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Q:
Python list comprehensions misunderstanding
There is seems to be something wrong with this example:
item = [x**2 if x %2 == 0 for x in range(10)]
But I can write like that:
item = [x**2 if x % 2 == 0 else x**3 for x in range(10)]
Or:
item = [x**2 for x in range(10) if x % 2 == 0]
How important is the order here and why I can't use 'if' without 'else' in the first example?
A:
There are two different, unrelated uses of the if keyword here:
As part of a conditional expression, of the form ... if ... else ...:
item = [x**2 if x % 2 == 0 else x**3 for x in range(10)]
As the filter for a list comprehension, of the form if ...:
item = [x**2 for x in range(10) if x % 2 == 0]
In your first example, you have a malformed conditional expression that is missing its else. Further, the semantics are different. In 1), you get some value in the list for every value in range(10). In 2), you only get a value in the list for the even values.
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1. Introduction {#sec1}
===============
Asphaltenes are the heaviest components of the crude oil. These are complex molecules, consisting of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic side chains, and polar heteroatom-containing functional groups.^[@ref1]^ The asphaltene molecules present in crude oil hold the highest fraction.^[@ref2]^ Asphaltenes are dissoluble in aromatic hydrocarbons, for example, toluene, benzene, or pyridine, but insoluble in *n*-alkanes, for example, pentane, heptane, and hexane.^[@ref3],[@ref4]^ They form aggregates in selective organic solvents, water, and oil--water emulsion^[@ref5]^ and are accountable for the high viscosity of crude oil.^[@ref6],[@ref7]^ It is noteworthy that destabilized asphaltenes can cause serious problems in oil refineries such as coke formation, catalysis deactivation, pipeline blocking, and many more.^[@ref7]−[@ref9]^ Furthermore, asphaltenes reduce petroleum productivity because of the high viscosity induced by their presence in crude oil.^[@ref10],[@ref11]^ Also, their release into the environment can have negative impacts on the soil and marine life because of their non-biodegradable nature.^[@ref12],[@ref13]^
In-depth understanding of the asphaltene chemistry has the potential to increase the efficiency of oil recovery.^[@ref14]^ Many experimental investigations and theoretical simulations have been performed in order to uncover the mechanisms behind asphaltene aggregation and asphaltene--solvent interactions.^[@ref14]−[@ref17]^ According to the widely known Yen--Mullins model, the asphaltene molecules tend to nanoaggregate when the number of these molecules is less than 10. The clustered nanoaggregates further combine to form the macroaggregates.^[@ref15],[@ref18],[@ref19]^ Within the abovementioned model, the aliphatic side chain surrounds the polyaromatic core and aggregation occurs mainly because of the π--π interactions between the cores.^[@ref20]^
Mullins et al.^[@ref15]^ performed experimental investigations on asphaltenes in the colloidal form in crude oil. In this study, the equation of state for the asphaltene gradients in oil field reservoirs has been developed. It is concluded that the molecular island architecture is favored, and the most probable molecular weight is approximately 750 g/mol. Aslan and Firoozabadi^[@ref21]^ performed flow-line experiments using differential interference contrast microscopy and dynamic light scattering to investigate the size of the asphaltene aggregates in water. The authors concluded that the deposition of the asphaltenes in water is delayed because of the presence of the hydrogen bonds between the water molecules and asphaltene heteroatoms, that is, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur. Schuler et al.^[@ref22]^ probed coal-derived asphaltenes' and petroleum asphaltenes' molecular structures using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy. Zhang et al.^[@ref23]^ probed the asphaltene molecular interactions in organic solvents using a surface force apparatus. The study showed that the asphaltene interactions strongly depend on the weight ratio of toluene to heptane in the heptol mixture. Shi et al.^[@ref24]^ performed experimental investigations using AFM to probe the asphaltene interaction in oil--water emulsion. It is observed that the presence of the asphaltene at the oil--water interface induces strong steric repulsion. Li et al.^[@ref17]^ performed experiments on the kinetics of the asphaltene aggregation in microcapillaries. Crude oil samples were analyzed for the aggregate size in various organic solvents at different flocculation times. The diffusion-limited-aggregation and reaction-limited-aggregation models were analyzed in depth at low and high concentrations of the asphaltene. Joonaki et al.^[@ref14]^ also performed experimental investigation of asphaltenes in water. Their work was focused on aqueous asphaltene solutions with different salt concentrations. The study pointed out the importance of the H-bonding network in the solutions and showed that the viscosity increases for stronger H-bonding networks in asphaltene solutions.
Headen et al.^[@ref19]^ investigated the nanoaggregation of asphaltene and resin in toluene and heptane solvents using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In their work, the asphaltene model consisting of two aromatic cores was taken into consideration and the structural properties of asphaltene--asphaltene and resin--resin were investigated. Jian et al.^[@ref25]^ performed MD simulations to study how the aliphatic side chain affects the aggregation of the asphaltene (Violanthrone-78-based model) in water. The aggregation behavior based on four different lengths of the side chain was discussed. The authors concluded that the long and short side chains can form concentrated aggregates unlike the chains with intermediate length. Headen et al.^[@ref26]^ performed classical MD simulations for four different asphaltene models in toluene and heptane solvents under ambient conditions. The study showed that monomers and dimers form the common size of the clusters in a good solvent. Sun et al.^[@ref27]^ performed MD simulations on Violanthrone-78-based asphaltene model varying the side chain length in the presence of salt ions in solution. It is noticed that the hydrophobic interactions are enhanced at low salt concentrations facilitating aggregation, while such kinds of interactions are suppressed at higher salt concentrations, thereby hindering aggregation. Yaseen and Mansoori^[@ref28]^ investigated the asphaltene aggregation because of the water-flooding using MD simulations. In their study, seven different asphaltene water models were probed. The structural properties mainly radial distribution function and hydrogen bonding within asphaltene--asphaltene and asphaltene--water were analyzed. In the work performed by Santos Silva et al.,^[@ref29]^ MD simulations were performed on CA22-based molecular systems in order to investigate the mechanisms behind nano- and macroaggregation of asphaltenes. The study concluded that the size of the aromatic core and the presence of the polar group play an important role in nanoaggregation, whereas the formation of the macroaggregates is governed by the occupancy of polar groups and length of the side chains. Furthermore, the study showed that the heteroatoms enhance the π--π interactions. Recently, Bian et al.^[@ref30]^ investigated the disaggregation of asphaltenes using the functional group methylation by performing both experiments and MD simulations. It is observed that the methylated asphaltenes are prone to disaggregation. Tirjoo et al.^[@ref31]^ investigated asphaltene aggregation using two asphaltene-based models viz. M1 and VI. Within this study, the solubility parameters were calculated using MD simulations.
The existing works on asphaltene nanoaggregation highlight several aspects as elaborated above. However, most of these existing works explain aggregation using the simple point charge (SPC) water model. A systematic analysis of the asphaltene aggregation using different water models is still missing in the literature. The viscosity of the asphaltene molecules in aqueous solution is reported for the first time in the literature through this work. We adopt a novel approach of end-to-end analysis in order to investigate the structural properties of asphaltene nanoaggregates. We report important dynamical properties viz. diffusion coefficient of asphaltene molecules in aqueous solution which has been systematically investigated using three different water models. Furthermore, we provide a detailed analysis of the hydrogen bonds between the asphaltene and water.
2. Computational Details {#sec2}
========================
Accurate force field parameters are the key to obtain accurate molecular structures. In this work, the latest in-built optimized parameters for liquid simulations (OPLS3e)^[@ref32]^ in the Desmond^[@ref33]^ MD package within Schrödinger simulation software have been used.^[@ref34]^ Violanthrone-78 (C~70~H~84~O~6~) is considered as a model asphaltene compound, as shown in [Figure [1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}. Earlier nanoaggregate investigations were performed at an asphaltene concentration of 20 g/L.^[@ref27]^ In the present work, we have considered three different concentrations, that is, 13.96 g/L (6 asphaltene molecules), 27.91 g/L (12 asphaltene molecules), and 55.82 g/L (24 asphaltene molecules) in order to study asphaltene aggregation. We have used a 90 Å cubic box for the simulations. A snapshot of the aggregation of 6 asphaltene molecules in 0.15 M NaCl aqueous solution is shown in [Figure [2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}. The equilibration runs are performed for 1 ns and the production run of 2 ns is analyzed. A time step of 1 fs is used and the *NVT* simulations are performed at 300 K. We have used SPC,^[@ref35]^ TIP4P-D,^[@ref36]^ and TIP5P^[@ref37]^ water models and the OPLS3e potential for the asphaltenes.
{#fig1}
{#fig2}
3. Results and Discussion {#sec3}
=========================
3.1. End-to-End Distance {#sec3.1}
------------------------
The end-to-end distance of the asphaltene molecules, that is, the distance between the end of the aliphatic side chain to the other end is an important quantity to probe in order to understand the aggregation behavior of asphaltene in water. The aliphatic side chains are stiff on shorter length scales and the longer length scale side chains bend to participate in the aggregation process. One of the approaches to probe the end-to-end distance is by utilizing the worm-like chain model^[@ref38]^ for the semiflexible side chains.^[@ref39]^ In this study, the abovementioned approach is used, that is, the end-to-end distance of the asphaltene molecule averaged over all asphaltene molecules is calculated over the entire MD simulation trajectory using the following equation^[@ref39]^where ⟨*h*^2^⟩ is the mean-squared end-to-end distance, *L*~0~ is the extended chain length, and *L*~P~ is the persistence length. It is evident from [Figure [3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}a for the SPC water model that the end-to-end distance, averaged over 24 asphaltene molecules, is 30.6 Å at the beginning of the first 1 ns of simulation time. This distance gradually decreases to a final value of 16.1 Å, where the aggregation is clearly visible. [Figure [3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}b shows the frequency of the end-to-end distance over a simulation time of 1 ns. Our study shows that the aggregates formed have a minimum end-to-end distance of 16.1 Å and the highest frequency is observed at this particular length. The end-to-end distance oscillates between 13.9 and 18.8 Å during the later 2 ns of the simulation run, as illustrated in [Figure [3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}c. It can be clearly seen in [Figure [3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}d that the maximum frequency is corresponding to 16.6 Å when the SPC water model is used.
{#fig3}
[Table [1](#tbl1){ref-type="other"}](#tbl1){ref-type="other"} summarizes the end-to-end distance along with the extended chain length and persistence length for three different water models corresponding to each of the three concentrations under investigation. The aliphatic side chains can adapt to different structures in the solvent, depending on the water models used for the study. This is the main reason for the slight variation in the end-to-end distance obtained corresponding to the different water models, as presented in [Table [1](#tbl1){ref-type="other"}](#tbl1){ref-type="other"}. The end-to-end distance of the asphaltene molecule changes with respect to the concentration of asphaltene in water. It is evident from our study that the choice of the water model has a significant effect on the persistence length, especially when the TIP4P-D water model is used for the dilute concentration. It is noteworthy that previous studies have shown that the TIP4P-D water model can successfully explain the unfolded protein states in solutions.^[@ref36]^ In our study, a persistence length of 4.9 Å is observed for the TIP4P-D water model in the dilute limit. This is due to the fact that frequent aggregation and disaggregation occurs between two aggregate sizes. The persistence length indicates that beyond this distance there will be no correlation, that is, the aliphatic side chains are stiffer for a large distance. This in turn results in a higher end-to-end distance at lower asphaltene concentrations, that is, in the dilute limit.
###### Calculated End-to-End Distance Averaged Over 6, 12, and 24 Molecules Over 2 ns of Simulation Time, Persistence Length, Extended Chain Length (in Å), and Time Series Standard Deviation (σ) Corresponding to the End-to-End Distance Values are Shown for Three Different Asphaltene Concentrations Obtained Using Different Water Models
water model end-to-end distance (Å) persistence length (Å) extended chain length (Å) σ (Å)
------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------ --------------------------- -------
6 Asphaltene Molecules
SPC 15.62 3.11 50.6 2.54
TIP4P-D 19.64 4.90 50.6 1.12
TIP5P 14.52 2.52 50.4 1.22
12 Asphaltene Molecules
SPC 14.02 2.32 50.3 1.92
TIP4P-D 13.67 2.19 50.7 1.58
TIP5P 13.21 2.14 50.6 1.05
24 Asphaltene Molecules
SPC 16.40 3.32 50.7 1.15
TIP4P-D 15.47 2.98 50.6 0.87
TIP5P 16.34 3.38 50.8 0.77
3.2. Hydrogen Bonds: Asphaltene--Water {#sec3.2}
--------------------------------------
The polar heteroatoms of the asphaltene are involved in the formation of the H bonds with water. Murgich et al.^[@ref40]^ performed molecular mechanics calculations and titration calorimetry experiments to investigate the H bonds between asphaltene heteroatoms and water. The study showed that water enhances the association of asphaltene monomers to form dimers because of the formation of H bonds with water molecules. It was thus concluded that hydrogen bonding plays a key role in the aggregation of asphaltenes. Previous investigations on the structural properties of pure water using different water models concluded that the average number of the hydrogen bonds per water molecule is higher for the SPC and TIP4P water models than the TIP5P water model.^[@ref41]^ In our study, the hydrogen bonds between asphaltene and water are calculated using three different water models for various concentrations of asphaltene in water. These bonds are analyzed over the production run time of simulation. As illustrated in [Figure [4](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}, the average number of the H bonds is more for TIP4P-D in comparison with SPC and TIP5P water models. A similar trend is observed for all the three concentrations of asphaltene in water, that is, the average number of the hydrogen bonds is more for the TIP4P-D water model than the other two water models. The average number of the H bonds is summarized for the various concentrations using the different models in [Table [2](#tbl2){ref-type="other"}](#tbl2){ref-type="other"}. TIP4P-D is more effective than the TIP4P/2005 water model because the parametrization of the former includes the excess dispersion interactions on the structure of the TIP4P/2005 water model. The dispersion interactions are incorporated by increasing the dispersion coefficient, that is, C~6~ by ∼50% in comparison with the other water models such as SPC/E, TIP3P, and TIP4P-EW. This enhanced dispersion interaction better describes the water hydrogen-bonding interactions and water--solute interactions.^[@ref36]^ We, thus, conclude that the strong interaction between asphaltene and water molecules is well-captured by the TIP4P-D water model, that is, by the enhanced water dispersion interaction model.
{#fig4}
###### Calculated Average Number of H Bonds is Presented for Three Different Asphaltene Concentrations Obtained Using Different Water Models
SPC TIP4P-D TIP5P
------------------------- ----- --------- -------
24 asphaltene molecules 78 81 64
12 asphaltene molecules 47 56 35
6 asphaltene molecules 26 27 18
3.3. Diffusion Coefficient {#sec3.3}
--------------------------
The diffusion coefficient averaged over all the asphaltene molecules is calculated using the following equation^[@ref42]^⟨\|*r⃗*(*t*) -- *r⃗*(0)\|^2^⟩ is the mean-square displacement, where the angled brackets indicate an ensemble average, which is an average over all particles and time. The diffusion coefficients obtained within our study are shown in [Table [3](#tbl3){ref-type="other"}](#tbl3){ref-type="other"} for different concentrations of asphaltene using the three different water models. There is a clear signature that the diffusion coefficient decreases with the increase in the concentration of the asphaltene. The lowest diffusion coefficient is obtained using the TIP4P-D water model for all three concentrations pointing toward slow aggregate dynamics. The inclusion of the enhanced dispersion forces thus adequately describes asphaltene--water interactions.
###### Calculated Diffusion Coefficients (in m^2^/s) are Shown for Three Different Asphaltene Concentrations Using Different Water Models
diffusion coefficient (m^2^/s)
------------------------- --------------------------------
6 Asphaltene Molecules
SPC 7.76 × 10^--10^
TIP4P-D 1.93 × 10^--10^
TIP5P 2.52 × 10^--10^
12 Asphaltene Molecules
SPC 3.91 × 10^--10^
TIP4P-D 3.07 × 10^--10^
TIP5P 3.68 × 10^--10^
24 Asphaltene Molecules
SPC 3.78 × 10^--10^
TIP4P-D 1.32 × 10^--10^
TIP5P 2.19 × 10^--10^
3.4. Viscosity {#sec3.4}
--------------
The MD simulations are often used in association with a Green--Kubo formalism to calculate the shear viscosity of liquids. In our work, the viscosity is calculated using the following Green--Kubo equation^[@ref43]^where *V* is the volume of the system, *k*~B~ is the Boltzmann constant, *T* is the temperature, *P*~αβ~ denotes the off-diagonal pressure tensor, and the angled bracket denotes the ensemble average. The autocorrelation function of the pressure tensor decays to zero in the long time limit and the integral in [eq [3](#eq3){ref-type="disp-formula"}](#eq3){ref-type="disp-formula"} reaches a constant value.
Earlier investigations by González and Abascal^[@ref44]^ and Tazi et al.^[@ref45]^ concluded based on the Green--Kubo approach that the TIP4P/2005 water model accurately predicts the dynamical properties of pure water, for example, the shear viscosity. In the present study, we performed 10 independent MD runs starting with different atomic velocities in order to calculate the viscosity. The pressure tensor is analyzed for each MD simulation output yielding a viscosity curve with respect to time. The average viscosity at each time is obtained by averaging over multiple viscosity curves, as shown in [Figure [5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}. An exponential function is used to fit the data of [Figure [5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}](#fig5){ref-type="fig"} and the asymptote of the fitted functions is considered as the final shear viscosity. The viscosities for the dilute asphaltene concentration for all three water models are summarized in [Table [4](#tbl4){ref-type="other"}](#tbl4){ref-type="other"}. Our results show that the viscosity is severely underpredicted by the SPC water model, that is, 0.39 cP. Although the viscosity value is improved for the TIP5P water model (0.71 cP), a better value is obtained using the TIP4P-D water model, that is, 1.21 cP. Furthermore, we used the TIP4P-D water model to evaluate the viscosity for 12 asphaltene molecules in aqueous solution which is obtained as 1.31 cP and 24 asphaltene molecules in aqueous solution obtained as 1.46 cP. Our study highlights the fact that the enhanced dispersion interactions improve the description of the asphaltene--water interactions. However, it is noteworthy that the solution behavior is completely dependent on the accurate description of the solute--solute and solute--solvent interactions. The strengthening of the water dispersion interactions results from offsetting of inadequate dispersion interactions from the OPLS force field. For the hydrocarbon molecules, it is thus necessary to improve the OPLS force field for better agreement with the experimental results.^[@ref46]^
{#fig5}
###### Calculated Viscosity (in cP) Obtained by the Exponential Fitting is presented along with the Standard Deviation of the Fit (σ) for Asphaltene in Aqueous Solution for the Three Water Models
6 asphaltene molecules
------------------------ ------ ----------------
SPC 0.39 0.26 × 10^--3^
TIP4P-D 1.21 2.73 × 10^--3^
TIP5P 0.71 8.03 × 10^--3^
4. Conclusions {#sec4}
==============
In the present work, the aggregation of asphaltene (Violanthrone-78) in aqueous NaCl solution is investigated by performing MD simulations using SPC, TIP4P-D, and TIP5P potentials for water--water interaction. It is observed that the end-to-end distance of asphaltene molecules at three different concentrations is approximately the same for the water models under study except the TIP4P-D model (especially in the dilute limit). This discrepancy can be attributed to the frequent aggregation and disaggregation of asphaltene in the dilute limit which is well-captured by the TIP4P-D water model. Our study of hydrogen bonds between asphaltene and water clearly shows that the asphaltene--water interactions are stronger for TIP4P-D than the SPC and TIP5P water models because of the enhanced dispersion interaction in the TIP4P-D water model. Furthermore, we found that the diffusion coefficient of the asphaltene to be higher for the SPC water model than the other two models. In this regard, an interesting observation is that the diffusion coefficient decreases with the increase in the concentration of asphaltene in water. Another highlighting aspect of our study is that the better viscosity predictions can be obtained using the TIP4P-D water model because the errors are large for TIP5P and SPC water models. To summarize, the earlier studies on asphaltene aggregation in water have been primarily performed using the SPC water model. The novelty of the present work lies on the fact that the study highlights the importance of the TIP4P-D-enhanced dispersion water model to better describe the aggregation of asphaltene in water. It is worthwhile to mention here that apart from improving the atomistic description of the solvent, the improvement in the parametrization of the force field for the hydrocarbon molecules under investigation is necessary for better reproducibility of the experimental results.
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
The authors would like to thank Schrödinger Centre for Molecular Simulations, MAHE, Manipal, for their support. The authors would also like to thank Sudharshan Pandiyan, Schrödinger, India for fruitful discussions.
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1. Introduction {#sec1-1}
===============
Rifabutin-associated uveitis has been reported in both immunosuppressed and immunocompetent individuals, and is recognized as a dosage-dependent side effect.[@ref1][@ref2] Previous reports have mentioned that concurrent administration of rifabutin and clarithromycin or fluconazole will increase concentrations of rifabutin through inhibition of the cytochrome P-450 (CYP450) system, and an accompanying increase in the incidence of rifabutin toxicities, including uveitis. Here, we report a case of uveitis associated with coadministration of rifabutin and nelfinavir. Neither clarithromycin nor fluconazole was given during this period.
2. Case report {#sec1-2}
==============
A 40-year-old human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected man who received lamivudine/zidovudine coformulation and nelfinavir (1250 mg twice daily) regularly, suffered from eye pain and blurred vision in his left eye 93 days after receiving rifabutin (300 mg/day), methaniazide (500 mg/day), pyrazinamide (1500 mg/day), and ethambutol (800 mg/day) for pulmonary tuberculosis. He visited the municipal hospital, and left-eye panuveitis was noted. According to the patient's statement, anterior chamber inflammation improved after administration of topical steroids (0.1% dexamethasone Q3H) and cycloplegics (1% atropine TID) without discontinuation of the antituberculosis drug. However, uveitis in the left eye deteriorated while tapering topical steroids. Right-eye panuveitis occurred after rifabutin was given for 111 days. The patient was transferred to our hospital for further management.
Fibrin and hypopyon in the anterior chamber, and vitreous haze were revealed in the ocular examination (Figs. [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"} and [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). Rifabutin-associated uveitis was suspected on the basis of the course of disease and clinical presentation. Following discontinuation of rifabutin with administration of topical steroids and cycloplegics, bilateral uveitis resolved ([Fig. 3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}). His visual acuity also recovered from hand motion to 20/20.
{#F1}
{#F2}
{#F3}
3. Discussion {#sec1-3}
=============
In HIV-positive patients, many conditions may be associated with uveitis, including neoplasms, opportunistic infection, inflammation due to HIV infection itself, and drug toxicities.[@ref3] Our case was negative for HLA-B27 and syphilis. Intraocular inflammation improved significantly after discontinuing rifabutin, without recurrence.
Previous studies reported that rifabutin-associated uveitis may develop after 2 weeks to 9 months of treatment.[@ref4] The most frequent type is unilateral anterior uveitis with concomitant mild vitritis, but bilateral cases, intermediate uveitis, panuveitis, or even dense vitritis mimicking infectious endophthalmitis or panophthalmitis have also been reported.[@ref4][@ref5][@ref6] However, it often resolved within 1--2 months after drug discontinuation and the use of intensive topical corticosteroids and cycloplegics.[@ref4][@ref7][@ref8]
Rifabutin-associated uveitis has been identified as a dosage-dependent side effect, and adverse effects are uncommon at the recommended dose of 300 mg/day.[@ref9] Our patient did not receive clarithromycin or fluconazole, which might raise the serum concentration of rifabutin through inhibition of the CYP450 system.[@ref10]
The interactions between protease inhibitors (PIs) and rifabutin have been documented recently. PIs are metabolized by the CYP450 system. Coadministration of PIs and rifabutin will reduce the clearance of rifabutin[@ref11] and increase the incidence of rifabutin toxicities, including uveitis.[@ref12] Nelfinavir, a PI, is metabolized by multiple CYP enzymes, including CYP3A and CYP2C19. Coadministration of rifabutin with nelfinavir may increase the area under the concentration--time curve of rifabutin to 207%, compared with adminis tration of rifabutin alone.[@ref13] Therefore, dosage reduction of rifabutin to one-half the usual dose is recommended when administered with nelfinavir, whose preferred dose is 1250 mg BID.[@ref13]
To our knowledge, this is the first report of uveitis with concurrent administration of rifabutin and nelfinavir when the rifa-butin dosage was not reduced according to recommendations.[@ref13] This finding indicates that rifabutin dosage should be reduced when it is administered with nelfinavir. In this type of uveitis condition, in addition to topical steroid use, rifabutin discontinuation is needed.
Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no financial or nonfinancial conflicts of interest.
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These filter have not be tested thoroughly due to lack of vanilla metafiles and
interpreters. However, while testing the filters on Sun phigs' metafiles an
interesting anomaly was noted. The Sun phigs' CGM generator produces a
metafile made up exclusively of "long data format" CGM elements. Instructions
that were meant to be contained in "short" elements were coded as longs. This
presents no problem for a "true" CGM interpreter such as Ctrans. However, I
suspect that the Sun phigs' interpreter expects all instructions in the "long"
format to ease translation. The filter for NCAR-format-to-vanilla will
translate "short" instructions to "short" instructions. Thus it is unlikely
that an NCAR CGM filtered to vanilla CGM could be interpreted by the Sun phigs'
interpreter. Other vendors of CGM translators and interpreters may take similar
short cuts.
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21 May 2001
Microsoft Strikes Back
Now that the Soviet Empire is no more, Microsoft has identified the
greatest current threat to the American Way of Life. Not global
warming, corporate irresponsibility, or bad public education: no, the
nemesis of American values and global prosperity is—the free software
movement.
It’s nice to be appreciated. In all the years that my colleagues and
clients in the community have been building the best-quality programs
on earth and giving them away for everyone to learn from and use,
there’s always been a tiny bit of chagrin mixed with our satisfaction:
our friends in Redmond just didn’t seem to care. But when Craig
Mundie, a Microsoft Senior Vice President, spoke in New York on May 3,
all those years of being ignored ended.
We are realists and we did not expect to be thanked. We knew
Microsoft wasn’t going to give us an award for innovation. We did
deserve to be lavishly congratulated for bringing back the fun and
glory of programming on an unprecedented worldwide scale, enlisting
thousands of volunteers in creating the most reliable and flexible
operating system for personal computers along with thousands of
applications packages performing every task that anyone needs
computers to undertake. Our innovative technologies are available at
minimal distribution cost to anyone, anywhere. Not only can everyone
run our software: everyone can read it, learn from it, modify it or
reuse it in any project of their own, redistribute it, sell it—do
anything with it except reduce the freedom of anyone else. We think
that’s a contribution to society justifying an award, but we didn’t
expect to get one from Microsoft. What surprised us, now that
Microsoft’s paying attention, is that what they have to say isn’t just
hostile. It’s also stupid.
Mr Mundie told his audience and the invited world press that the basis
of continued global prosperity is the information society, which in
turn rests on the continued viability of Microsoft’s “commercial
software business model.” That model is to make software and sell it
to people at high prices without giving them the rights to understand
and improve it. Our model, which is to make the best software anyone
knows how to make and then give it away to everyone else so they can
try to make it better, threatens, Mr Mundie said, to prevent
innovation.
Naturally an idea this dumb is not likely to be widely adopted unless
it is confusingly dressed up to look like something else. So Mr
Mundie explained that free software is like the dot-coms that everyone
thought were so wonderful until it turned out that advertisers
wouldn’t pay for everything they were giving away. But the dot-coms
Mr Mundie was talking about got enormous amounts of venture capital to
produce very expensive content that was going to be “given away” to
consumers in return for the right to sell their eyeballs to
advertisers. When it turned out that this wouldn’t make enough money
to pay for the expensive content, everything folded. The free
software movement can’t fail that way because our content isn’t
expensive: we collaboratively make it at a price so low we can afford
to give it all away. We don’t need advertising revenues or venture
capital to make the product.
In fact, the technical development of free software so far is just a
tiny first installment of what’s going to happen next. Because the
Internet is maturing throughout the world, along with a generation of
programmers who have grown up with free software, there are tens of
thousands of new potential contributors to free software each year,
and the range of new subjects they can tackle is vast. Because the
software is fully free and everyone can modify it, maintenance is in
fact much easier and takes less of the collective brainpower
available. And because all the code is reusable, it’s much easier to
start new projects because you can take over everyone else’s solutions
to all the familiar problems. So free software produces the kind of
innovation and new product development that the dot-com world could
only achieve using unsustainable levels of venture capital. Not only
does Mr Mundie’s example not support his argument against free
software, it actually shows why free software is an inherently
superior competitor when matched against Microsoft.
Thanks to the GPL, which is the real target of Microsoft’s hostility,
everything the free movement does remains free forever. Microsoft
can’t “embrace and extend” free software, and can’t buy it up
either. So Microsoft has to compete against it. Which, Mr Mundie
admits in the most amazing part of his remarks, it can’t. The free
software movement, through the GPL, Mr Mundie said:
fundamentally undermines the independent commercial software sector
because it effectively makes it impossible to distribute software on a
basis where recipients pay for the product rather than just the cost
of distribution.
“Effectively makes it impossible” to sell bad stuff at high prices.
Instead Microsoft would have to make much better software than ours so
that people would pay much more for it. And that, Mr Mundie knows,
they can’t do.
So there it is. Microsoft now admits that, if they can’t confuse the
issue, we’re a superior competitor and we’re going to put them out of
business. To attack us, you have to attack freedom. We’re going
to transform the global industry forever, making things better for
programmers, users, and those who want to learn. From here on
out, even Microsoft admits that Free Software Matters.
This column was first published in the UK in Linux User. It is also available in PostScript and PDF formats.
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Q:
"L'un et l'autre" : Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire ?
Que signifie la deuxième phrase: "l'un et l'autre" ?
Elle n'est point donc la première option ni la deuxième option, elle est l'un et l'autre.
A:
L'un et l'autre signifie « (à la fois) le premier et le deuxième », c'est-à-dire « les deux ». On doit utiliser ici l'une car option est un mot féminin:
Elle n'est point donc la première option ni la deuxième option, elle est l'une et l'autre.
Signifie donc :
Elle n'est donc pas la première option ni la deuxième, elle est les deux.
ou mieux :
Ce n'est donc ni la première, ni la seconde option, c'est les deux.
L'un et l'autre means "one and the other", i.e. "both". Here that should be l'une because option is feminine:
Elle n'est point donc la première option ni la deuxième option, elle est l'une et l'autre.
translates to:
It is therefore not the first option nor the second one, it is both of them.
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Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Nintendo's next two games for mobile platforms will be completely free
Nintendo's next two games for mobile platforms will be completely free
According to recently released their next two games for the Nintendo platforms iOS and Android will be completely free. Japanese company Nintendo announced last month that two mobile games based on popular franchises Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem is in development but there was no mention of pricing them.
Download
Nintendo's first app for smartphones, social networking Miitomo that although quite different to what was expected, but could within a short time, it has attracted millions of fans and Japanese to build games for mobile smart makes encouraged.
Now the company's CEO DeNA, Isu Mvryasv, recently said in an interview that «Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing Both applications will be free", so obviously you have to wait for the Mykrvtrnskshn or the new Nintendo titles for in-app purchases be mobile.
Mvryasv stressed that two new applications, will be more like a pure game and other application controls to communicate with friends and acquaintances will not be spent. According to Nintendo plans to release Tuesday the other applications until March 2017, it can be expected that mobile games Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing to be available this fall.
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What bone part is important to remove in accessing the suprachiasmatic region with less frontal lobe retraction in frontotemporal craniotomies.
The anterolateral approach is one of the main routes for accessing suprachiasmatic lesions involving the anterior communicating artery (AComA) complex. Pterional (PT) craniotomy and its alternatives, including orbitozygomatic, orbitopterional, and mini-supraorbital craniotomies, have been developed as tailored frontotemporal craniotomies. One of the main differences between PT craniotomy and its alternatives is the removal of the orbital bone along with the sphenoid wing. However, which bone part is the most important to remove has not been discussed in relation to frontal lobe retraction. We have evaluated how the removal of the supraorbital bar versus the removal of the lateral orbital wall along with the sphenoid wing affects the relationship between the levels of frontal lobe retraction and area of exposure (AOE) in the suprachiasmatic region. We performed three types of craniotomies: PT craniotomy, PT craniotomy with the removal of the supraorbital bar (PT-SO craniotomy), and PT craniotomy with the removal of the lateral orbital wall along with the sphenoid wing, i.e., the frontal process of the zygomatic bone and the orbital and cerebral faces of the greater sphenoid wing (PT-LO-SW craniotomy). For each craniotomy, the AOE around the suprachiasmatic region was measured at four different levels of frontal lobe retraction, namely, 5, 10, 15, and 20 mm, from the cranial base. At 5-mm retraction, PT-LO-SW craniotomy was the only craniotomy in which the AComA complex was visible. At 10-mm retraction, PT-LO-SW craniotomy afforded the greatest AOE among the three craniotomies, and the AOE was significantly greater than that of PT craniotomy (P = 0.025). At 15- and 20-mm retraction, there were no significant differences among the three craniotomies. Treatment of lesions in the suprachiasmatic region via an anterolateral route involving a frontotemporal craniotomy requires sufficient removal of the lateral orbital wall along with the greater sphenoid wing so that brain retraction is minimized.
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There has been so much we have documented about the corrupt intents of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), that it doesn’t take a deep-weeds political follower to see where this is going. SSCI Chairman Richard Burr and Vice-Chairman … Continue reading →
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Humberton
Humberton is a hamlet and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated east from Boroughbridge and on the north side of the River Ure. The hamlet lies about one mile to the west of the Swale, and comprises of land.
The Ure, which separates the township from Aldborough, was crossed by a wooden bridge, at Milby, before the Conquest, and some remains of the bridge are still visible when the water is low. The name Humberton means 'Hund's fortified farm/settlement' or 'Hundr's fortified farm/settlement'. The population was estimated at 50 in 2013.
History
In the Domesday Book of 1086 Humberton was held by Gospatric. Part of Humberton was described as part of the soke of the king's manor of Aldborough, and until the 19th century Humberton was divided between the parishes of Kirby Hill and Aldborough. In 1866 Humberton became a separate civil parish.
Humberton was in the North Riding of Yorkshire until 1974, when it was transferred to the new county of North Yorkshire.
Since 1837 the parish has belonged to different Registration Districts: Ripon from 1837, Great Ouseburn from 1854, Thirsk from 1895, Northallerton from 1980 and North Yorkshire since 1998.
Population
The population has clearly aged over the last 150 years; the graph shows changes of the population of Humberton from 1801 to 2011. There was a high mortality decline just after 1850, which is indicated on the graph. This was mainly due to high infant mortality rates, this is the death of child before their first birthday. During the twentieth century a decrease of mortality rates and improved life expectancy in later life left significantly changed age structures. The population hit an all-time high 1850. There was another decline of population from 1900 to 1950, and since then has steadily increased.
Occupational structure
The first census was created in 1801 which only had 4 types of occupations listed. In 1841 over 3,000 different occupational titles were listed (a vast change from 1801) this created a very long and confusing table. By 1881 a more organised classification was used in the county, which covered 414 categories of occupation.
The graph shows 4 main occupations that were popular in 1881; 'Agriculture','Domestic service or offices', 'Professional', 'Animals' and 'Unknown'. Obviously agriculture would be the most active occupation due to the time period and land being fertile with the close proximity to the river Ure. Unfortunately, because of the need to reorganise these statistics into different areas, for 1971 to 1991 the data collected covered over 10,000 wards, and only a very simple industrial classification is available for these, therefore some data is missing. Comparing this to the 2001 occupational history graph you can see that there was a change in popularity of occupations. Ellementory occupation became the most active population e.g. washing windows and other glass surfaces of buildings and delivering messages or goods.
References
External links
Category:Villages in North Yorkshire
Category:Civil parishes in North Yorkshire
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Show HN: jQuizzy – Easy, embeddable interactive quizzes - ssiddharth
http://jquizzy.com
======
ssiddharth
Hello there, HN! The guy behind the jQuizzy MVP here. Happy to hear any
feedback/critique/questions you may have.
As a bit of a background, the first version of jQuizzy was a lightweight
quizzing engine that I built when I was at Nettuts and we needed to run a few
quizzes but had no viable options. As it was received well, I put the frontend
only code up for sale on CodeCanyon where it brought in some useful passive
income and has been bought over 700 times at around $20 a pop:
[http://i.imgur.com/R3IZegJ.png](http://i.imgur.com/R3IZegJ.png)
After being bitten by the "start something right now or you'll explode" bug
and brainstorming multiple ideas, I figured this idea deserved the first shot.
I've been working on this for what feels like so many late nights and weekends
now. I've realized I'll never really think it's ready or polished enough so
I'm happy to finally let go and ship it.
I'd love it if you could take it for a spin and let me know what you think.
Positive, negative -- it doesn't matter what kind of feedback you have about
the application itself or the quickie landing page I've put together. Thanks
again for your time!
PS - No SSL for the beta yet. :( I'll be a good dev and implement it way
before I start writing the payment code.
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---
author:
- 'M. Mallonn and K. G. Strassmeier'
bibliography:
- 'myfile.bib'
date: 'Received 4 December 2015; accepted 29 March 2016 '
title: 'Transmission spectroscopy of HAT-P-32b with the LBT[^1]: confirmation of clouds/hazes in the planetary atmosphere'
---
[Spectroscopic observations of a transit event of an extrasolar planet offer the opportunity to study the composition of the planetary atmosphere. This can be done with comparably little telescope time using a low-resolution multi-object spectrograph at a large aperture telescope. We observed a transit of the inflated hot Jupiter HAT-P-32b with the Multi-Object Double Spectrograph at the Large Binocular Telescope to characterize its atmosphere from 3300 to 10000 Å.]{} [A time series of target and reference star spectra was binned in two broad-band wavelength channels, from which differential transit light curves were constructed. These broad-band light curves were used to confirm previous transit parameter determinations. To derive the planetary transmission spectrum with a resolution of $\mathrm{R} \sim 60$, we created a chromatic set of 62 narrow-band light curves. The spectrum was corrected for the third light of a nearby M star. Additionally, we undertook a photometric monitoring campaign of the host star to correct for the influence of starspots.]{} [The transmission spectrum of HAT-P-32b shows no pressure-broadened absorption features from Na and K, which is interpreted by the presence of clouds or hazes in the planetary atmosphere. This result is in agreement with previous studies on the same planet. The presence of TiO in gas phase could be ruled out. We find a 2.8$\sigma$ indication of increased absorption in the line core of potassium (KI 7699 Å). No narrow absorption features of Na and H$\alpha$ were detected. Furthermore, tentative indications were found for a slope of increasing opacity toward blue wavelengths from the near-IR to the near-UV with an amplitude of two scale heights. If confirmed by follow-up observations, it can be explained by aerosols either causing Mie scattering or causing Rayleigh scattering with an aerosol - gas scale height ratio below unity. The host star was found to be photometrically stable within the measurement precision.]{}
Introduction
============
Transiting extrasolar planets bright enough for ground-based follow-up provide a wealth of information for their characterization. Photometric observations of multiple transit events provide the orbital period, the orbital inclination, and the planet–star radius ratio. High-precision stellar spectroscopy yields the stellar parameters, and in comparison with stellar evolutionary models, the true stellar mass and size. These pieces of information combined allow the true size of the planet to be derived, which in turn provides a planetary bulk density when combined with information from the radial velocity curve of the host star.
The observation of a planetary transit at multiple wavelengths allows for the characterization of the atmosphere of the planet, which can be used to understand planet formation and evolution and, ultimately, to search for biomarkers. During a transit, a fraction of the starlight shines through the atmosphere of the planet where atoms and molecules scatter and absorb it dependent on wavelength. This effect is in principle measurable as a wavelength dependent effective radius.
The first observational attempts of transmission spectroscopy of an extended gas envelope surrounding an extrasolar planet were made in the infrared shortly after such planets were detected [@Coustenis1997]. The first experiments and the detection of upper limits on planetary absorption at optical wavelengths followed soon thereafter [@Rauer2000; @Bundy2000; @Moutou2001]. The successful detection of the absorption of sodium was announced by [@Charbonneau2002]. Since then, optical transmission spectroscopy has found atomic signatures not only of sodium [@Snellen2008; @Sing2008; @Redfield2008; @Wood2011; @Sing2012; @Nikolov2014; @Murgas2014] and potassium [@Sing2011_XO2; @Nikolov2015; @Wilson2015; @Sing2015], but also of atomic hydrogen H$\alpha$ [@Jensen2012], calcium [@Astudillo2013], and molecular hydrogen [@Sing2008; @LecavelierDesEtangs2008].
Several planets exhibit a Rayleigh slope of increased absorption at blue wavelengths [@Pont2013; @Sing2013; @Jordan2013; @Sing2015; @Nikolov2015], others show a flat and featureless spectrum [@Gibson2013; @GibsonH32; @MallonnH12; @MallonnH19; @Lendl2015]. Generally, the current results show a rather diverse picture of hot Jupiter atmospheres. For example, clouds seem to play an important role in the interpretation of the atmospheres of many objects [@Sing2016], but multiple objects exist that are explained by cloud-free models [e.g., @Fischer2016]. We do not know yet about the physical origin of the difference between these groups. Additionally, in principle all measurements need to deal with instrument systematics, i.e., to some extent, the diversity of current results might also be influenced by the low signal-to-noise ratio of most attempts of exoplanet spectroscopy. We still need to verify many of the detections by repeated observations of the most favorable targets.
The best chance for a detection of an atmospheric signal is provided by close-in gas giants with inflated radii and a large transit depth. The hot temperatures in their atmospheres and the low surface gravity drive the atmospheric pressure-scale height up to 1000 km and more for the most suitable targets. Among them is the planet HAT-P-32b. This hot Jupiter was among the first exoplanet candidates of the HATNet survey [@Bakos2004] with discovery photometry dating back to 2004 [@Hartman2011]. However, the object proved difficult to confirm because of a high radial velocity (RV) jitter of about $\sim$80 ms$^{-1}$. HAT-P-32b has a mass of about 0.9 M$_{\rm{Jupiter}}$ and a radius of about 1.8 R$_{\rm{Jupiter}}$, making it one of the most bloated planets found to date. The host is an F-type main-sequence star of V=11.3 mag, with a mass of 1.16 M$_{\odot}$ and a radius of 1.22 R$_{\odot}$. Although many more high-S/N spectra were taken for the RV curve than for typical HATNet candidates, the planet’s eccentricity $e$ could not be well constrained owing to the jitter, $e = 0.2^{+0.19}_{-0.13}$ [@Knutson2014]. [@Hartman2011] argued that the high RV jitter is probably not caused by brightness (temperature) inhomogeneities on the stellar surface. Instead, it might be caused by convective inhomogeneities that vary in time. The photometric detection of the secondary eclipse by [@Zhao2014] and its timing increased the likelihood of a circular orbit. The same authors found a featureless emission spectrum of the planet’s dayside in agreement with a spectrum of a black body of $\sim$2000 K.
[@Knutson2014] confirmed a trend in the RV measurements of HAT-P-32 that indicated an additional companion at a distance of several AU and with a possible mass of up to 0.5 M$_{\odot}$. [@Adams2013] imaged a nearby star that is too distant to explain the RV trend. Hence, it might be that HAT-P-32 has two massive outer companions and we have no knowledge of the third-light contribution of the inner one. [@Seeliger2014] conducted an analysis of transit timing variations (TTV) to search for additional close-in planets in low-integer resonant periods to HAT-P-32b which, in part, might be responsible for the RV jitter. Their null-result ruled out nearby planets down to super-Earth masses, but was not sensitive to the two massive bodies farther out.
A first transmission spectrum of HAT-P-32b at optical wavelengths was obtained by [@GibsonH32] (hereafter G13). They used two Gemini-North GMOS transit observations to rule out pressure-broadened absorption features of sodium and potassium. The achieved featureless spectrum could be best explained by a cloud coverage of the planetary atmosphere. Current attempts of ground-based transmission spectroscopy are at the limit of the instrument’s capabilities and conclusions are vulnerable to systematics in the light curves. Therefore, we were interested whether the results of G13 could be reproduced with a new data set and an independent analysis. Additionally, we monitored the host star HAT-P-32 with STELLA/WiFSIP during two observing seasons to be sure that the transit parameters are not affected by starspots.
This paper is structured as follows. Section 2 describes the observations and the data reduction. Section 3 and 4 present the analysis and results of the monitoring campaign and the third light of the M dwarf companion, respectively. The analysis and results of transit light curves are given in Section 5, followed by the discussion in Section 6, and the conclusions in Section 7.
Observations and data reduction
===============================
Spectroscopic transit observation
---------------------------------
The transit observation was performed on 2012 November 13 with the Multi-Object Double Spectrograph [MODS; @Pogge2010], a low- to medium-resolution optical spectrograph/imager at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). MODS covers a field of view (FoV) of 6$'\times$6$'$. We employed the instrument in its dual-channel mode, i.e., the incoming light beam is split by a dichroic at a wavelength of 5650 Å into separate red- and blue-optimized channels. A wavelength region from 3300 to 10000 Å is covered in total. We used the multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) mode where multiple stars are observed simultaneously through a user-designed slit mask. In this way we took spectra of the target and four comparison stars summarized in Table \[H32\_compstars\]. Figure \[ima\_aqui\_H32\] shows the acquisition image of the field prior to the slit mask insertion. As dispersive element we chose the gratings G400L (blue) and G670L (red). Both channels are equipped with e2v 3K$\times$8K CCD detectors, differently coated for the blue and the red arm, which are read-out through eight amplifiers each. In November 2012 the telescope control software was not yet able to allow for binocular observations with MODS and so we used the binocular telescope in “one-eye” mode. For high-accuracy spectrophotometry we wanted to be sure of losing a negligible amount of flux at the edge of the slits. Owing to pointing and seeing variations this light loss would be variable and could potentially manifest as a significant noise source in the resulting light curves. Therefore, we designed 10$''$ wide slits for the MOS mask. The length of the slits was 30$''$ to allow for a proper sky correction.
The MODS observation started at 04:36 UT and lasted until 09:49 UT. The last exposures with the red arm could not be transferred to the data archive because of technical problems, hence the red time series ended at 09:29 UT. The transit took place between 05:43 and 08:49 UT. At 06:41 UT the observation paused owing to technical problems with the adaptive secondary mirror, but were continued after $\sim$7 min. All spectroscopic frames were exposed for 20 s, together with the overheads of 54 and 59 s resulting in a cadence of 74 and 79 s for the red and blue arm, respectively. A 2$\times$2 pixel binning was applied on-chip. The time series consisted of 238 blue frames and 240 red frames. The night was clear and offered photometric conditions; the seeing varied between 1.0$''$ and 1.5$''$. The airmass increased from 1.03 to 1.39 during the observation. The object drifted by less than two pixels in both spatial and dispersion direction over the length of the time series. The time dependence of these observational parameters are presented in Figure \[plot\_obs\_cond\] together with the raw flux of the target in the blue and the red arm. For each exposure the target spectra achieved a signal-to-noise of about 260 per pixel in dispersion direction in the blue MODS channel and about 370 in the red channel.
