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NCAAB Picks
The game between the Indiana Hoosiers and the Creighton Blue Jays is high on the total line.Let's review the NCAA basketball odds & see if this a total worth of our NCAA basketball picks.
NCAA Basketball Odds
Odds makers have come out with the total at 162.5 which you can find at -110 at Bookmaker. This is a really high total for a college game, but for one of my NCAA picks, I will take the over and look for both teams push tempo the whole game.
Creighton Blue Jays
In two games, Creighton is averaging 98 points per game, shooting 53.7% from the field, and 39.7% from beyond the arc. They rank ninth in the country in three pointers attempted which is the staple of Greg McDermott's offense. Transfer guard, Mo Watson, has helped push the tempo of the offense, so look for him to be the catalyst tonight on this end of the floor. Also, guard Isaiah Zierden and forward transfer, Cole Huff, should be able to help keep up with Indiana with their three point shooting.
Defensively, the Blue Jays are allowing 74 points per game, 47.3% shooting from the field, and 42.5% from beyond the arc. For all the talk in the off season about ratcheting things down on defense, they have been a bit more comfortable just getting out and running. Against a team like Indiana, who is like Creighton on steroids, expect this trend to continue tonight.
Indiana Hoosiers
In two games, Indiana is averaging 95 points, shooting 59.5% from the field and 46.3% from beyond the arc. I am not the biggest Tom Crean fan simply for the fact that his teams always seem to lack on the defensive end. Still, I will give credit to him on the offensive end because Indiana can flat out score and ranked first in scoring last year in the Big Ten. Offense has not been the issue as far as their success goes, and they have plenty of weapons this year, highlighted by returning guards Yogi Farrell and James Blackmon.
Defensively, Indiana has allowed 62.5 points per game, 41.8% from the field, and 36.7% from beyond the arc. So far, it seems they are playing some decent team defense but from distance they haven't been as efficient. With that being the case, it could prove an issue versus the three point happy Blue Jays which has me more inclined to back the over.
The NCAA Basketball odds for this matchup will continue to vary, as we should expect this game to have a lot of up tempo and a ton of three point attempts. For one of your NCAA Basketball picks, I recommend taking the over and enjoying what should be the most entertaining game of the day.
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Q:
Modifying number of tasks executed on mesos slave
In a Mesos ecosystem(master + scheduler + slave), with the master executing tasks on the slaves, is there a configuration that allows modifying number of tasks executed on each slave?
Say for example, currently a mesos master runs 4 tasks on one of the slaves(each task is using 1 cpu). Now, we have 4 slaves(4 cores each) and except for this one slave the other three are not being used.
So, instead of this execution scenario, I'd rather prefer the master running 1 task on each of the 4 slaves.
I found this stackoverflow question and these configurations relevant to this case, but still not clear on how to use the --isolation=VALUE or --resources=VALUE configuration here.
Thanks for the help!
A:
Was able to reduce number of tasks being executed on a single host at a time by adding the following properties to startup script for mesos agent.
--resources="cpus:<<value>>" and --cgroups_enable_cfs=true.
This however does not take care of the concurrent scheduling issue where the requirement is to have each agent executing a task at the same time. For that need to look into the scheduler code as also suggested above.
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For the past three weeks, Democratic protesters have swarmed Republican town hall events across the country, booing, shouting down and trying to embarrass GOP lawmakers seeking to gut ObamaCare.
In the coming weeks, grassroots conservatives will be fighting back.
FreedomWorks, the Tea Party-aligned outside group, beginning next month will be organizing rallies and urging its nearly 6 million activists to turn out at town hall events to ensure members of Congress are also getting an earful from ObamaCare detractors.
ADVERTISEMENT
“There will be more grassroots hand-to-hand combat than we’ve seen in Washington for a long time,” FreedomWorks President and CEO Adam Brandon said Monday during an interview in his office near the Capitol.
“The conservative [lawmakers], they need to see us out there pushing. And if they see that, they’ll be bold,” he continued. “If they don’t see grassroots there on the ground, they’ll start slipping.”
FreedomWorks will stage an ObamaCare repeal rally on Capitol Hill on March 15 with speeches from Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzLoeffler calls for hearing in wake of Netflix's 'Cuties' Health care in the crosshairs with new Trump Supreme Court list 'Parks and Rec' cast members hosting special reunion to raise money for Wisconsin Democrats MORE (R-Texas) and other top conservative allies.
From there, activists will descend upon congressional offices to press lawmakers to move quickly on ObamaCare. FreedomWorks officials are rallying behind a longshot replacement bill authored by Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulGOP senator to quarantine after coronavirus exposure The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by National Industries for the Blind - Trump seeks to flip 'Rage' narrative; Dems block COVID-19 bill Overnight Health Care: Senate Democrats block GOP relief bill | Democrats reveal Medicaid chief's spending on high-paid consultants | Trump calls question about why he 'lied' about COVID-19 a 'disgrace' MORE (R-Ky.) that would eliminate many central elements of President Obama’s healthcare law, including the mandate that every American has coverage.
The so-called “Day of Action” will be followed by a phone-call campaign to lawmakers’ offices, plus rallies in targeted congressional districts across the country.
The reason FreedomWorks is waiting until mid-March to ramp up its grassroots engagement on ObamaCare is that by then, Brandon said, GOP leaders will have a better idea of which path they are taking on replacement.
“To do the things that we want to do, we need to make sure we have something that we’re pushing for,” Brandon said. “I just don’t want to be reacting to the left [and say], ‘They have a bunch of people showing up, so we need to have a bunch of people showing up.'
“We’re going to try to do this on our own timetable.”
Democrats have been showing up in droves to GOP town hall events since President Donald Trump Donald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MORE took office, generating several heated exchanges with lawmakers that have gone viral on cable news channels and social media.
Conservative grassroots leaders may not like Democrats’ message, but they’re willing to give them points for style. The tactics are straight from conservatives’ 2009 playbook, when Tea Party activists staged mass demonstrations in Washington and showed up at Democratic town hall events to protest legislation that would come to be known as the Affordable Care Act.
Now the tables are turned. Last week, a man who described himself as “overweight” told interim House Budget Chair Diane Black Diane Lynn BlackBottom line Overnight Health Care: Anti-abortion Democrats take heat from party | More states sue Purdue over opioid epidemic | 1 in 4 in poll say high costs led them to skip medical care Lamar Alexander's exit marks end of an era in evolving Tennessee MORE (R-Tenn.) that he might die if Republicans take away his health coverage.
Earlier, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) had to be escorted from an event by several police officers while anti-Trump protesters chased and jeered at him.
And for the second weekend in a row, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) was greeted with shouting and boos at another one of his “listening sessions” on healthcare. The difference this time was he had backup: Local Republicans had sent out emails encouraging their members to turn out and voice support for repeal, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
But the Republican activists may have only fired up the Florida congressman’s critics even more.
When one Pasco County GOP official, Bill Akins, falsely asserted that ObamaCare included a provision for “death panels,” the 300-plus crowd erupted.
“You lie! You're lying!” people shouted back, according to the Times.
House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady Kevin Patrick BradyBusinesses, states pass on Trump payroll tax deferral Trump order on drug prices faces long road to finish line On The Money: US deficit hits trillion amid pandemic | McConnell: Chance for relief deal 'doesn't look that good' | House employees won't have payroll taxes deferred MORE (R-Texas), who’s been targeted by pro-ObamaCare protesters and has a key role in the party’s healthcare efforts, said Monday such scenes playing out across the country ultimately would not deter the GOP from repealing and replacing.
“I think it's healthy to have these discussions. I know at the town hall I held, we had some people who feel strongly for ObamaCare and all those high prices and premiums,” Brady told reporters. “I stayed late to make sure we could visit with as many as we could and so I think all this input is healthy."
Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which will soon begin marking up repeal legislation, said it’s welcome news that GOP lawmakers will soon be getting reinforcements back home in their districts.
“Members need two things from activists: one, to be held to account, and two, to have their backs,” Cramer said.
FreedomWorks has already flexed its muscle as Trump has worked to get his Cabinet members seated. When Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainKelly's lead widens to 10 points in Arizona Senate race: poll COVID response shows a way forward on private gun sale checks Trump pulls into must-win Arizona trailing in polls MORE (R-Ariz.) began waffling on whether he’d back Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), Trump’s pick for budget director, FreedomWorks officials said they organized 45,000 calls and messages to McCain's office within a 24-hour period.
They’re hoping to replicate that energy and enthusiasm in the ObamaCare fight.
“A politician is probably going to go with who they fear the most. If they see that their town halls are completely filled and all they’re hearing back in their district is, ‘Don’t do something,’ they might find a way not to do it,” Brandon explained.
“That’s why [our] job is to make sure they are hearing a consistent message from our guys in their district, that this is what’s important to us.”
Peter Sullivan contributed.
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Sunday, September 14, 2008
You're What?! Tin Roof! Rusted!
On Friday night, my friends and I saw the B-52s at the Memphis Botanic Gardens. I've been a huge fan since I was eight years old, listening to "Loveshack" on my parents' jukebox. And though the band members are nearly AARP age, they still rock as hard as they did in 1989.
The show was part of the botanic gardens' "Live at the Garden" concert series. They host monthly outdoor shows every summer, and you can bring coolers, wine, whatever you need for the perfect picnic. We're dorks, so we made a themed menu basing our dishes around B-52s songs.
We had Roma Around the World Hummus Wraps, My Own Private Idaho Potato Salad, and Cosmic Thing Fruit Salad:For the hummus wraps, we spread some storebought red pepper hummus on red chile tortillas and then stuffed them with Roma tomato slices, black olives, and lettuce. Rather than risk spoilage with Veganaise, I made the potato salad with olive oil, rice vinegar, pickle relish, white onion, and parsley. And the fruit salad contained strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwis, plums, pineapple, and pomegranate seeds.
Here I am with a glass of Chardonnay and a full plate. We finished the night out with Yellowtail Shiraz-Merlot. We thought about making vegan B-52s (the cocktail with Irish cream, Kalua, and triple sec), but I didn't have time to make vegan Irish cream. And it'd be hard to mix cocktails outside in the dark anyway.
Here's my friend Nathan with his plate piled high:
And Greg arrived a little late, so he finished off the leftovers:
They saved "Loveshack" for the last song and "Rock Lobster" for the encore. We had a B-52s dance party! Yea!
18 comments:
You're so lucky! The B-52's! And Rock Lobster is so one of my favorites! I used to love going to 80's night at one of my favorite clubs (er, back in the 90's) and when they would play Rock Lob everyone would go crazy!
yay for themed food, love the ode to B-52s. and since going vegan, i've really learned how dependent i was on mayo, and have become fond of using dressings that don't have veganaise...just simple oil, balsamic, and ms. dash. i hope you had a good time at the concert.
It looks like you had an awesome night!! Whenever "Loveshack" comes on the radio I have to turn it up to full blast and sing along...no matter who's in the car with me! That wrap has my mouth watering...what brand are the tortillas??
Okay, so the whole time I was typing this I had that song in my head :0)
I swear, you have more fun in one night than I do in a year! The B-52's? Lucky! And referring to your previous posts, beans rule. I'd eat beans all day... maybe. True bean story: I have been trying with all my deepest might to inflate my own bike tires w/o the help of a boy. And yet, I am simply not strong enough. So, I made a huge bean burrito for my dinner tonight, and tried again with the tire pump. The result? Beans make you strong as heck! Woo hoo! Lots of beans + lots of patience = fully inflated tires!
Oh I am flashing back to college! This song (Love Shack) was so big when I was in college (I graduated in 1990). All my sorority sisters loved it. My boyfriend Michael and I would make up our own lyrics to "Rock Lobster" driving around in his orange camaro. It sounds like you had a rockin' good time and great eats too!
My name is Bianca ...
About Me
I'm a 9-year vegan, 19-year vegetarian from the Mid-South, not too far from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. And that means cornbread, butter beans, and collard greens.
These days, I live in Memphis. Check out my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk. It's filled with yummilicious veganized soul food and country classics.
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Hereditary tripled my heart rate, prickle-massaged my scalp, cured my hiccups – and pretty much terrified me. It was the first time I’ve heard someone in an audience of hardened critics yelp the word “Fu-uck” in two separate syllables; the first in fear, the second in a kind of immediate, incredulous self-reproach for having lost it in public. That reaction was incidentally triggered – the only appropriate word – by a tongue-click, the sound a child might make to impersonate the clip-clopping of a horse, a once-innocent tic I will from now on associate with pure evil.
The horror of grief: how loss is the ultimate boogeyman in Hereditary Read more
This has been described as an Exorcist for a new generation, which isn’t quite right, though it weirdly reminded me more specifically of the Jonathan Pryce “Exorcist” stage Hamlet from 1980, in which he gets speakingly possessed by his father’s ghost. First-time writer-director Ari Aster has really drawn on other inspirations: Don’t Look Now and Rosemary’s Baby, in their presentiments and conspiracies of horror. Hereditary is also like a death-metal version of Bergman’s Cries and Whispers.
The direction, shooting and orchestral score are all brilliant, but it would be nothing at all without the terrific performance of Toni Collette in the lead, her face a mask of fear and anger. She is a scary-movie Medea in extreme closeup. Surely this magnificent actor will get some silverware next February. My own game plan is to write a series of grumpy articles about how brilliant genre movies always lose out to middlebrow ersatz artistry in the awards season – to reverse-jinx Collette and maybe Hereditary itself into getting the big prizes.
Collette plays Annie Graham, a deeply troubled woman who has some renown as a contemporary artist, preparing for a new show, creating miniaturist doll’s house creations of scenes from her own life, tiny lit rooms with Lilliputian human figures, fixtures and fittings all fabricated with fanatical detail and care. Aster may have based her on the real-life American artist Narcissa Thorne, who created the miniature “Thorne Rooms” exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago that fascinated the young Orson Welles.
Play Video 2:06 Hereditary – video trailer
Clearly, this artistic process speaks of Annie’s control-freakery, a need to reduce and render manageable a life that is in some way beyond her, an emotional fetishism or voodooism. She has maybe inherited this dysfunction from her elderly, secretive and abusive mother, who has just died after years of dementia – a woman whose malign influence effectively poisoned the lives of Annie, her easy-going husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) and their teen children Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). This grandma insisted on taking Charlie under her wing, and now that she is dead, her ghost is insisting 13-year-old Charlie release the evil that is encoded in the family’s DNA.
Colin Stetson’s musical score establishes a pulse of fear – accentuating the film’s disturbing trick of moving from day or night in exterior shots in a single percussive beat, like switching the daylight on or off with a switch. Grace Yun’s production design and Pawel Pogorzelski’s cinematography create a dreamlike sunlit bake for the outdoor scenes, and indoors, square-on compositions make the rooms look uncannily like doll’s house replicas with live occupants. There is something inexpressibly scary in believing, just for a second, that the human beings we are watching are in fact tiny animated dummies in some satanic installation.
No cape required: your guide to the best alternative films this summer Read more
Hereditary does have, it should be said, some pretty standard-issue genre elements: including the discovery of an old book full of occult descriptions. A lesser film, a film without its stamina and persistence in maintaining the tension, couldn’t have got away with that.
It is customary to validate horror by looking for the satire, and of course Hereditary is partly about a secret fear and loathing of old people that flowers in middle age: fear of becoming old, fear of the genetic message of weakness they have left us, about which we can do nothing, strive for success as we may. But Hereditary is basically a brilliant machine for scaring us, and Collette’s operatic, hypnotic performance seals the deal every second she’s on the screen – though Wolff is also very good as the cool teen who regresses into a frightened little boy. Collette’s Annie turns into a poltergeist haunting herself: thrashing and contorting with agony, with her anguished but rational need to keep it together, and keep her family together.
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# more Received: forgery variants
# same as RCVD_FORGED_WROTE but allowing capitalized host names
#
header RCVD_FORGED_WROTE2 Received =~ /from [0-9.]+ \(HELO \S+[A-Za-z]+\) by (\S+) with esmtp \(\S+\s\S+\) id \S{6}-\S{6}-\S\S for \S+@\1;/s
header RCVD_FORGED_WROTE3 Received =~ /from \[[0-9.]+\] \(port=\d+ helo=\S+[A-Za-z]+\) by (\S+) with asmtp id \S{6}-\S{6}-\S\S for \S+@\1;/s
# Another variant a bit like Sendmail instead of Exim...
#
header RCVD_FORGED_WROTE4 Received =~ /from [0-9.]+ \(HELO \S+[A-Za-z]+\) by (\S+) with \(8[0-9.]+\/8[0-9.]+\) ESMTP [0-9a-z]{14} for \S+@\1;/s
# Following samples spotted by an eagle-eyed user...
#
# From: TravelDeals <fanny walt.423usage smaller,@dirtsgrounds.com>
# From: FreeCellPhone <param orsina.168Hayyan,@foreguide.com>
# From: PhotographySchool <cathal penha.073posturing,@showersville.com>
# From: AirlineTickets7 <cali zakuro.586genetics,@miledown.com>
# From: HealthHappy <janine jamari.070packing,@redmatte.com>
# From: KitchenCabinets <nelly ben.188sense,@miledown.com>
#
header FROM_SPACE_COMMA From =~ /\w+ <\w+ \w+\.\d+[^,@]+,@[a-z0-9.-]+>/i
describe FROM_SPACE_COMMA Distinctive syntax error in from address
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Q:
Android Emulator 2.3.3 with No Internet Connection
Possible Duplicate:
Upgraded to SDK 2.3 - now no emulators have connectivity
I just updated my Android SDK to latest version which has come up as 2.3.3 and now when I visit any website using its Emulator browser, it say "Browser can not load the web page because there is no internet connection." Is this a known issue?
A:
Yes it is
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Q:
PostConstruct/Constructor for FacesComponent
I've created FacesComponent which I want to initialize in constructor/postconstructor. The problem is that getAttributes() is empty in there. Below is the example.
@FacesComponent("articleComponent")
public class ArticleFacesComponent extends UINamingContainer {
private Article article;
public ArticleFacesComponent() {
Object idObj = getAttributes().get("articleId"); // I want to get article id to initialize object but getAttributes() is empty
...
article = em.find(Article.class, id);
}
}
A:
You need to perform the job in the encodeAll() method. It's invoked during render response, when the component is about to be rendered.
@Override
public void encodeAll(FacesContext context) throws IOException {
// Here.
super.encodeAll(context);
}
Given that you're extending from UINamingContainer, you're most likely creating a backing component for a composite component. In that case, this article should provide you useful insights to get started: composite component with multiple input fields.
Unrelated to the concrete problem, accessing the DB in a component is a smell. Rather pass a fullworthy Article instance as component value instead of its ID. The component/renderer should only deal with front-end (HTTP/HTML) stuff based on the model, not with back-end (DB/SQL) stuff. You should provide the component exactly the model it needs to work with.
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how to customize items in Rust
A Tutorial for Rust
in this tutorial you will learn how to customize items for Rust using the Rust workshop.
to begin, launch the Rust workshop from the main menu of Rust. you can find the icon to the workshop in the lower right corner of the main menu. (reference image below)
after the workshop launches, click on the "NEW" icon to create a new item. (reference image below)
to begin creating a new item, select the desired item from the drop-down menu. here you can choose from almost every single item in Rust; including weapons, items, clothes, deployables, and just about anything and everything else. for this tutorial, i will demonstrate the process by customizing Pants. (reference image below)
once you have chosen your desired item of choice, you can select the "EDIT" tab at the top, and you can see all the customizable parameters of your item. you can export the items 3D mesh file to your computer and use it for reference. you can alter the mesh file, and you can even import the mesh into texturing programs such as Substance Painter 2.
for this tutorial i will not be doing any serious modifications to the item, i will just be showing you as a beginners guide, how to customize items.
as well as being able to export the 3D mesh, you can also export diffuse maps, normal maps, specular/gloss maps, occlusion maps and other maps that the items may have. (reference image below)
for this simple instructional tutorial i will just export the diffuse/color map. to export the diffuse map, click on the export icon below the maps name, and save it to the desired location on your hard drive. NOTE, when you save the desired map, be sure to add ".png" to the file name! (reference image below)
now that you have your desired map exported and ready for modification, open your map with the program of your choice. i will be using Adobe Photoshop CS6. after you have imported the map, you can modify it to your liking. as a tutorial demonstration, i simply overlayed a rainbow gradient onto the pants. (reference image below)
when you are done modifying your diffuse map, save it as a ".png" image file. now browse to upload a new diffuse map in the workshop and open up your new diffuse map. (reference image below)
when you have selected your new diffuse map it will automatically apply itself in the workshop. (reference image below)
after you have applied your new diffuse map, you can alter some of the default maps by using the Rust workshop slider modifiers to directly modify the items parameters. for this skin as an example i increased the "GLOSSINESS" parameter of the specular/gloss map to make the cloth pants appear to be leather-like.
when you are satisfied with your item, you can give it a proper name. (reference image below)
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The Chinmayanand rape case
A law student has accused the BJP's Chinmayanand of rape and blackmail. The woman, a second year student at a law college in Shahjahanpur run by Chinmayanand, accused the former Union Minister of sexually assaulting her for a year. The allegations surfaced when the woman went missing on August 24 after putting up a Facebook post, without naming Chinmayanand. Her family accused the senior BJP leader of kidnapping her.
The woman, tracked down by the UP police six days later, reportedly shared her account in a closed hearing at the Supreme Court, which ordered a Special Investigation Team of the UP police to inquire into her charges. Sources say in a 12-page written complaint to the Delhi Police, the woman has described what she alleges was a year of sexual assault, blackmail and threats. The Delhi police then forwarded this complaint to the Uttar Pradesh police.
The woman claims she went into hiding after gathering video proof to substantiate her allegations against Chinmayanand, a politician who was Minister of State for Home in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP government.
He is accused of calling her to his room, blackmailing her with a clip of her taking a bath and raping her repeatedly. The woman also alleges she was often taken this room by his aides at gunpoint and forced to give him massages.
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Arieli R. In vitro evidence of decompression bubble dynamics and gas exchange on the luminal aspect of blood vessels: Implications for size distribution of venous bubbles. Physiol Rep. 2019;7:e14317 10.14814/phy2.14317
1. INTRODUCTION {#phy214317-sec-0001}
===============
We have proposed that decompression illness is related mainly to bubbles that expand from nanobubbles on the luminal aspect of venous blood vessels (Arieli, [2017](#phy214317-bib-0001){ref-type="ref"}). On detachment, the bubbles tear off pieces of the endothelium, resulting in endothelial injury. Venous bubbles may shunt to the arterial circulation, whereas others, after losing their gas in the lungs, are left as microparticles that induce platelet and neutrophil activation. Bubbles which expand and develop from nanobubbles on the surface of distal arteries may be the cause of Taravana, micro‐injuries in the white matter, vestibular, and spinal decompression illness (DCI) (Arieli, [2019a](#phy214317-bib-0004){ref-type="ref"}, [2019b](#phy214317-bib-0005){ref-type="ref"}; Arieli & Marmur, [2017](#phy214317-bib-0009){ref-type="ref"}). Extravascular hydrophobic surfaces within the body provide the background for the remaining forms of decompression illness (joint pain, cutis marmorata, osteonecrosis, and spinal DCI (Arieli, [2018a](#phy214317-bib-0002){ref-type="ref"}, [2018b](#phy214317-bib-0003){ref-type="ref"}).
Vast amounts of literature have been devoted to the attempt to establish the source and stability of gas micronuclei as the precursors of decompression bubbles. The production and stability of nanobubbles on a hydrophobic surface presented a solution to the long sought‐after gas micronuclei from which decompression bubbles develop. We have demonstrated that surfactant leaks from the lung into the bloodstream, settling on the luminal aspect of blood vessels to create active hydrophobic spots (AHS). Nanobubbles formed by dissolved gas at these AHS are most probably the precursors of gas micronuclei and decompression bubbles. In previously reported studies (Arieli, Arieli, & Marmur, [2015](#phy214317-bib-0006){ref-type="ref"}; Arieli & Marmur, [2016](#phy214317-bib-0008){ref-type="ref"}), sheep blood vessels stretched on microscope slides, and exposed under saline to hyperbaric pressure, were photographed at 1‐s intervals following decompression. The methods employed, as well as the measured bubble size on detachment and their rate of expansion, were described in the above mentioned reports. The frequency of photography enabled close observation of the interaction between bubbles and supersaturated, well‐mixed saline following decompression.
There is also an ample body of literature dealing with calculation of the physics and dynamics of decompression bubbles, however without any experimental evidence of the formation and behavior of bubbles within the body. Our observation of decompression bubbles on the luminal aspect of blood vessels, with our suggestion that the nucleation of nanobubbles on hydrophobic surfaces within the body---veins, distal arteries, and extravascular sites, may be the direct cause of DCI, give me reason to believe that this is at present the closest approximation to the true physiology of decompression illness. In this study, we discuss solid grounds for a further analytical approach, and the implications for the size distribution of venous bubbles.
2. METHODS AND RESULTS {#phy214317-sec-0002}
======================
A detailed description of the data collection methods may be found in our previous study (Arieli et al., [2015](#phy214317-bib-0006){ref-type="ref"}; Arieli & Marmur, [2016](#phy214317-bib-0008){ref-type="ref"}). Photographs of an AHS from a pulmonary vein, containing large numbers of bubbles, were selected in 1‐min sequences over a period of 7 min (Figure [1](#phy214317-fig-0001){ref-type="fig"}a). The first photograph was taken 18 min after decompression from 1,013 kPa, following detachment of a large bubble from this AHS (Figure [1](#phy214317-fig-0001){ref-type="fig"}b). The initial gas tension in the saline was calculated to be 620 kPa, and gas was released from the saline to the atmosphere by means of a peristaltic pump, which continuously recirculated the supersaturated saline. In general, bubbles expanded from the dissolved gas with time. The two lowermost bubbles at time 0 coalesced into one bubble (at time 1 min), as depicted in Figure [1](#phy214317-fig-0001){ref-type="fig"}c. When a bubble disappeared, the neighboring bubble was seen immediately to expand. Bubbles on the periphery expanded faster than bubbles at the center. The two small peripheral bubbles at the open right side of the cluster (time 0) expanded faster than similarly sized central bubbles (at time 7 min). In no case did we see a small bubble decrease in size, as may have been expected if small bubbles transferred their gas to larger bubbles due to differences in gas tension. The contact area of the bubble with the blood vessel wall is small, as may be seen from the area left by the detached bubble at time --1 s (Figure [1](#phy214317-fig-0001){ref-type="fig"}b), and from the small bubbles visible underneath the large one at time --2 s (Figure [1](#phy214317-fig-0001){ref-type="fig"}b). A side view of the bubbles formed on hydrophobic silicon wafers showed that they were spherical (Arieli & Marmur, [2013](#phy214317-bib-0007){ref-type="ref"}), which also concurs with their having a small contact area.
{#phy214317-fig-0001}
3. DISCUSSION {#phy214317-sec-0003}
=============
3.1. Bubble dynamics {#phy214317-sec-0004}
--------------------
The spherical form of bubbles at the AHS implies that most of the gas exchange in a bubble takes place with the surrounding medium (blood), and not with the tissue across the vessel wall. Small bubbles with a high internal pressure (the Laplace equation) and high gas tension would have been expected to transfer gas to larger bubbles having a lower gas tension (Ostwald, [1897](#phy214317-bib-0013){ref-type="ref"}). Thus, small bubbles would shrink and disappear, and in equilibrium all the bubbles would be of equal size. This effect, known as \"broadening\", has been applied to several analyses of decompression bubbles in the past, and also more recently (Hills, [1977](#phy214317-bib-0010){ref-type="ref"}, [1978](#phy214317-bib-0011){ref-type="ref"}; Wienke, O\'Leary, & Del Cima, [2018](#phy214317-bib-0016){ref-type="ref"}). However, this mechanism was not observed in our experiments.
Competition for the dissolved gas among bubbles growing in close proximity to one another was examined in theoretical studies by Karapantsios, Kostoglou, Divinis, & Bontozoglou ([2008](#phy214317-bib-0012){ref-type="ref"}) and by Van Liew & Burkard ([1985](#phy214317-bib-0014){ref-type="ref"}). This effect can clearly be seen in this study, with bubbles on the periphery expanding much faster than those at the center. Thus, even with a well‐mixed medium, peripheral bubbles \"steal\" the gas in the medium from central bubbles. Coalescence of bubbles was discussed by Hills ([1977](#phy214317-bib-0010){ref-type="ref"}) for both stationary bubbles and bubbles in the blood, and is seen clearly in the example presented here. Coalescence has been blamed in the past for the delayed joint pain of decompression illness (Hills, [1977](#phy214317-bib-0010){ref-type="ref"}). More recently, I presented an alternative explanation for joint pain (Arieli, [2018a](#phy214317-bib-0002){ref-type="ref"}). These types of observation can be used to assess and calibrate mechanical models of decompression bubbles.
3.2. Size distribution {#phy214317-sec-0005}
----------------------
The time to the first appearance of a bubble at an AHS is varied. In Figure [2](#phy214317-fig-0002){ref-type="fig"}, I compiled data from our previous study (Arieli & Marmur, [2016](#phy214317-bib-0008){ref-type="ref"}) to present the time distribution for the first observation of a bubble with a diameter of 0.1 mm at each AHS. Few AHS are initiated within the first quarter of an hour after decompression, many are initiated between half‐an‐hour to 40 min, and a few toward the end of the hour. Therefore, surface nanobubbles, which adhere to the AHS, will differ in size within any given time range.
{#phy214317-fig-0002}
Bubbles detached from the blood vessels in the experimental setup, most probably when buoyancy equaled the intermembrane adhesion force (Arieli, [2017](#phy214317-bib-0001){ref-type="ref"}). This yielded a rather homogeneous size distribution, as shown in Figure [3](#phy214317-fig-0003){ref-type="fig"} by the data compiled from the previously reported study (Arieli et al., [2015](#phy214317-bib-0006){ref-type="ref"}). Most of the bubbles detached with a diameter of 0.5‒1.5 mm, and very few with a diameter of \<0.5 or 1.5‒2.5 mm. In this case, however, detachment was from large, flattened blood vessels. The in vivo conditions within narrow vessels would not allow bubbles to expand to that size, so that with their smaller diameter they could then easily be carried in the bloodstream. Other phenomena such as turbulence, physical movement, and any additional disturbances will also drive small bubbles from the AHS into the bloodstream. In our experimental setup, the pulsatile flow was greater than that in most blood vessels, but less than that in the large vessels. Therefore, faster flow in large blood vessels may drive bubbles that are smaller than our measured bubbles. The increased Doppler detection of venous bubbles following exercise is due to early release of bubbles from the AHS into the bloodstream. Therefore, bubbles postexercise may be smaller in comparison with those observed in resting conditions. This may serve as an explanation for the increased risk of DCI when exercise follows decompression. It is safer to allow the surface bubbles to lose their gas at the AHS where they are formed.
{#phy214317-fig-0003}
In conclusion, some of the currently used algorithms for the construction of decompression tables, such as the varying permeability model, based as it is on the theoretical considerations of Yount and Hoffman ([1986](#phy214317-bib-0017){ref-type="ref"}), are founded on the size distribution of microbubbles in gelatin. Others, such as the reduced gradient bubble model (Wienke, [1990](#phy214317-bib-0015){ref-type="ref"}), have developed theories of an exponential distribution of gas micronuclei. To date, the in vitro experimental setup presented here appears to be the best system for studying the dynamics of decompression bubbles, and may be used to develop and calibrate theoretical models of decompression bubbles.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST {#phy214317-sec-0007}
====================
No conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the author.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS {#phy214317-sec-0008}
====================
R.A. drafted manuscript, edited and revised, and approved final version of manuscript.
The author thanks Mr. R. Lincoln for skillful editing of the manuscript.
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Mutations predisposing to hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer.
Since 1993 four genes have been identified that, when mutated, confer predisposition to a form of hereditary colon cancer (hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer [HNPCC]). These genes belong to the Mut-related family of DNA mismatch repair genes whose protein products are responsible for the recognition and correction of errors that arise during DNA replication. Mutational inactivation of both copies of a DNA mismatch repair gene results in a profound repair defect demonstrable by biochemical assays, and in vivo this defect is presumed to lead to progressive accumulation of secondary mutations throughout the genome, some of which affect important growth-regulatory genes and, hence, give rise to cancer. To date, more than 70 different germline mutations have been detected in DNA mismatch repair genes and shown to be associated with HNPCC. Current evidence suggests that two genes, MSH2 and MLH1, account for roughly equal proportions of HNPCC kindreds, together being responsible for a majority of these families, but striking interethnic differences occur. Most mutations lead to truncated protein products. Mutation screening is quite demanding in HNPCC since, with a few exceptions, the predisposing mutations typically vary from kindred to kindred and individual mutations are scattered throughout the genes. Knowledge of the predisposing mutations allows genotype-phenotype correlations and forms the basis for further studies clarifying the pathogenesis of this disorder. In at-risk individuals, it allows predictive testing for cancer susceptibility and, consequently, appropriate clinical management of mutation carriers and noncarriers.
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Cabot Writing Desk with 2 Drawer File Cabinet and 6 Cube Bookcase
Espresso Oak
Cabot Collection
Create an instant office with the Bush Furniture Cabot Writing Desk with 2 Drawer File Cabinet and 6 Cube Bookcase in Espresso Oak. This traditional design provides a durable work surface that is more than enough space to fit a laptop and books comfortably.ÿWriting Desk is the ideal height for use as a sofa table or secondary work area. A wide desktop combines with a convenient flip down drawer front to store electronic devices while they charge. Versatile 2 Drawer File Cabinet fits anywhere you need it. The convenient open cubby and box drawer keep personal items, paper or supplies at your fingertips. Reliable, full-extension ball bearing slides on the file drawer provide easy access to letter-size documents, even those all the way at the back. Cabinet matches your Desk height to create an extended work surface. The 6 Cube Bookcase is ideal for showcasing decorative accents or bins, family photos, books and other collectibles. Quality construction meets ANSI/SOHO test standards for safety and performance. Enjoy this stylish and timeless design with rich Espresso Oak finish to complement any home or office environment. See the full collection for coordinating items available, all backed by the Bush Furniture 1 Year Manufacturer's Warranty.
This bundle contains:
1 - WC31818-03 Writing Desk
1 - WC31852-03 2 Drawer File Cabinet
1 - WC31865-03 6 Cube Bookcase
Durable work surface lets you spread out comfortably
Convenient pull-out charging and storage area with flip down drawer front
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Q:
Issue accessing XML data
I have connected to a web service and received data in XML file format. When I get a var_dump($response); I get this array:
object(stdClass)#2 (1) {
["GetBookInfoByISBN"]=>
object(stdClass)#3 (14) {
["Success"]=>
bool(true)
["ResponseText"]=>
string(10) "Book Found"
["State"]=>
string(2) "CA"
["GetNumber"]=>
string(8) "1234"
["BookID"]=>
int(4) "12"
}
}
Now I am trying to get value of the BookID:
$soapclient = new SoapClient('http://wsf.com/BookWS/Book.asmx?WSDL');
$params = array('ISBN' => '1111');
$response = $soapclient->GetBookInfoByISBN($params);
var_dump($response);
<form>
<p><?php echo $response['BookID']; ?></p>
</form>
I am getting this error Fatal error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array which obviously means I am not accessing the data correctly.
I appreciate it any suggestion.
A:
StdClass object is accessed by using ->
You must access it using -> since its an object.
Change your code from:
echo $response['BookID'];
To:
echo $response->BookID;
OR
You can convert stdClass object to array like:
$array = (array)$stdClass;
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Introduction
============
In cancer cells, maintenance of telomere length plays an important role in cellular stability and immortality \[[@b1-crt-2015-362]\]. Telomerase reverse transcriptase (*TERT*) is the catalytic subunit of telomerase, and the telomerase synthesizes repetitive DNA sequences for maintenance of telomere length \[[@b1-crt-2015-362]\]. Telomerase activation has been reported in several cancers including melanoma, breast cancer, and head and neck cancer \[[@b2-crt-2015-362]-[@b4-crt-2015-362]\].
Telomerase activation has also been identified in thyroid cancers \[[@b5-crt-2015-362]\]. Approximately 66% of all thyroid cancers exhibit telomerase activation \[[@b5-crt-2015-362]\]. However, no telomerase activation has been observed in normal thyroid tissues, suggesting that it is cancer-specific \[[@b6-crt-2015-362],[@b7-crt-2015-362]\]. Therefore, telomerase activation has a potential for use as a marker of thyroid cancer.
Telomerase activation can be induced by a *TERT* promoter mutation \[[@b4-crt-2015-362]\]. Two hot spots of *TERT* promoter mutation in thyroid cancer cells have recently been reported \[124G\>A (C228T), 146G\>A (C250T)\] \[[@b8-crt-2015-362]-[@b10-crt-2015-362]\]. The frequency of mutation differs according to the histological type of thyroid cancer. The *TERT* promoter mutation has been detected in 7%-22% of papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs) \[[@b9-crt-2015-362]-[@b11-crt-2015-362]\] and 11%-25% of follicular thyroid carcinomas \[[@b8-crt-2015-362],[@b11-crt-2015-362],[@b12-crt-2015-362]\]. However, this mutation was significantly more frequent in poorly differentiated carcinomas or anaplastic carcinomas (29%-50%) \[[@b8-crt-2015-362],[@b11-crt-2015-362],[@b12-crt-2015-362]\].
Association of the *TERT* promoter mutation with poor prognosis of thyroid cancer has been reported. The *TERT* promoter mutation was associated with older age, larger tumor size, higher stage, and distant metastasis \[[@b10-crt-2015-362]-[@b12-crt-2015-362]\], and with tumor persistence/recurrence and disease-specific mortality \[[@b11-crt-2015-362]-[@b13-crt-2015-362]\]. However, whether the association with an increased risk of tumor persistence/recurrence is independent of clinicopathological parameters remains unknown. In the current study, to assess the possible importance of the *TERT* promoter mutation on tumor persistence/recurrence, the *TERT* promoter mutation in persistence/recurrence group of patients was compared with a matched non-recurrence control group of patients.
Materials and Methods
=====================
1. Patients
-----------
This study included patients who underwent total thyroidectomy at the Korea Cancer Center Hospital between 2006 and 2012, and had PTC surgical specimens of 1.0 cm or larger. The persistence/recurrence group was selected among patients with tumor recurrence or persistence followed by a second surgery in our hospital. Persistence/recurrence was defined as the presence of a structural abnormality confirmed by surgical pathology. The non-recurrence group was defined as patients without evidence of disease or recurrence for more than 5 years after surgery. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Korea Cancer Center Hospital (K-1501-002-036), and followed the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Electronic medical records were reviewed retrospectively for collection of data on patient demographics and tumor stage, and surgical specimens were obtained for genetic analyses.
2. DNA extraction
-----------------
Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded PTC tissues were cut into 10 μm sections. DNA was extracted using the QIAmp DNA FFPE Tissue Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) following the manufacturer's instructions.
3. *TERT* promoter mutation
---------------------------
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed, followed by Big Dye sequencing for identification of the *TERT* promoter mutation. A 235-bp fragment containing the *TERT* promoter mutations C228T and C250T on the genomic DNA was amplified by PCR. The quality of the PCR product was confirmed by gel electrophoresis, and its sequencing was performed using a Big Dye terminator v3.1 Cycle Sequencing Kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) and an ABI PRISM 3130xl Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems). When a mutation was found by Big Dye sequencing using the sense primer, the reaction was validated using the antisense primer.
4. *BRAF* V600E mutation
------------------------
Real-time PCR was performed using the TaqMan MGB probes and FastStart Taq DNA Polymerase (Roche Life Science, Indianapolis, IN) for identification of the *BRAF* V600E mutation. Amplification and detection were performed using an ABI prism 7500 Sequence Detection System (Applied Biosystems).
5. Statistical analysis
-----------------------
Based on a previous study \[[@b13-crt-2015-362]\], we hypothesized that the frequency of the *TERT* promoter mutation was detectable in 7.5% of the non-recurrence group and 36.3% of the persistence/recurrence group, and the sample size of the study was calculated with a type 1 error (α) of 0.05 and a power (β) of 80%, resulting in 32 patients in each group.
Propensity score matching was performed to adjust for differences in the other clinicopathological features that could confound tumor persistence/recurrence. The propensity score was calculated using logistic regression with the age, sex, tumor size, multifocality, bilaterality, extrathyroidal extension (ETE), and lymph node metastasis. Thirty-nine patients with tumor persistence or recurrence were identified and 39 patients without tumor recurrence were matched using the propensity scores. Among the 39 patients from the non-recurrence group, four patients were excluded because of missing formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues or poor DNA quality, and only 35 patients were included in this study. Finally, 74 patients were analyzed. The frequencies of the *TERT* promoter and the *BRAF* V600E mutations were compared between the persistence/recurrence group and the non-recurrence group. Data are expressed as a percentage or mean±standard deviation. The independent t test or chi-square test was used when appropriate. A p-value \< 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS ver. 22.0 (IBM Co., Armonk, NY).
Results
=======
The analyses included 39 patients from the persistence/recurrence group and 35 matched patients from the non-recurrence group, using propensity scores based on age, sex, tumor size, multifocality, bilaterality, ETE, and lymph node metastasis. Patient demographics and pathological findings of surgical specimens are summarized in [Table 1](#t1-crt-2015-362){ref-type="table"}. The mean age of patients was 48±14 years, and 77% of the patients were female. The mean size of the primary tumor was 2.6±1.4 cm. Most patients (90%) had ETE and all patients had lymph node metastasis. No patient had distant metastasis. There were no significant differences in clinicopathological characteristics between patients from the persistence/recurrence and non-recurrence groups. Among the persistence/recurrence group, 25 patients had persistent disease and 14 recurred. Neck lymph nodes were the most common site of disease persistence/recurrence.
The time interval from the initial surgery to the identification of persistence/recurrence was 1.8±1.2 years in the persistence/recurrence group and the median follow-up time was 7.5±1.0 years in the non-recurrence group.
The *TERT* promoter mutation was detected in 18% of PTC samples (13/74). The frequency of the *TERT* promoter mutation was slightly higher in the persistence/recurrence group than in the non-recurrence group (23% vs. 12%, respectively), but there was no statistical significance (p=0.23) ([Table 2](#t2-crt-2015-362){ref-type="table"}). Most of the mutations (85%) presented the C228T mutation and the others presented the C250T mutation. The overall *BRAF* V600E mutation was observed in 61% of PTC samples (45/74), comprised of 54% in the persistence/recurrence group and 69% in the non-recurrence group ([Table 2](#t2-crt-2015-362){ref-type="table"}). No statistical difference in the *BRAF* V600E mutation was observed between patients in the persistence/recurrence and non-recurrence groups (p=0.24).
The patients were then divided according to their *TERT* promoter mutation status. As previously reported, the *TERT* promoter mutation is associated with several clinicopathological parameters ([Table 3](#t3-crt-2015-362){ref-type="table"}). Patients with the *TERT* promoter mutation were significantly older, had larger tumor sizes, and higher tumor stages compared to patients with the wild-type *TERT* promoter.
Discussion
==========
In the current study, we showed that the *TERT* promoter mutation in patients from the persistence/recurrence group was not different from patients in the non-recurrence group who had similar clinicopathological characteristics. The results suggest that the *TERT* promoter mutation has no additional effect on the tumor persistence/recurrence of PTC.
Association of the *TERT* promoter mutation with tumor persistence/recurrence and the disease-specific mortality of PTC has been reported \[[@b11-crt-2015-362]-[@b13-crt-2015-362]\]. However, it remains uncertain whether its association is independent of clinicopathological parameters. In the current study, in comparison of patients with similar clinicopathological parameters, the *TERT* promoter mutation did not show a significant association with tumor persistence/recurrence. Xing et al. \[[@b13-crt-2015-362]\] reported significant association of the *TERT* promoter mutation with tumor recurrence, but there was no significance after adjustment for age, sex, multifocality, tumor size, ETE, vascular invasion, and lymph node metastasis. Although the relationship between the *TERT* promoter mutation and disease-specific mortality was significant after adjustment for age and sex \[[@b11-crt-2015-362],[@b12-crt-2015-362]\], multivariate analysis for tumor size or lymph node metastasis has never been performed. Therefore, for definitive assessment of the possible impact of the *TERT* promoter mutation on the prognosis of PTC, it should be confirmed in larger studies like the *BRAF* mutation \[[@b14-crt-2015-362],[@b15-crt-2015-362]\]. The *BRAF* V600E mutation also showed an association with tumor recurrence and mortality of PTC, but its association was no longer significant after the adjustment of clinicopathological parameters \[[@b14-crt-2015-362]\]. These results suggested that the prognostic value of the *BRAF* mutation was dependent on clinicopathological parameters.
The *TERT* promoter mutation has been reported in 7%-22% of PTC cases \[[@b9-crt-2015-362]-[@b11-crt-2015-362]\] and in 11% of Chinese patients with PTC \[[@b10-crt-2015-362]\]. The frequency of the *TERT* promoter mutation (18%) was also similar in this study. However, because the current study excluded PTC samples smaller than 1.0 cm, the overall frequency of the *TERT* promoter mutation in Korea or Asia may be lower than in Western countries.
Telomere shortening is closely associated with both cancer and aging \[[@b16-crt-2015-362]\]. Telomere length shortens with age \[[@b17-crt-2015-362]\], and a shortened telomere can activate telomerase and the *TERT* promoter mutation \[[@b12-crt-2015-362]\]. Consistent with our results in the current study, previous studies reported a consistent relationship between the *TERT* promoter mutation and age \[[@b10-crt-2015-362]-[@b12-crt-2015-362]\]. In addition, the *TERT* promoter mutation was found more frequently in larger tumors, and there were little or no mutations in papillary thyroid microcarcinomas \[[@b10-crt-2015-362],[@b11-crt-2015-362],[@b18-crt-2015-362]\]. These results suggest that vigorous proliferation of cancer cells triggers the *TERT* promoter mutation or telomerase activation.
Past studies have reported an association of the *TERT* promoter and *BRAF* mutations \[[@b11-crt-2015-362],[@b13-crt-2015-362]\]. The *BRAF* mutation is a well-known prognostic molecular marker \[[@b19-crt-2015-362]\], and PTCs with *BRAF* V600E mutations showed more aggressive clinicopathological characteristics \[[@b20-crt-2015-362],[@b21-crt-2015-362]\]. In addition, patients with both the *TERT* C228T and *BRAF* V600E mutations were associated with higher risk clinicopathological characteristics or tumor recurrence, suggesting a synergistic effect between the two mutations \[[@b13-crt-2015-362]\]. However, no association was found in another study \[[@b11-crt-2015-362]\]. In this study, their association could not be determined because of small sample size.
Conclusion
==========
In summary, the frequency of the *TERT* promoter mutation did not differ between patients with similar clinicopathological characteristics in the persistence/recurrence and non-recurrence groups, suggesting that the prognostic implications of the *TERT* promoter mutation were dependent on clinicopathological parameters.
Samkwang Medical Laboratories helped in identification of mutation.
This study was supported by a grant from the RTR (Radiological Translational Research program), Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences (50472-2015).
######
Clinicopathological characteristics of patients
Characterisic Persistence/Recurrence group (n=39) Non-recurrence group (n=35) p-value
--------------------- ------------------------------------- ----------------------------- ---------
**Age (yr)** 49±13 47±14 0.64
**Women** 30 (77) 27 (77) \> 0.99
**Tumor size (cm)** 2.6±1.6 2.6±1.3 0.94
**Multifocality** 25 (64) 27 (77) 0.31
**Bilaterality** 20 (51) 21 (60) 0.36
**ETE** 35 (90) 31 (90) \> 0.99
**LN metastasis**
Central LN 17 (44) 14 (40) 0.82
Lateral LN 22 (56) 21 (60)
**Tumor stage**
I-II 16 (41) 16 (46) 0.82
III-IV 23 (59) 19 (54)
**RAI** 37 (95) 33 (94) \> 0.99
**RAI dose (mCi)** 208±105 199±125 0.72
Values are presented as mean±standard deviation or number (%). ETE, extrathyroidal extension; LN, lymph node; RAI, radioactive iodine; mCi, millicurie.
######
*TERT* promoter and *BRAF* V600E mutations
Mutation Total Persistence/Recurrence group (n=39) Non-recurrence group (n=35) p-value
--------------------- --------- ------------------------------------- ----------------------------- ---------
***TERT* mutation** 13 (18) 9 (23) 4 (12) 0.23
C228T 11 (15) 8 (20) 3 (9)
C250T 2 (3) 1 (3) 1 (3)
***BRAF* mutation** 45 (61) 21 (54) 24 (69) 0.24
Values are presented as number (%). *TERT*, telomerase reverse transcriptase.
######
*TERT* promoter mutation and clinicopathological parameters
Parameter Mutated *TERT* (n=13) Wild-type *TERT* (n=61) p-value
---------------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------- ---------
**Age (yr)** 61±10 45±13 \< 0.01
**Women** 11 (85) 46 (75) 0.72
**Tumor size (cm)** 3.7±2.0 2.4±1.2 0.03
**Multifocality** 6 (46) 46 (75) 0.04
**Bilaterality** 4 (31) 36 (59) 0.07
**ETE** 13 (100) 53 (87) 0.34
**LN metastasis**
Central LN 7 (54) 24 (39) 0.37
Lateral LN 6 (46) 37 (61)
**Tumor stage**
I-II 1 (8) 31 (51) \< 0.01
III-IV 12 (92) 30 (49)
**Duration of follow-up** 3.4±3.4 4.7±3.0 0.17
**Persistence/Recurrence** 9 (69) 30 (49) 0.23
Values are presented as mean±standard deviation or number (%). *TERT*, telomerase reverse transcriptase; ETE, extrathyroidal extension; LN, lymph node.
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Wikileaks’ latest round of cables have caused an extraordinary impact in the Australian media scene, but a latest update to the cables has published unredacted names of potential informants in countries such as Israel, Iran and Jordan.
According to the New York Times, the site has published cables that were given the label “strictly protect” – which means that they must keep their source of information highly secret as they include whistleblowers and dissidents.
The New York Times, in addition with several other partners such as Der Spiegel, Fairfax and The Guardian, have been helping Wikileaks going through the diplomatic cables which have been slowly released due to the sensitive nature of these documents.
The issue has forced Reporters Without Borders, the most notable press freedom group, to shut down its mirror site for the Wikileaks cables temporarily.
“As Reporters Without Borders has neither the technical, human or financial resources to check each cable, it has to play safe,” it said in a statement.
“When it launched its mirror site, it said it defended “the free flow of information online and the principle of the protection of sources, without which investigative journalism cannot exist.” As the protection of sources is now in question, Reporters Without Borders has decided to suspend the site pending further clarification.”
This follows reports that an encrypted file containing all 250,000+ cables from the site was published on the Internet, again also unredacted. Wikileaks has placed blame on the Guardian after publishing a password in a book about the Wikileaks cables, which they say was not temporary. The newspaper, on the other hand, say that it was – and now Wikileaks has decided to sue them. Oh what a wonderful, litigious world we live in.
The move appears to signal the end of its relationship with the Guardian, based on the recent tweets, such as:
The site has previously ended links with The New York Times, due to “different philosophies and critical reports about his personal life”, according to the paper.
However, it appears that the cables were already published in a unredacted form before the Guardian-Wikileaks fiasco. According to Der Spiegel, the file had been published months before due to “a chain of careless mistakes, coincidences, indiscretions and confusion” due to the group being split into two – one aligned to Assange, the other aligned to Domscheit-Berg.
In addition, Domscheit-Berg has been accused by the group for deleting several more leaks that were going to publish, including “videos of a major US atrocity in Afghanistan”. Though, no other source cannot confirm their claim, so it’s pretty much hear-say. Plus, they don’t have a nice track record with their claims (i.e. Wired’s story about the arrest of Bradley Manning).
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Customer Reviews
Click here to see all reviews
4.38 rating based on 8 reviews
Kong Wubber--Material Not As Described by absolutelycats from Shreveport, LA03/18/2012
TheKong Wubbas received are not made of the original nylon fabic and as pictured on your website. Material is soft and fuzzy. My cat is a chewer and enjoys destroying the nylon Wubbas. Not what my cat wanted!
Happy Day by justy from PA10/27/2011
It's a good day with Wubba. The legs are a crinkly enticement along with the catnip. It makes us all happy! Kitty feels good and we enjoy watching.
they love it by 3 cats from Stanford, KY06/12/2010
I bought one of these, mainly to fill my order for the free shipping. My 2 indoor cats don't show a lot of interest in cat toys, but when I took this out of the package, they immediately wanted to play with it. It makes crinkle sound and jingles plus is catnip scented. They are actually fighting over who gets it! It has been 3 days since it arrived and still playing, I will have to order more to keep the peace.
Our cats love them! by Dee02/01/2013
We have bought several. They are machine washable and our cats are always trying to swipe them out of the clean laundry. I give them for gifts to other cat lovers!
Great toy by lmdkewl from Lexington, KY11/01/2012
Gave this to my sis and her cats love this. Good quality and keeps your cats entertained.
Disappointing by Purrfect from MI11/06/2012
Totally ignored by our cats neither one showed any interest in playing with it.
Puppies love this toy too by Whytedog from Northern MN06/27/2013
The puppies love this toy! The legs make a crinkle sound and the soft material feels good when they're teething.
one not enough by valrydee12/26/2012
Bought for cat, dog takes it away and keeps it, should of bought two. Light enough for cat to carry around and toss, Puppy actually like this one better than the small one for dogs, may be because she knows it is the cats tho. :)
Shadow loved it by 3 Dog Night from Pennsylvania12/05/2012
My cat Shadow found the Wubba in the box before we had even fully unpacked it. It was supposed to be his Christmas present ~ Christmas came early this year!
Destroyed in one day by theal8r from Northern idaho12/30/2012
My cat wanted to play with this before I even got it off the card. And play he did! He loved it to death, had it in three pieces in less than a day. But he did continue to play with the ball enclosing the bell for several days. Wish it was sturdier because he had a lot of fun with it. Have always had Kong toys for my dogs and found them to be incredibly sturdy, big disappointment here.
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Background
==========
Malaria, in the world's 104 endemic countries, occurs predominantly among intertwined poverty and lack of access to efficacious medicines \[[@B1]\]. A grossly neglected aspect of malaria control is the importance that patients should not just have access to medicines, but should have access to good quality-assured medicines. This was recently emphasized in the resolution adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council "Access to medicines in the context of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, to medicines that are affordable, safe, efficacious and of quality" \[[@B2]\].
In the last decade many studies have highlighted deficiencies in medicine quality afflicting all classes of medicines, with no country immune \[[@B3]-[@B11]\]. The problem is not new, with reports of falsified cinchona bark from the 1600s \[[@B12]\] and falsified quinine from the 1800s \[[@B13]-[@B15]\].
There has been considerable confusion over definitions of different types of poor quality medicines \[[@B16]-[@B18]\]. The terms falsified (i.e. produced by criminals fraudulently), substandard (i.e. unintentional but negligent errors in factory processes) and degraded (i.e. degradation through inadequate storage after leaving the factory or interaction with inadequate excipients) were used to define medicine quality. With increasing use of the term 'counterfeit' to refer to intellectual property (IP) concerns, the term falsified was used to avoid IP associations. Public health should be the prime consideration in defining and combating poor quality medicines \[[@B19],[@B20]\]. Nonetheless, there remains a lack of worldwide consensus on what constitutes a falsified medicine and no international treaty to criminalize the manufacturer or distributor of falsified medicines \[[@B16]\].
Falsified medicines may usually be identified by their fake packaging but both packaging and chemical analysis are required to be sure of a sample's regulatory status and public health impact. Such investigations are difficult as instrumental and chemical analysis with sophisticated and expensive equipment, reagents and technical capacity are essential. For packaging analysis, genuine examples of products, direct from the manufacturer, are needed as comparators but are difficult to obtain \[[@B5]\]. Recently, portable instruments to determine the quality of anti-malarials, such as Raman spectrometers and the Global Pharma Health Fund GPHF*-*Minilab*®*, have become available and are being used to screen medicine chemical quality \[[@B21]-[@B23]\]. For forensic investigations, innovative chemical fingerprinting and palynology techniques can provide clues as to the origin of medicines through analysis of their mineral and pollen composition, respectively \[[@B5],[@B24]-[@B26]\].
The consequences of using poor quality medicines range from prolonged sickness, treatment failure, side effects, loss of income, increased healthcare costs and death. In addition, societies may lose confidence in otherwise effective medicines, in healthcare systems and suffer major economic losses. Of particular current relevance, falsified or substandard anti-malarials containing subtherapeutic amounts of artemisinin derivatives or only one of the two active ingredients in artemisinin combination therapy (ACT), the primary treatment recommended for uncomplicated falciparum malaria, are very likely to contribute to disastrous anti-malarial artemisinin resistance \[[@B27],[@B28]\], increasing mortality and morbidity and risking the loss of these vital medicines for malaria control.
Nevertheless, objective data on the geography and epidemiology of poor quality medicines are sparse. Estimates of anti-malarial quality vary widely depending on the sampling methodology used, with most reports not employing rigorous scientific techniques, potentially biasing results \[[@B29]\]. In order to understand the shortcomings of the data and how the existing data may help inform policy to improve anti-malarial quality, an openly accessible databank of all the published reports of the quality of anti-malarials was developed: the WWARN Antimalarial Quality Surveyor \[[@B9],[@B30]\]. Here, the Surveyor is described, the database analysed and the implications for public health and potential interventions discussed.
Methods
=======
Structure of the Antimalarial Quality Surveyor Database
-------------------------------------------------------
A systematic review was conducted of scientific and lay reports on anti-malarial medicine quality, using Pubmed, Scielo, Embase, Embase-Classic, Medline, Google, Google Scholar, World Health Organization (WHO), United States Pharmacopeia (USP), and Medicines Regulatory Agencies (MRA) websites from 1946 to March 2013 in English, French and Spanish (Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}). Search terms used were 'anti-malarials' or 'artemisinin derivatives' or 'antimalarial agent' and 'counterfeit' or 'substandard' or 'fake' or 'spurious' or 'falsified' or 'quality'. Abstracts and full text of 404 studies were reviewed (See the "Inclusion and exclusion criteria of published reports included in WWARN database" subsection; Additional file [1](#S1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Data were extracted and entered in a database constructed using MS Access 2007. Descriptive analysis was conducted in Excel and STATA (v11.2, Stata Corp, College Station, TX, USA).
######
Websites used for information searching about poor quality medicines
**International Organisations and NGOs** **Medicine Regulatory Authorities and national bodies** **Pharmaceutical Industry**
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------
WHO Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies Ghana Food and Drugs Board Securing Pharma
WHO Prequalification Programme Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons Board Pharmaceutical Security Institute
International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT) NAFDAC Nigeria Reconnaissance International
International Conference of Drug Regulatory Authorities Thailand Food and Drugs Administration No to Fakes
ReMeD-Réseau Médicaments et Développement Health Sciences Authority, Government of Singapore Sanofi
Fondation Chirac Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, UK Government Pfizer
Medical Products Counterfeiting and Pharmaceutical Crime (MPCPC) Unit of INTERPOL US Food and Drug Administration
Permanent Forum on International Pharmaceutical Crime Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, USA. Counterfeit and Substandard Antimalarial Drugs **Alert lists and systems**
Medicines Transparency Alliance WHO-WPRO Rapid Alert System for Counterfeit Medicines
Médecins Sans Frontières Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines **Academic/Research Initiatives** E-drug
Third World Network ACT Consortium E-med
Council of Europe-Medicrime convention ACT Watch E-fármacos
European Alliance to safe meds QUAMED, ITM, Antwerp Partnership for safe medicines
United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime Counterfeit Drug Forensic Investigation Network (CODFIN) Mpedigree
Thai Pharmaceutical System Research and Development Foundation (PhaRed) Institut de Recherche sur l\'Asie du Sud-Est Contemporaine PharmaSecure
United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) PQM: Promoting the Quality of Medicines in Developing Countries Chatham House Sproxil
The Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF) Africa fighting Malaria Safe Medicines Beta
IRACM Institute of Research Against Counterfeit Medicines The CONPHIRMER consortium Pharmabiz
ReAct
**Newspaper websites with interest in medicine quality**
<http://www.ghanaweb.com> <http://www.allafrica.com>
<http://www.modernghana.com> <http://www.afrolnews.com>
<http://www.africasia.com> <http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php>
<http://www.monitor.co.ug> <http://www.newtimes.com.gh/>
Inclusion and exclusion criteria of published reports included in WWARN database
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inclusion criteria; Any of:
-- Any study describing in vivo or in vitro tests to determine anti-malarial medicine quality, assays to determine quality, discussion over sampling methodology & pharmaceutical legislation
-- Any published report from 1946 to March 2013 in English, French and Spanish
-- Articles about seizures, recalls and confiscations of anti-malarials
-- Case reports or articles describing side effects or patients not responding to anti-malarial treatments where quality was questioned
-- Studies with results from several countries or locations are included under each specific country/location.
Exclusion criteria:
-- Studies with results for a whole region or a whole class of drugs, without specific country or location data.
Key variables and definitions
-----------------------------
Anti-malarial quality failure rate is quoted from each report without additional analysis. If additional important information, other than packaging and amount of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), such as disintegration, dissolution, and microbiology are given they are also included in the database. (For a more detailed description of each variable and methodology see \[[@B31]\]).
In view of the controversy over the terms used to describe medicine quality, author's definitions were tabulated in and interpreted relation to the definitions used by WHO (Additional file [2](#S2){ref-type="supplementary-material"}), whilst a consensus is sought. 'Falsified' is used as a synonym for counterfeit or spurious, referring to a medical product produced with criminal intent to mislead, but without reference to intellectual property concerns. Samples that failed chemical assays, but without detection of wrong active ingredients and without packaging analysis, are classified as poor quality and not as falsified or substandard as this distinction cannot be reliably made without reference to the packaging \[[@B17]\]. However, samples that contained wrong API or no API but without packaging analysis were assumed to be falsified. There is a small risk of misclassification of such samples as falsified when they are actually substandard, due to gross manufacturing errors. However, such catastrophic errors of potential criminal negligence appear to be relatively rare \[[@B6],[@B7]\]. Samples that did not fail chemical and packaging tests (when these were done) are considered as good quality. As there is little information available to distinguish substandard (i.e. errors in factory production) from degraded (i.e. degradation due to post-production inappropriate storage) medicines, substandard medicines may also, in error, include degraded products that left the factory as good quality \[[@B17],[@B32]\].
Antimalarial Quality Surveyor
-----------------------------
The Antimalarial Quality (AQ) Surveyor is an open access, web-based visualization tool that tabulates and maps published reports on the quality of anti-malarial medicines \[[@B9]\]. The system was designed with medicine regulatory authorities (MRAs), national malaria control programmes (NMCPs) and medicine funding agencies as the target main users. A simple dashboard allows users to filter and explore the data and examine standardized summaries of anti-malarial quality reports. Key information that can be filtered includes the quality of anti-malarial medicines, where they were obtained and from what type of outlet and what sampling techniques and chemical assays were used.
The AQ Surveyor also includes a filterable tabular view, listing all the source reports plus other publications, such as reviews and descriptions of assay techniques, without primary data amenable to mapping, but relevant to medicine quality. The AQ Surveyor was reviewed by key audiences, including MRAs, NMCPs, pharmacists, and academics for feedback and adapted accordingly.
Results
=======
Of the 404 reports reviewed, 251 were eligible for inclusion into the database (Additional file [1](#S1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Of publications included, 51.8% (130) described anti-malarial quality survey(s) in a specific location or region with enough information to yield an estimate of the frequency of poor quality anti-malarials. From the 130 publications, a total of 529 records-surveys are plotted on the AQ Surveyor map. Specific details about the techniques used for analysis, quality result for a specific brand, dosage or pharmaceutical ingredient, were given in 82.3% (107) reports, giving 987 records in the database. The total number of samples included is 9,348, not including reports with more than 680 samples collected in five confiscations and reports with unknown number of samples in 38 reports.
Geographical and temporal data
------------------------------
Of 104 malaria-endemic countries \[[@B1]\], some published information on anti-malarial quality is publicly available from 41.3% (43), with over half of these (58.1%, 25) only having one or two reports available. Of malarious countries in South and Central America, Africa and Asia, anti-malarial quality data are only available from 19, 61 and 50% countries, respectively. There are no reports from vast swathes of central Africa, such as Zambia. There is only one report each from DRC, Angola and Gabon (that represent 40% of the estimated global burden of malaria); and Sri Lanka, Nepal and Melanesia. There are very few from India, South and Central America and southern Africa. No report was found from the Eastern Mediterranean WHO Region or the six endemic-malaria countries in Europe (Additional file [3](#S3){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Nigeria has highest number of reports followed by Tanzania, Ghana, Cambodia, Kenya, and the Lao PDR (Laos) (Figure [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}). There are only 82 locations listed in the AQ Surveyor, with 36.7% (61) of publications not stating where within countries samples were collected.
{#F1}
The number of surveys of anti-malarial quality has increased over the last decade (Additional file [4](#S4){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). In the last five years the focus of anti-malarial quality publications appears to have shifted to medicine regulation and chemical analysis techniques, with fewer peer-reviewed primary research articles on anti-malarial quality surveys. Peer-reviewed articles accounted for 24.3% (61) of the 251 publications, with medicine regulation 16.7% (42), analysis techniques 11.2% (28) and lay press 10.4% (26) accounting for the remainder (Figure [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). The median (range) delay between collection and publication was one (zero to 11) years, with 26.7% (39) of publications not stating when the sampling was conducted.
{#F2}
Sampling and definitions
------------------------
Of the 130 published reports only 5% (six) included evidence for randomization of sample location selection (Additional file [5](#S5){ref-type="supplementary-material"}) \[[@B33]-[@B38]\]. For papers published since the Medicine Quality Assessment Reporting Guidelines (MEDQUARG) \[[@B29]\] for conducting and reporting surveys of medicine quality were published in 2009, only 15.4% (six of 39), describe following them. Of 529 surveys, 32.3% (171) explicitly describe their definitions of counterfeit, falsified, and/or substandard and 20.6% reports (27) used contemporary WHO definitions. Another four reports mentioned the WHO definitions but called the medicines substandard, classifying them according to whether they complied with colour tests, had a different retention time (Rf) value in thin layer chromatography (TLC) or used the terms 'poor quality' and 'substandard' without conducting packaging analysis and based only on amount of active ingredient.
Of the 130 primary survey research papers, 47.7% (62) stated in which country the chemical analysis was performed, for 32.3% (20) of these, it was performed in high-income, non-malarious countries and in 17.7% (11) the analysis was conducted in WHO prequalified labs.
Antimalarial Quality surveys
----------------------------
The majority of the surveys (61.4%, 323) examined the quality of non-artemisinin derivative anti-malarials, especially chloroquine (23.4%, 76) and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) (23.1%, 75; see Additional file [6](#S6){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). To date only one report of falsified ACT has been reported in Asia (a seizure in China with medicines for sale in Africa, \[[@B5]\]) but there have been numerous reports from Africa. Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"} shows the number of failing samples classified by anti-malarial category and region.
{#F3}
Out of 9,348 samples included in the database, 30.1% (2,813) failed chemical/packaging quality tests. Oral artesunate was the medicine most commonly reported as falsified (with 61.9% of it failing) see Figure [4](#F4){ref-type="fig"}. Of the 2,813 samples that failed a chemical quality test, 39.3% (1,107) were classified as falsified, 2.3% (66) as substandard and 58.3% (1,640) were classified as poor quality, without evidence to categorize them as either substandard or falsified (Additional file [7](#S7){ref-type="supplementary-material"}).
{#F4}
An important minority (14.0%, 74) of the 529 surveys did not state the number of samples collected, and 45.7% (242) included less than ten samples per international non-proprietary name (INN) see Figure [5](#F5){ref-type="fig"}. The median (range) number of samples collected per study was ten (one to 258), excluding reports describing confiscations.
{#F5}
No surveys were found of a significant number of anti-malarials, including atovaquone, cycloguanil, clindamycin, dapsone-pyrimethamine, napthoquine, piperaquine, and parenteral artesunate. Surveys have mainly been conducted on oral artesunate, chloroquine and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine with a mean number of different anti-malarial INNs collected per study of two, up to a maximum of nine (Additional file [8](#S8){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). As an example, the figure in Additional file [9](#S9){ref-type="supplementary-material"} gives the different published failure rate results for all the anti-malarials sampled and classified as falsified in Cambodia, a country with many published reports. The numbers vary greatly depending on the number of samples analysed and methodology followed.
Of 130 publications, 45% (59) stated whether the 1,132 failing samples (including samples from one confiscation \[[@B39]\]) had high, low or a different API from that stated on the packaging. Of the failed samples with chemical data, 27.0% (306) had no API detected, 25.7% (291) had high API, 24.7% (280) had low API and 22.5% (255) had wrong API (Additional files [10](#S10){ref-type="supplementary-material"} and [11](#S11){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Of samples with different ingredients to those stated on the packaging, 20 different ingredients were found, ranging from aspirin, acetaminophen, mercaptobenzothiazole to soya flour (Table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"}).
