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Today, people are involved in a lot of gardening. More than a hobby, it has become a passion, a way to de-stress and the best form of exercise as well. However, when you are doing gardening, the first thing you should do right is planting the seeds.There are many people who often are unaware of how to plant seeds in a pot, tray or even in a cup. When you plant seeds in containers, you should know the soil you are planting it in. No matter what kind of plant you are growing, planting seeds is the basic knowledge you should have in gardening.Here are some of the best gardening tips for planting seeds.
1.Plant Seeds In A Pot: Planting seeds in a pot is easy. But, if you want your plant to grow well and to have best results, you need to plant the seeds not too deep into the pot. For vegetable plants, seeds need to be planted at least 2 inches deep into the pot. For fruits, one and half inch is more than enough to plant your seeds.
2.Plant Seeds In A Tray: Trays are flat, so it requires more soil. The more soil in the tray, the more seeds you can plant in. However, you should know which types of plants are suitable for a tray. This is the best gardening tip for planting seeds in a tray.
3.Plant Seeds In A Cup: Small plants are well-suited for a cup. Fill half the cup with wet soil and then place the seeds over it. Make sure that the seeds are not buried into the soil, not even half way into the cup as it can wither away from lack of oxygen. The seeds need to be planted over the soil in the cup.
4.Plant Seeds In A Garden: This is the easiest spot to plant seeds. All you have to do is reach into the soil about a metre in depth and place the seeds. Make sure to gently cover the seeds with a little more soil and pat it over using the palm of your hands. This indeed is one of the best gardening tips for planting seeds.
5.Plant Seeds In A Glass Jar: A glass jar is a little too delicate for you to grow plants in. For tiny plants like the pea plant, the glass jar is appropriate. Fill the glass jar with three-fourth soil and place the seeds in the middle of the jar.
These are the gardening tips for planting seeds. | https://www.asianet.in/home-garden/know-these-best-gardening-tips-for-planting-seeds.html |
By Mmaduabuchi Onwumelu
The Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Prof Charles Esimone, has showered encomiums on the chairman of Anambra State Football Association, ANSFA, Chikelue Iloenyosi, for what he has been able to achieve so far in the development of football in the state, especially at the grassroots.
The Vice Chancellor made this known when the FA boss paid him a courtesy visit in his university office in Awka. He described Iloenyosi as the perfect fit for the position in the state now more than ever before.
‘To be honest, I have been following your developmental programmes that you set up within 3 months of taking charge. You have shown passion for this job and it’s only natural that you will succeed.
The joys of those kids that I saw will continue to speak for you. Having said all this, there are a lot of places that we all can work together. When I came in as the Vice Chancellor, sports was not included in the university yearly budget. I changed that.
‘Now, we are giving special admission concession to highly sporting inclined students. I set up a scholarship scheme to reward sporting excellence. Any individual or group that wins anything for this institution will be given scholarship.
These things will go a long way in encouraging these athletes. Sports is a unifying factor and we have to take leverage of that. The NUGA hierarchy paid me a courtesy visit last week and I made a promise that we will host the South East NUGA Games next year and I will be knocking on your door to work with us on a bigger capacity to make it memorable. I believe in your capacity and reach and it will count as part of your numerous legacies.
The FA chairman, Iloenyosi, thanked Prof Esimone for playing host to him and his entourage and praised him for the giant strides he had achieved in sports in the institution since he took over as Vice Chancellor.
‘My Vice Chancellor, I thank you for hosting me and my staff today. I have only but sincere kind words for you. You have shown great interest in sports and the result of this your interest is evident in so many areas. Your institution has the best female team in Nigeria.
I saw them play at the NUGA Games in Lagos and I was highly impressed. I have seen old sporting infrastructure taking a new look and new places of play being erected. That shows your commitment to sports in this institution.
I can’t say no to you. In any capacity you want me to work for a befitting Southeast NUGA Games next year here in Awka. Just let me know. We have a lot to do in terms of partnership to make football and sports grow in this institution.
That will make Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka a benchmark of sporting excellence in this country,’ Iloenyosi said.
The FA chairman and his delegation were taken on an inspection tour of some sporting edifices in the campus by the University Director of Sports, Mr Kenneth Ogbonna. Part of this delegation included the LFC chairmen of Njikoka, Idemili North, and the acting secretary of the FA, Mr Raph Nweke, among others. | https://fidesnigeria.org/unizik-vc-lauds-anambra-fa-boss/ |
Pages
25 May 2009
Pink, part 2
Not only it is Memorial Day weekend, but I also had the pleasure of attending a friends wedding yesterday afternoon, by the seaside. All the right ingredients for this years debut of the pink pants:
I picked these up the Polo outlet for about $15 the same day I found the green pants. I guess the ghost of Lily Pulitzer was on my side that day, or something.
All morning long, I went back and forth in my mind about what to wear with them; a bow tie?, a striped shirt? Then I realized that when a man wears pink pants, his best bet is to keep the rest of the items really simple. Otherwise, it's too easy to fall into "preppy costume" territory.
So I stuck with a white shirt and navy blazer, and a summery navy and white tie in mini gingham check. For a bit of extra dash, a white square with pink and navy flowers.My favorite thing about these pants is that they're made of oxford broadcloth, almost like a shirt. Very comfortable, and a bit unusual.
The whole thing was finished off sockless, with penny loafers (of course).The tie has some interesting bits about it too. As usual, I found it for a dollar or two at a thrift store somewhere. The brand name is "Paddle" (which is funny, because it's not a rowing paddle so much as a frat house hazing paddle), and it hails from some long gone local Massachusetts store called the Country Store of Concord.The dirty little secret is: it's not silk (gasp!). That's often a deal breaker for me, but this tie is just too sharp too let such a small detail deter me from wearing it. Besides, when I dribbled a little bit of beer on it, it wiped right off with only a paper napkin.The wedding was a lot of fun. A beautiful ceremony outside in a beautiful place, followed by barbecue, beer, and live music provided by a group of my good friends. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. H, we wish you all the best.
There's of course nothing wrong with non-silk neckties, so long as they're made of wool, cotton, or a similarly acceptable fabric.
But choosing a tie made of two disgustingly artificial fabrics leads to the unfortunate knot you have there. That plus the texture will make it obvious to anyone with taste that you're wearing a poor quality tie. I love your concept of dressing well on a budget, but a rayon/acetate tie cannot be considered good taste...
I would wear the oxford cloth pants in a blue...you should try an oxford cloth tie...I have one from Brooks Brothers...also definitely try out a seersucker..and a wool tie...these are great alternatives to the silk
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What Are The Five Aspects Of Personal Development?
- Michael Davis
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5 areas in which one may improve himself
- Expanding one’s mind. The evolution of your mind, including aspects such as how you think and how you learn, is what is meant by “mental growth.”
- Expanding of society. Developing your ability to communicate effectively is necessary for social progress.
- Growth on a spiritual level.
- Development of one’s emotions
- Development of one’s body.
What is the 5 aspects of personal development?
What exactly is meant by the term “personality development”? Personality development is the process through which an individual develops a pattern of behavior, a set of qualities, and attitudes. I have defined this process as “personality development.” Personality development refers to the process through which an individual acquires their own traits and characteristics that set them apart from other people.
- When discussing how a person’s personality develops, there are a number of factors to take into account due to the fact that no two people have exactly the same personalities.
- Although we could have a similar appearance and have been through some of the same things in life, each of us is special and unique in our own ways.
Both our emotions and the mechanism by which our personalities would grow would be different. People who are raised in the same family will each acquire their own distinctive way of reacting and responding to the numerous situations in which they find themselves.
Even relatives that share a physical appearance can nevertheless be distinct and individual in their own right, despite the fact that they may seem similar to each other. A person’s characteristics are what make him or her unique, but there are a number of other elements that go into shaping the kind of personality that emerges from an individual.
These include temperament, environment, and character, and each of these may have either a favorable or a negative impact on the formation of a person’s personality. A certain kind of personality is the result of the interaction of a great number of different elements that came together through time.
- From childhood through maturity, we go through a number of different processes, events, and circumstances, all of which contribute in their own unique way to the development of our personalities.
- All of these things have had an impact on our lives and helped shape who and what we are now.
- We have the potential to become anything we want to be as long as we are prepared to invest the necessary amount of time, energy, and resources into making it happen.
In this essay, I will be discussing the five most fundamental characteristics of personality development, sometimes known as the Big 5. The vast majority of authorities in the area are in agreement that these are the fundamental ones. Extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism are the five characteristics that make up this feature.
What are the types of human development?
Get this information by downloading it ( pdf ) Place your order for the magazine online. Additionally accessible in Amharic PDF format. French and Chinese The Spanish and the Vietnamese. A person’s physical, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional selves continue to mature throughout their whole lives as part of the process known as human development.
Huge transitions take place in the first several decades of a person’s life, specifically from infancy to childhood, from childhood to adolescence, and from adolescent to adulthood. Throughout the course of the process, each individual develops their own unique set of attitudes and beliefs that serve to direct their decisions, relationships, and overall comprehension.
The development of one’s sexuality spans their entire lifetime. All humans, from newborns to adulthood, go through stages of sexual development. It is equally as crucial to foster a child’s physical, emotional, and mental development as it is to establish the groundwork for a child’s sexual development.
It is the job of adults to guide youngsters through the process of comprehending and accepting their developing sexuality. There are distinguishing characteristics associated with each stage of development. The following are some general principles for development that apply to the majority of children in this age range.
However, given that every kid is an individual, some children of the same age may achieve certain stages of development earlier while others may reach them later. If parents or other caregivers have concerns about a particular child’s development, they should discuss such concerns with a physician or another qualified practitioner in the field of child development. | https://stevenrcampbell.com/development/what-are-the-five-aspects-of-personal-development.html |
Highly sensitive spectral interferometric four-wave mixing microscopy near the shot noise limit and its combination with two-photon excited fluorescence microscopy.
We present spectral interferometric four-wave mixing (FWM) microscopy with a nearly shot-noise limited sensitivity and with the capability of separating FWM signals from fluorescence signals. We analyze the requirements for obtaining the shot-noise limited sensitivity and experimentally achieve the sensitivity that is only 4-dB lower than the shot-noise limit. Moreover, we show that only FWM signals can be extracted through the Fourier filtering even when the FWM spectrum is overlapped and overwhelmed by the fluorescence spectrum. We demonstrate simultaneous acquisition of FWM and two-photon excited fluorescence images of fluorescent monodispersed polystyrene microspheres.
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HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(general comments on Sunday's win at Jacksonville) 10/4/04
"Defensively, we still weren't as sharp as we'd like to be, but we got some big fourth-down stops and played well enough in the red zone. We kept them out of the end zone when they got down there, and that was critical. So, overall, a good day for us."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on LB-Rob Morris) 10/4/04
"Rob's probably playing the most consistent of anybody on defense. He's had a good last couple of weeks. He got a game ball two weeks ago against Tennessee. He's played well and had some big stops, and this was probably the best we've played Fred Taylor in the running game in the five games we've played against them."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on LB-Cato June's progress) 10/4/04
"Cato's doing well. Every week is kind of a learning experience for him. We played him a little more in nickel defenses, and I think that was good for him. He's coming on and really just needs to play more and more."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on if the offense has played a full 60 minutes yet) 10/4/04
"No, not for 60 minutes. The second half of the Green Baygame, we had a couple of third down plays we didn't convert and had some penalties that hurt us. (At Jacksonville) we left some plays out on the field. They had a good plan, but we had a good plan to attack it. We missed a couple of throws, dropped a couple of balls, and that's tough to do and still win. I guess that's the glass being half-full, that we've won some games and still not really played our best. We have some outstanding personnel and we're making big plays, but I think we can play better."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on what the Colts were looking for when bringing in WR-Brandon Stokley) 10/4/04
"I think we were looking for exactly what we've gotten—a guy who really knows what he's doing, who can make the clutch catch and who, when the defense dictates and he gets some single coverage, he can win and make those plays."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on how RB-Dominic Rhodes did at Jacksonville) 10/4/04
"Dominic is a guy who has great explosion through the hole, and he was hitting that hole quickly and getting through there. He made some nice seven-to-eight-yard runs. He also gave Edgerrin (James) a blow on a very hot day so he was able to remain fresh at the end. It's good to have both of those guys running the way they are. They are running as well as I've seen them since I've been here."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on the OaklandRaiders) 10/4/04
"Oaklandis a real explosive team. They have some guys who can make one-play touchdowns. They have a lot of speed on offense. Defensively, it's a new system for them, and they are still making adjustments. We're going to have our hands full with their speed and athleticism."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY(on RB-Amos Zereoue) 10/4/04
"Zereoue is a good back. We played against him in Pittsburgha couple of years ago and he had a couple of big runs against us out there. He's a tough guy and has good quickness. (Tyrone) Wheatley is a bigger guy, but they both can run. They have another guy, Justin Fargas, that can make big plays, too. We have to make sure we're tackling well and keep those guys bottled up." | https://www.colts.com/news/head-coach-tony-dungy-monday-press-conference-5348077 |
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The First Peoples’ Gathering House is one of 34 calls to action in SFU’s 2017 Walk this Path with Us report. Check out its recently unveiled design plans. | https://www.sfu.ca/ |
Following on from a comment in AIBU - do you brush your teeth before breakfast? I’d never heard of anyone doing this but apparently it’s a thing? Assume you need brush after as well. Does that mean you should brush before all meals?
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comments (10)
- Posted 1/30/20I quite often do as I shower and brush them when I wake up. Then have breakfast with DS when he wakes a little while later.
It probably does seem backwards but I can't shower and leave a dirty mouth! They still feel clean after breakfast so don't brush again. I normally do a quick brush after lunch though.
- Well I don’t often eat breakfast but if I did, I’d either brush before if I was heading out straight afterwards or after breakfast if I had some time spare to wait half an hour or so before brushing.
- Posted 1/30/20I do both depending on different factors.
If I have time to eat breakfast before I brush, then I will. But if not then I brush before as part of my getting ready ritual. The latter situation it will likely be a while before I get to have breakfast so the minty flavour has disappeared. I wouldn't directly brush before I ate given the choice.
Drinking orange directly after brushing has to be the worst 🤢
I work from home so can brush as many times I like. Its a great remedy for snacking and cravings.
- Posted 1/30/20I was told it’s best to clean before any food as brushing soon after eating can cause some issue. Don’t know the ins and outs - I’ve never done it tbh as I need to feel my teeth are clean after I eat breakfast / have a cuppa.
- Posted 1/30/20No, never.
1, the toothpaste taste would make anything I ate taste gross
2, I'd have to brush again after to remove breakfast debris from my mouth
3, my breath would smell of coffee or whatever I'd been eating and not fresh and minty
Yes, on work days I'm up and out of the house by 5:45am (with teeth fully brushed!)- I eat breakfast around 8am, so don't brush after that. I don't eat after brushing in the evening though.
- Posted 1/30/20I currently have Invisalign braces so just rinse in the morning and then brush and floss every single time I eat (it’s a very effective way to stop snacking!!)
- HurricaneLouInactivePosted 1/30/20
Yes.
I wake up with bad breath and a furry mouth.
I also don't eat breakfast until much later.
- Posted 1/30/20
First thing I do when I get up, can't imagine having a mouth full of nasty bacteria and then eating it!
So disgusting.
Nope, that shit needs to go down the sink, not down my gullet, it's not a nice bacteria to ingest!!
I'd wait a little longer to eat if I was eating soon after brushing.
- Posted 1/30/20There is already a thread on tooth brushing for children.
Closing
End of comments
This Post has been closed to new Comments. | https://community.babycentre.co.uk/post/a33020544/brushing-teeth-before-breakfast |
A few years ago, I grew frustrated with these flowers in my flowerbed that were not growing how I had hoped they would.
Therefore, I plucked them all up.
The next spring, however, as I walk out the house, I see one purple flower peeking through the dirt.
This persistent, stubborn flower made the bold decision to bloom where it was planted.
I say to the flower, “What are you doing? I thought I got rid of you and your friends last year!”
The flower replies, “I know all my friends are gone. I know I’m not supposed to be here. But God is not finished with me yet.”
Like this flower, you can bloom where you’re planted, because God is not finished with you yet. | https://www.mynewbeginnings.org/blog/bloom-where-you-re-planted |
The lines in the composition can be divided into the following types:
1. horizontal;
2.vertical;
3. diagonal;
4. All the rest - broken, curves, arched, “S” - shaped, etc.
HORIZONTAL LINES IN COMPOSITION
Horizontal lines are serenity and peace, balance and infinity. In the picture, they give the feeling that time has stopped and can be used to contrast with another more dynamic part of the picture. The reservoir line, the horizon line, fallen objects, sleeping people - these are all examples of images that indicate constancy and timelessness. To photographs, consisting entirely of horizontal lines, were not boring, you need to add some object to the frame. A beautiful stone by the sea that comes in contact with the sky, a lonely tree in a field, etc.
VERTICAL LINES IN COMPOSITION
Vertical - convey the mood of power, strength, stability (skyscrapers) as well as growth and life (trees). The proper use of vertical lines can also give a sense of peace and tranquility. For example, a tree in a foggy forest, old pillars in the water, or a field, a figure on a secluded beach early in the morning. If the vertical lines are repeated, they set the rhythm in the photo and enhance the dynamics.
DIAGONIC LINES IN COMPOSITION
Diagonal lines indicate movement, give the picture dynamism. Their strength lies in their ability to keep the viewer's attention: his gaze, as a rule, moves along the diagonals. Examples of diagonals are numerous: roads, streams, waves, tree branches, etc. You can arrange several objects diagonally. The colors of one object can also be diagonal. Using the diagonal lines, place them just above or below the left corner of the photo, as our eyes scan the image from left to right. This will also prevent the visual division of the frame into two parts. Always leave “a place for a step” in front of a moving object - this will give it even more dynamics.
CURVED LINES IN COMPOSITION
Curved lines - elegant, sensual, dynamic, create the illusion of liveliness, diversity. They can zoom in or out or create balance. “C” - shaped curved lines or arcs are the most common - because this is the shore of the sea, lake, rounded stone, rock or curved stems of grass. If we talk about architecture, then these are arches. Several repeating arches look very impressive.
S-SHAPED CURVE IN COMPOSITION
Such lines are also called beauty lines. This is an aesthetic concept, a component of artistic composition, a wavy, curving curved line that gives the image a special grace. The human body is the best example, from the arch of the foot to the curve of the neck.
An “S” shaped curve is estuaries, winding roads, paths.
The frame can combine straight and curved lines. This gives the composition of the frame balance, stability. The body of this acoustic guitar is an excellent example of an “S” curve. Pay attention to the use of other lines in this photo - diagonal lines of guitar strings, and horizontal lines - notes on a sheet in the background.
BROKEN LINES IN COMPOSITION
Broken lines give the pictures an alarming, and even aggressive character. Such an impression when viewing photos with broken lines arises from the fact that the gaze often has to “jump” along the lines and change direction.
LEADING LINES IN THE COMPOSITION
A special role in linear constructions in the frame is assigned to lines, which are usually called "leading into the frame" or "leading lines". These are real or imaginary lines that originate from one of the lower corners of the frame and go into its depth, most often to the semantic center of the image, located at the point of the "golden section". Pictures constructed according to this principle are easily “readable”, their content reaches the viewer’s consciousness almost instantly, and this is one of the main conditions for a good composition.
Remember that the lines themselves are not a panacea for the composition. If the picture is not saturated with content, but only includes individual elements that coincide with imaginary lines or curves (such as road markings, light trails left by headlights, lanterns, gratings, house arches, bridge arches, embankments of embankments, river bends, etc.) - this is not a composition. The lines help us outline the path of the viewer's gaze, and accordingly decipher the story or story that we want in the picture that we want to convey to him. They also serve to convey the depth of the picture.
By themselves, the lines in isolation from surrounding objects and the color-tonal environment do not mean anything, so the content of the frame is the basis of success! | https://helios-lens.com/tpost/sp1g83b33z-how-to-make-a-really-cool-photo-or-the-p |
Systematic approaches to directed evolution of proteins have been documented since the 1970s. The ability to recruit new protein functions arises from the considerable substrate ambiguity of many proteins. The substrate ambiguity of a protein can be interpreted as the evolutionary potential that allows a protein to acquire new specificities through mutation or to regain function via mutations that differ from the original protein sequence. All organisms have evolutionarily exploited this substrate ambiguity. When exploited in a laboratory under controlled mutagenesis and selection, it enables a protein to “evolve” in desired directions. One of the most effective strategies in directed protein evolution is to gradually accumulate mutations, either sequentially or by recombination, while applying selective pressure. This is typically achieved by the generation of libraries of mutants followed by efficient screening of these libraries for targeted functions and subsequent repetition of the process using improved mutants from the previous screening. Here we review some of the successful strategies in creating protein diversity and the more recent progress in directed protein evolution in a wide range of scientific disciplines and its impacts in chemical, pharmaceutical, and agricultural sciences.
INTRODUCTION
The concept of laboratory-directed protein evolution is not new. Systematic approaches to directed evolution of proteins have been documented since the 1970s (39, 106, 110). One early example is the evolution of the EbgA protein from Escherichia coli, an enzyme having almost no β-galactosidase activity. Through intensive selection of a LacZ− deletion strain of E. coli for growth on lactose as a sole carbon source, the wild-type EbgA was “evolved” as a β-galactosidase sufficient to replace the lacZ gene function (39). Perhaps surprisingly, the evolution of new functions of an enzyme can require few mutations, as was the case for the EbgA protein. EbgA enzyme variants with newly acquired hydrolytic activities toward a variety of β-galactoside sugars contain only one to three mutations (102, 104, 107). The ability to recruit new protein functions was noted by Roy Jenson to arise from the considerable substrate ambiguity of many proteins (136). The substrate ambiguity of a protein can be interpreted as the evolutionary potential that allows a protein to acquire new specificities through mutation or to regain function via mutations that differ from the original protein sequence. All organisms have evolutionarily exploited this substrate ambiguity. When exploited in a laboratory under controlled mutagenesis and selection, it enables a protein to “evolve” in desired directions.
Directed protein evolution is a general term used to describe various techniques for generation of protein mutants (variants) and selection of desirable functions. Over the last three decades, directed protein evolution has emerged as a powerful technology platform in protein engineering. This technology has been advanced considerably by the availability of molecular biology tools and emerging high-throughput screening technologies. These methodologies have simplified the experimental processes and facilitated the identification of mutants with even small improvements in desired function. Advanced recombinant DNA technologies have allowed the transfer of single structural genes or genes for an entire pathway to a suitable surrogate host for rapid propagation and/or high-level protein production. Furthermore, it is now possible to control the rate of mutagenesis in widely applied methods such as error-prone PCR and to modify proteins by systematic insertions or deletions. In addition, site-directed, site-saturation mutagenesis and synthetic oligonucleotides can be used to expand the localized amino acid diversity. While functional complementation of mutant strains is still an excellent choice when possible, the development of sensitive instrumentation and the ability to miniaturize many chemical or biological assays allow the screening of large numbers of samples for selection of desired functions. The ability to rapidly obtain DNA sequence information for gene variants not only provides insight into protein sequence-function relationship but also enhances our ability to select the strategy best suited for the evolution of a particular protein. Thus, directed protein evolution has been expanded from the original in vivo approach (e.g., the evolution of EbgA) to include in vitro exploration.
One of the most effective strategies in directed protein evolution is to gradually accumulate mutations, either sequentially or by recombination, while applying selective pressure. This is typically achieved by the generation of libraries of mutants followed by efficient screening of these libraries for targeted functions and subsequent repetition of the process using improved mutants from the previous screening. Many formats of directed protein evolution have been, and continue to be, developed (8, 9).
Here, we review the more recent progress in directed protein evolution (referred as directed evolution hereafter) in a wide range of scientific disciplines and its impacts in chemical, pharmaceutical, and agricultural sciences. Although many strategies for directed evolution are described, we focus on the directed evolution of proteins through gradual accumulation of beneficial mutations, and examples of recombination-based approaches are used primarily to illustrate the power of this technology. The advances in screening technologies for identification of useful functions will not be discussed here, as they have been reviewed elsewhere (8, 184, 207, 273).
STRATEGIES FOR DIRECTED EVOLUTION IN PROTEIN DESIGN
One of the primary goals of protein design is to generate proteins with new or improved properties. In addition to deepening our understanding of the design processes used in nature, the ability to confer a desired activity on a protein or enzyme has considerable practical application in the chemical, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries. Two strategies are currently being employed towards this goal. The first is directed evolution, in which libraries of variants are searched experimentally for clones possessing the desired properties. The second is rational design, in which proteins are modified based on an understanding of the structural and mechanistic consequences of a particular change or set of changes. While the power of directed evolution is now widely appreciated, our present knowledge of structure-function relationships in proteins is still insufficient to make rational design a robust approach. In this section, we review a few methods and strategies of DNA mutagenesis and recombination for directed evolution, and we discuss ways in which rational design is now being used to facilitate the development of proteins with new and improved properties. Table 1 summarizes some of the methods that have been successfully utilized for directed evolution of a variety of proteins. This is not a complete list, as techniques and strategies of DNA mutagenesis and recombination for directed evolution are constantly arising (54, 148, 149, 150, 224, 236, 344, 352; reviewed by Farinas et al. and by Lutz and Patrick ).
DNA ShufflingThe goal of directed evolution is to accumulate improvements in activity through iterations of mutation and screening. The extent to which it succeeds depends critically on the delicate interplay between the quality of biological diversity present in the library, the size of the library, and the ability of an assay to meaningfully detect improvements in the desired activity. The strength of directed evolution lies in the ability of its scoring function (i.e., assay) to mimic the property being evolved, while its weakness lies in the relatively small number of sequences that can be experimentally measured (on the order of 103 to 106 for high-throughput screening to >1012 for display methods ).
Library diversity is created through mutagenesis or recombination. Traditionally, libraries have been generated by random point mutagenesis (using, for example, error-prone PCR) or by site-directed mutagenesis of a starting sequence. These libraries are screened (or selected), and the best variant is selected for additional mutagenesis. Because the frequency of beneficial mutations is generally low relative to that of deleterious mutations, only single beneficial mutations are added in each cycle of mutagenesis and screening. Indeed, the probability of improvement decreases rapidly when multiple mutations are made. Thus, iterative, point-mutation-based approaches are generally limited to improvements made in small steps.
DNA shuffling overcomes this limitation by allowing the direct recombination of beneficial mutations from multiple genes. In DNA shuffling a population of DNA sequences are randomly fragmented and then reassembled into full-length, chimeric sequences by PCR (286, 287). In so-called “single-gene” formats, mutations are introduced during the reassembly process by controlling the error rate of DNA polymerase. After screening or application of selective pressure, progeny sequences encoding desirable functions are identified. These clones are then shuffled (bred) iteratively, creating offspring that contain multiple beneficial mutations. Because of this poolwise recombination of beneficial mutations, DNA shuffling gives rise to dramatic increases in the efficiency with which large phenotypic improvements are obtained.
While such methods are relatively efficient when small steps through sequence space are required, the relationship between library diversity, library size, and assay capability dictates that the evolution of phenotypes requiring larger steps through sequence space employ a more efficient search strategy. A simple and powerful way to do this is to use naturally occurring homologous genes as the source of starting diversity (64). In contrast to single-gene shuffling, in which library members are typically 95 to 99% identical, so-called “family shuffling” allows block exchanges of sequences that are typically >60% identical. In part because the sequence diversity comes from related, parental sequences that have survived natural selection (“functional” sequence diversity), much larger numbers of mutations are tolerated in a given sequence without introducing deleterious effects on the structure or function. The increased sequence diversity of these chimeric libraries thus results in sparse sampling of much greater regions of sequence and function space.
Even greater control over the incorporation of sequence diversity can be achieved through “synthetic shuffling.” In this approach, no physical starting genes are required. Instead, a series of degenerate oligonucleotides that incorporate all desired diversity (for example, naturally occurring diversity and diversity identified by structural analysis) are used to assemble a library of full-length genes (217). In contrast with fragmentation-based methods, in synthetic shuffling every amino acid from a set of parents is allowed to recombine independently of every other amino acid. By breaking the linkages between amino acids normally present in parental genes, synthetic shuffling methods access unique regions of sequence space.
All directed evolution experiments must contend with the constraints described above: principally, the type and quality of diversity present in the library, the library size, and the ability of an assay to accurately identify desired clones from that library. To the extent that a desired phenotype is accessible within these constrains, standard DNA shuffling formats and other formats described below provide a rapid and powerful method to optimize activity. For more demanding phenotypes, such as de novo enzyme design, novel substrate specificity, novel enzyme chemistry, etc., there is a need to maximize the information content of a library so that larger steps through vast regions of sequence and function space may be efficiently explored.
Whole-Genome ShufflingWhole-cell biocatalysts are widely used for industrial applications such as conversion of feedstock to high-value products, production of high-value natural products, and production of protein pharmaceuticals. Fermentation-based bioprocesses are often limited by the sensitivity of microorganisms to temperature, pH, and solvent, resulting in low yield and productivity. Microorganisms represent a delicate and complex system that infrequently can be modified for industrial production by a single gene alteration. Therefore, the ability to evolve an organism at the whole-genome level is highly desirable. A process known as whole-genome shuffling has been developed in an effort to accomplish this objective (347). This approach combines the advantages of family DNA shuffling with the benefits of crossing entire genomes that occur in conventional breeding (347). Traditional breeding is a long, continuous process of genetic recombination of the parental genomes accompanied by phenotypic selections. It is usually limited to two parental genomes per generation and is affected by the genetic compatibility of the parents. On the other hand, manipulation of commercial microorganisms can also be achieved by an asexual process of repeated cycles of random mutagenesis and screening, often referred to as classical strain improvement (CSI) (3). In contrast, the driving force for the accelerated evolution is the recombination of multiple parents in a recursive manner. The advantage of whole-genome shuffling over CSI has been recently demonstrated with Streptomyces fradiae, a commonly used strain for commercial production of the complex polyketide antibiotic tylosin (347), and with the industrial strain of Lactobacillus for acid tolerance (234). Using a low-production parental strain, two rounds of genome shuffling based on protoplast fusion of mixed populations and screening for tylosin production resulted in mutant strains with productivities similar to that of the commercial strain SF2 (347). However, while it took 20 years and about 1,000,000 assays for the 20 rounds of CSI required to obtain SF2, similar results were produced with 24,000 assays in 1 year of whole-genome shuffling. Patnaik et al. (234) demonstrated the use of whole-genome shuffling for improved acid tolerance in production of lactic acid by lactobacilli. Lactobacillus strains with improved low-pH tolerance were first obtained by CSI in order to generate the initial biodiversity pool and then shuffled for five rounds by protoplast fusion. The improved strains produce threefold more lactic acid than the wild-type strains at pH 4.0.
Whole-genome shuffling is powerful and beneficial in manipulation of organisms (52, 67). It allows the evolution of desired phenotypes by rapid genomic manipulation and stabilization. Directed whole-genome evolution is not limited to microorganisms. By a variety of means, genomes from eukaryotic cells, including regenerable cells from animals and plants, can be recombined recursively for accelerated phenotypic improvement.
HeteroduplexRecombination in vitro of large genes, such as operons or artificial chromosomes, is difficult to achieve. In an alternative method, in vitro-in vivo DNA recombination takes place with a parental plasmid heteroduplex in an in vivo repair process and has been suggested to be useful for recombination of large genes or entire operons (313). A heteroduplex formed in vitro is used to transform bacterial cells, where repair of regions of nonidentity in the heteroduplex creates a library of new, recombined sequences composed of elements from each parent. However, this method, which is based on the ability of host cells to repair mismatched heteroduplexes, requires high parental gene homology and is limited to two parental genes per event.
Random Chimeragenesis on Transient TemplatesAnnealing of small fragments as primers, spiking of oligonucleotides as linkers between regions of low homology, and generation of complete synthetic chimera are some of the ways that have been designed to increase frequencies of recombination between low-homology sequences. For example, libraries generated by the random chimeragenesis on transient templates (RACHITT) method showed an average of 14 crossovers per parental gene, a much higher rate than with other reported methods (56). In addition, the RACHITT-derived chimeric genes showed high-frequency recombination at a short region (a few nucleotides). RACHITT produces a single-stranded, full-length transient template containing uracil and single-stranded partial donor fragments. As one or more parental donor gene fragments can simultaneously anneal to the template, this approach generates high-frequency crossovers. One of the common issues in “family DNA shuffling” is the bias against the incorporation of the less homologous genes in the parental gene pool. By selecting one gene as the sole template, RACHITT is able to force the incorporation of a particular gene even when it shares relatively low homology. In some cases, especially when the background activity of one parent is problematic for library screening, RACHITT allows the selection of this parent as a fragmented donor, thus avoiding the presence of the wild-type gene of this parent in the library.
Assembly of Designed OligonucleotidesAssembly of designed oligonucleotides (ADO) has been described as a useful technique for gene recombination (343). ADO relies on sequence information on the nonconserved regions to design a set of synthetic degenerate oligonucleotides. The flanking region of each synthetic fragment contains sequences of conserved regions that can be used as linkers in homologous recombination. PCR assembly of the fragments is then performed in two steps. First, double-stranded DNA is formed by PCR of the single-stranded oligonucleotides in the absence of primers. The double-stranded DNA is then used for PCR amplification of the whole gene, and the full-length gene products are ligated into an expression vector. The two major advantages of the method are that it allows crossing over to occur for low-homology fragments and that self-hybridization of parental genes is minimized or eliminated. High-quality libraries without a parental gene background are essential, especially when high-throughput screening is not available. The limitation due to relatively short lengths of the synthetic oligonucleotides could be overcome by fragment ligation. ADO has been successfully applied to improve the activities of two Bacillus subtilis lipases, LipA and LipB (343). One library of 3,000 variants obtained by ADO was sufficient to identify six variants with improved enantioselectivity. The major advantage of this method is the ability to create a large diversity of active variants and to eliminate codon bias in parental genes.
Mutagenic and Unidirectional ReassemblySong et al. (281) developed mutagenic and unidirectional reassembly (MURA) for the generation of libraries of DNA-shuffled and randomly truncated proteins. In this method, DNA sequences that have been generated by DNA shuffling or by incremental truncation can be simultaneously introduced into a parental gene in a single experiment. The MURA process consists of four steps. First, a random fragmentation of the parental gene is obtained by PCR amplification or restriction digestion. The fragments then are reassembled in the presence of the unidirectional primers that contain a specific restriction site. The DNA fragments are gel purified, subjected to T4 DNA polymerase or S1 nuclease treatments in order to polish both termini, and then digested by a primer-specific restriction enzyme. The MURA method has been used for generation of an N-terminally truncated and DNA-shuffled library of Serratia sp. phospholipase A1 (PlaA) in order to alter the substrate specificity of PlaA from a phospholipase to a lipase (281). The authors isolated nine variants that exhibit lipase and phospholipase activities by high-throughput screening of 2,500 to 3,000 transformants. All these variants showed high lipase activity while retaining their phospholipase activities. All the mutant enzymes possess N-terminal deletions of 61 to 71 amino acids as a result of the MURA process and a relatively small number of amino acid substitutions. The dual activities exhibited by the truncated enzymes suggest that the N-terminal region is critical for the phospholipid substrate interactions.
Exon ShufflingExon shuffling is an evolutionary mechanism in which recombination of nonhomologous genes generates new genes known as mosaic proteins. The natural exon shuffling process has been described for a number of gene families by domain organization and splice frame analysis of the hemostatic proteases and by structural and sequence analysis of SCAN domain-containing genes (78). As a result, a new method to evolve proteins by in vitro exon shuffling has been suggested (157). Similar to the natural exon shuffling process, in vitro exon shuffling can be carried out using a mixture of chimeric oligonucleotides that allows the control of which exon or combination of exons is to be spliced. One application of exon shuffling is to develop protein pharmaceuticals based on natural human gene sequences, thus potentially reducing the possibility of immune responses (260). For example, it may be possible to minimize the imunogenicity of therapeutic proteins by constructing high-quality human gene libraries that lack random mutations. To complement the construction of such high-quality libraries, protocols such as that described by Zhao and Arnold (350) can be applied. Inclusion of Mn2+ or Mg2+ and high-fidelity DNA polymerase during amplification and reassembly can significantly reduce the point mutation rate. Exon-shuffled libraries of unrelated domains that share no sequence or functional homology can potentially generate new “humanized” genes with valuable functions.
Y-Ligation-Based Block ShufflingWhile many methods improve functions through creating and recombining point mutations, Y-ligation-based block shuffling (YLBS) is a general methodology that mimics evolution processes such as domain shuffling, exon shuffling, and module shuffling, and it can be used for generating high-diversity libraries (155, 156). YLBS is based on repeated cycles of ligation of sequence blocks with a stem and two branches (Y-ligation) formed by two types of single-stranded DNA. The ability to integrate desired blocks with variable sizes (from several amino acids to a whole domain) into proteins at any site and any frequency will dramatically increase the diversity pool for directed evolution. YLBS can be an efficient technology to introduce or to eliminate (by deletion block or null block) peptides, exons, and domains.
Nonhomologous RecombinationWhile protein variants generated by homologous recombination or random point mutations are more likely to maintain structural similarity to the parental proteins, nonhomologous recombination allows the efficient creation of new protein folds. This approach enables the generation of protein structural diversity that may or may not exist in nature, and it is potentially very useful in evolution of multifunctional proteins. Several methods for nonhomologous recombination have been described. They include incremental truncation for the creation of hybrid enzyme (ITCHY) (225), sequence-independent site-directed chimeragenesis (119), sequence homology-independent protein recombination (276), and nonhomologous random recombination (NRR) (23). ITCHY libraries are created by cloning two genes (or gene fragments) in tandem in an expression vector containing two unique restriction sites. The linearized vector allows the generation of truncated fragments either by time-dependent exonuclease III enzyme digestion (224) or by the incorporation of α-phosphorothioate deoxynucleoside triphosphates (194). Subsequent blunt-ending and treatment with the second restriction enzyme release truncated fragments in various lengths, and chimeras can then be generated by ligation to recyclize the vector. This approach has been combined with an additional recombination step to develop SCRATCHY (193). More recently, the NRR method has been described (23). NRR is based on DNase I fragmentation, blunt-end ligation/extension, and capping using two asymmetrical DNA hairpins to stop the extension. This method potentially provides higher flexibility in modulating fragment size and crossover frequency, as well as in the number of parental genes. The major challenge facing all techniques for sequence-independent recombination of proteins is the presence of large numbers of nonfunctional progeny in the libraries (due to nonsense mutations caused by, for example, frameshifting and/or reversed DNA fragment orientation), thus hindering the search for functional mutants. Therefore, it is critical that a high-throughput screening is in place for the selection; otherwise, a preselection strategy, e.g., downstream fusion of a reporter or selection marker to reduce mutants with internal stop codons, can be applied to generate high-quality libraries.
Combining Rational Design with Directed EvolutionOne of the most seductive features of rational/computational approaches to protein design is the ability to access vastly larger regions of sequence space (>1025) than can be searched experimentally. The success of such approaches depends on the ability to successfully predict the fitness of a given sequence. For certain properties, such as protein stability, simple “packing” algorithms are capable of predicting sequences with reasonable accuracy. For more complex phenotypes, the successful application of purely rational/computational methods requires sophisticated scoring (energy) functions. The recent de novo design of a novel protein fold is a spectacular example of the increasing power of computational design (163).
A powerful application of rational design is using it to focus library diversity for directed evolution experiments. In general, computational analysis of a protein's structure is first used to generate sequence diversity and to test those sequences for functional properties that can be modeled (scored) in silico. Only those variants that pass this prescreen are then synthesized and tested experimentally. In this manner, costly and time-consuming experimental searches are limited to regions of sequence space that are consistent with a protein's structure.
In an elegant example of structure-based computational design, Dwyer et al. introduce triosephosphate isomerase activity into a catalytically inert protein scaffold, ribose-binding protein (79). The design strategy consists of three stages. First, a chemical and geometric definition of the catalytic machinery was generated. Second, a combinatorial search was performed to identify positions within the active site where the catalytic machinery and substrate could be placed, while simultaneously satisfying the above constraints. Third, the remainder of the active site was optimized to form a stereochemically complementary binding surface. A total of 14 designs were tested, and one of these exhibited a kcat/Km ratio of 1.5 × 102 for the conversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate to glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate. This is about 3 orders of magnitude less than the ratio for wild-type triosephosphate isomerase but is nevertheless a rate enhancement of more than 105 over that of the uncatalyzed reaction. Subsequently, the authors use directed evolution to improve the kcat/Km ratio of the designed enzyme. As is often the case, many of the accumulated changes identified by directed evolution lie in regions distal from the active site, and their effect on activity is therefore difficult to rationalize. A key issue for future design strategies lies in understanding how such mutations, which often contribute cooperatively and over long distances, improve activity (284).
One of the great advantages that emerges from the synthesis of rational design and directed evolution is that once a gene with even low levels of starting activity is obtained through design, it may be rapidly optimized by directed evolution (275). Thus, the goal of rational design becomes detecting even a weak starting activity from a focused library, rather than obtaining an optimized level of activity. The complementary use of rational design with directed evolution is a promising path towards the production of proteins with new and improved properties.
APPLICATIONS OF DIRECTED EVOLUTION
Directed evolution is increasingly used in academic and industrial laboratories to improve protein stability and enhance the activity or overall performance of enzymes and organisms or to alter enzyme substrate specificity and to design new activities. Together with novel techniques for large-scale screening, directed evolution enables the selection of redesigned molecules without the necessity for detailed structural and mechanistic information (reviewed by Arnold and Minshull and Stemmer ). In the past years we have seen broad applications of directed evolution in research and product developments of recombinant DNA technologies, biocatalysts, metabolic pathway engineering, pharmaceuticals, and important agricultural traits. Regardless of the research discipline, some common themes or parameters can be observed in the application of directed evolution. For example, directed evolution increasingly appears to be the tool of choice for studying the evolution of and relationship between protein structure and function (2, 114, 138, 192, 226, 259) and for interpretation of the evolutionary significance of biomolecular systems (122, 323). It is also a popular tool for accelerated adaptation of protein functions (e.g., stability, specificity, or affinity) in extreme conditions such as unusual temperatures and organic solvents (198, 204, 221, 222, 327-330), as well as for improvement of recombinant protein biosynthesis (152, 185). Directed evolution has also given rise to altered specificities and activities of enzymes (113-115, 126, 141, 294, 337), enhanced intramolecular interactions (292), modified protein-protein interaction (180), and altered metabolic pathways (263). In the following sections we present some examples of the applications of these technologies.
Directed Evolution of Nucleic-Acid-Modifying EnzymesAn emerging area in biotechnology is the directed evolution of DNA-modifying enzymes. Improving or modifying the site selectivity of restriction endonucleases, recombinases, and other DNA-modifying enzymes (46, 57, 82) can lead to novel applications in genetic engineering, functional genomics, and gene therapy.
Polymerases.Molecular biology technologies such as DNA labeling, PCR, sequencing, site-directed mutagenesis, and some cloning often require DNA polymerases with high activity under suboptimal conditions, such as extreme temperatures and/or in the presence of inhibitors. Compartmentalized self-replication (CSR) is a useful strategy for directed evolution of DNA polymerases or RNA polymerases (89). CSR is based on a feedback loop consisting of a polymerase that replicates only its own encoding gene. Self-replications of polymerase variants generated by error-prone PCR are performed in separated compartments formed by water-in-oil emulsions. Genes encoding improved polymerase under the selection conditions used replicate at higher rates and eventually dominate the mutant population. CSR has been used for evolution of Taq polymerase in the presence of increasing amounts of the inhibitor heparin, resulting in the isolation of a variant that exhibits a 130-fold increase in heparin resistance (89).
Directed evolution has been successfully applied to DNA polymerase for enhanced activity (233) and conversion to an efficient RNA polymerase (232, 333). The 2′-O-methyl-RNA is more stable and has been produced by chemical synthesis. Chelliserrykattil and Ellington established an efficient screening system for selection of highly active polymerases (47). This system creates a so-called “autogene” by cloning the T7 RNA polymerase under the control of its own promoter. In this system the polymerase variants with higher activity will generate more mRNA and can thus be selectively amplified by a reverse transcription-PCR process. The autogene system has allowed the identification of T7 RNA polymerase variants that can efficiently incorporate various 2′-modified nucleotides with good processivities (47, 48). Mixtures of the polymerase mutants with different specificities have produced transcripts with multiple modified nucleotides. DNA polymerase that is capable of incorporating 2′-O-methyl nucleotides has also been created by directed evolution (82).
Nucleases.Nucleases, including restriction endonucleases, are essential enzymes in modern molecular biology and thus are active targets for directed evolution. An intelligently designed selection by compartmentalization of each gene variant in a rabbit reticulocyte transcription/translation system overcomes limitations associated with in vivo screening techniques, allowing the efficient screening of restriction endonuclease libraries (74). Novel selection methods have also been developed for selection of restriction enzymes with altered substrate specificities (80, 168, 256, 353). DNA cleavage specificities have been created from the E. coli RNase P derivatives (59).
Transposase.Naumann and Reznikoff (216) used directed evolution to generate a mutated Tn5 bacterial transposase that could function on transposons with mutated end binding sequences. The Tn5 transposon encodes a 53-kDa transposase protein (Tnp) that facilitates the movement of the entire transposon by first binding to each of the two 19-bp specific binding sequences (known as outside end [OE]), followed by formation of a nucleoprotein complex, blunt-end cleavage, and then transfer to the target DNA. The transposon also promotes the movement of a single OE by using an additional 19-bp inside end sequence (IE). The wild-type Tn5 Tnp activity is inhibited in E. coli as a result of Dam methylation at the IE (IEME). In order to screen for a transposase mutant that functions with mutated inverted repeats, the IE was modified at position 12 from thymine to adenine (IE12A), which results in loss of recognition by the wild-type transposase. As a consequence, insertion of IE12A in the flanking region of the lacZ gene between the transcription and translation start sites results in an inactive transposon. Three rounds of gene shuffling and high-throughput screening for LacZ activity at about 104 colonies per round, followed by analysis of the active variants for activities against OE and IE, has allowed the isolation of a specific hyperactive Tnp variant (TnpsC7). While methylation of IE reduced the wild-type Tnp activity by 100-fold, TnpsC7 activity in the presence of IEME was markedly higher.
Integrase/recombinase.Improved site specificity for large genome modifications has been recently demonstrated for the wild-type φC31 integrase (265). Sclimenti et al. (265) applied two rounds of DNA shuffling in combination with a genetic screen that is capable of identifying improved variants expressing the lacZ reporter gene. This improved enzyme possesses strong preference for target-site DNA sequences and has 10- to 20-fold-higher absolute integration frequencies than the wild-type φC31 integrase. In addition to the demonstration of improved site specificity of this integrase, several other groups have successfully altered the site specificity of the Cre/Flp recombinases by directed evolution (35, 36, 252, 258, 314). The Cre recombinase catalyzes the integration, excision, and rearrangement of two 34-bp, double-stranded recombination sites known as loxP. Santoro and Schultz (258) designed a fluorescence-activated cell sorting-based screening for recombinases that recognize unnatural recombination sites. The screening system consists of a recombinase variant and a reporter gene plasmid, expressing either enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) or green fluorescent protein (GFP). Using this high-throughput selection system, the authors isolated recombinase variants that show high specificity for unnatural loxP sites and low activity for the wild-type loxP site. Site-specific manipulation of genomes by recombinases is a powerful functional genomic tool. Recombinases such as Cre have been widely used to mutagenize and replace genes in mice. Expanding the recombination sequences of recombinases will improve the efficiency and the quality of production of transgenic animals and plants. The ability to evolve proteins that interact with DNA has broad implications. Efforts to evolve other DNA-binding proteins, such as transcription factors, for tailor-made specificities are under way.
Reporter genes.Although by themselves they usually do not modify nucleic acids, in molecular biology, reporter proteins are often closely associated with other proteins that do. Directed evolution has been applied to optimize the physical properties of fluorescent proteins and small-molecule probes for real-time imaging of live cells (21, 40, 142). Fluorescent probes function as “passive” markers that provide high sensitivity for real-time visualization and tracking of cellular events without perturbing the cells. GFP is widely used for tracking protein localization in vivo and has been evolved by directed evolution (65). Additional fluorescent variants such as YFP and cyan fluorescent protein have been generated by mutagenesis of the wild-type GFP. These fluorescent variants may be used as companion markers for protein colocalization and for tracking protein-protein interactions by fluorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET). Nguyen and Daugherty (220) addressed the dynamic range and sensitivity limitations associated with FRET by designing a strategy in which a cyan fluorescent protein-YFP fusion system is used to allow the detection of subtle improvements, enabling gradual optimization of FRET signals. When this system is coupled with random mutagenesis and targeted saturation mutagenesis, substantial enhancement of FRET dynamic range and sensitivity has been achieved. Another example is the engineering of the Discosoma red fluorescent protein (DsRed). The wild-type, tetrameric DsRed has poor solubility that can affect the function and localization of the tagged proteins. DsRed is also slow in the chromophore maturation process. By applying seven rounds of site-directed mutagenesis and error-prone PCR followed by high-throughput visual screening for fluorescence in microbial cells, Bevis and Glick (21) isolated soluble DsRed variants that also mature 10 to 15 times faster than the wild-type protein. While the improved DsRed isolated by Bevis and Glick retained its tetrameric state, Campbell et al. (40) evolved DsRed to an active monomeric form that matures 10 times faster than the wild-type protein. Their approach was a stepwise evolution of DsRed first to a dimer and then to a monomer. This sequential improvement of DsRed resulted in an active monomeric protein with improved solubility and shorter maturation time, leading to greater tissue penetration and spectral separation from autofluorescence and other fluorescent probes. The next generation of the monomeric fluorescent proteins have been shown to be more photostable, mature more completely, and be more tolerant to forming fusion proteins (274). The improvement of another well-known reporter protein, beta-glucuronidase, was achieved (200, 202). Further evolution successfully converted this enzyme into a beta-galactosidase (202). Beta-galactosidase activity has also been evolved from a fucosidase (72, 345).
Increasing protein solubility by directed evolution is not limited to reporter proteins. Overexpressed proteins in heterologous systems such as E. coli often fail to fold into their native states and are thus accumulated as insoluble inclusion bodies. An efficient method to generate more soluble forms of insoluble proteins is directed evolution. One way to screen for soluble variants is to fuse the variants of an insoluble protein to a reporter for heterologous expression, followed by screening of the reporter protein activity (reviewed by Waldo ). Yang et al. (336) utilized a GFP-based screening to evolve the solubility of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Rv2002 gene product. While overexpression of Rv2002 in E. coli resulted in inclusion bodies, five soluble mutants were identified after three rounds of error-prone PCR and DNA shuffling. Because the Rv2002 mutants are fused with GFP, the soluble Rv2002-GFP emits brighter fluorescence than the wild-type protein. Enzymatic assays indicated that a soluble mutant Rv2002-M3 protein possesses high catalytic activity as an NADH-dependent 3α,20β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase.
Directed Evolution of Biochemical CatalystsSince the 1980s, recombinant DNA technologies, and recombinant protein expression technology in particular, have revolutionized the chemical industry. Enzymatic catalysts are superior in many industrial processes because of their high selectivity and minimum energy requirement. However, for the potential of industrial enzymes to be fully exploited, many challenges remain. In order to be effective and practical, these enzymes need to be consistently available in high quantities and at low cost, and they need to be active and stable under process conditions. In some cases, product inhibitions pose problems. In addition, many enzymes required for specific reactions have yet to be identified and produced. Directed evolution offers viable solutions for enzyme optimization and development of novel specificities. This area of research has been the subject of a number of recent review articles (11, 27-29, 51, 90, 98, 123, 126, 161, 162, 230, 241, 242, 279, 296, 302, 318).
Proteolytic enzymes.The serine endoprotease subtilisin is a commercially important enzyme. With annual sales over $500 million, the highest among industrial enzymes, subtilisins are widely applied as additives in laundry detergents and other uses. A major challenge in improvement of most industrial enzymes is that the performance is defined not by any single property but by a complex mix of parameters. Although rational design and random mutagenesis have been used to improve single properties such as the thermostability of activity in organic solvents, it is often at the expense of other critical properties. Ness et al. (218) demonstrated multidimensional improvement of subtilisin by DNA shuffling. Twenty-five subtilisin gene fragments obtained from different Bacillus isolates were bred together with the full-length gene for a leading commercial protease and screened for thermostability, solvent stability, and pH dependence (at pH 5, pH 7.5, and pH 10). High frequencies of improvements (4 to 12%) in all parameters were achieved using a relatively small library (654 active clones). In addition, the diversity of combinations of properties ranged well beyond that of the properties of the parental enzymes. Sequence analysis of several high performers under each set of conditions revealed that variants with similar properties could be encoded by different sequences. Thermostability, for example, could be conferred by any one of the at least three different genetic elements. Because of the importance of proteolytic enzymes, directed evolution of proteases and peptidases remains one of the most actively pursued research areas (10, 12, 34, 100, 160, 210, 211, 285, 297, 304, 327-329, 349).
Cellulolytic enzymes.Enzymes that hydrolyze carbohydrates are also active targets for directed evolution. Up to sevenfold enhancement of the thermostability of the endoglucanase EngB has been achieved by introducing sequence diversities from a partially homologous endoglucanase, EngD (213, 214). A library was constructed using genes encoding the cellulosomal endoglucanase EngB and noncellulosomal cellulase EngD from Clostridium cellulovorans. The more thermostable cellulosomal endoglucanases are of high industrial relevance. Cellulosomes from clostridia are efficient at hydrolyzing microcrystalline cellulose. The relatively high efficiency has been attributed to (i) the correct ratio between catalytic domains, which optimizes synergism between them; (ii) appropriate spacing between the individual components to further promote synergism; and (iii) the presence of different enzymatic activities (cellulolytic or hemicellulolytic) in the cellulosome, which can remove other polysaccharides in heterogeneous cell wall materials.
Applications of cell wall-loosening enzymes can be found in a variety of industrial processes. In the pulp and paper industry, enzymatic degradation of the hemicellulose-lignin complexes present in pulps preserves intact cellulose fibers and strongly reduces the amount of bleaching chemicals required. The enzyme laccase is of interest for biobleaching and has been improved in industrially relevant parameters by directed evolution (38). Other applications in which cellulosic hydrolases are used include improvement of dough quality in the baking industry, increasing the feed conversion efficiency of animal feed, clarifying juices, and producing xylose, xylobiose, and xylo-oligomers. In addition, cellulosic hydrolases are important in biomass conversion for novel biofuel and other valuable chemicals. In a broader aspect, directed evolution has been successfully applied to improve many enzymes involved in carbohydrate biosynthesis, modification, and degradation. Examples include ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (254), amylosucrase (310), aldolase (86, 326), sugar kinase (120), cellulase (153), amylases (19, 20, 154, 312), xylanases (49, 129, 203), glucose dehydrogenase (14), and beta-glucosidase (13).
Enzymes for bioremediation.Enzymes that cleave carbon-halogen bonds are being studied not only because of the important chemical reactions they catalyze but also for potential use in environmental sciences. Haloalkane dehalogenase converts alkylhalide functionality to an alcohol group with broad substrate specificity. This enzyme has been subjected to directed evolution for improved function in detoxification of halogenated compounds (30, 38, 95, 96, 240, 348). Organophosphate-degrading enzymes have been evolved and selected for broadened substrate specificity (53, 335). Broadened substrate specificity of a biphenyl dioxygenase has also been achieved (33, 87, 164, 291). Efforts in cleaning underground water contamination prompted the evolution of an enzyme for chlorinated ethene degradation (41).
