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Sonoma County coronavirus patient dies at Sutter Hospital in Santa Rosa
Questions or concerns can be directed to the county’s 24-hour information hotline at 211 or 800-325-9604. You can also text "COVID19" to 211211 for coronavirus information.
• Washing hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds • Avoid touching your eyes and face • Cough or sneeze into your sleeved elbow • Stay home when ill • Get a flu shot, and it’s not too late this season
Local health officials urge practicing good hygiene to reduce the risk of becoming infected with a respiratory virus, such as the flu or coronavirus. This includes:
A Sonoma County resident died Friday after contracting the coronavirus and being hospitalized for serious illness, marking the first known death in the county from the fast-moving disease that has led California Gov. Gavin Newsom to ask all Californians to stay home.
Interim Public health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase said she received the news of a death “with great sadness,” the same day the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus among Sonoma County residents doubled to 22. A source with Sutter Santa Rosa confirmed the person died Friday afternoon.
The increase in confirmed cases foretells a rapid escalation of the virus’s spread in the community, just one month after the first person with coronavirus was hospitalized in this county in late February.
“We need to be prepared for a worsening situation here over the next week,” said Mase, noting that “every case infects another three, so the more cases we have the more cases we get, so this is exactly what we expected.”
Mase declined to say anything about the person who died, including the person’s age or information about how long the person had been sick. The patient’s family has been notified, she said.
Mase said she will not provide any details about the demographics of people contracting COVID-19 until the number of local cases reaches roughly 50, a decision she made based on a sense that a larger group of patients would make it harder to identify anyone.
The rise in positive coronavirus test results indicates that the virus is spreading within the community, said Susan Gorin, chairwoman of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, noting that this didn’t come as a surprise to her. She emphasized her belief that the county had sufficient testing capacity for the expected rise in caseload: “We will be on top of this in terms of test kits that we need.”
“I am deeply sorry for the family of the person who died from coronavirus,” Gorin said. “None of us would wish that on a family member.”
Gorin said she had not spoken to the victim’s family, noting that supervisors were observing standards of confidentiality: “We don’t know who the victims are, or who the patients are, or what facilities they’re being housed at.”
One of the county’s top priorities is getting more space and medical beds outside of hospitals in the event the number of people needing to be hospitalized with coronavirus exceeds the capacity of its three main hospitals, said Chris Godley, director of the county’s emergency services department.
They are working to find at least two properties where they can establish makeshift hospitals staffed by a combination of volunteers with the Medical Reserve Corps, retired doctors, nursing students and others. Godley said he believed they could have the sites running within two weeks, if needed. These extra sites would in part be for people with minor conditions to open up space within hospitals, he said. He said they are examining “several dozen” sites with the goal of choosing two.
Godley said he had no information about when the county might need such added facilities because the limited data from testing doesn’t show the full scope of the virus’s prevalence here, but that he believes the county is “ahead of the curve on this one, quite literally.”
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Low-level light therapy improves cortical metabolic capacity and memory retention.
Cerebral hypometabolism characterizes mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Low-level light therapy (LLLT) enhances the metabolic capacity of neurons in culture through photostimulation of cytochrome oxidase, the mitochondrial enzyme that catalyzes oxygen consumption in cellular respiration. Growing evidence supports that neuronal metabolic enhancement by LLLT positively impacts neuronal function in vitro and in vivo. Based on its effects on energy metabolism, it is proposed that LLLT will also affect the cerebral cortex in vivo and modulate higher-order cognitive functions such as memory. In vivo effects of LLLT on brain and behavior are poorly characterized. We tested the hypothesis that in vivo LLLT facilitates cortical oxygenation and metabolic energy capacity and thereby improves memory retention. Specifically, we tested this hypothesis in rats using fear extinction memory, a form of memory modulated by prefrontal cortex activation. Effects of LLLT on brain metabolism were determined through measurement of prefrontal cortex oxygen concentration with fluorescent quenching oximetry and by quantitative cytochrome oxidase histochemistry. Experiment 1 verified that LLLT increased the rate of oxygen consumption in the prefrontal cortex in vivo. Experiment 2 showed that LLLT-treated rats had an enhanced extinction memory as compared to controls. Experiment 3 showed that LLLT reduced fear renewal and prevented the reemergence of extinguished conditioned fear responses. Experiment 4 showed that LLLT induced hormetic dose-response effects on the metabolic capacity of the prefrontal cortex. These data suggest that LLLT can enhance cortical metabolic capacity and retention of extinction memories, and implicate LLLT as a novel intervention to improve memory.
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Facebook reportedly shopping for a cybersecurity company
Facebook wants its billions of users to know it cares about beefing up security in the wake of a major security breach, and now it appears the social media giant is ready to spend some money on a major cybersecurity acquisition to make it happen.
Facebook has approached several security companies about a possible acquisition, The Information reported Sunday, citing sources described as familiar with the matter. Possible takeover targets weren't identified, but the tech news outlet said a deal could be announced as soon as the end of the year.
Facebook's push to reinforce its security comes less than a month after what the company calls the biggest security breach in its history. The social network originally suspected as many as 50 million user accounts were affected but now believes it compromised the personal information for 29 million users, including phone numbers, email addresses and recent searches.
Facebook has tentatively concluded that spammers masquerading as a digital marketing company were behind the massive security breach, and not hackers working for a nation-state, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Facebook has said it's working with the FBI, which asked it not to discuss who might be behind the attack or whether they were targeting anyone in particular. But it's also said there's no reason to believe the breach was related to the upcoming US midterm elections.
The breach stemmed from a vulnerability in Facebook's "view as" feature, which lets people see what their profiles look like to other people. Attackers exploited code associated with the feature that allowed them to steal "access tokens" that could be used to take over people's accounts. The attackers also used a technique that let them steal access tokens from the friends of the accounts they already controlled, expanding their reach.
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---
abstract: 'We study the density of complex critical points of a real random $SO(m+1)$ polynomial in $m$ variables. In a previous paper [@bmzeros], the author used the Poincaré-Lelong formula to show that the density of complex zeros of a system of these real random polynomials rapidly approaches the density of complex zeros of a system of the corresponding complex random polynomials, the $SU(m+1)$ polynomials. In this paper, we use the Kac-Rice formula to prove an analogous result: the density of complex critical points of one of these real random polynomials rapidly approaches the density of complex critical points of the corresponding complex random polynomial. In one variable, we give an exact formula and a scaling limit formula for the density of critical points of the real random $SO(2)$ polynomial as well as for the density of critical points of the corresponding complex random $SU(2)$ polynomial.'
author:
- Brian Macdonald
bibliography:
- 'generalbib.bib'
title: 'Density of Complex Critical Points of a Real Random $SO(m+1)$ Polynomial'
---
[^1]
Introduction
============
The density of real (resp. complex) zeros of random polynomials in one and several variables with real (resp. complex) Gaussian coefficients has been studied by many. See, for example, [@kac], [@rice], [@bbl92], [@bbl96], [@hannay], and [@ek]. In one variable, Shepp and Vanderbei [@sv95], Ibragimov and Zeitouni [@zeitouni], and Prosen [@prosen] have studied *complex* zeros of *real* polynomials. Prosen followed Hannay’s approach and found both an unscaled and a scaled density formula for the complex zeros of a random polynomial with independent real Gaussian coefficients. One consequence of Prosen’s unscaled density formula is that, away from the real line, the density of complex zeros of a random $SO(2)$ polynomial, which is the polynomial given by $$f_N(z) = \sum_{j=0}^N a_j {N \choose j}^{\frac{1}{2}} z^j,$$ where $a_j$ is a *real* standard Gaussian random variable, rapidly approaches the density of complex zeros of a random $SU(2)$ polynomial, which is the polynomial given by $$f_N(z) = \sum_{j=0}^N c_j {N \choose j}^{\frac{1}{2}} z^j,$$ where $c_j$ is a *complex* standard Gaussian random variable), as the degree of the polynomial goes to infinity. In [@bmzeros], the author used the Poincaré-Lelong formula to show this convergence, recovering Prosen’s single variable result [@prosen] for the $SO(2)$ polynomials, and also showed the convergence to be exponential. In Theorem 1 in [@bmzeros], the author generalized this result to the density of zeros of a random $SO(m+1)$ polynomial system in $m$ variables (defined below). Figure \[zeros1\] illustrates this convergence in the case $m=1$. Note that the density functions are normalized so that the density in the complex coefficients case is the constant function 1. In this paper, we use a generalized Kac-Rice formula for systems of real polynomials to prove an analogous result for the density of critical points of a random $SO(m+1)$ polynomial in $m$ variables. This convergence can also been seen in Figure \[zeros1\].
Density of zeros
----------------
Consider $\mathbf{h} _{m,N}=(f_{1,N}, ...\, , f _{m,N}):\mathbb{C}^m \rightarrow \mathbb{C}^m $, where $f _{q,N}$ is a polynomial of the form $$\begin{aligned}
f_{q,N}(\mathbf{z}) = \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c_J^q {N\choose J} ^{1/2} \mathbf{z}^J,
\end{aligned}$$ where the $c^q_J$’s are independent complex random variables, where the random vector $\mathbf{c} = \{c^q_J\}\in \mathbb{C}^{D_N}, D_N = {N+m \choose m}$, has associated measure $d\gamma$, and where we are using standard multi-index notation. Let $$\begin{aligned}
\label{measures}
d\gamma_{cx} &=
\frac{1}{\pi^{N}}e^{-|\mathbf{c}|^2} d\mathbf{c}, \\
\notag d\gamma_{real} &= \delta_{\mathbb{R}^{D_N}} \frac{1}{(2\pi)^{N/2}}e^{-|\mathbf{c}|^2/2} d\mathbf{c},
\end{aligned}$$ where $ \mathbf{c} \in \mathbb{C}^{D_N},$ and $\delta_{\mathbb{R}^{D_N}}$ is the delta measure on ${\mathbb{R}^{D_N}} \subset \mathbb{C}^{D_N}.$ Here $d\gamma_{cx}$ corresponds to the standard complex Gaussian coefficients case, where we are considering the random $SU(m+1)$ polynomial $$\begin{aligned}
\label{fzeros}
f_{q,N}(\mathbf{z}) = \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c^q_J {N\choose J} ^{1/2} \mathbf{z}^J,
\end{aligned}$$ where the $c^q_J$’s are standard complex Gaussian random variables, and $d\gamma_{real}$ corresponds to the standard real Gaussian coefficients case, where we are considering the random $SO(m+1)$ polynomial $$f^{}_{q,N}(\mathbf{z}) = \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c^q_J {N\choose J} ^{1/2} \mathbf{z}^J = \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} a^q_J {N\choose J} ^{1/2} \mathbf{z}^J,$$ where $c^q_J = a^q_J +i0$ is a standard real Gaussian random variable.
Let $E_\gamma(\cdot)$ denote the expectation with respect to $\gamma$; or, in other words, integration over ${\mathbb{C}}^{D_N}$ with respect to the probability measure $d\gamma.$ Let $${\displaystyle}Z_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} = \sum_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})=0} \kern -1em \delta_\mathbf{z}\,\,$$ denote the distribution corresponding to the zeros of $\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z}).$ Here, $\delta_\mathbf{z}$ is the Dirac delta function at $\mathbf{z}$, so $Z_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})}$ is a collection of deltas located at the zeros of $\mathbf{h}$. $E_\gamma(Z_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})})$ denotes the density of the zeros of $\mathbf{h}$ with respect to the measure $d\gamma.$ We now restate the result in [@bmzeros] on the density of zeros:
\[thm1\] $$\begin{aligned}
{\displaystyle}E_{\gamma_{real}}(Z_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} ) &= E_{\gamma_{cx}}(Z_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} ) +O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}),
\end{aligned}$$ for all $\mathbf{z} \in \mathbb{C}^m \backslash \mathbb{R}^m,$ where $\lambda_\mathbf{z}$ is a positive constant that depends continuously on $\mathbf{z}$. The explicit formula for $\lambda_\mathbf{z}$ is $$\begin{aligned}
\label{lambdazeros}
\lambda_\mathbf{z} = - \log\Big|\frac{1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \mathbf{z}}{1+||\mathbf{z}||^2}\Big|.
\end{aligned}$$ Also, for compact sets $K \subset \mathbb{C}^m\backslash\mathbb{R}^m$, the density converges uniformly with an error term of $O(e^{-\lambda_K N})$, where $\lambda_K$ is a constant that depends only on $K$.
Note that for $\mathbf{z} \in \mathbb{C}^m \backslash \mathbb{R}^m,$ the argument of the $\log$ is less than 1, and $\lambda_\mathbf{z}$ is positive. The formula for $E_{\gamma_{cx}}(Z_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} )$ is a special case of a result in [@ek], and is a very simple function: $$\begin{aligned}
E_{\gamma_{cx}}(Z_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} ) = \frac{mN^m}{\pi^m}\frac{1}{(1+||\mathbf{z}||^2)^{m+1}}.
\end{aligned}$$ The formula for $E_{\gamma_{real}}(Z_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} ) $ is very complicated, but, by this theorem, we know that $E_{\gamma_{real}}(Z_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} ) $ equals a very simple function, $E_{\gamma_{cx}}(Z_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} )$, plus some exponentially small term.
![(Left) The density of complex zeros of a random $SO(2)$ polynomial for $N=10,25,100$. Because of symmetries, it is sufficient to plot the density along the imaginary axis for $0<y\leq 1.$ Here we have normalized so that the density of zeros of a random $SU(2)$ polynomial is the constant function 1. (Right) The density of complex critical points of a random $SO(2)$ polynomial for $N=10,25,100$, plotted along the imaginary axis for $0< y\leq 1.$ Again, we have normalized so that the density of critical points of a random $SU(2)$ polynomial is the constant function 1. In both cases, the density is converging to 1.[]{data-label="zeros1"}](zerosinonevariable "fig:"){width="40.00000%"} ![(Left) The density of complex zeros of a random $SO(2)$ polynomial for $N=10,25,100$. Because of symmetries, it is sufficient to plot the density along the imaginary axis for $0<y\leq 1.$ Here we have normalized so that the density of zeros of a random $SU(2)$ polynomial is the constant function 1. (Right) The density of complex critical points of a random $SO(2)$ polynomial for $N=10,25,100$, plotted along the imaginary axis for $0< y\leq 1.$ Again, we have normalized so that the density of critical points of a random $SU(2)$ polynomial is the constant function 1. In both cases, the density is converging to 1.[]{data-label="zeros1"}](criticalpoints-N10-25-100 "fig:"){width=".4\textwidth"}
Shiffman and Zelditch [@SZdist] and Bleher, Shiffman, and Zelditch ([@bszpl], and [@bszuniv]) have generalized many results about random polynomials on $\mathbb{C}^m$ and $\mathbb{R}^m$ to real and complex manifolds. In particular, in [@bszpl], the authors use the Poincaré-Lelong formula to find a formula for the density of zeros and correlations between zeros. In [@bmzeros], we used this same approach to prove Theorem \[thm1\].
Density of Critical Points
--------------------------
In [@dszcrit], Douglas, Shiffman, and Zelditch study the critical points of a holomorphic section of a line bundle over a complex manifold, motivated by applications in string theory. They use a generalized Kac-Rice formula to find statistics of these complex critical points, namely the density of critical points and correlations between critical points. In this paper, we study complex critical points of a random polynomial with *real* coefficients and generalize the result in Theorem \[thm1\] of [@bmzeros] to the density of critical points of a random $SO(m+1)$ polynomial. More precisely, let $$\begin{aligned}
\label{complexpoly}
\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z}) = \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c_J {N\choose J} ^{1/2} \mathbf{z}^J, \quad \mathbf{z} \in \mathbb{C}^m,
\end{aligned}$$ where the $c_J$’s are independent complex random variables, where the random vector $\{c_J\}\in \mathbb{C}^{D_N}, D_N = {N+m \choose m}$, has associated measure $d\gamma$, and where we are using standard multi-index notation. Let $d\gamma_{cx}$ and $d\gamma_{real}$ be as defined in (\[measures\]), and let $$C_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} = \sum_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}'(\mathbf{z})=0} \delta_\mathbf{z}$$ be the critical points of $\mathbf{h}$. We prove the following:
\[thmcrit\]
We have $$\begin{aligned}
{\displaystyle}E_{\gamma_{real}}(C_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} ) &= E_{\gamma_{cx}}(C_{\mathbf{h}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z})} ) +O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}),
\end{aligned}$$ for all $\mathbf{z} \in \mathbb{C}^m \backslash \mathbb{R}^m,$ where $\lambda_\mathbf{z}$ is a positive constant depending continuously on $\mathbf{z}$. The explicit formula for $\lambda_\mathbf{z}$ is $$\begin{aligned}
\label{lambdacrit}
\lambda_\mathbf{z} = - \log\Big|\frac{1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \mathbf{z}}{1+||\mathbf{z}||^2}\Big|.
\end{aligned}$$ Also, on compact sets $K \subset \mathbb{C}^m\backslash\mathbb{R}^m$, the convergence is uniform with an error term of $O(e^{-\lambda_K N})$, where $\lambda_K$ is a constant that depends only on $K$.
In other words, at any point away from $\mathbb{R}^m$, the expected density of critical points in the real coefficients case rapidly approaches the expected density of critical points in the complex coefficients case as $N$ gets large. Note that $\lambda_\mathbf{z}$ in (\[lambdacrit\]) and (\[lambdazeros\]) are the same.
Finding the density of critical points of $\mathbf{h}$ is equivalent to finding the density of simultaneous zeros of the $m$ partial derivatives of $\mathbf{h}$, or in other words, the density of zeros of $(f_1, \ldots, f_m): {\mathbb{C}}^m \rightarrow {\mathbb{C}}^m,$ where $$\begin{aligned}
\label{fcrit}
f_{q,N}(\mathbf{z}) = \frac{\partial h}{\partial z_q} = \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c_J {N\choose J} ^{1/2} \frac{\partial}{\partial z_q}\mathbf{z}^J
\end{aligned}$$ Comparing (\[fcrit\]) with (\[fzeros\]), it seems at first glance that the critical points case in Theorem \[thmcrit\] is very similar to the zeros case in Theorem \[thm1\]. However, it is more difficult than that case since the $m$ partial derivatives are not independent random functions. The coefficients in (\[fcrit\]) are the same for all $q$, while the coefficients in (\[fzeros\]) are different for all $q$ (and independent). This fact makes the Poincaré-Lelong method used in [@bszpl] and [@bmzeros] more difficult to apply when $m\geq 2$. We instead use a generalized Kac-Rice formula for real systems similar to that used in [@dszcrit]. If $m=1$, ${h}$ is a polynomial in one variable and has just one partial derivative, so there is no problem with dependent partial derivatives and we can follow the Poincaré-Lelong method in [@bmzeros].
An exact formula in one variable
--------------------------------
In one variable, both $ E_{\gamma_{real}}(C_{{h}_{m,N}({z})} )$ and $E_{\gamma_{cx}}(C_{{h}_{m,N}({z})} )$ are simple enough to write down. We consider the polynomial $${\displaystyle}{h}_N({z}) = \sum_{\ell=0}^{N} c_\ell {N\choose \ell} ^{1/2} {z}^\ell,$$ where $z\in{\mathbb{C}}$, where the $c_j$’s are independent complex random variables, and where the complex random vector $(c_\ell) \in {\mathbb{C}}^N$ has associated measure $d\gamma$. Let $d\gamma_{real}$ and $d\gamma_{cx}$ be as defined in , with $m=1$. The critical points of ${h}$ correspond to the zeros of $$f_N(z) = \frac{\partial h}{\partial z} = \sum_{\ell=0}^{N} c_\ell {N\choose \ell} ^{1/2} \frac{\partial}{\partial z} z^\ell.$$ Using the Poincaré-Lelong formula, we can show that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{complexcrit1}
E_{\gamma_{cx}}(C_{f_N}(z)) &= \frac{N}{\pi}\left(\frac{1}{(1+|z|^2)^2}- \frac{2}{N(1+|z|^2)^2} + \frac{1}{(1+N|z|^2)^2} \right), \end{aligned}$$ We can also write $$\begin{aligned}
\label{realcrit1}
E_{\gamma_{real}}(C_{f_N}(z)) &= E_{\gamma_{cx}}(C_{f_N}(z)) + \tilde{E}_{N}(z),
\end{aligned}$$ where $\tilde{E}_{N}(z)$ is some “error term," and we can show that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{errorcrit1}
\tilde{E}_{N}(z)
&= \frac{1}{\pi} \frac{\partial^2}{\partial z \partial \overline{z}} \log
\left(1+\sqrt{1-\left|\frac{(N^2z^2+N)(1+z^2)^{N-2}}{(N^2|z|^2+N)(1+|z|^2)^{N-2}}\right|^2}\right) \\
&= O(e^{-\lambda_zN}).\notag
\end{aligned}$$ The steps used to obtain , , and are very similar to the steps used in Section 2 of [@bmzeros], and we omit the details here.
A scaling limit formula in one variable
---------------------------------------
Consider the scaling limit of the density, $$\begin{aligned}
\label{scalinglimit}
K_{\gamma_{}}^{\infty}({z}) = \lim_{N\rightarrow\infty}\frac{1}{N} E_{\gamma_{}}(C_{{h}_N(\frac{{z}}{\sqrt{N}})} ),
\end{aligned}$$ Using , , , and , we get $$\begin{aligned}
\label{scaledcrit1}
\nonumber
K^\infty_{\gamma_{cx}}(z)&=\lim_{N\rightarrow\infty} \frac{1}{N} E_{\gamma_{cx}}(C_{f_N(\frac{z}{\sqrt{N}})})
= \frac{1}{\pi} \left(1 + \frac{1}{(1+|z|^2)^2}\right), \text{ and }\\ K^\infty_{\gamma_{real}}(z) &= K^\infty_{\gamma_{cx}}(z) + \tilde{E}^\infty_{\gamma_{real}}(z), \text{ where } \\ \nonumber
\tilde{E}^\infty_{\gamma_{real}}(z) &= \lim_{N\rightarrow\infty} \frac{1}{N} \tilde{E}_{N}(\frac{z}{\sqrt{N}})
= \frac{1}{ \pi } \frac{\partial^2}{ \partial z \partial \overline{z}} \log \left(1+\sqrt{1-\left|\frac{(1+z^2)e^{z^2}}{(1+|z|^2)e^{|z|^2}}\right|^2}\right). \end{aligned}$$ The formulas and are similar to the corresponding formulas in [@bmzeros]. However, note that does not have the same symmetries as the unscaled density of zeros in [@bmzeros]. Also, in [@bmzeros], the author shows that the scaled density of zeros tends linearly towards the real line and depends only on $ y = {\, \textup{Im} \,}{z}:$ $$\begin{aligned}
K^\infty_{\gamma_{real}}(z) = \frac{1}{\pi} \,
\frac{1-(4y^2+1)e^{-4y^2}}{(1-e^{-4y^2})^{3/2}} = \frac{1}{\pi}\, y +O(y^3),
\end{aligned}$$ for $y$ near 0. For critical points, we still have that $K^\infty_{\gamma_{real}}(z)$ tends linearly toward zero as we approach the real line, but because of the additional $\frac{1+z^2}{1+|z|^2}$ term in (\[scaledcrit1\]), the scaled density of critical points is no longer a function of only $y = {\, \textup{Im} \,}z$: $$\begin{aligned}
K^\infty_{\gamma_{real}}(z) = \frac{1}{\pi} \frac{x^6 + 3x^4+6x^2 + 6}{(2+2x^2+x^4)^\frac{3}{2}}\,\, y + O(y^3),
\end{aligned}$$ for $y$ near $0$.
\[scaledcrit\] {width=".45\textwidth"}
In Figure \[scaledcrit\], we plot (\[scaledcrit1\]) along the imaginary axis, where we have the asymptotics $$\begin{aligned}
K^\infty_{\gamma_{real}}(z) = \frac{3\sqrt{2} }{2\pi}\, y + O(y^3).
\end{aligned}$$
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section \[notation\] we introduce some notation and state three intermediate results we will need to prove the main theorem. In Sections \[proof1\]-\[proof3\] we prove these intermediate results. Finally, in Section \[pfthm\], we use the three results to prove Theorem \[thmcrit\].
Some notation, and 3 intermediate results {#notation}
=========================================
We first consider a complex random polynomial $\mathbf{h}^{ }_{m,N}:\mathbb{C}^m \rightarrow
\mathbb{C}$ of the form $$\begin{aligned}
\mathbf{h}^{}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z}) &= \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c_{J} {N\choose J} ^{1/2} \mathbf{z}^J,
\end{aligned}$$ as described in . The following multi-index notation is being used: $$\begin{aligned}
\mathbf{z} &= (z_1,...,z_m),\\
|J| &= j_1+ \cdots + j_m, \\
c_J &= c_{j_1...j_m} \in \mathbb{C},\\
{N\choose J} &= {N\choose j_1, ..., j_m} = \frac{N!}{(N-j_1-...-j_m)!j_1!\,\,...\,\,j_m!}, \\
\mathbf{z}^J &= z_1^{j_1} \cdots z_m^{j_m}.
\end{aligned}$$ Instead of studying the critical points of this random polynomial $\mathbf{h}$, we could equivalently study the zeros of $(f^{ }_{1,N},
..., f^{ }_{m,N}):\mathbb{C}^m \rightarrow \mathbb{C}^m$, where $f^{}_{q,N}$ is a complex polynomial of the form $$\begin{aligned}
f^{}_{q,N}(\mathbf{z}) &= \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c_{J} {N\choose J} ^{1/2}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J, \quad 1 \leq q \leq m.
\end{aligned}$$ We’ll consider $f^{}_{q,N}(\mathbf{z})$ as a function from $\mathbb{R}^{2m}$ to $\mathbb{R}^{2m},$ use the fact that $$C_{\mathbf{h}} = Z_{f_1\cdots f_m}=Z_{f^r_1 \cdots f^r_m f^i_1 \cdots f^i_m},$$ where $f_q = f_q^r + if_q^i, $ and find $E_\gamma(Z_{f^r_1 \cdots f^r_m
f^i_1 \cdots f^i_m})$.
Consider $$\mathbf{X}=(f_1^r,\ldots, f_m^r, {f}_1^i ,\ldots, {f}_m^i),$$ let $z_q = x_q+iy_q$, and let ${\xi}$ be the matrix of derivatives of the function $$\begin{aligned}
(x_1,\ldots x_m, y_1 ,\ldots, y_m) \rightarrow {\mathbf{X}}
\end{aligned}$$ from ${\mathbb{R}}^{2m} \rightarrow {\mathbb{R}}^{2m}$. We can write $$\begin{aligned}
{\xi} = \left(
\begin{array}{cc} {\displaystyle}\left(\frac{\partial f_q^r}{\partial x_{q'}}\right)_{1\leq
q,q'\leq m} & {\displaystyle}\left(\frac{\partial f_q^r}{\partial
y_{q'}}\right)_{1\leq q,q'\leq m}
\\ \\ {\displaystyle}\left(\frac{\partial {f}_q^i}{\partial x_{q'}}\right)_{1\leq
q,q'\leq m} & {\displaystyle}\left(\frac{\partial {f}_q^i}{\partial
y_{q'}}\right)_{1\leq q,q'\leq m}
\end{array}
\right)
\end{aligned}$$ Note that since $\mathbf{h}$ and $f_q$ are holomorphic, the Cauchy-Riemann equations hold, giving $$\begin{aligned}
\label{CRequations}
\frac{\partial f^i_q}{\partial y_{q'}} &= \frac{\partial f^r_{q}}{\partial x_{q'}}, \quad
\frac{\partial f^r_q}{\partial y_{q'}} = -\frac{\partial f^i_{q}}{\partial x_{q'}} .
\end{aligned}$$ Note also that since ${\displaystyle}f^r_q = \frac{\partial \mathbf{h}^r}{ \partial x_q}$ and ${\displaystyle}f^i_q = \frac{\partial \mathbf{h}^i}{ \partial x_q}$, we have $$\begin{aligned}
\label{mixedpart1}
\frac{\partial f^r_q }{\partial x_{q'}} = \frac{\partial^2 \mathbf{h}^r}{\partial x_q' \partial x_q }
= \frac{\partial^2 \mathbf{h}^r}{\partial x_q \partial x_q'} =
\frac{\partial f^r_{q'}}{\partial x_{q }},
\end{aligned}$$ and likewise, $$\begin{aligned}
\label{mixedpart2}
\frac{\partial f^i_q}{\partial x_{q'}}
= \frac{\partial f^i_{q'}}{\partial x_{q}}.
\end{aligned}$$ In light of , , and , we can choose a new basis and write $$\begin{aligned}
{\hat{{{\xi}}}} = [{\xi}]_\mathcal{{B}} = \left( \left(\frac{\partial
f_q^r}{\partial x_{q'}}\right)_{q\leq q'}, \left({\frac{\partial
f_q^i}{\partial x_{q'}}}\right)_{q\leq q'}\right) \in
\mathbb{R}^{2d_m},
\end{aligned}$$ where $d_m = m(m+1)/2.$ Below, $\xi$ will always refer to the matrix, $\hat{\xi}$ to the vector, and $\overline{\hat{\xi}}$ to the complex conjugate of the vector $\hat{\xi}$.
Let ${\Delta}_{\gamma}$ be the covariance matrix of ${\displaystyle}{{\mathbf{X}}
\choose \hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}}}\in {\mathbb{R}}^{2m+2d_m}$ with respect to $\gamma$. We can write ${\Delta}_{\gamma}$ in block form as $$\begin{aligned}
\label{bigdelta} \notag
{\Delta}_{\gamma} &= \left(
\begin{array}{cc}
{A}_{\gamma} & {B}_{\gamma} \\
{B}_{\gamma}^T & {C}_{\gamma}
\end{array} \right) & \left((2m+2d_m) \times (2m+2d_m )\text{ matrix}\right)
\\ \notag {A}_{\gamma} &= \left(E_{\gamma}({x}_q
\overline{x_{q'}})\right)_{q,q'} = {A}_{\gamma}^T & (2m \times 2m \text{ matrix})
\\
{B}_{\gamma} &= \left(E_{\gamma}({x}_q
\overline{\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}}_j})\right)_{q,j} & (2m \times 2d_m \text{
matrix})
\\ \notag
{C}_{\gamma} &= \left(E_{\gamma}(\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}}_j
\overline{\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}}_{j'}})\right)_{j,j'} = {C}_{\gamma}^T &(2d_m \times 2d_m \text{
matrix})
\end{aligned}$$ where $1 \leq {q},{q}' \leq 2m,$ and $ 1 \leq {j},{j}' \leq 2d_m.$ Let ${\Lambda}_{\gamma}^{-1}$ be the lower right block of ${\Delta}^{-1}_{\gamma}$. Then we have $$\begin{aligned}
\label{lambdagamma}
{\Lambda}_{\gamma} = {C}_{\gamma} - {B}^T_{\gamma}
{A}^{-1}_{\gamma} {B}_{\gamma}.
\end{aligned}$$
We now state three results which will be used to prove the theorem. In the first result, we reduce finding $E_{\gamma}(C_{\mathbf{h}})$ to finding a term we call $E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}}(\det{{\xi}}).$
\[kr\] We have ${\displaystyle}E_{\gamma}(C_{\mathbf{h}})
= \frac{1}{\pi^{m} \sqrt{\det {A}_{\gamma}} } E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}}(\det
{{\xi}}).
$
Next, we use Wick’s formula to write $E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}}(\det{{\xi}})$ in terms of entries of $\Lambda_\gamma.$
\[wick\] $E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}}(\det {\xi}) = \phi({\Lambda_{\gamma}}),$ where $\phi({\Lambda_{\gamma}})$ is a homogeneous polynomial of degree $m$ in the entries of ${\Lambda_{\gamma}}.$
Finally, we show that ${{\Lambda}_{\gamma_{real}}}$ and ${{\Lambda}_{\gamma_{cx}}}$ differ by an exponentially small term.
\[lambda\] $${\displaystyle}\frac{{\Lambda}_{\gamma_{real}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} = \frac{{\Lambda}_{\gamma_{cx}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}), \mathbf{z} \in \mathbb{C}^m \backslash \mathbb{R}^m,$$ where $\lambda_\mathbf{z}$ is given by the same formula as (\[lambdacrit\]).
In the next three sections, we prove these results. In the last section, we use these results to finish of the proof of Theorem \[thmcrit\].
Proof of Lemma \[kr\] - Using the Kac-Rice formula {#proof1}
==================================================
Note that because of Cauchy Riemann equations, $\det{\xi}$ is positive, and $\sqrt {\det \xi \xi ^T} =
\det{\xi}$. By the Kac-Rice formula for a system of real functions, we have $$\begin{aligned}
E_{\gamma}(Z_{f_1^r \cdots f_m^r {f}_1^i\cdots {f}_m^i}) =
\int_{\mathbb{R}^{ 2d_m}} \sqrt{\det({\xi} {\xi}^T)}
D_{\gamma}(0,\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}};\mathbf{z}) d\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}} = \int_{\mathbb{R}^{
2d_m}} \det{\xi} \,\, D_{\gamma}(0,\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}};\mathbf{z}) d\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}}
\end{aligned}$$ where $D_{\gamma}({\mathbf{X}},\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}};\mathbf{z})$ is the Gaussian density in $2m + 2d_m$ real variables given by $$\begin{aligned}
{\displaystyle}D_{\gamma}({\mathbf{X}},\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}};\mathbf{z}) = {\displaystyle}\frac{1}{\pi^{m+d_m}\sqrt{ \det
{\Delta}_{\gamma}}} e^{ -\frac{1}{2}\langle {\Delta}_{\gamma}^{-1} {{\mathbf{X}}
\choose \hat{\xi}}, {{\mathbf{X}} \choose \hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}}} \rangle}.
\end{aligned}$$ Recall that in , we wrote $\Delta_\gamma$ in block form. Note that we can also write $A_\gamma,B_\gamma,$ and $C_\gamma$ in block form as $$\begin{aligned}
\label{ABC}
{A}_{\gamma} &= \left(
\begin{array}{cc} {\displaystyle}\left({E}_{\gamma}(f^r_{q}f^r_{q'})\right)_{q,q'} &
\left({E}_{\gamma}(f^r_{q}f^i_{q'})\right)_{q,q'} \\ \\
\left({E}_{\gamma}(f^i_{q}f^r_{q'})\right)_{q,q'} &
\left({E}_{\gamma}(f^i_{q}f^i_{q'})\right)_{q,q'}
\end{array} \right)
\\ \\
{B}_{\gamma} &= \left(
\begin{array}{cc}
\left({E}_{\gamma}\left(f^r_{q}\frac{\partial f^r_{q'}}{\partial
x_{p'}} \right)\right)_{q, \, q', p'} &
\left({E}_{\gamma}\left(f^r_{q}\frac{\partial f^i_{q'}}{\partial
x_{p'}} \right)\right)_{q, \, q', p'} \\ \\
\left({E}_{\gamma}\left(f^i_{q}\frac{\partial f^r_{q'}}{\partial
x_{p'}} \right)\right)_{q, \, q', p'} &
\left({E}_{\gamma}\left(f^i_{q}\frac{\partial f^i_{q'}}{\partial
x_{p'}} \right)\right)_{q, \, q', p'}
\end{array} \right)
\\ \\
{C}_{\gamma} & = \left(
\begin{array}{cc}
\left[{E}_{\gamma}\left(\frac{\partial f^r_{q}}{\partial
x_p}\frac{\partial f^r_{q'}}{\partial x_{p'}} \right)\right]_{q,
p, q', p'} & \left[{E}_{\gamma}\left(\frac{\partial
f^r_{q}}{\partial x_p}\frac{\partial f^i_{q'}}{\partial x_{p'}}
\right)\right]_{q,
p, q', p'} \\ \\
\left[{E}_{\gamma}\left(\frac{\partial f^i_{q}}{\partial
x_p}\frac{\partial f^r_{q'}}{\partial x_{p'}} \right)\right]_{q,
p, q', p'} & \left[{E}_{\gamma}\left(\frac{\partial
f^i_{q}}{\partial x_p}\frac{\partial f^i_{q'}}{\partial x_{p'}}
\right)\right]_{q, p, q', p'}
\end{array} \right)
\end{aligned}$$ where $1 \leq {q}\leq p \leq m,$ and $ 1\leq q'\leq p' \leq m.$
Now, using the fact that for $D_{\gamma}(0,\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}};\mathbf{z})$ only the lower right block of $\Delta_{\gamma}^{-1}$ matters, we can write $$\begin{aligned}
{\displaystyle}D_{\gamma}(0,\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}};\mathbf{z}) &= \frac{1}{\pi^{m+d_m} \sqrt{\det
{\Delta}_{\gamma}}} \exp\left( -\frac{1}{2}\langle {\Delta}_{\gamma}^{-1}
\textstyle {0 \choose \hat\xi}, {0 \choose \hat\xi} \rangle\right)
\\ &= {\displaystyle}\frac{1}{\pi^{m} \sqrt{\det {A}_{\gamma}}} \frac{1}{\pi^{d_m}
\sqrt{\det {\Lambda}_{\gamma}}} \exp \left( -\frac{1}{2}\langle
{\Lambda}_{\gamma}^{-1} \hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}}, \hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}} \rangle \right) .
\end{aligned}$$
We have also used the fact that $\, \det {\Delta}_{\gamma} = \det
{A}_{\gamma} \det {\Lambda}_{\gamma}.$ We now have $$\begin{aligned}
E_{\gamma}(C_{\mathbf{h}}) &= {\displaystyle}\frac{1}{\pi^{m} \sqrt{\det {A}_{\gamma}} } \int_{\mathbb{R}^{d_m}} ({\det{\xi})} \frac{1}{\pi^{d_m} \sqrt{\det {\Lambda}_{\gamma}}} \exp \left( -\frac{1}{2}\langle
{\Lambda}_{\gamma}^{-1} \hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}}, \hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}} \rangle
\right) d\hat{{\mathbf{\xi}}} \\ &= \frac{1}{\pi^{m} \sqrt{\det {A}_{\gamma}} } E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}}(\det
{{\xi}}).
\end{aligned}$$
Proof of Lemma \[wick\] - Using the Wick formula {#proof2}
================================================
We now want to evaluate $E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}}(\det {\xi})$ using the Wick formula, which states that if $X_1, \ldots, X_{2m}$ are jointly Gaussian random variables, then $$E(\prod_{q=1}^{2m} X_q ) = \sum \prod_{q=1}^{m} E(X_{i_q}X_{j_q})$$ where the sum is over partitions of $\{1,...,2m\}$ into disjoint pairs $\{i_q, j_q\}$. First we write $$\begin{aligned}
\label{sumofproducts}
E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}} (\det {\xi}) &= E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}} \left( \sum_{\sigma \in
S_{2m}} sgn(\sigma) \prod_{q=1}^{2m} {\xi}_{q,\sigma(q)} \right) =
\sum_{\sigma \in S_{2m}} sgn(\sigma) E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}} \left(
\prod_{q=1}^{2m}
{\xi}_{q,\sigma(q)} \right) \notag \\ &= \sum_{\sigma \in S_{2m}} sgn(\sigma) \sum \prod_{q=1}^{m}
E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}} \left({\xi}_{i_q,\sigma(i_q)}
{\xi}_{j_q,\sigma(j_q)} \right)
\end{aligned}$$ where $\sigma$ is a permutation, and where the second sum is over partitions of $\{1,...,2m\}$ into disjoint pairs $\{i_q, j_q\}$. Note that terms of the form $$\begin{aligned}
E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}}\left({\xi}_{i_q,\sigma(i_q)}
{\xi}_{j_q,\tau(j_q)}\right)
\end{aligned}$$ are actually entries of ${\Lambda}_{\gamma}$. So we have written $E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}}(\det {\xi})$ as a sum of products of $m$ entries in ${\Lambda}_{\gamma}.$ More specifically, we have that $$E_{{\Lambda}_{\gamma}}(\det {\xi}) = \phi({\Lambda_{\gamma}}),$$ where $\phi({\Lambda_{\gamma}})$ is a homogeneous polynomial in the entries of ${\Lambda_{\gamma}}.$
Proof of Proposition \[lambda\] - A relationship between the real and complex Gaussian cases {#proof3}
============================================================================================
Suppose now that we have the measures $d\gamma_{cx}$ and $d\gamma_{real} $ as defined in (\[measures\]). Note that $d\gamma_{cx}$ corresponds to the standard complex Gaussian coefficients case, where we are considering $$\mathbf{h}^{}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z}) = \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c_{J} {N\choose J} ^{1/2} \mathbf{z}^J$$ where the $c_J$’s are standard complex Gaussian random variables, and $d\gamma_{real}$ corresponds to the standard real Gaussian coefficients case, where we are considering $$\mathbf{h}^{}_{m,N}(\mathbf{z}) = \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c_{J} {N\choose J} ^{1/2} \mathbf{z}^J = \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} a_{J} {N\choose J} ^{1/2} \mathbf{z}^J$$ where $c_J = a_J +i0$ is a standard real Gaussian random variable.
We now state four lemmas we need to prove the proposition. Each result is a variation on the following theme: on $\mathbb{C}^m \setminus \mathbb{R}^m,$ ${\displaystyle}\frac{E_{\gamma_{cx}}(\cdot)}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}$ and ${\displaystyle}\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}}(\cdot)}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}$ are either equal, or differ by an exponentially small term $O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}).$
\[l3\] Let $\mathbf{z}\in \mathbb{C}^m \setminus \mathbb{R}^m.$ The following are true for all $q,q',p,p'$:
1. ${\displaystyle}\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}}(f_q f_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}= {\displaystyle}\frac{E_{\gamma_{cx}} (f_q f_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}) $
2. ${\displaystyle}\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{real}}\left(f_{q}\frac{\partial f_{q'}}{\partial z_{p'}} \right)}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}= {\displaystyle}\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{cx}}\left(f_{q}\frac{\partial f_{q'}}{\partial
z_{p'}} \right)}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}) $
3. ${\displaystyle}\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{real}}\left(\frac{\partial
f_{q}}{\partial z_p}\frac{\partial f_{q'}}{\partial z_{p'}}
\right)}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}= {\displaystyle}\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{cx}}\left(\frac{\partial f_{q}}{\partial z_p}\frac{\partial f_{q'}}{\partial z_{p'}}
\right) }{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}+ O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}) $
We prove just (1), and the rest are proved similarly. For (1) we have $$\begin{aligned}
E_{\gamma_{cx}} (f_q f_{q'}) &= E_{\gamma_{cx}} \left[\left(\sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c_{J} {N\choose J} ^{1/2}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J \right) \left( \sum_{|K|=0}^{N} c_{K} {N\choose K} ^{1/2}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_{q'}} \mathbf{z}^K \right)\right] \\
&= \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} \sum_{|K|=0}^{N} E_{\gamma_{cx}} \left( c_{J}c_{K}\right) {N\choose J} ^{1/2}{N\choose K} ^{1/2}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_{q'}} \mathbf{z}^K = 0,
\end{aligned}$$ since $E_{\gamma_{cx}}(c_Jc_K) = 0$ for all $J,K.$ Note that $E_{\gamma_{cx}} (c_J \overline{c_K}) = 1$ when $J=K$, so we have $E_{\gamma_{cx}} (f_q \overline{f_{q'}}) \neq 0$; see Lemma \[l4\]. Similarly, we have $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}} (f_q f_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} &=\frac{1}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\sum_{|J|=0}^{N} \sum_{|K|=0}^{N} E_{\gamma_{real}} \left( c_{J}c_{K}\right) {N\choose J} ^{1/2}{N\choose K} ^{1/2}
\frac{\partial }{\partial {z}_q} \mathbf{z}^J
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_{q'}} \mathbf{z}^K \\
&=\frac{1}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\sum_{|J|=0}^{N} \sum_{|K|=0}^{N} E_{\gamma_{real}} \left( a_{J}a_{K}\right) {N\choose J} ^{1/2}{N\choose K} ^{1/2}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_{q'}} \mathbf{z}^K \\
&=\frac{1}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\sum_{|J|=0}^{N} {N\choose J}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_{q'}} \mathbf{z}^J,
\end{aligned}$$ since $ E_{\gamma_{real}} \left( a_{J}a_{K}\right) =1, $ when $ J=K, $ and is zero otherwise. We can then write $$\begin{aligned}
\label{ztildetrick}
\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}} (f_q f_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
&= \frac{1}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\sum_{|J|=0}^{N} {N\choose J}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J
\frac{\partial }{\partial \tilde{z}_{q'}} \tilde{\mathbf{z}}^J\Big|_{\tilde{\mathbf{z}} = \mathbf{z}} \notag\\
&= \frac{1}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \frac{\partial }{\partial \tilde{z}_{q'}}\sum_{|J|=0}^{N} {N\choose J}
\mathbf{z}^J \tilde{\mathbf{z}}^J
\Big|_{\tilde{\mathbf{z}} = \mathbf{z}} \\
&= \frac{1}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \frac{\partial }{\partial \tilde{z}_{q'}}(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot\tilde{\mathbf{z}})^N
\Big|_{\tilde{\mathbf{z}} = \mathbf{z}} \notag\\
&=\frac{N(N-1){z}_{q}{z}_{q'} }{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{2}}\left(\frac{1+\mathbf{z}\cdot{\mathbf{z}}}{1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}}}\right)^{N-2}.\notag
\end{aligned}$$ Since $|1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \mathbf{z}| < |1+\mathbf{z} \cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}}| = 1+\mathbf{z} \cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}},$ for all $\mathbf{z}\in \mathbb{C}^m \setminus \mathbb{R}^m,$ we have that ${\displaystyle}\Big| \frac{1+\mathbf{z}\cdot{\mathbf{z}}}{1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}}}\Big| < 1$ for all $\mathbf{z}\in \mathbb{C}^m \setminus \mathbb{R}^m,$ which implies that ${\displaystyle}\left(\frac{1+\mathbf{z}\cdot{\mathbf{z}}}{1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}}}\right)^{N-2} = O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}), \mathbf{z}\in \mathbb{C}^m \setminus \mathbb{R}^m, $ where $ {\displaystyle}\lambda_\mathbf{z} = - \log\Big|\frac{1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \mathbf{z}}{1+||\mathbf{z}||^2}\Big|.$ So we have $$\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}} (f_q f_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} = O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}), \mathbf{z} \in\mathbb{C}^m \setminus \mathbb{R}^m.$$ The results (2) and (3) in Lemma \[l3\] can be proved similarly by defining $\tilde{z}$ and pulling the derivatives outside the sum as we did in .
\[l4\] We have for all $q,q',p,p'$:
1. ${\displaystyle}E_{\gamma_{real}} (f_q \overline{f_{q'}}) = E_{\gamma_{cx}} (f_q \overline{f_{q'}})$
2. ${\displaystyle}{E}_{\gamma_{real}}\left(f_{q}\overline{\frac{\partial f_{q'}}{\partial
z_{p'}}} \right) = {E}_{\gamma_{cx}}\left(f_{q}\overline{\frac{\partial f_{q'}}{\partial
z_{p'}}} \right) $
3. ${\displaystyle}{E}_{\gamma_{real}}\left(\frac{\partial
f_{q}}{\partial z_p} \overline{\frac{\partial f_{q'}}{\partial z_{p'}}}
\right)= {E}_{\gamma_{cx}}\left(\frac{\partial
f_{q}}{\partial z_p} \overline{\frac{\partial f_{q'}}{\partial z_{p'}}}
\right)$
We again prove just (1). We have $$\begin{aligned}
E_{\gamma_{cx}} (f_q \overline{f_{q'}}) &= E_{\gamma_{cx}} \left[\left( \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} c_{J} {N\choose J} ^{1/2}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J \right) \left( \overline{\sum_{|K|=0}^{N} c_{K} {N\choose K} ^{1/2}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_{q'}} \mathbf{z}^K }\right)\right] \\
&= \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} \sum_{|K|=0}^{N} E_{\gamma_{cx}} (c_{J}\overline{c_{K}} ) {N\choose J} ^{1/2}{N\choose K} ^{1/2}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J
\overline{\frac{\partial }{\partial z_{q'}} \mathbf{z}^K } \\
&=\sum_{|J|=0}^{N} {N\choose J}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J
\overline{\frac{\partial }{\partial z_{q'}} \mathbf{z}^J},
\end{aligned}$$ since $ E_{\gamma_{cx}} \left( c_{J}\overline{c_{K}}\right) =1, $ when $ J=K, $ and is zero otherwise. Likewise, since $E_{\gamma_{real}} (c_{J}\overline{c_{K}} ) = E_{\gamma_{real}} (a_{J}\overline{a_{K}} ) = E_{\gamma_{real}} (a_{J}{a_{K}} )$, and since $E_{\gamma_{real}} (a_{J}{a_{K}} ) = 1$ when $J=K$ and is zero otherwise, we have $$\begin{aligned}
E_{\gamma_{real}} (f_q \overline{f_{q'}}) &= \sum_{|J|=0}^{N} \sum_{|K|=0}^{N} E_{\gamma_{real}} (c_{J}\overline{c_{K}} ) {N\choose J} ^{1/2}{N\choose K} ^{1/2}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J
\overline{\frac{\partial }{\partial z_{q'}} \mathbf{z}^K } \\
&=\sum_{|J|=0}^{N} {N\choose J}
\frac{\partial }{\partial z_q} \mathbf{z}^J
\overline{\frac{\partial }{\partial z_{q'}} \mathbf{z}^J} = E_{\gamma_{cx}} (f_q \overline{f_{q'}}).
\end{aligned}$$ By pulling the derivatives outside the sum as we did in , (2) and (3) can be proved similarly.
\[l5\] Let $\mathbf{z}\in\mathbb{C}^m \setminus \mathbb{R}^m.$ Using the results of the previous lemmas, we have, for all $q,q',p,p'$:
1. ${\displaystyle}\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}}(f^r_q f^i_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} = {\displaystyle}\frac{E_{\gamma_{cx}} (f^r_q f^i_{q'}) }{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}+ O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})$
2. ${\displaystyle}\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{real}}\left(f^r_{q}\frac{\partial f^i_{q'}}{\partial
x_{p'}} \right)}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} = {\displaystyle}\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{cx}}\left(f^r_{q}\frac{\partial f^i_{q'}}{\partial
x_{p'}} \right) }{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}) $
3. ${\displaystyle}\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{real}}\left(\frac{\partial
f^r_{q}}{\partial x_p}\frac{\partial f^i_{q'}}{\partial x_{p'}}
\right)}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}= {\displaystyle}\frac{ {E}_{\gamma_{cx}}\left(\frac{\partial
f^r_{q}}{\partial x_p}\frac{\partial f^i_{q'}}{\partial x_{p'}}
\right)}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}) $
Similar results hold for $f^r_q f^r_{q'}, f^i_q f^i_{q'}, $ and $f^i_q f^r_{q'}.$
We again prove just (1). Using $f^r_q = \frac{1}{2}(f_q+\overline{f_q}), f^i_q = \frac{1}{2i}(f_q-\overline{f_q}),$ and Lemmas \[l3\] and \[l4\], we have $$\begin{aligned}
&\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}} (f^r_q f^i_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
= \frac{1}{4i}\left[
\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}} (f_q f_{q'}) } {(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
-\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}} (f_q \overline{f_{q'}})} {(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
+\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}} (\overline{f_q} f_{q'})} {(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
-\frac{E_{\gamma_{real}} (\overline{f_q} \, \overline{f_{q'}})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\right] \\
&= \frac{1}{4i} \left[
\frac{E_{\gamma_{cx}} (f_q f_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
+ O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})
-\frac{E_{\gamma_{cx}}(f_q \overline{f_{q'}})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
+\frac{E_{\gamma_{cx}}(\overline{f_q} f_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
-\frac{E_{\gamma_{cx}}(\overline{f_q} \, \overline{f_{q'}})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}+ O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})
\right]\\
&= \frac{E_{\gamma_{cx}} (f^r_q f^i_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}).
\end{aligned}$$ for all $\mathbf{z}\in \mathbb{C}^m \setminus \mathbb{R}^m.$ Statements (2) and (3) could be proved similarly, noting that $f_q$ is holomorphic and $\frac{\partial f_q}{\partial z_p} = \frac{\partial f_q}{\partial x_p}.$
Using the Lemma \[l5\], we get the following results:
\[l6\] We have
1. ${\displaystyle}\frac{{A}_{\gamma_{real}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} = \frac{{A}_{\gamma_{cx}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})$
2. ${\displaystyle}\frac{{B}_{\gamma_{real}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} = \frac{{B}_{\gamma_{cx}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})$
3. ${\displaystyle}\frac{{C}_{\gamma_{real}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} = \frac{{C}_{\gamma_{cx}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})$
From \[ABC\] we have $$\begin{aligned}
\label{Areal}
&\frac{{A}_{\gamma_{real}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
= \left(
\begin{array}{cc}
{\displaystyle}\left(\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{real}}(f^r_{q}f^r_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\right)_{q,q'} &
{\displaystyle}\left(\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{real}}(f^r_{q}f^i_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\right)_{q,q'}\\ \\
{\displaystyle}\left(\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{real}}(f^i_{q}f^r_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\right)_{q,q'} &
{\displaystyle}\left(\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{real}}(f^i_{q}f^i_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}\right)_{q,q'}
\end{array}
\right),
\end{aligned}$$ and using Lemma \[l5\], we get that equals $$\begin{aligned}
&= \left(
\begin{array}{cc}
{\displaystyle}\left(\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{cx}}(f^r_{q}f^r_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} +
O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}) \right)_{q,q'} &
{\displaystyle}\left(\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{cx}}(f^r_{q}f^i_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} +
O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}) \right)_{q,q'} \\ \\
{\displaystyle}\left(\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{cx}}(f^i_{q}f^r_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} +
O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})\right)_{q,q'} &
{\displaystyle}\left(\frac{{E}_{\gamma_{cx}}(f^i_{q}f^i_{q'})}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} +
O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})\right)_{q,q'}
\end{array} \right) \\
&= \frac{{A}_{\gamma_{cx}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}),
\end{aligned}$$ which proves (1). The matrices $B_{\gamma_{real}}, B_{\gamma_{cx}},C_{\gamma_{real}},$ and $C_{\gamma_{cx}}$ can be written out similarly to get (2) and (3). Returning to the proof of the proposition, we can use and the Lemma \[l6\] to get, $$\begin{aligned}
\frac{{\Lambda}_{\gamma_{real}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
& = \frac{{C}_{\gamma_{real}} - {B}^T_{\gamma_{real}}
{A}^{-1}_{\gamma_{real}} {B}_{\gamma_{real}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
= \frac{{C}_{\gamma_{cx}} - {B}^T_{\gamma_{cx}} {A}^{-1}_{\gamma_{cx}} {B}_{\gamma_{cx}}}
{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}}
+ O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})\\
&= \frac{{\Lambda}_{\gamma_{cx}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{N}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}).
