Datasets:

tyzhu

/

proweb

like 0

Income inequality between Minnesota’s richest and poorest households continues to widen and is bad for the economy, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. Income inequality has gotten worse in every state since the 1970s, and the highest-income households today hold a much higher share of overall income. Growing income inequality contradicts some of our country’s most deeply held values. Americans believe that hard work should pay off, that people who work full time should be able to support their families, and that everyone should have the opportunity to succeed. Income inequality can also be bad for the economy. When low- and middle-income households have a smaller share of the economic prosperity they help produce, it can dampen consumer spending, which is an important driver of economic growth. Some of the most distressing findings: - As of 2013, the top 1 percent of earners in the United States hold 20.1 percent of the nation’s income. In Minnesota, a similar story prevails where the top earners hold 16.3 percent of income. - The income gap is now so wide that the richest 1 percent of earners in Minnesota make almost 20 times more than the bottom 99 percent. - In Minnesota, income inequality is worst in Roseau County, where the top earners have incomes 33 times higher than the bottom 99 percent. Fortunately, Minnesota can take actions to decrease income inequality and to push back on its negative impact on living standards. These include: - Increasing the number of good jobs by increasing wage and job quality standards, such as boosting the minimum wage and expanding access to earned sick time; - Ensuring our tax system doesn’t make income inequality worse, but instead is fair to Minnesotans of all income levels, through policies like expanding the Working Family Credit; and - Supporting lower-wage workers in their efforts to move into the middle class, by making child care more affordable, improving access to affordable health care, and making sure all Minnesotans can get the education and skills training they need. By investing the right resources in the right places, Minnesota can work to mitigate rising income inequality so that everyone has a chance to succeed.

As EPA hosted its second annual National Bed Bug Summit in Washington, D.C. this week, evidence continues to mount that bed bugs are increasingly immune to the pesticides being used to control them. Bed bugs are providing a textbook example of how pests become resistant to pesticides. According to researchers at Ohio State University, when pesticides are applied to bed bug colonies, inevitably a small population survives and develops resistance to the chemical used. As these survivors reproduce, they pass on that resistance to their offspring, creating new generations of pesticide-resistant bed bugs. The more pesticides the bugs are exposed to, the more resistant genes are developed. As Sara Kantarovich, technical director and corporate trainer at Smithereen Pest Management Services observed, They’ve done tests where we use common pesticides. One out of three bed bugs dies when you spray it directly. Those are not good odds. Because of this natural phenomenon, the implementation of non-chemical solutions to bed bugs is becoming increasingly important — and urgent. Unfortunately, it appears such reports are falling on deaf ears among politicians in New York City, where bed bugs have persistently made headlines. In a letter to EPA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the New York City Council wrote, "Given the difficulty of exterminating bed bugs, we are calling upon the EPA to conduct further research and development of effective pesticides." Instead of calling for more pesticides, New York city officials should be implementing the strategies outlined by its very own New York State IPM program, including tips for thorough inspection and mechanical removal (vacuuming) and exclusion (sealing crevices, etc). On the other side of the country, Californians for Pesticide Reform recently hosted a statewide training for pesticide companies and landlords featuring nonchemical approaches to bed bug control, including IPM and non-chemical solutions such as diatomaceous earth and heat treatments. We hope EPA uses this year's bed bug summit as an opportunity to address the issue of pesticide resistance, and devotes more resources to developing and promoting common-sense alternatives to chemical intensive treatments.

A friend of mine recently moved into a new house that is about as far away from where I live as you can get and still say that it’s nearby. He lives in a new county entirely, actually, which is the county beyond the county that we in the city call “the county.” So basically kind of far away. I recently drove out there to visit and check out the new place, and I found myself suddenly aware of the sky. There seemed to be more of it. It was as though the horizon line had been lowered, somehow, and the sky was increasingly everywhere. Whereas city life tends to block it out or at least finds a way to put an ad in it, the sky in this distant suburb was unbounded and all over. And all I wanted to do was get away from it. I’m unambiguously aware that, as a person, I am indoorsy (which, unlike “outdoorsy,” is not actually a word according to the dictionary). This might be one of the reasons that I am so drawn to the work of Gabrielle Bell, whose autobiographical comics have been widely acclaimed for over a decade. She has been praised for the simplicity of her line work, her unorthodox use of shading, her judicious attention to detail, and her capacity to transform otherwise ordinary conversations into existential treatises without actually seeming to have done so at all. Bell is also clearly aware that her life and the lives of everyone around her are in a constant state of becoming-comics; she depicts herself incessantly sketching; writes comics about the difficulty of writing comics; and spends time with people doing things that everyone knows will all end up being drawn. It’s a little like if Bertolt Brecht had been a staff writer for Friends. Her comics are also brilliantly contained, which is why I find a certain comfort in reading them on days when the sky gets too big. I’ve written elsewhere about the tendency toward small spaces in Bell’s earlier work, and her latest collection, The Voyeurs (Uncivilized Books, $24.95), continues to explore our relation to space — both in life and in art. Although many of the episodes in the book were originally published on her website, Lucky, the pages of The Voyeurs are mostly composed with a steady layout of six of the same-sized panels per page, and Bell frames the action with an almost unwavering full shot. For someone whom the Art Editor of the New Yorker, Francoise Mouly, has called a “master of exquisite detail,” it’s amazing how infrequently anything gets singled out or prioritized by a close-up. It’s actually almost never. Rather, Bell seems to want us to see the stuff of her life as… well, as we would actually see it. Sometimes her panels are densely detailed and overfull, but only when that’s the way the world looks. And other times, there’s just not a lot of stuff to look at. By her own admission, but also obviously enough in the comics themselves, Bell can be quiet, shy, and reserved, and she often retreats into her notebook, sketching and writing even when there’s something else going on around her. But of course, her comics reveal this retreat, and the act of creating comics is as important to her comics as the events that inspire the comics. Part of the irony of her work, then, is that the act of withdrawing into a more private world is in some ways predicated on the future publication of her work. As readers, we are invited to see her world not only as she sees it – which is to say, as it is sketched onto a page – but also to see her sketching this world. In this way, her comics are at once process and product. There’s almost a fractal sense of repetition, by which we as readers are seeing what was once the notebook’s page, which is what Bell is in the process of creating in the story itself, but because she has to draw herself drawing, we are actually seeing her see herself. It’s like the opposite of jockeying for a better view of something in a crowd; Bell’s comics are like two people constantly stepping back and sliding around to get behind each other, further and further away from the action. But it’s worth noting that the book is not called The Voyeur, and that even if it were, that person might not be Bell. By pluralizing the title, she implicates us all in her need to always be observing. The cover of the book is telling in this respect. Whereas the first story, “The Voyeurs,” involves a group of her friends watching a couple have apparently pretty awkward sex through a bedroom window across the street, the cover of The Voyeurs finds us looking in on Bell herself, sitting in darkened room on her computer. She is not drawing in her otherwise ubiquitous sketchbook, but using a computer to check in on the outside world. Elsewhere in the book, she admits that her relationship with e-mail — which she checks constantly — is one that is ever in anticipation of admirers and job offers, love and money. By viewing her through the window, then, the cover of the book confronts us with the fact that it is we who have become voyeurs, looking in on what the author herself has suggested is an almost erotic act. There is an honesty in Bell’s work that acknowledges just how much comics are her life. In one memorable scene, she doesn’t correct filmmaker Michel Gondry when he accuses her of skinny-dipping just so she can include it in her comics. What sets Bell apart from other autobiographical cartoonists is not only how important the medium is to her life (which we see in her lengthy documentation of a trip to San Diego Comic-Con), but how important the mediation is to her work. One of the book’s recurring themes is that of self-doubt — whether or not she has wasted her life; whether being sad can be the reason for being sad — and at one point she draws herself smoking cigarettes in a squalid apartment, only to write that this scene never really happened, but merely functions as an image of her despair. This is one of many fantasies and falsehoods that are included in The Voyeurs, which, in their obviousness, are as honest in their depiction as the things that “actually” happened. Above all, Bell’s autobiographical stories are brilliant in their resistance to resolution and closure. With the exception of the one-page “How I Make My Comics,” her strips rarely end with anything even remotely resembling a punchline. There is no trace of anti-humor here, but rather the tacit acknowledgement that of course the story, like any story, didn’t actually “end.” Autobiography is inimical to the idea of an end. Bell’s life goes on, and very frequently we get the sense that the last panel of any given strip is an arbitrary placeholder; we wait for the next thing to happen to her while our lives go on as well. For all of the world-traveling and fantasy-inflected episodes that occur in The Voyeurs, most of the stories are based on the premise that this is simply what happens to her, which is not all that dissimilar from stuff that happens to any of us. Gabrielle Bell’s work quite beautifully borders on boring. Like me, she spends a lot of time in her apartment, often alone. Like almost everyone, she sits around with people and spends more time listening than talking. She sits on the couch. She gets a haircut. She checks her e-mail. Fortunately, she also makes comics.

Before I start this column, I have two announcements. First, it's about time for another edition of my "Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie!" columns. (See my previous installments for game misfeatures, design errors, and personal annoyances covered in the past.) If you've got a game design gripe you'd like to get off your chest, send some E-mail to [email protected]. Please be sure to mention a game that the Twinkie Denial Condition appears in. I can't guarantee that I'll use it, but I would definitely like to hear about it. Second: if you are the chunky, dark-haired fellow with a maroon shirt and an Armenian last name who chatted with me on the mezzanine of the San Jose Convention Center at the Game Developers Conference, and accidentally left behind a signed copy of Richard Rouse's book Game Design: Theory and Practice, I have it for you -- drop me a line. One of the questions I get asked a lot is, "How do you start designing a game?" It's my belief that players play games -- large games, anyway -- to have an experience that they cannot have in the real world. The thing to do first, then, is imagine the nature of that experience. Once you have the experience in mind, you can move on to defining and documenting the gameplay. And, not coincidentally, another of the questions I get asked a lot is, "When you're documenting a game design, where do you start?" This column is part of the answer. A central idea at the heart of most videogames is the concept of the gameplay mode. This notion is intuitively obvious, but I've never seen an article or book that describes it directly, so here goes. When a player plays a videogame, he experiences three things directly: 1) A means of perceiving the game world, which I call the perspective because it's usually defined by a camera looking at 2D or 3D space from a particular point of view. 2) A means of influencing the game world, of projecting his will into it, which I call the interaction model. There are many of these, but two of the most common are the "avatar-based" and the "omnipresent" model, the former found in most action games, the latter in most board and war games. 3) The gameplay itself -- the challenges he faces and the actions he may take to overcome those challenges. I prefer a somewhat more rigorous definition than Sid Meier's "interesting decisions" -- if a piece of interactive entertainment does not offer challenges, it's not really a game. To me, challenges and actions make up gameplay, even though the definition is not perfect for all cases. The conjunction of these three elements -- perspective, interaction model, and gameplay -- constitutes a gameplay mode, a particular way of playing the game. If any one of the elements changes significantly in the course of playing the game, then the player has moved into a new gameplay mode. This description may seem a bit abstract, but a simple example will make it immediately recognizable. In a car racing game, the player spends much of his time driving the car. The perspective is usually out the windshield of the car; the interaction model is through treating the car as a mechanical avatar; and the gameplay consists of certain challenges (driving it safely, conserving fuel and tires, and of course finishing first) and actions (steering, accelerating, and braking) that address these challenges. The business of driving the car is a gameplay mode, and in most cases it is the primary mode. In the Gran Turismo series, car modifications are made outside the racing environment. The player examines different types of equipment upgrades and can purchase them, a la a garage mechanic. The player can also tune and tweak existing parts. Many serious racing sims include another gameplay mode, however, in which the player can make adjustments to the car to try to improve its performance. The perspective in this mode is usually a schematic diagram of the car -- the player isn't looking at the game's setting at all. The interaction model is neither avatar-based nor omnipresent, but more that of a mechanical engineer working at a computer-aided design station. And of course the challenges and actions involve finding the optimum configuration of all the car's various characteristics for maximum performance. Really dedicated players may spend 50% of their time, or even more, tuning the car and adjusting it for the current track and weather conditions. Some games, such as Tetris or most adventure games, have only one gameplay mode. A few have two in which the player spends near-equal amounts of time. For example, in some war games you have to organize your troops for battle first, then actually fight the battle in a second phase. Nine Men's Morris also includes two phases, one for placing the stones and a second one for moving them. Complicated games can easily have a couple of dozen, or even more, gameplay modes. In an American football game, choosing and executing a single pass play typically involves six modes all by itself: selecting a formation; selecting a play; calling signals and the snap; backpedaling, choosing a receiver, and throwing the ball; maneuvering the receiver under the ball and catching it; and running downfield avoiding tacklers. In each of these, the perspective may not change, but the challenges facing the player and the user interface that implements the actions both do. The modes are avatar-based, but right in the middle of the play, the avatar switches from the quarterback to the receiver! The boundaries of a gameplay mode are not sharply defined. Switching the camera from cockpit view to chase plane view in a flight simulator isn't really significant enough to call it a mode change. On the other hand, it might seem that Pac-Man has only one gameplay mode, but actually I think there are two: running away from the ghosts when you are vulnerable, and chasing the ghosts when they are vulnerable. Your challenges are sufficiently different in each (catching versus avoiding being caught), that even though the perspective, interaction model, and available actions are the same in both, they constitute different modes. I don't insist upon it, but from the standpoint of documenting the game, I think it helps to make the distinction. The brief moments where the player begins chasing ghosts constitutes a different gameplay mode in Pac-Man. In addition to the active gameplay modes, most games also include non-interactive modes as well-movies, high-score tables, mission briefings, and so on. For our purposes they're all gameplay modes, but some of them have no challenges or actions; they're only included to present information. Even a pause menu is a gameplay mode of a sort. So the answer to the question, "where do you begin documenting a game design?" is simple: don't begin at the beginning of a game. The beginning of the game is the splash screen, or maybe the intro movie. Neither is very important, because they're non-interactive and they don't last long. The place to begin is at the primary gameplay mode, the place that the user will spend most of his time -- typically 60%-80% or more. This is the heart of the player's experience, the part of the game that it is most essential to get right. Define the primary gameplay mode first of all, then add others as necessary. As a game progresses, it frequently moves from one gameplay mode to another, depending on what's going on in the game. These transitions can either occur as a result of player actions -- the player calls time out in a sports game to send new athletes onto the field, for example -- or automatically as part of the natural flow of the game. (When a level is complete, most games automatically move on to a summary screen to let you know how you did.) The relationship among all these modes is the game's structure. The best way to document the game's structure is with a flowboard. The word is a combination of "flowchart" and "storyboard." Like a storyboard, it consists of a number of pictures, but unlike a film storyboard, it's not a linear series. Rather, each picture is a sketch, or mockup, of the screen in one particular gameplay mode. Under the picture is the mode's name and a brief description of its perspective, interaction model, challenges, and actions. Connecting the pictures together are arrows showing how the modes switch from one to the next, with a text notation to indicate when and why the transition takes place. Figure 1 shows a simplified version for an old-fashioned coin-op game, using boxes without the pictures. Figure 1. Flowboard example. There's no victory condition in this flowboard--the game assumes that the player will eventually lose sometime, in classic arcade fashion. It also lacks a feature allowing the player to insert a coin to continue play, because the earliest arcade games didn't have that. Notice that this flowboard doesn't actually document the levels themselves. It's intended to describe the game's functionality, not its content. The point of the flowboard is to convey to the programmers and user interface designers the key screens and modules that they will need to create, on the assumption that every level is functionally identical to every other level (as the old arcade games were). You could include each level as a separate gameplay mode, but then you'd have a very large flowboard with a lot of redundant material in it that the programmers don't need. It's better just to document the key modes (including the other housekeeping or non-interactive screens), and define the levels in a separate document. Similarly, in a large PC or console game with a linear storyline, you don't need to document the story itself in the flowboard unless the game's perspective, interaction model, or gameplay change significantly as the story progresses. Instead, just write the linear story down in a separate document. On the other hand, if you have a branching storyline but the functionality of the gameplay doesn't change much from one episode to another, you should document the story in a separate flowboard -- a narrative, as opposed to a functional, flowboard. (Wing Commander was a good example of this: the gameplay was the same for each mission-flying a starfighter -- but the storyline branched based on the outcome of the mission.) The programmers will need to see the narrative flowboard too, to know which branch of the story to present next, but it will only complicate the coding process (and the flowboard itself) if you have narrative branches intermingled among the functional branches. The most complicated situation of all occurs when you have a branching storyline whose gameplay does change significantly as the story goes along. Then you have no choice but to document them together as a single, gigantic flowboard. I don't think I've ever seen such a game. For one thing, it would be difficult and time-consuming to program; it already takes long enough to build a game with only one or two kinds of gameplay in it. For another, most players like their game to stick to a single genre, and genres are defined by gameplay. If your story requires the game to switch between several kinds of radically different gameplay, most players are going to be put off. Gameplay modes and flowboards are at the heart of my game design workshops, and indeed my whole approach to designing games. Back when I was working for p.f. Magic, we used to draw each mode on a single sheet of paper and stick them up on the wall, then add more sheets to show the arrows running between them. This gave us lots of room for drawing the screen mockups and penciling in notations, and the whole team could see the flowboard at once. If we needed to rearrange something, it was easier to pull down the sheets and move them than it would have been to edit a big drawing and print it all out again. Give it a try!

Rhinos are facing an escalating poaching crisis at the moment and unless something dramatic is done to protect them they will go extinct in the wild. There is no one silver single bullet to protect rhinos, what is needed is a wide range of activities. Below are the activities that Save the Rhino helps to fund across all the field programmes. In order to stop rhinos being poached it is essential to have well trained, well equipped, motivated and effectively deployed field rangers. These are the people on the ground who go out daily to protect rhinos, sometimes facing very dangerous situations. Monitoring rhinos is essential for keeping track of each animal and their movement patterns, habitat utilisation, population demographics. It is also a way for rangers to identify if a rhino has been poached. If we want to protect rhinos in the future we need today’s children to grow up to be wildlife stewards and so it is important to teach children the benefits of wildlife and how to protect them. The demand for rhino horn has been identified as one of the main driving forces for the escalating poaching of rhinos. It is essential to reduce poaching and protect rhinos for the long time that work is done to reduce the demand for rhino horn in consume For wildlife to survive it is essential that local communities benefit and support living alongside wildlife. Community conservation is important to ensure that local people benefit from having rhinos in their area and want to protect them. To grow populations of rhinos it is important to manage them. When an area has too high a density of rhinos i.e. it has reached carrying capacity, breeding will start to decrease and so it is important to move rhinos to new areas to increase breeding. This includes building skills and experiences for programme staff and can sometimes be done by exchanging skills between programmes.

Archeologists have excavated the hull of a boat fit for an ancient Egyptian king's eternal journey in the afterlife. The 5,000-year-old wood hull, they say, is the earliest surviving example of a "built" boat, one constructed out of planks fitted together and representing a major advance in boat-building technology over the dugout logs and reed vessels of more ancient vintage. The boat--about 75 feet long and 7 to 10 feet wide at the widest part, with narrowing prow and stern and a shallow draft--was examined in detail this summer by American archeologists at Abydos, 300 miles south of Cairo. Here the earliest known pharaohs were buried, long before the pyramids at Giza, outside Cairo or the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, across the Nile from Thebes. A study of the Abydos boat and at least 13 others buried in parallel, like a fleet riding at anchor near mortuary monuments, is expected to provide scholars with new evidence about the wealth, power and technological prowess of the earliest royal dynasties of the Egyptian civilization. The boats have not been precisely dated, but other remains indicate they were associated with pharaohs of the first dynasty, beginning around 3000 B.C. "I'm thrilled to see an example of early technology like this," said Cheryl Ward, a nautical archeologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee who examined a 10-foot-long section of the hull. "In the ancient world, boats were the most complex machines produced. They were one of the premier symbols of the leadership of the pharaoh." Egyptologists hope to learn from these findings more about the significance of boats in the ancient religion and royal funerary practices, related to the belief that the sun-god Ra traveled by boat through the sky by day and the netherworld by night in cycles of regeneration. Boats were buried near a king's tomb so that in death he, too, could achieve endless renewal. The Abydos boat, archeologists said, predated by as much as 400 years the famous boat recovered at Pharaoh Khufu's pyramid at Giza, but in meaning and function it appeared to be a direct ancestor. The boat's design and construction also should provide insights into the craft plying the Nile on more mundane missions in early Egypt. "Our boat experts say this is an actual and viable boat, not a symbolic one," said David O'Connor of New York University, director of the expedition. "But there's no evidence that any of these boats were ever actually used in water. Would you give a king a used boat?" An official announcement of the excavations was made in Cairo last month by Farouk Hosni, Egypt's minister of culture, and G.A. Gaballa, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The council licensed the work at Abydos by archeologists from the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Yale University and New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. "It's tremendous news," said Rita E. Freed, an Egyptologist at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, who was not involved in the project. "This is clearly a boat technology the Egyptians would have used in daily life. It also shows their abilities for organization and technology." Until now, the only evidence of such ancient Egyptian boats came from illustrations on pottery and tomb walls, and archeologists could not be sure how realistic these were. Of the few boats to survive, the oldest had been two found in boat-shaped pits next to Khufu's pyramid at Giza; each was 142 feet long. "The rarity of royal boat burials suggests that kings' burials might have more often included boat models, magically empowered substitutes for the real thing," O'Connor said. The tomb of Tutankhamen, who lived much later, in the 18th dynasty, contained 35 boat models. Boats of one sort or another have a much deeper history. Dugout boats from about 6000 B.C. have been uncovered in Denmark, and rafts and reed vessels were probably in use for thousands of years before that. People were presumably floating some kind of boats as early as 50,000 years ago, when humans first settled in Australia. "We don't see built planked boats until we get to Egypt, not until the start of urban civilizations," Ward said in an interview. "It takes a lot of skill to build a boat like the ones at Abydos, something we don't think about in our day of power tools. There had to be trained workers shaping the wood, usually with stone tools. It took planning and discipline and a higher level of organization in a society." Archeologists have been digging the ruins of Abydos since the turn of the 20th Century. In 1988, while exploring a northern sector of the site, more than a mile away from the royal tombs, the American team, including O'Connor, found lines of mud brick peeking from the sand. At first, they took these to be buried walls. After closer examination three years later, O'Connor reported what he then called a "startling and significant discovery." Each "wall" turned out to be part of an enormous boat "grave."

All successful people set goals, so goal setting must be a worthwhile activity to do. One on the main reasons why people set goals is because goals focus the mind and give it something to work towards. Goals are therefore like having a destination in life, and the things you do to achieve those goals are how you get there. Without goals you will have no destination to go to, and so will be blown around like a leaf in the wind, never really going anywhere. How To Write Goals? When you have decided exactly what you want to achieve in certain areas of your life, such as romantic or financial, your next step is to write this in goal format. Goal format simply means writing goals beginning with "I have" or "I am", so they are written as if you have already accomplished them. This tells the mind exactly what you want to do so it can start working on achieve those goals. However if you were to write goals beginning with "I will" or "I want" then it is unlikely you will achieve those goals, as to the mind these statements will always be in the future and so will never come. Set A Deadline Once you have your goals written down, you must then create a deadline for you to do them by. Without a deadline you will not be motivated to achieve them, and so will most likely give up on them after awhile. Make A Plan After your goals have been written down you should then create a plan as to how you are going to do them. For example if your goal is to loose a certain amount of weight, then your plan would include activities you must do to loose that weight. This can include things like exercising 4 days a week and eating healthy foods. But whatever you do, try to make your plan as specific as possible. Although don't worry about getting it right the first time round. You can always add to it later on. Well that's really all there is to setting goals. It's nothing complicated, but it does require some initial time to be set aside so you can decide what goals you want to go after, and then how you will achieve them. These are the main principles of goal setting, and if you can follow these simple steps you will be well on your way to achieving them!

Table of Nations 1. The Table and Its Object 2. What It Includes and Excludes 3. Order of the Three Races 4. Extent of Each 5. Sons of Japheth 6. Sons and Descendants of Ham 7. Further Descendants of Ham 8. Sons of Shem 9. Further Descendants of Shem 10. Value of Table and Its Historical Notes 11. Further Arguments for Early Date of Table 1. The Table and Its Object: This is the expression frequently used to indicate "the generations of the sons of Noah" contained in Ge 10:1-32. These occupy the whole chapter, and are supplemented by Ge 11:1-9, which explain how it came about that there were so many languages in the world as known to the Hebrews. The remainder of Ge 11:1-32 traces the descent of Abram, and repeats a portion of the information contained in Ge 10:1-32 on that account only. The whole is seemingly intended to lead up to the patriarch's birth. 2. What It Includes and Excludes: Noah and his family being the only persons left alive after the Flood, the Table naturally begins with them, and it is from his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, that the inhabitants of the earth, as known to the Hebrews, were descended. All others--the Mongolians of the Far East and Japan, the American Indians, both North and South, the natives of Australia and New Zealand--were naturally omitted from the list. It may, of course, be argued that all the nations not regarded as descended from Shem and Japheth might be included among the descendants of Ham; but apart from the fact that this would give to Ham far more than his due share of the human race, it would class the Egyptians and Canaanites with the Mongolians, Indians, etc., which seems improbable. "The Table of Nations," in fact, excludes the races of which the Semitic East was in ignorance, and which could not, therefore, be given according to their lands, languages, families, and nations (Ge 10:5,20,31). 3. Order of the Three Races: Notwithstanding that the sons of Noah are here (Ge 10:1) and elsewhere mentioned in the order Shem, Ham and Japheth (Ge 5:32; 6:10), and Ham was apparently the youngest (see HAM), the Table begins (Ge 10:2) with Japheth, enumerates then the descendants of Ham (Ge 10:6), and finishes with those of Shem (Ge 10:21). This order in all probability indicates the importance of each race in the eyes of the Hebrews, who as Semites were naturally interested most in the descendants of Shem with whom the list ends. This enabled the compiler to continue the enumeration of Shem's descendants in Ge 11:12 immediately after the verses dealing with the building of the Tower of Babel and the Confusion of Tongues. 4. Extent of Each: The numbers of the descendants of each son of Noah, however, probably bear witness to the compiler's knowledge, rather than their individual importance in his eyes. Thus, the more remote and less known race of Japheth is credited with 14 descendants only (7 sons and 7 grandsons), while Ham has no less than 29 descendants (4 sons, 23 grandsons, and 2 great-grandsons), and Shem the same (5 sons, 5 grandsons, 1 great-grandson, and 20 remoter descendants to the 6th generation). Many of the descendants of Shem and Ham, however, are just as obscure as the descendants of Japheth. How far the relationship to the individual sons of Noah is to be taken literally is uncertain. The earlier names are undoubtedly those of nations, while afterward we have, possibly, merely tribes, and in chapter 11 the list develops into a genealogical list of individuals. 5. Sons of Japheth: It is difficult to trace a clear system in the enumeration of the names in the Table. In the immediate descendants of Japheth (Ge 10:2), Gomer, Magog, Tubal and Mesech, we have the principal nations of Asia Minor, but Madai stands for the Medes on the extreme East, and Javan (the Ionians) for the Greeks (? and Romans) on the extreme West (unless the Greeks of Asia Minor were meant). Gomer's descendants apparently located themselves northward of this tract, while the sons of Javan extended themselves along the Mediterranean coastlands westward, Tarshish standing, apparently, for Spain, Kittim being the Cyprians, and Rodanim the Rhodians. 6. Sons and Descendants of Ham: Coming to the immediate descendants of Ham (Ge 10:6), the writer begins with those on the South and then goes northward in the following order: Cush or Ethiopia, Mizraim or Egypt, Phut (better Put, the Revised Version (British and American)) by the Red Sea, and lastly Canaan--the Holy Land--afterward occupied by the Israelites. The sons of Cush, which follow (Ge 10:7), are apparently nationalities of the Arabian coast, where Egyptian influence was predominant. These, with the sons of Raamah, embrace the interior of Africa as known to the Hebrews, and the Arabian tract as far as Canaan, its extreme northern boundary. The reference to Babylonia (Nimrod) may be regarded as following not unnaturally here, and prominence is given to the district on account of its importance and romantic history from exceedingly early times. Nevertheless, this portion (Ge 10:8-12) reads like an interpolation, as it not only records the foundation of the cities of Babylonia, but those of Assyria as well--the country mentioned lower down (Ge 10:22) among the children of Shem. 7. Further Descendants of Ham: The text then goes back to the West again, and enumerates the sons of Mizraim or Egypt (Ge 10:13), mostly located on the southeastern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean. These include the "Libyans in the narrowest sense" (Lehabim), two districts regarded as Egyptian (Naphtuhim and Pathrusim), the Casluhim from whom came the Philistines, and the Caphtorim, probably not the Cappadocians of the Targums, but the island of Crete, "because such a large island ought not to be wanting" (Dillmann). The more important settlements in the Canaanitish sphere of influence are referred to as the sons of Canaan (Ge 10:15)--Sidon, Heth (the Hittites), the Jebusites (who were in occupation of Jerusalem when the Israelites took it), the Amorites (whom Abraham found in Canaan), and others. Among the sons of Canaan are, likewise, the Girgashites, the Arkites and Sinites near Lebanon, the Arvadites of the coast, and the Hamathites, in whose capital, Hamath, many hieroglyphic inscriptions regarded as records of the Hittites or people of Heth have been found. It is possibly to this occupation of more or less outlying positions that the "spreading abroad" of the families of the Canaanites (Ge 10:18) refers. In Ge 10:19 the writer has been careful to indicate "the border of the Canaanites," that being of importance in view of the historical narrative which was to follow; and here he was evidently on familiar ground. 8. Sons of Shem: In his final section--the nations descended from Shem (Ge 10:21)--the compiler again begins with the farthest situated--the Elamites--after which we have Asshur (Assyria), to the Northwest; Arpachshad (? the Chaldeans), to the West; Lud (Lydia), Northwest of Assyria; and Aram (the Aramean states), South of Lud and West of Assyria. The tribes or states mentioned as the sons of Aram (Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash), however, do not give the names with which we are familiar in the Old Testament (Aram Naharaim, Aram Zobah, etc.), and have evidently to be sought in different positions, indicating that they represent an earlier stage of their migrations. With regard to their positions, it has been suggested that Uz lay in the neighborhood of the Hauran and Damascus; Hul near the Sea of Galilee; and that Mash stands for Mons Masius. This last, however, may have been the land of Mas, West of Babylonia. 9. Further Descendants of Shem: Only one son is attributed to Arpachshad, namely, Shelah (shalach, shelach, Ge 10:24), unidentified as a nationality. This name should, however, indicate some part of Babylonia, especially if his son, Eber, was the ancestor of the Hebrews, who were apparently migrants from Ur (Mugheir) (see ABRAHAM; UR OF THE CHALDEES). Though Peleg, "in whose days the land was divided," may not have been an important link in the chain, the explanatory phrase needs notice. It may refer to the period when the fertilizing watercourses of Babylonia--the "rivers of Babylon" (Ps 137:1)--were first constructed (one of their names was pelegh), or to the time when Babylonia was divided into a number of small states, though this latter seems to be less likely. Alternative renderings for Selah, Eber and Peleg are "sending forth" (Bohlen), "crossing" (the Euphrates), and "separation" (of the Joktanites) (Bohlen), respectively. The Babylonian geographical fragment 80-6-17, 504 has a group explained as Pulukku, perhaps a modified form of Peleg, followed by (Pulukku) sa ebirti, "Pulukku of the crossing", the last word being from the same root as Eber. This probably indicates a city on one side of the river (? Euphrates), at a fordable point, and a later foundation bearing the same name on the other side. Reu, Serug, and Nahor, however, are regarded generally as place-names, and Terah as a personal name (the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran). From this point onward the text (Ge 11:27) becomes the history of the Israelite nation, beginning with these patriarchs. 10. Value of Table and Its Historical Notes: Arguments for its early date.--There is hardly any doubt that we have in this ethnographical section of Gen one of the most valuable records of its kind. Concerning the criticisms upon it which have been made, such things are unavoidable, and must be regarded as quite legitimate, in view of the importance of the subject. The interpolated sections concerning Nimrod and the Tower of Babel are such as would be expected in a record in which the compiler aimed at giving all the information which he could, and which he thought desirable for the complete understanding of his record. It may be regarded as possible that this information was given in view of the connection of Abraham with Babylonia. In his time there were probably larger cities than Babylon, and this would suggest that the building of the Babylonian capital may have been arrested. At the time of the captivity on the other hand, Babylon was the largest capital in then known world, and the reference to its early abandonment would then have conveyed no lesson--seeing the extent of the city, the reader realized that it was only a short setback from which it had suffered, and its effects had long since ceased to be felt. 11. Further Arguments for Early Date of Table: Limits of its information.--For the early date of the Table also speaks the limited geographical knowledge displayed. Sargon of Agade warred both on the East and the West of Babylonia, but he seems to have made no expeditions to the North, and certainly did not touch either Egypt or Ethiopia. This suggests not only that the information available was later than his time, but also that it was obtained from merchants, travelers, envoys and ambassadors. The scantiness of the information about the North of Europe and Asia, and the absence of any reference to the Middle or the Far East, imply that communications were easiest on the West, the limit of trade in that direction being apparently Spain. If it could be proved that the Phoenicians came as far westward as Britain for their tin, that might fix the latest date of the compilation of the Table, as it must have been written before it became known that their ships went so far; but in that case, the date of their earliest journeys thither would need to be fixed. Noteworthy is the absence of any reference to the Iranians (Aryan Persians) on the East. These, however, may have been included with the Medes (Madai), or one of the unidentified names of the descendants of Japheth in Ge 10:2-3.

A history that may be history Preservation group puts 10 Albany structures on its 2010 endangered list Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, December 15, 2010 ALBANY -- The city's leading preservation group on Tuesday released a list of the 10 buildings and districts it considers historically valuable -- but threatened by demolition or alteration. Many of the buildings on the Historic Albany Foundation list are residential, once grand homes that have suffered at the hands of time and slipped into disrepair. There are entire residential districts, in fact, that the foundation considers endangered -- like the collection of Tudor-styled homes at 110-112 Holland Ave., or the row of 16 buildings that comprise McPherson Terrace in the West Hill neighborhood. Just one building on the list is industrial: the massive Argus Press factory at 1031 Broadway, north of downtown. "It's a phenomenal building and it has been abandoned for some time now," said William Brandow, president of the foundation's board of directors. Indeed, the majority of the buildings on the list are vacant. And many are in troubled neighborhoods where abandoned buildings are anything but rare. A few of the structures, however, are endangered despite the success around them. Most of the homes along Madison Place, for example, have been successfully renovated. But not 4 Madison Place, which was damaged by fire in 2005 and is now nothing more than a boarded-over facade. Likewise, 558 Madison Ave. is across from Washington Park and along New Scotland Avenue, which has seen a wave of new construction in recent years. But the building with a street-level storefront sits abandoned, a thumb in the eye of its Park South neighborhood. "That's a gateway building," Brandow said. "And it's been languishing for awhile." Historic Albany has released an endangered list every five years since 2000. It's an attempt to bring the spotlight to structures that need help. The tactic seems to work, as many of the buildings on the list released 10 years ago now seem safe. Positive examples include the Madison Theater in the Pine Hills neighborhood or St. Joseph's Church, a Ten Broeck Street building now undergoing restoration. But there have been defeats: The Albany Knitting Factory in the South End, for example, made the 2005 list, but was subsequently demolished. "We've saved more than we've lost," said Susan Holland, executive director at Historic Albany. Still, the foundation concedes that few of the buildings on this year's list will be easy to save. Many will need a white knight-type savior or a concerted community effort to be rescued. Few of the buildings on this year's list are especially prominent. That's largely because the point of the list is to draw attention to buildings that aren't receiving any. Yet one of the buildings -- Bath House No. 2 -- has been the subject of heated debate, with city officials wrangling over whether the building used as a South End community pool should remain open. "It's not an easy building to adaptively re-use," Brandow said. Historic Albany also considers the entire Kenwood campus endangered. The 74-acre campus, the former home of the Doane Stuart School, is located on the city's southern edge and considered a prime development opportunity. But Historic Albany worries that changes could damage historic properties at the park-like site, including a stunning chapel built in the mid-1880s. After all, how can a developer integrate a historic chapel and other buildings into new construction? "That's another one that's a tough nut to crack," Brandow said. Other properties on the foundation's endangered list include residential buildings at 800-812 Broadway; the house at 10 Hall Place; and School 22 at 292 Second St.

Googled definition: a style of decorative art, architecture, and design prominent in western Europe and the USA from about 1890 until the First World War and characterized by intricate linear designs and flowing curves based on natural forms. What you need to know: Art Noveau is a pattern with flowing, curvy designs that interweave natural forms, such as flowers and insects. Googled definition: the predominant decorative art style of the 1920s and 1930s, characterized by precise and boldly delineated geometric shapes and strong colours and used most notably in household objects and in architecture. What you need to know: Art Deco is a pattern inspired by Egyptian and African art. It utilises bold colours, striking patterns such as zigzag and geometrical, bold sweeping curves and very commonly, sunburst motifs. An architecture example is the Chrysler Building in New York. Very strange name, but one that you need to remember for the exam! Googled definition: None What you need to know: Bauhaus was a design movement based in Germany. It's founder, Walter Gropius, had a motto; "form follows function". This means that the aesthetics of a product should come second to the function. He strived to make products for their purpose over their looks, which is why furniture in this style often has chrome tubing and black leather. Another unique name! Will we ever get a break? Googled definition: The Netherlands-based De Stijl movement embraced an abstract, pared-down aesthetic centered in basic visual elements such as geometric forms and primary colors. What you need to know: It was a Dutch Modernist movement, where the designs created were simplistic and very stripped back in nature. Simple shapes and primary colours were used as well as horizontal and vertical lines as to not overcomplicate the products. An example is the Red and Blue chair by Gerrit Rietveld. a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories. What you need to know: Postmodernists are against the idea that Bauhaus presented, which was "form follows function". Instead, they believe that style should be the priority of the product. The Memphis movement was big during postmodernism, and these designs used striking, contrasting materials and colours to make the product as aesthetically pleasing as possible. This is just one style of postmodernism. 2 others are kitsch (tacky and tasteless) and extreme minimalism (designs without decorative features). An example of Memphis design is Ettore Sottsass's Carlton cabinet.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Life Changing Thoughts There is a wealth of how to book on creating success and becoming wealthy. Many of these books become best sellers. This brings up a natural question, "Why aren't more people successful and wealthy? Are the books worthless?" To answer the last question first, for the most part, every how-to book that I have read had some good points. The classic self-help book for getting wealthy was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. While it has been credited with thousands for changing their lives, unfortunately it has been read by millions who were not able to achieve the success they dreamed of. Generally the author of such books had used the tactics and techniques in the book to create their own success. I have to conclude that the content of the book is not the problem. There are some great books with step by step instructions about how to achieve your dream. So it was not the books. To answer the first question, "Why aren't more people successful?" is a little more difficult. In my experience in dealing with hundreds of businesses and individulals over the years, I find that most people want to start with the how-to. They want to learn the tactics and techniques. But if they fail to have the right mindset, learning all the tactics and techniques will be of little use. You need to have the right mindset in order to really put the tactics and techniques to use so that you get the highest return. You probably have often heard that as a child you were subjected to lots of incorrect programming. And that to truly succeed in life you will need to change your programming. While we probably understand and accept that thought, we are often left clueless about how to actually change our programing. In his book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker discussed a lot of the ideas that we where taught about money - most of them wrong. He goes into great detail about how we must change our thinking about money if we truly want to have more of it. It is certainly a step in the right direction to reprogramming our thinking about money and success. There is one other book which I think does an even better job about changing our mindset. The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class by Keith Cameron Smith is much more direct and therefore easier to follow. This is a very powerful book that has the potential to change your mindset about money and success in life. The principles are not just applicable to money but to living a truly successful life. You can substitute "successful" for "millionaires" in any of the following. Millionaires focus on the long term. The middle class focus on the short term. Millionaires continually learn and grow. The middle class thinks learning ended with school. Millionaires ask themselves empowering questions. MIddle-class ask themselves dis-empowering questions. If you truly want to become a millionaire, you need to start with changing your mind-set. It is true that successful people think differently. You need to understand some powerful concepts that will help you think differently. If you really want to become highly successful, develop the habit of constant learning. The three books mentioned above are great starts. Focus on changing your focus and your focus will change you.