Lipases and esterases.Lipases, which comprise another class of hydrolases, have broad industrial applications. Lipases catalyze the hydrolysis and synthesis of long-chain acylglycerols from triglycerides. For production of biofuel, a single transesterification reaction using lipases in organic solvents can convert vegetable oil to methyl- or other short-chain alcohol esters. Biodegradable biopolymers such as polyphenols, polysaccharides, and polyesters show a considerable degree of diversity and complexity. Lipases and esterases are used as catalysts for polymeric synthesis (e.g., stereoselectivity, regioselectivity, and chemoselectivity) under mild reaction conditions. Lipases are also used in synthesis of fine chemicals, agrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
Directed evolution of industrially important lipases has been extensively reviewed (131-134, 247-249). The enantioselectivity of lipases is of biochemical interest. The ability to engineer lipases with high enantioselectivities allows the production of desired enantiopure compounds. A Pseudomonas aeruginosa lipase has been evolved to increase enanselectivity towards the chiral substrate 2-methyldecanoic acid p-nitrophenyl ester. A few rounds of directed evolution produced greater than 25-fold improvement of the enanselectivity. It is interesting that the best variants contain five amino acid changes and most of them are located in the flexible loop regions (183, 249). Using the ADO approach, increased enantioselectivities of two B. subtilis lipases have been identified by screening of a small number of variants (343). The substrate specificity and stability of lipases can also be modified by directed evolution (147, 282). The lipase from Bacillus thermocatenulatus BTL2 exhibits low phospholipase activity. A single round of random mutagenesis followed by screening of 6,000 variants generated progeny with more than a 10-fold increase in phospolipase activities (147). Most of the variants show reduced activities towards medium- and long-chain fatty acyl methyl esters compared to the wild-type enzyme. Moreover, in combination with structure-guided site-directed mutagenesis, further improvement of the phospholipase activity has been achieved. The best variant, which exhibits 17-fold improvement in phospholipase selectivity, has 1.5- to 4-fold-higher activity towards long-chain fatty acyl substrates. In an effort to achieve the opposite goal, the phospholipase A of Serratia has been converted to a lipase by using a combination of DNA shuffling and N-terminal truncations (281).
By sequential generation of random mutagenesis and screening, Moore and Arnold (212) evolved an esterase for deprotection of an antibiotic p-nitrobenzyl ester in aqueous organic solvents. A variant has been found to perform as well in 30% dimethylformamide as the wild-type enzyme in water, a 16-fold improvement in esterase activity. As in many other directed evolution experiments, the successful outcome of this work relied on the establishment of a high-throughput screening assay, this time using the p-nitrophenyl ester. In recent years, a great deal of effort has been devoted to design of screening tools for improvement of lipases and esterases (91, 97). Droge et al. (77) reported the binding of a phosphonate suicide inhibitor to lipase A that is presented by phage display. The specific interaction with the suicide inhibitor provides a fast and reproducible method for selection lipases with novel substrate specificities. Two new triglyceride analogue biotinylated suicide inhibitors have been designed, synthesized, and applied in directed evolution of phage-displayed lipolytic enzymes (70, 71).
Cytochrome P450 enzymes.The cytochrome P450 superfamily is a highly diversified set of heme-containing proteins, and members serve a wide spectrum of functions. In addition to the most common function of catalyzing hydroxylation, P450 proteins perform a variety of reactions, including N oxidation; sulfoxidation; epoxidation; N, S, and O dealkylation; peroxidation; deamination; desulfuration; and dehalogenation. In mammals they are critical for drug metabolism, blood hemostasis, cholesterol biosynthesis, and steroidogenesis. In plants they are involved in plant hormone synthesis, phytoalexin synthesis, flower petal pigment biosynthesis, and most likely hundreds of additional, unknown functions. In fungi they make ergosterol and are involved in pathogenesis by detoxification of host plant defenses. Bacterial P450s are key players in antibiotic synthesis. More recently, cytochrome P450 enzymes have shown promise in industrial applications as new methods for high-level production and high-throughput assays have been developed (4, 18, 306).
A number of cytochrome P450 enzymes have been the targets of directed evolution (50, 54, 83, 250, 255, 306, 307, 331, 332). Cytochrome P450 enzymes are often found to be poorly active, with narrow substrate specificity. The wild-type P450 BM-3, which is specific for long-chain fatty acids, was a target for rational design and directed evolution (181). Based on the crystal structure, eight amino acids were identified for creation of libraries by site-specific randomization mutagenesis of each residue. The libraries were screened by a spectroscopic assay using omega-p-nitrophenoxycarboxylic acids as substrates. By sequential evolution, variants showing specificity towards medium-chain substrates were identified. In a subsequent study (182), one of the variants was found to be able to efficiently hydroxylate indole, resulting in the formation of indigo and indirubin. Further characterization of this mutant revealed that it is capable of hydroxylating several alkanes and alicyclic, aromatic, and heterocyclic compounds, all of which are nonnatural substrates for the wild-type enzyme (6). Many cytochrome P450 monooxygenases are multimeric and membrane associated, with low catalytic efficiencies. Glieder et al. (92) evolved the Bacillus megaterium cytochrome P450 BM-3, which is specific for C12 to C18 fatty acids, to efficiently catalyze the conversion of C3 to C8 alkanes to alcohols. In this case the evolved enzyme exhibits a broad range of substrate specificities, including the gaseous alkane propane, as well as improved activity towards the natural fatty acid substrates. BM-3 has also been engineered to be significantly more tolerant to several cosolvents, including the organic cosolvents dimethyl sulfoxide and tetrahydrofuran (332). Furthermore, the regioselectivity and enantioselectivity of BM-3 have been engineered through a combination of in vitro evolution, and the selectivity appears to be retained in vivo with E. coli cells (238).
Successful evolution of cytochrome P450 requires efficient high-throughput screens that are sensitive to the activities of interest. Horseradish peroxidase couples the phenolic products of hydroxylation of aromatic substrates to generate colored or fluorescent compounds that are easily detectable in high-throughput formats. Joo et al. (139) have taken advantage of this system by coexpressing the coupling enzymes with functional mono- and dioxygenases. Using fluorescent digital imaging, they screened libraries of cytochrome P450cam from Pseudomonas putida for novel activity of chlorobenzene hydroxylation. Joo et al. (140) also utilized this so-called “peroxide shunt” pathway to identify variants showing significantly improved activity for naphthalene hydroxylation in the absence of the NADPH cofactor. Interestingly, the P450 enzyme has recently been used as a model for computational structure-guided evolution (227).
Directed Evolution of Metabolic PathwaysThe evolution of whole metabolic pathways is a particularly attractive concept, because most natural and novel compounds are produced by pathways rather than by single enzymes. Genetically up-regulating one enzyme activity in a pathway does not always guarantee an increase in the final product. Therefore, metabolic pathway engineering usually requires the coordinated manipulation of all enzymes in the pathway. The potential for evolving a pathway in the laboratory has long been recognized. For instance, using the ebg operon of E. coli as a model, it has been demonstrated that a pathway can be redirected and that such evolution requires a series of mutations in several structural and regulatory genes (103, 109, 111). However, instead of operons, genes of a pathway are often located in different positions in the genome, making such coordinated engineering difficult. Several strategies can be applied to the directed evolution of metabolic pathways, as follows.
(i) Whole genomes are shuffled (see above) and selected for desired phenotypes or products (239). The successful engineering of polyketide and lactic acid production in Lactobacillus (234, 347) has demonstrated that whole-genome shuffling is one of the most powerful tools in directed evolution of pathways. It is particularly useful when a pathway is not well characterized and key enzymes or genes have not yet been identified or cloned. Phenotypic improvement by whole-genome shuffling is an important milestone for bioprocess optimization. Together with novel techniques for cultivating and identifying previously unrecognized microorganisms (342) and information on biodiversity in terms of species, distribution, and ecosystem function (reviewed by Bull et al. ), whole-genome shuffling will continue to expand its impact to the production of high-value biomolecules.
(ii) The genes encoding key enzymes are heterologously expressed to alter an existing pathway. Introduction of an enzyme with novel specificity can redirect the metabolic flux in a host and result in production of new products (261, 321). These recombinant enzymes can be obtained from other organisms known to produce the compounds (299) or by directed evolution to create the desired specificity from an enzyme that normally catalyzes other reactions (144, 315). For instance, under anaerobic conditions yeast does not efficiently produce ethanol by using xylose. By heterologous expression of a xylose isomerase from the fungus Piromyces and selection of yeast transformants on xylose, Kuyper et al. (166) have isolated a mutant strain that exhibits a sixfold increase in the anaerobic growth rate on xylose and higher yields of ethanol. Pathway engineering often requires alteration of the substrate pools for the key steps. Thus, directly targeting enzymes responsible for the production of these substrates can enhance or even redirect biosynthetic pathways (177). To engineer a multienzyme pathway for novel carotenoid production in E. coli, Schmidt-Dannert and colleagues first introduced two genes to produce the precursor phytoene. Subsequently, a library of two shuffled desaturase genes from Erwinia was introduced for the desaturation of phytoene. Divergent lycopene-like compounds with different degrees and positions of desaturation were identified. The pathway of a chosen mutant was further modified by introducing a library of shuffled cyclase genes. The engineering of the carotenoid pathway represents a fine example of how directed evolution can be used to redesign a complex pathway (68, 147, 167, 175, 176, 178, 205, 206, 257, 262, 263, 305, 320, 324).
(iii) In nature, many pathway genes are organized in gene clusters or operons (171, 172). Well-known examples include pathways for polyketide biosynthesis (125) and biosynthesis of certain secondary metabolites (190). Early work using the ebg operon presented convincing arguments for directed evolution of an operon as an effective approach in pathway engineering (103, 105, 108, 109, 111). Directed evolution of naturally existing operons and, in some cases, artificially assembled operons offers a unique and coordinated approach to engineer novel functions. Another demonstration of this approach is the manipulation of an arsenate detoxification pathway by DNA shuffling (63). A plasmid containing the operon of four ars genes was shuffled and selected for increased resistance to arsenic. While the native operon does not confer E. coli resistance to arsenic, several rounds of selection resulted in cell growth in media where the arsenate concentration reached the solubility limit. In another example, the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase/phosphatase operon was evolved to achieve greater trehalose production in E. coli (159, 160). In E. coli, trehalose-6-phosphate synthase and trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase are encoded by the otsBA operon. Directed evolution of the otsBA operon and screening for trehalose synthesis resulted in 15 positive clones and 12-fold improvement in trehalose production compared to that with the wild-type strain. The same strategy can be applied to artificial operons similar to that constructed for the production of the biopolymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (231). In another example, a metabolically engineered E. coli strain for astaxanthin production has been generated by overexpression of three metabolic enzymes from different origins: the E. coli isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase, the Archaeoglobus fulgidus geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (GPS), and the Agrobacterium aurantiacum astaxanthin biosynthesis enzymes (crtWZYIB gene products) (322). In a subsequent effort, repeated cycles of error-prone PCR, which employs a low-fidelity replication step to introduce random point mutations at each round of amplification, were used to evolve one of these key enzymes, GPS (321). A 100% improvement in lycopene production has been detected by screening for deeper orange color in 3,500 colonies. It is tempting to speculate that the application of directed evolution to the synthetic operon that contains isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase, GPS, and crtWZYIB might result in larger amounts of astaxanthan than the levels observed by single-gene evolution.
(iv) The characteristics of a metabolic pathway are a result of the dynamic interaction between its structural genes and the gene regulatory apparatus. Therefore, directed pathway evolution can be achieved by engineering of gene regulation factors that control these pathways (61). The recent exciting progress in engineering of artificial transcription factors has shown that this approach is not only feasible but also advantageous in certain areas of metabolic engineering. Notable advances have mainly been in the generation of artificial zinc finger transcription factors (17, 25, 75, 76, 127, 128, 135, 146, 174, 186, 187, 215, 266-271, 300). Chimeric proteins containing novel DNA-binding domains (such as polydactyl zinc fingers) have shown promise in high-throughput ligand-binding screens, genome-wide gene activation/repression, targeted DNA cleavage, DNA/chromotin modification, and site-specific integration (135). This strategy is particularly powerful when dealing with pathways that are undefined or normally inactive without induction. Engineered transcription factors can also be used to target a known gene regulatory region(s). For example, they can be evolved to bind specific promoter sequences proximal to the binding sites of known and natural transcription factors (94). Transcription factors and their target genes comprise the basic unit in the complex transcriptional regulatory network. Network-wide engineering must deal with higher levels of complexity. The ability to evolve the transcriptional network, however, represents a new possibility in pathway engineering. Yokobayashi et al. proposed the construction of an artificial transcriptional control network and provided examples of how such a genetic circuit can be optimized by a combination of rational design and directed evolution (338, 339). Metabolic pathways often respond to cell-cell communications. An elegantly designed “population control” system was constructed based on a quorum-sensing system, allowing a synthetic bacterial ecosystem to be controlled by cell-cell communication (340). Directed evolution of the major component of this system, the LuxR-type transcriptional regulators, revealed the evolutionary plasticity of the quorum-sensing mechanism (60). Another challenge in pathway engineering is to control the timing of gene expression. Inducible gene regulation systems such as the tetracycline/Tet receptor can be used to switch pathways on and off. Evolving these systems to recognize novel inducers has tremendous practical implications in pathway engineering (264, 280).
Protein pharmaceuticals.Directed evolution has revolutionized the development of novel therapeutic proteins (5, 93, 118, 145, 157, 165, 173, 235, 253). DNA family shuffling of more than 20 human alpha interferon genes, followed by selection of antiviral and antiproliferation activities in murine cells, resulted in greater than 250,000-fold improvement (44). Interestingly, no random mutation occurred in the highly improved proteins; i.e., the novel chimeras were created from the genetic diversity within the parental gene family, a result with intriguing implications for gene evolution. Homologous recombination approaches have also been successfully applied to improvement of the human p53 protein, a tumor suppressor (201, 334). The human prolyl endopeptidase is important in activation of the melphalan prodrug, but the wild-type enzyme is thermolabile. Robotic-assisted directed evolution has significantly improved the thermostability of the enzyme (117). By combining receptor structure-based engineering and directed evolution, an amphioxus insulin-like peptide was converted to mammalian insulin (99). Another exciting area to explore functional diversities is the evolution of hormones and hormone receptors (55, 69, 293). Directed evolution has led to the increase of peroxidase activity of horse heart myoglobin (319). Therapeutic proteases and protease inhibitors are also active targets for directed evolution (191, 288-290). The macromolecular protease inhibitor ecotin is of therapeutic value. By combining directed evolution and stepwise engineering, Stoop and Craik (288) generated ecotin libraries that contain variants with significantly enhanced selectivity towards plasma kallikrein.
Antibodies.Therapeutic antibodies represent the fastest growing area in pharmaceutical development. Considering that in nature the combinatorial antibody diversity is a result of somatic recombination, it is not surprising that directed evolution can be a powerful and practical tool for the creation of high-affinity antibodies in vitro. Techniques such as surface display facilitate high-throughput selection for desired activity (32, 62, 85, 124, 143, 295, 308). Recombination of phage-displayed, low-affinity immunoglobulin M antibodies resulted in variants with increased affinity of several orders of magnitude in just two rounds of evolution (85). The same strategy has yielded stable disulfide bond-free antibody single-chain fragments (244). The requirement for disulfide bond formation has hindered antibody production in systems such as E. coli, and disulfide bond-free antibodies not only potentially simplify production but also provide insight into antibody protein folding. Additional research has aimed at engineering antibodies to achieve extremely high affinities (15, 26, 66, 112, 137, 246). The gene for the llama heavy chain antibody fragment was evolved and selected for improvement in production (309). Antibody variants were identified that exhibited two- to fourfold increases in production while retaining their antigen specificity (341). Crystallographic analysis of one of the evolved antibodies revealed that the mutations conferring significant improvement in affinity do not directly contact the antigen, suggesting that it would be difficult to obtain such results via rational design. Nonetheless, the strategy of combining rational design and directed evolution should accelerate antibody engineering more rapidly than using either approach alone.
Catalytic antibodies are also of interest for directed evolution (298, 301). Superior catalysts for aryl phosphate were generated from synthetic human antibody libraries (43). Antibodies have also been engineered for diagnostic purposes (161).
Vaccines.Directed evolution has played and continues to play an important role in the development of new vaccines (58, 188, 189, 197, 235, 245, 325). To boost immunity, directed evolution can be used to generate improved proteous antigens or other immunomodulatory molecules, DNA vaccines, and whole viruses (see below). On the other hand, certain cytokines and allergens can be bred for down-regulation of allergic immune responses. Recursive library construction and selection allowed the isolation of high-affinity, protective mimotopes against Cryptococcus neoformans (16). Highly immunogenic mimotopes of the hepatitis C virus hypervariable regions have been selected by a combination of DNA shuffling and phage display-based screening (346). A DNA vaccine of the E7 oncogene has been developed and shown to provide protection against tumor cells (223). This strategy of rearranging oncogene sequences presents an advantage over wild-type oncogene-derived DNA vaccines, which carry a risk of de novo tumor induction. Toxic side effects have been associated with the direct administration of recombinant antitumor interleukin-12 protein. A DNA vaccine based on the interleukin-12 gene has been shown to reduce adverse side effects, while its potency and effectiveness have been further improved by directed evolution (179). In addition, high-affinity T-cell receptor variants can be generated and used for detecting peptide-major histocompatibility complex complexes on antigen-presenting cells (121).
Viruses.Breeding of viruses has tremendous practical implications in gene therapy and vaccine development (283). The feasibility was demonstrated using the murine leukemia viruses (MLV). Family shuffling of six MLV produced variants with novel tropism (283). The MLV envelope protein consists of two subunits, SU and TM, associated by a labile disulfide bond. This complex, which interacts with a cellular receptor and mediates fusion with the plasma membrane, is highly sensitive to physical forces during the manufacturing process. As a result, the concentration procedure commonly used for retrovirus vectors is ineffective for manufacturing stocks of high titer. To improve the resistance of the MLV envelope protein to the process of concentration by ultracentrifugation, the envelope regions of six ecotropic strains were shuffled (243). Screening for survival after three consecutive concentration steps resulted in 30- to 100-fold-improved stability compared to the parental viruses. In an effort to establish a pig-tailed macaque model for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, Pekrun et al. evolved a HIV type 1 variant with a substantially enhanced replication rate (237). In an interesting attempt to control the risks associated with pathogenic phenotypes of high-replicating viral vaccines, a tetracycline-inducible system was introduced to control the HIV gene replication (199). By application of directed evolution, highly infectious viral variants have been isolated; however, the viral replication is strictly controlled by a doxycycline-dependent switching system. An alternate strategy to control viral replication by using the bacteriophage T7 polymerase has also been developed (31).
Therapeutic chemicals.The role of biocatalysis in pharmaceutical production has been rapidly expanding since the establishment of recombinant DNA technology (45, 123). The involvement of enzyme and metabolic pathway engineering in therapeutic chemical production is moving towards the mainstream in the industry, and directed evolution technologies are leading the advance. Applications of directed evolution in development of anti-infection agents were among the early examples demonstrating the power and effectiveness of the technologies. Evolution of polyketide synthases to generate novel antibiotic activities demonstrated that novel compounds can be identified even in small libraries (123). The modular nature of the polyketide synthetic pathway allows an efficient way to create large numbers of polyketide variants by replacing individual modules with a shuffled library (151). Directed evolution of a toluene-xylene monooxygenase resulted in variants that catalyze the synthesis of various valuable fine chemicals, such as catechol (311). The substrate specificity of the cephalosporin acylase has been altered for the improvement of cephalosporin and penicillin production (229, 278). Directed evolution has allowed the identification of “hot spots,” in this case, a single amino acid residue crucial for substrate specificity. When this hot spot was subjected to saturation mutagenesis, variants with further improvement or novel specificity were identified (228). Protein engineering using site-directed and/or saturation mutagenesis, guided by information generated from directed evolution, can be an extremely powerful approach to create novel functionalities (73, 88, 208, 316).
Directed Evolution of Agriculturally Important TraitsAgricultural biotechnology offers tremendous promise. Possibilities exist for improvement of crop yields through resistance to pests, including weeds, insects, and disease, as well as tolerance to environmental stresses such as cold and drought. Other areas which may affect eventual yield include postharvest characteristics such as ripening control and prevention of potato sweetening.
In the 20 years since it has been possible to introduce transgenes into plants, many novel strategies have been devised to improve the quality of crops. Many strategies for pest control, cold tolerance, disease control, and other areas of improvement have had positive initial results in laboratory settings; however, the genes have not provided sufficient efficacy to produce commercially viable genetically modified (GM) products. In retrospect this makes sense, since many transgenes that were used in these experiments clearly had not been optimized for use in GM crop plants.
Directed evolution can be used to improve existing traits such as glyphosate resistance and Bacillus thuringiensis toxin expression in commercial crops. It can also be used to develop traits from programs in which initial leads (genes) provided insufficient efficacy. Furthermore, directed evolution can be applied to develop desirable gene functions from gene targets that have low or no activity, resulting in novel traits that would otherwise not have been possible (169).
Existing traits. (i) Glyphosate tolerance.Existing glyphosate resistance traits in corn, cotton, and soybean, based on expression of a microbial enopyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase that is not affected by the herbicide, are effective. However, there is clearly room for improvement. He et al. (116) bred E. coli and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium enopyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthases (the enzyme which, when carrying a specific mutation, conditions tolerance to the herbicide) to develop variants with superior properties. Several gene variants from a single round of directed evolution resulted in enzymes simultaneously improved over the best parent in multiple kinetic parameters, including a twofold-improved specific activity, a fivefold-improved Km for phosphoenolpyruvate, and a fivefold decrease in sensitivity to glyphosate. Interestingly, the mutations identified in that study do not coincide with the mutations identified previously by other researchers in their efforts to improve the properties of this enzyme. These results demonstrate that directed evolution can provide novel solutions to improving protein function even for proteins that have undergone extensive improvement through random mutagenesis and/or structure-based protein design.
Recently, Castle et al. reported the development of an alternative method for producing glyphosate-tolerant crop plants (42). First, the researchers searched for an enzyme that would detoxify glyphosate. After growing several hundred strains of common microbes, they determined that the most effective was the soil microbe Bacillus licheniformis. The researchers identified three related genes encoding an enzyme, glyphosate N-acetyltransferase (GAT), from a microbial diversity collection consisting of predominantly Bacillus species. The starting genes, identified from B. licheniformis, encoded GAT enzymes which acetylated glyphosate, albeit very poorly. After 11 iterations of DNA shuffling, the enzyme activity was improved nearly 10,000-fold. To test its potential, corn plants were transformed with improved GAT gene variants. The transgenic plants tolerated six times the concentration of glyphosate that farmers normally apply, with no apparent effect on health or reproduction.
(ii) B. thuringiensis toxin.Plants expressing B. thuringiensis toxin genes are the second most widely grown transgenic crops. This trait has been widely used by corn and cotton farmers. Currently there are two limitations of B. thuringiensis Cry proteins that can be addressed by directed evolution. First, the spectrum of insects controlled by any given B. thuringiensis Cry protein is relatively narrow. B. thuringiensis Cry proteins with broadened specificity have the potential to further reduce the use of synthetic pesticides in commercial agriculture. Second, it is relatively difficult to express B. thuringiensis Cry proteins in transgenic plants at sufficiently high levels to control many insect pests. B. thuringiensis Cry proteins exhibiting increased specific activity against current insect targets could reduce the effort required to generate a commercially useful level of insect resistance. Directed evolution has been successfully used to address both of these issues (170).
(iii) Golden rice.Golden rice is a rice variety developed to express elevated levels of β-carotene (a precursor of vitamin A) in the grain (22). Vitamin A deficiency afflicts more than 100 million people in at least 26 developing countries, including highly populated areas of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Every year 1 to 2 million people die because of infectious and other diseases as a consequence of weakened immune systems caused by this deficiency. In addition, hundreds of thousands go permanently blind due to vitamin A deficiency. Many of the victims are children. Rice, therefore, is an important target for enhanced nutritional qualities, as it is a staple in the diets of a majority of the world's population. Golden rice has been touted as a breakthrough GM product which could supplement vitamin A deficiencies in the diets of millions of people around the world. Currently developed golden rice varieties represent a good start toward this goal. However, it is unlikely that the amount of vitamin A precursor produced in current golden rice varieties is enough to have a significant impact (219).
This is undoubtedly an application in which directed evolution could be of great benefit. The metabolic pathway engineered into golden rice requires the coordinated expression of multiple transgenes (see “Directed evolution of metabolic pathways” above). By evolving these genes toward higher overall activity and better synergistic behavior, there is the potential to significantly boost the amount of β-carotene produced in next-generation golden rice varieties.
Next-generation traits.As mentioned above, traits that have already found their way to the marketplace have room for improvement that may be effectively addressed by directed evolution. Over the past 20 years, there have been numerous traits for which promising results were seen in laboratories but which did not translate into commercially viable products. There have also been concepts which showed initial promise but which did not show efficacy even in a laboratory setting because the starting genes did not function in the required plant cell environment. Directed evolution may open the door for opportunities for turning these concepts into reality.
(i) Chitinase for antifungal properties.The antifungal properties of plant-expressed chitinases have been known for more than 10 years (130). Still, there are no commercial crop plant products based on expression of these enzymes. This is a prime example of promising results being seen in the laboratory which did not translate to a commercial product. Through the application of directed evolution to dramatically increase the activity of antifungal chitinases expressed in transgenic crop plants, there is the potential of controlling fungal diseases.
(ii) Mycotoxin detoxification.Mycotoxin production is a toxic side effect of fungal infection of crop plants. Fusarium moniliforme infection of maize can result in contamination by mycotoxins, the most prominent of which is fumonisin. A transgenic approach to reducing fumonisin contamination was based on amine oxidase enzymes isolated from black yeasts found on Fusarium-infected ears by cultures of Exophiala spinifera (24). However, the starting enzymes had no activity in the extracellular space where they were required to work. Five rounds of DNA shuffling and screening were performed using surrogate hosts, including a plant screening system. Significant improvements were generated in enzyme activity at the low pH environment of the apoplast as well as in efficiency of protein secretion. Functional assays showed significant improvement of in planta fumonisin detoxification (J. English and J. Duvick, unpublished observations).
(iii) Viral vectors.Viral vectors offer the possibility of very high-level expression of valuable compounds in a relatively short time frame. However, current tobacco mosaic virus-based vectors are in need of improvements in order for this to be a viable process. Scientists at the Scottish Crop Research Institute in collaboration with Large Scale Biology Corporation used random mutagenesis coupled with recombination to improve the performance of their vectors in planta. The mutagenized tobacco mosaic virus variants were subjected to gene shuffling and screened for faster movement around the plant as well as higher transgene expression. Variants that moved significantly faster throughout the plant were recovered (303).
CLOSING REMARKS
Using keywords in this review to search major scientific databases can result in hundreds or even more than a thousand hits. It is difficult, if not impossible, to cover all literature on laboratory-directed protein evolution. Directed evolution is a system that compares and utilizes the mounting genetic information generated in this era of genomics. It is also a mechanism to expand the genetic diversity in our search for novel functions. Its power as a postgenomics technology platform is being increasingly recognized.
For a newcomer to the field of laboratory-directed evolution, the two volumes of Methods in Molecular Biology (8, 9) edited by Arnold and Georgiou are a good place to start. The successful application of directed evolution depends on whether or not one can generate a quality library and perform effective screening to find the desired properties. A quick assessment on the possibility of handling large numbers of variants is typically the first consideration for the feasibility of starting a directed evolution experiment. However, the technology is rapidly moving in more sophisticated directions. Efforts are being made to model and validate the minimum sampling numbers; i.e., what is the minimum number of screenings necessary in order to obtain measurable improvements? In some practices, assaying pooled samples instead of single samples is one of the effective ways to drastically reduce the number of experiments. Directed evolution is a process where progressive partial change built upon previous partial changes. It is possible, or even preferable, to accelerate the improvement by performing multiple rounds of evolution in which mutants with small but measurable degrees of enhancement are identified by a limited number of assays and then using these mutants as parents for the next round of evolution. In most cases, greater improvements can be achieved by successive rounds of evolution than by screening a larger number of mutants in one experiment. Furthermore, taking advantage of the tremendous computing power in the genomics era, directed evolution is also being carried out in silico (101). Computer-assisted analysis can significantly reduce the demand for labor- and cost-intensive wet-lab experiments (81, 277). Finally, the ever-increasing information on protein structure-function relationships and gene sequence-function relationships not only can provide insights into the impacts of mutations but also can refine the targets for directed evolution.
We have just begun to see the impacts of directed evolution on biological sciences and biotechnology. Future reviews of this subject will no doubt describe further levels of complication and sophistication in the application of directed evolution technologies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank K. Shen and M. Lassner for insightful comments.
This work is supported in part by a grant (to L.Y.) from the Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center, University of Kentucky. | https://mmbr.asm.org/content/69/3/373 |
Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic website traffic information that you must then interpret and use in a relevant way. However, the data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you do not understand how to apply it to your company and to the particular website. Let’s start by examining the most basic data: the average number of visits to your site on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
These figures are the most accurate measure of the activity of your website. Apparently, the more traffic is recorded, the better you can assume
Your website works, but this is an inaccurate perception. You should also observe the behavior of your visitors once they visit your website to accurately measure the effectiveness of your site.
There is often a great misconception about what is commonly referred to as “visits” and what is the really effective quality traffic for your site. Hits simply means the amount of
information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit can be equal to the number of graphs per page, you will get an idea of how exaggerated the concept of success can be. For example, if your home page has 15 graphics, the server records this as 15 visits, when in fact we are talking about a single visitor who visits a single page of your site. As you can see, the results are not useful to analyze the traffic of your website.
The more visitors visit your website, the more accurate your interpretation will be. The more traffic to your website, the more accurate your analysis will be
It will be of general tendencies in the behavior of visitors. The smaller the number of visitors, the fewer anomalous visitors can distort the analysis.
The goal is to use web traffic statistics to determine how well or badly your site works for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how much time
On average, your visitors spend on your site. If the time taken is relatively short, it usually indicates an underlying problem. So the challenge is to discover
what is that problem
It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to leave
quickly. Use the knowledge of the time that visitors dedicate to your site to identify specific problems and, after correcting them, continue using the time invested as an indicator of the effectiveness of your solution. | https://www.vapulus.com/ar/analyzing-website-traffic/ |
A trip to Victoria Park, home of Bournemouth Poppies, will take an hour and 15 minutes to cover the 40 miles. From Raleigh Grove head to Dorchester on the A352 before almost immediately turning left towards Blandford on the A3030.
At a T-junction approximately nine miles into the trip turn right for the A357. After a further nine miles turn right again at a similar junction taking the A350 for Blandford and Poole.
At the next three roundabouts take the third exits for the A354 towards Dorchester, Wimborne and Poole. Following this, take the first exits at the next two roundabouts for the A350 and A31 to Ringwood.
At the Lake Gates roundabout take the second exit to remain on the A31 before taking the second exit at the Merely roundabout for Poole and the A349. Remain on the A349 at the next roundabout before turning left at the next traffic lights for the A341 and Bournemouth.
Take the second then third exits at the next two roundabouts, eventually hitting the A347. A mile after the last roundabout turn left onto Victoria Park Road before almost immediately bearing right on to Victoria Avenue. A quarter of a mile later turn right for Namu Road. | http://sherbornetownfc.com/club.php?&dx=1&ob=3&rpn=results&club=1000041 |
Project Coordinator:
Dr. Stacey Hamilton
University of Missouri
Project Information
Summary:
Pasture based dairying in Missouri represents over 40% of the total dairy cows in the state and continues to expand. Most operations are low-input type systems which means the goal is to provide the highest percentage of dry matter pasture intake in a cow’s diet as possible for as many days as possible. This could mean as much as 85-100% of the diet is pasture for short windows of time. Ideally in a grazing system, growth rates, or the amount of dry matter pasture grown per day per hectare across the farm would be fairly consistent throughout the grazing season. However in a continental climate such as Missouri this is not reasonable or expected. Growth rates can range from zero to over 100 kg per hectare per day. Typically operations need 35-45 kilograms of pasture growth per hectare per day on average across the farm. This results in periods of deficits and surplus throughout the season. Deficits usually occur during periods of heat stress and reduced rainfall during the summer. Producers initially began evaluating and implementing irrigation more as an insurance policy during these severe periods rather than as a tool to grow more forage. However, interest grew in how much forage could be grown during inclement weather and the cost to produce it. Optimizing and timely utilization of forages in grazing systems are critical for cash flow, profit and sustainability. Irrigation is a novel approach to maintaining forage growth in Missouri however we had little data or experience to draw on to make informed decisions.
Producers requested more information on irrigation efficiency and cost effectiveness of their systems across several forage species. It was determined the university would measure weekly forage mass of several paddocks on each farm. Each paddock would have a portion that would be irrigated and an area non-irrigated to try and reduce management and any soil type differences. Paddock typically were 2 to 4 hectares in size. Two to three times during the growing season, calibration measurements and clippings occurred to determine forage dry matter prediction equations. Producers provided weather data as well as irrigation and grazing dates. Data was compiled and analyzed via ANOVA evaluating specific points of the growth phase from grazing event to next grazing event.
There appeared to be a trend of additional forage grown for all species (Alfalfa; P=0.24, Perennial Ryegrass; P=0.11; Tall Fescue; P=0.29). Crabgrass was not included as the producer did not need additional forage growth and did not irrigate. Irrigation for alfalfa was sporadic due to the system type and labor required. The irrigated grasses had similar annual increase in dry matter yields per grazing event (Perennial Ryegrass; 125 kilograms per hectare; Tall Fescue; 134 kilograms per hectare) while alfalfa (86 kilograms per hectare) was slightly less possibly due to a deeper root system and more sporadic irrigation events.
Costs for additional dry matter forage for alfalfa, perennial ryegrass and tall fescue were $0.20, $0.43 and $0.30 per additional kilogram grown above the non-irrigated forage.
Discussion groups on various farms were given updates as they study progressed. Unfortunately for the study but fortunate for the producers, both years had adequate rainfall so a true value of irrigation’s potential for forage growth was not tested. A positive was a trend was noted for all forage species however it may not be cost effective. Prime alfalfa hay could possibly cost $0.26 per kilogram of dry matter delivered. The producer would have to make a decision, if the costs presented here are true every year, if the investment, labor and other costs are cost-effective for their system.
Producers learned the cost of yield with sporadic irrigation practices. If the investment is made, the main costs after will be labor and certainly power (electricity, propane, natural gas) to run the systems. In a year with adequate rainfall, these costs may outweigh the cost of prime alfalfa. The main learning point was the following of evapotranspiration rate for the week. This allows the producer to know how much water needs to be applied each week to keep soil water holding capacities from being depleted resulting in reduced forage growth.
For these two years of irrigation observation, irrigation’s costs would be similar to the cost of purchasing prime alfalfa. The decision the producer makes is if the total investment for irrigation outweighs the total cost of purchased alfalfa year after year. These producers we believe would say yes, not only as an insurance policy as stated before but also for fringe benefits of forage re-establishment but also possible cow cooling during heat stress.
Project Objectives:
Objective 1: provide information for producers to develop a pasture system that enhances their lifestyle while securing long-term sustainability
- Eight discussion group/pasture walks were held over the grazing season in 2016 and 2017. Facebook group page was formed in early 2016. Information regarding pasture management as well as preliminary information from the irrigation study were shared with producers by the PI of the study as well as host producers. Information was shared through these avenues and a summary of the data will be provided at the end. Producers have already requested if the trial can continue further past year two in order to gather more information under different weather situations.
Objective 2: Determine cost-effectiveness of various irrigation systems across different forage systems
- Data on power usage and cost, time, capital expenditure was collected and compiled in report.
Objective 3: Determine water use efficiency between irrigation species and forage species
- This is ongoing. Raw forage data will be analyzed and confirmed via the forage neural network system and correlated to total water (rainfall and irrigation) as well as just rainfall to determine forage species efficiency. Additional data is needed to address this modeling as none of the forage species were stressed significantly.
Objective 4: Develop webpage for farmers to plug and play various scenarios to determine combinations best for their systems
- Data from this project is updating this model to allow producers to make informed decisions regarding irrigation usage as well as forage or irrigation type. Discussions have already been had with university economists to assist in the development and updating of this tool.
Cooperators
Research
Materials and methods:
SARE-report-PP1Six pasture based dairy farms utilizing one of three types of irrigation (center pivot, spider, pods) and 4 species of forages (perennial ryegrass, tall fescue/clover, alfalfa or crabgrass) participated in the study. The main objective was to provide information for producers to develop a pasture system that enhances their lifestyle while securing long-term sustainability. This entailed measuring forage response to irrigation, the type of irrigation, forage species response and the costs associated with irrigation.
Three to six paddocks on each farm were measured weekly beginning mid-May and ending October 30. Farms were measured weekly using sonar sensor technology mounted to an ATV. Records on irrigation dates, water applied, grazing/harvest events and rainfall were provided by the producer. Treatments of irrigation and non-irrigation occurred in each paddock as suggested by the producers. For center pivot irrigation, this consisted of only using paddocks that had both irrigation within the irrigators arc and dryland outside the arc of irrigation. For the other types of irrigation, a specific area within a paddock was designated by the producer to not be irrigated during the study. Measurements were taken separately on the irrigated and non-irrigated portions of each paddock weekly. Fertilization practices were the same for both irrigated and non-irrigated forages.
Measurements and Calibration:
Forage measurements were taken weekly on each farm, paddock and treatment using a sonic sensor mounted to the front of an ATV bike (Figure 1). The sensor emits sound waves and measures the time elapsed for waves to return. A small amount of elapsed time corresponds to a short travel distance and “tall” grass while a longer elapsed time would indicate “short” grass. The amount of data collected is large with the sensor recording data up to 50 times each second. Forage height is measured in millimeter of height from the ground.
Calibration of these heights are critical for accurate prediction of forage mass (Figure 2). During calibration, forage is measured in diverse locations across a pasture, including areas with short, medium and tall forage heights. This provides range needed for proper calibration. Forage from these measured areas is harvested with a machine, dried and weighed. We relate the amount of forage produced, to the height previously recorded by the sensor. These sensor heights and dry matter yields for the areas cut and measured are used to develop trend lines and equations for use across the farms.
Our results show a strong linear relationship exists between actual yield and predicted yield modeled from the sensor height and other environmental parameters (Figure 3). That the relationship is retained throughout the range of the data is important.
Analysis:
There were points in time across all farms irrigation events did not occur. Each forage mass measurement was coded according to treatment (irrigated vs non-irrigated) as well as if the treatment actually occurred. For example if a paddock area was supposed to receive irrigation but did not between grazing events, it was re-coded along with its non-irrigated treatment mate within the paddock and eliminated from the analysis. This allowed the analysis to evaluate the true value of irrigation rather than have the possible masking effects of an irrigated treatment area that did not get irrigated being included in the analysis. Each forage mass measurement was also coded relative to the growth phase in time. Measurements that occurred immediately prior to a grazing event were coded “Pre” and the subsequent measurement week “Post”. Subsequent weeks following a “Post” event were coded based on number of weeks past a “Post” event (week 1, week 2 and so on until a new grazing event occured). This evaluation should represent a generic growth phase of a forage. “Pre” would represent the amount of forage dry matter present for cows to graze at turn in; while “Post” represented the amount of forage remaining when cows left the paddock. Each coded point in the growth phase was analyzed via ANOVA using JMP SAS. There was no year to year interaction so all data was pooled for the analysis.
Research results and discussion:
Optimizing and timely utilization of forages in grazing systems are critical for cash flow, profit and sustainability. Rainfall in Missouri as well across other areas of the fescue belt can be sporadic and impact forage pasture growth forcing producers to supplement more expensive harvested forages or grains/commodities. Irrigation is a novel approach to maintaining forage growth in Missouri with little data or experience to draw on to make informed decisions.
Weather:
For an irrigation trial attempting to quantify various forage species yield effects to irrigation treatment, the years 2016 and 2017 were not ideal candidates. When evaluated against the five year average, it is apparent 2016 was abnormal in terms of soil available water at the 250 mm depth (Figure 4. Top Panel). Year 2016 in southwest Missouri was coined a New Zealand summer with its frequent rainfall and temperate temperatures. Year 2017 was similar but with less frequent and larger amounts of rainfall per event. Data in figure 4 is reported as weekly sum for water holding capacity, rainfall and evapotranspiration. Water holding capacity is reported as a percentage of capacity due to the various capacities of soil types across and within farms in the study. Although both treatment years were advantageous to producers participating in the study, it did make comparisons of systems and forage differences more difficult. However, we believe there were certain areas conclusions and recommendations could be made for producers interested in pasture-based irrigation.
Forages: Irrigated versus non-irrigated
Crabgrass: Crabgrass (Digitaria ciliaris) is generally considered to be a high producing (greater than 10 tons per hectare), and moderate to high-nutritive value forage (RFV greater than 150). Crabgrass is a summer annual forage established by seeding either through planting or managed to produce volunteer seed year to year. It is used in double-cropped systems following winter annuals such as triticale, wheat, annual ryegrass or cereal rye.
This producer uses a variety of crabgrass known as Red River developed by the Noble Foundation in Oklahoma. Crabgrass on this farm is double cropped with annual ryegrass planted the first week of September and terminated early May so crabgrass can be planted (5.5 kilograms PLS per hectare) mid-May. Crabgrass is terminated late-August for the establishment of annual ryegrass.
The producer elected to not irrigate crabgrass either year due to adequate dry matter forage growth on the grazing platform exceeding pasture feed demand (pasture dry matter intake per cow X stocking rate; 16 kilograms per cow pasture dry matter intake X 3 cows per hectare = 48 kilogram pasture feed demand). This indicates the producer needed to grow 48 kilograms per day per hectare (growth rate) across the grazing platform to maintain an equilibrium of farm pasture cover (average amount of dry matter forage per acre). In this case the producer exceeded this threshold the majority of weeks in both years, thus the decision to not irrigate the crabgrass. There were cases crabgrass forage daily growth rate exceeded 222 kilograms per day with cows returning to the paddock to be grazed every 10-14 days. In the few cases where growth rate slowed due to lowered soil available water, the producer would prepare to set up the irrigation system, however a rain event would occur prior to set-up and the irrigation event would be postponed. This producer utilized a pod-like irrigation system (K-Line; Figure 5)
Crabgrass average cover was typically greater than 2100 kilograms per hectare across both years (Figure 6). In 2016, soil water availability at the 250 mm soil depth dropped below 10% during the week of July 22. Average cover declined from the previous week but stabilized after rain events the following weeks. In contrast, in 2017, soil water availability declined to less than 10% for the weeks of July 15 and 22 and did not rise above 50% until the week of July 29. Growth rate and average cover did not recover to the levels of the previous weeks. Crabgrass has indeterminate growth characteristics making seed and leafy forage throughout its growing season. Observation has shown it tends to lean more to seed development later in the growing season. This may explain the lower average cover and growth rate for both years when soil available water was adequate.
As a side note, Figure 7 shows a distinct advantage for irrigation when establishing a new seeding. This picture was taken the fall of 2015. Annual ryegrass was planted September 1 and irrigated with the K-line system (50 mm). There were areas that the producer was unable to irrigate. On October 15, the irrigated annual ryegrass measured over 3000 Kg ha-1 while the non-irrigated areas measured less than 1000 Kg ha-1. This demonstrates the importance of moisture during the establishment stage as well as speaks of the value of irrigation in establishing a new pasture that is not captured in the current costs and benefits described later in the paper.
Alfalfa: Alfalfa (Medicago sativa), is a long lived perennial legume well known for its high yield and nutritive value (RFV greater than 180). It is one of the most commonly fed forages fed to lactating dairy cows. Growth patterns in grazing systems in southern Missouri tend toward grazing starting in early May and ending at the first hard freeze in mid-late October.
This was the only farm utilizing alfalfa as a component of their grazing system (Figure 8). Varieties utilized were selected for high traffic use to reduce crown damage and improve stand longevity. To reduce incidence of bloat, cows grazed alfalfa to a stubble height of 100 to 150 mm. This stubble held few leaves and consisted mostly of stem. During milking, cows would enter the stubble area of the paddock in groups of 20 cows allowing them time to consume effective fiber from the alfalfa stubble. On completion of milking, the entire herd would receive a new break of fresh alfalfa. The stubble area would be mowed to a residual of 44-60 mm to be reset for new growth. This practice has resulted in a very low incidence of bloat.
This farm utilizes a low pressure traveling gun type system (Spider) to apply up to 35 mm of water per full pass (Figure 9). The system is driven by water propelling the irrigator arms driving a ratchet to pull the spider attached to a cable anchored at the opposite end across the field. The water line source is pulled behind the Spider. This design led to the conclusion it should only be used once per grazing event in alfalfa paddocks due to the water line pulling/pushing over alfalfa plants. Alfalfa was intended to be irrigated within 2-3 days after the mow-down of the residual. As on all dairy farms, best intentions do not always means best results as other aspects of the farm could push aside the critical irrigation period for alfalfa. There were times irrigation events did not occur, although needed, when other farm matters took precedence. These periods were eliminated from the analysis.
In figure 10, top panel, the growth phase with Pre and Post harvests are shown. On average, irrigated alfalfa received 76 mm of irrigation across the season averaging nearly five grazing harvests per season. Irrigated alfalfa consistently yielded higher dry matter mass per hectare than non-irrigated. Irrigated alfalfa yields were 11, 18, 22, 19 and 8 percent higher than non-irrigated for weeks post grazing 1, 2, 3, 4 and for Pre grazing events, respectively. This resulted in an 86 kilogram per hectare (P=0.24) of forage mass advantage for the irrigated alfalfa at the measured Pre grazing week. Week four suggests 156 kilogram per hectare advantage for irrigated alfalfa. This larger advantage when compared to the Pre grazing week could possibly be a masking affect occurring during the pre-grazing week. There were measurement weeks where the producer was strip grazing the alfalfa when a measurement occurred. This would result in a portion of irrigated alfalfa had been grazed while the entire area of the non-irrigated alfalfa was untouched resulting in a lowered measurement of the irrigated alfalfa. The producer also indicated there were times alfalfa prior to grazing was beginning to layover due to a higher height which would result in a lowered mm height when compared to the previous week. It was indicated this typically occurred to the irrigated forage and not the non-irrigated. This indicates the advantage may well be closer to the 156 kilogram per hectare advantage for irrigated alfalfa rather than the 86 kilogram per hectare.
There were obvious times irrigation by observation demonstrated a striking advantage to the non-irrigated area (Figure 11). These times were rare during the 2 year trial and shows the need for additional research to determine the actual value of irrigation on pasture systems.
Perennial Ryegrass: Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium perenne) is well known across the dairy grazing world as a premiere cool-season perennial grass. It is noted for its ability to respond to grazing pressure, high yields and superior nutritive value. However, in southern Missouri, persistence can be an issue with some varieties needing to be reestablished after three seasons. Producers involved in this study have selected a variety (Albion) from France with a similar latitude as southern Missouri (Figure 12). This appears to have added one to two seasons before reestablishment must occur. Grazing management is similar to tall fescue with pre-grazing target heights of 100 mm and post-grazing residuals of 35 to 50 mm. Perennial ryegrass was irrigated under center pivot systems (Figure 13). The use of center pivot irrigation made irrigating decisions as a mere flick of the switch or push of a button will set irrigation in motion. Labor was not an issue if irrigation would occur or not as it appeared to be on the other systems.
In figure 10, middle panel, the growth phase with Pre and Post harvests are shown. On average, irrigated perennial ryegrass received 254 mm of irrigation across the season averaging over six grazing harvests per season. Irrigated perennial ryegrass consistently yielded higher dry matter mass per hectare than non-irrigated. Irrigated perennial ryegrass yields were 7, 35 and 9 percent higher than non-irrigated for week 1, 2 post grazing and for Pre grazing events, respectively. This resulted in a 125 kilogram per hectare (P=0.11) of forage mass advantage for the irrigated perennial ryegrass at the measured Pre grazing week. Week four suggests 156 kilogram per hectare advantage for irrigated perennial ryegrass. A masking affect again may be occurring due to perennial ryegrass being grazed consistently between week 2 and week 4 post grazing event and the weekly measurement unable to capture the true Pre grazing value.
Tall Fescue: Tall Fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus) with white clover (Trifolium repens) is a long-lived, comparatively deep rooted, perennial bunchgrass. Being a cool season forage, it is typically grazed from late March through late November in southern Missouri. High summer temperatures with inadequate rainfall can slow growth during the summer. This forage is known for responding to grazing pressure as well as persistence. These producers use a novel endophyte soft-leaf variety (BarOptima Plus E34) to avoid fescue toxicity. Tall Fescue was irrigated under two systems, Spider and center pivot. Grazing management on both farms generally consisted of a pre-grazing target height of 125 to 180 mm and grazing to a 50 to 80 mm residual so adequate water soluble carbohydrates from the stubble were available for regrowth.
In figure 10, bottom panel, the growth phase with Pre and Post harvests are shown. On average, irrigated tall fescue received 117 mm of irrigation across the season averaging 5.3 grazing harvests per season. Irrigated tall fescue consistently yielded slightly higher dry matter mass per hectare than non-irrigated. Irrigated tall fescue yields were 7.6, 0, 6.5 and 7 percent higher than non-irrigated for week 1, 2 and 3 post grazing and for Pre grazing events, respectively. This resulted in a 134 kilogram per hectare (P=0.29) of forage mass advantage for the irrigated tall fescue at the measured Pre grazing week. There does not appear to be a masking effect for tall fescue possibly due to time measurement was obviously before or after a grazing event at all times as compared to the alfalfa and perennial ryegrass.
Economics:
Producers supplied information regarding set-up and installation of their systems. In general, costs were $3100-3800 per hectare for center pivot, $2600 per hectare for the Spider and $1500 per hectare for the K-Line system. However, these numbers can be diluted or exaggerated depending on the farm. For instance, some farms required 3-phase power and others did not. The amount of dirt work required or movement of buildings or existing power lines added costs as well. It appears the major factor driving cost per hectare, is the number of hectares a system can reasonably irrigate consistently from the water source. The producer using the K-Line system had an existing water source and did not require the cost of drilling a well or constructing an impoundment. The zero cost of not developing a water source resulted in this system being half the cost of the other systems. However, the water supply here is limited which forces the producer to make critical decisions on if and when to irrigate.
In contrast, the higher cost center pivot may rely on deep well systems capable of nearly 7000 liters per minute. This system may be able to irrigate up to 200 hectares but requires a cost of 25-30 percent of the total cost solely for the water source. If wells are not capable of producing this amount of water, the number of hectares can reduce significantly thus raising the cost per hectare. On a different farm, cost were less for their center pivot as the water source is pumped from a river but costs were increased due to lay of the farm requiring some pivots to “windshield wipe” thus reducing the number of hectares the pivot is capable of irrigating.
The Spider system cost again was mostly driven by the cost of water source as well as limited by the number of hectares the system was capable of irrigating efficiently. Requiring around 3000 liters per minute for the system, the well, pump and water lines were approximately 40 percent of the total cost. This system utilized three Spider type irrigators. As stated earlier, the labor involved in the daily shifting of the irrigators to new areas in combination of the day to day duties of the dairy made irrigating inconsistent, especially with the small windows of opportunity for alfalfa.
The dairy team has begun to develop an irrigation worksheet to evaluate various systems. As we continue to accumulate more production and financial data this “plug and play” worksheet will be updated (http://dairy.missouri.edu/grazing/resources/).
Costs for additional dry matter forage for alfalfa, perennial ryegrass and tall fescue were $0.20, $0.43 and $0.30 per additional kilogram grown above the non-irrigated forage. Fertilization costs were the same as treatments were within the same paddock so were not included in the cost structure.
Conclusion: The years 2016 and 2017 were not good years to evaluate cost-effectiveness of irrigation as moisture was never consistently in severe depletion of water at the 250 mm soil depth as historically it can be for extended periods of time (Figure 4). Regardless, there appeared to be a trend of additional forage grown for all species (Alfalfa; P=0.24, Perennial Ryegrass; P=0.11; Tall Fescue; P=0.29). Alfalfa has a deeper root system compared to the other species, especially perennial ryegrass, and could be drawing moisture from a deeper depth than reported. Additionally, irrigation for alfalfa was sporadic due to the system type and labor required which could have had an effect as well. The irrigated grasses had similar annual increase in dry matter yields (Perennial Ryegrass; 125 kilograms per hectare; Tall Fescue; 134 kilograms per hectare) while alfalfa (86 kilograms per hectare) was slightly less again possible due to a deeper root system and sporadic irrigation events.
Costs were higher for perennial ryegrass due to nearly three times the amount of water applied. This raises the question if perennial ryegrass would have the same yield if the irrigation was reduced to the amount tall fescue received. Perennial ryegrass has a shallower root system compared to tall fescue and certainly alfalfa. Higher amount of water may be required. This needs to be further investigated.
When producers begin to entertain the investment of irrigation on pasture, they should adopt a system that fits their needs and goals as well as fits the parameters the system is capable of managing. Hectares irrigated and water source availability can drive the cost per hectare and should be listed as top areas of investigation if irrigation is a viable option for the farm. Secondly, the producer must be honest and determine if the labor resource is adequate to efficiently operate the system. Lesser cost per hectare can be erased if the system is not adequately utilized thus possibly reducing increased forage mass.
Not identified in this report is the added benefit irrigation can have on the establishment of new forages (Figure 14). Pasture out of production costs money not only in the investment of the establishment but the loss of potential production. This is evident in Figure 7 where irrigated annual ryegrass yielded 2000 Kg ha-1 more forage mass than non-irrigated in less than 45 days after establishment. A second potential benefit, is the use of the irrigation system to cool cows during periods of heat stress. It was difficult to measure as cows were not divided into groups cooled and not cooled, but research has shown advantages of cooling cows with less lost milk production as well as reduced embryonic loss.
This report shows additional research needs to be done on the value of irrigation. Producers have realized the importance of monitoring soil moisture conditions either via soil moisture probes (calibrated correctly) or following weekly evapotranspiration rates and irrigating accordingly. Questions that need to be answered are the amount of water needed to be applied across species. Power cost to apply water help drive the cost of efficiency of forage production. Power costs in this study could be as high as $14 per 25 mm water applied per hectare. Producers should know the proper amount and correct timing of irrigation to maximize efficiency of their system.
6 Farmers participating in research
Educational & Outreach Activities
10 Consultations
1 Curricula, factsheets or educational tools
6 On-farm demonstrations
2 Webinars / talks / presentations
8 Workshop field days
Participation Summary
50 Farmers
5 Ag professionals participated
Education/outreach description:
Monthly discussion groups in south central and southwest Missouri were held. Discussion groups consist of a general area of topic held on individual farms. Typically a farm-walk occurs as well. Owners or managers of the farm lead the discussion with informal questions and comments from the general audience usually consisting of other dairy farmers and occasionally beef operations. Monthly participation (15-60 people) ranges widely depending on weather conditions, distance to be traveled and interests in the topic. Irrigation and this irrigation study were discussed as side topics and updates. The summer of 2018, a formal report and presentation will be given to the producers at a special discussion group focusing on irrigation.
An Excel worksheet is being developed and updated as new data becomes available to assist producers in determining their potential costs and projected costs to produce additional forage via irrigation. http://dairy.missouri.edu/grazing/resources/
Data from this project was presented at the NC SARE Our Farms Our Future conference, in St. Louis. (Figure 15).