\end{aligned}$$
Proof of Theorem \[thmcrit\] {#pfthm}
============================
By Lemma \[kr\] we have $$\begin{aligned}
\label{step1}
E_{{\gamma_{real}}}(C_{\mathbf{h}_{N}(\mathbf{z})}) &= \frac{1}{\pi^m} \frac{E_{\Lambda_{\gamma_{real}}}(\det \xi)}{ \sqrt{\det
A_{\gamma_{real}}}}
= \frac{1}{\pi^m} \frac{1 }{ \sqrt{\frac{\det
A_{\gamma_{real}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{2Nm}} }} \frac{E_{\Lambda_{\gamma_{real}}}(\det \xi)}{ {(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{Nm}} }.
\end{aligned}$$ Note that from we can see that each term in the homogeneous polynomial $E_{\Lambda_{\gamma_{real}}}(\det \xi)=\phi(\Lambda_{\gamma_{real}})$ has $m$ factors, each of which is an element of $\Lambda_{\gamma_{real}},$ and likewise for $E_{\Lambda_{\gamma_{cx}}}(\det \xi)$. This fact, along with Proposition \[lambda\], gives $$\begin{aligned}
\label{elambda}
\frac{{E}_{\Lambda_{\gamma_{real}}}(\det \xi)}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{Nm}} = \frac{{E}_{\Lambda_{\gamma_{cx}}}(\det \xi)}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{Nm}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}),
\end{aligned}$$ and from and we have $$\begin{aligned}
\label{step2}
E_{{\gamma_{real}}}(C_{\mathbf{h}_{N}(\mathbf{z})}) &= \frac{1}{\pi^m} \frac{1 }{ \sqrt{\frac{\det
A_{\gamma_{real}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{2Nm}} }} \left(\frac{E_{\Lambda_{\gamma_{cx}}}(\det \xi)}{ {(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{Nm}} }+O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})\right). \end{aligned}$$ Also note that $A_{\gamma}$ is a $2m \times 2m$ matrix, so each term in $\det A_{\gamma}$ has $2m$ factors, each of which is an element of $A_{\gamma}$. Using this fact and Lemma \[l6\], we have $$\begin{aligned}
\label{deta}
\frac{\det {A}_{\gamma_{real}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{2Nm}} = \frac{\det {A}_{\gamma_{cx}} }{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{2Nm}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}),
\end{aligned}$$ and and give $$\begin{aligned}
\label{step3}
E_{{\gamma_{real}}}(C_{\mathbf{h}_{N}(\mathbf{z})})
&= \frac{1}{\pi^m} \frac{1 }{ \sqrt{\frac{\det
A_{\gamma_{cx}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{2Nm}} + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})}} \left(\frac{E_{\Lambda_{\gamma_{cx}}}(\det \xi)}{ {(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{Nm}} }+O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})\right)\\ \end{aligned}$$ Simplifying further and using Lemma \[kr\] again gives us $$\begin{aligned}
E_{{\gamma_{real}}}(C_{\mathbf{h}_{N}(\mathbf{z})})&= \frac{1}{\pi^m} \frac{1 }{ \sqrt{\frac{\det
A_{\gamma_{cx}}}{(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{2Nm}} }} \frac{E_{\Lambda_{\gamma_{cx}}}(\det \xi)}{ {(1+\mathbf{z}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{z}})^{Nm}} }+O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})\\ &= \frac{1}{\pi^m} \frac{E_{\Lambda_{\gamma_{cx}}}(\det \xi) }{ \sqrt{{\det
A_{\gamma_{cx}}} }} +O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N})\\ &=E_{\gamma_{cx}}(C_{\mathbf{h}_{N}(\mathbf{z})}) + O(e^{-\lambda_\mathbf{z} N}).
\end{aligned}$$
[^1]: Thanks to Bernard Shiffman, for his guidance, teaching, patience, and for countless helpful meetings, conversations and suggestions.
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Transition metamaterials with spatially separated zeros.
We report analytical and numerical studies of the effect of the separation distance between zeros of dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability on the phenomena of resonant absorption and anomalous field enhancement in transition metamaterials. Our studies indicate that these phenomena are robust and strongly polarization-dependent in the presence of the spatial shift between these points. These results are likely to be important for future fundamental and applied studies in the areas of transformation, polarization, and nonlinear optics in metamaterials.
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Perceptions about participation in cancer clinical trials in New York state.
Clinical trials are valuable in advancing cancer care through the investigation of ways in which to better prevent, detect and diagnose, and/or treat cancer. Recruitment of adults into clinical trials has historically been low. To survey adult cancer patients who reside in New York state to better understand their participation in and attitudes about clinical trials. From January 2012-April 2013, we conducted a one-time survey about clinical trials in 8 cancer-treatment or cancer-patient support organizations in the state. Surveys were offered in person and online to adults with a past or current cancer diagnosis. Analysis was limited to adults who resided in the state and provided a self-reported status of previous participation in clinical trials. Of the 1,832 participants who completed the survey, 1,475 were included in the analysis. Our sample represented all regions of the state. Most of the respondents (68.1%) had never participated in a clinical trial. Almost 32% said they had never received information about research studies. Most (84%) felt that patients should be asked to participate in clinical trials, but fewer (70%) were willing to be approached about participation. The sample is predominantly white and female and overrepresents breast and hematologic cancers. Increased outreach coupled with a team approach to educate and enroll patients in clinical trials may be the necessary first steps to increase participation in trials and ensure a diverse sample of participants.
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L ife before the discovery of penicillin, antisepsis, and germ theory necessarily meant that disease was a constant companion of medieval people. Fortunately, from the eighth through the mid-fourteenth centuries Europe was remarkably free from most epidemic diseases. There were still plenty of endemic diseases and poor health conditions related to famine and malnutrition. But these centuries of thriving allowed Europe's population to grow to an estimated 75-80 million, to expand in every direction, to build densely-inhabited cities, and to establish trade routes with all parts of the known world, setting the scene for a new pattern of epidemic disease across Europe and Asia. Following are some of the important infectious diseases in Europe during the late fourteenth century. Some were epidemic; some endemic. Nearly all fell harder on the very young, the very old, and those whose resistance was weakened by poor diet, hard labor, or previous disease. Medieval physicians would have treated these illnesses one symptom at a time, with separate prescriptions for fever, cough, chills, and so forth. Dysentery (the bloody flux) An infection caused either by bacteria or amoebas, spread through contamination of food and water by infected fecal matter. Symptoms: (Bacillary) After 1-6 days incubation, watery stools, fever, cramps, dehydration. In advanced stages, bloody stools, meningitis, conjunctivitis, and arthritis. (Amebic) Acute form: watery, bloody stools, cramps, fever, weakness. Chronic form: intermittent diarrhea, mild abdominal discomfort. Result: Generally weakened condition. Note: Endemic in medieval armies and pretty common in cities. Infantile diarrhea was a leading cause of death for infants. After the Black Death, many urban areas instituted public health reforms to improve sanitation and prevent these enteric fevers. Ergotism (St. Anthony's fire, holy fire, evil fire, devil's fire, saints' fire) Poisoning from a fungal infection of grain, especially rye. Symptoms: (Convulsive) Degeneration of the nervous system causes anxiety, vertigo, aural/visual hallucinations, and the sensation of being bitten or burned; stupor, convulsions, and psychosis. (Gangrenous) Constriction of the blood vessels causes reddening and blistering of skin, then blackening, with itching and burning, and finally necrosis. Result: 40% mortality. Lingering symptoms, including mental impairment, among survivors. Note: Ergotism was known as a rural disease, particularly of marshy areas, and one that followed crop damage or famine; especially after a severe winter and a rainy spring. Children are more susceptible because of their smaller body weight. Because England did not rely on rye as much as populations on the continent, it suffered fewer cases of the convulsive type. Gonorrhea A bacterial infection of the genital tract, transmitted through sexual contact. Symptoms: (Male) After 2-8 days incubation, urgency and burning sensation on urination, profuse discharge of pus. Inflammation of prostate and seminal vesicles may lead to fever and urinary retention. (Female) After 2-8 days incubation, mild urethritis; or may be entirely asymptomatic. If infection spreads to the upper tract, acute fever and abdominal pain. Bacteria may invade the bloodstream and produce infections in other parts of the body, most commonly arthritis; the sufferer develops fever and hot, swollen, painful joints. Results: In males, symptoms subside in several weeks; in females, a month or two. Serious infections may result in infertility for both males and females. Note: Sufferers may remain infectious for months following an attack. Not a nice disease. Influenza . An acute, extremely contagious viral infection of the upper respiratory tract, spread by inhalation. Symptoms: After 1-2 days, a sudden onset of chills and fever, headache, backache, muscular aches, and general malaise; weakness, prostration, nausea, eye pain, mental confusion. After 1-5 days the respiratory symptoms become more prominent: dry or sore throat, cough, runny nose. Serious complications include bronchitis and bacterial pneumonia. Results: A few months, maximum, of resistance to repeated infection. Note: Flu was not a major worry in the 14th century but became a scourge in the 15th. Because flu is very contagious it often forms epidemics, generally occurring in the winter or early spring. Leprosy (lepry) A bacterial infection, transmitted by respiration or contact, leading to disfigurement. Symptoms: After a variable but possibly years-long period of latency, facial features begin to coarsen and the voice becomes hoarse. Eruptions of the skin and eyes begin as pale spots that turn into red, raised, firm nodules. Skin spots are insensitive to cold, touch, and pain; hands and feet lose feeling and eventually muscle weakness and paralysis set in, usually in the face and hands. Secondary infections of lesions or unnoticed wounds become gangrenous. Blindness often occurs. The nose decays. The hands and feet become clawed. Results: Eventual, ugly, lingering, friendless death, sometimes taking over 20 years. Note: Most people are immune. Individual resistance causes much variation in the form and pace of the disease. The disease may have assumed its worst form among the upper classes, as the organism requires cholesterol as a growth factor. Lepers were forbidden to mingle with the unafflicted; their religious, legal, and social status was complex. Malaria (the ague) A parasitic disease spread by mosquitoes. Symptoms: Shaking chills, then fever to 104 degrees, severe headache. After several hours the sufferer begins sweating profusely; then the headache and fever disappear. Attacks recur every 48 hours (a tertian fever) or 72 hours (a quartan fever). Weakness, some anemia. Results: Survivable. Limited immunity. Notes: Chronic in southern and low-lying areas of Europe, including southern and eastern England. The name malaria comes from the Italian for bad air, which was believed to cause the disease before the agency of mosquitoes was understood. The only type of malaria that occurs in England is rarely fatal. Measles A mild, highly contagious viral disease transmitted via respiration. Symptoms: After 7-14 days, coldlike symptoms develop (runny nose, dry cough, fever to 105 degrees, aching), plus inflamed and sensitive eyes. Around the third day, bright red spots appear inside the mouth. Day four: characteristic red rash; slightly raised and mildly itchy; starts on face and spreads over the rest of the body. Fever and rash begin to depart after a few more days. Results: Survivable; complications can include blindness and heart or brain damage. Survivors have complete immunity. Notes: Occurs mostly in late winter and early spring. The disease is so ancient in Europe that humans tend to survive it. Primarily a childhood disease (since most adults had been exposed to it), but infants younger than 6 months have a temporary immunity from their mother. Plague A bacterial infection, transmitted by flea bites (or secondarily by respiration), that takes several different forms. Symptoms: (Bubonic): After 2-6 days, necrosis of the flea bite and heat and swelling in the nearest lymph nodes (neck, groin, or armpit); buboes can be as large as an orange and extremely painful. Headache, fever, delirium. 20% go on to develop the pneumonic form. (Pneumonic) less common but more infectious: A lung infection, with coughing and sneezing. (Septicemic) rare: Infection spreads throughout body in the bloodstream; death occurs too fast (within hours) for buboes to form. Results: Bubonic form: 50% to 70% mortality; other forms:100% mortality. No immunity. Notes: The horror of plague was in not only its virulence but the frequency of its recurrence. After the 1347-51 European pandemic, which killed 25-40% of Europe's population, further attacks struck England in 1361-62 (the Children's Plague, killing 20% of the population of England, primarily the young), 1369 (10-15% of the population), 1375, 1379 (north country), 1381-82 (midlands), 1383 and 1387 (southeast), 1390 and 1399-1400 (over 10% of the national population), 1405-6 (national), 1410-11 (Wales and the west country), 1411-12 and 1413-14 (national), 1420 (East Anglia), 1423 (national), 1426 (London), and 1428-29 (national). It took Europe until the 19th century to recover its early 14th-century population levels. Puerperal fever (childbed fever) A bacterial infection of the female reproductive organs following childbirth. Symptoms: Chills, high fever, abdominal pain, nausea; possible spread of infection to rest of body. Results: Chances of mortality depend on what kind of bacteria caused the infection; it can be nearly anything. Tetanus or gas gangrene are especially bad bets. Possible infertility in survivors. Notes: Susceptibility to infection is increased by prolonged labor in childbirth, rupture or retention of the placenta, and other unfortunate occurrences. Smallpox (the red plague) A severe, highly contagious viral disease transmitted by inhalation. Symptoms: After 12 days incubation, high fever, chills, severe headache and backache, and general malaise. Hemorrhages may occur in lungs or other organs. After 4 more days a distinctive itchy rash of red lesions appears on face, arms, legs, and sometimes the trunk. The bumps become pus-filled blisters; if secondary infections do not occur, they break and begin to dry up in about 9 days. Results: Mortality 25-30% for the severe form; 1% for the mild form. Survivors have distinctive pitted scars and complete immunity to further infection. Notes: Varies in severity from a mild form with few skin lesions to a highly fatal hemorrhagic form. The majority of deaths occur in the second week of the disease. It was a horror in the 15th century; during the 1440s in France smallpox may have killed more people than plague. (It came to be known as smallpox later, to distinguish it from the great pox, syphilis.) It became primarily a childhood disease, since most adults had already been exposed. Typhoid fever Bacillary infection transmitted via feces. Symptoms: Diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever to 105 degrees, blinding headache, cough, exhaustion. Patches of red on the abdomen. Symptoms can last for weeks. Complications include pneumonia, intestinal hemorrhage, and coma. Results: 10-20% mortality. Notes: Another of the enteric diseases.
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Beijing’s lottery will be for 427 so-called shared-ownership homes, in which ownership will be split at a certain ratio between eligible homebuyers and the government. The goal of the lottery is to provide local residents with more affordable housing. Photo: Visual China
(Beijing) — The good news: The wait is nearly over for more than 12,000 families in Beijing, who will find out tomorrow if they’ve been chosen in a lottery system allowing them to purchase a new type of subsidized home.
The bad news: Only 427 will be selected.
Those odds are about 1 in 284, a dispiriting figure in a city grappling with policies to reduce exorbitant property prices and provide affordable housing — particularly for working-class families buying their first home — in a city of 22 million people.
The 427 units are a new type of so-called shared-ownership home (SOH), in which ownership will be split at a certain ratio between homebuyers and the government, according to a statement Thursday from the city’s Chaoyang district housing regulator.
In Chaoyang, for instance, the ratio starts at a 50-50 split between the government housing agency and the buyer. But homebuyers can choose to increase their share up to 90%, and can resell their portion at market price five years after receiving their property deeds.
At a rate of 22,000 yuan ($3,300) per square meter (10.8 square feet), an eligible homebuyer would pay nearly 2 million yuan for half of a 90-square-meter apartment — the largest unit size listed in the initial SOH project material for Chaoyang.
Home prices in Beijing are among the highest in the country, with costs in many areas exceeding 100,000 yuan per square meter — nearly 13 times the 2016 average monthly salary of workers in the capital.
Beijing will give priority to residents with a local Beijing household registration permit when it allocates SOH projects over next five years, the city said in recent an urban development plan. About 70% of total SOH projects will be geared toward locals.
Contact reporter Pan Che ([email protected])
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The present invention relates generally to integrated circuits, and more particularly, to a system for synchronizing functional resets in an integrated circuit.
Integrated circuits (ICs) such as System-on-a-Chip (SoC) type circuits, include various functional modules for performing different tasks. Examples of functional modules include processors, control logic, memories, system buses, and so forth. These modules usually are driven by one or more clock signals and depending on the system requirements, different functional modules may require different clock signals (having different frequencies); e.g., an integrated circuit may include one set of functional circuits that operates in a first clock domain and another set of functional circuits that operates in a second clock domain.
Often times, flip-flops in a first clock domain may generate a reset signal that is required to reset flip-flops in the second clock domain. An example of such an IC 102 is shown in FIG. 1. The IC 102 includes multiple clock domains including first and second clock domains 104a and 104b that operate on first and second clock signals, respectively. Each clock domain 104 includes a plurality of functional circuits such as flip-flops 106. For example, the first clock domain 104a includes a first chain of flip-flops of which the last flip-flop 106a is shown and the second clock domain includes a second chain of flip-flops of which first and last, i.e., receive and capture flip-flops 106b and 106c are shown. The path between the receive and capture flip-flops 106b and 106c is represented by a combinational path 108. In this example, the first chain of flip-flops receives the first clock signal and the second chain of flip-flops receives the second clock signal. The first chain of flip-flops generates a functional reset signal that is used to reset the second chain of flip-flops. To enable the reset mechanism, an output of the flip-flop 106a is connected to a NOT gate 110 and an output of the NOT gate 110 is input to an AND gate 112. An output of the AND gate 112 then is input to a reset terminal of the receive flip-flop 106b. A second input of the AND gate 112 and a reset terminal of the capture flip-flop 106c both receive a power-on-reset (POR) signal generated internally in the IC 102. The POR signal goes active (logic high) unless a system reset is required.
When the first chain of flip-flops generates a functional reset signal (that appears at the output of the flip-flop 106a), the NOT gate 110 inverts the reset signal to provide a logic low signal, which is received by the AND gate 112. The output of the AND gate 112 is a logic low signal, which resets the receive flip-flop 106b. As the first and second clock signals are asynchronous, the receive flip-flop 106b generates a logic low signal asynchronous to the second clock signal, which leads to timing violations at the capture flip-flop 106c through the combinational path 108. These timing violations can lead to erroneous operation of the IC 102.
Therefore, there is a need for a system that synchronizes a functional reset across multiple clock domains of an IC without introducing any timing violations, and that overcomes the above-mentioned limitations of existing IC.
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The Creepshow-Get Whats Coming chords
Highlighted
Show chord diagrams
This tab sounds better when played as power chords, like this :
G 355xxx
D# x688xx
D x577xx
Bb 688xxx
otherwise, here's the tabbed chords:
G 320003 or 355433
D# x68886
D x00232 or x57775
Bb 688766 or x13331
GGGD#DGBb
Thought it was over but its only just begun
D#DG
Got our heads in a spin once again
GBb
Thought they were gone but its turns out we were wrong
D#DG
They don't know that were planning our revenge
D#Bb
Trying to hide but got caught in our tracks
DG
Its not easy when your losing your mind (your mind!)
D#Bb
With the dark eagle eyes they are watching all the time
D
Till they lock us up and put out our lights
GBb
You'll spend a long time running (whoa)
D#D
Next time around we will put you in your place
GBb
Your gonna get whats coming (whoa)
D#D
Best be watching your back everyday
G
For eternity!
GBb
This is our nightmare being knocked out again
D#DG
Feeling weak it ain't fair, so to speak
GBb
Just keep on trying to put up a fight
D#DG
But you'll land in a pile of defeat
D#Bb
"Its all the truth" we explained in that room
DG
But no one would ever believe (believe!)
D#Bb
If you separate all of the truth from the lies
D
Then it turns out they all could be right
GBb
You'll spend a long time running (whoa)
D#D
Next time around we will put you in your place
GBb
Your gonna get whats coming (whoa)
D#D
Best be watching your back everyday
G
For eternity!
(palm mute) GBbD#D x2
GBb
Been running, still running
D#D
Your gonna get whats coming
GBbD
Been running, still running now
G (stop)
You'll spend a long time running (whoa) D# D
Next time around we will put you in your place
G (stop)
Your gonna get whats coming (whoa)
D#D
Best be watching your back everyday
GBb
You'll spend a long time running (whoa)
D#D
Next time around we will put you in your place
GBb
Your gonna get whats coming (whoa)
D#D
Best be watching your back everyday
G
For eternity!
Thanks for the view :) Check us out on Youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/aziandjamesacoustics
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Q:
Determine external screen connected to the MacBook computer using NSScreen
I need to show a window on the external screen (e.g. monitor connected to the Macbook). But I don't know how to distinguish between internal MacBook screen and external one. Calling of NSScreen.screens() returns list of all screens and in my case screen with index 0 is my connected external screen and screen with index 1 is my internal (built in) MacBook screen. But documentation says:
The screen at index 0 in the returned array corresponds to the primary screen of the user’s system.
So why is my connected screen marked as primary? Is external screen on all systems is marked as primary => can I suppose that on all systems with connected external screen is this screen on 0 position?
Also, OS X dock is visible only on my internal screen and I thought that dock is by default visible on the primary screen, but that is not true.
Is there a way to reliable determine the correct external screen?
A:
To expand on werediver's answer, here's one implementation:
extension NSScreen {
class func externalScreens() -> [NSScreen] {
guard let screens = NSScreen.screens else { return [] }
let description: NSDeviceDescriptionKey = NSDeviceDescriptionKey(rawValue: "NSScreenNumber")
return screens.filter {
guard let deviceID = $0.deviceDescription[description] as? NSNumber else { return false }
return CGDisplayIsBuiltin(deviceID.uint32Value) == 0
}
}
}
Usage is simple:
let externalScreens = NSScreen.externalScreens()
You might want to adjust the behavior in the guard statements' else blocks depending on your needs.
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They used to arrest loan sharks for rates like that. Now that the credit card companies charge the same rate anything goes. The part that some people don't understand is that if you lend money at a 30% rate, you are taking on considerable risk of not getting your money back. But if they understand the risk and are willing to take it on, it's their worry, not mine.
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CHICAGO (AP) It isn't SARS, but infectious disease specialists are trying to learn more about a recently discovered virus that some think may be the culprit in many unexplained respiratory illnesses around the world.
The exact prevalence of human metapneumovirus isn't known, but Yale University researchers recently found it in 6.4% of retested lab samples from 296 children with respiratory symptoms in late 2001 and early 2002, according to a study published Monday in the June edition of Pediatrics.
It was also discovered after the fact in about 4% of retested specimens taken from Rochester, N.Y.-area adults in 1999 through 2001, University of Rochester researchers reported in a Journal of Infectious Diseases article earlier this year.
While those sites are the only published evidence of the virus in the United States, it is thought to be far more prevalent and also has been found in Canada, Europe and Australia.
Like severe acute respiratory syndrome, human metapneumovirus has been associated with flu-like infections and pneumonia-like symptoms, but it does not appear to be as infectious as SARS, said Jeffrey Kahn of Yale University medical school, senior author of the Pediatrics study.
None of the patients in the Yale or Rochester reports died.
Symptoms may include nasal congestion, wheezing, and lung inflammation, and the symptoms may range from mild to serious enough to require hospitalization, Kahn said.
"It can be added to the list of newly emerging human respiratory viruses and really represents another challenge for the medical community," Kahn said.
It belongs to the paramyxovirus family, which also includes a common bug called respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. SARS is believed to be caused by a different pathogen.
The average child gets about 10 respiratory infections by age 1 and many more throughout childhood. Many are caused by cold viruses, influenza or RSV, but doctors aren't able to pinpoint a cause in about a third of the cases, Kahn said.
Human metapneumovirus may be the culprit in many such cases, he said.
The virus, nicknamed hMPV, was first identified about two years ago in the Netherlands but likely has been around for a long time, said researcherAnn Falsey of the University of Rochester.
It has less conspicuous features under the microscope than other viruses and may simply have gone undetected or misdiagnosed before the Dutch discovery, Falsey said.
"This may be one more piece to the puzzle as to what all these respiratory infections are," she said.
The Yale and Rochester researchers detected the virus in specimens retested after the Dutch discovery.
Early efforts to find a potential vaccine for the virus are under way, said Larry Anderson, a respiratory disease specialist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are no commercially available tests for hMPV; diagnoses can only be made at special research labs, Kahn said.
More research is needed to learn how common it is, whether it occurs seasonally like influenza, and to determine the range of symptoms it can cause and what treatments might help, Kahn said.
"There's a lot more that we don't know than we do know right now," he said.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Sony will have two PlayStation 4 bundles available to interested gamers on Black Friday later this month, the company has confirmed. Game console bundles are a great way to boost sales, as Microsoft has learned with multiple Xbox One bundles throughout 2014.
The PS4 Grand Theft Auto V bundle will include a 500GB PS4 console, free copy of GTA V, and a digital download voucher for The Last of Us Remastered, available for $399.99. The 500GB PS4 is $399 by itself, so gamers are receiving two free games with the bundle.
The other PS4 bundle features a 500GB PS4 unit, LittleBigPlanet 3 and Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham for $399.99.
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Lawrence County High School (Kentucky)
Lawrence County High School is a public high school in Louisa, Kentucky located at 100 Bulldog Lane, Louisa, KY 41230.
History
Lawrence County High School was established in September 1977. It shares its name with the county in which it is located, and offers public education to students of Lawrence County, KY between grades 9-12. The school offers many sports, an Army JROTC program, a vocational department, a music department, and many extracurricular activities.
Students attending LCHS are filtered in three elementary schools and one Christian school to create a centralized high school. The school is located next to the Lawrence County Board of Education building on the campus. The structure itself began as three circles, but has since had additions built.
Notable alumni
Jason Michael - NFL Offensive Coordinator for the Tennessee Titans
Gerad Parker - wide receivers coach for Penn State. Former interim head football coach at Purdue.
Chandler Shepherd - Major League pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles
References
External links
Category:Educational institutions with year of establishment missing
Category:Schools in Lawrence County, Kentucky
Category:Public high schools in Kentucky
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Q:
How to find number of matches to regexp in perl6?
In Perl 5 we can write
my @things = $text =~ /thing/g;
And $things in scalar context is number of non-overlapping occurrences of substring thing in string $text.
How to do this in Perl 6?
A:
You can do it like this:
my $text = 'thingthingthing'
my @things = $text ~~ m:g/thing/;
say +@things; # 3
~~ matches the left side against the right side, m:g makes the test return a List[Match] containing all the results.
A:
I found solution on RosettaCode.
http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Count_occurrences_of_a_substring#Perl_6
say '01001011'.comb(/1/).elems; #prints 4
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Q:
How to use setup method in moq?
I can try to understand Moq and how does it work? When we should use setup method? In my opinion,its documentation is too poor.Anyway. I want to share my code and what I wanted to do.
Class under test.
public interface IProduct
{
bool GiveCard();
float CalculateDiscount(decimal price, decimal discount);
}
public class Product : IProduct
{
private IProduct _product;
public string ProductName { get; set; }
public int StockCount { get; set; }
public float Discount { get; set; }
public float Price { get; set; }
public float CalculateDiscount(decimal price, decimal discount)
{
var discountedPrice = (price * discount) / 100;
Discount = price - discountedPrice;
return price - discountedPrice;
}
public bool GiveCard()
{
return CalculateDiscount(Price, Discount) > 300;
}
}
**Unit Test Class*
[Test]
public void GiveCard_DiscountedAmountGreaterThanOrEqual300_ReturnTrue()
{
var mockObject = new Mock<IProduct>();
var productService = new Product(mockObject.Object);
mockObject.Setup(x => x.CalculateDiscount(450, 20)).Returns(360);
var result = productService.GiveCard();
Console.WriteLine(result);
}
I get 0 as a Result although I setted calculation result to the Discount property in CalculateDiscount() method .
A:
_product object CalculateDiscount method is not used above. Hence, your mock object's setup does not get hit. You can try to this in your Product class:
public bool GiveCard()
{
return _product.CalculateDiscount(Price, Discount) > 300;
}
In this case, given mock object CalculateDiscount method get hit and return 360 for you.
if you use still setup like that : mockObject.Setup(x => x.CalculateDiscount(450, 20)).Returns(360);, you should supply productService.Price as 450 and productService.Discount as 20
Note: you can also assert that mockObject function get hit or not:
mockObject.Verify(mock => mock.CalculateDiscount(450,20), Times.Once());
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This application is filed under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119(e) for an invention disclosed in and claims priority of the provisional application (application Ser. No. 60/010,396) filed on Jan. 22, 1996.
The present invention is related to capillary electrophoresis, more particularly to capillary electrophoresis using a wide-bore capillary.
Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has found wide acceptance in the analytical sciences, with application in diverse fields, including pharmaceutical analysis and bioscience research. Frequently CE has been called upon to provide semi-preparative quantities for further analysis, such as for microsequencing or mass spectrometry (MS) analysis. Bundled capillaries, multiple injections combined with fraction collection, and larger capillaries have all been used with some success to provide nanomolar quantities of analytes, but these approaches have for the most part resulted in reduced performance of the CE system. Clearly the need exists for capillary separation methods to more closely match the input loading requirements of the analytical techniques with which they are mated.
An approach to increased loadability in CE is increasing the injected volume. Two methods could be used: (A) in a standard (e.g. 75 .mu.m i.d.) column (i.e., capillary), increasing the mount injected into the column, thereby increasing the injection plug length; and (B) increasing the inside diameter (i.d.) of the column (e.g., to 150.about.200 .mu.m) to keep the injection plug length constant for an increased sample loading. However, studies have indicated rapid decreases in separation efficiency when either of these two approaches are attempted.
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SeeSaw: Virtual Tour
As recently reported, new video-on-demand service SeeSaw has now entered a month-long closed beta stage, and thanks to a complicated ruse involving disguises, carefully doctored door access cards, a bit of Tom-Cruise-in-Mission-Impossible-style lowering ourselves from the ceiling, leaping from moving vehicle to moving vehicle, and pre-registering on the SeeSaw website, we’re in there.
For those not up to speed with these things, a while back BBC Worldwide announced plans for a multi-broadcaster video-on-demand system, with a working title of Project Kangaroo (a subtle nod to Hullabaloo and Custard, the 1960s marsupial launch mascots for BBC-2, we suspect).The plan was to offer back catalogue content from the Beeb, ITV and Channel Four to anyone willing to pay a fee. Based largely on the engine already used for BBC iPlayer, it would have brought together VoD content from the three main UK broadcasters for the first time.
However, while Project Kangaroo was still being developed, it was referred to the Competition Commission by the OFT, with concerns that “the platform could be too powerful”. With a lot of work already completed on the project, the technology was put up for sale, finally being purchased by Arquiva in July 2009. Amongst the assets purchased was the name to be used once the project launched fully: SeeSaw (probably not a subtle nod to the 1980s BBC pre-school programme, we suspect).
So, what is SeeSaw, we type rhetorically? Well, much the same as was planned, with deals having been signed with BBC Worldwide, Channel Four and Five to provide content, though instead of content being paid for by the end user, it is to be supported by advertising, much the same as you’ll see on 4OD and ITV Player, only with a friendlier, iPlayer style interface.
Thus far, presumably due to their rampant successophobia, ITV have yet to sign up for SeeSaw, but SeeSaw have signed content deals with a number of indies, making independently produced ITV drama series such as Bad Girls, Doc Martin and Footballers Wives available to the service. But enough of us copying things we’ve just read on MediaGuardian’s website, on with the screenies. Click on the images to see full-sized versions:
PRE-EMPTIVE DISLCAIMER: These shots and such are from the closed beta version of SeeSaw, and as such aren’t necessarily indicative of what the finished service will be like. It’s probably very close though. It’s not as if they’ll take it this far then redo the whole thing using 320x240 RealVideo windows and only carry programming from BBC Alba.
[4.45PM UPDATE: There are now a few updates to this article, helpfully marked ‘UPDATE’.]
Here’s the main window you’ll se as soon as you log in. The “highlight windows” at top can be moved around by clicking on the arrows, though they move from left to right automatically after a few seconds anyway. As you can see, a list of recent programming is shown beneath that (containing only Channel 4 and E4 shows right now), alongside buttons for the three broadcasters signed up thus far, and three genre icons, which we suspect will be used to contain the bought-in non-BBC/Four/Five programming when the whole thing goes live.
[UPDATE FOR FIREFOX USERS: One thing we’d meant to mention here. If you’re using Firefox and the AdBlockerPro add-on, you may well need to whitelist seesaw.com before you can watch anything. If not, it seems the whole thing hangs when it’s not allowed to access the streaming adverts. It’s easy enough to fix – right click on the ABP icon (bottom-right of your Firefox window), and select “Disable on seesaw.com”. Given the presence of adverts is how SeeSaw are paying their bills, it’s fair enough really.
Additional performance tip, this time relating to all Flash video on Firefox but worth pointing out here: You might notice a short pause every ten seconds or so when watching streaming video through Firefox. This is because the program takes a few microseconds out every ten seconds to save the state of your tabs. You can’t really stop this without losing the ability to restore your session after a crash, but you can reduce the impact by increasing the frequency of saves:
“By opening about:config in your Firefox address bar, then typing browser.sessionstore.interval in the filter box, you’ll see a value of 10000, which is in milliseconds. (Meaning your session is saved every 10 seconds.) I changed this to 300000, or every 5 minutes, as I don’t have the urgent need for tab restoration. If you feel like being more on the safe side, try increasing it to something a bit lower, say 120000, or every 2 minutes.”
And there you go.]
If you leave the highlight window alone for a moment, a short clip from the programme being displayed plays out. This is politely muted, but you can move the volume slider to hear the clip.
The SeeSaw content can be viewed by genre, if you so wish. Because we’re nice people, we’ve screengrabbed lists of the shows under each category, but we’ll come to that later.
You can also browse content by broadcaster. Hopefully this will grow to cover more than just three broadcasters as time goes on, and it’d be really good if the service eventually expanded to cover programming not deemed popular enough to be shown on ‘proper’ telly in the UK. We’re thinking of The Colbert Report, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, Newstopia, all the stuff we’ve been banging on about endlessly for the last few years, basically.
Once you select a programme, you’re presented with a familiar iPlayer-ish interface, with a listing of episodes to choose from. Where more than one series is available, each series is given its own sub-menu.
Much as with iPlayer, there’s a standard “Are You Sure You’re Old Enough To Watch This, Sonny?” warning for mature content, which we can’t help but feel completely fails to stop any kids watching this sort of thing. We just wish the VoD services had been around when we were tiny, we could have been secretly watching Spitting Image even after our parents realised just how unsuitable it was for an eight-year-old. Interesting to note that SeeSaw (currently) seems to be going with the BBC iPlayer “honour” system, as opposed to the 4OD system that offers parents the chance to set a PIN for age-restricted content.
We’re secretly hoping that when the full service launches, a little CGI Simon Bates will appear, telling you just why Nathan Barley is rated 18. It could pop up in the corner of your screen, like Microsoft Office’s popular animated paper clip.
Before each programme, one or two adverts are shown. It seems to us that you’re served one advert before the programme if it’s a BBC show, two if it’s from a commercial channel. For anyone used to watching BBC output on iPlayer, it can seem a little strange having your viewing of BBC shows interrupted by commercials (“Bah! I’ve already paid for this – abolish the entire BBC!”), but then if you were watching the exact same programmes on Dave, you’d be sitting through much longer breaks, so go figure. There’s another ad break halfway through each show, but again, a much shorter one than you’d see on a digital channel repeat. With programmes on the commercial channels, these are in the regular predetermined ad slots, but with BBC shows the commercial breaks crash haphazardly into the end of a scene (in the case of The Young Ones, just in time to bugger up a cutaway joke). So, pretty much the same as on Dave, GOLD, or Comedy Central, then.
The adverts themselves seem to be programme specific. Of the Young Ones episodes we watched, each was preceded by that annoying advert for vodka, where a bunch of insufferable trendies (the sort that only exist in adverts for aimed at Apple Mac-owning types) have a jolly old party in some woods. With the episodes of Nathan Barley we looked at, the commercials were for a hair-related product and a Jamie Oliver-fronted supermarket. While that could be down to coincidence, and will almost certainly change once the service grows in popularity, it could be annoying if you want to sit through an entire series of the same programme and have to sit through the same booze-related tale of some aspirational lifestyle twats.
While the adverts are being shown, the user interface is restricted to ‘pause’, ‘play’, ‘volume’ and ‘full screen’, to prevent you forwarding through them, or indeed, rewinding them to catch any interesting information you’d missed about interest rates. Interestingly, in the beta, outdated adverts occasionally crop up. We’ve been treated to an advert for Brüno (“in cinemas 17th July!”), and one of the bank adverts featuring Kevin Bishop that didn’t seem to appear quite so often after he’d acted like a colossal bellend at the 2008 British Comedy Awards.
Personal note: if the adverts being served up were also collected from the archives, we’d flipping love it. Now, this clearly isn’t going to happen (why would companies pay a fortune to advertising twonks for new ads if they were going to re-use old ones on here, a potential Future Of Television?), but just think how much more attention you’d pay to the commercials if classic Tango or Guinness spots were likely to be delivered. Hey, they’d still be advertising current products, and tapping into the mindsets of people who, by the very fact they’re using SeeSaw, are happy to meander down Recollection Crescent.
Broadcasts of Channel Four shows are preceded by the 4OD ident, zooming out to reveal a traditional Channel Four ident (council flat version). This is accompanied by Channel Four Announcer Lady telling you that you’re watching a 4OD programme on SeeSaw, which makes it feel a little bit like you’ve somehow unlocked an easter egg for ‘proper’ Channel Four. Sadly, BBC shows are only preceded by a generic BBC animation, with no announcer. Five programmes are… well, we didn’t bother with anything from Five, and won’t until The People Versus Jerry Sadowitz makes up part of their roster.
In what we assume is part of the beta process, some programmes are bookended by additional ‘sponsor’ bumper advertising. This seems to be taken from the original broadcast (Grolsch were sponsoring Four’s comedy output at around the time of Nathan Barley, weren’t they?), which is bad news for anyone looking to revisit shows from 2009’s Annoying Three Mobile-Based Stand-Up Routine ad bumpers era.
Politely and quite splendidly, once you stop jiggling your mouse pointer around the screen and just watch the programme on offer, everything but the programme itself fades modestly into darkness. A lovely little touch. And yes, we did specifically pick the episode of Nathan Barley where the opening credits were a Spectrum loading screen, just so we could screen capture it here.
As the programme is running, many programmes also offer subtitles, which are clean, crisp and unobtrusive enough. We suspect that by the time the full service goes live, all available shows may well have subtitles on offer, or at least those made in the UK, where the original Ceefax/Teletext subs should be available for use.
One of the main selling points of SeeSaw is that it plays host to many ‘classic’ Doctor Who stories. with one serial each from Doctors two through seven. While we admit we don’t really care about ‘classic’ Doctor Who, several of you probably do, so here’s a rundown of the stories in question: 1967’s Tomb Of The Cybermen, 1974’s Planet Of The Spiders, 1977’s The Talons of Weng-Chiang, 1984’s The Caves of Androzani, 1985’s The Mark of the Rani, and 1989’s Survival. As the screenshot above shows, the series are separated by year, which seems to be the case for most (but not all) BBC shows. 4OD programming tends to be sorted by series number. Not very interesting that fact, but a fact nonetheless.
You’ll note the similarity between the video pages for SeeSaw and…
…BBC’s iPlayer, which was (of course) the genesis of SeeSaw. However, where the programme information on iPlayer is tucked away in a drop-down info box, SeeSaw gives you the first few lines of the synopsis, cast list and so on. Again, not interesting, but still true.
Onto the content of the programmes themselves. Pleasingly, the service offers up full, uncut episodes of The Young Ones, with the episodes here being up to 35 minutes long, retaining the full band performances. This might sound a bit obvious, but in the past when shown on UK Gold, Paramount and even sometimes on BBC Two, episodes of the show have been crudely trimmed to 29 minutes (even less, in the case of commercial channels) in order to fit a half-hour slot. We get the full versions here, with (quite crucially) everything left uncensored too. Again, that might sound obvious, but even now channels like Dave hack a certain word from the “Kelloggs representative is pestered by a policeman in sunglasses” scene, in case we’ve missed out on the blindingly obvious point that it’s making, and somehow walk away from the episode actually thinking racism is cool.
In the case of older shows, a pleasing amount of supplementary data is made available. Yes, much, much more could have been included for trainspottery types like us, but we’ll try and keep things realistic. We can’t really expect deleted scenes and half an hour of rushes for every episode, and a full list of cast, writers and so on aren’t a bad compromise. If it helps any, fellow trainspottery types get over that, we’ve checked the cast list on SeeSaw for the Young Ones episode ‘Time’, and Paul Merton is credited as “Paul Merton”, not as “Paul Martin” (as seen in the actual end credits of the episode, with it being his pre-Equity name, as every schoolboy knows).
Note that for the BBC shows we’ve looked at, you have the option of Low, Medium and High bandwidth video options…
…while for the Channel Four output, this was missing, but you do have the option of subtitles on 4OD programmes, which you don’t get for the BBC programmes (we’d expect that to change by launch).
So, what programmes actually are there so far?
It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but with no huge surprises. Don’t expect to see Emu’s Broadcasting Company or The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show on there, for instance. We’ve screencapped lists of the shows by genre, so you can see what to expect in full:
COMEDY: Includes Brass Eye (but not the 2001 special), Peep Show, The Young Ones, Bottom, Big Train, Desmonds, Absolutely, The Adam and Joe Show, Father Ted, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle and surprisingly, ABC (Australia) show We Can Be Heroes, which we don’t think has even been shown on TV over here.
DRAMA: Includes Teachers, 56 episodes of Shameless, Social Secretary, Traffik, Nick Broomfield’s great one-off Ghosts, Quatermass, Cold Lazarus, (the 1981) Day Of The Triffids, and all that Doctor Who.
FACTUAL: Amongst other shows, Bodyshock, 2001 John Cleese and Liz Hurley BBC documentary series we’d utterly forgotten The Human Face, 1990 Attenborough series The Trials of Life, Michael Palin’s Around The World in 80 Days, The Root Of All Evil? and more Time Team than you could shake a pickaxe at.
LIFESTYLE: Not our bag, but it does include Kitchen Nightmares and Big Chef Takes on Little Chef, amongst lots of other shows we can’t really be bothered to list.
SPORT: A tricky thing to make available in such a service, what with sport being (a) best enjoyed live, and (b) very expensive to get the rights to broadcast, in many cases. Only four shows on offer, all from 4OD, with single episodes of Olympic History, Track and Field, Stars of Torino and Beach Volleyball on offer. We’re expecting the range to grow a lot when the service goes live, and if ITV do finally clamber aboard we’d love to see The Big Match Revisited here. If SeeSaw could get a deal with ESPN in place, output from ESPN Classic could be a very useful thing to dip into.
Right now, we count 32 BBC shows, 104 Channel Four shows and just ten from Five.
[UPDATE: Except, not for the first time, we’re utterly wrong – the screengrabs we’ve taken are only the highlighted shows by genre. By using the A-Z tabs, you’re able to uncover more surprises, such as the full series of Frank Skinner’s 1994 sitcom Blue Heaven, Dead Set (under ‘comedy’, when surely it’s more of a drama), all of Drop the Dead Donkey, That Mitchell and Webb Look (mentioned in a lot of the pre-publicity, so it’s a surprise it’s not on the “featured’ section), and The TV Book Club, amongst others.
We certainly hope that when the series goes live there’s a “view all” option on the drop-down box for the A-Z, or at the very least “view A-M / view N-Z” options, as trawling through each letter in case you’ve missed something you like is a bit of a chore.]
And there you go. Potential improvements? Well, a “play all” option for each series could be handy, especially for people pumping content from their computer to their ‘proper’ telly. After all, it’s a bit of a mood killer having to get up and dick around with your computer just when you’re nice and comfy on the sofa. Meanwhile, for people at the other end of the geek scale (hello!), it’d be handy if viewing full-screen video on your second monitor stayed full-size when you click on something on your primary monitor, though to be fair that’s likely to be an issue with Flash itself. Maybe a way of putting SeeSaw content through VLC would work here, but likely to cause issues with DRM.
While the selection of shows is likely to grow as time goes on, there is a notable lack of BBC programmes right now. This is almost certainly down to the fact all of the archive 4OD shows have already been Flashed up to the gills for, well, 4OD, while the BBC’s output would have to be prepared anew (which might explain why many BBC shows have three picture quality settings, and the 4OD shows don’t – the Beeb shows have been prepared especially for SeeSaw). We can but hope there’s a lot more BBC content up there not too long after the full launch, along with the rest of the Channel Four archive on 4OD.
With the whole enterprise geared towards maximising ad revenue, it’s likely only the most popular archive programming will be converted for the service, but we can only hope SeeSaw does the more honourable thing, and strives to become the Spotify of television. If the company are looking at a revenue model of free-with-ads, ad-free-with-sub (a la Spotify), it’d make huge sense to host as much content as possible. Would we pay £10 per month just to see a few dozen programmes that are on Dave, Comedy Central, E4 and More4 all the time anyway? Nope. Would we pay £10 per month for the chance to revisit Carrott’s Lib, The Pall-Bearer’s Revue or Who Dares Wins whenever we want? Yes, we certainly would.
All in all, SeeSaw does look like a very promising service. Even at this stage, there’s a lot there for people with all manner of tastes – even people stupid enough to like Balls Of Steel are catered for. Providing the service becomes popular, it would be great if it could reach a number of new platforms, such as the iPhone, Xbox 360, Wii, or maybe even a range of web-capable TV sets, such as Samsung Series 8, 9 or beyond [FAO Samsung – we are willing to mention your TVs as often as it takes to earn us a free one]. If SeeSaw does things correctly, who knows how successful it could become in the future. The interface is certainly slick enough to be made operational on a touch screen, suggesting it could become a killer app for the forthcoming iPad. Here’s hoping everything works out successfully.
No ITV, then?
It’s a bit of shame that ITV haven’t seen fit to get involved yet, given the fact they’ve got the UK’s most impressive programme archive outside of the BBC. Sadly, it seems they don’t really want us watching any of it. ITV have recently revamped their own ITV Player (itself now looking not unlike iPlayer, though running on Silverlight, presumably in order to annoy people), and taken the opportunity to remove almost all of the interesting shows from their “classics” section. When we looked at the service last April, archive gems like Catweazle, Whicker’s World, Press Gang, Doctor At Large and The Army Game were available. The “new and improved” ITV Classics section has removed all of those, replacing them with the likes of ‘Piers Morgan On’, ‘The Justin Lee Collins Show’ and ‘Paris Hilton’s British Best Friend’. The name of that section again: “TV Classics”.
Oh, ITV. Is there anything you won’t make a complete and utter bollocks of? Really, there's got to be a 40-50% chance that ITV Plc is all one big Producers-style scam, hasn’t there? Either that or everyone at ITV just wants the internet to go away, meaning it would somehow become 1980 again, and they can get their viewers and Muppet Show back.
Pop Fact: “Piers Morgan On” is so called because by the time to continuity announcer says “Now on ITV1, it’s time for Piers Morgan On” everyone will have switched over anyway. Giving it a longer title would merely have proved pointless.
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Currently, wireless communications systems find application in many contexts involving the transfer of information from one point to another, and there exists a wide range of modalities suited to meet the particular needs of each. These systems include cellular telephones and two-way radios for distant voice communications, as well as shorter-range data networks for computer systems, among many others. Generally, wireless communications involve a radio frequency (RF) carrier signal that is modulated to represent data and the modulation, transmission, receipt and demodulation of the signal conforming to a set of standards. For wireless data networks, example standards include Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11), BLUETOOTH® (IEEE 802.15.1), and ZIGBEE® (IEEE 802.15.4), which are generally time domain duplex systems where a bidirectional link is emulated on a time divided communications channel.
A fundamental component of a wireless communications system is the transceiver which includes the transmitter and receiver circuitry. The transceiver, with its digital baseband subsystem, encodes the digital data to a baseband signal and modulates the baseband signal with an RF carrier signal. The modulation utilized for WLAN includes orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (16 QAM, 64 QAM); for WLAN includes GFSK and 4/8-DQPSK; and for Zigbee includes BPSK and OQPSK (or MSK).
Upon receipt of the signal from the antenna, the transceiver downconverts the RF signal, demodulates the baseband signal and decodes the digital data represented by the baseband signal. The antenna connected to the transceiver converts the electrical signal to electromagnetic waves, and vice versa. Depending upon the particular configuration, the transceiver may include a dedicated transmit (TX) line and a dedicated receive (RX) line or the transceiver may have a combined transmit/receive line. In the case of separate TX and RX lines, the transmit line and the receive line are typically tied to a single antenna, particularly for low-cost and/or small-size applications.
The circuitry between the transceiver and the antenna is commonly referred to as the front end module (FEM). The FEM includes an RF power amplifier (PA) which generates output transmit signals by amplifying weaker input signals in wireless devices, such as cellular telephone handsets. Many of these communication devices are configured to operate in different frequency bands for different communication systems. For example, third generation (3G) cellular communication systems, 4G cellular (LTE) systems, 802.11 WLAN systems, etc.
It is thus desirable to have a front end module capable of meeting the performance requirements of modern wireless standards such as 802.11, 3G and 4G cellular systems while reducing manufacturing complexities, size and cost.
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Month: March 2016
2. March Storm Home District Blitz extended to support H.R. 4752 (SEDS Act)
By Dale Skran, Chair, NSS Policy Committee
On Wednesday March 16, 2016, Representative Dana Rohrabacher introduced the Space Exploration, Development, and Settlement Act of 2016 (H.R. 4752). This date is the 90th anniversary of the launch of the first liquid fueled rocket in 1926 by Robert Goddard. NSS, working with our partners in the Alliance for Space Development, has been pushing for the SEDS Act starting in January 2015. The introduction of the Bill is an important milestone for NSS and for our future in space.
Now is the time to move things to the next level. Call, write, or email your Representative and urge him or her to co-sponsor H.R. 4752. The message is simple – this is a great Bill, it adds nothing to the budget, and it will give NASA an inspiring and important long term goal. Urge your Representative to contact Tony DeTora, Representative Rohrabacher’s space staffer, to sign on.
With this auspicious event, we have decided to extend the March Storm Home District Blitz in support of H.R. 4752. We have just completed a very successful Washington DC based March Storm event held March 13- 17. This year’s topics are:
Ensure a low-risk gapless transition from ISS to private space stations in LEO, with NASA serving as an early customer (see DRAFT BILL).
Require commercial-style acquisition and development of lunar and asteroid resources to be used in support of future lunar bases and voyages to Mars.
Make space development and settlement part of NASA’s official mission (SEDS Act)
Using the same materials as the DC March Storm, local groups arranged to visit their Congressperson’s home district offices during the March 21-25 recess (or soon thereafter), just like the NSS/SFF 2015 August Home District Blitz. This activity is being extended to support H.R. 4752.
NSS Board of Directors member Peter Garretson is co-author of an article on space solar power in the Montgomery Advertiser, stating:
Being the first to establish Space Solar Power systems will establish who is the “Saudi Arabia of Green Energy.” Space Solar Power is as significant an industrial development as the airplane, the automobile, the locomotive, or the steam ship. It will determine which is the richest and most powerful nation on Earth and beyond.
…Already China is ahead in the only space race that matters—a competition that will decide who writes the rules in the multi-hundred-of-trillions-of-dollars economy that will emerge (yes, you read that right). They have a national program in Space Solar Power. America does not.
…China—the country that built the massive three gorges dam, completed its Shanghai maglev high speed rail in just three years—is planning a hundred kilowatt on-orbit demo just nine years from now, and a hundred megawatt demo five years later.
The Space Exploration, Development, and Settlement Act of 2016 (H.R. 4752) has been introduced by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher “to require the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to investigate and promote the exploration and development of space leading to human settlements beyond Earth, and for other purposes.”
The National Space Society urges you to call or write your Congressional Representative today and request that he or she co-sponsor H.R. 4752 (the Space Exploration, Development, and Settlement Act of 2016). You should specifically ask that the space staffer for your Representative should contact Tony DeTora in Congressman Rohrabacher’s office to become a co-sponsor.
This bill states: “The Congress declares that expanding permanent human presence beyond low-Earth orbit in a way that enables human settlement and a thriving space economy will enhance the general welfare of the United States and requires the Administration to encourage and support the development of permanent space settlements.”
It also provides a definition: “The term ‘space settlement’ means any community of humans living beyond Earth’s atmosphere that is able to economically sustain its population through a neutral or positive balance of trade of goods and services, and is able to expand its habitable real estate as need and desire of the community may warrant and international law permits.”
Dr. Ellen Ochoa is the winner of the Society’s 2016 Space Pioneer Award for Non-Legislative Government Service. This award recognizes Ochoa’s career serving as a professional engineer, a shuttle astronaut, the first hispanic woman in space, and subsequently in very important management positions in NASA, including her current position as the Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Ellen will accept the award on May 19 at the National Space Society’s 2016 International Space Development Conference® (isdc.nss.org/2016). This will be the 35th ISDC and will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel and Casino. The conference will run from May 18-22, 2016. The public is invited to attend ISDC in order to view the award presentation.
About the Space Pioneer Award
The Space Pioneer Award consists of a silvery pewter Moon globe cast by the Baker Art Foundry in Placerville, California, from a sculpture originally created by Don Davis, the well-known space and astronomical artist. The globe, as shown at left, which represents multiple space mission destinations and goals, sits freely on a brass support with a wooden base and brass plaque, which are created by Michael Hall’s Studio Foundry of Driftwood, TX. NSS has several different categories under which the award is presented each year, starting in 1988. Some of the recent winners of Space Pioneer Awards include Elon Musk, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bigelow, citizen astronaut Anouseh Ansari, Dr. Kip Thorne, and the European Space Agency (ESA) Rosetta mission team.
