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We propose to create the Stanford PharmacoGenetic Knowledge Base (PharmGKB), an integrated data resource to support the NIGMS Pharmacogenetic Research Network and Database Initiative. This initiative will focus on how genetic variation contributes to variation in the response to drugs, and will produce data from a wide range of sources. The PharmGKB will therefore interlink genomic, molecular, cellular and clinical information about gene systems important for modulating drug responses. The PharmGKB is based on a powerful hierarchical data representation system that allows the data model to change as new knowledge is learned, while ensuring the security and stability of the data with a relational database foundation. Our proposal defines an interactive process for defining a data model, creating automated systems for data submission, integrating the PharmGKB with other biological and clinical data resources, and creating a robust interface to the data and to the associated analytic tools. Finally, we outline a research plan that uses the PharmGKB to (1) address difficult data modeling challenges that arise in the course of building the resource, (2) study the user interface requirements of a database with such a wide range of information sources, and (3) model and analyze the structural variations of proteins to shed light on the molecular consequences of genetic variation. The PharmGKB will respect the absolute confidentiality of genetic information from individuals.

791 N.E.2d 568 (2003) 339 Ill. App.3d 1086 274 Ill.Dec. 476 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Michael SLOVER, Jr., Michael Slover, Sr., and Jeanette Slover, Defendants-Appellants. No. 4-02-0892. Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District. June 6, 2003. *569 Danile D. Yuhas and John M. McCarthy, both of State Appellate Defender's Office, of Springfield, for appellants. Scott Rueter, State's Attorney, of Decatur (Norbert J. Goetten, Robert J. Biderman, and Denise M. Ambrose, all of State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor's Office of counsel), for the People. Justice TURNER delivered the opinion of the court: In May 2002, a jury convicted defendants, Michael Slover, Jr., Michael Slover, Sr., and Jeanette Slover, of the first degree murder of Karen Slover. Michael, Jr., and Michael, Sr., were also convicted of concealment of a homicidal death. All three defendants were sentenced to prison and filed a notice of appeal with this court. In September 2002, the State filed a motion to release defense exhibits for scientific testing. The trial court granted the motion and found no just reason for delaying the appeal. On appeal, defendants argue the trial court had no jurisdiction to order testing of defense exhibits because those exhibits are part of the record on appeal. The State argues defendants' appeal must be dismissed because the trial court's order did not constitute a final order or judgment from which defendants could appeal. We affirm. I. BACKGROUND In May 2002, a jury convicted defendants Michael Slover, Jr., and his parents, Michael Slover, Sr., and Jeanette Slover, of the first degree murder of Michael, Jr.'s former wife, Karen Slover. Michael, Jr., and Michael, Sr., were also convicted of concealment of a homicidal death. In June 2002, the trial court sentenced all three defendants to 60 years' imprisonment. Michael, Jr., and Michael, Sr., also received five-year prison sentences for their convictions of concealment of a homicidal death. In July 2002, defendants filed motions to reduce their sentences, which the trial court denied. Thereafter, defendants filed a notice of appeal (No. 4-02-0587). In September 2002, the State filed a motion, naming all three defendants, to *570 release defense exhibits for scientific testing. The motion indicated three defense exhibits admitted during defendants' trial contained some animal hairs unsuitable for identification, along with some possible cat hairs, that were taken by police from a 1992 Bonneville. Further, Mary Slover, the daughter of Michael, Sr., and Jeanette, and the sister of Michael, Jr., formerly lived at a house in Springfield that a forensic scientist identified to have cat and dog hairs following an investigatory examination. The State indicated a petition had been filed under the Juvenile Court Act of 1987 (705 ILCS 405/1-1 through 7-1 (West 2000)) in Macon County case No. 00-JA-12, alleging the biological son of Michael, Jr., and the adopted son of Mary was a neglected and abused minor. The State had filed an expedited petition for termination of parental rights. The State indicated the doctor who performed canine deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing in the defendants' murder case was willing to perform feline DNA testing of the State's enumerated exhibits and the cat hair from Mary's former residence. The State submitted "the release of the three defense exhibits for feline DNA testing would advance the interests of justice in the pending juvenile case of [No.] 00-JA-12." In September 2002, the trial court held a hearing on the State's motion. Defendants' counsel argued the trial court had no jurisdiction as their appeals had been filed. If the court did have jurisdiction, defendants argued, the State wanted to subject the cat hair to destructive testing, which would be prejudicial to defendants if the appellate court ordered further proceedings in the trial court. The trial court found it had jurisdiction to rule on the matter, stating it had authority to enter orders with regard to property in its custody. The court also found the State presented good cause for destructive testing of the evidence. As a condition of the testing, the court required a photograph taken to identify the exhibits. Defense counsel requested the clerk be directed to file a notice of appeal. The trial court found its order was governed by the civil appeal rules pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 612 (177 Ill.2d R. 612). In its written order pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 304(a) (155 Ill.2d R. 304(a)), the court concluded there was no just reason for delaying the appeal. Per defense counsel's request, the trial court stayed its order until further order by the court. This appeal followed. In October 2002, Jeanette filed a motion to join in the interlocutory appeal. She later filed a notice of appeal in November 2002. In February 2003, this court allowed Jeanette's motion for leave to file a late notice of appeal. II. ANALYSIS A. Appellate Court Jurisdiction Before we determine whether the trial court had jurisdiction to consider the State's motion, we must determine whether this court has jurisdiction to consider defendants' appeal. In their appellate brief, defendants contend this court has jurisdiction pursuant to Supreme Court Rules 603 and 606 pertaining to criminal appeals (134 Ill.2d R. 603; 188 Ill.2d R. 606). The State argues we must dismiss defendants' appeal. The trial court issued an order pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 304(a), finding no just reason for delaying appeal of its order granting the State's motion to release defense exhibits for scientific testing. Supreme Court Rule 304(a) provides, in part, as follows: "If multiple parties or multiple claims for relief are involved in an action, an appeal may be taken from a final judgment as to one or more but fewer than *571 all of the parties or claims only if the trial court has made an express written finding that there is no just reason for delaying either enforcement or appeal or both. * * * In the absence of such a finding, any judgment that adjudicates fewer than all the claims or the rights and liabilities of fewer than all the parties is not enforceable or appealable and is subject to revision at any time before the entry of a judgment adjudicating all the claims, rights, and liabilities of all the parties." 