The spectra were reduced using customized ESO-MIDAS scripts. The eight read-out amplifiers per CCD cause an odd/even column pattern resulting from the two read-out amplifiers per quadrant, each having its own bias and gain level. The corresponding bias values were extracted from the overscan regions; a flat field correction was done by flats taken on the same day as the science frames using gas lamps. We averaged 30 flat field exposures to create a master flat.
The dispersion direction of the spectra is misaligned to the pixel rows of the detector by $\sim$18 pixel in spatial direction over the $\sim$2800 pixel in dispersion direction. We rebinned the spectra for alignment. A similar rebinning in dispersion direction was not necessary because no bending was detected over the rather short extent of the slit in spatial direction. Wavelength calibration spectra were obtained with a different slit mask. The slit positions and lengths were the same as in the science mask, whereas the width was reduced to 1$''$ to avoid impractically broad lines. The wavelength calibration included a shift in dispersion to correct for the pixel drift, which was measured by the centroid movements of the telluric O$_2$ lines. According to the wavelength solution of the arc lamp exposures and the scatter of the residual line positions in wavelength, the accuracy of the wavelength calibration is better than 0.3 Å. One-dimensional spectra were extracted by a simple flux sum in spatial direction within a FWHM-dependent aperture. Examples of extracted spectra of HAT-P-32 and the comparison stars are shown in Figure \[plot\_examspec\_H32\].
To create light curves of the transit event, we integrated the spectral flux for the target and comparison stars in wavelength channels, and performed differential photometry per channel. We compared light curves by using the optimal extraction technique of @Horne86 for the extraction of one-dimensional spectra, and in agreement with [@MallonnH19], we found a more robust spectrophotometry for the simple flux sum. We tested which object aperture and which width of sky stripes minimizes the rms of the light curve residuals after a transit model subtraction using literature transit parameters. This resulted in an aperture of 5.5 times the spatial FWHM in the blue arm and 6.5 times the spatial FWHM in the red arm. We note that these apertures include the flux of the faint companion of HAT-P-32 at 2.9$''$ distance. We discuss its influence in detail in Section \[Chap\_H32\_Mdwarf\]. Interestingly for the sky subtraction, we did not find that the widest sky stripes gave the lowest scatter in the light curves. Instead, rather small stripes of 10 pixel width on both sides placed as far away from the object as possible yielded the best quality despite their higher photon noise. Our explanation is that wider sky stripes need to approach the spectral centroid more closely because of the limited spatial extension of the slits. Thus, wide sky stripes contain more target light of the wide spectral profile wings resulting in an erroneous sky determination.
![MODS acquisition image with 6$'\times$6$'$ field of view. A Sloan r’ filter was used with all objects of interest saturated. The mask alignment was done by fainter stars not indicated here. The green boxes mark the approximate position of the slits in the mask, the dispersion direction is along the x-axis.[]{data-label="ima_aqui_H32"}](aqui_image_d.eps){height="\hsize"}
[cccc]{} identifier & star & $\Delta$V (mag) & $\Delta$R (mag)\
H32 &HAT-P-32 & &\
1 & GSC 03281-00957 & 0.09 & -0.24\
2 & GSC 03281-00900 & 1.36 & 1.30\
3 & GSC 03281-00464 & 1.49 & 1.48\
4 & GSC 03281-00640 & 1.76 & 1.78\
![Evolution of observational parameters over the time series. From top to bottom: The count rate of HAT-P-32 of the blue light curve and the red light curve, the airmass, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the spectral profile in spatial direction, and the drift of the centroid of the spectral profile in spatial direction. []{data-label="plot_obs_cond"}](plot_obs_cond.eps){width="\hsize"}
![Example spectra of a single exposure of HAT-P-32 and the four comparison stars. The wavelength separation of the blue and the red arm of MODS at 5600 Å is indicated by a vertical dotted line. The features at $\sim$3940 Å in the spectrum of HAT-P-32 (black) and at $\sim$8011 Å in the spectrum of C1 (red) are caused by CCD errors.[]{data-label="plot_examspec_H32"}](plot_examspec.eps){height="\hsize"}
Photometric monitoring
----------------------
A long-term photometric monitoring campaign of the host star HAT-P-32 was carried out with the robotic twin telescope STELLA [@Strassmeier2004] and its wide field imager [@Weber2012]. The imaging instrument consists of a 4k$\times$4k back-illuminated CCD with a plate scale of 0.322$''$/pixel and four read-out amplifiers. It covers a field of 22$'\times$ 22$'$ on the sky. We monitored HAT-P-32 between December 2011 and March 2013 in the filters Johnson B and Sloan r’ and obtained a total of 2456 and 2442 images, respectively. The images were taken in blocks of three frames in B plus three frames in r’ with an exposure time of 15 s each. If the conditions allowed, multiple blocks were taken each night. In total, the telescope observed HAT-P-32 on 180 individual nights. We read out the full FoV and applied no defocus.
The data reduction was done with the customized routines used previously for the long-term photometry of HAT-P-12 and HAT-P-19 in [@MallonnH12] and [@MallonnH19]. The scripts are written in ESO-MIDAS and call the aperture photometry software SExtractor [@Bertin96]. A selection of seven comparison stars in r’ and 11 stars in B was found to minimize the scatter in the differential target light curve. We verified that the Lomb-Scargle periodograms (Section \[chap\_res\_lotephot\]) are independent of the choice of the comparison stars. Data points with a target peak count rate higher than 60000 ADU, a flux rate lower than 30% of average, a sky background higher than 1000 ADU, a FWHM higher than 15 pixel, and a semi-major and semi-minor axis ratio of the PSF shape of more than 2.5 were excluded. Finally we averaged the three exposures taken per block, which left us with 480 data points in Johnson B with a point-to-point scatter of 3.4 mmag, and 512 data points in Sloan r’ with a scatter of 2. 7 mmag.
Results of the monitoring program and starspot correction {#chap_res_lotephot}
=========================================================
Brightness inhomogeneities on the stellar surface, for example due to starspots [@Strassmeier2009], modify the transit parameters. If the spots are not occulted by the disk of the planet, they lower the effective size of the stellar disk. Therefore, the transit appears deeper than with a homogeneous photosphere [@Sing2011; @Pont2013]. If spots are located along the transit chord, the occultation causes a flux rise in the measurement and results in a bump in the photometric transit light curve. A fit of a symmetric transit model would yield an underestimated transit depth. [@Hartman2011] found a substantial RV jitter of about 80 m$\,$s$^{-1}$ of the host star, and provide arguments why this jitter is more likely to be caused by temporally changing convective inhomogeneities than by starspots. For example, there is a lack of photometric out-of-transit variations in the HATNet data. We monitored the host star in B and r’ before and after the transit observation to verify whether photometric variations are indeed absent.
The light curves in both filters after the subtraction of a transit model are shown in Figure \[H32\_lotephot\]. No significant variability is visible by eye. The photometric brightness at the moment of the transit observations matches the overall mean of the time series. We computed a Lomb-Scargle periodogram (Figure \[H32\_periodo\]) to search for periodic variations. There are several peaks above the value of a false alarm probability (FAP) of 0.001, e.g., both data sets show a common frequency of $\sim$0.2 and $\sim$0.39 cyclesday$^{-1}$. Sine fits to these frequencies reveal semi-amplitudes of 1 mmag and less in all cases. A plain least-squares periodogram used to estimate the amplitude of periodic sine and cosine functions over a wide frequency range confirms that no semi-amplitudes larger than about 1 mmag are present in the data. According to Eq. 4 in [@Sing2011], the correction on the transit depth of HAT-P-32b for a flux variation at the 1mmag level is below $1 \times 10^{-4}$. This is smaller than our mean uncertainty on $k$ by about a factor of three. Therefore, we conclude that a correction of the derived transmission spectrum for brightness inhomogeneities on the stellar surface is not necessary.
![Monitoring light curve of the host star HAT-P-32 observed with STELLA/WiFSIP in Johnson B and Sloan r’. A vertical dashed line indicates the moment of the MODS transit observation.[]{data-label="H32_lotephot"}](H32_lotephot.eps){height="\hsize"}
![Lomb-Scargle periodogram of the monitoring light curves in B and r’. The dotted horizontal lines indicate the value of FAP=0.001. At the bottom, an average of the two corresponding window functions is given.[]{data-label="H32_periodo"}](H32_periodo.eps){height="\hsize"}
Third-light contribution for the M dwarf companion {#Chap_H32_Mdwarf}
==================================================
[@Adams2013] found a companion object only 2.9$''$ to HAT-P-32, which is fainter in the Johnson K band by 3.4 magnitudes. This magnitude difference corresponds to a light contribution of the nearby object (third light) of $\sim$4.5% in K. Third light has the opposite effect to unocculted starspots on the transit parameters and dilutes the transit depth. A third-light contribution of 4.5% in the K band would damp the true transit depth by the same amount of 4.5%.
The light of this companion is included in our aperture. We approximate the third-light contribution $\Delta f$ with the ratio of the peak intensities of the spectral profiles of both objects. Because the peak of the M dwarf is influenced by the wings of the PSF of HAT-P-32, we removed HAT-P-32 from the spectral profile. The one side of the profile opposite the M dwarf was mirrored and subtracted from the other side of the profile containing the companion profile. The peak intensity ratio was calculated individually for each exposure of the time series. Because no significant time dependence could be found (potentially caused by variability of the M dwarf), the values were averaged. We estimated the third-light contribution only from the red MODS data, because at blue wavelengths ($\lambda\,<\,5600~\AA{}$) the influence of the M dwarf is negligible. A plot of this intensity ratio over wavelength in steps of $\sim$15 Å is presented in Figure \[plot\_thirdlight\]. Many spectral absorption features typical of an M dwarf are visible, for example Na, H$\alpha$, FeH, TiO, and VO. Our derived values are in very good agreement with previous estimations [G13; @Hartman2011; @Adams2013; @Zhao2014], but provide a higher spectral resolution. At the reddest light curves of our sample, the transit depth needs to be corrected by almost 2%, which is about the size of the transit depth uncertainties. The uncertainty of the third-light contamination of about 0.05% is small enough to be negligible in the error budget of the transit parameters. Stellar properties of the M dwarf companion were derived by [@Zhao2014] and [@Ngo2015] and it is out of the scope of the current work to refine them.
![Third-light contribution of the nearby M dwarf to the integrated light of HAT-P-32. The broad-band measurements of [@Zhao2014] in r’, i’, and z’ are plotted in red. []{data-label="plot_thirdlight"}](plot_Mdwarf_v2.eps){height="\hsize"}
Transit light curve analysis and results
========================================
Creation of light curves
------------------------
We created a set of light curves over wavelength by the integration of the spectral flux in multiple wavelength bands. Each band yields one data point in the planetary transmission spectrum and the width of these bands determines the achievable spectral resolution. However, the bands need to be wide enough to collect sufficient flux for a S/N$\gtrsim$1000 per data point in the spectrophotometric light curves, an accuracy necessary to obtain high-precision transit parameters. We use 62 wavelength bands with an average width of 100 Å with narrower widths at the wavelengths of Na, K, H$\alpha$, which are potential absorption lines in the planetary atmosphere [@Charbonneau2002; @Sing2011b; @Jensen2012]. The spectral resolution of the planetary spectrum is $\mathrm{R} \sim 60$. The specific borders of the bands are chosen to exclude faulty CCD pixels and fully include wide absorption features in the stellar spectra like the Balmer lines. We note that partially covered absorption features reduce the spectrophotometric accuracy because the features move in wavelength at a sub-Å level from exposure to exposure following the object centroid jitter in the wide slit.
We chose the combination of the four comparison stars in flux that provided the light curve with the lowest photometric scatter after a subtraction of a transit model using literature transit parameter. The obtained optimal combination was found to be wavelength dependent. Because of this wavelength dependence we did not produce a white light curve by an integration of the spectral flux over the entire spectral range. Instead, we first produced the set of 62 light curves over wavelength, and then formed their weighted average with the point-to-point scatter as inverse weighting factor. Because the exposures of the blue and the red CCD have slightly different sampling rates, we formed a combined “blue” light curve of the 19 wavelength channels of the blue MODS arm and a “red” light curve from the 43 light curves of the red arm. Both averaged light curves are shown in Figure \[plot\_blue\_red\], while the set of 62 light curves over wavelength is shown in Figure \[plot\_all\_lcs\]. The blue and red light curves have a point-to-point scatter (rms) of 0.56 and 0.44 mmag, which are respectively a factor of about 3.9 and 3.6 higher than the photon noise of the target and the comparison star combination. The 62 light curves show a scatter from 0.83 to 3.7 mmag (mean 1.2 mmag), which is a factor of 1.3 to 2.8 higher than the photon noise (mean 1.9). These results are similar to the values reached with GEMINI-N/GMOS in comparable spectrophotometric studies [G13; @Stevenson2014]. The properties of the chromatic light curves are summarized in Table \[tab\_62lcs\].
![Averaged light curves for the blue and the red arm, and their corresponding residuals (from top to bottom). Overplotted in red are the best-fit transit models including a linear (blue arm) and a quadratic (red arm) detrending function over time.[]{data-label="plot_blue_red"}](plot_blue_red_lc.eps){height="\hsize"}
Light curve modeling {#chap_lc_mod}
--------------------
All transit light curves in this work were analyzed with the publicly available software [^2] [@Southworth2004; @Southworth2008] in version 34. The transit fit parameters consist of the sum of the fractional planetary and stellar radius, $r_{\star} + r_p$, their ratio $k=r_p/r_{\star}$, the orbital inclination $i$, the transit midtime $T_0$, and the host star limb-darkening coefficients (LDC) $u$ and $v$ of the quadratic limb-darkening law. The index “$\star$” refers to the host star and “p” refers to the planet. The dimensionless fractional radius is the absolute radius in units of the orbital semi-major axis $a$; $r_{\star} = R_{\star}/a$ and $r_p = R_p/a$. In addition, allows the simultaneous fit of polynomials and sine curves for detrending of the light curves. We used the Bayesian Information Criterion [BIC, @Schwarz78] to choose the detrending models for each light curve of the chromatic set and for the blue and red light curves. The BIC consistently favored low-order polynomials over time from order zero to three. The blue light curve showed a very weak correlation of the residuals and the FWHM of the spectral spatial profile. However, the BIC value did not justify the inclusion of a FWHM-dependent term in the detrending function. No other correlations between light curve residuals and external parameters like pixel position or rotation angle was found. Table \[tab\_62lcs\] lists the order of the time-dependent polynomials used.
Throughout this work, we employed the quadratic limb-darkening law. We followed the common approach of fixing the quadratic coefficient $v$ to its theoretical value, while fitting for the linear coefficient $u$ [e.g., @Mancini2014; @Southworth2015; @MallonnH12]. In the error analysis, $v$ is perturbed to account for systematic errors in its theoretical calculation. Theoretical values for $v$ were obtained from [@Claret2013] with sufficient spectral resolution (Claret, priv. comm.). The stellar parameters used were the ones from [@Hartman2011] for the case of a circular planetary orbit.
We employed a constant photometric uncertainties over time per light curve because of the stable flux level (see Figure \[plot\_obs\_cond\]) and adopted the standard deviation of the residuals after an initial transit fit. We further enlarged the photometric uncertainties by the so-called $\beta$ factor, a concept introduced by [@Gillon06] and [@Winn08], to account for the presence of correlated noise in the light curves. The $\beta$ factor used here is the mean of the ratio of the standard deviation of the residuals and the standard deviation of white noise when binned in intervals from 10 to 30 minutes.
The estimation of the transit parameter uncertainties was done with “task 8” in [@Southworth2005], which is a Monte Carlo simulation, and with “task 9” [@Southworth2008], which is a residual-permutation algorithm that takes into account correlated noise. We ran the Monte Carlo simulation with 5000 steps. As final parameter uncertainties we adopted the larger value of both methods.
Results for the blue and red light curve
----------------------------------------
First, we analyzed the blue and the red light curve. After an initial fit using literature transit parameters, we estimated the photometric uncertainties, enlarged them by the $\beta$ factor (see Section \[chap\_lc\_mod\]) and removed outliers in the light curve residuals by a 3-$\sigma$ clipping. We calculated the BIC value to estimate the order of the detrending polynomial over time, which resulted in a first-order polynomial for the blue light curve (two free parameters $c_0$ and $c_1$) and a second-order polynomial for the red light curve (three free parameters $c_0$, $c_1$, and $c_2$). Then, we performed our transit light curve fit with the free parameters $r_{\star} + r_p$, $k$, $i$, $T_0$, $u$, and $c_{0,1}$ respectively $c_{0,1,2}$. The orbital period was fixed to the value of [@Seeliger2014], the orbital eccentricity was fixed to zero following [@Zhao2014]. The results of the transit parameters for the blue and red light curve are summarized in Table \[transitparam\_H32\]. The value of $k$ of the red light curve is corrected by the flux weighted average of the third-light contribution from the nearby M dwarf (see Section \[Chap\_H32\_Mdwarf\]) using Eq. 4 in [@Sing2011]. A comparison to previous results from [@Hartman2011], G13, and [@Seeliger2014] reveals agreement to within 1$\sigma$. The MODS transit corresponds to epoch 849 with regard to the ephemeris zero point defined in [@Hartman2011]. Our derived values for T$_0$ agree to within 1$\sigma$ of the calculated value using the period of [@Seeliger2014].
this work, blue light this work, red light [@Hartman2011] G13 [@Seeliger2014]
---------------------------------------- ----------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------ --------------------------- ---------------------
$a/R_{\star}\,=\,1/r_{\star}$ 6.047 $\pm$ 0.087 6.046 $\pm$0.055 6.05$^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$ 6.091$^{+0.047}_{-0.036}$ 6.060 $\pm$ 0.009
$k\,=\,r_p/r_{\star}$ 0.1515 $\pm$ 0.0012 0.1505 $\pm$ 0.0005 0.1508 $\pm$ 0.0004 0.1515 $\pm$ 0.0012 0.1507 $\pm$ 0.0004
i (deg) 88.61 $\pm$ 0.84 88.56 $\pm$ 0.57 88.9 $\pm$ 0.4 89.12$^{+0.68}_{-0.61}$ 88.98 $\pm$ 0.10
T$_0$ - 2456245 (BJD$_{\mathrm{TDB}})$ 0.80334 $\pm$ 0.00014 0.80349 $\pm$ 0.00008
$u$ 0.464 $\pm$ 0.031 0.216 $\pm$ 0.018
$v$ 0.212 0.224
rms (mmag) 0.56 0.44
N$_{data}$ 238 240
$\beta $ 1.98 1.47
Results for the set of 62 chromatic light curves
------------------------------------------------
The main goal of the current work is the derivation of a planetary transmission spectrum in low spectral resolution from the near-UV to the near-IR. The transit parameters $r_{\star}$, $i$, and T$_0$, which are expected to be independent of wavelength, were fixed in the transit fit. For comparability with the transmission spectrum presented by G13, we used their values for $r_{\star}$ and $i$; T$_0$ was set to the prediction of the ephemeris of [@Seeliger2014]. Free parameters per light curve are $k$, $u$, and the coefficients of the detrending polynomial over time. The uncertainty of the wavelength-independent parameters are assumed to affect all chromatic light curves equally, hence they can be neglected in a differential search for variations in the planetary radius [@Mancini2014; @Southworth2015]. Our uncertainties on $k$ are therefore relative uncertainties.
All transit values of $k$ of the light curves redder than 5600 Å were corrected for the third-light contribution from the nearby M dwarf (see Section \[Chap\_H32\_Mdwarf\]) using Eq. 4 in [@Sing2011]. The resulting transmission spectrum is given in Table \[tab\_62lcs\] and Figure \[plot\_transspec\_2pan\]. It is broadly consistent with the planetary spectrum derived by G13, with individual data points deviating by about 2.5$\sigma$ at 5430 Å, 6560 Å, and 8090 Å. We compared our measurements with several theoretical [@Fortney2010] models computed for 1750 K atmospheric temperature and scaled to the planetary parameters of HAT-P-32b. A cloud-free solar-composition model dominated by TiO absorption gives a low-quality fit of $\chi^2$ of 212.1 for 61 degrees of freedom (DOF); a solar-composition model with TiO artificially removed results in $\chi^2\,=\,168.9$ (DOF=61); and a solar composition model without TiO and with a Rayleigh scattering component with a cross section 100$\times$ that of H$_2$ gives $\chi^2\,=\,90.7$ (DOF=61). For all three models the corresponding one-tailed probabilities $P$ of a $\chi^2$ test are below 0.01, i.e., these models are significantly ruled out by the data. Also ruled out is a wavelength-independent absorption as a flat line fitted to the data results in $\chi^2\,=\,111.2$ (DOF=61). An acceptable fit can be achieved by a linear function over wavelength, resulting in $\chi^2\,=\,79.9$ (DOF=60).
{height="\hsize"}
### Common mode correction
The residuals of the blue and the red light curve in Figure \[plot\_blue\_red\] show correlated noise at the sub-mmag level. We made the assumption that this correlated noise pattern is common for all chromatic light curves and tested whether its subtraction from all chromatic light curves can improve the derived transmission spectrum. Because the residuals were subtracted equally from all chromatic light curves, this correction does not affect the differential variations of the planetary radius. However, we found this common mode correction to have little effect on the light curves and the resulting transmission spectrum: on average it does not reduce the rms of the chromatic light curves and decreases the $\beta$ factor by about 15%. The attempted common mode correction does not affect the detrending.
However, we see that the detrending has a great influence on the uncertainties of $k$. Light curves using a more flexible detrending model of order two and three have on average more than 50 percent higher uncertainties on $k$ than models using a polynomial of order zero or one. A common subtraction of the trend of the red light curve from all chromatic light curves of the red camera would also not yield an improvement because a wavelength dependence of the trends can be seen by eye in Figure \[plot\_all\_lcs\]. Instead, we tested whether a correction of trends common to neighboring wavelength channels (here called chromatic mode correction) can clean the individual light curves on average. First, from each chromatic light curve we subtracted a transit model fixed to the mean of the parameters of the blue and red light curve with tabulated LDC and without a detrending function. As a result we obtained the chromatic light curve residuals per wavelength channel still including the individual trend. For each chromatic transit light curve, we averaged and subtracted the residuals of the eight neighboring channels (four toward the blue and four toward the red side). A new calculation of the BIC values showed that this new version of the chromatic light curves needed substantially lower orders of the polynomial over time with orders higher than one being an exception. Furthermore, the rms of the point-to-point variation decreased on average by $\sim$10%, and the $\beta$ factor by $\sim$30%. The uncertainties in $k$ decreased on average by $\sim$30%. The corresponding chromatic mode corrected light curves are shown in Fig. \[plot\_all\_lcs\_cmc\], their transmission spectrum in Figure \[plot\_transspec\_cmc\], and a summary of the light curve properties is given in Table \[tab\_62lcs\_cmc\]. We note that this chromatic mode corrected transmission spectrum no longer holds information about overall gradients because they would have been subtracted by residuals versus a transit model of constant $k$. Instead, this transmission spectrum exhibits potential $k$ variations regarding the adjacent channels and is therefore useful in the search for absorption in the cores of, e.g., Na and K.
The standard deviation of the data points over our entire wavelength range is 0.8 atmospheric pressure scale heights of HAT-P-32b. For the 39 measurements between 4000 Å and 7400 Å, we achieve a standard deviation of 0.52 scale heights. One scale height amounts to $\sim$1000 km using the stellar and planetary parameters of [@Hartman2011] for zero eccentricity. We find an increased absorption of 2.8$\sigma$ in the wavelength channel of potassium compared to the neighboring channels. No increased absorption was detected in the wavelength channels of Na and H$\alpha$.
![Transmission spectrum of HAT-P-32b after the chromatic mode correction. The horizontal dotted and dashed lines indicate respectively one and three pressure scale heights of the planetary atmosphere.[]{data-label="plot_transspec_cmc"}](plot_transspec_cmc.eps){height="\hsize"}
Discussion
==========
Lack of pressure-broadened alkali absorption
--------------------------------------------
The transmission spectrum of HAT-P-32b derived in this work shows no significant atomic or molecular absorption features. The lack of features predicted by cloud-free solar-composition models [@Fortney2010] of Na, K, or TiO confirms the result obtained by G13 and is best explained by a layer of clouds or haze obscuring the spectral signatures. Within the current sample of hot Jupiters observed by transmission spectroscopy at optical wavelengths, the vast majority show no or weakened alkali features compared to cloud-free solar-composition models. Recently, [@Fischer2016] published the result for WASP-39b, which is an exception in that it actually shows the pressure-broadened alkali wings indicative of a clear atmosphere. [@Sing2016] gave evidence that the lack of observed features is linked to clouds/hazes rather than being caused by subsolar abundances. However, the formation of these particles in the atmosphere is not yet fully understood and no clear correlation of their occurrence with atmospheric temperature, planetary surface gravity or stellar insolation emerges from the sample of existing observations. [@Fortney2005] predicted the condensate opacity to be important for the observational technique of transmission spectroscopy because of the slant viewing geometry and the resulting long path of the star light through the planetary atmosphere. Trace species of condensates can make the atmosphere optically thick and hamper the detection of further atomic or molecular absorption features.
Lack of TiO
-----------
Indications of a temperature inversion at the permanent dayside were found for HAT-P-32b by [@Zhao2014], possibly caused by TiO. However, the cloud-free solar-composition model of 1750 K by [@Fortney2010], which is dominated by TiO absorption, is ruled out to high significance at the planetary terminator probed by our measurements. The large discrepancy between measurements and model is mainly caused by the lack of the predicted blueward drop in absorption (see Figure \[plot\_transspec\_2pan\]). However, the blueward drop might be damped by the opacity of clouds or hazes. Several absorption features of TiO at redder wavelengths might be measurable instead, in spite of clouds/hazes, because the atmosphere becomes opaque at very high altitudes as a result of TiO absorption [@Fortney2010]. We searched for the bandheads at $\sim$7200 Å, $\sim$7700 Å, and $\sim$8500 Å, and can significantly rule out additional absorption. The lack of TiO could be explained by a rainout of TiO bound in condensates at lower altitudes or condensation on the colder night side [@Spiegel2009] and would be in agreement with the lack of TiO absorption in transmission spectra of other hot Jupiters.
Tentative indication of potassium
---------------------------------
In both the original transmission spectrum and the spectrum after chromatic mode correction we detect an indication of additional absorption by potassium. In the original spectrum the additional absorption is $\Delta\mathrm{k}\,=\,0.0032\,\pm\,0.0011$ compared to the adjacent channels, and $\Delta\mathrm{k}\,=\,0.0025\,\pm\,0.0010$ compared to the best-fit linear function over wavelength, which corresponds to a significance of 2.9 and 2.5$\sigma$, respectively. In the chromatic mode corrected spectrum the additional absorption is 0.0032$\pm$0.0011 or 2.8$\sigma$ compared to the four channels blueward and four channels redward. Our analysis concentrates on the line core at 7699 Å of the potassium doublet because the photometry of the other line core at 7665 Å will be influenced by the telluric Fraunhofer A band. We tested several channel widths around the 7699 Å line from 10 to 60 Å in 10 Å steps and found no increase in absorption toward narrower channels, which would be expected since wider channels dilute the signal of the line core. We also tested different channel widths around the Na doublet at $\sim$5893 Å and H$\alpha$ at 6563 Å and found consistent values without an increase in absorption for narrower channels.
An interpretation for finding K but no Na in the atmosphere of HAT-P-32b would not be trivial. Photo-ionization favors a depletion of K I over Na I [@Sing2015]. Therefore, it would not be a plausible explanation for a low Na/K ratio. Both elements should not condense out at the equilibrium temperature of $\sim$1800 K since Na forms condensates at $\sim$1000 K, while K condenses around 800 K [@Lodders2003].
More observational data are needed to confirm an excess absorption in K before a conclusive statement can be drawn.
Spectral slope caused by scattering?
------------------------------------
The derived spectrum shows an increase in opacity toward bluer wavelengths covering the entire observed spectral range from 3300 to 10000 Å. A fit of a flat line gives a $\chi^2$ of 111.2 (DOF=61), which corresponds to a one-tailed probability of $1 \times 10^{-4}$. We verified that this slope is not caused by the treatment of the limb-darkening parameters by two additional transit fit runs. We included the two LDCs as fixed to their theoretical values; in another fit we left both LDC free. In both cases, the slope was not significantly different from the transmission spectrum of Figure \[plot\_transspec\_2pan\] (Table \[tab\_62lcs\]), for which the linear LDC was fitted and the quadratic LDC was fixed. It also made no significant difference whether we fixed $i$ and $R_{\star}$ to the values used by G13 or the red or blue light curve values of Table \[transitparam\_H32\].
G13 does not discuss the significance of a slope in their transmission spectrum. Using the G13 planetary spectrum to fit a linear function over wavelength in Å, we find a slope of $(-3.95\,\pm\,1.10)\,\times\,10^{-7}$, which is in good agreement with the derived slope of $(-3.77\,\pm\,0.89)\,\times\,10^{-7}$ from the transmission spectrum of this work. However, the significance of the slope is only marginally above 3$\sigma$, and we are cautious about announcing the detection of a spectral gradient. Follow-up observations are needed in order to rule out undetected red noise as its source. The follow-up can potentially be done by multiple transit observations with small to medium class telescopes using broad-band filters [e.g., @MallonnH12], and we collected more than a dozen each at blue and red optical filters. Their analysis will be presented in a subsequent paper. Here, we present viable interpretations of the measured slope if it can be confirmed by future observations.
### Permanent spot filling factor
In Section \[chap\_res\_lotephot\] we presented the results of our two-band monitoring campaign and showed that there are no photometric variations, for example, caused by spots that might significantly influence our transmission spectrum. However, the monitoring data cannot rule out permanently visible spots either in a latitudinal band or as polar spots, which could in principle produce a blueward slope in the spectrum as observed here [@McCullough2014]. Such permanently visible spots cause no photometric variation and would be invisible in our monitoring light curves. Similarly to the estimation of the spot correction in Section \[chap\_res\_lotephot\], we estimated what spot filling factor would be needed to explain the observed slope in the transmission spectrum purely with unocculted spots. We assumed a spot temperature 2000 K lower than the photosphere according to the empirical trend of larger spot-photosphere temperature contrast for hotter stars listed in [@Berdyugina2005]. For simplicity, we assumed black body radiation for spot and photosphere and found that a spot filling factor of about 5% would be needed to cause the observed slope. However, it appears unlikely that such a large spot fraction is distributed homogeneously enough in a belt to cause a periodic photometric variation below our upper limit of 1mmag derived in Section \[chap\_res\_lotephot\]. Furthermore, such a filling factor would be unusually large regarding the shallow convection zone of F-type main-sequence stars, the advanced age of HAT-P-32, and the lack of significant chromospheric emission in its Ca II H$\&$K line cores [@Hartman2011]. It is also not expected according to the statistics of observed variability in F-type main-sequence stars derived from the Kepler satellite [@McQuillan2012]. Therefore, we conclude that the slope in the derived transmission spectrum is not caused by activity of the host star.
### Additional third-light contribution
We derived values for the third-light contribution of the visible M dwarf companion in Section \[Chap\_H32\_Mdwarf\] and corrected the transmission spectrum for its influence. The observed, tentative, gradient in the spectrum could be brought into rough agreement with a flat line by a second similar correction of about 150% amplitude of the first. Therefore, we ask whether the measured slope could be caused by an additional stellar companion. In fact, [@Knutson2014] detected a trend in the RV data and interpreted it as an additional companion of either planetary or stellar size. The K-band high-resolution spectroscopy of HAT-P-32 of [@Piskorz2015] ruled out an object hotter than 3500K. Thus, the object causing the RV trend cannot be luminous enough to be responsible for the observed slope in the transmission spectrum. An AO search by [@Ngo2015] did not detect an additional unknown stellar object either gravitationally bound or by chance aligned along the line of sight. We conclude that the slope of the derived transmission spectrum is most likely not caused by third light from an additional stellar object.
We conclude that there is no additional stellar object along the line of sight that is luminous enough to cause a spectral slope in the transmission spectrum comparable in amplitude to the one tentatively measured.
### Scattering processes in the planetary atmosphere {#Sec_Disc_scatter}
Following the conclusions of the previous sections, we assume the measured slope in the transmission spectrum to be a scattering feature intrinsic to the planetary atmosphere. It extends over $\sim$2 scale heights of $\sim$1000 km, which is shallower than the Rayleigh slope of HD189733b that extends over $\sim$4 scale heights from 3500 to 10000 Å [@Sing2011]. The extinction cross section $\sigma$ of scattering and absorption processes of an atmospheric opacity source was described by [@LecavelierDesEtangs2008] with a power law of index $\alpha$, i.e., $\sigma\,=\,\sigma(\lambda / \lambda_0)^{\alpha}$. The slope of the planetary transmission spectrum is then proportional to the product $\alpha T$, $$\alpha T\,=\, \frac{\mu g}{k}\,\frac{\mathrm{d}(R_p/R_{\star})}{\mathrm{d}\,\mathrm{ln} \lambda} .
\label{equ_alphaT}$$ A fit to the HAT-P-32b spectrum results in $\alpha T = -3560 \pm 910$ K with a $\chi^2$ of 82.8 with 60 DOF. If we assume that the slope in the transmission spectrum is caused by Rayleigh scattering ($\alpha\,=\,-4$), the derived temperature would be 890$\pm$228 K. Transmission spectroscopy probes the planetary terminator, i.e., the temperature derived here is a value mid-way between the dayside and the nightside temperature. The measured brightness temperature of the dayside is $\sim$2050 K [@Zhao2014], the planet’s equilibrium temperature $\sim$1800 K [@Hartman2011]. Although [@Zhao2014] found indications of a rather weak energy redistribution from the dayside to the nightside, the derived terminator temperature seems too low because it would indicate a nightside temperature of only a few hundred K, far below any measured nightside temperatures of hot Jupiters so far. A similar situation of a probably underestimated temperature derived from the slope assuming Rayleigh scattering was discussed for WASP-12b by [@Sing2013], who found aerosols causing Mie scattering to be a valuable alternative interpretation. Such aerosols can be formed by condensation or by photochemical processes. Condensate materials for the temperature regime of HAT-P-32b could be corundum (Al$_2$O$_3$) or iron oxide (Fe$_2$O$_3$) [@Lodders2003]. A fit of Mie scattering dust models suffers from a degeneracy between the grain size and the atmospheric temperature [@Sing2013]. Therefore, we do not attempt a retrieval of the atmospheric parameters.
A source of scattering in the planetary atmosphere could, in principle, also be hydrogen molecules in gas phase. However, this explanation would need a cloud-free and haze-free atmosphere for which we expect absorption signatures of Na, K, and H$_2$O in our spectral range. A depletion of all three species at the wide range of pressures probed by the measurement in the case of a clear atmosphere is unlikely.
Another valuable interpretation of the spectral slope including Rayleigh scattering from aerosols was mentioned by [@Sing2013] for WASP-12b, drawn from insights of the solar system. It is possible that the scale height of aerosols is smaller than the scale height of the atmospheric gas, a property discovered for ammonia clouds in the Jovian atmosphere [@Brooke1998]. This scale height ratio would result in a smaller Rayleigh slope without the necessity of a temperature much cooler than the equilibrium temperature.
Conclusions
===========
We observed one transit event of the inflated hot Jupiter HAT-P-32b with MODS at the LBT and measured the planetary transmission spectrum. MODS disperses the light toward a blue and a red arm with individual CCD detectors and offers a wavelength coverage from 3300 Å to 10000 Å in a single exposure. We divided each target spectrum into 62 wavelength channels, 19 channels in the blue region and 43 in the red. For each channel we created differential light curves. All light curves redder than 5600 Å were corrected for the third-light contribution of a nearby M dwarf. We also took the potential influence of photospheric brightness inhomogeneities of the host star into account. The averaged blue and red light curves were able to reproduce the previously known transit parameters with a model fit to within 1$\sigma$ deviation.
The transmission spectrum derived from the set of 62 light curves over wavelength lacks pressure-broadened absorption features of sodium and potassium and shows no spectral features of TiO at blue or at red wavelengths. In agreement with previous transmission spectroscopy work of HAT-P-32b by G13, the measurements are interpreted as an atmosphere that is not free of clouds/hazes and which lacks TiO in gas phase. Furthermore, the spectrum of this work shows a tentative slope of increasing effective planet size from the red toward the blue, which we argue is not likely caused by the host star or other stars in the aperture. If confirmed by follow-up observations, it is likely caused by scattering processes in the planetary atmosphere. The amplitude of the slope is weaker than predicted by Rayleigh scattering when the scale height is estimated using the equilibrium temperature of the planet. We find either Mie scattering caused by aerosols to be a plausible explanation or Rayleigh scattering with an aerosol - gas scale height ratio significantly lower than unity.
We measure an excess absorption in the line core of potassium at 2.8$\sigma$ confidence, but argue that additional observations are needed to confirm this result. No excess absorption was found in the line cores of sodium and H$\alpha$, perhaps because the features are diluted by clouds or hazes. The transmission spectrum of HAT-P-32b from the near-UV to the near-IR confirms the importance of clouds/hazes in the interpretation of hot Jupiter transmission spectra. A study by our team to verify the tentative scattering feature in the planetary atmosphere by broad-band spectrophotometry is in progress.
We thank Antonio Claret for providing the theoretical limb-darkening coefficients and Jonathan Fortney for providing the planetary atmospheric models. We thank Barry Rothberg for performing the observations at the LBT, and Olga Kuhn and Dave Thompson for the helpful discussions regarding their preparation. We are grateful to Thomas Granzer for all help reagarding the STELLA telescope. We thank Carolina von Essen, Elyar Sedaghati, Jörg Weingrill, and Andreas Künstler for discussions on the manuscript. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database and the VizieR catalog access tool, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France.
[^1]: Based on observations made with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and the STELLA robotic telescopes. The LBT is an international collaboration among institutions in the United States, Italy and Germany. LBT Corporation partners are: LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Germany, representing the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), the Max-Planck Society, and Heidelberg University; The University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents; Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy; The Ohio State University, and The Research Corporation, on behalf of The University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota and University of Virginia. STELLA is an AIP facility jointly operated by AIP and Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).
[^2]: http://www.astro.keele.ac.uk/jkt/codes/jktebop.html
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Eto`o in QPR Link!
A subject we`ve touched on before is the apparent future of one Samuel Eto`o.
No longer contracted to Chelsea and free to find another club, we`re interested to see where the Cameroon international striker will end up.
If Harry Redknapp has his way, according to the press, then 34 year-old Eto`o will join Queens Park Rangers and spearhead the Loftus Road attack as wily Harry attempts to keep Queens Park Rangers in the Premier League.
We`re informed by the tabloid press that Claudio Vigorelli, Samuel`s agent, is in London trying to thrash out a deal with Queens Park Rangers.
However, the concerns are that his potential salary could be a stumbling block.
We`re also reliably informed that Eto`o wants to stay in London and in the Premier League, hence the apparent talks with Queens Park Rangers.
Here at Vital Chelsea, all we`ll say is if that is his dream then he`d better only put pen-to-paper on a one year deal because our friends from up the road are not staying in the Premier League much longer than that, you mark my words!
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v. No. 03-4324
ALBERT NEWTON COOMBS,
Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of North Carolina, at Durham.
N. Carlton Tilley, Jr., Chief District Judge.
(CR-99-69)
Submitted: October 3, 2003
Decided: October 17, 2003
Before WILLIAMS, LUTTIG, and KING, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
COUNSEL
J. David James, SMITH, JAMES, ROWLETT & COHEN, L.L.P.,
Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellant. Anna Mills Wagoner,
United States Attorney, Sandra J. Hairston, Assistant United States
Attorney, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See
Local Rule 36(c).
2 UNITED STATES v. COOMBS
OPINION
PER CURIAM:
Albert Newton Coombs was convicted in 1999 of conspiracy to
distribute cocaine and crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846
(2000). His conviction was affirmed on appeal, but his 360-month
sentence was vacated and his case was remanded for resentencing in
light of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000). United States
v. Coombs, No. 99-4951 (4th Cir. Jan. 2, 2002) (unpublished). On
remand, the district court determined that Coombs was responsible for
distributing more than nine kilograms of crack and imposed the statu-
tory maximum sentence of 240 months imprisonment. 21 U.S.C.
§ 841(b)(1)(C) (2000). In this appeal, Coombs challenges the district
court’s determination of the drug quantity attributed to him. We
affirm.
The indictment charged a conspiracy extending from "in or about
1996, up to and including June 1997, the exact dates . . . unknown."
The district court found that Coombs sold 315 ounces (8.93 kilo-
grams) of crack to Stephen Bines between October 1996 and Novem-
ber 1998. Coombs was also held responsible for five ounces of crack
that co-defendant Michael Shirley sold to Bines, and for smaller
amounts sold to co-conspirator Winston Simpson by Coombs, Shir-
ley, and Robinson. Because he was held responsible for more than 1.5
kilograms of crack, Coombs’ base offense level was 38. See U.S. Sen-
tencing Guidelines Manual § 2D1.1(c)(1) (2002) (1.5 kilograms of
crack or more). Coombs contends that the crack he sold to Bines
between October 1996 and November 1998 was not relevant conduct
because this conduct was neither part of the charged conspiracy nor
part of the same course of conduct or common scheme or plan as the
offense of conviction.
The district court’s determination of the quantity of drugs attribut-
able to a defendant as relevant conduct is a factual question reviewed
for clear error. United States v. Randall, 171 F.3d 195, 210 (4th Cir.
1999). We find no error here.
First, the sales to Bines were never separate from the charged con-
spiracy. Bines began buying crack from Shirley and Coombs in 1996
UNITED STATES v. COOMBS 3
when the charged conspiracy was ongoing, and Bines continued to
buy crack regularly from Coombs until November 1998. Bines testi-
fied that he met or was aware of a number of the others involved in
the conspiracy and said that Coombs even invited Bines to transport
drugs from Florida and explained how the drugs were hidden in the
cars used. Moreover, the end date in an indictment does not determine
when the actual conspiracy ended because a defendant "is presumed
to continue in a conspiracy until he withdraws from the conspiracy by
affirmative action." United States v. Barsanti, 943 F.2d 428, 437 (4th
Cir. 1991) (citation omitted).
Even if Coombs were correct on this point, the crack sales to Bines
would still be relevant conduct. For drug offenses, relevant conduct
includes conduct that was part of the same course of conduct or com-
mon scheme or plan as the count of conviction. USSG § 1B1.3(a)(2).
"Same course of conduct" and "common scheme or plan" are defined
in Application Note 9 to § 1B1.3. Under Application Note 9(B), an
offense may be part of the same course of conduct as the offense of
conviction if it is part of "an ongoing series of offenses." Factors to
be considered in making this determination are: "the degree of simi-
larity of the offenses, the regularity (repetitions) of the offenses, and
the time interval between the offenses." Id. Coombs’ sales of crack
to Bines easily meet this definition.
Coombs also argues that the quantities of crack he sold to Bines
were not part of the offense of conviction because these amounts were
not attributed to other members of the conspiracy for sentencing pur-
poses. However, the calculation of Coombs’ co-defendants’ sentences
is not relevant to the determination of the sentence in Coombs’ case.
Finally, Coombs contests the 12.7 kilograms of cocaine powder
attributed to him in the presentence report arguing that the testimony
of witnesses Winston Simpson and Michelle Shelf was not suffi-
ciently credible or reliable to support a finding that he was responsi-
ble for this amount of cocaine powder. This issue is moot because the
district court did not make a finding concerning cocaine powder at
Coombs’ sentencing. In light of the court’s determination that more
than 1.5 kilograms of crack was properly attributed to Coombs—
which gave him the highest possible base offense level of 38 under
4 UNITED STATES v. COOMBS
§ 2D1.1—the quantity of cocaine powder Coombs distributed was
immaterial.
We therefore affirm the sentence imposed by the district court. We
dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions
are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argu-
ment would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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As soon as he tested positive, contact-tracers brought his whole family, including his 33-year-old mother, his 40-year-old father and his three younger brothers, aged 8, 5 and two months, in for observation and testing.
The family also became the first participants in a clinical trial of a new Ebola vaccine, said Dr. Emily Kainne Dokubo, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was then the leader of the agency’s Ebola response in Liberia and is the lead author of the Lancet study.
All 120 people with any recent contact with the family were vaccinated, she said. None fell ill, and that helped prove the Merck vaccine works.
This year, the vaccine was used to defeat the most recent Ebola outbreak, which took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo. About 3,200 people were vaccinated, and new cases faded out after only about three months. On Tuesday, the director-general of the World Health Organization will officially declare it over.
In Liberia, after the 15-year-old died, blood tests showed that his father and 8-year-old brother had Ebola. With treatment, both recovered.
The 5-year-old apparently was never infected.
Neither the mother nor the new baby had virus in their blood but, rather mysteriously, both had antibodies against it. That suggested the mother had had an earlier infection and that the baby had absorbed protective antibodies through breast-feeding.
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The microbial community that lives in the human body, called the microbiota, consists of a large variety of microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, fungi, eukaryotes and archae. Every human being harbors between 10 trillion and 100 trillion microbial cells, which is approximately equal to 10 times the total number of body cells. The term microbiome refers to the gene set of these microbial cells. The gut microbiome is estimated to contain over 150 times more genes than the human genome \[[@B1-jcm-08-01808]\]. During long-standing interactions, a mutual co-evolution between gut microbiota and the host occurs, with the former making an important contribution to human metabolism, with significant effects on the anatomical, physiological, and immunological development of the host \[[@B2-jcm-08-01808],[@B3-jcm-08-01808]\]. Considering that many bacterial species still cannot be cultured, our understanding of gut microbiota has evolved over the past few years thanks to the availability of advanced molecular methods that permit us to identify a large quantity of microorganisms \[[@B4-jcm-08-01808]\]. Today, it is known that although 98% of the gut microbiota is composed of four phyla of bacteria (Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria), the majority are either Firmicutes or Bacteroidetes \[[@B4-jcm-08-01808],[@B5-jcm-08-01808]\]. With this premise, in the last decade, the gut microbiota has become a key topic in the investigation of several gastrointestinal (GI) as well as extra-GI diseases \[[@B6-jcm-08-01808],[@B7-jcm-08-01808],[@B8-jcm-08-01808],[@B9-jcm-08-01808]\].
