase B (pAkt) and the expression of Beclin 1 was inversely associated with the level of pAkt, suggesting that the Class I phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase-Akt pathway may be involved in the down-regulation of Beclin 1 by HAb18G/CD147. Overall, we provide the first experimental evidence to show that HAb18G/CD147 may play an important role in the inhibitory regulation of autophagy. Therefore, our data suggest a new molecular mechanism for HAb18G-mediated hepatoma progression.
|
2023-11-04T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/6022
|
Grain Belt Premium
Only 79 more home games until the Minnesota Twins vacate the Big Inflatable Toilet and head west to Target Field. I can’t wait for opening day next year. Hopefully we’ll be lucky enough to get tickets. But either way, it’s going to be a big change of pace for baseball fans in this state, as well as the downtown scene.
As much as I despise the uncomfortable blue plastic seats, horrifically bad food, and weirdly insulated and artificial atmosphere that makes you feel at times like you’re in a tent (well, in a way you are), some of my most memorable moments growing up as a kid are from the Metrodome. Snapper Mow-Em Down innings…Frankie Sweet Music Viola…Puckett’s catch in Game 6 of the ’91 Series…the wind tunnel leaving the game…and of course in 1987 when Mark Salas refused to give me an autograph as I begged and pleaded at the metal rail near the Twins’ bullpen. “Come back when the game is over kid.” I faithfully abided, only to find a pile of chewed up sunflower seeds where my favorite catcher once sat. I never did forgive Mark Salas for snubbing me that day. But karma is a bitch, as he was soon after traded to the Yankees that season, only to miss out on what would become the greatest World Series run in baseball history. Instead of a champion’s ring, the Twins organization gave Mark a crappy watch. Served him right. I hope it was a Swatch.
During game two of the Seattle series last night (which ended in a fantastic and dramatic fashion with the Twins edging out the Mariners in a 9th inning rally), I weighed out my options of macro lagers at the concession stand, which as expected weren’t great. But, one shining ray of hope appeared on the horizon as I spotted a small red tap handle down the row of macro madness. Small script lettering adorned its side…Grain Belt Premium, or “Premo” as it’s known around these parts. August Schell Brewing in New Ulm actually makes this beer now after the brand changed hands multiple times throughout its long and storied history in the state. Grain Belt Premium, different than its predecessor Grain Belt, was developed in 1947 to cater to the changing tastes of the American demographic that were more interested in lighter tasting beers. So in many ways, it could be considered a forerunner to our now ubiquitous American adjunct light lagers. But to call Premium a macro wouldn’t be entirely accurate, given its limited distribution in the Upper Midwest.
From a taste and aroma perspective, it’s not too dissimilar from Miller Genuine Draft or Budweiser. Sweet nose of grain and corn. No real hops to speak of, especially compared to triple-hops brewed Miller Lite, but if you really concentrate you get a fleeting sense of them. Taste is pretty smooth, more of the corn characteristic. Pretty highly carbonated giving it a full mouthfeel. I’m pretty sure the Metrodome version of this is your run-of-the-mill 3.2% ABV beer, but it normally comes in bottles at 4.6% ABV.
I actually enjoy drinking this beer, partly because it’s locally brewed but also because it really isn’t that bad, all things considered. For the style of beer, I’d say it’s one of the better examples you’re going to run across. My buddy even enjoyed Premo so much after a handful of samplings that he felt inclined to sing Journey’s Greatest Hits into his mustard-covered bratwurst during the seventh inning stretch. Yet another Metrodome memory.
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In a message dated 7/8/2014 6:50:26 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
avo...@lists.aishdas.org writes:
My impression is that if a person has both of
> his/her parents living, then s/he does not say kaddish.
>>>>>>
I wonder what the learned chevra think about this: what about an adopted
child, born of Jewish parents, saying Kaddish for his adoptive parent[s] if
his biological parents are still alive? And further, what about aveilus
-- sitting shiva, keeping a month, keeping a year of aveilus? For his
adoptive parents? For his bio parents?
--Toby Katz
t6...@aol.com
..
=============
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<<There's something I'm obviously not understanding here. Is kaddish said
only when absolutely required, and only by those who are absolutely
required to say it?>>
I know of several people who lost children and have continued to say
kaddish "forever". I heard that RYBS said kaddish over
his wife way beyond 30 days. In our era where many people say kaddish
together in shul I don't see any problem.
--
Eli Turkel
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In Avodah Digest, Vol 32, Issue 103, Rav Yehudah Herzl Henkin Shlit"a
critiques our presentation of the "Sexual Distraction School" of Kevod
ha-Tsibbur. See: "Women, Kri'at haTorah and Aliyyot" Aryeh A. Frimer
and Dov I. Frimer, Tradition, 46:4 (Winter, 2013), 67-238, online at http://www.rcar
abbis.org/pdf/frimer_article.pdf. See page 99 and note 238.
In particular, his acknowledges that there are indeed scores of leading
poskim - as we cite at length in note 238 - who maintain this view;
nevertheless, the sources cited are by in large Aharonim. In Rav
Henkin's words, "no rishon says this explicitly, while at least two say
the opposite: "Ishah lo tikra baTorah mishum kevod hatzibur, aval
pritzuta leika." (Sefer haMeorot to Berakhot 45a, and Rabbeinu Manoach
on the Rambam Hilkhot Berakhot 5:7) When achronim haven't seen the
rishonim, halachah is not like the achronim, and one certainly can't
ignore the rishonim."
Rav Henkin's position is indeed known to us and we cite it at the end
of note 238. However, we also demonstrate in note 238 that among the
rishonim, this "Sexual Distraction School" is supported by Behag
according to Tosafot, Sukka 38a, Sefer ha-Aguda, and most likely the
Semag. Among the Poskim we cite are many who lived in the modern
period and certainly had access to Sefer haMe'orot and Rabbeinu Manoach
- and yet ruled otherwise. It is true that the comments of the
Rishonim we cite were said in the context of Mikra Megilla or Kiddush.
But as we demonstrate, the principle of kevod ha-tsibbur is not limited
to keri'at haTorah. We believe that scores of leading Aharonim cannot
be simply waved off - particularly if they can support themselves with
views of other prominent Rishonim . As to Sefer haMe'orot and Rabbeinu
Manoach, they presumably align themselves with one of the other
schools in kevod ha-Tsibbur.
Aryeh and Dov Frimer
--------------------------------
Prof. Aryeh A. Frimer
Chemistry Dept., Bar-Ilan University
Ramat Gan 5290002, ISRAEL
E-mail (office): Aryeh.Fri...@biu.ac.il
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Sefer haMeorot was first printed from ms. in 1964/5724; the achronim
didn't see it. Rabbeinu Manoach was printed in 5478 and 5639, but that
is no proof that achronim who dealt with women's aliyot were aware of
that sentence. If they were, they would have mentioned it one way or the
other. Weaker still is the attempt to demonstrate that Tosfot and Behag
etc. on Sukkah 38a have anything to do with the topic.
On the other hand, I have "demonstrated" that the Ritba and R. Avraham
Min haHar both hold an interpretation of kevod hatzibur as being
similar to meeirah for not having learned, see Bnei Banim 2:10-11 and
4:3. Ergo, they are another two rishonim --totaling four!--who don"t
subscribe to the sexual distraction theory.
I never said to ignore the achronim, just ascribe to them their proper place.
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On Wed, Jul 02, 2014 at 10:59:09PM +0000, Kenneth Miller via Avodah wrote:
:> We shouldn't be davening in order to get our requests met. Hashem
:> will do what is best for our souls and His world....
:> But even so, the main point of davening isn't to
:> get what you want.
...
: Actually, I'd go even further and suggest that asking for mish'alos
: libeinu is an important factor which must mot be discarded. A tefilah
: which consists of "I know that You'll do what is best for us, so please
: do it" is not a bakasha, I think. It is an excellent statement of emunah,
: and that's important too. But Chazal see real requests as an important
: part of tefilla.
I didn't deny the importance of baqashah. I suggested (a la Nefesh
haChaim cheleq 2, RSRH and RYBS) that the point of baqashos is not the
expectation of having them met. Rather, the sharing of the burden
itself, and the bond with Him it reinforces.
That's why I likened it to my unburdening my work problems on the
phone with my father.
If what HQBH wanted out of the encounter is our turning to him,
then tefillah would be sufficient to change the outcome. But if not?
And *that*, IMHO, is what we mean by "letovah".
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha
--
Micha Berger The thought of happiness that comes from outside
mi...@aishdas.org the person, brings him sadness. But realizing
http://www.aishdas.org the value of one's will and the freedom brought
Fax: (270) 514-1507 by uplifting its, brings great joy. - R' Kook
On Thu, Jul 03, 2014 at 02:36:28PM +0000, Kenneth Miller via Avodah wrote:
: R' Zev Sero wrote:
...
:> RMF says that in the NE USA, with its lower latitude, the maximum
:> bein hashmoshos (leshitas hageonim) is not 72 min but closer to
:> 50, so that should be used.