Current plans are to evaluate data and develop a prediction model for water applied with weather conditions and forage species type. This type of modeling will require range of results which we did not obtain in this study due to cooler than normal temperatures and above average rainfall for the irrigation season. It is hoped with additional data collection a reliable, easy to use, model can be developed and published in the Journal of Crop Science.
Learning Outcomes
6 Farmers reported changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills and/or awareness as a result of their participation
Key changes:
The main key for irrigation is understanding the soil's water holding capacity and the amount of water needed to be applied weekly to ensure this is not depleted to where it impacts forage growth. Producers began monitoring ET rate from their local weather apps and adjusting irrigation rates accordingly.
Producers saw that not all forages will perform to their expectations. Irrigation of cool season forages may not be the most efficient use of irrigation compared to warm season forages. For instance the producer using crabgrass did not need to irrigate at all for both seasons due to its efficient use of available water. However, each farm has its own goals and capacities. Some producers want to utilize a single forage species for ease of grazing management. A warm season component in their system will complicate grazing management. Their goal is for the cool season grass to survive and grow slowly through the summer months and be ready for steadily increasing growth growth in the fall.
Project Outcomes
6 Farmers changed or adopted a practice
1 Grant received that built upon this project
2 New working collaborations
Project outcomes:
Successful grazing operation in Missouri combine adequate pasture dry matter intake and forage nutritive value to drive milk production. It is commonly stated if we stake care of the grass the cows will take care of the milk. This means in our systems pasture growth rate needs to be consistently around 40 kilograms forage dry matter per hectare per day and nutritive values about 18% crude protein (CP) and metabolizable energy (ME) above 11. This requires actively growing forage plants. The two years of study did not put the stresses on the systems as we normally would see. However there were observations that appeared beneficial besides the trend towards increasing forage dry matter mass as previously reported. First, although this was not a design for measurement, it appeared there was less weed invasion in the irrigated areas compared to the non-irrigated. This may be due to less desired plant loss and open ground in the irrigated areas. This needs to investigated further as may mean less use of herbicide in controlling broad leaf weeds in pastures. Second, as stated with the first point, less open ground tended to be observed with the irrigated ground. As this was only a two year study we were not able to determine stand longevity. However, it could be deduced with less open ground, less desired plant deaths were occurring each year thus adding additional years to stand persistence. Lastly and perhaps most important was usage of water. Producers after seeing response rates across other farms and other species with varying irrigation amounts began to see they may be needing to be more specific in their irrigation methods. This may be more irrigation amounts at times and less at others. However with water becoming an ever increasing resource we need to value and protect, the irrigation protocols and methods to ensure irrigation efficiency will become even more important. We are already seeing these producers use ET rates and soil probes to help determine amounts and timing of irrigation.
Recommendations:
The producers understand the importance of this project to determine the cost effectiveness of irrigation for them personally but also industry wide. Grazing systems are becoming more popular across the country and the public’s positive perception of grass-based products (meat, milk, eggs) appears to be increasing daily. Systems need to be designed so these products can be efficiently produced at a reasonable price for the public and allows producers to have a successful and sustainable lifestyle. Irrigation will be a part of this system in many parts of the country. More information is needed to more directly account for forage mass growth (additional measurements at pre and post grazing events). More information is needed on the correct amount of water needed for each species. This would more than likely could entail plot research where various plots receive varying amounts of irrigation to determine the optimum amount of water needed. The project and producers thank the NC SARE for funding this project and important information for the producers.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE. | https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/onc16-014/ |
At Woodfield, we believe that design technology (DT) is an exciting, practical subject which enables children to use their creativity and reasoning to solve problems in a range of contexts. DT encourages children to see everything around them that is man-made as a designed object and to consider how designers have created objects with the user and purpose in mind. DT draws on other areas of the curriculum and gives children excellent opportunities to apply their learning, e.g. careful measuring of axels when making a vehicle, or choosing suitable waterproof materials to make a rain shelter.
Through the DT curriculum at Woodfield we want all children to be have the opportunity to work practically with a range of tools, materials and techniques. We include opportunities to solve problems in all areas of the subject: food, textiles and mechanisms (structures, levels & sliders, wheels & axles). Our DT curriculum encourages children to consider the user and purpose of their items each and every time they design a product. Whether they are designing for themselves, another real user, e.g. a parent/sibling, or a fictional user, e.g. Baby Bear, they consider what the needs of the user are and how their products need to match the user’s needs.
We plan for children to experience both pre-planned design and iterative design processes and, as a result of all of this, children are prepared for future stages of learning where they will again meet, and build upon, each of these areas.
Implementation
The DT curriculum at Woodfield follows the National Curriculum but we have also decided to enhance this and include work about the preparation and creation of food dishes in Year one and in Year Two; we believe that this is an essential part of everyday life and want children to develop a good understanding of healthy eating from a very young age.
Planning for DT is guided using long term plans and teachers are able to pitch the DT experience correctly using progression grid documents.
Throughout the DT process, the children design and create products that consider function and purpose and which are relevant to a range of sectors (for example, the home, school, leisure, culture, enterprise, industry and the wider environment).
The children are taught to:
Design:
• Use research and develop design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose, aimed at particular individuals or groups.
• Generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches, prototypes, pattern pieces and drawing and labelling.
Make:
• Select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks (for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing, as well as chopping and slicing) accurately.
• Select from and use a wider range of materials, ingredients and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their functional properties and, where appropriate, taste.
Evaluate:
• Investigate and analyse a range of existing products.
• Evaluate their ideas and products against their own design criteria and consider the views of others to improve their work.
• Understand how key events and individuals in design and technology have helped shape the world.
Technical knowledge:
- To build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable
- To explore and use mechanisms [for example, levers, sliders, wheels and axles], in their products.
The context for the children’s work in Design and Technology is also well considered and children learn about real life structures and the purpose of specific examples, as well as developing their skills throughout the programme of study. Design and technology lessons are mostly taught as a block so that children’s learning is focused throughout each unit of work.
Throughout all of the DT curriculum, children are expected to use the ‘Learning Powers’. For example, they need to work co-operatively when exploring different ways to join materials to find a way that makes a stable structure. Every problem they solve in DT requires them to be curious and use their reasoning skills and, when they come up against challenges, they will need to be resilient until they solve the problem. The ‘Learning Powers’ are very useful learning tools for all children in DT and their use encourages the children to be free thinking, creative, independent learners. We endeavour to ensure that the DT curriculum we provide inspires children to be excited about design technology, curious about the designed world and enthusiastic problem solvers who use their ideas and resources in a creative, innovative ways.
Special Educational Needs and Design Technology
Effective quality first teaching is the key to enabling all children to participate and develop their Design Technology knowledge and skills. Differentiation within lessons is a vital component to ensure that a balance of support and challenge is achieved by all learners.
Challenge and support specific to computing may include:
- Providing practical support to scaffold activities
- Pre-teaching of the relevant vocabulary
- Providing visual clues
Pupils not secure within a sequence of lessons or a skill taught are supported through differentiation of support given. Where appropriate the level of challenge is also increased through questioning or skill for those pupils requiring it.
Impact
The long term plans and progression documents ensure that the Government recommendations for coverage are being taught across the school and that progression is demonstrated.
The cross curricular DT curriculum provides inspiration so children are excited about the subject and become enthusiastic problem solvers who use their ideas and resources in a creative, innovative way. As designers’ children will develop skills and attributes they can use beyond school and into adult hood.
Files have been created for each element of DT: mechanisms, textiles, structures and food. These provide all staff with suggested practical activities, design pro-forma, planning and photographs of the work produced by each year group and enable staff to confidently teach each element. They also support new members of staff.
End of Key Stage One Expectations
By the end of Key Stage 1, as designers, children will be able to:
- Design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users based on design criteria.
- Select from and use a wide range of materials, tools and equipment.
- Evaluate their ideas and products against design criteria.
- Build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable and explore and use mechanisms in their products. | https://www.woodfield.shropshire.sch.uk/design-technology/ |
Much like Isaac Newton imagined when he gave his famous “shoulders of giants” quote, our modern civilizations owe a great deal to those which came before us. While examples like the Sumerians or Egyptians are deeply ingrained in nearly everyone’s minds, there are a number of other civilizations which have been largely forgotten. Here are 10 of them.
10Hattian Civilization
The Hattians were a civilization which inhabited the area of present-day Anatolia, Turkey from the 26th century to around the 18th century B.C. Believed to be the earliest urban settlers of the area, their existence can be traced to 24th-century Akkadian cuneiform tablets. Most archaeologists believe that they were indigenous to the area preceding the more famous Hittite civilization, which arrived in the 23rd century B.C. The two cultures slowly merged together, with the Hittites adopting a variety of Hatti religious beliefs and practices. Many of the largest Hittite settlements, such as Alaca Hoyuk and Hattusa, are believed to have originally been Hattian.
While they had their own spoken language, no evidence of a written form of the Hatti language has ever been found. It’s likely that they were multilingual, perhaps to facilitate trade with their Assyrian partners. In fact, most of what we know about the Hattians comes from the widespread adoption of their culture by the Hittites. Their population probably existed as a majority for decades—if not centuries—while they were under the aristocratic rule of the Hittites, before they eventually faded away into obscurity.
9Zapotec Civilization
While most people are familiar with the Aztecs and the Maya of Mesoamerica, the people known as the Zapotec remain relatively obscure. Among the first people in the area to use agricultural and writing systems, they also built one of the earliest recognized cities in North America—Monte Alban. Founded in the fifth century B.C., the city was home to a maximum of 25,000 citizens and lasted for over 1,200 years. In Monte Alban, a privileged class made up of priests, warriors, and artists ruled over the lower classes.
Like many of the civilizations of Mesoamerica, the Zapotecs subjugated the surrounding areas through a mix of warfare, diplomacy, and tribute. The sudden downfall of their culture seemed to have no reason, and their largest city was mostly left intact, though it was eventually ruined by years of abandonment. Some scholars believe that a failure of their economic system may have pushed the Zapotecs to find work elsewhere. The rest of the population grouped together into various city-states, which proceeded to fight each other (as well as outside forces) until they were no more.
8Vinca Civilization
Europe’s biggest prehistoric civilization, the Vinca, existed for nearly 1,500 years. Beginning in the 55th century B.C., they occupied land throughout Serbia and Romania. Named after a present-day village near the Danube River, where the first discoveries were made in the 20th century, the Vinca were a metal-working people, perhaps even the world’s first civilization to use copper (they also excavated the first mine in Europe).
Though the Vinca people had no officially recognized form of writing, examples of proto-writing, symbols which don’t actually express language, have been found on various stone tablets which date as far back as 4000 B.C. In addition, they were artistic and fond of children; archaeologists have found various toys, such as animals and rattles, buried among the other artifacts. They were also extremely organized—the houses of the Vinca civilization had specific locations for trash, and the dead were all buried in a central location.
7Hurrian Civilization
Another civilization which influenced the Hittites was the Hurrian people, who lived throughout the Middle East during the second millennium B.C. It’s probable that they were around even earlier than that: Personal and place names written in the Hurrian language were found in Mesopotamian records dating back to the third millennium B.C. Unfortunately, very few artifacts of their civilization exist; most of what we know about them comes from the writings of other cultures, including the Hittites, Sumerians, and Egyptians.
One of their largest cities is known as Urkesh and is located in northeastern Syria. Urkesh is also where the earliest known text in Hurrian, a stone tablet and statue known as the Louvre lion, was found. Long believed to be mainly nomadic, scholars now believe that the Hurrians may have had a much bigger impact than previously thought, mostly due to the way their language differed from other Semitic and Indo-European tongues. However, by the end of the second millennium B.C., nearly all ethnic traces of the Hurrians had disappeared, with only their influence on the Hittites left behind.
6Nok Civilization
Named after the area in Nigeria in which artifacts of their culture were first discovered, the Nok civilization flourished during the first millennium B.C. before fading into obscurity in the second century A.D. Some theories posit that the overexploitation of natural resources played a large role in the population’s decline. Whatever the case, scholars believe that they played an important role in the development of other cultures in the area, such as the Yoruba and Benin peoples.
Perhaps the best-known examples of their artistic nature are the terra-cotta figures which have been found throughout the area. They were also the earliest known Africans to have smelted iron, though it’s believed that it was introduced to them through another culture, perhaps the Carthaginians. The reason for this assumption is that no evidence for copper smelting has ever been found, which was a precursor to an iron age in nearly every other civilization. Although they’re believed to be one of the earliest African civilizations, evidence of their existence has been slow to come to light because modern-day Nigeria is a notoriously difficult place to study.
5Punt Civilization
A popular trading partner with ancient Egypt, the land of Punt (pronounced “poont”) was famous for producing incense, ebony, and gold. Scholars differ on where they believe the civilization was, with a range from South Africa all the way up the coast to the Middle East. Even though the Egyptians wrote extensively on the land and its people, they never bothered to actually say where it was.
A lot of our knowledge of Punt comes from the reign of Hatshepsut, the famed female pharaoh who ruled Egypt during the 15th century B.C. Reliefs in her mortuary temple contain information on a rather large trade expedition to Punt, as well as more specific details, like pictures of beehive-shaped houses on stilts. A scene showing Hatshepsut receiving wondrous gifts from the exotic land is also carved into the temple walls. Unfortunately, no actual archaeological evidence showing the location of Punt has ever been found, although there have been numerous Egyptian artifacts inscribed with the civilization’s name, giving scholars hope that Punt might one day be unearthed.
4Norte Chico Civilization
Beginning with its arrival during the third millennium B.C. and lasting for over 1,200 years, the Norte Chico civilization dominated South America as the oldest sophisticated culture on the continent. Named for the region of present-day Peru which they occupied, they had 20 major cities, with advanced architecture and agriculture making up a large portion of their settlements. They also developed intricate irrigation systems, sophistication which was unheard of in the Americas at that time.
Artifacts recognizable as religious symbols have been found throughout the area, especially near the stone pyramids for which the Norte Chico civilization is famous. There is some debate over whether or not they qualify as a civilization, as well as what that term even means. Usually, indicators like a form of art and a sense of urbanization are key, but the Norte Chico civilization possessed neither of these. Whatever the case, there is no denying that they were an influence on later South American cultures, such as the Chavin civilization, which began a few hundred years after the fall of the Norte Chicos.
3Elamite Civilization
Although their name for themselves was Haltam, the name “Elam” comes from the Hebraic transcription of the word. The Elamite civilization consisted mostly of land inside present-day Iran, along with a small portion of Iraq. One of the earliest civilizations, it was founded sometime in the third millennium B.C. and is by far the oldest in all of Iran. Situated along the borders of Sumer and Akkad, the land of Elam was similar to its neighbors, although its language was altogether unique.
Although they lasted as an independent kingdom for at least a millennium, if not longer, very little is known about them because Elamite scribes were not concerned with documenting their mythology, literature, or any scientific advancements. Writing was mostly seen as a way to honor the king or perform administrative duties. Due to this fact, they made a rather small impact on the development of future civilizations, especially when compared to the Egyptians and Sumerians.
2Dilmun Civilization
An important trading civilization in its heyday, Dilmun encompassed an area consisting of present-day Bahrain, Kuwait, and parts of Saudi Arabia. Although very little concrete evidence has been found as of yet, scholars believe that a few sites, namely Saar and Qal’at al-Bahrain, are ancient settlements of the Dilmun people. Saar is still being investigated, but a large number of the artifacts that have already been found there date to the third millennium B.C., lending credence to the theory that it was built by the Dilmun civilization.
Dilmun was a major commercial player in its day, with control over the Persian Gulf trading lanes and a communication network that reached as far away as Turkey. Numerous water springs flow all across the area, which researchers believe may have led to the legend of Bahrain being the Biblical Garden of Eden. In addition, Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom, was said to have lived in the underground springs. Described as “the place where the sun rises,” Dilmun played a large role in Sumerian mythology; according to legend, Dilmun was the place where Utnapishtim was taken to live for eternity.
1Harappan Civilization
Also known as the Indus Valley Civilization, the Harappans were a group of people who lived in parts of present-day Pakistan and India. Gifted with the idea that planning cities in advance would be a good idea, their urban areas were second to none; unfortunately, due to what scientists believe to have been a massive, centuries-long drought, their culture slowly declined, never to rise again. This is currently nothing more than a theory, but it helps explain other cultural declines in the area as well.
Beginning sometime in the 25th century B.C., the Harappans also developed their own language, a script with nearly 500 different characters which has not been completely deciphered even today. Their most noteworthy artifacts are seals, usually made of soapstone, which depict various animals and mythical creatures. Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro are the two largest Harappan sites, with the former labeled as a UNESCO Heritage Site. When it collapsed, the ruins of the Harappan civilization provided a template for the various other cultures which sprang up after it.
Follow us on Facebook or subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter so you don't miss out on our latest lists. | http://listverse.com/2014/03/29/10-ancient-civilizations-that-history-forgot/ |
Q:
Actively drawing "under" a translucent area in p5.js
I ran into a puzzling problem when I was developing a larger p5.js sketch, and my solution is not sitting right with me. So, I've boiled it down to this (admittedly lame) sketch.
This p5.js sketch draws several randomly sized and colored dots each frame. In the center of the canvas is a translucent blue filled rectangle that appears to be between the viewer and the dots. It's the translucent blue area that is the problem. The sketch works, but I can't help but think there's a better way to implement the translucency.
var cells;
var cellsz = 10;
var wid, hgt;
function setup()
{
wid = floor(windowWidth / cellsz);
hgt = floor(windowHeight / cellsz);
createCanvas(windowWidth, windowHeight);
frameRate(15);
cells = new Array(wid);
for (x = 0; x < wid; x++) {
cells[x] = new Array(hgt);
for (y = 0; y < hgt; y++) {
cells[x][y] = false;
}
}
}
function cell_draw(c)
{
strokeWeight(1);
stroke(c.r, c.g, c.b);
fill(c.r, c.g, c.b);
ellipse(c.x, c.y, c.w, c.w);
}
function cell_new()
{
var x = int(floor(random(wid)));
var y = int(floor(random(hgt)));
var c = {
x: x * cellsz,
y: y * cellsz,
w: random(cellsz * 2),
r: floor(random(256)),
g: floor(random(256)),
b: floor(random(256))
};
cells[x][y] = c;
cell_draw(c);
}
// draw a translucent blue filled rectangle in the center of the window
function overlay()
{
strokeWeight(1);
stroke(0, 0, 255, 75);
fill(0, 0, 255, 75);
var w = windowWidth / 4;
var h = windowHeight / 4;
rect(w, h, w * 2, h * 2);
}
// erase what's in the center of the window, then redraw the underlying cells
function underlay()
{
strokeWeight(1);
stroke(255);
fill(255);
var w = windowWidth / 4;
var h = windowHeight / 4;
rect(w, h, w * 2, h * 2);
var x0 = floor((w / cellsz) - 2);
var y0 = floor((h / cellsz) - 2);
var x1 = floor(x0 + 3 + ((w * 2) / cellsz));
var y1 = ceil(y0 + 3 + ((h * 2) / cellsz));
for (x = x0; x <= x1; x++) {
for (y = y0; y <= y1; y++) {
if (cells[x][y]) {
cell_draw(cells[x][y]);
}
}
}
}
function draw()
{
underlay();
for (i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
cell_new();
}
overlay();
}
body {padding: 0; margin: 0;}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/p5.js/0.5.0/p5.js"></script>
The basic idea behind the code is that the canvas is quantized into fixed-size cells. Each cell holds zero or one dot object (its position, diameter, and color). As each new random dot is chosen, it is saved into the appropriate cell. This functions as a logical memory for what's in the canvas. (It's not perfect, though, as it does not handle the order in which dots are drawn. But, whatever, we're all friends here.)
I struggled with the basic problem of the translucent area. Initially, I was redrawing the entire frame each time, as seems to be the Processing way... But there were just too many objects. It was taking far too long to draw each frame. In the end, I ended up blowing away the area under the translucent rectangle, redrawing just the affected objects, and then laying down a new translucent rectangle on top.
Is there a technique that I can apply here that performs better, or uses less code, or... (gasp) both?
A:
Your approach is pretty reasonable, but you could simplify it by basically using a buffer image to store your underlay instead of a 2D array. Draw your dots to that, then each frame simply draw the entire buffer to the screen, then draw the rectangle overlay on top of that. This has the benefit of not restricting yourself to array positions, and it'll work for similar layering issues in the future.
See my answer here for more info, but the basic approach would be something like this:
var buffer;
function setup() {
createCanvas(windowWidth, windowHeight);
frameRate(15);
buffer = createGraphics(width, height);
//start with white background
buffer.background(255);
}
function drawRandomCircleToBuffer() {
buffer.noStroke();
buffer.fill(random(255), random(255), random(255));
var diameter = random(5, 20);
buffer.ellipse(random(buffer.width), random(buffer.height), diameter, diameter);
}
rect(mouseX, mouseY, 200, 200);
}
function draw() {
drawRandomCircleToBuffer();
image(buffer, 0, 0);
overlay();
}
body {padding: 0; margin: 0;}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/p5.js/0.5.0/p5.js"></script>
| |
672 Baldwin Drive, BRENTWOOD, CA 94513
Beautiful Rutherford Model Home 3 Bed & 2.5 Bath With Over 2200 Square Feet. Located in Summerset 3 Adult Community This Home Has Custom Tile Throughout. Large Master Suite With Sunken Tub Walk-In Closet. Owner Owned Solar, Central Vacuum. Enormous Kitchen w/Breakfast Bar, Two Sided Fireplace, Corian Countertops & Large Walk-In Pantry Off Hobby Room. No Rear Neighbors, Fantastic Views of Surrounding Area From Rear Yard. HOA Amenities Include Club House, Greenbelt, Gym/Exercise Facility, Pool, Security Gate, Spa, Tennis Courts, & So Much More!
Features
|BATH NON-MSTR INCLUDE||Shower Over Tub, Solid Surface|
|BATH-MASTER INCLUDES||Solid Surface, Stall Shower, Tub|
|COOLING||Ceiling Fan(s), Central 1 Zone A/C|
|DISABLED FEATURES||Other|
|EXTERIOR||Stucco|
|FIREPLACES||Family Room, Gas Burning, Two-Way|
|Fireplaces||1|
|FLOORING||Carpet, Tile|
|FOUNDATION||Slab|
|Garage (Y/N)||Yes|
|Garage Spaces||3|
|GARAGE/PARKING||Attached Garage|
|HEATING||Forced Air 1 Zone, Solar|
|HOA AMENITIES||Club House, Greenbelt, Gym/Exercise Facility, Other, Pool, Security Gate, Spa, Tennis Court(s)|
|Kitchen Features||Breakfast Bar, Counter - Solid Surface, Dishwasher, Double Oven, Eat In Kitchen, Garbage Disposal, Gas Range/Cooktop, Ice Maker Hookup, Microwave, Pantry|
|LAUNDRY||Hookups Only, In Laundry Room|
|Level - Street||2 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths, Laundry Facility, Main Entry, Master Bedrm Suite - 1, No Steps to Entry|
|LOT DESCRIPTION||Down Slope, Level|
|POOL||Community Fclty, In Ground, Spa|
|Pool (Y/N)||Yes|
|ROOF||Tile|
|ROOM - ADDITIONAL||Dining Area, Family Room, Formal Dining Room, Utility Room|
|STYLE||Contemporary|
|VIEWS||City Lights|
|WATER/SEWER||Sewer System - Public, Water - Public|
|YARD DESCRIPTION||Back Yard, Front Yard, Patio Covered, Side Yard|
Community Info
Local Schools
Local Utilities
Recreation
Restaurants
Home and Garden
Schools
Comments
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Courtesy of LISA MANIFOLD, COMPASS
© 2018 BEAR, bridgeMLS, CCAR. This information is deemed reliable but not verified or guaranteed. This information is being provided by the Bay East MLS or bridgeMLS or Contra Costa MLS. The listings presented here may or may not be listed by the Broker/Agent operating this website. | http://www.homesbylisamanifold.com/672-Baldwin-Drive-BRENTWOOD-CA~l5373319 |
Vanet Thesis for Research Scholars.
VANET Thesis lays its focus in security, broadcasting, quality of service and routing. A type of mobile ad hoc network is VANET. VANET Thesis targets on current efforts on research placed in vehicular adhoc network. VANET Thesis is based on multicast routing. It enables multimedia communication in VANET. Vanet routing deals in operative path for data transmission to find mechanism.Vanet thesis in recent trends focus on increased demand on car safety and improvement in vehicle communication. Our concern will assist in Vanet Thesis topics based on your requirement with best customer support.
VANET Thesis Based on Routing Protocol.
What is routing in Vanet? A specific class that could use various adhoc protocols related to MANET is VANET. The working which is based on specific address denoted by every node is protocol. In vehicular ad hoc network each unique address routing are enabled. Routing protocol in Vanet can be classified into three types as follows.
- Reactive routing protocols.
- Proactive routing protocols.
- Position based routing.
Characteristics of Vehicular ad hoc network .
- Limited bandwidth.
- Communication medium is shared.
- Highly reliable.
- Smart communication protocol for fast delivery.
- All Wireless devices are supported using Vanet.
Quality of service in VANET Thesis.
To improve the message latency and to derive optimized available bandwidth current efforts in vanet are being processed. Due to many network factors QOS in vanet stays as a big challenge. New paths in QOS routing can be laid down, incase if current path is not available due to mobility of nodes. QOS parameters in communication could be improved by multipath routing in vehicular network. In network the available bandwidth could be improved by multipath routing.
Latest IEEE VANET Thesis Topics.
|Privacy-Preserving Traffic Monitoring in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks|
|Performance Modeling and Analysis of the IEEE 802.11p EDCA Mechanism for VANET|
|A Survey on Platoon-Based Vehicular Cyber-Physical Systems|
|A Study on Energy Saving and Emission Reduction on Signal Countdown Extension by Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks|
|The Network Capacity Issues on Designing Routing Protocol of Vehicular Adhoc Network|
|MANETs and VANETs clustering algorithms: A survey|
|DTN Protocols for Vehicular Networks: An Application Oriented Overview|
|VANET Thesis Topics.|
Vanet simulators:
Traffic and network simulations are provided by many simulators for VANET for the purpose of traffic and transportation engineering traffic simulators are used.
We make use of network simulator for network protocols and applications.
GUI is supported by VANET. Trace files for other NS2 and Qualnet simulators can be generated by VANET.All the above technologies are followed up by our technicians for vanet thesis
Vanet thesis concepts are short range communication in vanet, security, Group Detection and Analysis in VANETs.
Area of research in vanet is, standardization, and development because it has tremendous potential to improve vehicle and road safety, traffic efficiency, and convenience as well as comfort to both drivers and passengers.
Applications of VANET.
- In vehicle fuel can be saved.
- Parking availability.
- Electronic toll collection.
- Access of internet in vehicular communication.
- Utilization of time in vehicular communication.
- Route diversion.
- Remote vehicle personalization. | https://academiccollegeprojects.com/vanet-thesis/ |
Community sports: Wells, Gamba win at Silver Oak
Bert Wells and Gary Gamba won their respective flights at the recent Carson City Sunday Men’s Club event at Silver Oak.
Wells won Flight 1 with a 65, one shot better than Eric Fujita and Wes Camp. Tony Allec was fourth with a 67.
Gamba won Flight 2 with a 64, four strokes ahead of Craig Luce and five clear of Paul Jorgensen.
• On July 30, John Meyer won Flight 1 with a net 64, a shot better than Dan Wilson, Jim Sapien, Milo Beauchman and John Owens. Gamba took Flight 2 with a 61, two shots better than Steve Hinckley and Jeff Cloutier, and two better than Mike Gaynor.
Knighton wins Empire
event at Silver Oak
Dave Knighton shot a net 65 to win the recent Empire Ranch Senior Men’s Club event held at Silver Oak.
Augie Martinez was second with a 66, and Geoff Swann and Richard Brown occupied the next two spots with 67s.
Kurt Cleek won Flight B with a 60, three strokes better than Fred Perdomo and eight ahead of Robey Willis. Donnie Curd took Flight C with a 62. Dave Serviss took second via a tiebreaker with a 67. George Allison was third with a 67.
Golf tourney at
Carson Valley
The Carson Valley Mixed Couples League is holding a tournament Aug. 19 at 8 a.m. at Carson Valley Golf Course.
The format is three clubs and a putter. The cost for the event is $50, which includes golf, cart, $10 toward the prize fund and lunch.
You must have an established handicap to compete.
For information, call 265-3181.
Dance tryouts for Bighorns
RENO – The Reno Bighorns have announced they will hold open auditions for the 2017-18 Lady Bighorns Dance Team on Sept. 10 at 12:30 p.m. at Caughlin Athletic Club.
The Bighorns will hold two pre-audition workshops on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Caughlin Athletic Club in the group exercise room. The workshop will act as a mock audition and will feature the choreography style that will be taught at auditions. Participants are asked to come game ready with full performance hair and makeup as well as an audition outfit to get individual feedback on appearance and performance. The workshop is free and tryouts are $25.
In the past four years, five Lady Bighorn Dancers have made professional dance teams in both the NBA and NFL.
Registration information for the pre-audition workshop and auditions can be found at http://www.renobighorns.com. For information, contact the Bighorns at 775-853-8220.
Flag football signups
Signups are underway for the Carson City Talents NFL Fall Flag Football League. Signups will be accepted through Sept. 5 or until the league is full. The league is for boys and girls ages 10-13 as of Aug. 1.
Cost is $90 per player and the discounted cost for children of coaches is $60. Cost includes jersey, flags and insurance. League play is scheduled to begin in mid-September and the season is scheduled to end the week of Nevada Day. Games will be played at Eagle Valley Middle School.
Registration can be done at http://carsoncitynflflagfootballleague.siplay.com/site and players must also sign up at http://www.nflflag.com/form/player to be registered with NFL Flag Football.
For information, contact Charles Whisnand at [email protected] or 720-9571 or Ralph Myrehn at [email protected].
Flag Football coaches are needed
The Carson City Talents NFL Fall Flag Football League is also in need of coaches. Coaches can also form their own team of eight players. Those interested can contact Charles Whisnand at [email protected] or 720-9571. Coaches must also register at http://www.nflflag.com/form/coach. | https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/community-sports-wells-gamba-win-at-silver-oak/ |
- Cynthia Fortlage
Digging Deep or on Pause?
How are you using this time with a stay at home orders and working remotely?
Is this a time you pause your personal development, or are you digging deep and working on the tough stuff?
I describe my travel adventures as on pause and not cancelled. What I
mean by that is I am unable to travel about due to Government restrictions but when it's safe to do so I will resume some form of travel, at this time I don't know if it's the same path as I was on or if there is a new path I am to follow, but I will be travelling.
Maybe that's the path your on with your personal development. You were doing some good work, but perhaps for any number of reasons lately that work and the person(s) you were doing that work with has been put on pause. When reasonable to do so you will resume that work.
Perhaps you are like me in the first two months of 2020 and you were doing neither? I was so busy being a social butterfly and enjoying new countries every 4 to 5 weeks that I had a social calendar that was so full I didn't have time to work on much, especially not myself. So you blindly go forward with unprocessed thoughts and feelings (the tough stuff we bury deep).
COVID Time
The response to COVID-19 with social distancing, isolation rules, curfews and more has given many, not all of us, time. Time to pause, dig deep, or do nothing, what have you been doing?
If you have met me personally you will know that I tend to go deep often, It is how I have been trained and wired. I also find great satisfaction from the dep work. This wasn't always my case. I was more keep busy and be a social butterfly and just ignore it all or assume it didn't exist.
I don't think I was unique living a life like this, I believe many of you reading this and believing that neither is your answer may in fact be living a life of lying to yourself. No that doesn't mean I am suggesting that my path will be your path as well, that was my path, yours will be uniquely yours and it could just mean being more honest with yourself and not a completely life-changing event as I travelled.
So what changed, I did!
I was always trained and have mentioned more than once in my online writings that one of the most impactful lessons I learned in management happened early in my management career. I can not change anyone, only myself!!
When I was faced with an identity issue and did the work to brush off the ground cover hiding the truth, I could have covered it up and gone back to living a life that was a lie to myself and everyone in my life ultimately. I never knew that was a lie at the time, only upon reflection do I realize that for me it was a living a life of a lie. I am sorry to you if you were impacted by that.
I always had a few core beliefs that became a part of my work DNA, the first is the clock analogue and the second is imperative to get things done.
The imperative, I had a wonderful leader and friend who always said let's get this done, not now but right now!! That truly became part of my mindset. Realize that not everything I ever did was done right away, reality says that everything is a balancing act, making trade-offs in order to accomplish goals. Rarely did everything gets done when I wanted it done but a lot got done and goals were accomplished. That doesn't mean that my friend's advice was wrong, it just meant that work when dependent upon many persons efforts such as large projects was a balancing act, but if the work solely is upon you and it's important and urgent, get it done, not now but right now!!
The clock, a clock tells time, it only moves forward. We know the clock had history we remember but we can not go back in time. So like the clock, everything can only move forward.
So when faced with this identity issue I had to deal with it not now, but right now! I also couldn't cover it back up and hope it goes away, I waited 50 years to acknowledge it, I had to move forward regardless where the journey would take me.
It was in this journey that I had no choice but to do the deep work as everything I thought I knew, every point of view, every value I thought I had adopted, my sense of understanding roles and identity all had to be challenged and reprocessed with a new lens of identity.
That's what changed, it was me!!
This work continues to this day, not so much about identity although there is some still; but a healthy relationship with a friend; being a good global citizen; what privilege looks like and how it negatively impacts others who don't have my privilege; human rights and much more.
I use various techniques to work through and actively on these issues in order to be like the clock and move forward.
A simple example to help you understand this; Being in lockdown I get agitated at times. No one did anything to cause the agitation, it's an anxiety-driven feeling I get into. That's my feelings to own and deal with, not anyone else's issue. So I remove myself from the space I am in and get to a quiet place where I can meditate, sometimes for hours. I need to acknowledge the feelings because they come from someplace in me, I honour the feeling that came forward, I process it and send it away. I then need to create a more positive frame of mind before I leave my quiet space and return to existing in the space with others in lockdown. That's the deep work I do.
I can't imagine going back anymore, trust me I had second thoughts of doubt I had to do deep work on. I know in my mind, heart, and soul that my path is true and right for me.
So I ask you again, Is this a time you pause your personal development or are you digging deep and working on the tough stuff? | https://www.cynthiafortlage.com/post/digging-deep-or-on-pause |
It’s no secret that I love to dance salsa. As a result, many people ask me if I have a regular salsa partner. The answer is “no.” I simply show up at the salsa venues and hope (and pray!) that the good dancers will ask me to dance. My favorite salsa partner in San Diego is tall, blond, and of Norwegian descent while my favorite Phoenix salsa partner is short, dark haired, and of Peruvian descent. Mr. Peru and I recently exchanged a few words that left me speechless.
I’d arrived at my regular, Sunday night salsa venue only to discover that the dancing had been moved from the upstairs, outdoor patio to an inside location. As we were waiting for the beginning salsa lesson to finish, Mr. Peru mentioned there was a wedding reception upstairs and that’s why we were indoors. I jokingly said, “Well, let’s go join the wedding party and dance with them.” To which he replied, “I hate weddings.”
I was caught more than a bit off-guard. My reflexive come-back was, “I love weddings” to which Mr. Peru said something disparagingly about commitment. Lamely I said, “Commitment has many benefits to it,” to which he replied with a triumphant smile and upraised arms, “Why should I give up my freedom?” End of conversation.
I was completely caught off balance, but I shouldn’t have been. Just a week before, our chancery office (where I work) had gathered for an Easter retreat on the “Four Levels of Happiness” by Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ. If I had been using the four levels to guide our conversation, I would have immediately recognized Mr. Peru’s comment as a classic Level 1 Happiness statement, but I was too entrenched in Happiness Levels 3 and 4, so my brain froze.
Now that my brain has thawed, perhaps together we can apply the 4 Levels of Happiness to my conversation with Mr. Peru, which, I think, represents many conversations Catholics find themselves in these days. So, let’s start with a sketch of the Four Levels of Happiness.
Level 1 Happiness is connected with our physicality. This kind of happiness arises from bodily desires and input from our five senses. When our bodily desires are nicely satisfied or we experience delectable sensory stimulation, these register as sensory pleasure and sometimes even euphoria. Salsa dancing hits the Level 1 Happiness bull’s eye for me – and for Mr. Peru.
For many of us, our lives are filled with Level 1 Happiness: a restful night’s sleep; a delicious cup of coffee; jamming to our preferred music in the car; a successful round of golf on a beautiful 72-degree day; an intense workout at the gym; opening day of deer hunting; the sight of a neat and tidy house with all the dishes washed and laundry put away; a perfectly cooked steak complemented by a glass of robust, red wine; a walk at the beach; a guided bus-tour of Paris or London, etc.
As embodied persons, we’re created with an amazing capacity for feeling pleasure through our five senses as we take care of both the basic needs of the body as well as the desires of the body. Meeting these needs and desires brings a sense of contentment, satisfaction, and even intense pleasure and natural highs.
Level 2 Happiness moves beyond our bodily needs and sensory pleasures to ego reinforcement. Ego happiness comes to us through winning and achieving. This sense of personal accomplishment in
comparison to others bulks up our sense of status, respect, popularity, power, and prestige. With the advent of the Internet and social media, avenues for ego happiness are perhaps at an all-time high. We can experience an ego boost not only through a promotion at work, winning a contract, or from our children’s successes and trophies, but also through the number of followers, likes, or hits we have on social media or YouTube. Being recognized as a “social influencer” or achieving YouTube stardom feeds ego happiness in an intoxicating way.
If you’re thinking Levels 1 and 2 are rather self-centered, then you are…a winner! Congratulations, you have demonstrated keen insight into human nature far beyond your peers! A round of applause for you!
Does that round of applause provide a little burst of affirmation and approval for you? If so, then your Self has just tasted a bit of Level 2 happiness since in both Levels 1 and 2 the Self is the reference point for our experience of happiness.
Level 3 Happiness, however, represents a transition from the Self being the sole reference point for happiness to others being included as well. Of course, I’m not saying it’s valid to use other people for your happiness. That would be a Level 1 or 2 Happiness since use of others is directed at satisfying or stimulating sensory or ego happiness. In contrast, Level 3 Happiness derives from using one’s gifts and talents to make a difference in the lives of others, the world, and society. It is motivated by the desire to make the world a better place and to leave a legacy that benefits others rather than merely one’s self. Level 3 Happiness emerges from responding to the good beyond one’s self.
From St. John Paul II’s perspective, Level 3 Happiness would be the daily living out of GS 24 – “Man…cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” Rather than seeking primarily sensory pleasure (Level 1) or ego strokes through personal accomplishments and achievements (Level 2), Level 3 Happiness flows from meaning, most especially the spousal meaning of the body. Just in case you haven’t memorized JP2’s description of the spousal meaning of the body, here it is from TOB Audience 15:1: “…the power to express love: precisely that love in which the human person becomes a gift and – through this gift – fulfills the very meaning of his being and existence.”
At our staff workshop, Pat Tillman was presented as an inspiring example of Level 3 Happiness. A gifted athlete, Pat was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the 1998 NFL Draft. Pat became the team’s starting safety and broke the franchise record for tackles in 2000 with 224. In 2002, Pat walked away from a $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army. On the evening of April 22, 2004, Pat’s unit was ambushed as it traveled through eastern Afghanistan, leading to his death (see www.pattillmanfoundation.org).
Pat visibly lived the spousal meaning of the body; he passionately expressed his power to love through the gift of himself on behalf of others and his country. Pat forfeited Level 1 and 2 Happiness so he could serve others and leave an enduring legacy.
Pat’s legacy launches us directly into the heart of Level 3 Happiness: love. Love engages the will and human freedom on behalf of friendship, belonging, and enduring contributions to the lives of others and society. It involves deferring immediate gratification, both of bodily and ego pleasures, in service of the good beyond one’s self. Level 3 Happiness is the fruit of the personal habit (or virtue) of sacrifice and commitment.
In retrospect, I realize why my brain froze when Mr. Peru casually stated he hated weddings. In my Level 3 Happiness brain, which had been formed by love and commitment to Christ since age 16 and by gift of self and spousal meaning of the body since age 35, his statement had no meaning. It was non-sense. But for his Level 1 and 2 worldviews, where freedom means no commitment in order to pursue a cornucopia of sensory pleasures and ego strokes, it was perfectly logical.
In contrast, Fr. Spitzer describes Level 3 Happiness as “hard-wired to love.” St. John Paul II expresses this same truth in his first encyclical, “Redeemer of Man,” when he writes, “Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it” (no. 10).
Our humanity does not live by bread alone, nor by salsa (dancing) alone, but by meaningful bonds of love that assure us, even when we feel ugly, ashamed, useless, or a raging failure, that we are loved as unique and unrepeatable, as someone of intrinsic value and worth. St. John Paul II’s repeated emphasis on communion of persons as a reciprocal giving and receiving of each person for his or her own sake is directed toward securing Level 3 Happiness in each of our lives – and moving us toward Level 4.
Last week’s blog (Blog 24) delved into the difference between soul and spirit, with spirit being our capacity to transcend ourselves and enter into a communion of persons. However, as we saw last week, we are not the only kinds of persons that exist. God is also a Communion of Persons, and so our spirit capacitates us to enter into relationship with God and to experience Level 4 Happiness. In The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the [Catholic] Church, published by the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace in 2004, the section on “Openness to Transcendence and Uniqueness of the Person” begins with these words: “Openness to transcendence belongs to the human person: man is open to the infinite and to all created beings… He comes out of himself, from the self-centered preservation of his own life, to enter into a relationship of dialogue and communion with others” (no. 130).
Through our capacity of soul and spirit, we are open to what Plato called the five transcendentals: Truth, Justice, Love, Beauty, and Being. We are ordered toward and participate in not just temporal goods, but Ultimate Goods. Our orientation toward the good of others and the spousal meaning of the body, expressed in an initial way in Level 3, finds its full flourishing and expression in Level 4: we reach a new level of happiness through union and communion with the Trinity and thus a new understanding of the Trinitarian-spousal meaning of the body as male and female.
And that leads us to Level 5 Happiness. Wait a minute, you might think, Fr. Spitzer only speaks about four levels of happiness. That’s true, and I think St. John Paul II would add a fifth level of happiness: Sacramental Happiness.
Level 5 Sacramental Happiness catches up all four levels of happiness and brings them to an integrated synthesis: the sensory pleasures of Level 1, the ego strengthening (JPII’s term might be “self-possession”) of Level 2, the human wiring for love of Level 3, and the self-transcendence of Level 4 find their ultimate expression and full guarantee for embodied persons within an Eternal Reality that comprises both materiality and spirit, both visible and invisible. Our ultimate happiness can only be a Sacramental Happiness, a deep and abiding joy flowing from the perfect union and communion of our body, soul, and spirit with the Glorified Body of Christ.
The temptation in our age is to slip into a kind of Gnosticism and Platonic Idealism that admires the purely immaterial forms of truth, goodness, justice, beauty, being, and relationality. Ultimate realities and ultimate happiness can mistakenly be interpreted as a transcendence that sheds physicality and transitions into pure, disembodied spirit.
However, if we add Level 5 Happiness as a Sacramental Happiness, then we constantly remind ourselves that everything from bread and wine to professional achievements to sacrificial friendship to the beauty of the Swiss Alps to marital love and the conjugal embrace are opportunities to encounter the Living God here and now, and to mature in our sacramental embodiment, which endures in eternity.
Perhaps someday, as I’m experiencing Level 1 and 2 Happiness by dancing with Mr. Peru on this earth, his dislike of weddings will surface again. But this time, I’ll be prepared to bring Happiness Levels 3 – 5 into the conversation. In the meantime, this week I encourage you to make a list of 10 things that make you happy, to identify which level of happiness each one represents, and to consider what this list reveals about you and your embodied journey. And remember…you are a Level-5 Happiness gift! | https://dphx.org/tob-tuesdays-25/ |
Responding to the immigration points system: what does this mean for hospitality?
UK: Following news that a points-based immigration system is to be introduced 1 January 2021, BHN reached out to figures in the industry to glean their thoughts on the matter.
As stated on the GOV.UK website, the new Immigration Bill will put an end to free movement, giving “top priority to those with the highest skills and greatest talents: scientists, engineers, academics and other highly-skilled workers.”
“We will not introduce a general low-skilled or temporary work route. We need to shift the focus of our economy away from a reliance on cheap labour from Europe and instead concentrate on investment in technology and automation. Employers will need to adjust.”
The policy is no doubt a considerable blow to the hospitality industry, which accounts for over three million jobs as the third largest employer in the UK. In spite of the government’s call for investment in technology, Julie Grieve, CEO and founder of Criton, said: “It is crucial that we continue to access the right talent and diversity of experience. The government needs to urgently review their proposed system before it [has] a catastrophic impact on our sector ability to function and continue to deliver that must needed £72 billion of GVA.”
Sophie Shotton, general manager at Yorebridge House in North Yorkshire, sees the news as an opportunity to correct the stereotype that jobs within the industry are perceived as low-skilled, low-paid and short term. She said: “If we are to attract and retain 'British' workers, there needs to be positive publicity and evidence of changes in hospitality jobs. The jobs in this sector need to be seen as respectable, credible, long term careers that young people aspire to.”
“We therefore must invest in more vocational training at school level to demonstrate the changes to the next workforce - something that the Princes Trust have already rolled out successfully in the care industry. By increasing the minimum wage and offering ongoing training and development to keep 'British' workers engaged and interested is crucial to staff retention, which will negate the issue of staff turnover.”
Others took to social media to air their views. Robin Sheppard of Bespoke Hotels said: “Suicide is dangerous, and that is what our ban on low skilled migrant workers means we are committing. Speaking personally and not on behalf of my company or the Institute of Hospitality, I am appalled that this bonkers piece of contemptible legislation will immediately breakdown our hospitality industry. Quite simply we can’t fill all our positions with this border control. So now the new world will comprise self-service everything: from make your own bed, to take your own towels.”
Andrew Hollet, general manager at Kettering Park Hotel and Spa, said: “I would like like to invite Priti Patel to join one of my team to do a shift at Kettering Park hotel - any department you like! You will be treated with the utmost respect in order for you to have the chance to recalibrate your words about low skill jobs. These roles aren’t low skill but craft based and require training and experience, not to mention intelligence to do what we do.”
Barry Makin, general manager at The Scotsman Hotel, said: “The issue I have with this situation is the definition of ‘low-skilled’. Some of the hardest working, driven, dedicated, and in my humble opinion ‘skilled’ workers in my team and indeed our industry would fall into this ‘low-skilled’ bracket. Such a shame… sometimes the entry level ‘low-skilled’ workers develop and learn those ‘skills’ on the job and blossom into invaluable leaders and have an inspirational journey to show from it.”
While the decision to reduce the overall levels of migrant workers will unquestionably result in a shortage of labour, the fact that a reduction will be made to the salary threshold of high-skilled workers is held as “advantageous to all industries.” Sasha Lal, consultant and trainee solicitor at Gherson Solicitors, explains: “For the hospitality industry, which cannot fill vacancies from the resident labour market and needs to look further afield, the reduction in the minimum salary (from £30,000 to £25,600) should make hiring migrant workers cheaper.”
“The other big change is the reduction in the skill level that a job needs meet in order to be eligible for an employer to hire a migrant worker. Currently, a job needs to be of degree level or higher. This is due to be reduced to school graduate level, meaning that job roles such as catering and bar managers may fall into the scope of permitted jobs.”
When asked what responsibility must an employer now undertake, Lal said: “Employers should consider obtaining a Sponsorship Licence at the earliest, if they intend to continue to hire future migrants (including EU nationals) as of 1 January 2021. Employers should also ensure that they are up to date with all their policies and procedures, including ensuring that they have the correct Right to Work check on file for all employees and future employees.”
Be in the know. | https://www.boutiquehotelnews.com/features/responding-to-the-immigration-points-system-what-does-this-mean-for-hospitality |
Supporting water projects throughout Africa
The African Water Facility (AWF) gives grants and technical assistance to mobilise investment for water projects throughout Africa.
Boosting hydropower and irrigation in Tanzania21/07/2016
Tanzania is expected to benefit from a boost in hydropower generation and irrigation development thanks to a new study financed by the African Water Facility (AWF). This EUR 2-million grant will help the government of Tanzania launch the pre-feasibility study of a multipurpose dam, irrigation and hydropower project in Kikonge (South West).
A dam in Swaziland to cover water shortages08/02/2016
The African Water Facility (AWF) has approved a grant of EUR 1.28 million to finance feasibility studies for a multi-purpose dam on a tributary of River Lusushwana in Swaziland.
Reducing food insecurity, flooding and droughts in Uganda and South Sudan.09/01/2015
November 2014 – The Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program (NELSAP) has received a €1.97 million grant to increase water availability for multiple purposes in the Nyimur region of Uganda and South Sudan. The grant will...
- AWF_Project_Appraisal_Report_Nyimur.pdf (2.37 MB)
Supporting multi-purpose water storage to build climate resilience in Mozambique18/12/2014
December 15, 2014 – The Government of Mozambique has received a 3.4 million grant to conduct a feasibility study for the development of a climate adaptation project in the lower Limpopo region. The study will prepare the building...
Baro-Akobo-Sobat development programme01/05/2012
May 2012 - The Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office (ENTRO, the technical arm of the Nile Basin Initiative, received a € 2 million grant for a development study to support investment efforts to finance the Baro-Akobo-Sobat...
Project cycle
A typical project cycle takes six months to first disbursement of grant funding. Grants are generally divided in tranches, released as the project meets defined milestones:
- 0 – 3 months: Approval
- 3 – 6 months: Effectiveness
- 6 months: 1st disbursement
- 15 months: 2nd disbursement
Projects can last anything from two to five years depending on the complexity and scope. Grants range from €50,000 to €5,000,000. | https://www.africanwaterfacility.org/en/projects/project-list/hydropower/ |
The Salford Cross Country League reached its climax last weekend, with a final run of the 2018/19 season, at Buile Hill Park. The previous race at Bolton Road prior to the Christmas break was absolutely freezing and the numbers for the day were down across all ages from all schools. Bridgewater has ten fantastic runners in attendance for that event and there was no way they or their families were going to miss the final run.
Maya (75) was the only girl from Prep 3/4 to run in race three, but she was joined by Ava (69) and debutant Esme (53) for race four. In the Prep 3/4 boys’ race, the big talking point centred around Luca B and twin Sebastian B. Both had beaten each other in previous races with Seb edging out Luca in two out of three races. There was nothing to chose between the boys but on this occasion Luca (21) beat his brother by two places. In terms of the overall results for all four races, Sebastian can have the bragging rights for this year. Harrison (91) completed his second run of the series, whilst Anton from Prep 3 made his debut and finished in an encouraging 57th place.
In the Prep 5/6 race, there was another race within a race going on, as Tobias and Thomas battled it out for the four race honours. This time Thomas produced his best run of the series to claim a coveted 20th place and edge out Tobias in 21st. Tobias can proudly take the individual award for the best runner in the series overall and I have a feeling he will be back next year to do even better. The boys were joined by Chun Ka (59) for his second race and it was great to see Alfie (42) run for the first time in the event.
In the final race of the day and the series, the Prep 5/6 girls turned out in force, with a fabulous eight runners! Juliette (64) joined brother Anton in debuting in the race and was joined by Anya (40), Evie (39)and Yasmeen (30). This brilliant trio also ensured they have completed all races once again this year and this is a brilliant show of enthusiasm, resilience and commitment. The girls were joined once more by Evie who finished in an impressive 22nd and Freya (61),who are also integral members of the unique community of Bridgewater Salford runners. It would be wrong to ignore the achievements of two of our Prep 6 girls, Jess and Florence.
Over the last three years Jess has raced for Bridgewater in this event more than any other Bridgewater pupil. Jess was also determined to finish her final race by earning a certificate for coming in the Top 20 for one last time. She ran her heart out to come home in a well deserved 18th place, much to her and her parents delight and relief! I am sure the meal on Saturday night was much tastier for all the family! Florence, as the Head Girl for Bridgewater Prep has set the best example possible over the last two years. Florence (63) has run in all eight races over the last two years and has shown a wonderful sense of commitment, determination and pride in representing her school. She has typified all that is good about the Salford Cross Country League, in that it is all about the challenge, the enjoyment and the achieving of personal goals.
Thank you to all our runners and their families for giving up your time of a Saturday morning. We have had 28 different runners across the age groups this year, which is approximately 30% of the cohort. A great effort overall, but I hope we can do even better in 2019/20. Cross country club takes place on a Friday lunch time and I am certain Mr Rooney, Mr Grant and Mr Suter would love to see you all there too. | https://bridgewaterprep.org/2019/01/28/another-proud-day-for-the-bridgewater-community-of-cross-country-runners/ |
Jury Decides Complex Ownership Dispute
In September, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. won a jury trial in Kings County Supreme Court before Justice Herbert Kramer which allowed Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client to keep her property despite a claim of ownership by her brother. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented a client who was the owner according to a filed deed; her brother alleged that she had promised to convey the property to him and held it only as a trustee.
In 1973, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client’s father, a lawyer, bought a property in Brooklyn with office space on the ground floor and two apartment floors above. The father placed the property in the client’s name. The father practiced law in the building until 2001. From 1978, when he was admitted to the bar, until 2001, when he was disbarred, the client’s brother also practiced law there and lived in the upstairs apartment. The property was substantially renovated before the law office opened and was kept in good condition at no cost to the client. The brother moved out in 2001 and rented out the upstairs apartments and the commercial space. From 1973 to 2002, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client never made a mortgage, tax, water, electricity or repair payment. In late 2002, the client asserted her control over the premises by evicting the tenants and negotiating leases with new tenants. The brother sued to impose a constructive trust, alleging that father had intended the building be his and that his sister was merely a “straw man” on the deed so that he could avoid losing his assets in a divorce he was going through. He said Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client had agreed to this use of her name and promised to sign over the deed any time he asked her to. Another brother supported his claims and said their father had always intended the house should belong to his brother and not his sister. The brother claimed that he had supplied the down payment, paid off a purchase money mortgage, paid taxes, maintenance and renovation bills; he produced witnesses who confirmed portions of his testimony. The father had died before trial.
The legal issue was the existence of a constructive trust. A constructive trust requires (1) the existence of a confidential or fiduciary relationship; (2) a promise; (3) a transfer in reliance thereon; (4) a breach of that promise; and, (5) unjust enrichment. Family relations can establish the first prong, i.e. the existence of a confidential relationship. The key issue was establishing the credibility of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client and destroying the credibility of the brother with respect to the existence of a promise, since all the other issues flowed from that one.
The jury returned a verdict for Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client after four hours of deliberation. Colin Kaufman led the Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. legal team in its victory at trial. | https://www.alblawfirm.com/case-studies/oral-agreement/ |
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Day 2 Electrical Charging & Coulomb’s Law
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Objectives Charging by Conduction Charging by Induction Electroscopes Coulomb’s Law
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Charging by Conduction When a charged metallic object is brought in contact with a neutral metallic object, it acquires some of the charge.