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional clinical condition characterized by abdominal discomfort or pain and alteration of gut habits without an underlying structural pathology \[[@B10-jcm-08-01808]\]. As IBS affects 9--23% of the general population \[[@B11-jcm-08-01808]\], with considerable impact on quality of life and health care resource utilization, it represents an important medical challenge in term of diagnosis and treatment \[[@B12-jcm-08-01808]\]. The pathogenesis of IBS remains unclear, with several factors supposed to be involved, including environmental and host factors such as psychosocial stressors, food intolerance, antibiotics, enteric infections, altered pain perception, altered brain--gut interactions, dysbiosis (imbalance within the bacterial community), increased intestinal permeability, increased gut mucosal immune activation and visceral hypersensitivity \[[@B13-jcm-08-01808]\].
In recent years, the relationship between gut microbiota and brain--gut interactions in the pathogenesis of IBS has become a key topic in clinical and biomedical research. This issue has been accurately discussed in a recent review by Quigley \[[@B14-jcm-08-01808]\]. Beginning with an excursus on the historical steps that led to the definition of the gut--brain axis, the author discussed the modern theory that postulates the involvement of gut microbiota in both the gut--brain axis and IBS. On the basis of this theory, the pathogenesis of IBS would be related to the action of central stimuli, such as stress, that could disrupt mucosal immunity, reduce microbial diversity and alter gut barrier function, leading to gut dysfunction. Although much work still needs to be done, there is evidence to support this pathogenetic model.
First, it has been shown that fecal and colonic microbiota compositions in patients with IBS are different compared to healthy subjects. For example, the count of gene copies or the number of colony forming units of *Lactobacilli* and *Bifidobacteria* are compromised while those of *Escherichia coli* and *Enterobacter* are increased in IBS patients \[[@B15-jcm-08-01808]\]. Furthermore, a specific gut microbiota signature (low microbial diversity, absence of *Methanobacteriales* and enrichment with *Bacteroides*) could be linked to the severity of IBS \[[@B16-jcm-08-01808]\].
Second, the benefits reported in some studies after antibiotic or probiotic administration on IBS symptoms are proof in favor of a role of microbiota in the pathogenesis of this disease. Data from animal models provides a plausible explanation for this benefit. It has been shown that probiotics can enhance the intestinal mucosal barrier and increase the number of butyrate-producing bacteria \[[@B15-jcm-08-01808],[@B17-jcm-08-01808]\]. The augmented production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as butyric and acetic acid, acidizes the gut and facilitates the beneficial colonization of *Lactobacillus* and *Bifidobacterium* species \[[@B15-jcm-08-01808]\]. Whatever the precise mechanism, the poorly absorbed antibiotic rifaximin \[[@B18-jcm-08-01808]\] and probiotics or prebiotics \[[@B19-jcm-08-01808]\] provided relief against the cardinal IBS symptoms. For these reasons, recent international guidelines suggest to prescribe probiotics in this context \[[@B20-jcm-08-01808]\].
Third, the gut microbiota plays a key role in digestion, absorption and synthesis of metabolites such as SCFAs. These metabolites are directly associated with environmental factors such as diet and lifestyle \[[@B21-jcm-08-01808]\]. Growing evidence supports the concept that, in patients with IBS, specific diets could be associated to microbiota modulation \[[@B22-jcm-08-01808]\], thus adding another piece of the puzzle to the gut microbiota-IBS link. Of increasing interest is the low fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAPs) diet that leads to reduced flatulence and symptom relief in some IBS patients \[[@B23-jcm-08-01808]\]. Nevertheless, while the beneficial role of this diet on microbiota remains unclear, a reduction of commensal bacteria has been reported. Hustoft et al. have shown a reduction in fecal *Actinobacteria*, *Bifidobacterium* and *Fecalibacterium prausnitzii* in patients on a low FODMAPs diet \[[@B24-jcm-08-01808]\]. This warrants further investigation on the potential negative effects of "therapeutic" diets on gut microbiota.
Fourth, the relationship between infections and IBS is well-known. It has been reported that around 10% of patients develop IBS after an infectious illness, and 3--36% of enteric infections are followed by the onset of new persistent IBS symptoms \[[@B12-jcm-08-01808]\]. Different microbes influence the time trend features of IBS, with viral infections leading to temporary symptoms, while bacterial enteritis and protozoan and helminth infections often resulting in prolonged IBS \[[@B12-jcm-08-01808]\]. Hypothetical pathogenetic explanations have focused on a possible residual mucosal inflammation or persistent alterations of mucosal immunocytes, enterochromaffin and mast cells, enteric nerves and the gut microbiota on the crucial role played by the immune hyperactivation \[[@B12-jcm-08-01808]\], although further studies are needed to confirm these aspects.
Important limitations prevail in our knowledge of the relationship between gut microbiota and brain--gut interactions in patients with IBS. Among these, the role of the non-bacterial component of the gut microbiota remains unclear. For instance, whether the mycobiome (term that includes fungi and their genome) and virome have a role in the pathogenesis of stool habit alterations and in pain modulation remains to be determined \[[@B25-jcm-08-01808]\]. The potential relationship between the type of IBS and gut microbiota also needs further investigation. Depending on predominant symptomatology, IBS is divided into four subgroups: IBS with constipation (IBS-C), IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D), IBS with a mixed pattern (IBS-M) of constipation and diarrhea, and unclassified IBS (IBS-U), without any of the previous symptoms \[[@B12-jcm-08-01808]\]. It is not clear if a specific gut microbiota signature for each subtype exists. Considering the data available on patients with a single symptom \[[@B26-jcm-08-01808]\], it is not astonishing to hypothesize that each gut habit could have a specific dysbiosis. Regarding IBS patients, in the meta-analysis conducted by Wang et al., among the 23 selected studies, the subtype was reported only in 15. Furthermore, small sample sizes and the heterogeneity of these studies did not allow them to draw a significant conclusion \[[@B15-jcm-08-01808]\].
In conclusion, the review published by Quigley explores the essence of the relationship between the gut--brain axis and the microbiome and provides indications for future studies aiming at searching for novel therapeutic strategies in patients with IBS. Thus, understanding whether the gut microbiota has a role in the pathogenesis of IBS, and if the management of dysbiosis could be beneficial for these patients, remains an important issue and may provide the key to (at least partially) resolve the widespread epidemic of IBS.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Editor’s Note: Hugh Hefner died Sept. 27, 2017 at the age of 91. In honor of his legacy, read this 2010 piece on his campaign to save the Hollywood sign.
Hugh Hefner just pulled a rabbit out of his hat to save Hollywood – the iconic sign, that is.
Get push notifications with news, features and more.
The Playboy founder has donated the final $900,000 needed to preserve 138 acres behind the film capital’s most famous visual symbol on Mount Lee, just as time was running out.
“It would have been a real shame after having restored it if it wound up sold,” Hefner, 84, told PEOPLE on Monday at the Hollywood premiere of Iron Man 2, with the legendary 45-foot white letters looming in the background. “It’s become something iconic and represents not only the town but represents Hollywood dreams, and I think that’s something worth preserving.”
Developers have been eyeing the hillside, once owned by Howard Hughes, for luxury mansions, but a nonprofit land-conservation group was given the chance to buy the land for $12.5 million. As an April 30 deadline neared, the group was nearly $1 million short.
Image zoom David Gabber/PR Photos
“I was aware of the fact that they were raising the money, but I only learned about a week ago that they were running out of time,” said Hefner. “They only had about a week and a half left to go.”
The sign was built in 1923 as part of a real-estate promotion, originally spelling out “Hollywoodland” (the “land” was removed in 1949). In 1978, after years of neglect, Hefner was one of a number of patrons who donated funds to restore it.
Meanwhile, Hefner continues to develop his own Hollywood fantasy: a feature film chronicling his life, with Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. potentially in the lead role.
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Q:
Indented new line when creating a new block in C
I am using the AutoClose plugin in Vim. I would like to set the behaviour so that when I am in the state
while(i < N) {<cursor>}
then when (and only when) I press return, I get to:
while(i < N) {
<cursor>
}
This is the behaviour in Sublime Text.
There is a similar question here: Automatically insert a matching brace in Vim but there the user is looking to start a new line as soon as the opening brace is created. Also it doesn't seem to work correctly for me.
If I use that, or do set cindent as suggested by @WoLpH the result is (as soon as I create the opening brace)
while(i < N) {
<cursor>
}
as in the second brace is indented and the cursor is indented by one space. My vimrc settings are:
filetype indent on
set ts=4
set sw=4
set et
A:
I edited the AutoClose script. Function OpenSpecial now contains:
return "\<esc>a\<CR>\<tab>;\<CR>".a:cchar."\<esc>\"_xk$\"_xa"
So I get my desired behaviour by typing {{l, good enough for now
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When developing, it’s nice to run locally and connect to the same services and backends you’ll be using in production (instead of faking data or responses). The goal is to abstract out the differences between accessing them on Bluemix and accessing them locally.
Here is an easy way to do that without using a proxy and without updating your local environment variables for every different project you’re working on.
Note: this post is specific to using the Node.js runtime, but the same technique can be applied to other runtimes.
If you navigate over to your environment variables for a given application in Bluemix, you’ll see something like:
{ "user-provided" : [ { "name" : "AlchemyAPI-2e" , "label" : "user-provided" , "credentials" : { "apikey" : "YOUR_KEY" } } ], "mongolab" : [ { "name" : "MongoLab-bh" , "label" : "mongolab" , "plan" : "sandbox" , "credentials" : { "uri" : "mongodb://username:[email protected]:port/db" } } ] }
When developing locally, I like making a VCAP_SERVICES.json file that is identical. I then make a vcapServices.js node module that looks like:
var vcapServices ; // if running in Bluemix, use the environment variables if ( process . env . VCAP_SERVICES ) { vcapServices = JSON . parse ( process . env . VCAP_SERVICES ); // otherwise use our JSON file } else { try { vcapServices = require ( './VCAP_SERVICES.json' ); } catch ( e ) { console . error ( e ); } } module . exports = vcapServices ;
This abstracts out the differences between running in Bluemix and running locally. To reference your credentials for different services, all you need to do is load in this module and use it like a JSON object.
For example, to connect to MongoLab…
import mongoose from 'mongoose' ; import vcapServices from './vcapServices' ; var mongoUri = vcapServices . mongolab [ 0 ]. credentials . uri ; mongoose . connect ( mongoUri );
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## Module `ucl`
This lua module allows to parse objects from strings and to store data into
ucl objects. It uses `libucl` C library to parse and manipulate with ucl objects.
Example:
~~~lua
local ucl = require("ucl")
local parser = ucl.parser()
local res,err = parser:parse_string('{key=value}')
if not res then
print('parser error: ' .. err)
else
local obj = parser:get_object()
local got = ucl.to_format(obj, 'json')
end
local table = {
str = 'value',
num = 100500,
null = ucl.null,
func = function ()
return 'huh'
end
}
print(ucl.to_format(table, 'ucl'))
-- Output:
--[[
num = 100500;
str = "value";
null = null;
func = "huh";
--]]
~~~
###Brief content:
**Functions**:
> [`ucl_object_push_lua(L, obj, allow_array)`](#function-ucl_object_push_lual-obj-allow_array)
> [`ucl.to_format(var, format)`](#function-uclto_formatvar-format)
**Methods**:
> [`parser:parse_file(name)`](#method-parserparse_filename)
> [`parser:parse_string(input)`](#method-parserparse_stringinput)
> [`parser:get_object()`](#method-parserget_object)
## Functions
The module `ucl` defines the following functions.
### Function `ucl_object_push_lua(L, obj, allow_array)`
This is a `C` function to push `UCL` object as lua variable. This function
converts `obj` to lua representation using the following conversions:
- *scalar* values are directly presented by lua objects
- *userdata* values are converted to lua function objects using `LUA_REGISTRYINDEX`,
this can be used to pass functions from lua to c and vice-versa
- *arrays* are converted to lua tables with numeric indices suitable for `ipairs` iterations
- *objects* are converted to lua tables with string indices
**Parameters:**
- `L {lua_State}`: lua state pointer
- `obj {ucl_object_t}`: object to push
- `allow_array {bool}`: expand implicit arrays (should be true for all but partial arrays)
**Returns:**
- `{int}`: `1` if an object is pushed to lua
Back to [module description](#module-ucl).
### Function `ucl.to_format(var, format)`
Converts lua variable `var` to the specified `format`. Formats supported are:
- `json` - fine printed json
- `json-compact` - compacted json
- `config` - fine printed configuration
- `ucl` - same as `config`
- `yaml` - embedded yaml
If `var` contains function, they are called during output formatting and if
they return string value, then this value is used for ouptut.
**Parameters:**
- `var {variant}`: any sort of lua variable (if userdata then metafield `__to_ucl` is searched for output)
- `format {string}`: any available format
**Returns:**
- `{string}`: string representation of `var` in the specific `format`.
Example:
~~~lua
local table = {
str = 'value',
num = 100500,
null = ucl.null,
func = function ()
return 'huh'
end
}
print(ucl.to_format(table, 'ucl'))
-- Output:
--[[
num = 100500;
str = "value";
null = null;
func = "huh";
--]]
~~~
Back to [module description](#module-ucl).
## Methods
The module `ucl` defines the following methods.
### Method `parser:parse_file(name)`
Parse UCL object from file.
**Parameters:**
- `name {string}`: filename to parse
**Returns:**
- `{bool[, string]}`: if res is `true` then file has been parsed successfully, otherwise an error string is also returned
Example:
~~~lua
local parser = ucl.parser()
local res,err = parser:parse_file('/some/file.conf')
if not res then
print('parser error: ' .. err)
else
-- Do something with object
end
~~~
Back to [module description](#module-ucl).
### Method `parser:parse_string(input)`
Parse UCL object from file.
**Parameters:**
- `input {string}`: string to parse
**Returns:**
- `{bool[, string]}`: if res is `true` then file has been parsed successfully, otherwise an error string is also returned
Back to [module description](#module-ucl).
### Method `parser:get_object()`
Get top object from parser and export it to lua representation.
**Parameters:**
nothing
**Returns:**
- `{variant or nil}`: ucl object as lua native variable
Back to [module description](#module-ucl).
Back to [top](#).
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Admiral (Canada)
The rank of admiral in Canada is typically held by only one officer whose position is Chief of the Defence Staff and the senior uniformed officer of the Canadian Forces. It is equivalent to the army and air force rank of general.
The last naval officer to hold this position was Vice-Admiral Larry Murray, who held it on a temporary basis.
The last naval officer to hold the rank of admiral and the position of Chief of the Defence Staff was Admiral John Rogers Anderson.
Only 3 Chief of Defence Staff have been an admiral:
Larry Murray
John Rogers Anderson
Robert Hilborn Falls
Prince Philip holds the rank of Admiral in an honorary capacity and not an active regular member of the RCN.
Others have held the title but under different circumstances:
Charles Kingsmill was an Admiral for the Director of Naval Services of Canada, a title that is now referred to as Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy.
Percy W. Nelles was promoted Admiral after his retirement as Chief of Naval Staff and was Vice-Admiral during active duty.
On May 5, 2010, the Canadian naval uniform dark dress tunic was adjusted, removing exterior epaulettes and 'reverting' to the sleeve-ring and "executive curl" rank insignia used by a majority of navies throughout the world. This means that a Canadian admiral's dress tunic no longer bears a single broad stripe on the sleeve, with epaulettes on the shoulders, as was the case since unification (1968), but has a broad stripe plus three sleeve rings, without any epaulettes on the exterior of the tunic (cloth rank slip-ons are still worn on the uniform shirt underneath the tunic).
See also
Flag officer
Four-star rank
External links
Canadian Forces ranks and insignia
Category:Military ranks of Canada
Category:Military insignia
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News
Media
Street Stories: Santa Rosa
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
For years, insufficient funding has caused fewer streets to be repaved in California, and what limited funding that does exist, has been spent mostly on pothole repair. In the City of Santa Rosa, which has one of the most extensive street systems in Northern California, there is a backlog of 200 to 250 million dollars in needed work. The state restored some of that funding this year, nearly doubling Santa Rosa’s street budget. Prop 6 in November, would take it away.
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The E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF5 targets virus-induced signaling adaptor for ubiquitination and degradation.
Viral infection activates transcription factors, such as NF-kappaB and IFN regulatory factor 3, which collaborate to induce type I IFNs and elicit innate antiviral response. Virus-induced signaling adaptor (VISA) has been identified as a critical adaptor required for virus-triggered induction of type I IFNs. In this study, we showed that the E3 ubiquitin ligase RING-finger protein 5 (RNF5) interacted with VISA at mitochondria in a viral infection-dependent manner. Domain mapping experiments indicated that the C-terminal transmembrane domain of VISA was required for its interaction with RNF5. RNF5 targeted VISA at K362 and K461 for K48-linked ubiquitination and degradation after viral infection, whereas knockdown of RNF5 reversed virus-induced downregulation of VISA at the early phase. These findings suggest that RNF5-mediated ubiquitination and degradation of VISA is one of the mechanisms of the regulation of virus-triggered induction of type I IFNs and cellular antiviral response.
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GOOOOAAAAAL!!!! Cannavaro heads square to Gladiator inside the Parma 6-yard box after a majestic free kick curled in from the left by Recoba. Gladiator's first attempt is parried by Frey, then he follows up with a shot that hits the back of the net.
29'
Recoba picks out Martins on the edge of the Parma area. Ferrari makes a crucial intervention to neutralise the danger. Corner to Inter.
26'
The game has stopped momentarily as Benarrivo's cut above his left eye has reopened. Ferrari also requires attention to a rather large looking bruise on his head.
22'
Adriano again.... This time, Toldo punches clear a 25-yard free kick from the Brazilian.
20'
Adriano volleys a left-footed shot past Toldo after latching on to a long ball forward from Benarrivo, but it's disallowed for offside.
19'
Unmarked inside the Inter box, Adriano gets in a header from a Benarrivo cross. Toldo makes an easy save, but in any case the offside flag goes up.
11'
Almeyda gets back well to intercept a Barone pass to Mutu inside the Inter box. Corner to Parma.
9'
Emre takes on two men before passing square to Di Biagio in a central position on the edge of the Parma box. Di Biagio makes the return pass, but it's too long.
6'
Conceicao finds space on the right and makes a run on goal, but his final shot is too weak and is easily collected by Frey.
3'
After a two-minute interruption due to an injury to Benarrivo, the game gets underway again. Parma momentarily down to ten men.
2'
Pasquale plays a long ball forward to Martins on the left wing. Martins passes to Recoba, who passes to Emre. The Turks's diagonal shot is saved by Frey.
1'
Inter kick off tonight's Serie A Week 15 clash at Tardini stadium. An Inter victory will put the side back on top of the Serie A. FORZA NERAZZURRI!!!
Minutes
Text commentary
48'
Full time.2-1 to Inter and a Merry Nerazzurri Xmas.
47'
Marchionni wastes a clear-cut chance for Parma, shooting wide of the far post after receiving a through ball into the area by Nakata.
45'
If we hang on for 3 more minutes, then it's 3 points for us and the Serie A top spot over Xmas.
44'
Recoba strikes a free kick 20 yards out to the left of the area straight at Frey.
The only previous meeting in official matches between Prandelli
and Cuper is related to last year's Serie A match between Inter
and Venezia in Venice. With the score locked at 1-1, Adriano
scored a late winner for the Nerazzurri, his first goal in the Italian
top flight.
In detail:
2001/02 Serie A Venezia-Inter
---- 1-2
All the Nerazzurri stats of 2002
Inter's match against Parma is the last of the calendar year. The
Milanese outfit have played 50 matches so far (32 in the Serie A,
2 in the Coppa Italia, 10 in the Champions League and 6 in the
UEFA Cup), registering 27 wins, 14 draws and 9 defeats. A total
of 91 goals have been scored, and 55 let in. The most present
player is Javier Zanetti with 47 appearances, followed by Toldo
with 46. The Inter captain is also top for the number of minutes
played (4184'), followed by Toldo (4138'). Di Biagio is the Inter
player that has been substituted the most times (18), while Emre is
the player who has come on as a substitute the most (13). Di
Biagio and Cordoba have both picked up a record 12 yellow cards
each for the Nerazzurri this season, while Cannavaro,
Conceiçao, Emre, Morfeo and Toldo have each been red-carded
on one occasion. Nerazzurri top scorer in 2002 is Vieri with 23
goals, and with 6 more than Del Piero, Bobo is certain to be Serie
A top scorer of the calendar year. Javier Zanetti has played more
minutes than any other Serie A player, and Inter are on course to
becoming the side that has scored more goals in the Italian top
flight in 2002 with 60 goals so far. Roma have also scored 60
goals, while Lazio and Juventus have notched 59.
More players on target for Inter than any other Serie A side this season
No less than 11 Nerazzurri have scored in the 2002/03 season so
far. Kallon, who scored against Atalanta last Sunday, joins Adani,
Crespo, Di Biagio, Emre, Materazzi, Morfeo, Okan, Recoba, Vieri
and Javier Zanetti on the Inter scorers' chart. Inter are the side
with the highest number of players on the Serie A top scorers'
chart, followed by Juventus, Chievo, Parma, Roma and AC Milan,
who have each scored goals with 10 different players.
Cuper's Nerazzurri close to record 4 away matches without victory
Should Inter not win away to Parma on Sunday, it will be the first
time the Nerazzurri under Cuper have gone 4 matches away from
home without a win. For the second time since the Argentine took
over at the Milanese club, the team has gone 3 matches away
from home without a win - Roma 2-2 Inter, AC Milan 0-1 Inter and
Lazio 3-3 Inter this season, and Udinese 1-1 Inter, Juventus 0-0
Inter and Roma 0-0 Inter last season.
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CFRS-DT
CFRS-DT, TQS, Jonquiere
Remstar Diffusion Inc
Station
Year
Channel
Network Affiliate
Owner/Info
CFRS-DT
2011
4.1 (38)
TQS
Remstar Diffusion Inc.
CFRS-TV
2008
4
TQS
Remstar Diffusion Inc.
CFRS-TV
1998
4
TQS
Cogeco Inc.
CFRS-TV
1986
4
TQS
Radio Saguenay Ltée.
1986
Radio Saguenay Ltee was authorized to operate a rebroadcast transmitter at Jonquire for the new TQS network, operating on channel 4 with an effective radiated power of 24,550 watts. As a result, the CKRS-TV rebroadcaster at St-Fulgence would move from channel 4 to channel 27 and increase power to 708 watts. The new station would originate 2.5 hours a week and carry some of CKRS-TV's present programming, allowing that station to broadcast nearly all of the Radio-Canada network schedule.
CFRS-TV channel 4 opened on September 7. The station operated as an affiliate of the new TQS network which launched the same day. The "RS" in the call sign: Radio Saguenay.
1988
CFRS-TV was authorized to increase effective radiated power from 24,550 to 27,600 watts.
1995
On January 23, the CRTC approved the application to amend the licence for CFRS-TV by adding to the licence the following condition of licence: In addition to the 12 minutes of advertising material permitted by subsection 11(1) of the Television Broadcasting Regulations, 1987, the licensee may broadcast more than 12 minutes of advertising material in any clock hour in a broadcast day, in order to broadcast infomercials as defined in Public Notice CRTC 1994-139 and in accordance with the criteria contained in that public notice, as amended.
Cogeco Radio Television Inc. sold 40% of CFRS-TV, CKTV-TV and several other stations to Bell Globemedia Inc. subsidiary CTV Television Inc. These stations would now operate under the TQS Inc. name.
2008
On June 26, the CRTC approved the application to change the effective control of TQS inc. (TQS), licensee of CFJP-TV / CFJP-DT Montréal, CFAP-TV Québec, CFKM-TV Trois-Rivières, CFKS-TV Sherbrooke and CFRS-TV Saguenay, and of the TQS network, through the transfer of all of the issued and outstanding shares of 3947424 Canada Inc., the parent corporation of TQS, currently held by Cogeco Radio-Télévision inc. (60%) and CTV Television Inc. (40%), to Remstar Diffusion inc., a corporation owned and controlled by Julien and Maxime Rémillard.
2011
On August 15, the CRTC approved the application by V Interactions inc. to amend the licence for CFRS-TV to add a post-transition digital transmitter to serve the population of Saguenay. The new post-transition digital transmitter, CFRS-DT Saguenay, would operate on channel 13 with an average effective radiated power of 493 watts (maximum ERP of 1,175 watts with an effective height of antenna above average terrain of 593.8 metres).
The deadline for the conversion of analog television to digital in mandatory markets was August 31. CFRS-TV was scheduled to make the transition on that date - moving from analog channel 4 to digital channel 13 (virtual 4.1).
2012
On April 26, the CRTC reviewed certain conditions of licence for V Interactions inc.'s television stations (CFJP-DT Montréal, CFAP-DT Québec, CFKM-DT Trois-Rivières, CFKS-DT Sherbrooke and CFRS-DT Saguenay) and network. The Commission noted that this process represented a review solely of V Interactions' conditions of licence regarding local programming and priority programming. In light of the expectation set out in Broadcasting Decision 2008-129 that the licensee could improve its news offering for the remainder of its licence terms, the Commission maintained the same conditions of licence with respect to local programming and priority programming until August 31, 2015.
On May 31, the CRTC approved the application by V Interactions inc. to change the authorized contours of CFRS-DT by increasing the average effective radiated power from 493 to 1,824 watts (maximum ERP from 1,175 to 4,344 watts). All other technical parameters would remain unchanged. The licensee indicated that following the station's conversion from a low-VHF, analog channel (channels 2-6) to a high-VHF, digital channel (channels 7-13), a loss of coverage was noted. The Commission was of the view that approval of the application was appropriate since it aimed to improve CFRS-DT's signal coverage in Saguenay.
In November, Henri Audet, founder of Cogeco cable died at age 94. Trained as an engineer, Audet left a job at the CBC to launch a TV station in Trois-Riviéres. He sold his house and raised $100,000 from friends and other investors as seed money. From that single television station the company became Canada's fourth-largest cable company and one of Quebec's largest media companies. Audet served as president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters from 1961 to 1964, and was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1984. Control of Cogeco Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries was held by Gestion Audem Inc., a holding company whose shares were held entirely by the members of the family of Henri Audet.
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On Our Radar
On Our Radar
Sony Corp. 2Q net profit plunges 86 pct as strong yen stings
TOKYO – Sony Corp.'s net profit plunged 86 percent in the last quarter from a year earlier, the company said Tuesday, as its profitability was hammered by a strong yen and lagging smartphone sales.
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The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant reported a 4.8 billion yen ($45.8 million) net profit in July-September. Net profit was 33.6 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.
Sales dropped nearly 11 percent to 1.69 trillion yen ($16.1 billion) in the last quarter, down from 1.89 trillion yen a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
A strong yen hurts earnings of Japanese exporters when translated into yen. In the April-September six-month period, Sony's net profit tumbled 78 percent.
On Monday, Sony announced it expects a larger loss than earlier anticipated in connection with the 17.5 billion yen ($167 million) sale of its battery business to the Murata Group.
Sony said it would book a net loss of 37.5 billion yen ($358 million) in its profit for the full fiscal year that ends March 31. It slashed its forecast for full-year net profit to 60 billion yen ($573 million) from an earlier estimate of 80 billion yen. Sony recorded a net profit of 147.8 billion yen in the last fiscal year.
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Tokyo-based Sony, the maker of Bravia TVs and Walkman portable players, left its forecast for sales at 7.4 trillion yen ($70.6 billion), unchanged from its earlier outlook and down from 8.1 trillion yen a year earlier.
As part of its turnaround strategy, Sony has been selling some assets, including its Vaio personal computer unit.
The plan to sell the battery business run by Sony Energy Devices Corp. to Murata involves transferring all of Sony's battery-related manufacturing based in China and Singapore and sales and R&D assets and staff working assigned to its battery business in Japan.
Earthquakes in April that disrupted production of camera parts and semiconductors in southern Japan's Kyushu also were a factor in the lower profits for the half-year, costing the company a total of nearly 48 billion yen ($458 million), Sony said.
Sony's TV division has lost money for years, and its smartphone offerings have suffered amid intense competition from Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy line.
However, the company said sales of software for the PlayStation 4 video game console performed well.
The movie division got a lift from "Ghostbusters," ''Sausage Party" and "Don't Breathe," Sony said. Fate/Grand Order, a game application for mobile devices and an increase in digital streaming revenue helped its music business.
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Q:
Laplace Transform using t-shift (second shift)
$$f(t) = tu(t-π)$$
I know I have to get t in terms of $$(t-π)$$ and to do that I have done
$$ t = a(t-π) + b$$
$$ t = at-aπ + b$$
$$ t = (a-π)t + b$$
$$ (a-π) = 1$$ and $$b = 0$$
Then I think I have done the write thing and being to t-shift with
$$ f(t) = (a-π)(t-π)u(t-π)$$ but when I apply the t-shift theorem I get lost. Is this the write method? have I done it right?
A:
Assuming that $*$ doesn't mean convolution in your original statement, note that
$$tu(t-\pi) = (t-\pi + \pi)u(t-\pi) = (t-\pi)u(t-\pi) + \pi u(t-\pi)$$
Thus,
$$\mathcal{L}\{tu(t-\pi)\} = \mathcal{L}\{(t-\pi)u(t-\pi)\} + \pi\mathcal{L}\{u(t-\pi)\} = \ldots$$
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My Love Affair With Scripture – Part 1
What follows is the first of a two part essay on how I came to discover and enjoy a life-long love affair with scripture. Although no longer attending the LDS Church and participating in any of its activities, Part 1 is expressed in context of my cultural and heritage-based connection to the Church, to its scriptures and my personal experience.
In the summer of 1965 my own assessment of how I might be a man worthy of a mission call was somewhat tempered by an inner awareness and admission that I was a social Mormon more than a testimony Mormon.
No one more than I was aware that I had not prayed according to the Moroni formula in chapter 10 of the Book of Mormon which was a constant teaching theme in Church, youth group and Seminary classes.
No one more than I was aware that I had been going through the duty motions to please family and peers more than a consequence of the inner-convicted faith of someone like Nephi in the Book of Mormon.
The only “spiritual” moving experiences seemed to come with my response to Mormon music – mostly the hymns that I liked the best. I’ve only recently come to realize that I have been brought “spiritually” to tears more by music than the spoken word, more by the tune and melody of a favorite hymn than any sermon or lesson.
That is still true today.
In the LDS Mission Home in 1965 I was given an English copy of the missionary Six Discussions and told to start memorizing. Later I would be given the same thing in Spanish after I got to the Language Training Mission at BYU in Provo.
Well, it was something other than the bible and Book of Mormon so I looked it over. … and saw the things I would be teaching and testifying to non-members interested in the Church.
Then I knew about fear … the fear of exposure as a fraud and how I would seriously struggle saying any of that “I know” and “I testify” stuff in the discussions with strangers while maintaining a straight face.
I went after the Mormon-formula testimony as instructed. Ask God if it’s true and you will feel it. I didn’t know what the hell that felt like and to my memory my bosom never even scorched, let alone burned.
In Provo, spending full time learning Spanish and memorizing discussions that were formatted like the lines I would use in a six-act play, I had plenty of time to my thoughts … which had always been very private and very secret.
From that time forward I don’t remember ever sharing in depth my secret thoughts with anyone … although I had had moments of sharing worries and fears with my mother. But my thoughts were mine. I mostly kept them private when concerned with the most important matters.
I think then that in the Language Training Mission – since I could not keep Jesus out of my thinking – I somewhat reluctantly invited the Lord to be a presence in my thoughts and perceptions.
I also became reconciled to the idea of having to make do mostly with scripture rather than science fiction, etc. As an avid reader from early grade school, I might be limited to the Bible and Book of Mormon, but I could quit feeling sorry for myself and at least read them.
Later in life, in my 40’s, I worked seriously with the Church’s Topical Guide (a kind of concordance) and marked my scriptures up so thoroughly that it seems now that some sort of expert could reconstruct my life story from an analysis of how I marked and organized scriptural references.
In retrospect, I admit that I had no sense of being in a thinking minority inside the church and culture – of being something of an intellectual. I did not consider myself intellectual nor did I discern any differences in how anyone sought or absorbed knowledge and new information that they encountered.
I think that I thought of myself as someone who was more curious in a literary and education sense than most people around me. As a curious sort, I wanted to not only know what and how, but why.
I was to my knowledge never a scriptural literalist and that I chalk up to the teachings of the Church: We believe the Bible only so far as it is translated correctly.
I know the Church taught me that the Book of Mormon was the truest book ever on the face of the earth, but I don’t recall ever being taught to blindly accept its teachings without praying about it.
So I started a love affair with scripture that was not based on reading The Law according to someone else but based on expecting a whisper as I read. It was how I understood the Moroni promise. It was an unconscious expectation since at that time the words and concepts I put in the above paragraphs were not part of my experience on perception of life and learning.
The promised whisper of the Spirit never set fire to my bosom.
Yet from the get-go of my courtship with scripture, that reactive sense of quickening, never seemed far away or too infrequent to be worth the bother of search, ponder and pray.
Prayer then, related to scripture, was the Moroni promise – and it was a promise that gave me confidence. It was all about sincerity and trust along with a smattering of worthiness, but not so much as to discourage me, a sinner, from even trying because I might not be worthy of God’s attentiveness.
What happened for the rest of my life … even after the correlated Church rose to the fore and began its micro-managing style and tendency to censor … was in fact a consequence of how I learned to learn within the Church culture. They taught me to ask God, to trust the promptings if and when they came, and then act on the promptings.
When I later heard that Brigham Young expressed the idea that he feared the membership would act on his counsel without praying about it and getting a confirmation of its truthfulness, I was not surprised.
It was the way I had finally come to be a genuinely active Mormon. I had come to my own burning bosom sense but seemingly completely ignorant of the fact … because a lot of times the prompting never centered in my bosom, but in my mind where the Spirit interacts the most.
My chest rarely speaks to me except when I am out of breath from exertion or have perhaps heartburn. But the Spirit speaks within my mind quite frequently and when the strength of the voice is sufficiently powerful, my heart feels it too … what I call a quickening.
So scripture formed the earliest focus of quickened learning and also formed the earliest workable understanding of how the Lord works with individuals; how in fact that still small voice “whispers” loudly enough to make itself heard in time for me to act.
Even today I cannot testify of the absolute truthfulness or inerrancy of the Book of Mormon any more than I can the Bible, The Doctrine and Covenants or the Pearl of G.P. … but I do not see that as important, except to scriptural literalists inside and outside the Church.
I was never a fundamentalist in that respect.
But I can testify to being prompted – whispered to – if you will, by an assortment of scriptural verses over an assortment of moments in my life when needing to know was great or when appropriateness and timeliness was critical.
That to me is the mystical sense of religion that differentiates mechanical practice and religious busy-ness from a genuine moment-by-moment life of the spirit that exceeds any performance-based religiosity.
In Part II I will write about the search, ponder and pray and how such have defined my spirituality; how search, ponder and pray has informed my religious understanding in ways that leave me grounded in the world and of the world without risking any sort of loss of faith or Spirit.
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The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and the Dumb
From Parker J. Palmer:
(1) Don’t give advice, unless someone insists. Instead, be fully present, listen deeply, and ask the kind of questions that give the other a chance to express more of his or her own truth, whatever it may be.
(2) If you find yourself receiving unwanted advice from someone close to you, smile and ask politely if you can pay a little less this month.
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Ten Prospects Reportedly Offered Invites to NBA Draft Green Room
Each year, a select group of NBA prospects are invited to sit with their friends and family in the “green room” during the Draft. ESPN has this year’s squad: “The NBA has issued 10 preliminary invitations to its “green room” for Thursday night’s draft, according to multiple sources. Those invited are: Nerlens Noel (Kentucky); Victor Oladipo (Indiana); Otto Porter (Georgetown); Alex Len (Maryland); Anthony Bennett (UNLV); Ben McLemore (Kansas); Trey Burke (Michigan); Michael Carter-Williams (Syracuse); C.J. McCollum (Lehigh) and Cody Zeller (Indiana). The top prospects in the draft usually receive the invites to the green room, where the players, their families and agent sit on draft night. When their names are called, they leave the room and go up on stage to shake commissioner David Stern’s hand.”
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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ category
As mentioned in previous Synergy posts if your organization operates within the European Union (EU) or trades with the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will affect your operations.
Only 6% of surveyed organizations say they are “completely prepared” ahead of the mandate’s May 25 effective date, according to the 2018 State of Data Governance Report.
17% of organizations believe GDPR does not affect them. Their organizations are misguided because any company in any industry is within GDPR’s reach. Even if only one EU citizen’s data is included within an organization’s database(s), compliance is mandatory.
So it’s important for organizations to understand exactly what they need to do before the deadline and the potential fines of up to €20 million or 4% of annual turnover, whichever is greater.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
According to the GDPR directive, personal data is any information related to a person such as: a name, a photo, an email address, bank details, updates on social networking websites, location details, medical information, or a computer IP address.
Personal data also comes in many forms and extends to the combination of different data elements that individually are not PII, but contribute to PII status when consolidated.
Active Consent, Data Processing and the Right to Be Forgotten
GDPR also strengthens the conditions for consent, which must:
- be clear and distinguishable from other matters
- and provided in an intelligible and easily accessible form,
- using clear and plain language.
- it must be as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it.
Data subjects also have the right to obtain confirmation as to whether their personal data is being processed, where and for what purpose. The data controller must provide a copy of the said personal data in an electronic format – free of charge. This change is a dramatic shift in data transparency and consumer empowerment.
The right to be forgotten entitles the data subject to have the data controller erase his/her personal data, cease further dissemination of the data, and potentially have third parties halt processing of the data.
Documenting Compliance and Data Breaches
GDPR also looks to curb data breaches that have become more extensive and frequent in recent years. Data’s value has sky-rocketed, and data-driven businesses are major targets of cyber threats.
Organizations must:
– document what data they have,
– where it resides,
- the controls in place to protect it,
- the measures that will be taken to address mistakes/breaches.
In fact, data breach notification is mandatory within 72 hours if that breach is likely to “result in risk for the rights and freedoms of individuals.”
Data Governance and GDPR:
Data governance and GDPR go hand in hand. A strong data governance program is critical to the data visibility and categorization needed for GDPR compliance, and it will help in assessing and prioritizing data risks and enable easier verification of compliance with GDPR auditors.
Data governance enables an organization to discover, understand, govern and socialize its data assets – not just within IT but across the entire organization. Not only does it encompass data’s current iteration but also its entire lineage and connections through the data ecosystem.
Understanding data lineage is absolutely necessary in the context of GDPR. Take the right to be forgotten, for example. Such compliance requires an organization to locate all an individual’s PII and any information that can be cross-referenced with other data points to become PII.
With the right data governance approach and supporting technology, organizations can ensure GDPR compliance with their current, as-is architecture and data assets – and ensure new data sources and/or changes to the to-be architecture incorporate the appropriate controls.
Stakeholders across the enterprise need to be GDPR aware and enabled so that compliance is built in,
In a normal supply transaction, an organization is required to pay value added tax (VAT) to the government on the supplies made to its customers.
In the context of the UAE, reverse charge is only applicable when purchases are made outside the UAE.
If all purchases are made locally, the reverse charge mechanism is not applicable. it applies when imports are made from outside UAE and the seller is from another country, which may or may not have a business in the UAE.
Since a seller does not have business in UAE, it will be difficult for the tax authorities to track these sellers or suppliers. Reverse Charge Mechanism eliminates the obligation for the overseas seller to register for VAT in the UAE. Hence, the buyers who are residents of UAE are made responsible to charge VAT on a reverse charge basis.
In the UAE VAT, the Reverse Charge Mechanism is applicable while importing goods or services from outside the GCC countries. Under this, the businesses will not have to physically pay VAT at the point of import.
The responsibility for reporting of a VAT transaction is shifted from the seller to the buyer; under Reverse Charge Mechanism. Here the buyer reports the Input VAT (VAT on purchases) as well as the output VAT (VAT on sales) in their VAT return for the same quarter.
The reverse charge is the amount of VAT one would have paid on that goods or services if one had bought it in the UAE. The importer has to disclose the amount of VAT under both Input VAT as well as Output VAT categories of the VAT return of that quarter.
So, this is the mechanism under which the recipient of goods or services is required to pay VAT instead of the supplier, when the supplier is not a taxable person in the member state where the supply has been made. The Reverse Charge moves the responsibility for the recording of a VAT transaction from the seller to the buyer of a good or service. Normally, the supplier pays the tax on supply (i.e.it is a sale order for the supplier) however in certain cases (IMPORTS), the receiver becomes liable to pay the tax, i.e., the chargeability gets reversed, which is why it is called reverse charge. The receiver (I,e, the buyer, will later sell on the goods to the end customer and will charge VAT on that sales value and will reclaim the VAT is has paid on import.
The UAE Ministry of Finance announced the Executive Regulation for the Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 on Value Added Tax at a Cabinet meeting on 7 November 2017, headed by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai.
The Regulation defines VAT as the 5% tax imposed on the import and supply of goods and services at each stage of production and distribution, including:
- what is a deemed supply, with the exception of specific supplies subject to the zero rate
– what is exempted as specified in the Decree-Law.
Before reviewing the individual titles of the registration this is summary of the salient points:
VAT Registrations
It is important to note that the draft VAT executive regulations state that businesses are required to register in accordance with the timelines previously announced by the Federal Tax Authority. As a consequence, if taxpayers have not registered within these timelines, it may potentially result in late registration penalties which are AED 20,000.
The UAE’s Federal Tax Authority is urging companies subject to the value-added tax to register before December 4 to avoid paying the tax from their own pockets.
The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) requires by law 20 working days to access and process their applications, said Khalid Al Bustani at a media briefing in Dubai. Companies submitting applications after that date are not guaranteed to get their formalities completed, will not be able to charge 5 per cent VAT to their customers and may have to pay the tax from their pocket until their registrations are finished, according to FTA officials at the briefing.
– Businesses providing taxable supplies may apply for a voluntary VAT registration if their sales exceed AED 187,500 per annum
- Businesses providing exclusively zero-rated supplies may apply for an exemption from the obligation to VAT register
- The mandatory VAT registration threshold is AED 375,000 sales per annum
- A registration application must be submitted within 30 days of being obliged to register
- Tax Groups may be formed for multiple, related parties businesses to register under one number – one taxable party, the ‘representatives’, takes on the responsibility to prepare and submit the consolidated return
- De-registrations are permitted on the cessation of the taxable supplies, or on the tax authorities decision
Tax point
VAT becomes due on the earlier of:
-The invoice date
- The delivery of the goods or performance of the service
- The payment date
Place of supply rules
- For real estate, a supply is deemed to take place in UAE where the services is directly connected with UAE real estate
– Domestic transport services are deemed to be supplied from the place where the transport commences
- For goods transported to another GCC State which has implemented VAT (‘implementing state), the place of supply is the destination provided adequate proof of transportation can be obtained
Zero rating
The following goods and services shall be zero-rated for VAT purposes (note: all foods will be standard rated):
- Goods physically exported to other VAT registered businesses outside of the UAE or other implementing state provided commercial evidence of the transport is retained by the vendor
- when supplied to a customer that does not have a establishment in UAE and is outside of the country at the time of supply. The exception is real estate in UAE.
- Supply of international transportation services for passengers and goods
- The supply or import of precious metals
- New residential property supplies
- Education services if supplied by an accredited government body
- Healthcare services provided by a body linked to the state
- Approved pharmaceuticals
Exempt supplies
The following services will be exempted from VAT:
- Financial services related to dealing in money (e.g. FX, debt securities, loans, bank accounts, derivatives or similar, issuing shares and life insurance)
- Other financial services attracting a fee or commission are liable to VAT
- Residential buildings with a lease longer than 6 months
- Bare land
- Local passenger transport
VAT Free Designated Zones
Special geographical areas within the UAE, but outside of the UAE VAT regime. These are created upon a decision by the Cabinet. They have security measures and customs controls to monitor the movement of goods. The transfer of goods or provision of services within the Zones will not be subject to VAT – similar to the bonded warehouse concept.
Import VAT becomes payable when any goods leave the Zone.
Non-recoverable VAT
The following VAT is not recoverable against VAT on taxable supplies:
- Entertainment for non-employees
- Personal use vehicles and other goods for employees
- Employee-use goods not directly associated with the provision of taxable supplies
VAT invoices
VAT invoices must include the following details:
- Name and address of supplier
- VAT Number
- Unique VAT invoice number
- Date of invoice, and date of supply if different
- Description of the goods/services provided
- Unit prices, quantity or volumes of the supplies
- Any discount offered
- VAT calculation and gross amount due in AED (any rate of exchange used)
Simplified invoices may be issued to non-tax payers or when the consideration is below AED 10,000.
Electronic invoices may be issued if the vendor has secure storage facilities, and the authenticity of the invoice can be guaranteed
VAT reporting
The standard VAT reporting period is 3 months
VAT returns must be received by the 28th of the month following the reporting period.
Transitional rules
- Goods or services provided before the implementation of VAT will be treated as having been provided on the implementation date
- A payment for the services prior to the implementation date will be disregarded for determining the time of supply after the implementation date
- The value prior to VAT implementation of any goods or services will be treated as exclusive of VAT
The Value Added Tax (VAT) to be launched on January 1 in UAE will bring many changes in the price structure of the goods and services in the country. While some basic things like school fees will be exempt from tax, many other essential items such as: water, food, and jewelry may be included in the VAT.
The VAT in UAE will be levied at a fixed rate of 5 per cent on all applicable items.
The tax will also be levied from the tourists visiting the country, however, the tax paid by tourists in the UAE will be refunded back to them at the airport.
Goods/services we understand to be exempt from VAT
The following items/services will be VAT exempt:
◾Medical fees
◾Air travel
◾Medicines
◾Basic and preventive surgery
◾Exam fees
◾Local transport
◾Residential rents
◾Public school books
The VAT will also be applicable to the free zone companies making supplies outside the zone. This might increase pre-financing cost for such companies.
Draft Regulation Titles:
The first title of the Regulation includes the definitions of terms used.
The second title deals with supply, which includes:
- articles regulating the supply of goods and services,
- supplies that consist of more than one component
- the exceptions related to deemed supplies.
The third title of the document tackles the subject of registration, such as:
– mandatory and voluntary registration,
– related parties,
– conditions to be met to register tax groups
– appointing a representative member,
– deregistration,
– exception from registration,
– registration on law coming into effect
– obligations to be met before deregistration.
The fourth title looks into rules relating to supply, including:
– articles on the date of supply,
– place of supply for goods,
– place of supply of services for real estate,
– transport services,
– telecommunications and electronic services,
– intra-GCC supplies,
– the market value,
– prices to be inclusive of: tax, discounts, subsidies and vouchers.
The fifth title discusses profit margins, and also explains how to calculate VAT based on profit margins,
The seventh title clarifies provisions relating to products and services exempt from value added tax, namely:
- the supply of certain financial services as specified in the Executive Regulation,
- the supply of residential (non-zero-rated) buildings either by sale orby lease,
- the supply of bare land,
- the supply of local passenger transport.