######
Number of samples with active pharmaceutical ingredient found different to what the medicine was labelled as containing
**Active pharmaceutical ingredient found in anti-malarial medicine samples** **Medicine labeled as** **References**
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------- ---------------- --- ------- --- ------- ------- --- ------- --- ----------------------------------------------
2-Mercaptobenzothiazole 3 \[[@B38]\]
Acetaminophen 17 1 7 101\* \[[@B5],[@B38],[@B40]-[@B42]\]
Artemisinin 4 4 \[[@B5],[@B38]\]
Aspirin 1 \[[@B43]\]
Chloramphenicol 2 \[[@B38]\]
Chloroquine 8 253\* \[[@B5],[@B34],[@B38],[@B41],[@B44]-[@B46]\]
Chlorpheniramine 1 \[[@B47]\]
Dimethylfumarate 6 \[[@B38]\]
Erucamide 1 \[[@B38]\]
Erythromycin 7 \[[@B38],[@B48]\]
Erythromycin and Paracetamol (acetaminophen) 8 \[[@B49]\]
Sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine 100\* \[[@B50]\]
Metamizol 5 \[[@B38]\]
Pyrimethamine 8 2 \[[@B5],[@B38]\]
Pyrimethamine and Sulphadiazine 1 \[[@B5]\]
Sildenafil 4 \[[@B5]\]
Soya flour 100\* \[[@B50]\]
Sulphadoxine 12 57600 \[[@B38],[@B39]\]
Sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine 30 1 \[[@B51],[@B52]\]
Sulphamethazine 1 \[[@B53]\]
100\* = Unknown number of samples. Missing number of samples from one set of samples of chloroquine, mefloquine, sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine and three set of samples of quinine. Anti-malarial medicines: AS: artesunate, CQ: chloroquine; DHA: dihydroartemisinin; HL: halofantrine; MQ: mefloquine; QN: quinine; TET: tetracycline; AL: artemether-lumefantrine; SMP + PYR: sulphamethoxypyrazine-pyrimethamine; DHA + PQP: dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine.
The types of outlets where medicines were sampled was not specified in 23.8% (126) of the 529 surveys; 2.5% (13) of the surveys stated that they sampled only public-sector outlets, 37.0% (196) included private outlets alone and 28.0% (148) did not specify which results referred to private or public outlets.
Chemical analysis techniques
----------------------------
Thirty-three different techniques to determine the quality of the medicines was stated in one-hundred and seven publications, including high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) 37.4% (40), thin layer chromatography (TLC) 12.1% (13), direct mass spectrometry (MS) 4.6% (five), liquid chromatography--mass spectrometry (LC-MS) 2.8% (three), colorimetry 2.8% (three) and dissolution 24.3% (26). Examination of the packaging was reported in 21.5% (23) publications. For API content analysis technique and interpretation, the US Pharmacopoeia (31.1%, 41) was most commonly used, followed by the British Pharmacopoeia (9.9%, 13), but this vital information was not given in 41.7% (55) of publications.
In 60.2% (53) of reports, details of the manufacturers stated on the sample were not included. In a further 25 reports the country of manufacture was given without the stated manufacturer's name. Samples labelled, correctly or incorrectly, as made by Guilin Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, China, were the most commonly collected but details of 90 anti-malarial manufacturers from 36 countries, as stated on the packaging, were found in the reports. The alleged country of manufacture was specified in 934 failing samples (of 2,813) and China was the alleged country of manufacture of 35.2% (329) failing samples followed by Pakistan 16.2% (151), India 13.7% (128) and Switzerland 11.8% (110); whether these were the countries of manufacture is unknown.
Fifteen of the 36 (50%) stated countries of manufacture, have stringent regulatory authorities (SRA) that are members/observers/associates of the International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceutical for Human Use (ICH) \[[@B54]\].
Of the samples that failed chemical and/or packaging analysis 8.2% (209) were labelled as from a WHO prequalified manufacturer, 0.9% (24) labelled as from a manufacturer with an address within a SRA country and 4.1% (104) labelled both from a WHO prequalification programme (PQP) and from a SRA country. Of the eight WHO prequalified anti-malarial manufacturers \[[@B55]\], products from three manufacturers were found in the database.
Discussion
==========
The literature review available through the WWARN AQ Surveyor illustrates the alarming scale of poor anti-malarial quality in many malarious countries, and also highlights the major geographical gaps with no published information on the quality of anti-malarials for much of the malarious world and severe problems of data interpretation. The AQ Surveyor is the first freely available global repository compiling all published anti-malarial quality reports from the last 60 years.
Data gaps
---------
No reports of anti-malarial quality were found for 60.6% (63) of the 104 malaria-endemic countries and 38.6% (17) of the 44 African malarious countries. Although there are clear foci of poor quality anti-malarials, the current global situation remains unclear, poorly documented; and their impact on public health uncertain. The data are insufficient to understand the distribution of 'hotspots' of poor anti-malarial quality and the reasons for heterogeneity.
The data suffer from important limitations that are vital to bear in mind in their interpretation. There is likely to be a large unpublished 'grey literature' held by MRAs and the pharmaceutical industry that would contain useful information. The pharmaceutical industry, while paying close attention to falsification of their products, are often reluctant to share figures or specific examples \[[@B56],[@B57]\]. The lack of standardization of reporting is also serious limitation. Results are frequently not broken down by country and/or medicine, making it very difficult for individual countries to plan their response unless they are sent data by the authors of reports.
Difficulties of interpreting the data
-------------------------------------
Studies are not reported in a consistent manner, hampering comparison with other studies through time and space. The number of samples is commonly not representative and the small number of units tested also limits the interpretation of the results. One third of the reports (29.2%) did not state the number of samples they collected.
Estimates vary greatly depending on the sampling methodology and the technique used, probably greatly influencing reported failure rates. In 13 reports a portable technique was used to determine medicine quality and in eight of those, no confirmation analysis was conducted in a certified quality control laboratory whilst the accuracy of these portable techniques has not been properly evaluated in the field.
Most importantly, randomization, usually considered as the gold standard in estimation of disease prevalence was used very rarely. Without such an objective sampling strategy it will not be possible to obtain confidence intervals, objectively compare between regions or through time or test the effectiveness of interventions \[[@B58]\]. Convenience sampling can be useful for yielding alerts about poor quality medicines but cannot be used reliably to estimate their frequency.
Thirty-four (26%) studies did not report when the collection was conducted and there were long delays, up to seven years, between sample collection and publication.
Ambiguous definitions over what constitutes falsified and substandard medicines make data standardization difficult and 74% of the reports did not state what definition they used. A vital problem is the frequent lack of distinction between falsified and substandard medicines. This distinction requires additional time-consuming packaging analysis but is indispensable, as without these data MRAs do not know if they are dealing with fraud and criminal 'pharmaceutical' production or with poorly functioning manufacturing plants, or issues related to medicine storage. How an MRA will respond to reports of poor medicine quality depends on this distinction. This problem is exacerbated by the difficulty of accessing examples of genuine packaging to conduct packaging analysis. Out of the failing samples, 58.3% (1,640) were classified as poor quality. These poor quality anti-malarials tended to have either greater or lesser amounts of API in comparison to that stated on the packaging, suggesting that they are most likely substandard. Quinine and artesunate seem to be the most commonly falsified with wrong API, together with artemether-lumefantrine with no API. SP and chloroquine most commonly had incorrect amounts of API.
A further important issue is that dissolution testing was only included in 24.3% (26) of the chemical analyses, presumably because of the large investments in equipment, funds and laboratory time required. Anti-malarials may have the correct amount of API, but especially for SP, may have very poor dissolution \[[@B59]\]. Recent data suggest that similar problems may affect poor quality ACT \[[@B60]\].
More investigation needs to be done in the Americas and the central and southern African regions as there are very few reports from these malarious areas. Six countries: Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Côte d\'Ivoire, and Mali, account for 60%, or 390,000, of estimated global malaria deaths \[[@B1]\], but only one report of anti-malarial quality was found from Burkina Faso and Mali, and two reports for Côte d\'Ivoire. There is little confidence in the generalizability of anti-malarial quality for large populations afflicted with malaria. More surveys are needed in populations with high malaria risk (Figure [6](#F6){ref-type="fig"}). Also, little information is available about the registration status of the manufacturers in endemic countries or about expiry date tampering. Only 13.1% (17) reports stated whether samples were registered in the country of collection and 16.9% stated whether expired samples were found.
{#F6}
Other reviews summarizing the prevalence of poor quality anti-malarials did not have access to a full database of a long period of data in multiple languages \[[@B11],[@B61]\] and gave aggregated estimates of the prevalence of poor quality anti-malarials through space and time without emphasizing the limitations of the data and dangers of over-interpretation. The aggregation of information from sources with variable credibility with equal weight may not be appropriate and this issue needs to be addressed.
Therefore, the data reviewed here *cannot* be summarized as stating that 30.1% of the world's anti-malarial medicine supply is poor quality. All that can be concluded is, mindful of the above caveats, that 30.1% of anti-malarials tested over 67 years were poor quality and that this is an important public health problem. Enormous quantities of anti-malarials are consumed in comparison to the number of samples with published quality data. In Africa, an estimated 200-400 million courses of anti-malarial treatment are used per year with an additional 100 million courses elsewhere \[[@B62]\]. The number of ACT treatment courses delivered globally to the public and private sectors increased from 11 million in 2005 to 278 million in 2011 \[[@B1]\]. However, information of the quality of 9,348 samples and 1,034 ACT were only found since 1946.
'Talk only, no action'
----------------------
Despite evidence that poor quality anti-malarials are focally common and are bad for patients, there have been few interventions and the subject has been dominated by discussions with little action. The efforts put into addressing the quality of medicines have had little tangible impact, in comparison to the size of the problem, because the programmes have mostly been slow, under-funded and fragmented. Many parallel interventions are needed \[[@B3],[@B5],[@B11],[@B16],[@B19],[@B63]\]. The controversy over definitions has disabled much that could be done and the use of the unwieldy term 'substandard/spurious/falsely labelled/falsified/counterfeit medical products (SSFFCs)' has not helped. The international community should act with much greater speed and focus to build interventions to safeguard global medicine supply (Newton *et al*. submitted).
The newly created Member State Mechanism on SSFFCs should rationalize this term into definitions that are accessible and accurate and aid public health \[[@B16],[@B17]\], help to focus on the development and maintenance of up-to-date international tools, guidelines and standards, identify major needs and challenges and make policy recommendations to strengthen national and regional capacities \[[@B64]-[@B68]\]. The provision of free or subsidized ACT through the Global Fund, President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), the World Bank and other major donors has probably had a large impact on improving the quality of anti-malarials that patients take in the public sector, although it was not designed with this primary aim in mind \[[@B62]\]. The WHO Rapid Alert System \[[@B69]\] should allow a better coordinated sharing of information and help fill in the many gaps. However, more data from countries with high malaria incidence but few data points on anti-malarial quality are urgently needed. Similarly, the pharmaceutical industry, both innovative and generic, should have a legal duty to report suspicions of poor quality medicines to key stakeholders such as MRAs and WHO \[[@B56]\]. A major problem is that there are very few laboratories in the malarious world able to accurately analyse the quality of anti-malarials -- there are only three countries in sub-Saharan Africa and five in Southeast Asia with WHO prequalified laboratories \[[@B70]\]. Many of the current problems have arisen as a consequence of the lack of investment in MRAs in low- and middle-income countries, by national and international organizations, to allow them to effectively regulate and police the medicine supply. Of 100 primary survey research papers not performed by MRAs, only 26% (26) mentioned that they informed the MRA. Appropriate interventions to support MRAs are urgently needed.
Conclusions
===========
The data available for assessing the frequency of poor quality anti-malarials and their public health impact are of poor quality but suggest that there are severe problems at least in some important foci with high malaria burden. Poor-quality antimalarials that contain sub-therapeutic amounts of active ingredient increase the risk of drug resistance and may put at risk current therapeutic control strategies. There is an immediate need for standardizing sampling and assay methods and achieve consensus in defining different types of poor quality medicines.
In a social and economic landscape where 30% of the world´s MRAs do not have functional capacity and most developing countries do not have national laboratories \[[@B71]\], inspectors are not able to objectively screen for suspect medicines. In order to properly assess the quality of medicines, it needs to be ensured that such techniques are accessible in lower income countries and, as has happened in wealthy countries, empowering routine inspection must be a much higher public health priority.
Ethics statement
----------------
An ethics statement was not required for this work.
Abbreviations
=============
WWARN: Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network; APIs: Active pharmaceutical ingredients; IP: Intellectual property; GPHF-Minilab®: Global Pharma Health Fund; ACT: Artemisinin combination therapy; WHO: World Health Organization; USP: United States Pharmacopeia; MRA: Medicines Regulatory Agencies; AQ Surveyor: Antimalarial quality surveyor; NMCPs: National malaria control programmes; INN: International non-proprietary name; MEDQUARG: Medicine quality assessment reporting guidelines; Rf: Retention time; TLC: Thin layer chromatography; HPLC: High-performance liquid chromatography; MS: Mass spectrometry; LC-MS: Liquid chromatography--mass spectrometry; SRA: Stringent regulatory authorities; ICH: International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceutical for Human Use; PQP: WHO prequalification programme; SP: Sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine; SSFFCs: Substandard/spurious/falsely labelled/falsified/counterfeit medical products; PMI: President's malaria initiative.
Competing interests
===================
The authors have declared that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
======================
PTE conducted the literature search, designed the database and the map, conducted the analysis and wrote the first draft. PNN designed the project, supported the literature search and provided scientific support. PG, FF and MG provided scientific support. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Authors' information
====================
Patricia Tabernero and Paul N. Newton: Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN), Churchill Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Supplementary Material
======================
###### Additional file 1
Prisma chart.
######
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###### Additional file 2
WHO definitions for falsified and substandard medicines.
######
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###### Additional file 3
Type of publication per region.
######
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###### Additional file 4
**Number of surveys by medicine category and year of publication.** (A total of 529 surveys are included in 130 reports).
######
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###### Additional file 5
Type of sampling methodology followed in the reports.
######
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###### Additional file 6
Frequency of surveys and percent given by anti-malarial category classification.
######
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###### Additional file 7
**Medicine quality category classification of failing samples.** (Poor quality medicines may include many substandard medicines as this distinction cannot be reliably made without reference to packaging).
######
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###### Additional file 8
Number of samples per medicine surveyed.
######
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###### Additional file 9
Failure rate obtained from the anti-malarials classified as falsified in Cambodia.
######
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###### Additional file 10
Description of failing samples and amount of active ingredient found.
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###### Additional file 11
**Description of failing samples and amount of active ingredient found in falsified, substandard and poor quality medicines.** Samples that failed chemical assays, but without detection of wrong active ingredients and without packaging analysis, are classified as poor quality and not as falsified or substandard as this distinction cannot be reliably made without reference to the packaging. Poor quality medicines may therefore include many substandard medicines.
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Acknowledgements
================
We greatly appreciate the work conducted by the WWARN IT team in Oxford, Richard Cooksey and Andrew Payne, for the design and help on the map web application and deployment of the AQ Surveyor; and Julián Atienza for the design of the database. We are very grateful to all those who have given advice and information and to all those who have helped with Beta testing of the AQ Surveyor: A.A. Amin, Liz Ashley, Amir Attaran, Michael J. Bangs, Roger Bate, Joel Breman, Kennedy Chibwe, Latifa El-Hadri, Mustapha Hajjour, Glenn Harris, Alicia Hartman, Yonah Hebron, Jim Herrington, Harparkash Kaur, Patrick Lukulay, Mayfong Mayxay, Leonard Nyadong, Jayesh M. Pandit, Souly Phanouvong, Aline Plançon, Victor Pribluda, Anne-Lise Sauterey, Raffaella Ravinetto, Lukas Roth, Jitka Sabartova, David Schellenberg, Chanvilay Sichanh, Jeffery Smith, Ambrose Talisuna and Shunmay Yeung.
We thank the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (FSP Mekong Project), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust of Great Britain for financial support.
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Financial services companies may be at a constant need of updating their clients database in order to adjust their product offerings accordingly. An old, outdated or invalid entry in a client database may cause confusion and result in an inefficient use of time when trying to reach clients for offering products or services according to their constantly changing or evolving needs.
With some client databases reaching the millions of entries, financial services companies often face the challenge of using the appropriate mediums and resources for updating their client databases.
] For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for systems and methods that collect information from clients to update their profiles, and use the updated client profiles for assisting the forecasting or assessment of client needs.
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In partnership with ESL, MTN DEW® and ESEA have created the Mountain Dew League to give thousands of amateur gaming teams the opportunity to qualify directly into the next season of ESL’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Pro League. MDL teams will battle for eight weeks and the top teams will face off at the Mountain Dew Championship in the hopes of joining the ranks of the CS:GO pros.
“MDL provides a unique opportunity for aspiring professional gamers to realize their dreams on a global stage,” said Craig Levine, CEO of ESL America. “With the popularity of esports exploding, we’re excited to partner with MTN DEW and find the next generation of Counter-Strike superstars.”
MDL will kick off with the Mountain Dew Last Chance Qualifier on August 27 and 28 where over 7,400 amateur players will compete in ranked matchmaking. The top 24 teams from the Mountain Dew Last Chance Qualifier will then play each other once a week over the course of eight weeks in the Mountain Dew League Season.
The action will culminate at the Mountain Dew Championship in December where the eight best MDL teams in North America and Europe will compete for the coveted slot in the following season of each region’s ESL CS:GO Pro League.
Throughout the tournament, DEW will be providing the competing gamers with top tools and training, including access to online tutorials and pro coaches. Fans will be included as well as they watch the competition unfold through livestreamed events, behind-the-scenes action, and real-time stat tracking via ESEA and Twitch channels.
“Esports is becoming an integral part of gaming culture. As instigators in this space, we want to push the boundaries of competitive gaming and enable everyone in this community to take part in the experience,” said Sonika Patel, Sr. Brand Manager at Mountain Dew. “Our partnership with ESL is unique in that it gives everyone a platform to participate on a level playing field.”
For more information, be sure to check out the official tournament rules and follow ESEA on Twitter and Facebook!
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ZoomerMedia
ZoomerMedia Limited is a group of Canadian media operations controlled by Moses Znaimer. According to Znaimer, these media outlets primarily target what he calls "zoomers" or "baby boomers with zip", defined as people in their 50s, 60s and 70s who want to remain socially and culturally engaged and active.
ZoomerMedia was formed in December 2007 following Znaimer's acquisition and merger of Kemur Publishing, publishers of CARP Magazine, and website operator Fifty-Plus.Net International. It provides marketing, membership, and other services to CARP (formerly the Canadian Association of Retired Persons), of which Znaimer serves as executive director, and publishes Zoomer Magazine (the renamed CARP Magazine). The company also operates several Internet properties including a portal and a social networking site, all targeted to older adult audiences.
In addition, Znaimer previously personally owned a variety of other assets through his privately held company, MZ Media, that were also unofficially considered part of the "ZoomerMedia" group. These included southern Ontario classical music radio stations CFMZ-FM and CFMX-FM (Classical 96 and Classical 103 respectively), adult standards station CFZM Toronto (AM 740), and the annual IdeaCity conference.
In June 2009, ZoomerMedia Limited announced a deal to acquire the broadcasting assets of S-VOX, which includes conventional stations CHNU-TV and CIIT-TV along with specialty channels VisionTV and One: the Body, Mind & Spirit channel, for $25 million. As part of the transaction and a related private placement, Znaimer also merged MZ Media into ZoomerMedia.
Following the transactions (which required the approval of minority shareholders and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)), Znaimer owns 66% of the combined company, and insurance company Fairfax Financial owns 28%. All of these transactions were completed on June 30, 2010.
In December 2014, ZoomerMedia was reportedly in talks with Quebecor to acquire the Sun News Network.
Assets
Conventional television stations
ZoomerMedia's two conventional stations were part of a television system known as Joytv until August 2013 when CIIT was rebranded as "Hope TV" and dropped all non-religious programming. As Joytv, they were licensed as religious television stations that air religious-based programs in addition to other family friendly and entertainment programs. Both were previously owned by S-VOX. They had previously been a part of the Omni Television system, having been previously owned by Trinity Television before the sale to Rogers. Rogers sold the two stations to S-VOX on March 31, 2008.
CHNU-TV, Vancouver, British Columbia (Joytv)
CIIT-TV, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Faith TV)
Specialty channels
VisionTV; airing multi-faith and multi-cultural programming
One; programming on natural health, personal growth and holistic lifestyles.
Radio
CFMZ-FM, Toronto, Ontario (Classical 96)
CFZM, Toronto, Ontario (Zoomer Radio 740AM & 96.7FM)
CFMX-FM, Cobourg, Ontario (Classical 103)
CFMO-FM, Collingwood, Ontario (Classical 102.9)
Magazines
Zoomer Magazine
Digital
EverythingZoomer.com
Zoomers.ca
ZoomerSingles.com
Other assets
64 Jefferson Avenue (commercial building within Liberty Village in Toronto, Ontario)
MZTV Museum of Television
MZTV Production & Distribution
ideaCity (conference)
Marketing / membership operations of CARP
Zoomer Management Limited
ZoomerCard
ZoomerShow
See also
CHUM Limited – A similar company managed by Moses Znamier from 1981 to 2003.
References
External links
ZoomerMedia
Category:Companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange
Category:Companies based in Toronto
Category:Companies established in 2008
Category:Television broadcasting companies of Canada
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Nonylphenol polyethoxylate in hospital wastewater: a study of the subproducts of electrocoagulation.
Chromatographic procedures such as solid phase extraction and high performance liquid chromatography coupled with a fluorescence detector (SPE-HPLC-FLD), were carried out to determine the concentrations of the surfactant nonylphenol ethoxylate (9 ethylene oxide units, NP9EO) and its biodegradation product, 4-nonylphenol (NP), in samples collected from the wastewater treatment system at the University Hospital (HUSM) of the Federal University of Santa Maria. The results showed a high concentration of NP9EO in all the collected samples (0.075 - 4.12 mg L(-1)) and an almost complete absence of NP. In addition, electrocoagulation (EC) of NP9EO was carried out in aqueous solution and in the HUSM effluent. A NP9EO removal rate of 95 % was achieved from the aqueous solution, following a pseudo-first-order kinetics. Through LC-MS measurements in aqueous solutions, it was possible to determine the formation of short-chain nonylphenol ethoxylate (NPEO), such as nonyl-phenoxy acetic acid (NP1EC), after 30 min of EC. In the case of the HUSM wastewater, the NP9EO removal was 89 %, and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) abatement was 26 %. A respirometric test was conducted to measure the increase of biodegradability during the EC and the aqueous samples were found to be less readily biodegradable before the 30-min period of electrocoagulation than after it had been completed.
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spree#8 wrote:I would hate to see LeBron chose to leave his team for a third time.
Agreed. It would take away from him playing the most important role in bringing a championship to Cleveland. Most great athletes don’t seem to know or wanna accept when their time or era has come and gone. I’ve seen it happen with the best of them. Maybe LeBron knows his era in Cleveland is said and done and doesn’t want to spend the remainder of his HOF career exactly how it began, as far as knowing there’s only so far he can carry his teammates in the playoffs before reality settles.
If he chooses Houston, he’ll play the remainder of his career on a perennial contender that can defeat Golden State, unlike Cavs.
^^^then maybe for him the definition of making others better, which I've heard he's done his whole career, is forcing the issue of empowering his teammates to carry more of the load.
Look, LeBron is an amazing passer when he could easily just score 35 a night, he holds teammates accountable, he leads the fun activities that create a sense of team. He's probably the most inclusive superstar I've seen since Magic Johnson. So understand I'm not disputing that he makes others better.
But something has to be said about the fact that guys who otherwise would be 25 and 10 players look like corner 3pt specialists when he's on the court. Now LeBron doesn't needs to prove anything to me. He's got enough finals trips. But at his age, if he wants to continue winning he has to do more than what I've said, he needs to allow someone to be a Scottie Pippen to his Michael, rather than a whole lotta Ron Harper's.
And it just so happens that his current team don't really have Pippens. But still, it could be the Lebron/Love show. Could've always been but hey, you wanna demasculate Love all these years, now sleep in it.
Grady- Mario is the KD of tanking. Fiz got worried that playing Jordan would help the Knicks win, so he has to make sure Mario gets plenty of minutes.
Good post Nazr, although creating easier scoring opportunities for Kevin Love is one thing and making Love’s defense better — an entirely different thing.
If I were LeBron, I’d want to defeat Golden State’s superpower team in the Finals OR prevent Warriors from winning more championships. That would probably be the one thing I’d do, I must do, before I walked away from the game. As the case, I’d sign with Houston.
So, if he signs with Houston, I’d have to believe that’s the lone reason — defeating Warriors in the playoffs and reaching the Finals and laughing at whatever EC team awaiting Houston, seeing as how there isn’t an EC team that stands a chance against an already formidable Houston that added LeBron.
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- While the NCAA tournament is capturing the country's imagination once again, LeBron James says the NBA is just fine with its postseason structure as it is.
The Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star does not want to see the league adopt a play-in tourney with one-and-done consequences.
"No, no, no," James said Wednesday. "That's wack. That's wack. Why? You got to earn your spot to be in the postseason. No consolation for finishing last. That's corny. That's corny. That's wack. To play for what? What are they playing for?"
LeBron James is not a fan of of expanding the number of teams making the playoffs with a play-in-tournament.James said the eight teams in each conference that have the best record at the end of the 82-game regular season should be guaranteed a playoff spot, without needing any further qualification.
ESPN's Zach Lowe reported last month that there is "some behind-the-scenes momentum for the idea of a play-in tournament determining the last two seeds in each conference -- to the point that two specific proposals are circulating at the highest levels within teams and the league office."
Lowe reported the play-in proposal that has generated the most discussion, according to several sources: two four-team tournaments featuring the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th seeds in each conference. The seventh seed would host the eighth seed, with the winner of that single game nabbing the seventh spot, sources say. Meanwhile, the ninth seed would host the 10th seed, with the winner of that game facing the loser of the 7-versus-8 matchup for the final playoff spot.
James appears adamantly against expanding the playoff field in that manner.
"[Make the playoffs by winning the tournament], even if my record is better than yours? Nah, that's wack," James said.
nazrmohamed wrote:^^^then maybe for him the definition of making others better, which I've heard he's done his whole career, is forcing the issue of empowering his teammates to carry more of the load.
Look, LeBron is an amazing passer when he could easily just score 35 a night, he holds teammates accountable, he leads the fun activities that create a sense of team. He's probably the most inclusive superstar I've seen since Magic Johnson. So understand I'm not disputing that he makes others better.
But something has to be said about the fact that guys who otherwise would be 25 and 10 players look like corner 3pt specialists when he's on the court. Now LeBron doesn't needs to prove anything to me. He's got enough finals trips. But at his age, if he wants to continue winning he has to do more than what I've said, he needs to allow someone to be a Scottie Pippen to his Michael, rather than a whole lotta Ron Harper's.
And it just so happens that his current team don't really have Pippens. But still, it could be the Lebron/Love show. Could've always been but hey, you wanna demasculate Love all these years, now sleep in it.
the issue with the Love acquisition was always defense...and now that Lebron is older...Lebron should be the 4 and Love brings no form of fear at the 5 spot.
Lebron is the best player ive ever seen ...yes im including the GOAT in that statement but Lebron is also just a bad GM.
Jordan let the GM's be GM's and it paid off....Lebron having his hands in so many pots has cost him and the time he had a chance to let a GM be a GM and a coach be a coach...he won a couple rings and left because he didnt have full control of the situation.
Lebron makes every on his team very good...but Lebron has never....EVER made anyone else be great and at times letting someone be great is getting out of their way. Wade dialed it down for Bron to be alpha...Kyrie is close and the only argument someone can give me but thats about it...and look at the team Kyrie is on now lol
The coach of Memphis benched Gasol the whole 4th quarter because he was about to make them win against Utah. So much for the coaching staff always trying to win... why not just forfeit the game and reimburse all the stupid fans still naively thinking they’re going to see competitive sport?
This is probably one of the worst NBA seasons of all time. LeBron is unlikely to lose in the playoffs until he faces the west. People can hype up Toronto or whoever but they are choke artists and their star players are not true stars. Same story every year. Bron is going to the finals. Bron could probably go to the finals in the east with us as his teammates.
The west is a 2 team show. 30 nba teams and almost all of them have 0 chance of winning the title. That Durant shit with him going to GS just killed competition in the league.
Thing is, I dont blame KD, I blame the media and the fans for pushing this agenda. The value placed on having a ring is higher than anything else nowadays. This is changing how the players think about their careers. Leading your own team to the playoffs doesnt mean shit. If you dont have a ring you arent shit.
Its absolutely pointless to make the playoffs now unless you have assembled a super team.
Koopa Troopa wrote:Its absolutely pointless to make the playoffs now unless you have assembled a super team.
On one hand, I thoroughly respect today’s brand of athletes that take control of their careers, legacies, whenever possible. Like a wise man once said: “Y’all taught me — get there early.”
At the same time, and like you stated, it casts a dark cloud over the league when the playoff rounds are pointless because, unless the stars misalign themselves at the last possible second, we all know the two teams in the Finals and we all know the team that will walk away with the crown.
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Featured Writers
Headlines
Rival GMs appreciate brilliance of Lidstrom
NEW YORK -- Minutes before the end of a meeting of the NHL's general managers, the Detroit Red Wings announced a press conference for Thursday afternoon about the future of captain Nicklas Lidstrom.
NHL INSIDER
Cowher's love for hockey grows over time
By Tal Pinchevsky - NHL.com Staff WriterBill Cowher reached the pinnacle of his sport by leading the Pittsburgh Steelers to a Super Bowl victory. But through all his years on NFL sidelines, he never forgot about another sport he loved. READ MORE ›
"He's going to announce his decision for next ... I'll let Nick -- he's played 20 years, he can make his own announcement," Detroit GM Ken Holland said as he left the meeting at the Westin Times Square
As the GMs filed out of the ballroom at the midtown Manhattan hotel, several were asked about the impact of Lidstrom, who according to NHL Network will announce his retirement after 20 years in the NHL.
"I think he's going to go down as one of the all-time best defensemen ever to play," said Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman, who was the captain in Detroit before Lidstrom. "Having played with him and watched him closely from his first game, people know about it now but we've said it all along -- you have to watch him closely to appreciate how good he is, what a great athlete he is because he makes the position look so easy. He is a special athlete."
Lidstrom has won the Stanley Cup four times, and the Norris Trophy seven times, which is tied for the second-most in League history. He also became the first European-trained player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, and the first European-trained captain to lead his team to the Cup. He also helped Sweden win the world championships in 1991 and the gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics, becoming a member of the elite "Triple Gold" club.
During the course of Lidstrom's career, the Red Wings have been one of the model franchise in professional sports and a consistent power in the NHL. If Lidstrom does retire Thursday, he will be a lock to gain entrance to the Hockey Hall of Fame in his first year eligible.
"I hope he does [retire], and I love him," Sharks GM Doug Wilson said jokingly. "I can't talk about other teams' players, but I admire him and I think he is one of the greatest. He is brilliant in how he plays.
"I said the first part jokingly. I hope he doesn't retire. I think he is the standard of how we want people to play the game -- the ultimate professional. I think he is one of the, when we're teaching young defensemen how to play the game, I don't think there's ever been anyone as technically strong as him, and that includes everybody."
Lidstrom has been the backbone of the Detroit dynasty. The organization was able to transition from the days of Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov to the current core group that made back-to-back trips to the Final and won in 2008.
"I think he's going to go down as one of the all-time best defensemen ever to play." -- Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman on Nicklas Lidstrom
His absence could have a dramatic effect on not only the future of the Red Wings, but also the other top franchises in the Western Conference.
"Yeah, it is not easy [to replace him]. It has been a unique run," Yzerman said. "I guess sitting from outside looking in ... their depth -- they have some excellent young players not in the NHL coming forward. They're going to be a strong organization. It is going to be take time to rebuild your defense when you lose a player of that caliber if you do lose him."
Added Wilson: "How it impacts the balance -- you don't replace players like that. You don't. When we teach young defensemen, you don't even have to say anything -- you just show them how he handles a situation. He's brilliant in his simplicity in how he plays. Brilliant.
"There's never enough centermen and defensemen in this business. If you lose one, you're looking to replace one."
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Q:
How do I access the password type settings of an Android device?
I'm trying to access my devices password type settings and am getting a SettingNotFoundException even though the device does have a lock PIN set.
I have tried using the LockPatternUtils suggested in this question here but it does not work.
Here is basically what I'm doing (and what LockPatternUtils does):
try {
result = android.provider.Settings.Secure.getLong(
mContentResolver, "lockscreen.password_type");
} catch (SettingNotFoundException e) {
Log.d("Cannot get key", "cannot get long value", e);
}
This is where the SettingNotFoundException occurs since it obviously cannot find that setting.
Here is the kicker. I'm testing this on 2 different devices. One has a password of 6 characters and the other has a PIN of 4 characters. The first has Android 4.1.2 and the other 4.2.1. It works fine on the first one that's running on 4.1.2
Thank you!
A:
You are welcome to get information about password quality and such via DevicePolicyManager and the device admin APIs.
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Soccer: Montella dismayed as Milan suffer from video replay ruling
MILAN (Reuters) - AC Milan coach Vincenzo Montella asked in dismay if football was now being played on the pitch or on television after his side suffered from another controversial ruling on Sunday involving video replay technology.
Montella was left annoyed and baffled about how the technology, being trialled by Serie A, resulted in Milan’s captain Leonardo Bonucci being sent off for elbowing in the 25th minute following a tussle at a Milan corner.
Genoa went on to hold Milan to a 0-0 draw, leaving the big-spending seven-times European champions to slump into 11th place with 13 points.
The referee had brandished the red card after consulting the video assistant referee (VAR) but Montella, whose job is on the line after a series of poor results, was adamant that the incident looked worse on television than it was.
“This was a television sending off, not a pitch sending off,” Montella told reporters. “I need to understand what sort of football we have today, if we are playing on television or on the pitch.
“Bonucci was just trying to shake off his marker. I used to do it myself when I was a player.”
Montella added that nothing was given in a similar clash between Genoa’s Luca Rigoni and Milan’s Giacomo Bonaventura and also claimed that VAR could have been used to award his team two penalties.
“Why wasn’t the clash between Rigoni and Bonaventura evaluated by the VAR?” he said. “Bonucci yes, Bonaventura no. Please help me to understand.”
He added: “I was in favour of VAR but now I am losing patience.”
The VAR system is being used in a number of competitions on a trial basis before football’s rule-making body IFAB decides next year whether to approve its use on a permanent basis.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has already said he wants to use it at the 2018 World Cup.
Serie A could not immediately reached for comment and its referees do not speak to the media after matches.
Despite the pressure, Montella looked remarkably relaxed as he did his round of television interviews after the game.
“Over the last few Serie A games, more or less everything has happened,” he said.
“It was the third really good performance, yet we have taken home only one point so it can’t go on like this forever.
“Usually this type of bad luck happens over the course of a year, but it’s happening match after match with us.”
Discussing his future, he said: “I feel like the coach of Milan and I’m happy about that. My job is to start working for the next match. I feel I have the backing of the club.”
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Laura Place, Bath
Laura Place Bathwick, Bath, Somerset, England, consists of four blocks of houses around an irregular quadrangle at the end of Pulteney Bridge. It was built by Thomas Baldwin and John Eveleigh between 1788 and 1794.
Numbers 4, 5 and 6 are combined with Numbers 1 to 7 Great Pulteney Street, and others with Henrietta Street.
History
The fountain at the center of the quadrangle was not part of the original plan; it was added in the late 19th century. After completion of the main street in 1877 local residents petitioned and successfully raised significant funds to build a grand column (rather like Nelson's Column in London). However, as construction of the column started, the residents realised that the addition would tower over the area (it would be 50% taller than the houses), and so they then petitioned for it to be cancelled. After some negotiations, the column was pulled down and the much smaller fountain added instead. It consists of a circular stone basin with four radial projections surmounted by an urn with gadrooned bowl.
See also
List of Grade I listed buildings in Bath and North East Somerset
References
Category:Grade I listed buildings in Bath, Somerset
Category:Grade II listed buildings in Bath, Somerset
Category:Streets in Bath, Somerset
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Q:
Excel - Multiple values and need to add value from lookup
Apologies if this has been asked before, but after looking for ages, I have not found a solution. I am used to relational databases where this sort of thing is easy, but I've not tried in Excel before.
I have some archaeological finds data with multiple types of find at the same map coordinates. I need to be able to associate the coords to the find locations.
This is a tiny snippet of the finds data.
You will see here that there are 2 types of finds at locations, 239 and 281. I have a lookup table like this:
and what I need to achieve is:
I've looked into LOOKUP, VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP, but these do not solve this issue.
A:
You can use Vlookup. What have you tried? Why do you think it is not working? With your data sample, you can use
=vlookup(A2,Table2,2,False) for Easting
=vlookup(A2,Table2,3,False) for Northing
Table2 is the second table in your screenshot, consisting of the three columns FindLoc, Easting and Northing.
Using Vlookup with "False" as the last argument will return an exact match, so 238 for example will return an error. Omitting the last parameter, as suggested in another answer, will return an approximate match and a lookup for 238 will happily return the value for 224, since that is the next smallest value in the table.
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For those who are looking for a lipstick that lasts all day and nourishes your lips at the same time. The Milani Joy Liquid Matte Lips are available in 7 different shades and will not move unless purposely removed. For a limited time only!
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Standing
as the crown jewel of Mysore, Chamundi
Hills is the abode of all powerful Goddess, Chamundi
or Chamundeswari. A motorable
road, besides a flight of 1,000 steps, take the visitors to its
top, where stands the beautiful tall Gopuram of the temple, one
of the best examples of the Dravidian school of architecture.
The hill rises to a height of 3,489 feet. Half-way to it, near
the steps and the road, there is a beautiful 16-foot monolith
statue ofNandi, carved in
granite, black because of regular anointing with oil and other
sacred waters. The beautiful carved statue was a gift by the Maharaja,
DoddaDevaraja
Wodeyar, in 1659.
Nearby the Chamundi Temple is the Lalithadri
Palace, used by the former
Mysore Maharajas, whenever they visited the Hills, for worshipping
the Goddess, their home deity, in the temple. By the side of the
famous Chamundi Temple, there
is another temple, the temple of Mahabaleswara.
In fact, Mahabaleswara, Ishwara in the form of Linga, is the oldest
temple on the hill. The hill was earlier called Mahabaladri, after
Mahabaleswara. This temple was a gift by the Vijayanagar King
Vishnuvardhana in 1128
A.D. As one approaches the road towards the temple,
there is a huge statue of monster Mahishasura. There is a small
township on the hill. State Government buses (KSRTC) ply regularly
to the temple from Mysore City.
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110 F.3d 64
NOTICE: Sixth Circuit Rule 24(c) states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Sixth Circuit.Jerry SISK, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.SHELBY COUNTY, TENNESSEE; Shelby County Sheriff'sDepartment; and Steven Toarmina, Individually andin his official capacity as agent forShelby County, Tennessee,Defendants-Appellees.
No. 96-5379.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
April 1, 1997.
Before: JONES, SUHRHEINRICH, and SILER, Circuit Judges.
SILER, Circuit Judge.
1
Plaintiff, Jerry Sisk, appeals the district court's dismissal of this action to recover for civil rights violations pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985. Specifically, Sisk argues that the defendants, Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County Sheriff's Department, Sheriff A.C. Gilless, and Stephen Toarmina (collectively, the "Defendants"), violated and conspired to violate his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.1 For the following reasons, the court AFFIRMS the decision of the district court.
I. BACKGROUND
2
At approximately 1:00 a.m. on January 23, 1994, Sisk, returning home from a social engagement, was driving east on Knight Arnold Road in Memphis, Tennessee. Near the intersection of Knight Arnold and Hickory Hill, Sisk observed a car exiting a private driveway and attempting to cross Knight Arnold Road by driving south across all lanes of traffic. The car narrowly missed colliding with Sisk's vehicle. Believing that he had the right-of-way and that the driver of the approaching car was operating his vehicle in a dangerous and erratic manner, Sisk flashed his bright lights at the driver, Toarmina.
3
Sisk subsequently proceeded to his home, which was a few blocks away from the near collision. As he turned onto his street, he noticed what he believed to be "a legitimate law enforcement vehicle with its emergency lights operating" quickly approaching him. Sisk assumed that the vehicle was pursuing someone else and continued driving down his street. Directly in front of Sisk's house, Toarmina, the driver of the vehicle, forced Sisk to pull his car to the side of the road.
4
Toarmina exited the police car and, drawing and aiming his pistol at Sisk, ordered Sisk to step out of his car. Sisk complied. Toarmina handcuffed and "verbally abused" Sisk and informed him that he was going "downtown" for driving under the influence. Toarmina also called other "legitimate" law enforcement deputies to Sisk's house. During the arrest, Sisk was twice sprayed with pepper spray and struck on the side of his head with a blunt instrument. Sisk does not allege in his complaint who committed these acts.
5
Sisk went to trial on the driving under the influence charge. Toarmina testified at the trial, holding himself out as a duly authorized law enforcement officer. On September 28, 1994, a jury found Sisk innocent of the charge.
6
During the first half of 1995, The Commercial Appeal, a Memphis newspaper, reported that Toarmina had been acting as a renegade police officer by exceeding the scope of his duties as a Special Deputy. Upon reading the article, Sisk began to suspect that something had been amiss with respect to his arrest. He subsequently learned that Toarmina was only a Special Deputy to Sheriff Gilless and that the purpose of the Special Deputy program was to assist and advise the Sheriff's Department in a non-law enforcement capacity. Special Deputies were not duly commissioned law enforcement officers and did not have the authority to engage in actual law enforcement activities such as making arrests. Toarmina, however, had for several years been performing law enforcement duties as a Special Deputy and, on numerous occasions, had stopped and arrested persons whom he suspected of breaking the law. Sisk also learned that Toarmina had conducted these law enforcement activities with the knowledge, consent, and encouragement of his superiors, including Sheriff Gilless and Shelby County.
7
On September 28, 1995, Sisk filed the instant action, alleging his Fourth Amendment claim and state law claims of negligent or intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery. The Defendants moved to dismiss Sisk's claims under sections 1983 and 1985, arguing that the one-year statute of limitations expired on the anniversary of the challenged arrest, eight months prior to the filing of the complaint. The district court found that Sisk's excessive force claim accrued on the date of his arrest and, thus, was untimely filed.2 The court found that Sisk's false arrest and conspiracy claims were timely because the statute of limitations on those claims did not begin to run until early 1995, when Sisk first discovered Toarmina's status as a Special Deputy. The court, however, dismissed the suit, finding that Tennessee law authorized arrests made by private persons.
II. DISCUSSION
8
Assuming, without deciding, that Sisk has a right not to be arrested by a Special Deputy and accepting as true his allegations that he was unaware of Toarmina's status as a Special Deputy until early 1995, the complaint alleges facts from which one could infer that Sisk was unaware of his injury until he read the article in The Commercial Appeal. However, we also assume, without deciding, that the Fourth Amendment and conspiracy claims were timely filed, as we can resolve this case on the claims made.
9
Tennessee law authorizes arrests by private persons. T.C.A. § 40-7-101(3). A private person may arrest another:
10
(1) For a public offense committed in his presence;
11
(2) When the person arrested has committed a felony, although not in his presence; or
12
(3) When a felony has been committed, and he has reasonable cause to believe that the person arrested committed it.
13
T.C.A. § 40-7-109(a)(1)-(3). When a private person makes an arrest, he or she must "inform the person arrested of the cause thereof, except when he is in the actual commission of the offense, or when arrested on pursuit." T.C.A. § 40-7-111. The arresting citizen must also take the arrestee, without unnecessary delay, before a magistrate or deliver the arrestee to a police officer. T.C.A. § 40-7-113.
14
A police officer acting beyond his or her authority may use the citizen's arrest statute to validate an otherwise unlawful arrest. In State of Tennessee v. Johnson, 661 S.W.2d 854 (Tenn.1983), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1130 (1986), the Tennessee Supreme Court applied T.C.A. § 40-7-109 to the actions of a sheriff's deputy who effected a warrantless arrest of a defendant outside his jurisdiction. Using the citizen's arrest statute as a savings provision, the court upheld the arrest. Id. at 859. It found that, even if the deputy was limited to the authority of a private person, he was authorized to arrest the defendant under T.C.A. § 40-7-109(a). Id. In United States v. Layne, 6 F.3d 396, 398-99 (6th Cir.1993), cert. denied, 114 S.Ct. 1374 (1994), the court followed Johnson and held that an arrest made by Tennessee police officers outside their jurisdiction, when predicated on probable cause, did not violate the Fourth Amendment because the officer's actions were authorized as a citizen's arrest.
15
In the case at hand, Toarmina's actions were authorized as a citizen's arrest. First, driving under the influence is a public offense. See, e.g., State of Tennessee v. Durham, 1995 WL 678811, at * 2 (Tenn.Crim.App. Nov. 16, 1995) (unpublished opinion) (finding that citizen's arrest statute authorized police officer to arrest defendant for DUI outside of officer's jurisdiction).3 Second, the incident occurred in Toarmina's presence.4 Third, Toarmina informed Sisk of the cause of the arrest when he told Sisk that he was "going 'downtown' for DUI." Fourth, Toarmina delivered Sisk to sheriff's deputies without unnecessary delay.
16
Although Sisk argues that Toarmina cannot use the citizen's arrest provisions because he held himself out as an authorized deputy, Layne and Johnson allowed police officers acting under color of their police authority to later use the citizen's arrest statute to validate otherwise unauthorized arrests. Moreover, the court in Durham expressly rejected this argument: "The Defendant also argues that the officer in the case sub judice was on duty and stated that he was acting as a police officer at the time. Again, we do not believe the distinction is meaningful." 1995 WL 678811, at * 1.
17
The district court properly dismissed Sisk's section 1983 claim because Toarmina's actions did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Additionally, because Sisk cannot articulate a cognizable Fourth Amendment claim, the district court properly dismissed his section 1985 and respondeat superior claims and properly dismissed Sisk's state law claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.5 Because the court finds that Toarmina arrested Sisk under the citizen's arrest statute, the court declines to address Sisk's claim that he has a constitutional right to be arrested only by an authorized police officer.
18
AFFIRMED.
1
The complaint incorrectly lists Stephen Toarmina as "Steven" Toarmina
2
Sisk does not appeal the district court's dismissal of his excessive force claim
3
Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Rule 19(4) allows for citation of unpublished opinions
4
Sisk does not allege that he was arrested without probable cause. To the extent that he does so allege, he was aware of any lack of probable cause on the date of his arrest. Consequently, any probable cause claim is untimely
5
Sisk's § 1985 claim alleged that the Defendants conspired to violate his Fourth Amendment rights. An allegation of conspiracy without a proven constitutional deprivation is insufficient to support a § 1985 claim. See Johnson v. Hills & Dales Gen. Hosp., 40 F.3d 837, 839 (6th Cir.1994) (stating that to prove a violation of § 1985 plaintiff must show deprivation of constitutional right or privilege), cert. denied, 115 S.Ct. 1698 (1995)
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Related : Matthew Perry Spent the Past 3 Months in a Hospital
Matthew Perry revealed on Twitter on Friday that he has spent the past three months hospitalized.
In August, the 49-year-old actor, best known for playing Chandler Bing on Friends, underwent gastrointestinal surgery at a Los Angeles medical center to repair a gastrointestinal perforation, aka a ruptured bowel. The condition is life-threatening.
"Three months in a hospital bed. Check," Perry wrote in what marked his first tweet in almost six months.
Perry did not specify if he remains in the hospital or was discharged and also did not give other details on the condition of his health.
While surgery to repair a gastrointestinal perforation is successful most of the time, complications such as infections can occur, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The outcome of the surgery depends on how early the ailment was diagnosed, how severe the perforation is and whether the patient had another illness at the time.
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Reggae recording artiste Etana is currently in hot water with Jamaicans after her comments made earlier this week while speaking candidly with Entertainment Report (ER)’s Anthony Miller.
Among the slew of topics discussed, the ‘I Am Not Afraid’ singer shared her views on politics in the United States where surprisingly Etana, real name Shauna McKenzie, declared that she’s a supporter of controversial Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and she intends to vote for him.
Defending Trump, the ‘Strong One,’ says the candidate is not prejudice and she agrees with his statements about Mexicans, terrorists and illegal immigrants.
She also added that there’s no conflict with her political views and her music as they are completely two different things.
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All Eyez On Me Reviewed By Clayton Barnett
Tells the true and untold story of prolific rapper,
actor, poet and activist Tupac Shakur. The film follows Shakur from his early
days in New York City to his evolution into being one of the world's most
recognized and influential voices before his untimely death at the age of 25.
Against all odds, Shakur's raw talent, powerful lyrics and revolutionary
mind-set propelled him into becoming a cultural icon whose legacy continues to
grow long after his passing.
The Review
Two years ago F. Gary Grey’s Straight Outta Compton blew everyone
away with the story of N.W.A.’s rise to infamy, and after hearing a Tupac
biopic was in the works I was eager in anticipation.
Six years after he was stacking
shelves at Target Demetrius Shipp Jr. makes his acting debut as Tupac, and by
god you’d think it was Tupac himself up on screen. For his first outing
Demetrius puts in a spirited and powerful performance.
Like Straight Outta Compton I came in cold on this, knowing only a few
songs and his tragic demise. But just like N.W.A.’s revelatory story Tupac’s
tale is just as educational as it is emotional.
His mother’s Black Power roots, his
love of Shakespeare, his friendship with Jada Pinkett-Smith amongst all the
headlines is compelling stuff, but just overwhelming in the two hours twenty minutes running time.
Music video director Benny Boom rushes through Tupac’s early years, when more time
learning his rhymes might have made for a better picture.
But you’re here for the music and
it’s electric, the concert scenes are worth admission alone. For someone only 25 when he died, he made a
ton of epic tracks that drop one after the other during the film, and when California
Love hits it’s goosebump-inducing stuff.
The Verdict
While it might not hit the heights
of the more story-cohesive Straight
Outta Compton, this straightforward biopic is still a raw and compelling
look at the tragic life of a talent gone before his time.
Demetrius Shipp Jr.'s father produced "Toss It
Up" for Tupac Shakurs "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory"
album.
Jamal Woolard also portrayed The Notorious B.I.G. in
Notorious (2009).
John Singleton was originally attached to direct the
film, but the studio and Singleton couldn't agree on how Tupac was to be
portrayed in the film. Singleton eventually left the project completely but has
since stated that he still hopes to make his own film about Tupac on his own
terms some day. He was also the only director to have Afeni Shakur's full
blessing to tell her son's story.
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Archive for the ‘farming’ Tag
Norway’s recent decision to destroy 70% of its tiny endangered population of wolves shocked conservationists worldwide and saw 35,000 sign a local petition. But in a region dominated by sheep farming support for the cull runs deep.
Norway has a population of just 68 wolves and conservationists say most off the injuries to sheep are caused by roaming wolves from Swedish packs. Photograph: Roger Strandli Berghagen
Conservation groups worldwide were astonished to hear of the recent,unprecedented decision to destroy 70% of the Norway’s tiny and endangered population of 68 wolves, the biggest cull for almost a century.
But not everyone in Norway is behind the plan. The wildlife protection group Predator Alliance Norway, for example, has campaign posters that talk of wolves as essential for nature, and a tourist attraction for Norway.
Nothing unusual about that, given it’s a wildlife group, except that the group is based in Trysil, the heartland of the territory where most of the wolf culling announced by Norwegian authorities last week will take place.
Lars-Erik Lie, a 46-year-old mental health worker who founded the group in 2010, told the Guardian: “I got so upset and saddened by the locals’ thirst for wolf blood, and wanted to show that not all villagers are in favour of wiping out this beautiful animal.
“Many locals think there should be room for both predators and livestock, but they have kept their mouths shut out of fear for repercussions.” Lie has himself been the target of threats.
At the heart of the matter is the conflict between sheep farmers and conservationists. Norway is a large sheep farming nation, unique in letting most of its 2 million sheep roam free all summer without herding, fencing and with little supervision.
As a result, 120,000 sheep are lost each year, and 20,000 of these deaths are attributed to predators, judging by state compensation payouts, which are based on documentation and assessment by the authorities. Beyond that, 900 cadavers found annually are confirmed to have been killed by predators. The wolf accounts for 8% of kills.
In 1846, the authorities issued bounties to hunt them down, resulting in all species being virtually extinct by the mid-20th century, The wolf was given protected status in 1973, a watershed in wildlife management for the acknowledgement of its part in Norwegian fauna and in need of protection. The first wolf returned in 1980, though the first breeding entirely on Norwegian soil did not take place until 1997.
In the meantime, a new breed of sheep had invaded the land. “The breed of sheep vastly favoured by Norwegian farmers is unsuited to roam around the rugged terrain of the country,” said Silje Ask Lundberg, from Friends of the Earth Norway.
The sheep is favoured for its size and large proportion of meat, but is a bad climber and has poor herding and flight instincts, unlike the old short-tail land race, considered the original Norwegian sheep race, prevalent on the west coast, where ironically there are no wolves.
Just across the mountain from Lie’s house in Trysil, is the territory of the Slettåsen pack, which has been marked out for a complete cull even though the wolves live within a designated wolf zone.
The framework for predator management has been set by parliament, with local predator management boards setting hunting and culling quotas when population targets have been achieved.
“The lack of a scientific and professional approach is obvious,” said Lie. In January his organisation filed a complaint that the board votes in representatives with vested interests, such as farmers, whereas green party members have been excluded.
At his office in Oslo, Sverre Lundemo of WWF Norway is also puzzled. “It seems strange that we should punish the wolf for following its natural instincts, particularly within specially designated zones where the wolf supposedly has priority over livestock,” he says.
“The Slettåsen pack is very stable and of genetic importance. Scandinavian wolves are subject to inbreeding and poaching, and this makes the small population more vulnerable to random events. Culling these individuals can undermine the viability of the entire Norwegian wolf population.”
According to Lundemo, the decision for culling appears to be based on politics as much as on science. The WWF have examined the case document that formed the base of the decision. “This a questionable decision on many levels. The case documents don’t substantiate why these three particular territories were singled out for culling,” said Lundemo.
Despite the population within the wolf zone having almost doubled since last year, attacks on livestock have almost halved. “Most of the injuries are inflicted by roaming young wolves from Swedish packs,” said Lundemo.
Sweden has stricter regulations for sheep farmers, refusing to compensate farmers who don’t protect livestock properly. As a member of the EU, Sweden had a planned licenced cull of 10 % of their wolf population of 400 in 2014 reduced following pressure.
Friends of the Earth advocate more suitable breeds of sheep, or cattle, and better fences and herding. WWF is exploring the option to challenge the decision legally before the wolf hunt sets in on 1 January 2017.
Back in Trysil, the Predator Alliance is gaining momentum. The group has submitted a 35,000-signature petition for protecting the wolf to the prime minister, Erna Solberg. “We humans have become greedy, behaving like nature is there for our taking,” said Lie. “When you have a population as small as the one we have in Norway now, you have to draw the line.”
Farmers are concerned that the reintroduced predator will kill livestock, but research from other countries shows these fears are unfounded
The Eurasian lynx: research from other European countries shows their reintroduction is unlikely to trouble British farmers. Photograph: Alamy
Photograph: Jamen Percy/Alamy
Depending on who you ask, the Eurasian lynx is either a benign woodland wonder or a sheep-stalking terror. In reality, any lynx can be either or none of these things. But research from other European countries to which they have returned tells us that a mooted reintroduction to Britain is unlikely to trouble farmers.
The campaign to restore the 30kg cat to the UK gathered steam this week as the proposal was opened to stakeholder consultation. There is no suggestion the lynx will attack humans, but the National Farmers Union (NFU) was quick to release a statement laying out its objections.
The UK’s major farming lobby group said its biggest concern was that lynx would hunt farm animals – particularly lambs. “Those animals are farmers’ livelihoods,” said NFU countryside adviser Claire Robinson.
According to the Lynx UK Trust, the group behind the reintroduction push, farmers’ fears are baseless. An analysis from consulting firm AECOM, found that a lynx will take an average of just one sheep every two and a half years. It even raised the possibility of a net benefit to flock safety if the lynx controlled lamb-hunting foxes as they have in Switzerland.
“I would class 0.4 sheep per year as no impact,” said Paul O’Donoghue, the lynx trust’s chief scientific adviser.
The AECOM analysis averaged out statistics collected during the 1990s from across Europe. However in the original study no standardisation was used to ensure that sheep kills in each country had been recorded in the same way. One of the authors of the 15-year-old report, professor Thomas Kaphegyi, told the Guardian he was “surprised” to see their data used in this way. “Far more relevant information and data on depredation of lynx on livestock is at hand by now,” he said.
The average kills per lynx is important as it allows lynx advocates to estimate the total amount of compensation to be paid to farmers who lose sheep to lynx. The AECOM report found their initially proposed 38 animals would cost just £757 each year, paying farmers double the market rate for killed sheep. This cost would be overwhelmingly offset by £2.7m per year earned through a local lynx tourism boom and the reduction in deer management costs as lynx culled them naturally.
If this windfall proves remotely accurate, the project could remain economically feasible even if the sheep kill rate was 25 times higher – on par with Europe’s most lynx-troubled sheep flock in Norway. However there is little reason to think lynx will hunt this many sheep in Britain. Their flawed attempt to pin down a pan-European average masks the best argument the pro-lynx group has to convince British farmers their flocks are safe – everywhere is not the same.
The AECOM report doesn’t entirely ignore this variability. A “worst-case scenario” is discussed in which the UK’s sheep are hit at the same rate as in France (2.84 sheep per lynx per year) and the relatively huge impact of lynx in Norway is excluded as an outlier.
In September, Norway’s farming lobby warned Scottish farmers about the problem they were having with lynx. During the past century, when few lynx were found in the country, farmers grew accustomed to letting their sheep roam deep into the forest. This practice was exposed after lynx gained legal protection in 1979 and recolonised the forests.
According to a monitoring programme in Norway, between 259 and 486 lynx are responsible for killing 6,000-10,000 sheep each year. In some regions, individual male lynx have been known to take up to seven sheep each month.
But John Odden, the researcher who conducted the Norwegian study, said Norway was the exception that proved the otherwise more reassuring rule. In France’s Jura mountains, even though the amount of available deer prey is low, lynx took five times less sheep than in Norway because they were farmed in enclosed pastures. Odden’s work in Norway backed up the conclusions of researchers in France: that if sheep are kept in pastures slightly removed from woodland margins, regularly monitored and with high populations of deer, lynx mostly don’t bother with them.
“I would expect that depredation on sheep from lynx would occur on a regular basis in Britain,” he said. “But probably on a totally different scale to what we see here in Norway. You have much higher densities of wild ungulates [deer] than us, a more ‘clumped’ sheep distribution, and more forested areas without free-ranging sheep.”
The UK lynx programme has proposed releasing lynx into two English forests: Kielder in Northumberland and Thetford on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. The NFU said these forestry commission sites contained remote regions of patchy, fragmented forest beside which some graziers run sheep. It raised the possibility that these flocks would suffer.
We might pause to wonder at the impossibility – across the breadth of the British Isles – of finding a forest in which to release a few lynx without troubling sheep or shepherd. Six thousand years ago, Britain’s great forests covered 75% of the landscape. Seven thousand lynx ambushed their prey in those woods. Today, less than 13% of the country remains covered.
How rewilded is a lynx that is returned to a semi-wild, sheep-encroached forest?According to the Woodland Trust, sheep and deer are the primary reasons Britain’s forest cover remains at just one-third of the EU average. If the lynx reintroduction is to be anything more than a novelty, sheep-grazing in forest margins must be curtailed, forests must be allowed to spread, creating habitat corridors from which lynx have no need to venture. In this way, sheep and lynx can be kept safe from each other.
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Q:
Solving $f(x) = f(x/2) + f(x/3) + x$
How would one proceed to proving that the solution to the functional equation $$f(x) = f(x/2) + f(x/3) + x$$ is $f(x)=6x$ which is also unique?
To clarify, I am not aware of neither the proof of the solution, neither the uniqueness or not.
A:
Unfortunately, $f(x)=6x$ is not the unique solution to your functional equation. Let us define the constant $a\approx 0.787885$ as the unique real solution to the equation
$$\frac{1}{2^a}+\frac{1}{3^a}=1$$
Then we may see that the function
$$f(x)=|x|^a+6x$$
also satisfies the given functional equation, since
$$f(x)=|x|^a+6x=\frac{|x|^a}{2^a}+\frac{6x}{2}+\frac{|x|^a}{3^a}+\frac{6x}{3}+x=f(x/2)+f(x/3)+x$$
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Changes in ATP concentration, mitochondrial structures, and rhodamine 123 binding in two marine dinoflagellates cultured in the presence of parathion.
Parathion, an organophosphorous insecticide, is highly toxic to the two free-living marine dinoflagellates Prorocentrum micans Ehrenberg (autotrophic) and Crypthecodinium cohnii Biechler (heterotrophic). To study its non-antiacetylcholinesterase action we assessed its effect on the mitochondrial system, as shown by changes in intracellular ATP concentration and in rhodamine 123 fluorescence evaluated by image analysis. The technique of image analysis permits direct assessment of changes in the overall activity of mitochondria in living cells. Mitochondrial structures were also examined in the electron microscope. The three methods of investigation yielded complementary results. In P. micans, parathion noticeably altered mitochondria but did not significantly alter ATP concentrations. In C. cohnii, however, mitochondrial disturbance was slight, whereas ATP increased greatly. We think, therefore, that parathion has different effects on mitochondria in the two organisms, and in particular that it increases mitochondrial activity in C. cohnii.
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940 F.2d 664
Unpublished DispositionNOTICE: Sixth Circuit Rule 24(c) states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Sixth Circuit.Demetrius Lamount WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellant,v.UNITED STATES of America, Respondent-Appellee.
No. 91-1244.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
July 22, 1991.
1
Before BOGGS, Circuit Judge, BAILEY BROWN, Senior Circuit Judge, and GIBBONS, District Judge.*
ORDER
2
Demetrius Lamount Williams, a pro se federal prisoner, appeals the district court's order denying his motion filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2255. This case has been referred to a panel of the court pursuant to Rule 9(a), Rules of the Sixth Circuit. Upon examination, this panel unanimously agrees that oral argument is not needed. Fed.R.App.P. 34(a).
3
In 1990, Williams pled guilty to two counts of armed bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2113(d) and two counts of the use of a firearm to commit bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 924(c). The district court sentenced Williams to five years probation on the armed bank robbery counts and one hundred eighty (180) months imprisonment on the firearm counts.
4
Williams subsequently filed the present motion to vacate pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2255. Williams argued that his double jeopardy rights were violated when he was sentenced for armed bank robbery and the use of a firearm to commit bank robbery. The district court denied Williams's motion. Williams has filed a timely appeal.
5
Upon review, we affirm the district court's judgment. It was the clear intent of Congress to provide for multiple punishments under 18 U.S.C. Secs. 924(c) and 2113(d). Missouri v. Hunter, 459 U.S. 359, 367 (1983); United States v. Holloway, 905 F.2d 893, 895 (5th Cir.1990).
6
Accordingly, we affirm the district court's judgment. Rule 9(b)(3), Rules of the Sixth Circuit.
*
The Honorable Julia S. Gibbons, U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Tennessee, sitting by designation
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= -1602*i**3 + 12*i**2 - 12*i - 24. Let w(n) = -5*n**3 - n**2 + n + 2. Determine 12*w(g) + z(g).
-1662*g**3
Let t(d) = -744*d. Let j(r) = 4463*r. Give -6*j(i) - 39*t(i).
2238*i
Let y be -9 + -1 + 0 + 3. Let g(r) = -10*r + 25. Let x(z) = -7*z + 17. Let p = 579 - 574. Give p*g(v) + y*x(v).
-v + 6
Let s(m) = 2*m**3 - 3*m + 1. Let q(l) = 6*l + 13*l + 2*l - 45*l + 14*l + 11*l. Let c be 2 + -1 + (-12)/(-6). Let i = c + -4. Determine i*s(d) - 3*q(d).
-2*d**3 - 1
Let x(z) = 6577 - 6572 - 2*z - z + z. Let y(i) = i - 2. Give -6*x(r) - 17*y(r).
-5*r + 4
Let g(t) = 881*t**3 - 17*t**2 + 22*t - 11. Let a(y) = 176*y**3 - 3*y**2 + 4*y - 2. Give -11*a(o) + 2*g(o).
-174*o**3 - o**2
Let r(p) = 6*p**2 - 3. Let c(o) = -10*o**2 - 54*o + 54*o - o**2 + 5. Suppose 12*g = -3*x + 13*g + 16, 0 = -4*x + 2*g + 22. Calculate x*r(t) + 3*c(t).
-3*t**2
Let q(y) = -3 + 0 - 3*y**3 - 4 - 7*y**2. Let b(w) = -2*w**3 - 5*w**2 - 5. Let p(s) = 14*s**2 - 210*s + 511. Let h be p(12). Determine h*b(i) - 5*q(i).
i**3
Let g(j) = 18*j**3 + 49*j**2 + 3*j + 12. Let f(d) = 2*d**3 - d**2 + d + 2. Determine -6*f(l) + g(l).
6*l**3 + 55*l**2 - 3*l
Let k(q) = -3*q + 7. Let p be k(6). Let y(t) = -75*t + 15 - 3 - 8 + 78*t. Let x(j) = -16*j - 21. What is p*y(g) - 2*x(g)?
-g - 2
Let q(s) = 1. Let f = 3694 + -3695. Let r(z) = z + 15. Calculate f*r(y) + 2*q(y).
-y - 13
Let k(a) = -34*a**2 + 14*a + 15. Let x(r) = -9*r**2 + 4*r + 4. What is -2*k(u) + 9*x(u)?
-13*u**2 + 8*u + 6
Let i(d) = -722*d**3 + 9*d**2 + 6*d + 5. Let u(s) = 362*s**3 - 4*s**2 - 2*s - 2. Determine -2*i(n) - 5*u(n).
-366*n**3 + 2*n**2 - 2*n
Suppose -m = -2*d - 6 + 14, 6*d = -3*m + 24. Let b(t) = 4*t - 1. Let w(z) be the first derivative of -z**3/3 + 9*z**2/2 - 2*z + 5. Calculate d*w(v) - 9*b(v).
-4*v**2 + 1
Suppose 95 = -7*k + 116. Suppose -69 = k*h - 66. Let l(w) = w - 1. Let c(f) = f. What is h*c(g) + 2*l(g)?
g - 2
Let x(f) = f - 18. Let m(v) = -2893. What is m(i) + 2*x(i)?
2*i - 2929
Let k(g) = -1380*g + 2. Let w(m) = -1422*m + 3. What is -4*k(x) + 3*w(x)?
1254*x + 1
Let y(d) = 1. Let w(k) be the first derivative of -297*k - k**2 + 153*k + 126*k + 135. Calculate -2*w(o) - 36*y(o).
4*o
Let h(k) = 297*k**3 + 55*k**2 - 55*k. Let u(m) be the first derivative of -11*m**4/4 - 2*m**3/3 + m**2 - 552. Calculate 6*h(l) + 165*u(l).
-33*l**3
Let m = -136 - -132. Let r(t) = -t + 1. Let h(u) = -1. Let y(c) = -3. Let l(x) = 4*h(x) - y(x). What is m*l(o) - 3*r(o)?
3*o + 1
Let w(x) = 7*x - 2. Suppose 0 = -29*v + 145 + 464. Suppose -v*y - 2 - 40 = 0. Let b(l) = -7*l + 2. Determine y*w(s) - 3*b(s).
7*s - 2
Let q(u) = -2*u + 65*u**2 + u**3 - 68*u**2 - 6*u + 14 - 7 - 4. Let v(j) = -j**2 + j + 1. What is q(d) - 3*v(d)?
d**3 - 11*d
Let q(h) = 8*h - 1100. Let o(g) = 3*g - 437. Calculate 12*o(u) - 5*q(u).
-4*u + 256
Let y(p) = 7*p**2 - 3. Let c(q) = 18*q**2 - 2*q - 9. Determine -4*c(h) + 11*y(h).
5*h**2 + 8*h + 3
Let w(m) = 68*m**3 - 229*m - 6. Let b(t) = -44*t**3 + 152*t + 4. What is 8*b(h) + 5*w(h)?
-12*h**3 + 71*h + 2
Let m(h) = 1608*h**3 + 15*h**2 + 5*h - 10. Let d(t) = 6433*t**3 + 63*t**2 + 21*t - 42. Calculate 5*d(f) - 21*m(f).
-1603*f**3
Let c = 150 - 145. Let n(j) = -13*j**2 + 4*j**2 - 1 - 3 + c*j + 10*j**2 + 0. Let p(v) = -2*v**2 - 14*v + 11. Determine 11*n(o) + 4*p(o).
