text stringlengths 12 4.76M | timestamp stringlengths 26 26 | url stringlengths 32 32 |
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Cloning of FaPAL6 gene from strawberry fruit and characterization of its expression and enzymatic activity in two cultivars with different anthocyanin accumulation.
The accumulation of anthocyanin pigments is one of the most important traits that turn strawberry fruit attractive to consumers. During ripening, strawberry fruit color development is associated to anthocyanin synthesis through the phenylpropanoid pathway. Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) is a key enzyme in this pathway, having a determining role in strawberry fruit quality. In this work, we studied the level of anthocyanins during fruit ripening of two cultivars that differ in color development (Camarosa and Toyonoka). Toyonoka showed a lower anthocyanin accumulation that was limited to external fruit tissue, while Camarosa accumulated higher amount of anthocyanins in both internal and external sections. In addition, we cloned a full-length gene (FaPAL6) and analyzed its expression in different strawberry plant tissues. The expression of this gene is fruit specific, and increases during fruit ripening in both cultivars along with anthocyanin accumulation. The mRNA level of FaPAL6 was higher in Camarosa. PAL enzyme activity increased at similar rates in both cultivars at early ripening stages, but at the end of ripening PAL activity diminished in Toyonoka while it rose markedly in Camarosa. PAL activity was higher in internal fruit tissue, showing no correlation with anthocyanin level of the same section in both cultivars. The higher FaPAL6 expression and activity detected in Camarosa could be associated to the enhanced anthocyanin accumulation found in this cultivar. | 2023-12-05T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6818 |
English
Add/Remove Users in the Hub
Add/Remove Users in the Hub
Wed, 10 Jul, 2019 at 10:03 AM
Add/Invite User
This is done in the ‘Hub Management’ page by clicking the ‘+Add User’ button located at the top right corner of the page. The invitee will automatically be added to the hub and will receive an email notification. If the user doesn't have an account, they will be prompted to create an account to join the hub. A user can be an admin or a guest. If you have a large amount of users you would like to add to the hub, we recommend using our 'Import User' and 'Batch Assign' features. When you add/invite a user to the hub, that user will receive an email notification that contains a link prompting him to join the hub. Please note that clicking the link contained in the email is not mandatory as the user is immediately added to it.
After inviting a user, their email may appear in orange with a red exclamation mark(!) next to it. This means that this user does not have a BIM Track account associated to that address and they will have to create an account using the same address to access the hub/project(s).
Step-by-step Procedure:
Click at the top right of the page to add a new row at the top of the user grid.
In the email field, enter the email address of the invitee.
Optional - Click the 'Role' column to assign a specific role to that user (Guest by default).
Optional - Click the 'Projects' column to assign them to a project(s).
Click in the right column and the user will immediately have access to the hub and their assigned projects.
Removing Users from the Hub
Users can be easily removed from the hub and projects by clicking the basket icon at the right of each row in the user grid. Please note that if this user has issues assigned to them, their issues will be unassigned. For that matter, we recommend reassigning all the user's issues before doing so as once the issues are unassigned, it may be harder to find their previously assigned issues amongst all unassigned issues. | 2023-11-17T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9811 |
Los Angeles (AFP) - After a polarizing election and a swirl of controversies that further highlighted their deep divides, Americans have embraced the Texas floods as a rare opportunity to pull together as one.
Since unleashing on Friday night, monster storm Harvey has managed to not only halt normal life in Texas but also silence much of the rancor that has pervaded public discourse since Donald Trump came to power.
While the letup may only be temporary, political rivals that have been at each others' throats have been suddenly emphasizing what unites Americans, while offers of help -- from the east coast to the west -- have been gratefully received in the largest state in the south.
"I'm not hearing the vitriol that we've heard in the past seven months," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a professor at the University of Southern California.
"This is an incredibly tragic situation, so it's not without risk if you get partisan," she added.
Trump's relentless attacks on political rivals, the death of an anti-racism protester at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and fierce debate over the removal of Confederate-era statues have helped paint a picture of a country riven with division.
Trump's critics have accused him of exacerbating the divide, particularly by insisting there were "very fine people" on "both sides" of the Charlottesville protest in a free-wheeling press conference on August 15.
But two weeks on, Trump played the role of unifier in chief with a visit to Texas to survey the damage wrought by Harvey.
- 'One family' -
"Tragic times such as these bring out the best in America's character, strength, charity and resilience are those characters," Trump said on the eve of his departure.
"We see neighbor helping neighbor, friend helping friend and stranger helping stranger.
"We are one American family. We hurt together, we struggle together, and believe me, we endure together. We are one family."
Trump's words have been echoed by opponents. Nancy Pelosi, leader of Trump's rival Democrats in the House of Representatives, said the response to Harvey "reminds us our nation's best qualities: our compassion, our generosity and our unity in the face of national tragedy."
Story continues
Some of the earliest offers of help for victims of Harvey came from New York, seen in many ways as the polar opposite of Texas but which shares a common bond as a victim of another deadly hurricane, Sandy, in 2012.
"Just as this nation came together for New York in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, New York stands ready to provide these states with personnel, equipment and whatever else they might need," said Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Similar offers of help have come from states across the US, while sports and showbiz stars such as singer Beyonce and the Kardashian family have pledged significant donations. Actress Sandra Bullock has reportedly donated $1 million to the Red Cross.
Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said political unity could well unravel when it comes to the question of finding funds to help Texas bounce back.
"They have all responded well but that is not the real measure. The real measure has to do with implementing relief programs, paying for relief programs and making sure that the right people are in place to handle programs," he told AFP.
"When these budgetary matters come front and center, as we saw with Sandy, that is usually when bipartisanship quickly breaks down."
Several commentators have recalled how prominent Texan politicians such as Senator Ted Cruz tried to block federal funding for victims of Sandy.
Pete King, a congressman from New York, indicated that he would vote to help Texas after Harvey but had not forgotten what happened when it came to finding cash for his constituents and in neighboring New Jersey.
"Ted Cruz & Texas cohorts voted vs NY/NJ aid after Sandy but I'll vote 4 Harvey aid. NY wont abandon Texas. 1 bad turn doesnt deserve another," he said on Twitter. | 2024-01-17T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8095 |
Pro Hockey | ON THE NHL
Hitchcock Trying to Rekindle Star Power
Sometimes, a coach has to stand his ground and stick with what he knows best, no matter how much his players complain.
That's what is happening with one NHL team trying to turn things around after a poor start. Instead of compromising to please his players, and despite a rash of injuries, the hard-nosed coach has decided to get even tougher, questioning his players' heart and abilities.
Andy Murray and the Kings? No, it's Ken Hitchcock and the Dallas Stars.
"It's tough to kind of warn [new players] and tell them what to expect because they really don't see that or understand it until they get here and are a part of what we have here," all-star center Mike Modano said about playing for Hitchcock.
"So it's tough. I mean, you can groom them all you want but until they experience it and live through it, they are not going to have any understanding of it."
In his six seasons coaching the Stars, Hitchcock has been successful, despite occasional gripes from players about his coaching style. Remember, Hitchcock did coach Brett Hull and won a Stanley Cup with him.
But after the Stars got off to a 5-6-3-3 start and hit the road for a key three-game trip with leading centers Modano and Pierre Turgeon out of the lineup because of injuries, people wondered if Hitchcock's tough-love approach had finally become a tired act.
Hitchcock, of course, didn't believe that. For support, all he had to do was think about his franchise-best 261 victories and his five consecutive division titles. That made it a lot easier for him to demand more from his players.
"We've done some decent things offensively all year but the biggest problem has been defensively," Hitchcock said. "We've had trouble, giving up unnecessary chances.... We don't want to keep wasting great individual offensive performances.... We have to get better in that area if we are going to become an elite team again."
Hitchcock's message must have been heard because the Stars are playing disciplined hockey again."We may have realized that, 'Hey, it's time to play,"' defenseman Derian Hatcher said. "We've played well in spurts, but how many leads have we blown?"
Keys in the Stars' turnaround have been veteran center Joe Nieuwendyk, who had three goals and an assist during the West Coast trip, and Modano, who had two goals in a victory over the Kings after missing two games because of back and rib problems.
With Turgeon, sidelined since Oct. 29 because of an ankle injury, expected back soon, Hitchcock is hoping that the Stars can start stringing victories again.
"The feeling is always a relief when we win," he said. "It's not joy. Once we put some wins together, it may begin to change. But now, we're expecting something strange and bizarre to happen.... These are the baby steps we have to take."
Contraction Is Subtraction
Major league baseball apparently believes the elimination of two teams will help the game's financial situation, but the NHL has no such thoughts, according to Commissioner Gary Bettman.
"[Contraction] is not on our radar screen," Bettman said last week. "I believe that, long-term, all 30 of our teams can be successful, competitive and thrive. I have confidence, long-term, in all 30 of our teams. I believe that there are cycles for all teams, I believe there are peaks and valleys, but all 30 of our teams are in markets that we believe can support them.
"It's not anything that we're considering. It's not anything we've given any thought to. It's not something that we have any interest in doing, and I'm not prepared to engage in any speculation. It's not something that I would be inclined to support or focus on, because I believe that, long-term, all 30 of our teams are in good places, and can be supported, and can be successful. It's not something that we've given any attention to [at governors' meetings]."
Still, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig may have a good argument when he says that sometimes a league can expand too much.
Like baseball, the NHL might have added too many teams in the 1990s. The quality of the game would definitely improve if hockey cut or combined a couple of franchises. Right now, it's clear that smaller market teams can't compete year after year in the NHL and contraction could possibly help a league that appears headed for major labor problems.
Since the NHL does not have NFL-style revenue sharing, there's been talk that the league is headed for a work stoppage once the collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2003-04 season..
"The owners in the big markets care about the smaller-market teams only if [the small-market teams] can help them.... They don't want to share," said agent Pat Brisson, who became vice president and co-managing director of the IMG hockey division last month.
"Most of the owners in the big markets are not willing to give a share to the smaller-market teams. They don't want to give up what they have already gained by making the decision to have a team in the big market." | 2024-01-08T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/5615 |
Q:
Chosen.js doesn't work well with Angular directive
I created a plunker code for this question here http://plnkr.co/edit/mTaRPoAsQQQ6OSEQLS3a?p=preview
This is the HTML code of the list
<select ng-model="modSelectedState" id="inputLocation-" name="filter_location"
class="location" ng-options="state as state.full_name for state in states"
chosen="states">
<option value="">State</option>
As you can see i created a directive and named it "chosen", here is the code:
app.directive('chosen', function ($http) {
var linker = function (scope, element, attr) {
scope.$watch(scope.states, function (oldVal, newVal) {
element.trigger('liszt:updated');
});
scope.$watch(attr.ngModel, function () {
element.trigger('liszt:updated');
});
element.chosen({disable_search_threshold: 20});
};
return {
restrict: 'A',
link: linker
}
});
Please note that I am using the older version of 'chosen" which requires 'liszt:updated' instead of 'chosen:updated'
I know that the states are being populated since when I inspect the code, I can see them in the original SELECT. Any ideas?
A:
You have to set the $watch on the directive to the name of the variable on the scope that you need to monitor. What was happening was that the watch was running the 'trigger' before the list had elements.
I put some $logs so you can check
http://plnkr.co/edit/mR8WhwvJiDZMG7Nlursg?p=preview
scope.$watch('states', function (newVal, oldVal) {
element.trigger('liszt:updated');
$log.info('trigger');
});
| 2023-12-24T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9994 |
Q:
Get dates when quantity were out of stock
Trying to figure out how to get a date range result when quantity were out of stock with LINQ C#
Lets say I have a table result that looks like this
EventDate | Qty
2014-02-03 | 6
2014-02-04 | -1
2014-02-05 | -2
2014-02-06 | 2
2014-02-07 | -1
2014-02-08 | -2
2014-02-09 | -3
2014-02-10 | 5
Now I want to get a date range when qty was minus 0 in stock like this
FromDate | ToDate
2014-02-04 | 2014-02-05
2014-02-07 | 2014-02-09
Could someone help me please how to achieve that?
UPDATE
I know I can do that with multiplying the query but I would like to do that in just one LINQ query if possible.
A:
For an alternative using only built in functions,
The strategy here is to select all dates where quantity is less than zero, and for each of those dates, do a subquery that builds a list of all the dates after the current date with a quantity also less than zero. Using the TakeWhile, this will stop before the next date with a non-negative quantity. The maximum of those is then taken which is correct for the end date of the range. The final step is the GroupBy to remove all the days after the start of the "out of stock" range which map to the same end date, to leave you with a distinct range of out of stock date ranges.
As it is below, it relies on the stock levels being sorted in chronological order on input.
public class StockLevel
{
public DateTime Date { get; set; }
public int Quantity { get; set; }
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<StockLevel> stockLevels = new List<StockLevel>()
{
new StockLevel() { Date = DateTime.Parse("03-Feb-2014"), Quantity = 6 },
new StockLevel() { Date = DateTime.Parse("04-Feb-2014"), Quantity = -1 },
new StockLevel() { Date = DateTime.Parse("05-Feb-2014"), Quantity = -2 },
new StockLevel() { Date = DateTime.Parse("06-Feb-2014"), Quantity = 2 },
new StockLevel() { Date = DateTime.Parse("07-Feb-2014"), Quantity = -1 },
new StockLevel() { Date = DateTime.Parse("08-Feb-2014"), Quantity = -2 },
new StockLevel() { Date = DateTime.Parse("09-Feb-2014"), Quantity = -3 },
new StockLevel() { Date = DateTime.Parse("10-Feb-2014"), Quantity = 5 },
};
var outOfStockDates = stockLevels
.Where(a => a.Quantity < 0)
.Select(a => new
{
S1 = a.Date,
S2 = stockLevels
.Where(c => c.Date >= a.Date)
.TakeWhile(b => b.Quantity < 0)
.Select(b => b.Date).Max()
})
.GroupBy(a => a.S2, a => a.S1, (S2, S1S) => new { FromDate = S1S.Min(), ToDate = S2 });
Console.ReadKey();
}
| 2023-11-15T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8961 |
[The tobacco grower's lung: x-ray variants].
In 143 persons professionally involved with the growing and processing of tobacco roentgenologic lung examinations were carried out. The detected diseases of the respiratory system were classified as exogenous allergic alveolitis (EAA), tobacco growers disease. The proven roentgenologic lung changes were grouped in roentgenologic symptom complexes, that correlate with the clinical variations of the disease (obstructive bronchitis, bronchial asthma, recurring pneumonia). | 2023-09-22T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9235 |
Python Program to Print Multiplication Table of a given Number
In this tutorial, we will see a simple Python program to display the multiplication table of a given number.
Print Multiplication table of a given number
In the program, user is asked to enter the number and the program prints the multiplication table of the input number using for loop. The loops run from 1 to 10 and the input number is multiplied by the loop counter in each step to display the steps of multiplication table.
# Program published on https://beginnersbook.com
# Python Program to Print Multiplication Table of a Number
num = int(input("Enter the number: "))
print("Multiplication Table of", num)
for i in range(1, 11):
print(num,"X",i,"=",num * i) | 2024-01-11T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/4066 |
Hi Everyone,I'm new in this Forum but maybe some of you can help me out with some Fault Codes.The engine is Navistar T444E,Model 99,BH210.The engine starts without any problem but after aprox. 10 minutes and when i actuate the brake a few times, the rpm drop to idle.When i push the diagnosis button the following Fault Codes shows up. 111 - 155 - 131 - 124I guess i searched almost the hole Internet but i couldnt find any information.Well the only one i found is that i have to buy the software.I work since 5 years with Cummins engine(M11 Celect Plus) and for this one i have the software.I know that if i want to keep running the Navistar,i have to purchase the software.My other Problem is,the distributor here in Bolivia - South amerika doesnt have one and it will take a while to get one over here,but i need to fix the Truck this Weekend.I have the manuales for all Cummins engines but i guess that the Fault Codes are not the same or are they?By the way i have Cummins manuales in pdf.I would realy apreciate your help with this problem.Sorry about my english,my spanish and german is betterThanks in Advance,Gerd
Check your codes above . Looks like you have a connection problem or wiring harness problem at the ECM or at the fire wall connection . Remove the ECM connections and clean and apply dielectric grease check the large round firewall passthrough connector. Also check APS (Accelerator pedal) connection under dash.
Hi mrschoolbus,Thank you very much for the fast response,it is always great to meet people who is not selfish and share their knowledge with others.Your tip was right,the problem was in round firewall connector.People here like to clean the units with steam and high pressure,i found moisture inside the connector.Thanks again,Gerd | 2024-06-17T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/2689 |
#!/usr/bin/env python
# coding=utf-8
# vim: tabstop=4 expandtab shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4
from __future__ import print_function
try:
import httplib
except:
import http.client as httplib
import sys
def test(name,A,B):
if A != B:
print("-----Actual--")
print(A,"---Expected--")
print(B,"-------------")
traceback.print_tb()
sys.exit(1)
else:
print("Ok:",name)
def test_status(h,stat):
if h.status != stat:
print("Status mistmatch:",h.status,"!=",stat)
sys.exit(1)
def test_valid(name,params,ans,method='POST'):
h=httplib.HTTPConnection('localhost:8080');
headers = {"Content-type": "application/json"}
h.request(method,'/test',params,headers)
r=h.getresponse()
test(name,r.read().decode(),ans)
test_valid('sum','{"method" : "sum" , "params" : [ 1, 2 ], "id" : 1}','{"id":1,"error":null,"result":3}')
test_valid('sum wrong','{"method" : "sum" , "params" : [ 1, 10 ], "id" : null}','')
test_valid('sum wrong 1','{"method" : "sum" , "params" : [ 1 ], "id" : 1}',\
'{"id":1,"error":"Invalid parametres number","result":null}')
test_valid('sum wrong 2','{"method" : "sum" , "params" : [ 1 ,"x" ], "id" : 1}',\
'{"id":1,"error":"Invalid parameters","result":null}')
test_valid('div1','{"method" : "div" , "params" : [ 5, 2 ], "id" : "x"}','{"id":"x","error":null,"result":2}')
test_valid('div2','{"method" : "div" , "params" : [ 5, 0 ], "id" : 0}','{"id":0,"error":"Division by zero","result":null}')
test_valid('notify1','{"method" : "notify" , "params" : [ "notify" ], "id" : null}','')
test_valid('not notify','{"method" : "notify" , "params" : [ "notcalled" ], "id" : "x"}',\
'{"id":"x","error":"The request should be notification","result":null}')
test_valid('both','{"method" : "both" , "params" : [ "notification" ], "id" : null}','')
test_valid('both','{"method" : "both" , "params" : [ "foo" ], "id" : 1}','{"id":1,"error":null,"result":"call:foo"}')
test_valid('smd','','{}','GET')
| 2023-08-09T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7101 |
Background {#Sec1}
==========
Despite the unprecedented advances in biotechnology, drug discovery is still a lengthy and expensive process with low rate of new therapeutic discovery \[[@CR1]\]. Development of a new drug is estimated to take 14 years and cost approximately \$1.8 billion \[[@CR2]\]. In contrast, Literature-based Discovery (LBD) is a safe and low-cost technique that links the existing knowledge reported in unrelated literature sources for discovering new relationships \[[@CR3], [@CR4]\]. It generates scientific hypotheses that may help scientists, especially biomedical scientists, to accelerate the process of scientific discovery \[[@CR5]\]. For example, Swanson first proposed the assumption that fish oil can treat Raynaud's disease by employing LBD in 1986 \[[@CR6]\]. Two years later, this hypothesis was verified via medical experiments \[[@CR7]\]. Since then, a variety of automatically LBD approaches have been introduced to mine potential associations from literature, including statistics-based and co-occurrence based methods \[[@CR8]\]. Such methods typically search for a set of intermediate terms that frequently co-occur with a source term and a target term. However, these existing LBD methods have several limitations. Statistics-based LBD relies on the number of word frequencies in cooccurrence terms, which may make it difficult to find meaningful associations for low-frequency terms \[[@CR9]\]. Co-occurrence methods typically suffers from the imprecise meaning of such co-occurrences and logic errors \[[@CR8]\]. Hristovski et al. introduced a semantic pattern-based LBD method which may be used to find more complex hidden associations from literature \[[@CR10]\]. Semantic pattern-based methods could select more plausible associations between a source and a target concept. But the limitation is that the semantic patterns are manually selected and defined \[[@CR11]\]. In addition, a number of recent LBD methods have been proposed which utilize certain graph data structures for discovering potential associations. For example, Cameron et al. proposed to automatically constructing a biological entity sub-graph through the context information of a large-scale knowledge graph, which result in a sub-graph containing complex and important information among biological entities. According to the authors, this information can promote LBD \[[@CR12]\]. To handle large-scale knowledge graphs, random walks algorithm are often used instead of enumerating all sub-graph structures. Liu et al. proposed a method of random walks on a heterogeneous graph for drug repositioning \[[@CR13]\]. However, due to the completely randomized mechanism, random walks are inefficient for discovering new drugs. The above method ignores the relation path features information which plays an important role in LBD. Despite these considerable advances, there is still a significant room for improvement in mining drug therapies from literature.
In this paper, we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) model with attention mechanism method that exploits the drug-disease relation path features for drug discovery. The contributions of this paper are as follows: First, We commenced by constructing a biomedical knowledge graph with predications extracted from PubMed. Second, the path ranking algorithm (PRA) was adopted to generate drug-disease relation path features from the knowledge graph. Finally, a CNN based on attention mechanism model was trained as a drug discovery model. Then, we used the trained model to discover potential treatments for new diseases. To the best knowledge, this is the first method that employs CNN model with attention mechanism combined with relation path feature for drug discovery.
Methods {#Sec2}
=======
In this section, the datasets and related tools are briefly introduced. We firstly construct the biomedical knowledge graph. Then, we introduce the process of PRA obtaining data features based on the knowledge graph. After that, we use drug-disease path features to train a model, which is subsequently implemented to discover potential drugs for diseases. Finally, several metrics are introduced to measure the performance of our model and the baseline methods. Our experiment process is shown in Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}. Fig. 1The basic process of PACNN for drug discovery
Datasets {#Sec3}
--------
### PubMed {#Sec4}
PubMed is a free search engine that provides biomedical paper searches and abstracts which has increased the number of entries from 17 million to more than 23 million in just eight years \[[@CR14], [@CR15]\]. The MEDLINE database (2013 version) was the main resource for our work.
### Therapeutic target database {#Sec5}
The Therapeutic Target Database (TTD) provides a wealth of information relating drugs and targets, as well as targets and diseases. The TTD produces a large number of drug-target-disease triplets that served as an appropriate resources for our work \[[@CR16]\]. We used the standard drug-disease provided by the TTD as both training data and test data \[[@CR17]\].
Related tools and techniques {#Sec6}
----------------------------
### SemRep {#Sec7}
SemRep is a Unified Medical Language System (UMLS)-based program that identifies semantic predications in biomedical texts. In this study we used SemRep to extract semantic predications from MEDLINE database \[[@CR18]\]. Predications contain two entities and a relation, with *Triamterene*~*entity*~−*Treat*~*relation*~−*Edema*~*entity*~ being an examples of predications. Lexical ambiguity is a universal feature of natural language, similarly, there will be ambiguous words in the biomedical literature, in order to map the entities in the TTD to the knowledge graph effectively, we also used SemRep to reduce words ambiguity from TTD \[[@CR19]\].
### Path ranking algorithm {#Sec8}
Path ranking algorithm (PRA) calculates the feature matrix on the pair of nodes in the graph with labeled edges. This method has strong logical reasoning ability \[[@CR20]\]. PRA was originally used for knowledge reasoning and knowledge recommendation tasks \[[@CR21], [@CR22]\]. The PRA is divided into two processes, whereby all the relation types that connect a pair of nodes are enumerated in the first step. This is followed by calculating the relation path feature by performing a random walk on the graph. Once the path feature has been calculated, it can be used for any classification model, although in almost all previous applications, PRA works only used logistic regression \[[@CR20]\]. In this paper, the relation path features generated by PRA is used to perform the drug discovery task.
### Convolutional neural network {#Sec9}
The convolutional neural network model has achieved remarkable results in image, speech and natural language processing (NLP) \[[@CR23]\]. The core point of the convolutional neural network is that the convolutional layer can capture the local correlation of features, and the convolutional kernel of the convolutional layer realizes the function of receptive field. Finally, local information of the lower layer is extracted to reach a higher level through the convolution kernel \[[@CR24]\]. For example, in a drug discovery task, information on a single relation path can determine whether a drug-disease relationship is correct or not. A certain path relation is a good indicators of drug-disease classification \[[@CR25]\]. In this paper, we propose a CNN structure to capture relation path information for drug discovery.
### Attention mechanism {#Sec10}
In order to capture the most important feature of a path from a drug to a disease, we also introduce attention layer as one of the model layers. The attention mechanism was first applied to the image area and subsequently applied to the NLP, but attention mechanism has never been employed in the hypothesis discovery context. In this work, we used attention mechanism to identify important relation path features during the training in order to improve model power \[[@CR26]\].
Knowledge graph construction {#Sec11}
----------------------------
In general, knowledge graph (KG) comprises of different nodes and edges. In this work, we firstly obtained the predications extracted by SemRep from the biomedical text. Then, a knowledge graph was constructed by the predications. Specifically, in the KG, let *E*={*e*~1~,*e*~2~,\...,*e*~*n*~} denote the nodes and *R*={*r*~1~,*r*~2~,\...,*r*~*n*~} denote the edges, where *e* and *r* represent entity and relation, respectively. The KG structure (like a tree structure) is shown in Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}, this is a two-level relation tree example of the KG. Fig. 2Knowledge graph structure
The path ranking algorithm extract drug-disease feature {#Sec12}
-------------------------------------------------------
Given a KG, we define P as a relation path which is only composed of relations. For example: *P*~1~ : $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$e_{1}\ \underrightarrow {\text {inhibits}}\ e_{2} $\end{document}$*P*~2~ : $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$e_{1}\ \underrightarrow {\text {inhibits}}\ e_{2} \ \underrightarrow {\text {inhibits}}\ e_{3} $\end{document}$*P*~3~ : $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$e_{4}\ \underrightarrow {\text {inhibits}}\ e_{5} \ \underrightarrow {\text {inhibits}}\ e_{6} $\end{document}$*P*~4~ : $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{upgreek}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$e_{1}\ \underrightarrow {\text {inhibits}}\ e_{2} \ \underrightarrow {\text {stimulates}}\ e_{3} $\end{document}$*P*~5~ : $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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In the above example, *P*~2~ and *P*~3~ are the same relation path, because *P*~2~ and *P*~3~ contain the same relations although they contains different entities. In contrast, *P*~4~ and *P*~5~ are different relation paths due to the order of relations is different. Based on the above cases, we obtained 4 types of relation paths: *P*~1~ : $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$\ \underrightarrow {\text {stimulates}}\ \ \underrightarrow {\text {inhibits}}\ $\end{document}$
In this work, each type of relation path is considered as a feature for training our drug discovery model. The PRA firstly enumerates all relation paths connecting two nodes. Then, the PRA recursively calculates the probability *h*~*i*,*P*(*j*)~ of the two nodes under each relation $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ h_{i,P(j)}=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} 1, & \text{if j = i}\\ 0, & \text{otherwise} \end{array}\right. $$ \end{document}$$
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\begin{document}$P= R_{1},R_{2},...,R_{n} \phantom {\dot {i}\!}$\end{document}$, and we let $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ h_{i,P(j)}= \sum_{j^{\prime} \in \text{range}(P^{\prime})} h_{i,P^{\prime}(j^{\prime})} \cdot P(j|j^{\prime};R_{n}) $$ \end{document}$$
Where $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$\phantom {\dot {i}\!}range\left (P^{'}\right)$\end{document}$ represents that under the relation *R*~*n*~, the set of entities connected to the *j*. Where $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$\phantom {\dot {i}\!}\it {j^{'}}$\end{document}$ under the relation *R*~*n*~, $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$P\left (j|j^{'};R_{n}\right)=\frac {R_{n}\left (j^{'},j\right)}{R_{n}\left (j^{'},*\right)}\phantom {\dot {i}\!}$\end{document}$, $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$\phantom {\dot {i}\!}R\left (j^{'},j\right)$\end{document}$ presents whether exists an edge connect *i* to *j* under the relation *R*.
For example, the number of relation types is *m*, and the length of the relation path is *l*. The feature length $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$h_{i,P_{k}(j)}$\end{document}$ as a feature for *i* and *j*. $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ \pi=\left[h_{i,P_{1}(j)},h_{i,P_{2}(j)},...,h_{i,P_{L}(j)}\right] $$ \end{document}$$
Given a drug-target-disease triplets, which provides the information concerning targets and their corresponding drugs and diseases. The process of feature extraction by PRA is as follows: First, PRA obtains the a vector of relation path features between drug and target, which is denoted as *π*~*drug*−*target*~. Similarly, we then obtain the feature vector *π*~*target*−*disease*~ which denotes the relations path features between target and disease. After that, the concatenation of two feature vectors *π*~*drug*−*target*−*disease*~ is considered as the features for the given drug-target-disease triplet. Therefore, for each drug-target-disease, a training data (*π*~*train*~,*y*) is constructed, where *y* is a boolean variable indicating whether the case is positive.
Training model {#Sec13}
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This work employs CNN based on attention mechanism as the basic model. The neural network model structure is shown in Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}, our model is trained to predict conditional probability *P*(*y*\|*π*;*θ*). where *θ* are parameters of our model for the relation path features. Let *p*~*i*~ be the path feature of drug-target-disease, a set of path feature represents as $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ p_{k:n}=p_{1} \oplus p_{2} \oplus... \oplus p_{n} $$ \end{document}$$ Fig. 3The architecture of neural networks for drug discovery
Where ⊕ indicate concatenation, the CNN sliding window size is *k*, the vectors became as follows after falling into sliding windows, $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ P_{k}=\left[ p_{k},p_{k+1},...,p_{k+m-1} \right] $$ \end{document}$$
Combine the window with the filter to convolutional operation for obtaining new features. $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ Y_{k}=f(P_{k} \odot W + b) $$ \end{document}$$
Where *f* is a nonlinear activation function, in this experiment, we utilize the ReLU activation function; ⊙ is the convolution operator; *W* is the convolution kernel; *b* is bias term. Then, this operation makes a feature map, such as $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ C=\left[ c_{1},c_{2},...,c_{n-k+1} \right] $$ \end{document}$$
Where *C*∈*R*^*n*−*k*+1^, we employ max pooling layer on the feature map which keeps the most important feature for each map. Not all relation path features contribute equally to the representation of the drug-disease relation. Here, we employ attention mechanism to extract relation path that are important to the association of the drug-disease \[[@CR27]\]. Due to the drug-disease relation types are too many, three-layer CNN are used to compress the number of relation types. We get *h*~*it*~ from CNN max pooling layer, *t*∈\[0,*L*\], *L* is the number of relation types after compression, the attention layer calculations formula is as follows $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ u_{it}=tanh\left(W_{w} h_{it} + b_{w}\right) $$ \end{document}$$
Where *W*~*w*~ is the attention layer weights matrix, *b*~*w*~ is bias term. $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ \alpha_{it} = \frac{exp\left({u_{it}}^{T} u_{s}\right)}{\sum_{t} exp\left({u_{it}}^{T} u_{s}\right)} $$ \end{document}$$
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\begin{document} $$ s_{i}={\sum_{t} {\alpha_{it} h_{it}}} $$ \end{document}$$
Then we measure the significance of the relation path feature, weight is obtained by calculating the similarity of *u*~*it*~ to the relation context vector *u*~*s*~, and the softmax method generate a normalized significance weight *α*~*it*~. After that, we obtain the relation path vector *s*~*i*~ through a weighted sum of the relation path based on the weights. In the end of the neural networks, we combine with fully connected layer and softmax layer, the softmax layer classify the drug-disease feature into two categories and give the probability for each category. While training the model, tune model parameters by gradient descent and back propagation.
Implementation for drug discovery {#Sec14}
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In order to determine the effectiveness of drug treatment for a particular disease, whereby all drugs may become candidates for the discovery of drugs that can treat diseases. Every *drug*~*candidate*~−*target*~*candidate*~−*disease* relation path feature as *π*~*candidate*~. A candidate drug produce many sets of relation paths features as *¶*~*candidate*~=\[*π*~1~,*π*~2~,\...,*π*~*n*~\] by aforementioned method, whereby the candidate drug score is defined below $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ score\left({drug}_{candidate}\right)=\frac{1} {\eta} \sum sorted(d(y \geq0.5|\P,\theta))[:\eta] $$ \end{document}$$
Where *d* is discriminate methods with parameter *θ*. Our method gives every case positive category probability, and all cases are ranked from large to small according to the probability *y*. Thus, all cases probability ranked in the top *η%* are selected. Finally, the candidate drugs are ranked according to their scores.
Random walk baseline method {#Sec15}
---------------------------
Here, we compare our method with some baseline which use the Random Walk (RW), the RW generates Markov chains on a directed graph and will reach a equilibirum state in a certain number of steps \[[@CR28]\]. We define a state transition probability matrix *P*, and *P*~*ij*~ indicates the probability of the two-node connection on the graph \[[@CR29]\]. $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ P_{i j}=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} 1/d_{i}, & j \in Adj(i)\\ 0, & j\notin Adj(i) \end{array}\right. $$ \end{document}$$
Where node *i* out-degree is *d*~*i*~, *Adj*(*i*) is the set of adjacent nodes of *i*, $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$\sum _{j=1}^{N} P_{i j}=1$\end{document}$, within one step, the probability of a node jumping to all neighboring nodes are the same. We define *M*=(*P*~*ij*~)*i*,*j*∈*N* as Markov start chain \[[@CR30]\]. Matrix transfer rules are as follows $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ M^{t+1}=P^{T}M^{t} $$ \end{document}$$
In the matrix *M*^*t*^, the $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$M^{t}_{i j}$\end{document}$ is the probability of starting node *i* reaches node *j* in *t* steps. Figure. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"} shows how the drug 'chlorpromazine' random walks to the disease 'cardiachypertrophy'. Figure. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}a is a semantic graph with weights. Figure. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}b shows the results of random walks with different steps. In this example, 'chlorpromazine' as the initail node can not reach the 'cardiachypertrophy' in step-1, thus, the score of candidate drug 'chlorpromazine' is 0. When the number of steps exceeds 2, the 'chlorpromazine' can reach the 'cardiachypertrophy'. The 0.665, 0.165, and 0.0825 represent the scores of the 'chlorpromazine' treating the 'cardiachypertrophy' in different steps, respectively. RW calculates the candidate drugs score for the disease, and the candidate drugs are ranked according to the score. Fig. 4Random Walk for drug discovery **a** is semantic graph, **b** is the results of the random walks
Results {#Sec16}
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In this section, we first introduce the details of the KG and the training data, followed by several metrics used to measure the performance of our method. Finally, we present several cases to show the ability of our model for discovering potential drug.
Data preparation {#Sec17}
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In this work, we extracted 1,714 drug-target-disease cases from TTD as golden standard cases, see Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}. It is necessary to ensure that the nodes of triplet exist in the KG, and set the path relation length *l* to 2 and relation types *m* to 52, each data feature length is (52+52^2^)+(52+52^2^), KG materials shown in Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}. The number of false samples is the same as that of positive samples, which is randomly selected where they not exist in TTD. Table 1Corpus materials statisticsKG materialsNumberPubMed abstracts22,769,789Predications39,133,975Entities658,151Relation types52
Implementation details {#Sec18}
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We implemented our methods using the Scikit-learn and Keras library \[[@CR31], [@CR32]\]. We used softmax for drug-disease relation classifiers, the filter numbers of the three CNNs were 128, the number of neurons of attention layer is 128 and Softmax layer is 256, the mini-batch size was set as 52, the model was trained for at most 12 epochs.
Ten-fold cross-validation {#Sec19}
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We conducted ten-fold cross validation to evaluate the performance of our method. The data set was divided into ten parts, and nine of which were taken as the training data and one was used as the test data. Each test will result in a corresponding predicted score. The average of the predicted score of the 10 results is used as an estimate of the algorithm performance. The experiment uses the precision rate (P), recall rate (R), and f-score (F) to evaluate the model effectiveness. The specific calculation formula is as follows $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document} $$ P=\frac{N_{TP}}{N_{TP} + N_{FP}} $$ \end{document}$$
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\begin{document} $$ R=\frac{N_{TP}}{N_{TP} + N_{FN}} $$ \end{document}$$
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\begin{document} $$ F=\frac{2P\cdot R}{P + R} $$ \end{document}$$
Define a data set: The number of samples is represented by *N*, *N*~*TP*~ represents positive samples and prediction is positive samples too; *N*~*FN*~ represents positive samples but prediction is negative samples. *N*~*TN*~ represents negative samples and prediction is negative samples. *N*~*FP*~ is actually a negative sample, but the prediction is a positive sample.
Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"} shows the results of a comparison between our PACNN model and other state-of-the-art methods. Table 2The performance of different modelMethodsPrecision(%)Recall(%)F-score (%)SVM78.5571.6969.73RF84.7384.4984.38LR87.0086.3086.14CNN90.8190.8290.76PACNN91.5091.5091.46
From Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"} we can see that PACNN model outperforms Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, Logistic Regression and Convolutional Neural Network. The input features of the machine learning model are the same as the PACNN, and the parameters of machine learning methods are set according to the best experimental results. The PACNN model and the CNN model have the same parameter settings, except that the PACNN adds an attention layer behind the CNN. We argue that PACNN model classify drug-disease more effectively. It can not only extract more abundant features with CNN from a drug-disease, but also capture important path features with the attention layer. In order to verify that the relation path feature is more suitable for our proposed model, we use two alternatives to verify the validity of the feature. In one method, we convert the path non-zero feature to a random value between 0 and 1, while in the other, we convert all non-zero features to 1. Our proposed relation path feature has greatly improved, comparing to the other features. Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"} shows the results, indicating that the PRA not only keeps the inference mode, but the relation path feature preserves the significant information about drug-disease. Table 3The PACNN model with different embedding featureMethodsPrecision(%)Recall(%)F-score(%)PACNN-random83.2182.6882.53PACNN-one86.4385.7985.56PACNN-pra91.5091.5091.46
Drug rediscovery {#Sec20}
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To verify the ability of the model to discover new drugs for known disease, we selected 300 gold standard drug-disease from TTD, see Additional file [2](#MOESM2){ref-type="media"}, while there are 96 drug-disease directly connected in the KG, resulting in 204 cases. For a new disease, we randomly selected 100 candidate drugs as potential drugs, while also including standard drugs for treating diseases. Since the mechanism by which the drug acts on the disease is not clear, in order to ensure that the drug candidate can be linked to the disease under the corresponding target, we selected 3,564 targets from TTD as candidate targets. The validation criteria for drug discovery experiments are candidate drug score mean rank and hit\@10, indicating that the candidate drug score rank in top 10. In fact, the scores of candidate drugs are ranked in top, indicating that the candidate drug is closer to the real therapeutic drug. If a drug for treating the disease is not found, the corresponding drug score and mean rank are not considered in the total number.
NRWRH and TP-NRWRH are additional baseline methods, both of which are drug repositioning methods employing random walks with heterogeneous network. The difference is that TP-NRWRH uses two-pass random walks \[[@CR13], [@CR33]\]. For the drug-disease score and ranking, this work set the RW maximum steps size is 5, and the parameters of other baseline methods are set the recommended settings in their experiment. In Table [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"} methods column, RW-2 represents random walks algorithm step is 2, if a drug reach to a disease in 1 step, it indicates that the drug has a therapeutic effect on the disease. The 'Not Found' column indicates that the current method cannot find the known drug number. Table [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"} shows that, if the number of the walk steps exceeds 3, all drugs can be found by the RW. This means that all drugs and diseases are connected in at least 3 steps in the KG. On the other hand, 20 and 13 drugs are not found by the NRWRH and TP-NRWRH, respectively. Although the number of walking steps of these two methods is 3, due to they use restart random walks on the heterogeneous network, the drug can not reach the disease accurately. In Table [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"}, the best result of 'Mean Ranking' column RW method is 55.26 by the RW-2. When the steps increase, the more candidate drug will be found, this will increase the mean ranking of the RW. NRWRH and TP-NRWRH outperform the RW, as the random walks are based on specific a heterogeneous network. In addition, in the column 'Hits\@10', the performance of NRWRH and TP-NRWRH is still better than RW. We see that, when the steps increase, the mean ranking and hit\@10 score approach the steady state. Finally, from Table [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"} we see that PACNN shows the best performance on two tests, as the 'Mean Ranking' is 37.53 and 'Hit\@10' is 38.23%. Compared with random walk based methods, our method not only finds all candidate drugs but produces the best results. Additionally, we vary the settings of *η* to see how different percentage data affects the results. A set of scores are produced by a candidate drug and we would normally select the greatest among these values for the candidate drug. Due to the same scores are produced in 100 candidate drugs, while the number of intermediate candidate targets for each candidate drug and disease is uncertain. Thus, we chose the average of the different proportions of a set of scores as the final candidate drug score. We set *η* as top 5%, 10%, 20%, 50%, and 100% respectively. In addition, when the model prediction case is negative, we filter out data with the probability less than 0.5. In Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}, we can see that when the data reached top 20%, the best results were achieved in both tests. Fig. 5The performance of different percentage data Table 4Drug rediscovery performanceMethodsNot foundMean rankingHit\@10(%)RW-23355.2617.54RW-3063.2811.76RW-4064.0410.78RW-5064.5710.78NRWRH2058.1421.19TP-NRWRH1341.5429.31Our method037.5338.23
Case study {#Sec21}
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To demonstrate the capabilities of our model, we show 12 samples that ranked in top 10. PACNN can predict candidate drug that is reported by TTD as capable of curing a disease. From Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"} we can see that the drug 'Typherix' treats disease 'Salmonella infection', it ranked 1st as the candidate drug and TTD provides a research phase in the treatment of diseases at the column 'Drug Status'. Table 5Case study: rediscover known drugs for diseasesDrugDiseaseRankDrug statusTypherixSalmonella infection1ApprovedINS-1Metabolic disease2ApprovedTriamtereneEdema5ApprovedTriamtereneCongestive heart failure3ApprovedAnapsosAtopic dermatitis3ApprovedBrevenalCystic fibrosis2InvestigativeDiphencyproneAlopecia7Phase 2ECFCsCardiovascular disorder7InvestigativePneumovax 23Otitis media1ApprovedMesoglycanCerebrovascular disorders1ApprovedLASSBio-294Hypertension6InvestigativeSimethiconeDyspepsia9Approved
Discussion {#Sec22}
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According to the experimental results, our proposed model can effectively carry out the LBD task. This is the first attempt to employ PRA and attention mechanism for LBD. However, there are several limitations affecting our works. First, the data set used to train the model is small, and this will lead to weaker generalization. Thus, it would be useful to combine other drug-disease databases, such as Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) and Drugbank for addressing this limitation \[[@CR34], [@CR35]\]. In order to maintain the great connectivity of the KG, we have chosen all the predications as graph components. Since a predication may be erroneous, this will reduce the efficiency of our model. This limitation can be eliminated by improving the NLP technology. Another limitation is that PACNN needs to obtain all the relation paths between drugs and diseases. When the size of the knowledge base is large, it is difficult for our method to produce a more complex relation path. When the PRA is faced with a larger knowledge base, the computational efficiency will be greatly reduced, which must also be solved in future studies.