Wayang wong sacred dance that is virtually endangered at Ban village, Kubu, can finally be reconstructed. Culture agency came down immediately at that time to explore the potential of the sacred and rare arts. However, the challenge ahead is to continue the regeneration. Karangasem culture agency is currently working to encourage local residents to maintain Wayang wong sacred dance that is virtually endangered at Ban village, Kubu, can finally be reconstructed. Culture agency came down immediately at that time to explore the potential of the sacred and rare arts. However, the challenge ahead is to continue the regeneration. Karangasem culture agency is currently working to encourage local residents to maintain the regeneration. Head of the Karangasem Culture Agency, Putu Arnawa, said on Sunday (Mar. 5) that the reconstruction process took place pretty well last year. As a result, the potential of sacred dance that was made very sacred by local communities can now be reconstructed with the involvement of ISI Denpasar. However, to preserve it, the regeneration process must be going on pretty well. Previously, the potential of this sacred art was almost extinct due to the difficulty of doing regeneration of the dancers. “After this regeneration process goes well, we have emphasized on customary villages there to aggressively disseminate the program to children,” said Arnawa. He asserted that customary villages are already committed to performing the coaching. Local government will also continue to monitor the coaching after painstakingly reconstructing the sacred dance. Arnawa added that the other potential arts having got its fame in the past, but almost extinct because of the same problem, will be re-discovered. Currently, a team has been conducting a study in the field and making data collection, so that it can be preserved, either as the potential art, tourist attraction or the need of sacred ritual purposes at villages. Reconstruction process had been carried out by involving around six dancers and gamelan music instructors. It started by checking various masks and other accessories. Conditions of the various types of masks and other equipment are very alarming. Since the wayang wong has no longer been performed, a number of masks are found unkempt and almost destroyed. Luckily, during the reconstruction process, these historical objects can still be repaired and saved. At that time, the culture and tourism agency along with the ISI Denpasar began by discovering back the storyline and puppet characters commonly used as the basis of the wayang wong storyline there. Finally, it obtained some storylines such as the “Kumbakarna Seized” or the “Death of Kumbakarna.” Based on the storylines, the ISI Denpasar drafted the storyline, adjusted the characters and created the dance movement. It is a part of our duty, both as discovery, preservation and development. Local people are very excited to welcome the reconstruction process of the wayang wong. Since long time ago people have wanted the regeneration that could revive and resume the artistic heritage of the sacred dance tradition to support a variety of sacred rituals at local village. “At that time, our officers must be willing to wait for them till evening. Local people could only perform the exercise at night because they are busy at work from morning till evening,” he said. In the past, wayang wong dance was often performed as a sacred dance to support various rituals at Ban village such as at Puseh Temple or other temples at local village. Regeneration is hard to do because most of local younger generations work in diaspora or outside the village. Especially in Karangasem, a number of villages in other subdistricts are still working to preserve the wayang wong. They include Wates village in Selat subdistrict, Selumbung village in Manggis subdistrict as well as Pempatan village in Rendang subdistrict. Their masks and other equipment are still stored and well maintained. Moreover, the wayang wong in Selat subdistrict has often represented Karangasem to the Bali Arts Festival. (kmb)

Necrotizing soft tissue infections Also known as: Flesh-eating bacteria infection, Necrotizing fasciitis, Fournier gangrene Necrotizing fasciitis is an infection caused by bacteria. It can destroy skin, fat, and the tissue covering the muscles. The disease sometimes is called "flesh-eating" bacteria. When it occurs on the genitals, it is called Fournier gangrene. Necrotizing fasciitis is very rare but serious. About 1 out of 4 people who get this infection die from it.1 Many people who get necrotizing fasciitis are in good health before they get the infection. Your risk of getting this infection is higher if you: - Have a weak immune system. - Have chronic health problems such as diabetes, cancer, or liver or kidney disease. - Have cuts in your skin, including surgical wounds. - Recently had chickenpox or other viral infections that cause a rash. - Use steroid medicines, which can lower the body's resistance to infection. What causes necrotizing fasciitis? Necrotizing fasciitis is caused by several kinds of bacteria. Some of these bacteria also cause infections such as strep throat and impetigo. Usually the infections caused by these bacteria are mild. But in rare cases they can cause a more dangerous infection. You can get necrotizing fasciitis in: - Wounds that come in contact with ocean water, raw saltwater fish, or raw oysters. You also can get it though injuries from handling sea animals such as crabs. - An intestinal surgery site, or in tumors or gunshot injuries in the intestines. - A muscle strain or bruise, even if there is no break in the skin. - Bacteria that cause necrotizing fasciitis can be passed from person to person through close contact, such as kissing, or by touching the wound of the infected person. But a person who gets infected by the bacteria is unlikely to get necrotizing fasciitis unless he or she has an open wound, chickenpox or an impaired immune system.

The persistence of the life script is well illustrated by the theory of the racket system. One of the insightful features of this theory is how they have collated various aspects of human psychology into a system. Showing how they can interact but more importantly how they can support each other. A person’s belief systems, behaviors, feelings body sensations (bodily holding patterns or psychosomatics), self generated fantasies and reinforcing memories (thoughts) are included. It is a nice collation and organization of various aspects of the human psyche. As the diagram shows this results in powerful structure and explains why the life script path is a hard thing to change. Such change is difficult because the personality has a structure of interwoven parts which support each other and are supported by each other. This also demonstrates an interesting evolution of human psychology. It has evolved into a very stable structure. It has evolved in a way such that human personality is a stable structure by spreading the determinants of personality amongst at least five areas. It has not evolved such that “all its eggs are in one basket”. This means once the child has established the basic features of the personality in the five areas it becomes solid and resistant to significant change. If one area is challenged in some way the other four will ‘repulse’ the challenge with their own consistency and reduce the amount of overall change. The Gouldings always maintained that after a major redecision has been made it takes about six months for that redecision to be fully integrated into the overall personality. Stated another way it could be said that a redecision changes a persons belief systems and it then takes the four other areas six months to adjust to that the new decision. After that time it can be incorporated into its overall structure where all five areas are again being supported by and supporting each other. It could be said that it takes six months for the new decision to move from being ego dystonic to ego syntonic. Whilst this may seem discouraging it must be remembered that this works both ways. If a child establishes healthy and positive personality structures that also is going to be resistant to change. Changes in the negative direction will be resisted just like changes in the other way. In addition if a person does make some good changes in psychotherapy, then once fully integrated into the personality that is also going to be resistant to change. All systems resist change The other good point about this is that it is a system. Indeed it is called the racket system. Any system is only as strong as it weakest part. In therapy one looks for the weakest part of the five areas and focusses on that. As soon as one part changes then all other four areas will have to readjust at least to some degree. To remain as a successful interwoven system they have to readjust.

Bacterial urinary tract infection (UTI) is a serious condition every cat parent must be aware of. UTI’s most frequently occur amongst cats from 1 to 10 years old according to the Merck Veterinary Manual. What is a UTI? Just like in humans, Urinary Tract Infection is the inflammation of the urinary bladder or the urethra; the anatomic structures that store and channel the urine from the kidneys to outside the body. These organs are tubular in nature, and as they swell due to inflammation, the passing of the urine might be difficult and painful due to the constriction of the lumen; a condition called DYSURIA. What Causes it? The most common cause of UTI’s in cat are from familiar bacteria’s such as: E Coli, Staphylococcus, Proteus, Streptococcus, Klebsiella, and Pseudomonas. Except for E. Coli, all of the following causative agents are just normal inhabitants on the skin of animals and man, therefore, contracting them is not difficult. It now boils down to the health of our respective cats, their age, and the presence of medical conditions that may lead to development of UTI. What to look for? Since cats hide their pain by nature, identifying the condition can be tricky. However, there are very clear signs that can indicate a problem which include: These are the observable manifestations of the disease that every cat parent should be aware of. If your cat is expressing abnormal urinary behaviors, evaluation is recommended. What to do if you think your cat has a UTI? If you suspect your cat may have a UTI, based on the above warning signs, diagnostic kits for home use are available. A viable option is CheckUp for Cats. The Cat CheckUp Kit provides preliminary detection of UTI, as well as other conditions such as high glucose levels, kidney failure, and blood in the urine. For UTI specifically, CheckUp works to detect components in the urine that are present due to the presence of bacterial agents suggesting that there is infected. If you have a positive result of UTI from a CheckUp kit, or suspect a UTI is present in your cat, you should bring your pet to the Vet immediately for appropriate medical intervention. Common feline UTI treatments typically include an antibiotic series. Recovery is likely with the proper course of medication, and your cat can maintain a healthy life. The earlier the detection, the better, so we can encourage you to CheckUp on your pet’s health, and take an active role in their care by remaining vigilant and observing any changes in behavior or appearance.

Henri Casadesus: “George Friedrich Handel” Concerto for viola and orchestra A Family Tradition of Musical Imagination Henri Gustave Casadesus (1879-1947) was a gifted violist who had a keen interest in the music of earlier periods. Together with Camille Saint-Saëns, he founded the Society of Ancient Instruments in 1901, and as “musical ambassadors” the ensemble extensively traveled abroad. The society performed between 1901 and 1939 on Baroque period instruments, and over time, Henri assembled a remarkable collection of rare and ancient instruments. His instrument collection can still be admired in the Museum of the Boston Symphony. The principal aim of the Society was to present and perform unknown musical masterworks by famous masters. And since unknown musical masterworks are rather difficult to come by, Henri—just like his brother Marius—decided to entertain audiences with homegrown compositions falsely attributed to the great masters. Most famously, there is a concerto ascribed to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. It first appeared in a Russian edition, and was subsequently performed by Darius Milhaud and Serge Koussevitsky, and recorded by Felix Prohaska and Eugene Ormandy. Scholar Rachel Ward wrote, “At the present time, the most frequently recorded concerto of C.P.E. Bach is a spurious one.” Henri is also credited with a “Handel and Johann Christian Bach Concerto,” both for viola and orchestra. As far as we know, Henri Casadesus composed these works, a charge he never denied. Henri Casadesus: “Johann Christian Bach” Concerto for viola and orchestra

Curator Mercedes Vicente with viewers and the books Tone Johansen viewing the books About the exhibition There is a compelling attraction for many artists to gather their sketches and words into a book. Whether to keep a diary, to introduce narration or to play with animation as in the case of flipping books, the book has been a common and popular medium among artists. And for the curator, artists' books present the challenge of searching for display strategies to show them in the context of a gallery, while books seem to belong in libraries and are experienced at best in the intimacy of a reading room. I have been eager to find ways of exhibiting artists books that, while conscious of their preservation, would not preclude the desire of holding the book in your lap, allowing your fingers feel the paper and passing the pages over at your own pace. Kostas Kiritsis, a Greek artist raised in Poland, engages in a very personal journey that invokes his interest in Eastern cultures and travels, and takes the form of photographic diaries. Exemplary of his work is the book of his series "Beyond Horizon," a photographic report of his trip to Mongolia. Yet Kostas deals only with the realm of images. His noncompliance with the written world is manifested in his decision to once paint white every page of every book he had collected over the years. This Olympian gesture, according to the artist, aimed to achieve a state of tabula rasa, proved to be both utopic and unattainable, since the books turned white only to be filled again with photographs of his trips, clippings of news and other memorabilia. As a result, knowledge is replaced by experience, the written by the visual, and the objective by the personal. His is as much a conceptual move as it is a formal one. The white books are beautiful objects, like canvases, and displayed together in his studio in Poland become installations which Kostas documented in photographs that they themselves turned into books.

coffs is a valid word in this word list. For a definition, see the external dictionary links below. The word "coffs" uses 5 letters: C F F O S. Direct anagrams of coffs: Words formed by adding one letter before or after coffs (in bold), or to cffos in any order: s - scoffs Shorter words found within coffs: coff cos of off offs os so List shorter words within coffs, sorted by length

When looking at factorial experiments there are several natural hypotheses that can be tested. In a two-factor or a by b design, the three null hypotheses of greatest interest are the absence of each main effect and the absence of interaction. There are two ways to construct the numerator sum of squares for testing these, namely either adjusted or sequential sums of squares (also known as type I and type III in SAS). Searle has pointed out that, for unbalanced data, a sequential sum of squares for one of these hypotheses is equal (with probability 1) to an adjusted sum of squares for a non-standard associated hypothesis. In his view, then, sequential sums of squares may test the wrong hypotheses. We give an exposition of this topic to show how to derive the hypothesis associated to a given sequential sum of squares. Soto, Carlos J., "Associated Hypotheses in Linear Models for Unbalanced Data" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 841.

Driving up on winding roads sometimes become a tough task when there is a decent amount of traffic and you have manual shift gearbox on your car. None of the gears seems perfect when vehicle is fully or even partially loaded on such roads. Some gear ratios are too high and some gear ratios are too low for such driving up conditions. But it will be totally different story when you have continuously variable transmission (CVT) As the name suggests, its a continuous variable transmission and doesn’t have fixed points of shifting like manual transmission. The benefit is a smooth drive and constant power and better fuel efficiency. Since the engine runs at it’s most efficient operating point, even in stop-go traffic CVT gives 7% better fuel efficiency than manual transmission. In addition to this, CVT assembly is very compact owing to a very few components in the whole system. The compactness has two advantages, few parts implies less manufacturing cost and other being that it can be fitted even in the smallest entry level vehicles where there is very less space in engine bay. CVT can operate in wide range of power and torque and therefore it is practical to use in real life. CVTs are very popular in Japan, China and North America being the next major markets. CVT is a closely assembled set of pulleys on which flexible belts work as a bicycle chain. Two lobes of such set of pulleys mounted on shafts kept on the opposite side, one is driving shaft and other is driven shift. When transmission ratio is higher the driving shaft slides the belt on the higher side of pulley and driven shaft selects the lower side. The positions are reversed when there is a need for lower gear. On drive and driven shafts the belt moves between two cones and these cones are placed opposite to each other. The shifting of driving, driven pulleys and belt according to vehicle needs is seamless and therefore constant power is always an output in case of CVTs. In manual transmission there is always a power loss between two gear, no matter how fast you shift. CVT always give constant power and it is seamless. There is an optimum balance in power and torque with CVT transmission. The new developments in CVT technology allows full controlling of operation of CVT via ECU. The ECU sets the engine at optimum speed thereby achieving seamless power with better fuel efficiency. This compact transmission is a choice for car buyers in Japan and CVT is finding its growth in upcoming markets like China and North America. The CVT technology is currently offered in 300 production vehicles and is expected to grow in next 3 years. In India Nissan Sunny CVT delivers 20% more fuel economy than its petrol variant just because of few advantages discussed above.

Proper brewing is essential to creating a satisfying cup of coffee. Here are tips to ensure quality brewing: Coffee is 98% water, so great tasting water is an essential part of great tasting coffee. You may need a water filter or other water treatment equipment to purify your water. You may consider using bottled water as well. It is best to purchase your coffee whole bean and grind just before brewing. Roasted whole bean coffee will remain fresh for about two weeks if handled properly. Keep it sealed in an airtight container (the zip seal from Christian Andre Coffee is perfect) and protect the coffee from heat and moisture. Coffee that is ground too finely will result in over-extraction and bitterness, coffee too coarsely ground will be under-extracted and lack the full flavor potential. For a cone shaped filter the grind should be like fine sand, not powdery. For flat bottom filters just slightly more coarse than cone is great. For a French Press, use a coarse grind, similar to that used in a percolator.. Recommended Brewing Ratio The incorrect ratio of water to ground coffee will result in coffee brewed too weak or too strong. We recommend two tablespoons of ground coffee for every 8 ounces of water for a full flavored extraction. Acidity is an important characteristic that is often misunderstood. It is used to describe the bright, sharp or vibrant quality that an individual senses on the back sides of the tongue. Neither acidic nor sour, an acidic coffee is bright and brisk. Body is the sensation of heaviness, thickness, richness or viscosity perceived by the tongue. Body is a perception of mouth-feel, not a measurable element, yet can be confirmed by an experienced cupper. A good example of body would be the feeling of whole milk as compared to water. Typically, Indonesian coffees will have a fuller body whereas Central American coffees have a lighter body. Aroma is a major part of our sense of flavor, without it, it would be impossible to describe the subtle nuances such as winy or floral. Professional cuppers often say some characteristics are more evident in the aroma than the taste. Complexity is defined as the coexistence of certain characteristics such as full body and high acidity or acidity and sweetness which would normally not be present in a single origin coffee. Quality roasters create blends for this purpose (not to save money or disguise poor quality). Flavor is the overall perception that the taster perceives in the coffee. Acidity, body, aroma and complexity are all components of flavor. The following terms are used to describe aspects of coffee: Richness- describes body Balance- perceived equal levels of the elements that come together to create the profile or taste of a coffee Bright, sharp, brisk or dry- terms that describe acidity in coffees Delicate- a subtle flavor perceived on the tip of the tongue Chocolaty- aftertaste similar to unsweetened chocolate Caramelly- candy like or syrupy Earthy- like a soil type characteristic (typical of Sumatran coffees) Nutty- like roasted nuts Fruity- an aromatic characteristic similar to berries or citrus Sweet- free from a harsh flavor Winy- the aftertaste reminiscent of wine (typical of certain African coffee)

Cyberspace makes Hanukkah a 'virtual' reality Internet sites allow participation in Jewish holiday beyond synagogue Published 6:30 am, Saturday, December 11, 2004 The eight days of Hanukkah began Tuesday at sundown. The holiday is celebrated in many Jewish homes as family members light a candle each evening. This year it also is being celebrated in cyberspace, shared with people around the world. On the "Virtual Chanukah" Web site at , public menorah lightings -- from Auckland, New Zealand, to Beijing, China -- can be seen on live streaming video. "The whole idea is that the miracle of Hanukkah should be celebrated in a public way," said Rabbi Yosef Wolvovsky, of the Chabad East of the River center in Glastonbury, Conn. "It's not meant to be secluded," he said. "It should be shared with the whole community." The mission of the Chabad-Lubavitch centers is to offer a place for Jews to connect with each other wherever they are in the world. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a traditionally orthodox branch of Hasidic Judaism that has its roots in Russia and its headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., is particularly known for its exuberant public celebrations. What could be more public than the Internet? The goal of is to use "the Internet to unite Jews worldwide, empower them with knowledge of their 3,300-year-old tradition and foster within them a deeper connection to Judaism's rituals and faith." Paul Golin, assistant executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, says Chabad is on the right track, taking Jewish rituals and holidays beyond the home and synagogue and out into the public domain. "The two most celebrated Jewish holidays are Passover and Hanukkah," Golin says, "and that's because both take place in the home, and you don't need a rabbi. "Chabad has it right ... going to where the people are, instead of waiting for them to walk through the doors of a synagogue. Chabad really believes in that mission, which is why they are successful." The "Virtual Chanukah" Web site (also accessible through Chabad East of the River's Web site at .com) is packed with information on the significance and celebration of the holiday. It offers links to public events, interactive games, recipes and a quiz that tests Hanukkah knowledge. The Web site also includes a how-to section on the correct method of lighting a menorah, as well as the precise time of sunset. "Nowadays, people don't always get to go to the synagogue," Wolvovsky says. "We're about spreading the joy of the holiday." Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Jewish Maccabees who battled to reclaim their temple in Jerusalem. When they returned to the sacked temple, they found only enough oil to light a lamp for one night, but the oil lasted for eight days. Hanukkah is the second-most popular holiday on the Jewish calendar, Wolvovsky says.

The Martin Transtage was a restartable upper stage used with Titan IIIA, Titan IIIC and Titan 34D launch vehicles. The Transtage used hypergolic fuels which permitted the motor to be restarted so that it could place a number of satellites into different orbits or, alternatively, sent satellites directly into the final orbit, such as a geostationary orbit. |Photo: Author's collection| |Transtage-2 (1964 081A)| |1||4.60 m||3.05 m||2 Aerojet AJ-10-138||N2O4/Aerozine||71,170 N| Specifications for Transtage There was also a stretched version with a length of 5.30 m. The Titan IIIA was used for the first four tests of the Transtage, commencing with a failure on 1 September 1964. Subsequent flights were with the Titan IIIC launch vehicle, a Titan III core with two large boosters added on the side. The first flight of this configuration was on 18 June 1965. There are records of 47 Transtage flights of which three failed. The last flight was on 4 September 1989. The Transtage was also known by its military designation SSB-10A although this designation was probably restricted to military launches.

Mayan Ruins - Uxmal Mexico When travelers start researching Mayan ruins Mexico, they are often surprised by the large number of choices for archaeological sites. Ancient Mayan ruins extend far behind Chichen Itza, and for the adventurous traveler there are some off the beaten path options that will lead you deep into the Mexican jungle. Many of the Mayan ruins in the Yucatan were only discovered in the twentieth century, some by foot, while others were discovered by air. Towering mounds were discovered by archaeologists while flying over the jungle, and when they were explored, a wealth of artifacts was found. From art to architecture, these sites will display clues as to how the ancient Mayans lived. One of the most popular Mayan ruins tours is at Tulum, located along the Caribbean Sea. This walled city is located at the top of sea cliffs and is one of the best-preserved coastal sites in Mexico. For travelers who want to experience some history during a beach vacation, but not go too far from their resort, Tulum is a great option. If you’re feeling adventurous, another archaeological site is only 27 miles away, and connected by a modern road. Hop in your rental car and head for Coba, a Mayan site with an impressive pyramid. This expansive site wasn’t explored until the 1920s, but since a road opened in the 1970s and 80s, the site has grown in popularity with tourists. Tulum, Coba, and Chichen Itza are the three most popular Mayan ruins in Cancun. From this beach paradise, it is easy to explore any of these three sites. Organized tours are available, or independent travelers may choose to rent a car for the day to explore at their own pace. Another Mayan ruins Mexico in the area that is popular is San Gervasio, the Mayan ruins on the island of Cozumel. Whether you are staying on the island or making a day trip from the mainland, the religious site of San Gervasio is well worth visiting. The lush landscape and wildlife are enough of a reason to visit, and the ancient Mayan ruins are spectacular, too. Some travelers might be looking for self-guided Mayan ruins tours. Leave some of the more popular Mayan attractions behind for the sites that are deeper in the jungle and less frequented. The Yaxchilan ruins require a boat to reach, but when you walk up the ramp, through the jungle, and into the main plaza you are rewarded with spectacular views. Another ancient Mayan ruins site where you can avoid the crowds is Kohunlich. Known for the Temple of the Masks, this site has eight-foot stone carvings that impress even the seasoned traveler. Another rarely visited Mayan ruins Mexico is Ek Balam. The further ruins are away from the sea, the less crowds they experience on a day to day basis. Ek Balam translates as “black jaguar,” and this archaeological site contains an impressive tomb with a doorway that is the shape of a jaguar’s mouth. Other Mayan ruins tours include the great pyramids of Comalcalco and Calakmul. The largest Mayan archeological site ever uncovered, Calakmul is deep in the jungles near the Guatemala border. A variety of murals and stone carvings make this archaeological site special. Whether you explore the spectacular site of Chichen Itza or venture off the beaten path for a tour of one of the lesser-known ruins deep in the jungle, the intelligence and artistry of this ancient culture is sure to impress.

Virtualization Has Changed Disaster Recovery: 15 Data Points by Chris Preimesberger Basic Protection Easier to Obtain Traditional physical computers have become virtual machine containers—they are essentially files on a disk and fully abstracted from the physical hardware layer. Because we are no longer dealing with complex things like complete volumes, system states and boot sectors, it's much easier to get basic protection for these virtual machines. Full Server Backups Now Much Easier There are many vendors and many methods out there for moving these VMs around, offering some level of protection—whether you're just backing up images or replicating those to another site. Things like replication and data deduplication on disk are all commonplace today, as well as the advent of block-level differentials (BLDs), which allow you to forgo backing up the entire image every time and will only copy the blocks that have changed since the last backup. Server Backups Can Be in Broad Strokes Traditional backup systems have a one-to-one relationship with servers. With virtualization, single backup jobs now give basic protection for a larger number of servers. Today, most of the critical information now resides conveniently inside a file on the hypervisor host system, meaning that backing up one disk volume on a hypervisor host can address many VMs at once. Full Server Recovery Now Much Easier The hardware-agnostic nature of virtualization makes it much easier to quickly recover virtual machines. There is no longer a need to find similar hardware to run VMs; they can now run on any hardware without loading new drivers or changing application configurations to fit the new physical server. Hardware Availability Less of an Issue Virtualization solutions now almost universally provide options for hardware resiliency. Hypervisor clusters minimize the impact of hardware failures; in fact, VMs can be automatically restarted or even maintain a persistent state through hardware failures at the host level. Redundant Hardware Has Become Much More Affordable Redundant server hardware has historically come at a premium. Organizations only invested in redundant hardware for the most critical applications, and only one application ran on each server. Now, virtualization enables IT to fully leverage investments in redundant hardware. With modern multi-core, multiprocessor systems, a single server can easily support a dozen or more VMs, allowing more applications to benefit from highly available hardware configurations. Full Site Recovery Much Easier The same flexible property of virtualization that enables IT to leverage redundant hardware also extends its benefits to site recovery. This was once a Herculean task that might literally have involved putting servers on a truck and attempting to install and configure them at a remote data center. It is now becoming easier to automate the site-recovery process, both for testing and for actual failover should a disaster occur. With fewer hardware dependencies, IT now can configure automated coordinated failover using software such as VMware Site Recovery Manager and others. Data Replication No Longer Hardware-Dependent Before virtualization, the replication of data was performed by expensive mirrored SAN hardware or meticulously configured on a server-by-server basis. With virtualization, replication can be performed at the hypervisor level, providing the same benefit as SAN replication without the added expense and the daunting task of maintaining tight, hardware-compatible control at multiple sites. Server Environments Can Grow Rapidly Automated configuration and deployment solutions now make it easy for IT and business users to create servers on the fly. In addition, the cost of deploying a new server has been greatly reduced, and there is far less of a need to plan and justify new hardware. Easier to Make Changes, Deploy New Apps Virtualization allows IT to make changes and deploy new applications or updates more easily and quickly than ever before. VMs can be easily relocated to different hypervisor hosts, and hardware can be added or reconfigured with minimal disruptions. Challenge #1: Availability Options Are Being Taken for Granted Since VMs are so easy to back up and restore, businesses become complacent on this being "good enough" for IT continuity. However, the truth is that most sources of application downtime come from within the VM container. If a server needs to be rebooted for an OS update, the server needs to be rebooted, and there is nothing that virtualization can do to alleviate that. There will be downtime while the server is rebooting and, worse yet, if there is a problem following the reboot, then that problem has to be fixed, and even more downtime is incurred. Challenge #2: Snapshots Often Provide a False Sense of Security Snapshots are expensive from a resource perspective in terms of storage, network and processing resources. Furthermore, businesses move quickly and a "snapshot" from even one hour ago can be missing a great many business transactions. Taking more frequent snapshots of every system—just in case—is simply not feasible, and it's easy to be lulled into a sense of security by the robust and simple availability offered by virtualization. Challenge #3: Physical Servers Falling Behind in Protection As businesses focus on new virtualization backup technologies, availability planning has increasingly focused on the virtualized servers. However, in many cases, legacy servers are still using legacy protection—often leading to a disjointed DR plan. Ironically, it's often the more critical servers that are the last to move from physical to virtual platforms. There is a growing gap is protection strategies between legacy/physical servers and virtual servers. Challenge #4: Downtime Still a Threat to Business Applications Both business and IT have changed substantially over the past few years, and some of these changes have driven up the risk posed by downtime. Downtime has always come at a cost, but there's more at stake today than in the past. Even small operational changes to IT infrastructure create a great risk. Organizations need to be more mindful than ever about whether their DR plans will hold up and to make sure that downtime avoidance is taken from an application and user perspective, rather than just protecting the hardware layer. Challenge #5: Disaster-Recovery Plans Are More Outdated Than Ever eWEEK has been chronicling this issue for several years. The dynamic nature of virtualization has significant implications for BC/DR plans, which have historically been recorded in static documents and only revisited once or twice a year at best. Today, DR planning needs to be integral part of the agile server environment in order to remain relevant and effective. In short, most organizations' disaster-recovery plans probably don't accurately account for the current infrastructure and applications, so it's less and less likely that the plans will work as intended.

In the School of Life, a relationship breakup can be one of our greatest teachers. You may find that the decision to end your relationship is more difficult than the decision to start one. - When you begin a relationship, you likely are filled with positive feelings about your future together. - In contrast, the decision to divorce often results in feelings that are painful and emotionally difficult. - To make things more challenging, sometimes the choice to end the relationship is not even your own. - Such situations can stir up strong emotions of fear and even anger. - When anger and fear consume you, they can paralyze your thinking, making it more difficult to make important choices for you and your children. Decisions made from fear and anger during a divorce often results in fear- and anger-driven responses. Why? When someone sets a negative tone, it actually attracts a similar response. To make things more difficult, fear-driven negotiations limit possibilities and solutions. Fear is a place where people become entrenched in their positions gridlocked by senseless power struggles. Such power struggles make it difficult to negotiate with positive results. Unfortunately, this often drives divorcing spouses into a court of law to turn over the decision-making process to a judge. Who knows what’s best for your child? You and your child’s other parent do, not a judge who has never met any of you. This is not meant to demean the court. Family law judges and court mediators work very carefully to be fair. But the people who know your child best are you and the child’s other parent. By keeping the decision-making process between the parents, you will ensure your child’s best interest is at heart. Points to Ponder - When the emotions of fear and anger grab hold, they blind us. - The negative energy of fear and anger are like a vacuum pulling us down a dark and distorted tunnel. - Being in tune with the emotions that drive you and responding in the positive will make the process easier.

Two-thirds of the U.S. population is now overweight or obese, and the numbers are rising annually, and increase in individuals as they age. The “Calories-in/Calories-out” theory of obesity does not withstand scrutiny. In this DVD Paul examines obesity as a metabolic disorder, reviews the science behind weight loss, and describes dietary, lifestyle, and herbal supportive strategies to assist obese patients in attaining optimal health.

If you’re looking for the authentic African safari experience, pack your bags and head straight for the Okavango Delta. Located in the heart of Africa’s untouched landscape, the Okavango Delta in Botswana covers more than 15,000km² of lush pastures and wilderness and offers its visitors stunning views of its papyrus swamps and shallow reed-beds. What makes the Okavango delta such a desired destination is its unmatched variability. The journey from wetland to dryland offers visitor the amazing opportunity to observe Africa’s diverse wildlife and to catch a glimpse of some of the unique species, inhabiting the largest intact inland delta in the world. Often referred to as the “jewel of the Kalahari,” the Okavango delta is fed by the Okavango River, which rises in the Angola highlands and continues southeast into the Kalahari. The delta comprises permanent marshlands and plains that get seasonally flooded, and its wetland ecosystem is almost intact. From vividly-colored tropical fishes, traversing the crystal clear waters to iridescent malachite kingfishers and larger animals, like the red lechwe, the Okavango delta is packed with unique species that make it a network of excellent private “safari reserves” and one of the best luxury safari destinations. The Okavango is known as the river that never reaches the sea, and the water in its delta simply evaporates or transpires, without flowing into any ocean or sea. Each year, approximately 11 cubic kilometers of water spread over the entire area of the delta. The delta region varies between 15,000 square kilometers during the dry season to up to 22,000 square kilometers during the wetter periods. When its level lowers, the swamps give way to flooded grasslands. Thanks to its stunning beauty, the Okavango delta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa. Its hot climate makes it a suitable destination for luxury safari tours and packages all year round, and frequent flight connections between Johannesburg, Gaborone, Maun and Kasane - the gateways to the national parks and the surrounding wildlife areas - make reaching the Okavango delta easier than ever. Even though most of Africa’s large animals don’t usually inhabit watery areas, visitors of the Okavango Delta can expect some stunning face-to-face meetings with Africa’s striking wildlife. The Delta and the dryland areas of Okavango river are home to the staggering 122 species of mammals, 71 species of fish, and more than 1300 species of flowering plants. The area is an excellent breeding ground for elephants, lions, wild dogs, spotted hyenas, leopards, as well as sable and roan antelopes. The elephant and buffalo occur here year-round in immense numbers, and giraffes, zebras and impalas are also not a rare view to see. Most of Africa’s wildlife has thriving populations in the Botswana area, and the Okavango Delta in particular is a breeding ground for the African’s wild dog. In addition, the area is also home to more than 400 different bird species. With its intact wildlife and stunning ecosystem, the Okavango delta is one of the best places for an authentic luxury safari experience. The tranquility of the area is combined with nearby tourist attractions, including rural areas and villages that line its western fringes. Tourists can indulge in some of the local activities, such as game drives, boating and fishing, or spend a relaxing day, traversing the area and enjoying some of Africa’s amazing wildlife.

In times of disaster institutions are overwhelmed, authorities vanish or are unable to keep up, society itself is spun ajumble, and people must rely on their wits and each other. What happens next? Perhaps you’ve heard that with the thin fabric of civilization ripped suddenly away from us, we become bestial and savage in our civic nakedness: “nature, red in tooth and claw” reemerges, in some Lord of the Flies or Mad Max way, and, until we can bring ourselves back under the protection of our authorities and institutions… In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain… no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Rebecca Solnit says this is all — Max, Baalzebub, Hobbes, and the rest — something of an urban legend. More typically, when civilization breaks down in the face of disaster, the survivors crawl out of wherever they’ve managed to ride it out and they come together to help one another. Not only is this typical, usual, and ordinary, but it’s also such a delight and a welcome surprise to people who participate in it that they often feel a warm nostalgia for the disaster they’ve survived and for the latent parts of their characters that the disaster allowed to shine forth: Just as many machines reset themselves to their original settings after a power outage, so human beings reset themselves to something altruistic, communitarian, resourceful, and imaginative after a disaster… [W]e revert to something we already know how to do. Solnit gives us many examples, from her research of historical disasters and from her on-the-ground reporting of more recent ones, of this spontaneous grassroots organizing to cope with the aftermath of disaster, and of the delight people express when they recall what it felt like to be part of it. She supplements this with summaries of the findings of the sociological subdiscipline of “disaster studies” — which finds that in times of disaster, the people on the ground who are most affected tend to cope with it creatively, generously, and cooperatively, while incidents of indiscriminate violence or panic are more likely to be found among the relatively safe members of the social and political elite, who are paranoid that unleashed mobs will threaten their authority and privilege. “Elite panic,” indeed, is the term of art in the disaster studies community for this frequently-encountered phenomenon. “My own impression,” Solnit writes, “is that elite panic comes from powerful people who see all humanity in their own image. In a society based on competition, the least altruistic often rise highest.… Those in power themselves are often capable of being as savage and self-serving as the mobs of their worst fears.” These fears, in turn, help to justify the status and authority of these loathsome elites: just as Hobbes enlisted his nasty-brutish-and-short myth to justify the authority of royalty. The elites eagerly deploy such myths because disaster can be particularly disastrous to authority. The Bush Administration’s response (and those of other state and local governments) to Hurricane Katrina is a familiar example. “In the immediate aftermath of disaster, government fails as if it had been overthrown and civil society succeeds as though it has revolted: the task of government, usually described as ‘reestablishing order,’ is to take back the city and the power to govern… So the more long-term aftermath of disaster is often in some sense a counterrevolution.” Solnit quotes Lee Clarke, one of the disaster scholars who coined the “elite panic” term: Disaster myths are not politically neutral, but rather work systematically to the advantage of elites. Elites cling to the panic myth because to acknowledge the truth of the situation would lead to very different policy prescriptions than… that the best way to prepare for disasters is by following the command and control model, the embodiment of which is the federal Department of Homeland Security. Thus do panic myths reinforce particular institutional interests. But it is not bureaucrats who will be the first-responders when the next disaster… comes. It won’t even be the police or firefighters. It will be our neighbors, it will be the strangers in the next car, it will be our family members. The effectiveness of disaster response is thus diminished to the degree that we overrely on command and control. This is another case where political ideology trumps good scientific knowledge about how the world works. One of the themes of the book is that people do not just behave well in disasters, but extraordinarliy well — a wellness that puts our ordinary lives to shame. Our ordinary isolation, selfishness, zero-sum competitiveness, and mutual suspicion seem to require a civilization to maintain them — when civilization is disrupted, we revert to our better, natural, undomesticated states. The state of nature, it turns out, is the opposite of of our solitary, nasty, and brutish civilized states. (Maybe Rousseau was right all along.) The existing system is… mitigated every day by altruism, mutual aid, and solidarity, by the acts of individuals and organizations who are motivated by hope and by love rather than fear. They are akin to a shadow government — another system ready to do more were they voted into power. Disaster votes them in… Disaster reveals what else the world could be like — reveals the strength of that hope, that generosity, and that solidarity. It reveals mutual aid as a default operating principle and civil society as something waiting in the wings… A world could be built on that basis… This is the only paradise that is possible, and it will never exist whole, stable, and complete. It is always coming into being in response to trouble and suffering; making paradise is the work that we are meant to do. All the versions of an achieved paradise sound at best like an eternal vacation, a place where we would have no meaning to make. The paradises built in hell are improvisational; we make them up as we go along, and in doing so they call on all our strength and creativity and leave us free to invent even as we find ourselves enmeshed in community. These paradises built in hell show us both what we want and what we can be. Solnit interviewed a woman who had come through the 9/11 attacks who came to this conclusion: “People say it’s how people behave when things are bad that matters. But that’s easy. It’s how they behave when things are good.” With this in mind, Solnit also considers how some people have managed to preserve these positive parts of their human nature even when civilization threatens it. Some of her examples are volunteers from groups like Habitat for Humanity, Burners Without Borders, the anarchist movement, and the Rainbow Gathering who have turned up at some of the disasters she’s reported on to help both in the immediate aftermath and during rebuilding: The volunteers are evidence that it doesn’t take firsthand experience of a disaster to unleash altruism, mutual aid, and the ability to improvise a response. Many of them were part of subcultures, whether conservative churches or counterculture communities, that exist as something of a latent disaster community already present throughout the United States and elsewhere. Such community exists among people who gather as civil society and who believe that we are connected, that change is possible, and who hope for a better earth and act on their beliefs. They remind us that though disasters can be catalysts to bring out such qualities, disasters do not generate them; they are constructed by beliefs, commitments, and communities, not by weather, seismology, or bombs.

According to a study that will be published in the October 2013 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, female college student drinkers exceed national drinking guidelines more frequently than males when it comes to weekly drinking. A Major Flaw? This study is based around 2009 guidelines set forth by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse. Those guidelines state that men should limit themselves to four drinks per day and 14 drinks per week, while women are limited to three drinks per day and a maximum of seven weekly drinks. While it may seem unfair that the NIAA thinks it’s safe for men to have twice as many drinks a week as women, there is a reason for this disparity. Bettina B. Hoeppner, who helped author the study, said that “recommended drinking limits are lower for women than for men because research to date has found that women experience alcohol-related problems at lower levels of alcohol consumption than men.” Even though female college students are the main focus of this study, binge drinking is still a serious concern for male students. A 2008 study found that 44% of students attending 4-year colleges drink alcohol at the binge level or greater. 7 Signs a College Student May Have a Drinking Problem Whether you’re a college student who’s concerned about your own drinking, are worried about a college friend, or have a child in college who you think may be drinking too much, here are seven early warning signs of alcohol abuse: If you believe that you or a loved one has a problem with alcohol, the best thing you can do is seek professional alcohol rehab treatment. Securing holistic treatment will ensure that physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social needs are accounted for throughout therapy.

Cultured peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) from individuals homozygous or heterozygous for the defective gene causing the inherited disease cystic fibrosis (CF) secrete three different ciliary dyskinesia substances (CDS), which can be detected by their activity in vitro in a rabbit mucociliary bioassay. Their PBL also release substances that promote mucus expulsion and destruction of the ciliated epithelium. In the present study the relative numbers of lymphocytes (T, B, and null), monocytes-macrophages (Mφ), and polymorphonuclear neutrophils were found to be normal in subjects with the CF gene, as were the responses of their PBL to phytohemagglutinin and pokeweed mitogen. Using purified subpopulations of leukocytes, we obtained evidence that both monocytes and T lymphocytes can secrete CDS in vitro with no requirement for cooperation with other lymphocyte subsets, whereas B and “null” lymphocytes probably require either differentiation or cellular cooperation for optimal secretion of CDS. Mucus expulsion and tissue destruction were produced by substances released primarily from polymorphonuclear neutrophils and secondarily from Mφ. Using cycloheximide and actinomycin D, we obtained evidence that CDS accumulation requires active protein synthesis and is not dependent on newly synthesized RNA, at least in short-term cultures. Gel filtration chromatography of active culture supernates showed that T lymphocytes synthesized only a CF-specific CDS, whereas Mφ synthesized all three CDS found in PBL cultures. Evidence is presented that one CDS is related structurally to C3a, since it can be removed with rabbit antisera specific for human C3a.