3*o**2 - o
Let j(x) = -116*x**2 + 21*x + 84. Let r(t) = 74*t**2 - 14*t - 52. Let k(v) = 5*j(v) + 8*r(v). Let m(l) = -24*l**2 + 15*l - 9. Calculate -13*k(c) - 6*m(c).
-12*c**2 + c + 2
Let u(w) = -2*w**2 - 246*w + 12. Let t(x) = 2*x**2 + 231*x - 11. Give -7*t(h) - 6*u(h).
-2*h**2 - 141*h + 5
Let m(k) = 285*k - 2565. Let z(x) = x - 3. Calculate 4*m(v) - 3420*z(v).
-2280*v
Let i(h) = -14*h - 12. Let f = 5 - -5. Let k(u) = -13*u - 4 - 11*u - f*u - 19*u + 48*u. What is 4*i(r) - 11*k(r)?
-r - 4
Let l(a) = 5*a - 26. Let y(p) = -67 + 4*p + 28 - 14 + 28. What is -2*l(d) + 3*y(d)?
2*d - 23
Let c(g) = g + 10. Suppose -4*a + 12*a = 24. Let y(j) = -20 - 6 + a + 2 - 2*j. Determine -13*c(b) - 6*y(b).
-b - 4
Let k(t) = t**3 + t + 5. Let h(g) = -12*g - 181. Let r be h(-16). Suppose 0 = r*y - 3*y - 48. Let v(x) = -3*x**3 - 3*x - 14. What is y*v(c) + 17*k(c)?
-c**3 - c + 1
Let n(s) be the first derivative of -s**2/2 - 5097. Let x(a) be the second derivative of 4*a**3/3 + 3*a. Give -4*n(q) - x(q).
-4*q
Let i(n) = -143*n - 65. Let r(c) = -427*c - 215. Give -7*i(p) + 2*r(p).
147*p + 25
Let w(o) = o - 2. Let k(v) = -189*v - 10. What is k(l) - 6*w(l)?
-195*l + 2
Let i(s) = 6*s + 1. Let l(a) = -77*a + 6. Calculate -3*i(c) + l(c).
-95*c + 3
Let c(x) = 30*x**2 - 14*x - 4. Let i(q) = -5*q + 39317314*q**2 - 39317308*q**2 + 2*q - 1. Determine -3*c(r) + 14*i(r).
-6*r**2 - 2
Let l(m) = m**3 - 5*m**2 + m - 2. Let u(o) = -o**3 - 10*o**2 + 2*o + 64. Give -2*l(s) + u(s).
-3*s**3 + 68
Let a(g) = g**3 - 5*g**2 - 9*g - 9. Let m be a(7). Let h(q) = 45*q - 136*q - 4 + 44*q + 49*q + 1. Let x(l) = 6*l - 13 + 7*l - 4*l. Calculate m*h(d) - 6*x(d).
-2*d
Let k(u) = 9*u**2 - 7*u + 3. Suppose -3*b = h - 4, -h - 4*b + 5 = 1. Let g(y) = 7*y - 9 - 4*y**2 + 2 + 6 - h*y. Determine -5*g(o) - 2*k(o).
2*o**2 - o - 1
Let k(q) = -2*q**3 + 46*q**2 + q - 2. Let j be k(23). Let f(w) = -4*w**3 - 2*w**3 - j - 1 + 18. Let a(p) = -7*p**3 - 4. What is -4*a(b) + 5*f(b)?
-2*b**3 - 4
Let f(t) = t**3 - 4*t**2 + t. Let h(g) = -2*g**3 + 17*g**2 - 13*g - 2. Calculate -4*f(w) - h(w).
-2*w**3 - w**2 + 9*w + 2
Let w be 3 - (588/336)/(2/24). Let k = -5 + 0. Let q(j) = -84*j**3 + 18*j + 18. Let d(s) = 24*s**3 - 5*s - 5. Calculate k*q(f) + w*d(f).
-12*f**3
Let p(a) be the second derivative of -91*a**5/20 + 3*a**4/4 - a**3/6 - 2*a**2 + 5659*a + 2. Let b(v) = -23*v**3 + 2*v**2 - 1. What is -9*b(o) + 2*p(o)?
25*o**3 - 2*o + 1
Let s(y) = -446555*y**3 - 3999*y**2 + 2666*y - 1333. Let g(f) = -1341*f**3 - 12*f**2 + 8*f - 4. Determine 1333*g(z) - 4*s(z).
-1333*z**3
Let f(n) = -2*n - 6. Suppose 44*m - 95*m + 90 = -36*m. Let l(o) = -2*o - 5. Give m*l(i) - 5*f(i).
-2*i
Let f(n) = -16267*n - 178. Let o(y) = 12476787*y + 136615. Calculate 1535*f(r) + 2*o(r).
-16271*r
Let s be -3 + 5 + 0 + 2. Let q(b) = 10 + b - 3 - s*b. Let o be (12/(-168)*-14)/((-1)/6). Let a(y) = 4*y - 8. Give o*q(n) - 5*a(n).
-2*n - 2
Let c(f) = 2*f. Let r(z) = 7*z + 112. Let u(v) = 14*v + 226. Let x(s) = 9*r(s) - 4*u(s). Let k be x(-15). Let t(m) = 1. Determine k*c(q) - t(q).
-2*q - 1
Let s(n) = 9*n**2 - 3*n + 3. Let i(h) = -h**2 + h - 1. Suppose -4*z + 0*x + 6 = 2*x, -5*z + 2*x - 15 = 0. Let j be -3*(z + 2) - -6. What is j*i(a) + s(a)?
6*a**2
Let n(w) = -17*w**2 - w + 37. Let m(b) = 44*b**2 + 4*b - 74. What is -2*m(f) - 5*n(f)?
-3*f**2 - 3*f - 37
Let n(z) be the first derivative of 2*z**2 - 3 - 1 + z**2 - 3 + 2*z**4. Let f(y) = y**3 + y. Suppose -535 = -11*m - 546. Calculate m*n(p) + 6*f(p).
-2*p**3
Let t(y) = -15851582*y + 4148. Let x(h) = -22940*h + 6. Give -3*t(c) + 2074*x(c).
-22814*c
Let c(r) = -r**2 - 5*r + 2*r + 6*r**2. Let m(g) = 15*g**2 - 215*g + 67. Let z be m(14). Let u(d) = -d**2 + d - 1. What is z*u(p) - c(p)?
-2*p**2 + 3
Let o(d) = -d - 3. Suppose r + 43 = q + 35, 5*q - 4*r - 39 = 0. Let s(k) = -k - 3. Give q*s(b) - 6*o(b).
-b - 3
Let w(n) = -2*n**2 - 2*n - 1. Let d(r) = 9*r**3 - 14*r**2 - 15*r - 18. Determine -d(q) + 6*w(q).
-9*q**3 + 2*q**2 + 3*q + 12
Let b be 1*(9 - (-28 + 3)). Let a(n) = -23*n + 17. Suppose 2*v - 3 - 3 = 0. Let o(m) = -3*m + 2*m + 0*m - v*m + 3. Calculate b*o(x) - 6*a(x).
2*x
Let l(x) = -10*x - 3. Let b(i) = -11*i - 4. Suppose -3*v = -6, p + 10 = 19*v - 16*v. What is p*b(g) + 5*l(g)?
-6*g + 1
Suppose -28*i + 5 + 1 = -26*i. Let u(c) = 3*c**2 - 2*c - 2. Let j(w) = 7*w**2 - 3*w - 4. Give i*j(n) - 5*u(n).
6*n**2 + n - 2
Let k(q) = -4*q + 327. Let c(y) = 12*y - 872. Let v(u) = 3*c(u) + 8*k(u). Let j(t) = -13*t. Let n(m) = -3*m - 6. Let a be n(-4). Give a*j(w) + 21*v(w).
6*w
Let v(y) = 3*y**2 + 9*y - 3. Let d be (2 - 2)/((-11)/(-11)). Suppose d = 9*o - 247 + 193. Let c(z) = 4*z**2 + 10*z - 4. What is o*v(l) - 5*c(l)?
-2*l**2 + 4*l + 2
Let y(l) = -7*l - l**2 + 16*l - 11*l - 3. Suppose z - 56 = -7*z. Let a(w) be the second derivative of -w**4/4 - 2*w**3/3 - 7*w**2/2 + 3*w. Give z*y(o) - 3*a(o).
2*o**2 - 2*o
Let p(n) = 3149*n**3 + 8*n + 46. Let v(t) = 787*t**3 + 2*t + 12. What is 6*p(z) - 23*v(z)?
793*z**3 + 2*z
Let j(r) = -3*r + 51. Let z(s) = 2 - 1476*s + 2953*s - 1479*s +
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As president of the tiny Republic of Kosovo in the Western Balkans, Hashim Thaçi is the first one to admit to being very relieved by the results of the presidential elections in Austria.
Hashim Thaçi is president of the Republic of Kosovo.
I have sent my congratulations to President-elect Alexander Van Der Bellen and I look forward to working with him on the issues that unite our region with Vienna – the old capital of the Habsburg Empire – that has played a crucial role in our history, culture – even our architecture.
The choice of the president was a completely Austrian affair and it would have been inappropriate for any of us in the Balkans to have spoken in favour of either candidate during the campaign.
However, the election was vitally important for us in Kosovo and the wider region.
Like his far-right counterparts in France and Germany, Norbert Hofer attacked the foreign policy of the Austrian establishment that recognised the sovereignty and independence of Kosovo. He also publicly stated that “it would be wrong to admit Kosovo to international organisations, as it would only cause problems”.
This is the sort of argument we are used to hearing from Putin’s Moscow, but not from a country with such a long history of supporting the self-determination of the former Yugoslav republics who won their freedom from Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević.
Austria became a beacon of hope when she opened the doors of her universities for our students after Serbia banned Albanian language teaching in occupied Kosovo in early 1990s. I, personally, will never forget the homages to democracy and human rights uttered by politicians such as Alois Mock and Otto Von Habsburg when I was a student.
This is why we in Kosovo were so shocked that a politician could climb to within touching distance of their national presidency on a platform that dismissed decades of established, progressive policies that have helped the Balkans overcome hate and nationalism.
Hofer’s platform, like other far-right movements in Europe is based on the Huntingtonian concept of the clash of civilizations and on promoting the theory that Islam is incompatible with Europe. For us in Kosovo, Albania or Bosnia, with large strata of our societies belonging to the Muslim faith, this effectively excludes us from feeling part of the continent where we have lived for centuries, indeed millennia.
Besides, Kosovo is not Muslim: our society is secular and civic.
Kosovo became the first Balkan country to elect a woman president in 2011 and is the only Balkan country to have recognised the LGBTI community in its constitution. I led the LGBTI Pride Parade in Kosovo last month to mark our support for this community precisely to show our citizens and the wider world that extremism and prejudice has no place in our midst.
Neither are we a safe haven for extremists. Our security services have made 110 arrests and secured 67 indictments and 26 convictions against ISIS supporters in our country. US Secretary of State John Kerry noted in a recent visit to Kosovo that Kosovars are the regional leaders in combating violent extremism.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also recognised Kosovo’s active role in promotion of interfaith dialogue in a 2013 report. The European Union also took note of the quickened pace of our reforms and granted us the first pre-accession treaty, the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
The visceral Eurosceptic sentiment being propagated by Hofer and the far-right is profoundly dangerous for all Balkan nations.
It was precisely the gravitational pull of Brussels that managed to bring peace and stability in our region. Without the prospect of joining the EU as a family of common values and shared interests, our region’s politics risks descending into a void that can be filled by the extremists in our own midst.
According to the polls, more than 95% of Kosovars desire membership in the EU and NATO.
As a step towards this goal, the European Commission has now formally recommended visa liberalisation and free movement of our citizens within the Schengen zone, in line with the rest of the Balkans.
Visa liberalisation has been hard earned after making difficult domestic reforms, but it is clear that some politicians in Europe are tapping into the current mood of public discontent about migration and are using Kosovo and the Balkans as a scapegoat.
As we celebrate the narrow victory for Austria’s progressive forces, one thing is for sure. Balkan leaders must work harder in strengthening the rule of law and stamping out illegal immigration and violent extremism to provide an increased sense of security and reassurance for the sceptics across Europe.
We must be – as the saying goes – “more Catholic than the Pope” in order to convince the naysayers that the European dream, the European path, is our only chance, the best contract we can sign to guarantee our future.
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[Salivary scintigraphy and sialography. Comparison of results in various common disorders].
We recommend the association of scintigraphy and sialography in salivary glands pathology. The obtained results of both methods are very often complementary or convergent. In case of sialadenitis or dry mouth, it happens that results diverge, but these differences can be explained if one remembers the anatomo-physiological alterations. To prevent a false positive result of atrophy. The scintigraphy must always be realized before sialography. N.B. "Scintigraphy" means isotopic sialography. "Sialography" means conventional sialography.
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Modulation of the epileptic seizure threshold: implications of biphasic dose responses.
Considerable evidence has emerged that hormetic-like biphasic dose-response relationships are common in the biomedical sciences. Consequently, this article assesses dose-response relationships of agents known to modulate epileptic-like seizure thresholds in screening tests with animal models. Biphasic dose responses have been commonly reported as measured by changes in seizure threshold concentrations across a broad dose-response continuum of chemically diverse agents that act via different receptor-based mechanisms. Despite such differences in chemical structure and modes of actions, the quantitative features of these dose responses are quite similar, being consistent with the hormetic dose-response model with respect to the magnitude and width of the stimulatory responses. The hormetic responses were also independent of the animal model employed as well as type of seizure-related endpoint measured. These findings support the generalizability of the hormetic dose-response concept and may have important implications for the discovery of antiseizure drugs and their clinical evaluation.
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### Table of Contents
Chapter One: The Clinic Building
Chapter Two: The Clinic Building Entrance
Chapter Three: Radiology Suite at the Clinic Building
Chapter Four: The Night Before Surgery
Chapter Five: The Morning of Surgery
Chapter Six: The Hospital during the Nor'easter
Chapter Seven: Six Weeks Later
Chapter Eight: Monday, Lunch Time
Chapter Nine: Board of Directors meeting, Lyric Opera of Boston
Chapter Ten: Logan Airport: Flight 486 arriving from Paris, a Saturday night in October
Chapter Eleven: Back in Boston
Chapter Twelve: The Opera
Chapter Thirteen: The Hotel
Epilogue
Dear Reader:
Other books by L.C. Giroux
# The Clinic Building
Dr. Michael Dennison hated seeing new patients. He enjoyed their cases but not the first meeting. Having been an orthopedic surgeon for enough years now, he had an established routine when entering an exam room with a patient he had not seen before. He would enter, shuffling his papers and charts to announce himself, but avoid eye contact. He would put the X-rays on the light box and act like he was looking at them. All to give the new patients time to get used to the idea that the man in the wheelchair could actually be their doctor.
Their surgeon, more precisely. He would maintain this charade for five or so minutes before addressing them and seeing the pity on their faces. In truth, the patients were not what he hated; it was the pity. Along with the poor attempts to look anywhere but at the wheelchair. He expected his next patient would be much the same as all the others. He flipped through her chart.
Violet Bellows, age twenty-nine, seeing him for surgical correction of spondylolithesis. From her X-rays, he was surprised at the degree of slip in someone so young, but there had been trauma to the vertebral bodies hastening the degeneration. He took a deep breath, best to get this over with.
He knocked and, hearing her answer, rolled in while looking at his notes. He moved to the light box, hung the X-rays, and began to study them--or at least appear to.
He was surprised when he heard her say, "If you don't mind me asking, how do you do surgery?" He was shocked at her challenge to his skills. He quickly turned around, his shock forgotten.
In front of him sat the most exquisite woman he had ever seen. Her skin was the color of whipped cream. Her eyes were dark rich brown, her full lips and cheek had a deep rosy blush. But her hair was indeed her crowning glory. Almost black, it hung to nearly her waist in renaissance curls. She wore it over her shoulders in such a way that even in the johnny coat she was breathtaking. She reminded him of a temptress from a Vatican painting. "Excuse me?" He coughed to cover his lack of composure.
"I wondered how you do surgery."
Michael found the most intriguing thing about her challenge was that she directed it to his face, not over his shoulder, or staring at his chair, but actually looking him in the eye. He searched her face for some kind of condescension, but he only saw intelligence and warmth. He almost smiled.
"I worked with a group to develop a wheelchair to my exact specifications that does this." He pressed a button, and the hidden engineering whirled to life. In a couple of seconds he was in a standing position. "It's a simple matter of hydraulics and weights, really. I have enough torso and upper body strength that I can do anything that any other surgeon can. In the process, I can save my patients from a life such as mine," he said as he lowered himself back to a seated position.
"You mean the life of a handsome and famous surgeon?" Now she was laughing at him, and her laughter sounded like the tinkling of bells. But he heard no slight, and it wasn't for several seconds Michael even realized she had called him handsome. He sputtered and finally got some control of himself and the situation.
"Yes. Right. Let's see what your issues are then, shall we? If you look at your X-ray here and here, you can note the vertebra are shifted significantly forward. This is putting tremendous strain on these discs and compressing the cauda equina, the nerve fibers at the base of the spine. That is why your legs go numb and you fall. Have you had any pain associated with this?"
"No."
He had expected more from her, but when he turned to look at her now, she was changed. She seemed smaller, as if having to talk about her situation was too much to bear.
"You've had no backaches? No charley horses?"
"Oh, some, but that is just part of life."
"No, not in your case, Ms. Bellows. You have a grade four slip of all of these vertebra. I can think of only one other case I have seen in someone so young. We will need to get you in for surgery soon. I'll have the nurse set you up in the schedule, but this will have to be soon."
She looked at him through her lashes, her face unreadable. Was she scared? He couldn't tell. He found her beautiful but distant. "Will it be very painful?" she finally asked in almost a whisper.
"I can't lie to you. We do have very good pain control methods available, but yes, I'm afraid the days just after surgery are not pleasant even with a morphine pump. Unfortunately, without it you are looking at being in a wheelchair within the next few months. If it comes to that, I don't know that we would be able to get enervation back even if we did surgery. Can you stand in front of me?"
She got off the table and stood facing him. She was about five foot five and fairly slim. Michael noted that her hips were even but tipped forward at a severe angle. She showed the sway back associated with her condition. "Now, walk to the door, stop, turn around, and come back." She did as she was told. "Yes, you have a classic presentation. I could probably have diagnosed you without even seeing the X-rays. I will need a few more images, CAT scans, and an MRI before we bring you in for the surgery, but we should be able to get those done quickly."
He had turned and started to leave when she said, "Will I be ugly still?" His chest felt like he had been kicked. How could a woman this spectacular worry about being ugly? He turned back to her, noticing her lashes were now wet. He was not in the habit of giving compliments to his patients or anyone else for that matter. He knew for a fact the nursing staff, while respecting his work, sought to avoid having to deal with him.
For this woman, he wished he could be polished, more articulate. He searched his mind, his love of opera, food, wine, beautiful art, but could come up with nothing that compared to her. Finally he gave up and tried for honesty. "You are already so beautiful, a small thing like straightening your spine will have very little effect." Lost in trying to pay her a compliment, he had not realized he had placed his hand on her knee. He saw her look down and blush. He immediately felt her skin go warm through the thin cotton of the gown. He pulled away as if he'd been burned.
He had no idea he could make a woman respond to his mere words like that. "Well, yes... I should go and let you get dressed. You need to stop at the front desk. They have the list of things to be scheduled, and then my nurse will set up the surgery date." His mind was chaos. He needed to get out of there quickly. Thankfully, a returning patient was waiting for him next. After getting outside the door, Michael's hands were shaking. What had this woman done to him?
# The Clinic Building Entrance
Violet thought that would never end. Everyone was so worried about the patient experience, but it would be a lot better if the appointment process were more streamlined. She made a mental note to talk to Allyn about it. She let her thoughts drift to Dr. Dennison again. He was unarguably attractive in a buttoned up way, even in scrubs. What was it about him that made her want to unbutton him? She had become very practiced at no longer looking men in the eye. That way she didn't see the initial attraction fade when they saw how deformed her back was.
Could her interest only be because in a wheelchair he was "safe"? He'd understand what it felt like to be stared at for something you couldn't control. Maybe. But the silky sandy blond hair, sapphire blue eyes, close cropped beard, and those broad shoulders didn't hurt. He had already called her beautiful. Just thinking about him saying it made her light up as if it were Christmas. Hmm, good. She'd need that to be nice and warm to go outside. She hated winter and yet couldn't really live anywhere but Boston. It made no sense, but she loved the house. And Allyn was there. Living in the huge place together allowed her to feel like she was part of a family still, even if it was just the two of them.
Stepping out of the building, her attention was drawn to the street by the blaring of car horns. The light had changed, and someone crossing in a wheelchair was still in the crosswalk. It took a second to register that the chair must be stuck, either with a power failure or snow clogging the wheels. "That poor man!" All she saw of him was his overcoat and a fedora. She couldn't stand around and not try to help him. She ran into the traffic now, trying to go around him. Once she reached him she asked, "Is there a way to release the drive so I can push you?"
Michael Dennison had never been a patient man, but at times like these he could be a complete bastard, and he knew it. Some do-gooder wanting to help the cripple. Just what he needed today. He growled, "I can deal with this myself, thank you very much."
"If you'll just let me help, I can get you across the street, and then you can be on your way," the woman yelled over the blaring horns.
"I said I am fine, thank you!"
"Look, you are obviously not fine. You are stuck in the middle of traffic, and if you don't tell me how to release the mechanism so I can roll you to the curb, you are going to get us both killed." Shouts now added to the car horns.
"I didn't ask you to help."
"No, but I'm here now, and you obviously need it. Stop being so pig-headed and... oh, here is the damn release." Violet flipped the switch and pushed the miserable man across the street. Once they were safely out of traffic she moved to the front of him. "It's all well and good having your pride, but it is not worth getting killed over, or worse--taking someone else with you." She gulped when she realized the man she was screaming at was indeed her handsome doctor. "Dr. Dennison! I...well, don't thank me!" She turned on her heel and entered the building.
Michael sat staring at her as she walked away. Wonderful, the one patient that hadn't pitied him outright now thought he was a complete prick.
"Brilliant, Dennison, just brilliant," he said out loud. Today was shaping up to be a top ten worst of all time. And to make matters worse, he had to go to records and sign off on some charts before lunch.
Violet was supposed to meet Allyn at the hospital president's office, but she was still too angry to be civil and called him to catch up with her down in the lobby. They could go to the cafe in the atrium. He took about twenty minutes to finish up his meeting and found Violet reading a magazine there.
"How did your appointment go?"
"Oh, fine. I need surgery soon, as in I'm scheduled in two and a half weeks. With the number of tests and X-rays and whatever, I should probably just get a bed here now." She was getting flushed the more she talked.
"Whoa, what is up with you? You knew you were going to need to have surgery. Why so pissed now?"
She debated telling him about Dr. Dennison, but he would get all protective and feel like he needed to do something about it. Dennison might not be a great human being, but he was an excellent doctor, and she didn't want to delay the surgery any more.
"Oh, you know I hate winter, and they are talking about a once-in-a-century storm coming."
"It's weeks away. You can't worry about it yet. Probably won't even get here. Let's get lunch. I think you're cranky because you need food."
Hard to argue with reason. She led him into the cafe to get some sandwiches. She had chosen a sandwich from the cooler and was turning around when she ran smack into Dennison. Allyn was just on the other side of him.
"Ms. Bellows..."
"Come to exact revenge?" she hissed.
She looked up at Allyn staring at her. "Allyn, this is my doctor. Dr. Dennison." She stepped around Michael, handed her tray to Allyn and walked out.
Both men stared at her retreating figure in a daze. "Um, sorry. I don't know what's gotten into her. Allyn Bellows," he said as he stuck out his hand. Michael shook it. "Sorry. I better go see what is wrong with her."
Michael Dennison silently cursed himself.
Of course, a woman as beautiful as she would be married. And to a guy that looked perfect and obviously cared about her. There would be better times to apologize to her when she came back for tests before the surgery. Michael felt deflated. He hadn't allowed himself to be attracted to a woman for as long as he could remember. Who the hell was he kidding? He was stuck in this damn chair, and there was no way a woman like her would saddle herself with a man like him.
Allyn paid for the food and found Violet standing near the doors at the front of the hospital. "Here's your sandwich. Did you want to take it with you, or do you want to go back and eat here?" Violet turned and looked at him, and he swore she had been crying.
"I...I want to go home. I'm sorry, Allyn. I am just emotionally rung out. I knew what the doctor was going to say, and I thought I was prepared. But you know how terrified I am of hospitals and the thought of surgery. Allyn put his arms around her and swallowed her up in a bear hug. He was thinking about the accident and how he had almost lost her too. She was shaking as he held her.
"I know you're scared, but this is not anything like when you were a kid. You'll only be in for a couple of days and then home with round-the-clock care. I even arranged for a spa to come in and give you a treat each day: manicures, pedicures, facials, anything you want to spoil yourself with. I was going to surprise you, but you know I'm horrible at keeping secrets."
She looked up at him and smiled. "You are the sweetest brother a girl could ever have." And she kissed his cheek.
# Radiology Suite at the Clinic Building
"Okay, miss, lie very still, and this will be over before you know it. Myself, I'd take a nap," the elderly X-ray tech said.
Violet almost snorted at the thought. She'd love a nap. The nightmares from after the accident had come back. It didn't seem to matter that as an adult she could rationalize that it was her subconscious trying to work through things she still couldn't really deal with. She still woke up screaming and then couldn't go back to sleep. Allyn wanted her to take the sleeping pills a doctor had prescribed, but she never reacted well to those things. The only saving grace in the round of appointments was that she probably wouldn't run into Dr. Dennison. She didn't figure him for the type to associate with the techs.
The MRI whirred to life, and the spinning magnets got loud. Violet could feel her panic rising. She tried deep breaths, tried finding her happy place, finally she started yelling, "I can't do this anymore! I need to get out of here right now. I mean it!" The whirring stopped, and she sucked in great gulps of air.
"Ms. Bellows, I'm sorry, but I really am going to need these images," came a voice from outside the machine. It was deep and male. Definitely not the tech's kindly old woman's voice. The table slid back out of the machine, and she came face to face with Dr. Dennison. Oh God, how much had he heard?
"Ms. Bellows, what can we do to make this a less traumatic experience? Is it a claustrophobia issue?"
Violet wasn't sure if it was left over panic or not, but her heart was galloping in her chest, and she had trouble catching her breath.
"I'm sorry. It brings back horrible memories from my childhood. The noise combined with the close space."
"What if we piped some music in, would that help distract you from the noise of the magnets? Do you like opera?"
I... yes, I love opera." She found him confusing and beguiling. "Why are you trying to help me?"
"In part because you are obviously terrified of this thing, and I really do need these images to do your surgery."
Violet tried not to look disappointed, then she narrowed her eyes.
Michael fought to avoid audibly gulping. That glare was pure hardened steel that he could imagine happily cutting out his heart and handing it back to him wrapped in a bow.
"So should I yell at you?" Violet said. "You looked pretty shaken the other day in the street."
"That is the other reason I am trying, and evidently failing, to be nice. It would go a long way to making me feel less like an ass for the way I acted then."
"Apology accepted, though I did notice there was no actual apology. Now, how am I going to get through this?"
"I only need lower spine images, so I can visualize the nerves better when I am doing the surgery. Would it help if...well...you were able to lie with your arms up over your head, and I... I could hold onto your hand so you would know you weren't alone?"
"That would help. Add in some opera, and I might get through it."
Michael realized she was actually smiling. His chest tightened, and he wondered what it would be like to have her smile at him like that all the time. Then he chastised himself for forgetting that she was indeed married.
He went into the control room and cued up some music from his phone. As he rolled back in, the opening bars of _La Traviata_ started to play.
She beamed.
"Of course this was my favorite even as a child. Mother used to put on the music and tell me the story. She always called it _my_ opera."
"But of course, Violetta. Now, do you need a pillow under your back to make you more comfortable? How about under your knees?"
"Yes, both of those would help." He went to get some small pillows, and Violet became acutely aware of the fact that she was lying there in a johnny coat, panties, and socks. He offered his hand so that she could pull herself up to sitting, then he positioned a pillow for the small of her back and had her lie back down. He rested a hand on her stomach as he adjusted the pillow, and she felt its warmth spread through her body and pool in her abdomen. She blushed with thoughts of what it would be like to feel his hands all over her, and her skin glowed from the heat the thought caused. He went to the far end of the tube and asked her to bend her knees. She did as she was asked and felt a cool breeze on her bottom. Oh God, why had she chosen today to wear her best French lace panties. She wanted the confidence good lingerie gave her. Damn, she couldn't have just chosen plain white cotton. She felt herself go hot again.
Michael tried to position the pillow under her knees, but from his seat in the chair the angle was difficult without looking right at her. When she bent her knees, he saw the flash of lace, but more intriguing was the fact that her panties had ridden up slightly and showed just a bit of cheek where her bottom met her thigh. He had an almost irresistible urge to run his thumb nail along it to see if she would shiver. Damn, Dennison, it isn't an apology if you turn into a lecher. He took a deep breath to clear his head and wheeled himself back to where she could see him. He handed her another pillow and told her to place it between her thighs. It would keep her legs from shaking. "How does that feel now?" he asked.
"Much better, thank you." She found herself staring into his eyes. They were clear blue with a dark rim, so they looked darker, almost navy. She found them fascinating but sad and guarded. She searched his face--high aristocratic forehead, aquiline nose, high cheek bones, sandy blond mixed with gray beard and mustache. He looked like a Renaissance hero in a modern suit, her musketeer. She smiled at the idea of that.
"Go ahead and put your arms over your head. Are you still comfortable? Do you need more pillows under your back?"
"Yes. Just one should be fine." She hoped that he would touch her again, but no, not this time.
"Okay, I am going to have them slide you into position in now. And perfect timing, your first aria is about to start. Concentrate on the music to help drown out the noise of the machine. I'll be right at the end of the table holding your hands." Her eyes went wide as she slid into place.
"I'm right here, Violetta. I won't leave you."
Violet swallowed hard as the table stopped moving and she was fully in the tube. She could feel her panic rising, but then a warm hand held hers. She grasped at it with both hands and felt his other hand enclose hers. She could hear him talking to her through the speaker. Quietly, he said, "Should I tell you the story of your opera?" She squeezed his hand to say yes. She closed her eyes and felt herself relax as he began whispering about _her_ opera. She couldn't believe she was in a hospital, having an awful test no less, and she was indeed relaxed. Dr. Dennison was a miracle worker.
From his vantage point at the end of the table, he looked down the length of her, and it was killing him. He warned her that the magnets were going to start spinning and continued telling her the story. The fan to alleviate the feelings of claustrophobia must have been cold because he saw her nipples harden under the thin cotton wrap. He stopped speaking for a minute, lost in the thought of what would it feel like to have this woman under him. Have it be him that brought her nipples to peaks. Her chest rose and fell with her breathing. What would it be like to make her breath quicken, her heart pound, to take her to the edge of arousal and watch her tumble over it? She squeezed his hand, snapping him out of his daydream. He took a ragged breath and shouted inside his head, MARRIED! PATIENT! NEVER FOR YOU! Trying to restore some sanity to his thoughts, he continued the telling of the opera.
They had all the images he needed by the middle of act two, where Violetta and Alfredo were happily ensconced in a country house and before the appearance of his interfering father. Michael was secretly relieved that he was able to leave the story on a happy note. Silly, considering she was more than familiar with the outcome, but it pleased him anyway.
He escorted her to her dressing room and waited while she dressed.
When she came out, Violet was surprised to find him waiting. She blushed to the roots of her hair, and a shiver of pleasure ran through her. "I... you have no idea how much what you did helped. I never could have gotten through it otherwise."
She gave him a shy smile, lighting her face as if by candle light. Michael didn't know you could be this happy and this miserable at the same time. If he hadn't actually gone to medical school, he would swear his heart was breaking into pieces in his chest. He forced himself to smile back.
"Yes, well...you're almost done with the gauntlet of tests. I'll see you back here for the surgery in three days."
"What about the storm they're predicting? It is supposed to be bad."
Michael tried not to laugh, but she looked exactly like six-year-old praying for a snow day. "You'll need to be here by 5:30 a.m. It isn't supposed to get going till later in the day. At that point you'll be stuck here whether it snows or not, I'm afraid." She looked a little crestfallen. "If it is any consolation, I'll be here too." He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw her smile return.
# The Night Before Surgery
Michael woke gasping for air. His chest was pounding, and his pulse raced. He glanced at the clock. 3:52 a.m. He'd have to get up in a couple of minutes anyway, but that was some damn dream. Odd, he wasn't one of those people that ever remembered their dreams, but this was so vivid. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a sex dream. He looked down at himself, disgusted. He'd been dreaming about Violet, doing things he wouldn't dare even if he could, and despite free reign of his sexual fantasies, the best he could manage was a sort of half hard erection.
The reality killed even that. She was his patient. She was married. She was way out of his league. He might be handsome if he weren't surrounded by hardware, but she was breathtaking. The kind of woman men felt lucky to stand near, let alone touch. He didn't know why, but he sensed that there was more to her than she let people see. The steel hidden in all that silk. He sensed it when they had first talked, with the way she dismissed the pain she had felt. He saw it again when she had taunted him about his lack of apology.
He loved the fact she'd called him on it. Everyone was afraid of upsetting the cripple, so they treated him like the broken man he felt like. She didn't. She expected him to act like a man and a decent one at that. The things he was doing in his dream were not the things a decent man did to a woman like her. In the real world she held all the cards, she would determine whether or not he could see her and how. In his dream he was the dominant one, telling her exactly what he was going to do to her. Not that it was ever going to happen in the real world.
He needed to get going, or he would be late for surgery.
Violet groaned when her alarm blared. She turned it off and hid under her pillow for a few more seconds. But if Allyn had taught her anything growing up, it was that sometimes you just needed to be there. And in this case she needed to be at the hospital and be ready to have surgery. The car would be here in half an hour to pick her up, and she wanted to wash her hair and braid it so it wouldn't get in the way of the doctors.
She smiled. She imagined most of Dr. Dennison's female patients ended up with crushes on him. After all, it wasn't everyday a handsome, intelligent, caring man focused all of his attention on you. It was more than a little addictive. And his hands were so warm. Weren't doctors supposed to have cold hands? Okay, enough daydreaming about the handsome doctor, she needed to get to the hospital.
This would have been so much easier if Allyn had been here, but it couldn't be helped. He had wanted to cancel his trip when the plans changed, but the work was too important to just give up on something they had spent years building. She wasn't going to let the Indian government put off the mother and child welfare clinics just because she needed to get her back fixed. Allyn had promised that he would be there when she woke up. He was going to call and speak to Dennison before the surgery anyway.
# The Morning of Surgery
Michael had been at the hospital for an hour already and it was only 6:05 a.m. Violet's surgery was going to last six to eight hours. He needed to stop referring to her as Violet even in his head. Ms. Bellows. Her name was Ms. Bellows, and as far as he was concerned it wouldn't ever be anything else. He'd eaten, changed into scrubs, gone through the case with the surgical residents who would be working with him. There was nothing to do but go speak to Ms. Bellows and her husband.
Michael was shocked when he entered the curtained off cubicle to find Violet sitting by herself. She looked so miserable he wanted to put his arms around her . "I don't understand," he blurted out. "What could have possibly kept Mr. Bellows away when you were going for surgery?
"Allyn had meetings that were unavoidable in India. I felt it was more important that he be there than holding my hand for the few minutes I'd be here before I am taken in. He said he would call you."
" I am still shocked that a man would leave his wife alone at a time like this."
"Wife? Oh no, Allyn is my brother, though he doesn't look it. We had different mothers."
Just then, Michael's pager went off.
"I am sorry; I have to take this." He was confused, thrilled but confused as he called the page operator, and sure enough it was Allyn Bellows.
"Mr. Bellows, I have been given to understand you are in India. Yes, she explained that it was unavoidable. Of course, I will call the minute we are finished with the surgery and again when she is awake in recovery. Do you have any questions for me? Um... yes she had mentioned her fear of hospitals, but she never went into detail as to why. I see, that must have been awful for her. Yes, I will do everything I can to make her comfortable while she is here. When are you due back? You may be delayed. The storm is expected to last a couple of days, so Logan may be closed. I promise I will take very good care of her. I will talk to you soon. You can leave your number with my office. Good-bye."
"That would have been Allyn. As usual right on time!"
Michael could barely hear what she was saying over the pounding in his heart. She wasn't married. He wanted to do some god awful dance if he could have. Oh Christ. Now he was going to have to cut her open. His heart sank. Orthopedic surgery was a nasty, brutal thing. To straighten her spine, he was going to have to cut her hip open and chisel out a good size chunk of bone. Then he was going to have to cut open her back from well above her waist to the top of her ass. Then he was going to have to screw the bone into the spine itself with large titanium screws that would be supplemented with tie rods, for lack of a better term.
Oh God, now he understood the rules about doctors not treating family and loved ones in a way he had never really thought about before. But that was absurd. It wasn't as though he could be in love with Violet Bellows. They had only spoken a handful of times, and in one of those he'd been yelling at her and she at him. She was just very beautiful, and that was what swayed his thoughts. Once she was draped for surgery she would look like every other patient. He would just have to do a better job for her than anyone else could.
# The Hospital during the Nor'easter
Where were those screams coming from? Those weren't pain. That sounded more like terror. He had been at the hospital since coming in for the Bellows surgery. That was almost thirty-six hours ago. This storm was supposedly going to last at least another two days. There was already almost three feet of snow on the ground. With the wind howling, drifts had made it impossible for the snowplows to get through some roads. Police were bringing people in, since some of the ambulances were unable to get through. It was a nightmare. All surgeries were cancelled, except for life threatening conditions. He was stuck here, but those screams had woken him from his sleep.
Where were they coming from? Finally he found the source. Oh, please no, he thought to himself, not his shy Violet.
He entered her room, and her distress was palpable. Her eyes were wild with terror, not just pain. He moved to her bed.
"Violet. Tell me what is wrong."
"The storm! We'll be killed in the storm!"
They were fifteen floors up, and here the wind was screaming at the windows, sounding more like a jet engine than a snow storm. Some fool had left her drapes open. He rolled to the window and closed the drapes. That helped decrease the noise and blocked out the visual effect of the storm. Both of these seemed to lessen her terror. He pulled out his phone and punched up the music app. In seconds, he found what he was looking for. "Violetta, listen to your opera." The overture of _La Traviata_ began. He went back to her bed and lay the phone down on it. He took her hands in his. They were shaking and felt like ice.
"It hurts so much." She was still terrified and in pain.
Where was the damn button for the morphine pump? He searched in her blankets, finally finding it and repeatedly pressing it.
"There. Now that will help." He was desperate to do more. Her hair had been braided back for the surgery, though in her distress some of the curls had come free. He smoothed her forehead and moved the hair out of her face. She still seemed to be looking at him without seeing. "Should I tell you the story of your opera?" She blinked in response, which he took as a yes. He whispered in her ear. "Violetta was the most beautiful woman of her age. No man could look at her and not want her."
Violet closed her eyes at his words, soft whispers at her ear. The morphine helped to ease the pain, and the story gave her something to focus on. Her handsome doctor was holding her hand. She could feel his warm breath on her fingers. She turned her face to his, and he smiled. She was coming back to herself. He started kissing her fingers. If this was the reward for enduring the pain, she would take it. The music was so beautiful, his words in her ear were like poetry. The morphine dulled the pain but did not entirely remove it. It did lower her inhibitions enough to for her to say, "Kiss me."
Michael stopped the story and looked into her eyes.
Had she read his mind? But then, he wanted to do much more than kiss her. While he had been whispering the opera in her ear, he'd been fixated on the sliver of her creamy white shoulder that the johnny coat left exposed. He desperately wanted to taste her plump, rosy lips, slide his tongue past them to hers, explore the hard edges of her teeth. No, it wouldn't be right. She was his patient. She was in the grip of pain and on drugs that lessen one's hold on reality. But, but... that slice of shoulder tantalized him. He inched forward, barely moving. All he had to do was drop his head and brush his lips just there at the edge of the gown. His body seemed to have a will of its own and without thought did exactly that.
Violet saw his eyes close. He craned his neck slightly and brushed his lips across her shoulder. She closed her eyes, and warmth flooded her body, a better balm for her pain than any drug. If this slight touch from his lips could melt her, what would real passion from him feel like? Her breath caught in her throat like a sob. She let her body melt into his touch, letting the thrill of it drive the fear and the pain away. Then she moaned, and he broke the contact. The pain came flooding back worse than before.
"No. Don't stop. It is the only thing that helps," she cried, her eyes wild with torment.
"It is... it's not right. You are my patient. I must respect the bounds of propriety." He felt miserable saying it.
"I don't care. Is there somewhere you can kiss me? Please. I need to lose myself in something beautiful, other than all this pain." Her voice was starting to keen like the wind outside.
Michael didn't care if they took his license. He would do anything to bring her some relief. He looked at her hand in his. Turned it as if just realizing that he was holding such an exquisite object. He placed one of the fingertips against his lips. She stilled and seemed to stop breathing, watching him with wide eyed fascination. He kissed each fingertip in turn, and then turned her hand palm up. Michael whispered to her--his mother used to do this to soothe him as a child--and began to lightly caress her palm with one of his fingers. Drawing them down the center made her warm. She looked at him with such, devotion but that didn't make any sense. It didn't matter to him right now. All he knew was he would stay here till she made it through the storm.
Violet closed her eyes and willed her breath to slow. His light tracings on her palm were sending waves of pleasure through her body, warm liquid relief. The tracing stopped, but he still held her hand. She would scream if he let go. He must have thought she was asleep. This feeling was the opposite of sleep, which brought peace. In this state every nerve ending was on edge, all her senses focused on one spot.
Through her lashes she watched him bend his head to her palm. With the slightest touch he kissed it. When she didn't stir, he kissed more deeply. She moaned at this intimate gesture, thrilled that he wanted to be with her as much as she wanted to be with him. He pulled back from her hand. but she continued to feign sleep. Once he seemed convinced that she had not woken, he continued the kisses on her palm. Violet thought she would burst from desire, but she did not want to scare her dear, sad doctor. Her breath deepened. She curled her fingers just slightly to caress his face while he kissed her palm, the fine points of his beard tantalizing her fingertips. She wanted more than him just kissing her hand. Slowly, so slowly he almost didn't notice the movement, she drew her hand to her collar bone. When it got there, he stopped the kisses. She could feel his eyes on her.
"Are you my shy Violet or Violetta right now?" he whispered.
She felt her mouth purse and the corners curl in the barest of smiles. She could be anything for him. She could feel the warmth of his breath before his lips touched hers, but when they did, Violet felt bathed in light. She allowed herself the smallest of peeks to see if the wonderful feeling really was coming from him. She imagined that if sleeping beauty were real, this is what she would have felt like.
This was maddening, how could she kiss him back if she was supposed to be asleep? But if she "woke up" now, he would bolt, she was sure of it. She fought to keep her breathing deep and even when she really wanted to pant. Eventually she let her jaw go slack just a little. Would he try to deepen the kiss? Please! her mind screamed. The kiss stopped. She wanted to cry and missed the taste of him already. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and opened her eyes. There, not three inches from her face was Dr. Dennison. Her eyes fluttered in shock that she hoped he would read as waking up.
"You are quite beautiful but a truly lousy actress."
"I... wha... oh, hell." Then a bolt of pain tore through her body. "Oh God!"
"Violet! Damn the morphine pump." Michael raced to where he had been holding the button and started pressing it repeatedly. "Hang in there, it will work quickly. "Damn. I forgot the thing needs to be pressed every thirty seconds." He continued to press the button in time.
Violet lay back waiting for the drug to wash over her, but the wait seemed endless. In her pain she heard Michael's voice and felt her hand in his.
"Violet, listen to me." He whispered in her ear, his words like some ancient incantation, "Close your eyes." She did as he asked "I want you to move the pain. Imagine it is a bright light. Put all of the pain in that light. Now, pour the light in to my hand. Pass the pain to me."
Her eyes flew open. "No. I could never cause you this much pain," she cried. He held her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it.
"Okay, make the light into a ball and pass the ball to me, and I will throw it away." With that he moved his hand so that just their finger tips were touching with space for the ball of light in the middle.
Violet could feel it! She could feel all of the pain joining together into a single ball of light. She imagined the pain moving up her core to her heart. There she added some of the love she felt for this good caring man and sent it down her arm. She felt her hand grow warm in his, felt her palm burn. Then she felt his hand move away, and the heat and the pain were gone. When she looked over at him, he was smiling down at her and had taken her hands in his while he continued to push the morphine pump button.
"You are a mystic," she said drowsily.
"No, it is just a visualization technique for pain control." Now he was stroking her forehead. It was wonderful. "I'll stay here and keep pressing the button so you can get some sleep. Please sleep. It will do you good."
"Mmm... magic" And she drifted off in a drugged slumber.
Two hours later, Violet's eye flashed open as the pain increased. She looked down and saw that Michael had fallen asleep with his head on her bed. He was still clutching the morphine pump button. She uncurled his fingers the way you would a sleepy child's and took it from him. She continued to press the button herself while she stroked his hair. It was like silk in her fingers. She closed her eyes and imagined what it would be like to lay in bed holding him after they had made love. Hmm, she supposed, depending on where he was paralyzed he may not be able to do some things. No matter, he could still give and receive pleasure of some kind, and that was a kind of "making love."
Even though the morphine didn't remove the pain, it did make it manageable so she could lie here and actually enjoy this moment of contentment. It was not great passion, blinding lust, or even earth shaking orgasm, but this felt rarer somehow. Contentment was such a fragile, quiet thing that it could go unrecognized until it wasn't there anymore. Violet watched his back lift with each breath. She stroked his jaw lightly and felt his beard play against her finger tips. Yes, she wanted him. His kisses made her melt, but it was more than that. How could she be falling in love with someone she barely knew? But there was no doubt that she was indeed falling in love. She let him sleep for another hour. He needed it. When she woke him, she whispered his name and tickled his ear. He woke up slowly, but when he opened his eyes and saw her he smiled even though he wasn't fully awake. That small unguarded moment was precious to her.
"Hey, sleepy head, you need to get up soon. I don't want you to get in trouble for being in here sleeping." She saw his guard come up as he pushed up from the bed.
"What time is it?"
"About five thirty in the morning. The storm is still blowing."
"Damn. I was trying to stay awake to keep your morphine pump going."
"I know. It was fine. Just having you lying here was good medicine."
He stretched and rubbed his eyes.
"I need to get out of here, or there will be hell to pay. I have to go get cleaned up and do rounds with the residents in an hour or two. I'll see you then. Um, you know last night has to be our secret, right?"
Violet put on her most devilish grin.
"I think there are definite blackmail possibilities here. Hmm, should I go for better food or... I know! If the storm is still raging tonight, then you have to come back here after you are done, and we can talk for a while. And the rest of the time, you can give me your very particular kind of healing." She put her hand over her mouth. Part of her could not believe she had just propositioned a man, even if it was just for some kisses. She stopped thinking she was so cute when she saw the look on his face. "Hey, I was kidding. I would just like some company. I..." _Oh god, don't start crying. Violet, do not let yourself cry_.
Michael reared back at what she had said. Her words hit him like cold water. Why? She was being cute and flirty, even if she was slurring her words a little because of the morphine. Was it that he realized they had spent the night either kissing or doing other nonsexual but still nonetheless intimate things? He had always held himself to higher standards than everyone else. Actually, he felt like he had to, had to prove he was better so people could forget he was stuck in the damn chair. Here was someone who didn't even look at the chair but only saw him, and he was terrified. Was this terror? His heart was racing, his pulse pounded, his breathing was quick and shallow. Either he was afraid or...aroused. But that couldn't be possible. It had to be fear. He was just afraid that eventually she'd want...him?
"Violet, sorry, I need a cup of coffee before I can be held responsible for anything I say." He felt like a liar, though it was mostly true. "I'll come by after I get done, I promise." She still looked like she was going to burst into tears. He felt like such an ass. "Hey, if you play your cards right, I'll raid the gift shop for chocolate."
He smiled up at her, all the while silently begging that she'd smile back. When she did he thought he would yell for joy. "Okay, remember keep pushing the button. I'll come around with the residents in a while. We are going to get you out of that bed today!" Violet blanched. "Don't worry I promise it will be okay, I have done this with more than a hundred other patients. I'm also going to put in an order for a sponge bath. Trust me it doesn't sound like a big deal, but I have had patients tell me it is worth the pain of the surgery." She was staring at him with her mouth open. "Really. I'm serious. I need to get going and get ready. Bye" And without thinking he kissed her hand.
Violet didn't make a sound till she was sure he wasn't in earshot, then she let out a whoop. Then she started laughing. She would bet he didn't even realize he'd kissed her.
She felt like a teenager waiting for her date to show up, she was so excited about seeing him later. She undid her braid and finger combed her hair, in between pressing the morphine pump. When the morning nurse came in to check on her, Violet was able to get her toiletries kit, wipe off her face, and add some tinted lip balm and moisturizer. At least she didn't look like something the cat dragged in any more. As she sat and waited for Dr. Dennison and the residents to arrive, she got sleepy from the activity before and the morphine.
Michael was jumpy from exhaustion and whatever insanity had made him spend the night in Violet's room. Coffee usually mellowed him out, but not today. He seemed even more keyed up after having a cup. The residents didn't love rounding with him under the best of circumstances, but today had been especially bad. He'd just about taken the head off of one of the juniors for not knowing the lab results of a patient. And then when the chief resident asked a question, he'd chewed him out, too. He'd left Violet for last to give himself time to get his emotions under control. He wished he could, but his head seemed to refuse to listen to reason where she was concerned.
When the team entered her room, she was propped up on pillows, her hair cascading over them in waves. Her skin was so pale, it accentuated the rose of her lips. His breath caught in his chest. She looked like a sleeping beauty or Lady Godiva, lush curves and that gorgeous hair. He wanted to throw the team out as if she belonged only to him. Unfortunately, the team was staring at him, and it was a minute before he realized that he should be the one to wake her. He cleared his throat loudly and said "Miss Bellows?" She remained sleeping. Finally, he took her hand and patted the back of it. Her eyes opened and locked with his. And she smiled. Michael thought he had never seen anything so glorious.
"Oh, I was just dreaming of y--" She looked around at the residents. "Dreaming of riding a horse." She giggled a little. "Morphine makes you dream the craziest things."
Michael beamed. He knew he should keep his feelings under control, but he wanted to kiss her so badly he could barely breathe. She didn't let go of his hand. Actually when he tried to pull it back, she tightened her grip. The residents were looking at him in utter confusion and then looking at Violet. She smiled like an angel at all of them, and they seemed to sigh in unison, completely charmed by her.
Michael stared at Violet and pointedly took his hand back. "Ms. Bellows had spinal fusion surgery two days ago and is ready to get out of bed now." Violet looked at him with near terror on her face that had nothing to do with the storm still raging outside. "Truly, you are ready. Please trust me." To the residents, he added, "Seeing as the storm has left the nursing staff shorthanded this will be a learning experience for all of you, too. Someone bring in the walker that was outside the door."
After they disconnected the IV lines and removed the morphine pump, Violet was ready to walk. But she was still terrified. She looked at Michael with tears in her eyes. The residents were occupied with her covers momentarily.
He looked over at them cautiously and then whispered to Violet. "Darling, I would never do anything that could hurt you. You can do this, you are stronger than you think." Taking a quick look to make sure the residents were distracted, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "For strength," he whispered.
Violet couldn't help but smile. His kindness took her breath away. She would try to do anything to please him. He started directing the residents into position to assist her. She took a couple of deep calming breaths to clear her head. Slowly they sat her up and turned her so her feet were over the side of the bed. Such a simple thing, but the fear of it sapped her strength.
Michael stopped them to give her time to adjust.
"Are you okay? I want you to concentrate on me. If you do that, the walking will take care of itself," he said. Violet shook her head yes and took another deep breath. "Good. Now we are going to lower the bed, and I want you to take the walker in both hands and stand up."
Violet drifted down until her feet touched the floor. She looked at Michael, and he smiled back. Violet grabbed the walker, closed her eyes, and stood before she could stop and think about what she was doing. When she was standing, she started breathing faster as her panic mounted.
"You are doing beautifully, Ms. Bellows."
Just the sound of his voice soothed her.
He wheeled himself backwards toward the door. "Are you in any pain?"
She shook her head no, not trusting her voice.
"Good, I want you to walk to me. Baby steps at first. You'll be roaming the halls in no time."
With a resident on either side of her, she shuffled toward Michael. Sweat prickled her scalp, and her skin was clammy. It took all her strength not to panic, but she walked about five feet, turned around and walked back to the bed.
By the time she got into bed, she was soaked in sweat and could smell the adrenaline on her skin. She was panting, trying to control the urge to cry. She wasn't in any more pain than before, less actually, but the fear of falling, of not being able to move was staggering. Had that been how Michael felt when he first found out he was paralyzed? Was that how he felt everyday? She couldn't ask him in front of his residents, but she did want to talk to him about it.
He dismissed the residents but stayed in the room. Finally he reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. He held it as he flipped the switch on his chair that pushed him to standing. Then he bent over her and kissed her lips, cradling her head in his hand. Violet's arms wound around him as she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss. His tongue tasted her mouth, traced her lips, found her tongue. A moan escaped her throat. and she felt him smile as the kiss continued. She smiled at the low growl from him but stopped as he pulled away.
"I'm very proud of you. I know it is terrifying the first time, but tomorrow you'll be walking up and down the corridor on your own." He laughed at her shocked expression. "No, truly you will and be happy for it."
As shaken as she felt, she couldn't resist teasing him just a little "Will I get kisses then, too?"
He shook his head no, but his smile never left his face. "You are trouble, my dear."
"I'd like to be your trouble. Come back tonight? I know the storm is not as bad as last night but..." Violet was shocked at herself. She was flirting with her handsome doctor, and he seemed to like it. "You did promise me chocolates."
"I also promised you a sponge bath."
Violet blushed from the roots of her hair to her toenails. She was suddenly consumed with the thought of Michael giving her a sponge bath. It sounded like the most sensual thing in the world at that moment. Her pulse sped up, her breasts swelled and ached as the nipples became hard knots. She clenched her thighs together as moisture drenched the curls between them. Michael must have realized what she was thinking as his gaze wandered over her body, his eyes darkened and took on a faraway look. They stared at each other for a minute till she gasped, shuddering with longing, and broke the spell.
He cleared his throat but it still came out hoarse when he said. "I'll send one of the nurses in to you. Unfortunately, I am not properly trained in the technique."
Violet knew he was never the one who was going to be giving her the bath but the fantasy was too good to pass up. "I'm sure you could muddle through," she said under her breath. She smiled and knew he had at least considered the idea when he started coughing.
"Yes, trouble. I don't know when I will be able to get back here this evening. Most likely not till after visiting hours are over. Have you heard from your brother yet?"
She smiled at his relief at changing the subject and that he would be coming back. "No, I haven't heard from Allyn. I expect that he is trapped in Europe somewhere with the storm still here. If I know him, he went to my mother's family in France. They are very fond of him, and he, them. I don't expect he'll be here till tomorrow and then only if the storm stops tonight. I think we can sneak one more meeting in before he gets here."
"I'll look forward to seeing you then, Ms. Bellows." And he kissed the back of her hand like a knight in shining armor. Violet had her bath coming but she could tell the day was going to drag by until tonight.
At eight thirty that evening, Michael skirted the nurses station on Violet's floor. Because of the storm, the hospital was still running with a skeleton crew. Not an ideal situation for patient care, but if it hadn't been this way, he and Violet would not have been able to have this time together. The thought made him pause. What were they doing? She wasn't married, as he had originally thought. He didn't think she was acting like this because of any of the pain killers. She had flirted with him even before that.
He tried to reassure himself that he wasn't taking advantage of the situation. So far all they had shared were some stolen kisses. He was attracted to her like no woman he had ever met, but where could this all lead? Why would a woman that stunning choose to spend time with a man as broken as he was? Obviously, she wouldn't as soon as she was released from the hospital. She was using him to allay her fears, even if it was only subconsciously. Once she was back to her regular life she would treat him like just her doctor again. All of this was because of her fear of hospitals. Even her brother had spoken to him about it. That had to be it. The thought burned the back of his throat.
He opened the door to her room and could tell she was asleep by the soft snoring. Most likely from the pain killers, but the thought of a woman that perfect snoring made him smile. He wheeled over to her and lowered the bed carefully so as not to wake her. She really did look like a fantasy princess from a children's book. Her glorious hair had been pulled back, revealing the nape of her neck. Michael felt himself consumed with desire to kiss that secret place hidden behind all those curls. As he leaned closer, he could smell her unique scent, a mix of herbs and some kind of green wood, plus her pheromones. He was captivated, and all his thoughts of explaining rationally why they couldn't continue like this were forgotten, replaced by the urge to kiss, to taste, to smell. He wanted to run his fingers along her hairline there and watch her shiver. Without another thought he softly nuzzled the back of her neck, lightly brushing his lips down her spine just there. He figured she would wake at his touch and was surprised when she started murmuring.
"Mmmm, Michael, I love you too." The words were spoken softly as she slept but clearly enough that there was no mistaking what she had said.
Michael startled, and she came fully awake. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled up at him. "I knew you'd come back. I was having the most wonderful dream."
He was still trying to catch his breath. She couldn't possibly love him. He had to have heard wrong. "Um, yes, I came back. I brought you chocolate like I promised, too." He pulled the chocolate from one of the saddlebags on his chair as she carefully turned over.
"Michael, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost. I can't be that scary when I wake up, can I?"
She really had been sleeping. It must have been as he suspected. She had convinced herself that she had feelings for him to get through the ordeal of the surgery and being in the hospital. Maybe if he talked about it with her, she would realize that it was happening, and she would go back to acting like any of his other patients.
"No, you are not scary at all. You are beautiful, in fact. Since you are much more relaxed than last night I thought we could talk for a while. I, um, won't be able to stay as long as I did last night, I'm afraid. Are you comfortable enough off of the morphine pump?"
"Yes, I'm all right. I understand you can't stay as long." She couldn't help looking disappointed. "What did you want to talk about?"
"You."
"Oh, I'm not very interesting, I'm afraid. I'm twenty-nine. I live with my brother in our parents' house. They died when I was twelve, and Allyn was my guardian till I came of age. I always felt bad for him being so young--he was twenty-two when they died--and being saddled with me. Did all the usual stuff, college and what not, and now I am here."
"That was a very practiced evasion that told me nothing about you."
Violet started to laugh. "I should have known you wouldn't accept that. Sorry. Yes, I've gotten too good at not talking about me. I'll let you ask five questions, and I will answer them as truthfully as possible."
"Okay, though I suspect only five will just scratch the surface. What do you do for a living?"
"Oh, we are going to get the boring stuff out of the way first? Fine. I work for a nonprofit that deals with healthcare advocacy in third world countries. I'm here in the Boston office. That is one. Do I get to ask you questions?"
"I suppose it would only be fair. Within reason, mind you."
"Hmm, Where are you most ticklish?"
"Violet! I.... Why do you want to know?"
"It may be important information later."
"You are the most confounding."
"Just answer the question, Doctor."
"Fine. I suppose under my arms. To be honest, I can't remember the last time someone tickled me."
"That will need to be rectified."
"You wouldn't dare." The smile she leveled at him told him she not only would but might be planning her attack as he sat there. He stared back at her with his mouth agape. Oh, if a woman like this could indeed love him. But no, he was convinced this was merely a case of her need to distance herself from the hospital environment.
"Your next question, Doctor?"
"I...I can't remember what I was going to ask now." Michael shook his head to clear it. She befuddled him, and that was not a feeling he was used to. "Okay, I know you like opera. Have you ever been to see it live?"
"When I was a child, my parents had season tickets to the Met. I used to love going with them. It was like they were the king and queen, and I was their princess. Everything sparkled and was so beautiful. The building, the costumes, the music. Everything was magical. Back then everyone got dressed up. The last time I saw a show in New York, there were so many people in jeans. I am glad they were supporting and enjoying the show, but it made me miss when it was a bigger event." She seemed lost in thought, possibly remembering her parents.
Michael had to take this opportunity to get her to talk about them.
"Violet, how did your parents die?"
She stared at him blankly, though the pain in her eyes was unmistakeable.
"Oh, Michael, I... they died in a plane crash."
"Violet, I know you were with them; your brother told me. I think..."
"Michael, I really don't want to talk about this. I.... There is no going back and changing things. You can only deal with the pain and move forward. I learned that early on. Please don't make me talk about this."
"But if it affects you still, then it is a part of your present and your future for as long as you hold on to it. I think talking about it will help you move past it enough that your fear of hospitals and storms might be less."
"Michael, I have spent more time with doctors than you could possibly imagine, including shrinks that wanted to help me work through the pain. Nothing changes."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "My parents took me to New York for my birthday. The Met was putting on La Traviata. They treated me like a princess but then they always did, only in retrospect did I actually appreciate it. We ended up caught in a horrible snow storm on the way back and the plane crashed in the woods. The pilot and my father were killed instantly." She held her breath for a moment and he saw the sadness wash over her. Another breath and she continued. "My mother was hurt badly but she didn't let me know it. She kept telling me that help would be there soon. It didn't come soon enough though and eventually she passed away too. I was there for twenty-eight more hours. The only saving grace was that while she struggled to hold on she told me over and over how much she and my father loved me and always would.
He was speachless for a moment and reached for her hand. He needed to touch her to soothe the ache that was still there but she had dealt with the horror of the experience and come out whole. Was this the source of the steel he found so attractive?
"Violet, that is heart wrenching but you don't seem terrified now."
She laughed and the melancholy disappeared. "No, I'm not. You're here."
"Why would that make a difference?"
She took a deep breath. "You relax me."
"Why?" She looked at him through her lashes and blushed. It was killing him to destroy how she felt about him, but it was the right thing to do.
"Because of how I feel about you. That was your third question. My turn. Do you have a girlfriend?"
Michael blushed. "No. I'm not letting you change the subject, Violet."
"No, you don't have a girlfriend, or no, you won't let me change the subject?"
"No, no girlfriend, and I'm not letting you change the subject."
"Wait. That would include boyfriend too, right?" She grinned back at him.
"Violet, I am not attracted to men, but I think I am stating the obvious when I mention that I'm in a wheelchair. I haven't dated since, well, ever really. I think this is getting into personal areas that I don't want to discuss."
"Oh, too touchy, Doctor. You seemed more than determined to open _my_ darkest secrets."
She narrowed her eyes and stared him down. There it was again. The glint of steel under her elegant feminine exterior intrigued him more than he wanted to admit. This was the kind of woman who would keep a man challenged for a lifetime. His head ached from trying to keep himself from taking her in his arms and kissing her senseless.
"I've decided I am bored with your game. Frankly, you ask very dull questions," she said, doing her best impression of a spoiled society girl. As she did, she reached out and poked her finger gently to his long nose.
He almost laughed. No one had ever treated him the way this woman did. Even his mother had been a very cool personality. She loved him but was never physically affectionate, even before his illness and the chair. After, everyone treated him as if some invisible force field buzzed around him. Not Violet. She was touchy and impertinent and made him feel alive, confused as hell, but alive. She was holding him pinned with her finger on his nose. He felt slightly ridiculous. All he had to do was back up to break the contact, but he couldn't seem to make himself do it.
Violet took the top off the box of chocolates and squealed like a child.
"I love dark chocolate cherry cordials!" She plucked one from the box and took a big bite. The liquor from the candy dripped from the corner of her mouth as she happily devoured the rest of the piece of candy. As she ate the treat, her eyes never left his. Her hand moved to caress his cheek with the back of her fingers. Eventually, she grasped his beard, gently but firmly pulling him toward her. Michael was staring at the red drip at the corner of her mouth and couldn't help licking his lips at the thought of tasting it. She seemed to want it, too.
The kiss started sweetly enough. Her lips felt so warm under his. She murmured something in appreciation, but then it became a flash flood of sensation. The kiss at the corner of her mouth with the sticky sweet syrup led to him exploring the taste of the dark chocolate on her tongue. The mix of the candy and her unique taste sent him over the edge. She matched him as their tongues swept the breath from the other. Her hands were fisted in his hair, pulling at him, driving him on. His mind lost to reason, everything male in him responding to everything female in her. He kissed across her jaw and down her throat. She traced her tongue along the edge of his ear and sucked the lobe into her mouth. He moaned, unconscious of what he was doing.
His hands, which had held her shoulders, moved down her arms and then spanned her rib cage. _So delicate_ , the only thought in his head. As he moved his hands over the soft cotton of the johnny coat to the fullness of her breasts, even that thought was blotted out by single-minded desire. The civilized man was disappearing, replaced by a primal hunger that had been too long denied.
He broke the kiss and stared into her eyes as he slowly unsnapped the shoulder of her gown, one snap at a time. With each pop, her breath caught in her throat, but she never moved her hands from his head. When he let the front fall, his hands cupped her rosy tipped breasts. His large strong hands seemed made to match them; they filled them so perfectly. He bent his face to bury himself in them, inhaling the scent of her. She gasped when his beard grazed the tops of them.
He reveled in how sensitive she was to his touch, so he rubbed his beard across her nipples and was rewarded with shivers shaking her whole body. He was consumed with her reactions to him, to his touch. Nothing could keep him from enjoying this woman. Even doing surgery had never felt as powerful as making Violet gasp and sigh almost at will. He wanted to discover every intonation of her delight. He lowered the bed so it was flat and she was laid out before him like a buffet to a starving man.
He moved back to the hollow at her throat and almost laughed at her groan of displeasure. He feasted on that hollow and turned the groan into a sigh. She still had one hand cupping the back of his head, the other had reached over her head to clutch at the sheets above her. She looked ready to have her picture painted by one of the Impressionists, a lover at rest. As beautiful as she looked in the half light, he didn't want her at rest. He wanted to see her as crazed as he felt right now.
He leaned forward, and his hand landed in the box of candy. He held one in his hand as he unsnapped the side of her gown. He groaned when he revealed her body. Yes, he had seen her naked when he operated, but then he had stared at her with clinical detachment. There was nothing detached about his gaze now. His chest ached at her beauty. Everything was soft, made for a man's pleasure and touch. He wanted to drink her in, get drunk on the feel and taste of her. He smiled and brought the cordial over her. He used his teeth and nipped a small hole in it. All the while making sure she had her eyes on him. He dripped the sticky syrup down her body from the valley of her breasts to her pubic mound, leaving no question of what he intended.
Violet moaned, she couldn't help it. Every touch of his set her on fire. The minute the kiss changed, she knew she would be writhing under the spell he was weaving. She needed more of him. "Take off your shirt." She managed in a hoarse whisper. He looked at her like he barely registered her voice but reached up and pulled his scrub top off. As he bent toward her body, she stopped him. He could have what he desired in a moment, first she wanted to touch him.
His shoulders were magnificent, each turn of muscle perfectly proportioned for his frame. His chest was neatly divided, and she couldn't resist running her fingers down the cut of his pecs and watching him quake. Her hands spread across the wide expanse and caressed his flat nipples with her thumbs. She smiled as his desire-darkened eyes drooped. Oh, how she would have loved to use her mouth on him. It would take a week to kiss all of him. As much as she could get lying flat on her back was one finger under his chin to guide him to her lips. His kiss left her breathless and covered in goosebumps. She hadn't expected him to be so playful, earnest. Heartfelt yes, but this, being covered in candy syrup, the way he teased her with his beard was beyond anything she could have asked for. She had hoped he would be a thoughtful lover. She hadn't guessed that he would be inventive.
He hovered over her, staring into her eyes. What she saw there was all male and not at all tame, such a contrast to the courtly doctor he had been at other times. The thought of him like this made her mouth water. She had wanted to see him like this from the moment she laid eyes on him. He held out the cherry still in the chocolate and fed it to her as she stared back at him. Without a word, he started licking at the sticky trail he'd left on her body. She was trembling with need, every touch of his tongue turning the knots in her gut tighter. At her breasts, he detoured from the path. He used his mouth to make her moan, his soft wet tongue followed by the rasp of his beard. When she didn't think she could stand anymore he sucked her nipples to even harder points. The soft bite of pain rocketing to her sex and making her ache even more.
She saw the smile on his face as she struggled to catch her breath. Not tonight, but soon it would be her turn to play the seducer, and then she would take her sweet time with him. When he got to her stomach, he smeared the sticky liquid instead of lapping it up. Then he sucked at the soft skin with wet open mouthed kisses. Violet had to clench her teeth to keep from crying out. He continued his assault till he was between the points of her hip bones. She was desperate for him to get to her more sensitive spots, but she didn't want this to end either. She groaned, "I'm going to be all wet and sticky."
He looked up at her from near her pelvis and smiled. When he looked back down he rubbed his mouth against her mound. "I can smell how wet and sticky you are."