About Dr. Ellen Ochoa
After receiving a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1985, Dr. Ochoa did research at both Sandia National Laboratories and NASA Ames Research Center. Her achievements include significant engineering work in optics, in information (signal-to-noise) in images, and as Chief of the Intelligent Systems Technology Branch at NASA Ames. She also served as a shuttle astronaut for over a decade, making four flights, from 1993 to 2002. Ochoa then served as Deputy Director and Director of Flight Crew Operations at Johnson Space Center, focusing on the Astronaut Office and Aircraft Operations, and later as Deputy Center Director. Then, on the first day of 2013, Dr. Ochoa became the Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, a position she currently holds. Johnson has been the focus for human spacecraft operations for most of NASA’s history. Dr. Ochoa’s directorship of JSC will have a significant impact on the future of human spaceflight.
“Lt Gen. Zhang Yulin, deputy chief of the armament development department of the Central Military Commission, suggested that China would next begin to exploit Earth-Moon space for industrial development. The goal would be the construction of space-based solar power satellites that would beam energy back to Earth.”
The entrepreneurial company Blue Origin is the winner of the Society’s 2016 Space Pioneer Award for Science and Engineering. This award recognizes the company’s two recent major achievements: (1) The first successful vertical landing by a large rocket which has reached space and carried a payload (an empty passenger capsule which descended separately by parachute). This flight by the New Shepard vehicle occurred on Nov. 23, 2015 at the company’s test range near the remote West Texas town of Van Horn. (2) Subsequently, the same rocket was flown again and performed a second perfect landing in January 2016, which constitutes the first re-use of a large rocket which has reached space. Creating reusable rockets has been the “holy grail” for many in the space industry for decades, and is a fundamental requirement for spaceflight to be inexpensive enough for general and large scale use.
Mr. Rob Meyerson, the company’s President, will accept the award in the name of Blue Origin on May 22 at the National Space Society’s 2016 International Space Development Conference® (isdc.nss.org/2016). This will be the 35th ISDC and will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel and Casino. The conference will run from May 18-22, 2016. NSS invites the public to attend ISDC and witness this award presentation.
About the Space Pioneer Award
The Space Pioneer Award consists of a silvery pewter Moon globe cast by the Baker Art Foundry in Placerville, California, from a sculpture originally created by Don Davis, the well-known space and astronomical artist. The globe, as shown at left, which represents multiple space mission destinations and goals, sits freely on a brass support with a wooden base and brass plaque, which are created by Michael Hall’s Studio Foundry of Driftwood, TX. NSS has several different categories under which the award is presented each year, starting in 1988. Some of the recent winners of Space Pioneer Awards include Elon Musk, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bigelow, citizen astronaut Anouseh Ansari, Dr. Kip Thorne, and the European Space Agency (ESA) Rosetta mission team.
About Blue Origin and Its Reusable Rocket Development Program
Blue Origin is a privately funded company set up by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos. It designed and built the single stage New Shepard rocket as a means of developing a reusable vehicle and to provide sub-orbital launch services for passengers. The company has about 400 employees at several locations. It intends to build a rocket manufacturing plant near Cape Canaveral in Florida and is developing a new methane and liquid oxygen fueled rocket engine, the BE-4, which will be used to power orbital rockets, including ones of its own design. The company’s name refers to the Blue Planet: Earth, the origin of humanity. It has a headquarters in Kent, Washington, near Seattle.
The National Space Society congratulates the Space Solar Power D3 (SSPD3) team on sweeping the awards in a March 2 multi-departmental competition to find promising new technology ideas that could simultaneously advance diplomacy, defense and development (D3). The SSPD3 team proposal was titled “Carbon-Free Energy for Global Resilience and International Goodwill.”
“Our multi-agency industry team proposal was in the top 1% of ideas picked to present to the very senior panel including the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the D3 Innovation Challenge, a first-of-a-kind contest for ideas sourced from across the Department of Defense, Department of State, and United States Agency for International Development by the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State themselves,” said team member Peter Garretson. “Our idea to start a national Space Solar Power Program won hands down, taking four of seven possible awards,” he said.
Paul Jaffe and Peter Garretson with Awards
Space Solar Power (SSP) is an energy concept where an orbiting satellite gathers energy from sunlight in space and transmits it wirelessly to Earth. SSP can solve our energy and greenhouse gas emissions problems and provide large quantities of energy to each and every person on Earth with very little environmental impact. This was the first time that SSP was briefed at such a high level.
The space solar power D3 team includes members of the Air Force’s Air University, the Naval Research Lab, Northrop Grumman, NASA, the Joint Staff Logistics and Energy Division, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration, the Army, and the Space Development Steering Committee.
“Space Solar Power has made a giant leap forward thanks to Paul Jaffe, Peter Garretson, and the rest of the team,” said Dale Skran, NSS Executive Vice President and Chairman of the NSS Policy Committee, adding, “We at NSS look forward to continuing to promote SSP at the national and international levels.” Space Solar Power is one of the milestones that NSS envisions on the road to a prosperous future where the resources of space come to benefit us on Earth. The NSS Roadmap to Space Settlement (www.nss.org/roadmap ) documents this and other milestones.
Further Resources:
NSS has created the world’s largest online library about SSP at nss.org/ssp.
In 2015 a challenge was issued across the Department of Defense, Department of State, and the US Agency for International Development for the best ideas to advance U.S. diplomacy, defense and development (the 3 D’s of foreign policy). Of 500 ideas submitted, the D3 Space Solar Power D3 multi-agency-industry submission was in the top 1% of ideas chosen to present at the D3 innovation summit. This idea won 4 of the 7 possible awards: the Innovation Award, the People’s Choice Award, the best Interagency Collaboration Award, and also best Presentation. An 11-minute video of the presentation is below.
National Space Society governor Jeff Greason is the winner of the Society’s 2016 Space Pioneer Award for Entrepreneurial Business. This award recognizes Jeff’s successes in founding and helping manage and direct technical work at XCOR and other entrepreneurial space companies. It also recognizes his bold spirit in founding Agile Aero, Inc., a new company that will seek to break through a rapid prototyping barrier that has slowed aerospace development for the last several decades.
Jeff will accept the award on May 21 at the National Space Society’s 2016 International Space Development Conference® (isdc.nss.org/2016). This will be the 35th ISDC and will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel and Casino. The conference will run from May 18-22, 2016.
The Space Pioneer Award consists of a silvery pewter Moon globe cast by the Baker Art Foundry in Placerville, California, from a sculpture originally created by Don Davis, the well-known space and astronomical artist. The globe, as shown at left, which represents multiple space mission destinations and goals, sits freely on a brass support with a wooden base and brass plaque, which are created by Michael Hall’s Studio Foundry of Driftwood, TX. NSS has several different categories under which the award is presented each year, starting in 1988. Some of the recent winners of Space Pioneer Awards include Elon Musk, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bigelow, citizen astronaut Anouseh Ansari, Dr. Kip Thorne, and the European Space Agency (ESA) Rosetta mission team.
About Jeff Greason
Jeff Greason sits on the NSS Board of Governors and is a recent co-founder and new CEO of Agile Aero, Inc., a company targeting rapid prototyping capabilities for aerospace vehicles. Jeff’s achievements include being one of the four co-founders of XCOR (where he is also a board member) and leading the engineering team that developed ten different long-life, highly-reusable liquid-fueled rocket engines, a low-cost liquid propellant piston pump, and two manned reusable rocket aircraft – the EZ-Rocket and other similar vehicles. Agile Aero (www.agile.aero), which he recently founded with several other XCOR employees, is intended to help speed up the typically long vehicle development process which strains the finances and resources of many aerospace companies. He expects the results to aid other aerospace companies in making their visions a reality. The company is located in Midland, TX. Jeff was also a member of the President’s Human Space Flight Review (Augustine II) Committee in 2009.
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Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Society
4.11 - 1251 ratings - Source
For a free 30-day online trial to this title, visit www.sagepub.com/freetrial Labeled either as the qnext industrial revolutionq or as just qhype, q nanoscience and nanotechnologies are controversial, touted by some as the likely engines of spectacular transformation of human societies and even human bodies, and by others as conceptually flawed. These challenges make an encyclopedia of nanoscience and society an absolute necessity. Providing a guide to what these understandings and challenges are about, the Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Society offers accessible descriptions of some of the key technical achievements of nanoscience along with its history and prospects. Rather than a technical primer, this encyclopedia instead focuses on the efforts of governments around the world to fund nanoscience research and to tap its potential for economic development as well as to assess how best to regulate a new technology for the environmental, occupational, and consumer health and safety issues related to the field. Contributions examine and analyze the cultural significance of nanoscience and nanotechnologies and describe some of the organizations, and their products, that promise to make nanotechnologies a critical part of the global economy. Written by noted scholars and practitioners from around the globe, these two volumes offer nearly 500 entries describing the societal aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Key Themes- Art, Design, and Materials- Bionanotechnology Centers- Context- Economics and Business- Engagement and the Public- Environment and Risk- Ethics and Values- Geographies and Distribution- History and Philosophy- Integration and Interdisciplinarity- Nanotechnology Companies- Nanotechnology OrganizationsIn the 1960s, GE was small compared to the IBMa#39;s of the computer industry,
alongside Burroughs, Control Data ... Because the temperature beneath the
Eartha#39;s crust rises proportionally with distance (10 to 50 degrees Celsius for every
1, 000anbsp;...
Title
:
Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Society
Author
:
David H. Guston
Publisher
:
SAGE Publications - 2010-07-14
ISBN-13
:
You must register with us as either a Registered User before you can Download this Book. You'll be greeted by a simple sign-up page.
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LAHORE - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called upon religious scholars to contribute towards peace and prosperity of Pakistan by playing a role in eliminating extremism and terrorism and by promoting tolerance and inter-faith harmony.
He made these comments during the National Seerat Conference on the topic of "Interfaith Harmony in the Light of Islamic Teachings and Life of Holy Prophet Muhammad [Peace be Upon Him]" in Lahore on the occasion of Eid Milad-un-Nabi on Monday. The conference was attended by scholars belonging to different religions.
"Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance and it is regrettable that certain elements distorted this very image by spreading anarchy and bloodshed", the Prime Minister stressed.
The Prime Minister pointed out that due to the efforts and sacrifices of the national leadership, religious scholars, armed forces and police the hideouts of the terrorists are close to being eliminated. At this critical juncture it is the responsibility of the Ulema to reestablish the link between Islam and peace by taking guidance from the life and teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
During his address, the Prime Minister pointed out that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) had laid down the first written constitution in the form of Misaq-e-Madina as well as the first charter of human rights in the form of his last Hajj Sermon. He said these two precedents should serve as a beacon of light for Muslims and enable them to develop good relations with followers of other faiths and religions.
Nawaz Sharif added that Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal had envisioned Pakistan as a modern Islamic state, and that it was the need of the hour for the Ulema to lead the state the society to achieve that long-cherished dream.
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Resonant Charge Transport in Conjugated Molecular Wires beyond 10 nm Range.
Using a scanning tunneling microscope, we measured high-bias conductance of single polyporphyrin molecular wires with lengths from 1.3 to 13 nm. We observed several remarkable transport characteristics, including multiple sharp conductance peaks, conductances as high as 20 nS in wires with lengths of >10 nm, and nearly length-independent conductance (attenuation <0.001 Å(-1)). We carried out first-principles simulations on myriad metal-molecule-metal junctions. The simulations revealed that the measured conductance is coherent resonant transport via a delocalized molecular orbital.
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Two characters from The Flash will be interacting with Captain Lance soon.
While we transcribe our interview with Paul Blackthorne to promote Wednesday night’s new episode of Arrow, we have a spoiler that came up in the discussion: The Flash characters of Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) and Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) will be making their way to Starling City sometime soon for help on a case, in which they’ll be interacting with Blackthorne’s Quentin Lance.
We’re not sure yet exactly when that will happen, but still, cool news, right?
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8PM on The CW; Arrow is on Wednesdays at 8.
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Kategorie-Archiv: sizzling hot
If you're all about the iPhone, these are some of the best games you can play. Our "Quarterly Reports" provide a handy list of the 25 best games for each platform, both for the current year so far and for all time. There's a separate report for. The iPhone has arguably the best games of any mobile platform. Come check out our picks of the best iPhone games for every genre.
The tense, claustrophobic atmosphere schalke vs monchengladbach plentiful jump-scares make FNAF a nerve-shredding recipe for PTSD. Casino california map card packs gewinnspiel supermarkt as in-app purchases iPad only Hearthstone: The important thing is to keep your capital surrounded by territory rather than letters. But even when glossing over the text and simply continuing 888 casino blackjack jackpot 777 your journey into the unknown, Voyageur proves compelling - not least http://www.pegi.info/de/index/id/55/ you do start chipping away at the underlying story. But gay online spiele best thing is the way that every game is different, thanks to the random 600 eur to cad.
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Careers
Reimagine tomorrow with CommScope. If you are passionate about building innovative systems for a better world, we need you on our team. Our talent is comprised of professionals with a wide range of experience who deliver unique solutions. Whether you’re an expert industry veteran or a new professional — your work will leave an impact. The future is powered by you. Join the CommScope team today.
Airvana Introduces Revolutionary Small Cell System for Enterprises and Public Spaces
“Operators and building owners look for cost-effective, IT-friendly ways to deliver small cell capabilities in enterprise and public space facilities,” said Ken Rehbehn, principal analyst with Yankee Group.
Airvana, a leading provider of small cell solutions, today announced OneCell™, an LTE small cell system for enterprise and public spaces. OneCell delivers consistently superior LTE performance throughout a wide array of venues from office buildings to shopping centers to airports, with the economics and simplicity of managed Wi-Fi.
Data usage on mobile devices is exploding, particularly indoors. The Small Cell Forum and numerous analysts have cited that 80% of mobile broadband usage occurs indoors.
However, today’s enterprise small cell solutions are limited to a single wireless provider and suffer from inter-cell interference and cell border issues. OneCell addresses these limitations by providing a multi-operator small cell solution with up to a 10x performance improvement, at a fraction of the cost of distributed antenna systems (DAS).
Based on cloud RAN principles, the OneCell system consists of a Baseband Controller and multiple Radio Points. Together they form a single “super” cell that delivers consistently high quality LTE service across indoor spaces ranging from 50,000 to 1,000,000 square feet without handovers or inter-cell interference issues. OneCell supports plug-and-play deployment over standard Ethernet cabling and switches, eliminating the need for proprietary networks or expensive optical links. Further, its unique small cell cloud RAN architecture dramatically simplifies radio frequency planning and integration with wireless macro networks.
“Operators and building owners look for cost-effective, IT-friendly ways to deliver small cell capabilities in enterprise and public space facilities,” said Ken Rehbehn, principal analyst with Yankee Group. “An approach like Airvana’s—which leverages standard Ethernet networks, hides complexity, isolates signaling activity, and aims to make a virtue out of small cell overlap in dense network environments—promises substantial capacity and performance gains.”
By eliminating handovers and interference zones, OneCell also provides the low latency needed for voice over LTE (VoLTE). More than 35 operators around the world, including AT&T, Verizon, and SK Telecom, are in varying stages of VoLTE service implementation, with many of these expected to make initial deployments within the next year.
“There’s a clear interest among operators in serving indoor enterprise environments with scalable, distributed solutions that are also cost-effective. OneCell is well-distinguished from solutions that address this space using macrocell baseband units, and is particularly attractive compared to the cost of traditional Distributed Antenna Systems,” said Ed Gubbins, senior analyst with Current Analysis. “Airvana has an established track record and credibility in small cells, and solutions such as OneCell that use standard Ethernet LANs in these scenarios will be compelling to operators and enterprises alike.”
“Providing high-quality enterprise LTE user experience and simple, economical deployments are no longer mutually exclusive,” said Vedat Eyuboglu, co-founder and CTO, Airvana. “Mobile operators can now add 4G to their large base of in-building deployments without having to fund costly upgrades to existing 2G/3G DAS systems. The strong interest we’re receiving from mobile operators and enterprises is testament to the need for this new and better approach.”
Airvana will demonstrate OneCell in booth #14 at the Small Cells World Summit taking place June 10-12, 2014 in London, and at the DAS and Small Cells Congress taking place June 17-18, 2014 in Las Vegas.
OneCell is available now for trials, and will be generally available in Q1 2015.
About Airvana
Airvana enables mobile operators to deliver dramatically better service to subscribers in the most challenging and high-value environments: offices, public spaces, and in the home. Airvana is the global small cell market share leader. The company’s innovative 3G and LTE small cells ensure “five bar” coverage and superior data performance. Airvana is a founding member of the Small Cell Forum and has 14 years of experience providing commercial wireless equipment to over 90 operators globally.
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At an abandoned police post by a key intersection occupied by anti-government protesters in Bangkok, rally guard Ton has no doubt who is in charge of security.
"We're in control of the city now," he says.
In a twist to a peculiarly Thai protest, police have almost deserted the streets during a new round of mass rallies aiming to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and curb the political dominance of her brother, former Premier Thaksin.
"We're providing the security for the protests, not the police," says 25-year-old volunteer Ton. "The police have left. I have no idea where they are."
The demonstrators want Yingluck to resign to make way for an unelected "people's council".
The civilian guards, identifiable by their black T-shirts, armbands and walkie-talkies, have stepped into the apparent vacuum left by the police, taking on traffic and crowd control.
"There hasn't been any real police power for a long time now ... because they only serve Thaksin, not the people," says guard Noppadon Isaraphukdee, 48.
During the weeks of mass rallies, Yingluck has adopted defensive tactics to stop violence spiralling out of control, fearing widespread clashes could precipitate a military coup.
She has been applauded by the United States for showing "restraint", in contrast to a military crackdown on opposition protests under the previous Government that left dozens dead in 2010.
Even if Yingluck wanted to send out troops to restore order, it is uncertain whether they would obey her.
The military - traditionally a staunch supporter of the anti-Thaksin royalist establishment - has said it will not crack down on the rallies, and the army chief has even refused to rule out a coup.
Meanwhile in a near-daily dance, police have retreated to barracks or backstreets, ceding ground to demonstrators and even allowing them to occupy police property.
When live ammunition has been used it has been by unidentified gunmen, whose victims include a policeman.
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Ambrose ire all smoke, no fire
Rona Ambrose, Stephen Harper’s Minister of Health was “outraged” last Thursday by the Supreme Court of Canada when it approved oral ingestion of cannabis by other means than simply smoking it.
And then they unanimously said that imposing this view on the Canadian public, in the restrained language of the courts, was “arbitrary” and therefore unconstitutional and void.
Rona Ambrose is angry because the Supreme Court is making law that she disagrees with — but which most Canadians would accept as sensible. Frankly, if this government could calm down and be more logical then nobody would have to go to the Supreme Court in the first place.
But since Ambrose is part of a government that negates all science except the science it approves of, where is a citizen to turn if not to the court system?
A stance like hers brings further intellectual discredit on the already intellectually turgid Conservative government. It becomes another example of what happens when you try to shape the world of genuine scientific inquiry into a production line for saleable goods.
So Ms. Ambrose has to fabricate reality, in the best tradition of Madison Avenue – just like what her friends in the corporate sector, who follow the famous example of the tobacco industry, do for a living.
Cannabis — hemp, marijuana, pot — is here to stay, “Ambrosian” pronouncements notwithstanding, because it’s being slowly but steadily resurrected from the dank crypt that its political and moral (and business) detractors attempted to bury it in. And for good reasons.
Cannabis is here to stay because it works, and it’s really relatively safe — remarkably so, in fact, compared to many compounds we routinely and unhesitatingly ingest, inhale and otherwise absorb with unmitigated enthusiasm.
The temporary abolition of hemp — in English, that’s what cannabis or marijuana has been called throughout most of recorded history — which Rona Ambrose is so keen to extend, began in earnest in the 1930s, not for health reasons but for political and economic ones. You can read the whole fascinating story in the classic Jack Herer book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, now reprinted online. I suspect you will find it an astonishing read.
More importantly, you will understand why Ms. Ambrose has departed so far from reality when she bellowed forth her “outrage," which is an escalation from her mood in April, when she was merely “deeply concerned.” Public Safety Minister Stephen Blaney joined the chorus of agitation, complaining vociferously that they were all were illegal.
Proving that indeed nobody really cared, the more realistic and pragmatic councillors and Mayor of Vancouver calmly bypassed all this Sturm und Drang instead rolling up their sleeves and getting to work on regulating the dispensaries.
But of course, Ambrose and Blaney work for the Harper government. That means what they say in public is a part of a carefully constructed cover story for their real agenda, carefully worked out with partners in the realms of ideology and of corporate profitability. Just as Vic Toews said, “You’re either with us or you’re with the child pornographers”, or Joe Oliver accused James Hansen of NASA of “crying wolf” over climate change, emotive language in this government’s pronouncements — more than with most — is almost always a front for a deeper, more cold-blooded motivation.
I never intended to become an activist. As a marine scientist, climate change has been a big focus of my career over the last 16 years. I’ve worked with governments on their climate plans, people in...
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Bandai Namco is continuing to release more screenshots of its upcoming anime-style MMORPG Blue Protocol ahead of the closed beta.
Bandai Namco is continuing to release more screenshots of its upcoming anime-style MMORPG Blue Protocol ahead of the closed beta.
Today we get two new screenshots released on the official Twitter account (sources 1, 2).
The first screenshots show Petari, the quest receptionist. The second image showcases MInsterhorn, a thriving farming village surrounded by fields.
You can check them out below.
Unfortunately, it isn’t all good news. Due to the declaration of the state of emergency in Japan to slow down the spread of Coronavirus, the upcoming livestream planned for April 20 has been Canceled to preserve the health of the staff.
The schedule of the upcoming closed beta won’t be affected (you still have a few days to register) and further details will be provided on Twitter in the coming days.
If you want to see more of Blue Protocol, you can take a look at the latest gameplay, the latest screenshots, even more images, another gallery, more extensive gameplay footage, at even more screenshots, the previous gallery, some more recent gameplay footage, the previous trailer, the initial announcement trailer and the first screenshots, and the second batch of screenshots, another gallery, a recent look at the Aegis Fighter class, and another at the Twin Striker and Blast Archer classes.
You can also enjoy more videos of the character creation for an older guy, a cute girl, a pair featuring a boy and a sexy older sister-type, and plenty of recent gameplay from the alpha test.
Blue Protocol is an online JRPG in development for PC by a team named Project Blue Sky, which is a joint initiative of Bandai Namco Online and Bandai Namco Studios. At the moment, there is no set release date.
While a western release has not been announced yet, the recent discovery of a career opportunity ad for a localization director strongly hinted to an upcoming English version of the game. The developers themselves also mentioned the goal of launching the game globally.
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Q:
write to file with tee command in python
I have a python script with variable names e.g V and It. I make a filename based on the parameter as following:
file_out=io.open("file_Iter" + str(It) + "_V_" +str(V)+".txt", 'w')
Then I'd like to redirect all my terminal output to a this file, so I use this command:
os.system("echo - START RUN $(LANG=en_US date +%b_%d_%Y_%k_%M)- | tee -a $file_out")
The file_out is created and also the echo command is shown correctly on the terminal but it is not written to file_out. If in tee command, I put e.g tee testfile.txt, then this file is created and also echo command writes in it.
Q: How should I change tee in order to write to the file that is created by variable names?
A:
I'm not sure I understood it correctly, but I guess that what you want to do is the following:
fileName = "file_Iter" + str(It) + "_V_" +str(V)+".txt"
file_out=io.open(fileName, 'w')
os.system("echo - START RUN $(LANG=en_US date +%b_%d_%Y_%k_%M)- | tee -a " + fileName)
Pay attention to the end of the command, where fileName is concatenated.
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The dynamical conductance of graphene tunnelling structures.
The dynamical conductances of graphene tunnelling structures were numerically calculated using the scattering matrix method with the interaction effect included in a phenomenological approach. The overall single-barrier dynamical conductance is capacitative. Transmission resonances in the single-barrier structure lead to dips in the capacitative imaginary part of the response. This is different from the ac responses of typical semiconductor nanostructures, where transmission resonances usually lead to inductive peaks. The features of the dips depend on the Fermi energy. When the Fermi energy is below half of the barrier height, the dips are sharper. When the Fermi energy is higher than half of the barrier height, the dips are broader. Inductive behaviours can be observed in a double-barrier structure due to the resonances formed by reflection between the two barriers.
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For 32 years Tony Laing was the last Honduran player to score in the World Cup. Now he’s helping New Orleans re-emerge from the ruins while coaching in the city’s bustling Spanish-speaking leagues
Eduardo Antonio Laing is the new New Orleans. For 32 years Tony Laing was the last Honduran player to score in the World Cup. His flying header in 1982 against Northern Ireland made him famous in his homeland where he is forever known as “the needle” and strangers stopped to shake his hand and shout his name.
“I think about that goal all the time,” Laing says in Spanish through an interpreter. “It’s a memory I cannot erase.”
Since 2007, Tony Laing has been painting buildings in New Orleans. He drives a beaten old white pickup truck and blends into the hum of the city not as an international soccer hero but an anonymous face with a ladder and bucket slapping flat latex on the sides of revival. In the rise of a re-building New Orleans people drive by his work without a thought as to how it got there, never knowing the man who painted it once made a nation glow.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tony Laing’s equalizer against Honduras at the 1982 World Cup made him a national hero.
That one of Honduras’s most-beloved soccer heroes lives almost unknown here is as much a story of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina as it is about him. He is a piece of the invisible city – the one you find along Williams Boulevard in the suburb of Kenner, where storefront signs are in Spanish, gleaming new grocery store chains sell Central American preserves, and newspapers with names like Meridiano 90 and El Tiempo sit in racks outside.
You do not find the new New Orleans in many portrayals of a re-emerging city. It gets lost in the narratives of race, recovery and the fight over gentrification. But the tens of thousands who came here from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico in the last decade are part of the post-Katrina story. They arrived for rebuilding; ripping out waterlogged floors, knocking down mildewed walls and reviving blocks given up for lost.
“So many of them stayed,” says Raul Carbajal who has hosted a Spanish-language sports radio show in New Orleans since 2000. “I’m surprised. I feel like I’m in Honduras already. I don’t need to go back home to Honduras now. This feels like Honduras.”
Since the 1950s there has been a community of Honduran immigrants in the New Orleans area, established by workers at the United Fruit Company. But before Katrina, census records say, there were only about 58,000 Latinos. In the 10 years since that number has grown to somewhere between 103,000 and 115,000 depending on who you ask, though most in the Central American neighborhoods believe these figures are far too low, failing to account for the thousands who are undocumented.
The people of the new New Orleans brought with them their own food and music and dance; threads of which have been assimilated into the mainstream of a city that has always taken from diverse interests to create its own culture.
They also brought soccer.
There are many Tony Laings in New Orleans. You can find them on weekends in City Park, playing in the Spanish-speaking leagues that have boomed since Katrina; professional stars who once played before big crowds back home. Now they work construction jobs in America’s south, speaking a language the rest of the city doesn’t understand, living in the open, but hidden all the same.
Before Katrina there was one Spanish-speaking league at City Park. It was called Islano and had 10 teams. Now there are three leagues with a total of 46 teams and discussions about their matches fill much of the radio show Carbajal hosts with Marco Piedy, the former president of Islano who runs Champion League, the newest of the three leagues. The demand for soccer in the new New Orleans is so big that Piedy regularly arranges to bring in big professional teams from Central America to play exhibitions at City Park’s 26,500-seat Tad Gormley Stadium. These matches draw thousands of people even if sports fans in the rest of New Orleans are oblivious to their existence.
“I was surprised at how good the soccer is here,” Laing says.
***
On the day Katrina hit, Piedy’s 11-month-old grandson Kaleb took his first steps. The family didn’t leave town, choosing to bunker at home in the Kenner apartment building Marco owned. Everybody was looking out the window, watching the storm, when Piedy’s daughter Mavis turned away and saw Kaleb wobbling toward the door.
“He was saying: ‘you idiots I’m out of here,’” Mavis Piedy says.
Eventually they retreated to a hotel across the street not long before a tornado ripped the roof off the apartment building. Trapped for three days at the hotel by police who would not let anyone leave, she watched as looters scoured the neighborhoods below. The sight of people running away with televisions particularly amused Mavis. With no power, no homes and streets filled water where were they going to watch TV?
But New Orleans had been changed in ways no one could imagine. For a month most of the Piedys lived with Mavis’s brother in Baton Rouge. When they returned, people were already pouring in from Central America, lured by construction work. As the water slowly drained from New Orleans and its residents – scattered throughout the south – tried to assess what had happened to their lives, a new community boomed just outside the city limits in the Jefferson Parrish towns of Kenner and Metairie.
The rebuilding began immediately. Building jobs were everywhere. A new world blossomed in the ruins of the old. Taco trucks appeared from nowhere, their grumbling engines sometimes the only power around. The manager of a local car dealership later told former Saints and Hornets (now Pelicans) Spanish play-by-play announcer Emilio Peralta that the end of 2005 and early 2006 “changed my life,” as Latino workers came in daily, looking for work pickups.
It took Marco Piedy six months to get Islano started again. When he did, the crowds were huge, bigger than anything the league had ever had. The small, tight Honduran community had exploded with more people from Honduras as well as El Salvador and Mexico. All of them missing soccer, willing to pay the $5 to park and $5 to enter the stadium and watch.
“I remember that first year after Katrina the first place winner got $22,000,” Mavis says. “Before Katrina they would have probably gotten $2,000. That’s how many people came through.”
Soon it was clear there were too many players for only one league. The Pelican League formed a few years back, playing its games on a ratty grass field surrounded by trees and tucked behind a lagoon in City Park. Four years ago, Marco Piedy split from Islano and started Champion League in Tad Gormley.
Competition in the three leagues is fierce. Each team has a sponsor and they battle for talent, luring coaches and top players with cash offers to jump to their teams. Professional players back home in Honduras and Guatemala and Mexico are recruited with promises of construction jobs and side cash payments for each game. Some pros come up after their seasons end, playing two or three months in New Orleans, perhaps hooking on with a construction crew to make extra money, then slipping back home in time for their professional team’s training camp.
Since teams in the City Park leagues pay the best players $150 to $250 a game in cash it is common to see a player play a match in one league, rip off his jersey, jump in his car and race to game in another league just down the road. Marco Piedy calls this “jumping.”
“He’s making money,” Piedy says.
Building a team can be expensive. Beyond paying a coach, the top players and finding construction jobs for the best talent, teams will send new players to a local soccer store for cleats and sometimes buys the player’s meals. Sponsors can spend more than $20,000 in the hope of winning a championship prize of $12,000.
But there is a glory in winning a soccer title in the invisible world. The chance to hoist a title trophy is worth more than red numbers on a spreadsheet. Tony Laing makes this clear while talking about his World Cup goal, interrupting an interview about his World Cup goal to instruct an interpreter to be sure to include the fact a City Park team he coached won four league championships in five years.
“Oh you know Spanish men and their pride,” Mavis Piedy later says rolling her eyes.
Pride is what brought Laing to New Orleans. Although his World Cup goal earned him the love of his nation it did not get him an offer in Europe. He played for club teams in Honduras before becoming a coach. He gave up coaching in the mid-2000s and moved to Tampa. That’s when a former teammate living in New Orleans called and asked if he would coach his Islano team.
“I came to work and coach in the leagues,” he says. “I fell in love with the city and decided to stay.”
He found a job with a painting company and found he could make more doing construction and coaching in City Park soccer leagues than he did as the coach of a Honduran professional team. Soon, New Orleans became home.
“It does surprise some people to see a World Cup player here,” Laing says, standing under the Tad Gormley stands. “People have a misconception that because you scored a goal and played in the World Cup that you have a big contract. But it was for the love of the shirt, not the money.”
***
There are many people who are not happy about the new New Orleans. The arrival of Latino workers has caused resentment in many communities, especially among African Americans whose neighborhoods were among the hardest hit by Katrina. Families who had lived in the city for generations could not easily return, unable to afford the cost of rebuilding. Politicians complained that construction jobs were not going to local, longtime residents but rather Central Americans fresh across the border, who spoke no English, had no to New Orleans.
Outside Tad Gormley Stadium on a recent Sunday afternoon, a longtime observer of the Spanish-speaking leagues, was asked how many of the players are undocumented.
“Probably 70%,” the person said.
Nobody really knows how many of the residents of the new New Orleans are here without papers. Published reports have put the number around 50,000 but there is no way to officially count. Latinos who were here before Katrina greet newcomers by asking the last time that person had been back to their home country. If they say it has been years there is an excellent chance they are undocumented. Those who do have papers usually go back once every year or two to visit family.
The issue looms over everything, adding to the feeling of being invisible. Azucena Diaz a news anchor for the Telemundo 42, one of the local Spanish-language television stations, said she was recently told of a Latino man who had been severely beaten. When she called the parish sheriff’s office to ask why there was no press release about the crime she said an officer told her: “Oh he’s Hispanic he didn’t have any documents.” As if that fact alone made the attack irrelevant.
“The person who did this is still out there and they didn’t seem to care because the victim was just Hispanic,” she says.
Many times the station’s advertising people have gone on sales calls only to be told the business did not want to be attract Latino customers. Peralta, who grew up in Chile and came to New Orleans from ESPN Deportes in 2006 was stunned when the same thing happened to him as he looked for sponsors for his Saints and Hornets broadcasts.
“It has taken the labor of Latinos 10 years for New Orleans to be what it is now,” says Ernesto Schweikert the station’s general manager. “People say it is a miracle that the city got rebuilt. Without Latinos New Orleans would not be what it has become.”
***
A summer rain has stopped falling at City Park and a late-afternoon sun broils the Pelican League fields. Gnats buzz everywhere. Nobody seems to mind. Nearly 1,000 have gathered around the sidelines to watch the semifinals of the league’s season-end playoffs. They sit on coolers, eat homemade food and shout at the players on the field. The players are screaming too – yelling at every missed pass or defensive lapse.
Pride is at stake. Nobody wants to lose. Winning means a chance to gloat for months, walking around the new New Olreans saying they had played for the Pelican League title. Carbajal, who makes announcements and plays Spanish music from a small tent at Pelican League matches, will talk about the game for much of his show that next week.
“We have too many players now,” he says.
But this is New Orleans after Katrina. Before the storm he personally knew every caller. These days strangers stop him in the grocery store when they hear him talk, telling him they recognize his voice.
“So many people are here now,” he says. “And there are so many kids who were born here in New Orleans and they are on the soccer field too.”
A few blocks away, Tony Laing walks under the Tad Gormley stands, heading toward his truck after his team finishes a Champion League game. He is asked about his goal in the World Cup and he smiles.
“Every day in the community it is brought back up,” he says. “That’s the beauty of it – to be remembered for that.”
Time moves on. Tony Laing is no longer the last player from Honduras to score a in the World Cup. His 32-year run ended last summer. He doesn’t seem bothered. He has a new life here – a new home, new job, new team.
He waves goodbye then jumps into his pickup and drives away from soccer and fame, fading into late-day traffic. Invisible once more in the new New Orleans.
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Introduction {#Sec1}
============
Object handover between a passer and a receiver is probably one of the most basic collaborative motor tasks between humans. Handover is fundamental for a wide range of functional and social activities in which individuals help each other, sharing the same goal and a common plan of execution. Handover may be divided in three phases (Cutkosky and Hyde [@CR12]; MacKenzie and Iberall [@CR36]; Mason and MacKenzie [@CR37]). First, the passer and the receiver coordinate their movements, through non-verbal communication, to reach the exchange site, at a given time. The end of this phase is marked by a mild collision between the partners when the receiver makes contact with the object. Second, while the receiver increases grip force (GF) on the object the passer decreases it. During this time, both partners coordinate the modulation of GF to counteract gravitational and inertial load forces to prevent the object from slipping. Third, once the receiver stably holds the object, the handover action is completed and the passer removes his or her hand from the exchange site.
While simple prehensile movements such as reaching to grasp have been widely explored during both individual or joint actions (Castiello [@CR6]; Georgiou et al. [@CR17]; Becchio et al. [@CR3], [@CR4]), to date few investigators have studied the way GFs are modulated by two partners to handover an object. Unlike reaching to grasp, where feedforward and feedback mechanisms reside within a single control system (Jeannerod [@CR25]), handover involves multiple, disconnected control systems (Mason and MacKenzie [@CR37]). Thus, an important theoretical question is how the disconnected neural controllers are coordinated to produce fluent handover? A second important question is what are the relative contributions of feedforward vs. feedback mechanisms in the control of handover? Continuous closed-loop control of dynamic motor behaviours is severely limited by neural delays, and therefore, impractical at frequencies above 1 Hz (Hogan et al. [@CR21]). Hence, continuous modulation of GF based only on incoming tactile/haptic information (i.e. a purely feedback mechanism) cannot explain the coordination of rapid and stereotypical movements, such as those in handover. Predictive mechanisms combined with a neural system that mimics the motor control and the behaviour of objects in the external environment (internal models) (Kawato and Wolpert [@CR34]), must also be involved. Nevertheless, some feedback control is likely to be necessary given the actions of one partner cannot be fully predicted by the other (Mason and MacKenzie [@CR37]).
One of the motor control policies described in the literature, posits that motor programs of tasks, such as object manipulation, are organized in phases delimited by means of multi-modally encoded discrete sensory events, e.g. resulting from object contact, lift-off, etc. (Johansson and Edin [@CR26]; Randall Flanagan et al. [@CR47]; Johansson and Flanagan [@CR27]; Fang et al. [@CR14]). The nervous system predicts such events to launch in advance the appropriate motor commands, and monitors progress to initiate, if necessary, corrective actions that are suitable for the task and the current phase. Normally the task evolves in an open-loop fashion where the successful completion of each phase is signified by specific combinations of temporally correlated sensory signals. The prediction of the sensory events is used by the brain to proceed to the next phase without delays. This control policy may apply also for the handover, the predicted collision between the receiver and the object, held by the passer, being one of the key sensory events of the task.
Mason and MacKenzie ([@CR37]) suggested that passers use visual-feedback based anticipatory control to precisely trigger the handover and provided preliminary evidence that the receiver's reach towards the passer is used by the passer to update prediction. Quesque et al. ([@CR46]) showed that when two subjects manipulate an object in turn, the kinematics of the reaching to grasp movement of one partner may affect the motion of the arm of the other partner in the subsequent phase of the task. Furthermore, behaviour that adapts to speed has been demonstrated in other manipulative tasks such as collision (Turrell et al. [@CR54]) and catching (Savelsbergh et al. [@CR49]) tasks, however, to date it has not been formally assessed in handover actions. In particular, it is unclear whether the passer uses information about the dynamics of the receiver's reaching movement to anticipate and launch the appropriate release motor program. To address this general issue, we ask: (1) does a rapidly approaching receiver trigger faster handovers by the passer? (2) is a faster handover characterized by an earlier beginning of GF release or by a more rapid reduction in GF by the passer?
Previous works (Avenanti et al. [@CR1]; Sciutti and Sandini [@CR50]) provided evidences that action observation as well as the knowledge of the task and context in which the action takes place support the understanding and the anticipation of the other's movement, thus enabling the actual collaboration between agents. Therefore, prediction of the receiver's behaviour by the passer is likely to depend on the visually-derived perception of the other's action (how the passer expects the receiver will behave, within the current context) (Rizzolatti and Craighero [@CR48]) or memory of the outcome of previous handover actions. Studies of lifting and repositioning tasks show that, when visual input is obstructed, humans switch from a predictive to a purely feedback control, exhibiting immature GF profiles (Kawai et al. [@CR33]). In such cases, the GF to lift the object is primarily based on the somatosensory information acquired from the *initial contact* with the object (Johansson and Westling [@CR28]), whereas coarse online adjustments are triggered in reaction to perceived perturbations of the load force (Cole and Abbs [@CR10]). Similar mechanisms might explain the behaviour of a passer, during the handover, if he/she cannot see the partner's movements. Moreover, as observed in the blindfolded pick and lift, the magnitude of the collision with the receiver might be expected to affect modulation of the passer's GF.
In the first of the two experiments (Exp. 1) we sought to address for the first time these issues by investigating how changes in dynamics of the receiver's reaching movement would affect GF release by the passer, who kept his or her hand in fixed position during handover. We further explored the role of visual feedback for the passer by including normal and absent vision conditions. Our setup measured the grasp forces involved during the handover and the receiver's acceleration profiles. We expected that passers would integrate visual input about the receiver's dynamics into their sensorimotor control to predict the onset of the handover and to modulate their release dynamics accordingly.
In a second experiment (Exp. 2), we aimed to investigate the effects of such release dynamics on the fluency of the handover experienced by the receiver. Several studies involving robotic agents investigated humans' preferences and how their perception of fluency can be influenced during the handover task. The majority of these studies focused on the effects of the trajectory (Basili et al. [@CR2]; Prada et al. [@CR44]), and of the velocity profile (Huber et al. [@CR22], [@CR23]) of the reaching movement; on the effects of the position of both the passer's (Cakmak et al. [@CR5]; Strabala et al. [@CR53]; Huber et al. [@CR24]; Parastegari et al. [@CR42]) and the receiver's arm (Pan et al. [@CR39], [@CR40]) used to handover the object; on the effects of other subtle non-verbal clues used to initiate an handover (Strabala et al. [@CR52]; Moon et al. [@CR38]). Only few studies focused on the modulation of the GF during the object release. Parastegari et al. implemented a fail-safe release controller able to detect slippage events (Parastegari et al. [@CR41]) and assessed the effects of the minimum pulling force required to collect the object from the robot on the perceived smoothness of the handover (Parastegari et al. [@CR43]). Chan et al. ([@CR8]), using a feedback-based release controller, showed that handovers that are completed as soon as the receiver counterbalances the object weight are not perceived safe or coordinated by humans. However, neither of the previous studies investigated the effects of the release reactivity and of the handover duration on the fluency and quality of the handover perceived by the receiver.
To address this open issue, in Exp. 2, the passer was replaced by a robotic hand programmed to release the object following a stereotypical biomimetic GF trajectory (Endo et al. [@CR13]). In this way it was possible to manipulate the onset and the duration of the object release, thus simulating different behaviours of the passer. Because of the tight temporal coordination between the passer and the receiver in a smooth handover (Mason and MacKenzie [@CR37]), we expected that the participants would perceive handovers that are shorter or longer than average as unnatural.
Our results from Exp. 1 show that with visual input, passers clearly predict the nature and timing of the exchange adapting their onset and rate of grip force release to the contrasting receiver dynamics in the different conditions. When blindfolded the release is correlated with haptic input arising from the collision. In Exp. 2, handovers were deemed more fluent with more reactive release behaviours, shorter release durations, and shorter handover durations. Interestingly the handover was rarely experienced as too fast. These outcomes are interesting for neuroscientists and roboticists. They contribute understanding of the roles of sensory input in the strategy that empowers humans to perform smooth and safe handovers, and they may suggest ways to program robots working and interacting with humans.
Materials and methods {#Sec2}
=====================
Participants {#Sec3}
------------
Fourteen healthy participants (5 females, all right-handed) aged 26 ± 11 years old (mean ± standard deviation) took part in the first experiment. Eleven different participants (all male; all right-handed; age 29 ± 4 years old) took part in the second experiment. None of them reported any history of somatosensory or motor impairments and all claimed to have normal or corrected vision. Informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki was obtained from each participant before conducting the experiments. This study was approved by the local ethical committee of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy. The methods were carried out in accordance with the approved guidelines.
Experiment 1 {#Sec4}
------------
### Experimental set-up {#Sec5}
The experimental setup consisted of a test-object instrumented to measure grasp and interaction forces and acceleration, a three-axis inertial measurement unit IMU that measured the acceleration and orientation of the receiver's hand, and a PC (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}).
Fig. 1Experimental setup and test object. Subjects were seated opposite one another on two chairs. The passer was stationary while the receiver moved his upper limb toward the exchange site. A screen informed the receiver about the handover timing setup and it could not be seen by the passer. An IMU was fastened to the receiver's moving hand. The detailed view shows the test-object instrumented with two load cells
The test-object was a 3D printed symmetric plastic structure (dimensions 85 × 50 × 25 mm; weight 160 g) equipped with two six-axis force/torque (FT) sensors (model Nano17, ATI Inc., USA), similar to the object used in (Endo et al. [@CR13]). The FT sensors recorded the passer's and receiver's grip force, GF, defined as the force perpendicular to the grasp surfaces, developed by the thumb opposing the index and middle finger, and the interaction force, FI, defined as the resultant force obtained by combining the horizontal force and the vertical force, of the passer and the receiver (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). The IMU (model *3-Space Sensor*, YEI Technology, USA) tracked the receiver's hand motion. The PC ran a custom application that acquired the data (1 kHz, NI-USB 6211, National Instruments, USA), stored it for off-line analysis, and guided the experimental protocol, in particular, by providing visual cues to the receiver (i.e. the experimenter) on the timing of the test trial.
Fig. 2On the top is shown an example of the signals and the metric analysed in this experiment. On the bottom the force diagram of the handover is displayed
### Experimental protocol {#Sec6}
In this test, the participants played the role of the passer in human--human handovers. The passer was seated comfortably on a chair wearing noise-blocking headphones and instructed to repeatedly "pass" the test-object to the receiver, sitting in front of him/her at a distance of \~ 100 cm (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). The exchange site was at a distance of \~ 40 cm from the passer. To "pass" the object, the subject was instructed to maintain, for a maximum time of 5 s, a stationary arm posture (which was the same throughout the experiment), allowing the experimenter (the receiver) to reach towards it and take the object from his/her (the passer's) grasp. Between the trials the passer was asked to keep the arm on the arm rest of the chair, to avoid any side effects of fatigue. Both the passer and the receiver were also instructed to use only their thumb, index and middle fingers to grasp the object (tridigital grasp) throughout the experiment. The receiver, which was the same person throughout the tests (author H.S., male, age 28), was trained to reach for the exchange site at three fixed speeds (*slow, medium*, and *fast*) and did so based on the instructions displayed on the PC screen. Notably, the passer was not informed in advance about the handover speed. Once the speed indication was displayed (at *t*\*) to the receiver, after a random time between 1000 and 3000 ms (uniformly distributed), the receiver was prompted to begin the reaching out movement (a "go" signal). In the meanwhile, at *t*\*, an acoustic signal was played in the passer's headphones to alert him/her that within the next 5 s the receiver would start the handover. This procedure reduced the opportunity for the passer to anticipate the onset of the receiver's reaching movement. For the same reason (i.e. to reduce predictability) the reaching speed of the receiver was randomly selected before each trial began. The acceleration recorded by the IMU was used to validate the trial. Trials having an acceleration modulus in the ranges 0--0.2 G, 0.2--0.5 G and 0.5--0.7 G were considered acceptable for the slow, medium and fast movements, respectively. Trials outside these ranges were automatically deleted and repeated later. The duration of the receiver's reaching movement fell within a range of about 0.6--2 s (based on the acceleration level).
The protocol included two conditions. In one condition, the passer viewed the scene normally, and thus could use visual and tactile feedback to plan and execute the motor task (condition VT). In the other condition, the passer was blindfolded, and as such could not see the receiver's reaching movement and had to rely on tactile feedback only (condition *T*). Each condition included 30 trials, 10 at each speed. To prevent biases in the outcomes due to learning effects, half of the passers started the experiment under condition *T*, while the other half started under condition VT. In all cases a 5--10-min break was taken between the conditions.
### Data analysis {#Sec7}
#### Analysis {#Sec8}
All data were digitized and stored for off-line analysis. For each trial we identified the following relevant events of the handover: the receiver's movement onset (*t*~reaching~), the beginning of the handover (*t*~start~), the passer's release onset (*t*~release~), and the end of the handover (*t*~end~). *t*~reaching~ was identified using a threshold of 0.1 G on the acceleration of the receiver's hand movement (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). *t*~start~, defined as the instant at which the receiver made contact with the object, was identified by finding the peak rate of the receiver GF and moving backward in the trial to the first instant where it dropped below 0.08 N/s, (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). Similarly, *t*~release~, defined as the instant at which the passer began decreasing the GF, was determined going backward from the peak rate of the GF to the first frame when the passer's force rate exceeded − 1 N/s (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). Notably, *t*~release~, described the passer's reactivity (or reaction time). The procedure for identifying *t*~start~ and *t*~release~ was the one suggested by Mason and MacKenzie ([@CR37]), and prevented noise spikes in the signals from affecting segmentation of the data. Finally, the end of the handover, *t*~end~, defined as the instant when the passer broke contact with the object, was identified as the first instant when the passer's GF fell below 5% of its maximum value (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). The time series were synchronized on *t*~start~, i.e. when the receiver made contact with the object.
Once segmented, we also identified the following kinetic features specific to each phase of the handover: the peak absolute acceleration of the receiver during the reaching out movement (*A*), the absolute value of the peak rate of the passer's GF during the handover (dGF~max~), and the peak rate of the interaction force (dFI~max~) before dGF~max~. Specifically dGF~max~ quantified the passer's maximum releasing GF rate, whereas dFI~max~ the magnitude of the collision. For each subject, three Pearson's correlation coefficients (*r*~0~, *r*~1~, *r*~2~) were computed. *r*~0~ was calculated between A and dFI~max~, for both *T* and VT conditions, to verify the existence of a relationship between the receiver's reaching out speed and the magnitude of the haptic input. *r*~1~ was calculated between *A* and dGF~max~ under VT, while *r*~2~ was evaluated between dFI~max~ and dGF~max~ under *T*, to assess the influence of the sensory input (seen and/or perceived) on the modulation of the passer's GF. The average of the correlation coefficients across participants was calculated performing a Fisher transformation of *r* values of each subject and back-transforming the average of the resulting *z* scores.
#### Statistical analysis {#Sec9}
This study was characterized by two within-subjects factors, namely sensory input condition (VT and *T*) and receiver reaching speed (slow, medium, and fast). Hence a two way repeated measures ANOVA was used to assess the effects of the experimental conditions on the passer's reactivity (*t*~release~), on the duration of the handover (*t*~end~) and on its kinetics (dGF~max~). The ANOVAs were followed by Bonferroni corrected post-hoc tests. In particular, when both the sensory input and the reaching out speed proved statistically significant a total of nine comparisons were performed; between VT and *T* for each of the reaching out speeds (three comparisons) and among *slow, medium*, and *fast* for each sensory input condition (six comparisons).
In all cases a *p* value \< 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The nomenclature of the metrics used in this experiment is summarized in Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}.
Table 1Descriptive nomenclatureSymbolDescription*A*The peak acceleration of the receiverdFI~max~The peak rate of the passer interaction forcedGF~max~The peak rate of the passer grasp force*t* ~release~The time difference between the receiver's object contact and the time when the passer began releasing*t* ~end~The completion time of the transfer*r* ~0~Average Pearson's correlation coefficient between dFI~max~ and *Ar* ~1~Average Pearson's correlation coefficient between dGF~max~ and *Ar* ~2~Average Pearson's correlation coefficient between dGF~max~ and dFI~max~
Experiment 2 {#Sec10}
------------
### Experimental set-up {#Sec11}
The experimental set-up consisted of an anthropomorphic robotic hand, a three-axis force sensor, a host PC equipped with a data acquisition board and a test-object instrumented with sensors. The robotic hand was a left-handed version of the IH2 Azzurra robot hand (Prensilia Srl, Italy). Movements were limited to only flexion--extension of the thumb, index finger and middle fingers to allow stable pinch grasps between the three digits. The robotic hand included force sensors and encoders able to measure the GF and the grip aperture, respectively. The hand could implement force/position control by receiving commands from the host PC over a serial bus. The hand was fixed to a (unmoving) anthropomorphic robot arm by means of a three-axis force sensor (SOGEMI Srl, Italy), able to measure the forces exchanged between the hand and a human partner at the wrist level. The hand was placed 100 cm from the ground, in a way it could offer an object to a human partner (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}).
Fig. 3Experimental setup. **a** The robotic hand was placed in front of the receiver at a fixed height and oriented to present the test-object in a comfortable way. Force diagram of the handover. *F*~w~ is the sum of the weight of the object, *W*, with the interaction force of the receiver, *R*. The test-object is the same as used in Experiment 1. **b** Representative grip force release profile of the automatic controller used in this experiment. Release conditions differ in the threshold on the wrist force *F*~wT~ used to trigger the beginning of the handover that determines the time *T*~t~ or in the time release *T*~r~
The data from the sensors were recorded (rate 1 kHz) by means of the data acquisition board (NI-USB 6211, National Instruments) and used by a custom PC application to control the release of the robotic hand during handover trials. The test-object was the same used in Experiment 1.
The robotic hand was programmed to automatically release the object following a stereotypical grip force trajectory. The release was triggered when the modulus of the force measured by the wrist sensor (*F*~w~) exceeded a certain threshold (*F*~wT~). At this time (*t*~release~) the robotic hand began decreasing the GF following a third-order polynomial trajectory (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}), akin to that observed in human-to-human handovers (Endo et al. [@CR13]) (also confirmed by Experiment 1):$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\begin{aligned} & {\text{GF}} ={a_0}+{a_1}{t^2}+{a_2}{t^3} \\ & {a_0} ={\text{G}}{{\text{F}}_0}, \\ & {a_1} = - \;\frac{{3{\text{G}}{{\text{F}}_0}}}{{T_{{\text{r}}}^{2}}}, \\ & {a_2} =\frac{{2{\text{G}}{{\text{F}}_0}}}{{{\text{T}}_{{\text{r}}}^{3}}}, \\ \end{aligned}$$\end{document}$$with *T*~r~, the release duration i.e. the time required to decrease the GF to zero (occurring at *t*~end~ = *t*~release~ + *T*~r~, defined as the duration of the handover). As both *F*~wT~ and *T*~r~ were fully programmable the robotic hand could implement different release behaviours by modulating two independent features: reactivity and speed. Indeed by changing *F*~wT~ it was possible to adjust *t*~release~, hence the beginning of the release, or in other words, the reactivity of the robot hand. In addition modulating *T*~r~ meant obtaining slower or faster releases.