: From what I've seen, he never wrote "maximum", and he never wrote
: "should". Rather, he held it to be a fixed and exact amount, both
: l'chumra and l'kula...
I don't see the "rather" here. It would seem to me that the IM says that
the 50 min (or 40 or 45, his estimates vary, as RAM wrote last millennium
CE) us a fixed amount *because* the time of bein hashemashos is between
sunset and the latest astronomical tzeis. Using a maximum implies a
fixed amount.
I wouldn't say "exact", given the aforemention range of estimates. It
seems RMF never had anyone actually do the experiment / calculations for
him.
So I thought I'd give it a try. Feel free (of course!) to correct any
math errors.
June 21, 2014 was the longest day of the year. (The solstice was at 6:51am
EDT.)
Troyes, where Rabbeinu Tam lived
alos: 4:01
sheqia: 9:44
span = 18:43
NYC
alos: 3:35
sheqia: 8:30
span = 16:55
NY's maximum day is 90% the length of Troyes's, so that 72 min would only
be scaled down to 65 min, well above the times RMF cited.
As a point of comparison, I decided to check the scale between geonic
lattitudes and Troyes.
Sura, Iraq, roughly where most ge'onim lived
alos: 3:08
sheqia: 7:13
span = 16:05
Meaning that Rabbeinu Tam's 72 min would correspond to 62 min in
ga'on speak. So, something's not quite right here: is it my math,
of the understanding of RMF's shitah?
Personally, I would think the concept of mil explicitly means that
one is NOT talking about a measure that varies with the day. (Which
still could be consistent with RAM's description of the IM.) After all,
we could be talking in terms of sha'ah zemanis, which would give us a
constant number of units that does vary the actual time by the season.
In general, I think there is a basic difference in how time is viewed
in sha'os, where we are speaking of units of natural process, and
when speakng of time in walking distances, where we are speaking of
units of human process.
I would fit in the same generality the cheileq vs tokh kedei dibur.
Both quanta of time, for that matter, might even be roughly the same.
But one is the time that man is subject to, and the other is the time
of human action.
If I ever complete this notion, I would blog on it.
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha
--
Micha Berger I always give much away,
mi...@aishdas.org and so gather happiness instead of pleasure.
http://www.aishdas.org - Rachel Levin Varnhagen
Fax: (270) 514-1507
On 8/07/2014 7:03 PM, [Rn Toby Katz] wrote:
> I wonder what the learned chevra think about this: what about an
> adopted child, born of Jewish parents, saying Kaddish for his
> adoptive parent[s] if his biological parents are still alive? And
> further, what about aveilus -- sitting shiva, keeping a month,
> keeping a year of aveilus? For his adoptive parents? For his bio
> parents?
According to halacha, his biological parents are his only parents, and
he owes them kibud av va'em even if he hates them (the mitzvah is to
honour them, not to love them), while the people who raised him are not
his parents but merely very kind people to whom he owes an enormous debt
of gratitude (assuming that they were good to him). In the same way,
a ger's biological parents are not legally his parents, but if they
raised him and were good to him then he owes them a debt of gratitude.
Thus he has a chiyuv to say kaddish and sitting shiva for his biological
parents, if he knows that they have died. When his adoptive parents die
he has no *chiyuv* to do anything, and if they abused him and he hates
them he may ignore the death, but if, as is to be expected, he loves
them and is in mourning, I see no reason why he shouldn't sit shiva,
or say kaddish, unless his biological parents specifically forbid him.
I also don't see any reason why he should davka have to ask their
permission, or notify them of what he is doing, especially if he has no
relationship with them. If they care that much, let them notify him of
their objection. In the same way, I see no reason why a ger should
not sit shiva or say kaddish for his parents, if he feels a need to,
but it's his option. I know one ger who says kaddish for his mother but
not for his father, because that's the way he feels. He has, however,
been told by a rov not to say yizkor for her.
A similar issue is aveilus for ones rebbe. The definition of "ones rebbe"
depends on how one feels about him, so it's similar to adoptive parents.
The halacha requires sitting "shiva" for ones rebbe, but only for a
short time. AFAIK the minhag is for a talmid to say kaddish for his
rebbe for 11 months and on his yortzeit, but only if his parents are no
longer alive, or give permission.
Finally, a maaseh rav, but one that I never asked about so I don't
actually know the reasoning: My zeide had a sister who died young,
leaving two daughters, and another sister married the husband, who then
died, leaving her with the two girls. She never remarried, and never
had any biological children of her own, but raised her two nieces as
her own daughters. When she died, my zeide said kaddish for 11 months.
My *assumption* is that if the girls had been her biological daughters,
the two sons-in-law would have said kaddish, and my zeide would not.
But since they were only step-daughters, he was a closer relative than
the step-sons-in-law/nephews-in-law, so he said it. But I never asked
him, so I can only guess.
--
Zev Sero
z...@sero.name
On Wed, Jul 09, 2014 at 03:51:53PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
: According to halacha, his biological parents are his only parents, and
: he owes them kibud av va'em...
If the child was born Jewish.
: ... while the people who raised him are not
: his parents but merely very kind people to whom he owes an enormous debt
: of gratitude...
...
: A similar issue is aveilus for ones rebbe. The definition of "ones rebbe"
: depends on how one feels about him, so it's similar to adoptive parents.
I think that because the child's parents qualify as rabbeim, it is far
more a case of aveilus for one's rebbe than merely similar to it, and
certainly not "merely" gratitude.
And if BD were megayerim the child because their stepping in as apitropin
to insure that the child's geirus is zakhin le'adam shelo befanav,
then the relationship is beyond that of rebbe. They are the people BY
appointed (so to speak) for this child.
I do not think a rebbe who qualifies as a rebbe muvhaq does not depend
on how one feels about the rebbe. See YD 242:30, and 340:8.
YD 340:8,17 say that qeri'ah is mandatory for a rebbe muvhaq. (Also
one's poseiq -- see 340:7, but that's not nidon didan.)
Today there are few rabbeim muvhaqim. See Chayei Adam #7, who explains
that's why he doesn't bother discussing those halakhos. But IMH -- and
biased (but also metzi'usly informed) - O, adoptive parents would qualify.
Agreed that the chiyuv is far less than shiv'ah. However, hareshus
beyado.
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha
--
Micha Berger When memories exceed dreams,
mi...@aishdas.org The end is near.
http://www.aishdas.org - Rav Moshe Sherer
Fax: (270) 514-1507
R' Eli Turkel quoted an article from Haaretz:
> Could a Google vehicle be kosher for Shabbat?
> Driverless cars are comparable to Shabbat elevators.
> Would Jewish law therefore permit using them on the day of rest?
I see a big difference: An elevator follows a fixed route. Same for trains,
buses, and trolleys which I've heard are used by some under certain
conditions. But an auto is a very personal vehicle by its very nature. I'm
NOT saying that it would definitely be assur; I'm saying that we need more
information about how it would work and how it would be used, and maybe
then an answer might be proposed.
Akiva Miller
____________________________________________________________
NEVER eat this fish
Also discover 15 foods that DAMAGE your heart health
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3131/53bdd6672e9705666239ast03vuc
In the last two paragraphs of kaddish we say aleinu val kol yisrael. I
remember learning that once it's said as a complete phrase and the other
time with a comma after aleinu. Does anyone know the source (I thought it
was mishneh brurah but was unable to locate)
KT
Joel Rich
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On Wed, Jul 09, 2014 at 09:34:23AM -0400, M Cohen via Areivim wrote:
: Rabbonim, Lakewood Poskim, sign letter in response to practice of abusing
: promotional credit card offers.
: Signed by R Shlomo Miller, R Matisyahu Solomon, R Makiel Kotler, etc
:
: http://thepartialview.blogspot.ca/2014/07/rabbonim-l
: akewood-poskim-sign-letter-in.html
Or: http://j.mp/1q1KDH3
The topic is manufactured spending to get points which are then sold, or
to make money on a cash-back.
I think it would be interesting to discuss the connection to our earlier
discussion of taking advantage of erroneous airline fares. Such as driving
to Washington DC to pick up a $550 flight to Israel. (Even though there
would be a stop-off back in one's hometown. People have been billed the
corrected price if caught not using all legs of the ticket!)
I notice the language of issur veheter isn't used, although it is quite
firm:
Hayarei es devar H'
yasim libo
lehishameir ulehisracheiq
mimaasim sheka'eilu
...
ushe'eiris Yisrael hane'emanah [!]
vadai lo ya'seh avlah.