Conclusion {#Sec23}
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In this study, we presented a relation path features embedding based CNN with attention mechanism for discovering potential drugs from literature. Relation path feature embedding proved to be effective for capturing the association about drug-disease, thus we utilized PRA to get drug-disease relation path feature. Compared with other methods, the CNN based on attention mechanism can better identify the important relation feature of drug-disease, so that new drugs can be accurately discovered. Our method could be an auxiliary method for drug discovery, which can speed up the discovery of new drugs for the incurable diseases.
For the future work, we plan to explore an efficient path walk algorithm that is better adapted to large knowledge base. We are interested in applying our model to literature mining in other fields, such as economics. We will continue to explore the innovation and application of deep learning and machine learning on LBD tasks.
Additional files
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{#Sec24}
Additional file 1The 1714 drug-target-disease cases which are extracted from Therapeutic Target Database(TTD) as true cases for constructing training data. (TXT 87 kb)
Additional file 2The gold standard drug-disease cases extracted from TTD. There are 300 drug-disease case are selected from TTD as gold standard test data for drug rediscovery. (TXT 11 kb)
CNN
: Convolutional neural network
LBD
: Literature-based discovery
LR
: Logistic regression
NLP
: Natural language processing
RF
: Random forest
SVM
: Support vector machine
TTD
: Therapeutic target database
Funding {#d29e3521}
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Publication costs are funded by the National Key Research Development Program of China (No. 2016YFB1001103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61572098, 61572102).
Availability of data and materials {#d29e3526}
==================================
Some of the data generated in this study are contained in supplementary information files. The data can be used for further study.
About this supplement {#d29e3531}
=====================
This article has been published as part of *BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making Volume 19 Supplement 2, 2019: Proceedings from the 4th China Health Information Processing Conference (CHIP 2018)*. The full contents of the supplement are available online at URL. <https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/supplements/volume-19-supplement-2>.
DZ conceived, designed, performed the analyses, interpreted the results and wrote the manuscript. JW supervised the work and STS edited the manuscript. HFL,JBW and CMY revised this manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Ethics approval and consent to participate
==========================================
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
=======================
Not applicable.
Competing interests
===================
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Publisher's Note
================
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
| 2023-12-07T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6054 |
Dascyllus spp.: new hosts for lymphocystis, and a list of recent hosts.
Lymphocystis disease is reported for the first time from the white-tailed damselfish, Dascyllus aruanus, and the black-tailed humbug, Dascyllus melanurus. Both species are commercially important exotic aquarium fish from the Indo-Australian Pacific. Lymphocystis is recorded again from the copper banded angelfish, Chelmon rostratus. An updated host list for the disease is included. | 2024-06-07T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1268 |
Q:
Sequence hava a segment in oracle? And a procedure?
I have a question about Oracle Database.
Have a sequence a segment in Oracle? And a procedure have a segment too?
Thank you!
A:
Sequences and procedures don't own segments in Oracle database. Oracle database stores metadata related to them in catalog structure.
You can check USER_\ALL_\DBA_SEGMENT views and you will not spot segment type SEQUENCE or PROCEDURE in column SEGMENT_TYPE (Documnetation).
| 2024-03-21T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/3129 |
Q:
TextMining of Twitter DB in RapidMiner evaluates all comments in a only way
I'm trying to use SVMs in RapidMiner to classify tweets contained in a database (TASS 2014 corpus), however, regardless of what that says Performance module, the applied model ends always evaluating all tweets in one way (ie all positive, all negative, all neutral, or all none). Not sure if I'm taking a misconfiguration.
After Multipliy operator, roles outputs are (first roles, second name, third type):
text, text, text
label, value, nominal
id, tweetid, nominal
After September Operator Role (2), roles outputs are (roles first, second name, third type):
label, text, text
id, tweetid, nominal
Then, I add the XML code of RapidMiner:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<process version="5.3.015">
<context>
<input/>
<output/>
<macros/>
</context>
<operator activated="true" class="process" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" name="Process">
<process expanded="true">
<operator activated="false" class="read_database" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="60" name="Read Database" width="90" x="45" y="30">
<parameter key="connection" value="sqlserver2014"/>
<parameter key="query" value="SELECT TOP 4246 "content", "tweetid", "value" FROM "dbo"."TweetsTrainClean" WHERE 'POS'=SUBSTRING(value,1,3) UNION ALL SELECT TOP 4246 "content", "tweetid", "value" FROM "dbo"."TweetsTrainClean" WHERE 'NEU'=SUBSTRING(value,1,3) UNION ALL SELECT TOP 4246 "content", "tweetid", "value" FROM "dbo"."TweetsTrainClean" WHERE 'NEG'=SUBSTRING(value,1,3)"/>
<enumeration key="parameters"/>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="read_database" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="60" name="Read Database (5)" width="90" x="45" y="300">
<parameter key="connection" value="sqlserver2014"/>
<parameter key="query" value="SELECT top 1000 * FROM "dbo"."TweetsGeneralClean""/>
<enumeration key="parameters"/>
</operator>
<operator activated="false" class="read_database" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="60" name="Read Database (2)" width="90" x="45" y="210">
<parameter key="connection" value="sqlserver2014"/>
<parameter key="query" value="SELECT * FROM ( SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY tweetid) AS RowNum FROM "dbo"."TweetsGeneralClean" ) AS tabla WHERE tabla.RowNum BETWEEN 30000 AND 64798"/>
<enumeration key="parameters"/>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="select_attributes" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="Select Attributes (2)" width="90" x="179" y="255">
<parameter key="attribute_filter_type" value="subset"/>
<parameter key="attributes" value="|tweetid|content"/>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="text:process_document_from_data" compatibility="5.3.002" expanded="true" height="76" name="Process Documents from Data (2)" width="90" x="313" y="255">
<parameter key="keep_text" value="true"/>
<list key="specify_weights"/>
<process expanded="true">
<connect from_port="document" to_port="document 1"/>
<portSpacing port="source_document" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_document 1" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_document 2" spacing="0"/>
</process>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="set_role" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="Set Role (2)" width="90" x="447" y="255">
<parameter key="attribute_name" value="text"/>
<parameter key="target_role" value="label"/>
<list key="set_additional_roles">
<parameter key="tweetid" value="id"/>
</list>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="read_database" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="60" name="Read Database (3)" width="90" x="45" y="75">
<parameter key="connection" value="sqlserver2014"/>
<parameter key="query" value="select "content","tweetid","value" from "dbo"."TweetsTrainClean" where 'POS'=SUBSTRING("value",1,3) or 'NEG'=SUBSTRING("value",1,3) 	or 'NEU'=SUBSTRING("value",1,3) or 'NON'=SUBSTRING("value",1,3) order by rand()"/>
<enumeration key="parameters"/>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="text_to_nominal" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="Text to Nominal" width="90" x="112" y="120">
<parameter key="attribute_filter_type" value="single"/>
<parameter key="attribute" value="value"/>
<parameter key="attributes" value="|type|value"/>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="set_role" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="Set Role" width="90" x="179" y="30">
<parameter key="attribute_name" value="tweetid"/>
<parameter key="target_role" value="id"/>
<list key="set_additional_roles">
<parameter key="value" value="label"/>
</list>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="nominal_to_text" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="Nominal to Text" width="90" x="246" y="120">
<parameter key="attribute_filter_type" value="single"/>
<parameter key="attribute" value="content"/>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="text:process_document_from_data" compatibility="5.3.002" expanded="true" height="76" name="Process Documents from Data" width="90" x="313" y="30">
<parameter key="keep_text" value="true"/>
<list key="specify_weights"/>
<process expanded="true">
<connect from_port="document" to_port="document 1"/>
<portSpacing port="source_document" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_document 1" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_document 2" spacing="0"/>
</process>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="multiply" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="94" name="Multiply" width="90" x="380" y="120"/>
<operator activated="true" class="x_validation" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="112" name="Validation" width="90" x="514" y="30">
<parameter key="number_of_validations" value="5"/>
<parameter key="sampling_type" value="linear sampling"/>
<process expanded="true">
<operator activated="true" class="select_attributes" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="Select Attributes" width="90" x="45" y="30">
<parameter key="attribute_filter_type" value="no_missing_values"/>
<parameter key="attribute" value="content"/>
<parameter key="attributes" value="tweetid|type||content"/>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="nominal_to_binominal" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="94" name="Nominal to Binominal" width="90" x="45" y="120">
<parameter key="attribute_filter_type" value="single"/>
<parameter key="attribute" value="value"/>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="polynomial_by_binomial_classification" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="Polynominal by Binominal Classification" width="90" x="45" y="255">
<process expanded="true">
<operator activated="true" class="support_vector_machine_linear" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="SVM (Linear)" width="90" x="45" y="255"/>
<connect from_port="training set" to_op="SVM (Linear)" to_port="training set"/>
<connect from_op="SVM (Linear)" from_port="model" to_port="model"/>
<portSpacing port="source_training set" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_model" spacing="0"/>
</process>
</operator>
<connect from_port="training" to_op="Select Attributes" to_port="example set input"/>
<connect from_op="Select Attributes" from_port="example set output" to_op="Nominal to Binominal" to_port="example set input"/>
<connect from_op="Nominal to Binominal" from_port="example set output" to_op="Polynominal by Binominal Classification" to_port="training set"/>
<connect from_op="Polynominal by Binominal Classification" from_port="model" to_port="model"/>
<portSpacing port="source_training" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_model" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_through 1" spacing="0"/>
</process>
<process expanded="true">
<operator activated="true" class="apply_model" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="Apply Model" width="90" x="45" y="30">
<list key="application_parameters"/>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="performance" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="Performance" width="90" x="179" y="30"/>
<connect from_port="model" to_op="Apply Model" to_port="model"/>
<connect from_port="test set" to_op="Apply Model" to_port="unlabelled data"/>
<connect from_op="Apply Model" from_port="labelled data" to_op="Performance" to_port="labelled data"/>
<connect from_op="Performance" from_port="performance" to_port="averagable 1"/>
<portSpacing port="source_model" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="source_test set" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="source_through 1" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_averagable 1" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_averagable 2" spacing="0"/>
</process>
</operator>
<operator activated="true" class="apply_model" compatibility="5.3.015" expanded="true" height="76" name="Apply Model (2)" width="90" x="648" y="210">
<list key="application_parameters"/>
</operator>
<connect from_op="Read Database (5)" from_port="output" to_op="Select Attributes (2)" to_port="example set input"/>
<connect from_op="Select Attributes (2)" from_port="example set output" to_op="Process Documents from Data (2)" to_port="example set"/>
<connect from_op="Process Documents from Data (2)" from_port="example set" to_op="Set Role (2)" to_port="example set input"/>
<connect from_op="Set Role (2)" from_port="example set output" to_op="Apply Model (2)" to_port="unlabelled data"/>
<connect from_op="Read Database (3)" from_port="output" to_op="Text to Nominal" to_port="example set input"/>
<connect from_op="Text to Nominal" from_port="example set output" to_op="Set Role" to_port="example set input"/>
<connect from_op="Set Role" from_port="example set output" to_op="Nominal to Text" to_port="example set input"/>
<connect from_op="Nominal to Text" from_port="example set output" to_op="Process Documents from Data" to_port="example set"/>
<connect from_op="Process Documents from Data" from_port="example set" to_op="Multiply" to_port="input"/>
<connect from_op="Multiply" from_port="output 1" to_op="Validation" to_port="training"/>
<connect from_op="Multiply" from_port="output 2" to_port="result 1"/>
<connect from_op="Validation" from_port="model" to_op="Apply Model (2)" to_port="model"/>
<connect from_op="Validation" from_port="averagable 1" to_port="result 3"/>
<connect from_op="Apply Model (2)" from_port="labelled data" to_port="result 2"/>
<portSpacing port="source_input 1" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_result 1" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_result 2" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_result 3" spacing="0"/>
<portSpacing port="sink_result 4" spacing="0"/>
</process>
</operator>
</process>
A:
I don't have access to the data so I can't be sure for certain but I assume one of the attributes contains the complete tweet text as a few words.
With that assumption, the Process Documents operator needs to contain operators to split the text into tokens. Use the Tokenize operator for this and simply place it inside each of the Process Documents operators.
In addition, the word list output generated by the Process Documents for the training operation should be connected to the Process Documents operator which builds the test set. This is important as it eliminates any additional attributes from appearing in the test set that correspond to words that have not been seen during the training and therefore ensures the model will be applied correctly.
| 2023-12-23T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6872 |
/************************************************************************\
** Project **
** ______ ______ __ ______ ____ **
** / ____/ / __ / / / / __ / / __/ (c) 2011-2014 **
** / /__ / /_/ / / / / /_/ / / /_ **
** /___ / / ____/ / / / __ / / __/ Erik Osheim, Tom Switzer **
** ____/ / / / / / / / | | / /__ **
** /_____/ /_/ /_/ /_/ |_| /____/ All rights reserved. **
** **
** Redistribution and use permitted under the MIT license. **
** **
\************************************************************************/
package spire
package random
package rng
import spire.syntax.cfor._
import spire.math.max
/**
* This object provides helper functions used for seeding arrays of integers or longs.
*
* The seeding functions are an adaptation/port of code from the the 32-bit and 64-bit implementations of MersenneTwister (MT19937.c, MT19937-64.c).
*
* <p>MersenneTwister is a fast, 623-dimensionally equidistributed pseudo random number generator
* with a <tt>2<sup>19937</sup> - 1</tt> long period.
*
* <p><b>Reference: </b>
* Makato Matsumoto and Takuji Nishimura:
* "Mersenne Twister: A 623-Dimensionally Equidistributed Uniform Pseudo-Random Number Generator",
* <i>ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation,</i> Vol. 8, No. 1, January 1998, pp 3--30.
*
* @see <a href="http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/MT2002/CODES/mt19937ar.c">MT19937.c</a>
* @see <a href="http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/VERSIONS/C-LANG/mt19937-64.c">MT19937-64.c</a>
* @see <a href="http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html">Mersenne Twister Home Page</a>
* @see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_twister">Mersenne Twister @ Wikipedia</a>
* @author <a href="mailto:dusan.kysel@gmail.com">Dušan Kysel</a>
*/
object Utils {
/*
final class IntArrayWrapper(transform: Int => Int, array: Array[Int]) {
def apply(i: Int) = array(transform(i))
def update(i: Int, v: Int) = array(transform(i)) = v
}
final class LongArrayWrapper(transform: Int => Int, array: Array[Long]) {
def apply(i: Int) = array(transform(i))
def update(i: Int, v: Int) = array(transform(i)) = v
}
*/
@volatile private var seedUniquifier = 8682522807148012L
def intFromTime(time: Long = System.nanoTime) : Int = {
longFromTime(time).toInt
}
def longFromTime(time: Long = System.nanoTime) : Long = {
seedUniquifier += 1
(seedUniquifier + time)
}
def seedFromInt(length: Int, seed: Int = 5489): Array[Int] = {
val a = new Array[Int](length)
a(0) = seed
cfor(1)(_ < length, _ + 1) { i =>
val x = a(i - 1)
a(i) = 1812433253 * (x ^ (x >>> 30)) + i
}
a
}
def seedFromLong(length: Int, seed: Long = 5489): Array[Long] = {
val a = new Array[Long](length)
a(0) = seed
cfor(1)(_ < length, _ + 1) { i =>
val x = a(i - 1)
a(i) = 6364136223846793005L * (x ^ (x >>> 62)) + i
}
a
}
def seedFromArray(length: Int, seed: Array[Int]): Array[Int] = {
val a = seedFromInt(length, 19650218)
val length_1 = length - 1
var i = 1
var j = 0
var k = max(length, seed.length)
while (k != 0) {
val x = a(i - 1)
a(i) = a(i) ^ ((x ^ (x >>> 30)) * 1664525) + seed(j) + j
i += 1
j += 1
if (i >= length) {
a(0) = a(length_1)
i = 1
}
if (j >= seed.length) {
j = 0
}
k -= 1
}
k = length_1
while (k != 0) {
val x = a(i - 1)
a(i) = a(i) ^ ((x ^ (x >>> 30)) * 1566083941) - i
i += 1
if (i >= length) {
a(0) = a(length_1)
i = 1
}
k -= 1
}
a(0) = 0x80000000 // MSB is 1; assuring non-zero initial array
a
}
def seedFromArray(length: Int, seed: Array[Long]): Array[Long] = {
val a = seedFromLong(length, 19650218)
val length_1 = length - 1
var i = 1
var j = 0
var k = max(length, seed.length)
while (k != 0) {
val x = a(i - 1)
a(i) = a(i) ^ ((x ^ (x >>> 62)) * 3935559000370003845L) + seed(j) + j
i += 1
j += 1
if (i >= length) {
a(0) = a(length_1)
i = 1
}
if (j >= seed.length) {
j = 0
}
k -= 1
}
k = length - 1
while (k != 0) {
val x = a(i - 1)
a(i) = a(i) ^ ((x ^ (x >>> 62)) * 2862933555777941757L) - i
i += 1
if (i >= length) {
a(0) = a(length_1)
i = 1
}
k -= 1
}
a(0) = 1L << 63 // MSB is 1; assuring non-zero initial array
a
}
}
| 2023-08-13T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6873 |
The only thing constant is change. There is no state of mind or stage of life that remains the same. What makes transitions feel so difficult for many of us? As a Psychotherapist, I have the opportunity to help people with the obstacles that surface during developmental passages. The number one emotion people describe during transitions is fear of the unknown.
Think about the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz”. Dorothy fell asleep and dreamt that her home was catapulted into the sky by a tornado. She finds herself in the land of Oz, which she experiences as both exciting and terrifying. She does not recognize her surroundings or the people in Oz. Along her journey down the yellow brick road, Dorothy makes friends with the Tin man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion. The four of them search together for the wizard whom they think possesses the magic that will give them courage, direction, and strength. However, they learned that the wizard did not exist and that all along, they each had the power inside of them.
Like the characters in the wizard of Oz, many people including college freshman are uncertain about their new environment, their capabilities, and their newfound autonomy during times of transitions. Gone are the days of the womb providing safety or the umbilical cord providing nurturance. From this day forward, they must find their way facing many choices and newfound independence. They feel insecure and are anxious about adapting to their new life. Like Dorothy who wants the magic of the wizard, many college students feel homesick and yearn for their parent’s guidance. They miss and long to be taken care of like they once were. College freshman feel as if they have landed in Oz, navigating a new environment, new people, and the task of taking responsibility for themselves. For a college student navigating independence means being faced with difficult choices. They need to individuate from their parents and learn to rely on their own wisdom. They are painstakingly aware that they are not in Kansas anymore!
Not only is leaving home a symbolic milestone for teens but it is equally significant for parents. They must make their own difficult transition. Parents have lived through a tornado of college applications and preparation and are now faced with the aftermath of a once full house. While they may have complained about their busy schedules comprised of juggling various carpools and obligations, it is inevitable that they notice the emptiness. This stage in the college parent’s life can trigger loss and can be a reminder of many other losses including their own experience leaving home. Parents must allow them room to separate and become a consultant to their young adult child rather than an advisor.
Parents who become empty nesters may struggle to reinvent themselves and may wish for a wizard to reveal the secret ingredient for a alternative life. This unknown territory for some parents, unravels their equilibrium, making it difficult to recover. Some marriages thrive after their kids have left home, and some will not be able to undergo the transition and may eventually separate. For some, it is an opportunity to create a new life where they are free to enjoy the fruits of their labor, raising and launching their kids. These parents find that they have more time to pursue interests and hobbies and can reinvent their marriage. However, some couples remain stuck, longing and yearning for the days when their children were young. These parents can only resonate with the loss inherent in this metamorphosis. They recall hearing the wisdom of parents with older children who cautioned them to enjoy every moment that their kids were young. They obsess about the past, making it difficult to let go and mourn.
Development in whatever context, can be fraught with uncertainty, anxiety and excitement. It is only natural to hold on tightly to all that one is familiar with even when change is inevitable. Separating for both teens and parents evokes extreme anxiety, excitement and loss, that must be faced to gain new strength. These micro-developments which include steps forward and back are what transitions are made of. To evolve and mature requires tolerating uncharted territory. Transitions depend on following and paving your, own, yellow brick road. | 2023-09-24T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8809 |
FORMER defender Henning Berg believes new signing Marouane Fellaini can provide the sort of focal point Eric Cantona once did for Manchester United.
The Belgium international completed a £27.5m move to be reunited with former Everton manager David Moyes at Old Trafford late on deadline day.
He has yet to make an appearance because of the international break, but will be in the squad that hosts Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Much will be expected of the 25-year-old as he was Moyes’ only significant signing of the summer after failed bids for Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas, but Berg believes the Belgian can develop into a key figure for the side.
“He’s got great potential and if he’s consistent with his best level, he will be a fantastic signing,” he said.
“He can play so many different positions, he’s a good footballer but there’s something about him.
“He can get players around him, he can control and dominate games and United have too few players who can do that – that’s why he will be a great signing.
“He’s very difficult to handle in the box, but he’s got that presence and that mentality that makes sure he stands out and does that little bit extra.
“I think with his passion and his mentality, he can make a big difference.
“He’s not the kind of player to thread passes through, but he has a sheer presence to hold the ball up, ability to win balls in the box and match-winning mentality – he raises his game for the big matches.
“Every game for United is a big one, so he will rise to that and enjoy it. When Cantona came, he had that mentality every game. I’m not saying he’s going to be the same, but he can be.” | 2023-11-18T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7173 |
A unique six-membered chelated iridium complex.
The reaction of 2-(3-methylbiphenyl-2-yl)pyridine with IrCl(3).nH(2)O in the presence of water incorporates a tightly bonded CO at the iridium center; in the subsequent reaction with picolinic acid a complex revealing an unusual CH activation of a methyl group is formed. | 2023-10-04T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9605 |
Supreme Court Shows Soft Spot For Church Denied Public Funding For Playground
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court doesn’t always see eye to eye when messy issues of church and state collide. But what if it’s schoolchildren who lose out if the court gets it wrong?
A majority of the justices on Wednesday seemed to recognize that the state of Missouri may have discriminated against a church that was shut out of a competitive funding program open to schools wishing to resurface their playgrounds with tire scraps. Under the state’s constitution, no public funding may go to “any church, sect or denomination of religion.”
The case, Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, calls into question the state’s application of that provision, which the church claims violates the federal Constitution. The Supreme Court has upheld similar funding prohibitions in the past, but here the church insists that its school was denied funding solely on account of its religious status — and that the funds it sought for tire scraps should’ve been granted because they wouldn’t be used for religious instruction.
Given the stakes of the case, one of the biggest church-state disputes the Supreme Court has heard in the past decade, all eyes were on Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court’s newest member and someone whose record suggests a sympathy for religious rights.
But it turned out the rookie justice only played a minor role in the hearing, intervening toward the end of an hourlong session in which even some of the more liberal justices appeared ready to recognize that there are constitutional limits to denying funding to religious schools for something that isn’t exactly sectarian: the type of surface upon which children play.
When Justice Elena Kagan told the lawyer representing Missouri that the state’s treatment of the church school appears to be “a clear burden of a constitutional right,” it became apparent that maybe the dispute isn’t as close as some observers anticipated.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard a case about a religious preschool that was rejected from a state program that provides reimbursement grants for purchases of rubberized surface material for children's playgrounds.
“As long as you’re using the money for playground services, you’re not disentitled from that program because you’re a religious institution doing religious things,” Kagan said. “And I would have thought that that’s a pretty strong principle in our constitutional law. And how is that the State says that that’s not violated here?”
Justice Stephen Breyer wondered if a Constitution that protects the free exercise of religion would tolerate a state to give everyone law enforcement, public health or fire department protections except churches.
“If it does not permit a law that pays money out of the treasury for the health of the children in the church, school, or even going to church, how does it permit Missouri to deny money to the same place for helping children not fall in the playground, cut their knees, get tetanus, break a leg, et cetera?” Breyer asked. “What’s the difference?”
The Supreme Court itself sent signals that the case could be a divisive one. The justices agreed to hear it before the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last year, and it wasn’t until President Donald Trump nominated Gorsuch to replace him that the court decided it to schedule it for oral arguments — an indication that maybe the powers that be at the court wanted a fully staffed bench before the justices entertained the challenge.
The case was complicated further by a changing of the guard in Missouri’s governor’s mansion. In an eleventh-hour move last week, Gov. Eric Greitens (R) announced that the state would begin accepting grant applications like the kind Trinity Lutheran was denied. The high court asked both sides in the case if that switch in positions rendered the case moot, but everyone agreed that the justices should go ahead and decide it anyway.
David Cortman, the lawyer representing the church, told the justices that Greitens’ shift was akin to “policy by Facebook or press release.” He suggested that the Supreme Court should resolve the dispute because constitutional rights shouldn’t be subject to changes in “political winds.”
This church is not going to close its religious practices or its doors because its playground doesn’t have these tires.Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who emerged as the strongest defender of Missouri’s position, pointed out that 39 states have constitutional amendments in their books that erect stronger church-state barriers for public funding than the federal Constitution.
“One would think that if there’s play in the joints” of the Constitution’s religion clauses, Sotomayor said, quoting language from a 2004 case, “that that would include the concept that states are free to say we don’t want to spend money from the public fisc on houses of worship.”
“This church is not going to close its religious practices or its doors because its playground doesn’t have these tires,” Sotomayor added. “No one is asking the church to change its beliefs. In fact, no one is asking the church as a condition ... ‘Don’t use what we give you for religious purposes’ — they’re not even doing that. They’re just saying we don’t want to be involved with the church.”
James Layton, who served as Missouri’s solicitor general until January but was retained by state officials to defend the funding program, said the state takes a hard stance with churches because it doesn’t want to be perceived as playing favorites — a kind of religious endorsement that by itself may be unconstitutional.
“We don’t want to be in a position ... where we are selecting among churches,” he said. “We don’t want to be in a position where we are making a visible, physical improvement on church property.”
But based on how several justices responded to Missouri’s line-drawing in the case — singling out Trinity Lutheran for no other reason than it was a church running a school — the Supreme Court may very well conclude that states should be more careful when drawing “status-based” lines in the first place.
“So long as the money is granted based on neutral criteria that are faithfully applied, I don’t know how you can draw a distinction between a program that’s open to everybody and a selective program,” Justice Samuel Alito said.
The Supreme Court is expected to decide Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer by the end of June. | 2023-12-27T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7223 |
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<b:isolate/>
<b:include src="basis.ui.popup.Popup">
<b:replace ref="content">
<div b:show="{empty}" class="empty">nothing found</div>
<div b:show="{hasChildren}" b:ref="content">
<!--{childNodesHere}-->
</div>
</b:replace>
</b:include>
| 2024-04-12T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1102 |
k + d and give a.
-24
Rearrange 730*l**3 - l**4 - 391*l**3 - 373*l**3 + 2 to the form f*l**4 + i + t*l**2 + v*l**3 + n*l and give f.
-1
Express 0*r**2 - r**2 - r**2 + (-r + 4*r - 2*r + 15*r - 13 + 13 + (-2 + 2 + 2*r)*(-1 - 2 + 5))*(186*r - 213*r + 1 - 2) in the form f + i*r**2 + c*r and give i.
-542
Express -29*q - 41*q - 80*q in the form h + m*q and give m.
-150
Express -15*i**2 + 10*i + 3*i - 8*i in the form f*i**2 + g + z*i and give z.
5
Express (-3*j + 5 - 5)*(-12 - 2 + 14 - 32*j) as b*j**2 + x + s*j and give b.
96
Rearrange -14 - 6 + 8*j**4 - 2*j**2 + 35 - 2*j - 14 to y*j**3 + z + c*j**2 + p*j + x*j**4 and give z.
1
Rearrange (-1 + 17*z - 3*z + 8*z)*(-2*z**3 + 2*z**3 - 2*z**3) - 7 - 2*z**4 + 2*z + 7 to the form o*z**2 + r*z**4 + g*z + u*z**3 + h and give g.
2
Express ((-9 + 3*v + 9)*(-5*v + 0*v + 0*v) + 7*v**2 - 2*v + 2*v)*(3 + 2*v - 3) as b*v**3 + i + l*v**2 + s*v and give b.
-16
Rearrange 2*x**4 - 4*x + 4*x + (2 + 2 - 3)*(2*x - 2*x - 2*x**2)*(395 - 2*x**2 - 827 + 399) to v*x**3 + h*x**2 + c*x + d*x**4 + j and give h.
66
Express -3*i**2 + i**2 - 4*i + 17 + 5*i - 7*i**2 - 22 in the form k*i + j + t*i**2 and give k.
1
Rearrange -23*f + 28 - 37*f + 15 + 37*f + 10 to j*f + l and give l.
53
Express 90*t**2 - 3*t**4 - 91*t**2 + t**4 - t**4 + t - 2*t**3 in the form o*t + g*t**2 + p + m*t**4 + l*t**3 and give o.
1
Rearrange 429*o**2 + 784*o**2 - 2*o - 432*o**2 + 0*o to the form c*o**2 + f + j*o and give c.
781
Express -184 + 184 + 1258*d**2 - 277*d**2 in the form q + f*d**2 + i*d and give f.
981
Rearrange (11*f + 60*f - 12*f)*(-3 + 3*f + 3) + (2*f + f - 5*f)*(2*f - 3 + 3) + 3*f - 3*f - 2*f**2 to the form m + i*f + c*f**2 and give c.
171
Express 2*g**2 - 35 - 31 - 4*g**2 - 3*g**3 + 70 - g in the form j*g + n*g**2 + o + f*g**3 and give f.
-3
Express -11*b - 32 + 69*b + 15 + 15 + 89*b in the form u + s*b and give u.
-2
Rearrange (-4*k + 5*k - 3*k)*(-350*k**2 - 546*k**2 + 104*k**2) to the form q*k**3 + b*k**2 + f + l*k and give q.
1584
Rearrange (-5*m - m + 0*m)*(-m + 3*m + 0*m) + (6*m + 3*m - 12*m)*(11*m + m + 2 - 8*m) to the form o*m + z + g*m**2 and give o.
-6
Rearrange 2*o**3 - 3*o**4 + 11*o + 5 - 16*o + 5*o - 3*o**2 to the form f*o**2 + y*o**4 + d*o + u*o**3 + k and give k.
5
Express (-5*b + b - b)*(56*b**3 + 57*b**3 - 115*b**3) in the form p + q*b**4 + x*b**3 + k*b + h*b**2 and give q.
10
Express 3*c**3 + 2*c - 4*c + 5*c - 5*c - 25*c**4 - 1 - 4*c**3 as w*c + t*c**3 + d + m*c**2 + o*c**4 and give w.
-2
Express 15 - 1957*z + 1956*z - 10 + 7*z**2 in the form c*z + m + r*z**2 and give r.
7
Express 237*a**2 + 1649 - 3306 + 1654 in the form u*a + m + r*a**2 and give m.
-3
Express 2 + 61*l + 58*l - 123*l in the form n*l + f and give f.
2
Express 44*v - 31 - 16*v - 33*v - 15 as q*v + o and give q.
-5
Rearrange 1092*p**2 + 456 + 1090*p**2 + 1087*p**2 - 3271*p**2 to the form n*p**2 + u + x*p and give u.
456
Express (0*f**3 + f**3 + 0*f**3)*(10 + 8 + 3) + 4*f**3 - 4*f**3 + 2*f**3 + 4*f**3 - 4*f**3 + 4*f**3 in the form x*f**3 + n + y*f + m*f**2 and give y.
0
Express -176 + 0*r + 0*r + 19*r**2 - 34*r**2 + 16*r**2 as c*r**2 + p + u*r and give c.
1
Express 1320*n - 660*n - 32*n**2 - 661*n - 3*n**3 + 5*n**3 in the form s*n**3 + z + t*n + k*n**2 and give k.
-32
Express 0*v**3 - 2*v**3 - 512003 + 511908 - 2*v**4 + 7*v**4 as k*v**2 + g*v + r + b*v**3 + n*v**4 and give b.
-2
Rearrange -27 + 30 + 8*g**3 + 4*g**3 + g**2 - g**2 - g**3 + (g**2 - 3*g**2 + g**2)*(2*g - g + 0*g) to the form l*g + j*g**2 + z + c*g**3 and give z.
3
Rearrange (m + 2 - 2)*(-1 + 1 + 2*m) + 42*m**2 + 30*m**2 + 32*m**2 to the form n*m**2 + d + x*m and give n.
106
Rearrange (-g + 1 - 1)*(-56 + 3*g**2 - 4*g**2 + 284) + 3*g**3 + 0*g + 0*g to v*g**2 + y*g**3 + m*g + b and give m.
-228
Express (-18242*r + 9858*r + 9686*r)*(-2 - 2 + 7)*(-3*r - r + 5*r) in the form t*r + l + h*r**2 and give h.
3906
Express -230*t - 126*t + 115*t - 141*t in the form s + z*t and give z.
-382
Express -y**3 - 2*y**2 - 22*y - 27*y - 22*y + 37*y as w*y + k + v*y**2 + t*y**3 and give w.
-34
Express (6*g**3 - 4*g**3 - 4*g**3)*(10*g + 7 + 5 - 7*g) as v*g**3 + i*g**4 + l*g + r + c*g**2 and give i.
-6
Express 0*l - 6*l - 3*l - 3 + (-1 + 2 - 3)*(2*l - l + 0*l) - 2*l + 4*l - 7*l in the form k + d*l and give d.
-16
Rearrange 3 - 18*v**3 - 4 + 2*v - 4*v**2 + 29*v**4 + 47*v**3 - 19*v**3 - 12*v**3 to the form o + b*v + t*v**4 + w*v**3 + a*v**2 and give t.
29
Rearrange (428*t**2 + 417*t**2 - 160*t**4 - 862*t**2)*(-2 - 2 + 3) to f*t**3 + b*t + s*t**4 + l + x*t**2 and give x.
17
Express 549*c - 1384*c - 735*c in the form q*c + y and give q.
-1570
Rearrange -151*a**3 - 2*a**2 + 301*a**3 - 136*a**3 + a**2 - 2*a**2 to the form c + p*a + b*a**3 + f*a**2 and give p.
0
Express (53*d + 105*d - 65*d)*(61 - 61 + 15*d**3) as o + j*d + u*d**3 + z*d**4 + s*d**2 and give z.
1395
Express (0 + 5 - 4)*(-293 + 293 - 199*l) as n*l + y and give n.
-199
Rearrange -38*b + 3*b**3 + 10*b - 9*b**3 to the form x*b**2 + g*b + o*b**3 + r and give o.
-6
Rearrange (0*b**2 - 3*b**3 + 0*b**2)*(26 - 26 - 7*b)*(-15 + 12 + 25) to the form j*b**4 + t*b**3 + f*b**2 + p + n*b and give j.
462
Express -8 - 20*l + 21*l + 5*l as x*l + k and give x.
6
Rearrange -272*p + 15 - 15 + 22*p to the form v*p + l and give v.
-250
Rearrange (-46 + 8*n + 46)*(19*n + 10 - 10)*(3*n**2 + 3*n - 3*n) to w*n**2 + y*n**3 + f*n**4 + s*n + k and give s.
0
Express 4 + p - 4 + (0 - 1 - 1)*(2*p + 2 - 2) + (0 - p + 0)*(-3 + 4 - 3) - p + 3*p - p + 171 - 26*p - 171 + p - 3 + 3 as n*p + w and give n.
-25
Rearrange -17*j**2 + 5*j**3 + 23*j**2 + j - 11*j**2 to t*j**2 + i*j + f + d*j**3 and give i.
1
Rearrange (5*o - 3*o - o)*(-2*o + 0*o + 0*o + (1 - 1 - 5*o)*(0 + 2 + 0) - 2*o + 0 + 0 + (-3 + 1 + 1)*(-6*o + 2*o - o)) to the form n*o**2 + s*o + k and give n.
-9
Rearrange -153*r**3 - r + 49*r**3 + 47*r**3 - 3 + 1 to p + m*r + o*r**3 + v*r**2 and give o.
-57
Express -2*o**3 - 6*o**4 - 16*o**2 + 14*o**2 + 6 + 0 - 3 as m*o**2 + w*o**3 + i + q*o + x*o**4 and give w.
-2
Express -19*z**2 - 26*z**2 + 28*z**2 + (3*z - 4*z + 3*z)*(0*z + 5*z - 4*z) in the form h*z**2 + j*z + d and give h.
-15
Rearrange (0 - j**2 + 0)*(-1876*j - 614*j - 2205*j + 554*j) to the form k + b*j**2 + t*j**3 + d*j and give d.
0
Rearrange -1041 + 425 - 212 - l**2 to h*l + k*l**2 + b and give h.
0
Rearrange 37*r + 24 - 56*r**4 - 21*r + 57*r**4 - 5*r**2 - 16*r + r**3 to the form f + m*r**3 + l*r + c*r**2 + x*r**4 and give x.
1
Rearrange (168*n + 51*n + 78*n)*(-3*n**3 + 2*n**3 - n**3) to the form z*n + t + p*n**3 + h*n**2 + a*n**4 and give p.
0
Express (4*f**4 + 5*f - 5*f)*(5 + 2 - 4) + 5*f**4 + 0*f**4 - 2*f**4 + (-f**2 + f**2 + f**3)*(-5 + 4*f + 5) as m*f**4 + c + x*f + n*f**3 + l*f**2 and give x.
0
Express 2537*z**2 + z - 10 - 16 + z**4 - 2534*z**2 as j + i*z**4 + w*z**3 + k*z + b*z**2 and give k.
1
Express 28*r**2 + 1 - 32*r - 16*r - 1 + 62*r in the form x*r + h + l*r**2 and give x.
14
Rearrange 1 + 2*s**2 + 2*s**2 - 2*s**3 + s**2 + 1 - 2*s**2 - s**4 to the form o + u*s**2 + m*s + q*s**3 + h*s**4 and give q.
-2
Express (z + 2*z - 4*z)*(-2 - 2 + 5) - 24 + 24 - 12*z + 7*z - 2*z - 2*z + (3*z + z - 3*z)*(-3 + 6 - 1) - 2 + z + 2 as t + g*z and give g.
-7
Express (-p - 4*p + 3*p)*(-18 - 17 - 26)*(-p + 4*p + 0*p)*(0*p + 2*p + 0*p) as j*p + m*p**2 + g*p**3 + v and give g.
732
Express -1 - 4*m**2 + 5*m**2 + 0*m**2 + ((-2 + 3 - 2)*(-m - m + m) + 3*m - 2*m + 0*m)*(9 - 9 - 8*m) in the form v*m**2 + k + n*m and give v.
-15
Express (7*t - 4*t + 4*t)*(-2 - 3 + 1 + (6 - 6 + 5)*(1 + 1 + 0)) as y + u*t and give u.
42
Rearrange -36188*d**3 + 4 + 2*d + 36188*d**3 + d**2 + 2*d**4 to w*d**3 + v*d**2 + g*d + f + b*d**4 and give v.
1
Express -561*y**2 + 58 - 59 + 579*y**2 + 2*y**3 as s*y**3 + l*y + w*y**2 + q and give q.
-1
Express -133*a + 295*a**2 + 70*a + 63*a in the form t + r*a + l*a**2 and give l.
295
Rearrange 6677*m - 3 + 3 - 7777*m to the form n*m + v and give n.
-1100
Rearrange -u**3 - 10*u + 27*u - 9*u - u**3 to o*u**2 + a*u**3 + d*u + h and give d.
8
Rearrange 15 + 3*c**2 - 14 + 139 + 17*c - 10*c - 10*c to the form k*c + i*c**2 + j and give k.
-3
Rearrange -o**4 + 275*o**3 + 54*o - 25*o - 31*o + 2*o**4 - 15*o**3 to the form s + y*o**2 + j*o**4 + z*o**3 + f*o and give z.
260
Express -84 - 13*j + 135 + 176 - 9 + (-3 - 2 + 3)*(0*j - j + 2*j) in the form p | 2024-07-24T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/2724 |
Osteoclast-like giant cell tumor of the pancreas with metastases to gallbladder and lymph nodes. A case report.
Osteoclast-like giant cell tumor of the pancreas (OGTP) is a rare neoplasm, of which the histogenesis is still controversial. Here we report a case of OGTP involving the head of the pancreas in a 71-year-old woman with metastases to the gallbladder and lymph nodes. The primary and metastatic tumors had identical histopathological, immunohistochemical, ultrastructural and molecular biological features. Microscopically, the tumors were characterized by atypical, often pleomorphic mononuclear cells associated with the proliferation of benign-appearing osteoclast-like giant cells (OGCs). Electron microscopic observation provided ultrastructural evidence of epithelial differentiation of the mononuclear cells, including microvilli and desmosomes, which was not obtained for OGCs. On immunohistochemical study, OGCs stained for CD68 (KP-1), LCA and HAM56, whereas mononuclear cells only reacted with PCNA. These findings clearly suggest that mononuclear cells are capable of differentiation and proliferation and may have been the only true tumor cells in this neoplasm, and that OGCs may have been a paraneoplastic product of this rare tumor. On examination of DNA from dewaxed sections of the tumor, we found no p53 mutation in the tumor tissue, but found two K-ras mutations in codon 12; this pattern of mutation commonly occurs in pancreatic carcinoma, indicating a somewhat genetic relationship of OGTP to pancreatic carcinoma. Although OGTP often has a favorable prognosis, the outcome in the present case was poor due to early tumor spread, with less than two years postoperative survival. | 2024-07-16T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8348 |
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the Super Tuesday primaries in the sense that she won the most states and racked up the most delegates compared to Sen. Bernie Sanders, the venerable socialist from Vermont. But, as the Washington Free Beacon reports, her unfavorable ratings have spiked as well. 55 percent of Americans view Ms. Clinton unfavorably as opposed to only 42 percent who view her favorably. These numbers are the sort that places any officer holder in jeopardy of being voted out of office. For someone attempting to be elected to public office, the numbers are devastating.