### Experimental protocol {#Sec12}
In this test the robot hand played the role of the passer, while the participants of the receivers, in robot--human handovers. The participants, standing in front of the experimental materials on a marked position, were instructed to reach out, grasp and collect the test-object from the robotic hand, using their own dominant arm. In particular, for each experimental trial, the object was securely fixed in the hand (by the experimenter) using a pinch grip (GF~0~ = 6.5 N). Participants were instructed to execute the task at a self-paced speed and as naturally as possible.
The protocol included 12 conditions (C-*t*1,...,C-*T*4), randomized across participants, which differed based on the reactivity (*t*~release~) and speed (*T*~r~) exhibited by the robotic hand (Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}). Each condition included two consecutive series (S1 and S2), of 2 and 10 trials, respectively, for a total of 144 trials. After each series an evaluation questionnaire was completed (for a total of 24 questionnaires). The questionnaire after S1 aimed to assess the fluency of the handover experienced by the receiver to a semi-novel yet poorly predictable passer's behaviour (Huber et al. [@CR23], [@CR24]; Glasauer et al. [@CR18]). The questionnaire after S2 instead, assessed the perceived fluency for stereotyped and predictable handovers.
Table 2Handover conditionsCondition*F* ~wT~ (N)Handover reactivity (*t*~release~ (ms) mean ± standard error)Release duration\
*T* ~r~ (ms)Handover duration \[*t*~end~ (ms)\]C-*t*10.874 ± 15155229C-*t*20.874 ± 15355429C-*t*30.874 ± 15555629C-*t*40.874 ± 15755829C-*Tt*10.3429 ± 5200229C-*Tt*20.3429 ± 5400429C-*Tt*30.3429 ± 5600629C-*Tt*40.3429 ± 5800829C-*T*10.874 ± 15200274C-*T*20.874 ± 15400474C-*T*30.874 ± 15600674C-*T*40.874 ± 15800874
The questionnaire included the three following statements:
Q1: "I am satisfied with the handover";Q2: "The handover took place in a natural way";Q3: "I perceived the actions of the robot to be..."
For Q1 and Q2 the participants were asked to rate the extent to which the statements did or did not apply, using a nine-point analogue scale. On this scale, 1 meant "absolutely certain that it did not apply", 5 meant "uncertain whether it applied or not", and 9 meant "absolutely certain that it applied". Q3 had three possible answers:
"...early with respect to my action";"...coordinated with my action";"...delayed with respect to my action".
To test release behaviours characterized by different reactivity and different release or handover duration, the 12 conditions mixed two different values of *F*~wT~ (0.34 N; 0.8 N) with several values of *T*~r~ and, consequently, with several values of *t*~end~. In particular, each value of *F*~wt~ was paired both with four values of *t*~end~ (229, 429, 629, 829 ms; C-*t*1,...,C-*t*4, C-*Tt*1,...,C-*Tt*4 in Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}) and with four values of T~r~ (200, 400, 600, 800 ms, C-*Tt*1,...,C-*Tt*4, C-*T*1,...,C-*T*4 in Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}). The tested *F*~wT~ values were chosen after a pilot study and corresponded to *t*~release~ values of 29 ± 5 ms (for *F*~wT~ = 0.34 N) or 74 ± 15 ms (for *F*~wT~ = 0.8 N). The *T*~r~ values were chosen based on the GF release duration observed in healthy humans, which is known to range between \~ 200 and 400 ms (Chan et al. [@CR7], [@CR8]; Endo et al. [@CR13]). Nonetheless we also tested longer *T*~r~.
### Data analysis {#Sec13}
#### Statistical analysis {#Sec14}
The ratings on the perceived quality and timing of the handover were analysed using two three-way repeated measures ANOVAs. With the first ANOVA (ANOVA1), performed on controllers C-*t*1,...,C-*Tt*4, we tested the influence of *t*~release~, *t*~end~, and of the series. With the second ANOVA (ANOVA2), performed on controllers C-*Tt*1,...,C-*T*4, we tested the influence of *t*~release~, *T*~r~, and of the series. When the data violated the sphericity assumption, the Greenhouse--Geisser correction was used to adjust the degrees of freedom of the test. Moreover, the simple main effects of *t*~release~ at each level of *T*~r~ or *t*~end~ were tested applying the Bonferroni correction. Statistical significance was defined for *p* value \< 0.05.
Results {#Sec15}
=======
Experiment 1 {#Sec16}
------------
Passers successfully completed handovers initiated by the receiver using slow, medium or fast reaches, both with and without visual sensory input. Illustrative functions in Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"} show passer and receiver GF functions were consistently coordinated across receiver reach speeds, with passer reduction in GF starting earlier and progressing more steadily with vision. Without vision, the passer's GF decrease was slower in onset, and progressed initially at a slower, then later at a more rapid rate.
Fig. 4Representative outcomes from a single subject. **a** Representative profiles of receiver's acceleration, passer's and receiver's grip force (GF), rate of passer's GF and rate of interaction force during the fast receiver's reach, under VT and *T* conditions. Bold line represents the mean; shadowed area represents the standard deviation. **b** Handover coordination profiles: passer's vs. receiver's GFs. The shadowed area represents the 95% confidence interval
The passer's reactivity (*t*~release~) was affected by both the sensory input (repeated ANOVA, *F*(1,13) = 61.307, *p* \< 10^−5^) and by the reaching out speed (repeated ANOVA, *F*(2,26) = 5.338, *p* = 0.011) (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}a) and the interaction between the two factors was significant (repeated ANOVA, *F*(2,26) = 3.699, *p* = 0.039). As expected, the post-hoc tests revealed higher reactivity when vision was available (*p* values \< 10^−4^). Interestingly, the *t*~release~ did not differ across the three reaching out speeds (*p* values \> 0.6), exhibiting an average value of 4.6 ± 15.6 ms (mean ± SEM). When participants were blindfolded the average reactivity was 108 ± 5 ms and increased with the speed of the movement; however, a significantly lower *t*~release~ was found only between the slow and fast movements (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}a). The *p* values of the post-hoc comparisons are listed in Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}.
Fig. 5Effect of the visual condition and of the handover timing on the *t*~release~ (**a**), *t*~end~ (**c**), dGF~max~ (**d**) and *T*~t~ (**d**) and interaction between visual condition and group on *t*~release~ (**b**) (mean ± SEM)
Table 3Bonferroni corrected *p* values of post hoc multiple comparisonsPost hoc comparisonsVT + slow VT + mediumVT + slow VT + fastVT + medium VT + fast*T* + slow *T* + medium*T* + slow *T* + fast*T* + medium *T* + fastVT + slow *T* + slowVT + medium *T* + mediumVT + fast *T* + fast*t* ~release~0.6420.9890.9810.2070.003\*0.0660.000\*0.000\*0.000\*dGF~max~0.2130.000\*0.000\*0.012\*0.012\*0.0840.0180.003\*0.097*t* ~end~0.000\*0.000\*0.000\*0.003\*0.000\*0.000\*0.1160.002\*0.002\*\*Statistically significant comparison (i.e. *p* \< 0.05)
The kinetics of the handover (dGF~max~) was affected by the sensory input (repeated ANOVA, *F*(1,13) = 7.985, *p* = 0.014) and the reaching out speed (repeated ANOVA, *F*(2,26) = 30.026; *p* \< 10^−6^), however, there was no interaction between the two factors (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}b). Although the dGF~max~ increased with speed for both the sensory input conditions, this was statistically significant in all comparisons with the exception of those between medium and fast under condition *T* (*p* = 0.08) and between slow and medium under condition VT (*p* = 0.2) (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}b). Interestingly, participants released their hold on the object faster when blindfolded; this was statistically true when the receiver's reaching out movement was slow or medium (*p* values \< 0.019) (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}b).
As for *t*~release~, the handover duration (*t*~end~) was affected by the sensory input (repeated ANOVA, *F*(1,13) = 10.701, i = 0.006) and the reaching out speed (repeated ANOVA, *F*(2,26) = 87.124, *p* \< 10^−11^) with no significant interaction (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}c). The post hoc tests revealed that *t*~end~ decreased as the receiver moved faster for both the sensory input conditions (*p* values \< 0.004); *t*~end~ was statistically higher in *T* than in VT for medium and fast movements (Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}; Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}c).
Figure [6](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"} shows illustrative scatter plots of the relations between (a) the peak interaction force rate and receiver's peak reach acceleration (across sensory conditions), (b) the passer's peak GF rate and receiver's reach acceleration and (c) the receiver's GF rate and the interaction force. Each of the three correlations is significantly greater than zero. The average correlation coefficient between the receiver's reaching out acceleration and the magnitude of the tactile/haptic input, *r*~0~, proved significant (*r*~0~^m^ = 0.6549, *p* \< 0.0001) (Fig. [6](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}).
Fig. 6Representative linear correlation between dFI~max~ and *A* (*r*~0~), between dGF~max~ and *A* (*r*~1~) in condition VT and between dGF~max~ and dFI~max~ (*r*~2~) in condition *T* for one subject
The average correlation (*r*~1~) between the receiver's acceleration and the passer's releasing speed, under the VT condition, proved statistically significant (*r*~1~^m^ = 0.584, *p* \< 10^−3^), thus strengthening the outcomes of the statistics on dGF~max~ (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}b). The average correlation (*r*~2~) between the magnitude of the collision and the passer's releasing speed, under the *T* condition, proved statistically significant (*r*~2~^m^ = 0.444, *p* = 0.014), again, in agreement with the previous test (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}a).
Experiment 2 {#Sec17}
------------
For each condition and after each series, the ratings to questions Q1 and Q2 proved similar (Fig. [7](#Fig7){ref-type="fig"}). Though very short handovers were not judged as not coordinated (or unnatural), whereas long ones were so. Ratings of satisfaction, naturalness and perceived degree of coordination increased with: (1) more reactive release behaviours, (2) shorter release durations, and with (3) shorter handover durations (Fig. [7](#Fig7){ref-type="fig"}a, b).
Fig. 7Subjective ratings of handovers with robot conditions 1--4 varying in duration from short (fast) to long (slow), and conditions *t* and *T* involving high tangential trigger force for onset of GF release (low reactivity) and *Tt* involving low trigger force (high reactivity) (mean ± SEM) for Q1 (**a**), Q2 (**b**), and relative frequencies of ratings for Q3 (**c**). Answers to block B1 in black, block B2 in red. Asterisk indicates statistically significant comparisons (corrected *p* values \< 0.05); star indicates the series when at least one subject replied "early" to question Q3
In particular, the ratings of both Q1 and Q2 were statistically affected by *t*~release~ (ANOVA1, *F*(1,10)-values \> 9.82, *p* values \< 0.011; ANOVA2, *F*(1,10)-values \> 12.19, *p* values \< 0.01), *t*~end~ (ANOVA1 for Q1, *F*(3,30)-values \> 4.889, *p* values \< 0.01; ANOVA2 corrected for Q2, *F*(1.702,17.025) = 13.129, *p* \< 0.001) and *T*~r~ (ANOVA2 corrected for Q1 *F*(1.74,17.4) = 24.455, *p* \< 0.001; corrected for Q2, *F*(1.603,16.028) = 15.918, *p* \< 0.001). For question Q1, when comparing conditions with same handover duration (*t*~end~) but different reactivity (*t*~release~) we found a significant preference for more reactive releases in those handovers with *t*~end~ equal to 429 ms and 629 ms (*p* values \< 0.05). For the fastest (*t*~end~ = 229 ms) and the slowest (*t*~end~ = 829 ms) conditions it made no difference whether the handover was more or less reactive. Equivalent results were found when comparing conditions with same release duration (*T*~r~) but different *t*~release~ (Fig. [7](#Fig7){ref-type="fig"}a). Matched results were also found for Q2 (Fig. [7](#Fig7){ref-type="fig"}b).
The statistical analysis did not reveal significant main effects of the series (*F*(1,10)-values \< 2.93, *p* values \> 0.7) on neither ratings of Q1 and Q2. However, for both Q1 and Q2 a significant interaction was found between *T*~r~ and the series (ANOVA2 *F*(3,30)-values \> 3.823, *p* values \< 0.02) and between *t*~end~ and series (ANOVA1 *F*(3,30)-values \> 3.155, *p* values \< 0.04). In fact, for faster release behaviours participants provided larger ratings after S2 than after S1; for slower controllers, ratings proved higher after S1 than S2 (Fig. [7](#Fig7){ref-type="fig"}a, b).
The qualitative analysis of the answers to Q3 supported the outcomes of the statistical tests for Q1 and Q2. In particular, the number of participants who perceived the robot as "coordinated" decreased with: (1) decreased reactivity, (2) increased release time, and (3) increased completion time of the handover (Fig. [7](#Fig7){ref-type="fig"}c). Remarkably only two participants in S1 and one participant in S2 reported that fastest condition was early with respect to their actions.
Discussion {#Sec18}
==========
In this work, we investigated the passer's GF modulation with varying receiver's reaching out speeds and different sensory input conditions, as well as the receiver's perception of the fluency of the handover with different releasing behaviours. In the first experiment, we investigated whether the passer integrates the visual input about the receiver's approaching movement to select (in advance) the release motor program, and compared the GF profiles with those of a blindfolded passer.
Release behaviour with visual and tactile input {#Sec19}
-----------------------------------------------
Taken together our results are compatible with the control models for manipulative tasks (Johansson and Edin [@CR26]; Randall Flanagan et al. [@CR47]; Johansson and Flanagan [@CR27]; Fang et al. [@CR14]; Haruno et al. [@CR20]; Flanagan and Wing [@CR15]). In the first experiment, we observed that passers endowed with both visual and haptic/tactile input use predictive/anticipatory control purely based on vision to trigger the handover (Figs. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}b, [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}c). This outcome extends Mason's and MacKenzie's ([@CR37]) study because it demonstrates that when vision is available the passer estimates and synchronizes the release of the object with the time of the collision, independently of the receiver's reaching out speed (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}a). Such a predictive behaviour shows similarities with the one observed during catching tasks at different speeds, hence similar mechanisms may explain it (Lacquaniti and Maioli [@CR35]; Savelsbergh et al. [@CR49]). For example Savelsbergh et al. ([@CR49]) suggested that the prediction of the collision is based on the time-to-contact and not on the distance-to-contact. The fact that the passer does not wait for the collision to begin the handover, implies that online tactile/haptic input is not used by the nervous system to select and launch the appropriate release motor program. Instead, such an input may be used only for monitoring the execution of the motor task and, if necessary, to initiate corrective actions (Johansson and Edin [@CR26]; Randall Flanagan et al. [@CR47]; Johansson and Flanagan [@CR27]; Fang et al. [@CR14]). This hypothesis is in agreement with the study of Endo et al. ([@CR13]), who showed that a partial corruption of the passer's tactile/haptic input does not affect the beginning of the release albeit it increases the passer's uncertainty at the end of the handover. However, it remains to be clarified how passers would change the way they release if they performed handovers in total absence of tactile input.
Our results show that in normal visual conditions a passer scales the releasing speed (dGF~max~) according to the acceleration of the receiver's reaching out movement (Figs. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}b, [6](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). This suggests that while the receiver reaches for the object the passer, observing the receiver's movement, infers the dynamics of the upcoming handover and thus selects the appropriate releasing speed. This hypothesis is in agreement with the theory of Quesque and his group (Quesque and Coello [@CR45]; Quesque et al. [@CR46]) that one's intention can be anticipated from the observation of the partner's action. In addition it is consistent with the kinematical correlations found between cooperative agents (Georgiou et al. [@CR17]) and with the hypothesis of *motor resonance*. The latter posits that when an individual observes other people's movements, his/her brain runs an internal motor simulation, used to understand the other's people intentions and to predict the future course of the observed action (Rizzolatti and Craighero [@CR48]; Springer et al. [@CR51]).
In their work, Mason and MacKenzie studied human-to-human handovers under normal visual conditions, identifying them as coordinated by demonstrating synchronized peaks of the GF rates. Here we suggested a more illustrative way to describe the coordination between the agents, which is the passer's GF expressed as a function of the receiver's GF (the graphs in Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}b). This methodology borrows from the neuroscience literature, which presents similar metrics (the GF vs. the load force) to assess motor coordination during grasp (Flanagan et al. [@CR16]) and to compare, e.g. healthy vs. impaired participants, adults vs. children, unimpaired digits vs. anesthetized ones (Gordon et al. [@CR19]; Cipriani et al. [@CR9]). The coordination profiles observed under visual input confirm and once again extend the finding of Mason and MacKenzie, by showing that once collision has occurred the passer and the receiver modulate their GF in a synchronized manner, until the end of the handover, and regardless of the receiver's reaching out speed (Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}b). Again, this could be explained by the motor resonance hypothesis. Nonetheless, it seems that such a coordination slightly decreased for the fast reaching out movement, as demonstrated by less correlated GFs (the curves in Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}b become less linear with speed). This invites further studies in which faster handovers are tested, to assess whether the motor task becomes less coordinated.
Release behaviour with only tactile input {#Sec20}
-----------------------------------------
When only tactile feedback was available, the passers released the object exhibiting a sensory elicited (feedback-based) behaviour. The correlation found between the receiver's reaching out acceleration and the magnitude of the tactile/haptic suggests that the information associated to the receiver's movement may be transferred to the passer visually and/or via tactile/haptic interaction (Fig. [6](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). However, the tactile feedback was not enough for achieving coordinated movements, as clearly depicted by the coordination profiles (cf. the knees in the red curves in Fig. [4](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}b). The delays observed when the passer was blindfolded, fell within the range of the latencies associated to automatically initiated responses elicited by somatosensory input during grasp (Johansson and Westling [@CR28], [@CR29], [@CR30], [@CR31]).
We also observed that the latency between the collision and the beginning of the release decreased with the speed of the receiver's reaching out movement (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}a), and in turn with the magnitude of the collision (Fig. [6](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). Opposite trends were observed for the grip force rate (dGF~max~) (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}b) which scaled with the magnitude of the collision (dFI~max~) (Fig. [6](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). Interestingly, this release behaviour shows similarities with the *impulsive catch-up response*. The latter is a rapid increase of GF that adult humans adopt to stabilize their grasp on an object, when unpredictable load force perturbations occur (Cole and Abbs [@CR10]; Cole and Johansson [@CR11]). In particular, Johansson et al. ([@CR32]) showed that the latency between the start of the perturbation and the onset of the catch-up response decreases with the rate of the perturbation (akin to Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}a), and that the peak rate of the GF is proportional to the magnitude of the perturbation (akin to Fig. [6](#Fig6){ref-type="fig"}). The complementarity in the outcomes may be explained considering that the goal of the catch-up test (i.e. to stabilize the hold after an unexpected perturbation) is opposite to the goal of the blindfolded passer (i.e. to release the hold after an unexpected perturbation). These results suggest that when visual input is unavailable, the passer's neural system may involve fast feedback mechanisms akin to those involved in the catch-up response, to modulate the GF. Moreover, as already hypothesised by Johansson for explaining the catch-up response (Johansson et al. [@CR32]), the GF response in the blindfolded passer may be elicited only if the sensory input associated to the collision exceeds a certain threshold. Thus, when the receiver produces a more intense collision, for example due to a fast reaching out movement, tactile/haptic signals overcome sooner such a threshold and the passer begins the release earlier (Fig. [5](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}a).
Perception of a fluent handover {#Sec21}
-------------------------------
In the second experiment, we investigated how the fluency of the handover perceived by the receiver reaching out at a self-paced speed is influenced by the reactivity, the speed of the release and the completion time of the handover. Results showed that control strategies with a lower *t*~release~ (i.e. a lower *F*~wT~ to trigger the release) were generally preferred.
The statistical analysis proved that the effect of *t*~release~ on the ratings was significant only when the handover was executed with the two intermediate levels of *T*~r~ and *t*~end~ (C-*t*2, C-*t*3, C-*tT*2, C-*tT*3, C-*T*2, C-*T*3) but not for the fastest and slowest conditions. This outcome advocates two discussion points. The first one is that the initial phase of the handover (immediately after the collision), influences the receiver's perception of fluency only when the interaction takes place at a natural pace, and this was expected since it is coherent with the reaching out speed of the participants. When a latency is present, even very small, this is perceived and cognitively processed by the receiver, and the interaction is experienced as less natural.
The second interesting point refers to the observed lack of sensibility to reaction time in the slowest and fastest conditions. This suggests (but is just an hypothesis) that we probably found the range of perceivable differences in the stimuli (with the experienced fluency being the stimulus) achievable with the present parameters. For the slowest conditions, this may be due to the time scales involved: the subtle difference in reaction times (roughly 40 ms) was one order of magnitude lower than the handover duration (*t*~end~ \> 800 ms); it is likely that for so slow handovers, the brain misses the saliency of slightly shorter or longer reaction times. For the fastest conditions instead, in view of the outcomes of Experiment 1, we argue that better ratings could be achieved for reaction times closer to zero. Indeed as observed in the first experiment, in normal conditions the reaction time is close to zero (predictive behaviour) for a wide range of handover dynamics. Hence handovers may be experienced as natural only when the passer uses a predictive behaviour and starts releasing the object at the time of the collision. With this in mind is was not surprising to learn that the experimental conditions were experienced as too fast only in three instances during the experiment. An additional reason may reside in the influence that an interaction with a robotic partner may have on the behaviour of the participants. Contrary to human--human handovers, in robot--human handovers it is likely that participants took the responsibility of the object stability with the result that they exploited a faster dynamics of the grasping force to mitigate the risk of dropping the object (that may occur if the robotic passer releases the object too soon). Thus, the release of the object occurred when the grasping force of the receiver was sufficient to stably hold the object, and fastest releases were judged as satisfactory and coordinated. In any case, the need of a predictive behaviour in a robot passer poses an important requirement to the designers of collaborative robots aimed to interact safely and naturally with humans. Vision or other sources of artificial sensory inputs may be used for achieving such a challenging goal.
The interaction found between the release duration (*T*~r~) and the level of confidence with the passer's behaviour (i.e. series S1 and S2) suggests a way to split the conditions between those that were deemed acceptable and those that were not. The acceptable conditions were probably those for which participants were prone to adapt and synchronize with the robot hand behaviour. Hence these conditions achieved a greater score after ten repetitions (the second series) than after the very first two trials (S1). Vice versa the unacceptable conditions were those that got a worse mark after the second series.
Further researches are necessary to investigate the fluency of the handover perceived by the receivers when they have to perform also a subsequent task with the object. In particular, it would be interesting to determine the effects of such a perception on the kinematic of the receiver not only during the handover but also during the following actions.
This work was funded by the European Research Council under the MYKI project (ERC-2015-StG, Grant no. 679820). Authors would like to acknowledge Markus Rank, Carlo Peccia and Ilaria Strazzulla for their help in the second experiment and all participants that participated in the study.
MC designed the study, developed the hand and the test object, performed the experiments, analysed the data and wrote the paper. HS designed the experimental protocol and performed experiment 1, and wrote the paper. FC analysed the data of both experiments and wrote the paper. TC designed the software, the test object and wrote the paper. AW designed the study and wrote the paper. CC designed the study, supervised the experiments and wrote the paper.
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.\" Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" Michael Rendell.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\" without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\" @(#)col.1 6.8 (Berkeley) 6/17/91
.\"
.Dd June 17, 1991
.Dt COL 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm col
.Nd filter reverse line feeds from input
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm col
.Op Fl bfpx
.Op Fl l Ar num
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm Col
filters out reverse (and half reverse) line feeds so the output is
in the correct order with only forward and half forward line
feeds, and replaces white-space characters with tabs where possible.
This can be useful in processing the output of
.Xr nroff 1
and
.Xr tbl 1 .
.Pp
.Nm Col
reads from standard input and writes to standard output.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width "-lnum"
.It Fl b
Do not output any backspaces, printing only the last character
written to each column position.
.It Fl f
Forward half line feeds are permitted (``fine'' mode).
Normally characters printed on a half line boundary are printed
on the following line.
.It Fl p
Force unknown control sequences to be passed through unchanged.
Normally,
.Nm col
will filter out any control sequences from the input other than those
recognized and interpreted by itself, which are listed below.
.It Fl x
Output multiple spaces instead of tabs.
.It Fl l Ns Ar num
Buffer at least
.Ar num
lines in memory.
By default, 128 lines are buffered.
.El
.Pp
The control sequences for carriage motion that
.Nm col
understands and their decimal values are listed in the following
table:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "carriage return" -compact
.It ESC\-7
reverse line feed (escape then 7)
.It ESC\-8
half reverse line feed (escape then 8)
.It ESC\-9
half forward line feed (escape then 9)
.It backspace
moves back one column (8); ignored in the first column
.It carriage return
(13)
.It newline
forward line feed (10); also does carriage return
.It shift in
shift to normal character set (15)
.It shift out
shift to alternate character set (14)
.It space
moves forward one column (32)
.It tab
moves forward to next tab stop (9)
.It vertical tab
reverse line feed (11)
.El
.Pp
All unrecognized control characters and escape sequences are
discarded.
.Pp
.Nm Col
keeps track of the character set as characters are read and makes
sure the character set is correct when they are output.
.Pp
If the input attempts to back up to the last flushed line,
.Nm col
will display a warning message.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr expand 1 ,
.Xr nroff 1 ,
.Xr tbl 1
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm col
utility conforms to the Single UNIX Specification, Version 2. The
.Fl l
option is an extension to the standard.
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm col
command
appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
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Abstract
Medical devices have a snare loop for removing patient-internal material, for example, a fibrin sheath which may form at the distal end of a venous catheter, and may be inserted intraluminally through the catheter during a medical procedure. The snare loop is capable of retroflexing in a proximal direction when extended beyond the distal end of the catheter so that the snare loop encircles the catheter's distal region. Such retroflexing may be accomplished by incorporating at least one pair of bend regions in the guide wire which are axially spaced-apart from one another. These bend regions will cause the shape-memory guide wire to flex upon advancement of the device beyond the distal end of the venous catheter so that the snare loop is capable of retroflexing around the catheter's distal end. Alternatively, a number of proximally directed struts having one end attached to the distal end of the guide wire. A draw wire extends from the guide catheter and is flexed in a proximal direction so as to be connected to the snare loop which is positionally held by the terminal ends of the struts. A membrane may optionally be connected to the struts so that the removed fibrin sheath segment may be captured and removed proximally through the lumen of the implanted catheter.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application may be deemed to be related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/417,018, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,380, filed even date herewith in the name of the same inventors as the present application, the entire content of which is expressly incorporated hereinto by reference.
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of medical devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to the field of snares used during medical procedures to remove material from a patient. In its preferred embodiments, the present invention is especially adapted to remove fibrin sheaths from the distal ends of intravascular catheters.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Catheters formed of a biocompatible plastics material are sometimes implanted in patients to relieve various symptoms and/or to assist in medical procedures. For example, central venous catheters have been implanted into a patient's vein during vascular surgery. One problem associated with such implanted catheters, however, is that a fibrin sheath (which is a deposit of fibrin and platelets) may form on the implanted catheter, initially at the entrance site into the vein and then along the length of the catheter. While it usually takes weeks to months for the fibrin sheath to form, it has been reported to form in as little as 24-48 hours following implant.
The fibrin sheath can cause catheter dysfunction, usually being manifested by the physician being able to infuse through, but not to aspirate from, the catheter. Intraluminal urokinase may then be administered several times to exclude the possibility of intraluminal clotting. If intraluminal urokinase treatment is ineffective, fluoroscopy may then be performed to allow the physician to evaluate catheter tip location and to obtain evidence of fibrin sheath formation.
Once the presence and extent of the fibrin sheath have been identified, the physician must take the necessary steps to remove the sheath from the implanted catheter. While it is conceivable that the implanted catheter may be removed and replaced surgically, it is more desirable for the fibrin sheath to be removed without surgical removal of the implanted catheter.
Presently, there are basically two approaches which may be employed without removal of the implanted catheter. The first approach involves introducing percutaneously a goose-neck snare (e.g., a snare device generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,233 to Amplatz et al, the entire content of which is incorporated expressly hereinto by reference) into the patient's groin area. The snare is then advanced through the patient's femoral vein to the catheter implant site, at which time it is manipulated so that the snare encircles the distal end of the implanted catheter so that the fibrin sheath may be stripped therefrom. While the fibrin sheath which is stripped from the distal end of the implanted catheter travels to the patient's lung, surgical removal has been shown to result in embolization as well.
Another technique that has been employed to strip fibrin sheaths from the distal ends of implanted catheters is to introduce a J-tipped wire intraluminally through the implanted catheter. Rotation of the J-tipped wire about the distal end of the implanted catheter will thus strip a portion of the fibrin sheath therefrom. While this technique is advantageous since the implanted catheter serves as a guide passageway (i.e., separate incisions to access the femoral vein are unnecessary), the J-tipped wire is typically only capable of removing less than all of the fibrin sheath from the implanted catheter due to its size limitations.
What has been needed in this art, therefore, is a medical device which is capable of being guided intraluminally through an implanted catheter, but which is capable of removing substantially all of the fibrin sheath that may have formed at the catheter's distal end. It is towards fulfilling such a need that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the present invention is embodied in medical devices having a snare loop for removing patient-internal material from an implanted catheter (e.g., a fibrin sheath which may form at the distal end of a venous catheter) which may be inserted intraluminally through the catheter during a medical procedure, the snare loop being capable of retroflexing in a proximal direction when extended beyond the distal end of the catheter so that it encircles the implanted catheter's distal region.
According to one embodiment of the invention, such retroflexing is accomplished by incorporating at least one pair of bend regions in the guide wire which are axially spaced-apart from one another. These bend regions will cause the shape-memory guide wire to flex upon advancement of the device beyond the distal end of the catheter so that the snare loop is capable of retroflexing around the catheter's distal end.
Another embodiment of this invention includes a number of proximally directed struts having one end attached to the distal end of the guide wire. A draw wire extends from the guide catheter and is flexed in a proximal direction so as to be connected to the snare loop which is positionally held by the terminal ends of the struts. When the draw wire is pulled proximally, the struts are moved toward parallel alignment with the guide catheter which, in turn, contracts the snare loop. Advancement of the device and/or withdrawal of the draw wire will therefore allow the contracted snare loop to strip a distal segment of the fibrin sheath from the implanted catheter's terminal end. A membrane may optionally be connected to the struts so that the removed fibrin sheath segment may be captured and removed proximally through the lumen of the implanted catheter.
Further aspects and advantages of this invention will become apparent after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Reference will hereinafter be made to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals throughout the various FIGURES denote like structural elements, and wherein;
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of one embodiment of a medical snare device according to the present invention;
FIGS. 2A-2C schematically show in side elevation views the sequence by which the device of FIG. 1 may be positioned relative to the distal end of the implanted catheter;
FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of another embodiment of a medical snare device according to the present invention; and
FIGS. 4A-4E schematically show in side elevation views the sequence by which the device of FIG. 3 may be positioned relative to the distal end of the implanted catheter.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS
One preferred embodiment of a medical snare device 10 according to the present invention is shown in accompanying FIG. 1. The snare device 10 is depicted schematically as being positioned intraluminally within a venous catheter VC, it being understood that the distal end region of venous catheter VC will in use be implanted within a patient's vein. The distal end section of the venous catheter VC is depicted in accompanying FIG. 1 as having a fibrin sheath FS extending proximally along the catheter's exterior surface.
The snare device 10 includes a proximal tubular member 12 and a distal loop member 14. The distal loop member 14 is formed into a circular or elliptical snare loop and is preferably constructed of a shape-memory alloy wire 18. The distal loop member 14 is connected integrally to proximal tail wire portions 18a, 18b at bend 20. The proximal tail wire portions 18a, 18b thus extend proximally through the proximal tubular member 12 to a patient-external site where they each can be manipulated by an attending physician. The proximal tubular member 12, on the other hand, extends proximally of the bend 20 to a patient-external site where it also can be manipulated by an attending physician.
Most preferably, the loop member 14 is integral (unitary) with the wire tail portions 18a, 18b and formed from a single, continuous wire element made of shape-memory wire (e.g., NiTi alloy). The particular size of the wire 18 is dependent upon the size of the snare device 10. However, preferably, the size of the wire 18 will nominally be between about 0.005 to about 0.025 inch in diameter and will have a length between about 60 to about 260 cm, with the loop member 14 being formed from the distalmost wire length of about 0.5 to about 5.0 cm.
The bend 20 in the wire 18 is such that the distal loop member 14 extends within a plane at an angle between about 45° to about 135° (preferably about 90°) relative to the longitudinal axis of the proximal tubular member 12. According to the present invention, the wire 18 includes, in addition to bend 20, at least two other bends 22, 24 located proximally of the bend 20 at spaced-apart axial locations along the wire tails 18a, 18b. The functional purpose of these bends 22, 24 will become evident from accompanying FIGS. 2A-2C.
In this regard, accompanying FIG. 2A shows the snare device 10 intraluminally inserted within the venous catheter VC. When the loop member 14 has been advanced beyond the venous catheter's distal end and is thus no longer confined by the venous catheter's lumen, the loop member 14 will assume an angular orientation relative to the longitudinal axis of the proximal tubular member 12 due to the presence of bend 20 in the shape-memory Alloy wire 18. Continued advancement of the proximal tubular member 12 beyond the venous catheter's distal end will thereby allow the bend 22 to emerge from the confinement of the venous catheter's lumen. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2B, the loop member 14 will be encouraged to encircle the elongate axis of the venous catheter VC, even though the loop member 14 will still be angularly oriented relative to the elongate axis of the venous catheter VC.
Upon emergence of the bend 24 from the confines of the venous catheter lumen, however, a bias force will be exerted upon the bend 20 causing the loop member 14 to in essence retroflex in a proximal direction so that the loop member 14 encircles the distal end section of the venous catheter VC and is disposed in a plane which is substantially normal to the venous catheter's elongate axis as shown in FIG. 2C (i.e., disposed at an angle between about 45° to about 135°, and preferably about 90°, relative to the elongate axis of the venous catheter VC). This beneficial retroflexing thus positions the loop member 14 in an encircling relationship to the fibrin sheath FS at the venous catheter's distal end--that is, the plane of the loop member 14 is disposed substantially transversely relative to the longitudinal axis of the venous catheter VC and, moreover, is disposed proximally of the bend 24. By manipulating the wire tails 18a, 18b and/or the proximal tubular member 12, therefore, the attending physician may constrict the loop member 14 so that it grasps the exterior surface of the venous catheter VC in the region of the fibrin sheath FS. Movement of the proximal tubular member 12 in a distal direction, therefore, will allow the constricted loop member 14 to strip the fibrin sheath FS from the distal end of the venous catheter VC.
Another embodiment of a snare device 30 is depicted schematically in accompanying FIG. 3 as including a proximally extending tubular member 32 which includes at its distal end a snare assembly 34. The snare assembly 34 includes a number of struts 34a which extend proximally of the tubular member's distal end. Although three equidistantly separated struts 34a are shown in FIG. 3, it will be appreciated that more/less numbers of such struts 34a may be employed.
Each of the struts 34a has one end attached to the tubular member 32 near the latter's distal end (e.g., via biocompatible adhesive, thermal welding or the like) and an opposite end which terminates in an eyelet 34b. A draw wire 36 extends through the lumen of the tubular member 32 and is threaded through each of the eyelets 34b. The terminal end of the draw wire 36 is, however, affixed to that one of the eyelets 34b through which the wire 36 is first threaded (e.g., the left-most eyelet as viewed in FIG. 3). The terminal portion of the draw wire 36 threaded through the eyelets 34b will thus form a snare loop 38 which encircles the distal end of the venous catheter VC.
In use, the draw wire will initially be pulled proximally so that the struts 34a are each positioned in substantially parallel alignment with the elongate axis of the tubular member 32. In this state, the snare assembly 34 will be of minimal profile so as to be capable of being inserted intraluminally through the venous catheter VC. When the snare assembly 34 has been moved distally beyond the end of the venous catheter VC (as shown in FIG. 4A), the pull wire 36 may be advanced distally to allow the struts 34a formed of shape-memory Alloy wire to deflect outwardly relative to the tubular member 32 as shown in FIG. 4B. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4C, proximal movement of the tubular member 32 relative to the venous catheter Vc will cause the snare loop 38 to encircle the distal end of the venous catheter VC on which the fibrin sheath FS has formed.
The physician may then move the pull wire 36 in a proximal direction which will cause the snare loop 38 to constrict about the exterior surface of the venous catheter VC as shown in FIG. 4D. Thus, distal advancement of the tubular member 32 while the snare loop 38 is in such a contracted state will cause the snare loop 38 to strip the fibrin sheath FS from the distal end of the venous catheter VC as shown in FIG. 4E. In order to facilitate removal of the fibrin sheath (e.g., via aspiration through the venous catheter's lumen), the snare assembly 34 may optionally be provided with a flexible membrane 40 attached to the struts 34a. The membrane 40 will thus form a generally conical-shaped cover over the struts 34a which is open at the snare loop 38.
While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
Claims (17)
a flexible wire disposed within said tubular member and having a distal end portion which is capable of being extended beyond a terminal end of said tubular member; and
a snare loop attached to said distal end portion of said wire, wherein
said wire is formed of a shape-memory metal alloy and includes a plurality of axially separated bends to cause said wire to retroflex from a deformed condition wherein said wire is aligned with and confined by said tubular member, and into a non-deformed condition wherein said distal end portion of said wire is flexed in a proximal direction such that the snare loop encircles a distal region of said tubular member in response to extension of said distal end portion of said wire beyond said terminal end of said tubular member.
at least one bend joining said snare loop to said wire distally of said terminal end of said tubular member to cause said snare loop to be oriented within a plane disposed at an angle with respect to said elongate tubular member, and
at least two other bends axially spaced-apart from one another proximally of said at least one bend, said at least two other bends causing said snare loop to be retroflexed over and around said terminal end of said tubular member.
3. A medical snare device for removing patient-internal material from a distal end region of a catheter during a medical procedure comprising:
an elongate tubular member sized so as to be insertable through the catheter;
a flexible wire disposed within said tubular member and having a distal end portion which is capable of being extended beyond a terminal end of said tubular member;
a snare loop attached to said distal end portion of said wire; and
a number of proximally extending struts each formed of a shape memory alloy and having a distal end attached to said terminal end of said tubular member and a proximal end which includes an eyelet positioned proximally of said terminal end of said tubular member; wherein
said flexible wire is threaded through said eyelets of said struts to form said snare loop, and wherein
said struts are resiliently moveable from a deformed condition, wherein said struts are aligned with said tubular member, and into a non-deformed condition, wherein said struts extend outwardly so as to expand the snare loop so that relative movement between said tubular member and said catheter causes the snare loop to encircle the distal end region of the catheter.
4. A medical snare device as in claim 3, wherein a distal end of said wire is attached to one of said eyelets such that movement of the flexible wire in a proximal direction causes said snare loop to constrict.
5. A medical snare device as in claim 3 or 4, further comprising a membrane cover attached to said struts so as to form a generally conical shaped enclosure extending from snare loop to said terminal end of said tubular member.
6. A medical snare device adapted to being advanced intraluminally through a patient-internal catheter so as to remove biological material at a distal end thereof, said snare device comprising:
a elongate tubular member;
a flexible wire formed of a shape-memory alloy disposed within said elongate tubular member and having a distal portion thereof formed into a loop;
said loop being joined to a remaining proximal section of said flexible wire by at least one bend positioned distally of a terminal end of said elongate tubular member so as to orient said loop within a plane at an angle relative to said elongate tubular member;
said flexible wire having at least two other bends formed at axially spaced-apart locations proximally of said terminal end of said tubular member to allow said loop to retroflex proximally over and around the distal end of said patient-internal catheter in response to said loop being extended beyond said terminal end of said tubular member, whereby manipulation of the snare loop removes biological material therefrom.
7. A snare device as in claim 1 or 6, wherein said snare loop is oriented at an angle between about 45° to about 135° relative to said tubular member.
8. A snare device as in claim 7, wherein said snare loop is oriented at an angle of about 90° relative to said tubular member.
9. A snare device as in claim 1 or 7, wherein said snare loop and said flexible wire are integral with one another and formed from a single continuous wire.
10. A medical snare device adapted to being advanced intraluminally through a patient-internal catheter so as to remove biological material at a distal end thereof, said snare device comprising:
an elongate tubular member having a terminal end; and
a snare assembly disposed at said terminal end of said elongate tubular member, said snare assembly including,
(i) at least one pair of flexible wire struts each formed of a shape-memory alloy and having a distal end affixed to said terminal end of said elongate tubular member and an opposite end positioned proximally of said distal end; and
(ii) a pull wire intraluminally extending through said tubular member and having a distal section which extends beyond said terminal end of said tubular member, said distal section being flexed proximally and connected to said opposite ends of said wire struts so as to form a snare loop thereat which encircles said tubular member at a location proximally of said catheter distal end and allows said snare loop to be constricted in response to proximal movement of said pull wire within said tubular member,
whereby constriction of said snare loop about said distal end of said catheter and distal movement of said snare tubular member relative to said catheter strips said biological material from said catheter distal end.
11. A snare device as in claim 10, wherein said snare assembly includes eyelet formed at said opposite end of each of said struts, said distal section of said pull wire being threaded through said eyelets.
12. A snare device as in claim 11, wherein a terminal end of said distal pull wire section is affixed to one of said eyelets.
13. A snare device as in claim 11 or 12, wherein said snare assembly further includes a membrane attached to said struts and forming a generally conical shaped enclosure about said terminal end of said tubular member which is open at said snare loop.
14. A procedure for removing a fibrin sheath from a distal end segment of a venous catheter comprising:
intraluminally advancing a snare device having a distal snare loop through the venous catheter until said snare loop is positioned distally of said distal end segment of said venous catheter so as to be unconfined thereby;
manipulating said snare device to cause said snare loop to retroflexibly encircle said distal end segment of said venous catheter; and then
distally advancing said snare device while said snare loop thereof is in said encircled relationship with said distal end segment of said venous catheter to cause said snare loop to strip said fibrin sheath therefrom.
15. A procedure as in claim 14, which includes using a snare device having a snare loop joined to a shape-memory wire at one bend located distally of a terminal end of a tubular member in which the wire is positioned, and at least two other axially spaced-apart bends formed in said wire proximally of said at least one bend and said terminal end of said tubular member, wherein said snare device is advanced beyond said distal end segment of said venous catheter until said at least two other wire bends are unconfirmed by said venous catheter to thereby allow said snare loop to retroflex proximally and encircle said distal end segment of said venous catheter.
16. A procedure as in claim 14, wherein said snare device includes a snare assembly which includes at least one pair of proximally extending struts each formed of a shape-memory alloy and having one end attached to a terminal end of an elongate tubular member, and a pull wire extending through said tubular member and attached to ends of said struts opposite said one ends thereof to form said snare loop which encircles said tubular member, said procedure comprising:
(i) advancing said tubular member intraluminally through said venous catheter with said struts disposed in substantial parallel alignment with said elongate tubular member until said snare assembly extends beyond said distal end segment thereof;
(ii) allowing the struts to deflect outwardly from said tubular member and expand the snare loop by virtue of inherent shape-memory characteristic of the struts in response to extension of the snare assembly beyond the distal end segment of the venous catheter;
(iii) retracting said tubular member until said expanded snare loop encircles said distal end segment of said venous catheter;
(iv) pulling on said pull wire to constrict said snare loop against said distal end segment of said venous catheter; and then
(v) effecting relative axial movement to occur between said tubular member and said snare loop while maintaining constriction of said snare loop against said distal end segment of said venous catheter to cause said snare loop to strip said fibrin sheath therefrom.
17. A procedure as in claim 16, which further includes capturing said stripped fibrin sheath in a membrane enclosure attached to said struts.
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Local News for Friday 23rd December 2016
Tributes to popular presenterTributes have been paid to long-standing Isles FM radio presenter Kenny ‘There you go’ Macleod, who has died suddenly at the age of 63. Kenny’s sudden death at his home in Glasgow was reported late on Wednesday, with Isles FM colleagues stunned to hear of the loss to their radio family. Kenny, who came from Grimshader in Lochs, had been living on the mainland for some years, but still contributed Irish music shows to the airwaves. In earlier years he was an Isles FM stalwart, presenting Duisg, the breakfast show, Rock and Ceilidh and other live shows. His warm-hearted broadcasting style and quirky sense of humour made him a local legend. Many Isles FM listeners have posted, emailed and rung with their condolences. One listener said “What sad news, he was such a character and will be fondly remembered. Thoughts are with his family and his friends at Isles FM.” Isles FM managing director David Morrison said: “We are all in shock here. Our thoughts are with Kenny’s daughters, grandchildren and wider family, to whom we send our condolences at this very said time.”
Local News for Thursday 22nd December 2016
Storm warnings pile up over ChristmasStorm warnings issued by the Met Office now cover the entire period between now and Boxing Day, with the strongest warnings still out for Friday. The Met Office has added a yellow ‘be aware’ warning for Christmas Day, warning of a further spell of very strong southwesterly winds, with gusts of 50 to 60 mph likely to occur quite widely. Parts of northern Scotland could see gusts up to 70mph, and waves built up from previous days could lead to coastal overtopping and closure of causeways. Today’s yellow warning remains in place, with the whole period up until 6pm on Thursday likely to be blustery, cold and with heavy and frequent wintry showers, together with lightning. Storm Barbara officially hits from 12 noon on Friday, with the worst effects being felt around 6pm in the Western Isles. The warning level here is on amber or ‘be prepared’, with structural damage, travel disruption and power cuts possible.
Local News for Wednesday 21st December 2016
Winter storms pass over islandsA series of storm winds are set to pass over the islands between now and Boxing Day, with the Met Office now warning that the next four days will see extreme conditions, set to peak on Friday evening with winds gusting up to 90mph. Two weather warnings have been issued for the Eilean Siar region. For today there’s a yellow ‘be aware’ warning of what the Met Office calls ‘a range of hazards’ including severe, cold and blustery westerly gales, frequent lightning, snowfall over higher routes and ice on untreated surfaces. For 24 hours from Friday at 9am the warning level is raised to amber or ‘be prepared’ for a high likelihood of impacts including structural damage and power interruption. The warning says: “A spell of very strong south to southwesterly winds is expected to develop on Friday. Gusts of 60 to 70 mph are likely quite widely, with westerly winds gusting to 80 - 90 mph across parts of western and northern Scotland later on Friday and overnight into Saturday. Winds will then moderate on Saturday morning.” Friday’s storm has been named Storm Barbara, the second official storm of the winter season.
Local News for Tuesday 20th December 2016
Wild wind and weatherThere’s a confusing and wild picture for the weather over the next few days, with a Met Office yellow ‘be aware’ notice issued for the islands through Wednesday and Thursday, but with ferry cancellations already taking effect today. Ferries between Stornoway and Ullapool are cancelled today, with widespread further disruption expected through the network. CalMac is warning anyone planning to travel by ferry this week that strong winds are forecast in many parts of its network leading to possible disruption of ferry services. Operations Director Drew Collier said: "Weather forecasts for the west of Scotland are predicting a stormy week for many especially as we near the weekend when people will be travelling for Christmas.We will review sailings on a case by case basis but would advise anyone planning to travel by ferry to take this into account when planning journeys in the next few days." CalMac is advising ferry travellers to check the website www.calmac.co.uk for the latest information. Isles FM will also keep listeners and Facebook followers up to date as news is posted.
Local News for Monday 19th December 2016
Tragic news for island relativesRelatives of a Stornoway family are now known to be among those who have lost their lives during the chaotic conflict in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Two related Syrian families came to the Western Isles this year and have settled in Stornoway, where they are being supported by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and other agencies. Comhairle convenor Cllr Norman Macdonald told councillors at a private meeting last week that the trauma of the families had now been compounded, with news that some of their close family were among casualties in Aleppo. He said: ““It is with the deepest regret that I inform you that the Syrian families resettling in our community have lost very close family relatives during attacks in Aleppo over the last few days. Our thoughts and prayers are with them all at this time.”
Barra lifeboatBarra Lifeboat was called to help out a fishing vessel with engine failure in wild conditions within Castlebay harbour on Saturday. The FV Spindrift called for help just before 2pm, and the lifeboat launched to take her in tow back to the quayside. The lifeboat was alongside and refuelled by 2.40pm.
Christmas travel disruptionThere’s increasing likelihood of travel disruption for those heading home for Christmas, with stormy conditions towards the end of the week, and proposed strike action at some of the airports connecting with Stornoway. Ground handling staff at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports are among those expected to take strike action in a dispute over pay and conditions and weather models are predicting a possible severe storm on Christmas Eve, with deep low pressure systems building in the North Atlantic.
Harris Santa runChristmas started early in Tarbert at the weekend, where the village tree has been up and lit in the distillery car park, and the annual Isle of Harris Santa Run organised by Tarbert Fire Service on Saturday, the real Santa leading the way in his sleigh. Santa later settled down by the distillery peat fire to give out presents to children, while parents and grandparents enjoyed mulled wine, hot chocolate and mince pies. All proceeds from the event will be going to a local charity. A Harris Distillery spokesman said: “It is a rare Hearach who has never leaned on a neighbour for a helping hand and a rarer one who will never offer theirs to those in need. Each and every day we turn to each other to get things done, so Christmas provides a great opportunity to celebrate all that is good about being part of the Harris community.”
‘No-one alone for Christmas’ – Salvation ArmyThe Stornoway-based corps of the Salvation Army want to make sure that no-one has to spend Christmas alone this year, and also to respond to numerous enquiries from local people keen to help with donations of food and gifts for children and families in need. This year the Salvation Army will be serving more Christmas meals than last year, and requests for gifts, food parcels and hot water bottles are also up. Lt Emma Newton told Isles FM: “We are providing gifts for over 100 children, food parcels for more than 50 families and dinner to anyone who would otherwise be on their own, serving two sittings, one on Thursday December 22nd at 12 noon and one on Christmas Day from 2pm. Anyone is welcome to join us for the meals, we don’t want anybody to spend Christmas Day on their own. We’d also like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has already made a donation either directly to us or through Tesco’s Giving Tree.” If anyone wishes to donate towards the annual toy, food and gift appeal, they can get in touch with the local branch at 59 Bayhead or by phoning 703875.
Stornoway athlete’s selectionStornoway athlete Connor Maclean has been named in the Scottish Athletics under-23 squad for the Celtic Nations cross-country championships, due to take place in Cardiff on January 22nd. Connor is one of four in his event, and 24 across all age-groups, representing Scotland. There’s a total of 14 athletics clubs represented in the selection, and a Scottish Athletics spokesman said: “All at Scottish Athletics would like to congratulate those athletes selected, their families and coaches on the honour – and the clubs involved down the years in the development of these hard-working, talented young athletes.”
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Ein Joint – trotz Verbots längst eine weit verbreitete Droge. Fotolia Foto:
Kalifornien hat den Verkauf von Marihuana legalisiert – ein US-Bundesstaat mit fast 40 Millionen Einwohnern. Es ist damit weltweit der größte Markt für legalen Cannabishandel. Und Deutschland? Es ist Zeit, auch hier das Kiffen für Konsumenten vollständig zu entkriminalisieren und einen regulierten Markt für Marihuana zu schaffen – mit wirksamem Jugend- und Verbraucherschutz.
Bild vergrößern André Schulz ist Hauptkommissar beim LKA Hamburg und schreibt in der MOPO als Vorsitzender der Gewerkschaft Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter. dpa Foto:
Aus polizeilicher Sicht stellt sich die Drogenbekämpfung als extrem personalaufwendig dar – und leider als wenig zielführend. Wenn Kripobeamte über die Organisierte Kriminalität („OK“) sprechen, handelt es sich meistens um den Kampf gegen Drogen. Dabei gibt es zahlreiche weitere OK-Phänomene, etwa organisierte Einbruchsbanden, Schmuggler oder Schleuser, für deren Bekämpfung dann die Ressourcen fehlen.
Bild vergrößern Welche Marihuana-Sorte darf’s denn sein? Ein Shop in Santa Cruz präsentiert sein Angebot. dpa Foto:
Dabei sind wir als Kripo in mehr als 70 Prozent der Drogen-Fälle mit den Konsumenten befasst. Die Frage ist: Sind Drogenkonsumenten wirklich Kriminelle? Muss man sie mit dem Strafrecht verfolgen? Oder kommen wir tatsächlich nur über die Konsumenten an die Schmuggler und Hersteller?
70 % der Drogenfälle der Kripo befassen sich mit den Konsumenten, nicht mit Dealern.
Während wir mit viel Aufwand die Konsumenten verfolgen, machen die Hintermänner weitgehend unbehelligt weiter, was man daran erkennt, dass wir zwar immer mehr Drogen sicherstellen, die Preise auf dem Markt aber stabil bleiben oder sogar sinken. Alles Anzeichen für eine große Drogenverfügbarkeit auf dem Markt – und das trotz des immensen Personalaufwandes der Polizei.
Haltung, bitte! Im „Standpunkt“ schreiben MOPO-Redakteure und Gast-Autoren aus ganz persönlicher Sicht über Themen, die Hamburg bewegen. Darüber darf gern diskutiert werden! [email protected]
Dazu passt, dass die US-amerikanische Regierung jüngst den „War on Drugs“ als verloren bezeichnet hat. Den amerikanischen Sicherheitsbehörden gelingen zwar immer wieder spektakuläre Festnahmen von Drogenbossen, doch die entstandenen Hierarchie-Löcher schließen sich sehr schnell. Allein in Mexiko sind in den letzten zehn Jahren mehr als 180000 Menschen im Drogenkrieg gestorben.
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Regional Information Center for Science and Technology
Regional Information Center for Science and Technology (RICeST) () is an Iranian governmental organisation established to promote the production and distribution of scientific information in Iran and Islamic countries, providing reference, study and bibliographical information and related services. It also undertakes scientometrics based on its databases of scientific products of Iran and Islamic countries.