ERP profiles for face and word recognition are based on their status in semantic memory not their stimulus category Abstract or Description Previous research has suggested that faces and words are processed and remembered differently as reflected by different ERP patterns for the two types of stimuli. Specifically, face stimuli produced greater late positive deflections for old items in anterior compared to posterior regions, while word stimuli produced greater late positive deflections in posterior compared to anterior regions. Given that words have existing representations in subjects׳ long-term memories (LTM) and that face stimuli used in prior experiments were of unknown individuals, we conducted an ERP study that crossed face and letter stimuli with the presence or absence of a prior (stable or existing) memory representation. During encoding, subjects judged whether stimuli were known (famous face or real word) or not known (unknown person or pseudo-word). A surprise recognition memory test required subjects to distinguish between stimuli that appeared during the encoding phase and stimuli that did not. ERP results were consistent with previous research when comparing unknown faces and words; however, the late ERP pattern for famous faces was more similar to that for words than for unknown faces. This suggests that the critical ERP difference is mediated by whether there is a prior representation in LTM, and not whether the stimulus involves letters or faces

Privacy is social now – thinking about what we share with both fellow users and providers needs to be just as reflexive as our use of technology is. By Anne Collier One thing we all need to teach our kids now is that the privacy spectrum we really need to be aware of isn’t so much private-to-public as private-to-convenient – or, from kids’ perspective, private-to-social (or just to-spontaneous-&-fun). The more convenience we want (e.g., not bothering with password-protecting our phones or giving services all kinds of access to our movements so they can tailor the experience they provide to our interests), the less privacy we have. We have to choose the level of convenience (or spontaneity) we want and know that, as we move the needle further to the convenient end of the spectrum, we’re losing some degree of privacy. Where kids are concerned, each family needs to figure out the degree of privacy and convenience that’s right for him/her/it! Take Sony’s PlayStation 4, for example. It “will get to know you by understanding your personal preferences and the preferences of your community and turn this knowledge into useful information that will help to enhance future game play,” said Sony’s David Perry at a press conference my ConnectSafely co-director Larry Magid attended. So for example, “like when your friends purchase a new game, you’ll know immediately so you can join into the action,” Larry quotes him as saying at SafeKids.com. That puts social gaming on steroids and could be really fun – gamers won’t even have to “wait” to text friends to see if they’re already in-game. What’s more, Sony’s connecting Facebook into the mix, so PS4 will know even more about players and their friends (if PS4 players are on Facebook – this might be reason to support the migration of kids’ socializing to mobile apps not connected to FB). The product is your kid’s network In fact, says Sean Captain at LiveScience.com, the PS4 “is not so much a machine as a network – with games delivered from the cloud, games that can follow you as you move from the PS4 to a mobile device, and the ability to post video clips of your adventures, or even broadcast entire games online.” So you see what he’s saying, right? If parents are thinking about privacy around cellphone cams and/or privacy vis. Webcams (a whole lot of high schools students I know do homework together from their respective homes using Skype and their Webcams), they also need to be talking with videogamers about real-time gaming video. Perry told reporters that “your friends can actually look over your shoulder virtually and interact with you while you’re playing [of course they’ve been doing that in person for a long time]; and if you allow them, your friends can also post comments to your screen; you can solicit support from them, or you can just trash-talk with them.” And of course there are screenshots and “machinima” (video of what’s happening on the screen). Larry wrote that PS4 “will also enable users to capture video (as well as still shots) from the game experience and share that with others on the network.” 2 kinds of privacy Which says that are two kinds of privacy everybody needs to think about: 1. What we share on screen and in chat with fellow gamers, users, socializers, etc. and… 2. What we share with the providers of the games, apps, sites, and devices That’s stating the obvious, but thinking about who receives what we share needs to become as embedded in everyday life as our technology is – the way thinking about audience is reflexive to writers, speakers and broadcasters. Parenting from the inside out It would be exhausting and probably fruitless for parents to try a whack-a-mole approach to dealing with the constant of tech development. Better to work from the inside out. Instead of trying to deal with each new “mole” that pops up, start with what privacy and safety looks like for “our family” and each member of it. Just as in all things offline, privacy and safety have a whole lot to do with basic values most families have: respect for self and others, including for people’s feelings, identity, data, property, and reputation. Together work out how best to protect those as individuals and as a family. What behaviors and settings do we need, where gaming, social networking, phone use, and face-to-face interaction are concerned? Privacy is social too When kids want a new device, app, game, or whatever, have them do their homework on how they can use it constructively – what it does with users’ information, what privacy protections it offers, and how to set privacy features so that their and their family’s and friends’ data and equipment are secure and relationships stay positive. This is part of the new media literacy that folds in digital literacy and social literacy too – the kind that turns everybody involved into a stakeholder in the well-being of all involved.

Province of Naples Satellite view of the provincial area. Map highlighting the location of the province of Naples in Italy |• President||Antonio Pentangelo (PDL)| |• Total||1,171.13 km2 (452.18 sq mi)| |Population (30 November 2012)| |• Density||2,600/km2 (6,800/sq mi)| |Time zone||CET (UTC+1)| |• Summer (DST)||CEST (UTC+2)| |Postal code||80121-80147 (cap) The Province of Naples (Italian: Provincia di Napoli, Napulitano: Pruvincia 'e Nàpule) was a province in the Campania region of southern Italy; since January 2015 has been replaced by the Metropolitan City of Naples. The province of Naples is the most densely populated in Italy. At the 2013 census were all located in the province, as were 10 of the top 15. It has an area of 1,171.13 km², and a total population of about 3.05 million. Largest communities in the Napoli metropolitan area): |Giugliano in Campania|| |Torre del Greco|| |Castellammare di Stabia|| |Marano di Napoli|| The area is particularly fruitful for tourism, both national and international. Pompeii, the excavated Roman city which was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD is among the most popular destinations in all of Italy.Three islands in the Gulf of Naples are also prominent destinations; Ischia, Procida, part of the Phlegrean Islands, and Capri. Together they are also known as the Campanian Archipelago. On Capri, there is the famous Blue Grotto; inside the grotto the sea seems to be lit from underwater, it is a magnificent blue colour, hence its name. The Sorrentine Peninsula (and its main town Sorrento) has long been a popular destination for tourism, it is well known for the drink Limoncello and its luxurious sea cliffs. It is rich with villas, castles, guard towers, churches, and in Vico Equense ancient farmhouses. The most popular sport in the province is football. This area was one of the first in Southern Italy to start playing sports, when English sailors brought them in during the early 1900s. The most successful club from the province are by far SSC Napoli, who have won Serie A (the Italian Championship) twice and the UEFA Cup while Diego Maradona was with the club. At present there are four professional football clubs playing within the Italian leagues from the province; in Serie A there is SSC Napoli, while in Lega Pro the province is represented by SS Ischia Isolaverde, SS Juve Stabia and AC Savoia.

Track your health and performance by using one of the increasingly cheap devices like: FitBit, Withings, Nike+ FuelBand, LifeTrack, NewBalance Life TRNr,etc. Even the most basic measurements like daily step count (pedometer), heart rate (resting vs. active), and body weight, and also more advanced functions like running distance/speed, calories consumed/expended, food groups covered/left out, cups of coffee/water/etc consumed over time, can be measured with free apps and without expensive devices and give you a decent first picture of the various components of yourhealth. Based on data from regular usage over time, you can begin to analyze what is lacking from your routine, what's working or not, how you are performing over time. This data will help you target particular areas of your health and wellbeing for improvement, help with diagnosing disease early on, etc. First Installment of 365 Health Tips: 365 TIPS: 1) Children and young adults need meat for its protein; older adults need meat like a heart attack. 2) Animal fats load your liver and make your skin look pretty. Cholesterol clogs your arteries and forms your hormones. Don’t chase the “good” and “bad” waterfall - live in moderation, with perspective. 3) The longest lived peoples have well-balanced diets. What do they have in common? Lots of fruits and vegetables, nuts, grains and legumes, fish and poultry (with red meat limited), alcohol in moderation, healthy fats (like olive oil), and lots of spices and herbs instead of salt. 4) A few foods high in antioxidants: pomegranates and blueberries, red cabbage and spinach, pecans and sunflower seeds, turmeric and cinnamon. Hey – no one likes to oxidize before their time ;) 5) Georgians are famous for eating spices - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Famously long-lived, they make every meal a colorful feast of flavors, including mint, parsley, coriander, fennel, and red pepper. Healthy eaters without being shy about it, they sure have something right. 6) Sardinians often work in the field well into their eighties. The sun and mountain air don’t hurt, of course, and neither does a healthy, Mediterranean diet. Eat well and enjoy life, but don’t forget to move around, too! 7) Fish oils are tremendous for the brain, whose cells rely on the fats to maintain the integrity of their structure. Aging wears heavily on brain cells, and every bit of support helps. 8) Healthy cooking oils: olive oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, nut oils, canola and other vegetable oils. 9) Freeze fish before cooking to kill parasites. 10) Fruits with digestive enzymes: pineapple, papaya, all melons. After a meal, any of these are perfect to help along digestion, after a heavy (or light) meal. 11) Vitamins are absorbed better through fresh foods, not by taking pills. Do your best to get your nutritional needs through your diet, not through supplements. 12) Spices like cinnamon and are some of nature’s most potent antioxidants. 13) Strong spices help kill bacteria, usually found in hotter climates. This is why people living in hotter climates tend to have spicier foods. 14) Ginger is a potent antibacterial, as well as a delicious spice and good to calm a stomach ache. 15) Honey is one of nature’s best and strongest natural antibacterial substances. Eat a spoon today for a healthy immune system. 16) Immerse cut onions in boiling water, strain, to get rid of smell on the breath. 17) Make your own tomato sauce - canned tomatoes, basil, garlic, onions, olive oil, eTc. 18) Indians and others use dairy to cool the digestive tract after strong spices. 19) Turmeric is a very strong anti-oxidant. Rate of Alzheimer's very low there, even with longevity. 20) Buy spices in small quantities, and fresh, if possible. They lose their potency and antioxidant quantities somewhat quickly, with oxidation. 21) Better whole root (Ginger) or clove (garlic) or bulb (onion) than granulated – always more potent and flavorful. 22) Store tomatoes, avocadoes, bananas, apples outside the fridge. They stay better and longer at room temperature, in the dark (pantry). 23) Hang bananas up on a rack, off the counter, for optimal ripening and to prevent bruising. 24) Don't keep meat - fresh or cooked - for more than 3 days in the fridge. Cook defrosted meat within 1 day. Otherwise, risk bacterial infection. 25) Carob is a healthy alternative to caloric chocolate. 26) Use turmeric for vibrant color on rice, in place of expensive saffron. 27) Cover the bottom of your rice pan with slices of raw potato, like the Persians do. It makes for delicious "chips" with your rice. 28) Try sautéing spinach with soft cheese (paneer), chilies and turmeric. This is a Kashmiri recipe. 29) Dark chocolate better for you than milk chocolate. It’s higher in antioxidants and lower in sugar. 30) Coffee isn’t just caffeine, after all. Coffee beans have hundreds of substances, including antioxidants, and coffee consumption have been found to correlate with lower risk of diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. 31) Simple Mediterranean chicken recipe: broil with red wine, herbes de provence, sea salt, ground pepper and garlic powder. 32) Great Israeli hummus recipe: ground boiled chickpeas, tehina, lemon juice, paprika, olive oil … 33) For a perfectly tart (but never sour) compliment to your basmati rice, try the Persian spice, sumac. 34) Spice up your hummus with a touch of ground horseradish, mixed in. 35) Raspberry jam isn’t just a perfect compliment to tea and crumpets. It also helps lower your fever. 36) Simple bison meatballs: ground bison, red onions, red wine, garlic, black pepper, basil, lemon juice, olive oil. 37) For a change from balsamic, try using nut vinegars from Spain. They offer a uniquely tempting addition, for something different. 38) Try an Israeli twist to your eggs: add red peppers, onions, and roasted eggplant to your eggs on the skillet (with your usual spices), and mix twice in the pan while cooking, before serving. 39) How to change up your pesto: exchange cilantro for basil, walnuts for pine nuts, parmesan for romano, leave olive oil and garlic the same. 40) Try butter on your baked salmon, instead of olive oil, for a distinctive new taste. 41) Remember: no food is always good or always bad for you. Moderation and common sense in setting limits are always good, and always, as part of a healthy lifestyle. Nevertheless, remember to moderate your moderation, too. 42) Great wine to pair with your holiday turkey meal: Pinot Noir. It’s very low in tannins, but is more robust than white wines.

Situation: From time to time companies face crisis situations. A company, planning ahead, wants to establish a culture that can deal with crises effectively. What are the most important elements that should be part of this culture? Advice from the CEOs: Everything starts with a brutally honest SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) of your company and operations. Identify where you are Strong, where you are Viable, where Urgent Care is Necessary, and where you have No Reason to Be. Based on this assessment, cut your losses – for example, eliminate exposure to the No Reason to Be activities and efforts – and focus resources on your strengths and what is necessary to assure your future. Support all efforts or activities that you will keep or pursue with a Bottoms-Up Financial Analysis. This will include a P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Analysis, assumptions, variables, and best, most likely and worst case scenarios. This Financial Analysis is an essential part of facing up to the Brutal Facts of your business and environment. From this exercise you will gain clarity on where to focus first. The greater the potential crisis, the more frequent this exercise must be. When dealing with creditors, remember their priorities: honesty, eventual payment, fair treatment and long-term customers. Present them with a credible plan, don’t make commitments you can’t keep, keep all commitments that you make, keep in touch monthly, and pay what you can. The development of trust makes it possible to negotiate incredible terms. Situation: A company wants to execute a strategic shift in direction – taking it into a new business which will diversify its offering to customers. The CEO needs to assure that everyone is on-board to both speed the shift and minimize cost. What are the keys to successful strategic change? Advice from the CEOs: Be front and center with your vision. State the vision clearly, in terms that everyone will understand. Focus on the benefits of the change for the company and employees and be realistic about the challenges involved. Be enthusiastic. This is critical to all change efforts. Be cheerleader as well as leader. Plan ahead and begin to communicate well in advance of the anticipated change. Plant seeds and encourage the team to generate options or solutions. Give all levels of the organization the opportunity to become involved and participate in both design and implementation of the change. Be consistent in messaging and support across the team. Don’t vacillate or promise what you can’t deliver. Employees will watch for the presence or absence of consistency. If it’s absent, they won’t join in. Conduct scenario analyses. This enables you to try out different futures and implementation options. Identify critical issues. Look at possible results – first consider the “most likely”, then “best” and “worst” possible outcomes. Considering best and worst generates new alternatives, and improves the perspective on the most likely outcome. Conduct visioning exercises. Create a graphic vision of possible futures. This increases group participation and sparks creativity. It improves group function, thereby enhancing results. Visual representation is more memorable than standard bullets and lists. Special thanks to Jan Richards of J G Richards Consulting – jgrichardsresults.com – for her insight on this topic. Situation: A company is negotiating an agreement to resell another company’s software. In due diligence the company encountered a customer who was offered a single user license for the same software at one-third the price that they have been asked to pay upfront. What is the best way to approach the vendor for additional information without divulging the source of his intelligence? Does this change the negotiation? Advice from the CEOs: There is no need to divulge your information source. Just say that you have done some research and quote the price that you found. Ask them to explain this to you. See how they respond. This may tell you a lot about how they operate. What rights do you receive under the arrangement that has been offered by the firm? What exclusivity and guarantees will they offer? Will they write these into the agreement? How will they handle direct inquiries? Perform a careful financial analysis of the opportunity. Model the market and the full cost of sales that you will encounter. What is customer purchase behavior? Is it changing? Counter the vendor’s offer to you with a pay-down option that pays the vendor more over time, but allows you access to the software without a substantial up-front payment. This limits your exposure if sales do not ramp as you anticipate. Visit the vendor and sit down with the President. See how this individual responds to your questions. You may get a much better deal through this approach than through the sales team. You also may develop other partnership options that can benefit you long-term. Key Words: Reseller, Agreement, Price, Software, Due Diligence, Negotiation, Research, Exclusivity, Guarantees, Direct Inquiry, Analysis, Customer, Behavior, Counter, Visit Situation: The industry is changing and the Company must adapt both structure and focus. This may require a layoff of staff not aligned with the new focus. How do you maintain morale in the face of uncertainty and possible layoffs? Advice from the CEOs: Ask for employee input as to industry trends and what possible directions for the company. Employees are closer to the customer than the CEO and have valuable insights. Gather input in small group meetings to prompt discussion and ideas. Make this a research talk. Leverage the “wisdom of the crowd.” What strategies did the most successful companies pursue? Could these work for you? If faced with protracted uncertainty, what did they do while waiting for market clarity? If a layoff is necessary, conduct it in one day: Monday is better than Friday. Do it early in the day. Give final checks the day of the layoff. Provide instructions for filing for unemployment assistance via the Internet. Hold a company meeting for remaining staff immediately after the layoffs. Focus your message on the future and positioning the company for the future. Prepare a brief summary of your message, to distribute as a take-away. Be prepared for a grieving process following the layoff. Consider outside assistance on grieving to overview the process. Following the company meeting, have key employees conduct smaller group meetings to lead discussions and allay fears about the layoff. Fully prep these individuals about the situation with written responses to likely questions. The benefit of a Monday layoff is that you will see everyone on Tuesday, and the team can continue to address their concerns.

Facing difficulties with citing dissertation MLA The MLA style of referencing is generally used when writing essays for the liberal arts and humanities subjects. If you are not familiar with it you will find this style of referencing very difficult. There are a complex set of guidelines you will need to follow, if you are facing difficulties with the mla format dissertation here are some detailed guidelines to assist you. - Type your paper on white paper in a standard format of size 8.5 x 11 inches. - You should use double spaced typing throughout the paper. v - The suggested font type should be Times New Roman. - The size of the font should be 12 pt. - You will need to indent the first line of each paragraph using the tab key and not the space key. - All pages should be numbered in the corner of the top right side of the page. - Long titles should be written in italics. - You should include the endnotes on a separate page before the Works Cited page. - Unless you are requested to do so by your supervisor, you should not include a title page. - You will need to list the following in the corner of the top left hand of the first page: Your name, your instructors name, your course title, and the date you completed the paper. - You should centre the title and it will need to be double spaced. - Do not write the title in quotation marks, underline it, or italize it. - Do not write the title in all capital letters, it should be written in title case. - All other sources referred to in your paper should either be put in speech marks or italics. - You should double space the first line of the title and text. - If you feel as if the quality of your documents readability will be improved you can create section headings. - You should number each section using an Arabic number, e.g. 1,2,3,4. Your ability to follow referencing guidelines when writing your dissertation is essential. You will have marks deducted if you demonstrate that you are unable to reference effectively. To avoid being penalized, you should make sure that you follow the guidelines carefully. Prior to submitting your final draft have your tutor read over your work to ensure that you haven’t made any errors. It is also advised that you use a reference tracking software, due to the size of a dissertation you are likely to use hundreds of references. The software will ensure that you include all of them for the mla format dissertation. The reference section is a very long and tedious process, you will have to be the most meticulous during this stage to ensure that nothing is missed out. It will also help if you mark every page that you took a reference from so that you have a guide to work with if it appears that there are any missing.

These books are the perfect gift to share with the Dad who loves reading this Father’s Day! In this list you’ll find nonfiction books about dads, mysteries to intrigue dad’s inner detective, family-oriented fiction, and more! For the dad who’s always been there for you… Families come in all sizes, shapes, and traditions, each a unique variation of a universal human theme. Whether one comes from a heterosexual, single-sex, or one-parent home, stability and love are paramount. Unfortunately, in the United States, the absence of fathers from their children’s lives has become a real problem. In fact, the Brookings Institute has identified absentee fathers as America’s most pressing problem—greater than the economy, education, the environment, health care, infrastructure, you name it. Why? Because nearly every social ill finds an umbrella, a home if you will, in the fatherless home. Choosing Fatherhood: America’s Second Chance is meant to explore this issue as no previous book has. And it does so through the art of photography, in which Lewis Kostiner makes portraits of dads who are involved in their children’s lives. The book is also accompanied by essays written by leading authorities on the subject: Juan Williams of FOX News, David Travis who was Curator of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago for more than thirty-five years, sociologist Shipra Parikh at Loyola University in Chicago, sociologist Derrick M. Bryan at the Morehouse College, and Roland Warren, former director of the National Fatherhood Initiative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing fatherhood in America, who also served on President Obama’s task force on fatherless homes. Getting fathers to be more involved in their children’s lives is of paramount importance, if the United States is to regain ground as an international leader. Right now, the statistics look grim: forty years ago only eleven percent of America’s children lived in homes without fathers, but today more than a third do. This translates into high poverty rates, high drop-out rates in high school, high rates of incarceration, multiple behavioral problems, and the list goes on. As President Obama has declared, fatherhood does not begin with the ecstasy of conception but with the beauty of childbirth and the responsibilities that come with creating and caring for a human life. Although changes in custody rulings and other policy remedies are possible, behavioral patterns are often outside the reach of policy. Choosing Fatherhood offers a hopeful direction that America does have a second chance at correcting a troubling trend, but time is slipping, and awareness of the problem is an important start. A young boy running for his life through the snow, his sister hovering between life and death in intensive care: it seems that another father has been driven to the edge and turned on his family when DCI Michael Thackeray reluctantly enters a family home turned blood-stained charnel house. But as he and his lover Laura Ackroyd dig deeper the tragedy becomes darker and much more dangerous. While Thackeray seeks to find where the children’s father has gone, Laura begins to ask just who he is. This seems to have been a family with no past long before its future was so brutally taken away. Who is Gordon Christie? Who is he hiding from? Is it only the police who are looking for him? Where has he gone with a loaded gun and his son in tow? And who seems to be obstructing Thackeray’s inquiry at every turn, driving him to the brink of resignation and Laura to despair? As things fall apart, the tangle of violence they uncover turns lethal and their lives hang in the balance as the police eventually uncover the full tragedy of the elusive Gordon Christie. “You don’t read a Patricia Hall book for lightness and humour. Instead, you get a grim slice of life in a northern English town, where it seems that the characters can never be happy… Yes, the book is what you expect from her — a bleak and depressing setting, peopled by ground-down unhappy characters. But it feels absolutely real and is difficult to set aside.” For the dad with an interest in WWII history… Letters of Stone As a young boy growing up in Port Elizabeth in the 1960s and 1970s, Steven Robins was haunted by an old photograph of three unknown women on a table in the dining room. Only later did he learn that the women were his father’s mother and sisters, photographed in Berlin in 1937, before they were killed in the Holocaust. Steven’s father, who had fled Nazi Germany before it was too late, never spoke about the fate of his family who remained there. Steven became obsessed with finding out what happened to the women, but had little to go on. In time he stumbled on official facts in museums in Washington DC and Berlin, and later he discovered almost one hundred letters sent to his father and uncle from the family in Berlin during the Nazi terror. The women in the photograph could now tell their story. Letters of Stone tracks Steven’s journey of discovery about the lives and fates of the Robinski family, in southern Africa, Berlin, Riga and Auschwitz. It also explores the worldwide rise of eugenics and racial science before the war, which justified the murder of Jews by the Nazis and caused South Africa and other countries to close their doors to Jewish refugees. Most of all, this book is a poignant reconstruction of a family trapped in an increasingly terrifying and deadly Nazi state, and of the immense pressure on Steven’s father in faraway South Africa, which forced him to retreat into silence. “A personal yet authoritative memoir – an immensely worthwhile read. As an academic Robins has meticulously researched the content, yet it does not read as a lecture. Rather it is a loving family tribute where individual personalities shine through.” -Gillian McAinsh, The Herald For the dad who loves cycling: Richard Mitchelson’s Grand Tour Pens replace pneux and pencils are your peloton as the doyen of British cycle illustrators, Richard Mitchelson, leads you on a magnificent ride through an entire season of grand-tour racing. Fun, dynamic, interactive, and entertaining, Richard Mitchelson’s Grand Tour is infused with a ‘broom-wagon’ full of cycling style, culture, history and humour. Prepare for the Giro d’Italia by personalizing your race-jersey and cap, or chose to create one of those sported by ‘maglia rosa’ legends down the years. Select your ride, study the route of the Gran Corsa or just design your own road to Milan. Get creative on the Passo dello Stelvio and ‘copy Coppi’ with an Il Campionissimo Dot to Dotti. Move on to the Grand Départ of the Tour de France, design your very own ‘Grand Boucle’ and fill in your race number on the board. Become inspired by colouring the cobblestones of the north’s Arenburg forest, paint your name alongside the legends on the scorched Summer climb of the Col de Tourmalet, and quickly unleash some paints or pens to ensure the colours are in place at an old velodrome before the riders arrive. Party with the icons of the sport – Laurent, Bernard, Gino, Bradley, Fausto, Tom, Eddy, Richard, Marco, Sean, Jacques, Greg, Raymond, Miguel – before showing them your true colours as you progress to Spain’s famed grand tour, the Veulta a España, the Alto de l’Anglirn and other terrifying Iberian climbs. The finishing line is wherever you want it to be. Grand Tour is a joyful celebration and an inspired, magical journey through cycling’s greatest races. For the ride you’ll need some pens, pencils and a devastating amount of cycling ‘panache’. Written in 1887, Jerry Thomas’s seminal bartender’s manual is the definitive guide to cocktails for professionals and enthusiastic amateurs alike.Thomas, described as the ‘father of American mixology’, provides the reader with clear and engaging instructions on how to mix a range of popular and more obscure cocktails, with recipes from America, Britain, France, Italy and Russia.From the Spread Eagle Punch to the mint julep, and from White Tiger’s Milk to the Champagne Cup, you will discover all manner of creations to suit any occasion, enabling you to become the ultimate party host.

Fifteen-year-old high school student Jack Andraka likes to kayak and watch the US television show Glee. And when time permits, he also likes to do advanced research in one of the most respected cancer laboratories in the world. Jack Andraka has created a pancreatic cancer test that is 168 times faster and considerably cheaper than the gold standard in the field. He has applied for a patent for his test and is now carrying out further research at Johns Hopkins University in the US city of Baltimore. And he did it by using Google. The Maryland native, who won $75,000 at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in May for his creation, cites search engines and free online science papers as the tools that allowed him to create the test. The student, in particular, used Google to look up cancer statistics and published documents on the disease, allowing him to research the topic and further develop hid ideas. The test is designed to detect cancer in its earlier stages, when effective treatment and survival rates are higher. Andraka’s own family has been affected by pancreatic cancer, a condition with a marginal 5.5 percent survival rate in more advanced cases; the same condition that Apple founder Steve Jobs died from late last year. The BBC’s Matt Danzico sat down with the teenager, who said the idea came to him when he was “chilling out in biology class”.

In recent times there’s been a wealth of publicity on the merits of green tea. If you’re looking to improve nutrient intake and boost general health then many experts suggest your look no further than a cup of this powerful brew. Countless health and fitness publications and media outlets have raised the profile of consuming tea, not that most of us need convincing. It is the second most consumed beverage on the planet behind, you guessed it, water. Green tea may reduce incidence of certain diseases Two of the largest causes of death worldwide are cardiovascular disease and cancer. Scientists have suggested green tea may reduce the likelihood of becoming inflicted by one of these killers. Consuming this beverage may improve total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol (by stopping LDL particles from oxidation) and triglycerides. These are three of the more significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Also, regular consumption has been shown to reduce high blood pressure. In fact, one study determined that women who drank five or more cups of green tea reported a 31% lower risk of dying as a result of cardiovascular disease. That really is a staggering statistic. Although the FDA doesn't necessarily accept these and other related findings. Read more about their view. The risk of uncontrolled cell growth or cancer may be reduced by powerful antioxidants in green tea. A couple of recent studies seem to suggest this anyway. The first - a meta analysis of observational studies - promoted a 22% lower risk of breast cancer for those that drank higher volumes. The second study looked at men's biggest cancer killer, cancer of the prostate. This Japanese study revealed that men drinking green tea had almost 50% lower risk of enduring the deadly disease. Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes, caused by a body's inability to use insulin properly. Green tea may have favourable influence in this area. Another Japanese study identified green tea improved insulin sensitivity and reduced blood sugar levels. The authors suggested those that drank more of this beverage had a 42% lower risk of contracting type 2 diabetes. Improved brain function Studies have suggested an association with improved brain function, enhanced productivity and more stable energy levels. That sounds useful! Is it just because of the caffeine presence in tea? After all caffeine is a known stimulant that blocks Adenosine, an inhibitory neurotransmitter involved in sleep, and increases the concentration of dopamine and norepinephrine. It has also been correlated with improvements in mood, reaction time and memory. The short answer is no. It’s not just the caffeine, although this obviously helps. L-theanine, a non-dietary amino acid found naturally in tea leaves, stimulates the production of the brains alpha waves, boosts the activity of GABA, another inhibitory neurotransmitter, and has been shown to promote relaxation without sedation. It is the combination of caffeine and L-theanine that can have a positive impact on brain function. Further to this enhancement, green tea may play a protective role in the brain as it ages. One study demonstrated a protective effect on neurons, the researchers concluding a lower risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. It will makes you look even more beautiful Really? Sign me up! Yes, some believe that green tea can take years off your life, not only minimising wrinkles and visible signs of ageing, but also by reducing damage caused by the harmful sun's rays. It might even help you maintain a sparkling white smile for a little longer as well. The beverage has been linked to improved dental health via the inhibition of streptococcus mutans, the most harmful bacteria in your mouth. This may reduce cavity formation as well as ensuring your breath smells better. That's always a bonus. You will live longer It probably goes without saying that considering all these potential health benefits from green tea you could live longer… but let's see if some of the numbers support that assertion. One Japanese study that included over 40,000 adults found tea drinkers consuming over 5 cups a day were less likely to die during an 11 year period. The Japanese must love their tea. Another similar study in Japan investigated 14,000 elderly Japanese adults aged 65+. Those that drank the most tea presented a 76% lower likelihood of death during the 6 year monitoring period. If you fancy extending your longevity… increasing your tea intake could be just the ticket. The final benefit of green tea i wanted to touch on was in relation to weight loss. A number of advocates have suggested green tea can increase fat burning and reduce obesity risk. Yes, there are some studies to support this. Let's talk about this some more in a moment. Green tea is not a new phenomenon First let’s step back a bit. While green tea is getting an upsurge in exposure as a health aide, particularly in western parts, it is by no means a new theory. The British are perhaps best known for their love of a good cuppa [interestingly they are only third in average tea consumption - behind Turkey and Ireland], but China is by far and away the largest consumer of tea - chugging back a whopping 1.6 billion pounds per year of either the green, black or oolong tea varieties. Green tea has been cultivated for use as a medicine in China, India and other parts of Asia for thousands of years. Whether looking to improve heart health, regulate body temperature, improve mental function, treat gas, heal wounds or as a diuretic - green tea has been a ‘go to’ medicinal treatment. More recently the traditional cup of tea (containing 50-150 mg of polyphenols) has been replaced with a plethora of dietary supplements or extracts in capsule, liquid or powder form. Why does green tea provide such health benefits? So how does green tea provide such a wonderful health benefit? Scientists believe the processing of green tea is the answer. The fermentation process associated with black or oolong tea is absent when creating green tea. So what? Apparently this retains the maximum volume of antioxidants and polyphenols (or catechins). Now there are six of these catechin compounds in green tea. You don’t need to know the complicated names of all six of them - but EGCG is the most predominant compound and accordingly the subject of the most green tea related research. What do antioxidants do? Good question. Antioxidants reduce the formation of something called free radicals. This has the wonderful effect of protecting cells and molecules from damage caused by said free radicals. It has been claimed that the antioxidants impact of polyphenols even outstrips Vitamin C (or ascorbic acid), a common westerners 'go-to' for the prevention of, or recovery from, cold or flu. But how well does it work for weight loss? While some of benefits of green tea seem to be clear cut, the question of the impact of green tea on weight loss might not be so obvious. Fitness or weight loss product manufacturers will not like to hear this assertion. An increasing number of products on the shelf state that green tea supports weight loss or accelerates metabolism. Consumers are sometimes led to believe the influence of green tea on weight loss is beyond question. But if we look at the descriptions on a couple of green tea extract products it appears even the manufacturers are conscious evidence is somewhat conflicting and the assurance of weight loss is not guaranteed. The first description states "green tea MAY enhance weight loss when combined with a healthy diet and plenty of exercise." Fair enough. Although if I was following a healthy diet and had time for 'plenty of exercise', chances are I wouldn't need the green tea extract anyway I imagine. The second description is much the same… green tea “may help boost metabolism, increase calorie burning and support weight loss when combined with a reduced calorie diet and exercise plan." Yes, it sounds far from clear cut if you ask me. Still many experts suggest you should incorporate it into your daily nutrition. Tod Cooperman, MD and president of the independent testing company ConsumerLab.com, - suggest that any effect seen from green tea is “probably due to the caffeine”. He proposes that if a stimulant encourages you to move more... it will clearly result in greater calorie burning. I think we should look at this in a bit more detail. I've reviewed a range of studies to further investigate the benefits of green tea for weight loss… what I discovered was inconsistent at best. Baladia et al did a lot of the work for me! Their research team completed a literature review and meta analysis, scouring studies between 2000 and 2013 to evaluate the impact of green tea extract consumption on body weight and composition. Their findings? Unfortunately they uncovered no statistically significant impact on weight of overweight or obese adults. While the researchers did identify a decrease in the percentage of fat mass - they dismissed it as small and not clinically relevant. I do want to point out a small caveat with this review. While the search strategy employed unearthed 154 studies… only 5 of them met the criteria to include in quantitative analysis. A further intervention published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2007 - examined the effect of green tea on thermogenesis and energy intake. The impact of caffeine and tyrosine was also evaluated during this trial. The scientists recruited 12 healthy normal weight men in their early 20s. Unfortunately for the proponents of green tea - caffeine was the only supplement that induced a thermogenic response - a 6% increase in metabolism above baseline. The authors did suggest however that the small sample size made it difficult to detect an impact on appetite suppression. At this stage things are not looking too promising for green tea. The third study we looked focused on EGCG (the compound in green tea we talked about earlier) and analysed whether it initiated any change in fat oxidation or thermogenesis. This study recruited 6 overweight men and supplemented them with 300 mg of EGCG for 2 days. While Boschmann and Thielecke failed to demonstrate a significant difference between EGCG and the control in terms of energy expenditure, they did reveal lower respiratory quotient values when compared to placebo. What does this mean? EGCG may increase fat oxidation. Again this was just a small study and seemed to have a 'bob each way'. Let's not sing the praises of green tea for weight loss just yet. A 2011 study provided further positive reinforcement. Sedentary males, aged 40-69 were assigned to consume decaffeinated green tea extract twice daily. Despite no effect on blood pressure or biomarkers of metabolic function - this research suggested a protective effect on weight gain. The treatment group decreased weight slightly during the monitoring period… whereas the placebo groups gained weight. Maybe green tea, rather than helping lose weight, could play a role in stopping us gaining more. That would certainly be beneficial if it's true… Let's look at a couple more studies just to be sure. The second last study I wanted to reference was a 12 week analysis published in Obesity in 2007. 240 Japanese women and men with visceral fat were administered a high dose of catechin (583 mg per day). The scientists identified a reduction in body weight, BMI, fat mass, visceral and subcutaneous fat, when compared to the control group. One of the more supportive studies into weight loss and green tea included 10 healthy men spending 24 hours in a respiratory chamber. A 4 % increase in metabolic rate was exhibited, equating to a boost in energy expenditure of between 65 and 200 calories per day. What does that mean in the scheme of fat loss? About 0.7 - 1.5 pounds of additional fat loss over the course of a month. Yes, I know it is nothing staggering. But still, an additional pound or so fat lost just for drinking a certain beverage has to be worthwhile right? I'll let you be the judge! This study also illuminated a preferential use of fat over carbs when drinking tea. So, despite trawling through a bunch of research I'm not sure we're any clearer on the benefits of green tea. It might help with weight loss... but then again it may not. Even if it does the impact seems to be minimal. Best you stick to the tried and trusted strategy of a healthy diet and exercise. Drinking green tea might just be a bonus.

Teen Driving Deaths Increase After Decade of Decline The number of teens killed in car accidents increased sharply in the first half of 2012, according to a new report from the Governors Highway Safety Association. This ended a decade-long trend of steady declines. According to the report: - Deaths of 16- and 17-year old drivers rose a combined 19 percent since 2011. - There were 107 16-year-old drivers killed in car accidents between January and June 2012, compared to 86 drivers during the same period in 2011. - There were 133 17-year-old drivers killed in car accidents between January and June 2012, compared to 116 drivers during the same period in 2011. - Twenty-five states reported increases, 17 had decreases and eight states and the District of Columbia reported no change. - There were 435 16-year-old drivers killed in all of 2000. That number dropped to 173 by 2011. Although significant efforts have been made to protect younger drivers, one official said that "teens remain [the] most vulnerable population." The same official suspects that the rising number of deaths could be the result of distracted driving involving a driver preoccupied by some form of technology. The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety insist that this rising number should encourage lawmakers to make passing stronger teen driving laws a priority. A report by the National Safety Council states that in addition to the increase in teen driving deaths, all traffic fatalities rose by 5 percent, the first increase since 2005.

Tenets of Islam In the Arabian town of Mecca in A.D. 610, the Prophet Muhammad preached the first of a series of divine revelations. Muhammad, an uncompromising monotheist, made himself unpopular with his fellow Meccans, who benefitted from the town's thriving pilgrimage business and numerous polytheist religious sites. Censured by Mecca's leaders, in 622 Muhammad and a group of his followers were invited to the town of Yathrib, which came to be known as Medina (from Madinat an Nabi, meaning the Prophet's City), and made it the center of their activities. This move, or hijra, marked the beginning of the Islamic era and of Islam as a historical force. The Muslim calendar, based on a 354-day lunar year, begins in 622. In Medina, Muhammad continued to preach, eventually defeating his opponents in battle and consolidating the temporal and spiritual leadership of Arabia before his death in 632. After Muhammad's death, his followers compiled his divinely inspired speeches in the Quran, the scripture of Islam. Other sayings and teachings of Muhammad and the examples of his personal behavior became the hadith. Together they form the Muslim's comprehensive guide to spiritual, ethical, and social living. The shahadah, or testimony, succinctly states the central belief of Islam: "There is no god but God [Allah], and Muhammad is his Prophet." This simple profession of faith is repeated on many occasions; recital in full and unquestioning sincerity makes one a Muslim. Islam means "submission to God," and he who submits is a Muslim. The God whom Muhammad preached was not unknown to his countrymen, for Allah is the Arabic word for God rather than a particular name. Instead of introducing a new deity, Muhammad denied the existence of the minor gods and spirits worshiped before his ministry. Muhammad is called the "seal of the Prophets"; his revelation is said to complete for all time the series of biblical revelations received by the Jews and the Christians. Prophets and sages of the Judeo-Christian tradition, such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (Ibrahim, Musa, and Isa, respectively, in the Arabic Islamic canon) are recognized as inspired vehicles of God's will. Islam, however, reveres as sacred only God's message, rejecting Christianity's deification of the messenger. It accepts the concepts of guardian angels, the Day of Judgment, the general resurrection, heaven and hell, and the immortality of the soul. The duties of the Muslim, which form the "five pillars" of the faith, are recitation of the shahadah (kalima in Bangla), daily prayer (salat; in Bangla, namaj), almsgiving (zakat; in Bangla, jakat), fasting (sawm; in Bangla, roja), and pilgrimage (hajj). The devout believer prays after purification through ritual oblations at dawn, midday, mid-afternoon, sunset, and nightfall. Prescribed genuflections and prostrations accompany the prayers that the worshiper recites while facing Mecca. Whenever possible, men pray in congregation at a mosque, led by a prayer leader; on Fridays they are obliged to do so. Women may attend public worship at mosques, where they are segregated from men, although most women commonly pray at home. A special functionary, the muezzin, intones a call to prayer to the entire community at the appropriate hours; those out of earshot determine the prayer time from the position of the sun. Public prayer is a conspicuous and widely practiced aspect of Islam in Bangladesh. Almsgiving consists of a variety of donations to the poor, debtors, slaves, wayfarers, beggars, and charitable organizations. Once obligatory, although not strictly a tax, almsgiving in modern times is voluntary but usually expected. The ninth month of the Muslim calendar is Ramadan, a period of obligatory fasting in commemoration of Muhammad's receipt of God's revelation. During the month all but the sick, the weak, pregnant or lactating women, soldiers on duty, travelers on necessary journeys, and young children are enjoined, as appropriate to their state in life, from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual intercourse during daylight hours. The wealthy usually do little or no work during this period, and some businesses close for all or part of the day. Since the months of the lunar calendar revolve through the solar year, Ramadan falls at various seasons in different years. Summertime fasting imposes considerable hardship on those who must do physical work. Id al Fitr, a feast celebrated throughout the Islamic world, marks the end of the month of fasting. Gifts, the wearing of new garments, exchanges of sweetmeats, almsgiving, and visits to friends and relatives are some of the customs of this great religious festival. Islam dictates that at least once in his or her lifetime every Muslim should, if possible, make the hajj to Mecca to participate in special rites held there during the twelfth month of the Muslim calendar. The Prophet instituted this requirement, modifying pre-Islamic custom to emphasize the significance of the sites associated with the history of Abraham, the founder of monotheism and the father of the Arabs through his son Ishmail (Ismail in the Arabic Islamic Canon). The pilgrim, dressed in a white seamless garment, abstains from sexual relations, shaving, haircutting, and nail-paring. Highlights of the pilgrimage include kissing a sacred black stone; circumambulating the Kaabah shrine (the sacred structure reportedly built by Abraham that houses a stone sacred to Islam); running between the hills of Safa and Marwa in imitation of Hagar, Ishmail's mother, during her travail in the desert; and standing in prayer on the Plain of Arafat. The permanent struggle for the triumph of the word of God on earth--the jihad--represents an additional duty of all Muslims. Although this concept continues to be used to justify holy wars, modernist Muslims see the jihad in a broader context of civic and personal action. In addition to specific duties, Islam imposes a code of ethical conduct that encourages generosity, fairness, honesty, and respect and that forbids adultery, gambling, usury, and the consumption of carrion, blood, pork, and alcohol. A Muslim stands in a personal relationship to God; there is neither intermediary nor clergy in orthodox Islam. Those who lead prayers, preach sermons, and interpret the law do so by virtue of their superior knowledge and scholarship rather than any special powers or prerogatives conferred by ordination. During his lifetime, Muhammad was both spiritual and temporal leader of the Muslim community. He established the concept of Islam as a total and all-encompassing way of life for both individuals and society. Muslims believe that God revealed to Muhammad the rules governing decent behavior. It is therefore incumbent on the individual to live in the manner prescribed by revealed law and on the community to perfect human society on earth according to the holy injunctions. Islam recognizes no distinction between religion and state. Religious and secular life merge, as do religious and secular law. In keeping with this conception of society, all Muslims traditionally have been subject to religious law.