155 Ill.2d R. 304(a). When the criminal appeal rules govern, Rule 304(a) does not apply. In re D.D., 337 Ill.App.3d 998, 1008, 272 Ill.Dec. 706, 788 N.E.2d 10, 17 (2002). However, an appellate court's jurisdiction to consider an appeal "does not derive solely from a party's invocation of the correct supreme court rule." In re O.H., 329 Ill.App.3d 254, 257, 263 Ill.Dec. 718, 768 N.E.2d 799, 801 (2002). Moreover, the trial court indicated the civil appeal rules applied after looking for guidance under Supreme Court Rule 612, setting forth the procedural matters that are governed by civil appeal rules. The court noted civil appeal rules applied to the removal of records from the reviewing court. Supreme Court Rule 372 (155 Ill.2d R. 372), a civil appeal rule applicable to criminal appeals, focuses on the removal of the record from the appellate court, not the removal of exhibits from the record on appeal for scientific testing. However, the similarity between the procedural matters of removing records from the reviewing court and allowing testing of an exhibit that is part of the record on appeal is enough to enable the case to fall within the civil appeal rules. Here, the order allowing destructive testing of the exhibits created a final judgment. As this amounted to a procedural matter, along with the trial court's written order pursuant to Rule 304(a), we conclude this case is properly before us. B. Trial Court Jurisdiction Generally, "[t]he filing of a notice of appeal transfers jurisdiction to the appellate court instanter and simultaneously divests the trial court of jurisdiction to enter additional orders of substance in a case." People v. Kolzow, 332 Ill.App.3d 457, 459, 265 Ill.Dec. 532, 772 N.E.2d 903, 904 (2002). The trial court may not then enter orders changing or modifying a judgment or its scope or interfering with the review of the judgment. Kolzow, 332 Ill. App.3d at 459, 265 Ill.Dec. 532, 772 N.E.2d at 905. The trial court does retain jurisdiction to determine matters that are collateral or incidental to the judgment being appealed. Brownlow v. Richards, 328 Ill. App.3d 833, 837, 263 Ill.Dec. 31, 767 N.E.2d 482, 485 (2002). In this case, the trial court's order did not modify the judgment or interfere with the review of that judgment. Further, the court's order did not dispose of the issues defendants had invoked our jurisdiction to review in their murder appeal. Thus, defendants' criminal appeal did not automatically divest the trial court of jurisdiction in regard to the State's motion. Defendants argue the trial court did not have jurisdiction to order the scientific testing of defense exhibits. We disagree. Defendants contend the physical evidence, such as the cat hair, is part of the record on appeal based on Supreme Court Rule 608 (177 Ill.2d R. 608), and thus the trial court could not make substantive rulings on that evidence. Rule 608(a) provides, in part, as follows: "The clerk of the circuit court shall prepare the record on appeal upon the filing of a notice of appeal and in all cases in which a death sentence is imposed. * * * The record on appeal must contain the following: *572 * * * (10) exhibits offered at trial and sentencing, along with objections, offers of proof, arguments, and rulings thereon; except that physical and demonstrative evidence, other than photographs, which do not fit on a standard size record page shall not be included in the record on appeal unless ordered by a court upon motion of a party or upon the court's own motion." 177 Ill.2d R. 608(a). Supreme Court Rule 608 addresses the requirements the clerk of the circuit court must adhere to in preparing the record on appeal. However, it does not address whether the trial court has the authority to order the testing of exhibits used at trial while the case is presently on appeal. For that determination, we look toward our supreme court's general administrative order on recordkeeping in the trial courts. Pursuant to its general administrative authority, the supreme court has stated: "PART I RECORD OF THE CASE The records of the case to be prepared and maintained by the clerk shall be as follows: * * * G. EXHIBITS Unless otherwise ordered, * * * exhibits received in evidence shall be: 1. Retained by the clerk while the right of appeal exists. In criminal, traffic, ordinance, and conservation cases in which the defendant has been found guilty[,] exhibits shall also be retained until the defendant has paid the fine, served his sentence, or has been released from probation or parole. 2. Released by the Clerk: a. When the time for appeal has passed, provided that, in criminal, traffic, ordinance[,] and conservation cases in which the defendant has been found guilty, exhibits shall not be released until the defendant has paid the fine, served his sentence[,] or has been released from probation or parole. b. At any time by order of the judge who presided at the trial of the case, or by order of the chief judge." Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, General Administrative Order on Recordkeeping in the Circuit Courts, adopted by the Supreme Court of Illinois on May 20, 1968, as amended, effective April 23, 2003, at iv, xii. Based on the supreme court's pronouncement, we find a trial court has jurisdiction to determine whether exhibits used at trial should be submitted for scientific testing while the remainder of the case is on appeal. C. Order Releasing Defense Exhibits A trial court has the inherent power to maintain and control its records. In re Marriage of Johnson, 232 Ill.App.3d 1068, 1072, 174 Ill.Dec. 209, 598 N.E.2d 406, 409 (1992). With this in mind, the trial court must use its discretion in determining whether exhibits should be released by the clerk. See, e.g., Doe v. Carlson, 250 Ill.App.3d 570, 574, 189 Ill.Dec. 205, 619 N.E.2d 906, 909 (1993) (trial court has the discretion to impound judicial records after weighing the interests involved in accessing the record or keeping access restricted); Johnson, 232 Ill.App.3d at 1072-73, 174 Ill.Dec. 209, 598 N.E.2d at 409 (access to judicial records is left to sound discretion of trial court based on the relevant facts and circumstances of the case). When confronted with a motion to release exhibits for scientific testing, the trial court must balance the competing interests, *573 including, but not limited to, the possible prejudice to the defendant, the State's desire to advance the interests of justice, and the State's need for testing to accomplish its planned and stated objective. In the case sub judice, the State established in its motion that Dr. Joy Halverson indicated she was capable of performing and willing to perform DNA testing on animal hairs from defense exhibits and cat hairs from Mary Slover's former residence. The State alleged the testing would advance the interests of justice in the pending juvenile case and the determination of whether the parental rights of Mary and Michael, Jr., should be terminated. Specifically, the State alleged the evidence could point to Mary's connection with the Karen Slover murder or its concealment. Defendants, on the other hand, argued at the hearing that destructive testing would be prejudicial in the event of a retrial. However, the State noted the evidence was not large enough for a jury to assess, unlike a "big coat" or "bloody knife." Also, the State indicated the conclusions made after scientific testing could benefit the defense. In its decision, the trial court found "good cause" for the scientific testing. The court also required as a condition of the scientific testing that a photograph be taken of any exhibits of sufficient quality to identify them. We find the trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing scientific testing of the defense exhibits. The trial court was presented with the State's need for the evidence and the possible prejudicial impact such testing might have on defendants. The court weighed each position, made an additional requirement to keep a record of the evidence, and ruled accordingly. As the State presented evidence that scientific testing could further the interests of justice and defendants were unconvincing in their claim of prejudice, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting the State's motion. III. CONCLUSION For the reasons stated, we affirm the trial court's judgment. Affirmed. STEIGMANN and APPLETON, JJ., concur.