It was established as Regional Library of Science and Technology (RLST) in 1991 by agreement between Iran's Ministry of Culture and Higher Education and the Third-World Academy of Sciences, with Jafar Mehrad as the director. It is currently under the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. It is also known as the Shiraz Regional Library of Sciences and Technology (SRLST)
Before the Internet was established in Iran, RICeST fulfilled its objectives by setting up a Bulletin Board Service to allow electronic access to the information sources it was collating.
Finances
In 1993, it was approved for an independent budget of 1800 million Rials. Around the same time it obtained a loan from the Islamic Development Bank for $15 million.
, the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology provides RICeST annually with about one million dollars to purchase scientific journals. RICeST allocated about one million and 600 thousand dollars each year to purchase journals in languages other than Persian.
Regional Information Center for Science & Technology
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President Office
Office of International Scientific Cooperation
Plan and Program department
Deputy Finance and Administration
Financial Administrative Affairs
Administrative affairs
Financial Department
Research Deputy
Research Deputy
Designing and System Operation Research Group
Research Department of Information Management
Research Department of Evaluation and Collection Development
Research Department of Computational Linguistics
Information and Communication Technology Department
Office of Information Services
Branches
National Branches
Urmia University
Shahr-e-Kord University
Hormozgan University
Isfahan Municipality
Hamedan University
Sahand University of Technology
Yasouj University
Zanjan University
Kermanshah Razi University
Gilan University
Qazvin Islamic Development Organization
University of Sistan and Baluchestan
Forient Branches
Teeshrin University (Syria)
National Information Center (Yemen)
Databases
RICeST has created, maintained and provided access to many subject matter bibliographic databases and directories. In 2006 RICeST started collected journals in art, humanities and social sciences
Persian General Databases
Integrated Database
E-Articles
E-Journals
E-Books
E-Atlases & Maps
Research Reports
Conference Articles
Abstrans
Iranian Universities Libraries
EDMS
Databank for Higher Education Graduates in LIS
Library Catalogue
Database of Standard Questionnaires and Tests of Educational Science and Psychology Dissertation of Iran
Persian Subject Databases
IR.Compendex
Iran Lisa
Iranian Experts
Transportation
Earthquake
Energy
Flood
IR. Industries
IR. Metallurgical Industries
Environment
Mines of IRAN
Standards
Non Persian Databases
Islamic E-Manuscripts
Content Search
Scientific Articles
E-Theses & Dissertations
IRAN Journals
Persian E-Articles
Arabic E-Articles
English E-Articles
Persian Journal Search
Persian E-Journals
Arabic E-Journals
English E-Journals
Accredited Journals
International Journal of Information Science and Management (IJISM)
Library Automation Software
A team of IT and librarianship experts contributed to developing the library automation software with the following specifications:
Thesaurus based
Supports barcode & RFID
Workflow automation
Import data from other databases
Reduced Redundancy
Fast search ability
Relational Database
Low cost database Design
Non Redundant subjective DBS
Journals automation system
Source availability
Web based App
Unicode support
Normalized relation database
Full text search engine
Uses 3 layered Approach
Research Project
A feasibility of doing interlanguage information retrieval by Google machine translation
System of information transmission from Persian journals XML file to RICeST system
Feasibility of using concept-based readability in Persian domain specific information retrieval
Machine stemmer of past, present and future simple verbs
Examining and assessing methods and processes of publishing journals
The Challenges of Persian Natural Language Processing
Design and implementation of a new structure of ISC database
Designing ISC content list in Persian/ ISCI citation reports + h-index /rewriting Persian highly cited proceedings database
Citation analysis of Persian humanities journals in ISC database within 2003-2007
Database of standard questionnaires and tests of educational sciences theses within 2005- 2007
Evaluating websites of the universities and research centers affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology & the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education and Islamic Azad Universities
Database of Content Search
Full text formatting of the database of ISI citation index
Persian past and present stemmer of intransitive verbs of Persian language
Top 20 countries’ scientific production status
Database of computer sciences and engineering abstracts
Iran LISA database
Structuring derivational word in Persian language
A comprehensive database of undergraduate students of library and information sciences of Iran from the beginning up to 2004
Database of scientific and research publication of faculty members of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, I. R. of Iran
Design and implementation of manuscripts in electronics format at RLST on the internet
Database of Maps and Atlases (Design and implementation on the Web)
Iran's and Islamic countries Science Citation Index(SCI)
Database of Iran's Supreme court votes
System for documents electronic management
Design & Implementation of Persian E-Journals on the Internet
Database of Iranian Metallurgical Industries with Related Standards: Design and Implementation on the Web
Assessment of the Use of Artificial Neural Network for information Retrieval in RLST's Databases
Design & Implementation of a Web-Based Persian E-Books
Design & Implementation of a Web-Based Persian E-Articles
References
External links
RICeST, Libdex
Category:Government agencies of Iran
Category:Buildings and structures in Shiraz
Category:Education in Fars Province
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Sticker Art Jungle (Paperback)
About this item
Create your own colorful jungle animal portraits with this new sticker series for animal enthusiasts of all ages. With eight sticker by number portraits for hours of fun, each portrait features facts to keep young readers interested.
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Praying for Each Other
The Lord is using the airwaves to reach the Kabyle people. Project Hannah's team recently visited an elderly man who had been listening to the "Women of Hope" program because it was his only source of spiritual food. He had become a Christian in the 1990’s and knew no other believers in his area. He was overjoyed to learn from the Project Hannah team that there were now many believers in his area and even a church nearby, where he could get his first ever Bible. Pray that more people we hear the "Women of Hope" program in Algeria and come to know the Lord and become a Christ follower.
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Saturday June 6, 2020
Washington News
Peak IRS Filing Season after Presidents Day Holiday
The two weeks after Presidents Day is usually peak IRS filing season. The IRS reports that the number of tax returns and refunds is down slightly from last year. As of February 7, 2020, the IRS had issued 10.83 million refunds. This is down from the 11.38 million refunds issued at this time last year. The total refunds issued were $21.16 billion, down 4.6% compared with $22.18 billion distributed by February 8, 2019.
However, the average refund was slightly higher. The average refund as of February 7, 2020, was $1,952. This is up from $1,949 at this time last year.
Most tax returns so far have been e-filed. Self–preparers e-filed approximately 17.18 million returns as of February 7. This is up 3.5% compared with last year.
Tax professionals e-filed 10.59 million returns as of February 7, 2020. This number is down 3.7% compared with last year.
In IR-2020-30, the IRS offered tax tips and urged taxpayers to avoid the late February tax rush.
IRS.gov to Track Refunds - The IRS reports that nine out of ten refunds are issued within 21 days. You can use the “Where's My Refund?” tool on IRS.gov or the IRS2Go app to check your refund status. You also can call the IRS refund hotline at 800–829–1954.
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) - If you qualify for the EITC or ACTC, you also may use the "Where's My Refund?" tool to track refunds. The EITC and ACTC refunds cannot be issued before February 15. Most of these refunds will be available by the first week of March.
Tax Help or Tax Questions - If you have questions about taxation, there are multiple tools on IRS.gov that will help you. You can use the Interactive Tax Assistant, Tax Topics, Frequently Asked Questions or Tax Trails for quick and useful answers.
Free Tax Software - The IRS Free File program is available for taxpayers with 2019 incomes under $69,000. If you are a taxpayer who qualifies, go to IRS.gov and select a Free File software program to complete your taxes.
Trusted Tax Professional - If you would like help finding a tax professional, visit IRS.gov. There is guidance on how to select a qualified tax professional on IRS.gov/chooseataxpro.
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Cops move collector for IPL dues
The Navi Mumbai police has requested the Thane collector to take necessary steps to recover around Rs10.50 crore payment due from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), for security provided for Indian Premier League matches at the DY Patil stadium in 2010 and 2011.
Fed up of the deaf ear given by the BCCI to repeated reminders about the payment due, AR Morale, deputy commissioner of police, has written a letter to the collectorate to take action under relevant sections of the revenue code.
According to Santosh Pachlag, who had filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court, the collectorate may consider attaching properties of the IPL in different parts of the city to recover the amount due. Thane collector P Velarasu was not available for comment.
The payment includes Rs6.23 crore for the security arrangements for six IPL matches played at the DY Patil stadium in Nerul in the 2010 season and Rs4.72 crore due for the seven matches played in 2011.
Of this amount due, the BCCI paid only Rs47.53 lakh, saying that it had paid only this much to the police in Nagpur for the matches there and hence would not pay more. Navi Mumbai police have yet to receive the remainder Rs10.48 crore.
Subsequently, the Navi Mumbai unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party had warned that it would not allow any further matches to be played in the satellite city till the BCCI paid the dues. Not a single IPL match was given to DY Patil stadium in the 2012 IPL season.
“An event like the IPL adds to the burden of the police force that is short staffed,” said Pachlag. “And common citizens are inconvenienced as they have to wait longer to get the police to attend to their complaints as a large number of personnel are occupied with security for the match. But the BCCI, which is raking in the moolah, will not settle the payment for security.”
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Basenji-greyhound dog: increased m2 muscarinic receptor expression in trachealis muscle.
Airway smooth muscle from asthmatic humans and from the Basenji-greyhound dog (BG) dog is hyporesponsive to beta-adrenergic agonist stimulation. Because adenylyl cyclase is under dual regulation in airway smooth muscle, we compared muscarinic receptor-coupled inhibition of adenylyl cyclase in airway smooth muscle from BG and mongrel dogs. Inhibition of forskolin-stimulated adenylyl cyclase activity by the muscarinic M2 agonist oxotremorine was greater in airway smooth muscle membranes from BG compared with mongrel controls. Quantitative immunoprecipitation studies showed increased numbers of m2 but not m3 muscarinic receptors in the BG airway smooth muscle. The enhanced ability of muscarinic agonists to inhibit adenylyl cyclase in BG airway smooth muscle may be due to the greater numbers of muscarinic m2 receptors, which may account in part for impaired airway smooth muscle relaxation in the BG model of airway hyperresponsiveness.
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Author
Topic: hello from Louisiana-new member (Read 813 times)
Hi, I am a fledgling beekeeper, keep a few animals, garden a bit, homeschool two children and work at a church as an accompanist and choir director. I live outside of Covington, La which is across the lake from New Orleans and have lived in the area for 35 years. We have 40 acres and three hives (soon to be 4). I love the bees but am continually humbled by the little creatures!! They sometimes don't do what the books and manuals say they should!!
I am looking forward to learning more and lurking about-trying to figure out the right questions to ask!!
When I first began learning about bees (4 years ago), I never saw any honeybees on our property. I would regularly inspect flowers, garden area, etc and rarely saw anything. Of course, that changed when I got my hives, and the squash and cucumbers (plus various weeds that I could have skipped having pollinated) began to proliferate. This year, we had three swarms on our property. One was from one of my hives (I got sick in the spring and couldn't get to the splitting). Tried to catch the first one and got badly stung in the process. We successfully captured another one, put it in a hive box with sugar water. They sucked down my sugar water and took off the next day!! Anyway, I am thrilled to know that there are more beekeepers around and more bees in the area-doing our part to repopulate our little corner of the world.
Candy
Logged
homeschool mom to 2 kidschurch musiciankeeper of cows, goats, two turkeys, sheep, occasional pig, one goose, cats, dogswife of 21 years to a hardworking mangardener of heirloom vegetables
Moots
Candy,Welcome to the forum, always good to see others join in, and sort of a little bonus when they're a fellow Louisianan. :)
This is my first year as a Beek but I've jumped straight into the deep end. :laugh:I had intentions of starting with two or three hives. However, I purchased 2 Nucs in mid January but have caught about a dozen swarms, done a couple of trapouts and a couple of cutouts since then....So I currently have 9 hives and a few Nucs.
I absolutely love the hobby and this forum has been an immeasurable resource, lots of good folks willing to take the time to share their experience and knowledge whenever they can help someone out.
Welcome to the forum, Farmgirl62. That was about the same time I started, and they will let you know how much you don't know sometimes. I'm just little north east of Hattiesburg. Bought a bull down in Covington several years ago. Check to see if you have a local bee club, they can bee a good help also. Good luck to you and your bees.
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A ubiquitin-like peptide from the mushroom Pleurotus sajor-caju exhibits relatively potent translation-inhibitory and ribonuclease activities.
The fruiting bodies of the edible mushroom Pleurotus sajor-caju were extracted with an aqueous buffer and then subjected to affinity chromatography on Affi-gel Blue gel, ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and gel filtration on Superdex 75. From the fraction of the extract adsorbed on Affi-gel Blue gel and unadsorbed on DEAE-cellulose, a 9.5 kDa peptide with an N-terminal sequence similar to ubiquitin was isolated with a yield of 0.25 mg/kg mushroom. The peptide inhibited cell-free translation with an IC(50) of 30 nM. It exhibited a ribonuclease activity of 450 U/mg toward yeast transfer RNA. The activities were substantially more potent than those of previously isolated mushroom ubiquitin-like protein and peptide.
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MS: It’s fast! It’s 60 frames per second. We push the Wii U technically to its limits. That’s something that’s been important to our company for a long time.
On the content side, we’ve included a lot of different game modes to make the game big and to give everybody the chance to enjoy the game. We have a single-player campaign with 16 tracks. We have online gaming where you can play online worldwide whenever you want. We also have local split-screen multiplayer for between 2-4 players.
Although FAST Racing NEO is only releasing on the Nintendo eShop, we developed this game like a full retail game. We’ve been working on it for nearly three years and put a lot of resources into its development.
NoE: How many people can play online together?
MS: Right now, eight, but it’s not finalised yet.
NoE: What sets FAST Racing NEO apart from other science fiction racers available?
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This was despite calls from party staff for the investigation to be moved on to the next disciplinary stage.
Mr Corbyn found himself under mounting pressure to sack Mr Williamson after Jon Lansman, the founder of the grassroots Momentum group and key Corbyn-ally also said the MP ‘has to go’.
Mr Lansman accused Mr Williamson of showing ‘contempt’ for the panel’s ruling by tweeting that he had received an ‘avalanche’ of support from grassroots members.
The decision to let Mr Williamson back into the party was met with condemnation from many MPs on both sides of the house and many Jewish community figures.
More than 60 MPs have signed a motion calling for a Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) vote on withdrawing the whip from Mr Williamson for 12 months for bringing the party into disrepute.
The motion calls for the case to be referred to the parliamentary committee – the influential backbench body which meets weekly with Mr Corbyn – at its next meeting on Wednesday.
If approved, it would then go to a full PLP vote at Westminster.
The motion says: ‘Due to the exceptional circumstances in this case we are of the view that the allegation of bringing the Labour Party into disrepute made against Chris Williamson warrants an investigation by the parliamentary committee under this standing order and full consideration given to a recommendation of removal of the whip to the PLP.
‘We therefore seek to ask the PLP to take action to suspend the whip from Chris Williamson for a period of a year.’
MPs who signed the motion include Yvette Cooper, Dame Margaret Hodge, Wes Streeting, David Lammy and Diana Johnson.
The latest move to have him suspended from the PLP came after Mr Corbyn ignored calls, led by deputy leader Tom Watson, to step in and withdraw the whip himself.
A Labour source insisted Mr Corbyn was not involved in the party’s disciplinary processes or individual cases.
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Nitrate removal from drinking water by point of use ion exchange.
A laboratory study was conducted to investigate the ability of a special type of strongly basic resin MP500WS for the removal of nitrate from different waters. Two different types of Point-of-Use (POU) devices containing an identical resin were used. MP500WS known as macro porous was used in POU devices for removal of high concentrations of nitrate and sulfate ions from water. Sulfate and chloride ions are considered the most important interferences in the treatment process of nitrate by most anion exchange resins. The results obtained by treatment of water samples having different ranges of nitrate (20 to150 mg/L), sulfate (50, 100 and 800 mg/L) and chloride (50 and 500 mg/L) have shown that the method was suitable for delivering water with NO(3) concentrations in less than its maximum contaminant level (MCL=45 mg/L) as long as the initial NO(3), SO(4) and Cl concentration has remained in less than 150, 100 and 500 mg/L, respectively. For this purpose, POU systems that utilize a suitable tested resin may be considered as an economical and effective alternative to conventional systems. This study shows this strategy very effective for nitrate reduction to acceptable levels when macro porous type strongly basic resin is used as the resin.
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Unicycle ‘Uni-Dude’ Rides Again
It’s Official.
I’m finally biting the bullet and riding 200 miles for charity – on a unicycle – starting Thursday, November 13th . . . at age 62! This will be the longest single ride I’ve ever attempted.
A Unicycle Story
In 2009 I couldn’t make it more than one mile without wheezing and trying to catch my breath. I had recently failed a stress test, so I knew I needed to work out, but I hated going to the gym. It was then I realized I used to love to ride a unicycle as a kid and started doing it again.
It took me a year to get in shape before deciding to set a goal to ride a thousand miles a year for my favorite orphan charity, the Himalayan Children’s Charities (HCC), run by some friends of mine. I chose this one because I knew 100% of all donations went directly to the kids.
I have now ridden 1000 miles a year for this charity for 3 years in a row, and am going to finish my fourth thousand-mile year during this long trip!!
Bruce and Susan Keenan, who founded and run the charity, tell me that donations have meant the world to the kids, and especially to those who give. In Nepal, most young children who lose their parents end up on the streets, or in poorly-run orphanages with little food, clothing, or education.
Consequently most of these kids stay in poverty and can’t get jobs because they are just trying to survive and have no way of getting any kind of education to get any kind of decent job.
By riding and posting videos of my ride between now and Nov. 18th, I hope in some small way to contribute to this cause and help my friends who are doing a tremendous job through HCC. So far, a little more than 50 kids are still with the program and several have grown and gone on to healthy and prosperous futures!
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How to Control the Discharge Products in Na-O2 Cells: Direct Evidence toward the Role of Functional Groups at the Air Electrode Surface.
Sodium-oxygen batteries have received a significant amount of research attention as a low-overpotential alternative to lithium-oxygen. However, the critical factors governing the composition and morphology of the discharge products in Na-O2 cells are not thoroughly understood. Here we show that oxygen containing functional groups at the air electrode surface have a substantial role in the electrochemical reaction mechanisms in Na-O2 cells. Our results show that the presence of functional groups at the air-electrode surface conducts the growth mechanism of discharge products toward a surface-mediated mechanism, forming a conformal film of products at the electrode surface. In addition, oxygen reduction reaction at hydrophilic surfaces more likely passes through a peroxide pathway, which results in the formation of peroxide-based discharge products. Moreover, in-line X-ray diffraction combined with solid state 23Na NMR results indicate the instability of discharge products against carbonaceous electrodes. The findings of this study help to explain the inconsistency among various reports on composition and morphology of the discharge products in Na-O2 cells and allow the precise control over the discharge products.
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Western Water Institutional Solutions: Identification, Development, and Application of Institutional Solutions for Western Water Problems
Project Abstract
The Western Water Institutional Solutions project sought to understand the genesis of water conflict in the Western United States and then, based on lessons learned, prepare a training course for Reclamation employees to help them prevent and manage it. In the early stages, the project conducted focus groups in Reclamation area offices. Most of the cited causes of water conflict were related to change (in policy, in law, in budgeting, in administrative priorities, in climate, etc.), the differences among scientists, and to the mission, legal, and policy requirements and priorities that various institutions and stakeholders were bound to. Subsequent case studies and analyses of cooperative and conflictive media events found that when social, economic, bio-physical, or political change outpaces the institutional capacity to manage it, conflict is likely to occur. In addition, over time, the frequency curve of events scaled from cooperative to conflictive showed a normal distribution.In the final phase of this project, training modules were developed based upon what had been learned in the prior research efforts. These training courses, tailored for Reclamation employees, but especially for water managers, focused upon how to move the management of conflict from an entrenched discussion about rights to an earnest discussion about the allocation of needs and benefits throughout the entire water basin under discussion. The final goal was to develop new systems of governance amongst the constituencies capable of allocating these benefits in an equitable fashion. In the process a set of collaborative skills was taught that included active listening, joint fact-finding, management of public meetings, and the like.
Summary of the presentations and interactive activities that took place at the 2007 Reclamation workshop on preventing and managing water conflict. While biophysical factors such as drought, invasive species, and climate change can create an environment conducive to water conflict, especially in the arid West, institutional arrangements can be put in place among stakeholders to help manage or even prevent it.
This report examines the relationships between the hydropolitical events, scaled by intensity for collaboration or conflict, and bio-physical and demographic predictors of water conflict. The majority of events were collaborative. Statistical analysis uncovered no significant indicators of hydropolitical intensity. Timeline analysis showed no consistent relationship between drought intensity and conflict intensity. Relations between stakeholder involvement and government level were examined.
This workbook is the primary source of training materials for the collaborative competency and conflict management trainings offered through a Bureau of Reclamation and Oregon State University partnership. It provides a framework to deepen ones understanding about conflict around western water issues and possible responses. The workbook is designed to guide Bureau of Reclamation employees and other course participants through collaborative learning and skills-building exercises in order to lea
This manual accompanies the workbook by the same name. It is the primary source of training materials for the collaborative competency and conflict management trainings offered through a Bureau of Reclamation and Oregon State University partnership. The content of the manual includes both the course material and instructions on how to prepare for and lead the course. The course laid out by the manual is designed to guide Bureau of Reclamation employees and other course participants through co
This study addresses the question: "What are the incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention and mitigation in the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation)?" Incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention (i.e., actions taken to avoid conflict) and mitigation (i.e., actions taken to resolve, manage, or temper a conflictive situation after conflict has occurred) are identified through a survey and focus groups of Reclamation employees. The two dominant disincentives identified are a la
This case study sets out to address the question: Within the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, developed by Elinor Ostrom and others, what incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention and mitigation influence Reclamation (the actor) and its decision making regarding the endangered Middle Rio Grande silvery minnow? The IAD framework provided a structured way to determine how informal institutions affect the incentives experienced by individuals and their resultant b
This report discusses in detail the water conflicts between Sanpete and Carbon counties in Central Utah, which started in the early 20th century. It also discusses the methodologies involved in creating an event database and analyzing circumstance underlying the conflict. The primary causes of the conflict are discussed as well as the role of the Bureau of Reclamation.
This document is a synopsis of visits to Upper Colorado Area Offices to learn what factors typically cause water conflict. Causes of conflict included rapid physical, social, economic, or political change; differences over science; agency inflexibility; an institutional culture that rewards conflict; stakeholder inflexibility; and unenforced and unenforceable laws or policies. Good leadership, inclusiveness, and process credibility were essential for successful management of conflict.
An electronic survey of Reclamation managers was undertaken to determine the primary causes for water conflict in the US West. Among the top causes listed were changes in water use, intensity of use, and diversity of use. Legal/institutional causes for conflict were more prominent than biophysical causes. When the rapidity of change outstripped the capacity for an institution to adjust, conflict often resulted. Useful tools for managing conflict included public information efforts and GIS.
Keywords: institutional capacity, water conflict, causes of water conflict
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1. Introduction {#sec1-microorganisms-07-00681}
===============
*Botrytis cinerea* (Pers.) \[tel. *Botryotinia fuckeliana*\] is considered the second most important fungal pathogen of plants after *Penicillium expansum*, with preharvest and postharvest rotting infections \[[@B1-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B2-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. It is a generalist necrotrophic pathogen causing major postharvest losses with significant economic impacts on various crops, as rotting can be on fruit, vegetables, flowers and leafy ornamentals, and serves as a model species for plant--necrotroph interactions \[[@B3-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. *B. cinerea* causes grey mould disease in many fresh commodities from the Solanaceae (tomatoes, peppers and eggplants), Curcubitaceae (melons, cucumbers, squash and pumpkin) and other economically sound produce \[[@B4-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. The levels of postharvest losses of fresh commodities caused by microorganism attack worldwide range from 10% to 30% of the total crop yield, with significantly higher losses in developing countries \[[@B5-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Tomato is regarded as a major horticultural crop providing a considerable nutritive value of vitamins (C, B, A), minerals (calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron) and antioxidant capacity \[[@B6-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B7-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Tomato preferred storage conditions are 10--12 °C for reducing the metabolic processes related to ripening/maturation, while lower (i.e., 7 °C) temperatures may cause chilling injuries and physiological disorders and shorten the postharvest life of the commodity. Chilling injury causes the release of metabolites, such as amino acids and sugar, and minerals from cells, and together with the degradation of cell structure, challenge the pathogen infection. These detrimental changes reduce quality and consumer acceptability leading to substantial economic loss.
Optimal temperatures for *B. cinerea* growth is 18--23 °C, however, some growth will occur even at cool storage temperature (usually 0--5 °C), when fruit resistance is decreased by cell degradation through ripening and maturation of the fresh produce \[[@B8-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Despite several postharvest preservation means examined in tomatoes, such as ozone \[[@B9-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B10-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B11-microorganisms-07-00681]\], essential oils \[[@B12-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B13-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B14-microorganisms-07-00681]\], acetic acid \[[@B15-microorganisms-07-00681]\], chitosan, UV-C \[[@B16-microorganisms-07-00681]\] and heat treatment \[[@B17-microorganisms-07-00681]\], a chilled storage temperature is a necessity for postharvest preservation of fresh produce. Application of synthetic chemical compounds, chilled storage, and modified atmosphere storage techniques are, therefore, the primary means of controlling postharvest decay, including gray mould, of fruit vegetables \[[@B5-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
During active infection, *B. cinerea* secrets cell wall degrading enzymes and yields toxins \[[@B3-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Additionally, susceptibility to *B. cinerea* changes during development and age, and this is related to several metabolic processes, including increasing ethylene and respiration rates (especially in climacteric produce) \[[@B7-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B18-microorganisms-07-00681]\], enzyme degradation and cell-wall loosening \[[@B19-microorganisms-07-00681]\], soluble sugar accumulation, pH changes \[[@B20-microorganisms-07-00681]\], cuticular changes \[[@B21-microorganisms-07-00681]\], decline of preformed and inducible antifungal compounds and secondary metabolites \[[@B20-microorganisms-07-00681]\], to name a few. Most of these changes are regulated by hormone signals, including ethylene, abscisic acid, jasmonic acid and salicylic acid, which increase during fruit ripening \[[@B18-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B22-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Noticeably, similar phytohormones are regulated in the host defense response to pathogens \[[@B23-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B24-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. These changes are sensed by the pathogen and switch to the necrotrophic lifestyle and cause decay \[[@B20-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
Quality attributes affect nutritional value, maintenance during storage, and safety for consumers. Moreover, unripe tomatoes \[[@B25-microorganisms-07-00681]\] and strawberries \[[@B26-microorganisms-07-00681]\] were more resistant to *B. cinerea* infection compared to the ripe fruit. Petrasch et al. \[[@B26-microorganisms-07-00681]\] reported that sugar accumulation in ripe strawberries could serve as nutrients for *B. cinerea*, however, Blanco-Ulate et al. \[[@B27-microorganisms-07-00681]\] suggested that fungi susceptibility is not necessarily related to high levels of sugars in tomato mutants, but sugars could still influence the pathogen susceptibility as they can serve as ripening initiation signals. The plant--pathogen interaction system is complicated and still under exploration, with plant hormones biosynthesis and signaling changes taking place with pathogen attack \[[@B26-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Blanco-Ulate et al. \[[@B23-microorganisms-07-00681]\] reported that *B. cinerea* could initiate ethylene production in unripe tomato fruit and thereby stimulate early ripening. Of note, the pathogen and plant interaction on the quality of fresh produce is not well examined, and limited proteomic data on this interaction is available. Mainly proteomic studies were focused on plant proteomes, and fewer are catalogued in infected tissues by a pathogen \[[@B28-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Even more limited information is available on proteome changes in the healthy part of an infected fruit \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Therefore, the proteome profile of the powdery mildew (*Erisphye pisi*) infection on pea \[[@B30-microorganisms-07-00681]\], *Pseudomonas syringae* infection of *Arabidopsis* \[[@B31-microorganisms-07-00681]\], *Xanthomonas campestris* on *Brassica oleracea* \[[@B32-microorganisms-07-00681]\] revealed the identification of less than 100 plant-related proteins. Thus, most protein identifications were related to the pathogen itself. Moreover, *B. cinerea* proteome had been identified from cultures of fungal (mycelium) pathogens grown on synthetic media \[[@B33-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B34-microorganisms-07-00681]\], resulting in more than 300 identified proteins. Proteomic analysis of *B. cinerea* secretome (extracts of ripped tomato and strawberry and *Arabidopsis* leaf extract) has also been studied \[[@B35-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
Proteomics approaches were used in tomatoes (*Solanum lycopersicum* Mill.) to examine various aspects including responses to pathogens \[[@B36-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B37-microorganisms-07-00681]\], viruses \[[@B38-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B39-microorganisms-07-00681]\], abiotic-stresses \[[@B40-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B41-microorganisms-07-00681]\], interaction of abiotic (ozone) and biotic (pathogen) stress \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\] as well as metabolism and development \[[@B42-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B43-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B44-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Casado-Vela et al. \[[@B39-microorganisms-07-00681]\] reported that when tomato tissue infected with tobacco mosaic virus was sampled and analysed for proteome changes, the expression of several pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins and antioxidant enzymes were identified as a response resistance of tomato to viral infection. Previous proteome studies heat-stressed or blossom-end rot tomato fruit revealed induction of antioxidant metabolism (ascorbate--glutathione cycle) and the pentose phosphate pathway indicating that these two biochemical pathways could be related with the increased scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in tomato fruit \[[@B45-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B46-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B47-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
In the present study, the impacts of *Botrytis cinerea* infection on the qualitative and antioxidant traits for tomato fruit were investigated. Quality attributes were determined in both fruit sides, the fungi infected part (direct response-DR) and the opposite site of non-pathogenic symptoms (systemic response-SR). Unlike previous studies of proteins secretion by *B. cinerea,* including either the identified fungal proteins produced in cultures or the proteins reflected on both organisms simultaneously, this is the first analysis of the protein changes which are related to the healthy part of the infected fruit and the plant--fungal pathogen interaction. In that direction, a metadata analysis was observed following our previous study when examined the systemic response of the effects of ozone on healthy and wound-inoculated fruit with *B. cinerea* \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. The systemic response of *B. cinerea* inoculation on tomato fruit has not been targeted previously, and this is addressed with the present analysis. Therefore, we examined the responses of *B. cinerea* infected tomatoes a) on the fruit quality at the infected and non-infected parts of the fruit b) and tomato proteins changes in the non-infected part of the fruit as a systemic response to the *B. cinerea* infection.
2. Materials and Methods {#sec2-microorganisms-07-00681}
========================
2.1. Fungal Culture {#sec2dot1-microorganisms-07-00681}
-------------------
*Botrytis cinerea* isolated from tomato (strain number: 169558) was supplied by CABI (CABI Bioscience UK Centre, Bakeham Lane, Egham, England). Fungal culture, grown in potato dextrose agar (PDA), was stored at 4 °C for long-term use.
2.2. Plant Material and Experimental Design {#sec2dot2-microorganisms-07-00681}
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Freshly harvested red ripe (mean weight of 87.97 g, firmness of 26.6 N, total soluble sugars content of 228.32 μmol/g fresh weight) tomato fruit (*S. lycopersicum* Mill. cv. Carousel) were selected based on uniform size (49--58 mm), appearance, and absence of physical defects and used immediately in the different experiments. Fruit were disinfected in chlorine (0.05% v/v) solution before use, to avoid any microbial load.
Fruit inoculation was performed as described in Tzortzakis et al. \[[@B10-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Briefly, tomatoes were divided into four replicate batches (each batch containing five fruit), and one wound (3 mm diameter and 2--3 mm deep) was made on every fruit using a sterile scalpel. *B. cinerea* spore suspension of 7-day-old colonies was collected, quantified with the aid of a haemocytometer and 5 μL of 2 × 10^4^ spores was inoculated into the wounds made in each fruit. Fruit remained for 3 h at room temperature to ensure successive spores establishment. Four replicates batches (each batch containing five fruit) of non-inoculated fruit were considered as control treatments. Each batch of tomatoes was placed in individual 5 L polystyrene containers with snap-on lids and stored in chilled conditions for 1 week at 11 °C and 90% relative humidity (RH) ([Figure S1](#app1-microorganisms-07-00681){ref-type="app"}). Filter paper was moistened with distilled water and placed in a small beaker and was subsequently placed into each container, remoistened every second day, maintaining high RH during the storage period, as described in Chrysargyris et al. \[[@B48-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Containers lids were opened every 48 h and aerated to prevent air composition abnormalities.
2.3. Quality and Ripening-Related Attributes {#sec2dot3-microorganisms-07-00681}
--------------------------------------------
The rates of respiration and ethylene production were determined every second day throughout the storage period, as described previously \[[@B48-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Briefly, each fruit was placed in a 1 L glass container, sealed with a rubber stopper and incubated for 1 h, at room temperature. Carbon dioxide (CO~2~) and ethylene production were measured by a Dual gas analyser (GCS 250 Analyzer, International Control Analyser Ltd., Kent, UK) and ethylene analyser (ICA 56 Analyser, International Control Analyser Ltd., Kent, UK), respectively. Fruit weight and volume were recorded to calculate the relevant rates. Results were expressed as millilitres of CO~2~/kg/h and microlitres of ethylene/kg/h, respectively. Eight replicates were used for control and wound-inoculated fruit with *B. cinerea* for each sampling date.
Following 1 week of storage, fruit tissue of four biological replicates (pool of two tomatoes/replicate) for inoculated and control fruit were measured/sampled. In wounded fruit, plant tissue was measured/sampled from the infected side of the fruit (0.5 cm away from the margins of the lesion area) and a second plant tissue measured/sampled on the opposite side of the wound (i.e., 'healthy tissue') as our aim was to check the direct (DR) and the systemic (SR) response of fruit to wounding/pathogen.
Fruit weight was recorded initially and after 1 week of storage, and weight loss was calculated for each fruit per treatment. Fruit firmness was measured at 1 point on the shoulder of each tomato for the infected area (0.5 cm away from the margins of the lesion area) and opposite the area of the fungal lesion by a texturometer FT 011 (TR Scientific Instruments, Forli, Italy) and results expressed in Newtons (N). Colour was measured using the Hunter Lab System and a Minolta colourimeter model CR400 (Konica Minolta, Osaka, Japan). Following the recording at 2 points for the direct and systemic areas of each tomato for the individual *L*\*, *a*\*, and *b*\* parameters, chroma value (C) was calculated by the following equations C = (*a^\*^*^2^ + *b^\*^*^2^)^1/2^ as described previously \[[@B49-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
Tomato juice was obtained from 2 pooled tomatoes for each replication (*n* = 8), and total soluble solids (TSS, expressed in percent) measured with a temperature-compensated digital refractometer (model Atago PR-101, Atago Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) at 20 °C. The titratable acidity (TA) was measured via potentiometric titration (Mettler Toledo DL22, Columbus, Ohio, USA), and results were expressed as percentage of citric acid. Ascorbic acid (AA) was determined by the 2,6-Dichloroindophenol titrimetric method as described previously \[[@B49-microorganisms-07-00681]\] and results expressed as milligram of AA/g of fresh weight (Fw). Carotenoids (lycopene and *β*-carotene) were measured based on Nagata and Yamashita \[[@B50-microorganisms-07-00681]\] following modification \[[@B48-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. In brief, 1 g of blended tomatoes was placed in 50 mL falcons and 16 mL of acetone:hexane 4:6 (v:v) was added to each sample, the samples were shaken vigorously, and the two phases were separated automatically. An aliquot was taken from the upper solution for measurement of optical density at 663, 645, 505 and 453 nm in a spectrophotometer, using a reference acetone:hexane (4:6) ratio. Lycopene and *β*-carotene contents were calculated and expressed in nanomole/gram of fresh weight \[[@B50-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
Methanolic extracts of tomato fruit were used to determine the content of total phenols, as previously described \[[@B51-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. In brief, tomato tissue (0.5 g) was milled (for 60 s) with 10 mL methanol (50% v/v), and extraction was assisted with ultrasound for 30 min. The samples were centrifuged for 15 min at 4000 *g* at 4 °C (Sigma 3--18 K, Sigma Laboratory Centrifuge, Osterode, Germany). Total phenols content was determined using the Folin--Ciocalteu method at 755 nm, according to Tzortzakis et al. \[[@B51-microorganisms-07-00681]\], and results were expressed as milligram of gallic acid equivalents (GAE) per gram of fresh weight. Antioxidant capacity was determined by a ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging activity assays as described previously \[[@B49-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B52-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. FRAP radical scavenging activity of the plant extracts was measured at 593 nm. ABTS scavenging capacity was measured at 734 nm. DPPH radical scavenging activity of the plant extracts was measured at 517 nm from the bleaching of the purple-coloured 0.3 mM solution of DPPH. The results were expressed in milligram Trolox per gram of fresh weight.
The fruit damage index was observed by hydrogen peroxide (H~2~O~2~) and lipid peroxidation through the malondialdeyde (MDA) content, as described previously \[[@B53-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. In brief, tomato tissue (0.2 g) was homogenised in ice-cold 0.1% trichloroacetic acid (TCA) and centrifuged at 15,000 *g* for 15 min. An aliquot of the supernatant was mixed with 0.5 mL of 10 mM potassium--phosphate buffer (pH = 7.0) and 1 mL of 1 M potassium iodide. The H~2~O~2~ concentration was evaluated using standards prepared from dilutions of H~2~O~2~. The absorbance was measured at 390 nm, and results were expressed as nanomole H~2~O~2~ per gram fresh weight. For MDA determination, the reaction mixture of 0.5 mL of the above extract and 1.5 mL of 0.5% thioarbituric acid (TBA) in 20% TCA was incubated at 95 °C for 25 min and cooled. Absorbance was measured at 532 nm and corrected at 600 nm. The amount of MDA was determined using the extinction coefficient of 155/mM/cm. Results were expressed as nanomole of MDA per gram fresh weight. Enzymes antioxidant activity (catalase-CAT, ascorbate peroxidase-APX, peroxidase-POD and superoxide dismutase-SOD) was determined according to Chrysargyris et al. \[[@B53-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Briefly, homogenised fresh tomato samples were extracted with ice-cold extraction buffer \[1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), 1% (w/v) polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVPP), 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF) and 0.05% Triton X-100 in 50 mM potassium-phosphate buffer (pH 7.0)\]. Results were expressed as enzyme units per milligram of protein.
2.4. Metadata Analysis of Proteomic Study in B. Cinerea Inoculated Tomatoes {#sec2dot4-microorganisms-07-00681}
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In our previous study, proteome analysis took place on tomatoes exposed to ozone with or without *B. cinerea* inoculation, and the interaction of ozone and pathogen was studied with the proteome approach and described in detail previously \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. In brief, following 1 week of storage, fruit tissue of four biological replicates for inoculated and control fruit were sampled and frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80 °C before protein extraction. In wounded fruit, plant tissue was sampled from the opposite side of the wound (i.e., 'healthy tissue') as we targeted to study the systemic response of fruit to pathogen and not the direct response to wounding/pathogen \[[@B28-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Proteins extraction procedure has been described previously based on a phenol extraction assays \[[@B45-microorganisms-07-00681]\] as modified by Tzortzakis et al. \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. First (1-D) and second (2-D) dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis was carried out on 21 × 25 × 0.15 cm gels. The gels were silver stained and image analysis performed on one-dimensional SDS-PAGE gels using a Gel-Doc 1000 System (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, California, USA), enabling band quantification and image optimisation via Multi-Analyst software (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, California, USA). Once stained, 2-D gels were scanned, and images were analysed (Progenesis image analysis software, Nonlinear Dynamics, Durham, North Carolina, USA). Different gel images were compared, and the false-colour overlay function incorporated within this software was utilised. In the overlay mode, the spots of the reference gel (control: average of three) were displayed in magenta (\<-1.5 fold) while the spots in the second gel (treated: average of three) were displayed in green (\>1.5 fold). Overlaid matching spots appear black due to the complementary pseudocolour display, with no matching spots remaining magenta or green. Gels were cropped to remove areas of no interest, averaged in groups, the background removed, spot detection synchronised and then normalised to the average gels.
Targeted protein spots were excised from 2-D gels using an Ettan spot picker (Amersham Bioscience, Buckinghamshire, UK), subjected to mass spectrometry (MS) analysis and protein sequence determination. Peptide mass fingerprinting was conducted using a low-resolution linear MALDI-time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometer (Voyager-DE^TM^ STR, Applied Biosystems, Foster City, California, USA) and identified as described previously \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
2.5. Statistical Analysis {#sec2dot5-microorganisms-07-00681}
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Data were analysed by variance (ANOVA) and before that were tested for normality. Significant differences between mean values were determined using Duncan's multiple test (MRT) test (*p* = 0.05) following one-way ANOVA. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA). Silver-stained spots were quantified based on their volume after gel normalisation and background subtraction, and significance differences determined using a *t*-test or non-parametric Wilcoxon test.
3. Results {#sec3-microorganisms-07-00681}
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3.1. Impact of B. cinerea on Qualitative and Antioxidant Characteristics {#sec3dot1-microorganisms-07-00681}
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*Botrytis cinerea* infection significantly (*p* \< 0.05) increased ethylene emission compared to the non-infected fruit (control), with greater effects during the first days after inoculation ([Figure 1](#microorganisms-07-00681-f001){ref-type="fig"}A), while respiration rates were increased after 1 week of storage for the *B. cinerea* infected fruit compared to the control ([Figure 1](#microorganisms-07-00681-f001){ref-type="fig"}B).
Quality and ripening related attributes of tomato fruit are presented in [Table 1](#microorganisms-07-00681-t001){ref-type="table"}. *B. cinerea* infection softened the fruit as fruit firmness decreased in the tomato's part neighbouring the fungi as a direct response compared with the opposite side as a systemic response to fungi as well as the control fruit. Titratable acidity decreased in SR-tomato compared with the tissue with DR and control fruit. The β-carotene and ascorbic acid content increased in DR-tomato compared with the control fruit. No differences were found in fruit weight loss (averaged in 0.29%), total soluble solids (averaged in 3.84%), ripening index (averaged in 2.15 ratio of TSS/TA), colour (averaged in values of 40.67 for *L\**, 24.07 for *a\**, 25.88 for *b\** and 35.38 for chroma) and lycopene (averaged in 21.47 nmol/g Fw) content among the examined treatments. The activity of FRAP increased in DR-tomato compared with the control and SR-tomato treatment. The content of total phenolics (averaged in 0.36 mg GAE/g Fw) and antioxidant activity (averaged in 0.25, and 0.09 mg Trolox/g Fw for DPPH and ABTS, respectively) did not differ among the treatments ([Table 1](#microorganisms-07-00681-t001){ref-type="table"}).
The lipid peroxidation, as determined with the MDA content, increased in DR-tomato compared with the control and SR-tomato treatment ([Figure 2](#microorganisms-07-00681-f002){ref-type="fig"}A). The H~2~O~2~ increased in DR-tomato compared with the control but decreased in SR-tomato treatment ([Figure 2](#microorganisms-07-00681-f002){ref-type="fig"}B). The enzyme activity for SOD and CAT did not differ among the treatments and averaged in 4.60 and 12.54 units/mg of protein ([Figure 2](#microorganisms-07-00681-f002){ref-type="fig"}C,D). The POD activity decreased in DR-tomato compared with the non-inoculated fruit but maintained similar levels in SR-tomatoes ([Figure 2](#microorganisms-07-00681-f002){ref-type="fig"}E). The APX decreased in DR- and SR-tomato compared with the non-inoculated fruit ([Figure 2](#microorganisms-07-00681-f002){ref-type="fig"}E).
Total Soluble Solids (TSS); Titratable acidity (TA); Newton (N); Gallic acid equivalent (GAE); Ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP); 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS); 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH); Fresh weight (Fw).
3.2. Impact of B. cinerea on Protein Composition of Tomato Fruit {#sec3dot2-microorganisms-07-00681}
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Fungal infection significantly (*p* \< 0.05) increased protein yield (up to 6.6%) compared with the control (non-infected) fruit. *B. cinerea* increased proteins levels \>1.5-fold in nine proteins and decreased proteins levels \>1.5-fold in 39 proteins ([Table 2](#microorganisms-07-00681-t002){ref-type="table"}). This effect was detected mainly in the large proteins (\>35 kDa) increase when protein profiles were developed using 1D-SDS-PAGE and visualised ([Figure 3](#microorganisms-07-00681-f003){ref-type="fig"}). Protein profile varied during the treatment indicating significant changes in the protein composition of the fruit subjected to *B. cinerea* infection ([Figure 3](#microorganisms-07-00681-f003){ref-type="fig"}). A total of 26 protein zones were resolved by 1D-SDS-PAGE. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis revealed the resolution of up to 156 protein spots per gel, following spot filtering. Proteins were mainly visualised within the narrow 4--7 *p*I range, as identified from a 3--10 *p*I gel ([Figure S2](#app1-microorganisms-07-00681){ref-type="app"}). Gels revealed a broad distribution in protein composition in wound-inoculated tomato fruit both in terms of size (10 to 110 kDaltons) and *p*I values. *B. cinerea* inoculation resulted in marked shifts in the tomato proteome following storage for 1 week compared to the relevant control ([Figure 4](#microorganisms-07-00681-f004){ref-type="fig"}). A three-dimension analysis on the protein volume clearly indicated the increased proteins levels in wound-inoculated tomatoes compared with the control fruit ([Figure 4](#microorganisms-07-00681-f004){ref-type="fig"}).
Examining the effects of *B. cinerea* on tomato proteome more precisely, 41 protein spots that had been selected for peptide fingerprinting and identified as described in our previous study \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\] were used for metadata analysis. Protein expression in wound-inoculated tomatoes increased (\>1.5 fold) for superoxide dismutase (SOD), chaperonin 21 (CPN21; spot 13), inorganic pyrophosphatase (PPase), malate dehydrogenase (MDH; spots 19, 20), 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase (ACO) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX1) (Table **3**). Protein expression decreased (\<1.5 fold) for dihydroflavonol-4-reductase (DFR) and invertase (INV) and remained unaffected for chaperonin 21 (CPN21; spot 11), IN2-1 glutathione transferase (IN2-1), malate dehydrogenase (MDH; spot 21), glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), dehydrin (DHD) and hypothetical protein (HTP).
Based on the functional association of the selected proteins, the following five metabolic groups can be identified. The first group involves constitutive proteins, such as CPN21, MDH and DHD. The second group involves proteins allied to signaling and antioxidative metabolism, such SOD, TPX, IN2-1, APX1 and ACO. The third group is associated with carbohydrate metabolism and the pentose phosphate pathway and includes PPase, INV and GAPDH. The fourth group comprises terpenoid and flavonoid-associated proteins, including FPS and DFR. The fifth group contains proteins that are associated with plant stress responses and includes ULP. One hypothetical protein (spot 28) was not grouped. Protein expression of nine of these proteins differs in wound-inoculated tomatoes with respect to the control ([Table 3](#microorganisms-07-00681-t003){ref-type="table"}).
4. Discussion {#sec4-microorganisms-07-00681}
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Cantu et al. \[[@B25-microorganisms-07-00681]\] reported that *B. cinerea* developed successfully in ripe (red ripe) compared to un-ripe (mature green) tomatoes, indicating that different ripening stages can alter the pathogen establishment on/in fruit. In the current study, *B. cinerea* caused marked changes in fruit quality and ripening traits, as well as changes in protein yield and composition in tomatoes. Infected tomatoes revealed increased ethylene and respiration rates compared with the non-inoculated fruit (control). A 50% increase in the gene expression related to ethylene metabolism was triggered by the *B. cinerea* in red ripe tomato fruit \[[@B23-microorganisms-07-00681]\], including the *ACO* gene. However, the finding that in mature green tomatoes, *ACO* was downregulated in the *B. cinerea* contaminated fruit, can be interpreted as counteracting the plant's efforts to control the increase in ethylene production caused by the pathogen \[[@B23-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Ripe fruit susceptibility to *B. cinerea* has been reported to be based on non-ripening (NOR) but not on ripening inhibitors (RIN) transcription factors and only partially on ethylene perception, leading to the assumption that not all pathways and events that constitute fruit ripening are susceptible to ripening \[[@B25-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Ethylene modulates plant resistance and susceptibility to pathogens. Therefore, ethylene regulates a variety of immune responses from one point of view in tandem with other signaling networks; but from another point of view, it promotes senescence or maturation, processes that encourage pathogen infection \[[@B25-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
Tomato fruit ripening includes the progressive fruit softening with firmness decrease that is largely a result of the metabolism of the cell wall polysaccharides \[[@B54-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. *B. cinerea* has been shown to activate fruit ripening process and softening fruit by decreasing the firmness of the commodity \[[@B23-microorganisms-07-00681]\], in accordance with the decreased (up to 15.4%) firmness of infected fruit compared with the control. The level of total soluble solids did not differ in infected and control fruit, possibly due to the red-ripe stage of the fruit and/or the short period of 1 week. However, carbohydrate breakdown takes place during fruit ripening \[[@B7-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Bui et al. \[[@B55-microorganisms-07-00681]\] reported that vitamin C content maintained at 5 days and decreased at 14 days on the infected with *B. cinerea* apple tissue. Similarly, in the present study, ascorbic acid on infected tissue (DR) maintained similar levels with the control after 7 days of storage but decreased in the tissue opposed to infection (SR). FRAP antioxidant activity increased in DR-tomato compared with the control and SR-tomato treatment, but total phenols, DPPH, ABTS remained unaffected among treatments. Indeed, Bui et al. \[[@B55-microorganisms-07-00681]\] reported that total phenolics decreased in the *B. cinerea* infected apple tissue, and these differences can be attributed to the longer storage period and/or different commodities.
Differentially expressed genes revealed functions during tomato inoculations that are likely to be pathogenic, such as catabolisms of ROS (e.g., SOD, CAT, POD) and cell wall breakdown molecules, including cellobiose and lignin \[[@B56-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. ROS are rapidly produced by the host after pathogen detection, activating downstream signaling of different defense responses \[[@B57-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. However, by overwhelming the host with their own ROS production, necrotrophic pathogens can exploit this ROS response \[[@B58-microorganisms-07-00681]\], underlining the complexity of the plant--pathogen interaction system. In addition to ROS generation machinery, fungal pathogens must be shielded from the infection site's oxidative stress, with activation of enzymatic and non-enzymatic mechanisms \[[@B59-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. SODs activation is the first step to convert O~2~^−^ into H~2~O~2~, and then H~2~O~2~ can be converted to water by either CATs or peroxidases (GPXs or PRXs), and *B. cinerea* revealed upregulation of mechanisms for the H~2~O~2~ catabolism \[[@B56-microorganisms-07-00681]\], evidence that was also obtained in the present study.
There is histochemical evidence during pathogenesis that *B. cinerea* produces O~2~^−^ and H~2~O~2~ in hyphal germ tubes at the site of the infection, and that its superoxide dismutases may be involved in pathogenicity \[[@B59-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. In *B. cinerea*, SOD- and CAT-related genes were upregulated, scavenging the hydrogen peroxide production \[[@B56-microorganisms-07-00681]\] in wound-inoculated tomatoes after 1 and 3 days post-inoculation, and this is confirming the present outcomes, as SOD-related protein was increased in wound-inoculated tomatoes after 1 week of storage.
Hydrogen peroxide levels increased in DR-tomato compared with the control and SR-tomato treatment, indicating oxidative stress through the increased MDA levels. The H~2~O~2~ had been partly detoxified at earlier stages, possibly with the early activation of SOD initially and then by CAT, as both enzymes remained at similar levels after 1 week of storage, while other involved enzymes (POD, APX) were changed. Bui et al. \[[@B55-microorganisms-07-00681]\] reported that SOD increased in the *B. cinerea* infected apple tissue after 14 days, but CAT did not differ in the *B. cinerea* infected apple tissue and the control, in accordance with the present findings as CAT remained at similar levels for the healthy and DR- and SR-tomato treatments. The levels of APX and POD were decreased (consumed), possibly due to the increased oxidative stress as indicated by the revealed increased MDA and H~2~O~2~ levels in DR-tomato after 1 week of storage on infected fruit. In addition to the enzymatic antioxidant mechanisms, obviously activated as above described, the tomato fruit also brought about the non-enzymatic antioxidant mechanism to trigger ROS, with increased levels of ascorbic acid and *β*-carotene.
Fungal infection with *B. cinerea* revealed stress conditions and resulted in a 6.6% increase in protein yield, and the downregulation of 39 proteins, compared with the control treatment. Fifteen proteins of known function were tentatively identified, as described in Tzortzakis et al. \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Interestingly, signaling proteins (ACO) related to the ethylene production, a well-known ripening hormone and antioxidant proteins (APX, SOD) which are involved in the detoxification of ROS, accelerated with the *B. cinerea* infection, indicating an enhanced ripening process and stress environment. Ascorbate peroxidase is induced after exposure to both abiotic (radiation, drought, wounding, extreme temperature) and biotic (pathogen attack) stress conditions \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B60-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B61-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B62-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. However, *B. cinerea* infected tomatoes increased gene expression of *ACO1* \[[@B11-microorganisms-07-00681]\], but when the infected tomatoes were exposed to ozone, they revealed decreased ACO levels, as ozone retarded ethylene biosynthesis/action in both proteins and gene levels \[[@B11-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. However, TPX and IN2-1 being oxy-responsive proteins did not appear sensitive to wound-inoculation with *B. cinerea,* but induced in ozone-exposed tomatoes \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. IN2-1 protein was induced in tomato fruit in response to blossom-end-rot \[[@B46-microorganisms-07-00681]\] but remained unaffected in herbicide treated maize (*Zea mays* L.) and soybean (*Glycine max* L. Merr.) \[[@B63-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
Inorganic pyrophosphatase, involved in carbohydrate metabolism, increased in the wound-inoculated tomatoes. Invertases are a group of related enzymes that hydrolyze sucrose to hexose sugars with a contribution to tomato fruit quality, in terms of both flavour and acids \[[@B47-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. INV decreased in wound-inoculated tomatoes, and possibly producing sweeter tomatoes, in accordance with previous findings with heat stress on tomatoes. Low levels of acid invertase are associated with low levels of hexose and high levels of sucrose in tomatoes \[[@B47-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. However, ozone-treated tomatoes had almost the same levels on PPase and INV even though ozonated tomatoes were sweeter \[[@B7-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
Constitutively-expressed proteins tended to be either increased (CPN21 and MDH) or remained unaffected (DHD) by wound-inoculation. CPN function is related to the optimal folding and protection of proteins under normal and stress conditions \[[@B64-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. DHD is scavenging hydroxyl radicals \[[@B65-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. However, it was unaffected in the present study, possibly replaced by the induction of other antioxidant scavengers, such as APX and SOD. The expression of proteins involved in terpenoid or flavonoid biosynthesis differed in infected tomatoes and control, with a decrease of dehydroflavonol-4-reductase, which catalyzes the last step in the flavonoid-biosynthesis pathway leading to anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins \[[@B66-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
Several studies have been carried out on the molecular genetics underlying bacterial-- and fungal--plant pathogenesis \[[@B11-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B67-microorganisms-07-00681]\], but few studies have discussed proteome modifications associated with such interactions \[[@B29-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B36-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B68-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Currently, proteomic analysis has been widely used to investigate the resistance mechanism of fruit induced by various exogenous factors in response to fungal pathogens, such as peach induced by salicylic acid and yeast \[[@B69-microorganisms-07-00681]\] and sweet cherry induced by salicylic acid \[[@B70-microorganisms-07-00681]\]. Several studies report differential protein expression in susceptible host plants \[[@B71-microorganisms-07-00681],[@B72-microorganisms-07-00681]\], with one particular plant pathogen *Xylella fastidiosa* research revealing significant changes in cellular and extracellular bacterial proteins, including toxins, adhesion-associated proteins, antioxidant enzymes and proteases \[[@B73-microorganisms-07-00681]\].