Why do so many Americans dislike the presumed first woman president of the United States?
To be sure, her various ethical and legal difficulties have proven to constitute a millstone around her neck. The FBI investigation of Clinton’s unsecured email server where she stored classified information has shrouded her with the pall of a possible criminal indictment. The Benghazi scandal also continued to dog Clinton’s candidacy, compromising both her honesty and her claims to competence.
The main impediment to Clinton’s march to the White House is that she has a very unpleasant persona. She is a terrible speaker on the stump, making animal noises, screeching, and assuming fake African American accents. She assumes the air of sanctimony, lecturing the people whom she expects to vote for her about the sins of racism, sexism, and homophobia.
She seems clueless about the anxieties of ordinary Americans.
Clinton’s plan for the general election campaign promises to be very unpleasant. Whether her Republican opponent is Donald Trump or not, a staffer described her strategy as being “hate and castrate” as opposed to the 2008 Barack Obama slogan of “hope and change.”
Head to head polling suggests that Clinton would lose the general election to Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or John Kasich.
She edges out Donald Trump, but Trump has pushed the envelope where it comes to rude, aggressive campaigning. Trump has never been gentlemanly to women who have given him offense, as Rosie O’Donnell and Megyn Kelly can attest. He will not be gentle to Hillary Clinton.
Whoever the Republican nominee is, prepare for nastiness such as not been seen in modern politics. | 2024-01-14T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7447 |
/* field_information.cpp
*
* Wireshark - Network traffic analyzer
* By Gerald Combs <gerald@wireshark.org>
* Copyright 1998 Gerald Combs
*
* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
*/
#include <stdint.h>
#include <ui/qt/utils/field_information.h>
FieldInformation::FieldInformation(field_info *fi, QObject * parent)
:QObject(parent)
{
fi_ = fi;
parent_fi_ = NULL;
}
FieldInformation::FieldInformation(proto_node *node, QObject * parent)
:QObject(parent)
{
fi_ = NULL;
if (node) {
fi_ = node->finfo;
}
parent_fi_ = NULL;
}
bool FieldInformation::isValid() const
{
bool ret = false;
if (fi_ && fi_->hfinfo)
{
if (fi_->hfinfo->blurb != NULL && fi_->hfinfo->blurb[0] != '\0') {
ret = true;
} else {
ret = QString((fi_->hfinfo->name)).length() > 0;
}
}
return ret;
}
bool FieldInformation::isLink() const
{
if (fi_ && fi_->hfinfo) {
if ((fi_->hfinfo->type == FT_FRAMENUM) ||
(FI_GET_FLAG(fi_, FI_URL) && IS_FT_STRING(fi_->hfinfo->type))) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
void FieldInformation::setParentField(field_info * par_fi)
{
parent_fi_ = par_fi;
}
int FieldInformation::treeType()
{
if (fi_) {
Q_ASSERT(fi_->tree_type >= -1 && fi_->tree_type < num_tree_types);
return fi_->tree_type;
}
return -1;
}
field_info * FieldInformation::fieldInfo() const
{
return fi_;
}
FieldInformation::HeaderInfo FieldInformation::headerInfo() const
{
HeaderInfo header;
if (fi_ && fi_->hfinfo)
{
header.name = fi_->hfinfo->name;
header.description = fi_->hfinfo->blurb;
header.abbreviation = fi_->hfinfo->abbrev;
header.isValid = true;
header.type = fi_->hfinfo->type;
header.parent = fi_->hfinfo->parent;
header.id = fi_->hfinfo->id;
}
else
{
header.name = "";
header.description = "";
header.abbreviation = "";
header.isValid = false;
header.type = FT_NONE;
header.parent = 0;
header.id = 0;
}
return header;
}
FieldInformation * FieldInformation::parentField() const
{
return new FieldInformation(parent_fi_, parent());
}
bool FieldInformation::tvbContains(FieldInformation *child)
{
if (fi_ && child && fi_->ds_tvb == child->fieldInfo()->ds_tvb)
return true;
return false;
}
unsigned FieldInformation::flag(unsigned mask)
{
if (fi_) {
return FI_GET_FLAG(fi_, mask);
}
return 0;
}
const QString FieldInformation::moduleName()
{
QString module_name;
if (isValid()) {
if (headerInfo().parent == -1) {
module_name = fi_->hfinfo->abbrev;
} else {
module_name = proto_registrar_get_abbrev(headerInfo().parent);
}
}
return module_name;
}
QString FieldInformation::toString()
{
QString repr;
gchar *repr_str;
repr_str = fvalue_to_string_repr(NULL, &fi_->value, FTREPR_DISPLAY, fi_->hfinfo->display);
if (repr_str) {
repr = repr_str;
}
wmem_free(NULL, repr_str);
return repr;
}
QString FieldInformation::url()
{
QString url;
if (flag(FI_URL) && headerInfo().isValid && IS_FT_STRING(fi_->hfinfo->type)) {
url = toString();
}
return url;
}
FieldInformation::Position FieldInformation::position() const
{
Position pos = {-1, -1};
if (fi_ && fi_->ds_tvb)
{
int len = (int) tvb_captured_length(fi_->ds_tvb);
pos.start = fi_->start;
pos.length = fi_->length;
if (pos.start < 0 || pos.length < 0 || pos.start >= len)
{
if (fi_->appendix_start >= 0 && fi_->appendix_length > 0 && fi_->appendix_start < len)
{
pos.start = fi_->appendix_start;
pos.length = fi_->appendix_length;
}
}
}
return pos;
}
FieldInformation::Position FieldInformation::appendix() const
{
Position pos = {-1, -1};
if (fi_ && fi_->ds_tvb)
{
pos.start = fi_->appendix_start;
pos.length = fi_->appendix_length;
}
return pos;
}
const QByteArray FieldInformation::printableData()
{
QByteArray data;
if (fi_ && fi_->ds_tvb)
{
FieldInformation::Position pos = position();
int rem_length = tvb_captured_length_remaining(fi_->ds_tvb, pos.start);
int length = pos.length;
if (length > rem_length)
length = rem_length;
uint8_t * dataSet = (uint8_t *)tvb_memdup(wmem_file_scope(), fi_->ds_tvb, pos.start, length);
data = QByteArray::fromRawData((char *)dataSet, length);
}
return data;
}
/*
* Editor modelines
*
* Local Variables:
* c-basic-offset: 4
* tab-width: 8
* indent-tabs-mode: nil
* End:
*
* ex: set shiftwidth=4 tabstop=8 expandtab:
* :indentSize=4:tabSize=8:noTabs=true:
*/
| 2024-03-30T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9008 |
The Legal/Credit Meeting scheduled for today is canceled due to the absence
of Susan Flynn. | 2024-01-04T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7617 |
[Mortality and readmission in hospitalized cirrhotic patients in a General Hospital from Lima, Peru].
Liver cirrhosis is a public health problem. In Peru, is the leading cause of death in liver diseases. In addition, patients with chronic liver disease and cirrhosis are at increased risk for readmission. To determine the frequency of mortality and readmission at 3 months, and clinical-epidemiological characteristics of hospitalized cirrhotic patients in a general hospital. Data were collected prospectively of hospitalized cirrhotic patients in the Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia,Lima,Peru, from October 2011 to October 2012; telephone follow-up was at 3 months after hospital discharge. The study included 96 patients. The mean age was 59.2 years. The most common etiology of cirrhosis was alcohol (45.8%) and the main reason for hospitalization was upper gastrointestinal bleeding (29.2%). Global mortality was 39.6% (38 patients), from them, 63.2% (24/38) were inpatients, its main cause was septic shock 31.5% (12/38). Forty-four percent of the deceased had infection as complication. Hospital readmission was 42.8% (33/77) and 36.3% of them died. Hospitalized cirrhotic patients showed high mortality at 3 months, these patients at discharge revealed a high readmission within 3 months of follow up. | 2023-08-29T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1816 |
Q:
Loading Bitmap Failed on Berlin
I have a problem migrating a process from XE8 to Berlin 10.1.
On XE8, it works fine.
On Berlin, I get a "Loading Bitmap Failed" error.
I have a DataSnap REST server with this method:
function TSM.Downloafile(): TStream;
var
s: TFileStream;
begin
s := TFileStream.Create('C:\image1.jpg', fmOpenReadWrite);
Result := s;
end;
On XE8, I get the stream fine, I can see the image using a URL in a browser, like:
http://localhost:105/datasnap/rest/TSM/Downloafile
On Berlin, when I try to show the image, I get this string instead:
[122,216,255,244,0,15,......]
And then loading of the Bitmap fails.
A:
i have resolved this case using ?json=false in the URL, thanks
| 2023-09-11T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6951 |
6)) + -4 - 4?
-7
What is the value of (0 + 8 - (0 - -4)) + -4?
0
What is -12 + 22 + -28 - -27?
9
Evaluate -16 - (10 - 20) - (-8 + 3).
-1
What is the value of 4 - (8 + -7 + (0 - 1))?
4
Calculate 8 + -8 - ((6 - 3) + 3 + 1).
-7
Evaluate 10 + (1 - (9 + (8 - 21))).
15
What is ((-12 - -6 - -11) + 7 - -6) + -4?
14
What is (2 - -3) + (12 - 8) - (-5 + 12)?
2
-6 + (7 - (-7 + (5 - 1))) - -1
5
What is the value of (21 - 18) + (48 - 11)?
40
Calculate -178 - -172 - (-1 + -13 - 0).
8
Evaluate 1 - 5 - (20 + (-36 - -12)).
0
Calculate (10 - 8) + -1 + 3.
4
What is the value of 3 + (-20 - 0) + 0?
-17
-34 + (-41 - -93) + -8
10
Evaluate 19 + -10 + 1 + (-4 - 1).
5
23 + -11 + (-7 - (18 + 1))
-14
71 - 49 - (6 + (1 - 0))
15
Evaluate 6 - ((6 + 6 - 3) + -10).
7
-4 - (0 - (-1 - 5) - 2)
-8
What is the value of 0 - -11 - ((-1 + -7 - -3) + 3)?
13
Calculate -2 - (-3 + (11 - 0) + 2 + -4).
-8
-13 + 14 - (6 + (-24 - 1))
20
5 - -25 - 21 - ((-10 - -4) + 11)
4
What is the value of 18 - (10 + (-7 - -10))?
5
(2 + (2 + -4 - 10) - -4) + -1
-7
Calculate 1 + 14 + 16 + (18 + -7 - 33).
9
Calculate -3 + 14 + 1 - (867 + -842).
-13
0 + (2 - 15) + (3 - -11 - 18)
-17
What is -7 - (-5 + (2 + 1 - -19))?
-24
Evaluate 2 - -13 - (4 + (-1 - -3 - -1)).
8
What is the value of -3 + (7 - (6 + -9 + 11))?
-4
What is the value of (2 - 2 - (2 - 14)) + (-401 - -411)?
22
Calculate -8 + -6 + 15 + -1 + 9.
9
15 + (-13 - (5 - 10) - -9)
16
-14 + 21 + (0 - 5) + 4
6
-7 + 3 + (-5 - (2 - (-6 - -1)))
-16
What is the value of 8 + (-15 - -19) + -3?
9
Calculate 18 - (-19 - (11 + -32)).
16
What is the value of -4 - (-10 + (-3 - (7 - 13)) - 4)?
7
2 - 5 - -4 - (-16 - 8 - 7)
32
Evaluate -374 + 410 + (-2 - 24).
10
(8 - 10) + -21 + -7 + 10
-20
(2 - 8) + (-9 - (-5 - -2))
-12
What is the value of -25 + 48 - 18 - 28?
-23
Calculate -29 + 14 + 33 + -17.
1
What is the value of 1 + -7 + 4 + (-25 - -12)?
-15
Evaluate -15 + (20 + -3 - (-23 - -33)).
-8
31 - (531 + -533 - (0 + (-2 - 1)))
30
What is ((3 - 0) + (3 - 8) - -1) + -4?
-5
Evaluate 6 - (-13 - (13 + (0 - 10))).
22
Calculate -3 + -2 + (-17 - -5).
-17
Calculate -38 + (6 + (11 - (15 + -1)) - 4).
-39
-105 - -91 - (0 - -1)
-15
What is 121 + -114 + (1 - -19) + 12?
39
What is (-9 - -1) + -16 + 9 + (0 - -7)?
-8
Calculate 4 + 3 + (-13 - -2).
-4
Calculate (11 - 0) + -16 - -17.
12
14 + -8 + (-17 - -5)
-6
Calculate 3 + 18 + -8 - (-1 + 5 + -3).
12
What is the value of (7 - -28) + -16 + -12?
7
What is -28 + (-26 - -18 - -8)?
-28
What is 30 + -26 + 15 + (-1 - 0) - 5?
13
What is -21 - -45 - (7 - 10 - -9)?
18
What is the value of (-20 - (-24 - -23)) + 14?
-5
Evaluate -20 - -19 - 16 - -23.
6
What is -3 + 1 + -1 - (89 + -74)?
-18
Evaluate -13 + (4 - (5 + 12 - 6)).
-20
Calculate 15 - (12 + (21 - 21)).
3
Evaluate 11 - (-9 - (5 + -15 - -6) - 0).
16
Evaluate -180 - -181 - (1 - -16).
-16
What is the value of 7 + -5 + 3 + 11 + -6?
10
Calculate -26 + 29 + (-5 - -4) + 30.
32
What is the value of 47 + -48 + 8 + 2 + -6?
3
Evaluate -2 + (-16 - (5 + -35)).
12
What is (6 - -2) + (-7 - 2 - (-2 - -7))?
-6
What is the value of 3 + 41 - (23 - 14 - 7 - -7)?
35
What is the value of (12 - (-2 - -10)) + 2 - 6?
0
Calculate 5 + 0 + (19 - (-19 + 38) - -12).
17
(20 - 15) + 4 - 1
8
Evaluate 8 - 31 - -21 - (-11 - 3 - 2).
14
Evaluate -2 + -1 + -1 + 4 + (-26 - -9).
-17
What is -3 + (13 + -30 - -8)?
-12
What is the value of -6 + ((6 - 3) + 4 - -1)?
2
What is 7 + -39 + (163 - 149)?
-18
Calculate ((-23 - -6) + 5 - -5) + 22.
15
Calculate (-5 - -9) + 5 + -1 - 2.
6
Evaluate 16 + (-18 + 4 - -13).
15
What is (-8 - (5 + -12)) + (13 - -1)?
13
What is the value of -7 + -21 + 30 + -7?
-5
Calculate 5 + (-34 - -22) + 25.
18
What is the value of 7 + (-11 - 10) + -7 + 1 - -7?
-13
What is (-23 - -57 - 30) + (0 - -12)?
16
Evaluate 9 + -4 + 11 + -8 + -2 + -14.
-8
Calculate -4 - (3 - (-9 + (-3 - -6))).
-13
-9 + (-11 + 2 - -24) + -6
0
Evaluate (4 - 10) + 31 + -27 - 9 - -51.
40
Evaluate 8 + (12 - 27 - 11).
-18
Evaluate -16 - (-15 - (8 - (4 + -13))).
16
35 + (24 - 25) - 21
13
What is the value of 14 + -7 - 2 - -2?
7
-4 + 4 + 9 + 342 + -372
-21
What is the value of -15 + (11 + -3 - 2 - 5)?
-14
What is 7 - 0 - -5 - 0 - 4?
8
What is the value of 45 - 45 - (2 + (-2 - 1) - -12)?
-11
Calculate (104 - 110) + (-3 - -6).
-3
What is the value of -27 - (26 + -10 + -20)?
-23
What is the value of (-14 - 13) + -8 + 41?
6
Evaluate -6 - (7 + -21 + 5).
3
Calculate 38 - (8 + (15 + -3 - (17 - 5))).
30
Calculate (27 - 40) + -14 + 5 + 1.
-21
What is the value of 2 + -8 + (11 - (2 - -12))?
-9
What is -22 - 1 - (16 + (43 - 72))?
-10
What is the value of 2 - 10 - (109 - 104)?
-13
What is the value of (5 - (8 - (-2 + 4))) + 15?
14
What is 17 + -13 + 6 + -8?
2
What is (3 - 3) + (-1 - (-7 + 3) - -3)?
6
What is -420 + 420 + -2 + 19?
17
(-9 + 6 - (1 + -12)) + -31 + 33
10
-1 + 8 - (-11 + 5 + -8 + 13)
8
Calculate 1 - 3 - (1 + 6 + -90 + 86).
-5
Calculate -1433 + 1404 - (-1 + -28).
0
Evaluate 12 + 2 + (-17 - -8) + (-1 - 0).
4
Evaluate 8 - (7 + (1 - 15)) - -5.
20
-16 - -5 - (-9 - 27)
25
Evaluate 290 + -283 + (0 - -1).
8
What is the value of -34 + -7 + 8 - -48?
15
Evaluate -8 + 20 + -7 + -16 + 1 + 1.
-9
Evaluate 7 - (-8 + 9 - -7) - -6.
5
What is 9 - (58 + -39 + 13)?
-23
-2534 + 2506 - ((1 - 6) + -2)
-21
(3 - -34) + -12 - 38
-13
Evaluate -1 - 6 - (-76 - -85).
-16
What is 3 - 6 - (-13 + 25)?
-15
Calculate (2 - 0) + 1 - 5 - -5.
3
What is -19 - (-33 + (14 - -5))?
-5
What is (-5 - -37) + (2 - 11) + -10?
13
What is -47 - -20 - (1 - 12)?
-16
What is -2 + 26 + -28 + 1 + -2 + 2?
-3
What is the value of 7 - ((0 + -1 - -2) + 3)?
3
What is 20 - 4 - 6 - -3?
13
What is -2 + (10 - 16) + (14 - 5)?
1
Evaluate 1519 - 1518 - ((-1 - -1) + 0 - -22).
-21
(-8 - (-31 - (-9 + 22))) + -12
24
What is the value of 9 + -7 + (23 - 20)?
5
What is (26 - 3) + (6 - 21 - -5)?
13
What is the value of 0 + -52 + 33 + -2 + 0 + 0?
-21
Evaluate 0 + ((-2 - -5) + -4 - -11).
10
Evaluate 1 + (-9 - (7 + (10 - 15))).
-10
Evaluate (6 - (20 - 6)) + -3.
-11
Calculate -113 + 102 + -5 + -3.
-19
Calculate (11 - -4 - 16) + (-2 - (2 + 11)).
-16
-1 - (14 - (6 - 4 - -4))
-9
Calculate -11 + 10 + -8 - -10 - (-21 + 6).
16
Calculate (-47 - -54) + (1 - -2 - (-3 + 24)).
-11
Evaluate (-23 - -19) + 36 + -17.
15
Calculate -25 + 9 + -2 + -18 - -9.
-27
-1 + 0 + (-304 - -314)
9
What is the value of 39 - (-7 - -24) - 39?
-17
What is the value of 11 + 1 - (-31 + 26 - -9)?
8
Evaluate (23 - (3 - -15)) + (3 - -10).
18
What is -1 + 10 - (-3 - (-32 - (-3 - 4)))?
-13
What is 26 + (10 + 6 - 15) + (1 - -1)?
29
What is -7 - (5 + (-1 + 9 - 1))?
-19
What is the value of (2 - (1 + -1 - (-11 - -22))) + -4?
9
-10 - ((8 - -1) + -5)
-14
What is 5 + 6 - (12 - (25 - 28))?
-4
Evaluate 25 + -8 + -12 - -2.
7
Calculate 6 - (-15 + 38 + -16).
-1
Evaluate (4 - -4 - 3) + (74 - 77).
2
What is (-27 - 1) + (793 - 757)?
8
(15 - (10 - (-14 - 10))) + 12
-7
Evaluate (5 - -6) + -31 + 13.
-7
Calculate -5 + (-36 + 14 - -10 - -7).
-10
What is the value of 61 - 52 - (3 - -2)?
4
(3 - -44) + (46 - 27 - 26)
40
What is the value of (-1 - (6 + -6 + 2)) + 0 - -2?
-1
What is the value of -1 - 0 - (-5 + -11) - (8 + -3)?
10
Evaluate -5 + 20 + 6 - (2 + 10).
9
Evaluate -32 - (0 + (8 - 5) + -11).
-24
Evaluate (-1 - -4) + 3 - (5 + -6 - 1).
8
Evaluate 13 + (-31 - (-21 + 0)).
3
What is -13 - (10 + -9 - (8 + -3))?
-9
Calculate (-3 + 2 - (7 + -15)) + -9.
-2
What is -5 + -5 + 0 + -4 + 12?
-2
What is -2 - (2 + -10 - (-5 - (-6 - -12)))?
-5
Calculate -5 - (5 + -2 + -5) - -5.
2
What is the value of -1 + (-4 - -5 - -6) + (2 - 8)?
0
What is the value of -39 - (-49 + -7) - (-2 - 1)?
20
11 + -9 - ((24 - 10) + -20)
8
11 - (-2 - -9 - 12)
16
What is (3 - 11) + (16 - (-3 + -1))?
12
Evaluate 17 - ((16 - 3) + -4).
8
Evaluate (7 - 0) + (-21 - (-11 + 11)).
-14
Evaluate (-30 - (-54 - -21)) + 22.
25
Calculate (-17 + 37 - 56) + 20.
-16
Evaluate (-7 - (6 + -7)) + 3 + 6.
3
What is the value of 12 - (-6 - (-50 - -19))?
-13
What is the value of 6 + 30 - (-1 + -3 - -9) - 6?
25
What is (13 - 1) + (-23 + 12 + -5 - -11)?
7
Calculate 12 + -6 + -1 + -3 + (7 - 0).
9
(0 + -11 - 7) + 28
10
Calculate 4 - (-8 + 8 + 0 + -8).
12
Calculate -2 + -4 + 7 - (-55 + 37).
19
15 - (-7 + 23) - 15
-16
10 - (-13 - (-14 + 5 + -4))
10
What is the value of -14 - -31 - (16 + -19)?
20
Calculate -5 + (13 - 8) - (-4 - 2).
6
What is the value of -49 + 14 + 11 | 2024-04-07T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/3093 |
Serum sickness in a patient with follicular lymphoma after rituximab and radioimmunotherapy with ibritumomab tiuxetan.
A previously healthy 47-year-old woman was treated for follicular lymphoma, grade III, with cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, vincristine, prednisone with rituximab (CHOP-R) followed by ibritumomab tiuxetan and rituximab. She developed a serum sickness-like illness during immunotherapy with fever, myalgias, arthralgias, and pleural and pericardial effusions. Despite anti-inflammatory therapies her symptoms persisted for 10 months before ultimate resolution. Her clinical course and literature are reviewed. | 2024-01-10T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8562 |
Tools
(12/28/2011) - The Russian Figure Skating Championships concluded Tuesday night with the pairs and ladies free skate programs. The main event of the day was the ladies competition, in which there were several serious contenders for the podium.
Adelina Sotnikova, 15, became a three-time national champion. She wasn't perfect in her free skate, but she had a good advantage in points after the short program and won the competition with an overall score of 193.71. Second place went to Julia Lipnitskaia, who impressed the audience with her clean, high-level and breathtaking performances. Alena Leonova showed she's a real fighter, earning the bronze with 178.15 points despite mistakes in both programs.
"The main thing to me is to skate clean my programs at any competition," Sotnikova told the press. "I'm happy with my third national title and with my clean short program. Unfortunately, not everything went well in my free skate, so I will work on improving my programs."
The winner of the Junior Grand Prix Final, Lipnitskaia was the biggest surprise of these nationals. She performed both of her programs clean, easy and confidently despite their high level of difficulty.
"I didn't feel the pressure at the championships," Lipnitskaia said. "My main goal was to skate everything I planned clean."
Leonova, the Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, took great pleasure in reuniting with all her skating friends at nationals.
"I'm very happy that I participated at nationals," she said. "I was so glad to see all our skaters. We so rarely see each other."
Elizaveta Tuktamisheva, won both of her Grand Prix events and finished fourth at the Final, had an optimistic view of her sixth-place finish at the competition.
"I was in a very good mood before nationals and didn't feel any pressure. I already have good experience on the international senior stage, so I absolutely wasn't nervous," she said. "I tried to do my best; I tried very much, but sometimes things don't happen as we plan."
"We didn't think about the placements on the podium or that we were the favorites of the championships," said Bazarova and Larionov, who were not pleased with their performance in the free skate. "We think that it's much more difficult to compete at home-based competitions."
Based on the results of the competition, and taking into account the age limit, the skaters who will represent Russia at senior international competitions the rest of the season are: | 2023-11-24T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7933 |
Costa Rican Oil Refinery in long battle with tax authorities
August 19th, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) The Costa Rican Oil Refinery (RECOPE) has been charged more than $180 million (¢96.6 billion) in penalties and interest by the Treasury as the result of tax audits over the last five years, according to a report by the daily La Nacion.
The Directorate General of Taxation (DGT) has audited RECOPE three times over the past five years, finding on each occasion that RECOPE had under-reported its income and was delinquent in its tax obligations.
The most recent audit was for the tax year 2010-2011. For that year, auditors determined that RECOPE owed ¢7 billion ($13.2 million), despite the fact RECOPE reported zero income.
The year previous, tax authorities demanded payment of ¢60 billion ($113.2 million) after conducting audits of RECOPE’s tax years between 2004 and 2008.
So far this year, RECOPE has reported losses of ¢10 billion ($18.8 million) between January and June.
Claudio Ansorena, general manager of the State-owned company, said tax auditors themselves are principally to blame for the situation. RECOPE believes that it is exempt from income tax as a State-owned company – a view not shared by the Treasury.
RECOPE and tax authorities have faced off over the issue for years, and RECOPE blames many of its financial woes on tax authorities.
Tax authorities believe that “excess” revenue generated by RECOPE – which would traditionally be defined as “income” or “profit” for a private enterprise – is subject to income tax. RECOPE, for its part, argues that such revenues are not profit, as they are held in reserve for future investments in infrastructure and other future needs.
“RECOPE is in a delicate situation. If we pay [taxes], we have to find the money, either by taking on debt or by dropping plans for future investments,” Ansorena said.
“If RECOPE persists with the same behavior (not paying taxes), we will continue to conduct audits to correct them,” said Carlos Vargas, director of Taxation.
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The top 100 People of Costa Rica Departments should be fired with no benefits, ICE, AWA, and the rest, no elected official should receive any benefits.
michaelwink
Sounds like a sweet precedent they could set here, as basically every business could argue their profit one year is being held in reserve for future investment.
Ken Morris
Sounds like something the courts need to resolve. I can see the matter either way, and it probably doesn’t matter which way it is resolved since tax payments would likely just be passed along to the consumer in higher prices, but there does apparently need to be agreement as to what the law really requires.
I guess I’d prefer that RECOPE be taxed, mainly because subsidizing oil strikes me as precisely the wrong thing to do from both an environmental and quality of life standpoint, but this issue doesn’t sound like a matter of opinion to me. I think the question is what the law actually requires.
turbooperator
While it doesn’t seem to make much sense that the government would tax itself (asi es Costa Rica) , RECOPE’s own Management Rule #9 (found on it website) says that it (RECOPE) is subject to, and will pay taxes in accordance with the law.
Lav
If they want to be classified as state owned, maybe they should have state approved salaries… which of course should be approved by the citizens of Costa Rica. | 2023-12-07T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6265 |
The Complete Venison Cookbook
$14.00
by Harold D. Webster, Jr., Press Quail Ridge Press, sixth 2003 printing of the 1996 publication. From the back cover: "The definitive book on venison cooking addresses virtually every aspect of venison processing, preparation, cooking, and preservation." Hundreds of recipes, from Venison Chops with Spicy Peaches to Apple-Stuffed Venison Roll. Also recipes for accompaniments such as Homemade Dill Pickles and Winter Squash Soup. Large trade paperback (almost 11" by 9"), front cover is pictorial drawing of a buck, title in orange on spine, 419 pages. Condition: Pristine -- As New. | 2023-10-25T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/3502 |
GravityBox - all-in-one tweak box - Xposed module for devices running AOSP Lollipop
Version for JellyBean is available in this thread:
Version for KitKat is available in this thread:
Version for Marshmallow is available in this thread:
READ THIS POST CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING ANY FURTHER
Version for Lollipop has been tested on Nexus 5 and thus should be compatible with all the Nexus devices running stock Google system. Starting with v5.0.3alpha, compatibility with Motorola Moto G Dual SIM (and potentially other Motorola devices) has been improved.
Introduction
Feature highlight
Compatibility
Supplementing missing features on well-known custom ROMs built from source by installing xposed modules (especially complex ones) is definitely not a good way to go and can cause more trouble than good
So in summary:
Samsung Touchwiz, HTC Sense, MIUI, LeWa, Xperia, Lenovo, etc. are NOT supported. It is not guaranteed this module will work on these at all so try at your own risk. This module is simply too complex to support all kind of ROM brands that were vastly modified by vendors.
DO NOT USE WITH CUSTOM ROMS LIKE CM,AOSPA,ROOTBOX,AOKP,SLIM,CATACLYSM,OMNI AND THEIR OTHER CLONES... IT MAKES NO SENSE AND CAN CAUSE CONFLICTS AND UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOUR
I will not implement any exceptions that will adapt this module to a specific custom ROM. Please, do understand, it is unmanageable.
Quote: Originally Posted by trjlive Originally Posted by As is detailed in the OP, GravityBox is designed to be used with stock, vanilla AOSP ROMs, not OEM and custom ROMs. In other words, Google Play Edition and Nexus devices. All OEM ROMs (TouchWiz, Sense, Xperia, Moto, etc.), and custom ROMs (CyanogenMod, ParanoidAndroid, etc.) differ significantly in their code base from pure AOSP. And as most of these ROMs are closed source, and the developer does not have access to all the devices, it means that GravityBox is not designed for, or tested on, these devices and ROMs.
Even though the Moto devices look like stock Android, they are as much custom under-the-hood as TouchWiz or Sense. It's just that Motorola decided to implement a skin that resembles stock Android, rather than a custom skin like Samsung has done. But the changes to the core code mean that many of GravityBox's features will not work, and actually do cause some well-known bugs. The same goes for ParanoidAndroid, there are just too many changes to the core code for GB to be reliable.
If you choose to use GravityBox on a ROM it was never intended to be used with, then you do so at your own risk, and without any support. You should always have a good nandroid backup and be familiar with ADB and Fastboot. At any time, a ROM update or GravityBox update may cause any/all GravityBox features to break, and worst case, send your device into a bootloop. This is just an unfortunate reality of using a mod on a device it wasn't intended to be used on. Any user who wishes to improve or fix bugs on their unsupported ROM is more than welcome to download the source code for GravityBox (links to Git in the OP) and work on debugging and fixing the bugs on their own.
Prerequisites
To use this module, the following conditions must be met
Installation
Videos
Documentation
Reporting bugs
Disable all other xposed modules before reproducing bug to make sure it is really GravityBox related
Multilanguage support
Source code
Copyright notice
Support development
Info about premium features and PayPal transaction ID verification system
Credits
Changelog
XDA:DevDB Information
GravityBox [LP] Xposed Framework Module, Xposed for all devices (see above for details)
Contributors
Version Information
The app utilizes amazing Xposed framework coded by recognizeddeveloper rovo89 which, briefly, provides interface for injecting code into any app, including system services, allowing modifications of applications and system services at run-time. One of the biggest advantages of GravityBox is that it is not bound to any specific device. Actually, it should run on any device having vanilla Android 5 (ROM close enough to AOSP).--- CyanogenMod Pie controls--- Expanded Desktop--- Statusbar QuickSettings tile management with additional tiles and reordering /* work in progress */--- Statusbar icon coloring--- Statusbar Brightness Control--- Center clock in statusbar--- Battery indicator style--- Navigation bar tweaks including cursor control keys--- Low battery warning policy--- Disable LED flashing when battery low--- Disable LED while charging--- Advanced power-off menu (reboot, recovery)--- Volume key cursor control--- Skip tracks by volume key long-press while screen off (thanks to rovo89)--- More volume levels for music stream--- Option to control safe headset media volume--- Button for clearing all recent tasks at once--- Minimal brightness setting--- Autobrihtness levels adjustment--- Lockscreen tweaks--- Hardware/navigation key actions--- Notification drawer style (background color, image for portait/landscape, transparency)--- Button backlight modes (default, disabled, always on while screen is on)--- Dialer (Phone) tweaks--- Google Launcher tweaks--- Screen recording--- GravityBox Actions - interface for 3rd party apps--- Smart Radio--- Notification control (per-app notification LED/sounds/vibrations)--- Ascending ring tone... more to comeSome words about GB's main concept. One thing I didn't like about xposed modules was that it was always necessary to reboot a device after making a change to some option. Since GB's main concept was to turn MTK devices running stock ROM into something that's close enough to a feature-packed custom ROM, I had to take a decision - for it to be as much comfortable as possible and to really behave like a custom ROM, I had to design it to support most of the preference changes to be done on the fly without needing to reboot a device. While this sounds nice, it also brings couple of "drawbacks". For changes to be made on the fly, it is necessary to make some preparations when device starts. This means, even if you don't use the particular feature, the necessary preparation/modification is already there and is waiting for the user to come and change that option.This means it is not possible to "completely deactivate" particular feature if it causes trouble on your device or if you installed GB because you want to use only one particular feature you can't find elsewhere.This results in issues on ROMs/devices that have parts that are diverting from default Android implementation too much, or are running heavily modified custom ROMs.If you experience weird issues after installing GB, even if you didn't activate a particular feature, it is not because of GB is broken, it is because it is not compatible with your ROM. It is very similar as if you installed ROM built from source for Nexus to some Xperia device - it won't work.Next thing, GB is a complex module and is not suitable for 1 purpose scenario. This means, if you are running custom ROM built from source (CM, PAC, ...), and you are missing a certain feature, your best option is to go ask creators of those ROMs to implement those additional features.And finally, the last. GB being a complex module, it shouldn't be combined with other complex modules often racing for the same goal. They can conflict/fight on the same playground and there's no way you can deterministically say which one's going to win.They can even lose both.- this module is designed to run on vanilla or close-to-vanilla Android 5 (AOSP)- supports "Google devices" like Nexus, HTC One Google play edition, and others running vanilla Android 5- supports Motorola Moto G Dual SIM running stock Lollipop- supports Zopo Speed 7 running Lollipop 5.1 and potentially other MediaTek devices running Lollipop 5.1- I will not provide any support for devices violating these compatibility rules- You have a device running Android 5 that's based on AOSP (vanilla or close-to-vanilla Android)- ROM must be rooted (XposedInstaller requires root to be able to install framework into system)GravityBox Lollipop version has been developed and tested on Nexus 51) Follow instructions for installation of Xposed Framework alpha version for Lollipop In case of Lollipop 5.1, make sure to use unofficial Xposed Framework Alpha 2) Download, GravityBox APK from the second post, rename it toand install it.Alternatively, you can download the latest GravityBox directly from Xposed Installer (search for GravityBox [LP] module).3) Make sure GravityBox app is installed into internal memory. If it was installed into phone storage or external storage,move it into the internal memory first (applies only to devices having additional or external storage)7) Run Xposed installer, go to Modules menu and activate GravityBox by checking the checkbox8) Reboot9) Launch GravityBox from app drawer or from Xposed installer and set options as desired Xposed framework install plus gravity box module overview (thanks to Rootjunky.com & Marshall Williams Gravity Box - What is it and How to install it (thanks to @ D3VI0US Thanks to @ cadarn07 , there's a comprehensive and searchable User Guide listingall of the GravityBox features. It's an EverNote document located at https://www.evernote.com/pub/cadarn07/gravitybox If you experience problems with certain feature, provide the full-detailed info that can help meto reproduce the bug and attachfile you'll find in:In case you experience SystemUI crashes or other apps, or device soft reboots, attach logcat from timecrash occurs. (useor your favorite).Please, don't attach big logs. Only the portion where error is clearly seen.Volunteers are welcome to translate GravityBox to other languages.Simply download this file: https://github.com/GravityBox/Gravit...es/strings.xml Use Notepad++ to edit strings and then send me edited file so I can include translations into next release.GravityBox is opensource. Sources are available in my gihub: https://github.com/GravityBox/GravityBox/tree/lollipop If you're a dev and have some ideas for additional features, feel free to fork it, work on itand send the pull requests.Coding, maintaining and supporting this project costs me a lot of my precious time. If you find this project useful, you are welcome to support its development via donation. This form of support is meant to compensate for my time dedicated to the community + eventually, help me to afford newer device to keep up with AOSP evolution thus providing continuous support as Android evolves. Thanks!1) Those who supported development via PayPal donation can use their PayPal transaction ID to unlock premium features.As of v2.9.5, there's one premium feature: Backup/restore of GB settings.2) If you contributed to the project by providing translations, code fragments, or by any other wayyou can apply for a free transaction ID by contacting me via PM.3) Be aware that there's a system that can identify potential transaction IDabuse. E.g. when one ID is being used by more users. Such IDs will get blocked automatically.This can also happen when you previously exposed your ID in public forum and other users tookadvantage of it. If this is the case, contact me via PM so I can issue new, special ID.In case you own more devices, you can use one transaction ID on up to 10 of them.4) If you are using your own custom builds of GB for personal use, you will get hash mismatchupon verifying your ID as verification system accepts requests only from official releases of GB.If you want to be able to verify IDs with your custom build, contact me via PM so I can setupa special hash for your build.If you are using a custom build that you provide for broader group of users (e.g. in a custom ROM),it is necessary to ask for new hash everytime your new custom version is released for public use.These rules are based on mutual trust so please, do not violate them.- @ bgcngm for his code contributions to the project- @ MohammadAG for Xperia specific contributions to the project- @ rovo89 for his ultimate Xposed framework and "Volume keys to skip track" mod- @ peptonib for starting me up with this project- @ Tungstwenty for Fake ID vulnerability patch - @ simmac for app icon- @ romracer for Motorola specific code contributions- THL W8 owners for providing support and feedback- CyanogenMod project- ParanoidAndroid project- SlimBean, RootBox, AOKP, OmniROM projects- Sergey Margaritov for ColorPickerPreference - All those who provided translations for different languages (Mr.Premise, peptonib, kidmar, ch-vox, romashko, Indiant, lelemm, oicirbaf, unavix, LuHash, WedyDQ10, mp3comanche, awaaas, liveasx, samsonbear, Eric850130, xtrem007, benjoe1, asmb111, ...)- and finally, all those who keep the project alive by supporting me via donations (you know who you are)com.ceco.lollipop.gravityboxStable5.6.02018-09-232015-02-222018-09-23 | 2024-02-14T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8463 |
Introduction
============
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is an epidemic with approximately 387 million chronically infected carriers worldwide, and chronic infection carries a high risk for serious complications, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma \[[@B1],[@B2]\]. Current treatments for HBV infection include immunomodulators such as interferon-α (IFN-α) and nucleoside/nucleotide analogs, which are reverse transcriptase inhibitors, directly blocking viral replication. Although nucleoside and nucleotide analogs are well tolerated, the emergence of viral resistance remains a problem \[[@B3]\]. Currently, the nucleoside/nucleotide analogs lamivudine (3TC), adefovir, entecovir and telbivudine are approved for use against HBV, with lamivudine being the most widely used. However, prolonged lamivudine monotherapy is often associated with the emergence of viral resistance to the drug \[[@B4]\]. Although cross-resistance to other nucleoside/nucleotide analogs, such as entecavir, has been demonstrated, the preferred first line of therapy includes a combination of nucleoside/nucleotide analogs to limit the emergence of resistance (reviewed in \[[@B5]\]). IFN-α functions to augment the anti-HBV immune response and has been in widespread use for many years \[[@B6],[@B7]\]. Currently, unmodified and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-conjugated IFNs are licensed for therapy of HBV \[[@B8]\]. However, some patients are poorly responsive to IFN-α therapy, and it can induce adverse side effects, such as hepatic injury \[[@B9]\]. Moreover, IFN-α is often expensive and unavailable in resource-poor settings.
There is a dire need for new therapies for HBV infection and the emergence of RNA interference (RNAi)-based technologies is an exciting new frontier in antiviral therapeutics. RNAi is a set of conserved eukaryotic pathways in which double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) trigger specific and powerful gene silencing \[[@B10],[@B11]\]. RNAi has an important role in regulating gene expression through the processing of long dsRNA precursors by the RNase III enzymes Drosha and Dicer into endogenous microRNAs (miRNAs) or short interfering RNAs (siRNAs). RNA \'guide strands\' of around 22 nucleotides in length are each integrated into an Argonaute-containing RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) and these target mRNAs for degradation or translational suppression \[[@B12],[@B13]\]. Considerable enthusiasm followed the initial discovery of RNAi in 1998 \[[@B11]\] as it emerged that this pathway could be exploited for medical applications. Since then, RNAi technologies have developed rapidly with the aim of silencing rogue viral and host cell genes. This is especially the case for HBV, for which, so far, many studies have applied RNAi-based tools to inhibit viral replication *in vivo*and *in vitro*\[[@B14]-[@B18]\]. RNAi-based modalities differ from current therapies in that they can be used to block various different steps in the viral life cycle, from viral RNA replication intermediates to viral mRNAs. Importantly, different RNAi activators share similar pharmacological properties, allowing multiple RNAi-based drugs to be used together in combination treatments. Although similar to current multidrug cocktail regimes, RNAi combinations can target exclusive regions of the virus, thus avoiding problems associated with multi-drug sensitivities and toxicities. This makes RNAi-based therapies better suited to targeting rapidly evolving viral sequences, preventing the emergence of drug-resistant virus. Lastly, because RNAi-based drugs can be expressed from introduced genes, they offer the possibility for a sustained therapeutic response.