Q: How to save 2 data from SQL into 2 different PHP variables? I'm fetching data from 2 tables with one common column and and the query is returning values as expected. How to save these two values "Normal" and "Normal" gotten from "disease" and "cases" column, into 2 different variables in PHP? This is my query: SELECT healthdb.disease, criminaldb.cases FROM criminaldb NATURAL JOIN healthdb WHERE aadharnos = {$aadharnos}; The output was: How to save this text "Normal" in PHP variable {$case} and other value, "Normal" in another PHP variable {$disea} so that I can compare them within if condition for my next part of my code A: You can use fetch-assoc so you will have all the data return from the SQL query in PHP variable. Consider the following: $query = "SELECT healthdb.disease, criminaldb.cases FROM criminaldb NATURAL JOIN healthdb WHERE aadharnos = $aadharnos;"; $results = $connectToDb->query($query); while($row = $results->fetch_assoc()){ print_r($row); //here you can access the row data returned and save your data in local variable $crim = $row["cases"]; $dis = $row["disease"]; if($crim == "Normal" AND $dis == "Normal) { // or you can just do: if($row["cases"] == "Normal" AND $row["disease"] == "Normal) { //some code } }

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This invention relates to a header processing engine for processing packet headers. Computer systems on modern data packet networks typically exchange data in accordance with several different protocols operating at all layers of the network—from protocols governing the quality of service of data streams, to protocols determining the logical construction of data packets, to protocols determining the physical signaling of fully-formed data packets onto the fabric of the network. A typical network data packet will therefore have multiple headers formed in a nested arrangement as the data packet is built up at a computer system. Often data packets will include one or more headers at each of layers 2 to 5 of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model. For example, a TCP/IP data packet transmitted over an Ethernet network over which a logical VLAN has been established might have a nested header structure similar to the following: Ethernet/VLAN/IP/TCPAdditionally the packet could have layer 5 headers within the above structure, such as a NetBIOS header. The headers of a data packet tell a computer system handling the data packet all of the information it needs to know in order to correctly route the payload data of the data packet to its destination and to respond appropriately to the originator of the data packet. Without the packet headers the payload data is simply a series of bits without any context and a computer system would not know how to handle the data. On receiving a data packet a computer system must therefore process the headers of the data packet in order to determine what it is going to do with the data packet. Generally, some of the header processing is done in software in the end system and some of the header processing is done in hardware. Software processing usually follows the model of a layered protocol stack, with successive headers being stripped and processed in turn. In contrast, hardware processing may process only some headers, or handle combinations of headers as a single entity, in order perform the required operations. Header processing at hardware can be particularly useful for routing packet data, accelerating packet delivery, or for manipulating the header of a packet. Header processing in hardware is generally performed at a network interface device. As each data packet is received, the network interface device parses the headers of the data packet and performs such operations as: performing checksums, extracting data and looking up the intended destination of the data packet using the address data in the headers. The operations performed generally depend on the type of headers present in the data packet. Since multiple operations are typically required for each data packet and there can be millions of data packets arriving over a network at a computer system every second it is important to ensure that the headers are processed as efficiently and with as little latency as possible. Conventional header processing hardware uses a dedicated processor to parse the headers in a data packet and perform the processing required for each header as the headers are identified. Such a processor can be efficient in terms of the number of operations the hardware is required to perform, but often waste processor cycles as the same processor executes each operation in the necessary order. For example, the processor must read header data from the packet buffer, identify the headers in each data packet, request look-up operations in forwarding tables at the network interface device, and make calls to hash calculation units at the network interface device. Furthermore, the instruction set of the processor must be large enough to support the range of operations the processor is expected to perform. This can lead to complex processors being used to perform what are in essence a series of repetitive simple operations. Such processors are power inefficient, which is a particular concern in network interface devices for use in blade servers and data farms. Furthermore, implementing header processing in hardware or firmware using the classic layered protocol stack model is very inefficient, requiring hardware configured to constantly process chains of if-then-else logic over sequences of headers. There is therefore a need for an improved header processing engine for a network interface device which addresses the above problems.

Supraceliac aortomesenteric bypass for intestinal ischemia. The supraceliac aorta has received little attention as an inflow site of bypass graft origin for mesenteric arterial reconstruction; this article describes our experience with its use in 10 patients. Ten patients underwent bypass grafts (three vein and seven prosthetic grafts) from the supraceliac aorta incorporating the celiac axis to the superior mesenteric artery. All patients had two- or three-vessel mesenteric arterial occlusion. No operative deaths occurred. Nine patients were studied with postoperative arteriography. Nine of ten patients have had satisfactory results on follow-up from 5 to 99 months (mean 43 months), although two patients required operative revision to achieve this. The operative technique is described, including approach to the aorta in the lower mediastinum via upper abdominal exposure and pancreatic displacement to expose the superior mesenteric artery. This method permits avoidance of the infrarenal aorta, if desired because of atherosclerotic disease or previous operation. Antegrade supraceliac aortomesenteric grafts avoid turbulence and compression of conventional "retrograde" bypass beneath the mesentery. We conclude that supraceliac aortic grafts provide a useful visceral artery reconstruction technique.

The arm bones of women who lived 7,000 years ago show an incredible level of strength – even higher than today’s elite athletes. That’s according to a first-ever study comparing prehistoric bones to those of living people. The finding suggests a revision of history – the everyday lives of prehistoric women were filled with hard manual labour, rather than just sitting at home doing lighter domestic tasks while the men slogged. Prior to the advent of writing, there are no clear records describing how our ancient ancestors lived. We have some artefacts, and rock art, and bones – and, as it turns out, those bones can tell us a lot. “It can be easy to forget that bone is a living tissue, one that responds to the rigours we put our bodies through,” said lead author Alison Macintosh of the University of Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. “Physical impact and muscle activity both put strain on bone, called loading. The bone reacts by changing in shape, curvature, thickness and density over time to accommodate repeated strain.” Previous studies only compared female bones to contemporary male bones, the researchers said – and that’s a problem, because the response of male bones to stress and change is much more visibly dramatic than that of women. For instance, as humans moved from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle constantly on the move to a more settled agrarian one, changes can be observed in the structure of the shinbone (or tibia) – and these changes were much more pronounced in men. However, a comparison of the bones of prehistoric women to the bones of living female athletes can help us work out a more accurate picture of what those prehistoric women were doing. “By analysing the bone characteristics of living people whose regular physical exertion is known, and comparing them to the characteristics of ancient bones, we can start to interpret the kinds of labour our ancestors were performing in prehistory,” Macintosh said. Macintosh’s team recruited Cambridge athletes such as rowers and runners, as well as more sedentary volunteers, and used a small CT scanner to analyse their arm and leg bones. They also used 3D laser imaging and silicone moulding to create models of 89 tibiae and 78 humeri of women from the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Medieval. What they found was that women’s leg strength hasn’t changed a great deal over the millennia – but powerful arms used to be the norm. Neolithic women, the researchers found, had arm strength 11-16 percent stronger than those of modern rowers, and 30 percent stronger than those of non-athletes. Bronze Age women’s arms were 9-13 percent stronger than those of rowers. It’s difficult to say what activities would have contributed to this increased strength, but we can make some educated hypotheses – such as grinding grain into flour by hand using stones, an activity that could have taken up to five hours a day. “The repetitive arm action of grinding these stones together for hours may have loaded women’s arm bones in a similar way to the laborious back-and-forth motion of rowing,” Macintosh said. And there were other tasks women would have been performing, too. “Prior to the invention of the plough, subsistence farming involved manually planting, tilling and harvesting all crops. Women were also likely to have been fetching food and water for domestic livestock, processing milk and meat, and converting hides and wool into textiles.” So next time you see some sexist twerp wonking on about how prehistoric men did the work while women sat on their hands, feel free to scoff long and loud.