I would think we could also invoke the Semag (asei #74) tr and emphasis
mine, original Hebrew at
http://www.aishdas.org/asp/semag-why-were-still-in-galus :
I already expounded to the exiled from Jerusalem who are in Spain
and the other Roman exiles that now that the exile has gon on far too
long, it is appropriate for Israel to separate from the vanities of
the world and gram onto the signet of the Holy One, blessed be He,
which is truth, and not to lie neither to Jew nor to gentile. Not
to mislead them in any way. To sanctify themselves even in what
is permitted to them, as it says, "The remnant of Israel do not
commit sin, do not speak lies, and one wont find a false tongue in
their mouths." (Tzefaniah 3:13) And when Hashem comes to save them,
the nations will say, "It was done justly, for they are a people
of truth and the Torah of truth is in their mouths." But if they
act with the gentiles with trickery, they will say, "See what the
Holy One, blessed be He did, that chose for His portion thieves
and con-men." Also, it says, "I will plant her [the Jewish People]
for myself in the land..." (Hosheia 2:25) A person doesnt plant a
kur [of seed] but to produce numerous kurim. So too the Holy One,
blessed be He, planted Israel among the lands so that converts will
join them (Pesachim 87b) and every time that they conduct themselves
with trickery, who will attach to them?
It's a scary thought, that the ge'ulah can't come until we are known for
honesty, lest the other nations think Hashem doesn't care about integrity.
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha
--
Micha Berger I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
mi...@aishdas.org I awoke and found that life was duty.
http://www.aishdas.org I worked and, behold -- duty is joy.
Fax: (270) 514-1507 - Rabindranath Tagore
They sidestepped the issue.
How the Jahi McMath situation plays out may (or may not) prove to have
ramifications for this issue.
KT,
YGB
On 07/10/2014 10:33 AM, Michael Feldstein via Avodah wrote:
> http://www.hods.o
> rg/pdf/press/Australian%20Jewish%20News%20Opinion%20by%20Rabbi%20Moshe
> %20Gutnick%20-%206-13-14.pdf
>
------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Avodah mailing list
Avo...@lists.aishdas.org
http://www.aishdas.org/avodahhttp://lists.aishdas.org/listinfo.cgi/avodah-aishdas.org
------------------------------
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|
2024-03-28T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/8547
|
package Paws::ApiGateway::CreateApiKey;
use Moose;
has CustomerId => (is => 'ro', isa => 'Str', traits => ['NameInRequest'], request_name => 'customerId');
has Description => (is => 'ro', isa => 'Str', traits => ['NameInRequest'], request_name => 'description');
has Enabled => (is => 'ro', isa => 'Bool', traits => ['NameInRequest'], request_name => 'enabled');
has GenerateDistinctId => (is => 'ro', isa => 'Bool', traits => ['NameInRequest'], request_name => 'generateDistinctId');
has Name => (is => 'ro', isa => 'Str', traits => ['NameInRequest'], request_name => 'name');
has StageKeys => (is => 'ro', isa => 'ArrayRef[Paws::ApiGateway::StageKey]', traits => ['NameInRequest'], request_name => 'stageKeys');
has Tags => (is => 'ro', isa => 'Paws::ApiGateway::MapOfStringToString', traits => ['NameInRequest'], request_name => 'tags');
has Value => (is => 'ro', isa => 'Str', traits => ['NameInRequest'], request_name => 'value');
use MooseX::ClassAttribute;
class_has _api_call => (isa => 'Str', is => 'ro', default => 'CreateApiKey');
class_has _api_uri => (isa => 'Str', is => 'ro', default => '/apikeys');
class_has _api_method => (isa => 'Str', is => 'ro', default => 'POST');
class_has _returns => (isa => 'Str', is => 'ro', default => 'Paws::ApiGateway::ApiKey');
1;
### main pod documentation begin ###
=head1 NAME
Paws::ApiGateway::CreateApiKey - Arguments for method CreateApiKey on L<Paws::ApiGateway>
=head1 DESCRIPTION
This class represents the parameters used for calling the method CreateApiKey on the
L<Amazon API Gateway|Paws::ApiGateway> service. Use the attributes of this class
as arguments to method CreateApiKey.
You shouldn't make instances of this class. Each attribute should be used as a named argument in the call to CreateApiKey.
=head1 SYNOPSIS
my $apigateway = Paws->service('ApiGateway');
my $ApiKey = $apigateway->CreateApiKey(
CustomerId => 'MyString', # OPTIONAL
Description => 'MyString', # OPTIONAL
Enabled => 1, # OPTIONAL
GenerateDistinctId => 1, # OPTIONAL
Name => 'MyString', # OPTIONAL
StageKeys => [
{
RestApiId => 'MyString',
StageName => 'MyString',
},
...
], # OPTIONAL
Tags => { 'MyString' => 'MyString', }, # OPTIONAL
Value => 'MyString', # OPTIONAL
);
# Results:
my $CreatedDate = $ApiKey->CreatedDate;
my $CustomerId = $ApiKey->CustomerId;
my $Description = $ApiKey->Description;
my $Enabled = $ApiKey->Enabled;
my $Id = $ApiKey->Id;
my $LastUpdatedDate = $ApiKey->LastUpdatedDate;
my $Name = $ApiKey->Name;
my $StageKeys = $ApiKey->StageKeys;
my $Tags = $ApiKey->Tags;
my $Value = $ApiKey->Value;
# Returns a L<Paws::ApiGateway::ApiKey> object.
Values for attributes that are native types (Int, String, Float, etc) can passed as-is (scalar values). Values for complex Types (objects) can be passed as a HashRef. The keys and values of the hashref will be used to instance the underlying object.
For the AWS API documentation, see L<https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/WebAPI/apigateway/CreateApiKey>
=head1 ATTRIBUTES
=head2 CustomerId => Str
An AWS Marketplace customer identifier , when integrating with the AWS
SaaS Marketplace.
=head2 Description => Str
The description of the ApiKey.
=head2 Enabled => Bool
Specifies whether the ApiKey can be used by callers.
=head2 GenerateDistinctId => Bool
Specifies whether (C<true>) or not (C<false>) the key identifier is
distinct from the created API key value.
=head2 Name => Str
The name of the ApiKey.
=head2 StageKeys => ArrayRef[L<Paws::ApiGateway::StageKey>]
DEPRECATED FOR USAGE PLANS - Specifies stages associated with the API
key.
=head2 Tags => L<Paws::ApiGateway::MapOfStringToString>
The key-value map of strings. The valid character set is
[a-zA-Z+-=._:/]. The tag key can be up to 128 characters and must not
start with C<aws:>. The tag value can be up to 256 characters.
=head2 Value => Str
Specifies a value of the API key.
=head1 SEE ALSO
This class forms part of L<Paws>, documenting arguments for method CreateApiKey in L<Paws::ApiGateway>
=head1 BUGS and CONTRIBUTIONS
The source code is located here: L<https://github.com/pplu/aws-sdk-perl>
Please report bugs to: L<https://github.com/pplu/aws-sdk-perl/issues>
=cut
|
2024-02-11T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/6765
|
Golfers have long recognized that immobility of the head and proper orientation and alignment with the ball and the desired direction of club movement are essential to a correct and accurate golf club swing. Beginning golfers are constantly reminded to observe the location of the ball after being struck, and not to lift or turn the head until after the swing has been substantially completed. Also, the necessity for aligning the body with the direction of desired movement of the ball is basic to proper play.
A number of instructional aids have been proposed for encouraging immobility of the head and alignment of the body to the ball. Such devices are often attached to the player's head by eyeglasses or eyeglass-type devices or to a cap worn by the player, and typical devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,264,002; 3,437,339; 3,729,199 and 4,531,743.
It is an object of the invention to provide a golf instructional aid readily affixed to the wearer's head which teaches and encourages the player to immobilize his head during the golf swing.
A further object of the invention is to provide a golf instructional aid attached to the wearer's head which encourages immobilization of the head during the golf swing and wherein a visual image is provided of the relationship between the player's head and the ball prior to the ball being struck.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a golf instructional aid attached to the player's head which aids in the alignment of the player to the ball with respect to the desired direction of ball movement, and wherein the aid does not interfere with the golf swing and detraction is minimized.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a golf instructional aid which is easy to use, economical to manufacture and purchase, and wherein the use of the aid is readily understandable by the average player.
A golf instructional aid in accord with the concepts of the invention basically consists of a pair of thin elongated reference elements located within the player's line of vision when addressing a golf ball. A reference mark is located upon at least one of the elements within the line of vision and the elements and mark define an area or "box" in which the addressed ball is visually observed. The location and maintenance of the ball within the "box" indicates to the player the relative immobility of the head and also indicates the alignment of the body and head to the desired direction of ball movement. The reference elements and marks are located relatively close to the player's eyes, and although the eyes are focusing on the ball, rather than on the reference elements and mark, the presence of the elements and mark are readily discerned, but are not distracting or interfere with vision of the addressed ball.