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Charging by Induction If a negatively charged object is brought close to a neutral metal rod that is grounded on one end, the positive charges in the neutral rod will be attracted to the negative charges on the object The negative charges on the neutral object will be attracted to ground
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Nonconductors won’t become charged by conduction or induction, but will experience charge separation Polarization of Charge in an Insulator
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The electroscope is a device used for detecting electric charge. The Electroscope
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The electroscope can be charged either by Induction or conduction, respectively. Charging of the Electroscope In either case, the leaves will repel each other
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The charged electroscope can then be used to determine the sign of an unknown charge. The greater amount of charge deposited on the leaves, the greater the separation
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Experiment shows that the electric force between two charges is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the distance between them. Coulomb’s Law
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Electrostatic Force : +Q 1 +Q 2 r
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Coulomb’s Law: This equation gives the magnitude of the electrostatic force between two point charges. Coulomb’s Law
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The force acts along the radial line connecting the charges Unlike charges attract each other Like charges repel each other
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Unit of charge: coulomb, C. The proportionality constant in Coulomb’s law is then: k = 8.998 x 10 9 N·m 2 /C 2. Charges produced by rubbing are typically around a micro-Coulomb: 1 μC = 10 -6 C. Coulomb’s Law
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Charge on the electron: e = 1.602 x 10 -19 C. Electric charge is quantized in units of the electron charge. Coulomb’s Law Q = n · e
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The Coulombic constant k, can also be written in terms of ε 0, the permittivity of free space: Coulomb’s Law
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Conceptual Example 21-1: Which charge exerts the greater force? Two positive point charges, Q 1 = 50 μC and Q 2 = 1 μC, are separated by a distance. Which is larger in magnitude, the force that Q 1 exerts on Q 2 or the force that Q 2 exerts on Q 1 ?
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Coulomb’s Law Example 21-2: Three charges in a line. Three charged particles are arranged in a line, as shown. Calculate the net electrostatic force on particle 3 (the -4.0 μC on the right) due to the other two charges.
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Coulomb’s Law Example 21-3: Electric force using vector components. Calculate the net electrostatic force on charge Q 3 shown in the figure due to the charges Q 1 and Q 2.
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SKS came out strong on Saturday in Indianapolis at the USSSA Tilted Kilt event, beating Floors 32-20 but then falling to Plumbers and Pipefitters 31-21. In the losers bracket they won two in a row - beating H&D 9-5 and K&G 15-6 - before losing to Rockstar 19-12, ending their day and finishing third.
There were a couple bright spots for SKS (9-5 overall), including the continued hot hitting of Jamie Simpson. Simpson batted .857 in the five games and was almost as equally matched by Mike Bailey, who batted .813 on the day. Nick Bishop also was named to his second straight all-tourney team.
Notes: Infielder Jay Jeffery went down with what appeared to be a hamstring injury. He is resting it and is hoping to return for the next tourney in two weeks.... Nick Bishop continues to impress teammates and coaches with his role as a back up pitcher. This will be a huge asset to the team down the stretch this year backing up starter Lanny Fisher.... Outfielder Scott Martin made one of the best catches many in attendance have ever seen, climbing the wall and reaching even farther to rob a home run during one of the games.
To see the game by game score sheet, click the appropriate link below:
Game 1 vs Floors
Game 2 vs Plumbers & Pipefitters
Game 3 vs H&D/Moose
Game 4 vs K&G
Game 5 vs Rockstar
Check out the SKS Facebook page for game by game posts and pictures. | http://streetkidssoftball.com/4-12-14 |
In 20 years, Wolvercote Ward, which stretches from Cutteslowe Park in the east to Godstow in the west, will be an attractive, economically vibrant and culturally lively area. It will be for people of all ages, backgrounds and interests, and will have a strong sense of community. All new building developments should be sustainable and of a high quality, designed to be sensitively integrated with existing buildings so that the valued character of the streets and the green open spaces in all of the Ward’s distinct localities is retained and enhanced.
The proposals in the Plan are to benefit all those who live and all those who work in the Ward, and are for all age groups and for future generations. There should be a variety of housing to suit their needs and incomes, local employment opportunities, improved leisure facilities and accessible green spaces, and there should be an appropriate choice of environmentally friendly facilities for travel. The sustainability of the Ward, as a group of interacting communities existing within a wider economic, social and environmental context, should thus be ensured.
The Plan seeks to establish that new building developments are supported by adequate services and facilities. Transport links into and out of the centre of Oxford and with neighbouring areas should be maintained and improved so as to reduce dependence on cars, to lower pollution and to improve the ability of people to move about easily and safely. The Plan will also require that adequate precautionary measures are taken to reduce the risk of flooding, in particular in Lower Wolvercote, and especially in any new developments. | http://www.wolvercotenf.org.uk/the-plan/vision/ |
Intermodal containers are commonly used when shipping goods domestically and/or internationally. Such containers can be loaded onto cargo ships for transport across oceans or other bodies of water. For land transport, these containers can be placed onto a trailer and then hauled overland by truck. Such containers can also be loaded onto railroad flatcars for transport.
Shipping containers can be loaded with boxes, crates, drums, reinforced bags, plastic wrapped bundles, cased goods, metal coils, specialty heavy paper rolls, plastic or metal containers mounted on pallets, and/or numerous other forms of cargo. Maritime and surface transportation regulations require that such loads be restrained from lateral shifting. In particular, a shipping container may experience significant movement as the container is carried by ocean vessel or by other conveyance. If cargo within the intermodal container is not restrained, it may shift and collide with a container wall or container doors. Because the mass of cargo in a container can be significant, such shifting and/or collisions can have catastrophic consequences for transport workers and for the public at large. For example, shifting cargo can be damaged when colliding with a container wall and/or be crushed by other shifting cargo. Damaged cargo can lead to release of product, which product may be toxic or otherwise be hazardous. As another example, shifting cargo might change the center of gravity of the shipping container itself and thereby cause significant problems for the ship, truck or other vehicle carrying the container.
FIG. 1 illustrates a known technique for restraining cargo within a shipping container 101. A portion of a top 103 and right side wall 102R have been cut away from container 101 to reveal cargo loaded therein. In the example of FIG. 1, the cargo includes a load of crates 104 and drums 105. FIG. 1 further shows a portion of an interior of a left side wall 102L. Crates 104 and drums 105 are secured against movement toward the rear 111 of container 101 by a restraint system that includes multiple restraining strips 106. Each strip 106 is flexible and has an adhesive-coated end 107. An end 107a of a first strip 106a is pressed against an interior surface of side wall 102R. The other end 108a of strip 106a is then wrapped around the rear of a portion of crates 104. Strip end 107a and other strip ends in FIG. 1 are stippled to indicate the presence of adhesive; the stippling in FIG. 1 is not intended to indicate a color differential.
A second strip 106b is similar to strip 106a and has an adhesive-coated end (not shown) similar to end 107a of strip 106a. The adhesive-coated end of strip 106b is secured to the interior surface of side wall 102L in a position that is at generally the same height as end 107a. The end 108b of the strip 106b is then wrapped around the rear of the portion of crates 104 similar to end 108a. Ends 108a and 108b are then tightened (e.g., using a tool and method such as is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,981,827, incorporated by reference herein). A third adhesive-backed strip 109 is then applied over the tightened ends 108a and 108b to secure those ends together. In a similar manner, strips 106c and 106d and other pairs of strips 106 are used to secure crates 14 and drums 105 from lateral movement.
There are various types of known restraining strips that can be used in the configuration of FIG. 1. Such strips typically include a backing and some form of reinforcement. Examples of known strips are described in one or more of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,089,802, 6,227,779, 6,607,337, 6,896,459, 6,923,609, 7,018,151, 7,066,698, 7,290,969, 7,329,074, 8,113,752, 8,128,324, 8,403,607, 8,403,608, 8,403,609, 8,408,852 and 8,419,329. Use of these and other types of restraining strips such as is shown in FIG. 1 represents a substantial improvement over previous methods for restraining cargo. However, there remains a need for improved load restraint strips that can be used in systems such as those shown in FIG. 1.
For example, proper installation of load restraint strips can significantly affect the performance and load restraint capacity of the load restraint system formed by those strips. Improper placement of a restraint strip adhesive-coated end (e.g., end 107a in FIG. 1) accounts for a high percentage of restraint system failures. If such an adhesive-coated end is not placed properly, the overall system strength can be substantially reduced. In many cases, personnel installing load restraint strips may be working very quickly so as to maximize cargo loading throughput. Such installation personnel may be unskilled workers or may be subject to less than ideal supervision. After a container has been loaded, inspecting a restraint system installation may be difficult. For example, the inside of a cargo container may be poorly lit and it may be difficult to see the portions of load restraint strips that are attached to the container wall. This difficulty may be compounded by placement of cargo very close to the container wall, thereby leaving insufficient space for a supervisor, marine surveyor or other person to access the wall-adhered end for a close inspection.
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2205006320 Was Brand New, but warehoused for quite some time, wear to corners and edges, text unread. Very Good. Light shelf wear to covers/corners; satisfaction guaranteed. Trade paperback binding. Earthlight Books is a family owned and operated, independent bookstore serving Walla Walla, Washington since 1973.
Title: Lone Sloane ; Delirius
Categories: Comic Books & Graphic Novels,
Publisher: Dragon's Dream ltd: | https://www.earthlightbooks.com/si/SKU1036425.html |
Before having kids, I remember rejoicing about the ‘extra hour’ of sleep we got by ‘falling back’ each year. Too bad kids don’t seem to understand what an extra hour of sleep means! But don’t fret I’m here to help you through this upcoming change. In case you missed it, the daylight savings time change is happening THIS weekend!
If I had my way, I would not do daylight savings time for a couple of reasons. First, the reasons daylight saving time was originally implemented (during World War I to conserve energy) is no longer a compelling reason to continue with this time changing nonsense. Second, changing the time really does affect the sleep patterns of children and adults! Even when we ‘fall back’ it can be very disruptive to our sleep patterns.
So, let’s talk about how to handle daylight savings time in order to have it be as least disruptive to our children’s sleep as possible.
#1 Leave the clocks alone.
This one is actually for you, parents! On Saturday night leave the clocks alone so it’s not a psychologically upsetting event to see your little one up an hour earlier. Just get up at your usual time and start the day. After you get your coffee, then go around changing the clocks. It will feel much better this way, trust me!
Since smartphones update automatically, try to rely on a clock you have to set manually or set your phone to not automatically update the time under your “Date & Time” settings.
#2 Split the difference
Adjust your child’s naps and bedtime to 30 minutes earlier for the first three days following the time change. Keep in mind that this will FEEL like 30 minutes LATER to your child. Let’s say your child usually naps at 12:30 PM and goes to bed at 7PM. I recommend putting that child down for her nap at 12:00PM and then to bed at 6:30 PM for three days (feels like 7:30 to your child!). It will be a bit of a push for your child, but not so much that it will cause much damage to her schedule.
On the fourth day, adjust your child’s naps and bedtime back in line with the clock.
#3 Be Patient
It is going to take roughly one week for your child’s body (and yours, too) to adjust to ‘falling back’. We notice the impact of the time change more in little children because they tend to be more structured with going to bed and waking up at the same time every day.
#4 Darkness Rules
Make sure you have a good set of blackout shades. Once you adjust back to ‘clock’ time, help your child continue to sleep until the normal time per their clock by making sure their room stays dark when the sun starts to rise an hour earlier!
#5 Adjusting Wake Up Times
For toddlers over the age of 2, use an ‘ok to wake’ clock. Set the clock forward 30 minutes so that at 6:30 it says 7:00 AM and let them get up a little earlier than normal for the first few days after the time change. After you adjust their bedtime back to their normal time, adjust their ok-to-wake clock time back so they will be on track and sleep until their normal wake up time.
Babies, unfortunately, won’t understand an ‘ok to wake’ clock, so you get to be their clock! When you hear your baby waking up, do not rush in! You don’t want to send a message that getting up at 6:00 AM is now okay. So, if baby normally wakes at 7:00, but is now up at 6:00, you will wait 10 minutes the first day before going to get baby. Then you wait until 6:20 the next day, then 6:30 the next. By the end of the week, your baby’s schedule should be adjusted to the time with them waking up at their usual hour.
#6 Be Consistent
As your child’s body is adjusting to the timing change of his sleep, make sure you keep sleep routines the same. Consistent routines cue our children’s bodies and brain that it is going to be time to sleep. Don’t change the rules or expectations around their sleep and sleep habits. If your child is not allowed to ‘get up for the day’ before their clock says it is time, then don’t let that slide just because of the time change (more tips on using an ‘ok-to-wake’ clock during the time change below!)
Unless you live in Hawaii or Arizona, the ‘falling back’ time change is, unfortunately, going to affect sleep patterns for everyone in the house. The good news is that it should only take about a week for everyone’s sleep back on track with the clock!
Cheers to healthy, happy sleep! | https://sleeploveandhappiness.com/sleep-tips-for-falling-back/ |
The annual Leaves Festival of Writing and Music is just around the corner and promises to be another tremendous three days of events.
‘Leaves’ celebrates the diversity and richness in today’s writing, spoken word, music, theatre and film scene. Leaves aims to excite and engage with audiences young and old.
This year the weekend-long programme will be held in the Dunamaise Arts Centre and St Peter’s Church of Ireland.
Festival Curator, Muireann Ní Chonaill said, “celebrating its tenth anniversary, the Leaves Festival is a great opportunity to enjoy hearing contemporary writers and musicians, the art of conversation, film and theatre.”
Barry Keegan, the creator of the graphic novel, The Bog Road will visit a number of schools and children’s writer Caroline Busher will also visit a number of schools.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 8
Gaeilge Tamagotchi
This is an Irish event at the Laois Shopping centre by Manchán Magan.
Members of the public are invited to adopt an endangered Irish word and become a guardian of Gaeilge.
Gaeilge Tamagotchi is on from:
Thursday November 8 – 9.30am to 12.30am and 4pm to 6pm
Friday November 9 – 2.30pm to 5pm and 6 to 8.30pm
Saturday November 11 – 11.30am to 1.30pm and 2.30pm to 5.30pm
Storytelling training
Simone Schuemmelfeder is an international storyteller and she will host a master class and workshop session on storytelling in Portlaoise Library on Thursday November 8 from 4.30pm-7.30pm.
Using her rich knowledge of European and Irish folk tales, the workshop is for anyone wishing to improve their storytelling skills with children and other audiences.
Simone will also host a children’s session with school children in Rathdowney Library on Friday November 10 at 12 noon.
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9
Music and Spoke word
Opening the weekend is spoken word artist Stephen James Smith.
The Dublin poet and playwright will be reading from his debut collection, Fear Not. Stephen’s poetry videos have amassed over 2.5 million views, including 2017’s ‘My Ireland’.
Stephen was the Laois Artist in Residence earlier this year and he facilitated poetry workshops in Laois secondary schools, the prison, and youth services.
His poetry has been recently added to the Leaving Certificate syllabus and has been translated into multiple languages. His readings will feature music by Enda Reilly.
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 10
Writing workshop with Helen Cullen
London-based writer and Portlaoise native Helen Cullen will be sharing her wisdom and experience at a special workshop for adult writers.
The Board Room in the Dunamaise Arts Centre is the venue for Helen’s Saturday morning writing workshop and it runs on Saturday 10 November from 10am to 12pm.
The Lost Letters of William Woolf – book launch at 3pm
The Dunamaise Art Gallery is set for a double book launch on Saturday afternoon.
Helen has had great success with her debut novel, ‘The Lost Letters of William Woolf’. It was published earlier this year by Penguin in the UK and translated into several languages.
‘The Lost Letters of William Woolf’ is the Irish Times Book Club Choice for the month of October 2018.
Growing Pains and Growing Up – book launch at 3pm
Growing Pains and Growing Up, is an anthology of essays and articles by John Whelan and it represents a journalistic memoir to mark 40 years of his working in media.
The book will resonate well beyond Laois as it addresses many of the major political, social and cultural issues of the past half century, featuring many of the major personalities of the era.
Music and Spoken word
An intimate evening of music, writing and conversation will take place in St Peter’s Church of Ireland, Portlaoise, at 8pm.
The evening promises a wonderful combination of conversation, music and readings by Helen Cullen, Brian Keenan, Dermot Bolger, music by Seán Ryan and Kathleen Loughnane.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 11
Lest We Forget
There will be a spoken word evening of remembrance for those who lost their lives and fought from the Mountmellick area in World War One in Mountmellick Library on Sunday November 11 at 7.30pm. The evening will consist of poetry, prose, newspaper articles and narratives about those who fought in the war.
The Dunamaise Arts Centre has also scheduled events for Leaves, including The Happy Prince, which chronicles the last days of Oscar Wilde and a play by Eoin Colfer entitled ‘Holy Mary’.
To book attedence to any of these events, call the booking office on 0578663355 or visit here. | https://www.laoistoday.ie/2018/10/30/leaves-festivals-of-writing-and-music/ |
As mandated by GPRAMA, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) performs periodic reviews of implementation of the law.
GAO’s most recent review, which examined the processes at the Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Education (Education), Homeland Security (DHS), and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) resulted in the identification of seven practices agencies can employ to facilitate effective strategic reviews.
1. Establish a process for conducting strategic reviews. NASA developed a strategic review process that involved senior leaders in individual assessments and a rating of each strategic objective, a crosscutting review to identify themes and provide independent rating recommendations, and a briefing to the Chief Operating Officer to determine final ratings.
2. Clarify and clearly define measurable outcomes for each strategic objective. NASA officials defined what would constitute success in 10 years for each strategic objective and used underlying performance goals, indicators, and milestones to better plan for and understand near-term progress towards their long-term scientific outcomes.
3. Review the strategies and other factors that influence the outcomes and determine which are most important. USDA's Food and Nutrition Service developed a model showing how the output of its programs contribute to relevant near-term and long-term outcomes related to the department's objective to improve access to nutritious foods. The model also identifies external factors that could influence progress, such as food prices.
4. Identify and include key stakeholders in the review. Contributors from various agencies, levels of government, and sectors may be involved in achieving an outcome. While the six agencies involved internal stakeholders in their strategic reviews, GAO did not find instances of external stakeholder involvement. In some cases, agencies took steps to incorporate external perspectives, such as HUD leveraging its existing relationship with officials at the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to better understand how other federal programs are contributing to progress towards its objective to end homelessness for target populations.
5. Identify and assess evidence related to strategic objective achievement. For EPA's objective to promote sustainable and livable communities, officials developed a framework and inventory of relevant performance information, scientific studies, academic research, and program evaluations, which they then assessed and categorized by strength.
6. Assess effectiveness in achieving strategic objectives and identify actions needed to improve implementation and impact. For DHS's goal to safeguard and expedite lawful trade and travel, officials determined that sufficient progress was being made, but identified gaps in monitoring efforts, such as a lack of performance measures related to travel. DHS officials are taking steps to develop measures to address the gaps.
7. Develop a process to monitor progress on needed actions. HUD broadened its existing process for tracking progress on actions items identified at its quarterly performance reviews to also cover those from strategic reviews. HUD staff update the status of each action item regularly—planned to be biweekly following the 2015 strategic reviews.
Those leading practices are highlighted in “Managing for Results: Practices for Effective Agency Strategic Reviews,” (GAO-15-602). | https://www.fedmanager.com/featured/9-general-news/2254-gao-agency-review-tips |
CALGARY, April 17, 2015 /CNW/ - North West Redwater Partnership would like to correct certain comments and economic figures as reported in the article titled "The North West Sturgeon Upgrader: Good Money After Bad?" from The School of Public Policy, Volume 7, Issue 3 dated April 2015 (the "Paper").
There are a number of errors in the understanding of the project and value of the products that it makes. Together, these errors in the analysis have the effect of overstating the total processing fees per barrel being estimated by more than 50%.
Specifically:
- The paper determined the costs per barrel by reference to 50,000 barrels per day of raw bitumen. This is not appropriate because the feedstock the refinery will process is diluted bitumen in the quantity of approximately 78,000 barrels per day. By using the wrong feedstock and quantity the processing fee is over stated by over 55%.
- The future tolling costs as reported by the Alberta Petroleum and Marketing Commission. ("APMC") are based upon certain estimates, including a provision for future inflation. Therefore the Paper is comparing future inflated costs to current market day refining costs.
Adjusting for these items, the real cost of the Toll in today's dollars is less than $35 per barrel of diluted bitumen processed rather than the $63 per barrel of bitumen reported in the Paper.
The Toll is designed to repay all debt and equity within the first 30 years of its operation (less than 50% of its potential service life). The APMC and Canadian Natural Resources Limited, as toll payers ("Toll Payers"), have an evergreen option to continue utilizing the refinery for the remainder of its service life at the current operating costs plus a performance incentive margin earned by the North West Redwater Partnership. The operating cost per barrel in today's dollars is approximately $15 per barrel, resulting in forecast positive margins for the APMC in the future. This was not considered in the Paper.
Furthermore, this Toll should be taken in the context of the value to the feedstock providers. The Refinery will upgrade bitumen beyond the level of upgraders in Fort McMurray and make a variety of products including diesel, naphtha, Vacuum Gas Oil and diluent rather than synthetic crude oil. This production slate is significantly more valuable than synthetic crude oil.
As an example, diesel prices are still very robust even in the current economic environment, with the Edmonton Area whole sale "rack discounted" price remaining at $50/bbl above Western Canadian Select or about $36/bbl above West Texas Intermediate. At these levels the Refinery will generate profits for the Toll Payers and their stakeholders. | https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/north-west-redwater-partnership-issues-statement-517485941.html |
Like most of my recipes, I get inspired by one and then research and combine three or four just to make that one thing. It annoys my husband to no end, but I tend to treat recipes as a general guideline rather than a step-by-step manual. The rest I leave up to creativity, curiosity, and taste. This one was no different.
The first time I made these cinnamon rolls, everything went smoothly until the 6th and final day. That day I screwed up royally and ended up have to discard everything. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. However, mistakes in the kitchen happen. All we can do is learn from them and try again.
After my blunder, I sat down and physically wrote out this recipe for my blog. Finally I had just one recipe to follow, rather than a couple. I made them again from my own instructions, and they more than turned out. They were soooooooo good. Even though I made quite a few batches, we polished them all off in no time at all.
If you feel like making some cinnamon rolls that take a little extra time, love, and patience, these are the ones for you! I promise they will work for you. ;-)))
Good luck!
Makes 2 dozen
Ingredients:
(For the bubbly starter)
1 cup whole wheat or whole rye flour
½ cup cool water
14 cups all-purpose flour
(For the dough)
1 ⅓ cup milk
8 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 cup bubbly starter
4 tbsp sugar
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
oil, to grease
(For the filling)
2 cups brown sugar, packed
4 tbsp ground cinnamon
⅔ cup unsalted butter, melted
Glaze optional
Steps:
1. You need to first make a bubbly starter that will eventually go into your Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls. This takes nearly a week to prepare. I recommend starting in the morning. Day one: Mix 1 cup of whole wheat (or rye) flour together with ½ cup water in a medium non-reactive bowl. This includes glass, food-grade plastic, stainless steel, etc. Stir thoroughly, cover with a tea towel, and let rest at room temperature for 24 hours.
2. Get in the practice of discarding most of the bubbly starter. The original recipe called for throwing half of it away on day two. Meanwhile, the end result was to yield less than 10 cinnamon rolls. What I did instead was keep both halves of the starter on the second day, thus doubling the recipe. So, day two: Divide the bubbly starter into two, placing each half in a medium non-reactive bowl. Add 1 cup of all-purpose flour and ½ cup of lukewarm water into each bowl. Mix well, cover, and leave for another 24 hours.
3. Day three: Today you should notice some bubbling and a fruity aroma. Today also signals the start of two daily feedings, each one 12 hours apart. Separate 1 cup of bubbly starter from each bowl and throw out the rest. Put that cup of starter back into the bowl and add 1 cup of all-purpose flour and ½ cup of lukewarm water. Mix well, cover, and repeat again in 12 hours.
4. Day four: Repeat the steps for day three.
5. Day five: Repeat the steps for day three.
6. Now it is time to prepare the dough. Again I recommend starting in the morning, only to let it rest for approximately 12 hours. Then that evening you will be able to make and bake the cinnamon rolls! Day six: Using a large bowl, combine 1 egg, ½ cup of bubbly starter, and 2 tbsp of sugar. While stirring, add ⅔ cup of warm milk and 4 tbsp of room temperature butter. Next add 2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour and ½ tsp of salt, forming into a rough dough. Cover with a damp tea towel and let rest for 30 minutes. Repeat steps in a separate large bowl, thus make 2 rough balls of dough.
After the dough has rested, flour your countertop and knead for approximately 6 minutes. It should be soft and somewhat tacky. Put the dough in a medium bowl that has been coated with butter. Cover with a damp tea towel. Repeat with the second batch of dough. Set both aside for 8-12 hours at room temperature.
7. Once 8-12 hours have gone by, it is finally time to roll the dough. On a lightly floured countertop, drop one of the dough mixtures. Stretch it as best as possible with your hands. Then using a floured rolling pin, smooth it out into a 12”x16” rectangle. Combine 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 tbsp of ground cinnamon, and ⅓ cup of melted butter in a medium bowl. Spread onto the rolled out dough, leaving a ½ inch border along the edges. Then starting from the longest edge, carefully roll to the other side. Cut in 1 ½” pieces with a serrated knife in order to yield approximately 12 cinnamon rolls. Place onto well-greased 9”x9” baking dish and set aside for 1-2 hours. Repeat with the second dough. Preheat oven to 350°F and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until rolls are golden brown. Remove, let cool, and add glaze if desired. Finally, it is time to enjoy your amazing, melt-in-your-mouth Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls. | https://helloscarlettblog.com/tag/sourdough-cinnamon-rolls/ |
My DD goes to a lovely school which has high academic demands so she is busy all week doing homework in the evenings. I give her a break on the weekend and she can do what she likes. She often does 2-3 hours of homework on a Sunday.
I have invited the neighbourhood kids round many times on the weekend but they're too busy with clubs, extra tuition and the like. I feel like the parents are trying too hard to mould their kids into something. Just give them a decent rest.
Can't kids just be kids anymore?
I guess it is just different priorities for different families.
My dds do quite a bit in the week, sports and church group and after school club when I am working. I work at least 1 w'end per month and prefer to have low key family time when not at work.
What age group are you talking about?
maybe they are being kids who enjoy doing activities?
Yes, of course, there are some activities that are fun. But Mandarin lessons and math tuition don't count in my book.
I just wish parents would leave schooling to the school and stop trying to create mini geniuses. Of course, I do appreciate that not all schools are created equally. I guess I just feel so sorry for my neighbours kids who always look pretty miserable and tired.
There are so many variables it's impossible to say.
2-3 hours homework on a Sunday??
How old are we talking?
Considering the 2-3 hours weekend homework I am assuming it must be secondary school age. If so then surely the children are old enough to make their own choices if that is what they want to do.
If primary - well tbh I am more concerned about the excessive level of homework required.
If the kids in the neighborhood do less in the week it probably evens out. What age?
I agree, I think kids need down time.
I agree. Weekends are for fun and family time. We do 3 clubs after school. That's plenty. Two nights free and no clubs at weekends is my rule.
What are 'high academic dem?nds'? Don't all schools have them.
Well, I grew up in the 80's in northern England and went to two grammar schools and one comprehensive in Liverpool (my parents moved a lot grin). I can definitely attest that not all schools have high academic demands.
Totally totally agree. I taught so many worn out children whose parents never gave them a moment's peace. The really sad thing was while these children were working all hours for their future their present was being totally squandered.
Only one girl I grew up with parents like that. She was an amazing musician and became a surgeon, then quit and became a pathologist (still a great job but much less stress/long hours). When I asked her why she said it was because she wanted a life as she never felt she'd actually just lived, she was always struggling to "better" herself. Her parents were disappointed and refused to come to her wedding (but made it up since I think).
FWIW I think it's shit that there is not just ONE standard of school for all children and that your child goes the the school in their catchment area. Final.
I think it's shit that parents have to (pay) scramble to get Grammar school positions. I think the whole system is shit. Basically.
Kids do need time to be bored to stimulate creativity.
Saying that, I had no activities at all as a child and wish my parents had put me in for piano or swimming...I was desperate for lessons ever since I was small, and am no great shakes at either now.
I am all in favour of kids not being overscheduled and having time to just do what they like, but some kids may want to spend their weekend doing clubs. My dd spends a good part of each Saturday doing dance, as well as twice during the week, not because I want her to do it because she absolutely loves it. She has been free all day today but has chosen to spend around three hours practising her dance, unprompted - for her, dancing is recreation in its truest sense. Yeah, some parents are really pushy but sometimes kids just have hobbies that they really love and enjoy.
it does sound like a lot,tbh,the hours of homework during the week and sunday nights sound too much aswell.poor kids.
i know nothing of Grammar schools-there aren't any around here. perhaps i have missed out on the 11+ angst.
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
If the parents at helicoptering DC who are old enough to have hours of weekly overwork, then something is very wrong.
But, if no helicoptering (mentioned in title, but not body of thread), them there are probably as many permutations in when homework and activities are fitted in to evenings and weekends as there are families.
YABU to assume that what suits you will suit everyone, or that any one pattern is intrinsically better than others.
YABU as well to assume that earning Mandarin can't be fun. You DC might not respond to it, but that doesn't mean no children like it.
I did no out of school activities. I'd have loved to have learned the piano but money was tight.
So I used my brain and got a book from the library and taught myself.
Kids do need downtime. They need time to chatter and run about freely. Time for getting their noses stuck in a good book and time just to build massive structures from Lego.
I feel really sorry for over-structured kids. I don't care if you say they enjoy it because I reckon they have no choice in the matter most of the time and have never known any different.
maybe its not helicopter - maybe the kids are jsut very very sporty and LOVE it
Aren't you basically just sneering at parents whose kids go to a different (?non selective) school but then choose to do some "academic" type extra curricular stuff?
I'd rather an hour or two of "scheduled activities" than no free time at all in the week due to excessive homework demands.
FWIW I went to a grammar and still had time for Scouts,dance, music etc after school.
it could be that the kids love these particular activities and they are only available at weekends
or that the family want together time
or that it's a polite excuse: I noticed a few years ago that ds suddenly became incredibly busy when nextdoors boys started calling: he didn't like their behaviour but clearly didn't like to say so
I also noticed he told a friend last weekend that he had been grounded (he hadn't, only had his montly allowance taken off him)- he is fond of his friend but was too tired to want to do things with him or anyone
I remember doing something similar years ago when I realised I and my bf were growing apart but couldn't think of a way of saying so without hurting her feelings (she was lovely but we had nothing in common)
though I have to say, Mandarin lessons would have seemed like great fun to me when I was junior/secondary school age: I would have bit anyone's hand off to have those
Well, I would have agreed with you a few years ago, BUT, I have 3 boys that LOVE sport and music. We used to have 'sacred Sundays (not religious!) - that were left free for us as a family. We now spend every Sunday on the Rugby pitch, Saturdays are filled with footy in the morning, dance and drama in the afternoon and swimming in the evening. Our only evening 'off' is on Wednesday's. they also all play instruments (2 each) at school. It's ridiculous - certainly not by design, but because the boys ENJOY it and WANT to do it. And in their few spare hours they go make dens and do 'boys' stuff together ..... does that make me a 'helicopter parent???' I have never once had to drag them out the house to any of their clubs ..... so ........
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Blog Title, the first H1:
Bloom’s Taxonomy for Online Learning
H2: Bloom’s Taxonomy for Online Learning
Bloom’s taxonomy for online learning is a taxonomic method used to determine the different levels of human knowledge: thought, learning, and understanding. Bloom’s taxonomy was created to provide a common language for learning and to exchange teaching and assessment methods. Classification can lead to specific learning outcomes, although it is commonly used to evaluate learning at different cognitive levels.
H3: Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s classification is now over 60 years old. It is organized into three domains:
- cognitive
- dominant
- psychomotor
Here the cognitive domain is related to the heart, dominant domain to the heart, psychomotor domain to the hands. From a learning perspective, the cognitive domain is the primary focus and consists of six distinct classification levels:
- knowledge
- comprehension
- application
- analysis
- synthesis
- evaluation.
Here I am about to discuss these classification levels:
Knowledge: Knowledge is all about recalling facts, terms, and basic concepts. It involves our mental skills and the acquisition of knowledge.
Comprehension: Comprehension is about being able to compare like terms, combine basic information, and interpret information.
Application: Application is the next level. It is about solving problems by the use of knowledge in a new situation.
Analyze: Analyze is one of the advanced stages. It is about breaking new information into parts, like identifying reasons, causes, motives, etc. Additionally, discover proof to help the view.
Synthesis: The next level is synthesis. It occurs when learners go beyond what they have learned, understood, applied, and analyzed, to create a product or develop a new method.
Evaluation: Evaluation is being able to defend opinions or findings based on evidence.
Bloom’s Taxonomy can help teachers to understand the different levels of cognitive demands, especially in online education. It helps teachers align their assessments with the objectives of different levels of learning so that student behavior can be determined. The best way to use Bloom’s classification is to use course content to develop measurable learning objectives. Then, categorize these objectives based on the level of education and include appropriate activities in each section.
H2: Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy on Online Learning:
Considering the sudden and extreme changes in the online learning environment after school closes, teachers find themselves at a confusing point as they determine how to apply traditional thematic classroom structures like Bloom’s classification in the online learning environment. Bloom’s taxonomy is effective in traditional thematic learning environments because it helps educators guide students through the natural learning process:
- Recalling a learning object is a necessity for getting it.
- Understanding a learning object is a must for being able to use it.
- If you can’t apply an idea, you can’t analyze the idea.
- Without having the option to break down a learning object, you can’t assess it.
- If you can’t evaluate an idea, you can independently create its variety accurately.
In both online and traditional thematic learning environments, it is expected that students will have varying degrees of existing understanding of the subject and will not necessarily start from the bottom of the pyramid on all concepts. Therefore, it is important for educators to be able to accurately determine the starting point of students in the classification.
To understand that everything is relative to the situation on which it is applied, educators should consider a number of variables when evaluating their learning objectives through Bloom’s classification.
H3: Learning Environment:
In recent years, the emergence of the first mixed learning environment (some traditional thematic, some part online instruction), and now the fully online learning environment, has forced teachers to consider the learning environment when setting learning objectives for a course. Over time, and with increasing focus and communication on the specific needs of the online learning environment as a whole, Bloom’s taxonomy-like structure will be modified to suit the growing demand for online learning.
The learning environment should be evaluated to plan learning objectives using Bloom’s classification. Things that need for the planning using Bloom’s Taxonomy:
- Learning Environment: First, they have to make a plan on what degree of learning instruction will be conducted.
- Supporting Tools: What online and offline tools will students need to be able to demonstrate the necessary skills in content? In that case I can refer to some tools or software which they can make to simply understand the lessons. Or to make a schedule on the basis of Bloom’s Taxonomy. They are: Whiteboard Fox, Ayoa, GoToMeeting, Dojoit.com. All these online whiteboards, where you can brainstorm your ideas and online learning content.
- Hardware/Software Proficiency: Proficiency in digital tools (knowledge of online learning platforms, publishing tools, communication tools, etc.) is a requirement for students to be able to demonstrate knowledge of the subject.
- Technical Blockers: The learning environment supports the need to provide content instruction. If not, we have to add additional tools or content changes that are required to fit the material to the environment.
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a great tool for teachers to help students develop higher order critical thinking. Mentioning the concept of classification during the planning process helps teachers to focus on appropriate goals for teams and individuals and to plan their progress in the short, on medium and long term.
Classification provides a clear structure or organization for classifying lesson objectives, as well as a consistent starting point for creating lessons.
H2: Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs:
Advantageously, Bloom’s Taxonomy gives various related action words that give an accommodating method to instructors to design examples. Action tables have been created to align with each of these levels.
Presently, how about we investigate these levels and compare action words.
H3: Bloom’s classification level and the corresponding verb list:
Level 1: Remember – To remember truths and ideas –
At this level, students are challenged to memorize and remember the basics and information of the story or text.
Verb list: quote, define, explain, draw, recognize, tag, list, match, remember, name, record, repeat, state, write.
Level 2: Understand – To understand data and meaning –
Level 2 gives the student the opportunity to show a basic understanding of the story or text.
Verb List: Add, Purify, Compare, Contrast, Define, Deliver, Infer, Observe, Predict, Compile, Explain.
Level 3: Apply – To use data, theory, concepts, and abilities to solve problems – Here, students have the opportunity to display their ability to use information in a new form.
Verb List: Adjust, Distribute, Calculate, Create, Operate, Express, Decorate, Modify, Show, Solve, Use.
Level 4: Analyze – To connect; recognize patterns and deep meanings – At this level, students can recontructs the story into its material parts to better understand it.
Verb List:Break down, Portray, Group, Contrast, Discover, Explore, Identify, Examine, Order, Prioritize.
Level 5: Evaluate – To make a judgment and to do justice – This level gives students an opportunity to develop an opinion and back it up with argument and evidence.
Verb List: Evaluate, Judge, Critique, Support, Circumscribe, Estimate, Explain, Grade, Prove, Rank, Rate.
Level 6: Create – To join components of figuring out how to make new or unique work – This level bears the cost of a chance for understudies to take what they have gained and make a genuinely new thing from it.
Verb List: Summary, Assemble, Consolidate, Constitute, Creat, Correspond, Design, Develop, Produce, Center, Portray, Produce.
H4: Conclusion
There is more to learning and learning than just a vision, but using Bloom’s taxonomy as a guide to ensure that Bloom’s six taxonomy education levels work best in any way can lead you to the right path to success. | https://kbfblog.com/blog-title-the-first-h1-blooms-taxonomy-for-online-learning/ |
---
abstract: 'We address a centralized caching problem with unequal cache sizes. We consider a system with a server of files connected through a shared error-free link to a group of cache-enabled users where one subgroup has a larger cache size than the other. We propose an explicit caching scheme for the considered system aimed at minimizing the load of worst-case demands over the shared link. As suggested by numerical evaluations, our scheme improves upon the best existing explicit scheme by having a lower worst-case load; also, our scheme performs within a multiplicative factor of 1.11 from the scheme that can be obtained by solving an optimisation problem in which the number of parameters grows exponentially with the number of users.'
author:
- 'Email: [[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]]{}'
title: Centralized Caching with Unequal Cache Sizes
---
Centralized Caching, Unequal Cache Sizes
Introduction {#Sec:Introduction}
============
Content traffic, which is the dominant form of traffic in data communication networks, is not uniformly distributed over the day. This makes caching an integral part of data networks in order to tackle the non-uniformity of traffic. Caching schemes consist of two phases for content delivery. In the first phase, called the placement phase, content is partly placed in caches close to users. This phase takes place during off-peak hours when the requests of users are still unknown. In the second phase, called the delivery phase, each user requests a file while having access to a cache of pre-fetched content. This phase takes place during peak hours when we need to minimize the load over the network.
The information-theoretic study of a network of caches originated with the work of Maddah-Ali and Niesen [@CentralizedCaching]. They considered a centralized multicast set-up where there is a server of files connected via a shared error-free link to a group of users, each equipped with a dedicated cache of equal size. They introduced a caching gain called global caching gain. This gain is in addition to local caching gain, which is the result of the fact that users have access to part of their requested files. Global caching gain is achieved by simultaneously sending data to multiple users in the delivery phase via coded transmission over the shared link.
The information-theoretic study of cache-aided networks has then been extended to address other scenarios which arise in practice such as decentralized caching [@DecentralizedCaching], where the identity or the number of users is not clear in the placement phase; caching with non-uniform file popularity [@CachingNonuniformDemands], where some of the files in the server are more popular than the others; and hierarchical caching [@HierarchicalCodedCaching], where there are multiple layers of caches. Also, while most of existing works consider uncoded cache placement, where the cache of each user is populated by directly placing parts of the server files, it has been shown for some special cases that coded cache placement can outperform uncoded cache placement [@CentralizedCaching; @CachingWithCodedPlacement1; @CachingWithCodedPlacement2; @CachingWithCodedPlacement3].
![System model with a server storing $N$ files of size $F$ bits connected through a shared error-free link to $K$ users. User $i$ is equipped with a cache of size $M_iF$ bits where $M_i=\hat{M}$, $1\leq i\leq L$, and $M_i=M$, $L+1\leq i\leq K$, for some $\hat{M}>M$.[]{data-label="Fig:SystemModel"}](FiguresUnequalCacheSize/SystemModel.pdf "fig:"){width="46.00000%"} -10pt
-15pt
Existing works and Contributions {#Sec:ExistingWorksandContributions}
--------------------------------
In this work, we address caching problems where there is a server connected through a shared error-free link to a group of users with caches of possibly different sizes. The objective is to minimize the load of worst-case demands over the shared link. Considering decentralized caching with unequal cache sizes, the placement phase is the same as the one for the equal-cache case where randomly part of each file is assigned to the cache of each user. The main challenge is to exploit all the coding opportunities in the delivery phase [@DecentralizedUnequalCache1; @DecentralizedUnequalCache2].
However, considering centralized caching with unequal cache sizes, the challenge also involves designing the placement phase. For the two-user case, Cao et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache3] proposed an optimum caching scheme, and showed that coded cache placement outperforms uncoded. For a system with an arbitrary number of users, Saeedi Bidokhti et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache1] proposed a scheme with uncoded cache placement constructed based on the memory sharing of the scheme for centralized caching with equal cache sizes [@CentralizedCaching]. Also, Ibrahim et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache2], assuming uncoded cache placement and linear coded delivery, formulated this problem as a linear optimisation problem in which the number of parameters grows exponentially with the number of users. As the number of users grows, the scheme by Saeedi Bidokhti et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache1] remains simple at the cost of performance, and the optimisation problem by Ibrahim et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache2] becomes intractable.
In the light of the above mentioned issues, we propose a new caching scheme with uncoded cache placement for centralized caching with unequal cache sizes where there are two subgroups of users, one with a larger cache size than the other. Our caching scheme outperforms the caching scheme proposed by Saeedi Bidokhti et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache1] suggested by numerical evaluations. In comparison to the work by Ibrahim et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache2], as our scheme is an explicit scheme, it does not have the complexity issue associated with solving an optimisation problem. Also, our scheme performs within a multiplicative factor of 1.11 from the scheme by Ibrahim et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache2] suggested by numerical evaluations.
System Model {#Section:SystemModel}
============
We consider a centralized caching problem where there is a server storing $N$ independent files $W_\ell$, $\ell\in\mathcal{N}$, $\mathcal{N}=\{1,2,\ldots,N\}$, connected through a shared error-free link to $K$ cache-enabled users, as shown in Fig. \[Fig:SystemModel\]. We assume that the number of files in the server is at least as many as the number of users, i.e., $N\geq K$. Each file in the server is of size $F\in\mathbb{N}$ bits (where $\mathbb{N}$ is the set of natural numbers), and is uniformly distributed over the set $\mathcal{W}=\left\{1,2,\ldots,2^{F}\right\}$. User $i$, $i\in\mathcal{K}$, $\mathcal{K}=\{1,2,\ldots,K\}$, is equipped with a cache of size $M_iF$ bits for some $M_i\in\mathbb{R}$, $0\leq M_i\leq N$, where $\mathbb{R}$ is the set of real numbers. The content of the cache of user $i$ is denoted by $Z_i$. We represent all the cache sizes by the vector $\mathbf{M}=(M_1,M_2,\ldots,M_K)$. In this work, we assume that there are two subgroups of users, one with a larger cache size than the other, i.e., $M_i=\hat{M}$, $1\leq i \leq L$, and $M_i={M}$, $L+1\leq i \leq K$, for some $\hat{M}>M$. User $i$ requests $W_{d_i}$ from the server where $d_i\in\mathcal{N}$. We represent the request of all the users by the vector $\mathbf{d}=(d_1,d_2,\ldots,d_K)$. User $i$ needs to decode $W_{d_i}$ using $Z_i$, and the signal $X_\mathbf{d}$ transmitted by the server over the shared link.
As mentioned earlier, each caching scheme consists of two phases, the placement phase and the delivery phase. The placement phase consists of $K$ caching functions $$\begin{aligned}
\phi_i:\mathcal{W}^{N}\rightarrow \mathcal{Z}_i,\;\; i\in\mathcal{K},\end{aligned}$$ where $\mathcal{Z}_i\hskip-2pt=\hskip-2pt\left\{\hskip-2pt 1,2,\ldots,2^{\left\lfloor M_iF \right\rfloor}\hskip-2pt\right\}$, i.e., $Z_i\hskip-2pt=\hskip-2pt\phi_i\left(\hskip-2pt W_1,W_2,\ldots,W_N\hskip-2pt\right)$.
The delivery phase consists of $N^K$ encoding functions $$\begin{aligned}
\psi_{\mathbf{d}}:\mathcal{W}^{N}\rightarrow \mathcal{X},\end{aligned}$$ where $\mathcal{X}=\left\{1,2,\ldots,2^{\left\lfloor RF \right\rfloor}\right\}$, i.e., $$\begin{aligned}
X_{\mathbf{d}}=\psi_{\mathbf{d}}\left(W_1,W_2,\ldots,W_N\right).\end{aligned}$$ We refer to $RF$ as the load of the transmission and $R$ as the rate of the transmission over the shared link.
The delivery phase consists of also $KN^K$ decoding functions $$\begin{aligned}
\theta_{\mathbf{d},i}:
\mathcal{Z}_i\times\mathcal{X}\rightarrow \mathcal{W},\;\;i\in\mathcal{K},\end{aligned}$$ i.e., $\hat{W}_{\mathbf{d},i}=\theta_{\mathbf{d},i}(X_{\mathbf{d}},Z_i)$, where $\hat{W}_{\mathbf{d},i}$ is the decoded version of $W_{d_i}$ at user $i$ when the demand vector is $\mathbf{d}$.
The probability of error for the scheme is defined as $$\begin{aligned}
\underset{\mathbf{d}}{\max}\;\,\underset{i}{\max}\;P(\hat{W}_{\mathbf{d},i}\neq W_{d_i}).\end{aligned}$$
For a given $\mathbf{M}$, we say that the rate $R$ is achievable if for every $\epsilon>0$ and large enough $F$, there exists a caching scheme with rate $R$ such that its probability of error is less than $\epsilon$. For a given $\mathbf{M}$, we also define $R^{\star}(\mathbf{M})$ as the infimum of all achievable rates.
Background {#Sec:Background}
==========
In this section, we first consider centralized caching with equal cache sizes, i.e., $M_i=M,\,\forall i$, and review the optimum scheme among those with uncoded placement [@CentralizedCaching; @OptimumCachingWithUnCodedPlacement]. We then review existing works on centralized caching with unequal cache sizes where there are more than two users [@CentralizedUnequalCache1; @CentralizedUnequalCache2].
Equal Cache Sizes {#Sec:EqualCache}
-----------------
Here, we present the optimum caching scheme for centralized caching with equal cache sizes when the cache placement is uncoded, and $N\geq K$ [@CentralizedCaching]. In this scheme, a parameter denoted by $t$ is defined at the beginning as $$\begin{aligned}
t=\frac{KM}{N}.\end{aligned}$$
First, assume that $t$ is an integer. As $0\leq M\leq N$, we have $t\in\{0,1,2,\ldots,K\}$. In the placement phase, $W_\ell$, $\ell\in\mathcal{N}$, is divided into $\binom{K}{t}$ non-overlapping parts denoted by $W_{\ell,\mathcal{T}}$ where $\mathcal{T}\subseteq\mathcal{K}$ and $\left|\mathcal{T}\right|=t$ ($\left|\mathcal{T}\right|$ denotes the cardinality of the set $\mathcal{T}$). $W_{\ell,\mathcal{T}}$ is then placed in the cache of user $i$ if $i\in\mathcal{T}$. This means that the size of each part is $\frac{F}{\binom{k}{t}}$ bits, and we place $\binom{K-1}{t-1}$ parts from each file in the cache of user $i$. Therefore, we satisfy the cache size constraint as we have $$\begin{aligned}
N\frac{\binom{K-1}{t-1}}{\binom{K}{t}}=M.\end{aligned}$$ In the delivery phase, the server transmits $$\begin{aligned}
X_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{S}}=\underset{s\in\mathcal{S}}{\bigoplus} W_{d_s,\mathcal{S}\setminus s},\end{aligned}$$ for every $\mathcal{S}\subseteq\mathcal{K}$ where $\left|\mathcal{S}\right|=t+1$. This results in the transmission rate of $$\begin{aligned}
R_{\text{eq}}(N,K,M)=\frac{\binom{K}{t+1}}{\binom{K}{t}}.\end{aligned}$$ This delivery scheme satisfies the demands of all the $K$ users [@CentralizedCaching].
Now, assume that $t$ is not an integer. In this case, memory sharing is utilized where $t_\text{int}$ is defined as $$\begin{aligned}
t_\text{int}\triangleq\left\lfloor t \right\rfloor,\end{aligned}$$ and $\alpha$ is computed using the following equation $$\begin{aligned}
M=\frac{tN}{K}=\alpha\frac{t_\text{int}N}{K}+(1-\alpha)\frac{(t_\text{int}+1)N}{K},\end{aligned}$$ where $0<\alpha\leq1$. Based on $\alpha$, the caching problem is divided into two independent problems. In the first one, the cache size is $\alpha\frac{t_\text{int}N}{K}F$, and we cache the first $\alpha F$ bits of the files, denoted by $W^{(\alpha)}_{\ell}$, $\ell\in\mathcal{N}$. In the delivery phase, the server transmits $$\begin{aligned}
\label{Eq:Component1}
X^{(\alpha)}_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{S}_1}=\underset{s\in\mathcal{S}_1}{\bigoplus} W^{(\alpha)}_{d_s,\mathcal{S}_1\setminus s},\end{aligned}$$ for every $\mathcal{S}_1\subseteq\mathcal{K}$ where $\left|\mathcal{S}_1\right|=t_\text{int}+1$.
In the second one, the cache size is $(1-\alpha)\frac{(t_\text{int}+1)N}{K}F$, and we cache the last $(1-\alpha)F$ bits of the files, denoted by $W^{(1-\alpha)}_{\ell}$, $\ell\in\mathcal{N}$. In the delivery phase, the server transmits $$\begin{aligned}
\label{Eq:Component2}
X^{(1-\alpha)}_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{S}_2}=\underset{s\in\mathcal{S}_2}{\bigoplus} W^{(1-\alpha)}_{d_s,\mathcal{S}_2\setminus s},\end{aligned}$$ for every $\mathcal{S}_2\subseteq\mathcal{K}$ where $\left|\mathcal{S}_2\right|=t_\text{int}+2$.
Consequently, the rate $$\begin{aligned}
\label{Eq:Rate}
R_{\text{eq}}(N,K,M)=\alpha \frac{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}+1}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}}}+(1-\alpha)\frac{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}+2}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}+1}},\end{aligned}$$ is achieved where $\binom{a}{b}$ is considered to be zero if $b>a$.
{width="30.00000%"} -10pt
-15pt \[Fig:ExScheme1\]
Unequal Cache Sizes {#Sec:ExistingWorks}
-------------------
Here, we present existing works on centralized caching with unequal cache sizes where there are more than two users.
### Scheme 1 [@CentralizedUnequalCache1] {#Sec:ExistingScheme1}
In this scheme, assuming without loss of generality that $M_1\geq M_2 \geq \cdots \geq M_K$, the problem is divided into $K$ caching problems. In problem $i$, $i\in\mathcal{K}$, there are two groups of users: the first group is composed of users 1 to $i$, all with equal cache size of $(M_i-M_{i+1})F$ bits; the second group is composed of users $i+1$ to $K$, all without cache. In problem $K$, $M_{K+1}$ is considered as zero, and there is only one group consisting of $K$ users all with equal cache size of $M_KF$ bits. In problem $i$, we only consider $\beta_iF$ bits of the files where $\beta_1+\beta_2+\cdots+\beta_K=1$. This scheme is schematically shown in Fig. \[Fig:ExScheme1\] for the three-user case. Based on the equal cache results, the transmission rate for caching problem $i$ is $$\begin{aligned}
R_i=\beta_i R_{\text{eq}}(N,i,\frac{M_i-M_{i+1}}{\beta_i})+\beta_i(K-i),\;i\in\mathcal{K}.\label{eq:existing1}\end{aligned}$$ The first term on the right-hand side of corresponds to the transmission rate for the first groups of users, and the second term corresponds to the transmission rate for the second group of users, which are without cache in problem $i$.
Therefore, by optimising the sum rate over the parameters $(\beta_1,\beta_2,\ldots,\beta_K)$, we achieve the following transmission rate $$\begin{aligned}
\label{Eq:existingwork1}
R_{\text{ex1}}(N,K,\mathbf{M})=\underset{(\beta_1,\ldots,\beta_K):\sum_{i=1}^{K}\beta_i=1}{\min}\sum_{i=1}^{K}R_i.\end{aligned}$$
### Scheme 2 [@CentralizedUnequalCache2] {#Sec:ExistingScheme2}
In this scheme, the problem of centralized caching with unequal cache sizes is formulated as an optimisation problem where it is assumed that the cache placement is uncoded, and the delivery phase uses linear coding. To characterize all possible uncoded placement policies, the parameter $a_{\mathcal{S}}$, $\mathcal{S}\subseteq\mathcal{K}$, is defined where $a_{\mathcal{S}}F$ represents the length of ${W}_{\ell,\mathcal{S}}$ as the fraction of $W_\ell$ stored in the cache of users in $\mathcal{S}$. Hence, these parameters must satisfy $$\begin{aligned}
\sum_{\mathcal{S}\subseteq\mathcal{K}} a_{\mathcal{S}}=1,\end{aligned}$$ and $$\begin{aligned}
\sum_{\mathcal{S}\subseteq\mathcal{K}:i\in\mathcal{S}} a_{\mathcal{S}}\leq\frac{M_i}{N},\;i\in\mathcal{K}.\end{aligned}$$
In the delivery phase, the server transmits $$\begin{aligned}
X_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{T}}=\bigoplus_{j\in\mathcal{T}}W_{d_j}^{\mathcal{T}},\end{aligned}$$ to the users in $\mathcal{T}$ where $\mathcal{T}$ is a non-empty subset of $\mathcal{K}$. $W_{d_j}^{\mathcal{T}}$, which is a part of $W_{d_j}$, needs to be decoded at user $j$, and cancelled by all the users in $\mathcal{T}\setminus\{j\}$. Therefore, $W_{d_j}^{\mathcal{T}}$ is constructed from subfiles ${W}_{d_j,\mathcal{S}}$ where $\mathcal{T}\setminus\{j\}\subseteq \mathcal S$ and $j\notin \mathcal{S}$. To characterize all possible linear delivery policies, two sets of parameters are defined: (i) $v_{\mathcal{T}}$ where $v_{\mathcal{T}}F$ represents the length of $W_{d_j}^{\mathcal{T}},\;\forall j\in\mathcal{T}$, and consequently $X_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{T}}$. (ii) $u_{\mathcal{S}}^{\mathcal{T}}$ where $u_{\mathcal{S}}^{\mathcal{T}}F$ is the length of $W_{d_j,\mathcal{S}}^{\mathcal{T}}$ which is the fraction of ${W}_{d_j,\mathcal{S}}$ used in the construction $W_{d_j}^{\mathcal{T}}$. In order to have a feasible delivery scheme, these parameters need to satisfy some conditions [@CentralizedUnequalCache2 equations (25)–(30)]. By considering $(\mathbf{a},\mathbf{u},\mathbf{v})$ as all the optimisation parameters, and $\mathcal{C}(N,K,\mathbf{M})$ as all the conditions that need to be met in the both placement and delivery phases, we achieve the following transmission rate $$\begin{aligned}
\label{Eq:existingwork2}
R_{\text{ex2}}(N,K,\mathbf{M})\hskip-2pt=\hskip-2pt\underset{\mathbf{d}}{\max}\hskip-2pt\left(\hskip-2pt\underset{(\mathbf{a},\mathbf{u},\mathbf{v}):\mathcal{C}(N,K,\mathbf{M})}{\min}\sum_{\mathcal{T}\in\mathcal{K}:\left|\mathcal{T}\right|\neq 0} v_{\mathcal{T}}\hskip-2pt\right).\end{aligned}$$
Proposed Caching Scheme
=======================
In this section, we first provide some insights into our proposed scheme using an example. We then propose a scheme for a system with two subgroups of users, one with a larger cache size than the other, i.e., $M_i=\hat{M}$, $1\leq i \leq L$, and $M_i={M}$, $L+1\leq i \leq K$, for some $\hat{M}>M$.