Pornhub handing out free premium subscriptions to help Italy fight coronavirus - ignaloidas https://thenextweb.com/shareables/2020/03/12/pornhub-free-italy-coronavirus/ ====== paul_milovanov Who said the civic spirit is dead? Thank you MindGeek for your service!

--- address: - 'Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan, East Hall, 525 East University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1109, USA' - 'Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Chicago, 851 S. Morgan St., M/C. 249, Chicago, IL 60607-7045, USA' - 'Department of Mathematics, Harvard University, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA' author: - Tommaso de Fernex - Lawrence Ein - Mircea Mustaţǎ title: Bounds for log canonical thresholds with applications to birational rigidity --- Introduction {#introduction .unnumbered} ============ Let $X$ be a smooth algebraic variety, defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, and let $V \subset X$ be a proper closed subscheme. Our main goal in this paper is to study an invariant of the pair $(X,V)$, called the log canonical threshold of $X$ along $V$, and denoted by $\operatorname{lc}(X,V)$. Interest in bounds for log canonical thresholds is motivated by techniques that have recently been developed in higher dimensional birational geometry. In this paper, we study this invariant using intersection theory, degeneration techniques and jet schemes. A natural question is how does this invariant behave under basic operations such as restrictions and projections. Restriction properties have been extensively studied in recent years, leading to important results and conjectures. In the first section of this paper, we investigate the behavior under projections, and we prove the following result (see Theorem \[thm1\] for a more precise statement): \[thm1-intro\] With the above notation, suppose that $V$ is Cohen-Macaulay, of pure codimension $k$, and let $f : X \to Y$ be a proper, dominant, smooth morphism of relative dimension $k-1$, with $Y$ smooth. If $f|_V$ is finite, then $$\operatorname{lc}(Y,f_*[V]) \leq \frac{k! \. \operatorname{lc}(X,V)^k}{k^k},$$ and the inequality is strict if $k\geq 2$. Moreover, if $V$ is locally complete intersection, then $$\operatorname{lc}(Y,f_*[V]) \leq \frac{\operatorname{lc}(X,V)^k}{k^k}.$$ Examples show that these bounds are sharp. The proof of the above theorem is based on a general inequality relating the log canonical threshold of a fractional ideal of the form $h^{-b}\. \a$, and the colength of $\a$. Here $\a$ is a zero dimensional ideal in the local ring of $X$ at some (not necessarily closed) point, $b\in{\mathbb Q}_+$, and $h$ is the equation of a smooth divisor. We prove this inequality in the second section (see Theorem \[l(a)-e(a)\]), using a degeneration to monomial ideals. It generalizes a result from [@DEM], which was the case $b=0$. In the third section, we give lower bounds for the log canonical threshold of affine subschemes defined by homogeneous equations of the same degree. We prove the following Let $V\subset X=\A^n$ be a subscheme defined by homogeneous equations of degree $d$. Let $c=\operatorname{lc}(\A^n, V)$, and let $Z$ be the non log terminal locus of $(\A^n, c\. V)$. If $e=\operatorname{codim}(Z,\A^n)$, then $$\operatorname{lc}(\A^n,V) \ge \frac{e}d.$$ Moreover, we have equality if and only if the following holds: $Z$ is a linear subspace, and if $\pi : \A^n\longrightarrow\A^n/Z$ is the projection, then there is a subscheme $V'\subset\A^n/Z$ such that $V=\pi^{-1}(V')$, $\operatorname{lc}(\A^n/Z,V')=e/d$, and the non log terminal locus of $(\A^n/Z,(e/d)\. V')$ is the origin. The proof of this result is based on the characterization of the log canonical threshold via jet schemes from [@Mu2]. In the particular case when $V$ is the affine cone over a projective hypersurface with isolated singularities, the second assertion in the above result proves a conjecture of Cheltsov and Park from [@CP]. In the last section we apply the above bounds in the context of birational geometry. In their influential paper [@IM], Iskovskikh and Manin proved that a smooth quartic threefold is what is called nowadays birationally superrigid; in particular, every birational automorphism is regular, and the variety is not rational. There has been a lot of work to extend this result to other Fano varieties of index one, in particular to smooth hypersurfaces of degree $N$ in $\P^N$, for $N>4$. The case $N=5$ was done by Pukhlikov in [@Pu2], and the cases $N=6,7,8$ were proven by Cheltsov in [@Ch2]. Moreover, Pukhlikov showed in [@Pu5] that a general hypersurface as above is birationally superrigid, for every $N>4$. We use our results to give an easy and uniform proof of birational superrigidity for arbitrary smooth hypersurfaces of degree $N$ in $\P^N$ when $N$ is small. \[thm3\_introd\] If $X\subset{\mathbb P}^N$ is a smooth hypersurface of degree $N$, and if $4\leq N\leq 12$, then $X$ is birationally superrigid. Based on previous ideas of Corti, Pukhlikov proposed in [@Pu1] a proof of the birational rigidity of every smooth hypersurface of degree $N$ in $\P^N$, for $N\geq 6$. Unfortunately, at the moment there is a gap in his arguments (see Remark \[gap\] below). Despite this gap, the proof proposed in [@Pu1] contains many remarkable ideas, and it seems likely that a complete proof could be obtained in the future along those lines. In fact, the outline of the proof of Theorem \[thm3\_introd\] follows his method, and our contribution is mainly to simplifying and solidifying his argument. Acknowledgements {#acknowledgements .unnumbered} ---------------- We are grateful to Steve Kleiman and Rob Lazarsfeld for useful discussions. Research of the first author was partially supported by MURST of Italian Government, National Research Project (Cofin 2000) “Geometry of Algebraic Varieties”. Research of the second author was partially supported by NSF Grant DMS 02-00278. The third author served as a Clay