The reference elements are mounted upon the wearer's head and are stationary with respect to the head during the addressing of the ball and club swing or movement. The elements are mounted upon a bow held by a holder which is mounted to a clip by a ball and socket type hinge. The clip is preferably attached to the visor of a cap worn by the player. It is also envisioned that the aid could be mounted upon eyeglasses worn by the player, or other suitable means could be used for attaching the aid to the wearer's head.
|
2023-09-05T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/1157
|
Q:
Using an ASE(MPLS) line to route datacenter WAN traffic to office
im trying to route the Internet from our Datacenter to our Office over an AT&T ASE line (similar to an MPLS). At first I was going to just add the office subnets to the router in the datacenter and link the 2 sites that way. However, after talking to some of ya'll, I ended up linking them using a shared subnet that is on the ASE/MPLS network.
Everything is working properly for all of the Internal subnets but im not sure how to get the Internet to route through the connection as well. My end goal is to remove the WAN connection from our office and use the WAN from the datacenter via the ASE/MPLS.
Please take a look at the diagram I have attached of the setup so you can better understand what im talking about.
The datacenter network is 192.168.1.0/24, the office network is 172.10.10.0/24, and the network used to link the sites is 10.10.10.0/24. There are more VLANs and networks, but if I can make it work on these I should be OK on the other ones. The switches that im using are Dell PowerConnects that can only do Layer2, so the Checkpoint 4400s that im using are handling the routes and are connected to the ASE line. There are 2 Checkpoints in the datacenter that are setup as a Cluster, with a VIP IP of 10.10.10.1.
I have some routes on each side to handle the internal traffic. i.e. ip route 172.10.10.0/24 10.10.10.5 and another one on the other side as ip route 192.168.1.0/24 10.10.10.1. There are handling the Internals perfectly.
To share the internet through this connection, I was considering changing the default gateway on my Office Checkpoint from the WAN IP of our Office WAN to the interface on the other side of the ASE 10.10.10.1. I would then create a NO_NAT rule for the internal subnets and then a regular NAT rule for the traffic to go out the WAN IP at the datacenter.
Is this an OK way of doing this? Currently, at the office, the default route on the checkpoint is pointed to the WAN connection at the office. I figured changing the default route would allow anything outside of the 172.10.10.0 subnet to hit the other side 10.10.10.1 and go from there.
Any help would be appreciated! Let me know if you think there is an error in my ways. Thanks!
A:
It is actually pretty simple. Only advertise the default route into your network from the router connected to the Internet. Any traffic destined to a network, not otherwise in the routing tables, will then be sent to your Internet router. Perform NAT on that router for traffic leaving your network. You don't need NO_NAT rules because you only NAT on the Internet router for traffic destined to the Internet.
|
2023-08-09T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/6717
|
Mutational analysis of SPANX genes in families with X-linked prostate cancer.
Previous genetic linkage studies identified a locus for susceptibility to prostate cancer called HPCX at Xq27. The candidate region contains two clusters of SPANX genes. The first cluster called SPANX-A/D includes SPANX-A1, SPANX-A2, SPANX-B, SPANX-C, and SPANX-D; the second cluster called SPANX-N includes SPANX-N1, SPANX-N2, SPANX-N3, and SPANX-N4. The SPANX genes encode cancer-testis (CT) specific antigens. Previous studies identified SPANX-B and SPANX-D variants produced by gene conversion events, none of which are associated with X-linked prostate cancer. In this study we applied transformation-associated recombination cloning (TAR) in yeast to analyze sequence variations in SPANX-A1, SPANX-A2, and SPANX-C genes that are resided within large chromosomal duplications. A SPANX-N1/N4 cluster was analyzed by a routine PCR analysis. None of the sequence variations in the coding regions of these genes is associated with susceptibility to prostate cancer. Therefore, genetic variation in the SPANX genes is not the actual target variants explaining HPCX. However, it is possible that they play a modifying role in susceptibility to prostate cancer through complex recombinational interaction.
|
2023-08-11T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/2777
|
How Sensations Are Made: What's Wrong With MSM Blaming Assad For Chemical Attack
A CNN report blaming Bashar al-Assad for the alleged chemical attack in the Syrian province of Idlib apparently serves as a vivid illustration of how the mainstream media spins a story to advance a certain narrative, even if it is not supported by facts, experts told Sputnik.
On April 13, the TV channel reported that the Pentagon and the US intelligence community intercepted communications involving the Syrian Arab Army and chemical experts discussing arrangements for a sarin attack. The media outlet cited an unnamed senior US official as the source of the news.
"It does not matter what happened. The only thing that matters is how the news item is covered and to what extent things get blown out of proportion," he explained. "There will be more similar news stories because the United States has persistently moved toward achieving its goal. Washington wants to push Assad into a corner. I think that additional pictures will appear, as well as 'eyewitness' accounts because this is a propaganda issue. When it comes to propaganda it is the interpretation that matters, not the facts."
The use of toxic substances on the outskirts of Khan Shaykhun, a town in the Idlib province, has been a major point of contention between Damascus, Washington and their allies. Senior US and European officials have blamed Bashar al-Assad for the attack, but have failed to provide any evidence to support their view. Nevertheless, several days later President Donald Trump authorized a massive airstrike on the Shayrat air base, operated by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). Washington claimed that the facility was ostensibly used to store toxic substances and launch a chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun.
The Syrian leadership and the SAA command denied using chemical weapons against civilians, saying that radical armed fighters and their sponsors were responsible for what happened in Idlib.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said that Damascus did not use chemical weapons since the Assad government destroyed these armaments under a deal brokered by Moscow and Washington in 2013. The ministry explained that the Syrian Arab Air Force hit a large militant ammunition depot, which stored military hardware, as well as chemical weapons intended for Iraq.
"Intelligence officers are usually trying to learn what is happening and what will take place in the future in a particular area. The US intelligence community is more focused on the past. And they always find what they need or at least something similar. This is called 'fudging the facts,'" journalist Olga Bugrova wrote for Sputnik.
"The TV channel with its respected sources has once again offered to 'solve' a problem the wrong way about. If there is a 'horrible' Assad, then he must have dreadful weapons which he would necessarily use in an attack," she said. "Meanwhile, the international coalition bombed a warehouse storing chemical weapons of a terrorist group banned in Russia. The Syrian General Staff confirmed that hundreds of militants and sadly civilians died from poisoning in the Deir ez-Zor province. However, this story has not been extensively covered by CNN, whose respected sources have also refrained from commenting on it."
On April 13, the Syrian Arab Army said that the US-led coalition carried out an airstrike, targeting a Daesh warehouse in Deir ez-Zor. White and yellow clouds were visible following the attack, pointing to the presence of toxic substances in the area.
"This confirms that Daesh and al-Nusra terrorists possess chemical weapons and are capable of using, obtaining and transporting it," the SAA said.
promotes the use of narcotic / psychotropic substances, provides information on their production and use;
contains links to viruses and malicious software;
is part of an organized action involving large volumes of comments with identical or similar content ("flash mob");
“floods” the discussion thread with a large number of incoherent or irrelevant messages;
violates etiquette, exhibiting any form of aggressive, humiliating or abusive behavior ("trolling");
doesn’t follow standard rules of the English language, for example, is typed fully or mostly in capital letters or isn’t broken down into sentences.
The administration has the right to block a user’s access to the page or delete a user’s account without notice if the user is in violation of these rules or if behavior indicating said violation is detected.
|
2023-10-03T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/5985
|
Q:
Firemonkey: Add child control to TListViewItem at run time
I am attempting to add a TEdit control to a TListView control during run time. I want to parent the TEdit control to the selected TListViewItem belonging to my TListView, however, I cannot find a way to do this.
Originally, I tried this:
TEdit * MyEdit = new TEdit( this );
MyEdit->Parent = MyListView->Selected;
However, this gives me the following error:
[bcc32 Error] E2034 Cannot convert 'TListViewItem *' to 'TFmxObject *'
On a whim, I attempted to typecast the selected item on my list view as a TFmxObject like so:
MyEdit->Parent = (TFmxObject *)MyListView->Selected;
While this compiled, this caused an access violation at run time.
I have searched through a lot of documentation and forum posts and cannot find very much information about dynamically adding a control to a list view item in code. I have seen solutions which propose using the style editor, but I want to avoid that if at all possible.
How can I set the parent of a control to an item in my TListView? Is there a better / more proper way to add controls to a TListViewItem during runtime?
A:
According to Embarcadero documentation, TListViewItem is not a TFmxObject descendant and thus it can not be set as a Parent to the desired TEdit instance. It does not have Children property as well. Nor do the TextObject, DetailObject etc. (the TListItemObject descendants contained in TListViewItem) ascend from TFmxObject.
It seems you have the following ways out.
Write and register another ListViewItem class and implement it inside your ListViews or
See this and this SO links. Probably, they might be useful.
Consider using TListBox instead. TListBoxItems can parent other controls.
|
2023-11-25T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/9506
|
An image made from a video posted on May 11 on an Islamic militant Web site affiliated with al-Qaida showing a group of five men wearing headscarves and black ski masks standing over a bound man in an orange jumpsuit, identified as Nick Berg
The entire nation continues to mourn the horrific murder of Nick Berg at the hands of al-Qaida terrorists who were ostensibly avenging abuses at Abu Ghraib. Nothing justifies what they did to Nick Berg -- nothing. However, even a cursory glance at emerging information tells us that there is much more to this story.
