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Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981, becoming the first female justice on the high court. O'Connor has established herself as a moderate conservative who prefers narrow, limited holdings.
Sandra Day was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas. She grew up in a remote part of southeastern Arizona, where her parents owned a 160,000-acre ranch. She spent her winters in El Paso, where she lived with her grandmother while attending school. In 1950, she graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in economics. She then attended Stanford Law School, where she graduated third in her class in 1952. WILLIAM H. REHNQUIST, who later would become her colleague on the U.S. Supreme Court, ranked first in the same law school class.
After law school, Day married John O'Connor, an attorney. She had hoped to join a law firm in Los Angeles or San Francisco, but none was willing to hire a woman attorney, although one did offer her a position as legal secretary. Instead, O'Connor spent a year as a deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California. In 1953, she accompanied her husband, a member of the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps, to West Germany. During the three years the couple spent in Germany, O'Connor worked as a civilian attorney for the Quartermaster Corps.
On their return from Germany in 1957, O'Connor and her husband settled in Phoenix, Arizona where she entered private practice. She soon became active in state and local government, serving as a member of the Maricopa County Board of Adjustments and Appeals (1960–1963) and the Governor's Committee on Marriage and the Family (1965). From 1965 to 1969, she served as assistant attorney general for Arizona.
In 1969, O'Connor was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. She won election to a full term in 1970 and was reelected in 1972. After her re-election, her colleagues elected her to be majority leader, making her the first woman in the country to hold such a position.
During her years in the Arizona Senate, O'Connor voted in favor of the EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT to the U.S. Constitution and supported the restoration of the death penalty and limitations on government spending. She also played an active role in REPUBLICAN PARTY politics, serving as state co-chair of the committee supporting the re-election of President RICHARD M. NIXON in 1972.
O'Connor's career shifted in 1974 with her election to the Maricopa County Superior Court. She became a respected trial judge and was appointed by Democratic Governor Bruce Babbitt to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. In 1981, President RONALD REAGAN appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace justice POTTER STEWART.
"THE PURPOSE OF STRICT SCRUTINY IS TO 'SMOKE OUT' ILLEGITIMATE USES OF RACE BY ASSURING THAT THE LEGISLATIVE BODY IS PURSUING A GOAL IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO WARRANT USE OF A HIGHLY SUSPECT TOOL."
O'Connor's decisions on the Court have revealed her to be a pragmatic conservative. She has written many concurring opinions that attempt to limit the majority's holding, suggesting ways that the Court could have decided an issue on narrower grounds. She has joined her conservative brethren in limiting the rights of defendants in CRIMINAL PROCEDURE cases and restricting federal intervention into areas that are reserved to the states. She has been an influential voice in reviewing challenges to AFFIRMATIVE ACTION programs. In her majority opinion in City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 109 S. Ct. 706, 102 L. Ed. 2d 854 (1989), O'Connor struck down a set-aside program for minority contractors. She concluded that these types of affirmative action programs can only be justified to remedy prior government discrimination instead of past societal discrimination. In Adarand Constructors v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200, 115 S. Ct. 2097, 132 L. Ed. 2d 158 (1995), O'Connor's opinion extended the holding of Croson by requiring that racial classifications by federal, state, and local governmental units must be subjected to the STRICT SCRUTINY of the courts. Although the decision clarified the standard by which affirmative action programs should be reviewed, lower federal and state courts have since struggled with this standard in their review of various types of programs.
O'Connor's position on ABORTION has been consistent. O'Connor has refused to join opinions written by some of her conservative colleagues arguing for the overruling of ROE V. WADE, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S. Ct. 705, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147, the 1973 decision that defined the right to choose abortion as a fundamental constitutional right. In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 112 S. Ct. 2791, 120 L. Ed. 2d 674 (1992), she joined Justices ANTHONY M. KENNEDY and DAVID H. SOUTER in an opinion that defended the reasoning of Roe and the line of cases that followed it. She has supported the rights of states to regulate abortion as long as the regulations are not too burdensome.
the direction it would take if she were to step down.
O'Connor, Sandra Day, and H. Alan Day. 2002. Lazy B. New York: Random House.
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Why toolkits on climate change? In Grenada, the science, geography and social studies curriculum includes some components of climate change and environmental stewardship. However, only limited resources are available for educators to get students actively involved in the topic of climate change. This Grenada-specific toolkit includes a lot of child-friendly illustrations, such as stickers and posters for the classroom.
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Abstract: When humans interact and collaborate with each other, they coordinate their turn-taking be-haviours using verbal and non-verbal signals, expressed in the face and voice. If robots of the fu-ture are supposed to engage in social interaction with humans, it is essential that they can gen-erate and understand these behaviours. In this article, I give an overview of several studies that show how humans in interaction with a human-like robot make use of the same coordination signals typically found in studies on human-human interaction, and that it is possible to auto-matically detect and combine these cues to facilitate real-time coordination. The studies also show that humans react naturally to such signals when used by a robot, without being given any special instructions. They follow the gaze of the robot to disambiguate referring expressions, they conform when the robot selects the next speaker using gaze, and they respond naturally to subtle cues, such as gaze aversion, breathing, facial gestures and hesitation sounds.
Cuayáhuitl, H., Kazunori, K., & Skantze, G. (2015). Introduction for Speech and language for interactive robots. Computer Speech and Language, 34(1), 83-86.
Abstract: Traditional dialogue systems use a fixed silence threshold to detect the end of users’ turns. Such a simplistic model can result in system behaviour that is both interruptive and unresponsive, which in turn affects user experience. Various studies have observed that human interlocutors take cues from speaker behaviour, such as prosody, syntax, and gestures, to coordinate smooth exchange of speaking turns. However, little effort has been made towards implementing these models in dialogue systems and verifying how well they model the turn-taking behaviour in human–computer interactions. We present a data-driven approach to building models for online detection of suitable feedback response locations in the user's speech. We first collected human–computer interaction data using a spoken dialogue system that can perform the Map Task with users (albeit using a trick). On this data, we trained various models that use automatically extractable prosodic, contextual and lexico-syntactic features for detecting response locations. Next, we implemented a trained model in the same dialogue system and evaluated it in interactions with users. The subjective and objective measures from the user evaluation confirm that a model trained on speaker behavioural cues offers both smoother turn-transitions and more responsive system behaviour.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a study where a robot instructs a human on how to draw a route on a map. The human and robot are seated face-to-face with the map placed on the table between them. The user’s and the robot’s gaze can thus serve several simultaneous functions: as cues to joint attention, turn-taking, level of understanding and task progression. We have compared this face-to-face setting with a setting where the robot employs a random gaze behaviour, as well as a voice-only setting where the robot is hidden behind a paper board. In addition to this, we have also manipulated turn-taking cues such as completeness and filled pauses in the robot’s speech. By analysing the participants’ subjective rating, task completion, verbal responses, gaze behaviour, and drawing activity, we show that the users indeed benefit from the robot’s gaze when talking about landmarks, and that the robot’s verbal and gaze behaviour has a strong effect on the users’ turn-taking behaviour. We also present an analysis of the users’ gaze and lexical and prosodic realisation of feedback after the robot instructions, and show that these cues reveal whether the user has yet executed the previous instruction, as well as the user’s level of uncertainty.
ne a robot, or if it plans to take over the world. People were also interested in the feelings and likes of the robot and they asked many personal questions - this is how Furhat ended up with its rst marriage proposal. People who talked to Furhat were asked to complete a questionnaire on their assessment of the conversation, with which we could show that the interaction with Furhat was rated as a pleasing experience.
Abstract: In this article, we present Furhat – a back-projected human-like robot head using state-of-the art facial animation. Three experiments are presented where we investigate how the head might facilitate human-robot face-to-face interaction. First, we investigate how the animated lips increase the intelligibility of the spoken output, and compare this to an animated agent presented on a flat screen, as well as to a human face. Second, we investigate the accuracy of the perception of Furhat’s gaze in a setting typical for situated interaction, where Furhat and a human are sitting around a table. The accuracy of the perception of Furhat’s gaze is measured depending on eye design, head movement and viewing angle. Third, we investigate the turn-taking accuracy of Furhat in a multi-party interactive setting, as compared to an animated agent on a flat screen. We conclude with some observations from a public setting at a museum, where Furhat interacted with thousands of visitors in a multi-party interaction.
Abstract: This paper presents a model of incremental speech generation in practical conversational systems. The model allows a conversational system to incrementally interpret spoken input, while simultaneously planning, realising and self-monitoring the system response. If these processes are time consuming and result in a response delay, the system can automatically produce hesitations to retain the floor. While speaking, the system utilises hidden and overt self-corrections to accommodate revisions in the system. The model has been implemented in a general dialogue system framework. Using this framework, we have implemented a conversational game application. A Wizard-of-Oz experiment is presented, where the automatic speech recognizer is replaced by a Wizard who transcribes the spoken input. In this setting, the incremental model allows the system to start speaking while the user's utterance is being transcribed. In comparison to a non-incremental version of the same system, the incremental version has a shorter response time and is perceived as more efficient by the users.
Abstract: In this study, an explorative experiment was conducted in which subjects were asked to give route directions to each other in a simulated campus (similar to Map Task). In order to elicit error handling strategies, a speech recogniser was used to corrupt the speech in one direction. This way, data could be collected on how the subjects might recover from speech recognition errors. This method for studying error handling has the advantages that the level of understanding is transparent to the analyser, and the errors that occur are similar to errors in spoken dialogue systems. The results show that when subjects face speech recognition problems, a common strategy is to ask task-related questions that confirm their hypothesis about the situation instead of signalling non-understanding. Compared to other strategies, such as asking for a repetition, this strategy leads to better understanding of subsequent utterances, whereas signalling non-understanding leads to decreased experience of task success.
Lopes, J., Engwall, O., & Skantze, G. (2017). A First Visit to the Robot Language Café. In Proceedings of SLATE. Stockholm, Sweden.
Johansson, R., Skantze, G., & Jönsson, A. (2017). A psychotherapy training environment with virtual patients implemented using the Furhat robot platform. In In Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (pp. 184-187). Stockholm, Sweden.
Avramova, V., Yang, F., Li, C., Peters, C., & Skantze, G. (2017). A Virtual Poster Presenter Using Mixed Reality. In Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (pp. 25-28). Stockholm, Sweden.
Shore, T., & Skantze, G. (2017). Enhancing reference resolution in dialogue using participant feedback. In Proceedings of International Workshop on Grounding Language Understanding. Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract: In this demonstration we present a test-bed for collecting data and testing out models for multi-party, situated interaction between humans and robots. Two users are playing a collaborative card sorting game together with the robot head Furhat. The cards are shown on a touch table between the players, thus constituting a target for joint attention. The system has been exhibited at the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology during nine days, resulting in a rich multi-modal corpus with users of mixed ages.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a data-driven approach for detecting instances of miscommunication in dialogue system interactions. A range of generic features that are both automatically extractable and manually annotated were used to train two models for online detection and one for offline analysis. Online detection could be used to raise the error awareness of the system, whereas offline detection could be used by a system designer to identify potential flaws in the dialogue design. In experimental evaluations on system logs from three different dialogue systems that vary in their dialogue strategy, the proposed models performed substantially better than the majority class baseline models.
Abstract: Repetitions in Spoken Dialogue Systems can be a symptom of problematic communication. Such repetitions are often due to speech recognition errors, which in turn makes it harder to use the output of the speech recognizer to detect repetitions. In this paper, we combine the alignment score obtained using phonetic distances with dialogue-related features to improve repetition detection. To evaluate the method proposed we compare several alignment techniques from edit distance to DTW-based distance, previously used in Spoken-Term detection tasks. We also compare two different methods to compute the phonetic distance: the first one using the phoneme sequence, and the second one using the distance between the phone posterior vectors. Two different datasets were used in this evaluation: a bus-schedule information system (in English) and a call routing system (in Swedish). The results show that approaches using phoneme distances over-perform approaches using Levenshtein distances between ASR outputs for repetition detection.
Abstract: In this demonstration we show how situated multi-party human-robot interaction can be modelled using the open source framework IrisTK. We will demonstrate the capabilities of IrisTK by showing an application where two users are playing a collaborative card sorting game together with the robot head Furhat, where the cards are shown on a touch table between the players. The application is interesting from a research perspective, as it involves both multi-party interaction, as well as joint attention to the objects under discussion.
Abstract: In this paper we present a data-driven model for detecting opportunities and obligations for a robot to take turns in multi-party discussions about objects. The data used for the model was collected in a public setting, where the robot head Furhat played a collaborative card sorting game together with two users. The model makes a combined detection of addressee and turn-yielding cues, using multi-modal data from voice activity, syntax, prosody, head pose, movement of cards, and dialogue context. The best result for a binary decision is achieved when several modalities are com-bined, giving a weighted F1 score of 0.876 on data from a previously unseen interaction, using only automatically extractable features.
Abstract: We present a technique for crowd-sourcing street-level geographic information using spoken natural language. In particular, we are interested in obtaining first-person-view information about what can be seen from different positions in the city. This information can then for example be used for pedestrian routing services. The approach has been tested in the lab using a fully implemented spoken dialogue system, and is showing promising results.
Abstract: In this paper, we describe a project that explores a novel experi-mental setup towards building a spoken, multi-modally rich, and human-like multiparty tutoring robot. A human-robot interaction setup is designed, and a human-human dialogue corpus is collected. The corpus targets the development of a dialogue system platform to study verbal and nonverbal tutoring strategies in multiparty spoken interactions with robots which are capable of spoken dialogue. The dialogue task is centered on two participants involved in a dialogue aiming to solve a card-ordering game. Along with the participants sits a tutor (robot) that helps the participants perform the task, and organizes and balances their interaction. Different multimodal signals captured and auto-synchronized by different audio-visual capture technologies, such as a microphone array, Kinects, and video cameras, were coupled with manual annotations. These are used build a situated model of the interaction based on the participants personalities, their state of attention, their conversational engagement and verbal dominance, and how that is correlated with the verbal and visual feedback, turn-management, and conversation regulatory actions generated by the tutor. Driven by the analysis of the corpus, we will show also the detailed design methodologies for an affective, and multimodally rich dialogue system that allows the robot to measure incrementally the attention states, and the dominance for each participant, allowing the robot head Furhat to maintain a well-coordinated, balanced, and engaging conversation, that attempts to maximize the agreement and the contribution to solve the task. This project sets the first steps to explore the potential of using multimodal dialogue systems to build interactive robots that can serve in educational, team building, and collaborative task solving applications.
Abstract: We will show in this demonstrator an advanced multimodal and multiparty spoken conversational system using Furhat, a robot head based on projected facial animation. Furhat is an anthropomorphic robot head that utilizes facial animation for physical robot heads using back-projection. In the system, multimodality is enabled using speech and rich visual input signals such as multi-person real-time face tracking and microphone tracking. The demonstrator will showcase a system that is able to carry out social dialogue with multiple interlocutors simultaneously with rich output signals such as eye and head coordination, lips synchronized speech synthesis, and non-verbal facial gestures used to regulate fluent and expressive multiparty conversations. The dialogue design is performed using the IrisTK dialogue authoring toolkit developed at KTH. The system will also be able to perform a moderator in a quiz-game showing different strategies for regulating spoken situated interactions.
Abstract: This paper describes a novel experimental setup exploiting state-of-the-art capture equipment to collect a multimodally rich game-solving collaborative multiparty dialogue corpus. The corpus is targeted and designed towards the development of a dialogue system platform to explore verbal and nonverbal tutoring strategies in multiparty spoken interactions. The dialogue task is centered on two participants involved in a dialogue aiming to solve a card-ordering game. The participants were paired into teams based on their degree of extraversion as resulted from a personality test. With the participants sits a tutor that helps them perform the task, organizes and balances their interaction and whose behavior was assessed by the participants after each interaction. Different multimodal signals captured and auto-synchronized by different audio-visual capture technologies, together with manual annotations of the tutor’s behavior constitute the Tutorbot corpus. This corpus is exploited to build a situated model of the interaction based on the participants’ temporally-changing state of attention, their conversational engagement and verbal dominance, and their correlation with the verbal and visual feedback and conversation regulatory actions generated by the tutor.
Skantze, G., Anna, H., & Oertel, C. (2014). User Feedback in Human-Robot Dialogue: Task Progression and Uncertainty. In Proceedings of the HRI Workshop on Timing in Human-Robot Interaction. Bielefeld, Germany.
Abstract: We present a novel scheme for enriching geographic database with street-level geographic information that could be useful for pedestrian navigation. A spoken dialogue system for crowdsourcing street-level geographic details was developed and tested in an in-lab experimentation, and has shown promising results.
Abstract: We present a data-driven model for detecting suitable response locations in the user’s speech. The model has been trained on human–machine dialogue data and implemented and tested in a spoken dialogue system that can perform the Map Task with users. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a dialogue system that uses automatically extracted syntactic, prosodic and contextual features for online detection of response locations. A subjective evaluation of the dialogue system suggests that interactions with a system using our trained model were perceived significantly better than those with a system using a model that made decisions at random.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a user study where a robot instructs a human on how to draw a route on a map, similar to a Map Task. This setup has allowed us to study user reactions to the robot’s conversational behaviour in order to get a better understanding of how to generate utterances in incremental dialogue systems. We have analysed the participants' subjective rating, task completion, verbal responses, gaze behaviour, drawing activity, and cognitive load. The results show that users utilise the robot’s gaze in order to disambiguate referring expressions and manage the flow of the interaction. Furthermore, we show that the user’s behaviour is affected by how pauses are realised in the robot’s speech.
Abstract: We present a data collection setup for exploring turn-taking in three-party human-robot interaction involving objects competing for attention. The collected corpus comprises 78 minutes in four interactions. Using automated techniques to record head pose and speech patterns, we analyze head pose patterns in turn-transitions. We find that introduction of objects makes addressee identification based on head pose more challenging. The symmetrical setup also allows us to compare human-human to human-robot behavior within the same interaction. We argue that this symmetry can be used to assess to what extent the system exhibits a human-like behavior.
Abstract: We present a human evaluation of the usefulness of conceptual route graphs (CRGs) when it comes to route following using spoken route descriptions. We describe a method for data-driven semantic interpretation of route de-scriptions into CRGs. The comparable performances of human participants in sketching a route using the manually transcribed CRGs and the CRGs produced on speech recognized route descriptions indicate the robustness of our method in preserving the vital conceptual information required for route following despite speech recognition errors.
Abstract: The demonstrator presents a test-bed for collecting data on human–computer dialogue: a fully automated dialogue system that can perform Map Task with a user. In a first step, we have used the test-bed to collect human–computer Map Task dialogue data, and have trained various data-driven models on it for detecting feedback response locations in the user’s speech. One of the trained models has been tested in user interactions and was perceived better in comparison to a system using a random model. The demonstrator will exhibit three versions of the Map Task dialogue system—each using a different trained data-driven model of Response Location Detection.
Abstract: This paper investigates forms and functions of user feedback in a map task dialogue between a human and a robot, where the robot is the instruction-giver and the human is the instruction-follower. First, we investigate how user acknowledgements in task-oriented dialogue signal whether an activity is about to be initiated or has been completed. The parameters analysed include the users’ lexical and prosodic realisation as well as gaze direction and response timing. Second, we investigate the relation between these parameters and the perception of uncertainty.
Abstract: We present a novel application of the chunking parser for data-driven semantic interpretation of spoken route directions into route graphs that are useful for robot navigation. Various sets of features and machine learning algorithms were explored. The results indicate that our approach is robust to speech recognition errors, and could be easily used in other languages using simple features.
Abstract: Autonomous robots should be able to find directions and navigate their way to a destination in unknown urban environments by seeking route directions from passersby, like humans do. In this paper, we present a data-driven approach for automatic interpretation of spoken route directions into a route graph that may be useful for robot navigation. The results indicate that our approach is robust in handling speech recognitions error and it is indeed possible to get people to freely describe route directions.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a fully automated spoken dialogue sys-tem that can perform the Map Task with a user. By implementing a trick, the system can convincingly act as an attentive listener, without any speech recognition. An initial study is presented where we let users interact with the system and recorded the interactions. Using this data, we have then trained a Support Vector Machine on the task of identifying appropriate locations to give feedback, based on automatically extractable prosodic and contextual features. 200 ms after the end of the user’s speech, the model may identify response locations with an accuracy of 75%, as compared to a baseline of 56.3%.
Abstract: Back projecting a computer animated face, onto a three dimensional static physical model of a face, is a promising technology that is gaining ground as a solution to building situated, flexible and human-like robot heads. In this paper, we first briefly describe Furhat, a back projected robot head built for the purpose of multimodal multiparty human-machine interaction, and its benefits over virtual characters and robotic heads; and then motivate the need to investigating the contribution to speech intelligibility Furhat’s face offers. We present an audio-visual speech intelligibility experiment, in which 10 subjects listened to short sentences with degraded speech signal. The experiment compares the gain in intelligibility between lip reading a face visualized on a 2D screen compared to a 3D back-projected face and from different viewing angles. The results show that the audio-visual speech intelligibility holds when the avatar is projected onto a static face model (in the case of Furhat), and even, rather surprisingly, exceeds it. This means that despite the movement limitations back projected animated face models bring about; their audio visual speech intelligibility is equal, or even higher, compared to the same models shown on flat displays. At the end of the paper we discuss several hypotheses on how to interpret the results, and motivate future investigations to better explore the characteristics of visual speech perception 3D projected animated faces.
Abstract: We will show in this demonstrator an advanced multimodal and multiparty spoken conversational system using Furhat, a robot head based on projected facial animation. Furhat is a human-like interface that utilizes facial animation for physical robot heads using back-projection. In the system, multimodality is enabled using speech and rich visual input signals such as multi-person real-time face tracking and microphone tracking. The demonstrator will showcase a system that is able to carry out social dialogue with multiple interlocutors simultaneously with rich output signals such as eye and head coordination, lips synchronized speech synthesis, and non-verbal facial gestures used to regulate fluent and expressive multiparty conversations.
Abstract: We present a first step towards a model of speech generation for incremental dialogue systems. The model allows a dialogue system to incrementally interpret spoken input, while simultaneously planning, realising and selfmonitoring the system response. The model has been implemented in a general dialogue system framework. Using this framework, we have implemented a specific application and tested it in a Wizard-of-Oz setting, comparing it with a non-incremental version of the same system. The results show that the incremental version, while producing longer utterances, has a shorter response time and is perceived as more efficient by the users.
Abstract: We present a general model and conceptual framework for specifying architectures for incremental processing in dialogue systems, in particular with respect to the topology of the network of modules that make up the system, the way information flows through this network, how information increments are 'packaged', and how these increments are processed by the modules. This model enables the precise specification of incremental systems and hence facilitates detailed comparisons between systems, as well as giving guidance on designing new systems.
Abstract: This paper presents a simple, yet effective model for managing attention and interaction control in multimodal spoken dialogue systems. The model allows the user to switch attention between the system and other humans, and the system to stop and resume speaking. An evaluation in a tutoring setting shows that the user’s attention can be effectively monitored using head pose tracking, and that this is a more reliable method than using push-to-talk.
Abstract: This paper describes a fully incremental dialogue system that can engage in dialogues in a simple domain, number dictation. Because it uses incremental speech recognition and prosodic analysis, the system can give rapid feedback as the user is speaking, with a very short latency of around 200ms. Because it uses incremental speech synthesis and self-monitoring, the system can react to feedback from the user as the system is speaking. A comparative evaluation shows that naïve users preferred this system over a non-incremental version, and that it was perceived as more human-like.
Abstract: We describe the MonAMI Reminder, a multimodal spoken dialogue system which can assist elderly and disabled people in organising and initiating their daily activities. Based on deep interviews with potential users, we have designed a calendar and reminder application which uses an innovative mix of an embodied conversational agent, digital pen and paper, and the web to meet the needs of those users as well as the current constraints of speech technology. We also explore the use of head pose tracking for interaction and attention control in human-computer face-to-face interaction.
Abstract: This paper presents an early version of the Reminder, a prototype ECA developed in the European project MonAMI. The Reminder helps users to plan activities and to remember what to do. The prototype merges mobile ECA technology with other, existing technologies: Google Calendar and a digital pen and paper. The solution allows users to continue using a paper calendar in the manner they are used to, whilst the ECA provides notifications on what has been written in the calendar.
Abstract: This paper presents a data-driven decision-theoretic approach to making grounding decisions in spoken dialogue systems, i.e., to decide which recognition hypotheses to consider as correct and which grounding action to take. Based on task analysis of the dialogue domain, cost functions are derived, which take dialogue efficiency, consequence of task failure and information gain into account. Dialogue data is then used to estimate speech recognition confidence thresholds that are dependent on the dialogue context.
Abstract: This paper presents the current status of the research in the Higgins project and provides background for a demonstration of the spoken dialogue system implemented within the project. The project represents the latest development in the ongoing dialogue systems research at KTH. The practical goal of the project is to build collaborative conversational dialogue systems in which research issues such as error handling techniques can be tested empirically.
Abstract: A study of the interpretation of prosodic features in backchannels (Swedish /a/ and /m/) produced by speech synthesis is presented. The study is part of work-in-progress towards endowing conversational spoken dialogue systems with the ability to produce and use backchannels and other feedback.
Abstract: In this paper, actual user responses to fragmentary grounding utterances in Swedish human-computer dialog are investigated. Building on a previous study which demonstrated that listeners could use prosodic features (primarily peak height and alignment) to make different interpretations of such utterances, we now report on an experiment in which subjects participate in a color-naming task in a Wizard-of-Oz controlled human-computer dialog setting. The results show that two annotators were able to categorize the subjects' responses based on pragmatic meaning. Moreover, the subjects' response times differed significantly, depending on the prosodic features of the grounding fragment spoken by the system.
Abstract: In this paper, a discourse modeller for conversational spoken dialogue systems, called GALATEA, is presented. Apart from handling the resolution of ellipses and anaphora, it tracks the “grounding status” of concepts that are mentioned during the discourse, i.e. information about who said what when. This grounding information also contains concept confidence scores that are derived from the speech recogniser word confidence scores. The discourse model may then be used for concept-level error handling, i.e. grounding of concepts, fragmentary clarification requests, and detection of erroneous concepts in the model at later stages in the dialogue.
Abstract: In this paper, the effects of prosodic features on the interpretation of elliptical clarification requests in dialogue are studied. An experiment is presented where subjects were asked to listen to short human-computer dialogue fragments in Swedish, where a synthetic voice was making an elliptical clarification after a user turn. The prosodic features of the synthetic voice were systematically varied, and the subjects were asked to judge what was actually intended by the computer. The results show that an early low F0 peak signals acceptance, that a late high peak is perceived as a request for clarification of what was said, and that a mid high peak is perceived as a request for clarification of the meaning of what was said. The study can be seen as the beginnings of a tentative model for intonation of clarification ellipses in Swedish, which can be implemented and tested in spoken dialogue systems.
Abstract: In this paper two studies are presented in which the detection of speech recognition errors on the word level was examined. In the first study, memory-based and transformation-based machine learning was used for the task, using confidence, lexical, contextual and discourse features. In the second study, we investigated which factors humans benefit from when detecting errors. Information from the speech recogniser (i.e. word confidence scores and 5-best lists) and contextual information were the factors investigated. The results show that word confidence scores are useful and that lexical and contextual (both from the utterance and from the discourse) features further improve performance.
Abstract: In this paper, an overview of the Higgins project and the research within the project is presented. The project incorporates studies of error handling for spoken dialogue systems on several levels, from processing to dialogue level. A domain in which a range of different error types can be studied has been chosen: pedestrian navigation and guiding. Several data collections within Higgins have been analysed along with data from Higgins' predecessor, the AdApt system. The error handling research issues in the project are presented in light of these analyses.
Abstract: This paper describes Pickering, the semantic interpreter developed in the Higgins project - a research project on error handling in spoken dialogue systems. In the project, the initial efforts are centred on the input side of the system. The semantic interpreter combines a rich set of robustness techniques with the production of deep semantic structures. It allows insertions and non-agreement inside phrases, and combines partial results to return a limited list of semantically distinct solutions. A preliminary evaluation shows that the interpreter performs well under error conditions, and that the built-in robustness techniques contribute to this performance.
Abstract: This study examines coordination of referring expressions in multimodal human-computer dialogue, i.e. to what extent users’ choices of referring expressions are affected by the referring expressions that the system is designed to use. An experiment was conducted, using a semi-automatic multimodal dialogue system for apartment seeking. The user and the system could refer to areas and apartments on an interactive map by means of speech and pointing gestures. Results indicate that the referring expressions of the system have great influence on the user’s choice of referring expressions, both in terms of modality and linguistic content. From this follows a number of implications for the design of multimodal dialogue systems.
Abstract: This project explores a novel experimental setup towards building spoken, multi-modally rich, and human-like multiparty tutoring agent. A setup is developed and a corpus is collected that targets the development of a dialogue system platform to explore verbal and nonverbal tutoring strategies in multiparty spoken interactions with embodied agents. The dialogue task is centered on two participants involved in a dialogue aiming to solve a card-ordering game. With the participants sits a tutor that helps the participants perform the task and organizes and balances their interaction. Different multimodal signals captured and auto-synchronized by different audio-visual capture technologies were coupled with manual annotations to build a situated model of the interaction based on the participants personalities, their temporally-changing state of attention, their conversational engagement and verbal dominance, and the way these are correlated with the verbal and visual feedback, turn-management, and conversation regulatory actions generated by the tutor. At the end of this chapter we discuss the potential areas of research and developments this work opens and some of the challenges that lie in the road ahead.
Al Moubayed, S., Beskow, J., Skantze, G., & Granström, B. (2012). Furhat: A Back-projected Human-like Robot Head for Multiparty Human-Machine Interaction. In Esposito, A., Esposito, A., Vinciarelli, A., Hoffmann, R., & C. Müller, V. (Eds.), Cognitive Behavioural Systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 114-130). Springer.
Abstract: In this demonstrator we present the Furhat robot head. Furhat is a highly human-like robot head in terms of dynamics, thanks to its use of back-projected facial animation. Furhat also takes advantage of a complex and advanced dialogue toolkits designed to facilitate rich and fluent multimodal multiparty human-machine situated and spoken dialogue. The demonstrator will present a social dialogue system with Furhat that allows for several simultaneous interlocutors, and takes advantage of several verbal and nonverbal input signals such as speech input, real-time multi-face tracking, and facial analysis, and communicates with its users in a mixed initiative dialogue, using state of the art speech synthesis, with rich prosody, lip animated facial synthesis, eye and head movements, and gestures.
Abstract: In a previous study we demonstrated that subjects could use prosodic features (primarily peak height and alignment) to make different interpretations of synthesized fragmentary grounding utterances. In the present study we test the hypothesis that subjects also change their behavior accordingly in a human-computer dialog setting. We report on an experiment in which subjects participate in a color-naming task in a Wizard-of-Oz controlled human-computer dialog in Swedish. The results show that two annotators were able to categorize the subjects' responses based on pragmatic meaning. Moreover, the subjects' response times differed significantly, depending on the prosodic features of the grounding fragment spoken by the system.
Abstract: We present an experiment where subjects were asked to listen to Swedish human-computer dialogue fragments where a synthetic voice makes an elliptical clarification after a user turn. The prosodic features of the synthetic voice were systematically varied, and subjects were asked to judge the computer's actual intention. The results show that an early low F0 peak signals acceptance, that a late high peak is perceived as a request for clarification of what was said, and that a mid high peak is perceived as a request for clarification of the meaning of what was said. The study can be seen as the beginnings of a tentative model for intonation of clarification ellipses in Swedish, which can be implemented and tested in spoken dialogue systems.
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0.857414 |
Motivation Theory is something that, by now, we are all familiar with, and perhaps one of the most recognisable theories to date, often being the first one mentioned when the concept of motivational theory is raised, is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
To recap the theory briefly, Abraham Maslow suggested that there are five tiers of motivation; physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualisation, with each one superseding the previous factor, until you reach self-actualisation, where all of an individual’s motivational needs are met and hence, this is when they have reached the top and have become the “best that they can be”.
I recently read an article however, which questioned the theory, (as many have done in the past I am sure). It made me wonder whether Maslow’s hierarchy that we have all gotten so comfortable with, can truly be applied to every individual.
The article from Joe Desena asks the question of whether reaching the top really leads to happiness and self-actualisation? From my interpretation I would say that aiming for self-actualisation would definitely improve the chances of becoming more content in oneself. The article instead suggests that by bettering oneself, the expectations also increase, making the self-actualisation or “ceiling”, as Mr. Desena likes to call it, even further away and harder to obtain. He also suggests that if there is a top which can be reached, then once there, there will be nothing left to feel motivated about, and thus will have nothing to work towards in order to be happy.
So you're probably thinking how is this relevant to you?
Well we can pull both good and bad points from both arguments. Firstly, it is important to have goals in the first place, with your education coming under the self-actualisation section, at the pinnacle of the hierarchy. It is therefore an essential element when it comes to getting to where you want to be.
However, it is also equally essential, according to Mr. Desena, to ensure that You have other motivators besides the ones listed in Maslow's theory. Motivators such as making others happy are not necessarily listed in the theory, but can have huge implications on the well-being of yourself.
It is extremely important to set yourself targets, as you are doing when it comes to progressing and developing yourself through education, but it is also key to remember that this alone will not bring total happiness and fulfilment within your life; it is essential therefore that you try to have other motivating factors in your life.
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0.937382 |
The DANCE OF DEATH (also called in Latin: Chorea Machaboeorum, or in French: La Danse Macabre) is the name of an allegorical representation of the universal power of death. The Dance of Death originated in 14th century Europe as a dance in the form of a village play similar to a morality play, in which actors portrayed death and the dying. Its purpose was to remind that all must die, and often unexpectedly, so that one should be prepared to be judged in the Afterlife. In time, the Dance of Death evolved into a variety of pictorial representations ranging from crude drawings on the walls of churches and cemeteries, to more sophisticated illustrations in books and manuscripts. Of these, the best version is the series of drawings created by Hans Holbein. Other notable representations of the dance of death include Thomas Rowlandson's English Dance of Death (depicting typical British personages) and woodcuts by Michael Wolgemut.
The prevalence of the Dance of Death as a cultural motif and allegory reached the height of its popularity during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, likely spurred by the uncertainty of life at the time, when plagues and wars made life extremely precarious. However the dance of death has remained a powerful allegory, and many of its central images have been woven into modern cultural expressions including music and movies.
The earliest roots of the dance of death are obscured by time. However historians believe that its origins can be traced back to the introduction of Christianity into the Germanic areas of Europe. When the introduction of Christianity first banished the ancient Germanic conception of a future state, a new description of death-mythology arose, partly out of biblical sources, partly out of the popular character itself, wherein the last enemy was represented under simple and majestic images, such as that of a husbandman watering the ground with blood, plowing it with swords, rooting out weeds, plucking up flowers, or felling trees, sowing it with corpses; or of a monarch assembling his armies, making war, taking prisoners, inviting his subjects to a festival, or citing them to judgment.
But with a gradual change in national manners came a change in the mode of treating the subject, and it was associated with every-day images, such as the confessional, chess-playing, and above all, with the adjuncts of a festival, namely: music and dancing. This tendency to familiarize the theme increased during the confusion and turmoil of the 14th century, when the national mind alternated between fits of devotion and license, or blended both elements in satire and humor. Such a mood as this naturally occupied itself with personifying death, and adopted by preference the most startling and grotesque images it could find that of a musician playing to dancing-men, or a dancer leading them on; and as the dance and the drama were then intimately connected, and employed on religious occasions, this particular idea soon assumed a dramatic form.
What is the Dance of Death?
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0.992935 |
A travel nurse is like a temporary employee. The traveling nurse is hired by a travel nursing company and agrees to relocate and work as part of a health care team where they are short on staff. The travel nursing company makes all of the arrangements and is the nurse’s primary point of contact. To become a travel nurse, you will need to meet the requirements as dictated by the travel nursing company.
There are certain certifications that will be required to be hired as well. Since each company has different requirements, you will need to contact several companies until you find the one that works best for you. You will be delighted to learn that travel nurses earn more money than other nurses and working with a travel company can be a great way to build your resume, increase your area of expertise and advance your experience.
The best way to determine the travel company that is best for you is to perform your research, contact various companies, and compare their pay scales, services, and benefits that they offer.
Travel companies often have recruiters that work diligently in finding nurses that match the company’s needs. Speaking with a recruiter is a great way to determine if the company is a good fit for your needs or not. In addition, since you will be traveling, you should also choose your destination before speaking with different companies. By knowing ahead of time where you are willing to relocate to, you can narrow down the choices and find a company that meets your goals.
Many nurses find that working as a travel nurse offers many benefits as well as advantages, there are extra incentives that are usually included in the job description, and the company will reimburse many of the costs associated with relocating.
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0.999448 |
Is this your first time traveling to Kenya? Start by visiting Amboseli National Park, where you’ll have a spectacular view of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and the best place in Africa to get close to free-ranging elephants. Move on to Lake Naivasha, a world-class birding destination with a great range of wildlife. Wind up your tour at the mighty Masai Mara. You could also inculcate a visit to the Maasai people for a life-changing cultural experience.
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0.979058 |
Boston is the capital of Massachusetts and its largest city, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula. During the late 18th century, Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. Several early battles of the American Revolution, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, occurred within the city and surrounding areas. Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the peninsula. After American independence was attained Boston became a major shipping port and manufacturing center, and its rich history helps attract many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone attracting over 20 million every year. The first subway system in the United States (1897). With many colleges and universities within the city and surrounding area, Boston is an international center of higher education and a center for medicine.
Mid Winter Season is the best for visiting Boston.
The Freedom Trail is a red path through downtown Boston, Massachusetts, that leads to 16 significant historic sites. It is a 2.5 mile walk from Boston Common to USS Constitution in Charlestown. Most sites are free Old South Meeting House, Old State House, and Paul Revere House have small admission fees still others suggest donations. The Freedom Trail is a unit of Boston National Historical Park and is overseen by The Freedom Trail Foundation and the City of Boston's Freedom Trail Commission. The trail was originally conceived by local journalist William Schofield, who since 1951 had promoted the idea of a pedestrian trail to link together important local landmarks. John Hynes, the mayor of Boston, decided to put Schofield's idea into action. By 1953, 40,000 people annually were enjoying the location and history on the Freedom Trail. In 1974, Boston National Historical Park was established. The National Park Service opened a Visitor Center on State Street, where they give free maps of the Freedom Trail and other historic location, as well as sell books about Boston and US history. Today, people walk on the red path of the Freedom Trail to learn about important events as the people worked to gain independence from Great Britain.
Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912 and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two classic Major League ballparks still in use, the other being Chicago's Wrigley Field and it is considered to be one of the best-known sports venues in the United States. Because of the ballpark's age and constrained location in the dense Fenway Kenmore neighborhood, the park has had many renovations and additions over the years not initially envisioned, resulting in unique, quirky features, including The Triangle, Pesky's Pole, and most notably the famous Green Monster in left field. In addition to Major League Baseball, Fenway Park has been the site of many other sporting and cultural events, including professional football games for the Boston Redskins and the Boston Patriots, concerts, soccer and hockey games, political and religious campaigns.
The Franklin Park Zoo is a 72 acre zoo located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is currently operated by Zoo New England, which also operates the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, Massachusetts. The zoo is located in the northeast portion of Franklin Park, Boston's largest park and the last component of the city's famed Emerald Necklace. The zoo was opened to the public in 1912, and managed by the City of Boston until 1958, when the Metropolitan District Commission took control. In 1991, the zoo's management was handed over to the Commonwealth Zoological Corporation, which also gained management of the Stone Zoo. The zoo has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums since 1990. The facility is funded by state money, and has had a history of staff and financial problems, most notably in 2002 and 2009. Luckily, the zoo has never actually closed during these difficult times.
Quincy Market is a historic building near Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It was constructed 1824–1826 and named in honor of Mayor Josiah Quincy, who organized its construction without any tax or debt. Quincy Market is filled from end to end with local meats, cheeses, produce, spices, crafts and other consumer goods, as well as restaurants. It is conveniently located close to the Freedom Trail and is within walking distance of top historic attractions such as the Museum of Fine Arts and the USS Constitution. The marketplace pubs and restaurants are open late every night to accommodate diners.
The New England Aquarium is an aquarium located in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to the main aquarium building, attractions at the New England Aquarium include the Simons IMAX Theatre and the New England Aquarium Whale Watch, which operates from April through November. The aquarium has more than 22,000 members and hosts more than 1.3 million visitors each year. The New England Aquarium’s initial conceptual design, architecture and exhibit design opened in 1969, was led by Peter Chermayeff of Peter Chermayeff LLC while at Cambridge Seven Associates.
Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay of Boston, Massachusetts, is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The congregation, currently standing at approximately 3,000 households, was founded in 1733. Four services are offered each Sunday, and weekday services are offered three times a week from September through June. Trinity is considered 'Low Church', while continuing to be a Broad Church parish. In addition to worship, the parish is actively involved in service to the community, pastoral care, programs for children and teenagers, and Christian education for all ages. The church is home to several high level choirs, including the Trinity Choir, Trinity Schola, Trinity Choristers, and Trinity Chamber Choir.
The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center is the most user-friendly convention facility in the world. Flexibility in every area lets you decide how to use the building to your best advantage. Customize your event in 516,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space, 84 configurable meeting rooms, over 300,000 square feet of function areas, eight registration areas, and a 40,020 square foot ballroom.It's two miles from Logan airport, two minutes from Boston's major highways, and three minutes from Amtrak and inter city bus service.
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials and take them home to read and use. The Boston Public Library is also the library of last recourse of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts all adult residents of the commonwealth are entitled to borrowing and research privileges, and the library receives state funding. The Boston Public Library contains 8.9 million books, making it the second-largest public library in the United States, according to the American Library Association.
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States is The Mother Church and is located in the Christian Science Center in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. Surrounding a plaza and built over many years beginning in 1894, it consists of seven structures the Original Mother Church, Mother Church Extension, Christian Science Publishing House, Mary Baker Eddy Library and the Sunday School Building. The Original Mother Church edifice, designed by Franklin I. Welch, was built in 1894, eight years after the first Christian Science Church in the world was built in Oconto, Wisconsin.