An Example
----------
In our example, as shown in Fig. \[Fig:AnExample\], we consider the case where the number of files in the server is four, denoted for simplicity by $(A,B,C,D)$, and the number of users is also four. The first three users have a cache of size $2F$ bits, and the forth one has a cache of size $F$ bits. First, we ignore the extra cache available at the first three users, and use the equal-cache scheme. This divides each file into four parts, and places $(A_i, B_i, C_i, D_i)$, $i\in\{1,2,3,4\}$, in the cache of user $i$. Therefore, assuming without loss of generality that users 1, 2, 3 and 4 request $A$, $B$, $C$ , and $D$ respectively, the server needs to transmit $A_2\oplus B_1$, $A_3\oplus C_1$, $B_3\oplus C_2$, $A_4\oplus D_1$, $B_4\oplus D_2$ and $C_4\oplus D_3$, and we achieve the rate of $R=3/2$ by ignoring the extra cache available at the first three users. Now, to utilize the extra cache available at users 1, 2, and 3, we look at what is going to be transmitted when ignoring these extra caches, and fill the extra caches to reduce the load of the transmission. In particular, we reduce the load of the transmissions which are only of benefit to the users with a larger cache size (i.e., $A_2\oplus B_1$, $A_3\oplus C_1$, $B_3\oplus C_2$). To do this, we divide $A_i$, $i\in\{1,2,3\}$ into two equal parts, $A'_i$ and $A''_i$. We do the same for $B_i$, $C_i$, and $D_i$, $i\in\{1,2,3\}$. We then place $(A'_2, B'_2, C'_2, D'_2)$ and $(A'_3, B'_3, C'_3, D'_3)$ in the extra cache of user 1, $(A'_1, B'_1, C'_1, D'_1)$ and $(A''_3, B''_3, C''_3, D''_3)$ in the extra cache of user 2, and $(A''_1, B''_1, C''_1, D''_1)$ and $(A''_2, B''_2, C''_2, D''_2)$ in the extra cache of user 3. Therefore, considering the extra cache available at the first three users, instead of $A_2\oplus B_1$, $A_3\oplus C_1$, $B_3\oplus C_2$, we just need to transmit $A''_2\oplus B''_1\oplus C'_1 $, and $A''_3\oplus B'_3\oplus C'_2$ to satisfy the demands of all users, and we achieve the rate $R=1$.
Note that what we did in the second part is equivalent to using the equal-cache scheme for a system with a server storing four files of size $\frac{3}{4}F$ bits, i.e., $A^*=(A_1,A_2,A_3)$, $B^*=(B_1,B_2,B_3)$, $C^*=(C_1,C_2,C_3)$, and $D^*=(D_1,D_2,D_3)$, and with three users each with a cache of size $2F$ bits. This can be seen by defining $A^*_{12}=(A'_1,A'_2)$, $A^*_{13}=(A''_1,A'_3)$, and $A^*_{23}=(A''_2,A''_3)$ for $A^*$, and also similarly for $B^*$, $C^*$, and $D^*$. Then we can check that $(A^*_\mathcal{T},B^*_\mathcal{T},C^*_\mathcal{T},D^*_\mathcal{T})$, $\mathcal{T}\in\{\{12\},\{13\},\{23\}\}$, is in the cache of user $i$, $i\in\{1,2,3\}$ if $i\in\mathcal{T}$.
{width="45.00000%"} -10pt
-12pt \[Fig:AnExample\]
Scheme with Two Levels of Caches
--------------------------------
In this subsection, we explain our proposed scheme for the system where the first $L$ users have a cache of size $\hat{M}F$ bits, and the last $K-L$ users have a cache of size $MF$ bits for some $M<\hat{M}$.
### An incremental placement approach {#Sec:IncreasingCache}
We first describe a concept which is used later in our proposed scheme for the unequal-cache problem. Suppose that we initially have a system with $N$ files, and $K$ users each having a cache of size $MF$ bits. We use the equal-cache scheme described in Section \[Sec:EqualCache\] to fill the caches.
We later increase the cache size of *each* user by $(M'-M)F$ bits for some $M'>M$. The problem is that we are not allowed to change the content of the first $MF$ bits that we have already filled, but we want to fill the additional cache in such a way that the overall cache has the same content placement as the scheme described in Section \[Sec:EqualCache\] for the new system with $N$ files, and $K$ users each having a cache of size $M'F$ bits.
We present our solution when $M=\frac{tN}{K}$ and $M'=\frac{(t+1)N}{K}$ for some integer $t$. The solution can be easily extended to an arbitrary $M$ and $M'$. In the cache placement for the system with the parameters $(N,K,M)$, we divide $W_\ell$, $\ell\in\mathcal{N}$, into $\binom{K}{t}$ subfiles denoted by $W_{\ell,\mathcal{T}}$, and place the ones with $i\in\mathcal{T}$ in the cache of user $i$. This means that we put $\binom{K-1}{t-1}$ subfiles of $W_\ell$ in the cache of each user. After increasing the cache of each user to $M'F$ bits, we further divide each subfile into $(K-t)$ parts denoted by $W_{\ell,\mathcal{T},j}$, $j\in\mathcal{K}\setminus\mathcal{T}$, and place $W_{\ell,\mathcal{T},j}$ in the cache of user $j$. This adds $W_{\ell,\mathcal{T},j}$, $j\notin\mathcal{T}$, to the cache of user $j$ while keeping the existing content of the first $MF$ bits of user $j$, i.e., $W_{\ell,\mathcal{T},i}$ $j\in\mathcal{T}$, $i\in\mathcal{K}\setminus\mathcal{T}$. This means that we add $$\begin{aligned}
N\frac{\binom{K-1}{t}}{\binom{K}{t}(K-t)}F=\frac{N}{K}F=(M'-M)F\;\; \text{bits},\end{aligned}$$ to the cache of each user which satisfies the cache size constraint. Our cache placement for the system with the parameters $(N,K,M')$ becomes the same as the one described in Section \[Sec:EqualCache\] by merging all the parts $W_{\ell,\mathcal{T},j}$ which have the same $\mathcal{T}'=\mathcal{T}\cup\{j\}$ as a single subfile $W_{\ell,\mathcal{T}'}$, where $|\mathcal{T}'|=t+1$.
### Proposed Scheme
We here present our proposed scheme for the system where $M_i=\hat{M}$, $i\in\mathcal{L}$, $\mathcal{L}=\{1,2,\ldots,L\}$, and $M_i={M}$, $i\in\mathcal{K}\setminus\mathcal{L}$, for some $M<\hat{M}$.
Our placement phase is composed of two stages. In the first stage, we ignore the extra cache available at the first $L$ users, and use the equal-cache placement for the system with the parameters $(N,K,M)$. Hence, at the end of this stage, we can achieve the rate in by transmitting $X^{(\alpha)}_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{S}_1}$, defined in , for any $\mathcal{S}_1\subseteq\mathcal{K}$ where $|\mathcal{S}_1|=t_\text{int}+1$, and $X^{(1-\alpha)}_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{S}_2}$, defined in , for any $\mathcal{S}_2\subseteq\mathcal{K}$ where $|\mathcal{S}_2|=t_\text{int}+2$.
In the second stage of our placement phase, we fill the extra cache available at the first $L$ users by looking at what are going to be transmitted when ignoring these extra caches. To do so, we try to reduce the load of the transmissions which are intended only for the users with a larger cache size, i.e., $X^{(\alpha)}_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{S}_1}$for any $\mathcal{S}_1\subseteq\mathcal{L}$ ($|\mathcal{S}_1|=t_\text{int}+1$), and $X^{(1-\alpha)}_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{S}_2}$ for any $\mathcal{S}_2\subseteq\mathcal{L}$ ($|\mathcal{S}_2|=t_\text{int}+2$). These transmissions are constructed from the subfiles $W^{(\alpha)}_{\ell,\mathcal{T}_1}$, $\mathcal{T}_1\subseteq\mathcal{L}$, $|\mathcal{T}_1|=t_\text{int}$, and $W^{(1-\alpha)}_{\ell,\mathcal{T}_2}$, $\mathcal{T}_2\subseteq\mathcal{L}$, $|\mathcal{T}_2|=t_\text{int}+1$. These subfiles occupy $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{\binom{L-1}{t_\text{int}-1}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}}}N\alpha F\hspace{-3pt}+\hspace{-3pt}\frac{\binom{L-1}{t_\text{int}}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}+1}}N(1-\alpha) F\;\; \text{bits},\end{aligned}$$ of each user’s cache, and the sum-length of these subfiles for any $\ell\in\mathcal{N}$ is $$\begin{aligned}
F'\triangleq \frac{\binom{L}{t_\text{int}}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}}}\alpha F+\frac{\binom{L}{t_\text{int}+1}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}+1}}(1-\alpha) F\;\;\text{bits}.\end{aligned}$$ Considering our aim in designing the second stage of our placement phase, we again use the equal-cache placement for the subfiles $W^{(\alpha)}_{\ell,\mathcal{T}_1}$, $\mathcal{T}_1\subseteq\mathcal{L}$, $|\mathcal{T}_1|=t_\text{int}$, and $W^{(1-\alpha)}_{\ell,\mathcal{T}_2}$, $\mathcal{T}_2\subseteq\mathcal{L}$ $|\mathcal{T}_2|=t_\text{int}+1$ while considering the extra cache available at the first $L$ users. This means that we use the equal-cache scheme for a system with $N$ files of size $F'$ bits, and $L$ users each having a cache of size $M'F'$ bits where $$\begin{aligned}
\label{Eq:CacheSize2}
M'\hspace{-2pt}F'\triangleq\hspace{-3pt}\frac{\binom{L-1}{t_\text{int}-1}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}}}N\alpha F\hspace{-3pt}+\hspace{-3pt}\frac{\binom{L-1}{t_\text{int}}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}+1}}N(1-\alpha) F\hspace{-3pt}+\hspace{-3pt}(\hat{M}-M){F}.\end{aligned}$$ Note that we are not allowed to change what we have already placed in the cache of the first $L$ users in the first stage. Otherwise, we cannot assume that, from the delivery phase when ignoring the extra caches, the transmissions $X^{(\alpha)}_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{S}_1}$ where $\mathcal{S}_1=\mathcal{T}_1\cup\{j\}$, $|\mathcal{T}_1|=t_\text{int}$, $\mathcal{T}_1\subseteq \mathcal{L}$, $j\in\mathcal{K}\setminus\mathcal{L}$, and $X^{(1-\alpha)}_{\mathbf{d},\mathcal{S}_2}$ where $\mathcal{S}_2=\mathcal{T}_2\cup\{j\}$, $|\mathcal{T}_2|=t_\text{int}+1$, $\mathcal{T}_2\subseteq \mathcal{L}$, $j\in\mathcal{K}\setminus\mathcal{L}$, can still be decoded by target users. Therefore, we employ our proposed solution in Section \[Sec:IncreasingCache\] for using the equal-cache scheme for the second time.
Two scenarios can happen in the second stage.
*Scenario $1$* where $M'\leq N$: In this scenario, we achieve the rate $$\begin{aligned}
R_\text{ueq}(N,K,L,\hat{M},M)\hspace{-3pt}=\hspace{-3pt}R_\text{eq}(N,K,M)\hspace{-3pt}-\hspace{-3pt}R'\hspace{-3pt}+\hspace{-3pt}R_{\text{eq}}(N,L,M')\frac{F'}{F},\end{aligned}$$ where $$\begin{aligned}
R'= \alpha \frac{\binom{L}{t_\text{int}+1}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}}}+(1-\alpha)\frac{\binom{L}{t_\text{int}+2}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}+1}}.\end{aligned}$$ $R'F$ is the load of the transmissions intended only for the users with a larger cache size if we ignore their extra caches (or equivalently if we just utilize the first stage of our placement phase). $R_\text{eq}(N,L,M')F'$ is the new load of the transmissions intended only for the users with a larger cache size at the end of the second stage.
*Scenario $2$* where $M'> N$: In this scenario, we also use memory sharing between the case with $\hat{M}=\Phi$, where $$\begin{aligned}
\Phi\triangleq M-\frac{\binom{L-1}{t_\text{int}-1}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}}}N\alpha-\frac{\binom{L-1}{t_\text{int}}}{\binom{K}{t_\text{int}+1}}N(1-\alpha)+N\frac{F'}{F},\end{aligned}$$ and the case with $\hat{M}=N$. In the system with $\hat{M}=\Phi$, according to , we have $M'=N$, and we achieve the rate $R_\text{eq}(N,K,M)-R'$. In the system with $\hat{M}=N$, we can simply just remove the first $L$ users as they can cache the whole files in the server, and we achieve the rate $R_{\text{eq}}(N,K-L,M)$. Therefore, in this scenario, we achieve the rate $$\begin{aligned}
R_\text{ueq}(N,K,L,\hat{M},M)=&\gamma (R_\text{eq}(N,K,M)-R')\\
&\hskip25pt+(1-\gamma)R_{\text{eq}}(N,K-L,M),\end{aligned}$$ where $0\leq\gamma\leq1$, and is calculated using $\hat{M}=\gamma \Phi+(1-\gamma)N$.
Comparison with existing works
==============================
In this section, we present our numerical results comparing our proposed scheme with the existing works, described in Section \[Sec:ExistingWorks\]. Our numerical results, characterizing the trade-off between the worst-case transmission rate and cache size for systems with two levels of cache sizes, suggest that our scheme outperforms the scheme by Saeedi Bidokhti et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache1]. Considering the work by Ibrahim et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache2], as the complexity of the solution grows exponentially with the number of users, we implemented that work for systems with up to four users. Our numerical evaluations suggest that our scheme performs withing a multiplicative factor of 1.11 from that scheme, i.e., $1\leq\frac{R_\text{ueq}}{R_{\text{ex2}}}\leq1.11$. As an example, this comparison is shown in Fig. \[Fig:Comparison\] for a four-user system with the parameters $N=10$, $K=4$, $M_1=M_2=3M_3=3M_4$. For these parameters, our scheme performs as well as the work by Ibrahim et al. [@CentralizedUnequalCache2] without needing to solve an optimisation problem to obtain the scheme.
{width="45.00000%"} -15pt
-15pt \[Fig:Comparison\]
Conclusion
==========
We addressed the problem of centralized caching with unequal cache sizes. We proposed an explicit scheme for the system with a server of files connected through a shared error-free link to a group of users where one subgroup is equipped with a larger cache size than the other. Numerical results comparing our scheme with existing works showed that our scheme improves upon the existing explicit scheme by having a lower worst-case transmission rate over the shared link. Numerical results also showed that our scheme achieves within a multiplicative factor of 1.11 from the optimal worst-case transmission rate for schemes with uncoded placement and linear coded delivery without needing to solve a complex optimisation problem.
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U. Niesen and M. A. Maddah[-A]{}li, “Coded caching with nonuniform demands,” *[IEEE]{} Trans. Inf. Theory*, vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 1146–1158, Feb. 2017.
N. Karamchandani, U. Niesen, M. A. Maddah[-A]{}li, and S. N. Diggavi, “Hierarchical coded caching,” *[IEEE]{} Trans. Inf. Theory*, vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 3212–3229, June 2016.
Z. Chen, P. Fan, and K. B. Letaief, “Fundamental limits of caching: [I]{}mproved bounds for users with small buffers,” *[IET]{} Commun.*, vol. 10, no. 17, pp. 2315–2318, Nov. 2016.
J. G[ó]{}me[z-V]{}ilardeb[ó]{}. (2017, May 23) Fundamental limits of caching: [I]{}mproved bounds with coded prefetching. \[Online\]. Available: <https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.09071v4>
C. Tian and K. Zhang. (2017, Apr. 25) From uncoded prefetching to coded prefetching in coded caching. \[Online\]. Available: <https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.07901v1>
S. Wang, W. Li, X. Tian, and H. Liu. (2015, Aug. 29) Coded caching with heterogenous cache sizes. \[Online\]. Available: <https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.01123v3>
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February Half Term is just around the corner and what better way to spend quality time together than to enjoy a self-catering break in the Suffolk countryside. The winter is a great time to visit our fabulous county and whether you enjoy being active or you prefer a more relaxed break there's something for everybody.
Try a bike ride on one of the many trails around the county. You can even hire bikes if you haven't got your own head to the cycling hire centre at Rendlesham Forest or Alton Water and hire bicycles suitable for the whole family. There's also plenty of local food and drink to sample, try one of your local pubs and cafes for mouth-watering meals with locally sourced ingredients.
If you're unsure what you'd like to do on your February Half Term break in Suffolk, take a look at our guide to the top family-friendly activities below that will keep you and your troops busy:
Suffolk Science Festival
Bury St Edmunds Town Centre
Saturday 15th - Thursday 20th February 2020
Whether you like Science, Maths, Computing and Engineering or not, come and take a look at the many free exhibits, stalls and stands for you to visit. With the Festival over four central locations throughout the town of Bury St. Edmunds there is so much to see and do. This year's theme is Human Biology and how as humans our bodies work and move. There will be a science themed trail around the venues for you to join in and the cards for the trail will be available at each venue – wherever you begin!
Find out more
Snowdrops Walks, Treasure Trails and Spring Bulbs
Kentwell Hall, Long Melford
Saturday 15th February - Sunday 8th March 2020
February is a great time to visit the gardens at Kentwell Hall. The Shrubbery and back wood are carpeted with Snowdrops and little pockets of Aconites. The rest of the Gardens are charming as their winter starkness is banished by emerging springtime shoots. There are a range of other family friendly activities taking place including a Family Treasure Hunt, Story Book Trails and Outdoor Games Area. Don't forget to re-charge your batteries at the Stable Yard Tea Rooms after a busy day of exploring.
Find out more
Half term story telling in Little Rascals and Spring Nature Trail
Snape Maltings, Snape
Saturday 15th February - Wednesday 15th April 2020
Throughout the February half-term, come and listen to authors reading their charming stories at the Little Rascals shop in Snape Maltings. All activities are free. No need to book, just drop in and enjoy! Whilst you're there pick up a Nature Trail map and spend the day exploring the grounds of Snape Maltings with the chance to complete fun activity sheets and enter a free prize draw.
Find out more
Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood Pantomime
The Riverside Theatre, Woodbridge
Saturday 15th February - Saturday 22nd February 2020
The Company of Four are pleased to present Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood as their annual pantomime for 2020. It combines two well known stories in a feast of fun and laughter for all the family. This magical production tells the tale of two young children sent away to be looked after by Nurse Nellie who works for the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. When the Sheriff, who is obsessed with money and power, finds out the babes are rich he hatches a plan to capture them, steal their money, and wed the beautiful Maid Marian. This pantomime promises to be a fast paced, comical and colourful adventure not to be missed! Booking essential. Adults £15, children £10, concessions £13.50.
Find out more
Frrozen - a forest adventure
High Lodge, Thetford Forest
Saturday 15th - Sunday 23rd February 2020
A fantastic half term activity for those who like escape room games, treasure hunts and solving puzzles. Work as a team to find the clues that lead you to the Winter Witch's lair where you will have to break her icy grip to let the magic of Spring begin. But you have to hurry – you only have 60 minutes to prove yourselves. £65 per group for up to 6 players per team. Booking is essential.
Find out more
Arc's Astronaut Academy
The Arc Shopping Centre, Bury St Edmunds
Monday 17th February 2020
Zoom off to another galaxy with arc shopping centre this February half-term as the shopping centre brings an out of this world experience to Bury St Edmunds. Children that enroll in the Astronaut Academy will take part in a space training session where they will be taught all the special skills that astronauts need. They will then be able to dress up as an astronaut before embarking on their mission to the moon. The newly trained astronauts will then be able to step inside a dome shaped planetarium where they will watch a 3D tour of the solar system. If the astronauts successfully complete their mission they will be rewarded with some real space food!
Find out more
Feeling inspired? Click here to book your February Half Term break now in a luxury self-catering holiday cottage in the countryside. | https://suffolkcottageholidays.com/blog/2020/february/whats-on-this-february-half-term |
Is there any way in the SQL language (and using BD mysql) where I can start a Select in the middle of a table?
For example, I have 500 addresses in the table. I search the addresses of Bairro X (where neighborhood="x"), reducing the total to, say, 60 addresses. But I wanted to start listing from half of those 60 onwards, ignoring the previous ones (even though they are from the neighborhood "x"). How?
Another issue is that I do not know how many values I will have depending on the neighborhood selected, so it may vary. 60, 68, 90, etc. Is there a function inside SQL that makes the select list start in the middle (or at any point, for example, 1/3, 2/3, 5/6 etc) of a select + where result?
Thank you! | https://itqna.net/questions/15829/there-way-start-select-sql-middle-data-table |
Directed by Mieko Ouchi, 10 out of 12 Productions’ rendition of Jordan Tannahill’s Concord Floral uses music, movement, and lighting creates a stirring and haunting production that begs the audience to recognize their potential for good.
As Rosa Mundi (Helen Belay) and Nearly Wild (Leila Raye-Crofton) come across a disturbing discovery down one of the wells in their local teenage party spot, the titular Greenhouse (personified by Marguerite Lawler), their peers (played by current and former members of the 2019 U of A BFA Acting cohort) grapple with various haunting experiences in their lives. The play’s metaphorical plague contributes to the sense of suspense and mystery that settles over the audience long after the curtain call.
Roxanne Côté’s set of artificial turf and Don Mackenzie’s sharp lighting require the audience to imagine their own Concord Floral — after all, it is in “a neighbourhood not unlike your own.” Mackenzie’s complex lighting mirrors the teen’s shattered view of the Greenhouse and the audience’s own view of the characters’ circumstances: that moral choices are not as simple as one wants them to be.
According to Lawler’s Greenhouse, “80 per cent of humanity is good, 10 per cent of humanity is bad, the other 80 per cent can be shifted in either direction.” Each character’s vulnerability leaves the audience aching for a deeper sense of vulnerability in their own lives, inspiring the 80 percent to shift towards the good. | https://thegatewayonline.ca/2018/09/2018-fringe-review-concord-floral/ |
The invention relates to the field of painting and calligraphy work collecting and trading markets and discloses a cross page seal-based method for verifying authenticity of a documented painting and calligraphy work. The method is mainly and technically characterized in that information such as an authors, a name, a finishing date and the like of painting and calligraphy work is input into an electronic document which is then printed as a paper file, one edge of the painting and calligraphy work and one edge of the paper file which is archived are put together, a seal is affixed on a cross page seam, and therefore the authenticity of the painting and calligraphy work can be verified during checking operation. Implementation of the cross page seal-based method can help effectively protect copyright of calligraphers and painters, consumption right of painting and calligraphy collectors can also be protected, and therefore stable and healthy development of painting and calligraphy trading markets can be facilitated. | |
Cozy Chicks: HOW IS YOUR NOSE?
Seriously, I’m not being rude. This is actually the customary greeting for the Ongee tribe of the Andaman Islands. For them, the universe and everything in it is defined by smell. I find this amusing. You might surmise I’m easily amused. You would be correct.
But smells are important to me, too. For instance, a strong garlic odor is delightful if I’m in an Italian restaurant, not so delightful when I’m seated next to someone on a train. A heavy floral perfume will give me a headache in ten minutes. Same with cigarette smoke. Also some potpourri mixes.
When you think of Thanksgiving, can’t you just smell the turkey roasting? The pumpkin pies baking? Christmas – the pine scent of the trees? When you think of summer, do you smell the freshly mown grass?
For the cattle-raising Dassanetch of Ethiopia, no bouquet is more beautiful than a herd of cows. The men wash their hands in cattle urine and smear their bodies with manure to make themselves more attractive to the ladies. The Dogon of Mali rub fried onions all over their bodies. I think I’ve sat next to one of them on the train, too.
Back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, physicians like Hippocrates promoted the therapeutic use of scents, which we now call aromatherapy. Then in the early nineteenth century scientists tried to discredit the medicinal use of aromatics in favor of drugs. (Hint: It’s about the money.) And then the pharmaceutical companies sprang up in the 1950s, and they’ve been doing their best ever since to discredit EVERYTHING that isn’t made in one of their laboratories. Again, money.
Fortunately, aromatherapy is now making a strong comeback. You’ll find a host of essential oils available at your local health food store, each one good for many uses. Just put a dab on your wrist or under your nose, or put some on a cotton ball and set it in a bowl in the room. Then breath. Ahh. All better.
Depressed mood: Peppermint, chamomile, lavender, and jasmine.
I know what you’re thinking. What the heck is ylang ylang? It’s the yellow-flowered tree native to the Malay peninsula and the Philippines from which this oil is obtained.
I would add a few of my favorite scents to the mix. For relaxation, the smell of coffee brewing, or a cup of hot chocolate. To ease a cold, the smell of Vicks Vaporub. For a sense of coziness, any kind of cookie baking.
What would you add to the list? Have you ever tried aromatherapy?
I have to be careful as I am allergic to most perfumes. I have not foun d any problems with essential oils though.
Smells trigger a lot of my happiest memories. I have a pretty strong sense of smell and allergies, so no prefumes for me. And certain flowers and soaps are too much for me too.
Because I am so allergic to insect bites of any kind (some more than others) I use a few drops each of lemongrass and eucalyptus in a base of rose hips oil (you can also use alcohol but I also have a problem with that). I put a little on a tissue and keep it close, even wave it around if the bugs come near. Very effective insect repellent! And it smells wonderful.
I've never used an essential oil, but I love the smell of lilacs. I started drinking peppermint tea recently and enjoying inhaling the scent before I drink it. Now I realize that the smell is a big part of my liking mint.
They say our memory for scent is one of the most accurate of our senses. The smell of cigars can bring my father, who died in 1969, back to life for me.
I have a collection of carefully collected good-quality essential oils, the type made from real ingredients instead of synthetic chemicals. They are hard to find, but so wonderful used in potpourris, etc. Bay laurel in one of my favorites, and instantly triggers Christmas memories.
Smell memories are some of the best and worst I have! When I smell an apple pie I always think of my Gramma in her kitchen--same with bananas. The smell of Old Spice cologne sent me into a full-on panic attack at Walmart once, so yeah smells are powerful.
My daughter is studying to be a massage therapist and aromatherapy is a part of that. She is always bringing home little cotton balls with different scents on them. It's amazing how similar we are in what we like and don't like.
Eucalyptus is one of my favorites. We both love lavender and sandalwood.
My nose is quite good, thank you! I know that some smells have a definite effect on me. Of course, memories are so well-tied to scents.
My nieces had exceptional 'noses' when very young, especially the older one. They were like bloodhounds. They could tell who had been in a room and what chair they had sat in...and no, we didn't know stinky people! one could tell all sorts of things. I always ished she had gone into the perfume industry.
At many writers' conferences, perfumes are banned because so many people have bad reactions. I have a casual friend who douses herself with so much scent that I can't stand to sit by her. Ugh.
That's funny, Tonette. My daughter is like that. She sniffs food before she eats it, like a cat!
My family has a particular fondness for scents with vanilla notes in them. Maybe it's in our DNA!
Bay laurel. I'll have to seek it out and give it a try. Actually never heard of it before, Karen.
Does it keep honey bees away? They're annoying the heck out of me right now, Leann.
I grow mint in my garden and will add leaves to regular green tea to make it minty. Yum.
Apparently, the smell of green apples is great for weight loss (don't ask where I read that!) I love the smell of fresh thyme and basil. Great post, Kate!
My grandmother smelled of Chantilly, Chesterfields, and coffee. Chantilly can still take me back to the 50's, and hugs from my favorite relative.
They say the scent of rosemary can help you remember, too. "Rosemary; that's for remembrance."
Like many people, I have difficulty being near people wearing perfume - I avoid goingn any where near the perfume counter at stores. I can wear some scented lotions if they are not strong (although absolutely nothing with flowers or most herbs). I also cannot go into shops with incense or potpourri - even walking by open shop doors can give me a headache. But I love what I think of as "fall spices". Cinnamon and clove are my favorite scents, although I can also usually enjoy some vanillas, citrus and mints. But I do have trouble with many commercial products and oils. Not sure what they mix in, but it bothers me. I have the best luck with candles (Bath and Body works has a wonderful cinnamon/clove candle). I have a potpourri pot, and I mix ground cinnamon and clove with water. I use a cinnamon stick to stir it as it heats. It's a little messy but it makes the most amazing room freshener. People who walk into my house immediately comment on it.
I've heard the same about peppermint. Maybe I'll give that a try. Those extra pounds from the cruise just won't budge!
I need to buy some cinnamon sticks. I love those scents, too. Reminds me of cookies baking. Have you always been sensitive to smell or did that come at a certain age? That's when it hit me, and many of my friends have said the same thing. Just wondering.
That's my mother's name. Any time I read the spice in a recipe, I think of her.
I've always been sensitive to scents, but it has become worse as I get older. Another one of those "joys" of aging. | https://www.cozychicksblog.com/2014/09/how-is-your-nose.html |
The 3rd of John Neale's books taking a look at Cornish rivers takes us down the Fowey, from its resource on Bodmin Moor to its estuary at Fowey itself. starting close to Brown Willy, the river quickly flows close to the well-known Jamaica lodge and directly to Golitha Falls, passing age-old slate caverns earlier than turning by surprise to make its approach towards Lanhydrock apartment, Boconnoc condominium and Restormel fortress and directly to Lostwithiel with its historic church, historical constructions and fourteenth-century bridge. quickly the Fowey widens because it is joined by way of Lerryn Creek and flows directly to St Winnow and Golant prior to greeting Bodinnick, Polruan and Fowey itself. alongside the best way we meet ghosts, previous characters, an oddball vicar and a celebrity of the silver reveal; detect church buildings and outdated homes; study of literary institutions, myths and legends; and get to the bottom of a secret or ! The River Fowey is the golden thread which weaves many elements of panorama and seascape jointly as we discover one in all Cornwall's magical rivers.
At the morning of Wednesday 21 December 1910, 889 males and boys travelled the 2 434- yard-deep shafts at Hulton Colliery, sometimes called Pretoria Pit, positioned in Over Hulton, north of Atherton, Lancashire. Sunk in 1900, the colliery used to be plagued with emissions of gasoline, rather after roof falls. by means of 7.
Fenton is the 'forgotten city' within the novels of Hanley-born writer Arnold Bennett. He selected to write down of the 5 cities, intentionally omitting Fenton, which on the time of his writing used to be in basic terms an city district. He argued that 'five' - with its open vowel - perfect the huge tongue of the Potteries humans greater than 'six'.
Even supposing identified around the globe because the ‘Home of Golf’, St Andrews was once additionally the ecclesiastical powerhouse in Scotland for hundreds of years ahead of the Reformation. writer Gregor Stewart takes the reader on a desirable trip during the town’s earlier, unearthing stories of double crossing and infighting whereas introducing the reader to the nefarious characters who have been jostling for energy. | http://greencardvoices.com/lib/exploring-the-river-fowey |
One day, on the introduction of a friend, an elderly, quietly elegant woman appeared in my office.
She said, "Please make me a place to die."
That was a surprise. She continued, "Please make a house that can be cut in half after I die. For my two sons and their families."
This would not be so surprising if it were a commission for a grave. Architects do design graves from time to time. But this was a request for a house. A house is a place to live. What kind of house would have death as its primary requirement ?
I thought for a while.
Finally I realized that the request was actually "Please make a place to live better through the rest of my time."
A place to live, a place to enjoy life. That was my commission.
The requirement was not death, but vibrant "life".
That said, architects cannot design a way of life. We can only provide hardware, in the form of a house. So, what could be done in this case ?
Given the zoning regulations for the site, it would be a two-story house. The mother, my client, would live on the first floor, and the second floor would be the area for her two sons and their wives.
The permissible building-to-land ratio determined that the ratio of interior to exterior would be 1 to 1. But it would be boring to simply allocate half of the site to the interior and half to the exterior. I wondered whether it would be possible for the whole site to be interior and exterior at the same time. (This way of thinking about interior and exterior has something in common with the Shanghai House, an earlier project.)
The solution was to "layer" the garden and the interior. Starting with units about 4.5 meters in width, I placed two interior units and three exterior units in a line, for a total of five layers.
The entire sequence becomes one when the glass screens at the boundaries are all open. When the screens are all shut, it becomes a five-layer sandwich of interior and exterior. There are 16 combinations of opened/closed.
If each of the screens were further divided into its panes, there would be 2 to the power of 24 combinations.
There are as many plans as there are combinations.
The idea is to enjoy life amid these spatial variations as they play out against variations in the weather and season.
On a sunny morning with soft breezes blowing, a completely open space with no distinctions between inside and outside will be pleasant. On a rainy afternoon, the wet stones of the walls will be filled with light like the surface of a lake.
On a snowy evening, reflections from the snow between the rooms will make the ceilings glow in a pale gold color.
I thought that the solution for the commission, "a place to live", was to provide a place for creativity and discoveries.
Smooth continuity / Sliding doors
In traditional Japanese houses, rooms are divided by sliding paper doors called fusuma. (Sliding doors on the outer periphery are called shoji. These allow light to penetrate and are also made of paper.)
Doors on hinges are still there even when opened, but sliding doors disappear. The difference between On and Off is unmistakable.
Fusuma marks the boundaries between rooms and rooms, and between rooms and corridors, so that a sequence of rooms can be transformed into a single large room simply by opening the fusuma. Due to the post and beam construction of Japanese houses, only the pillars remain when the fusuma are opened.
By using sliding doors, this house affirms the unity of interior and exterior when all of the doors are opened.
The sliding doors can also be stopped at any point to select the degree of openness. The continuity between interior and exterior can be adjusted gradationally.
Continuity and separation / Floating drops of water
This house is a private home, but three families live there, so it also has something of the character of collective housing. Even though the families are not strangers, so the separation is not complete.
The first floor is used by members of all three families, and both staircases are in the same void. The two families on the second floor are visually connected across the glass washrooms that face the void. (You can't go to the other side, but you can see it.)
Continuity across private spaces (the washrooms) is possible only because the residents are members of the same family. When someone wants to block a line of sight, it is also possible to lower one of the two large electrically powered blinds in the void down the first floor. A combination of IN/OUT is available here as well.
The washstands on the second floor jut out into the void. As you are washing your face, you can see the first floor through the water in the basins. According to one of the second floor residents, this is an interesting experience every morning. When seen from below, drops of water appear to be floating overhead.
Waves and flow / Vibrations devices
Superimposed over the IN/OUT configuration are waves emanating through this architecture. There are flows evident in the outer walls of the garden, the ceiling of the main room, the tokonoma, the kitchen, the water drops of the washrooms, the railings of the stairs, and the furniture.
If the various interior and exterior plans, configured according to the requirements of the moment, serve as an invitation for "wind" to flow through the building, then you could also say there is a corresponding flow of "water", which expresses itself as waves.
The ceiling of the main room encloses the beams in a gently curved surface.
The ceiling is white, with sprayed on copper powder to pick up the light.
Depending on the angle of the incident light, you may notice a delicate glint, a kind of subdued radiance.
The walls facing the garden have wavelike patterns in amber colored granite.
Three types of section shape were combined here. The wavelike surface has its intended effect when it catches the light. The angles of the surface were calculated on a computer by simulating the light that actually strikes the walls during the summer and winter and checking the reflections produced Glistening, breathing light and textures are common elements in the handling of stone in this house.
There is nothing very interesting about hard things that look hard. Paradoxically, they look harder when you can sense something soft about them. This is also a way to bring out the latent strengths in materials when there are stronger and more attractive forces at work beneath the surface.
The black granite of the tokonoma in the Japanese room ripples like the surface of a body of water.
This surface rippling was reproduced on a computer as the interference between the concentric waves of two adjacent circles.
The two counters in the kitchen are also wavelike. They are places for cooking, which is related to the sense of taste, so they were designed as objects that go beyond the sense of sight to provide a tactile response, making you want to touch them. The walls around the site are painted with layers of six wavelike patterns in four colors.
The basic patterns were based on hand drawn lines, not digital ones, because I did not want to lose the subtle wavering of analog design. The subsequent processing was digital. The arrangement of colors responds to the distribution of colors around the site. A new Environmental Color Program (part of the INDUCTION DESIGN series) was developed tofacilitate this.
The aim of the program is harmony with the surrounding environment. But it does not attempt to find colors that vanish completely, like the camouflage of an insect. The colors must be in harmony with the environment, and at the same time assert their independence.
Instead of one alternative, this architecture is both. Ambiguous diversity is one of its fundamental characteristics. (However, the colors were not generated entirely by the program, since it was not completed in time for the construction.)
If the tokonoma is the symbolic device at the heart of a traditional Japanese room, the waves emanating through this architecture perform the same function for the house as a whole.
Wavering at the center /Tokonoma
The tokonoma is a space found in traditional Japanese rooms. About the size of one tatami mat, it has a symbolic function and a history that are said to go back about 600 years. Normally it is raised slightly above the level of the tatami mats and floored with planks of expensive, carefully selected, and beautifully grained wood.
In this space stands a post called the tokobashira, usually an ornamental wood pillar that is polished smooth to emphasize its subtle curves. It is forbidden to step on the floor of the tokonoma.
The tokonoma is more than simply a background for the display of flower arrangements or hanging scroll brush paintings.
The very existence of this small space lends tension to the room and expresses its character. The rank of residents and visitors is evident from where they sit relative to the tokonoma.
In terms of providing a focal point in the room, the tokonoma plays a role similar to that of the fireplace in Western architecture. Unlike the fireplace, however, the tokonoma has no utilitarian function. Its only function is symbolic.
And although it serves as the room's center of gravity, it is located away from the room's axis. Moreover, its layout is usually asymmetric.
This is an interesting phenomenon, in that the center of gravity is not at the center.
It is difficult for something with a displaced center of gravity to be at rest. On the contrary, it will generate movement. Even though it appears to be simply a quiet space at the edge of the room, it is actually a dynamic factor, a vibration device that continually disturbs the stasis of the room. It is still, but moving. There is ambiguity here as well.
In the Tokyo House, the tokonoma is the rippling on the surface of the water, and the tokobashira is handled as a trickling (highly viscous) liquid.
What the designer did / What the residents decide
The residents report that they enjoy the opportunity to create spatial variations, opening and shutting different glass screens on different days.
They say they never grow tired of the play of light and shadow on the ceilings according to the time of day and the season.
In that sense, this house has more than one plan.
In that way, the residents decide what the house will be at any particular time.
What the designer did was to provide a number of plans in a single work of architecture, and to implant vibration devices that would generate waves at various locations within it.
Under the influence of changes in light and perspective, waves on the static stone ripple and move.
If the residents can select different plans from time to time, and feel that those times and those illuminations are beautiful, while surrendering to the gentle rocking of the waves, then perhaps the designer will have fulfilled the client's requirements. | https://makoto-architect.com/tokyo_house.html |
So it's another January, but one year on — and this is where we find the Go Girls: Britta has been through a very big change. In fine McMann tradition, she is the solo mum of a little girl, now four months old. Cody is running the garage and living with Possum. But on the romance front things have changed a lot. Amy is back on the Shore — and she's a woman with ambitions. Brad returns, but a broken heart and overseas travel mean he's a changed man. Olivia and Joel are doing well with their music and had a minor breakout hit that's been sold for an ad. Kevin has been married to Amanda for more than a year, but he's hardly seeing his friends these days... Kevin is back in town with bombshell news, as Britta has big news for Kevin. But when bombs go off, someone is bound to get hurt...
Ep.2 Two Trolls
Air Date: 2012-02-21
Amy's quest is to be the best lawyer, but she's being bullied at work by a nemesis from her past, Rupert the Perve. Kevin, trapped in hospital, is frustrated he can't defend her. Cody has battles of her own, with NSB's evil ex, Bex, as Olivia discovers that Joel has moved in.
Ep.3 Love Hurts
Air Date: 2012-02-28
Olivia finds she's been left a million dollars in her father's will. But as she clears out her father's things, she finds he kept a report card on all his daughters and is rocked that he thought her a disappointment. Kevin is convalescing as Amy goes to Timaru leaving the Go Girls in charge of his care. Britta is flustered to find Brad is back in town but he is not the same man he used to be. Britta is so upset she forgets to feed Kevin, so Fran takes round Jan's enhanced home baking...
Ep.4 A Better Man
Air Date: 2012-03-06
Britta fears Leo's bad habits are putting Hero at risk and bans him from seeing her. Leo resolves to turn over a new leaf and Britta is impressed but she admits that she's not in love with Leo, and never will be. Leo nearly falls off the wagon, then realises that it's Hero he wants as much as Britta. Kevin confesses all to Amy, and feels his life is over — especially when he discovers that Cody has financial woes and can't give him his old job back. With the help of Brad, Kevin confronts Dave about getting his money back. This goes badly, but Kevin meets a motorist in distress. Ron Cape runs a rally team and is so impressed with Kevin that he offers him a job. Kevin decides to take it and make a fresh start. But Amy returns and forgives him. Kevin has his dream girl at last.
Ep.5 Kevin and Amy Up a Tree
Air Date: 2012-03-13
Kevin is trying to ignore everything except sex with the girl of his dreams — Amy. But this proves hard when Cody has fresh financial woes — NSB has sold the rental fleet. He insists it's not personal — business is business, but Cody feels betrayed and desperate and pressures Kevin about getting the money Dave owes him.
Ep.6 Bad Mothers
Air Date: 2012-03-20
Kevin leaves, but has a job for Brad — to look after the Go Girls. Brad is not keen on this assignment, but Britta is upset. Her bad mother, Fran, lied about Britta's age — and she is six months older than she thought. On top of this, Nan bites a child, and Jan gets arrested for dope possession.
Ep.7 What a Difference a Frock Makes
Air Date: 2012-03-27
Life can go in very different directions as Cody and Amy both discover when visitors rock their world. But can a frock sale really make that much difference? In one version of our sliding doors, they do. Cody's new frock causes a fight with NSB and a rematch with Eli, who ho has come to ask for a divorce, but is torn... In the version where the gals don't go shopping, Amy goes home to find her mother in bed with her boss Brendan...
Ep.8 Pleasure and Pain
Air Date: 2012-04-03
Leo has been picked up by a morning magazine show, Morena! But the producer turns out to be his scary ex Ellie, who seems to hate Leo. Britta fears for his job and goes into bat for him. Leo gets a contract, but as he obsesses about how much he hates Ellie, Britta starts to realise that maybe he's still in love with her. Olivia is having a secret affair with Will, but now gets a call from Joel. He's back in the country and Dipak has had a relapse and is in hospital. Olivia agrees to visit with Joel, only to find Dipak has already passed away. Olivia and Joel bond over their grief, and end up in bed.
Ep.9 Don't Look Back
Air Date: 2012-04-10
As Amy goes to visit Kevin in Bangkok, Britta, Olivia and Cody are single gals looking for action. But when Britta gets stood up, Brad despite his better judgment asks her to stay over. Britta and Brad are both determined that they can't go back, but as they spend time together, they start to think they could move forward. Olivia and Cody score with a couple of randoms, as she spies NSB with a date. But in the morning Cody is appalled to find her parents at her door. Olivia covers for Cody — but the big news is Gwen and Wiri have moved back but Cody is worried when they want to buy a large house.
Ep.10 Give and Tak
Air Date: 2012-04-17
Olivia wants to do good, but is a bad boy about to take advantage? Meanwhile, a childcare crisis leads Britta to an unlikely guru.
Ep.11 Trouble
Air Date: 2012-04-24
Amy faces the ultimate showdown with Rupert the Perve. But will she have to sacrifice her career? The Go Girls are incensed on her behalf — and deploy their combined resources to get at Rupert. Meanwhile, Robyn is worried about her sons and drugs. Olivia reassures but then finds Will using speed.
Ep.12 Home Is Where The Heart Is
Air Date: 2012-05-01
When Gwen goes missing, everyone is called out on the search, including NSB. Cody is disturbed to realise her parents aren't coping, and it isn't the first time Gwen has gone wandering. Brad is shocked that Britta has moved out of home and is flatting with Ross. Britta loves this new arrangement, but is put out when Ross has a date with an ex-colleague, Geraldine. Britta is disturbed to find she's jealous, and hooks up with Brad.
Ep.13 Happily Ever After
Air Date: 2012-05-08
Brad has to stop a wedding, but it's going to take way more than a bouncy castle. Brad has decided Britta is seeking security because she never had a father. So he and Leo set out to find him. Britta is upset to hear of their interference, but overjoyed to meet her father — someone she never expected. Brad finds drugs at Hermanos and is furious — how can he be in business with Will if he can't be trusted? Will takes this on the chin, and the next thing he breaks up with Olivia, who is heartbroken. | https://youmovie.xyz/tv/17558/go-girls/season/4 |
U.S. Capitol in June. Photo credit: Architect of the Capitol, U.S.-PD
This guide provides an overview of resources for performing federal legislative history research. Online and print resources available from the University of Minnesota Law Library are highlighted. For information and resources relating to Minnesota legislative history research, consult the legislative history section of our Minnesota Law Research Guide. A recommended guide for researching legislative history for other states is the State Legislative History Research Guides Inventory, from the Law Library of the Maurer School of Law, University of Indiana, Bloomington.
This guide was originally authored by Vicente Garces, and was last updated by Andrew Martineau in March of 2018.
Bills must overcome many hurdles before they are signed into law. As bills wind their way through the legislative process, they leave behind a paper trail of various kinds of documents, including reports, transcripts, amendments, different bill versions, and others. These documents make up the bill’s legislative history.
When lawyers research legislative history, they are usually looking for evidence of legislative intent. By discerning how Congress intended a law to behave, a lawyer can better understand a statute that may be unclear or ambiguous. Although legislative history is frequently cited in court briefs, it is only considered to be persuasive, rather than mandatory, authority when considered by a judge.
Before researching the legislative history of a statute, it is important to be familiar with two concepts: 1) the codification process, and 2) the legislative process.
Codification
Generally, when researching a statute, it is best to start with the United States Code. This is because the U.S. Code is arranged by topic and kept up to date with new amendments, deletions, and additions.
Every U.S. Code provision began as a public law passed by Congress. When Congress passes a public law, it is published as an individual slip law and given a Public Law Number. For example, Public Law 101-214 is the 214th law passed by the 101st Congress. These individual slip laws are then codified (that is, arranged by topic systematically) in the United States Code.
At the end of each section of the United States Code (under “credits”), you’ll find a list of the public laws that added and later amended that code section. The first step to researching the legislative history of a code section is to browse through these public laws and decide which require further investigation.
The Legislative Process
Every public law began its life as a bill. Bills generally go through the following process in their journey to becoming enacted as a law: | https://libguides.law.umn.edu/federallegislativehistory |
Bristol is my insurance choice, when can I apply for accommodation?
You can only apply when you have accepted a Conditional Firm or Unconditional Firm offer to study at Bristol.
Am I guaranteed an offer of University-allocated accommodation?
Please note the information below was for the academic year 19/20. Information for the academic year 20/21 will be available soon.
The University guarantees an offer of accommodation for the first year of study to all UK, EU and International undergraduates who apply for accommodation by 30 June 2019, providing that they meet the conditions of the accommodation guarantee.
We may make you an offer for a room that is not in one of our advertised residences. Occasionally we need to offer temporary accommodation or a place in a shared room with another student.
Applicants who do not meet the guarantee can still apply for accommodation, but are not guaranteed an offer. Please visit our non-guaranteed page for further information.
How can I make sure I get one of my preferred residences?
When you fill out the accommodation application form you will get to choose two preferred residences. We cannot guarantee to meet your preference but in our 2017 intake of students, 90% of applicants got either their first or second option.
How to use your preferences wisely
Because some residences are oversubscribed (see the applications to spaces ratio for 2018 (PDF) and the chart below), it is important that you choose your second preference carefully. We strongly advise that you do not choose any of the residences listed below as your second preference - as these will almost certainly fill up with first preferences only. Adding one of these as a second preference is a waste of a preference as it means you will have a high chance of getting neither of your residence preferences.
- Badock Hall self-catered
- Campus Houses
- Colston Street
- Courtrooms
- Goldney
- Hawthorns
- Hiatt Baker self-catered
- Manor Hall
- New Bridewell
- Orchard Heights
- Queens Road
- Redland Road
- Richmond Terrace
Read our choosing your accommodation page for more information on other factors that might influence your preferences.
How can I change my preferences, or something else, in my application?
Please contact the Accommodation Office.
I want to share a room with a friend, how do I tell you about this?
Please give the name and student number of the student you wish to share with in the notes section of your application. They must do the same with your details in their application.
Please note: we cannot guarantee to meet your sharing preferences.
I won't be able to access the internet over the summer, what can I do?
A parent or guardian can apply on your behalf as long as you have given them your consent to do so, and they have your name, date of birth and University of Bristol student number.
Make sure they have all the information they need - including your list of preferred residences - before you leave.
Additional requirements
I will be under 18 when I start at Bristol, will this affect my accommodation?
Students who will be under 18 when their studies start can apply for any of our undergraduate residences, apart from New Bridewell.
I have a disability, health need or other special requirement for my accommodation
Put details of your disability or ill-health, special requirements and anything you need in your accommodation, in the space provided on your online application form. We will contact you for further details. Our disability and health section provides examples of the information we may need.
Can I apply for accommodation if I am intercalating at Bristol?
Intercalating students are guaranteed an offer of accommodation subject to the normal conditions of our accommodation guarantee. You will be able to apply online, the form you will use will be separate from our main undergraduate application and can be found on our intercalating page.
What options do you have for mature students?
Mature students can apply for any of our undergraduate residences. If you would prefer to live with other mature students you can apply for Orchard Heights, Riverside, Winkwork House and Hiatt Baker which will have flats exclusive to mature students.
If you are 21-years-old or over and wish to share with other mature students, you should indicate this on the accommodation application form and select from these residences as your preferences.
What does alcohol-free flats available mean?
The University offers some alcohol-free flats to undergraduates in a small number of our residences. When living in an alcohol-free accommodation you, or your guests, are not permitted to drink alcohol within the flat. However, you can store alcohol in your room and drink alcohol outside the flat.
Find out more about our alcohol-free accommodation and view residences with alcohol-free flats available.
What does single-sex flats available mean?
The University offers single-sex accommodation in a number of its residences. Sometimes students in a residence will be housed in single-sex flats or in rooms on single-sex corridors.
Students living in single-sex accommodation can have visitors or guests of the opposite gender in their accommodation. University staff or contractors of either gender may enter the accommodation from time to time; you will be given notice of this in advance. Over 90 per cent of students who apply for single-sex accommodation are international, therefore most of our single-sex flats will consist entirely of international students.
Find out more about our single sex accommodation and view residences with single sex flats available.
Can catered halls cater for specialist diets or food allergies?
We can meet most dietary requirements including vegetarian, nut allergies, intolerances, gluten-fee, lactose-free, and diabetic. However we are unable to cater for every dietary need and in particular strict Kosher diets. Please see the catered information for further details.
Residences and rooms
What do your room types mean?
Standard – a single room in a flat sharing a bathroom (shower/toilet/basin) and kitchen with other students.
En suite – a single room with your own bathroom (shower/toilet/basin), in a flat sharing a kitchen with other students.
Studio – a room with either a single or double bed, with your own bathroom (shower/toilet/basin) and small kitchen.
See choosing your accommodation for more information.
Can I visit the residences?
A limited amount of accommodation will be open on the main University open days. If you are not able to visit during our June and September open days, you can arrange your own visits with the residence you are interested in. Contact the Student Support Centre for the residence to arrange this, you can find their contact details on each residence page.
Which residence do you recommend?
We cannot recommend a residence as peoples' needs differ and our residences also vary. We will look at your preferences when we allocate you a residence, and then consider your personal statement when we allocate you a room.
Your website shows a range of rents for the same room types, why is that?
Rents will vary depending on the size and location of the room, location of the residence and the on-site facilities it offers. Find out how our accommodation fees are calculated.
What happens if I'm not happy with the room/residence I get offered?
Offers cannot be changed or cancelled when they are first made. We recommend that you accept your offer of accommodation so that you are guaranteed somewhere to live. Our transfers list will open after the first two weeks of term, is you are still unhappy with where you are living after that time, you can then apply for a transfer. New rooms starts to become available again after the first few weeks of term.
If you would like to talk to someone about your offer, please contact us.
I've been offered a temporary shared room, what does that mean?
We occasionally need to double up some rooms at the start of term. In 2017 a total of 150 students had to share a room at the very start of term. By the end of November, all students who wanted their own room had been moved. Some of these temporary sharers chose to stay sharing for the rest of the academic year.
If your offer is for a temporary share, please do keep an open mind. These temporary shares are very short-term, can be a great way to meet new people at University and, because you pay a reduced fee while sharing, it's a cost-saving option too.
What happens if I want to cancel my room after I move in?
Later in the academic year, after the waiting list period ends, you can cancel your accommodation but you will remain liable for the rent. No payments will be refunded until a replacement tenant is found. You could be charged a re-letting fee of up to £100.
When a replacement tenant is found you are no longer liable for the rent. The balance of any payment due under the Conditions of Residence, or tenancy, will be refunded. Please see our current student pages for full details of the process. | http://www.bris.ac.uk/accommodation/undergraduate/frequently-asked-questions/ |
Yesterday I installed Fedora 31 on a system with Gigabyte B450M DS3H main board. The MB clock is set to current Australian Eastern Standard Time. I set the timezone to AEST Sydney but the time displayed is 10 hours ahead of what it should be, ie. the system clock is interpreted as being set to UT(GMT).
At the moment AEST is 15:35 on 30/05/2020 but display on desktop says 01:35 on 1/05.
I cannot find anyway to tell the system otherwise either in the main board setup or in Fedora.
I have another gripe illustrated by this query. I would like to add tags such as “systemclock” “UT” “timezone” … etc but none such exist.
This computer is not currently connected to the internet as I am using it in a room too far from my Wifi router. | https://ask.fedoraproject.org/t/install-fedora-31-on-computer-not-connected-to-internet-fedora-assumes-system-clock-is-set-to-ut-cannot-overide-either-in-mb-setup-or-linux/6641 |
To equip the students with a thorough understanding of design process of bridges, starting from conceptual design to detailed design of bridge components.
To help the student understand the load flow mechanism of various applied loads, such as truck load, impact, horizontal braking/centrifugal forces, wind and seismic loads on bridges.
Course Content
Historical background of bridges and types. Review of principles reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete, steel-concrete composite structures. Design process. Construction methods. Review of applicable design codes. Structural analysis tools. Seismic performance and retrofit technologies. Investigation of bridge collapses and damages.
Course Learning Outcomes
The students are expected to be able to understand the load-carrying capacity of various types of bridges, upon learning the structural responses to different kinds of loads. They should be able to design standard short and medium span bridges, with confidence using existing codes of practice at the end of the course. | http://www.iusspavia.it/-/a-a-2019-20-bridge-structures |
Red Rising PDF is a science fiction novel by Pierce Brown, published in 2014. The novel tells the story of Darrow, a young man living in a future dystopian society in which the elite members of society, known as the “Gold”, rule over the other castes.
Darrow is recruited by a rebel group to overthrow the Gold regime, and he must use his skills as a craftsman and warrior to survive the challenges that lie ahead.