Violet sucked in her breath. Part of her was shocked at his words. This was not the genteel man she thought she knew. This was something earthy with rougher edges. Something that promised abandon, and she wanted all of it. "Oh, please . . . Michael . . . touch me, dammit!" His laugh against her mound made her breath catch in her throat.
He loved the smell of her arousal. He wanted to crow with satisfaction. He had made this beautiful woman quiver for release from him. He sensed her startle at his blunt words and saw the moisture drip from her labia. She might not say it, but she liked not being treated like a porcelain doll. Slowly he brought his lips to her pussy and kissed her deeply there. He parted her with his fingers. She was so warm and wet. He eased two of his fingers deep inside her. He heard her gasp and kissed the inside of her thigh to let her get used to the sensation. His fingers were long, reaching deep inside her. He curled them to massage the spot just behind her pelvic bone. He buried his face in her thigh to hide his smile when she started panting softly. He gave her thigh a little nip, and she moaned his name. He thought he'd roar his conquest of this desirable woman.
Now he wanted a taste. He gave her clit a hard lick with the flat of his tongue, and she almost jumped off the bed. With precise movements, using just the tip of his tongue, he traced her folds. He explored everywhere but her sensitive nub till she was panting and clutching at the sheets. Suddenly she began to keen. If she was having an orgasm, he would know. This was not a climax. Her legs shook. Oh God. What had he done?
"Violet, tell me what's wrong."
"Michael, my legs! My hips! Everything is seizing up. Oh, shit, it hurts bad."
Damn, he'd been so single-minded in wanting to get his hands on her he'd forgotten about the effect all the tension would have on the fragile nerves trying to reknit themselves. She would've had charlie horses anyway, but everything he'd done just made it worse. "Violet, I'm so sorry. I forgot myself. I'll try to stretch you out. I'm so sorry."
He moved to the side of her and pulled her knees toward her chest to stretch out her hamstrings. "Can you roll the small of your back down to the bed? That will help release your back." She did as he asked, and he could see some of the pain leave her face. "Let me know when your hamstrings relax." She shook her head. "Better now?"
"A little," she said through clenched teeth.
"Where?"
"My hips."
He threw the gown over her body as he pushed her knees apart to stretch her psoas.
"I know it feels odd, but is that better?"
"Yes." She was covering her face. He wished he were dead. He'd wanted her to be awash in pleasure because of him, and all he had given her was pain. He'd compromised her most basic trust in him as a doctor. Her body shaking broke his chain of thought. Now, she was crying. He could hear her trying to cover it up but...
"Violet, I'm so sorry. I won't ever touch you again. If you want to bring me up before the patient advocacy board, I completely understand." At that she pulled her hands away from her face, and he stared at her. She was . . . laughing. "What the hell?"
"Oh god, Michael, I'm sorry. I shouldn't make light of it all, but if I don't laugh, I swear, I'll start screaming. I finally find a gorgeous man who can do amazing things to me, and my goddamn body acts like it is having some kind of freaking allergic reaction."
"You're not crying?"
"The only reason for me to cry is you didn't finish. Michael, are you okay? Really, I'm fine, damn disappointed, but fine. Please say something. You're scaring me. Really. It's okay to laugh when something as insane as this happens."
"Violet, if I hadn't . . . you never would have had those muscle spasms. This is all my fault. I should just leave."
Violet grabbed his arm. "Don't you dare. Look at me. I mean it, look at me now!" He turned his head, and Violet would swear she saw tears in his eyes. She pulled him closer and raised the bed so she could sit up and look at him eye to eye. She took his face in her hands, sweeping her thumbs over his closed eyes and down his cheeks. She pulled him to her shoulder and wrapped her arms around him. "Michael, I loved how you touched me. I have never felt as beautiful as when you were making love to me. Please don't think that the charlie horses were something you did. You told me after the surgery I would have more of them while the nerves were getting function back. Let's face it, as physical therapy goes, having a stunningly handsome man work over my body in the most intimate way possible was not the worst thing to ever happen to me."
She turned his face to hers and kissed him, staring into his eyes, trying to convey all the love she felt for him. "Really, I should be thanking you or demanding a raincheck, since at this point I am going to be frustrated as hell till you touch me again. You better come back tomorrow and finish what you started, or I'm going to have to hunt you down." Then she nipped his ear to let him know she was teasing. She started laughing at his shy smile. He was so different again, back to being formal and stiff, obviously appalled at his previous behavior. "Michael, I'm serious. That was hot as hell, and I don't really have words to describe how it made me feel. But I will not let you apologize for making me feel like that."
He started to smile again.
"You don't hate me?"
"God, no. Hate you for making me feel... amazing? That was the kind of sex that makes an old lady smile thinking about it forty years later. I'm not going to let you take that back."
"Violet, I swear I have never done anything like that before. I..."
"Okay, now you are just bragging. You expect me to believe that you are some kind of sexual savant? You can just lay your hands on a woman, and she comes undone?"
"You're the only one who has ever had that kind of reaction, or that I have tried to make come undone.
"And you say the sweetest things. You should have a warning label that you are addictive. You better get out of here, or I'll make you finish what you started. You'll come back tomorrow though? I was kidding about the sex part. We can play twenty questions again. But you need to think up some naughty ones because yours were seriously boring."
He laughed outright now. He took a deep breath and stared at her. "You confuse the hell out of me, Violet."
"I'm supposed to, silly man. That is how you know I'm a girl. Now get. I don't want you in trouble. At least not with anyone but me."
He shook his head and kissed her lips. "I'll see you tomorrow at rounds."
The next morning, when he arrived at Violet's room with the residents, her brother had just arrived. He shouldn't have been angry, but he was. He didn't want to share her with anyone. But she seemed so glad to see her brother he couldn't stay angry. He and Allyn Bellows made idle chitchat while Violet was helped to the bathroom.
"How did you get in? I had heard Logan was still closed."
"It is. The storm had already moved through New York so I flew there, got a car, and drove up. Frankly, I expected her to be in much worse shape. Actually, she seems to be doing great. The whole way up I kept thinking she was going to end up sedated or in restraints. I can't believe how relaxed she is. I can't thank you enough for what you have done for her. Beyond the surgery, I mean."
Michael tried not to turn ten shades of red. If this man knew the things he'd thought about and and done with his sister, he'd be beating him senseless instead of thanking him.
"The worst of the storm is over, so hopefully you'll be able to take her home tomorrow." Why did that depress him so much. He could never say it out loud, but being trapped in the hospital with Violet had been the closest thing to a relationship he'd allowed himself. Now she was going home, and he'd only see her for follow up appointments. He'd see her drift away from him until they only had a professional relationship. That was what he had wanted last night before she had let him seduce her. Now that he had a glimpse of what life could be, he couldn't bear to see her look at him as just another doctor, or worse, just some poor man in a wheelchair.
Her brother evidently had pull at the hospital, or the nurses were just thrilled to have another man around, because the visiting hour rules didn't seem to apply to him. Michael never did get to see Violet alone again before she was discharged. It was maddening having her so close and not being able to touch her or wait beside her bed till she woke up and he could kiss her. While he finished signing her discharge paperwork, he was starting to hate hospitals himself,.
He had made his decision, and rationally he knew it was for the best. Emotionally it meant his life would be utter crap till he got her out of his system, but there wasn't any other way. It wasn't as though his life didn't feel empty before her, but after her, well, it seemed to be a black hole now. Nothing left to do but to tell her and get the hell out of here.
"Well, discharge paperwork is all done. I see you are packed. That's good. Hopefully they'll be around with a chair to take you downstairs in a bit. I don't know why, but that always seems to be the hardest part, getting an orderly with a chair." Violet looked like she wanted to say something, but she kept glancing at her brother and would stop. Just as well. He didn't want any heartfelt disclosures that would complicate what he had to do now.
"Violet, I think you are doing quite well in your recovery. I am going to have my office transfer your care to one of my associates. Tom Waters is very good, a nice guy. I think you'll like him. He'll set you up with any physical therapy you need. You don't need to come back to the office to have the staples removed. A visiting nurse will be in touch and set up a time in the next week or two. I've enjoyed having you as a patient." He'd run out of things to say, but he still couldn't look at her.
"Why?"
He heard her anger. He'd expected disappointment given that her feelings wouldn't have receded yet, though he knew they would. But he hadn't thought she would be angry. When he looked at her, her eyes were almost black with anger. There was that steel he always seemed to find in her. Part of him wanted to smile. He did like that unwillingness to let disappointment back her into a corner.
"I think it is for the best, for now, if someone else attends to your care. I'm sure I will still see you at the office, and I will make sure to tell Tom to CC me on any notes."
"Fine," she said as cutting as any stiletto. She moved to collect her things as the orderly brought the wheelchair in. Michael fought the urge to close his eyes. He wondered if there were a bar nearby already open, because right at this moment he'd like to be blind drunk. If she had looked hurt he could have at least comforted her, but she didn't. She pulled her walls up and disappeared behind them. He hated himself, but there was no other way.
***
# Six Weeks Later
Violet leaned against the door frame, exhausted from her physical therapy and the last month and a half. She had given up trying to not think about Michael and was going with a more meditative approach. Of course, he would come up in her thoughts, and when he did she simply acknowledged the thought and set it adrift. She thought about him just as much, but at least she felt less guilty about it. The physical therapy was helping with some of the adhesions and pain left over from the surgery. The pain in her heart was a different story. She noticed the lights were still on in the therapy room, which was odd since she had the last appointment. She was about to go when she heard someone fall to the ground and a man's voice cursing. She knew who it was and it would serve him right if she left him lying on the floor or under a piece of equipment for not calling her. She just couldn't walk away though.
She walked into the room to find Michael lying on the mat under the parallel bars. She thought back to when she had helped him across the street and how miserable he had been and steeled herself for an outburst. "Doctor, can I help you with something?"
"Oh, fucking wonderful. No, just leave me here, with any luck I'll be dead in the morning."
"So we've decided on morose rather than belligerent as the lesser of two evils. Michael, let me help you, for God's sake."
"Just go away. I'd sooner be stuck here than to see you look at me with pity."
"Well, then it is your lucky day because I had intended to look at you like you were a goddamned ass, if you want to know the truth."
"That I can deal with. Unfortunately, it's the truth. Can you bring my chair over here? And then I might need you to steady it while I get in."
Violet looked around for the large chair with the hydraulics. "I don't see the Dr. X chair. Is it in the other room?"
"The what?
"Dr. X, you know the comic book hero in the wheelchair, has mental telepathy and X-ray vision, all the usual super hero stuff."
Michael cocked an eyebrow at her. "Is that how you thought of me?"
"Don't be an ass Michael. Oh, sorry. Too late! Where is the chair?
"It's the low-backed one right near you. I don't always use the other one. I was doing some exercises, and then I'm supposed to go play basketball with a friend."
She pushed the wheelchair closer to him as he rolled to a sitting position. "I could see you were in good shape. I didn't really think about what kind of exercise program you would have to do. What were you doing with the parallel bars?"
"If I tell you, you'll laugh at me."
"Michael, I have never laughed at you. Well, unless you were being pompous. More likely I will end up yelling at you if past experience is any indication."
He smiled. She was right, of course. She had never laughed at his deficits, only his lousy attitude. "Fine. I was practicing walking."
"What? You can walk?"
"No, actually I can't, but I keep trying. I hope it keeps the neural pathways open. I end up falling on my face most of the time. Stupid but true. I've had plenty of doctors tell me I am wasting my time, but I can't give up trying."
She covered her mouth to hide the smile, not at his foolhardiness, but at his perseverance.
"So you are going to laugh at me after all."
"No, I was thinking how very much alike we are. I would do the same thing."
He had no doubt that she would, too. God, it hurt to look at her. He missed her so much. The past six weeks had been hell He couldn't concentrate, didn't want to get out of bed. He'd slacked off on his exercise sessions to the point that his ol' buddy Cam was going to kick his ass up and down the court today. He knew he shouldn't, but he didn't want her to just leave again.
"Violet? Would you like to go with... forget it. It's a dumb idea, and you probably have plans anyway."
He was in his chair now. She had never seen him dressed in sweats and a T-shirt. She wanted to peel his damp shirt off and lick the center of his chest. She took a deep breath to clear the image from her head. "I don't have any plans for this evening. What did you have in mind?" She tried to sound casual so she didn't sound desperate.
Damn, she didn't want to want him as much as she did. Pathetic was how she thought of herself. She could tell him about her new project at the foundation. At least keep him talking till she figured out how to ask him out without sounding like a stalker.
"After seeing what you did with your other chair, I've started researching groups that make wheelchairs out of discarded bicycles in different third world countries. The need is staggering and particular to each different area because almost nothing is paved. The designs are more along the lines of all terrain vehicles than anything you'd have here. It has all been kind of fascinating. Tell me about the design of this chair?"
He looked at her like she was turning green and growing horns before his eyes. "Um, it's just a regular sport model, low profile. It is designed to be self-propelled, not pushed. The center of gravity is lower so it doesn't tip when you get into tight turns." He spun in a pirouette. "Would you like to come to my basketball game? You'd have a chance to see what I mean close up." He was staring at his knees, preparing himself for her to say no.
"I'd love to! We should take your transportation though, and you can just drop me off back here after. When do we need to leave?"
He looked up in shock. He wasn't going to get his hopes up. It probably was just part of a research project to her, but he could at least pretend for a little while. He felt like a teenage boy asking the prettiest girl in school to watch him play ball, but he didn't care. She had said yes, and she at least looked happy to go.
"I'll need to call Allyn to let him know I'm going to miss dinner. Can we get something to eat afterwards?"
"Sure, though it won't be anything gourmet. The guys are mostly wings and beer types." He laughed at her grimace. He wasn't a fan either. "I have heard the burgers are good at the place we usually go to." They wandered down to the parking garage in silence. Michael wished he wasn't parked in the handicapped spot, which was dumb because it wasn't like she didn't know he was in a wheelchair. When they got to his car, she started laughing. Now he felt like an idiot.
"I'm sorry," she said smiling. "I know it isn't a Masserati, but do you have comic books in there?" She said pointing to his small red Italian sports car.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Sorry, you've never heard the joke about how to find the Orthopod's car in the hospital lot?"
"It's the Masserati with the comic books?"
"Exactly! Sorry, you ortho guys have a nasty reputation for being unconscionably rich and not all that bright. Present company excepted, of course."
"So you don't think I'm rich?" Now he started laughing. "You know what a red convertible means, don't you?
"In Boston it probably means you are from out of town, but when driven by a man of a certain age it means you've already had your midlife crisis. Generally, the little red convertible is cheaper than the buxom blonde in the long run."
"Oh, I thought you were going to make a crack about my sexual prowess?"
"Doctor, I know all I need to know about your sexual prowess." Then she looked him up and down with eyes so filled with desire he felt like he had been punched in the gut. He blew his breath out in a whistle. She didn't drop her gaze but instead licked her lips. He was held spellbound till she looked away and started laughing. His hands shook when he unlocked the doors.
"I should know better than to ask. Do you need help?"
"No. I do this all the time. Thank you for asking, though," he said as they got into the car.
She raised her eyebrows. "Wow, you can be nice. Who knew?"
"Brat."
"Right back at you." Then they sat there for a minute grinning at each other. He quickly leaned forward and kissed her. The surprised look on her face was perfect, her gasp was even better. He turned to focus on getting his chair collapsed and stowed. Then they were on their way.
She fished a silk scarf out of her bag and tied it around her hair. She looked like summer in Europe instead of early spring in Boston. He was happy beyond reason to have her beside him, humming along to an aria. He had the urge to find some lover's lane and park. He felt young and almost laughed out loud at the thought of taking her to the basketball game. Yes, exactly like a high school boy with the prettiest girl in school.
Half an hour later Michael pulled into the gym parking lot, and they ambled into the biggest gym Violet had ever seen. She had gone to school in France where they just didn't have these kinds of facilities. She was surprised that there weren't many students, but then it was Friday night. They were probably all out drinking and hooking up. The thought made her giggle. Would she get to "hook up" with Michael tonight? His kiss had surprised the hell out of her. So much for getting over him.
She was wandering while staring up at the ceiling that was six or seven stories up when she noticed it had gotten very quiet. She looked around and realized that there were now ten or so men staring at her like she was an exotic animal. One of them rolled toward her. He oozed male sexuality in a way that made Violet blink like a deer caught in the high beams. "You have to excuse these guys, we don't often get women here and never anything as hot as you." Violet just gulped and stared at him. "Though I've got to wonder what you're doing with the altar boy here?" The man was gorgeous, dark brooding masculinity with just enough little boy mischief to his eyes that women would probably throw themselves at him if they could get past the chair.
All Violet could manage to get out was a confused, "Hmmf."
"Cam, hands off, or I'll put the bullet back where I found it." Michael looked fit to kill.
"Like it could do any more damage," Mr. Brooding-Good-Looks tossed over his shoulder, as his eyes never left hers. "So sweetheart, are you some do-gooder who thought it was 'be nice to cripples week,' or are you actually trying to figure out how to hook up with the good doctor here?"
"I...." She could feel herself turning redder by the second, because she had been wondering exactly that. "That's none of your business!" Thank god she stopped herself from stamping her foot. But only just. "What are you, anyway, his damn mother? Or just jealous?"
"Ooh, she does speak and is a little spitfire to boot. Maybe I am, but if I wanted to make you change your mind, sweetheart," he said, rolling forward, backing her into the bleachers, "all I would have to do is this." He grabbed her hand and pulled her down onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her.
For just a split second she felt like her silk blouse and the flippy skirt she wore had melted off of her, his gaze was searing. She was so surprised she didn't even resist when he kissed her. The kiss wasn't hard or even all that sexually charged. It was like he was doing it for show. She almost fell off his lap when he jolted forward. She would have if it hadn't been for his arms around her. As he caught her, he whispered, "You can thank me some other time." Then he turned and snarled, "What the fuck, Dennison!"
Violet scrambled off his lap in time to see Michael reach for another basketball as he came closer. He looked murderous. Cam spun and put himself between her and Michael. "What's the matter buddy?"
"I said to get your goddamn hands off of her!"
Cam held his hands up in mock surrender. "Just checking."
"Fuck you, what the hell were you checking exactly?"
"Umm, are you boys done fighting over who gets to carry my books?" She grinned at both of them as she moved between them and took the basketball out of Michael's hands. She started lazily bouncing it as the two of them glared at each other. "I went to an all girls boarding school, so I missed out on this kind of stuff." She didn't need to tell them it was a Swiss finishing school. She could just imagine what kind of response that would get. Frankly, seeing Michael murderously jealous was a huge turn-on, not that she needed one. It did bring to mind the darker, less civilized man he'd been that unforgettable night in the hospital. "I think that whoever wins the basketball game gets a kiss."
"What about the rest of us?" came a voice from behind her. She turned around and scanned the group. It was a mix of guys, different ages, different disabilities, but all of them looked at her with something like hope in their eyes. She laughed.
"Kisses for the winning side, but I don't want to find out any of you called me easy in homeroom! Oh, and kisses on the cheek. I see wedding rings. I don't need some crazed woman accusing me of stealing her man."
They quickly picked teams and started playing. Michael and Cam played man to man like their lives depended on it. There was something primal about these two gorgeous men squaring off to win a kiss from her, wheelchairs be damned. It wasn't always pretty to watch though. The game was fast, and those two were playing it with a fierce intensity. To be fair, they all were. A couple of guys wandered over to watch.
"Guess they're not calling fouls tonight."
"Do they always play like this?" Violet asked.
"No. It's usually just a friendly game. What the hell got into them?"
"Oh." She wasn't going to admit to stirring up trouble, but she was flattered none the less.
"Do you know these guys?" She wanted to find out more about what was going on with Michael and Cam.
"A little. The blonde guy with the beard and the guy with the curly black hair have been friends forever.
Ouch! That was a vicious hit. Not that you'd know it from the way they're playing each other."
"Forever?" Now she wished she could just crawl into a hole. She had wanted to make Michael a little jealous, not breakup a lifelong friendship.
"Yeah, since they were kids." Luckily the final buzzer sounded not much later. Michael's side won.
"Well, that was an interesting game. Dennison, didn't know you had it in you?" Cam was teasing him, and Michael looked less like he wanted to kill him, so Violet hoped their friendship was still good. She kissed each man of the winning side on both cheeks. Not weak air kisses but real kisses. Half of the guys blushed to their toes, but all of them smiled at her. She was about to kiss Michael when he growled at her.
"We're leaving."
"But Michael, I didn't give you your kiss?" Dammit, he knew he was the only one she really wanted to kiss.
"I'll take it later." He started to leave, and when she wasn't fast enough, he pulled her into his lap and pinned her there with his glare. He was covered in sweat and should have stunk, but there was something so innately masculine about the smell of him, she dropped her head to his shoulder and practically purred.
Quiet enough so that no one else could hear, she whispered in his ear, "Promise?"
He didn't respond, didn't slow down. It was a good thing she had her bag in her hand or she would be leaving without it. The whole way back to the clinic building neither spoke. Violet could feel the tension coming off him, but she didn't know what to say now to make it better. He took off for his office, and she had to almost run to keep up with him. Once there, she tried to move toward him, but he swept around her and slammed the office door.
"Michael, I'm sorry I...
"Did you like it?"
"What? The game? It was pretty amazing, but I hope you guys don't always play like that."
"Not the damn game! When he kissed you!"
"I..."
"Or when he put his arms around you?"
"I...
"Or when he pulled you onto his lap?"
"Will you let me answer you?"
"I don't know if I want an answer. I haven't heard you say no, so you must have!" He looked like he wanted to tear something apart with his bare hands.
"Michael Dennison, if you will stop yelling at me and listen for half a second! Mostly, all of those things just surprised me. I am not used to men I don't know hauling me into their laps and kissing me." Michael's eyes had turned almost black with rage. "But when he put his arms around me, I didn't want him to keep me there like I do with you. When he hauled me into his lap, I didn't feel like some treasured kitten like I do with you. When he kissed me, I didn't want to purr like I do when I am kissing you." She didn't have to tell him about how she was feeling right now. She didn't feel like purring, damn the man, she wanted to roar. Her blood was screaming through her veins. This wasn't the fluttering she had felt around him other times. He was not leaving here without at least understanding how she felt about him. Hell, at this point would it be asking too much for him to clarify his feelings for her?
She punctuated this thought by dropping into his lap. She reached under his still damp shirt and started stroking his chest and stomach. He grabbed her wrists and held them with one of his hands. He cradled the back of her head with the other and crushed his mouth to hers. His tongue raked her teeth, her lips, captured her tongue, and left her breathless. She gasped when he ended the kiss. His eyes were still dark, but it wasn't rage she saw there now.
"So, my little kitten, you like to be handled, don't you?"
"Only by you." Her voice came out barely a whisper. She wasn't sure what he was asking of her, but he sounded so strong, and she suddenly felt so small.
"Should I pet you, my little kitten, till you purr contentedly, or should I train you to do as you are told so I never have to endure seeing you in someone else's arms."
She could feel her eyes go round with surprise while a wave of heat swept over her and settled hot and wet between her legs. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. He forced her to her feet as she regained her speaking voice.
"Wh-What do you mean training?" Her body pulsed just saying it. Her knees were already weak, and her head was buzzing like she'd had too much champagne. The realization that she would willingly be putty in his hands both scared and thrilled her. She noticed she was rubbing her thighs together to assuage the ache between them a second after Michael did.
"Oh no, kitten, there will be no relief unless it is from me." He rolled forward till he was right on top of her. She hadn't realized how tall he was. If he had been standing he would have been over six feet tall. She gulped at how close he was and the look on his face. She wanted to run, but only if he'd chase her. She realized she wasn't afraid of him. She understood he would never hurt her. She couldn't stop herself from trembling, though it had nothing to do with fear.
She jumped when she felt his fingers on the backs of her thighs. At first it was a gentle caress. Swirling touches that moved from the back of her knees up under the hem of her skirt and then higher. He was weaving a spell. She felt her spine go soft. It became harder to keep her eyes open; even her mouth became soft.
She was so caught up in the sensations, she didn't realize Michael had moved his hands higher till he yanked her panties down to her ankles. "Step out of them and hand them to me," he demanded. She started to protest, but he cut her off. "Talking back will be punished. Now give them to me." She handed him her panties and felt the cool air on her wet sex. She felt drugged but knew that anything she was doing was what she chose to do. "From now on you will not wear these things around me, unless I tell you to. If you think I am kidding, you're wrong, and I will be checking." She wanted to ask how but didn't want to interrupt.
She knew her face was bright red as her cheeks burned. "That's my good little kitten. Now should I pet you? Will you purr for me?" He didn't wait for her response but started caressing the back of her thighs again. The same sensations built in her, but this time she stumbled forward and he caught her, positioning her on his lap. He started nibbling on her neck with his teeth and lips.
Violet felt like she was being consumed by fire. Her body was hot, and there wasn't enough air. When she realized that he had unbuttoned her blouse to her waist she looked up at him with glazed eyes. Michael smiled wickedly and reached into her blouse. She moaned slightly, his hand was so warm playing with the sensitive flesh of her nipple. She melted into him. As the nipple came to a peak he grazed his fingernail over the tip, and her breath caught in her throat. Then he pinched the nipple hard. She hissed in a breath, the pressure of his fingers, the rough bite of the lace of her bra sent a bolt of heat to her clit. She closed her eyes and bit her lip. He reached under the lace, weighing her breast in his hand and bent forward soothing the tortured nipple with wet licks and kisses.
"My kitten likes to be played with."
"Yes." It came out as a whisper.
"Take your bra off, but I want that silk shirt back on." She scrambled off his lap to do what he asked. Once it was done, she stood with her back to his desk waiting for him to tell her what to do next. "I like you like this, eyes glazed, half dressed, like you've just been fucked or are about to be. You like it when I don't treat you like a porcelain doll, don't you, kitten? You like when I am taking what I want from you? Answer me."
"Yes." Her voice was stronger, but she still sounded unsure of herself.
"Good, because I really like testing your limits. I am going to make sure you are thinking about me all the time."
"Michael, what about you?"
"Kitten, you don't need to worry about me. Hop up on my desk." When she did, he wheeled right in front of her. "Put your feet on either side of my chair." She did but kept her knees together. "Such a shy kitten." He kissed her knees and caressed the back of her thighs again till she was limp. Then he separated her legs and pushed his shoulders between them. "I am going to mark you so if any man gets close he knows you are mine.
"Wha...hey, that hurts!" Michael gave her a dark hickey on the inside of her thigh about two inches below her pubic bone.
"Sorry, kitten, had to be done. But I know what would make you all better." He started with gentle strokes at the edges of her labia. Gradually the stroking became more directed till he had parted them and worked on the inside edges. It was maddening. He was building her to a crescendo, but she was almost already there.
"Michael, Please I need more."
"This is to please me, kitten. I want to stroke you, make you weep all that luscious sweet cream for me."
Violet felt Michael stroke her harder with two fingers. He reached the fingers out and rubbed them on her lips. "Kitten, taste your cream." Her tongue darted out and licked at her lips. "So beautiful, so sexy." His voice was hoarse. He held his fingers up for her to lick, and she sucked them into her mouth to the last knuckle. She dragged her tongue along the bottom of them as she pulled her head back. Letting him know she wanted more than his fingers in her mouth. "You're a greedy kitten. We'll have to teach you some manners. First, I want some of this sweet cream myself." He ducked his head between her thighs, and when she felt his mouth on her she started to pant.
"Oh, Michael. Please make me come."
"Kitten, of course I can make you, the question is will I let you? Maybe I should leave you just like this to punish you for flirting. But I am greedy, too. I want to feel you fly apart at my touch. I want to look at this desk and think of you spread out on it writhing in ecstasy. First I want to cover my face in your cream and let you lick me clean like a good kitten."
Violet could only moan in response. Michael buried his face in her, painting his cheeks in her juices, rubbing his beard and mustache over her sensitized flesh. He reveled in her movement, the little gasps and noises she made. When she started to shake, he thrust his tongue in deep, feeling the walls of her vagina spasm around it. After she got quiet again, he ordered her on her knees in front of him, and she greedily licked his face clean. She was still flushed and panting.
"Stand up and lose the skirt." Violet didn't hesitate but stood, trying to cover herself, shaking. "Kitten, from the first time I met you I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. You don't need to hide yourself from me, and I will enjoy breaking you of the habit. Are you cold?"
"No, I am just..."
"Aroused? Confused? Wanting more?" A slow smile spread across his face.
"Yes," she whispered.
"Good, lie on your stomach over the desk."
"Michael! I..."
"Remember, no arguing, or I will have to think of an especially delicious punishment for you."
She did as he asked, but tension radiated off her body. Michael ran his hands over her back, warming her skin, soothing her nerves, gentling her with his words. "Put your arms over your head, kitten." She did. "So beautiful. I have a confession, I find the slight extra curve of your back sexy as hell. I couldn't bear to remove all of it. I love the way it shows off your ass, especially when you are like this." He ran a finger lightly down the scar over her spine. He smiled to himself when goosebumps appeared over her skin. He nipped her hip and caught her when she tried to squirm. "Now, kitten, you are going to come for me again, only this time you will scream with pleasure. I want to hear your abandon."
"Michael, I can't."
Without warning, he gave her a sharp slap on the sensitive spot where her ass met her thigh, leaving a red handprint. He had surprised himself as much as her. Her moan combined with the flush over her body made him shake with need. "I said there would be punishment for arguing. That was a warning. Next time will be worse. You will come when I demand you do." He bent his head and gave the hand print a wet lick. Violet moaned softly again. God help him, she was enjoying him push her limits. He was soothing the red spot with open mouthed kisses when he plunged two fingers deep inside her without gentle touches first. She was so wet there was no real resistance, just tight warm wet heat. She reared up at the surprise claiming but gratified him when she rocked her hips back to meet the thrust of his hand. He pulled them out with agonizing slowness. When he spiked into her this time, he added another finger. Violet answered with a breathy grunt.
"You look amazing with my hand buried in you. Every time I look at this desk I am going to think about fucking you. Think about your gorgeous ass hanging over the edge, and you screaming my name." She actually squealed. He moved his hand so that when he entered her his thumb would bang her clit.
Soon Violet was near screaming. "Oh, Michael, please."
"Tell me this will always be mine."
"Yes!" she screamed.
"That's my good kitten. Come for me now. Show me how much you love this."
Violet didn't think she would. Wasn't certain she even could, but when Michael demanded her orgasm as proof that she wanted this, everything burst forth. She felt herself grind harder into his hand and slap her hips against the desk. Her mind was like an explosion. Wave after wave rocked through her. She reared up and felt Michael's hand on her back pinning her down. His restraint of her brought a fresh wave of spasms tight around his fingers. She would have curled up in the fetal position if she hadn't been pinned facedown on the desk.
Her reaction to his words made the muscles from his abdomen to his solar plexus ripple in waves. Leaving him warmed, exhausted, and stunned, the feeling very like an orgasm without the actual release. Michael pulled her into his arms as she was still feeling the aftershocks. She couldn't form words yet. It was like her memory banks had been erased. Michael absentmindedly rubbed one of her nipples through the silk blouse, and her whole body shuddered.
"Kitten, I am not nearly done with you, I'm afraid. Put your skirt on, nothing else, and come with me."
"Michael, I have to let Allyn know I won't be coming home. It wouldn't be fair to him."
"Fine, call him, tell him you'll see him Monday. You will be with me all weekend."
Thankfully, he was holding her, otherwise her knees would have given out. She had wanted to see behind the doctor's courtly mask. She just hadn't been prepared for the raw intensity of him and the way he dominated her. Oh, all weekend? She was going to be useless by Monday, completely deliciously useless.
"Kitten?" Him calling her that made her muscles clench and her sex weep with longing for him. Michael stopped her thoughts with a tight grip on her arm. He shook her to rouse her back to the moment. "You need to know if you come with me, you live by my rules, even if you don't always like them. You are mine, to protect, to command. I won't let you go, ever. Be very sure that it is what you want. I will understand if you can't handle this. It is all new and raw for me, too, so I am giving you this last chance to back out. I don't think I can do this, be as sexual as I know you need, without being so dominant. I won't ever truly hurt you or humiliate you. I want you to think about what this was like. Unless I'm mistaken, you like me dominating you, but I want to hear you say it.
Violet's mouth worked open and closed without any sound coming out. Finally she was able to ask, "I'm just supposed to cede all power to you?"
"When we are together."
"Do I get to touch you? Because so far tonight you haven't let me. I can't do this if I can't touch you, show you how I feel. This can't be just you doing things to me. Sometimes, I want to make you feel good, too. I also need to know that it will be just me. No pain, no humiliation, no outside people."
"Just you and me. You can touch me, eventually, as a reward if you are good." Michael smiled at her, then he added, "If you say no, I think I'll die, but I will understand.
"Michael, I wanted all of you, I couldn't want anything less even if I tried. Yes, your dominance scares me a little, but I think that might be part of the draw for you; I know it is for me. I have responsibilities that I cannot give up for any relationship, no matter what it involves. That is not going to change. I need to know that you will honor those, so yes, weekends are yours, but I still need to go to work. And there will be times I need to travel. More than that I can't give you. If you are willing to have my submission, on my schedule, then yes, I would like to spend the weekend with you.
Michael tried to hide his smile. Thank God! He'd felt more alive in the last hour than he had in his whole life. She was his. They were bound together in some way he didn't understand fully yet, but bound nonetheless. He didn't trust his voice, so he just reached for her hand and kissed it, recognizing the gift she had just given him.
She followed him to his condo in her car. Violet felt shy suddenly in the elevator. She hadn't buttoned her blouse, not knowing if that would go against Michael's rules but not really caring if anyone saw her. He liked her like this way. What else really mattered?
When they got inside, she was stunned by his place. It was very modern with lots of glass and concrete. The back wall was all windows that overlooked the harbor. The kitchen was open to the large living room with the eating area along the windows. There was a feeling of restraint to the decorating that was very in keeping with what she had seen of Michael before tonight. A gas fireplace opposite the windows had already been turned on making the room feel warmer despite the concrete and chrome. In front of the fireplace was a large flokati rug. The long-haired sheepskin looked so sensual, Violet wanted to strip bare and lay on it. This was Michael's doing, since before tonight she was sure she never would have even thought that.
"Kitten." Michael patted the couch next to where he sat in his chair. Violet walked over in a daze and sat next to him. He turned her face to his and kissed her. His kiss added to the blissed out feelings she had. When he pulled away, Violet whimpered at the loss.
"You are so beautiful, you make me afraid for my sanity." Taking a deep breath, he continued, "And for that reason there will be rules. If you break the rules I will punish you. I can't always promise you will like it." Violet tried to hide her gasp and failed. "First rule, when you are here you will leave your clothes at the door. I want you available to my touch whenever and whereever I want to touch you." She felt her eyes go soft and her nipples hard at his words. Despite the two exquisite orgasms less than an hour ago, she ached for him to touch her again. She was having trouble concentrating on his words as her sex dripped in excitement coating her inner thighs.
She was pulled from her thoughts when Michael yanked her across his lap, pinned her torso with one arm, and flipped up her skirt with the other. With his free hand he spanked her four times on her bare bottom. "Kitten, I do love the way your skin reddens when I spank you. I may have to find excuses to do it more. You will need to pay attention to me or you will give me plenty of opportunities. Not that I mind. Now take those clothes off. The cool leather will soothe your sore bottom.
She was so dazed she sat there for a second before realizing he would spank her again if she didn't move. She jumped up and slid her skirt off and unbuttoned the one button still done on her blouse, shucking it also. She started to put her hands in front of her to cover herself but stopped when she remembered Michael didn't want her to.
Michael saw her make the correction and smiled at her attempt to please him.
"You are my very own Lady Godiva."
"She had a town to save."
"You only need to save me, my sweet Kitten."
He patted the couch next to him again. "I, I can't sit down," she stuttered.
"Why not?" Michael braced himself for her wanting to end their arrangement. He had taken a risk spanking her, but he wanted her to pay attention to him, and better to have it all out at the beginning.
"I...I can't sit down because I...I'm too wet." The last phrase came out as a sigh.
He smiled, thrilled with her honest reaction. She reacted so well to him, so quickly.
"For that, my beautiful princess, you deserve a treat. Would you like to undress me?"
Her eyes snapped up to his, flashing, and then she dropped her gaze subserviently. "Yes, very much," she said in that same breathy voice.
"Fine, but first I would like you to come and kiss me. Do not stop till I break the kiss, do you understand?"
Violet nodded and bent forward. He kissed her gently, at first running his hands over her body, fondling her breasts, running his hands down to the indent of her waist. He pulled her closer. He could feel her soften even more as the kiss continued. When she had no resistance to him, he smoothed a hand over the curve of her ass. His other hand tangled in her glorious hair cupping the back of her head softly but firmly. The hand on her ass followed the cleft down skimming over the tender pucker. She moaned into his mouth.
The heat from the fire combined with the burn from the spanking made Violet's ass cheeks feel like they glowed. His hands felt cool in contrast. His kiss was drugging her into helplessness. Her juices ran down her thighs. She purposely widened her stance to keep from rubbing them together, knowing that Michael had refused her that option. Her only hope was that he would finish her off later.
Michael knew she was ready. He slipped his fingers in her sex. She was so wet she was dripping. Michael coated his fingers in her juices, slowly drawing the wetness higher up the cleft. Violet was enjoying or oblivious to his intent. She was flexing her hips to increase the contact with his fingers, but he made sure to stay just out of reach. Finally he had worked the slick liquid to where he wanted it. His fingers were covered in her essence.
He increased the pressure on the back of her head just slightly, not wanting to betray what he was about to do. She gave no indication she was anything but lost in the kiss. He massaged her anus with his finger making her whimper and then plunged through the tight ring of muscle. She gasped but didn't break the kiss. As he massaged inside her, she threaded her arms up around his neck either to draw him closer or for balance. Soon she was rocking her hips back in time to the rythmn he set. When she did, he added his middle finger and continued the massage. She gasped louder and clung to him. He could feel her body starting to tense and let his other fingers tickle the stretched sensitive skin. Her moan sounded more like a wail, but she didn't break the contact. She had done so well.
Michael broke the kiss now. Easing her head onto his shoulder, he kept up the stimulation of his fingers inside and around her virgin channel. "Kitten, you have been such a good girl. Come for me now, kitten. It is okay to enjoy this." He looped his free arm around her for support as she started to tremble. She was wailing for real now, her body convulsing around the fingers inside her. The climax built up till the contractions were longer than the releases. He knew she wanted to sink to the floor. He held her up, making her ride the waves to their conclusion.
When there was nothing but the aftershocks left, he moved her to the couch to lie on her side. She curled up with her head pillowed on her arms, her eyes closed, taking ragged breaths. She was lost to anything but the sensations of her body.
Violet had dozed off when Michael roused her. "Let me carry you to bed. I'll make you comfortable, and you can sleep." He gathered her in his arms and she clung to him. As he moved to the bedroom, she snuck her hand under his T-shirt. He had said she could touch him. The thought this might earn her another spanking made her vagina clench with fresh desire. She felt bold and wanton, all of these feelings new and different for her.
Michael laid her on the bed where he had already turned back the covers. "Would you like some water? We never got any dinner. I'm sorry, I was so consumed with you I,..."
Violet stretched like a sleepy cat, languid and at home in her body as never before. "Am I allowed to tell you what I need?" She felt oddly shy asking him such a simple question.
He smiled down at her. "I'm afraid that I must make that a rule. It will be important to know what you need, but I may not always give it. There may be times you will beg for release or beg to have me touch you, and I will deny you. But food, water, warmth, basic necessities, those will always be granted. Pain that leads to pleasure is one thing, but I wouldn't ever want you to be truly uncomfortable, you know that. So what do you need, my sweet Kitten?
"Do you have any fruit? I am craving something ripe and juicy right now. Yes, a glass of water also. Maybe white wine if you have it, although it will go straight to my head without any real food." She looked down and said quietly, "You also said I could undress you."
"I will get you cleaned up, and then you can rest while I get some food together for us. Would you like a light supper in bed? Then you may undress me, if you wish."
"Before the food." At his mock glare, she shot back, "It is my treat, and I need it more than the food at this point."
"You are bordering on impertinence, but I will let you get away with it this time." Michael surprised her when he came back with a damp cloth from the bathroom. "Lay back. This will soothe you." The chill on her sensitized sex made her shiver but calmed the overheated nerve endings also. Then he ordered her to roll onto her stomach and tuck her knees under her. Now Michael worked the cool damp cloth over her anus. It felt unbelievably intimate and humbling to be in this position, since she couldn't hide anything from him. She hadn't realized she was sore and still sticky till he had finished washing her. As the cool soothed her, she moaned reflexively and quaked.
He caressed her ass when he was done. "There. Now you should be more comfortable. Pull the covers up and snuggle in while I get the food and drinks." Violet couldn't imagine sleeping, but the bed was so soft, and she was tired from the roller coaster of both physical and emotional mayhem. She would just close her eyes and relax a little while she waited for Michael.
Violet woke with a start. She had been having the most vivid dream, but as she tried to sit up she realized it hadn't been a dream at all. She was held tight in Michael's arms. He had burrowed through her hair so his forehead was against the back of her neck, his breath tickling warm between her shoulder blades. She could feel his chest against her back, the soft hair adding to the sensations. She tried to turn over, but he had her pinned. The only way she would be able to move was to wake him.
"Michael, Michael, I have to get up." she said softly. There was no change in the warm breaths. One of his arms was curled under her neck, and she was feeling devilish now that she was more awake. She turned her head and licked at his arm, then planted her lips and started to suck hard.
After a minute or so Michael woke with a growl.
"Woman! What the hell are you doing?
She looked down at the very impressive hickey on the inside of his forearm. "Marking you as mine. I need to get up to pee, and you wouldn't wake up." The hand around her waist moved to her ass and pinched her. She screamed and jumped out of bed, turning around to glare at him before she started to laugh.
"Come back quickly, seems lonely without you already." He looked like a naughty school boy.
In the bathroom, she plunked herself down on the toilet. She needed to try to make sense of what she was doing and why. She was a perfectly reasonable woman several hours ago, and now she was a willing captive, at least till Monday morning, in a sexually insatiable man's home. She had willingly agreed to this? She must have lost her mind. Of course in her limited sexual experience these last few hours were the most incredible, unbelievable stuff of fantasies. If she told some of the secretaries at the foundation about this they would think her a very lucky girl. He pursued her pleasure with a single-minded devotion terrifying in its intensity.
He hadn't asked for anything in return, and oddly that was the part that bothered her. She knew she loved him, had since the night he had gotten her through the storm in the hospital. Was this just about sex for him? As stunning as he was sexually, she had the odd feeling this wasn't normal for him either. If it was new, would the intensity burn itself out and then would he see there was a real relationship there?
Oh God. What if it really was just about the sex for him? No, she had seen how jealous he'd gotten when his friend had kissed her. That wasn't just about sex. That kind of anger had to be pulled from his emotions. She knew there was something there, even he wasn't sure what yet. She just needed to keep up with him till he could see it. Was it possible to die from too many orgasms? Now there was a project she'd bet a lot of women would be willing to become research subjects for.
She should get back in there. Oh, what was he going to do next? She was both thrilled and scared at the idea. He hadn't done anything to hurt her, just shocked her sensibilities. She splashed some water on her face to bring her to her senses again. She looked in the mirror at her reflection, and she had never looked better. She was roughed up but looked natural and like she had just come from her lover's bed, which she had. Her cheeks were rosy, and her skin glowed. She laughed to herself, depravity looked good on her. The hell with it. She was going to take this where it wanted to go. She liked being worshiped and ravished by Michael, but she would still be herself.
Her attention was caught by his shaving kit on the counter. She knew just how she was going to do it, too.
Michael was getting nervous. Was she hiding from him? She had been in there a while when he heard the shower go on. That confused him. Why would she be taking a shower in the middle of the night. He sat up in bed, preparing for her to come out and tell him she had had enough and was leaving. He was surprised she had stayed as long as she had. Could he beg her to stay? Tell her he'd just love her from afar? She could take her sexual pleasure somewhere else. He was lost in thought when he realized the shower has stopped. She walked into the bedroom. Her hair was dry, so had she showered?
"Um, what took so long? I heard the shower."
"I, uh, wanted to freshen up and give you something for everything you did." Then she walked toward him. climbing on the bed to straddle him. His eyes were wide.
"Um, you shaved."
"Yep, all of it. Well, what I could do myself. Do you like it?"
She saw him swallow hard. "You did this just for me?"
"And me. I wanted to do something to thank you for tonight. Just like I want to do something else for you now. Michael, please let me. I won't do anything that will hurt you. Please let me give you as much pleasure as you give me."
"Later," he growled and rolled, pinning her under him. For the first time she fought him.
"No! Dammit, Michael, you want to be dominant, fine, I get it. But I will not let you use it to hide from me. You don't get to lay me out at will and expect me to just take it. I wasn't kidding about getting to touch you. If you can't hold up your end of the deal, then I'm out of here. It is just too creepy to only be acted on, like I'm some real live sex doll."
He buried his face in her neck. He had known he would have to deal with this at some point, but was hoping he could distract her for a while longer. "There isn't anything you can do for me that will have any effect."
"What the hell does that mean? You are paralyzed, not insensate. Watch." With that, she pushed him to his back and straddled him again. She started with a gentle kiss, deepened it till they were both nearly panting. "Was that horrible? Did you really feel nothing? I'm not just talking about getting off. I'm talking about affection, caring. Geez, sometimes you can be such a guy." Now she trailed kisses along his jaw adding in little nips. When she got to his ear, she sucked his earlobe into her mouth.
"Mmmm." She grinned at his pleasure.
"You like that? Now imagine I'm doing this to the head of your cock." Her use of such a coarse word almost made him laugh. Then she started sucking, using her teeth gently, her tongue. It wasn't hard to imagine this was a blow job. He could feel the muscles in his belly start to tighten. His breath was shallower now.
"Violet, I just don't want you to be disappointed." His words came out almost as a sob.
"Michael, look at me. You are an amazing lover, even if this ends up being all we can do, it is like you trying to walk. Even if it comes to nothing, I will not give up this part of you. Do I make myself clear?"
What the hell had happened to the terrified girl from the hospital? he thought to himself. This woman was fearless and insistent, yet still willing to be dominated by him. It was such an alluring combination.
"Fine, I, I don't always have control of what happens. I've heard horror stories of..."
"Michael?"
"Yes."
"Shut up now, and let me make love to you. I get the feeling its been awhile. So I'll go slow. Nothing to cause a panic, okay?"
"Okay."
She went back to work on his earlobe. Then she was nibbling on the sensitive tendons of his neck. His hands started roaming her body as she kept kissing him. Her mouth was so warm and soft, so good on his skin. His hands found her breasts. He kneaded them till he heard her sigh and then concentrated on her nipples. She stopped the kisses to stare down at him.
"That feels so good." She closed her eyes and started rocking her hips against his. Even with her over the covers, he could still feel the heat of her. She opened her eyes and moved her hands to his chest copying his touch on his nipples. Hell, it was getting hard to breathe.
"Does it feel good when I do it to you?" She made it sound so normal, so innocent. All he could do was groan back at her. She leaned forward and kissed him, trapping their hands between them. When she broke the kiss, she started shifting her position.
"What are you doing? I liked that."
"Progress! You'll like this more. I'm getting these covers off you. I need to feel you touching me." On the last sentence she stared right into his eyes, daring him to put up a fight. He held his hands up in mock surrender.
"Michael, what can you feel, there?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, can you feel hot and cold?"
"Yeah. Everything is sort of dulled, but can we just not talk about it?"
"No. If you were doing something you thought I liked, and it did nothing for me, you'd want to know, right?"
"Yes."
"So, we're going to talk about it. I would imagine the sensations get sort of mixed up depending on the nerve damage. Can you feel pressure?"
"What the hell are you going to do?"
"I don't know yet." She looked like a mischievous imp sitting, grinning at him. "I'm just going to play. You'll have to let me know what feels good." And with that she whipped the sheets off him.
He closed his eyes, not wanting to see her face. No amount of PT was ever going to give his legs real muscle, and he found the difference between his torso and his legs stomach-turning.
"Wow, your legs are long. I realized earlier tonight you were tall, which sort of surprised me. You have nice feet, too. Most guys don't."
"That's what you are noticing?" he asked incredulously.
"Well, that and you are, um, well-equipped." She covered her mouth with her hands, but they didn't stifle the giggles coming out. "Hell, if this does come up to full strength," she said, while stroking a finger up and down his penis, "I'm going to be one very lucky girl. Sore, but lucky." She actually quirked her eyebrow at him.
"You are insane." He laughed.
"No, I've become a wanton woman, and it's all your fault. Now I am going to do what I was doing to your earlobe but here." She bent forward and took his half hard penis in her mouth. He thought his heart would stop, all that liquid warmth. Her tongue rasped the sensitive spot under the head. She was sucking and using her teeth. Michael couldn't do anything but lie back, watching her. The sight alone was enough to raise the dead. He held her hair in his hand so he could see her face. She actually looked at him and smiled as she worked her way licking up and down the length of him. He felt like he was floating, and then he snapped straight up.
"What the hell was that?"
She let go of his penis with a pop. "Oh, you could feel that?"
"Hell, yes."
"Did it hurt?"
"No. Just surprised me, I guess"
"Hmm, want to see what kind of reaction I got?" And she did it again. He watched as his penis bobbed to attention. "What do you think of that?"
"What are you doing exactly?"
"Stroking your perineal area with my fingernails, gently of course. Did it feel good? Would you like me to do it some more?"
"Yes, I guess."
She went back to work, and soon he was moaning.
"Michael?"
"Oh God, don't stop!"
She kept up her attention but changed to using her hand on him.
"Do you want to, um, finish?"
"I don't even know if I can. Or what will happen if I do. Does that sound horribly pathetic?"
"No. Just like a guy who is finding the edges of what works for him. Do you want to take this slower, just, um, heavy petting for now? I don't want to do anything that will freak you out and ruin this for you."
"So far its been wonderful. So instead of tempting fate, yeah, could we take things a little slower?"
"Sure." She straddled him again. "Oh, definitely harder. Mmmmm feels good."
She was grinding on him and it felt great. He wanted to memorize this moment. She looked so amazing, he couldn't resist moving her arms up over her head. Her hands played in her hair. She arched her back, pushing her breasts out for his touch. He sat up to capture one rosy nipple in his mouth while he warmed the other with his hand. She moaned in response. Her whimpering became more heated, and then she gasped and clutched at him. He held her as her whole body shook with her orgasm. He was still holding her as she sat there blinking and panting.
"I thought I was supposed to be in charge," Michael said.
"Sorry, that one kind of snuck up on me. Are you angry?"
"I'm never angry with you, kitten, even when I'm punishing you. I don't know if I could be."
"Michael, if two intelligent, passionate people spend any length of time together, eventually they will get angry with each other. The trick is in not staying angry. Now I need sleep. Are you going to be able to?"
"I should be fine, I think. I... look, I don't even really know how to talk about this. Not with someone that I want to spend time with."
She snuggled up and spooned him burying her face between his shoulder blades and pulling the covers over them. "Would it help if I told you my history? There isn't a hell of a lot of it, so it should only take a second. I'm not a virgin, but I have slept with a total of 2 guys before you. I didn't lose my virginity till I was out of college. That relationship lasted a few months, but I wasn't really ready to deal with all the questions about my body. And then there was a one-night stand with a good friend of mine who then decided he was gay. That did wonders for my ego! He said it wasn't me, and I do believe him, but still, it was weird. After that, my back was so bad I didn't have any real sexual response. Anyway, I don't exactly have a wealth of experience to judge you by, so I won't. Does that help?"
"What? Sorry. I missed everything you said after I started picturing you playing with yourself. Am I safe in assuming that is how you knew you didn't have any sexual response?"
She slapped his shoulder. "Ugh. Scratch a man and you find a fifteen-year-old boy underneath."
"Hey, you started it. Would you rather I be professionally detached? How does that make you feel, Ms. Bellows?" He parroted his most uptight clinical voice, which earned him a pinch.
Violet kissed where she had pinched him.
"Don't you dare go back to being clinical. Michael, the dominant thing really, um, gets to me. I like you being in control but still kind of a wild man. Does that make me crazy?"
Michael turned over to face her. "I hope not. Because tonight was the most alive I have felt since I got sick when I was a kid."
"Can you tell me about what happened?"
"There isn't a lot to tell. I was twelve. I got what seemed like the flu, but it wasn't, and when I got better I couldn't move my legs anymore."
"How horrible. I mean, you were just a boy, just figuring out who you were, and suddenly everything is different?"
"It really wasn't like that. I mean, at first they thought that I'd get back to normal or at least close. That was how Cam and I met. I needed to get my homework from school, and the nuns thought he needed a lesson in humility. They didn't count on us teaming up. I helped him with school work. He would sneak me out of the house against doctor's orders. He was going through a badass phase he never really did outgrow. Witness his behavior tonight."
"I think that was only to make you jealous."
"What?"
"Um, let's just say that there was a lot of smoke and not a lot of fire. He also whispered that I could thank him later. I think he wanted to make sure you didn't, um, chicken out. By the way, seeing you jealous--whoa, seriously hot."
He pinched her ass, hard.
"Hey! That is going to leave a mark."
"Don't get any ideas, kitten. Trust me, you do not want to deal with the consequences," he growled.
"Ooh, that's what I am talking about. That look in your eyes right now takes my breath away. Makes me want to wrap myself around you and--"
"I thought you were tired? Damn, woman."
"Sorry, guess when I'm with you I don't need food or sleep or anything but you."
"Yeah, well, you are going to need your strength. So enough talk. Sleep now. It is going to be light in a few hours. We can talk more later." With that, he lay on his back and pulled her half on top of him, her ear over his heart. She had never felt so content in her life and promptly fell asleep.
She felt herself responding to his touch before she even woke. His fingers stroking her bare mons were drugging. She growled and stretched, opening herself up to him. Slowly, she opened her eyes and smiled.
"Go use the bathroom if you need to."
"Good morning to you too. Wha--"
He cut her off. "Last night you were allowed to talk back, that is over now. If you don't get up in the next ten seconds, I will assume you do not need to."
Violet looked at him and realized he wasn't kidding. She jumped up and ran to the bathroom. After taking care of the necessities, she came back as quickly as she could. Standing in the doorway of his bedroom, she hesitated. He looked at her and crooked his finger for her to come to him. She went to him and sat on the bed. He motioned for her to lay down where she had been. "You will not get out of bed unless I allow you." And with that he took two of his silk ties and tied her wrists to the bed. Her heart was pounding, not in fear she realized, but anticipation. It was going to be a very long, interesting weekend.
***
# Monday, Lunch Time
"Vi, can I talk to you?"
"Hmmm? Oh, Allyn, I was just--"
"Staring off into space?"
"Funny."
"So are you going to tell me what you did this weekend?"
"No."
"Well, I can only assume it's a guy. Look, Violet, I just don't want to see you get hurt."
"He's not going to hurt me."
"Really? No broken heart?"
"Better to have loved and all that crap."
"Don't be crude. Am I also safe in assuming that the lucky gentleman, and he damn well better be a gentleman, is Dr. Dennison?"
Violet blushed but went on the defensive. "Allyn, I am not a child, and you are not my father. Do you expect the men I date to declare their intentions to you? Are you going to institute a curfew? Will I get grounded?"
"Look, I would be the first one to say you never really had a rebellious teenage stage. But because you didn't make those mistakes then, you are kind of vulnerable now. I just don't want to see you get hurt when you are finally in a position to do whatever you'd like."
"Allyn, I know you're being the caring big brother you always are. But I am already in love with him. You had to know something was wrong the last few weeks. I felt like I was half dead not being able to see him. I don't know how this will play out, but I do have to let it play out."
He patted her shoulder. "I'll be here to pick up the pieces. Hopefully you won't need it. When are you going out with him again?"
Violet wanted to cry and looked it. "Not till Friday. Our schedules during the week are horrible, so we will just be together for the weekends."
"Do you need me to move anything around as far as your travel plans?"
"No. My schedule is pretty good right now. The weekends are free."
"Okay, kiddo, I'm here if you need me."
"Allyn, you could stand to take a chance, too, you know. When was the last time you asked a woman out?"
"We weren't talking about me."
"But Allyn..."
"Gotta go."
"Chicken!" she yelled to his back. Her cell phone rang then.
"Hello."
"Hello, kitten." Just the sound of his voice set all her nerve endings on alert. She jumped up to close the door to her office.
"Hi, Michael." She sounded as breathless as she felt.
"I miss you," he said.
She tried not to squeal like a teenage girl.
"I miss you, too. I've been useless today. Allyn kind of called me out about it. Got all protective big brother on me."
"Am I in trouble?"
"I told him I'm old enough to make my own mistakes."
"Am I a mistake?"
"I don't think so. Of course, if I'm this useless every Monday my boss might disagree."
"Sorry, I just couldn't resist you this morning. I'll try to show some restraint next time."
"I wasn't complaining. Not that it would have made any difference if I did." If she smiled any harder she was going to sprain something. "Did you call for anything in particular?"
"I wanted to make sure you were okay. Any chance of dinner tonight?"
"Michael, I'd love to see you, but I don't know if I can."
"Just dinner, promise. Well, I do have a little gift for you."
His voice stroked across her as if it were his touch. She knew she shouldn't be this aroused just by him talking to him, but in the state she was in even the shower this morning felt like a caress. It was as if her sensuality, having been dormant for all of her twenties, had come alive and was demanding satisfaction.
"Why does the promise of a gift raise the hairs on the back of my neck?"
"Don't you trust me?"
"You know I do."
"Silly kitten, if I were there I'd pet you and make--"
"Okay, I get the picture." She was having trouble breathing, and being any more aroused at the moment was going to be the death of her. "What time do you want me there?"
"Shall we say around seven thirty? I'll make reservations for eight fifteen."
"We aren't going to eat in?"
"No. I'd like to show you off, if you don't mind."
"Oh. Okay. I'll see you then."
"See you then."
After she hung up with Michael, she needed to get through the rest of the day, which unfortunately included a meeting she needed to actually participate in. At least she wasn't wondering how she was going to get through the week until she saw him again, as she had been when Allyn walked in. She'd forgotten to ask Michael what kind of place they were going to. Hopefully, the skirt and blouse she had on would be okay because she wasn't going to have time to go all the way home and then back to Michael's in time.
She looked down at her clothes, wishing they were something other than the boring, conservative, but appropriate things she always wore. Would Michael like her in more sensual clothes? He didn't seem to need get-ups or costumes to be aroused. He insisted on her being naked in his apartment, so maybe he didn't care what she wore the rest of the time. Still, he had said he wanted to show her off, and in the outfit she had on, she looked like the well-off secretary she had led him to believe she was. She felt a little guilty not being utterly truthful about what her life was like. But being an heiress had scared most men from even asking her out. At least this way he would get to know her before having to deal with the whole Bellows Foundation legacy thing. That wasn't so bad, was it?
It was 7:18 p.m., and she was sitting in her car in his parking garage. The meeting had been horrible. Actually, the meeting was fine, she had been horrible. Figuring out which of the areas they wanted to focus on for the next round of grants was always difficult. There was only so much money, and there was a whole world of worthy causes to spend it on. Trying to narrow it down to those areas where they could do the most good and have the greatest impact was gut-wrenching. She'd tried to stay focused, but knowing she would be with Michael tonight even if it was just for dinner made it hard to think clearly. The fact that it was just for dinner actually made it worse. This was their first real date, which in light of the weekend they'd had seemed crazy. But then, so was falling in love with your doctor.
Now the big question--panties on or panties off? Michael had been pretty clear the other night, but how into this dominance thing was he going to get? If she left them on and they didn't have sex, would he even know? He had said he'd check, but what the hell did that mean? If she took them off, she'd feel exposed all through dinner. But it also made her smile thinking about having a secret. Since they weren't having sex, she could tell him on her way out the door when she left, and let him think about it for the rest of the week. She smiled, shimmied out of her panties, and stashed them in the glove compartment. Thank God for Pilates, she thought to herself. This skirt was stretchy and didn't hide anything.
She was jumpy, as a nervous cat, on the elevator ride to his apartment. All her nerve endings tingled. Maybe dinner was a bad idea. She didn't feel like eating, but there needed to be more to their relationship than just sex. There was more. They had spent a lot of time in, bed but a fair amount of it had been talking, too. Wasn't that what lovers did? The thought of Michael as her lover soothed her and made her feel warm all over. She didn't feel nervous because this felt wrong, just nervous in anticipation. When Michael opened the door, she drew in her breath. It had only been a few hours and just the sight of him, handsome as he was, made her want to do nothing but curl herself around him. Unfortunately, it also made her feel shy at the moment.
"I missed you, Violet."
"I missed you, too."
"Look at me, kitten. Are you okay with this?"
Why did his calling her that send shockwaves through her? She immediately felt drugged and wanted to tear her clothes off because they all felt too tight. Her lips felt swollen, and he hadn't even kissed her yet.
"Do I get a kiss, my sweet kitten?" he asked as he eased her down to sit his lap. Her arms went around his shoulders of their own accord.
"Of course," she barely managed to say. It was hard enough to breath, let alone speak, with her heart pounding the way it was. Then he was kissing her, but it was more like making love to her mouth. There were little nibbles, licks, bites, suckling her lips, her tongue, exploring her teeth. His hands ranged over her body. She was lost in his kissing till she felt him smile and pull away.
"You take to training well, kitten."
"Hmmm?"
"I wondered whether or not I would get to spank you before we left, but you remembered my instructions."
Violet tried to hide her gasp but knew she hadn't when she saw Michael's smile. "I said I would check, didn't I. Now get undressed, kitten, I have some presents for you."
Violet almost fell off Michael's lap but managed to steady herself and started taking off her clothes in a daze. Michael reached over to the couch and picked up three jewelry boxes. As she removed the last piece of her clothing, she moved closer to the fire. She was covered in goosebumps even though she wasn't really cold. Michael smiled at her and motioned for her to sit in his lap again. She shook her hair back from her face and tried not to feel self-conscious as she walked over and did as he wanted.
He handed her the first box. "I think my pretty little kitten would look even better in a beautiful collar." When she opened the box, she gasped. Inside was a stunning necklace, choker length. Each link was a diamond, or looked like diamonds, more likely they were CZs.
"I'm afraid it was rather expensive, so you'll have to wear it all the time."
"You mean they're real?"
"Of course. I wouldn't want anything fake for you. That would be like lying, and I couldn't tolerate that. Here, let me help you put it on." When he had fastened the clasp, she turned to look at him, and he nodded his appreciation. "Yes, quite beautiful. Now that you have a collar, I think a leash would be appropriate?"
"Michael..."
He pulled a long, sparkling chain out of one of the other boxes.
"See? It's nothing to be afraid of. I'll just hook it here. Doesn't that feel good trickling down your back?" She gave a little shiver, and yes, it did feel sexy and erotic sliding over her skin. It was long enough that it just grazed the middle of her hips. She felt more sensual, her breasts heavy, waiting for him to touch her.
His whisper was like a caress in her ear. "I love the way you look right now, pushing your breasts out, arching your back like that. But I have one more box for you." From that box he pulled another chain, this one heavier and longer than the last. He slowly reached around her waist and fastened it there. It slid down to settle at the top of her hips.
"Michael you got me a slave chain?"
"I didn't realize they had a name. I just thought it would look sexy as hell on you. Where did you hear about them?"
"I went to a boarding school in Europe. There were girls there from the Middle East and other places that had them. Usually theirs had some kind of lock, and often they had a jewel that was attached to a piercing."
"Oh, a lock. I like that idea. A jewel hanging from it would be interesting, but a piercing seems a bit much to ask. I guess this seems pretty tame by comparison. Get up a second. I want to see it on you." Violet did as he asked. "Turn around. There, I fastened them together." He ran his fingers along the leash now fastened to the belly chain. "That is so sexy."
"Michael, you said we were going out to dinner? It is getting close to when we should leave. I should get dressed." She reached for her clothes.
"Oh, not those. I got other clothes for you to wear. I found I like shopping for you. I got a dress and shoes. They're on the bed. Go see." He followed her into the bedroom. Laid out on the bed was a beautiful silk jersey wrap dress in a dark burgundy color. On the floor was a pair of sky high black patent stilettos with a thick platform. Both were expensive designer items, much sexier than she'd ever bought for herself, but beautiful. She touched the silk; it felt liquid. She couldn't wait to put it on. Her bra wasn't quite right, but it would have to do.
"Michael, they're gorgeous. That color is perfect for me. Let me go get my bra, and I'll get dressed."
"No. If I had wanted you to wear any lingerie with it I would have bought it. I think the silk on your skin should be pleasant, no?"
Violet knew she was going to be trying to hide her arousal all night. "This is a brilliant torture."
"Yes, it is. Why should I be the only one tortured? Oh, and you are keeping the chains on. The diamonds should look good with the dress. Get dressed, slowly, starting with the shoes."
A Mona Lisa smile settled on her face as she did a reverse strip tease for him. Putting on the shoes and doing a few turns for him, teasing him with her closeness and then retreating, dancing to music in her head. Then she put the dress on for him. He was right. The silk against her skin did feel delicious. The neckline split almost to her navel, but without a bra there wasn't anything to show. The silk clung to her breasts, cupping them like a lover's hands. The skirt flowed over her hips and swung with every step making her feel girly and flirty in a way she hadn't ever before. When she was dressed, Michael opened one of the closets that had a full length mirror in it so she could see what she looked like for herself. Looking in the mirror, she took off her earrings since they didn't look right with the diamond necklace. She also took her hair down, much better. Now she looked as sexy as she felt.
"Does this please you?"
Michael smiled at her. "Do you want to please me, kitten?"
"Yes, I'd like you to be pleased with the way I look. I've never dressed simply to please a man."
"Yes, it pleases me. Wait. Move your hair off your shoulders. I want to see those nipples tempting me to kiss them. Yes. Perfect. Every man in the restaurant will want you. Let's go. The limo should be waiting downstairs."
"You aren't going to drive?"
"Not when you look like that. I want to be able to touch you. I'll let someone else drive, and I specified that the limo have a privacy window."
"Michael, you said, just dinner."
"I may have lied a little. We will have dinner, but what we do on the way there is just a bonus."
"Oh, dear God."
Michael's deep chuckle told her he would have no mercy, and she was going to be barely coherent at dinner. She should have figured. This dress minus any lingerie was just an invitation to sex. But looking at herself in the mirror again, she looked like a woman that wanted to fall into a man's arms. As long as they were Michael's, she did.
Walking over to him, she bent down to give him a kiss filled with all the love and longing she suddenly felt. He reached up and cupped her breast, flicking his thumb over the nipple. The silk some how magnified the sensations making her knees weak.
"We should go or you are going to have to carry me down there."
"As you wish, kitten." His smile took her breath away.
When they got to the limo, she stood and stared. "Michael, really? A Rolls? If this is your idea of a regular Monday dinner date, what the hell do you do on Saturday night?"
He smiled at her.
"I missed you and wanted to spoil you a little."
"A little! Something like twenty thousand dollars worth of jewelry, and clothes, and then a Rolls to take us to dinner?"
The driver had opened the door and was waiting for her to get in, so she gritted her teeth on the rest of what she was going to say. She plopped herself down in the seat. The interior of the Rolls was meant to be soothing, but for some reason the burl wood and soft leather just made her feel on edge. She heard the driver ask Michael if he would need any assistance and held her breath waiting for him to explode. But he didn't. He just politely declined and asked if he would fold up the chair and stow it inside for him. Michael used his strong arms to swing himself into the seat, and Violet tried to relax.
Once they were on their way, Michael pulled her closer to him. He could feel the change in her but didn't know what had caused it or what to do about it. It was obvious she wanted some kind of explanation for the over-the-top gifts. The problem was he couldn't entirely explain it himself. They had spent one amazing weekend together. Hell, this was their first real date! He didn't know if he was ready to admit to himself how he felt about her, let alone say it to her. This wasn't just about the sex, though even if it were, the gifts were not nearly enough to thank her. No, already there was a level of trust between them that scared the hell out of him. He had always thought he'd be alone his entire life, but now the thought seemed like something far worse than just not being able to use his legs.
"I'm sorry if I went a overboard. I'm not used to having someone to spend money on, and I got carried away." He turned her face to look at him and saw tears in her eyes. "Violet, I only wanted you to feel special, pampered, give you things you couldn't get for yourself. I didn't mean to make you cry."
"Michael, it's just all so... overwhelming. You are so overwhelming. Everything you do to me and make me feel. I just... I feel like I can't process it all, can't keep up. I want to be with you, but a little quiet time once in a while is fine, too. Forget it, I can't explain it."
"I get it. I've pushed your limits enough for one night. Do you at least like the gifts? If you don't or if they make you uncomfortable, then you don't have to wear them."
"No, no, they're beautiful, and they make me feel beautiful, but could we just have a quiet dinner. Something like a normal date?"
"Violet, I, um, I've never really been on a normal date."
"Me either." Finally she smiled at him, and he kissed the last of her tears away.
"Here, turn around so your back is to me."
"Why?"