Mathematics Institute Long-Term Prize Fellow while this research has been done. Singularities of log pairs under projections ============================================ Let $X$ be a smooth algebraic variety, defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, and let $V \subset X$ be a proper subscheme. For any rational number $c > 0$, we can consider the pair $(X,c\. V)$. The usual definitions in the theory of singularities of pairs, for which we refer to [@Ko], extend to this context. In particular, we say that an irreducible subvariety $C \subset X$ is a center of non log canonicity (resp. non log terminality, non canonicity, non terminality) for $(X,c\. V)$ if there is at least one divisorial valuation of $K(X)$, with center $C$ on $X$, whose discrepancy along $(X,c\.V)$ is $<-1$ (resp. $\le -1$, $<0$, $\le 0$). We will denote by $\operatorname{lc}(X,V)$ the log canonical threshold of the pair $(X,V)$, i.e., the largest $c$ such that $(X,c\. V)$ is log canonical. We will occasionally consider also pairs of the form $(X,c_1\. V_1-c_2\.V_2)$, where $V_1$, $V_2\subset X$ are proper subschemes of $X$. The definition of (log) terminal and canonical pairs extends in an obvious way to this setting. We fix now the set-up for this section. Let $f : X \to Y$ be a smooth and proper morphism onto a smooth algebraic variety $Y$. We assume that $V\subset X$ is a pure dimensional, Cohen-Macaulay closed subscheme, such that $\dim V = \dim Y - 1$, and such that the restriction of $f$ to $V$ is finite. If $[V]$ denotes the cycle associated to $V$, then its push-forward $f_*[V]$ determines an effective Cartier divisor on $Y$. We set $\operatorname{codim}(V,X)=k$. \[thm1\] With the above notation, let $C \subset X$ be an irreducible center of non log terminality for $(X,c\. V)$, for some $c>0$. Then $f(C)$ is a center of non log terminality (even non log canonicity, if $k\geq 2$) for the pair $$\label{gen_formula} \( Y, \frac{k! \. c^k}{k^k} \. f_*[V] \).$$ Moreover, if $V$ is locally complete intersection (l.c.i. for short) then $f(C)$ is a center of non log terminality for the pair $$\label{lci_formula} \( Y, \frac{c^k}{k^k} \. f_*[V] \).$$ Let $k$ and $n$ be two positive integers with $n > k$, and let $R = K[x_k,\dots,x_n]$. We take $X = \P^{k-1}_R = \operatorname{Proj}R[x_0,\dots,x_{k-1}]$, $Y = \operatorname{Spec}R$, and let $f$ be the natural projection from $X$ to $Y$. For any $t>0$, let $V_t$ be the subscheme of $X$ defined by the homogeneous ideal $(x_1,\dots,x_k)^t$. Note that $\operatorname{lc}(X,V_t) = k/t$, and that if $c=k/t$, then $V_1$ is a center of non log terminality for $(X,c\. V_t)$. Since $l(\O_{V_t,V_1})=\binom{k+t-1}{k}$, we see that $$\lim_{t\to\infty}\frac{k! \. c^k/k^k}{\operatorname{lc}(Y,f_*[V_t])} =\lim_{t\to\infty}\frac{t(t+1)\ldots(t+k-1)}{t^k}=1,$$ so the bound in (\[gen\_formula\]) is sharp (at least asymptotically). To prove sharpness in the l.c.i. case, let $W_t\subset X$ be the complete intersection subscheme defined by $(x_1^t,\dots,x_k^t)$. This time $l(\O_{W_t,W_1}) = t^k$, and $\operatorname{lc}(Y,f_*[W_t]) = 1/t^k = \operatorname{lc}(X,W_t)^k/k^k$. By hypothesis, there is a proper birational morphism $\n : W \to X$, where $W$ can be chosen to be smooth, and a smooth irreducible divisor $E$ on $W$, such that $\n(E) = C$, and such that the discrepancy of $(X,c\. V)$ at $E$ is $$\label{eq1} a_E(X,c\. V) \le -1.$$ The surjection $f$ induces an inclusion of function fields $f^* : K(Y) \inj K(X)$. Let $R_E:=\O_{W,E}\subset K(X)$ be the discrete valuation ring associated to the valuation along $E$, and let $R = (f^*)^{-1}R_E$. Note that $R$ is a non-trivial discrete valuation ring. $R$ corresponds to a divisorial valuation. It is enough to show that the transcendence degree of the residue field of $R$ over the ground field is $\dim Y-1$ (see [@KM], Lemma 2.45). This follows from [@ZS], VI.6, Corollary 1. The lemma implies that there is a proper birational morphism $\g : Y' \to Y$ and an irreducible divisor $G$ on $Y'$ such that $R=\O_{Y',G}$. By Hironaka’s theorem, we may assume that both $Y'$ and $G$ are smooth, and moreover, that the union between $G$ and the exceptional locus of $\g$ has simple normal crossings. Since the center of $R_E$ on $X$ is $C$, we deduce that $R$ has center $f(C)$ on $Y$, so $\g(G) = f(C)$. Consider the fibered product $X' = Y' \times_Y X$. We may clearly assume that $\n$ factors through the natural map $\f : X' \to X$. Therefore we have the following commutative diagram: $$\xymatrix{ W \ar[r]^{\e} & X' \ar[d]_g \ar[r]^{\f} & X \ar[d]^f \\ &Y' \ar[r]^{\g} & Y, }$$ where $\phi\circ\eta=\nu$. Note that $X'$ is a smooth variety, $g$ is a smooth, proper morphism, and $\e$ and $\f$ are proper, birational morphisms. Let $V' = \f^{-1}(V)$ be the scheme theoretic inverse image of $V$ in $X'$, i.e., the subscheme of $X'$ defined by the ideal sheaf $I_V \. \O_{X'}$. \[lem1\] $V'$ is pure dimensional, $\operatorname{codim}(V',X')=k$, and $\f^*[V]$ is the class of $[V']$. Moreover, if $V$ is l.c.i., then so is $V'$. Note that both $\gamma$ and $\phi$ are l.c.i. morphisms, because they are morphisms between smooth varieties. The pull-back in the statement is the pull-back by such a morphism (see [@Fulton], Section 6.6). Recall how this is defined. We factor $\gamma$ as $\gamma_1\circ\gamma_2$, where $\gamma_1 : Y'\times Y\longrightarrow Y$ is the projection, and $\gamma_2 : Y'\hookrightarrow Y'\times Y$ is the graph of $\gamma$. By pulling-back, we get a corresponding decomposition $\phi=\phi_1\circ\phi_2$, with $\phi_1$ smooth, and $\phi_2 : X'\hookrightarrow Y'\times X$ a regular embedding of codimension $\dim Y'$. Then $\phi^*[V]=\phi_2^!([Y'\times V])$. Since $f|_V$ is finite and $V' = Y'\times_Y V$, $g|_{V'}$ is also finite. Moreover, since $g(V')$ is a proper subset of $Y'$, we see that $\dim V' \le \dim Y'-1$. On the other hand, $V'$ is locally cut in $Y'\times V$ by $\dim\,Y'$ equations, so that every irreducible component of $V'$ has dimension at least $\dim\,V$. Therefore $V'$ is pure dimensional, and $\dim\,V'=\dim\,V$. Since $Y'\times V$ is Cohen-Macaulay, this also implies that $\phi_2^!