Lunar Eclipses and Blue Moons By Calvin L. Chrisman December brings us the first total lunar eclipse visible in North America since 2008. This one will be late at night (or early in the morning depending on your point of view) with totality beginning at 2:41 a.m. on Tuesday December 21st. It will be visible from beginning to end, weather permitting. The next total eclipse visible here will not occur until 2014, so you may want to get up to check it out. Eclipses occur when the object that is eclipsed (in this case the Moon) falls in the shadow of another object (in this case, the Earth). Many people do not realize it, but the Earth actually casts two shadows. It has a lighter shadow called the penumbra consisting of light that is only partially blocked by the Earth; and a darker shadow called the umbra which is completely blocked from the Sun. Think of them as concentric circles with the penumbra being the larger outer circle and the umbra being the smaller inner circle. As the Moon passes through the Earth’s shadow, it first enters the penumbra and then the umbra. The penumbral shadow will first touch the Moon at 12:55 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday morning the 21st. Its effect is a subtle dimming and is easily missed. The umbra will first touch the Moon at 1:33 a.m. and will totally eclipse the moon at 2:41. Totality will last for 72 minutes and then the process will reverse itself ending at 5:01 a.m. If you have never watched a lunar eclipse, you may be surprised to see that, during totality, the Moon will have a reddish hue instead of being black or dark grey. It is quite striking and is an effect of Earth’s atmosphere. Light that passes through the Earth’s atmosphere is bent as though it had passed through a lens and is deflected into the umbral shadow. The light is bent toward the red end of the spectrum and so gives the umbra and the Moon a reddish tint. If you are observing the eclipse through a telescope or binoculars, you may want to try and time the first appearance of the penumbra and umbra on the Moon. It is also interesting to watch the effect as the umbra touches various mountains and craters on the surface of the Moon. Finally, watch the sky for dim stars that were obscured by the light of the Moon. They will be quite visible during totality. By this definition, the full moon last month was the third of four during the fall and therefore a blue moon. Now someone is going to raise their hand and say that the eclipsed moon of December is on the 21st and is therefore the “early moon” of the winter season. That’s close, but incorrect because the winter solstice (marking the beginning of winter) does not occur until 6:38 p.m. on the 21st which is about 15 hours after the moon becomes full at 3:13 a.m. This makes the eclipsed moon the “late moon” of fall. See if you can explain this to your friends while you are watching the eclipse.

This is the state flower of Utah. The name "Sego Lily" is from an Indian word. In other states the plant is called the Mariposa Lily (meaning "butterfly"). It blooms for only about a week each year (in late May or early June), on the dry foothills throughout the state. The bulbs are edible, and formed an important part of the diet of early native Americans of this region. They were also used by early western settlers when other food was scarce. The plant is named for naturalist Thomas Nuttall (1786 - 1859). The genus name Calochortus is from two Greek words meaning "beautiful grass". by Sandra Bray Wasatch Mountain foothills Salt Lake County, Utah

“The Selfie: More and Less than a Self-Portrait,” in Moritz Neumüller, ed., Routledge Companion to Photography and Visual Culture (London, New York: Routledge, forthcoming in 2018). This is the version of the chapter as accepted by the editor in November 2016. If you would like to cite this article, please refer to the published version as it will have greatly benefited from later revisions. Excerpts from my chapter: The selfie is more than an image, and more than an image of the self. Apart from the image, other essential attributes of the selfie include metadata, consisting of several layers: automatically generated data (like geo-tags and time stamps), data added by the user (hashtags), and data added by other users (comments and “likes”). The importance of metadata has been addressed by Rubinstein and Sluis (2013), but this element is easily overlooked in the selfie-shaming discourse. The means of the making of the selfie and conditions of its circulation are equally important elements as the image itself. The instantaneous dissemination of the image via Instagram or other platforms makes the selfie significantly different from its earlier photographic precursors (Rawlings 2013). As Sonja Vivienne and Jean Burgess (2013: 281) have observed, “much more important than digital photography’s influence on the practice of taking photographs, then, are the ways in which the web has changed how and what it means to share photographs” (emphasis in original). The layers of data that accompany the image can help to study the selfie. Data—time, place, number of likes and comments—is given and thus analyzable with sociological and computer science methods. The implied meanings and cultural functions of each selfie and the genre as such can be worked out only by interpretative methods—for example, from the perspective of history of photography. Ideally, we should come up with a combined methodology that would fit the hybrid nature of the selfie and let us study all its components as per definition with equal attention. But the selfie is also less than a self-portrait. One popular way of looking at selfies is as if they belonged to the same category of images as the famous painted self-portraits of the past. The similarity lies in the fact that both can be described as “images of the self.” But focusing on this one aspect can only lead to sweeping comparisons across cultures, centuries, and media, ignoring the historical specificity of each image and overlooking their radically different social and cultural functions. For example, one author compared selfies with self-portraits by Rembrandt and argued that “The selfie threatens to distract us from what Rembrandt did: looking at ourselves closely, honestly, but compassionately” (Judge 2014). Such comparisons are helpful only as much as they let us notice how different selfies on Instagram are from Renaissance paintings in museums. First of all, we have to acknowledge all the profound ways in which a smartphone photograph differs from an oil painting on canvas. Furthermore, the selfie is part of popular visual communication, its makers are not limited to a narrow elite of highly skilled artists as it was with painting in Renaissance. The selfie exists within an economy of fleeting, disposable images, unlike Renaissance paintings that were highly valued cultural artifacts. Selfies typically are made quickly and meant for an equally quick viewing on a smartphone while commuting or on the go, unlike paintings that were made to be revered and to withstand centuries. Thus the selfie is less than a self-portrait, at least in the traditional art-historical sense. This consideration also cautions against applying the term “selfie” retroactively to photographic self-portraits made before ca. 2010. Many self-portraits in history of photography that look seemingly similar to selfies—self-portraits in mirrors, self-portraits made while holding the camera in one’s extended arm etc. But these images are not selfies because they were not “taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media” as per the definition. They are not products of the networked camera. The term “selfie” is not just a shorter version of “self-portrait,” but has its own historically specific meaning.

كيف تربح المال بسرعة 1. تبادل خيار ثنائي Climate: Tropical with temperatures generally between 21 and 32 degrees Celsius. It is usually breezy and sunny. Southern Ghana has two rainy seasons the first, from March to July and the last, from September to October. The rainy seasons are separated by a short, dry season in August and a relatively long dry season from mid-October to March. Northern Ghana has only one rainy season from July to September. It is humid in the southwest, with annual rainfall averaging 2,030mm. The extreme southwest around Axim, records the heaviest rainfall. The southeast coast is warm and comparatively dry. Lastly, the north is hot and dry. Ghana has about 550 kilometers of coastline with beautiful sandy beaches. سعر سهم فيفا الكويت شلون اعرف انه عندي اسهم 2. Location: Ghana is situated in West Africa, just above the Equator. The Greenwich Meridian passes through Tema, its main industrial and habour city. Ghana shares common borders with Togo in the East, La Cote d’Ivoire in the West, Burkina Faso in the North and the Atlantic Ocean is in the south. Ghana is divided into 10 administrative regions and 135 district assemblies. The Regions are Greater Accra, Eastern, Western, Central, Volta, Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Northern, Upper East, and Upper West. Below are the various regions and their capitals: - Ashanti Region : Kumasi - Brong-Ahafo Region : Sunyani - Central Region : Cape Coast - Eastern Region : Koforidua - Greater Accra Region : Accra - Northern Region : Tamale - Upper East : Bolgatanga - Upper West : Wa - Volta Region : Ho - Western Region : Sekondi-Takoradi http://www.riosmartin.com/?bilozir=%D8%AA%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B0%D9%87%D8%A8%D9%8A&c5d=66 تداول الذهبي 4. History: Ghana is a former British colony. With the name derived from the ancient Ghana Empire. The country was the first of the sub- Saharan countries to gain its independence on 6th March, 1957. She became a Republic on July 1, 1960. http://kmr-spedition.at/?rater=%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B0%D9%87%D8%A8-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A7&b26=a8 اسعار الذهب في ماليزيا 6. Area: 238,537 square kilometers jobb hemifrån online 7. forex valutaväxlare Ethnic groups: Twi and Fanti-speaking Akans (45.3 per cent), Mole-Dagombas (15.2 per cent), Ewes (11.7 per cent), others (27 per cent). Although there are no indigenous Hausa tribes in Ghana, it is a language widely spoken among the Muslim and northern communities of Ghana. الراجحي تداول الذهب 8. Religion: Christian (63 per cent), Muslims (16 per cent), traditional religion (21 per cent) تداول مباشر الاسهم السعودية 11. الخيارات الثنائية تمويل ياهو Workforce: Primarily an agricultural country, with agriculture accounting for approximately 45% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employing about 60% of the labor force. robot forex megadroid gratis 13. Education: Ghana operates a 12-year pre-university education system with six years of primary school and three years each of Junior High School and Senior High School. Ghana has five public universities in addition to other private universities and eight Polytechnics. 14. Currency: Ghana Cedi / Pesewa. (100 Pesewas = One ¢ ). Flexible exchange rate 15. Economy: Main exports are gold, petroleum, cocoa, timber, bauxite, manganese, diamonds, horticultural products, handicraft, processed food, and manufactured goods. Overview: The basic infrastructure in Ghana is generally good with good road links and a good supply of water and electricity. Key Challenges: Due to the narrow nature and construction works on most roads in the city, traffic can be bad during rush hours in some parts of the country. Consistent supply of water and electricity all year through, still remain a challenge in most parts of the country.