"So you can lean back, and I can hold you, and stare into your eyes, and steal the occasional kiss." Which he did as soon as she had done as he asked.
"There. Comfortable?"
"I love being in your arms."
"Good. Because I intend to keep you here, at least until we get to the restaurant."
Then he kissed her till she was senseless, wonderful, rich, drugging kisses that left her breathless, her body a fire that consumed all the oxygen in her blood. His arms around her the only thing tethering her to reality.
She whimpered, when the driver announced that they were five minutes from the restaurant.
"But..." He held her against his chest, and she was happy to hear his heart beating as hard as hers.
"Violet, you'll have to, um, pull yourself together," he said as she sat up.
"Um, darling, what are you going to do about that?" she said staring at where she had been lying across him.
"Hmmm, that is a new problem."
"I think you're supposed to imagine something very unsexy." She couldn't help but grin and tried not to giggle.
"That will be damned difficult with a beautiful woman grinning at me. He failed to sound angry at all which caused Violet to actually start laughing. "Yes, that will do it. Make the beautiful woman laugh at the poor wretch she has aroused. I pity your poor brother. He should have told you men are very sensitive to being laughed at when they are in this condition."
"I can't be held responsible for biology. I, um, have to undergo my own torment. It is just, thankfully, more private." Then she kissed him on the cheek.
"Woman, that is how I got into this trouble!" But he was smiling at her as she rearranged her clothes and put her shoes back on.
When they got to the restaurant, the driver set up Michael's wheelchair, and Michael transferred to it easily enough. She was surprised when the driver was the one that reached to help her from the limo. When she put her hand on Michael's shoulder, she immediately felt the tension coming off him. When she looked at the entrance, she quickly realized why. The restaurant was an old inn that had been bought and renewed by an exciting new chef according to the reviews she had read. They had not, however, made the front entrance wheelchair accessible. Three steps down to the door, and the door opened out into the walled area.
She knew that hesitating would only make everything worse. "Driver, I'm sorry, I never did get your name?"
"Harold, ma'am."
"Harold, could I ask you to hold the door open for me?"
"My pleasure, ma'am." Violet gave him her most beguiling smile as she whipped Michael around without even asking and as gently as possible tilted him back and rolled him down the short stairs. Thankfully, the interior entry was large and fairly dark. "Hi, we have a reservation. We do, don't we, Michael?" He barely nodded. "Dennison, for two." Then she turned back to Michael. He still looked so shaken. It would have been easier if he had just gotten angry, but this utter resignation scared her.
She leaned into him, catching his hand, and turning so the maitre'd couldn't see what she was doing. "Michael, I am going to need you to protect me from all the leering men when we get in there." She whispered in his ear as she turned his face toward hers. Then she used her other hand to guide his through the wrap of the dress and up her inner thigh. When she felt his fingers start to explore how wet she was, she closed her eyes for a second, afraid her knees would give out. When she opened them again, Michael was staring at her with a look of thanks and desire on his face. She smiled back at him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Finally pushing his hand down, she stepped away and turned back to the maitre'd.
"Right this way, Mr. and Mrs. Dennison."
"I'm not..." The man had already started walking away so it seemed pointless to correct him. She let Michael lead the way so he could situate himself. Then she sat as the maitre'd pulled out the table so she could slide into the banquette. She let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. Hmm, Mrs. Dennison? She tried to hide her smile. Mrs. Violet Dennison, or would the more traditional Mrs. Michael Dennison be better? Okay, enough high school name games. Michael had never even intimated that he wanted anything like marriage.
"They are all staring at you dear."
"Who?"
"All the men, they are thinking why the hell is she with him?"
"Michael, I don't..."
"It wouldn't matter if I had two good legs. It's just the way men react to a beautiful woman. The uncivilized part of them thinks that any sexually attractive female should be theirs. And you are Violetta." His use of the nickname he had given her at the hospital sent a warm blush over her.
"Maybe, but I am only yours."
"You say the nicest things . . . Mrs. Dennison."
"I wondered if you heard, but now you are teasing. Should I remind you again this is our first date?"
"No need. Just trying it out. It has definite possibilities."
"Didn't your mother teach you it isn't nice to tease girls?"
"But darling, I know how much you like me teasing you when we are in bed."
Violet blushed and looked to see if anyone had heard him. "Evil man. Figure out what you'd like for dinner, so we can pick a wine. They are supposed to have an excellent cellar."
After they placed their order, Michael reached over and held her hand. "I didn't thank you for being so gracious about getting me in here. I was so intent on getting everything set up that I never asked about access. I'm sorry I embarrassed you."
"How did you embarrass me? By needing a little help? That is ridiculous. Embarrassing would have been if I had let you bounce down the stairs after I had fallen on my butt in these heels. That was the only thing I was worried about."
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. He looked as though he was about to say something when the sommelier brought the wine, and then the moment was gone.
Michael had wanted to tell her how much her stepping in when he was lost meant to him. How, what for her had been nothing, salvaged a little of his pride. And he would have told her, except he seemed to have turned into a drooling idiot around her. He had planned this dinner to show her that he wasn't some sexually depraved animal. Show her that he was in fact erudite, enjoyed the finer things in life, including the best food, fine wine, good conversation. All of which should have been there and was, with the exception of the conversation.
He couldn't seem to form coherent sentences with her near him. The food and wine were superb, but he barely noticed. They were now starting dessert, and he could hardly remember what he had eaten for his entree. He was consumed with her, the light playing in her hair and eyes, the feel of her thigh pressed against his. Half way through the meal he hadn't been able to stand not touching her, even if it was only incidental contact, so he had damn near dragged her to him.
In doing so the wrap dress has gotten caught under her and completely exposed her thigh. When she tried to fix it he had stopped her. Telling her that no one could see but him, and he appreciated the view. She had blushed, but left her thigh exposed for him to caress. From that point on he barely remembered to breathe. As the meal went on, he couldn't keep his hands off her, first stroking the back of her neck till she sighed and closed her eyes. Then he grazed his knuckles along the side of her breast, and her eyes flashed open. When she found him staring into them, her mouth curved in the faintest smile. Damn the woman. Who was seducing whom here? When he could feel the heat coming off of her and could smell the creamy spicy scent of her arousal, he knew he would break his promise to her.
Slowly he stroked her thigh with the lightest of touches. By the time they had gotten their after dinner drinks, she was curling her hips up to press against his hand. He reached up to the back of her neck, playing with the chain hanging down from there.
He turned toward her and whispered in her ear.
"My pet, lean back for me and spread your legs a little."
She seemed to wake from a dream and caught his eye.
"Michael? I don't think--"
"No one will know, if you can be quiet, kitten. The waiter will not come back till I pay the bill. It's dark, and none of the other tables are paying the least bit of attention to us. Please, I know you need release." His last sentence was barely audible but when he gave a soft tug on the chain she lay back letting her legs relax open. He edged his fingers closer to her cleft. She was sticky well below the tops of her thighs. Glancing down at her nipples through the silk dress, he chuckled softly in her ear, "Oh yes. You know you need this."
He started nibbling her earlobe and was rewarded with a breathy moan as her eyes drifted closed. He ran his fingers softly up and down her bare outer lips teasing faint whimpers from her. Stroking just along the edges caused her to spread her legs wider and groan slightly. When he flicked her clit, she hissed like she had been burned. He slid his fingers into her warm, wet core and felt her tighten around him. She had her eyes closed and a soft smile on her lips. He wanted to memorize the sight of her like this, gorgeous, flushed with arousal, completely his.
He turned his hand so the palm covered her mound and moved his thumb to work her clit. She was so wet, but he would make her even more so. He started moving his fingers inside her. Alternating their strokes so they worked against each other. Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked into his as she bit down on her lower lip.
"Kiss me, kitten," he whispered in her ear. She took a deep breath that dragged her nipples across the silk and tasted his mouth. Her arms wound around his shoulders, and she pulled him into her like a starving woman. When she did, he increased the pace and pressure of his fingers working her sensitive flesh. She rocked harder against his hand as her lips and tongue devoured his. Michael kept his eyes open fascinated by the emotions playing over her face, all of them beautiful. Finally, he saw her eyes shoot open as the first pulse of her orgasm hit. He crushed her mouth to his, sucking her cry from her lips as he held her body. All her efforts to mask any outward signs had forced the energy in, shattering in its intensity.
As she came back to reality, he smiled against her lips and murmured in her ear, "Mmm, my kitten of a wild cat."
"Oh! You are truly evil," she whispered under her breath. "What happened to not having sex tonight?" She was glaring at him but with a half smile on her face that made him want to get the hell out of there soon so he could do wicked things to her.
"Umm, sorry?"
"If only you could look the least bit convincing." Then she started laughing, and he knew she wasn't really angry at him. "We need to get going, I have to be at a meeting tomorrow morning and my boss noticed my sudden lack of attention to work today."
Michael signed the bill and collected his credit card. "Why don't I just drop you at your place, and then you can come get your car tomorrow night?"
"And not get out of there till the next morning? I don't think so. Much as I have enjoyed this evening, I think we should stick to the original plan and only see each other on the weekends. I don't know if I can physically take more than a couple days of you at a time."
The chauffeur helped get Michael up the stairs, which was good since Violet's legs were still shaky.
Once they were in the car, he said, "So you're not going to come up stairs with me tonight?" He felt like a disappointed five-year-old about to throw a tantrum.
"Michael, I can't. I need to maintain some level of professionalism at work, and that is tough to do when I am both exhausted and hyper-sexuallized."
"I'm not sure that is even a word?"
"Ugh, fine! I can't run around all day, every day with my panties soaked because I can't stop thinking about you or what you do to me. Is that better?"
"Mmm, much. Can't stop thinking about me, hunh? You do realize that if we don't see each other all week, then I just have all that time to think up new ways to torment you."
"Oh dear God."
"I'm not sure prayer will help in this case." He smiled down at her as he pulled her up against him. He gave her a melting kiss and slid his hand into the neckline of the dress, cupping one of her breasts. When she tried to pull away, he said, "What about dessert? I never even got a taste of these. He rubbed his thumb over the nipple, bringing it to a peak. Violet groaned but moved closer to him. As he bent his head to tease the nipple with his lips, he chuckled at her willingness to let him do as he wished.
***
# Board of Directors meeting, Lyric Opera of Boston
Michael hated being late, but sometimes it was unavoidable. It could take forever to find the accessible entrances and exits, so he tried to be early to every meeting. Unfortunately, this morning's appointments had run over, making him good and late. At least he was better at managing his temper since he'd met Violet. Now things like being late when he really couldn't have done anything else rolled off his back instead of frustrating him to no end. Being the newest board member, he wasn't likely to be able to contribute much anyway. The receptionist pointed out the conference room, and he found it with little difficulty. On entering, the chairwoman noticed him first and nodded.
"I'm terribly sorry, Madeline. My patient appointments ran long this morning."
" No worries, Michael. Everyone, I'd like to introduce our newest board member, Dr. Michael Dennison, brilliant surgeon and tremendous opera afficiando. Michael, I won't overwhelm you by introducing everyone at once. Why don't you take the space over there." When he was introduced he saw one dark, curly head snap to attention. As luck would have it, the space he was directed to was right next to her.
"Ms. Bellows, how nice to see you here. I had no idea you were on the board."
"I'm here as a representative of the foundation. You never mentioned you were going to be here, either."
"It must have slipped my mind the last time I saw you." Michael smiled at Violet's blush. No doubt she was remembering last weekend also. By the time she had left on Sunday night, there wasn't a room in which he hadn't made her scream in orgasm. He loved that she was so responsive to him. Even here and now, he could see her becoming aroused.
He leaned in closer to her.
"You have a spanking coming my dear kitten," he said under his breath so no one could hear but her. Violet's head shot up, and she was completely red in the face now. Her breathing was short and quick. He'd never be able to wait till the weekend to touch her.
"Why?" she whispered back
"You have panties on, do you not?" He looked away from her ending the conversation. But all through the meeting he could see Violet shifting in her seat and rubbing her legs together to assuage the ache that had overtaken her. Michael tried to hide his smile of satisfaction. This was the most enjoyable meeting he had ever sat through. As it broke up, he turned to Violet. "Ms. Bellows I have a couple more things I'd like to discuss with you. May I escort you down to your car?"
Violet smiled politely. "But of course, Dr. Dennison." Under her breath she added, "You are a truly evil man."
Michael couldn't help himself and burst out laughing. "But of course."
By the time they reached Violet's car she was shaking in anticipation of what Michael was going to do. She didn't have to wait long.
"Take them off."
"Oh, Michael, how was I supposed to know you were going to be there?"
"Excuses will only make the punishment last longer. How long can you take being teased Violet?"
She only hissed at him in response. After glaring at him for a few seconds she hid behind her car door and reached under her skirt shimmying out of the bit of lace. When she stepped out of it she handed them to Michael. "Happy now?"
"Darling, you know the only time I am truly happy is when you are in the throes of an orgasm. Which brings me to your punishment, do you choose now or later? If you choose now it will be over fairly quickly, but it will be right here so still somewhat public." She was bright red again. "If you choose later, well, I can tell you it will definitely start with spanking, but I would have till the weekend to think of all the things I want to do to you."
"You aren't going to spank me here are you?"
"No, kitten, I have something much different in mind."
"Damn you. I guess now. I have visions of being tied to the bed for the weekend."
"You seemed to like it the last time." He rolled closer to her, trapping her in the space between her car and the door. "All you have to do is stand there, kitten. Well, that and not scream when you come. I'm afraid it will echo loudly in this parking garage."
She gasped but he didn't give her time to think, sliding his hand up the inside of her thighs. Within minutes he had her hanging on to the car for support as she bit her lip to stifle her scream of pleasure. When he finally removed his hand from her he licked her juices from his fingers as she watched with her eyes half closed.
"Enjoy the rest of your day, kitten. I know I will." He turned and, laughing, left her to go back to work without her panties.
***
# Logan Airport: Flight 486 arriving from Paris, a Saturday night in October
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Logan Airport. The local time is 8:36 p.m. Connection information is on the monitors at the gate. For those of you staying in the Boston area, your bags will be on carousel eleven. The captain has turned off the Fasten Seat Belts sign, and you may now use your cell phones and electronic devices. Please be aware when opening the overhead bins, as the contents may have shifted during the flight." With that, it seemed everyone flipped on their phones or stood up and popped open the bins above them.
Violet turned on her phone and speed dialed Michael. It had been three weeks since she had seen him last. Three very long weeks. She ached with need in a way she hadn't in all the years before she had met him. On the third ring Michael picked up.
"Michael? I just landed. I should be there in about an hour."
Violet looked over at the man sitting next to her as she started to answer Michael's questions. "Yes, I'm wearing the chains. Yes, all of them." She could feel her cheeks burning. "No, I didn't." Sneaking a peak at the guy next to her, silently wishing Michael wouldn't push. She grimaced when he, of course, did. "Fine. No, I didn't touch myself at all while I was gone. Happy now?" She was looking down at her lap and couldn't help but notice that the poor guy next to her now had an erection that looked uncomfortable. Without looking at him, she threw her blanket on his lap, watching him clutch at it like a someone drowning.
"I'll be there as quick as I can. I missed you, too." She was beet red, but she grinned like a fool. Oh, that man made her crazy. Also daring, horny, and alive, but mostly crazy. She took a deep breath and finally looked the poor guy next to her in the face.
"Um, sorry about that."
"I should be apologizing to you. I didn't mean to eavesdrop."
"It wasn't like you could help it."
"No, I suppose not. I really need to find a girlfriend. He, um, sounded demanding."
"Its kind of all an act. He doesn't do anything that scares or hurts me. Just likes to sort of push my buttons. Its been a while since we've seen each other."
"Lucky guy. Does he know you love him?"
"Is it obvious? No, he probably doesn't. Guys never seem to get when the right girl comes along until they leave."
"Yeah, you're probably right. I'd tell you to enjoy the rest of your weekend, but I need to be able to get out of here without embarrassing myself."
Violet moved into the aisle and started laughing. She only had her carry-on bag so she could catch a cab to Michael's right away. Forty-five minutes later, she was ringing his doorbell. That had to be a record for Boston traffic. When he answered the door, she pounced on him. As she was kissing him, she felt his hand wander up her thigh to her waist under her skirt.
"I gave up and stopped wearing them, especially with skirts. Does that bother you?"
"I'm not sure. I wanted you to do that just for me."
"Oh, there are lots of other things I do just for you. If you'd let me, I could think of a couple more you haven't let me do yet."
"Get undressed."
"Michael..."
"No arguments. I can't wait any longer to touch you. It feels like you've been gone forever. Besides, I have a very special present for you."
Violet started undressing. "You didn't go crazy, I hope?"
"Umm, no this is something very personal I had made for you. Go get into bed."
Violet had butterflies, which seemed silly considering how often they did this. When they got to the bedroom, Michael had her put on a blindfold, saying it would help her feel less inhibited. She would have laughed if Michael hadn't been looking so serious. Any inhibitions she'd ever had were gone. Where she had always been quiet and shy, now she spoke her mind and didn't panic being the center of attention. She was much more confident in her work. Even Allyn had noticed and commented that maybe Michael was good for her after all.
"Michael, if I have this blindfold on, how am I going to see my present?"
"This one I want you to feel first." Violet gave an involuntary shiver. Even after all these months his way of making the most normal thing sound so erotic still caught her off guard. "Can you keep your hands above your head or should I tie you up?"
"You want me to choose?" The thought seemed absurd.
"Either you choose or I will."
"Oh God, I guess... tie me. I have no idea what you are going to do."
He whispered in her ear, "I knew you were going to choose that. Restraint always lets you get a little wilder."
Violet could only moan softly. He knew her too well. With her hands tied together over her head and the blindfold on, she was completely at his mercy. Her nipples were already hard, and she had been wet since she heard his voice on the plane.
"Now, kitten, this is going to feel cold at first, but it will warm up with your body heat. I'm going to start where the cold might be... interesting. Tell me what you feel."
She felt a shock of cold on one of her nipples. "Oh!" She squirmed. "It is cold, but also pebbled." Michael moved the pebbled surface over her nipple. It felt almost like a cat's tongue. "That feels good, though." He started on the other one. Whatever it was, it felt hard and seemed heavy but was also getting warmer the longer Michael massaged her with it. By the time he finished with her nipples, they ached, and she couldn't help whimpering when he stopped. "Michael, I need to feel you, too."
"Always my greedy kitten." But she heard him go around to the other side of the bed, heard the rustling of his clothes and felt the bed dip as he got in it. His body touching hers felt electric. He was so warm against her. He placed a warm kiss on one of her nipples and then took her mouth. Warm, liquid kisses, sweet and rich like good port and just as likely to make her senseless. But she had missed these most of all. Except that with her hands tied she couldn't touch him, which was frustrating the hell out of her.
"Michael, this is too frustrating. Please, please untie me. I need to be able to touch you."
"No. Remember I told you I wouldn't always grant your requests."
Violet answered him with a growl. She felt him pick up the present that had fallen between them. It had absorbed both of their heat so it was now warm. He stroked her inner thighs with it. Instinctively, she opened herself for him, and he moved to stroking the length of her cleft. After of a few minutes of that slow torture, he found her opening and slowly slid the phallus in.
"How does that feel, kitten?"
"Full, but not painful at all. Like its hitting all the right spots at once."
"Perfect. I designed it just for you. I had an artist carve it from marble. Your own miniature work of art. Let me attach these." Violet felt chains like the ones she wore drip between her legs. Then she could feel Michael connecting them to the belly chain. When he finished, he kissed her again and started massaging her clit.
"Oh, Michael. Oh! I can't take being tied up anymore. I need you to untie me now, I need this blindfold off!" She sounded so distressed that Michael stopped and removed the tie and blindfold.
"Too much? I didn't mean to scare you."
"Yes, too much. But you didn't scare me. I just... Michael, I need to touch you. I need to make love to you, too. Can I move with this thing?"
"You should be able to. It might feel a little heavy so you will need to use your Kegel muscles to hold it. It isn't any longer than say, my fingers for instance.
"Michael, it has been months, and I have been patient, but I want to get you off. The whole nine yards, I mean it. No matter what happens, and yes, I know all the horror stories. I need to at least try. We've come close, but you won't let yourself go. You like seeing me in full climax. Why won't you let me see you that vulnerable?"
"Because what if it all goes wrong? What if something happens, and you are so disgusted you never want to touch me again? What if nothing at all happens? Are you going to be able to deal with that? Violet, I... I love you, and I would rather you have this piece of me than risk you leaving. Can you understand?"
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. This was going to hurt like hell, but there wasn't any other way. She just hoped eventually he would forgive her. "No, Michael, I don't understand, and I can't do it anymore. You are using your situation to hide from me. You say you love me, and I think you believe it, but if you can't let yourself be vulnerable with me, then you don't truly trust me to be there when things are really bad. I can't accept just a piece of you. I can't be your kitten and just take from you. I'm done."
She got out of bed and went to the bathroom. When she came back, Michael was still in bed. She left the chains and carving on the end of the bed. Michael just stared at her as she went to the living room. A short while later, he heard the front door open and close and then nothing. Violet made it to the lobby before the tears started falling. She made it into the taxi before she started sobbing outright. The poor Indian cabbie had no idea what to do, so he just kept mumbling endearments in Hindi.
By the time she got home, she was cried out, at least for the moment. Exhausted, wired, and hungry. she made her way to the kitchen hoping she wouldn't run into Allyn. The last thing she wanted to hear was "I told you so" from her brother. She should have stopped when she saw the light on, but in her dazed state she just walked right into Allyn. He put his arms around her to stop her from falling, and she clutched at him and started crying all over again.
"Hey, it can't be as bad as that," he said, stroking her hair. "Um, did the good doctor do something stupid?"
"No," she croaked. "I did. I ended it, at least for now. Oh, Allyn. It really does hurt! I mean, physically hurts."
"I know, sweetheart. I'm sorry."
"Is this it? Is this why you never date? Because someone broke your heart like this?"
"Not quite. She didn't mean to. She couldn't help...never mind, What can I do? Should I be the obnoxious big brother and go beat him up for you?"
That made her laugh. "Don't you touch a hair on his head!"
"Still in love with him then?"
"Hopelessly."
"I'd tell you to start drinking, but I think it only works for men. Shopping? Isn't that what women do?" He turned away and opened the freezer. When he turned back he had a quart of ice cream in his hand. "I believe under the circumstances this becomes a single serving."
"Great. So I'll be miserable and fat." He turned to put it away, but she stopped him. "Hey, I didn't say I wasn't going to eat it!"
"Are you going to be okay?"
"Eventually. I just hope he comes to his senses soon. Thanks. You are a great big brother."
"Thanks, I'll cue up a bunch of sappy chick flicks in the screening room for you," Allyn said as he was walking away.
# The following Friday at the Gym
"Jeez, Dennison, you look like shit. And where is the cream puff?"
"Cam, for once in your life can you shut the fuck up?"
"Damn, you didn't screw that up, did you? Fuck, you did, didn't you? That girl had it so bad for you. How the hell did you manage to push her away? After all this time I figured you were good to go. Early on she must have realized what an asshole you were.
"I'm out of here, shithead." Michael wheeled himself outside. The air was cold, but he didn't care. He was so miserable he barely felt it.
"Michael, wait up!"
"What? Come to get more licks in?"
"No, look, I'm really sorry. I was kidding. I didn't think you two had really broken up. She really was crazy about you. So what the hell happened?"
"She walked out, said I couldn't give her enough."
"She didn't strike me as the spoiled heiress type. True, she's got more money than God, but she never seemed in your face about it."
"What the hell are you talking about? She's got some nonprofit job at some foundation. She's comfortable, but rich? I don't think so."
"You really need to look at something besides medical journals. My niece, Delia, you met her, almost blew a gasket when I told her you were dating Violet. Violet doesn't work at the foundation, she is the foundation. Well, she and her brother. They have like Gates/Buffet kind of money but are seriously quiet about it. Delia is getting her degree in information security, and in one of her classes she had to find out everything she could about a local celebrity. So she scoped out Violet. I only realized when I saw one of the pictures she pulled off the internet."
"You mean to tell me... I gotta go."
"Buddy, don't do anything stupid. You look fit to kill someone. Why don't you come back in and take it out on the court? Seriously, Michael, don't call her when you're like this. You're just going to regret it."
"Undoubtedly," Michael yelled from his car as he started the engine. He knew on some level Cam was right, but it just kept boiling in his brain. Was their whole relationship some kind of joke to her? He had thought she'd been overwhelmed with the expensive gifts. Maybe she didn't think they were up to her standards? And the whole submission thing, was she just laughing behind his back? The poor broken cripple thought he could play tough with the fucking heiress.
At nine thirty Violet's cell phone rang. She was already in bed and feeling sorry for herself. It had been a whole week, and Michael still hadn't called. She looked at the caller ID and tried to stop her heart from pounding. She missed him so much, maybe he just needed more time.
She hit the answer button.
"Michael?"
"Don't say a fucking word. I just wanted to tell you, as bad as I thought I felt last week when you left, it was nothing compared to tonight when I found out you have been lying to me all along. Why did we never go to your place, Violet? I always thought it was because you lived in some walk up, and you didn't want to embarrass me, or you were too embarrassed that I had more money than you. But no, you didn't want me to know that you live in a fucking mansion on the shore, and really you were just embarrassed by me."
"Michael, that isn't true."
"You're not rich?"
"Yes, I am rich. The house is the only obvious sign of it. I was never embarrassed to be with you Michael, ever. I'm sorry I wasn't completely honest with you. I just wanted a chance for us to get to know each other without the money getting in the way."
"And you had the audacity to slam me for not trusting you? You couldn't even be honest about who you are. So was the sex thing just some fucking joke, see if you could get the cripple to get off? I've heard the rich are into weird kink. Was that all it was? Some sick way to have a feeling of accomplishment?"
"Oh, Michael." She was crying now. There was no way he could miss it. "Please. Don't make what we did into something cheap. I can't believe you could be so cruel. Good-bye, Michael."
She hung up and started sobbing so hard no sound came out. When it did, it came out as a keening wail, bringing Allyn running to her room. He didn't need to ask, he knew it had to do with Dennison. Wheelchair or not, he wanted to kick his ass. Violet hadn't been like this since their parents had died. All he could do then was hold her, so that was all he did now. Finally, in the early morning she fell into an exhausted sleep, and he went back to his room.
The next morning Violet came downstairs to find a plane ticket sitting on her plate with a note from Allyn. The note read: _Take a couple weeks off. Tante and Oncle miss you. Give them all a kiss from me, too. Allyn_.
Maybe a trip to Grasse wouldn't be such a bad thing, except for the part of actually getting out of her pajamas. If she could manage that, it would only get easier from there. Looking at the ticket, she'd have to hurry if she was going to pack and make it to the plane that afternoon.
## ***
After three weeks of being spoiled and fed by _Tante_ Marrianne, Violet knew she had to go back soon. The foundation was too much for Allyn to run alone, no matter how much she wanted to hide. Her parents and Allyn had raised her to do her chores first, play second. As an adult that meant she felt guilty hanging out like a teenager with her cousin Marie-Hèllene. _La Reine_ , the queen, as everyone called her, had recently graduated from university, and it was fun to spend time with her just being girls.
"Violette, _je ne comprend pas_. I don't understand, this man, he is angry because you are rich? Here, the man would be happy to have a rich wife."
"Maybe he did not want a wife."
" _Mais_ you said he told you he was hurting when you left. He might not want the wife now, _mais_ he did not want you to leave."
"La Reine, you'll understand when you fall in love. None of it makes any sense."
" _Bouf_. I have been in love with the same man _jamais_ , forever, and he still will not look at me. I know it makes no sense. I tried to fall in love with other men when I was at university, but they were all just silly boys, and I did not want a boy. You do not have to tell me about _l'amour_." Then she laughed, " _Mais le sexe, fantastique, non_?"
"La Reine! _Oui, plus que fantastique_." And Violet laughed too. She missed Michael with a physical need that wouldn't relent. Not just because of what he did to her sexually, but their closeness, the way he looked at her, just speaking with him. But she couldn't change who she was any more than he could.
In another couple of days she would have go back. "La Reine, what are you going to do? It has been months since you graduated, and as much as _Tante_ and _Oncle_ like having you here, it is time to get a job and start living your life, no? Maybe hunt down that man you are in love with and make him listen to reason? Why don't you come back to the States? You could stay with Allyn and me. Maybe work at the foundation? We're always looking for good people with finance and law degrees. If you like it, you can stay. If not, call it an internship." Violet felt more excited than she had since she and Michael broke up. "Please. Think of the fun you can have torturing Allyn."
"I... I would like that very much. Will Allyn mind me in the house?"
"I don't know why he would, he has always had a soft spot for you, ever since you made fun of his accent and called him Eeenglish. Why else would a twenty-year-old boy spend an entire summer learning French to please a five-year-old girl."
Marie-Hèllenne smiled wider than Violet had ever seen her.
" _Oui_ , I'll do it. _Mais_ , when will you leave?"
"I'll go in a couple of days, but you can get what you need done and come whenever. It will be like having a sister for me."
" _Bouf_ , I have nothing but sisters. I am looking forward to torturing your brother!"
"You always did save your worst pranks for him. I'm so glad you'll come. Now I will have something to look forward to when I go back."
***
# Back in Boston
It had been twenty-two days, sixteen hours, and forty-five minutes since Michael's life had imploded from his own stupidity. He had transferred patients and taken vacation time, he was so useless. He had tried everything to get her out of his system, even thought about getting a call girl but rejected it. He didn't want a woman, he wanted _that_ woman. He rationalized that he was right and she was wrong and she'd call him. When he saw the opera board meeting on his calendar, he knew he'd see her there. He had decided he was an idiot, and he'd apologize. She wasn't there. He had gotten desperate and called the foundation, only to be told she was on an extended leave. Now driving to her house, he knew he he'd do anything for her to take him back.
Getting out of the car in the circular drive, he looked the house over. "House" was a quaint term for what stood in front of him. Like the "cottages" of Newport, it went on forever. It could have been a dorm at a small college, one nobody except the super wealthy would be able to afford. He looked at the entrance and swore under his breath. Three steps up to the entry portico blocked him from even ringing the damn doorbell. He put his head in his hands and tried not to scream in frustration.
Michael had no idea how long he sat there. He was now cold and miserable, or rather, more miserable than when he'd arrived. He heard a car pull in the drive but didn't look to see who it might me. He heard footsteps behind him, male from the sound of them, certainly not Violet's.
"Dennison? What the hell are you doing here?"
"Allyn, I..."
"I don't know that I want you anywhere near my sister. Frankly, it is only the thin veneer of British civility keeping me from bashing you in the face. What the hell did you say to her anyway, man?"
"I called her a liar because she led me to believe she worked at the foundation instead of owning it."
"Ugh. Always the goddamned money. We run the foundation. Violet does indeed work there. Yes, it has our family name, but it's not like we could take the money back and do whatever we want with it. All of the Bellows money is in a trust. Violet and I get a nice share, but aside from that, the only thing we got when our parents died was this house. Violet refuses to sell it for sentimental reasons, but in this economy..." Allyn shook his head. "Don't know why I'm explaining any of this to you. So I repeat, what are you doing here?"
"I came to apologize to Violet, but I couldn't even get to the doorbell."
"Violet isn't here." Allyn looked at Michael and thought he'd never seen a man look so pitiful. It was obvious that the man was in love with his sister, whether he realized it or not. "You look like you could use a drink. I have an excellent collection of single malts. Come in and have a drink. How long have you been sitting here? You look blue, for God's sake."
"But the steps..."
"Yes, well I think I can manage getting you up and back down." Allyn backed the chair up the steps easily and opened the door, escorting Michael inside. Michael didn't speak again till they were in the library and the scotch had been poured.
"Where is she?"
"France, but I'll not tell you where, so don't think you can run off and find her. She should be home soon enough, and then let her decide if she'll see you. Does she know how you feel about her?"
"I told her the last time I saw her, but that was the night she walked out on me. Then I... she must hate me."
"No, I suspect she is in love with you. Though you being a typical male seemed to have messed it up. We all do that, don't we?"
"So you think there might be a chance?"
"I know my sister to be one of the most forgiving people I have ever met. That said, no promises. I will tell her you came here to apologize. Have you had anything to eat? She'll kill me if you end up in an accident and I was a precipitating factor."
"No, but I couldn't intrude more than I already have. I should be going."
"Nonsense. I'll have Sheila make up some steaks. Frankly, I'm tired of eating alone after three weeks of my sister being gone. And it wouldn't hurt to spend some time getting to know you. Might work in your favor with Violet."
"Thank you. I shouldn't ask, but has she mentioned me at all? God, I sound pathetic."
Allyn burst out laughing. "No more than the rest of us when we realize we can't live without them. Let's go see what we can scrounge up from the cook. Grab the scotch."
By the end of a very pleasant dinner, Allyn knew several things. Dr. Dennison was a decent man with a quick intellect, and Violet could have done much worse than fall in love with him. Dennison was head over heels in love with his sister. Lastly, he found he and Michael had much in common, and he actually liked the man. If everything worked out well with the doctor and Violet, there were worse things than being friends with one's brother-in-law.
When Violet arrived home several days later, Allyn told her about his dinner with Michael.
"Violet, I know you were upset, but I really think he meant to apologize for being an ass. You women really do make us men crazed, and we aren't truly equipped to deal with the confusion. I'm not saying you should rush into anything, but I thought he was a decent man, and he is in love with you. Though you haven't said it, I am sure you're in love with him, too. All I am saying is just think about it."
"I know Michael is a wonderful man, and I know he loves me to a point. But Allyn, he won't allow himself to completely trust me. Yet he asks exactly that from me. Maybe I am crazy, but there are parts of himself he has closed off, and I just can't ignore them anymore. I have to wait until he comes to me, then I'll know he is ready to trust me. I'm glad you two talked, though. One thing I realized the last couple of weeks is that you and I don't have a lot of friends. Plenty of acquaintances, but few true friends. Maybe that's why I asked La Reine to come stay with us for a while. I think she would be a good fit at the foundation, and I'll enjoy having a sort of sister for a while." Violet looked at Allyn. He seemed pale compared to a minute ago. "I should warn you, she is especially looking forward to playing tricks on you."
"I... I... oh, this is going to be bad," Allyn said under his breath.
"She is all grown up now, so I imagine she will be better behaved."
"And she'll be staying here?"
"Where else? It isn't like we don't have the room. Relax, she'll stay in my wing. You won't even see her."
Allyn highly doubted that.
## ***
Violet should have been looking forward to this night, but between the weather forecast and the fact that Michael still had not called her, she wasn't. She had already booked a room at the Continental for after the opera. _Her_ opera to be precise. Maybe that was part of the problem. _La Traviata_ now held not just memories of her mother, but of Michael, too. She knew by the time the opera was finished she would be sobbing. But as a board member she had to go.
She dressed carefully. She wanted to look good, but she needed something to keep her from falling apart. While she was in France she had gone lingerie shopping, so she picked out some of her favorite pieces to wear tonight, including a steel-boned long corset. It made her feel like Violetta, it was so beautiful. The way it pushed her breasts high and accentuated the curve of her waist and hips would have made any courtesan proud. The satin dress was simple in design but exposed her shoulders. She took out two of her mother's pearl combs and pinned the sides and front of her hair up. Seeing herself in the mirror, she looked like a modern version of Madame X, minus the bustle. She pulled on opera length gloves and grabbed her velvet cape.
When she got to the bottom of the stairs, Allyn looked her up and down. "You would be even more beautiful with a smile on your face."
She laughed at him.
"Sure I can't convince you to come?"
"Not unless you're going to accompany me to the symphony."
Violet groaned. It was a long-running joke between them. Allyn liked classical music, unadulterated by words and "visuals," as he called the pageantry of opera. Violet appreciated music of all kinds, but sitting there staring at a symphony orchestra was nothing short of boring to her. The only time they relented was Mozart operas.
"Not bloody likely." Violet did her best impression of her slightly stuffy English brother.
"Brat. Enjoy yourself. You sure you'll be okay? The weather reports are all over the place, but the storm may end up being bad."
"I've booked a room right next to the opera house, so I should be able to walk there if nothing else. I'll be fine."
***
# The Opera
Traffic, of course, was awful. Everyone was trying to get where they wanted to be when the storm hit. She left the driver at the corner and walked the rest of the block. She noticed people staring at her and thought she must look odd dressed in these clothes with the long cape pulled around her, like she belonged in another time period. The first snow flakes were starting to fall, and she felt her eyes burn with tears that threatened. It was the first snow of the season. She couldn't look at snow now without thinking of Michael. She walked faster to escape the cold and because she was late.
The overture had already started, and the lights dimmed by the time she found her seat in the box. As the music started to swell, she felt a wave of sadness wash over her. She missed him like she would miss blood in her veins. These weeks without him hurt like none of her physical injuries ever had. The only thing to compare was the loss of her parents, though she had survived that, too. He had to see he could trust her completely. She took a deep breath to distance herself from her emotions, at least till the opera was over. She was warm enough now that she could remove her cape as the first act started. She thought she heard a noise behind her, but before she could turn around she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
"Shall I tell you the story of your opera?"
"Michael..." She sighed.
"Yes, Violetta. You are the most beautiful woman of your time. Could you love a wretch like poor unworthy Alfredo?"
Violet bent her head to caress his hand with her cheek.
"Alfredo wasn't unworthy, just foolishly proud. He couldn't see how much she loved him."
"I've missed you, Violet." She could hear the pain in his voice and steeled herself against giving in.
"I've missed you too." Reaching up, she took his hand from her shoulder and held it in hers. At first Michael stayed where he was, but as Alfredo declared his love for Violetta, he moved beside her. When the lights came up for intermission, Violet released his hand. Michael leaned toward her to kiss her, but she stopped him.
"Michael, unless things have changed, please, don't. I'm just too fragile right now."
They sat in silence, absorbed in their thoughts till the house lights dimmed, and the opera continued. This time it was Michael who reached for Violet's hand and held it.
When the lights came up, Michael didn't release her hand. He wanted to tell her she meant everything to him, but the words wouldn't come. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles one by one.
"Violet, I know what you want from me, I just don't know if I can let go of the fear. I want to try. Does that count for anything? Can you give me the time to figure this out? I have been trying to work through this since you left."
Violet felt her heart swell. This incredible man, the same one who drove her to heights of ecstasy, who had taken such care of her, was afraid of losing her. She held his face in both her hands and looked deep into his eyes with all the love she felt for him.
"Michael, if you are willing to try, I promise you I will be with you at every step. I want to be with you, to hold you through the fear, whatever you need. That was all I was asking for--the chance to be there for you."
The lights dimmed at that point and the music started. Michael dragged her from her seat on to his lap. He whispered in her ear.
"I just need to hold you, I promise."
Violet could feel his warm breath on her shoulder and feel him trembling. She twisted so she could put her arms around his shoulders.
"I need to hold you, too," she whispered as she lay her head on his shoulder and they watched the last act.
As everyone left the opera, they were met with a classic Nor'easter. Snow pelted down in blinding clumps. The wind whipped from all directions. Michael looked at Violet, afraid to find that she would be panicked. Instead, he was shocked to see that she was smiling. She glanced down at him as she settled her cape on her shoulders and pulled up the hood.
"Fancy a short walk?"
"Are you mad?"
"Crazed. But you are not planning on driving in this, are you?"
"No, but..."
She stepped in front of him. "Michael, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do, but I have a room at the Continental, right next door. I hadn't expected company but..."
"Violet..." Then he closed his mouth and looked like he reconsidered. "Let's go."
She bent and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
# The Hotel
The storm raged outside. The windows were white in the blizzard, and the wind screamed. He closed the drapes to block out the noise and snow. Unfortunately, there were no drapes that he could draw around the storm raging between his heart and his mind. He wanted her beyond reason or hope, but he had nothing to give her. This was a woman on fire, and all he could offer was quiet devotion.
Once inside, they stared at each other with chattering teeth. She shook snow out of her hair and then took down what was still pinned up. With that dress and her hair up at the opera, she had looked regal, unattainable. Now with her shoes kicked off and her hair down, she looked sensual and tempting. He fought to look away and lost.
She walked toward him with a half-smile. "I'm going to need your help getting out of this dress or I'll never get warm."
She turned her back when she reached him and knelt down in front of him. The white satin of the neckline highlighted her creamy white skin. She bent forward pulling her hair to the side to reveal dozens of small buttons along her spine. As Michael's fingertips grazed the small points of her vertebra between her shoulders, she gasped. "Sorry, my fingers are still cold," he choked out. Though to him her skin felt like fire. He undid the first dozen or so, slowly trying to master the inner storm he felt.
She stood up, and the dress dropped further down her shoulders. She was holding it up between her breasts, but in falling it had revealed the top edge of her lingerie. He found the effect mesmerizing. His mind screamed. Everything in his senses told him to make love to this woman _here and now_. Yet he still delayed. A woman this passionate needed a complete man, something he wished he could be. But she wanted him, maybe he needed to just trust in her faith in him.
Violet walked toward the closet and stepped out of her dress. She heard his gasp and smiled to herself. Good. It was working, she thought. She retrieved her dress and hung it on a hanger as best she could. She walked toward the heater, keeping the dress between her and Michael. She needed an image to steel her will. She had never outright seduced a man before, and she suspected Michael would be a challenge to even the most practiced courtesan from any opera. That was it! Not a courtesan, something ethereal, sensual, his own Lady Godiva!
She closed her eyes for a second to fix the image of the noble temptress in her mind and dropped the dress on the chair. She turned to face him in her lingerie. The corset was black lace with flat braid along the edges and boning. It was a simple style that came down to her hips and ended in several tiers of lace. The garters were attached to plain sheer black stockings. She had thought when she was dressing that perhaps everything was too plain, but no, the effect was more elegant. She shook her hair out, and it fell like a cape around her. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and parted her lips slightly letting the thought of the brave noblewoman settle over her. When she opened her eyes again, she had to fight to keep from laughing at the look on Michael's face. The very debonair, detached, erudite Dr. Michael Dennison was staring with his mouth open. She let her eyes flutter closed, remembering the wonders of that mouth. Then she started toward him.
"Now, to get you out of your wet clothes."
"Don't. I..."
"Don't be silly. You'll catch pneumonia sitting there soaked, and we are going to be here a while."
"You don't catch pneumonia like... oh, hell." And he started to remove his tie. Violet smiled, whatever else happened tonight, she had won at least this small victory. She took each piece and placed them near the heater to dry out. He stopped when he was bare chested but still had his pants. He had removed each piece slowly in his reluctance to disrobe, which only added to Violet's anticipation. By the time he had removed his tuxedo shirt, she thought she might melt on the spot.
She racked her brain for what to do next. She was shivering from either the cold or anticipation. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to warm up. He was still staring at her like she might evaporate at any minute. She walked back across to the closet and pulled the two thick robes out. "Did you want one?" She was trying to be nonchalant, but even she could hear an edge to her voice that had never been there before. Would Michael hear the desire in her voice and close himself off again? She steeled herself to calm down. She took a deep breath that swelled her breasts at the top of the corset. Again the good doctor's mouth dropped open.
"Yes, please," he managed to choke out. She slipped into one, leaving it untied and open, and brought him the other. She held it open for him to slip his arm in and then brought it around to the other side. She couldn't miss the opportunity to let her eyes rake over his back. Once he was cocooned in the plush terry cloth, he looked less miserable.
She moved to the bed, trying to distract herself from the way he was looking at her. She knew if she threw herself at him they would be right back to where they left off. He had to decide he wanted this. She sat down on the end of the bed letting the robe fall open to either side of her. She had always prided herself on being a good conversationalist, but at the moment her throat had gone dry, and her brain refused to form words. Thankfully, he had followed her over to where she sat.
His hand seemed to be reaching out to her of its own volition. His only thought to stroke her cheek and maybe her hair. Sitting there, she looked so vulnerable and alluring. He was almost touching her when he realized what he was doing. She had seen his hand extended and had already started to move toward it, pushing forward her breasts and inclining her face to match the curve of his hand. At his touch, she sighed and closed her eyes.
The curve of her cheek fit his palm perfectly. He was lost. Heat swept through him, want overtaking the fear. His mind churned with sensation and desire. The touch, her sigh, were not enough to extinguish these. He slipped his hand past her cheek, into her hair, pulling her closer. Just one more kiss, one more taste of what other men took for granted. His other hand went around her waist, caressing the lace and boning of the corset. Still, it was not enough. He needed to taste her mouth, her teeth, feel her tongue search for his.
He pulled her onto his lap. Her eyes went wide. She did not pull away but melted against him. His mouth crushed hers. Too much, he thought. He gentled his kiss and felt her body warm to his. He sucked at her lips like a starved man. The hand around her waist was now caressing her throat. When she moaned, he explored her with his tongue. His desire had only increased. His hand moved from her throat to her breast. Reaching into her corset, he cupped her breast. He felt the nipple harden at his touch. As it did, he bent to kiss the sensitive rosy bud. She lay her head back in a full throated moan, pushing it deeper into his mouth, exposing the length of her milky throat. He suckled the nipple and then explored the milky white mound. Her breathing was ragged. That she wanted him was obvious, but she had made it clear that she would accept nothing less than all of him.
With an audible growl and his mind screaming, he put his hands around her waist and pushed her off his lap and back onto the bed. Both of them were gasping for air. She looked at him though heavy-lidded eyes. He knew he should grab his things and leave, but seeing her so filled with desire pinned him to the spot.
Her need for him was too great to listen to reason. Her mind was screaming, Make him come to you! But she didn't have the will to obey. She threw her arms around him, kissing and nibbling his jaw, ears and neck. She knelt on the floor, reaching up to stoke his chest and twirl her fingers in the soft curls. Eventually she looked into his eyes. For a long time, Violet stared deep into their glittering sapphire brilliance, willing him to let go of his fear and drop his resistance. When she felt she had at least communicated that, she started to undress him.
"No," he cried out in anguish.
"Why?" she pleaded in a voice that reminded Michael of those horrible days after the surgery. She sounded in agony. "I want you," she said, trying to slow her breathing. "And I know you want me!" she nearly screamed.
He could not deny she was right but--
She cut off his thoughts. "Just lie with me. Let me make love to you."
"But that's just it. I don't know if I _can_ make love to you!" Now he was nearly shouting, in part in anguish, in part to still the blood pounding in his head.
"You are a passionate, sensual, intelligent man. Michael, I don't expect a perfect lover. I want you, all of you. I realize there are things we may not be able to do, but to deny yourself the chance? I can only assume you don't really want me." She stood to get dressed and leave.
In that second, Michael saw a yawning eternity before him. An eternity where he was alive but bereft, cut off from all joy in the world. "Nooooo," he yelled in a choked sob. He threw his arms around her waist. She curled herself over the top of him, sheltering him in her hair.
"Thank God. I wouldn't have had the strength to do it," she whispered. He turned to her and saw her fighting back tears. He kissed every one and then scooped her into his lap, kissing her some more. He kept kissing till she was laughing, and then he slid her back onto the bed. Her robe had fallen off around her. There she sat as he looked at her. Her mantle of hair streaming down. Her liquid brown eyes still bright with tears but smiling now. Her full lips in a half smile taunting him to capture them with his own. She was flushed with want, want for him, how could he deny this to her? Or to himself?
"I guess I should tell you. I've been experimenting with some of the ED meds. They are supposed to help," he said as he idly ran his finger under one of the garters. With his other hand he reached under the lace tiers of the corset to caress the curve of her hip. Her breathing became shallow and quick. He looked into her eyes and said "Lie back. I want to undress you."
She looked at him like he was a satyr come to ravish her, and it took all his willpower not to believe it himself. She lay down on the edge of the bed. He unsnapped one of the garters and saw her jump with excitement. With each pop, he could feel the heat of her increase. Slowly he rolled first one stocking, then the other off. Her lids became heavy, and she moaned softly. The sound of it drove him on. He slid both hands under the corset finding the lace of her panties. She gasped but smiled and lifted her hips as he slowly pulled them down. He kissed her thighs, then her knees, then her delicate ankles.
She started to undo the hooks in the corset. "No," he said softly. "Better to do it slowly." She stopped and started again much more slowly, teasing him with each one. His chest ached, his stomach clenched with the desire to see her enthralled. Finally the corset fell away from her hands.. She was almost too beautiful to touch. Almost, but kissing the hollow of her breasts would be appropriately worshipful. He buried himself in her chest, felt it heave as she almost sobbed with release. She twisted his hair in her fingers, kissing his hair and ears.
Finally she whispered, "Lie with me. I need to feel your body against mine."
It had been so long that he had fought against his passion for this woman. Something as simple as this felt like the most natural thing in the world.
"You stay there. Close your eyes." And he gave her a kiss on each eyelid. "I'll tell you when you can open them."
He quickly went to the other side of the bed. He divested himself of the rest of his clothes and transferred himself to the bed. He slid in behind her, and she gave a little squeal when they touched. Their bodies fit together like halves of a whole. He had forgotten how perfect this felt. He brushed her hair from her neck and started kissing and nibbling her neck and shoulders. She melted in his arms. He slid his lower arm under her neck to cradle her against him. The other slid down her soft, smooth stomach. When he reached her pubic hair, he twirled the curls around his fingers. She gave a start and then sighed more deeply against him. He guided her top leg over his, and then rolled back slightly opening her legs. She understood his intent and parted her legs more. Again his hand started its decent. This time he did not stop at her mons but slipped his fingers inside her. He felt her breath catch in her throat. Then he heard a hum deep in her chest against his. My god, she was purring. He smiled while continuing to kiss her.
Michael kept exploring her till she started to moan. She was so silky, so wet, his mouth watered to taste her clit on the end of his tongue. Not yet, he thought, first he wanted to feel her body catch fire against his, feel her heart rate rise, hear her pant with longing and scream with release. She reached back and ran her fingers through his hair. Her touch made him ache. Violet took his trapped hand and began nibbling and sucking on the fingers. Now, it was Michael's turn to moan.
Yes, I want him to enjoy this, Violet thought. After so many months of hoping, and now finally lying here with him. She shifted her hips slightly and gasped. "Oh, yes. There." The words were out of her mouth before she could think. He obliged, and she felt her clit harden like stone. He must have felt it, too, as he teased her. Her mind went numb to thought. There was only sensation, the flutter of kisses on her neck, the salty taste of his fingers in her mouth, a thrumming at her back, the building tension in her core. She felt it first as a tickle at the back of her brain, within seconds she was gripped with wave after wave of sensation, not only where Michael continued to touch her, stroking at that most sensitive part, but her mind also wheeled. She felt her hips crush against his hand. She bit down on his thumb in her mouth. Felt him bite gently into her shoulder. Heard herself loose a strangled cry. Then she was left panting. Michael's arms came up around her pinning her hard against his chest.
"Did I hurt you? It all happened so fast. I didn't mean to bite down on your thumb. I've missed your touch."
"Mmm, no, you didn't hurt me. Just a love bite."
"When you were touching me, I felt something against my back that had a mind of its own and a definite pulse." She was smiling wickedly now.
"Michael, I will make love to you tonight." She was grinning from ear to ear. With that, she pushed him to his back and pinned him to the bed. Her hands were splayed on his shoulders, his hips secure under hers, her thighs clasping them, she had her feet behind her tucked between his thighs.
He still didn't think it would work, but seeing her astride him looking so happy and delicious, he almost didn't care that there might be no release. She was so warm, and the weight of her felt so good. And...what was she doing with her hips? This was breathtaking. She had a beguiling smile on her face as she continued with her hip twirling. He couldn't speak, but he didn't think she expected conversation. She leaned forward now, and her hair cascaded over him. He raised his arms over his head to get lost in it. She continued the twirling motion of her hips. She teased him with her nipples just out of reach of his mouth. He did feel odd down there. She was sitting directly over him now with one hand stroking his belly. It was all so luxurious, he lay back and closed his eyes. Oh God, what was she doing? His mind reeled, and his eyes flew open. The sensation was not painful but startling after nothing for so long.
She had done her homework, which made her smile thinking about it. No one could make any promises, but with what she had read, using repeated stimulation, engaging his mind, the ED drugs, all should mean he would at least have a chance. Maybe it didn't matter. He was enjoying how she felt and looked on top of him. He was startled when she stopped and got off him. But that was nothing compared to his surprise following her gaze at his penis. Holy hell! His mind whirled.
"I believe I was correct then, Doctor." She was laughing at him while she slid her fingers up and down the still wet shaft. "Well, what do you want to do with it now?"
"I'd like you back up where you were.." he growled. "I'd like to make love to you--you my own brave, beautiful Lady Godiva."
Even in the half light she could see his eyes shining. She did as he asked. He reached his arms out and massaged her breasts pulling her down and forward so he could bathe the nipples with his tongue. She used her feet to spread his legs and then, arching her back, reached behind her and found his perineum and began stroking it. She saw his eyes roll back in his head. That was accompanied by a low throaty moan. She could feel him stiffen inside her. She loved what she was doing to him and what he was doing to her. Then suddenly her breath caught in her throat. She could feel herself tense, get tight, and then close on him again and again. Oh God, that was what was missing. He felt so good inside her. She fought to remain upright. She heard him keen, and then she collapsed on top of him. He pulled her in close, both of them panting.
She had hurt him, she knew it. This wasn't a nip on the finger. She was sure she had wounded him. Why else would he scream like that? She steeled herself to look up into his face. He looked in shock. "Oh, Michael, I love you so much. I'm sorry," she whispered.
He snapped out of his reverie. He turned them both over so that now she was pinned under him with her legs wrapped around his hips.
"Sorry! You're sorry? You've raised the dead and you're sorry?"
She was so confused. "I heard you scream, I... thought I hurt you when I..." Now she blushed. He laughed deeply, till tears formed in his eyes. Then kissed her till she was laughing too.
"Violet, I know this will sound ridiculous considering everything I have done with and to you but--damn this is embarrassing. I... I had never done that before. He looked to the side so she couldn't see his face. She reached over and turned his face to hers.
"Michael, are you saying what I think you are saying?" She was grinning from ear to ear.
"Violet, if you start laughing I swear..."
"I only laugh at you when you're being an ass, remember? No, I want to scream to the world. How long do those pills last? No, I don't care. So, all that and no ill effects, right? I mean, other than the scream, which I'll chalk up to not knowing exactly what it was all going to feel like." She was so excited she was talking a mile a minute.
Then she licked her lips.
"Darling, we have an awful lot of catching up to do. Can you stand me to touch you yet?"
"You can always touch me."
"You may regret saying that."
# Epilogue
"How are the wedding plans going, darling?"
"Aaaghhh!"
"That well." Michael started laughing.
"Oh, you have no idea. You get to just glide in and.... Are you laughing at me?"
"Never, dear. Maybe you're just feeling more emotional than usual."
"What is that supposed to mean? Why do you have that smirk on your face? Oh, has Cam agreed to be your best man?"
"Yes. You know we could just go get married at City Hall. Avoid all the bother."
"And wouldn't you be surprised if I said yes!"
"We may want to move the wedding up, dear."
"What? I don't know how I'm going to get everything done as it is."
"Well, it will be your first, so you shouldn't show too much."
"Wait. What? My first...wedding? It will be my only damn wedding, I can tell you."
"No, dear, um, in all the excitement you haven't forgotten something? Something that shows up fairly regularly, monthly to be exact."
"Michael, I am up to my ears in plans. The invasion of Normandy was less work. What are you talking about?"
"Violet, dear, you are pregnant. At least I suspect so."
"I'm what?"
"With child. My child. Hence, the ridiculous grin I can't get rid of. Um, that first night, we were rather focused on other things. We never really considered protection. I especially should have known better, but..."
"That can't be right. I got my period, didn't I? Oh! Oh, Michael!"
"Violet, is it so awful?"
"No, just a shock. I'm scared."
"I promise to be with you every step of the way. So, Violet, can we just elope? Tell a few friends, be done with the formalities. I want to spend every minute I can with my wife and child. God, in a million years I never thought I'd say that."
Violet let the papers she was holding fall to the floor. Walking over to Michael, she sat on his lap. "I want that, too. I suppose this means I am not your kitten anymore?"
"You will always be my kitten. Quite frankly, I think that when you are nine months pregnant I will still want you to walk around naked, if for no other reason than I find you breathtaking. Though for the sake of the children, things would have to get a little tamer."
"Children?"
"Oh, yes. A village to fill this huge house of yours, my Lady Godiva."
***
Writing a story with a paralyzed romance hero may seem odd but I have no doubt that they are out there. I tried to be sensitive to the actualities of what may or may not be possible for a man with that level of impairment. Every spinal injury patient is different and I drew inspiration from many factual sources. If you or a loved one has a spinal cord injury I recommend the following sites for more information.
http://www.spinalcord.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=21720
http://www.christopherreeve.org/
http://www.nationalmssociety.org
***
Making up my goals for 2014 I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do besides lose weight and get in better shape. A book marketer that I spoke with talked about marketing as being "relentlessly helpful". That phrase kept rolling around in my head, but what could I, as a fiction writer really do for my readers? Then I thought about all the small wins, the silly little things that don't get celebrated in our lives. Okay, so I had just lost some weight but still had more to lose but I wanted to celebrate but it felt silly to crow about something when it was just a piece of something bigger. That is when it hit me! I may have not made the cheer squad in high school but I could start my own now! So here is the deal, Got something you want a pat on the back for, something that you want to scream from the roof tops? I'll blast it out on my blog and facebook page. Maybe you don't need that kind of notoriety? So I can send you an encouraging email with a little digital present. You name it! You can find me at my website: www.lcgiroux.com
Other books by L.C. Giroux
Fall Into His Arms ****
More Lovers and Other Strangers Series Books
Pay Back ****
His Deception ****
Lovers and Other Strangers Boxed Set: ****
The Boston Stories (Digital Only) ****
Second Chance at Salvation ****
All In ****
Where's My Cowboy? ****
Skater's Girl ****
...And Keep Her ****
Series Short Stories:
Wild Child (only available in the Boston Boxed Set or the WG2E Summer Fling Anthology)
The Day Before the Night Before Christmas ****
Cupid Must Be Irish ****
***
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the the publisher.
This is a work of fiction, names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
His Lady Godiva
L.C. Giroux
Copyright L.C. Giroux 2011
License Statement
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people except under the lending programs authorized by some e-tailers. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the vendor of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
***
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Pathology of Haplosporidium patagon affecting siphonariid gastropods in Patagonia.
Haplosporidium patagon was found parasitizing Siphonaria lessonii and S. lateralis, 2 siphonariid gastropods co-occurring on the littoral rocky shore at Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz, Argentina. Gastropods from 2 habitats representing 2 different levels of environmental harshness were studied. In both cases, S. lessonii showed a higher prevalence of infection (3.78%) over the entire 14 mo study period than S. lateralis (0.13%). Very different values of prevalence of infection were observed at the different sampling sites: Site 1, the more restrictive habitat (exposed for long periods to desiccation during low tides, higher ultraviolet exposure, and high ranges of temperature variation) showed a higher prevalence value (5.99%) than Site 2 (1.46%). Statistical differences in prevalence were also found between values corresponding to the austral spring (3.35% at Site 1 and 0.74% at Site 2) and winter (13.79% at Site 1 and 2.13% at Site 2). The presence/absence of H. patagon did not vary significantly with gastropod shell length. Infection affected the digestive gland, whose normal histology was greatly modified. The hermaphroditic gonads were also affected; the female germinal cells disappeared or only a few primary or previtellogenic oocytes were present, and vitellogenesis was inhibited. The function of the male germinal epithelium, as well as spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis processes and associated organs (seminal vesicles and seminal receptacles), were not affected. However, the glandular pallial complex of the reproductive systemwas affected, and we observed a significant reduction in development in parasitized gastropods. H. patagon sporocysts also invaded the supporting connective tissues of both the kidney and pseudobranch.
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881 F.2d 1086
Allenv.State of Florida*
NO. 88-3503-1
United States Court of Appeals,Eleventh Circuit.
JUL 07, 1989
1
Appeal From: N.D.Fla.
2
AFFIRMED.
*
Fed.R.App.P. 34(a); 11th Cir.R. 34-3
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(CNN) It doesn't get much more "Florida" than this.
During a recent traffic stop in Loxahatchee, Florida, fish and wildlife officers found an alligator foot sticking out of the ashtray of a truck.
Officers had stopped the truck in the Corbett Wildlife Management Area -- a swampy expanse northwest of West Palm Beach -- to check the driver's day pass. Instead, they found a scene out of the horror movie "Jeepers Creepers."
Alligator parts were scattered around the cab of the truck. The driver first told officers he had hunted the gator several years ago, then confessed to killing it a few days earlier -- without a permit.
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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Trump made a characteristically fiery speech at the rally
A senior US diplomat has testified that the Trump administration threatened to withhold military aid from Ukraine unless it agreed to investigate Mr Trump's leading US presidential rival.
Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, told impeachment hearings he had a "clear understanding" aid would be withheld pending an investigation.
Mr Trump denies any abuse of power.
Public impeachment hearings will begin next Wednesday, with Mr Taylor set to be the first witness called.
Mr Taylor testified in a closed-door impeachment hearing last month, and a transcript of his evidence was released to the public on Wednesday.
He told a congressional committee that two state department officials said Mr Trump would not "sign a cheque" for nearly $400m (£311m) in US military aid until Ukrainian officials announced an investigation into Democratic presidential contender and former US Vice-President Joe Biden.
Mr Biden's son Hunter previously sat on the board of the Ukrainian oil company Burisma. President Trump has claimed without evidence that Joe Biden used his position as vice-president to quash an investigation into Burisma.
Mr Taylor stopped short of directly implicating Mr Trump.
He said that the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was behind the drive to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into the Bidens.
Asked if the president was directing these activities, he replied: "I don't know."
However, Mr Taylor said he had also been told by Gordon Sondland, the US envoy to the EU, that Mr Trump "was adamant" Ukraine's president must personally announce an investigation into Burisma.
Mr Taylor's evidence prompted Mr Sondland this week to change his own story.
Mr Sondland had initially testified there were no preconditions to the US military aid.
But following Mr Taylor's testimony he provided a letter through his lawyer to the committee saying that he now remembered telling a Ukrainian official that US aid "likely" hinged on the Ukrainians agreeing to announce the corruption investigation requested by Mr Trump.
Mr Trump denies using US aid as a bargaining chip to target a domestic political rival.
Also on Thursday, US media reported that Mr Trump had asked the attorney general, William Barr, to hold a news conference to declare that the president had broken no laws during his July call with the Ukrainian president. This phone call triggered a whistleblower's complaint against Mr Trump and the subsequent impeachment inquiry.
Mr Barr, a Trump appointee who has proven a staunch ally of the president, reportedly refused to do so. Mr Trump denied it.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who is overseeing the inquiry, told reporters on Wednesday that the evidence for presidential wrongdoing was growing.
He said: "We are getting an increasing appreciation for just what took place during the course of the last year - and the degree to which the president enlisted whole departments of government in the illicit aim to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political opponent."
Next week's Capitol Hill impeachment hearings will be broadcast live, with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers questioning witnesses.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption George Kent, Marie Yovanovitch and Bill Taylor have all testified in the ongoing impeachment inquiry
The transcript in black and white
By Jon Sopel, BBC North America editor
Seeing it in black and white lays it out very clearly. The US military aid - plus a visit to the White House for the Ukrainian president - was the prize. But there would be no prize if the Ukrainians did not announce an investigation into the Bidens.
The other thing you get from this transcript is the sense of shock that seasoned officials like Bill Taylor had, this sense that all normal rules had been suspended, that these dealings were all going through a side channel led by the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and the State Department was playing no role in it.
Then you see Taylor's utter astonishment at the idea that military aid - aid vital to the Ukrainians - was going to be withheld, out of the blue. He's on a call and suddenly he hears, "We're stopping it". The transcript of his evidence is shocking, and it sets the stage for blockbuster hearings next week.
Quick facts on impeachment
Impeachment is the first part - the charges - of a two-stage political process by which Congress can remove a president from office. If, following the hearings, the House of Representatives votes to pass articles of impeachment, the Senate is forced to hold a trial.
A Senate vote requires a two-thirds majority to convict and remove the president - unlikely in this case, given that Mr Trump's party controls the chamber.
Only two US presidents in history - Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson - have been impeached, but neither was convicted. President Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.
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Star of ‘My 600-lb Life’ dies during filming of reality show
TLC reality show ‘My 600-lb Life’ profiles the efforts of the obese to lose weight, but viewers were given heartbreaking news in this week’s episode: Robert Buchel, a New Jersey man who weighed 842 pounds at the start of the episode, did not survive filming.
The 41-year-old, who went on a strict diet for months and lost more than 200 pounds before surgery to lose more weight, died suddenly of a heart attack on Nov. 15 last year, People reports.
Buchel, who moved from New Jersey to Texas with fiancee Kathryn Lemanski for the treatment, was addicted to painkillers and he became depressed after the surgery, at one point tearing out his stitches in a bid to be given more drugs, the New York Daily News reports.
“Robert battled an addiction and lost, but he never gave up,” said his surgeon, Dr. Younan Nowzaraden.
Buchel is the first person to have died during filming for the TLC show, which is now in its sixth season.
In a Facebook post, Lemanski called the death a “robbery beyond words” saying, after a hard life, Buchel had finally started having hope for the future.
“The night before he passed, he told me, ‘If I don’t wake up tomorrow, please know that I have always loved you,'” she said.
TLC was “deeply saddened” by the death and is “grateful to his family who were gracious enough to let us continue to share his brave story with our viewers,” the network said in a statement to FOX.
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James Cole Jr.
James Cole Jr. is an American attorney who served as the acting Deputy Secretary of Education from 2016 to 2017, serving under the Obama administration.
Education
Cole received his Bachelor of Science in finance with honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as a comment editor of the University of Chicago Law School Roundtable.
Department of Education
General Counsel for Department of Education
On June 10, 2013 President Barack Obama nominated Cole as General Counsel. He was then confirmed by the Senate as the Department's general counsel in December 2014.
Acting Deputy Secretary of Education
Delegated the duties of Deputy Secretary on January 28, 2016, Cole served as the chief operating officer and chief legal officer and oversaw a broad range of operational, management, policy, legal and program functions at the Department. Cole also oversaw the Department's work on President Obama's My Brother's Keeper Task Force.
Department of Transportation
From 2011 to 2014 Cole served as the deputy general counsel of the United States Department of Transportation. In this role he advised the secretary, deputy secretary and general counsel on legal, policy and program matters relating to DOT's 10 operating administrations, including the Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Highway Administration and Federal Railroad Administration.
Legal career
From 2004 to 2011, he served on the board of directors of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. From 2005 to 2011, he also served on the board of trustees of Prep for Prep, a New York City-based youth leadership development program that identifies and prepares students of color for the rigors of independent day and boarding schools. In addition, he has mentored high school and college students since graduating from Dunbar Vocational High School, located in Chicago.
From 1996 to 2011, Cole worked at the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City, where, in 2004, he became a partner in the corporate department. He has advised a broad range of public and private companies in a variety of industries in the United States and around the world.
Prior to joining Wachtell, Lipton, Cole clerked for Judge Stephanie K. Seymour of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
References
External links
James Cole Jr. Department of Education biography
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Category:Living people
Category:United States Deputy Secretaries of Education
Category:United States Department of Transportation officials
Category:University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign alumni
Category:University of Chicago Law School alumni
Category:New York (state) lawyers
Category:Law clerks
Category:Dunbar Vocational High School alumni
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
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Q:
How do I get the differences between two string arrays in C#?
How to compare two array string using C#.net?
Eg:
string[] com1 = { "COM6", "COM7" };
string[] com2 = { "COM6", "COM7","COM8" };
Here com1 and com2 are Array string.
Result:
COM8.
How to achieve this?
A:
Sounds like you want everything in array2 except what's in array1:
var onlyInArray2 = array2.Except(array1);
Of course, if you also wanted to know what was only in array1 you could use:
var onlyInArray1 = array1.Except(array2);
(This all requires .NET 3.5 or higher, or an alternative LINQ to Objects implementation such as LINQBridge.)
I'm assuming that order isn't important when computing differences - Except is a set-based operator, so assumes that you're regarding the collections as sets.
Note that Except just returns an IEnumerable<T> - if you want the results as arrays, you'll need to call ToArray:
var onlyInArray2 = array2.Except(array1).ToArray();
var onlyInArray1 = array1.Except(array2).ToArray();
If you want the symmetric difference, i.e. you only care about which values are in a single array, rather than which array they came from, you could use:
var onlyInOneArray = array1.Union(array2).Except(array1.Intersect(array2));
or you could use HashSet directly:
var set = new HashSet<string>(array1);
// This modifies the set...
set.SymmetricExceptWith(array2);
In all of these, the resulting order is undefined, although in practice Except will preserve the original order of the first argument. While this is strictly speaking an implementation detail, I think it's very unlikely to change.
Like the other set-based operators in LINQ, Except will only return any element once - so if COM8 appeared twice in array2, it would only appear once in the result.
A:
Using the Linq Except extension:
IEnumerable<string> result = com2.Except(com1);
// result: { "COM8" }
A:
You could use IEnumerable.Except.