The HBV genome and susceptibility to RNAi-based therapies
=========================================================
The HBV genome has a relaxed circular DNA (rcDNA) structure that is partly double stranded (Figure [1a](#F1){ref-type="fig"}) \[[@B19],[@B20]\]. Having infected a hepatocyte, viral rcDNA is converted to covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), which serves as a template for the expression of viral genes and for the formation of the replicative intermediate pregenomic RNA \[[@B19]-[@B21]\]. This HBV replication intermediate exists naturally as a minichromosome and is analogous to the provirus of HIV-1-infected cells. Therefore, cccDNA ultimately controls the production of progeny viruses. One of the principal reasons for the poor efficacy of many antiviral treatment regimens has been the difficulty in eliminating episomal cccDNA from infected hepatocytes; it can reactivate HBV replication following withdrawal of treatment.
{#F1}
The entire viral genome is approximately 3,200 bases in length and is remarkably compact, encoding four open reading frames: core, polymerase, envelope (surface) and hepatitis B virus X protein (Figure [1b](#F1){ref-type="fig"}). All open reading frames partially overlap, collectively covering the entire genome. Viral regulatory elements, which control transcription and replication, are included within the protein-coding sequences. Although HBV replicates using an error-prone reverse transcriptase, its small, economically arranged genome limits sequence plasticity, making HBV a good target for RNAi-based therapeutic approaches, which rely on nucleic acid hybridization. Moreover, the virus produces four transcripts, initiated from four different promoters on the cccDNA but all terminating at a single polyadenylation site. Therefore, a single RNAi modality is theoretically capable of simultaneously targeting all four viral mRNAs as well as the pregenomic RNA template (Figure [1c](#F1){ref-type="fig"}).
Synthetic and expressed RNAi activators that target HBV
=======================================================
Ideally, anti-HBV sequences should be effective at low concentration (potent), stable, with no off-target non-specific silencing, have limited toxic immunostimulatory effects and be easily delivered in various prescribed doses. To achieve this, both expressed and synthetic RNAi activators have been used. Exogenous anti-HBV siRNAs are synthetic analogs of mature miRNA duplexes and activate RNAi at the stage of guide strand incorporation into RISC. Expressed RNAi activators are produced from exogenous genetic elements and mimic upstream RNAi intermediates that are recognized by Drosha and/or Dicer enzymes to produce active siRNAs. The chronic nature of HBV infection means that a sustained effect of anti-HBV agents is essential. Unmodified synthetic miRNA mimics generally have a short duration of efficacy and may be unsuited to treatment of persistent HBV infection. Sustained silencing with chemically modified siRNAs or expressed sequences may therefore be preferable.
Improving safety and specificity by chemical modification
---------------------------------------------------------
Chemical modification has been used to improve stability, silencing specificity and efficiency of the RNAi activators \[[@B22]\]. Inclusion of 2\'-*O*-methyl RNA and 2\'-fluoro ribose moieties, use of locked nucleic acid siRNA derivatives and incorporation of phosphorothioate backbone modifications have been reported to improve siRNA efficacy \[[@B23]-[@B26]\]. Substitution of ribose with the six-carbon sugar altritol was also recently found to enhance stability and efficacy of siRNAs \[[@B27]\], and this chemical modification has shown promise in preclinical testing against HBV \[[@B28]\]. Off-target effects caused by immunostimulation and activation of the Toll-like receptor proteins TLR3, TLR7 and TLR8 \[[@B29],[@B30]\] by siRNAs are important considerations in the development of RNAi-based HBV therapy. Avoidance of certain \'danger\' motifs (such as 5\'-GUCCUUCAA-3\', 5\'-UGUGU-3\' and GU-rich sequences), ensuring that the length of siRNAs does not exceed approximately 27 bp, and various chemical modifications can be used to diminish immunostimulation \[[@B31]\].
Unintended hybridization to host cellular sequences may be another complicating side effect of therapeutic siRNAs. The seed region of any potentially therapeutic guide sequence is likely to be complementary to non-targeted cellular mRNA and result in non-specific translational suppression. Interestingly, a 2\'-*O*-methyl modification at nucleotide 2 from the 5\' end has been found to attenuate this off-target silencing by siRNAs \[[@B26]\]. Ensuring a guide strand selection bias in favor of the intended antisense sequence is also important to limit non-specific gene silencing. Weak interstrand bonding at the 5\' end of the intended guide \[[@B32]\] and incorporating a 5\'-*O*-methyl group on the terminal ribose of the sense strand \[[@B33]\] facilitate appropriate selection of guide strands by RISC. Collectively, these results show that chemical modifications are very useful to improve the safety profile and specificity of siRNAs, which are critical for development of anti-HBV RNAi-based therapy.
Endoribonuclease-prepared siRNAs are alternative RNAi activators
----------------------------------------------------------------
Endoribonuclease-prepared siRNAs (esiRNAs) have been developed as interesting alternative RNAi activators \[[@B34],[@B35]\]. These silencing sequences are different from the new class of endogenous siRNAs (also termed esiRNAs) that have been found in *Drosophila melanogaster*\[[@B36]\] and oocytes of mice \[[@B37]\] in that the formation of endoribonuclease-prepared RNAs *in vitro*involves processing of large dsRNA by recombinant Dicer or *Escherichia coli*RNase III to produce a large pool of different siRNAs targeted to a specific viral sequence. When used against HBV, esiRNAs inhibited viral replication in culture and *in vivo*\[[@B38]\]. An intriguing observation was that esiRNAs were capable of diminishing the concentration of viral cccDNA templates. Other researchers \[[@B39],[@B40]\] report similar findings and ascribe them to a feedback mechanism in which knockdown of reverse transcription of pregenomic RNA is effected by inhibition of HBV surface antigen production. However, inhibition of cccDNA production following RNAi-mediated HBV gene silencing has not been a constant observation \[[@B41]\], and non-specific effects as a cause for this observation need to be excluded \[[@B17],[@B42]\].
DNA expression cassettes for delivery of RNAi
---------------------------------------------
Good progress has been made in developing DNA expression cassettes that transcribe HBV-silencing sequences. Short hairpin RNA (shRNA) mimics of pre-miRNA or primary (pri-)miRNA shuttle sequences have typically been incorporated into expression cassettes. RNA polymerase III (Pol III) transcription regulatory elements have been used successfully but a concern has been that overproduction of anti-HBV shRNAs may disrupt endogenous miRNA function \[[@B43]\]. Studies have recently shown that Pol II promoters can be used in highly effective monomeric or multimeric anti-HBV cassettes, which include features of naturally occurring miRNAs \[[@B44]-[@B46]\]. Research focus has therefore shifted towards the use of weaker Pol III promoters and the development of Pol II RNAi expression cassettes capable of tissue-specific and inducible expression of RNAi activators \[[@B45],[@B47]\]. DNA encoding anti-HBV RNAi activator sequences can be propagated conveniently in plasmids (pDNA), PCR amplicons and highly efficient hepatotropic recombinant viral vectors such as adenoviruses and adeno-associated viruses (AAVs). Although insertion of RNAi cassettes into pDNA is a routine procedure of molecular biology, safe and efficient use of pDNA is limited by plasmids\' large size, and the presence of antibiotic resistance genes and immunostimulatory CpG motifs (reviewed in \[[@B48]\]). DNA minicircles, which can be generated by site-specific recombination of pDNA in bacterial cells, may overcome these problems. However, variable production efficiency and problems of contaminating pDNA currently limit their widespread use. Smaller PCR-generated linear expression cassettes, which include only essential components of the RNAi expression cassettes, have been used successfully as an alternative template for expression of anti-HBV RNAi effecters \[[@B49]\]. Propagation of these sequences is convenient and incorporation of modifications such as stabilizing flanking hairpins \[[@B50]\] and phosphorothioate-modified oligonucleotide primers is easily achieved \[[@B51]\]. Linear DNA traverses nucleopores efficiently \[[@B52]\] and may therefore improve delivery efficiency of RNAi expression cassettes.
Models of HBV replication
=========================
The development of any type of new therapy, including RNAi-based HBV therapy, typically involves a series of investigations that progresses from initial testing in cultured cells to rigorous analysis in animal models before clinical trials. A difficulty with research on HBV has been the limited availability of cell lines that are infectable with HBV, as well as the lack of a suitable small animal equivalent of human HBV infection. Surrogate models, which usually involve transfection of cells in culture or *in vivo*with HBV replication-competent plasmids, have therefore been used. Hydrodynamic injection of mice with HBV replication-competent plasmid is a convenient approach to simulate infection *in vivo*\[[@B53]\]. However, this model has some drawbacks given that the procedure itself is hepatotoxic and viral replication is transient. HBV transgenic mice have been used as a more stringent model and HBV replication in these animals resembles the clinical condition of chronic HBV infection. Chimeric immunodeficient mice that are grafted with human hepatocytes have also been used as a murine model of viral replication \[[@B54],[@B55]\]. The livers of these mice, which are colonized with human hepatocytes, can be infected by HBV to enable testing of efficacy of antiviral agents. Larger animal models of HBV infection are available but are complicated by requirements for specialized housing and ethical issues. Examples include the woodchuck \[[@B56]\], tree shrew \[[@B57]\] and chimpanzee \[[@B58]\].
Delivery of anti-HBV RNAi activators
====================================
As nucleic acids, synthetic and expressed RNAi activators are large negatively charged molecules and their delivery to cellular targets requires the use of vectors. Although progress has been made in this field, achieving safe and efficient transport of RNAi activators to cellular targets remains the most significant hurdle that needs to be overcome before the goal of RNAi-based HBV therapy is realized. The hepatotropism of HBV requires systemic administration of antiviral formulations. This is more complicated than topical administration of antivirals, which can be used to counter infections such as those caused by respiratory syncytial virus \[[@B59]\]. An additional consideration is that to achieve sustained silencing of chronic HBV infection, repeated administration of vectors may be necessary, in which case avoidance of immunostimulation is important.
Viral and non-viral vectors have both been used to deliver anti-HBV sequences *in vivo*. Although a variety of non-viral vectors can be used for this purpose, liposome nucleic acid complexes (lipoplexes) have been used most commonly. Lipoplexes are compatible with the use of modular assembly to tailor biological properties for specific applications. An example is the addition of galactose residues to non-targeting vectors to enable direct interaction with the liver-specific asialoglycoprotein receptor \[[@B60]\]. Addition of \'stealth\' molecules such as PEG can be used to improve vector stability and facilitate passive targeting of the liver. Modular lipoplexes were used successfully to deliver anti-HBV siRNAs in the stringent transgenic mouse model \[[@B61]\]. Chemically modified anti-HBV siRNAs, encapsulated within lipids to form stable nucleic acid-lipid particles (SNALPs), silenced HBV replication in mice that had been subjected to hydrodynamic injection with an HBV replication-competent plasmid \[[@B23]\]. Recently, rational design of cationic lipid components of SNALPs has been used to improve their efficiency \[[@B62]\]. siRNA doses as low as 0.01 mg per kg body weight were capable of silencing an endogenous hepatic gene. This is potentially very useful for advancing HBV RNAi-based therapy; administration of low doses of the RNAi effecter diminishes the risk of unwanted side effects.
Among recombinant viral vectors, adenoviruses and AAVs have been used to deliver anti-HBV expression cassettes *in vivo*. Infection of HBV transgenic mice with adenoviruses \[[@B14],[@B63]\] or AAVs \[[@B43],[@B64]\] carrying Pol II- or Pol III-driven anti-HBV shRNA cassettes inhibited viral replication significantly. Although adenoviruses are very effective hepatotropic vectors, there are concerns about their immunostimulatory effects after systemic administration. To attenuate immune responses against the vector and also to improve the anti-HBV effects of repeated administration, PEG modification of anti-HBV shRNA-expressing adenoviruses was used \[[@B65]\]. Newer generation helper-dependent or \'gutless\' adenoviruses, which lack viral protein-expressing sequences, have diminished immunostimulatory properties and can also achieve sustained silencing. A recent study has reported the use of anti-HBV helper-dependent adenoviruses \[[@B66]\]. Only modest silencing was achieved, but this was ascribed to low efficacy of the selected anti-HBV expression cassette. The safety and low immunogenicity of recombinant AAVs have generated interest in this class of vector for delivery of anti-HBV RNAi sequences. Anti-HBV hepatotropic AAVs have been generated by combining the widely used AAV-2 serotype with the capsid of the liver-specific AAV-8 \[[@B67]\]. To overcome diminished HBV silencing efficacy caused by an immune response to particular AAV serotypes, sequential administration of different vectors with different capsids was used to achieve sustained HBV silencing \[[@B68]\].
Conclusions and prospects for clinical application
==================================================
The progress made in the field of RNAi-based HBV therapy has been impressive. Research on the topic has gained momentum, which will no doubt sustain the continued progress required to achieve the goal of developing HBV treatment suitable for clinical applications. Nevertheless, there are significant hurdles that need to be overcome. These include optimizing dose control, limiting off-target effects, improving delivery of RNAi effecters and demonstration of efficacy in suitable animal models before embarking on clinical evaluations. As the mechanisms responsible for off-target effects become better understood, so the approaches to diminish their significance have also advanced. New-generation antiviral expression cassettes and ingenious methods of chemical modification of synthetic siRNAs go a long way to avoiding unintended effects. Although promising viral and non-viral vectors have been developed for delivery of RNAi activators to hepatocytes, improvements in safety and efficacy remain an important objective before their eventual clinical application. Eliminating HBV cccDNA from infected hepatocytes is also an important consideration. EsiRNAs apparently caused a decrease in cccDNA in transfected hepatocytes in culture \[[@B38]-[@B40]\], but a recent study demonstrated that shRNA-mediated suppression did not alter intracellular cccDNA concentrations \[[@B41]\].
The current phase of developing anti-HBV RNAi-based therapy is still at a preclinical stage. Most studies have been carried out in cultured cells and in murine models of the infection. Although useful, these models have their limitations. Detailed evaluation in animal models that simulate the human condition more closely is a priority, and outcomes from these studies will be useful to guide the development of clinical trials. Treatment regimens that use RNAi activators in combination with established licensed drugs will be interesting to assess and may reveal synergy of drug combinations. Despite difficulties with efficient delivery and limitation of off-target effects, and despite the limited availability of suitable animal models of HBV infection, advances in the development of RNAi-based HBV therapy are likely to continue to be rapid. Already, many other RNAi-based therapies have been tested in several early-stage clinical trials. Current indications are positive that RNAi-based drugs can be safely administered to humans and can specifically degrade target RNAs *in vivo*\[[@B69]\]. Moreover, development of anti-HBV RNAi therapies benefits efforts to inhibit liver-specific therapeutic targets and specifically other liver infections, such as hepatitis C virus. Future research should see existing impediments surmounted and the prospects for advancing RNAi-based therapy for chronic HBV infection are exciting.
Abbreviations
=============
AAV: adeno-associated virus; cccDNA: covalently closed circular DNA; dsRNA: double stranded RNA; esiRNA: endoribonuclease-prepared siRNA; HBV: hepatitis B virus; IFN-α: interferon-α; miRNA: microRNA; PEG: polyethylene glycol; rcDNA: relaxed circular DNA; pDNA: plasmid DNA; RISC: RNA-induced silencing complex; RNAi: RNA interference; shRNA: short hairpin RNA; siRNA: short interfering RNA; SNALP: stable nucleic acid-lipid particle.
Competing interests
===================
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors\' contributions
=======================
MW and PA equally contributed towards drafting the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
================
Work in the authors\' laboratory is supported by funding from the South African National Research Foundation (NRF GUN 68339 and 65495), ESASTAP, CANSA, South African Medical Research Council and the South African Poliomyelitis Research Foundation.
| 2024-01-16T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9650 |
Leylines
Step into a world of lost magic and lost hope, and forge your path!
Vaguely Recalled From Memory
This time I don’t have a summary, just what little I can remember from a few years ago. Here’s what I can recall.
I remember the party’s plan to a certain extent. Snow snuck in, pretending to be there for the meeting, but her cover was blown and the rest of the party was forced to descend and assist her. There was a large brawl, and I believe Alice stepped forward and provided cover with her crossbow as well. The rebels scattered, but a few were captured and turned over to Captain Trenton for processing.
In the meantime, that Selennian army in the mountains had begun its march, and Trenton was scrambling to prepare for them. Hoping to use everything available to him to prevent a disaster, he asked Ephraim, the only remaining Selennian official in the city, to treat with them, which of course put the party front in center. Ephraim’s loyalty may be conflicted between the city and his people, but at least he could be counted on to do his best to reach favorable terms for both. Alice left the group upon hearing this news, choosing to risk staying behind rather than getting involved in political matters.
That said, there were two major problems with this for Jeung Xi. You see, although he didn’t comment on it, Jeung Xi was also Selennian, and from an important family at that. Although he kept it to himself, he’d done something unforgivable and left his homeland looking to live and honorable life and redeem himself. So having to confront his own people was bad enough, but worse still he personally knew the man in charge and didn’t want to risk being recognized. Staying as quiet as possible, he allowed Ephraim to take the lead.
I don’t remember much of what happened after this. I think there was a preliminary meeting, in which Ephraim and Captain Trenton spoke with the Selennian military leader, and some demands were made. They wanted access to the city to look for something, but were evasive as to what that something was. Trenton wasn’t about to just let a foreign army inside, and so they left at an impasse. And I think we wrapped there, but again, everything involving the meeting is super vague to me.
Damsels in Distress
After a brief break during my move we finally had another session of Leylines, and our campaign marches steadily onwards. We resumed back in the room allocated to our PCs, where they are joined by their new ally Ricky. Awakened by a knock at the door they found Lieutenant Llewyn calling on them to visit with Captain Trenton, which Ricky took as his cue to exit the building, he and Llewyn expressing a mutual dislike for one another as they passed. Sed also left on his own, trying to find Bremen – Torval’s agent – again before the man can flee the city.
On the way to the Guardhouse, Llewyn quickly went over the full scope of the previous night’s events. While the PCs had charged into Parliament to protect city government, the other Militia troops in the area were busy elsewhere. To divert the guard’s attention and cause further damage, the civilian army had set fire to all the city’s food storage center’s, and they’ve since calculated a total loss of about 90% of the city’s reserve rations.
Worse, news of both that and the sudden coup were leaked to the public, likely by the very perpetrators, and now the merchants and citizens alike are fleeing the city for more stable ground. The guards are stopping merchant vessels and caravans out of necessity, to use their food supplies to bolster the city proper. But they lost a lot before the threat was detected, and with the high rate of decay after the loss of preservation runes, the supply of food within the city will quickly become dangerously low despite their efforts.
They reach the Guardhouse, where Ephraim and Eli gave their report to Captain Trenton. He then brought out Jun Xi, who had a report of his own. During the previous session he went to scout the approaching army in the mountains, and discovered who they are; they’re Queensguard, the personal guard and military force of the royal family of neighboring Selenne, and roughly 700 in number. This caused Trenton to level with Ephraim, who was a member of that nation’s embassy in town; if this is a declaration of war on Ganaval, and it comes down to a siege, would he return to his people? Ephraim truthfully answered he would, and the Captain was forced to take back the red eagle of Danton, the badge that labeled him a deputized member of the militia, although Trenton still hoped he would continue to support them until things came to that.
The Captain then gave them their task; with the militia stretched thin, he needed every hand to handle something, and he wants them to manage a separate investigation into the attack the night before. They need to drag down the leaders and end that threat before it invites total anarchy in the city. He directs them to a prisoner from the fighting the night before, and gives them leave to interrogate him. A quick good-cop bad-cop routine between Ephraim and Eli quickly got some information from him; the location of the last meeting his cabal had.
On their way out, Lieutenant Llewyn asked them to look into Evard’s Dogs during their investigation; the criminal organization had been strangely quiet for days now, and he’s worried about what that might mean. But before they can do so a young girl, no older than thirteen, emerged from the crowd, calling them by names and titles. Introducing herself with a curtsy as Alice, she grilled them about their deeds and reputations before allowing them on their way, skimming over any questions about her reasons by saying she’s “considering a contract”.
Snow reappeared at this point as the group talked about how long it’d been since they’d all been together. Jun Xi showed a lot of hesitation in letting Snow come, still underestimating her because of her gender, and still seemed put off at the thought of the young girl they’d met before getting involved in any of the danger they were currently facing. Eli, on the other hand, was just happy she’d used his title of “Rail Tracer”, while Ephraim didn’t think much of it one way or the other.
The group then chose to investigate the site of the cabal’s last meeting rather than contacting Ricky, and quickly found several clues. Ephraim took a new red-eagle badge from a dead undercover militia officer they found there before they continued their investigation with the warehouse owner, Dorin Fernand. Dorin was very cooperative, giving them the name and address of his warehouse manager, the only man who had the keys to that building, and thanked them for looking into the matter of the murder on his premises.
This led them to the manager’s house, where they found him cowering behind barricades with a few friends. Eli quickly intimidated them into dropping their weapons, and the man, Kyle, was able to give them the location of the next meeting in exchange for his freedom, promising that all he wanted was to leave town and wash his hands of all of it.
They tried to follow this lead, but unfortunately an interruption struck along the way. A black-garbed assassin, second-cousin to Snow, slipped and fell into the street before them, sending the two assassins accompanying him into motion along the rooftops. Ephraim caught that they were headed for a target behind them, and quickly spotted Alice, who had been quietly following them since the Guardhouse. The girl was trying desperately to pull something out of her riding skirts as the assassins advanced, and the group quickly burst into action to help her. Jun Xi and Eli were intent on protecting the girl while Ephraim and Snow sought vengeance on the assassins. One assassin in particular, whose name wouldn’t come to Snow’s mind, came very close to striking at Alice, but Eli and Ephraim combined efforts managed to trap him in an alley in the end. The other assassins fled, although Jun Xi gave short, unsuccessful chase.
Alice, filled with a melancholic rage, angrily fires the crossbow she has only now freed from her skirts into a nearby wall in anger, letting loose a maddened scream. She seems close to tears, but rebuffs Eli’s attempts to console her, showing a hardness that belies her age. Snow begins interrogating their prisoner then, who she managed to get the felling blow on when he tried to escape to the rooftops. Still unwilling to really hurt her family, just as they had been unwilling to harm her, she ended up leaving his fate to the others after a brief conversation made it clear the assassin felt no responsibility for his attempt on the child’s life, and had no information on the contractor . . . or at least none he would give. Noticing that time was running short to make it to that next meeting of the rebel faction, Eli let the man free.
Alice stepped forward then, although Snow testily told her to shut up when the girl took too much of a commanding tone. Alice then questioned what exactly their plan was, going into the meeting half-cocked, and suggested that if Snow thinks she’s so useless than she’ll infiltrate the meeting herself. Eli decided that it was too dangerous for the girl, and elected Snow to go instead. Alice reluctantly agreed, upset at failing to be of use, and told the group they could consider themselves hired, and they would receive compensation for their efforts in protecting her. She’s up front about it; the attacks wont cease, but she knows who wants her dead, although she wishes to keep that fact to herself for now. And when the time is right, she’ll need their help with one vital task. . . and after that she’ll give them full access to her family’s wealth.
They then began going over their options, Eli and Ephraim wondering if hiring Snow’s family would be an option. They eventually decided against it, on the grounds that Captain Trenton would never stand for working with a family of assassins; he wouldn’t even accept Snow, who had washed her hands of them. They gathered themselves as the sun began to set, and elsewhere the first arrivals began trickling in for the rebel meeting as they set out to their destination, Alice in tow. The plan: let Snow infiltrate, while Jun Xi, Ephraim and Eli wait outside for signs of trouble, avoiding contact and only gathering information unless the matter is pressed.
We had to break there for the night, but all in all the session went well. Alice is a very important NPC who, unless she gets killed or something, will be around for the next ten or so levels, and the party really formed strong opinions about her. Jun Xi’s player went as far as to sketch an image of her from my description at their first meeting, which proved helpful. The players were also a lot more active; there was a lot of roleplay, especially from normally quiet players like Eli’s. The intra-party conversations were also great, as they developed the relationships between them. Ephraim in particularly is kind of an odd man out now, as his loyalty no longer lies in the same place as the rest of the group.
It should be interesting to see what happens from here, especially when the Queensguard arrive. . . which while not next session, should be the following day in game-time. I have high hopes for all my players, and can’t wait to see how they handle the meeting, which is a double whammy of an rp and action climax for this adventure. And as for the following day. . . well, that’s when things will really go to shit, as if they weren’t bad enough already. Multiple factions in play, martial law failing, and the PCs will have to decide which threats they want to deal with. I can’t wait to get there, as shortly after that is when I plan to finally return their powers to them, after probably 7 sessions or more now of none of 4th Edition’s usual trappings.
As the City Burns and Crumbles
We had our follow-up session today, although our newest player was unable to make it leaving us short one Ephraim. It went well enough, with a few details of the big Heroic→Epic tier plot being introduced, and several PC-specific encounters.
Following the group’s scuffle with the Dula brothers from the previous session, Ephraim immediately ran out ahead of them to track down the source of the smoke and fire coming from the Government District while Eli, Snow and Sed discussed their game plan. After a quick re-interrogation of their prisoner, the impersonator of Sed’s old friend and recent enemy Torval, they set out after Ephraim to investigate the source of the trouble.
They arrived to find the Government District aflame, most of the damage stemming from a blaze in the Parliamentary Hall. Out front, a handful of armed civilians, all carrying rather expensive, well-crafted weapons, were shouting threats and cutting down anyone who refused to obey and stepped too close to the Hall’s entrance. With bodies already scattered at their feet, the PCs still tried to talk them down. . . without much success. They fought their way through the entrance and lobby, where they found and rescued a wounded Ephraim before continuing onward.
By the time they reached the Parliament, the sprawling chamber looked like a portrait of some personal hell. The flames racing up walls and dancing in the beams of the ceiling, smoke clouding vision and filling lungs, and corpses scattered across the seats and stairs of the chamber cast a grim scene, and as they entered they found two more men threatening the last two survivors. Alex Iroe, governor of Danton, was just barely managing to defend himself with a dueling cane from the spear-thrusts of his black-clad attacker as another politician hid behind him, and as the PCs charged onto the scene they quickly recognized his assailant: Joseph, Snow’s cousin.
Leaving the two surviving politicians to cower in the corner, Joseph re-introduced himself with his trademark flourish, warning his cousin to leave him to the family’s business and not to get involved. He’d divulged the information on Torval earlier as a mercy, to keep them away, but apparently that hadn’t distracted them for long enough. Snow took umbrage at this, condemning Joseph for his actions, but still seemed reluctant to actually fight a member of the family.
Instead Sed took the lead, charging down the steps and right into a net thrown by Joseph. The assassin showed no sign of following his attack up, however, giving repeated warnings even as Eli charge down the stairs to engage him. They danced round each other for a moment, Joseph displaying the skills he’d developed in a lifetime spent training for precisely this purpose, until another assassin emerged from amongst the armed civilians working with him and struck Eli from behind.
With an archer killing the wounded politician and injuring the governor in the back of the room, and the fires getting worse, Snow and Sed quickly decided to sound a retreat, much to Alex Iroe’s dismay; he’d been the one to deputize Sed and Eli, after all, and now they were going to abandon him. Joseph acquiesced, and when the other non-family assassin decided to ignore his orders and continue the assault, Joseph killed him with one of his nets before turning to stab the archer in the back. He described it as “removing the witnesses”. Distraught at what happened, and secretly hoping that Snow and Sed would come back and stand with him, Eli stayed to see the result of the decision they’d made, and watch as Joseph finally struck down the fleeing governor of Danton.
As they retreated, leaving Joseph alone in the hall, an earthquake rocked the city. The building, already weakened by fire, collapsed inward, and Joseph disappeared in the rubble and dust as the party fled into the street. By now the fighting seemed to have calmed down, although the militia and citizens were still fighting the flames and reacting to the sudden quake. Seeing a cloud of dust originating from the North side of the city, Eli went to investigate as Sed and Snow took Ephraim back to their lodgings to recover.
Sed and Snow ended up running into Ricky, who they briefly conversed with about the quake. He seemed split on the issue; it seemed localized, like something someone with a Talent might be able to do, but the scale of it was way off; even if the Talents were still around, no one could pull of something that devastating. They also asked about the mysterious Wildman imprisoned in the Gaol, whose foreign powers Sed had shown some interest in before. Unfortunately, Ricky didn’t know much, other than that the man’s door hasn’t been opened but once since the disappearance, and that his powers are most certainly still in effect as he was able to crush a guard’s skull by casually grabbing his face and squeezing.
Eli meanwhile investigated the dust cloud, and the epicenter of the quake. He found the destruction there on a whole other level; an entire city block completely leveled, with no stone left standing within the area. Cracks as far down as the sewer system bisected the streets, and cowering and grieving families were clustered around the wreckage. A brief investigation led him to a rumor about a green-cloaked man, bearing the symbol of the architect’s guild, who had placed a hand on a building in the center of the destroyed district and seemingly caused the massive quake. Little other information was available.
Eli met back with the others, and together they went to investigate the Wildman. They went to the Gaol, using Eli and Sed’s positions as guards to get in, and were taken to the Wildman’s room and allowed to speak through the food slit while under guard. At first, the dangerous man the guards described as nearly mute seemed uninterested in conversation, making so little noise as to make the room seem empty, but when Eli approached his voice rose. “Heartslayer”, he called him, causing Eli to flash back to the strange boy he’d slain in the mountains and who he was convinced had somehow led to him causing the Disappearance of the Leylines. He quickly convinced the guards and party members to step back and allow him privacy, and the Wildman suddenly seemed quick to talk.
He said Eli, or “Heartslayer”, had freed “Worldbreaker” from the “Worldprison”, and that only “Lifebringer” could cage him again. When Eli mentioned the boy, the Wildman called him the “Key”, and said that its destruction had caused the five strands of Lifebringer’s power to shatter. He said that even now, Eli’s kind were using Lifebringer’s power to destroy themselves, oblivious to the threat that was coming, and that the Wildmen would soon be crush the southern peoples underfoot in order to prevent disaster. He then acknowledged Eli’s oblivious nature in all of this, and gave him the mercy of commanding him to flee into the seas, where Worldbreaker and the Wildmen can’t find him. For they would all be looking, himself included, and for his sins he would be killed in a most spectacular manner.
Eli kept most of this to himself, telling the group as little as possible as he kept the secret of his “sins” to himself. They went back to their lodgings, where Ricky is now also staying, to rest, and that’s where the session ended.
All in all, things are going well so far. Eli’s player seems to be trying to really keep a friendship between his PC and the NPC Llewyn, while Sed’s player wants to keep Ricky around as an unofficial member of the party. I think my nasally Brooklyn accent won him over or something. The climax between Snow and Joseph went off beautifully, although Snow’s refusal to fight him, even at the cost of the entire city government, will come back to haunt her me thinks. It probably would’ve gone so much differently if Jun Xi were there though. Ever notice how every time Jun Xi is absent, the party causes or allows something awful to happen?
Two weeks from now, we’ll be meeting again, and hopefully Jun Xi and Ephraim will both be back. Gandrake seems permanently out of the equation though, and I’m unsure about our other player, the one who originally ran Tyranis back at the beginning of all this. More to come, as always; our bi-weekly schedule on this game seems fairly solid now, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Cheers!
Shades of the Past
Last Saturday marked the triumphant return of Leylines, and DnD for that matter, to the lives of my friends and I. Unfortunately, the timing has robbed us of a few players; two to family gatherings, and one to WoW: Cataclysm. We’ve filled the gap with a new player who’s brand new to DnD, with only the short zombie one-shot I ran a couple weeks ago under his belt. He seems to have taken to it pretty strongly though, and had a lot of fun. He played the role of Ephraim, whose name still sadly reminds me of the Family Guy joke “Efram the Retarded Rabbit”.
This time around, I did a time skip a few days in the future. Martial law has been declared, and Jun Xi, Sed and Eli have all been deputized. Things in the city are still tense, but stable for the moment. Having the militia actively patrolling the streets and enforcing curfew has stemmed violent dissent and sent local crime organizations scurrying underground, although people aren’t happy about it. Meanwhile, the failure of the runes is causing widespread damage, the worst of which comes from the city’s restaurants and larders. Without runes to preserve them most of the city’s food is beginning to spoil. What’s worse, in the wake of the declaration of martial law most of the merchants are preparing to take their wares North to another city and try their luck elsewhere, which would cripple the city’s food supply. The only good news has been of the army spotted to the West; they’ve camped in the mountains, and have shown no signs of moving on from there.
The scene opened with a quick cutscene where an unnamed man pulled himself up from the refuse pile he’d been left in, cradling his broken arm. With a resolute mind seething with anger, he sought out the only people vicious and dedicated enough to carry out his revenge; Gandrake and Sed.
We then segued to the luxury barracks that Alex Iroe, the governor of Danton, supplied our heroes. Lieutenant Llewyn, the pro-vigilante member of the militia that helped Eli surprise and murder Petran Dula, is introducing the group to their new member; Ephraim. A member of the Queensguard who had been dispatched to the embassy as a representative of the Queen’s interests, he is now the only member of the embassy’s guard that hasn’t fled back home in the wake of this magical apocalypse. Unwilling to stand by, he offered his help, and Captain Trenton was quick to accept and assign him to this newly formed freelance branch of the militia.
A brief set of introductions went around the room, but before long they were interrupted by a knock at the door and found former information broker Ricky cradling his broken arm outside. When last they saw him he’d lured Gandrake into a trap, and told Sed he might have information on the Highborn man he was looking for. . . and now he’s following up on the latter of those issues. Apparently the Highborn, Torval, had beaten Ricky for information, then left him for dead in one of the fresh midden heaps that have started piling up around the city since the running water stopped. He told them Torval has been throwing a lot of money around the slums, seeking out disreputable types for something, and Ricky gave the group a list of contacts to speak with before going to get his arm checked.
I split it up after that into 10 locations across a map of the district. Each location had different NPCs, with different information, and the three taverns also had unrelated rumors that correlated to other events in the city. I gave them six hours to search, and since they stayed in a group, this allowed them to thoroughly search six locations. Ephraim quickly proved himself the group’s conscience in Jun Xi’s absence, talking them out of taking extreme action and even getting Sed to open up when their questions about this “Torval” threatened to boil over.
The story is that when he was younger, Sed and Torval were part of an adventuring group in the faraway country of Eldin, along with two others. One of those two was Sed’s fiance, but when they discovered an artifact and Torval got to it first, he killed the other two and wounded Sed before fleeing with it into the night. Sed spent the next few years of his life chasing him across the continent, and that chase has led him here.
Meanwhile, Eli and Snow proved very temperamental, often being held back by Ephraim from being too violent with those they spoke with. Eli seems changed after the torture inflicted on him by Petran Dula, thoughts of redemption drowned out by alcohol and regret. Snow, on the other hand, is just kind of a bitch.
After six hours, they’d found out several things. A man named Frederick Gramm was rousing a following among the dissenting populace, local syndicate Evard’s Dogs seems to be biding its time for something, and Torval, the man they were chasing, had been trying to hire mercenaries for protection and assassins to go after Sed. They still didn’t know where he was, though, and on their way to a seventh location they were attacked by the Redarms once again. Their leader, in his trademark Brooklyn accent, provoked the group, pressuring them into taking up a defensive position in an alley However then he got unceremoniously critted and knocked unconscious by an attack of opportunity by Eli. His crew fled, and they started interrogating him. . . only to find that he really is what he seems. A useless street punk with a chip on his shoulder, trying to prove that he’s their equal. And he doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job.
Joseph, Snow’s cousin, then came down from the rooftop where he’d been watching the fight. He introduced himself with another flourish, complimenting his cousin in flowery language as he gave them the information on Torval, and a warning that the family had been hired to take his case. Although “other business” will keep them from enacting the contract immediately, the threat remains, so before leaving to see to “urgent business” he implored them to hurry to stop the contract from coming to fruition.
The PC’s went to Torval’s apartment, and Eli set off the makeshift alarm the paranoid highborn had placed on his door. This started off a frantic skill challenge chase across the city. Ephraim quickly got all his failures by trying, and failing, to look for a bike for several turns. Meanwhile, Snow fell behind after falling from a zipline, while Sed and Eli doggedly gave pursuit. They managed to eventually corner Torval when he tried to barricade a door, inciting Sed to smash the door off its hinges with a natural 20 and trap the man beneath it. Only one problem. The man wasn’t Torval at all.
A quick interrogation later, the PCs found that the man here was named Bremen; his conflicting nature and a few hints of that name sprinkled liberally earlier on had all foreshadowed it beforehand during the rumor gathering phase. Torval had hired him, giving him a large sum of money and his own clothing after commanding him to lead Sed across the country. He was supposed to have caught a boat home, received his final payment and left the mess on Torval’s hands back in Eldin, but when he got to town no one was sailing because of the Disappearance. So instead he tried using what money he had left to kill Sed before Sed could kill him; he’d been told the opposite of Sed’s story, that Torval was the victim and Sed the monster, and was notably fearful when they interrogated him.
This revelation had little time to settle in before another distraction struck the group. Three men dressed in expensive suits strutted into their midst, announcing themselves as the Dula brothers, lieutenants in Evard’s Dogs; Tony, the eldest, Gio, the youngest and smallest, and Byron, a hulking brute of a man. “Rail Tracer” Eli had killed their brother, and although they were under orders not to cause a scene now, meaning no bodies, they want to take out a bit of their anger. Rushing forward, the trio engaged our heroes in a skill challenge fight, using Acrobatics, Athletics and Endurance checks as fuel for attacks.
Eli got battered unconscious with a quick pair of defensive failures as Byron drove him into the ground and head-butted him unconscious. Tony meanwhile strode forward, holding off Ephraim, Sed and Snow while Gio flitted back and forth, weakening the party. In the end, Snow proved the most fit of the group as she fought Tony to a standstill after taking an early wound, until she retreated to an alley and the Dulas decides not to give chase. Claiming they couldn’t afford to be seen and connected with what was happening that night, Tony drew his brothers back and left, the fight between him and Snow undecided.
And behind them, as they disappeared into a side alley, plumes of smoke rose above the government district. . .
All in all, a good session. Although I’d planned for the full adventure to take them to the climax at the Parliamentary Hall, we just ended up having to end early after spending a lot of time rping during the investigation parts. Not that I’m complaining. Our schedule is delayed by the holiday, but I’m hoping to get them together sometime next week to finish the adventure and get them ready for Jun Xi and Gandrake’s returns. Honestly though, I just really want to play through this next part. It’ll see the grudging familial relationship I’ve nurtured between Joseph and Snow reach a deadly climax, and mark the next step in the city’s collapse. . . although the PCs have a chance of preventing that depending on how fast they act. We’ll see how well they manage next time.
Rumors and Riots
Before our depression-break, the entire structure of the coastal metropolis of Danton had collapsed; everything magical had stopped functioning in a city that relied upon it to approach something close to the comforts of our own modern age. It was a catastrophic equivalent to all technology permanently failing across the width and breadth of our own world. Things got tense, and the PCs took this time to split up and investigate exactly what was happening in the city.
Jun Xi and Snow went to market to purchase supplies, and encountered the new character of the returning player of Tyranis, a monk by the name of. . . well, honestly, I can’t remember any more. This new character brought news of a foreign army approaching through the mountains, however, and joined with Jun Xi and Snow when they were accosted by a street gang known as the Redarms in an attempted mugging.
Meanwhile Eli, Sed and Gandrake went in search of Ricky, the slimy informant that had tried to sell Gandrake out to the syndicate and had been less than forthcoming with Sed. They both had things to do in town, old grudges to settle, and they needed information. Unfortunately they failed, although they did pick up quite a few rumors during their long search. A man in a tattered green robes still wielding magic, a wildman of immense strength being held in a local prison, and rumors of the mystical “rail tracer” that had scattered the remains of Evard’s Dogs boss Petran Dula across a mile of earthcarriage track. . . the last being a Baccano! reference that developed into a nickname for Eli, who’d done the deed in the previous session.
The two groups reunited outside the militia’s headquarters for a meeting with Captain Trenton, but found their approach blocked by the seething masses of worried citizenry. As they waited, a man brought himself above the crowd and began delivering a speech most definitely intended to start a riot. At first the two groups, still not united, ignored the danger, scoring four of five automatic failures on the skill challenge. At the last moment, Eli stood above the crowd and started a debate. Things quickly got heated, as one by one new complications entered the challenge.
First Snow was identified, and her ties to her family were used to discredit them; every round she failed to hide would give a large penalty on checks. Then the guards tried to get involved, their presence putting the people on edge and giving penalties on checks if members of the party couldn’t talk them into leaving. They blew through their action points, scored 9 successes in a row, and finally came upon that final roll. Snow failed to hide. Sed failed to dissuade the guards. And the rest of the party failed “Aid Another” rolls. It literally came down to Eli’s Diplomacy bonus alone versus the entire list of penalties accrued against them, and the table fell silent as his player let that d20 fall. . .
He rolled a 2.
The group was immediately swarmed by the mob, the most dangerous enemy they’ve faced to date. Double damage makes a swarm attack very, very deadly, but that’s just what a mob should be. With characters falling unconscious all over the place, several NPC guards dying, and a very near total defeat, the PCs finally managed to disperse two of the three mobs, and fled to lick their wounds while the guards finished the third. As for the man who’d started it all. . . well, his podium stood empty, and of him there was no sign. And the session ended there.
Reflecting back, the skill challenge at the end made a great climax. It was easily my best work yet in that field; every 3 successes, I threw in a new challenge that would require extra actions from the PCs, robbing them of Aid Another bonuses and adding the potential for higher DCs from penalties on these side checks. Snow’s flight, the guard’s entrance, and the activity of hidden agents seeding the crowd ended up splintering the group through the challenge, and what was a breeze on the first check became a real trial by the end. The PCs all fondly remember how the tension built, although in the end they only failed because they entered the challenge so late. Of course that was with the use of all their action points, which I let them use to re-roll checks or take actions in both the main roll and side event. That certainly hurt them when it came to the big throw-down at the end.
To avoid becoming too verbose, I’ll end this post here. Our most recent session picked up a few days after the riot, after Captain Trenton and his militia had declared martial law with permission of the city parliament. In conjunction with Alex Iroe, the governor of Danton, Jun Xi, Eli and Sed were deputized by the militia and given both wages and lodging. Snow and Gandrake’s position was less official, although they were given a share as well. And I’ll continue with that some time tomorrow.
Going off the rails on a crazy train.
So we resumed our session yesterday, and ended up having another game that was broken up with a lot of PCs in a lot of different locations.