1. The Field of the Invention The invention generally relates to the field of interventional cardiology. More specifically, the invention relates to interventional cardiology procedures that require the placing of a stent in a body lumen, such as a body lumen of a patient or animal. The present invention further relates to systems for providing embolic protection during placing of a stent in a body lumen. 2. The Relevant Technology Human blood vessels often become occluded or blocked by plaque, thrombi, other deposits, or material that reduce the blood carrying capacity of the vessel. Should the blockage occur at a critical place in the circulatory system, serious and permanent injury, and even death, can occur. To prevent this, some form of medical intervention is usually performed when significant occlusion is detected. Several procedures are now used to open these stenosed or occluded blood vessels in a patient caused by the deposit of plaque or other material on the walls of the blood vessel. Angioplasty, for example, is a widely known procedure wherein an inflatable balloon is introduced into the occluded region. The balloon is inflated, dilating the occlusion, and thereby increasing the intra-luminal diameter. Another procedure is atherectomy. During atherectomy, a catheter is inserted into a narrowed artery to remove the matter occluding or narrowing the artery, i.e., fatty material. The catheter includes a rotating blade or cutter disposed in the top thereof. Also located at the tip are an aperture and a balloon disposed on the opposite side of the catheter tip from the aperture. As the tip is placed in close proximity to the fatty material, the balloon is inflated to force the aperture into contact with the fatty material. When the blade is rotated, portions of the fatty material are shaved off and retained with the interior lumen of the catheter. This process is repeated until a sufficient amount of fatty material is removed and substantially normal blood flow is resumed. To place a stent, many medical devices are typically used. Once access to the inside of the arterial system is established, usually through the femoral artery, a guide catheter is inserted into the artery and the tip thereof is guided to a position just proximal to the stenosed region to be treated. This guide catheter serves the purpose of allowing other devices to rapidly be delivered to that position without each being carefully guided from the point of access, through the tortuous anatomy of the arterial system to the point of intervention. Typically, a small diameter guidewire is then inserted through the guide catheter and guided to the point distal to the stenosed region. When guidewire access to the lesion is established, and if there is sufficient cross sectional area in the narrowed part of the lesion, a stent, mounted on a delivery device, is installed over the guidewire. When correctly placed within the stenosed region, the stent will then be deployed, propping open the vessel at that point. Various types of stents are used in these cases, but a common one requires that the stent be deployed from, or expanded from, a compressed state by a balloon upon which it is mounted. The balloon is inflated from the proximal end of the delivery device to a high pressure, which both opens the stenosis and embeds the stent into the inner lumen of the vessel at that point. Once the guidewire is placed, the guidewire is used as a guide for all of the other devices that are used in the procedure. These devices have an inner lumen through which the proximal end of the guidewire, which is outside of the body of the patient, is inserted. The device is then slid along the guidewire into the body, allowing the guidewire to guide the device to the required position in the vascular system. The process of sliding another device over the guidewire is commonly known as an exchange. Two basic types of devices facilitate exchanging of stent systems and dilation balloons. The first type of device encloses a guidewire within an inner lumen of the device for the entire length of the device. The second type of device only encloses the guidewire for a small distal segment of the device, with the remainder of the guidewire exiting from the inner lumen of the device through a side hole to allow the device and the guidewire to be side by side. In both cases, control of the guidewire is paramount during the exchange as the correct positioning of the device is reliant upon maintaining the position of the guidewire; this being difficult as at least a section of the guidewire is inaccessible due to it being enclosed in the inner lumen of the device being exchanged. Providing a stent delivery device that reduces the complexity of an interventional procedure would advance the art of stent delivery. Furthermore, reducing the number of devices used to perform a stent implanting procedure would advance the art of stent delivery. In addition, when these interventional procedures are performed, embolic particles may break off, flow down-stream, and cause potential adverse events. Devices are emerging that are designed to catch or filter these particles to prevent their down-stream flow, to occlude the vessel during the intervention, and then allowing the particles to be aspirated out before they may flow downstream. Current technology for embolic protection devices requires that they be delivered in a sheath distal to the point of intervention. This requires crossing the lesion with a large-diameter, relatively stiff device that is itself a potential embolic event that may occur before the embolic protection device is in place. The sheath must then be removed allowing the filter to be deployed in the vessel. After the device is deployed, balloons, stents, or other therapies of choice may be exchanged over the device to treat the area of interest. When the procedure is completed, the embolic protection device is captured by another catheter that is exchanged over the embolic protection device capturing any potential embolic material within it. This relatively complicated procedure adds complexity to providing stenting and other procedures. The device and methods described herein are meant to overcome deficiencies of the current devices allowing quicker, safer and easier protection and stenting procedures to be undertaken. Embodiments of the present invention can provide systems, methods, and devices that combine the functionality of a guidewire, a stent delivery device, a dilation balloon, and an embolic protection device, or subset grouping thereof, into a single device insertable into a body lumen. In this manner, embodiments of the present invention reduce the number of devices needed to perform a procedure, decrease the time needed to perform the procedure, reduce the difficulty and complexity of the procedure, thereby creating the potential for safer procedures and increased effectiveness to the patient. In one embodiment, a delivery device includes a guide member having a distal end and a proximal end. The guide member functions as a guide catheter, a guidewire, and a stent delivery device. A dilation assembly is disposed at the distal end of the guide member with a stent preloaded upon the dilation assembly. The distal end of the guide member is configured to apply a restraining force upon the dilation assembly to selectively maintain the dilation assembly and stent within a lumen of the delivery device. Associated with the distal end of the guide member is a restraining member or mechanism that can be operated to release the restraining force applied to the dilation assembly and stent, thereby allowing the dilation assembly and stent to be deployed from within the lumen. The restraining mechanism cooperates with an actuating assembly to deploy the dilation assembly and stent. In one embodiment, the actuating assembly cooperates with a proximal end of the guide member and includes an actuating member that extends from the restraining mechanism or member at a distal end of the delivery device to an actuating element disposed at the proximal end of the guide member. Thus, operation of the actuating element translates movement to the actuating member to release the restraining mechanism or member and release the restraining force applied by the restraining mechanism or member, whether alone or in combination with the distal end of the guide member, upon the dilation assembly and/or the stent. In operation, the delivery device is placed in position within a body lumen of a patient, with the dilation assembly and stent in a restrained position. Operation of the actuating assembly releases the dilation assembly and the stent from within the guide member. The guide member may be pulled proximally to allow the dilation assembly and stent to be entirely free of the guide member. Alternatively, a dilation tube and/or a positioning member connected to the dilation assembly may be advanced distally to deploy the dilation assembly and the stent. The stent may then be placed in the vasculature by inflating the dilation balloon associated with the dilation assembly, for example, through the dilation tube. After the stent is implanted, the dilation assembly is deflated and the delivery device can be removed from the patient. According to another aspect of the present invention, the delivery device can include an embolic protection device that is adapted to collect embolic particles released during the procedure. As the stent is implanted, the embolic protection device can filter the blood flowing past the lesion and prevent embolic particles or matter flowing downstream. In one configuration, the embolic protection device is mounted to a distal end of a guidewire associated with the delivery device. The embolic protection device can be a filter assembly that includes a filter and a filter basket. The filter basket includes a plurality of struts that restrain the filter during insertion of the delivery device into the body lumen, while supporting and deploying the filter upon releasing a restraining force applied to the plurality of struts to maintain the filter assembly in a closed position during insertion of the delivery device. The structures used to apply the restraining force to the plurality of struts can be similar to the structures applying the restraining force to the dilation assembly and/or stent. According to another aspect of one embodiment of the present invention, the delivery device may cooperate with a capture mechanism or device for retrieving the filter assembly without removing the delivery device from the body. Thus, the delivery devices of the present invention allow protected interventions to be accomplished with a single device insertion, without requiring exchanges, while still allowing guidewire access distal to the treatment region throughout the entire procedure. These and other objects and features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter. To further clarify the above and other advantages and features of the present invention, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof that are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is appreciated that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope. The invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which: The present invention provides systems, methods, and devices that combine the functionality of a guide catheter, a guidewire, a stent delivery device, a dilation balloon, and/or an embolic protection device, or a subset group of such devices, into a single device that is insertable into a body lumen. In this manner, the present invention reduces the number of devices needed to deliver and position a stent, providing the possibility of decreasing the time needed to perform procedures and reducing the difficulty and complexity associated with performing a procedure. Further, embodiments of the present invention aid with decreasing the possibility of patient complications during and subsequent to the procedure. Referring now to Extending between distal end 14 and proximal end 16 of guide member 12 is a lumen 18 within which is disposed a dilation assembly 40 and a stent 42 (see Illustratively, guide member 12 can have an outside diameter of between about 0.010 inches to about 0.650 inches and an inside diameter or diameter of lumen 18 from about 0.004 inches to about 0.55 inches. Additionally, guide member 12 can be fabricated from a variety of different materials. For example, guide member 12 can be fabricated from Nitinol, steel, metals, metal alloys, composites, plastic, polymers, synthetic materials, such as, but not limited to, PEEK, Rydel, or combinations thereof. Additionally, guide member 12 can have the configuration of a braid-reinforced polymer tube or a rigid polymer tube. Furthermore, guide member 12 can be covered with one or more coatings. For instance, and not by way of limitation, guide member 12 can include one or more coatings that improve lubricity, reduce platelet aggregation, or have anti-thrombogenic properties. In addition to the above, guide member 12 can include one or more hydrophilic coatings, heparinized coatings, Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) coatings, silicone coatings, combinations thereof, or other coatings that may aid with positioning guide member 12 and/or preventing damage to the body lumen. Optionally, guide member 12 may include one or more cuts, slits, grooves, or other structures, illustratively identified by numeral 17, that provide flexibility to all or a portion of guide member 12. Although reference is made to use of cuts, slits, or grooves to provide flexibility, it can be appreciated by one skilled in the art that guide member 12 or other portion of device 10 may have a lattice structure, i.e., portions of guide member 12 or device 10 removed therefrom, which provides flexibility to a portion of guide member 12 and/or other portion of device 10. The cuts, slits, or grooves can be located at any location of guide member 12 and may have various pitches to allow or provide for different flexibilities. These one or more grooves, cuts or slits can partially or completely extend through portions of guide member 12. Additionally, these grooves, cuts, or slits can have a variety of different configurations, such as but not limited to, straight, helical, geometric, combinations thereof, or various other configurations known to those skilled in the art, so long as those same provide flexibility to guide member 12. Further, any number of grooves, cuts, or slits can be included in guide member 12 and optionally portions of dilation assembly 40. For example, the more grooves, cuts, or slits included in guide member 12 or a portion of dilation assembly 40, the greater the flexibility of guide member 12, and hence delivery device 10. Similarly, the depth of each groove, cut, or slit can vary depending upon the desired flexibility. For instance, the deeper the groove, cut, or slit, the greater the flexibility of guide member 12, and hence delivery device 10. Furthermore, differences in the configuration of each groove, cut, or slit can affect the flexibility of guide member 12 and therefore delivery device 10. For instance, the steeper the sides of a particular groove, cut, or slit, the less flexibility provided to guide member 12 and/or delivery device 10. Dilation assembly 40 is connected to a dilation tube 44 that extends along the length of guide member 12. Dilation tube 44 is used to fill a dilation balloon 46 with a fluid. The fluid may be introduced through a luer lock fitting 45 located at proximal end 16 of guide member 12. Dilation tube 44 may also be used, in some embodiments, as a positioning member for deploying dilation assembly 40 and stent 42. Additionally, dilation assembly 40 of device 10 is coupled by dilation tube 44 to actuating element 21. By sliding actuating element 21 with respect to proximal end 16 of guide member 12, dilation assembly 40 is moved with respect to guide member 12 and can be deployed from tip 15 of guide member 12. These and other features of the present invention will now be described in further detail. With reference now to The one or more struts 24 can be formed using a variety of different processes. For instance, the processes can include, but not limited to, machining processes performed using a laser or conventional machining process, including, but not limited to, hydro-machining, grinding, end milling, slitting saws, abrasive saws, electrical discharge machines, combinations thereof, or other machining processes capable of creating slots or slits sufficient to form one or more struts 24. In the embodiment of Surrounding struts 24 is restraining member 25. In the embodiment of Sleeve 26 can be fabricated from various types of materials so long as sleeve 26 is capable of securely retaining struts 24. For instance, sleeve 26 can be fabricated from heat shrink synthetic material, including but not limited to, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene terphthalate (PET), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), polyethylene (PE), polyurethane (PU), silicone tubing, and other suitable polymers or synthetic materials. Actuating member 28 extends from sleeve 26, travels along an exterior of guide member 12, and passes through an aperture 30 in guide member 12. Actuating member 28 continues to travel within lumen 18 of guide member 12 until it reaches proximal end 16 of guide member 12. It will be appreciated that in other embodiments, actuating member 28 may remain external to lumen 18 of guide member 12. Actuating member 28 can be fabricated from various materials and have various configurations so long as it is capable of performing the function of displacing sleeve 26. For example, actuating member 28 can be fabricated from plastics, polymers, metals, composites, alloys, synthetic materials, and combinations thereof. As shown in Dilation tube 44, in one configuration, is an internal support for dilation balloon 46 and stent 42. Dilation tube 44 can be fabricated from Nitinol, steel, metals, metal alloys, composites, plastic, and combinations thereof. Further, dilation tube 44 can be covered with a variety of different coatings, such as, but not limited to, one or more coatings to improve lubricity, anti-thrombogenic properties, and reduce platelet aggregation. Other coatings can include, but not limited to, hydrophilic coatings, heparinized coatings, Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) coating, silicone coating, or combinations of the coatings described herein. Dilation tube 44 may have a variety of different configurations and embodiments. In another embodiment, dilation tube 44 includes a proximal end where provision is made for connecting dilation tube 44 to an inflation device with an annular clamping device, such as a touhy-borst adaptor. Alternatively, as shown in Mounted to a distal end of dilation tube 44 is an atraumatic tip 48. Atraumatic tip 48 is disposed within lumen 54 of dilation tube 44 and seals dilation tube 44, prevents fluid from escaping therefrom during inflation and deflation of dilation balloon 46, and provides a flexible tip that aids in positioning and steering of delivery device 10 through the tortuous anatomy of the patient. In the illustrative embodiment, dilation tube 44 extends to a distal end of dilation balloon 46 and atraumatic tip 48 is disposed therein. Alternatively, dilation tube 44 can extend to a position proximal to the distal end of dilation balloon 46 and a portion of atraumatic tip 48 then extends from a distal end of dilation tube 44 to a position distal to the distal end of dilation balloon 46. Furthermore, in another alternate embodiment, dilation tube 44 terminates within a lumen formed in atraumatic tip 48. Atraumatic tip 48 includes a core 56 that is surrounded by a flexible coil 58. As shown, flexible coil 58 terminates at a distal end of tip 48 with an atraumatic portion, such as a solder ball or other mechanism for forming an atraumatic distal end of tip 48. More generally, atraumatic tip 48 can have a variety of other configurations so long as atraumatic tip is flexible and optionally shapeable. Furthermore, atraumatic tip 48 may be radiopaque to allow steerable positioning of delivery device 10 while allowing a physician or clinician to observe the location of tip 48 using appropriate devices, such as a fluoroscopic device or X-ray device. Materials that facilitate or provide radiopacity may include, but not limited to, platinum, alloys of platinum, gold, or combinations thereof, metals, alloys, plastic, polymer, synthetic material, combinations thereof, or other materials that provide an appropriate radiopaque signature, while capable of being shaped by a physician or clinician. Alternatively, tip 48 can be a polymer that is dipped or coated with an appropriate radiopaque material, such as, but not limited to, barium sulphate, bismuth subcarbonate, titanium dioxide, or combinations thereof. Referring now to Referring now to Various configurations of stent 42 are known to those skilled in the art. For example, an expandable stent may be used that automatically opens under the pressure of dilation balloon 46. In another configuration, a self-expanding stent can be used, as illustrated in Referring now to As illustrated, actuating assembly 20 includes an actuating element 21 coupled to a proximal end of dilation tube 44. Actuating element 21 includes a distal end 74 configured to be mounted to and cooperate with proximal end 16 of guide member 12. A proximal end 76 of actuating element 21 is attached to a proximal end of dilation tube 44, while a proximal end of actuating member 28 passes through a sealed aperture 47 of actuating element 21. In this exemplary embodiment, the proximal end of dilation tube 44 includes a luer fitting 45 that allows various complementary luer fittings to be attached thereto. For instance, a syringe (not shown) can be attached to luer fitting 45 for introducing fluid to and removing fluid from dilation balloon 46 ( Actuating element 21 is adapted to be displaced in a distal direction to deploy dilation assembly 40 and stent 42. To aid with positioning actuating element 21, distal end 74 can have a step configuration and include protrusions 78 that mate with complementary indentations 80 formed in proximal end 16 of guide member 12. The protrusions 78 and indentations 80 provide an indication of the relative position of dilation assembly 40 and stent 42 relative to distal end 14 of guide member 12. Therefore, actuating element 21 and/or guide member 12 can include one or more protrusions and indentations. As actuating element 21 is displaced in a distal direction, protrusions 78 mate with indentations 80. To seal lumen 18 of guide member 12, one or more seals 84 surround protrusions 78. Additionally, one or more seals (not shown) can surround dilation tube 44 and/or actuating member 28. Illustratively, each seal can be one or more O-rings in one or more grooves, one or more O-rings, a gasket, or a viscous fluid seal. When actuating element 21 is displaced in the distal direction, distal end 74 contacts a wall or stop 82 formed in guide member 12 that prevents further displacement of actuating element 21 in the distal direction. Through this configuration, actuating element 21 is prevented from excessive longitudinal displacement in the distal direction. This stopping of the longitudinal displacement of actuating element 21 indicates that dilation balloon 46 and stent 42 are deployed from within lumen 18 of guide member 12 to the desired position for expanding or implanting stent 42. Although reference is made to one manner of indicating the particular location of stent 42, one skilled in the art can identify a variety of different embodiments. For instance, a plurality of indentations and/or protrusions can be included within actuating element 21 and guide member 12 to control the distance which actuating element 21 and, consequently, stent 42 is displaced. In another configuration, a wall or stop formed in actuating element 21 can mate with the distal end of guide member 12 to prevent excessive longitudinal displacement in the distal direction. In still another configuration, a combination of one or more walls or stops in actuating element 21 and guide member 12 can be used. In still another configuration, distal end 74 of actuating element 21 can be tapered and cooperate with a taper formed in proximal end 16 of guide member 12. The complementary tapers control the longitudinal displacement of actuating element 21 relative to proximal end 16 of guide member 12. In still other configurations, a combination of indentations, protrusions, walls, stops, threads, or tapers can be used. Various other manners are known to control the distance traveled by actuating element 21 while indicating the position of stent 42. In addition to the above, it can be appreciated that actuating element 21 can include one or more elements, such that wall or stop 82 and indentations 80 are formed in separate elements or members that are attached or coupled to proximal end 16 of guide member 12. By so doing, actuating element 21 can be fabricated separately from guide member 12, thereby reducing costs and expenses associated with fabricating proximal end 16 of guide member 12 in the desired configuration. Referring now to As shown in To maintain struts 124 in a restrained position, i.e., not extending outwardly from guide member 112, restraining member 125 surrounds struts 124. The restraining member 125 and other restraining members or mechanisms described herein are examples of means for applying a restraining force upon one or more struts or means for applying a restraining force upon a distal end of a guide member. In this embodiment, restraining member 125 can extend completely or partially from the distal end to the proximal end of guide member 112. For example, restraining member 125 can surround substantially only struts 124 or can have a configuration similar to those depicted in In the configuration depicted in As mentioned above, catheter 127 can extend completely or partially the length of the guide member. In another configuration, catheter 127 can be replaced with a sleeve or other structure that completely or partially extends toward the proximal end of guide member 112 from the distal end. These alternate configurations are also means for applying a restraining force, as described herein. These restraining members or mechanisms can be radiopaque or include one or more radiopaque markers that aid with positioning the device. Furthermore, these restraining members or mechanisms can be slidable relative to the guide member using an actuating member and/or an actuating assembly disposed on an exterior of the guide member, within a lumen of the guide member, or partially within the lumen and partially on the exterior of the guide member. The actuating assembly may be similar in structure and function to actuating assembly 20 described in Struts 224, when in a restrained position, maintain dilation assembly 240 and stent 242 within lumen 218 of guide member 212. Disposed within sleeve 226 or between sleeve 226 and guide member 212 are one or more actuating members 228. Actuating members 228, optionally forming part of the restraining mechanism or member, are attached to guide member 212 at a location proximal to the proximal end of each strut 224, identified by letter A. Actuating members 228 extend distally to the distal end of sleeve 226 and subsequently extend proximally on the outside of sleeve 226 to terminate at the proximal end (not shown) of device 200. Since one end of each actuating member 228 is located at the proximal end of sleeve 226, whether forming part of sleeve 226, attached to sleeve 226, attached to guide member 212, or combinations thereof, displacing actuating member 228 in the proximal direction causes actuating member 228 to preferentially separate sleeve 226 into one or more portions 232, illustrated in dotted lines. By so doing, struts 224 are released, as illustrated in To operate actuating members 228, a proximal end (not shown) of actuating member 228 extends to a proximal end (not shown) of guide member 212, either within or without lumen 218 of guide member 212. Actuating members 228 can extend to an actuating element (not shown) of an actuating assembly, such as, but not limited to, the actuating assembly of Sleeve 226 can be formed from a variety of different materials, so long as the material is sufficiently strong to secure struts 224, while being configured to preferentially separate under the action of actuating members 228. For example, sleeve 226 can be fabricated from heat shrink synthetic material, including but not limited to, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene terphthalate (PET), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), polyethylene (PE), polyurethane (PU), or silicone tubing. The one or more actuating members 228 can be formed from a variety of different materials, so long as the material used is sufficiently strong to allow an actuating assembly, such as, but not limited to, those actuating assemblies disclosed herein, to displace actuating member 228 proximally without breaking the same. For example, actuating members 228 can be fabricated from plastics, polymers, metals, composites, alloys, synthetic materials, and combinations thereof. Instead of using actuating members 228, embodiments of the present invention can employ various other means to preferentially separate sleeve 226. For example, sleeve 226 can have dissolvable chemical bonds which dissolve due to a chemical reaction with the fluid in the body lumen within which the delivery device is disposed, bonds that are broken through applying resistive heating, ultrasonic, or radio frequency energy to actuating members 228 and/or region of the body lumen containing device 200, preferential tear or cut regions or zones where the material has a weaker strength than other regions or zones of the sleeve, or combinations thereof. Referring now to The process of forming the restraining member or mechanism of When the portions of intermediate portion 368 are in close proximity, actuating member 328, or alternatively some other actuating member, is stitched through both portions of sleeve 326 to couple the portions of intermediate portion 368, as shown in As illustrated in To operate the restraining member or mechanism described in reference to Sleeve 326 can be formed from a variety of different materials, so long as the material is sufficiently strong to restrain one or more struts 324. For example, sleeve 326 can be fabricated from various types of polymer or silicone films, such as but not limited to, heat shrink plastic, polymer, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene terphthalate (PET), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), polyethylene (PE), polyurethane (PU), or silicone tubing. Actuating member 328 can be formed from a variety of different materials, so long as the material used is sufficiently strong to allow the actuating assemblies disclosed herein to displace actuating member 328 proximally without breaking actuating member 328. For example, actuating member 328 can be fabricated from plastics, polymers, metals, composites, alloys, synthetic materials, combinations thereof, or other material that is capable of performing the function of being disposed through sleeve 326 and capable of being withdrawn therefrom. Referring now to As shown in An exemplary process of forming the restraining member or mechanism of To attach sleeve 426 to guide member 412, sleeve 426 is positioned over the desired portion of guide member 426. Actuating member 428 is placed in close proximity to guide member 412, as shown in After the extensions 460 a-460 f are pulled tightly around guide member 412 and actuating member 428, an end of each extension 460 a-460 f is folded over actuating member 428 to attach to the outer surface of sleeve 426, as shown in Releasing the restraining force applied by sleeve 426, alone or in combination with actuating member 428, is achieved through displacing actuating member 428 longitudinally with respect to guide member 412, vice versa, or combination thereof. Actuating member 428 is released from channels 464 a-464 f to allow the biasing force of struts 424 to extend the struts outwardly to deploy dilation assembly and/or stent. A clinician or physician can initiate the longitudinal motion of actuating member 428, either directly or through using of an actuating mechanism or device. Referring now to Cord 529 can be attached to guide member 512 and/or one or more of the struts associated therewith through various attachment mechanisms. For instance, cord 529 can be attached to guide member and/or one or more of the struts through adhesives, mechanical fasteners, securing loops, or other manner that securely attaches cord 529 to guide member 512 and/or one or more of struts 524. Alternatively, cord 529 may be attached to actuating member 528 and be removed when actuating member 528 is moved in a proximal direction. A clinician or physician can initiate the longitudinal motion of actuating member 528, either directly or through using of an actuating mechanism or device. Referring now to When flaps 660 and 662 have been positioned to securely retain struts 624, they are then stitched together at a location 666, identified in Following coupling of flaps 660 and 662 using actuating member 628, flaps 660 and 662 are folded back around struts 624 and the remainder of flaps 660 and 662, and then attached to struts 624, or other portion of guide member 612, as illustrated in Referring now to As shown, a proximal end 716 of a guide member 712 terminates in a guide member housing 722. This guide member housing 722 can be integrally formed with guide member 712 or alternatively be a separate member coupled, connected, or attached to a proximal end of guide member 712. Proximal end 716 of guide member 712 is coupled to an actuating element 721 of an actuating assembly 720. This actuating element 721 slidably engages with guide member housing 722. Manipulation of actuating element 721 effects the movement of dilation tube 744 upon which is mounted the dilation balloon (not shown). Actuating member 728 extends through an aperture 786 in actuating element 721 that is adapted with a seal (not shown) through which actuating member 728 can slide. In this manner, aperture 786 and the seal (not shown) allow access for the operator to release or displace the restraining member (not shown) that restrains the one or more struts (not shown) disposed at distal end 714 of delivery device 700 a. The seal can include a polymer gasket, such as, but not limited to, polyurethane, silicone rubber, or other materials that are capable of making a seal around actuating member 728 and allow the actuating member 728 to slide therethrough while a fluid seal is maintained. A dilation tube 744, optionally having a similar configuration to dilation tube 44 of In this illustrative embodiment, an additional luer fitting 790 is formed in or coupled to actuating element 721. Luer fitting 790 is provided to infuse fluid through a lumen 718 of guide member 712, thereby allowing introduction of a contrast media in the blood flow around the vicinity of the device as it is advance in the vasculature. Referring now to Although reference is made to using complementary threads, it can be understood by one skilled in the art in light of the teaching contained herein that various other structures can be used to provide controllable longitudinal movement of actuating element 721 relative to guide member housing 722. For instance, actuating element 721 can include a key that mates with a key way formed in guide member housing 722, or vice versa. Further, although reference is made to rotational motion and motion parallel to the longitudinal movement of the dilation balloon and stent, one skilled in the art can identify various other directions of motion that can enable or facilitate deployment of the dilation balloon and/or stent. For instance, the motion of actuating element can be at any angular orientation relative to the longitudinal axis of the guide member, whether or not such motion includes one or more revolutions of the actuating element relative to the guide member. As depicted in As actuator 764 and hence gear 762 are rotated, the complementary features 770 of guide member 712 mate with the teeth, features or structures 768 of gear 762 to move guide member 712 in a proximal and/or distal direction, dependent upon the rotational direction of actuator 764. By so doing, the dilation assembly and the stent can be deployed from a distal end (not shown) of device 700 d. In addition to moving or positioning guide member 712, actuating member 728 may also be operated through using a sliding switch 762 associated with housing 760 and actuating element 721. The actuating member 728 is coupled to a leg 762 that is attached to switch 762, while sliding switch 762 is slidably coupled to housing 760. The sliding translation of switch 762 moves actuating member 728 in the respective direction to release a restraining force applied by the restraining member or mechanism (not shown) of device 700 c. One skilled in the art can identify various other configurations of actuating element 721 in light of the teaching contained herein. Referring now to As shown in Extending from an aperture 834 in a proximal end of actuating element 821 toward distal end 814 of guide member 812 is a guidewire 832. As shown best in Guidewire 832 terminates at a distal end with an atraumatic tip 848 that can include a core wire 856 wrapped with a coiled spring 858. The core wire 856 may be an extension of the remainder of guidewire 832 or alternatively may be a separate member coupled or attached to the distal end of guidewire 832. In either case, core wire 856 can be made from the same or a different material than guidewire 832 and may optionally be a solid member or a tubular member. The dilation balloon 846 of dilation assembly 840 is inflated through a dilation tube 844 that extends from dilation balloon 846 to terminate at the proximal end of actuating element 821 with a luer fitting 845. An additional luer fitting 890 may be provided attached to actuating element 821. It will be appreciated that luer fitting 890 can perform substantially the same function as luer fitting 790. The distal end of dilation tube 844 cooperates with an interior of dilation balloon 846. The distal end of dilation tube 84 can be connected to tubular member 836, dilation balloon 846, or to both tubular member 836 and dilation balloon 846. The dilation tube 844 can be used to position dilation balloon 846 and/or stent 842 during a procedure. Consequently, dilation tube 844 can have sufficient strength to enable distal movement of dilation tube 844 to translate to distal movement of the remainder of dilation assembly 840. Similarly, dilation tube 844 can have sufficient strength to enable proximal movement of dilation tube 844 to translate to proximal movement of the remainder of dilation assembly 840. Delivery device 800 a is configured so that guidewire 832 can be positioned in a body lumen, and delivery device 800 a can be removed from within the body lumen while retaining guidewire 832 at the desired position. As such, other conventional, interventional devices may then be used to complete the procedure. A device may be connected to the distal end of the guidewire such as, for example, a filter assembly for collecting embolic particles that are dislodged in the body vessel during a stenting operation, as will be discussed in greater detail hereinafter. Other devices may be exchanged over guidewire 832 as will be understood by those of skill in the art. As shown, positioning member 838 is separate from dilation tube 844. Although reference is made to positioning member 838 being separate from dilation tube 844, it can be ,appreciated that positioning member 838 can be removably disposed within dilation tube 844, while being capable of positioning dilation balloon 846 in the desired location within the body lumen or vessel. For instance, as illustrated in dotted lines in The proximal end of guide member housing 822 as illustrated in In addition, the proximal end of actuating element 821 b includes an annular clamping mechanism 862, such as, but not limited to, touhy-borst adaptor, compressible polymer or silicone rubber gasket, or other clamping mechanisms 862 known to those skilled in the art in light of the teaching contained herein. The annular clamping mechanism 862 receives guidewire 832 and creates a mechanical connection and a fluid seal between actuating element 821 b and guidewire 832. This seal prevents fluid escaping from within lumen 818, while providing a mechanism for releasing delivery device 800 b from guidewire 832 in the event that other conventional, interventional devices are to be used without loosing the vascular access that is gained by the device as a whole. For example, by rotating annular clamping mechanism 862, the seal is broken and delivery device 800 b can be removed from guidewire 832. A similar clamp or other seal can cooperate with positioning member 838 to prevent fluid escaping from within device 800 b. Actuating element 821 c includes a fixed portion 829 and a movable portion 831 slidably disposed with portion 829. The portion 829 can be integrally formed with a proximal end of guide member 812 or a separate member that is coupled or attached to the proximal end of guide member 812, where such coupling or attaching can be achieved by complementary threads, key and keyway configuration, chemical bonding, thermal bonding, or adhesives. The portion 831 cooperates with portion 829 in sealing manner so that a fluid entering an interior space defined by the interiors of portion 829 and a portion of portion 831 is prevented from exiting therefrom. This seal can be created by one or more sealing members 833 and/or between the tolerances associated with portion 829 and portion 831. Illustratively, sealing member 833 can be one or more O-rings in one or more grooves, one or more O-rings, gasket, or viscous fluid seal. The portion 831 contains a support structure 823 extending across a distal end thereof. The proximal end of tubular member 836 is fixedly attached to support structure 823. Support structure 823 also includes an aperture 825 through which extends guidewire 832. Preferably, a seal 827 is disposed between and/or within aperture 825 and guidewire 832 to retain fluid inside guide member 812. Consequently, upon depressing portion 831 in the direction of arrows A, dilation balloon 846 is deployed from within lumen 818 of guide member 812. Similarly, upon moving portion 831 of actuating element 821 c in the direction of arrows B, dilation balloon 846 is retracted into lumen 818 of guide member 812. As depicted in Guidewire 832 passes between dilation balloon 846 and stent 842. Although not depicted for ease of explanation, guidewire 832 may have an atraumatic tip attached or formed at a distal end thereof. The dilation balloon 846 includes an integrally formed dilation tube 844 that extends from a distal end of dilation balloon 846. The dilation balloon 846, as with other dilation balloons described herein, can have various configurations, such that dilation balloon 846 can having substantially constant cross-section along its length or alternatively have a variable cross-section along its length. Furthermore, the dilation balloons of the present invention can be formed from one or more separate dilation balloons, with associated one or more dilation tubes, which collectively provide the functionality of a single dilation balloon. As depicted in With continued reference to Filter assembly 931 is adapted to provide embolic protection during use of device 900. As depicted in The filter 933 can be fabricated from a variety of different materials, such as, but not limited to, a woven or braided plastic or metallic mesh, a perforated polymer film, a Nitinol mesh, combinations thereof, or other material that is capable of capturing material within flowing blood, while allowing the blood to flow through the pores or apertures thereof. Generally, filter 933 can be fabricated from a variety of materials so long as filter 932 is capable of being packed within filter basket 934, and optionally float in the blood flow or stream passing through the body lumen within which it is inserted, and is bio-compatible. Filter 933 can have a variety of differently sized pores ranging from about 50 microns to about 200 microns, from about 60 microns to about 180 microns, or from about 75 microns to about 150 microns. For instance, the pores can have a variety of different configurations, such as but not limited to circular, oval, polygonal, combinations thereof or other configurations known to one skilled in the art in light of the teaching contained herein. In one configuration, therefore, filter 933 can include pores that are differently sized and configured. Consequently, a major or minor axis of each pore can have a variety of different sizes ranging from about 50 microns to about 200 microns, from about 60 microns to about 180 microns, or from about 75 microns to about 150 microns. Generally, the pore size can vary as needed, so long as the pores are sized so that the pores do not compromise blood flow through the filter, i.e., prevent blood flowing through the filter, and collect material that could potentially occlude smaller downstream vessels, potentially blocking blood flow to tissue or result in stroke or infarction. In addition to the above, filter 933 can be coated with a hydrophilic coating, a heparinized coating, a Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) coating, a silicone coating, combinations thereof, or various other coatings as know or desired by one skilled in the art in light of the teaching contained herein. The filter basket 934 supports filter 933 following deployment of filter 933. The filter basket 934 includes a plurality of struts 960 that extend from a body 962. Struts 960 of filter basket 934 are adapted to extend outwardly to position filter 933 within the body lumen. A strut 960 a of struts 960 can include an atraumatic tip 948, with struts 960 a forming at least a portion of the core wire of atraumatic tip 948. This strut may also be covered with a flexible coil 958. The body 962 of filter basket 934 includes a hole 967 that is adapted to receive guidewire 932. Alternatively, body 962 can include a passageway that is adapted to receive a distal end of guidewire 932. The filter 933 can be attached to struts 960 of filter basket 934 in a variety of ways. For instance, filter 933 can be attached through adhesives, solvent bonding, thermal bonding, mechanical connections, or combinations thereof. Further, the distal end of two or more struts 960 can include a hole through which strands of filter media 932 can be passed and attached to struts 960. Alternatively, the strands can be tied in a knot, folded back upon filter 933, and affixed to filter 933. Various other manners exist of coupling or connecting filter 933 to filter basket 934. Optionally, filter assembly 931 includes a number of radiopaque bands and/or markers affixed to a variety of positions on filter assembly 931. For instance, bands, markers or other means for radiopacity can be included upon filter 933, filter basket 934 and/or struts 960. In other configurations, the delivery device generally includes means for radiopacity at one or more locations or positions thereof to aid with viewing the position of the delivery device and the various elements and components thereof. As illustrated, a restraining member or mechanism 925 restrains struts 960, while another retraining member, shown in dotted lines, restrains a distal end of guide member 912. Optionally, restraining member or mechanism 925 restrains both the distal end of guide member 912 and struts 960. Cord 929 can be attached to one or more struts 960 of filter assembly 931 through various attachment mechanisms. For instance, cord 929 can be attached to guide member and/or one or more of the struts through adhesives, mechanical fasteners, securing loops, or other manner that securely attaches cord 929 to one or more of struts 960. Alternatively, cord 929 may be attached to actuating member 928 and be removed when actuating member 928 is moved in a proximal direction. A clinician or physician can initiate the longitudinal motion of actuating member 928, either directly or through using of an actuating mechanism or device. Although reference is made to one particular embodiment of restraining member or mechanism 925, one skilled in the art can appreciate that other restraining members or mechanism described herein can be used to restrain struts 960. As shown, filter basket 934 includes one or more holes 970 that are adapted to receive at least a portion of restraining member or mechanism 925. The holes 970 can be disposed at various locations of filter assembly 931. For instance, and not by way of limitation, body 962 and each strut 960 can include one or more holes 970. The restraining member or mechanism 925 can be at least partially disposed through one or more of holes 970, with cord 929 or other portion of restraining member or mechanism 925 being optionally releasably coupled to one of struts 960 or body 962 of filter basket 934. Moving actuating member 928 of restraining member or mechanism 925 in a proximal direction causes struts 960 to move outwardly to release filter 933. A proximal end (not shown) of restraining member or mechanism 925 or actuating member 928 can be accessible by a clinician or physician to allow the same to operate restraining member or mechanism 925 to release the restraining force applied to struts 960. Optionally, the proximal end of restraining member or mechanism 925 can cooperate with an actuating assembly that can be operated to move restraining member or mechanism 925 as needed to release the restraining force applied by restraining member or mechanism 925. In the illustrative configuration of It will be appreciated that restraining member or mechanism 925 is but one means for restraining struts 960 of filter basket 934. Other configurations may be employed, such as, but not limited to, the restraining configurations or means for restraining described in A restraining mechanism 1064 maintains struts 1060 in a restrained position as shown in Each tubular member 1062 is adapted to receive restraining or actuating member 1025. As shown in Restraining or actuating member 1025 extends from filter assembly 1031 into a lumen of guidewire 1032 to terminate at a proximal end of guide member 1012 and optionally extend beyond the proximal end of guide member 1012. Alternatively, restraining or actuating member 1025 can extend proximally from filter assembly 1031 to exit through an aperture 1069, depicted in dotted lines, before terminating at the proximal end of guide member 1012 and optionally extend beyond the proximal end of guide member 1012. In this latter configuration, restraining or actuating member 1025 can be disposed externally to guide member 1012 or partially externally to guide member 1012 as it extends to the proximal end of guide member 1012 and optionally extend beyond the proximal end of guide member 1012. It will be appreciated that a clinician or physician can manipulate restraining member or mechanism 1064 to release the restraining force applied by restraining member or mechanism 1064. Alternatively, restraining member or mechanism 1064 can be optionally operated by an actuating assembly similar to that described herein, such as, but not limited to, the actuating assembly described with respect to Each tubular member 1062 coupled to struts 1060 can be fabricated from a metal, a plastic, polymer, a polymer, a synthetic materials, whether or not the material is the same as that forming guide member 1012. In one embodiment, each tubular member 1062 is a polymer tube, such as a polyimide or polyurethane tube that is fixed to respective struts 1060 with adhesive. In another configuration, each tubular member 1062 is a metallic cut tube that may be attached to respective struts 1060 with and adhesive or solder. In still another configuration, each strut 1060 includes an aperture through which actuating member 1025 passes to restrain struts 1060 and prevents the same from extending outwardly. Referring now to As depicted in Struts 1160 extend from a body 1162 of filter assembly 1131. Although reference is made herein to struts 1160 being integrally formed with body 1162, it can be appreciated that struts 1160 can be separate members coupled to body 1162. Further, struts 1160 can be integrally formed with guidewire 1132 or separate members coupled to guidewire 1132. Each strut 1160 includes a distal portion 1162, a proximal portion 1166, and an intermediate portion 1164 disposed between distal portion 1162 and proximal portion 1166. Struts 1160 may attach to filter 1133 on the exterior of filter 1133, on the interior of filter 1133, along the edge of filter 1133, through filter 1133, or combinations of one or more of the proceeding. To provide additional surface area to connect each strut 1160 to filter 1133, each strut 1160 can be configured so that distal portion 1162 has a cross-sectional dimension larger than intermediate portion 1164. Stated another way, distal portion 1162 can have a larger surface area than intermediate portion 1164. The large cross-sectional area provided by the cross-sectional dimension of distal portion 1162 provides large area for bonding each strut 1160 to filter 1133. In this configuration, a strong bond is created between each strut 1160 and filter 1133. Similarly, each strut 1160 can be configured so that proximal portion 1166 has a cross-sectional dimension larger than intermediate portion 1164, while optionally having a similar, larger, or smaller cross-sectional dimension than distal portion 1162. By having a large cross-sectional dimension and hence large surface area, each strut 1160 can apply a greater biasing force to extend strut 1160 outwardly to deploy filter 1133. By varying the cross-sectional dimensions of distal portion 1162, intermediate portion 1164, and/or proximal portion 1166, the degree of bias exerted by each strut 1160 to move distal portion 1162 toward the wall of a blood vessel can be varied. The biasing force can also be changed through optionally varying the length of each strut 1160 and/or changing the curvature of each strut 1160. Although reference is made herein to each strut 1160 having the above-referenced configurations, one skilled in the art can appreciate that one or more of struts 1160 can be configured as described above. Further, each strut 1160 can optionally be configured differently so that each strut 1160 can have similar or dissimilar biasing forces compared to others struts 1160 of the same delivery device. Through varying the biasing forces, the delivery device can be used for a variety of different procedures or blood vessel configurations. Struts 1160 can be formed from Nitinol, stainless steel, metals, alloys, composites, plastics, polymers, synthetic materials, or combinations thereof. Each strut 1160 can have a generally straight distal portion 1162, proximal portion 1166, and/or intermediate portion 1164. Alternatively, each strut 1160 can have a generally curved distal portion 1162, proximal portion 1166, and/or intermediate portion 1164. In still another configuration, each strut 1160 can have a combination of one or more straight and/or one or more curved portions. Coupled to body 1162, such as within a lumen or hole 1137, is an atraumatic tip 1148. The atraumatic tip 1148 can include a core wire 1156 and a flexible coil 1158 disposed thereon. Core wire 156 passes through an aperture 1170 in a distal end of filter 1133. Alternatively, core wire 1156 passes through one or more pores formed in filter 1133. To secure filter 1133 to atraumatic tip 1148, a securing coil 1186 surrounds a portion of coil 1158 and the distal end of filter 1133. Although this is one manner to connect filter 1133 to atraumatic tip 1148, one skilled in the art can identify various other manners to connect filter 1133 to atraumatic tip 1148. For instance, the distal end of filter 1133 can be bonded to atraumatic tip 1148 using adhesives, mechanical fasteners, crimping, seals, friction fit, press fit, or other manners to connect filter 1133 to atraumatic tip 1148. In another configuration, filter 1133 is not connected to atraumatic tip 1148 but can slide along a portion of atraumatic tip 1148. Turning now to Lumen 1212 is configured to receive a guidewire with attached filter assembly (not shown) of a delivery device. In one embodiment, lumen 1212 can include a stop member 1218, depicted in dotted lines, with a hole 1220 there through. A guidewire, as represented by dotted lines identified by reference numeral 1232, passes through hole 1220 of stop member 1218. The guidewire 1232 can have various configurations, such as, but not limited to those described herein and others known to those skilled in the art. Stop member 1218 prevents a filter assembly disposed at a distal end of guidewire 1232 to pass through hole 1220 once capture catheter 1202 has received within lumen 1212 the filter assembly associated with guidewire 1232 sufficiently that the filter of the filter assembly is at least closed to prevent escape of embolic material. In one configuration, the filter assembly and associated filter are completely enclosed by capture portion 1204 of capture device 1200. In other configurations, the filter assembly and/or filter are partially enclosed by capture portion 1204 of capture device 1200. One skilled in the art can identify various other configurations of stop member 1218, so long as stop facilitates completely or partially capturing the filter assembly and/or the filter associated with guidewire 1232. Positioning member 1206 is attached to capture catheter 1202 and can be used to move capture catheter 1202 along guidewire 1232, whether such movement is caused by moving catheter 1202 relative to guidewire 1232, guidewire 1232 relative to catheter 1202, or combination thereof. Positioning member 1206 has sufficient stiffness that application of a force at a proximal end 1224 can be transferred to longitudinal motion of capturing portion 1204 of capture catheter 1202. In one configuration, positioning member 1206 is a solid member, while in another configuration positioning member 1206 is partially or completely hollow. Positioning member 1206 can be fabricated from a polymer, a plastic, polymer, a synthetic material, a metal, an alloy, combinations thereof, or other material that can be used for medical devices and has the needed stiffness. As illustrated in Capturing portion 1304 is configured to prevent passage of filter assembly of the delivery device. In this exemplary configuration, the length of lumen 1312 is optionally configured to prevent capturing portion 1304 from being advanced further over the filter assembly and/or the filter thereof than is required. In other configurations, lumen 1312 can be advanced over the filter assembly and/or the filter more than is required to capture the same. In another configuration, lumen 1312 can include a stop member similar to stop member 1218 discussed herein. Furthermore, capturing portion 1304 can optionally include one or more radiopaque markers similar to markers 1216 disposed at and/or between a distal end and a proximal end thereof. Generally, therefore, embodiments of the present invention can provide systems, methods, and devices that combine the functionality of a guidewire, a stent delivery device, a dilation balloon, an embolic protection device, or subset grouping thereof, into a single device insertable into a body lumen. In this manner, embodiments of the present invention reduce the number of devices needed to perform a procedure, decrease the time needed to perform the procedure, reduce the difficulty and complexity of the procedure, thereby creating the potential for safer procedures and increased effectiveness to the patient. Portions of the various delivery devices and associated dilation assemblies, stents, guide members, actuator assemblies, guidewires, filter assemblies, and other elements of the present invention can be used interchangeably one with another. Therefore, descriptions of one delivery device and associated components and/or elements is also applicable to other delivery devices described herein and such other devices as known by one skilled in the art in light of the disclosure herein. |US4307722||14 Aug 1979||29 Dec 1981||Evans Joseph M||Dilators for arterial dilation| |US4367747||1 Oct 1980||11 Jan 1983||Lothar Witzel||Pneumatic dilatator for introdution into the esophagus| |US4413989||17 Aug 1981||8 Nov 1983||Angiomedics Corporation||Expandable occlusion apparatus| |US4425908||22 Oct 1981||17 Jan 1984||Beth Israel Hospital||Blood clot filter| |US4447227||9 Jun 1982||8 May 1984||Endoscopy Surgical Systems, Inc.||Multi-purpose medical devices| |US4540404||19 Jan 1983||10 Sep 1985||Datascope Corp.||Balloon catheter with intrinsic introducer for percutaneous insertion into a blood vessel over a guide wire, and method of use| |US4580568||1 Oct 1984||8 Apr 1986||Cook, Incorporated||Percutaneous endovascular stent and method for insertion thereof| |US4590938||4 May 1984||27 May 1986||Segura Joseph W||Medical retriever device| |US4619246||20 May 1985||28 Oct 1986||William Cook, Europe A/S||Collapsible filter basket| |US4631052||17 Dec 1984||23 Dec 1986||Intravascular Surgical Instruments, Inc.||Method and apparatus for surgically removing remote deposits| |US4643184||17 Apr 1984||17 Feb 1987||Mobin Uddin Kazi||Embolus trap| |US4650466||1 Nov 1985||17 Mar 1987||Angiobrade Partners||Angioplasty device| |US4662885||3 Sep 1985||5 May 1987||Becton, Dickinson And Company||Percutaneously deliverable intravascular filter prosthesis| |US4705517||3 Sep 1985||10 Nov 1987||Becton, Dickinson And Company||Percutaneously deliverable intravascular occlusion prosthesis| |US4706671||2 May 1985||17 Nov 1987||Weinrib Harry P||Catheter with coiled tip| |US4723549||18 Sep 1986||9 Feb 1988||Wholey Mark H||Method and apparatus for dilating blood vessels| |US4728319||21 May 1986||1 Mar 1988||Helmut Masch||Intravascular catheter| |US4733665||7 Nov 1985||29 Mar 1988||Expandable Grafts Partnership||Expandable intraluminal graft, and method and apparatus for implanting an expandable intraluminal graft| |US4744366||10 Sep 1986||17 May 1988||Jang G David||Concentric independently inflatable/deflatable multiple diameter balloon angioplasty catheter systems and method of use| |US4748982||6 Jan 1987||7 Jun 1988||Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.||Reinforced balloon dilatation catheter with slitted exchange sleeve and method| |US4762129||15 Nov 1985||9 Aug 1988||Tassilo Bonzel||Dilatation catheter| |US4771777||6 Jan 1987||20 Sep 1988||Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.||Perfusion type balloon dilatation catheter, apparatus and method| |US4790812||15 Nov 1985||13 Dec 1988||Hawkins Jr Irvin F||Apparatus and method for removing a target object from a body passsageway| |US4790813||30 May 1986||13 Dec 1988||Intravascular Surgical Instruments, Inc.||Method and apparatus for surgically removing remote deposits| |US4793348||15 Nov 1986||27 Dec 1988||Palmaz Julio C||Balloon expandable vena cava filter to prevent migration of lower extremity venous clots into the pulmonary circulation| |US4794928||10 Jun 1987||3 Jan 1989||Kletschka Harold D||Angioplasty device and method of using the same| |US4794931||28 Feb 1986||3 Jan 1989||Cardiovascular Imaging Systems, Inc.||Catheter apparatus, system and method for intravascular two-dimensional ultrasonography| |US4800882||13 Mar 1987||31 Jan 1989||Cook Incorporated||Endovascular stent and delivery system| |US4807626||30 Dec 1985||28 Feb 1989||Mcgirr Douglas B||Stone extractor and method| |US4842579||29 Jul 1988||27 Jun 1989||Surgical Systems & Instruments, Inc.||Atherectomy device| |US4857045||23 Oct 1987||15 Aug 1989||Schneider (Usa) Inc., A Pfizer Company||Atherectomy catheter| |US4857046||21 Oct 1987||15 Aug 1989||Cordis Corporation||Drive catheter having helical pump drive shaft| |US4867157||30 Sep 1987||19 Sep 1989||Baxter Travenol Laboratories, Inc.||Surgical cutting instrument| |US4873978||4 Dec 1987||17 Oct 1989||Robert Ginsburg||Device and method for emboli retrieval| |US4886061||9 Feb 1988||12 Dec 1989||Medinnovations, Inc.||Expandable pullback atherectomy catheter system| |US4898575||10 Jun 1988||6 Feb 1990||Medinnovations, Inc.||Guide wire following tunneling catheter system and method for transluminal arterial atherectomy| |US4907336||9 Sep 1988||13 Mar 1990||Cook Incorporated||Method of making an endovascular stent and delivery system| |US4921478||23 Feb 1988||1 May 1990||C. R. Bard, Inc.||Cerebral balloon angioplasty system| |US4921484||25 Jul 1988||1 May 1990||Cordis Corporation||Mesh balloon catheter device| |US4926858||7 Aug 1989||22 May 1990||Devices For Vascular Intervention, Inc.||Atherectomy device for severe occlusions| |US4950277||23 Jan 1989||21 Aug 1990||Interventional Technologies, Inc.||Atherectomy cutting device with eccentric wire and method| |US4955895||22 Dec 1987||11 Sep 1990||Terumo Kabushiki Kaisha||Vasodilating catheter| |US4957482||22 Mar 1989||18 Sep 1990||Surgical Systems & Instruments, Inc.||Atherectomy device with a positive pump means| |US4969890||7 Jul 1988||13 Nov 1990||Nippon Zeon Co., Ltd.||Catheter| |US4969891||13 Apr 1990||13 Nov 1990||Gewertz Bruce L||Removable vascular filter| |US4979951||18 Jan 1989||25 Dec 1990||Simpson John B||Atherectomy device and method| |US4983167||23 Nov 1988||8 Jan 1991||Harvinder Sahota||Balloon catheters| |US4986807||23 Jan 1989||22 Jan 1991||Interventional Technologies, Inc.||Atherectomy cutter with radially projecting blade| |US4998539||13 Dec 1988||12 Mar 1991||Delsanti Gerard L||Method of using removable endo-arterial devices to repair detachments in the arterial walls| |US5002560||8 Sep 1989||26 Mar 1991||Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.||Expandable cage catheter with a rotatable guide| |US5007896||16 Mar 1989||16 Apr 1991||Surgical Systems & Instruments, Inc.||Rotary-catheter for atherectomy| |US5007917||8 Mar 1990||16 Apr 1991||Stryker Corporation||Single blade cutter for arthroscopic surgery| |US5011488||20 Aug 1990||30 Apr 1991||Robert Ginsburg||Thrombus extraction system| |US5019088||7 Nov 1989||28 May 1991||Interventional Technologies Inc.||Ovoid atherectomy cutter| |US5041126||14 Sep 1988||20 Aug 1991||Cook Incorporated||Endovascular stent and delivery system| |US5053008||21 Nov 1990||1 Oct 1991||Sandeep Bajaj||Intracardiac catheter| |US5053044||11 Jan 1988||1 Oct 1991||Devices For Vascular Intervention, Inc.||Catheter and method for making intravascular incisions| |US5071407||12 Apr 1990||10 Dec 1991||Schneider (U.S.A.) Inc.||Radially expandable fixation member| |US5071425||3 Jun 1991||10 Dec 1991||Devices For Vascular Intervention, Inc.||Atherectomy catheter and method of forming the same| |US5085662||13 Nov 1989||4 Feb 1992||Scimed Life Systems, Inc.||Atherectomy catheter and related components| |US5087265||24 Jul 1989||11 Feb 1992||American Biomed, Inc.||Distal atherectomy catheter| |US5100423||21 Aug 1990||31 Mar 1992||Medical Engineering & Development Institute, Inc.||Ablation catheter| |US5100424||21 May 1990||31 Mar 1992||Cardiovascular Imaging Systems, Inc.||Intravascular catheter having combined imaging abrasion head| |US5100425||14 Sep 1989||31 Mar 1992||Medintec R&D Limited Partnership||Expandable transluminal atherectomy catheter system and method for the treatment of arterial stenoses| |US5102415||30 Aug 1990||7 Apr 1992||Guenther Rolf W||Apparatus for removing blood clots from arteries and veins| |US5104399||9 Mar 1988||14 Apr 1992||Endovascular Technologies, Inc.||Artificial graft and implantation method| |US5108419||16 Aug 1990||28 Apr 1992||Evi Corporation||Endovascular filter and method for use thereof| |US5133733||31 Oct 1990||28 Jul 1992||William Cook Europe A/S||Collapsible filter for introduction in a blood vessel of a patient| |US5135487||1 May 1991||4 Aug 1992||C. R. Bard, Inc.||Balloon dilatation catheter with integral guidewire| |US5135531||27 Mar 1990||4 Aug 1992||Surgical Systems & Instruments, Inc.||Guided atherectomy system| |US5135535||11 Jun 1991||4 Aug 1992||Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.||Catheter system with catheter and guidewire exchange| |US5152771||31 Dec 1990||6 Oct 1992||The Board Of Supervisors Of Louisiana State University||Valve cutter for arterial by-pass surgery| |US5152777||25 Jan 1989||6 Oct 1992||Uresil Corporation||Device and method for providing protection from emboli and preventing occulsion of blood vessels| |US5156594||28 Aug 1990||20 Oct 1992||Scimed Life Systems, Inc.||Balloon catheter with distal guide wire lumen| |US5160342||30 Dec 1991||3 Nov 1992||Evi Corp.||Endovascular filter and method for use thereof| |US5171233||25 Apr 1990||15 Dec 1992||Microvena Corporation||Snare-type probe| |US5190546||9 Apr 1991||2 Mar 1993||Raychem Corporation||Medical devices incorporating SIM alloy elements| |US5195955||13 Mar 1990||23 Mar 1993||Don Michael T Anthony||Device for removal of embolic debris| |US5209730||19 Dec 1989||11 May 1993||Scimed Life Systems, Inc.||Method for placement of a balloon dilatation catheter across a stenosis and apparatus therefor| |US5224953||1 May 1992||6 Jul 1993||The Beth Israel Hospital Association||Method for treatment of obstructive portions of urinary passageways| |US5232445||9 Oct 1991||3 Aug 1993||Tassilo Bonzel||Dilatation catheter| |US5279560||23 Dec 1991||18 Jan 1994||C. R. Bard, Inc.||Balloon dilatation catheter with integral guidewire| |US5290295||15 Jul 1992||1 Mar 1994||Querals & Fine, Inc.||Insertion tool for an intraluminal graft procedure| |US5300025||30 Sep 1992||5 Apr 1994||Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.||Dilatation catheter having a coil supported inflation lumen| |US5306286||1 Feb 1991||26 Apr 1994||Duke University||Absorbable stent| |US5314444||2 Apr 1993||24 May 1994||Cook Incorporated||Endovascular stent and delivery system| |US5314472||1 Oct 1991||24 May 1994||Cook Incorporated||Vascular stent| |US5315747||30 Oct 1992||31 May 1994||Pameda N.V.||Method of preparing a balloon dilatation catheter| |US5318576||16 Dec 1992||7 Jun 1994||Plassche Jr Walter M||Endovascular surgery systems| |USRE33569||19 May 1989||9 Apr 1991||Devices For Vascular Intervention, Inc.||Single lumen atherectomy catheter device| |1||"Atherosclerotic Disease of the Aortic Arch as a risk Factor of Recurrent Ischemic Stroke," The New England Journal of Medicine, pp. 1216-1221 (May 1996).| |2||"Endovascular grafts, Stents Drive Interventional Radiology Growth," Cardiovascular Device Update 2(3):1-12 (Mar. 1996).| |3||Cragg et al., "A New Percutaneous Vena Cava Filger," AJR 141:601-604 (Sep. 1983).| |4||Cragg et al., "Nonsurgical Placement of Arterial Endoprosthesis: A new Technique Using Nitinol Wire," AJR pp. 261-263 (Apr. 1983).| |5||Diethrich et al., "Percutaneous Techniques for Endoluminal Carotid Interventions," J. Endovasc. Surg. 3:182-202 (1996).| |6||Fadali, "A Filtering Device for the Prevention of Particulate Embolization During the Course of Cardiac Surgery," Surgery 64(3):634-639 (Sep. 1968).| |7||Haissaguerre et al., "Spontaneous Initiation of Atrial Fibrillation by Ectopic Beats Originating in the Pulmonary Veins," The New England Journal of Medicine 339(10):659-666 (Sep. 1998).| |8||Jordan, Jr. et al., "Microemboli Detected by Transcranial Doppler Monitoring . . . ," Cardiovascular Surgery 7(1)33-38 (Jan. 1999).| |9||Karalis et al., "Recognition and Embolic Potential of Inraaortic Atherosclerotic Debris," American College of Cardiology 17;73-78 (Jan. 1991).| |10||Lesh, "Can Catheter Ablation Cure Atrial Fibrillation?" ACC Current Journal Review pp. 38-40 (Sep./Oct. 1997).| |11||Lund et al., "Long-Term Patentcy of Ductus Arteriosus After Ballon Dilation: an Experimental Study," Laboratory Investigation 69(4):772-774 (Apr. 1984).| |12||Marache et al., Percutaneous Transluminal Venous Angioplasty . . . , American Heart Jounal 125(2Pt 1):362-366 (Feb. 1993).| |13||Mazur et al., "Directional Atherectomy with the Omnicath(TM): A Unique New Catheter System," Catheterization and Cardiovascular Diagnosis 31:79-84 (1994).| |14||Moussa, "Stents Don't Require Systemic Anticoagulation . . . But the Technique (and Results) Must be Optimal," Journal of Invasive Cardiol. 8(E):3E-7E (1996).| |15||Nakanishi et al., "Catheter Intervention to Venous System Using Expandable Metallic Stents," Rinsho Kyobu Geka 14(2):English Abstract Only (Apr. 1994).| |16||Onal et al., "Primary Stenting for Complex Atherosclerotic Plaques in Aortic and Iliac Stenoses," Cardiovascular & Interventional Radiology 21(5):386-392 (1998).| |17||Theron et al., "New Triple Coaxial Catheter System for Carotid Angioplasty with Cerebral Protection," American Jounal of Neuroradiology 11:869-874 (1990).| |18||Tunick et al., "Protrudiing Atherosclerotic Plaque in the Aortic Archo of Patients with Systemic Embolization: A new Finding Seen by Transesophageal Echocardiography," American Heart Journal 12093):658-660 (Sep. 1990).| |19||Tunick et al., "Protruding Atheromas in the Thorzcic Aortic and Systemic Embolization," pp. 423-427 American College of Physicians (1991).| |20||Waksman er al., "Distal Embolization is Common After Directional Atherectomy . . . ," American Hear Jornal 129(3):430-435 (1995).| |21||Wholey et al., "PTA and Stents in the Treatment of Rectracranial Circulation," The Journal of Invasive Cardiology 8(E):25E-30E (1996).| |US9642635||11 Mar 2014||9 May 2017||Neuravi Limited||Clot removal device| |US9642639||31 Dec 2015||9 May 2017||Neuravi Limited||Clot retrieval device for removing clot from a blood vessel| |US9744059 *||14 Nov 2014||29 Aug 2017||Neovasc Medical Ltd.||Vascular implant| |US20050125053 *||22 May 2003||9 Jun 2005||Daniel Yachia||Medical device having a tubular portion| |US20090240320 *||18 Mar 2008||24 Sep 2009||Yosi Tuval||Valve suturing and implantation procedures| |US20120010649 *||21 Sep 2011||12 Jan 2012||Inspiremd Ltd.||In vivo filter assembly| |US20120022630 *||3 Dec 2009||26 Jan 2012||C.R. Bard, Inc.||Catheter sheath for implant delivery| |US20120065644 *||15 Sep 2010||15 Mar 2012||Abbott Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.||Stent deployment system with retractable shealth| |US20130030519 *||26 Jul 2012||31 Jan 2013||Edwards Lifesciences Corporation||Delivery systems for prosthetic heart valve| |US20150073530 *||14 Nov 2014||12 Mar 2015||Neovasc Medical Ltd.||Vascular implant| |U.S. Classification||623/1.11, 606/200| |International Classification||A61F2/01, A61F2/82, A61F2/06, A61B17/00, A61M29/00, A61M25/00, A61F2/84| |Cooperative Classification||A61F2002/018, A61F2230/0006, A61F2002/9511, A61F2230/008, A61F2/97, A61F2002/9517, A61F2/95, A61F2/013, A61F2002/011, A61F2/958, A61F2250/0071| |21 Feb 2003||AS||Assignment| Owner name: RUBICON MEDICAL, INC., UTAH Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:LINDER, RICHARD J.;EDMISTON, DARYL R.;JOHNSON, STEVEN W.;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:013787/0857;SIGNING DATES FROM 20021120 TO 20021127 |28 Sep 2010||CC||Certificate of correction| |27 Feb 2013||FPAY||Fee payment| Year of fee payment: 4 |16 Mar 2017||FPAY||Fee payment| Year of fee payment: 8

Meditation boosts positive emotions Positive emotions such as compassion and loving-kindness can be trained with special meditation techniques, says a study.health and fitness Updated: Apr 10, 2008 11:31 IST Positive emotions such as compassion and loving-kindness can be trained with special meditation techniques, a study of 16 Tibetan monks by researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison found. Published recently in the journal PLoS One, brain imaging using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan the brains of the monks who all had at least 10,000 hours of meditation practise. The scans revealed that the limbic system of the brain responsible for emotions such as compassion showed significantly more activity among the Buddhist monks with many years of meditation practise. The monks were compared with a second group of 32 people, who two weeks earlier had been instructed for the first time in meditation techniques. In the instruction session, the novices were asked to think about someone they cared for such as their parents, siblings or a beloved person and to let the "mind be invaded by a feeling of altruistic love". In the resting or non-meditative state, the subjects were asked to remain relaxed with neither pleasant nor unpleasant feelings. The scans revealed significant activity in the brain's limbic system that supports functions such as emotions and behaviour. The brain activity was, however, stronger among the meditating monks than in the control group, the researchers revealed. "Loving kindness and compassion are central to the philosophy of the Dalai Lama," study leader Richard Davidson, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health said, in elaborating the findings.

Mould Removal Perth. Some of the equipment used by MouldandMore Moisture Meters are used to detect excess moisture in various materials such as , gyprock,, plaster ,carpet, concrete timber and upholstery. Some moisture meters will simply indicate whether a material is wet or dry whilst others will measure specific moisture content (a percentage). This is particularly useful for materials which have natural moisture content such as timber. Moisture meters can be of penetrating or non-penetrating. A penetrating moisture meter has metal prongs which are inserted into the surface of a material. A non-penetrating moisture meter is used to determine moisture content without penetrating or damaging the surface of the material. Another moisture meter used by MouldandMore is a hygrometer which is used to measure the relative humidity or moisture content of the air in the surrounding environment. The relative humidity inside a wet building or a building containing wet materials will generally be high and will decrease as the building and/or materials dry out. For this reason the measurement of the relative humidity can provide a good indication on the progress of the drying process. DEHUMIDIFIERS & AIR MOVERS A dehumidifier is used to dry a water damaged building or a mould infected building with high humidity, carpet, furniture or contents by drawing in moist air, removing water vapour from the air and then pushing out dry air. A water damaged building or a building containing water damaged carpet, furniture or contents will have a high humidity level. A dehumidifier works by reducing the humidity level and creating an ideal drying environment. Combined with the use of specialized fans (known as air movers) to control the movement of wet and dry air, the drying of a building or contents can be achieved quickly and effectively. AIR SCRUBBERS & HEPA VACUUMS Air Scrubbers are used to remove airborne particles from the air and they are useful in premises damaged by mould or fire and in premises contaminated by asbestos particles. An Air Scrubber draws in air from the surrounding environment; the air passes through Hepa quality air filters to remove fine airborne particles such dust or mould and then the air scrubber pushes out the clean fresh air. The use of an air scrubber can quickly improve the quality of the air in a contaminated environment. Hepa Vacuums can be used in conjunction with Air Scrubbers to remove fine air-bourne particles from affected areas. Ozone is a germicide which occurs naturally in the earth’s atmosphere. Ozone has the ability to oxidize or destroy contaminants without leaving chemical residue. Ozone can be used to sterilize the air and destroy odours, bacteria, fungus, mould and mildew. Ozone is formed naturally in the atmosphere by combining UV light and oxygen. It can also be produced through the use of ozone generating equipment. Ozone purification systems are used in the restoration industry to destroy odours and sterilize the air. Ozone is particularly useful removing odours. HYGENIA SYSTEM SURE PLUS SWAB TESTS (Bacteria/Germ Testing) Hygiena swab test equipment is used to measure bacteria levels and determine the effectiveness of cleaning and sanitisation. Hygiena hand-held swab test equipment measures ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) which is found in the organic matter of all living things. Monitoring ATP levels on surfaces being treated gives a good indication of the level of cleanliness achieved and whether further sanitisation work is required or not. Mould Sampling/Testing Equipment MYCOMETER SURFACE & Air Air and surface mould sampling can also be conducted if required and certified lab reports Detailing the species and concentration of mould can be provided. If required a formal written report detailing the problem areas and recommendations will be provided. Formaldehyde: Detection Meter Fogging is a revolutionary way of sterilising large areas in a short period of time, due to the fact that the vapour is capable of reaching every aspect of an area, evenly and precisely, including those places that are difficult to reach via conventional means. By effectively and swiftly decontaminating the entire designated area, the client can be confident that this cost effective process has fully sterilised the area, leaving it safe and clear to use within 1 hour, not days. How Long Does it Take?It only takes a short period of time to fog an area and, depending on the size of the area, will only be un-usable for less than one hour which is considerably less time than with other recognised methods of severe cleansing.The Fogging AgentThe vaporisation agent that we use has been formulated to be utilised in areas that are at high risk from cross-contamination due to a high movement (or flow) of people, and areas that need high levels of sterilisation such as: hospital wards, food preparation areas, aircraft, schools, care homes, hotels, pubs, offices and other commercial areas.How Does It Work?The fogging agent works by irreversibly binding to, penetrating and immobilising bacterial, viral or fungal cells; preventing them from replicating so that surfaces are disinfected and safe to use.Conclusion:The speed of the fogging process, the application, and the results, relieve you of an immediate and dangerous problem within a very short period of time, giving you the freedom and confidence to continue your work with the knowledge that all is safe and controlled Borescopes Used To Inspect For Mould In Buildings successfully used to conduct remote visual inspections for mould in buildings. Mould can develop behind walls, under floors and other impossible to view areas.

So. Back to the usual stuff. (ALTHOUGH LIVERPOOL WON A LOVELY TROPHY YESTERDAY) I’ve got another pretty, pretty painting today, this time by Edmund Thomas Parris (1793-1873), English painter and inventor of the so-called Parris’s medium, a medium which turns into a dull fresco-like surface upon mixing with oil. I’m honestly not very sure as to what this means (I have a mental image, but it might be wrong), but it’s the only information I could get off Google, so sorry.. He was born in London, entered the Royal Academy, and at some point gained an important position at the royal court, having been asked to paint the Duke of Wellington’s funeral and Queen Victoria’s coronation. He died in London and remained in the history of art as an admirable artist, who not only painted, but also designed tapestry, stained-glass windows, porcelain pieces etc. Nevertheless, he sometimes ventured beyond the usual duke-and-queen designs and came up with intriguing pieces of work, such as this one, The Visit at Moonlight (1832). (proper version here) A lovely painting, very… flowing? (i’ve no idea what’s the technical term for that) and warm, much helped, in my opinion, by the round frame shape, which seems to give it a dreamy quality. The diffuse light and translucent bodies enhance that feeling. The strange thing is the object that the faeries seem attracted to; it could well be a statue, but my frighteningly dark mind thought of a funeral urn. Tying that with the title, it could perhaps make a connection between the fairy world and the other world? Oh, well, who knows. In keeping with these ideas, I have here a fragment of an anonymous poem from the 17th century commonly referred as Thomas the Rhymer and a rather dark, but very beautiful, song about a moonlight procession… ‘O see ye not yon narrow road, So thick beset wi’ thorns and briers? That is the Path of Righteousness, Though after it but few inquires. ‘And see ye not yon braid, braid road, That lies across the lily leven? That is the Path of Wickedness, Though some call it the Road to Heaven. ‘And see ye not yon bonny road That winds about the fernie brae? That is the Road to fair Elfland, Where thou and I this night maun gae.

Among the greatest internally-perceived dangers to the Department of Defense, and to sensitive areas of the government more broadly, is that posed by whistleblowers and leakers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden – the “insider threat.” Yet in their eagerness to root out this threat and others, military policymakers may be making the problem worse. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) submitted comments to the Defense Department this week outlining a number of concerns the group had regarding a proposed “Insider Threat Database.” Among the issues raised were the vagueness of what constitutes an “insider threat,” along with the massive amount and level of detail of personal information to be collected. The insider threat is loosely defined, presumably including people like Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan and Washington Navy Yard killer Aaron Alexis, but also leakers, in no uncertain terms. In short an insider threat could be anything or anyone that might cause “damage to the United States through espionage, terrorism, unauthorized disclosure of national security information, or through the loss or degradation of departmental resources or capabilities.” That’s not even an exhaustive list, but by itself it casts a wide net. Beyond basics like name and date of birth, the proposed database would include personal information on Defense Department employees such as ethnicity and race, gender, social media account information, background reports that include medical and financial data, travel records, association records, and citizenship records for roommates and spouses. The database would include “biometric data” – which today could mean anything from palm and fingerprints to blood and hair samples to photos for face recognition and iris scans, or perhaps all of the above. The EPIC comments also note that the proposed database would include information taken from a form called FS-86, which includes additional details such as passport and social security information, educational history, and drug and alcohol use records. This FS-86 information was specifically targeted when the Office of Personnel Management was hacked last year and personal information on more than 20 million people was stolen, which makes sense, given its potential usefulness for identity theft, espionage and blackmail. “The OPM data breach concerning SF-86 is widely considered the most serious breach in the history of the U.S. government,” the EPIC commentary notes. Pointing out that a wide variety of government agencies have been hacked in recent years, the authors say the Defense Department is no exception, except perhaps in being a more vulnerable target than some others. “DoD is uniquely susceptible to data breaches,” they write, adding that the department “lacks sufficient capacity to detect and block unauthorized software.” Indeed, this is illustrated by the fact that when the Pentagon recently invited hackers – some as young as 18 years old – to attempt to find vulnerabilities in its cyber-defenses, they found more than 100. “These weaknesses in DoD databases increase the risk that unauthorized individuals could access, copy, delete, or modify sensitive information, including medical, financial, education, and biometric information contained in the ‘Insider Threat’ Database on a wide variety of individuals,” the EPIC comments state. “Accordingly, DoD should maintain only records that are relevant and necessary to detecting and preventing insider threats.” Indeed, according to EPIC’s reading of the proposal for the new database, the Defense Department is admitting that it will collect information that is not necessarily relevant to any specific investigation. “By implication,” EPIC writes, the department “objects to guaranteeing ‘fairness’ to individuals in the ‘Insider Threat’ Database.” If the Defense Department isn’t even willing to guarantee “fairness” to any of its employees, or even to job applicants, it seems likely that its plan to subject these people to intensive, invasive scrutiny and long-term record-keeping to prevent them becoming “insider threats” may be an uphill battle.