([Y'\times V])$ is equal to the class of $[V']$, by Proposition 7.1 in [@Fulton]. This proves the first assertion. Moreover, if $V$ is l.c.i., then it is locally defined in $X$ by $k$ equations. The same is true for $V'$, hence $V'$ is l.c.i., too. We will use the following notation for multiplicities. Suppose that $W$ is an irreducible subvariety of a variety $Z$. Then the multiplicity of $Z$ along $W$ is denoted by $e_WZ$ (we refer to [@Fulton], Section 4.3, for definition and basic properties). If $\alpha=\sum_in_i[T_i]$ is a pure dimensional cycle on $Z$, then $e_W\alpha:=\sum_in_ie_WT_i$ (if $W\not\subseteq T_i$, then we put $e_WT_i=0$). Note that if $W$ is a prime divisor, and if $D$ is an effective Cartier divisor on $Z$, then we have $e_W[D]={\rm ord}_W(D)$, where $[D]$ is the cycle associated to $D$, and ${\rm ord}_W(D)$ is the coefficient of $W$ in $[D]$. As we work on smooth varieties, from now on we will identify $D$ with $[D]$. Let $F = \e(E)$. Note that by construction, we have $g(F)=G$. Since $F\subseteq V'$, and $g|_{V'}$ is finite, and $\dim\,G=\dim\,V'$, it follows that $F$ is an irreducible component of $V'$, hence $\operatorname{codim}(F, X')=k$. We set $a = e_F(K_{X'/X})$. To simplify the statements, we put $$\d = \begin{cases} 1 &\text{if $V$ is a l.c.i.,} \\ k! &\text{otherwise.} \end{cases}$$ \[lem2\] We have $$\operatorname{ord}_G(\g^* f_*[V]) \geq \frac{(a + 1)k^k}{\d c^k},$$ and the inequality is strict in the case $\delta=k!$, if $k\geq 2$. Since $\f$ and $\g$ are l.c.i. morphisms of the same relative dimension, it follows from [@Fulton], Example 17.4.1, and Lemma \[lem1\] that $g_*[V']$ and $\g^*f_*[V]$ are linearly equivalent, as divisors on $Y'$. As the two divisors are equal outside the exceptional locus of $\g$, we deduce from the Negativity Lemma (see [@KM], Lemma 3.39) that also their $\g$-exceptional components must coincide. This gives $g_*[V'] = \g^*f_* [V]$. In particular, ${\rm ord}_G(\g^*f_*[V])$ is greater or equal to the coefficient of $F$ in $[V']$. Lemma \[lem1\] implies $$\operatorname{ord}_G(\g^* f_*[V]) \geq l(\O_{V',F}),$$ so that it is enough to show that $$\label{lem2-eq} l(\O_{V',F}) \geq \frac{(a + 1)k^k}{\d c^k},$$ and that the inequality is strict in the case $\delta=k!$, if $k\geq 2$. By replacing $W$ with a higher model, we may clearly assume that $\n^{-1}(V)$ is an effective divisor on $W$. If $I_V\subseteq\O_X$ is the ideal defining $V$, then we put $\operatorname{ord}_E(I_V):=\operatorname{ord}_E\n^{-1}(V)$. It follows from (\[eq1\]) that we have $$-1\geq \operatorname{ord}_E(K_{W/X}) - c\.\operatorname{ord}_E(I_V) = \operatorname{ord}_E(K_{W/X'}) - (c\.\operatorname{ord}_E(I_{V'})-\operatorname{ord}_E(K_{X'/X})).$$ Therefore $F$ is a center of non log terminality for the pair $(X',c\. V' - K_{X'/X})$. Since $g(F)=G$ is a divisor on $Y'$, it follows that $F$ can not be contained in the intersection of two distinct $\phi$-exceptional divisors. Hence the support of $K_{X'/X}$ is smooth at the generic point of $F$. Then (\[lem2-eq\]) follows from Theorem \[l(a)-e(a)\] below (note that the length of a complete intersection ideal coincides with its Samuel multiplicity). We continue the proof of Theorem \[thm1\]. Note that $\operatorname{ord}_G K_{Y'/Y} \leq e_F(g^* K_{Y'/Y})$. Since $K_{X'/X} = g^* K_{Y'/Y}$ (see [@Hartshorne], Proposition II 8.10), we deduce $$\operatorname{ord}_G K_{Y'/Y} \leq a.$$ In conjunction with Lemma \[lem2\], this gives $$a_G\left(Y,\frac{\delta c^k}{k^k}f_*[V]\right)= \operatorname{ord}_G \( K_{Y'/Y} - \frac{\d c^k}{k^k}\. \g^* f_*[V] \) \leq -1.$$ Moreover, this inequality is strict in the case when $\d=k!$, if $k\geq 2$. This completes the proof of Theorem \[thm1\]. We refer to [@Pu1] for a result on the canonical threshold of complete intersection subschemes of codimension 2, via generic projection. Multiplicities of fractional ideals =================================== In this section we extend some of the results of [@DEM], as needed in the proof of Theorem \[thm1\]. More precisely, we consider the following set-up. Let $X$ be a smooth variety, $V\subset X$ a closed subscheme, and let $Z$ be an irreducible component of $V$. We denote by $n$ the codimension of $Z$ in $X$, and by $\a \subset\O_{X,Z}$ the image of the ideal defining $V$. Let $H \subset X$ be a prime divisor containing $Z$, such that $H$ is smooth at the generic point of $Z$. We consider the pair $$(X, V-b\cdot H),$$ for a given $b\in{\mathbb Q}_+$. \[l(a)-e(a)\] With the above notation, suppose that for some $\mu\in{\mathbb Q}_+^*$, $(X,\frac{1}{\mu}(V-b\cdot H))$ is not log terminal at the generic point of $Z$. Then $$\label{l(a)} l(\O_{X,Z}/\a)\geq\frac{n^n \m^{n-1}(\m + b)}{n!},$$ and the inequality is strict if $n\geq 2$. Moreover, if $e(\a)$ denotes the Samuel multiplicity of $\O_{X,Z}$ along $\a$, then $$\label{e(a)} e(\a) \ge n^n \m^{n-1}(\m+b).$$ For $n=2$, inequality (\[e(a)\]) gives a result of Corti from [@Co2]. On the other hand, if $b=0$, then the statement reduces to Theorems 1.1 and 1.2 in [@DEM]. We see that (\[l(a)\]) implies (\[e(a)\]) as follows. If we apply the first formula to the subscheme $V_t\subseteq X$ defined by $\a^t$, to $\mu_t=\mu t$, and to $b_t=bt$, we get $$l(\O_{X,Z}/\a^t)\geq\frac{n^n\mu^{n-1}(\mu+b)}{n!}t^n.