The eighth title addresses accounting for tax on:
- specific supplies and includes articles relating to supplies with more than one component,
– general provisions in relation to import of goods
– applying a reverse charge on goods and services,
– moving goods to implementing states
– imports by non-registered persons.
The fifteenth title 15 goes into recovery of excess tax in article (65).
The sixteenth title 16 tackles recovery in other cases and includes:
- article (66) on new housing for nationals,
- article (67) on business visitors,
- article (68) on tourists
- article (69) on foreign governments.
The draft text of the Executive Regulation for Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 on Value Added Tax, is to be published on the UAE Ministry of Finance’s website www.mof.gov.ae – https://www.mof.gov.ae/en/budget/pages/vatquestions.aspx
and the Federal Tax Authority’s website www.tax.gov.ae
https://www.tax.gov.ae/pdf/VAT-Decree-Law-No-8-of-2017.pdf
Some comments:
The Executive Regulation is clear that prices must be expressed inclusive of VAT unless something is being supplied for export or where the customer is registered for VAT i.e. for B2C retail sales
This will prevent preventing businesses from misleading consumers by adding 5 per cent to the price at the till, but it s gives rise to complexity where businesses are supplying to a combination of consumers, non-registered businesses and registered businesses, and where they make both domestic and international supplies.
There is reference to “Designated Zones” being treated as outside the UAE in the Decree-Law, but the Executive Regulation makes it clear these must be “a specific fenced geographic area [which] has security measures and customs controls in place to monitor entry and exit of individuals and movements of goods to and from the area”. It simply wasn’t permissible under the GCC Framework Agreement, or the design of VAT generally, to treat the Dubai International Financial Centre differently from anywhere else in the UAE.
Banks, will need to work through Article (42) of the Executive Regulation to determine which of their supplies are exempt and which are standard rated. For example, supplies cannot be exempt if they are “conducted in return for an explicit fee, discount, commission, and rebate or similar”.
Furthermore, in relation to Islamic finance products, the drafting is currently unclear on whether each separate part of a product will need to be certified as Sharia compliant, or whether only a product generally has to have been certified.
Challenges remain for certain sectors. Healthcare services, which are generally zero rated, are defined as a supply “that is generally accepted in the medical professions as being necessary for the treatment of the recipient of the supply including preventive treatment”. That’s not just a question for a tax lawyer. That’s a question for a doctor.
The UAE Executive Regulation now takes a more considered approach than the simpler but ultimately unsatisfactory approach taken in the Saudi legislation with regard to existing contracts. Under the Executive Regulation, when a contract is silent on VAT, the consideration will be treated as exclusive of VAT, and the recipient will be required to pay VAT in addition if, broadly speaking,
(i) the recipient of the supply is registered for VAT;
(ii) the recipient of the supply has the right to recover the VAT charged in full, or in part.
It is still unclear regarding VAT on supplies to government entities – for example, whether an entity is in fact a government entity, whether a government entity is required to be registered, and whether it has the right to recover VAT?
Field Service (v 7.1.0.33) Enhancements enabled for this upgrade release:
• Added a new view that shows only Field Service based Quotes and Field Service based Orders and link it to sitemap in Field Service.
• Added switch to turn off address suggestions at Field Service settings.
• Handled querying Service Territory offline to improve performance.
Share the schedule board:
You can now share the schedule board with specific people, everyone, or yourself only.
◦ Just me – Only the owner of schedule board settings record sees it. This must be a Dynamics 365 user.
◦ Specific people – Only users with read access to that schedule board settings record see this. This can be based on having higher security rights, or if the record is shared using Dynamics 365 Share functionality.
◦ Everyone – If the user has access to use the schedule board, they will see these boards.
• Dim unavailable resources: When searching for availability on the schedule board, resources that are unavailable in the search can either be dimmed, or removed from the schedule board. A user who only wants to see a specific set of resources can choose to dim unavailable resources instead of removing resources that are not a match while a user without this requirement can have unavailable resources completely removed from the board. This setting can be changed in the schedule board tab settings.
Fixes for this upgrade release:
•Schedule assistant is not displaying resources as per Requirement Resource Preference (Restricted/Preferred) on IE11 Browser.
NOTE: This upgrade release can only be installed/upgraded for Dynamics 365 9.0+ org.
Universal Resource Scheduling Enhancements
Fixes for this upgrade release
•Schedule board error when time zone set to GMT-3
•Schedule board shows no resources available until switching from Hours view to Day view.
•Map pins are not refreshed when moving to next page of resources while in RM.
•Requirement map pin loses focus when searching for availability.
•Handle escaping requirement name on Schedule Board.
•Maintain Bookings not opening in the correct view.
•Cancel bookings route also showing in the mini map in schedule board.
•Hide inactive resource characteristics from resource fly out.
•Booking duration and percentage is not changing when cancel the booking after the moved bookings to different day.Cannot sort or filter fields added to requirement view on schedule board from other entities.
•Changing territory filter on board does not take immediate effect on the requirement tabs when Apply Territory Filter is enabled.
•On Schedule board, inconsistency in calculating the available capacity between hourly and daily view.
•Duration value is not updated when the requirement detail is deleted.
•Incorrect duration time on view details tooltip template in RM mode.
•On click of “Load Default filter” not clearing all controls in Filter control.
•Resource driving directions print window, print icon is missing next to print label.
•Add Fulfilled/Remaining Duration fields to the Requirement form.
NOTE: Enhancements and bug fixes for Universal Resource Scheduling apply for Field Service and Project Service Automation as well as other schedulable entities.
Documentation site at https://docs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/, and then choose the What’s new tile.
In addition to support for the introduction of VAT at 5% in January 2018, Saudi Arabia announced at the end of 2016 a timeline for implementation of a tax on harmful products. The Fiscal Balance Program 2020 report, published by the Saudi government , said the kingdom would impose a 50 percent tax on soft drinks and a 100 percent tax on tobacco and energy drinks from the second quarter of 2017.
The taxes were proposed by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in December 2015, but Saudi Arabia’s Finance Ministry only signed the agreement this month, the report said.
No other Gulf country has yet announced a date for implementation of such taxes, although they have been mulling them since 2012. Studies in the GCC have found regional beverage prices to be the lowest when compared to the rest of the world and a key factor behind high rates of childhood obesity and diabetes. For example, soft drinks are priced at around AED1 (US0.27) in the UAE.
In November, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggested retail prices of sugar-sweetened drinks be increased by 20 percent through taxation, to bring about a proportional decline in consumption. The Saudi government’s Program 2020 document revealed that the country was working on plans to include “sugary snacks and drinks” in the tax segment, to fight obesity and diabetes among its population, especially children, and that this tax would be introduced from the second quarter of 2017. “The excise tax is a special tax that will be implemented on specific products with harmful health effects to disincentivise consumption of such products,” it said.
The document also said the kingdom would increase the “expat levy” payable by sponsors from the third quarter of 2017, with the fee rising every year to up to $213.30 (SR800) per worker by 2020. At present, companies pay a levy of $53.33 (SR200) per month per expat in cases where expat employees exceed the number of Saudi employees.
A new fee on expat workers’ dependents will come into effect from July 2017, the document said.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a suite of cloud services to help companies to accelerate their digital transformation with purpose-built apps to address specific business needs.
Dynamics 365 unifies CRM and ERP functions into applications that work smoothly together across all divisions: sales, customer service, field service, operations, financials, marketing, and project service automation. These apps can be easily and independently deployed and scaled on demand.
Start with what you need the most.
All apps are delivered through easy-to-use, mobile experiences and feature offline capabilities.
Users can rely on Power BI, Cortana Intelligence and Azure IoT functions which are natively embedded.
In addition to that, Dynamics 365 and Office 365 are deeply integrated. Since Dynamics 365 uses a new common data servicel, customers can extend functionality and build custom apps using PowerApps, Microsoft Flow (News: PowerApps and Flow available) as well as professional developer solutions.
(This capability is also available for AX 2012 R2 and requires a hotfix KB 3091042 similarly there will be a hotfix for Ax 2012 RTM)
Management Reporter CU14, introduced a new method of integration for budget control related data. Previously budget control category data was integrated as book codes; for instance, FY2015 – ConfirmedEncumbrances or FY2015 – ConfirmedPreencubrances.
Management Reporter CU14, has a single budget control book code per budget model (ex. FY2015-BudgetControl) and the budget control categories (ex. Original budget, Draft Encumbrances, Encumbrances, etc) integrate as attributes allowing for greater flexibility and consistency in regards to report design.
Budget reservations for draft actual expenditures is incorporated into the new design.
Below is an example of how to create a budget funds available column definition using a single budget control related scenario (book code) and filtering columns for specific budget control categories. Notice that the Book code = FY2015BudgetControl (where FY2015 is the name of the budget model). The attribute filter is set to the budget control category to display in this column.
BudgetFundsAvailCol1A
Addi columns for actual expenditures, encumbrances, and Pre-encumbrances in the same manner:
BudgetFundsAvailCol2
When using this column definition within a report definition, mark “Posted and unposted activity” in the Provisional field if to include any draft amounts for budget control categories.
BudgetFundsAvailReportDef
Future CUs will provide a budget funds available report by default to use as a starting point for your report designs.
it reiterates and builds on the messages from WPC
- Millennials work in a different way
– Mobility, cloud, Cortana. Windows 10, Predictive Analytics and rich visuals, Surface Hub, Skype Business, Office 365, an integrated way of working, cross platform, with scalability and new insights and agility.
The recent terrorist actions in France do not seem so far away when we read about the regional troubles in our daily newspapers.
I felt proud of the UAE when I visited the Burj Khalifa yesterday and saw it lit up with the colours of the Tricolore echoing the display at the Eiffel tower.
At the 2015 summit of the Open Compute Project (OCP), Amir Michael, a well-respected data-center engineer and a founder of OCP, offered a surprise during his presentation. “Something not often talked about in the industry,” Michael mentions. “There is a trend of people moving off the cloud.”
The purpose of Coolan, an analytics platform, is to help data-center operators reduce downtime and lower infrastructure costs by analyzing metadata on how the servers are performing.
“Trying to figure out the TCO (Total-Cost-of-Ownership) for your compute infrastructure is no easy task,” explains Michael. “With the proliferation of public, private, and hybrid clouds, not to mention the ever-growing number of Buzzword-as-a-Service paradigms, anyone in charge of their company’s infrastructure faces a difficult decision: Should you build or acquire your own data center, lease space in a co-located facility, or rent a piece of the cloud?”
Some of the cost points the TCO Model addresses include:
•Whether to build your own servers or buy OEM
•What type of hardware components to use
•Whether to upgrade systems or deploy new ones
•The cost of capital
•The data-center PUE
•The amount of power the network is consuming
And the ultimate question: stay in the cloud, go colo, or build a private data center?
•Managed services in the cloud wins if a company requires more computing power than storage.
•In a related sense, the amount of storage required has a huge impact on choosing a deployment method.
•The cost to grow is less for in-house data centers than cloud-managed services or leasing more colocation space.
Rumors hit the Internet that Microsoft might be in talks to acquire the popular “to-do” app Wunderlist, a new report in The Wall Street Journal, indicates Microsoft has purchased the company behind the app, the German-based 6Wunderkinder, for between $100 and $200 million.
Neither company officially confirmed this deal, but is seems that the Wunderlist team will remain in its home office in Berlin, Germany to continue working on the app.
This is the latest acquisition by Microsoft for a mobile productivity app company. It bought the e-mail client Acompli in late 2014 and put its technology into the latest versions of its Outlook mobile apps. Microsoft also acquired Sunrise Calendar in early 2015.
So why Wunderlsit- well its maybe the least intimidating Task Manager
Wunderlist Features
Lists: One of the easiest things to grasp is that you get to set up lists, and put things in those lists.
Even I can do that in Wunderlist without any guidance so it is easy to use. Set up lists and put stuff in the list, and tick things off when done
Hashtags: You have multiple lists, and an item on one list that is related to items in other lists. Hashtags in Wunderlist lets show items that may exist in one or more of your lists together in one place.
Collaboration: One of the advantages of a digital list over a paper one is the ability to share it with others. With the simplicity of Wunderlist, once you invite someone to share a list with you, they won’t need you to give them a long explanation of how to use it. Share, add items, tick things off, add comments, assign tasks, attach files, and you have a system that will allow you to work together without sending emails like “Can you do this?” or “Here’s that file”
Platforms: One of the reasons why productivity tools fail is that no one wants to use won’t use a system if it isn’t handy – i.e. wherever you are. It’s great to have your lists available in a browser, or on whatever device you’re using with Wunderlist.
Email : The whole point of using these productivity tools is to get out of email. It’s more than that. It’s about separating tasks and resources so you’re not digging through piles of emails to find that attachment someone sent or what the deadline was for the report you have to write. It’s about working from your own clearly prioritised plan, rather than letting your inbox dictate your day and your priorities. Wunderlist also has some email notification options that you can use to work efficiently without getting sucked back in to a sea of email.
Wunderlist is good for:
• People on the go, with multi-platform availability.
• Non techy people, with one of the simplest interfaces I’ve seen.
• GTD enthusiasts, with things like hashtags to manage contexts.
• Small teams, for sharing and commenting functionality.
Wunderlist may do well in every day use
• Shopping lists
• ‘Read later’ lists, if you don’t use something like Pocket
• Idea lists, like blog posts about productivity…
Comparisons with other task list tools
Wunderlist vs Todoist
Todoist is good for managing tasks. The tree structure in Todoist gives visibility of high level tasks and their breakdown into sub-tasks all at once. Wunderlist supports sub-tasks, but you can only see those when you have the main task within the list selected.
Todoist labels are equivalent to hashtags, and you have to upgrade to premium Todoist to use these whereas hashtags in Wunderlist are available in the free version.
In general, Todoist can be a bit more intimidating for someone new to such tools
Wunderlist vs Trello
Items on a Wunderlist list are a bit simpler than cards on a Trello list. It means they have less functionality, so this could be a positive or a negative .
View and group multiple lists and their items in one screen on Trello, using boards. Wunderlist can only view one list at a time, even though it’s still possible to use drag & drop to move things between lists.
Trello has the edge when it comes to an intuitive visual representation but if you don’t need that ‘big picture’ view, then Wunderlist is O.K..
Wunderlist vs iOS Reminders
Wunderlist offers the simplicity that you get when using the native list app on iOS but adds extra functionality . When you use hashtags, attachments, comments or sub tasks then it’s worth installing the Wunderlist app.
An advantage of Reminders is Siri integration. Press a button and speak makes adding something to a list the simplest process possible ensures you actually use a list rather than scribbling on sticky notes. If you’re struggling to get into that habit of a technology-based solution, this could be what makes it stick
Integrations: So many apps and systems so how will; a new onework with what we already have. Here are a couple of useful Wunderlist integrations:
• Dropbox for your file storage.
• Calendar view of tasks or other items with due dates.
• IFTTT recipes that integrate Wunderlist with other systems, although Wunderlist isn’t actually supported you can do lots through email commands.
For such a simple and easy to use product, Wunderlist has lots of functionality and it’s great for people who are trying to get in the habit of using an app to improve their productivity and they find the other options intimidating.
Synergy is a well established, solution provider across the Middle East region.
Synergy has a strong presence in several key verticals; Manufacturing, Construction, Hospitality Insurance, Financial Services, Government. Media, Oil and Gas, Distribution.
Synergy is particularly well known as a Gold Partner of both Infor Sunsystems, and Microsoft Dynamics Ax and for its implementation expertise and exceptional support. It is based centrally in Dubai in the Karama district since it was registered in 1991, and occupies a 7,000 sq ft office with around 80 full time employees.
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Q:
JavaScript switch statement 1-100
I am trying to write a JavaScript switch where the user enters a number from 1-100 and they receive a message based on what range the number falls into. This is what I have written so far.
I am doing this for an intro to programing class, and I don't fully understand how to get this to work, my problem is that I can't figure out how to show a range, ie: 1-25,
<script>
var number = prompt("Enter 1-100");
switch(number)
{
case 1-25:
document.write("1-25");
break;
case 26-50;
document.write("26-50");
break;
case 51-100:
document.write("51-75");
break;
case "4":
document.write("76-100");
break;
}
</script>
A:
Just figuring it out with a little math is probably a better approach :
var number = prompt("Enter 1-100"),
message = ['1-25', '26-50', '51-75', '76-100'];
document.write(message[Math.ceil(number/25)-1])
FIDDLE
Divide the returned number with 25, round up to nearest whole number, which gives you 1,2,3 ... etc, and since array indices starts at zero, subtract 1.
EDIT:
If you have to do a switch, you'd still be better off with a little math, and not writing a hundred case's :
var number = prompt("Enter 1-100");
number = Math.ceil(number / 25 );
switch(number) {
case 1:
document.write("1-25");
break;
case 2:
document.write("26-50");
break;
case 3:
document.write("51-75");
break;
case 4:
document.write("76-100");
break;
}
FIDDLE
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Historical development of health technology assessment in Thailand.
This study aims to review the development of health technology assessment (HTA), including the socioeconomic context, outputs, and policy utilization in the Thai setting. This study was conducted through extensive document reviews including these published in both domestic and international literature. Evidence suggests that contextual elements of the health system, especially the country's economic status and health financing reforms, as well as their effects on government budgeting for medical and public health services, played an important role in the increasing needs and demands for HTA information among policy makers. In the midst of substantial economic growth during the years 1982 to 1996, several studies reported the rapid diffusion and poor distribution of health technologies, and inequitable access to high-cost technology in public and private hospitals. At the same time, economic analysis and its underpinning concept of efficiency were suggested by groups of scholars and health officials to guide national policy on the investment in health technology equipment. Related research and training programs were subsequently launched. However, none of these HTA units could be institutionalized into national bodies. From 1997 to 2005, an economic recession, followed by the introduction of a universal health coverage plan, triggered the demands for effective measures for cost containment and prioritization of health interventions. This made policy makers and researchers at the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) pay increasing attention to economic appraisals, and several HTA programs were established in the Ministry. Despite the rising number of Thai health economic publications, a major problem at that period involved the poor quality of studies. Since 2006, economic recovery and demands from different interests to include expensive technologies in the public health benefit package have been crucial factors promoting the role of HTA in national policy decisions. Meanwhile, HTA capacity has been strengthened through the establishment of many health economic and HTA initiatives. An illustration of the work and contributions of the Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP) is provided. In this phase, HTA policy integration has been enhanced through different mechanisms and organizations. Over the past two decades a notable progression has been made in relation to the capacity building of HTA research and its policy utility in Thailand. Such development has been shaped by multiple factors. It is anticipated that experience gained among academics, health officials, and civil society organizations will be helpful not only in sustaining the momentum but also in improving formal HTA systems in the future.
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Table of Contents
1. Regular Expressions Basics
2. Creating Your Own Patterns
3. How Metacharacters Work
4. Quantifier Greediness
5. Pattern Modifiers
6. PCRE vs. POSIX
7. Putting it All Together
8. Conclusion and Future Tutorials
Regular Expressions Basics
What are Regular Expressions?
Regular expressions (which will now be referred to as "regexes") are basically pattern matching inside of text. They use special syntax and concepts in order to obtain information from a string. Many programming languages have some sort of support for regexes, because of the sheer usefulness of them. Not only can patterns be used to validate that a certain pattern exists in a string, but they can also be used to physically extract matched portions and make them usable in your PHP code. Although it's not mentioned in this tutorial, keep it in mind as you're reading it, because it's the main focus of the next tutorial in the series.
How are they different from regular string searching functions?
Regular string searching functions like strpos() and str_replace() are very limited in what they can actually do. They're great for replacing a single character or two, or changing 'ham' to 'turkey' in a recipe, but that's about all they can do. If you want to see if a string contained all numbers (and possibly commas to separate the numbers), you'd have to create some convoluted processing routine along the lines of:
<?php $string = "731,489,392,222"; foreach (str_split($string) as $char) { if (!is_numeric($char) or $str != ',') { $bad = true; } } if (!$bad) { .... } ?>
That's where the power of regexes comes into play. They have amazing capabilities in terms of analyzing strings for certain patterns and matches.
Why bother? I can make parsing routines that do the job just fine.
This question is actually quite commonly asked for first-time regex users. Regular expressions have quite a learning curve, and they have a very intricate syntax, but they are one of the most powerful ways to get PHP to handle data precisely as you want. Sometimes, the kinds of data and patterns that regular expressions can parse are simply not possible to emulate with regular string handling functions. Regexes can be quite daunting at first, but when they're broken up into individual parts and their syntax is analyzed, they're actually quite simple.
Well, now it's time for you to learn how to create regular expressions of your very own.
Note: This tutorial is just covering regular expression syntax. Actual pattern matching, substitution, and handling of results in PHP will be covered in subsequent tutorials. Also, this tutorial set covers Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE), for reasons which will be discussed later.
Creating Your Own Patterns
Before we start interpreting regular expression syntax, it would be a good idea to first see what a pattern looks like. A pattern must ALWAYS have an opening delimiter and an ending delimiter to "enclose" the pattern so the engine knows where to stop and for separating modifiers from the rest of the pattern, which will be discussed later on in the tutorial. The most commonly seen delimiter is /, but it's often advisable to use some obscure character that will never end up in one of your patterns (such as `, #, or !). For most of the examples in this tutorial, I'll be using / as my delimiter, simply because it's conventional, but you can use any character really. Now that we have delimiters out of the way, let's look at one of the most simple patterns.
/abc/
When a plain letter is shown in a regular expression, it's interpreted as just that -- a plain letter. This pattern would match ANY string containing a 'abc' in that order. Not very useful, but it illustrates some basic principles. Notice how the part you want matched ('abc') is contained within the delimiters? That's how every pattern has to be formatted, otherwise it simply won't work.
More Than Plain Letters
Being able to throw some plain letters inside of / / is great, but you could just use your trusty strpos() for that. Where the real power of regular expressions comes in is with metacharacters. These characters don't match themselves, but actually "misbehave" a bit. Some misbehave so much that they actually cause other characters to misbehave. The metacharacters in regular expressions are:
\ | . ( ) [ ] { } ^ $ + ?
In order to actually match these characters literally, you'd need to add a backslash before them. So, by that statement, in order to match a literal ., you could use the following pattern:
/\./
Notice once again the delimiters (/ /), and the backslash which comes before the metacharacter to "de-meta" it. But a bit of an interesting point to note would be that in order to match a literal backslash, you'd need to put 2 backslashes, since the backslash itself is a metacharacter.
/\\/
How Metacharacters Work
This section will be completely devoted to an in-depth explanation of each of the metacharacters, and how they act when used in a pattern.
The Catch-All Metacharacter (.)
The . is actually a pretty simple concept. The . metacharacter matches ANY character except for a newline (
), but that can be modified (we'll explain that much later). A simple demonstration of the . at work would be in a pattern like:
/c.t/
This pattern would match cat, cut, cbt, cet, czt, c4t, and so on, but not caat because there's only one dot (.) in the pattern. It's important to note that . only matches ONE character, until quantifiers are introduced.
The Anchoring Metacharacters (^ $)
Sometimes you'll need to actually make sure that a string begins or ends with a certain character. That's where ^ and $ come in.
The ^ character matches the beginning point of a string. It doesn't actually match a literal character, but instead, it matches a boundary. To make sure that a string starts with a Z, you could apply the following pattern:
/^Z/
The $ character is essentially the same as the ^ character, except it matches the end of a string. To make sure that a string ended with a g, you'd use:
/g$/
Note how the $ came after the g, unlike in the pattern with ^. This is because the pattern is literally telling the regex engine "a g followed by the end of the string boundary", not the other way around. In fact, it would make little sense, because you can't have characters after the end of a string. The only way that characters can appear after a $ is if you have your regular expression multi-line mode. It will be discussed in depth later on in this tutorial, but keep in mind that the meaning of ^ and $ can change sometimes.
These two metacharacters can also be used simultaneously in a pattern, and in fact, that's often how they are used. It would probably help to show an example:
/^abc$/
This pattern, after being taken apart, is quite simple. It is saying that a string must begin, then match a 'abc', then match the end. Basically, the string must be 'abc' in order to match.
The Grouping Metacharacters (( ))
The ( and ) characters are both used in a concept called grouping. The ( character begins a group, and the ) character ends it. Every ( must have a closing ).
This comes into play not only in capturing things to be used later, but it also is the only way to make other metacharacters operate on more than one character. Normally, each character is its own little subpattern on which other metacharacters can operate, but the parentheses change that. They allow more 'complex' subpatterns to be made. Any reference to the word subpattern from now on means a single character subpattern or a parenthesized group.
Any examples show right now would be rather pointless, but here's one:
/(abc)/
Right now, this would match the same as /abc/, but that's going to change after the explanation of other metacharacters.
Another use of grouping is to create backreferences, which actually allow you to match things based on what previous groups captured. This comes into play in substitution and more advanced syntax, but keep it in mind.
The Quantifying Metacharacters ( * + ? { } )
The quantifiers are among the most important regex metacharacters. They dictate how often a certain letter (or group!) can or must appear. They certainly make patterns more dynamic than just matching single characters.
The * quantifier says that the preceding subpattern must appear 0 or more times, which basically means that it can appear, and if it does, it doesn't matter how many there are. It's often used to account for random whitespace in a string, but it has other uses as well. For now, let's look at a simple pattern:
/ab*c/
This pattern would match ac, abc, abbc, abbbc, etc. If you want to have * operate on more than one character, you'd need to use those grouping metacharacters that were mentioned earlier (I told you they'd come in handy!):
/a(bcd)*/
This would match a, abcd, abcdbcd, abcdbcdbcd, and so on.
The + quantifier operates just like the *, except it dictates that the preceding subpattern must appear one or more times. It tells the Engine that a certain subpattern must appear, and if it does, it can repeat indefinitely.
/c.+t/
Here, you can see some of the real power of quantifiers. They can be used with any character, including metacharacters like the dot, in this case. This pattern would match cat, caaaaat, cbbbajsduasuut, cjkallskt, etc.
The ? quantifier makes the preceding subpattern optional, meaning the preceding group can appear zero or one times.
/a(bcd)?e/
This would match either abcde or ae, because the ? makes the (bcd) subpattern optional.
The { and } metacharacters are used to specify even more exact quantities for subpatterns. They have several different syntax options to accomplish different things, and they are as follows:
/a(bcd){2}e/ #matches abcdbcde because {2} specifies EXACTLY 2 matches /a(bcd){2,3}e/ # matches abcdbcde or abcdbcdbcde because {2,3} means 2 or 3 matches, inclusive /a(bcd){2,}e/ # matches any string with a, 'bcd' repeated AT LEAST 2 times, and an e. {2,} represents a minimum
By the way, you can't just specify a maximum without a minimum (like {,2}). If you wanted a maximum, you could say {1, max}. Also, an interesting note is that all of the other quantifiers can somehow be represented in terms of { }:
/a(bcd)*e/ is equal to /a(bcd){0,}e/ /a(bcd)+e/ is equal to /a(bcd){1,}e/ /a(bcd)?e/ is equal to /a(bcd){0,1}e/
The *, +, and ? quantifiers are often preferred for readability though.
It's important to note that without using the anchoring metacharacters, ^ and $, a pattern will bring back matches in a string even if there are other characters present. For example, in the following string:
drtabcabcabcpdl
The following pattern would indeed bring back a positive match:
/ab*c/
If you wanted to ensure that a string contains ONLY a certain pattern, you'd need to anchor it:
/^ab*c$/
Now the pattern would only match a, any number of b's, and a c.
The Alternation Metacharacter (|)
The alternation metacharacter is basically equivalent to or in PHP (which is why it looks so much like ||). It tells the Engine to match the stuff separated by |, starting from left to right. The instant that it finds something in the alternation, it breaks out and continues with the pattern. You'll most often use the grouping metacharacters to tell the | which strings to actually operate on, otherwise it could have quite unexpected results. The alternation metacharacter operates as far as the innermost enclosing parentheses.
/(yes)|(no)/
That would match either 'yes' or 'no' in its entirety, but it could have different results if the grouping was left out. It's highly recommended to keep track of how you group things, since it can completely change how the Engine looks at a pattern. Just to help you visualize an example of where grouping in alternation is important to keep track of, I'll show you the following pattern:
/prob|n|r|l|ate/
This pattern would actually match 'prob', 'n', 'r', 'l', or 'ate'. If you wanted to match probate, pronate, prorate, and prolate, you'd use:
/pro(b|n|r|l)ate/
The Character Class Metacharacters ([ ])
Ah, finally we've reached character classes. These are extremely powerful regex concepts to learn and understand, so read this section over a few times if it doesn't click.
Character classes tell the Engine to match any character contained within [ ] as one character. I think it would be best to start off with a basic example, such as:
/c[aeiou]t/
This regex would match cat, cet, cit, cot, and cut, because the [aeiou] class contains those characters in between the c and the t. If I changed the character class to [au], it would only match cat and cut. Now, it's not to say that you couldn't accomplish the same thing with the alternation metacharacter, but it becomes very unwieldy and most of the "cool" functionality of character classes (which will be covered right after this) can't be achieved with it. The previous pattern could have been written as:
/c(a|e|i|o|u)t/
But who actually wants to type that?
The cool part about character classes is ranges. Inside of a character class, you can specify ranges (separated by a -) to match. If you wanted to match a string containing any 5 digit number, you could write this pattern:
/([0-9]{5})/
Acceptable ranges are a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and some other ranges involving the actual "value" of certain characters, but that's a bit advanced. Another important thing to mention is that ranges can be "stacked" inside of a single class. The following example illustrates that.
/^[a-zA-Z0-9_]+$/
That pattern would dictate that a string must contain any amount of only alphanumeric characters and the underscore (_), due to the anchors (^ and $), the quantifier (+), and the character class ([a-zA-Z0-9_]).
There are also "shortcut" character classes which the Engine understands automatically. They are as follows:
/\d/ #matches any digit /\D/ #matches any NON-DIGIT /\w/ #matches any word character (which includes the underscore and digits, so it's like [a-zA-Z0-9_]) /\W/ #matches any NON-WORD character /\s/ #matches any whitespace character like a literal space, a tab, and a newline /\S/ #matches any NON-WHITESPACE character
These shortcuts can be used both inside and outside of actual character classes, meaning they can appear anywhere in a pattern.
So, with this knowledge, we can shorten that "match 5 digits" pattern to:
/\d{5}/
Learn the shortcuts, as they'll help you a lot when you're actually writing patterns of your own. An example of using a shortcut inside of a character class would be:
/^[a-zA-Z\s]+$/
This pattern would match a string containing a-z, A-Z, and any space characters.
There are also some other tiny nuances with character classes that you should really familiarize yourself with. If a character class starts with a ^, it no longer means the beginning of the string, but instead, it acts as ! (NOT) does in PHP. It negates the character class.
/c[^au]t/
That would match cbt, c$t, c!t, crt, etc, but not cat and cut.
Another interesting point to mention is that the . loses its metacharacter properties inside of a character class, meaning you can use it as a literal period inside of a class.
Metacharacter Conclusion
That just about sums it up for the metacharacters (there's still some advanced syntax involving a few metacharacters, but it's nothing to worry about yet). Remember that all of these metacharacters can be used at once in a pattern, allowing you full control of how you match your string.
Quantifier Greediness
I felt that this topic deserved a page of its own. When using quantifiers, there is a concept known as greediness and laziness which can cause a lot of confusion for newcomers to regular expressions.
What is greediness?
Greediness is how the Engine interprets the "jurisdiction" of a quantifier. Let me set up a quick scenario:
You have the string 'exasperate'. You run the following pattern on it:
/e(.*)e/
Believe it or not, but that (.*) actually matches xasperat instead of xasp as you may have thought. The regular behavior for quantifiers is to gobble up as many characters as it possibly can, hence greediness. It wants to grab as many characters as it can possibly get away with and still match. That's why it goes right past the second e in exasperate and keeps on matching until it reaches the last possible e it can.
Making the Match Lazy
This default behavior can be changed by adding a ? after a quantifier. In order to have (.*) match 'xasp' in the previous scenario, you could use:
/e(.*?)e/
That tells the engine to take as much as it needs to succeed on the match, and nothing more. Another way that you might see greediness being countered is by using negative character classes, but that only works if there's only one character you want to prevent greediness from. For example, in an HTML-matching pattern, you wanted to get the text in a certain <p> tag, which just so happens to be followed by another <p>, like in this tiny snippet:
<p id="test">p1</p> <p id="test">p2</p>
You could write your pattern like this:
!<p id="test">(.+)</p>!
This would, not surprisingly, gobble up BOTH <p> tags, even though it's really mismatching the closing tag. The Engine doesn't realize that, and it likes being greedy, so it does. You could rewrite the pattern as:
!<p id="test">(.+?)</p>!
Or, you could use a negative character class and say:
!<p id="test">([^<]+)</p>!
The latter is often slightly quicker in terms of execution speed, but can be more difficult to understand.
Another great use for negative character classes is when you're trying to get the information from a specific HTML tag's attribute. The following pattern would get an img tag's src attribute.
!<img(.+?)src="([^"]+)"(.*?) />!
Now, that's a really complicated pattern, but when you break it down, it's actually quite simple. First, you want to match the literal pattern '<img'. Then, you match any amount of characters (non-greedy), until you reach the src attribute. Then, you use a negative character class ([^"]+) in order to grab everything up to the ending ". Then you have any amount of characters, followed by the standard way to close an img tag.
The concept of greediness and laziness is very important to learn in order to get the results you want when we actually get to using the patterns matched (that's the subject of the next tutorial, actually). Re-read this page as many times as it takes until you completely understand the concept.
Pattern Modifiers
Remember when I was talking about reasons why a regular expression must have delimiters? It's not only to contain the regular expression, but it's also to allow for use of special pattern modifiers that go after the ending delimiter. These allow you to modify how the Engine actually views your pattern. In this section, I'm going to go over every modifier that's commonly used in match regexes. In the next tutorial, when substitution is covered, I'll go over the modifiers that work for substitution, as there are some differences.
The Insensitivity Modifier (i)
If you use the //i modifier, case insensitivity is enabled for the entire regular expression. Take, for example, the following regular expression:
/super/
That would match 'super', but not 'SuPeR' or 'SUPER'. In order to have it match all of those possibilities, you could use a lot of alternation or some clever character classes, or you could just apply the i modifier:
/super/i
Note how the i went AFTER the closing delimiter.
The Newline Match Modifier (s)
Back when I explained the Catch-All Modifier, ., I said that it would NOT match newlines. The //s modifier allows it do to so. Consider the following scenario.
You have a file with the following contents:
something //start STUFF! some more stuff... //end
If you wanted everything between those two comments (//start and //end), you would write your regex like this:
!//start(.+?)//end!s
Now, pay close attention to what I did. Since I actually needed to use the / character in my pattern, it made no sense to use it as the delimiter, because then it would need to be escaped every time I used it (/\/\/start(.+?)\/\/end/s), and it's incredibly hard to read, so I used an exclamation point as the delimiter. The s modifier on the end allows the pattern to match all of that stuff in between the two comments even though they're on separate lines.
The Multiline Mode Modifier (m)
This modifier is kind of strange, to be honest. It actually changes the behavior of those two anchoring metacharacters (^ and $). Normally, they'd match at the beginning and end of a string, respectively, but with the //m modifier, they actually match next to
(newlines). You probably won't find yourself using this too often, unless you maybe wanted to ensure that every line in a file had, for example, only 5 digits per line:
/^\d{5}$/m
The Freespace Modifier (x)
This is more of an advanced modifier, and it makes the Engine ignore ANY whitespace inside a regex. This allows you to actually create comments inside of a regex and freely space it to make it easier on the eyes. For example, the following regex (which illustrates some concepts that I haven't gone over yet, but don't worry about it, it's just to demonstrate free spacing):
/\b(\w\S+)(\s+\1)+\b/i
Can be written as:
/ /b #word boundary (\w\S+) #word "chunk" ( \s+ #whitespace \1 #same word "chunk" ) + #repeat if necessary \b #boundary /xi
Certainly more readable, right? Comments can be placed on the end of the line with a # and then your remarks.
Where to Find More Modifiers
You can always look at http://us3.php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.modifiers.php in order to see every supported pattern modifier. Many of these are hardly used, so I deemed it unnecessary to show them all to you, but if ever need to look one up, you can do it on that page. Remember, always consult the manual when you're in doubt about something. Also, keep in mind that there's actually a modifier that can ONLY be used when substituting, and I'll introduce it in the next tutorial, since you wouldn't be able to really visualize what it could do yet.
PCRE vs. POSIX
This is more of a technical part of the tutorial that I felt should be covered (thanks zanus!). There are actually two "flavors", if you will, of regular expressions supported by PHP. They are Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE) and POSIX Extended regular expressions. PCRE is much more robust than POSIX, and it can do so many more things that POSIX simply can't even come close to. They're VERY similar in syntax (for the most part, until you get to advanced syntax, which will be in a later tutorial), but PCRE has a lot more functionality. I thought that I'd outline some of those differences here, so you know why you should most certainly learn PCRE over POSIX.
Binary data
PCRE can be used on binary data, whereas POSIX cannot. PCRE can function with all of the individual bytes and characters of any string, be it text or binary, which is a huge plus.
Speed
POSIX has the potential to be much slower than PCRE. I'm not going to go into much more detail than that because I'd rather not confuse people.
Modifiers and Delimiter
POSIX does not support ANY modifiers on their patterns, but they also do not use delimiters like PCRE. The only option that you have with POSIX is case-insensitivity, but it even uses a completely different function, which I could hardly call optimal. PCRE's modifiers extend the regex language's capabilities in countless ways.
Deprecation in PHP6
Here's one of the most important reasons to not use POSIX. POSIX regexes and the related functions (ereg(), eregi(), ereg_replace(), and eregi_replace()) will no longer be a part of PHP6. They will be available ONLY in an extension through PECL (which is basically PHP extensions written directly in C for optimization). Many people won't be able to add this extension, especially on shared hosts, so POSIX is pretty much pointless to learn.
Usability in Perl
PCRE regular expressions were modeled after Perl's regular expression engine (hence Perl-Compatible), and can often be ported directly over to Perl, provided you know how to actually use regular expressions in Perl. Many of today's languages that support regular expressions also use some form of PCRE, so you only need to learn one flavor of regex in order to use it in many different languages.
Putting it All Together
Well, now that we have the basic syntax out of the way, I'm going to put some example patterns up for you to analyze, and then show you exactly what they do.
/^\w+:(\s+\w+)\s+\d+$/m
Match a word, a colon, a space, a word, a space, and some digits on every line
/pro(b|n|r|l)ate/i
Matches probate, pronate, prorate, prolate, without case sensitivity
/^[+-]?\d+$/
Matches an integer which can have + or - (or even nothing) in front of it. It can also have leading zeros because 0 is included in \d.
~//start
(.+?)
//end~is
Matches //start, a newline, any amount of characters on any amount of lines (//s modifier), a newline, and //end
These are just some example patterns. When I get into advanced syntax, you'll be able to create much more intricate patterns, such as:
/(\d)(\d{3})(?!\d)/ replacement: $1, $2
I hope some of these basic patterns have gotten you more interested in pursuing regular expressions. ;)
Conclusion and Future Tutorials
This tutorial was meant to be a (comprehensive) tutorial of the most basic regular expression syntax. There are still many more advanced concepts, but that will be the subject of maybe the 3rd or 4th tutorial in this set. The next tutorial will involve actually applying these patterns in PHP, creating matches and using the grouping metacharacters to create match groups, substitution, and some other concepts directly related to regex use in PHP. Then, I'll cover all of the advanced concepts in order to help you create more efficient and more specific patterns.
Just to show you the utility of regular expressions, I actually had to use one to correct some of the tags that I used to show you the regular expressions. It looked a bit like this:
!\[code(=php)?\](.+?)\[/code\]!is
That found all of the code tags for me, so I could easily use a replacement pattern to make them into the proper tags. ;)
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Parallel generators are connected to supply power to a home, business, vehicle, or another entity. The parallel generators may be turned on in the event of a failure of the utility company. A parallel system of generators may also be the primary source of power, such as for example, in remote locations or in vehicles.
Parallel generators offer numerous advantages over single generators. The redundancy of parallel generators provides a system with consistency and reliability. If one of the parallel generators malfunctions, the load is redistributed to the other generators immediately. The redundancy also allows maintenance and repair at one of the generators without disrupting the supply from the paralleled generators. A system of parallel generators may be expanded incrementally as needs of the system increase.
The parallel system of generators may be connected to a bus. If any of the generators are connected in error, the generators may malfunction, create a hazard, or be irreparably damaged.
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Chrissie Williams
Christine "Chrissie" Williams (also Levy) is a fictional character from the BBC medical drama Holby City, portrayed by actress Tina Hobley. She first appeared in the third series episode "The Road Less Traveled", broadcast on 5 June 2001. Chrissie briefly left the show in April 2008 when Hobley went on maternity leave. She returned for two episodes, on 21, and 28 October 2008, then returned full-time in January 2009. Hobley announced her departure from Holby City in November 2013 after 12 years.
Development
On 30 June 2013, it was announced that Hobley would be departing Holby City. The actress commented "Being a part of the Holby family for the last 12 years has been an experience I will treasure forever but it's time to explore some new challenges. I have loved playing Chrissie Williams for the past 12 years but I'm also looking forward to getting my teeth in to some other characters and new roles." Chrissie's on-screen exit was broadcast later that year.
Storylines
Chrissie believes she is the daughter of Chief Executive Officer Mark Williams, and former staff nurse Tricia Williams, although unbeknownst to her, she is actually the biological daughter of Frank Williams, Mark Williams' father, who raped her mother. Upon her arrival at Holby City Hospital, Chrissie clashed with several of her colleagues, including Sandy Harper and Jasmine Hopkins. Chrissie expected a high standard and made it clear that she would tolerate nothing less - reprimanding Sandy harshly for occasionally being a few minutes late for her shifts.
Early in series four, Chrissie began an affair with married Cardiothoracic Consultant Alistair Taylor. He soon became besotted with her and ignored Chrissie's repeated attempts to rebuke him. Chrissie attempted to sever relations between them and was saved by Obstetrics Consultant Owen Davies when Alistair attempted to restrain her physically. Chrissie's relationship with Owen developed alongside her affair with Alistair. Owen and Chrissie had known each other for a while and had a brief affair, which almost ended Owen's marriage. Almost as soon as she ended her affair with Alistair, she started flirting with Owen again and tried to lure him away from his wife. Owen initially resisted but soon gave in and they slept together but were caught by Owen's daughter, Katie. Katie told her mother what she had seen and Laura threw Owen out but she struggled to get on with Katie, and resisted making any commitment to Owen - although she did agree to move in with him. They got engaged in series five but despite this, Chrissie had an affair with Cardiothoracic Registrar Ed Keating. When she discovered that she was pregnant, she wasn't sure who the father was. This was accidentally revealed to Owen by his colleague, Mubbs Hussein, and he ended their relationship. Chrissie stayed with Lisa Fox, before moving in with her mother, Tricia, who had recently returned from Spain. Unfortunately Chrissie went into premature labour and Owen had to deliver the baby by caesarean section but she was born with brain damage so Chrissie only had a few minutes with her before she died. Owen ordered a paternity test after the birth but threw the results away without looking at them. Chrissie later told Owen that she wanted a divorce so Owen began an affair with her mother, Tricia. Although Owen and Chrissie briefly reunited in early series six, Chrissie ended the relationship again when she discovered his affair with her mother and had a one-night stand with Mubbs.
Chrissie's relationship with her mother was, for a long time, marred by her affair with Owen. After taking a refresher course, Tricia began working as a nurse at the hospital but it took Chrissie a long time to forgive her. When she discovered Tricia had breast cancer, Chrissie went to London to track down her estranged father, Mark, and persuade him to come to Holby. Relations between her parents were initially poor - however, in time the pair reconciled, and attempted to rebuild their marriage.
During this period, Owen began dating General Surgical Registrar Diane Lloyd. Chrissie was jealous, especially after they got engaged and enticed Owen to sleep with her the day before the wedding. Disappointed that he had married Diane, Chrissie left things for almost a year between her and Owen. She had a brief affair with Michael Beauchamp - husband of current Clinical Lead Connie Beauchamp, and was instrumental in aiding Connie to bring about his downfall after it was revealed Michael had purposely let VRSA into the hospital, resulting in the death of a young girl. When Owen's marriage to Diane became strained, Chrissie pursued him once more and it seemed that she had won when Owen left Diane for her. However, the death of his ex-wife, Laura, meant that he had to provide a stable home for his daughter, Katie, so Owen resigned from the hospital and told Chrissie that his daughter had to come first. After losing Owen, Chrissie's life was dominated by her parents' relationship and she learned that Mark is not her father, causing another rift with her mother. To this day, Chrissie is unaware that Mark is her half-brother as Tricia was raped by Mark's father, Frank Williams. The pair only began to reconcile when, after her parents' remarriage, Chrissie discovered Tricia's cancer had returned. She was initially angry at being kept in the dark but accepted her mother's decision, following a heart to heart with Diane. Tricia and Mark set off on a second honeymoon, ecstatic that Tricia was in remission again but they were involved in a car crash en route. Chrissie was devastated when later that day, Tricia succumbed to her injuries, and they were asked to switch off her life support. After her mother's death, Chrissie came to increasingly rely on the support and friendship of Cardiothoracic Registrar Sam Strachan. The pair became quite close, however their blossoming relationship was damaged when Sam told her that he was the father of Connie Beauchamp's child and finding fourteen-year-old prostitute Jade McGuire in Sam's bed. Weighed down by events since her mother's death, Chrissie took a leave of absence and returned in episode 'Deep Dark Truthful Mirror', her future at the hospital and her relationship with Sam, remains to be seen.
In December 2007, sexual health nurse Tim attacked three people with a cross bow - shooting Faye, Zoe and Martha Hope. Chrissie was the only member of staff to witness this. Martha and Faye survived the shooting but Zoe didn't make it. Martha and Chrissie found themselves trapped in a lift - the lift was disabled during the aftermath of the shooting. In the lift, Martha had bled and Chrissie promised her that she will do something about her brother James's court sentence, which led Mark to be a witness. Later, Chrissie and the security officer found Tim on the stairs, feeling remorseful. Chrissie took the crossbow from him and he later committed suicide.
On 5 February 2008, Chrissie was taken hostage by her ex-boyfriend, Stuart McElroy, who slashed her face with a scalpel. He gagged her while he stitched her wound. However, Chrissie knocked over a tray, which Connie heard and was rescued by Connie. On 12 February, Chrissie went into hiding and Stuart tried to convince Connie that Chrissie had slashed her face herself. Connie wasn't fooled, however, and persuaded Chrissie to help set him up. Chrissie was sitting in Connie's office when Stuart walked in. Stuart apologised for his actions and confessed, unaware that the conversation was recorded and made a run for it, so Sam and the security guard went after him. After catching him, Sam punched Stuart to the ground and Stuart was arrested. Connie told Chrissie that she will be scarred for life.