Boston HarborWalk is a public walkway that follows the edge of piers, wharves, beaches and shoreline around Boston Harbor. Plans call for it to extend a distance of 46.9 miles from Chelsea Creek to the Neponset River and it is about 80% complete. Boston Redevelopment Authority, Mass DEP, and the Boston Harbor Association to maintain a walkable waterfront in the city as public access areas. Since 1984, the project has established parks, walking paths, educational sites, transportation facilities, and other amenities along the harbor, stretching from East Boston to Dorchester.
The Institute of Contemporary Art is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. The museum was founded as the Boston Museum of Modern Art in 1936 with a mission to exhibit contemporary art. Since then it has gone through multiple name changes as well as moving its galleries and support spaces over 13 times. Its current home was built in 2006 in the South Boston Seaport District and designed by architects Diller Scofidio Renfro.
Logan International Airport: For International flights.
Bradley International Airport: For International flights.
Beverly Municipal Airport: For Domestic flights.
Norwood Memorial Airport: For International and Domestic flights.
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Do healthy older adults need regular health care visits?
ANSWER: There's no hard and fast rule about how often seniors should see their health care providers. For most older adults, though, it's a good idea to have at least one medical checkup a year. At that visit, a provider can review medications, check on health concerns, talk about lifestyle topics and go over recommended tests.
Regular health care visits are the perfect opportunity to go over the medications an older adult takes -- a key step in maintaining good health. It's important for a health care provider to know about all of a senior's medications, including prescription and nonprescription drugs, dietary supplements, and herbal medications. That way, the provider can identify any that could be interacting with one another, possibly causing health problems, and confirm that the medications are managing chronic illnesses effectively.
Going over any health concerns ? even if they seem small ? is also an essential part of a senior checkup. Symptoms such as memory loss, sleep problems, constipation, fatigue or weight loss, for example, could point to underlying health problems that need to be evaluated. Or they might be side effects of medication that could be eliminated with a change in prescription.
Health care providers who see seniors also review lifestyle issues that affect how a person functions day to day. For example, it's important that seniors are able to navigate their environment in a way that allows them to do what they want, interact with others, perform daily tasks without trouble and stay healthy.
Another example is a bone density test, which is used to screen for osteoporosis. This test is recommended at 65 for women who have never broken a bone and who don't have other osteoporosis risk factors. For men, this test usually is recommended around 70 for those who have broken a bone at some point in their lives.
Other tests usually are based on an individual's specific health concerns and medications. For example, tests to check blood sugar; cholesterol; and minerals, such as sodium and potassium, may be appropriate. Some people also may need regular tests to gauge kidney and liver function.
Before your mother goes to see her health care provider, encourage her to write down questions or concerns she'd like to discuss. To help the visit go smoothly, it also would be useful for her to note any significant health concerns or conditions she's had in the past, as well as any health problems or symptoms she's experiencing now. She should bring along a list of all her medications, including over-the-counter medications, and their dosages, too.
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0.970823 |
why doesn't this query below result in the correct answer: hash.has_key?("calories") the question is to find out if the hash variable has a key called "calories"
If it does, set a new variable called food to true.
So your second line should begin with food =.
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0.999974 |
Do we need a canonical thread about stock trading? What would it address?
I've noticed that stock trading is a prominent theme among reinforcement-learning and neural-networks and deep-learning questions. I think this is because (1) stock trading is an easy problem to understand (2) the data is readily available and (3) striking it rich on the stock market is a popular fantasy.
Does this warrant the creation of a canonical thread? What should that thread address?
Usually, the subject matter itself is of secondary importance on stats.SE and users are asking methodological questions about how to design an experiment or account for an unusual quirk of their data (dependency structure such as spatial or temporal correlation, mixed effects, random effects, etc.).
As a statistical topic, there are some general comments which would appear to apply to all of the shallow stock trading questions, such as how one might frame the discrete choices available to the model (buy, sell, hold, short, etc.) as a reinforcement or more conventional approach. This seems like it's on-topic.
But the broadest versions of these questions are perhaps not suitable because they veer into quantitative finance. The most general question, "How do I make a profitable stock trading algorithm?" must certainly require a deep understanding of QF because feature engineering (how to represent financial data in a manner that is amenable to your algorithm) and computer engineering (how to load and process data to execute trades before your decision is "stale"). I think those kinds of questions are best answered by QF.SE, since it is certainly their core topic.
This question is motivated by this thread, where I opted to write a rather general answer because I had happened to spend a few dreadful weeks learning about QF. How to train a stock trading neural network so that the 'profit' parameter is maximized?
I doubt we really need canonical threads on different subject matter for data. It might be helpful to have canonical threads on different data types (binomial vs. normal), but not the meaning behind the numbers (e.g., presence of headache vs. not, presence of gastric distress vs. not, etc.). That seems to me like it negates the need for a canonical stock market thread. I'm not saying it should be off limits, but I mostly don't think it makes sense. In particular, the follow-up question, "What would it address?" seems like a major warning sign.
In the specific case of the stock market (or generalize to include other investment options, such as bonds, commodities, forex, etc.), I do see some value in a short thread that explains the principle of no arbitrage, simply because there is no escaping the occasional ignorant question. However, we arguably already have that: What machine learning algorithm can be used to predict the stock market?
On the other hand, if there were a type of question, say about neural networks, that is contextualized in the stock market and pops up commonly, but is always poorly asked, then a canonical thread on that issue would be helpful. Moreover, it would probably be most helpful to use the stock market as the example situation to motivate the question. I don't follow either investing or these types of questions on CV well enough to provide a great example, but something like modeling / forecasting a mean when the error variance changes unpredictably might be a the sort of thing where it would be helpful.
I would avoid it. This is my area of research. The two theories that won Nobel prizes were empirically foreclosed as wrong starting in 1963 and have had NO successful validation studies. ANNs as universal function approximators tend to fall into traps that you see in the traditional methodologies and don't work out of sample. It only looks easy.
Are the “Machine Learning” questions on topic?
Can I ask questions about an R package for machine learning with unclear documentation?
Should a “Neural Network” Stackexchange site be created?
Question A is a duplicate of question B + question C: what to do?
What is our stance on questions “looking for exercises to learn statistical concept X with library Y”?
What should we do with outdated answers?
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0.992187 |
Don't forget that most list methods modify the argument and return None. This is the opposite of the string methods, which return a new string and leave the original alone.
Because sort returns None, the next operation you perform with t is likely to fail.
Before using list methods and operators, you should read the documentation carefully and then test them in interactive mode. The methods and operators that lists share with other sequences (like strings) are documented at https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/stdtypes.html#common-sequence-operations. The methods and operators that only apply to mutable sequences are documented at https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/stdtypes.html#mutable-sequence-types.
Pick an idiom and stick with it.
Part of the problem with lists is that there are too many ways to do things. For example, to remove an element from a list, you can use pop, remove, del, or even a slice assignment.
t = t.append(x) # WRONG!
t + [x] # WRONG!
t = t + x # WRONG!
Try out each of these examples in interactive mode to make sure you understand what they do. Notice that only the last one causes a runtime error; the other three are legal, but they do the wrong thing.
Make copies to avoid aliasing.
If you want to use a method like sort that modifies the argument, but you need to keep the original list as well, you can make a copy.
In this example you could also use the built-in function sorted, which returns a new, sorted list and leaves the original alone. But in that case you should avoid using sorted as a variable name!
When we read and parse files, there are many opportunities to encounter input that can crash our program so it is a good idea to revisit the guardian pattern when it comes writing programs that read through a file and look for a "needle in the haystack".
This looks much simpler and we don't even need to do the rstrip to remove the newline at the end of the file. But is it better?
It kind of works and we see the day from the first line (Sat), but then the program fails with a traceback error. What went wrong? What messed-up data caused our elegant, clever, and very Pythonic program to fail?
You could stare at it for a long time and puzzle through it or ask someone for help, but the quicker and smarter approach is to add a print statement. The best place to add the print statement is right before the line where the program failed and print out the data that seems to be causing the failure.
Now this approach may generate a lot of lines of output, but at least you will immediately have some clue as to the problem at hand. So we add a print of the variable words right before line five. We even add a prefix "Debug:" to the line so we can keep our regular output separate from our debug output.
When we run the program, a lot of output scrolls off the screen but at the end, we see our debug output and the traceback so we know what happened just before the traceback.
The error occurs when our program encounters a blank line! Of course there are "zero words" on a blank line. Why didn't we think of that when we were writing the code? When the code looks for the first word (word) to check to see if it matches "From", we get an "index out of range" error.
First we commented out the debug print statement instead of removing it, in case our modification fails and we need to debug again. Then we added a guardian statement that checks to see if we have zero words, and if so, we use continue to skip to the next line in the file.
We can think of the two continue statements as helping us refine the set of lines which are "interesting" to us and which we want to process some more. A line which has no words is "uninteresting" to us so we skip to the next line. A line which does not have "From" as its first word is uninteresting to us so we skip it.
The program as modified runs successfully, so perhaps it is correct. Our guardian statement does make sure that the words will never fail, but perhaps it is not enough. When we are programming, we must always be thinking, "What might go wrong?"
Exercise 2: Figure out which line of the above program is still not properly guarded. See if you can construct a text file which causes the program to fail and then modify the program so that the line is properly guarded and test it to make sure it handles your new text file.
Exercise 3: Rewrite the guardian code in the above example without two if statements. Instead, use a compound logical expression using the and logical operator with a single ifstatement.
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0.944044 |
AMD Ryzen 5 AM4 Processor.
This category consists of 2 pages. You can navigate through the pages by clicking the page number, or by clicking NEXT / PREVIOUS.
The following brands are currently available for "amd ryzen 5 am4 processor". You can select to display only a specific brand for the category "amd ryzen 5 am4 processor" by selecting the brand's icon at the top of this page.
The Ryzen 5 is a mid-range processor that performs very well compared to the competitor's CPU of similar price.
The AMD Ryzen 5 CPU is a very well priced processor.
On release, the lineup ranges from 4-core, 8-thread chip with speeds between 3.2GHz and 3.4GHz, to a 6-core, 12-thread chip clocking between 3.6GHz and 4Ghz, and possibly higher in future.
The AMD offers multi-thread performance that beats Intel hands-down.
What is the difference between X and non-X Ryzen CPUs?
All Ryzen processors support auto-overclocking, dubbed "XFR", with X branded Ryzen products giving twice the XFR boost as non-X branded Ryzen products.
AMD XFR (eXtended Frequency Range) increases the processor voltage and clock speed beyond the maximum Precision Boost, while sufficient cooling is available.
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0.986014 |
What are the steps to upgrade Apple safari and Uninstall it as well?
From time to time, users must upgrade their web browser to avail the latest features incorporated into it. The challenge that remains for most users is to comprehend the steps involved in upgrading Apple Safari as well as uninstalling it. Users must learn about the steps involved s precisely as possible and it can be easily done if users take assistance from the technical support team of Apple Safari. To the delight of users, the steps involved are easy to implement and can be executed quickly.
The Apple icon in its menu must first be expanded, and then click on software update.
To proceed further with the process, users must click on Show details button.
Users must also make sure that Safari button is checked for Updating the browser.
To proceed further, users must click on Install.
Finally users must restart their computer and must then check for new updates.
Users must first click on Start and then open Control panel.
In the next step, users must click on Add\remove programs.
From the given list of applications, users must choose Apple Safari and then clicking on Uninstall button.
Once this is done, users must follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.
To get more info on upgrading Apple Safari and uninstalling it, the best bet for users is to contact Apple Safari Technical Support Phone Number. Their technicians are one of the best in business and never fail to come up with prudent solutions. All their troubleshooting steps can be easily availed through a remote desktop and that too round the clock. All that users need to do is to either give them a phonecall or make use of online forums to post their queries.
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Conduct research to decide on the questions Provide a speech transcription Edit your transcript into a first-person story Teachers recommend having a word narrative interview paper; watch the number of words in your transcript. Make a list of questions. Which school subject is most important to learn? But after learning to put fears aside and finding a greater purpose in our actions, doing something greater than ourselves, he has also become a motivational speaker. Similarly, the professor acknowledges that students have different skills so she seeks to bring out individual talents and diversifies the evaluation process.
Body paragraph 3: What Is an Interview Essay? Though there are differences in the use of technology for education and business, both leaders acknowledge that it is easier to balance personal life and job responsibility with tremendous freedom due to technology.
Generally, you will want to choose a topic which is arguable — this means a topic in which there are varying opinions. If you want to quote the interviewee in some parts of your essay, make articles on problem solving and decision making to write the precise statement that he or she has said during the interview.
But then he experienced a personal transformation. Are there any other reasons?
Productivity is maximized. List personal goals, time period, qualities, location, social status, and other things describing the person. Research Paper Interview essays allow you to use people as your sources rather than interview essay template.
Your main question and any major follow-up questions that occur to you. Interview an older family member.
An essay that explores the different perspectives on a topic by using evidence from interviews with a variety of people. What is the difference between someone who is gifted and someone who works hard? Think first of the topic that you want to write about.
In trying to get more information about why people think the way dissertation abstracts international section b do on the topic, you will ask follow-up questions. According to the professor, it's the desire for a clear conscience and the ability to sleep at night that motivates her to lead with honesty.
How do I begin writing my interview essay? Similarly, the professor acknowledges that students have different skills so she seeks to bring out individual talents and diversifies the evaluation process.
College Entrance Paper Such writing has a lot in common with the career interview: For example, they both speak of being intrinsically motivated. Diversity is part of every classroom and every organization because people are diverse and organizations are made up of people. Make the Essay Meaningful: She specializes in helping people write essays faster and easier.
Essay writing for interview is a common thing in college.
Moral is high. Basically, what do you plan to tell your reader about this person? Seeing themselves as agents of change rather than managers defines their position and they strive to motivate and serve those they lead while keeping the goal always the top priority.
We are created differently so that when we work together as a team, we are more complete because on our own we lack the gifts that others bring. After interviewing two leaders, one in education and one in business, I realize that implementing the right principles and strategies combined with a clear philosophy of servant leadership creates an effective leader.
One big idea you learned III.
After interviewing two leaders, one in education and one in business, I realize that implementing the right principles and strategies combined with a clear philosophy of servant leadership creates an effective leader.
How to Write an Interview Essay: Overview of the Interview Essay Process Write your questions. This invitation for the stakeholders the students; the employees to share in the research on a university campus or to solve a problem in the workplace fosters a desire to effectively share in the vision of the leader which greatly improves both organizations.
Interview Essays with Journalists and Politicians.
However, you can easily organize your question and answer format essay using this outline as well.
Animal Farm By George Orwell, A Compare and Contrast of Napoleon and Snowball.
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knowing when to leave, getting out of a relationship, leaving a relationship, should I leave?
There is a time when you should cut your losses and move on from a relationship. And there is also a time when you should learn to let go of what could have been and try to grow from your grief of losing a loved one. Letting go can be the most difficult thing a person goes through. For those that have truly loved another as strongly as could ever be imagined in the depths of the heart, letting go takes many months and in some cases, years. In other instances, letting go can be a mistake. A person considering leaving a relationship ought to think twice because small problems can be overcome, and every relationship suffers periods of ups and downs. The strongest relationships are the ones which see through the difficult periods and conquer them. In yet other relationships, emotional and physical abuse should be an immediate sign for leaving a relationship quickly.
When a relationship is strained and both partners are upset, neither partner is getting the satisfaction they want from the relationship. One might want love and attention while the other desires more freedom. A situation such as this can cause one to be pushed away while the other is clinging on to someone halfway out the door, pushing them as they go. If one person in the relationship wants to leave, the other must do their best to let go and try to move on. It is only by doing so will their significant other be able to find their way back, because you will have given him or her the freedom they desire. Letting go in this case can help mend the relationship in the long run. Letting go will help you heal within your soul and old problems will cease to exist in the heart and mind, enabling a new beginning with someone new or that love who got away. However, there can be no new beginning until the pain in your heart is released.
In many instances, a lover will enter a relationship head over heels in love. In time, when things settle down, a role reversal could occur and that once love-strung person could decide to end the relationship down the line for many reasons. To people out there considering ending the relationship for different petty reasons, I ask you to think again. There was something about this person that you so desperately loved, and for reasons unexplained your feelings might have changes. Most likely, your significant other has become attached and the thrill of the chase is no longer available to you. A survey done on men and women who left a relationship or got divorced was recently applied. Over 90% of these people who initiated the break up or divorce regretted it. People get separated and divorced all too often in this country for the smallest of reasons. I promise you now that most of the time it is not worth it. When you find love, you should keep it and work on it. Your feelings will always go in and out with the tide but if you can make it through the dark times, light will shine once again and your feelings of love will be restored. Acts of kindness, sympathy and love on a regular basis, even when you don't want to, will help most of the time.
However, there does exist the relationships which need to be severed, and severed completely. If your lover is constantly cheating and dealing out emotional abuse on any level, it is time to move on. Sometimes it may be difficult to see or even acknowledge. But if you are crying most of the time or feel hurt by your significant other on a regular basis, you must ask yourself if this is worth it. Why continue on a path filled with hurt, anger and despair when you could be leading a life filled with love and kindness? For most of you in this situation, you are hanging on to the memory of the love you once had between you. You so desperately want him or her to start treating your with the dignity, love and respect that was once given. This is completely understandable. However, the more you long for this treatment, the more your need will be displayed and the worse you will be treated. Here, again, we see the need to let go and move on. This is simply easier said than done, but it must be done for your own sanity and mental health. When physical abuse is involved, leaving should be your only option. Unfortunately for many women, they find themselves staying in an abusive relationship because they are too afraid to leave. They are afraid for their lives and afraid that they can simply not live on their own. Friends can help in every single situation above, and they can be the most helpful in this situation.
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It was not clear for me that the shipment should come from Italy, I thoght I ordered from Germany.
It took relatively long time to get the goods - not longer than promised, but much longer than most competitors.
I bought the product via ***. It was not immediately clear that it was coming from Italy. I was a bit worried about this, however the process was very smooth. I would suggest a short paragraph explaining this next to the item. I would highly recommend the seller and the product.
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Where are the ETF investment opportunities?
The chart illustrates the effect of current valuation on expected return over the next five years. Buying undervalued ETFs results in positive valuation returns. Buying overvalued ETFs results in negative valuation returns. Certain individual non-US equity markets offer the best opportunities for valuation returns, while oil, gold and US equities the worst.
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They supported the Prophet (s) against the polytheists. In jurisprudence, Sadat are those whose lineage goes back to Hashim b. 'Abd Manaf.
Banū Hāshim (Arabic: بنو هاشم) is a famous clan of the Quraysh tribe who are the descendants of Hashim ('Amr) b. 'Abd Manaf b. Qusayy b. Kilab. The Prophet Muhammad (s) is from this clan. The clan was one of the famous and great Arab tribes before Islam. After the rise of Islam, in the time of leadership of Abu Talib over Banu Hashim, they supported the Prophet (s) against the polytheists. After the demise of the Prophet (s), Banu Hashim were always supporting Imams (a).
Banu 'Abbas, one of the clans of Banu Hashim, ruled the Islamic region for centuries. Also some other clans of Banu Hashim have formed governments in different areas of Islamic world.
Because of their relation with the Prophet (s), Banu Hashim have always been respected among Muslims.
Qusayy b. Kilab was one of the descendants of Isma'il (a), who was living near a century before the birth of the Prophet (s). Because of his actions, he gained the leadership of Quraysh and also he was the trusteeship of Ka'ba. After him, his sons ('Abd Manaf and 'Abd al-Dar) gained the positions. But after the demise of the two brothers, their sons quarreled over the positions of Ka'ba. After the two sides made peace, Banu 'Abd Manaf gained the positions of "Rifada" (feeding the pilgrims) and "Siqaya" (giving water to the pilgrims).
Hashim b. 'Abd Manaf b. Qusayy b. Kilab b. Murra, was one of the distinguished men of Quraysh, and the great grandfather of the Prophet (s), and Banu Hashim are his descendants.
After Hilf al-Mutayyibin, he gained the two positions of Siqaya and Rifada. He was very careful about the ceremony of Hajj and his two responsibilities.
Hashim was the founder of the two summer and winter trade caravans of Quraysh. He was the main element of greatness of Quraysh and they were very dependent to him; this was to the extent that after his demise they were afraid that other tribes will defeat them.
Feeding people in the time of famine in Mecca and founding the rule of sharing the benefits of trade with the poor, had made him famous.
After the demise of Hashim, his brother Muttalib b. 'Abd Manaf became his successor, and after him 'Abd al-Muttalib (son of Hashim) gained his position.
'Abd al-Muttalib, in addition to the positions of his ancestors, gained dignity because of his magnificent traits.
He also dug the Zamzam well again, after it had disappeared for a long time. Banu Hashim were always proud about the well.
The status of 'Abd al-Muttalib became higher in the event of the military expedition of Abraha in 'Am al-Fil; in the event, he presented before Abraha as the representative of the people of Mecca; his encounter with Abraha and his saving the lives of people from the army of Abraha, made Quraysh to title him as the "second Ibrahim".
Some have considered the descendants of 'Abd al-Muttalib the only remaining descendants from Hashim, and considered Banu Hashim equal to Banu 'Abd al-Muttalib; but as other sons of Hashim had also children, the claim is not true.
Because of the dignity of Quraysh among Arabs, the competition between different clans of Quraysh was very important; so every clan was trying to gain a better position among multiple clans of Quraysh.
These competitions are the root of the enmity between Banu Umayya and Banu Hashim; although some questionable historical reports have considered the root of the enmity as some minor events, like that Umayya b. 'Abd Shams was envious of Hashim, or the rivalry of Harb b. Umayya with 'Abd al-Muttalib; even some of the sources mentioned the story of the birth of Hashim and 'Abd Shams (the ancestor of Banu Umayya) as the reason of the enmity between Banu Umayya and Banu Hashim (see: Hashim b. 'Abd Manaf).
After the demise of 'Abd al-Muttalib and mainly because of financial shortages, the position of Banu Hashim decayed, but after the Bi'tha of the Prophet (s), the conflict between Banu Hashim and their rivalry intensified; the opposite groups supposed that rise of a prophet from Banu Hashim is also in the series of the tribal competitions, and is a tool for Banu Hashim to rule other clans. So they were rejecting the prophethood of the Prophet of Islam (s) so that Banu Hashim do not gain more dignity.
In addition to Banu Umayya, sources also mentioned Banu 'Abd al-Dar and Banu Makhzum as the rivals of Banu Hashim. Banu 'Abd al-Dar had their first quarrel with Hashim b. 'Abd Manaf over gaining the positions of Ka'ba (see: Hilf al-Ahlaf). Also Banu Makhzum who were with Banu 'Abd al-Dar in the quarrel, joined the opponents of Islam, especially that Abu Jahl (the head of Banu Makhzum in the time), had a high rank in Mecca, and the rise of Islam was a threat to his leadership.
On the other hand, some clans are mentioned as the allies and confederates of Banu Hashim. Among them, Banu Muttalib is the largest and dearest ally of Banu Hashim. Also clans such as Banu Zuhra b. Kilab, Banu Taym b. Murra, Banu Harith b. Fihr, and Banu Asad b. 'Abd al-'Uzza were with Banu 'Abd Manaf and Hashim in Hilf al-Mutayyibin and were against Banu 'Abd al-Dar. Later, in the alliance of Hilf al-Fudul lead by Zubayr b. 'Abd al-Muttalib they became allied with Banu Hashim to support the oppressed people.
After the rise of Islam, Banu Muttalib were associated with Banu Hashim in the support of the Prophet (s), in many of events. Presence in Shi'b Abi Talib and bearing three years of difficulties with Banu Hashim, is one of the greatest instances of their relation with Banu Hashim.
Khuza'a was the other ally of Banu Hashim. Some sources reported their alliance with 'Abd al-Muttalib, in his conflict with Nawfal b. 'Abd Manaf.
In his first step to publicize his call, the Prophet (s) began to convey his massage to his family and on the Day of Indhar invited Banu 'Abd al-Muttalib to his home, and invited them to accept Islam.
Banu Hashim showed different reactions to the new religion; some of them accepted Islam and became followers of the Prophet (s), some of this group -such as Abu Talib- were hiding their faith. Abu Talib hid his faith in order to keep his leadership of Quraysh, so that he could support the Prophet (s), he had always used his influence in Quraysh to prevent them harming the Prophet (s) (see: Faith of Abu Talib).
A small number of Banu Hashim began their animosity and confrontation with the prophet (s), and made all their effort in the way; Abu Lahab, one of the uncles of the Prophet (s), and Abu Sufyan b. Harith b. 'Abd al-Muttalib are among this group.
Although many of Banu Hashim did not convert to Islam at that time, most of them supported the Prophet (s) against the confrontation of other Quraysh leaders, and their hurting the Prophet (s) and Muslims. The presence of Abu Talib, the uncle of the Prophet (s), who was the head of Banu Hashim, had a significant role in the support.
Even when the leaders of clans of Quraysh, imposed social and economic sanctions over Banu Hashim, in order to make them stop supporting the Prophet (s); all of Banu Hashim, including non-Muslims (except for Abu Lahab and Abu Sufyan b. Harith), went to Shi'b Abi Talib, by the request of Abu Talib, and lived there in very harsh conditions, for three years, but did not give up supporting the Prophet (s).
After the demise of Abu Talib, Abu Lahab gained the leadership of Banu Hashim; then the head of Banu Hashim did not support the Prophet (s) as before, so after the travel of the Prophet (s) to Ta'if, he entered Mecca under the protection of Mut'im b. 'Adi, one of the sons of Nawfal b. 'Abd Manaf.
After the emigration of the Prophet (s) to Medina, some of Banu Hashim such as Hamza and 'Ali (a), also immigrated to Medina; but most of Banu Hashim remained in Mecca. Most of the time, Banu Hashim were refusing to accompany the polytheists against Muslims, but some of them were forced to participate in the Battle of Badr, in the army of the polytheists. The Prophet (s), had informed Muslims about the forced participation of some of Banu Hashim in the army of the polytheists, and had warned them against killing them; so Muslims took them captive. After the battle and the release of polytheist captives, some of Banu Hashim stayed with the Prophet (s) in Medina for a short time.
Most of Banu Hashim converted to Islam in the years after the emigration, and especially in the Conquest of Mecca, such as 'Abbas b. 'Abd al-Muttalib before the battle of Badr (or before the conquest of Khaybar), 'Aqil b. Abi Talib before the Treaty of Hudaybiyya (or in the eighth year after the emigration), and Abu Sufyan b. Harith in the Conquest of Mecca, converted to Islam; and some others such as Abu Lahab died as polytheists.
"'Arab does not accept that Nubuwwa and caliphate gather in one family".
On the contrary, Imam 'Ali (a) emphasized that only special people are suitable for the responsibility, the ones who are chosen by Allah and introduced by the Prophet (s).
The opposition to the gathering of Nubuwwa and caliphate in Banu Hashim, caused the unity of other Arab clans against the caliphate of Imam 'Ali (a), because Quraysh clans, people of Medina and their allies, thought that if Imam 'Ali (a) becomes the caliph, the caliphate will never exit Banu Hashim.
This was one of the reasons that immediately after the demise of the Prophet (s), even before his burial, some of the companions of the Prophet (s) gathered in Saqifa and pledged allegiance to someone among themselves, against the introduction of Imam 'Ali (a) by the Prophet (s), and against their pledge of allegiance to Imam 'Ali (a) in the Event of Ghadir. (see: Event of Saqifa Banu Sa'ida) From this time on, the quarrel between Banu Hashim and the rulers have always been present.
Despite these oppositions, Banu Hashim preserved their high status; for example, in the story of the dividing the spoils of war, 'Umar prioritized Banu Hashim and considered them as the most noble of Arab because of their relationship with the Prophet (s).
With the selection of 'Uthman for the caliphate, the enmity between Banu Umayya and Banu Hashim revived again; because in this period Banu Umayya took control of the power and the ground for tribal revenges became ready; for example, Abu Sufyan asked 'Uthman to preserve the caliphate in Banu Umayya, because there is neither Paradise nor fire (there's only the competition over the reign).
On the contrary, Imam 'Ali (a), rejecting this tribal bias, considered the faith, sincerity, and piety as the essential criteria for the ruler.
With the beginning of the caliphate of Imam 'Ali (a) (35/655-40/660) Banu Hashim were with him in all of the events. Although Banu Hashim were mainly based in Medina, with the changing of the center of caliphate from Medina to Kufa, some of Banu Hashim went there. Some of the governors assigned by Imam 'Ali (a) were from Banu Hashim.
After Imam 'Ali (a), in the short caliphate of Imam al-Hasan (a) (40/660-41/661) despite the support of Banu Hashim, some of the noble of Banu Hashim, such as 'Ubayd Allah b. 'Abbas b. 'Abd al-Muttalib, the commander of the Army of Imam al-Hasan, joined the army of Mu'awiya, which made Imam al-Hasan to sign the peace with Mu'awiya.
In the period of the rule of Mu'awiya, tribal conflicts raised more than ever; for example, Mu'awiya in the battle with Imam 'Ali (Battle of Siffin), considered the army of Kufa as the adherents of Banu Hashim.
The view was prevalent in the rule of the successors of Mu'awiya. Umayyad rulers put their effort to reject the religious motivations in the history of early Islam, and even the rise of Islam itself; and on the contrary, pretended it as tribal conflicts. An obvious instance of the view, is the words of Yazid, after the event of 'Ashura', when he explicitly rejected the revelation and the prophethood, and considered Islam as only a political play of Banu Hashim against Banu Umayya.
When Imam al-Husayn (a) refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid in Medina, Banu Hashim supported him; and some of Banu Hashim (Banu 'Aqil and Banu 'Ali) accompanied him in his uprising against Yazid.
When 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr seized Mecca in 63/682 and caused much difficulties for the rule of Umayyads, Banu Hashim refused to pledge allegiance to him, despite their enmity toward the oppressive rule of Banu Umayya; so he exiled, or according to a report, imprisoned important figures of Banu Hashim, such as Muhammad b. Hanafiyya and 'Abd Allah b. 'Abbas.
After the repression of the insurgency of 'Abd Allah b. Zubayr, Umayyads continued their oppression over Banu Hashim and harassed and tortured their supporters. One instance of the subject is the order of Hisham b. 'Abd al-Malik to cut the hands and tongue of Kumayt b. Ziyad al-Asadi, because of his elegy for Zayd b. 'Ali b. al-Husayn.
Despite that the revenge of Banu Umayya put a lot of pressure over Banu Hashim, their influence over people did not decline; for example, one of the reasons mentioned for the defeat of 'Abd Allah b. Zubayr, is his harsh encounter with Banu Hashim, and when Ziyad b. Salih started rebellion against Umayyads (133/750) he was calling for Banu Hashim. Also the supporters of 'Abbasids in Iran were calling people to support Banu Hashim.
In most of the Umayyads period, despite the differences of clans, Banu Hashim had a united political appearance. But in the late of Umayyads period, Banu Hashim had two social presences as the descendants of Imam 'Ali (a) (Banu 'Ali) and the descendants of 'Abbas b. 'Abd al-Muttalib (Banu 'Abbas).
The growth of the social discontent over the rule of Banu Umayya, caused the formation of uprisings in the first half of the 2nd/8th century. The growing tendency of people towards Ahl al-Bayt and their rejection of the request for an uprising (for the loss of proper conditions), made the opportunity for Banu 'Abbas.
Banu 'Abbas, because of the social status of Banu Hashim, exaggerated their relationship with Banu Hashim, and started their activities under the slogan of "the Hashimi call".
The social background of the conflict of Banu Umayya and Banu Hashim, which Umayyads had provoked, effected the choice of the title of "Hashimi". The allegiance of Banu 'Abbas was with the title of "Hashimi allegiance", with the justification that the rule is the right for Banu Hashim, and Banu 'Abbas are from this tribe.
So with the insistence of Banu 'Abbas over faking themselves as the progeny of the Prophet (s), the rule of Abbasids was famous as the rule of Banu Hashim. In contrast, Shi'as who did not tolerate the abuse of the title, mentioned them as "Banu 'Abbas".
After all, till the end of Abbasid period, the title of Banu Hashim was mostly used for Banu 'Abbas, and was against the title of Banu Abu Talib and Banu 'Ali (or Alawis); but before this period when Kumayt b. Zayd al-Asadi composed his famous poem "Hashimiyyat", his intention was to mention the passions of the descendants of Imam 'Ali (a); and today in Shi'a societies Banu Hashim is only told to the descendants of the Prophet (s) who are only remained from his daughter, lady Fatima (s) and his son in law, Imam 'Ali (a).
The political conflict of Abbasids and Alawis, caused that Abbasid rulers supported the Sunni scholars against the Shi'a belief which consider Ahl al-Bayt as the only rightful successors of the Prophet (s).
Abbasids ruled till 656/1258. In addition to them, other governments from Banu Hashim, such as Fatimids in Egypt, Idrisids in Morocco, and 'Alids in Tabaristan, were formed.
From the 4th/10th century to the first half of the 14th/10th century a family descended from Hasan b. 'Ali ruled Mecca, who named themselves as Hashimi. Hashimi governments in Hijaz, Iraq, and Jordan are from this family.
In jurisprudence, there are some rulings specific to Banu Hashim. A share of Khums belongs to the poor of Banu Hashim from 'Abd al-Muttalib, and in return, Zakat is not given to them except in some cases. According to well-known hadiths the reason for this forbiddance is their dignity.
Honorable traits such as munificence, avoiding the vices, and magnanimity is reported for the descendants of Hashim and 'Abd al-Muttalib. Hilf al-Fudul, in which Banu Hashim and some other tribes swore to advocate the oppressed people till their rights are taken, shows the magnanimity of Banu Hashim.
Ibn 'Abbas mentions seven traits for Banu 'Abd al-Muttalib: beauty, eloquence, magnificence, magnanimity, bravery, knowledge, patience, and chivalry.
Ibn Habib al-Baghdadi narrates from al-Kalbi that Imam 'Ali (a) said: "Banu Hashim are beautiful, eloquent, and magnanimous".
Banu Hashim were famous for their chastity. The other trait is their pride, that even in the harshest conditions, they do not forget their social status.
One day the Prophet (s) came out of his house and he was very happy, when he was asked about the reason, he said: Jabra'il (Gabriel) came to me from Allah and said: "Allah have chosen seven from Banu Hashim that He have neither created nor will create: You, O Prophet, 'Ali your successor, al-Hasan and al-Husayn your grandsons, Hamza your uncle, Ja'far your cousin, and al-Qa'im, Imam al-Mahdi (a) with whom Jesus (a) will pray."
Also when Muhajirun (the immigrants), Ansar (the helpers), and Banu Hashim were discussing about which of them are dearer to the Prophet (s), he said: "as for you, the helpers, I am your brother; as for you, the immigrants, I am one of you; as for you Banu Hashim, you are from me and with me".
There are hadiths from the Prophet (s) in many of Sunni sources that introduces Banu Hashim and Banu 'Abd al-Muttalib as the best of Arab, or even the best of mankind; but considering that most of the hadiths are narrated in the time of Banu 'Abbas, it is possible that these had been faked in the support of Abbasids, especially that they wanted to stress their relation to Banu Hashim. So the good encounter of the Prophet (s) with some of Banu Hashim was because of their faith not only that they were his relatives.
Banu Hashim have always been respected by Muslims because of their relation with the Prophet (s); and respecting Banu Hashim as a demonstration of respecting the Prophet (s), had always been common in Muslim societies. Some examples are supporting Banu 'Abbas and other governments formed with the title of Hashimis. Other examples are the poems praising Banu Hashim, such as the "Hashimiyyat" of Kumayt b. Zayd al-Asadi, and the respect of Hashimis among muslims specially Sayyids in Iran.
The material for this article is mainly taken from بنی هاشم in Farsi WikiShia.
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يقع في مركز مدينة كوينزتاون, كوينزتاون لايك فيو هوليداي بارك إنه المكان الأنسب لاكتشاف كوينز تاون و ما يحيطها. يسهل الوصول إلى هذا الفندق ذو 4.5 نجوم من المطار، فهو يبعد عنه مسافة 8km فقط. يشكل هذا الفندق ملاذاَ مريحاً للاسترخاء ويمنح زواره فرصة للاستجمام والتجدد، وهو يقع على بعد خطوات من المعالم السياحية الكثيرة للمدينة كمثل: Queenstown Medical Centre, Antipodean Trader, حديقة الطيور والكيوي.
يعمل كوينزتاون لايك فيو هوليداي بارك على ضمان إقامة مريحة لضيوفه من خلال خدماته الممتازة وحسن ضيافته. لضمان راحة ضيوفه، يقدم الفندق الخدمات التالية: خدمة غسيل ذاتية, مجهز لذوي الإحتياجات الخاصة, مرافق مخصصة لذوي الاحتياجات الخاصة, تخزين الأمتعة, واي فاي في المناطق العامة .
تنعكس أجواء كوينزتاون لايك فيو هوليداي بارك في غرف الضيوف.تلفزيون بشاشة مسطحة, اتصال لاسلكي بالإنترنت, اتصال لاسلكي بشبكة الإنترنت (مجاني), غرف لغير المدخنين, تدفئة هي بعض الميزات الموجود في العديد من الغرف. يمكنك طلب اللائحة الكاملة للخدمات في الفندق ومن بينها ملعب للأطفال, حديقة. يشكل كوينزتاون لايك فيو هوليداي بارك بخدماته الراقية وموقعه الممتاز، قاعدة مثالية للاستمتاع بإقامتك في كوينز تاون.
I love the location and it saves us the need to drive and find a parking lot in Queenstown (which is challenging). Located just beside the Skyline and Kiwi Farm, as well as town centre where you can join day tours. Lots of facilities on-board for the whole family, be it cooking, washing or keeping the small one entertained. Our first choice in Queenstown if we come again.
Didn’t appreciate South African night manager threatening us twice at 9.55pn for laughing too loudly while playing cards. No alcohol was involved. He should have just asked us to close the windows and keep the noise down.
If you are looking to stay in an exciting place and wants abit of peace and quiet, Look NO MORE!!!. This place will fit everything you want. Firstly the place is located in the CITY itself and seated near the gondola station which you get to see the city centre and back facing the mountains with quietness that is needed for the days of rest. Secondly the location itself is also activity booking centre, any activity you would want to book can be booked from the counter itself, such easy accessibility and sure trustworthy as locals does go to these places to book their activity as well. Thirdly the hotel is just 10mins walk aways to the heart of the city super convenient, for food and shops and activity meetup points. Shops closes 7pm some till 9pm so its quite good as you could shop till late and drink till good before a 10mins walk back (: The room itself is a little cramp with but comfy enough for my family of 4.
Location was excellent, near to the Queenstown Gondola and famous Ferg Burger. The lot that was allocated to us was occupied by another van, hence we had to go back to reception for clarification, and got another lot instead. Glad they were able to resolve the issue fast. The kitchen looks modern and inviting. but has got a few houseflies, which kind of bother me, but fortunately, we were not too much affected by them. Overall a nice place.
Rooms are clean, staffs are friendly. There is common laundry room facilities and for my case no in room kitchenette so if any cooking needed to go to common cooking area. I took bus to queenstown and walk to the holiday park, the slope was bad for us with heavy luggages and young children to take care. Otherwise, all will be perfect.
Great location with mins walk to the city center and skyline gondola. The reception staffs are very friendly and helpful to answer all the questions, calling the airport transportation, storing luggage.... Had really great time there.
Located right in town, with lots of tourists around the area. Not quite we were looking for as we preferred somewhere quieter. But then again, the cleanliness and size of the room made up for it. If you’re tired of eating out you can always buy your own groceries and cook in the communal kitchen there. Also, if you want to go for skydiving or other activities you can book through them and get free data for wifi.
- Very good location close to town center and Skyline. - Value for money, large space room for triples - Facilities is not good due to we checked-in late evening (drove from Milford sound) and all rooms in ground floor are full.We have been provided a room on second floor.It's not really be inconvenient for us due to we have a huge luggage and senior people in our group and have to carry all luggage on the stairs to our room.However, staff is welcome to assist us to carry luggage. - Bathroom wet zone is not good providing. Every time we have a shower, a lot of water splash out from shower zone and wet to all toilet zone.
Friendly and efficient reception. Nice view in our room overlooking the Remarkables. Nice garden work (with lupins in blossom). Large common kitchen. Clean room with plenty of natural light possible. Five minutes walk to a supermarket.
Good location to skyline and lake wakatipu.
6 of us stayed in Tourist flat. 2 bunk beds in a room and a double bed in living room. Basic kitchen facilities. Wifi with a charge of $5. Great location and few minutes walk to city centre and Skyline.
Pro - This unit has private bathroom and kitchen - Check-in and check-out was quick and easy. - Shared self-service laundry facility is available: NZD4 for washing and NZD4 for drying. - Good location. Very close to Skyline and walking distance to town centre. (bear with the climb up and down the hill) - Excellent mountain view. Cons - Bedsheets and pillowcases looked old. Pillows have a little bit unpleasant smell.
Great views. The location couldn't be better. It's a five minute walk into town, (but a hilly walk) and just one minute walk to the Gondola. We stayed in a Studio Unit which was big, clean and comfortable. Room had desk, tv, fridge, water boiler, hair dryer, free coffee and tea. Showers are hot, clean and with great pressure! Although we didn't use, kitchen looked modern and big enough. Self-service laundry is available (NZ$4 per wash, token would have to be purchased from reception). Just one minus point: luggage storage was a bit pricey, NZ$5 per bag per day. Generally an enjoyable stay and highly recommend!
We stayed 2 nights. It was clean but small room, got 1 bunk beds and 1 queen bed. when I booked I thought the room has kitchen facility ensuite, but apparently not. It was shared/communal kitchen which was deeply disappointing. However the cooking utensil was clean and adequate. Stunning view of the lake & mountain can be seen from the room. Room is too pricey!