$$ Dividing by $t^n$ and passing to the limit as $t \to \infty$ gives (\[e(a)\]). In order to prove (\[l(a)\]), we proceed as in [@DEM]. Passing to the completion, we obtain an ideal $\^\a$ in $\^ \O_{X,Z}$. We identify $\^ \O_{X,Z}$ with $K[[x_1,\dots,x_n]]$ via a fixed isomorphism, where $K$ is the residue field of $\O_{X,Z}$. Moreover, we may choose the local coordinates so that the image of an equation $h$ defining $H$ in $\O_{X,Z}$ is $x_n$. Since $\^\a$ is zero dimensional, we can find an ideal $\bb \subset R = K[x_1,\dots,x_n]$, which defines a scheme supported at the origin, and such that $\^\bb = \^\a$. If $V'$, $H'\subset{\mathbb A}^n$ are defined by $\bb$ and $x_n$, respectively, then $({\mathbb A}^n,\frac{1}{\mu}(V'-b\. H'))$ is not log terminal at the origin. We write $\mu = r/s$, for some $r,s \in \N$, and we may clearly assume that $sb\in\N$. Consider the ring $S = K[x_1,\dots,x_{n-1},y]$, and the inclusion $R\subseteq S$ which takes $x_n$ to $y^r$. This determines a cyclic covering of degree $r$ $$M := \operatorname{Spec}S \to N := {\mathbb A}^n=\operatorname{Spec}R,$$ with ramification divisor defined by $(y^{r-1})$. For any ideal $\cc\subset R$, we put $\tilde\cc:=\cc S$. If $W$ is the scheme defined by $\cc$, then we denote by $\widetilde{W}$ the scheme defined by $\tilde\cc$. In particular, if $H''\subset M$ is defined by $(y)$, then $\widetilde{H'}=rH''$. It follows from [@ein1], Proposition 2.8 (see also [@Laz], Section 9.5.E) that $(N,\frac{1}{\mu}(V'-b\.H'))$ is not log terminal at the origin in $N$ if and only if $(M,\frac{1}{\mu}\cdot\widetilde{V'}-(sb+r-1)H'')$ is not log terminal at the origin in $M$. We write the rest of the proof in the language of multiplier ideals, for which we refer to [@Laz]. We use the formal exponential notation for these ideals. If $\tilde\bb$ is the ideal defining $\widetilde{V'}$, then the above non log terminality condition on $M$ can be interpreted as saying that $$\label{J} y^{bs+r-1} \not \in \J(\tilde \bb^{1/\mu}).$$ We choose a monomial order in $S$, with the property that $$x_1 > \dots > x_{n-1} > y^{bs+r-1}.$$ This induces flat deformations to monomial ideals (see [@Eisenbud], Chapter 15). For an ideal $\dd \subseteq S$, we write the degeneration as $\dd_t \to \dd_0$, where $\dd_t \cong \dd$ for $t \ne 0$ and $\dd_0 =: \operatorname{in}(\dd)$ is a monomial ideal. We claim that $$\label{in(J)} y^{bs+r-1} \not \in \operatorname{in}(\J(\tilde \bb^{1/\mu})).$$ Indeed, suppose that $y^{bs+r-1} \in \operatorname{in}(\J(\tilde \bb^{1/\mu}))$. Then we can find an element $f \in \J(\tilde \bb^{1/\mu})$ such that $\operatorname{in}(f) = y^{bs+r-1}$. Because of the particular monomial order we have chosen, $f$ must be a polynomial in $y$ of degree $bs+r-1$. On the other hand, $\J(\tilde \bb^{1/\mu})$ defines a scheme which is supported at the origin (or empty), since so does $\tilde \bb$. We deduce that $y^i\in\J(\tilde\bb^{1/\mu})$, for some $i\leq bs+r-1$, which contradicts (\[J\]). \[in(J(c))vJ(in(c))\] For every ideal $\dd \subseteq S$, and every $c\in{\mathbb Q}_+^*$, we have $$\operatorname{in}(\J(\dd^c)) \supseteq \J(\operatorname{in}(\dd)^c).$$ Consider the family $\pi : \MM = \A^n \times T \to T$, with $T = \A^1$, and the ideal $\DDD\subset\O_{\MM}$ corresponding to the degeneration of $\dd$ described above. If $U$ is the complement of the origin in $T$, then there is an isomorphism $$(\pi^{-1}(U), \DDD\vert_{\pi^{-1}(U)})\simeq ({\mathbb A}^n\times U, {\rm pr}_1^{-1}\dd).$$ Via this isomorphism we have $\J(\pi^{-1}(U),\DDD^c) \simeq {\rm pr}_1^{-1}(\J(\dd^c))$. Since the family degenerating to the initial ideal is flat, we deduce easily that $$\J(\MM,\DDD^c)\cdot \O_{\pi^{-1}(0)}\subseteq\operatorname{in}(\J(\dd^c)).$$ On the other hand, the Restriction Theorem (see [@Laz]) gives $$\J(\operatorname{in}(\dd)^c)=\J((\DDD\vert_{\pi^{-1}(0)})^c)\subseteq\J(\MM,\DDD^c)\cdot \O_{\pi^{-1}(0)}.$$ If we put together the above inclusions, we get the assertion of the lemma. Note that the monomial order on $S$ induces a monomial order on $R$, and that $\widetilde{\operatorname{in}(\bb)}=\operatorname{in}(\tilde\bb)$. Indeed, the inclusion $\widetilde{\operatorname{in}(\bb)}\subseteq\operatorname{in}(\tilde\bb)$ is obvious, and the corresponding subschemes have the same length $r\cdot l(R/\bb)$. On the other hand, Lemma \[in(J(c))vJ(in(c))\] and (\[in(J)\]) give $$y^{bs+r-1} \not \in \J(\operatorname{in}(\tilde \bb)^{1/\mu}).$$ Applying again Proposition 2.8 in [@ein1], in the other direction, takes us back in $R$: we deduce that $(N, \frac{1}{\mu}(W-b\cdot H'))$ is not log terminal at the origin, where $W\subset N$ is defined by $\operatorname{in}(\bb)$. Since $l(\O_{X,Z}/\a)=l(R/\bb)=l(R/\operatorname{in}(\bb))$, we have reduced the proof of (\[l(a)\]) to the case when $\a$ is a monomial ideal. In this case, we have in fact a stronger statement, which we prove in the lemma below; therefore the proof of Theorem \[l(a)-e(a)\] is complete. The following is the natural generalization of Lemma 2.1 in [@DEM]. \[monomial\] Let $\a$ be a zero dimensional monomial ideal in the ring $R = K[x_1,\dots,x_n]$, defining a scheme $V$. Let $H_i$ be the hyperplane defined by $x_i=0$. We consider $\mu\in{\mathbb Q}_+^*$ and $b_i\in{\mathbb Q}$, such that $\mu\geq\max_i\{b_i\}$. If the pair $({\mathbb A}^n, \frac{1}{\mu}(V+\sum_ib_iH_i))$ is not log terminal, then $$l(R/\a)\geq\frac{n^n}{n!} \. \prod_{i=1}^n (\m - b_i),$$ and the inequality is strict if $n\geq 2$. We use the result in [@ELM] which gives the condition for a monomial pair, with possibly negative coefficients, to be log terminal. This generalizes the formula for the log canonical threshold of a monomial ideal from [@Ho]. It follows from [@ELM] that $(X,\frac{1}{\mu}(V+\sum_ib_iH_i))$ is not log terminal if and only if there is a facet of the Newton polytope associated to $\a$ such that, if $\sum_i u_i/a_i = 1$ is the equation of the hyperplane supporting it, then $$\sum_{i=1}^n \frac{\m- b_i}{a_i}\leq 1.$$ Applying the inequality between the arithmetic mean and the geometric mean of the set of nonnegative numbers $\{(\m - b_i)/a_i\}_i$, we deduce $$\prod_i a_i \geq n^n \. \prod_i (\m - b_i).