Are we to believe that it was just a "coincidence" that terrorist Zacarias Moussaui used Nick Berg's email account? Oh yes – we're being fed the notion that Berg's "email account info" was just floating among a bunch of college students and miraculously found its way to Moussaui who utilized it for contacting other terrorist thugs. Sorry, something's not right here -- I'm not buying this "coincidence" drivel being bandied about the media, especially since other provocative tidbits are now all over the radar screen.
Apparently, the FBI was not buying Berg's rendition of events either, as they reportedly interviewed Berg post-9/11 in the US, and subsequently in recent weeks when he was held in custody for a short period by Iraqi police. According to an Associated Press article, "The young American, who was decapitated on a videotape posted by an al-Qaida-linked Website, was never under U.S. custody despite what his family says, coalition spokesman Dan Senor said Wednesday. Senor told reporters that Berg, 26, from West Chester, Pennsylvania, was detained by Iraqi police in Mosul. The Iraqis informed the Americans, and the FBI met with Berg three times to determine what he was doing in Iraq".
That begs the question -- What exactly was Berg doing in Iraq as he traveled to some of the most dangerous sectors by local taxis, and without private security escort? We know that he was not a "private contractor" -- just an electronics expert and entrepreneur who reportedly wanted to help the Iraqi people. And what are we to make of the following? Reportedly, Berg was in possession of the Koran and anti-Semitic materials in Iraq, which is thoroughly incongruent with being a "good Jew." And, he was wearing an Islamic-style beard at the time of is death. None of these factoids provide definitive truth, but together they convey some intriguing clues about Nick Berg.
Let's ponder the following – Is it possible that Berg was a spy for another nation, or just an adventurous spy-wannabee? I'm inclined to believe the latter. It's not inconceivable that Berg was living-out some type of personal fantasy. One might even extrapolate that Berg was a terrorist sympathizer attempting to make contact with al-Qaida in order to collaborate with the organization and provide it with information acquired during his Mid-East travels. However, al-Qaida had its own agenda and decided to make a cogent worldwide statement with Berg's brutal death, even having one of al-Qaida's head-honchos, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, carry out the beheading. In the opinion of many, Nick Berg was caught totally off-guard by his gruesome ending. It appears Berg was made to believe that he was aiding al-Qaida by cooperating with some type of ransom video.
Moreover, it's also revealing that Nick Berg's father, Michael Berg, is an outspoken radical Leftist that is reportedly associated with the international A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition and the George Soros Moveon.org group. Michael Berg has made the rather bizarre public statement, "My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld", when in fact government officials attempted to ship Nick Berg back to the US in order to get him out of harm's way. Michael Berg also indicated that his son's killers, the terrorists, "killed their best friend". Who better to know Nick Berg than his own father?
Ironically, the Nick Berg tragedy bolsters some pivotal contentions of the Bush administration regarding al-Qaida: 1) the Iraq/al-Qaida nexus during the Saddam Hussein era has now been firmly established, much to the consternation of the Left-leaning crowd. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, Berg's murderer, was indeed a key member of the al-Qaida organization that operated in Iraq prior to 2003 and the Iraq War -- al-Zarqawi was permitted to traveled from Iran to Baghdad, and then on to northern Iraq, where he worked with the al-Qaida affiliate Ansar al-Islam, and 2) Despite the limited abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib that was quickly addressed, there is no moral equivalence between the actions of US soldiers and those of al-Qaida terrorists, as some have tried to suggest. Clearly, the heinous slaying of Nick Berg has significantly deflected from the Iraqi prison problem, placing it in perspective and underscoring the true monstrous nature of al-Qaida.
Carol Devine-Molin is a regular contributor to several online magazines.
|
2023-08-25T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/6303
|
Let Us Choose the Next Guy
From the office of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
Venerable Brothers of the Catholic Church,
We hear you have a quitter on your hands. Wait, we aren’t here to poke fun. We’ve been having trouble with one of ours as well. They just don’t make bishops like they used to.
Therefore, we humbly propose that you allow us, the Communist Party of China, to assist you in selecting the next Bishop of Rome.
Come back, we’re serious! Sure, we haven’t always seen eye to eye on appointments but this is our chance to bury the hatchet, to start communicating, instead of excommunicating. If we put our heads together, surely we can find some guy we both like who won’t puss out at the first sight of an internecine power struggle.
Why are we suited to the task? Well, if you think about it, the Communist Party and the Catholic Church aren’t so different.
Pope Benedict XVI even looks like a pruned Deng Xiaoping.
We’re both highly secretive organizations with infallible leaders following a comically anachronistic system of belief; ruled by a small, corrupt oligarchy which covers up systemic human rights abuses; with internal cultures which are allergic to progress and change, not to mention gender equality. Heck, Benedict XVI even looks like a pruned Deng Xiaoping.
Moreover, we both know how important it is to choose the right leader. It’s no secret we’ve both made mistakes. Let’s just say Mao Zedong was our Urban II and the Great Leap Forward was his First Crusade.
By now we realize that the leader of an organization which rules over millions of fickle, superstitious subjects has to be old, bland and acquiescent.
Please understand that we have no desire to change the way you choose the Vicar of Christ. In fact, our leader is chosen the same way—by a group of elderly men huddling in a room and without any semblance of democratic discussion.
We hope by now you see that partnering with us to appoint the Supreme Pontiff would be a great boon to both our organizations. The Catholic Church could finally reach the millions of faithful in China who are too scared to practice openly for fear of being sent to a labor camp. As for us, the CPC could finally be associated with an organization that’s universally loved and respected.
We think that you will find this proposal to your liking, so, if we may be so bold, we’ll get started on drafting a list of possible candidates. You guys are cool with an Asian, right?
|
2024-05-03T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/2695
|
Are we really expecting the SCAMMER MASTER to mess that up??? He sends you an empty envelope... You got DC now... you CAN NOT file for item as described now because you bought a mystery lot but RECEIVED a pkg... He's home free...
He "made" the DC December 11th, and has had a week to send something. If he were to send something now, sure that sucks, but as of now he has sent nothing to anyone. With all the info PayPal already has, I think this has a chance to be resolved.
attacked? if you weren't in the thread the other night, you wouldn't know. I was calling him a liar the other night. He then called me retarded and told me to kill myself. He got a lot of support for that when most people would be bashed. I knew something wasn't right. PierreThomasfan, Texas, salscards, and ajax were in on his bashing of me when I was only defending myself. so if any of those 4 get scammed I wouldn't feel bad for them. in fact siding with someone telling someone else to kill themselves, I consider these four lowlifes
All because they were friends with this creep...the pierrethomas kid recieved a $80 card for $10 it's obvious this haiku guy buffaloed them with gifts and deals.. They should be ashamed of themselves and apologize to you for that.The scams aNd betrayal are and eye sore on the forums but the buddy circles are pathetic.If the mass's weren't so busy blowing haiku for the past several months maybe a red flag may have been noticed sooner.I mean you have a member who even said these 3 magical words "I love you" for Christ sakes...
I am not saying its unacceptable to make friends on the forums but the buddy system should never persuade an individuals judgement...here on blowout it happens far too often! The entire community can learn and take something constructive from this.
Those screen shots just showed the holds. It did show the balance of his account. I'd almost guarantee he left that out on purpose because it would be a negative. Even if you've withdrawn your money the will still place the transaction in a temporary hold and your account balance will be negative. All those photos prove is people filed lots of claims against him.
I wasnt there, can i ask what set Haiku off when he attacked Jason122883?
heh.
pm me your email address. i know people are floating out the thread that i've emailed them, but apparently those copies are starting to clip and leave things out. got the originals
edit- please allow for a delay. I'll just collect all the email addresses pm'd to me and send out one massive message. forwarding one at a time is getting to be too time consuming. also gotta do my job for a bit
Are we really expecting the SCAMMER MASTER to mess that up??? He sends you an empty envelope... You got DC now... you CAN NOT file for item as described now because you bought a mystery lot but RECEIVED a pkg... He's home free...
That is not true, i have had that happen and won the claim, because he did it to roughly 100 other people. paypal knew it was a scam... and he shipped it to a PO Box at my local post office so it would show up as delivered yet he hoped i would not find it yet i did because i have a very small post office...
All because they were friends with this creep...the pierrethomas kid recieved a $80 card for $10 it's obvious this haiku guy buffaloed them with gifts and deals.. They should be ashamed of themselves and apologize to you for that.The scams aNd betrayal are and eye sore on the forums but the buddy circles are pathetic.If the mass's weren't so busy blowing haiku for the past several months maybe a red flag may have been noticed sooner.I mean you have a member who even said these 3 magical words "I love you" for Christ sakes...