Pros : good location, big room, 5 min walk to skyline gondola, friendly staff Cons : heater automatic disconnect after 1 hour. We need switch it on every single hour to make suke we wont get freezing during sleep time. Hair dryer not fuctioning.
The location is near to town.
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0.99909 |
If you can avoid filing bankruptcy, you should. A bankruptcy can seriously affect your ability to get loans and credit for the next seven to ten years. Here are a few other options worth exploring, as well as a few tips on avoiding bankruptcy.
If you are overrun by a number of bad debts, you may want to consider getting a debt consolidation loan. This loan can give you the money you need to consolidate all of your debt into one low monthly payment. This will make your bills much more manageable and allow you to start over with a relatively clean slate.
When you get behind on your bills, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Though filing for bankruptcy may seem like the easiest option, it may not be the best. If you want to avoid filing bankruptcy, try credit counseling instead. Professional credit counseling services can review your situation and give you advice to help you turn things around.
· Try settling your debts. Some creditors may be willing to accept less than what you owe.
· Tighten your belt. Skip the morning coffee, disconnect the cable, clip coupons, and use any money you save to pay off your debts little by little.
· Filing for bankruptcy isn't free. You're going to need to save up or get an extra job. Consider using the money you have and the additional money you could earn to begin paying off the bills instead.
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0.999903 |
How did an amazing game developer like Factor 5 go out of business? It's seriously one of the biggest losses in the gaming industry in the last 6 years. They made a name for themselves with their Gamecube technology that made their games look just as good if not better than anything on the original Xbox. One can only hope that Nintendo will be able to resurrect some form of the company for the Wii U.
It's amazing that one failed PS3 game could take down such as company like Factor 5. I'm usually not superstitious, but I'm starting to believe in this "Nintendo curse," a curse that afflicts companies that once worked exclusively for Nintendo. Rare hasn't done anything worth paying attention to since Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts; Silicon Knights is losing ground in their lawsuit against Epic Games; and Factor 5 has gone bust.
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0.951241 |
Voltage gauge drops below 14 volts when vehicle started already replace alternator and it still doing it I don't know whats wrong.
Have your battery tested perform a Load test it has to hold at least 12.4 volts to be excelent,you can get away with 11.8 or 11.9 and it will still be good,any lower replace it.
\015\012also on a jeep 13.2 and up is okay,with everything on.
\015\012Any lower than that you have a problem in your wires.Check at the alternator,if iot looks good then you need more help.
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0.999991 |
To investigate to what extent Alzheimer's Disease (AD) affects Resting State activity, the possible impairment of independent electrophysiological parameters was determined in Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions. Specifically, Flash-Visual Evoked Potential (F-VEP) and quantitative EEG (q-EEG) were examined to establish whether abnormalities of the former were systematically associated with changes of the latter.
Concurrently recorded F-VEP and q-EEG were comparatively analysed under Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions in 11 Controls and 19 AD patients presenting a normal Pattern-Visual Evoked Potential (P-VEP). Between Condition differences in latencies of P2 component were matched to variations in spectral components of q-EEG.
P2 latency increased in 10 AD patients with Abnormal Latency (AD-AL) under Eye-closed Condition. In these patients reduction of alpha activity joined an increased delta power so that their spectral profile equated that recorded under Eye-open Condition. On the opposite, in Controls as well as in AD patients with Normal P2 Latency (AD-NL) spectral profiles recorded under Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions significantly differed from each other. At the baseline, under Eye-open Condition, the spectra overlapped each other in the three Groups.
Under Eye-closed Condition AD patients may present a significant change in both F-VEP latency and EEG rhythm modulation. The presence of concurrent changes of independent parameters suggests that the neurodegenerative process can impair a control system active in Eye-closed Condition which the electrophysiological parameters depend upon. F-VEP can be viewed as a reliable marker of such impairment.
It has been reported that in Resting State , Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions correspond to distinct patterns of activation [2–4], outlining different cortico-subcortical network systems . In the light of recently postulated network degeneration hypothesis [6, 7] it is reasonable to consider the possibility that Alzheimer's Disease (AD) affects separately either system.
Some data derived from analysis of Flash-Visual Evoked Potential (F-VEP) and quantitative-EEG (q-EEG) frequency spectra seem to support this assumption.
In normal Conditions the two modalities are independent from each other and present a different behaviour in Resting State. F-VEP latency, measured at its P2 component peak, does not differ when moving from Eye-open to Eye-closed Condition whereas EEG activity does, as established since Berger's first observation (1929).
AD may interfere with both modalities in Eye-closed Condition. As a matter of fact the increase in F-VEP latency, often reported [9–12] in AD, has been mainly referred to this Condition . By the same token, AD is characterized by a reduction of normal dominant posterior EEG rhythm (for reviews see [13–15]) with a significant decrease of alpha power [16, 17] in Eye-closed Rest State.
Since changes in both modalities occur under the same Condition, it is possible that they reflect the involvement of a neural system active in Eye-closed Rest State which F-VEP and q-EEG modulations separately depend upon. If the two modalities depend on a network active in Eye-closed Condition, both should be affected by lesion of this system. Therefore, AD patients ought to present concurrent changes of F-VEP and q-EEG under Eye-closed but not under Eye-open Condition.
The data so far available are not suited to confirm such a hypothesis since F-VEP changes and EEG defects have been separately investigated in different AD studies. All underlined the individual variability of each parameter [8, 18]. No one investigated their parallel variations in specific Conditions and in single patients. Hence it is not clear whether variations in F-VEP are associated to changes in q-EEG.
The present study was carried out to determine what is the likelihood for F-VEP changes to be associated with modifications of quantitative EEG (q-EEG) in AD patients and to ask whether the pattern of change is the same in the whole group. The result would also provide an useful criterion to identify a group of patients sharing the same functional damage and, possibly, the same distribution of damage .
The study was carried out on 39 subjects, 17 Controls (10 men and 7 women) and 22 AD patients (14 men and 8 women) consecutively admitted to the wards of the Department of Neurology of the University of Genoa. All patients agreed to participate in the study with full knowledge of the nature of the research. After a complete explanation of the study, written informed consent was obtained from each subject. The Medical Review Ethics Committee of the Department of Neuroscience, Ophthalmology and Genetics - University of Genova approved the study.
Patients affected by dementia, as defined by DSM-IV, had to meet the following criteria: a) diagnosis of Probable AD according to the definition of NINCDS-ADRDA ; b) degree of cooperation sufficient to carry out a Pattern-Visual Evoked Potential (P-VEP) sequence.
With a score of less than 7 at the Hachinski Ischemia Scale , AD patients had no evidence of focal abnormalities at CT or MR scans. Other causes - infectious, toxic, metabolic - of dementia were excluded. Controls who reported no past history of neurological or psychiatric disease were patients in the Department of Internal Medicine of the University of Genova. Information about patient's history, review of medical chart and clinical interview allowed to exclude the presence of psychiatric disturbances in Controls who underwent neurological and ophthalmological investigations to exclude the presence of specific signs or symptoms. Pupil reactivity and intraocular pressure were normal in all the patients. Visual acuity had to be no less than 15/20. All the patients had normal P-VEP parameters. Cognitive changes were assessed by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) [22, 23] and Dementia Rating Scale (DRS) [24, 25]. Patients did not differ from Controls with respect to age (t: 1.01; df: 37; ns) or educational level (t: 0,17; df: 37; ns), while they did with respect to MMSE (t = 11,7; df: 37; P < 0.001) and to DRS (t = 15,48; df: 37; P < 0.001) scores.
q-EEG and Visual Evoked Potentials (VEPs) were recorded in a quiet room, with the subject awake, seated on a comfortable chair under continuous control. In order to avoid interference between photic stimulation and Resting State activity, F-VEP was recorded separately from EEG, in the same session.
VEP was recorded in 78 eyes, 34 in the Control Group and 44 in the AD one. P-VEP and F-VEP were elicited by monocular stimulation. The EEG signals, picked up with 3 silver-silver chloride electrodes placed at Oz, O1 and O2 and referred to a common electrode (Cz), were amplified at bandpass 0.53-100 Hz and averaged. VEPs evoked during large EEG oscillations due to head and/or ocular movements were discarded.
P-VEPs were generated by pattern reversal at 1 Hz frequency, using a checkerboard subtending 10° with a square profile elements of 55' side and a contrast of 96%. No less than 256 stimuli were delivered to each eye and P100 latency was measured as the peak of the PVEP major positive component. P-VEPs were considered abnormal if their P100 latency was greater than 118 msec. and their interocular difference more than 8 msec.
F-VEP was generated at 1 Hz frequency by a white flash whose energy was 0.5 joules, corresponding to 10 lux of illuminance at 30 cm distance. The analysed epoch, i.e. 300 msec, allowed to measure the latency of P2 and N3 components of FVEP, but the study was restrained to the first component due to uncertainties in identifying the N3 peak. Peaks latencies, evaluated by two independent observers, were accepted if measures differed by less that 5 msec, otherwise components were considered “missing” and discarded. Analysis of F-VEP was done on three channels, Oz, O1, O2. Since data from O1 and O2 did not differ from those of Oz our report will be restricted to the latter.
Flash was presented under Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions. The unstimulated eye was covered with an opaque patch and the patient was asked to hold his/her hand over the patched eye.
As shown in Figure 1, no less than 4 blocks of 64 trials each were collected for Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions, in random sequence. The blocks were averaged and latencies were measured on the final result. Each session lasted no longer than 30 min.
F-VEPs recorded in an AD-AL patient from left (A) and right (B) eye were averaged from 4 separate blocks of 64 trials. In A the distribution of components within waveform are presented. Latency of P2, as shown in B, is the parameter taken into account in the study.
9 patients presented a "missing" component on both eyes in one Condition, mainly the Eye-open one (see Results). Among the remaining 30 patients P2 latency could be identified in both eyes of all the Controls under Eye open Condition and in 9 of them under Eye-closed one (Additional file 1: Table S1). P2 latency could be identified in both eyes in 17 out of 19 AD patients under either Rest Condition. Missing values came from different patients (Additional file 1: Table S1).
Whenever present, individual P2 latencies of OD and OS significantly correlated with each other both in Eye-closed Condition (coefficients of correlation: r = 0,85 in Controls and r = 0,93 in AD patients) and in Eye-open one (coefficients of correlation: r = 0,90 in Controls and r = 0,91 in AD patients). Mean latencies did not differ in two eyes within group and conditions (Additional file 1: Table S1) confirming the result of correlation. This enabled us to average OD and OS latencies in order to yield a single value for each patient and condition.
A standard 16-lead EEG was acquired as a continuous signal for no less than 30 minutes, visually inspected for current interpretation and detection of artifacts, and stored for off-line analysis. All scalp electrodes were referenced to linked ears, and a site between Fpz and Fz was used as ground. Since the study was meant to examine mainly variations in posterior rhythms, the analysis was limited to 6 channels i.e. O1, O2, C3, C4, T3, T4. Had we extended the analysis to the whole set of channels (16) we would have found a mass of data difficult to interpret. In particular it was felt that such an extension might mask slight but significant results, due to topographical changes in different regions and in opposite directions. Electro-oculogram was also recorded from tin cup electrodes placed above and below the left eye and on the outer canthus of each eye. Impedance was kept below 5 kΏ for all the electrodes. 10 minutes signals from the computer stored EEG were collected for each Condition, amplified, sampled by a 16 bit A/D converter with a sampling rate of 1024 Hz. and digitally filtered in the frequency range 1-100 Hz. No less than 27 blocks of artifact-free 2,5 s-long epochs were selected off-line by visual inspection for Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions.
Individual P2 latency was defined as the mean of the values recorded from the two eyes in Eye-open and in Eye-closed Conditions. In case of "missing" P2, the value evoked from the fellow eye was taken into account.
In order to avoid that the overlap of highly variable measures might mask possible variations among groups or between Conditions, the difference between P2 latencies recorded under Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions was computed. The difference was considered abnormal if it outweighed the normal cut-off of 14,8 msec, i.e. the limit of one-tailed confidence interval in mean difference of Controls estimated with probability p<0,001 (tα0,001, df 11 = 4,1).
Based on Rodriguez et al.'s observation, q-EEG recordings obtained under either Condition were separately analysed by performing a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) with a resolution of 0.39 Hz in the frequency domain between 0.39 Hz and 32 Hz. The absolute values of all epoch spectrum frequencies were averaged to compute the Mean Power Spectrum (MPS) of each channel for Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions. MPS was partitioned into 4 component bands, i.e. delta: 0.39 – 3.90 Hz; theta: 4–7,8 Hz; alpha: 7,9 -12.87 Hz; beta: 12,88 - 32 Hz. Total Power (TP) was the sum of Absolute Power (AP in μV2) of the four bands in each channel. AP of each component band from each channel was standardized by computing its Relative Power (RP), where RP = AP / TP, for Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions. RP (×) relative to each band was log transformed into LRP = log[×/(1 – ×)] to achieve a gaussian distribution of data . LRP indicates also the power of each component relative to all the others.
Overall each patient entered the study with 48 values corresponding to the following set of variables: a) 2 Conditions of recording (Eye-open and Eye-closed), b) 6 EEG channels, c) 4 component bands for each channel. A preliminary analysis was carried out in order to reduce the number of variables which was too high to be efficiently handled. Thus, individual data entered a multivariate design of analysis of variance with repeated measures . Component, condition, channel, were the within subject factors and group the between-subjects one.
The condition* component*channel*group interaction was not significant, excluding the presence of systematic changes of band activities related to the different combinations of channels, conditions and groups.
On the other hand band activity averaged throughout channels showed a significant difference between conditions, apparent in all the three groups, despite the significant lower level interactions. Since our aim was that of exploring such a difference rather than describing the topographical distribution of activity on the scalp, it was decided to start from the data of single component frequency averaged throughout channels. Thus, each patient was defined by four values of AP, RP and LRP for each Condition, each value referring to a frequency component.
RP of individual alpha activity was compared with the corresponding sum of delta and theta RPs, by computing the Alpha /Slow Wave Ratio (A/SW) [29, 30] for each Condition.
Analysis of q-EEG took into account first changes in A/SW Ratio, then variations of LRP in spectral profiles. A/SW differences among groups were analysed by Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance and individual comparisons by Mann–Whitney U-test. A/SW differences between Conditions within group were assessed by Wilcoxon rank test. Individual LRP data were analysed by applying a repeated measure design of ANOVA . Violations of ANOVA assumptions were corrected by changing the degrees of freedom according to the Greenhouse-Geisser procedure . Multiple comparisons between means were based on the Tukey's HDS test [28, 31]. All data analyses were performed with PASW software (version 18.0.0).
6 patients from the Control group and 3 from the AD one were excluded from further analysis, presenting a "missing" component on both eyes in one Condition or both, mainly in Eye-open one. Thus, the following data refer to 30 patients, 11 Controls (6 men and 5 women) and 19 AD ones (11 men and 8 women).
Table 1 reports means and SEs of latencies observed in Control and AD patients. 9 out of 19 AD patients (47%) had a P2 latency difference lower than the normal cut-off (14,8 msec) and they will be referred to as patients affected by AD with Normal Latency (AD-NL). 10 patients (53%) presented a difference ≥14,8 msec. and they will be referred to as patients affected by AD with Abnormal Latency (AD-AL).
Means ± Standard Errors of P2 latencies and of their difference between Eye-closed (EC) and Eye-Open (EO) Conditions. Controls are compared with all the AD patients.
Group means and SEs of P2 latencies and of P2 difference between Conditions are reported in Table 2 (see also Additional file 1: Table S1). P2 latencies did not differ among groups in Eye-open Condition (F=0,429; df: 2, 27; p=0,66). This means that the AD-AL lengthening of P2 difference was due to the selective increase of P2 in Eye-closed Condition.
Means ± Standard Errors of P2 latencies and of their difference between Eye-closed (EC) and in Eye-Open (EO) Conditions. AD patients are split into AD-NL and AD-AL groups.
Figure 2 presents the distribution of individual Ratios within Group and Condition. Means and SEs are reported in Table 3 (see also Additional file 1: Table S2).
Distribution of individual A/SW Ratios as a function of Groups and Resting Conditions.
A/SWs are averaged throughout channels. In A, Z-scores refer to the Wilcoxon rank test of A/SW Ratio difference between Conditions within Group. K-Ws refer to the Kruskal-Wallis Analysis of Variance of A/SW differences among Groups within Condition.
Analysis of data, in Table 3, shows that A/SW values recorded under Eye-closed Condition differed significantly from those under Eye-open one in Control group and in AD-NL one, while they did not in AD-AL patients (p=0,80).
Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance (Table 3) shows also that, under Eye-open, A/SW values did not differ among groups, whereas they did under Eye-closed. In this Condition all the AD-AL patients, but one, had values lower than those of Controls, the difference being significant (U:2; p <0,001, one-tailed). The A/SW difference between AD-AL and AD-NL patients approached the significance (U: 25; p=0,06, one-tailed), while the AD-NL group did not differ from the Control one (U: 36; ns). All the AD-NL patients, but three, presented A/SW values within the Controls’ range.
Both the results appear clearly in Figure 2.
Table 4 presents the group means and SEs of RPs relative to the 4 component frequencies recorded under Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions (see also Additional file 1: Table S3).
RPs are averaged throughout channels.
Individual LRP were entered into a design of analysis of variance with two within-subject variables, i.e. Component (alpha, beta, delta and theta frequency band), Condition (Eye-open and Eye-closed), and one between subject variable, i.e. Group (Control, AD-NL, AD-AL). The Condition* Component* Group interaction (Additional file 1: Table S4) was significant (F=4,45; df: 15, 13; p<0.005) allowing to split the analysis and to investigate each Conditions separately.
In Eye-open Condition the Component*Group interaction was not significant, (Table 5A) indicating that spectral profiles had parallel trend (Figure 3A). LRP values did not differ among groups and components. In Eye-closed Condition the Component*Group interaction (Table 5B) was significant (p = 0,005), indicating that spectral profiles had different trends (Figure 3B) in the three groups.
Analysis of variance of LRPs with one between (Groups) and one within (Component) variables in Eye-Open (A) and in in Eye-closed (B) Conditions.
Mean spectral profile of the different Groups of patients observed in Eye-open (A) and in Eye-closed (B) Conditions.
Individual comparison showed that the Component*Group interaction, not significant when comparing Controls and AD-NL (F=1,18; df: 3, 54; p=0,32), was highly significant in the contrast between Controls and AD-AL (F=10,73; df: 3, 57; p=0,001). In other terms the AD-NL spectral profile did not differ from that of Controls whereas the AD-AL one did (Figure 3B). In the contrast between AD-AL and AD-NL groups the Component*Group interaction approached the significance level (F=2,1; df: 3, 51; p=0,11).
Alpha band power (Figure 3B) was significantly greater in the Control Group than in AD-AL one (LRP Difference: 1,30; CI 95%: 0,38/2,21; p=0.005) while the opposite was true for delta component (LRP Difference: 1,20; CI 95%: -2,09/-0,31; p=0.006). Beta and theta components did not differ in the two groups.
Table 6 (see also Additional file 1: Table S5) presents the clinical data of Control, AD-NL and AD-AL patients. AD patients in the two groups did not differ from each other with respect to age, (t = 0,26; df: 17; ns), educational level (t = 0,98; df: 17; ns) and duration of the illness (t = 1,38; df: 17; ns).
Means ± SD of clinical parameters in the 3 Groups. Patients with “missing” P2 were excluded.
AD-NL patients did not differ from AD-AL both with respect to MMSE (t = 1.51; df:17; ns) and DRS (t = 1,61; df 17; ns). The correlation coefficients between A/SW Ratios and MMSE or DRS scores were significant neither in the AD-NL group (Eye-closed: MMSE: r = 0,37; DRS: r = −0,15 – Eye-open: MMSE: r = 0,20; DRS: r = −0,21) nor in the AD-AL one (Eye-closed: MMSE: r = 0,09; DRS: r = 0,33- Eye-open: MMSE: r = 0,24; DRS: r = 0,40).
Our analysis aimed to determine whether F-VEP modifications might be associated to q-EEG changes in AD patients and, in this case, whether the pattern of change were the same in the whole group.
53% of our patients, the AD-AL ones, presented a change in F-VEP occurring selectively under Eye-closed Condition, as previously shown . The remaining ones, i.e. AD-NL patients, had values within normal limits. In the first case the latency difference between Conditions was significant, in the second one it was not. Question was raised whether the delayed P2 latency might have been a mere artifact. Indeed, Coburn et al maintained that, with Eye-open, F-VEP takes the form and the latencies of P-VEP. According to this hypothesis, our study would have compared the latency of P100 in Eye-open Condition with the longer one of P2 in Eye-closed one. If this were the case closure of eyes ought to have been followed by the lengthening of P2 latency in all our groups. Contrary wise, delayed P2 latency occurred only in the AD-AL group. All the others did not differ from normal.
By having ruled out the possibility of an artifact, the increased P2 latency can be considered an indirect sign of functional disorganization of brain activity in Resting State . This view seems to be confirmed by two concomitant changes of q-EEG spectrum, a parameter apparently independent from F-VEP.
Firstly, the AD-AL group was characterized by A/SW values which, under Eye-closed, were significantly lower than those of Controls due to the collapse of alpha activity and the increase of delta component. The analysis of AD-AL spectral profile confirmed the flattening of the curve where normal peaks were hardly identifiable.
Secondly, AD-AL patients did not present the normal difference between Eye-open and Eye-closed Conditions. In our Controls, indeed, alpha activity, dropped down by about 40% from Eye-closed to Eye-open state, in keeping with other observations , whereas in AD-AL patients the drop was less than 6%. The opposite occurred for delta activity.
The flattening of the Eye-closed spectrum and the lack of difference between Eye-open and Eye-closed spectral profiles were present in 9 out of 10 AD-AL patients. This indicates that these results are consistent and robust enough to stand out immediately, despite the relative smallness of the group.
In all the AD-NL patients, but three, A/SW ratios were within the normal limits. The mean spectral profile recorded under Eye-closed Condition presented the same fluctuations than that of Controls and differed significantly from the one recorded under Eye-open Condition.
The association of reduced alpha and increased delta activities has been confirmed in AD by a wealth of observations [13–15]. Lesser attention has been paid to the changes in the spectral pattern of AD when comparing Eye-open Condition with Eye-closed one.
Signorino et al [16, 17] studied the changes in 6,5-12 Hz band power occurring in AD by analysing the ratio between values observed in Eye-closed and Eye-open Conditions. Such a Reactivity Index was significantly lower than that of Controls, since the alpha activity recorded in AD under Eye-closed state tended to equate that of Eye-open one or to decrease below it.
Other data, derived from non-linear analysis of EEG , suggest that the levelling off of spectral power in Eye-closed state is not limited to the range of components explored by Signorino et al [16, 17] but it extends to the whole spectrum of frequencies. Pritchard et al observed that in elder Controls the Global Complexity Index obtained under Eye-closed was significantly greater than under Eye-open. The difference faded out in AD patients where the indexes were equal. Overall, the results suggested that the AD process reduces the complexity of cortical dynamics underlining EEG [13, 36] by affecting the normal capacity to modulate brain activity in response to modified sensory information, such as after closure of eyes.
By showing the lack of difference between Eye-open and Eye-closed spectral profiles, our results confirm Pritchard et al.'s observation but specify that changes in Resting State involve only a part, however large, of AD population.
No patient in AD group presented visual signs or symptoms of posterior cortical atrophy , nor severity of cognitive decline differed between our AD groups. Probably a difference between AD-NL and AD-AL patients, if any, should have been expected in attentional performances. As matter of fact, it is known that impairment in structures related to arousal and alertness significantly correlate with defects of attention whose burden does not necessarily parallel severity of cognitive impairment . The suggestion, however, needs further support as our study did not examine such an aspect.
Since F-VEP and q-EEG changes are strictly limited to Eye-closed Condition, our data support the hypothesis that behavioural states as Eye-open and Eye-closed Rest depend, at least partly, on separate system.
Such a result fits in with recent acquisitions of functional neuroanatomy which point out at different activation patterns between states [2–4, 33]. In Eye-closed Rest State changing cerebral Rhythms seem to be paralleled by connectivity pattern variations [40, 42]. Amplitude of EEG alpha rhythm, expression of thalamo-cortical and cortico-cortical synchronization under Eye closed Condition, is associated with changes in fMRI signal in occipital areas and in thalamus . Correlated activities of medial thalamus and of anterior midbrain seem to precede the start of alpha activity .
The functional changes are due, at least partly, to neuronal activity [3, 42] whose pattern of activation in Eye-closed Condition involves subcortical structures mostly responsible for independent modulation of alpha rhythm and F-VEP.
The impairment of such independent parameters as F-VEP and q-EEG profile under the same behavioural state, indirectly seem to support the network degeneration hypothesis according to which intrinsic connectivity networks might be the selective targets of specific neurodegenerative diseases [6, 7, 43]. F-VEP and Power Spectrum changes, hence, would witness the involvement of such a network system in our AD-AL patients.
In AD-NL patients, cognitive defects were not associated with changes in the two modalities. Probably the distribution of neurodegenerative process differed from that of AD-AL patients, though both groups presented the same level of dementia. These data suggest that the system damaged in AD-AL group has no effect on cognitive defects at least as they appear from measures drawn from Mental State Scales as MMSE or DRS. At the same time, the occurrence of contrasting results between F-VEP and q-EEG, mainly shown by those AD-NL patients who presented abnormal q-EEG, confirms that the two modalities are functionally independent from each other.
Summing up, F-VEP and q-EEG changes due to AD are likely to be associated to each other under Eye-closed Condition in a part of AD population. Such a group, identified by using F-VEP as a marker, seems to witness a change in the functional architecture of Resting State in Eye-closed Condition. Other patterns of change can occur, as suggested by the heterogeneity of AD population [18, 44]. Whether these different patterns have distinct anatomo-clinical correlates is matter of further investigation.
AT, LS, MM, FB contributed to the conception, design and execution of the research project. All the authors were involved in preparing the draft, review and critical analysis of the manuscript. AT who carried out the statistical analysis, takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis and also for approval and submission of the manuscript.
The authors are indebted to prof. Emilio Favale for discussing the paper, to Maria Vittoria Gianelli for revising it and to Aldo Casaleggio - IBF - CNR - Ge for discussing non linear analysis of EEG. The support from Associazione Sistema Nervoso and from Centro di Servizi “Vivere Insieme” is gratefully acknowledged.
The study was supported by Ministero della Sanità Grant n. DGRSVE. 4–1 723 / 14.06.2001.
AT, LS, FB, MM declare no competing interests.
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0.973159 |
David Petraeus sentence: Probation, fine in classified-materials leak.
David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell in 2011.
F.B.I. officials and some prosecutors had contended that Mr. Petraeus should receive prison time for providing highly classified journals to a woman with whom he had an affair and who wrote his biography when he was the director of the C.I.A.
But Mr. Holder sided with Mr. Petraeus, ultimately deciding to agree to recommend that he be spared prison time. That decision angered the F.B.I. officials and prosecutors who said the attorney general was giving Mr. Petraeus preferential treatment, according to several law enforcement officials.
Petraeus’ relationship with Broadwell became public in 2012 after the FBI began investigating threatening emails sent to Jill Kelley, a Petraeus family friend. Broadwell was identified as the source of those emails. She may have been jealous of Kelley’s relationship with Petraeus, though there’s no evidence Kelley and Petraeus were romantically involved. Investigators searching Broadwell’s property in that case found the classified materials that Petraeus was then accused of leaking.
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A regular polygon has 21 sides. Find the size of each interior angle?
The size of each interior angle of a polygon with n sides is equal to 180 x (n-2) / n. Therefore, if the polygon has 21 sides, the size of each interior angle is 180 x 19 / 21 = 162.86 degrees.
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So the question often comes up: if you can't have firearms--for whatever reason--what should you use to defend your home in time of need? It's a real question for people in countries with restrictive anti-gun laws, or for people who can otherwise not have firearms in their home.
So, let's look at some considerations for this kind of use.
1. Narrow hallways and doorways, with varying ranges--extreme close up to several yards.
2. Often a "barricade" type situation--get the family to a hardened point and defend.
3. Couches, tables, and other furniture to get in the way.
4. May need to be used by any capable member of the family--mom, dad and older children, with varying degrees of interest and experience.
Many will recommend a sword or other baseball bat. However, the narrow hallways and doorways can hinder the full-power swings needed. Movie example: Kill Bill 2's trailer fight w/ katanas. While a katana, long sword, or other may be a devastating weapon on an open field, they just don't have the room to work inside a home. Clubs and bats run into similar problems.
You could go with a shorter sword/machete type blade for this kind of environment, but the weapon still requires some room to swing. Also, you sacrifice range and strength/physicality/training become a more significant requirement. The kind of range you're working in is less forgiving.
choice for defending your home if firearms are not an option.
So--you want a weapon that functions with straight-line jabs, vs. slashing swings. You want a weapon that can give its wielder some distance from the bad guy. You want a spear.
A spear, functioning with short stabby thrusts, gives you some distance from your opponent. It is an ideal weapon for defending the frontdoor, bedroom, or stairway. The straight-line attacks are not hindered by narrow hallways or doorways, and a furious barrage of jabs will keep an attacker at bay. Spears have a variable range--you can hold the weapon at the end of the shaft for the longest range, or choke up as needed.
Furthermore, the spear is fairly intuitive in its use and does not require great strength to wield, making it ideal for use by the inexperienced. Bayonets--basically a spear--have been standard army issue for a long, long time, because they're simple to teach and they just work.
Cold Steel produces several spears, which are available on such obscure websites as Amazon. The Boar Spear with standard length shaft towers at near 7-feet, which may be too long. I would cut down the shaft to a more manageable 5 or so feet for this kind of use. While I do not personally own one, the Assegai with Short Shaft looks like may be the best out of the box offering. It's 38-inches of African-styled war spear, made for a powerful gut/chest stab. Can be used one or two handed, and runs for an affordable $40-$50.
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Eric Burgess and I conceived.
in the design of [the] message."
On July 6, 1990, Hoagland accused Omni magazine of "the height of editorial irresponsibility." What prompted him to vent his outrage to the international FTP audience? In its July article about a hypothetical "Mars Rover" mission to Cydonia, according to Hoagland the magazine "ascribed to Carl Sagan [my] work on . . . the pyramids and all the other things that are there." But the article referred to the "face" as merely a "mesa . . . named for its resemblance to human features," not as an artificial structure. And there were no references to the rest of Hoagland's "work," although Sagan did refer, metaphorically, to the region's mile-high mountains as "beckoning pyramids."
Frank Drake confirmed Sagan's account (September 27 and October 18): "Neither Eric Burgess nor Richard Hoagland contributed any ideas or even suggestions as to what should be on the Pioneer 10, and no suggestions as to any message content. They did point out that Pioneer 10 was going to leave the solar system and it would be nice to put some form of message on it. That was as far as their involvement went. I am sure that Eric Burgess would be glad to confirm this. . . . The idea that there should be an engraved plaque, and the type of information which should be engraved, was developed mutually by Carl and me. . . . I remember very clearly that we started with completely open minds as to what the message should be, and without any prior suggestions as to possible message content."
In a note of acknowledgements (see right) at the conclusion of Sagan and Drake's February 25, 1972, Science article entitled "A Message from Earth," Burgess and Hoagland are credited with the "initial suggestion to include some message aboard Pioneer 10." But as Hoagland acknowledges on page 98 of his own book, it was actually Burgess who first said to Hoagland, "It ought to carry a message." (Then, on the next line, Hoagland claims that he had already thought of the idea: "That was the unvoiced thought, which had been nagging at me ever since I'd gazed in through [the craft's] thick quartz windows" (italics in original).
The fascinating idea that there might be life on Europa, beneath ice-covered oceans kept liquid by the same Jovian tidal forces that heat Io [Jupiter's volcanic moon], was first proposed by Richard C. Hoagland in the magazine Star & Sky ("The Europa Enigma," January 1980 [accessible from the very bottom of this page]). This quite brilliant concept has been taken seriously by a number of astronomers (notably NASA's Institute of Space Studies, Dr. Robert Jastrow), and may provide one of the best motives for the projected GALILEO Mission.
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How to enable the camera's motion detection from NVR?
1. Please go to Event & Action Management via web browser.
2. Please select Motion from Camera, click ‘Add’ and select different NVR actions such as ‘Event trigger Recording’, ‘Send E-Mail’ and ‘Digital Output’.
3. For example: Event Trigger Recording.
You could enable the recording as well as the video clip.
When there is an motion detected from camera and event trigger record & video clip is enabled, NVR will save video clip (up to 20 seconds) in ‘Event’ folder (inside ‘Videodata’ folder of HDD) of file system. Meanwhile, another complete five-minute recording file will be also saved in ‘Videodata’ folder in file system. This would help you to get detailed sequence when events happens.
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Dar hai totusi sa facem calculele; ti-au ridicat masina, daca o recuperezi in aceeasi zi, te costa 800RON sa o iei inapoi, daca intarzai cu recuperatul masinii de pe terenul arabil in care o duc recuperatorii, te mai costa 370RON/zi. Nu-i nimic, nesimtitii sa plateasca, e normal dar totusi ar putea sa ne spuna si noua ministrul de finante sau primarul ori chiar premierul pe care inca nu-l avem sau de ce nu chiar presedintele de unde dracu aceste tarife? Am facut referire la ministrul de finante, mirobolantul Pogea pt ca, din cunostintele mele, salariul minim garantat in romania este de 600RON/luna. Nu gasiti aberant sa i se ceara unui contravenient aproape 400RON/zi amenda pentru o contraventie simpla in conditiile in care exista riscul ca acest contravenient sa castige 600 intr-o intreaga luna? Sa nu uitam ca pentru a-i plati pe cei 370RON/zi, mai intai, "criminalul" care din lipsa de loc de parcare si-a proptit masina undeva oriunde, trebuie sa ii achite pe cei 800RON datorati Robin Hoozilor strazilor libere din momentul in care au pus ochii pe masina ta, parcata ilegal sau nu.
Astfel, mai rău decât românii - care se pot „lăuda” cu un salariu minim de aproximativ 141 de euro -, o duc doar bulgarii, cu un salariu minim echivalent cu 122 de euro.
Salarii mari sunt şi în alte ţări UE, precum Irlanda - unde patronii plătesc minimum 1.499 de lei pe lună - Belgia (minimum 1.440 de euro lunar), Olanda (cel puţin 1.398 de euro pe lună) sau Franţa (aproape 1.340 de euro lunar).
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A massive global search operation was launched and it took 10 days to locate the boys, who had taken shelter on a dry slope deep in the complex.
The second operation started at 11 a.m. local time Monday.
Image: A crowd watches as ambulances transport some of the rescued boysA crowd watches as ambulances transport some of the rescued boys to a hospital on Monday.Lauren DeCicca / Getty Images Three more boys were carried out in the hours that followed, according to a post on the Thai navy SEALs Facebook page.
The rescued boys are likely to stay in Chiang Rai hospital for 48 hours undergoing medical tests to check their health after they swam through dirty floodwaters to exit the cave.
Four boys were previously pulled from the cave on Sunday.
The four boys rescued Sunday were receiving medical treatment at a hospital in Chiang Rai, around 35 miles away.
But after the first four emerged late on Sunday afternoon, hopes began to rise of a fairy tale ending to the ordeal.
All those rescued from the Luang Khun Nam Nang Non cave are to be flown or transported by ambulance to the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital. The boys are being quarantined due to the fear of infection.
"I'm hoping for good news". Soldiers, medics, engineers and volunteers in yellow shirts milled around but the mood was relaxed. Seven boys remain trapped inside with their coach. On top of all the concerns inside the cave, Thailand's rainy season is looming.
It appears that the team were going into the cave as part of an initiation ceremony which tasked the boys with reaching the end of the cave and returning having written their names on the far wall.
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❶Many of the systems are still in use by the postal service today. The same safe and trusted content for explorers of all ages.
Many of his more famous ideas were thus aimed at reforming some aspect of society As colonial agent for multiple colonies, Benjamin Franklin was a loyal and devoted British subject, though he had long supported colonial rights within the empire. He had worked as a mediator, in The sense of innovation and self- reliance that Franklin demonstrates in his narrative and his works are elements that can be embedded in the culture of contemporary America. How does his writing reveal Sometimes called the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment period, both in Europe and in the United States, was marked by a new interest in the potential of the human mind, and resonated with the ideas Whether she was born in Birmingham, England or in Philadelphia, where her parents moved at some point, is unknown.
I think Benjamin Franklin would respect anyone What three reasons does Franklin give for agreeing to the constitution? He clearly had some reservations A brillant and enterprising individual, Benjamin Franklin continues to be an inspiration to Americans. As one of the forefathers of our country, his place in American history and literature is What does Benjamin Franklin mean by this phrase: What this saying, repeated by Benjamin Franklin, means is that it is easier to get people to do what you want by being nice than by being mean.
When Franklin uses the phrase "tart words" he means Give some ideas or an Franklin has also been hailed as the prototypical American Comment on the characteristics that made Benjamin Franklin the most multi-faceted and It was almost as if the Colonists were able to assert their own statement in the Enlightenment without having to be Why is Benjamin Franklin referred to as a renaissance man? Benjamin Franklin is referred to as a "renaissance man" because he had a wide variety of interests and was quite learned in a variety of areas.
The term "renaissance man" refers to a person like In at least four sentences, compare and contrast the literary elements in the autobiographies of There are some points of convergence as well as some distinct moments of divergence in both narratives.
(–90). Few people have done as much for the world as Benjamin Franklin. Although he was always proud to call himself a printer, Franklin had many other talents as well. He was a diplomat, a scientist, an inventor, a philosopher, an educator, and a public cooloload0c.gq one of Franklin’s many accomplishments would have been enough to .
Benjamin Franklin Questions and Answers - Discover the cooloload0c.gq community of teachers, mentors and students just like you that can answer any question you might have on Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin won fame as a writer, a publisher, a scientist, and an inventor. He is best remembered, however, for his leadership in . "Don't speak of England as if it were a foreign country, Nat."' and find homework help for other Literature questions at eNotes. By contrast, Option C is a famous quote from Benjamin Franklin.
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=== Compiling a Git repository === The git driver repositories contain the full Linux kernel tree. So, before working with a driver, a full kernel compilation should be done. The easiest way is to run: $ make oldconfig This will use your kernel old configuration, asking you only about the new features that have added (or moved), when compared with your original kernel version. The first build will take some time. In order to do it, just run: $ make After having the kernel built (and tested), subsequent compilations can be done by running: make M=drivers/media/ or, if the driver is currently at staging, by running: make M=drivers/staging/ With the above commands, only the media (or staging) drivers will be recompiled, if they got changed, saving you some time on testing the new driver features. NOTE: if you added new files or changed the files dependencies, you may need to do a full make. In this case, just run: $ make === Installing the new kernel === If this is the first time you're compiling the drivers, or if kernel version changed from your previous build, you should run a full drivers installation with: # make modules_install install Be sure to be root when installing the drivers. === Installing the new drivers on your kernel === After the first installation, you may just copy the new drivers with this small script: for i in `find drivers/media -name *.ko`; do if [ $i -nt /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/$i ]; then sudo install -m 644 -c -D $i /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/$i || exit -1 fi done Use this for staging driver: for i in `find drivers/staging/$1 -name *.ko`; do if [ $i -nt /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/$i ]; then sudo install -m 644 -c -D $i /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/$i || exit -1 fi done NOTE: If your kernel version changed, you'll need to re-build the kernel again, with $ make olconfig $ make In this case, you'll also need to re-install the drivers ans the kernel with: # make modules_install install === Removing the already loaded modules === This is probably the trickiest part. You can, of course, just reboot the machine, but this may take some time, so Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote a script that unloads all kernel modules from the memory. This script were integrated with the mercurial trees. There's an updated [http://linuxtv.org/downloads/git_tools/rmmod.pl rmmod.pl] version that works with git and with all kernels that put the media drivers at the right location. In order to remove all V4L/DVB drivers from the memory, all that it is needed is to run. as root: # ./rmmod.pl unload PS.: The other options of the script should be working as well, but they weren't really tested, since the only one that is really useful outside Mecurial tree is the capability of removing the drivers from the memory.
Return to Using a git driver development tree.
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Does that mean it is not possible to raise before the flop, since the Pot is 0 at that time?
The term "pot limit" is quite normal, you can look it up on the internet to find explanations of how it works (for exmaple: http://www.pokerstars.eu/poker/games/omaha/). It is the most common form of Omaha. It's something like: the extra amount you can put in equals the size of the pot after you would have checked or called. You can raise preflop because both players pay a blind so the pot is never empty. The visualization currently does not update the pot directly when blinds or bets are made, but the engine does update it.
Now player 3 can raise maximally 35, because if he calls 10, the total pot would be 25 so in total he may bet 10+25 = 35. In case no bets are made, i.e. at the start of a new street, then the maximum simply equals the current pot size.
But what i still don't understand is why the Engine forces me to 'call' in the following example.
Output from your bot: "raise 160"
Engine says: "The action is not re-opened to your bot, raise action changed to 'call'"
This looks wrong to me indeed, your bot should be allowed to raise here. We will take a look at it. Could you please post the history of the hand played before this one? I think it might be relevant.
I put the complete game in a Text-File. In Round 40 the Engine forces me to Call as in the example above.
Output from your bot: "raise 105"
Can you post a link to the game and then specify the round this happens?
Output from your bot: "raise 180"
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*S2M-618.3.1 Mike Rumbles: World Peace-As an amendment to amendment (S2M-618.3) in the name of Mr John Home Robertson, leave out from "reasserts" to end and insert "acknowledges the deep feeling aroused by the State visit of the US President George W Bush; believes that initiating military action in Iraq without a clear UN mandate was wrong, and recognises the opportunity presented by the visit to make clear the public's wish that those who initiated the war have a duty, under the supervision of the UN, to make Iraq safe and give its people the opportunity of a democratic future, that the British citizens in Guantanamo Bay are either charged and receive a fair trial or are sent home to face justice within the UK, and that the promise to continue the unremitting search for peace in the Middle East with security for Israel and justice for the Palestinians must be honoured."