The novel was well-received by critics, with many praising its world-building and characters. It was a New York Times bestseller and has sold over two million copies worldwide. A sequel, Golden Son, was published in 2015, and the third and final book in the trilogy, Morning Star, was published in 2016.
Red Rising is available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats.
Red Rising Summary
The story begins with Darrow, a young man living in the mines of Mars. He and the other workers toil day and night to extract resources for the ruling class, known as the Golds. One day, Darrow’s wife is killed in a mining accident. This tragedy drives him to join the rebel group known as the Sons of Ares.
Darrow is then put through a series of tests, both mental and physical. He must prove his worth to the rebel group if he wants to join their fight against the Golds. After successfully completing the tests, Darrow undergoes surgery to change his appearance so that he will be able to infiltrate the ruling class.
He is then sent to the Institute, a school for the elite Golds. There, he must learn to act like one of them and gain their trust. As he does so, Darrow starts to uncover the dark secrets of the Gold regime. He also develops feelings for a fellow student named Mustang.
Eventually, Darrow leads a rebellion against the Golds, which results in a bloody battle. In the end, Darrow emerges victorious and the Gold regime is overthrown.
Details of Red Rising Book
|Book||Red Rising|
|Author||Pierce Brown|
|Original language||English|
|Originally published||January 28, 2014|
|Category||Science fiction|
|Publisher||Del Rey Books|
|Total Pages||382|
|Format||PDF, ePub|
Multiple Languages Editions of Red Rising Book
Red Rising has been translated into several languages besides English. In 2015, Red Rising was translated into French, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Czech, Bulgarian, and Portuguese.
|Book Editions||Check Now|
|English||Check Price
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|German||Check Price
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|French||Check Price
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|Spanish||Check Price
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|Portuguese||Check Price
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|Chinese||Check Price
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About the Author
Pierce Brown is an American science fiction author best known for his Red Rising trilogy of novels. He was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in Los Angeles.
After studying at the University of Southern California, he worked as a development assistant for director Ridley Scott. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington.
In 2014, Brown’s debut novel Red Rising was published. It is the first installment in the science fiction trilogy of the same name. The novel follows the story of Darrow, a member of the lowest caste in a future society who becomes a revolutionary.
The sequel, Golden Son, was published in 2015. It continues the story of Darrow as he rises up through the ranks of society. The third and final installment, Morning Star, was published in 2016. It concludes the story of Darrow and his fight against the oppressive regime.
Brown has also written a novella set in the Red Rising universe, entitled Iron Gold. It was published in 2017.
Red Rising PDF Free Download
Red Rising PDF is available here for free download. Simply click the button below to download the PDF file.
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FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
What is the order of the Red Rising books?
The order of the Red Rising books is as follows:
- Red Rising
- Golden Son
- Morning Star
Is the Red Rising series complete?
The Red Rising series is complete.
Is Red Rising like Hunger Games?
Red Rising is similar to Hunger Games in that it is a dystopian science fiction novel with a strong female protagonist.
What is the genre of Red Rising?
The genre of Red Rising is science fiction.
What age group is Red Rising meant for?
Red Rising is meant for ages 14 and up.
What are the themes of Red Rising?
Themes in Red Rising include: love, loss, betrayal
What makes Red Rising so good?
Red Rising is a good book because it is an exciting story with well-developed characters. | https://thebooksacross.com/red-rising-pdf-free-download/ |
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-105457, filed on Apr. 23, 2009; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, a method of manufacturing the same, and a silane coupling agent.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a structure proposed for a semiconductor device such as a NAND flash memory, although external dimensions are the same as those in the past, a storage capacity larger than that in the past is provided by laminating a plurality of memory chips on a wiring substrate stepwise and sealing the memory chips with resin (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-302871). To further increase the storage capacity in such a semiconductor device, it is necessary to increase the number of lamination steps of the memory chips. However, because there is a limit in the external dimensions, in particular, thickness of the semiconductor device, the thickness of the memory chips has to be reduced. Therefore, in recent years, thin-layering of semiconductor chips such as memory chips is advanced and the thickness of a wafer is reduced to be smaller than 100 micrometers. Usually, on the rear surface of the wafer, a fractured layer having unevenness is formed to suppress diffusion of ionic impurities from the rear surface to the inside of the wafer in a manufacturing process for a semiconductor device. However, when the thickness of the wafer is smaller than 100 micrometers, a deficiency tends to occur in that deflective strength of the chips falls and the chips are broken by pressure in mounting the chips. Therefore, the rear surface of the wafer (the chips) is planarized by polishing processing such as the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) method or the etching method (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-48958).
However, when the rear surface of the wafer (the chips) is planarized by the polishing processing, the ionic impurities diffuse from the rear surface to the inside of the wafer as explained above. To cope with the problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-48958 discloses that the fractured layer is left on the rear surface even in the case of the wafer having thickness smaller than 100 micrometers. However, in this case, the deflective strength of the wafer (the chips) falls because of the presence of the fractured layer. When the thickness of the wafer is smaller than 100 micrometers in this way, it is difficult to simultaneously attain the suppression of the diffusion of the ionic impurities to the inside of the wafer and the suppression of the fall in the deflective strength with the method in the past.
A semiconductor chip has devices formed on a first principal plane of a semiconductor substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein a second principal plane of the semiconductor substrate is planarized, and an organic film having plus charges on an outer side is provided on the second principal plane.
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: polishing, using a CMP method or a dry polish method, a second principal plane of a semiconductor substrate having devices formed on a first principal surface; cleaning the second principal plane with an oxidizing agent to form an OH group on a surface of the second principal plane; and modifying the second principal plane of the semiconductor substrate with a silane coupling agent to form an organic film having plus charges on an outer side.
A silane coupling agent according to an embodiment of the present invention forms, according to a hydrolysis reaction and a condensation reaction, covalent binding between the silane coupling agent and a front surface of a semiconductor substrate on which an OH group is formed and modifies the front surface of the semiconductor substrate to form an organic film such that a functional group having plus charges is arranged on a side not in contact with the semiconductor substrate.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are explained in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention is not limited by the embodiments. Sectional views of semiconductor devices referred to below are schematic. A relation between the thickness and the width of a layer, a ratio of the thicknesses of layers, and the like are different from actual ones. The thicknesses described below are examples only and the thicknesses of the layers are not limited to these thicknesses.
FIG. 1
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is a schematic sectional view of the configuration of a semiconductor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. A plurality of device formation regions R to be divided later are provided on a first principal plane (hereinafter, “front surface”) of a semiconductor substrate (a wafer) such as a silicon substrate. In the respective device formation regions R, chips as semiconductor devices including elements such as field effect transistors and wires are formed. Examples of the chips include a memory chip on which a storage device such as a NAND flash memory is formed and a controller chip on which a device for controlling the memory chip. Among the device formation regions R (the chips ) adjacent to one another, dicing lines DL for dividing the chips are formed.
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A second principal plane (hereinafter, “rear surface”) of the semiconductor substrate is planarized with a fractured layer removed therefrom. It is desirable that the rear surface is planarized to have deflective strength enough for preventing the chips from being broken when the chips are mounted. As a result of an experiment, it is desirable that, for example, when the thickness of the semiconductor substrate is 55 micrometers, the deflective strength is equal to or larger than 3 N. Arithmetic mean roughness Ra of the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate in this case is equal to or smaller than 1 nanometer.
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On the planarized rear surface, a rear-surface treatment film formed of an organic thin film having a barrier function against ionic impurities is formed. Specifically, the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate has a structure modified with a silane coupling agent. A functional group having plus charges is arranged on the front surface side (the outer side) of the rear-surface treatment film modified with the silane coupling agent. It is desirable that the rear-surface treatment film is a self-organizing monomolecular film.
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In this way, the rear-surface treatment film in which the functional group having the plus charges on the outer side thereof is formed on the planarized rear surface of the semiconductor substrate . Therefore, it is possible to increase the deflective strength of the semiconductor substrate (the wafer or the chips) compared with the deflective strength of the semiconductor substrate having the fractured layer. The semiconductor substrate has a barrier effect for preventing new intrusion of the ionic impurities (movable ions) having the plus charges from the rear surface.
FIG. 2
FIGS. 3A to 3E
FIG. 3A
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is a flowchart for explaining an example of a procedure of a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment. are schematic sectional views of the example of the procedure of the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment. First, as shown in , devices such as field effect transistors, wires, and the like are formed on the device formation regions R on the front surface side of the semiconductor substrate by a publicly-known method including a film formation process, an impurity introduction process, a photolithography process, an etching process, a metallization process, and inspection processes among the processes to form the chips (step S). The dicing lines DL are formed among the device formation regions R. The dicing lines DL are used in cutting the semiconductor substrate into the respective chips in a dicing process explained later.
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FIG. 3B
Subsequently, the thickness of the semiconductor substrate is measured. Then, as shown in , after polishing the semiconductor substrate to predetermined thickness by using a coarse grindstone, the semiconductor substrate is subjected to rear-surface polishing processing to reduce the roughness of the rear surface to be equal to or smaller than a predetermined value (step S). Examples of a method for the rear-surface polishing processing include polishing methods that can perform planarization at an atom level unit such as the CMP method and the dry polish method.
FIG. 3C
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Thereafter, as shown in , the semiconductor substrate , the rear surface of which is polished, is cleaned by using an oxidizing agent. As the oxidizing agent, for example, a heated solution as a mixture of hydrogen peroxide (31%) and concentrated sulfuric acid can be used. Consequently, the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate is cleaned and an OH group is formed on the front surface of the semiconductor substrate (step S).
FIG. 3D
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Thereafter, as shown in , the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate on which the OH group is formed is modified with the silane coupling agent to form the rear-surface treatment film in a state in which water vapor is not present (step S). For example, the semiconductor substrate having the OH group on the rear surface is immersed for a predetermined time (e.g., five minutes) in a solution in which the silane coupling agent, a functional group at the end of which has plus charges, is dissolved in an organic solvent at density of about 5%. Consequently, the silane coupling agent combines with the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate via the OH group according to a hydrolysis reaction and a condensation reaction. Further, moisture is removed to form covalent binding between the silane coupling agent and the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate . The rear surface of the semiconductor substrate is modified with the silane coupling agent and the rear-surface treatment film formed of an organic thin film is formed. In the rear-surface treatment film , the functional group at the end having the plus charges is arranged on the outer side.
As such a silane coupling agent, a silane coupling agent having a functional group with plus charges such as an amino group is desirable. Specifically, examples of the silane coupling agent include hydrochloride groups of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (hereinafter, “3-APMS”), 3-aminopropyltrietoxysilane, N-2-(aminoethyl)-3-aminopropylmethyldimethoxysilane, N-2-(aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, N-2-(aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, 3-triethoxysilyl-N-(1,3-dimethyl-butylidene) propylamine, N-phenyl-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, and N-(vinylbenzyl)-2-aminoethyl-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane.
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When the overall thickness of the chip is taken into account, the silane coupling agent is desirably a silane coupling agent that forms a self-organizing monomolecular film. Therefore, the self-organizing monomolecular film can be formed by, after the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate is immersed in the silane coupling agent (e.g., 3-APMS) solution, cleaning the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate with ultrapure water to remove excess 3-APMS.
FIG. 35
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Thereafter, as shown in , the semiconductor substrate (the wafer) is cut along the dicing lines DL to divide the chips (step S). Consequently, the semiconductor device according to the first embodiment is obtained.
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At step S, the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate can be modified with the silane coupling agent according to other methods. For example, the rear-surface treatment film can be formed on the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate under a decompressed atmosphere. The silane coupling agent can be applied to the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate according to the application method to form the rear-surface treatment film .
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As a method of forming the rear-surface treatment film under the decompressed atmosphere, for example, the semiconductor substrate after being cleaned by the oxidizing agent is put in a decompressable container, the silane coupling agent such as the 3-APMS solution is injected into the container under the decompressed atmosphere, and the semiconductor substrate is left untouched for eight hours. Consequently, the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate is modified with the silane coupling agent and the rear-surface treatment film is formed on the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate .
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In the method of forming the rear-surface treatment film according to the application method, for example, the silane coupling agent such as the 3-APMS solution is applied over the entire rear surface of the semiconductor substrate according to the application method such as the spin coating method. Consequently, the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate is modified with the silane coupling agent and the rear-surface treatment film is formed on the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate .
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In the above explanation, at step S, the chips are divided into the respective chips along the dicing lines DL. However, this chip dividing processing can be performed before the polishing processing for the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate at step S. In this case, the processing at steps S to S is applied to the divided respective chips . Consequently, there is an effect that it is possible to form rear-surface treatment films only on the chips in use and it is possible to reduce an amount of the silane coupling agent in use.
FIG. 4
FIG. 4
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is a schematic sectional view for explaining an effect of the semiconductor device according to the first embodiment. As shown in , the rear-surface treatment film , the end on the outer side of which not on the substrate side includes the functional group having plus charges, is formed on the rear surface of the silicon substrate as the semiconductor substrate . In this way, the rear surface of the silicon substrate is charged in plus. Therefore, in a process after the formation of the rear-surface treatment film (e.g., a process for mounting on a wiring substrate), even if ionic impurities (movable ions) such as copper ions or sodium ions having plus charges approach the rear surface of the silicon substrate, intrusion of the ionic impurities into the rear surface of the silicon substrate is suppressed by the Coulomb repulsion.
FIG. 5
FIG. 5
is a diagram for explaining a relation between a polished state and deflective strength of the rear surface of a semiconductor substrate. In , arithmetic mean roughness Ra and deflective strength of the rear surface are shown concerning semiconductor substrates polished by using grindstones #2,000 and #8,000, a semiconductor substrate polished by the dry polish method, and a semiconductor substrate polished by the CMP method in rear-surface polishing processing.
The arithmetic mean roughnesses Ra of the rear surfaces of the semiconductor substrates polished by using the grindstones #2,000 and #8,000 are respectively 18.15 nanometers and 10.89 nanometers. The arithmetic means roughnesses Ra of the rear surfaces of the semiconductor substrates polished by the dry polish method and the CMP method are respectively 0.30 nanometers and 0.54 nanometers. The roughnesses of the rear surfaces of the semiconductor devices are completely different. This is also evident from the fact that, although not shown in the figure, looking at sectional transmission electron microscope (TEM) images and atomic force microscope (AFM) images obtained as a result of performing an observation, whereas the latter two rear surfaces are flat at an atomic layer level, unevenness is larger in the former two rear surfaces compared with the latter two rear surfaces. As a result, the chip deflective strength is higher in the rear surfaces of the semiconductor substrates polished by the dry polish method and the CMP method compared with the rear surfaces of the semiconductor substrates polished by the coarse grindstones #2,000 and #8,000.
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As indicated by this result, it is desirable that a semiconductor substrate has a rear surface having the arithmetic mean roughness Ra that realizes the chip deflective strength equal to or higher than about 3 N. According to this result, it is desirable that the arithmetic mean roughness Ra is equal to or smaller than about 1 nanometer. It is possible to prevent intrusion of ionic impurities into the semiconductor substrate by forming the rear-surface treatment film formed of the organic film, the outer side of which is charged in plus, on the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate planarized by the rear-surface polishing processing method such as the dry polish method or the CMP method.
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According to the first embodiment, the planarized rear surface of the semiconductor substrate is cleaned by the oxidizing agent to form the OH group and the rear surface of the semiconductor film is modified with the silane coupling agent having the functional group charged in plus at the end to form the rear-surface treatment film having the plus charges on the outer side. This makes it possible to prevent new intrusion of metal ions diffused, for example, during etching in a pre-process into the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate . In other words, there is an effect that it is possible to prevent intrusion of movable ions such as Cu ions and Na ions while increasing the deflective strength compared with the deflective strength of the semiconductor substrate having the fractured layer on the rear surface and suppressing warp of the chips .
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Because the rear-surface treatment film is formed of the organic film, it is possible to inexpensively and easily realize a barrier effect against movable metal ions. In particular, because the rear-surface treatment film is the self-organizing monomolecular film, it is possible to modify the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate by the monomolecular film of several nanometers. The thickness of the chips is not affected.
FIG. 6
FIG. 7
FIG. 6
is a schematic plan view of an example of the configuration of a semiconductor device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. is a sectional view taken along A-A in . A semiconductor memory card such as a micro SD card is an example of the semiconductor device shown in the figures.
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The semiconductor device includes a wiring substrate that functions as both a device mounting substrate and a termination formation substrate. The wiring substrate is formed by, for example, providing a wiring network in the inside and the surface of an insulative resin substrate. Specifically, a printed wiring board made of glass-epoxy resin or bismaleimide-triazine resin (BT resin) is applied as the wringing board . An external shape of the wiring substrate is a substantially rectangular shape. One short side A of the wiring substrate corresponds to the leading end of the semiconductor memory card inserted into a card slot and the other short side B corresponds to the trailing end of the semiconductor memory card. Whereas one long side A of the wiring substrate has a linear shape, the other long side B has a cutout and a narrowed section indicating directions of the front and the rear and the front side and the back side of the semiconductor memory card. Corners of the wiring substrate are formed in a curved shape (an R shape).
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On the short side A side of a first principal plane as the terminal formation surface of the wiring substrate , an external connection terminal made of a metal layer as an input and output terminal of the semiconductor memory card is formed. On the first principal plane of the wiring substrate , a first wiring network (not shown) is provided in an area excluding a formation area of the external connection terminal . The first wiring network is covered with an insulative layer (not shown) made of an insulative adhesive seal, an adhesive tape, or the like.
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A second principal plane as the device mounting surface of the wiring substrate includes a chip mounting section and a second wiring network including connection pads . The second wiring network including the connection pads is electrically connected to the external connection terminal and the first wiring network via not-shown internal wiring (through hole, etc.) of the wiring substrate . The connection pads are respectively arranged in a first pad area A along the short side A, a second pad area B along the short side B, and a third pad area C along the long side A.
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In the chip mounting section of the wiring substrate , a plurality of memory chips (semiconductor chips) such as a NAND flash memory are laminated and mounted. The memory chips have the same rectangular shape. The memory chips have short-one-side pad structures respectively including electrode pads arrayed along one side of the external shape, specifically, one short side.
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On the memory chip at the top step (a sixteenth step), a controller chip (a semiconductor chip) and a relay chip (a semiconductor chip) are arranged. The controller chip selects, out of the memory chips , the memory chip to which data is written and from which data is read out and performs writing of data in the selected memory chip and readout of data stored in the selected memory chip . Electrode pads A to C are formed in a C shape on the upper surface of the controller chip . The electrode pad A arrayed along a first external shape side and the connection pad in the third pad area of the wiring board are electrically connected by a metal wire A such as an Au wire. The electrode pad B arrayed along a second external shape side and the connection pad in the second pad area B of the wiring board are electrically connected by a metal wire such as an Au wire.
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The relay chip is arranged adjacent to a third external shape side of the controller chip . On the upper surface of the relay chip , electrode pads (relay pads) A and B respectively arrayed along one external shape side and another external shape side orthogonal to the one external shape side are formed. The electrode pad A is arranged to be opposed to the electrode pad C arrayed along the third external shape side of the controller chip and is connected to the electrode pad via a metal wire for relay A. The electrode pad B is arranged to be located near the first pad area A of the wiring substrate and is connected to the connection pad via a metal wire for relay . In this way, the relay chip electrically connects the electrode pad of the controller chip and the connection pad arranged in the first pad area A.
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The memory chips are divided into first and second memory chip groups and (semiconductor chip groups). Each of the memory chip groups and includes eight memory chips . The eight memory chips included in the first memory chip group are laminated stepwise in order on the chip mounting section . The eight memory chips included in the second memory chip group are laminated stepwise in order on the first memory chip group . A step direction of the second memory chip group (a direction toward the upper steps of the memory chips laminated stepwise) is set in a direction opposite to a step direction of the first memory chip group .
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Among the eight memory chips included in the first memory chip group , the memory chip at the bottom step (a first step) is bonded on the chip mounting section of the wiring substrate via an adhesive layer (not shown) with an electrode formation surface having the electrode pad directed upward. As the bonding layers, a general die attach film (adhesive film) containing polyimide resin, epoxy resin, acryl resin, or the like as a main component is used. The same holds true for an adhesive layer of the other memory chips included in the first memory chip group . The memory chip at the first step is arranged with a pad array side thereof directed to the short side A of the wiring board . Specifically, the memory chip is arranged such that the electrode pad is located near the first pad area A of the wiring substrate .
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The memory chip at the second step is bonded on the memory chip at the first step via a bonding layer (not shown) with an electrode formation surface having the electrode pad directed upward while exposing the electrode pad of the memory chip at the first step. Similarly, the remaining six memory chips (memory chips at the third to eighth steps) are respectively bonded in order via adhesive layers (not shown) with positions of short sides thereof shifted in the direction of long sides such that the electrode pads of the memory chips on lower step sides are exposed. In this way, the eight memory chips (the memory chips at the first to eight steps) included in the first memory chip group are laminated stepwise with positions of short sides thereof shifted along the long side direction with pad array sides of the memory chips directed in the same direction (the direction of the short side A) and such that the electrode pads of the memory chips on the lower step sides are exposed.
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The first memory chip group has the stepwise laminated structure. Therefore, all the electrode pads of the memory chips included in the first memory chip group are located near the first pad area A while being exposed upward. The electrode pads of the eight memory chips included in the first memory chip group are respectively electrically connected, via the first metal wire (an Au wire, etc.) , to the connection pad arranged in the first pad area A.
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Among the eight memory chips included in the second memory chip group , the memory chip at the bottom step (the ninth step) is bonded to, with an electrode formation surface having the electrode pad directed upward, the memory chip at the top step (the eighth step) in the first memory chip group via the insulative adhesive layer , which functions as a spacer layer, such that short sides and long sides of the memory chips respectively overlap each other. Specifically, the electrode pad of the memory chip at the eighth step is not exposed in plan view and is closed by the memory chip at the ninth step. Therefore, the insulative adhesive layer softens or melts at least in a part thereof at temperature during bonding and bonds the memory chip at the eight step and the memory chip at the ninth step while drawing an end (a chip side end) of the first metal wire connected to the memory chip at the eight step into the inside thereof. An adhesive made of insulative resin is used as the insulative adhesive layer to secure insulation of the first metal wire .
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The memory chip at the bottom step (the ninth step) in the second memory chip group is arranged with a pad array side thereof directed to the short side B of the wiring substrate . Specifically, the memory chips included in the second memory chip group are arranged with pad array sides thereof directed in a direction opposite to the direction of the first memory chip group . Consequently, the electrode pads of the memory chips included in the second memory chip group are located near the second pad area B on the opposite side of the first pad area A connected to the first memory chip group .
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The memory chip at the tenth step is bonded on the memory chip at the ninth step via an adhesive layer (not shown) with an electrode formation surface having the electrode pad directed upward while exposing the electrode pad of the memory chip at the ninth step. The memory chip at the tenth step is arranged with a pad array side thereof directed in a direction same as that of the memory chip at the ninth step. Similarly, the remaining six memory chips (memory chips at the eleventh to sixteenth steps) of the second memory chip group are respectively bonded stepwise in a direction opposite to the step direction of the first memory chip group in order via adhesive layers (not shown) with pad array sides thereof directed in the direction same as that of the memory chip at the ninth step and with positions of short sides thereof shifted along the long side direction such that the electrode pads of the memory chips on the lower step sides are exposed. Like the adhesive layers used in the first memory chip group , as the bonding layers of the memory chips at the tenth to sixteenth steps, the general die attach film (adhesive film) is used.
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The second memory chip group has the stepwise laminated structure. Therefore, all the electrode pads of the memory chips included in the second memory chip group are located near the second pad area B while being exposed upward. The electrode pads of the eight memory chips included in the second memory chip group are respectively electrically connected, via the second metal wire (an Au wire, etc.) , to the connection pad arranged in the second pad area B.
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The thickness of the memory chips included in the first memory chip group is not always limited. However, it is desirable to set the thickness of the memory chip at the bottom step (the first step) larger than the thickness of the other memory chips (the second to eighth steps). This is because, since the memory chip at the first step is arranged on an uneven section (an uneven section due to a step caused by presence or absence of a wiring layer, a step caused by a through hole section, a step caused by a terminal and a test pad, and the like) present on the surface of the wiring substrate , if the thickness of the memory chip at the first step is set too small, it is likely that a crack occurs when large pressure is locally applied during molding of a sealing resin layer . Therefore, the thickness of the memory chip at the first step can be set in a range of, for example, 40 micrometers to 50 micrometers and the thickness of the other memory chips (at the second to eighth steps) can be set, for example, 10 micrometers to 40 micrometers to suppress an increase in lamination thickness.
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The thickness of the memory chips included in the second memory chip group is not always limited either. However, it is desirable to set the thickness of the memory chip at the bottom step (the ninth step) larger than the thickness of the other memory chips (the memory chips at the tenth to sixteenth steps) . This is because, although the memory chip at the ninth step is supported by the memory chip at the eight step, a supporting structure for the memory chip at the ninth step is inferior to those for the other memory chips . Therefore, the thickness of the memory chip at the ninth step can be set in a range of, for example, 25 micrometers to 40 micrometers and the thickness of the other memory chips (at the tenth to sixteenth steps) can be set in a range of, for example, 10 micrometers to 25 micrometers.
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On the second principal plane of the wiring substrate mounted with the memory chips and the controller chip as explained above, the sealing resin layer made of, for example, epoxy resin is molded. The memory chips and the controller chip are integrally sealed by the sealing resin layer together with the metal wires , , A, and B. At the leading end (the short side A side) of the sealing resin layer , an inclining section indicating the front of the semiconductor memory card is provided. At the trailing end (the short side side) of the sealing resin layer , a grip section formed by partially heaping up sealing resin is provided. The semiconductor device used as the semiconductor memory card includes these members.
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The semiconductor device alone configures the semiconductor memory card (e.g., a micro SD card) without using a storage case such as a base card. Therefore, the sealing resin layer and the like are directly exposed to the outside. In other words, the semiconductor device is used as a case-less semiconductor memory card from which the sealing resin layer and the like are exposed to the outside. Therefore, the cutout and the narrowed section indicating the directions of the front and the rear and the front side and the back side of the semiconductor memory card and the inclining section are provided in the semiconductor device itself.
In the semiconductor memory card such as the micro SD card, external dimensions of the product are determined. Therefore, to attain a further increase in capacity, it is required to increase the number of steps of memory chips laminated in the semiconductor memory card and reduce the thickness of one chip. In recent years, chips having thickness equal to or smaller than 85 micrometers are laminated. In particular, in a small semiconductor memory card such as the micro SD card, memory chips having thickness equal to or smaller than 20 micrometers are also laminated.
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As explained in the background of the invention, when the chip thickness is reduced to 100 micrometers, it is likely that deflective strength falls and the chips are broken during mounting. Therefore, in the case of the chips having thickness equal to or smaller than 100 micrometers, the structure explained in the first embodiment, i.e., the structure in which the rear surfaces of the chips (the wafers) are planarized by the polishing processing to form the rear-surface treatment film formed of the organic film having plus charges on the outer side can be applied.
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According to the experiment of the inventors, it was found that, at thickness equal to or larger than 85 micrometers, even if fractured layers were formed on the rear surfaces of the chips by the rear-surface polishing processing using the grindstone #2,000, the chips could be mounted without causing a crack and, up to thickness of 55 micrometers, even if fractured layers were formed on the rear surfaces of the chips by the rear-surface polishing processing using the grindstone #8,000, the chips could be mounted without causing a crack. However, in the case of such thin chips , it is necessary to sufficiently clean the chips to prevent ionic impurities from remaining on the apparatus during the rear-surface polishing processing. Therefore, even if the rear surfaces of the chips are not planarized to form the rear-surface treatment films formed of organic films, it is possible to manufacture the chips having thickness equal to or larger than 55 micrometers.
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However, when the chips has thickness smaller than 55 micrometers, in some case, the deflective strength falls and the chips are broken when mounted. When the semiconductor memory card using the chips from which the fractured layers on the rear surfaces are removed is manufactured, it is found that, in some case, a deficiency occurred in a data retention characteristic in the semiconductor memory card manufactured in this way. This is considered to be because, since the fractured layers were not formed on the rear surfaces of the chips and the barrier function against ionic impurities was not provided, the ionic impurities were diffused in the semiconductor substrate (the wafer) . Although not shown in the figure, in a semiconductor device having a structure in which a plurality of semiconductor chips such as memory chips having rear surfaces planarized without forming the fractured layers were laminated in one package and having a solder ball as an external connection terminal, when heat was applied in reflow processing, in some case, occurrence of a deficiency of the data retention characteristic was found. This is considered to be because the ionic impurities were diffused by the heat applied in the reflow processing. Therefore, it is particularly desirable that a structure in which the rear-surface treatment film formed of the organic film is formed on the rear surface of a chip thinner than 55 micrometers planarized by the rear-surface polishing processing is applied to the chips.
FIG. 7
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In this case, for example, in the laminated structure shown in , a structure in which the rear surfaces of all the memory chips are subjected to planarization processing and the rear-surface treatment films are formed can be applied. Alternatively, a structure in which only the rear surfaces of arbitrary memory chips are subjected to the planarization processing and the rear-surface treatment films are formed can be applied.
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When the structure according to the first embodiment is applied to the arbitrary memory chips , for example, presence or absence of arrangement of memory chips, the rear surfaces of which are planarized and on which the rear-surface treatment films having the barrier function are formed, can be changed according to a degree of contamination due to ionic impurities in positions where the memory chips are mounted (laminated). For example, in the case of the structure in which the memory chips are laminated on the wiring substrate shown in , a large number of ionic impurities adhere to the wiring substrate . Therefore, a memory chip thicker than 55 micrometers and having a structure in which a fractured layer is formed on the rear surface thereof to have a gettering function and the barrier function against the ionic impurities can be applied to the memory chip at the bottom step. A memory chip thinner than 55 micrometers and having a structure in which an organic film having the barrier function against ionic impurities is formed on the planarized rear surface thereof is applied to the other memory chips and the controller chip , more specifically, the upper memory chips and the controller chip . However, this is only an example and it can be arbitrarily determined to which semiconductor chip a semiconductor chip having the structure in which the rear-surface treatment film planarized on the rear surface and having the barrier function is formed is applied.
In the above explanation, the micro SD card is explained as the example. However, the present invention can also be applied to, for example, other semiconductor memory cards and a solid state drives (SSD) having a structure in which a plurality of memory chips are laminated, a multi chip package (MCP) having a structure in which a plurality of semiconductor chips are laminated in one semiconductor package.
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According to the second embodiment, in the semiconductor device in which a plurality of chips are laminated, the rear surfaces of the chips thinner than 100 micrometers, more desirably, 55 micrometers are planarized and the rear-surface treatment films formed of the organic films including the functional group having plus charges on the outer side are provided on the rear surfaces. Therefore, there is an effect that it is possible to increase the deflective strength and impart the barrier function against ionic impurities to the semiconductor device. In particular, even when heat is applied in the reflow processing or the like and the ionic impurities are activated to easily move, it is possible to prevent the moving ionic impurities from intruding into the semiconductor substrates (chips).
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Because the rear-surface treatment film is formed as the self-organizing monomolecular film, the thickness thereof can be reduced to several nanometers and the rear-surface treatment film does not affect the thickness of the chips. Therefore, for example, when the rear-surface treatment film is used for chips used in a semiconductor memory card or the like having specified thickness, there is also an effect that the rear-surface treatment film does not affect the thickness of the chips.
As explained above, according to the embodiments of the present invention, there is an effect that even a semiconductor substrate (a wafer or chips) having thickness not enough for forming a fractured layer, has deflective strength enough for withstanding pressure during mounting of the chips and it is possible to prevent intrusion of ionic impurities from the rear surface of the semiconductor substrate.
Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details and representative embodiments shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a schematic sectional view of the configuration of a semiconductor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2
is a flowchart for explaining an example of a procedure of a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment;
FIGS. 3A to 3E
are schematic sectional views of the example of the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment;
FIG. 4
is a schematic sectional view for explaining an effect of the semiconductor device according to the first embodiment;
FIG. 5
is a diagram for explaining a relation between a polished state and deflective strength of the rear surface of a semiconductor substrate;
FIG. 6
is a schematic plan view of an example of the configuration of a semiconductor device according to a second embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 7
FIG. 6
is a sectional view taken along A-A in . | |
The Earth's nearest celestial neighbor is the Moon, which has an average distance from the Earth of about 240,000 miles (386,000 kilometers).
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The tides are governed by the Moon, and to a lesser extent, by the Sun. The gravitational pull from these bodies moves the water.
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An eclipse is caused when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in a direct line with one another. When the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, we see a lunar eclipse, which is the Earth's shadow falling on the moon. When the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth, we see a solar eclipse, which is when the Moon's shadow falls on the Earth (blocking the Sun).
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A shooting star is not a star at all, but rather a meteor. A meteor is any celestial body (usually quite small) that falls to the Earth. Most burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the surface, leaving a bright, short-lived streak in the sky.
To discover more see the Meteorites honor.
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Light travels at 186,000 miles per second (not miles per hour), or 300,000 kilometers per second. In one year, light will travel 5.88 trillion miles (9.4 trillion km). This distance is also called a light-year. How far is that?
Earth orbits the sun at an average of 92,955,807 miles (149,597,870 km). This distance from Earth to the sun is called an astronomical unit, or AU. It takes light from the Sun about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to cover the distance from the Sun to the Earth. There are 63,239 AUs in a light-year since light can travel 63,239 times further in an Earth year than it takes to get from the Sun to Earth.
AUs are easy to work with in our solar system. Jupiter, for example, is 5.2 AU from the Sun or 5.2 times further from the Sun than the Earth is, while Neptune is 30.07 AU from the Sun.
However, when you move outside our solar system the distances get much larger. The distance to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 268,770 AU and the numbers get bigger from there. To express such long distances, astronomers use the light-year. At 63,239 AU to the light year, that closest star Proxima Centauri is about 4.25 light-years away, which means it takes 4.25 of our years for its light to reach our eyes. When we star gaze we are really looking back in time.
In 2016 scientists announced they found a galaxy they called GN-z11 which they estimate is 32 Billion light-years away. If you ever wondered if God and his creation is really eternal without beginning or end, think about the fact God created a galaxy before 32 Billion years ago.
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One may demonstrate by using an orange, walnut, and marble, or similar objects, to show positions and movements of the earth, sun, and moon when there is an eclipse of the sun and when there is an eclipse of the moon.
Place the "sun" model in the center. Place the "earth" some distance from the sun, and show how it travels in a near circle around the sun. The moon travels around the earth, but it always shows the same face to the earth (it's rotation on its axis takes the same amount of time as its orbit around the earth.
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The planets in our solar system, starting from the Sun, are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto was also considered a planet from 1930 until 2006 when the International Astronomer's Union (IAU) was prompted by the discovery Eris, a body larger than Pluto, to come up with a formal definition of the word "planet." For years leading up to this announcement there had been rumblings in the scientific community that classifying Pluto as a planet had been a mistake, much as the classification of Ceres, the largest asteroid had been a mistake in the 1800's. After the discovery of Ceres, more and more asteroids were discovered, and it became increasingly clear that it was not a planet. The same thing began to happen in the late 1900's when astronomers began to discover several Pluto-like objects in the Kuiper belt. The debate came to a head with the discovery of Eris, which has a diameter that exceeds Pluto's by 70 miles (110 km). The IAU would have to either recognize Eris as the tenth planet or "demote" Pluto. The demotion of Pluto, though not popular with the general public, makes the most scientific sense and demonstrates that science is capable of correcting its errors.
The new definition of a planet requires that an object a) orbit a star (such as the Sun), b) not orbit another planet (such as a satellite), and c) dominate the vicinity of its orbit. Pluto did not make the cut because its orbit is dominated by Neptune, and there are many objects orbiting in its vicinity that Pluto has no effect upon.
There are a number of mnemonic phrases that are easily memorized for remembering the names of the planets, including "My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Noodles.
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The word planet means wanderer because the planets appear to wander about the sky relative to the stars. The stars do not move in relation to one another (although they all appear to move together because of the Earth's rotation on its axis).
Which eight stars you choose to teach your Pathfinders to identify will depend on the season (spring, summer, winter, or fall), although some stars are visible year-round.
Stars visible in the Northern Hemisphere
Polaris
Polaris is one of the most useful stars for a person in the Northern Hemisphere to be able to identify, as it can tell you two things: which way is north, and what is your latitude (if your latitude is 38°, Polaris will be 38° above the horizon).
Capella
Capella can be found by following the line made by the two stars in the Big Dipper's handle and extending it across the Dipper's bowl.
Arcturus
Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, and the third brightest star in the night sky. Arcturus can be found in the summer by following the arc made by handle of the Big Dipper (away from the dipper's bowl).
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A constellation is any one of the 88 areas into which the sky - or the celestial sphere - is divided. The term is also often used less formally to denote a group of stars visibly related to each other in a particular configuration or pattern.
- Ursa Major
- Ursa Major is better known as the Big Dipper. It appears in the north and is fairly easy to identify. It is illustrated in a previous requirement.
- Ursa Minor
- Ursa Minor is better known as the Little Dipper. Use the instructions given previously for finding Polaris, which is the end of the Little Dipper's handle. Unfortunately, the stars that make up Ursa Minor are relatively dim, making this one a bit more difficult to find.
- Cassiopeia
- Cassiopiea is illustrated in the next requirement and is generally visible (at some time during the night) all year round. It is on the opposite side of Polaris from the Big Dipper.
- Boötes
- Instructions for finding Arcturus, and thus the constellation Boötes are given in a previous requirement.
- Cygnus, Altair, and Lyra
- These are easily identified summer constellations. The brightest stars in each of these three make up the Summer Triangle. Once the stars are found, it is easy to find the constellations they are part of. Vega is the brightest star in the Summer Triangle, and it is a member of the constellation Lyra. Cygnus is also known as the Northern Cross. The triangle is completed by Altair which is a member of the constellation Aquila.
The Winter Circle is made up of several bright stars visible in the Northern hemisphere's winter. The easiest constellation to find in the Winter Circle is Orion. Following Orion's belt will lead to Sirius, the brightest star in the sky and a member of Canis Major (the "big dog"). Canis Minor (the "little dog") is clockwise from Sirius. Continuing clockwise, we come to Gemini, Auriga, and Taurus.
The constellations that are visible throughout the year are the ones near the celestial poles:
Northern Hemisphere:
- Ursa Minor
- Ursa Major
- Draco
- Cepheus
Southern Hemisphere:
- Octans
- Mensa
- Hydrus
- Chameleon
- Volans
- Pavo
- Musca
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- Northern Hemisphere
- These stars and constellations can be seen from anywhere north of the tropics in the Northern Hemisphere (they are more difficult to see in the tropics, and the North Star cannot be seen at all from the Southern Hemisphere). The North Star never appears to move at all, and it can be found due north. The Big Dipper and Cassiopeia will rotate around the North Star (also known as Polaris, since it is directly above the North Pole). When drawing the diagram, be sure to include the seven stars in the Big Dipper, the five in Cassiopeia, and the North Star. Make sure that the two stars at the end of the Big Dipper's "bowl" point to the North Star. Cassiopeia should be shaped like a somewhat flattened "W".
- Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Cross, Scorpio, and Orion are not really located very close to one another. It would be possible to draw them all on a single diagram, but since Orion is on the other side of the sky from the other two, you'd end up drawing an awful lot of sky. Therefore, it should be acceptable to draw these three on independent diagrams.
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A large gathering of stars and bodies making up one of many galaxies. The portion visible in the night sky of Earth is only a single dimensional or flat view of the galaxy as our solar system is part of the same galaxy we have lack for a broader perspective.
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This is not a star at all but the Planet Venus and draws in part its modern status as the Morning Star and Evening Star from mythology. Venus never appears on the opposite horizon from the sun due to its relative location to the sun and Earth. Mercury too fits this profile but is rarely actually visible.
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Zenith is the point in space directly overhead. If you extend a line from the zenith to the point on Earth upon which you are standing, and continue that line through the Earth and out the other side, it would point to the nadir. In other words, nadir is the direction pointing directly below a particular location. The line connecting the zenith and nadir passes through the point on Earth where you're standing and also passes through the center of the Earth and out the other side.
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An Aurora is a beautiful natural phenomenon that often occurs in the polar regions of Earth.
The immediate causes of aurora are precipitating energetic particles. These particles are electrons and protons that are energized in the near geospace environment. This energization process draws its energy from the interaction of the Earth's magnetosphere with the solar wind.
References
International Astronomer's Union
Notes
On August 24, 2006 the International Astronomers Union, a non-governmental entity, reclassified Pluto giving it the status of Dwarf Planet. This new classification is based on their updated definition of what a planet is. One reason for the change is because the new definition requires that a planet "dominate" its orbit. Pluto's orbit crosses and is dominated by Neptune. Furthermore, scientists are discovering that the region of Pluto's orbit, which is known as the Kuiper Belt, is similar to the asteroid belt. There are many Pluto-like objects in that region, including one named Eris which is larger than Pluto. This means Pluto is more like an asteroid than it is like a planet. | https://wiki.pathfindersonline.org/w/Adventist_Youth_Honors_Answer_Book/Nature/Stars |
Like all undergraduate Sciences Po students, Augustin has spent his third year abroad. He has taking advantage of this experience to carry out a long term internship at the French Embassy in Washinton DC. He tells us about his missions there, the Master’s degree program he would like to enroll in next, and what he was able to do thanks to the Marion Bruley scholarship.
The Marion Bruley Grant is awarded by the US Sciences Po Foundation to a student currently enrolled at Sciences Po and interning in the United States with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at either the French embassy or consulates, or another international institution such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, or the World Bank.
The Marion Bruley Grant carries a monetary value of $750/month of internship. The grant does not cover all expenses, but will help to partially cover the cost of living and to facilitate weekend traveling around the United States. | https://carrieres.sciencespo.fr/index.php/en/article/188/188-fr-how-the-marion-bruley-grant-helped-me-for-my-3rd-year-internship |
For two naturals m,n such that m < n, we show how to construct a circuit C with m inputs and n outputs, that has the following property: for some 0 ≤ k ≤ m, the circuit defines a k-universal function. This means, informally, that for every subset K of k outputs, every possible valuation of the variables in K is reachable (we prove that k is very close to m with an arbitrarily high probability). Now consider a circuit M with n inputs that we wish to model-check. Connecting the inputs of M to the outputs of C gives us a new circuit M′ with m inputs, that its original inputs have freedom defined by k. This is a very attractive feature for underapproximation in model-checking: on one hand the combined circuit has a smaller number of inputs, and on the other hand it is expected to find an error state fast if there is one.
We report initial experimental results with bounded model checking of industrial designs (the method is equally applicable to unbounded model checking and to simulation), which shows mixed results. An interesting observation, however, is that in 13 out of 17 designs, setting m to be n/5 is sufficient to detect the bug. This is in contrast to other underapproximation that are based on reducing the number of inputs, which in most cases cannot detect the bug even with m = n/2. | https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-540-73368-3_39 |
Over 160 different foods have been identified that can cause allergic reactions in people. Of these, 90% are triggered by the following 8 foods:
- Milk
- Eggs
- Peanuts
- Tree nuts (such as almonds, cashews, walnuts, pine nuts)
- Fish (such as bass, cod, flounder)
- Shellfish
- Soy
- Wheat
Since 2006, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has required labeling to identify products that contain any of these 8 allergy-causing foods. Certain foods, however, including fresh produce, fresh meat, and certain oils are exempt from this requirement.
What are the symptoms of a food allergy? Allergic reactions to foods most commonly involve the skin, the digestive tract (stomach and intestines), or the respiratory system (throat and lungs). Skin symptoms include the development of hives, swelling (edema), and redness or flushing. Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea are the most common digestive tract symptoms. Respiratory symptoms include sneezing, wheezing, coughing, and runny eyes. The most severe allergic reaction to food is anaphylaxis, also known as anaphylactic shock. Anaphylaxis is a medical emergency that typically affects several areas of the body, including swelling in the throat that may be severe enough to block the airway, a rapid heart rate, and a severe drop in blood pressure. Each year in the U.S., anaphylaxis to food has been estimated to result in 30,000 emergency room visits, 2,000 hospitalizations, and 150 deaths.
Why do food allergies occur? In allergic individuals, certain proteins (allergens) in food are perceived by the body to be harmful. As a response to these allergens, the immune system produces antibodies to protect the body. These antibodies remain in the blood stream following the initial exposure and can recognize the offending protein if the same food is eaten again. Once reactivated, antibodies cause a special type of cell in the bloodstream known as mast cells to release chemicals, including histamine. Histamine is the primary chemical involved in producing allergic symptoms, such as runny nose, itchy eyes, rashes and hives, wheezing, and even anaphylactic shock.
Are all food allergies the same? The allergic features from exposure to different foods vary in many ways, including the specific symptoms produced and their severity, as well as the likelihood for them to become “outgrown”. Often, these unique features can assist the doctor in determining the specific food allergen. Milk allergy is particularly common in children, with cow’s milk being the usual cause. Milk rarely causes anaphylaxis, with the most common symptoms being gastrointestinal in nature (abdominal cramping, diarrhea, etc.). Eggs are another common allergen-causing food during childhood. Fortunately, most children eventually outgrow their egg allergy. Vaccines produced using eggs, such as the influenza vaccine present potential risks to people who have a severe allergy to eggs. Peanuts are legumes, and are thus biologically unrelated to tree nuts. Nevertheless, a number of people with tree nut allergies go on to develop allergy to peanuts also. It is possible for peanut allergy symptoms to occur with skin contact or from eating food that had been exposed to peanuts during their processing. Tree nuts include macadamia nuts, brazil nuts, cashews, almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, and pine nuts (pignoli or pinon). Tree nut allergies tend to be severe, and are strongly associated with anaphylaxis. Shellfish allergy can occur after eating crustaceans (crabs, lobster, crayfish, shrimp, etc.) or mollusks (clams, mussels, scallops, oysters, squid, etc.). In some people, shellfish allergy occurs with eating only one type of shellfish. Wheat allergy results from the production of antibodies to proteins found in wheat. In people with celiac disease, a specific wheat protein called “gluten” causes an abnormal immune system reaction in the small intestines.
How are food allergies diagnosed? The medical history is the most important diagnostic tool in diagnosing food allergy. A dietary diet, in which a record of the content of each meal is kept, along with any reactions that occurred, can also assist with making the diagnosis. If the medical history and diet information suggests a specific food allergy, specialized testing including allergy skin tests, blood tests, and/or a food challenge can be used to confirm the diagnosis.
How are food allergies treated? There are no medications currently available to treat food allergies. Once identified, the best treatment is to avoid the food that has caused a reaction. This often requires careful attention to the labeling, particularly with foods that do not obviously contain one of the common offenders. For example, pine nuts are a typical ingredient in pesto sauce, and eggs are included in a number of salad dressings. Medications are available for treating allergic reactions should they occur. The most commonly used medications are antihistamines (Benadryl, Allegra, Claritin, others). Inhalers used to treat asthma may also be helpful for people who wheeze during an allergic reaction. With severe reactions such as anaphylaxis, epinephrine, given by injection, can be life saving. People with a history of severe food allergies are advised to carry a self-injecting device loaded with epinephrine (e.g., Epi-pen) for use in the case of an unexpected reaction. | https://www.edocamerica.com/health-tips/common-food-allergies/ |
Abstract:
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The mergers of neutron stars and black holes remain a viable model for gamma-ray burst central engines, at least for the class of short bursts: their time scales, occurrence rates and energy output seem to be consistent with observations. We will present results of our latest simulations showing how the orbit of a neutron star around a black hole shrinks due to gravitational radiation, how the neutron star's matter gets accreted by the black hole, and how the tidal forces of the black hole finally shred the neutron star into a thick disk. In this process, huge amounts of energy are radiated away by gravitational waves and by neutrinos emitted from the hot disk. The neutrino luminosities are so large that an appreciable fraction (some few percent!) of neutrinos annihilate with antineutrinos creating the clean fireball necessary to power gamma-ray bursts. | http://www.astro.soton.ac.uk/astrosem/20-03-03.html |
Jasper Johns is first studio artist in 34 years to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
If a fundamental aim of contemporary visual art is to get out ahead of conventional wisdom and mass opinion and keep the public off-balance, here's some evidence that its most illustrious practitioners have been doing their job: when President Obama presents Jasper Johns with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday at the White House, it will be the first time in 34 years that a painter or sculptor has won the nation's highest civilian honor.
Obama joins John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford as the only presidents who have given a medal to a painter or sculptor. Actually, Ford didn't precisely give a medal to Alexander Calder, the only sculptor honored to date. When he tried in 1976, Calder refused it in protest of U.S. treatment of Vietnam-era draft evaders and deserters; the two had a history that went beyond that. Ford gave Calder the medal -- posthumously -- in 1977.
When it comes to honoring people in the art forms that Culture Monster covers -- art/photography, architecture, classical music/opera, jazz, theater and dance -- Obama, halfway through his term, is setting a vigorous pace. Johns and Yo-Yo Ma, who is also among this year's 15 recipients, bring Obama's artist-honoree total to four, on track for eight in a single term.
The White House has announced that it will stream the ceremony live on its website at 10:30 a.m. Pacific/1:30 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday.
Obama will have to pick it up, though, to beat Gerald Ford's batting average. In 2 1/2 years in office, the man who was ridiculed for playing too much football without a helmet honored seven artists plus arts philanthropist-politician Nelson Rockefeller.
Ronald Reagan, not surprisingly given his Hollywood background, also averaged two medals per year conferred on arts recipients -- 16 in his eight years in office.
The champ, honoring seven artists in his lone opportunity, was John F. Kennedy. In 1963, JFK inaugurated the medal as it is now conceived (Harry Truman had established a precursor in 1945 to honor civilian service during wartime). Actually, it was Lyndon Johnson who presided over the ceremony that December, because Kennedy had been assassinated two weeks earlier. Johnson then awarded seven medals to artists on his own initiative in five-plus years in office.
The presidential artistic dunce cap is worn by Bill Clinton, who was so caught up in governmental wonkery that he failed to honor an arts figure in eight years, unless you want to count businessman/arts philanthropist David Rockefeller, brother of Nelson.
Richard Nixon gave medals to just two artists in five and a half years in office.
Jimmy Carter honored five artists and George H.W. Bush three in their four years in office; George W. Bush (pictured in 2004 with honoree Rita Moreno) gave four artists medals in eight years.
Below you'll find a list of the 57 Medal of Freedom honorees in the arts by categories, followed by a list of presidents and their arts honorees. Note that the lists include some actors, among them James Cagney, James Stewart and Gregory Peck, who are best known for their screen roles, but who also had significant achievements on stage. | https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/02/obama-yo-yo-ma-jasper-johns-.html |
Does DOJ’s Qui Tam Dismissal Policy Go Far Enough?
Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal published this opinion piece about last week's verdict awarding $5 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages to a man who claims Monsanto's weedkiller Roundup caused him to develop cancer.
Disclosure: Horvitz & Levy represents Monsanto on appeal in another case involving Roundup.
This unpublished opinion addresses an issue we haven't seen in a while.
The trial was bifurcated under Civil Code section 3295: in phase one the jury decided the issue of liability and whether the defendant acted with malice, oppression, or fraud; in phase two the jury decided the amount of punitive damages.
On appeal, the defendant argued it was entitled to a new trial on punitive damages because the trial court seated an alternate juror during the second phase of trial. The defendant argued that the use of the alternate juror violated section 3295's requirement that both phases of trial be decided by the "same trier of fact."
The Court of Appeal (Fourth District, Division One) rejected that argument, citing an earlier decision in Rivera v. Sassoon. Rivera held that the use of an alternative juror in phase two does not violate the "same trier of fact" rule because alternate jurors hear the same evidence and are subject to the same admonitions as the regular jurors.
That reasoning is a little unsatisfying, because whatever instructions and evidence the alternate jurors may hear, they do not actually get to vote in phase one. So when an alternative juror is seated for phase two, the two phases of trial are not literally being decided by the same trier of fact. No other cases have followed Rivera's reasoning on this issue, but as the Court of Appeal pointed out, no cases have challenged that reasoning either. So Rivera remains good law, at least for now.
"Awarding Punitive Damages Against Foreign States Is Dangerous and Counterproductive"
It is not unusual for U.S. Courts to award large sums of punitive damages against state sponsors of terrorism. Iran in particular has been hit with many such awards. These awards are not contested by the foreign states and, to my knowledge, have never been enforced. They seem purely symbolic.
This Lawfare article argues that such awards are bad public policy and "pose a threat to the peaceful international legal order" by placing the United States in a position of primacy over all other nations. The author argues that Congress should amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to disallow punitive damages against foreign states.
Here's yet another unpublished opinion reversing a punitive damages award because the plaintiff failed to present meaningful evidence of the defendants' financial condition.
This case involves breach of contract and fraud claims against two individuals who own companies involved in oil exploration in Russia. The plaintiff entered into an agreement to invest in those companies, but later found out the defendants used the investment to pay off their debts. The plaintiff won a jury verdict for $750,000 in compensatory damages, plus $2 million in punitive damages against one defendant and $1.25 million in punitive damages against another defendant.
The Court of Appeal (Fourth District, Division Three) reversed both punitive damages awards because the plaintiff failed to present evidence of the defendants' net worth. The plaintiff had an expert witness who testified to the net worth of the defendants, but the Court of Appeal concluded that the expert's opinions were not based on reliable information. Although the expert purported to consider the defendants' net worth, in reality he considered only their assets, without taking into account their liabilities. The expert also relied on information from four years before trial, which failed to satisfy the plaintiff's burden of proving the defendants' net worth at the time of trial.
The court rejected the plaintiff's attempt to blame the defendants for the lack of financial evidence. The plaintiff never filed a motion under Code of Civil Procedure section 3295(c) for pretrial discovery of the defendant's financial condition. Nor did the plaintiff file any discovery requests in the second phase of trial, after the jury found that the defendants acted with malice, oppression, or fraud. Thus, the plaintiff had only himself to blame for the lack of evidence on this issue.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that an arbitrator has awarded $179 million, including $128 million in punitive damages, against 21st Century Fox in a lawsuit over profits from the television show Bones.
The plaintiffs are the two stars of the show (Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz), the show's executive producer (Barry Josephson) and the author whose works inspired the show (Kathy Reichs). At the core of the dispute is the plaintiffs' claim that Fox cheated them out of a share of the profits from the show by undercharging licensing fees to its sister companies, including Hulu, in which Fox had a 30 percent stake.
The plaintiffs have filed a petition to have the arbitration award confirmed by the California superior court. Fox has hired Dan Petrocelli, who is no stranger to cases involving high-profile punitive damages awards, to oppose the petition.
A decade ago we expressed our view that the due process restrictions on excessive punitive damages should apply to arbitration awards, notwithstanding the limitations on judicial review of arbitration awards. Division Eight of the Second Appellate District disagreed in Shahinian v. Cedars-Sinai. Perhaps Fox will take another run at that issue in this case.
Reuters reports on an Alabama verdict awarding $51.8 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages to a man paralyzed in a 2015 rollover accident involving a Ford explorer. This verdict comes roughly 25 years after another noteworthy punitive damages award by an Alabama jury against an automaker: the $4 million award against BMW that led to the Supreme Court's landmark decision in BMW v. Gore.
"Philip Morris Seeks New Trial after 'Grossly Excessive' Verdict"
Law 360 reports on the latest skirmish over punitive damages in the long-running Florida smoker litigation.