Gandrake and Snow were apprehended by the Militia, while Jun Xi and Sed waited for them to finish interrogating the captives to discuss the details on rewards and such. Captain Trenton tried to flip Snow and get her to stand as a witness against her family’s assassinations, but she proved uncooperative. In fact she seemed outright offended that they assumed that a blood relation meant she must be involved in their business as well. Nearby, Gandrake was let off with a simple warning; the Captain was just worried that the trouble he’s been stirring up may hurt more than just him if it blows up in his face.
Meanwhile, that was exactly what was happening. Eli had gone back to the inn to change into his new clothes, but after boarding one of the earthcarriages for transport back he was ambushed by Petran Dula, the man they’d fought with that morning. Dula, once again, tried to spar hand to hand before calling his thugs in, but Eli changed the game by pulling free his spear. Dula responded in kind by drawing a rapier, and handily beat Eli into submission in a skill challenge before knocking him unconscious.
Jun Xi is the one who got the message; Petran paid a pair of orhpans to hurl Eli’s spear at the Militia’s headquarters, which put it right inside the lobby where Jun Xi and Sed were waiting. The attached note told them to bring no more than three people, and “someone to trade”, to the Old Town earthcarriage platform at dusk. They brought the matter to Captain Trenton’s attention, and he agreed to help. He’d station his men around the station while the meeting was taking place, and since Gandrake wanted to get back at Petran, he agreed to be their bargaining chip. That still only filled 3 of their 4 available slots, however, so they requested the Captain to send one of his men as well. Lieutenant Llewyn was only too happy to oblige.
As the others got ready, Eli was brutally tortured by Petran Dula for information on Gandrake that he just didn’t have. Not that Eli was willing to talk anyway, and ended up causing himself more harm by keeping up a resistant attitude through the process. Using a whip, a hot iron poker and good old fashioned beating, Petran left him with scars that will be with him for life . . . but got no information out of him.
Just before the appointed meeting time, Joseph stopped by to check on Snow again. Since she was unable to talk her way out of her cell, he provided a key for her, and disguised as a guard, helped her escape her confinement. She thanked him, even if she still doesn’t trust him, and left to sneak into the meeting with the others.
Everyone but Snow, who hid on the caboose without anyone’s knowledge, boarded the appointed earthcarriage at dusk. The carriage left the station and Petran seemed to be holding up his end of the bargain, but part way through the trade Gandrake stopped all pretenses by breaking his false bonds. This started off a frantic combat that nearly killed Gandrake right off the bat. Petran had four men in the cabin with him firing crossbows into Gandrake’s midsection, and two more with spears on the roof who were thrusting through the ceiling at the party. While the melee went on below, with people flipping over seats for cover and to block movement, Sed climbed up onto the roof after noticing that someone up there. It turned out to be Snow, who was trying to knock their spear-wielding assailants off the train, but he only had a second to take that in before failing several rolls and nearly falling to his death.
The group killed four of Petran’s six men before trouble hit. All the light runes, weapon runes and other magical items started malfunctioning. . . and the earthcarriage did right along with it. The boy Petran had at its helm ran into the cabin, shouting that the carriage was out of control and about to crash into the station. It was also continuing to pick up speed, and the fight was quickly postponed as everyone realized they had to work together to manually activate the brakes and get what runes were still functioning into position on essential controls. Unfortunately for the last spear wielder, he lost his balance and fell off the carriage right when everyone decided to be friends, but the group did fairly well in either case. Petran and Sed reconfigured the runes in the control cabin without difficulty, while Snow bonded with the remaining thug as they activated the brakes for the second cabin. The others failed to force the other mechanisms into place quickly enough, but on the last round of the time limit, they ended up succeeding on detaching the control cabin, which was still accelerating, and getting the passenger cars to a complete stop. . . although even as that was happening, Lieutenant Llewyn and Eli betrayed Petran, kicking him under the carriage’s wheels and nearly doing the same to the crossbowmen before Snow convinced them to take him prisoner.
All was not well, however. The control cabin went flying off its tracks at the last turn into the station, tearing through seats, structures and finally splintering into hundreds of pieces in a deafening impact with another earthcarriage. As clouds of dust billowed out over the area, all the runes across the city ceased to function as all across Danton the lights went out. Apparently, whatever was started days ago with Eli killing Hector in the Ironcrag Mountains wasn’t over yet, as now not only is magic not working, but the pre-existing magic items have failed. The entire world’s culture just came to a grinding, inescapable halt, and things will only get worse from here. . .
I decided to make the skill challenge to stop the earthcarriage the game’s finale, and it worked pretty well. Petran is dead though, even though I hoped to keep him alive for next time. Ah well. He wasn’t crucial, I just wanted to milk the whole anger of Eli’s torture thing a bit longer. My players are continuing to develop their characters as well; Eli is slowly changing from the simple idiot he was to start with, and Jun Xi is gaining some pretty entertaining quirks. He refused to try to convince Captain Trenton to let him bring Snow with them to the meeting, and when asked why, he simply said, “Because she’s a woman” as if that explained everything. XD
Gandrake’s player, on the other hand, may be trouble. . . he’s trying to model himself after Mugen from Samurai Champloo, but mainly he spends a lot of time trolling the world. When he decided to swap weapons, he decided to do it by robbing an aging smith of his final masterpiece and leaving 100 gold behind for the old man, for instance. I don’t mind him doing that overly much, because at this point he’s still got to deal with the law as well, but I’m afraid it may become disruptive later in the game. We’ll see how I end up dealing with that.
Next time: riots, angry citizens displeased with their government, and bad news from the scouts sent to investigate the Leylines. Go go magical apocalypse, phase 2!
New Arrivals, New Alliances, New Enemies
Eli and Jun Xi entered the city, speaking briefly with a guard before seeing Anne and Susie to the other survivor of Araval. They then saw Mully’s corpse to a funeral home before settling in for the night.
At the same time, new character Gandrake met with a contact he’d made after a few weeks of harassing low ranking members of local crime organizations. He’d wanted information on the bandits that had attacked his home, and hoped that this “Ricky” could provide it to him. Unfortunately, it was a trap; he’d become enough of a nuisance to have a contract made on his life, and midway through the meeting a shadow with emerald eyes erupted from the alley, trapping him in a thick, weighted net.
Another figure emerged before the assassin could finish the job, however. Another new character by the name of Snow, her own emerald eyes mirroring that of the killer before her, confronted the assassin who seemed reluctant to take on another member of the “family”. She seemed ready for a fight as she made several threats that the other man, who identified himself as “Joseph”, seemed to take very lightly. Shrugging the whole matter off, he decided instead to leave the way he’d come with a promise that their family would cancel this contract on her behalf. After freeing Gandrake, Snow and he agreed to meet the next day to consider their next move.
The following morning Eli and Jun Xi roused themselves from their slumber, choosing to head to the market before checking back with the guard they’d spoken to previously. The area was nearly deserted though; the disappearance of the Leylines had a major effect on the industrial cities, where people used their Talents for everything from modern conveniences to their very professions. Most people seem to be staying indoors, waiting for their governments to make things right or for something worse to befall them, but the pair of PCs did manage to at least gather a few supplies from those vendors that had bothered to set up shop. There was also an awkward section about oiling up Jeung Xi’s muscles and a shameless lamp oil salesman, but that’s beside the point.
They continued to the Guardhouse, where a secretary saw them up to the Captain’s office on the third floor via an earthlift. They were greeted by both Lt. Lleywn, who was the guard from the previous day, and Captain Trenton, the head of the local militia, and they all spoke briefly about the state of the city and what had happened back in the mountains. However Eli kept the bit of information that he may have had something to do with the Disappearance of the Leylines to himself. Near the end of their discussion an urgent alert came up from the secretary; both a member of a family of highly trained assassins and a high ranking lieutenant in a local criminal organization had exposed themselves on the North end of town in a street brawl, of all things. With plenty of witnesses and a public venue, the Captain, with everyone else in tow, headed out to make the necessary arrests.
Meanwhile, Snow awoke to find a visitor in her room; Joseph, her cousin, introduced himself with a flourish and a smile before trying to idly chat about trivial matters. Snow wouldn’t have any of it, and had to threaten him to get him to the point. His message was clear; the family was still waiting for her to come back to them, and had no intention of moving against her during this “rebellious phase”. As a show of good faith, he even passed on a bit of useful information. Evard’s Dogs, the group that had tried to have Gandrake killed the previous night, had sent a Lieutenant from the Dula family knocking on his door that morning. If she hurried, she might even get there in time to help. . . taking this as a threat, Snow attacked her cousin, who was forced to flee out the window and use his whip to rappel and swing ten stories down to the street below. Hurriedly, she darted down after him and headed to Gandrake’s lodgings . . .
Gandrake’s awakening was less pleasant; a mocking comment woke him from slumber, and a sharp kick to his ribs brought him to his senses. A man stood before him, cocky and headstrong, who tossed his weapon out of the room’s nearby window before challenging him to a fight. I ran this as a skill challenge with a rock-paper-scissors element. I’d randomly choose the action of the NPC, while Gandrake could choose between Athletics, Acrobatics or Endurance. Each skill countered another, and the fight was largely based on the description of attacks rather than the simple skill used to pick it. At the end of the fight, Gandrake delivered a swift kicked to the man’s head, knocking free a tooth and sending him stumbling backwards. The stranger, no longer as confident, chose that time to call in six of his armed friends, forcing the PC to flee out the window before things got a little less fair.
Recovering his weapon, Gandrake began another quick skill challenge to escape, delivering the best laugh of the night.
Gandrake:
“Okay, so as I dart through the mouth of the alley, there’s this large dog there in the middle of the path, growling at me. I jump forward, and ducking low, bring my fist up right under its chin!” * rolls a natural 20 *
Me:
“Um, okay. . . you deliver a quick and brutal blow, sending the dog flying off its feet and slamming into the wall behind it. It hits the ground hard, and lies still. I’ll count that as a success.”
Gandrake:
“Okay, so then I dart out of the alley and into the street, barreling through the crowd of people there to throw off my pursuit!” * rolls ridiculously high again *
Me:
“Okay, you only see a family of four walking leisurely along the road, and you crash into them, sending the mother and two children falling down to the ground.”
Gandrake:
“And as I run off I shout back, ‘I just killed your dog!’”
Meanwhile, the Highborn Sed was also in town, looking for information; he wanted to find his wife’s killer, and this “Ricky” seemed to be the man for the job. Shortly after the start of his meeting, however, he found it interrupted as a stranger knocked his contact over after dashing around the corner. It turned out to be Gandrake, and as Gandrake’s violent reunion with Ricky, the object of much of his aggression, went on, a big mess of an encounter built up as literally everyone appeared on the scene. Eli and Jun Xi came with the Militia, Petran Dula with his thugs, even Snow snuck around from behind. And with no one knowing who any of the others really were, the fight began.
In the end, Ricky escaped Sed and Gandrake, Petran Dula and most of his thugs escaped pretty much everyone else, Snow was nearly killed when her ambush turned sour and Eli managed to take a single captive alive. But Captain Trenton arrested not just the thug but Snow as well, and eventually took Gandrake in for questioning too when he introduced himself to the local authorities by saying, “Hi, I’m the guy that’s been causing trouble around town for the past week! * smile *”. We broke there for the night, with everyone reconvening with the Militia when we pick up the game again next.
Overall, things went pretty well, although we had to jump around a lot more than usual with so many scattered segments of the as-of-yet unformed party to address. Now everything’s been drawn into a single storyline though, thankfully, so the next few sessions should go pretty well. I really think I’m going make combat a rarity though, in the upcoming sessions. My players have been saying lately how much they love skill challenges, and frankly, I have to agree; with the core rules tweaked just a bit, skill challenges give more gratification in less time than combat.
Meanwhile, my new combat rules seem to be working as well. Half hp for human enemies and doubling all damage those enemies do makes for fast and dangerous combat, even without powers to help out. It’s working, even if it was just an experiment.
The Long Journey Home
So we’ve finally resumed a decent schedule over the past couple weeks, and played out the first adventure in the next section of our campaign. Felt good to get going on this again, I have to say, and all my players seem really interested in exploring different aspects of my campaign setting with their character ideas.
We started the first session by resuming where we left off; everyone had passed out as intense pain drove their Bondings, Talents and Powers from their minds after their killing of the possessed boy Hector. Jun Xi awoke first, and after soothing the mother and child that had been traveling with him, went back to check on the others after sounds of a heated argument drifted up to his ears.
He found Warrik and Tarm facing off against Eli and Mully. Warrik, unwilling to accept that the Council would order this, has begun to believe he destroyed the Leylines at the whims of a traitor to his nation. The web of lies they’d snared him in was slowly falling apart. It’s a sensitive issue for him, as his loyalty is fueled by guilt over the murder of his brother. He was forced to slay his sibling after he led a small uprising and then fled the country; if he believes the Council can make mistakes, he loses his justification for that action. Thus, Eli must not have been what he claimed.
Tarm on the other hand was just enraged at his powerlessness, as his family back home was reliant upon him to provide for them. His mother, with her husband’s permission, had seduced a Highborn lord in order to birth a child that would be given access to the Leylines. With the position he’s only managed to hold due to the nature of his birth and the Talent he had bestowed upon him, he was the only one in his family that could earn enough to provide for them.
The pair of conjoined skill challenges surrounding this situation had the PCs making separate checks for each of the NPCs; they got 1 check per round, and could choose who to direct it to. So they had to be careful who they focused on with Aid Another, as anyone they didn’t address in a turn accrued an automatic failure. Using Insight, they uncovered Tarm’s worries and drew them out into the argument, but they failed on Warrik’s skill challenge and were forced to flee as the young squire held Warrik back long enough for them to escape.
The group fled to the surface, and then headed back to Danton to escort Anne and Susie, the mother and daughter, to the only other survivor of the ruined town of Araval. As they camped the first night, the emaciated wolves Eli and Mully had faced before attacked. Without powers, and now that everything deals double damage to them without their talents, they still managed to put forth a strong front against the Elite Minions(2-hits). Stunts became huge for acrobatic/athletic characters, while the weaker Mully used their campfire to their advantage as he began to prey upon the wolves’ fear of the flame.
The following day, they found a discarded campsite and a corpse that indicated he had suffered the same Bonding disruption as they; only when he’d fallen unconscious, he fell into his campfire. They finally found the Merchant’s Way, the main road to Danton, after that. They followed it into the Sentinel’s Forest, but quickly found an overturned carriage with a dead guard pinned beneath. Accurately gauging the danger, Mully recognized it as the work of an Ankheg, which without Bondings they were in no position to fight. Jun Xi located where it hid beneath the earth, and the party tried to skirt around it. . . but came 5 feet too close and it sensed their footsteps.
Eli and Jun Xi held it for for a moment while Mully fled with Anne and Susie, both becoming bloodied in a single hit due to the increased damage everything has. They fled after bloodying the beast, realizing they couldn’t win a prolonged fight, and in another skill challenge managed to lose it in the woods before catching up to Mully and the women.
That night, Mully told a bit about his life story, explaining to Eli that he’d been a close friend of his grandparents during the war. After Eli’s parents had been killed by bandits, Mully had entrusted him to another who could feed and care for him before leaving. He came back and bonded him to the Leyline illegally because he knew it was what his grandparents would have wanted.
The next morning, Mully didn’t awake. He’d been using his Talent to keep himself alive into his old age, and now without it his body is failing him. I constructed a near-impossible skill challenge to develop tension as Jun Xi and Eli tried to get help for him; they needed 12 successes before Mully got 3 Endurance failures, and Mully sucked at Endurance. They could remove Mully’s failures with successively harder Heal checks, but they had to stop to do so, and Mully still had to make Endurance checks during those turns. The progressively harder difficulties eventually tipped the challenge into failure after several tense rounds.
As the player intended, Mully passed away in Eli’s arms with his final words telling the younger man to remain strong. Wanting to give his body a proper burial, Jun Xi and Eli morbidly set out again with Anne and Susie, the city of Danton now just a few hours away. . .
All in all, it was pretty cool working with one of my players to create a strong death scene for his character. He had wanted to try someone new, but wanted to have Mully leave the group in a meaningful way. So we did this! It worked really well, and now that they’ve reached Danton, we can finally start including our new players and characters. . . alongside Jun Xi and Eli, we’ll now have four others. “Snowfox” the Rogue, who left behind her family despite all her training due to her dislike of their business of assassination. Gandrake the Warden, a wanderer in search of his family’s killers. Sed, a Highborn of Eldin and former devout religious man who left his homeland in search a former friend who took from him everything he’d ever loved. And. . . Shadowfax, who has a name but no backstory as of yet. Haven’t gotten a chance to talk to the player about it yet.
"Heartslayer"
After catching up with the woman and child next session the party seemed to want the NPCs to deal with them, and Jeung Shi, whose player was absent, ended up escorting the pair up to the surface while the others continued on. Entering the room beyond, the group was overcome by a sense of unease as they found the rumored Hector. Supposedly the source of the aberrations, the young teenager was huddled in a ball on the floor of a massive, perfectly crafted square antechamber. Random furniture and knick-knacks from the village were scattered around him in large piles, providing elevation, cover and difficult terrain, but he seemed too busy muttering to himself about “Karos”(a religious figure) and “the voice” to pay them much mind.
Unsure if this boy was actually an enemy or not the group closed in cautiously, although a misplaced jump by Eli ended up causing him to fall into one of the debris piles when he failed the DC 10 Acrobatics check he needed to land. Warrik stayed in the rear, hoping to use his NPC Leader abilities to indirectly assist the party while he is too wounded to fill the role of a Defender. As they continued to creep closer to Hector, none of them seemed willing to be the first one to step close, and eventually Hector’s muttering began to include them as well. Saying, “I don’t want them to hurt you, Daddy. . .”, he suddenly stood erect and was overwhelmed by a whirling heat haze, which obscured his features and gave the double-image of both him, and a monstrous, fleshy monstrosity more fearsome than any of the others that had come before.
Hector was a Solo monster, or technically an Elite with a Template, that was based off the Kenku Assassin and fought alone through the early moments of the fight. As the party rapidly knocked him near to his bloodied value with their encounter powers, he changed his tactics, using his “attack and shift 4 squares” ability to hit, retreat and hide behind the piles of rubbish every round. At this point he also summoned a Fell Taint Warpwender to help out, whose daze and “swap places with target on a failed save” effects, combined with Hector’s own “slow” effects, kept the party off-balance through the majority of the fight. Once their tag-team had sufficiently separated the party, Hector himself closed back into direct melee combat, critically wounding Cletus, and bringing the surge-less Mully down to 1 hp. Ray of Enfeeblement saved his ass right there, because he would’ve been down for the count if not for the weakened status.
They Bloodied him, and brought his hp down quite a bit, forcing him to retreat once again, as the Warpwender knocked Cletus unconscious. Warrik heroically took one of Mully’s Healing Potions and charged into the center of the battle to deliver it to the unconscious Bard, who was teleported to the far side of the battle shortly afterward. As Hector did his hit-and-run hide strategy, the party refocused their attacks on the Warpwender, quickly killing it before turning back to the fleeing boy. With Tarm and a slowed Eli in hot pursuit, Eli ended up striking a final blow, going for a kill as he drove his spear through Hector’s chest.
Hector’s final words were, “No, no, Karos! He’s . . . he’s coming!”, and that proved to be a bad thing. Pain immediately blossomed along the base of everyone’s skulls, and as darkness closed in on their vision, they realized what the cause was. The Leyline, the source of strength and power they’d relied upon for their magic and abilities, was gone; they could no longer sense it. And what ramifications this might have on the world at large, the reason it came into being, and what they intend to do about it will have to wait until next time; we broke the session early as the adventure concluded.
I had the players take a vote on whether they’d prefer to jump ahead to a point where they’d have an immediate opportunity to regain their powers, or to continue through the next several sessions without their Talent skill or Class powers, forcing them to use the environment, tactics, stunts and general ingenuity in the place of their usual routine as they watched first-hand what the world would go through as a result of what just happened. Interested in the rp possibilities, they chose the second option, and so things will be quite a bit different next time around. I think we’ll mostly be running into skill challenges, but when fights do come up I’ll have to ensure there’s interesting terrain, roleplaying options such as turning one enemy against the others, and other such things. I’ll probably also skew the hp and damage of enemies, halving the former and doubling the latter, to reaffirm the sense of powerlessness everyone is going through. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes, and I’ll report it as soon as I know.
In which great beasts are killed, and gravity itself defies our heroes.
Did I mention that Mully was also short for “Sir Mullitus Longinus”, and he sports a gray hairstyle to match? It’s, um, yeah. XD I worked it out with him that I’ll roll a d100 at random occasions, and if I hit a 3% threshold, he’ll fall asleep. Other than that, he’s free to use it for comic effect as much as he wants. Or just whenever he wants to avoid dangerous questions, such as how he keeps letting slip “It’s a good thing you’re so useful, now we wont have to kill you!” to Warrik, the guy they lied to to convince to help them. I’m thinking their temporary alliance wont last long. . . but I really hope the teabagging joke lasts until then. Details later.
Well, we wrapped up the first adventure yesterday. Everyone seems pretty happy with the current state of the game, although the two total newbies seem anxious to try out different character builds if they can get the chance to. Being new to the system and all, they seem to want to try out all of their options at present time.
As for the sessions themselves, we picked up where we left off, and the group charged onwards as the creature’s tentacles continued breaking through the walls in pursuit of them. Pushing forward, they managed to flush out the core, which was a large, worm-like head that split open to reveal hundreds of small, tongue-like tentacles within its maw. It was a solo creature, but it was also entirely alone and an equal level challenge, so they managed to blast through it without too much trouble with the help of a couple dailies. By the fight’s end though, Mully and Warrik were both low and health and out of healing surges, but without really knowing what it was, they managed to use some of the Creation magic that spawned the aberrant to restore lost healing surges and help themselves back up a bit.
As they helped Warrik up, Mully, who seems to enjoy constantly bantering with the NPCs, mentioned that they were just about to teabag him. Warrik, being somewhat oblivious to slang, asked what teabagging was, and Mully quickly tried to cover by explaining that teabagging was something friends did back in his homeland. With a big smile on his face, Warrik clasped his hand and said, “When all this is over, we’ll have to teabag together then, friend!” Much laughter ensued. XD
Jeung Shi, who had managed to tunnel his way out of the cave-in with his war pick, reconnected with them at this point after a bit of trepidation and confusion that Cletus took far too long to step forward and reconcile. Next was a prolonged roleplaying section that served to introduce the resident Korean Warden to the new party members, as well as the NPCs. Jeung Shi took a particular interest in young Tarm, the squire, as he tried to convince the boy that he should stay back out of danger and leave the fighting to his elders. This drew out a bit of the squire’s backstory, as he hotly countered that he can’t afford to. His mother willingly slept with a lord in order to have him, a bastard son, to help support the family with the rights and privileges only such children born to a peasant can get. He has to do what he’s doing now, because his mother and Lowborn siblings are relying on him. Still unhappy with having the boy fight, but not seeing an alternative, Jeung Shi let the matter drop.
Of Tyranis, there was still no sign; Jeung Shi’s last sight of him had been of him trying to protect himself with a dome of ice as the rocks fell down from overhead. So they pressed onwards, and eventually found a rather unnatural room waiting for them. A 100 foot long, 30 foot diameter perfect cylinder, it had small, blue tentacles writhing against its walls. Within, a child sat crying at the far side, and a woman floated weightlessly as she was batted back and forth by several aberrant monstrosities.
The encounter was pretty interesting. There was no gravity in the room once they stepped off the platform, and it required a DC 10 Acrobatics check to allow you to move as you wished in three dimensions. Failure allowed a saving throw, and failure on that caused you to fly a random number of squares in a random direction. Contact with a wall dealt 1d6 psychic damage to both PCs and enemies alike, and all attacks had “Push 1” added onto them on a hit.
After a few bad rolls, Warrik and Jeung Shi took the worst of it by slamming themselves into walls on failed checks, but they also managed to halve the time of the encounter by pressing their enemies into them as well. Remembering the discarded dolls from the first session, Jeung Shi bought the woman time to flee to her child, which the woman then took into the next room as she fled the area. We broke for the day with Warrik at 9 hp and out of surges, Mully at 15 hp and out of surges, and the rest of the party low on resources but at full hp.
The Happening in The Village of The Lady in the Water
Well, I’ve well and truly managed to get my DnD game off the ground, and have two sessions of the new campaign under my belt. I ended up using my “Leylines” campaign setting; a semi-modern world in which people are bonded to physical channels of arcane power and given a measure of magical ability. A lot of modern concepts, from indoor plumbing to mass transit, are available, but not for long; the entire campaign idea is based off the fact that early into the campaign the Leylines will lose their power, causing a governmental collapse in the country they’re located in. From there on, the campaign will be about what they decide to do with their strength after recovering their powers, as well as unraveling the mystery surrounding this world-changing event.
Overall, we have a group of six; five players and myself as the DM. Two of the players have played 4th Edition with me before, but neither are very familiar with the rules. The other three are all new to the 4th Edition rule set, two of them being new to pen-and-paper roleplaying games altogether. In the two sessions we’ve played, however, I’ve only managed to get four of us together at any one time; we need to work on confirming a schedule further in advance for now on in order to ensure we don’t have to break up the party any more than necessary.
As for the sessions themselves, our first one began with one character in particular, Tyranis, a musclebound traveler of mysterious origin who, seeking favor with local government, ended up accepting a task from the local militia. A small mountain village, isolated from surrounding territories and with a total population of under 100, hasn’t been heard from in over two weeks, despite their reliance on trade with the surrounding territories to support themselves. Men had already been dispatched, but as of yet none had returned, and they needed someone to go and check up on them. I had taken a somewhat firmer role than usual in getting the story started this way, which I’m generally not a fan of, but since so many of our players were new I wanted a scenario that would give them time to establish their characters and grow used to the system before I really gave them total control over their character’s role in the world.
Tyranis gathered supplies for the trip, and as he exited the city, he ran into the next PC at the town gate. A disheveled hillbilly sporting a weaponized banjo, Cletus is a naturally intelligent man who has been held back by his heritage; he failed at an attempt to become a knight in his home country of Selenne, and then became a vagabond much like Tyranis himself. He didn’t inform Tyranis of any of this, however, as he was far too busy being physically thrown out of the town by the militia; he traveled East in order to see the ocean, as he’d never been able to try swimming before, and ended up diving into a local water reservoir, which the guards didn’t care for terrible much. As they shared the road, Tyranis and Cletus talked briefly about who they were and what their destinations were, before Cletus offered his assistance in the task at hand.
Despite all the worry, the pair actually managed to reach the village proper without trouble, but found the streets deserted and another stranger at its gate. Jeung-Shi, a knight of Selenne much like Cletus had once hoped to be, had set out in order to try and bring peace and justice to other areas of the world when he had left his home country. Hearing rumors of the village, he’d come here to investigate, but a sense of unease had overwhelmed him at the town gate, halting his progress as he began trying to puzzle out why no one was walking the village streets. Tyranis and Cletus introduced themselves, but the real conversation started when Tyranis and Jeung-Shi, who were played by a pair of best friends, began developing an inside joke about their amazingly impressive muscles. It would later grow out of proportion as they began describing missed attacks against them as them flexing the attacks away, much like Tomitake himself, but Cletus snapped them from their interlude with an awkwardly improvised song sung by the actual player.
The trio then entered the village, finding a lot of evidence of violence but no actual corpses or people to speak of. They ended up investigating and exploring a lot more than I’d expected, but as I created scenarios of what had happened in each individual house and presented the evidence of it to them on the fly, it made for a great build-up of what was to come later. Tyranis suggested zombies may have been the problem, and after finding a second story window that had been broken inwards, instead changed his hypothesis to zombie ninjas. Seeing the sun beginning to set, however, they began to grow worried and ended up holing up in one of the abandoned houses that looked as if its occupants had managed to flee from when whatever happened had started. Tyranis and Cletus revealed their unique Talents, the magical ability granted to them by the Leylines, as being cryomancy and hydro manipulation respectively, as they teamed up to freeze the doors shut and create layers of ice outside that might crack and alert them to anyone approaching the building.
Jeung-Shi was especially troubled by a discarded pile of children’s dolls in the corner of the room as they settled down to rest, and eventually it was decided that Tyranis would take the first 4-hour watch. It only took two hours for signs of trouble to appear, however, as a light tapping began on the window of their room. Tyranis cautiously woke the others from their slumber, and they began rapidly discussing a plan for finding out what was out there. . . but they deliberated too long, and soon the tapping ceased, only to start up again on the window of the room next door. Jeung-Shi cut a hole in a dresser they’d blocked the window with to peek through, but as they continued deliberating on what to do the window next door broke with a crash and the table they’d rested against it was thrown to the floor. The tapping, and after, a heavy slamming began hitting the door to their room then, but their fortifications proved enough to keep whatever was outside at bay. Tyranis briefly wondered why they never heard the glass cracking outside, but his answer went unanswered when eventually all noise ceased. A little scared and hesitant to leave the safety of their room, they eventually decided just to continue with their original plan and act in the morning. Unfortunately, whatever was outside their door had other plans, as human cries for help from the village’s center plaza drew their attention to the North.
Jeung-Shi, still thinking about the girl’s discarded dolls, rushed forward without pause, ruining any hope for surprise they may have had. Charging into the clearing at the village’s center, they found an overweight, middle-aged man apparently strapped to the posts of the village well. . . no, not strapped, but held, and held by a floating aberrant creature that existed as little more than a mass of writhing tentacles. Around it lay the corpses of ten other villagers, and noticing an actual threat, it dropped the man into the well and turned its attention to the party. Jeung-Shi charged forward, striking it with his war pick as he realized that the monster was only halfway in their plane of reality. A maddening cry erupted from it as he did so, and the corpses around him rose as if pulled up on a marionette’s strings, lumbering toward the party in a loping gait. The beast them immobilized Jeung-Shi with a touch and swung around to get closer to the other members of the party as the zombies surrounded the hapless Warden. Cletus and Tyranis became too busy defending themselves to aid their Defender, but he proved more capable than they had imagined as he ended up striking seven of the creatures down with a single stroke. The player actually included herself in a blast, hit every last minion enemy, and rolled a natural one when she attacked herself.
Breathing gouts of fire, Tyranis incinerated the rest of the undead creatures along with their puppetmaster, thanks to the psychic assaults Cletus’ music had inflicted upon the aberration. They then retrieved the man from the well, who introduced himself as Edmund and invited them back to his house. He explained to them that he’d been hiding in his pantry for the last couple weeks, living off his food stores until he ran out that morning. He’d tried to flee under the cover of darkness, but the creature had noticed him then, and caught him as he was running across the town. Tyranis and Jeung-Shi shared their rations with him, as Cletus asked and took one of the man’s hammers, before they took the time to ask what had happened to the rest of the town. Visibly perturbed by the memory, Edmund shakily explained that it had been Hector, a local boy who never had been any problem before then, who had brought them to the village. He’d disappeared into the mountains for a day, and when he returned, dozens of those tentacle creatures had been clutching to him like kittens on a curtain. They had spread throughout the village, seemingly much to Hector’s dismay, and had killed or captured just about everyone in sight before Edmund had locked himself in his pantry in order to avoid ending up with the same fate. When pressed for information about Hector’s current location, all he could say was that he had disappeared in a series of underground caverns South of the village before he’d come back with those things. The group then stayed the night with him before leading him to the road at first light, and sending him with some gold on his way to the city for shelter.
The trio arrived at the caves and made an attempt at stealth. They were all fairly successful, and even spotted a pair of humanoids hiding in the darkness as they entered, but Tyranis blew their cover when he attacked the hanging stalactites above in order to try and clear them out, in fear that they might fall on them if they entered the room. It was metagaming, I later realized, in response to an earlier campaign when I’d had a building collapse around them, but that wasn’t the case here; the stalactites were actually meant to be a hard-to-predict hazard that the PCs could use to their advantage. In either case, when they noticed they were spotted the humanoids emerged from the shadows to reveal themselves as mutated monstrosities; villagers who had tentacled creatures attached to their heads and whose arms had changed into thing, fleshy tentacles tipped with bone-barbs. The villagers were still alive, and pleased with them for the release of death as their bodies were moved into combat position against their will. Above, another pair of monstrosities emerged, these ones small, agile tentacle masses with beak-like mouths hidden within.
Mechanically, they were fight modified Wererats and Stirges, but with the way I adapted them to psychic weaknesses and such it gave them the same feel as the other creatures. The mutants tore into the party, one of them jumping a small chasm to corner Tyranis in the back while the other worked with the “mindflayers” to pin down Cletus and Jeung-Shi up ahead. They fought in an unorganized manner, and Cletus’ player kept trying to hit things with his banjo rather than use psychic attacks that the creatures were weak to, and things got even worse when that same player tried to use the stalactites to his advantage. He aimed directly above one mutant’s head, and because I was randomly determining the size of each collapse, he ended up bringing down a huge chunk of the ceiling on everything but Tyranis and his mutant, dealing massive damage to the party. They got their act together after that, with Cletus using slides to break the “mindflayers” grapples while he focus-fired with Jeung-Shi to down the enemies around them. Tyranis killed his own mutant at around that time, and the trio were eventually able to team up and destroy the last remaining creature, a mutant who whispered thanks to them as Cletus killed it with one last surge of song.
The session ended there, as it was beginning to get late and everyone’s energy levels were dropping as the clock switched into the a.m. Overall, it went better than I expected. The improv investigation section before combat began was a lot of fun for everyone, as was the tension that it had created in the following encounters. Jeung-Shi is determined to find the little girl and bring her back alive, or punish whatever took the child’s life, while Tyranis seems to have evolved into the party’s natural leader. Cletus’ player seems to finally be getting the swing of things in the 4th Edition system as well, and had a lot of fun doing his Southern accent, playing banjo music via Youtube, and improving his bardic songs at the table. Unfortunately, of those three, only Cletus’ player would be able to make the next session along with our two missing players, but I’ll get into that later. This post is long enough already, am I right?
A blog for your campaign
While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!
The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!
Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.
One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once. | 2024-02-14T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7654 |
Style, Warfare and George Washington
It’s a good thing wars aren’t decided on “style points” the way sports increasingly seem to be. If they were, we ‘Mercans would have toasted the Queen’s health last week rather than celebrating Thanksgiving. This year, a newly formed College Football Playoff committee is choosing four contenders to compete for the national championship. Among the prospective final four, only one team, the Florida State Seminoles — for whom the Naval Diplomat rooted as a lad growing up in Northwest Florida — is undefeated, having compiled a sterling 12-0 record.
The Seminoles, though, find themselves ranked fourth in the standings after falling behind the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Oregon Ducks, and the TCU Horned Frogs, all of which have lost once. A couple of teams just behind FSU stand at 11-1 as well. And, believe you me, every one deserves that fourth playoff berth by natural right. Just ask their coaches, players, or fans.
How did the playoff committee discriminate among worthy contenders, and why is undefeated Florida State behind teams that have known the agony of defeat? Because, it seems, Alabama, Oregon, and TCU won with flair — the aforementioned style points. They also outmatched FSU in some mysterious quality known as “game control.” That seems to mean leading your opponents from the kickoff until the final whistle, and winning by a large margin over all comers. The Seminoles, by contrast, seem to beat every opponent — no matter how good, bad, or indifferent — by five points. And they often come from behind late in the game to do it. Lackluster.
One wonders what a National Combat Playoff committee would have made of the War of American Independence. Neither side covered itself with much glory during the contest. But the British Redcoats, the eventual loser, fared better on game-control grounds by, say, smashing Coach George Washington’s American Patriots on Long Island and again on Manhattan in 1776. There’s some style points for you. The Redcoats make the playoff, Washington’s Patriots get the big L! And after suffering a setback to a squad from the French Navy Mariners off the Virginia coast in 1781, the Royal Navy Mariners bounced back to crush that same French archrival in the Caribbean Sea in 1782. Style. Control.
And Washington & Co.? Few style points, no game control. Washington was lucky to escape from the debacles in New York with his team more or less intact. Unable to play in the big leagues, he resorted to unstylish strategies and tactics modeled on Coach Fabius “the Delayer,” whose chief contribution to Roman gridiron strategy was showing weak teams how to keep strong teams like those led by Carthage’s Coach Hannibal from scoring. Boooooring.
Sure, postponing defeat ad infinitum let Coach Fabius send his team to Gold’s Gym to work out, recruit new players, and prevail on the Roman Senate for cash to buy fresh uniforms and equipment. But Fabius never won the big game against Carthage. Like all unstylish coaches, he was summarily fired in favor of Coach Scipio Africanus, whose offensive play-calling was the stuff of legend.
Indeed, Scipio took the fight across the Mediterranean Sea to Carthage’s homefield, and crushed Rome’s long-time opponent in their rivalry game. Now there‘s game control for you. Scipio then renegotiated his contract for some serious coin, a new villa, and a gold-encrusted chariot for promenading through the streets of Rome.
And Washington? His Pats attacked the Redcoats in their sleep on Christmas Eve, drawing a clear foul. And he won a few scrimmages. But GW never could seem to win the big game. Critics castigated him for choking. Until the end, when he staged a surprise win at Yorktown, Virginia. The upset at Yorktown took the fight out of the British team, which conceded defeat and canceled the rest of the season after a change of management back home in London.
Silly comparison? Yes and no. In war the final result in a sequence of actions is the one that counts. A football season, by contrast, is made up of 12 discrete actions against 12 different adversaries, each theoretically as important as any other. And sure, a team should be judged by how dominant it appears against a variety of opponents. Momentum counts. Still, it’s unnerving to think of how the American Patriots would have fared had some committee been empowered to referee this republic’s destiny.
That sounds like an effort at prediction. And oddsmakers prophesying the outcomes of seesaw endeavors like sports or warfare have a spotty track record at best. In all likelihood no committee would’ve granted a farm team like the Pats the chance to compete against the mighty Redcoats. And yet GW’s team prevailed when it mattered most. Better to settle the fates of nations on the field of play. | 2024-07-05T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7697 |
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"key": {
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"item": "minecraft:yellow_terracotta"
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"item": "quark:yellow_shingles",
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} | 2024-05-05T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/3578 |
[Physico-chemical characteristics of the DNA of the nuclear polyhedrosis virus of the moth Porthetria dispar L].
DNA preparations were obtained after dissolving the inclusion bodies, polyhedra virus particles, from the purified bundle virus of Porthetria dispar L. nuclear polyhedrosis. The DNA molecules in the preparations obtained are of different conformation and separate within the CsCl density gradient in the presence of ethidium bromide into supercoiled catenated and relaxed circular molecules (with the admixture of linear molecules). The circular DNA was studied by electron microscopy. The size of virus genome according to the data of reassociation kinetics of DNA is about 100 MD. Estimated on the basis of the values of buoyant density (p) and the melting temperature (Tmelt.) the content of guanine-cytosine pairs (GC pairs) in the viral DNA varies from 61 up to 65 mol%, and in the insect cell DNA--from 38 up to 40 mol%. The viral and cellular DNA are distinctly separated by centrifugation within the CsCl density gradient. | 2024-01-08T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8964 |
Based on customer reviews, it is without a doubt that Puffy mattress is one of the most comfortable mattresses that you could ever purchase. They claim it’s very similar to resting on clouds.Also, customers suffering from back pain, say that they feel relief with Puffy’s Adaptive Flexible Cloud Technology. Puffy mattress offers a lifetime warranty, along with a 101 night sleep trial.
Extraordinary mattress for your money. Very high quality mattress. Since your Puffy mattress is built for you upon order, it does take up to 2 days before it is shipped.
Puffy’s top layer is a Cooling Cloud Pressure Relief Foam; CertiPUR-US Certified. This layer is the reason it feels as if you are sleeping on a cloud.Puffy’s bottom layer is also CertiPUR-US certified, and is made up of a Firm Core Support Foam.
DreamCloud mattress is another fantastic mattress choice.DreamCloud has a very good bounce, for better contouring. This is due to it’s hypoallergenic natural latex coating.
DreamCloud offers stitched handles, as well as a blend of flax yarns and cashmere. You would expect this to cost over $5000. But, for a queen size DreamCloud, you are looking at only $1199.
Not only is DreamCloud a luxury hybrid mattress. It also offers an entire year (365 nights) sleep trial. Most brands only offer a 100 night sleep trial. DreamCloud uses a new pocket coil technology. This makes production costs much cheaper than other luxury brands. Because of that, the customer has the savings passed on to them.
The double-sided Layla mattress that allows sleepers to choose between different firmness levels, depending on which side they choose to face up. Layla mattress feels different than any other mattress you have ever felt. This helps you to not only spring back really quickly, but also allows you to stay cool. Mattress Costume For Sale
On the milder side of the mattress, this comfortable layer is made up of 3 inches of copper infused memory foam, with a density of 3.5lbs.This is a fairly thick layer of memory foam, which is a soft cloth that will allow the sleeper to sink in for pressure relief.
Layla mattress has a 4 month sleep trial, along side a lifetime warranty. This is a huge selling point, because a 10 year guarantee is offered only by companies.
Nest Bedding actually holds the award for both the Top Rated and Top Ranked brand online. They really thrive off of their customer satisfaction. They offer a lifetime warranty, as well as a lifetime comfort guarantee.
With Nest Bedding, their models can all be found with different firmness options. With the lineup consisting of 2 memory foam beds, 1 latex and 3 hybrids, you are sure to find the mattress that is the right fit for you.So with that being said, it doesn’t matter if you’re light, heavy, stomach or side sleeper, or rather you have chronic pain. You can find a Nest Bedding mattress that is the perfect fit for you.
They were one of online’s first brands to sell mattresses. Nest Bedding offers a lineup of 6 different mattresses; to cover each and every type of sleeper.
Nature’s Sleep mattress is different than most other mattress brands, since it offers 4 different foam layers.Nature’s 4 layers provide support for individuals who are heavier. It also helps out by decreasing motion transfer.
One of Nature’s Sleep 4 layers, are Vitex Memory Foam.. This assists support as well as gives pressure relief. This helps you get a great nights rest.
Nature’s Sleep offers a 20 year warranty, as opposed to the standard 10 year warranty from most other mattress brands. Fair warning that this mattress is a little more expensive than some.However, with a great warranty, and Emerald Gel construction, it is well worth the money.
Plushbeds mattresses are toxin free, to ensure your safety. So they are not only comfortable, they are also GreenGuard Gold status certified.
PlushBeds offers latex mattresses with a focus on natural, organic substances. A total of three mattress models are in the companies current lineup: Each mattress has a total of 6 different firmness levels. In the King and Cal King you can even split the firmness levels.