The next question is, that amendment S2M-618.3.1, in the name of Mike Rumbles, which seeks to amend amendment S2M-618.3, in the name of John Home Robertson, on world peace, be agreed to. Are we agreed?
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The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston region.The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division.
An original member of the American Football League (AFL), the Patriots joined the NFL in the 1970 merger of the two leagues.
The team changed its name from the original Boston Patriots after relocating to Foxborough in 1971.
The Patriots played their home games at Foxboro Stadium from 1971 to 2001, then moved to Gillette Stadium at the start of the 2002 season.
The Patriots' rivalry with the New York Jets is considered one of the most bitter rivalries in the NFL.
The Patriots have appeared in the Super Bowl ten times in franchise history, the most of any team, eight of them since the arrival of head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady in 2000.
The Patriots have since become one of the most successful teams in NFL history, winning 15 AFC East titles in 17 seasons since 2001, without a losing season in that period.
The franchise has since set numerous notable records, including most wins in a ten-year period (126, in 2003–2012), an undefeated 16-game regular season in 2007, the longest winning streak consisting of regular season and playoff games in NFL history (a 21-game streak from October 2003 to October 2004), and the most consecutive division titles won by a team in NFL history (won nine straight division titles from 2009 to 2017).
The team owns the record for most Super Bowls reached (eight) and won (five) by a head coach–quarterback tandem.
Currently, the team is tied with the 49ers and Cowboys for the second most Super Bowl wins with five, after the Steelers, who have six.
On November 16, 1959, Boston business executive Billy Sullivan was awarded the eighth and final franchise of the developing American Football League (AFL).
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Lent begins and for those who practice Lent like me know that today begins the 40 days of giving up what you desire. However, in the past, instead of giving up something I desire, I did charitable work, fed the hungry, and donated canned goods for those in need. That is a great alternative to giving up what you desire. I have decided to give up sugars. Which means NO CAKE!!!!!!!!! I'm really asking for it aren't I? Below is a little more clarification of Lent exactly means.
Lent (Latin: Quadragesima: Fortieth) is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later, before Easter Sunday. The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, doing penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement, and self-denial. This event is observed in the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, and Roman Catholic Churches. Some Anabaptist and evangelical churches also observe the Lenten season. Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, marking the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the tradition and events of the New Testament beginning on Friday of Sorrows, further climaxing on Jesus' crucifixion on Good Friday, which ultimately culminates in the joyful celebration on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In Lent, many Christians commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penance. Many Christians also add a Lenten spiritual discipline, such as reading a daily devotional or praying through a Lenten calendar, to draw themselves near to God. The Stations of the Cross, a devotional commemoration of Christ's carrying the Cross and of his execution, are often observed. Many Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches remove flowers from their altars, while crucifixes, religious statues, and other elaborate religious symbols are often veiled in violet fabrics in solemn observance of the event. Throughout Christendom, some adherents mark the season with the traditional abstention from the consumption of meat, most notably among Roman Catholics.
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How do I delete (remove) a directory called $HOME/foo and its content including all files and sub-directories under Unix like operating systems? What is the best way to completely delete /tmp/foo/ with all it’s content?
-r or -R : Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in $HOME/foo/ i.e. delete all directory’s contents including all files and sub-dirs.
-f : Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation, regardless of the file’s permissions.
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What is the best software for creating forms?
Google forms is OK. For email marketing forms, I've also tried Mailchimp's forms. They're easy to use. If you're using WordPress, you may want to check out form plugins such as Gravity Forms.
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This passage mainly deals with the different forms of collecting as a hobby and its psychological aspects. It secondarily deals with the purpose of collecting as a hobby.
The question asks to find which things are collected for making money.
So, that’s our first clue matching with the question.
Here, the word “,say,” has something special. When you find the word “SAY” in the middle of a sentence with two commas, you can be sure that this particular word is indicating an example or instance.
So, the answer is: antiques.
Collectors may get a feeling of _________ from buying and selling items.
Key words for the question: collectors, feeling, buying and sellingIn paragraph 2, you will find a sentence stating buying and selling items, that is: “But there may well be a psychological element, too – buying cheap and selling dear can give the collector a sense of triumph”.
Here, a sense of = a feeling of.
So, the answer is: triumph.
We can understand from the lines that these groups as “collectors’ clubs”. It’s saying that they can exchange information on items while attending those clubs. But the question requires one word only, so we choose the most important word from the sentence – “information”.
So, the answer is: information.
Key words for the question: Collectors’ clubs, similar interests.
Again, in this question we find “collectors’ clubs” as in the question above. Therefore, we must stay at paragraph 3 to find the answer. In the second sentence, we see a phrase “like–minded people”.
way in which collectors come into contact socially.
Here, in the sentence, bring means offer and people who have similar interests means like – minded people.
So, the answer is: contact/meetings.
The first clue of the question is given in paragraph 3.
As the questions in IELTS Reading frequently follow the text’s order, you should look at the following sentences and find the similar words to the question you are practicing. The final sentence of paragraph 3 states another purpose of collecting – which is “the desire to find something special” (Here, the word special means special item). But there is no mention of anything similar to “life-long”. Therefore you must continue reading to find the accurate answer. Interestingly, in the very next sentence, the author says “Some may spend their whole lives in a hunt for this” (“the whole lives = life – long”). Now, we can understand that the writer means to say “Collectors sometimes have a life-long desire/ spend their whole lives in a hunt for a special item.” So, the answer can be both “desire” or “hunt”.
So, the answer is: hunt / desire.
Key words for the question: searching, prevent, their life.
Scanning the sentence two times, you will understand that “This” means “spend their whole lives in a hunt for a special item”. We can also understand that “a hunt” means “searching for”.
So, the author is claiming that if they are not looking for a special item, they will feel “aimless”. Then, in the following lines, we are again told (in paragraph 4 line 7-8), if the collector finds that special item, they may then “feel empty”, because the search has ended with the finding of the special item.
So, the answer is: aimless / empty.
Key words for the question: stamp collecting, facts, different countries.
The writer is clearly of the opinion that stamp collecting has some educational value as it “opens a window to other countries” with things described or shown on their stamps.
So, the answer is: educational.
Key words for the question: male hobby.
Here, boys and men means male.
So, the answer is: trainspotting.
Key words for the question: the number of, buying dolls, grown.
As, in this question, the primary or main keyword is doll, we have to find every part of the text about “dolls”. Paragraph 8 talks about this topic. But it is about the things which interest doll collectors, but there is no information about the number of people buying dolls. No numeric data is given here.
Key words for the question: 16th century, made of, wax and porcelain.
In the same paragraph (paragraph 8) about dolls, the writer also says in the second sentence: “These have changed over the centuries from the wood that was standard in 16th century Europe, through the wax and porcelain of later centuries, to the plastics of today’s dolls.” So, it can be gathered from the lines, in 16th century, European dolls were often made of wood. And the wax and porcelain dolls were popular in later centuries, which indicates the 17th century and the ones after.
So, the answer is: False.
Key words for the question: arranging, by the size, less common.
Paragraph 9 should be focused, which contains information about arranging a stamp collection. In this paragraph, the author only states the reason behind some collectors’ liking to arrange their collection and the types of arrangement. But, you can find no reference to what kind of arrangement is more or less common.
Key words for the question: unusual objects, think.
In paragraph 10, the author says “One reason, conscious or not, for what someone chooses to collect is to show the collector’s individualism”, and gives an example by stating, “Someone who decides to collect something unexpected as dog collars,” (which means unusual objects), they may be passing on their belief (which means they want others to think) that they are interesting as well.
So, the answer is: True.
In the final paragraph, the writer says, “More than most other hobbies, collecting can be totally engrossing, and can give a strong sense of personal fulfillment.” This means collecting needs all your attention and makes you completely satisfied, while most other hobbies could not do the same (more than most other hobbies).
Here, give a sense means give a feeling and inspire means fulfill.
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<id=”copy_small”> A mother and one of her children were killed, a second child was rescued and a third was missing Friday after a car plunged into the California Aqueduct in the high desert city of Hesperia.
<id=”copy_small”> The new “Beauty and the Beast” film out later this month has a gay character, unlike the original, and an Alabama theater has decided not to show the film because of it.
<id=”copy_small”> The Northern New Jersey Council of the Boy Scouts of America will pay $18,000 and apologize to 9-year-old transgender boy Joe Maldonado, who was thrown out of a Cub Scout Pack last year because of organization rules about gender.
<id=”copy_small”> In Ireland, a catacomb-like mass grave discovered at a former Catholic orphanage contains perhaps hundreds of babies’ bodies. Suspicions of unrecorded, unmarked burials at the orphanage have lingered for decades.
<id=”copy_small”> Iraqi soldiers have discovered an underground ISIS training camp located in an abandoned rail tunnel, complete with obstacle course, shooting range, religious teaching area, and medical clinic.
<id=”copy_small”> Former President George W. Bush resisted mentioning current President Donald Trump by name but praised Jimmy Kimmel’s anti-Trump Oscars monologue as “damn good” in an appearance on Kimmel’s late-night TV show.
<id=”copy_small”> Republican Rep. Mike Bost from Illinois said Thursday his use of the term “Orientals” in a statement about why he wouldn’t be attending town halls was a “poor choice of words” and detracted from the overall point he wanted to make.
<id=”copy_small”> Increases in smog in the western U.S. originated from Asia pollution and moved over the Pacific Ocean, a new study published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics shows.
<id=”copy_small”> A sexual assault case caused new National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to be rebuked in 2015 for violating Army regulations in the handling of the two junior officers accused in the assault.
<id=”copy_small”> Costco is raising its membership fees by $5 a year for the basic membership and premium members paying $10 more for the privilege.
Trump, Ryan meet on Capitol Hill CNN – 11 minutes ago Washington (CNN) Donald Trump is meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan and top Republican officials Thursday as the GOP looks to piece itself together after a fractious primary.
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0.959774 |
Improving the effectiveness of any organization remains a high priority for senior leaders.
On the positive side: Excellent efforts have been undertaken within various areas of many companies, and these have served to improve organizational performance. Many firms have improved processes and work flows. Others have admirably improved their strategic market posture. Still others have notably improved systems and methods to effectively drive corporate performance.
However, on the negative side: Many issues still remain that are perhaps rooted in the realm of Product Management. Why is this the case? The reason lies in the fact that there is no standardized plan or accommodation to situate Product Management within the organization.
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0.975551 |
Complete 20 top secret 'missions' to learn about electronics and programming, using nano microprocessor, circuit board, and free, downloadable software.
The DuinoKit Jr. uses top secret 'missions' to introduce electronics and programming. Each mission introduces an electrical component in the kit and encourages manipulation of the controlling code. By the end of the 20 top secret missions, the user will be able to creatively connect components to prototype their own electronic device. An Arduino-compatible microprocessor is used to run the electronics. The Arduino programming software is a free online download.
The DuinoKit Jr. includes a circuit board with built-in electrical componenets, modern microprocessor, connecting wires, and 20 mission cards with additional sub-missions. You provide a computer. Ages 12+.
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0.99417 |
We know four trainers started in Pallet town. Three with one of the three original starters and Ash with his Pikachu. Apart from Gary, were the other two trainers ever revealed in the anime? And was it ever revealed who got which specific starter Pokemon?
First, the things we know: Ash got late and had to pick the reserve Pokemon Pikachu. The other 3 starter Pokemon already got picked, one of which was picked by Gary. At the end of the series, you could see that Gary picked Squirtle.
So the question is, who picked the other 2 starters and where were they mentioned?
Your question really inspired me to find a answer. I found answers on multiple sites.
In the series, Ash and co. encounter a Charmander that was abandoned by its owner. We might infer that the original owner was one of the other two Pallet Town trainers. In addition, the Bulbasaur Ash and co. encounter was raised in the Hidden Village, which the article linked states was a haven for, among other things, abandoned Pokemon. So it appears possible that the other Pallet Town trainers also abandoned his starter Pokemon.
These two mystery trainers' sole purpose in the anime was to be a plot device so that Ash would miss out on all 3 standard starter Pokemon and get Pikachu.
So they invented 2 other trainers to get the remaining Pokemon... and they were referenced a few times until after Ash got the Earth badge and returned to Pallet town. That was when Oak said that the "other two" gave up and flunked out. Thus writing them out of the show permanently... never to be referenced again.
I think the 2 trainers weren't meant to have a big part in this series. They were just needed to give Ash the rare Pokemon everyone wants to have.
Pokémon: Indigo League, episode 10 "Bulbasaur And The Hidden Village": Bulbasaur protects a "spa resort for pokémon" village in which the only human there, a girl by the name of Melanie, takes care of them. By theory, we conclude that Melanie does not want to be a trainer but more of a caretaker for pokémon and may have "abandoned" or set free Bulbasaur to choose his own path. But there is speculation that she might be too old to have recently left Pallet town considering she is as tall as Brock. He falls for her and is older than Ash and Misty.
Pokémon: Indigo League, episode 11 "The Stray": Charmander is left on a rock and his trainer said he'd be back for him. His original owner's name is Damian. Oddly enough he brags about how many pokémon he has on a table in pokéballs - over the 6 pokéball legal limit. By theory, he is one of the new pokémon trainers from Pallet town and chose the Charmander as his first. Starter pokémon are associated with "beginner" which in turn translates to some as "weak". A pokémon you catch and earned is less likely to be discarded because of work you put into it unlike the freely given pokémon at the start. This may be what Damian was thinking of Charmander at the time.
Pokémon: Johto League, episode 269 (or S3E152) "The Ties That Bind": Professor Oak bragged to Ash that Gary had chosen the best starter pokémon in the first episode without revealing which one this might have been. Gary Oak reveals his third pokémon in a match against Ash to be the evolved form of his starter pokémon, Blastoise (originally Squirtle).
Gary Oak was the only other trainer apart from Ash from Pallet town that was carried on through the anime series to be his rival. The other two were simply written off by Professor Oak (ep64) who stated that the other two flunked out of Pokémon Training.
I think Damian, the original owner of Ash's Charmander (now Charizard), was one of the Pokemon trainers from Pallet Town. Firstly, because he wasn't seen at the Pokemon League. Secondly, wild Charmanders weren't seen in the anime much or maybe at all. So it's reasonable to say that he got it as his starter.
I don't know about Bulbasaur, though. It probably belonged to a girl who quit in episode 30 something, because she wanted her Pokemon to just be her companions.
I agree with the Damian being another Pallet trainer. As for the other, it could be that girl in the original theme song that never appears in the anime and she could have had the abandoned Bulbasaur which Ash found.
I can't take credit for this answer as I got it from a YouTube video by ProtoMario.
Professor Oak or any other professor gives trainer a Pokemon with five Poke Balls and a Pokedex. In "Mystery at the Lighthouse", Misty says a trainer can have a maximum of six Pokemon and the others are automatically transported to the place where they got their Pokedex. Now Damien had over 6 Poke Balls and he said all Poke Balls contained Pokemon. So if he had been a trainer who got a starter Pokemon, he would have a Pokedex which would have directly transported all other Pokemon to Oak.
It makes no sense, but in episode 4 "The Challenge of Samurai", he says that all three trainers have passed and he lost to all three. At Cerulean Gym, one of Misty's sisters says that they lost to all trainers from Pallet. So it means they are on the same way. Now, Pewter Gym is before Cerulean Gym or Vermilion Gym. If all three were ahead of Ash from Samurai till Cerulean Gym, surely they passed Pewter before Ash. So Brock should have known them and Damien. But why did Brock act like it's Damien's first time he is meeting?
I know the trainer who picked Charmander. He kinda looked like the same as Ash, but I think its Red. Just saying guys, Red looks like Ash, but I don't know the Bulbasaur one. I saw one of Red's series, his starter was a Charmander, so maybe its Red.
Oh I also found who got Bulbasaur. Her name is Saur.
What would be considered canon in the Pokemon franchise?
Do HM's appear outside the games?
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0.918878 |
Closets: Most homes have a ton of them and they're probably in a major state of disarray!
Book shelves: If you have a library of books, then organizing them can dramatically improve the appearance of any room -- from living rooms and family rooms to bedrooms and home offices.
Junk drawers: Virtually every home has them, and they usually consist of a combination of junk and treasures. In most cases, it's obvious what should be thrown away and what's worth saving.
Garage and tool sheds: These areas are typically in desperate need of cleaning and organizing.
Work bench: If tools, hardware, and supplies are haphazardly piled on top of each other or randomly strewn on your work bench, then finding what you need when you need it becomes increasingly frustrating and time consuming. Taking an hour or so to organize your work bench can make life a lot simpler and more productive.
Spare bedrooms: In many people's homes, that area tends to become a repository for things that either need to be put away, given away, or thrown away.
File cabinets: Being able to find important documents, information, and receipts depends on well organized and clearly labeled files. Ideally, that takes place on an ongoing basis, but if that's not happening, a semi-annual review of your filing system can help keep things in good order.
Basements: Depending on how long you've lived in your house, this might be a project that needs to be spread out over a few days!
Involving members of your family in the cleanup plan can also make it move along faster and feel more like a team effort, rather than a solo undertaking. To avoid procrastination, start small and branch out from there. As the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."
Can you could your entire house clean in just 30 minutes a day? If you let the house cleaning slip It becomes overwhelming. By doing just a little bit every day it will help keep your home neat and clean in no time. Here is a basic plan to keep your home clean in just one half-hour a day. Start in the Kitchen Getting started right after breakfast may be the perfect time to spend a few minutes tidying up.
Tackle the Bathroom After your shower while you are still in the bathroom do a quick clean.
Bedroom Once your back in your bedroom to get dressed for the day, you can make a quick round there too.
Living Room Get the heart of your home in order in a jiffy.
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0.941406 |
The English made at least two unsuccessful attempts in the 17th century to colonise the lands that would later be known as British Guiana, at which time the Dutch had established two colonies in the area: Essequibo, administered by the Dutch West India Company, and Berbice, administered by the Berbice Association. The Dutch West India Company founded a third colony, Demerara, in the mid-18th century. During the French Revolutionary Wars of the late 18th century, when the Netherlands were occupied by the French, and Great Britain and France were at war, Britain took over the colony in 1796. A British expeditionary force was dispatched from its colony of Barbados to seize the colonies from the French-dominated Batavian Republic. The colonies surrendered without a struggle. Initially very little changed, as the British agreed to allow the long-established laws of the colonies to remain in force.
The economy of British Guiana was completely based on sugarcane production until the 1880s, when falling cane sugar prices stimulated a shift toward rice farming, mining and forestry. However, sugarcane remained a significant part of the economy (in 1959 sugar still accounted for nearly 50% of exports). Under the Dutch, settlement and economic activity was concentrated around sugarcane plantations lying inland from the coast. Under the British, cane planting expanded to richer coastal lands, with greater coastline protection. Until the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, sugar planters depended almost exclusively on slave labour to produce sugar. Georgetown was the site of a significant slave rebellion in 1823.
The London-based Booker Group of companies (Booker Brothers, McConnell & Co., Ltd) dominated the economy of British Guiana. The Bookers had owned sugar plantations in the colony since the early 19th century; by the end of the century they owned a majority of them; and by 1950 owned all but three. With the increasing success and wealth of the Booker Group, they expanded internationally, and diversified by investing in rum, pharmaceuticals, publishing, advertising, retail stores, timber, and petroleum, among other industries. The Booker Group became the largest employer in the colony, leading some to refer to it as "Booker's Guiana".
British colonists built the first railway system in British Guiana: 61 miles of standard gauge, from Georgetown to Rosignol, and 19 miles of 3'6" line between Vreeden Hoop and Parika; it opened in 1848. Several narrow-gauge lines were built to serve the sugar industry and others were built to serve the later mines.
In 1840, the British Government assigned Robert Hermann Schomburgk to survey and mark out the western boundary of British Guiana with newly independent Venezuela. Venezuela did not accept the Schomburgk Line, which placed the entire Cuyuni River basin within the colony. Venezuela claimed all lands west of the Essequibo River as its territory (see map in this section).
The dispute continued on and off for half a century, culminating in the Venezuela Crisis of 1895, in which Venezuela sought to use the United States' Monroe Doctrine to win support for its position. US President Grover Cleveland used diplomatic pressure to get the British to agree to arbitration of the issue, ultimately agreeing terms for the arbitration that suited Britain. An arbitration tribunal convened in Paris in 1898, and issued its award in 1899. The tribunal awarded about 94% of the disputed territory to British Guiana. A commission surveyed a new border according to the award, and the parties accepted the boundary in 1905.
There the matter rested until 1962, when Venezuela renewed its 19th-century claim, alleging that the arbitral award was invalid. After his death, Severo Mallet-Prevost, legal counsel for Venezuela and a named partner in the New York law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle published a letter alleging that the judges on the tribunal acted improperly as a result of a back-room deal between Russia and Great Britain. The British Government rejected this claim, asserting the validity of the 1899 award. The British Guiana Government, then under the leadership of the PPP, also strongly rejected this claim. Efforts by all parties to resolve the matter on the eve of Guyana's independence in 1966 failed; as of today, the dispute remains unresolved.
Robert Schomburgk's 1840 commission also included a survey of the colony's eastern boundary with the Dutch colony of Suriname, now the independent nation of Suriname. The 1899 arbitration award settling the British Guiana—Venezuela border made reference to the border with Suriname as continuing to the source of the Courantyne River, which it named as the Kutari River. The Netherlands raised a diplomatic protest, claiming that the New River, and not the Kutari, was to be regarded as the source of the Courantyne and the boundary. The British government in 1900 replied that the issue was already settled by the longstanding acceptance of the Kutari as the boundary.
In 1962, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, on behalf of Suriname, which had become a constituent country of the Kingdom, finally made formal claim to the "New River Triangle", the triangular-shaped region between the New and Kutari rivers that was in dispute. The Surinamese colonial government and, after 1975, the independent Surinamese government, maintained the Dutch position; while the British Guiana Government, and later the independent Guyanese government, maintained the British position.
British Guiana is famous among philatelists for its early postage stamps, which were first issued in 1850. These stamps include some of the rarest, most expensive stamps in the world, such as the unique British Guiana 1c magenta from 1856, which was sold in 2014 for US$9.5 million.
^ "Rare British Guiana stamp sets record at New York auction". 18 June 2014 – via www.bbc.com.
The British Guiana 1c magenta is regarded by many philatelists as the world's most famous rare stamp. It was issued in limited numbers in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1856, and only one specimen is now known to exist. It is the only major postage stamp ever issued that is not represented in Britain's Royal Philatelic Collection.
With its $9,480,000 sale on 17 June 2014 to Stuart Weitzman, this item has broken the world record for a single stamp auction price each of the last four times it has been sold.
British Guiana (now Guyana) competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. Four competitors, all men, took part in seven events in three sports. It was the first time that the nation competed at the Olympic Games.
British Guiana (now Guyana) competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.
British Guiana (now Guyana) competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
British Guiana (now Guyana) competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy.
British Guiana (now Guyana) competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Guyana has competed in 16 Summer Olympic Games. They have never competed in the Winter Games. For the first 5 games they appeared as British Guiana. The country has won a single medal, a bronze in boxing won by Michael Anthony at the 1980 Summer Olympics.
The Guyana Olympic Association was created in 1935 and recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1948.
The Inter-Colonial Tournament was the main first class cricket competition in the West Indies before World War II.
The Governor of British Guiana was the Crown representative in British Guiana. The office existed from 1831 when the colonies of Demerara-Essequibo (see Demerara and Essequibo (colony)) and Berbice united as British Guiana until 1966 when Guyana attained independence.
The music of Guyana encompasses a range of musical styles and genres that draw from various influences including: Indian, Latino-Hispanic, European, African, Chinese, and Amerindian music. Popular Guyanese performers include: Terry Gajraj, Harry Panday, Eddy Grant, Dave Martins & the Tradewinds (Johnny Braff, Ivor Lynch & Sammy Baksh), Aubrey Cummings and Nicky Porter, and Shameer Rahman.
The Guyana Music Festival has proven to be influential on the Guyana music scene.
A privately run packet service for mail existed in British Guiana in 1796, and continued for a number of years. Postage stamps of Britain were used in those days at Georgetown (Demerara) and Berbice. The first adhesive stamps produced by British Guiana were issued in 1850.
British Guiana is famous among philatelists for its early postage stamps, some of them considered to be among the rarest, most expensive stamps in the world. These include the unique British Guiana 1c magenta from 1856, which sold in 1980 for close to $1 million.
In June 2014 the 1856 British Guiana one-cent magenta stamp was sold at auction in New York, to an anonymous bidder, for $9.5m (£5.6m) at auction in New York, a world record.
British Guiana, now known as Guyana, first issued revenue stamps in 1865 and continues to do so to this day.
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0.998362 |
What did you do over the long weekend?
Write three or four sentences telling us what you did over the long weekend, due to the stormy weather.
Wanzetta came over because she had no power at her house. My brother,me, and my mom went to the holiday market. My whole family went to the Willy Wonka play on Sunday. In our neighbor's back yard,a tree fell and hit the power line that caused a mini fire. The fire made our electricity go out, but it only went out for five (5) minutes.
The power was actually out for seven hours.
Me and my friend Zach built a big snow fort in my front yard. I also went to watch a curling game with my grandparents and went and got a new snowmachine with my grandpa.
I had a sleepover with some of my friends. We had Thanksgiving at my friends house.
My sister's friend came, and hung out for about 8hours. We played Mario Cart on the WII.
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0.937355 |
There are several obesity-related health conditions that are associated with obesity and with a BMI of 36.4.
Severe obesity has many of the same causes and some similar risks as obesity, but you will find that they differ mostly with treatment strategies.
Severe obesity is a complex issue and has many causes. It is a serious disease that needs to be prevented and treated. Like obesity, the causes of severe obesity are widespread, but target three main contributors: behavior, environment and genetics.
Developing specific and realistic goals that can be easily measured.
Developing a reasonable plan for reaching those goals.
Dietary interventions and behavioral changes are frequently referred to as lifestyle modification and are the cornerstone of obesity treatment.
Lifestyle modification is distinct from dieting. Dieting implies adhering to a particular regimen for a discrete period of time, whereas lifestyle modification involves implementing dietary and behavioral changes that can be sustained indefinitely to promote health.
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0.936473 |
Elsabe Smit is a well-known international coach, facilitator, author, and public speaker that uses her clairvoyant and intuitive skills in her daily life to assist all of those that she comes into contact with in her professional life.
She has an MBA (Master Business Administration), a MA in Industrial Psychology, and extensive experience as a Business Analyst. Using all her knowledge, skills and competencies, Elsabe helps people to understand the mysteries of life and Love, so that they can regain control of their lives.
What qualifies Elsabe to help you?
Elsabe Smit was born and raised in South Africa, but has since 2000 been living in the UK.
After years of facing numerous personal challenges, involving her relationship with her drug- and alcohol-addicted mother, living with and getting divorced from an abusive husband, being a single mother, being a mistress for a period of time, and then facing unemployment, she one day realised that she had been given the amazing gift of intuition and clairvoyance.
Using her newly discovered gifts, she then rediscovered herself. She learned that all her past experiences, "good" and "bad", were only stepping stones on her life's blueprint towards loving and accepting herself.
Having always having had a keen interest in human behaviour, this discovery took her on a different path, adding the study of life, death and spirituality to her interests. During that journey she explored NLP and embraced Quantum Physics. Elsabe studied some of the world's best acknowledged researchers and gurus in the fields of relationships, health and business.
During her professional life Elsabe's career included lecturing at a South African University, being a Human Resources Manager with a mining house and a multinational security firm, and being a freelance business analyst.
Inbetween the various permanent positions and contracts, she developed her reputation as a sought after author, speaker, facilitator, coach and mentor.
As an author, some of her books are today still in use as prescribed text books for university and college students in South Africa. Other books have been published and are available on Amazon, and some books have been published as E-books which she shares as free gifts.
As a speaker, facilitator and trainer she has presented numerous programmes to groups ranging from a dozen to hundreds of people. The subject matter has been as varied and interesting as her life.
As a mentor, she coached and mentored small business owners, blue-chip executives and employees covering a myriad of professions, employment levels and industries.
Don't forget her contribution to the world of psychics. She's been on various radio and TV shows with international audiences. In addition, Elsabe has done thousands of personal psychic readings for people from all walks of life located in more than 80 countries - including one for a death row inmate in a US prison.
YOU can also Discover yourself and Love YOUR Life.
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0.9999 |
What's happening in City of Gosnells in Perth WA.
The City of Gosnells is located in Perth’s south-eastern suburbs, about 17 kilometres from the Perth CBD. The City of Gosnells is bounded by the Shire of Kalamunda in the north-east and east, the City of Armadale in the south, and the City of Canning in the west and north-west.
Gosnells is named after Charles Gosnells, an early land holder in the area, and director of John Gosnell and Co. perfumery and cosmetic manufacturers.
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0.999983 |
Indonesia (62), China (86) $0.10/min. $0.10/min.
United Kingdom (44), Angola (244), Cabo Verde (238), Guinea-Bissau (245), Mozambique (258) and São Tomé e Príncipe (239) $0.76/min. $0.60/min.
Italy (39), Spain (34), Germany (49), France (33), Sweden (46), Finland (358) $0.85/min. $0.625/min.
- Phone calls are charged per minute.
- ‘Normal hours’ go from 6am to 11:59pm and super-economic hours go from 12am to 5:59am, except for Indonesia whose super-economic hours go from 00h00am to 09h59am.
The International SMS rate to all international destinations mentioned in the table above is $ 0.08.
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0.992534 |
German court sentences former 'Islamic State' member Nils D.
Nils D. has confessed to being a member of IS and traveling to Syria to fight with the group. Judges have given him a reduced sentence, but are still unsure whether he has actually cut ties with the jihadis.
Shortly before the sentence was read out in court, the former "Islamic State" (IS) fighter appeared before the press, hiding his face from journalists' cameras. After the reporters had settled down, presiding judge Barbara Havliza announced the punishment.
"The accused has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison," she said, before describing Nils D.'s childhood and his testimony.
Nils D., 25 years old, grew up in Dinslaken, in Germany's western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. He was a known delinquent, had been convicted of theft and drug dealing and fathered a child when he was 15. Things changed after his cousin, Philip B. introduced him to Islam. Nils D. began reading the Koran and listening to the speeches of the Bonn-based Salafist Pierre Vogel.
In 2013, he became a member of a jihadist group in Dinslaken called the "Lohberger Brigade," which had about 25 members. The same year in August, Nils D. decided to travel to Syria, after hearing from his cousin Philip B., who had already joined IS there. His cousin reportedly blew himself up along with 21 other people in a suicide attack in Mosul, Iraq in 2014.
During the trial, Nils D. admitted to being a member of IS, which Judge Havliza described as the "most brutal organization that ever was."
He gave investigators a detailed description of the group's methods and its structures. He said he worked in a kind of secret police service which traced deserters and as a bodyguard in IS torture prisons, where captives were shut up inside boxes in which they could barely stand. In one instance, Nils D. also helped bury the dead body of a dissenter in a garbage dump.
The German also confessed to swearing complete loyalty to the jihadist group, having been "armed to the teeth," owning a Kalashnikov, a pistol and a suicide vest. However, he said he did not participate in direct combat.
Nils D. returned to Germany in late 2014 and was arrested early the following year.
Havliza justified the relatively short sentence by saying that Nils D.'s admissions had been described by investigators as a "gold mine." She said he would have received a higher punishment had he not revealed crucial information about the structure and inner workings of the terror group.
Quadriga - War on terror - How to combat IS?
The war against the "Islamic State"
Havliza said that Nils D. had confessed to putting his name on a list of people who were ready to undertake a suicide attack in Turkey or Europe. But the senate was not convinced that he returned to Europe with the intention of carrying out an attack. If that were true, he would not have communicated this to investigators, Havliza said.
However, officials are still not convinced that the jihadist has completely cut off ties with IS. Judge Havliza said that Nils D. kept in touch with his contacts in the terror group after his return from Syria in early 2015. He also remains loyal to his Islamist beliefs, does not eat pork and has made his girlfriend sign a "contract" saying their children would grow up as Muslims.
'IS' secret police - The trial of Nils D.
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0.99973 |
Find the limb length for a leaf in a tree.
Given: An integer n, followed by an integer j between 0 and n - 1, followed by a space-separated additive distance matrix D (whose elements are integers).
Return: The limb length of the leaf in Tree(D) corresponding to row j of this distance matrix (use 0-based indexing).
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0.907609 |
Aquaphobia, or fear of water, is a fairly common specific phobia. Like all phobias, it may vary dramatically in severity from person to person. Some people are only afraid of deep water or strong waves, while others fear swimming pools and bathtubs. Some are afraid of entering the water, while others cannot bear to even look at a large body of water. Occasionally, aquaphobia is so pervasive that even being splashed or sprayed with water can cause a phobic reaction.
The most common cause of aquaphobia is a previous negative experience. If you have been through a near-drowning, shipwreck, or other scary occurrence in the water, you are more likely to develop a phobia of water. Learning to swim is a rite of passage for many children, and frightening experiences are common. The way that these situations are handled plays a major role in determining whether a phobia will occur.
The negative experience need not have happened to you specifically. After the film Jaws was released in 1975, reports of water phobia, as well as shark phobia, increased dramatically. In addition, if your parents are afraid of water, you are at a higher risk of sharing their fear.
Like all specific phobias, the symptoms of aquaphobia vary between sufferers. In general, the more severe the phobia, the more severe the symptoms will be. You might shake, freeze in place or attempt to escape. You may develop anticipatory anxiety in the days or weeks preceding an upcoming encounter with water. You might refuse to enter the water or begin panicking as soon as you step in.
Water is an innate part of human life. Swimming is a common activity at summer camps and resorts, on cruise ships and at luxury hotels. Avoiding the water altogether may be difficult or embarrassing.
If your fear extends to water splashes and sprays, it can be even more life-limiting. Fountains are a decorating staple at theme parks, resorts, and even local malls. Some of these fountains perform elaborately choreographed water routines set to music and timed lighting, which may splash bystanders. Water splashes are also a common effect in haunted houses and carnival rides and games.
In some cases, aquaphobia can lead to ablutophobia or fear of bathing. This relatively rare phobia can have a devastating impact on self-esteem. Modern culture places a heavy emphasis on cleanliness and hygiene, and those who do not take a daily shower or bath may be scorned. There is also an elevated risk of both common and rare diseases in those who allow dirt and bacteria to linger on their skin and hair.
Like most specific phobias, aquaphobia responds quite well to treatment. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is especially popular. You will be taught to replace negative self-talk with more positive messages, and learn new behaviors for coping with your fear. You might be given homework assignments, such as filling the bathtub with a few inches of water and stepping in, or visiting the ocean while remaining safely on the shore. Over time, a series of small successes will increase your confidence, allowing you to gradually add new water-related activities.
If your phobia is severe, medications, hypnosis, and other forms of therapy may be used to help you get your fear under control.
The goal is for you to become comfortable around water, and there is no “one size fits all” treatment that works for everyone. Nonetheless, with the help of a skilled therapist, aquaphobia can be successfully managed and even overcome.
Did the Movie Jaws Fuel Shark Phobia?
Jaws made shark phobia a household name and preyed on our most primal fears. Animal phobias are one of the four main categories of specific phobias in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th Ed.), and sharks are among the most feared of all animals. The film used many of the techniques of suspense that were pioneered by Alfred Hitchcock to create an intense experience that was rated #1 on Bravo's list of 100 Scariest Movie Moments in 2004 and #2 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years…100 Thrills.
Jaws was an unexpected smash hit, breaking box office records to become the most successful film at the time. The film's success was in large part due to skillful direction and the finely tuned performances of its cast. However, part of its success can be attributed to its subject matter.
At the time, public opinion of sharks was generally that they were mindless killing machines. Sleek, powerful and easily large enough to see humans as food, the shark has been the subject of primal fear throughout recorded history. While today, advanced research has dispelled many misconceptions about sharks, in the 1970s, the average moviegoer had little reason to disbelieve the way that Jaws was portrayed.
Nonetheless, the average moviegoer did not spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about shark attacks. The beach was a popular vacation destination and while shark attacks were occasionally recorded, they rarely led to widespread hysteria. The film brought the possibility of shark attack to the forefront of people's minds, and the effect was noticeable. From coast to coast, beach towns reported a downturn in tourism following the release of Jaws. Even today, nervous references to the movie can be overheard at virtually any beach.
It is unlikely that Jaws would create a new shark phobia in viewers today. The slasher films of the 1980s have largely desensitized us to onscreen violence. Nonetheless, fear of sharks is a deep and primal fear, and it is possible that in those who are sensitive, Jaws could aggravate the fear, potentially resulting in a full-blown phobia. If you are afraid of sharks, you may want to think twice before seeing Jaws.
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What was the first space probe sent to Mercury?
Little was known about Mercury until the space probe Mariner 10 photographed the planet in 1975. Mariner 10 first approached the planet Venus in February 1974, and then used that planet’s gravitational field to slingshot itself in the direction of Mercury. The journey from Venus to Mercury took seven weeks. On its first flyby of Mercury, Mariner 10 came within 470 miles (750 kilometers) of the planet, and photographed about 40 percent of its surface. The probe then continued into orbit around the Sun, flying past Mercury twice more in the next year before running out of fuel.
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Ques 1. What is Software Life Cycle?
Ques 2. Why is software development life cycle important?
Ques 3. What are the different phases in SDLC?
Ques 4. What is SDLC model? What are the most well known SDLC models?
Ques 5. Describe waterfall software development life cycle model.
Ques 6. Briefly describe the phases in the waterfall model.
Ques 7. Explain the strengths of the waterfall model.
Ques 8. Explain the weaknesses of the waterfall model.
Ques 9. Explain when to use the waterfall model.
Ques 10. Describe V-Shaped software development life cycle model.
Ques 11. Briefly describe the phases in the V-Shaped model.
Ques 12. Explain the strengths of the V-Shaped model.
Ques 13. Explain the weaknesses of the V-Shaped model.
Ques 14. Explain when to use the V-Shaped model.
Ques 15. Describe prototype software development life cycle model.
Ques 21. Briefly describe the phases in the rapid application development (RAD) model.
Ques 22. Explain the strengths of the rapid application development (RAD) model.
Ques 23. Explain the weaknesses of the Rapid Application Development (RAD) model.
Ques 24. Explain when to use the rapid application development (RAD) model.
Ques 25. Describe incremental software development life cycle model.
Ques 26. Briefly describe the phases in the Incremental model.
Ques 27. Explain the strengths of the Incremental model.
Ques 28. Explain the weaknesses of the Incremental model.
Ques 29. Explain when to use the Incremental model.
Ques 30. Describe spiral software development life cycle model.
Ques 31. Briefly describe the phases in the Spiral model.
Ques 32. Explain the strengths of the spiral model.
Ques 33. Explain the weaknesses of the spiral model.
Ques 34. Explain when to use the spiral model.
Ques 35. Describe tailored software development life cycle model.
Ques 36. Describe the importance of selecting team members with a mix of personality types for software development.
Ques 37. Describe the phases of team development in SDLC.
Ques 38. What is the difference between an Iterative model and the Waterfall model?
Ques 39. Explain the Difference between SDLC and STLC?
Ques 40. What are functional requirements?
Ques 41. What are Non-functional requirements?
Ques 42. What is the difference between Incremental model and Spiral model?
Ques 43. Give some practical real life examples of Spiral Model.
Ques 44. Why is Agile so popular?
Ques 45. Can I build a software project without sdlc models?
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The mineral phosphorus is an essential part of the diet. In the human body, it is almost always found in an oxidized form known as phosphate. Bone contains the bulk of the body's phosphate. However, innumerable other substances in the body, such as cell membranes, contain phosphate as part of their structure. In addition, phosphate plays a central role in the fundament energy-producing processes of all life. Indeed, some biochemists believe that phosphate-based reactions in volcanic vents may have occurred before life itself developed, later to be incorporated into the first living cells.
In general, most people consume more than enough phosphorus in the diet. 3]]> It is present in high quantities in milk, other protein sources and grains. Additionally, it is added to many beverages and packaged foods.
In studies of phosphate for enhancing sports performance, a one-time dose of one gram of tribasic sodium phosphate has been the most common dose.
For ongoing use as treatment for osteoporosis, advocates recommend that phosphate be taken as part of a calcium product that includes phosphate, such as milk products or the supplement tricalcium phosphate.
Although it has long been stated that high phosphorus intake due to consumption of soft drinks might lead to ]]>osteoporosis]]> , there is no solid evidence for this claim; in fact, elevated intake of phosphorus may help prevent osteoporosis. ]]>5]]> The reason for that is that bone contains both calcium and phosphate.
In general, phosphorus is a safe nutritional substance.
Individuals with severe kidney disease should avoid phosphorus supplements, just as they must avoid taking too much of many other minerals.
1. Galloway SD, Tremblay MS, Sexsmith JR, Roberts CJ. The effects of acute phosphate supplementation in subjects of different aerobic fitness levels. Eur J Appl Physiol 1996;72:224–30.
2. Tremblay MS, Galloway SD, Sexsmith JR. Ergogenic effects of phosphate loading: physiological fact or methodological fiction? Can J Appl Physiol 1994;19:1–11.
3. Standing Committee on the Scientific Evaluation of Dietary Reference Intakes, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine. Dietary reference intakes for calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin D and fluoride. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1997, 181–6.
4. Workman ML. Magnesium and phosphorus: the neglected electrolytes. AACN Clin Issues Crit Care Nurs . 1992;3:655-63.
5. Heaney RP. Advances in therapy for osteoporosis. Clin Med Res . 2003;1:93-9.
6. Kreider RB, Miller GW, Schenck D et al. Effects of phosphate loading on metabolic and myocardial responses to maximal and endurance exercise. Int J Sport Nutr . 1993;2:20-47.
7. Kreider RB, Miller GW, Williams MH et al. Effects of phosphate loading on oxygen uptake, ventilatory anaerobic threshold, and run performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc . 1990;22:250-6.
8. Bour NJS, Soullier BA, Zemel MB. Effect of level and form of phosphorus and level of calcium intake on zinc, iron, and copper bioavailability in man. Nutr Res 1984;4:371–9.