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Post navigation
The debate over the language of Lincoln
First off, it’s good to be back to blog with you all, as the last few weeks have been extremely hectic for me preparing for my doctoral comprehensive exams, which I am now through the written portion (cue Hallelujah Chorus). Thanks to intrepid fellow CWH blogger Walter Coffey for keeping up some interesting posts the last two months.
Now, I did find a little time to go see the Spielberg film Lincoln with my two friends and fellow reenactors Stuart Lawrence and Den Bolda. Den dressed in period civilian trappings, while I dressed as a soldier for the event (Hey, if folks can go to comic book movies, etc. dressed as the characters from those films, why not us?), which was fun, as one couple who were visiting relatives in the area, but were from Indiana took their picture with us.
My thoughts on the film are mixed. I felt that Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of Honest Abe was pretty good, aside from being a departure from the classic Hal Holbrook rendition in North and South, or Gregory Peck in The Blue and the Gray (which were good also, but not necessarily as accurate). I also enjoyed Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stephens.
I would have liked to have seen a bit more on Lincoln’s conduct of the war as Commander-in-Chief, which did not have to mean another Civil War film full of battle scenes, but just more on the course of his presidency. I thought the debate over the 13th Amendment was interesting and one of my colleagues noted that he hoped it would get people into the documents surrounding the debate on that legislation. Den and I both enjoyed the costuming, as the material culture presented in the film was quite good. Overall, I thought the film presented a real conception of Lincoln, more human as opposed to being on such a pedestal.
That said, one other area that I thought was a bit off, and has apparently became a topic of debate between historians is the foul language that appears a few times. Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose book Team of Rivals was an inspiration for the movie did not have much problem with the profanity used in the film. In contrast, James McPherson argued that Lincoln did not approve of such language and likely did not use it to the degree that was portrayed, especially the utterance of “f—” by W. N. Bilbo, one of the lobbyists for the 13th Amendment. Another who argued that Lincoln likely did not swear as much as was portrayed in the movie, but would not have had as much issue with swearing around him was University of Richmond president Edward Ayers.
Overall, I have to agree with both McPherson and Ayers on their assessment of Lincoln and colorful language. I wonder if Spielberg chose to keep such language to resonate with modern audiences, who are used to such things, and if that is so, what does it say about our society. Further, the movie would have been just as good without it, which would have allowed parents to take younger children to see the film. One wonders how many stayed away because of the language issue. It would have been interesting to see, were he still alive, what David Donald would have said about this issue.
While swearing has become increasingly pervasive in our culture, this does not mean it was so in earlier times. I think the work by Richard Bushman called The Refinement of America is particularly relevant. While focused on the eighteenth century, it also explored the nineteenth century, charting the desire of Americans to achieve elements of refined culture, which extended to personal behavior, including manners and decorum.
It is interesting that this has become a mini debate among respected scholars, but it is good, as it allows historians to interject their knowledge and insights on a given topic into the larger culture. Much like the earlier kerfuffle over how Day-Lewis vocalized Lincoln, the issue of swearing by Abe will be another in a series of appraisals on the film in the coming weeks. Such is the nature of the beast when movies based upon historical events and actors are produced. I encourage everyone to at least go and see Lincoln, but also pick up a good biography of him (I recommend Lincoln by the late David Donald).
About Daniel Sauerwein
I am a graduate student in History at the University of North Dakota pursuing my PhD in History with a minor in Geography. My primary historical interests are military history, specifically early US and the Civil War.
What’s left to say. Great flick! Everyone’s analysis is spot on. Bummer was anticipating a historically correct(or close), adaptation of Lincoln, while being entertained. Spielberg’s take on the President and the time, was just that, a great period piece of the man and the events surrounding his frustration and political trials. This film will entice others to explore the period and the man, if that’s the only benefit, so be it.
This Bummer will view “Lincoln” again, it’s just the type of film he has longed for.
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Rexdale Etagere Bookcase Mercury Row
Each dining area needs the best Rexdale Etagere Bookcase that will offer exceptional and durable services. There are various and high quality Rexdale Etagere Bookcase that can serve you better and longer though not every set is suggested. This is because some Rexdale Etagere Bookcase will not endure for long, meaning that they never last long. Due to this, it is necessary that you get the ideal Rexdale Etagere Bookcase that will serve you longer. Some of the key things you should always consider when making the order include the structure, stability, safety, and cost just to name a couple. Along with this, the Rexdale Etagere Bookcase ought to be chosen based upon the user as there are some chairs that will be appropriate for the youngsters while some are advised for the adults.
Product Desciption
Cut the clutter in your living room, office, or den with this three-tier bookcase. Showcase your favorite books or decorative pieces all in one place on the shelves of this piece. Crafted from manufactured wood in a light walnut finish, with a natural wood grain variation, and a sturdy metal frame, in a gold finish. A tip over restraint device is included with this bookcase. It measures 31.88'' H x 60'' W x 16'' D overall. Assembly is required for this contemporary piece.
List Of The Best barrister bookcases In 2019
1. Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood
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2. Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood
Does your living space display room requirements? Are you inclined to throw a sleep party in the light of the lack of space to sleep? This DHP Futon mattress could be ideal for you in this situation. This Futon mattress sofa by DHP incorporates the functionality of a sofa bed having a modern and elegant appearance. Place it in your family room to attain an extra tired mattress at night. A micro-fiber ground that took off in the middle would be a perfect combination. This unique sofa accompanies a tapestry with gleaming chrome hair and thighs. Consolidating these results together inside a comfortable well-liked style sofa. You may choose to have it in Fake Leather, Purple velvet or Linen. A component that's really worth indicating is its back again style. In light of the various seats, DHP promotes the alteration from the sofa for your comfort levels. You can gain levels for an computer animated babble, or silent moving image night.
3. Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood
Does your living space display room needs? Are you inclined to toss a slumber party in the mild of the lack of space to rest? This DHP Futon would be well suited for you in cases like this. This Futon sofa by DHP includes the performance of a couch mattress with a modern and stylish look. Put it in your living room to attain an extra sleepy mattress during the night. A microfiber floor that took off in the centre will be a perfect combination. This unique sofa comes with a tapestry with gleaming stainless hair and legs. Bringing together these results together in a comfortable popular design couch. You may choose to get it in Fake Leather-based, Purple velvet or Linen. A component that's worth specifying is its back again design. Considering the different seats, DHP promotes the alteration of the sofa to your comfort amounts. You are able to level up to have an animated babble, or quiet moving image evening.
4. Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood
This established includes a one remaining arm sofa set, two armless sofa models and one part couch set. This provides enough space to accommodate your friends and relations. The material is 100Percent rayon for sufficient durability and comfort. The advantage of this sofa set is the matching and mixing of chairs within the available space within the room for any ideal shape. And also enables fitting even in small rooms. It takes just light assembling.It also features drive soft cushions for maximum comfort and ease. You might want to try this established. It does the job nicely.
5. Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood
This set is upholstered in a push and comfortable distinctive cushioned velvet. This provides it the incredible comfort that its loved for. Again it supports chaise style seats for sufficient comfort and ease. Furthermore, the sinus spring foundation increases the durability and comfort. Additionally, the couch has hardwood structures that increase its sturdiness and durability. The couch has soft cushions on the chair and also the back. Yet still, the sofa can change from a seated position to some lying down placement easily. Having said that, just to repeat, the couch is very soft and provides outstanding comfort and ease.
6. Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood
When it comes to buying living room furniture, leather is definitely a good choice. Not only does it look great with most designs, nevertheless its very durable (it is the ideal material for a household with kids or pets) and it is extremely-easy to thoroughly clean, as well. The downside of leather Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood? It may have a higher price tag than material, micro-fiber or faux leather Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood. This reclining loveseat remains a budget-pleasant option due to 1 guru trick: its seating area is padded with leather, as the attributes are padded with more inexpensive faux leather. That means you receive the look and feel of a full leather-based loveseat without the significant price tag. Use the lever on the loveseats equip to relax and relax on its high-denseness froth filling up, and consider all the money you saved. This specific loveseat comes with an additional reward: professional assembly will come in many areas of the country for an additional charge.
7. Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood
While the back of this sofa hints at the Chesterfield, with its series of tufting, a tuxedo couch has cleaner, much more angular outlines. It is said to have been the bellwether more contemporary styles within the 20's. Although some say this couch style takes a title from Tux Park in Ny, it's also considered named after the traditional fancy men's match. You are able to identify a tux sofa by its arms that are the same peak as the back. The tufting on the back of the sofa and it is rectangle-shaped silhouette will also be classic qualities. Soft cushions add comfort for this high-armed design. Also, while the sofa over from Upcountry is upholstered in leather, this well-liked design is usually completed in textiles of all types, including the really stylish velvet.
8. Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood
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9. Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood
Does your living space display room requirements? Are you currently inclined to throw a slumber celebration in the light of the lack of space to sleep? This DHP Futon mattress would be ideal for you in this situation. This Futon couch by DHP includes the functionality of the couch bed having a modern and elegant look. Place it in your family room to achieve an additional sleepy mattress at night. A micro-fiber floor that took off in the centre would be a ideal combination. This amazing couch comes with a tapestry with shiny chrome hair and thighs. Consolidating these outcomes with each other in a comfortable popular style sofa. You can choose to get it in Fake Leather-based, Velvet or Linen. An element that's really worth indicating is its back again design. In light of the different chairs, DHP encourages the alteration of the couch to your comfort amounts. You are able to level up for an computer animated babble, or quiet moving image evening.
10. Glacier Standard Bookcase Ironwood
This group of RTA sofas comes in different upholstery textures. Some of them incorporate bonded leather, bed linen, corduroy, bed linen texture, polyester. All you need is to choose the right tapestry in importance for your well balanced requirements. Accessible materials provide an simple-to-thoroughly clean component. A characteristic that implies its versatility to resist drinks and food. The luxurious seat and back soft cushions election in favor of a reducing-advantage look. The square molded arm that starts just over them improves the magnificence. You have the comforts and soft styles that strike your entrance.
Where to Find Rexdale Etagere Bookcase
You might think you could find the exact same quality of furniture in your Big Box stores but that is not the case. Put simply, you don't find high-end clothes & apparel in JC Penny. {You'd need to go to Dolce & Gabanna or Neiman Marcus for this.
Conclusion
Rexdale Etagere Bookcase are an important component of a dining room where you can enjoy your food with comfort and household discussions. In any house party, the dining area plays an important role. It is the center of attraction Together with the quality Metal Rexdale Etagere Bookcase. Many people today start looking for relaxation and a few have the money to buy the highest quality metal Rexdale Etagere Bookcase which suit their status and add the little things to earn a festive family season is near, and we're certain that you are active in planning any event or gathering in your property.
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Survival Shelters
If you live in a part of the world that has severe winters, you should consider having 4 season tents for emergencies. A 4 season tent (also known as a winter tent), is a piece of equipment that can save your life during a severe …
Bivy Sacks, also known as bivouac sacks, are small, lightweight, waterproof, shelters that work well as emergency survival shelters. I consider bivy sacks to be an essential survival tool that everyone interested in survival needs to have in their arsenal of survival gear. They were …
When it comes to sheltering yourself in a bug out scenario few things are as lightweight or as versatile as a tarp shelter. Most tents weigh much more than a tarp and aren’t nearly as versatile as a tarp shelter. Simple plastic sheeting and 55 …
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RELATED NEWS
On 17/01/2012 Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk climbed the SE Ridge (the Compressor route) of Cerro Torre (Patagonia) via a route "by fair means" with difficulties up to 5.11 A2. In descent the two removed a significant portion of the Compressor route established by Cesare Maestri in 1970.
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[Risk factors for cholecystolithiasis in obesity and at normal weight].
Obesity is a known risk factor of cholecystolithiasis. The potential causes of increased incidence of cholecystolithiasis in people with obesity (overweight) and in those with normal body mass are considered. The study involved 100 patients with diagnosed cholecystolithiasis hospitalized in one of the randomly selected hospitals in Bialystok and its vicinity. The questionnaire technique was used to evaluate risk factors of cholecystolithiasis. It was found that women, irrespective of body mass, were 2.7 times more often hospitalized due to this ailment than men. Of the patients examined, 71% had overweight or obesity. Women with normal body mass suffered from cholecystolithiasis at the younger age than the obese or overweight ones. The comparison of risk factors of cholecystolithiasis between the obese (overweight) patients and those with normal body mass revealed a significantly more frequent familial incidence of type 2 diabetes and cholecystolithiasis. Patients with cholecystolithiasis, irrespective of body mass, were characterized by low intake of dark bread and wholemeal products, raw fruit and vegetables, and pulses. Obese women with cholecystolithiasis significantly more frequently consumed milk and yoghurt, meat and its products, lard, bacon and sweets than women with normal body mass. Obese men (with overweight) significantly more frequently consumed high-fat foods than the slim ones.
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i?
True
Let x be (-2)/((56/12 + -5)/3). Does 6 divide 4068/96 + x/(-48)?
True
Let o(a) = a + 14. Let y be o(-15). Let j(n) = 3*n**2 - 4*n - 4. Let d be j(y). Suppose -d*z = k - 137, z = -0*z. Is k a multiple of 12?
False
Let f(v) = 22*v + 9*v**2 - 4 + 17*v + 1 + 40*v**2 - 12*v. Is 45 a factor of f(-5)?
False
Let c = -5 + 10. Suppose -c*z - 367 = 623. Let g = -78 - z. Is 15 a factor of g?
True
Let h = -5730 + 6805. Does 16 divide h?
False
Suppose 12946 = 3*p + 4*h, -17189 = -172*p + 168*p + 5*h. Is p a multiple of 78?
False
Let a(b) = -3*b**2 - 25*b + 2. Let p be a(-12). Let r = 209 + p. Is 8 a factor of r?
False
Suppose 3*y + 28*n = 27*n + 42768, -71258 = -5*y + 2*n. Does 68 divide y?
False
Let o(z) be the first derivative of 3*z**2/2 - 3*z - 5. Let n be o(4). Let x = n + 9. Is 6 a factor of x?
True
Let i(v) = -1490*v + 6460. Does 14 divide i(-7)?
False
Let m = -32 - 30. Let y = m - -130. Is y a multiple of 34?
True
Let s(z) be the third derivative of -z**4/24 + 3*z**3/2 + 11*z**2. Let v be s(6). Suppose -a = v*a - 576. Is 36 a factor of a?
True
Suppose b - 2*r + 0 + 6 = 0, 0 = b + 5*r - 8. Let t be (-781)/b*1 - (-11)/(-22). Suppose 12*i - t = 7*i. Does 13 divide i?
True
Let f be 0*(-3 + 4)/1*-1. Suppose -5*b - 10 = f, 4*w - 1322 - 476 = 3*b. Does 40 divide w?
False
Let k = -10 + 13. Let i(q) = 10*q**2 - 15*q + 81. Let o be i(4). Suppose o = k*l + 34. Does 19 divide l?
False
Let k = -154 - -159. Suppose -3*o = -a + 14 + 22, 220 = 5*a - k*o. Is 6 a factor of a?
True
Is (5/(-2))/(2/4*(-2)/802) a multiple of 9?
False
Does 7 divide 9/(-5)*5*555/(-9)?
False
Suppose 16 = -356*s + 358*s, -3*s + 1444 = x. Is x a multiple of 6?
False
Let v(a) = -2*a**3 - 4*a**2 - 4*a - 3. Let w be v(-2). Suppose y - 2*y = -w. Let j(r) = 2*r**2 + r + 7. Is j(y) a multiple of 9?
False
Let i(d) = -161*d + 257. Does 36 divide i(-49)?
False
Let j(i) = i**2 - 17*i - 56. Let o be j(20). Is (-2)/o*(-1345 + -47) a multiple of 24?
True
Suppose 5*x + i + 45412 = 7*x, -x - 4*i + 22715 = 0. Suppose 7*v = -22*v + x. Is v a multiple of 29?
True
Let c = 82 - 79. Suppose 2*n = c*n - 2. Does 3 divide -13*(1/(-2))/(n/4)?
False
Let z(u) = -5*u + 12. Let a(y) = 2*y**2 - 5*y - 4. Let i be a(4). Let k be 4*5*i/(-20). Is z(k) a multiple of 8?
False
Let o = -165 + 170. Suppose 0 = l + o*l - 348. Is l a multiple of 24?
False
Suppose 5*c = -5*o + 75180, -14*o + 4*c = -15*o + 15045. Is o a multiple of 9?
False
Let c = 21995 + -11336. Is 33 a factor of c?
True
Suppose -341 = -2*c - o + 98, 4*c - o = 863. Is c a multiple of 7?
True
Suppose 103*j - 114*j = -319. Suppose -26*u = -j*u + 45. Is u a multiple of 4?
False
Suppose -8*w + 1020 = 4*k - 3*w, 3*k - 2*w = 742. Is k - ((-13 - 0) + 6) a multiple of 4?
False
Let i(c) = -c**3 - c**2 - 2*c - 1. Let f be i(0). Let m be f/(-4) - (-14)/8. Suppose -6*k + 616 = -m*k. Is 22 a factor of k?
True
Let m = -86 + 25. Let f = -57 - m. Suppose f*l - 8 = 12. Does 4 divide l?
False
Suppose 2*l + 52 = -208. Let p = l - -280. Suppose 4*u - 174 = p. Is 27 a factor of u?
True
Let u be ((-5257)/(-14) + 3)*(-1 - -3). Let c = u - -155. Does 57 divide c?
True
Suppose 2*z - 5*h = -25, -3*z - 16 = -2*z + h. Let i = z + 24. Suppose i*y - 3*y = 162. Does 9 divide y?
True
Let n(q) = -2235*q + 24. Let h be n(-2). Suppose 0 = -13*a - 8*a + h. Is a a multiple of 33?
False
Suppose -h + 11298 = -5*z, 4*z + 22572 = -6*h + 8*h. Is 40 a factor of h?
False
Let h(j) = 14*j**2 - 8*j - 6. Let y be h(6). Let p = -125 + y. Does 25 divide p?
True
Let p(w) be the second derivative of w**7/2520 + w**6/144 + w**5/5 - 5*w**4/2 + 29*w. Let j(r) be the third derivative of p(r). Does 25 divide j(-10)?
False
Suppose 2*u - 2*l - 48 = 0, -5*l = 3*u - 126 + 38. Suppose 0 = -u*k + 24*k + 868. Does 11 divide k?
False
Let k be (20/25)/(14/20125). Suppose 4*o - 2*u - k = -428, 0 = -4*u + 12. Is 14 a factor of o?
True
Suppose 2*x + 1252 = 2*l, -2*l - 5*x + 260 = -985. Does 10 divide l?
False
Let l(p) = p**2 - 13*p + 46. Let b be l(6). Suppose -b*w - w = 3*u - 1455, -3*w = 3*u - 879. Is w a multiple of 46?
False
Let x(s) = -s**2 + s + 123. Let i be x(-26). Is 1/(4/(-12)) - i a multiple of 9?
True
Let p(v) = -v**2 - 28*v + 4. Let k be p(-26). Suppose f + 35 = -k. Let b = f + 103. Does 4 divide b?
True
Let m = 42 - 39. Let b = 13 - m. Suppose -b*c + 54 = -9*c. Does 18 divide c?
True
Suppose -2*z - 428 = -6*z. Let m = -4496 + 4496. Suppose m = -6*h + 229 + z. Is h a multiple of 14?
True
Let i = 2612 + -807. Is i a multiple of 19?
True
Let m(z) = 58*z**2 - 4*z + 2. Let u be m(2). Let q = u + -223. Is q a multiple of 3?
True
Let l = 3554 + -2234. Suppose -12*n + 17*n - l = 0. Is 12 a factor of n?
True
Let c be (5/7)/(5*8/280). Suppose 2*k - 893 = -5*u, 4*k + 154 = c*u - 745. Is 6 a factor of u?
False
Suppose 0 = -10*c + 11*c - 190. Suppose y - c = -p, -3*p = 2*p + 3*y - 942. Let a = -112 + p. Does 17 divide a?
False
Let a = 1066 - 581. Suppose -651 = 4*u - 3*i, -3*u + 0*i - i - a = 0. Let z = u - -267. Does 35 divide z?
True
Let v(b) = b**3 + 2*b**2 - 3*b - 2. Let s be v(-3). Let t be (-173 - -17)*2/s. Let i = t + -58. Does 15 divide i?
False
Let o be (-4 + -59)*1/(-1). Let v = o + 494. Does 28 divide v?
False
Let b(w) = 3*w - 2. Let d be b(1). Is d*-4 - (7 - 451) a multiple of 20?
True
Suppose 68*g = -63*g + 126*g + 15810. Is g a multiple of 18?
False
Let l(n) = n + 26. Let m be l(10). Let v = 40 - m. Suppose 136 - 40 = v*f. Does 6 divide f?
True
Let t(y) = 1 + 9*y**2 - 10*y - 8*y**2 + 14. Let u be t(19). Let f = u - 18. Does 21 divide f?
True
Suppose 4248 = 6*z + 2*z. Suppose 7*d + 48 - z = 0. Is d a multiple of 7?
False
Does 64 divide 41119 + ((-5984)/(-17))/(-22)?
False
Let c = -3698 - -6533. Suppose -5*a + 285 = -c. Does 17 divide a?
False
Let g be (-6)/4 - (-39)/6. Suppose 5*r + 3*s = -94, 4*r + 2 = g*s - 51. Is (-95)/(r/15 + (-24)/(-180)) a multiple of 19?
True
Let x(p) = 7*p + 6 + 107*p**2 - 107*p**2 - p**3. Let y be x(-7). Suppose 0 = 2*o - 0*o - y. Is 10 a factor of o?
True
Let n = -3 - -10. Let s(o) be the second derivative of o**4/12 - 2*o**3/3 + 7*o**2/2 - 250*o. Does 7 divide s(n)?
True
Let f be ((-1)/((-10)/(-15)))/((-6)/64). Suppose k - f = 7. Let m = k - -154. Is m a multiple of 11?
False
Does 130 divide 10 + (-56)/4 + 10534?
True
Let c = -98 + 128. Let k be (4086/(-30))/((-9)/c). Let d = k + -296. Does 27 divide d?
False
Suppose x + 4*x = -2*r + 201, 0 = -2*r + x + 207. Let s = 184 - r. Is s a multiple of 19?
False
Let z = 9007 - 1819. Is z a multiple of 135?
False
Let r(b) = b**2 + 4*b - 54. Let q be r(6). Does 55 divide 6 + 104/6*q?
True
Let o(z) = -z**2 - 3*z + 524. Let k be o(0). Suppose -3*m + 423 - 141 = 2*w, 0 = -4*w + 4*m + k. Is 15 a factor of w?
True
Is (-86872)/(-12) - 29/87 a multiple of 13?
False
Let d(f) = 3502*f**2 + 8*f + 9. Let v be d(-1). Let h = -2447 + v. Is 48 a factor of h?
True
Let p(v) = v**2 - v - 5. Let f be p(5). Let k = -929 - -947. Is (k/f)/(3/55) a multiple of 4?
False
Does 32 divide 320/(-56) + 6 - (0 - 66354/21)?
False
Suppose 5*d - 2216 = -3*q, 3431 - 1955 = 2*q + 2*d. Is 5 a factor of q?
False
Let n = 79 + -79. Suppose 5*m = 4*v - 134, n*v = -4*v - 2*m + 120. Suppose 2*u - v = -7. Is 3 a factor of u?
True
Let i = -2563 + 3448. Is 5 a factor of i?
True
Suppose 2*u = 65 + 161. Is 19 a factor of 4 + 1 + -4 + u?
True
Let g(q) = 73*q**2 - 6*q + 7. Let m be g(-5). Suppose 15*w - 5713 = m. Does 22 divide w?
False
Let u(q) = -q + 9 + 0*q + 0*q. Let b be u(8). Is (33 - (4 - 8))*b a multiple of 8?
False
Suppose -3*v = 27*v - 4830. Is v a multiple of 13?
False
Suppose -4*p = 2*h - 26288, 171*p - 168*p + h - 19714 = 0. Is 66 a factor of p?
False
Suppose 1 = 3*j + 7. Does 52 divide 4 - (1 + j + -255)?
True
Let u = 261 - 243. Suppose 0 = -5*r + u + 137. Is 31 a factor of r?
True
Let v = 27305 + -25471. Is 8 a factor of v?
False
Let k(b) = 0 + 1 + 18*b + 26*b + 5*b**2 - 40*b. Let w be k(-2). Suppose w = 4*j - 99. Is 2 a factor of j?
True
Let q(v) be the second derivative of -v**5/20 + v**4/2 + v**3/3 - 9*v**2/2 + 10*v. Let g be q(6). Suppose -g*l + 7*l + 2*u = 26, -25 = 5*u. Is 3 a factor of l?
True
Suppose 2*g - 4*h = 17600, -5*g - 759*h + 43952 = -763*h. Is 16 a factor of g?
True
Let q(p) be the third derivative of -p**4/2 - 43*p**3/6 - 108*p**2. Does 7 divide q(-10)?
T
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Q:
Rails 3: What associations should I use to create model relationships
I am creating an app for uploading and sharing files between users.
I have User and Files models and have created a third File_Sharing_Relationships model which contains a sharer_id, file_id and shared_with_id columns. I want to be able to create the following methods:
@upload.file_sharing_relationships - lists users that the file is shared with
@user.files_shared_with - lists files that are shared with the user.
@user.files_shared - lists files that the user is sharing with others
@user.share_file_with - creates a sharing relationship
Are there any rails associations, such as 'polymorphic' that I could be using to make these relationships?
Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks.
A:
All you need to do is to read Rails Guides and apply all what you learn.
Basically you need to store info about:
user who created a "sharing"
user or group or whatever is a target of a sharing action
resource that is being shared
So:
class SharedItem < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :sharable, :polymorphic => true #this is user, please think of better name than "sharable"...
belongs_to :resource, :polymorphic => true #can be your file
belongs_to :user
end
You need SharedItem to have:
user_id: integer, sharable_id: integer, sharable_type: string, resource_id: integer, resource_type: string
Then you can get "methods" you specified by writing named scopes like:
named_scope :for_user, lambda {|user| {:conditions => {:user_id => user.id} }}
or by specifying proper associations:
class File < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :shared_items, :as => :resource, :dependent => :destroy
end
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Hostel Loki Salta
Book Hostel Loki Salta
Loki has landed in Argentina and we are proud to present our beautiful new backpackers sanctuary in the heart of the countryside. The Loki Experience Staying at Loki is about the unique, fun experience youll have meeting other travellers from all over the globe, having a place to relax and socialize, and having a family for the time youre with us. The Loki Hostel Loki hostels are comfortable. Set up in unique buildings with all the features you are looking for. Youll find large common areas to chill out, happening social bars, inhouse restaurant and a wide drink selection, friendly staff and a great atmosphere. With large comfy beds and duvets and super powerful hot showers, free wifi, TV area, sporting events, giant swimming pool, tennis court, hammocks and bonfires we hope to cater for your every need. We will do our best to make sure that your stomachs are filled with the finest steak that Argentina is famous for, along with plenty of locally produced wine. Dont take our word for it. Come and see for yourself! Us A family of backpackers, working with our local neighbors, dedicated to making Loki the best Hostel you have ever stayed in. We are onsite to help you with any issues and to enjoy the great atmosphere together
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Richardson and New Democrats Unveil Infrastructure and Manufacturing Agenda
This week, Congresswoman Laura Richardson (CA-37) and members of the New Democrat Coalition met with Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, to collaborate on ideas for creating private sector jobs and helping American businesses and workers compete in the global marketplace. During the meeting with Immelt, the New Democrats unveiled an agenda to foster economic growth and job creation based on policies that strengthen American manufacturing and improve U.S. infrastructure.
“Investing in our infrastructure is critical to creating jobs and growing our economy,” said Rep. Laura Richardson, New Dem Critical Infrastructure and Manufacturing Task Force Co-Chair. “Many of our nation’s transit and transportation systems are in urgent need of repair and improving them will provide immediate and much needed relief to the people who travel and live along some of our most heavily congested corridors.”
Under the leadership of the New Democrat Coalition Critical Infrastructure and Manufacturing Task Force, led by Representatives Jason Altmire (PA-4), Rick Larsen (WA-2) and Laura Richardson (CA-37), the New Democrats are committed to enacting policies that boost American manufacturing and help businesses more efficiently move goods and services in the U.S. and to customers abroad.
“I believe that a freight mobility strategy focused on creating a more efficient goods movement system is especially important and has the greatest potential to aid small and medium sized businesses expand their reach and compete in the global marketplace,” Richardson further added.
“We need to make sure our small and medium sized manufacturers have the tools and resources they need to grow and hire more workers,” said Rep. Rick Larsen, New Dem Vice-Chair and Critical Infrastructure and Manufacturing Task Force Co-Chair. “Investing in U.S. infrastructure and growing our manufacturing base is going to create good, private sector jobs and help maintain U.S. economic leadership in the world.”
“We want our nation to have the infrastructure that it needs to successfully compete in the global economy,” Rep. Jason Altmire, New Dem Critical Infrastructure and Manufacturing Task Force Co-Chair said. “By rebuilding our nation’s roads and bridges and by putting in place policies that will help generate new opportunities for American manufacturers, we can create jobs and pave the way for long-term economic growth.”
Endorsed by the 43 Member Coalition, the New Dem principles include proposals to leverage public funds with private dollars for ground transportation projects; create a tax climate that helps U.S. manufacturers compete in the global marketplace; and, provide assistance for small- and medium-sized manufacturers to expand their exports. These principles will guide the work of the New Democrat Coalition on transportation and manufacturing issues during the 112th Congress.
As New Democrats, we are committed to a strategy that strengthens, modernizes, protects, and maintains U.S. national infrastructure on the ground, in the sky, on the water, and in our cyber networks. In order to remain competitive in the global economy, improving domestic infrastructure is a sound strategy to promote growth and efficiency, support increased manufacturing, feed the American market and serve as an export platform for U.S. manufactured goods around the world. The following principles will serve as a foundation for a strategic direction for the Coalition on critical infrastructure and manufacturing.
Building the infrastructure needed to help manufacturers in the U.S. efficiently move people, products, and ideas.
Today, our infrastructure continues to decline with 37% of our roads in poor or fair condition and 25% of our bridges structurally deficient. Congestion costs U.S. employers, businesses and manufacturers $78 billion a year, with accidents and delays costing Americans more than $1,200 for each man, woman and child. Our aviation system continues to use outdated technology, slowed by an uncertain future and 18 short-term extensions of the FAA reauthorization bill, with deferred repairs and flight delays costing an additional $33 billion per year.
We must repair, restore and protect our nation’s infrastructure backbone, which is essential to our global economic competitiveness and the future security of our country.
Surface Transportation
Expand innovative initiatives to extend the reach of the taxpayer’s dollar and leverage private funds as part of a comprehensive infrastructure strategy, including:
A national infrastructure bank
Capital budgeting
Private investment bonding
Loan guarantees
Build America Bonds
Environmental permit streamlining
Complete the long-overdue reauthorization of surface transportation programs to bring our infrastructure to a state of good repair and ensure our long-term competitiveness.
Aviation
Complete the long-overdue FAA reauthorization to invest in and accelerate the development of a satellite-based Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) to increase the safety, efficiency and reliability of our air transport system.
Reauthorize FAA to enhance our aviation system and allow airports the flexibility to collect the revenue necessary to improve our facilities, which will increase the efficiency of our air transportation system, reduce delays, and improve safety.
Rail
Implement true world class high-speed rail in the United States while maintaining our commitment to traditional passenger rail service.
Goods Movement
Modernize our nation’s ports to help businesses, small and large, sell their goods to customers at home and abroad through mechanisms such as the reauthorization of the Water Resources Development Act and reforming the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.
Keep our rivers and seaports open for business by reallocating idle resources in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund towards dredging our nation’s ship navigation channels to provide an economically and environmentally efficient means for businesses to transport goods.
Create and fund a national freight transportation program and national freight mobility strategy that partners with states and territories, metropolitan areas, and the private sector to advance highway, rail and port projects that eliminate chokepoints and increase efficiency for both export, import, and domestic shipping.
Energy
Modernize our nation’s power system through research grants and incentives to develop a smarter and more reliable power grid.
As we look for opportunities to boost private-sector led growth, there are significant ways we can expand and support our manufacturing industries. American manufacturers make or process materials into finished products, often by means of a large-scale industrial operation, making them a leading employer in the U.S. Manufacturing supports an estimated 18.6 million jobs in the U.S.-about one in six private sector jobs. The United States is the world’s largest manufacturing economy, producing 21% of global manufactured products.
Supporting existing manufacturing:
Create a national tax climate that ensures the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers in a global economy.
Recognize intellectual property (IP) as one of America’s competitive strengths that must be defended at all levels.
Attract and retain the best talent from here in the U.S. and around the world.
Adding new manufacturing:
Encourage the federal government’s continued critical role in basic research and development (R&D).
Reform our educational system to prepare U.S. students to compete and win 21st century jobs, including through enhanced science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), career and technical education.
Serving as an export market platform of manufactured goods for the world:
Reform U.S. export controls policy while remaining consistent with national security concerns.
Assist and energize exporting by small and medium-sized manufacturers through expanded export promotion programs as well as export credit assistance for both small and large firms.
As New Democrats we believe enactment of the above policies will help the United States dramatically improve our infrastructure, enhance the manufacturing sector, and grow our economy.
The New Democrat Coalition Critical Infrastructure and Manufacturing Task Force is led by co-chairs Representative Jason Altmire (PA-4), Representative Rick Larsen (WA-2) and Representative Laura Richardson (CA-37). These principles have been endorsed by the full New Democrat Coalition.
The New Democrat Coalition is a Coalition of 42 members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are dedicated to the prosperity and security of American families and business. Founded in 1997, the NDC provides Members of Congress with the opportunity to advance a common sense policy agenda focused on empowering the U.S. to grow economically and maintain a vibrant job market, preserving the U.S. standing as the world’s leader in innovation and technological advancement, and strengthening our economic and national security. For more information, visit the New Dems website at http://ndc.crowley.house.gov.
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w - 28. Calculate the lowest common multiple of 10 and w.
90
Let m(n) = n**2 + 13*n + 12. Let p be m(-13). What is the least common multiple of 4 + -1 + p/2 and 7?
63
Let s(u) = -2*u + 8. What is the smallest common multiple of s(-7) and 0 + (-2)/(-2) + 7?
88
Suppose j + 8*a - 14 = 3*a, 2*a + 12 = 4*j. Suppose -j*d = -4*g - 30 - 6, 3*g - 2*d = -28. What is the common denominator of (-5)/(-10) + 27/g and 11/10?
10
Let n(l) = -l + 9. Let s be n(6). Calculate the common denominator of 33/2 and 3 + s/(-36)*298.
6
Let y be (1/1)/(2/(-32)). Find the common denominator of ((-1)/y)/((-2)/276) and 81/(-14) - (-5 + 3).
56
Let p = -6744938/719 - -9381. Let v = p + 29475/2876. Calculate the common denominator of v and 21/22.
44
Let k be ((-40)/(-15))/((-4)/(-6)). Suppose -q = -k*q + 6. What is the common denominator of 69/4 and 6/q + (-342)/48?
8
Suppose 2*o - 103 = -3*b - 39, -106 = -5*b - 3*o. Calculate the lowest common multiple of 4 and b.
20
Calculate the common denominator of -43/3 and 49*-1*(-9)/27.
3
Let k = -10187 + 183445/18. What is the common denominator of k and 41/3?
18
Let i = 1 - 7. What is the common denominator of (-3 + (-111)/i)*-3 and -19/5?
10
Let j be (-4)/(-24) + 345594/(-99). Let c = j - -3489. Let s = 30799/3216 - -7/1072. Find the common denominator of s and c.
132
Let k be ((-3)/(-2))/((-9)/(-24)). Suppose k = -5*t + 29. What is the lowest common multiple of t and 11?
55
Find the common denominator of 634/(-60) + (-19)/57 and -14.
10
Suppose 6*p + 5*v + 49 = 9*p, v = -4*p + 73. Calculate the least common multiple of p and 2.
18
Let y = 38549820/743 + -51884. Let s = -38548/8173 - y. Calculate the common denominator of 332/30*(-10)/8 and s.
66
Suppose -4*o = -7*o + 48. Let s(y) = y**2. Let z(g) = 2*g**3 - 5*g**2 + g - 2. Let c(t) = -6*s(t) - z(t). Calculate the smallest common multiple of o and c(-2).
16
What is the common denominator of 91/24 and (4/(-12))/(5/91)?
120
Let w = 4447/282 + -44/47. What is the common denominator of w and 79/2?
6
Suppose 2*p + 1 = 7, 0 = 2*w - 2*p + 2. Let o = 15 - w. Let q = o + -7. What is the lowest common multiple of q and 20?
60
Suppose 7*z - 3*z = 0. Suppose 4*v - 3*v - 22 = z. What is the smallest common multiple of v and 12?
132
Let s(f) = -f**2 - 11*f - 13. Let u be s(-9). Suppose -1 + u = c. Let p = c - -2. Calculate the smallest common multiple of 2 and p.
6
Let b(q) = -q**3 + 13*q**2 - 12*q - 7. Let n be b(12). Let d = -12 + 4. Let t = n - d. Calculate the least common multiple of t and 7.
7
Let o = 20 + -10. What is the lowest common multiple of o and 11?
110
Let g = -216859/186 + 107/186. Let p = g - -1189. Calculate the common denominator of p and 6/(-9) + 122/(-42).
21
Let c(b) = b**2 + 9*b + 20. Calculate the lowest common multiple of ((-6)/(-4))/(3/4) and c(-8).
12
Let x = 58/9 + -277/36. Calculate the common denominator of 1/18 and x.
36
Let l = -30931/12 + 2581. Let w = 4392 - 43807/10. What is the common denominator of w and l?
60
Suppose -2*t + 68 = 4*u + 2*t, -3*t - 9 = 0. Calculate the smallest common multiple of u and 4.
20
Suppose 0 = -a + 2*a + 2. Calculate the lowest common multiple of a/(-10) - (-69)/5 and 20.
140
Suppose r - i + 61 = 0, 7*i - 2*i + 223 = -3*r. Calculate the common denominator of 101/14 and r/(-8)*70/(-63).
42
Suppose -116 = -11*q + 60. What is the least common multiple of 4 and q?
16
Let g = 10 + -6. Suppose -18 = -2*s + 2*q, -2*s + 23 = -0*q - q. Let r = s + -7. Calculate the least common multiple of r and g.
28
Let w = 3 + -4. Let h(k) = -3*k + 4. Let t(b) = -b + 1. Let u(y) = w*h(y) + 4*t(y). Calculate the smallest common multiple of 1 and u(-8).
8
Suppose -4*s = 0, 5*s = -2*x + 4*s - 2. What is the smallest common multiple of 1 - 0 - (1 + x) and 11?
11
Suppose -2*b = -5*b + 24. Let u = b - 5. Suppose 5*c - u*h - 3 = 0, 1 = -3*c + 4*h - 6. Calculate the lowest common multiple of c and 11.
33
Let d(t) = -t**2 + 5*t + 3. Let q be d(5). Suppose -q*k = -k - 16. What is the common denominator of 2/k - (-985)/(-220) and -43/14?
154
Suppose -7*l = -4*l - 24. Let z = -2 + 10. Suppose i = -0*i + z. What is the least common multiple of i and l?
8
Let p = -24 - -39. Find the common denominator of -1/10 and (p/36)/((-1)/9).
20
Let a = -671/5 - -133. Let d = 5727 - 45741/8. Calculate the common denominator of a and d.
40
Let j = 653/90 - -4/9. Let y be (-33532)/(-3612) + -3 + 1. Let c = y + 2/903. What is the common denominator of j and c?
70
Let o = -2779235/18 + 154273. Let z = 137 + o. Let r = 10/2367 - 109711/9468. Calculate the common denominator of r and z.
36
Let q(b) = -b**3 - 5*b**2 + 4*b + 6. Suppose -4*g = -69 - 11. What is the smallest common multiple of q(-6) and g?
180
Suppose 3*p + 6 = f - 4, -26 = -5*f + 3*p. Suppose -5*q + 5*r + 24 = r, 20 = f*q - 3*r. Calculate the lowest common multiple of (-1)/((-2)/q) - 0 and 16.
16
Let x = 14 + -10. Let l(c) = 4*c - 1. Calculate the smallest common multiple of l(2) and x.
28
Let y(u) = -5 + 0 + 3 + 4 - 6*u - u**2. Suppose -2*v = n - 13, -2*n - 4*v = 2*n - 48. What is the smallest common multiple of n and y(-5)?
77
Suppose -c - 1 = 2*v, 6*c = 2*v + 3*c - 19. Suppose 22 = 4*f + v. What is the smallest common multiple of 3 and f?
15
Let j = -30 + 34. Calculate the lowest common multiple of 7 and j.
28
What is the common denominator of 0 + (-99)/60 + -3 and 95/4?
20
Let s be (-26)/(-8) - 12/(-16). Let p = 12 - s. What is the least common multiple of p and 1?
8
Let z be ((-3)/2)/(12/(-8)). Let j = 1471 - 26425/18. What is the common denominator of (-37)/8 - 0/z and j?
72
Let u = 109399/34905 + -2/2327. What is the common denominator of u and 35/36?
180
Calculate the common denominator of (-15)/(-9)*3 - 6/8 and 57/22.
44
Let q = 4 - 4. Suppose 0 = v - 1, -6*w + 2*w + 2*v + 70 = q. Calculate the lowest common multiple of (24/(-5))/(45/(-150)) and w.
144
Calculate the common denominator of ((12/(-135))/4)/((-1)/(-74)) and -13/24.
360
Suppose 4*f = 57 + 15. What is the smallest common multiple of f and 2?
18
Let l(x) = -x**2 + 9*x + 22. Let q(d) = -d**3 - d**2 + 4*d. What is the lowest common multiple of l(10) and q(-3)?
12
Calculate the common denominator of 107/40 and ((-177)/24 - 4)*2.
40
Suppose 0 = -6*c + 3*c + 30. What is the common denominator of c/2*(-12)/165 and -11/8?
88
Find the common denominator of 18/27 + 61/(-60) and 59/16.
80
Let b(d) = -d**2 - 4*d + 4. Let x(c) = c**2 - 4*c - 3. Let k be x(4). Calculate the smallest common multiple of b(k) and 3.
21
Let m = -27/145 - 9499/1160. What is the common denominator of ((-56)/(-108))/((-4)/6) and m?
72
Suppose z = -2*l + 8 - 3, -3*l = 4*z. What is the common denominator of (-218)/z*18/(-264) and -93/2?
22
Let o = 1068319/890 + -1447/89. Let k = o - 1180. What is the common denominator of k and 97/2?
10
Let p = 36360499/8 + -4537306. Suppose -v = 2*d + 7740, -2*v - 4*d - d - 15477 = 0. Let r = p + v. What is the common denominator of r and 53/11?
88
Suppose -i + 2247 = 5*z, -z + i - 6*i + 435 = 0. Find the common denominator of -55/8 and 0 + (-9)/(z/52).
200
Suppose -5*j + 266 = v, 2*v - 4*j = j + 607. Suppose p - 87 = v. Calculate the common denominator of -89/22 and 4/(-14) - (-843)/p.
198
Let p = -10 - -12. Calculate the least common multiple of 10 and p.
10
Let w = -38/37 + 46/333. Find the common denominator of -28/5 and w.
45
Suppose -22 = 3*y + 2*c - 7*c, -4*y - 5*c = -29. Suppose -3*n + 2 = 4*i + y, -2*i = -4*n - 28. Calculate the least common multiple of 10 and i.
20
Let u(g) = -g**2 - 5*g + 13. What is the least common multiple of u(-6) and 2?
14
Let z(f) = -5*f + 4*f + 4*f. Let q be z(-4). Calculate the common denominator of q/(-14)*(-133)/(-4) and -34/11.
22
Let g = 5027/2 - 2564. Find the common denominator of (103/8)/((-6)/(-8)) and g.
6
Let w(j) = 44*j. Let b be w(5). Suppose 9*i = -5*v + 4*i - b, -5*v - i = 204. What is the common denominator of v/(-9) - (1 - -2) and -3?
9
Suppose 24 = -n + 5*n. Calculate the smallest common multiple of 6 and n.
6
Suppose -4*s = -8 - 0. Suppose -t + s = -2*t. Let m = t - -6. What is the least common multiple of m and 8?
8
Suppose l + 12 = h, -2*h = -5*l + 20 - 74. Find the common denominator of (-15)/l + 58/9 and 85/6.
18
Let k be (-15)/2*(-192)/(-18). Let b = k - -153/2. Let f = 383/8 - 45. Calculate the
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1. Technical Field
This invention relates to book and copy holders used for positioning materials so that they can be viewed by a user while performing other tasks. A book holder generally supports a book on an incline flat surface with a holding means.
2. Description of Prior Art
Book and copy holders of this type have relied on a variety of useful constructions for supporting a book or papers in an upstanding position so that it can be easily read without holding same. Typically, a user would use both hands to support a book in an angled upright open position. This precludes or makes difficult for the user the use of their hands for writing or other like tasks. Alternately, books, if hardback for example, can be propped up by leaning on some article and other non-rigid publication require more support such a workbooks used by teachers and students that are difficult to hold open and upright required for use. A number of different book and page holders have accordingly been developed to solve this problem.
Prior art holders of this type have a support frame or surface with attachment straps, hooks or clamps to hold the book on the stand and open or a single page to be copied, for instance. Examples of such devices can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,899,404, 2,156,225, 2,441,932, 4,416,414, 4,712,760 and 5,052,650.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,899,404 a book holder and table can be seen having a book support platform pivotally secured to an adjustable frame stand with a center engagement clip and a pair of adjustable leaf retainers.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,156,225 is directed to a reading stand having a wire support construction, a book engagement plate and multiple pivoted spring clips to hold the book open positioned within.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,441,932 shows an easel type support having a pair of criss-cross collapsible X-shaped support frame elements pivotally secured together with a resistance chain therebetween on an easel support. Page clips are removably secured to a central cross frame member.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,414, a book holder can be seen having a support sheet with a pivot stand leg. A pair of clothes pins are resiliently secured to the support sheet engageable on a book position thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,760 discloses a back rest with a page retainer having a tapered base with an insertable upstanding wall extending therefrom. Page retaining clips are adjustably positioned from the back for engagement thereover.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,650 illustrates a copy holder having an upright flat surface supported by an adjustable stand with a line guide extending inwardly across the engagement surface from one side.
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A Prunedale, Calif., man says vandals toppled 100 beehives and killed hundreds of thousands of bees after dousing them with diesel fuel.
Mike Hickenbottom told KSBW-TV that the Italian and Russian honeybees on his property were attacked Saturday.
Hickenbottom says the bees are stored on his property during the winter, and beekeeper Alfonzo Perez leases the hives to pollinate almond trees on farms across the state.
Hickenbottom says neighbors have complained about the bees in the past, but the bees are not aggressive. An estimated 200,000 bees died.
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is investigating, and authorities said no arrests had been made.
Prunedale is about 100 miles south of San Francisco.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a tool, which may assume a hammer-like shape, primarily structured to size and/or shape an object, such as a jewelry object, being mounted on a mandrel. The tool includes a head having a base and a striking member and an alignment member connected to the base in cooperative relation to one another so as to concurrently and movably engage the mandrel, during a striking procedure, in a manner which disposes a striking surface of the striking member in a predetermined operative orientation relative to the object being struck, at least during the striking procedure.
2. Description of the Related Art
As commonly designed and structured, finger rings normally include a closed, fixed configuration made available to the consuming public in commonly accepted and/or standard sizes corresponding to the size of the average adult and/or child finger. However, in many circumstances it is desirable to increase the size of the ring.
Finger rings usually have a constant thickness shank portion, wherein the size of the ring may be determined by placing it on a rigid material mandrel. As is well-recognized in the jewelry profession, sizing mandrels have a generally elongated configuration with a tapered, converging exterior surface configuration extending from an inner, proximal end to an outer or distal end. Mounting on the ring over the mandrel allows it to easily pass down the length thereof until it becomes obstructed by the interior portions of the ring engaging the exterior surfaces of the mandrel corresponding to the size of the ring.
For many reasons and under various circumstances, finger rings are frequently expanded or enlarged such that they may be comfortably fitted onto a finger which is at least somewhat larger than that originally intended for the ring when manufactured. Rings are commonly expanded using a similar type mandrel as set forth above. More specifically, using a generally cooperatively configured mandrel, rings may be expanded by placing them on the mandrel and forcing the rings down along the length thereof onto a portion thereof having a greater transverse dimension. In accomplishing such enlargement, a shaping tool is used to apply pressure to the upper or outer peripheral portions of the ring. The pressure applied by the tool should be sufficient to force the ring down to the larger portions of the mandrel. However, the force applied to the ring should not be such as to cause exterior surface markings or other structural damage to the ring during the enlargement process.
Similarly, there are a number of jewelry items or objects, such as, but not limited to, bracelets, earrings, etc. which also are structured to initially have a closed, fixed and/or continuous peripheral configuration. It is also known that such additional jewelry items or objects may be enlarged or expanded in a similar or substantially equivalent manner, using an appropriately configured mandrel, as set forth above.
Therefore, common to the practice of enlarging finger rings, bracelets, and a variety of other jewelry objects is the mounting thereof on a mandrel having an exterior surface which substantially conforms to the interior peripheral configuration of the jewelry object being shaped. By way of example only, the typical finger ring sizing mandrel, of the type set forth above, may have a continuous, circular, exterior surface configuration extending along at least a majority of the length thereof. In contrast, bracelets and other jewelry items may have interior peripheral configurations which are oval, multi-sided or other known and commonly available configurations. As such, the exterior surface of the mandrel used to size and/or shape a given jewelry item must substantially correspond to the interior peripheral configuration of the object being processed.
Absent a matching of the configurations of the mandrel and the jewelry item, a distortion of the jewelry item may easily occur when the force is applied to exposed portions of the jewelry item being processed. Accordingly, the application of a pressure or force to exposed portions of the ring, bracelet or other jewelry item being sized is important. In addition to the amount of force applied to the jewelry object, the orientation of the striking surface of a shaping tool relative to the portion of the jewelry object being struck is also important.
Therefore, there is a need in the jewelry arts for a striking or shaping tool, which includes structural and operative features enabling the effective determination of a predetermined operative orientation of the striking surface of the tool, with the jewelry object being sized. The establishment of a correct or predetermined “operative orientation” facilitates the elimination or of deformation or other type damage being done to the jewelry item being struck. In light of the above, a proposed striking or sizing tool intended to overcome the disadvantages of the type set forth above should include structural features, on at least the head of the tool, which automatically accomplishes the establishment of a preferred operative orientation of the striking tool or striking surface of the tool head relative to the mandrel mounted object being shaped.
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Q:
Starting an activity from a view in android?
Is there a way to start an activity from a view? I have this nice view that renders these menu buttons and when they click a particular button (Trapped in an onTouch event) I want to start the "clicked" activity.
It seems that there from my view startActivity method is uncallable. So that leads me to believe that there is no way to do this, in which case I guess I am asking, what do I do here when I want this menu to have a view that animates drawables and can get touches to know what "button" was pressed to know what activity to start?
I have been searching and nothing seems to fit what I am looking for. I suspect since I cannot find it that it probably breaks convention in some way and in which case, what is the proper way to do this?
I have another Activity that starts this cool scrolling tile map view. When the user clicks on a specific tile I would like to load up an entirely different view (maybe even activity not sure which I need) based on the tileID clicked. This new View or activity would show all the items in the cell that was clicked (imagine the map with cells , each cell has stuff in it. When the user clicks on the cell then a new view happens that shows all this stuff as cool drawables, like it "zoomed in" on the cell).
I would think I need the same thing, when the user is inside my scrolling map view and they push down then up I get what cell they clicked on and use that to initialize the activity that will launch showing the zoomed in state of things (via drawables using a new kind of view i suspect)
A:
Is there a way to start an activity
from a view?
Arguably, the View should tell the Activity that hosts it to start an activity, via a registered callback method. I am not a fan of the code organization you have described here (but, admittedly, based solely on the description).
However, if you really want to have the View start the activity, have the View call getContext().startActivity().
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Fractures of the proximal femur: correlation with vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism.
Fractures are the feared consequences of osteoporosis and fractures of the proximal femur (FPF) are those that involve the highest morbidity and mortality. Thus far, evaluation of bone mineral density (BMD) is the best way to determine the risk of fracture. Genetic inheritance, in turn, is one of the major determinants of BMD. A correlation between different genotypes of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and BMD has been recently reported. On this basis, we decided to determine the importance of the determination of VDR genotype in the presence of an osteoporotic FPF in a Brazilian population. We studied three groups: group I consisted of 73 elderly subjects older than 65 years (78.5 +/- 7.2 years) hospitalized for nonpathological FPF; group II consisted of 50 individuals older than 65 years (72.9 +/- 5.2 years) without FPF and group III consisted of 98 young normal Brazilian individuals aged 32.6 +/- 6.6 years (mean +/- SD). Analysis of VDR gene polymorphism by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was performed by PCR amplification followed by BsmI digestion of DNA isolated from peripheral leukocytes. The genotype distribution in group I was 20.5% BB, 42.5% Bb and 37% bb and did not differ significantly from the values obtained for group II (16% BB, 36% Bb and 48% bb) or for group III (10.2% BB, 47.6% Bb and 41.8% bb). No differences in genotype distribution were observed between sexes or between the young and elderly groups. We conclude that determination of VDR polymorphism is of no practical use for the prediction of FPF. Other nongenetic factors probably start to affect bone mass, the risk to fall and consequently the occurrence of osteoporotic fractures with advancing age.
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EQUIPMENT
Titleist - NXT
NXT
- TitleistThe new Titleist NXT offers Solid core and Fusablend cover technologies. Improved by reformulating the 1.550'' core to provide more speed and lower spin at a softer compression. Reformulated cover also increases the ball speed and reduces driver spin. Maintains its short game spin and control.
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The Associated Press Japanese Stocks Decline on Lackluster Data| TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese stocks dipped Tuesday, after lackluster unemployment figures undercut the benchmark index's advance to its highest level since October 2000. The dollar was higher against the ... (photo: WorldPhotos.com)
BBC News Advani BJP role-switch confirmedIndia's opposition leader, LK Advani, will formally step down as president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, party officials say. | However, Mr Advani will remain as the country's oppos... (photo: WN)
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by Doru Costache
For contemporary Orthodox theology, irrespective of the terms used throughout the centuries, ecclesial anthropology focuses on the mystery of personhood. This amounts to saying that Orthodox anthropology, with its markedly spiritual and/or ascetic dimension, is person-centered and not nature-centered. Building on the distinction without division between person and nature, this focus shows a certain preference in the representation of an otherwise complex reality. The sphere of personhood is likewise prominent in the Orthodox representation of the Holy Trinity and Christ. Personhood theology is therefore at the heart of contemporary Orthodox theology. In all three cases, traditional ideas and concepts are currently given personalist, existential, and phenomenological connotations. In so doing, personhood theology does more than to undertake a work of conceptual translation; it circumscribes the mysteries of the faith from viewpoints specific to the Orthodox experience in contemporary world. Given recent commotions about these developments, a question must be asked: cui bono? For what purpose?
In order to answer this question, I propose that behind personhood theology there are discernible two perennial factors of the ecclesial tradition. First, it is the natural dynamic of theological reflection, which, ever led by the Spirit towards the fullness of the truth, moves asymptotically upwards and downwards along the endless spiral of the faith’s mysteries. Personhood theology fits this schema perfectly. Second, it is the missionary and pastoral imperative, which requires that ecclesial theology addresses contemporary issues in the spirit of tradition—for the life of the world—and not merely repeat old sentences. Personhood theology is an excellent way of conveying the ecclesial wisdom to contemporary audiences. In what follows, first I expand on the two imperatives and then I turn to the ecclesial bonum (good) of the Orthodox personhood theology.
Whilst claiming faithfulness to patristic terminology, the deniers of personhood theology reject the mandate of contemporary theologians to convey the ecclesial wisdom to the audiences of today. Since the saints of old have worked towards the salvation of the world, not a terminology, this denial betrays a disturbing lack of historical information, traditional mind, missionary vision, and pastoral sensitivity. Personhood theology treads the path of tradition by adopting ideas and terms pertaining to our own cultural context in order to promote the ecclesial message. This precisely was the approach of the saintly theologians of old when they have adopted from their contemporary culture the central terms of personhood—namely, hypostasis, signifying the person in its ontological aspect, nous, signifying the rational and contemplative parameters of the person, and prosopon, signifying the person in its relational dimension. Demanded by the Church’s adherence to Scripture, liturgy, and prayer, these classical terms have become, through successive refinements, signposts of a new understanding of the divine and human realities. They have become, furthermore, building blocks of a theological vision able to articulate the culminating experience of the divine-human encounter, pointing to the apophatic horizons of deification. In addition to speaking the language of our time, personhood theology remains faithful to the ecclesial presuppositions of the saints of old, serving the missionary and pastoral goal of facilitating the conveyance of the Gospel to the world we live in. By the grace of God, it is this aptitude to operate both in the spirit of tradition and contextually that determines the missionary success of the contemporary Orthodox theologians of the person, who relaunch the apostolic kerygma within the world of today. For this wounded world they translate the richly spiritual message of our theological anthropology in terms of personhood, freedom, responsibility, conversion, transformation, and holiness, giving new hope to myriads of people, particularly in lands which for centuries have developed outside the Orthodox commonwealth. In denying the call of theology to develop ways of disseminating our wisdom in terms intelligible today, the fundamentalist deniers do not just display lack of historical, traditional, missionary, and pastoral insight; they offend the venerable tradition of the saintly theologians of the past, in whose name they wage war on Orthodox theology.
The detractors of personhood theology, such as Metropolitan Ierotheos Vlachos of Nafpaktos, claim that the Orthodox discourse on the Holy Trinity, Christ, and the human being should be promoted in the ancient language of nature or being. In the past, positions similar to these have been associated with modalism and monophysitism. The common denominator for these two strands of thinking was the centrality of nature. The first trend represented the Trinitarian persons as modes of manifestation of God’s nature, denying their uniqueness and permanence. The second trend insisted on the terminology of nature only (physis monon, wherefrom ‘monophysitism’) in relation to the mystery of Christ, rejecting hypostatic theandricity as an articulation of this mystery. In construing the person as reducible to nature—or the status of individual specimen of a nature—both strands anticipated by centuries the modern perception that nature dictates the character of a person. Currently, in the name of nature or one’s genetic makeup many vices, sins, and crimes tend to be easily justified, given the general perception that one cannot fight his/her nature. This, precisely, is why the views of the detractors become untenable from a rigorous Orthodox perspective. If the person is reducible to our psychosomatic being, if the person is an epiphenomenon of human nature and not a reality of a different (yet not separated) order, and if there is no other will or energy within us than that of nature—a naturalist monoenergism and monotheletism that falls under the same anathemas pronounced against their hypostatic counterparts in the seventh century—there is no way in which our traditional axiology, ethics, and spirituality can be maintained. If the person is exclusively conditioned by its nature, asceticism becomes impossible and we are reduced to eating, surviving, and breeding beasts. Indeed, neither sin nor holiness are possible if there is no free will at the personal level. Vice and crime are no longer blamable. Virtue cannot be praised. But nature does not make saints, neither does it make sinners. So, how could the patristic distinctions between person and nature or personal will (boulē) and instinct/natural will (thelēma) or, finally, freedom and necessity, be denied in the name of Orthodoxy?
If there is a traditional way in which ecclesial wisdom can be aptly conveyed to contemporary audiences, for the life of the world, this is personhood theology with its distinction between person and nature—not the detractor’s unecclesial naturalism.
Protopresbyter Doru Costache (ThD, Bucharest 2000) lectures in patristics at St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, a member institution of the Sydney College of Divinity, Australia.
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Q:
Prove that if $(12)(34),(12345)\in G$, it is not solvable
Let $G$ be a group acting on $X=\{a,b,c,d,e\}$. Given that there exist two elements $g,h\in G$ so that
$$ g(a)=b,\ g(b)=c, \ g(c)=d, \ g(d)=e,
\\ h(a)=b, \ h(b)=a, \ h(c)=d, \ h(d) =c.
$$
Show that $G$ is not solvable.
My attempt: I looked at the homomorphism $\varphi:G\to\operatorname{Aut} X\cong S_5, g\mapsto(x\mapsto g(x))$. We can see that $g$ maps to $(12345)$, and $h$ maps to $(12)(34)$. Here is where I got stuck - how does this help showing $G$ is not solvable?
A:
Let $H = \langle(1~2)(3~4), (1~2~3~4~5) \rangle \subseteq A_5$. Note that $H$ has elements of orders $2$ and $5$ so its order is a multiple of $10$. It's also easy to see that $H$ contains a $3$-cycle (the commutator of the generating elements is a $3$-cycle), so in fact $30$ must divide the order of $H$.
But $A_5$ is simple so it cannot have any subgroups of index $2$. Thus, $\vert H \vert \neq 30$ so $\vert H \vert = 60$ and $H=A_5$. We know that $A_5$ is not solvable and it is a homomorphic image of $G$, so $G$ has a composition series with a non-solvable factor, which means $G$ cannot be solvable.
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When I bought this safety razor, I thought it would be like any other. However, right away, I noticed something different about this safety razor. This one was heavy. It weighs close to 2.5 ounces. That is a lot, for a safety razor. Most of them have no heft. At least, in the butterfly/TTO category, there are precious few, which have any heft, to them, at all. I was looking forward, to trying it, as soon as I opened it, in the store.
I thought it would be an aggressive razor, and, to some, it may be, but, it is, absolutely, smooth, when it comes to my face. I have used, almost exclusively, sine I purchased it. It has replaced my Timor, and, my Master Barber Classic Safety Razor. This razor, really, gives close shaves, with, nearly, no razor burn. I recommend this razor, especially, for those who like TTO/Butterfly style safety razors.
That looks very much like the Weishi 9306 razor which is often sold under other names. I keep a Weishi 9306 in my Dopp kit as my travel razor and every once in awhile pull it out simply because it is one of those razors that works way better than expected. It performs as well as any of my Gillette TTOs except just maybe for the Aristocrats and variations like the British #66.
jar wrote:That looks very much like the Weishi 9306 razor which is often sold under other names. I keep a Weishi 9306 in my Dopp kit as my travel razor and every once in awhile pull it out simply because it is one of those razors that works way better than expected. It performs as well as any of my Gillette TTOs except just maybe for the Aristocrats and variations like the British #66.
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Programming. Electronics. Open-source. Pseudo-random opinions.
I spent much of this past weekend cleaning and re-organizing a rather daunting collection of stuff in my home office. This process revealed the small gray toolbox that my dad gave me when I was eight or nine years old. The back of the box has a taped-on yellow sticky note that says “Jeff’s Electronics Box” with four components in the corners: an electrolytic capacitor, a ceramic disc capacitor, a resistor with perfectly bent leads, and one AA battery. (This was long before I had any knowledge of or reason to work with surface-mount parts.) It occurred to me when I saw the sticky note that I have come full-circle through a pretty interesting career path.
The Beginning: Amateur Engineer
I remember “electronics” being the first thing that I wanted to do as a hobby and, possibly, as a career. Of course, I had no idea what such a career would entail at the time. Heck, even if I had known what it was like then, the industry has evolved so rapidly that my mental picture would have been completely inaccurate by the time I actually entered the field.
Nevertheless, I remember clearly taking that toolbox full of wires and components and tools to a mid-week “career night” event at an AWANA club that I attended at the time. In fact, I believe that event necessitated the label. Otherwise, the plain toolbox would not have indicated anything significant about my potential career choice. I really wanted to paint the right picture to other attendees.
I developed my interest further between the ages of 10 and 12 building some excellent Graymark kits, including a fun programmable robot that was probably the most complicated kit I had done at the time. My dad got me the version of the kit that included the practice foam breadboard, which allowed you to build the entire circuit in a large-scale elevated form for easy troubleshooting. It was like a debug mode build for hardware, before the days of ubiquitous per-component breakout boards. The only trouble was that it required soldering everything once, then unsoldering or cutting long leads before re-soldering in the final PCB location. I had little interest in doing all of that extra work just to prove to myself that the circuit would behave as expected, and I think I opted to skip a lot of it.
My interest in electronics morphed into a desire to become an amateur radio operator around the time I turned 12, which surprised my parents because I have always been a very quiet person. To this day, I’m not sure why I chose to pick up a hobby that is literally built around communication, but I enjoyed myself and learned a great deal in the process. I let that fall by the wayside after a few years due to other interests.
Step 2: Software Developer
My focus shifted more towards software design and network administration in my early teens, including some adventures with various Linux distributions (before you could get up and running in 10 minutes with the latest Ubuntu LiveCD) and building an 802.11b wireless network in our home to share our EarthLink DSL connection (before you could go to the nearest big-box retail store and buy a router). Ah, those were the days.
I earned my first tech-sector dollars in my mid-teens working for a friend on Goldmine database customizations, a gig that lasted about six months or so before we went our separate ways. A while after this, I slowly built up a personal tech support clientele through word-of-mouth. I even registered a sole proprietorship for myself locally as “JR Network Solutions” (constantly interpreted as “Jr.” instead, much to my chagrin). We got a second landline added to our house for my business number, although the only calls I ever got were solicitations. I still remember talking for an hour to a Verio rep trying to sell me web hosting at ridiculously high prices. (I didn’t sign up for anything.)
My software development career started in earnest after I built a non-trivial ASP-powered dynamic calendar script for a church website, and ended up on the radar of a couple of guys who owned an outsourced IT support company that also dabbled in web design for some of their clients, including the church. The calendar script impressed them enough that they asked if I wanted to do some more in-depth work for them on a project they had going on, and I happily agreed.
I spent a full nine years with that company, delaying my college education by one semester to get started. I continued through five years of classes, my wedding, and then moving across the country to Virginia. They provided a stable but flexible position, allowing me to work around my widely varying class schedules and then remotely from Virginia. My main project was an in-house business management system built in PHP and MySQL, but I also managed the server that project was hosted on, built a distributed asset monitoring system, integrated the management system with their accounting service, built a Windows application for easier scheduling, and even manned the phones for a short time.
Step 3: Electronics Hobbyist
In mid-2011, I started working on the Keyglove project in my spare time after discovering the wonderful world of Arduino. The concept of using simple C++ functions to make an inexpensive but flexible bit of hardware actually do something in the physical world excited me to no end, and it compelled me to begin my adventure back towards hardware. I had tried playing around with PIC16F84 microcontrollers about 10 years prior, but I never managed to achieve the entry-level “blink an LED” project with that platform. The programming interface hadn’t evolved to the level of simplicity that the Arduino provided in 2011.
The Keyglove project required a wireless interface to do what I needed, so I began exploring Bluetooth connectivity options. I tried one module from Broadcom that I literally desoldered from a cheap wireless keyboard and mounted onto a simple custom breakout board that I commissioned from Adam and Matthew over at Wayne and Layne. I managed to make it talk–just barely–but the module was otherwise opaque and ultimately not useful. After further investigation, I finally settled on the comprehensive WT12 module from Bluegiga. With some tips from Adam and Matthew and a shiny new CadSoft EAGLE installation, I churned out my own WT12 module breakout PCB design and had it fabricated by Laen over at OSH Park.
Thanks in no small part to the near plug-and-play experience that Bluegiga’s WT12 module provided, the board worked on the first try, and I was off and running. I wrote a host-side iWRAP firmware control library to work with the WT12 in order to assist with Keyglove integration, and then expanded my breakout line to include a few more of Bluegiga’s modules after many people asked for them. My yak-shaving design project began to grow into a real business.
Step 4: Applications Engineer
I remained in my web design position throughout all of this Arduino experimentation and fledgling hardware design work. However, that changed in mid-2012 when Bluegiga offered me a position doing apps engineering for them. All of my efforts with their products put me on their radar, and they essentially wanted to pay me to do the same things I had done as a hobby. Not a bad deal! The semi-yearly trips to headquarters in Finland provided a fun bonus, too.
My tenure at Bluegiga lasted from 2012 to 2015, through their acquisition by Silicon Labs near the beginning of 2015. Going from a web design and network administration role for an IT company into an applications engineering role for a wireless module company entailed a pretty drastic adjustment for day-to-day activity. However, I enjoyed the challenges and learned an enormous amount by directly supporting customers. There’s nothing like a customer to highlight all of the unanticipated ways to use your product.
Step 5: Firmware Engineer
Answering customer support tickets day after day after week after month after year starts to get old after a while. Despite management’s efforts to let me work on other activities, the support volume wouldn’t allow it on a regular basis. I became more and more eager to get away from “whack-a-mole” ticket management, preferring a more programming-oriented position where I could work on one large project for an extended time.
Cypress Semiconductor offered me such a role as a principal firmware engineer in late 2015, and I accepted. I got to spend the next two years on a long-term software/firmware design project. I even got to define and build the whole thing from the ground up, which is a dream for many engineers. In addition to honing my coding ability, I learned about project management, in-depth test definitions, team code reviews, business auditing processes, and many things that are hard to put into words. I even got to write a detailed user guide for the project. (I blame my appreciation and proclivity for writing on my parents and high school English teacher.)