Free shipping is offered by Plushbeds. Along with a 100 night sleep trial, and 25 year warranty. Mattress Costume For Sale
The Loom & Leaf mattress by Saatva is a memory foam mattress that takes on the luxury memory foam players like TEMPUR-Pedic. Loom & Leaf is one of very few mattress brands available online, that is not compressed in a box during shipping.
The Loom & Leaf uses high-density memory foams; including a convoluted memory foam laminated with cooling in the top layer, and supporting that’s a foundation layer of high-density polyfoam. Add this all up, and you have a very supportive and pressure relieving feel.
Catering to stomach sleepers of any weight, Loom & Leaf offers both firm and relaxed variations of their mattress.
Loom & Leaf mattresses all come with a 120 night sleep trial, along with a 15 year warranty. If you are ever unsatisfied for whatever reason, Loom & Leaf offers you a full refund.
When looking for a mattress, it is important to consider the following…
Mattress Comfort and Support
The 2 biggest aspects when looking to purchase a new mattress, is comfort and also support.When you lie on a mattress, it should do a few things. It should properly support your body. It should also sink and contour to your body in the right places; to ensure your spine stays aligned, as you rest through the night. It is imperative to have proper alignment from top to bottom as you sleep. This is necessary to make sure you get a healthy rest, and to ensure you are reducing your back and neck pain. While being supportive of your body, a suitable mattress must provide stress relief. The stress points in your body are precisely what’s in charge of you thrashing through the evening. The reason memory foam mattresses have really become so popular since late results from the fact they’re exceptional at being equally supportive in addition to comfortable.
Stiff or Soft?
This is along the exact same lines with comfort as well as support. A mattress should neither be too hard or too soft.In order to keep your body and spine in the correct alignment, your mattress should be as neutral as it can be.If a mattress is too rigid, it will irritate your stress points, causing pinched nerves and stopping adequate blood flow. If you commonly get the sensation of pins and needles on the human body, it is probably from the mattress being as well rigid. And if you wake up with frequent back pain, most likely this is because your mattress is too soft. This results in a concaving effect, like a hammock. Which makes your spine be out of alignment.This is why it’s so important to choose a mattress that is sort of neutral. It provides support with being too right, and it’s just soft enough in the right places of your body.
Appropriate Temperature Level
Often when people look for a mattress, they forget to check for one thing; the breathability of a mattresses material. This is also known as the temperature neutrality. Probably the most effective attribute of memory foam mattresses today, is their ability to be able to conform to your body.Nonetheless, the reduced layers of foam mattresses are infamous for the oven result. Essentially,a mattress grabs your temperature,forcing you to rest also hot.|What happens in a nutshell, is that a mattress absorbs your body heat; causing you to sleep hot.} The majority of mattress companies nowadays utilize modern technology to design special materials. Their sole purpose is to have a mattress that has breathability, but at the same time distributes your body heat equally, allowing you to sleep cool.Some brand name companies handle this a lot better than some of their rivals. Mattress Costume For Sale
Durability
It’s not a big surprise, that if you’re in the market for a high quality mattress, it usually comes with a nice price tag.It’s quite an investment to make. This is why it’s so important, that when the time comes, you choose a mattress brand that will last you for years.It is very important that you find a mattress that has been constructed to last a long period of time. If you are going to spend the money on a mattress, be sure to invest it in a mattress that has at least a 10 year warranty. | 2023-10-09T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/4995 |
Activist Post
Whistleblowers are being targeted to an ever greater degree by each successive administration. With the recent 5-year extension of the FISA warrantless spying bill, just signed into law by Obama, whistleblowers will likely be subjected to even more suppression, harassment, and imprisonment.
Three of the most influential whistleblowers in recent years, Jesselyn Radack, Thomas Drake, and William Binney gathered to speak at the four-day Chaos Communication Conference. Kevin Gosztola writing for Firedoglake offers some of the pivotal quotes at his blog entry on the event, which you can find here
The coverage of the “dark side of personal data”- and becoming enemies of the state – from three of the most knowledgeable voices in activism for whistleblower rights is a must-see in its entirety. These three panelists represent the highest level of courage, and offer key insights into what anyone is likely to face in an era where doing the right thing seems to be subject to criminal penalties. | 2024-05-12T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9554 |
Giant Seminoma following ipsilateral orchidectomy: a rare finding. Case report.
Giant intrascrotal recurrent seminomas are rare in the surgical literature, probably due to widespread information about self-detection. A recent European study has reported a reduction in the primary tumour size at presentation. These findings are at variance with the situation in sub-Saharan Africa. We present a 32-year-old patient who presented with an 8-month history of progressive, painless left hemiscrotal swelling, no lower urinary tract symptoms and no evidence of metastatic disease. The patient had undergone a left inguinal orchidectomy 2 years prior to the onset of the current swelling, on account of a suspected testicular tumour. Histology was, however, returned as 'sections of testis showing haemorrhagic necrosis with areas of fibrosis. No malignancy seen. Diagnosis consistent with long standing torsion'. The patient had excision of the mass via an inguinoscrotal incision, with primary wound closure and drainage, and had good post-operative recovery. Histopathology subsequently reported seminoma. We discuss a rare case of giant intrascrotal recurrent seminoma in a young African patient and comment on the surprising absence of metastatic symptoms and the management in the absence of new imaging techniques. We emphasize the value of extirpation in such cases and the need for thorough sectioning of histopathological specimens. We also note that seminoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of scrotal swelling even in the absence of the testes (after orchidectomy). | 2023-12-05T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/3543 |
As expected, cycling legend Lance Armstrong on Friday was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life from the sport for his use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Although he continues to profess his innocence, Armstrong announced Thursday that he would no longer fight the charges. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said in a release Friday that Armstrong's decision to pass on arbitration requires an automatic lifetime ban and forfeiture of all results from Aug. 1, 1998. Armstrong won the Tour de France from 1999 through 2005.
Numerous witnesses provided evidence to USADA based on personal knowledge acquired, either through direct observation of doping activity by Armstrong, or through Armstrong’s admissions of doping to them that Armstrong used EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone and cortisone...
Manager Bobby Valentine has become a lightning rod for criticism since before the season even started. Kurkjian, who noted that he's biased in Valentine's favor because he worked with him for a number of years at ESPN, acknowledged that Valentine might not be back for a second season.
"I thought it was a really good hire when it happened, but the more I look at it, the more I think I'm not sure he ever had a fighting chance, with all the injuries, the coaching staff, a young general manager working with him for the first time. I always thought Bobby would be back next year, that this just wasn't a fair fight and he deserves another year to take a look at this. And the more I watch this team, the more I wonder if he's even going to get a second year, which I thought was inconceivable a few months...
Roger Clemens is flirting with a comeback to MLB. He wants to postpone his Hall of Fame eligibility in order to create more time for his legacy to settle after the ignominious PED accusations made by his former trainer Brian McNamee. Everyone knows this. And it didn't take a great deal of reading in between the lines to figure it out. So, why is Clemens being so coy?
Via Don Burke of the New York Post:
“I think anything is possible if you have the mindset and the will and desire to do it and put the time in,” Clemens said. “I wish I could worry about that and look that far ahead.
“It’s a lot of work to get back to where I was five years ago. ... We have some fun things planned. Maybe another surprise or two. We’ll wait and see what happens after Saturday.’’
The hope, from the perspective of Clemens and his supporters, appears to be that voters might have a different...
Vernon Wells acknowledged after the Angels' 14-13 win in 10 innings that his key one-out ninth-inning homer off Alfredo Aceves wouldn't have counted had the Red Sox and manager Bobby Valentine challenged through instant replay. Valentine didn't challenge the home run that started a three-run rally that turned the Angels' two-run deficit into a one-run lead before Cody Ross homered in the bottom of the ninth.
"I didn't see anybody thinking it was not a home run," Valentine said. "There wasn't anybody on the field that didn't think it was a home run, did they? That's the first I even heard of that. No one even came back with the replay. How does it bounce straight up like that if it's not a home run?"
Told that the ball hit the lip and remained in play, Valentine took a drink of water and shook his head in frustration.
Said Wells: "When I hit it, I was just thinking it hit off the wall. Then I saw the way...
After his team's 14-13 loss to the Angels, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine talked about his decision to bring back Alredo Aceves for the 10th inning after the Sox closer had surrendered three runs while throwing 33 pitches in the ninth.
"It was basically the same thing [Angels manager Mike] Scioscia did," Valentine said. "He's a closer, he gives up a lead. Two left-handers in the bullpen and they had a right-handed lineup. Had three innings left, I didn't want to squeeze another inning out. It obviously was the wrong decision."
After the Red Sox had sent the game into extra innings courtesy a solo home run by Cody Ross in the home half of the ninth, Aceves lasted just four pitches in the 10th. The righty surrendered a leadoff home run to Kendrys Morales before Erick Aybar singled to right field.
Aceves, who was replaced by Craig Breslow, said the problem was a simple as missed fastball location.
Butch Stearns joins Glenn and Fred to react to the Patriots victory over the Rams. They discuss Tom Brady's record setting 201st quarterback victory and debate if he is truly the greatest player of all time.
WEEI.com's Mike Petraglia and Ben Kichen of the 'Dale and Holley Show' talk about what the Celtics will need to do in order to be considered one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference along with the Cavs.
The first hour of Saturday Skate starts up against the third period of Bruins - Sabres, so Ken Laird and Rear Admiral give some Red Sox hot stove and Rob Gronkowski thoughts before moving into Bruins - Sabres game reaction
Glenn, Lou, and Christian are starting to think that the Ravens are the Pats biggest Rival. They cite the frequency with which they play, the importance of their games, the fact that the Ravens have won in Foxborough, and that they always play close games.
Glenn, Lou, and Christian react to John Tomase's comments on "The Hot Stove Show" last night, where he bagged on Dave Dombrowski fro decimating the Red Sox Farm System. Lou feels very strongly that Prospects exist to get big time Players. He also feels that the Red Sox are already the Chicago Cubs. Glenn rails against Tomase and other "Prospect Hoarders." Christian talks about "Beanie Babies."
Glenn, Lou, and Christian discuss Pablo Sandoval's conversation with ESPN Deportes, where he talks about a renewed interest in Baseball, getting healthy, and wanting his son to be able to see him play at a high level.
Kirk Minihane and Rich Keefe sit down to talk about what its like to join an already established show, how his start with the station has been received, and Kirk tries to get Rich to dish on his relationships with his former co-workers. For you listeners who think they may want to get into radio, Kirk gives Rich advice that could pertain to you as well.
Kirk Minihane, WEEI Podcast King, talks to the Podcast Godfather Adam Carolla about his new documentary about Le Mans, the backlash from the Election, and his time with Donald Trump on the Apprentice. The audio quality isn't great but the conversation is.
Kirk Minihane is a non-believer, Larry Johnson is a preacher, when Larry found Kirk doesn't believe in God he challenged Kirk to allow him on to the podcast to talk about religion and faith. Kirk and Larry have a tremendous conversation about God and Larry tries to convert Kirk into a believer.
Kirk Minihane and Rich Keefe sit down to talk about what its like to join an already established show, how his start with the station has been received, and Kirk tries to get Rich to dish on his relationships with his former co-workers. For you listeners who think they may want to get into radio, Kirk gives Rich advice that could pertain to you as well.
Episode 2 of the official podcast of Kirk & Callahan, as Kirk and Gerry acknowledge their first real on-air fight on that morning's show. The guys also discuss newbie Rich Keefe, Gary Tanguay, and Larry Bird's 60th birthday
Kirk Minihane and Rich Keefe sit down to talk about what its like to join an already established show, how his start with the station has been received, and Kirk tries to get Rich to dish on his relationships with his former co-workers. For you listeners who think they may want to get into radio, Kirk gives Rich advice that could pertain to you as well.
Episode 2 of the official podcast of Kirk & Callahan, as Kirk and Gerry acknowledge their first real on-air fight on that morning's show. The guys also discuss newbie Rich Keefe, Gary Tanguay, and Larry Bird's 60th birthday | 2023-12-20T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/2926 |
Obama-friendly CEO gave to Paul Ryan
Is it possible to love both President Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan?
Marc Benioff says yes. And the outspoken tech CEO is backing his words with campaign cash.
Benioff has helped raise more than $500,000 for Obama's re-election effort, and even hosted a $35,800-a-plate fundraiser featuring Stevie Wonder and hip-hop artist Will.i.am.
The founder and CEO of Salesforce.com(CRM) is also an Obama national campaign co-chair, a distinction awarded to select Democratic heavyweights like Rahm Emanuel, Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold.
"I'm squarely a supporter of the president, and he is absolutely the right man for the job," Benioff said Monday.
But the tech executive is also a fan of Ryan -- Mitt Romney's running mate and a rising Republican star. In June, Benioff donated $10,000 to Ryan's political action committee after meeting with the candidate, who at the time had not been named to the GOP ticket and was running for re-election in the House.
How is that possible?
"My approach to politics is that I'm not a Democrat or a Republican. I'm an American and I always support candidates I think are great for the country," Benioff said.
Dueling over Paul Ryan's Medicare plan
What's so attractive about Ryan, Benioff said, is his focus on deficit and budget issues. The nation's fiscal difficulties must be addressed, the CEO said, and Ryan's ideas offer "a lot of the right long-term thinking for the country."
"I don't think his budget is a good idea in today's world. It would put us back into recession," Benioff said. "But he is putting the right issues on the table and has a long-term vision that is admirable."
During an interview on Monday, Benioff touched on other ideas that help explain his simultaneous support for the two candidates.
First, Benioff said the nation's fiscal problems are too severe to go unaddressed. No matter who wins in November, the next administration will be forced to make progress.
"I don't think it will matter who is elected," Benioff said. "Those issues are so overwhelming and so important that they will be addressed. I'm confident that it will happen."
And beyond that, Benioff favors politicians he thinks are capable of compromise and big ideas. 'There are a lot of politicians who are just obstructionists," Benioff said. "Ryan is not one of them."
Federal Election Commission records show that Benioff has a habit of giving generously to candidates of both parties. In 2007, he gave to Romney's campaign -- and Obama's. George W. Bush received donations in 1999 and 2003, while Al Gore got $1,000 in 1999.
The Obama campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. | 2024-07-06T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8807 |
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Maternity belly support belt - protect fetus and relieve back discomfort Pregnancy Maternity Support Belt helps alleviate lower back pain due to pregnancy by supporting the lumbar and abdominal regions. Constructed of a multi-layered laminate with cotton and nylon lining,it is fully adjustable to accommodate abdominal growth throughout pregnancy.BabySafe Maternity Support Belt is fashionable and functional.Elastic side panels add compression and ventilation. Abdominal lift attachment gives lift without unnecessary pressure | 2023-09-05T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6329 |
Legislators must pass a budget by midnight if they want to keep collecting per diem
Today legislators are doing their traditional mad dash to wrap up work before midnight marks the end of the 121-day legislative session. And, as is tradition, the Legislature is already discussing the possibility of overtime to take care of unresolved issues like the operating budget, the dividend and the crime bill.
This year, though, they have new pressure to get the budget done on time.
If legislators fail to send a fully funded budget to the governor by the end of the day, they’ll no longer be able to collect their daily per diem checks. That’s thanks to new ethics rules passed last year.
“If a bill that fully funds the operating budget has not, within the first 121 consecutive days of a regular legislative session … been passed by the Legislature, a member of the Legislature is not entitled to a daily per diem allowance for a day the Legislature is in session after that 121-day period until the first day after a bill that fully funds an operating budget is passed by the Legislature.”House Bill 44, 30th Legislature
The per diem penalty would only apply to the failure to pass a fully funded budget. The unresolved crime bill and even the failure to set a dividend amount would not prevent legislators from collecting per diem during an extended session or special session.
“The one constitutional duty you have is the budget,” said former Rep. Jason Grenn, the Anchorage Independent who authored the legislation, in an interview today. “This really came to me in the environment of when I ran in the summer of 2016, the Legislature had just been called into their fifth special session in two years.”
Grenn pledged not to take per diem if the Legislature went into special session. That ended up costing him about $23,000 in per diem compared to other legislators who collected everything when the Legislature spent an historically long time in special session in 2017.
He said it’s ultimately a measure that’s supposed to restore some trust with the public, who complained to him while campaigning about legislators collecting hefty per diem payments while gridlock snarled any progress.
As for the current state of things, the Legislature is close to resolving the budget and could still do so before midnight.
The conference committee is set to meet sometime today and close out the last remaining items of the operating budget, leaving the size of the dividend for a separate battle. Gov. Michael J. Dunleavy said at a news conference in the morning that a special session would certainly be an option if the Legislature fails to resolve the budget, the dividend or crime bill before the end of the session.
The Legislature’s uniform rules says the conference committee report must sit for 24-hours before it can go to a vote, but like all other rules the Legislature can vote to waive it and send it to a vote tonight.
Grenn said everything’s in place to be done, but he’d still be surprised if it gets done before midnight.
“I don’t have the best inside scoop to it all, but it seems like they’re really close and it’s one of those things that on paper they should be able to get it accomplished,” he said. “I’ve been there and you’re 12 hours away from trying to pass out a budget and everything, I’d be surprised as anyone else if they really did get this through the conference and then through both bodies in the next 12 hours. I’m sure a special session is coming.”
Grenn lost re-election last year, but said as of today he’s not missing Juneau. | 2023-10-02T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/2219 |
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| 2024-05-01T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8237 |
/* -*- Mode: C++; tab-width: 2; indent-tabs-mode: nil; c-basic-offset: 2 -*- */
/* This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
* License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
* file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */
gTestfile = '10.1.3.js';
/**
File Name: 10.1.3.js
ECMA Section: 10.1.3.js Variable Instantiation
Description:
Author: christine@netscape.com
Date: 11 september 1997
*/
var SECTION = "10.1.3";
var VERSION = "ECMA_1";
var TITLE = "Variable instantiation";
var BUGNUMBER = "20256";
startTest();
writeHeaderToLog( SECTION + " "+ TITLE);
// overriding a variable or function name with a function should succeed
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t() { return \"first\" };" +
"function t() { return \"second\" };t() ",
"second",
eval("function t() { return \"first\" };" +
"function t() { return \"second\" };t()"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"var t; function t(){}; typeof(t)",
"function",
eval("var t; function t(){}; typeof(t)"));
// formal parameter tests
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t1(a,b) { return b; }; t1( 4 );",
void 0,
eval("function t1(a,b) { return b; }; t1( 4 );") );
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t1(a,b) { return a; }; t1(4);",
4,
eval("function t1(a,b) { return a; }; t1(4)"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t1(a,b) { return a; }; t1();",
void 0,
eval("function t1(a,b) { return a; }; t1()"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t1(a,b) { return a; }; t1(1,2,4);",
1,
eval("function t1(a,b) { return a; }; t1(1,2,4)"));
/*
new TestCase(SECTION, "function t1(a,a) { return a; }; t1( 4 );",
void 0,
eval("function t1(a,a) { return a; }; t1( 4 )"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t1(a,a) { return a; }; t1( 1,2 );",
2,
eval("function t1(a,a) { return a; }; t1( 1,2 )"));
*/
// variable declarations
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t1(a,b) { return a; }; t1( false, true );",
false,
eval("function t1(a,b) { return a; }; t1( false, true );"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t1(a,b) { return b; }; t1( false, true );",
true,
eval("function t1(a,b) { return b; }; t1( false, true );"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t1(a,b) { return a+b; }; t1( 4, 2 );",
6,
eval("function t1(a,b) { return a+b; }; t1( 4, 2 );"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t1(a,b) { return a+b; }; t1( 4 );",
Number.NaN,
eval("function t1(a,b) { return a+b; }; t1( 4 );"));
// overriding a function name with a variable should fail
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t() { return 'function' };" +
"var t = 'variable'; typeof(t)",
"string",
eval("function t() { return 'function' };" +
"var t = 'variable'; typeof(t)"));
// function as a constructor
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t1(a,b) { var a = b; return a; } t1(1,3);",
3,
eval("function t1(a, b){ var a = b; return a;}; t1(1,3)"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t2(a,b) { this.a = b; } x = new t2(1,3); x.a",
3,
eval("function t2(a,b) { this.a = b; };" +
"x = new t2(1,3); x.a"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t2(a,b) { this.a = a; } x = new t2(1,3); x.a",
1,
eval("function t2(a,b) { this.a = a; };" +
"x = new t2(1,3); x.a"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t2(a,b) { this.a = b; this.b = a; } " +
"x = new t2(1,3);x.a;",
3,
eval("function t2(a,b) { this.a = b; this.b = a; };" +
"x = new t2(1,3);x.a;"));
new TestCase(SECTION,
"function t2(a,b) { this.a = b; this.b = a; }" +
"x = new t2(1,3);x.b;",
1,
eval("function t2(a,b) { this.a = b; this.b = a; };" +
"x = new t2(1,3);x.b;") );
test();
| 2023-10-19T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9269 |
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
I have to say that Exodus is one of my favorite Old Testament books. It is a beautiful picture of God's redemptive plan and His relentless pursuit of relationship with us.
Remember all that God has done up to this point. He has delivered Israel from Egypt, destroyed Pharaoh and His army in the Red Sea, gone before them with a cloud by day and fire by night, fed them with manna and quail, and caused water to flow from a rock to quench their thirst. Now, the very one who did all of those things wants to reveal Himself to them personally. I don't know about you, but I would want to experience that myself.
So here's the deal, God speaks to Moses and tells him what He wants to do. He tells them to consecrate themselves over a period of three days in preparation to meet God. After Moses receives the Law he comes down shares the plan with the people. Then God comes down and the people shrink back in fear. They tell Moses you listen to God, tell us what he says, and we will do whatever tells us to do.
I titled this thought "Sunday Morning Sinai" because that is still happening today. Many are content to rely on the Pastor to represent us before God and then represent God to us. Rather than the people enjoying and taking advantage of all that Christ has done to consecrate us-make us holy and acceptable before God-for the purpose of restoring right relationship with God Himself. When we come to completely rest in God's marvelous Grace and realize that Christ is enough we can begin to experience a rich and intimate relationship with God.
What's really sad is the number of people who still shy away from God in fear because they still believe they have do the work that Christ already completed. As a result many still rely on Pastor to be their Moses. You know, Pastor, you hear from God for us, labor and toil in God's word to feed us, and we'll do whatever He say's. For the most part we are experiencing the same results today as Moses did in his. As you would see if you continue to read on in Exodus.
The Take Away: God desires me, us! He doesn't want me/us to rely on a Pastor or any other person to have a relationship with Him for us. God has removed the barrier of sin that separated us from Him through Jesus so we could separated to Him in Jesus. God is speaking today and He really wants me to hear and understand what He is saying. He has provided His living word to feed us. Trust Him and walk with Him today. Don't be content to live off of others experience. Go to His word, seek His face, trust in God's grace and mercy, and get to know the lover of your soul.
Followers
About Me
I am a follower of Jesus Christ who has been radically changed by His amazing grace. I am still as imperfect as they come but seeking after Him with all my heart, soul, and strength. I am blessed with a wonderful wife that I love dearly and two amazing kids. I love life and attempt to live each day as if it were my last. My mission in life is to know and make Christ known. | 2024-01-25T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/4487 |
// Copyright 2014 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
// found in the LICENSE file.
#ifndef CHROMEOS_DBUS_FAKE_PEER_DAEMON_MANAGER_CLIENT_H_
#define CHROMEOS_DBUS_FAKE_PEER_DAEMON_MANAGER_CLIENT_H_
#include <map>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include "base/macros.h"
#include "chromeos/dbus/peer_daemon_manager_client.h"
namespace chromeos {
// A fake implementation of PeerDaemonManagerClient. Invokes callbacks
// immediately.
class FakePeerDaemonManagerClient : public PeerDaemonManagerClient {
public:
FakePeerDaemonManagerClient();
~FakePeerDaemonManagerClient() override;
// DBusClient overrides:
void Init(dbus::Bus* bus) override;
// PeerDaemonManagerClient overrides:
void AddObserver(Observer* observer) override;
void RemoveObserver(Observer* observer) override;
std::vector<dbus::ObjectPath> GetPeers() override;
std::vector<dbus::ObjectPath> GetServices() override;
PeerProperties* GetPeerProperties(
const dbus::ObjectPath& object_path) override;
ServiceProperties* GetServiceProperties(
const dbus::ObjectPath& object_path) override;
void StartMonitoring(const std::vector<std::string>& requested_technologies,
const base::DictionaryValue& options,
const StringDBusMethodCallback& callback) override;
void StopMonitoring(const std::string& monitoring_token,
const VoidDBusMethodCallback& callback) override;
void ExposeService(const std::string& service_id,
const std::map<std::string, std::string>& service_info,
const base::DictionaryValue& options,
const StringDBusMethodCallback& callback) override;
void RemoveExposedService(const std::string& service_token,
const VoidDBusMethodCallback& callback) override;
void Ping(const StringDBusMethodCallback& callback) override;
private:
DISALLOW_COPY_AND_ASSIGN(FakePeerDaemonManagerClient);
};
} // namespace chromeos
#endif // CHROMEOS_DBUS_FAKE_PEER_DAEMON_MANAGER_CLIENT_H_
| 2023-10-14T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6260 |
Rogers Media uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. Learn more or change your cookie preferences. Rogers Media supports the Digital Advertising Alliance principles. By continuing to use our service, you agree to our use of cookies.
We use cookies (why?) You can change cookie preferences. Continued site use signifies consent.
Ex-NYPD deputy inspector cleared at police corruption trial
NEW YORK — A former deputy inspector for the New York Police Department was exonerated on bribery charges Wednesday after prosecutors failed to prove he accepted gifts in exchange for doing favours for two businessmen.
The verdict that cleared James Grant also resulted in the conviction of his co-defendant, businessman Jeremy Reichberg.
It capped a nearly two-month trial that featured angry fights between lawyers and the testimony of a prostitute who said she was hired by businessmen for a 2013 flight to Las Vegas with Grant and others.
The trial cast a negative light on Mayor Bill de Blasio after Reichberg and another businessman raised money for the Democrat. The mayor was never accused of wrongdoing.
Grant’s exoneration was a rare loss for prosecutors in a Manhattan courthouse where they secure convictions against most defendants.
John Meringolo, a lawyer for Grant, said he was glad that his client will get a chance to rebuild his life.
“I’m just happy for Jimmy and his family,” the lawyer said. “What they put his family through was not nice.”
Grant thanked his lawyer and his family.
Susan Necheles, Reichberg’s attorney, said she would appeal.
“We’re disappointed with the verdict. We think there are real issues on appeal. We’ll continue to press them,” she said.
As for her client, she said: “He’s happy for his friend Jimmy Grant but disappointed.”
Necheles said she believed the jury had trouble seeing past “irrelevant garbage” that emerged during the trial.
Prosecutors claimed Grant helped Reichberg obtain a licensed gun more quickly than usual and gave him other assistance in return for gifts.
They also said Reichberg and another businessman, Jona Rechnitz, once dressed as Santa Claus to deliver gifts to high-ranking police officials on Christmas Day 2013.
Rechnitz pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud and testified for the government at the trial. He described arranging a flight on a private jet to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl in 2013, when the prostitute, Gabriella Curtis, was aboard.
Curtis also testified, recalling what she could from the weekend.
“No one wanted to be in any pictures. That was very clear the whole weekend,” she said.
Rechnitz also testified last year at the trial of Norman Seabrook, the former head of the union representing guards at Rikers Island. Seabrook was convicted of corruption charges and awaits sentencing. | 2023-11-26T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/5447 |
His Excellency, President Kevin Baugh
Greetings!
I would like to wish you a very warm welcome and assure you that I am delighted that you have chosen to visit our official Molossian Website. This site is an important connection to the world, a link transcending the barriers of distance and helping me to fulfill my commitment to the Molossian people to use the office of President to reach out to others. I hope that it will be particularly helpful in educating the world about our nation.
This virtual space is a place where individuals and groups from many different cultures backgrounds and traditions will be able to learn about Molossia; our culture, our history, our government and our people. One of the smallest nations on Earth, Molossia has a rich heritage and ever-expanding role on the international scene. A bright future lies ahead of us, and by visiting our website you are part of that destiny.
I hope that this site will serve as an invaluable information resource on Molossia, in its unique place in the international world of today.
Enjoy your visit! | 2024-04-27T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/4582 |
Beautiful Shot of the Lansing Skyline
I thought it was a beautiful shot of the Lansing skyline at night. Something I rarely get to see.
It's a sobering reminder of life and death. Alzheimer's really does suck.
It's also a reminder of those are most likely to fall victim to this COVID-19 or the Novel Coronavirus. It will NOT kill everyone, but those with immune issues like MS, COPD, Asthma are the most high risk. | 2024-07-07T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/3978 |
Q:
C++ header file convention
I am working on a small game using C++, and I used Eclipse CDT's class generator. It created a .h file with the class definitions and a .cpp file that included body-less methods for said class.
So if I followed the template, I'd have a .cpp file filled with the methods declarations, and a .cpp file with method bodies. However, I can't include a .cpp file within another.
So what is the convention in C++ with classes and include files? What I did was fill in the method bodies right under the class declaration in the .h file, and deleted the .cpp file.
A:
You don't have to include the .cpp file. Including the .h file is all it takes. .h means header, ie, all it should have is function / object definitions. The actual implementations go in the .cpp file of the same name. The linker will deal with straightening it out for you.
The header file contains declarations (also known as prototype). Inclusion of the header lets the program know "I declare something that looks like this exists".
The user of headers saves us the effort of declaring methods all over the place in our code files - we just do it once, then import the file.
The .c/.cpp/.cc file includes the definition - which tells the program what the function does.
You do not have to "include" .c files because that's what the compiler does - it compiles all your .c files into machine code.
| 2024-02-29T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/5149 |
"""
============
Figure shape
============
Often, you want to adjust the shape (or aspect ratio) of a figure, but you
don't want to explicitly calculate its size. Matplotlib provides a function
called ``figaspect`` to fill this role. To adjust the aspect ratio of the
figure, ``plt.figaspect`` will change the *width* of the figure. In contrast,
``layout.figaspect`` will change the *height* of the figure. This behavior is
convenient if you have a fixed-width requirement (e.g., the width of columns in
a journal page or the width of a web page).
In this example, ``layout.figaspect`` creates a figure that fits comfortably
onto the page, while ``plt.figaspect`` does not.
"""
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpltools import layout
x, y = np.random.normal(size=(2, 20))
aspect_functions = {'mpltools.layout.figaspect': layout.figaspect,
'matplotlib.pyplot.figaspect': plt.figaspect}
for label, figaspect in list(aspect_functions.items()):
figsize = figaspect(0.5)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=figsize)
ax.plot(x, y, 'ro')
ax.set_title(label)
plt.show()
| 2024-05-01T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/3293 |
import "@polymer/paper-dialog-scrollable/paper-dialog-scrollable";
import deepFreeze from "deep-freeze";
import {
css,
CSSResultArray,
customElement,
html,
internalProperty,
LitElement,
property,
query,
TemplateResult,
} from "lit-element";
import "../../../../components/dialog/ha-paper-dialog";
import "../../../../components/ha-yaml-editor";
import type { HaYamlEditor } from "../../../../components/ha-yaml-editor";
import { LovelaceCardConfig } from "../../../../data/lovelace";
import { haStyleDialog } from "../../../../resources/styles";
import { HomeAssistant } from "../../../../types";
import { showSaveSuccessToast } from "../../../../util/toast-saved-success";
import { computeCards } from "../../common/generate-lovelace-config";
import { addCards } from "../config-util";
import "./hui-card-preview";
import { showCreateCardDialog } from "./show-create-card-dialog";
import { SuggestCardDialogParams } from "./show-suggest-card-dialog";
@customElement("hui-dialog-suggest-card")
export class HuiDialogSuggestCard extends LitElement {
@property({ attribute: false }) public hass!: HomeAssistant;
@internalProperty() private _params?: SuggestCardDialogParams;
@internalProperty() private _cardConfig?: LovelaceCardConfig[];
@internalProperty() private _saving = false;
@query("ha-yaml-editor") private _yamlEditor?: HaYamlEditor;
public showDialog(params: SuggestCardDialogParams): void {
this._params = params;
this._cardConfig =
params.cardConfig ||
computeCards(
params.entities.map((entityId) => [
entityId,
this.hass.states[entityId],
]),
{},
true
);
if (!Object.isFrozen(this._cardConfig)) {
this._cardConfig = deepFreeze(this._cardConfig);
}
if (this._yamlEditor) {
this._yamlEditor.setValue(this._cardConfig);
}
}
protected render(): TemplateResult {
if (!this._params) {
return html``;
}
return html`
<ha-paper-dialog with-backdrop opened>
<h2>
${this.hass!.localize("ui.panel.lovelace.editor.suggest_card.header")}
</h2>
<paper-dialog-scrollable>
${this._cardConfig
? html`
<div class="element-preview">
${this._cardConfig.map(
(cardConfig) => html`
<hui-card-preview
.hass=${this.hass}
.config="${cardConfig}"
></hui-card-preview>
`
)}
</div>
`
: ""}
${this._params.yaml && this._cardConfig
? html`
<div class="editor">
<ha-yaml-editor
.defaultValue=${this._cardConfig}
></ha-yaml-editor>
</div>
`
: ""}
</paper-dialog-scrollable>
<div class="paper-dialog-buttons">
<mwc-button @click="${this._close}">
${this._params.yaml
? this.hass!.localize("ui.common.close")
: this.hass!.localize("ui.common.cancel")}
</mwc-button>
${!this._params.yaml
? html`
<mwc-button @click="${this._pickCard}"
>${this.hass!.localize(
"ui.panel.lovelace.editor.suggest_card.create_own"
)}</mwc-button
>
<mwc-button ?disabled="${this._saving}" @click="${this._save}">
${this._saving
? html`
<ha-circular-progress
active
alt="Saving"
></ha-circular-progress>
`
: this.hass!.localize(
"ui.panel.lovelace.editor.suggest_card.add"
)}
</mwc-button>
`
: ""}
</div>
</ha-paper-dialog>
`;
}
static get styles(): CSSResultArray {
return [
haStyleDialog,
css`
@media all and (max-width: 450px), all and (max-height: 500px) {
/* overrule the ha-style-dialog max-height on small screens */
ha-paper-dialog {
max-height: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
}
@media all and (min-width: 850px) {
ha-paper-dialog {
width: 845px;
}
}
ha-paper-dialog {
max-width: 845px;
--dialog-z-index: 5;
}
mwc-button ha-circular-progress {
width: 14px;
height: 14px;
margin-right: 20px;
}
.hidden {
display: none;
}
.element-preview {
position: relative;
}
hui-card-preview {
padding-top: 8px;
margin: 4px auto;
max-width: 390px;
display: block;
width: 100%;
}
.editor {
padding-top: 16px;
}
`,
];
}
private _close(): void {
this._params = undefined;
this._cardConfig = undefined;
}
private _pickCard(): void {
if (
!this._params?.lovelaceConfig ||
!this._params?.path ||
!this._params?.saveConfig
) {
return;
}
showCreateCardDialog(this, {
lovelaceConfig: this._params!.lovelaceConfig,
saveConfig: this._params!.saveConfig,
path: this._params!.path,
entities: this._params!.entities,
});
this._close();
}
private async _save(): Promise<void> {
if (
!this._params?.lovelaceConfig ||
!this._params?.path ||
!this._params?.saveConfig ||
!this._cardConfig
) {
return;
}
this._saving = true;
await this._params!.saveConfig(
addCards(
this._params!.lovelaceConfig,
this._params!.path as [number],
this._cardConfig
)
);
this._saving = false;
showSaveSuccessToast(this, this.hass);
this._close();
}
}
declare global {
interface HTMLElementTagNameMap {
"hui-dialog-suggest-card": HuiDialogSuggestCard;
}
}
| 2024-07-29T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6011 |
A New Jersey judge who asked a rape victim if she “knew how to stop somebody from having intercourse with" her and if she could have closed her legs is remorseful for his comments and ready to take a punishment the higher court sees fit, his attorney said.
Superior Court Judge John Russo Jr. appeared before the state Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon for a disciplinary hearing regarding his comments to the rape victim and three other counts of judicial misconduct. Russo did not speak during the 20-minutes of oral arguments; he sat with his hands crossed, twiddling his thumbs.
“He did not intend to imply that a victim of sexual assault should close her legs to avoid” rape, his attorney, Amelia Carolla, told the seven-member Supreme Court. “He now understands that his intentions do not matter. He understands that what matters only is the impact his words had on others. He is remorseful about the hurt that this may have caused the plaintiff.”
An advisory panel for the court in April recommended the Ocean County family court judge receive three months suspension, and wrote that his conduct demonstrated "an emotional immaturity wholly unbefitting the judicial office and incompatible with the decorum expected of every jurist,” in its 45-page recommendation detailing four incidents of misconduct.
The panel, which consists of nine members, did not come to a consensus on the length of Russo’s suspension. Five had issued the three-month recommendation, while the other four thought six months would be more fitting for the “severity of this misconduct.”
Russo was placed on paid administrative leave in May 2017 before returning to work in Burlington County earlier this year at a salary of $165,000. He has presided over civil matters, Carolla said.
A transcript of the May 2016 hearing shows Russo asked the woman, “Do you know how to stop somebody from having intercourse with you?”
She explained she could defend herself physically, but Russo pressed her other ways.
" ... To run away or try to get away," the woman said.
Russo responded, "Run away, get away. Anything else?"
"I -- that's all I know," she said.
“Block your body parts?” Russo said. “Close your legs? Call the police? Did you do any of those things?”
In off-the-record comments following the testimony, the nonchalant attitude toward sexual assault continued. “As an exotic dancer, one would think you would know how to fend off unwanted sexual…” was picked up on a recording. Laughter was heard in the conversation as well, which Russo maintained he was using as a teaching moment to educate a clerk when he said, “it’s not all fun and games out there.”
Carolla said Russo was embarrassed upon hearing the recording, and understands the laughter, tone and content of the conversation were not appropriate.
“Did he not understand the seriousness of it at the time?” Justice Jaynee LaVeccha asked. “He paused to ask if recording was off.”
“It sounds like the judge and the people around him were just yucking it up after the proceedings," Justice Barry Albin said. “Am I wrong about that?”
“No, you’re not,” Carolla replied.
The tone-deaf comments on the assault aren’t Russo’s only issue: The panel also found the judge tried to use his position to rearrange the schedule of a personal family court matter in Burlington County regarding a dispute over Russo’s adult son, who has Down Syndrome and bipolar disorder and remains in his care.
Russo also failed to recuse himself from a case involving alimony payments for a couple he knew from high school. He was able to reduced a payment owed for spousal support from $10,000 to $300 in that case.
The fourth misconduct count against Russo alleges he called a mother to see if she complied with a paternity test without the father present on the call.
Separately, a former law clerk is also suing him for sexual harassment and discrimination.
“Could a reasonable victim of sexual assault come away with confidence in the integrity of the process if Judge Russo presided over that matter in the future?” Chief Justice Stuart Rabner asked.
“I believe so,” Carolla answered. “He is remorseful and has learned from that mistake.”
Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters. | 2023-09-15T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8782 |
{
"images" : [
{
"idiom" : "universal",
"scale" : "1x",
"filename" : "homebroken.png"
},
{
"idiom" : "universal",
"scale" : "2x",
"filename" : "homebroken-1.png"
},
{
"idiom" : "universal",
"scale" : "3x",
"filename" : "homebroken-2.png"
}
],
"info" : {
"version" : 1,
"author" : "xcode"
}
} | 2024-06-26T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6996 |
The embodiments of the invention relate to a light emitting diode (LED) lighting device and more particularly, to an LED lighting device for a recessed can lighting system. Although embodiments of the invention are suitable for a wide scope of applications, they are particularly suitable for a light emitting diode panel in a recessed can.
Various lighting devices are used to illuminate interior spaces. These include candelabras, chandeliers, track lighting and recessed cans. The latter are used when the lighting devices are to be hidden from view and otherwise unobtrusive. Most commonly, incandescent lighting is used in recessed cans.
A recent trend in interior lighting is to replace incandescent bulbs with fluorescent bulbs. Fluorescent bulbs are advantageous over incandescent bulbs primarily because of their greater longevity and higher efficiency. In many cases, fluorescent bulbs can increase operating efficiencies several-fold without substantially sacrificing brightness, lighting quality or color. Fluorescent bulbs are used in recessed lighting devices as well with the same advantages.
Interior lighting based on the use of light emitting diode (LED) technology is still relatively new. Light emitting diode technology provides lighting capabilities at far greater efficiency than are even provided by fluorescent bulbs. Recent improvements have raised the brightness and lighting quality of light emitting diode light fixtures up to the standards of incandescent bulbs. However, light emitting diodes in the light emitting diode lighting panels used in lighting devices of various types are susceptible to overheating. When overheating occurs, the efficiency and lifetime of the light emitting diodes is decreased. In some cases, overheating may lead to either catastrophic failure in the LEDs and/or create safety hazards. | 2024-02-22T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6539 |
Paper bags have been used for packing groceries for over a hundred years, and such paper bags have gained wide acceptance by grocery store customers. However, plastic grocery sacks have made inroads into the paper bag market, mainly because they are cheaper and take up less storage space. Also, the plastic sacks are usually equipped with integral handles for easy carrying and, unlike the paper bags, they do not have a tendency to rip open. However, many shoppers complain that the plastic sacks have a greater tendency than paper bags to keel over in the back seat or trunk of a motor vehicle spilling out the contents.
Accordingly, an objective of the present invention is to provide a simple apertured plastic closure disk which may conveniently be slipped over the integral handles and open top of the plastic grocery sack, after the handles have been drawn together, to hold the sacks in a closed condition.
Another objective of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive applicator for sliding the fastener disks over the handles and onto the neck of the plastic sacks.
Specifically, the invention provides an apertured closure disk which is intended to be slipped over the mouth portion of a plastic shopping sack when that portion has been drawn together, to hold the neck of the sack firmly in a closed condition; and the invention also provides a simple applicator for the fastener disks. | 2024-06-15T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/4860 |
Obama buddy and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers was seen protesting Donald Trump in Chicago today.
Thousands of leftwing protesters were expected today to protest Donald Trump at the University of Chicago Illinois campus.
5,000-7,000 people were already inside the pavilion at 5 PM Central. Thousands more were still in a line that stretched several blocks.