9. Curhan GC, Willett WC, Rimm EB, et al. Prospective study of beverage use and the risk of kidney stones. Am J Epidemiol 1996;143:240–7.
10. Rodgers A. Effect of cola consumption on urinary biochemical and physicochemical risk factors associated with calcium oxalate urolithiasis. Urol Res 1999;27:77–81.
11. Shuster J, Jenkins A, Logan C, et al. Soft drink consumption and urinary stone recurrence: a randomized prevention trial. J Clin Epidemiol 1992;45:911–6.
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The owner of a 51-year-old downtown business says it will close today and move to the Dayton Mall area.
Dayton Barber College owner Todd LeMaster says police constantly harassed students after a student’s arrest on suspected felony drug trafficking nearly two years ago.
Dayton police deny LeMaster’s claims that the school was targeted.
The college will board up its 28 W. Fifth St. location and reopen Monday at 2741 Lyons Road in Miami Twp. LeMaster says the new facility underwent $300,000 in renovations.
Aside from the felony drug arrest on April 4, 2009, Dayton police Lt. Larry Faulkner said most arrests made of students were for minor marijuana charges and followed citizen complaints.
Faulkner said there have been few problems at the college in recent months.
Police began working with the college and the Ohio Barber Board after complaints about suspected drug activity.
LeMaster agreed that students wouldn’t be allowed to hang out front, but didn’t always keep that promise, Faulkner said. This prompted more complaints and investigations.
LeMaster, who has owned the college for 21 years, said he never formally complained about police to avoid trouble.
Students performed 400 hair cuts a week before problems with police began, LeMaster said.
The school gets about 200 clients a week now. Enrollment dropped from about 75 students to 45.
LeMaster appealed a public nuisance charge filed on April 15, 2009, by the city’s division of housing inspection brought on by the student’s arrest for suspected drug possession and trafficking charges.
The City of Dayton Nuisance Appeal Board upheld the charge and ruled that LeMaster could have known of the student’s criminal activity if reasonable care and diligence had been exercised.
LeMaster said he found the nuisance charge personally painful because he strived to maintain a quality business.
via Barber college owner says move prompted by police harassment.
Let me translate the above paragraph in bold italics for you: “It was a terrible perception having young black males standing on the public sidewalk,” Faulkner said. “The Spaghetti Warehouse, and The Dayton Chess Club and Tri-College Bookstore” and the one resident on E. Fifth Street didn’t like the cigarette butts on the sidewalk.
Had LeMaster put up a little wrought iron fence, and put cafe tables out- served latte – and had at least one white student- he’d still be there.
Despite the City being at least 50% African American, the reality is that the Monarchy of Montgomery County only tolerates enough African Americans to stay in power. We have no interest in strengthening and supporting black business- unless they are large supporters of the political machine or move in the correct circles.
The damage has been done, yet another business in Dayton closes up and moves to suburbia- and we can wait for the next art gallery, coffee shop or tax supported business to take the bait.
Best wishes to Mr. LeMaster. Sorry to see you go.
DAYTON — An unidentified man was shot four times early Friday morning during an argument at Hammerjax nightclub in downtown Dayton, police said.
The victim was taken to Miami Valley Hospital where he was listed in stable condition.
Police responding to reports of a disturbance heard gunshots shortly after they arrived at the nightclub at 111 East Fourth Street at about 2:30 a.m.
via Man shot at downtown Dayton nightclub.
The difference- one club owner hosts birthday parties for Rhine McLin and gives gifts of tile mosaic portraits.
While shootings at nightclubs…. hmmm.
Next Post: Violated, AGAIN- lost count. Chainsaw missing.
Interesting point about the wrought-iron fence and cafe tables there. When Oregon district eateries/drinkeries take over part of the sidewalk, does the city get paid fair value for the property and does the business pay higher property taxes for the bigger footprint?
Interesting you bring up the tables and fence – coincidence that it’s what Rob (Ohio Coffee Company, on the corner of Fifth and Ludlow) has been trying to do for months now? He FINALLY received clearance, but you should ask him about the myriad things he had to do to make it happen.
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My son wants to chat with me using the computer, but I am not sure if that is a good idea. My son is always into the latest gadgets, so I think this may be another one of those things. I have a computer, but is this an idea that is here to stay, so should I spend the money?
You probably already know that you can email just about anywhere in the world. But, you can also use the computer to verbally communicate anywhere in the world for free if you have a broadband (high speed Internet) connection.
One free communication tool is Skype. It is easy to download and use on your computer in order to chat, video call, and text message with other people who have Skype on their computer.
Skype provides free unlimited computer to computer calls to family and friends anytime and just about anywhere. However, if you want to call land lines or cell phones, then there is a fee per month.
Your computer might already have a built-in microphone and webcam, or you may need to purchase a microphone and video attachment for your computer. If you are not sure, then ask your son who may know the hardware specs of your computer since he is into gadgets.
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Našli jsme další záznamy k osobě חיה רבקה גימפלסון.
חיה רבקה גימפלסון je pohřben(a) na hřbitově New Kiryat Shmona Cemetery v místě zobrazeném na níže uvedené mapě. Tyto informace o GPS jsou k dispozici POUZE na stránkách BillionGraves. Naše technologie vám pomůže najít umístění hrobu a také další členy rodiny, pohřbené poblíž.
חיה רבקה גימפלסון was 3 years old when The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,227 passengers and crew on board survive. RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early hours of 15 April 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. There were an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, and more than 1,500 died, making it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time it entered service and was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line. It was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, her architect, died in the disaster.
חיה רבקה גימפלסון was 20 years old when The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression. The New York Stock Exchange, is an American stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at US$21.3 trillion as of June 2017. The average daily trading value was approximately US$169 billion in 2013. The NYSE trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street and is composed of 21 rooms used for the facilitation of trading. A fifth trading room, located at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007. The main building and the 11 Wall Street building were designated National Historic Landmarks in 1978.
חיה רבקה גימפלסון was 30 years old when World War II: Nazi Germany and Slovakia invade Poland, beginning the European phase of World War II. World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although conflicts reflecting the ideological clash between what would become the Allied and Axis blocs began earlier. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most global war in history; it directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of total war, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
חיה רבקה גימפלסון was 36 years old when World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning. World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although conflicts reflecting the ideological clash between what would become the Allied and Axis blocs began earlier. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most global war in history; it directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of total war, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
חיה רבקה גימפלסון was 48 years old when Space Race: Launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. The Space Race refers to the 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US), for dominance in spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations that occurred following World War II, aided by captured German missile technology and personnel from the Aggregat program. The technological superiority required for such dominance was seen as necessary for national security, and symbolic of ideological superiority. The Space Race spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, uncrewed space probes of the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon.
חיה רבקה גימפלסון was 54 years old when John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas; hours later, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One as the 36th President of the United States. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. He served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his presidency dealt with managing relations with the Soviet Union. As a member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy represented the state of Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate prior to becoming president.
חיה רבקה גימפלסון was 63 years old when Munich massacre: Nine Israeli athletes die (along with a German policeman) at the hands of the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group after being taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games. Two other Israeli athletes were slain in the initial attack the previous day. The Munich massacre was an attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, in which the Palestinian terrorist group Black September took eleven Israeli Olympic team members hostage and killed them along with a West German police officer.
חיה רבקה גימפלסון was 73 years old when Michael Jackson's Thriller, the best-selling album of all time, was released. Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he was one of the most popular entertainers in the world, and was the best-selling music artist during the year of his death. Jackson's contributions to music, dance, and fashion along with his publicized personal life made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.
חיה רבקה גימפלסון was 90 years old when Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. The Columbine High School massacre was a school shooting that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, in the Denver metropolitan area. In addition to the shootings, the complex and highly planned attack involved a fire bomb to divert firefighters, propane tanks converted to bombs placed in the cafeteria, 99 explosive devices, and car bombs. The perpetrators, senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher. They injured 21 additional people, and three more were injured while attempting to escape the school. The pair subsequently committed suicide.
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Where was the world’s oldest and most primitive duck-billed dinosaur found?
The world’s oldest and most primitive duck-billed dinosaur, Protohadros byrdi, was discovered in a road cut near Flower Mound in northcentral Texas. When this dinosaur died almost 95.5 million years ago, the middle of North America had a shallow seaway, and northern Texas was a wooded marsh. Scientists are currently trying to determine if this means that the birthplace of hadrosaurs was North America instead of Asia, as previously thought.
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Words to include and avoid in a Perfect Resume.
Creating a resume for seeking a certain job position is not an easy task. There are a lot of things that should be considered and taken care of in order to create a perfect and outclass resume. Employers and hiring managers often judge a person’s personality and dedication towards getting the job through his resume and the way it is written and designed. Therefore it is important to be very careful when making your resume.
Following a specific format for the resume and avoiding several points is a basic understanding and most people know it completely already. However, what people fail to realize and acknowledge is the choice of words that they are using in the resume. There are several words that should be avoided while writing a resume, whereas several other words have a strong positive impact on employers.
Following are some of the words that should be used in the professional CV writing to leave a strong effect on the hiring managers.
Achieved: Gives a strong effect and shows the employers that you have worked hard enough and managed to attain a certain project or task that you were assigned.
Improved: Shows the new employers that your abilities and skill set has caused real and excellent benefits o the previous company you were working with. Since employers want positive results in their own organizations, therefore, it could serve as a great convincing factor.
Trained/mentored: if you have managed and trained any person or group of people in your professional life, make sure to mention it as it gives an idea that you are experienced in managing other people as well.
Managed: Managed is another word similar to trained and mentored however it could also work for tasks and projects. You must mention the management tasks that you have done in your past experiences. Always talk about management achievements in terms of figures as it creates a greater impact.
Volunteered: This word shows your willingness and efforts to step up and initiate several tasks on your own even when those are not your responsibility. It creates a positive impact on the employers in which your personality seems to be of help and challenge taker type.
These, along with other words, like resolved, influenced, and launched etc are strong words which must be used on a resume to impress and attract the hiring managers.
Following are the words that CV writers must avoid at all cost from adding in the resume. These words can leave a negative image of your professional abilities and personality.
Best of breed: This phrase sounds more like a winner American Kennel Club show for dogs. Avoid using such overused and cliché phrases like these which the hiring managers have read and heard multiple times and now find it meaningless.
Go-Getter: This is another cliché term which does not attract hiring managers anymore. Instead of using this phrase, try to mention the situation where you achieved the results solely through your capabilities. Examples are more effective instead of cliché phrases.
Think outside of the box: It has now become an overused phrase in resumes. Instead of using this, go for more powerful words like conceptualized, developed or created and mention the actual situation to provide specifics to the employers.
Go-To Person: This phrase seems to be vague and too generalized. Instead of using this term, think of the situation where you seemed to be the only source of help or the person you helped at several different difficult situations. Mention actual examples because again, examples are much more powerful than phrases.
Value added: This is again a vague term. Instead of using this, go for mentioning the actual examples in which you helped the company grow and added value there. No doubt highlighting such achievements is important but use more impactful words like increased/decreased, under budget, or revenue/profits to give a more accurate idea.
These words hold importance of their own and people do not realize the effects. It is important to understand the effects and importance of words used in CV for describing your abilities and experiences. Hiring managers and employers sometimes look along the lines and the usage of right words add into the chances of the candidate getting hired.
Resumes must be carefully written and professionally designed for an excellent personality image on the employers. There are multiple agencies providing excellent and professional CV writing services to the people who are unable to write a professional resume for an upcoming job position. These agencies have professional writers and designers who make sure to develop excellent quality resumes for the clients.
12 Most Common Questions Asked At Job Interviews In UAE & How To Answer Them!
How Can you Get a High Paid Job in Dubai on a Visit Visa?
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Megan Fox is an American actress, and model.
Megan Fox has sometimes been credited as Mega Fox or Foxy Megan.
Megan Fox was born Megan Denise Fox on May 16th, in Rockwood, Tennessee, United States. Her zodiac sign is Taurus.
As an actress, Megan Fox has performed in movies such as Red Sonja, released in 2011, The Leaving (2011) in which she portrays Amy Beth, Jennifer's Body (2009) in which she portrays Jennifer Check, Jonah Hex (2010) as Leila, The Crossing (2011), and This Is 40 (2012) (character: Desi).
Q: When is Megan Fox's birthday?
Written by Evan Daugherty (screenplay), André Nemec (screenplay), Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters) and Peter Laird (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters), "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (also known as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles V", "Ninja Turtles") is an Action/Adventure/Comedy film, released in the USA on August 08 of 2014 . Megan Fox (April O'Neil) and William Fichtner (The Shredder) are starring, alongside Alan Ritchson (Raphael), Noel Fisher (Michelangelo), Jeremy Howard (Donatello) and Pete Ploszek (Leonardo).
Written by Jeff Schaffer (screenplay), David Mandel (screenplay), and Alec Berg (screenplay), "The Dictator" is a Comedy film, released in the USA on May 16 of 2012 , starring Sacha Baron Cohen (General Aladeen), Ben Kingsley, Megan Fox, John C. Reilly, Anna Faris and B.J. Novak.
Starring Will Arnett, Michael Fassbender (Burke), Josh Brolin (Jonah Hex), John Malkovich (Turnbull), Julia Jones (Cassie) and Michael Shannon (Doc Cross Williams), "Jonah Hex" is an Action/Adventure/Drama film written by William Farmer (story), Tony Dezuniga (characters appearing in magazines published by DC Comics), and John Albano (characters appearing in magazines published by DC Comics), released on June 18 of 2010 in the USA.
Released on September 18 of 2009 in the USA, "Jennifer's Body" is a Comedy/Science Fiction/Thriller film . Amanda Seyfried (Needy Lesnicky) and Johnny Simmons (Chip Dove) are starring, alongside Adam Brody (Nikolai Wolf), J.K. Simmons (Mr. Wroblewski), Amy Sedaris (Toni Lesnicky) and Chris Pratt (Officer Roman Duda).
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is a film directed by Michael Bay, and written by Roberto Orci (story), Alex Kurtzman (story), and Ehren Kruger (screenplay), released in the USA on June 26 of 2009 . Megan Fox (Mikaela Banes) is starring, alongside Shia LaBeouf (Sam Witwicky), John Turturro (Agent Simmons), Rainn Wilson (College Professor), Jon Voight (John Keller) and Josh Duhamel (Captain Lennox).
"Transformers" (also known as "Prime Directive", "The Transformers", "Transformers: The IMAX Experience") is a film written by John Rogers (story) and Alex Kurtzman (screenplay), released on June 27 of 2007 in the USA , starring Megan Fox (Mikaela Banes), Josh Duhamel (Captain Lennox), Tyrese Gibson (USAF Tech Sergeant Epps), Rachael Taylor (Maggie Madsen), Anthony Anderson (Glen Whitmann) and Jon Voight (Defense Secretary John Keller).
Megan Fox and John C. Reilly to be in "The Dictator"!
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According to the 2000 Census, Dona Ana County, New Mexico has a population of 174,682 people. Of those, 118,478 (68%) are White, 2,723 (1%) are Black, and 110,665 (63%) are Latino. However, 1,658 (or 1% of the 174,682 people) are not residents by choice but are people in prison.
A more accurate description would not include the prisoners. This would give Dona Ana County a population of 173,024 with a demographic that is 68% White, 2% Black, and 63% Latino.
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I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question: I am having a little argument with a friend about if capitalism requires winners or losers. He says no, and in fact, that losers hurt the market because they have less money to spend.
I, on the other hand, think that capitalism requires, at least, the opportunity to fail. From there it doesn't seem like much of a leap to say that it requires losers. My questions is, what would a capitalist economy look like if every transaction was a win-win transaction? Would that be an ideal economy? Would it be sustainable? What would happen?
I think that they are having trouble resolving this question because it's a wrong question ("Ask the wrong question, you'll get a wrong answer.") It can be answered trivially, so let me propose a better question, and then answer that.
By definition, every transaction in a free market economy is a win-win transaction. Both parties see more value in what the other party has than in what they have, so they trade. In any other circumstance, one or both value their current circumstances better, and refuse to trade. The only kind of trade you can have in a free market economy which leaves one of the parties immediately worse off is when they are forced to trade against their will.
Leaning heavily on Ludwig von Mises' tome Human Action, remember that the future is uncertain. People's opinions about the future differ. People take actions based on those opinions. All actions involve an element of risk. It's simply not possible in this world for all actions to succeed. Some will pan out, some will come up dry (very deliberately choosing to use those two cliches).
Every transaction is undertaken because the individual perceives a benefit at the time. Therefore, her question is trivially answered "every transaction in a free market (capitalist) economy already is a win-win transaction." I don't think she'll be satisfied with that answer, however, because I don't think the question is right. I think a better question, following from the dispute between her and her friend, is "Does the proper operation of capitalism rely on some people making mistakes?"
The answer to that question is "No". It's more a matter of mistakes being inevitable, and capitalism surviving them. If people didn't make mistakes, then capitalism would work much better ... but then again, so would socialism. Capitalism has a lot of flaws, whereas socialism is perfect in its design and has no flaws. The trouble is that imperfect people have to carry out both systems. Capitalism trades off the constant presence of small mistakes and thereby avoids the big mistakes that a socialist economy will make.
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Ten lessons on ten different musicals. Read about the story and background, watch video clips, work on one printable per lesson, take an online quiz, and explore links to outside sites with other materials to enrich your study. The ten musicals are Annie, Seussical, Cats, James and the Giant Peach, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Mary Poppins, Newsies, Annie Get Your Gun, The Music Man, and The Wizard of Oz.
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0.988014 |
Where to buy ABest MPEG VCD DVD Video Converter for cheap?
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0.974682 |
For other uses, see Protagonist (disambiguation).
Look up protagonist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
A protagonist (from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής (protagonistes), meaning 'one who plays the first part, chief actor') is the leading character of a story.
The protagonist is at the center of the story, makes the key decisions, and experiences the consequences of those decisions. The protagonist is the primary agent propelling the story forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a story contains a subplot, or is a narrative made up of several stories, then each subplot may have its own protagonist.
The protagonist is the character whose fate is most closely followed by the reader or audience, and who is opposed by the antagonist. The antagonist will provide obstacles and complications and create conflicts that test the protagonist, thus revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist's character.
The earliest known examples of a protagonist are found in Ancient Greece. At first, dramatic performances involved merely dancing and recitation by the chorus. Then in Poetics, Aristotle describes how a poet named Thespis introduced the idea of one actor stepping out and engage in a dialogue with the chorus. This was the invention of tragedy, and occurred about 536 B.C. Then the poet Aeschylus, in his plays, introduced a second actor, inventing the idea of dialogue between two characters. Sophocles then wrote plays that included a third actor.
A description of the protagonist's origin cited that during the early period of Greek drama, the protagonist served as the author, the director, and the actor and that these roles were only separated and allocated to different individuals later. There is also a claim that the poet did not assign or create the protagonist as well as other terms for actors such as deuteragonist and tritagonist primarily because he only gave actors their appropriate part. However, these actors were assigned their specific areas at the stage with the protagonist always entering from the middle door or that the dwelling of the deuteragonist (second most important character) should be on the right hand, and the tritagonist (third most important character), the left.
In Ancient Greece, the protagonist is distinguished from the term "hero", which was used to refer to a human who became a semi-divine being in the narrative.
Euripides' play Hippolytus may be considered to have two protagonists. Phaedra is the protagonist of the first half, who dies partway through the play. Her stepson, the titular Hippolytus, assumes the dominant role in the second half of the play.
In Ibsen’s play The Master Builder, the protagonist is the architect Halvard Solness. The young woman, Hilda Wangel, whose actions lead to the death of Solness, is the antagonist.
In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is the protagonist. He is actively in pursuit of his relationship with Juliet, and the audience is invested in that story. Tybalt, as an antagonist, opposes Romeo and attempts to thwart the relationship.
In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Prince Hamlet, who seeks revenge for the murder of his father, is the protagonist. The antagonist would be the character who most opposes Hamlet, Claudius (though, in many ways, Hamlet is his own antagonist).
Sometimes, a work will have a false protagonist, who may seem to be the protagonist, but then may disappear unexpectedly. The character Marion in Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho (1960) is an example.
A novel that contains a number of narratives may have a number of protagonists. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle, for example, depicts a variety of characters imprisoned and living in a gulag camp. Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace depicts fifteen major characters involved in or affected by a war.
In some cases, the protagonist is not a human: in Richard Adams' novel Watership Down, a group of anthropomorphised rabbits, led by the protagonist Hazel, escape their warren after seeing a vision of its destruction, starting a perilous journey to find a new home.
^ πρωταγωνιστής, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library.
^ "protagonist". Dictionary.com, Random House. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
^ Harper, Douglas. "protagonist". Online Etymology Dictionary.
^ "Protagonist - literature". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1 April 2016.
^ a b Storey, Ian; Allan, Arlene (2008). A Guide to Ancient Greek Drama. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. p. 84. ISBN 1405102144.
^ Telias, Rozei (2018-07-06). Moreno's Personality Theory and its Relationship to Psychodrama: A Philosophical, Developmental and Therapeutic Perspective. Routledge. ISBN 9781351021081.
^ a b Bart, M. P. (2018-03-22). History of the Literature of Ancient Greece. Charles River Editors. ISBN 9781632956316.
^ The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, 1947–2005: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Edward E. Ericson, Jr., Daniel J. Mahoney.
^ Moser, Charles. 1992. Encyclopedia of Russian Literature. Cambridge University Press. pp. 298–300.
^ Adams, Richard, 1920-2016. Watership Down. London: Rex Collings Ltd, 1972. Print.
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0.950831 |
There following two pieces of text relate to remembering World War 1. They take different perspectives on war and although they have similar themes some of the ideas and emotions expressed in the verses are very different.
The first is the well-known Ode, first published in 1914. The second poem, Honour the Dead, was written as a hymn in 2005, and takes a more modern approach to remembering and reflecting on the outcomes on the First World War and wars in general. The issue is to consider both of these pieces of text and what they say about WW1 and remembrance.
The Ode comes from For the Fallen, a poem that Laurence Binyon published in London in The Winnowing Fan: Poems of the Great War. The full poem was first published in The Times newspaper on September 21st 1914.
Honour the Dead was written by the New Zealander, Shirley Erena Murray, for the 2005, New Zealand ANZAC day service.
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0.979294 |
Last June and August, I wrote about the link between eating chocolate and improving heart health. Briefly, researchers have long been interested in flavonoids and in particular (at least in so far as menopause goes) in isoflavones. (See soy posts for more on isoflavones). The specific compound or molecule of interest in cocoa (the non-fat component cocoa bean extract or liquor) are flavanols, which are also found in lower concentration in apricots, peaches, apples, green and black tea, red wine and cider). Note that the quantity of flavanols in chocolate depends on manufacturing, including fermentation and roasting, and how much treatment is given to reducing bitterness and improving consistency. What this means is that dark chocolate has the highest concentration of flavanols and milk, the lowest.
What have researchers learned so far?
Flavanols found in cocoa and cocoa powder may be powerful antioxidants and as such, help to mitigate certain factors that contribute to atherosclerosis, such as the formation of plaques in the arteries that lead to stroke and other coronary events. Thus, as antioxidants, they may actually neutralize toxic oxygen species circulating in the bloodstream.
Experimental data suggest that ingestion of flavanols may help to regulate proteins and other compounds that encourage an inflammatory response to leads to heart disease.
Flavanols may also help to stabilize the lining and muscular tone of the arteries and prevent them from narrowing.
Additionally, flavanols may moderately protect against high blood pressures, although studies have been mixed.
Finally, flavanols may help to maintain blood sugar levels and improve the ratio of good to bad fats in the blood.
However, while numerous studies suggest that chocolate may benefit the heart, less clear is whether or not a causal relationship exists. Still, the idea is attractive enough that researchers continue to delve into the potential benefits of functional foods containing flavonoids and in flavonols found in dark chocolate. This time, writing in the journal Appetite, they report on a newly published study that examined the effect of eating flavonoid-rich dark chocolate on a process called oxidative stress, in which the ratio of circulating oxygen free radicals to circulating antioxidants is imbalanced (free radicals are those nasty, unstable molecules or atoms that can wreak havoc and lead to disease, including heart disease, diabetes and high cholesterol).
Over a period of three weeks, 25 healthy men and women were asked to eat 50 g of dark chocolate daily. The women in this particular study were premenopausal, primarily because use of hormone replacement has been shown to modify oxidative stress that has been attributed specifically to LDL (low density lipoprotein, also known as the bad cholesterol). They also omitted any other cocoa products from their diet and tea, red wine and other drinks that were rich in antioxidants.
Not only did eating dark chocolate daily have no impact on body mass index or the subjects’ weight, but it significantly increased the percentage of HDL (high density lipoprotein or good cholesterol) and led to a significant declines in blood fats levels as well. Dark chocolate consumption also appeared to lower markers of oxidative stress and damage to good fats in cells by almost 27% in women in the study, indicating a favorable effect on LDL, a change that was not similarly observed in men. This suggests that eating dark chocolate could possibly benefit women more than men, at least in terms of the heart. And, while menopausal women were not studied, the researchers say that the protective role of dark chocolate could possibly be especially favorable during menopause, when waning levels of estrogen make women particularly sensitive to oxidative damage and heart disease.
As with similar studies, we still don’t have a definitive cause and effect. However, a little dark chocolate has the potential to go a very long way.
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0.999098 |
when should I take a class?
The best time to take a homebuyer education class is when you are starting to consider buying a home. Be prepared and knowledgeable by learning how to navigate the many steps in the process, including creating a budget, understanding your credit score, finding a lender, and the loan process.
Homebuyer education is required for all CHFA borrowers.
Note: CHFA does not accept homebuyer education certificates issued by non–CHFA-approved homebuyer education providers.
After completing the homebuyer education, and post-class housing counseling session (if applicable), you’ll receive a certificate of completion from the education provider. You’ll need this certificate to close on your CHFA loan. For all CHFA programs, you must be under contract within 12 months from the date on the certificate.
Below is a link to the in-person homebuyer education curriculum. Students, please print out the Participant Guide prior to your in-person homebuyer education class to get the most from your experience. Additionally, reviewing the curriculum in advance will give you a more in-depth understanding of the course material, and includes helpful appendices.
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0.974289 |
Entity resolution is a common data cleaning and data integration problem that involves determining which records in one or more data sets refer to the same real-world entities. It has numerous applications for commercial, academic and government organisations. For most practical entity resolution applications, training data does not exist which limits the type of classification models that can be applied. This also prevents complex techniques such as Markov logic networks from being used on real-world problems. In this paper we apply an active learning based technique to generate training data for a Markov logic network based entity resolution model and learn the weights for the formulae in a Markov logic network. We evaluate our technique on real-world data sets and show that we can generate balanced training data and learn and also learn approximate weights for the formulae in the Markov logic network.
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0.999995 |
What are the surgical treatment options available for ovarian cancer patients?
Surgery is known to be one of the main treatments for ovarian cancer. The extent of surgery depends on the spread of cancer. For women who are of the childbearing age and who have the cancer detected at the earliest stage, it might be possible to treat the cancer without removing the ovaries and the uterus. The treatment method of surgery for ovarian cancer has 3 main categories, staging laparotomy, interval cytoreduction, and debulking.
This process is done by laparotomy, which is a vertical incision in the abdomen that is large enough to allow the surgeon to look at the cancerous tissue inside the body. This also leads to the removal of the uterus which is a surgical procedure known as a hysterectomy. Along with the removal of the uterus, the ovaries and fallopian tube is removed and is known as bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy or BSO. Another procedure known as an omentectomy is also done which is the removal of the omentum, as ovarian cancer spreads to this area as well.
If fluid is found in the pelvic or abdominal cavity, the doctor will extract the fluid, send it for laboratory tests to check for cancer cells and wash the area with saline water.
The main goals of this surgery include determining how far the cancer had spread, obtaining an accurate surgical staging and diagnosis.
This is also known as a follow-up surgery and is done for women whose cancer responds to chemotherapy which includes the procedures of laparotomy and laparoscopy. The same surgical protocols are followed as in staging laparotomy.
Debulking is known as the procedure that involves the removal of as much of the cancerous tumor as possible. This procedure is very important when the cancer has spread throughout the abdomen at the time of the surgery. The main goal of the debulking procedure is to leave behind no visible cancer. The procedure is also done to ensure that there is no recurrent cancer and to also ensure the removal of cancer symptoms.
This type of surgery usually performed in very advanced and recurrent ovary case. In this method, maximum removal of disease done followed by installation of hot water along with chemotherapy drug inside the abdominal cavity (HIPEC). HIPEC is performed with the help of a machine.
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0.999933 |
We can think of five reasons that make Yourdrive the right choice.
Value: Owners set their own prices and have minimal overheads so prices are always competitive.
Choice: There are more locations for collecting vehicles and more variety in models and types of vehicles to choose from.
Flexibility: Rentals range from hours to weeks.
Simplicity: The Yourdrive system is designed for repeat use, so once your account is approved you can hire a car with the click of a button. No annoying rental car forms to fill out.
Economy: The majority of your money goes straight to your neighbour down the street rather than a big corporate rental car company.
Meet nice people. 7. It’s good for the environment. 8. You take control of your adventure.
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0.999916 |
President Trump Donald John TrumpImpeachment? Not so fast without missing element of criminal intent Feds say marijuana ties could prevent immigrants from getting US citizenship Trump approval drops to 2019 low after Mueller report's release: poll MORE on Friday unleashed a barrage of early-morning tweets aimed at Robert Mueller Robert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probe MORE, blasting him as a conflicted and biased special counsel before Mueller is expected to file new documents in the Russia investigation.
The president called the investigation "a total Witch Hunt" and also sought to undermine the credibility of his own deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein Rod Jay RosensteinImpeachment? Not so fast without missing element of criminal intent Collins: Mueller report includes 'an unflattering portrayal' of Trump Holder: Any 'competent' prosecutor could win obstruction case against Trump MORE, who had been overseeing the probe, by arguing he is "totally conflicted."
"Robert Mueller and Leakin’ Lyin’ James Comey James Brien ComeyImpeachment? Not so fast without missing element of criminal intent Dem lawmaker: 'Quite clear' Trump committed impeachable offenses The Memo: Mueller's depictions will fuel Trump angst MORE are Best Friends, just one of many Mueller Conflicts of Interest," Trump tweeted, referring to the man he fired as FBI director.
In a subsequent tweet, Trump asked if "Robert Mueller’s big time conflicts of interest [will] be listed at the top of his Republicans only Report."
He also argued that the Justice Department should investigate 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonImpeachment? Not so fast without missing element of criminal intent Former Bush assistant: Mueller report makes Obama look 'just plain bad' Seth Rich's brother calls for those pushing conspiracy to 'take responsibility' MORE, the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Foundation.
"Will all of the substantial & many contributions made by the 17 Angry Democrats to the Campaign of Crooked Hillary be listed in top of Report. Will the people that worked for the Clinton Foundation be listed at the top of the Report?" he wrote.
The tweets come on what is expected to be a momentous day in Mueller's long-running investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
His office is expected to submit new filings later in the day detailing the status of cases against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort Paul John ManafortEx-Obama White House counsel's trial set for August House Dem calls on lawmakers to 'insulate' election process following Mueller report New normal: A president can freely interfere with investigations without going to jail MORE and Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, both of whom pleaded guilty to separate charges.
Trump's tweets break a relatively brief period of silence on the Mueller probe during memorial services for former President George H.W. Bush, who died on Nov. 30.
For the second time in recent weeks, the president turned his fire on Rosenstein. He asked if the No. 2 Justice Department official's "scathing document written about Lyin’ James Comey" will be included in Mueller's final report on the probe.
Referring to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant signed by Rosenstein against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, Trump asked, "Isn’t Rod therefore totally conflicted?"
The debate over whether Rosenstein should recuse himself has long hung over the Russia probe, but the deputy attorney general said he has consulted with appropriate officials and that his position did not present a conflict.
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, a Trump loyalist, is now believed to be overseeing the probe in the wake of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsThe Memo: Mueller's depictions will fuel Trump angst Collins: Mueller report includes 'an unflattering portrayal' of Trump Trump frustrated with aides who talked to Mueller MORE's ouster.
The president last week retweeted a photoshopped image showing several Trump opponents in jail, including Rosenstein, suggesting they should be locked up for treason.
The president also took aim at top Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann, calling him a "horrible and vicious" prosecutor who "wrongly destroyed people’s lives, took down great companies."
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0.971459 |
Which country currently(will) exerts the most global economic influence(in the future)?
Respondents believed the U.S currently wielded the most economic influence, but saw China replacing the U.S. as the greatest global economic power in the future.
61.4% of Koreans cited the U.S. as the greatest global economic influence currently, while only 25.4% named China. However, when asked which nation would hold the most economic influence in the future, a striking number of people switched their response from the U.S. to China. 60.4% of Koreans believed that in the future China will exert the most global economic influence, while 23.9% named the U.S. This change was visible regardless of generation. The reason for the difference in perceived current and future influence is that over half (56.2%) of those who cited the U.S. in the first question switched to China for the second question. In contrast, 90.9% of those who cited China in the first question also cited China in the second question.
The sample size of each survey was 1,000 respondents over the age of 19. The surveys were conducte d by Research & Research, and the margin of error is ±3.1% at the 95% confidence level. All surveys employed the Random Digit Dialing method for mobile and landline telephones.
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0.926255 |
Parlez-vous Français? Learning at school was never like this.
L'Ecole des Trois Ponts in Roanne offers students the chance to perfect their language skills in style.
The quickest and most effective way to leam French is to go to France and speak nothing else. The most pleasant way to do this would be to stay at a château in beautiful surroundings with people who know how to help you. This is exactly what you can find at the Château de Mâtel near Roanne in the Lyons area. Living and studying there, speaking French within the household as well as at classes, and with time to visit the attractions of the region and try their French on the locals, students advance quickly.
The château is a 17th-century mansion set in 13ha of forest and park, so that staying there one feels in the depths of the country. However, the charming small city of Roanne is five minutes' drive or 15 minutes' bicycle ride away (the school has bicycles for students to use) and has among its attractions the world-famous restaurant Troisgros, holder of three Michelin stars. The entire Roanne area is noted for its gastronomie riches and has any number of good restaurants as well as medieval villages, castles, churches and abbeys, fine craftwork and pretty mountain and river scenery. The Côtes Roannaises vineyards and wine cellars are on the outskirts of the town and, as the area borders the Beaujolais and Burgundy wine regions, guests at the château can take one or two day car trips to explore these. In winter, the Dorels take their guests to the nearby ski area on Saturdays, and the rest of the year, guests can swim in the château's heated outdoor pool, play tennis on courts five minutes' bicycle ride away, ride from a nearby equestrian centre, or golf on the local course.
Classes in beginner, intermediate and advanced level French are available at Château de Mâtel, and there is also an intensive course in business French. The school takes about 20 people, and classes are small - no more than six people in the ordirary language courses, no more than two for business French, in order to maximise speaking time for each student. The emphasis is on conversational skills, but reading and writing are not forgotten. Ordinary students take morming classes and have afternoons free for sightseing or sporting activities and, an important part of the leaming process, talking with local French people in shops, cafes and so on. Business-French students take five hours' lessons a day and, in addition to language, learn about French business practice, commercial documents, etc, pay visits to factories, banks or other businesses related to their field and meet French professionals in the same line of business.
Two evenings a week, there are informal classes, often taking the form of games in French. Local families invite intermediate and advanced students to come to aftemoon tea and dinner - an excellent way to polish ones conversation. Weekends are free for sport, sightseeing and excursions farther afield.
Courses of one, two or four weeks, or of three months, are offered at the Ecole. It takes three months for an absolute beginner to become a fluent French speaker, but shorter courses are an excellent way to start holidays off - the school aims to help guests get their French to a level that will allow them to go off and travel around France on their own. Margaret O'Loan and René Dorel are seasoned professional language teachers, and the business-French course is taught by Gabriel Coquard, who has taught business practice in France and French at US universities and business schools. Students staying for longterm courses can be prepared for the Alliance Français examinations, and guests are given a certificate at the end of their courses, stating the content and duration of the course (which is useful for tax-declaration purposes).
In addition to the language classes, L'Ecole des Trois Ponts organises participation, for interested students, in evening cooking classes at a prestigious professional school in the neighbourhood, or in evening interior décoration classes, also nearby.
Most students are aged between 20 and 50, although the school has also had teenagers and retirement-age people studying there. The classrooms are comfortable sitting rooms and guest rooms are pretty and homey. Guests and staff eat together; meals are family-style cooking typical of provincial France. 0nly French is spoken at the table, and staff always speak to guests in French - although, as all fluent in English as well, any problems can dealt with. Students who stay longer th three weeks are requested to speak to each other in French only from the 21 st day.
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0.976875 |
28th October 2009Paul Firth on One plus one equals, erm, one?
In which Paul counts the cost of a fourteenth corner.
One plus one equals, erm, one?
The lawyer still inside me – I’ve been retired nearly four years now – can’t resist a quick look at Lee Bullock’s suspension. It’s not the rights and wrongs of whether he should have been given his two yellow cards against Hereford – Bullock himself is quoted as saying it was his own fault he was sent off. It’s not even the rights and wrongs of any of his earlier yellow cards, especially that one from Mr Attwell at Morecambe for an innocuous foul on the half-way line, when Mr A didn’t wave his piece of plastic after several more serious offences were committed in more dangerous areas of the pitch.
What gives me pause for lawyerly thought is the received assumption that Bullock will be serving just a one game suspension, despite having been sent off and, in the same game, having been given his fifth yellow card of the season to date. I pause further to wonder whether this ‘received’ assumption might yet be changed by a letter not yet received from the Football Association, perhaps one of the thirty million somewhere in a Royal Mail sorting office. More likely, these days, even the FA have access to e mail and fax machines. So there’s still the possibility of a different length of suspension.
But let me carry on with the one game assumed ban and quote a passage or two from the F A’s own disciplinary procedure. Paragraph 6(a) (i) of that procedure covers five recorded cautions – ‘suspended automatically for a period covering one first team match’. Nice and easy, then.
So, now let’s put the two pieces together and see what happens. The two-yellows-in-one-game suspension starts ‘immediately’ and the five-bookings suspension doesn’t start for seven days. No problem there, then, since our next game just happens to be seven days after the Hereford game that gave rise to both suspensions.
But just think how it might have been if the fixture list had been only a fraction different. Suppose we’d been playing Port Vale in the JPT during this midweek. If that had been the case, the two-yellows-in-one game suspension, starting immediately after the Hereford game, would have ruled Bullock out of the midweek fixture. But the five-bookings suspension, commencing on the seventh day following the date of his last offence, wouldn’t have kicked in until seven days after Hereford, i.e. at Macclesfield. The fixture list and the FA’s procedural rules would then have combined to ensure that Bullock served a two game suspension.
So, I ask myself, can it be right that the length of suspension is determined by a quirk in the fixture list? Well, to me the obvious answer is ‘No, that can’t be right.’ And that takes me and my judicial mind right back to where I started. I was used to dealing in what legally speaking are called concurrent and consecutive terms. In short, three months and three months concurrent still add up to three months; three months and three months consecutive add up to six months. I would only use concurrent sentences where the offences arose out of the same circumstances. By definition four of Lee Bullock’s cautions arose out of different circumstances in different matches.
Does one ‘first team game’ and ‘one first team game’ add up to one or two? If the answer is ‘It depends whether you have a first team game in less than seven days’, then the rules are pretty poor and, I would say, unjust. I doubt if the answer does depend on that, although I may be being kinder to the F A than they deserve. I believe the rules should mean that one plus one equals two, no matter when your next first team game is due to be played. I doubt if the F A deal in concurrent sentences. And that means that Lee Bullock should miss Macclesfield and Notts County. But the FA are the only people who really know the answer – unless, of course, Lee Bullock knew all along and deliberately got himself that second yellow a few minutes from the end!!
It won’t be long before the FA tell Bradford City either that their own rules are unfair or that Lee Bullock will miss two games. Anyone ready to place their bets now?
More about Colin Webster, Lee Bullock, Referees, Stuart Atwell, The FA.
Wasn’t it Paul Jewell who said ‘There are lies, damned lies, statistics and Bradford City’? Oh no, it was something else that Jagger said. Back to that in a minute. No, according to Mark Twain it was Benjamin Disraeli who made that comment – or at least he would have done if he had still been alive back in 1903.
But have a look at the official club website and you’ll see some quite alarming statistics from Saturday’s game. They say, for example, that City, starting a home game as second in the league, had just 29% of the possession, had just half of the number of shots on target as the Daggers and won 4 corners as against their opponents’ 13. Those are the kind of statistics that don’t lie.
At least now I know why the manager keeps his hair as long as it always has been. It’s so that nobody realises how much of it he tears out whenever we gave the ball away – which happened roughly every thirty seconds yesterday. He will soon be as follicularly challenged as the rest of us, especially when we concede possession about 25 yards from our own goal.
Personally, I wouldn’t have minded the Daggers’ corner count being 14, if the extra one had been the ball TJ could just have knocked out of play instead of letting it be put back across the face of Evans’ goal, thereby setting up the equalizer. But come on, be fair to Evans. He’d kept us in it and there was very little he could have done to prevent that goal.
Of course, what the statistics don’t tell you is that, for all that City were outplayed up and down the pitch, there was only one team who were ever going to score that opening goal. I don’t suggest it was fated or anything like that. What I mean is that it took a passing team, operating at pace and a real quality goal scorer to create and score a goal like that. We’ve done it before – Rochdale comes to mind – and we’ll do it again this season. There are ways of soaking up pressure and still scoring goals and we seem to have some of the best ways. They’re called Boulding and Thorne.
Even allowing for the justice in the equalizer, City could have lost the point gained. Apart from the referee, who else thought it wasn’t a penalty? And what about the reaction of the Dagenham players? The last time I saw that sort of scrum round the ref was when Andy D’Urso had the temerity to award a penalty against the home team at Old Trafford and Roy Keane’ eyeballs were several inches away from the sockets. Wasn’t that exactly what the Respect campaign was all about? So how come not a single yellow card resulted from the cavalry charge?