Chrissie decided to leave Holby, to clear her head after the attack and returned in January 2009. She wasn't pleased to see her father's relationship with Daisha Anderson, questioning the nature of it. After Daisha allowed her sister to take her baby son home to the Philippines, Daisha, thanks to Chrissie, also questioned Mark's feelings for her and moved out.
When junior doctors, Oliver (James Anderson) and Penny Valentine (Emma Catherwood), joined the hospital, Oliver makes friends with Daisha and Chrissie. He and Chrissie have a brief relationship which ends by mutual agreement but Chrissie discovers she is pregnant. Unfortunately she miscarries not long afterwards, and is later challenged Mark to find her a man and she will find him a woman. A few months later, Chrissie is pregnant by new doctor Sacha Levy but seems to be embarrassed by him. When she falls ill, Sacha calls Paradis Bloom, a fantastic midwife. As Chrissie's condition deteriorates, her baby boy is born by emergency C-section. Sacha asks Chrissie if she would meet his mother, which she does. She also meets his daughters, Rachel and Beka, but they drive Chrissie up the wall. Chrissie names her son Daniel Levy Williams and says that Sacha can see him whenever he wants and that he is part of their family but she isn't. Chrissie then gets the all clear and went on maternity leave. Chrissie returned in November 2010 and started flirting with Greg Douglas (Edward MacLiam) and went on a night out with him whilst Sacha looked after the baby but that soon ended.
A patient called Patrick Wright goes into surgery and nearly dies, due to Jac Naylor's (Rosie Marcel) mistake. Jac had an interview that day and was determined to get the job, so she changes his INR result from 4 to 1.4, trying to make Chrissie look incompetent which leads to a complaint being made against her and Chrissie. Chrissie takes it badly and became closer to Sacha. Chrissie is cleared and promoted to Nurse Consultant, with Orthopaedic Consultant Dan Hamilton (Adam Astill) as her mentor. They begin dating when Dan's rugby friend is admitted with a nasty knee infection, caused by steroid shots administered by Dan. When Chrissie and ward registrar Antoine Malick (Jimmy Akingbola) find out about this, they are both annoyed. When Sean's surgery isn't as straight forward as expected, he is left with a limp. Dan gets frustrated and in the locker room, fights with Malick, but ends up kissing him. He then runs to Chrissie and drags her into the On-Call Room for sex. Dan and Malick continue to argue on the ward and when Dan takes credit for Malick's work, Malick punches Dan leaving him with a cut on his face. Chrissie is determined to find out what happened and when she finds out about the punch, she tells Hanssen. Dan and Malick then have to explain themselves. Dan comes out gay on his and Chrissie's wedding day, humiliating her. However, she soon realises when Sacha tries to cheer her up that she is the man for him, and they start a relationship.
They quickly become engaged, and marry in the following Autumn. However, soon after, Sacha is stabbed and put in a serious condition. Chrissie and Malick manage to save him, and he is soon back to himself. Sacha is devastated to learn that his daughter Rachel has leukemia, and Chrissie struggles to support him. She is unhappy when it is discovered that Daniel is the only bone marrow match for Rachel, and Sacha uses him without Chrissie's knowledge despite the risks involved. After a rocky few weeks, they separate and Chrissie leaves for Australia with Daniel.
She returns a few weeks later without telling Sacha that she is back, and confides in her colleague Michael Spence (Hari Dhillon) that she has found a lump in her breast. Further tests reveal that she has breast cancer. Sacha becomes suspicious that Chrissie and Michael are having an affair, but is devastated when he discovers the truth. He later returns home with Chrissie to show Daniel a stable family; however, their separation continues.
In July 2015, Chrissie calls Sacha and his new girlfriend, Essie Harrison, to inform them she has gotten engaged to a man named Todd, and thus Daniel would be gaining a new stepfather.
References
External links
Chrissie Williams at BBC Online
Category:Holby City characters
Category:Television characters introduced in 2001
Category:Female characters in television
Category:Fictional nurses
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Church of San Pedro de la Mata
The ruined monastic site of S. Pedro de la Mata is located in the middle of the countryside, at about 3 km southwest of the village (pedanía) of Casalgordo,(see note) in the municipality of Sonseca (province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain).
The original foundations of a church, a granite platform, can be clearly seen. Actually, S. Pedro de la Mata is a kind of semi-cave construction. Some fragments of walls and a couple of arches can also be seen.
The church appears to have gone through various phases, and dating of its features is problematic. According to traditional historiography, it was originally the church of a monastery, one of those that grew, promoted by the nobility, around the capital city of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo, similar to the case of Santa María de Melque not far from S. Pedro de la Mata. This origin would allow us to date the first church between 589 (conversion of Visigothic nobility to Catholicism) and 711 (takeover of the Visigothic kingdom by Muslim invasion).
Conservation
The site was given protection in the 1931 under Spanish legislation. It is listed as Ermita de San Pedro de la Mata.
Its state has recently given cause for concern, according to the Spansh heritage organisation Hispania Nostra.
San Pedro de la Mata is being considered for World Heritage Site status along with nine other Mozarabic sites.
The submission was made in 2019 by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport and it was included on a "tentative list" (part of the nominating process).
Access
The place can be reached by a dirt road starting west of the church of Casalgordo.
Museum collections
In the nearby village (pedanía) of Arisgotas, municipality of Orgaz, there is a small Visigothic museum.
The museum includes material from San Pedro and a Visigothic archaeological site 3 km away called Los Hitos. It features carved stones that were looted by the local inhabitants for use as construction materials. In recent years, many of these Visigothic stones have been extracted from the walls of the village houses and deposited in the collection.
There is material from San Pedro in the Museum of Santa Cruz in Toledo.
Notes
1. The name appears in some publications as San Pedro of Arisgotas or Casalgordo for nearby settlements.
References
Category:Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Toledo
Category:Church ruins in Spain
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February 2, 2018 - It is with a mixture of emotion that we must inform you that Interceder will cease its service over the coming weeks. For nearly a
decade we have been helping you find relevant information across thousands of news and social sources, to keep
you abreast of the latest news. We’re a small team of two who have run Interceder outside of our regular day jobs and are
intensely proud of what we managed to accomplish over the years. Through a lack of time to maintain the site
and growing costs associated with acquiring, indexing, analysing and hosting content we will be shutting down Interceder
for good. All things reach a natural end, but we could not be more grateful for
the way you made us part of your day, so instead of saying goodbye we would just like to say thank you!
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Indianapolis Colts say linebacker Edwin Jackson was one of two men killed when a drunk driver struck them early on... Read more
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – A house fire in Flora that killed four sisters is confirmed to be arson, according to a peer review by the Indianapolis Fire Department.
Indiana State Police asked IFD to conduct a review of the investigation back in November... Read more
The Jaguars’ tight ends are led by Marcedes Lewis, who should be involved in the screen game like Pittsburgh’s Vance McDonald was last week (10 catches). Ben Koyack and James O’Shaughnessy had opening-drive catches of 21 and 19 yards,... Read more
The Jaguars’ tight ends are led by Marcedes Lewis, who should be involved in the screen game like Pittsburgh’s Vance McDonald was last week (10 catches). Ben Koyack and James O’Shaughnessy had opening-drive catches of 21 and 19 yards,... Read more
The Jaguars’ tight ends are led by Marcedes Lewis, who should be involved in the screen game like Pittsburgh’s Vance McDonald was last week (10 catches). Ben Koyack and James O’Shaughnessy had opening-drive catches of 21 and 19 yards,... Read more
attributed the slow start to rust. He went more than two months between NFL practices (let alone games); the Indianapolis Colts had released him Oct. 3. Spence did not have a solo tackle during his 2017 Steelers debut Dec. 10 against... Read more
every night.
But come Jan. 31, that could change.
That's when the toddler is scheduled to have a kidney transplant in Indianapolis. His aunt, Cheryl Steiner, also of East Lynn, is his donor.
"It's truly amazing that she's a perfect match,"... Read more
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Frank Lampard took little pleasure from becoming the first midfielder to score
150 Premier League goals after Chelsea failed to beat Fulham and climb back
inside the top four.
Lampard created another landmark moment in his glittering career last night - a record that will take some beating - when he put the Blues ahead with a controversial penalty on the stroke of half-time.
But Clint Dempsey's deflected header eight minutes from time ensured a 1-1 draw in the west London derby, leaving Chelsea in sixth place, two points behind the final Champions League spot.
Asked how it felt to reach another milestone, Lampard said: "Not too good at the minute. It feels like a little bit of a loss."
The 33 year-old, who has scored more than one landmark goal this season, added: "They'll be nice when I look back and I'm an old man.
Related Articles
"I'm pleased to try to help the team and score goals. Landmarks are great.
"But, at the present time and with the position we're in in the league, every league game is a final for us and we want to be winning them."
Spurs' defeat against Norwich opened the door for Chelsea.
Asked how much of an opportunity they had wasted, Lampard said: "A big one. Having seen the Tottenham result earlier, we knew we could close that gap and we wanted to win the game for that.
"Having said that, Fulham's a very tough game, the team's played very well this season, particularly lately."
Last night's result was a rare setback under caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo ahead of Sunday's FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham and the upcoming Champions League semi against Barcelona.
Lampard said: "It's very exciting because, after the first leg in Napoli, we looked in a bad way.
"We could've been going out of the Champions League. Who knows with the FA Cup and the Premier League?
"And all of a sudden now, we've turned it around to the extent that we're fighting on a few fronts.
"But it can all be taken away as quickly as we get it.
"So we need to really focus on every single game we've got coming up.
"It's fatiguing and we really need to get through that.
"We've got big games against big teams coming up and we need to be at our best."
Chelsea could lose Branislav Ivanovic for the next three matches if he is charged with and found guilty of violent conduct today for Saturday's clash with Wigan's Shaun Maloney, while Ashley Cole (ankle) remains an injury doubt for Sunday's trip to Wembley.
Meanwhile, Fulham forward Bryan Ruiz will miss the rest of the season with a broken metatarsal.
The Costa Rica international was injured in the Cottagers' 3-0 win at Bolton on Saturday and had to be carried off.
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Leadership: The Pedestal
One of my favorite speakers is Drew Dudley, a speaker and leadership educator from Toronto. He describes the common view of leadership as this huge idea that nobody is worthy of, because saying that you are worthy of the title leader would somehow be too arrogant or cocky for comfort. Dudley then proceeds to break down this belief of leadership as some grandiose title and speaks instead of leadership as individual acts. After telling a story that helped him to emphasize an individual action he took that changed someone’s life. He shares an interaction with a student in which the student thanked him for handing out lollipops on her first day at university, when she wasn’t sure she was cut out for school. The student shares that he made her feel comfortable enough to stay at school and helped her branch out and meet people. The most impactful moment of the story is that Dudley doesn’t even remember the moment from four years earlier when he handed her that lollipop. By using his experience to explain the individual impact that such a simple action can have (handing out a lollipop — not exactly a grand gesture), Dudley focuses in on the goal of leadership. One of his final sentiments in his speech on this subject is that “We’ve made leadership about changing the world, and there is no world. There’s only six billion understandings of it.” This quote magnificently puts into context the impact that a single action can have, and really emphasizes the individual acts a person can take that exemplify leadership.
Overall, I have tried to emphasize this point in my everyday life, and I often find myself forgetting that my own recognition of the the importance of individual acts impacts more than just me. I’ve found that I have a contradictory view of myself — on the one hand, I see myself as a leader because I work to exemplify the community values that I see as vital to my school, and I work to help others discover their own potential. However, on the other hand, I sometimes still view my actions as though they are happening in a bubble. I forget that so much of leadership is about connection and support and stepping up and standing back at the right times to develop both myself as a leader and the people I am working with. I don’t think I’m alone in this, but I want to be more intentional in breaking down leadership into individual actions. I also hope to encourage my peers and my friends to do the same, because I think that they experience a lot of the same thoughts and obstacles regarding leadership that I do, and which are addressed by Drew Dudley in his speech. In fact, I rarely ever hear my peers embracing their position as a leader or stating that they are a leader. I want to set the standard of leadership high enough that it means something to be a leader, but reachable enough that it’s no longer just a far-off, impossible to reach concept.
I had one experience last week which really solidified the lack of continuity between leadership as an achievable trait and the qualities a leader possessed. In the leadership program I am helping to facilitate, we did an activity where all of the students in the program had to finish the following thoughts:
-a leader is…
-a leader acts…
-a leader says…
-a leader can…
-a leader does…
Under each of these thoughts, the students in the program wrote all of these qualities that are really idealistic: confident, intelligent, respectful, compassionate, humble, and dozens of qualities to aspire towards. None of the students were comfortable stating clearly that they were leaders on campus or in their lives, and yet they all identified with the qualities they wrote down during the activity. I think that a big part of encouraging student leadership is, from the student perspective, based almost entirely on titles. This puts students in the mindset that leadership is a position that may someday be achieved, a title to strive for. I think it is really important to reframe student perspective to create a new focus around recognizing leaders based on the qualities students possess. As Drew Dudley puts it, we need to “value the impact we can have on each other’s lives, more than money and power and titles and influence. We need to redefine leadership as being about lollipop moments — how many of them we create, how many we acknowledge, how many of them we pay forward and how many we say thank you for.”
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Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed May 31, 2017.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
________________
No. 3D16-1051
Lower Tribunal No. 79-2443
________________
Gary Reid,
Appellant,
vs.
The State of Florida,
Appellee.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Lisa Walsh,
Judge.
Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and Jonathan Greenberg, Assistant
Public Defender, for appellant.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Nikole Hiciano, Assistant Attorney
General, for appellee.
Before LOGUE, SCALES, and LUCK, JJ.
LUCK, J.
This is yet another post-Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012) case where
a Florida state prisoner is challenging his life sentence because he was a juvenile at
the time he committed his crime. The trial court, correctly, based on binding
precedent at the time it issued its order, denied Gary Reid’s post-conviction motion
because he was parole eligible after twenty-five years. Now that the law has
changed, we must reverse and remand for a resentencing pursuant to section
921.1401 of the Florida Statutes.
On March 20, 1979, Reid entered into a negotiated guilty plea to the charges
of first-degree murder, attempted armed robbery, and possession of a firearm while
engaged in a criminal offense committed when Reid was seventeen years old. The
plea was entered in exchange for a sentence of life in prison, with parole eligibility
after twenty-five years, and a concurrent fifteen-year prison term. Reid was first
interviewed by the Florida Parole Commission on August 20, 2002, when he was
forty-one years old and was within eighteen months of satisfying the twenty-five
year mandatory portion of his sentence. After considering his institutional record,
the commission set Reid’s presumptive parole release date for February 3, 2016.
Subsequent hearings before the commission resulted in the extension of Reid’s
presumptive parole release date due to disciplinary problems; it has now been
extended to February 3, 2028.
Reid moved the trial court for relief under Miller, arguing that he was a
juvenile when he committed the murder, he was sentenced to a mandatory life
sentence, and even though he was parole eligible the Florida parole system did not
2
take into account children’s diminished culpability and heightened capacity for
change as required by the Supreme Court.1 The State filed a response arguing that
because he was eligible for parole Reid’s sentence did not violate Miller. Based on
this court’s decision in Cunningham v. State, 54 So. 3d 1045 (Fla. 3d DCA 2011),2
the trial court denied Reid’s motion.
The Florida Supreme Court decided Atwell v. State, 197 So. 3d 1040 (Fla.
2016) in May 2016, one month after the trial court’s order in this case. In Atwell,
the Florida Supreme Court explained that “[t]he current parole process . . . fails to
take into account the offender’s juvenile status at the time of the offense, and
effectively forces juvenile offenders to serve disproportionate sentences of the kind
forbidden by Miller.” Id. at 1042. The Atwell Court continued: “In most respects,
a sentence of life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, based on
1 Reid’s motion also claimed the trial court lacked jurisdiction to accept his guilty
plea because he was a juvenile at the time. Reid has not appealed the trial court’s
denial of this claim, and therefore, we do not discuss it any further.
2 In Cunningham, we affirmed the summary denial of the defendant’s Graham v.
Florida claim because he was “statutorily entitled to parole consideration,” and
“his Presumptive Parole Release Date is in 2026 and his next parole reinterview is
in 2013.” Cunningham, 54 So. 3d at 1046; see also Atwell v. State, 128 So. 3d 167,
169 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013), decision quashed, 197 So. 3d 1040 (Fla. 2016) (“[W]e
conclude that Miller is inapplicable because Miller applies only to a mandatory
sentence of life without the possibility of parole. . . . Appellant was not sentenced
to life without the possibility of parole for his murder conviction. The sentencing
scheme in place at the time of appellant’s offense did not require a mandatory
sentence of life without parole for the murder. Miller is inapplicable, and appellant
would not be entitled to relief even if Miller applies retroactively”).
3
the way Florida’s parole process operates under the existing statutory scheme,
actually resembles a mandatorily imposed life sentence without parole that is not
‘proportionate to the offense and the offender.’” Id. at 1048 (citation omitted).
“Parole,” the Court said, “is, simply put, ‘patently inconsistent with the legislative
intent’ as to how to comply with Graham and Miller.” Id. at 1049 (citation
omitted). The Court concluded: “We conclude that Florida’s existing parole
system, as set forth by statute, does not provide for individualized consideration of
[the defendant’s] juvenile status at the time of the murder, as required by Miller,
and that his sentence, which is virtually indistinguishable from a sentence of life
without parole, is therefore unconstitutional.” Id. at 1041.
The Florida Supreme Court’s holding in Atwell would seem to be the end of
the story for Reid. Reid, like the Atwell defendant, was sentenced for first degree
murder to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after twenty-five years.
Reid, like the Atwell defendant, was subject to Florida’s parole system. If the
parole system did not account for individual consideration of the Atwell
defendant’s juvenile status, and the Atwell defendant’s life-with-parole sentence
was indistinguishable from life-without-parole, then the same parole system as part
of the same sentence for the same crime should be unconstitutional for Reid.
The state, however, attempts to distinguish this case from Atwell by arguing
that: (1) in entering into a negotiated plea, Reid waived any defect in his sentence;
4
and (2) unlike the Atwell defendant, Reid had a presumptive parole release date
within his lifetime. The decisions of this court and others say these are distinctions
without a difference.
As to the state’s first argument, for example, we have reversed trial court
orders denying Miller post-conviction claims, and remanded for resentencing,
where the defendant, like Reid, received a life sentence as a result of a guilty plea
rather than from trial. See, e.g., Brown v. State, No. 3D15-2759, 2017 WL
927810, at *1 (Fla. 3d DCA Mar. 8, 2017) (“Appellant Freddy Brown pled guilty
to second degree murder for a murder he committed in 1980, when he was
seventeen years old. His sentencing hearing did not take into consideration his
status as a juvenile offender. Brown was sentenced to life imprisonment with
parole. He remains imprisoned due to a record of unsatisfactory institutional
conduct. . . . The trial court denied Brown’s rule 3.850 motion. We reverse
Brown’s life sentence and remand for an appropriate resentencing.”); Wadley v.
State, 178 So. 3d 424, 424-25 (Fla. 3d DCA 2015) (“The State and Wadley
subsequently entered into a plea agreement in which the State waived the
imposition of the death penalty in exchange for Wadley’s agreement to a life
without parole sentence for the first-degree murder charge, and thirty years in
prison for the attempted armed robbery charge. . . . Accordingly, we vacate the life
sentences for both the homicide and non-homicide offenses, and on remand,
5
Wadley must be resentenced pursuant to chapter 2014–220, Laws of Florida.”
(footnote omitted)). So, too, have our sister district courts of appeal. See, e.g.,
Tarrand v. State, 199 So. 3d 507, 508-09 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016) (“[Defendant]
entered a negotiated plea to second-degree murder, which was committed in 1993
when he was fifteen years old. In his motion, he argued that his fifty-one-year
sentence is a de facto life sentence that does not provide a meaningful opportunity
for early release, and therefore, is unconstitutional under the holdings of Miller and
Graham. . . . [H]e must be resentenced in light of the new juvenile sentencing
legislation now codified at sections 775.082, 921.1401 and 921.1402, Florida
Statutes, to allow him a meaningful opportunity to obtain early release based upon
demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.” (citations omitted)); Cotto v. State, 141
So. 3d 615, 616, 620 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014) (“Cotto entered a negotiated plea with
the state which agreed to waive the death penalty. The court sentenced Cotto to
two consecutive life sentences for first-degree murder in counts one and two. . . .
The trial court[] erred in denying the postconviction motion[] on appeal . . . . We
must reverse and remand for further proceedings.”). The courts, ours and others,
have not distinguished between pre-Miller sentences that were imposed pursuant to
a plea agreement, and those that were imposed after a trial. As Reid’s counsel put
it at oral argument, how could Reid, in 1979, waive a right to a Miller resentencing
at his plea hearing when that right did not exist until at least 2012?
6
As to the state’s second argument, we read Atwell to reject the notion that
Florida’s current parole scheme provides the individualized consideration of a
defendant’s juvenile status required under Miller. See Atwell, 197 So. 3d at 1042
(“The current parole process similarly fails to take into account the offender’s
juvenile status at the time of the offense, and effectively forces juvenile offenders
to serve disproportionate sentences of the kind forbidden by Miller.”); see also id.
at 1049 (“Parole is, simply put, patently inconsistent with the legislative intent as
to how to comply with Graham and Miller.” (quotation omitted)). Since Atwell,
and applying its holding, we have reversed trial court orders denying Miller post-
conviction claims even where, as in Reid’s case, the presumptive parole release
date was within the defendant’s lifetime. See, e.g., Carter v. State, No. 3D16-
1090, 2017 WL 1018513, at *1 (Fla. 3d DCA Mar. 15, 2017) (“Notwithstanding
the fact that he will be reevaluated for the possibility of parole in 2022, we
conclude the defendant is correct and that he is entitled to resentencing under
sections 775.082(3)(c) and 921.1401.”); Miller v. State, 208 So. 3d 834, 835 n.1
(Fla. 3d DCA 2017) (“The State’s contention that Miller was parole-eligible as
early as twelve years after the commission of first-degree murder is irrelevant.”).3
3 But see Stallings v. State, 198 So. 3d 1081, 1083 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016) (“[W]e
reverse the order summarily denying Appellant’s rule 3.850 motion and remand for
the postconviction court to hold an evidentiary hearing to determine Appellant’s
presumptive parole release date and the Commission’s recommendations for his
parole release.”); Williams v. State, 198 So. 3d 1084, 1086 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016)
(“[I]t is unclear whether Williams’ PPRD places him outside the relief afforded by
7
We do so here, too. We reverse the trial court’s order denying Reid’s
motion for post-conviction relief and remand for a resentencing pursuant to section
921.1401.
Reversed and remanded with instructions.
Miller and Atwell. The date could be right around the corner or long after
Williams’ life expectancy. . . . Accordingly, in light of Atwell, we reverse the
order under review and remand for the trial court to determine whether Williams’
PPRD and Commission Review Recommendation for parole release implicates
resentencing pursuant to Horsley and chapter 2014–220, Laws of Florida.”). The
Fourth District has certified conflict with the Stallings and Williams cases “to the
extent that those decisions suggest that relief under Atwell is dependent on the
defendant’s presumptive parole release date.” Michel v. State, 204 So. 3d 101, 101
(Fla. 4th DCA 2016). The Florida Supreme Court accepted jurisdiction to review
the conflict. State v. Michel, Case No. SC16-2187 (Fla. Jan. 18, 2017).
8
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More than 300,000 people pass through the square every day, and will be exposed to the pro-vegan message
Joaquin Phoenix stars in the major new campaign (Photo: PETA)
Vegan actor Joaquin Phoenix has partnered animal rights charity PETA to star in a major billboard campaign in New York's Times Square.
The poster, which promotes an anti-speciesism message, shows an image of Phoenix with a chicken alongside the slogan: "We Are All Animals."
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
Academy Award nominee Phoenix, the star of upcoming film Joker, has worked with PETA on a number of occasions, advocating for sheep, fish, and dogs among other animals.
Around 300,000 people will see the poster every day, according to PETA (Photo: PETA)
Another animal's eyes
"When we look at the world through another animal's eyes, we see that inside we're all the same - and that we all deserve to live free from suffering," says Phoenix, who has been vegan since he was three-years-old.
"PETA's making sure our message of equality and empathy stands out in a big way—and we figured, what’s bigger than Times Square?" PETA said in a statement.
"Joaquin's stunning campaign will be getting prime placement on its very own billboard in one of the world's most visited tourist attractions, urging more than 300,000 visitors who pass through the square every day to consider the 'end speciesism' message."
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Q:
Silverlight OpenRIA - duplicated requests
I am using Silverlight 5, .NET 4.5.1 and OpenRIA.
A silverlight client calls a long-run OpenRIA operation. The operation is asynchronous. From the client side I can see that the function from a code is being called just once. From the IIS server-side on the other hand, the WCF function is called multiple times.
What I have logged through Fiddler - the operation was finished with an error. It was invoked once, but with a message „NOTE: This request was retried after a Receive operation failed.”
Request:
GET http://localhost:11213/ClientBin/KEEP-Web-Services-PayrollListService.svc/binary/GetPayrollList?payrollListId=efb1df5d-993a-4c4b-9fe6-013561547632 HTTP/1.1
Accept: */*
Referer: http://localhost:11213/ClientBin/KEEP.xap
Accept-Language: pl
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like Gecko
Host: localhost:11213
DNT: 1
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cookie: .KEEP_ASPXAUTH_iPersonel=8673CF25C5650AE86CE77A22B9C9A9D20E7588A077E5EADFFE8F5090F08B48639C9F309B1720BC4AD0D4DE342F149D52234DD8C5F15C0B0CCAD5A074C91E8F14B74FC27D7740A91614DECE034A9F99186375ACEB887E610B32CEA5786BF5EA02D35F144BC49D1E4C254478385EEB4D7E8811959E5494D9D6E9F17D698FCBDC93
Response:
HTTP/1.1 504 Fiddler - Receive Failure
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2015 13:06:41 GMT
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate
Timestamp: 14:06:41.238
[Fiddler] ReadResponse() failed: The server did not return a complete response for this request. Server returned 0 bytes.
The situation occurs in IISExpres and IIS 7.5, locally and remotely.
UPDATE 1.
I have found the reason that causes an operation repeated.
Failed to allocate a managed memory buffer of 134217728 bytes. The
amount of available memory may be low.
What I can do to handle it with OpenRIA (former wcf-ria-services)? I see no custom binding to have any effect to OpenRIA.
A:
The problem was IIS in 32-bit. Using 64-bit version solves the problem.
P.S. Visual Studio has an option to use IIS-Express in 64-bit. You can also add to the registry:
reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\WebProjects /v Use64BitIISExpress /t REG_DWORD /d 1
12.0 - Visual Studio 2013
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McGeough’s Curious Lack of Curiosity
Fairfax's star correspondent shares with his readers the shocking news that 35 mental health practitioners believe Donald Trump is a loony and unfit to occupy the White House. Don't you think he should also have noted that two-thirds are ardent Democratic Party contributors and partisans?
In The Australian today, columnist Mark Day (paywalled) notes in passing that Fairfax Media’s US correspondent, Paul McGeough, contributes a steady stream of copy from Washington that “reads like a personal vendetta against Donald Trump.” It is a timely observation as McGeough was at it again this very morning, passing along to remaining readers of the Age and Sydney Morning Herald the view of 35 psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors and social workers who have diagnosed Trump as a loony unfit to occupy the White House.
Well guess what — Surprise! Surprise! — of the head-shrinking 35, roughly two-thirds are generous and frequent financial supporters of Democrats in general and Hillary Clinton in particular.
Of the signatories only one — yes, just one — has donated to a Republican, but his money went to Senator John McCain, who detests Trump with a vehemence that even Hillary Clinton might find hard to match.
Below, the full list of signatories with the recipients of their largesse listed beneath each name. Quadrant Online readers might care to click on their names and view the details of their various and many donations.
Oh, and there is one other item of easily found background information that McGeough might have laid before his short-changed readers. It concerns his quoting of “Rick Wilson, a Republican Party strategist and Trump critic.”
“Critic” isn’t the half of it, as a CNN profile makes clear. What it also spells out is that Wilson has “has informal ties to Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s networks”. In other words, two of the contenders Trump took to pieces in the primaries.
There is a good chance the Western Bulldogs will win this year’s AFL premiership, just as they did last year. Were McGeough a sports writer and applying the same standards he brings to US politics, we could expect him to quote a prominent football figure as guaranteeing that result without identifying his source as Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge.
As columnist Day notes in The Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald now sells just 93,000 copies on any given weekday, while the Age cannot manage even that pitiful tally, its Monday-to-Friday circulation now standing at 88,000 and dropping fast. They are shocking numbers, testaments to bad management and worse journalism.
If Fairfax intends to persist with its ink-and-paper editions, as the company recently said it will, one way to regain readers and their trust might be to insist that star correspondents actually do a little more in the way of research than re-writing the Washington Post and New York Times.
Roger Franklin, a former Fairfax correspondent in the US, is the editor of Quadrant Online
Comments [7]
It is worthy of note that what these “mental health professionals” did concerning Donald Trump constitutes a misdemeanour. It is illegal in the US for a psychiatrist to publicly diagnose anyone without having personally examined the subject and without the explicit permission of that subject to publicise the diagnosis. One wonders if McGeough, an expert in US affairs, is aware of this “inconvenient” fact but finds it counterproductive to his narrative.
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From b880e78bf4a1852e260188e6df3ec6034403d2fc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jeremy Puhlman <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2020 00:06:42 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Don't search system for headers/libraries
Upstream-Status: Inappropriate [oe-core specific]
Signed-off-by: Jeremy Puhlman <[email protected]>
---
setup.py | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7208cd0..c0bd0ad 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -674,8 +674,8 @@ class PyBuildExt(build_ext):
add_dir_to_list(self.compiler.include_dirs,
sysconfig.get_config_var("INCLUDEDIR"))
- system_lib_dirs = ['/lib64', '/usr/lib64', '/lib', '/usr/lib']
- system_include_dirs = ['/usr/include']
+ system_lib_dirs = []
+ system_include_dirs = []
# lib_dirs and inc_dirs are used to search for files;
# if a file is found in one of those directories, it can
# be assumed that no additional -I,-L directives are needed.
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Q:
How to do model selection in dynamic linear model?
I am trying to use DLM to model a time series. Candiate model includes local level, local trend and local trend with seasonal part. I do not know how to do model selection. Can AIC be calculated? I found no function in the R package dlm.
A:
The dlmMLE function in the dlm package will compute the likelihood. Then
AIC = -2 log(likelihood) + 2p
where p is the number of parameters estimated. You might like to read the vignette for the dlm package which contains a lot of helpful information and examples.
However, a much simpler approach is to use the StructTS function in the stats package (which is automatically loaded). It will fit the model you want, and returns the loglikelihood.
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Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom speaks at Facebook's corporate headquarters during a media event in Menlo Park, California on June 20, 2013, where Facebook announced the introduction of video for Instagram.
Instagram is testing a new feature to group student users by college community in another move to make the photo-sharing app more like the flagship Facebook app from its parent company.
Instagram users are prompted to join a college community and "connect with other students." Opting in adds a user's university and graduating year — selected by the user from predetermined options — to their profile and grants access to class-based lists of other students who've opted into the community.
You can direct message or watch a user's public Story directly from the community lists.
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WASHINGTON -- James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen, two psychologists whose firm made at least $81 million designing torture techniques for the CIA, "did not create or establish the CIA enhanced interrogation program," their lawyers have argued. It's a strange claim -- especially now that promotional material for Mitchell's as-yet-unpublished book calls him the “creator of the CIA’s controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program” and brags that the book offers "a dramatic firsthand account of the design, implementation, flaws and aftermath of the program."
Enhanced Interrogation: Inside the Minds and Motives of the Islamic Terrorists Trying To Destroy America could complicate Mitchell and Jessen's efforts to block a civil lawsuit brought against them by two former CIA black-site detainees and the family of a third prisoner who died in CIA custody. Arguing that Mitchell and Jessen were not key architects of the interrogation program will be “a major focus" of their defense, the psychologists' lawyers wrote in an April court filing.
Amazon
The book's promotional material -- which also describes Mitchell as having "a leading role in the development of the CIA's Enhanced Interrogation Program" and being "one of the primary terrorist interrogators" -- isn't the only potential obstacle to the defense's strategy. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s December 2014 report on the interrogation program also details the involvement of the psychologists.
The two men “developed the list of enhanced interrogation techniques” and “personally conducted interrogations of some of the CIA’s most significant detainees using these techniques,” according to a declassified summary of report. Mitchell and Jessen are identified in the report by the code names Grayson Swigert and Hammond Dunbar, respectively.
The report documents how they pushed for the use of waterboarding, which they described as an “absolutely convincing technique.” According to the Senate’s findings, Mitchell and Jessen’s consulting group received about $81 million from the CIA, in addition to a separate multimillion-dollar indemnity deal covering their potential legal fees.
Mitchell has slammed the Senate report, which was put together by the Democratic members of the Intelligence Committee, as a partisan effort that amounted to “throwing [him] under the bus” and “rewriting history.” But he has also spoken publicly about waterboarding CIA prisoners and defended the tactic as a means of instilling enough fear in prisoners that they would subsequently provide useful intelligence. Jessen has largely avoided media exposure and could not be reached for comment. Mitchell similarly declined to comment for this story.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is serving as legal counsel for the torture victims in their lawsuit, alleges that Mitchell and Jessen “designed, implemented, and personally administered an experimental torture program” for the CIA. It's seeking damages for its clients. The ACLU legal team could request a copy of the manuscript of the book during discovery, the pretrial procedure in which the two sides swap documents and other evidence.
There are many, many Mitchells and Jessens waiting for another attack on the homeland. Retired Air Force Reserve Col. Steven Kleinman
Though Mitchell had no formal experience as an interrogator before working with the CIA, his interest in the process dates back years.
When Air Force Reserve Col. Steven Kleinman, a veteran military interrogator who is now retired, first met Mitchell at a special operations course in Florida in the late 1990s, the topic of interrogation came up in the break room. Mitchell drew a diagram of what psychologists call the learned helplessness cycle and said, “This is the only way to get people to talk,” Kleinman recalled to HuffPost.
Kleinman got to know Mitchell and Jessen better at the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape school in Spokane, Washington, where he was a senior intelligence officer until 2005, and where Mitchell and Jessen had worked as psychologists. At the SERE school, U.S. troops learn how to endure brutal treatment in the event that they are taken captive by a country that does not abide by the Geneva Conventions.
It was something of a known secret among the SERE community in Spokane that Mitchell and Jessen had a lucrative contract with the CIA, according to Kleinman. They built an impressive training facility nearby and didn’t exactly hide the source of the revenue. But people generally assumed they were training individuals in how to resist torture, rather than promoting the use of those methods in interrogations.
Around 2002, the same year that Mitchell and Jessen began working with the CIA, Kleinman received an email from a Defense Department official asking for his thoughts on using SERE techniques offensively in interrogations. Kleinman warned against it, writing that it would be illegal, ineffective and likely to produce unreliable information.
“What I didn’t know was that someone who had been in the same building was supporting and encouraging these things,” he told HuffPost.
Although Kleinman is deeply critical of Mitchell and Jessen for exporting SERE techniques to the CIA’s interrogation program, he believes the two men were acting on honorable intentions to serve their country. He places the bulk of the blame for the CIA’s torture program on then-CIA Director George Tenet and senior staff at the agency, whom he said should have recognized the psychologists’ lack of experience with interrogations and terror suspects and shut the plan down.
“What I don’t want people to think is that you can punish Mitchell and Jessen and the problem is solved," Kleinman said. "There are many, many Mitchells and Jessens waiting for another attack on the homeland.”
Multiple websites list the publication date for Enhanced Interrogation as May 10, 2016. Two stores in the Books A Million chain and two local Washington bookstores confirmed that they expected it to be available then.
But Bill Harlow, a former CIA spokesman who co-wrote the book with Mitchell, said they have not yet set a publication date. He dismissed suggestions that the book's release had been delayed, describing the May 10 publication date as “speculation.” Harlow previously co-authored books with Tenet, who headed the CIA in the inaugural days of the torture program, and Jose Rodriguez, the former head of the agency's clandestine service who ordered the destruction of at least two videotapes that documented interrogations.
Publisher Crown Forum did not respond to a question about the timing of the book's release. Although Enhanced Interrogation appears prominently on Crown Forum’s website, clicking on the cover for more information produces a “page not found” error.
Edelweiss, a website that tracks upcoming books, states that Enhanced Interrogation has been “postponed indefinitely.”
UPDATE: Crown Forum confirmed to HuffPost on May 2 that the publication date for Enhanced Interrogation has been postponed. A spokeswoman for the publishing group declined to provide a future publication date.
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*2 + 2*w**3 - w**2 + (w + 2 - 2)*(-4*w**2 + 6*w**2 - 3*w**2) - 64*w**3 - 9*w**3 + 6*w**3.
-66*w**3
Expand 11*r**3 - 16*r**2 + 16*r**2 + (0*r**2 + 3*r**2 + 3*r**2)*(-3*r - 5 + 5).
-7*r**3
Expand (3 + 0 - 2)*(-9*a - 24*a - a) + 3*a + 0*a + 0*a.
-31*a
Expand (3 - 4*t - 3)*((2*t + 1 - 1)*(2*t + 2*t - 3*t) - t - 7*t**2 + t)*(-3*t + 16 - t + 2*t).
-40*t**4 + 320*t**3
Expand (3*o**4 + 3*o**4 - 4*o**4)*(o - 2*o - o) - 2*o**5 + o**2 - o**2 + 112*o**5 - 65*o**5 - 155*o**5.
-114*o**5
Expand (-6*m + 3*m + 0*m + (6 - 6 - 2*m)*(-3 + 4 + 3))*(-m + m - m**3).
11*m**4
Expand (-r**3 - r**3 - r**3)*(-5 - r + 5) + 0*r**4 - 3*r**4 - r**4.
-r**4
Expand ((0*h - 3*h + 5*h)*(1 + 0 + 1) - 13*h - 4*h + 3*h - h + 3 - 3)*(7*h**3 - 10*h**2 + 10*h**2).
-77*h**4
Expand (q**5 + 0*q**5 + 0*q**5)*(4 + 1 - 2) + q**5 - q**4 - 1028*q**3 + 1026*q**3 + 12*q + 2*q**4.
4*q**5 + q**4 - 2*q**3 + 12*q
Expand (l - 5*l + 5*l)*(1 + 2 - 5) - 5*l + 2*l + l + (l + 0*l + 0*l)*(2 - 12 - 34) - 3 + 3 + l.
-47*l
Expand (20 - 30 + 42)*(k**5 + k**5 + 0*k**5).
64*k**5
Expand (-6 - 5*f + 8*f - 8*f)*((16 - 16 + 5*f)*(f**3 - 1 + 1) - f**2 + f**2 - f**4).
-20*f**5 - 24*f**4
Expand (2*z**2 - z**2 - 2*z**2)*((0 + 2*z + 0)*(4*z - 3*z + z) - z**2 - 2*z**2 + 0*z**2).
-z**4
Expand 8*s**5 + 2*s**3 + 11*s**5 - 2*s**5 + (-s**2 + 2*s**2 - 3*s**2)*(0*s**3 + 2*s**3 - s**3).
15*s**5 + 2*s**3
Expand (-2*n**2 + n**2 - 2*n**2)*(3 + 1 - 3)*(17*n + 0*n - 5*n).
-36*n**3
Expand -1 + 1 - m + (2 + 0 - 1)*(2*m + 3*m - 7*m) + (5 - 3 + 2)*(m - 5*m - 5*m).
-39*m
Expand 3*f**2 + f**2 - 5*f**2 - f**2 - f**2 + 0*f**2 + (-2*f + 0*f + 4*f)*(-1 + 1 - f) - 4*f**2 + 1 - 3 - 5 - 5.
-9*f**2 - 12
Expand (1 + 2*v**2 - 1)*(-255*v + 330*v - 352*v)*(-2*v**2 + 4*v**2 - 2 + 0).
-1108*v**5 + 1108*v**3
Expand (2*n**4 + 4*n**4 + 23*n**4)*(9 - 11 + 31).
841*n**4
Expand (0*v - 5 + 11 + v)*(-5*v**3 + v**3 + 2*v**3).
-2*v**4 - 12*v**3
Expand (-3*o + 2*o + 2*o)*(4*o - 6*o - o) + (0 - 2 + 3)*(-9 - 4 + 7)*(-2*o**2 - 4 + 4)*(4 - 4 + 2).
21*o**2
Expand 2*o - 1 + 1 + (-2*o - 4*o + 4*o)*(-3 + 2 - 6).
16*o
Expand 3*p**5 + 0*p**5 - 2*p**5 - p**5 + 3 + 134*p**3 + 4*p**5 + 3*p - 132*p**3 + (-3*p**2 + p**2 + 4*p**2)*(-6*p**3 + 7*p**3 + 4*p**3).
14*p**5 + 2*p**3 + 3*p + 3
Expand (-5 + 10 - 2 + (2 + 0 - 1)*(0 - 3 + 1) - 1 + 3 + 1)*(52 + 20*z - 52).
80*z
Expand (d**4 + 3*d**4 - 6*d**4)*(253 + 807 - 85).
-1950*d**4
Expand c - 2*c + 2*c + (2 + 1 - 5)*(c + 2*c - 2*c) - 21 - 209*c - 1371*c - 729*c + 21.
-2310*c
Expand (34*v - 60*v + 30*v)*(-3 + 2 - 4).
-20*v
Expand (0 - 2*v + 0)*(0*v - 7*v + v) + v**2 + 2*v**2 + 12*v**2 + 4*v**2 - 1 + v**2 - 3*v**2.
29*v**2 - 1
Expand (16*c**3 - 13*c**3 + 11*c**3)*(-5 + 1 - 6)*(-1 + 3 - 3)*(-3 + 4 - 3).
-280*c**3
Expand (102*a - 102*a - 45*a**2)*(-3*a**2 + 37*a**2 - 7*a**2).
-1215*a**4
Expand (368*b**4 + 371*b**4 - 737*b**4 - 38*b**2)*(-2 + 2 + b).
2*b**5 - 38*b**3
Expand (-11349 + 41*d + 11349)*(d**2 + 4*d**2 - 4*d**2) + 3*d**3 + 4*d**3 - 5*d**3 + (3*d - 7*d + 2*d)*(d**2 - d**2 - d**2) + 3*d**3 + 0*d**3 - 2*d**3.
46*d**3
Expand (0*v**2 + v**2 + v**2)*(-2 - 3*v + 2 + (2*v - 1 + 1)*(8 - 3 - 2)) + v**3 - 6*v**3 + v**3.
2*v**3
Expand (-88*q**5 + 53*q**5 - 53*q**5)*(5 - 3 - 1 + (-12 + 47 - 10)*(-3 - 1 + 3)).
2112*q**5
Expand (0 + 0 + 2*k**2)*(33*k**3 - 31*k + 31*k) + (-k**4 + 2*k**4 + k**4)*(-2*k + 2*k + k) + (0*k**4 + 3*k**4 - 2*k**4)*(-2*k + 1 - 1) - k**5 + 0*k**5 - k**5.
64*k**5
Expand (-s**4 - 4*s**3 - 7*s**3 - 4*s**3)*(7 + 6 - 17 - 4*s).
4*s**5 + 64*s**4 + 60*s**3
Expand (-2*z**3 + 0*z**3 + 0*z**3)*(9*z - 77 + 77).
-18*z**4
Expand -6*i**2 - 14*i + 14*i + (i + 0*i + 0*i)*(3*i + 15*i + 9*i).
21*i**2
Expand (2 + 2*k - 2)*(-8 - 12*k + 8)*(13*k + 3 - 3) + (-4*k + 2*k + 0*k)*(-k**2 + 2*k**2 - 2*k**2).
-310*k**3
Expand 31*b - 31*b + 2*b**3 + (-2 - b + 2)*(6*b**2 + 0*b**2 - 2*b**2).
-2*b**3
Expand (1 - 2*w - 1 + 0 + w + 0 + (-2 + 1 - 1)*(4*w - 4*w + 2*w) + 2*w - w + 0*w)*(-11 + 5 - 17).
92*w
Expand (5*b**2 - 10*b**2 - 11*b**2)*(-10 - 12 - 6*b + 20).
96*b**3 + 32*b**2
Expand -46*m**3 + 0*m + 70*m**3 - m + 2*m**2 + (-4*m + 4*m - 2*m)*(-1 + 1 - 2*m**2).
28*m**3 + 2*m**2 - m
Expand x**2 - 2*x**2 + 0*x**2 + (17 + x - 17)*(-3*x + 6*x - 5*x).
-3*x**2
Expand 4697*x**4 - 4688*x**4 - 8*x**2 + 3 - 1 + (4 + x**2 - 4)*(-2*x**2 + 0*x**2 + 3*x**2) - 3*x**4 - 2*x**4 + 6*x**4.
11*x**4 - 8*x**2 + 2
Expand 0 + 2 + 71*r - 72*r + (2 - 2 - r)*(-3 + 5 + 0) + 2*r + 25*r - 11*r + (-r - r + 4*r)*(1 - 5 + 2).
9*r + 2
Expand -c + 6*c - 2*c + (-41*c + c - 25*c)*(-3 + 4 + 0).
-62*c
Expand (236 - 8*d + 11*d + 0*d)*(-3 + 3 + 2).
6*d + 472
Expand (1 - 3 + 0)*(-493*d - 1029*d + 780*d - 1483*d).
4450*d
Expand (0 - 3*z**3 + 0)*(1 + 0 + 0)*(86*z**2 - 116*z**2 - 265*z**2).
885*z**5
Expand (1 - 5 + 2 - 4 - 1 + 4 + (3 + 2 - 6)*(-5 + 2 + 4))*(-13*v - v - 8*v)*(1 - 2*v - 1)*(-3*v + 3*v + 2*v).
-352*v**3
Expand -p - p + 4*p + (203*p - 6*p + 281*p)*(-3 + 1 + 3).
480*p
Expand (-4*k + 4*k + k**2)*(-84*k - 1 - 2*k - 6*k) + (2 - 2 + k)*(-5 - k**2 + 5) + 2*k**3 + 0*k**2 + 0*k**2.
-91*k**3 - k**2
Expand (17*g - 4*g + 7*g)*(-9*g + 34*g + 14*g).
780*g**2
Expand (-1 + 5 - 2)*(-4*x**2 - 1 + 1)*(8*x**2 - 5*x**2 + 7*x**2).
-80*x**4
Expand 4*l**2 - 2*l**2 + 6*l**5 + 0*l**2 + (-l + 0*l - l)*(-2*l**4 + 4*l**4 - 3*l**4) - 2*l**5 + l**5 + 0*l**5 - 7*l**5 + 9*l**5 + 5*l**5.