I am not saying its unacceptable to make friends on the forums but the buddy system should never persuade an individuals judgement...here on blowout it happens far too often! The entire community can learn and take something constructive from this.
I have never talked to Haiku outside of this forum, nor have I ever recieved any gifts from him. At the time of the whole "killing yourself" thread, there was next to nothing to pin on Haiku at that time, so basically, the whole argument was "he said, she said".
I would have no problem apologizing to Jason122883, but now he is accusing me of being ok with someone telling someone else to kill themselves. All bets are off, once you falsely accuse me of something that serious, I owe that person no apology.
Would love for you to link back to where I said it was perfectly fine for him to say it was ok to tell someone to kill themselves. You connect siding with someone making it immediately ok for them to do anything they do. That is wrong, and you know it.
I, in the past, have thought about committing suicide, and thank god, I didn't do it. For you to think I was DEFENDING him saying that specific statement, is slander, and insulting.
When I won a Haiku contest and he mailed me a card, he was so adamant about me leaving a "Thanks Haiku" thread, I thought it was strange. He pm'd me like 4 times reminding me about it before I got the card. I thought he just craved attention and needed people to stroke his ego constantly. Now it appears he needed those thank you threads to bolster his image and make him appear trustworthy
He "made" the DC December 11th, and has had a week to send something. If he were to send something now, sure that sucks, but as of now he has sent nothing to anyone. With all the info PayPal already has, I think this has a chance to be resolved.
But, by all means, continue your armageddon CAPS MESSAGING.
Just trying to understand why YOU (caps and bold) would be telling everyone that it is ok? It is not, I have talked to paypal about this on behalf of others and prewarned them (paypal) of stuff that was about to follow... Lol from the supervisor in disputes "sorry, if you bought a mystery lot you are in trouble." I'll go elsewhere to try and be helpful now, thank you kind sir.
That is not true, i have had that happen and won the claim, because he did it to roughly 100 other people. paypal knew it was a scam... and he shipped it to a PO Box at my local post office so it would show up as delivered yet he hoped i would not find it yet i did because i have a very small post office...
bottom line I WON claim
^^ Bingo #2
Folks, talk to PayPal. Quit making assumptions about how this will play out. Contact the proper people who can actually do something about it.
Power in numbers and truth
Bunch of Grinches
__________________
Things in my bucket are always for sale!!
Feel free to check my bucket and ask for prices
www.photobucket.com/atoaz12
Just trying to understand why YOU (caps and bold) would be telling everyone that it is ok? It is not, I have talked to paypal about this on behalf of others and prewarned them (paypal) of stuff that was about to follow... Lol from the supervisor in disputes "sorry, if you bought a mystery lot you are in trouble." I'll go elsewhere to try and be helpful now, thank you kind sir.
Alright, for the 6th time, Mystery lot only matters if it is a "item not as described" claim. It doesn't matter what it is if it's a "item not recieved" claim.
I don't recall anyone proclaiming their great advice on how this was a scam while it was happening.
Because the way this guy was worshiped...you would think that would be cause for a public stoning..and Immediate ban....
Trust me, some of us newer members have had discussions privately about how Shady this guy seemed to be....but he had built a reputation on here with some of the veterans and they were a too blind to smell the $h!t
Most people on here were too busy kissing his A$$ to suspect anything.." Oh Haiku you're the best...I could only hope to be able to give back to the community like you someday."
|
2024-05-27T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/6709
|
Q:
How to disable "curses.h" header (a part of "stdio.h in Xcode 6.3 OSX Yosemite) to avoid conflicting function declarations
I'm trying to build a project in Xcode but I get the following errors Implicit declaration of function 'clear' is invalid in C99 and Conflicting types for 'clear'.
Here's the code:
//main.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include "tree.h"
int main(){
clear(); // Implicit declaration of function 'clear' is invalid in C99
return 0;
}
//tree.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include "tree.h"
void clear(){ ///Conflicting types for 'clear'
printf("Command clear.\n");
}
//tree.h
#include <stdio.h>
void clear(); ///Conflicting types for 'clear'
Why do I get these errors and warnings? I've tried to search for the solution on StackOverflow, but all the related answers where about the case when there were no #include of some sort.
'clear' is not a keyword in C so it's not the case, is it? (source: http://aboutc.weebly.com/keywords.html)
Related topics (do not answer my question although they are actually related):
Implicit declaration of function 'sum' is invalid in C99
Implicit declaration of function is invalid in C99
Thanks for any help.
UPDATE!
It turns out that changing the name of the clear funtcion to a cleark function solved the problem. Nevertheless it does not make any sense to me yet.
UPDATE 2!
I based my project on the command line tool template from Xcode 6.3 on Mac OS 10.10. Because of that Xcode has automatically added some libraries and flags to the project's compiler. What's the most important here is that the curses.h header has been added and this header already contains the clear() function.
Here's the Conflicting types for 'clear' error log:
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.10.sdk/usr/include/curses.h:541:28: Previous declaration is here
I've tried to remove the -lcurses from the compiler's flags manually, but I couldn't locate such settings. Is there any another way to build the project? (All in all my goal is to be able to use the Xcode's debugger when the project expands)
UPDATE 3!
According to what Paul Griffiths discovered and published in the comment below the problem is following:
I can indeed replicate this problem with Xcode 6.3.1 with only the code presented. For some reason, stdio.h seems to be including curses.h (i.e. if you don't include stdio.h, this issue goes away), and I haven't been quickly able to find a way to stop it doing that. This seems to be problematic, since standard headers should not import random symbols into the global namespace without an easy and obvious way to turn it off.
A:
Normally I run the C preprocessor to see what the compiler actually parses. However, following Xcode Preprocessor Output to examine the preprocessor output with Xcode does not achieve that - it is translating the #include to @import. Here is what the preprocessor view shows me:
// Preprocessed output for tree.c
// Generated at 9:24:57 PM on Friday, May 1, 2015
// Using Debug configuration, x86_64 architecture for curses-vs-stdio target of curses-vs-stdio project
# 1 "/Users/thomas/Desktop/curses-vs-stdio/curses-vs-stdio/tree.c"
# 1 "<built-in>" 1
# 1 "<built-in>" 3
# 322 "<built-in>" 3
# 1 "<command line>" 1
# 1 "<built-in>" 2
# 1 "/Users/thomas/Desktop/curses-vs-stdio/curses-vs-stdio/tree.c" 2
# 1 "/Users/thomas/Desktop/curses-vs-stdio/curses-vs-stdio/tree.h" 1
void clear(void);
@import Darwin.C.stdio; /* clang -E: implicit import for "/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.10.sdk/usr/include/stdio.h" */
# 5 "/Users/thomas/Desktop/curses-vs-stdio/curses-vs-stdio/tree.c" 2
void clear(void) {
printf("Command clear.\n");
}
Apparently the problem is Xcode's use of modules rather than stdio.h including curses.h. The "Darwin" module is where the problem lies.
In fact, if I disable modules (using the hint in Enable Clang Modules, Disable Auto Linking), the build problem goes away. This is
in Build Settings
section Apple LLVM 6.1 - Language - Modules
setting Enable Modules (C and Objective-C)
As a further hint to the problem, having rearranged the example slightly (putting the prototype before the include), I see a message complaining about overloading — but that is not C.
Perhaps Apple will fix this in the next release.
|
2023-11-08T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/2796
|
Q:
Displaying different JS animation on window resize
Until min-height 1200px I have an HTML5 video, playing or stopping depending where you are on the page.
Then under 1200px you are suppose to have an images sequence, defined like this in the HTML :
<div class="col-lg-6 col-md-12 col-xs-12 right">
<video webkit-playsinline loop id="rightVideo" poster="{% static 'home_page/assets/videos/transparent.png' %}">
<source src="{% static 'home_page/assets/videos/720x700.mp4' %}" type="video/mp4">
<source src="{% static 'home_page/assets/videos/720x700.ogg' %}" type="video/ogg">
<source src="{% static 'home_page/assets/videos/720x700.webm' %}" type="video/webm">
Your browser does not support HTML5 video.
</video>
<img alt="blippar blipp images sequence" id="images-sequence" src="">
</div>
Thus the images are load in JS and displaying with GSAP like this :
this.imagesSequence = function(){
var imageSeq = new TimelineMax({repeat: -1});
imageSeq
.to(obj, 25, {
curImg: imagesSequenceNb.length - 1,
roundProps: "curImg",
immediateRender: true,
ease: Linear.easeNone,
onUpdate: function() {
//next image on update
sequence.src = imagesSequenceNb[obj.curImg];
}
}, 2);
};
Finally, I manage the different size screen:
if (window.innerWidth > 1200) {
var imgPath = "{% static 'home_page/assets/' %}",
myanimations = new homeAnimations(imgPath);
myanimations.loadImages();
{..code...}
} else if (window.innerWidth > 990 && window.innerWidth <= 1200) {
var rightVideo = document.getElementById("rightVideo");
rightVideo.play();
} else {
var $nav_header = $(".navbar-fixed-top"),
header_height = $('.navbar-fixed-top').height(),
images_height = $('.header-plugin').height(),
offset_val = images_height - header_height;
var circleMobile = document.getElementById("circle-mobile");
var birdVideo = document.getElementById("birdVideo");
var imgPath = "{% static 'home_page/assets/' %}",
myanimationsMobile = new homeAnimations(imgPath);
myanimationsMobile.loadImages();
myanimationsMobile.imagesSequence(); //I want to display this on resize !!
birdVideo.play();
TweenLite.to(circleMobile, 1, {rotation: 180});
}
So, if the screen is resize and then page is refreshing, no problem. But the transition isn't dynamic when you are resizing by hand the page..