Chola dynasty, around AD 1100 Dancing Shiva in a ring of fire The Hindu god Shiva appears as the lord of the dance, Nataraja, in a ring of fire. His long ascetic’s hair flies out on either side of his head as he performs his dance. Nestling within his hair is a small figure. This is the goddess Ganga, the personification of the holy River Ganges, who, legend tells, fell to earth through Shiva’s hair. Also visible in his hair are the crescent moon and the intoxicating datura flower; both are closely associated with his wild nature. Beneath his foot he tramples upon the dwarf of ignorance, Apasmara. In Hindu belief, Shiva as Nataraja appears at the end of one cosmic cycle and the beginning of the next, and is thus associated with both creation and destruction. In his hands he holds both the destructive fire and the double-sided drum, the sound from which summons up new creation. Traditionally time in India is considered to be cyclical, rather than linear, as in the West. The Nataraja is one of the best known images of all Indian art. It was especially popular during the rule of the Chola kings in Tamil Nadu in the tenth to twelfth centuries. The main temple to this deity is at Chidambaram, a site patronized by the Chola kings. This specific example of the type is both a creative masterpiece and a fine technical achievement for the figure is cast in a single piece. Nataraja images are placed in temple shrines and are paraded during festivals.

Northern Passages wishes you all a very happy and healthy new year. 2014 was a significant year in its own right, but it is also noteworthy as the 50th anniversary of 1964. That was the year in which both the Wilderness Act and the Civil Rights Act became law. As a 10-year old growing up in Canada, I have to admit that at the time I was more focused on it being the year in which the Beatles first arrived in North America. I would like to think that I now have a slightly more mature perspective on these events. Rue Mapp, the founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, and Dr. Carolyn Finney, a professor at the University of California, have written about the relationship, or lack thereof, between the two signature legislative acts of 1964. I had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Mapp speak about this at a Wilderness 50 celebration around the time of the actual anniversary of the statute in September. Her remarks echoed an article she had previously written for Orion magazine's blog,. Here is an excerpt from (and a link to) that blog post, titled Wilderness at 50: Our Wild and Civil Rights. "It appears that the Wilderness and Civil Rights Acts did not share a public platform during the 1960s, and some believe an opportunity was missed that could have altered the course of both movements. ... "In her book, Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors, she [Dr. Finney] plots the interwoven chronology of events that led to the Civil Rights and Wilderness Acts. Dr. Finney believes that, though linked to the civil-rights movement in time, the wilderness preservation movement (and the environmental movement, more broadly) missed a golden opportunity to address race that could have built greater harmony between people and nature, especially for African Americans. 'The conservation movement has traditionally prided itself on a concept of nature as pure,' she says, 'which for some, can also be translated to mean whiteness.' She contends that had environmentalists considered more deeply the human experience in nature, the conservation movement might have been better equipped to engage with issues related to diversity and inclusion. "Fifty years on, we know the work is far from finished—but we can pause to celebrate wild lands and the movement to protect them while also respecting the still-sharp memories and historic tensions between people and nature. With a vision of healing, Outdoor Afro and many other organizations are helping people reinvent connections to natural places both near and far through a variety of peer-led activities. One experience at a time, we can replace old fears and reservations about the wilderness with joy, curiosity, and wonder. "While the Wilderness Act and the Civil Rights Act might not have been conceived together, we have a chance today to make their real connections come alive." As noted in my recent post on A Modern Land Ethic, the environmental movement today needs to address important social justice issues ranging from the rights of indigenous peoples who have lived for eons in what we somewhat blithely call wilderness, to the disparate impacts of climate change and mitigation strategies around the world, to the accessibility of wilderness for people of all races, ethnicities and financial means within American society. During the coming year, the Northern Passages blog will explore some of these issues as they relate to a contemporary conservation ethic.

Developed in PowerPoint using VBA this extremely versatile and very popular Minecraft inspired activity can be used as a starter, plenary or other whole class or group activity that aims to get children collaborating, discussing topics and working together as a team to consolidate their knowledge and understanding of any topic you choose. Easily create your own lists of questions using nothing more than Notepad (or similar text editor) and then simply drop whichever question list you want to use into the same folder as the Mindcraft file, and it will immediately shuffle up your questions and use them to stretch your students' knowledge. The rules are simple and explained clearly within the activity, but essentially students will be divided into two teams, and each team will be able to 'mine' their way through a virtual Minecraft style world. They'll come across dirt, stones, iron, coal, gold, emerald, water and even creepers! Each item type will result in different actions being taken. Finding dirt or stone will require a question to be answered, whereas gold and other valuable ores will earn the team points. Getting questions right also earns points, but getting them wrong will lose points. Find a creeper and the loud explosion will signal that team's turn over! Watch a video demonstration of this resource, as well as a clear tutorial on how to use it, and adapt it:

What Kind of Employee is He? Independent Contractor vs. Employee Having worked as an accountant for several CPA firms over the years, I have had many businesses as clients. I have seen a few make the mistake of classifying workers as independent contractors and not as employees. These business owners think they can “elect” to treat them as contractors to avoid the cost of taxes, fringe benefits, and the headache of having employees. But misclassifying a worker can result in unpaid taxes, tax penalties, interest on taxes, and more headaches. To determine the status of a worker the “common-law” test was developed by the courts. Using the common-law test, if an employer has the right to tell the worker what to do; how, when, and where to do the job, then they are an employee and not an independent contractor. Under the IRS Revenue Ruling 87-41 the following factors determine the right to direct and control a worker. 1. Actual instruction or direction of worker – If a worker is required to comply with instruction about when, where, and how to work is ordinarily an employee. 2. Training – If training is provided either by correspondence, by required attendance at meetings, or other methods either periodically or at frequent intervals then the worker is considered an employee. 3. Integration – Integration of the worker’s services into the business operations of the company is an indication of employee status. 4. Services to be rendered personally – If a business requires the work to be done by that individual then control is being exercised which indicates employee status. 5. Hiring and supervising of assistants – If a business hires, supervises, and pays others on the same job; then all workers are considered to be employees. 6. Duration of relationship – A continuing relationship between a worker and a business indicates employee status. 7. Hours of work – If the amount of hours worked are set by the business then the worker is usually an employee. 8. Full-Time work – If the worker is required to devote full time to the business then they are considered to be an employee. 9. Place of work – If work is done on the premise of the business this indicates employee status. 10. Order of service – If a worker performs services in the order or sequence set by the business indicates employee status. 11. Reports – If a business requires regular oral or written reports this indicates employee status. 12. Manner of payment – Payment by the hour, week, or month points to an employer and employee relationship. Independent contractors are usually paid by the job or by commission. 13. Payment of business expenses – If a business pays the worker business and traveling expenses that indicates employee status. Independent contractors take care of all incidental expenses. 14. Furnishing tools and materials – A business providing tools, materials, etc. indicates an employer and employee relationship. Some occupations (such as artisans) provide their own tools. 15. Investment – Lack of investment by a worker (such as facilities and equipment) suggests employee status. 16. Profit or loss possibility – A person that can realize a profit or a loss as a result of their services is usually an independent contractor. 17. Working for a number of people – A person that usually works for a number of businesses is not an employee. 18. Availability of services to the public – Individuals, that make their services available to the public, are usually independent contractors. 19. Right to discharge – The right to discharge a worker indicates an employee/employer status. 20. Right to quit at any time – An employee can usually end a relationship with an employer without incurring liability. There are other tools that can aide us in determining an employer and employee relationship. There are several questionnaires (Social Security Form SSA-7160-F4 and IRS Form SS-8) which use the common-law control test and the occupational group test. Sometimes these tests do not provide us adequate information to make a determination. It is at that point evidence should be reviewed by the IRS, Social Security Administration, State, and/or local officials. This can save you money and headaches.

The English Quintet is composed of any number of 5-line stanzas with the rhyme scheme ababb cdcdd, etc. The number of syllables may vary and there is no requirement for meter, though they are often written in iambic pentameter. Here's an example. Go, lovely Rose by Edmund Waller Go, lovely Rose— Tell her that wastes her time and me, That now she knows, When I resemble her to thee, How sweet and fair she seems to be.

Tesla has worked hard to establish itself making high-end, luxury electric cars, now it's got its sights set on the mainstream. That push has two main elements behind it: the Model 3 and the Gigafactory, where Tesla is looking to mass produce batteries for a lower price. Until now, details about the factory had been thin on the ground, but last week's unveiling in Nevada finally provided some detail on the massive battery production facility. So, why has Elon Musk bet big on a factory in the Nevada desert? Well, Tesla has high hopes for Model 3 production, aiming to churn out half a million examples of the everyman EV per year. On top of that, the company is going to need batteries for its Powerwall, Model S and Model X. To make that all happen, the cost of battery production is going to need to come down, and the rate of production is going to need to ramp up dramatically. By taking the entire production process and dealing with it in-house, Tesla is arguing it can speed up the rate of development when new technologies come along. Rather than relying on external suppliers to deliver updated cells and chemistry, this setup allows those updates to be delivered to customers more quickly than would otherwise be possible. It also means there's no need to rely on current supply facilities, which simply aren't able to keep up with demand. "In order to make a half million cars a year, we would need every lithium-ion battery factory on earth that makes batteries for phones, laptops, car – everything – just to achieve that output. So, either we figure out somewhere to build this thing [Gigafactory], or there will not be the cars that are needed," Musk told the crowd at the factory opening last Friday. In two years the company is expecting to be producing 500,000 cars per year, or 50 GWh worth of batteries. Although there's no definite timeframe, (Musk says this could happen in "2020 or thereabouts"), the factory's full capacity is expected to be 1.5 million cars per year. When completed, the factory will cover around 6 million sq ft (557,400 sq m), making it the largest building in the world by footprint. It will, however, be second to the Boeing plant in Seattle based on volume. Still, inside there's enough space to house 93 Boeing 747s – or 50 billion hamsters if that's your preferred metric. Currently, the factory is being used purely for battery production, with vehicle production to take place at the brand's current factory in Fremont, California. Down the track, Musk says the concept could be expanded and refined to the point where raw materials roll in one end of the factory, and completed vehicles roll out the other. A video of Tesla's Gigafactory opening is below.

By now, everyone knows that the Zika virus causes severe, devastating birth defects. But if you ask Florida senator Marco Rubio, women infected with the virus should be forced to carry their babies to term. "I understand a lot of people disagree with my view, but I believe that all human life is worthy of protection of our laws. And when you present it in the context of Zika or any prenatal condition, it's a difficult question and a hard one," Rubio told Politico Saturday. "If I'm going to err, I'm going to err on the side of life." Pregnant women in Florida are anxious about the spreading Zika virus, which has already infected at least 16 people in Miami. Zika causes microcephaly, a condition in which a baby's brain doesn't develop normally during pregnancy or stops developing after birth, resulting in an abnormally small head size. According to the CDC, babies with microcephaly suffer from a slew of complications ranging from seizures to developmental delays to difficulty feeding. At least two Zika-infected women have already had abortions in the United States to prevent such complications. It's hardly surprising that Rubio would want to force women to carry pregnancies to term despite the likelihood of severe birth defects. His views on abortion are extreme for a Republican; unlike some of his party, he doesn't support abortion in cases of incest and rape. Rubio is well aware of the lifetime of hardships women who have babies with microcephaly can face: "Obviously, microcephaly is a terrible prenatal condition that kids are born with. And when they are, it’s a lifetime of difficulties," he told Politico. "So I get it. I’m not pretending to you that that’s an easy question you asked me. But I’m pro-life. And I’m strongly pro-life." Right now, there are at least 340 Zika-infected pregnant women in the United States, many of whom are anxiously enduring medical tests and screenings to make sure their babies aren't born with microcephaly. Unfortunately, these women have a 13 percent chance of giving birth to babies with the condition, according to The Washington Post. Dr. Abdulla al-Khan works at New Jersey's Hackensack University Medical Center, the hospital that delivered the second baby born with Zika-related microcephaly in the United States. He spoke to ABC News about his fears for both the baby and the mother, given the severe disabilities her child will face: "The damage is already done. You cannot allow the brain to regenerate itself," he said. "It's going to impact the mother and her relationships. It will impact her socially and financially. “You don't appreciate the magnitude of this problem until you see [an affected infant] and share the pain of what the mother is going through."

Electrostatic surface charges are common in most coating and laminating operations where insulating (non-conductive) materials are processed at very high web speeds. The static charges cause a myriad of production problems ranging from: - electrical shocks to operators. - to the attraction of airborne contaminants on the surface of the material. - to hazardous environments due to the presence of volatile solvents. The most dangerous situation arises when a spark from a static discharge occurs in the coating/laminating area, that is saturated with volatile vapors, and ignites a fire. ATEX approved static elimination equipment is required in these environments to neutralise static charges and thus prevent fires. Outside the hazardous area ionising bars and blowers can be used for unwind and rewind stations.

Jump start your new assertive communication style! 1. Decide to change 2. Decide what you want 3. Be fair 4. Ask for it in clear statements 5. Know how to say “no” 6. Learn how to listen 7. Take risks 8. Be calm and relaxed 9. Express your feelings openly 10. Give and take praise 11. Give and take criticism (pointing out mistakes) Let’s take a closer look at the eleven steps to success. Decide to change. Before you can become more assertive, you must admit you need to change. Most people are more comfortable doing things the way they’re used to doing them. Change is scary and the fear that we experience stops our learning. You can reduce the fear by starting to change in an area where you will have some success right away. Focus on one thing at a time. For example, maybe you want to start by changing the way you communicate with a specific coworker. Start small, and expand your efforts to change over time. Decide what you want. Many people fail to change because they don’t realize that they actually want to change. Ask yourself, “Am I really happy with myself and my life?” This can be a tough question to answer honestly, but it can open your eyes to see what it is you really want. The only way to change your communication style is to know what you want. If your goal is to handle situations better in the future, you must begin now to get better at how you handle those situations. The key is to make sure you are realistic with your goals. Most unassertive people set themselves up for failure. They make impossible demands. When they fail, they blame themselves. When deciding what you want, ask yourself if it is possible. Be fair. The most important thing to remember when trying to be fair and still get what you want is that you both must win. You need to be respectful of yourself and others’ feelings. You may need to give a little in order to get a little. To be fair means to listen to all sides of the story. Like a judge in a courtroom, you must talk to all people involved and get all of the facts before making a decision. Treat people fairly, and others will treat you fairly in return. Ask for it in clear statements. Have you ever been shy about asking for something? You probably mumbled your request and the person you were talking to could barely hear you. Or maybe you worded it in a way that was not very direct, so the person you were asking didn’t understand your request. Assertiveness demands that you send clear messages, both with your words and your body language, or how you look. It’s not always what you say, but how you say it, that is important. Most people will react to your actions more than to your words. For example, not looking at the other person while you are speaking can block everything you are trying to say. Know how to say “no”. For such a short word, no sure is hard for some people to say. It’s hard, not because of tricky spelling or pronunciation, but because it means you might be letting someone down. Some people would rather put themselves in a bad situation just to avoid disappointing someone else. On the other hand, you should not get into the habit of saying no just because you don’t feel like doing something. Learn to say no only when it helps you get something you want. For example, imagine you’ve got a mountain of work to do today. A friend asks you to take time out to help her. In this situation, you must say no. Explain to your friend that if you take this time you will not be able to get your own work done. Learn how to listen. When most people think of communication, they think about talking. However, communication is a two-way street. In order to be a good, assertive communicator, you must develop your listening skills as well. Good listening requires you to not only listen to what you are interested in, but also what you aren’t interested in. For example, other people might come to you with problems that are important to them, and they want you to listen. Take risks. To become more assertive you will have to take some risks. The risks you will take in becoming assertive include: - Saying what you believe - Saying what you want - Stating your needs clearly - Stating what is acceptable To an assertive person, these don’t seem like risks at all, but rather normal, everyday behavior. However, to someone who is not assertive, this seems risky because we believe that others will judge us. Unassertive people have learned that it is wrong or rude to make these kinds of statements. It’s time to unlearn this behavior. Whether you are in charge of leading a group of people, or you just want to start getting what you want, you need to state your feelings and desires clearly and confidently. Be calm and relaxed. Have you ever found yourself to be angry for no reason? Probably not. If you really stop and think about your anger, you can always find a cause. For many people, anger is the result of stress that has been building up over time. If you find yourself getting angry or worked up easily, that’s a sign that you need to change. One easy change to make in your life is to calm down and relax. The more calm and relaxed you are, the easier it will be for you to clearly and assertively communicate with others. It’s when you are stressed out and overwhelmed that anger tends to rear its ugly head. Here are a few ways to stay calm and relaxed: - Focus on your breathing - Drink a warm beverage - Meditate or pray - Count backward from ten - Get some fresh air Express your feelings openly. Assertion is impossible until you learn to express your feelings to others. Since people can’t read your mind, it’s the only way others can know how you feel. In order to express your feelings, you first have to work on your self-esteem. If you don’t believe your own feelings are worth sharing, how will you ever believe that other people want to hear about your feelings? Stop trying to protect yourself from being hurt and start expressing your feelings. Begin by sharing small things, like your feelings about something that happened in the news or something you did recently. Once you feel comfortable, you can share deeper feelings, like how you feel about a person or your feelings about a serious issue. Give and take praise. Some people have a hard time asking for what they want because they feel like they are bothering the people they are asking for help. One way to make it easier to ask for what you want is to give praise while stating your needs. For example, if you want a friend to help you, try saying, “You really know your stuff. I could really use your help.” When you give praise, it takes the discomfort out of asking and makes the person more willing to help you. Accepting praise sounds easy enough to do, but you’d be surprised how many people have a hard time accepting praise. You can probably think of someone, maybe it’s even you, who always responds awkwardly to praise. Instead of accepting the compliment, they try to deny or diminish the quality that is worthy of such praise. Being able to give and receive praise shows high self-esteem. The next time someone pays you a compliment or praises you for a job well-done, simply say, “Thank you!” Give and take criticism. Taking risks is an important part of being assertive. One of these risks is exposing yourself to criticism or judgments about yourself from others. Criticism may or may not be correct. It’s up to you to listen to the criticism, decide if it is fair, and then respond in an appropriate way. Being able to give criticism is as important as being able to receive it. Whether or not your criticism is effective and results in the change that you want is largely dependent on your delivery. First, let’s look at giving criticism. Remember these tips as you aim to achieve an assertive communication style. Following them will be the first steps you take toward becoming more assertive. Although they may seem small, they are important ways to help you succeed in adapting your new assertive communication style.

Typically cold sores takes a couple of weeks before becoming dormant where the cold sore becomes less visible. The cold sores cause emotional turmoil due to their constant reappearance and the visibility of the sore. There are lots of available cures which make the visible blisters dormant. If you have cold sores at the moment you should seek a medical practitioners and get treated for the cold sore. It is very important to fully understand the basic habits and structure of the virus to fight it successfully from jointly inside and outside of the human body. Humans suffer from cold sores because of unhealthy lifestyles, oxygen deficient bodies, body acid overdose, stress & strain, and too much sun, overdosing on junk food, pigging out on chocolate, or a poor immune system¸ etc. The immune system should be improved from the inside to combat this virus effectively. The immune system can be improved if you practice healthy habits such as avoiding junk food, reducing smoking and control the alcohol intake, etc. The most important thing to fight all diseases and bugs are your white blood cells. Regular exercise helps you stay in shape and also improves your metabolism and promotes the oxygen level in your body…. Click Here NOW! to find a natural cure.

In genetics, a recombinant organism is one created out of DNA from multiple sources, creating a new, mutated form of being. In Derek Sola’s recombinant photography, the overlapping of individual city scenes – what Sola calls “seriality compressed” – creates novel urbanscapes that purposefully overwhelm the senses and challenge our conception of what a city means. Sola is an architect who studied in Milan, but his sensibility is deeply rooted in the American West, with its echoes of both possibility and menace. His central characters are the neon lights and the night sky of Las Vegas and Los Angeles, which he stacks claustrophobically across his black and white prints: the city as a kaleidoscopic late-night carnival. Like the swathes of light that linger behind your closed eyelids, the jumbled, smeared images give the disorienting impression of drunkenness. Its the city defined by night, by technology, by commercialism. We don’t see the inhabitants – only their idols and signposts. The garish, glowing vocabulary of the city – Casino, Liquor, Free Parking – weaves between the superstructures of office buildings and the glare of endless freeways. In this, Sola’s work contains both a critique and a celebration of our urbanism. On the one hand, it presents a frenetic busy-ness that only seems to mask a deeper emptiness. But on the other, his recombinations capture the heart of what makes a city vital: multiplicity, randomness, and serendipity. The result is as always, colored by our own eyes; and whether it makes you feel anxious or alive, it all hinges on sensation.

Unfortunately, yes. I've talked before about colic, which is often caused by constipation. Horses can get diarrhea, from any number of causes. They can get diarrhea from a bacterial infection or overgrowth (stomach flu), parasites, inflammatory bowel disease, antibiotics, stress, a change in feed or eating something toxic. Some horses are prone to chronic gut imbalances and may need to be regularly fed probiotics to stop them getting the, shall we say, trots. In some cases, there's no way to actually cure the diarrhea, just make it less severe (It's rare). It's not uncommon for horses to get diarrhea for a couple of days right after moving to a new barn, especially if you have to change their feed.

Hard Choices or Easy Answers The United States is a nation that was built by immigrants. We became unified because we were forced by the requirement of learning English (and our legal system) to merge into a culture that grew with diverse ethnic influences instead of breaking apart. The English language has become the primary language of trade and banking, due in a large measure to the influence of the United States on world commerce. We are - without question - the strongest militarily in terms of force and technology (but not numbers). Yet allowing our borders to be ignored - and our laws flouted - weakens our legal system, a necessary foundation of our success. Losing a requirement for learning English destroys a basic unifying force, a common language. These are both primary elements in a formula for success that has worked for over 150 years. Without those unifying elements in our society, just how much longer will we be able to survive as a nation? The left generally regards the concept of nationhood as an evil relic of Imperialism. To them it embodies the greedy haves refusing to share with the world's have-nots. Our nation is the most successful system of laws and government in history, creating more wealth and freedom for more people than any other system in history. Yet the days of wide open expansion are long gone. We have limited space, and - as we have been discovering when we buy gasoline - limited resources. Is it possible to continue a policy of allowing illegals the benefits and guarantees of citizenship without eroding the resources available to the poorest of our citizens already here? One seldom considered aspect of allowing illegals to flood our country is that it will lock our poorest citizens into an endless cycle of poverty. Their share of support, services and money is shrunk by every illegal that arrives. Even our poorest citizens live by standards far above those of the poor elsewhere. Generally there are hospitals, law enforcement, clean water and available food. There are jobs, although they pay minimum wages. It is not a life anyone here would choose; but it is at a far higher level of existence than the life of someone in Central America living on a muddy hillside in a cardboard box. What we have does not exist at all in many of the poorest communities outside our borders. You can understand, then, why the people there are willing to walk, sneak, swim and run into the United States heedless of our laws. The hardest part is saying to illegals that you aren't entitled to live here, so leave. As a culture we don't like to turn people away. Looking at the faces of those who risked their lives, and broke laws to get here, makes it very difficult to enforce our laws and send them back. The debate over immigration also includes a lack of understanding history. Not surprising since we don't teach it anymore. Many of the immigrants are from Mexico. They would tell you, at least as far as Florida, Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona are concerned, that those states are really part of their cultural heritage. They have a point. Our nation "acquired" that territory by a combination of warfare, diplomacy and skullduggery. Of course, the same might be said of any nation. No nation was ever built or created without bloodshed or conflict. Yet the reason immigrants want to come here is not because of their cultural heritage but because they can find freedom here unlike the corruption, abject poverty and abuse they find at home. People break the law and risk their lives to get here, not to shop at Wal-Mart; but because they want their families to survive and become free. Yet, like a lifeboat, we can only hold a limited number of people; going over that limit will eventually swamp our resources and lead to disaster. St ill we do not want to make the hard choice of telling immigrants that you can only come here on our terms and under our rules. For most of them that means "NO, you can not come here." We do not want to admit that the United States has limited resources and can not absorb unlimited immigration without harming our nation. Thus, we face the hard choice of having to decide who gets to come and who gets to stay. Ignoring the 70%+ of United States citizens who want to enforce our laws and protect our borders entails a huge political risk. There is no easy answer; but then, there never has been.

Patience is a word that is not strange to us. From a tender age, we were always asked to be patient when we asked for something. Now that we have grown up, we now ask others to be patient. It’s one never- ending cycle of asking for patience and being patient. This is actually harder than it sounds. We all live in a world where everyone wants everything to be instant. From coffee to cash. Immediate results seem very appealing. Soren Kierkegaard says that patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown. Patience can be defined as the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. It can also be defined as the ability to wait, or to continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining or getting annoyed. The thing that holds us and encourages us to be patient is the hope that one day our efforts will bear fruit. “The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.“ Arnold H. Glasow. The existence and working of Village HopeCore International is as a result of patient efforts exercised by our founder Dr. K.K. Mugambi. Having experienced the bitter pangs of poverty as he grew up, he vowed to do something about it. He knew it would not be easy or happen as fast as he wanted to but he knew he had to try. He left Kenya in 1982 for the United States to pursue his education and while he was there he dedicated himself to make connections that would be beneficial to the achievement of his dream. After many years of tireless efforts, the dream he had for HopeCore was finally realised. After a rigorous and extensive planning period, the pilot program was implemented. The 12 women of the Rwanchege Group agreed to be the first group to receive the loan and quickly exceeded expectations. To support the program, Dr. K.K. Mugambi and his team formed a corps of volunteers, established relationships with community-based organisations and government agencies, and opened offices in Chogoria, Nairobi, and Culver City, California. “Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.” ~ Brian Adams “Patience is not just about waiting for something… it’s about how you wait, or your attitude while waiting.” ~ Joyce Meyer. Your attitude while waiting will determine how long you wait. At Village Hope Core, we teach our clients patience every day. We understand that good things come to those who wait and do this patiently. We teach them the value of perseverance and holding on. This is because if one does not exercise patience, it’s easy to despair along the way. Giving up sounds like the best option but the truth is that it’s not. From practising table banking and merry go round, to six months of repaying their soft loan, to business training and ultimately normal loan funding it’s true to say that it’s not a one-day process. Even after they invest their loans into their proposed business ideas, the results are not immediate. It takes commitment and dedication to nurture their businesses so that they grow. The fruits to those who are committed are vibrant businesses that ultimately change their lives and those of their families for the better. “Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.” ~ Joseph Addison. Our clients face numerous challenges during their journey towards success and those that have persevered enjoy the benefits of their hard work and we celebrate them. “Patience can’t be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it.” Eknath Eswaran.

By James Haynes How diverse is the student body at Alief Independent School District? More than 80 languages are spoken inside its 40-plus schools. The district this year received a Top Workplaces award for its training program, which is focused on reaching students of diverse backgrounds and preparing teachers to work in environments where many students speak English as a second language. The Chronicle recently discussed these efforts with Elizabeth Veloz-Powell, assistant superintendent of human resources. Edited excerpts follow. To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below. A: We have our Alief U, our three-year professional development fund that we ask that each teacher comply with. The reason it's so important is that we have a very diverse group of students, with a lot of diverse needs, more than most districts around the area, based on their economic background and their lack of educational experiences. Because of that, we believe that development is so important so we can reach all the needs of our students. Many of our students who come here come as their first time speaking English, they come from out of the country, and their first year in school they're usually here with us. Q: How much is online, versus in-person training? Why? A: The majority of our training is in person. In fact, we add additional days to the teacher contract so that we pay them for these days that they come in for training. It's done within the school district, and sometimes if we don't have something that we feel like is best for a particular teacher, we send them to another district. By doing trainings face-to-face, we feel like relationships are built between the instructor and our teachers. Q: What are some of the unique training sessions? A: One of the things that we ask all of our teachers is to become ESL-certified. They all receive that training, and we ask that they do that within the first two years of their employment so all teachers have that background. We also do different sorts of trainings that are districtwide. For example, we do CHAMPS, which is our discipline practice. And each teacher has their own plan. So if you're a math teacher, it would look very different from a social studies teacher. If you're a first-grade teacher, it would look different from a high school teacher. Each teacher has their own plan that they're working from. For example, first-year teachers are going to get things like thinking maps, classroom management techniques, just so they have a strong base, and as they get further along in their plan, they would have something unique to their subject area. Q: Are all trainings required, or do employees have incentives to opt to take them on their own? A: They must be approved by their supervisor so that it pertains to what the district initiative or campus initiative may be. We have teachers who exceed the required training hours by far. Q: What have been some of the specific benefits you've seen from implementing employee training as you have? What have employees said? A: I think it provides a strong base for our teachers. We have great retention. People just feel supported. It helps our students because we have children that are very mobile, they start out at one campus and they have to move to another campus. Because of the training we provide, it's pretty consistent throughout the district so the child will not lose what they gained at one campus moving to another campus, so that helps as well.

The person liable in a car accident or any other kind of accident is bound to face charges and should award damages to the victim of his negligence. All of that is stated under the law. No one is above the law and non-compliance to it is punishable with fines or imprisonment. But no matter how strong the implementation of the law is, there are some people who will still try to outsmart the justice system. Case in point is those who pull off a hit-and-run accident. Hit-and-run, leaving the scene or hit-and-skip is more popularly known as an act pulled off by the driver of a vehicle in which he fails to stop, help, and assume responsibility for hitting a pedestrian or another car, but instead runs away to avoid being punished. The driver may have panicked after meeting the accident or are afraid of the possible consequences for his negligence. But there are four more specific reasons why a driver runs away after an accident, which may further prove the driver's recklessness. - Driving under the influence or doing anything that is considered a driving distraction. - Unlicensed or uninsured driving: The driver may have been driving while his license is suspended or revoked, or he may not have the necessary insurance for drivers and cars. - Self-preservation: The driver may have a status he should protect or he is trying to hide information about the car. - Aggressive driving, or immaturity or lack of experience behind the wheel. Victims of this accident may experience psychological trauma, a permanent injury or in worst case, death. The hit and run injury accident has an effect not only to the victim, but also to the family and friends of the victim. Sorrow and anger are usually due to the fact that the person liable is nowhere to be found or in hiding, and the family is not receiving justice for what happened. In case of a car accident, do not run away. The authorities can track you down themselves and the consequences will be harder if they find that you ran away from an accident. Instead, call the police and tell them what happened. Once they are at the scene, do not speak until you are asked. Answer their questions but do not admit the blame. Let them investigate by using evidence. If you turned yourself in, chances are the severity of penalty will be lighter because the authorities will allow you to enter a plea to a lesser offense. If the pedestrian you hit only suffered minimum injuries, your jail time will also be less.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Strike action also called labour strike or industrial action is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employee(s) to work. A strike usually takes place in respond to employee grievances. Strike became important during the Industrial Revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines. In most countries, they were quietly made illegal, as factory owners had far more political power than workers. Most western countries partially legalize striking in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Strikes are sometimes used to put pressure on government to change polices. Occasionally, strike destabilizes the rule of a particular political party or ruler. In such cases, strikes are often part of a broader social movement taking the form of a campaign of civil resistance. A notable example is the stoppage of work by the indigenous railways workers in (1932) led by Pa Michael Imodu during the colonial era and the first general strike of (1945) in Nigeria. Since 1970 to present time, workers demand for improved condition of work and wages have increased the number of strike actions as management most times would not accurately satisfy the needs and requests of employees even in the face of economic recession. In this study, however, we are going to examine the causes of strike, i.e. consequences and impact in the achievement of trade union objectives. Strikes are the most significant aspect of industrial conflict. Strike is defined as the temporary stoppage of work in the pursuance of grievance or demand. In practice however, it has been difficult to separate strike from other forms of expression of industrial dispute as employer lock out workers and workers themselves embark on strike action. It is more useful to view both phenomena as part and parcel of the conflict situation, not as opposite. Rarely does a strike occur over a single issue for an obvious cause may be linked with several other issues that not immediately apparent to the observation that have caused dissatisfaction because solutions to them have been long in coming. The actual occurrence of strike depends on several factors including prevailing circumstances. This also goes to show that few strikes occur spontaneously especially as there is no way of guaranteeing that strike actions instead of the other forms of industrial action would be decided upon by workers involved. Each time strike occurs substantial man-hour is lost, a good example is the first general strike of (1945), the (1993) ASU strike where universities in the country was closed for couple of months thereby causing set back in the tertiary institution. The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC, the two major umbrella bodies of workers union in Nigeria mobilized workers for an indefinite strike action which commenced on Monday, 9th January, 2012 to drive home the protest against the fuel subsidy removal of January 1st 2012. The government of Nigeria removed fuel subsidy by increasing the price of petrol per litre from N65 to N141 on January 1st 2012. This nationwide strike affected the country‟s economy negatively where the volume of trading on the floor of the Nigeria Stock Exchange,( NSE) fell by 82 percent, local flights were grounded, and lifting of crude oil was hampered. The strike had a lot of effect on the major sector of the economy as activities of the (NSE) that are trading slumped by 80%, while banks complied with the strike order and closed shop, the NSE opened for business as usual. But at close of trading, only 46.06 million shares were traded in 20 deals. This is a significant reduction when compared with an average 262 million shares worth about N1.05 billion traded in 2,509 deals the previous week. The Nigeria Labour Congress,(NLC) has led a number of general strikes in the past to mention a few. In 2004, the Nigeria Labour Congress gave the Federal government an ultimatum to reverse the decision to introduce the controversial fuel tax or force a nation wide protest strike. The strike threat was made despite the fact that the Federal High Court judgment in an earlier dispute had declared the organization lacking legal power to call a general strike over government policies. It is in this context that the research wishes to access the impact of strike action on the achievement of trade union objectives in both private and public sectors in Nigeria and how management policies/decisions are influenced by workers through the representatives (trade union) to the effect of harmonizing management polices with trade union objectives enhancing efficiency as well as maintain good industrial relation peace and harmony in the work place using… The purpose of this study is to probe into the effectiveness of strike action as a means of achieving union objectives from the management. This study is based on a case study of EMENITE LIMITED ENUGU Precisely, the study is focused on following issues, tools for achieving union demands from management using strike as the major tools in achieving union objectives. The recommendation which will be based mainly on the findings of the research will be implemented to strengthen the effectiveness of strike action as means of achieving union objectives. If on the other hand, the study suggest a better way of achieving union aims than strike, then of course the mentored will be recommended. 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY The research work focuses particularly on the impact of strike on the achievement of trade union in an organization. The research is conducted to cover and improve the management of organization focusing on the company EMINITE LIMITED, ENUGU. For this reason therefore, the researcher has consulted several reviews, on issues of strike and trade union to include text books industrial relation, management, social sciences, dissertations from academicians on related issues, Newspaper edits journal etc. the work would be very large if all the argument of the different authors are presented, but they have been carefully selected so that only issues particularly concentrating on the impact of strikes on the achievement of trade objectives are considered. 1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY A work of this nature is not easy to accomplish for its wide scope and for the expense it would involve such as financial problems, time constraint, material cost, apathy on the part of respondent and bureaucratic procedure involved in releasing data in the organization of my case study. The research would have been more expensive and capital intensive if it were to cover all the public sectors corporation in the country, thus the research area is limited to…… 1.6 RESEACH QUESTIONS 1. Does the existence of trade union lead to increase strike action? 2. Does collective bargaining lead to human resource practices which help in the achievement of union objective? 3. Do trade unions influence the making and implementation of management polices? 4. Has the trade union activities affected the organization objective negatively? 5. Is the union management effective? 6. Does union undertake peaceful dialogue as a means of setting trade dispute between management and the employee? 7. How good is the union management relation of the organization? 8. Does the management respond to the union positively? 1.7 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS The researcher formulates the following hypothesis based on the objectives and problems identified for the purpose of this research work, stating them in both Null and alternate forms. 1. Ho: Organizational objectives are low where there is a strong and viable trade union. H1: Organizational objectives are high where there is a strong and viable trade union. 2. Ho: Trade union and management do not co-operate to raise organizational objectives H1: Trade union and management co-operate to raise organizational objectives 3. Ho: There is no significant relationship between the activities of trade union and organizational objectives. H1: There is a significant relationship between the activities of trade union and organizational objectives. 4. Ho: Unstable union- management relationship has no significant effect on the organizational objective H1: Unstable union- management relationship has significant effect on the organizational objective 5. Ho: Trade union activities do not influence the making and implementation of management policies in the organization. 6. H1: Trade union activities influence the making and implementation of management policies in the organization. 1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This research work will be relevant to management and employee It will be beneficial to other public sectors in Nigeria; it will also be of importance to government, academicians, potential and future researchers on the issue of the impact of strike action on the achievement of trade union objectives in an organization. This empirical study is also important for the reward of Bachelor of Science (B.SC) in industrial relation and personnel management. The study will also identify how management and union can co-operate to enhance the achievement of trade union objectives in an organization. It will provide a basis for trade union re-orientation objectives are achieved for better and harmonious industrial relationship. It will also provide a frame work for management and union to relate for increase productivity and good condition of service. 1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS STRIKE: Strike is defined as a temporary stoppage of work in the pursuance of a grievance or demand. TRADE UNION: Is a combination of workers who are wages or salary earners form for the purpose of regulating work terms and condition for maintenance and improving the employment condition of their members. WORKING CONDITION: A comfortable environment (condition of floor and workroom, dressing rooms and cafeteria, temperature and humidity, cleanliness, comfort and safety (of floors, tools and so fort) and efficiency (steady product flow, adequate wage and salary, performance approval, incentive, motivation and welfare services. GRIEVANCE: situation of dissatisfaction on the part of the worker of the organization. EMPLOYEE: Refers to worker(s), person(s) responsible for carrying out day to day activities of the organization toward achieving the target goals. EMPLOYER: Refers to the management board, one who engages human and material resources for the production of goods and services. MANAGEMENT: Refers in this study to be the body employer and its representatives, foremen and supervisors inclusive. DISPUTE: Is any argument or disagreement between employer and workers, or between workers and workers which is concerned with the employment and non employment conditions of work of any person. WORK: This implies any kind of purposive action i.e. whether paid or unpaid, full time or part time, formal or informal with reference to an organization; it used to imply the operation involved in a particular job or work. ORGANIZATION: A group of people brought together for the purpose of achieving certain objectives, while these members may change the role of organization which is its basic unit is maintained. LABOUR RELATION/INDUSTRIAL RELATION It refers to the totality of interaction between an organization‟s management and the organized labour/trade union. Its purpose is to serve the interest of both the state and the working classes. It is often called collective bargaining. It is not only for industrial or manufacturing context, but extends also to issues and procedure concerning employment in any working environment. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING: is a process of discussion and negotiation between two parties one or both of whom is a group of persons acting in consent. LOCKOUTS: refers to the action of an employer in temporarily closing down or shutting down the undertaking or refusing to provide its employees with work with intention of forcing them to either to accept the demand made by them or to withdraw the demand made by them on him. LABOUR FORCE: they refer to the collection of people who are available to perform work in an economy or organization. POLICY: A set rules or principle to guide the activities of the members of an organization towards the achievement of a given objective or purpose within a specific time. HARMONY: Used in this study to mean peace among the workers and management. SYSTEM: This means chain or line of operational activities. COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT: This is a contract of employment negotiated between management and a union. MACHINERY: As a function unit, it means a system by which something is kept in action through which a desired result is obtained. Theoretical framework is defined as a theoretical mirror or pillar upon which research work are seen. The importance of it can not be over emphasized. According to Obassi (1999:9), it is a device or scheme for adopting or applying the assumption, a theoretical framework is a way of describing, analyzing, interpreting and predicting phenomenon, it has the potentiality to provide the significance rational of a study. Therefore, it provides the theoretical framework of this study is based on interactionistic perspective organization. A more recent view of conflict is a positive force and necessary for effective performance. This approach encourages a minimum level of conflict within the group in order to encourage self criticism, change and innovation and to help prevent apathy or to quest a tolerance for harmony and the status quo. the overall background of the research. Conflict perse is not necessarily good or bad but an inevitable feature of organizational life and should be judged in terms of its effect on performance. Even if organization has taken great care to try and avoid conflict, it will still occur. Conflict must continue to emerge despite attempts to suppress it. For long, the strike as been recognized as a legitimate weapon of workmen for ventilating their grievance or seeking enforcement of right. But it is not a fundamental right because otherwise, it could not have been controlled by statutes like the Industrial dispute Act. The Indian constitution does not consider the right to strike as a fundamental right. The general right to resort to strike has been recognized by defining the circumstances under which a strike is to be regarded as illegal. The right to strike, however, is not unjustified; it is a relative right which can be exercised with due regard to the right workers. A strike therefore, should be used as a weapon only as the last resort when all avenues have proved futile and so long as it is used in a restrained peaceful manner for good and justifiable reasons. In 1988 after Turner and Newall diverted interest in the company, it transferred it 51% shareholding to Eteroutremer society Anonyme of Belgium (Now Etex group S.A) The remaining share of 45% went to the Easter government of Nigeria and had a change of name which is known as Emenite up to date. OTHER SIMILAR ACCOUNTING PROJECTS AND MATERIALS

Got a degree but don’t want to use your qualification working out in the middle of nowhere without your family and earning a pittance? If you’re a graduate of a Tajik university and you’ve had funding from the state to support your studies, the ruling of a regional court this week is that if this rural employment opportunity doesn’t appeal, TOUGH LUCK. You either go or you repay your scholarship instead. State scholarship students are contractually bound to work in a job that’s in line with their area of study for three years after graduating and this judicial reinforcement of the rules underlines that there’s very little tolerance in Tajikistan for anyone who disagrees with the government’s thinking. One of four Tajik graduates who’s been ordered to repay their scholarship explains that he declined the school teaching job offered to him because it would have meant leaving his family and children to work in a rural area and on top of that, not earning enough to provide for his children. From that perspective, you can understand why he chose to overlook the clause in his scholarship contract he’d agreed to several years before. The idea that scholarships are provided conditionally is not unusual – the British government, for example, requires its Chevening Scholars to leave the country at the end of their studies and has the power to cancel UK visas should the scholar apply to stay after completing their studies. In addition, many private foundations and organisations offering scholarships to study abroad do so with the provision that the scholar will return at some point in the future, thus bringing back the benefit of their learning and experiences to their home country (though they don’t have the enforcement power of a government that also manages visas!). Fair enough, you might say. This case, however, doesn’t come across quite as reasonably as the examples I have just given. Fundamentally, until and unless the labour market improves in Tajikistan, the supply of good jobs for university graduates is slim, which can force graduates to look for opportunities that don’t directly connect to the subject they studied. The connections between subject of study and employment sector are no longer as closely aligned as they were under the centrally planned Soviet system, which controlled not just the flow of jobs but the supply of subjects in each university. In parts of the world, it is common for graduates to seek work that may not instinctively seem to connect with what they studied at university, but in fact the connections lie in the applicability of the skills the graduate has learned during their study. And there are some jobs that you can’t do a degree in, like many of the jobs in university administration. So, for example, someone with a history degree might end up working as a university manager (like me): whilst I don’t work on the university’s archives or do other directly historical-related work, I do employ the analytical, writing, teamwork and other skills I learned as an undergraduate. Another reason that this case doesn’t sit comfortably relates to the low salaries of state employees, including teachers. Many graduates who would otherwise be well qualified to work in schools are deliberately choosing work in other areas, notably the private sector and aid/development organisations in Tajikistan because the salaries and conditions are a great improvement on the meagre pay packet the state is able to offer. Now that this case has been to court and the court ruled in favour of the government, Tajik students should think carefully before signing their names on the dotted line of a state scholarship contract. Mamura Yusufzoda, Press Secretary for the Rector of Khujand State University, said that there was no one to teach the specialisms studied by the four graduates who came before the court (painting and graphics, geo-ecology, biology and chemistry) to in schools outside of large towns in Tajikistan. As a result, the university decided to take tougher measures against any students who didn’t want to take up work in their specialist area. According to the figures held by the university’s lawyers, 40 out of 500 completing students at Khujand State University refused to work according to their specialism in 2014. The university’s lawyers also reported that, before enrolling at university, every state-funded scholarship student signs a contract which explains their obligation to work for three years in a place where they can use their specialism. Only after that time does the graduate have the right to receive their degree certificate.