14*l**5 + 2*l**2
Expand (0 + 0 - 2*c)*(1 - 3 + 1) - 295*c + 164 - 164.
-293*c
Expand (3*m**4 - 3*m**4 - 2*m**5 - m**5 + 0 + 0 + (-2*m**4 + 5*m**3 - 5*m**3)*(-2*m + 3*m - 2*m) + m**3 - m**3 - m**5)*(2 - 3 + 10).
-18*m**5
Expand (114 - 107 - 328)*(3*h**2 + 3*h**2 - 4*h**2)*(1 - 3 + h - 2*h).
642*h**3 + 1284*h**2
Expand (-4*j + 0*j + 0*j)*(-93019*j**3 + 279*j**4 + 93019*j**3 + 2*j**4 + 2*j**3 - 2*j**3 + (3*j**3 - j**3 - 3*j**3)*(-j + 3 - 3) - 3*j**4 + 4*j**4 + 0*j**4).
-1132*j**5
Expand (2*i - i + 4*i)*((3 - 3 - 2*i)*(i**2 - 4*i**2 + i**2) + (3*i - i - i)*(-279*i**2 - 59*i**2 + 48*i**2)).
-1430*i**4
Expand (0*w + 3*w + w)*(-3*w - 4*w + 5*w)*(-w**2 + 2 - 2) + (-5*w**3 + 2*w**3 + w**3)*(3*w - 2*w - 3*w) - 14 + 14 - w**4.
11*w**4
Expand (-f**3 + 2*f**2 - 2*f**2)*(-1 + 5 - 2) - 5*f**3 + 2846 - 2*f**2 + f - 2846.
-7*f**3 - 2*f**2 + f
Expand (29 - 29 - z)*(2 + 2 - 5) + 3*z + 3 - 3 + 2*z - 2*z - 2*z + z + 0*z + z - 2*z + z - z + (-z + 0*z + 0*z)*(-3 + 6 - 2).
z
Expand (-3*o + 2*o - o + (-o + 4*o - o)*(4 - 5 + 4) + 4*o - 4*o - 5*o)*(4*o**2 - o**2 - o**2).
-2*o**3
Expand 0*j + 7*j**2 + 0*j + (3*j**2 + 1 - 1)*(9 + 3 - 9).
16*j**2
Expand (1 - 2 + 3)*(3*z**2 + 0*z**2 - 199 + 173).
6*z**2 - 52
Expand (-1 - 1 - 1)*(0*r + 3*r - 5*r)*(2*r + 1 - 1)*(-4*r**2 - 4*r**2 + 18*r**2).
120*r**4
Expand (-1 + 3 - 1 + (-4 + 4 - 1)*(1 - 1 + 2))*(-409*t + 302*t - 805*t).
912*t
Expand (-3*j**2 + 3*j**2 - j**2)*(0*j**2 + 0*j**2 - 2*j**3) + 47*j**5 - 46*j**5 + 4*j**3 - 2 + 16*j**3.
3*j**5 + 20*j**3 - 2
Expand (q**2 + q**2 - 8*q**2)*(0*q + 3*q - q) - 5*q**2 + 5*q**2 + 2*q**3 + 4*q**3 + 0*q**3 - 2*q**3 + (2*q**2 + 5*q**2 - 5*q**2)*(q + 1 - 1).
-6*q**3
Expand (-3 + 64 + 38)*((b - 2 + 2)*(-4 + 0 + 2) + (0 + 1 - 2)*(2 - 2 + 2*b) - b - b + b).
-495*b
Expand (-4*a + 4*a + a + (2*a - 4*a + 0*a)*(1 - 2 + 2))*(-a**2 - a**2 - 2*a**2)*(13*a - 2 + 2 - 2 + 2 + a + (1 + 2 - 1)*(2 - 2*a - 2) - 2*a - 2 + 2).
32*a**4
Expand (3*f**3 - f**3 - 3*f**3 - 2*f + (0 + 3 + 0)*(f**3 + 1 - 1))*(5 + 3 - 2).
12*f**3 - 12*f
Expand (0*y + 17*y + 37*y)*(0 - 3 + 1) + (-1 - 3 + 5)*(3*y - 6*y + y).
-110*y
Expand (-29 - 30 + 52)*(1 - 1 - 2*h)*(-2 + 9 + 5).
168*h
Expand (h**3 + 0*h**3 + h**3)*(1 + 6*h - 1)*(-2 - 5 + 0) + h**4 + h**4 + h**4.
-81*h**4
Expand (1056*x - 526*x - 528*x + 345)*(-2*x + 2*x - 2*x).
-4*x**2 - 690*x
Expand (-218*a**3 - 2*a**2 - 55*a**3 + 87*a**3)*(-2*a - 2*a + 3*a).
186*a**4 + 2*a**3
Expand (b - 1 + 1)*(-4*b**4 + 2*b**4 + 3*b**4) + (15*b**2 - 15*b**2 - b**3)*(0 + 1 - 3)*(3*b**2 - 3*b**2 - 3*b**2).
-5*b**5
Expand (3*j**3 - j**3 - j**3)*(-2 + 2 + j) + (5*j - 2*j - 5*j)*(20 - 20 + 10*j)*(4*j**2 - 5*j**2 - 5*j**2).
121*j**4
Expand 7*a + 25*a - 13*a + 1 - 1 - 2*a + (-3*a - a + 2*a)*(3 - 4 + 3).
13*a
Expand (-16 - 12 - 7)*(-4 + 0 + 1)*(-2 + 2 + g)*(9 + 2 - 2).
945*g
Expand (-83 - 6*o + 167 - 98)*(0*o + 0*o + 1 - 2*o).
12*o**2 + 22*o - 14
Expand (r - 6*r + 4*r)*(-r + 0*r - r)*(3 - 6 + 1)*(3 - 3 + r)*(-51 + 25 - 20).
184*r**3
Expand (-527 + 55*m + 527)*(3 - 6 + 5)*(-7*m**3 - 24 + 24).
-770*m
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Building Relationships, Improving Health
Mason's Bioengineering Department is training the next generation of pioneers in medical research and technology. You can make a difference by backing our research, helping us build and equip advanced laboratories, and funding student scholarships.
Bioengineering graduates work will have an impact on the health of people in the United States and around the world. You can make a difference by:
Supporting game-changing research projects that will deliver new solutions for unmet medical needs.
Opportunities to Give
The Bioengineering Department at Mason is seeking funding for capital projects in our laboratories that will enhance our research. Donors who partner with us can choose an endowment gift, which provides perpetual support, or current-use funding, which makes an impact now.
Peterson Family Health Sciences Hall enhancements
In 2017, the Bioengineering Department moved many offices and labs to the 165,000-square-foot Peterson Family Health Sciences Hall. Help us enhance these labs and spaces by donating to the department. Gifts of any amount can be earmarked for the department building fund.
We have several naming opportunities for donors who want to make a bigger impact and help our faculty and students.
Alex Nixon, BS Bioengineering '16, received the first Katona Scholarship for Excellence in Bioengineering in 2015. The scholarship, named after Professor Peter Katona, is available to rising seniors with a declared major and open to bioengineering students pursuing any concentration within the degree program.
Katona Scholarship
Rising seniors in bioengineering who demonstrate strong academic performance, professional leadership, and exceptional promise for a successful bioengineering career can apply for the Katona Scholarship for Excellence in Bioengineering. Donors established this fund in 2012 as a tribute to Dr. Peter Katona’s pioneering work in bioengineering. Additional donations will increase the frequency of the award. Contact Kira Woitek to make a donation.
"It fascinated me that the work that I did as an undergraduate could be used as a medical test in the future. One of the biggest things I've learned, and one of the things my mentor constantly reminds me about, is research is not a 9-5 job."
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MDS 3.0 accuracy needs attention, expert says
Surveyors scrutinizing database accuracy is “very new and very problematic” for facilities that may have inaccuracies, a leading payment expert said during a McKnight's Super Tuesday webinar.
“[Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] believes there are a lot of inaccurate databases and they haven't been identified,” Leah Klusch, the executive director of the Alliance Training Center, said. Surveyors were trained to review MDS 3.0 accuracy earlier this year, and MDS surveys are currently being conducted in some states along with regular annual surveys, Klusch said.
Klusch's main suggestion to administrators was to make sure their data adheres to four important guidelines: comprehensive, accurate, standardized and reproducible.
Other data collection tips outlined by Klusch during the webinar include:
Have a person on staff who is an expert on Chapter 2 of the RAI manual
Have an updated copy of the RAI manual on site, and making copies for new hires who may not be aware of the MDS process
Conduct an “honest assessment” of the current data collection process
Avoid common coding mistakes like scores for BIMs, ADL scores, levels of pain and specific treatments
Don't let software auto fill Section Z
Document all six admission interviews, including the BIM, mood, preferences, rehab potential, pain and residents plan for discharge interviews
Klusch advised facilities to look at the “big picture” when tackling MDS 3.0 accuracy. Providers should make sure Section V 200b2, on care assessment, is completed correctly, and complete a formal care plan after the care plan meeting.
“The guidelines and the probes are very, very important, and now that we're having this very specific review we want to make sure that all of the members of our team are aware of what the regulations say,” Klusch said. “Please don't let some surveyors surprise you with those changes.”
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Q:
PV of multiple cash flows (pls help me answer step by step)
Ajax Corp. is expecting the following cash flows $79,000, $112,000, $164,000, $84,000, and $242,000 over the next 5 years. if the company's opportunity cost is 15%, what is the present value of these cash flows ? (round to the nearest dollar)
4. 5 Find the present value of the following stream of cash flows, assuming the firm's opportunity cost is 20%. _________________
Years...
Solution Preview :
The Present Value of a Cash Flow Stream is equal to the sum of the Present Values of the individual cash flows. In this question, we need to find the present value of the given stream of...
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How could I only deploy a specific module to my remote repository?
I have a Maven project with several modules, but I only want one to be deployed to my remote repository server. I tried to put the distributionManagement in the pom of my module that I want to deploy, but it can only be put in the main pom. How could I do this?
Thank you.
Edit: Fixed by putting
<build>
<pluginManagement>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0-M1</version>
<configuration>
<skip>true</skip>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</pluginManagement>
</build>
to the modules that I don't want to be deployed.
A:
You can do that by setting the skip property of the maven deploy plugin to true in all other modules.
But: Why is it multi-module project if you only need one of the modules later? Shouldn't it be split up?
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https://www.supplementstruera.com/keto-ultra-diet/
Keto Ultra Diet :- With the end goal to receive the rewards of keto and for the ketones to be discharged in any case, the body needs to go into ketosis. That can take some time. Nonetheless, rather than trusting that the body will go into ketosis, we can present these ketones by means of an enhancement which fundamentally gives indistinguishable impact from if our body was in ketosis. In this manner, we call it prompted ketosis.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to vaccines for immunizing poultry against Marek's disease (Type II leukosis), and specifically to vaccines which are immunogenic and non-pathogenic for Marek's disease, methods of producing such vaccines, and methods of immunizing poultry flocks therewith.
Neoplasia is one of the most common pathologic manifestations found in poultry. The vast majority of avian tumors have their histogenesis in the hematopoietic system and have been classified as the Avian Leukosis Complex. At least two distinct virus types, i.e., a RNA virus (sometimes called RIF virus), and a DNA herpes virus (of which the JM virus was first isolated from chickens as a prototype), can cause leukotic tumors. The etiologic separation and identification of these diseases has led to the terms of lymphoid leukosis, or Type I lymphoid leukosis, for the RNA virus tumors, and Marek's disease, or Type II lymphoid leukosis, for the DNA virus tumors.
The majority of naturally occurring tumors in poultry are Marek's disease types. Currently, the annual losses due to poultry tumors are estimated at 200 million dollars in the U.S.
Marek's disease infections in poultry populations are both common and widespread. Nearly all field flocks are infected to some degree. Most chickens become infected at an early age and remain so chronically. Though infection levels are as high as 100 percent in most cases, neoplasia resulting from such infections may range from a negligible amount in some flocks to well over 50 percent in other flocks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Much research has been devoted to developing treatments and preventions for Marek's disease, but until recently no satisfactory vaccine was available.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,574 describes a vaccine produced from turkey herpes virus (HVT) which is non-pathogenic in chickens and protects, by mechanisms as yet unexplained, vaccinated chickens against development of Marek's disease tumors.
The vaccine described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,574 gained immediate and widespread acceptance as soon as it was available to poultry raisers, due to the seriousness of the disease and the unavailability of any effective alternative treatment.
However, the HVT vaccine has recently become suspect as a satisfactory solution to the Marek's disease problem because its effectiveness in preventing tumor development currently appears in many cases to be less than originally reported. This may be due to the fact that HVT vaccine does not produce significant levels of protective or neutralizing antibodies against field infections. It has been determined that inoculating chickens with HVT vaccine results in a chronic viremia, as distinguished from an immunity which depresses or eradicates the infection. Furthermore, chickens vaccinated with HVT vaccine are not immune to a super-infection to Marek's disease virus, and the protection provided by the HVT vaccine is more "cosmetic" than real. Furthermore, original reports that HVT did not grow in mammalian cells have now been questioned.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,590,128 describes a vaccine for the Type I lymphoid leukosis, as distinguished from a Marek's disease vaccine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,674,861 to Churchill describes an attenuation of any strain of Marek's disease vaccine produced by serial passage of field Marek's disease virus in avian cells. The virus attenuated by Churchill was obtained from infected field birds and includes the HPRS - 16 strain and JM strain. Churchill's objective was to rid the Marek's disease virus of the A-antigen.
It is apparent from the above that there is a tremendous need for an effective vaccine against Marek's disease, and particularly for such a vaccine that will prevent and/or eradicate Marek's disease infection in a vaccinated chicken.
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India
Travel blogs, travel photos and features from incredible India
India Travel Guide
The guide to the best things to do and see in India
India’s national tourism organization uses the slogan “Incredible India.” It’s not very often that a marketing promotion perfectly encapsulates the identity of a place, but in India—it works. India conjures up a lot of different images, words, and ideas, but it’s still hard to describe. The Indian subcontinent is huge and home to a diverse amount of cultures and identities—so many distinct features for a single country. It’s that mishmash of culture and language under a unified flag that makes India so fascinating for explorers and travelers. It’s that specialness which makes people come back again and again. There’s always something more to see in India. Start here with my basic India travel tips, or jump down below to read my latest India travel blogs.
When to Visit
India is big. It stretches from the Himalayan mountains in the north to the tropics of the south. And with coastal beaches and inland mountains & hill stations, the country covers just about every type of terrain and climate. Pay attention to the monsoon season which generally lasts from July to September (though longer in the southern regions, including Goa’s beaches: from April/May to October). The monsoon (or rainy) season isn’t really great for traveling—and especially backpacking. Beaches often close during the season. In the north, some of the harder-to-reach mountainous regions aren’t accessible in the winter (November-February) due to snowfall, so if you’re planning a trip to North India—visit in the warmer months. Peak season in Goa (famous for its extended-stay beach holidays) is during December-January. You’ll be able to find accommodation somewhere, because in India there’s always a solution, but note that prices will go up.
Top Things To Do in India
There are so many different cities and regions in India, each with their own merits. But here are a few favorite itineraries and things to see in India.
Golden Triangle – India’s most famous tourist route is the so-called Golden Triangle which includes New Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. Delhi is one of the country’s two main entrances for foreign tourists and offers a number of important historical sites and forts. Agra is home to the Taj Majal (don’t miss it!) and Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, is one of India’s most beautiful cities. The typical Golden Triangle itinerary lasts for about a week, though additional cities along the route can be added to make it last longer. Regardless, all three cities have their merits so even if you don’t follow on a strict itinerary, they’re great for tourism.
Goa and the southern beaches – One of my favorite experiences traveling in India is to take in the countless beaches of Goa. A small state a few hours south of Mumbai, Goa was once a Portuguese colony and the settlers’ laid-back attitudes seeped into the Goan culture. Not to mention the famous “happenings” and hippie travelers from the 1960s that made Goa the place to be. Today, Goa’s beaches keep some of that chill-out, hippie vibe, while the beautiful beaches and relatively clean accommodation makes it perfect for a truly budget beach holiday. A few hours further south and you can head to the beaches of Karnataka in Gokarna—an equally beautiful and even cheaper alternative to Goa.
Kerala – India’s other top touristic location is the region of Kerala—in the very far south of the country. The Kerala backwaters make it tourist-friendly and the region has pushed heavily for it to be a popular destination. You can rent houseboats to take through the rivers and backwaters, or plan day trips through the picturesque jungles.
India Tours
Many big-name travel companies from around the world offer India tours and full-on experiences from 5-day packages to one week, 10 days, or even two week & more package holidays. Backpacking in India is a whole other experience. Personally, I’ve found India to be a great destination for solo travel because there are countless other solo travelers.
Women and LGBT travelers may report occasional hassles and news out of India isn’t always the most positive for marginalized communities, but all-in-all, India is a safe and enjoyable destination for tourism.
When booking a tour in India, be mindful of the local culture to haggle for prices. Many things can be booked in advance from the online tour booking agencies, and local guides are always available for hire at just about every tourist attraction. Oftentimes you’ll find a sign posted at the attraction clearly stating (in English) the government-approved pricing for guides.
Explore some India tour options below for pre-booking.
LGBT – Gay India Travel Guide
India has a complicated relationship with its LGBTQ rights. The country previously legalized same-sex marriage but recently the court system overturned this. Societally, most of the India population still has a ways to go in supporting LGBTQ equality.
You’ll find big cities are more open to LGBTQ rights and individuals. GayBombay.org is one of India’s most accessible sites for discovering LGBTQ things to do across India. The GayBombay website organizes semi-regular parties and events—usually announced on the website and then the location revealed through WhatsApp groups.
India does host annual gay pride parades. Bangalore and Mumbai seem to be the biggest and most recognized. India’s best gay cities for travelers include Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi and other places like Goa and Pune.
For more about gay India, check out the LGBTQ English-language blog, gaylaxymag.com, or the website lgbteventsindia.com both of which feature useful guides on gay, lesbian, and queer things to do in India.
Also notable: in India, there are three legal genders and on all forms (even buying airline tickets), transgender is just about always an option.
India Hotel Deals
Finding hotels, guest houses, and accommodation in India’s cities can be hit or miss. It’s hard to judge sometimes without first viewing the room. Many budget hotels and guest houses will always offer to show you the room before you pay so you can decide on the spot. Personally, I’ve used Booking.com the most when traveling in India and wanting to book in advance, but Agoda.com or Hotels Combined can also be really useful.
Who is Adam?
I’ve worked as a bookseller, graphic designer, publisher, marketer, and writer—but it was a 15-month trip around the world which brought it all together into this blog. I’ve lived in Berlin, Tel Aviv, London, Sydney, Boston, and Dallas. Since early 2018, I live in New York City at the center of the world.
On this travel blog, you’ll find my gay stories, nightlife tips, photos, and all-too-personal essays from my adventures around the world. Read how Iceland changed my life and set me on a path as a professional travel blogger.
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Electrochemotherapy of murine melanoma using intratumor drug administration.
Administering a chemotherapeutic agent in combination with electric fields (electrochemotherapy; ECT) has been shown to be an effective localized treatment for solid tumors (1). The drug used most often in this combination treatment has been bleomycin. ECT has been used successfully in both animal studies and clinical trials (1-3). The treatment was initially performed by exposing tumor cells to electrical fields following intravenous injection of the chemotherapeutic agent. Although ECT using intravenous bleomycin was successful, the procedure was limited by the existence of a narrow but optimal time window for effective treatment as well as the fact that a systemic drug dose was being administered for a localized therapy. In addition, the use of intravenous administration also precludes the treatment of patients with poor circulation.
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Choose language
"Even from prison, you can still light a candle"
By Waleed Abu al-Khair
15 May 2014, 16:39 UTC
By Waleed Abu al-Khair, a Saudi Arabian human rights lawyer, who was detained last month following his fifth court session for number of charges including “breaking allegiance to and disobeying the ruler” and disrespecting the authorities. He wrote this before his impending detention.
Writing while waiting to go to prison is like bidding your loved ones farewell before you leave on an arduous, faraway and risky mission. You don’t know whether you will make it back, or if you will ever see them again!
I write these words while awaiting the moment when the police call and summon me to serve a prison term of three months. But my imprisonment might drag on for years, pending the outcome of another case before the court on more serious political charges.
As I’m writing these words, ideas crowd each other out, leaving but a frail trace of sharp, direct and candid words. These are the words that came across my mind seven years ago – when I first embarked on the journey of my rights-based work.
”Do I hate anyone?” I wonder, particularly those who have insulted me and my family, using the foulest of words in the course of the investigations? Do I hate those who imposed a travel ban on me for years with no legal reason? Do I hate the judge who ordered that I be put in jail simply because I have a signed a statement calling for fair trials? Or should I hate the Prince, whose emissaries have continuously threatened me with being put in prison for years if I refrain from signing an affidavit? Do I hate men of religion who drafted heinous reports about me to the security agencies – full of lies and proclaiming me an apostate? Or should I hate the people using pseudonyms on new media outlets, so they could lie about me and my family so as to damage my reputation further?
I reach deep within my heart and find that I bear no grudge against anyone. I realize that I rather feel sorry for them, the same way I feel sorry for those who decided to give up their freedom, just like an alcoholic who roams aimlessly after willingly giving up his mind to liquor.
And I wonder whether or not I am ready for what is coming. At this moment in particular, I do recall my reasons and that life has a goal; I do remember that those who lived to achieve noble high goals have been more capable of confronting difficulties and overcoming them. I do recall that once I lose these reasons, I would die; at best, I am on the path to degradation. In Saudi Arabia, we live a special challenge – the challenge to be free and to own yourself, your inner being, as well as to be a human rights defender in the face of a political power that employs all of its resources and capacity to dominate the judiciary so as to send you to jail and silence your voice. That challenge is not the only one, however. There is yet a greater societal challenge, as we bear the brunt of extremism and stagnation – which the political authorities wish to perpetuate, to bolster their own legitimacy. The authorities combat these issues, yet at the same time seek to keep them alive in order to foster the inner feelingthat the society will always need them. They hope to demonstrate that the world has no intention of pressuring them as long as they are busy combating extremism as they claim, while providing oil to superpowers.
Thus, the nation is reduced to materialism that is void of meaning. As long as the oil keeps flowing, the world will turn a blind eye if Saudi Arabia continues to crack down on freedom and human rights.
The exception here involves a type of very spiritual people who suffer a lot in the eyes of others but are jubilant and overtly happy deep within. They feel like this simply because they cling onto great hopes – they are resilient in the face of all hardship. They are supported by human rights activists from all over the world and feel overwhelmed by their kindness and solidarity. One of them once said in front of a courtroom after being threatened to be sent to prison by the presiding judge: “Even from prison, you can still light a candle”.
Dr. Abdullah al-Hamid is in prison now alongside his comrades in human rights work. They are the bright light in that pitch-black darkness. Stars cannot be seen during daylight; companions only shine in the darkness of night. They shine against darkness and oppression as campaigners for human rights, social peace and a more glorious and sovereign homeland.
Homelands can overnight be caught in very difficult conflicts; they can also become your companion of choice that would never give up on you or disappoint you. This has been the way of all comrades and friends, for they love freedom and work towards it in their words and deeds.
Because freedom is cultivated, its seeds are those who have sacrificed a lot and have made the sky the limit to their sacrifice. They created a sense of inner peace for themselves that only they can understand. That is why I shall be flying high with them, even from behind bars. In prison I will never need a window that opens out to the sky. I do not need a door to explain to the world why I am there in prison. What I truly need lies within your conscience and every free conscience.
There will always be free souls in this world who will not be silenced by oil!
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How are dreads attached to falls?
1 Answer
0
I usually tie or sew double ended dreads onto stretch lace. I can also attach them to claw-clips if you prefer. Foam/crin/plastic falls I usually attach to claw clips as they seem to hold better, but if you prefer I can also attach them onto netting and stretch lace. They may be difficult to hold in place as they can be heavier than dread falls.
more
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Q:
Q: journalctl to prefix message with own meta data?
How would one prefix journald log entries with metadata within the log message?
I'm thinking I may have to view one of the verbose outputs, filter out line breaks and all extra info, find just the items I am looking for (DateTime, Docker CONTAINER_NAME, Message) and ignore the rest all onto a single line.
Could something like awk be used to strip line breaks, grab only X, Y, Z lines, and display them onto a single line? How would args then know to group every X, Y, Z lines? I mean, how would args know about each "grouping"?
More info follows.
Here are two lines from two different docker containers I am logging to journald:
Apr 28 18:09:43 rschool dockerd[1366]: [pid: 9|app: 0|req: 1/1] 68.180.230.53 () {48 vars in 934 bytes} [Fri Apr 28 14:09:42 2017] GET /enrollment/info-sessions/ => generated 17175 bytes in 1072 msecs (HTTP/1.0 200) 3 headers in 112 bytes (1 switches on core 0)
Apr 28 18:09:43 rschool dockerd[1366]: 68.180.230.53 - - [28/Apr/2017:18:09:43 +0000] "GET /enrollment/info-sessions/ HTTP/1.1" 200 3495 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; IntelMac OS X 10_12_4) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.81 Safari/537.36" "-"
As you can see, you can't tell which log entry belongs to which docker container.
There is metadata available with viewing the full log message. Here's one of those messages, when viewed with journald -o verbose:
_UID=0
_GID=0
_SYSTEMD_SLICE=system.slice
_BOOT_ID=f4a6e9569f0349d1817bd92ab779ebe3
_MACHINE_ID=a62f158e48fc45eeb32afaef98d24d5b
_HOSTNAME=rschool
_TRANSPORT=journal
_CAP_EFFECTIVE=3fffffffff
_PID=1366
_COMM=dockerd
_EXE=/usr/bin/dockerd
_CMDLINE=/usr/bin/dockerd -H fd://
_SYSTEMD_CGROUP=/system.slice/docker.service
_SYSTEMD_UNIT=docker.service
CONTAINER_NAME=rschool_web_1
CONTAINER_ID=732e5bf0d0a1
CONTAINER_ID_FULL=732e5bf0d0a1cc110cacce68850143aa3534
CONTAINER_TAG=rschool_web/rschool_web_1/732e5bf0d0a1
MESSAGE=[pid: 9|app: 0|req: 1/1] 68.180.230.53 () {48 vars in 934 bytes} [Fri Apr 28 14:09:42 2017] GET /enrollment/info-sessions/ => generated 17175 bytes in 1072 msecs (HTTP/1.0 200) 3 headers in 112 bytes (1 switches on core 0)
_SOURCE_REALTIME_TIMESTAMP=1493402983899475
Fri 2017-04-28 18:09:43.901030 UTC [s=9d2777df7c3e4658a6d3d2c7896376ce;i=13ca;b=f4a6e9569f0349d1817bd92ab779ebe3;m=c91fe4d38;t=54e3dfa5ca862;x=f8ee400046f7d86f]
PRIORITY=6
But journald doesn't seem to have any deliminating nature with -o verbose.
Part of Docker log driver using journald, it adds things like CONTAINER_NAME - which is exactly what I am looking for.
How would I display the CONTAINER_NAME using a format similar to -o short?
A:
Ok, I found the answer as I was typing. It's very long-winded though. So a bash alias will help (see the end). Making this into a "Wiki Answer" as it took me a long time to type out, and find the answer. Maybe it can help someone else one day.
There is the JSON output format available with -o json.
We can use jq to pick things from the json, format and concatenate them, and display them on a single.
journalctl -f -n 100 -o json | jq -r '.__REALTIME_TIMESTAMP + " " + .PRIORITY + " " + ._HOSTNAME + " " + ._SYSTEMD_UNIT + " " + .CONTAINER_TAG + " " + .MESSAGE'
I use the docker tag option to specify a custom tag. For example, my docker-compose.production.yml override looks like:
version: '2'
services:
nginx:
restart: always
ports:
- "80:80"
- "443:443"
logging:
driver: journald
options:
tag: "{{.ImageName}}/{{.Name}}/{{.ID}}"
This gives me a line like:
1493405629162557 6 rschool docker.service nginx:1.12.0-alpine/rschool_nginx_1/0f6b8d772957 X.X.X.X - - [28/Apr/2017:18:53:49 +0000] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 4399 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.81 Safari/537.36" "-"
Which is exactly what I am after. This is also compatible with all other journald entries:
1493405535267844 4 rschool [UFW BLOCK] IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=9e:51:e1...:08:00 SRC=X.X.X.X DST=X.X.X.X LEN=439 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=57 ID=41599 DF PROTO=UDP SPT=5273 DPT=5060 LEN=419
If you aren't using docker log tags, you can just use the CONTAINER_NAME:
journalctl -f -n 100 -o json | jq -r '.__REALTIME_TIMESTAMP + " " + .PRIORITY + " " + ._HOSTNAME + " " + ._SYSTEMD_UNIT + " " + .CONTAINER_NAME + " " + .MESSAGE'
That should work for all Docker containers regardless of linux system logging to journald.
All that is left is to make this into a bash alias to reference quickly. Add this to your ~/.bash_aliases and source ~/.bash_aliases:
alias journalctlf="journalctl -f -n 100 -o json | jq -r '.__REALTIME_TIMESTAMP + \" \" + .PRIORITY + \" \" + ._HOSTNAME + \" \" + ._SYSTEMD_UNIT + \" \" + .CONTAINER_NAME + \" \" + .MESSAGE'"
(the "f" stands for formatted)
Then you can run journalctld outright, and bask in the glory of jorunald with docker container names.
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America's Online Home Improvement Place™
If you are in the New England area then Showroom Partners highly recommends Anchor Insulation. Anchor is not your typical insulation company. With almost 200 employees in four branches throughout RI, MA and CT, their commitment is to impress their customers with quality work completed on schedule, within budget, and done safely. Their commitment to exceed customers expectations has generated success in serving them in homes, buildings, power plants, schools, textile mills, pharmaceutical plants, cold storage facilities, LNG plants, marine vessels, incinerator plants, water treatment facilities and more.
If you find yourself in need of any of Anchor’s insulation services contact them today and see the savings they can provide you. They have crews that will travel throughout the United States to service their customers. You can review many of their products and services below or visit Anchor Insulation’s official website here.
When it comes to conventional Insulation products and services- Anchor has you covered. With formaldehyde free insulation products from Johns Manville, Cellulose Insulation by US Greenfiber and more. They aren’t your average insulation company as you will see from below. They offer a wide range of insulation services for Residential, Industrial, Commercial and Marine applications. All products furnished and professionally installed in house, on time and on budget.
Anchor Insulation is a leading supplier of reusable, removable insulation blankets, each custom measured and designed at your facility to be fabricated in one of our in house fabrication shops. These high temperature blankets are the solution to save energy when conventional insulation is not an option. Our flexible, removable insulation blankets or covers fit custom sizes, space limitations and shapes and are easily removed and replaced for routine maintenance requirements.
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In the days before your contest, make sure that your tuning is spot on, and take note of how much playing it takes for your drones and chanter reed to settle in and become steady and how long they stay that way. Make sure you give yourself enough time before your contest for that to happen, and leave some extra time in case of emergency.
Practice, practice, practice: focus on those points that are still rough.
__________________"Gentlemen, we are going to chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good."
- Vince Lombardi
In the days before your contest, make sure that your tuning is spot on, and take note of how much playing it takes for your drones and chanter reed to settle in and become steady and how long they stay that way. Make sure you give yourself enough time before your contest for that to happen, and leave some extra time in case of emergency.
Are there any rules of thumb regarding how long it should take? Mine seem to settle down in just a few minutes, and they don't seem to change much from day to day if I stay in my house.
I do notice that my chanter tuning changes a lot depending on the weather.
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It has long been known that smoking is harmful to physical health, but less is known about the nature of its association with mental health. Smoking rates are markedly higher among individuals with mental health disorders than in the general population, and while smoking rates have fallen over recent decades, corresponding decreases have not been seen in mental health populations[@b1]. In particular, smoking is strongly associated with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia[@b2]. Historically, up to around 80% of patients with schizophrenia were smokers[@b3], and more recent estimates suggest that the prevalence of smoking in inpatients is around 60%[@b4][@b5]. There is evidence that supports a self-medication model to explain this association: constituents of tobacco smoke can increase the metabolism of anti-psychotic drugs[@b6], and there is also some evidence that nicotine might reduce some of the cognitive impairment side effects of drugs such as haloperidol[@b7]. Nicotine has also been implicated in improving various physiological deficits associated with schizophrenia, including pre-pulse inhibition[@b8] and the P50 wave[@b9].
Recently, however, some evidence has emerged to suggest that the association between smoking and schizophrenia could be operating in the opposite direction. A systematic review and meta-analysis of cross sectional and prospective studies of smoking and psychotic outcomes indicated that daily tobacco use was associated with both an increased risk of psychosis, and earlier age of onset of a disorder[@b10] -- although this study did not address confounding presenting only unadjusted estimates. A recent large prospective study of Swedish registry data similarly found that light and heavy cigarette smoking was associated with incident risk of schizophrenia[@b11]. The association was dose-dependent, and persisted (though was attenuated) after adjustment for socioeconomic status, drug use and degree of familial genetic overlap. Perhaps most interestingly, in a recent genomewide association study (GWAS) of schizophrenia[@b12], a variant (rs8042374) within the *CHRNA5-A3-B4* gene cluster strongly associated with heaviness of smoking in smokers (p = 2.4 × 10^−24^ in the cigarettes-per-day GWAS[@b13]) was one of the variants to reach genomewide significance. This could mean that there is shared genetic architecture between schizophrenia and smoking, but it could also indicate a causal association between smoking and schizophrenia[@b14][@b15]. It is plausible that the association could be causal in either or both directions, but this is very hard to establish using standard observational epidemiological methods. For example, an earlier Swedish longitudinal study found evidence of an association in the opposite direction to the study discussed above[@b16].
One approach to investigate causality in observational studies is Mendelian randomization (MR), whereby genetic variants that predict an observational exposure are used as unconfounded proxy measures for the exposure itself. Associations between the variants and the outcome of interest can thus provide evidence of causation whilst, subject to certain assumptions, eliminating problems of confounding and reverse causation. A recent Mendelian randomization study found an association between a SNP in the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha 3 subunit (*CHRNA3*) gene strongly associated with heaviness of smoking (rs1051730) and likelihood of being prescribed anti-psychotic medication, which was used as a proxy for risk of schizophrenia, in a sample of smokers[@b17].
Since genetic variants typically explain a small proportion of the variance in the exposure, very large sample sizes are needed, which can make conducting such studies challenging. Recently, the two-sample MR method has been developed, whereby data on gene-exposure and gene-outcome associations from different samples can be used to conduct MR analyses[@b18]. This means that publicly-available summary data from genomewide association studies can be used to assess causal associations between exposures and outcomes, increasing sample size, and therefore power to detect causal associations.
We used two-sample MR to assess the causal effect of smoking initiation on schizophrenia (using genetic variants associated with smoking initiation), and of schizophrenia risk on smoking initiation, cigarettes per day, and cessation (using genetic variants associated with schizophrenia risk), in an attempt to clarify the causal relationship between smoking and schizophrenia.
Results
=======
Schizophrenia risk and smoking initiation
-----------------------------------------
The 94 SNPs used as a proxy for risk of schizophrenia case status provided little evidence of a causal effect of schizophrenia risk on likelihood of being a smoker (OR per 1 unit increase in log odds of schizophrenia 1.02, (95% CI 0.98--1.06, p = 0.32). This translates to an odds ratio of 1.01 (95% CI 0.98--1.04) for smoking per doubling of odds of schizophrenia (see [Fig. 1](#f1){ref-type="fig"}). There was moderate heterogeneity (I^2^ = 38%, 95% CI 20--52% p = 0.0002), but the random-effects estimate was very similar to the fixed effects model (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.98--1.05, p = 0.37). When we performed MR Egger regression, there was no evidence that the intercept (representing bias in the causal estimate due to pleiotropy) differed from the null (intercept OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.99--1.02, p = 0.49). The slope point estimate (representing the causal effect estimate of schizophrenia on smoking initiation) did not statistically differ from the null (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.78--1.16, p = 0.61).
Schizophrenia risk and other smoking phenotypes
-----------------------------------------------
The 94 SNPs used as a proxy for risk of schizophrenia case status provided little evidence of a causal effect of schizophrenia risk on smoking heaviness in 38,181 daily smokers in the TAG consortium (OR per unit increase in log odds of schizophrenia 1.03; 95% CI 0.86--1.24, p = 0.76). There was also little evidence of a causal effect of schizophrenia risk on odds of smoking cessation among 35,845 smokers in the TAG consortium (OR 0.97; 95% CI 0.93--1.03, p = 0.22).
Smoking initiation and schizophrenia risk
-----------------------------------------
The 4 SNPs used as a proxy for likelihood of being an ever smoker provided some evidence of a causal effect of smoking status on risk of schizophrenia (OR per 1 unit increase in log odds of being a smoker 2.17; 95% CI 1.46--3.23, p \< 0.001). This equates to an odds ratio of 1.71 (95% CI 1.30--2.25) of schizophrenia per doubling in odds of smoking. When only the most strongly associated SNP (rs6265) was analysed, the association was similar (OR 1.98; 95% CI 1.03--3.58) Due to the correlated nature of the SNPs, it was not possible to perform MR Egger regression as a sensitivity analysis to test the assumption of no biological pleiotropy.
Using genetic variants associated with smoking initiation at a less stringent significance threshold, 21 additional independent SNPs associated with smoking initiation (at p \< 10^−6^) provided no evidence of a causal effect of smoking status on risk of schizophrenia (OR per doubling in odds of being a smoker including one BDNF SNP (rs6265) OR 1.03; 95% CI 0.97--1.09, p = 0.32). Heterogeneity in this analysis was somewhat large, (I^2^ = 61.3, 95% CI 38--76%, p \< 0.001). However, MR Egger regression suggested no evidence of pleiotropy (intercept OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.00--1.06, p = 0.061), and weak evidence of causality (slope OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.43--1.08, p = 0.118). Results were similar if we excluded rs6265.
Discussion
==========
Schizophrenia risk and smoking initiation
-----------------------------------------
Our results did not support a possible causal effect of schizophrenia risk on smoking initiation. Sensitivity analyses suggested that although there was some heterogeneity in the results, there was no clear evidence for biological pleiotropy impacting on the findings, meaning that bias due to violation of one of the key assumptions of MR (i.e., that any genetic effect on the outcome only occurs via the exposure, and not directly) was unlikely to be substantial. The MR Egger regression causal estimate did not differ from the null. Although the point estimate was in the opposite direction, the confidence intervals were consistent with our main findings.
Smoking initiation and schizophrenia risk
-----------------------------------------
When using only genomewide significant SNPs, our results were consistent with a possible causal effect of smoking initiation on schizophrenia risk. However, this result was somewhat hard to interpret as only four SNPs were used in this risk score, and all of these were from the same gene region (*BDNF*). These SNPs are all highly correlated, and although correlation was taken in to account in the MR model, the risk of biological pleiotropy (i.e., an effect of gene on the outcome not via smoking) was much harder to rule out; *BDNF* and its associated SNPs have reached genomewide significance in a number of other GWAS, including those of obesity and body mass index[@b19][@b20], and caffeine consumption[@b21].
Although no SNPs in *BDNF* reach genomewide significance in the schizophrenia GWAS, it is a gene that has been implicated in schizophrenia previously, particularly in relation to cognitive deficits associated with the disease[@b22], as well as other psychiatric disorders[@b23]. Some studies have suggested that smoking might be a method by which people with schizophrenia alleviate cognitive difficulties, although other studies suggest cognition is worse in people with schizophrenia who smoke[@b24]. Furthermore, given the higher prevalence of smoking in populations with mental health problems, it is possible that the smoking initiation GWAS sample might be enriched for mental health problems compared to the general population, meaning that variants identified could be causally linked to these mental health problems rather than smoking. This result must therefore be interpreted with particular caution; the association between SNPs in the *BDNF* gene area and schizophrenia *may* reflect a causal association between smoking initiation and schizophrenia, but could also potentially be a pleiotropic effect, either via one of the already identified alternative pathways such as obesity or caffeine, or via another currently unidentified pathway. It was not possible to conduct an MR Egger regression using these 4 SNPs to test whether these smoking initiation SNPs were causally related to schizophrenia due to the high correlation between the smoking SNPs, and the small number of them.
Our analysis using a lower p-value cutoff found no evidence for an association between smoking initiation and risk of schizophrenia, and this also supports the interpretation that this was a pleiotropic effect, although in 2-sample MR, the use of weaker instruments such as these can result in bias towards the null.
Smoking heaviness phenotype
---------------------------
We did not use cigarettes per day or smoking cessation SNPs as exposure variables, as we could not stratify these data by smoking status. The SNP that strongly predicts cigarettes per day (rs1051730) does not predict smoking initiation, and only exerts an effect on smoking heaviness after a person has become an established smoker[@b25]. The GWAS that identified it was conducted in a sample of daily smokers, unlike that for smoking initiation which was a sample that included ever smokers and never smokers[@b13]. This genetic variant has been shown to be associated with schizophrenia risk as a highly correlated SNP (rs8042374) reached genomewide significance in the PGC2 GWAS of schizophrenia[@b12] (used in these analyses), suggesting a possible causal role of smoking heaviness on schizophrenia. However, as the analysis in the current study is based on summary data, we cannot stratify the sample to investigate whether this association is seen in non-smokers (indicating shared genetic aetiology of the two traits) or only in regular smokers (indicating a direct causal association). Whilst this SNP has been identified in unstratified GWAS of outcomes where a causal association with smoking is known (e.g., lung cancer), this has only been the case where effect sizes are sufficiently large that the association can survive this dilution. In order to glean more information about causality (versus direct biological pleiotropy, where the SNP in question has an effect on both smoking and schizophrenia), a stratified analysis would be required, to check for a lack of association in non-smokers. To perform a 2-sample analysis on the unstratified PGC2 GWAS would merely repeat what is already known from the GWAS, that this SNP is associated with schizophrenia risk, but would not help us understand causality.
Strengths and limitations
-------------------------
One strength of two-sample MR is that it offers very large sample sizes for analyses. Our analyses in both directions are based on such samples, which should provide sufficient power to identify small effects that are likely in the context of complex phenotypes such as schizophrenia risk and smoking initiation. However, even in these designs we are still underpowered to detect extremely small effect sizes given the small amount of variance explained by the SNPs we have used. For example, rs6265 explains 0.03% of the variance in smoking initiation, meaning we have approximately 86% power to detect an effect size of OR 1.1 of smoking initiation on schizophrenia risk.
It is important to note that the genetic risk for schizophrenia is based on a case-control GWAS, and therefore this might affect our interpretation of the association between schizophrenia and smoking. Schizophrenia is a rare outcome, and most of the TAG sample will not have schizophrenia. Therefore, we are making an assumption here that genetic risk for schizophrenia might be inducing subclinical schizophrenia symptoms in those that do not reach clinical diagnosis. There is some evidence that this is the case[@b26], though it is not yet strong or consistent[@b27].
A further potential limitation could be the role of maternal smoking, as this may be a genetic confounder, influencing both the genotype of the individual, and the relationship between smoking and schizophrenia in the individual. However, the impact of maternal smoking would need to be substantial in order to affect this analysis, given that smoking initiation is independent from smoking during pregnancy and therefore likely influenced by different genetic variants[@b13], and offspring share on average 50% of their genotype with their mothers.
One final potential limitation of this study is the possibility of population stratification due to the different ancestry samples included in the PGC2 GWAS (both European and Asian). There is some evidence of a slight difference in allele frequency for rs6265 between European and Asian populations (A allele frequency 0.2 in Europeans and 0.4 in Asians according to hapmap)[@b28]. The PGC2 GWAS adjusted for principal components, which should mitigate the effect of population stratification somewhat.
The association between smoking, schizophrenia and other childhood mental health is likely to be complex, in terms of both environmental and genetic risk factors. Childhood mental health predicts both smoking and risk of schizophrenia. Therefore the impact of different forms of pleiotropy on the associations between schizophrenia and smoking is important to consider. While biological pleiotropy (where one variant has multiple independent effects on different phenotypes) violates the assumptions of MR, mediated pleiotropy (where one variant influences a phenotype via intermediate mechanisms upstream of that phenotype) is not so problematic. For example, smoking could influence adolescent mental health, which could in turn increase the risk of more serious mental health problems such as schizophrenia. This would still be consistent with a causal effect of smoking on schizophrenia. We conducted MR Egger regressions to formally test for biological pleiotropy, and found little evidence for this in either direction.
Comparison to previous literature
---------------------------------
Although the evidence from this study for smoking initiation as a risk factor for schizophrenia is weak, other studies posit this as a plausible explanation for high rates of smoking seen in individuals with schizophrenia. Given that there are very few modifiable risk factors presently identified for this hugely debilitating disease further investigation of this question is therefore warranted. Stronger evidence to support or refute a causal effect of smoking might also inform our understanding of the relationship between cannabis use and schizophrenia, given the common co-occurrence of cannabis and tobacco use[@b29]; however, it seems highly unlikely that smoking could explain this association given that psychotic experiences are often described during acute intoxication with cannabis, but not with tobacco.
In order to determine whether the association between smoking and schizophrenia is causal, conventional MR using SNPs associated with heaviness of smoking would be informative, if a large sample could be identified with information on both schizophrenia case status and smoking status. One study has attempted this using anti-psychotic medication as a proxy for schizophrenia[@b17]. They found weak evidence using MR that higher cigarette consumption amongst smokers was associated with increased likelihood of being on antipsychotic medication, although it is not possible to rule out a direct effect of the SNP (rs1051730) on the outcome from these data. In that study, the OR was substantially smaller in their sample of non-smokers, although confidence intervals overlapped substantially between the two analyses. It is also important to note that many individuals who are prescribed anti-psychotic medication do not have schizophrenia or a psychotic illness, and therefore this may not be an ideal proxy measure for schizophrenia[@b30].
We found little evidence that schizophrenia risk was associated with uptake of smoking. This is in contrast to previous suggestions that the association between smoking and schizophrenia could be due to self-medication with nicotine. Evidence from observational epidemiology is broadly consistent with our present findings, namely that smoking initiation appears to predate psychotic experiences or schizophrenia[@b31]. Our findings are also consistent with a study that used cross-trait LD-score regression to examine the genetic correlation between smoking initiation and schizophrenia[@b32]. This study found no evidence of a genetic correlation, although it did find weak evidence of associations between schizophrenia and age of smoking initiation, and cigarettes per day. MR analyses are more suited to assessing causality than LD-score regression (which targets genetic correlation). MR uses variants identified as being good proxies for modifiable risk factors to provide a directional estimate of the association between the risk factor and the outcome. In contrast, LD-score analysis uses variants across the whole genome and is a symmetric (i.e., non-directional) analysis of the risk factor and the outcome, meaning that LD-score regression is not able to ascertain the direction of causation between the risk factor and outcome. Also, the contribution of a variant to a MR analysis is proportional to its association with the exposure, whereas the contribution of a variant to LD-score regression is proportional to its "LD-score". This means that even if a MR investigation was undertaken using genetic variants from the whole genome, it would differ from LD-score regression. The LD-score does not differ between exposures, meaning there is the potential for systematic bias in LD-score regressions across different phenotypes. Finally, the LD-score is likely to be a weak instrument, meaning a higher possibility of bias.