My time at Cypress allowed for strong growth in some important professional areas, and helped me recover my coding creativity after a bit of a dry spell doing customer support. I thoroughly enjoyed my years there, the work I did, and the team I got to work with. Like my Bluegiga/Silicon Labs stint, I was satisfied (or better!) and not looking for other opportunities. However, that didn’t stop other opportunities from showing up unbidden.
Full Circle: Hardware Engineer
In October of this year, after two years at Cypress, I decided to make yet another transition when I received an offer from BioMech, a smaller, more local company innovating in the motion analytics space. My official role is now Director of Hardware Engineering, and I’m responsible for a few different designs so far. It’s not just the schematic and board designs, in fact, but also the firmware that powers them. My tasks challenge me in all of the most personally satisfying ways. The work is actually very similar to what I did with the Keyglove project for fun in my free time. I just have more of it to do.
I’m now back where I started, but with two decades of personal development and technological evolution on top of it. I get to “do electronics,” as eight-year-old me might have put it, and it usually feels like fun. I’m in a great spot and excited for what the next few years hold.
My dad gets much of the credit for exposing me early to the things that put me on this track. I can trace a pretty clear line back to those formative experiences, and I wouldn’t be in this spot without them. (Not that my mom was less influential, since she homeschooled my brothers and me through most of high school; while she didn’t focus on electronics, she did provide the educational framework for darn near everything I learned.)
Now I have two kids of my own, and I actively look for ways to let them explore new activities. At only six months old, Lucas is still a bit young for anything even remotely career-specific. But Julia, now almost three, enjoys playing with electronics components and jumper wires and solderless breadboards for fun. She even calls downstairs to Mommy that she’s “working on my project!” when we’re told that dinner is ready. Looks like I have to un-set that precedent.
Neither of my kids may choose anything remotely similar to what I did for my career, and that’s fine. Regardless, I hope that they will always feel enabled and encouraged to pursue the things that excite them.
A Child’s Electronics Toolbox was last modified: November 21st, 2017 by Jeff Rowberg
It’s January 1st, 2015, and you know what that means: I have a sudden urge to write. I don’t know exactly why this always happens, but it’s pretty predictable. A few big things happened this year, or at least began happening. I’ll go through them one by one.
in the last many months, I’ve gone full-bore on my Keyglove project right up until exhibiting it at Open Hardware Summit and Maker Faire in New York right at the end of September, followed immediately by an unplanned but very fortuitous job change to Bluegiga Technologies, which involved a week in Atlanta, then two weeks in Finland, then another week in Chicago, all in October. Wow.
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Q:
AWK if else condition not printing correctly
I have the following testfile.txt:
CHROM POS REF ALT DP POS N_ALLELES N_CHR {REF} {ALT}
chr1 16495 G C 252 16495 2 2 0.5 0.5
chr1 16719 T A 189 16719 2 2 0.5 0.5
chr1 16841 G T 521 16841 2 2 0.5 0.5
chr1 17626 G A 124 17626 2 2 0.5 0.5
chr1 17697 G C 63 17697 2 2 0.5 0.5
chr1 19004 A G 13 19004 2 2 0.5 0.5
chr1 69270 A G 20 69270 2 2 0 1
chr1 69511 A G 240 69511 2 2 0 1
chr1 69897 T C 28 69897 2 2 0 1
I am trying to execute an awk command to add a new column based on the information from the text file but the following code is only working on the first conditions:
awk '{
if ($9 == 0.5 && $10 == 0.5 && $7 == 2) {
print $0"\thet";
} else if (($9 == 0 && $10 == 0.5 && $7 == 3) || ($9 == 0.5 && $10 == 0 && $7 == 3)) {
print $0"\t"het2;
} else if (($9 == 0 && $10 == 1 && $7 == 2) || ($9 == 1 && $10 == 0 && $7 == 2)){
print $0"\t"hom;
}
}' testfile.txt
And the output that I am obtaining is the following:
chr1 16495 G C 252 16495 2 2 0.5 0.5 het
chr1 16719 T A 189 16719 2 2 0.5 0.5 het
chr1 16841 G T 521 16841 2 2 0.5 0.5 het
chr1 17626 G A 124 17626 2 2 0.5 0.5 het
chr1 17697 G C 63 17697 2 2 0.5 0.5 het
chr1 19004 A G 13 19004 2 2 0.5 0.5 het
chr1 69270 A G 20 69270 2 2 0 1
chr1 69511 A G 240 69511 2 2 0 1
chr1 69897 T C 28 69897 2 2 0 1
chr1 120983 C T 35 120983 2 2 0.5 0.5 het
Can someone please explain me why my awk command is not working ?
Thanks in advance.
A:
Do heed the commenters advice on forming a better question.
In this case, the issue is quoting, you have
print $0"\t"hom;
which says print the whole line, a tab, then the contents of the variable hom, which doesn't exist.
Changing this to print $0"\thom"; like your first if will get the expected results.
Your second if has the same issue with het2
Also, if you're really using a tab separator you can do BEGIN {FS=OFS="\t"} and avoid the need for printing literal tabs, which would let you do things like print $0,"het" or $11="het";print; which seems more readable.
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An Indiana man allegedly shot a 60-year-old military veteran at least 20 times at close range as the alleged victim walked on the street, authorities said.
At some point, Avery Bullock, 27, asked the alleged victim: "Yo, old school, you ever been shot with a paint gun?,” according to court documents obtained by the Indianapolis Star. He is charged with battery by means of a deadly weapon.
Authorities said Bullock approached the man on April 24, according to the paper. The man tried running away but fell to the ground and injured his back, the report said. Bullock then unleashed a barrage of paintballs from at least 3 feet away, according to the court documents. The alleged victim's condition was not available.
Authorities connected Bullock to the shooting after he was allegedly found with a paintball gun.
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Police investigators were looking into complaints of paintballs being shot at homes and vehicles near where the alleged assault occurred. It was not immediately clear if Bullock was connected to the other paintball incidents.
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Some motors used in an electric compressor etc., of an air conditioning apparatus contain a harmonic component, which is five or seven times the fundamental frequency component, in an induced voltage. In conventional control, an inverter circuit supplying power to a motor is controlled so that the waveform of a phase current flowing to the motor is a sine wave. However, in this control, the motor current may be distorted under the influence of distortion in a motor voltage to cause a torque ripple.
To address this problem, a technique is suggested, which reduces a torque ripple of a motor by preparing a compensation voltage component for cancelling the torque ripple in advance in a table, and adding the compensation voltage to a voltage reference. (See, for example, PATENT DOCUMENT 2.)
On the other hand, in an inverter such as what is called a “capacitorless inverter” (see, e.g., PATENT DOCUMENT 1), which does not include any energy storage element inside, the energy input to the inverter contains a harmonic component when a torque ripple occurs. Then, power-supply harmonic regulations are not satisfied (herein, a power-supply harmonic is a harmonic contained in an input current). To address the problem, a technique is suggested, which reduces current distortion or the torque ripple by controlling the harmonic component of a motor current extra. (See, for example, PATENT DOCUMENT 3.)
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Louis A. Waldman
Louis Alexander Waldman (born 1965) is an American art historian and author specializing in the Italian Renaissance.
Early life
Waldman was born near Detroit, Michigan in 1965.
Education
Waldman attended Hunter College (B.A. 1989) and subsequently studied with Sir John Pope-Hennessy and Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt at the Institute of Fine Arts (Ph.D. 1999).
Career
Since 1999, Waldman taught at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received the College of Fine Arts Teaching Excellence Award (2008), the Dads' Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship (2004), the Department of Art and Art History Teaching Excellence Award (2005), and the Texas Blazers Faculty Excellence Award (2008).
He was the first Assistant Director for Programs at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (2007–10), and was for several years Associate Editor of the journal I Tatti Studies.
Waldman's research on Florentine art is characterized by an emphasis on reconstructing social networks, families, artists' shops, and the workings of patronage.
Waldman has held fellowships from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, the Fulbright Foundation, and Villa I Tatti. He was elected an Accademico d'onore of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence in 2004.
Research
A number of Waldman's publications employ a combination of archival research and connoisseurship to identify and reconstruct the careers of previously anonymous artists of the Renaissance. In a long series of essays, he established the identities of such prolific painters as Giovanni Larciani (formerly known as the Master of the Kress Landscapes), Bartolomeo Ghetti (formerly known as the Master of the Copenhagen Charity), Bernardo di Leonardo (formerly the Master of Memphis), Mariotto di Francesco Dolzemele (whom he hypothetically identified as the Master of Serumido), and others.
Waldman is known as a scholar unafraid of controversial topics. In 2007 an international media coup resulted from the claim by Hungarian art historian Mária Prokopp and Zsuzsanna Wierdl art restorer that a fresco in the Archiepiscopal Castle of Esztergom in Hungary was the work of Sandro Botticelli. The official endorsement of their discovery by Hungary's Minister of Culture in a much publicized press conference made debate difficult for by Hungarian academics and curators. Waldman published the first extended refutation of the Botticelli theory, which on the basis of historical and stylistic evidence he described as "abszurdus" (absurd). That negative judgement has been now reaffirmed by subsequent researchers in Hungary and abroad.
In the spring of 2008 Waldman was among a number of scholars who independently identified a painting of the Annunciation in a provincial museum of Hungary, the Móra Ferenc Múzeum in Szeged, as the work of Giorgio Vasari. The work had previously been catalogued by the museum as the work of Agnolo Bronzino. A number of scholars doubted the Vasari attribution. The controversy received considerable public attention after Waldman, writing in the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Szépművészeti Múzeum in 2009, presented a preparatory drawing made by Vasari for the painting (now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York) and identified it on the basis of documents as part of the lost decorations for the Chapel of St. Michael in the Torre Pia of the Vatican, which Vasari painted for Pope Pius V in 1570-71.
Waldman again made headlines in April 2009 when he publicly presented documentary evidence revealing that some time before June 1505 Leonardo da Vinci painted a portrait of his beloved uncle, Francesco da Vinci. He argued that the red-chalk drawing in Turin—one of the most famous drawings in the history of art due to its frequent misidentification as a self-portrait—is likely to be a preparatory study for the lost painting of Leonardo's uncle.
Personal life
Waldman's early childhood, and in particular his relationship with his troubled and abusive father (who died when he was nine) is discussed in a memoir by his sister Sharon Harrigan, Playing with Dynamite (Truman State University Press, 2017).
Bibliography of Written Works
Baccio Bandinelli and Art at the Medici Court: A Corpus of Early Modern Sources (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2004).
Edited (with Caroline Elam): Craig Hugh Smyth—In Memoriam (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2009).
Edited (with Machtelt Israëls): Toward a Festschrift: Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2010).
Edited (with Péter Farbaky): Italy and Hungary: Humanism and Art in the Early Renaissance (Florence: Officina Editrice, 2011).
Edited (with Gerhard Wolf and Joseph Connors): Colors Between Two Worlds: The Florentine Codex of Bernardino de Sahagún (Florence: Officina Editrice, 2011).
References
Bibliography
Cristina Acidini Luchinat, "Presentazione," in La valle dei tesori, exh. cat., Fucecchio, Museo Civico, 2006, unpaginated.
External links
Blog "Serio Ludere" (in Latin)
Accademici d'onore of the Accademia degli Arti del Disegno in Florence
Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas at Austin
Villa I Tatti, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies
Category:American art historians
Category:Hunter College alumni
Category:New York University alumni
Category:Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies staff
Category:University of Texas at Austin faculty
Category:Writers from Michigan
Category:Living people
Category:1965 births
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3 minute read
Over two hours into the first public meeting for the Capitol Hill Strong Neighborhoods Initiative Tuesday, most of the neighbors were still there and still coming up with ideas for what that part of the city needs.
After years of feeling like they were on their own, south side neighbors just across the Oklahoma River from downtown OKC can see new possibilities.
Shannon Entz, senior planner for the City of Oklahoma City processed the ideas in a careful and welcoming way at the newly-remodeled Capitol Hill Metropolitan Library branch at SW 26th and Hudson.
Community leaders publicized the event in English and Spanish. Some neighbors who were hesitant to speak English still participated fully in Spanish because of a number of bilingual leaders who were there to translate both ways.
Ideas
Capitol Hill has had a Hispanic population since statehood, but the numbers of Latinos in the area have grown exponentially over the last several decades.
And so, one of the most persistent ideas was the importance of a plaza, a key element of community life in even the smallest towns in Mexico and the rest of Latin America.
In addition, Capitol Hill neighbors talked about other ideas that included:
• community solar energy
• community garden
• community commercial-grade kitchen
• after-school programs
• sidewalk projects
• address safety issues for the busiest streets
• expanded bus stops and transfer points for public transit
The area was one of two chosen for SNI because of possibility, but also because of need.
Meeting participants seemed very aware of their neighborhood needs and were open about them.
• Care for the homeless
• Code enforcement of alcohol sales
• Code enforcement of the ways businesses handle trash
• Stray pets
In coming meetings, the ideas will be refined further.
“Thrilled”
Donna Cervantes, director of Calle dos Cinco/Historic Capitol Hill business association said she was “thrilled” by the response of neighbors who filled the room.
“This is a sign of the pent-up need in this part of the city,” said Cervantes. “We are excited to have a say in development.”
Capitol Hill civic leader Gloria Torres was pleased, too.
“We were hoping for a good number of neighborhood people to show up and they did,” she said. “Each contributed something here tonight.”
The initiative
The initiative is made possible by a $1.5 million Community Development Block Grant program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.
The City of Oklahoma City planning department does the work of initiating and processing input from neighbors and then developing a plan to present to HUD and the City Council.
According to city planning staff, once the process of getting input for first-year projects in the two neighborhoods is completed, the 2018-19 HUD Consolidation Action Plan will be presented to the City Council for consideration in the spring.
Project work should begin in the summer.
Previous success
Classen Ten Penn and Classen’s North Highland Parked were two neighborhoods previously chosen for revitalization.
The investment from HUD and the city spurred private investment in multiples of the original seed money in those neighborhoods.
Free Press covered the acceptance of the two new neighborhoods into SNI in December:
With that as proof of just how effective the program can be, the two newest neighborhoods’ residents are excited about the focus of the city planning Department’s efforts.
The Capitol View neighborhood is just to the east and northeast of the Oklahoma Capitol complex.
The Capitol Hill area targeted includes the old, original Capitol Hill shopping area along SW 25th Street between Walker and Robinson. It also includes the parts of SW 29th Street with the heaviest retail development to date.
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Baculovirus-based gene silencing of Humanin for the treatment of pituitary tumors.
Pituitary tumors are the most common primary intracranial neoplasms. Humanin (HN) and Rattin (HNr), a rat homolog of HN, are short peptides with a cytoprotective action. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate whether endogenous HNr plays an antiapoptotic role in pituitary tumor cells. Thus, we used RNA interference based on short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeted to HNr (shHNr). A plasmid including the coding sequences for shHNr and dTomato fluorescent reporter gene was developed (pUC-shHNr). Transfection of somatolactotrope GH3 cells with pUC-shHNr increased apoptosis, suggesting that endogenous HNr plays a cytoprotective role in pituitary tumor cells. In order to evaluate the effect of blockade of endogenous HNr expression in vivo, we constructed a recombinant baculovirus (BV) encoding shHNr (BV-shHNr). In vitro, BV-shRNA was capable of transducing more than 80% of GH3 cells and decreased HNr mRNA. Also, BV-shHNr increased apoptosis in transduced GH3 cells. Intratumor injection of BV-shHNr to nude mice bearing s.c. GH3 tumors increased the number of apoptotic cells, delayed tumor growth and enhanced survival rate, suggesting that endogenous HNr may be involved in pituitary tumor progression. These preclinical data suggests that the silencing of HN expression could have a therapeutic impact on the treatment of pituitary tumors.
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I decided that I’d drain and refill about a gallon of coolant in my car for good measure. Keep in mind that this method only changes “part” of the total coolant in your car.
I decided to use ZEREX by Valvoline G-05 coolant – (A Ford and Chrysler coolant). The color of this coolant is still green, though a lighter almost yellowish green color. Since this coolant appears to be compatible with FL22 (Just like Peak Global Extended Life), I decided to buy it for like $11. You can pay extra for those extended life coolants, though I would still want to flush the coolant every 2 years or so. It's a small price to pay compared to fixing damages done by erosion and corrosion.
Here’s how I did the drain and refill, I added notes from the Factory Service Manual, which is by MAZDA:
[size=11pt]Warning:[/size]
• Never remove the cooling system cap or loosen the radiator drain plug while the engine is running, or when the engine and radiator are hot. Scalding engine coolant and steam may shoot out and cause serious injury. It may also damage the engine and cooling system.
• Turn off the engine and wait until it is cool. Even then, be very careful when removing the cap. Wrap a thick cloth around it and slowly turn it counter clockwise 2.5 turns. Step back while the pressure escapes.
• When you are sure all the pressure is gone, turn the cap using the cloth, and remove it.
Quote
[size=11pt]Caution:[/size]• Use engine coolant at the concentration that meets the environmental conditions in which the vehicle is driven, otherwise engine damage may occur
• The engine has aluminum parts and must be protected by an ethelyne-glycol based coolant to prevent corrosion and freezing.
• Do not use coolants containing alcohol, methanol, borate or silicate. These coolants could damage the cooling sys.
• Use only soft (demineralized) water in the coolant mixture. Water that contains minerals will cut down the coolant's effectiveness.
• Engine coolant damages paint. If engine coolant gets on the paint, rinse it off quickly.
1. Take off black plastic skid plate that you normally remove when doing an oil change.2. Make sure the engine is COOL so the radiator is not under pressure to avoid burns.3. Unscrew the cap from the pressurized plastic coolant reservoir on the left side of the engine bay. If the engine is still slightly warm, you might hear a “hiss” of pressurized gas escape. Unscrewing this cap allows “air” into the system for coolant to drain at the drain plug.4. Locate the black plastic drain plug on the bottom of the radiator, and unscrew it using a short wide flathead screw driver (Or short, wide head Phillips screw driver).
5. Once it’s unscrewed, there’s still a portion of the drain plug preventing fluid from draining, You have to pry at the plug a little and pull it straight out enough so that the fluid drains.6. Cold or warm coolant should then be coming out of the radiator drain plug. Catch this in a container that can hold more than a gallon. (Optional to pour distilled (demineralized) water into the reservoir to "flush" some old fluid out until the water exiting the drain plug is clean and clear).7. As the coolant drains you will see your coolant reservoir level drop. This is where you fill re-fill your car with new coolant.8. Once coolant is drained, retighten drain plug snug by hand (firm, don’t over tighten or strip the plastic head) 9. I used a 50/50 distilled water to anti-freeze ratio.
10. Total coolant drained was exactly 36,900 ml in my car. Or 3.7 liters (0.98 gallons) This may vary depending on how full your reservoir is at the time you drain your coolant. I know I didn’t let ALL of the coolant drain from the radiator, though I did let a majority of the coolant drain. I believe the car uses almost 2 gallons of coolant total so you will be replacing about half of the total capacity.11. What I did next was then fill up one 0.5L (1 pint) water bottle with distilled water, and another bottle with coolant. Then I poured these into the reservoir. I repeated this process until it was about a gallon (same amount of coolant removed).12. As a precaution, when done you may warm up the engine to operating temperature with the coolant cap off the reservoir. This may take 5 minutes or possible longer. When the engine is at operating temperature the coolant will be cycling. Then you should give throttle and this should help remove any possible air bubbles in the cooling system. Screw the coolant cap back on the reservoir. After a few cooling cycles you should re-check your coolant levels and top off your fluids if necessary. The following steps A-C describe this in detail though I believe this to be a bit excessive:
A. Start the engine and idle it until the water temp indicator is in the center when the engine is below 1500rpm.
B. Bleed the air from the cooling system by using the procedures below. At this time, monitor the coolant temp to prevent overheating.
• Run the engine at 2500rpm for 2-3 minutes, 2 times.
• Run the engine at 3000rpm for 5 seconds, then idle.
• Repeat steps above twice.
C. Stop engine and inspect coolant level after the coolant cools down.
13. For disposal, depending on local laws, you might be able to dump it in your sanitary sewer system (toilet), or you may have to take it to a nearby hazardous waste collection facility. (1-800-cleanup). Just don’t dump it into the gutter.
[size=12pt]Coolant FAQ:[/size]
What about air bubbles/air bleeding issues?
This method did not introduce any bubbles or cause any issues that would require special air-bleeding. This is because all you are doing is draining the radiator and reservoir, and then re-filling it up. Coolant inside the engine block remains untouched and thus this method does not change ALL of the fluid. To change the coolant in your entire vehicle I highly recommend you take it to a certified Mazda dealer. (Or a mechanic well knowledged in how to do an air bleed correctly on a Mazda3)
What is FL22 and what does Mazda say about FL22?
FL22 is a coolant type that may be in your Mazda. (though it was not in my car) It should specify on the coolant cap whether or not your car has FL22. If it doesn't specify, then any "green" coolant should work. FL22 is used to enhance service life, reduce waste material, and lower maintenance costs, and adds convenience being pre-mixed. It is recommended that FL22 coolant continue to be used for models originally filled with FL22 coolant from the factory. FL22 is by Motorcraft and is avialable at most Mazda Dealerships though I just use Peak Global Lifetime from Wal-mart.
CAUTION: FL22 coolant is “pre-mixed” and must be added to the cooling system as is. DO NOT ADD WATER TO FL22 COOLANT. Adding water will dilute the solution and lessen the effectiveness of the coolant.
If coolant replacement becomes necessary for prior Mazda models (not originally filled with FL22 coolant), FL22 coolant can be used. If FL22 coolant is used for prior models, be sure to place the FL22 sticker on the reserve tank or degas bottle to indicate FL22 coolant is being used.
NOTE:
• In the case of prior models, the coolant replacement interval is every five (5) years or 60,000 miles
(96,000 km).
• Six (6) FL22 stickers are included with each case of coolant.
"DO NOT USE coolants containing: Alcohol, methanol, borate, or silicates"
What does the manual say about coolant replacement?
FL22 120,000miles or 10 years
Others 60,000miles or 4 years
Who really makes FL22?
Old World Industries (the makers of Peak, Sierra, and other antifreeze brands) state that FL-22 is a Motorcraft extended life coolant and that either Peak Global Lifetime or Peak LongLife Antifreeze can be added to FL-22 without issue. Both of those are silicate free, and LongLife is also phosphate free.
What coolant do I need for my Mazda3?
Any modern coolant that is silicate/phosphate free which is a majority of the green coolants on the market. When you view the ingredients of FL22, there's nothing really special. Just make sure you do not exceed 60% antifreeze as a part of your solution. (Per the service manual)
How much coolant do I need if I drain the radiator and fill it up myself?
About 1 Gallon of premix, or half gallon of antifreeze + half gallon of distilled water (If you mix your own).
Why not go to the dealer for a flush, How much will it cost?
If you get your car’s cooling system flushed at a dealer or mechanic, they will flush all of the coolant. My Irvine Mazda dealer quoted $110, but that was with a coupon. So it could be higher or lower depending on your dealer. I believe this dealer flush should be done before 60k miles. I might get mine done at 40k miles... Now Mazda may state to change the coolant at 100k miles or the coolant may be a special long life formula, but I'd feel much safer changing the coolant every 2 years or so. The main reason is because of the metals in the cooling system that "erode" into the coolant. (Erosion, Electrolysis, corrosion, rust, etc).
DISCLAIMER - I take no responsibility if you forget something, there's a coolant leak, and you blow an engine etc... Work on your car at your own risk.
You can flush the whole thing, just get the car up to temp, pull the plug on the rad and just continually flush the sysyem with a garden hose in the resevoir while the engine is runnung. Stop when all that comes out of the rad is crystal clear water then let it all drain out and refill with the antifreeze. Also just keep an eye on your temp gauge and you should have no problems as long as your thermostat is open.
[quote author=ShaleZoom3 link=topic=89587.msg1727910#msg1727910 date=1190324079]
Yeah I wouldn't recommend that at all.
[/quote]Why is that. I have been doing this on all my cars for about 15 years or so and no problems ever. Besides I am pretty sur that is basically the same thing the dealerships do as well but maybe with a vac setup.
The problem is that when you use a garden hose, you are putting hard water into your cooling system.
The minerals in the water will decrease the cooling system performance.
This is why I used distilled (soft) water.
I wonder if dealers use "filtered" water or if they just use pre-mixed formulas, or just plain hose water... Hopefully not the last one...
Prestone sells an inexpensive "flush" kit that puts a Y-adapter in a hose so you can feed water from a hose into your cooling system to flush it. Personally, I'd just pay $110 for my Mazda dealership to do it. That's how much they quoted me when I called them on the phone last week. They do a good systematic job at cleaning and replacing all the fluid with OEM coolant and I don't think they use tap water. I could be wrong though, in which case I'd never get my car flushed at a dealer... heh
The AutoGuide.com network consists of the largest network of enthusiast-owned enthusiast-operated automotive communities.
AutoGuide.com provides the latest car reviews, auto show coverage, new car prices, and automotive news. The AutoGuide network operates more than 100 automotive forums where our users consult peers for shopping information and advice, and share opinions as a community.
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Arch dimension changes from successful slow maxillary expansion of unilateral posterior crossbite.
To evaluate the long-term effects of successful slow maxillary expansion without fixed appliances or retainers in the mixed dentition on patients with unilateral crossbites, using Haas-type, hyrax, or quad helix appliances. Serial dental casts of 110 patients were evaluated at three time points: preexpansion (T1) (mean age 7 years/7 months), postexpansion (T2) (mean age 8 years/8 months), and approximately 4 years later in the permanent dentition (T3) (mean age 12 years/9 months). Maxillary and mandibular intercanine and intermolar widths, arch length, and perimeter and molar angulation were measured at all three time intervals with the Michigan published growth norms serving as a control. Successful treatment by slow maxillary expansion (SME) produced similarly favorable expansion by all three expanders in all measurements for both arches. Maxillary arch widths were narrower than controls pretreatment (T1) and wider than controls immediately post treatment (T2). Long-term (T3) maxillary intermolar width was the same as controls, with intercanine width significantly wider than controls. Maxillary intercanine and intermolar width increased from T1 to T3, by 4.5 mm and 3.5 mm, respectively, with 98% of intercanine and 80% of intermolar expansion remaining at T3. Maxillary arch circumference increased by 1 mm from T1 to T3. Mandibular width did not change significantly. Maxillary arch dimensions in early mixed dentition in patients with unilateral posterior crossbite showed good stability 4 years post treatment in the permanent dentition.
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To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website
The QC, Vol. 83, No. 08 • October 24, 1996
1996_10_24_p001
WHITTIER
COLLEGE
^T"~."^ ^"^ October 24,1996
Quaker Campus
The Voice Of The Campus Since 1914
Jascha Kaykas-Wolff/QC Pholo Edilor
► Poet Soccer
The men' s soccer team
has been beseiged by
problems which have prevented them from meeting the expectation placed
on them at this year's outset.
pg16
C A M J> U>IS
► La Tardeada
Last Sunday, Oct. 20,
you may have seen a huge
celebration (with a tent)
in the Upper Quad. Find
out whaf it was all about,
and why all those people
were enjoying good food,
good music, and good
company.
pg9
COLlEGE
Photo courtesy of National Theater ofthe Deaf
► Theater off the
Deaf
Combining sign language and spoken words,
this internationally acclaimed company will
make a stop at the Shannon Center on Wednesday, Oct. 23. They will
be presenting an adap-
taion of the works of
Lewis Carroll.
pg 10
Students Granted $22,000 in Scholarship Funds
AWARDS/HONORS
► The . Los Angeles
Philanthropic Foundation held
a ceremony on Oct. 17
celebrating its dispersal of
22,000scholarship dollars to 11
Whittier students.
by JEDEDIAH GILCHRIST
QC News Editor
Eleven students from Whittier Col lege were honored on Thursday, Oct. 17 as recipients of individual scholarships from the Los
Angeles Philanthropic Foundation. The awards, which together
amount to $22,000, were given at
an evening ceremony and were
accompanied by commemorative
plaques in each person's name.
The event was attended by
scholarship recipients from 13
southern California private colleges and universities, including
California Institute of Technology, Chapman University, Occidental College and University of
Southern California.
The recipients from Whittier
were sophomores Cynthia Bock,
Erica Strode, Janice Pare and Nancy Franklin; juniors Jose Burgos,
Andrew Carlton, Lynda Amsell,
John Maki, Natalie Wenn and Dan
Williams and senior Mica Murillo.
"The Foundation is a great
organization that has helped a lot
to enable me to afford my education at Whittier," Wenn said. Franklin concurred, adding, "I was
amazed to see these people who
are giving so much to the community. It's definitely an honor to
Liza Gershman/QC Staff Photographer
Liza Gershman/QC Staff Photographer
Liza Gershman/QC Staff Photographer
Recipients of the Los Angeles Philanthropic Foundation
academic year (l-r): Nancy Franklin, Erica Strode and Dan
Murillo, Janice Pare, Lynda Amsell, John Maki, Cynthia
Carlton and Natalie Wenn.
receive such an award."
Scholarships were granted
based on three criteria, determined
by the Foundation: a student candidate must have a 3.0 cumulative
grade point average, an active interest in his/her community and
proof that he/she is a citizen ofthe
United States.
Using these criteria as a basis,
selection ofthe scholarship recipients was overseen by the financial aid office as a part ofthe aid
program. The allotted scholarships were then included in the
students' financial aid packages
for the Fall semester.
Director of Maj or Gifts for the
Office of Advancement, Paul M.
Carey, was involved with the se-
Mailroom Worker Receives
Quadruple Bypass Surgery
lection process, which also involved a member of the Foundation as a liaison.
"The Foundation has been
very generous to Whittier College," Carey said, "and it's nice to
give the donors some publicity, as
not only is it good for them, but it
also shows the public how the
College is supported by the community."
According to an informational brochure, the Foundation is a
non-profit California organization
of 400 members which is designed
principally as a source of funds
for undergraduate scholarships
and some education-related charities.
The Foundation is led by a
voluntary Board of Directors
which oversees the collection of
dues from the Foundation's mem-
scholarships for the 1996-97
Williams. Not pictured: Mica
Bock, Jose Burgos, Andrew
bers. The dues are then invested
directly into the endowment portfolio, which, according to the brochure, has a gross worth of over
$4 million.
It is out of the interest from
this endowment that the scholarship funds are extracted, so the
principal remains intact from year
to year. This maintenance of principal is important, since the funds
for scholarship recipients are allocated per semester.
But the Foundation organizes
itself such that finances are its
goal-related focus, not its preoccupation. Murillo said, "The [donors] are really friendly; they don't
just give you the money, they set
up dinners and luncheons to try
and get to know the recipients.
It's been great to actually thank
them in person."
COMMUNITY NEWS
► 17 years after first receiving
cardiac repair surgery, Phil
Pizzino went to the hospital this
past week to undergo a routine
maintenance operation.
by LORNA BELL
QC Editor-in-Chief
Mailroom clerk Phil Pizzino
is currently in recovery after undergoing a quadruple bypass surgery on Monday, Oct. 21. Pizzino
had been in an intensive care unit
at St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton.
Tuesday, Oct. 23, he had been
moved to a critical care unit, and
Wednesday, Oct. 23 Pizzino was
at a regular unit in cardiac care,
according to his wife, Jo Pizzino.
Pizzino had a double bypass
surgery 17 years ago. The repairs
usually last 10 years before surgery must be repeated. A month
ago, Pizzino went to the doctors
for a check-up and found a dis-
functioning artery, according, to
Chief of Campus Safety, Ed Malone, who runs the mailroom and
is a friend of Pizzino.
"He came through well with
no complications," Malone said.
If recovery continues to go well,
Pizzino should be home after the
weekend, according to mailroom
assistants Ruth VanBuskirk and
Dorothy Dooling.
"He's a bit depressed and
doesn't have much of an appetite," his wife said. "We hope to
have him home by Saturday."
Although Pizzino may leave
the hospital within the week, doctors estimate a six to eight week
recovery time, in which he will
also be missing from the mail-
room staff.
The school has not hired addi-
Please see BYPASS, pg. 5
Top 5 Salaries i*i - .t> .
President's of Small Liberal
Arts Colleges in the Nation
School/Location: Salary with Benefits: Endowment:
Smith/Massachusetts $392,680 502.2 Million
Rhod. ee ,184
Vassar/New York $286,994
Amherst/Massaehusetts $280,825
.541
120.7 Million
350.7 Million
362.4 Million
35 Million
Information compiled from the
Chronicle of Higher Education
WHITTIER
COLLEGE
^T"~."^ ^"^ October 24,1996
Quaker Campus
The Voice Of The Campus Since 1914
Jascha Kaykas-Wolff/QC Pholo Edilor
► Poet Soccer
The men' s soccer team
has been beseiged by
problems which have prevented them from meeting the expectation placed
on them at this year's outset.
pg16
C A M J> U>IS
► La Tardeada
Last Sunday, Oct. 20,
you may have seen a huge
celebration (with a tent)
in the Upper Quad. Find
out whaf it was all about,
and why all those people
were enjoying good food,
good music, and good
company.
pg9
COLlEGE
Photo courtesy of National Theater ofthe Deaf
► Theater off the
Deaf
Combining sign language and spoken words,
this internationally acclaimed company will
make a stop at the Shannon Center on Wednesday, Oct. 23. They will
be presenting an adap-
taion of the works of
Lewis Carroll.
pg 10
Students Granted $22,000 in Scholarship Funds
AWARDS/HONORS
► The . Los Angeles
Philanthropic Foundation held
a ceremony on Oct. 17
celebrating its dispersal of
22,000scholarship dollars to 11
Whittier students.
by JEDEDIAH GILCHRIST
QC News Editor
Eleven students from Whittier Col lege were honored on Thursday, Oct. 17 as recipients of individual scholarships from the Los
Angeles Philanthropic Foundation. The awards, which together
amount to $22,000, were given at
an evening ceremony and were
accompanied by commemorative
plaques in each person's name.
The event was attended by
scholarship recipients from 13
southern California private colleges and universities, including
California Institute of Technology, Chapman University, Occidental College and University of
Southern California.
The recipients from Whittier
were sophomores Cynthia Bock,
Erica Strode, Janice Pare and Nancy Franklin; juniors Jose Burgos,
Andrew Carlton, Lynda Amsell,
John Maki, Natalie Wenn and Dan
Williams and senior Mica Murillo.
"The Foundation is a great
organization that has helped a lot
to enable me to afford my education at Whittier," Wenn said. Franklin concurred, adding, "I was
amazed to see these people who
are giving so much to the community. It's definitely an honor to
Liza Gershman/QC Staff Photographer
Liza Gershman/QC Staff Photographer
Liza Gershman/QC Staff Photographer
Recipients of the Los Angeles Philanthropic Foundation
academic year (l-r): Nancy Franklin, Erica Strode and Dan
Murillo, Janice Pare, Lynda Amsell, John Maki, Cynthia
Carlton and Natalie Wenn.
receive such an award."
Scholarships were granted
based on three criteria, determined
by the Foundation: a student candidate must have a 3.0 cumulative
grade point average, an active interest in his/her community and
proof that he/she is a citizen ofthe
United States.
Using these criteria as a basis,
selection ofthe scholarship recipients was overseen by the financial aid office as a part ofthe aid
program. The allotted scholarships were then included in the
students' financial aid packages
for the Fall semester.
Director of Maj or Gifts for the
Office of Advancement, Paul M.
Carey, was involved with the se-
Mailroom Worker Receives
Quadruple Bypass Surgery
lection process, which also involved a member of the Foundation as a liaison.
"The Foundation has been
very generous to Whittier College," Carey said, "and it's nice to
give the donors some publicity, as
not only is it good for them, but it
also shows the public how the
College is supported by the community."
According to an informational brochure, the Foundation is a
non-profit California organization
of 400 members which is designed
principally as a source of funds
for undergraduate scholarships
and some education-related charities.
The Foundation is led by a
voluntary Board of Directors
which oversees the collection of
dues from the Foundation's mem-
scholarships for the 1996-97
Williams. Not pictured: Mica
Bock, Jose Burgos, Andrew
bers. The dues are then invested
directly into the endowment portfolio, which, according to the brochure, has a gross worth of over
$4 million.
It is out of the interest from
this endowment that the scholarship funds are extracted, so the
principal remains intact from year
to year. This maintenance of principal is important, since the funds
for scholarship recipients are allocated per semester.
But the Foundation organizes
itself such that finances are its
goal-related focus, not its preoccupation. Murillo said, "The [donors] are really friendly; they don't
just give you the money, they set
up dinners and luncheons to try
and get to know the recipients.
It's been great to actually thank
them in person."
COMMUNITY NEWS
► 17 years after first receiving
cardiac repair surgery, Phil
Pizzino went to the hospital this
past week to undergo a routine
maintenance operation.
by LORNA BELL
QC Editor-in-Chief
Mailroom clerk Phil Pizzino
is currently in recovery after undergoing a quadruple bypass surgery on Monday, Oct. 21. Pizzino
had been in an intensive care unit
at St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton.
Tuesday, Oct. 23, he had been
moved to a critical care unit, and
Wednesday, Oct. 23 Pizzino was
at a regular unit in cardiac care,
according to his wife, Jo Pizzino.
Pizzino had a double bypass
surgery 17 years ago. The repairs
usually last 10 years before surgery must be repeated. A month
ago, Pizzino went to the doctors
for a check-up and found a dis-
functioning artery, according, to
Chief of Campus Safety, Ed Malone, who runs the mailroom and
is a friend of Pizzino.
"He came through well with
no complications," Malone said.
If recovery continues to go well,
Pizzino should be home after the
weekend, according to mailroom
assistants Ruth VanBuskirk and
Dorothy Dooling.
"He's a bit depressed and
doesn't have much of an appetite," his wife said. "We hope to
have him home by Saturday."
Although Pizzino may leave
the hospital within the week, doctors estimate a six to eight week
recovery time, in which he will
also be missing from the mail-
room staff.
The school has not hired addi-
Please see BYPASS, pg. 5
Top 5 Salaries i*i - .t> .
President's of Small Liberal
Arts Colleges in the Nation
School/Location: Salary with Benefits: Endowment:
Smith/Massachusetts $392,680 502.2 Million
Rhod. ee ,184
Vassar/New York $286,994
Amherst/Massaehusetts $280,825
.541
120.7 Million
350.7 Million
362.4 Million
35 Million
Information compiled from the
Chronicle of Higher Education
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relate to child safety seats.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an automobile vehicle has seatbelts provided at the front and rear seats. The seatbelt generally includes shoulder and lap straps that may be fastened with an anchor point of the vehicle to restrain and protect the occupant in case of collision or sudden stop of the vehicle. However, the use of the vehicle seatbelt is not adapted for a young child who has a smaller body and may not be able to sustain the pressure applied by the seatbelt. As a result, safety legislations require the use of a child safety seat for seating a young child in a vehicle. The child safety seat can be fixedly installed in on the passenger's seat of the vehicle, and has an embedded restraint harness more adapted to provide protection for the young child.
In order to accommodate children of different sizes, the child safety seat may have a headrest that is adjustable in height. China Utility Model No. 201597477 discloses a child safety seat including a headrest movably assembled with the backrest of the seat. The headrest adjustment mechanism as disclosed in this reference includes a shaft, an operating member affixed with the locking shaft, and a plurality of racks including a plurality of locking grooves. The operating member and the locking shaft are assembled with the headrest, and the racks are affixed with the backrest. The shaft can engage with the racks to lock the headrest in position, and the operating member can be operable to disengage the shaft from the racks so that the headrest can be adjustable relative to the backrest. One disadvantage of the structure described in the aforementioned reference is that a child sitting on the child safety seat may directly touch the operating member, causing accidental unlocking of the headrest. Moreover, the shaft and the racks exposed outward at the rear of the backrest may undesirably contact with a surrounding environment, which may interfere with the operation of the headrest adjustment mechanism.
Therefore, there is a need for a child safety seat that is safer in use, and can address at least the foregoing issues.
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Fancy a trip back to the golden days of gaming, when Sega’s MegaDrive was king of the hill and the PlayStation was just a glint in Ken Kutaragi’s eye?
A new wireless version of the best-selling 80s console could take you back there - and you’ll find Sonic the Hedgehog waiting for you.
Funstockretro.co.uk is selling a new mini version of the Megadrive - with games fully licensed from Sega and complete with wireless controllers, for £49.99.
In what appears to be an unbelievable bargain, the whole thing comes pre-loaded with 80 classic games - Including Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2, and the three original Mortal Kombat games. Throw in the likes of Golden Axe and Streets Of Rage and you’re on to a winner.
If you happen to have any Megadrive cartridges, they should work, too - although a small number could be incompatible with the new console.
It’s plug-and-play, coming complete with an AV cable to stick straight into the back of your TV.
MORE:
If you’re exhausted by all that light gathering, hoping one day for a chance to play The King’s Fall raid in Destiny, or have blown all your FIFA points on a useless gold pack, a dose of good old fashioned simple high speed coin gathering may be just what you need. Who needs hi-def graphics anyway?
If you prefer your gaming on the go, there’s also a hand-held version of the console with a built in screen - it’s the same deal: 80 built in games for £49.99.
Here’s a full list of the games pre-loaded onto the system:
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle,
Alien Storm,
Altered Beast,
Arrow Flash,
Bonanza Bros.
Chakan: The Forever Man,
Columns,
Columns III,
ComixZone,
Crack Down,
DecapAttack,
Dr. Robotnik’sMean Bean Machine,
Ecco,
EccoJr,
ESWAT:
City Under Siege,
Fatal Labyrinth,
Flicky,
Gain Ground,
Golden Axe,
Golden Axe 2,
Golden Axe 3,
Jewel Master,
Kid Chameleon,
Motal Kombat,
Mortal Kombat 2,
Mortal Kombat 3,
Ristar,
Shadow Dancer,
Shinobi 3,
Streets Of Rage 1,
Streets Of Rage 2,
Streets Of Rage 3,
Sonic & Knuckles,
Sonic Spinball,
Sonic the Hedgehog,
Sonic the Hedgehog 2,
The Ooze,
Vectorman,
Vectorman 2,
Virtua Fighter 2
Games List - bonus cartridge games:
Cross the road,
Jack’s Pea,
Jewel Magic,
Curling 2010,
Fish Story,
Mahjong Solitaire,
Warehouse Keeper,
Chess,
Memory,
Snake,
Air Hockey
Spider,
Naval Power,
Mr. Balls,
Cannon,
Fight or Lose,
Bottle Taps Race,
Bomber,
Checker,
Hexagonos,
Reaction Match,
Whack-A-Wolf,
Mirror Mirror,
Memory Match,
Treasure Hunt,
Fire Fly Glow,
Panic Lift,
Black Sheep,
Space Hunter,
Flash Memory,
Table Magic,
Color Puzzle,
Brain Switch,
Mega Brain Switch,
Bulls and Cows,
Logic Dial,
Match Eleven,
Formula Challenge,
Sudoku Quiz,
Dominant Color.
Do you remember these retro computer games?
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Cell-induced leakage of liposome contents.
Using the principle of relief of self-quenching of carboxyfluorescein [Weinstein, J. N., Yoshikami, S., Henkart, P., Blumenthal, R., & Hagins, W. A. (1977) Science 195, 489-492] upon leakage of the dye from the interior of lipid vesicles, we investigated the integrity of sonicated small unilamellar vesicles in the presence of isolated hepatocytes, Zajdela ascites hepatoma cells, and plasma membranes of either cell type. We observed that cells as well as plasma membranes induce leakage of carboxyfluorescein from vesicles. Two parameters (initial rate and maximal level of induced leakage) were determined to quantitate the leakage events and were found to depend on cell density, vesicle concentration, and vesicle lipid composition. The magnitude of both parameters is shown to increase with cell density and to decrease with increasing vesicle lipid concentration and seems to be proportional to the number of vesicles found in close contact with the cell. For vesicles made of phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol, the degree of induced leakage increases steeply with cholesterol contents increasing from 30 to 40 mol %. In the case of simultaneous presence of 10 mol % phosphatidylserine, induced leakage can be observed at cholesterol contents exceeding 20 mol %. We show that leak-inducing activity resides in the plasma membrane and that it can be considerably reduced by treatment of the plasma membranes with neuraminidase or trypsin, suggesting the involvement of cell-surface glycoprotein(s). Release of activity from intact cells and isolated plasma membranes into the medium occurs spontaneously (at a slow rate) but can be facilitated by freezing and thawing; the activity can subsequently be recovered in a soluble form from the medium.
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Loch Achray
Loch Achray is a small freshwater loch west of Callander in Stirling district, Scotland.
The loch lies between Loch Katrine and Loch Venachar in the heart of the Trossachs and has an average depth of .
History
Loch Achray was for a time the home of James "Beg" Stewart (c1410-1470) of Baldorran, the son of James Mor Stewart (known as "James the Fat"), who fled into exile in Ireland when his father Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany was executed for treason by James I of Scotland in 1425. James the Fat would never return to Scotland, and he was unable to inherit the Albany estates, but James "Beag" Stewart was able to secure a royal pardon and return to Scotland. He is the ancestor of the Stewarts of Ardvorlich on Lochearnside, whose family history is recounted by Sir Walter Scott in A Legend of Montrose.
Stewart had a small hunting lodge on the small island at the west end of Loch Achray, "to which he resorted on any sudden emergency as a place of safety". Alexander Campbell, writing in 1812, tells the following story:
It happened that a party of Argyleshire Campbells made an excursion to the King's forests of Glenartney and Glensinglais, whereof he [Stewart] was the keeper, and killed a great many of the deer and roebucks, without so much as asking the permission of Little James. The Argyleshire hunters, weary with the chase, and returning in quest of some habitation...met little James nearly opposite the small island on which his hut was situated, and inquiring of him what Magpie had built his nest on that island, he answered, 'One that hath scorned all manner of greedy hawks, from whatever quarter they might chance to come'. 'Tell the magpie from us (said the hunters) that we are no less disposed to hawk than to hunt around his nest; and tell him further, that we shall soon be on this way again, and mean to visit the nest of this vain chatterer: perhaps our hawks may not impress him with a mean opinion of their skill and dexterity in seizing their prey. Little James, somewhat nettled at the threatened visitation, peevishly replied; 'it may happen, likewise, that this chattering magpie, by the time your hawks have arrived within sight of his nest, by a singular power which he has over the hawks of these wooded mountains and glens, having called them in council, they may be prevailed on to suffer no strange hawks to infringe on their liberties, at least to within the range that they and their ancestors have for a length of time been accustomed.' So saying, they parted. In due time the Campbells kept their word; and Little James, having gathered his people from the various glens over which his influence extended, gave the meeting to the Argyleshire party in so warm a manner, that few returned to give an account of the hawking match for which they so merrily departed.
Leisure
The south side of the loch is wooded and well served by woodland tracks and forest roads. The loch is popular with anglers who fish for brown trout. Loch Achray is well known for its sheltered location, giving rise to placid waters offering magnificent reflections of the woodland to the south, the mountains and forests to the north and the majestic crags of Ben Venue to the west.
See also
Stewart of Balquhidder
Notes
Category:Freshwater lochs of Scotland
Category:Lochs of Stirling (council area)
LAchray
Category:Trossachs
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The shipment of fragile and delicate products and articles mandates the use of packaging which gives sufficient protection against shock, thermal changes, electric fields, moisture, abusive handling and other external influences. The use of plastic foam in a shipping container or carton to partially or wholly surround the packaged article has become widespread. Commercial and practical success has been found when the foamed plastics, such as polyurethane, wholly surrounds a packaged article, and various techniques have been used to position and form the foamed plastics within the carton. However, many of these methods have been found to be inadequate both in cost and time.
Early foam packaging developments suspended the article to be protected within a container in spaced relation to the walls. A foamable plastic was then introduced into the spaces between the container walls and object. The foamable plastic expanded, taking up the spaces between the container walls and articles. A variation of this method included the use of plastic bags, filled with foamable plastic which were then placed within the shipping container. The foamable plastic expanded within the bags and the expanding bags encompassed the object. The plastic bags formed a separation line which permitted removing the encapsulated object with ease.
These systems of packaging proved disadvantageous since the article to be encased had to be suspended within the container prior to encapsulation. To overcome the hinderance of suspending an article before encapsulation, a method, known as carton molding, was developed which formed the molded foamable plastic in the carton or container before the article was placed therein. U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,337 to Gately discloses the current, conventional process of producing synthetic foamed material into predetermined shapes at preselected locations inside a container or carton.
In the current and conventional method, a male mold is provided with an image conforming to the size and shape or sizes and shapes of the desired articles to be placed therein. A horizontal flap area consisting of two horizontal channels is incorporated into the mold to allow the formation of foam panels on two of the carton flaps to form a protective top covering once the carton is closed. A plastic sheet is placed over the mold to provide a surface on which the packaged object will rest once the foam is formed. A vacuum internal to the mold is applied to assist the placement of the plastic sheet and to secure the sheet to the mold. An open-ended carton is then placed over the mold with two of the lower end flaps in a horizontal position. The plastic sheet is folded back over the horizontal flaps to close the ends of the channels; the horizontal flaps are clamped securely to the mold; foam precursors are dispensed within the carton, and the top of the carton is closed and secured. When the precursors have foamed, the clamps are released and the finished box ejected from the mold.
This current and conventional process has achieved significant commercial usage and is decidedly advantageous over previously available methods. However, this process does have several disadvantages, foremost of which is the necessity of manually placing the plastic sheet in areas of the mold that are difficult to reach and then folding the plastic back over the horizontal flaps. Since the horizontal mold also requires a large amount of floor space, mounting such a mold on automated molding equipment is difficult. These disadvantages make full automation impractical. Further disadvantages of this horizontal molding include the requirement of a complex mold with restrictive channeling techniques designed to force the foam into the horizontal flap areas of the mold, the lack of control over foam densities in the flap areas and the impracticability of using poly tube materials.
The present invention overcomes these disadvantages and provides an even more advantageous process and apparatus which use a fully vertical mold where all carton flaps can be placed in a vertical position. The plastic sheet does not have to be doubled-up over the vertical flaps, and the lack of a horizontal channel also permits ease in the placing and tucking of a plastic sheet or a poly tube material over the mold by either manual or mechanized techniques. The fully vertical mold provides for gravity flow of foam into the flap areas of the mold with a better control of foam densities in flap areas. In addition, the overall mold is simpler and requires smaller mold construction techniques and less floor space making mounting on automated molding equipment practical with a better control of foam densities in flap areas. These advantages of the present invention lend this process to a greater degree of automation.
With the foregoing in mind, it is an object of the present invention to provide an efficient foam molding process and apparatus for the molding of foam inside a carton for the cushioning of an article to be placed therein which overcome the disadvantages of the currently used process.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a method of and an apparatus for foam carton molding using a fully vertical mold which provide full automation when placing the plastic sheet routinely over the mold and which simplifies the channeling requirements of the mold design.
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Q:
Other than Contributor, what Azure Role will allow the execution of Add-AzureRmAutoscaleSetting
I have a Powershell script that is used to deploy an Azure Cloud Service (Classic). Up until today, the app user was assigned a Contributor role. Part of tightening security, we are revoking this Contributor Role as it is too broad.
Part of the deployment process is to update the AutoScaling settings of the production slot using Add-AzureRmAutoscaleSetting:
Add-AzureRmAutoscaleSetting -Location "East US" -Name $scalingName -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup -TargetResourceId $targetResourceId -AutoscaleProfile $autoscaleProfile
As the Azure User is no longer assigned the role of Contributor, this command now fails saying it is "Forbidden":
Add-AzureRmAutoscaleSetting : Exception type: ErrorResponseException, Message: Null/Empty, Code: Null, Status code:Forbidden, Reason phrase: Forbidden
At C:\Path\AzureRMTools.psm1:131 char:5
+ Add-AzureRmAutoscaleSetting -Location "East US" -Name $scalingNam ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : CloseError: (:) [Add-AzureRmAutoscaleSetting], PSInvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Insights.Autoscale.AddAzureRmAutoscaleSettingCommand
I have tried assign the user many different Roles (Roles I think would have this permission) - but none of them seem to have permission to allow me to execute this.
I would like to know which Role would contain this permission? If none, is it possible to crate a new Role that will allow the execution of the command.
Thanks
A:
Thanks to @4c74356b41 for the nudge in the right direction.
There didn't seem to be any build in Roles that contained the Microsoft.insights/autoscalesettings/write permission, so following this tutorial I created a new Role.
Here is the json file I created:
{
"Name": "Microsoft Insights Contributor",
"IsCustom": true,
"Description": "Allows the creation, edition, and deletion of AutoScaling rules from Microsoft.Insights",
"Actions": [
"Microsoft.Insights/*",
"Microsoft.ClassicCompute/*"
],
"NotActions": [],
"DataActions": [],
"NotDataActions": [],
"AssignableScopes": [
"/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
]
}
Then execute the following to add it to your Azure subscription:
New-AzureRmRoleDefinition -InputFile '.\Microsoft Insights Contributor.json'
Hope this helps someone else
Note: as I am working with Azure Cloud Services (Classic), I also needed permissions to some Microsoft.ClassicCompute resources
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---
abstract: |
Dead time affects many of the instruments used in X-ray astronomy, by producing a strong distortion in power density spectra. This can make it difficult to model the aperiodic variability of the source or look for quasi-periodic oscillations. Whereas in some instruments a simple a priori correction for dead-time-affected power spectra is possible, this is not the case for others such as [[*NuSTAR*]{}]{}, where the dead time is non-constant and long ($\sim$2.5ms). @Bachetti+15 suggested the cospectrum obtained from light curves of independent detectors within the same instrument as a possible way out, but this solution has always only been a partial one: the measured [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}was still affected by dead time, because the width of the power distribution of the cospectrum was modulated by dead time in a frequency-dependent way.
In this Letter, we suggest a new, powerful method to normalize dead-time-affected cospectra and power density spectra. Our approach uses the difference of the Fourier amplitudes from two independent detectors to characterize and filter out the effect of dead time. This method is crucially important for the accurate modeling of periodograms derived from instruments affected by dead time on board current missions like [[*NuSTAR*]{}]{}and [[*Astrosat*]{}]{}, but also future missions such as [[*IXPE*]{}]{}.
author:
- Matteo Bachetti
- Daniela Huppenkothen
title: 'No time for dead time - Use the Fourier amplitude differences to normalize dead time-affected periodograms'
---
Introduction {#sec:intro}
============
Dead time is an unavoidable and common issue of photon-counting instruments. It is the time ${\ensuremath{t_d}\xspace}$ that the instrument takes to process an event and be ready for the next event. In most current astronomical photon-counting X-ray missions, dead time is of the *non-paralyzable* kind, meaning that the instrument does not accept new events during dead time, avoiding a complete lock of the instrument if the incident rate of photons is higher than $1/{\ensuremath{t_d}\xspace}$. Being roughly energy-independent, dead time is not usually an issue for spectroscopy, as it only affects the maximum rate of photons that can be recorded, so it basically only increases the observing time needed for high quality spectra.
For timing analysis, the effect of dead time is far more problematic. Dead time heavily distorts the periodogram, the most widely used statistical tool to estimate the power density spectrum (PDS)[^1], with a characteristic pattern that is stronger for brighter sources. It is often not possible to disentangle this power spectral distortion due to dead time and the broadband noise components characterizing the emission of accreting systems. In the special case where dead time is constant, its shape can be modeled precisely [@Zhang+95; @Vikhlinin+94]. However, dead time is often different on an event-to-event basis (e.g., in [[*NuSTAR*]{}]{}), and it is not obvious how to model it precisely, also because the information on dead time is often incomplete in the data files distributed by HEASARC [see, e.g. @Bachetti+15]. When using data from missions carrying two or more *identical and independent* detectors like [[*NuSTAR*]{}]{}, @Bachetti+15 proposed an approach to mitigate instrumental effects like dead time exploiting this redundancy: where in standard analysis, light curves of multiple detectors are summed before Fourier transforming the summed light curve, it is possible to instead Fourier-transform the signal of two independent detectors and combine the Fourier amplitudes in a *cospectrum* – the real part of the cross spectrum – instead of the periodogram. Since dead time is uncorrelated between the two detectors, the resulting powers have a mean white noise level fixed to 0, which resolves the first and most problematic issue created by dead time (see details in @Bachetti+15); however, the resulting powers no longer follow the statistical distribution expected for power spectra, and their probability distribution is frequency-dependent. Whereas a noise cospectrum in the absence of dead time would follow a Laplace distribution [@HuppenkothenBachetti18], dead time affects the width of the probability distribution for cospectral powers and modulates the measured [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}similarly to the distortion acted on power spectra. In this Letter, we show a method to precisely recover the shape of the periodogram by looking at the difference of the Fourier amplitudes of the light curves of two independent detectors. This difference, in fact, contains information on the uncorrelated noise produced by dead time, but not on the source-related signal which is correlated between the two detectors. This allows to disentangle the effects of dead time from those of the source variability.
In [Section ]{}[sec:fourierdiff]{} we show that, in the absence of dead time, the difference of the Fourier amplitudes calculated from two independent detectors contains the sum of the correlated signal (the source signal) and uncorrelated noise (detector-related noise), and that their difference eliminates the source part. In [Section ]{}[sec:fadsec]{} we use extensive simulations to show how to use this fact to correct dead-time-affected periodograms, and we describe the limitations of this method.
On the difference of Fourier amplitudes {#sec:fourierdiff}
=======================================
Let us consider two identical and independent detectors observing the same variable source, producing independent and strictly simultaneous time series, with identical even sampling $\delta t$, $\mathbf{x} = \{x_k\}_{k=1}^N$ and $\mathbf{y} = \{y_k\}_{k=1}^N$. For a stochastic process (e.g. $1/\nu$-type red noise), the Fourier amplitudes will vary as a function of $N_{\mathrm{phot}}P(\nu)/4$, where $P(\nu)$ (Leahy-normalized, @Leahy+83) is the shape of the power spectrum underlying the stochastic process, and $N_{\mathrm{phot}}$ denotes the number of photons in a light curve.
If the two detectors observe the same source simultaneously, the amplitudes and phases of the stochastic process will be shared among $\mathbf{x}$ and $\mathbf{y}$, while each light curve will be affected *independently* by the photon counting noise in the detector, as well as the dead time process.
Dead time can be considered a convolution on the signal [@Vikhlinin+94]. Following the convolution theorem the Fourier transform $\mathcal{F}$ of dead time-affected light curves will be the *product* of the Fourier transform of the signal $\mathcal{S}$ and the Fourier transform of the dead time filter $\mathcal{D}$: $$\mathcal{F}(\nu) = \mathcal{S}(\nu)\cdot\mathcal{D}(\nu)$$ For a large enough number of data points $N$, the complex Fourier amplitudes $S_j$ will be composed of a sum of two independent random normal variables for the intrinsic red noise variability and the detector photon counting noise, respectively: $S_j = S_{sj} + S_{nj}$, with $\Re (S_{sj}) \sim {\ensuremath{{\mathcal N}}\xspace}(0, \sigma_{sj}^2)$ and $\Re(S_{nj}) \sim {\ensuremath{{\mathcal N}}\xspace}(0, \sigma_n^2)$, and similarly for the imaginary parts. The red noise variance $\sigma_{sj}^2 = \sigma_{s}^2(\nu) = N_\mathrm{phot}P(\nu)/4$ (where $N_{\mathrm{phot}} = \sum_{k=1}^{N}{x_k}$) is given by the power spectrum of the underlying stochastic process and is frequency-dependent. However, the photon counting noise $\sigma_n^2 = N_\mathrm{phot}/2$ is independent of frequency. Note that $S_{xsj} = S_{ysj}$, because the amplitudes of the stationary noise process will be the same for the Fourier transforms of $\mathbf{x}$ and $\mathbf{y}$ for the case considered here, while the components due to white noise differ between the two time series. The dead time filter affects the sum of signal and white noise amplitudes as a multiplicative factor and only depends on count rate, which is equal for both light curves given identical detectors. Thus, the difference between the Fourier amplitudes for the two time series $\mathbf{x}$ and $\mathbf{y}$ will be: $$F_{xj} - F_{yj} = (S_{xj} - S_{yj})\cdot D_j = (S_{xnj} - S_{ynj})\cdot D_j$$ Because $S_{xsj} = S_{ysj}$, but $S_{xnj} \neq S_{ynj}$ (since the white noise component is formed in each detector separately), the *difference* of the real and imaginary Fourier amplitudes between the two light curves effectively encodes the white noise component only, multiplied by the Fourier transform of the dead time filter. This fact effectively allows us to separate out the (source-intrinsic) red noise from the spurious variability introduced by dead time: if we can extract the shape of the dead time filter $|\mathcal{D}|^2$ from the Fourier amplitude differences of the two detectors, we can use it to correct the shape of the periodogram. In the following section, we lay this procedure out in more detail, and describe its limits in Section \[sec:caveat\].
The FAD method {#sec:fadsec}
==============
Data simulation {#sec:data}
---------------
All simulated sets in this paper were produced and analyzed with a combination of the two Python libraries `stingray`[^2] [@huppenkothen2016] and `HENDRICS` v.`3.0b2` [formerly known as MaLTPyNT; @2015ascl.soft02021B], both affiliated to Astropy [@astropy2013; @astropy18].
We used the same procedure and algorithms described by @Bachetti+15, Section 4, which we briefly summarize here. We used the @timmer1995 method to create a red noise light curve starting from a given power spectral shape. This method is implemented in the `stingray.simulate` module. This step needs to be done carefully: if the initial light curves contain significant random noise, the process for the creation of events creates a random variate on the top of the local count rate–which is varying randomly already–producing a non-Poissonian final light curve. We initially simulated light curves with a very high mean “count rate” such that the Poisson noise was relatively small. We then renormalized the light curves to the wanted (lower) count rate and [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}and finally used these light curves to simulate event lists using rejection sampling, implemented in the `stingray.Eventlist.simulate_times()` method. Then, the `hendrics.fake.filter_for_deadtime()` function was used to apply a non-paralyzable dead time of 2.5ms to the simulated event lists. For more details on the simulated data sets and the validation of the simulation infrastracture, see also Section \[sec:correction\] and the available Jupyter notebooks[^3][^4]. After producing these synthetic event lists, we started the standard timing analysis: we produced light curves with a bin time of $\sim0.244$ms, and calculated power spectral products (cospectrum, periodogram) over segments of these light curves using `stingray`.
First test: white noise {#sec:wndeadtime}
-----------------------
As laid out in Section \[sec:fourierdiff\], the difference of Fourier amplitudes from two independent but identical detectors shows no source variability, but *still shows the same distortion* due to dead time (See Figure \[fig:fourierdiff\], left panel, where this is shown with red noise). Let us simulate two constant 1000sec light curves with an incident mean count rate of 2000 counts/sec and a dead time of 2.5 ms, as we would expect from the two identical detectors of [[*NuSTAR*]{}]{}observing the same stable X-ray source. The Fourier amplitudes of the light curves from the two detectors are heavily distorted by dead time, with the characteristic damped oscillator-like shape [@Vikhlinin+94; @Zhang+95] (Figure \[fig:fourierdiff\], middle panel). Therefore, using the difference between the Fourier amplitudes in two detectors, we can in principle renormalize the periodogram so that only the source variability alters its otherwise flat shape.
As shown in Figure \[fig:fourierdiff\] (right panel), the single-detector Fourier amplitudes are proportional on average to the difference of the Fourier amplitudes in different realizations, with a constant factor $1/\sqrt{2}$. Therefore, we expect that the periodogram will be proportional to the square of the Fourier amplitude difference, divided by 2. Let us try to *divide the periodogram by a smoothed version of the squared Fourier differences*, and multiply by 2. For smoothing, we used a Gaussian running window with a window width of 50 bins. Given that the initial binning had 50 bins/Hz, this interpolation allows an aggressive smoothing over bins whose y value does not change significantly. We call this procedure the **Fourier Amplitude Difference** (hereafter FAD) **correction**.
The results of this correction are shown in Figure \[fig:comparison\]. Starting from a heavily distorted distribution of the powers, applying the FAD correction “flattens” remarkably well the white noise level of the periodogram and the distribution of the scatter of the white noise periodogram and cospectrum. Also, it reinstates a correct distribution of powers, following very closely the expected $\chi^2_2$ distribution (@Lewin+88; Figure \[fig:dist\], right). Analogously, the corrected cospectrum will follow the expected Laplace distribution (@HuppenkothenBachetti18; Figure \[fig:dist\], left). While the original dead time-affected cospectrum had a distorted, frequency-dependent [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}level, the FAD-corrected cospectrum returns to the correct distribution at all frequencies.
The FAD algorithm in detail {#sec:fad}
---------------------------
In practice, the FAD correction algorithm in a generic case would work as follows:
1. split the light curves from two independent, identical detectors into segments as one would do to calculate standard averaged periodograms;
2. for each pair of light curve segments:
- calculate the Fourier transform of each detector separately, and then of the summed detectors (hereafter total-intensity);
- save the unnormalized Fourier amplitudes;
- multiply these Fourier amplitudes by $\sqrt{2/N_{ph}}$ (that would give Leahy-normalized periodograms if squared);
- subtract the Leahy-normalized Fourier amplitudes of the two detectors between them, *take the absolute value*, and obtain this way the Fourier Amplitude Differences (FAD);
- *smooth* the FAD using a Gaussian-window interpolation with a large number of bins, in our case all the bins contained in 1-2 Hz, but this might need an adjustment at extreme count rates ($\gtrsim 10/{\ensuremath{t_d}\xspace}$), where significant gradients in the white noise periodogram can occur in less than 1 Hz;
- use the separated single-detector and total-intensity *unnormalized* Fourier amplitudes to calculate the periodograms (and/or the cospectrum);
- divide all periodograms (and/or the cospectrum) by the smoothed and squared FAD, and multiply by 2.
3. normalize the periodograms to the wanted normalization (e.g. @Leahy+83 or fractional [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}: @BelloniHasinger90 [@Miyamoto+91]).
FAD correction of generic variable periodograms {#sec:correction}
-----------------------------------------------
We are now ready to verify whether the FAD-corrected periodogram is a good approximation to the dead time-free periodogram. To test this, we produced a number of different synthetic datasets as explained in Section \[sec:wndeadtime\], containing different combinations of QPOs and broadband noise components, expressed as pairs of Lorentzian curves[^5] We first calculated the periodogram and cospectrum of the dead time-free data, averaged over 64–512s intervals. Then, we applied a 2.5ms dead time filter to the event list and applied the FAD correction, as described in Section \[sec:fad\]
All spectra were then expressed in fractional [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}normalization [@Miyamoto+91; @BelloniHasinger90]. In this normalization, the integrated model returns the full fractional [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}of the light curve, and the dead time-free and the FAD-corrected periodograms should be consistent over the full frequency range. An example of this analysis is shown in Figure \[fig:pds\]: the FAD successfully corrects so well periodograms and cospectra when compared to dead-time free simulated spectra, that in the figure they are almost indistinguishable.
We ran extensive simulations testing how the method performs (1) for a range of different input count rates, leading to dead-time effects of different magnitude in the output periodograms and cospectra, and (2) when the light curves do not have the same count rate (since detectors may in reality have slightly different efficiencies). We fitted all spectra with a two-Lorentzian model, plus a constant offset to account for the white noise level in periodograms. We calculated the [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}by integrating the model fitted above over the full frequency range, and compared the results in the dead-time-free and FAD-corrected cases.
Simulation results and discussion {#sec:caveat}
---------------------------------
The simulations described above show that the shape of the periodogram is precisely corrected by the FAD procedure if *the input light curves have the same count rate* and *for values of the input count rate and [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}that are not too extreme*. Differing input count rates in different detectors matter in practice only for the single-detector periodogram, but *not* for cospectra and total-intensity periodograms. At high count rates, single-detector periodograms are corrected very well only if the two detectors have very similar count rates, and count rates must be more similar at higher count rates in order for the correction to apply. However, we find that the total-intensity periodogram and the cospectrum remain well corrected by the FAD even if the count rate in the two detectors differs by 30% in most cases. Therefore, we recommend to use the FAD very carefully with single-detector periodograms, which should not be an issue given that the total-intensity periodogram is more sensitive and more convenient to use. A comparison with the cospectrum, which is not affected by white noise level distortions, is always recommended.
However, we find that the FAD correction consistently overestimates the integrated [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}when the count rate and [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}are *both* very high, *in particular at low frequency* (See Figure \[fig:errors\]). At $\sim$200 ct/s and 50% [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}, the relative overestimation is below 5% (meaning that if the true [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}is 50%, the measured [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}is between 50 and 53%) and it is symmetrically distributed around 0, as expected from statistical uncertainties. At higher incident rates and [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}, the uncertainty distribution is biased towards positive relative errors, implying an overestimation of the [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}. This should not be a problem in most use cases, when the [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}is used as a rough indicator for spectral state. If very precise measurements of [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}are needed (for example, to calculate [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}/energy spectra), it is safer to account for this bias through simulations. As a rough rule-of-thumb, the bias in the measured fractional [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}increases *linearly* with the count rate and *quadratically* with [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}. A practical way to estimate this effect during analysis is to apply the FAD, obtain a best fit model, calculate the [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}, and simulate a number of realizations of the light curve to evaluate the amount of overestimation involved[^6].