Penicillin G acylase (PGA, E.C.22.214.171.124) from Escherichia coli is an enzyme of great industrial importance, widely used for the hydrolysis of penicillin G, producing the 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA), which is a key molecule for the synthesis of semi-synthetic penicillins. Among them, amoxicillin has a broad spectrum of activity against a variety of bacteriological infections. Industrially, amoxicillin is produced by chemical processes, which require drastic reaction conditions, several steps of protection and deprotection of reactive groups in order to prevent non-selective hydrolytic reactions, use of organochloride solvents with non-recyclable waste generation, which are toxic and harmful to the environment. The enzymatic synthesis is a more attractive alternative from the environmental point of view and economic. The tendency of the pharmaceutical industry is the development of enzymatic methods to produce these β-lactam semi-synthetic antibiotics, including amoxicillin. Nevertheless, a major obstacle to its industrial implementation is the limited yield, as a consequence of undesirable hydrolytic side-reactions, which lead to the formation of the by-product (p-hydroxyphenylglycine, POHPG) throughout the course of the reaction. This drawback can be partially avoided by reducing the water activity (aw) in the medium. For this purpose, ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as an alternative to conventional organic media due to their high thermal and chemical stability, non-flammability, easy recycling, and negligible vapor pressure. Within this context, this work researched the development of an integrated green process for the recovery, reuse and recycle of the by-product (POHPG) of the kinetically controlled enzymatic synthesis of amoxicillin, employing PGA immobilized on Sepabeads® in a totally aqueous medium reaction (sodium phosphate buffer 100 mM, pH 6.5), and assessed the catalytic activity of this biocatalyst in the presence of different ILs as cosolvents for these synthetic reactions, in terms of selectivity (synthesis/hydrolysis, S/H ratio) and conversion of the substrate 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA). The recovery of the by-product (POHPG) of the kinetically controlled enzymatic synthesis of amoxicillin in a totally aqueous reaction medium was done efficiently, achieving a final purity of 99% for the POHPG, which was successfully reused for the production of the substrate p-hydroxyphenylglycine ethyl ester (POHPGEE), achieving a conversion of 93%. Then, POHPGEE was recycled to the reactor (without any further purification) for another batch of enzymatic synthesis of amoxicillin, following the characteristic profile that is expected for these synthetic reactions. This integrated green process generated sodium chloride (NaCl) as waste, which is an inert and harmless salt. Moreover, the assessment of the use of ILs as cosolvents for the reactions of kinetically controlled enzymatic synthesis of amoxicillin presented promising results. An increase of 400% in the selectivity was observed for the reactions carried out in the presence of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (BMI.PF6), as cosolvent at a concentration of 75% (VIL/VWATER) in relation to the standard reaction performed in totally aqueous medium. Similarly, this figure reached more than 350% for reactions conducted in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (BMI.NTf2) at the same volume fraction, while for 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMI.BF4) there was only a slight increase in selectivity (about 57%). The highest conversion of 6-APA was achieved using BMI.NTf2 as cosolvent at a concentration of 71% (VIL/VWATER), representing an increase of more than 36% compared to standard aqueous reaction. No deactivation of the enzyme was observed after the reactions in any of the ILs, and the physical integrity of the biocatalyst particles was entirely maintained. The results of this work collaborated for the advance in the study of the enzymatic synthesis of semi-synthetic penicillins through the use of technologies more green .

This weekend’s news highlighted several ongoing territorial disputes across the Indo-Pacific region, from resource-rich Kashmir to the potentially hydrocarbon-rich South China Sea. On the far West of the Indo-Pacific, The New York Times published a report on Sunday drawing attention to the Siachen Glacier and the intractable territorial dispute between Indian and Pakistan over Kashmir. The report comes on the heels of an avalanche last week that buried 138 Pakistani soldiers and civilians. “In outposts up to 22,000 feet above sea level, the temperature can plunge to 58 below, and linger there for months,” The New York Times reported. “Patrolling soldiers tumble into yawning crevasses. Frostbite chews through unprotected flesh. Blizzards blow, weapons seize up and even simple body functions become intolerable.” Indeed, what makes the Siachen Glacier noteworthy is not that it is the world’s highest battlefield, per se – it is that the conflict there is more a fight “against the mountain, not the man,” The New York Times reported. The recent avalanche has reignited the debate over fighting on the glacier, a conflict that is expensive with respect to blood and treasure on both sides. “About 3,000 Pakistani soldiers have died at Siachen since 1984, of whom about 90 percent perished from weather-related causes,” according to The New York Times. “Military analysts estimate the deployment costs Pakistan $5 million a month; Indian costs are higher still because of higher troop numbers and because supplies are transported by helicopter.” The renewed debate is bringing to the fore laudable proposals over how to drawn down from the glacier without necessarily exacerbating misperceptions on either side. For anyone who missed this last week, I would draw attention again to Univeristy of Vermont professor Saleem Ali’s proposal to transform that glacier into an environmental peacepark that could pay significant dividends for stability between Pakistan and India. According to a post by Ali last week: The only people who would genuinely like to visit Siachen are environmental scientists and mountaineers. Creating a zone of visitation from both sides of the border to the Siachen region for scientists and mountaineers and equally sharing any economic revenues from such activity would be a means of operationalizing the resolution of the conflict. Similar to the Antarctic treaty, neither side would relinquish their claims of sovereignty to the area but would place all such claims in abeyance for the higher purpose of science. Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the Indo-Pacific, tensions in the South China Sea remain high even as Chinese and Philippine forces draw down after a recent row near the Scarborough Shoal just off the Philippines. Last week, the Philippine Navy tried to arrest Chinese fishermen who were illegally operating in Philippine waters. China deployed three surveillance ships to prevent the arrests, leading to a standoff between the Chinese and Philippine maritime forces. The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that the Philippines and China were making progress on diffusing tensions, with “both countries agreeing to withdraw their diplomatic protests over the impasse.” According to the report, "Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario also said China had withdrawn one of its three surveillance ships at Scarborough Shoal.” However, on Sunday “tension flared anew after China deployed a second ship and an aircraft that briefly hovered over the area,” according to The Washington Post. The report added that “One of the Chinese ships also ordered a Philippine-registered yacht, which was carrying French nationals involved in an archaeological survey, to leave the Scarborough, which lies about 230 kilometers (143 miles) off the Philippine province of Zambales, Philippine officials said.” Tensions in the region remain high today.

Dr Gavin Young from the Department of Earth and Marine Sciences at ANU has analysed fossilised remains of 400-million-year-old Devonian placoderms – jawed ancestors of modern fish whose bodies were protected by thick bony armour. “The ancient limestone reefs exposed around Lake Burrinjuck in New South Wales have produced exceptionally well preserved placoderm specimens with the braincase intact,” Dr Young said. The palaeobiologist discovered that unlike all living vertebrate animals – which includes everything from the jawless lamprey fish to humans – placoderms had a different arrangement of muscles and nerves supporting the eyeball – evidence of an “intermediate stage” between the evolution of jawless and jawed vertebrates. “The vertebrate eye is the best example of structural perfection – as used by proponents of intelligent design to claim that something so complex couldn’t possibly have evolved,” Dr Young said. “Part of the trouble in tracing the evolution of the eye is that soft tissues don’t tend to fossilise. But the eye cavities in the braincase of these 400 million-year-old fossil fish were lined with a delicate layer of very thin bone. All the details of the nerve canals and muscle insertions inside the eye socket are preserved – the first definite fossil evidence demonstrating an intermediate stage in the evolution of our most complex sensory organ. “These extinct placoderms had the eyeball still connected to the braincase by cartilage, as in modern sharks, and a primitive eye muscle arrangement as in living jawless fish.” Dr Young said that this anatomical arrangement is different from all modern vertebrates, in which there is a consistent pattern of tiny muscles for rotating each eyeball. The placoderm fossils were analysed using computer X-ray tomography at ANU, a scanning technique that creates a three-dimensional image of complex organic structures. “What this research shows is that 400 million years ago there was already a complex eye, and one that was an intermediate form between jawless and jawed vertebrates,” Dr Young says. “This means that we’re able to add one more piece to the puzzle of how the human eye came to be.”

Most patients with diabetes can be treated quite satisfactorily with diet alone. Exactly what that diet should be can only be decided by a physician. This is not said just to boost the fortunes of the medical profession, a plot of which we are often accused when we make such a recommendation, but because it is true and sensible. Each diabetic varies from every other one somewhat, the main variation being in the amount of starch he can consume. So that it will not do for Mr. Robinson to go on the diet the doctor prescribed for his neighbor, Mrs. Stoopnagle. He may be doing himself an injustice: He may be able to eat a good deal more than she can. Also he may be doing himself harm: Because he may be unable to eat nearly as much as she does. These situations arise, as I know from my correspondence, and more today than ever, because people use the word “diabetes” in polite society now without any feeling of embarrassment. There was a time when it was taboo, either in ordinary conversation or in news-papers. That taboo has very sensibly been given up, as has the idea that diabetes is some sort of a dark disgrace, a secret to be hidden in the recesses of the mind. It is no more a disgrace than baldness or the necessity of wearing glasses, and people talk about it and so find out what the doctor is prescribing for their fellow victims. That one doctor is advising a certain course for a certain case, which is entirely different from what your doctor is prescribing for you is perfectly natural, and in accord with the character of the disease. An idea that is frequently necessary to instill into a diabetic’s consciousness is that adherence to diet will improve his condition. Diabetes is, in most instances, a painless disease, and pain is the symptom which causes most people to take care of themselves. If the diabetic will keep within his glucose tolerance, he will find that his tolerance will increase, and-he can eat more and hence be more comfortable. And that is another reason for periodical visits to the doctorto find out whether tolerance has increased or not. Besides that, the continuation of the condition of excess sugar in the blood is liable to bring on the complications of diabetes, and as these include cataract, causing partial blindness, and gangrene of the toes, abscesses in the skin, and coma, it seems the part of common sense to stick to the dietary restrictions laid down. What those restrictions are, cannot be put down as a blanket rule. When the tolerance is determined, the patient can, with the aid of manuals written for him, decide upon a set of menus, which in all cases can be sufficiently varied to meet any reasonable desires. There are many of these manuals, such as those of Joslin, John, Wilder, McHenry and Cooper, and the useful “Diabetic’s Own Cook Book” of Mrs. Lyons. Most book stores keep a good stock of them. A few dietary rules, however, apply to all diabetics. They should not eat substances which are quiçkly converted into glucose, and hence overwhelm the system. Such substances are the simple sugars. Table sugar should always be avoided, as should candy and sweet desserts. Most fruits contain too much sugar for the ordinary case – especially apples, oranges and grapes. Although in some instances a small amount of orange is permissible.

Much like James Bond's favorite cocktails, freshwater lakes need to be shaken up in order to make sure vital ingredients are evenly distributed within. Without a giant cocktail shaker at its disposal, nature carries out this task by way of big storms in the colder months that turn over the bodies of water and preserve the health of the ecosystem. But scientists are now warning that rising surface temperatures may bring an end to this, which would give algae new rein over these lakes and seriously threaten fish populations and vital freshwater resources. Recent data has shown that the average temperature of the Earth's lakes is rising by 0.61° F (0.34° C) each decade. This warming is expected to bring about an increase in algal blooms by as much as 20 percent, which would spell big trouble for fisheries, tourism, water supplies and the environment as a whole. The buildup of algae is problematic and not just because it can poison water supplies. When it dies, its decomposition soaks up dissolved oxygen in the water, leaving low-oxygen dead zones for suffocating animal life to endure. One way we are already contributing to the growth of algae in lakes and streams is through something known as nutrient pollution, or eutrophication. Fertilizer runoff, improperly monitored sewage systems and other human activity is loading up lakes and reservoirs with more nutrients than they can handle. This is in turn fertilizing the algae in the water and resulting in more frequent and severe algal blooms. Scientists at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) have now uncovered yet another source of nutrient pollution, which they have dubbed climate eutrophication. For almost 50 years, UC Davis researchers have tracked surface temperatures at Lake Tahoe, finding that they have risen by almost 0.9° F (0.5° C) since 1968. This has had the effect of stabilizing the lake's thermal layers and lengthening of the so-called stratification season, in which water rests in separate layers as a result of varying temperature, by 24 days. This makes it more difficult for the storms that sweep through in fall and late winter to have their usual effect of shaking up the lake water, leaving dissolved oxygen in the surface layers and the starved lower layers left wanting. Over time, if these stratification seasons continue to grow longer and the levels of dissolved oxygen in the lower levels keep diminishing, the livelihood of marine life operating at these depths won't be the only concern. The researchers say this will trigger a chemical reaction particular to low-oxygen environments that draws nutrients out of the lakebed and into the water, offering another avenue for nutrient pollution to impact the planet's freshwater reserves. To get an idea of how this may affect Lake Tahoe in the future, the scientists came up with projections of future conditions based on a couple of carbon emission scenarios published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, paired with a model of how water moves around the lake. One scenario had carbon emissions slow down and halted by the year 2100, while the other had them increasing rapidly. This saw the stratification season grow by 12 and 38 days, respectively. This would be brought about by increases in air temperature between 4.5 and 7° F (2.5 and 4° C) and a drop in wind speeds by seven to 10 percent. While the study and these projections pertain only to Lake Tahoe, the researchers note that the process could also play out in other deep lakes around the world. The research was published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography.

Maker Kits Vs Maker Spaces After attending the Maker Day workshop hosted by my district on Monday I am feeling very excited about implementing a Maker Space in my library. It was presented to us that we should strive to have a maker kit that can be used anywhere. Our instructor warned of the restrictions that a maker space would put on the content driven creating that happens. She worries that teachers may get excited and create a space that is fun but not promoting a deeper sense of learning with connections to the curriculum. I have thought long and hard about creating a space in my library but now I am leaning towards creating kits that I can share with the teachers in my school and I will work to teach them how to use the kits in a way that is very user friendly. I want to create a resource that can be used in and out of the library. I want to create a resource that enriches the teacher’s lessons and most importantly will be used!! I don’t want to create kits that will be forgotten about(much like many of the teacher resources collecting dust in our resource room)!! To start my audience will be the staff at my school and I will present this project to them during a staff meeting. I would like for them to see the power of using maker kits in their library and in their classrooms OR turning our library into their classroom for an afternoon. Secondly, I will target the students. I will teach them how to use the kits. Our instructor was very wise when she told us that the deepest connections and creativity comes with parameters. If we leave the making too open ended the result could be a disaster and prove too difficult for the students. I want them to be confident in their creating. Teachers needs : easy to use, engaging materials to support and enrich their students learning. Creating design thinking challenges that will create a deeper understanding to go along with the resources in each kit, project based learning, inquiry projects. Students needs: easy to use, engaging materials to support and enrich interests, materials that are safe to use in school, tech of some kind, freedom to create within their interests, confidence to use the technology, confidence to create. In an ideal world, I would have 40-45 minutes with each class and their teachers on their library block and I could teach them how to use the maker kits in a way that enriches their everyday learning. I would show them how to the use the tech (I still haven’t decided the best tech to purchase), how to use low to no tech materials, how to participate in design thinking challenges, how to create their own design challenges. Perhaps I can run seminars with classes and their teachers weekly? Ideally, students would be able to learn quickly how to use the resources in the kits and share their learning with their peers/teachers. We know the power of students sharing their learning with peers and the power of our students teaching us something new!

More companies are recognizing the importance of giving employees the time and space they need to navigate personal loss. Save $20 on a New Professional Membership and receive a FREE Tote bag when you join SHRM today! Learn to overcome challenges and meet your 2017 goals through competency-based HR education. Available in-person and virtually. Expand your influence and learn how to become an effective leader. Join us in Phoenix, AZ | OCTOBER 2 - 4, 2017 Government Workers Have More Days Away from Work Because of Illness or Injury than Private Employees While the overall number of reported nonfatal occupational injury and illness cases that required days away from work to recuperate decreased 9 percent in 2009 for private industry, state government and local government, local and state government workers had much higher rates of days away from work than private employees. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the rate of days away from work attributable to occupational illness and injury for local government workers was 185 cases per 10,000 full-time workers. The rate for state government workers was 180 cases, while the rate for private employees was 117 cases. “The BLS report is interesting in that, for the first time, it reports incidence rates for workers in state and local governments, half of whom work in states where public employees have no OSHA coverage,” said David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, in a news release. “Specifically, we see a high occurrence among many public employee occupations, particularly among transit and intercity bus drivers, law enforcement officers, emergency response workers, and nursing aides and orderlies.” Michaels noted that musculoskeletal disorders comprise almost 30 percent of all workplace illnesses and injuries requiring time away from work. He added that the falling rate of workplace illnesses and injuries might be attributed in part to fewer people being employed and working fewer hours because of the poor economy, especially in the construction and manufacturing industries. OSHA to Issue Interpretation of Workplace Noise Exposure Controls Updated Jan. 21, 2011: OSHA has rescinded this proposed interpretation. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is proposing to issue an interpretation of the term “feasible administrative or engineering controls” as used in the general industry and construction occupational noise exposure standards and to amend its current enforcement policy to reflect the interpretation. “Feasible” will have its ordinary meaning of “capable of being done,” according to an OSHA news release. OSHA’s noise standards state that feasible administrative or engineering controls—such as modifications to plant, equipment, processes or materials that reduce the sound intensity at the source, or rotating employees so that they work in noisy areas for a short time—must be used. Personal protective equipment (PPE), such as ear plugs or ear muffs, can be used only as supplements when other controls are not completely effective. This is consistent with other OSHA health standards, the release stated. However, under the current enforcement policy, OSHA issues citations for failure to use engineering and administrative controls only when they cost less than a hearing conservation program or such equipment is ineffective. This allows employers to rely on PPE more than engineering or other controls. The agency proposes to change its noise enforcement policy to authorize issuing citations requiring the use of administrative and engineering controls when feasible. See the Federal Register notice of the proposal. The consultant had told the manager about OSHA’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP), which supports small businesses that implement and continuously improve safety and health by exempting them from programmed OSHA inspections for up to two years. All six of Anthony Forest Products’ facilities have achieved SHARP status, leading to significant savings and improvements in the company’s safety and health culture, according to Lynda Anthony, vice president of HR for the company, in a news release: “The shift in the safety and health culture and attitude at the company’s facilities has improved worker morale, enhanced productivity and improved the quality of the company’s products. In addition, the company’s personnel turnover has significantly decreased.”

What is FoodCorps? Put simply, it’s a nationwide team of AmeriCorps leaders that connects kids to real food so they can grow up healthy. FoodCorps service members in North Carolina have served with their local community partners to build 28 new school gardens across the state — and that’s in addition to teaching 30,000 kids where real food comes from and how to prepare it, and harvesting 3,200 pounds of produce together. Sure, the numbers in North Carolina and across the country are certainly impressive. But I want to tell you the real stories of students who are slowly changing their eating habits for the healthier. Like the 2nd grader in Cherokee who had never tried an apple — and now he doesn’t like them, he “loves” them. Or the high-schooler in Wilson, who after a salsa-making demonstration, took home tomatoes from the school garden to make salsa for her family. Or the elementary class out in Wilmington who got to taste cherry tomatoes right off the vine, and then began stuffing them in their pockets for later. Leroy: From Food Skeptic to Champion Changing behavior does take time, and it certainly takes persistence. And while serving my two years in Warren County, I saw just how long this could take when I met Leroy. Leroy is one of those students who immediately stole my heart with his smile and positive attitude. But when I first taught his class, he wouldn’t get near any food that wasn’t a chicken nugget, French fry, or maybe a banana on a good day. No matter what fruit or vegetable we tasted he would barely touch his tongue to it, and start making gagging motions. It was during these moments when I truly wondered if I’d ever make a difference. After about a year, we harvested watermelon from the garden. He tried a bite (didn’t gag), and said he liked the taste but not the texture. He then proceeded to juice 3 or 4 watermelon slices into a glass for drinking. “Okay!” I thought, “We’re getting somewhere. “ Fast forward to this year, and one of our service members in Warren County has helped Leroy shift from wearily trying new foods to being one of the class’s biggest advocates. He has tried apples, radishes, and collards, enthusiastically approving the first two. Just the other day his class tasted radishes pulled from their garden, and Leroy was their unrivaled champion. Seeing a classmate eye the radish warily, Leroy placed his hand on her back, and said, “It’s okay, I mean you have to at least try it, because otherwise you will never know!” Changing Perceptions One Bite at a Time There is no one ingredient or magic recipe that will instantly change a child’s perception about real, healthy food. It takes constant exposure and encouragement, and a lot of positive experiences. Our service members across the state are providing those experiences for children, and healthier attitudes are starting to take hold.

The recent CNN video featuring Reza Aslan eating human brain and drinking from a human skull at a feast with Aghori, a Hindu cannibal sect, shows that over the past thirty years an important shift has occurred in our perception of cannibalism and, more generally, in our understanding of what can and cannot be eaten. This analysis is based on my book The Celebration of Death in Contemporary Culture that has just been released by the University of Michigan Press. In this book, I propose an explanation for the current fascination in popular culture with cannibalism, vampires, and violent death. I argue that an important shift occurred in popular culture in the late 1980 – early 1990s. One component of this shift is that human protagonists have been replaced by idealized monsters. Cannibals, vampires, and zombies have taken over the place of humans as main heroes of movies and novels. Audiences are supposed to identify with these murderous monsters and not with their victims. Another component of this shift is that for the first time in the Western culture people can be considered, in literature and visual arts, as food for monsters. I argue that this shift plays a critical role in the fascination with violent death. I explain this turn in public opinion on the attitudes to people by the rejection of human exceptionalism and antihumanism and its conversion into a fashionable commodity. These philosophical ideas, put forward by French Theory in the late 1960s –early 1970s and valued by several other cultural movements, such as animal rights movement and transhumanism, won over the popular culture by the late 1980s. Indeed, we are living through an alteration in our perception of and attitudes to people. It is best demonstrated by the shift in the cultural role of monsters over the past quarter of a century. The cannibal movie Raw by Julia Ducournau (2016) exemplifies this shift. In Raw, the heroine and the main protagonist is a cannibal. Some critics acclaimed this film and its heroine especially because she “differs boldly from her predecessors” in that her urge to eat human flesh “has nothing to do with revenge, anger, or even self-defense. It’s just something she wants, and Raw is a movie about wanting.” Ducournau said in an interview that she was influenced by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974), the first film she watched at the age of six. Even the most superficial comparison of these two movies shows an important difference. In Hooper’s movie, the protagonist, a girl named Sally, escapes from a disgusting monster, man-eater Leatherface. The audiences are supposed to identify with the victims, the girl and her unfortunate friends, not with the horrific cannibals who are indubitably considered criminals. This perspective shifts drastically in Raw. Now it is a cannibal, Justine, whose experience of craving and eating human flesh and feelings about this process are the focal point of the viewer’s attention. Moreover, viewers are expected to identify and sympathize with her because the movie “does such an incredible job getting to the truth of what it’s like to be a [sixteen-year-old] woman.” This film demonstrates how philosophical ideas become popular culture commodities. Strictly in accordance with Jacques Derrida’s theory of animality and “carnophallogocentrism,” which holds that killing animals and devouring them is “displaced cannibalism,” Raw’s heroine, initially a vegetarian, is forced to eat raw chicken liver which leads her to discover her cannibalistic nature. Among numerous examples of this cultural shift, the Hannibal Lecter books, movies, and television series occupy a special place because they profoundly influenced our perception of cannibalism. Lecter debuted as the protagonist of Thomas Harris’ 1981 novel Red Dragon and of the film adaption of Harris’ second novel The Silence of the Lambs, in which Sir Anthony Hopkins played the cannibalistic serial killer. Lecter’s legend has only grown through sequels and prequels, culminating in the latest iteration, the television series Hannibal, which ran from 2013 to 2015 and starred Mads Mikkelsen as Lecter. For all his elegance and allure, Hopkins’ Lecter is undeniably and unmistakably a monstrous criminal in the books Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and the films The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. It was precisely the stark contrast between his great sophistication and his penchant for cannibalism (which was, at the time, still considered the utmost denial of civilization) that made him an intriguing protagonist. This changed with the TV series Hannibal (2013- 2015). Hannibal is staged as the true protagonist of the series. No longer heinous, Lecter is portrayed by the dashing Mikkelsen as the very embodiment of elegance and high culture. He, too, hates “rude people” and eventually punishes them by killing them and dining on their remains, but this is not his primary motivation. As Justine, he eats humans because he “likes” it. Most importantly, the TV series put considerable effort into showcasing Lecter’s skill in the kitchen. Viewers are prompted to appreciate his sophistication in the cooking of human flesh and his ability to pair those dishes with the perfect wine. Hannibal is nothing short of an entertaining master class in the serving and consumption of humans as food. The names of the episodes further highlight this theme: all the titles of first season’s episodes are taken from French haute cuisine and in the second from the Japanese. So, what distinguishes Mikkelsen’s Hannibal of 2013-2015 from its predecessors is that cannibalism is shown not in contrast to, but as an integral part of Hannibal’s urbane attraction, not incompatible with society but the most sophisticated part of it. Certainly, by winning five Oscars in 1992, The Silence of the Lambs launched a cult following for Lecter that fueled the public’s fascination. This “aestheticization” of the cannibal and serial killer could not have happened had the public perception of monsters and the value of human life not already been undergoing a profound change. While prior to the late 1980s and the 1990s, serial murder and cannibalism had been categorized as a prehistoric atavism and animal savagery, and serial killers were compared to beasts of prey such as tigers, by the early 1990s, the intense interest in equating people with an object of predation became an overarching cultural theme. Against this background, the fact that, as of August 2015, a surprisingly well-documented YouTube clip on cannibalism titled “What does human taste like?” had racked up 138,999 likes and only 5,349 dislikes, from a total of 9,544,547 views, comes as no surprise at all (last checked May 11, 2017 ). Obviously, equating people and chicken, the slaughter of people and of animals, to the point of comparing the Holocaust and the mass confinement and butchery of chickens – the discourse of animal right defenders – legitimates such attitudes to people. In the academic discourse, the representation of people as food in popular culture is regarded as par for the course as “the underlying theme of many narratives.”(1) This trivializing denial of human exceptionalism opens the door to statements about “death for food.” “Food approach to death” and assertions that “we are all food, and through death nourish others,” and that “mortuary practices might affirm death as an opportunity of life for others in the ecological community” epitomizes the new attitudes to people.(2) In this climate, today’s obsession with food as a subject of scientific research and the growing debate on an international scale about what can and cannot be eaten seems symptomatic for the reconsideration of our basic food taboo. Let us now consider how monsters have been repackaged as an object of idealization. René Girard pioneered the interpretation of the monster as scapegoat and extended it to various marginalized groups. An understanding of the monster as a symbol of all that is sidelined, dominated, or oppressed was further developed in the works of Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, and Pierre-Félix Guattari, who chose vampires and ghosts as symbols and metaphors incarnating this idea. Departing from Marx’s use of the vampire metaphor (who originally treated them as a metaphor for capitalist evil), Deleuze and Guattari contributed to this transformation by considering the vampire as a “hybrid” that “infects” and therefore ushers in difference and the anomalous. These works set the stage for a paradigmatic shift in the understanding of monsters, making them a focus of attention in the humanities. Vampires have been interpreted as symbolizing the victims of political oppression and as embodying the radical criticism of capitalism, of gender intolerance or as symbols of racial or ethnic discrimination or economic inequality. These studies are inspired by the idea that the monster stands for the Other and should therefore be treated with sympathy, dignity, and respect. Monsters and monstrous behavior are to be understood on their own terms. Nina Auerbach’s Our Vampires, Ourselves (1999) is a down-to-earth formula proved extremely prolific. “Our Monsters, Ourselves” became a slogan of the time, and in the two decades following Auerbach’s publication, titles such as Our Cannibals, Ourselves, Our Serial Killers, Our Superheroes, and Ourselves, Our Zombies, Ourselves, and Our Animals, Ourselves flooded the press and the bookstores. The inflation of the concept of the Other, originally an expression of cultural and political tolerance, has been instrumental in normalizing murderous monsters and no longer only as an incarnation of and metaphor for the victimized and marginalized. The monster becomes the Other and “our deepest self.” Readers and viewers are expected to see the fictional world through the eyes of a vampire, a zombie, a cannibal, a serial killer, and to empathize with that Other rather than with their victims. These interpretations blind critics to the antihumanistic significance of monsters as cultural representations, in that audiences identify with them not only against unjust institutions and political or economic oppression but also against humanity and humanistic ideals in general. Back in the 1990s, cannibalism was still seen as a dire threat to civilization. By the 2000s, the “monster turn” had made it seductive and appealing. As numerous studies demonstrate, the images of vampire and the image of cannibals has merged in the 1990s. It could be argued that this fusion was inspired by the radical questioning of the food taboo forbidding the consumption of people. The image of a vampire with its implicit glamour and romantic associations proved to be not drastic enough to express the utmost instrumentalization of humans and the ultimate rejection of human exceptionalism. The most recent example of this transition is offered by a writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour, whose 2014 vampire film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, was followed by the intense cannibalistic movie The Bad Batch (2017). The shift from the view of murderous monsters as criminals to an object of idealization that has given rise to a subculture of zombies and vampire fans, and to cannibal celebrity culture should be seen as an important hallmark of a change in cultural history. Objectification of people as food is what has rendered the image of the vampire/serial killer/cannibal so attractive to the mass audience over the past two decades. A part of a larger cultural movement – the cult of death that rejects human exceptionalism and promotes antihumanism as a fashionable commodity– it is an ultimate expression of disappointment with humanity, its culture and civilization. (1) Fabio Parasecoli, Bite Me: Food in Popular Culture (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2008), 65. (2) Val Plumwood, “Tasteless: Towards a Food- Based Approach to Death,” Environmental Values 17, no. 3 (2008).

Kevin created a series of paintings a few years back called Knife, Fork and Spoon, given those were the items used to create the art. Often there was a spiral of paints from a center point with great energy emanating from the creation. Around that time, the movie "Horton Hears a Who" became popular, and Kevin saw his paintings as somehow looking like the "speck" or spore in the movie which Horton would speak to and turned out to have a whole civilization living inside of it. Wherever we went, Kevin would pick up dandelions or other flowers and speak to them, hoping to hear a response. Sometimes he thought he did. I loved the broader messages of the movie of how we perceive and interact based on what we think we know to be true. I also loved the poetic aspect of Kevin wanting to find and interact with whatever species he might find inside these spores. Somehow it was easier for him to interact with this than other people, yet his desire was a bridge to socialization with other people. The artwork then became known as the Pollen series - they are quite beautiful and many pieces have been used as thank yous for large donations. Some people have commissioned Pollen pieces. In the photo, Kevin is creating a new Pollen piece called "Speck-tacular." It was used as an auction item for another charity. The creation process is a great tool for anyone working with children especially those with Autism, ADHD or other processing disorders. As a parent or teacher, you can help by providing the supplies for any creation. We discuss ideas.I help Kevin with his articulation, coaching him on ways to express verbally what he is thinking and planning. Then there is the planning process: what does he want to do; what does he need; is there a theme; do we need to buy anything; can his brother or sister help; will he make a sample first or just dive right in; does he have enough time to finish now or will he need a couple days; who is cleaning up. As he creates, there are other pieces of cognitive processing merging with the creative urges...and it's always interesting. This art was different in that included a sparkly yarn being glued on for accent. This was a new twist to his earlier pieces. People loved how it turned out. And he knows his piece was used to help another group raise funds. With children, you can consider their sensory issues and motor planning issues. Use crafts as a way to create patterns in the brain and the body which will help them with other skills they need for daily life. You can use the crafts to reinforce math concepts or science. Your interaction allows for modeling of social skills and communication. Of course, at all times be encouraging...not imposing...this is their creation. When we tap this part of the brain and being, we help them to grow in more whole person ways than traditional academics. The left brain activities of school require a different processing than these artistic right brain experiences, yet the 2 sides of the brain link and cross, and actually, left brain processes are enhanced by what occurs here. So, grab some smocks and art supplies, cover your surface, pick your mediums, and simply begin to play and express. Enjoy the heart connection that happens when we create together!

In 2010, the French/Japanese ecology artist Cesar Minoru Harada initiated the Protei project in an attempt to get rid of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The idea of the project regards a fleet of sailing drones that clean pollution in open sea water. Using open-source technologies, eight prototypes have already been built. The project was crowd-funded on Kickstarter. Protei has a long tail that allows for collection of oil across the sea. The drone is unmanned, avoiding the direct exposure of humans to toxic fumes. Furthermore, Protei is cheap to build and eco-friendly — it uses wind power to move. Once the boat is in the oil spill area, the boat starts to collect oil autonomously without intervention from humans. The idea for Protei appeared to Harada when he learned about the BP oil spill in 2010. An oil spill of this size has a tremendous impact on the environment and on the marine ecosystem. The current oil skimming technology could only collect about 3% of the total amount of oil spread across the Gulf of Mexico. The workers too were subject to health hazards because of extended exposure to the oil. Besides oil spill cleaning, many other applications are envisioned for this revolutionary drone.

Eastern Orthodoxy: Did You Know? The Orthodox Church is not a single church but rather a family of 13 "autocephalous," or self-governing, churches. They are united in their understanding of the sacraments, doctrine, liturgy, and church government, but each administers its own affairs. The head of each autocephalous church is called a "patriarch" or "metropolitan." The patriarch of Constantinople (that is, Istanbul, Turkey) is considered the "ecumenical," or universal, patriarch. He enjoys special honor but no power to interfere with the 12 other Orthodox communions. Many Westerners have been confused about Orthodoxy's distinct identity. In the American armed services, military identification tags of enlisted Orthodox believers once bore the inscription "Protestant." On the other hand, some western theologians have dismissed Orthodoxy outright. Nineteenth-century church historian Adolf von Harnack wrote, "The Orthodox Church is in her entire structure alien to the gospel and represents a perversion of the Christian religion, its reduction to the level of pagan antiquity." The Orthodox Church claims to be the one, true church of Christ. Orthodox thinkers debate the spiritual status of Roman Catholics and Protestants, and a few still consider them heretics. The doctrine of justification by faith is virtually absent from the history and theology of Orthodoxy. Rather, Orthodoxy emphasizes theosis (literally, "divinization"), the gradual process by which Christians become more and more like Christ. The Orthodox have experienced more brutal and lasting persecution than any other Christian body. Under Soviet atheism, for example, communists closed 98 percent of the Orthodox churches in Russia, as well as 1,000 monasteries and 60 seminaries. Between 1917 and the outbreak ...

Every class has those children who will habitually disrupt a classroom .There are many types of challenging behavior .It is important that teachers are able to identify and learn to deal with this challenging behavior. What is Challenging Behavior It is really any form of behavior that causes concern to the teacher.The most common examples are : - Arriving Late for Lessons - Not listening to teacher - Talking excessively and being noisy - Not settling down to work - Being out of seats for no reason - Preventing other classmates from being able to work . There are students who may need referral for challenging behavior that require special attention and intervention by the teacher and school.IE ADHD,Autism etc .In this article prominence is given to challenging behavior that may be rectified by the teacher in the classroom with out outside referral. Below are some classroom management tips on how to deal with those challenging students. Make sure that parents are kept in the loop if their child is getting into trouble.Try to foster a bond with the parents which will help determine an effective strategy . Keep the student close If at all possible keep the student close to you.Keep them at a desk at the front of the classroom .This usually helps to limit negative behavior. Keep to the same routine The same steps should be used each time when trying to get the student to behave.It should be clear that this type of disruptive behavior will ALWAYS result in a particular consequence. Ignore Poor Behavior The student is seeking attention by challenging behavior in the classroom situation . Sometimes by just holding back and ignoring the behavior, the students settle down again .Discuss with a class the consequences of disruptive behavior by one student and encourage the other classmates to ignore the challenging student .Often this settles things very quickly. Sometimes when the students behavior continues, even after several reminders , it is best that the student be removed from the situation.Teachers should create an area in the classroom where students can go and sit quietly.When they calm down they can return to the class participation .When this does not work ( often with older students) then the students may need to leave the classroom and sit in a desk perhaps in the hallway for a short period of time .The student should however be given simple tasks to keep them occupied . This gives both the teacher and the student a time out to allow feelings to settle . Choosing when to Discipline . If a teacher calls out a student in front of their friends and peers then it is very difficult to win .If at all possible wait till later and talk to the student one on one .Empathize with the student and try to discover what is really going on .Praise when ever possible . Communicate non verbally Develop ways that you can watch and give children, who are often challenging ,attention .( Which is what most are seeking ) Smile ,raise an eyebrow ,look directly at the student and give them a thumbs up or down . Challenging classroom behavior is one of the hardest problems a teacher may deal with as it can impact on the class as a whole . Spend time trying differing techniques to limit this problem .