In conclusion, we found little evidence to suggest that schizophrenia risk increases the likelihood of smoking initiation. Our results provide some evidence consistent with a causal effect of smoking on schizophrenia, although a sensitivity analysis where we relaxed the p-value threshold suggested this association could be due to pleiotropy, i.e. that smoking initiation and schizophrenia risk share genetic aetiology, rather than being causally related. Nevertheless, while the current evidence that smoking might be a risk factor for schizophrenia is not compelling, the potential that smoking could be a modifiable risk factor for schizophrenia is a strong driver for further investigation of this question.
Methods
=======
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with smoking initiation, and schizophrenia risk, were identified from genomewide significant hits in the Tobacco And Genetics (TAG) consortium[@b13] and the Psychiatric Genetics Consortium (PGC2)[@b12] GWAS, respectively.
SNPs associated with schizophrenia
----------------------------------
A GWAS meta-analysis conducted by the PGC identified 128 independent SNPs (in 108 physically distinct loci) that met genomewide significance (p \< 5 × 10^−8^) for schizophrenia risk in a sample of 36,989 schizophrenia cases and 113,075 controls. These SNPs explained approximately 3.4% of the variance in schizophrenia risk. There were 51 SNPs from PGC2 that were genotyped in TAG. We used SNAP (<https://www.broadinstitute.org/mpg/snap/>) and the PhenoScanner tool[@b33] to identify proxies in high linkage disequilibrium (r^2^ \> 0.9), and were able to find an additional 43 proxy SNPs that were in TAG (see [Supplementary Table 1](#S1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}), so that the total number of SNPs for our analysis was 94 (out of a possible 108).
SNPs associated with smoking initiation
---------------------------------------
The TAG conducted a GWAS of smoking behaviour on 74,053 individuals, and a replication sample of over 140,000 individuals. A binary ever/never measure of smoking initiation was used as our exposure of interest as opposed to smoking heaviness, as smoking heaviness requires knowledge of participants' smoking status, which was not available in the PGC2 summary data. Eight SNPs met genomewide significance (p \< 5 × 10^−8^) for smoking initiation, all located in the *BDNF* gene region. A number of these SNPs were in very high linkage disequilibrium with each other. Using r^2^ values obtained from SNAP we identified all pairs of SNPs correlated at ≥0.9 and randomly selected one from each pair to keep, dropping the others from the score in a stepwise manner. Very highly correlated SNPs do not give extra information, but can make the model unstable. The remaining four SNPs (see [Table 1](#t1){ref-type="table"}) were also correlated, so a correlation matrix was created (see [Supplementary Table 2](#S1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}) which required modification of the likelihood-based method for estimation of a causal effect (see below)[@b18]. Given the correlation between these SNPs, we conducted two sensitivity analyses around this question. Firstly, we ran the analysis with only the most strongly associated SNP (rs6265). Secondly, we identified a further 21 independent SNPs (see [Supplementary Table 3](#S1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}) associated with smoking initiation at a slightly lower threshold (p \< 10^−6^). A correlation matrix was not required for this analysis, as all SNPs were independent of each other. Although relaxing the p-value threshold may introduce more weak instruments in to our analysis, the inclusion of several independent SNPs means pleiotropy is potentially less likely, as in order to pleiotropy to impact, all pleiotropic effects would have to operate in the same direction, which is implausible. It also allows us to be able to undertake MR Egger regression as a sensitivity analysis to more formally assess the impact of biological pleiotropy on the association.
Statistical analysis
--------------------
### Schizophrenia risk on smoking initiation, cigarettes per day, and smoking cessation
Log odds ratios and standard errors for the SNPs associated with schizophrenia were recorded. These SNPs were then identified in the full genomewide results from the TAG consortium for each phenotype, and beta-coefficients and standard errors recorded. The SNP-exposure and SNP-outcome associations for the 94 SNPs present in the PGC2 and TAG GWAS were combined in a fixed effects meta-analysis using an inverse-variance weighted approach. This is equivalent to a weighted regression of the SNP-outcome coefficients on the SNP-exposure coefficients. The results of this analysis were converted to odds ratios, and the resulting output is the odds ratio for smoking initiation, cigarettes per day, and cessation (as appropriate) per unit increase in the log odds ratio of schizophrenia risk. This is somewhat hard to interpret, so ORs were converted (by multiplying by 0.693) in order to represent the odds ratio per doubling in odds of the binary exposure.
### Smoking initiation on schizophrenia risk
Beta coefficients and standard errors for the four remaining SNPs associated with smoking initiation were recorded from the TAG dataset. These SNPs were identified in the full genomewide results from the PGC2, and log odds ratios and standard errors recorded. The SNP-exposure and SNP-outcome associations were combined using the same method as above, but further developed to allow for consideration of the correlational structure between the SNPs. Again the output was converted to odds ratio, and can be interpreted as the effect on schizophrenia risk per unit increase in the log odds ratio of smoking initiation, then converted to represent an odds ratio for schizophrenia risk per doubling in odds to smoking initiation.
### Sensitivity analyses
In order to formally test for potential violations of Mendelian randomization assumptions, a number of sensitivity analyses were undertaken. I^2^ statistics were calculated to estimate heterogeneity. We also ran a random-effects model to account for heterogeneity, and performed MR Egger regression[@b34]. This latter method relaxes the assumption made in MR that the effects of genetic variants on the outcome are entirely mediated via the exposure. This is achieved by allowing an intercept term in the weighted regression of the SNP-outcome coefficients on the SNP-exposure coefficients. The intercept parameter represents the average pleiotropic effect of a SNP on the outcome (the direct effect on the outcome not via the exposure of interest). This intercept value can therefore provide a test of directional pleiotropy; if the intercept term is close to the null, then bias in the causal estimate due to pleiotropy is less likely. The beta coefficient from this regression provides a consistent estimate of the causal effect under the assumption that the pleiotropic effects on SNPs on the outcome are uncorrelated with the associations of the SNPs with the exposure. Due to the small number of SNPs, and the high correlation between them, MR Egger regression could not be performed for the association of smoking initiation on schizophrenia using the SNPs associated at a genomewide level, so we used the 21 additional SNPs at the less stringent p-value threshold for this analysis.
### Sample overlap
Two-sample Mendelian randomization assumes that there is no overlap of participants between the two data sources used. Both TAG and PGC2 used MIGen data, making up 3.6% of the TAG consortium, and 1.4% of the PGC2 sample. This is not substantial, and any bias from this is likely to be in the direction of the null[@b35].
Additional Information
======================
**How to cite this article**: Gage, S. H. *et al*. Investigating causality in associations between smoking initiation and schizophrenia using Mendelian randomization. *Sci. Rep.* **7**, 40653; doi: 10.1038/srep40653 (2017).
**Publisher\'s note:** Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Material {#S1}
======================
###### Supplementary Materials
SHG, AET and MRM are members of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, a UK Clinical Research Council Public Health Research: Centre of Excellence. Funding from British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, and the National Institute for Health Research, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. Support from the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12013/6, MR/M006727/1) is also gratefully acknowledged. Stephen Burgess is supported by a fellowship from the Wellcome Trust (100114). We would like to thank James Staley (University of Cambridge) and the PhenoScanner team for help in finding genetic proxies using 1000 Genomes Phase 3 data.
**Author Contributions** S.G. and M.M. prepared the manuscript. S.G., H.J., A.T., S.B., S.Z. and M.M. reviewed the manuscript.
{#f1}
###### List of the SNPs associated with smoking initiation used in the 2-sample analysis, and their associations with smoking initiation, and with schizophrenia.
SNP Chromosome Position Gene region Reference allele Ref allele frequency Smoking Initiation Schizophrenia
----------- ------------ ---------- ------------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------- --------------- -------------- -------- ------- --------------
rs6265 11 27636492 BDNF T 0.21 −0.061 0.011 1.8 × 10^−8^ −0.052 0.013 8 × 10^−5^
rs4923460 11 27613365 BDNF T 0.23 −0.058 0.011 4.1 × 10^−8^ −0.045 0.013 4.2 × 10^−4^
rs1304100 11 27528179 BDNF A 0.74 0.055 0.01 4.4 × 10^−8^ 0.038 0.013 2.7 × 10^−3^
rs6484320 11 27659764 BDNF A 0.76 0.057 0.01 4.9 × 10^−8^ 0.043 0.013 7.5 × 10^−4^
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a fault detection arrangement for electric consumers in motor vehicles. More particularly, the invention relates to a fault detection arrangement to detect the function and/or malfunction of an electric consumer in a motor vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
The invention relates to an exterior rear view mirror with an adjustable mirror glass, which comprises at least one friction spring.
An exterior rear view mirror design for a motor vehicle consists, for example, of a mirror foot arranged on the motor vehicle, which can be covered by a mirror foot cover, and an exterior rear view mirror arranged on the mirror foot. The mirror foot can be produced as a die-cast piece, for example, from a material which is resistant to forces and moments. The exterior rear view mirror comprises an exterior rear view mirror housing, which, among others, accommodates a base support assigned to the mirror foot.
The mirror foot and the base support are hinged together, so that the exterior rear view mirror can be pivoted about a hinge axis towards the mirror foot from an operating position to a folding point and vice versa. In this process, bearing means can be provided between the mirror foot and the base support, in order to keep wear and tear and frictional forces arising during movement as low as possible.
Preferably, the base support is also produced as a die-cast part from a material resistant to arising forces and moments, for example, from the same material as the mirror foot. An adjusting device for a mirror glass, driven by an electric motor, for example, is arranged on the mirror foot. The adjusting device acts on a carrier plate, on which the mirror glass is arranged. The mirror glass can be mounted onto the carrier plate by means of an adhesive connection, for example. The carrier plate can be guided to and/or mounted on the adjustment device and/or the base plate.
On its rear side, facing away from the direction of movement of the motor vehicle in the operating position, the exterior rear view mirror housing comprises an opening, through which the mirror glass is visible, or in which the mirror glass is arranged. In order to ensure that the mirror glass is adjustable, a distance is kept on all sides between the mirror glass or carrier plate and the walls of the exterior rear view mirror housing surrounding the opening, so that a gap is given around the mirror glass between the walls of the exterior rear view mirror housing surrounding the opening.
In addition, the exterior rear view mirror can comprise a repeated flashing light, a module for a driving assistance device, such as blind spot monitoring, a lane departure warning, approach monitoring, or similar, or a combination thereof Alternatively or additionally, the exterior rear view mirror can also comprise sensors for recording driving and/or surrounding conditions, such as for example, temperature, brightness, degree of pollution, lighting situation, for example, in order to automatically heat the mirror glass, or to dim electro-chromatically, for example.
In order to avoid or at least partly suppress unwanted movements of the mirror glass, such as unwanted shaking during movement of the motor vehicle, it is known to provide a fixture device acting between the carrier plate holding the mirror glass and the base plate, for example, throughout the adjusting device, through this or reaching to this. The fixture device holds the carrier plate, together with the mirror glass arranged on it, in a desired adjustment position in relation to the base support, individually adjustable by the driver of the vehicle, without essentially limiting the adjustability of the carrier plate together with the mirror glass arranged on it in relation to the base support. The fixture device can be designed as a friction bearing, for example. A friction bearing of this type consists of guide surfaces, which are moveable at least in pairs relative to each other, and which come into contact with each other. In this way, for each pair of guide surfaces, a first guide surface is arranged on a first component, of the components to be clamped to each other in each adjustment position, and a second guide surface coming into contact with the first guide surface is arranged on the other component. The clamping is done by friction forces between the at least two guide surfaces in contact with each other.
An exterior rear view mirror is known in WO 99/00272, in which a friction bearing is arranged between the base support and a carrier plate holding the mirror glass for the prevention of unwanted movements of the mirror glass. In this process, a first guide surface of the friction bearing is assigned to the carrier plate and a second guide surface in contact with the first guide surface is assigned to the base support. The first guide surface is formed by a raised part, for example a reinforcing rib, on a curved nib on the carrier plate, projecting in the direction of the base support. The second guide surface has a concave form, seen from the raised part of the curved nib and from a bearing position, about which the mirror glass can be pivoted for adjustment, and is formed on an arm extension protruding to the base support in the direction of the carrier plate.
A generally known and as yet unsolved problem of exterior rear view mirrors of this type is a complicated assembly of the fixture device acting between the carrier plate holding the mirror glass and the base support, connected with a high tolerance of clamping between the carrier plate and the base support.
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After the devastating tornado we saw hit Joplin Missouri this week with who knows how many more coming before the week is over, who does Fox's Neil Cavuto think is the person to bring in to discuss President Obama's response to the disaster? I kid you not, none other than Mr. Heck-of-a-Job Brownie, Michael Brown.
And of course Brown was critical of President Obama spending the last couple of days over in Ireland and England instead of coming home for a photo-op like we saw Bush give after Hurricane Katrina.
I hate to break it to them, but I think the last thing any of those people are worried about is whether the President swooped right in there to shake some hands and have his picture taken. What they care about is whether there's a prompt response and how quickly the disaster relief is getting to them.
I would imagine they'd also be a lot more concerned about the remarks from Eric Cantor who decided to do some more hostage taking with their disaster relief, but of course that subject didn't come up during the course of their conversation.
They seem pretty desperate to paint President Obama as acting just like Bush did after Katrina. When someone tells me he has to be shown a DVD in Air Force One to even realize what the news coverage was on the disasters days later because they were afraid of disturbing him on his vacation like they did Bush, then tell me all things are equal.
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Primary and secondary liver malignancies are the most frequent cause of death in oncologic patients, the only potential curative treatment is surgical resection. In patients with colorectal liver metastases, only 10 to 30% are considered for a resection ([August *et al*, 1985](#bib1){ref-type="other"}; [Schlag *et al*, 1991](#bib21){ref-type="other"}); in patients with an isolated liver involvement, 20 to 40% ([Lorenz *et al*, 1997](#bib15){ref-type="other"}). If resection is not possible, then improved quality of life through maximal control of liver lesions must be the goal. Treatment options include systemic or regional chemotherapy, transarterial chemoembolization, percutaneous ethanol injections, laser-induced interstitial thermotherapy, cryotherapy and radio-frequency ablation.
As a palliative treatment with lower side effects regional chemotherapy seems to provide higher local drug concentrations, higher response rates, and less systemic toxicity compared to systemic application ([Collins, 1984](#bib5){ref-type="other"}; [Rougier *et al*, 1992](#bib20){ref-type="other"}; [Venook, 1997](#bib24){ref-type="other"}). Direct intratumoural percutaneous injections deliver even higher drug concentrations to selective sites, are minimally invasive, and effectively produce necrosis ([Curley *et al*, 1995](#bib6){ref-type="other"}). A novel injectable gel has been developed containing cisplatin as the chemotherapeutic and epinephrine as the vasoconstricting agent. This allows high drug concentrations to the treatment site and a slow dispersion to the surrounding tissues, thus reducing systemic exposure. In preclinical studies, conventional chemotherapeutic agents such as cisplatin, fluorouracil, or vinblastine administered intratumourally in the gel formulation enhanced drug retention and increased antitumoural efficacy ([Curley *et al*, 1995](#bib6){ref-type="other"}). Injectable gels have been used to treat various spontaneous tumours in veterinary patients and human malignancies such as basal and squamous cell carcinomas and accessible solid tumours of various histologic types ([Miller *et al*, 1997](#bib16){ref-type="other"}; [Burris *et al*, 1998](#bib2){ref-type="other"}). A recent french study showed development of therapy-induced necrosis after percutaneous intratumoural injections of mitoxantrone in primary and secondary liver malignancies ([Farrés *et al*, 1998](#bib8){ref-type="other"}).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
=====================
This study is part of a multicentre, open-label, phase II trial on the safety and efficacy of percutaneous intratumoural administration of Cisplatin/epinephrine (CDDP/epi) injectable gel in patients with hepatic metastases of colorectal cancer and patients with unresectable primary hepatocellular carcinoma. The investigational agent, CDDP/epi gel (IntraDose® Injectable Gel, Matrix Pharmaceutical, Inc., Fremont, CA, USA) is an injectable, biodegradable, viscous gel composed of cisplatin (CDDP, 4 mg ml^−1^); the vasoconstrictor, epinephrine (epi, 0.1 mg ml^−1^ to a maximum of 1 mg per injection); a protein carrier matrix (purified bovine collagen, 2 mg ml^−1^) as a gellant; and other inactive excipients as buffering and osmotic agents. The components are mixed within 2 h of use. The IntraDose® gel has a gelatinous consistency at room temperature and can flow through a 19.5-gauge needle for direct percutaneous injection in the liver tumour.
Patients
--------
Seventeen patients were included, nine patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and eight patients with unresectable colorectal liver metastases (CRLM). Seventeen CRLM in eight patients were treated with an average of 5.1 injections per patient (range 1--8) and in nine patients with HCC 13 lesions were treated with an average of 3.1 injections (range 1--4). The number of injections depended on parameters such as tumour size and general condition of the patient. The average patient age was 67.1 years (range 39--79 years), 13 patients were male, four female. All patients had previously undergone other oncologic treatments before entering the study. One patient with HCC had prior chemoembolization for seperate lesion, all patients with colorectal metastases had received systemic chemotherapy with 5-Fluorouracil and folinic acid and three patients had undergone liver resection. All patients had either progressive or recurrent disease after previous treatment.
The study is open to adult patients with up to three intrahepatic biopsy proven tumours (HCC or metastases of colorectal carcinoma) with no extrahepatic spread, Karnofsky Performance Status should be 40 or more and the laboratory results have to be within ranges defined by protocol. Coronary artery disease, history of gastro-oesophageal varices, encephalopathy or bleeding from liver tumours as well as known hypersensitivity to one of the ingredients of the gel or radiographic contrast agents were exclusion criteria. Patients signed a written informed consent proven by the local ethics committee.
Study design
------------
Prior to treatment patients had a complete history, physical examination, laboratory studies and helical contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) scans. Treatment consisted of up to 4 weekly percutaneous intratumoural administrations of IntraDose® gel with up to 10 ml gel (=40 mg Cisplatin) at each treatment session. A second cycle of four treatments could follow the first at the discretion of the investigator. Contrast-enhanced helical CT scans were performed at 2 weeks, 2 months and 6 months after each treatment cycle. After 6 months patients were followed at 3 month intervals by visits or telephone calls.
Injection technique
-------------------
Before each treatment, patients are hydrated with intravenous infusions of 500--1000 ml of saline, 0.9% sodium chloride solution. After a plain CT scan the intrahepatic administration of IntraDose® gel was performed under local anaesthesia. To allow a safe lesion localization and homogeneous distribution of the gel throughout the whole tumour volume, several localizations of the needle tip are required in most cases. For this a computer-generated guidance system (CARE® Vision CT, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany) which made nearly online visualization possible was used (see [Figure 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}Figure 1Visualization of the injection procedure in a hepatic metastasis (open arrows) shown in segment 5 using the CARE vision CT programme. Note the needle placed centrally in the tumour (arrow). ) ([Froelich *et al*, 1997](#bib9){ref-type="other"}). A 19.5-gauge stainless steel puncture needle with six side holes at the tip to support the distribution of the gel was utilized (SOMATEX®, Berlin, Germany). Blood pressure and heart rate were monitored during the treatment procedure. Afterwards the patient had 6 h bed rest.
Imaging procedures
------------------
Hepatic lesions were evaluated via unenhanced and contrast-enhanced CT studies performed with a helical CT scanner (SOMATOM Plus 4®, Siemens AG, Erlangen, Germany). Continuous 5-mm-slice acquisition was used. After the unenhanced CT images were obtained, 120 ml of a non-ionic contrast agent (Ultravist 370®, Schering AG, Berlin, Germany) was administered. The contrast-enhanced helical CT scans were obtained in three phases with the indicated volume, flow, and time delay parameters: arterial phase (volume, 120 ml; flow, 2.5 ml s^−1^; time delay, 20 s); portal venous phase (120 ml, 2.5 ml s^−1^, 70 s); and venous equilibrium phase (120 ml, 2.5 ml s^−1^, 300 s). Image reconstruction parameters included 5-mm slice thickness; 7.5 mm per second feed/rotation, and 5 mm increment.
Quantitative analysis
---------------------
Quantitative analyses were performed using the region-of-interest (ROI) technique to determine viable tumour volume and volume of tumour necrosis in the CT scans. The tumour/necrosis areas were marked manually on each CT slice at the CT console, then the volumes were calculated using also the slice thickness. This is one of the most accurate means to determine volumes in CT. Tissues enhanced with contrast media were assumed to be viable and unenhanced tissue nonviable or necrotic. Tumour size, viable tumour volume, and tumour necrosis were assessed before treatment, 2 weeks, 2 and 6 months after treatment then at 3-month intervals.
RESULTS
=======
Pretherapeutic initial volumetric CT imaging revealed a mean tumour volume per patient of 91.3 ml in colorectal metastases (range 2--125 ml, median 107 ml) and 31.4 ml in HCC (range 1--113 ml, median 16 ml). Measurements of pretherapeutic tumour necrosis in the contrast enhanced studies resulted in a mean value of 13.9 ml for the group of metastases and in 0.4 ml for the group of HCC, the measurements of viable tumour resulted in 77.4 ml for the metastases and 29.2 ml for HCC. After intratumoural drug application quantitative CT evaluation revealed an increase of necrosis in contrast to the initial studies in all patients. Mean necrotic volume 2 weeks after the final treatment resulted in a decrease in viable tumour revealed to be 68.3 ml for metastases (tumour/necrosis volume: 176.4/108.1 ml) and 14.5 ml for HCC (tumour/necrosis volume: 41.8/27.3 ml). However viable tumour at Month 2 control showed a progression again especially for the CRLM to mean 103 ml (tumour/necrosis volume: 219/116 ml) and for the HCC to 21.6 ml (tumour/necrosis volume: 42/ 20.4 ml) (see [Figure 2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}Figure 2Volumetric measurements of viable tumour volumes before treatment (screen) and 2 weeks and 2 months after last treatment. ). Statistical calculations using the Student *t*-test did show that the increase of necrosis after therapy for the HCC is statistically significant (*P*=0.001/0.003 after 2 weeks/2 months with a 95% confidence interval), the change of tumour volume is not significant (*P*=0.65). Although vital tumour in HCC decreased from 29.2 to 14.5 ml this change is not statistically significant (*P*=0.3). In the group of CRLM a significant increase in necrosis (*P*=0.001/0.002 after 2 week/2 months) but also in tumour volume (*P*=0.05) was found. Also as in HCC the decrease in vital tumour was not significant (*P*=0.44 after 2 months).
Evaluable for efficacy were seven patients with colorectal metastases and eight patients with HCC. One patient with colorectal metastasis withdrew from treatment after the first injection, in one patient with HCC and progressive liver cirrhosis treatment was discontinued after one injection due to worsening laboratory values.
The CT scans revealed a variety of tissue changes in the peripheral area of the tumour/necrosis. In colorectal metastases, the hypodense areas were larger in comparison to the initial tumour volume and showed an inhomogeneous contrast enhancement and poorly defined margins. The HCC nodules generally developed a more sharply defined necrosis and no contrast enhancement in the peripheral areas. If the follow up control scans did not show signs of remaining tumour activity, these changes were attributed to oedema and peritumoral reactions. In addition, remaining vessels with a relevant perfusion rate could be detected next to the treated region in the arterial phase of the CT scan.
The CT-Fluoroscopy supported an easy and safe performance of the injections. Complications due to intravascular or intrabiliary injections, significant bleeding or a pneumothorax were not observed. The modified treatment needle permitted adequate distribution of the gel within the tumour, although a better visualization of the gel would be desirable. Small tumours with a volume of a few ml could be reached without complications. For example, a HCC nodule of initially 3 ml showed complete necrosis after four injections without signs of tumour viability both in the 6 month follow-up CT scan and later studies. In the [Figures 3a--c](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}Figure 3(**a**) 69-year-old patient with histopathologically proven HCC in segment 5/8. Pretreatment CT scan on the left side, lesion identified with decreased attenuation values. CT scan 2 weeks after the fourth/last treatment with IntraDose® gel. Segment 5/8 reveals an irregular area of necrosis that developed after treatment (arrows). Both scans portal venous phase. (**b**) MRI scan (T2-weighted) 2 years after treatment, The lesion is still detectable but has not changed in size, the patient is in a good clinical condition. and [4a,b](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}Figure 4A 55-year-old patient with colorectal metastases to the liver. (**a**) Pretreatment CT scan in segment 8 (portal venous phase). (**b**) CT scan (portal venous phase) at 8 weeks after the pretreatment evaluation and 2 weeks after the fourth treatment. Increased tumour necrosis is evident after treatment. , examples of treated tumours are shown.
Clinical follow up
------------------
In the patients with liver metastases, CT-evaluation revealed local tumour control in only three patients with a total of four lesions (local tumour control rate 26%). In six patients (75%), new intrahepatic tumours were detected. Local tumour control was defined as complete inactivity of the treated lesions in the 3 and 6 month follow-up scans. Of the eight patients in the HCC group local tumour control rate was 70%. Three patients developed new HCC manifestations (43%). Two patients with worsening liver function and interrupted treatment were not included in the evaluation for local tumour control rate. At this time all eight patients with colorectal metastases and seven of the nine HCC patients died as a result of their disease. During the period for the determination of the control rates only one patient with HCC received another anti-tumour therapy (chemoembolization), no systemic chemotherapy was administered.
The survival rates were calculated with the Kaplan--Meier method. The overall cumulative survival for all 17 patients included was 13.15 months (median 10.17 months; mean 95% Confidence interval 9.25--17.06 months). The survival of the eight patients with CRM was 14.48 months of the nine patients with HCC, 14.11 months. This data can only show a tendency since the number of patients is very small.
Clinical effects: tolerance, side effects
-----------------------------------------
Overall the treatment procedure was well tolerated. During and immediately after injection the patients suffered from transient local pain (76%), an increase in blood pressure, and heart palpitations during injection (24%) and sweating or shoulder pain (each 30%). Nausea and vomiting were initially seen in 53%, but could be reduced with pretherapeutic infusion of cortisone (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) and ondansetron (Glaxo Wellcome, Bad Oldesloe, Germany). Clinical signs of cisplatin-induced toxicity like nephrotoxicity, peripheral neurotoxicity or ototoxicity did not occur. Laboratory results were obtained before every treatment and evaluation and did not show major toxicity (for toxicity see [Table 1](#tbl1){ref-type="table"}Table 1Toxicity criteria (NCCOG/NCI) (North Central Cooperative Oncology Group/National Cancer Institute, 1991) ). Transient elevation of alkaline phosphatase, transaminases and a slight decrease in haemoglobin and lymphocytes could be detected in some patients but never with therapeutic consequences. One patient with hepatitis induced Child-Pugh B classified liver cirrhosis (total bilirubin initially 3.4 mg dl^−1^) died due to liver failure (increasing bilirubin results 10 days after the first treatment). Another patient with Child-Pugh B classified liver cirrhosis (total bilirubin initially 4.1 mg dl^−1^) showed increasing bilirubin values resulting in termination of treatment. Therefore a connection between the worsening liver function and treatment must be considered. The death was assessed as a serious adverse event.
DISCUSSION
==========
In order to increase the therapeutic index of the drugs, regional treatments for primary and secondary liver tumours are in use. Regional drug infusion parameters, like the hepatic extraction and the regional blood flow, are influencing the pharmacokinetic properties. The collagen matrix gel mixed with cisplatin and epinephrine alters both these factors. It maintains the cisplatin at high concentrations in the treated tumour and so induces an increased cellular extraction of the drug. Further, it reduces the blood flow in the region of the tumour by three factors: the vasoconstriction caused by the epinephrine which is added to the collagen and the cisplatin, the compression of the tumour vessels by the increasing intratumoural pressure following injection and by occlusion of tumour vessels by collagen matrix gel infiltrating into tumour vascular spaces ([Davidson *et al*, 1995](#bib7){ref-type="other"}).
Preclinical studies indicated that via the local application of the IntraDose® gel 20 to 30 times and higher intratumoural cytostatic concentrations can be achieved compared to systemic application.
The antitumourous effect is thought to be due to the combination of substances as epinephrine gel alone did show rapid tumour recurrence in veterinary trials, and addition of epinephrine to the Cisplatin gel showed an improvement of the effect.
Additionally pretherapeutical hydratation of the patient is expected to further reduce systemic toxicity ([Hayes *et al*, 1977](#bib11){ref-type="other"}). [Curley *et al* (1995)](#bib6){ref-type="other"} are reporting on the induction of a significant tumour necrosis and reduction in tumour volume in lesions as large as 12 cm in diameter in human liver malignancies. No cisplatin-related toxicity was reported, the treatments were well tolerated with a transient pain at the injection site and in the liver from stretching the liver capsule ([Curley *et al*, 1995](#bib6){ref-type="other"}). These published data are offering the basis for our *in vivo* studies.
The effects of percutaneous intratumoural administration of Intradose® gel have to be compared with systemic chemotherapy and other local treatments such as local ethanol instillation, chemoembolization and arterial chemo perfusion as well as to no treatment.
The comparative analysis of our data shows that CT-guided intratumoural injection of CDDP/epi gel has induced a statistic significant increase in necrosis in both groups. However, the local effectiveness based on the rate of local recurrences was higher in patients with HCC *vs* the patients with metastases, in HCC local tumour control was 70% and in CRLM only 26%. The response in CRLM is comparable with these after systemic chemotherapy which mainly remains below 30% ([Kemeny *et al*, 1993](#bib12){ref-type="other"}). For the HCC our results are comparable to these after chemoembolization or hepatic arterial infusion, a response of 30--60% after TACE ([Takayasu *et al*, 1989](#bib23){ref-type="other"}; [GTCH 1995](#bib10){ref-type="other"}; [Colella *et al*, 1998](#bib4){ref-type="other"}) and 40--50% after HAI ([Carr, 1996](#bib3){ref-type="other"}; [Patt *et al*, 1997](#bib18){ref-type="other"}) is reported. Here complications due to hepatobiliary toxicity may occur, especially in cirrhotic patients when the liver function is reduced ([Ravoet *et al*, 1993](#bib19){ref-type="other"}; [Kemeny, 1995](#bib13){ref-type="other"}). However complete necrosis of 80--90% can be reached with percutaneous ethanol injection in small HCC ([Livraghi *et al*, 1999](#bib14){ref-type="other"}).
An efficient and innovative treatment for malignant liver tumours -- metastases and HCC -- in patients with unresectable lesions is MR-guided laser-induced thermotherapy (LITT). This minimally invasive, locoregional technique results in a reliable local tumour control rate of more than 95% in lesions ⩽40 mm in diameter ([Vogl *et al*, 1998](#bib25){ref-type="other"}). Similar to LITT percutaneous radiofrequency (RF) ablation is another ablative method used to induce thermal coagulation of tumour tissue. Both are competitive methods to surgical resection and should not be responded to in detail in this work.
The different results in both groups might be due on the one hand to the different morphology and growth pattern in the HCC nodules. These tumours are regularly encapsulated and have a lower degree of peritumoural spread; thus, the intratumoural pressure after injection may be higher in HCC and may result in a more homogeneous distribution of the drug. On the other hand the group of patients with CRLM had a more palliative character reflected in the high number of patients that developed new intrahepatic metastases.
The survival data has to be judged carefully since the number of patients is relatively low in our study. But an advantage in survival can be seen to emerge in contrast to no treatment, in the CRLM mean survival with 14.6 months is higher than the 7.5 months reported by [Stangl *et al* (1994)](#bib22){ref-type="other"} in a large German study on patients with CRLM receiving no treatment. The survival in HCC is approximately similar than with only palliative treament ([Okuda *et al*, 1985](#bib17){ref-type="other"}).
Further trials are continuing to assess the influence of IntraDose® gel on increased survival of patients with non-resectable liver cancers. A second objective is to establish the optimum tumour size criteria for treatable lesions. Also randomized and combined trials with systemic chemotherapy or chemoembolization are planned.
Conclusion
----------
In summary, direct intratumoural injection of CDDP/epi injectable gel is a feasible and well tolerated method without major toxicity and results in the development of a relevant necrosis in malignant liver tumours. For HCC, a higher local therapy control rate compared to colorectal metastases was seen.
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San Antonio Commanders attendance is amazing, the fans in Texas are not playing. They want football year round and they are making a case for it.
San Antonio Commanders are not playing around. The fans in San Antonio are loving the new football league Alliance of American Football.
While it is an amazing game going spit for spat, the San Antonio football fans showed up in a multitude. 29,176 fans were in attendance for their week 2 performance against the Orlando Apollos.
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Questions in this Quiz
A city map representing roads M, N, O, P, Q and R. Link roads cannot have the same color in the map. The roads link to each other are as under: Each M,N,P and Q has link to O. P has a link to Q. Each of M and N has a link to R.
Which of the following roads can be the same color as O on the Map?
A city map representing roads M, N, O, P, Q and R. Link roads cannot have the same color in the map. The roads link to each other are as under: Each M,N,P and Q has link to O. P has a link to Q. Each of M and N has a link to R.
Which of the following is a pair of roads that can be the same color?
A Government College sports president wishes to select four members of a sports-wing committee as special representatives to meet the requirements of college’s sport activities. The committee consists of eight members four of which (K, L, M and N) are sports teachers whereas the other four (P, Q, R and S) are students. The president can select any four of the eight committee members as long as the following rules are observed: The four representatives must consist of exactly two sports teachers and two students. Either K or L must be one of the representatives then M must also be a representative. If R is a representative then L cannot be a representative.
If R is a representative but M is not a representative then the whole group can be determined if it were also true that:
A Government College sports president wishes to select four members of a sports-wing committee as special representatives to meet the requirements of college’s sport activities. The committee consists of eight members four of which (K, L, M and N) are sports teachers whereas the other four (P, Q, R and S) are students. The president can select any four of the eight committee members as long as the following rules are observed: The four representatives must consist of exactly two sports teachers and two students. Either K or L must be one of the representatives then M must also be a representative. If R is a representative then L cannot be a representative.
If P is a representative then which of the following CANNOT be a representative?
A Government College sports president wishes to select four members of a sports-wing committee as special representatives to meet the requirements of college’s sport activities. The committee consists of eight members four of which (K, L, M and N) are sports teachers whereas the other four (P, Q, R and S) are students. The president can select any four of the eight committee members as long as the following rules are observed: The four representatives must consist of exactly two sports teachers and two students. Either K or L must be one of the representatives then M must also be a representative. If R is a representative then L cannot be a representative.
If L is a representative then which of the following can be the other three representatives?
A Government College sports president wishes to select four members of a sports-wing committee as special representatives to meet the requirements of college’s sport activities. The committee consists of eight members four of which (K, L, M and N) are sports teachers whereas the other four (P, Q, R and S) are students. The president can select any four of the eight committee members as long as the following rules are observed: The four representatives must consist of exactly two sports teachers and two students. Either K or L must be one of the representatives then M must also be a representative. If R is a representative then L cannot be a representative.
If neither Q nor S is a representative then which of the following is a pair of teachers representatives?
A Government College sports president wishes to select four members of a sports-wing committee as special representatives to meet the requirements of college’s sport activities. The committee consists of eight members four of which (K, L, M and N) are sports teachers whereas the other four (P, Q, R and S) are students. The president can select any four of the eight committee members as long as the following rules are observed: The four representatives must consist of exactly two sports teachers and two students. Either K or L must be one of the representatives then M must also be a representative. If R is a representative then L cannot be a representative.
If L, N and Q are representatives then which of the following must also be representative?
A Government College sports president wishes to select four members of a sports-wing committee as special representatives to meet the requirements of college’s sport activities. The committee consists of eight members four of which (K, L, M and N) are sports teachers whereas the other four (P, Q, R and S) are students. The president can select any four of the eight committee members as long as the following rules are observed: The four representatives must consist of exactly two sports teachers and two students. Either K or L must be one of the representatives then M must also be a representative. If R is a representative then L cannot be a representative.
If K and N are representatives then which of the following is not a representative?
Two statements, labeled (1) and (2), follow each of the following given questions. The statements contain certain information. In the question you do not actually have to compute an answer, rather than you have to decide whether the information given in the statements (1) and (2) is sufficient to find a correct answer by using basic mathematics and everyday fact?
What day of the week is today? 1. Today is December 25. 2. Amjad left Pakistan on Monday.
Two statements, labeled (1) and (2), follow each of the following given questions. The statements contain certain information. In the question you do not actually have to compute an answer, rather than you have to decide whether the information given in the statements (1) and (2) is sufficient to find a correct answer by using basic mathematics and everyday fact?
Can any of the four rivers be more than 200 meters wide? 1. The narrowest of the four rivers is 140 meters wide. 2. Average width of the four rivers is 200 meters.
Two statements, labeled (1) and (2), follow each of the following given questions. The statements contain certain information. In the question you do not actually have to compute an answer, rather than you have to decide whether the information given in the statements (1) and (2) is sufficient to find a correct answer by using basic mathematics and everyday fact?
If it is raining then there must be clouds. Are there clouds? 1. Today is Saturday. It is not raining. 2. It rained Friday.
There are seven cages next to each other in a zoo. The following is known about the cages. Each cage has only one animal, which his either a lion or a monkey. There is a lion in each of the first and last cages. The cage in the middle has a monkey. No two adjacent cages have monkeys in them. The monkey’s cage in the middle has two lion cages on either side. Each of the other monkey cages are between cages are between and next to two lion cages.
How many cages have lions in them?
There are seven cages next to each other in a zoo. The following is known about the cages. Each cage has only one animal, which his either a lion or a monkey. There is a lion in each of the first and last cages. The cage in the middle has a monkey. No two adjacent cages have monkeys in them. The monkey’s cage in the middle has two lion cages on either side. Each of the other monkey cages are between cages are between and next to two lion cages.
The monkey cage in the middle must have:
Seven children -- M, N, O, P, Q, X and Y are eligible to enter a drawing contest. From these seven, tow teams must be formed, a blue team and a yellow team, each team consisting of exactly three of the children. No child can be selected for more than one team. Team selection is subject to the following restrictions: If P is on the blue team, O must be selected for the yellow team. If M is on the blue team, Q, if selected must be on the yellow team. Q cannot be on the same team as X.N cannot be on the same team as O.
Which of the following can be the three members of the blue team?
Seven children -- M, N, O, P, Q, X and Y are eligible to enter a drawing contest. From these seven, tow teams must be formed, a blue team and a yellow team, each team consisting of exactly three of the children. No child can be selected for more than one team. Team selection is subject to the following restrictions: If P is on the blue team, O must be selected for the yellow team. If M is on the blue team, Q, if selected must be on the yellow team. Q cannot be on the same team as X.N cannot be on the same team as O.
If P and M are both on the blue team, the yellow team can consist of which of the following?
Seven children -- M, N, O, P, Q, X and Y are eligible to enter a drawing contest. From these seven, tow teams must be formed, a blue team and a yellow team, each team consisting of exactly three of the children. No child can be selected for more than one team. Team selection is subject to the following restrictions: If P is on the blue team, O must be selected for the yellow team. If M is on the blue team, Q, if selected must be on the yellow team. Q cannot be on the same team as X.N cannot be on the same team as O.
If P is on the blue team, which of the following if selected, must also been the blue team?
A carrier must deliver mail by making a stop at each of six buildings: S, T, U, V, W and X. Mail to be delivered are of two types, ordinary mail and priority mail. The delivery of both types of mail is subject to the following conditions: Regardless of the type of mail to be delivered, mail to W and mail to X must be delivered, mail to W and mail to X must be delivered before mail to U is delivered. Regardless of the type of mail to be delivered, mail to T and mail to S must be delivered before mail to X is delivered. Mail to buildings receiving some priority mail must be delivered, as far as the above conditions permit, before mail to buildings receiving only ordinary mail.
If S is the only building receiving priority mail, which of the following lists the buildings in an order, from first through sixth, in which they can receive their mail?
A carrier must deliver mail by making a stop at each of six buildings: S, T, U, V, W and X. Mail to be delivered are of two types, ordinary mail and priority mail. The delivery of both types of mail is subject to the following conditions: Regardless of the type of mail to be delivered, mail to W and mail to X must be delivered, mail to W and mail to X must be delivered before mail to U is delivered. Regardless of the type of mail to be delivered, mail to T and mail to S must be delivered before mail to X is delivered. Mail to buildings receiving some priority mail must be delivered, as far as the above conditions permit, before mail to buildings receiving only ordinary mail.
If T, U and X are each receiving priority mail, which of the following lists the buildings in an order, from first through sixth, in which they can receive mail?
A carrier must deliver mail by making a stop at each of six buildings: S, T, U, V, W and X. Mail to be delivered are of two types, ordinary mail and priority mail. The delivery of both types of mail is subject to the following conditions: Regardless of the type of mail to be delivered, mail to W and mail to X must be delivered, mail to W and mail to X must be delivered before mail to U is delivered. Regardless of the type of mail to be delivered, mail to T and mail to S must be delivered before mail to X is delivered. Mail to buildings receiving some priority mail must be delivered, as far as the above conditions permit, before mail to buildings receiving only ordinary mail.
If the sequence of buildings to which mail is delivered is V, W, T, S, X, U and if X is receiving priority mail, which of the following is a complete and accurate list of buildings that must also be receiving priority mail?
A carrier must deliver mail by making a stop at each of six buildings: S, T, U, V, W and X. Mail to be delivered are of two types, ordinary mail and priority mail. The delivery of both types of mail is subject to the following conditions: Regardless of the type of mail to be delivered, mail to W and mail to X must be delivered, mail to W and mail to X must be delivered before mail to U is delivered. Regardless of the type of mail to be delivered, mail to T and mail to S must be delivered before mail to X is delivered. Mail to buildings receiving some priority mail must be delivered, as far as the above conditions permit, before mail to buildings receiving only ordinary mail.
If only one building is to receive priority mail, and as a result, V can be no earlier than fourth in the order of buildings, which of the following must be the building receiving priority mail that day?
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Debra Bradley and Gary Gross did all the usual things all couples do.
They went to wine tastings together, watched plays, attended concerts and planned casual dinners with friends. But when their sunny world was dimmed by a tragic discovery last March, Bradley and Gross defied the odds and found the meaning of true love, which they believe gave them the strength to persevere.
In March 2016, Bradley got the shocking news that she was diagnosed with what experts call the most lethal form of cancer — stage-four pancreatic cancer — and that it had already spread to her liver.
"I couldn't have been more shocked, and like everybody that hears the cancer word, you're terrified at first. And then, when it's paired with pancreatic, you suddenly have this very bleak outlook," Bradley said.
“ You find out what real love is all about when your life is turned upside down and your Saturdays and Sundays consist of holding your wife's head out of the toilet”
The next day, the couple scheduled several appointments with oncologists, desperate to find an effective treatment. As the doctors handed Bradley the devastating news, she looked at Gross and said: "I don't think I can do this. I don't see how I can ever go through this. I can't do this alone."
But Gross had a surprising response: "You're never going to."
"I got down on one knee and said, 'Will you marry me?'" Gross said. "I don't know what I had in my hand — it wasn't a ring. It might have been a rubber band. I don't remember."
They couple had already talked about getting married at some point but decided not to wait.
After vowing to love each other in sickness and in health at their wedding, which was conducted by a justice of the peace, the couple made their way to the Emory Winship Cancer Institute.
Refusing to accept their bleak prognosis, the couple met with renowned oncologist Bassel El-Rayes.
El-Rayes proposed a recently developed treatment — an experimental trial to test a new drug called BBI-608. While regular chemotherapy treatments solely shrink a tumor, there was a possibility that the new drug could essentially thwart the cancer cells from multiplying.
Bradley is currently cancer free, and she said she owes her success to the man she calls her "knight in shining armor."
"I would have never been able to get through it if it had not been for him," Bradley said.
Although the initial diagnosis, combined with the experimental treatment, may have been a long, hard trek, Bradley said she believed she discovered the meaning of true love along the way.
"You find out what real love is all about when your life is turned upside down and your Saturdays and Sundays consist of holding your wife's head out of the toilet," she said. "When you no longer look like you did on the day that you met — you're always sick, you've lost 17 pounds, your clothes don't fit, and yet he still says you're beautiful."
The couple are looking forward to their trip to Paris, which Gross surprised Bradley with to celebrate their commitment.
On a Valentine's Day they weren't sure they'd get to spend together, the couple has a message: "Love gives you hope when things are their darkest. It gives you something to hold on to. It gives you something to look forward to."
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Q:
Cross-project ListBuckets when authenticating using service account HMAC keys
I am trying to access Google Cloud Storage using the AWS Java SDK. My particular scenario is that I would like to use a service account in a project "A" to list buckets in a project "B". The guide from Google doesn't cover this type of cross-project access with a service account.
I tried setting x-goog-project-id header explicitly:
// The access id and secret key below are for a service account in project "A".
BasicAWSCredentials googleCreds = new BasicAWSCredentials(
"my access id",
"my secret key");
AmazonS3 interopClient = AmazonS3ClientBuilder.standard()
.withEndpointConfiguration(
new AwsClientBuilder.EndpointConfiguration(
"https://storage.googleapis.com", "auto"))
.withCredentials(new AWSStaticCredentialsProvider(googleCreds))
.build();
ListBucketsRequest listBucketsReq = new ListBucketsRequest();
// The project id below is for project "B"
listBucketsReq.putCustomRequestHeader("x-goog-project-id", "my project id");
List<Bucket> buckets = interopClient.listBuckets(listBucketsReq);
System.out.println("Buckets:");
for (Bucket bucket : buckets) {
System.out.println(bucket.getName());
}
But I get the following error about duplicate header values:
Exception in thread "main" com.amazonaws.services.s3.model.AmazonS3Exception: Multiple HTTP header values where one was expected. (Service: Amazon S3; Status Code: 400; Error Code: ExcessHeaderValues; Request ID: null; S3 Extended Request ID: null), S3 Extended Request ID: null
Is there any way to get this scenario working?
A:
This recently changed. You can now pass in a header x-amz-project-id to specify a project for these operations, so your service account can "live" in one project but request bucket operations in any other.
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District AIDS Prevention and Control Unit
District AIDS Prevention and Control Unit (DAPCU) is a district level decentralized monitoring unit of National AIDS Control Organisation in India. They have been established in 189 high priority districts across the country as a step toward decentralization of the coordination and management of Government of India's National AIDS Control Programme, by working in close coordination with the district administration to take up district specific initiatives by leveraging local resources. DAPCUs have been trained and mentored to perform the challenging task of coordinating and monitoring of NACP activities.