Conclusions
===========
In this Letter we described a method to correct the normalization of dead time-affected periodograms. This method is valid in principle for 1) correcting the shape of the periodogram, eliminating the well known pattern produced by dead time, and 2) adjusting the white noise standard deviation of periodogram and cospectra to its correct value at all frequencies. In general, we recommend applying the FAD correction to both the periodogram and the cospectrum. The periodogram, if obtained by the sum of the light curves, can yield a higher signal-to-noise ratio. However, the white noise level subtraction is not always very precise due to mismatches in the mean count rate in the two light curves. A comparison with the FAD-corrected cospectrum, to verify visually the white noise subtraction, is always recommended: the white noise subtraction is the most important step when calculating the significance of a given feature in the periodogram [e.g. @Barret+12; @Huppenkothen+17]. The cospectrum has indeed the advantage of not requiring white noise level subtraction.
We performed a number of simulations to test the validity of our method and explore its performance in the limits of high count rates as well as detectors with mis-matched efficiencies. In all cases, we find that the adjustment of the white noise standard deviation in the periodogram and the cospectrum works remarkably well, allowing to make a confident analysis of X-ray variability even in sources where this was precluded until now. Only in cases where the count rate and the [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}are *both* very high ($>$500 ct/s incident, $>$40% resp.), the FAD correction leads to an overestimation the [$\mathrm{rms}$]{}, even if the white noise level of the periodogram remains flat.
We thank the anonymous referee for providing very insightful feedback. We thank David W. Hogg for useful discussions on the topic of Fourier analysis, and Jeff Scargle for useful suggestions and comments. MB is supported in part by the Italian Space Agency through agreement ASI-INAF n.2017-12-H.0 and ASI-INFN agreement n.2017-13-H.0. DH is supported by the James Arthur Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Moore-Sloan Data Science Environment at New York University. DH acknowledges support from the DIRAC Institute in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington. The DIRAC Institute is supported through generous gifts from the Charles and Lisa Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, and the Washington Research Foundation.
\[1\][[\#1](#1)]{}
, [et al.]{} 2013, , 558, A33
Astropy Project, [et al.]{} 2018, arXiv, arXiv:1801.02634
Bachetti, M. 2015, MaLTPyNT: Quick look timing analysis for NuSTAR data, Astrophysics Source Code Library, ascl:1502.021
Bachetti, M., Harrison, F. A., Cook, R., [et al.]{} 2015, ApJ, 800, 109
Barret, D., & Vaughan, S. 2012, ApJ, 746, 131
Belloni, T., & Hasinger, G. 1990, A[&]{}A, 230, 103
Hunter, J. D. 2007, Computing in Science and Engineering, 9, 90
Huppenkothen, D., & Bachetti, M. 2017, accepted to ApJ, arXiv:1709.09666
, D., [Bachetti]{}, M., [Stevens]{}, A. L., [Migliari]{}, S., & [Balm]{}, P. 2016, [Stingray: Spectral-timing software]{}, Astrophysics Source Code Library, , , ascl:1608.001
Huppenkothen, D., Younes, G., Ingram, A., [et al.]{} 2017, ApJ, 834, 90
Kluyver, T., Ragan-Kelley, B., P[é]{}rez, F., [et al.]{} 2016, in “Positioning and Power in Academic Publishing: Players, Agents and Agendas”, 87–90
Leahy, D. A., Darbro, W., Elsner, R. F., [et al.]{} 1983, ApJ, 266, 160
Lewin, W. H. G., van Paradijs, J., & van der Klis, M. 1988, SSRv, 46, 273
Miyamoto, S., Kimura, K., Kitamoto, S., Dotani, T., & Ebisawa, K. 1991, ApJ, 383, 784
, J., & [Koenig]{}, M. 1995, , 300, 707
van der Walt, S., Colbert, S. C., & Varoquaux, G. 2011, Computing in Science Engineering, 13, 22
Vikhlinin, A., Churazov, E., & Gilfanov, M. 1994, A&A, 287, 73
Zhang, W., Jahoda, K., Swank, J. H., Morgan, E. H., & Giles, A. B. 1995, ApJ, 449, 930
[^1]: here we will use the term PDS for the actual source power spectrum, and *periodogram* to indicate our estimate of it, or otherwise said, the realization of the “real” power spectrum we observe in the data
[^2]: The library is under heavy development. For this work we used the version identified by the hash `3e64f3d`. See <https://github.com/StingraySoftware/notebooks/> for tutorials on simulations, light curve production and timing analysis with Stingray
[^3]: <https://github.com/matteobachetti/deadtime-paper-II/>
[^4]: <https://github.com/StingraySoftware/HENDRICS/tree/master/notebooks>
[^5]: See the notebooks at <https://github.com/matteobachetti/deadtime-paper-II> to reproduce the analysis plotted in the Figures of this paper and more. The algorithm described in Section \[sec:fad\] is contained in the `fad_correction.py` file in the notebooks directory.
[^6]: relevant code can be found in Jupyter notebooks in the following GitHub repository: <https://github.com/matteobachetti/deadtime-paper-II>
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Enhanced detection of in-gel released N-glycans by MALDI-TOF-MS.
Many biologically relevant glycoproteins need to be separated on 1D- or 2D-gels prior to analysis and are available in picomole amounts. Therefore, it is important to have optimized methods to unravel the glycome that combine in-gel digestions with MALDI-TOF-MS. In this technical report, we investigated how the detection of in-gel released N-glycans could be improved by MALDI-TOF-MS. First, an AnchorChip target was tested and compared to ground steel target using several reference oligosaccharides. The highest signals were obtained with an AnchorChip target and D-arabinosazone as the matrix; a LOD of 1.3 to 10 fmol was attained. Then, the effect of octyl-β-glucopyranoside, a nonionic detergent, was studied during in-gel peptide-N(4) -(acetyl-ß-glucosaminyl) asparagine amidase F digestion of standard glycoproteins and during glycan extraction. Octyl-β-glucopyranoside increased the intensity and the amount of detected neutral as well as acidic N-glycans. A LOD of under 7 pmol glycoprotein could be achieved.
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Q:
How hide URL of links creating PDF with PhatomJS?
I'm starting to use PhantomJS to generate PDF's, but in the places where I'm adding a link PhantomJS is placing aside the complete URL between parenthesis. I wan to avoid that behaviour if can be done. Any one knows how to do it?
A:
After googling around I found that somebody added that behaviour using CSS, you can read it in https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/issues/10196 where the CSS added is:
a[href]:after {
content: "( " attr(href) " )";
text-decoration: underline;
margin-left: 2px;
color: #428bca;}
Then to avoid that you can include in your CSS a rule to clean up the content rule:
a[href]:after { content : "" }
And then works as should. You can also read more about it in https://github.com/alanshaw/markdown-pdf/issues/63
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Posting Frequency on "recycling"
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The present invention relates to a cleaning technology For removing a powder deposited on a surface to be cleaned, and More specifically to a cleaning technology for removing, with An image forming method and an apparatus for the same for forming an image on an image forming medium by spraying an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance via a powder control member having powder passage holes thereon towards an image forming medium and selectively making the powder flying towards said recording medium pass through said powder passage holes, powder deposited on a surface of said powder control member.
There has been known an image forming method and an apparatus for the same in which an image forming method called as direct toning or toner projection is employed.
In this image forming method, a voltage based on the image information is applied to the control electrodes placed in a space around slits or minute passage holes provided in the powder control member, charged powder as toner is selectively passed and moved through said powder passage holes to directly inject the toner to an image forming medium such as paper for forming an image.
In an image forming apparatus in which the image forming system as described is employed, when an operation for forming images is continued, sometimes the powder or some foreign material get deposited on a surface of a portion forming the powder passage holes of the powder control member. When the powder or other foreign material get deposited on a surface of the powder control member, jet of the powder flying towards an image forming medium can not be controlled as intended, which results in degradation of the image quality.
To overcome the problem as described above, there have been known various types of cleaning methods as well as cleaning apparatuses for cleaning the surface of the powder control member. For instance, as a cleaning method making use of a mechanical force, there has been known a method in which cleaning is executed by making a rotating brush contact the powder control unit (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 3-211064), a method in which cleaning is executed by shaking the powder control member (refer to, for instance, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 4-216072), a method in which the powder control member is thermally expanded by heating, and the powder or other foreign material deposited on the member is removed away by making use of deformation of the powder control member (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 4-141458), a method in which cleaning is executed by using an air flow (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. SHO 58-94481, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 4-191780, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 4-505899, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 5-134581), or the like.
As a method in which cleaning is executed by making use of an electromagnetic force, there has been known a method in which an electric field is applied to the charged powder and cleaning is executed by making use of an electrostatic force (a Coulomb force) (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. SHO 58-96570, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. SHO 58-104769, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. SHO 58-104771, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. SHO 59-188450, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. SHO 63-123060, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 3-168767, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 4-269563, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 4-329154, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 5-138919).
Also there has been known a method in which the cleaning methods described above are combined. For instance, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 5-92608 discloses an image forming apparatus using a magnetic toner as powder and comprising a toner carrier belt as a powder carrier and a rear surface electrode plate provided to hold a control grid as a powder control member via a gap, in which a voltage having a polarity reverse to that of toner is applied to the control grid when an image is not being formed, to promote separation of the deposited toner by an electrostatic force, and also the magnetic toner deposited on a surface of the control grid is removed by rubbing a surface of the control grid with a magnetic brush on the toner carrier belt. Further, for instance, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 7-117257 discloses a cleaning method in which toner on a mesh electrode is discharged and removed by simultaneously injecting an air flow and ions to the mesh electrode as a powder control member. Further, for instance, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 6-234233 discloses a multi-color image generating apparatus with a toner carrier as a powder carrier and a rear section electrode belt as a counter electrode member provided therein so that the powder control member is held therebetween, in which toner deposited on the powder control member is dropped with a hair-formed pad provided on the rear section electrode belt, and the toner is sucked and recovered through through-holes formed on the rear section electrode belt. Furthermore, for instance, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 5-286165 discloses an image forming apparatus with a developing brush roller as a powder carrier and a counter electrode member so that an aperture electrode is held therebetween via a gap, in which toner deposited on the electrode is swung away by vibrating the aperture electrode, and the toner swung away is recovered by an electric field onto the developing brush roller.
It has been turned out, however, that there are various defects in the cleaning methods based on the conventional technology as described above. For instance, in the cleaning method using a brush roller as described above, as the brush roller rotates contacting the powder control member, the powder control member may be damaged, or pulled off brush may get deposited on the developing section or on the powder control member to generate an abnormal image. Also in the cleaning method in which the powder control member is vibrated or the powder control member is thermally deformed to shake off powder, again there is a chance that the powder control member may be damaged, and in addition powder on the powder control member can not be completely removed just by vibrating or deforming the powder control member, and a portion of the powder may remain there in the deposited state. Also the cleaning method using an electromagnetic force can be applied only to a powder which can be magnetized, which is disadvantageous.
As a cleaning method in which an excellent cleaning capability even for non-magnetic powder can be realized without damaging the powder control member, there are the cleaning method using an air flow and the cleaning method using an electrostatic force (a Coulomb force).
However, in the cleaning method using an air flow described above, for completely removing the powder deposited on the powder control member, it is necessary to provide a large-sized fan, a large-sized pump or the like, as a source for generating an air flow, which not only causes an increase in the cost but also generates larger noise due to the fan or the like. In a case of the cleaning method in which an air flow and ions are simultaneously blown to a mesh electrode as a powder control member as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 7-117257, as toner on the mesh electrode is removed being discharged, it can be considered that the excellent cleaning performance can be obtained even if an air flow is set to a weak level, but a corona-generating apparatus for generating ions is required, and the simplicity, which is one of the advantages features of the direct toning method, is lost.
When it is tried to completely clean off the powder deposited on a powder control member with the cleaning method that makes use of an electrostatic force (a Coulomb force), it is necessary to apply a high voltage for forming a cleaning electric field for effecting the electrostatic force to the powder, but if the voltage is made excessively higher, discharging may be generated. When magnetic toner, which can be magnetized from outside, is removed by promoting separation of the magnetic toner on a control grid as a powder control member with an electrostatic force and rubbing the toner with a magnetic brush as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 5-92608 described above, an amplitude of the electric field for effecting the electrostatic force can be suppressed to a degree where discharging is not generated, but there is a disadvantage that this cleaning method can be applied only to magnetic toner (powder). Also in a case where toner shaken off by vibrating an aperture electrode as a powder control member is recovered with an electric field onto a developing brush roller, there is the possibility to suppress the amplitude of the electric field to a level at which discharging is not generated, but in this case toner (powder) may not be shaken off by means of vibration and may remain there.
In an image forming apparatus comprising a plurality of image forming sections for selectively allowing passage of powder flying towards an image forming medium through powder passage holes of the powder control member for forming a multi-color image or for other purposes, when the powder control member is to be cleaned, the possibility can be considered that a cleaning device is provided for each powder control member, but then a plurality of cleaning devices for the powder control members are required, which results in a disadvantage that the number of parts increase. There has been known a method in which a hair-formed pad as a cleaning member is provided on a rear section electrode belt as a counter electrode member for cleaning the plurality of powder control member and toner deposited on the powder control member is dropped with this hair-formed pad (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 6-234233), but the powder control member may be damaged due to rubbing by the hair-formed pad.
It is a first object of the present invention to provide an image forming method for forming an image on an image forming medium by spraying an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance via a powder control member having holes thereon through which the powder can pass towards an image forming medium and selectively allowing passage of the powder flying towards said image forming medium through the. holes according to the image information, in which excellent cleaning capability can be achieved, by combining an air flow with an electrostatic force generated by an electric field, even to non-magnetic powder deposited on a powder control member with a small-sized air flow generating unit as well as with an applied voltage at a level where discharging is not generated, and an apparatus for the same.
It is a second object of the present invention to obtain a cleaning device adapted to the image forming method and apparatus in which excellent cleaning performance can be realized even to non-magnetic powder deposited on a body to be cleaned with a small-sized air flow generating unit as well as keeping the applied voltage at a level where discharging is not generated by combining an air flow with an electrostatic force generated by an electric field.
It is a third object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus comprising a plurality units of image forming sections each for forming an image on an image forming medium by controlling a powder as an image forming substance flying towards the recording medium with a powder control member having powder passage holes and control electrodes provided around the powder passage holes, which can realize the excellent cleaning capability for each powder control member, even when using a cleaning device making it possible to clean a powder control member in a non-contact form without giving any damage to the powder control member, with a smaller number of components as compared to the configuration in which a plurality of cleaning devices are provided to powder control members respectively.
It is a fourth object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus comprising a plurality units of image forming sections each for forming an image on an image forming medium transferred by a belt member by controlling jet of powder as an image forming substance flying from a powder carrier to a counter electrode member, which can easily clean each powder control member without independently providing a cleaning device dedicated to non-contact cleaning of a powder control member, there by not causing any damage due to rubbing.
To achieve the first object described above, the present invention provides an image forming method for forming an image on an image forming medium by making an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance jet via a powder control member having holes thereof through which the powder can pass towards an image forming medium and selectively allowing passage of the powder flying towards the recording medium through the holes according to the image information; wherein an air flow is generated in a space adjacent to the powder control member and at the same time generating a cleaning electric field in said space for making the powder move away from the powder control member.
In the image forming method according to the above invention, an air flow is generated in a space adjacent to the powder control member, and cleaning is executed by blowing away the powder deposited on the surface of the powder control member. Simultaneously with the cleaning with an air flow, a cleaning electric field for moving the powder away from the powder control member by an electrostatic force, and powder deposited on the surface of the powder control member is separated away from the surface. As described above, by combining an air flow with an electrostatic force, cleaning with an air flow and cleaning with an electrostatic force are executed simultaneously.
To achieve the first object described above, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus for forming an image on an image forming medium by making an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance jet via a powder control member having holes thereon through which the powder can pass towards the image forming medium and selectively allowing passage of the powder flying towards the image forming medium through the holes according to image information; and the image forming apparatus comprises an air flow generating unit for generating an air flow in a space adjacent to said powder control member; a cleaning electric field forming unit for forming a cleaning electric field making the powder move away from the powder control member in the space; and a control unit for controlling generation of an air flow by the air flow generating unit as well as formation of the cleaning electric field by the cleaning electric field forming unit.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, when no image is being formed and an image on an image forming medium is not affected, an air flow is generated in a space adjacent to a powder control member by controlling an air generating unit with a control unit, and powder deposited on the surface of the powder control member is separated from the surface for cleaning. Simultaneously, when cleaning with an air flow, a cleaning electric field for moving powder away from the powder control member with an electrostatic force is generated by controlling the electric field control unit with the control unit, and the powder deposited on the surface of the powder control member is separated from the surface by the cleaning electric field for cleaning. As described above, by combining an air flow with an electrostatic force, cleaning with an air flow and cleaning with an electrostatic force are executed simultaneously.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the air flow generating unit comprises a counter member for an air flow having an air flow port for sucking or blowing out an air flow to and from said powder control member, and a driving unit for driving said counter member for an air flow so that said air flow port can be positioned at an opposite position close to and facing said powder control member and at an off position away from said powder control member.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, the counter member for an air flow having an air flow port for sucking or blowing out an air flow provided at a position separated away from the powder control member is driven by the driving unit when an image is not being formed; and the air flow port is moved to a position close and opposing to the powder control member. With this movement of the air flow to the opposing position, powder deposited on a surface of the powder control member is removed and cleaned off with an air flow sucked into and blown out from the air flow.
The image forming apparatus according to the present invention comprising a powder carrier for carrying thereon an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance; a counter electrode member arranged at a position opposing to the powder carrier; a jet electric field forming unit for forming a jet electric field making the powder on the powder carrier jet towards the counter electrode member; a powder control member having powder passage holes for controlling jet of the powder from the powder carrier to the counter electrode member between the powder carrier and the outer electrode member and also having a control electrode in a space around each of the powder passage holes; and a power source for applying a voltage to the control electrode according to the image information, and the cleaning electric field forming unit comprises a cleaning electrode provided around the air flow port of the counter member for an air flow and a power source for applying a voltage for forming the cleaning electric field between a cleaning electrode and the control electrode.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, when an image is formed, the electrically charged powder as an image forming substance is flown from the powder carrier to the counter electrode member due to the jet electric field formed by the electric field forming unit. The jet of powder to this counter electrode member is controlled by the powder control member having a control electrode with a voltage applied thereto through the powder passage hole according to image information, and an image is formed on the recording medium by selectively depositing the powder on the recording medium carried to a section between the counter electrode member and the powder control member.
And, when an image is not being formed, by applying a voltage to the cleaning electrode provided around the air flow ports of the counter member for an air flow from a power supply source for cleaning, a cleaning electric field is formed between the cleaning electrode and the control electrode of the powder control member. With this cleaning electric field, the powder deposited on the surface of the powder control member is separated from the surface and is moved towards the air flow or away from the air flow. In association with movement of the powder to or away from a surface of the powder control member, the powder deposited on a surface of the powder control member is removed and cleaned off with an air sucked from or blown out from the air flow.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the counter electrode member comprises a rotatable cylindrical member with the flow port formed thereon or a belt member and is also used as the counter member for air flow.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, when an image is formed, the air flow port of the counter electrode member formed with a cylindrical member rotatable against the powder control member carrier or a belt member is positioned at a position opposing to a section with no air flow port formed therein, and an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance is flown from the powder carrier to the counter electrode member. The jet of powder towards this counter electrode member is controlled by the powder control member having powder passage holes and a control electrode with a voltage applied thereto according to image information, and an image is formed on the recording medium by selectively depositing the powder on the recording medium carried to a section between the counter electrode member and the powder control member.
When an image is not being formed, the counter electrode member is rotated so that the air flow port formed on the counter electrode member also functioning as the counter member for air flow faces a surface of the powder control member, and the powder deposited on the surface of the powder control member is removed and cleaned off with an air flow sucked through or blown out from the air flow port.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the cleaning electric field is mainly formed by a voltage applied to the cleaning electrode.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, the cleaning electric field between the cleaning electrode around the air flow port of the counter member for an air flow and the control electrode of the powder control member is formed mainly by a voltage applied to the cleaning electrode, so that an electric potential in the control electrode can be suppressed to a level equal to or below a voltage level durable for components of the electric circuit such as an IC connected to the control electrode.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the cleaning electric field is an electric field formed by superimposing an alternating electric field to a static electric field.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, a cleaning electric field is formed by superimposing an alternating electric field to a static electric field in a space adjacent to the powder control member, and the powder can easily be separated from the surface of the powder control member by effecting a force causing reciprocal movement of the powder deposited on the powder control member as compared to a case where a cleaning electric field comprising only an static electric field is formed.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, a frequency of the alternating electric field is set to a range higher than 0.5 kHz or lower than 3 kHz.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, a force causing reciprocal movement of powder deposited on the powder control member can be effected more accurately by setting a frequency of an alternating electric field in the cleaning electric field within the specified range as described above.
With image forming apparatus according to the present invention, orientation of the air flow and that of the cleaning electric field are set so that orientation of movement of powder moved by said air flow and that of powder moved by said cleaning electric field are identical.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, movement of the powder moved by the air flow is made identical to that of the powder moved by the cleaning electric field, and the powder moved by the cleaning electric field away from the powder control member is moved by the air flow in the substantially same direction of the air flow.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, a maximum value of the cleaning electric field is set to a value smaller than a discharge start electric field obtained according to a Paschen""s electric discharge curve.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, a maximum value of the cleaning electric field is set to a value smaller than a discharge start electric field obtained according to a Paschen""s electric discharge curve to prevent generation of the cleaning electric field.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, an air pressure difference between an air pressure within the counter member for air flow for sucking or blowing out an air flow to and from the powder control member and the atmospheric pressure is set to less than 15 mm (H2O).
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, air pressure different between the air pressure inside the counter member for air flow and atmospheric pressure is set to 15 mm (H2O) or below, so that a low cost fan or the like generating little noises can be used as the air generating unit.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, formation of the cleaning electric field by the cleaning electric field forming unit is started in the state where an air flow has been generated by the air flow generating unit.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, in the state where the air flow has been generated by the air flow generating unit and cleaning of the powder with the air flow is being executed, formation of a cleaning electric field by said cleaning electric field generating unit is started and cleaning by the electric field is added, so that, different from a case where cleaning with the electric field is started in the state where cleaning of powder with an air flow is not executed, because of this, powder is not deposited on a surface of a member constituting the cleaning electric field forming unit such as a counter member for an air flow (counter electrode member).
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, a gap between the counter member for air flow when the air flow port is present at the opposite position and the powder control member is set to a value smaller than that when the air flow port is present at the off position.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, a gap between the counter member for an air flow when the air flow port is present at the opposite position and the powder control member is set to a small value, so that cleaning with an air flow can be executed more efficiently as compared to a case where the gap be set to the same value as that when the air flow port is at the off position.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, a gap between the counter member for air flow when the air flow port is at the opposite position and the powder control member is set to less than 0.3 mm.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, by setting the gap to 0.3 mm or less, a smaller air flow generating unit such as a fan or the like for generating a specified air flow provided in a space adjacent to the powder control member can be used, and at the same time a level of a voltage for forming a cleaning electric field in the space can be suppressed to a safe level.
In order to achieve the second object described above, the cleaning device according to the present invention comprises an air flow generating unit for generating an air flow in a space adjacent to a cleaned body; and a cleaning electric field forming unit for forming a cleaning electric field moving the powder off from the cleaned body in the space.
In the cleaning device according to the above invention, an air flow is generated in a space adjacent to a surface to be cleaned, and powder deposited on the surface to be cleaned is separated from the surface for cleaning. Simultaneously with the cleaning with an air flow, a cleaning electric field for moving the powder away from the cleaned surface with an electrostatic force is formed, and the powder deposited on the surface is separated from the surface. As described above, by combining an air flow with an electrostatic force, cleaning with an air flow and that with an electrostatic force are executed simultaneously.
It should be noted that, in the cleaning device according to the above invention, to obtain more excellent cleaning capability, it is preferable to form the cleaning electric field with a voltage in which a DC voltage is superimposed to an AC voltage or to set the frequency of the AC voltage within a range in which excellent cleaning capability can be obtained. Also to more securely prevent the generation of electric discharge due to the cleaning electric field, it is desirable to set a gap between a pair of electrodes with the cleaning electric field generated therebetween, a voltage difference between the electrodes, an air pressure in a space with the cleaning electric field formed therein, or other parameters to a level where electric discharge is not generated according to a Paschen""s curve. Further, to improve the cleaning efficiency more, it is preferable to make orientation of movement of the powder moved with the air flow substantially equal to that of the powder moved by the cleaning electric field.
To achieve the third object described above, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention comprises a plurality of image forming section each forming an image on an image forming medium by making an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance jet via a powder control member having powder passage holes towards the recording medium and selectively allowing passage of said powder flying towards said recording medium through the powder passage hole according to image information, and also having a belt member which can move along image forming positions on the image forming section and a belt driving unit for driving said belt member, and in the image forming apparatus, a cleaning device for cleaning the powder control member is movably provided between a cleaning position opposing to the powder control member and an escaping position off from the image forming position. It should be noted that herein the belt member includes not only a belt member for carrying an image forming medium but also a belt member for temporally carrying an image comprising the powder before transferred to the recording medium as an intermediate image carrier.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, an image can be formed by each image forming section on an image forming medium by moving, when an image is to be formed, the cleaning device for cleaning each powder control member is moved from an image forming position for each image forming section to an escaping position off from the image forming position. And when an image is not being formed, the cleaning device is successively moved to a cleaning position opposing to each powder control member to clean the respective powder control member.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the cleaning device can move along the belt member and also there is provided a driving unit for moving the cleaning device between the escaping position and the cleaning position.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, when an image is formed, the cleaning device for cleaning the powder control member is driven by the driving unit along the belt member to move the cleaning device from the image forming position to the escaping position off from the image forming position to form an image by each image forming section onto a recording medium. When an image is not being formed, the cleaning device is successively moved by the driving unit along the belt member to a cleaning position opposing to each powder control member to clean each powder control member.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the cleaning apparatus can be set in the slave state where the cleaning device follows movement of the belt member as well as in the released state where the slave state has been released and, also there is provided a slave state switching unit for switching the cleaning device between the slave state and the released state.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, when an image is not being formed and the cleaning device is moved, a state of the cleaning device is switched by the slave state switching unit to the slave state where the cleaning device follows movement of the belt member, and the cleaning device is successively moved, by diving the belt member, to a cleaning position of the powder control member for each image forming section. When an image is being formed and the cleaning device has been moved to the escaping position, a state of the cleaning device is switched by the slave state switching unit to the slave state released state where the slave state to the belt member has been released, so that the cleaning device does not move from the escaping position irrespective of whether the belt member is driven for forming an image on the recording medium or not.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the cleaning device comprises a belt turning unit for spanning the belt member over a plurality of rotary bodies and turning a portion of the belt member in a direction reverse to the direction in which the belt member opposes to the powder control member, and a cleaning member arranged in an area around which the belt member turns.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, the cleaning member arranged in the area around which the belt member turns can successively be moved to a cleaning position opposing to a powder control member in each image forming section.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the rotary bodies for the belt turning unit is also used as the cleaning member.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, the rotary bodies for the belt turning unit is also used as the cleaning member, so that a number of the components is further reduced.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, each of the image forming sections comprises a powder carrier for carrying thereon an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance, a counter electrode member arranged at a position opposing to said powder carrier, a jet electric field forming unit for forming a jet electric field making the powder on the powder carrier jet towards the counter electrode member, a powder control member having powder passage holes for controlling jet of the powder from the powder carrier to the counter electrode member between the powder carrier and the counter electrode member and also having a control electrode in a space around each of the powder passage hole, and the image forming apparatus also having a power source for applying a voltage to the control electrode according to image information, and there is provided in the image forming apparatus, an escaping unit for moving the counter electrode member to an escaping position off from a moving path of said cleaning device.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, when an image is not being formed, the counter electrode member located by the escaping unit at a position opposing to each image forming section is moved from the path through which the cleaning device moves off to the escaping position, so that the cleaning device can be moved more surely to the cleaning position in each image forming section without causing any interference between the cleaning device and the counter electrode member.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention with each of the image forming sections comprising a powder carrier for carrying thereon an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance, a counter electrode member arranged at a position opposing to said powder carrier, a jet electric field forming unit for forming a jet electric field making the powder on the powder carrier jet towards the counter electrode member, a powder control member having powder passage holes for controlling jet of the powder from the powder carrier to the counter electrode member between the powder carrier and the counter electrode member and also having a control electrode in a space around each of said powder passage hole, the image forming apparatus also having a power source for applying a voltage to said control electrode according to image formation, the belt unit is formed with a conductive material and is used as a common counter electrode member opposing to each powder carrier.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, when an image is formed, powder on each powder carrier is flown towards the belt member as a common counter electrode member formed with a conductive material.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, a belt unit formed so that the belt member is included therein is provided so that the belt unit can swing around a swinging shaft provided in the side contrary to the escaping position with a cleaning position for the each powder control member therebetween.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, the belt unit formed so that the belt member is included therein is swung around the swinging shaft provided in the side contrary to the escaping position with the cleaning position for the each powder control member provided therebetween, so that the cleaning device for cleaning each powder control member can be moved to the cleaning position without contacting the belt member.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention with each of the image forming sections comprising a powder carrier for carrying thereon an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance, a counter electrode member arranged at a position opposing to said powder carrier, a jet electric field forming unit for forming a jet electric field making the powder on the powder carrier jet towards said counter electrode member, a powder control member having powder passage holes for controlling jet of the powder from the powder carrier to the counter electrode member between the powder carrier and the counter electrode member and also having a control electrode in a space around each of said powder passage holes, the image forming apparatus also having a power source for applying a voltage to the control electrode according to image information, the counter electrode member is provided so that it can swing together with the belt unit.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention having a counter electrode member provided at a position opposing to a powder carrier, the counter electrode member can be slid together with the belt unit, so that it is possible to secure a path for moving the cleaning device for cleaning each powder control member to the cleaning position without giving any interference to the belt member not to the counter electrode member.
To achieve the fourth object as described above, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention comprising a plurality of image forming sections each comprising a powder carrier for carrying thereon an electrically charged powder as an image forming substance, a counter electrode member arranged at a position opposing to said powder carrier, a jet electric field forming unit for forming a jet electric field making powder on the powder carrier jet towards said counter electrode member, a powder control member having powder passage holes for controlling jet of the powder from the powder carrier to the counter electrode member between the powder carrier and the counter electrode member and also having a control electrode in a space around each of said powder passage holes, the image forming apparatus also having a belt member which can move along the image forming positions in each image forming section, a belt driving unit for driving said belt member, and a power source for applying a voltage to the control electrode according to image information, and in the image forming apparatus, an opening for cleaning is formed in the belt member and the counter electrode member is also used as a cleaning member for cleaning said powder control member via said opening.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, the opening for cleaning formed on the belt member is located at a position opposing to the powder control member, and the powder control member is cleaned via the opening with the counter electrode member used also as a cleaning member.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, a rotary member with a distance from a portion of its periphery used for the cleaning to a center of rotation is longer than a distance from the periphery of the other portion to the center of rotation is used as the counter electrode member, and there is provided a rotating/driving unit for driving the rotary member.
In the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, when an image is not being formed, the powder control member can easily be cleaned by rotating the counter electrode member also used as a cleaning member to locate the outer peripheral surface with a longer distance from a center of rotation of the counter electrode member at a position opposing to the powder control member. And, when an image is formed, interference to the belt member is prevented by rotating the outer peripheral surface with a shorter distance from a center of rotation of the counter electrode member to face the peripheral surface to the powder control member.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, edge of said belt member is reinforced with a reinforcing material.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, edge of the belt member with the opening for cleaning formed thereon is reinforced with a reinforcing material to improve the durability of the belt member.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, edge of the opening of the belt member is reinforced with a reinforcing material.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, edge of the opening of the belt member is reinforced with a reinforcing material to improve durability of the belt member.
With the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, a device for generating an air flow in a space adjacent to the powder control member and also forming a cleaning electric field for moving the powder away from the powder control member when located at a position opposing to the powder control member is used.
In the image forming apparatus according to the above invention, when an image is not being formed and the image on the image forming medium is not affected, the cleaning device is successively located to a position opposing to each powder control member, an air flow is generated in a space adjacent to the powder control section, and the powder deposited on a surface of the powder control member is separated and cleaned off from the surface. Simultaneously with the cleaning with an air flow, a cleaning electric field for moving the powder with an electrostatic force away from the powder control member is formed, and the powder deposited on a surface of the powder control member is separated and cleaned off from the surface. Thus by combining an air flow with an electrostatic force, cleaning with an air flow and that with an electrostatic force are executed simultaneously.
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There is a story about Roberto Mancini that has never come out before and probably goes a long way to explaining why, even for those of us who have admired his work, there is no getting away from the fact he can be a terrible prima donna sometimes.
It goes back to the FA Cup final in 2011 when Manchester City won their first trophy of the Abu Dhabi era and Mancini, who was always obsessively superstitious, was adamant that the team had to prepare exactly the same way as they had for their semi-final against Manchester United.
The problem was the team bus had accidentally gone the wrong way on that occasion from their hotel in Hertfordshire. Mancini wanted them to do the same again, even if it made the journey longer than necessary, and refused to budge even when he found out there was a police escort to take them on the correct route.
Mancini, being Mancini, got his way. The police went one direction, the bus went another, and an hour or so before kick-off...
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If the files are encrypted, then they were probably encrypted for a reason. Why are they encrypted? No-one here will risk copyright infringement (it's against forum rules).
tangoforce
01-24-2012, 10:00 PM
Which file exactly? - I've looked in the .zip and there are at least 20 different php files.
You have some issues to deal with:
1) You're trying to decrypt someones encrypted work / steal their code
2) You're not very good at posting details with your request - missing out details such as which file is stupid.
3) No-one here is going to decrypt an entire archive of encrypted files for you. It is a massive job to ask someone to do for free in their own time.
12k
01-25-2012, 06:41 AM
If you can use the PHP file without downloading any additional software, it isnt encrypted. It is something called obfuscated. Which in that case, just google obfuscation, or deobfuscation, and ull see something called base64_decode. A lot of websites will decode the script for you, but i will not.
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Hamilton was heard calling Verstappen “a dickhead”, prompting questions about it in the post-race press conference – when Sebastian Vettel leapt to Hamilton’s defence.
Appearing on the Dutch TV show Peptalk on Ziggo Sport on Monday night, Verstappen was shown this clip via Skype in his hotel room in Bahrain.
After hearing what was said, Verstappen remarked: “He is just out of the car there. Then those things can happen. If you are just out of the car, you are still full of adrenaline, so yeah.”
Check out Top 10 moments from Bahrain...
Verstappen refuted suggestions that he’d been too impatient in his move on Hamilton, which gave him a puncture and damaged his differential, ultimately forcing him to retire.
“I was really close behind and there was a chance to overtake, so I thought it was a good opportunity,” he said. “Our car was great. Then I’m not going to stay behind him.
“I knew we had a very good car for the race, so I knew we would be able to fight them.”
When asked if he was worried about Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo’s exit with a sudden electrical failure, Verstappen replied: “I think I had the same problem during testing. After that it didn’t return, but unfortunately this time in the race it did.
“I think overall it’s reasonably OK. The situation is better than last year, that’s for sure. But yeah, it’s not ideal.”
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Q:
Get snapshot of the document on success of saving it in google cloud firestore
I am testing the below code to create a new document and obtain a snapshot of it in order to retrieve the auto-generated the document id from the snapshot. When I log it, its coming out as undefined.
Can someone suggest a way to obtain the document id in a promise ?
db.collection("cities").doc().set({
name: "Los Angeles",
state: "CA",
country: "USA"
})
.then(function(snapshot) {
console.log("Document successfully written!" + snapshot);
})
.catch(function(error) {
console.error("Error writing document: ", error);
});
A:
You can do as follows:
const docRef = db.collection("cities").doc();
const docId = docRef.id;
docRef.set({
name: "Los Angeles",
state: "CA",
country: "USA"
})
.then(function() {
console.log("Document successfully written!");
})
.catch(function(error) {...}
With the doc() method, "if no path is specified, an automatically-generated unique ID will be used for the returned DocumentReference".
Note that this is independent from the fact you use, or not, the DocumentReference to write to the database. In other words, the automatically-generated unique ID is generated in the client, not in the Firestore backend. And note that this is not an asynchronous operation, so no need "to obtain the document id in a promise".
Finally note that the set() method does not return a snapshot of the document (you titled your question with "Get snapshot of the document on success)" but a Promise<void>.
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Background {#Sec1}
==========
With 835,000 new cases and 431,000 deaths reported in 2018, head and neck cancer (HNC) is the eighth most common and most lethal cancer in men worldwide \[[@CR1]\]. In addition to surgery and systemic therapy, radiotherapy (RT) is one of the cornerstones for treatment of this cancer. Owing to the rising cancer incidence rate in ageing populations and the widening list of indications for irradiation, the demands for RT have increased dramatically over the past decades \[[@CR2], [@CR3]\]. The increasing complexity of pre-treatment diagnostics and RT technology has led to delays in treatment decision-making and the reduction in linear accelerator throughput that has resulted in a significant imbalance between the demand for RT and the availability of RT capacities in many publically funded health systems; this is also the case in Slovenia \[[@CR4], [@CR5]\].
Due to obvious ethical reservations, the only way to study the impact of delays in starting RT on treatment outcomes are retrospective, observational analyses of cohorts from different institutions or countries \[[@CR6]\]. Intuitively, one would expect that the prolongation of the time taken before treatment intervention (TTI) is harmful to patients. Both the likelihood of tumor growth and the acquisition of a metastatic phenotype increases as a function of time \[[@CR7]\]. Furthermore, advanced tumors are more difficult to treat than smaller tumors \[[@CR8]\].
Indeed, a systematic review of pertinent literature from the period 1975--2005 by Chen et al. showed an increase in the risk of local HNC recurrence of 3.7% for every month of delay in definitive RT \[[@CR9]\]. However, certain studies included in Chen's meta-analysis, and also some more recent reports, negated the association between the delay in definitive RT and the increased risk of treatment failure \[[@CR10]--[@CR18]\]. Several different biases, inherent in retrospective analyses, either related to the quality of diagnostic procedures and treatment or to the inhomogeneity of the studied population, as well as a selection bias (i.e., patients with fast tumor progression or a higher burden of symptoms receive priority in treatment) and significant variability in the kinetics of individual HNC cases, may abolish the effect of TTI in outcomes \[[@CR19]--[@CR25]\]. However, if patients with advanced or fast-growing tumors have to wait longer, the magnitude of this effect may be overestimated \[[@CR26]\]). Furthermore, no compelling relationship between treatment delay and prognosis was found in some other cancer types \[[@CR27]--[@CR32]\].
In order to determine what would be an acceptable TTI in HNC patients treated with definitive RT or concurrent chemoradiation, we aimed to analyze the impact of TTI and growth kinetics of individual tumors on the occurrence of local/regional failure, distant metastasis, and survival in the present study of a cohort of Slovene patients with HNC.
Methods {#Sec2}
=======
In a retrospective study, patients with oral cavity, oropharyngeal, hypopharyngeal, or laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) who were treated with curative-intent definitive RT, with or without concurrent chemotherapy between January 2004 and December 2007 at the Institute of Oncology, Ljubljana, Slovenia, were included. Patients with T1N0 or T2N0 glottic cancer were left out of this cohort. The 2004--2007 period was chosen because of fluctuations in the waiting time for irradiation as a result of intensive renovations and expansion in the Department of Radiotherapy that took place over this time span. From patients' medical and RT charts, we collected information on clinical (gender, age, onset of symptoms, date and type of disease recurrence, and death), tumor (histology, site of origin, TNM stage), and treatment characteristics (RT technique, regimen and dose, duration of RT, type of concurrent chemotherapy \[CCT\]), and the number of cycles administered). The TNM stage was determined according to the 7th edition of the UICC classification system.
For analysis of the impact of tumor growth kinetics on treatment outcomes, the volumes (mL) of primary tumors and neck nodal metastases, as marked on diagnostic and RT planning computer tomography (CT) scans, were compared. Patients with the same basic clinical, disease and treatment characteristics, as indicated above but with both sets of CT scans available, were selected for this part of the study. Diagnostic CT scans were performed through the acquisition of 2 mm thin CT sections, whereas planning CT scans had a slice thickness of 3 mm, both with intravenous iodine contrast enhancements. Sets with extensive artefacts were excluded. For the purposes of RT planning, patients were positioned supine on the flat tabletop and a five-fixation point thermoplastic mask was used. Lymph nodes were considered positive if the smallest diameter was more than 1 cm and/or the necrotic center or extracapsular extension was seen. If available, segmentation was guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sets and the resulting contours around the primary tumors and metastatic neck nodes represented a consensus between two radiation oncologists and a radiologist. Volumes of primary tumors and metastatic neck nodes were separately calculated by a computer software program used for RT planning (XiO, Computerized Medical Systems Inc., St. Louis, USA; Eclipse Varian Medical Systems Inc., Palo Alto, USA). The end points in this part of the study were changes in the tumor/nodal volume and TNM stage, the calculation of the primary tumor volume doubling time, and their impact on the treatment outcome.
Statistics {#Sec3}
----------
The study protocol was approved by the Republic of Slovenia National Medical Ethics Committee (No. 0120--573/2017/4). For retrospective studies, a written consent is deemed unnecessary according to national regulations.
Basic descriptive statistics were reported with means, standard deviations and ranges for numerical variables, and as percentages for categorical variables. In patients with two simultaneous HNCs, some characteristics were reported in regards to patients, while others were reported in regards to tumors.
The survival curves were computed using the Kaplan-Meier estimator and the Aalen-Johansen estimator was used to estimate the cumulative probabilities of competing risks. The effect of covariates was analyzed using a multiple Cox regression analysis. With all the analyses, the data were censored at a five-year follow-up.
When focused on the survival of patients, the analyses were completed with patients as the units and the time was measured from the first day of therapy until death. The overall survival (OS, regardless of the cause of death) and the absolute risk (cumulative probability) of dying due to index cancer were reported. In the Cox regression, only the index cancer deaths (cause-specific hazard, CSH) were considered to be events of interest.
In the analyses where locoregional control (LRC) was of primary interest, the calculations were performed in regards to tumors, excluding the non-responders to RT (i.e., those with residual local or regional tumors at 10--12 weeks after RT completion). For the latter group, we concluded that it is the radio-resistance of tumor cells that are responsible for the persistence of the disease after therapy and not that patients had to wait for RT. The follow-up time was calculated from the last day of therapy. The estimated cumulative probability of local and/or regional recurrence, distant metastases, LRC (probability of being still alive and without local and/or regional recurrence), and disease-free survival (DFS; probability of being still alive and without events: locoregional and distant failure and deaths were the events of interest) were reported. All the analyses were conducted in regards to the tumors as independent units (this assumption was checked in the sensitivity analysis and allowed for gamma frailty).
The assumptions of the Cox regression were checked: a non-linear effect (a spline with 2 degrees of freedom) was allowed for the numerical variables and the proportional hazards assumption was tested using Schoenfeld residuals.
The TTI was defined as the time interval between the date of histopathologic diagnosis and the first day of the RT course. Tumor growth kinetics was expressed as the tumor volume relative increase rate (per day) and as the tumor volume doubling time (in days).
The tumor volume relative increase rate (per day) was calculated as: $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$ {\left(\frac{V\left({T}_2\right)}{V\left({T}_1\right)}\right)}^{\frac{1}{T_2-{T}_1}} $$\end{document}$$where V(T1) = gross tumor volume at time 1 (T1), i.e., on diagnostic CT scans; and V(T2) = gross tumor volume at time 2 (T2), i.e., on planning CT scans. It was reported as the percentage increase (1.01 was reported as 1% per day). The tumor volume doubling time was calculated as: $$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$ \frac{\mathit{\ln}(2)\left({T}_2-{T}_1\right)}{\mathit{\ln}\frac{V\left({T}_2\right)}{V\left({T}_1\right)}} $$\end{document}$$
Since a one-to-one relationship existed between the two, only the tumor volume relative increase rate (which requires no extrapolation) was considered for modelling.
All analyses were performed using R statistical software (version 3.4.1) and a *p*-value below 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results {#Sec4}
=======
Impact of time to treatment initiation {#Sec5}
--------------------------------------
Between 2004 and 2007, 262 patients with 273 oral cavity, oropharyngeal, hypopharyngeal, or laryngeal primary SCCs were treated with definitive (chemo) radiotherapy with curative intent. There were 227 men and 35 women, aged 38--89 years (mean: 60). The majority of tumors originated in the oropharynx (133 tumors in 130 patients) and were TNM stage IV (163 tumors in 157 patients). The TTI ranges from 7 to 90 days with mean 35.6 days. The distribution of the TTI is only slightly asymmetric with median 36 and interquartile range (IQR) 28--48.8 (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). Patients were irradiated with 2-dimensional (46, 17.6%) technique or 3-dimensional conformal isocentric technique (216, 82.4%) to the median RT dose 70 Gy (IQR 70--70) delivered in 2 Gy daily fractions (IQR 2--2). Concurrently to RT, 116 patients (42.5%) received chemotherapy, consisted of platin-based mono-chemotherapy (81 patients) or mitomycine C-bleomycin combination (35 patients). The characteristics of patients and their tumors are shown in Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}. Fig. 1Distribution of TTITable 1Clinical characteristics of patients and their tumorsCharacteristicsNo. (%)Gender Female35 (13.2%) Male227 (86.8%) Age (years)^a)^60.6 ± 9.9 (38.9--89.3)Tumor location^b)^ Oral cavity15 (5.5%) Oropharynx133 (48.7%) Hypopharynx53 (19.4%) Larynx72 (26.4%)Tumor stage^b)^ Stage I12 (4.4%) Stage II50 (18.3%) Stage III48 (17.6%) Stage IV163 (59.7%)Treatment^b)^ Radiotherapy157 (57.5%) Concurrent chemoradiotherapy116 (42.5%) RT duration (days)^a)^50.2 ± 6.7 (35--80) Time to treatment intervention^a)^35.6 ± 14.9 (7--90)^a)^ mean ± SD (range)^b)^ Eleven patients had two simultaneous primary tumors
### Treatment outcome and survival {#Sec6}
Clinical and/or radiologic assessment at 10--12 weeks post-therapy confirmed disease persistence locally and/or regionally in 66 cases (i.e., in 65 patients), and these patients were excluded from further analyses of LRC and DFS. Thus, 197 patients with 207 tumors were analyzed, and during follow-up, a local and/or regional relapse was recorded in 70 cases (33.8%) with a median time from treatment completion of 9 months (range: 6--18 months). The two- and five-year probability of local recurrence after the end of treatment was 20.3 and 24.2%, respectively, whereas the regional relapse was 12.6 and 15.5%, respectively. After three-years post-therapy, we only observed a small increase (i.e., 2%) in local recurrence probability, whereas the probability of regional relapse was stable after the third year follow-up. The probability of occurrence of distant metastases at 2 years was 8.7% and at 5 years it was 10.1%. At the second- and fifth-year follow-up, the LRC was 52.7% (95% confidence interval \[CI\], 46.3; 59.9) and 31.4% (95% CI, 25.7; 38.4), respectively, and the DFS was 50.2% (95% CI, 43.9; 59.9) and 31.4% (95% CI, 25.7; 38.4), respectively.
In the fifth year post-treatment, 187 out of 262 (71.4%) patients had died. The index cancer was the reason in 132 (70.6%) of the cases. During the first 2 years post-therapy, the probability of cancer-related death steeply increased from zero to 40%, but later, the changes were less pronounced. At the second and fifth year post-treatment, the OS, independent of the cause of death, was 51.5% (95% CI, 45.8; 57.9) and 28.6% (95% CI, 23.6; 34.7), respectively.
### Effect of covariates {#Sec7}
In the univariate analysis, the following parameters were tested for LRC and CSH: age, gender, stage of disease, type of treatment (RT vs. RT + CCT), and TTI for RT (as continuous variable). Results are presented in Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}. The same parameters were also included in the multivariate model (Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}). The occurrence of locoregional recurrence was significantly related to the disease stage (*p* = 0.002), whereas the relationship with age was only of marginal significance (*p* = 0.075; higher age had a lower hazard). No significant association with the type of treatment could be found (*p* = 0.344) (Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}). The log hazard for locoregional recurrence seemed to linearly increase during the first 40 days of waiting for RT, although the association between the hazard and TTI was insignificant, regardless of whether we made an allowance for nonlinearity or not (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}a). Table 2Effect of covariates on locoregional control and index cancer-specific hazard (*N* = 197 patients with 207 tumors): an univariate analysisParameterHR95% CI*P*-value*Locoregional control* TNM (III vs. I-II)0.8550.378--1.9340.706 TNM (IV vs. I-II)2.2651.276--4.0210.005 Age0.9690.944--0.9940.015 TTI1.0130.997--1.0280.104 Gender0.4760.191--1.1830.110Therap (CCT vs. RT)1.3700.857--2.1890.188*Cause specific hazard* TNM (III vs. I-II)0.8550.378--1.9340.026 TNM (IV vs. I-II)2.2651.276--4.021\< 0.001 Age0.9790.961--0.9970.024 TTI1.0030.991--1.0140.631 Gender0.8270.483--1.4160.489 Therapy (CCT vs. RT)1.2340.877--1.7360.228*CI* Confidence interval; *TTI* Time to treatment intervention;*CCT* Concurrent chemoradiotherapy; *RT* RadiotherapyTable 3Impact of TTI on locoregional control and index cancer-specific hazard (*N* = 197 patients with 207 tumors): a multivariate analysisParameterHR95% CI*P*-value*Locoregional control* TNM (III vs. I-II)0.8430.369--1.9250.685 TNM (IV vs. I-II)2.3201.211--4.4440.011 Age0.9760.950--1.0020.075 TTI1.0120.998--1.0270.094 Gender0.5010.201--1.2490.138 Therapy (CCT vs. RT)0.7680.444--1.3280.344*Cause specific hazard* TNM (III vs. I-II)3.2031.286--7.9760.012 TNM (IV vs. I-II)13.2236.007--29.108\< 0.001 Age0.9850.965--1.0050.133 TTI1.0010.990--1.0120.844 Gender0.9070.529--1.5560.724 Therapy (CCT vs. RT)0.5340.369--0.7740.001*CI* Confidence interval; *TTI* Time to treatment intervention;*CCT* Concurrent chemoradiotherapy; *RT* RadiotherapyFig. 2Trend of the hazard for locoregional recurrence (**a**) and for index cancer-specific death (**b**)
The hazard of dying due to the index cancer (i.e. CSH) was found to be favorably associated with a lower disease stage (*p* \< 0.001) and the addition of CCT to RT (*p* = 0.001), whereas age, gender, and TTI did not reach the level of statistical significance (Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}, Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}b).
### Assumptions and sensitivity analysis {#Sec8}
Proportional hazards (for all included variables) and the linearity assumption (for age) were analyzed and presented graphically. Some indication of non-proportional hazards could be found in gender, but allowing for non-proportional hazards did not change the interpretation of the other covariates. As a part of the sensitivity analysis, the assumption of the dependence of the tumors belonging to the same individual was relaxed, but no changes in the interpretation of the results could be observed. As an additional confounder, the time-dependent covariate "duration of RT" was considered, but its effect did not prove to be important.
Impact of tumor growth kinetics {#Sec9}
-------------------------------
Diagnostic and planning CT scans (median interval: 19 days, range: 3--108 days) were available from 52 patients; five of these patients had two primary tumors. The majority of patients were males (43, 82.7%), with a mean age of 61 years (range: 43.5--81.5), and the patients had primary tumors located in the oropharynx (Table [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"}). Table 4Characteristics of patients with available diagnostic and planning CT scansCharacteristicsNo. (%)Gender Female9 (20%) Male36 (80%) Age (years)^a)^60.47 (43.5--81.5)Tumor location^b)^ Oropharynx35 (61.4%) Hypopharynx3 (5.3%) Larynx19 (33.3%)Stage^b)^ Stage I5 (8.8%) Stage II2 (3.5%) Stage III14 (24.6%) Stage IV36 (63.2%)Therapy^b)^ Radiotherapy9 (20%) Concurrent chemoradiotherapy36 (80%) Tumor volume relative increase rate (%/day)^a)^1.03 (0.99--1.41) Tumor volume doubling time (days)^a)^19 (2--659)^a)^ mean ± SD (range)^b)^ Five patients had two simultaneous primary tumors
When two CT sets were compared, the original T-stage of the primary tumor was increased (i.e., upgraded) in two cases and the nodal stage was increased in six patients. Due to the limited number of N-positive cases (*n* = 34, 59.6%), only volumes of primary tumors were compared between the two CT sets for the calculation of the tumor volume relative increase rate (% per day) and tumor doubling time. The absolute increase in tumor volume ranged from − 0.06 to 3.87 cm^3^ per day (median: 0.29); no increase in volume was observed in five patients. CT scans in these five patients were taken from 4 days to 35 days apart (median: 19 days). The median tumor volume relative increase rate was 3.2% per day (median, 1.03; range, 0.99--1.41) and the median tumor volume doubling time was 19 days (range, 2--659 days). No difference was observed when these two parameters were compared between different tumor stages.
### Treatment outcome and survival {#Sec10}
Among the 57 tumors, the time taken for local and/or regional relapse and the occurrence of distant metastases were assessed for 45 tumors in which treatment resulted in clinical/radiological eradication of the disease at 10--12 weeks post-therapy. Local and/or regional relapse was recorded in nine (20%) cases with a median time from treatment completion of 9 months (range: 7--15 months). The two and five-year probability of local recurrence after the end of the treatment was 11.1 and 13.7%, respectively, whereas for the regional relapse, it was 6.7 and 9.2%, respectively. At 3 years post-therapy, only an increase in the local recurrence probability of 2% was observed, whereas the probability of regional relapse remained stable. The two- and five-year probability of distant metastases was 4.4%. At two and 5 years, the LRC was 71.1% (95% CI, 59; 85.7) and 62.2% (95% CI, 48.8; 79.3), respectively, and the DFS was 68.9% (95% CI, 56.6; 83.8) and 62.4% (95% CI, 49.1; 79.5), respectively.
In the 5 year-period after the start of treatment, 24 out of 52 (64.2%) patients died: the index cancer was the reason in 18 (75%) cases. At two and 5 years post-treatment, the OS rates were 65.4% (95% CI, 53.7; 79.7) and 51.3% (95% CI, 38.7; 68.1), respectively.
### Effect of covariates {#Sec11}
Due to the low number of events (local and/or regional recurrence: nine events; cancer-specific deaths: 18 events), only univariate regression models were fitted. The following covariates were tested in the models: overall disease stage, initial tumor volume, tumor doubling time, and relative increase rate (%/day) of primary tumor volume. Measures of tumor kinetics did not show any impact on LRC or CSH; only an inverse relationship between the initial primary tumor volume and CSH was observed (HR = 1.02 for index cancer-specific death per every 1 cm^3^ increase in the volume of primary tumors) (Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}). There was no difference in the value of DFS between patients with a primary tumor volume relative increase rate \< 1%/day and \> 1%/day (*p* = 0.755, Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}). Table 5Effect of stage and tumor kinetics on locoregional control and overall survivalParametersLocoregional controlCause specific hazardHR95% CI*P*-valueHR95% CI*P*-valueTNM stage(IV vs. I-III)2.730.57--13.180.2102.460.82--7.410.110V~TU~(per cm^3^)1.020.99--1.040.1681.021.01--1.000.005V~TU~ relative increase rate(per %/day)0.990.89--1.090.8110.970.88--1.060.465V~TU~ relative increase rate(≤1% vs. \> 1%/day)1.520.31--7.310.6031.480.49--4.470.483*V*~*TU*~ Volume of primary tumorFig. 3Impact of primary tumor volume relative increase rate to disease-free survival in 45 patients with no residual disease at 10--12 weeks post-therapy
Discussion {#Sec12}
==========
While it is intuitively anticipated and confirmed by the results of the meta-analysis that a delay in starting RT would have a negative impact on the treatment of patients with HNC, this association was not confirmed in our study \[[@CR9]\]. We only found a statistically insignificant upward trend in the risk of locoregional recurrence for the first 40 days of RT delay. In addition, the differences in the growth kinetics between individual tumors, which were studied in a smaller group of patients, were considerable but did not appear to be of significance for the prediction of treatment outcomes.
Obviously, the relationship between TTI and disease prognosis in patients with HNC is more complex than it might seem at first glance. The first negative impact of waiting for treatment to begin is the risk that the tumor will increase in size and/or metastasize during this time, making it harder to treat or resulting in it becoming untreatable \[[@CR7], [@CR8]\]. However, the time for a tumor to grow is only one of the factors that determines prognosis and the absence of a statistically significant association between TTI and the treatment outcome in our study (and many other reports) is thus not surprising \[[@CR10]--[@CR18]\]. Moreover, no obvious methodological differences could be found between these (negative) studies and the positive studies that confirmed the association between TTI and treatment outcomes \[[@CR33]--[@CR35]\]. In both groups, there are individual studies that have similar sample sizes, tumor site/stage mix, and periods covered, speaking in favor of comparable quality of diagnostics, therapy, and statistics across the studies.
On the contrary, in more recently reported analyses of the national cancer registries data, an adverse effect of waiting for radiotherapy was clearly established \[[@CR36]--[@CR38]\]. However, the results from this type of analysis should be taken with caution, not only due to the limitations inherent in the tumor registry data (unmeasured confounding, selection bias, incomplete data, and coding errors), but also because the effect of delaying RT on cancer-specific outcomes was not evaluated. In addition, patients irradiated in postoperative and definitive settings were not analyzed separately. Overall, the research methodology and interpretation used in these studies were criticized and the magnitude of the effect that they supposedly demonstrated was questioned \[[@CR39]\].
In the present study, a linear increase in the log hazard for locoregional recurrence was found during the first 40 days of waiting for RT, although it was not statistically significant. It is possible that unknown confounders that were not accounted in our analysis (e.g., tumor growth kinetics) reduced the statistical power of the TTI. The results from Fortin et al. and Naghavi et al., who reported on the increased risk of locoregional failure with TTI \> 40 days and \> 45 days, respectively \[[@CR33], [@CR35]\], are the most comparable to our own. However, optimal TTI thresholds identified in different studies showed considerable variations, pointing to the uncertainty of such calculations and their dependence on the characteristics of the analyzed population \[[@CR34], [@CR36]--[@CR38]\]. The possible role of classical prognostic factors, such as location of primary tumor, disease stage, and addition of CCT is not expected to be relevant in this respect, as in our and other similar studies the statistical significance of TTI was verified by multivariate analysis.
The effect of TTI on treatment outcomes, however, is not only conditioned by the duration of waiting for RT, but also on the rate of tumor growth. In HNC, a vast heterogeneity in tumor cell kinetics has been observed, conditioned by the local milieu from which it arises, which differs from patient to patient \[[@CR8], [@CR40], [@CR41]\]. Historically, different methods were explored to evaluate tumor cell kinetics, but did not succeed in providing clinically relevant kinetic parameters \[[@CR42], [@CR43]\]. More recently, a comparison of two sets of imaging data, acquired at two different time points, was successfully employed for this purpose. Usually, volumetric data are extracted from diagnostic and RT-planning CT scans for the calculation of different parameters reflecting the rate of tumor growth, e.g., (tumor volume) doubling time or absolute/percentage tumor volume increase per day. Despite some differences in the calculation methodology across studies, a large variation in the individual values of kinetic parameters was seen in all of them, including ours, indicating that all of the studied populations represent a unique mix of slow and fast growing tumors \[[@CR19]--[@CR25]\]. Among our patients, five had no measurable increase in primary tumor volume even when the interval between CT scans was up to 35 days. The inverse relationship between kinetic parameters, determined by the comparison of two CT datasets, and treatment outcomes was implied or even confirmed in several smaller studies, pointing to potential clinical utility of imaging-derived kinetic data \[[@CR21]--[@CR25]\]. In our group, however, no such association was found: a small number of patients and -- in contrast to other studies -- the inclusion of different tumor sites could contribute to the negative result, as well as differences in the changes in kinetic properties triggered by RT/CCR in individual tumors \[[@CR44]\].
Tumor radiosensitivity may also influence the effect of TTI on outcome. While to some extent it may be evaluated before RT begins (e.g., by molecular profiling, identification of hypoxic cells, and the determination of HPV status in oropharyngeal primary tumors), in daily clinical practice it is usually not considered when planning treatment \[[@CR45], [@CR46]\]. In order to diminish the impact of intrinsic tumor radiosensitivity, the patients in our study with residual disease at 10--12 weeks post-RT were excluded from the analysis of LRC. We hypothesized that the inability to achieve a complete tumor response to (chemo) radiation was due to the radiobiological characteristics of the disease and not the delay in starting RT. However, the exclusion of these patients from the analysis did not affect the end results.
Our study has weaknesses, which are mostly due to its retrospective nature. However, for obvious ethical reasons, this is an inevitable feature of studying delays in the initiation of cancer therapy. We are aware that there is always some doubt as to the accuracy of the diagnostic procedures, the staging, the quality of planning and the implementation of RT in the case of retrospective research. Nonetheless, the same restraint exists in the case of other similar studies and even more so in the case of analyses of cancer registry datasets. An important feature of our data set is that no patients were lost during the follow-up and, in our opinion, is free from many hidden biases that larger studies inevitably bring with. Since almost half of our patients had oropharyngeal carcinoma, missing information regarding the p16 or human papillomavirus (HPV) tumor status could be of importance. However, in the cohort of oropharyngeal cancer patients treated at our institution between 2007 and 2008, only 20.2% had a HPV-related tumor \[[@CR47]\]. Thus, we reasonably assume that the impact of p16/HPV tumor status on the study results was negligible. In addition, in HPV-positive cases, Perni et al. found no significant association between tumor growth velocity (calculated from serial pre-treatment CT scans), local and distant control, or OS, and the same was reported by Chu et al. who measured metabolic growth velocity using pre-treatment PET-CT scans \[[@CR23], [@CR48]\].
Other drawbacks to consider include technical limitations in CT scan acquisition, the accuracy of presentation of actual tumor volume on CT images, and the precision of the delineation of gross tumor volume. To minimize errors in the estimation of comparative tumor volumes, only high-quality pairs of CT images were selected for the analysis of tumor kinetics. In addition, physical findings documented in clinical records and, when available, diagnostic MRIs were used for this purpose and labelled tumor volumes represented a consensus between two experienced radiation oncologists and a radiologist, all dedicated to HNC management. Like many other studies \[[@CR10]--[@CR18], [@CR33]--[@CR36]\], the comorbidity burden was not registered in our patients, although it should be taken into account when assessing survival outcomes \[[@CR49]\]. Finally, lags in the pre-biopsy period were not addressed in our study, including patient delay and delays in referral and diagnostics, which may add significantly to the total TTI. These are also costly and potentially fatal, but can be successfully reduced by effective coordination between providers \[[@CR50]--[@CR52]\].
Conclusions {#Sec13}
===========
The relationship between TTI and treatment outcomes is multifaceted, so the controversy of published results is not surprising. In this study, we found that delays in the onset of RT do not harm all patients. As TTI is a problem in many public health systems, further research is warranted and should focus on two areas: evaluating large population surveys with high-quality data and treatment-related outcomes (not just OS), and the prognostic relevance of imaging-derived kinetic data of individual tumors (which appeared promising in several smaller and statistically underpowered studies) in order to obtain a tool to identify patients at increased risk of treatment failure due to delays in starting RT. In a situation without clear knowledge to whom waiting for irradiation is harmful, the only possible recommendation could be that the waiting time for RT should be "as short as reasonably achievable" (ASARA) \[[@CR53]\].
HNC
: Head and neck cancer
RT
: Radiotherapy
TTI
: Time to treatment intervention
SCC
: Squamous cell carcinoma
CCT
: Concurrent chemotherapy
CT
: Computer tomography
MRI
: Magnetic resonance imaging
OS
: Overall survival
CSH
: Cause-specific hazard
LRC
: Locoregional control
DFMS
: Distant metastasis-free survival
DFS
: Disease-free survival
IQR
: Interquartile range
CI
: Confidence interval
HPV
: Human papillomavirus
**Publisher's Note**
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This study was financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency (program no. P3-0307).
Study concepts: Žumer B, Strojan P. Study design: Žumer B, Pohar Perme M, Strojan P. Data acquisition: all authors. Quality control of data: Strojan P. Data analysis and interpretation: Pohar Perme M, Strojan P. Statistical analysis: Pohar Perme M. Manuscript preparation: all authors. Manuscript editing: Strojan P. Manuscript review: Žumer B, Pohar Perme M, Strojan P. The author (s) read and approved the final manuscript.
This study was financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency (program no. P3--0307).
The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
The study protocol was approved by the Republic of Slovenia National Medical Ethics Committee (No. 0120--573/2017/4). All patients gave consent for using their data for study purposes at the start of their treatment. For retrospective studies a written consent is deemed unnecessary according to national regulations.
The Republic of Slovenia National Medical Ethics Committee approved the study, which was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in an appropriate version of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. The need for consent was waived by the Republic of Slovenia National Medical Ethics Committee.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Pioneer Wind Park I and II will have about 6o turbines. The proposed installation by Wasatch Wind includes a commitment to use a-- yet-to-be FAA approved-- lighting technology that's radar triggered. If it happens, it could be one of the first uses of the technology in the country.
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Q:
how do I set up adb with MyTouch 4g?
I have a mytouch 4g running gingerbread. I want to set up adb to work with the phone over usb, but I can' figure out how to do it. Frankly, I don't really know anything more so I'm not sure what else to say. Any help is greatly appreciated
A:
First, ensure that "USB debugging" option is enabled on your phone by going to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Development. On some devices this option will be grayed out while your phone is connected via USB, so disconnect it first.
Next step is installing the USB drivers on your computer. Assuming you are running Windows, the drivers for MyTouch 4G should be located on the SD Card that came with the phone. Look for file named "HTCDriver.exe" then copy to your PC and execute it. If you can't find that file, look for the drivers on Google.
After you successfully install the drivers, download and install the Android SDK. Pick a folder that's easy to type, such as "C:\AndroidSDK" for example.
Now open Windows Command prompt by going to Start -> Run, typing "cmd" (without quotes) and pressing Enter. In the Command Prompt window type in cd C:\AndroidSDK\platform-tools and press Enter. Connect your MT4G to the PC via USB, and in the command prompt type in adb devices and press Enter.
If everything was correctly installed you should see messages like these:
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached
XXXXXXXXXXX device
where "XXXXXXXXXX" is a combination of letters and numbers, signifying your phone's ID.
This means ADB is seeing your phone, and you can now issue commands to it.
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Q:
Time returned by timeval structure is wrong in Ubuntu
I am trying to see the time taken by select function to moniter files, but when I try to print it, I get a very long number.Here is the code:
struct timeval to;
to.tv_usec=25;
nfds=select(maxfds+1,&readset,NULL,NULL,&to);
printf("Time left for monitering the file descriptors %d\n",to);
What is the reason for this weird behavior? This is code works fine with to.tv_sec.
Regards
A:
You cannot pass a struct to printf() that way. Pass one of its members or a value created from them.
If you trace the definition of a timeval struct down to implementation-specific detail, you will likely find something like this:
struct timeval
{
__time_t tv_sec; /* Seconds. */
__suseconds_t tv_usec; /* Microseconds. */
};
What this says is that there is a construct in memory which (at least on this particular platform) consists of a value in seconds followed in memory by a value of microseconds. These two values constitute the members of the struct.
A function such as select() needs to be given a pointer to the struct itself. A pointer to the first member might often have the same raw memory address as its value, but is not formally or portably interchangeable and should result in warnings if misused as a struct pointer.
A generic plain-value function like printf() has no knowledge of timeval structs, and so must be given either struct members which can be interpreted as numeric types which it does understand, or values created by combining struct members. For example, it's quite common to use both fields to calculate a 64-bit time in milliseconds and display that with 64-bit printf format specifier.
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Weekend trippin': Four sensational packages you must book this summer
SooToday.com, in partnership with Tourism Sault Ste. Marie, brings you a weekend feature highlighting the variety of services, stops and adventures available to you, your family, and visiting relatives right in our own backyard.
This week we invite you to partake of undeniable beauty, world class fishing, remote wilderness and epic adventure packaged perfectly just for you.
Four sensational packages you must book this summer.
The famous St. Marys River Rapids are in the core of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Legendary for annual runs of Steelhead, get your feet wet and test your skill . . . READ ON
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