After a jury awarded $6 million in compensatory damages and $21 million in punitive damages, the trial court vacated the punitive damages award because, although the plaintiff alleged fraudulent conduct, she presented no evidence of reliance on any of the alleged misinformation. The Eleventh Circuit reversed, ruling that Florida law does not require smokers to prove reliance on any specific fraudulent statement. So now Philip Morris is back in the district court, arguing that the punitive damages award is excessive. Either way the court rules, the case is likely to end up back before the Eleventh Circuit.
"Courts split on Punitive Damages Recovery in Legal Malpractice Cases"
ABA Litigation News has this article about whether plaintiffs in legal malpractice actions can seek lost punitive damages, i.e., the punitive damages they claim they would have been awarded if not for the lawyer's malpractice. The California Supreme Court answered "no" to that question in Ferguson v. Lieff Cabraser, but the article notes that courts in other jurisdictions have disagreed. | http://www.calpunitives.com/ |
A British tourist could face the death penalty in Iraq after being accused of smuggling artifacts out of the country.
Jim Fitton, a former geologist, collected stone fragments and shards of broken pottery as souvenirs during an archaeological tour of Eridu, an ancient Sumerian city in southern Iraq. He was arrested at the airport on March 20 after the baggage belonging to the tour group was searched. A German tourist who was also part of the tour was apprehended at the airport.
Under Iraqi law, the intentional international export of any items determined to be cultural heritage is “punishable with execution.”
Fitton’s family members, who live in Malaysia, told the BBC that the fragments were “in the open, unguarded and with no signage warning against removal.” The tour leaders also collected shards and encouraged the tourists to do the same, the family said.
The Fittons are now petitioning the British government to intervene in the trial, which is set to begin May 7. Fitton’s lawyer has drafted a proposal for the case to be dropped, the family told the BBC, however the plan needs the endorsement of the British Foreign Office to be presented to a high-ranking judiciary in Iraq.
British Foreign Office minister Amanda Milling said in a statement that the agency has responded to Fitton’s case.
“We understand the urgency of the case, and have already raised our concerns with the Iraqi authorities regarding the possible imposition of the death penalty in Mr Fitton’s case and the UK’s opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle,” the statement said.
The city of Eridu was likely founded around 5400 BC in the once-lush southern marshlands of the Euphrates River, known locally as the Ahwar. (The aquatic region was largely drained between 1950 and the 1970s for agriculture and oil drilling.) It was considered the first city in the world by the Sumerians and within Sumerian mythology served as the earthly kingdom of the gods. It was occupied between the 5th and 2nd millennium and reached the zenith of its influence in the 4th millennium.
The general architecture of Eridu is one large mound comprising 18 layers of settlements — mud-brick temples, homes, and other structures built over the ruins of older habitations for some 3,000 years. Today, most tourists visit Eridu’s well-preserved temples, or ziggurats, the most famous being the Ziggurat of Enki.
The Ahwar of Southern Iraq, which includes Eridu and the Sumerian cities Uruk and Ur, was added to the World Heritage List in 2016.
Nearly 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for Fitton’s release. In a statement, his family called the response to the campaign “unbelievable” and thanked “old colleagues, good friends, kindred spirits, and complete strangers who have not allowed this to go unnoticed” for their support. | https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/british-tourist-accused-of-smuggling-artifacts-in-iraq-faces-death-penalty-1234627261/ |
The College of Sciences and Humanities is dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion in all our academic disciplines and throughout our teaching, scholarship, and service. We strive to foster an environment that values and is strengthened by the many different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences that students, faculty, and staff bring to our learning community. We aim to accomplish our goals through instructional practices, collegial engagement, and continued reevaluation of the college atmosphere to ensure a sustained commitment towards progress. | https://www.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/csh/about/college-of-sciences-and-humanities-diversity-vision-statement |
Testing for COVID-19 strongly relies on the ability of scientists to accurately and precisely measure nucleic acids like DNA and RNA. Members of EURAMET’s European Metrology Network for Traceability in Laboratory Medicine (EMN TraceLabMed) are taking part in several activities to aid the coronavirus pandemic response on a global level – where the current unprecedented health crisis has brought research around viral testing to the forefront of international metrology objectives.
EMPIR project ‘AntiMicroResist’
Led by the National Measurement Laboratory (NML) at LGC, a EURAMET EMPIR project (15HLT07, AntiMicroResist) has developed measurement capabilities and expertise to support the quality assurance provider INSTAND e. V..
INSTAND is a not-for-profit scientific medical society appointed by the German Medical Association to assess quality control within medical laboratories. Specifically, the project has helped to set up INSTAND’s new Proficiency Testing (PT) scheme to compare inter-laboratory methods for detecting the genome associated with SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2).
This significant project outcome has been achieved through close collaboration of INSTAND with Prof Christian Drosten at the Institute of Virology of Charité in Berlin – where the institute in question is considered to be Germany’s national centre of excellence (formally, the Consultant Laboratory) in the field of coronavirus studies.
At present, the measurement laboratories of NML (UK), PTB (Germany) and NIST (USA) are providing continuing support for European testing by assigning values for virus quantification and evaluating material homogeneity, as well as offering metrology expertise for INSTAND’s new PT scheme.
The CCQM-NAWG study
The Consultative Committee for Amount of Substance (CCQM), within the BIPM, is responsible for developing and improving reference materials and methods for chemical and biological measurements. A working group of this committee, the CCQM Working Group for Nucleic Acid Analysis (CCQM-NAWG), has recently launched a fast-tracked inter-laboratory study for the measurement of the SARS-CoV-2 genome.
Coordinated by the aforementioned institutes, in addition to the NIM in China, the study will focus on measuring key genes that are targeted by SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests. More than 20 metrology institutes around the world, including several from the TraceLabMed network (such as PTB, INRIM and UME) are participating in the study to support the provision of standardised testing around the world.
EMPIR project ‘Bio-stand’
Another recently-completed EMPIR project (16SIP01, Bio-stand) for improved bioanalytical measurements has developed three new international ISO standards to support the counting of cells and monitoring of nucleic acids (see news story).
The project-developed standards successfully address measurement needs that have been identified by the biotechnology (ISO TC 276) and clinical diagnostics (ISO TC 212) communities. One of these standards has also been made freely available to support the development and implementation of effective COVID-19 viral testing.
Antibody testing
In addition to viral testing to detect the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 genome, the development of antibody tests is also essential to monitor the overall prevalence of the coronavirus. Importantly, antibody tests can assess the likely immunity of a given population to SARS-CoV-2, providing critical underpinning evidence to inform the direction of lockdown restrictions across the globe.
To maintain the robustness of antibody testing, several metrology institutes from EURAMET’s TraceLabMed network will participate in a pilot study - organised on behalf of the CCQM Working Group on Protein Analysis (CCQM-PAWG) by the NIM (China), BIPM (France), NIST (USA) and NRC (Canada). The study aims to validate measurement capabilities for antibody testing and to increase scientists’ understanding of the target epitope – the part of an antigen that is recognised by an individual antibody - using techniques such as the hydrogen-deuterium exchange.
More information
To find out more about recent developments in this area, please visit EURAMET’s new webpage on Traceability in Laboratory Medicine: the COVID-19 response.
You can also see NML’s webpage on COVID-19 standards and BIPM’s news story on COVID-19 diagnostic testing.
Want to hear more about EURAMET? | https://www.euramet.org/publications-media-centre/news/news/tracelabmed-and-empir-projects-make-vital-contributions-to-covid-19-testing |
One of the most interesting debates in the past decade is around the definition of an entrepreneur.
Some experts take a very narrow position by saying an entrepreneur is only someone whose business idea can scale to national reach, like the founders of Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. Others cast a much wider net to include anyone who takes a business risk.
Here is my very broad definition: An entrepreneur attempts to create a new product, service or solution while accepting responsibility for the results.
Notice this definition doesn’t refer to profit or equity or even business. But it does infer what I consider the following critical elements of entrepreneurship, including a relationship with the abiding twins of any entrepreneurial endeavor – success and failure.
Ownership: Whether in the literal equity sense, as in business ownership, or an entrepreneurial employee who takes initiative and assumes ownership of the performance of a team or project, entrepreneurship does not happen unless someone takes ownership of execution and results.
Courage: This is the backbone of entrepreneurial behavior because the stakes are always high. Failure can manifest in many forms, including financial loss, professional setbacks and personal embarrassment. Nothing entrepreneurial happens until conviction raises the level of courage above the fear of failure.
Curiosity: Curiosity is the face of entrepreneurship because the eyes see what isn’t there, the ears hear sounds others miss, the nose smells opportunity, and the mouth asks “What if?” There are many business owners who are not curious, but there are no entrepreneurs who aren’t driven by curiosity.
Vision: A futurist is someone who makes a living connecting the dots into a picture before it is evident to others. Entrepreneurs are futurists when they envision an opportunity or solution associated with their industry, discipline or assignment.
Risk: Successful entrepreneurs are not foolhardy; they gauge their risk tolerance based on the potential emotional, professional and financial costs. Entrepreneurs take risks knowing that whether they succeed or fail, they will learn something useful.
Redemption: Plans often don’t go as envisioned. Successfully resetting and refocusing – for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial employees – requires an answer to the most powerful question in the quest for entrepreneurial excellence: “What did we learn?”
The 21st century needs all kinds of entrepreneurs. | http://blog.smallbusinessadvocate.com/entrepreneurship/what-is-the-definition-of-entrepreneur |
The main social media platforms have been implementing strategies to minimize fake news dissemination. These include identifying, labeling, and penalizing –via news feed ranking algorithms– fake publications. Part of the rationale behind this approach is that the negative effects of fake content arise only when social media users are deceived. Once debunked, fake posts and news stories should therefore become harmless. Unfortunately, the literature shows that the effects of misinformation are more complex and tend to persist and even backfire after correction. Furthermore, we still do not know much about how social media users evaluate content that has been fact-checked and flagged as false. More worryingly, previous findings suggest that some people may intentionally share made up news on social media, although their motivations are not fully explained. To better understand users’ interaction with social media content identified or recognized as false, we analyze qualitative and quantitative data from five focus groups and a sub-national online survey (N = 350). Findings suggest that the label of ‘false news’ plays a role –although not necessarily central– in social media users’ evaluation of the content and their decision (not) to share it. Some participants showed distrust in fact-checkers and lack of knowledge about the fact-checking process. We also found that fake news sharing is a two-dimensional phenomenon that includes intentional and unintentional behaviors. We discuss some of the reasons why some of social media users may choose to distribute fake news content intentionally.
Bibliographic References
- Allcott, Hunt; Gentzkow, Matthew (2017). “Social media and fake news in the 2016 election”. Journal of economic perspectives, v. 31, n. 2, pp. 211-36. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.31.2.211
- An, Jisun; Cha, Meeyoung; Gummadi, Krishna; Crowcroft, Jon (2011). “Media landscape in Twitter: a world of new conventions and political diversity”. In: Proceedings of the 5th International AAAI Conference on weblogs and social media (ICWSM), pp.18-25. https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM11/paper/viewFile/2825/3283
- Bode, Leticia; Vraga, Emily K. (2018). “See something, say something: correction of global health misinformation on social media”. Health communication, v. 33, n. 9, pp. 1131-1140. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2017.1331312
- Brandtzaeg, Petter-Bae; Følstad, Asbjørn; Chaparro-Domínguez, María-Ángeles (2018). “How journalists and social media users perceive online fact-checking and verification services”. Journalism practice, v. 12, n. 9, pp. 1109-1129. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2017.1363657
- Chadwick, Andrew; Vaccari, Cristian; O’Loughlin, Ben (2018). “Do tabloids poison the well of social media? Explaining democratically dysfunctional news sharing”. New media & society, v. 20, n. 11, pp. 4255-4274. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818769689
- Choi, Jounghwa; Yang, Myengja; Chang, Jeongheon J. C. (2009). “Elaboration of the hostile media phenomenon: the roles of involvement, media skepticism, congruency of perceived media influence, and perceived opinion climate”. Communication research, v. 36, n. 1, pp. 54-75. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650208326462
- Cohen, Geoffrey L.; Sherman, David K.; Bastardi, Anthony; Hsu, Lilian; McGoey, Michelle; Ross, Lee (2007). “Bridging the partisan divide: self-affirmation reduces ideological closed-mindedness and inflexibility in negotiation”. Journal of personality and social psychology, v. 93, n. 3, pp. 415-430. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.3.415
- DeVito, Michael A. (2017). “From editors to algorithms: a values-based approach to understanding story selection in the Facebook news feed”. Digital journalism, v. 5, n. 6, pp. 753-773. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2016.1178592
- Ecker, Ullrich K. H.; Lewandowsky, Stephan; Swire, Briony; Chang, Darren (2011). “Correcting false information in memory: manipulating the strength of misinformation encoding and its retraction”. Psychonomic bulletin & review, v. 18, n. 3, pp. 570-578. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0065-1
- Gadde, Vijaya; Derella, Matt (2020). “An update on our continuity strategy during Covid-19”. Twitter blog, April 1. https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/An-update-on-our-continuity-strategy-during-COVID-19.html
- Geis, Florence L.; Moon, Tae H. (1981). “Machiavellianism and deception”. Journal of personality and social psychology, v. 41, n. 4 pp. 766-775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.41.4.766
- Gil de Zúñiga, Homero; Jung, Nakwon; Valenzuela, Sebastián (2012). “Social media use for news and individuals’ social capital, civic engagement and political participation”. Journal of computer-mediated communication, v. 17, n. 3, pp. 319-336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01574.x
- Giner-Sorolla, Roger; Chaiken, Shelly (1994). “The causes of hostile media judgments”. Journal of experimental social psychology, v. 30, n. 2, pp. 165-180. https://doi.org/10.1006/jesp.1994.1008
- Gunther, Richard; Beck, Paul, A.; Nisbet, Erik C. (2019). “Fake news and the defection of 2012 Obama voters in the 2016 presidential election”. Electoral studies, v. 61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2019.03.006
- Hayes, Andrew F.; Cai, Li (2007). “Using heteroskedasticity-consistent standard error estimators in OLS regression: an introduction and software implementation”. Behavior research methods, v. 39, n. 4, pp. 709-722. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192961
- Hermida, Alfred; Fletcher, Fred; Korell, Darryl; Logan, Donna (2012). “Share, like, recommend”. Journalism studies, v. 13, n. 5-6, pp. 815-824. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2012.664430
- Hern, Alex (2020a). “Twitter to remove harmful fake news about coronavirus”. The guardian, March 19. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/twitter-to-remove-harmful-fake-news-about-coronavirus
- Hern, Alex (2020b). “Fake coronavirus tweets spread as other sites take harder stance”. The guardian, March 4. | https://portalciencia.ull.es/documentos/5fa4a5fe29995222142f37f1 |
Flashcards in B cells and Antibodies Deck (71):
1
definition of antibodies (imunoglobulins)
proteins made and secreted to bind with antigens. Once bound, helps inactivate/clear out microbial (or non-microbial) agent
2
Ig structure
2 identical heavy chains and 2 identical light chains
3
light chains isotypes and their frequnecy
kappa (60%), lambda (40%)
4
heavy chain isotypes
α - IgA 1, 2
δ - IgD
γ - IgG 1, 2, 3, 4
ε - IgE
μ - IgM
5
FAB
fragment antigen binding: portion of antibody that binds antigen
6
FAB is produced by digestion of Ig with what enzyme?
Papain
7
Fc
Fragment crystallizable: effector function of Ig, binds with other things that have an Fc receptor
8
Fc contains which portion of the antibody molecule?
C-terminal portion
9
F(ab'2) and produced by which enzyme
Bivalent FAB fragment, produced by pepsin
10
Ig molecule consists of how many FAB and Fc fragments?
2 FAB and 1 Fc fragment
11
how many hypervariable regions (CDRs) are on each light and heavy chain? How many in total on an Ig?
3 on light chain, 3 on heavy chain, a total of six
12
Basis of specificity for antigen
HV regions = CDRs (complementarity determining regions)
13
What makes up one FAB region?
VL, VH
CL1 CH1
14
How many variable (heavy and light) domains are on an Ig?
On variable heavy, one variable light on each half of Ig, so in total, 2 VH and 2 VL
15
How many Constant light domains are on each Ig?
One CL on each side of Ig, so a total of 2 CL domains
16
How many constant heavy domains are there on each Ig? Which two Igs are an exception
3 constant heavy domains on each side, so 6 in total. IgM and IgE can have a fourth constant heavy domain
17
less variable regions aligning hypervariable regions that provide structural integrity to variable domains
framework residues
18
Isotype
constant regions of heavy/light chains
19
idiotype
antibodies with different variable domains
20
Igs that are complement activators
IgG and IgM
21
B-cell membrane receptors (mature cell)
IgM and IgD
22
First antibody during immune response
IgM
23
The only antibody produced by immature B-cell
IgM
24
2 fates of IgM and structural form for both
-plasma membrane bound, serves as B cell receptor for antigen or B cell activator (monomer)
-secreted from plasma, potent activator of compliment classical pathway (pentamer)
25
Second isotype of Ig produced
IgD
26
very similar to IgM but contains different Fc portion
IgD
27
the "glue" that hold a pentamer Ig together
J-chain
28
Ig with highest serum concentration
IgG
29
5 important properties of IgG
1) longest half life (much more stable, resists degradation) ~23 days
2) the only Ig that can cross placenta to provide fetus immunity
3) can perform ADCC
4) acts as an opsonin
5) compliment activator
30
In opsonization, what party of the antibody binds to the bacteria? what part of the antibody binds to the phagocyte?
FAB binds to antigen of bacteria, FC site binds to an Fc (gamma) receptor on on phagocyte
31
What receptor is needed for IgG to perform ADCC?
CD16
32
Why is IgG a less efficient compliment pathway activator than IgM?
IgM is secreted as a pentamer, while IgG is a monomer, so its needs multiple monomers
33
"Prepare to ingest"
Opsonin
34
Ig involved in mucosal immunity
IgA
35
IgA is secrete as what structure?
Dimer
36
Which antibody does not activate compliment pathway? Way?
IgA, dont' want a huge inflammatory response in GI tract
37
Mild, neutralizing antibody
IgA
38
This Ig is mostly found on epithelial cell surfaces and binds to bacterial toxin to prevent epithelial damage
IgA
39
least common Ig, small amounts in circulation
IgE
40
Ig for allergic reactions, hypersensitivity reactions, and parasitic infections
IgE
41
This Ig is mainly found in lungs, skin, and mucous membranes
IgE
42
Mast cells have these receptors fo IgE
Fc epsilon receptors
43
Crosslinking of antibodies and antigen on mast cell causes what to occur and what to be released?
Degranulation of mast cells, release of histamine
(binds to antigen first, then triggers opsonization)
44
mABs (3 properties)
monoclonal antibodies
1. targets only a single polypeptide chain
2. no variation between antibodies produced
3. highly controllable
45
Rituximab
mAB, marker on B cells, used in treatment of lymphoma and leukemia
46
Infliximab
Anti-TNF (tumor necrosis factors, cause apoptosis)
hence why need to be careful with monoclonal antibodies. need these things as inflammatory mediator
47
Monoclonal antibodies bind to the same _______ of antigen, which serves to detect and purify a substance
epitope
48
Monoclonal antibodies work only because B-cells operate through this type of system
Clonal selection
(each B-cell has a specific antibody as a cell surface receptor, and only B cells, which are antigen specific, can secrete antibodies. Produce antibody of a specific type which we can isolate and capture)
49
What type of interaction occurs between an antibody and antigen
noncovalent
50
Reaction between an antibody and an antigen that differs from the immunogen
Cross-reactivity
51
Type B blood type have what type of antigens
B antigens
52
Persons who are Type AB what what antigens
A and B antigens
53
What antigens to persons with Type O have
have neither A nor B antigens
54
The serum of people with Type A blood have what kind of antibodies
Antibodies against Type B antigens
55
Type AB blood type have what kind of antibodies
Neither antibody
56
Type O blood type have what antibodies
antibodies against A and B
57
Universal Donor
Type O
58
Universal recipients
Type AB (lack antibodies against A or B antigens
59
True or False: A person with type O blood may receive from a person with Type B blood
False (a person with type O blood has anti-B antibodies which would react against the type B antigen found on the red cells of type B blood
60
When Type B blood is given to a person with type A blood, antigen from the _____ reacts with anti-B antibody in the ____ (donor or recipient)
Donor, recipient
61
Blood group antigens are a system of antigens that are ____ in nature
glycolipid
62
What is the core glycan anchored in the erythrocyte membrane? Everyone has this, and will not react to this
Gal NAc--Gal--X
|
Fucose
Gal NAc =N-acetylated galactosamine
Gal= galactose
X= the R group that is different in each blood type
63
X group for O
nothing
Gal NAc--Gal
|
Fucose
64
X group for A
Gal NAc--Gal--GalNAc
|
Fucose
65
X group for B
Gal NAc--Gal--Gal
|
Fucose
66
immunogenicity
ability of a particular substance to induce an immune response (i.e. antigen or epitope)
67
What elicits the blood group antibody reaction?
GI flora (commensal bacteria) generate proteins/sugars/etc that are foreign to humans. Immunse system response to these antigens, but the bacteria never leave the GI tract. Bacteria are harmless within the GI lumen. But antibodies are ready in case any bacteria does cross epithelium
68
GI bacterial biproducts have structura similarity to
blood groups
69
True or false: Individuals do not make specific antibodies against bacteria in the gut that are similar to their own blood type
True. They do not. | https://www.brainscape.com/flashcards/b-cells-and-antibodies-5190584/packs/7670433 |
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Children’s Physical Activity And Mental Health
Principal Supervisor: Professor Eirini Flouri (IOE)
Co- Supervisor: Professor Steven Cummins (LSHTM)
The aim of this studentship is to explore the nature of the association between children’s mental health, measured broadly as internalising (i.e., peer and emotional problems) and externalising (i.e., conduct problems and hyperactivity/inattention problems), and objectively-measured (via accelerometer) physical activity and sedentary behaviour. The project will use data from the UK's Millennium Cohort Study (MCS; www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/mcs).
It is expected that the association may be explained by the impact of physical activity on other aspects of child functioning, but that the mechanisms may vary by domain of mental health. For example, physical activity may mitigate internalising symptoms via improved self-esteem, and externalising problems via improved cognition. It is also possible that the association may be moderated by child, family, and contextual (such as neighbourhood) factors. For example, physical activity may be particularly beneficial for specific groups of children or only when it is moderate rather than light. This studentship will attempt to explore and explain the association between children’s physical activity and their mental health (objective #1), and specify the groups and contexts in which it may be stronger (objective #2).
The student will meet these objectives using longitudinal data from MCS, a prospective study of children born in the UK in 2000-2002. The original cohort comprised 18,818 children. Since then, data have been collected when the children were aged 3, 5, 7 and 11 years. At age 7, 14,043 children (13,681 singletons) were interviewed and invited to participate in the accelerometry study. Accelerometers were returned by 9,772 singletons. In MCS, data measuring children’s mental health (with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) are available at ages 3, 5 and 7. In 2014, they will be available for age 11, too.
Candidate requirements
Graduates with a good first degree and/or Masters degree in psychology, social or medical statistics, quantitative human geography or other relevant social science with an interest and aptitude for quantitative methods and statistical modelling are encouraged to apply. The project will require advanced statistical analysis skills (e.g., R for modelling the accelerometer-based data, Mplus for the use of structural equation models, MlwiN if the context-based moderator variables describe low-geography characteristics, e.g., area green space, and observed data are used). Specific training on statistical modelling will form part of the MPhil/PhD training.
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How it Works
1. Mary will interview you about the time periods and topics you want to share. These meetings unfold like comfortable conversations and last between one and two hours. They can take place in your home, your office or even on the phone. Choose whatever is most comfortable and convenient for you.
2. The interviews will be transcribed verbatim and then woven together into a flowing, engaging narrative that retains your voice. If you like, we can add texture to your life story by adding historical details as well as other people’s memories. (If you want only an oral history, you can opt to purchase a CD of the interview and/or a transcription of it.)
3. Mary will send a draft of the first couple of chapters for you to review and sign off on her approach and writing style.
4. Once the first draft has been written, you will review it—adding details and making corrections. (If you see gaps that need to be filled, this would be the time to request additional interviews.)
5. Then it’s Mary’s turn to incorporate your changes.
6. With careful attention to the time period, content and tone of the life story, a professional graphic designer will pull everything together to create your book.
7. Once you and a professional proofreader have proofread the final draft, the book will be printed and bound. You have reached your journey’s end! | http://tell-your-stories.com/personalhistory/how-to-tell-your-story/speak-your-story/ |
Having staff to help you take care of your restaurant is a great thing — until you find out how time-consuming it is to keep track of them.
Archiving their personal information, mapping out their schedules, then adjusting them at the last minute is enough to frustrate any manager on a weekly basis.
Few things feel worse than being short of waiters during a sudden rush of customers or paying your employees to stand around during a lull.
Doing a simple calculation of your labor cost percentage, tracking it consistently, organising your payroll log, and automating your scheduling process will reduce the likelihood of that happening.
You’ll have peace of mind knowing you can react appropriately to surges in customer demand at any point in time. With a little work, being over or understaffed may become a thing of the past.
In this post we share 6 tips for tracking labour cost:
1. Rethink your schedule regularly
2. Designate tasks for each payroll log
3. Calculate your employee turnover rate
4. Schedule based on sales (and weather) forecasts
5. Play to your employee’s strengths
6. Automate the scheduling process
What is labour cost?
Labour cost is the percentage of restaurant costs that go toward hiring and maintaining employees. Although the ideal percentage of revenue is allocated to salaries and wages will vary based on your business type, it’s wise to prevent those labour costs from climbing too high. For restaurants, 35% is a generally accepted labour cost target.
Fast food chains can achieve labour cost as low as 25%, while table service restaurants most likely find themselves in the 30 to 40 percent range. This all depends on the menu and service style. Food and beverage costs for the restaurant industry typically run between 28 and 35 percent.
Here’s the simple formula to keep you on track:
If you’re using a point of sale system integrated into an employee management system, this percentage should be calculated for you automatically with data pulled directly from your existing database.
1. Rethink your schedule regularly
It may feel easier to have your employees operate on a set schedule for months on end, but it’s a good idea to reevaluate your work schedule frequently in order to avoid overbooking your employees. Traffic in your restaurant will fluctuate day to day, week to week, month to month. Although a consistent schedule is sometimes appreciated by staff, it isn’t optimal for your business.
If your wait staff outnumbers customers during certain shifts, you’re wasting money on labour costs. In addition, your staff will appreciate having more flexibility and control over their work schedule, so it may even save you from the expenses associated with a high turnover rate.
2. Designate tasks for each payroll log
It might be helpful for you to know exactly how your employees are spending their time. For instance, a seemingly minor task like putting away new inventory may be a lengthier task than you realize.
Having your employees track what they’re spending their time on in their payroll log may help you figure out what processes to automate. It can also let you know when to hire more people to work as servers during peak business hours. Overall, keeping track of specific tasks will help you determine whether your employees are spending their time in the most productive way possible, and allocate staff in a way that minimises labour cost.
3. Calculate your employee turnover rate
A high turnover rate may make a significant dent in your labour costs. Moreover, the price of recruiting and training new talent can easily eat into the efficiency of your labour force over time.
It’s a particular problem in the hospitality sector. For example, in 2019 the average employee turnover rate of the UK hospitality sector was 30%, twice that of the overall UK average!
Taking steps to ensure employee satisfaction is a smart way to become a better manager and also keep an eye on the bottom line.
How to calculate employee turnover rate
Being able to calculate your employee turnover rate means you can better track employee turnover and work to reduce it. Let’s say you want to calculate employee turnover rate for a period of six months.
First, calculate your average number of employees. At the beginning of the time period you had thirty staff, six months later your staff had dropped to eighteen. To get average number of employees, do the following calculation:
Average number of employees = (number of employees at start of period) + (number of employees at the end of period) / 2
Average number of employees = 30 + 18 / 2
Average number of employees = 24
During that period, 13 employees left your business. Now to calculate your employee turnover rate; divide the number of employee that left by the average number of employees, and multiply by 100.
Employee turnover rate = (employees that left) / (average number of employee) x 100
Employee turnover rate = 13 / 24 x 100
Employee turnover rate = 54%
4. Schedule based on sales (and weather) forecasts
Sure, it may be tempting to keep the same number of employees on hand for every shift throughout the year. Your organisation’s real need for workers, however, may vary throughout the year. It helps to have a sense of when your actual busy seasons occur.
With employee scheduling solutions like Planday, you can plan the right staffing levels at different points in time. For example, if you have a huge outdoor patio, it would make sense to schedule fewer employees when the forecast calls for rain. Or if a special event is happening in your area, schedule more employees or place some on call for the expected surge in foot traffic.
Time to modernise your restaurant tech?
Start your digital transformation and ignite your business's potential today. Download our guide to find out how.
5. Play to your employee’s strengths
Once you’ve been analysing your labor costs for some time, chances are your employees’ individual strengths and weaknesses will become quite apparent. For instance, one server may be a master at managing your busiest night of the week, whereas a different server has a knack for enticing customers to order extra dishes. By recognising these talents, rewarding them, and using them to your advantage, you will optimise your labor costs (and make your employees feel valued).
6. Automate the scheduling process
The days of time clocks and paper schedules are long gone, and managing employee schedules don’t have to take up a tremendous amount of your time. You can use free shift planning software like Homebase to save yourself time and get greater insight into your labor costs in real-time, especially when integrated directly into your POS system.
From weather forecasts to individual strengths of your employees, there’s a lot you can do to run a more efficient restaurant business. Keeping the above suggestions in mind will help you manage your staff and keep labor costs down!
Get the most from your staff with Lightspeed ePOS.
Lightspeed ePOS integrate with a range of employee schedule software, so you can use real time staff performance data to get most of out of your best employees. Interesting in how we can help? Let’s talk.
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Success! You are now signed up to our blog content updates. | https://www.lightspeedhq.co.uk/blog/restaurant-labour-cost/ |
Formal and Informal Dining at the Royal Marine Hotel
The 4 Star Luxury Royal Marine Hotel has several dining experiences within the hotel. If you are looking for a Restaurant in Dún Laoghaire we have a number of options for you, which offer both formal and informal dining in relaxed settings.
Let your own mood guide you to choose the type of dining experience that you wish for. Our head Chef Karl Smith and his team have created several different dining experiences for you to choose from.
These include the traditional styled Dún Restaurant which offers a formal yet relaxed dining experience in traditional dining room setting while the contemporary Hardy’s Bar & Bistro offers a vibrant atmosphere and the best in both traditional and contemporary bar menu dishes.
Our historic Bay Lounge offers the backdrop of views across Dublin Bay with which to enjoy lunch or Traditional Afternoon Tea in the utmost traditional luxury whilst our popular Atrium Lounge offers a bright and vibrant space to meet and catch up with friends for meals and snacks throughout the day. | https://www.royalmarine.ie/dining.html |
Job type: Contract-based.
Duration: 12 Months.
Application deadline: 20th February 2022: 1700hrs
Brief Description
We are looking for an experienced sales and marketing officer to help drive company sales. In this position, you will be involved in developing marketing strategies, implementing marketing plans, developing sales strategies, maintaining customer relations, and creating sales reports.
To ensure success as a sales and marketing officer, you should have strong knowledge of modern marketing techniques, a passion for sales, and excellent communication skills. Ultimately, the ideal sales and marketing Officer creates strategies that align with modern consumer trends.
Responsibilities:
- Contributing to the development of marketing strategies.
- Conducting market research on rival products.
- Designing and implementing marketing plans for company products.
- Coordinating with media representatives and sponsors.
- Working with the sales team to develop targeted sales strategies.
- Answering client queries about product specifications and uses.
- Maintaining client relations.
- Tracking sales data to ensure the company meets sales quotas.
- Creating and presenting sales performance reports.
- Analyzes and creates a plan for engaging the target market
Position Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, or related field.
- Content development and Graphics designing skills is an added advantage.
- Experience in sales and marketing in the Technology industry is an added advantage
- Proven work experience as a sales and marketing officer.
- Knowledge of modern marketing techniques.
- High-level communication and networking skills.
- A passion for sales.
- Understanding of commercial trends and marketing strategies.
- Good project management skills.
- Excellent interpersonal skills.
- Ability to work well independently and under pressure.
Sales and Marketing Officer New Job Opportunity at Tabono 2022
Personal Characteristics:
- Strong sense of personal integrity.
- Attention to details
- Ability to multi-task
- Good interpersonal and communication skills.
- Team spirit and creative
- Desire to learn
- Passionate about marketing and sales.
How to Apply
Please send your updated CV, Cover letter, and transcripts to [email protected] not later than 17.00hrs on Sunday, 20th February 2022. (Subject of email should be Position applying for)
Website https://tabono.co.tz/
Documents submitted have to be in PDF format. | https://www.ajirasasa.com/2022/02/sales-and-marketing-officer-new-job-opportunity-at-tabono-2022.html |
Electoral Alliances and Majority versus Minority Communalism
The discourse and politics of equidistance from majority communalism and minority communalism is flawed because it equates two unequal concepts. The Indian nationalist perspective on this equidistant stance focuses more on attacking minority communalism because it is perceived as a potential secessionist threat to India’s territorial integrity, while majority communalism—although it could develop into fascism—does not threaten India’s territorial integrity. The secular fundamentalist perspective, through its theoretical rejection of religious groups, ends up, in practice, reinforcing the existing power of the majority communal group. The perspective of institutionalised Hindu communalism rejects the equivalence approach on the grounds that majoritarian communalism pervades multiple institutions in India and increases the vulnerability of India’s religious minorities. It can only be defeated from an egalitarian perspective by recognising the social, cultural and political power of religion.
The recent spat between Congress leader Anand Sharma and West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is not merely a conflict within the Congress party but is also symptomatic of a deeper fault-line in political and academic discourse on “communalism” in India. The argument concerns the alliance formed between the West Bengal Congress and the Left, which in turn has formed an alliance with the Indian Secular Front (ISF) led by Muslim leader Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui, to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in this month’s assembly elections. Sharma attacked the alliance by characterising ISF as a communal party, and by arguing that the Congress cannot be selective in its choice of alliances with communal parties, while Chowdhury defended the alliance as part of an effort to achieve the larger objective of defeating the majoritarian Hindu communalism of BJP (Manoj 2021).
In addition, Chowdhury has further questioned the consistency of Sharma’s anti-communalism by pointing out that Sharma never criticised the alliance made by the Congress with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. Arguments similar to Sharma’s position have been aired in the context of electoral alliances in Kerala where the attempt by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) to forge alliances with minority religious parties to defeat the BJP have been singled out for criticising the LDF as being soft on minority communalism (Ramachandran 2021).
The wider significance of Anand Sharma’s position needs to be understood in the context of one school of thought in the Indian discourse on communalism that not only lays special emphasis on providing evidence of “minority communalism,” but even equates minority communalism with majority communalism. A similar debate took place in 2018 in Indian Express after Harsh Mander’s brilliant article described the dire situation facing the minority Muslim community in India after the virulent upsurge of majority Hindu communalism symbolised by the rise of the BJP (Mander 2018a). In a critical response to Mander, Ramachandra Guha referred to the school of thought that equates majority and minority communalism. Guha (2018a) cited the words of Hamid Dalwai, a Muslim moderniser, “If Hindu communalism is responsible for Muslim communalism, by the same logic it would follow that Muslim communalism is equally responsible for Hindu communalism” in order to demonstrate the position of equating majority and minority communalism.1
Inequality in Power Relations
The central flaw in the argument made by Dalwai and, to a lesser extent, by Guha2 is that it does not acknowledge the huge inequality in the structure of power relations between the majority Hindu community in India and the minority religious communities (Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains).3 By equating two unequal parties, the discourse of equating majority and minority communalism further reinforces the power of majority communalism and thereby deepens the inequality of the power relations.
There are two distinct arguments that equate majority and minority communalism, and both are flawed. One school of thought derives its inspiration from the ideology of Indian nationalism. Devotees of the creation of a unified Indian national identity view communal/sectarian nationalism within both majority and minority groups as dangerous. However, in this narrative, only minority communalism is considered as having the potential to affect the territorial integrity of the nation. Majority communalism is perceived as dangerous simply because it might increase the alienation of the minorities and drive them to seek to secede. The criticism of majority communalism is therefore merely derivative, based on the implications of majority communalism for encouraging minority communalism. Since it believes that majority communalism by its very nature does not endanger India’s territorial integrity, majority communalism is not the focus of its attack—although it recognises the possibility of the development of authoritarianism or fascism. This argument, therefore, focuses solely on criticising minority communalism.
Positing minority and majority communalism as equals in this nationalist framework amounts in reality to more hostility to minority communalism than to majority communalism. This perspective, therefore, eventually ends up endorsing the unequal power relations between the majority Hindu community and the various religious minorities in India. It fails to recognise, acknowledge and respect the attempts by members of minority communities to create solidarity as a way to reduce or negate the disadvantages suffered by the members of the minority community as a result of the aggressive and domineering solidarity of the members of the majority community. The defensive solidarity of the minority communities, as a form of social capital, arises out of the situational reaction of a class of people faced with common adversaries. To criticise the attempts at solidarity by the members of the minority community by describing them in the derisory terminology of “minority communalism” is to disadvantage them further compared to the privileged majority. It would be similar to condemning women’s attempts to create solidarity/self-supporting networks against male domination as reverse sexism or characterising minority ethnic groups’ solidarity movements (such as Black Lives Matter) against White racism as reverse racism.
The second school of thought that equates minority communalism and majority communalism comes from the secularist perspective. From the standpoint of secular fundamentalism, any kind of religious grouping is undesirable whether it belongs to a minority or a majority community. On the face of it, this position appears principled, but since it also ignores the structural power inequality between a majority religious community and a minority religious community, it amounts to accepting the existing structural inequality. To take the example of the struggle against racism in Western countries, no one would seriously believe that a principled anti-racist would reject the concept of racism and therefore fail to distinguish between majority and minority racial groups, considering them both equally repugnant. By refusing to recognise the institutional dominance of white ethnic groups, such an individual would in fact perpetuate their dominance.
It can be argued that minority communalism is not as meaningless or powerless as “reverse sexism” or “reverse racism.” Even if we accept this questionable premise, it is undeniable that minority communalism is hugely weak in comparison with the power of majority communalism. Therefore, even if minority communalism has its risks, any discourse that equates majority and minority communalism remains dangerously flawed because of its denial of the institutional power associated with majority communalism. The majority communalism acquires this power through its capture of various institutions but even more dangerously from its discourses and quotidian practices becoming normalised and hegemonic to such an extent that any deviation from that normal gets signalled and vilified as divisive minority communalism. Equating majority communalism and minority communalism, therefore, weakens theoretical tools and political strategies to combat majority communalism and the far-reaching implications of the rise of the tentacles of majority communalism.
Institutional Communalism
The framework of institutional communalism that I articulate in the discourse on communalism in India alerts us both to the advent of Hindu dominance into a wide set of institutions and to the depth of Hindu domination within these institutions.4 It sheds light on the huge inequality between the majority Hindu community and the religious minorities. The vulnerability of two of India’s recognised religious minorities—Christians and Sikhs—is highlighted by their empirical size; each community constitutes only about 2% of India’s population. Even the Muslim minority—the largest religious minority in India—constitutes only about 13% to 14% of India’s population. The overwhelming majority of Hindus in India reinforces the salience of the conceptual framework of institutional communalism and its use in understanding the structural inequality in power relations between the majority religious group and the minority religions.
A consistent struggle against institutionalised Hindu communalism can only be waged from an egalitarian perspective and not from an Indian nationalist or secularist perspective. The Indian nationalist perspective eventually becomes biased against minority communalism in spite of its formal adherence to equidistance from both forms of communalism, while the secular perspective, though apparently principled, also ends up supporting the dominance of majority communalism through its refusal to acknowledge the inequality between different religious communities. The egalitarian perspective is also secular, but its strength lies in acknowledging unequal power relations between the majority community and the minority communities, based on different identity markers such as religion, race, gender, disability, age and sexual orientation. The framework of institutionalised racism has highlighted the structures of unequal power relations between the mainstream white majority and non-White ethnic minorities. This framework has also helped to shape policy tools to weaken, reduce and eradicate racism. Adopting the theoretical framework of institutional communalism in India has a similar result of weakening Hindu communalism and eventually all forms of religious sectarianism.
Conclusions
Defeating Hindu communal parties and organisations at the ballot box remains an important strategic task and should be seen as a part of eradicating institutional communalisms. The political significance of the electoral alliances being forged in West Bengal and Kerala against the BJP should be viewed from this strategic task. However, the larger challenge should not be forgotten that even if the BJP and its allies are defeated electorally but if institutional Hindu communalism remains pervasive in varying degrees in India’s judiciary, civil services, electoral and parliamentary institutions, security forces, prisons, academia, media, corporate business and even NGOs, it will continue as a social, cultural and politico-economic force to disadvantage the lives of minority communities in India. | https://epw.in/engage/article/electoral-alliances-and-majority-versus-minority |
Embossing and dembossing are similar processes that create a different result. Both processes involve making a metal plate and a counter. The plate is mounted on a press and the paper is stamped between the plate and counter. This force of pressure pushes the stock into the plate, creating the impression. Embossing produces a raised impression on your paper stock, while debossing creates a depressed impression.
A varnish is a liquid coating applied to a printed surface to add an intensified chosen finish. The types of varnishes are gloss, matte, silk/satin, UV and spot UV. Whichever look you are going for in your piece, you can transform it with these coatings.
To get the gold /silver stamp, a foil layer is affixed to a certain material by a heating process. This is quite similar to uv-spot printing. | http://acescreation.com/printing-techniques-that-mostly-used/ |
On this page of dotCover options, you can adjust unit testing settings related to xUnit.net tests.
Test discovery
To list xUnit.net tests from your solution in the Unit Test Explorer window, dotCover needs to discover unit tests.
The discovery of tests in specific project happens only after the project is built. You can choose between two options that allow you to prefer either speed or accuracy for discovering unit tests after the build.
Metadata (default)
In this mode, dotCover analyzes the build artifact without launching the test runner.
As tests are defined using attributes, dotCover can quickly scan the metadata of managed artifacts to find most tests in the project. However, it may fail to find tests that require running some special hooks of xUnit.net to define their parameters.
This is the fastest way of discovering tests.
Test runner
In this mode, dotCover launches xUnit.net runner in the discovery mode on the build artifact, and then uses the results from the runner.
Using xUnit.net runner can take considerably longer to analyze the project, but the list of discovered tests will be complete in most cases.
After you run all tests from a specific project, dotCover will update the list of tests in this project independently of the selected discovery mode because letting the xUnit.net runner to execute all tests is the most accurate way of test discovery. | https://www.jetbrains.com/help/dotcover/Reference_Options_Tools_Unit_Testing_xUnit.html |
Van Gogh himself brought this period to an end. Oppressed by homesickness—he painted souvenirs of Holland—and loneliness, he longed to see Theo and the north once more and arrived in Paris in May 1890. Four days later he went to stay with a homeopathic doctor-artist, Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, a friend of Pissarro and Paul Cézanne, at Auvers-sur-Oise. Back in a village community such as he had not known since Nuenen, four years earlier, van Gogh worked at first enthusiastically; his choice of subjects such as fields of corn, the river valley, peasants’ cottages, the church, and the town hall reflects his spiritual relief. A modification of his style followed: the natural forms in his paintings became less contorted, and in the northern light he adopted cooler, fresh tonalities. His brushwork became broader and more expressive and his vision of nature more lyrical. Everything in these pictures seems to be moving, living. This phase was short, however, and ended in quarrels with Gachet and feelings of guilt at his financial dependence on Theo (now married and with a son) and his inability to succeed.
The self-portraits reflect an unusually high degree of self-scrutiny. Often they were intended to mark important periods in his life, for example the mid-1887 Paris series were painted at the point where he became aware of Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne and Signac. In Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat, heavy strains of paint spread outwards across the canvas. It is one of his most renowned self-portraits of that period, "with its highly organized rhythmic brushstrokes, and the novel halo derived from the Neo-impressionist repertoire was what Van Gogh himself called a 'purposeful' canvas".
Van Gogh's fame reached its first peak in Austria and Germany before World War I, helped by the publication of his letters in three volumes in 1914. His letters are expressive and literate, and have been described as among the foremost 19th-century writings of their kind. These began a compelling mythology of Van Gogh as an intense and dedicated painter who suffered for his art and died young. In 1934, the novelist Irving Stone wrote a biographical novel of Van Gogh's life titled Lust for Life, based on Van Gogh's letters to Theo. This novel and the 1956 film further enhanced his fame, especially in the United States where Stone surmised only a few hundred people had heard of van Gogh prior to his surprise best-selling book.
The DVD release of the Dick Van Dyke Show started shipping October 21, 2003. I have been reading about how happy everyone is (even CERTAIN people) at finally getting their DVD on DVD. Many of you have followed the saga on this website and on various Message Boards about how I have tried for over four years to bring these DVD's to the public. Now it's a reality and I'm thrilled.
Vincent Van Gogh's life was a short one but almost three years of it were spent in Britain. A big new exhibition at Tate Britain in London brings together 50 of his pictures - including some masterpieces - to show how life in the capital and the art scene in Britain - influenced the young artist. And how he in turn influenced British artists such as Francis Bacon.
Poverty may have pushed Sien back into prostitution; the home became less happy and Van Gogh may have felt family life was irreconcilable with his artistic development. Sien gave her daughter to her mother, and baby Willem to her brother. Willem remembered visiting Rotterdam when he was about 12, when an uncle tried to persuade Sien to marry to legitimise the child. He believed Van Gogh was his father, but the timing of his birth makes this unlikely. Sien drowned herself in the River Scheldt in 1904.
Absolutely terrible experience! We bought a sectional from here and initially the experience was good. Sasha, the salesperson was great to work with and patient. That quickly changed. The leg on the ottoman was broken so we had to get that fixed. When we went to move a few months later, we noticed the back of the couch was broken (the delivery guys put it against the wall so we had never seen it). We had it serviced and were without that piece for over a week.
Alongside Angela Lansbury, Norman Lloyd, William Daniels, Christopher Lee, Mickey Rooney, Ernest Borgnine, Betty White, Edward Asner, Adam West, Marla Gibbs, William Shatner, Larry Hagman, Florence Henderson, Shirley Jones, Hal Linden and Alan Alda, Van Dyke is one of the few actors in Hollywood who lives into their 80s and/or 90s without ever either retiring from acting or having stopped getting work. | https://l2nemesis.net/vans-sneakers-for-kids-big-kids-vans.html |
Senior Associate, Regulatory ConsultingJob ID 21005824 London, United Kingdom Apply now
In a world of disruption and increasingly complex business challenges, our professionals bring truth into focus with the Kroll Lens. Our sharp analytical skills, paired with the latest technology, allow us to give our clients clarity—not just answers—in all areas of business. We embrace diverse backgrounds and global perspectives, and we cultivate diversity by respecting, including, and valuing one another. As part of One team, One Kroll, you’ll contribute to a supportive and collaborative work environment that empowers you to excel.
Our Regulatory consulting team helps firms deliver on a wide range of engagements including financial crime, compliance risk, regulatory readiness, compliance monitoring and regulatory reporting.
At Kroll, your work will help deliver clarity to our clients’ most complex governance, risk, and transparency challenges. Apply now to join One team, One Kroll.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
As a Senior Associate within an expanding team, you will gain exposure to exciting projects. In addition, your career and development opportunities are unparalleled with exposure to clients from day one. Being part of a specialist group, but within a truly global firm, means your personal impact will be instant and supported by an ambitious full service professional services firm.
As a Senior Associate you will work to:
- Undertake reviews following a risk-based approach, identifying control failings and operational weaknesses across a range of firms
- Provide on the job and ad hoc advice and support to clients
- Manage and maintain client relationships
- Draft reports for firms and international regulators
- Collate and manipulate data, visualising trends and patterns in performance.
- Prepare and deliver training sessions both internally and for clients
- Prepare pitch documents and proposals for potential work
- Prepare articles and other publications for distribution both internally and externally
- Deliver on a wide range of engagements, including working in the following areas:
- S166
- AML/Financial Crime
- Compliance Risk
- Retail Conduct
- Due Diligence
- Governance/SYSC
- Regulatory readiness
- Market regulation
- Conduct of business
- MiFID II
- MAR
REQUIREMENTS:
- We are looking for someone who is passionate, focused, collaborative and entrepreneurial. This role would suit a team player with the ability to use their own initiative and provide prompt practical services to clients.
- Minimum 4 years’ experience experience in regulation or compliance (for example gained within Consulting, Asset Management, Banking, Brokers, Investment Banks and the Regulator)
- Background in financial services and an interest in / awareness of current issues facing the industry
- Exceptional oral and written communication skills and presentational expertise
- Comfortable and effective working with wide groups of stakeholders, from C-suite to functional heads to operational staff, developing strong stakeholder relationships
- Client facing, solutions focused, individual
- Experienced in Microsoft office, specifically PowerPoint, Word and Excel
- CISI qualifications would be desirable
- Strong academic background
In order to be considered for a position, you must formally apply via careers.kroll.com.
Kroll is committed to equal opportunity and diversity, and recruits people based on merit. | https://careers.kroll.com/job/london/senior-associate-regulatory-consulting/25499/28912451648 |
Neubauer is a guest at the conference titled "stability instead of division: what internal security can bear and endure." He talks about the pandemic and people who refuse to be vaccinated. "We are so far along that the rifts are deepening," he says.
When he says "we," the 50-year-old really does mean everyone. He calls out what he sees as the one-sided stigmatization of his compatriots in Saxony, where. It is also where the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) has its stronghold. "I talk to anyone who is able to keep a calm head," Neubauer says. But there have been conversations he has had to break off.
Watch video02:28
Why are COVID case numbers so high in Germany's Saxony?
Attack on democracy
Nonetheless, Neubauer considers it important to try and reach out. "You won't get people back to the table by excluding them," he says.
Neubauer is a former journalist and has already written two books about his observations: "The Problem is Us" and "Save Democracy!"
Neubauer's presentation differs markedly from the contributions of the other experts at the annual Federal Police conference in Wiesbaden.
Other speakers have used scientific methods to analyze why Germany seems to be so deeply divided.
Munich-based communications expert Carsten Reinemann sees a massive decline in trust in political institutions, which plays out in the current pandemic. Based on his studies, Reinemann believes that many vaccine skeptics feel like "second-class citizens" and hardly use traditional media. At the same time, however, Reinemann defends social media platforms against the blanket accusation that they are just filter bubbles and echo chambers for extremists.
Watch video01:16
Protest against far-right politics in Berlin
Assessing society's polarization
Nicole Deitelhoff of the Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research, however, believes the situation has been exaggerated. "The polarization of society is less dramatic than many claim," she says. She sees the declining number of participants at vaccine-skeptic Querdenker (lateral thinker) demonstrations as evidence of her point. In the event of another lockdown, however, she expects more protests again. "The core Querdenker will then probably drift further into the right-wing camp."
Holger Münch, President of the Federal Criminal Police Office and host of the conference agrees. In an interview with DW, he says that protest and polarization are normal, but warns that it's important to watch the fringes of society "to ensure that radicalization does not take root there and new acts of violence are prevented."
Part of his strategy is combatting incitement and threats on social media platforms. "We have to intensely fight all these intimidation strategies," he said.
Münch's determination is in line with the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier who addressed the conference via video. "Belief in conspiracies, often paired with anti-Semitism, prepares the ground for attacks on media, doctors performing vaccinations and scientists, creating a climate of division and agitation," he said.
This article has been translated from German.
While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing, to stay on top of developments as Germany enters the post-Merkel era. | |
The present invention is related to flow measurement, and in particular to ultrasonic flow measurement wherein a fluid flowing in a conduit is measured by transmitting ultrasonic waves into or across the flowing stream. Such measurement systems are widely used in process control and other situations where fluid measurement is required. In general the constraints involved in setting up any such system involve generating a well defined ultrasonic signal, coupling it into the fluid, receiving some portion of the signal after it has traveled through the fluid, and processing the detected signal to determine a parameter of interest such as flow rate, fluid density or the like. Measurement by ultrasonic signal interrogation offers several advantages, among which are the possibility of performing the measurement without installing specialized measurement cells, or even without intruding into the fluid or its container, and without causing a pressure drop or flow disturbance in the fluid line. When the situation permits the use of a transducer clamped to the outside so that no special machining is needed, then the further advantages of installation without interruption of flow, low maintenance cost and portability of the measurement system may be obtained.
However, there are many trade-offs in configuring an ultrasonic fluid measurement system. Generally, the conduit or vessel wall carries noise and may also constitute a significant short circuit signal path between transducers. Further, when the fluid has very low density, or is a gas, it carries very little signal energy compared to that in the pipe wall, and acoustic impedance mismatch may couple the signal poorly, resulting in passage of an extremely weak signal.
When the fluid to be measured is of low density, such as steam at low pressure, lower molecular weight hydrocarbon liquids, or flare gas at atmospheric pressure, the foregoing factors all apply, and the low acoustic signal across the fluid together with the high level of conduit and short circuit noise have heretofore frustrated the design of an ultrasonic flow measurement system for clamp-on application to steel pipe. While wetted transducers adjacent to the free stream may be implemented with special installation or custom spool pieces, it would appear that substantial improvements in attainable signal quality will be required before an effective external measurement system can be devised for these fluids, for flowing steam at low pressures, or for flare gas at atmospheric pressure.
It would therefore be desirable to develop an external ultrasonic system for measuring the flow of low density liquids and fluids such as steam or gas in a conduit.
It would further be desirable to develop an ultrasonic system which conveniently clamps onto a flow conduit without machining operations or interruption of the flow, and which is capable of launching and receiving signals effective to determine a flow measurement.
The present invention achieves one or more of the foregoing objects by providing first and second clamp-on ultrasonic signal transducers externally coupled or attached to a steam or gas conduit, and positioned to launch and receive contrapropagation signals along a path across the flowing fluid. The transducers apply a polarized shear wave to the conduit wall to couple energy to or from a region of the wall transmitting a strong signal into the fluid. Further, the transducers are precisely aligned with the axis along the mid plane of the conduit and when acting as a receiver each transducer has an enhanced sensitivity to coherent energy transmitted through the fluid, effectively re-polarizing energy received along the transit path. The transducers are selected to produce a well defined signal of relatively high power, and preferably in a single mode with a short pulse. The transmitted signal travels along a coupling wedge to provide a polarized shear wave that refracts into the conduit wall. The wedge is preferably a low sound speed (e.g., a polymer) wedge that couples a shear wave beam into the pipe wall at a high angle of incidence so that the vertically polarized beam produces multiple internal reflections within the wall, coherently energizing a region of the wall and radiating the transmitted signal into the fluid as a beam directed across the flow. The vertical shear (SV) configuration of the transmitter and receiver effectively discriminates to receive acoustic energy with polarization on the mid plane of the conduit. Thus, the signal crossing through the fluid maintains its polarization plane, i.e. is repolarized to the same waveform, after two mode conversions through shear-longitudinal-shear along its path from pipe to fluid to pipe. The polarization plane of a transverse wave traveling laterally around the pipe wall rotates after zigzagging inside of the curving pipe wall, and is subject to other interfering or canceling effects, so the SV assembly effectively filters out a substantial amount of the crosswalk present as horizontally polarized shear wave energy propagating along the pipe wall from the opposite transducer. This results in a substantially higher signal to noise ratio than expected, even prior to further (electrical) signal processing.