Any idea ?
A:
I think you need to have a dynamic control:
window.onresize = function() {
if (window.innerWidth > 1200) {
do somthing
}
};
That will dynamicly lisen for change.
Hope it helps.
If your site is hevy, make a timer like this to wait befor onresiz.
function waitForWindowResize() {
var rtime;
var timeout = false;
var delta = 200;
function resizeend() {
if (new Date().getTime() - rtime < delta) {
setTimeout(resizeend, delta);
} else {
timeout = false;
YOUR CODE HERE
}
}
$(window).resize(function () {
rtime = new Date();
if (timeout === false) {
timeout = true;
setTimeout(resizeend, delta);
}
});
}
|
2023-12-18T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/9773
|
Citation and License
Disclaimer: Whilst every effort is made by the authors, editors and publishers to ensure that the software performs as described, they accept no liability whatsoever for the consequences of downloading or using it.
Abstract
The microarray technique requires the organization and analysis of vast amounts of
data. These data include information about the samples hybridized, the hybridization
images and their extracted data matrices, and information about the physical array,
the features and reporter molecules. We present a web-based customizable bioinformatics
solution called BioArray Software Environment (BASE) for the management and analysis
of all areas of microarray experimentation. All software necessary to run a local
server is freely available.
Rationale
Microarrays are emerging as one of the most exciting and promising technologies for
biological research and clinical practice [1]. The technology has been utilized in various applications such as the profiling
of mRNA [2] and protein levels [3], elucidating protein-DNA interactions [4], assessment of DNA copy number [5], and detection of methylated sequences [6], and today is accessible to even relatively small laboratories. Typically, arrays
contain 5,000 to 45,000 reporters, each of which has dozens of biological (for example,
gene name, sequence, function) and quality control (QC; for example, sequence verification,
purity, number of gel bands) annotations. Each array can be used to analyze up to
two biomaterials, each of which can have any number of biological annotations (for
example, in vitro treatments, clinical follow-up, mutation status), and in a single hybridization,
data spanning tens of megabytes are generated. Whereas microarrays have shed light
on many biological processes and disease states, for us [7,8,9,10] and others, a significant bottleneck remains the analysis of hybridization data
in the context of biomaterial and reporter annotations. There are a number of separate
software systems that individually address some of the needs, such as databases and
applications for clustering and visualization of microarray data [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18], public databases that contain reporter information [19,20,21], commercial laboratory information management systems (LIMS), and various storage
methods (such as lab notebooks, clinical charts and public and private databases)
for recording biomaterial annotations. However, to our knowledge there are no unified
systems capable of organizing all the information surrounding microarray experimentation
and which also integrate this information with tools for the analysis of quantified
microarray hybridization data.
To address these needs, we developed a system called BioArray Software Environment
(BASE) that provides an integrated framework for storing and analyzing microarray
information. BASE is a MIAME-supportive [22] customizable database and analysis platform designed to be installed in any microarray
laboratory and to serve many users simultaneously via the web. The software was developed
on the GNU/Linux operating system (OS) in the PHP language [23], with data being stored in a relational database (MySQL [24]) and communicated to the user through the Apache Webserver [25]. Where needed, the user interface employs Java and JavaScript in addition to plain
HTML, and C++ has been used for the more computationally intensive tasks on the server.
In short, the system integrates biomaterial information, raw images and extracted
data, and provides a plug-in architecture for data transformation, data viewing and
analysis modules. Additionally, for laboratories that fabricate in-house arrays or
for groups that wish to track reporter information, the system has array production
LIMS features that can be integrated with the data analysis. The structure of BASE
was designed to follow the natural workflow of the microarray biologist (Figure 1), and it is compatible with most types of array experiments and data formats (for
example, one- or two-channel hybridizations, cDNA/oligos spotted on any substrate,
Affymetrix chips, comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) on arrays). With his or
her own account and administrated access levels, a user can import data into the database,
group array data together into experiments, and in a uniform and streamlined fashion,
apply filters and transformations and run analyses. To facilitate online collaboration,
users can share almost any object within the database with another user. Data can
be exported in a multitude of formats for local analysis and publication. As proof-of-concept
of the plug-in architecture, we have implemented in C++ modules featuring locally
weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOWESS) [26,27] normalization and multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis [28].
Figure 1. Simplified schematic overview of software structure. Arrows represent the flow of
information. Closed circle connectors represent logical relationships between database
classes. Database classes outlined by black boxes relate to biomaterials; array production
LIMS items are highlighted by orange boxes; and data-analysis features are within
green boxes. A detailed database schema is available from our website [34] and with
this paper (see Downloading files).
Biomaterials
Full annotation of the samples hybridized enables complex and powerful inquiries.
In addition to sample source hierarchies, in vivo or in vitro sample treatments and extraction and labeling protocols, many other types of annotations
can be useful to record and correlate with hybridization data. For instance, the genotype,
mutation profile, patient data or status of particular proteins as indicated by immunohistochemistry
maybe applied to aid in evaluating analysis results. Therefore, we have designed an
annotation and tracking system for biomaterials that is user-customizable via a web
interface and is integrated with the data analysis (Figure 1). Source organism and cell-type taxonomies can be created, and new annotation types
(integer, number, enumerations or free text) can be defined and linked to any sample.
Users can enter new samples, annotate them, and create subsequent sample extractions
and labelings, storing information such as quantity, quality, events, and protocols
at each step.
Array production LIMS
Many laboratories use robot printers to spot their own microarrays on substrates such
as derivatized glass or nylon membranes. The printed reporter molecules, such as PCR
products, can have dozens of biological and QC annotations, and are often produced
through multi-step procedures. For instance, bacterial clones may be received in 96-well
microtiter plates and travel through half a dozen or more plates before they are finally
spotted. At various stages, products may be run on gels to determine band size and
number, or verified by resequencing. Accurate tracking of this information and integration
with hybridization results can be useful. For this reason, we have implemented a generic
array production LIMS as an optional feature that can be integrated with data analysis
(Figures 1, 2b). New plate types can be defined, reporters and their biological annotations imported,
and parent-daughter plate relationships tracked. Currently BASE supports 96- and 384-well
plate formats, and merging of 96-well plates onto a 384-well plate can be carried
out. Moreover, the system is compatible with any reporter type, although we have developed
specialized features for human IMAGE clones [29].
Figure 2. Browsing data with Experiment Explorer. Within BASE, the (a) Experiment Explorer displays data across all hybridizations in an experiment and
relates it to the biological sample annotations, and optionally to the back-end array
production LIMS. Reporter information is hyperlinked to external databases such as
those at NCBI [20]. By clicking on a reporter position, the (b) Reporter Information page displays all raw and transformed data for the reporter
as well as its production history from the array LIMS.
A user with the appropriate administrative privileges can define a physical array
design by specifying print plates and importing a print map file (created, for example,
by the BioRobotics MicroGrid II software). Then, each print run or batch of arrays
produced can be managed and the fabrication conditions and protocols recorded, as
well as the quantity and identification (barcode or other unique ID) for each physical
array. Lastly, a formatted list of array features for use by image processors (such
as Axon GenePix) can be downloaded. For laboratories that do not spot cDNA clones,
but instead use commercial chips or spot other types of reporter molecules, the array
LIMS feature may still be useful to store reporter annotations locally.
Data analysis
A variety of feature-analysis software packages are used to extract quantification
matrices from hybridization images, and output is typically in the form of tab-delimited
text files. Mining a logical set of such data files, which may have over 1 million
data points each, requires a robust informatics system. Moreover, powerful analytical
and visualization tools that take advantage of biomaterial and reporter annotations
are needed. To this end we have designed a flexible and expandable platform for analyzing
microarray data (Figure 1). Within BASE, a user may create associations of labeled extracts, scanned raw images
(optional), quantification matrices, and arrays (if the production LIMS is being used)
to define individual hybridizations. As a single hybridization can be scanned in more
than one scanner and/or under different settings, and each image can be analyzed by
different image-processing software with various parameters, these types of relationships
and information can also be recorded. Tab-delimited data output from any image processor
can be imported into the database using an interactive import wizard, and frequently
used formats can be identified automatically. The association of one or two labeled
extracts to an imported data matrix appears as a unique data-set object. Within the
user's personal workspace, sets of array data objects can be grouped into experiments
and annotated. Data sets may be grouped in parallel experiments and thus can be analyzed
to test various experimental hypotheses under disparate contexts, and through the
object-sharing feature, by more than one user simultaneously.