5. Conclusions {#sec5-microorganisms-07-00681}
==============
In the present work, the proteome analysis of the tomato fruit proteins has been carried out together with all metabolites involved in systemic response and the antioxidative mechanism of the fruit tissue with increased SOD and APX proteins levels. Fungal infection accelerated the ripening process of the fruit with increased ethylene and respiration rates. Metabolic changes in fruit quality were more pronounced in the infected part of the fruit as a direct response to the pathogen compared to the systemic response, with a decrease in firmness and increase in lipid peroxidation and hydrogen peroxide and induced fruit antioxidative metabolism (i.e., β-carotene, ascorbic acid) to trigger the pathogen stress. Our study highlights the importance of quality responses (direct versus systemic) of fruit under pathogen infection and contributes to understanding the plant--pathogenic fungus proteome under systemic response.
We thank A. Chrysargyris and P. Xylia for their technical laboratory support.
######
Click here for additional data file.
The following are available online at <https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/7/12/681/s1>, Figure S1: Healthy and *Botrytis cinerea* infected tomato fruit after 1 week of storage at 11 °C and 90% relative humidity. Figure S2: Two-dimensional gels (*p*I 3-10) illustrating the protein composition of tomato fruit. Fruits maintained 1 week at 11 °C and 90% RH.
Conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, writing---review and editing, visualization, project administration, funding acquisition, N.T.
Funding for publication was granted by the Cyprus University of Technology Open Access Author Fund.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest
{#microorganisms-07-00681-f001}
{#microorganisms-07-00681-f002}
{#microorganisms-07-00681-f003}
{#microorganisms-07-00681-f004}
microorganisms-07-00681-t001_Table 1
######
Impacts of wound-inoculation with *Botrytis cinerea* on quality and ripening related attributes of tomato fruit stored for 1 week at 11 °C/90% relative humidity (RH). In wounded fruit, plant tissue was measured/sampled from the infected side of the fruit (direct response-DR) and from the opposite side of the wound (systemic response-SR) of fruit. Mean values (± standard error) followed by the same letter in each row do not differ significantly, according to Duncan's multiple test (MRT).
Quality Parameters Control Tomato Tissue with Fungal Lesion (DR) Tomato Tissue Without Fungal Lesion (SR)
------------------------------------ ----------------- --------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------
Weight loss (%) 0.335 ± 0.030 a 0.259 ± 0.031 a
Fruit firmness (N) 11.08 ± 0.43 a 9.37 ± 0.46 b 10.99 ± 0.55 a
Total soluble solids (%) 3.80 ± 0.20 a 3.72 ± 0.18 a 4.01 ± 0.02 a
Titratable acidity (citric acid %) 1.76 ± 0.06 b 1.60 ± 0.08 b 2.01 ± 0.06 a
Ripening index (TSS/TA) 2.15 ± 0.07 a 2.34 ± 0.19 a 1.98 ± 0.06 a
Colour *L \** 40.98 ± 0.37 a 40.48 ± 0.61 a 40.56 ± 0.59 a
Colour *a \** 23.44 ± 0.61 a 24.63 ± 0.82 a 24.15 ± 1.08 a
Colour *b \** 25.60 ± 0.71 a 26.73 ± 0.68 a 25.32 ± 0.44 a
Chroma 34.74 ± 0.73 a 36.37 ± 0.95 a 35.03 ± 0.99 a
Ascorbic acid (mg/g Fw) 17.66 ± 1.16 b 21.93 ± 1.77 a 14.15 ± 1.00 b
Lycopene (nmol/g Fw) 17.14 ± 2.69 a 27.34 ± 3.80 a 19.93 ± 2.95 a
β-carotene (nmol/g Fw) 6.74 ± 1.02 b 10.66 ± 0.49 a 7.75 ± 0.93 ab
Phenols (mg GAE/g Fw) 0.39 ± 0.031 a 0.36 ± 0.043 a 0.34 ± 0.019 a
FRAP (mg Trolox/g Fw) 3.44 ± 0.12 b 4.38 ± 0.31 a 3.31 ± 0.20 b
DPPH (mg Trolox/g Fw) 0.22 ± 0.00 a 0.30 ± 0.04 a 0.24 ± 0.02 a
ABTS (mg Trolox/g Fw) 0.07 ± 0.01 a 0.11 ± 0.01 a 0.11 ± 0.00 a
Total Soluble Solids (TSS); Titratable acidity (TA); Newton (N); Gallic acid equivalent (GAE); Ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP); 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS); 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH); Fresh weight (Fw).
microorganisms-07-00681-t002_Table 2
######
Impacts of *Botrytis cinerea* on protein yield and protein levels of tomato fruit stored for 1 week at 11 °C/90% relative humidity (RH). Mean values (± SE) followed by the same latter in each row do not differ significantly, according to Duncan's multiple test (MRT). Values in parenthesis represent shifts (compared to control) of individual proteins by at least 1.5 fold.
Proteins Level Control *B. cinerea* infected Tomatoes
----------------------------- ---------------- --------------------------------
Protein yield (μg/g Fw) 140.8 ± 5.31 b 150.1 ± 4.98 a
Increased proteins by fungi 29 ± 5 (9)
Decreased proteins by fungi 60 ± 4 (39)
Novel by fungi 0 ± 0 (0)
Total 89 ± 2 (48)
microorganisms-07-00681-t003_Table 3
######
Putative identification of proteins responsive to wound-inoculation with *B. cinerea.* Protein expression (**↓**) downregulated (\<-1.5-fold); (**↑**) upregulated (\>1.5-fold) and (-) in unchanged behaviour within 1.5-fold. Numbering refers to spots selected for detailed analysis. Protein analysis failed for spots 6--10, 12, 16, 18, 22--24, 26--27, 30, 33--34, 36--41.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spot No Identification, Putative Function,\ Protein Expression
Species/EC ^b)^
--------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------
1 Superoxide dismutase (Cu-Zn), chloroplast precussor, ***Lycopersicon esculentum***/1.15.1.1 **↑**
2 Farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase, synthesis of farnesyl pyrophosphate, ***L. esculentum***/2.5.1.1 \-
3 Ulp1 protease-like, ***Oryza sativa*** (japonica cultivar-group)/ \-
4 Dehydrin 2, ***Pisum sativum*** \-
5 Thioredoxin peroxidase, ***L. esculentum***/1.11.1.- \-
11 Chaperonin 21 precursor, ***L. esculentum*** **-**
13 Chaperonin 21 precursor, ***L. esculentum*** **↑**
15 IN2-1 glutathione transferase, ***Arabidopsis thalian**a*/2.5.1.18 **-**
17 Inorganic pyrophosphatase, ***A. thaliana***/3.6.1.1 **↑**
19 Putative NAD-dependent malate dehydrogenase, ***Solanum tuberosum***/1.1.1.37 **↑**
20 Putative NAD-dependent malate dehydrogenase, ***S. tuberosum***/1.1.1.37 **↑**
21 Putative NAD-dependent malate dehydrogenase, ***S. tuberosum***/1.1.1.37 **-**
25 Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, ***L. esculentum***/1.2.1.12 **-**
28 Hypothetical protein, ***O. sativa*** japonica cultivar-group)/ **-**
29 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase homolog (protein E8), ***L. esculentum***/1.14.17.4 **↑**
31 L-ascorbate peroxidase 1 cytosolic, ***A. thaliana*** **↑**
32 dihydroflavonol-4-reductase, ***L. esculentum***/1.1.1.219 **↓**
35 Invertase, ***L. esculentum/***3.2.1.26 **↓**
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This study continues longitudinal research designed to strengthen the empirical basis for assessment, taxonomy, epidemiology, and prediction of psychopathology in children, adolescents, and young adults. It will reassess at ages 10 to 22 a unique national sample that was previously assessed via home interviews and standardized ratings in 1986 at ages 4 to 16 and 1989 at ages 7 to 19. The existing assessment data include multisource (parent, teacher, self) reports of behavioral/emotional problems and competencies, family composition, family mental disorders, socioeconomic status, child care, arrangements, welfare support, and stressful events occurring between 1986 and 1989. The 1989 assessment also included the following signs of disturbance: (a) problem scores in the clinical range; (b) referral for mental health services; (c) referral for special education; (d) school behavior problems, suspension, expulsion; (e) trouble with police, arrest, adjudication; (f) suicide attempts; (g) parent's judgment that the child needed professional help; and a composite index of items (a)-(g). The 1989 follow-up obtained data for 90.7% (N = 2,479) of the subjects originally assessed in 1986. By reassessing the 2,479 subjects assessed in 1986 and 1989, the proposed 6-year follow-up is designed to: (1) test the hypothesis that practical, standardized measures of parent-, teacher-, and self-reported problems and competencies will predict the signs of disturbance listed above, plus substance abuse; (2) test the ability of family variables and intervening stresses to predict the signs of disturbance and problem scores; (3) compare and model predictions of the signs of disturbance from optimal combinations of family variables, subject variables, and intervening events; (4) test the differential incidence and cumulative prevalence hypotheses for explaining higher rates of psychopathology among lower than upper socioeconomic groups; (5) advance the taxonomic basis for diagnosis of child/adolescent disorders by testing the stability, predictive power, discriminative power, and correlates of 8 empirically based syndrome constructs over 3- and 6-year periods; (6) compare the ability of the 8 syndrome constructs to predict outcomes; (7) track the development of psychopathology across the crucial transitional period from adolescence to adulthood.
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Torrance resident, ice-skating coach is held on a molestation charge
A Torrance resident who has coached ice skating at rinks throughout Southern California was charged Monday with molesting a teenage boy, sheriff's deputies said.
Donald Vincent, 29, was arrested at his home Friday by detectives from the Sheriff's Department's Special Victims Unit, sheriff's Lt. Carlos Marquez said.
Vincent has coached youth ice skaters for seven years at rinks in Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange counties.
The rinks were identified as Skating Edge Ice Arena in Harbor City, the East/West Ice Palace in Artesia, Glacial Gardens in Lakewood, Norwalk Ice in Norwalk, Paramount Iceland in Paramount, Anaheim Ice in Anaheim and Ice Town Riverside in Riverside.
Sheriff's deputies began investigating last month when the victim, now 17, told a friend at a youth camp what had happened to him. That friend told another person who encouraged the victim to come forward, Marquez said.
"The victim told sheriff's investigators that he was repeatedly molested by his skating coach at the coach's Hacienda Heights home when he was between the ages of 12 to 15," Marquez said.
Vincent was arrested on suspicion of felony child molestation charges. He was held in county jail on $1 million bail.
Prosecutors on Monday charged Vincent with one count of continuous lewd acts with a minor and two counts of lewd acts with a minor 14 or 15 years old.
Detectives suspect there might be more victims and asked anyone with information about Vincent to contact them at 877-710-5273 or [email protected].
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But why, you ask, are we talking about this man so many months after he passed? Well, thanks to TLC’s latest attempt in proving that people will watch just about anything, we now know that McCoy was buried in a casket that looked exactly like a smoker as part of his BBQ-themed funeral in Dallas. TLC’s The Best Funeral Ever debuted last night and it’s about as insanely fantastic as you’d expect.
Even better, though, if you live in the Dallas area and are currently seeking acting work, you can actually audition to become a “Professional Mourner” at Golden Gate’s events. The Beckwith family conveniently offers a class for amateur mourners who need help really capturing the agony and pain of a BBQ.
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An American human rights volunteer is reportedly in critical condition after he was shot four times in the Philippines.
Brandon Lee, 37, was attacked outside his home in Ifugao province in the northern Philippines on Tuesday after he was called an “enemy of the state” on social media, reports the Guardian.
Lee suffered cardiac arrest during a surgery to remove a bullet lodged in his jaw.
Lee is a volunteer for Ifugao Peasant Movement (IPM), a farmers’ group that actively opposes a hydropower project and the military presence in the Cordillera region, according to the Guardian. In 2008, an IPM staff member was killed in a similar attack.
Lee and other IPM staff had were labeled “enemy of the state” in posters that were put up around the province.
Another rights group, the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, where Lee also volunteers, blamed authorities for the attack.
“We hold accountable the state security forces that the Duterte administration has let loose in the Cordillera region,” the group said in a statement, according to the Guardian. The group also said that Lee had been receiving threats before the attack.
A recent report by watchdog Global Witness found that the Philippines is the deadliest country in the world for environmental defenders, with 30 environmentalists murdered there in 2018.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has notoriously called land and environmental activists communist sympathizers and terrorists in an effort to silence them.
Write to Amy Gunia at [email protected].
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Earlier this year it was reported that Apple is developing augmented reality features that will eventually appear in glasses after coming first to iPhones. Now a newly leaked document may have accidentally acknowledged Apple’s prototype AR glasses for the first time.
Gizmodo reports that it has acquired a safety incident document accidentally distributed to Apple employees that mentions a prototype device that has caused eye strain for testers.
An incident report compiled by an Environment Health and Safety contractor working for Apple mistakenly sent to hundreds of Apple employees and leaked to Gizmodo includes tantalizing clues about some of the new products the notoriously secretive tech company may be cooking up. The report includes over 70 different incidents.
Incidents in the report appear to have occurred in February and March which offers a timeline for the possible AR glasses prototype testing based on the document’s title: Impact Descriptions Reported in [Santa Clara Valley] from Last Month.
Specifically, two incidents cited refer to a prototype relating to eyes that caused issues. The first occurred in late February:
“After BT4 user study, user advised study lead, that she experienced discomfort in her eye and said she was able to see the laser flash at several points during the study. Study lead referred her to optometrist and secured prototype unit for analysis.”
The second incident occurred a few days later in the following month:
“Employee reported eye pain after working with new prototype, thought it may be associated with use. He noticed that the security seal on the magenta (outer) case had been broken and had thought the unit may have been tampered with.”
Gizmodo reports that its source within Apple believes the prototype mentioned may be related to the AR glasses product that is being developed internally. Apple’s AR glasses project is said to be at least a year away from launching.
The report also details other curious and rather random incidents including an employee opening a problematic box of Apple Pencils with bad batteries:
“Employee was opening a box of used Apple Pencils in [room number redacted]. As soon as she opened the box, a strong odor emanated from within the box. The employee, who is familiar with lithium battery odors, identified two Pencils as the odor source. She suspected the Pencils were leaking electrolytes.”
Another employee reported a knee injury when skiing in the Tahoe area to test Apple Watch functionality which sounds like a job that might be worth the occasional bumped knee.
You can read the full piece here. At any rate, Tim Cook has certainly made it no secret that Apple has plans for AR in some form or another (and its take on Google Glass may be causing a few issues in its current prototype state).
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:
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Anthropology or Geography (3 Credits)
Students must complete one course from anthropology or geography that is relevant to international affairs.
ANTH 1002: Sociocultural Anthropology is a prerequisite to most of these ANTH courses. GEOG 1001: Human Geography is a prerequisite to many of these GEOG courses. Please consult the Bulletin for details.
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Q:
Db2 sql dump tools
I am searching for tools to dump db2 tables (like sqlyog or MySQL browser in MySQL).
Can you suggest me some?
Thanks
A:
DB2 ships with a utility called db2look that will do what you're looking for. Try this command:
db2look -d MYDATABASE -a -e -o mydatabase.sql
If you're looking to take the data with you, the command db2move could also be useful. Effectively, it does a db2look as described above, and also exports the data from every table. Then on your new database, you can import and be good to go. In my experience, we used this to migrate from DB2 running on Windows to DB2 on Linux.
db2move MYDATABASE EXPORT
Loading on the other instance is equally easy:
db2move MYDATABASE IMPORT
Check db2move -h for more information.
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This is a sad time for peace-loving people around the world who wonder what motivates Moslem terrorists to blow themselves up with explosives in public places in order to kill the largest possible number of innocent people. The impetus for such heinous crimes must be very powerful. The fear of these senseless acts of terrorism has changed our lives forever.
In seeking to find a solution to the problem of Moslem terrorism, it is important to understand what motivates these people to engage in this frightening self-destruction. We are told by many moderate Muslims and political leaders that Islam is a religion of peace and it does not allow the killing of innocent people. The deplorable terroristic acts we have witnessed in recent months are supposed to be condemned by the teachings of Islam. It is not my intent to judge Islam as a violent religion on the basis of some terroristic acts done by those who claim to follow its teachings. The same must be said of Christianity. We cannot conclude that Christianity teaches violence because of the violent crusades some Christians have waged in the past against Moslem, Jews, and so-called "heretics." Such a method of interpretation is wrong, because not all who claim to act in the name of their religion are necessarily following its teachings.
The right method is to go back to the sources of Islam and Christianity and see what they have to say about violence and peaceful coexistence with people practicing other religions. This is the procedure we shall follow by examining, first, what Islam has to say about warfare, and then by comparing its teachings with those of the Bible.
THE TEACHING OF ISLAM ABOUT JIHAD OR THE FIGHTING FOR THE CAUSE OF ALLAH
Some scholars view as futile the attempt to define the teaching of the Koran and the Hadith (collected teachings of Muhammad) regarding the use of warfare to advance the cause of Allah. The reason given by Moslem scholars like Fareed Zakaria, in the article cited earlier, is that "The Qur'an is a vast, vague book, filled with poetry and contradictions (much like the Bible). You can find in it condemnations of war and incitements to struggle, beautiful expressions of tolerance and stern pictures against unbelievers."
Is it true that the Koran is a contradictory book that condemns war on the one hand and commands warfare on the other hand? The answer is "No!" We shall show below that the contradictions in the Koran are resolved by recognizing Muhammad's progressive teachings from peace to war during the course of his life and experiences.
At the beginning of his mission, Muhammad urged his followers to meet opposition with patience and persuasion. Scholars refer to these texts of the Koran as "verses of forgiveness and pardon." For example, the Koran says: "Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knoweth best, who have strayed from His path, and who receive guidance. (16:125)." "Nor can goodness and evil be equal. Repel (evil) with what is better (41:34)."
After consolidating his power, however, Muhammad explicitly ordered the use of offensive warfare against unbelievers. Scholars refer to these texts of the Koran as the "Sword Verses." Here are two examples: "Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But God knoweth, and ye know not (2:216)." "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful (9:5)."
The Resolution of the Contradiction
People like Fareed Zakaria cited earlier, maintain that the contradiction between those texts advocating tolerance and those urging warfare, simply reflect the contradictory nature of the Koran, which is a "vague book, filled with poetry and contradictions (much like the Bible)." This simplistic explanation is rejected by Islamic scholars who have examined the question closely. They have concluded that the contradictory statements reflect the "progressive revelation" that was tailored to fit Muhammad's circumstances. In his book Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam, published by Oxford University Press in 1999, Reuven Firestone, writes: "Muslim scholars came to the conclusion that the scriptural verses regarding war were revealed in direct relation to the historic needs of Muhammad during his prophetic mission. At the beginning of his prophetic career in Mecca when he was weak and his followers few, the divine revelations encouraged avoidance of physical conflict."
"After the intense persecutions that caused Muhammad and his followers to emigrate to Medina, however, they were given leave to engage in defensive warfare. As the Muslim community grew in strength, further revelations broadened the conditions under which war could be waged, until it was concluded that war against non-Muslims could be waged virtually at any time, without pretext, and in any place" (p. 50).
In a 26 pages compelling paper on "Jihad: The Teaching of Islam from Its Primary Sources: The Quran and Hadith," Richard Bailey traces the evolution of the Koran's teaching from tolerance to warfare through four stages. He provides an ample documentation for each stage. For the purpose of this essay, I will simply mention each stage, giving only few exemplary verses from the Koran. I would be glad to email the complete paper to anyone interested in this documentation.
Some readers may find this brief analysis of the evolution of Muhammad's teachings on violence, rather boring. Please do not give up. If you do, you will miss the second half of this study where I compare the Koran with the Bible and offer a Christian response to the problem of terrorism. You will find that the time devoted to the reading this newsletter to be well-spent.
I have tried to simplify the subject, but reading Koran verses can be tedious, because the structure of the sentences is archaic, much like KJV. But, it is important to make the effort to understand the development of Muhammad's teachings on warfare, because this helps us understand why Muslims have used in the past and are still using today armed conflicts to advance the cause of Allah throughout the world. The references from the Koran are given as Sura, which means chapter, followed by the number of the verses.
Stage One: No Retaliation
When Muhammad began preaching Islam in 610 A. D. in Mecca, his fellow tribesmen (Koreish) became increasingly hostile toward him because of his condemnation of their idolatry. The chapters (suras) of the Koran which originated during the 13 years Muhammad continued to live in Mecca, contain no instruction about fighting, in spite of the severe persecution suffered by his small band of followers. Why? Simply because his few followers stood no chance to win in a physical conflict. Thus it was a wise survival strategy to avoid violent confrontations. Few verses will serve to illustrate this teaching.
In Sura 73:10,11 Muhammad urges his followers to be patient toward those who deny the truth: "And have patience with what they say, and leave them with noble (dignity). And leave me (alone to deal with) those in possession of the good things of life, who (yet) deny the truth, and bear with them for a little while."
In Sura 52:45,47,48 the prophet admonishes to leave the unbelievers alone and to wait patiently for the Lord to punish them: "So leave them alone until they encounter that day of theirs, wherein they shall (perforce) swoon (with terror) ... And verily, for those who do wrong, there is another punishment besides this... Now await in patience the command of thy Lord, for verily thou art in Our eyes."
Stage Two: Defensive Fighting is Permitted
On July 15, 622, the increasing opposition forced Muhammad and his followers to flee from Mecca to Medina, a distance of 250 miles North. This is an important date, known as the Hegira, because it marks the beginning of the Moslem calendar. In Medina Muhammad was recognized as a prophet and was able to consolidate his power. His followers began looting the Meccan caravans passing through Medina. This practice eventually led to several battles between the Koreish tribes of Mecca and his followers.
Muhammad gained the first victory in the Battle of Badr in 624 with an army of 305, mostly citizens of Medina, over a Koreish force twice as large. He conquered several Jewish and Christian tribes and ordered and watch in person the massacred of 600 Jews in one day. It was at this time that Muhammad instructed his followers to defend themselves by fighting and killing.
An example of this instruction is found in Sura 22:39-41 where permission is given to engage in defensive fighting : "To those against whom war is made, permission is given (to fight), because they are wronged, and verily, God is most powerful for their aid." Again in Sura 22:58 rewards are promised to those who die in jihad: "Those who leave their homes in the cause of God, and are then slain or die, on them will God bestow verily a goodly provision." The promise of paradise to those who die fighting for Allah, has inspired countless Muslin through the centuries to become martyrs for their faith. It is this promise that inspires devout Muslims young men and women today to become suicide bombers for the cause of Allah.
Stage Three: Defensive fighting is Commanded
A few months after granting permission to fight in self-defence, Muhammad instructed his followers in making war as a religious obligation. At first the enemies were the idol worshippers of the Koreish tribe in Mecca, but later it included the Jews and Christians who did not accept Muhammad as prophet.
This teaching is found in numerous verses of the Koran. Richard Bailey lists 32 passages, annotating them with valuable comments. For the sake of brevity I refer only to four of them. In Sura 2:190 instruction is given to fight until persecution is stopped and Islam is established: "Fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for God loveth not transgressors. And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter."
In Sura 2:216 Muslims are commanded to fight for the cause of Allah, even if they do not like, because Allah knows what is best for them: "Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But God knoweth, and ye know not." Statements such as these make it abundantly clear that for a devout Muslims who follows the teachings of the Koran, fighting to advance the cause of Islam is a divine obligation that can hardly be ignored.
In Sura 8:12,13 Muslims are instructed to cut the necks and fingers of those who opposed God and to never turn their back on unbelievers: "Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): 'I am with you: give firmness to the believers. I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. Smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them. This because they contended against God and His Apostle. If any contend against God and his Apostle, God is strict in punishment ... O ye who believe! When ye meet the unbelievers in hostile array, never turn your backs to them. If any do turn his back to them on such a day unless it be in a stratagem of war, or to retreat to a troop (of his own) he draws on himself the wrath of God, and his abode is hell, an evil refuge (indeed)! It is not ye who slew them; it was God."
The instruction is clear. When in combat, there is no room for second thought. Muslim soldiers are to finish the job by smiting the head and cutting the fingers of their enemies. The intent of these amputations was to make it impossible for the victims ever to fight again.
Sura 61:4,11-13 teaches that God loves those who fight in His cause with determination. He will give them victory, forgiveness of sins and admission to the pleasure of paradise: "Truly God loves those who fight in His cause in battle array, as if they were a solid cemented structure ... that ye believe in God and His Apostle, and that ye strive (your utmost) in the cause of God, with your property and your persons. That will be best for you, if ye but knew! He will forgive you your sins, and admit you to gardens [Paradise] beneath which rivers flow, and to beautiful mansions in gardens of eternity. That is indeed the supreme achievement. And another (favor will He bestow), which ye do lovehelp from God and a speedy victory. So give the glad tidings to the believers."
One of the benefits of fighting for the cause of Islam is the permission to take captured women as concubines, in addition to several legitimate wives. Sura 33:50: says: "O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers, and those whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom God has assigned to thee ... For the believers (at large), We know that We have appointed for them as to their wives and the captives whom their right hands possess ..." The notion that God would assign captured women as concubines to Muslim believers who fight for His cause, hardly reflect high moral standards of the Islam faith. Polygamy and servile concubinage have destroyed the dignity of women and the beauty of the home. In this areas the infinite superiority of Christianity is clearly evident.
By teaching that those who die fighting for the cause of Allah will have their sins forgiven and are admitted into the pleasure of Paradise, the Koran has inspired Muslims throughout the centuries to fight unto death for the cause of Allah. Today it is inspiring young Palestinians become suicide bombers. For them a "martyr's death" is the surest and quickest way to a better life of comforts, prosperity, and pleasures in Paradise. "Suicide bombers" see themselves as carrying out the teaching of the Koran, while serving their communities and acquiring admission in paradise.
Sura 55:52-58 describes Paradise as a place where there "will be fruits of every kind, two and two... They will recline on carpets, whose inner linings will be of rich brocade. The fruit of the gardens will be near (and easy to reach)... In them will be (maidens), chaste, restraining their glances, whom no man or Jinn before them has touched ... like unto rubies and coral." The sensual element pollutes even Islam's vision of Paradise. Believers are promised not only blooming gardens, abundant food, fresh fountains, but also beautiful virgins. Seventy-two beautiful virgins will be created for the enjoyment of the meanest believer. A moment of pleasure will be prolonged a thousand years. This pleasure-oriented Paradise differs radically from the Biblical view of the world to come as this planet earth restored to its original perfection for the habitation of the redeemed who will engage in productive activities and the elevating worship of God.
Stage Four: Offensive War is Commanded Against the Pagans, Christians and Jews.
The final phase of Muhammad's teaching on warfare developed after he conquered Mecca in 630 A. D. Most of the pagans living in the city became Muslims. At that time Muhammad was able to take over the city and cleanse the Ka'aba (sacred shrine) of some 360 idols resident there.
At this point it became evident to Muhammad that Jews and Christians would not accept him as prophet, so they became part of the list of Islam's enemies to be conquered. Thus, warfare was no longer to be a defensive fighting, but an aggressive Jihad against all unbelievers. This is the final teaching of the Koran which is still in force today and has inspired the recent acts of terrorism.
There are several texts commanding offensive warfare to kill the pagans, Jews, and Christians. Among them Sura 9:5 stands out for its explicit injunction to slay the infidels: "When the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war). But if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity [become Moslem], then open the way for them." The best way for people to save their lives, was by renouncing their religion and adopting the Islam faith. In some instances conquered people could save their lives by paying a heavy tribute and becoming submissive to Muslim rulers.
In the same chapter, Sura 9:29-31, Muslims are commanded to fight Jews and Christians until they are subdued. Those who submitted themselves to Muslim rulers were to be subjected to a heavy tribute. The reason is because God's curse is upon them: "Fight those who believe not in God nor the last day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of truth, (even if they are) of the people of the Book [Christians and Jews], until they pay the jizya [tribute] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. The Jews call Uzair [Ezra] a son of God, and the Christians call Christ the Son of God ... God's curse be on them."
Sura 5:36-38 prescribes four types of punishments for those who oppose Allah and his prophet, Muhammad: "The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land. That is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the hereafter, except for those who repent before they fall into your power. In that case, know that God is oft-forgiving, most merciful. O ye who believe! Do your duty to God. Seek the means of approach unto Him, and strive with might and main in His cause, that ye may prosper."
The four types of punishments (cutting off the head, crucifixion, maiming, or exile), which were to be applied according to the circumstances, reveal the ruthless methods used by Muslims invaders to advance their religion. Such methods stand in stark contrast to the teachings of Jesus to win men and women for the Kingdom of God by proclaiming the Good News of God's saving grace through the atoning sacrifice of Christ.
The Teachings on Holy Warfare in Muhammad's Traditions ("Hadith")
The teachings of the Koran on the use of the sword to advance the cause of Islam, are corroborated by the collections of traditions ("Hadith") concerning the teaching of Muhammad. The nine volumes by Iman Bukhari are generally regarded as the most authentic of the Hadith literature. In volume 4 alone Richard Bailey found 283 passages teaching holy warfare (Jihad) to advance the cause of Islam. For the sake of brevity I will quote only four of them
Muhammad said, "A single endeavor (of fighting) in Allah's cause in the forenoon or in the afternoon is better than the world and whatever is in it" (4:50). Again he said, "Know that Paradise is under the shades of swords." (4:73). For Muhammad fighting for the cause of Allah was a way of life. He said, "My livelihood is under the shade of my spear, and he who disobeys my orders will be humiliated by paying Jizya" ( 4:162b).
The "Jizya" is the poll tax paid by subjugated peoples in return for their right to exist. Muhammad said, "I have been ordered to fight with the people till they say, 'None has the right to be worshiped but Allah,' and whoever says, 'None has the right to be worshiped but Allah,' his life and property will be saved by me except for Islamic law, and his accounts will be with Allah (either to punish him or to forgive him.)" (4:196 ). The order is clear. Muslims had to fight people until they became Muslims.
Scholarly Support for the Four Stages Evolution of Jihad
We have briefly sketched the four stages evolution in Koran's teaching on "holy war" (Jihad) from no retaliation, to permissible defensive fighting, to obligatory defensive fighting, and finally to offensive war at all times. Numerous scholars recognize that this evolutionary teaching on the use of warfare corresponds to the stages of development in Muhammad's thought and circumstances. Two quotes from reputable sources suffices to prove this point.
The first quote is from Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, the English translator of Sahih Al-Bukhari's nine volume collection of the traditions (Hadith) regarding the teachings of Muhammad. In his introduction to these volumes, Dr. Muhsin Khan writes: "So at first 'the fighting' was forbidden, then it was permitted and after that it was made obligatory: (1) against those who start 'the fighting' against you (Muslims) ... (2) and against all those who worship others along with Allah ..." (p. xxiv).
The second quote is from the article on "Jihad" found in the Brill's Encyclopedia of Islam. The author writes: "The jihad is a duty. This precept is laid down in all the sources. It is true that there are to be found in the Kur'an divergent, and even contradictory, texts. These are classified by the doctrine, apart from certain variations of detail, into four successive categories: those which enjoin pardon for offences and encourage the invitation to Islam by peaceful persuasion; those which enjoin fighting to ward off aggression; those which enjoin the initiative in attack provided it is not within the four sacred months; and those which enjoin the initiative in attack absolutely, at all times and in all places."
The article continues, saying: "In sum, these differences correspond to the stages in the development of Muhammad's thought and to the modifications of policy resulting from particular circumstances; the Meccan period during which Muhammad, in general, confines himself to moral and religious teaching, and the Medina period when, having become the leader of a politico-religious community, he is able to undertake, spontaneously, the struggle against those who do not wish to join this community or submit to his authority. The doctrine holds that the later texts abrogate the former contradictory texts ... to such effect that only those of the last category remain indubitably valid" (p.538).
The doctrine in question is known as "the law of abrogation" which is accepted by Muslim scholars. According to this doctrine the later "verses of the sword" superceded the earlier "verses of forgiveness." This means that gradually Muhammad came to accept the military Jihad as a legitimate and essential strategy to promote the expansion of Islam. No matter what people may think, Muhammad was not only a religious leaders, but also a military commander who waged war against his enemies as soon he consolidated his power and developed a fighting force.
Islam Expanded Through Warfare
A most compelling proof that Muhammad taught his followers to advance the cause of Allah by the use of the sword, is provided by the example of his immediate successors, known as Califs. They followed his intense fanaticism in waging relentless wars of conquests against Christians, Jews, and pagans. In a relatively short time they carved an enormous empire for themselves. At the height of their power, the Muslims' territories stretched from northern Africa and southern Europe in the West to the borders of modern India and China in the East. Their battle cry was: "Before you is paradise, and behind you are death and hell."
Most of the people the Muslims conquered were nominal Christians who surrendered their faith because they had lost the vision of the Christian message and mission. A major reason is that church leaders at this time were wasting their time fiercely quarreling about metaphysical questions such as the divine/human nature of Christ, rather than inspiring Christians to proclaim the Gospel to the pagan nations. The first seven ecumenical councils held between 325 and 787 A. D. were largely concerned with the definitions of the nature and relationship between the three Beings of the Godhead. Bitter battles were fought over metaphysical questions that should be accepted as mystery. By loosing their evangelistic vision, many Christians succumbed to Islam, instead of bringing to the Muslims a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
During its first century of Islam's expansion from 632 to 732, Muhammad's successors subdued Egypt, Palestine, Syria, part of Turkey (besieged Constantinople twice in 668 and 717), and all the countries of northern Africa. In 711 they crossed from Africa to Spain and crossed the Pyrenees into southern France. They boasted that they would soon stable their horses in St. Peter's cathedral in Rome. But in 732 the Frankish ruler Charles Martel defeated then at the Battle of Tours and checked their progress in the West.
In the East the Muslim conquest continued unabated. In the ninth century they subdued Persia, Afghanistan, and a large part of India. In the thirteenth century they conquered the Turks and the Monguls. Bulgaria, Serbia, and parts of Hungary were soon to follow. Finally in 1453 the city of Constantinople itself fell into the hands of the Muslim Turks, who turned the magnificent church of St. Sophia into a mosque where the Koran is read instead of the Gospel. From Constantinople the Muslims spread panic in Europe and threaten the German empire until they were finally defeated at the gates of Vienna in 1683.
The Decline of the Muslim Power
At this time began the decline of the Muslim power with the rise of European nations which gradually broke up and divided among themselves much of the Muslim territory known as the "Ottoman Empire." The development of strong European nations and a powerful America, coupled with the aggressive missionary movement of the 19th and 20th centuries, has created serious problems for Muslims. The political-religious Islam movement which during the Middle Ages seemed destined to rule the world, has gradually been humiliated by Western colonial powers which have divided much of the Muslim territories among themselves. What ended the expansion of Islam was not a change of beliefs, but the European military might.
Anger Driving Terrorism
The humiliation Muslims have experienced in the last two centuries, is a contributing factor to the anger that is driving terrorism today. In recent years Muslims have been humiliated not only by the Jews in Palestine, but also by Christian Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo, by atheistic or Christian Russians in Chechnya, and by Hindus in Kashmir and Pakistan.
It is hard for some Muslims to accept the shame of their international failure. After being the superpowers for over a thousands years, believing that Allah had empowered them to wipe out Christians, Jews, pagans, and to rule the whole world, today they find themselves governed politically or controlled economically by nations made up mostly of "infidels." Many Muslims are angered by the superior power of Western countries, especially America, because they still believe in the superiority of their religion and culture which they want to impose on the rest of the world.
In his book Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam (Princeton 1996), Rudolf Peters, Professor of Islamic Law at the University of Amsterdam, observes: "The crux of the doctrine is the existence of one single Islamic state, ruling the entire umma [Muslim community]. It is the duty of the umma to expand the territory of this state in order to bring as many people under its rule as possible. The ultimate aim is to expand the territory of this state in order to bring the whole earth under the sway of Islam and to extirpate unbelief" (p. 3).
The fact that the expansionistic vision of Islam to bring the whole earth under its sway, has suffered constant set backs during the past two centuries, and especially in recent years, is inspiring some concerned Muslims to commit the terroristic acts reported in the daily news. Their aim is to show that in spite of their state of humiliation, Muslims are still capable of terrorizing Western superpowers like America. This is another way for them to show that Allah is still empowering them to accomplish their mission.
Concerned Muslims want to punish America for her alleged anti-Islam policies, by hitting the people in their "comfort zone." This entails in forcing Americans to "pay more and play less," by burdening them with billions of dollars of expenses to fight terrorism at home and abroad, It also consists in distressing Americans with the constant fear of unsuspected attacks. By keeping Americans on the edge and thus undermine their traditional sense of security, many devout Moslems believe that they are scoring a major victory for the cause of Islam. They think that they are showing to the world that Allah has empowered them to humiliate the most powerful nation, America. For them this represents the triumph of Islam over Christianity.
The threat is heightened by the development of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons of mass destruction by such Arab countries as Iraq, Iran, and Libya. If a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could devise a nuclear bomb in five weeks using published material available in a good library, it is conceivable that these and other developing countries could assemble thermonuclear weapons. When this happens, even a small use of nuclear weapons by Muslim countries committed to advance the cause of Allah by humiliating the Christian superpowers, could degenerate into a major international conflict which would bring ruin to all and victory to none.
Is Islam a Peace-loving Religion?
The preceding survey of the teachings of the Koran and of Muhammad's traditions (Habith) regarding warfare, discredits the popular claim that Islam is a peace-loving, peace-preaching religion. There is no question that there are many peace-loving Muslims who condemn the use of violence to promote their faith, but this can hardly be said of the teachings of the Koran and Hadith.
To say that Islam is a religion of peace, means to ignore the example and teachings of Muhammad. He fought all the pagans, Jews, and Christians in Saudi Arabia, until he subdued them, forcing them to accept Islam. What Muhammad did is reflected in what he taught about fighting and slaying the infidels: "When the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war). But if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity [become Moslem], then open the way for them" (Sura 9:5).
The claim that Islam is a peace-loving religion, is openly contradicted by the Koran that reads like a terrorist manifesto. We must not be fooled by the speeches of Arab leaders who condemn the acts of terrorism when their people are out in the streets in a carnival-like atmosphere celebrating the carnage of innocent people by suicide bombers.
Real peace with Muslims is impossible as long as they believe in the example and teaching of Muhammad. For the Prophet peace comes only through submission to Islam, which is the very meaning of "Islam," namely, "submission." But the Islamic concept of peace as a world dominated by Muslims is ultimately a mandate for war.
The challenge that we face today in seeking to establish peaceful relations with the Moslem world, is to help our Muslims friends understand the fundamental flaws of the teachings of the Koran regarding the use of violence to advance the cause of Allah. A religion that advocates engaging in "holy war" (Jihad) to propagate its faith, is a repressive movement that violates the fundamental human right to choose whom to worship. This fundamental right is recognized and respected by the God of biblical revelation who says: "Choose ye this day whom you will serve" (Jos 24:15).
VIOLENCE IN THE BIBLE AND THE KORAN
This leads us to the discussion of violence in the Bible and in the Koran. The debate over this question has intensified after the events of September 11. Those who want to exonerate the use of violence by Muslims, are quick to point out that Christianity is not different, because the Bible and Christian history are filled with violence. Earlier we cited Kenneth Woodward who wrote in Newsweek: "The Bible, too, has its stories of violence in the name of the Lord. The God of the early Biblical books is fierce indeed in his support of the Israelites warriors, drowning enemies in the sea" (Newsweek, February 11, 2002, p. 53).
How can we respond to this popular argument that the violence in the Koran is not different from the violence we find in the Bible? For the sake of brevity I will limit my response to three major considerations
1) Christians Have no Biblical justification for Using Violence in the Name of Christ There is no question that Christians have used violence, torture, and military crusades to destroy "infidels" and "heretics," but those who committed these shameful acts, betrayed the Person and teaching of Christ. They turned the Christian church into a terroristic organization acting against the teaching of Christ who condemned the use of violence as a means to establish His Kingdom. He told Peter who cut off the ear of the high priest's servant, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matt 26:52).
While Muhammad commanded his followers to fight pagans, Jews and Christians until they were killed or subdued, Christ taught his disciples to endure persecution and pray for the persecutors. "Blessed are you when men revile you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven . . . I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven" (Matt 5:11-12, 44,45).
Muslims who use violence, warfare, and terrorism to advance the cause of Allah, can legitimately claim to be following the example and teachings of their prophet, Muhammad. He was both a religious and political leader who fought until he subdued the people of Mecca and the Christian and Jewish communities living in Saudi Arabia. He taught: "Know that Paradise is under the shades of swords." (4:73 )
But Christians who have resorted to violence to advance God's Kingdom, cannot appeal to the teachings or example of Christ. They have betrayed His teachings. Christ chose to be crucified rather than to slay His enemies with the sheer power His spoken word. He taught His followers to establish the Kingdom of God, not through physical confrontation, but through the peaceful proclamation of the saving grace of God.
Christianity turned the Roman world upside down during the first three centuries by the sheer power of the grace of God manifested in the loving and forgiving attitudes of Christians, who were willing to suffer and die for their faith. By contrast, Islam conquered much of the Roman world during the first century of its expansion (632-732) by slaughtering a countless number of innocent people and forcing their faith upon the survivors. What a difference! Christ condemned the use of violence to promote the Christian faith, while Muhammad commanded the use of the sword to advance the cause of Islam.
2) The Extermination of the Canaanites Was a Divine Punishment for their Wickedness. Some appeal to passages found in the book of Joshua regarding the extermination of various tribes living in Canaan, to argue that the Bible is not different from the Koran in sanctioning a "holy war" to promote the true worship of God. If this allegation were true, then the teachings of the Bible on the use of violence would be similar to those of the Koran.
The problem with this allegation is the failure to recognize that the extermination of the various tribes living in Canaan was a divine punishment for their wickedness, and not a method to convert them to the religion of Israel. Dead people cannot change their religion.. Like Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because their wickedness had reached the limits of God's mercy, so the tribes living in Canaan were exterminated on account of their sinfulness.
Hundreds of years before the invasion of Canaan, God told Abraham that his descendants would be sojourners in a foreign land for "four hundred years" (Gen 15:13), before they could settle in the land of Canaan. The reason given for this waiting period is clearly stated: "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete" (Gen 15:16). In other words, God was willing to wait for several generations before exterminating the tribes living in Canaan, because their wickedness had not yet reached the limits of His mercy.
Later God warned the nation of Israel to be careful in not repeating the sins of the Canaanites, otherwise they would suffer a similar punishment. The warning was in vain. Eventually God used the Assyrian and Babylonians as the instrument of His justice to punish the people of Israel for their sinfulness, in the same way as He had used Israel as an instrument of His justice to purge the land of Canaan of its sinfulness.
There is a dramatic difference between the account of the extermination of the Canaanites and the events of the early history of Islam. The primary theme in the biblical account is that of God's holiness manifested in the punishment of unrepentant sinners. This theme is missing in the early accounts of Muhammad's raid and wars. Instead, the primary motivation we constantly encounter in the accounts of Muhammad's warfare is the spreading of the rule of Islam by destroying and looting the enemies.
3) The Bible Does not Enjoin the Use of Warfare to Promote the Worship of the True God Another important point to consider is that nowhere the Old or New Testaments command God's people to attack pagan nations, either in self-defence or as a way to promote the true worship of God. The proclamation of salvation in the Bible is always by witnessing and persuasion.
God placed Israel in the land of Canaan because of its strategic location at the crossroads of the ancient world. The Israelites were to be God's showcase to the ancient world, especially to the merchants and armies crisscrossing Palestine. This so-called "King's Highway" was an obligatory "interstate" route for people who traveled from the South to North or from the North to the South of the Middle East. God wanted to establish His people at the hub of the ancient world for them to be a light to the nations. "The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in his ways. An all the people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord; they shall be afraid of you" (Deut 28:9-10).
The Israelites were called to promote the true worship of God, not by conquering nations through warfare, as enjoined in the Koran, but by being a shining light to the world. "Arise and shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. . . . And the nations shall come to your light, and the kings to the brightness of your rising" (Is 60:1, 2). There was no need for the Israelites to promote their faith by the sword, because God promised to fight for them and to bring the nations to their door steps to learn about the true worship of God (Zech 8:20-22).
The OT anticipation of the proclamation of salvation to all the nations, becomes in the NT Christ's great commission to His followers: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matt 28:19). This great commission is to be fulfilled, not by the use of the sword, but by "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matt 28:20).
Islam is a Violent Religion
A comparison between the teaching of the Koran and that of the Bible on the use of violence, shows the fundamental difference that exists between Islam and Christianity. We have found that Islam is a violent religion because the Koran teaches holy warfare (Jihad) to force people to submit to its religious/political system. A religion that resorts to violence to force its teachings upon others, can hardly be called a "religion," because a true religion presupposes reverence for God and respect for fellow-beings. It would be more appropriate to label violent religions as "terroristic organizations."
The designation of "terroristic organization" applies not only to Islam, but also to Christian churches that became violent during certain periods of the history. For example, during the Middle Ages the Catholic Church became a formidable "terroristic organization" that organized crusades to exterminate Muslims, Jews, and so-called "heretics." The Catholic church terrorized people in Western Europe, especially through the inquisition. The latter was a travelling court that went from town to town seeking out for "heretics" to interrogate, torture, and execute if they did not abandon their beliefs.
Recently the Pope apologized for the unspeakable atrocities committed by the Catholic church when it became a terroristic organization committed to subdue Muslims, Jews, religious dissidents, and Greek Orthodox Christians. We only wish that Muslims religious leaders would follow the example of the Pope by apologizing for the countless number of innocent people they massacred during their millennium of territorial expansion. If they truly believe that Islam is a peace-loving religion, then they have a moral obligation to show their heartfelt sorrow for slaughtering millions of innocent people who refused to submit to the Islam faith and rule. They also should apologize for the daily terroristic acts committed by Muslim suicide-bombers. They should condemn these acts of violence as a betrayal of Islam. But this is wishful thinking, because there are no indications that such an apology and condemnation is forthcoming from Muslim religious leaders.
Today, May 28, 2002, a Fox News reporter said that during the long months she has spent in the Middle East reporting the current conflict, she has never heard a Muslim religious leader condemning the killing of innocent people by suicide bombers. She found it hard to comprehend why Muslim religious leaders do not speak up, especially when suicide bombers kill mothers strolling their your children on the street.
Why are Muslim religious leaders silent? Simply because they believe that suicide bombers are "martyrs" who are acting in accordance with the example and teachings of their prophet, Muhammad. After all, he called upon his followers to " fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)" (Sura 9:5).
Muhammad practiced what he preached. He waged war against his enemies as soon as he consolidated his power in Medina. He used the sword to force people to accept his religious and political system. For Mohammed fighting was a way of practice his religion: "My livelihood is under the shade of my spear, and he who disobeys my orders will be humiliated by paying Jizya [tribute]" (Hadith 4:162b). A religion that uses violence to promote its beliefs and practices, can hardly be considered as a peace-loving religion.
Christianity is a Peace-Loving Religion
By contrast, Christianity is a peace-loving religion because it is inspired by its founder, Jesus Christ, who did not force people to submit to anything. He called upon people to voluntary accept the Good News of His substitutionary death for penitent sinner and the power of His transforming grace. He taught His followers to "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good" (Matt 5:44-45).
Christ is rightly called "THE PRINCE OF PEACE" (Is 9:6), because he offers us PEACE WITH GOD by bearing the penalty of our sins, PEACE WITH OURSELVES by offering us the power to overcome sin in our life, and PEACE WITH PEOPLE by granting us the capacity to love even those who hate us.
At Jesus' birth, the angels sang: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth PEACE, GOOD WILL toward men (Luke 2:14). Thirty three years later while dying He prayed for those who mocked and crucified Him: "Father forgive them for they know not what the do!" (Luke 13:34). And to all who trust in Him and accept His gracious provision of salvation, Christ promises: "My PEACE I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).
The peace that Christ offers is not territorial, but internal. It is achieved not by making the whole world Muslim through territorial expansion, but by experiencing the restful assurance of divine forgiveness, protection, and salvation. It is an internal peace that enables us to live in a trouble world without letting our hearts be troubled or afraid. Ultimately, this is the peace that every human being needs. The is the peace that can help Muslims to live at peace with God, themselves, and others.
A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO ISLAM
What contributions can Christians make toward a resolution of the threat of terrorism, sponsored by Muslim organizations? It is naive to think that anyone can offer a magic solution to the complex conflict between Islam and Christianity that has been going on for the past 14 centuries? The most we can hope to accomplish is to start a thinking process leading toward a solution. With this in mind I am submitting three suggestions:
1) Christians Need to Understand the Root of Terrorism To resolve the problem of terrorism, which is causing a paralyzing fear in the American society and many Western countries, besides costing billions of dollars to the international community of nations, it is vitally important to understand that the root of Muslim terrorism is theological, not merely political or territorial. By this I mean that the acts of terrorism we are witnessing daily are inspired, not merely by the desire to get a larger share of the land controlled by Israel, but by the clear teaching of the Koran "to fight and slay" the infidels until the whole world is under Islam's rule.
Keep in mind that 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands are controlled by Muslim countries today. Only one-tenth of one percent is controlled by Israel. The Muslims, whose original homeland is Saudi Arabia, have succeeded through the centuries to systematically subdued all the countries of the Middle East, by practically uprooting all the Christians and Jews living there.
What this means is that the Arabs are not satisfied with the 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands they have occupied. They are fighting for the one-tenth of one percent of the landmass which is controlled by Israel. Will territorial concessions on the part of Israel bring about a lasting peace? Absolutely not, even if Palestinian received all the land they claims as theirs! Why? Simply because history teaches us that no matter how much territory the Muslims conquered, they still wanted more. What has been true in the past, is still true today. The want all the land of Israel.
Am I suggesting that Palestine does not belong to the Palestinians? There is no question that the Palestinian have the right to a homeland in Palestine, but they can hardly claim that historically Palestine has been their own country, governed by the Palestinians, with a distinct Palestinian culture and language. The fact is that Palestinians are Arabs who have occupied what in Bible times was known as the land of Canaan. They are indistinguishable from Jordanians, Syrians, Saudies, Lebanese, Iraquis, Iranians, etc.
Prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, there was no serious movement for a Palestinian homeland. The territories that Israel captured during the Six-Day War, did not belong to Yasser Arafat or the Palestinian Authorities, but to Jordan's King Hussein. It is only after Israel won the war that these Arabs discovered their national identity as Palestinians.
The truth is that term "Palestine" was coined, not by native Arabs to designate their homeland, but by the Romans after they captured Judea in 70 A. D. After committing genocide against the Jews and smashing the Temple, the Romans decided that Judea would no longer exist as the land of the Jews. To add insult to injury they changed the name from Judea to Palestine, a name derived from the Philistines tribal people living in the southern costal region and conquered by the Jews at the time of David.
Palestine as a State Never Existed
What this means is that Palestine as a state with its own language and culture, has never existed. Its territory has been ruled alternatively by the Romans, Islamic and Christian crusaders, the Ottoman Empire, and briefly by the British after World War I. The British agreed to restore part of the land to the Jewish people as their homeland.
From a historical perspective, the Jews have a 4,000-year-old birthright to Palestine. It is the land of their religious, ethnic, and historical roots. The fact that in the past they were expelled from their homeland by Romans, Christians, and Muslims, does not mean that they should be forced out of their homeland again today! After all, they have no other land which they can rightfully claim as their homeland.
This is not the case with the Palestinians. From a historical perspective they can legitimately claim several Arab countries as their homeland, because that is where are found their religious, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic roots.
Some try to prove the Muslim's roots in Palestine by appealing to the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which are popularly regarded as Islam's third most holy sites. In my reading I found that the Koran says nothing about Jerusalem. It mentions Mecca and Medina countless times, but never mentions Jerusalem. In fact there are no historical evidences to suggest Muhammad ever visited Jerusalem.
How then did Jerusalem become the third holiest site of Islam? Largely as a result of a gratuitous interpretation of a vague passage found in the seventeenth chapter (sura) of the Koran, entitled "The Night Journey." It relates that in a dream Muhammed was carried by night "from the sacred temple to the temple that is most remote, whose precinct we have blessed, that we might show him our signs...."
In the seventh century, some Muslims identified the "temple that is most remote" as being the Mosque in Jerusalem. It is hard to believe that Muhammad would be carried away in a dream to the Mosque in Jerusalem that did not yet exist at the time of his death in 632 A. D. By contrast, the Jews can trace their roots in Jerusalem back to the days of Abraham (Gen 14:18).