The transducer assembly may employ a dammed crystal of dimensions effective to provide an output that converts to the desired waves in the pipe wall, i.e., to a vertically polarized shear wave signal, typically at a frequency between about 50 kHz and 1 MHz, depending on the acoustic properties of the fluid and the thickness of the pipe wall. To further reduce short circuit energy inside the pipe wall, including types of plate wave and Rayleigh wave, particularly Rayleigh wave that travels effectively along the curving surface, a couplant such as a gel or gel type of high temperature damping material (polymer) is applied between the conduit and a damper (or just the couplant alone may be applied to the conduit) to couple this part of the energy from the pipe and further minimize the noise effectively. The shear wavelength in the pipe wall is advantageously less than the skip distance in the wall when the system relies on coherent reinforcement to energize a region of the wall, as described further below, to launch a strengthened signal in the fluid.
The transmitter and receiver are preferably identical assemblies, and act, together with their mounting, as polarizers so that as transmitters they effectively enhance the signal of interest and, as receivers, reject other components of the pulse burst. The transducers employ a single mode crystal or preferably a high sensitivity broad band transducer such as one formed as an array of cells constructed of a composite electroactive material, to produce, in the simplest case, a clean longitudinal pulse of relatively homogeneous power distribution across its face, and this is coupled by the wedge into an axially extending region of the conduit wall to launch the fluid-borne signal. At the receiving transducer the signal is received through a similar wedge arrangement, and the transducer output preferably also passes through a band-pass filter with center frequency at the transmission frequency.
The transducers may be coupled to the conduit via a plastic wedge to launch a mode-converted shear wave signal into the wall as a skip or zigzag signal reflecting at a steep angle, or may couple via a stainless steel wedge of appropriate geometry to determine its launch angle into the conduit. The launch angle is set so that the shear wave reflects internally in the conduit to energize a region of the pipe wall for some distance along the direction of flow, and the wedge is aligned so that the signal reflecting within the wall is coupled into the flowing fluid coherently over a region extending along the axis as the wall-borne shear wave signal reflects internally in the conduit wall. The enhanced transmission geometry allows enhanced coupling into the low density fluid, and the receiver may be positioned for signal reception at a position that is as much as one or even several pipe diameters along the flow stream to enhance resolution.
The transducer/wedge assembly is typically coupled to the conduit by a hold-down clamp, such as solid block or plate with a bottom face curved to seat on the conduit and clinched down with a strap or chain. The transducer/wedge fits in a channel of the plate, and is urged against the conduit wall by one or more set screws, locking cams or the like. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, this mounting plate is positioned over a sheet or layer of material which is both acoustically damping and thermally insulating, so that it resides at a temperature closer to ambient than that of conduit wall. The mounting plate urges the transducer into acoustic contact with the conduit wall through a window in the damping/insulating sheet or layer, while itself thermally contacting the transducer assembly and acting as a thermal sink for the transducer or wedge.
| |
The limousine service makes 100 trips Center-Aeroport every day, each of which costs $50.
The company estimates that the number of trips decreases by 5 trips per day for each $5 increase in the fare and vice versa.
What fare is the most profitable for the company? | https://www.aplusclick.org/k/4577.htm |
Pre-requisite qualificationsTo be eligible to study LUBS1295 students must be studying one of the following co-requisite modules:
Co-requisites
|LUBS1940||Economics for Management|
|LUBS1951||Economic Theory and Applications|
This module is not approved as a discovery module
ObjectivesThis module aims to provide an introduction to analytical global economic history and teach some of the 'lessons of history', It aims to give students a sense of perspective when studying a variety of modern economies across the world, both developed and undeveloped. It also introduces and applies via the study of global history, economic concepts, theories and reasoning.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this module students will be able to:
- Describe, relate and state selected topics of global economic history; the institutions of pre-capitalist and capitalist economies and the problems and performance of those institutions in various historical periods
- Analyse historical trends and major events influencing the trajectory of economic development
- Begin to achieve technical accuracy in written expression
Skills outcomes
Upon completion of this module students will be able to:
Transferable
- Communicate through oral presentation
- Apply critical thinking in the context of research
Subject specific
- Analyse economic development and apply economic theory within the context of a specific historical period
Syllabus
Indicative content
(1) The Problem: Rich and Poor in the World Economy
(2) The Stone Age: Poverty or Affluence?
(3) Property Rights (Native Americans and European Colonists)
(4) People and Natural Resources (Tokugawa Japan)
(5) Landlord and Peasant (Western Europe and Ethiopia)
(6) The First Globalization (Spain and Portugal)
(7) The First Industrial Revolution (England)
(8) The First Industrial Revolution: The Factory
(9) The First Industrial Revolution: Wage Labour
(10) Robberies, Gifts and Exchanges. Markets and Money
(11) European Colonialism (Sarawak and Labuan, Britain and India)
(12) Banks and Financial Crises (Medieval Italy, twentieth century USA, Austria, Germany)
(13) The Second Globalization
(14) So Why is Africa So Poor?
Teaching methods
|Delivery type||Number||Length hours||Student hours|
|Drop-in Session||3||1.00||3.00|
|Lecture||14||1.00||14.00|
|Seminar||5||1.00||5.00|
|Private study hours||78.00|
|Total Contact hours||22.00|
|Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)||100.00|
Private studyClasses will be split into 4 or 5 groups. Each group will be asked to consider an analytical question and / or a text and present their conclusions to the rest of the class, inviting and answering questions.
Opportunities for Formative FeedbackFurther feedback will be provided on the group work in classes. Class participation will be awarded marks. An MCQ will test knowledge of history and relevant economic theory and will provide feedback in the form of reasons why the correct answers are right and the distractors are wrong.
Methods of assessment
Coursework
|Assessment type||Notes||% of formal assessment|
|Essay||2,000 words||80.00|
|Tutorial Performance||These marks will only count towards the overall mark for the module if they are better than the (weighted) average mark for the Essay and the MCQ Examination.||10.00|
|Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)||90.00|
The resit for this module will be 100% by 2,000 word coursework.
Exams
|Exam type||Exam duration||% of formal assessment|
|Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc) (S1)||0 hr 40 mins||10.00|
|Total percentage (Assessment Exams)||10.00|
The resit for this module will be 100% by 2,000 word coursework. | http://webprod3.leeds.ac.uk/catalogue/dynmodules.asp?Y=201920&F=P&M=LUBS-1295 |
So for any school, music is important and can be a very effective tool in the education of students. However for a Catholic School there are other, deeper reasons why music matters. These reasons are based in the mission we have in Catholic schools to not only educate our students, but also to draw them into an awareness of the reality beyond our physical world; a “knowledge and, as far as possible, love of the person, life and teachings of Christ and of the Trinitarian God of Love” (NSW and ACT Bishops, Catholic Schools at a Crossroads).
Words can only go so far in giving them this awareness. Pope John Paul II in his 1999 letter to artists and musicians said: “In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art. Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God.” (John Paul II Letter to Artists, 1999, 12) Music is an indispensable tool in the communication of the Gospel, both because of its ability to present teaching on particular aspects of the faith in a way that is attractive, accessible, and memorable, and because of the powerful way in which simply drawing people into an experience of beauty draws them also into an awareness of and encounter with God.
Music has always played a strong role in the teaching of the faith. From the Psalms of the Israelites to the Canticles of the early Christians, from the plainchants of the middle ages to the contemporary hymns of today, throughout history the Church has relied heavily upon music to take the truths of Heaven and convey them in the language of Earth. This is because “Art has a unique capacity to take one or other facet of the message and translate it into colours, shapes and sounds which nourish the intuition of those who look or listen.” (Ibid., 12).
One of the key benefits of using music to teach the truths of the faith is the ability of good music to stick in people’s heads. A truth spoken, no matter how profound, can often go in one ear and out another without much of a stay in between. A truth sung to a melody that gets stuck in peoples heads remains in their mind long after the initial hearing, allowing the impact of the truth to deepen with time.
Another reason music matters in teaching the faith is that it allows you to teach through a medium that is readily embraced by students, minimising the barriers the message has to get through in order to engage the hearer. Good Catholic music can engage the students in their own language and culture. Using well produced, quality contemporary Catholic music (one teacher described it to me as ‘iPod music’) provides the dual benefits of allowing the message to be more effective on initial hearing, but also making it possible for students to literally ‘take home’ the message. My own experience is that students will readily listen to Catholic music in their own time if it is engaging and produced to the level of quality that they expect from contemporary music.
So if music is such a wonderful tool for teaching the faith, with its unique capacity to translate the truths of heaven into the language of earth, engage the students, stick in their heads, and end up on their ipod, how can we use this tool more effectively?
The first step is just to be aware of what is out there. Particularly over the last decade there has been a growing number of Catholic artists creating and producing high quality music that is accessible and engaging for the youth, but also deeply founded in our Catholic faith. We will have a wider look at what’s out there in an upcoming article.
The second step is to look for opportunities to incorporate music into your work with students. Using a reflection song to further illustrate a point being taught, introducing new songs as prayers, or even just playing music in the background as students come in are just some of the ways in which we can use the music in our teaching. Giving students exposure to quality Catholic music and information about where to get it themselves also allows the teaching contained in the music to be effective long after your class has finished. | https://stephenkirk.com.au/home/blog/music-matters-the-truths-of-heaven |
Figure 2-12.Reactance-semiconductor fm modulator.
Neets Module 12-Modulation Principles
Page Navigation
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
2-17
Alternating Current
and
Transformers
,
you learned that total inductance decreases as additional inductors
are added in parallel. Because this introduced reactance effectively reduces
inductance
, the frequency of
the oscillator increases to a new fixed value.
Now lets see what happens when a modulating signal is applied. The
magnitude
of the introduced
reactance is determined by the
magnitude
of the superimposed current through the tank. The magnitude of
I
p
for a given E
1
is determined by the transconductance of V1. (Transconductance was covered in
NEETS
,
Module 6,
Introduction to Electronic Emission, Tubes, and
Power Supplies
.
) Therefore, the value of
reactance introduced into the
tuned circuit
varies directly with the transconductance of the reactance tube.
When a modulating signal is applied to the grid of V1, both E
1
and I
change, causing transconductance to
vary with the modulating signal. This causes a variable reactance to be introduced into the
tuned circuit
.
This variable reactance either adds to or subtracts from the fixed value of reactance that is introduced in
the absence of the modulating signal. This action varies the reactance across the oscillator which, in turn,
varies the instantaneous
frequency
of the oscillator. These variations in the oscillator frequency are
proportional to the instantaneous amplitude of the modulating voltage. Reactance-tube
modulators
are
usually operated at low power levels. The required output power is developed in
power amplifier
stages
that follow the
modulators
.
The output of a reactance-tube modulated
oscillator
also contains some unwanted amplitude
modulation. This unwanted modulation is caused by stray
capacitance
and the resistive component of the
RC
phase splitter
. The resistance is much less significant than the desired X
C
, but the resistance does
allow some plate current to flow which is not of the proper phase relationship for good tube operation.
The small
amplitude modulation
that this produces is easily removed by passing the oscillator output
through a limiter-
amplifier
circuit.
Semiconductor Reactance Modulator
.The SEMICONDUCTOR-REACTANCE MODULATOR
is used to frequency modulate low-power semiconductor
transmitters
. Figure 2-12 shows a typical
frequency-modulated oscillator stage operated as a reactance modulator. Q1, along with its associated
circuitry
, is the oscillator. Q2 is the modulator and is connected to the circuit so that its collector-to-
emitter
capacitance
(C
CE
) is in parallel with a portion of the rf
oscillator
coil, L1. As the modulator
operates, the output capacitance of Q2 is varied. Thus, the frequency of the oscillator is shifted in
accordance with the modulation the same as if C1 were varied.
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Cempaka is now over land, bringing a widespread 4 to 8 inches (100 to 200 millimeters) of total rainfall to parts of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan provinces. Isolated locations could approach 20 inches (500 millimeters) through Friday.
Typhoon In-fa has not directly hit any land yet but it is gaining strength as it swirls westward over the Pacific Ocean.
Current maximum sustained winds are at 85 mph (140 kph), as of the Tuesday 5 p.m. ET (Wednesday 5 a.m. local time) update from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
The storm is already beginning to bring rain and tropical storm conditions to parts of Japan’s southern islands, and these rain chances will remain elevated through the duration of this week as In-fa slowly tracks west.
The slow-moving nature of this storm will cause rainfall totals to increase substantially. Many of the southern Japan islands will see totals of at least 10 inches (250 millimeters), with totals of more than 20 inches (500 millimeters) likely in higher elevations.
“In-Fa will pass south of Okinawa, closer to Miyakojima, which is built to handle the accompanying rains and wind. The problem may arise as the system moves near Taipei,” said CNN Meteorologist Tom Sater. Maximum winds near the center of In-fa are forecast to approach 120 mph (195 kph) in the region by Thursday night, when the storm may reach peak intensity.
“The mountain chain in Taiwan could squeeze up to a meter’s worth of rain over the region, while Taiwan has been dealing with its worst drought in some 50 years. This amount of rain could lead to catastrophic flash flooding and landslides.”
By Friday, In-fa is expected to near Taiwan, possibly bringing significant impacts to the country, especially the northern part of Taiwan, according to the current forecast track.
It is uncertain whether the typhoon will make landfall on the country, but it is expected to at least track close enough for some impacts.
Flash flooding from heavy rain will be a big concern, with totals more than 12 inches (300 millimeters) in the lower elevations and more than 20 inches (500 millimeters) in the mountains of Taiwan later in the week.
Strong winds, which could cause power outages, will be another risk for these areas in eastern Asia. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center is forecasting winds near the center of the storm to peak at 102 mph (165 kph), with higher gusts likely.
In-fa is expected to continue tracking west, reaching eastern China this weekend. The current forecast indicates it will still be at typhoon intensity. Heavy rain will remain a threat from this storm through its duration.
Record rainfall in eastern China ahead of In-fa
Heavy rain in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou has broken a record, according to the city’s meteorological bureau Tuesday.
At least one person was reported dead and two missing amid the floods in China’s Gongyi city, in Henan province, according to state news outlet CGTN on Tuesday.
“The hourly precipitation and single-day precipitation this time have broken through the historical record of 60 years since the establishment of Zhengzhou Meteorological Bureau in 1951,” the Zhengzhou Meteorological Department said in a video it posted explaining the rainfall.
“The precipitation the city had in the last three days was already tantamount to the total amount of the precipitation the city had last year,” the bureau said.
The average annual rainfall in Zhengzhou is 25/2 inches (640.8 millimeters), according to the bureau. Meanwhile, according their analysis of the recent rainfall, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday the city saw 7.9 inches (201.9 millimeters) of rainfall. From 8 p.m. Monday to 8 p.m. Tuesday, the city saw 21.8 inches (552.5 millimeters) of rain; and from 8 p.m. Saturday to 8 p.m. Tuesday, the city saw 24.3 inches (617.1 millimeters) of rain.
The moisture associated with this rain can be connected to both Typhoons Cempaka and In-fa, despite being hundreds of miles from this part of China.
Torrential rains have hit central China’s Henan province since Friday, affecting more than 144,660 residents, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday. More than 10,000 have been relocated to safer places.
The highest level of rainfall was seen in Lushan County’s Pingdingshan City with 15.8 inches (400.8 millimeters) of precipitation, Xinhua reports, adding that rainwater has damaged more than 35 square miles (9,000 hectares) of crops, causing losses worth $11.3 million.
CNN’s Hira Humayun contributed to this report. | https://salten.cz/2021/07/21/typhoon-in-fa-to-threaten-japan-and-eastern-asia-with-flooding-winds-and-strong-winds/ |
Congenital heart disease is a major birth defect, and defects specifically affecting the outflow tract (OFT) of the heart represent a third of all CHD cases. Septation of the OFT during embryogenesis is crucial to establish the double circulation found in mammals, which separates oxygenated from de-oxygenated blood. The use of model systems has substantially advanced our understanding of the cell lineages that contribute to the mature OFT. However, human development remains significantly underexplored at the molecular level. In addition, a clear relationship between cell lineages and the cell types found in the adult OFT is still lacking. Here we will define the different cells that comprise the OFT (repertoire of transcripts and accessible regulatory elements) and establish their developmental origin. We will perform massively parallel single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) and single cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin (ATAC-seq) on human OFT tissues, isolated from developing (three time points) and adult hearts. Data analysis will capture the developmental trajectories of OFT cells and their contribution to the mature OFT. Thus, this project will define the different cell types that form the OFT of the heart and the gene regulatory networks that control their differentiation, improving our understanding of the causes of cardiovascular disease and paving the way for efficient cell reprogramming and the generation of specific cell types.
Planned Impact
Detailed maps of cells in the outflow tract will translate into an improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease, the development of better therapies based on cell-type specific targets for drug discovery and will provide novel tools for disease diagnosis. This will have an important impact on society in terms of improvements to health and well-being. In addition, results from this work have the potential to uncover more efficient ways to harness cell reprogramming and generate high fidelity production of specific cell types, which will be of immediate relevance to stem cell researchers, as well as biotechnology companies developing stem cell-based therapies. Defining the gene regulatory networks active in specific cell types will improve our understanding of how cell states are achieved and identify general rules that control gene expression. Therefore, results obtained in this project will be of interest and benefit to researchers in the fields of genomics, transcriptional regulation, and epigenetics. The interdisciplinary nature of this study will provide opportunities to train junior researchers, including undergraduate and postgraduate research students rotating in the lab, as well as postdoctoral researchers, in systems-based approaches and advanced bioinformatics. Acquiring these highly in-demand skills will contribute to the economic competitiveness of the UK. | https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FS03613X%2F1 |
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Before you start to write, you need to know that what you're saying is true...
1. Research basics
Research is a crucial part of the essay writing process for university. All of your points need to be backed up by some kind of evidence – be it someone who has done the same experiment as you, some literature explaining a connection that you are also trying to make, or a quotation to prove something in your work. Evidence is necessary to show that you know what you are talking about, and to show that your points aren’t just made up, but that they have some real grounding in academic research that has already been done.
With research also comes something to avoid at all costs – plagiarism. This is the copying of another person’s words or ideas without properly referencing the source, and penalties at most universities for plagiarism are severe. For this reason, you should always take note of where you get your information from, and always reference properly using the system that your university approves!
2. Finding a topic
It can be confusing to know where to start when you have no idea what you want to write about. If you know what you want to write, then first make a plan using the information on this page, then come back to the research section when you’ve made an outline.
If you don’t know what you want to write about, start browsing websites and find some ideas relating to topics that interest you. It may be the case that you never find the “perfect” topic, and for some assignments you just have to go with what seems best for the situation! Use the ideas you find to form your own research question, and remember to note down the sources you are using, as they may be useful when you come to write.
If you’re really stuck, try to think back to some of the questions that you had during the lectures. Was there anything that you didn’t understand or wanted to know more about? These things are generally perfect for essays, as they allow you to answer a real question that you have about the topic.
3. Collecting information and finding sources
Once you know what your topic and research question is, you can now collect the relevant information which will enable you to write the essay itself. You won’t normally know the answer to your question before you’ve written the essay – part of the process is doing some research and forming your own answer.
There are many places you can go to find information. The first place you should be looking is the university library. Here you will find many trusted and reputable sources where you can find information to help you write your essay. Once you’ve found books that you think will be helpful, look at their indices to find where your topic comes up, and read the relevant chapters to see if they are useful. If the book is irrelevant, try another one! This is part of the research process, and you won’t always find good information in every book you try. Mark the pages containing useful information if you can keep the book, or write down the important information/quotations, remembering to note the source information as well!
The second place you can try is online sources. I don’t think it’s necessary to mention that you need to take a lot of care in recognising whether your source is trustworthy, and thus whether you can use it in your essay.
Here are some things to look for to identify trustworthy sources online:
- What is the format of the source? Does it have a title, sections (introduction, conclusion), bibliography? Is it
- Who is the author? What qualifications do they have, how many other publications do they have, and who are they affiliated with?
- Who is publishing the source? What possible biases could be introduced by this source? Do they have many publications?
- Are there many linked sources for the article? Do they seem reputable as well?
If you’re paying attention to the style and format of the sources you find, then you’re likely to spot when something isn’t academic. It is okay to use non-academic sources, but you need to make sure you aren’t using these to back up substantial points.
One of the best ways to make sure your sources are likely to be reliable is to use a bibliography or indexed search engine specific to your research domain.
4. Collating the information
There’s many things you can do once you have a load of papers, websites and books that are relevant to the topic that you’re going to write about. How do you find the most important information, and make sure that that’s what you include in your essay?
- It’s best to find the relevant chapters or sections of the source you’ve found, so you don’t waste time reading things that aren’t relevant. Check the contents page, the index, or the introduction to see what sections are likely to be most relevant, and just read those.
- Secondly, highlight as you go. You’re not trying to learn all the material right now, but just pick out the bits that are useful to your essay. Find the things that you could use, the main points that the author makes, and any quotations that you could use to back up some of the points that you’re making, or that you can argue against if your essay requires it.
- Don’t forget about the primary text, if there is one! Any essay you write about a particular text should focus on that text, and be closely aligned to the arguments made by that particular author.
- Once you’ve highlighted and found the most relevant information, start to work it into your plan, making lists of useful things, quotes which fit with the points you want to make, and even styles or ways of arguing points that spark your interest! | http://thynkehub.com/writing/research/ |
In an ‘Independence Day’ gift to a slew of US planetary research scientists, NASA has granted approval to nine ongoing missions to continue for another two years this holiday weekend.
The biggest news is that NASA green lighted a mission extension for the New Horizons probe to fly deeper into the Kuiper Belt and decided to keep the Dawn probe at Ceres forever, rather than dispatching it to a record breaking third main belt asteroid.
And the exciting extension news comes just as the agency’s Juno probe is about to ignite a do or die July 4 fireworks display to achieve orbit at Jupiter – detailed here.
“Mission approved!” the researchers gleefully reported on the probes Facebook and Twitter social media pages.
“Our extended mission into the #KuiperBelt has been approved. Thanks to everyone for following along & hopefully the best is yet to come.
The New Horizons spacecraft will now continue on course in the Kuiper Belt towards an small object known as 2014 MU69, to carry out the most distant close encounter with a celestial object in human history.
“Here’s to continued success!”
The spacecraft will rendezvous with the ancient rock on New Year’s Day 2019.
Researchers say that 2014 MU69 is considered as one of the early building blocks of the solar system and as such will be invaluable to scientists studying the origin of our solar system how it evolved.
It was almost exactly one year ago on July 14, 2015 that New Horizons conducted Earth’s first ever up close flyby and science reconnaissance of Pluto – the most distant planet in our solar system and the last of the nine planets to be explored.
The immense volume of data gathered continues to stream back to Earth every day.
“The New Horizons mission to Pluto exceeded our expectations and even today the data from the spacecraft continue to surprise,” said NASA’s Director of Planetary Science Jim Green at NASA HQ in Washington, D.C.
“We’re excited to continue onward into the dark depths of the outer solar system to a science target that wasn’t even discovered when the spacecraft launched.”
While waiting for news on whether NASA would approve an extended mission, the New Horizons engineering and science team already ignited the main engine four times to carry out four course changes in October and November 2015, in order to preserve the option of the flyby past 2014 MU69 on Jan 1, 2019.
Green noted that mission extensions into fiscal years 2017 and 2018 are not final until Congress actually passes sufficient appropriation to fund NASA’s Planetary Science Division.
“Final decisions on mission extensions are contingent on the outcome of the annual budget process.”
Tough choices were made even tougher because the Obama Administration has cut funding for the Planetary Sciences Division – some of which was restored by a bipartisan majority in Congress for what many consider NASA’s ‘crown jewels.’
NASA’s Dawn asteroid orbiter just completed its primary mission at dwarf planet Ceres on June 30, just in time for the global celebration known as Asteroid Day.
“The mission exceeded all expectations originally set for its exploration of protoplanet Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres,” said NASA officials.
The Dawn science team had recently submitted a proposal to break out of orbit around the middle of this month in order to this conduct a flyby of the main belt asteroid Adeona.
Green declined to approve the Dawn proposal, citing additional valuable science to be gathered at Ceres.
The long-term monitoring of Ceres, particularly as it gets closer to perihelion – the part of its orbit with the shortest distance to the sun — has the potential to provide more significant science discoveries than a flyby of Adeona,” he said.
The funding required for a multi-year mission to Adeona would be difficult in these cost constrained times.
However the spacecraft is in excellent shape and the trio of science instruments are in excellent health.
Dawn arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015 and has been conducting unprecedented investigation ever since.
Dawn is Earth’s first probe in human history to explore any dwarf planet, the first to explore Ceres up close and the first to orbit two celestial bodies.
The asteroid Vesta was Dawn’s first orbital target where it conducted extensive observations of the bizarre world for over a year in 2011 and 2012.
The mission is expected to last until at least later into 2016, and possibly longer, depending upon fuel reserves.
Due to expert engineering and handling by the Dawn mission team, the probe unexpectedly has hydrazine maneuvering fuel leftover.
Dawn will remain at its current altitude at the Low Altitude Mapping Orbit (LAMO) for the rest of its mission, and indefinitely afterward, even when no further communications are possible.
Green based his decision on the mission extensions on the biannual peer review scientific assessment by the Senior Review Panel.
Dawn was launched in September 2007.
The other mission extensions – contingent on available resources – are: the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), the Opportunity and Curiosity Mars rovers, the Mars Odyssey orbiter, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and NASA’s support for the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission.
Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and planetary science and human spaceflight news.
Ken Kremer
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As a teacher, I seek to help my students discover their own love of music. My students build an appreciation for the breadth of musical styles that grace the world, past and present, through playing, listening, and discussion. My hope is that they learn to recognize the positive effects music can have on their lives as a listener, an audience member, and a performer.
I have been teaching private lessons since 2007. As a teacher, my goal is to help my students become better musicians and increase their appreciation and enjoyment of music. Students of all ages are welcome, including adults who wish to begin an instrument, or return to their instrument after a years-long break. The students in my studio range from age 6 to 69.If your child wishes to start saxophone, it's best to wait until 5th grade because of the instrument's size.
I offer 30, 45, and 60 minute lessons at each student's home. Lessons topics include repertoire in classical, jazz, and popular styles, technique, music theory, and improvisation. Outside of traditional lessons, I am available for saxophone clinics, as well as coaching sessions in preparation for festivals or performances.
I always offer a free trial lesson.
CURRENT SPECIALS: | http://nicolaslira.com/lessons |
The train connection between Zermatt and St. Moritz exists for over 75 years. The Glacier Express has proven itself for this long and still enjoys popularity among visitors from throughout the world. Visitors to Switzerland from all over the world appreciate the journey in one of the modern panorama wagons of the Swiss Alp trains.
Switzerland became more and more of an important holiday destination in the 1920s. St. Moritz and Zermatt turn from being mountain villages to well loved health resorts. The growth in tourism made it necessary to make traffic developments. The Glacier Express carries the first seventy passengers to their destination within eleven hours. However, the timetable is limited to the summer months. It is not possible to travel through the Furka pass on rails in winter and therefore it is closed.
As the Furka basis tunnel was built, the situation changed. Following almost ten years of building time and enormous amounts of building expenses it was achieved. The approximately 15 km long tunnel provides a weather proof connection between the villages Oberwald in canton Wallis and Realp in canton Uri. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Glacier Express can carry it’s passengers from one station to the next all year round. The train is being continuously improved with new technology, providing a highly modern method of transport, that has made itself a name worldwide.
Travelling from Zermatt to St. Moritz with the Glacier Express
The journey with the Glacier Express is a promising day trip. It is possible to connect the journey with the Glacier Express with the Bernina Express. Depending on the time of year, the passengers can discover the different sides of the Swiss landscape, either covered in snow as in a fairy tale or covered with colourful flowers.
On the journey with the Glacier Express, the landscape begins on the Matterhorn in Zermatt. The journey leads through the Matter valley and then the Rhone Valley right up to Brig. As soon as the Furka basis tunnel has been passed, the journey carries on towards Andermatt. The highest part of the journey is over 2000 metres and is the crossing of the Oberalp pass. Then it’s all downhill until Reichenau and Chur. From here onwards, the Glacier Express starts to climb again and reaches Engadin in St. Moritz after a short space of time. You can see the Rhein gorge and the deep Landwasser viaduct in Albula valley through the window. If you try to count all of the bridges along the way, you will definitely need a pen and a piece of paper. Up until the last station you have passed 291 bridges! | https://travel-swiss.co.uk/glacier-express |
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For a better experience, while using our Service, we may require you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information. The information that I request will be retained on your device and is not collected by us in any way.
BLK Inc wants to inform you that whenever you use my Service, in a case of an error in the app we collect data and information (through third party products) on your phone called Log Data. This Log Data may include information such as your device Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, device name, operating system version, the configuration of the app when utilizing my Service, the time and date of your use of the Service, and other statistics.
Anyway we never publicly disclose any personal or sensitive user data related to financial or payment activities or any government identification numbers, photos and contacts, etc. | https://blksolution.com/about/privacy/ |
The annual Chlorophyll a concentration (CHL) cycle has a maximum peak (0.802 mg.m-3) in April and a minimum (0.385 mg.m-3) during February. The average CHL is 0.576 mg.m-3. Maximum primary productivity (246 g.C.m-2.y-1) occurred during 2000 and minimum primary productivity (208 g.C.m-2.y-1) during 2007. There is a statistically significant increasing trend in Chlorophyll of 13.4 % from 2003 through 2013. The average primary productivity is 224 g.C.m-2.y-1, which places this LME in Group 3 of 5 categories (with 1 = lowest and 5= highest).
Between 1957 and 2012, the Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf LME #9 has warmed by 1.04°C, thus belonging to Category 2 (fast warming LME). During this period, two epochs transpired. The first, relatively stable epoch lasted through 1991. During that time, SST remained rather cold, between 4.5°C and 5.9°C, after which, during the second, warming epoch, SST rose from 4.6°C in 1991 to the all-time maximum of 6.8°C in 2012, an increase of 2.2°C in 21 years. The rapid SST increase over the Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf in the 1990s-2000s is a local manifestation of a large-scale Subarctic Gyre warming, which is amply documented (Stein, 2005, 2007; Hughes and Holliday, 2007; DFO, 2007; Petrie et al., 2007a, 2007b). The long-term variability of SST in LME #9 correlates strongly with that in LME #8 (Scotian Shelf) since these two LMEs are linked by the Labrador Current. The minima of 1972, 1985 and 1991 may have been associated with large-scale cold, fresh anomalies termed “Great Salinity Anomalies” or GSAs (Dickson et al., 1988; Belkin et al., 1998; Belkin, 2004).
Commercially exploited fish species in this LME include cod, haddock, salmon, American plaice, redfish, yellowtail and halibut. Also harvested are lobster, shrimp and crab.
Total reported landings, which were dominated by cod until the 1990s, exceeded 1 million t from 1967 to 1969, but have since declined to around 320,000 t in recent years. Cod landings, in particular, declined from a historic high of over 1 million t in 1968 to less than 15,000 t per year in recent years (2006 – 2010) with landings of less than 10,000 t recorded in 1995 and 1996.
The reported landings of the LME were valued at over 1.2 billion US$ (in 2005 real US$) in the late 1960s, most of which was attributed to cod landings; in recent years, similarly high values are generated by its invertebrate landings.
The MTI remained high until the 1990s, when the cod stock began to collapse, a clear case of ‘fishing down’ the food web in the LME. The FiB index shows a similar trend, indicating that the reported landings did not compensate for the decline in the MTI over that period.
The Stock-Catch Status Plots shows that about 50% of commercially exploited stocks in the LME have collapsed with another 20% overexploited. Over 50% of the reported landings biomass is now supplied by fully exploited stocks.
The percentage of catch from the bottom gear type to the total catch ranged between 6 to 30% from 1950 to early 1990s. Then, this percentage increased sharply to its peak at 60% in 1994. After that, this percentage dropped slightly and fluctuated between 50 and 60% in the recent two decades.
The total effective effort increased steadily from around 60 million kW in the 1950s to its peak at 143 million kW in the mid-2000s.
The primary production required (PPR) to sustain the reported landings in the LME reached 60 % of the observed primary production in the mid-1960s, but has declined in recent years.
The Labrador, Newfoundland LME experienced an increase in MPA coverage from 541 km2 prior to 1983 to 2,882 km2 by 2014. This represents an increase of 432%, within the low category of MPA change.
The Labrador – Newfoundland LME experiences an above average overall cumulative human impact (score 3.86; maximum LME score 5.22), which is well above the LME with the least cumulative impact. It falls in risk category 4 of the five risk categories (1 = lowest risk; 5 = highest risk). This LME is most vulnerable to climate change. Of the 19 individual stressors, three connected to climate change have the highest average impact on the LME: ocean acidification (0.67; maximum in other LMEs was 1.20), UV radiation (0.61; maximum in other LMEs was 0.76), and sea surface temperature (1.58; maximum in other LMEs was 2.16). Other key stressors include commercial shipping, ocean based pollution, demersal destructive commercial fishing, and demersal non-destructive high-bycatch commercial fishing.
The Labrador – Newfoundland LME scores above average on the Ocean Health Index compared to other LMEs (score 71 out of 100; range for other LMEs was 57 to 82) but still relatively low. This score indicates that the LME is well below its optimal level of ocean health, although there are some aspects that are doing well. Its score in 2013 increased 2 points compared to the previous year, due in large part to changes in the scores for clean waters. This LME scores lowest on natural products, carbon storage, tourism & recreation, and lasting special places goals and highest on mariculture, artisanal fishing opportunities, coastal protection, coastal economies, and biodiversity goals. It falls in risk category 3 of the five risk categories, which is an average level of risk (1 = lowest risk; 5 = highest risk).
Indicators of demographic trends, economic dependence on ecosystem services, human wellbeing and vulnerability to present-day extreme climate events and projected sea level rise, are assessed for the Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf LME. To compare and rank LMEs, they were classified into five categories of risk (from 1 to 5, corresponding to lowest, low, medium, high and highest risk, respectively) based on the values of the individual indicators. In the case of economic revenues, the LMEs were grouped to 5 classes of revenues from lowest, low, medium, high and highest, as revenues did not translate to risk.
The coastal area includes Newfoundland Island, the coast of mainland Labrador, and the eastern shore of Quebec, stretching over 510,676 km2. A current population of 2.5 million is projected to decrease to 1.8 million in 2100, with density decreasing from 5 persons per km2 in 2010 to 4 per km2 by 2100. About 24% of coastal population lives in rural areas, and is projected to increase to 25% in 2100.
The indigent population makes up 12% of the LME’s coastal dwellers. The Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf places in the medium-risk category based on percentage and absolute number of coastal poor (present day estimate).
Fishing and tourism depend on ecosystem services provided by LMEs. The Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf LME ranks in the high revenue category in fishing revenues based on yearly average total ex-vessel price of US 2013 $1154 million for the period 2001-2010. Fish protein accounts for 10% of the total animal protein consumption of the coastal population. Its yearly average tourism revenue for 2004-2013 of US 2013 $1483 million places it in the lowest revenue category. On average, LME-based tourism income contributes 5% to the national GDPs of the LME coastal states. Spatial distribution of economic activity (e.g. spatial wealth distribution) measured by night-light and population distribution as coarse proxies can range from 0.0000 (totally equal distribution and lowest risk) to 1.0000 (concentrated in 1 place and most inequitable and highest risk). The Night Light Development Index (NLDI) thus indicates the level of spatial economic development, and that for the Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf LME falls in the category with low risk.
Using the Human Development Index (HDI) that integrates measures of health, education and income, the present-day Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf LME HDI belongs to the highest HDI and lowest risk category. Based on an HDI of 0.899, this LME has an HDI Gap of 0.101, the difference between present and highest possible HDI (1.000). The HDI Gap measures an overall vulnerability to external events such as disease or extreme climate related events, due to less than perfect health, education, and income levels, and is independent of the harshness of and exposure to specific external shocks.
HDI values are projected to the year 2100 in the contexts of shared socioeconomic development pathways (SSPs). The Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf LME is projected to maintain its position in the lowest risk category (highest HDI) in 2100 under a sustainable development pathway or scenario. Under a fragmented world scenario, this LME is estimated to place in the low risk category (low HDI) because of reduced income level and smaller population size compared to estimated income and population values in a sustainable development pathway.
Present day climate threat index to the Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf LME is within the lowest-risk (lowest threat) category. The combined contemporaneous risk due to extreme climate events, degrading LME states and the level of vulnerability of the coastal population, is low. In a sustainable development scenario, the risk index from sea level rise in 2100 is lowest, and remains the same under a fragmented world development pathway. | http://onesharedocean.org/LME_09_Newfoundland-Labrador_Shelf |
Land surfaces cover about 30% of the Earth and house a continuously growing global population which creates an ever-increasing pressure on our environment.
In such context, a continuous knowledge of the state and health of land ecosystems is required in order to support efficient decision-making.
Earth observation images from satellite sensors, supplemented by in situ measurements, provide reliable and consistent data over time. The wealth of satellite and in situ data are transformed into value-added information by processing and analyzing the data, integrating it with other sources and validating the results. Datasets stretching back for years and decades are made comparable, thus ensuring the monitoring of changes. Maps are created, features and anomalies are identified, statistics are extracted and used to make better forecasts, for example, of crop yield.
HYGEOS contributes to these activities through its involvement in the Copernicus Global Land Service and in the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Indeed, HYGEOS uses his expertise in radiative transfer to define innovative methodologies, in particular to remove the effects of atmospheric components, to retrieve land surface reflectances and biophysical variables like the leaf area index and the fraction of solar radiation absorbed for photosynthesis, which are indicators of the grow and health of vegetation, or the albedo, which is a key parameter of the Earth energy budget and, then, a sensitive indicator of the environmental vulnerability. HYGEOS involvement in R&D for land monitoring started more than 10 years ago with its participation in the precursor project FP7/geoland2 and has continued in the FP7/ImagineS project designed to support the evolution of the Copernicus Global Land service.
The basic land surface physical variables are exploited in specific advanced models for a wide range of applications. For instance, they are essential inputs for integrated models which monitor, forecast and make projections about the changing climate of our planet. In agriculture, they help to precision farming for an optimization of use of water, seeds, fertilizers and pesticides; they allow mapping crop dynamics, at field scale or over the whole globe, for yield forecast and a better management of food security issues. In forestry, they are used to manage the resources by mapping the changes in forest cover due to natural, like fires, or anthropogenic disturbances like deforestation and illegal logging. Similarly, they are also useful for the monitoring of protected areas which shelter threatened or endangered animal and plant species. In local and regional planning, they give information for urban sprawl management and for detection of urban heat islands which have an impact on the people’s health. For insurance business, they provide the delineation of damaged areas after natural disasters like fires, floods, and droughts.
End-users are public bodies, including governmental entities, funding and supervisory authorities at regional, national or international levels, NGOs and research organizations. Clients from private sectors are agricultural, forestry or industrial cooperatives as well as insurance, construction and real estate companies. | https://www.hygeos.com/pages/Land_Monitoring |
Judging Panel – Invisible Photographer Asia Awards 2013
Judging Panel 2013
Pablo Bartholomew
Photographer, India | Photo Essay Asia Award Judging Panel
Pablo Bartholomew is one of India’s most important photographers. He has photographed societies in conflict & transition for over 20 years. At the age of 19, Pablo won the World Press Photo award for his series on Morphine Addicts in India (1975) and the World Press Photo of the Year for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1984).
More: www.pablobartholomew.com
Tay Kay Chin
Photographer/Educator, Singapore | Photo Essay Asia Award Judging Panel
Tay Kay Chin is without doubt, one of Singapore’s most influential names in Photography. He has worked in newspapers for a decade. In 2003, he won a Hasselblad Master award. Kay Chin also co-founded Platform, a volunteer group that promotes photojournalism and documentary work in Singapore.
More: http://taykaychin.com
Yumi Goto
Curator/Reminders Photography Stronghold, Japan | Photo Essay Asia Award Judging Panel
Yumi Goto is a Tokyo-based Curator and Editor. Yumi is a board reviewer for Emphas.is and on the nomination panel for the Prix Pictet and 2012 MAGNUM Emergency Fund, amongst others. Most recently, she founded the Reminders Photography Stronghold to further her work in Japan.
More: http://reminders-project.org/rps/
Chow Chee Yong
Photographer/Educator/Curator, Singapore | Photo Book Asia Award Judging Panel
Chow Chee Yong is a Singaporean Artist who works mainly in the medium related to Photography. He attended the prestigious Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan where he received his MA (Distinction) degree in Photography. Recently, Chee Yong was featured in Image Makers: Singaporean Photographers documentaries
More: www.chowcheeyong.com
Zhuang Wubin
Photographer/Curator, Singapore | Photo Book Asia Award Judging Panel
Zhuang Wubin is a photographer, curator and researcher well known for his research work about the photographic practices of Southeast Asia. Wubin is one of the region’s most passionate and vocal advocates.
More: http://zwubin.wordpress.com
Peter Schoppert
Managing Director, NUS Press, Singapore | Photo Book Asia Award Judging Panel
Peter Schoppert is the Managing Director of NUS Press, the scholarly publishing arm of the National University of Singapore, and successor to Singapore University Press.
More: http://nus.academia.edu/PeterSchoppert
Che’ Ahmad Azhar
Photographer/Educator, Malaysia | Street Photography Asia Award Judging Panel
Che’ Ahmad Azhar, or better known as Chemat, is a lecturer for Photography in the Faculty of Creative Multimedia (FCM), Multimedia University (MMU), Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Chemat is also one of Malaysia’s leading figures in Street Photography.
More: invisiblephotographer.asia/tag/che-ahmad-azhar
Erik Prasetya
Photographer/Educator, Indonesia | Street Photography Asia Award Judging Panel
Ranked one of Indonesia’s most influential photographers, Erik Prasetya is best known for his Estetika Banal approach to photography and his improvisational street and documentary journal of Jakarta amassed over 15 years.
More: http://invisiblephotographer.asia/tag/erik-prasetya
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NOTE: MANY OF THE PRINCIPLES IN THE NOBLES CASE HAVE NOW BEEN MADE OBSOLETE BY THE CHANGES TO THE LAW WHICH WENT INTO EFFECT IN JUNE OF 2011.
EMPLOYERS ARE NOW MUCH FREER TO FORCE EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE NOT YET REACHED MAXIMUM MEDICAL IMPROVEMENT TO ENGAGE IN ‘MAKE WORK,’ AS LONG AS IT IS APPROVED BY THE TREATING DOCTOR.
Please call us to see how your situation is affected at 888-694-1671 or contact us online.
On November 2, 2010, North Carolina Court of Appeals published its decision in the case of Nobles v. Coastal Power and Electric, Inc. ,et al., No. COA10-321.
The case primarily dealt with the issue of a situation where the injured employee had reached maximum medical improvement, had been released by his doctors, and had been offered a job by his employer, which was different from the power line installer job he held before he was injured.
The injured worker refused the job, and the Industrial Commission decided that his refusal of the job was unjustified. They therefore cut the employee off of ongoing temporary total disability as of the date his doctor opined that he had reached maximum medical improvement.
Unfortunately, the Court of Appeals affirmed, or agreed with the decision of the Full Commission that the employee was no longer entitled to benefits.
Elsewhere on this website, we have discussed the issue of “make work.”
Basically, the prohibition against “make work” is the principle, first established by the case of Peoples v. Cone Mills Corp., 316 N.C. 426, 342 S.E. 2d 798 (1986), that an employer cannot avoid paying ongoing benefits by merely creating for the injured employee “makeshift positions not ordinarily available in the market.” In other words, the employer cannot just invite the injured worker back to work at some position that they “made up” or created, which had never existed before, just so they won’t have to pay workers compensation benefits to the employee.
In the Nobles case, the employer offered the injured worker the position of Assistant Fleet Manager, which was basically an office job, where injured worker would be assisting in handling the voluminous paperwork involved in managing more than 400 work vehicles and machines. His treating physician approved the job, and gave the opinion that it was within his physical capabilities and limitations.
What appeared to be important to the Court of Appeals and the Full Commission was the fact that there was testimony from the employer’s personnel, that the position of Assistant Fleet Manager had been offered to the general public before, and in fact, the current Fleet Manager testified that he had attained his position after replying to an ad from Nobles’ employer for the assistant Fleet Manager Position. Therefore, the Commission and the Court found that the position was neither created nor modified for Mr. Nobles. They also noted that the pay rate offered to Mr. Nobles was similar to what one could find in the open market.
It also probably did not help Mr. Nobles, that the Court noted he presented no evidence whatsoever that he had made any effort to seek employment of any kind since his injury on the job.
In addition, Mr. Nobles argued that the requirement that he travel from his home over 60 miles to the worksite was an unreasonable request; however, the court noted, amongst other things, that the treating doctor had no problem with Mr. Nobles driving that distance to and from work, and that Mr. Nobles admitted that as a lineman, he had often been required to drive much further than 60 miles on a daily basis. It was clearly therefore not an issue for Mr. Nobles.
Finally, Mr. Nobles had a vocational rehabilitation expert who testified that she conducted two labor market surveys and concluded that Mr. Nobles was “not employable in the common labor market;” however, in light of the other evidence, the Commission gave her testimony very little, if any credibility.
It is also important to note that Court of Appeals pointed out that Mr. Nobles and his attorneys had to admit that other than the evidence of the job offered to Mr. Nobles, which he refused, and vocational rehabilitation expert, whom the court did not believe, there was no other evidence that they had to present relating to Mr. Nobles earning capacity. Therefore, the Court and Commission found that Mr. Nobles had “failed to establish that he is unable to earn his preinjury average weekly wage in any employment as a result of his compensable injury.”
What can we learn from this decision? I think this case provides at least two very “teachable moments” about how you should govern your activities once your doctor has released you to some type of work after your injuries.
1. If you are going to come before the Commission and claim that you can no longer work, and your treating physician has released you to some type of work, you had better have made some kind of effort to find employment within your doctors restrictions. Simply hiring a vocational rehabilitation expert who has performed market surveys is not going to cut it with the Commission.
As we have discussed elsewhere on this website, one of the most valuable things you can do, once you have been released by your doctors, is to conduct your own “market survey” by making an effort to get back to work. What that means is that you must show an ongoing effort attempt to find a job within your physical restrictions. This demonstrates that despite these efforts, you are unable to find work.
That means you must get on the phone, beat the pavement, call numerous potential employers, and keep a precise record as to whom you spoke with, where you went, whom you called, etc. and the date and time of all your contacts. The purpose of this list is to present this list to the Commission, should the need arise, as evidence of your inability to earn wages.
Would that have changed the outcome in this case? It is hard to say. But one thing is certain. The Commission and the Court of Appeals did not like the fact that Mr. Nobles’ only evidence of his inability to work was his hired expert’s opinion, especially when they clearly noted that Mr. Nobles himself had made no effort whatsoever to find a job since he had been hurt. Perhaps if he had come before the Commission with a list of over 200 places he had contacted over several months, with no success, they would have seen his case with different eyes.
Remember, case law is clear that you can prove disability in one of four ways:
A. Medical evidence that you cannot work;
B. You can work and some capacity, but after a reasonable effort, you have been unsuccessful in finding a job;
C. That you can do some work, but it will be futile because of other things, such as your inexperience, lack of education, age, etc. to seek other employment; or
D. That you have obtained a job at lower pay.
If Mr. Nobles had come before the Commission with that list of 200 potential employers who had all turned him down, that would have been a very good evidence of his disability under B, above. Just bringing a vocational rehabilitation expert before the Commission was not evidence of any effort at all.
2. Before you refuse a job offered to you by your employer you had better be darn sure that it is an unsuitable job, meaning either it is beyond your physical capabilities, and/or your treating doctor disapproves of the job, or that the job is really “make- work.”
In order to qualify as “make work” it has to be a job that: 1. Did not exist in the ordinary marketplace; 2. Was never advertised to the public; 3. Had never been offered previously by the employer; 4. Was never filled after being refused by the injured worker.
In Nobles, it was clear to the Commission and the Court that the job offered to Mr. Nobles had, in fact, been offered to the public before, and was not something that was just created by the employer for Mr. Nobles. They therefore found that Mr. Nobles had unjustifiably refused the job, and that therefore, he was not disabled, or entitled to ongoing benefits.
ONCE AGAIN, PLEASE CONTACT OR CALL US AT 888-694-1671, AS MANY OF THE IDEAS IN THIS ARTICLE HAVE BEEN MADE OBSOLETE BY THE CHANGES TO THE LAW IN JUNE OF 2011. EMPLOYERS ARE NOW MUCH FREER TO FORCE EMPLOYEES TO ENGAGE IN ‘MAKE WORK,’ AS LONG AS THE JOB IS APPROVED BY THE TREATING DOCTOR. | https://joemillerinjurylaw.com/articles/suitable-employment-and-make-work/ |
Today is National Doctors’ Day (March 30), an annual observance aimed at appreciating physicians who help save our lives everywhere. The holiday first started in 1933 in Winder, Georgia, and since then it’s been honored every year on March 30, which was the first anniversary of a doctor using ether anesthesia by Dr. Crawford W. Long. Today we continue to celebrate medical advances like these and thank all doctors everywhere who’ve spent so much time and energy mastering their field of expertise.
National Doctors' Day Activities
Give thanks to the doctors in your life
It's always important to recognize the hard work and dedication that physicians demonstrate in our hospitals and communities each day. Send your doctor an appreciation card or email, donate to your local medical center, or even nominate your doctor for an award. With nearly 700,000 people working as physicians and surgeons across the United States, your doctor would be thrilled to know that their hard work has been valuable to your health.
Schedule that much needed check-up
Regular visits to your doctor can help find problems before they start and help you have a better chance of treatment and cure. Instead of avoiding your doctor and healthcare provider, take initiative in scheduling regular visits to ensure you're on the right track to better health.
Stay healthy
While doctors love to diagnose and help alleviate your problems, they also want you to stay healthy too. Continue practicing daily healthy routines—hydrate, exercise, and fuel up on balanced meals. Your doctor (and your health) will be sure to thank you!
Why We Love National Doctors' Day
The relieve more than just physical pain
Not only do doctors diagnose our everyday illnesses, but also they address our fears, our loneliness, and anxiety. They offer valuable advice to not only help us physically but mentally too. By listening to them, they help us survive and thrive.
They put us back together again
Doctors cut open living people to remove disease, hold our heart in their hands, and put our broken bones back together. By doing the incredible things they do everyday, people who might otherwise have died, don’t, and we can live longer, fuller lives. No matter what their specialty is, doctors significantly improve your well-being and are critical in furthering the lives of their patients. Doctors are truly the everyday superheroes!
They're resilient
A doctor works an average of nearly 60 hours a week and even more impressive, they work 1.5 times more years than the average American does. They work well under pressure, they're industrious, and they're attentive towards each patient. If there's one person you can count on who will never get burnt out, it's definitely your doctor. | https://nationaltoday.com/national-doctors-day/ |
Greek architect, painter and professor Makis Varlamis presented his artistic collection on Luxembourg at the historic gallery Konschthaus beim Engel, at the invitation of the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture.
Twenty paintings centered on Luxembourg but also filled with the artist’s Greek light were presented in a new exhibition at the center of the Grand Duchy.
Makis Varlamis stated that he is very excited about the rock structures in Luxembourg. “The affinity between the urban structure masterpieces and the natural formations, presents a unique inspiration for me as an architect,” he said at the opening night event.
Luxembourg’s Culture Minister Maggy Nagel acknowledged the artist’s work as an exemplary harbinger of the forthcoming presidency of Luxembourg in the EU: “Art builds bridges between countries and cultures and there is no better example of the European idea, as when an artist born in Greece, who lives and works in Austria, paints pictures of Luxembourg.”
The participation of the Greek Culture Ministry despite the difficulties that the country faces at the moment brought joy to everyone, but mostly to the Greek Diaspora members that reside in Luxembourg.
The exhibition will be open to the public until May 24. It was organized by Luxembourg and Greece’s Ministries of Culture, in collaboration with the Experimental Laboratory of Vergina, the participation of the Greek Embassy in Luxembourg and the active support of the bustling Greek Community in Luxembourg, while it was curated by the Austrian Art Museum. | https://eu.greekreporter.com/2015/05/05/greek-painter-varlamis-exhibition-in-luxembourg/ |
In 1952, the West Point Military Band celebrated that famous military academy’s Sesquicentennial by asking prominent composers to write celebratory works to mark the occasion. Among those who responded with a new piece was the American composer Morton Gould, whose “West Point Symphony” received its premiere performance on today’s date in 1952, at a gala concert featuring the West Point Academy Band conducted by Francis E. Resta.
There are two movements in Gould’s “West Point Symphony.” They are titled “Epitaphs” and “Marches,” and the composer himself provided these descriptive comments:
“The first movement is lyrical and dramatic… The general character is elegiac. The second and final movement is lusty… the texture a stylization of marching tunes and parades cast in an array of embellishments and rhythmic variations… At one point,” concludes Gould, “there is a simulation of a Fife and Drum Corp, which, incidentally, was the instrumentation of the original West Point Band.”
Of all the pieces written in honor of West Point’s Sesquicentennial in 1952, Gould’s Symphony is probably the best-known.
The score of the West Point Symphony calls for a “marching machine,” but on this classic 1959 recording under the late Frederick Fennell, the required sound was provided by the very real marching feet of 120 Eastman School of Music students. | https://wysu.org/content/composerdatebook/2019-04-13 |
On January 1, 2009, Parker Company leased equipment under a 3-year lease with payments of $5,000 on each December 31 of the lease term. The present value of the lease payments at a discount rate of 12% is $12,010. If the lease is considered a capital lease, depreciation expense (straight-line) and interest expense are recognized. If the lease is considered an operating lease, then rent expense is recognized. What is the difference in the total combined net incomes of 2009, 2010, and 2011, if the lease is considered a capital lease instead of an operating lease?
Accounting Basics, Accounting
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Write us your full requirement for evaluation and you will receive response within 20 minutes turnaround time. | http://www.mywordsolution.com/question/on-january-1-2009-parker-company-leased/939135 |
Reading has been awarded a $227,840 grant to upgrade 51 traffic signals with the hope of reducing congestion and improving safety downtown.
“This is great news for the city of Reading,” Osmer S. Deming, acting city managing director, said Tuesday. “Our goal is to try to make traffic flow more efficiently. The lights are synchronized now, but we can do a better job. We will have fewer crashes.”
The grant will be used to buy new software to upgrade the synchronization of traffic signals in area bounded by Second Street on the west to 11th Street on the east and Laurel Street on the south to Greenwich Street on the north.
Deming said the upgrades will complement the $43 million renovated Penn Street Bridge that connects Reading and West Reading. The three-year bridge project was completed this month.
The traffic signal project is expected to begin early next year, officials said.
Deming commended Timothy Krall, city engineer, and Cindy DeGroot, city grants writer, for applying for the grant.
The Reading grant was one of 41 awarded by PennDOT to improve safety in 34 municipalities through PennDOT’s Automated Red Light Enforcement program in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia collects fines from motorists ticketed at 31 intersections equipped to detect drivers running red lights. That money funds safety upgrades in municipalities across the state.
Because Reading is under Act 47, a state administered program for financially distressed cities, the city relies on grant funding to pay for much-needed safety issues, according to the grant application.
State lawmakers representing Reading were appreciative of PennDOT awarding the grant to the city.
“It’s incredibly important that we ensure traffic can move smoothly and safely through our downtown,” said Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Muhlenberg Township Democrat.
Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone, a Reading Democrat, said understanding Reading’s traffic flow is crucial to improving public safety downtown.
Sen. Judy Schwank, a Ruscombmanor Township Democrat, said the initiative will benefit residents, workers, visitors and businesses. | https://www.readingeagle.com/news/reading-receives-penndot-grant-to-upgrade-51-traffic-signals/article_13ea5d6a-210f-11ea-b612-7b2da47962d5.html |
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