References
Category:HIV/AIDS in India
Category:Health programmes in India
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Christian psychopathology: psychiatry and knowledge for the sake of salvation in the early years of Francoism.
After World War II came to an end, General Franco's regime attempted to step aside from the defeated fascist states by emphasizing its Catholic character. The change of image culminated in 1947 with the establishment of Spain as a Catholic State by means of the Law of Succession. This process generated the national catholic ideology, which became, during the first decades of the dictatorship, the hegemonic instrument for the transformation of Spanish society in an anti-modernizing way. Scientific activity was not excluded from these changes, and a Catholic science conveying universal values and in harmony with the faith was strongly encouraged. One example of this Catholic science was the psychiatric approach developed by Juan José López Ibor during the first Francoist period, including the concepts of anagogy, the perfection instinct, psychagogy and, above all, anxious thymopathy and life anguish. This paper analyses the Christian background of these notions, their scientific repercussions and their social utility for the dictatorship. This paper emphasizes the consideration of these key notions of Spanish psychiatry during the First Francoism as knowledge of salvation, i.e., as conveyors of assumed eternal values in accordance with the prevailing view of Catholicism. On the other hand, it points to the functioning of these concepts as a part of the regulatory network designed and deployed by Francoism to promote submission and resignation in the Spanish population.
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Q:
Is there a unicode character that looks like an ascii one (but isn't equal)?
I'm wanting to write an pre-interview question (for java, but that's not important) that has a different answer if you look at it vs if you copy-paste it and run it so that we can check if people actually do the problem manually.
To do this, I'm trying to find a unicode character that will look the same as an ascii character on-screen (so that at some point in my question I can have two methods with the same names but have Integer/int arguments)
I know it's potentially subversive, but I'm hoping it will give an extra metric to validate the other answers.
Note: I've tried the turkish 'i' - it seems to be ascii - is there a unicode version?
Edit/NB: Looks like my intentions were mis-understood... These questions are intended to be done manually, NOT by a compiler. If they're copying the text and compiling then they're bypassing the question, and this is intended to trip them up (or more simply give the wrong answer). The ones that do both will either figure it out, or come to the real interview with confusion that we can help them through.
Final Note: :( this doesn't look like it's really possible - most editors (on windows) will attempt to save in cp1252 (somehow my 1 file was saving as UTF-8) in which case I don't think there's any characters that will work without prompting some sort of save error
A:
You could do something with the same feeling but a slightly less obscure case:
System.out.println(100l);
System.out.println(1001);
Depending on the font used, these two statements can look very similar indeed. (If that's the case with the font you're using, the first number is 100L.)
A:
There are lots of possibilities - here are just a couple that I found with Windows Character Map. Be aware though that not all fonts will have these characters, so your candidate might not see what you intend.
ǃ U+01C3: Latin Letter Retroflex Click
Κ U+039A: Greek Capital Letter Kappa
‚ U+201A: Single Low-9 Quotation Mark
′ U+2032: Prime
A:
I have actually found something that will work in both UTF-8 and cp1252 encoding (so that it will pass most (all?) text editors): the non breaking space!
Registered at position 160 (00A0, 10100000) in cp1252 and apparently UTF-8 (wikipedia notes it in the range of "Second, third, or fourth byte of a multi-byte sequence"), it provides a character that will "just work"
Note: This has been tested to work on windows when copied out of a text file/skype into code editor. A Wordpress web page did not fare so well (but then it probably changed the character anyhow). Thankfully, our organisation did not pursue the "problems" pre-interview tactic, so I have not tested this definitively on a web page.
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China Population Density Maps
If you’re searching around for some good China population density maps, you’ve landed in the right place. I’ve curated a collection of the best maps I can find that give a visual representation of this massive China population.
Feel free to download these maps (right-click to save a larger version) and if this was helpful, please link back to China-Mike so others can find this easier as well!
A China population density map showing persons per square kilometer.
Whereas the above population density map of China shows a fluid representation of the density within the country, below you’ll find a map that breaks population density down by region/province in China.
China population density map by province.
Of course, population density in China is hard to visualize in the context of the rest of the world. That’s why I love this next map: it’s the population of each province in China depicted as a country with an equivalent total population!
Map of China’s population by province (represented by populations of other countries)
When it comes to population numbers, China and India beat out any other part or the world. So in the next China population density map, you can see how the populations of both countries compare and where their people tend to congregate.
Population density map: Asia, India and China
Finally, this next population density maps puts it all into perspective. How does China’s population density look within the context of the entire globe?
Map of world population density
China Population Density Maps
As you can see, a population density map of China tells an interesting story, not just from a micro level (within the country) but also on a more macro level (in contrast to the rest of the world.
China’s population has boomed over the past century, but what makes it so interesting is how the people of China have congregated in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and many others. Even “small” cities in China have millions of inhabitants!
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Q:
How to assign variables in a derived class based on values of variables in an object of the base class?
Recently at work I came across this code (this is a contrived example, but is fundamentally doing the same thing):
class A
{
public:
int foo;
};
class B: public A
{
public:
int bar;
};
int main()
{
A a;
a.foo = 1000;
B b;
A* a_ptr = &b;
*a_ptr = a;
}
Above, what is happening is that all member variables in a are being copied into the corresponding member variables in b, since B is derived from A and all objects of type B are guaranteed to have at least all of the same member variables as objects of type A.
In the actual code, A has enough variables that manually assigning each of them would not be ideal.
After struggling with it for a little bit, I was able to make sense of what the code was doing, but the fact that it took me more than a couple seconds seems like a red flag.
Is there another way to do what this code is doing that might be easier to understand, or more in line with C++ common practices? Is it common to see variables assigned in this way?
Edit: It has been suggested that my question is a possible duplicate, and that I am asking what object slicing is. This is not object slicing, as I am not at any point assigning an object of the derived type to an object of the base type. As such, no information is "sliced" or lost anywhere in the code.
A:
I would say using pointer operations like this to do the assignment is in fact uncommon in C++.
An alternate approach would be explicitly spelling out your intention with a cast. I'm not totally sure if it's more readable:
A a;
a.foo = 1000;
B b;
static_cast<A&>(b) = a;
Depending on your specific needs however you might be better served with a child constructor that takes a parent and constructs itself appropriately. That way you don't need to default construct the child and then assign the parent members as a second step.
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Q:
Print lines number 2, 4, 8, 16... using awk
I am trying to print every 2,4,8,16 and so on lines of a file with many rows and many columns.
This is what I tried:
awk 'BEGIN {N = 2}
{
{if (NR == N) {print; }}
N = N*2
}' infile > outfile
However, nothing is being written to the outfile.
What am I missing?
Here are the contents of a sample infile:
1 10
2 20
3 30
4 40
5 50
6 60
7 70
8 80
9 90
10 100
The expected output is
2 20
4 40
8 80
A file called outfile is created but with nothing in it.
A:
You're doubling your N for every record, but you only print something if N equals NR – which is never:
Line Value of N
1 2
2 4
3 8
...
To fix it, you have to move the doubling of N so it only happens when NR == N is true:
awk -v n=2 'NR == n { print; n *= 2 }'
I've moved assigning the initial value outside of the program, used a lowercase n because of personal preference, and cleaned up the inside of the program: if the condition NR == n is true, then print the record and double n.
Running on the sample input:
$ awk -v n=2 'NR==n {print; n *= 2}' infile
2 20
4 40
8 80
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John Pulman
Herbert John Pulman (12 December 1923 – 25 December 1998) was an English professional snooker player who dominated the game throughout the 1960s.
Career
Pulman won the 1946 English Amateur title and turned professional shortly afterwards. In 1947 he had his first appearance at the World Championship, losing 14-21 to Albert Brown in the first round of qualification. The next season, he won the qualifying section of the World Snooker Championship. In the 1948 Sunday Empire News Tournament he won the qualifying event and finished second in the main event behind Joe Davis. Pulman won a total of £400; £150 for the qualifying and £250 for finishing second.
He first reached the final of the World Professional Match-play Championship in 1955, losing to Fred Davis. Davis beat him again in the 1956 final, but Davis did not enter in 1957 and Pulman won the title, after which the event was discontinued. In 1964 the World Championship was resumed on a challenge basis. Pulman won the championship and successfully defended it in all further title challenges, the last being in 1968 when he beat the Australian Eddie Charlton. In 1969 the World Championship became a knockout tournament (which is generally regarded as the birth of the modern snooker era) and Pulman failed to successfully defend his title. He reached the final in 1970 but lost to Ray Reardon. Pulman reached the semi-finals of the World Championship when it was first held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 1977, narrowly losing to the eventual winner John Spencer by 18 frames to 16.
After a poor run of results, Pulman was adjudged bankrupt on 7 February 1979 with debts of £5,916. By this time he was recently divorced, suffering from severe motivational problems and living in a hotel in Bromley.
Pulman retired from professional play in 1981, by which time he had joined the BBC as a commentator. A short time later he joined ITV, where he commentated alongside Dennis Taylor, Mark Wildman, Ray Edmonds and Jim Meadowcroft. He remained the lead commentator until the sport was dropped by the channel in 1992. Pulman died on Christmas Day 1998 after falling downstairs at home.
Performance and rankings timeline
Post-war
Modern era
Career finals
Non-ranking finals: 20 (11 titles, 9 runners-up)
{|
| valign=top width=40% align=left |
Notes
References
Sources
Category:English snooker players
Category:Snooker writers and broadcasters
Category:1923 births
Category:1998 deaths
Category:Winners of the professional snooker world championship
Category:World Snooker Hall of Fame inductees
Category:Accidental deaths in England
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2011-12 Finished 25th at the Bryant Invitational with
a time of 16:06.20 …
High School A four-year letterwinner in cross country and track
… Served as team captain for the cross country team in 2009
and 2010 and the track team in 2011 … Was a five-time
all-conference honoree … Also earned North Carolina
Independent Schools Athletic Association all-state accolades
… Four-time state record holder for the 4x800-meter relay
… School record holder for the 3,200, 1,600 relay, 800 relay
and distance medley relay … Has twice earned championships
in the Triangle Independent School Athletic Conference and the
NCISAA … Named cross country team MVP three times in his
tenure.
Personal
Served as a member of the 2008 North Carolina state champion
chess team … His twin brother Carl will also run for the
Harvard track and field team … He and Carl both tutored
another set of twins as a part of a local tutoring program from
2008-11.
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The Regular/Persistent Free Radicals and Associated Reaction Mechanism for the Degradation of 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene over Different MnO2 Polymorphs.
The role of regular/persistent free radicals on the catalytic activity of K+-tuned MnO2 tunnel structures is poorly understood to date. Herein, three MnO2 polymorphs (α-, β-, and δ-MnO2) were synthesized and examined toward the degradation of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene (1,2,4-TrCBz) at 300 °C. δ-MnO2, with a two-dimensional-layered tunnel structure tuned by K+, exhibited the highest activity among the three MnO2 polymorphs. The electron spin resonance spectroscopy results confirmed that δ-MnO2 featured the most abundant reactive oxygen species (ROS: O2-•, •OH, and 1O2), followed by α-MnO2 (O2-• and 1O2), and β-MnO2 (O2-•), being supported by the calculated energy barrier. It was, intriguingly, noted that persistent organic free radicals, newly recognized as emerging surface-stabilized compound, were remarkably detected in α- and β-MnO2/1,2,4-TrCBz systems but not in more reactive δ-MnO2/1,2,4-TrCBz system. These might contribute to discrepant oxidative degradation process. During the oxidative process, intermediates, including benzoic acid and glycerol, formed via attack by ROS. Upon further attack, these intermediates fragmented into smaller molecules such as formic, acetic, propionic, and butyric acids. The present findings give deeper insights into the role of free radicals on the catalytic degradation of chlorinated aromatics.
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CalChrome Show Chrome
Inner Barrel Polishing (show car chrome)
Show car chrome, is it for you? Below are examples of wheels with special show car prep work performed to the inside barrel. This additional processing is generally reserved for show cars. For daily drivers we do not reccomend inner barrel polishing because of the additional maintenance required in cleaning the inner barrel.
Front View of Wheels
Here is an example showing two wheels side by side, both made by the same manufacturer, both made from the same material, and both made using the same manufacturing process. Both have been chrome plated by California Chrome Wheel Inc. and are ready for mounting.
Top View of Wheels
As you can see in these pictures, the face, windows, lips and outer barrel of both wheels have been expertly prepped and polished prior to chrome plating. As a result, the chrome is of a show room quality lustre second to none.
Rear View of Wheels
Upon closer inspection it is apparent that the wheel on the left has had special prep work done on the inner barrel of the wheel.
Unpolished Inner Barrel
This image shows the inner barrel of a standard chrome plated wheel. While the entire surface has in fact been chrome plated, it does not have the mirror like reflectivity that chrome is known for. This is because the inner barrel is very rarely prepped and polished since obviously it is not as visible as the face of the wheel.
Polished Inner Barrel
This image shows the chrome wheel where the inner barrel has been specially prepped and polished. Note how the inner barrel of this wheel is just as reflective as the face or lips of the wheel. Due to the extra labor involved in this kind of polishing, it is usually reserved for show vehicles, only available through special order, and at increased cost. Call For Pricing 661-294-0170.
Rear of Hub And Spoke
Note that while the inner barrel is fully polished, the rear side of the hub and spokes are not specially prepped.
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Q:
How to create a general compare method in c# to compare between a student and a teacher
I have hierarchy person,student and teacher.
person is the base class,and student and teacher are the derive classes.
Teacher have salary and Student have Marks. I want to implement a general compare method whether I send the Student or teacher object.
The compare method compare it and return true if t1.salaray is greater than t2.salary and the same method should compare s1.marks > s2.marks if so return true.
my code is:
namespace ConsoleApplication5
{
public class person
{
String name;
int cnic;
public String Name
{
get
{
return name;
}
set
{
name = value;
}
}
public int Cnic
{
get
{
return cnic;
}
set
{
cnic = value;
}
}
public void Marks
{
}
}
}
class student : person
{
String rollno;
double marks;
public String Rollno
{
get
{
return rollno;
}
set
{
rollno = value;
}
}
public double Marks
{
get
{
return marks;
}
set
{
marks = value;
}
}
}
}
class Teacher : person
{
int salary;
public int Salary
{
get
{
return salary;
}
set
{
salary = value;
}
}
}
}
**Main class is:**
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
student o1 = new student();
o1.Marks = 78.0;
o1.Name = "Abuzar";
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Student: 1");
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + o1.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Marks:" + o1.Marks);
Console.WriteLine("Roll No:" + o1.Rollno);
student o2 = new student();
o2.Marks = 78.0;
o2.Name = "Abuzar";
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Student: 2");
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + o2.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Marks:" + o2.Marks);
Console.WriteLine("Roll No:" + o2.Rollno);
student o3 = new student();
o3.Marks = 80.5;
o3.Name = "Liaqat";
o3.Rollno = "FA14-BSE-123";
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Student: 3");
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + o3.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Marks:" + o3.Marks);
Console.WriteLine("Roll No:" + o3.Rollno);
student o4 = new student();
o4.Marks = 74;
o4.Name = "Mohsin";
o4.Rollno = "FA14-BSE-123";
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Student: 4");
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + o4.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Marks:" + o4.Marks);
Console.WriteLine("Roll No:" + o4.Rollno);
student o5 = new student();
o5.Marks = 45.0;
o5.Name = "Asad";
o5.Rollno = "FA14-BSE-201";
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Student: 5");
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + o5.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Marks:" + o5.Marks);
Console.WriteLine("Roll No:" + o5.Rollno);
Teacher t1 = new Teacher();
t1.Name = "Asad Rafiq";
t1.Salary = 2500;
t1.Cnic = 17301 - 2568 - 89;
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Teacher: 1");
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + t1.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Cnic:" + t1.Cnic);
Console.WriteLine("Salary:" + t1.Salary);
Teacher t2 = new Teacher();
t2.Name = "Sara irum";
t2.Salary = 30000;
t2.Cnic = 17301 - 2512 - 80;
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Teacher: 2");
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + t2.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Cnic:" + t2.Cnic);
Console.WriteLine("Salary:" + t2.Salary);
Teacher t3 = new Teacher();
t3.Name = "Sanam Ali";
t3.Salary = 2500;
t3.Cnic = 17301 - 2568 - 89;
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Teacher: 3");
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + t3.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Cnic:" + t3.Cnic);
Console.WriteLine("Salary:" + t3.Salary);
Teacher t4 = new Teacher();
t4.Name = "Abbas khalid";
t4.Salary = 80000;
t4.Cnic = 17301 - 2568 - 89;
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Teacher: 4");
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + t4.Name);
Console.WriteLine("Cnic:" + t4.Cnic);
Console.WriteLine("Salary:" + t4.Salary);
Teacher t5 = new Teacher();
t5.Name = "Sana Malik";
t5.Salary = 90000;
t5.Cnic = 17301 - 2168 - 89;
Boolean b = o1.Compar(o2);
}
}
}
A:
try this on person class
public override bool Equals(object obj)
{
if (this.marks == ((student)obj).marks)
return true;
else
return false;
}
and do for Teacher class too.
public override bool Equals(object obj)
{
if (this.salary == ((Teacher)obj).salary)
return true;
else
return false;
}
then compare.
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Term Limits May Be Placed on the Ballot : City council: A former lawmaker spearheads the drive for a two-term limit. Registrar of voters is checking petitions to see if the initiative will qualify.
DOWNEY — A Downey lawyer and former city councilman wants to limit terms on the council.
Joseph E. Di Loreto is seeking an amendment to the city charter that would restrict council members to two four-year terms.
"People now become professional career politicians," said Di Loreto, who served on the council from 1972-76 and was defeated in his bid for a second term. "I've always believed that if you can't accomplish what you want to accomplish in eight years, you don't belong there. You're just wasting your time."
Last month Di Loreto submitted petitions to the city clerk bearing 8,756 signatures. The county registrar of voters has until the end of July to determine whether the petitions have at least 6,023 valid signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot, City Clerk Judith E. McDonnell said.
If the registrar determines that there are enough valid signatures, the City Council would have until Aug. 6 to schedule an election, which would cost the city about $50,000, she said.
If voters approve the measure, Downey would join the cities of Los Angeles, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Long Beach and Cerritos in limiting the number of terms for council members.
Di Loreto, who said he is the chairman and sole member of Term Limits for Downey, has spent about $12,500 to advertise, print and circulate the petition. He said he has no hard feelings against any particular council member and has not opposed any of the council's recent decisions.
He launched the petition drive in April, a year after former Councilwoman Barbara Hayden failed in her attempt to place a similar measure before voters.
Four people have served more than two terms in Downey's 37-year history, including one of the principal opponents to the limits, Councilwoman Diane P. Boggs.
Boggs was elected to her third council term last year. Although she plans to retire when her term ends in 1996, Boggs said she should be not be prevented by law from running.
Boggs said she objects to Di Loreto's characterization that council members have made a career out of serving the city.
Three members of the council, Barbara J. Riley, Gary P. McCaughan and Joyce L. Lawrence, have served less than two years.
Mayor Robert S. Brazelton has served for three years. He said he has not decided whether he will run again when his term expires in June, 1994.
The part-time council members get monthly stipends of $365 and do not receive large financial contributions, Boggs said.
Voters have been able to replace council members without limiting terms, Boggs added. "They have the option of voting us out," she said.
The only incumbent who advocates term limits is Riley. Other cities have voted in term limits because voters want more control in choosing their representatives, Riley said.
"People have felt once a candidate gets in, it's hard to get them out," she said.
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NBC/WSJ/Marist poll: Romney gains in key swing states
A week after President Barack Obama’s lackluster debate performance, Republican challenger Mitt Romney has made some gains in three key swing states among those most likely to vote, according to the latest round of NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls.
Romney and Obama remain in a virtual tie in Virginia and Florida, and the Democratic incumbent maintains a slight advantage in Ohio.
Romney saw his largest gain in Virginia, where he now edges the president 48 percent to 47 percent, a 3-point reversal from last week’s poll, released the day of the first presidential debate. The spread is within the poll’s margin of error.
In Ohio, where there has been a renewed focus by the Romney campaign after the former Massachusetts governor’s strong debate performance, Obama leads 51 percent to 45 percent. That’s a 2-point uptick for Romney.
But the Ohio poll also included an 11-point advantage for self-described Democrats --- 40 percent to 29 percent for Republicans. Last week’s poll had a narrower 5-point advantage for Democrats. . (In 2008, the party identification split was 39 percent Democrat and 31 percent Republican, according to exit polls.)
One factor that may have pulled the party ID more heavily toward Democrats in this poll was early voting. One-in-five respondents (18 percent) said they have already voted, and, of those, almost two-thirds (63 percent) said they voted for Obama.
The ideological makeup in this poll was 22 percent liberal, 32 percent moderate, 46 percent conservative, which is actually less moderate and more conservative than four years ago when it was 20 percent liberal, 45 percent moderate, and just 35 percent conservative, according to the exit poll.
When early voters are taken out of the equation, Obama’s lead shrinks to 48 percent vs. Romney's 46 percent.
"Perhaps the poll is picking up the Obama absentee push,” said Barbara Carvalho, director of the Marist poll.
“By way of methodology, last week there was no question about absentee voting in the Ohio survey. It had not yet started. … Those who said they voted absentee in the past week, since absentee voting started in Ohio, are overwhelmingly Democratic and they voted for the president by a wide margin. This can account for a difference in party identification among likely voters because last week they would have been ‘likely voters’ and this week because absentee voting had started, they are ‘definite voters.’”
There are signs that Romney’s debate performance had an impact with the narrow slice of persuadable voters.
In all three states, the overwhelming majority of voters said they made up their minds before the debate -- 92 percent in Florida and Ohio, and 91 percent in Virginia. Just 7 percent in Virginia, 6 percent in Florida, and 5 percent in Ohio said they decided after the debate. But in all three states, Romney won them.
Romney also made significant gains with independents in Virginia and Ohio. In Virginia, Romney jumped 7 points with the group -- from a 45 percent to 44 percent statistical tie to a 50 percent to 42 percent lead.
In Ohio, he got an even wider 12-point boost. He was down 47 percent to 43 percent with them. But now, Romney is up 49 percent to 41 percent. In Florida, there was little change.
Romney also improved his image post-debate in all three states, but he’s still viewed more negatively than positively in Ohio.
Romney’s favorable score has jumped to 49 percent in Florida and Virginia, up from 46 percent in Florida and 45 percent in Virginia. In fact, before the debate in Virginia, Romney was viewed more negatively than positively. Now, that’s reversed.
Neither score is as good as the president’s, who continues to enjoy favorable ratings above 50 percent in all three states.
Obama’s approval rating also held steady -- 48 percent in both Florida and Virginia and 47 percent in Ohio.
Obama continues to be bolstered by women. There’s a 13-point gender gap in Florida, and 12-point gaps in Ohio and Virginia.
In the key Senate races, Democrats lead, but the race in Virginia has narrowed back to a tie.
Many observers believe as goes the presidential race in Virginia, so goes the competitive Senate race. And that very well may be the case, as Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican George Allen are once again deadlocked.
Kaine holds the narrowest of advantages, 47 percent to 46 percent. Last week, Kaine led by 5 points, 49 percent to 44 percent.
In Florida, incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson continues to hold a sizable lead over Republican Rep. Connie Mack, 52 percent to 39 percent, about where it was last week.
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British International School Lagos
British International School Lagos (BIS) www.bisnigeria.org is a British international school in Oniru Private Estate in Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. Opening in 2001 the school provides a British curriculum to day and boarding students aged 11–18. A broad rang of IGCSE and A Level courses are available for study.
The pupil body comprises girls and boys from Nigerian and expatriate families. Classes are small and there is a comprehensive co-curricular programme available after school each day.
The campus is a large one with the teaching buildings surrounded by playing fields within which can be found a swimming pool along with tennis and basketball courts.
The teaching staff comprise both expatriate and locally qualified teachers. The current Principal is Stewart King who joined the school having previously been Deputy Head at Windermere School, UK.
The School received an excellent inspection report from COBIS in the summer of 2018.
History
Founded in 2001 the School's aim is to produce students who will, collectively, contribute to "a greater tomorrow", instilling in their students academic rigour, integrity and social conscience.
The school has continued to develop throughout its history. In recent years new teaching blocks and sports facilities have been added. In 2018 additional science rooms were introduced to support the growth of the Sixth Form and in 2019 the building of the primary section commenced.
Significant investment has also taken place in the 5 school boarding houses.
Curriculum
BIS follows the British National Curriculum. This curriculum has been adapted, where appropriate, to ensure that it is tailored to meet the needs of an International School located in West Africa. Yoruba is taught to younger students and subject staff ensure that opportunities are provided to expand students' appreciation of the history, culture, geography and economy within which the school is placed.
Facilities
The campus includes a multi-purpose hall; a swimming pool; a theatre; and suites for computers, music, and tutorials. Encomium Weekly described the school as being "the most modern in Lagos". In recent years the campus has been further adapted to allow students with limited mobility to participate fully in the life of the school. Due to the sheer size of its playing fields, the school grounds are often used to host inter-school sporting events.
Pupil Success
The school has a history of excellent examination results. In 2019 pupils achieved a 93% pass rate at IGCSE and a 93% pass rate at A Level. Many students progress to Sixth Forms in the UK, USA and Canada with BIS Sixth Formers gaining places in highly selective universities in Canada and the UK.
Each year the school awards the "Dux Litterarum" cup to the most academically gifted scholar.
Students at BIS have a track record of sporting success. In recent years they have been regional contact and tag rugby champions in multiple age and gender
References
External links
British International School Lagos
Category:British international schools in Nigeria
Category:International schools in Lagos
Category:Educational institutions established in 2001
Category:2001 establishments in Nigeria
Category:Boarding schools in Nigeria
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Finance Act 2017 – An Overview
“The Finance Act has come into force w.e.f. 1 st April, 2017 while providing some relief to lower income groups by way of lower tax slabs. The Act has introduced stringent amendments in taxation laws. Continuing on its endeavour for a transparent system the government has also made AADHAR mandatory for tax filing from 1 st July, 2017 and mandatory disclosure of cash transactions for the demonetization period. Various other amendments has been taken up in the Finance Act, 2017 which shall keep an overall track of the taxation provisioning for all types of assessees.” ...
“MCA has notified the provisions governing valuation by registered valuers [section 247 of the Companies Act, 2013 (the Act)] and the Companies (Registered Valuers and Valuation) Rules, 2017 (the Rules), both to come into effect from 18 October, 2017. In addition, the MCA has specified the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) as the responsible authority.
The notified Rules lays down the criteria for individuals, partnership entities and companies to be eligible to be registered as valuers under the Act. Apart from this, the Rules contain other aspects pertaining to registered valu ...
Draft ICDS on Real Estate Transactions – An Analysis
Post introduction of RERA, the government has published the draft Income Computation and Disclosure Standards (ICDS) on Real Estate Transactions to streamline accounting standards in Real Estate. ICDS are a set of accounting policies and standards used for computing taxable income and not for maintaining books of accounts The main highlights of the draft ICDS –
• Defining how revenue and costs are to be recognized;
• Defining components of project costs for computation of taxes;
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"They carried banners demanding an increase in
available jobs," Woeser wrote, adding that the
protesters did not march in a group, but
assembled individually in front of the government offices.
In an interview, a Tibetan closely associated
with the school said that school officials then spoke with the group.
"However, they did not agree to increase the
quota of available jobs from 60 this year for
graduates of the school. Their only concession
was that graduates would be allowed to take the
examination intended for graduates of the modern medicine school."
"This is also unfair, since the Tibetan students
were trained in traditional medicine and would
find the examination difficult to pass," he said.
Reached for comment, an official of the Institute
of Tibetan Traditional Medicine would not say
whether any of the protesting students had been detained.
The situation "has not been resolved," she said.
Language difficulties
National board examinations requiring proficiency
in the Chinese language present further
difficulties for Tibetan students, according to the source in Tibet.
"If they are tested only on the vocational skills
they have learned, Tibetan students perform
well. But [many of] these candidates are
eliminated when they have to take the national
examination in Chinese," he said.
Most of the students at the Institute of Tibetan
Traditional Medicine come from western and
central Tibetan areas such as Nagchu, Lhoka,
Shigatse, and Lhasa, the source continued.
"Tibetan students who did well in Tibetan
language by the time they graduated from middle
school and high school prefer to enroll in the
TAR Institute of Tibetan Traditional
Medicine. There are hardly any Chinese students studying in this institution."
Tibetan students coming from Yunnan have to study
Tibetan for a full year to catch up with the other students, though, he said.
In most prefectures, Tibetan traditional medicine
is offered by only two or three doctors working
in small clinics inside larger medical facilities, he added.
Only 60 out of 256 graduates of the Institute of
Tibetan Traditional Medicine were hired this
year, he said, with this reversing a brief surge
of hirings last year when a Chinese official
toured remote areas of Tibet and identified an
"urgent need" for additional practitioners.
The source pointed to the difficulties of
organizing protests like the one of Sept. 2.
"Many Tibetan students who have texted [by cell
phone] among themselves have been detained," he said.
"It is hard to learn the details, but many have disappeared."
Original reporting by RFAs Tibetan service.
Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.
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Today I had to explain the concept of male privilege and it was profoundly disappointing.
I was talking to a person who, along with being a male programmer, is one of my best friends and someone I trust.
His confusion stemmed from two fundamental issues. First, he didn’t believe he’d witnessed sexism in tech, or anywhere else. Second, he felt the word “privilege” shouldn’t be used to describe basic rights that everyone should have.
We both learned something important. He learned that male privilege is 100% a thing. I learned how demoralizing it can be when people we consider “ours”, don’t see a problem that we struggle with so fundamentally.
I’m used to defending my experiences (especially working in tech) to the world. I’m used to having my feelings and thoughts go unvalidated. I can rationalize that because those people don’t know who I truly am. They have no obligation to see the world from my point of view. But when it comes to someone who I believe cares about me, I expect more. The dismissal of my point of view hurts.
In my friend’s defence, he was eager to hear my thoughts. The issue wasn’t rooted in any kind of overt sexism but in naiveté. In some ways, that’s worse. This is a problem that can’t be solved without the support of the men who currently hold the power. If they don’t believe there’s an issue because it’s not tangible in their world, we’re left shouting into the desert: no one around to hear us, no one around to speak for us when we don’t have a seat at the table.
Maisie Williams recently stated, “I think we should stop calling feminists ‘feminists’ and just start calling people who aren’t feminist ‘sexist’ — and then everyone else is just a human. You are either a normal person, or a sexist.”
In an ideal world, she’s absolutely correct. However, there’s a less than ideal world out there where people are so blinded by their privilege that they don’t believe they have any.
That’s a problem. Societal norms are incredibly difficult to change, especially when they’re directed at children (here’s looking at you, Barbie). Societal change requires buy-in from those who have the power, not just the people being discriminated against.
If the people who hold the power now, even the truly good people, don’t see that there’s a problem, how will it ever be solved? This isn’t a rhetorical question. I don’t have an answer, but I’m convinced that ignorance is part of the issue. I would love to hear your thoughts! Please respond to this post and share them.
The Brock Turner case highlights white, male, and class privilege in a way that all the words I write never could. If you haven’t caught up yet, I highly recommend reading the incredibly powerful victim’s statement, and the statements from Brock’s father, and Brock.
Although Brock Turner has been found guilty of three felonies, and without a doubt sexually assaulted this young woman, he hasn’t apologized for anything more than “binge drinking” and succumbing to “sexual promiscuity” and “party culture”. My reaction to this is pure rage at the injustice of it all.
Although his sentence could have been 14 years, Brock has been sentenced to just 6 months in county prison. It’s suspected he’ll serve no more than 3 months with good behaviour. That, combined with his insistence that all he’s guilty of is drinking too much and his father’s statement that says he might never be able to enjoy a good steak again, is an absolute insult to every woman in the world.
So, you’re right, my dear friend. Having people automatically confer authority and respect on you because of your gender shouldn’t be a privilege. Every one of us should automatically be respected. But we aren’t and until we all are, the fact that you are treated that way is, in fact, your privilege.
As a child, seeing representations in the media of who you could be, should be the norm. But it isn’t. And until it is, that’s your privilege.
Being seen as confident instead of bossy when you’re asserting your opinion should be the norm. But it isn’t. That’s your privilege.
Being able to have one too many drinks with your friends at a party, and not have someone be able to make a legal argument that any reasonable person would have expected to have sex that night, shouldn’t be a privilege. But that’s our reality. Until it isn’t, the fact that you can exist without fear of being not only raped, but re-victimized in court where someone asks you intimate details about your personal relationships (as if that has anything to do with the man who literally dragged you behind a dumpster), is your privilege.
You asked me today how I would fix it. I don’t have a grand plan, but I know that education is a start. I will start with you.
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We need your opinion once again. The internet thinks that this dog has a human face. Eric Zane is the only person on the planet that disagrees. Joe and Zane debated off the air today, with Joe saying "It's a f**king man dog!". What do you think?
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Immunogenetic markers and immune response in patients with recurrent oral ulceration.
20 patients, aged 20 to 72 years (mean 36.5 years), 14 with recurrent (RAS) and 6 with recurrent cicatrizing (RCAS) aphthous stomatitis were studied. 3 patients (15%) had the HLA locus A11 antigen, whose frequency in the Finnish population is 8%. 5 patients (25%) had B12, which occurs in 15% of the normal population. Results of routine serological tests were normal. All had normal serum levels of IgG, IgM, IgA and complements C3 and C4. 4 patients, 2 with RAS and 2 with RCAS, had raised serum IgE. Precipitating antibodies against milk protein were detected in 2 patients and against gluten in 1. In 4 patients, tests for immediate allergy were positive. 5 patients had antibodies to double-stranded DNA. Delayed hypersensitivity reactions were normal, and the PHA stimulation of lymphocytes elicited normal T-cell responses in all patients except one with RCAS. In this patient, there was a striking parallelism between an increase in PHA-reactive lymphocytes and clinical improvement. The serum of this patient contained a binder for 125I-labelled PHA, a binder not consistently detected in the other patients with ROU. Lymphocyte dysfunction may play a rôle in ROU. Of the 16 biopsy specimens of aphthous tissue studied by direct immunofluorescence for IgG, IgM, IgA, fibrinogen and C3, 15 specimens contained deposits of C3 in and along mucosal vessels, whereas among the 15 controls only 1 specimen of erosive lichen planus showed deposits of C3 along capillary walls. Immune complexes precipitating in capillary walls appear to be a common feature of ROU.
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Milling Machine Hydraulic Driven Track Mobile Plant Wharf ...
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Hydraulic-driven Track Mobile Plant Features,Technical ...
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Hydraulic-driven track mobile plant
Hydraulic-driven track mobile plant are mostly use for crushing and screening in many areas, such as road construction, bridge construction, building, mining, metallurgical and energy industries, etc. Commonly materials like granite, marble, basalt, iron ore, copper ore, coal, slag and others are easily to be crushed by the crushing plant.
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Shanghai Shibang Machinery hydraulic driven track mobile crusher is based on many years of experience in the development and production of mobile crushing station, in order to meet the higher users' needs and absorbs foreign advanced technology mobile crushing to develop fully hydraulic driven track mobile .
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You are here
This Baby's First Ride" class focuses on infant car seats for newborns. Parents, grandparents, and other cargivers are encouraged to attend. We recommend attending this class during the 6-7 months of pregnancy, but welcome during any month of pregnancy. Paricpants are encouraged to bring their car seat if they have already bought one, however it is not necessary. Call 701-234-5570 for an appointment.
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Yengo National Park
The Yengo National Park is a protected national park that is located in the Lower Hunter region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The park is situated northwest of the Sydney central business district, south of , north of , and southwest of .
The Yengo National Park is one of the eight protected areas that, in 2000, was inscribed to form part of the UNESCO World Heritagelisted Greater Blue Mountains Area. The Yengo National Park is the most northeasterly of the eight protected areas within the World Heritage Site. The national park forms part of the Great Dividing Range.
Features
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) opened their depot in Bucketty in 1993 and commenced managing the newly established Yengo National Park. A helipad, known as 'Bucketty International' was established and in 1995 a fire tower was built, following severe fires in the area. In 1999 the NPWS acquired parts of the Crown land that lay between Bucketty and the Yengo National Park. This new area also included the Convict Wall and the amphitheatre used by the community.
The Bucketty community asked NPWS to recognise their custodianship of the place and in early 2000, the community, together with the NPWS, developed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly manage the site.
Access to Yengo National Park is via Yengo Creek Road off the Great North Road, near . The park is bounded in the east by the small settlements of Bucketty and ; in the north by Wollombi Brook; in the west by the Putty Road, the settlements of and , and the Mellong Range; and in the south by the Parr State Conservation Area, the settlement of , Webbs Creek, Mogo Creek, the Hawkesbury River, and the Dharug National Park.
The course of the Macdonald River flows from the northwest of the national park towards the southeast, where it reaches its confluence with the Hawkesbury River.
See also
Protected areas of New South Wales
References
External links
Category:National parks of the Hunter Region
Category:Protected areas established in 1988
Category:1988 establishments in Australia
Category:Hunter Region
Category:Great Dividing Range
Category:Blue Mountains (New South Wales)
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Credential production devices process credential substrates to form credentials, such as, for example, identification cards, driver's licenses, passports, and other valuable documents. The credential substrates that are used to form such credentials include, for example, paper substrates, plastic substrates, semi-rigid or rigid plastic cards, and other materials. Exemplary processes performed on the credential substrates by credential production devices to produce the credential include printing an image on the substrate, writing data to the substrate, applying an overlaminate material to the substrate and other processes.
Credential laminators are generally configured to apply an overlaminate material to one or more surfaces of credential substrates to protect the surfaces from abrasion and environmental conditions. The lamination operation performed by credential laminators utilizes a laminating roller to apply heat and pressure to the overlaminate material that overlays the surface of the substrate and bonds the overlaminate material to the surface.
One type of overlaminate material is in the form of an overlaminate patch that can be attached to a carrier to form an overlaminate ribbon. The patch includes a layer of adhesive on a protective material, such as polyester. The protective layer is attached to the carrier such that the adhesive layer is exposed for lamination to the surface of a credential substrate.
Some credential laminators must align such an overlaminate patch to the substrate prior to performing the lamination operation. Once aligned, the laminating roller can perform the lamination operation to bond the patch to the surface of the substrate.
It is desirable to have the overlaminate patch precisely conform to the surface of the credential substrate in order to provide full edge-to-edge protection to the surface. However, due to inaccuracies in the laminating process, the patch must be made slightly smaller than the surface of the substrate in order to ensure that the patch does not extend beyond the substrate's edges. Accordingly, precision during the laminating process is extremely important because it ultimately determines the size of the patch that can be laminated to the surface of the substrate and, thus, the area of the surface that can be protected.
There is a continuous demand for improved lamination accuracy in credential laminators to facilitate the lamination of overlaminate material over more surface area of credential substrates.
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The left on college campuses has targeted white students for the phantom crime of cultural appropriation. They claim that Caucasians have no culture, and everything is racist because it has been stolen from a former European colony.
Besides the fact that this is blatantly untrue, it also has normalized hatred among campus bodies. People are accused of cultural appropriation based upon the way they take pictures of their food, what jewelry they wear, and how they do their hair.
A Hampshire College student named Carmen Figueroa went to court on Friday facing charges that she assaulted a member of the Central Maine Community College women's basketball team for wearing braids in her hair. Figueroa asked the player before the attack to change her hairstyle because it was a symbol of cultural appropriation.
According to court documents obtained by the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Figueroa initiated the fight as the other girl was trying to leave the building. Another Hampshire student pulled the girl's braids, causing her to fall to the ground.
Once on the ground, Figueroa started to kick and step on the player.
"Another Maine player attempted to protect her fallen teammate, but Figueroa 'grabbed her by the head and threw her to the ground,'" court documents continued.
As a coach tried to break up the fight, Figueroa screamed anti-white slurs and attempted to punch the Maine student a few more times. Figueroa pleaded not guilty in court.
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Thousands of impoverished Gazans received $100 payments from Qatar on Saturday, the AFP news agency reported, after the Gulf state brought in over nine million dollars in aid funds for the Palestinian territory.
Hundreds of people queued at post offices in the Gaza Strip to each collect a $100 bill.
Palestinian media earlier quoted the Qatari ambassador to Gaza as saying the money would go to Gaza's poor.
"The Qatari grant for needy families will enter Gaza Saturday and be distributed ... to 94,000 families," Mohammed al-Emadi was quoted as saying.
Half the funds would be distributed Saturday and the rest Sunday, he said, with each family receiving $100.
Emadi was not immediately available to confirm the arrangement.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that families in Gaza would receive $400 in total, paid in four monthly instalments.
Qatar had pledged to send $15 million to Gaza monthly as part of an informal agreement between Israel and Gaza's Islamist governing party, Hamas, reached in November.
Under that deal, Israel allowed the grants to go through its territory in exchange for relative calm on the Gaza border.
Most of the funds were to have been used to pay the salaries of Hamas civil servants but around five million dollars monthly was for impoverished Gazans.
The status of the funds has been a major dispute this week as Hamas refused to accept them, saying Israel was seeking to change the deal.
Qatar announced Friday that they would now use the finance for humanitarian projects in coordination with the United Nations.
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Q:
Drawing 2 marbles from a box with 3 red, 3 purple, 5 green, and 7 blue marbles.
A box contains 3 red, 3 purple, 5 green, and 7 blue marbles. 2 marbles are selected from the box without replacement. What is the probability that you choose both marbles to be red or both marbles to be purple.
So far, I have figured out (I think):
$$\text{ Probability of both red }= \frac{3}{\binom{18}{2}} = \frac{3}{(\frac{18!}{2!16!})} = \frac{3}{153}$$
Is this correct?
A:
You are correct. Another way to compute it:
Let $A_i$ be the event in which the $i$-th ball you grab is red. For the first ball you choose, you have $3$ red marbles out of a total of $18$. Therefore,
$$P(A_1) = \frac{3}{18}.$$
For the second marble you grab, given that you already took a red one, that is, given $A_1$, you have $2$ red balls out of a total of $17$, then
$$P(A_2 \mid A_1) = \frac{2}{17}.$$
Finally,
$$P(A_1 \cap A_2) = P(A_1)P(A_2 \mid A_1) = \frac{3}{18}\frac{2}{17} = \frac{1}{51}.$$
You can use the same reasoning to compute for the purple ones and then add those probabilities.
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One of the most common knee surgeries currently being performed is the anterior cruciate ligament transplant. In this operation the anterior cruciate ligament is replaced by a graft from the patient's patellar tendon. The graft includes bone plugs at both ends of the tendon which are typically removed from the patient's own patella and tibia using a hammer and chisel and perhaps also a standard reciprocating saw. The bone plugs of the resultant graft must then be trimmed to an approximate circular cross section of typically either 9 millimeters or 10 millimeters in diameter for insertion into drilled out femoral and tibial tunnels.
Since the chiseled bone plugs are approximately triangular or rectangular in cross section and the desired plugs are to be circular, obviously more bone must be removed from the patient than if the means were available to cut a circular cross section plug from the donor site to begin with. Also the bone trimming process can be tedious and inexact and also quite costly since the patient must remain under anesthesia and the remainder of the operating team must stand by as one person trims the bone plugs. More time is lost if the bone plugs must be re trimmed after the initial attempt at insertion into the transplant site. Clearly a substantial improvement to this operation could be realized if a tool were available to initially cut properly sized circular cross section plugs from the donor sites.
Attempts have been made to use a conventional hole saw for cutting the plugs, but the results have not been satisfactory. A conventional hole saw cannot easily cut out a plug which must be parallel to and congruent with the surface of the bone because of the presence of the hole saw shaft. The proper entry angle could only be achieved if the bone portion opposite to the direction of the cut were first removed. This is an unsatisfactory solution since the patient is also the donor and it becomes therefore quite important to conserve intact as much of the donor's bone as possible. What is needed is a shaftless hole saw, which is the object of this invention.
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if i saw a terrorist i would beat the shit out of him until he dies because terrorist are so goddamn jealous and little bitches that say 'death to america' all the time.
if they stoped worring about how america is doing and shit, and start working on ther country, there country might be worth living in instead of a fucking shit hell hole that they call a country.
i fucking hate terrorists, all they think about is how to kill america damn it!
if america doesn't take care of this problem, who will?................. no one
good point, but i disagree with the last statement...if they want to be a fucked of retarded fucks, let em do it....i don think its America's job to be the 'World Police' or whatever...we should keep our nose in buisness thats our own....if it gets to the point where america gets in everybody's shit, like were doing now, well...anybody seen or read '1984' or 'V for Vendetta'?
welcome to the future.....
__________________ The redskins pocket is like my love life.....nonexistent and disappointing. -OnceWeWereKings
maybe. but a big part of 9/11 was the physical and global economic symbolism of the World Trade Center. the other sites were obviously govt. targets.
the european attacks were on the transportation systems that would cripple the capitals of those countries. i think they're a bit more ambitious than just killing innocents like in malls and stuff. it wouldn't net them much global support.
Their goal is to terrorize, thus the term terrorists. They want to force Americans to alter their daily routines, in a sense take away our freedom, to the point that we don't feel free to do what we want. Like go to a football game or ride the subway without the fear of getting blown up.
I was honestly concerned about the Super Bowl this past year because it was in a dome. If they can somehow find a way to literally bring the roof down there would be a lot more casualties than if they just bombed part of an open stadium.
I really hate that I can sit here and realistically think something like this could happen. I want to go back to being a little kid who doesn't know any better.
I was honestly concerned about the Super Bowl this past year because it was in a dome. If they can somehow find a way to literally bring the roof down there would be a lot more casualties than if they just bombed part of an open stadium. I really hate that I can sit here and realistically think something like this could happen. I want to go back to being a little kid who doesn't know any better.
dont we all wish that! i wish i could go back to that age so it wouldnt hurt as much when the 'Skins get shit stomped by losing teams....
__________________ The redskins pocket is like my love life.....nonexistent and disappointing. -OnceWeWereKings
Their goal is to terrorize, thus the term terrorists. They want to force Americans to alter their daily routines, in a sense take away our freedom, to the point that we don't feel free to do what we want. Like go to a football game or ride the subway without the fear of getting blown up.
sometimes i feel thats what the politicians and media want. to scare us so we vote for and pay attention to them.
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Pic from Eyetalian astronauts twitter feed cause US just sent her an espresso machine which works in zero gravity. Try that, Keurig!
Then of course, NASA had to continue in typical geek fashion: ""It will also provide data on the passive movement of complex fluids as part of the Capillary Beverage investigation. The results will confirm and direct math models that help engineers exploit capillary fluid physics (capillary fluidics) to control how liquids move by designing containers specific to the task at hand."
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