1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to a method, computer program product and data processing system for the detection of multilingual textual resources carrying the same information content. Textual resources such as news articles and user manuals are often available in several languages. The widespread and increasing use of the internet has made the availability of such textual resources greater. Some of such resources are made available in different languages by the same provider. Others are made available by different providers for example the daily news published on the internet. The same or similar news stories are often found in different languages. The texts of such articles may not be parallel. That is, they may not be an exact translation from one language to another. The availability of textual resources in different languages may be of enormous use to a user. For example, if a user requires a news article in a second language corresponding to a news article in a first language the availability of such an article in a second language may give the user an accurate translation into the second language. This is of great benefit since machine translation tools may not give translations of an acceptable quality and human translation which gives an acceptable quality can be very expensive. In another example, a user of a device may only have the user guide or instructions for the device in a language which is not their native language. In such a situation, the availability of the user guide and instructions in the user's native language may be of great benefit to the user. Thus, the availability of multilingual textual resources can be of great benefit to users. There are, however problems in detecting textual resources having the same contents in different languages. U.S. Pat. No. 6,993,471 proposes a system that translates HTML documents using machine translation software bundled in a browser. This allows a user to access textual resources in languages other than the language that the textual resource was written, however, the quality of the output is limited by the quality of the machine translation software output. Another approach is to try and collect parallel sentences. For example US 2005/0228643 discloses the extraction of a set of features from the output of a sentence alignment engine, and then uses them to train a maximum entropy classifier to detect parallel sentences. Such a system works to detect parallel sentences, but is not suitable for detecting documents having the same textual content. Textual resources are rarely exact translations of each other even where they come from the same source. There may also be considerable differences in length, and the level of detail. U.S. Pat. No. 6,604,101 discloses a system for translating a query input by a user in a source language into a target language and searches and retrieves web documents in the target language. Such an approach allows several documents in a second language that match a query in the first language to be found. It does not however allow a document in a second language having the same textual content as a document in a first language to be found. The illustrative embodiments provide for determining a second document of a set of documents in a second language having the same textual content as a first document in a first language. The illustrative embodiments generate a first histogram that is indicative of the textual content of the first document. The illustrative embodiments generate a second histogram for each document of the set of documents. In the illustrative embodiments, each second histogram is indicative of the textual content of a document of the set of documents. The illustrative embodiments compare each second histogram with the first histogram to determine at least one histogram from the plurality of second histograms which matches the first histogram. The illustrative embodiments identify the at least second document as the document having the at least one histogram. In other illustrative embodiments, a computer program product comprising a computer useable or readable medium having a computer readable program is provided. The computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to perform various ones, and combinations of, the operations outlined above with regard to the method illustrative embodiment. In yet another illustrative embodiment, a system/apparatus is provided. The system/apparatus may comprise one or more processors and a memory coupled to the one or more processors. The memory may comprise instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform various ones, and combinations of, the operations outlined above with regard to the method illustrative embodiment. In the following, embodiments of the invention will be described, in greater detail, by way of example only, making reference to the drawings in which: Computer program product 112 can be regarded as a tool for determining documents of a set of documents which have the same textual content as a first document in a first language. Computer program product 112 may be implemented as an add on for a web browser. The web browser may access the internet through network connection 108. Alternatively, computer program product 112 may be implemented as a search engine which is operable to search textual resources. The textual resources may be stored in storage 104, or alternatively may be stored on a remote server, or on the internet and accessed through network connection 108. Input/output 106 may comprise a keyboard, a mouse, or other input device. Input/output 106 may additionally comprise a display, a sound output device. Five grams may be used, and the word context may be relaxed by replacing some words with their semantic or semantatic classes. Words referring to a named entity may be replaced with the corresponding named entity category. Content words may be left in tact. A large graph may then be constructed with each word stem representing a node. When two words agree on the same context, an edge may be added between their stems in the graph. Edges may be weighted according to a number of context agreements that suggests the two words are similar. In step 604, a clustering algorithm is applied to the local graph. This may for example be the mark of clustering algorithm. In step 606, the word classes are then stored. The invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, etc. Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer usable or computer readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disc and an optical disc. Current examples of optical disks include compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disc-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD. A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing computer program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening, private or public networks. Modems, cable modems, and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters. |US20040181520||24 Feb 2004||16 Sep 2004||Hitachi, Ltd.||Document search system using a meaning-ralation network| |US20050086224||15 Oct 2003||21 Apr 2005||Xerox Corporation||System and method for computing a measure of similarity between documents| |US20050123053 *||8 Dec 2003||9 Jun 2005||Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.||Systems and methods for media summarization| |US20050180602 *||1 Jun 2004||18 Aug 2005||Ming-Hsuan Yang||Method, apparatus and program for detecting an object| |US20050228643||22 Mar 2005||13 Oct 2005||Munteanu Dragos S||Discovery of parallel text portions in comparable collections of corpora and training using comparable texts| |US20060265209 *||24 Apr 2006||23 Nov 2006||Content Analyst Company, Llc||Machine translation using vector space representations| |US20070033001||3 Aug 2005||8 Feb 2007||Ion Muslea||Identifying documents which form translated pairs, within a document collection| |US20070136276 *||30 Nov 2006||14 Jun 2007||Matthew Vella||Method, system and software product for locating documents of interest| |WO2003058492A1||18 Sep 2002||17 Jul 2003||Eli Abir||Multilingual database creation system and method| |1||*||Agrawal et al., "Efficient Similarity Search in Sequence Databases", Proceedings of the 4th Intl. conf. on Foundations of Data Organization and Algorithms, Oct. 1993.| |2||*||Ampazis, N. Iakovaki, H., "Cross-language information retrieval using latent semantic indexing and self-organizing maps," Neural Networks, 2004, Proceedings, 2004 IEEE International Joint Conference, vol. 1, No., pp. 4, Jul. 25-29, 2004.| |3||*||Ampazis, N.; Iakovaki, H., "Cross-language information retrieval using latent semantic indexing and self-organizing maps," Neural Networks, 2004, Proceedings, 2004 IEEE International Joint Conference, vol. 1, No., pp. 4, Jul. 25-29, 2004.| |4||Chung et al., "A Parallel Web Page Identification System", Proceedings of the 22nd IASTED International Conference on Modelling Identification and Control, 2003, pp. 495-500.| |5||Zhao et al., "Adaptive Parallel Sentences Mining from Web Bilingual News Collection", IEEE, International Conference on Data Mining, 2002, pp. 745-748.|

By Denise McCarty The United Nations Postal Administration will issue a second set of stamps devoted to international dance March 23. The first set was issued April 29, 2016, in conjunction with International Dance Day (Scott U.N./New York 1132-1333, Geneva 617-618 and Vienna 583-584). According to Thanawat Amnajanan, UNPA chief, the International Dance series is being continued because of the extreme popularity of the first issue with collectors. Also, in announcing the new stamps, UNPA said: “According to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), dance promotes a lively manner, reciprocal knowledge and respect of diversity. Dance is both an art form and a method of communication in cultures around the world.” Like the first set, the second International Dance issue includes six panes of six stamps each forming a single continuous design. Three artists created the illustrations for the stamp panes. The illustrations on the 49¢ and $1.15 stamps for use from the post office at U.N. headquarters in New York City are by French-American illustrator and animator Pascal Campion. The pane with six 49¢ stamps represents three traditional Polynesian dances. A blue sky, palm trees and brightly colored birds are pictured in the selvage. Native American tribal dance is portrayed on the $1.15 pane. Depictions of the quadrille and the Japanese fan dance by French illustrator Jean Francois Martin are featured on the 1-franc and 1.50fr stamp panes, respectively. These stamps are for use from the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. A dance with four couples, the quadrille originated in in France in the late 18th century and soon spread across Europe and to other parts of the world. The dance on the 1fr pane appears to be part of a Venetian costumed ball. All six dancers shown on the stamps are wearing masks, and one is wearing a chequered Harlequin costume. Symbolic images of Venice’s gondolas and red and white striped mooring poles are pictured in the selvage. Fans have long been a part of traditional Japanese dance. Umbrellas, or parasols, have been used as well, and one of the dancers shown on the pane of 1.50fr stamps is holding an umbrella instead of a fan. The €0.68 and €0.80 stamps for use from the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria, portray the samba and ballet. Victo Ngai, a Los Angeles-based illustrator from Hong Kong, created the illustrations. Samba, associated with Brazilian Carnival parades and festivals, evolved from the dances of African slaves in that South American country. In addition to samba dancers, the stamp pane depicts drummers, a large parade float, and what looks like fireworks and confetti. Beginning with court dances during the Renaissance, ballet moved to the stage in the late 17th century. The stamp pane pictures a group of ballerinas performing what appears to be Swan Lake, composed by Tchaikovsky. Sergio Baradat designed the stamps. Cartor Security Printers printed them by offset lithography plus hexacrome in the following quantities: 22,000 each of the 49¢, $1.15, 1fr, and 1.50fr panes; and 28,000 each of the 0.68 and 0.80 panes. Each stamp measures 30 millimeters by 40mm and is perforated gauge 13 by 13¼; the pane is 140mm by 170mm.

The report highlights the impact of violence on the health of populations in the municipalities of Buenaventura and Tumaco, where the medical organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provides health services to populations who are victims of violence. Since mid-2015, Colombia has gone through important political and social changes illustrated by the progress of the negotiations, the signing and implementation of the Peace Agreements with the guerrilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP). However, MSF’s analysis of violent events in the areas of Buenaventura and Tumaco shows that the violence continues (in a different way) despite the end of the conflict with the FARC-EP. There is an increase in the presence and influence of criminal organizations (OCs) and other armed groups. Likewise, other situations of violence (OSV) such as threats, selective homicides, kidnappings, disappearances, harassment, extortion and confinement, are internalized and deepened within the communities. These situations of violence have a clear impact on the physical and mental health of the populations in the Municipalities of Buenaventura and Tumaco. Analysis based on data from consultations conducted by MSF psychologists during the period 2015-2016 illustrates that exposure to violent events and risk factors led to diagnoses such as depression (25%), anxiety (13%), mental disorders (11%, schizophrenia, infantile psychosis, bipolar affective disorder) and posttraumatic stress (8%). Although the situations and needs of patients seen by MSF in Tumaco and Buenaventura cannot be directly extrapolated to the rest of the country's contexts, they can be considered as a plausible approximation of reality in urban and rural areas of many departments of Colombia.

Smith, daughter of the titular coach, examines and remembers historically black Pearl High School and its famous basketball coach. Basketball might be the centerpiece in this first of two volumes on Pearl High School and its legendary coach, but the many intangibles leading to the program’s dramatic success describe the book’s essence. Smith is the daughter and unwavering supporter of Coach Cornelius Ridley, who, for more than 20 years, served as mentor, disciplinarian and sometimes father figure to Pearl’s students, ballplayers and eventual men. This first volume chronicles the 1960s, described as a journey from segregation to integration. Smith deftly alternates between depicting the outstanding basketball program and the man who brought its excellence to the fore. This, in turn, is skillfully interwoven into the school’s rich history, complete with portrayals of dedicated educators and cohesive neighborhoods. The author’s analysis and quality research blends well with her personal touch. Basketball fans and archival buffs alike will appreciate the proficient use and display of news articles, interviews, photos, letters, box scores and even Western Union telegrams. The text’s tone suggests an earnestness that seems to have been handed from father to daughter. Smith can sometimes be overstated in her occasional black-and-white representations of items like character, values or relationships, but even a casual reader would expect this type of writing with a familial connection. This distraction is slight and certainly doesn’t take away from the author’s adept examination of critical, enduring issues. Smith discusses basketball equally well with the Secondary School Study of 1940 or Nashville’s mathematical formula for determining desegregation numbers (both listed in the appendix). It is, indeed, her examination of such issues that merges so well with a story that is attentive, nostalgic and just plain fun. One item that seems curiously missing, at least for the dedicated sports fan, is more coverage of the 1966 historic ballgame—Pearl’s championship in the first real year of integration. The account, otherwise, is a definite must for various libraries and repositories, especially those involved with sports and history. Includes end notes, references, appendices and index. A detailed, dedicated and enjoyable remembrance.

The MEfDA University partnership is able to facilitate access to expertise across all resource sector-related disciplines both from their own staff as well as other Australian universities, service providers, industry and partners in overseas countries. Some examples of our capabilities are provided below. Australia is considered a global leader for its progressive and effective approach to mine safety standards, and the promotion of occupational health in the extractives sector. Based in the two biggest resource states in the country, The University of Queensland and The University of Western Australia are home to the two leading centres in Australia focussed on these issues, in the form of UQ’s SMI Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre and UWA’s Centre for Safety. Both have strong research and education links to government agencies and resource companies, and a strong track record of applying this expertise in emerging resource economies. The OHS Leadership IM4DC flagship program was delivered three times to 55 participants from 20 developing countries, while customised in-country workshops on risk management and incident investigation have been delivered in many countries around the world. The improvement of engagement processes between government, community and industry stakeholders is a key focus for achieving inclusive benefits for men, women and children as well as mitigating negative outcomes for vulnerable groups. The Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining at The University of Queensland and the Centre for Social Impact at The University of Western Australia have in-depth knowledge and experience built from years of practical experience working with governments and civil society to create beneficial social impact. These multidisciplinary centres working with companies, governments, and communities improve social performance, build community capacity, generate social innovation and respond to the emerging challenges of social investment and sustainability. The Universities through the IM4DC program delivered training focussed on community and social impacts to over 780 participants from 41 countries. Australia is well recognised for research and practice in environmental management and sustainability across the full spectrum of resource commodities. The internationally renowned Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation at The University of Queensland works with many of the world’s leading mining and mineral processing companies in Australia and overseas translating research into practice that continually improves environmental management, mine rehabilitation outcomes and sustainability. Over 3400 training days across 20 activities focussing on environmental management were delivered by IM4DC including courses on Geotechnical & Environmental Management of Large Volume Waste and Water, Water and Mining, Life of Mine and Mine Closure and the flagship Environmental Management in Mining. The combination of interactive classroom lectures, field trips and site visits enabled participants to acquire new skills and knowledge about leading practices in environmental management in mining and built their capacity to oversee development of minerals and energy resources in an environmentally responsible manner. The University partners through their centres, The Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET) and WH Bryan Mining & Geology Research Centre, are global leaders in research excellence, innovation, education, and training in mineral exploration, and mine development. These institutions combine pure science and applied research to address the practical problems of mineral exploration and extractive industries. They deliver significant world class training that offers integrated thinking across the mining value chain with expertise in geoscience, mass mining, blasting fundamentals, geotechnical engineering, orebody and numerical modelling, and geostatistics. The University partnership has run courses and programs focusing on geoscience and exploration involving over 260 participants from 32 countries across Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Effective stewardship of mineral resources that achieves inclusive benefits for men, women and children requires good governance, strong policy and regulatory frameworks and transparent and accountable economic systems. The University partners draw on a diversity of knowledge and experience across University centres and development partners to deliver a multidisciplinary approach to build capacity of emerging communities and nations understanding of the principles informing minerals policy and economics and the necessary skill-sets to manage policy and economics in the many contexts that arise in the mining and resources industries. Over 23 courses focussing on economics, governance and law were delivered by IM4DC. This included the flagship Mineral Policy and Economics course that provided participants with an understanding of the fundamental principles and concepts of minerals policy that informs regulatory frameworks and economics in the resource sector. In response to demand, tailor made courses on taxation and negotiation have also been designed and delivered in Africa. MEfDA recognises that creating change in complex environments requires investment in leaders as change agents. The University partners draw on thought leaders whom are experts in leadership, organisational change and innovation to design and deliver programs that equip participants with skills needed to initiate, manage and sustain change effectively. The Flagship Emerging Leaders in African Mining program has empowered 80 young African leaders from 22 countries to exercise influence in their local context and to work collaboratively to develop solutions to shared challenges. Australia has a long history of building sustainable communities in regional and remote areas alongside extractive industries. The work of UWA’s Centre for Regional Development has been instrumental in understanding and resolving some of the major economic, social and environmental challenges facing Australia’s regions and urban centres. The flagship Regional Development course provided participants with a comprehensive grounding in the theory and practice of development planning and management practices in the mining sector within a range of international and national contexts. This flagship course and the Infrastructure study tours have been delivered to 140 participants from 27 countries across Asia, Africa, and Oceania.

Thomas Merton and the Dalai Lama, Darhamsala, India, fall 1968. Merton’s habit and black cowl in this photo are part of the collection of Merton’s personal effects discovered by Ragazine Contributing Editor John Smelcer, stored by Merton’s friends for more than 50 years after the scholar-theologian’s death. The Incredible Discovery of Thomas Merton’s Worldly Possessions Long-time Ragazine contributing editor, John Smelcer, recently made an amazing discovery. One might just call him Indiana Jones-Smelcer. Since leaving Upstate New York in 2013, he has been living in northern Missouri. It’s a pretty lonely existence in the small town, and he laments the loss of his favorite coffee houses in Binghamton and Ithaca. But, as fate would have it, he was exactly where he needed to be when the greatest story of his life fell into his lap. In the late spring of this year, Smelcer “discovered” all of the worldly possessions of the late Thomas Merton, one of the most influential figures of the Twentieth Century. And he found them in Missouri. Writer, intellectual, philosopher, poet, mystic and social rights activist, Merton was the most famous monk in the world when he died in December 1968. The author of 65 books, including his iconic The Seven Story Mountain, Merton influenced the Civil Rights Movement, helping to inform Martin Luther King, Jr. how to successfully apply non-violent protest; and, he was one of the most vocal critics of Nixon’s war in Vietnam. His book, Faith and Violence, published the year of his death, is extremely critical of America’s war-mongering in Southeast Asia. Lawrence Ferlinghetti included several of Merton’s poems in a proto-Beat anthology that also included poets Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Dylan Thomas, among others. His writing influenced millions around the world, including Bob Dylan and The Beatles. What Smelcer discovered was the most significant “treasure trove” of Mertonalia in history. While numerous archives hold letters, notes, book drafts, etc., almost nothing personal of Merton’s was known to exist. Merton was, after all, a Trappist monk, and therefore poor of earthly possessions by choice. The trove included all the clothing Merton is wearing in photographs from the last years of his life: photos of him in his white monk’s habit and black hooded cowl; photos of him in his iconic denim jacket, jeans, and sailor cap. Everything. The collection included such sacred objects as his rosary and his personal Psalter (Latin hymn book for Gregorian chant). It also included notes, photos, letters, and audiotapes of him talking. The objects had been protected by close friends of Merton’s — a fellow brother monk and a nun. After Merton’s death, the monk and the nun left their respective religious orders and married. They moved to Louisville, Kentucky, for a few years, and eventually to Kansas City. For almost half a century they safeguarded their friend’s belongings. The former monk died in 2009. In her mid-eighties, the former nun, named Helen Marie, worried about what would happen to the collection when she passed. A meeting was arranged, and Smelcer was given the entire collection with the instruction to dispose of the materials to relevant institutions, such as the Thomas Merton Center in Louisville, where Merton himself wanted his archives to be collected. Dr. Paul Pearson, Director of the Center, was elated on hearing about, and ultimately receiving, much of the collection. Smelcer spent the summer and early fall of 2015 contacting institutions and traveling to meet their staff members. He has communicated with Pope Francis about donating an object to the Vatican collections. The bulk of the Merton materiel has now been donated to various recipients with the ability to preserve and protect it, and the Frasier Museum in Louisville will exhibit some of the artifacts in late January. The former nun, despite health issues, looks forward to attending the opening of the exhibit. In his address to the United States Congress in September, Pope Francis named Merton one of the greatest Americans, alongside Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, and Abraham Lincoln.

During a traditional, lecture-based system, students learn the basics about the developmental and cell biology of erythrocytes (their lineage, shape, size, absence of nucleus, etc.); the biochemistry of hemoglobin (cofactor requirements, protein quaternary structure, cooperativity and allosterism, etc.); and the various mutations that result in disease states (sickle cell anemias, thalassemias, etc.). When asked about the phenotype of a sickle-cell hemoglobin carrier, a student who learned these concepts in a traditional, lecture-based environment might reply that there is no phenotype, unless the carrier is living in a region with malaria, in which case the carrier may be better able to resist the disease because of heterozygous advantage (classic concepts learned in genetics). However, if a group of students are presented with a case of a patient undergoing a sickle-cell crisis and are prompted to consider the many aspects of the disease, including the implications for family members, they might arrive at a different answer. They may come to the realization that the phenotype of a carrier could include the presence of some elongated cells in a smear of venous blood, particularly after exercise (which appears to occur in the majority of cases). In this manner, knowledge integration leads to critical consideration of how a phenotype is defined and how this indeed can depend on the variable being studied (a concept clearly generalizable beyond the hemoglobinopathies). An example of how the PBL in Medical School works better than traditional lecturing

Every businessperson should be familiar with the the basic laws governing supply and demand, and there is no better place to start than the demand curve. This curve is a pictorial representation of the purchasing behavior of consumers and shows total purchase levels across a wide variety of price levels. Once you understand the basic demand curve, the next step is to grasp how the curve shifts and how you should respond to these shifts. Supply and Demand Basics The basic laws of supply and demand dictate that if something is priced cheaper, consumers purchase, or demand, more of it. Suppliers, however, like higher prices and will produce a larger quantity if they can sell at a greater price. The supply and demand curves are graphic representations of these basic principles. When deriving these curves, economists plot prices on the vertical X axis and quantity on the horizontal Y-axis. The demand curve is downward sloping, since higher prices are associated with lower demand levels. The supply curve is upward sloping, because a higher price means that manufacturers will produce and sell at a profit and will therefore produce larger quantities. The point at which the supply and demand curves intersect is referred to as the equilibrium point. Shifts in Demand Curve The demand curve can shift due to a variety of reasons. Assume you own a pizzeria and sell 1,000 pizzas a week if you price them at $3.50 a slice. During Super Bowl season, people will likely buy more pizzas, even if your price stays the same. This means that the demand curve must have shifted right, since the same price of $3.50 is now corresponding to a quantity farther to the right along the graph. During a recession, people will buy less of practically all goods and services at the same price levels. Therefore, demand curves for most products will shift to the left during a recession. Demand and Pricing Policy A recession is associated with a decline in prices. This makes intuitive sense, but it can also be explained via the supply and demand curves. When people lose their jobs and cannot afford to pay as much, businesses must lower prices to keep sales up as much as possible. The supply and demand curves also attest to this, since a leftward shift in the demand curve will result in lower equilibrium price and demand levels, where supply and demand meet. Not all demand curves are hit equally hard during a recession, however. While diamond sales may drop dramatically, bread sales decline far less. How much a business should reduce its prices during a recession depends on the severity of the shift in the demand curve of its products. A few product categories actually enjoy higher sales during a recession; in other words, their demand curves shift to the right. Sales of products in dollar stores or thrift stores, for example, may increase during a recession. There are very few such product categories, however. If you are lucky enough to see an increase in demand for your products or services during a recession, you may be able to slightly raise prices. But you should be careful and consider the longer-term consequences of your pricing policy. A sharp hike in your sales price might not only make consumers feel exploited, but also invite new competitors who may enter the market with cheaper offerings.

The Redcoats are coming! The Newport Historical Society invites the public to join them on Saturday, August 26, 2017, from noon until 5 pm for its largest reenactment to date, the 1777 British Occupation. During this free program, over 75 costumed interpreters will recreate aspects of life during the summer of 1777 in the heart of Newport’s Old Quarter. During the Revolutionary War, the British occupied Newport, RI for nearly three years—a time that dramatically changed the city. Prior to the war, Newport was the fifth largest city in the American colonies and was experiencing a Golden Age of wealth. But beginning in December 1776, British troops arrived and the course of Newport’s future was dramatically altered. Much of the population left and those who remained struggled; tensions between local loyalists and British troops grew during each year of the three-year occupation. The afternoon program will open with a heated argument between two gentlemen who favor the crown, and will close with the capture of General Prescott. Events will also include: - An 18th century auction alongside the Museum of Newport History at the Brick Market - In the yard of the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, preparations for a wedding between a British solider and a local woman - Outside the Colony House, visitors can snap a selfie inside a reproduction 18th century sentry box while members of the British army stand guard - Washington Square will be brimming with action; mingle with Newport’s 18th century residents, such as an apothecarist, printer, merchants, food sutlers, a boarding house, and tavern owner “While many reenactments focus on military history, the 1777 British Occupation event will show the intersection of military and civilian life,” explains the Newport Historical Society’s Executive Director Ruth Taylor. “This year’s program, which marks the 240th anniversary of the scenarios portrayed, offers everyone involved the chance to bring Newport’s history to life along the same revolutionary streets.”

Skin care for adult acne should be taken seriously. Doctors and mental health experts have realized that people suffering from adult acne are more likely to have much greater long-term social, physical and psychological effects (including depression) than teenage acne. Adult acne sufferers need the best skincare for adult acne. This is because dermatologists believe that adult acne is much more likely to leave physical scars. This is due to the fact that adult skin is more prone to scarring than teenage acne, as the ageing process reduces the skin’s collagen. Scars will not heal as well as in young skin. As a result, people suffering from adult acne become so self-conscious that they may avoid seeing anyone or stop attending social events altogether. Below are tips on skin care for pimples to deal with adult acne. Twice a day, clean skin with adult acne gently, before using any form of topical medication. Use a non-perfumed foaming cleanser or mild soap which is suitable for acne-prone skin. Wash off the cleansing products with warm water and gently pat your face dry. Avoid using flannel, sponge or other kind of washcloth, as these can also irritate the skin by scrubbing too hard. Use gentle, non-perfumed, non-comedogenic cleansers, toners and shampoos to clean yourself. Avoid toners which contain alcohol as these may dry your skin excessively, which could in turn stimulate the over-production of sebum. As many topical treatments can dry and irritate the skin further, apply a moisturizer regularly after use. Look for moisturizers containing glycerin, jojoba and linoleic oil, as they help to hydrate the skin. Do note that glycerin does not suit all skin types and it may irritate the skin further. If you feel your acne is getting worse, change the product. Bear in mind that the environment can make dry skin even drier – central heating, air conditioning and the weather can increase moisture loss. This in turn is likely to lead to skin irritation and peeling, so moisturize daily each time you clean your skin. Be careful not to overuse creams to avoid an increase in oil production. If you have acne on the body, then it is worthwhile moisturizing your body too, especially after a shower or bath. Make sure the water is not too hot, as this can strip moisture from your skin. Exfoliating helps to remove dead surface skin cells which may clog the pores. Exfoliation is best done at night, after gently cleaning the skin. Do not over-exfoliate. Twice a week is generally sufficient. Exfoliate gently and don’t rub too hard. Otherwise you are likely to cause further inflammation and irritation. There are two types of exfoliants: physical and chemical. Physical exfoliants include scrubs, abrasive pads, granules and natural ingredients such as oat bran. Chemical exfoliants contain an enzyme or acid, such as alpha-hydroxy acid and beta-hydroxy acid, which loosens the skin’s dead cells. This will help unclog your pores. Tea tree oil, an essential oil of the Australian native tree Melaleuca alternifolia, is known for its antibacterial, antifungal and antiseptic qualities. Research has demonstrated that in treating moderate acne, 5 percent of tea tree gel, compared with 5 percent benzoyl peroxide, has a significant effect in reducing inflammation and comedones. Tea tree oil also has fewer side-effects than benzoyl peroxide. Avoid applying undiluted tea tree oil to the skin as it can cause irritation, redness, overdrying and blistering. A tea tree oil solution of 5 ml tea tree oil to 95 ml water is recommended, or tea tree gel can be bought over the counter. While small amounts of exposure to the sun can help to improve acne, too much exposure to the sun can cause sunburn, which will irritate your skin and increase acne. The skin’s surface thickens and the dead skin cells won’t exfoliate as quickly, leading to more blocked pores and more spots. Choose oil-free non-comedogenic sunscreens, with broad-range spectrum protection from UVA and UVB rays and a minimum sun protection factor (SPF) of 15. Reapply every two hours even if there is partial sun or cloud cover. Gels may be more suitable than creams. Clean your skin gently before applying sunscreen. If you are using acne medication such as antibiotic therapy to treat your adult acne, it may be necessary to apply sunscreen on a daily basis since some acne medication may make your skin more susceptible to the sun’s rays. If you are using topical retinoid treatment, use them only at night and wash off in the morning. They are photosensitisers which make your skin more sensitive to the sun. Be careful not to use sunscreen or moisturizing products containing lanolin, a by-product found in sheep’s wool. This is very oily and known to affect acne skin adversely, especially in those whose acne is genetic. People with mild acne may benefit from a professional facial, especially if done regularly. If your acne consists mainly of blackheads or whiteheads and is non-inflammatory, then very often a facial will produce good results. During a facial, the skin is cleaned thoroughly, and manual extraction may be performed to clear blocked pores. Mechanical extraction of comedones, if done too vigorously, may result in scarring. Therefore, choose a qualified therapist for this task. Steam should be avoided as steam from facial saunas, steam rooms or conventional saunas can induce blockage of the pore by swelling the microcomedone and this can result in an acute breakout of acne. Facemasks and facial massage may be incorporated into the treatment, and moisturizer applied to soothe and hydrate the skin. If your acne is moderate to severe, with nodules or cysts, consult your doctor or dermatologist for advice first, particularly if you are using topical or oral medication such as Accutane or Retin A, as these forms of acne should not be treated with facials.

Here’s a great piece about the history of the English language. It reminds me a bit of the old Monty Python animate bits. Enjoy! From The Open University: Where did the phrase ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’ come from? And when did scientists finally get round to naming sexual body parts? Voiced by Clive Anderson, this entertaining romp through ‘The History of English’ squeezes 1600 years of history into 10 one-minute bites, uncovering the sources of English words and phrases from Shakespeare and the King James Bible to America and the Internet. Bursting with fascinating facts, the series looks at how English grew from a small tongue into a major global language before reflecting on the future of English in the 21st century.

Lament For The Children - Cumha Na Chloinne The Lament for the Children was composed by Padruig Mor MacCrimmon. The beauty of the music is beyond the power of words to describe. Hearing this cèol mor played by a master piper is to enjoy what the Raasay poet Sorley MacLean called one of the greatest glories of Scottish art. Writing in 1910, the Reverend Neil Ross commented, It may be said that the full maturity of Cèol Mor is evinced in the beauty and conception of this beautiful tune. When was it composed? There is no certainty but it may have been in the early 1650's. An event that inspired the tune was said by Angus MacKay, Raasay, to have been Padruig's loss of seven of eight sons in the course of a year to an unknown scourge. Some think it was a disease brought to Skye by a trading vessel. Whatever, the details of this tragedy are unknown and probably unknowable. It is clear from the glorious music, however, that the inspiration was strongly driven by an emotional outburst far, far beyond the commonplace. Lately, another perspective on the inspiration for this glorious music has been presented by Bridget MacKenzie in her book, Piping Traditions of Argyll. Her story is based on some facts and some conjecture. Padruig fought on the uncrowned King Charles II's side against Cromwell's Roundheads at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 - the final battle of the Second English Civil War. He served under the leadership of Ruairidh of Talisker and Norman of Bernera, sons of Sir Ruairidh Mor MacLeod of Harris and Dunvegan and uncles of the reigning Chieftain. More than 800 of the MacLeod clan were slaughtered and over 2000 Scots taken prisoner at Worcester when the Royal Cavalry failed to deliver at a critical time in the battle and foot soldiers were abandoned to their fate. Padruig was one of the prisoners on that dreadful day (The MacCrimmon Family by George C.B. Poulter and Charles P. Fisher, 1936). But, unlike other prisoners who were shipped as slaves to sugar plantations in the Caribbean and the Carolinas, Padruig was released. He returned to Dunvegan to continue as piper to MacLeod of MacLeod for another twenty years. Padruig would have given his composition a Gaelic name, in this case, Cumha na Chloinne, a name that we know in English as the Lament for the Children. But who were the children? In Padruig's time the people of the clan were the children of the Chieftain. At Worcester, the MacLeod Chieftain had lost hundreds of his children, a loss most grievous in its enormity for a relatively small island clan. It is here that we leave the facts and enter the world of conjecture. The emotion that Padruig MacCrimmon would have felt, having been one of the few survivors of this terrible tragedy at Worcester, is beyond knowing for certain. But, if his emotion was not powerful and sustained, he would not have been the inspired composer we know him to have been. In the service of his Chieftain, and, out of the agony of his personal experience, it is not unreasonable to conjecture as Bridget Mackenzie does, that the Lament for the Children could have been inspired by the MacLeod clan's tragedy at the Battle of Worcester on September 3, 1651. Did the inspiration arise from a profound and unfathomable personal tragedy? Or, did it arise from a horrific clan tragedy in which the composer was a player? Neither of these propositions about the inspiration for this timeless classic are likely to be infallibly proven. Indeed, it is not beyond belief that both events may have inspired the greatest master of càol mor, Padruig Mor MacCrimmon. In the end it does not matter all that much. This great music speaks a truth of its own. The music sings of tragedy in a language that is godlike in its spirituality and its sustained beauty of expression. The inspiration, the beauty, and the timelessness of the music are now as one.

The brain is the part of the central nervous system that lies within the skull. It weighs about three pounds and is a pinkish-gray mass composed of about 10 billion nerve cells that transmit electrochemical signals. The brain is responsible for controlling all mental functions and coordinating physical functions, including movement, sleep, hunger and thirst. The bones of the skull and face are designed to protect the brain, provide structure for the face, and form the openings through which food, water, and air enter the body. The skull consists of 22 bones. Of these bones, eight surround and protect the brain (cranium), and the remaining 14 form the underlying structure of the face (mandible). The largest part of the brain is called the cerebrum. It is the “thinking” part of the brain and controls all voluntary muscles. Both short-term and long-term memories reside here, and it is the cerebrum that helps us reason. The cerebrum is divided into two halves—right and left. The right half controls the left side of the body and the left half controls the right side of the body. There are also cells in the brain called amygdala, that control emotions. The cerebellum is at the back side of the brain and is much smaller than the cerebrum. It controls balance, movement and coordination. The brain stem sits beneath the cerebrum and in front of the cerebellum. It connects the brain to the spinal cord and controls our involuntary functions, such as breathing and telling the heart to pump blood throughout the body. The pituitary gland and hypothalamus are two very small parts of the brain. The pituitary gland produces hormones that promote growth, play a role in puberty and regulate blood sugar. The hypothalamus controls the body’s temperature, telling the body to sweat if the temperature is too high and shiver if it’s too cold. Because the brain is so complex, it requires specially-trained physicians to treat injuries and disorders.

June….now seems like officially summer, although there are still some schools around the country in session, and even a couple in Dallas. So, with summer here it is check up time in my pediatric office. That means most days I am seeing very few sick patients, and most of the patients who come in for a visit other than a check up have a rash, a bug bite or maybe a swimmer’s ear. But, with that being said there are also always some of those pesky summer viruses hanging around and many of them appear with just a fever. Many of the “sick” children I am seeing only have a fever, some of whom have a temperature as high as 103-104 degrees, with very few other symptoms. Although these kids have a significant fever, once they are given an over the counter product like acetaminophen or ibuprofen they feel pretty well and even play for awhile. Fever is often just a symptom of a viral infection and these summer viruses have names…enterovirus, adenovirus, and even some left over parainfluenza virus. We are definitely out of flu season….at least till next year. Some of these summer viruses may have associated rashes which are more common with summer viral infections than winter viruses. I have seen some kids with these summer viruses with prolonged fever, even 5-7 days which is a bit longer than a pediatrician and a parent want to see. But, with that being said, when I have seen these children they appear to look well and have not had any other physical findings. I have often seen them again after having 5 or more days of fever, and it seems that many of them have adenoviral infections. Adenovirus may also cause a myriad of other symptoms than just fever, including pink eye, sore throat, abdominal pain and vomiting and diarrhea and tummy cramps. Rarely, some children will develop blood in their urine without having a urinary tract infection. Parents often ask me….where did they catch this? Remember that these are just viral infections and that there is not a vaccine for adenovirus. Once we see one virus in the community I know I will continue to see more and more children as it is “passed around”. Best thing to do is to keep up good hand washing and keep your child home from the pool or summer activities if they have a fever.

To start this post, I find it is important to describe what the definition of tremor is. Here is the definition from wikipedia: A tremor is an involuntary, somewhat rhythmic, muscle contraction and relaxation involving to and fro movements (oscillations or twitching) of one or more body parts. It is the most common of all involuntary movements and can affect the hands, arms, eyes, face, head, vocal folds, trunk, and legs. Most tremors occur in the hands. In some people, tremor is a symptom of another neurological disorder. A very common kind of tremor is the chattering of teeth, usually induced by cold temperatures or by fear. This would seem to be a complete definition but the things I experience do not necessarily fit into this tight definition. I do experience hands shaking, sometimes lip quivering, and muscle twitches at times. The shaking I get that drives me bonkers is where it feels like the whole inside of my body is shaking and it may or may not show in my hands or other body area. It is quite frustrating and scary. It makes me stop whatever I am doing and have to try to lay down and rest to relax my body. It does not seem to be anxiety related either. It cans trike me at random and is puzzling and frightening. So, as I usually do, I thought I would research this out too. Amazingly, I found not one shred of medical information regarding this, other than others who have had this experience. I usually find things on medical boards or places like medline or webmd but not in this instance. It made me wonder if any of you have had this happen to you too. I know I saw quite a few others asking this same question as well. I know I am not alone in this. It just may take some time until more is known in the realm of medical professionals for me to find anything online.

WomenSense ThyroSense 240 vegetarian capsules Supports thyroid health and helps metabolize carbohydrates, proteins and fats If you are experiencing symptoms such as: weight gain, fatigue, moodiness, poor concentration, anxiety, low libido, cold intolerance, dry hair and brittle nails, hair loss, night sweats, insomnia or constipation – low thyroid could be your problem. If you suspect you have low thyroid (hypothyroidism) you should see your health care practitioner for testing. In general, low thyroid (hypothyroid) is a common condition in North America affecting between 20 and 25 per cent of the female population and about 10 percent of males. In addition, approximately 30 per cent of people over the age of 35 may have sub-clinical or mild hypothyroidism. I do not have a thyroid gland, but still experience low thyroid symptoms. Can I take ThyroSense? Yes, individuals who no longer have a thyroid gland can still benefit from taking ThyroSense. Most individuals without a thyroid gland are already on a doctor-prescribed synthetic T4 medication, and most of the conversion of T4 into T3 (the more active thyroid hormone) occurs in the peripheral tissue – meaning some of the active ingredients in ThyroSense can help the medication work better and help create more of the active T3 in the body. Individuals with low thyroid or no thyroid should also consider taking an adrenal formula (ie/AdrenaSense) to help support stressed adrenal glands. I am taking Synthroid (a prescribed thyroid medication). Can I take ThyroSense too? Yes, ThyroSense is designed to work in conjunction with your thyroid medication. Take your Synthroid first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and then take 2 capsules of ThyroSense with breakfast. Can I take ThyroSense to help me lose weight? ThyroSense can potentially help individuals who are trying to lose weight, because it helps support healthy thyroid function. Among other things, the thyroid gland controls how quickly the body uses energy, makes proteins, controls temperature regulation and helps regulate metabolism. Supplementing a healthy lifestyle (good nutrition and exercise) with ThyroSense can certainly help boost the body’s metabolic rate, which in turn can help individuals on the road to successful weight loss. Everything I am reading on your website about ThyroSense refers to an under-active thyroid. What if mine is overactive? Can I take ThyroSense? No, unfortunately the ThyroSense formula will do nothing for Hyperthyroidism or Graves Disease. Are there any foods or supplements that I need to avoid when taking ThyroSense? There are no foods that are necessary to avoid when taking ThyroSense, however you should avoid taking Calcium, Iron or Antacids within 4 hours (before or after) taking ThyroSense. If you are taking a prescribed Thyroid medication you should space this and ThyroSense out by at least one hour. Can men take ThyroSense too? Yes, absolutely – all of the same information that applies to women and thyroid issues would be the same for men. Does this product contain any natural or artificial additives of any kind? ThyroSense does NOT contain any natural or artificial additives. Does this product contain corn? Yes, the ingredient Guggal Extract does contain corn (and starch). Is ThyroSense gluten free? Yes, we do have confirmation on file that there is no gluten added and no gluten present in ThyroSense. However, our manufacturing facility is NOT a gluten free facility, and as we do process products that contain gluten we are unable to confirm 100% that there is no possibility of cross contamination.

It’s been pretty well established that in terms of rooftop “color,” a tried and true tired shade of black won’t win a homeowner any sustainability cred given that they run up AC bills, negatively impact the health of those living beneath them during heat waves, and warm up entire cities and towns. Totally and truly not cool. According to a recent report titled “Economic Comparison of White, Green, and Black Flat Roofs in the United States” to be published by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in an upcoming volume of the journal Energy and Buildings, while insulating green roofs are aesthetically pleasing and a decent source of bragging (how many of your neighbors are growing plants on top of their townhouses?) they’re also less cost-effective over a 50 year lifespan, more high-maintenance, and do not offset climate change in the same manner as their white-coated brethren. In fact, solar-refective white roofs are three more times effective at countering global warming in cities than green roofs according to the study. Still, green roofs are a far superior alternative to black roofs and, when it comes down to it, can help homeowners better save on energy bills than white roofs can as a leafy cover insulates a building during the cold months and keeps heat out in the summer. To be clear, the study examined 22 commercial flat roof projects and did not take into consideration flat and non-flat roofed residential properties although the lessons learned from zeroing in on commercial buildings can certainly be carried over to single-family homes and multi-family developments. An abstract of the study boils it down to a choice between global warming and “local environmental benefits:” Owners concerned with global warming should choose white roofs, which are three times more effective than green roofs at cooling the globe. Owners concerned with local environmental benefits should choose green roofs, which offer built-in stormwater management and a ‘natural’ urban landscape esthetic. We strongly recommend building code policies that phase out dark-colored roofs in warm climates to protect against their adverse public health externalities. In Chicago’s July 1995 heat wave a major risk factor in mortality was living on the top floor of a building with a black roof. White doesn’t win out over black by that much in economic terms, so government has a role to ban or phase out the use of black or dark roofs, at least in warm climates, because they pose a large negative health risk.