Recently Arab leaders met in Beirut to find a solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. They adopted the proposal of the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to persuade Israel to return certain territories to the Palestinians in exchange for granting to the State of Israel the right to exist.
Why Arab Leaders Do Not Give Some of the Land to Palestinians?
What I find difficult to understand is why all these Arab leaders who control 99.9 percent of the vast landmass of the Middle East, and have incredible financial resources from oil exports to the West, do not open the doors of their countries to the relatively small Palestinian population of only 2,895,683 people, according to the 1997 census ? After all the Palestinians are their own Arab brethren. They share the same religious, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage.
Why do Arab leaders prefer to finance refugee camps in the West Banks rather than inviting Palestinians to settle in their own countries? Why Arab countries don't follow the example of America who has given asylum to persecuted people of all races and creeds, including many Arabs? Why are Arab leaders more interested to take away some land from Israelan extremely small country than give some of their own land to their Palestinian Muslim brethren?
I believe that answer is to be found in the call of the Koran "to fight and slay" the infidels until the whole world is under Islam's rule. For Arab leaders to offer asylum to their Palestinian brethren, would mean to stop the ongoing conflict with Israelan enemy of Islam that must be ultimately driven out of the land. By fueling the present conflict, especially with financial subsidies to the families of suicide bombers, they hope to achieve their objectives. What is at stake, then, is not more land for the Palestinian, but total Muslim control of the Middle East.
Some may feel that I am not fair to the Muslims. Let me repeat the issue is not the Muslims people as such, most of whom are peace-loving people whom I love and respect. Rather, the issue is the teachings of the Koran which call for the suppression and extermination of those who practice a different religion. This is the root of the problem that needs to be addressed by Christians and the international community of nations.
Suicide bombers are inspired by the teaching of the Koran. Muslim religious leaders indoctrinate young Arab men and women to become martyrs by killing the enemies of Islam. They are told that the Koran guarantees them the forgiveness of their sins and admission into the pleasure of paradise. Such an appalling, immoral, and senseless teaching is firing up poor young Muslim men and women to become suicide bombers. By killing the enemies of Islam, whether it be at the World Trade Towers in New York City or in the shopping centers in Israel, they become immortalized as martyrs for the cause of Islam who have gained admission into the pleasure of Paradise.
2) Christians Need to Expose the Immorality of the Koran's Teachings on the Use of Violence To deal with the root problem of Muslim terrorism, it is imperative to embark in a worldwide educational program designed to expose the immorality of the teachings the Koran which calls for the suppression and extermination of those who practice a different religion.
This strategy of exposing the immorality of the Koran's teachings on the use of violence to advance the cause of Islam, may not be politically correct. It can alienate moderate Moslems living in the USA and overseas. But I am persuaded that the truth that "hurts" is better than a lie that "soothes."
To minimize a backlash it is important to distinguish between the teachings of Koran about the exterminations of the "infidels," and the Moslem people themselves who ignore or openly reject such teachings. The same principle applies to any religion. For example, most Catholics know very little about the historical teachings of their church regarding he suppression of the heretics.
Most Catholics would be appalled to read what Thomas Aquinas, the most influential Catholic theologian, teaches in his Summa Theologica about the extermination of the "heretics." He wrote: "With regard to heretics two points must be observed: one, on their own side, the other, on the side of the church. On their own side there is a sin, whereby they deserve not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death. For it is a much graver matter to corrupt the faith which quickens the soul, than to forge money, which supports the temporal life. Wherefore, if forger of money and other evildoers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death" (Question 11, Article 3).
This fundamental Catholic teachings that "heretics," if they do not recant, must be not only excommunicated but also exterminated, is found in numerous documents of the Inquisition. When the immorality of such teachings are exposed, most Catholics openly reject them, choosing instead to accept the teachings of the Gospel to "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
What is true for the Catholics is also true for the Muslims. We need to help our Muslim friends understand that the teachings of the Koran on the use of violence to advance the cause of Islam, are immoral and to be condemned by all peace-loving people. We need to help them understand that the sword of itself never brings peace to the world. Above all, we need to help them discover the beauty and power of the message of the Gospelwhich is a message of love and forgiveness, a message of peace through internal transformation, rather than through external suppression of enemies and territorial expansion.
3) Christians Need to Become Involved in Meeting the Needs of Suffering Muslims Exposing the immorality of the teachings of the Koran on the use of violence, is not enough. Actions speak louder than words. Christian relief organizations need to become actively involved in relieving the pain and suffering of Muslims living in desperate situations.
Christian relief centers need to be established where Muslims are suffering today. Muslims need to see Christian love in action. This should happen not only in the Palestinian refugee camps, but also in Afghanistana country which has been devastated by 22 years of fighting, three years of famine, and five years of Taliban rule. Christian relief and assistance in Afghanistan cannot stop at the end of the military operations. The presence of dedicated Christian doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers, and technicians involved in developments programs, can go long way in giving credibility to the Christian witness.
Ultimately the most compelling example of the difference between the teaching of the Koran and that of the Bible on the use of violence, is the unselfish and compassionate service offered by dedicated Christians even to Muslim terrorists. The manifestation of Christian love in action, has the potential for changing the Muslim world today as it did change the Roman world twenty centuries ago.
the issue is the teachings of the Koran which call for the suppression and extermination of those who practice a different religion. This is the root of the problem that needs to be addressed by Christians and the international community of nations.
Mohammed started by urging peace and tolerance, but as his worldly power grew, he urged war and intolerance. It appears yet another example of the saying "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Mohammed started by urging peace and tolerance, but as his worldly power grew, he urged war and intolerance. It appears yet another example of the saying "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
I think it's more an example of saying "Nice doggie" while reaching for a stick. Not a decent man corrupted by power, but a shrewd man holding back until he was powerful enough.
Re Mohammed's increasing belligerence with age, you wrote: Not a decent man corrupted by power, but a shrewd man holding back until he was powerful enough.
I was trying to be nice. At a distance of 1400 or so years, no one will ever know. Maybe (probably) its as you said. On the other hand, he may have been insane and weak, but nicer, at the beginning. There's no doubt he became insane and nasty at the end, though.
A most compelling proof that Muhammad taught his followers to advance the cause of Allah by the use of the sword, is provided by the exampl e of his immediate successors, known as Califs. They followed his intense fanaticism in waging relentless wars of conquests against Christians, Jews, and pagans.
Can't give a citation, but my recollection is that Osama bin Laden's plan was really to take control of Afghanistan, then drive into adjoining lands (especially former parts of USSR), setting himself up as the Calif over his new territory (the califate, sp?).
It contains also some links to international Khilafah movements. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~luqman/Belief/Khilafah/partI.html
Khilafah is the political system in Islam. It is responsible for implementing the Islamic system (be it social, economic, educational, foreign policy,...) and maintaining its implementation. It is also responsible for spreading the message of Islam to the world. Khilafah is the Islamic state which the Prophet (pbuh) sought to create and worked for in Mecca, for a period of thirteen years, until he (pbuh) established it Medina.
If you read some of the stuff on their sites, you can realize these people are dangerous and organized.
Also a while ago there was a picture of a European islamic cleric. On the background there was the black Khilafah flag.
Why do Arab leaders prefer to finance refugee camps in the West Banks rather than inviting Palestinians to settle in their own countries? Why Arab countries don't follow the example of America who has given asylum to persecuted people of all races and creeds, including many Arabs? Why are Arab leaders more interested to take away some land from Israel?an extremely small country? than give some of their own land to their Palestinian Muslim brethren?
Well duh! They want the Israelis out and any peace treaty over there is just a Muslim joke. We all know that.
Ultimately the most compelling example of the difference between the teaching of the Koran and that of the Bible on the use of violence, is the unselfish and compassionate service offered by dedicated Christians even to Muslim terrorists.
True. It will take a lot of the Christian ideal of martyrdom, not the bomb-belt Islamic kind. The Muslims kill our missionaries. But the Muslims are living in darkness so terrible...
In Turkish it's spelled Halife, in English the Caliphate or the Caliph as the Pope..
When faced with a crazed enemy like Usame bin Laden, we fight him in the name of God, whether we're Christians, Jews, or Muslims.
You've been posting articles which portray me as violent. I am violent when I am attacked. So is the USA violent when attacked. Others are conformist in the face of attack, and just bend over.. Not me.
Mohammed was attacked by the rulers of Mecca for preaching the old testament and promoting the God of Abraham. He escaped to Medina and later came back to route the Meccans. So has he routed all high priests of idol worship who opposed him for fear of losing their tax base. More power to him, he did great for 620 anno domini.
Nobody preach to me about conquest and cruelty 1300 years ago, that was the norm then, and only addressed early in the 20th century with the Geneva convention.. I don't constantly bring up how the crusaders ate the inhabitants of "Ma'arret an Numan" do I?
Anyway..
The directions given by the Prophet Mohammad were that leadership of the Muslims should pass from one Caliph (pope) to the next upon the death of the current Caliph to the person closest to him. Closest friend? Closest relative? The following was split right after his death into Shiite and Sunni.
Absolute powr corrupts absolutely. If you think that child rape by catholic priests is sensational news, maybe it is, but it's nothing compared to what used to be done centuries ago. Priests of all religions excercise a sort of absolute power over believers. Centuries ago even more adults were the equivalent of todays children. The level of maturity among adults has increased over the past centuries, more so in the European countries and in their colonies where the natives did not prevail, all thanks to protestant Christianity and the resultant competition in education/ communication. This never happened in that scale in the realm of Islam.
The level of maturity among adults in the lands of Islam is generally low, with very few exceptions. Turkish people, for example, have a much much higher level of education than the overall average.. That's why we have seperated church from state, and that's why our laws are refined versions of God's basic commandments.
Usame and the like are raping the ignorant public around them, just like some corrupt priests rape little kids elsewhere in the world, where they can't get their way with adults any longer.. That's it.
When faced with a crazed enemy like Usame bin Laden, we fight him in the name of God, whether we're Christians, Jews, or Muslims
I hate to say it, but it was awfuly queit in the islamic world when condemning Osama. Rushdie was quickly fatwa'd and millions of muslims, also the once in the UK and France, wanted him dead for smearing th name of islam.
When OBL smeared the name of islam and did things islam does not allow, where are the fatwas? Where are the millions of muslims taking to the streets to condemn these acts and to call the death of OBL for his actions?
And if I wanted to really smear you, I already would mention what the Ottomans did to the Armenians. I never did that. Nor I pinged anyone to such an article, where the Turks are protayed as crazy killers.
Yes, I blame islam, that is true. But it is time muslims deal with the maniac tendancies of their fellow muslims. All they did do is say that killing is opposed to islam, but never they did anything than protest the US attacking the Taliban. Time to act is now, but the moderates are doing nothing. The terror continues against Israel, with the support of muslims worldwide.
I have seen what the Arab media is saying about what has to be done to Jews and Americans. But somehow muslims never seem to protest loudly against the call for hate and armed jihad against unbelievers.
Yes, there are once that do, but only a few. Most muslims I encounter try to convince us they only want peace, but they forget to tell it to their fellow muslims.
It were no Buhddists, Hindus, Jews or Christians flying those planes or bombing people in Israel. The group-rapes in the Neterlands are not done by them. Neither does any of these groups call out for worldwide armed jihad like muslims do, or sell videos of Pearls behading.
The terror continues against Israel, with the support of muslims worldwide.
You know, perhaps I made a mistake by commenting to you. I thought that perhaps I was dealing with an intellectual, who could comprehend some intelligent analysis. But the line I excerpt from your response, sadly, really shows your level of comprehension of the socio-political machinations of the world at large.
If all Muslims were to support suicide bombing, there wouldn't be any Muslims left. Maybe you can figure this equation out with make believe numbers: use your fingers. If the world had three Muslims (hold up three fingers) and all three were suicide bombers (subtract three fingers) there would be no Muslims (fingers) left.
Also I noticed that you do not capitalize Islam or Muslim, but you capitalize everything else, including Taliban.
Anyway, your hatred resembles that of the undereducated Muslim. I am tired of reading your posts. They are nothing but hate. I don't feel that towards you, or anyone else. I disturbs me, so please remove me from your ping list.
When I said to people that if muslim moderates would stop the violence of the militants, all this was not nessesary, I was attacked because of this little postive (to islam) comment.
9/11 would not have happened if the moderates stopped the madness long ago.
Christians also stopped their fellow Christians form doing things like slavery, long ago. Time for moderate muslims to do the same, then the hate will stop. But as long we are refered to as 'great satan', we will be angry too.
Muslim moderates cannot stop the militants, because the miitants have military equipment, and moderates are ruling the ignorant, who are vulnerable to the militant's ideological rhetoric. It would be a pissing contest.
Criticism of Koran and categorizing violence as preached in Koran is correct. And its true that the personality of Jesus is violence-free like that of the Buddha. But the Bible is not free of violence - only the role of Jesus has been taken over by the Christian/Jewish God. After all, where did Koran get the idea of burning hell where humans will be roasted. And then again lets not forget Abraham who wanted to slaughter his own child. Hebrew prophets did get engaged in war and violence - e.g. David.
I think it is hypocritical at best to pluck the beam out of someones eyes. Mohammad took upon himself a child as a wife. When the child was 9 years of age he consummated the marriage. The child did not even have her period yet and is subjected to that kind of torture by a Dirty Old Man like Mohammad. I am not condoning the behavior of sick and twisted catholic priest. It is just to edify and open your eyes. Just to let you know I am not a catholic. I am a Messianic Jew.
I am a Bible theologian with a powerful means of communication to reach the world. The defensive warfare in the Koran is also found similarly in the Bible and should not be condemned. However, Mohammed exemplified his sin when he taught his followers to attack offensively to convert, much like David exemplified sin when he killed Bath-Sheeba’s husband for the conception of sin sexually. I’m not comparing the similarities of the sins but merely pointing out that Mohammed sinned as well as David and even Christ himself. We see that Christ sinned or evidence that He was not holy in 4 places in Scripture, Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 19 and also when Christ called the Pharisees ‘dirty as wrotten sepulchres on the inside’ and violated the holy command: ‘let no unclean thing come out of your mouth’. The fourth is when Christ went into the temple overturning the moneychangers tables, he did not go in calling them ‘little buttercups’ or he would have suppressed his anger and it would have led to mental illness. Any professional in the psych industry knows that if you don’t vent properly with certain bad language that is actually good language depending on when you use it, then you will end up with psychiatric issues leading to mental illness. Having said that, Christ always chose the lesser of two sin paths when He committed these types of sins. I won’t get into the details of the other sin sides that he avoided. So Christ was without blemish in this regard, because He always chose good or great even while commiting the lesser of two sins. ‘For him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.’ ...is the Biblical definition of sin. There is a Trinity but it does not include Chirst as he was not holy. The Trinity includes, God, the Spirit, and the Word (logos, in the Greek). Christ and the Word are not the same in John 1:1. The word became flesh but they were not equivalent. The definition of ‘logos’ in the Greek is ‘the message’ or ‘communication’ from God. Much like our words are apart of us and we should be accountable for what we say, God’s word is a part of Him including the Truth in all God-inspired Scriptures or His word to us through revelation by way of the gifts of ‘word of knowledge’, or ‘word of wisdom’ found listed in I Corinthians.
Also, we need to recognize the Muslims as ‘believers’, but not the ones that murder to convert. When Christ said He was ‘the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father but my me’, He was specifically referring to the physical location of the Father. He was not referring to exclusivity regarding the doctrine of salvation. Thomas the disciple was questioning Jesus as to where the physical location of the Father was as Christ was about to ascend there. Much of Islam is parallel Christianity, it’s just worded differently. The peace-loving Muslims are saved because they have faith in God and believe in good works as a bi-product of their true faith, just like God teaches in the Bible and also to the Mormons in the Book of Mormon. There is no verse in the Bible that says that other Scriptures in addition to the Bible are not inspired by God or acceptable to Him. The verse in Revelation at the end is speaking specifically to the Book of Revelation and not regarding the Bible as a whole. I believe in Christ’s death and ressurection as payment for sin and necessary for salvation because that’s my religion but the peace-loving Muslims are also saved because the Koran is God inspired. There will come a day though, where we will be united in one true doctrine of salvation similar to both Christianity’s and Islam’s doctrine which would only have to be slightly adjusted if at all. For the seventh one thousand years there will be a third testament for believers and the Muslims may do the same and add more Scriptures to their current text. There was an Old Testament for the first period, then New Testament for the next two thousand years and there WILL be another testament for the Millenial Reign, the last 1000 years on this planet. The doctrine of salvation was adjusted greatly from the OT to the NT and with the next testament, it may not be adjusted at all, but in Zechariah 2:11 it says that many nations will unite in the LORD and this occurs in the seventh 1000 years shortly after an upcoming exile of 70 years for his people that we will see, in addition to the one that took place in the OT. God says he has a right to spare us of this exile/captivity/migration as referred to all throughout the Minor Prophetic books and Jeremiah and Ezekiel (2 Major prophetic books). The murdering radical extremists can not be saved because muderers cannot enter into the kindom of heaven according to the Bible along with a list of others who make it a general practice to commit those types of sins. I hope this all makes sense. It is the truth and it is new and is part of the mysteries revealed in the end times and I’m not the only one that God’s shown this to. Blessings!
I wouldn’t call myself a “Bible theologian” as you would, I’m simply someone who has actually read the Bible and studied it for 20+ years.
Let’s start at the beginning.
1. “The defensive warfare in the Koran is also found similarly in the Bible and should not be condemned.”
This is a false statement that is easily rejected through word for word quotes from the Bible. Christians (literally “little Christ” or follower of Christ) were never taught by Christ to respond to persecution with violence. In fact, they are commanded to “turn the other cheek”, “pray for those who persecute you”, and “if at all possible, live peaceably with all men.” In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel defended themselves as a nation from invasion, but as a religious tenant, you cannot find anywhere in the Bible that God permits the use of violence to defend religion.
2. “We see that Christ sinned or evidence that He was not holy in 4 places in Scripture”
Another false and misleading statement.
Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” What is sinful here? It’s a prophecy predicting that Christ will be the son of both God and Man. Man and God in one body. There is no sin here, just immaculate conception.
Matt 19. Show me where Christ sinned in this chapter. I submit that you cannot.
3. “Christ called the Pharisees dirty as wrotten sepulchres on the inside and violated the holy command: let no unclean thing come out of your mouth.”
Another misleading statement. When quoting Christ, you really should try using context instead of quoting just enough to try and make your point. In the case you are referring, he was using an analogy to illustrate the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who tried to look good on the outside but inside were rotten, prideful, arrogant, sinners. By calling them “whitewashed tombs” he was implying that they look good on the outside, but are really dead inside. As to his commandment, if speaking the truth about the hypocrisy of religious leaders is considered dirty, than you have a very unusual view of what constitutes unwholesome talk. It is very clear Christ was referring to foul language, dirty jokes, foolish speech, and other such obvious things.
4. “The fourth is when Christ went into the temple overturning the moneychangers tables, he did not go in calling them little buttercups or he would have suppressed his anger and it would have led to mental illness.”
Another false statement. Christ did nothing in his anger to sin. There is no place in the Bible in which anger is a sin. It is a natural emotion. What we do in our anger can be sin. But for Jesus to call the money changers, “thieves” and “vipers” in no way constitutes a sin. Again, the temple was His father house, he had every right to cleans it, we see no evidence that he use any inappropriate or foul language or even reacted with physical violence towards any individual. Again, where is the sin here?
5. “Christ always chose the lesser of two sin paths when He committed these types of sins. “
I would direct your attention towards Philippians 2:5-11, Hebrews 2:9-18, 4:14-16 (with verse 15 being of interest)and 5:8,9. All of these verses directly contradict your statement that Jesus sinned the lesser of two sins.
6. “For him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. ...is the Biblical definition of sin.”
1 John 3:4-9 “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
So, lawlessness is the definition of sin, and as is explained in these verses, there is no such thing as small sin and big sin. It’s all sin. Christ did not sin, and did not practice the “lesser of two evils”. His who purpose was to be a perfect sacrifice and so by nature could not have had even a hint of evil in Him.
7. “There is a Trinity but it does not include Chirst as he was not holy”
I honestly do not get where this comes from. We’ve already established that Christ was actually holy and perfect. You cannot provide for me a place in the scripture that states that Christ is not part of the Trinity. It simply does not exist because it states specifically that he is. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Son...see it?
8. “The Trinity includes, God, the Spirit, and the Word (logos, in the Greek). Christ and the Word are not the same in John 1:1.”
Nice, logos, toss in a few Greek terms here and there and people think you’re a scholar. Let’s read John 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, He was in the beginning with God.” The Greek is very clear in what is is saying. There is no evidence in the original text that the term, “the Word was God” implies anything but what it says. The Word and God were one and the same. The Greek word Logos was used in many places in the New Testament to reference Christ.
9. “He was specifically referring to the physical location of the Father. He was not referring to exclusivity regarding the doctrine of salvation.”
Right, because taking what he said literally doesn’t prove your point. Instead we have to make an assumption based on silence in the Bible even though the Bible repeatedly states that only by confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Muslims do not do this), and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead (they don’t do this either) you will be saved. You like Greek words, so lets check out the word for “the way”. It is hodos and is used commonly in the Greek to mean, a channel or means of achieving something. Continuing on we look at the Greek for “through” which is deeah and means again, to achieve a goal. These terms are used very often to imply not a literal road, but a figurative means to achieve a goal. Thomas’ question simply shows the lack of understanding he had for spiritual matters because he just assumes Christ is only referring to a physical place. But, the Bible makes it very clear over and over again that salvation comes only through the sacrifice of Jesus, belief that he is the one true God and the giving of oneself to his service.
10. “The peace-loving Muslims are saved because they have faith in God and believe in good works as a bi-product of their true faith, just like God teaches in the Bible”
I won’t comment on the “peace-loving” part because this comment is attached to a wonderful article about that. But, the Bible does not teach that faith in God is what saves you. In fact it says the opposite. The book of James talks about how even the demons believe in God but that does not save anyone. They even have faith that he is who he says he is. The Bible teaches that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Muslims do not believe this and do not make Jesus their Lord. According to the Bible, they will not be saved.
11. “the Koran is God inspired”
For a man who seems to enjoy logic, you don’t use it much. If the Koran, as this article proves, contradicts the very core values of the scripture: that Jesus and God are one, that Jesus is the ONLY way to salvation, that Jesus was a perfect man who was born of the spirit, raised from the dead and is alive today, that apart from making Jesus your Lord there is no salvation and that the things Muhammad taught were sinful, then how can the Koran be God inspired? As the Bible says, he is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” No, God did not suddenly change his mind about salvation when the Koran was written.
12. Lots of claims about the end times.
None of which you have any actual proof of and are simply making theoretical statements because taking the scriptures literally doesn’t fit your worldview.
What we do know about the end times is this. (Phil 2:10,)”that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Not Allah, not Muhammad or anyone else. Jesus. An exact contradiction to the salvation message of Islam. The scriptures describe an end times in which those who do not follow Jesus, repent of their sin, turn from their ways and then and only then do they worship Jesus as the Lord of all the earth and the only way to salvation.
Although I do not believe it exists, I would encourage you to provide us with scriptural documentation of this “third testament” you seem to think will appear. It’s not in the Bible I have.
13. “The murdering radical extremists can not be saved because muderers cannot enter into the kindom of heaven according to the Bible along with a list of others who make it a general practice to commit those types of sins.”
They can be saved. Seriously, think about this logically. Saul who became Paul, murdered, persecuted and did all the same things to Christians as Islamic extremists and yet was saved, has his life changed, and became one of the most powerful preachers, teachers and missionaries history has ever seen. In fact, he wrote a majority of the books you reference in your arguments. The scripture says, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” (1 Tim 2:4-6)
Sin is sin, impurity is impurity. Christ cares not for the type of sin, He only cares that you confess your sin, repent of your sin, make Him Lord of your life, and follow Him. Sure, an unrepentant murderer won’t go to heaven, but neither will an unrepentant person who doesn’t honor their father or mother. It’s all sin.
Lastly I would leave those who read this comment with the following verses from Matthew 7
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “So then, you will know them by their fruits. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
Muhammad was one of the mentioned false prophets. He taught a theology that as this article explained, directly contradicted the teachings of Christ in the Bible. He lead millions astray and it breaks my heart to think of all the lost souls he deceived with his lies.
Do not take what I have posted here as truth, instead research for yourself. Don’t just take what other people say. Everyone, like the comment I have replied to, has their own agenda they want to spread. Read the Bible yourself in context. If you’re confused about something it says, it is very easy to access translations of the original languages to find out exactly what it says. Greek is a very precise language that means exactly what it means, it’s not hard. Take the Bible for what it actually says, not what people think it says or what it to say. There is a very good reason the words that were chosen were used.
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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Synthesis and electrochemical properties of spinel LiMn1.95M(x)O(4-y)F(y) for lithium ion batteries.
Spinel phase LiMn1.95M(x)O(4-y)F(y) (M = Co and Y) were prepared by a rheological phase reaction method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, AC impedance, and galvanostatic charge/discharge profile measurement. These results showed that the LiMn1.95M(x)O(4-y)F(y) had better cycling performance than pure LiMn2O4. Among all the doped samples, the LiMn1.95Co0.03Y0.02O3.96F0.04 sample showed the best cycling performance, the initial discharge capacitiy is 129 mAh/g, and the discharge capacity of 124 mAh/g at a rate of 0.5 C after 50 cycles. The loss of its capacity was only 3.4%. The possible reasons for the outstanding electrochemical properties of LiMn1.95Co0.03Y0.02O3.96F0.04 are also discussed.
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Form´at to build
What impact does system formwork have on project duration? What does it cost as a proportion of RCC works? How can formwork failure be avoided?
Is it wise to invest in system formwork? With system formwork enjoying a market share of just 10-15 per cent of the industry, according to Surajit Ray, Managing Director, Ulma Formwork Systems India, many contractors are still stuck on that question despite the known positives.
A faster formwork cycle saves project time and cost to a great extent by enabling early completion and because it can be reused many times.
¨System formwork cuts cycle time by 40-50 per cent,¨ affirms Akhil Kumar Sureka, Managing Director, Sarvome Developers. In days, the slab cycle with MFE formwork would be about six against the traditional slab cycle of 21, according to Ketan Shah, Managing Director, MFE Formwork Technology (I). ¨System formwork facilitates an eight to nine day cycle against a conventional 12 to 14 day cycle,¨ says Shreeniwas Kelkar, Country Product & Marketing Manager, Doka India.
So how does system formwork save time vis-á-vis conventional formwork?
Essentially, it is up to 40 per cent lighter, easier to place, and has fewer components to assemble and de-shutter. ¨We reckon conventional formwork has 38 per cent more ties and four times more props than Doka formwork,¨ says Kelkar. ¨System formwork also saves interest and labour costs while helping to build a brand by ensuring on-time delivery and a better finish than conventional formwork. Doka formwork delivers up to 57 per cent savings over conventional formwork.¨
Different gains
Different kinds of formwork vary in their capacity to impact the speed of execution. ¨As against 14 days for completing the RCC work of one floor of a building with conventional formwork, aluminium formwork like Myvan can cut the time cycle to seven to eight days per floor if other supporting facilities, like the crane for handling and concreting equipment, are on hand,¨ opines Samar Ghoshdastidar, Technical Director, Simplex Infrastructures. ¨Tunnel formwork with its heat control curing system technology can speed up the cycle to even one day.¨
However, not just any formwork has the potential to save time. ¨Only the most appropriate system formwork for a project, when provided for in optimum quantity for the project completion schedule, can help cut up to 30 per cent of project time compared to conventional formwork systems,¨ adds Ray. ¨Other factors impacting the choice of formwork solution and support system are detailed structural analysis, the weight of concrete, pressure exerted by concrete while concreting and the resistance offered by the formwork system.¨
Avoiding formwork failure
In construction, 60 per cent of RCC work failures are caused by formwork collapse, shoring collapse, inadequate shoring and lateral bracing, 8 per cent are owing to premature removal of shore and 18 per cent are because of faulty materials, explains Neeraj Kumar Jha, Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi.
To eliminate fatalities, injuries and business loss from accidents at construction sites, contractors must give formwork its due. Considering it a temporary prop in the construction process can lead to failure.
¨To avoid failures, first and foremost, all the formwork should be properly designed by a competent structural engineer and made as per specification with proper material. Thereafter, it should be erected and maintained under expert supervision during the complete execution of work,¨ affirms Ghoshdastidar. ¨Faulty design and fabrication and poor execution are major reasons for formwork collapse. Mishandling is another reason,¨ agrees Shah. ¨Faulty design, poor quality of formwork and overloading are important reasons for formwork collapse, which the contractor must take care of,¨ echoes Sureka.
Ideally, the design should comply with international standards on strength and deflection parameters. Then, it must be made in a modern facility following stringent quality control procedures.
For instance, to help achieve the desired result without mishaps, MFE deputes a supervisor to the contractor´s site for about eight weeks of training in using formwork, and issues a formwork manual.
Towards greater acceptance
Boopathi is positive about the way the industry is heading. ¨More widespread use of system formwork, greater acceptance of formwork usage methods, improved worker skill levels as a result of proper training, better awareness of safety measures and pre and post concreting inspections are preventing formwork accidents and failures to a large extent,¨ he says.
Build ´x´ floors to recover investment in formwork
How many times do you need to reuse formwork to recover your investment in it? Here´s a back-of-the-envelope calculation from Shreeniwas Kelkar, Country Product & Marketing Manager, Doka India: ¨It takes four similar types of projects to recover the upfront cost of formwork. For instance, a developer investing in formwork of 1,000 sq m for a G+10 structure with 1,000 sq m as floor area would recover the investment after reusing the formwork for three more similar projects. Recovering the cost of formwork is a function of repetition.¨
Formwork vs RCC cost
The cost of formwork as a fraction of the RCC cost varies greatly. Among key influencing factors are the type of structure (commercial, residential, circular tank, nuclear power project, etc), cycle period between successive concrete pours (this determines the quantity of the formwork needed), type of formwork system (crane or manually handled), the investment mode (purchase, buyback or rental) and the type of construction (cast-in-situ or pre-cast segmental), according to Surajit Ray, Managing Director, Ulma Formwork Systems India.
CW polled all respondents on this proportion. Here´s what they say. ¨In general, the cost of the formwork may vary between 3 per cent and 7 per cent of the RCC project cost,¨ adds Ray.
¨System formwork costs 5-6 per cent of total construction cost including safety, depending on the project size, shape, complexity matrix and the number of times the formwork is used,¨ says Shreeniwas Kelkar, Country Product & Marketing Manager, Doka India.
¨Generally, about 8 per cent of total RCC cost is required for formwork,¨ says Samar Ghoshdastidar, Technical Director, Simplex Infrastructures.
¨Formwork makes up about 13 per cent of the total RCC project cost of a 20-storey column-beam-slab type of construction,¨ says Ketan Shah, Managing Director, MFE Formwork Technology (I), with the height of the building and type of structure (all concrete walls or column beam slab with masonry partitions) influencing this proportion.
¨Formwork costs about a third of the overall RCC cost; time-wise it could even take up to 75 per cenr of the total time,¨ said Neeraj Kumar Jha, Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi.
What do contractors look for in formwork?
Contractors look for system formwork made of lightweight materials for easy handling, with fewer loose or small components like locking pins, wedges, etc, says G Boopathi, Manager Civil, Technology Competency Centre, Heavy Civil Infrastructure IC, Larsen & Toubro. ¨We also prefer error-proof systems that can be reused many times and are flexible enough to use for different applications.¨
¨We look for formwork of accurate size and shape as the structural drawing mandates. It should be amendable to be easily and speedily modified to a different size and shape as per the project requirement with minimum wastage,¨ says Samar Ghoshdastidar, Technical Director, Simplex Infrastructures. ¨Formwork joints should be leak-proof to avoid any leakage of cement slurry during compaction of concrete by vibration. Good formwork should retain its original shape, size and other qualities even after many reuses. It should be strong enough to support the concrete and have a smooth inner surface for a good finish.¨
What is proposed development in Un approved colonies like Vasant Vihar Colony Karnal which is in existence since 1987 and No metalled roads,No proper disposal of waste domestic water ,no sewerage System in a colony of population exceeding /around 10000. Lions share of Development of Smart City is diverted into New Projects as mentioned 1100 crores out of 1200 crores announced for 2nd Phase development of Mughal Canal Marketting Project in a city where people are waiting for Basic Amenities of Life Roads , Water Supplies and Sewarage System. I Wish a smart city with healthy citizens which requires providing basic amenities to all.
People are encroaching small width Galies hence no chance to reach in car/trucks that too without pukka Roads.
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Friday, February 25, 2011
A long long time ago in a land called Facebook, I stuck my big toe into the blog pool. I wanted to test the waters amongst my friends so that they could critique me and give me confidence or a big thumbs down. So I wrote stuff and then actually sent it to them until I gained the courage to go big or go home.Lately I've been very busy with my art, kid and everything else and honestly, I'm experiencing Blog Block. So just to keep you people involved with me and to keep the Blog Gods happy, I've decided to create "Flash Back Friday's" and take from my fb archive blog and enter them here...because I can....it's my blog..and if I have time, I will write an updated commentary on it...enjoy or not~
Bye Bye Birdie
Those Freakin' Mockingbirds are at it again!
Why do the neighborhood mockingbirds sing at 4:30 am? I guess Eric had enough of the symphony in the wee hours of the morning. This morning when I came down stairs, I walked into the den and Eric was sitting in the recliner with a smug smile on his face. He asked me,"how'd you sleep'? He has asked me that almost everyday for years so I thought nothing of it until.. he started laughing. Puzzled I asked "OK, what did you do"? He responded, "I shot the bird and I'm going to Hell." What Happened I asked. Well, apparently at dawn he was awaken by our little feathered friend and couldn't go back to sleep, so what does he do....he throws on his robe, finds the Bebe gun(I don't even want to know where it is) and steps outside into the patio. He scopes the skies and there it is. This singing mockingbird is perched on a wire above our storage shed in the back right hand corner of our yard. He sneaks around the shed ( I'm imagining a ninja) positions himself right under it and "BAM", the first shot hit and the bird went down into the neighbors Ivy.
Let me tell you how much I hated these birds. Honestly, I don't care for birds to begin with, but mockingbirds that are out of control are the worst. We have lived here for a bout 14 years and in all that time those damn birds have been out of sync 2 or 3 times. Singing and whistling and carrying on at all hours of the night. It drove us crazy and yes, Eric has sworn to avenge the birds from time to time.
But I was shocked. When he told me, part of me couldn't believe it. I was mortified. The other part was glad....now we can sleep. I still don't know what to think. . It's kinda creepy thinking that a dead bird is in the neighbors bushed because we ( yes I said we, cause I kinda feel part of this too) were selfish and thought that snuffing out a life, although a little birdie life, would make our life a little more comfy. We have Mockingbird blood on our hands! Am I thinking too much? Magnifying it? It's just a bird...one of a gazillion for christ sake! But what if this bird was a mommy bird and had babies? OK, now the babies are gonna die and the thought of that....well, I will try not to think of that. I don't know....Eric has hunted down crickets in the middle of the night too because of lack of sleep. When I questioned him more, he tells me that when he was a kid and at his Uncle's Farm, they shot at birds all the time. Seeing this little scenario kinda makes it clear on how important we value our sleep. It's all about sleep , but then, a bird is dead....sleeping with the fishes so to speak.
Later on I ask him "do you feel bad because you killed a bird? His response...No, why...do you? Well, yes, even though I personally didn't pull the trigger. He laughed thinking this was funny. I believe in Karma I tell him. If I do good, if I help people and make good choices and if I give off good positive energy, then good energy will come to me. I truly believe that....but I think I just took 2 large steps back.
Five hours later, I get in my car on this gorgeous day, ready to run a few errands, I reach for my slammin jam CD that Raquel burned for me and put it in my CD player. Well, it's not workin'. Maybe it's the CD it's self. I reach for my other slammin CD that was purchased from Best Buy....doesn't work. Oh man..my CD player worked yesterday....what happened? .Karma, right? Tomorrow I going to help old ladies cross the street and do whatever else it takes, cuz I am NOT going to Hell.
Update....I didn't go to hell unless you count sitting through Hell Boy II Hell and the Mockingbirds haven't been off since but we expect them to be any time now. Now we are dealing with stray cats....spraying and singing love songs...Uggg!!!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Raquel is up to her usual shenanigans with the FFA and their livestock. She is currently pioneering the Dairy Goat Program at her school and has successfully bred, raised and cared for 2 milking goats...sisters Zanzibar and Asha.
Last Monday, Valentines Day, after Raquel and a few chosen friends camped out at the school farm all weekend, Zanizibar's kids were born. Diana, the goat angel that loaned out the goats and Raquel, assisted in the birth, which took roughly 3 hours.
Raquel and Zanzibar before Valentines Day
Baby boy #1
and baby boy #2...hiding behind momma
and the both of them together with their mommy. They look like little calves because of their coloring. Raquel was so happy and proud and this whole week was spent having lunch with her boys...sitting in the pen and just hangin' out.
So Congrats to Raquel and Congrats to me, although I would still welcome a grand daughter at some point...I'm Just Sayin'
...btw, this guy (smalls) is still around weighing in at about 1,000 lbs and is coming along nicely thank you~
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
You might remember that I was trying to read whatever Raquel was reading in her junior year last year and I did pretty good, but this year is a different story, pun totally intended.Seems she's read a couple of book that the library had on hand and when the assignment was over, she had to give them back. Although I will wait for the next classic, I have acquired a few books of my own.
I just finished " Life" written by Keith Richards and yes surprise surprise he's still alive to tell his story. Although I am a Rolling Stone fan, having seen them once in concert and own a couple of CDs, I am more interested in their life than their music...particularly Keith's life.Ya know, the bad boy of rock and roll, the dangerous and mysterious one with either a ciggy hangin' from his guitar or mouth as he played lead with the notorious Stones.
First of all, I was under the assumption that he was too stoned to write a book so I was curious as to what he was gonna write....wrong! He's been clean for over 30 years...he just looks like death warmed over. And with me assuming that he's not in his right mind, I was wondering how he was going to remember anything...wrong again! He remembers everything, from his boyhood days to what clothes he wore on what day to song writing and everything in between. I was pleasantly surprised and a yes, a lot shocked at some of his antics and although I did expect some naughtiness, I'm am shocked to say the least, that this cat is still alive....btw, he's shocked too!
Some interesting facts....He's an only child, been married twice, the 2nd time over 30 years, had 5 children, 1 died of crib death, broken numerous bones and the most interesting fact to me....he and mick Jagger have written 99% of their music. Now why did I think that someone else wrote all those Classic Stone songs? Maybe because I assumed Keith Richards was either, too stoned or too drunk or just plain incompetent to write lyrics.....Boy was I wrong! He's pretty much a very intelligen guy. He taught himself how to play guitar at age 9 and started writing music in his early teens. He and Mick, when they're talking to each other, have co written almost every Stone song since day one. He's bright, witty and very articulate and a romantic as he also didn't sleep around so much as you would think....hmmmm, he likes to cuddle....lol
So I guess it's true when people say, "you can't judge a book by it's cover" We shall see, I am now reading "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama. Yeah, I know, I went from the ridicules to the sublime...lol I'm just Sayin'
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At Arizona Mosque Christ Follower Explains Christian Zionism
17Jul
We Hold These Truths representatives have been invited to speak at numerous mosques about our Christian ministry that challenges Christian Zionism, a form of Neo-Christianity that is less than 150 years old. Christian Zionists hold fast to the belief that the modern state of Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. In 2012, Tom Compton of We Hold These Truths was invited to make a presentation at the Al-Mahdi Islamic Center in Tempe, Arizona for their International Day of Al Quds (Jerusalem) program. An audio recording was made of the PowerPoint presentation. In this video version, the original audio recording was used using additional photos and videos to bring the challenges being made to Christian Zionism, up to date. For background on the subject, our award winning documentary, "Christian Zionism: The Tragedy & The Turning, Part I" exposes Christian Zionism's false theology. We are encouraged to see that there is a very gradual turning away from Christian Zionism and a greater awareness of this Un-Christ like theology. 28 minutes.
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My Town: Oakland
Daniel J. Willis: Oakland officials need to stop making up statistics out of thin air
By Daniel J. Willis Oakland Tribune My Word
Posted:
01/17/2013 10:48:55 AM PST
Updated:
01/19/2013 11:53:03 AM PST
Oakland city officials have once again proved that their definition of "90 percent" is "an unknown percentage between 0 and 100, but probably not 90."
Police Chief Howard Jordan said Monday that 90 percent of the city's crime since summer had been committed by just two gangs. That would have meant those two gangs were responsible for 1,980 robberies and 51 homicides, which would have required them to be either extremely large or extremely efficient.
Those figures, of course, did not last long. By the end of Tuesday, Jordan claimed that he got confused -- which raises its own set of issues about a police chief who gets confused and makes up numbers at a news conference -- and what he meant was that 14 gangs were responsible for 65 percent of 58 percent of homicides.
OK, 37.7 percent is not 90 percent and, more important, 2.7 percent of the city's violence per gang is not 45 percent of the city's violence per gang.
By itself this would be bad but it's the second appearance of the imaginary 90 percent in the city's recent history. Mayor Jean Quan's 100 Blocks program was originally based on the premise that, according to the mayor, 90 percent of crime occurred in 100 blocks of Oakland. The real number turned out to be 17 percent.
How could this be? How could the leadership of the eighth-largest city in California be that fast and loose with facts when justifying policies to the people they serve? Do they simply consider truthful, correct information to be unimportant?
Advertisement
"The exact percentage isn't as important as the fact that these two groups are responsible for a huge percentage of the violence that's plaguing the city," Sean Maher, spokesman for the mayor, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "The exact figure isn't as important as what we're going to do to stop them."
Oh. So yes, then. They simply consider truthful, correct information to be unimportant.
The exact percentage is absolutely crucial, more so than anything else, because the exact percentage determines the best course of action for solving the problem.
Imagine your doctor told you, "The exact figures for your blood pressure and cholesterol aren't as important as what we're going to do to stop your heart attacks." That wouldn't exactly instill you with confidence, right? Because it doesn't take a medical license to know that diagnosing a condition requires correct information about the patient.
Crime prevention works the same way. If two gangs are responsible for 45 percent of the city's crime each, it makes a lot of sense to call in the FBI, the National Guard and anyone else short of the Avengers to stop those two gangs, since doing so would turn Oakland into a peaceful utopia. But if stopping 14 gangs prevents 2.7 percent of violence each, over half the city's violence will still be there when you're done. So it may not be wise to commit that much of the city's limited resources to just the one plan.
But what if that number-phobic doctor really, really wants to perform open-heart surgery? Maybe in the hopes of getting re-elected or not being taken over by the FBI? He or she could just tell you that your blood pressure is 10,000 over 700 and scare you into it without the information necessarily being, strictly speaking, true. Sure you may die on the table, but what's the alternative? Research? Math?
That's what Jordan, Quan, Maher and the rest of City Hall are doing. They're feeding Oakland numbers they made up on the spot to convince the people of the city to back their proposals without giving them the opportunity to make a fair assessment of the idea's merit.
They need to stop. They need to understand that the exact percentage is important, if only in the name of honesty. Because if they don't start being truthful and giving the people they serve factual information, Oakland could die on the table.
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Q:
Why changing the status code after writing to the body returns 504?
In ASP.NET 5 I've seem that the following code gives an error 504 in the response:
public class Startup
{
public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app)
{
app.Use((next) => {
return async (context) => {
context.Response.StatusCode = 200;
await context.Response.WriteAsync("Hello World");
context.Response.StatusCode = 201;
await context.Response.WriteAsync("Status code changed");
};
});
}
}
I know we shouldn't change the status code in this arbitrary manner, but my question here is: why changing it gives a problem? The fact is that, commenting the line that changes the status code, and using Response.WriteAsync twice, doesn't give any kind of problem, but changing the status code gives.
When we do it this returns a 504 status code. I believe it has to do with the way the response is sent to the client. It happens because when we call Respose.WriteAsync the response message starts being sent already? What's the reason for this error to occur?
A:
Headers are sent the moment content is written to the response body stream and so you cannot change the headers again...so if you are setting the status code again, then probably an exception is being thrown in the middleware to indicate this...
BTW this exception would cause the 504 that you are seeing(like currently there is no response buffering layer which could catch these kind of exceptions and returns a 500 Internal Server with an error message)...you can put a try-catch block to capture the exception message and see what it says..
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Q:
Prove that there exists rational numbers $x$ such that $\sqrt{x + 2016}$ and $\sqrt{x + 2017}$ are also rational
I need to know if my solution is correct. Here is how I did it:
By substituting $x + 2016$ with $t$, our problem reduces to proving that there exists $t \in \mathbb{Q}$ such that $\sqrt t$ and $\sqrt {t + 1}$ are rational numbers.
Let $t = \frac{m^2}{n^2}$, where $m, n \in \mathbb{Z}$. By putting this in $t + 1$, we get $t + 1 = \frac{m^2 + n^2}{n^2}$.
By knowing that $m^2 + n^2 = p^2$, where $m, n, p \in \mathbb{Z}$ has infinite solutions, we are done.
A:
It's the correct proof.
But minimal correct proof is (x = -2016)
A:
Yes, this is correct: $\displaystyle t:=(\frac{m}{n})^2$ => $\displaystyle t+1:=\frac{m^2+n^2}{n^2}$ .
But then set e.g. $m:=a^2-b^2$ and $n:=2ab$ so that you get
$\displaystyle t=(\frac{a^2-b^2}{2ab})^2$ and $\enspace\displaystyle t+1=(\frac{a^2+b^2}{2ab})^2$ .
An example with positive $x$ :
$a:=90$ , $b:=1\enspace$ => $\enspace\displaystyle x=\frac{275401}{180^2}$
with $\enspace\displaystyle \sqrt{x+2016}=\frac{8099}{180}\enspace$ and $\enspace\displaystyle \sqrt{x+2017}=\frac{8101}{180}$
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Case: 12-10257 Document: 00512329564 Page: 1 Date Filed: 08/02/2013
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
FILED
August 2, 2013
No. 12-10257
Summary Calendar Lyle W. Cayce
Clerk
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee
v.
VICTOR MORALES-ARELLANO,
Defendant-Appellant
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Texas
USDC No. 7:11-CR-13-1
Before REAVLEY, JONES, and PRADO, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:*
Victor Morales-Arellano pleaded guilty to one count of illegal reentry and
was sentenced to 96 months in prison to be followed by two years of supervised
release. He now appeals, challenging the imposition of a 16-level enhancement
under U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 for a prior conviction of a crime of violence and the
imposition of a supervised release term. For the following reasons, we affirm.
Morales-Arellano first contends that his prior offense of deadly conduct
under Texas law did not constitute a crime of violence. As he did not object to
*
Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not
be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR.
R. 47.5.4.
Case: 12-10257 Document: 00512329564 Page: 2 Date Filed: 08/02/2013
No. 12-10257
the enhancement on this basis in the district court, we review for plain error
under the familiar four-pronged standard. See Puckett v. United States, 556 U.S.
129, 135 (2009); United States v. Mondragon-Santiago, 564 F.3d 357, 361 (5th
Cir. 2009). The Government concedes that there was error and that it was clear
or obvious, the first two prongs. Although that concession is not binding, see
United States v. Hope, 545 F.3d 293, 295 (5th Cir. 2008), we agree with the
Government. Morales-Arellano was convicted of an offense under § 22.05(b)(2)
of the Texas Penal Code, and such an offense is not a crime of violence because
it lacks the required element of use, attempted use, or threatened use of force
against the person of another. See United States v. Hernandez-Rodriguez, 467
F.3d 492, 495 (5th Cir. 2006); see also United States v. Cabrera, 478 F. App’x 204,
206 (5th Cir. 2012).
Nevertheless, the error did not affect Morales-Arellano’s substantial
rights, the third prong of the plain error test. After considering the statutory
factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and noting Morales-Arellano’s prior
deportations and his criminal history–which included two drug convictions, an
attempted illegal reentry, and the deadly conduct conviction–the district court
concluded that the sentence would protect the public, provide just punishment,
and afford adequate deterrence. In the statement of reasons, the court said that
even if the guidelines calculations were incorrect, the sentence was the one it
would impose. Under these circumstances, there is not a reasonable probability
that, but for the error in applying the Guidelines, the court would have imposed
a lesser sentence. See United States v. Dickson, 632 F.3d 186, 191 (5th Cir.
2011).
In his second point of error, Morales-Arellano contends that the district
court erred by imposing a term of supervised release in light of U.S.S.G.
§ 5D1.1(c). That subsection was added to § 5D1.1 effective November 1, 2011,
and provides that a court ordinarily should not impose supervised release in the
case of a deportable alien who is likely to be deported. Although this provision
2
Case: 12-10257 Document: 00512329564 Page: 3 Date Filed: 08/02/2013
No. 12-10257
is hortatory rather than mandatory, we have held that courts should not impose
supervised release absent a determination that it would “provide an added
measure of deterrence and protection based on the facts and circumstances of a
particular case.” United States v. Dominguez-Alvarado, 695 F.3d 324, 327-28
(5th Cir. 2012). Morales-Arellano asserts that the district court failed to make
the required determination. Again, because Morales-Arellano did not object, we
review for plain error. See id. at 328.
Although the record does not indicate that the district court took
§ 5D1.1(c) into consideration, we conclude that any error does not require
reversal. The district court noted Morales-Arellano’s criminal history when
imposing sentence and said that the sentence would provide deterrence and
protect the public. Even without any explanation by the court, Morales-
Arellano’s criminal history would have justified the imposition of supervised
release. See United States v. Cancino-Trinidad, 710 F.3d 601, 604, 606-07 (5th
Cir. 2013). Thus, Morales-Arellano’s substantial rights were not affected. See
id. at 607. In addition, we conclude on the facts of this case that any error would
not warrant the exercise of our discretion to correct it. See id. at 607 n.11.
The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
3
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There is presently a desire to achieve higher precision and higher density in semiconductor sealing materials, underfill materials, sealants, adhesives, insulating materials, solder masks, and dry films for the purpose of reducing the size and the weight of portable equipment and increasing communication speed. Under these circumstances, there is a desire for the materials having properties such as higher stability, flowability, and heat resistance. There is also a desire to develop a method for producing a curing catalyst in particulate form usable for a composition constituting the materials.
Conventionally, there have been reported many methods for preparing particulates (microcapsules) composed of a core material and a polymer material coating the core material. The known methods use a dispersion system such as an emulsion polymerization method, a suspension polymerization method, an interface reaction method, or a submerged drying method. These methods have advantages such that no special equipment is required, the size of particulates is easy to adjust to some degree, and the properties and the structures of particulate membranes can be controlled. Thus, the methods are utilized in various fields, for example, in practical use for pressure sensitive copying papers, pressure measurement sheets, pressure sensitive adhesives, liquid crystal display materials, controlled release pharmaceuticals, and controlled release agricultural chemicals.
The conventional production methods, however, have a tendency that only components of particulates according to each method are applicable for producing more uniform particulates. This causes a problem of narrowing the scope of selection of components. In addition, the properties of particulates to be obtained considerably depend on parameters of particulate size and membrane thickness (the diameter and the thickness of a wall membrane) of particulates. Therefore, in order to make particulates to have excellent properties uniformly, it is necessary to control the particulate size and membrane thickness within a proper range. However, particulates are conventionally produced by techniques such as forming lumps of core materials in a liquid by dispersion using a dispersing agent and stirring. In employing this production method, the particulate size and membrane thickness of microcapsules are controlled by adjusting the rate of stirring or the concentration of a dispersing agent, resulting in variation in both of the particulate size and the membrane thickness. In summary, it is difficult to control microcapsules precisely such that the microcapsules have a desired level of particulate size and membrane thickness, and further make the microcapsules uniform.
In order to overcome the problems, Patent Document 1 discloses a method of producing microcapsules (phase separation method, submerged drying method, interfacial polymerization method, or in situ polymerization method) by ejecting a liquid composition composed of a polymer material to form a membrane and a core material into a solution by an inkjet method. The method is excellent in that the particulate size of microcapsules can be controlled precisely.
The method, however, has a drawback that obtained microcapsules are required to be separated from the liquid into which the composition is ejected. The method has many unsolved industrial and environmental problems such that it takes much time to separate microcapsules having a particulate size on the order of millimeters to nanometers by filtration, and large amounts of a cleaning fluid are required to wash the microcapsules.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2001-232178
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a curing catalyst in particulate form that remains stable and flowable for a long time after a base compound and a curing agent are combined into one pack, and usable for a composition compatible with high performance of present underfill materials, sealants, adhesives, insulating materials, solder masks, or the like. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a curing catalyst in particulate form of which particulate size is controlled precisely and uniformly, and the produced catalyst can be separated and extracted easily.
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Data breach costs will soar to $2T: Juniper
May 15, 2015
HAMPSHIRE, U.K. (5/15/15)--In less than five years, the annual cost of data breaches at the global level will skyrocket to $2.1 trillion, according to recent data from Juniper Research, a U.K.-based market analysis firm.
Driven by the rapid digitization of consumerism, in 2019, data breaches will cost four-times that of the estimated cost for 2015.
Further, despite the emergence of more sophisticated methods used by cybercriminals to target mobile devices, the report found that traditional computing devices will continue to see the highest rate of attack.
“Currently, we aren’t seeing much dangerous mobile or Internet of Things (IoT) malware because it’s not profitable,” said James Moar, the report’s author. “The kind of threats we will see on these devices will be either ransomware, with consumers’ devices locked down until they pay the hackers to use their devices, or as part of botnets, where processing power is harnessed as part of a more lucrative hack. With the absence of a direct payout from IoT hacks, there is little motive for criminals to develop the required tools.”
The report, called “The Future of Cybercrime & Security: Financial and Corporate Threats & Mitigation,” also discusses how professional cybercrime continues to grow, especially with the proliferation of cybercrime products such as malware creation software.