Trump supporters lined up early to see the GOP frontrunner in Chicago. (Progressives Today)
Guess who was outside protesting Donald Trump?
…Domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.
(Progressives Today)
TRENDING: RUTH BADER GINSBURG DEAD! Supreme Court Justice Dies at Home Surrounded by Family
PHOTOS VIA REBEL PUNDIT
Bill Ayers, a former leader of the Weather Underground, participated in bombings of the New York City police headquarters in 1970.
Barack Obama started his political career in Bill Ayers’ living room.
Actual terrorist Bill Ayers protests against Trump in Chicago. | 2024-01-10T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9452 |
The Hill Star Map and Exoplanets
Blue Shift
So my guess is that the biggest dot is Earth. The second biggest dot is the Moon.
The "biggest dots" are the Zeta Reticuli stars. Our sun is in the upper right corner:
That's one interpretation of it only, and the relatively "short" distance between Zeta Reticuli 1 and 2 are wildly exaggerated to make it look more
like the drawn map. The more I think about it, why would a 3-D map on a starship NOT shift according to the perspective of the traveler, like
current GPS maps? Did they get it from a gas station?
The two stars of the Zeta Reticuli system are apparently very similar in mass to the Sun. This should mean that they can be expected to grow more
luminous over time, in a similar manner. We read that the Sun, currently about 4.6 billion years old, will partially deplete its hydrogen fuel, and
so grow brighter over the next billion years. This is expected to make the Earth hot, and uninhabitable.
If the Zeta Reticuli stars are 6 to 8 billion years old, it seems that any planets in their habitable zones would already be unlivable, or nearly so.
If this is not the case, then some other factor has presumably intervened.
We read that the Zeta Reticuli stars are low in luminosity for their age. MIght this be another piece of evidence that these stars could have been
modified by astro-engineering technology of this system's inhabitants? Preventing the increase in luminosity, and extending the time that planets
would be habitable, perhaps tenfold, seems a worthy goal.
This would involve mixing hydrogen from the outer layers of the stars into their cores, where it would be available for fusion. This may seem an
impossible task, but so did damming up a major river or flying to the Moon seem to our ancestors. Given a additional million years for technology to
advance, who can say what might be possible?
Blue Shift
So my guess is that the biggest dot is Earth. The second biggest dot is the Moon.
The "biggest dots" are the Zeta Reticuli stars. Our sun is in the upper right corner:
That's one interpretation of it only, and the relatively "short" distance between Zeta Reticuli 1 and 2 are wildly exaggerated to make it look more
like the drawn map. The more I think about it, why would a 3-D map on a starship NOT shift according to the perspective of the traveler, like
current GPS maps? Did they get it from a gas station?
Because astronomical maps in general would be of little use if they worked like GPS.
You understand the reason the map can shift with GPS is due to GPS satellites right? The GPS receiver picks up signals from the various satellites and
that allows the receiver to locate where you are.
GPS works because you are relatively close to the transmitter in cosmic distances. It's hard to imagine a GPS for the solar system much less the
galaxy due to the large distances and the speed of light limit on signals.
What would be more likely to be on an interstellar ship would be a map which shows the immediate neighborhood so one would know where they are in the
context of other landmarks.
Even with GPS not all maps are the same. Some maps used for hiking do not have you at the center of them for similar reasons (wanting to see where you
are in relation to natural landmarks etc).
Ross 54
The two stars of the Zeta Reticuli system are apparently very similar in mass to the Sun. This should mean that they can be expected to grow more
luminous over time, in a similar manner. We read that the Sun, currently about 4.6 billion years old, will partially deplete its hydrogen fuel, and
so grow brighter over the next billion years. This is expected to make the Earth hot, and uninhabitable.
If the Zeta Reticuli stars are 6 to 8 billion years old, it seems that any planets in their habitable zones would already be unlivable, or nearly so.
If this is not the case, then some other factor has presumably intervened.
The stars of Zeta Reticuli are main sequence stars. There is a reason that each of them would still be on the main sequence rather than blossoming
into a red giant at 6-8 billion years.
Because while they are both Sun-like they are both less massive than our sun which means their life expectancy is higher.
I guess it's time for the pre-requisite stellar classification stuff. I can do a brief Astronomy 101 with regards to the Hill Map if people want. It
shouldn't take more than a post or two.
Its very similar to the view of the Galaxy I put together in Celestia. When one filters out the less interesting objects the pattern in the Hill star
map makes a lot of sense. Still working on an explanatory video which I hope to upload this weekend.
I'm not sure why but two other videos I tried embedding did not show up. I guess it's because I'm new to ATS (sigh).
JadeStar
Because astronomical maps in general would be of little use if they worked like GPS.
You understand the reason the map can shift with GPS is due to GPS satellites right? The GPS receiver picks up signals from the various satellites and
that allows the receiver to locate where you are.
But that's not the only way such a map could work. It could also use a detector to find the galactic center, or maybe pick out a known configuration
of pulsars and use those to triangulate a position.
Keeping that in mind, one of the more difficult things that such a map would have to show is where you are in time was well as space. Every
time you'd zip back and forth between even close stars it would twist you out of sync with local time and the time configuration of your origin. And
accounting for relativistic effects, by the time you went from one place to another, the locations of the stars would all shift around, making it even
more difficult to tell where you are, where you came from, and where you want to go.
I suppose the logical thing for any long-distance space voyager would be to just abandon any links with your homeworld and just live as constant
travelers, since there would be no way to return there or get information back to them quickly (barring something like the existence of
trans-dimensional subspace). The aliens who abducted the Hills didn't have a big enough ship for that, though.
Anyway. Betty Hill wasn't the brightest person on Earth, or the world's greatest artist. And here she is trying to remember something she only saw
for a moment, and even then trying to remember it under hypnosis, which is sketchy to begin with.
But that's not the only way such a map could work. It could also use a detector to find the galactic center, or maybe pick out a known configuration
of pulsars and use those to triangulate a position.
Pulsars to triangulate position is a good call as their spin would tell them not only where they are in space/time but also -when- they are in
space/time (as pulsars age their pulses slow down).
That said, I can not see why 'they' would need an extremely local (ie solar system) view when the only planet they might be interested around our sun
is the Earth. And like I said, every GPS map I've ever used has a zoom function.
The question asked of Betty about if she could find where she was on the map could have been a simple test to see if she knew anything about the
nearby stars.
Keeping that in mind, one of the more difficult things that such a map would have to show is where you are in time was well as space.
Every time you'd zip back and forth between even close stars it would twist you out of sync with local time and the time configuration of your origin.
And accounting for relativistic effects, by the time you went from one place to another, the locations of the stars would all shift around, making it
even more difficult to tell where you are, where you came from, and where you want to go.
Hence your pulsar idea which is an excellent one. They even put a pulsar map on the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 plaques for that reason.
Anyway. Betty Hill wasn't the brightest person on Earth, or the world's greatest artist. And here she is trying to remember something she
only saw for a moment, and even then trying to remember it under hypnosis, which is sketchy to begin with.
It may seem like a waste of time but I assure you there is interesting stuff in that map which makes it decidedly non-random. As for remember details
under hypnosis, it's been done in criminal cases to help sketch artists. So sketchy it is indeed.
Ross 54
The two stars of the Zeta Reticuli system are apparently very similar in mass to the Sun. This should mean that they can be expected to grow more
luminous over time, in a similar manner. We read that the Sun, currently about 4.6 billion years old, will partially deplete its hydrogen fuel, and
so grow brighter over the next billion years. This is expected to make the Earth hot, and uninhabitable.
If the Zeta Reticuli stars are 6 to 8 billion years old, it seems that any planets in their habitable zones would already be unlivable, or nearly so.
If this is not the case, then some other factor has presumably intervened.
The stars of Zeta Reticuli are main sequence stars. There is a reason that each of them would still be on the main sequence rather than blossoming
into a red giant at 6-8 billion years.
Because while they are both Sun-like they are both less massive than our sun which means their life expectancy is higher.
I guess it's time for the pre-requisite stellar classification stuff. I can do a brief Astronomy 101 with regards to the Hill Map if people want. It
shouldn't take more than a post or two.
By all means, JadeStar, please give us the astronomical basics about the stars on the Hill map. I was aware that Zeta 1 and 2 Reticuli
are still on the main sequence at 6 to 8 billion years old. The increase in luminosity to which I was referring is the gradual one that has
apparently been happening to our Sun for a few billion years, and presumably happens on other Sun-like stars, such as Zeta 1 and Zeta 2
Reticuli.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:solar_evolution_(English).svg
Alright, this is the pre-requisite knowledge I mentioned so we can all be on the same page when discussing this issue. Apologies if this stuff seems
basic to you. I am sure some of it is new to people who might read this thread who are not well versed in astronomy or our Galaxy.
I hate boring stuff so I will try to make this post as interesting as possible by highlighting why this stuff is relevant to why we're all here:
"Aliens and UFOs".
So lets start with the basics before I move on to the Hill-Fish map.
Milky Way Galaxy Facts
The Milky Way contains over 200 billion stars, and enough dust and gas to make billions more.
The solar system lies about 30,000 light-years from the galactic center, and about 20 light-years above the plane of the galaxy.
More than half the stars (and by extension their planets) found in the Milky Way are older than the 4.5 billion year old sun.
That means, we're likely the kids or possibly even the babies of the Galaxy when it comes to intelligent life. In terms of our Galaxy we've barely
scratched the surface of what may be out there in terms of habitable planets. An analogy I like to make (which if you have kids you might be able to
relate to) is that we're in a baby crib (our planet), in our room (the solar system) which exists in a house (the small circle you see on the map of
the Milky Way below).
We''ve barely explored our house. Nevertheless within that house lay Zeta Reticuli and a whole host of interesting places we're only beginning to
discover.
Someone questioned whether the stars of Zeta Reticuli being 2-4 billion years older than sun would made any habitable planets around them
uninhabitable. That got me thinking now was the right time to give some basics of Stellar Classification and Stellar Evolution. Astronomy 101 level
stuff.
As you'll see below, how long a star lives is based on its mass. The big hot stars live fast and die hard. Smaller stars than our sun live longer
lives.
The most common stars in the galaxy are red dwarfs, which are cool stars about a tenth the mass of the sun. Once thought unsuitable for potential
life-bearing planets because such bodies would have to be too close to meet the criteria, red dwarfs are now considered potential suspects. This is
due to the fact that advanced computer models show planet's tidally locked with atmospheres would still circulate heat and be habitable for our type
of life.
As a general rule in the universe the smaller something is, the more plentiful it is. Stars smaller than our Sun are more plentiful than stars like
our Sun or stars bigger than our Sun.
And as seen in the chart below. The biggest stars have shorter lives. However they are also rarer than our Sun.
The time period in which a star is stable is called the main sequence. Stars outside of this time period are either still forming or dying.
Our sun is in its main sequence right now and will remain so for about another 2-3 billion years After a stars main sequence the star can have
different deaths depending on its mass:
From hotest and most massive to the tiniest and coolest the average stars of our galaxy are: O, B, A, F, G, K, M.....and so on. (Brown Dwarfs and
White Dwarfs have their own special classes below M)
Each letter class is then subdivided based on temperature using a numeric digit with 0 being hottest and 9 being coolest. That diagonal band in the
middle are the stars we're most interested in from a life point of view.
In addition to this each stellar classification there is a further subdivisions based and luminosity and spectral characteristics which can tell a
stars age.
This is called the Yerkes spectral classification. It is shown in Roman Numerals sometimes with another subdivision within it. The Yerkes spectral
class can show where a class of star is in its evolution and it runs from I (a hypergiant ready to go nova or supernova) down to VII (white dwarfs).
Stars in their main sequence are in the range of VI up to IV:
So what difference does all this make? What is our Sun? And what are the stars of Zeta Reticui and the other stars on the Hill-Fish star map?
That will be the subject of my next post. But before that I thought it might be a good idea to bring your attention to some things we know today about
the statistical likelihood of planets and specifically habitable planets like the Earth as a result of both the data Kepler gathered as well as ground
based telescopes.
Kepler's main mission was to determine the relative frequency of different types of planets, with the grand prize finding another earth sized planet
in an earth like orbit in terms of a star's habitable (or "Goldilocks") zone.
What Kepler found was somewhat amazing. There are a fair amount of potentially habitable planets. The Habitable Planet Laboratory at Arecibo keeps
track of them and does further research into them.
Here is one of their graphics:
As you can see habitable planets larger than the Earth but smaller than the large planets of our own solar system seem to be more plentiful than
planets like the Earth. Kepler has found 12 of these habitable "Super Earths" or "Super Terrans" and found 35 more candidates (90% of Kepler's
candidates turn out to be real planets). However it only has found one Earth-sized candidate planet so far.
So one of the questions that some people often get asked about why aliens are always described as being short in stature and thin can now be
answered from a scientific perspective.
A planet 2 to 6 times the Earth's mass would have higher gravity. Anything which walked upright would by necessity be shorter and perhaps have more
efficient muscles than us on a lighter weight body.
It should be noted that Kepler is still sending back data which it took before its mission ended so researchers have not yet analysed everything it
has collected yet. the 3,500+ candidates on that chart are just from the data which has been sifted through, there are mountains of data that hasn't
even been sifted through yet for candidates. While other Earth-sized planets in habitable zones are probably within the data its like calling an
election: At this point we know that habitable Super Earths seem to be more likely than habitable Earth sized planets.
(Sidenote If you have good eyes and are into perhaps spotting a planet in the Kepler data there is a citizen science project I take part in called
Planet Hunters over at www.planethunters.org (part of Zooniverse). We've already found two planets which have been confirmed and tentatively named PH1
and PH2.)
It should be noted that I have found that just about every star on the Hill-Fish map makes sense from an astrobiological point of view. Several of the
stars are in HabCat (the catalog 17,129 of the likeliest habitable stars in our local neighborhood put together by astronomers Jill Tarter and
Margaret Turnbull in 2003.) Others have been found to have habitable zone planets. BTW: I did cross correlation with HabCat and the Planetary
Habitability Lab while looking at the Hill-Fish map. Some stars beyond the map on the same lines also have habitable worlds.
Hope I didn't bore you.
I'm just a girl who is an astronomy student with an interest in UFO claims which may have verifiable information.
I'm still working on my Celestia tour of the Hill-Fish map but I though you might be interested in the following.....
You may have seen a news report not long ago that the nearest life bearing planet is thought to be about 6-7 light years away. This is a direct
result of the analysis of Kepler data by the Planetary Habitability Lab at Arecibo: phl.upr.edu...
It has found among other things that Earthlike planets are likely more common than anyone had initially thought. (And more common than astronomer
Frank Drake had speculated in the 1960s).
An Earth-like planet is defined as a 0.5 to 1.4 Earth radii planet orbiting within the habitable zone of the star.
What that means is the following....
η Earth (Eta Earth) is the stellar frequency of Earth-like planets. δ Earth (Delta Earth) is the mean distance between Earth-like planets.
p10 Earth is the probability of an Earth-like planet within 10 light years from Earth.
Which means our nearest Earth like planetary neighbor is likely within 10 light years of the Earth! Important to keep in mind because a couple of
stars on the Hill-Fish map are not far from that range and one of them has not one but two potentially habitable planets!
Here's a hint.. It's on these graphics below from the PHL at Arecibo:
This is a far cry from what we knew back in the 1960s and 1970s when the Hill-Fish map was initially debated in Astronomy Magazine by the likes of
Carl Sagan and Terrance Dickinson,
It's even a far cry from the 1990s when Seth Shostak for example dismissed it as being likely nothing more than Pareidolia akin to finding faces in
clouds or Jesus on a potato chip.
Tau Ceti is one of the stars on the Hill Map. I'll be going into it and the others sometime this weekend (hopefully) with my video tour.
I'll also go a bit into the Seager Equation. (Astronomer Sara Seager developed a new equation that in many ways is superior to the Drake Equation when
looking for other planets with life) and how that relates to the Hill-Fish map.
Every year or so I re-visit the Hill-Fish map and "plug in" new information that we've learned in the year that past. This year appears to be near a
tipping point in terms of "too many things are right with it to be pure chance or coincidence."
The launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (assuming it launches and functions correctly) will be able to tell us a lot more. Think of it
as a Kepler for our local neighborhood. It will survey the closest and brightest stars for transit events due to planets or other low-mass companions.
TESS is on track for launch in 2017. Of course in the time between now and then there will no doubt be further exoplanet discoveries around our nearby
neighbors which would swing the pendulum the other way.
I'm wondering if all of this great information deserves it's own thread instead of buried in this older thread?
I was wondering the same. I am new and so I couldn't start a new thread even if I wanted to. I also thought to "play it safe" with regards to ATS
because other forums get upset if you start a new thread on a subject that already has a thread. Being new I wanted to put my best foot forward.
If a mod can let me know its ok to post this as its own new thread I will, but i don't want to piss anyone off.
JadeStar
Every year or so I re-visit the Hill-Fish map and "plug in" new information that we've learned in the year that past. This year appears to be near
a tipping point in terms of "too many things are right with it to be pure chance or coincidence.
More to come in the next couple of days.
Looking forward to reading it, although this is an old staple of UFOlogy it is always interesting to hear new perspectives on it!
I myself take the opposite view: I believe that Marjorie Fish's interpretation of the sketch is inherently flawed, and further research based on the
assumption that it is accurate is a time consuming dead end.
If you have not already read this excellent thread, I would suggest that it may offer
you some fresh insights into the veracity of the Fish interpretation; I'd be especially interested to hear your thoughts on poster Nicorette's
alternative interpretation which is posted approximately half way down page 6 and which offers what I believe to be a more logical fit with Betty
Hill's sketch.
JadeStar
Every year or so I re-visit the Hill-Fish map and "plug in" new information that we've learned in the year that past. This year appears to be near a
tipping point in terms of "too many things are right with it to be pure chance or coincidence.
More to come in the next couple of days.
Looking forward to reading it, although this is an old staple of UFOlogy it is always interesting to hear new perspectives on it!
The reason I think it is such a stable in UFOlogy is that nothing else like it in the 66 years of the modern UFO era exists.
For all the alleged contacts and abductions we have nothing else in the literature that presents us with any information not known at the time which
can be scientifically investigated with more scrutiny as technology allows.
The Hill-Fish map is unique in that regard.
When reading through the literature it is easy to see why there aren't more people in astronomy related fields sinking their teeth into the phenomena.
Everything else has been vague references to an "end of the world" that as yet has not happened, or to space brothers from such unlikely points of
origin as Venus, the Pleiades or the Orion nebula (which to people with no basic understanding of what conditions are like in those locales sounds
perfectly plausible), or beings from "another dimension".
So until all of the stars on Fish's interpretation are thoroughly examined with future instruments to the point that they are ruled out as places of
life or intelligent life then it will remain the gift that keeps giving.
I myself take the opposite view: I believe that Marjorie Fish's interpretation of the sketch is inherently flawed, and further research based on the
assumption that it is accurate is a time consuming dead end.
I disagree. Anything which gets people interested in what could be out there in our local neighborhood has value.
It was not that long ago that American astronomer Percival Lowell was convinced that canals existed on Mars built by a civilization trying to conserve
water on an increasingly drying world.
Lowell became determined to study Mars and astronomy as a full-time career after reading Camille Flammarion's La planète Mars. He was particularly
interested in the canals of Mars, as drawn by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who was director of the Milan Observatory.en.wikipedia.org...
It sounds funny to us now but he had a fair amount of company in those days. It was almost accepted as fact in the pop culture of that era that there
was a civilization on Mars.
This spurred things such as Lowell building (with his own money) Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona to see the canals that he thought
Schiaparelli had seen.
In 1894 Lowell chose Flagstaff, Arizona Territory, as the home of his new observatory. At an altitude of over 2100 meters (7000 feet), with few
cloudy nights, and far from city lights, Flagstaff was an excellent site for astronomical observations. This marked the first time an observatory had
been deliberately located in a remote, elevated place for optimal seeing.
It even spurred people such as Tesla to do more work on radio receiving equipment. Why? To hear the Martians of course.
Lowell himself and Lowell Observatory went on to make some real discoveries such as the first Kuiper Belt Object(KBO): Pluto over 60 years before the
next one was discovered. The idea of building observatories at the position where they would best function seems like a no-brainer today but he was
the first to do it and it has become standard practice when considering site locations for new instruments in astronomy.
And where would 20th century communications have been without Tesla's superheterodyne receiver?
One of the reasons for our fascination with Mars to this day goes back to Lowell and Ray Bradbury's adoption of the whole canals on Mars idea with The
Martian Chronicles and H.G. Wells War of the Worlds featured Martians invading the Earth based on the same premise, that Mars was a dying planet.
People here on ATS often pour through NASA images of Mars looking for anything anomalous as a direct result of Lowell's early ideas about Mars.
Today Zeta Reticuli in many ways has become the "new Mars". Until we can investigate it in better detail and look for worlds which may be around those
stars and others on the Hill-FIsh map that's unlikely to change.
But who knows, due to the idea that nearby star systems could be inhabited (and the statistics from Kepler have given this idea a lot of weight) maybe
some well-heeled individual (not named Bigelow) will spring for the bill to build something like the Colossus telescope (which could detect the energy
usage and perhaps light of alien cities around the nearest stars out to 60 light years - which BTW: Zeta Ret falls within).
If that thing or others like it get built because of public interest in whats out there then it wasn't a total waste of time. Our because of Hubble,
knowledge about some remote parts of the universe is better than our knowledge of our local interstellar neighborhood but that will change in the next
couple of decades. We're right at the beginning of perhaps the most exciting time in planet discovery since Lowell's time.
If you have not already read this excellent thread, I would suggest that it may offer
you some fresh insights into the veracity of the Fish interpretation; I'd be especially interested to hear your thoughts on poster Nicorette's
alternative interpretation which is posted approximately half way down page 6 and which offers what I believe to be a more logical fit with Betty
Hill's sketch.
I read a few days before i made my first post in this thread and in fact I plan to base my next post examining the map on the original poster of that
thread's format.
As for Nicorette referring to the alternative interpretation that the map represents the solar system, I looked at that interpretation and it is full
of logical flaws, mainly due to the fact that there are asteroids in that interpretation but some of the more interesting asteroids are not on it.
I've also seen a weak argument that the map represented cities on the east coast of the US and another interpretation by a guy pushing a book called
"Set Your Phasers to Stun" which was equally weak for entirely different reasons.
Like I said, I am not here to debate other interpretations of the map. There are some solid reasons why the Fish interpretation might be the most
likely one for any group of nearby stars.
Those reasons will be the subject of the next post from me about the map. Look for it sometime before Monday.
edit on 26-10-2013 by JadeStar because: Added link to the Colossus telescope website.
This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression. | 2024-04-15T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9360 |
Lalu Prasad Yadav’s funny speech in English. Even the Honorable speaker is not able to control his laughter. :D https://youtu.be/NsMolUi6W50 #LaluPrasadYadav #LaluYadav #FunnySpeech #Politics #Funny #EnglishSpeech #FunnyVideo #Comedy | 2024-05-18T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/4502 |
Bilateral partial oophorectomy in the management of severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS): ovarian mutilating surgery is not an option in the management of severe OHSS.
Ovarian mutilating surgery is not an option in the management of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), except in cases with evident tissue necrosis after torsion. When severe OHSS occurs, preservation of fertility must be the target. Therefore, conservative management should be the only feasible approach, as recommended in literature worldwide. Individualization of controlled ovarian hyperstimulation, and an early active management when OHSS initiates, are the most effective measures for reducing the incidence and severity of this disease. | 2023-11-24T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9195 |
Dependence of mammalian DNA replication on DNA supercoiling. II. Effects of novobiocin on DNA synthesis in Chinese hamster ovary cells.
Novobiocin, an inhibitor of gyrase-induced DNA supercoiling and DNA replication in prokaryotes, inhibited the incorporation of DNA precursors into DNA in both intact and permeable Chinese hamster ovary cells; much higher concentrations were required for permeable cells, in which no new replicons were initiated. Nucleoids were prepared from cells that were incubated for 60 min with 200 micrograms/ml novobiocin, made permeable, and incubated with 0--50 micrograms/ml ethidium bromide. Sedimentation of the nucleoids in neutral sucrose gradients suggested that the number of supercoils in the average nucleoid had been reduced by prior incubation with novobiocin. In intact cells, novobiocin is required inside the cell for continued inhibition of DNA synthesis, suggesting that it does not act directly on the DNA. Alkaline sucrose gradient profiles of DNA synthesized in the presence of novobiocin in intact cells indicated that the drug inhibited replicon initiation while having little if any effect on chain elongation. These data are consistent with the idea that an activity similar to the bacterial gyrase generates supercoils in mammalian DNA and produces the proper conformation for the initiation of DNA replication. | 2024-04-05T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/5439 |
Categories
Built In Bedroom Furniture For Small Rooms Regarding Cozy White Wooden Frame Teenage Bunk Bed Ideas Curved Gray Polished Ladder 43 - The image above with the title Built In Bedroom Furniture For Small Rooms Regarding Cozy White Wooden Frame Teenage Bunk Bed Ideas Curved Gray Polished Ladder 43, is part of Built in Bedroom Furniture for Small Rooms picture gallery. Size for this image is 689 × 516, a part of Bedrooms category and tagged with built in bedroom furniture uk, bedroom, furniture built, fitted furniture, built in bedroom furniture ideas published November 17th, 2015 18:52:52 PM by Monica. Find or search for images related to "Built In Bedroom Furniture For Small Rooms Regarding Cozy White Wooden Frame Teenage Bunk Bed Ideas Curved Gray Polished Ladder 43" in another posts. Back to: Built in Bedroom Furniture for Small Rooms. | 2024-01-19T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/3720 |
Suicide as an epidemic and how society deals with it—perfect premise of a work of fiction for a sociology student like me. Perhaps then my opinions on this book are unfair because I am weighing them against my academic background. But I can’t help it; after years of studying sociology, it has come to influence… | 2023-11-07T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8953 |
Managing adverse effects of disease-modifying agents used for treatment of multiple sclerosis.
First-line agents approved in the United States for treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS) include intramuscular interferon beta (IFNbeta)-1a, subcutaneous (SC) IFNbeta-1a, SC IFNbeta-1b, and SC glatiramer acetate. Intravenous mitoxantrone is the only agent approved for secondary progressive MS, progressive relapsing MS, and worsening relapsing MS. Intravenous natalizumab is approved for relapsing forms of MS generally in patients who have an inadequate response to, or are unable to tolerate, first-line therapies. Corticosteroids are commonly used to treat relapses. This paper reviews the incidence and management of common adverse events (AEs) associated with these treatments. MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched for clinical trials and other publications between 1985 and 2007 reporting AEs associated with MS therapies, using these search terms: multiple sclerosis, interferon, Avonex, Betaseron, Rebif, glatiramer, copolymer 1, Copaxone, mitoxantrone, natalizumab, adverse events. A class-specific flu-like syndrome associated with IFNbeta can be managed through initial dose escalation and administration of analgesics and antipyretics, prophylactically or symptomatically. Injection-site reactions can occur in patients receiving injectable therapies, particularly SC IFNbeta or glatiramer acetate. The greatest risk to patients receiving mitoxantrone is cardiotoxicity; thus, the cumulative dose is limited. Allergic reactions occur rarely with natalizumab, and there is a potential risk of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. AEs associated with short-term pulse corticosteroid therapy are usually transient and largely resolve after treatment is completed. To improve adherence to therapy, it is important to educate patients regarding AEs and to manage AEs proactively. | 2023-10-18T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9775 |
Big Kahuna's Pizza, Honolulu
Once a small, rustic, one-story building dwarfed by large warehouses in an industrial neighborhood, Big Kahuna Pizzas was hidden in the middle of a concrete jungle. A lane-widening project led to the demolition of their original home in the summer of 2007. It is now located in the Airport Trade Center (which is easier to find) and better than ever thanks to an expanded menu. In addition to a wide variety of both traditional and unique pizza toppings and sauces, they offer two absolutely huge sandwiches. Each one stands about 4-5 inches tall and is 8-9" wide. Granted, it's mostly a thick circular bun, but it is extremely filling. Pizzas on the other hand tend to run a little small (for the price) but the flavors help redeem that slight downside. All in all Da Big Kahuna is not your usual pizza place. -Rex Davidson | 2024-07-31T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8997 |
Al Punto Sobre Patógenos De La Sangre
Our workplace is full of hazards, hazards that can hurt us or kill us. Controlling these hazards and preventing injuries or illnesses is the point of our safety and health program. One such hazard is the one presented by bloodborne pathogens. Bloodborne pathogens are tiny microorganisms found in human blood or other bodily fluids that can cause diseases in humans. Controlling our exposure to bloodborne pathogens can prevent these diseases and save lives. That is the point of our facility’s Bloodborne Pathogens Exposure Control Program and that is the point of this program. | 2024-05-22T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/2360 |
Ian Thibodeau
The Detroit News
Developers plan to open a brand new 11-story luxury condominium complex in downtown Detroit by 2018. Known as The Ashton Detroit, the 83-unit facility will be the first freestanding condo complex built downtown in 20 years.
Once finished, the project on the west end of downtown will stand in what’s currently a parking lot behind the former WWJ building at 600 W. Lafayette, which now houses the Michigan American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 25. Construction on the building will start next year, and is expected to be ready for occupancy by 2018.
Eric Means, CEO of Detroit-based Means Group, is heading up the $35 million project.
Greg Bowens, spokesman for the project, said the existing building on the property will be turned into office space. The AFSCME council, which currently occupies part of the building, currently has a one-year lease on the building. Bowens did not say if the lease would be renewed.
“We are pleased to have the opportunity to bring more living space to downtown Detroit,” Means said in a news release. “This historic project will build upon the legacy of the former home of WWJ and Michigan AFSCME Council 25 by retaining the historic architecture. Our goal is to create exciting living spaces adjacent to the existing structure that will offer spectacular views of downtown, the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit River.”
Means is partnering with The Resendes Design Group and the Holdwick Development Group on the project. Means is also involved in the historic renovation and adaptive reuse of the Metropolitan Building downtown. The developers have several decades’ experience between the three groups.
Ashton units will have floor-to-ceiling windows. Three floors of the condo building will be used for parking for the office space and condos.
Five of the units will be penthouses. The complex will have a pool, fitness center and ground-floor retail space. Bowens said units will range from 1,500 square feet to 2,200 square feet; multiple units can be combined into one condo.
There will be views of the Detroit River from every condo, he said.
“It will be luxury living in Detroit,” Bowens said. He was not able to give a price point. Once the building is finished in 2018, the developers will let the market and demand dictate how much they sell each unit for.
The development site is next to the WDIV studios, and across Lafayette from the former home of The Detroit News.
The Ashton has to go through the permitting process with the City of Detroit. Means and the development partners bought the building in early August.
ithibodeau@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Ian_Thibodeau | 2023-11-30T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1827 |
Just wow. What a beautiful Korean girls. Models pose with cars during a the Seoul Motor Show in Goyang, north of Seoul on March, 2011. Auto show is the South Korea’s largest international auto show. Several domestic companies presented the latest eco-friendly cars and Korea showed beauty of its country. About 100 models participated at this main annual event in Korea calendar. There were Kang Yui, Ryu Ji Hye, Choi Byeol Yee, Han Ga Eun, Hwang Mi Hee and tens more models.
Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano close to Messina and Catania. Mount Etna is located 37.7N, 15.0E on the north east coats of the Island of Sicily, Italy. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and the second largest active volcano in Europe, currently standing 3,329 metres (10,922 ft) high. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps. Etna covers an area of 1,190 km (460 sq mi) with a basal circumference of 140 km. This year, the volcanic eruption and the lava that flown into a valley overnight did not represent a danger to inhabited areas.
The Brazilian Rio Carnival is celebrated in south american city Rio de Janeiro. It is the biggest and most interesting Carnival. It has long been regarded as the Carnival Capital of the World. Every other carnivals are compared to Rio Carnival. Probably, everyone has heard about the Rio Carnaval. It officially starts on Saturday, 40 days before Easter and finishes on Tuesday.
One word – amazing! Alfa Romeo GTA 4C Concept was presented in Geneva Motor Show 2011. Despite of expectations is not an open roadster, but a baby version of the beautiful and sinfully expensive 8C Competizione. Carbon fiber and aluminum construction helps keep the weight down to below 850 kilograms (1873 lbs). The 1750cc, direct-injection turbo four from the Giulietta QV mounted amidship drives over 200 horsepower via Alfa’s TCT dual-clutch transmission to the rear wheels. So, we have a car with an extremely high fun factor. Alfa 4C could lead the company’s long-awaited return to the North American market.
Music (Original Song)
Coming Home from Country Strong Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
I See the Light from Tangled Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
If I Rise from 127 Hours Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo ArmstrongWe Belong Together from “Toy Story 3\” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Another Year – Written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter – Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception – Written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right – Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart BlumbergThe King ‘s Speech -Screenplay by David Seidler
Nobody expected this. There was no advance notice. There were no empty promises. There is no turning back: the future of motorsports began for Porsche in 2010. After several races we could well say: mission accomplished, theory substantiated. But that’s not enough for us. Our most important finding: Sports car can do more. Porsche is continuing to extend its performance and high efficiency competence via intensive development work in the field of technology. With the Porsche 918 spyder, the manufacturer of sporty premium vehicles is presenting a high-end synthesis of 2010\’s successful concepts. The two-seater mid-engine coupé 918 is transferred to a modern, innovative super sports car. The 3.4 litre V8 engine (500 hp/370 kW) is a development of the engine used in the RS Spyder Le Mans Prototype racing car. This is supplemented by three electric motors delivering an additional 218 horsepower (163 kW). The transmission is a 7-speed gearbox coupled to Porsche\’s own (PDK) double clutch system delivering power to the rear axle. This gives the 918 Spyder a 0–100 km/h time in just under 3.2 seconds and a top speed of over 320 kilometres per hour (200 mph). The energy storage system is a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery positioned behind the passenger cell. In addition to the plug-in recharge the batteries can also be charged by regenerative braking and by excess output from the engine when the car is coasting. CO2 emissions are 70 g/km and fuel consumption is 3 L/100 km (94 imperial mpg/78 us mpg). | 2023-08-15T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/4885 |
#ifndef __EVENTLOOPTHREADPOOL_H
#define __EVENTLOOPTHREADPOOL_H
#include <boost/ptr_container/ptr_vector.hpp>
#include <vector>
namespace jmuduo
{
namespace net
{
class EventLoopThread;
class EventLoop;
class EventLoopThreadPool
{
public:
EventLoopThreadPool(EventLoop* loop);
~EventLoopThreadPool();
void setNumThread(int numThreads) { numThreads_ = numThreads;}
void start();
EventLoop* getNextLoop();
private:
EventLoop* baseloop_;
bool started_;
int nextId_;
int numThreads_;
std::vector<EventLoop*> loops_;
boost::ptr_vector<EventLoopThread> threads_;
};
}
}
#endif | 2024-01-10T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1092 |
MAX JOHNSON
Heart transplant patient was instrumental in changing organ donation rules. Max’s Law will save up to 700 lives a year
Max was eight when he was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a crippling disease that affects the heart muscle.Doctors implanted an electric pump to keep him alive in the short term, but told his parents the previously healthy schoolboy would die without a transplant. Mum Emma, 48, from Cheshire, says: “It was in 2016 Max started to show signs he wasn’t very well, but we didn’t know what was wrong. Doctors thought it was asthma – he was coughing and lost weight.”As Max deteriorated, the condition was diagnosed and he was sent to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, home to one of Britain’s leading transplant units, where he was placed on the urgent transplant list.Emma says: “It was absolutely awful. To be told it was asthma at first, to then be taken into a side room and told it was his heart and he had a third of a chance of getting better, a third of a chance of needing a heart transplant and a third of a chance of dying. It was horrendous.”Max was on the list from January until August 2017. During that time he decided to share his story and support a campaign in favour of an opt-out donation system, so consent to donate organs is presumed.Dad Paul, 45, says: “Max put a very compelling personal front to the campaign. To him, it’s a black and white viewpoint. His opinion was ‘why wouldn’t I want to help?’. Max knew five children in the same position who did not make it. To be faced with his mortality and that of other children at such a young age can have a profound impact.“So he wanted to be a part of it if it could stop it from happening. I feel unbelievably proud of him.”By August last year, Max was desperately ill.Emma adds: “By this point, his heart was so enlarged you could see it beating through his chest. His resting heart rate was very fast.“His sternum bone became deformed because his heart became so big, it pushed it out. It shows you how much pressure was going on inside his chest.”Then they were told that a heart was available. Keira Ball, nine, had died in a crash that left her mother seriously injured. Her father gave consent for her heart to be donated.Max had his lifesaving transplant last August and, as he recovered, continued to campaign. Thousands of people signed a petition backing the change, and MPs passed a Private Members’ Bill in February. In August, Prime Minister Theresa May declared that Max’s Law will be on the statute books by 2020.She told him: “When I read your inspirational story, I knew I had to act to change the organ donation rules. While it will have to have a bit of a boring title when it goes through Parliament, I and my government will call it Max’s Law.” | 2024-03-31T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/2772 |
/**
* Copyright (C) 2001-2020 by RapidMiner and the contributors
*
* Complete list of developers available at our web site:
*
* http://rapidminer.com
*
* This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
* GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3
* of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without
* even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
* Affero General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program.
* If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
*/
package com.rapidminer.gui.flow.processrendering.view.actions;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import com.rapidminer.gui.RapidMinerGUI;
import com.rapidminer.gui.flow.processrendering.model.ProcessRendererModel;
import com.rapidminer.gui.flow.processrendering.view.ProcessRendererView;
import com.rapidminer.gui.tools.ResourceAction;
import com.rapidminer.operator.Operator;
/**
* Deletes either a selected connection or {@link Operator}.
*
* @author Simon Fischer
* @since 6.4.0
*
*/
public class DeleteSelectedConnectionAction extends ResourceAction {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private ProcessRendererView view;
public DeleteSelectedConnectionAction(ProcessRendererView view) {
super("delete_selected_connection");
this.view = view;
}
@Override
public void loggedActionPerformed(final ActionEvent e) {
ProcessRendererModel model = view.getModel();
if (model.getSelectedConnectionSource() != null) {
if (model.getSelectedConnectionSource().isConnected()) {
model.getSelectedConnectionSource().disconnect();
}
model.setSelectedConnectionSource(null);
model.fireMiscChanged();
} else {
// try to delete selected annotation
if (model.getSelectedOperators().size() == 1
&& model.getSelectedOperators().get(0).equals(model.getDisplayedChain())) {
if (RapidMinerGUI.getMainFrame().getProcessPanel().getAnnotationsHandler().isActive()) {
RapidMinerGUI.getMainFrame().getProcessPanel().getAnnotationsHandler().deleteSelected();
}
}
for (Operator selectedOperator : model.getSelectedOperators()) {
// don't delete if we have selected surrounding operator in subprocess so the whole
// subprocess would get deleted
if (selectedOperator.equals(model.getDisplayedChain())) {
return;
}
}
RapidMinerGUI.getMainFrame().getActions().DELETE_OPERATOR_ACTION.actionPerformed(e);
model.setConnectingPortSource(null);
model.fireMiscChanged();
}
}
}
| 2023-12-08T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9836 |
The 2017 European champion, who has wins at Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders and this year’s Gent-Wevelgem, entered the race after falling ill during Hammer Stavanger last weekend. However, poor health was not the only hurdle the 31-year-old had to overcome on the day.
“We were actually in a bit of trouble with 20km to go,” Kristoff explained to Eurosport. “The whole team got dropped in the crosswinds and had to struggle quite a lot to get back. I was a bit worried that me and my team used too much energy.
“Sven [Bystrøm] and [Roberto] Ferrari did awesome work to put me in a very good position and at the end I had enough legs to take the sprint, so I am very pleased with that,” continued the three-time Tour de France stage winner, who is in the midst of preparations for his seventh straight Tour start in July.
" To take yellow is a bonus because it was depending on how Boasson Hagen did in the [intermediate] sprints."
“He tried early and I think he paid a little bit at the end. For me I timed it quite well, and I managed to win, so I am very happy and proud.”
Aside from Kristoff’s win, one of the more intriguing moments of the race came off a two-man attack on the second of two categorised climbs at the 97-kilometre mark of the 159.7km race.
“I just wanted to join the moves today on the climb,” Hirschi told Eurosport after his near-60km breakaway effort. “I know it gets very difficult with the flatter final. At the end, I grabbed only three seconds, but if you never try, you never win. I just tried, and I hope the legs are still good tomorrow and I can try again.”
When asked if this marks the first of more showdowns to come with Evenepoel, Hirschi was wishfully optimistic.
“I really hope there are more battles for us in the future,” he said. “I am really looking forward to it.”
The Tour of Norway concludes on Sunday with a 175.1km sprint stage from Gran to Hønefoss. | 2024-03-10T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7102 |
New Delhi: Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday dared the Congress to come clean on the VVIP chopper deal with AgustaWestland deal after an Italian court observed that it was “proven” that illegal money had made their way to Indian officials.
“Now that bribe-givers have been convicted, what should happen to the bribe-takers? Will Mr. (former defence minister A.K.) Antony publicly give a statement on this? Will he accept that his partymen are involved in the scam?” he said.
Senior Congress leader Antony was defence minister when the VVIP helicopter deal with Italy-based firm AgustaWestland was being finalised and sealed in February 2010 during the United Progressive Alliance government.
In a 225-page judgment, a judge at the Milan Court of Appeals found that bribe was paid by the firm to Indian officials to get the $530 million contract for the supply of 12 AW101 choppers.
The Indian government, however, cancelled the deal in 2013 when a controversy over the deal emerged with the arrest of Agusta’s parent organisation Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi by Italian authorities.