Ah yes, that was what Paul Jewell said. After the recent Derby game against Nottingham Forest he gave the referee 100% in his report card, because he wanted to see if anyone actually read the numbers awarded by the managers. That was the game where the ref gave a penalty for a handball that wasn’t, where quite literally a one second pause would have solved everything, that being the time it took for Derby to put the ball in the net. The penalty was saved and even the second time Derby put the ball in the net the ref found a push, although he couldn’t say by which Derby player. Replays showed two or three from Forest, none from Derby.
I just wondered how a Premiership ref couldn’t book anyone for that confrontation. Then I thought of the absolute howlers he’s made already this season, each of which has cost points for different teams and, for Aidy Boothroyd, a slap on the wrist for his reaction. But yesterday there were no TV cameras, save for the highlights package which will never show the incident. Or maybe Mr Atwell finally figured that, when you have just dug that hole a little deeper, there really must come a time to stop digging. I could almost wish for the return of Graham Poll.
More about Aidy Boothroyd, Andy D'Urso, Dagenham & Redbridge, Derby, East Midlands Derby, Graham Poll, League Two, Michael Boulding, Paul Jewell, Peter Thorne, Referees, Rhys Evans, Roy Keane, Stuart Atwell, TJ Moncur.
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0.999754 |
Step 1Cut each rib strip between the bones or through the cartilage into individual riblets. Combine the onion, sugar, pepper and 2 tablespoons of the fish sauce in a bowl. Add the riblets, cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Step 2If necessary, adjust your broiler rack so that the ribs will cook as close to the flame as possible. Heat the broiler for 30 minutes to get it nice and hot.
Step 3While the broiler heats up, take the ribs from the refrigerator and let them sit at room temperature to take the chill off. Place them on a baking sheet and broil until they're tinged brown, about 4 to 6 minutes per side; a little charring is fine. (You'll hear a pleasant sizzle as this happens.) Alternatively, cook the ribs over high heat on a gas or charcoal grill, which imparts deeper flavor. The point here is to sear the riblets to obtain a roastiness and intensify the overall color.
Step 4Place the riblets in a saucepan with the Caramel Sauce, the remaining 2 tablespoons of fish sauce and enough water (about 2 1/2 cups) to cover most of the riblets. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer. Cover and let cook for 40 minutes; the ribs should simmer vigorously, sending steam out from under the lid.
Step 5Remove the lid and continue to simmer until the ribs are tender (you can easily pierce the meat with a fork or knife tip), about 20 to 30 minutes. If there's cartilage, you should be able to bite through it, with a slight crunch remaining. This latter phase of cooking allows the sauce to reduce and concentrate in flavor, and deepens the color to dark reddish brown. In the end, there should be a fair amount of sauce left.
Step 6Turn off the heat, tilt the saucepan so the liquid goes to one side and use a spoon or small ladle to skim the fat from the top. Adjust the flavors with extra fish sauce, if necessary. Garnish with the chopped green onion and serve with lots of steamed rice.
429 calories; 773 mg sodium; 104 mg cholesterol; 26 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 20 grams carbohydrates; 27 grams protein; 0.36 gram fiber.
Traditionally, the riblets were grilled over charcoal to sear in the flavors before simmering. In our family, we take an easier route by broiling them. I've presented all the options below. Here are some additional things to note: Ask a butcher to cut the ribs, as this is not an easy home project. To remove the fat, the ribs may be prepared a day ahead and refrigerated. The congealed fat can be easily lifted off the surface. The onions may be prepped in a mini-chopper.
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0.999997 |
I made these gumpaste butterflies as part of a butterfly wedding cake decorations. I made lots of them, in three different sizes, dusted them in violet food dust and combined them with gumpaste hydrangea flowers to decorate a 3 tier wedding cake.
I must say, though it looks like a lot of work, once I got the hang of it, it was pretty fast and the end ,off course was lovely!
Gumpaste - I used Satin Ice gumpaste in white. I love using Satin Ice gumpaste as it can be rolled thin and dries well, making it easy to work with.
Cardboard - I am listing this as one of the supplies for making gumpaste butterflies because indeed it is a crucial one. I used the cardboard to hold the butterflies' wings in a natural folded position until they are dried.
Food color dust - This dust is used to color the butterflies. I used Squires Kitchen Violet dust to color the butterflies, so that it matches the hydrangea flowers that were also used as part of the butterfly wedding cake decorations and the theme color - dark purple.
First of all, I prepared the card boards for drying the butterflies. To do this, I took a piece of rectangle cardboard and folded it into a "W" shape. I folded the cardboard down the center and then fold both ends of the sides in the opposite direction to form the "W".
Once the card boards were ready, I started on the butterflies. I rolled the gumpaste thin. As in all my other project, when working with gumpaste, I do it in batches to avoid the gumpaste from drying out while working on it.
I then dusted a little cornflour on the gumpaste and placed my butterfly cutter on the rolled gumpaste, pressed it and then without lifting it, rubbed it across my work table to make sure the butterfly is completely detached from the rest of the rolled gumpaste.
At this point, the cut out butterfly would detach automatically from the cutter (since I have dusted it with cornflour earlier). However, should that not happen like the case below, I use my needle tool to gentle remove the butterfly from the cutter. To do this, I normally poke the side of the cut out and pull it out gently until a small corner of the butterfly wing is detached from the cutter.
I then slide the needle tool as shown and gently remove the rest of the butterfly from the cutter.
Once the butterfly was completely detached, I gently lifted the butterfly and positioned it on the folded cardboard. In doing this, I made sure the butterfly body is positioned right in the center of the fold. I left the butterfly aside (overnight) for it to dry completely.
Once the butterflies are all set and dried, I removed them from the cardboard for dusting.
I used a medium sized brush and violet food dust.
Since I wanted the color to be prominent in the middle and fade off as it moves towards the end of the wings, I dipped the brush into the dust and started by dusting the butterflies' bodies. I then gradually moved towards the end of the wings.
This was how it looked like with the center dusted.
Next was the butterflies' outline. To do this. I used the same brush, dipped it in the dust very lightly and then gently applied the dust on the sides of the butterflies, as shown.
And this was how one of the butterflies looked like upon completion of the dusting process.
Since the butterflies were not wired, I attached them to the cake with some fondant glue. You can also use shortening but I prefer fondant glue as I wanted to butterflies to be totally secured to the cake.
And that was how I made gumpaste butterfly wedding cake decorations for a butterfly wedding cake.
And that was it. Hope you enjoyed reading how I made the gumpaste butterfly wedding cake decorations.
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0.997779 |
went on sporadically for the time we lived there.
whatever in the kitchen and then making her way back upstairs.
the tube off, turned the lights off downstairs and made my way to bed. I climbed into bed and made the comment, ''you could have woken me up when you came downstairs. '' She replied ''I never went downstairs. '' That entire incident outright legitimately positively sounded as though the wife walked down the steps into the kitchen and back up the steps again.
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0.999928 |
Pregnancy App Article: "12-week dating scan"
This is the first of your routine scans and despite the name, can be done between 8 and 14 weeks.
It's also known as the dating scan because one of the things it can pinpoint is your baby's exact gestation, so you'll have a better idea of your baby's estimated due date (EDD).
Before the scan you'll be asked to drink lots of water so you have a full bladder - this puts the uterus in a better position to be scanned. This can be a tad uncomfortable, and if your scanning clinic has particularly long waiting times you may find yourself crossing your legs and trying to ignore the flushing sound from the nearby loos.
You'll be asked to lie down for the scan itself, and the sonographer will rub some sticky, clear (and cold!) jelly over your abdomen.
A hand-held gadget called a transducer is moved over your belly and bounces high-frequency sound waves around, to create a picture on the monitor. Don't worry, it's painless and won't harm you or your baby.
The clarity of the picture depends on a number of things, and it may not be immediately obvious which parts of your baby you're looking at. The sonographer will be able to help you work it out, though he or she may need to prod your belly a bit to 'encourage' the baby to position themselves for their big close-up.
Having to drink all that bloody water before a scan only to find there's a delay before your appointment and then you feel like you're going to explode. I'll never forget one nurse asking me (when they were nearly 30 mins over time), 'Do you think you could just pop to the loo and let just a little bit out?' Errrr - NO!
Age and size: the exact stage of pregnancy will be calculated from the measurement made from crown to rump. This will give you a more precise estimated due date.
Number of babies: are you expecting one baby, twins or <gulp> more?
Development and growth: the sonographer will check your baby's limbs and spine for any visible abnormalities. They will look at the head, limbs, feet, heartbeat and whether the major organs are developing as they should.
The health of the placenta and its position, which may have implications for later in the pregnancy.
Seeing the first picture of your baby is a great milestone, and often the moment when it all feels 'real'. Some hospitals will sell you a copy of your scan image so you can go and show everyone the very first photo of your sproglet-to-be.
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0.984274 |
Como se escreve Ele é criativo. Ele está pintando. em inglês?
He is strong. He is painting.
She is creative. She is painting.
He is creative. He is dancing.
He is creative. He is painting.
She is blonde. She is painting.
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0.925115 |
Write a song for Abba, what a great idea!!
Evergreen music..Thank you for the music gifted by ABBA to the world.
"Long live ABBA Forever Forever"
gr8 site and nice people here. I wanted to revive what i had listened to years before, thats how i chanced on this site. Wonderful. ABBA shall remain evergreen!!
Hi ABBA fans this site is all about the greatest band ever does everyone agree?
ABBA is the best I could listen to their songs all day every day nonstop!!
Because I it find good which you also a abba fan am!!!
u really wanna chat with me?...can I ask why?!
ur english is awful....'cause I don't catch ur drift with "I C Q"!!!...by the way I'm from canada.
Freddy, seria interesente que se informara un poco mas para asi poder hacer una critica basada en hechos. Primero yo tampoco se mucho de ABA, se de ABBA uno de los mejores grupos de musica POP de todos los tiempos, dicho no por mi, pero por las criticas mundiales( no solo Europeas) de la musica. Tambien tuve la oportunidad de disfrutar de The New Kids On The Block, pero comparar...conocimiento musical, vocal,e instrumental entre otros.....?
ABBA one of the greatest POP groups ever.
There's plenty of reliable information for you to appreciate their contribution not only to the music but to the culture generally speaking.
haber no se mucho de ABA pero prefiero THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK valla esos si que cantan.
Sry for my bad english I'm from Germany!!
I really love them too.I was always wondering that "am I the only teenage girl that love them.maybe I'm so classic!" but I know that they have lot's of teenage fans.i'm so glad!
abba has made history, it's the best pop-group i can imagine!!
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0.999811 |
What's the recipe for a perfect weekend?
Eight extra hours off work on Friday Dinner with a special sisterA perfect night under the stars, chatting with friends, and listening to some great tunes at Fairport BrewingGetting up early on Saturday and getting some delicious bagelsA trip to Canandaigua to get some sweet yellow, orange and white pansies for the garden, followed by lunch at PUDGIES!A full day of yard workDinner with the familyAn evening walk with Pup Enjoy each ingredient as it happens. Add a dash of sunshine, and throw in a thunderstorm or two.
BONUS: Realize it's only Saturday night and there's a whole other day ahead! More yard work, and the promise of a nap. What a perfect weekend!
the temperature dropped from 80 and humid to 48, with pouring, cold, non-stop rain. WHAT A BUZZKILL.
Presenting: Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Wilkins!
They are wed! Knot-tied! Married!
What a wonderful wedding weekend it was! Beaming groom, beautiful bride, handsome wedding party. Nic and Carol, along with the Wilkins family hosted a great event that started with rehearsal on Friday night at my old church, St. Mary's. After rehearsal, we headed over to Patrick's parent's place for a delicious (although chillingly cold ~ what's up with the cold weather?!) picnic, after which we headed back to the hotel and Cam and Alex, Annalisse's beau, went swimming.
We stayed at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Hotel (about 10 miles east of Massena), which was really, really nice, with great accommodations and amenities. It really felt a little like a destination wedding with very nice rooms and a nice pool and spa area. Most of our family, and Patrick's as well, stayed right at the hotel, which also played host to the reception, so it was very convenient.
Hello! It's been a while. How have you been?
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0.98928 |
How to choose the best Wi-Fi router for 2018 with all criteria like security, lifetime and more?
To choose the most complete router, in terms of performance and reliability, here are six criteria to consider.
The router market is highly scalable, as is the hardware market. New models of routers are offered almost daily to consumers. Depending on the brands and features, you can find dual-band or tri-band Wi-Fi routers.
Here are the top 7 enterprise wireless router venders.
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0.937923 |
Alumni Hall is the on-campus basketball gymnasium at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It was built in 1955 and was the home court for the school's men's basketball program until 1972. The gymnasium has hosted the Providence College women's basketball team since its inception in 1974.
Alumni Hall was built in 1955 to suit the needs of the men's basketball program, under the direction of then-college president Rev. Robert J. Slavin, O.P. The team had previously played either off-campus or in a small gymnasium in the basement of Bishop Harkins Hall (a space which would later become the Blackfriars Theatre). It was dedicated to those alumni who had fought in World War II.
For its first seventeen years, it was the home of the burgeoning men's basketball program, which won the 1961 and 1963 NIT championships under coach Joe Mullaney. In 1972, the men's team moved to the new Providence Civic Center downtown, which later became the Dunkin' Donuts Center. In 2001, the gymnasium was named the Mullaney Gymnasium in honor of Mullaney.
In 1974, the women's basketball team began playing there, where they currently reside. The gymnasium has hosted several Women's NIT games throughout its tenure, as well as the 1983 (inaugural) and 1993 Big East Women's Basketball Tournaments.
On October 31, 2009, the men's basketball team played an exhibition game against Merrimack, its first game in Alumni Hall since January 22, 1978, an exhibition game against the Soviet national basketball team.
Until 2012, the arena sat 2,620 fans. Bleacher seating was available on the main level, with theater seating in the upper level. When the men's team played there, Alumni Hall's upper level was traditionally reserved for season ticket holders while the bleacher seating was generally filled with students.
The gymnasium underwent renovations in 2012, removing the bleacher seating in favor of theater seating throughout the lower level, reducing the capacity for basketball to 1,854. Video boards were also installed, while the gymnasium became air conditioned for the first time in its history.
The upper levels of the building now house the athletic department's offices. These spaces, along with the locker rooms and playing surface of the gymnasium were renovated in the mid-2000s, including an expansion to house a new training room, the Canavan Sports Medicine Center, on the Cumberland Street side of the building. In 2007, the Concannon Fitness Center opened on the other side of Alumni Hall, along with a glass lobby (the Ruane Atrium) which serves as common entrance for the fitness center, the Slavin Center, Alumni Hall, and the adjacent Peterson Recreation Center.
There is a cafeteria in the bottom level which is connected to the Slavin Center student union building. The cafeteria was expanded in 1997, including an area formerly used as a mini-mall. For many years the Alumni Hall cafeteria was known as the "day hops" cafeteria. At one time half of the student body commuted to campus every day and most ate their lunch and spent between class time in this cafeteria (commuter students were popularly known as "day hops"). A cafeteria for the on-campus resident students operated and continues to operate out of Raymond Hall. Alumni Hall also housed the on campus post office. It served as the campus student union and was the center of campus activity prior to the construction of the Slavin Center. A part-time Hospital Trust Bank branch also operated near the ticket sales area in the foyer of Alumni Hall. The Slavin Center which is conjoined with Alumni hall opened in 1971 as the student union and many of the Alumni Hall facilities were relocated to that building.
The Alumni Hall cafeteria was also the site for many on-campus mixers during the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s when girls from all-women Catholic colleges in the region like Emmanuel College, Anna Maria College, Regis College, Salve Regina University, Albertus Magnus College and Saint Joseph College would be bussed in for the dances. The school went co-ed in 1972. The hall also hosted many concerts that featured such musical artists as The Association, the Young Rascals, The Hollies, Diane Warwick, Flip Wilson and the Happenings, Judy Collins and many other popular artists of the day. The upper floors of Alumni hall housed the studios of WDOM AM & FM which were the campus radio stations staffed by students.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alumni Hall (Providence).
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0.914762 |
Cologne-born novelist who wrote <emph render="italic">Ga</emph>, <emph render="italic">Unter den Gestirnen</emph>, <emph render="italic">Wahrer der Leuchte</emph>, <emph render="italic">Das Kind</emph>, <emph render="italic">Spuren im Schnee</emph>, and <emph render="italic">Wurzelweibchen</emph>. Emigrated to the US in 1938 before returning to Germany in 1955.
The William Kennedy Papers document nearly a half century of research, writing, and publishing efforts of the internationally recognized, Pulitzer Prize winning author, playwright, essayist, journalist, script writer, professor, and champion of the arts. The collection consists of records related to all of Kennedy’s fiction and nonfiction books through 2002, including his "Albany Cycle" of novels, film scripts, essays, and newspaper articles from the Albany <title><emph render="italic">Times-Union</emph></title>. In addition, there is correspondence with other significant authors of American literature, biographical materials, and records documenting a trip to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland with President Bill Clinton.
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0.999951 |
Why do Christians believe they come into God's presence through worship?
Coming into God’s presence through worship.
Christians believe that one of the most important reasons to worship God is because he loves and deserves worship. However, the Bible teaches that worshipping God also brings people closer to him; when Christians worship God they feel his closeness and presence in a greater way.
The Bible teaches that God is always with people. However, when Christians worship God they are choosing to pay attention to him - they are choosing to listen to him, speak to him, sing to him, chat with him etc.
Christians believe that when they pay attention to God they come closer and closer to him in a wonderful way - many Christians call this entering into God's presence.
Christians believe that when they are close to God and feel his presence they feel his love, peace and joy in a greater and more wonderful way too. They also believe that in God's presence the Holy Spirit is able to work powerfully in their lives - more and more they feel the Holy Spirit's closeness, his comfort, his guidance and his help.
Coming close to God and feeling his presence through worship and spending time with him does not always feel easy to do. Giving attention to God often means not giving attention to other things; these other things might be playing games and watching TV or they might be thoughts about our busy lives. But Christians think it is something that is good to practise, so they get better and better at it. They believe the good news is that God really, really, really wants people to feel his closeness in their lives.
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0.999988 |
It has been suggested that this article be merged with Lupah Sug. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2018.
The Sultanate of Sulu (Tausūg: Kasultanan sin Sūg, Jawi: کسلطانن سولو دار الإسلام, Malay: Kesultanan Sulu, Arabic: سلطنة سولك) was a Muslim state[note 1] that ruled the islands in the Sulu Archipelago, parts of Mindanao, certain portions of Palawan and north-eastern Borneo (present-day the certain parts of Sabah and North Kalimantan).
The sultanate was founded on 17 November 1405.[note 2] by a Johore-born explorer and religious scholar Sharif ul-Hashim. Paduka Mahasari Maulana al Sultan Sharif ul-Hashim became his full regnal name, Sharif-ul Hashim is his abbreviated name. He settled in Buansa, Sulu. After the marriage of Abu Bakr and a local dayang-dayang (princess) Paramisuli, he founded the sultanate. The Sultanate gained its independence from the Bruneian Empire in 1578.
At its peak, it stretched over the islands that bordered the western peninsula of Mindanao in the east to Palawan in the north. It also covers the area in northeastern side of Borneo, stretching from Marudu Bay, to Tepian Durian (in present-day Kalimantan). While another source stated the area stretching from Kimanis Bay which also overlaps with the boundaries of the Bruneian Sultanate. Due to the arrival of western powers such as the Spanish, British, Dutch, French, German and American, the Sultan thalassocracy and sovereign political powers were relinquished by 1915 through an agreement that was signed with the last colonialist, the United States. In 1962, Philippine Government under the leadership of President Diosdado Macapagal officially recognised the continued existence of the Sultanate of Sulu. On 24 May 1974, Sultan Mohammed Mahakuttah Kiram (reigned 1974–1986), was the last officially recognized Sulu Sultan in the Philippines, having been recognized by President Ferdinand Marcos. On 15 August 1974 Sultan Moh. Mahakuttah A. Kiram submitted the organisational structure of the Sultanate of Sulu to the President of Philippines. The above named structure confirmed that Muedzul Lail Tan Kiram was the Raja Muda (Crown Prince) of Sulu. Under Rodrigo Duterte's administration, calls to finally settle the dispute of who is the officially recognized Sultan of Sulu via government recognition through an Executive Order was voiced out by various parties[who?] involved with the issue. The calls have yet to be dealt with by the government since 2017,[according to whom?] along with a 2016 electoral promise to retake Eastern Sabah.
In 2016, for the first time in history, the five contesting sultans of Sulu, Sultan Ibrahim Bahjin, Sultan Muizuddin Jainal Bahjin, Sultan Muedzul-Lail Tan Kiram, Sultan Mohammad Venizar Julkarnain Jainal Abirin, and Sultan Phugdalun Kiram signed a covenant in an unprecedented move aimed at consolidating and strengthening the sultanate's unity. The ceremony was held in Zamboanga City and was attended by hundreds of supporters and members of the different Royal Houses of the Sultanate of Sulu, and religious leaders and representatives of various sectors, including those from mainland Mindanao. In May 9, 2018, all five sultans of the sultanate and their supporters converged again in Zamboanga City in support of the establishment of the Zambasulta Federal State through a federal form of Philippine government. The event was officially declared as the Bangsa Sug Consensus.
The present area of the Sultanate of Sulu was once under the influence of the Bruneian Empire before it gained its own independence in 1578. Later, the earliest known settlement in this areas soon to be occupied by the sultanate who was in Maimbung, Jolo. During these times, Sulu was called Lupah Sug. The Principality of Maimbung, populated by Buranun people (or Budanon, literally means "mountain-dwellers"), was first ruled by a certain rajah who assumed the title Rajah Sipad the Older. According to Majul, the origins of the title rajah sipad originated from the Hindu sri pada, which symbolises authority. The Principality was instituted and governed using the system of rajahs. Sipad the Older was succeeded by Sipad the Younger.
Some Chams who migrated to Sulu were called Orang Dampuan. The Champa Civilization and the port-kingdom of Sulu enaged in commerce with each other which resulted in merchant Chams settling in Sulu where they were known as Orang Dampuan from the 10th-13th centuries. The Orang Dampuan were slaughtered by envious native Sulu Buranuns due to the wealth of the Orang Dampuan. The Buranun were then subjected to retaliatory slaughter by the Orang Dampuan. Harmonious commerce between Sulu and the Orang Dampuan was later restored. The Yakans were descendants of the Taguima-based Orang Dampuan who came to Sulu from Champa. Sulu received civilization in its Indic form from the Orang Dampuan.
During the reign of Sipad the Younger, a mystic named Tuan Mashā′ikha[note 3] arrived in Jolo in 1280 AD.[note 4] Little is known to the origins and early biography of Tuan Mashā′ikha, except that he is a Muslim "who came from foreign lands" at the head of a fleet of Muslim traders, or he was issued from a stalk of bamboo and was considered a prophet, thus well respected by the people. Other reports, however, insisted that Tuan Mashā′ikha together with his parents, Jamiyun Kulisa and Indra Suga, were sent to Sulu by Alexander the Great (who is known as Iskandar Zulkarnain in Malay Annals). However, Saleeby dismisses this claim by concluding that Jamiyun Kulisa and Indra Suga were mythical names. According to tarsila, during the coming of Tuan Mashā′ikha, the people of Maimbung worshipped tombs and stones of any kind. After he preached Islam in the area, he married Sipad the Younger's daughter, Idda Indira Suga and bore three children: Tuan Hakim, Tuan Pam and 'Aisha. Tuan Hakim, in turn, begot five children. From the genealogy of Tuan Mashā′ikha, another titular system of aristocracy called "tuanship" started in Sulu. Apart from the Idda Indira Suga, Tuan Mashā′ikha also married into another "unidentified woman" and begot Moumin. Tuan Mashā′ikha died in 710 A.H. (equivalent to 1310 AD), and was buried in Bud Dato near Jolo, with an inscription of Tuan Maqbālū.
A descendant of Tuan Mashā′ikha named Tuan May also begot a son named Datu Tka. The descendants of Tuan May did not assume the title tuan, instead, they started to use datu. It is the first time datu was used as a political institution. During the coming of Tuan Mashā′ikha, the Tagimaha people (literally means "the party of the people") coming from Basilan and several places in Mindanao, also arrived and settled in Buansa. After the Tagimaha came the Baklaya people (which means "seashore dwellers"), believed to be originated from Sulawesi, and settled in Patikul. After these came the Bajau people (or Samal) from Johor. The Bajau were accidentally driven towards Sulu by a heavy monsoon, some of them to the shores of Brunei and others to Mindanao. The population of Buranun, Tagimaha, and Baklaya in Sulu created three parties with distinct system of government and subjects. According to the Nagarakretagama, the Majapahit Empire under Emperor Hayam Wuruk, invaded Sulu at year 1365. However, in 1369, the Sulus rebelled and regained independence and in vengeance, assaulted the Majapahit Empire and its province Po-ni (Brunei), looting it of treasure and gold. A fleet from the Majapahit capital succeeded in driving away the Sulus, but Po-ni was left weaker after the attack. By 1390 AD, Rajah Baguinda Ali, a prince of the Pagaruyung Kingdom arrived at Sulu and married into the local nobility. At least in 1417, according to Chinese annals, three kings (or monarchs) ruled three civilised kingdoms in the island. Patuka Pahala (Paduka Batara) ruled the eastern kingdom, he was the most powerful; the west kingdom was ruled by Mahalachi (Maharajah Kamal ud-Din); and the kingdom near the cave (or Cave King) was Paduka Patulapok. The Bajau settlers were distributed among the three kingdoms.
Moumin's descendants, the son of Tuan Mashā′ikha populated Sulu. After some time, a certain Timway Orangkaya Su'il was mentioned by the second page of tarsila, that he received four Bisaya slaves (People from the Kedatuan of Madja-as) from Manila (presumably Kingdom of Maynila) as a sign of friendship between the two countries. The descendants of Timway Orangkaya Su'il then inherited the title timway, which means "chief". On tarsila's third page, it accounts the fact that the slaves were the ancestors of the inhabitants in the island to Parang, Lati, Gi'tung, and Lu'uk respectively.
The fourth page then narrates the coming of the Buranun (addressed in the tarsila as "the Maimbung people") Tagimaha, Baklaya, then the drifted Bajau immigrants from Johor. The condition of Sulu before the arrival of Islam can be summarised as such: The island was inhabited by several cultures, and was reigned over by three independent kingdoms ruled by the Buranun, Tagimaha, and Baklaya peoples. Likewise, the socio-political systems of these kingdoms were characterised by several distinct institutions: rajahship, datuship, tuanship and timwayship. The arrival of Tuan Mashā′ikha afterwards established a core Islamic community in the island.
At the end of the 14th century, a notable Arab judge and religious scholar named Karim ul-Makhdum[note 5] from Mecca arrived in the Malacca Sultanate. He preached Islam to the people, and thus many citizens, including the ruler of Malacca, converted to Islam. Chinese Muslims, Arabs, Persians, Malays, and Indian Muslims introduced Sulu and other Muslim sultanates to Islam. Chinese Muslim merchants participated in the local commerce, and the Sultanate had diplomatic relations with China during the time of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), being involved in the tribute system. The Sulu leader Paduka Pahala and his sons moved to China, where he died, and Chinese Muslims brought up his sons in Dezhou, where their descendants live and have the surnames An and Wen.
In 1380 AD,[note 6] Karim ul-Makhdum arrived in Simunul island from Malacca, again with Arab traders. Apart from being a scholar, he operated as a trader, some see him as a Sufi missionary originating from Mecca. He preached Islam in the area, and was thus accepted by the core Muslim community. He was the second person who preached Islam in the area, following Tuan Mashā′ikha. To facilitate easy conversion of nonbelievers, he established a mosque in Tubig-Indagan, Simunul, which became the first Islamic temple to be constructed in the area, as well as the first in the Philippines. This later became known as Sheik Karimal Makdum Mosque. He died in Sulu, though the exact location of his grave is unknown. In Buansa, he was known as Tuan Sharif Awliyā. On his alleged grave in Bud Agad, Jolo, an inscription was written as "Mohadum Aminullah Al-Nikad". In Lugus, he is referred to Abdurrahman. In Sibutu, he is known to as his name.
The different of beliefs on his grave locations came about due to the fact that Karim ul-Makhdum travelled to several islands in Sulu Sea to preach Islam. In many places in the archipelago, he was beloved. It is said that the people of Tapul built a mosque honouring him and that they claim descent from Karim ul-Makhdum. Thus, the success of Karim ul-Makhdum of spreading Islam in Sulu threw a new light in Islamic history in the Philippines. The customs, beliefs and political laws of the people changed and customised to adopt the Islamic tradition.
The Sultanate of Sulu became notorious for its so-called "Moro Raids" or acts of piracy directed towards Spanish Settlements in the Visayan areas with the aim of capturing slaves and other goods from these coastal towns. The Tausug pirates used boats known collectively by Europeans as "proas" (predominantly the lanong and garay warships) which varied in design and were much lighter than the Spanish Galleons and could easily out-sail these ships, they often carried large swivel guns or Lantaka and also carried a crew of pirates from different ethnic groups throughout Sulu such as Iranums, Bajaus and Tausugs alike. By the 18th century, the Sulu pirates had become the virtual masters of the Sulu seas and the surrounding areas, wreaking havoc on Spanish settlements. This prompted the Spaniards to build a number of fortifications across the Visayan islands of Cebu and Bohol, Churches were built on higher ground and watchtowers were built along coastlines to warn of impending raids.
The maritime supremacy of Sulu wasn't directly controlled by the Sultan, independent Datus and warlords waged their own wars against the Spaniards and even with the Capture of Jolo on numerous occasions by the Spaniards, other settlements like Maimbung, Banguingui and Tawi-Tawi were used as assembly areas and hideouts for pirates.
The Sultanate's control over the Sulu seas was at its height around the late 17th to early 18th centuries were Moro raids became very common for the Visayans and Spaniards.
In Sulu and in the Mindanao interior, the slave trade flourished and majority of these slaves that were being imported and exported were of Bisaya ethnicity, the term "Bisaya" eventually became synonymous to "slave" in these areas. Its maritime supremacy over the Spaniards, at the time, the Spaniards acquired Steam-powered ships that began to curb Muslim piracy in the region, the Moro piratical raids began to decrease in number until Governor Narciso Clavería launched the Balanguingui expedition to crush the pirate settlements there, effectively ending the moro pirate raids. By the last quarter of the 19th century, Moro pirates had virtually disappeared and the maritime influence of the Sultanate became dependent on the Chinese Junk trade.
(Left) The first concession treaty was signed by Sultan Abdul Momin of Brunei on 29 December 1877, appointing Baron de Overbeck as the Maharaja Sabah, Rajah Gaya and Sandakan.
(Right) The second concession treaty was signed by Sultan Jamal ul-Azam of Sulu on 22 January 1878 also appointing Baron de Overbeck as Dato Bendahara and Raja Sandakan, approximately three weeks after signature of the first treaty.
In the 18th century, Sulu's dominion covered most of northeastern part of Borneo. However areas like Tempasuk and Abai had never really shown much allegiance to its earlier ruler, Brunei, subsequently similar treatment was given to Sulu. Dalrymple who made a treaty of allegiance in 1761 with Sulu, had to make a similar agreement with the rulers of Tempasuk and Abai on the north Borneo coast in 1762. Sultanate of Sulu totally gave up its rule over Palawan to Spain in 1705 and Basilan to Spain in 1762. The territory ceded to Sulu by Brunei initially stretched south to Tapean Durian (now Tanjong Mangkalihat) (another source mentioned the southern most boundary is at Dumaring), near the Straits of Macassar (now Kalimantan). However, by 1800–1850, these area had been effectively controlled by the Sultanate of Bulungan in Kalimantan, reducing the boundary of Sulu to a cape named Batu Tinagat and Tawau River.
In 1848 and 1851, the Spanish launched attacks on Balanguingui and Jolo respectively. A peace treaty was signed on 30 April 1851 in which the sultan could only regain its capital if Sulu and its dependencies became a part of the Philippine Islands under the sovereignty of Spain. There were different understandings of this treaty, in which although the Spanish interpreted it as the Sultan accepted Spanish sovereignty over Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, however the Sultan took it as a friendly treaty amongst equals. These areas were only partially controlled by the Spanish and their power was limited to only military stations and garrisons and pockets of civilian settlements. This lasted until they had to abandon the region as a consequence of their defeat in the Spanish–American War. On 22 January 1878, an agreement was signed between the Sultanate of Sulu and British commercial syndicate (Alfred Dent and Baron de Overbeck), which stipulated that North Borneo was either ceded or leased (depending on translation used) to the British syndicate in return for payment of 5,000 Malayan Dollar per year.
on the north-west coast and extending along the whole east coast as far as the Sibuco River in the south and comprising amongst other the States of Paitan, Sugut, Bangaya, Labuk, Sandakan, Kina Batangan, Mumiang, and all the other territories and states to the southward thereof bordering on Darvel Bay and as far as the Sibuco river with all the islands within three marine leagues of the coast.
On 22 April 1903, Sultan Jamalul Kiram signed a document known as "Confirmation of cession of certain islands", in which he granted and ceded additional islands in the neighbourhood of the mainland of North Borneo from Banggi Island to Sibuku Bay to British North Borneo Company. The sum 5,000 dollars a year payable every year increased to 5,300 dollars a year payable every year.
The Sulu Sultanate later came under the control of Spain in Manila. In 1885, Great Britain, Germany and Spain signed the Madrid Protocol to cement Spanish influence over the islands of the Philippines. In the same agreement, Spain relinquished all claim to North Borneo which had belonged to the Sultanate in the past to the British Government.
The Spanish Government renounces, as far as regards the British Government, all claims of sovereignty over the territories of the continent of Borneo, which belong, or which have belonged in the past to the Sultan of Sulu (Jolo), and which comprise the neighbouring islands of Balambangan, Banguey, and Malawali, as well as all those comprised within a zone of three maritime leagues from the coast, and which form part of the territories administered by the Company styled the "British North Borneo Company".
The Sultanate's political power was relinquished in March 1915 after American commanders negotiated with Sultan Jamalul Kiram on behalf of then-Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison. An agreement was subsequently signed and was called as the "Carpenter Agreement". By this agreement, the Sultan relinquished all political power over territory within the Philippines (except for certain specific land granted to Sultan Jamalul Kiram and his heirs), with the religious authority as head of Islam in Sulu. However, the United States based government refused to intervene in the North Borneo dispute (see below), officially maintaining a neutral stance on the matter and continuing to recognise Sabah as part of Malaysia. On 24 May 1974 Mohammad Mahakuttah Kiram, under Memo Order 427, which was issued by Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos. Memo Order 427 states that "The Government has always recognised the Sultanate of Sulu as the legitimate claimant to the historical territories of the Republic of Philippines".
The province of Sulu hosted the Daru Jambangan (Palace of Flowers) which was the royal palace of the Sultan of Sulu since historical times. The palace, located in Maimbung was made of wood, and was destroyed in 1932 by a huge storm. Today, a few arches and posts remain from the once grand palace complex. Many members of the royal family advocated for the reconstruction of the palace, and even its enlargement, however, the government of the Philippines has yet to establish a position or a fund for the matter.
The dispute is based on a territorial claim by the Philippines since the era of President Diosdado Macapagal over much of the eastern part of Sabah in Malaysia. Sabah was known as North Borneo prior to the formation of the Malaysian federation in 1963. The Philippines, via the heritage of the Sultanate of Sulu, claim Sabah on the basis that Sabah was only leased to the British North Borneo Company with the sultanate's sovereignty never being relinquished. The dispute stems from the difference in the interpretation used on an agreement signed between Sultanate of Sulu and the British commercial syndicate (Alfred Dent and Baron von Overbeck) in 1878, which stipulated that North Borneo was either ceded or leased (depending on translation used) to the British chartered company in return for payment of 5,000 dollars per year. Malaysia views the dispute as a "non-issue", as it not only considers the agreement in 1878 as one of cession, but it also deems that the residents had exercised their act of self-determination when they joined to form the Malaysian federation in 1963. As reported by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the independence of North Borneo was brought about as the result of the expressed wish of the majority of the people of the territory as supported by the findings of the Cobbold Commission.
Moreover, a later 1903 agreement between Sultan of Sulu and the British government, has provided reaffirmation regarding the understanding of the Sultan of Sulu on the treaty in 1878, i.e. it is of the form of a cession. However, it is acknowledged that the British never paid such compensation to the Sultanate of Sulu but during a meeting of Maphilindo between the Philippine, Malayan and Indonesian governments in 1963, the Philippine government said the Sultan of Sulu wanted the payment of 5,000 from the Malaysian government. The first Malaysian Prime Minister at the time, Tunku Abdul Rahman said he would go back to Kuala Lumpur and get on the request. Since then, the Malaysian Embassy in the Philippines issues a cheque in the amount of RM5,300 (approx. ₱77,000 or US$1,710) to the legal counsel of the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu. Malaysia considers the settlement an annual "cession payment" for the disputed state, while the sultan's descendants consider it "rent".
Republic Act 5446 in the Philippines, which took effect on 18 September 1968, regards Sabah as a territory "over which the Republic of the Philippines has acquired dominion and sovereignty". On 16 July 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the Philippine claim over Sabah is retained and may be pursued in the future. To date, Malaysia maintains that the Sabah claim is a non-issue and non-negotiable, thereby rejecting any calls from the Philippines to resolve the matter in ICJ. Sabah authorities sees the claim made by the Philippines' Moro leader Nur Misuari to take Sabah to International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a non-issue and thus dismissed the claim.
Territory in the 1878 agreement - From the Pandassan River on the north west coast to the Sibuco River in the south.
In 2016, for the first time in history, the five contesting sultans of Sulu, Sultan Muedzul-Lail Tan Kiram, Sultan Ibrahim Bahjin, Sultan Muizuddin Jainal Bahjin, Sultan Mohammad Venizar Julkarnain Jainal Abirin, and Sultan Phugdalun Kiram signed a covenant in an unprecedented move aimed at consolidating and strengthening the sultanate's unity. The ceremony was held in Zamboanga City and was attended by hundreds of supporters and members of the different Royal Houses of the Sultanate of Sulu, and religious leaders and representatives of various sectors, including those from mainland Mindanao. In May 9, 2018, all five sultans of the sultanate and their supporters converged again in Zamboanga City in support of the establishment of the Zambasulta Federal State through a federal form of Philippine government. The event was officially declared as the Bangsa Sug Consensus.
Chinese who lived in Sulu ran guns across a Spanish blockade to supply the Moro Datus and Sultanates with weapons to fight the Spanish, who were engaging in a campaign to subjugate the Moro sultanates on Mindanao. A trade involving the Moros selling slaves and other goods in exchange for guns developed. The Chinese had entered the economy of the sultanate, taking almost total control of the Sultanate's economies in Mindanao and dominating the markets. Though the Sultans did not like one group of people exercising exclusive control over the economy, they did business with them.
The Chinese set up a trading network between Singapore, Zamboanga, Jolo and Sulu. The Chinese sold small arms like Enfield and Spencer Rifles to the Buayan Datu Uto. They were used to battle the Spanish invasion of Buayan. The Datu paid for the weapons in slaves. The population of Chinese in Mindanao in the 1880s was 1,000. The Chinese ran guns across a Spanish blockade to sell to Mindanao Moros. The purchases of these weapons were paid for by the Moros in slaves in addition to other goods. The main group of people selling guns were the Chinese in Sulu. The Chinese took control of the economy and used steamers to ship goods for exporting and importing. Opium, ivory, textiles, and crockery were among the other goods which the Chinese sold.
The Chinese on Maimbung sent the weapons to the Sulu Sultanate, who used them to battle the Spanish and resist their attacks. A Chinese-Mestizo was one of the Sultan's brothers-in-law, the Sultan was married to his sister. He and the Sultan both owned shares in the ship (named the Far East) which helped smuggle the weapons. The Spanish launched a surprise offensive under Colonel Juan Arolas in April 1887 by attacking the Sultanate's capital at Maimbung in an effort to crush resistance. Weapons were captured and the property of the Chinese were destroyed while the Chinese were deported to Jolo.
A painting from 1880s depicting Sultan Jamal ul-Azam having a conversation with the French visitors.
After the destruction of the pirate haunts of Balanguingui effectively ending the centuries of slave raids, which the Sulu Sultanate's economy had so depended on, along with the economy of mainland Mindanao, the Sultanate's economy experienced a sharp decline as slaves became more inaccessible and the islands' agricultural produce wasn't enough, thus it became dependent on the Mindanao interior even for rice and produce. The Spaniards thought they had dealt the death blow for the sultanate when they captured Jolo in 1876, rather, the sultanate's capital and economic and trading hub was moved to Maimbung on the other side of the island. Up until the American occupation, this was the residence and economic centre of Sulu. This is where the Sultan Jamalul Kiram II and his adviser Hadji Butu began the Sulu pearling industry to increase the Sultan's wealth, they organised the Sulu pearling fleet. The sultan's pearling fleet was active way into the early 20th century, when in 1910, the Sultan reportedly sold a single giant pearl in London for $100,000.
Among the people of Sultanate of Sulu, the title of nobility could be acquired only by lineage, a "closed system" whereby the titled persons inherit their offices of powers and prestige.
Datu (su-sultanun), which is acquired purely by lineage to the sultanate. Whereas, all male members of the Royal House of Sulu should hold this hereditary title and should hold the style: His Royal Highness (HRH). Their spouse would automatically hold the title of Dayang Dayang (princess of the first degree) Adopted members of the Royal House of Sulu hold the style of His Highness (HH) Whereas, their spouse would also hold the title of Dayang Dayang (princess of the first degree) and should hold the style: Her Highness according to traditional customs of Sulu.
Datu Sadja, which may be acquired through confirming the titles (gullal) on the middleman of the Sultan. The gullal is made if a commoner has achieved outstanding feats or services in line of duty through display of bravery, heroism, etc. Datu Sadja is life title of nobility and the title holders should hold the style: His Excellency. Whereas their spouses should hold the title of Dayang and should hold the style: Her Excellency.