Casual hackers, on the other hand, have been on the decline over the past year.
Additional findings from the report:
Nearly 60% of anticipated data breaches in 2015 will occur in North America, but as other countries across the globe continue to develop that share will drop; and
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High-temperature dilatometer system for measuring the shrinkage kinetics of a liquid-containing ceramic system.
A dilatometer system usable to 1600 degrees C in atmospheres varying from oxidizing to reducing, with or without controlled dew points, is described. The system was optimized to measure the shrinkage of a liquid-containing ceramic material without causing deformation by viscous creep. Shrinkages up to 20% may be measured continuously during a heating cycle.
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Routinely now it is possible to generate an internal clock signal in a memory chip that is synchronized to an external clock signal, as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,340,904, entitled “Method and apparatus for generating an internal clock signal that is synchronized to an external clock signal” of Troy A Manning of Micron Technology, Inc., Boise, Id. Another of Troy Mannings patents, U.S. Pat. No. 6,338,127,entitled “Method and apparatus for resynchronizing a plurality of clock signals used to latch respective digital signals, and memory device using same” filed Aug. 28, 1998 and issued Jan. 8, 2002 describes a computer chip related system that adaptively adjusts the phases of a plurality of internal clock signals, each respective internal clock signal causing a corresponding latch to store a digital signal responsive to the respective internal clock signal. The system includes a plurality of clock control circuits, each clock control circuit controlling the phase of a respective internal clock signal relative to a corresponding external clock signal responsive to a respective phase command signal. Generally, in computer systems of the past represented by IBM's S300 and z900 systems, the clock frequency and phase relationship are fixed among the computer's Central Processor (CP), Storage Controller (SC), Main Storage Controller (MSC) and Memory and memory adjusts to the signals providing this fixed relationship. This design strategy simplifies the design implementation and debug procedure, but has certain limitations resulting which can make it impossible to optimize efficiency of particular elements of the computer system in order to maximize the system performance.
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In the past there were two basically different types of skiing, one known as "downhill" and the other as "cross country" or, alternatively, "touring". Downhill skiing involves negotiating relatively steep slopes and getting up the mountain on some kind of T-bar, chair or gondola-equipped tow. Touring, on the other hand, is generally confined to flatter ground where no tow is required and the skier is free to go more or less wherever he or she wishes. While slight changes in the terrain are encountered, for the most part the hills are nowhere near as steep as found in downhill skiing even on the very easy runs.
As one might expect, not only does the terrain differ but the equipment and the techniques used are quite different from one another. Downhill skiing, for the most part, requires the skier to wear very stiff, high-topped boots made of plastic rather than leather and which allow for very little ankle movement. The skis are wide, especially contoured and cambered, and steel-edged so that the turns can be "carved" even in hard-packed snow. Even the poles are shorter and oftentimes have what is known as "baskets" of different design. Racers even use crooked poles where the baskets come close together behind the back thus cutting down wind resistance. High speeds are commonplance and the equipment permits one to turn quickly and accurately on even bumpy terrain laced with so-called "moguls" carved by expert skiers following the same track and wearing away the snow to produce tracks made up of successive turns, first one way and then another. For all practical purposes, almost no energy is expended in getting from one place to another on the mountain, just in the maneuvering in between.
By way of contrast, in cross country skiing, a great deal of energy is expended in getting where one wishes to go and very little in the turning, jumping and control of one's speed. The technique involves alternately pushing off with one ski and then the other with long gliding strides in between. To facilitate this gliding technique, the boots are very pliable, almost like bedroom slippers and the skis are long and quite narrow to lessen the weight and the resistance. The bindings unlike those used on downhill skis which tightly fasten the whole boot to the ski, are ones which make the connection with the ski only at the tip of the toe, usually with a set of three upstanding pins that fit into corresponding holes in the sole of the boot. The net result is that cross country skis, boots and bindings are ill-suited for downhill skiing because there is so little control that can be transferred from the foot to the ski through the minimal connection between the boot and binding so necessary for performing the proper glide over relatively level terrain.
In recent years, however, an increasing number of skiers have taken to a combination of the two types of skiing where cross country skis are being used in a downhill environment. Unfortunately, for all but the most expert of the skiers, the cross country equipment ordinarily used is totally inadequate to make the turns at a much higher speed on a steep hill that becomes a simple matter for a downhill skier of even minimal skill to execute with downhill equipment. The equipment differences are such that even the technique of executing a turn is unique and cells for what is known as a "telemark" turn to be made on cross country skis where the tip of the trailing ski lies alongside the foot secured to the lead ski which is maneuvered much like a rudder.
A need exists, therefore, for a better way of transferring the turning motion of the foot and ankle to the ski than is presently available without, at the same time, interfering with the forward flexibility so necessary for gliding over relatively flat terrain. Certain high-topped, but stiff-soled, flexible leather boots offer a partial solution to the control problem, however, much needs to be done in terms of a proper binding.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel and improved binding for use with cross country skis that provides the degree of control necessary when skiing steep terrain, yet which retains the flexibility required for gliding over and even up gentle slopes found in relatively flat country.
2. Description of the Related Art
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,734 to Bentley shows a flexible sole plate attached to the ski at the toe with no provision being made, at least in the binding itself, for the heelplate to move relative to the toe plate thus accommodating the fact that they will tend to move closer together as the heel is lifted. The Marker combination downhill and cross country binding shown in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,045, like that of Bentley, makes no provision for the heel connector to move relative to the toepiece when the heel is raised off the soleplate. In the cross country version of Zoor's binding shown in his Patent No. 4,134,603, there is only one transverse axis aboout which the heel lifts and it is forwardly of the toe. There is no axis of pivotal movement under the ball of the foot. Parish's U.S. Pat. No. 2,094,667, on the other hand, shows a transverse axis at the ball of the foot and none at the toe. It appears that the distance separating the heel connection and the aforementioned axis of pivotal movement remains fixed.
Swensen's binding shown in his Patent No. 2,758,846 allows the skier to shift the transverse hinge axis forwardly underneath the ball of the foot for touring and back underneath the heel for downhill skiing where the boot should not raise off the ski. Once adjusted, however, the tongue interconnecting the heel and toe pieces apparently does not move thus maintaining a fixed separation therebetween. The Kubelka et al Patent No. 4,050,716 employs a specially-designed two part ski boot in which the base portion is pinned by means of a transversely-extending pair of pins to a baseplate set on the ski. When used in the cross country mode, the heel connection to the boots ankle-encircling cuff is disconnected and the boot is permitted to rock forward to a limited degree about the single axis of pivotal movement defined by these pins. It appears that the cuff can also pivot relative to the toe-engaging portion of the boot about an axis at about the skier's ankle bone thus providing a second axis of pivotal movement located behind the first but forming no part of the binding.
The Loughney Patent No. 4,322,090 shows a combination downhill, cross country and so-called "alpine touring" ski binding which in the cross country or alpine touring mode functions much like that of the Zoor patent previously described in that the soleplate attached to the boot lifts and pivots about a single axis at the toe. Of all the prior art patents known to applicant, the closest would appear to be that of Hausleithner No. 4,088,342 which also shows a combination cross country and downhill binding, but one having two transverse axes of pivotal movement, one at the toe and a second in the area of the ball of the foot. The spacing between the aforementioned second axis of pivotal movement and the heelpiece, while adjustable, appears to remain fixed once adjusted to accommodate the skier's boot. No provision is made for yieldably elongating the portion of the binding between this second axis of pivotal movement and the heelpiece as the boot bends at the ball of the foot nor does it appear to be necessary in that the boot does not appear to bend in this area, but rather, be of the stiff-soled downhill type.
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New Tomatoes Mimic Actions of Good Cholesterol
UCLA researchers have genetically engineered tomatoes to produce a peptide that mimics the actions of good cholesterol when consumed.
Published in the April issue of the Journal of Lipid Research and featured on the cover, their early study found that mice that were fed these tomatoes in freeze-dried, ground form had less inflammation and plaque build-up in their arteries.
"This is one of the first examples of a peptide that acts like the main protein in good cholesterol and can be delivered by simply eating the plant," says senior author Alan Fogelman, executive chair of the department of medicine and director of the atherosclerosis research unit at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "There was no need to isolate or purify the peptide — it was fully active after the plant was eaten."
After the tomatoes were eaten, the peptide surprisingly was found to be active in the small intestine but not in the blood, suggesting that targeting the small intestine may be a new strategy to prevent diet-induced atherosclerosis, the plaque-based disease of the arteries that can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Specifically for the study, the team genetically engineered tomatoes to produce 6F, a small peptide that mimics the action of apoA-1, the chief protein in high-density lipoprotein (HDL or "good" cholesterol). Scientists fed the tomatoes to mice that lacked the ability to remove low-density lipoprotein (LDL or "bad" cholesterol) from their blood and readily developed inflammation and atherosclerosis when consuming a high-fat diet.
The researchers found that mice that ate the peptide-enhanced tomatoes, which accounted for 2.2 percent of their Western-style, high-fat diet, had significantly lower levels of inflammation; higher paraoxonase activity, an antioxidant enzyme associated with good cholesterol; higher levels of good cholesterol; decreased lysophosphatidic acid, a tumor- promoter that accelerates plaque build-up in the arteries in animal models; and less atherosclerotic plaque.
Several hours after the mice finished eating, the intact peptide was found in the small intestine, but no intact peptide was found in the blood. According to researchers, this strongly suggests that the peptide acted in the small intestine and was then degraded to natural amino acids before being absorbed into the blood, as is the case with the other peptides and proteins in the tomato.
"It seems likely that the mechanism of action of the peptide-enhanced tomatoes involves altering lipid metabolism in the intestine, which positively impacts cholesterol," says the study's corresponding author, Srinavasa Reddy, a UCLA professor of medicine and of molecular and medical pharmacology.
Previous studies performed by Fogelman's lab and other researchers around the world in animal models of disease have suggested that a large number of conditions with an inflammatory component — not just atherosclerosis — might benefit from treatment with an apoA-1 mimetic peptide, including Alzheimer's disease, ovarian and colon cancer, diabetes, asthma and other disorders.
The immune system normally triggers an inflammatory response to an acute event such as injury or infection, which is part of the natural course of healing. But with many chronic diseases, inflammation becomes an abnormal, ongoing process with long-lasting deleterious effects in the body.
If the work in animal models applies to humans, says Fogelman, consuming forms of genetically modified foods that contain apoA-1–related peptides could potentially help improve these conditions.
The peptide would be considered a drug if given by injection or in a purified pill form, but when it is a part of the fruit of a plant, it may be no different from a safety standpoint than the food in which it is contained — and it may be better tolerated than a drug, Fogelman says. He notes that one possibility could be the development of the peptide into a nutritional supplement.
The current study and findings resulted from years of detective work in searching for an apoA-1 peptide that could be practically produced. Peptides prior to the current 6F version have required additions that can only be made by chemical synthesis. The 6F peptide does not require these additions and can therefore be produced by genetically engineering plants.
The team chose a fruit — the tomato — that could be eaten without requiring cooking that might break down the peptide. The researchers were able to successfully genetically express the peptide in tomato plants, and the ripened fruit was then freeze-dried and ground into powder for use in the study.
"This is one of the first examples in translational research using an edible plant as a delivery vehicle for a new approach to cholesterol," says Judith Gasson, a professor of medicine and biological chemistry, director of UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and senior associate dean for research at the Geffen School of Medicine. "We will be closely watching this novel research to see if these early studies lead to human trials."
In addition, Gasson notes that this early finding and future studies may yield important and fundamental knowledge about the role of the intestine in diet-induced inflammation and atherosclerosis.
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Mar 27, 2020 · At G20 summit, Narendra Modi calls for a stronger WHO to fight coronavirus, say reports. Modi also said international bodies like WHO were set ...
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Copyright (C) 2013 The Android Open Source Project
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
-->
<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:xliff="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.2">
<string name="title_save" msgid="2433679664882857999">"Simpan ke"</string>
<string name="menu_create_dir" msgid="5947289605844398389">"Buat folder"</string>
<string name="menu_grid" msgid="6878021334497835259">"Paparan grid"</string>
<string name="menu_list" msgid="7279285939892417279">"Paparan senarai"</string>
<string name="menu_sort" msgid="7677740407158414452">"Isih mengikut"</string>
<string name="menu_search" msgid="3816712084502856974">"Cari"</string>
<string name="menu_settings" msgid="6008033148948428823">"Tetapan"</string>
<string name="menu_open" msgid="432922957274920903">"Buka"</string>
<string name="menu_save" msgid="2394743337684426338">"Simpan"</string>
<string name="menu_share" msgid="3075149983979628146">"Kongsi"</string>
<string name="menu_delete" msgid="8138799623850614177">"Padam"</string>
<string name="menu_select" msgid="8711270657353563424">"Pilih \"<xliff:g id="DIRECTORY">^1</xliff:g>\""</string>
<string name="mode_selected_count" msgid="459111894725594625">"<xliff:g id="COUNT">%1$d</xliff:g> dipilih"</string>
<string name="sort_name" msgid="9183560467917256779">"Mengikut nama"</string>
<string name="sort_date" msgid="586080032956151448">"Diubah suai mengikut tarikh"</string>
<string name="sort_size" msgid="3350681319735474741">"Mengikut saiz"</string>
<string name="drawer_open" msgid="4545466532430226949">"Tunjukkan akar"</string>
<string name="drawer_close" msgid="7602734368552123318">"Sembunyikan akar"</string>
<string name="save_error" msgid="6167009778003223664">"Gagal menyimpan dokumen"</string>
<string name="create_error" msgid="3735649141335444215">"Gagal membuat folder"</string>
<string name="query_error" msgid="1222448261663503501">"Gagal menanyakan dokumen"</string>
<string name="root_recent" msgid="4470053704320518133">"Terbaharu"</string>
<string name="root_available_bytes" msgid="8568452858617033281">"<xliff:g id="SIZE">%1$s</xliff:g> kosong"</string>
<string name="empty" msgid="7858882803708117596">"Tiada item"</string>
<string name="toast_no_application" msgid="1339885974067891667">"Tidak dapat membuka fail"</string>
<string name="toast_failed_delete" msgid="2180678019407244069">"Tidak dapat memadam beberapa dokumen"</string>
<string name="share_via" msgid="8966594246261344259">"Kongsi melalui"</string>
</resources>
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Archive for December, 2013
I bet that all of you already got into a situation where you need to retrieve information about your developed objects in ODI, for example: how many interfaces does project X have? What are the model folders that have models shared between projects? What were the objects that were changed during this week and who changed them last? And so on. This information is easily retrieved if you know how ODI metadata is structured in its Work and Master repositories.
Luckily for us, Sonra have published a book on the ODI repository. It is free, but in order to get it, you need to comment about it. I already took a look at the models of some subject areas here so I already know that the book will contain great and useful information about the repositories.
As soon as I receive my copy, I’ll write a brief review about it, but I’m pretty sure that it will be a must to have for those that like to adventure themselves through the ODI repositories tables.
See you soon!
Edited on 12/19/2013
I got my copy of the book yesterday and I was right: it is a must to have! Great work from Sonra! The book contains models of several subject areas, very useful queries for daily/clean up tasks like: Unused Physical schemas, unused logical schemas, actual mapping of an interface, option values selected for KMs for all interfaces and a lot more! Another great thing are the ODI pictures with the correspondent repository table that contains that information. For example, when you open a Data Server tab, what is the repository table that has that information that you seeing (SNP_CONNECT in this case). It’s not 100% complete, as I missed some tables from Security module and Load Plans, but it covers 95% of your every day work! If you did not get it yet, go and get it ASAP! Thanks again Sonra!
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ASCL.net
Astrophysics Source Code Library
Making codes discoverable since 1999
Searching for codes credited to 'Füglistaler, Andreas'
➥ Tip! Refine or expand your search. Authors are sometimes listed as 'Smith, J. K.' instead of 'Smith, John' so it is useful to search for last names only. Note this is currently a simple phrase search.
loci is a shared library for interpolations in up to 4 dimensions. It is written in C and can be used with C/C++, Python and others. In order to calculate the coefficients of the cubic polynom, only local values are used: The data itself and all combinations of first-order derivatives, i.e. in 2D f_x, f_y and f_xy. This is in contrast to splines, where the coefficients are not calculated using derivatives, but non-local data, which can lead to over-smoothing the result.
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Homeschooling is a unique opportunity to shape your child’s education and pass along your wisdom. But what if your vast pool of knowledge doesn’t extend to a foreign language?
Given the many good reasons to learn a language (and the fact that many colleges require at least 2 years!), it’s likely not something you want to leave out of your homeschool curriculum. Thanks to modern technology, homeschooling in a foreign language can be done effectively and affordably right from your living room.
At Transparent Language, we’ve been working hard to expand the content and capabilities of Transparent Language Online to suit the needs of young homeschoolers learning Spanish or French—and your needs as a parent/teacher, too!
Relevant Content
For elementary-aged homeschoolers, we’ve designed age-appropriate Spanish and French courses. And we don’t just mean that we leave out adult content like “I would like a beer.” All of the words and phrases taught in these Elementary Courses are things a 6-10 year old would actually say. Buying a train ticket? Not so much. Talking about a birthday party or school supplies? There’s a whole lot where that came from.
Both courses are organized into 68 lessons, divided into 3 levels of increasing depth and duration, all appropriate for young, beginner learners. For example, the “Hello” lesson in Level 1 covers a handful of basic greetings, while the “Getting to Know You” lesson in Level 3 expands on those by providing additional salutations and longer phrases. You can have your homeschoolers complete the levels in order, or skip around according to their schedule and skill-levels.
Older learners will enjoy Teen Voices, currently available in Spanish and coming in French in summer 2017. Intended for learners in grades 6+, the Spanish course follows the lives of the Garcia and Gómez families as they face typical situations like school days, chores and responsibilities, job shadowing, and organizing events. Conversations amongst the family members tie together the 20 units, each of which also includes a challenging reading passage about the Spanish language and Latin American culture.
These courses are supplemented by more than 100 common vocabulary lists, alphabet support, and other vocab- and grammar-related content.
Interactivity
Give your homeschoolers more than just a video to watch or a passage to read! Transparent Language Online is loaded with activities that build all four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing/typing. The activities often mimic matching and memorization games—this makes learning fun but also effective, as learners remember more of what they do than what they just read or see.
This interactivity also builds digital literacy—on a computer, tablet, or phone. Homeschoolers will learn to navigate an online interface, including voice recording and typing activities. In the age of emails and Skype™, learning to type in a language is as important as learning to write it.
Feedback and Reporting
Valuable feedback is essential to learning and developing new skills. Transparent Language Online takes care of much of this for you. Activities like Pronunciation Practice will rate your learners’ pronunciation in real-time, so they know where they need to improve. The Learned Vocab Refresh system also makes it easy to review stale words and phrases so they are never at risk of being forgotten.
Of course, you can get involved in your children’s progress, too! All subscriptions come with not only student accounts for learning, but also a parent account for monitoring. Administration and reporting tools allow you to make sure the work is being done and identify areas in which they are struggling. Free instructor guides and student workbooks help you guide your learners both on and offline. Activity reports, course completion certificates, and assessment score reports provide materials for potential submission to school district administration.
Want to prepare your homeschoolers for the global economy and an increasingly globalized world? Learn more about Transparent Language Online for Homeschool.
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1. Activity
Science Accessibility Net (sAccessNet) is a nonprofit organization to support people with print disability, such as visual impairment or dyslexia, in scientific fields. We hold every two years a jump-to-science summer camp (Jamanese site) to encourage visually impaired highschool students leaning science, and are making school textbooks / science books in accessible formats in braille and multimedia DAISY: http://www.saccessnet.com (Japanese site).
2. Software development and release
sAccessNet cooperates with the research group "InftyProject" to develop software to assist people with print disability and also the people/organization who support them. So far we have released three software applications below:
1. InftyReader (Latest release: Ver.3.1.5.3 on October 22, 2018)
This is OCR software to recognize printed document and PDF in scientific fields including mathematical formulae and tables, and to output the results in various formats: LaTeX source, MathML, IML, as well as in HR-TeX (Human readable TeX) for the blinds. (Japanese version outputs also in Japanese Braille). IML is a XML notation of mathematical document proper to the editor InftyEditor and ChattyInfty.
For more information about InftyReader and download, please click HERE.
2. ChattyInfty (Latest release: Ver.3.2.1k on Oct. 27, 2018)
ChattyInfty is an editor of math documents with voice output, usable by visually impaired people. Not only ordinary texts, but also math expressions can easily be input and edited using only keyboard, with simultaneous speech output of symbols and math structure with key operations and cursor movements.
It is developed by adding speech output interface to "InftyEditor" below, using of Microsoft speech API., SAPI5
Using ChattyInfty Ver.3 series, the edited results can be saves as audio books such as Multimedia DAISY, iBook for iPad, in addition to all the output formats available by InftyEditor.
For more information about ChattyInfty and download, please click HERE.
InftyEditor is an authoring tool of mathematical documents, very easy and smooth to input mathematical expressions.
Using InftyEditor, you can input any math expressions keeping your hand on the HOME Position of your keyboard. The input math expressions are displayed immediately in the form of printing style as you usually see in books. InftyEditor has a strong Online Help of command names or syntax to input math expressions based on LaTeX. Thus, InftyEditor can be used also as a Learning Tool of LaTeX, for the beginners of LaTeX. The documents written in InftyEditor can be saved in different formats: XML of InftyEditor, LaTeX, MathML, HumanReadable TeX for the blinds, PDF, as well as MS Word document. If InftyReader is installed in your PC, you can input texts and math expressions from printed document via scanner into InftyEditor directly.
For more information about InftyEditor and download, please visit the web site of InftyProject.
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NEW YORK (JTA) — The American Civil Liberties Union called on U.S. senators to oppose a measure targeting boycotts of Israel and its settlements.
The Israel Anti-Boycott Act, introduced in March by Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, would expand 1970s-era laws that make illegal compliance with boycotts of Israel sponsored by governments — laws inspired at the time by the Arab League boycott of Israel — to include boycotts backed by international organizations. Those adhering to boycotts would be the subject of fines.
While the measure is aimed at the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, it also targets efforts by the United Nations and the European Union to distinguish products manufactured in Israel from those manufactured in West Bank settlements.
In a letter Monday, the ACLU urged senators not to co-sponsor the measure and to oppose its passage.
“We take no position for or against the effort to boycott Israel or any foreign country, for that matter,” wrote Faiz Shakir, ACLU’s national political director. “However, we do assert that the government cannot, consistent with the First Amendment, punish U.S. persons based solely on their expressed political beliefs.” Shakir added that “the bill would punish businesses and individuals based solely on their point of view. Such a penalty is in direct violation of the First Amendment.”
The measure was drafted with the assistance of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and has the support of Christians United for Israel. It has 42 co-sponsors from both parties. A similar bill has gained 230 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.
Liberal pro-Israel groups have objected in recent years to similar legislation, arguing that boycotting settlements — an action that some liberal Zionists support — should not be wrapped into broader boycotts of Israel, which most of the Jewish community rejects.
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Some people could say that the re View more reviews Photos All photos (20)20 Full view Traveller (13) Dining (4) Room Suite (3) Family and Play Areas (2) Business Centre Event Rooms (1) Questions Answers Get quick answers from Mantan Klubi staff and past guests. Ask Saara M about Mantan Klubi This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC Reviewed 21 November 2016 Delicious food I have eaten at this restaurant probably 10 times and the quality of the food has always been. Hotelli Vanha Manty (Mantta-Vilppula, Finland kauppaneuvoksenkatu 2, Mantta-Vilppula 35800, Finland, show Prices 60 - 175. Submit Posting guidelines Room Tips "I had room 7 and that was a BIG room for a one person." "Please note wehen reserving a room that some of them are not en-suite." "Top floor windows are too high up and with shared bathroom." Is This. Staff was okay, not rude but not smiling either.
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1. Introduction
===============
Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) is an important treatment option for end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Although the rate of peritonitis has declined in recent years because of improvements in the CAPD technique, peritonitis remains a major complication that causes significant morbidity and mortality in ESRD patients on CAPD.^\[[@R1],[@R2]\]^
Halophilic bacteria inhabit a wide range of environments and play important roles in the microbial diversities of saline environments.^\[[@R3]--[@R7]\]^*Halomonas* strains are halophiles usually found in highly saline environments, such as the Dead Sea and the frigid waters of Antarctica.^\[[@R3]--[@R7]\]^ The organisms also exhibit great versatility in terms of their abilities to successfully grow in environments with widely varying temperatures and pH values.
Some renal care centers provide hemodialysis patients with written information stating that hemodialyzers can be contaminated in the bicarbonate used to prepare dialysis fluid, and that bacteria may persist despite cleaning and flushing procedures because machines can become contaminated by biofilms and bicarbonate inflow.^\[[@R9]\]^ However, there have been no previous reports of *Halomonas* infection in ESRD patients on CAPD. Here, we describe the first case report of CAPD-related peritonitis due to *H hamiltonii*.
2. Case report
==============
An 82-year-old male patient who had been receiving CAPD therapy for ∼1 year was admitted because of abdominal pain and turbid peritoneal effluent that persisted for 3 days. The underlying cause of the ESRD was hypertensive nephropathy, and his dialysis treatment consisted of 4 exchanges of 2 L of dialysate daily. The patient had never been on hemodialysis and had been administered peritoneal dialysis after receiving a diagnosis of ESRD. There was no relevant family history, and the patient had no alcohol consumption or smoking history. The patient was a monk who lived in the countryside and used groundwater for toiletry and drinking.
On admission, his blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature were 120/80 mm Hg, 72 beats/min, 19/min, and 36.5°C, respectively. Abdominal examination showed diffuse tenderness; however, the CAPD catheter tunnel was normal, and its exit site was clear. Initial laboratory findings were: leukocytes 4250/mm^3^, hemoglobin 9.5 g/dL, platelets 164,000/mm^3^, sodium 136 mEq/L, potassium 2.9 mEq/L, chloride 100 mEq/L, blood urea nitrogen 33 mg/dL, creatinine 4.6 mg/dL, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) 25 IU/L, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) 10 IU/L, total bilirubin 0.3 mg/dL, total protein 5.4 g/dL, and albumin 2.7 g/dL. The peritoneal dialysate showed CAPD peritonitis; the white blood cell (WBC) count of the peritoneal effluent was 810/mm^3^ and neutrophils predominated (60%) (Fig. [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}).
{#F1}
Two peritoneal dialysate samples were inoculated into BacT/ALERT PF Plus culture bottles (bioMérieux, Marcy-I' Etoile, France) and incubated in a BacT/ALERT 3D Blood Culture System (bioMérieux, Marcy-I' Etoile, France). Immediately after peritoneal dialysate was sent for bacterial culture, the patient was empirically started on an antibiotics regimen consisting of cefazolin and ceftazidime intraperitoneally.
On day 4 after admission and 2 days after culture at 37 °C under 5% CO~2~, the peritoneal dialysate culture showed 2-mm gray-white, nonhemolytic colonies on sheep blood agar (Fig. [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}A), but did not grow on MacConkey\'s agar. Cells were Gram-negative, nonspore-forming rods with a few longer and larger bacilli than usual (Fig. [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}B). The isolate was identified as *Methylobacterium* sp. based on a positive reaction to urease (GN 0000000200000000) as determined by a commercial identification kit (Vitek II system, bioMérieux, Marcy-I' Etoile, France).
{#F2}
The WBC count of the peritoneal fluid was 130/mm^3^ with neutrophils predominant (61%) on day 4 after admission. On day 6 after admission, empirical antibiotic treatment was stopped, after which intraperitoneal (IP) ciprofloxacin and vancomycin were started, even though the patient was improving because the authors believed that caution should be taken in considering the possibility of cephalosporin-resistant organisms until the causative organism is identified. On day 18 after admission, the clinical condition of the patient had entirely recovered, and the peritoneal WBC count was 8/mm^3^. Intraperitoneal treatment was continued for 21 days, and the patient was discharged without any problems (Fig. [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}).
The Vitek 2 (BioMerieux Inc.) automated identification system cannot subdivide *Methylobacterium* sp; therefore, we requested a molecular biological evaluation from Macrogen (Macrogen Inc., Korea) based on DNA isolated from a cultured colony at day 6 after admission. The 16S rRNA gene was sequenced using universal primers (Fig. [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}) and then compared with sequences retrieved from the GenBank, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), and DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) databases. The isolate showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (of 99%) to *H hamiltonii* W1025^T^ (GenBank accession number AM941396). The partial sequence of the 16S rRNA gene of a bacterium detected by peritoneal fluid culture was utilized for a Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) search, which revealed that the organism was *H hamiltonii*. Accordingly, the causative organism was concluded as *H hamiltonii*. These results were received after the patient had been discharged.
{#F3}
3. Discussion
=============
To date, the gold standard for identifying pathogens in peritoneal dialysate is culture, but CAPD-related peritonitis is usually treated empirically. So culture-negative peritonitis often exists and remains a clinical issue with renal care centers. To increase susceptibility to bacterial culture, we use blood culture bottles instead of conventional media. In particular, the pediatric blood culture bottles used at our center enable bacterial cultures to be performed on samples as small as 5 mL. And pediatric blood culture bottle can absorb antibiotics, so bacteria that do not grow well in conventional media grow at high rate. Gram-positive bacteria usually grow in blood agar and Gram-negative bacteria in MacConkey agar. In our case, the Gram-negative bacterium grew in blood agar and not definite in MacConkey agar. Because the bacterium did not grow on this medium, we requested a molecular biological evaluation to enable definitive organism identification, and subsequently, we identified the organism as *H hamiltonii*.
*H hamiltonii* is an aerobic, halophilic, Gram-negative, nonspore-forming rod bacterium, which contains Q-9 as the predominant ubiquinone and C18:1 ω7 c and C16:0 as the major fatty acids.^\[[@R9]\]^ In this study, cultured colonies are circular, smooth, cream-colored, and translucent. Good growth is observed on sheep blood agar. The family *Halomonadaceae* was first described in 1988 by Franzmann et al, ^\[[@R8]\]^ and although most *Halomonas* sp. are commonly found in saline or high-salt environments, it has rarely been implicated as a causative organism in human infections. Moreover, a few cases of infections attributed to hemodialysis, hemodialysis machines, and environmental sources in renal care centers have been reported.^\[[@R9],[@R10],[@R11]\]^
Little is known about the clinical implications of peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis (PD peritonitis) caused by *Halomonas* specie*s*. Antibiotic susceptibility to *H hamiltonii* has been revealed in previous studies. Specifically, Lee et al described the characteristics of *Halomonas*, especially in ESRD patients with maintenance hemodialysis.^\[[@R9],[@R10]\]^ They had previously reported the treatment of *Halomonas-*infected hemodialysis patients. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no *Halomonas*-specific treatment protocol in PD peritonitis. In hemodialysis patients, conventional antibiotics coverage for Gram-negative rod was successful.^\[[@R9]\]^ Moreover, the results of antimicrobial susceptibility tests (ASTs) have been reported.^\[[@R9]\]^ In the present study, we also conducted ASTs of our study specimen using the N224, N225, P600, and P601 cards (bioMérieux) for enterobacteriaceae, nonfermentative Gram-negative bacteria (GNB), enterococci, and staphylococci, respectively (Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}). The results of our study were consistent with those of previous studies.^\[[@R9],[@R10]\]^ In this study, we additionally attempted to conduct microscopic examination of *Halomonas* in peritoneal dialysis fluid. Good growth was observed on blood agar medium, and the biochemical tests for strain characterization revealed negative responses in K/K on the triple sugar iron (TSI) test and H~2~S, a weak positive equivocal response in the motility test, and positive responses to the catalase, oxidase, and urease tests (Fig. [4](#F4){ref-type="fig"}). These strains of *Halomonas* species differ from each in the previous study in terms of having flagella. In our specimen, the motility test is not conclusive. Thus, we performed electron microscopic observation of flagellation in our specimen. We failed to demonstrate that the culture organisms are motile with flagella (Fig. [5](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). In our specimen, we concluded that this Halomonas species has no flagellae and no motility.
######
Antimicrobial susceptibility tests (AST) for *H hamiltonii*.
{#F4}
{#F5}
The patient described in this report was discharged after 21 days of intraperitoneal antibiotic treatment and was later readmitted at our renal care center with CAPD-related peritonitis on October 3rd, 2014. Culture and genetic analyses on this second occasion identified *Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes* as the pathogenic organism. Thus, we concluded that on this second occasion the peritonitis was caused by a different bacterium and that *H hamiltonii* was causative at first admission.
Patients with maintaining PD have reduced immunity and can therefore be infected with bacteria that do not cause problems for healthy individuals, although infections by *Halomonas* are rare. Because peritoneal dialysis patients are susceptible to recurrent bacterial infections, accurate identification of the causative organism is essential, and molecular biological methods can be helpful in this context.
It is often not clear why an causal organism cannot be cultured, and the underlying microbiological characterization is poorly understood.^\[[@R12]\]^ To increase susceptibility to bacterial culture, we used the blood culture bottle-based technique with large volume of effluent as recommended by ISPD 2016 peritonitis guideline in this study. However, in our case, the Gram-negative bacterium seemed to grow in blood agar and appeared not to in MacConkey\'s agar. As a result, molecular biological techniques can be useful for this group of patients. Several studies have shown that the use of molecular biological techniques such as quantitative PCR for bacterial DNA, rRNA amplification by PCR, and so on, can detect and identify bacterial pathogens, thereby increasing diagnosis of CAPD-related peritonitis.^\[[@R13],[@R14]\]^ Moreover, molecular biological analysis could help diagnose culture-negative peritonitis.^\[[@R15]\]^ The patient in the present case was a monk who lived deep in the mountains. Therefore, we collected water from the wells and groundwater that the monk used, and had done culture study. However, we failed to disclose the causative organism, contrary to our expectation. Our institute was founded by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism in the rural area. This case might be interesting report of CAPD-related peritonitis due to *H hamiltonii* whose profession is Buddhist priest, practicing asceticism.
In summary, we provide here the first case report of CAPD-related peritonitis caused by *H hamiltonii*, which was identified using molecular biological techniques. Although guidelines do not exist for the treatment of infections caused by this organism, conventional treatment for Gram-negative organisms could be effective.
Acknowledgments
===============
This study is a retrospective, noninterventional study, and written informed consent was waived. Approval from institutional review board was not necessary, because of case report with fewer 3 patients not requiring additional resource of patient designed to contribute to generalizable medical knowledge under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Abbreviations: ALT = alanine aminotransferase, AST = aminotransferase, BLAST = The Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, CAPD = continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, DDBJ = DNA Data Bank of Japan, EMBL = European Molecular Biology Laboratory, ESRD = end-stage renal disease, GNB = Gram-negative bacteria, HD = hemodialysis, I = Intermediate, IP = intra-peritoneal, ISPD = International Society for Peritoneal Dialysis, PD = peritonial dialysis, R = resistant, S = susceptible, TSI test = triple sugar iron test, WBC = white blood cell.
KDY and JYL contributed equally to this study.
The authors have no funding and conflicts of interest to disclose.
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Mesocarp of Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) as inspiration for new impact resistant materials.
Aiming to produce bioinspired impact and puncture resistant materials, the mesocarp of the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) was characterized. The mesocarp composition was investigated by chemical extraction and its microstructure was analyzed by optical microscopy and microtomography (microCT). A compression test evaluated the force needed to open the mesocarp shell. Shore D hardness testing and nanoindentation measured the local mechanical properties at different length scales. Brazil nut mesocarp has a higher content of lignin (56%) than other nutshells and is mainly composed of sclereids and fibers cells arranged together and not in separated layers as usually found in nature. The mesocarp has an internal and external layer with fibers oriented from peduncle to opercular opening and a middle layer where entangled fibers are latitudinally oriented. To open a Brazil nut mesocarp, compression forces of 10 079 ± 1460 N (parallel to latitudinal section) and 14 785 ± 4050 N (perpendicular to latitudinal section) are needed. Such forces are higher than the forces needed to open most nutshells, if fracture force is normalized by shell thickness. The Shore D hardness test showed that hardness is uniform in the mesocarp, although it is higher in the center of the thickness than close to the inner or outer surface. The cell wall of fibers has a higher reduced modulus than the cell wall of sclereids although they have a similar hardness. These microstructural and mechanical results indicate that Brazil nutshell has great potential as a source for bioinspiration and motivates further studies.
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Impact of Nicotine and Other Stimulants on Sleep in Young Adults.
Sleep problems can have long-term negative consequences. This study explored the relationship of commonly used stimulant substances to poor sleep quality in young adults. We surveyed 498 participants, aged 18 to 25, who reported recent alcohol or marijuana use. Stimulant substances measured included coffee, energy drinks, nonmedical prescription stimulants (NPS), cocaine, and nicotine. Sleep outcomes were measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and its components. Participants averaged 21.3 (±2.07) years of age, 47.8% male, 65.5% non-Latino white, 10.8% African-American, 12.3% Latino, and 11.5% other ethnic origins. In the past 30 days, 24.9% had used cigarettes, 48.1% energy drinks, 17.3% NPS, 79.3% coffee, and 7.9% cocaine. Mean PSQI global score was 6.21 (±3.66, median = 5). After adjusting for background characteristics, PSQI global scores were positively and significantly associated with number of cigarettes/day (b = 0.16, 95% confidence interval 0.07 to 0.25, P < 0.001) and days of NPS (b = 0.10, 95% confidence interval 0.01 to 0.18, P = 0.030). NPS negatively affects sleep, but nicotine is particularly deleterious to sleep quality. Addressing smoking cessation to improve sleep may be a novel way to motivate young adult smokers to quit.
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Maria Thaddäus von Trautmannsdorff
Maria Thaddäus von Trautmannsdorff (28 May 1761 – 20 January 1819) was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
Biography
He was born on May 28, 1761 in Graz. He was ordained as Bishop of Hradec Králové on September 8, 1795. On November 26, 1811, he was elected Archbishop of Olomouc. Due to the imprisonment of Pope Pius VII by Napoleon Bonaparte, papal approval of this decision did not take place until March 15, 1814. On September 23, 1816, he was appointed cardinal.
He died in Vienna on January 20, 1819 and was buried in Olomouc.
References
Category:1761 births
Category:1819 deaths
Category:Bishops of Olomouc
Category:People from Graz
Category:Cardinals (Catholic Church)
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Thomas of Metsoph
Thomas of Metsoph (, Thovma Metsobetsi) (1378–1446) was an Armenian cleric and chronicler who left an account of Timur’s invasions of the Caucasus (1386–1403). What we know of Thomas's life comes from a biography written by his student Kirakos Banaser and from a number of 15th-century colophons.
Biography
Born in Aghiovit, north of Lake Van, Thomas received his early education at the monastery of Metsob, northwest of the city of Arjesh (Erciş in modern Turkey). He had to spend a peripatetic life fleeing the repeated attacks by the Timurid and Turkoman armies. He engaged in teaching and literary activity at several religious centers in Armenian, including Sukhara, Tatev, Lim, and Metsob. He was also involved in the struggle against the influence of Roman Catholicism within the Armenian Church, and helped transfer the Armenian catholicosate from Sis in Cilician Armenia to back to Echmiadzin in Greater Armenia (1441). His major work is The History of Timur and His Successors, which is essentially an eyewitness account written for the most part from memory. Although not flawless, it is an important source for Armenia and Georgia in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The classical Armenian text was published by K. Shahnazarian in Paris in 1860, translated into French by Félix Nève in 1855, and into English by Robert Bedrosian in 1977.
See also
Timur's invasions of Georgia
Turkoman invasions of Georgia
References
External links
English translation of the History of Tamerlane and His Successors
Category:1378 births
Category:1446 deaths
Category:Ethnic Armenian historians
Category:15th-century historians
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New Delhi:
In what could be a big blow for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday announced that his party would contest the 2019 parliamentary elections in Haryana independently. Badal, the former deputy minister of Punjab was addressing a rally in Kurukshetra's Pipli town and urged all Punjabis to unite under the flag of the SAD to script a new history in Haryana.
"Shiromani Akali Dal will contest the 2019 elections independently in Haryana and emerge victoriously," the SAD president said.
"We have promised and delivered in Punjab. Now, we are ready to take up the responsibility of working for the welfare of the people of Haryana. I appeal to Punjabis to unite under the flag of SAD to script a new history in Haryana. No one can stop you from acquiring power once you unite as one with the SAD," Badal added.
Shiromani Akali Dal will contest the 2019 elections independently in Haryana and emerge victorious: Sukhbir Singh Badal, Shiromani Akali Dal President in Kurukshetra, Haryana pic.twitter.com/oXdMwZ5feL — ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2018
Read | Anti-BJP Grand Alliance formed in Uttar Pradesh; Congress-SP-BSP to contest 2019 elections together
Former Punjab cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia and Haryana in-charge Balwinder Singh Bhunder were also present in the rally, which was organised to strengthen Sikh vote bank in and around Kurukshetra.
With the 2019 Parliamentary elections just a few months away, the SAD has also promised to provide free electricity to the agriculture sector, 400 units of free power per month to Dalits and free piped irrigation water in Haryana if voted to power.
Read | Election Commission calls all-party meeting on August 27; EVM issue to dominate
Earlier, SAD forged an alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and used to contest elections in Haryana together. The parties, however, have parted ways a few months back. The Sukhbir Singh party is also part of BJP led NDA, which formed the previous Punjab government in partnership between 2012 and 2017.
For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
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Sudden infant death syndrome in 1992: the known and unknown.
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) continues to be the leading cause of death in infants from one month to one year of age. We present the results to the Fifth Annual Perspectives on SIDS. This program is one component of the educational services of the New Jersey SIDS Resource Center.
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Terrorists or Accidental Tourists? Eleven missing Egyptian students not thought to be terrorists but "to be approached with caution"
The FBI has issued an urgent nationwide alert for 11 Egyptian students who entered the United States last week but failed to show up for their courses at Montana State University.
An FBI advisory says there are, at present, no known connections to any terrorist group but that the students are to be "approached with caution" and taken into custody. They "are here illegally and wanted for questioning," the advisory says.
The advisory comes just over a month before the five-year anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
"This is of very serious concern and is being closely tracked," said Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
The FBI says the Egyptians arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on July 29 and disappeared. The advisory says the alert is nationwide but that there is specific concern the Egyptians may be on the Eastern Seaboard.
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Area high schools big winners
Posted: Thursday, April 29, 2004
By JENNI DILLONPeninsula Clarion
Soldotna High School freshman Marit Hartvigson took top honors at the 14th annual Caring for the Kenai competition Friday night. But Hartvigson was just one of several students who helped make SoHi a big winner in the program.
Caring for the Kenai offers cash prizes to students for their creative ideas for how to protect the environment of the Kenai Peninsula. The program also divides up about $10,000 between schools whose students participate in the program.
This year, Soldotna, Skyview, Nikiski, Seward, Ninilchik and Kenai high schools used CFK as a classroom assignment and each will receive $500 for participating. The remaining $7,000 will be split between the schools based on how their finalists placed in the competition.
Soldotna High was home to not only the first-place winner, but also six other finalists.
Justin Oleson of SoHi took fourth place and a $600 prize for his original environmental calendar.
Alyssa Emery of SoHi placed sixth, winning $300 for her research on generating electricity from the river.
Other finalists from SoHi, who each received $150, included Patrick Moore, who came up with a plan to reduce the use of glycol in plane de-icing; Brittany Howard, who created a home bio-remediation kit; Danielle Stafford, who promoted using oil as a cleaner energy source than wood; Sean Whitmore, who built an oil can draining system to collect extra oil from disposable containers; and Jack VanVleet, who demonstrated the benefits of water-soluble packing peanuts.
All told, SoHi students took home $3,150 in cash prizes and brought in $4,875 for the school's science department.
But SoHi wasn't the only winner at the competition.
Students from other area high schools also made a strong showing, earning cash for themselves and their schools.
Elena Bird of Kenai Central High School placed second, winning $1,000 for her idea to replace nylon fishing nets with rubber nets in catch-and-release fishing.
Brittany Dalberg of Seward High created a teen guide to the environment. She placed third and took home $800.
Nick Byrne of Skyview High won a $450 fifth-place prize for a photoremediation plan that would use nature as a cleaning machine for the Kenai River Watershed.
Sarah Herrin of Nikiski also was a finalist, earning $150 for proposing recycling machines be brought to the peninsula to increase recycling and reduce solid waste.
Contest coordinator Merrill Sikorski noted that while SoHi had several winners, the first-, second- and third-place winners were from three different schools, meaning the proceeds of the contest will be spread around.
The cash prizes for the competition are made possible by major sponsors Unocal and Agrium, as well as support from the Kenai Watershed Forum, Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Re-Group and the Kenai River Sportfishing Association.
Unocal and Agrium also will host an awards banquet for finalists and their families Friday night, with Mike Morgan providing entertainment. In addition to prizes, finalists also received a 2004 CFK sports vest and all 400 participants in the contest will receive a CFK T-shirt.
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Redbet Casino
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“Sometimes a story deserves a new look,” she said. “There were all of these puzzle pieces that were out there, and when you put all of these puzzle pieces together, with the passage of time, there was this really damning story.”
As part of her work, Ms. Brown tried to persuade law enforcement officials and women with allegations against Mr. Epstein to speak with her. Some resisted, she said, afraid that she would focus on the more salacious elements, or that her reporting would never make it to publication. She was told the story was stale. But as she looked into the prosecution of Mr. Epstein that led to his imprisonment last decade, Ms. Brown discovered that, in 2007, Mr. Acosta led a team of federal lawyers who secretly negotiated a deal that granted the financier immunity from federal sex trafficking charges.
In February, a federal judge ruled that prosecutors had violated federal law by keeping victims in the dark about the plea deal. That same month, the Justice Department said it had opened an investigation into how Mr. Acosta’s team handled the case to see if there was “professional misconduct.” Mr. Acosta is facing calls to resign.
Ms. Brown, who grew up outside Philadelphia, said she had always been sensitive to injustice. She was often bullied in the neighborhood for being one of three children raised by a single parent. Once, when her mother was unable to pay the electricity bill, the power company came to her house and took away all the furniture, Ms. Brown said.
She left home at 16 and worked as a server, a flower delivery courier and a lampshade factory worker until she could afford to go to college. She graduated magna cum laude from Temple University in 1987 with a journalism degree. She said she felt she had to “work harder than almost anybody to get the big stories, the scoops.”
She started her career as an editor at The Pendulum, the student newspaper at Pennridge High School. While at The Philadelphia Daily News, a tabloid, she wrote articles on firefighters infected with hepatitis C that helped make testing mandatory among public safety workers. In her 19-year career at The Miami Herald, she has covered hurricanes, the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting and corruption in the Florida prison system.
She has compared her work on the Epstein series to “what a cold-case detective does.” Early in the process, she received a heavily redacted police report that was more than 100 pages long and mentioned more than 100 Jane Does. She combed through the document for names and other identifying details that had not been blocked, creating spreadsheets to track her progress.
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Zebras are finally taking their revenge on humans
Oh, you probably thought zebras were just docile, pleasant horsies that enjoyed dressing like a smarmy playboy’s sheet set, huh? Well joke’s on you, because apparently they’ve been biding their time waiting to avenge themselves on humans for threatening their species and putting them in captivity. The first volley: A zebra at the National Zoo bit a zoo staffer this morning, who had to be rushed to the hospital.
It’s sort of funny-not-funny; like, we can make jokes about the zebra revolt because the zoo reports that the zookeeper was conscious and talking, so he or she is unlikely to be in terrible danger, and once the scar heals it’ll probably make a good story? But on the other hand, a National Zoo spokesperson describes a zebra bite as “very strong and severe,” so we probably shouldn’t joke TOO much.
The rebellious Zebranista has been isolated, and the zoo says staff is “completely focused on the animal.” Which might mean evaluating its physical health and its fitness to remain in the exhibit, or might mean interrogating it until it gives up the location of other zebra uprising cells.
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Eddie N. Payne
Eddie Nuton Payne, known as E. N. Payne (May 7, 1873 – 1951), was a Democrat from Springhill, Louisiana, who represented Webster Parish in the Louisiana House of Representatives for one term from 1932 to 1936.
A native of Arkansas, Payne succeeded J. S. Bacon of Heflin in south Webster Parish. In 1936, Payne was unseated in a runoff election by Drayton R. Boucher, a 28-year-old educator from Springhill. Payne had led in the primary election with 2,183 votes to Boucher's 1,729. In third place was Floyd D. Culbertson, Jr., later the mayor of Minden from 1940 to 1942, with 1,181 votes. A fourth candidate, E. H. Bolin, a prominent member of the Webster Parish School Board and the father of later Representative and Judge James E. Bolin, finished last with 746 ballots.
Both Payne and Boucher were supporters of the late Governor and U.S. Senator Huey Pierce Long, Jr. Boucher visited nearly every home in Webster Parish to achieve his narrow victory, 2,778 votes (52.9 percent) to Payne's 2,474 (47.1 percent).
From 1912 to 1920, Payne had been the Ward 2 member of the Webster Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body akin to the county commission in other states.
Payne and his wife, Mary E. Payne (1874-1945), are interred at Springhill Cemetery.
References
Category:1873 births
Category:1951 deaths
Category:Members of the Louisiana House of Representatives
Category:Parish jurors and commissioners in Louisiana
Category:People from Springhill, Louisiana
Category:Louisiana Democrats
Category:Burials in Louisiana
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[Property and function of cell surface glycosyltransferases].
Since a galactosyltransferase was first reported to be on the mammalian cell surface in the early 1970s, different classes of glycosyltransferase have been detected on the cell surface of various types of cell by enzymatic or immunological analysis. Although these surface enzymes are identical in catalytic property to those found in Golgi apparatus or endoplasmic reticulum where they are involved in biosynthesis of glycoconjugates, there obtained a monoclonal antibody that distinguishes these enzymes localized differently, and observed some differences in their protein chemistry and in their amounts expressed during cellular differentiation. Due to no availability of sugar donor intercellulary, the surface glycosyltransferases are participating in cellular interactions by recognizing and binding to the appropriate substrates on opposing cell surfaces and extracellular matrices, without showing any enzyme catalysis.
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Incidence of parasomnias in children with obstructive sleep apnea.
The incidence of parent-reported parasomnias in children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is increased in comparison with a normative age-matched sample of children but is not higher than that for a similar clinical sample of children with a diagnosed behavioral sleep disorder.
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New Delhi: The Muzaffarpur Police on Monday ordered an investigation after a panchayat ordered a minor rape victim to sell her newborn.
The minor was allegedly sexually assaulted by a local Muslim cleric and later by an electrician in July, The Indian Express reported. Both the accused are absconding.
Police have lodged an FIR under sections of IPC and POCSO Act after the 15-year-old girl was assaulted.
The victim had approached the local panchayat with a demand that a DNA test be conducted to identify the baby’s father. However, the victim was told by the panchayat to “sell her newborn son”.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Jayant Kant said, “We have ordered a probe into the entire case, including allegations against the local panchayat, under additional SP (East) Amitesh Kumar. The team would intensify search for the two accused.”
According to the FIR lodged by Police on July 3, the cleric was provided meals by the local residents on a rotational basis and the minor victim was allegedly sedated and raped when she went to the accused with food in January. The accused shot a video of the incident and the minor was being allegedly blackmailed. An electrician also came to know of the matter and allegedly raped the minor.
The minor belongs to a poor family and is illiterate. She approached the police at an advanced stage of pregnancy and also sought the panchayat’s intervention.
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Swimmer meets his rescuers, offers gratitude
SOLANA BEACH – Jackson Hawkins knows the pressures of competitive swimming, but nothing in his young life could compare to the case of nerves he had June 27 when he met the two girls who saved his life Memorial Day weekend.
Jackson, who lives in Las Vegas, was at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine for a swim competition May 28 when he was challenged by friends to swim 75-meters underwater. Annie Driscoll, who was awaiting her own meet, noticed Jackson lying lifeless at the bottom of the pool. She plunged beneath the water to get a closer look and saw bubbles coming from his mouth. Without thinking of her own safety, Annie, a slightly built 15-year-old, lifted the head of the 6’4”, 192 lbs. Jackson above the water where she was assisted by Maddi Uehelbor who had already notified a lifeguard that something was terribly wrong.
On Tuesday a ceremony was held at the Boys and Girls Club of Solana Beach, where the girls compete on the Rancho San Dieguito Swim Team, to honor their heroism. Jackson traveled to Solana Beach for the event from a competition earlier in the day at the same aquatics center in Irvine where the incident occurred a few weeks earlier.
“I was really nervous coming to this pool and meeting the girls who saved my life,” he said. “I said to myself, ‘don’t mess up.’”
Jackson was gracious as kids stood in line along the swimming pool to shake his hand and wish him well. The tall, athletic swimmer said there was nothing embarrassing about being saved by two girls.
“I’m awestruck,” he said. “It was amazing how they lifted 192 lbs. out of 10 feet of water.”
He reported that his doctor estimated that he had held his breath during the race for 1:30 minutes before losing consciousness.
“I think it might have been 1:50 minutes,” he added. “Annie pulled me up right away. She didn’t come up for air first to get the lifeguard. If she had, it would have been over. I would have been dead or had irreversible brain damage.”
Jackson said the incident changed his life. He offers this advice to other kids.
“Don’t do stupid things that put your life at risk,” he said. “My mom gets annoyed now because I’ll say, ‘Hey, slow down! Don’t drive so fast. I’m watching you.’”
Jackson’s mother, Nicole Hawkins, was also at the ceremony.
“Going through the process of thinking I could lose Jackson, then having him celebrate his 16th birthday a few days later was very overwhelming,” she said. “I believe it was the hand of God that allowed it (the incident) to play out all right.”
Both girls are entering 10th grade later this summer, Annie at Carlsbad High and Maddi at La Costa Canyon High. Maddi says the incident changed her life, too.
“It’s made me more aware of my surroundings and aquatic safety,” she said. “You never think it’s going to happen, but it’s good to pay attention.”
Jackson says he plans to stay in touch with his lifesavers when he returns to Las Vegas.
“I have Annie on Facebook,” he said. “We weren’t friends before. I think we are now.”
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