The analysis of microarray data is a rapidly evolving area of bioinformatics. We have
integrated a flexible framework with a plug-in architecture that enables the easy
integration of innovative modules that transform, or analyze and visualize microarray
data. This architecture consists of three parts: a data standard and format (currently
our 'BASEfile' format; MAGE-ML [30] is being considered) for transferring biomaterial, reporter and hybridization data
to and from application modules that run on the server, a job handler for execution
of application modules and saving results back into the database, and a web interface
for the administration and installation of new plug-in modules. A plug-in module may
be any type of executable program or script that runs on Linux. We have developed
and included three plug-ins: Normalizer performs within-slide global mean or median
ratio based normalization; Lowess performs within-slide intensity-dependent LOWESS
[26] normalization (Figure 3b); and the MDS module computes a distance metric between samples on the basis of their
gene expression, and reduces the high-dimensional space into two- or three-dimensional
coordinates [28]. The 3D Data Viewer (Figure 3d) allows the user to visualize and rotate MDS results in relation to biomaterial annotations,
and to export figures for publication.
Furthermore, to allow for any combination and series of data filtering, transformation
and number-crunching steps, we created a data-analysis interface that is organized
hierarchically. An unmodified data set can be filtered and sent to a plug-in module;
subsequently the output can be filtered and transformed again, and so on to create
transformed data and resultant subsets. In this way, the original unmodified data
set can be filtered under different settings and sent to alternative modules, to create
many branches under the same experiment. All parameters and settings are stored at
each step for later reference, and the entire analysis history can be seen as a textual
dendrogram.
Data can be visualized at several stages of analysis. Unmodified and transformed data
sets can be plotted interactively as scatter plots (Figure 3a,3b), displayed in histograms (Figure 3c), or viewed as tables. Entire experiments can be displayed in various overview plots
in the context of how they are annotated, and figures and tables can be exported for
publication. From any data-analysis step the experiment can be imported into a data-visualization
interface that we have included called Experiment Explorer (Figure 2a), in which the data can be browsed and viewed, reporter by reporter, in the context
of sample and reporter annotations. Data can also be exported for custom analyses
(for example, for algorithms that are very expensive of computer power and time) and
local development of new analysis methods, and in various defined formats for use
in external analysis programs such as Cluster [12] and J-Express [14].
Requirements and availability
All additional software required such as the OS, database, webserver, and languages
are freely available from their developers. With some modification, BASE can be made
to run under other OS and database environments. BASE has already been successfully
installed on the Solaris operating system, and with some modification can be made
to run under other database and OS environments such as Windows, Macintosh OS X, and
other Unix varieties. The hardware requirements are quite modest (a PC with 100 gigabyte
hard disk can manage over 3,000 hybridizations, each with 30,000 features and several
analysis steps), making BASE a realistic alternative even for users with a limited
budget. As user requirements increase, additional servers and storage space can be
added to a BASE installation.
The future of BASE
There are many data-transformation and analysis algorithms that we would like to integrate
within BASE as plug-in modules (see [31] for a review), and features we anticipate will be desirable in the future and intend
to support (for example, MAGE-ML [30] export for data deposition in public repositories such as ArrayExpress [17] and GEO [32], and hybridizations using three or more channels). By providing an open-source platform
to build on and by continuously developing new plug-in applications ourselves, we
hope to stimulate researchers to use the system. We encourage academic and commercial
contribution, and hope that end-users will not only customize BASE to suit their own
needs, but also share their experiences, source code and new plug-in modules with
the community of BASE users.
Downloading files
All BASE source code is publicly available to academic and commercial sites under
the GNU General Public License [33] and may be downloaded from our website, along with an operating manual [34]. The 1 and a 2 are available with this article.
Acknowledgements
This work was in part supported by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation through
the SWEGENE consortium and by the Swedish Cancer Society. We thank the numerous beta
test laboratories for their feedback and suggestions. We are grateful to Mario Gianota
for creating the 3D Data Viewer, and Björn Samuelsson for his work on the normalizers.
|
2024-06-18T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/2152
|
Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation inhibitors: promising drug candidates for a wide variety of pathophysiologic conditions.
Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases are involved in many aspects of regulation of cellular functions. Using NAD+ as a substrate, they catalyse the covalent transfer of ADP-ribose units onto several acceptor proteins to form a branched ADP-ribose polymer. The best characterised and first discovered member of this multiprotein family is PARP-1. Its catalytic activity is markedly stimulated upon binding to DNA strand interruptions, and the resulting polymer is thought to function in chromatin relaxation as well as in signalling the presence of damage to DNA repair complexes and in regulating enzyme activities. Moderate activation of PARP-1 facilitates the efficient repair of DNA damage arising from monofunctional alkylating agents, reactive oxygen species or ionising radiation, but severe genotoxic stress leads to rapid energy consumption and subsequently to necrotic cell death. The latter aspect of PARP-1 activity has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various clinical conditions such as shock, ischaemia-reperfusion and diabetes. Inhibition of ADP-ribose polymer formation has been shown to be effective, on the one hand, in the treatment of cancer in combination with alkylating agents by suppressing DNA repair and thus driving tumour cells into apoptosis, and on the other hand it appears to be a promising drug target for the treatment of pathologic conditions involving oxidative stress. In view of the existence of several members of the PARP family in mammalian cells, one has to be aware of possible side effects but also of a wide spectrum of potential clinical applications, which calls for the development of more specific inhibitors.
|
2024-06-27T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/8448
|
Timelapse Captures Waterspout Swirling Over Huatulco, Oaxaca
Beachgoers at the Mexican resort town of Huatulco, Oaxaca, were treated to the sight of a waterspout that formed offshore on Saturday, November 4.<a href="https://twitter.com/CEPCO_GobOax/status/926973579287076864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foaxaca.quadratin.com.mx%2Funa-tromba-marina-sorprende-paseantes-huatulco%2F" title="CEPCO" target="_blank">The state civil protection coordinator</a> tweeted that the waterspout caused no damage after spinning up near Arrocito beach.The waterspout was captured on a web camera in the Pacific coast resort town. Credit: webcamsdemexico via Storyful
|
2023-11-13T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/5923
|
Xylem traits, leaf longevity and growth phenology predict growth and mortality response to defoliation in northern temperate forests.
Defoliation outbreaks are biological disturbances that alter tree growth and mortality in temperate forests. Trees respond to defoliation in many ways; some recover rapidly, while others decline gradually or die. Functional traits such as xylem anatomy, growth phenology or non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) storage could explain these responses, but idiosyncratic measures used by defoliation studies have frustrated efforts to generalize among species. Here, I test for functional differences with published growth and mortality data from 37 studies, including 24 tree species and 11 defoliators from North America and Eurasia. I synthesized data into standardized variables suitable for numerical models and used linear mixed-effects models to test the hypotheses that responses to defoliation vary among species and functional groups. Standardized data show that defoliation responses vary in shape and degree. Growth decreased linearly or curvilinearly, least in ring-porous Quercus and deciduous conifers (by 10-40% per 100% defoliation), whereas growth of diffuse-porous hardwoods and evergreen conifers declined by 40-100%. Mortality increased exponentially with defoliation, most rapidly for evergreen conifers, then diffuse-porous, then ring-porous species and deciduous conifers (Larix). Goodness-of-fit for functional-group models was strong (R2c = 0.61-0.88), if lower than species-specific mixed-models (R2c = 0.77-0.93), providing useful alternatives when species data are lacking. These responses are consistent with functional differences in leaf longevity, wood growth phenology and NSC storage. When defoliator activity lags behind wood-growth, either because xylem-growth precedes budburst (Quercus) or defoliator activity peaks later (sawflies on Larix), impacts on annual wood-growth will always be lower. Wood-growth phenology of diffuse-porous species and evergreen conifers coincides with defoliation and responds more drastically, and lower axial NSC storage makes them more vulnerable to mortality as stress accumulates. These functional differences in response apply in general to disturbances that cause spring defoliation and provide a framework that should be incorporated into forest growth and vegetation models.
|
2023-12-21T01:26:36.242652
|
https://example.com/article/7132
|
Q:
Is any splitting field algebraic?
I was wondering whether every splitting field $L$ of some polynomial $f$ over $K$ is an algebraic extension. It seems like so, because the splitting field is constructed via $K[X] / fK[X]$ (w.l.o.g. $f$ irreducible), but I'm not sure how to prove it in detail.
Does anyone know how to prove this in a short and nice manner? Or is there a counterexample of this fact being not true?
A:
A splitting field, by definition, is generated by the roots of $f$, and by definition these roots are algebraic elements over $K$. Now it's a theorem that in a field generated by algebraic elements, every element is algebraic.
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2024-04-16T01:26:36.242652
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https://example.com/article/9935
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