The commoners or Maharlika are those who do not trace their descent from royalty. The Wakil Kesultan's, Panglimas, Parkasa's and Laksaman's who are commoners hold responsible positions involving administrative matters.
The males who hold offices above shall be addressed by the title of nobility Tuan (the title is directly attached to the office), followed by the rank of the office they hold, their given name, surname and region. The females who hold offices above shall be addressed by the title of nobility Sitti (the title is directly attached to the office), followed by the rank of the office they hold, their given name, surname and region.
The Sultanate of Sulu, along with the rest of Mindanao has a long tradition of decorative arts known as Okir or Ukkil. Ukkil being the Tausug word for "wood carving" or engraving, the Tausugs and Maranaos people have been carving and decorating their boats, houses and even grave markers with these Ukkil carvings. Aside from Wood carving, Ukkil motifs have been found on various clothing in the Sulu archipelago, Ukkil motifs tend to emphasise geometric patterns and a flowing design, with floral and leaf patterns as well as folk elements. The Tausugs also decorated their weapons with these motifs, various Kris and Barong blades have finely decorated handles as well as blades covered in floral patterns and the like. Bronze Lantaka also bear some Ukkil patterns.
After the death of Sultan Mahakuttah A. Kiram, the Philippine national government failed to formally recognise a new Sultan. Mahakutta's Crown Prince Muedzul Lail Kiram, the heir to the throne according to the line of succession as recognised by the Philippine governments from 1915 to 1986, was 20 years old upon his father's death. Due to his young age, he failed to claim the throne in a time of political instability in the Philippines that led to the peaceful revolution and subsequent removal of President Marcos. The gap in the Sultanate leadership was filled by crown claimants of rival branches. Therefore, the following Sultans were not crowned with the support of the Philippine government nor received a formal recognition from the national government as their predecessors had until 1986. However, the Philippine national government decided to deal with one or more of these so-called Sultan claimants regarding issues concerning the Sultanates affairs.
Muedzul Lail Tan Kiram claims that he is the legitimate successor as the 35th Sultan of Sulu based on the Memorandum Order 427 of 1974, in which former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos recognised his father, Sultan Mahakuttah A. Kiram, as the Sultan of Sulu. Under Rodrigo Duterte's administration, calls to finally settle the dispute of who is the officially recognized Sultan of Sulu via government recognition through an Executive Order was voiced out by various parties[who?] involved with the issue. The calls have yet to be dealt with by the government since 2017,[according to whom?] along with a 2016 electoral promise to retake Eastern Sabah.
A flag coloured yellow was used in Sulu by the Chinese.
Flag of Sulu Sultanate according to Pierre Sonnerat.
Merchant flag of the Chinese community in the Sulu Sultanate.
War flag of the Sulu Sultanate at the end of the 19th century.
Modern flag under the claimant Sultan Muedzul Lail Tan Kiram.
^ According to WH Scott, even though the sultanate was ruled by Tausūg people, the subjects of the kingdom were a mix of Butuanon, Samal and Malays.
^ The generally accepted date of the establishment of the sultanate by modern historians is 1457. However, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines list the date as "around 1450", or simply "1450s", due to uncertainty. On the other hand, independent Muslim studies marked the day to a more exact date 17 November 1405 (24th of Jumada al-awwal, 808 AH).
^ Mashā′ikha is an Arabic term which originated from mashā′ikh, which means "an intelligent or pious man".
^ The generally accepted date for the coming of Tuan Mashā′ikha is 1280 AD, however, other Muslim scholars dated his coming only by second half of the 13th century".
^ May be interchange to Karimul Makhdum, Karimal Makdum or Makhdum Karim among others. Makhdum came from the Arabic word makhdūmīn, which means "master".
^ Another uncertain date in Philippine Islamic history is the year of arrival of Karim ul-Makhdum. Though other Muslim scholars place the date as simply "the end of 14th century", Saleeby calculated the year as 1380 AD corresponding to the description of the tarsilas, in which Karim ul-Makhdum's coming is 10 years before Rajah Baguinda's. The 1380 reference originated from the event in Islamic history when a huge number of makhdūmīn started to travel to Southeast Asia from India. See Ibrahim's "Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia."
^ Saleeby (1870–1935), Najeeb Mitry. "The History of Sulu". www.gutenberg.org.
^ Scott 1994, p. 177.
^ P. N. Abinales; Donna J. Amoroso (1 January 2005). State and Society in the Philippines. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 44–. ISBN 978-0-7425-1024-1.
^ Philippine Almanac & Handbook of Facts. 1977.
^ Usman, Edd (10 February 2010). "Heirs of Sulu Sultanate urged to attend general convention". Archived from the original on 14 June 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
^ Cavendish 2007, p. 1178.
^ a b Ring, Trudy; Salkin, Robert M; La Boda, Sharon (January 1996). International Dictionary of Historic Places: Asia and Oceania. Taylor & Francis. pp. 160–. ISBN 978-1-884964-04-6.
^ Ben Cahoon. "Sabah". worldstatesmen.org. Retrieved 9 October 2014. Sultan of Brunei cedes the lands east of Marudu Bay to the Sultanate of Sulu.
^ Graham Saunders (5 November 2013). A History of Brunei. Routledge. pp. 84–. ISBN 978-1-136-87394-2.
^ Graham Kemp; Douglas P. Fry (2004). Keeping the Peace: Conflict Resolution and Peaceful Societies Around the World. Psychology Press. pp. 124–. ISBN 978-0-415-94761-9.
^ K. S. Nathan; Mohammad Hashim Kamali (January 2005). Islam in Southeast Asia: Political, Social and Strategic Challenges for the 21st Century. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-981-230-282-3.
^ a b c "Why 'Sultan' is dreaming". Daily Express. 27 March 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
^ a b "Memorandum: Carpenter Agreement". Government of the Philippines. 22 March 1915. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^ "Concurrent resolution expressing the sense of the Philippines that North Borneo belongs to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu and to the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines, and authorizing the President to conduct negotiations for the restoration of such ownership and sovereign jurisdiction over said territory". Official Gazette. Government of the Philippines. 28 April 1950. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
^ Julkarnain, Datu Albi Ahmad (30 April 2008). "Genealogy of Sultan Sharif Ul-Hashim of Sulu Sultanate". Zambo Times. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
^ Philippine History. Rex Bookstore, Inc. 2004. pp. 46–. ISBN 978-971-23-3934-9.
^ "Paduka Batara (d. 1417)" (PDF). National Historical Commission of the Philippines. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
^ P. N. Abinales; Donna J. Amoroso (1 January 2005). State and Society in the Philippines. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 43–. ISBN 978-0-7425-1024-1.
^ Mawallil, Amilbahar; Dayang Babylyn Kano Omar (3 July 2009). "Simunul Island, Dubbed As 'Dubai of the Philippines', Pursues Ambitious Project". The Mindanao Examiner. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
^ Francisco Mallari (March 1989). "Camarines Towns: Defenses Against Moro Pirates". Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society. 17 (1): 41–66. JSTOR 29791965.
^ Domingo M. Non (4 March 1993). "Moro Piracy during the Spanish Period and Its Impact" (PDF). Kyoto University Repository. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
^ Rozan Yunos (21 September 2008). "How Brunei lost its northern province". The Brunei Times. Archived from the original on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
^ Rozan Yunos (7 March 2013). "Sabah and the Sulu claims". The Brunei Times. Archived from the original on 17 June 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
^ Keat Gin Ooi (1 January 2004). Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor. ABC-CLIO. pp. 1163–. ISBN 978-1-57607-770-2.
^ International Court of Justice (2003). Summaries of Judgments, Advisory Opinions, and Orders of the International Court of Justice, 1997-2002. United Nations Publications. pp. 205–268. ISBN 978-92-1-133541-5.
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^ "British North Borneo Treaties (Protocol of 1885)" (PDF). Sabah State Attorney-General's Chambers. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
^ Vic Hurley; Christopher L. Harris (1 October 2010). Swish of the Kris, the Story of the Moros, Authorized and Enhanced Edition. Cerberus Books. pp. 228–. ISBN 978-0-615-38242-5.
^ James R. Arnold (26 July 2011). The Moro War: How America Battled a Muslim Insurgency in the Philippine Jungle, 1902-1913. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 236–. ISBN 978-1-60819-365-3.
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^ Whaley, Floyd (2015-09-21). "Esmail Kiram II, Self-Proclaimed Sultan of Sulu, Dies at 75". The New York Times.
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One of two orphan photoreceptor guanylyl cyclases that are highly conserved from fish to mammals, GC-E (or retGC1) was eliminated by gene disruption. Expression of the second retinal cyclase (GC-F) as well as the numbers and morphology of rods remained unchanged in GC-E null mice. However, rods isolated from such mice, despite having a normal dark current, recovered from a light flash markedly faster. Unexpectedly, the a- and b-waves of electroretinograms (ERG) from dark-adapted null mice were suppressed markedly. Cones, initially present in normal numbers in the retina, disappeared by 5 weeks, based on ERG and histology. Thus, the GC-E-deficient mouse defines a model for cone dystrophy, but it also demonstrates that morphologically normal rods display paradoxical behavior in their responses to light.
Vision begins in retinal photoreceptors, where the photoisomerization of the visual pigment leads to a G-protein-mediated activation of a phosphodiesterase hydrolyzing cGMP. As a result, the intracellular cGMP level decreases, and cGMP-gated ion channels close to produce a membrane hyperpolarization (for review, see Lagnado and Baylor, 1992; Yarfitz and Hurley, 1994; Yau, 1994). The closure of these channels results in a decrease in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration, which is proposed to act via guanylyl cyclase-activating proteins (GCAP1 and GCAP2) to increase guanylyl cyclase activity (Palczewski et al., 1994; Dizhoor et al., 1995) (for review, see Polans et al., 1996). The increase in cyclase activity then would represent an important mechanism for photoreceptor adaptation and recovery.
Two eye-specific guanylyl cyclases have been identified in the mammal; these are designated RetGC-1 and RetGC-2 in human (Shyjan et al., 1992;Lowe et al., 1995) and guanylyl cyclase-E (GC-E) and GC-F in rat (Yang et al., 1995). They are members of the family of membrane receptor guanylyl cyclases, all of which contain an extracellular putative ligand-binding domain, an apparent single transmembrane segment, and intracellular protein kinase homology and cyclase catalytic domains (Garbers and Lowe, 1994). With respect to the putative ligand-binding domain, the retinal cyclases remain orphan receptors. That there are two eye-specific guanylyl cyclases, both containing apparent ligand-binding domains conserved across human, rat, cow, and fish (Seimiya et al., 1997), implies significant pressure to retain the nature of the domain, possibly for the purpose of ligand recognition.
The retinal guanylyl cyclases appear predominantly, but not exclusively, in the photoreceptor outer segment layer. In the rod-dominant rat retina, GC-E appears uniformly distributed in the outer segment layer (Cooper et al., 1995). In cat, monkey, and human retinas, which have a significant number of cones, the GC-E-like immunoreactivity appears greater in cone than in rod outer segments (Dizhoor et al., 1994; Liu et al., 1994; Cooper et al., 1995). In the cone-rich retina of chicken, GC-E immunostaining is strong and uniform across the outer segment layer (Cooper et al., 1995). The relative distribution of GC-F in the outer segment layer is not well documented. Based on double-label immunogold electron microscopy, GC-F appears to be coexpressed with GC-E in the same rod outer segment (Yang and Garbers, 1997). In monkey retina, in situ hybridization experiments indicate a uniform distribution of the message for GC-F across the outer segment layer, but it has not been established whether this cyclase is also present in cones (Lowe et al., 1995).
In this paper we report the disruption of the GC-E gene. We have found that mice lacking the gene have morphologically normal rods at least up to 1 year of age, but the cones rapidly degenerate. The rods have a normal dark current despite the absence of functional GC-E and no compensatory increase in the expression of GC-F.
Generation of GC-E-deficient mice. The GC-E gene (Gucy2e) from the mouse strain 129/SvJ was used to construct a targeting vector. A neomycin-resistance gene cassette replaced a portion of exon 5, which codes for the transmembrane region, leaving a coding sequence that could yield only a truncated protein (see Fig.1a). SM1 embryonic stem (ES) cells (from Dr. Robert Hammer, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX) derived from the inbred 129/SvJ mouse line were cultured on an irradiated STO-LIF fibroblast feeder layer (Ramirez-Solis et al., 1993). ES cells (1.0 × 107) were electroporated at 0.23 kV, 500 μFD with 25 μg of linearized targeting vector DNA. G418 (180 μg/ml) (Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD) and gancyclovir (1 μm) were added to the medium for selection for 4–5 d, until ES cell colonies formed. To identify clones with targeted disruption of the GC-E gene, we expanded the ES cells and prepared genomic DNA for Southern blot analysis (see Fig.1b). Chimeric mice were generated by injecting the GC-E-disrupted ES cells into C57BL/6J blastocysts that subsequently were implanted into the uteri of pseudopregnant foster females. Seven chimeras were born and mated with C57BL/6J mice to test for germline competency of the targeted clone; one of these mice transmitted the mutant allele. ES cell-derived progeny were screened for the presence of the targeted allele by Southern blot (see Fig. 1b) and/or PCR analysis. Heterozygous animals were inbred to generate homozygous mice lacking a functional GC-E gene, verified by Southern blot analysis. The targeted allele has been maintained in both 129/SvJ and C57BL/6J backgrounds.
Western blot and histological analyses. For Western blotting the posterior portion of the eyecup was collected and homogenized in 1× Laemmli buffer (62.5 mm Tris-HCl, pH 6.8, 2% SDS, 10% glycerol, 0.005% bromophenol blue, and 5% 2-mercaptoethanol). Total proteins were separated by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, transferred to polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes (Immobilon-P, Millipore, Bedford, MA), and probed with antisera against GC-E, GC-F, or rds/peripherin (1:1000 dilution) as described (Travis et al., 1991; Yang and Garbers, 1997). For histology the eyes were removed, fixed overnight at 4°C with a solution of 10% formalin, and embedded in paraffin. Sections of 3 or 4 μm were cut through the optic nerve head and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Cone cells were identified by their nuclear structure (Carter-Dawson and LaVail, 1979) or by labeling with peanut agglutinin (PNA) as described byBlanks and Johnson (1984). For PNA labeling, the sections were deparaffinized with xylene and rehydrated through an ethanol series. After being blocked with 500 μg/ml bovine serum albumin in PBS, the sections were incubated with 100 μg/ml biotin-conjugated PNA (Vector Laboratories, Burlingame, CA) for 20 min at room temperature. Nonspecific binding was determined by incubation with biotin–PNA plus 50 mmd-galactose (Sigma, St. Louis, MO). Labeling was detected with the Vectastain ABC peroxidase kit (Vector Laboratories), followed by diaminobenzidine substrate. Sections were counterstained with methyl green.
Electroretinogram (ERG) recordings. Full-field corneal ERGs were obtained in a Ganzfeld dome from mice of indicated genotypes and ages. After at least 12 hr of dark adaptation, the mice were anesthetized with ketamine (200 mg/kg) and xylazine (10 mg/kg). Pupils were dilated with local cyclopentolate hydrochloride drops before study. A gold wire coil placed on one cornea was referenced to a similar gold wire in the mouth. A needle electrode in the tail served as a ground. Signals were amplified 10,000-fold with a Tektronix (Beaverton, OR) AM502 differential amplifier (3 dB down at 2 and 10,000 Hz), digitized (sampling rate 1.25–5 kHz), and averaged on a personal computer. Two different flash stimulators were used. A Grass photostimulator provided 10 msec, short-wavelength flashes (Wratten 47A: λmax = 470 nm; half-bandwidth = 55 nm) from −3.0 to −1.0 log scotopic troland-seconds (scot td-sec) in 0.3 log unit steps. A high-intensity flash unit (Novatron, Dallas, TX) produced 1.3 msec, short-wavelength flashes (Wratten W47B: λmax = 449 nm; half-bandwidth = 47 nm) from 1.0 to 3.4 log scot td-sec in 0.3 log unit steps.
Equation 1where P3 is the sum of the responses of individual rods. The amplitude of P3 is a function of flash intensity (i) and time (t) after flash onset. Sis a sensitivity parameter that scales i. RmP3 is the maximum response, and td is a brief delay.
Equation 2where T is the critical delay before any response decline begins and τ is the decline time constant.
Single-cell electrophysiology. The procedures were primarily according to Sung et al. (1994). GC-E null or wild-type mice aged 8–10 weeks were dark-adapted overnight. Animals were killed by CO2 asphyxiation under dim red light. All subsequent procedures were performed under infrared light. The retina was isolated from the enucleated eye in chilled, oxygenated Leibovitz’s L-15 medium (Life Technologies) and placed photoreceptor-side up on a glass capillary array (10-μm-diameter capillaries; Galileo Electro-Optics, Sturbridge, MA) on which the retina was held by suction, allowing the vitreous humor to be removed by moving a razor blade between the retina and the array. The retinal pieces were stored in L-15 medium on ice until use. When needed, a piece of retina was chopped under L-15 medium containing 8 μg/ml deoxyribonuclease (Sigma) with a razor blade mounted on a lever arm, and a suspension of small retinal fragments was transferred into the recording chamber. The chamber temperature was held at 36–38°C by perfusing it continuously with heated solution buffered with bicarbonate and bubbled with 95% O2/5% CO2, pH 7.4. The outer segment of an isolated rod or a rod projecting from a small fragment of retina was drawn into a suction electrode connected to a current-to-voltage converter. The recorded membrane current was filtered with a low-pass, eight-pole Bessel filter at 30 Hz and digitized.
The suction electrode was filled with a solution containing (in mm): 134.5 Na+, 3.6 K+, 2.4 Mg2+, 1.2 Ca2+, 136.3 Cl−, 3 succinate, 3l-glutamate, 10 glucose, 10 HEPES, and 0.02 EDTA plus basal medium Eagle (BME) amino acid supplement and BME vitamin supplement (Life Technologies). The perfusion medium was the same except that 20 mm NaHCO3 replaced an equimolar amount of NaCl. The optical bench design was as previously described (Baylor et al., 1979a). Unpolarized 8 msec flashes at 500 nm (10 nm bandwidth) were used for stimulation throughout.
The mouse GC-E gene (Gucy2e) was disrupted by replacing a portion of exon 5, which codes for the transmembrane region, with a neomycin-resistance gene cassette (Fig.1a; see Materials and Methods). The targeted allele was maintained in both 129/SvJ and C57BL/6J backgrounds. The homozygous null animals (Fig. 1b) were fully viable and fertile, indicating that GC-E is not required for normal development. Moreover, there were no noticeable abnormalities in the appearance or behavior of the knock-out animals when they were compared with their wild-type and heterozygous littermates in the normal animal-housing environment.
Targeted disruption of the GC-E gene in mice.a, Maps of the wild-type GC-E locus, the targeting vector, and the mutated locus. The coding exons of the GC-E gene are shown as open boxes. The map of the targeting vector shows the replacement of a portion of exon 5 coding for the transmembrane region with the neomycin-resistance gene (Neor). Two copies of the thymidine kinase (TK) gene were placed at the 5′-end of the targeting vector for negative selection. The expected sizes of BglII-generated fragments from the wild-type and disrupted GC-E genes detected with a 5′-flanking probe (bold bar) are shown. b, Southern blot analysis of DNA from ES cell clones and tail DNA from littermates. The appearance of a 7 kb band from the mutant allele is indicated. c, Western blot analysis of retinal extracts from 10-week-old wild-type (+/+) and homozygous null (−/−) mice. Anti-GC-E, GC-F (Yang and Garbers, 1997), and rds/peripherin antisera (Travis et al., 1991) were used for immunodetection.
Western-blot analysis was performed to confirm the absence of GC-E expression in the knock-out animals. The posterior portion of the eyecup was homogenized in Laemmli buffer, and total proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE. Proteins were transferred to PVDF membranes and blotted with an antiserum specific to the C-terminal portion of GC-E (Yang and Garbers, 1997). This confirmed that the mutant allele eliminates the expression of GC-E (Fig. 1c). The expression level of GC-F was unchanged in 10-week-old homozygous null mice, as was the level of rds/peripherin, an integral membrane glycoprotein located in photoreceptor outer segment disks (Connell et al., 1991; Travis et al., 1991) (Fig. 1c). Even at 6 months of age the levels of GC-F, rds/peripherin, and rhodopsin were comparable in wild-type and null animals (data not shown), suggesting that the rod outer segments remained mainly intact in the null animals.
Under light microscopy the development of the outer segment layer in animals 1–3 weeks of age appeared normal in GC-E null animals. The overall retinal structure continued to appear normal up to 1 year, with unaltered thickness of the various retinal layers (Fig.2). The number of photoreceptor nuclei was counted from retinal sections from two wild-type and two null animals. At 12 months of age the wild-type retina contained 151 ± 12 photoreceptor nuclei/2000 μm2, whereas the GC-E −/− retina contained 140 ± 12 photoreceptor nuclei/2000 μm2 (mean ± SEM). The retinas of heterozygous animals likewise appeared morphologically normal at all ages (data not shown).
Retinal morphology of wild-type (a, c) and GC-E knock-out mice (b, d) at 10 weeks (a, b) and 12 months (c, d) of age. Shown are light micrographs of 4 μm sections cut through the optic nerve head stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Magnification, 100×.OS, Outer segment; IS, inner segment;ONL, outer nuclear layer; OPL, outer plexiform layer; INL, inner nuclear layer;IPL, inner plexiform layer; GCL, ganglion cell layer.
Although with light microscopy the outer segments of cone cells cannot be identified in the rod-dominant mouse retina, these cells can be distinguished by their nuclear morphology. Cone cell bodies can be recognized on the basis of their oval shape containing one to three clumps of chromatin and a large amount of lightly staining euchromatin; rods, on the other hand, have a round nucleus containing a single clump of chromatin with little euchromatin (Carter-Dawson and LaVail, 1979). At 4 weeks of age, the earliest age to identify reliably the cone cell nuclei by this method, the number of cone cell bodies is similar in wild-type and null animals. By 5 weeks of age, however, the number of identifiable cones has been reduced dramatically in the null mice, with only an occasional cone cell body recognizable in the outer nuclear layer (Fig. 3a–d). At later ages the number of cone cells appears to remain stable, suggesting the continued survival of the cones that were present at 5 weeks of age. Thus, although the lack of GC-E does not seem to affect the differentiation of cones, these cells degenerate rapidly at 4–5 weeks of age, with a few cones surviving at late ages. The fact that the overall thickness of the outer nuclear layer does not noticeably change despite cone degeneration again suggests that the rods remain relatively intact.
Cone photoreceptors are lost between 4 and 5 weeks of age in GC-E knock-out mice. Left column, wild-type animals (+/+); right column, GC-E null animals (−/−) . Shown are light micrographs of 4-μm-thick hematoxylin- and eosin-stained sections from animals of 4 weeks (a, b) and 5 weeks (c, d) of age. Few cone cell nuclei are detectable in −/− mice at 5 weeks of age. However, cone cell nuclei are clearly evident in wild-type littermates (arrows). Magnification, 250×. Also shown are peanut agglutinin labeling of retinas from 4-week-old (e, f) and 5-week-old (g, h) mice. Cone photoreceptors (arrowheads) are present in equal numbers in 4-week-old wild-type and null animals and 5-week-old wild-type mice, but they are not present in 5-week-old GC-E −/− mice. Magnification, 100×.
The lectin PNA has been shown to label specifically the cone cell outer and inner segments in several species, including mouse (Blanks and Johnson, 1984). We used this lectin to label cone cells in wild-type and GC-E knock-out retinas to confirm further the time course of cone cell loss in the knock-out mice. At the age of 4 weeks the labeling of scattered photoreceptor outer and inner segments, which are presumably cones, was observed in both wild-type and null animals (Fig.3e,f). Cone inner segments were stained the most strongly. Equivalent labeling of wild-type and null animals also was observed in 3-week-old animals (data not shown). The specificity of PNA binding was confirmed by competitive inhibition of binding by 50 mmd-galactose (data not shown). No PNA label was present in the retina of 5-week-old GC-E null mice, although labeling was unchanged in wild-type animals (Fig. 3g,h). This confirmed the disappearance of cone cell nuclei that we had observed in sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin.
To examine whether the loss of GC-E affects retinal function, we measured full-field ERGs in wild-type, heterozygous, and null animals. The ERGs of GC-E null animals showed alterations as early as 1 month of age (Fig. 4a, right column), with the rod a-wave (top panel) and b-wave (middle panel) both markedly reduced. Cone responses to white flashes in the presence of a rod-saturating background (bottom panel) were barely detectable. Interestingly, this reduction in ERG response was evident before the apparent disappearance of cone cells, which occurred ∼5 weeks of age. At 5 months of age (Fig. 4b) there was no further decrease in rod ERG amplitude, but the cone ERG was nondetectable and, in fact, was absent as early as 2 months of age (data not shown). Values for the sensitivity parameter (S) and the maximal amplitude (RmP3) of the rod response were calculated for each animal by fitting Equation 1 (see Materials and Methods) to the leading edge of the rod a-wave (dashed curves in Fig. 4a,b,top panel). The values for S, which reflects the amplification of the activation phase of phototransduction, were comparable between knock-out and wild-type animals at all ages. However, RmP3 was consistently lower for GC-E −/− mice up to 1 year of age (Fig. 4c). By comparison, the ERG responses of heterozygous mice were normal up to 1 year of age (data not shown). The reduced a-wave suggests that rod function is compromised in the null animals despite their apparently normal morphology. The reduction of the b-wave, which is approximately proportional to the a-wave reduction, is not surprising because it arises primarily from the electrical activity of secondary neurons (Ogden, 1994) and therefore is influenced by the a-wave. Finally, the disappearance of the cone response is consistent with the morphological finding that the number of cone cells is reduced sharply in animals that are older than 5 weeks.
Full-field ERG responses from wild-type and GC-E-deficient mice. a, b,Top, Responses to short-wavelength flashes from 1.8 to 3.4 log scot td-sec in 0.3 log unit steps. Dashed curvesare fits of Equation 1 to the leading edge of the responses.Middle, Responses to short-wavelength stimuli ranging from −3 to 1 log scot td-sec (0.3 log unit steps). The b-wave is the main component. Bottom, Cone responses to white flashes from 0.24 to 1.44 log photopic troland-seconds (0.3 log unit steps) in the presence of a rod-saturating (40 cd/m2) background. No cone response is detectable in the −/− animal at the age of 5 months. c, Plot of maximal amplitude of ERG a-wave (RmP3) with increasing age. Data are averaged (mean ± SEM) from 20 wild-type and 17 −/− animals.d, Decline of RmP3 as a function of the interflash interval in a double-flash experiment (see Materials and Methods) from representative animals. The best-fit curves are exponential declines. The critical period T is 208 msec for the GC-E null mouse and 467 msec for the wild-type mouse.
Double-flash experiments were performed to determine whether recovery from activation was altered in GC-E null animals. In this protocol the recovery of the underlying photoresponse to a test flash was probed with a second intense flash that followed the test flash at various times (interflash intervals). As shown in Figure 4d, the derived photoresponse of a representative GC-E −/− animal begins to decline from saturation sooner than that of a wild-type animal. The mean period of saturation of the a-wave (parameter T, Eq. 2in Materials and Methods) at the intensity used for the first flash was significantly shorter (p < 0.001; ttest) in the null animals (205 ± 16 msec; mean ± SEM;n = 6) than in wild-type animals (372 ± 32 msec;n = 8).
The reduction in the ERG a-wave in GC-E null animals prompted us to examine the impact of the absence of GC-E on rod function. Responses of single dark-adapted rods, either isolated or projecting from fragments of mechanically dissociated retina, were recorded with a suction pipette (Baylor et al., 1979a) (see Materials and Methods). In contrast to the reduction in the ERG a-wave amplitude, the saturated response elicited by a bright flash from rods of null animals was normal in amplitude (rmax, Table1), suggesting that the dark current through the cGMP-activated channels was approximately unchanged. There were changes in other respects, however. Although the flash response of a rod from knock-out animals rose with normal kinetics, the response exhibited an increased time-to-peak (tp, Table 1) before decaying more rapidly than normal (compare Fig.5a with b). The rods from null mice also show oscillations during and after recovery from a light flash; the reason for this remains unclear. Such oscillations have been demonstrated previously in calculations under conditions in which Ca2+ buffering is increased (Nikonov et al., 1998). Additionally, after the light flash the wild-type mice demonstrate multiple apparent phases of recovery (Fig.5a), whereas the null mice show predominantly one phase (Fig. 5b). The longer time-to-peak with the same trajectory led to a higher sensitivity of the GC-E null rods, which can be seen from the flash intensity–response relations in Figure 5c(also Io, Table 1). This increase in the flash sensitivity would not be detected by the ERG measurements because the b-wave intrudes and truncates the a-wave (see Fig. 4a, top panel). The higher sensitivity of rods from mutant mice also was indicated by the larger amplitude of the single-photon response (a, Table 1), calculated from the variance/mean ratio of the response amplitudes of the cell to repetitive, identical dim flashes (see Baylor et al., 1979b). These results indicate that there is a disparity between ERG and single-rod recordings with respect to the rod response amplitude; however, with both techniques a faster recovery of rods from light is apparent.
Suction pipette recordings from single rods of wild-type and GC-E null mice. a,b, Normalized responses of a rod from a wild-type mouse (a) and a GC-E −/− mouse (b) to 500 nm flashes of increasing strength. Each trace is the averaged response from multiple flash trials. The records were low-pass-filtered at 30 Hz. Flash monitor output is shown by the bottom trace in eachpanel. The maximal response for a was 14.3 pA and for b was 10.7 pA. c, Relation between the peak amplitude of flash response and the flash intensity for the two rods shown in a andb. Wild-type, squares; GC-E −/−,circles. Curves are fit with the exponential saturation function, r/rmax = 1 − exp(−ki), where k is a constant inversely proportional to the sensitivity of the cell andi is the flash strength. Half-maximal responses occurred at 53 photons/μm2 for the wild-type rod and 20 photons/μm2 for the GC-E −/− rod.
A severe reduction in cones and a vanishing cone response to light as a function of age represent the dominant phenotype of GC-E null mice. However, such mice also display a decreased rod response to light, based on ERG recordings. The marked decrease in the ERG response occurs despite the morphologically normal appearance of the rods. The likeliest consequence of the absence of GC-E is a reduction of the cGMP level in cones in both dark and light conditions. This decrease itself could facilitate degeneration, or alternatively, the cessation of the dark current could be the primary effector of cone loss. Chronic light exposure can cause degeneration as well, possibly via mechanisms similar to that induced by the elimination of GC-E (Fain and Lisman, 1993). We do not know if null mice kept in the dark would retain cones in the absence of GC-E.
The a-wave of the dark-adapted ERG is much smaller in amplitude than normal for the null animals, suggesting a substantial loss of rod function, in part concomitant with cone degeneration. However, single-rod recordings suggest that the saturated response of individual rods is close to normal. Thus, the reason for the reduction in the a-wave is unclear. Possibly, because of the disappearance of cones and associated changes in the extracellular matrix, the transretinal resistance decreases. As a result, the same current response generated in rods would produce a smaller ERG a-wave. Even before the disappearance of cone cells at ∼5 weeks of age, the functioning of these cells may be compromised, leading to alterations in retinal function despite apparently normal morphology as assessed with light microscopy. A similar disparity between the ERG a-wave and single-rod recordings has been reported previously for mice lacking the phospholipase C β4 enzyme normally present in rods (Jiang et al., 1996; Peng et al., 1997).
Despite a normal dark current the flash response of rods from null mice is aberrant. The response rises with kinetics similar to control but then has a longer time-to-peak, thus reaching higher amplitude for a given flash intensity (i.e., a larger single-photon response). These characteristics often are associated with negative-feedback control on phototransduction. An interruption of the intracellular Ca2+ decline, for example, could result in a light response rising unchecked via negative feedback (Yau, 1994). In this scenario, however, the flash response is expected to decline more slowly (Yau, 1994), opposite to the accelerated recovery kinetics observed in both ERG and single-rod recordings. Based on modeling, the peculiar response characteristics demonstrated by the GC-E null rods in principle can be explained by particular conditions with intracellular Ca2+ buffering (Nikonov et al., 1998). However, no experiments to measure the effects of a lack of GC-E on photoreceptor Ca2+ have been performed yet.
What is the implication of an unchanged rod dark current in GC-E −/− mice? The simplest interpretation would be that GC-E is present insignificantly, if at all, in rods and therefore contributes little to cGMP synthesis, with this function being performed by GC-F. Alternatively, GC-E may be important for rod cGMP synthesis, but the dark current remains constant in null animals because there is a compensatory increase in the number of cGMP-activated channels on the plasma membrane or an increase in the affinity of the channels for cGMP. However, there is no evidence for such compensatory changes because the length of the rod outer segment of null animals appears normal, as do the activation properties of the channels and their density on the plasma membrane (data not shown). Another potential compensation for the lack of GC-E is an increase in the activity of GC-F. Although GC-F expression is unchanged (see Results), its catalytic activity could increase if the inhibition by Ca2+ is changed, possibly because of a decrease in the free Ca2+ concentration in the mutant rods in darkness. However, this is not expected, given that the free Ca2+ concentration in the steady state should depend only on the dark current and the Ca2+ efflux through the Na+/Ca2+,K+exchanger (Yau, 1994). In other words, with the dark current near normal and the properties of the exchanger presumably unchanged, the free Ca2+ concentration should stay constant, unless a minor difference in the dark current is able to change the feedback control on GC-F dramatically.
The gene for GC-F is located in region Xq22 of the human X chromosome (Yang et al., 1996), to which no retinal diseases have been mapped. The GC-E gene is located in mouse chromosome 11, syntenic with human chromosome 17p13.1 (Oliveira et al., 1994; Yang et al., 1996), which has been linked with several retinopathies (Joshi et al., 1997). Recently, mutations in GC-E have been identified in human retinal diseases. Missense and frame-shift mutations in the human GC-E gene that are expected to render the protein nonfunctional have been associated with Leber congenital amaurosis, characterized by early-onset and widespread rod/cone degeneration (Perrault et al., 1996). Like Leber’s disease, the mouse GC-E null phenotype is recessive; unlike the disease, however, the mouse phenotype consists primarily of cone degeneration. One might argue that, unlike the rod-dominant mouse retina, the human retina has substantially more cones so that cone degeneration would disrupt the integrity of the human retina more severely and consequently cause concomitant rod degeneration. Other missense mutations of the human GC-E gene lead to a form of cone/rod dystrophy (CORD6), a disease that initially affects cones, followed by rod degeneration later (Kelsell et al., 1998;Perrault et al., 1998). Although CORD6 resembles the mouse GC-E null phenotype, the human disease is hereditarily dominant. Furthermore, the GC-E missense mutations associated with CORD6 are thought to affect dimerization of the enzyme rather than to cause its complete elimination, as in the knock-out. Finally, in the chicken a naturally occurring null mutation of the orthologous GC-E gene has been found to cause autosomal recessive retinal degeneration (Ulshafer et al., 1984;Semple-Rowland et al., 1998). Although the degeneration in therd chicken apparently differs from that in the GC-E null mouse by affecting both rods and cones, the difference in this case again could be explained by the chicken retina being cone-rich (having a cone/rod ratio much higher than in the mouse retina).
Another complexity that should be considered in interpreting our results and the disease phenotypes has to do with GCAP1 and GCAP2, the Ca2+-binding proteins that regulate GC-E and GC-F function. There appears to be uniform agreement, based on immunocytochemistry, that GCAP1 is present in both rod and cone outer segments (Palczewski et al., 1994; Frins et al., 1996; Cuenca et al., 1998; Howes et al., 1998). The localization of GCAP2 is more controversial and perhaps species-dependent. It may be expressed in both rod and cone outer segments (Otto-Bruc et al., 1997; Cuenca et al., 1998; Howes et al., 1998), although biochemical experiments suggest that GCAP1 and not GCAP2 is the major stimulator of guanylyl cyclase in rod outer segments (Otto-Bruc et al., 1997). It was demonstrated recently that a missense mutation in the human GCAP1 gene leads to autosomal dominant cone dystrophy (Payne et al., 1998), apparently because of constitutive activation of guanylyl cyclase (Dizhoor et al., 1998; Sokal et al., 1998). The degeneration of cones and the sparing of rods suggest that GCAP1 is functionally important in cones but perhaps not as critical in rods. The observation of a similar phenotype, i.e., cone degeneration, when GC-E or GCAP1 is mutated suggests that tight regulation of guanylyl cyclase activity in these cells may be crucial for their survival.
The GC-E-deficient mouse demonstrates that this protein is essential for normal retinal structure and function. It appears that GC-E is required for the survival of cone photoreceptors at an apparently critical period at the age of ∼5 weeks, whereas rod photoreceptors appear to remain normal even at advanced ages. Although the kinetics of activation of phototransduction is unchanged in rods, the maximum ERG response is reduced markedly, and recovery after a light flash is faster in mice lacking GC-E. These results suggest an important role for this guanylyl cyclase in both the survival of a subclass of retinal cells and in the delicate balance of cellular processes that lead to vision.
This research was supported in part by a grant-in-aid of research from the National Academy of Sciences (D.L.G.), Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society (R.B.Y.), and the National Eye Institute (K.-W.Y and D.G.B., Grant EY05235). This work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We thank Dr. Gabriel Travis for providingrds/peripherin and rhodopsin antibodies, Valerie Mach and Kristen Rossi for assistance in maintaining the mouse colony, and Dr. Clint Makino for valuable help and advice on the recordings from single mouse rods.
Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. David L. Garbers, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75235-9050.
Dr. Yang’s present address: Department of Molecular Biology, Genentech Incorporated, 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080.
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0.967614 |
Reirradiation of primary brain tumours: survival, clinical response and prognostic factors.
Title: Reirradiation of primary brain tumours: survival, clinical response and prognostic factors.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: First, the aim was to determine the survival and quality of life after reirradiation of relapsing primary malignant brain tumours. The second aim was to assess the influence of a set of potentially prognostic factors on survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-two patients received reirradiation for recurring primary brain tumours. The interval between the two consecutive treatments was at least 1 year. External beam irradiation for the initial and recurrent tumour was usually delivered with two opposing lateral fields or two wedged fields in orthogonal directions. The median physical doses of the first and second radiation course were 50 and 46 Gy, respectively. The median cumulative biological equivalent doses (BED) were 200.4 (alpha/beta = 2 Gy) and 115.2 Gy (alpha/beta = 10 Gy). During follow-up, corticosteroid medication and the WHO-performance were registered at regular intervals. The radiological response was assessed by reviewing all available CT- and MRI-films. Potentially prognostic factors with respect to survival were evaluated by both univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: A clinical response (i.e. clinical improvement) was seen in 24% of the patients. Of the evaluable patients, nearly one-third showed a complete (8%) or partial (22%) radiological response. The median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) after retreatment were 10.9 and 8.6 months, respectively. By multivariate analysis, four independent prognostic factors for survival were identified: (1), the WHO-score before retreatment (P = 0.002); (2), the length of the interval between treatments (P = 0.008); (3), the tumour histology; and (4), the response to initial treatment (P values, 0.04). The median survival times for patients with WHO-scores of 0-1 and > or = 2 were 14.0 and 7.4 months, respectively. Patients with oligodendrogliomas had a median OS of 27.5 months, whereas patients with astrocytomas had a median OS of 6.9 months after retreatment. Long-term complications of retreatment were seen in three patients, all of whom had a cumulative BED(2) of > 204 Gy (with alpha/beta = 2 Gy). The quality of life after retreatment, however, was well preserved in the majority of patients. They remained ambulant and capable of self-care until the time of progression which occurred after 8.6 months (median PFS). CONCLUSIONS: After an initial treatment with radiation up to tolerance levels of normal brain tissue, reirradiation of recurring primary brain tumours seems feasible. During the time until clinical progression, patients remained independent with a reasonable quality of life.
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0.949594 |
[To] willfully abandon resentment and related responses (to which they have a right), and endeavor to respond to the wrongdoer based on the moral principle of beneficence, which may include compassion, unconditional worth, generosity, and moral love (to which the wrongdoer, by nature of the hurtful act or acts, has no right)1.
There is a universal truth about all types of love: To give it you must have it; you must have received it from another and accepted the gift. Everyone has agapé available to them as a gift from God. The type received can be transformed into all types, so God's agapé can be transformed anEach individual defines her own threshold for wrong-doing, thus an act may not need forgiveness to all people. Forgiveness is not only choosing not to seek vengeance, revenge or retaliation, but also not desiring these things. It is letting-go of the need for such things. It releases negative feelings, freeing a person from the need to seek revenge. It is a letting-go of the earned negative emotion toward another, letting-go of the right to feel angry--this happens with the realization that not all rights are beneficial.
d given away as Eros, Philia or Storge as well as Agapé. If you have refused the gift, it is not available for giving until you accept it, but it will always be available for you to access; it does not go away. Though the giver may no longer be available, the love remains.
Each individual defines her own threshold for wrong-doing, thus an act may not need forgiveness to all people. Forgiveness is not only choosing not to seek vengeance, revenge or retaliation, but also not desiring these things. It is letting-go of the need for such things. It releases negative feelings, freeing a person from the need to seek revenge. It is a letting-go of the earned negative emotion toward another, letting-go of the right to feel angry--this happens with the realization that not all rights are beneficial.
If there are so many benefits, why hold anger and refuse Forgiveness? One of the greatest factors in avoiding forgiveness is victim-identification--Poor Me. Victims receive attention, pity, sympathy, and allow for feelings of superiority--wrong was done to me, I did nothing wrong. By viewing themselves as right and the other as wrong, victims maintain the moral upper hand. Though considered a powerless state, victims are empowered through the receipt of pity, rather than using personal power, this form of power uses others as its source. Forgiveness takes personal responsibility for Self-healing.