For all the latest National News, download NewsX App | 2024-02-13T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/4445 |
module FastJsonapi
class Relationship
attr_reader :owner, :key, :name, :id_method_name, :record_type, :object_method_name, :object_block, :serializer, :relationship_type, :cached, :polymorphic, :conditional_proc, :transform_method, :links, :meta, :lazy_load_data
def initialize(
owner:,
key:,
name:,
id_method_name:,
record_type:,
object_method_name:,
object_block:,
serializer:,
relationship_type:,
cached: false,
polymorphic:,
conditional_proc:,
transform_method:,
links:,
meta:,
lazy_load_data: false
)
@owner = owner
@key = key
@name = name
@id_method_name = id_method_name
@record_type = record_type
@object_method_name = object_method_name
@object_block = object_block
@serializer = serializer
@relationship_type = relationship_type
@cached = cached
@polymorphic = polymorphic
@conditional_proc = conditional_proc
@transform_method = transform_method
@links = links || {}
@meta = meta || {}
@lazy_load_data = lazy_load_data
@record_types_for = {}
@serializers_for_name = {}
end
def serialize(record, included, serialization_params, output_hash)
if include_relationship?(record, serialization_params)
empty_case = relationship_type == :has_many ? [] : nil
output_hash[key] = {}
output_hash[key][:data] = ids_hash_from_record_and_relationship(record, serialization_params) || empty_case unless lazy_load_data && !included
add_meta_hash(record, serialization_params, output_hash) if meta.present?
add_links_hash(record, serialization_params, output_hash) if links.present?
end
end
def fetch_associated_object(record, params)
return FastJsonapi.call_proc(object_block, record, params) unless object_block.nil?
record.send(object_method_name)
end
def include_relationship?(record, serialization_params)
if conditional_proc.present?
FastJsonapi.call_proc(conditional_proc, record, serialization_params)
else
true
end
end
def serializer_for(record, serialization_params)
# TODO: Remove this, dead code...
if @static_serializer
@static_serializer
elsif polymorphic
name = polymorphic[record.class] if polymorphic.is_a?(Hash)
name ||= record.class.name
serializer_for_name(name)
elsif serializer.is_a?(Proc)
FastJsonapi.call_proc(serializer, record, serialization_params)
elsif object_block
serializer_for_name(record.class.name)
else
# TODO: Remove this, dead code...
raise "Unknown serializer for object #{record.inspect}"
end
end
def static_serializer
initialize_static_serializer unless @initialized_static_serializer
@static_serializer
end
def static_record_type
initialize_static_serializer unless @initialized_static_serializer
@static_record_type
end
private
def ids_hash_from_record_and_relationship(record, params = {})
initialize_static_serializer unless @initialized_static_serializer
return ids_hash(fetch_id(record, params), @static_record_type) if @static_record_type
return unless associated_object = fetch_associated_object(record, params)
if associated_object.respond_to? :map
return associated_object.map do |object|
id_hash_from_record object, params
end
end
id_hash_from_record associated_object, params
end
def id_hash_from_record(record, params)
associated_record_type = record_type_for(record, params)
id_hash(record.public_send(id_method_name), associated_record_type)
end
def ids_hash(ids, record_type)
return ids.map { |id| id_hash(id, record_type) } if ids.respond_to? :map
id_hash(ids, record_type) # ids variable is just a single id here
end
def id_hash(id, record_type, default_return = false)
if id.present?
{ id: id.to_s, type: record_type }
else
default_return ? { id: nil, type: record_type } : nil
end
end
def fetch_id(record, params)
if object_block.present?
object = FastJsonapi.call_proc(object_block, record, params)
return object.map { |item| item.public_send(id_method_name) } if object.respond_to? :map
return object.try(id_method_name)
end
record.public_send(id_method_name)
end
def add_links_hash(record, params, output_hash)
output_hash[key][:links] = if links.is_a?(Symbol)
record.public_send(links)
else
links.each_with_object({}) do |(key, method), hash|
Link.new(key: key, method: method).serialize(record, params, hash)
end
end
end
def add_meta_hash(record, params, output_hash)
output_hash[key][:meta] = if meta.is_a?(Proc)
FastJsonapi.call_proc(meta, record, params)
else
meta
end
end
def run_key_transform(input)
if transform_method.present?
input.to_s.send(*transform_method).to_sym
else
input.to_sym
end
end
def initialize_static_serializer
return if @initialized_static_serializer
@static_serializer = compute_static_serializer
@static_record_type = compute_static_record_type
@initialized_static_serializer = true
end
def compute_static_serializer
if polymorphic
# polymorphic without a specific serializer --
# the serializer is determined on a record-by-record basis
nil
elsif serializer.is_a?(Symbol) || serializer.is_a?(String)
# a serializer was explicitly specified by name -- determine the serializer class
serializer_for_name(serializer)
elsif serializer.is_a?(Proc)
# the serializer is a Proc to be executed per object -- not static
nil
elsif serializer
# something else was specified, e.g. a specific serializer class -- return it
serializer
elsif object_block
# an object block is specified without a specific serializer --
# assume the objects might be different and infer the serializer by their class
nil
else
# no serializer information was provided -- infer it from the relationship name
serializer_name = name.to_s
serializer_name = serializer_name.singularize if relationship_type.to_sym == :has_many
serializer_for_name(serializer_name)
end
end
def serializer_for_name(name)
@serializers_for_name[name] ||= owner.serializer_for(name)
end
def record_type_for(record, serialization_params)
# if the record type is static, return it
return @static_record_type if @static_record_type
# if not, use the record type of the serializer, and memoize the transformed version
serializer = serializer_for(record, serialization_params)
@record_types_for[serializer] ||= run_key_transform(serializer.record_type)
end
def compute_static_record_type
if polymorphic
nil
elsif record_type
run_key_transform(record_type)
elsif @static_serializer
run_key_transform(@static_serializer.record_type)
end
end
end
end
| 2023-08-04T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1679 |
The general capital implantation into state-run banks from FY15 to FY19 is around Rs 2.56 trillion. In FY19 alone, the legislature had infused an absolute store of Rs 1.06 trillion in PSBs to empower them to leave the RBI's brief remedial activity (PCA) structure yet in addition make accessible the important assets to continue their loaning exercises. The point was to empower banks to lessen their net NPAs beneath the PCA edge of 6 percent, just as accomplish administrative capital ampleness proportions. | 2023-09-01T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7491 |
“TYCONIST” is the debut solo album of TAKUYA. Self-described as a Singer Song Japanese Drummer (SSJD), TAKUYA is a unique musician who combines his talents as a Japanese Taico player and singer. This fusion of musical skills has earned him national and international acclaim, having recently found a second home in Munich, Germany since 2011. Since this time, he has formed the “World Percussion Ensemble,” an international group including percussionists from Brazil and Africa, in addition to his “Drumaturgia,” a duo with a German percussionist, where he deploys his electronic Japanese Taico technique. He has also recently released an album entitled “YUJOU” (“Friendship”) with German avant-garde pianist, Walter Lang. TAKUYA speaks of Lang as “someone who gave me an opportunity to think myself to be a professional musician.” Needless to say, TAKUYA is a player who is actively exploring new forms of expression with the traditional percussion style embodied by Japanese Taico.
Originally, Japanese Taico was a rarity for Japanese listeners, limited to Shinto or Buddhist affiliated Bon festival dances. However, the style has slowly risen to popularity since the 1970s. Thanks to groups such as ONDEKOZA, formed in Sado Island in 1971, and subsequently KODO, comprised of some originating members of ONDEKOZA and formed in 1981, Japanese Taico became a popular style heard throughout Japan. Through their efforts as solo artists, Eitetsu Hayashi (founding member of ONDEKOZA and KODO) and Leonard Eto (member of KODO) have proven to influence listeners and musicians alike, furthering the popularity of the traditional style. Now 31 years of age, TAKUYA has had the fortune to have learned from and studied with these pioneering artists, in addition to training under the acclaimed group, EITETSU FU-UN no KAI. Heralded as a shining beacon in the next generation of Japanese Taico musicians, TAKUYA reveals his expertise and maturity in his solo debut album, “TYCONIST.”
The musical foundation of “TYCONIST” is most evidently TENRYU-DAIKO, the traditional Taico style of his hometown EIHENJI-CHO (formerly MATSUOKA-CHO), YOSHIDA-GUN, FUKUI. TENRYU-DAIKO is said to have been inspired by a dream had by Masakatsu Matsudaira, a Japanese daimyo from the Edo period (ca. 300 years ago) in the Fukui Domain. In this dream, a dragon danced to the sound of drumming. From then on to the present day, this style is played in the summer GOZOU festival for the purpose of prayer, for health and prosperity for the town. At only 3 years of age, TAKUYA started to play in the TENRYU-DAIKO, perfecting the style for the following 10 years. This experience earned TAKUYA the opportunity to join EITETSU FU-UN no KAI, a decision that allowed him to become professional Japanese Taico player. TAKUYA describes his experience with EITETSU HAYASHI as having “learned a lot from him, of course in terms of musical expression, but also as a performer, persistency to sound, the way to deal with the instrument, how to act on stage, etc.”
However, TAKUYA’s musical education was not limited to Japanese Taico, with the artist claiming his avid interest in Japanese pop music, as well as western pop artists including Queen, Rod Stewart, Chicago, Buddy Rich, and Steve Gadd. In particular, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” proved particularly influential during his grade-school years. These influences became evident in his playing after his time with EITETSU FU-UN no KAI, when he had the freedom to experiment with different musical styles and musicians. During this period, TAKUYA was fortunate to encounter YUKIHIRO ISSO, a bond that has proven to be particularly important for his evolution as a musician. As a NOKAN player, ISSO also has a history of playing traditional styles, such as Noh and Kabuki, as well as a shared interest in non-traditional styles, experimenting with the fusion of Japanese traditional music with rock, jazz, and others. In fact, it is through this affiliation that TAKUYA first met bassist MITSURU NASUNO, guitarist, NATSUKI KIDO, and violinist, AKIHISA TSUBOY, all musicians to appear on “TYCONIST”.
Due to his careful attention to detail and deep knowledge of many styles of music–not to mention his completeness as a musician (accomplished composer, arranger, keyboardist, producer)–it should be no surprise that TAKUYA has chosen HOPPY KAMIYAMA to produce this album. Highlights of HOPPY’s career include his role as Music Director of original dance piece “KAGUYA”, produced by The Japanese Classical Dance Association and original music compositions for western instruments associated with Japanese instruments, including Shamisen, Shakuhachi, Taico, and Nokan. Attracted to the Hachijo-Daiko style, HOPPY was drawn to and now lives on Hachijo Island, where he works and practices the ancient local Taico style. With “TYCONIST”, TAKUYA said “I want to make a previously unheard Japanese Taico CD.” Given HOPPY’s fascination with traditional Taico music and non-traditional music, it is clear that TAKUYA has chosen the most appropriate producer/arranger for this exciting new album. Speaking of the opportunity, HOPPY wanted “to form new musical environments than previous collaborations between traditional Japanese musicians and those in the Rock and Jazz idioms. Of course, it is necessary to use TAKUYA’s skill and character as a Japanese Taico player to the fullest extent, but he must surpass this hurdle from the start. To differentiate himself from others in the field, not after a series of albums, I think it is necessary to make great strides. My strategy is to throw new things at him, things he’s never experienced.” | 2023-12-06T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/6388 |
Immunomodulatory effects of glycine on LPS-treated monocytes: reduced TNF-alpha production and accelerated IL-10 expression.
Cytokines play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of septic shock. Proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) stimulate the progression of septic shock whereas the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 has counterregulative potency. The amino acid glycine (GLY) has been shown to protect against endotoxin shock in the rat by inhibiting TNF-alpha production. In the current study we investigated the role of GLY on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) -induced cell surface marker expression, phagocytosis, and cytokine production on purified monocytes from healthy donors. GLY did not modulate the expression of HLA-DR and CD64 on monocytes, whereas CD11b/CD18 expression (P<0.05) and E. coli phagocytosis (P<0.05) decreased significantly. GLY decreased LPS-induced TNF-alpha production (P<0.01) and increased IL-10 expression of purified monocytes. Similarly, in a whole blood assay, GLY reduced TNF-alpha (P<0.0001) and IL-1beta (P<0.0001) synthesis and increased IL-10 expression (P<0.05) in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibitory effects of GLY were neutralized by strychnine, and the production of IL-10 and TNF-alpha was augmented by anti-IL-10 antibodies. Furthermore, GLY decreased the amount of IL-1beta and TNF-alpha-specific mRNA. Our data indicate that GLY has a potential to be used as an additional immunomodulatory tool in the early phase of sepsis and in different pathophysiological situations related to hypoxia and reperfusion. | 2023-08-05T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/5218 |
Industrial differences in female fertility treatment rates--a new approach to assess differences related to occupation?
Infertility is highly prevalent and 16-26% of women trying to achieve a pregnancy experience infertility in one or more periods. Several exposures in the work environment have been hypothesized to affect female reproduction. This study aimed to estimate relative rates (RR) of female fertility treatment in the 57 industrial groups in Denmark. The closed cohort of all 20-39 year old economically active women in Denmark by January 2001 (n = 567,816) were followed-up for hospital contacts due to infertility from 2001 to 2005 as registered in the Danish Occupational Hospital Register. Age-standardized relative rates for being diagnosed as infertile were estimated by industry. Further standardization with respect to socioeconomic status was also performed. In total, 12,575 women were diagnosed with infertility during the follow-up period. Three industries presented with statistically significant elevations in age-standardized RRs: hospitals (RR = 1.27, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.20-1.35), general and dental practice (RR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.02-1.35) and other health care (RR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.09-1.41). Standardization for socioeconomic status rendered two industries that were statistically significantly elevated: manufacture of wood and wood products (RR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.02-1.42) and hospitals (RR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.10-1.24). Interpretation of the results is complex, since the relative contributions to the observed inequalities of the work environment and, for example, differences in inclination to start a family or in proneness to seek treatment are difficult to resolve. Withstanding shortcomings and limitations, register data of fertility treatment offers a possibility to suggest industries for further investigation of reproductive health. | 2023-10-30T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9534 |
Stories this photo appears in:
Theresa Tyree, Eudora, got a phone call no one ever wants to receive. On Friday afternoon, while at work, she learned her husband of more than 31 years was involved in an accident at a construction site. | 2023-10-09T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1924 |
The impermeant ion methylammonium blocks K+ and NH4+ currents through KAT1 channel differently: evidence for ion interaction in channel permeation.
The permeation properties of KAT1, an inward rectifying potassium channel from plant cells, were investigated with different ions in the external medium. With either K+, NH4+ or methylammonium (MA) in the external solution, the channel, expressed in Xenopus oocytes, appeared permeable to K+ and, to a lesser extent, to NH4+ but not to the slightly bigger, methylated analogue of NH4+, MA. Substituting NH4+ for K+ shifted the voltage dependency of channel activation further negative and hastened activation kinetics. This suggests that channel operation depends on the transported substrate. In mixed solution (50 mM K+, 50 mM MA) MA inhibited K+ current in a voltage-independent manner. The maximum block did not exceed 50% of the K+ current. In contrast, when NH4+ was the permeant ion (50 mM NH4+, 50 mM MA) MA caused a voltage-dependent, slowly developing open channel block, achieving complete inhibition at very negative voltages. The latter block could be partially overcome by the addition of K+ in the external solution. The data support a model in which ions, after entering the channel pore, compete with different affinities for binding sites on their permeation pathway. | 2024-01-02T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8610 |
<refentry xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
xmlns:src="http://nwalsh.com/xmlns/litprog/fragment"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="5.0" xml:id="man.indent.lists">
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>man.indent.lists</refentrytitle>
<refmiscinfo class="other" otherclass="datatype">boolean</refmiscinfo>
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<refname>man.indent.lists</refname>
<refpurpose>Adjust indentation of lists?</refpurpose>
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<refsynopsisdiv>
<src:fragment xml:id="man.indent.lists.frag">
<xsl:param name="man.indent.lists" select="1"/></src:fragment>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsection><info><title>Description</title></info>
<para>If the value of <parameter>man.indent.lists</parameter> is
non-zero, the width of the left margin for list items in
<tag>itemizedlist</tag>,
<tag>orderedlist</tag>,
<tag>variablelist</tag> output (and output of some other
lists) is set to the value of the
<parameter>man.indent.width</parameter> parameter
(<literal>4n</literal> by default). If instead the value of
<parameter>man.indent.lists</parameter> is zero, the built-in roff
default width (<literal>7.2n</literal>) is used.</para>
</refsection>
</refentry>
| 2024-07-31T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9679 |
Q:
While Loop in PHP, inside a shell script
If I have a PHP script written in PHP file that has a while loop, I make a shell script (say test.sh) and tell the shell script to run the php file.
Now If I do sh test.sh within a Linux terminal on an EC2 instance, and I close the terminal, does the php script keep on running? (remember I have a while loop inside the PHP file)
A:
No start the script in a screen.
install the screen programm. Then you can start your script with &
sh test.sh &
then your script is running in background.
Edit: Answer only run a cron/script once
Bash Script run only once
| 2024-01-09T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/2706 |
A specific attentional bias in panic disorder?
According to cognitive theories, panic patients are assumed to have an attentional bias toward bodily sensations. To date, there is only some indirect evidence of such a bias measured by an emotional Stroop task. Moreover, the content and disorder specificity of this bias is rather unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the specificity of attentional bias in patients with panic disorder (PD). Patients with PD (n=32), patients with mixed anxiety disorders (n=25), and a healthy control group (n=26) performed an emotional Stroop task with three word types: panic threat, general threat, and neutral. There were no differences on reaction times between the different groups, or on the different word types. Despite the generally accepted existence of attentional biases in anxiety disorders, we found no evidence of a specific attentional bias in patients with PD. | 2023-12-13T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/3867 |
Turkey rhinotracheitis virus and Escherichia coli experimental infection in chickens: histopathological, immunocytochemical and microbiological study.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the response of chickens to a combined infection with turkey rhinotracheitis virus (TRTV) and Escherichia coli O78:K80. Groups of specific-pathogen-free chickens were inoculated by eyedrop and intranasal routes with TRTV and/or E. coli O78:K80. Presence of E. coli O78:K80, histopathological changes and tissue distribution of viral antigen in the respiratory tract of chickens were evaluated. Dual infection resulted in increased severity of clinical signs, and macroscopic and microscopic lesions compared with those groups given single infections. All 36 chickens inoculated with TRTV plus E. coli O78:K80 showed severe rhinitis. Moreover, periorbital edema and fibrinous airsacculitis and pericarditis were observed in one of the three chickens inoculated with both agents and sacrificed at day 5 p.i. In addition, purulent material in the air spaces of the cranial bones was seen in three of the six animals from the same group sacrificed at days 5 and 7 p.i. The distribution of viral antigen in tissues was similar in groups inoculated with TRTV and TRTV plus E. coli, but viral antigen was detected only in main bronchi of chickens from the latter group. The quantity of E. coli O78:K80 isolated from the nasal cavity was greater in the group given dual infection. The results obtained suggest that TRTV may act as primary agent, enhancing E. coli multiplication. The lesions observed in the group inoculated with both agents could correspond to an initial stage of swollen head syndrome (SHS) and contribute to the hypothesis that SHS could be due to a mixed infection with TRTV and E. coli. | 2024-06-30T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/5857 |
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You and your home deserve Ship Shape service from dedicated Maryland plumbers, drain cleaning and home heating and air conditioner repair techs, Get It Done Today – 301-683-7080. | 2024-01-14T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9664 |
Q:
Java returning object
I'm creating a program that makes and modifies integer sets
Here is my code:
public class IntSet{
private final int MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE=2000;
private boolean [] data = new boolean[MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE+1];
public IntSet(int... elts) {
for(int iteration = 0; iteration < elts.length; iteration++) {
if(elts[iteration] <= MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE)
data[elts[iteration]] = true;
}
}
public IntSet(IntSet source){
System.arraycopy(source.data, 0, this.data, 0, MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE);
}
public void setTo(IntSet source){
System.arraycopy(source.data, 0, this.data, 0, MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE);
}
public void insertElement(int element){
data[element] = true;
}
public void deleteElement(int element){
data[element] = false;
}
public boolean hasElement(int element){
if(data[element] == true)
return true;
else
return false;
}
public boolean equals(IntSet other){
for(int iteration = 0; iteration < MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE; iteration++) {
if(data[iteration] == other.data[iteration]) {
} else {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
public String toString() {
String output = "{";
for(int iteration = 0; iteration < MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE; iteration++) {
if(data[iteration] == true)
output += (iteration + ", ");
}
output += "}";
return output;
}
I'm struggling with my subtract function: The subtract function forms a new set that is equal to the first set, except that any element from the second set is removed. I know to I need to return an object, but I'm not sure how to. Any help is appreciated.
public IntSet subtract(IntSet other) {
for(int iteration = 0; iteration < MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE; iteration++) {
if(data[iteration] == true && other.data[iteration] == true) {
other.data[iteration] = false;
}
if(data[iteration] == true && other.data[iteration] == false) {
other.data[iteration] = true;
}
}
System.arraycopy(other.data, 0, this.data, 0, MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE);
}
public int getUpperLimit(){
return MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE;
}
}
A:
Your subtract method can be implemented like this:
Create a copy of your current object. Call this newSet.
If other set contains an element, set that newSet element to false, which essentially "removes" that element from newSet.
Return newSet.
The code would be like this:
public IntSet subtract(IntSet other) {
IntSet newSet = new IntSet (this);
for(int iteration = 0; iteration < MAXALLOWEDSETVALUE; iteration++) {
if(other.data[iteration]) {
newSet.data[iteration] = false;
}
}
return newSet;
}
Hope this helps!
| 2023-12-11T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1195 |
Removal of sialic acid alters both T- and L-type calcium currents in cardiac myocytes.
The whole cell configuration of the patch-clamp technique was used to test the hypothesis that the presence of sialic acid residues influences both T- and L-type Ca2+ currents (ICa,T and ICa,L) in cultured pacemaker cells isolated from the rabbit sinoatrial node. Removal of these anionic sugar moieties by neuraminidase (1.0 U/ml for 5-20 min) increased ICa,T in five of nine cells (by a factor of 2.2-5.1) and ICa,L in three of six cells (by a factor of 1.2-1.6). In cells that did not exhibit such an increase, the enzyme reduced ICa,T but had no significant effect on ICa,L. In cells that exhibited an increase in ICa,T, exposure to neuraminidase also shifted the activation curve to more negative potentials and increased the slope of the inactivation curve. The enzyme did not influence the gating of ICa,L or the rates of inactivation of either ICa,T or ICa,L. The enhancement of ICa,T and ICa,L could not be mimicked by including neuraminidase in the patch pipette or by adding a contaminant of the enzyme preparation, phospholipase C, to the bath. When external Ca2+ was replaced by Ba2+, neither ICa,T nor ICa,L was increased significantly by neuraminidase. It is proposed that by removing sialic acid residues neuraminidase might directly alter the gating of T-type Ca2+ channels. On the other hand, the increased amplitudes of ICa,T and ICa,L might be due to a rise in intracellular Ca2+. | 2023-09-08T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/8552 |
Washington (CNN) The Department of Justice asked the chairman and vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for "additional time" to collect evidence to support President Donald Trump's accusation that the Obama administration wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower during the campaign.
The committee had set a Monday deadline for the agency to provide the evidence, a source familiar with the matter has told CNN -- a deadline that did not appear to apply to the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation.
Senate panel Chairman Richard Burr told CNN, "I've talked to all the appropriate people," adding later that he has received "sufficient" responses about the wiretapping claim.
"I would say from our conversations, what we've gotten are sufficient answers," the North Carolina Republican said.
Burr would not say if there was any evidence backing Trump's claim.
The source told CNN over the weekend that the House committee had sent letters throughout the intelligence community this week to obtain records related to Russia, which the Justice Department responded to Monday evening.
"This afternoon, the Department of Justice placed calls to representatives of the chairman and ranking member of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to ask for additional time to review the request in compliance with the governing legal authorities and to determine what if any responsive documents may exist," Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement.
A spokesman for Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, suggested the panel may subpoena the administration if their questions go unanswered.
"The Department of Justice has asked for more time to comply with the House Intelligence Committee's request for information related to possible surveillance of Donald Trump or his associates during the election campaign," Nunes spokesman Jack Langer said in a statement. "We have asked the department to provide us this information before the committee's open hearing scheduled for March 20. If the committee does not receive a response by then, the committee will ask for this information during the March 20 hearing and may resort to a compulsory process if our questions continue to go unanswered."
In the upper chamber, senators on the intelligence panel say they've asked officials to provide evidence of Trump's wiretapping claims. They suggest there wasn't a Monday deadline -- as the House committee has requested.
Asked if he has imposed a deadline the way the House panel did, Burr said: "The House operates differently than I do."
Burr also said it's possible former Trump associates could be hauled before his committee, adding that Trump confidante Roger Stone's contacts with "Guccifer 2.0" is "part of an ongoing investigation." The Guccifer 2.0 persona, who claimed credit for hacking the Democratic National Committee's emails, was identified by the US intelligence community as a front for Russian intelligence.
Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who also made a request to the Justice Department alongside fellow Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, said he hasn't heard back from the agency.
"I'm getting very ill-tempered over this," the South Carolina senator told reporters. "I expect them to take some time, but Judiciary has control over the FBI--oversight. So I have said, OK, let's keep the committee process in place, regular order, so if the FBI runs over to the Intel committee and they testify there, and they don't respond to my letter, I think that's a mistake, because the FBI is under our jurisdiction."
Graham said he'll give "them a little more time" but warned that (FBI Director James) Comey ought to respond to the letter.
"You'll run afoul of the Judiciary Committee. If I were you, I wouldn't do that," he said. "Director Comey, trying to give you a little advice here."
allegations, first made more than a week ago. Sunday night, Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to the President, appeared to expand the allegations by Trump has not publicly provided any evidence for his wiretappingallegations, first made more than a week ago. Sunday night, Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to the President, appeared to expand the allegations by suggesting to the Bergen Record there could have been even wider spying of the Trump campaign, including the use of microwaves and television sets. Like the President, however, she did not provide any evidence, and later said she was speaking generally about surveillance.
Former President Barack Obama has denied the allegations through a spokesman, and his former director of national intelligence, James Clapper, also has publicly denied them. Sources have told CNN that Comey also pushed back against Trump's claim.
As Congress' deadline looms, calls for Trump to produce evidence have grown louder, including by some in his own party.
"The President has one of two choices: either retract or provide the information that the American people deserve," Sen. John McCain told CNN's Jake Tapper Sunday on "State of the Union." "I have no reason to believe that the charge is true, but I also believe that the President of the United States could clear this up in a minute."
Two congressmen privy to sensitive intelligence information said this weekend that they, too, had no information currently to support Trump's claims.
The House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, said on ABC's "This Week": "I don't expect we'll see evidence of this."
And House Speaker Paul Ryan, asked directly on CBS News' "Face the Nation" if he had seen evidence of the wiretaps, said: "No."
Conway said Sunday that "surveillance" could go beyond the tapping of phones.
"What I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other," Conway told the Record. "You can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets — any number of ways."
She went on to allege that the spying could have been done with "microwaves that turn into cameras," adding: "We know this is a fact of modern life."
Conway also reiterated Trump's request that an investigation into the wiretapping claims be included into a congressional investigation into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 election.
Pressed on CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day" Monday morning about her comments to the Record, Conway said she was speaking about "surveilling generally."
"Chris, I'm not Inspector Gadget. I don't believe people are using the microwave to spy on the Trump campaign," Conway told CNN. "However, I have -- I'm not in the job of having evidence. That's what investigations are for. I've said many, many times throughout the week that the president is pleased that the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have agreed with him that this should be part of the investigation that already exists about Russia and the campaign, an investigation that apparently has gone nowhere so far."
She later tweeted that the Record's headline -- "Kellyanne Conway suggests even wider surveillance of Trump campaign" -- was "just wrong."
"Response to Bergen Record was about surveillance articles in news & techniques generally, not about campaign. Headline just wrong," Conway said.
This story has been updated. | 2023-08-26T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1459 |
SAN FRANCISCO:
Inc is on the hunt for other Cambridge Analytica-sized data leaks, and the company warned on Thursday that users and investors might not like what it finds.
In its quarterly report shared with the
(SEC), without mentioning
, Facebook said it expects to discover and announce more "instances of misuse of user data or other undesirable activity by third parties".
"We may also be notified of such incidents or activity via the media or other third parties," Facebook said on Thursday. Either way, "the discovery of the foregoing may negatively affect user trust and engagement, harm our reputation and brands, and adversely affect our business and financial results," the social-media giant said in the filing.
"Such incidents and activities may include the use of user data in a manner inconsistent with our terms or policies, the existence of false or undesirable user accounts, election interference, improper ad purchases, activities that threaten people's safety online or offline, or instances of spamming, scraping, or spreading misinformation," the company said.
This could also expose Facebook to more regulatory risk, fines and penalties, beyond the scrutiny that's already led CEO
to testify to the US Congress, when he told lawmakers that his own personal information was among the data of 87 million users which was "improperly shared" with the British political consultancy firm.
Also read:
The data was gathered via a quiz app, "thisisyourdigitallife", developed by Aleksandr Kogan, then a psychology researcher with University of Cambridge, and his company Global Science Research, and was later passed to Cambridge Analytica without users' consent.
All public companies list potential risks in regulatory filings, often repeating the same ones from quarter to quarter. Facebook updated its risk section as the company audits how outside developers use its social network and cuts off some access to data. The ongoing process is testing Facebook's developer relationships.
The filing came a day after Facebook announced its earnings, passing expectations for sales and user growth, and showing that its advertising machine is so far unscathed. The shares soared. | 2023-12-18T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9299 |
.shadow-cljs
env
scripts
shadow-cljs.edn
src
target
test
| 2023-10-27T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7413 |
Q:
JS: how to add and catch a click event when using charts
I have a JS script that draws charts.
I need to add a click event.
Since the chart has a onHover event, i think it is not a big deal but i can't figure it out;
template detail on theme forrest
on the live version i am trying to catch the click event for this type of chart: LINES CHART WITH FILL & WITHOUT POINTS
var charts = {
// init charts on dashboard
initIndex: function()
{
// init lines chart with fill & without points
this.chart_lines_fill_nopoints.init();
},
// utility class
utility:
{
chartColors: [themerPrimaryColor, "#444", "#777", "#999", "#DDD", "#EEE"],
chartBackgroundColors: ["transparent", "transparent"],
applyStyle: function(that)
{
that.options.colors = charts.utility.chartColors;
that.options.grid.backgroundColor = {colors: charts.utility.chartBackgroundColors};
that.options.grid.borderColor = charts.utility.chartColors[0];
that.options.grid.color = charts.utility.chartColors[0];
},
},
// lines chart with fill & without points
chart_lines_fill_nopoints:
{
// chart data
data:
{
d1: [],
d2: []
},
// will hold the chart object
plot: null,
// chart options
options:
{
grid: {
show: true,
aboveData: true,
color: "#3f3f3f",
labelMargin: 5,
axisMargin: 0,
borderWidth: 0,
borderColor: null,
minBorderMargin: 5,
clickable: true,
hoverable: true,
autoHighlight: true,
mouseActiveRadius: 20,
backgroundColor: {}
},
series: {
grow: {active: false},
lines: {
show: true,
fill: true,
lineWidth: 2,
steps: false
},
points: {show: false}
},
legend: {position: "nw", backgroundColor: null, backgroundOpacity: 0},
yaxis: {min: 0},
xaxis: {ticks: 11, tickDecimals: 0},
colors: [],
shadowSize: 1,
tooltip: true,
tooltipOpts: {
content: "%s : %y.0",
shifts: {
x: -30,
y: -50
},
defaultTheme: false
}
},
// initialize
init: function()
{
$.ajax({
url: $('#url').html() + '/index.php/user/request/loadDashboardChartRequest',
data: {},
success: function(data) {
for (var i in data) {
var dataidx = false;
switch (i) {
case 'delta1':
dataidx = 'd1';
break;
case 'delta2':
dataidx = 'd2';
break;
}
if (dataidx) {
for (var i2 in data[i]) {
charts.chart_lines_fill_nopoints.data[dataidx].push([i2, data[i][i2]]);
}
}
}
charts.utility.applyStyle(charts.chart_lines_fill_nopoints);
charts.chart_lines_fill_nopoints.plot = $.plot(
'#chart_lines_fill_nopoints',
[{
label: "Delta 1 - page loading time",
data: charts.chart_lines_fill_nopoints.data.d1,
lines: {fillColor: "rgba(0,0,0,0.01)"},
points: {fillColor: "#88bbc8"}
},
{
label: "Delta 2 - page + external services loading time",
data: charts.chart_lines_fill_nopoints.data.d2,
lines: {fillColor: "rgba(0,0,0,0.1)"},
points: {fillColor: "#ed7a53"}
}],
charts.chart_lines_fill_nopoints.options);
},
dataType: 'json',
});
}
},
};
A:
I found my answer:
$('#chart_lines_fill_nopoints').bind('plotclick',function(event,pos,item){console.log(1);});
| 2023-11-14T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1705 |
Question
These data count the number of male and female shoppers who accept or reject a discounted offer in return for supplying a retailer with an email address. Consider using these data to test the null hypothesis that gender and acceptance are independent (H0). Find the
(a) Degrees of freedom of x2.
(b) Expected number of women who reject if H0 holds.
(c) Value of x2 for testing H0.
(d) p-value for testing H0. | 2023-11-30T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/4625 |
Q:
How do I make the simplest viewmodel work?
Im trying to understand how to use a viewmodel to bind data to a wpf window but cannot find any simple examples or explanations on how that is achieved.
This is what I have so far:
ViewModel.cs
public class ViewModel
{
public string Info = "Infoo";
}
MainWindow.xaml.cs
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.DataContext = new ViewModel();
}
}
MainWindow.xaml
<Window x:Class="PeopleApp.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:PeopleApp"
mc:Ignorable="d"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Grid>
<TextBox x:Name="textBox" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="23" Margin="212,137,0,0" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding Info}" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120"/>
</Grid>
</Window>
Why does the textbox not show "Infoo"? What am I missing?
Edit:
I've changed the field in the ViewModel to a property, but how do I connect the ViewModel to actual data?
A:
Mistakes in your code:
You need to have property on the VM not the public field.
you need to set the value for the property of VM instance before assigning it to the DataContext of MainWindow
This should work.
MainWindow.xaml
<Window x:Class="PeopleApp.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:PeopleApp"
mc:Ignorable="d"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Grid>
<TextBox x:Name="textBox" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="23" Margin="212,137,0,0" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding Info}" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120"/>
</Grid>
</Window>
MainWindow.xaml.cs
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.DataContext = new ViewModel() { Info = "Infoo" };
}
}
ViewModel.cs
public class ViewModel
{
public string Info { get; set; }
}
| 2024-06-10T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/3878 |
Q:
generic exception handling and return arg on exception
I am trying to create generic exception handler - for where I can set an arg to return in case of exception, inspired from this answer.
import contextlib
@contextlib.contextmanager
def handler(default):
try:
yield
except Exception as e:
yield default
def main():
with handler(0):
return 1 / 0
with handler(0):
return 100 / 0
with handler(0):
return 'helllo + 'cheese'
But this results in
RuntimeError: generator didn't stop after throw()
A:
The main conceptual problem is that you try to make the calling function implicitly return a value from within a called function. To give an example, what you are trying to do is coneptually equivalent to this situation:
def f():
# some magic code here
def g():
f()
And now you want the magic code to make g() return some value. This is never going to work.
Context managers are the wrong tool for this purpose. Consider using a decorator instead.
| 2024-04-24T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/9673 |
The nitric oxide hypothesis of aging.
Nitric oxide (NO), generated by endothelial (e) NO synthase (NOS) and neuronal (n) NOS, plays a ubiquitous role in the body in controlling the function of almost every, if not every, organ system. Bacterial and viral products, such as bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), induce inducible (i) NOS synthesis that produces massive amounts of NO toxic to the invading viruses and bacteria, but also host cells by inactivation of enzymes leading to cell death. The actions of all forms of NOS are mediated not only by the free radical oxidant properties of this soluble gas, but also by its activation of guanylate cyclase (GC), leading to the production of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) that mediates many of its physiological actions. In addition, NO activates cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase, leading to the production of physiologically relevant quantities of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and leukotrienes. In the case of iNOS, the massive release of NO, PGE2, and leukotrienes produces toxic effects. Systemic injection of LPS causes induction of interleukin (IL)-1 beta mRNA followed by IL-beta synthesis that induces iNOS mRNA with a latency of two and four hours, respectively, in the anterior pituitary and pineal glands, meninges, and choroid plexus, regions outside the blood-brain barrier, and shortly thereafter, in hypothalamic regions, such as the temperature-regulating centers, paraventricular nucleus containing releasing and inhibiting hormone neurons, and the arcuate nucleus, a region containing these neurons and axons bound for the median eminence. We are currently determining if LPS similarly activates cytokine and iNOS production in the cardiovascular system and the gonads. Our hypothesis is that recurrent infections over the life span play a significant role in producing aging changes in all systems outside the blood-brain barrier via release of toxic quantities of NO. NO may be a major factor in the development of coronary heart disease (CHD). Considerable evidence has accrued indicating a role for infections in the induction of CHD and, indeed, patients treated with a tetracycline derivative had 10 times less complications of CHD than their controls. Stress, inflammation, and infection have all been shown to cause induction of iNOS in rats, and it is likely that this triad of events is very important in progression of coronary arteriosclerosis leading to coronary occlusion. Aging of the anterior pituitary and pineal with resultant decreased secretion of pituitary hormones and the pineal hormone, melatonin, respectively, may be caused by NO. The induction of iNOS in the temperature-regulating centers by infections may cause the decreased febrile response in the aged by loss of thermosensitive neurons. iNOS induction in the paraventricular nucleus may cause the decreased nocturnal secretion of growth hormone (GH) and prolactin that occurs with age, and its induction in the arcuate nucleus may destroy luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) neurons, thereby leading to decreased release of gonadotropins. Recurrent infections may play a role in aging of other parts of the brain, because there are increased numbers of astrocytes expressing IL-1 beta throughout the brain in aged patients. IL-1 and products of NO activity accumulate around the plaques of Alzheimer's, and may play a role in the progression of the disease. Early onset Parkinsonism following flu encephalitis during World War I was possibly due to induction of iNOS in cells adjacent to substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons leading to death of these cells, which, coupled with ordinary aging fall out, led to Parkinsonism. The central nervous system (CNS) pathology in AIDS patients bears striking resemblance to aging changes, and may also be largely caused by the action of iNOS. Antioxidants, such as melatonin, vitamin C, and vitamin E, probably play an important acute and chronic role in reducing or eliminating the oxidant damage produced by NO. | 2023-11-03T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/1169 |
Today is Women’s Equality Day. Established in the 1970s, the day is meant to commemorate the certification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women in the United States the right to vote.
It’s generated opinion pieces in national media outlets like the Huffington Post and local papers like the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. The writers, usually women’s rights advocates, say it’s a time to remember how far women have come and how much is left to be done.
But does it matter?
August 26 has been Women’s Equality Day for years, and there’s still a massive wage gap between the sexes. Paid maternity leave is still not the law of the land, and the number of women in Congress is still alarmingly and disproportionately low.
Women still face obstacles when it comes to accessing health care -- obstacles that aren’t going away. If anything, they’re getting higher and more numerous.
And top colleges are still failing to adequately connect with high-achieving poor students, particularly when it comes to getting bright girls into fields like science and engineering.
So having a day when activist organizations call on people support might sound good on the surface, but does it have any sort of real impact?
“I do think so,” said Elisabeth MacNamara, president of the League of Women Voters of the United States, who wrote that praising piece in the Huffington Post. “It focuses attention on the progress we’ve made for sure and gives us an opportunity to focus on the work that still needs to be done.”
The League of Women Voters has used the day to remind people to vote and fight voter suppression, MacNamara told Fusion.
The designated day is a reminder to people who aren’t regularly invested in those issues.
“We have to keep working,” she said,
Cynthia Harrison, an associate professor of History, Women’s Studies, and Public Policy at George Washington University, is a little more skeptical.
“I don’t know how we could possibly gauge it,” she said of whether a special day makes a difference.
While she agrees with MacNamara that it can serve as a chance to get the word out that there is still work to do, there’s also the potential for it to be used negatively.
“I think in some respects it could be used as a dodge,” Harrison said, likening it to Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court and subsequent dismissal of his feminist critics by pointing to her as a counterargument.
“I think especially lately there has not been much notice taken” of women’s remaining social and fiscal obstacles, she said.
To have an impact, Women’s Equality Day will have to encourage women to vote and learn about the platforms of the different candidates.
“The focus has to be on turning out women voters who are going to vote for legislators who have women’s interests at heart,” Harrison said.
So far, it’s been slow going.
“I’m not sure if I should place an exclamation point or a question mark at the end of my greeting” for Women’s Equality Day, one activist wrote on Policy Mic’s blog Monday. “Is it appropriate to proclaim women’s equality if we still have miles to go?” | 2024-06-08T01:27:13.970301 | https://example.com/article/7839 |
Complex Event Processing
With the ubiquity of sensor networks and smart devices continuously collecting more and more data, we face the challenge to analyze an ever growing stream of data in near real-time. Being able to react quickly to changing trends or to deliver up to date business intelligence can be a decisive factor for a company’s success or failure. A key problem in real time processing is the detection of event patterns in data streams.
Complex event processing (CEP) addresses exactly this problem of matching continuously incoming events against a pattern. The result of a matching are usually complex events which are derived from the input events. In contrast to traditional DBMSs where a query is executed on stored data, CEP executes data on a stored query. All data which is not relevant for the query can be immediately discarded. The advantages of this approach are obvious, given that CEP queries are applied on a potentially infinite stream of data. Furthermore, inputs are processed immediately. Once the system has seen all events for a matching sequence, results are emitted straight away. This aspect effectively leads to CEP’s real time analytics capability.
Consequently, CEP’s processing paradigm drew significant interest and found application in a wide variety of use cases. Most notably, CEP is used nowadays for financial applications such as stock market trend and credit card fraud detection. Moreover, it is used in RFID-based tracking and monitoring, for example, to detect thefts in a warehouse where items are not properly checked out. CEP can also be used to detect network intrusion by specifying patterns of suspicious user behaviour.
Example:
Monitoring and alert generation for data centers:
Assume we have a data center with a number of racks. For each rack the power consumption and the temperature are monitored. Whenever such a measurement takes place, a new power or temperature event is generated, respectively. Based on this monitoring event stream, we want to detect racks that are about to overheat, and dynamically adapt their workload and cooling.
For this scenario we use a two staged approach. First, we monitor the temperature events. Whenever we see two consecutive events whose temperature exceeds a threshold value, we generate a temperature warning with the current average temperature. A temperature warning does not necessarily indicate that a rack is about to overheat. But whenever we see two consecutive warnings with increasing temperatures, then we want to issue an alert for this rack. This alert can then lead to countermeasures to cool the rack.
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