The risk of clinging to the victim identity is that you are unable to detach from your anger. Anger is an emotion. It is real, and for release it needs acceptance--allow anger. Hostility is not an emotion; it is the result of attachment to and unreleased anger. Harboring hostility is destructive. Anger can become your shield; beware of creating hostility by also making anger your weapon. Hostility is a back-stabber, damaging its owner more than another.
Refusing Forgiveness leads to the Cycle/Steps of Revenge. Revenge is a failure to take responsibility for Self-Healing and inner peace. It fails to heal wounds, and maintains the cycle of negativity. It is a surrender of personal power, suppressing and increasing pain and wounds, Forgiveness is empowering, heals wounds and releases pain.
Enright, Robert, D. and Richard P. Fitzgibbons. Helping Clients Forgive: An Empirical Guide for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2000.
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0.956494 |
Eugenol is the active, aromatic element in cloves!
It has long been known that a healthy lifestyle is based on a balanced diet - eating foods providing good nutritional value. This is why we call some foods "junk food". They provide little of nutritional value and only serve to give energy for the moment, or bulk for the long term. In order to help the general population to know what mixture of foods constitutes a healthy lifestyle, the U.S. government came out with the four food groups in 1956. These were meat, vegetables (and fruits), dairy, and grains.
The "four food groups" served a vital purpose in educating the public on how to lead healthier lives by eating more nutritional foods. Since the 1950s there have been many advances in the study of nutrition. Nutritionists have been able to develop more helpful diet models to more specifically guide consumers in their choices of food.
Fats, oils, and sweets are not given a serving size because ideally they should only be consumed in very low quantities.
1 cup healthy yogurt or milk, 1 1/2 ounces of natural cheese or 2 ounces of process cheese, each count as one serving.
A serving of lean meat, poultry or fish is comprised of 2-3 ounces. 1/2 cup of cooked dried beans, a single egg, and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter all count as a single ounce of lean meat (meaning it would take 4 tablespoons of peanut butter to constitute a single serving.) It should be noted that meats are important not just for the protein, but because vitamin B12 cannot be found in vegetarian substitutes such as beans and peanuts.
A serving of vegetables would be constituted of 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables, or a 1/2 cup of some other vegetables, or 3/4 cup of vegetable juice.
Fruits are very similar to vegetables in serving size - 1 medium apple, banana or orange, 1/2 cup of fruit (including canned), or 3/4 cup of fruit juice.
In the general category of grains, serving sizes can be construed as, 1 slice of bread, or 1 ounce of ready-to-eat cereal, 1/2 cup of cooked cereal, rice, or pasta.
An interesting thing to note about the food pyramid is that the base of it (and the largest component of the average diet) is the grains, comprising of breads, cereals, rice and pasta. Fats and sweets seem to be on the list only because they are edible and perennially popular. Meats and dairy have a diminished role in a healthy lifestyle.
Some believe resveratrol (also sometimes called reservatrol) might be a key ingredient to living longer.
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0.93707 |
Maunabo, Puerto Rico(CNN) Lourdes Rodriguez heard the scream early on the morning of January 6, before the sun rose and before the frogs began their chorus.
She instantly recognized the voice of her father, Natalio Rodriguez Lebron, 77, a former nurse who cared for the mentally ill, people he believed society had forgotten.
She darted up the stairs.
Her father's health had long been troubled. He had diabetes, lung disease, sleep apnea and congestive heart failure. And in the months since Hurricane Maria battered this coastal town, Lourdes watched his condition worsen. The sleep apnea machine he needed to help him breathe was useless for months because their hilltop neighborhood in Maunabo was entirely without electric power. In December, a business had donated a generator to power the machine at night, but the family struggled to afford the gasoline needed to keep it running.
As Lourdes reached the top of the stairs, she felt an uneasy stillness in the air. The sky was thick and black. No moon was visible. And the electric generator, a machine that sometimes rumbled like a car engine, had fallen eerily silent.
She swung open the living room door to find her father clutching his chest.
The machine was off. Her father appeared unable to breathe.
Natalio Rodriguez Lebron, center, is shown with his family.
Her mother, Julia "Miriam" Rodriguez, stayed with Natalio while Lourdes rushed to restart the generator, which had run out of gas, and repower the breathing machine. Her mother felt Natalio's body go limp in her arms and then collapse to the floor, face down.
Frantic, they called 911 and tried to comfort him.
Waiting there on the floor, Julia Rodriguez told me, she felt a wind -- a physical gust -- leave her husband's body and pass into her own. She said it was as if the decades they'd spent together -- the moves from Puerto Rico to the mainland and back; the hours they both worked as nurses; the three children they raised -- hovered in the room, a tangible, living thing, and then became part of her.
Julia Rodriguez knew then that her husband might not survive.
All these months later, it seemed the storm may have won.
It's been nearly six months since Hurricane Maria.
Its howling winds, which topped 150 mph, long have dissipated. The storm that battered Puerto Rico on September 20 before hooking northward into the Atlantic is a memory.
Yet, in this US commonwealth, people are still dying in Maria's wake.
That's especially true of those who lack basic services like electricity.
Rodriguez died on January 6. In addition to his death, CNN identified five people who died in 2018 from causes that friends, family, doctors or funeral home directors consider to be related to Hurricane Maria and its aftermath.
It's not possible to say with 100% certainty that a death this long after a storm was "caused" by Hurricane Maria, experts told me. But that's beside the point. These deaths show dangerous conditions persist in Puerto Rico.
I spent several days in Maunabo, Rodriguez's town on the southeast coast, and other areas without power, to try to understand how communities are faring all these months later.
Maunabo, Puerto Rico, is still off the grid almost six months after Maria, the mayor tells CNN.
I had been to Puerto Rico several times since the storm, reporting for CNN on topics from uncounted deaths to water outages and an "exodus" to the US mainland. In December, I drove the entire path the eye of the storm took across the island. On that route, I met a woman whose clock was stopped at 3:27 -- the moment the hurricane swept through. Puerto Rico, it seemed, was an island frozen in time, doomed to relive that day again and again.
Would that still be the case after six months?
Metrics on the response to Hurricane Maria told me that might be the case, at least for some residents. So, too, did academics and others who study how we respond to hurricanes.
Puerto Rico, some of these experts said, appears to be stuck between the "emergency" and "recovery" phases of disaster response. Typically, in the United States, the emergency phase -- in which people lack necessities like food, water, shelter and power -- lasts for days or, at most, a few weeks, said Lori Peek, director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. Then comes recovery, when residents, government agencies and others start to rebuild.
"Here we are months after this storm and we are debating if we should still be sending these emergency -- really emergency, and life sustaining -- supports, or (should we) transition into this recovery process," Peek said. "That is just truly breathtaking."
It's true that progress has been made. Tourists are coming back to San Juan, and parts of the city are humming. Casinos are open in ritzy Condado and the bomba dancers are back in Río Piedras. A month after Maria, roughly 1 million of the 3.3 million American citizens here remained without running water service. Now, nearly everyone has it.
In late December, only about a third of temporary roof requests had been met by the US Army Corps of Engineers, leaving some people sleeping in homes where it rained inside at night. Months later, nearly all those requests for professionally installed tarps have been fulfilled. Formal shelters for hurricane victims are now empty, according to federal officials.
Yet inequities remain, especially when it comes to electricity.
As of March 7, more than 10% of electric customers in Puerto Rico were still without power, according to figures reported to the US Department of Energy by the local utility. Maybe that sounds small -- but it represents nearly 156,000 customers, and likely more than that number of people, since the average Puerto Rican household is about three individuals.
Also consider that figure in the context of other recent storms.
Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast of Texas on August 25. The next day, an estimated 304,000 customers were without power -- yet all but about 2,600 had electricity restored in 19 days, according to data provided to CNN by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Florida after Hurricane Irma? That storm left an estimated 6.2 million customers in Florida without electricity on September 11, according to the Florida Public Service Commission, which, like the commission in Texas, collects data from electric utilities. In a little more than two weeks, virtually all power was back.
These comparisons are, of course, imprecise. No two storms are the same in terms of intensity, needs or geography. Puerto Rico is an island and, as federal officials have said repeatedly since the storm, you can't just drive in supplies from another state. Communications systems were down and many roads were impassible in the first weeks after the storm. The island's power grid also was in lousy shape, by many accounts, before Hurricane Maria. Comparing that grid to Florida's, which is the gold standard for preparedness, is somewhat unfair, said Seth Guikema, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Michigan, who studies grids and disaster response. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, he said, some Florida utilities built concrete posts and took other measures to ensure power could be restored faster after storms.
The US Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, which oversees disaster recovery, says it is doing everything possible to ensure basic services are restored to Puerto Rico.
Michael Byrne, FEMA's federal coordinating officer for Puerto Rico, told me in an interview that Puerto Rico's unique logistical challenges fully explain the delays. No other US disaster has presented these unique and difficult circumstances, he said, which meant FEMA had to invent a strategy for how to respond to the crisis. The unique situation here also makes comparisons between the response to Maria and responses to other storms problematic, he said.
If storm-related deaths are continuing, he said, his heart goes out to affected families. "The initial reaction is the reaction anyone would have: I'm sorry to hear that. Truly. One of the things that you don't stop being, no matter your job, is a human being." There are programs, he added, to help bring generators and financial assistance to storm victims, especially those who are in vital need of medical services.
The US Army Corps and FEMA say logistical issues -- including Puerto Rico's remote location -- explain power-restoration delays.
In a statement emailed to CNN this week, the US Army Corps of Engineers, which is helping with power restoration, said back-to-back 2017 disasters, the remoteness of the island and the fact that some supplies had to be manufactured for installation in Puerto Rico, slowed down work on the electric system. "Helicopters have been used to airlift poles, materials and people into remote locations to perform repair work," the Corps said.
Yet these explanations matter little to many of those who have been living without electricity for nearly six months, and have gone without running water for much of that time.
They know another truth: The longer the wait, the more a person is at risk.
The family legend goes like this: The first of Natalio Rodriguez's ancestors to arrive in Maunabo was hidden in a barrel aboard a ship from Africa. He may have arrived as a free man, they said. This much is sure: Rodriguez roots travel deep into this fertile soil. The family has been here as long as anyone can remember.
By the time Natalio Rodriguez was born in December 1940, the 11th of 12 children, much had changed in Puerto Rico -- and yet little had, as well. Rodriguez grew up helping his father, Juan Ines Rodriguez Monclova, work the verdant sugar cane fields behind their home on the side of a shark-tooth mountain. This was the work of his ancestors, too. The Spanish enslaved Africans and, before that, indigenous Taino people -- who gave Maunabo its name -- to work in that industry.
Natalio Rodriguez and his neighbors had all those stories coursing through their veins. His original ancestor in Maunabo is said to have married a Spanish woman, which is how relatives explain the fact that some of their cousins and aunts have bright blue or green eyes, while Natalio's and Lourdes' eyes and skin carry the deep hues of espresso and midnight.
Lourdes Rodriguez, right, with her two children and mother, Julia "Miriam" Rodriguez.
When Rodriguez was a boy, slavery had long been abolished, of course; and the Spanish had been kicked out of Puerto Rico by a new colonial power: the United States. The US, which occupied Puerto Rico in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, granted Puerto Ricans citizenship about two decades before Rodriguez's birth. Still, his family members and neighbors couldn't elect their own governor until 1948. Even today, Puerto Ricans, while subject to US laws and given US aid, can't vote for president or elect full, voting members of Congress.
Despite all that, young Rodriguez remained enchanted by American culture.
He loved Western movies and books and grew up galloping the family's horses down from the mountains and into the valley, which was home to the town square, not far from a lighthouse and the radiant turquoise coast. His childhood nickname was "Hormiguero," Spanish for anthill, his longtime friend, Damian Lopez, 70, told me. I laughed and asked about the origin of that name. The kid was something of a living verb, Lopez said -- always moving, never still.
That restlessness would take him places his father never saw.
Some of Rodriguez's older brothers enlisted in the US military (one lost part of his hand in the Korean War, according to Julia Rodriguez) and, as a teenager, Natalio Rodriguez tried to do the same. Unable to join the service because of a heart arrhythmia, according to his wife, he found other ways to follow in their footsteps. After one brother moved to New York -- bringing home exotic northeastern foods like cod, cherries and white grapes to a family that grew avocado, grapefruit and oranges -- Rodriguez decided, after high school, to move there, too. He would become a big man like his dad -- 5-foot-9 and 300 pounds -- and not averse to physical labor. But he began to resent helping in the sugar fields. Maunabo was, and is, desperately poor. (Fifty-six percent live below the poverty line, according to the US Census Bureau). Some of his relatives still plowed up their fields with bulls tied to oxcarts. The brother who moved away seemed so much happier, and so much richer. In the United States, Rodriguez thought, he'd have a better life, too.
So, in his late teens, Rodriguez boarded a plane for New York.
"Right after getting out of the cab, he stepped on a pile of dog s---."
Natalio loved to tell this story, his wife, Julia, said.
"He'd go, like, 'Wow, so this is how you all live here, dodging piles of poop in the streets!?'"
Maunabo, located in southeast Puerto Rico, is home to 11,500 people.
Julia Rodriguez grew up in Maunabo, too, just up the hill from Natalio and his family. The couple raised three children together, primarily on the US mainland.
For him, the 50 states were a place of promise and of hope -- a place of purpose and duty.
Still, strangely, that first New York impression -- the muck on the street -- stuck with him, too.
He never felt fully settled, his wife told me.
In 2009, he and Julia finally resettled in Maunabo.
"Look," says Luis Lafuente, Maunabo's vice-mayor.
He points at a perfectly circular hole extending from the roof of city hall.
"That's where the clock used to be."
It was busted by Hurricane Maria.
Crabbing and fishing are popular in Maunabo. The town hosts an annual crab festival.
At dusk, those mountains turn to charcoal silhouettes. Few lights shine. Only the lucky and the wealthy can afford personal generators.
We drive Lafuente's Jeep Renegade around the town where he's spent his life. Parts of it are unrecognizable to him. Playgrounds are twisted. A truck barn turned to scrap metal. Power lines are draped over posts like wet noodles. Some electric posts are so off-kilter, they look like they're doing pushups.
The hospital had to be relocated to another municipal building, which most recently had been home to emergency management workers and police. Those officers and workers, in turn, had to move into a public school that closed before the storm. The hospital still has a sign that says "Emergencia 24 Horas," indicating the emergency room never closes. The reconfigured hospital, however, opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 11 p.m. Many of those who require emergency assistance earlier or later than that have to drive through an unlit mountain tunnel -- it feels like something out of "The Walking Dead" -- to seek medical help.
Maunabo's five schools reopened in late November. But students leave class at 12:30 p.m. because there's no power. A school principal I met told me she drives to other towns to make photocopies so students can take tests. Teachers assign very little homework, she says, because the students are so overwhelmed already.
We stop by the lighthouse, perhaps the most iconic site in Maunabo, to find that its searchlight and glass have been shattered by Maria. The Coast Guard hadn't used it since the 1990s, anyway, according to Wanda Marín Rivera, board president of the town's cultural center. But Lafuente and others had hoped tourism might revive the town, with the lighthouse as a destination, since sugar cane, plantains and crab fishing haven't been providing stable work. (Maunabo became known as a hub for crab fishing. Crab images are stamped into the sidewalks and painted on walls; a crab statue sits in front of the baseball stadium, which was heavily damaged, and a smaller one perches on the mayor's desk).
Despite the state of things, Lafuente says Maunabo will improve. Tourists will come. Industry will pick back up. Already, he says, crabbers are setting traps by flashlight at night.
"The people of Maunabo are very motivated and anxious to grow and make the town even better than it was before," he tells me. "We will rise again. We are rising."
At first, the mountain protected them.
The day Maria hit, Natalio Rodriguez huddled in a small bathroom with his wife, his daughter Lourdes, her two children, and, nearby, Natalio's elderly sister. "We were crammed like tuna in a can," Lourdes Rodriguez recalled. Water poured under the door. Natalio told everyone to stay calm, Lourdes told me. Meanwhile, she said, the house "shook like Jell-O."
Still, they survived. Most of the house did, too. The hillside, which had raised so many of their ancestors and grown so many of their crops, sheltered them from the worst of it.
Julia Rodriguez has been without electric power service since Maria hit on September 20.
It was after Maria that the real danger began.
The power was out. Water, too. Food was scarce. For several days, the winding, steep-pitched road to their mountain home was blocked, Lourdes said. It was a week before she was able to wait in hourslong lines for gasoline and get her car to a hill in a neighboring city, Caguas, where she could call their many relatives on the mainland to say they had outlasted the hurricane. Communications systems in Maunabo remained essentially inoperable for months, she told me. Island-wide, according to Puerto Rico government data, only 25% of cell towers were functional by October 20.
It was in these isolated circumstances that Natalio Rodriguez's medical conditions began to worsen. The labored breathing was especially troubling for his wife and daughter. The sleep apnea machine he used at night to get oxygen into his lungs wasn't working without electricity. That meant he and his wife could not rest, much less sleep. He paced the house at night and walked the neighborhood by day. In desperation, the family made cardboard fans for him to use to try to move air around his face. No one thought it would help him breathe, really, but it was something.
"All of a sudden he became a quiet person. He was a talker. Pepito enjoyed long conversations," Julia Rodriguez said, using Natalio's family nickname. "He could spend hours and hours talking. But then (after the storm) he didn't speak much."
The family worried also about the insulin he used for diabetes. It required refrigeration. They had no working refrigerator without power. And ice was difficult to come by.
What they really needed, of course, was electricity.
On November 17, Maunabo plaza and city hall got power from a small generator -- purchased for $35,000 by the municipality, according to the mayor, Jorge Márquez. From their home in the mountains, Lourdes Rodriguez said, the family could see a faint glow. It looked like the town downhill was on another planet.
About a month later, the family received a small power inverter, Lourdes Rodriguez said. It ran for only two or three hours before running out of fuel, she said.
A bigger generator was donated later, but the family had trouble affording the gasoline needed to run it, she told me. The fuel alone cost them $60 per week while her father was alive, Lourdes Rodriguez said. Plus, there were filters, oil and repairs.
When the machine was on, they said, Natalio calmed some.
But they could not keep it going.
Some of them died during the storm.
A mudslide in Utuado, Puerto Rico, killed two "bedridden" sisters. Another person drowned in Toa Baja. But the aftermath of Hurricane Maria appears to have been most deadly.
Hurricane debris is piled up at a temporary dump in March in Maunabo.
More than 1,000 "excess deaths" occurred after the storm, in September and October 2017, than during the same timeframe in 2016 and 2015, according to Alexis Santos, a professor at Penn State University who analyzed Puerto Rican government mortality statistics.
That doesn't tell you 1,000 people certainly died directly because of Hurricane Maria. But it does indicate an unusual number of people were dying -- and well into October.
The only difference, Santos said, was the hurricane.
In November, I put together a CNN team to survey the funeral homes in Puerto Rico. We were only able to reach about half, but those directors and other staff members told us they had seen at least 499 deaths they considered to be hurricane related, based primarily on their conversations with family members. We then documented the deaths of several uncounted people who died in the weeks after the hurricane, not only the day the storm hit. They included an older man in Cayey who died in a fire set by a lantern he wouldn't have been using if he'd had electricity; a man in Canóvanas who committed suicide in the storm's aftermath; and a woman in Corozal who lacked access to medical treatment. (Two deaths we highlighted were later added to the Puerto Rico government's list of official hurricane-related deaths).
Still, I didn't expect deaths would continue into 2018.
It's impossible to use statistics to prove that they are, because the Puerto Rican Demographic Registry has not released data for this year. (CNN and Puerto Rico's Centro de Periodismo Investigativo are suing that agency for access to death records). Trends suggest the aggregate loss of life in Puerto Rico is slowing and may have normalized, Santos told me.
Still, I was able to document several deaths that occurred this year and appear related to Maria's frantic aftermath.
Several of the deaths I researched occurred in Maunabo.
Braulio Salinas Santiago, 71, died of an apparent heart attack in the parking lot of Maunabo's makeshift hospital on January 18, according to his wife, Margarita Baerga Diaz. It was about 5 a.m., she said, before the hospital, which operated 24-7 before the hurricane, had opened.
Similarly, Fulgencio Velazquez Chevalier died on February 20 in the car of his wife, Litza Rodriguez Figueroa. The 50-year-old suffered depression and intense anxiety after the storm, according to Rodriguez Figueroa, who is a nurse. She believes that stress, along with a related increased smoking, contributed to her husband's cardiac arrest. When she drove by the closed Maunabo hospital, she told me, Velazquez was still alive.
Carmen Rodriguez Martinez died on January 25 at age 71.
Her doctor, Arturo Torres Borges, wrote two words on the death certificate in a spot reserved for circumstances that may have contributed to the death: "Huracán Maria."
The causes of death included respiratory failure and heart disease.
Héctor Pedraza, left, lost his mother -- Herminio Trinidad's wife -- when she died in February in the aftermath of Maria.
Rodriguez Martinez required an oxygen machine to breathe, according to her daughter, Iris Janette de Jesus Rodriguez, 54. They still didn't have electricity from the grid when I visited in late February. A generator hadn't been enough, she said.
In Corozal, farther into the mountains, Victor Manuel Belen Santiago wept as he told me that his mother, Zoraida Santiago Torres, 58, had saved his life by helping him kick drug addiction.
Their home was destroyed by the storm, and Belen Santiago rebuilt it by hand, puzzling scraps of the roof and walls together like a reassembled house of cards. But he couldn't restore the power his mother needed to run an oxygen machine. She died on February 13, he said, after getting fluid in her lungs that could not be cleared. Her death certificate lists organ failure and a bacterial infection among the causes of death, along with chronic liver disease.
After the loss, Belen Santiago said he contemplated suicide.
His beloved mother was gone. He had no job -- no prospect for a job after the debt crisis, which struck Puerto Rico before the hurricane. It was unclear if life ever would feel safe again.
"We are the forgotten people," he said. "It's like we don't exist."
The morning of January 5 started like so many others, with a tap-tap-tap of her father's cane on the second-story patio -- Natalio Rodriguez's way of waking his daughter up for the day.
Lourdes Rodriguez rolled her eyes playfully and walked upstairs to see what he wanted this time. She and her two children, ages 13 and 8, had been sleeping on twin beds in a room downstairs since the storm. The roof of a new home they had been building was torn off by Maria.
She would awake to her father's screams the following night, but this day now occupies a different territory in her memory. She considers it one of the best days of her life.
Her father seemed so healthy, so alive.
He wanted to go everywhere that day, see everything. He carried his cane with him while visiting his sister, a nun, in Ponce, a city on the south coast. But he kept it in his elbow crease -- more ornament than crutch. At an ice cream shop, he pretended to be a clueless American tourist -- using affected Spanish, asking to see tourist attractions on the other side of the island. The store's workers laughed when he broke the gag, Lourdes Rodriguez said. He ordered his favorite flavor: passion fruit with pineapple. That night, they ate seafood at a restaurant near the beach.
In March, power lines were still twisted and broken in southeastern Puerto Rico.
Now, Lourdes Rodriguez wonders why that day was different.
Maybe it was the upcoming holiday? January 6 is Three Kings Day in Puerto Rico, or Epiphany, when Christians commemorate the arrival of wise men visiting the infant Jesus.
Her father had been talking about it for some time, telling her children to prepare their best clothes (the truth was that most of their clothing had been donated after the storm) so they could go to a pig roast in a neighboring community. In years past, they'd gathered up guitars, pots and sticks and gone caroling up and down the hillside -- a Puerto Rican parranda -- growing the party as they visited one house and then the next, offering food and drinks and collecting stories.
Maybe he was living in anticipation of that day?
Or maybe this day was his way of saying goodbye.
That question nagged at me as I reported on Puerto Rico's ongoing electrical outages. And it's a question that clearly haunts many Puerto Ricans.
"They're Americans but they're not represented in Congress," said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University in New York. That means there are few political repercussions for a botched disaster response, he said, and few advocates for funding. "It really gets down to money and poverty and politics."
"It's unconscionable and unreasonable that it has taken so long" to restore power, he said. "You have to ask yourself, 'why is that?' It's money and politics, the common denominator for so many things. ... Can you imagine no (electric) power in Beaumont or Port Arthur or Rockport, Texas, for this amount of time? I don't care what kind of disaster it was. You would never see this."
Byrne, the FEMA official, said this disaster has been adequately funded and the federal government is responding to the crisis in Puerto Rico in the same way it would in the 50 states. "We're not leaving," he said. "We're here until we take care of all of the requirements that are needed."
As of March 15, FEMA had spent $1.1 billion in Puerto Rico; $1.6 billion in Texas; and $993 million in Florida for individual assistance following the fall 2017 hurricanes. "That's the initial, quickest payment to individual citizens for immediate needs, but the real cost is in long-term recovery dollars for infrastructure projects, like buildings, roads and other public facilities," which is not included in those figures, said Chris Currie, director of emergency management issues at the US Government Accountability Office.
Congressional appropriations for disaster response and recovery in recent months are not always itemized by storm, he said, making it difficult to say which hurricanes ultimately will be given the most federal funding. An estimated $23.2 billion has been appropriated specifically for Puerto Rico, according to The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates Maria caused $90 billion in damages; Harvey, $125 billion; and Irma, $50 billion.
Regardless of financing, the relative slowness of the recovery in Puerto Rico is seen by some people here as dehumanizing.
Life is returning to parts of San Juan, the capital, but hurricane damage remains.
In a way, Maria has revealed the ugly colonial relationship between the island and the United States, said Silvia Álvarez Curbelo, a historian and director of the research center at the University of Puerto Rico's school of communications.
"This raw nerve of colonialism comes creeping in in every conversation" these days, she told me. "It's this feeling of subordination. The people -- common people -- have no way (to respond) except to wait. Wait for this letter. Wait to see if FEMA comes to town. Wait to see if the federal government comes (though) with the money they told us they would give us for recovery."
Such frustrations reached a boiling point in the past.
There were plenty of other factors at play, but Spain's failure to address a humanitarian and economic crisis after an 1867 hurricane in Puerto Rico "provided the context for the first political movement for independence on the island," Stuart Schwartz, a Yale history professor, writes in "Sea of Storms."
The uprising, however, was "crushed immediately," said Álvarez Curbelo, from the University of Puerto Rico. Nothing like that ever would be tried today, she said. While Puerto Ricans have worked hard to create a national cultural identity, and while the idea of independence was popular decades ago, few Puerto Ricans in recent years have supported political independence from the United States, according to Florida International University anthropologist Jorge Duany.
If anything, Álvarez Curbelo expects Puerto Rico to sink further into "political paralysis" and become more US-dependent after Maria.
She doesn't see the United States granting Puerto Rico full rights as the 51st state, a move that likely would require the approval of Congress. Remember, she said, this storm follows a massive debt crisis in which the island's government declared bankruptcy. What does Puerto Rico have to offer the United States now? A fiscal oversight board, appointed by the US President, is steering austerity measures. Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans have been taught, generation after generation, she said, to believe that they cannot survive without the help of a colonial power.
"I'm not a pessimistic person," she told me. "I'm a historian. I tend to be sober. I watch the long trends. But I don't see the light -- in the total sense of the word 'light.' The thing about power is it's a metaphor for the island. The fragility of the energy system -- of the power system -- is the perfect metaphor for our condition: The light comes and goes. There is no sense of future."
The ambulance arrived at 2:18 a.m. on January 6, records show.
Natalio Rodriguez Lebron died at 1:23 a.m.
According to the death certificate, Rodriguez's death was caused by chronic lung disease, hypertension and diabetes. In the notes on that document, a doctor from the Puerto Rico Bureau of Forensic Sciences also mentioned that he was a smoker and obese.
That bureau, in San Juan, is the only laboratory in Puerto Rico authorized to classify deaths as hurricane-related. In the months after Maria, the office has come under criticism, including from CNN, for possibly missing dozens if not hundreds of "indirect" hurricane deaths.
The US government installed three emergency generators in Maunabo to try to re-electrify the town.
The official death toll has stood at 64 since early December.
In February, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced Puerto Rico had enlisted the help of George Washington University to study the mortality that followed Hurricane Maria. That analysis, due out in coming months, will focus on deaths from September through February.
To date, Natalio Rodriguez's death has not been classified as hurricane-related. Puerto Rico's Department of Public Safety, which oversees the forensics bureau, did not respond to repeat requests for comment on his death and others in this story.
Rodriguez's family believes his death was related to Hurricane Maria. His doctor, Pedro Lopez Lopez, shares that view. Rodriguez's health deteriorated in the conditions Maria left behind, he told me. He saw Natalio about two weeks before his death; and he was "stable" then, he said.
The body was not delivered to the forensics office until 2:38 the following afternoon, a time that forensics documents confirm. By afternoon, the body had started to decompose. The family was told it would be impossible to have an open-casket service, as is the norm in Puerto Rico.
The closed casket was the hardest part of the funeral, a longtime friend told me.
"It was terrible," Damian Lopez said. "If you love someone, you'd like to see him for one last time."
There was also the matter of the expense.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency manages a program that can cover some funeral expenses for eligible families after hurricanes. But those deaths typically must be certified as hurricane-related in order to qualify.
The Rodriguez family already put $4,000 toward his funeral, a receipt shows.
In December, FEMA did grant the family $4,000 for home repairs and $3,000 to replace household items that were damaged in Maria, Lourdes Rodriguez said. Julia Rodriguez told me friends and relatives tried to offer the family money after the storm but that her husband turned away the help. He was a proud person, she said, and generous. He also knew that everyone in the community was suffering.
People will keep dying until power is restored.
That's the stark assessment Arturo Torres Borges shared with my colleagues Leyla Santiago and Khushbu Shah, who tipped me off to the possibility of continued deaths in Maunabo. Torres is the medical doctor who wrote "Huracán Maria" on the death certificate of a local woman.
Natalio Rodriguez's doctor puts it this way: "This is a public health crisis." I met plenty of people at risk in Maunabo.
Some are so sick of the situation they try to laugh it off.
Zoraida Santiago Torres, 58, died February 13. Her family members believe a lack of electric power contributed to her death.
Across the street from Litza Rodriguez Figueroa, whose husband died in February, lives Ana Ramos Davila, a 74-year-old who will insist you drink her bottled water and then ask if you have any cute gringo friends who would drink Coors Light and play dominoes with her.
That's the dream! she said -- gringos, Coors and dominoes.
Post-Maria has included little of that.
"Christ! When is this going to be over?" she said of the storm. "I've spent $100 or more just on bags of ice" to try to keep food cool without power. "No one is helping me, my dear."
"I already told my psychologist if you get a call that I took my life, don't be amazed," she said, serious. "I'm so tired of this -- looking for supplies, finding water, lighting candles. I'm so tired."
A few houses up the street, I met David Torres and Juanita Guzman, who were having their home repainted. Torres showed me a breathing machine he's supposed to use at night but doesn't, he said, because it requires a steady power source and could short circuit without one. He has a small generator -- "I use it to turn on one light and one fan; if I turn on the light, I have to turn off the fan." It doesn't provide steady enough power to run the machine, he said.
"I need my oxygen mask. One of these days my wife is going to wake up and find me dead by her side," he said. "She told me that in the night she hears me having trouble breathing."
"If it's my time to die, I'll die," he said, laughing. "There's nothing I can do."
Experts say post-storm stress and depression can be deadly.
Poverty exacerbates the risks, said Redlener, from Columbia University.
The way people interpret a disaster matters, too. If they believe the disaster is simply weather-related rather than manmade, they're more likely to accept it, said Peek, from the University of Colorado. What she fears is that Puerto Ricans are struggling because of the human response to the hurricane.
"It's like the despair effect," she said. "People who feel forgotten and neglected -- they may suffer negative mental health effects."
Up the hill from the Rodriguez family live Miguel Amaro Leon, 79, and Maria Morales Ortiz, 76. They welcomed me onto their outdoor patio just as the sun was setting. A generator roared behind our conversation as they told me how hard it's been to keep the thing running.
"It's been really difficult because we have to pay for the gas," Amaro Leon said. "We only use the generator three or four hours daily. If not, we would have to spend more money."
Can they keep their insulin cold?
"We try to eat food that doesn't need to be in the refrigerator."
As we talked, the generator ran out of gas.
Frogs chirped in the night.
"Things are getting better little by little," Amaro Leon said. "We just need power."
On my last evening in Maunabo, Lourdes Rodriguez took me to see her father's grave. It's in a cemetery in the valley, not far from the town plaza. Looking across the property, you can see the foggy mountains in the distance where so many of Lourdes' relatives cut sugar cane and plowed the earth, first under the rule of the Spanish and now the United States commonwealth.
Natalio "Pepito" Rodriguez Lebron died on January 6.
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
Her father's family nickname -- "Pepito" -- was written by hand in wet cement.
The family hasn't been able to pay for a headstone.
"I can't fix it," she said, sobbing. "It's hard for me to see it that way."
Álvarez Curbelo, the professor at the University of Puerto Rico, told me earlier that she wished Hurricane Maria's dead could speak. That way they would not be ignored.
I asked Lourdes what she thought her father would say if he could talk with us now.
"He would tell us to keep calm," she said, somber. "That was always his saying: 'Take it one day at a time.' Don't think about the next week or the next month.
"Take it one day at a time."
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Našli jsme další záznamy k osobě ברוך דנן.
ברוך דנן je pohřben(a) na hřbitově New Kiryat Shmona Cemetery v místě zobrazeném na níže uvedené mapě. Tyto informace o GPS jsou k dispozici POUZE na stránkách BillionGraves. Naše technologie vám pomůže najít umístění hrobu a také další členy rodiny, pohřbené poblíž.
ברוך דנן was 19 years old when Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio. George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "The Bambino" and "The Sultan of Swat", he began his MLB career as a stellar left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth established many MLB batting records, including career home runs (714), runs batted in (RBIs) (2,213), bases on balls (2,062), slugging percentage (.690), and on-base plus slugging (OPS) (1.164); the latter two still stand as of 2018. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" inaugural members.
ברוך דנן was 29 years old when World War II: Nazi Germany and Slovakia invade Poland, beginning the European phase of World War II. World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although conflicts reflecting the ideological clash between what would become the Allied and Axis blocs began earlier. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most global war in history; it directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of total war, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
ברוך דנן was 35 years old when World War II: German forces in the west agree to an unconditional surrender. The German Instrument of Surrender ended World War II in Europe. The definitive text was signed in Karlshorst, Berlin, on the night of 8 May 1945 by representatives of the three armed services of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) and the Allied Expeditionary Force together with the Supreme High Command of the Red Army, with further French and US representatives signing as witnesses. The signing took place 9 May 1945 at 00:16 local time.
ברוך דנן was 43 years old when Jonas Salk announced the successful test of his polio vaccine on a small group of adults and children (vaccination pictured). Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist. He discovered and developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. Born in New York City, he attended New York University School of Medicine, later choosing to do medical research instead of becoming a practicing physician. In 1939, after earning his medical degree, Salk began an internship as a physician scientist at Mount Sinai Hospital. Two years later he was granted a fellowship at the University of Michigan, where he would study flu viruses with his mentor Thomas Francis, Jr.
ברוך דנן was 55 years old when Thirty-five hundred United States Marines are the first American land combat forces committed during the Vietnam War. The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting amphibious operations with the United States Navy. The U.S. Marine Corps is one of the four armed service branches in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States.
ברוך דנן was 67 years old when Star Wars is released in theaters. Star Wars is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first film in the original Star Wars trilogy and the beginning of the Star Wars franchise. Starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew, the film focuses on the Rebel Alliance, led by Princess Leia (Fisher), and its attempt to destroy the Galactic Empire's space station, the Death Star.
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0.938269 |
What do we mean by pairs? We are typically referring to a male and female couple. Pairs are ofter found and sold as pairs in order to keep the couple together or for breeding purposes.
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0.966257 |
How do I get computer to recognize my older ipod touch so I can Import photos?
I can't get my computer to recognize my ipod touch older model so I can import photos.
If they do then does the iPod work?
- Inspect the dock connector for bend or missing contacts, corroded contacts, broken, missing or cracked plastic.
3 Plz help me from the error - "org.apache.jasper.jasperException"
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0.932352 |
Following 48 h treatment method with Icaritin, SNK 10 and SNT eight cells had been stained with Hoechst 33258 and examined by florescence microscopy. selleck chemicals阻害剤 As proven in Figure 3C a, SNK 10 and SNT eight cells taken care of with Icaritin exhibited apop totic morphological qualities for instance cell shrinkage and chromatin condensation and fragmentation, when these morphological characteristics weren't evident in un taken care of cells. Additionally, the % of apoptotic cells established by morphology based cell sorting was equivalent to that obtained by annexin VPI dual staining movement cytometry. Icaritin induces caspase activation in ENKL cells To investigate the mechanisms underlying Icaritins professional apoptotic effects in ENKL cells, we determined the levels of caspases plus the Bcl 2 loved ones proteins by western blot analysis.<br><br> Our results showed that Icaritin dose dependently greater amounts of cleaved caspase 9 and caspase three in SNK 10 and SNT 8 cells. We also identified that Icaritin down regulated Bcl 2 and p Lousy and up regulated Bax in each cell lines while acquiring no considerable results on Terrible buy Lenalidomide expression. Collectively, these outcomes sug gested that Icaritin induces ENKL cell apoptosis through activating the mitochondria mediated caspase pathway. Icaritin inhibits Stat3 and Akt signaling in ENKL cells To more investigate the mechanisms of action of Icaritin, we analyzed the results of Icaritin around the professional liferative and survival signals Stat3 and Akt in ENKL cells. Following 48 h treatment with Icaritin, SNK 10 and SNT 8 cells were lysed and subjected to western blot evaluation.<br><br> As proven in Figure five, Icaritin diminished p Stat3 and p Akt ranges within a dose and time dependent method in each cell lines devoid of affecting LY2228820 ic50 the level of complete Stat3. These effects recommended that Icaritin in hibits growth and induces apoptosis in ENKL cells probably through regulation on the Stat3 and Akt signaling pathways. Icaritin minimizes LMP1 mRNA and protein expression in ENKL cells EBV encoded LMP1 protein activates proliferative and survival signals including NF κB, MAPK, JAKSTAT, and AKT to manage the proliferation, immortalization, and invasion of infected lymphoma cells. We ex amined the effects of Icaritin on LMP1 mRNA and pro tein expression in ENKL cells by Real Time PCR and western blot analysis, respectively.<br><br> We discovered that right after 48 h therapy, Icaritin at thirty uM and 50 uM signifi cantly diminished LMP1 mRNA and protein expression in SNK ten cells. We also located that Icaritin at thirty uM inhibited LMP1 mRNA and protein expression in the time dependent method, with important reduction observed following 24, 48, and 72 h incubation. As the Figure 6B proven, Icaritin decreased LMP1 mRNA and protein expression in a dose and time dependent method in SNT 8 cells. These information recommended that the inhibitory effects of Icaritin on Stat3 and Akt signaling in ENKL cells may well be mediated by downregulation of LMP1 expression. Icaritin induces EBV lytic phase gene expression and sensitizes ENKL cells to GCV treatment method Ultimately we studied the results of Icaritin on EBV latent lytic switch in ENKL cells by analyzing the mRNA ex pression of 3 lytic phase genes and 1 latent phase gene. The 3 lytic phase genes included the two EBV instant early genes BZLF1 and BRLF1, plus the early gene BMRF1.
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0.999999 |
The general market is saturated with solar-powered devices for the everyday consumer: calculators, cell phone chargers, outdoor lights, and even hangers that automatically rotate your hanging baskets for even sunlight exposure. Bearing this in mind, marketing and implementing solar-powered air conditioning should be very easy; the same photovoltaic panels used in these consumer devices can be scaled appropriately to power the needs of a zonal or central air conditioning system. This environmentally friendly solution reduces power draw and the overall demand on power production facilities and, theoretically, proves to be a financial incentive to the consumer. If this method of powering air conditioning is so profitable, why is it not more prevalent?
If sun wasn't a variable in the overall equation, using solar panels is physically a very feasible means of powering an air conditioning system. The issue is that the power consumption of an air conditioner requires more solar panels that what would be a spatially and financially viable option for most people. Think of charging a cell phone; typically, this requires a total power consumption of 2 watts. An average photovoltaic panel outputs 13 watts per square foot. A single central air conditioner may pull 3500 watts/hour, which would theoretically require nearly 270 square feet of space for panels. This doesn't take into consideration multiple factors, such as losses due to efficiency and shade.
The effectiveness of photovoltaics is largely dependent on steady exposure to unobscured sunlight. Some locations, such as the American Southwest, are very conducive to this type of power, whereas the sun's more glancing rays in the midst of Northern New England's forests would hamper a solar panel's usefulness. Fortunately, the Southwest requires air conditioning to a much greater degree than Northern New England, so this inequality of effectiveness is relatively balanced by climate. In both cases, however, electrical energy harnessed from solar panels can be used as supplemental power for an air conditioning system. Though return-on-investments vary widely on a case-by-case basis, the everyday consumer could very well strike a balance so that cost savings by using a partially solar-powered air conditioner aren't outweighed by the initial investment; all while reducing the consumption of precious resources for power generation.
It's very common that attics can be over-insulated and under-vented, causing heat to become trapped inside, thereby preventing unwanted heat from exiting the home (this is also the cause for excessive condensation on walls and windows in the wintertime). By properly venting and insulating your attic and outside walls, heat can escape and cool air can penetrate your rooms.
Eliminating cracks, most commonly near windows and doors, prevents the unwanted escape of cool air. Proper filling of gaps and caulking will typically suffice.
Adequate circulation is frequently overlooked. Most people see return air vents and regard them as secondary to delivery vents, since they don't actively cool rooms. The fact is, however, these are just as important as air delivery vents; if air can't circulate, pressure builds in the room, reducing the effectiveness and increasing the demand on a cooling system. The lesser load placed on this system reduces the overall draw on solar panels, which increases their practicality.
If using photovoltaic panels simply isn't feasible for powering your air conditioning system, you can certainly use them to assist your cooling needs. For instance, solar-powered attic vents remove the excessive upper-level heat build-up that increases the load on your air conditioner. As an alternative to this, solar power could be harnessed for a heat pump, which is an especially effective method for providing cooling in a mild climate.
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