$$ We conclude using the fact that $n! \. l(R/\a)\geq \prod_i a_i$, and the inequality is strict if $n\geq 2$ (see, for instance, Lemma 1.3 in [@DEM]). Log canonical thresholds of affine cones ======================================== In this section we give a lower bound for the log canonical threshold of a subscheme $V\subset\A^n$, cut out by homogeneous equations of the same degree. The bound involves the dimension of the non log terminal locus of $(\A^n,c\cdot V)$, where $c=\operatorname{lc}(\A^n,V)$. Moreover, we characterize the case when we have equality. In the particular case when $V$ is the affine cone over a projective hypersurface with isolated singularities, this proves a conjecture of Cheltsov and Park from [@CP]. The main ingredient we use for this bound is a formula for the log canonical threshold in terms of jet schemes, from [@Mu2]. Recall that for an arbitrary scheme $W$, of finite type over the ground field $k$, the $m$th jet scheme $W_m$ is again a scheme of finite type over $k$ characterized by $${\rm Hom}({\rm Spec}\,A, W_m)\simeq{\rm Hom}({\rm Spec}\,A[t]/(t^{m+1}), W),$$ for every $k$-algebra $A$. Note that $W_m(k)= {\rm Hom}({\rm Spec}\,k[t]/(t^{m+1}), W),$ and in fact, we will be interested only in the dimensions of these spaces. For the basic properties of the jet schemes, we refer to [@Mu1] and [@Mu2]. \[ingred\][([@Mu2], 3.4)]{} If $X$ is a smooth, connected variety of dimension $n$, and if $V\subset X$ is a subscheme, then the log canonical threshold of $(X,V)$ is given by $$\operatorname{lc}(X,V)=n-\sup_{m\in\N}\frac{\dim\,V_m}{m+1}.$$ Moreover, there is $p\in\N$, depending on the numerical data given by a log resolution of $(X,V)$, such that $\operatorname{lc}(X,V)=n-(\dim\,V_m)/(m+1)$ whenever $p\mid (m+1)$. For every $W$ and every $m\geq 1$, there are canonical projections $\phi^W_m:W_m\longrightarrow W_{m-1}$ induced by the truncation homomorphisms $k[t]/(t^{m+1})\longrightarrow k[t]/(t^m)$. By composing these projections we get morphisms $\pi^W_m:W_m \longrightarrow W$. When there is no danger of confusion, we simply write $\phi_m$ and $\pi_m$. If $W$ is a smooth, connected variety, then $W_m$ is smooth, connected, and $\dim\,W_m=(m+1)\dim\,W$, for all $m$. It follows from definition that taking jet schemes commutes with open immersions. In particular, if $W$ has pure dimension $n$, then $\pi_m^{-1}(W_{\rm reg})$ is smooth, of pure dimension $(m+1)n$. Recall that the non log terminal locus of a pair is the union of all centers of non log terminality. In other words, its complement is the largest open subset over which the pair is log terminal. Theorem \[ingred\] easily gives a description via jet schemes of the non log terminal locus of a pair which is log canonical, but is not log terminal. Suppose that $(X, V)$ is as in the theorem, and let $c=\operatorname{lc}(X,V)$. We say that an irreducible component $T$ of $V_m$ (for some $m$) computes $\operatorname{lc}(X,V)$ if $\dim(T)=(m+1)(n-c)$. Note that basic results on jet schemes show that for every irreducible component $T$ of $V_m$, the projection $\pi_m(T)$ is closed in $V$ (see [@Mu1]). It follows from Theorem \[ingred\] that if $W$ is an irreducible component of $V_m$ that computes the log canonical threshold of $(X, V)$ then $\pi_m(W)$ is contained in the non log terminal locus of $(X,c\cdot V)$ (see also [@ELM]). For future reference, we record here two lemmas. For $x \in \R$, we denote by $[x]$ the largest integer $p$ such that $p \le x$. \[fiber\][([@Mu1], 3.7)]{} If $X$ is a smooth, connected variety of dimension $n$, $D\subset X$ is an effective divisor, and $x\in D$ is a point with $e_xD=q$, then $$\dim(\pi^D_m)^{-1}(x)\leq mn-[m/q],$$ for every $m\in\N$. In fact, the only assertion we will need from Lemma \[fiber\] is that $\dim\,(\pi^D_m)^{-1}(x)\leq mn-1$, if $m\geq q$, which follows easily from the equations describing the jet schemes (see [@Mu1]). \[semicont\][([@Mu2] 2.3)]{} Let $\Phi : {\mathcal W}\longrightarrow S$ be a family of schemes, and let us denote the fiber $\Phi^{-1}(s)$ by ${\mathcal W}_s$. If $\tau:S\longrightarrow{\mathcal W}$ is a section of $\Phi$, then the function $$f(s)=\dim(\pi_m^{{\mathcal W}_s})^{-1}(\tau(s))$$ is upper semi-continuous on the set of closed points of $S$, for every $m\in\N$. The following are the main results in this section. \[lower\_bound1\] Let $V\subset\A^n$ be a subscheme whose ideal is generated by homogeneous polynomials of degree $d$. Let $c=\operatorname{lc}(\A^n,V)$, and let $Z$ be the non log terminal locus of $(\A^n, c\cdot V)$. If $e=\operatorname{codim}(Z,\A^n)$, then $c\geq e/d$. \[equality\_case1\] With the notation in the previous theorem, $c=e/d$ if and only if $V$ satisfies the following three properties: 1. $Z = L$ is a linear subspace of codimension $e$. 2. $V$ is the pull back of a closed subscheme $V'\subset\A^n/L$, which is defined by homogeneous polynomials of degree $d$ and such that $\operatorname{lc}(\A^n/L, V') =e/d$. 3. The non log terminal locus of $(\A^n/L, e/d\cdot V')$ is just the origin. If $\pi_m:V_m\longrightarrow V$ is the canonical projection, then we have an isomorphism $$\label{isom} \pi_m^{-1}(0)\simeq V_{m-d}\times\A^{n(d-1)},$$ for every $m\geq d-1$ (we put $V_{-1}=\{0\}$). Indeed, for a $k$-algebra $A$, an $A$-valued point of $\pi_m^{-1}(0)$ is a ring homomorphism $$\phi:k[X_1,\ldots,X_n]/(F_1,\ldots,F_s)\longrightarrow A[t]/(t^{m+1}),$$ such that $\phi(X_i)\in(t)$ for all $i$. Here $F_1,\ldots, F_s$ are homogeneous equations of degree $d$, defining $V$. Therefore we can write $\phi(X_i)=tf_i$, and $\phi$ is a homomorphism if and only if the classes of $f_i$ in $A[t]/(t^{m+1-d})$ define an $A$-valued point of $V_{m-d}$. But $\phi$ is uniquely determined by the classes of $f_i$ in $A[t]/(t^m)$, so this proves the isomorphism in equation (\[isom\]). By Theorem \[ingred\], we can find $p$ such that $$\dim\,V_{pd-1}=pd(n-c).$$ Let $W$ be an irreducible component of $V_{pd-1}$ computing $\operatorname{lc}(X,V)$, so $\dim\,W=pd(n-c)$ and $\pi_{pd-1}(W) \subset Z$. By our hypothesis, $\dim\pi_{pd-1}(W)\leq n-e$. Therefore Lemma \[semicont\] gives $$\label{inequality1} pd(n-c)=\dim\,W\leq\dim\pi_{pd-1}^{-1}(0)+n-e= \dim V_{(p-1)d-1}+(d-1)n+n-e,$$ where the last equality follows from (\[isom\]). Another application of Theorem \[ingred\] gives $$\label{inequality2} \dim\,V_{(p-1)d-1}\leq (p-1)d(n-c).$$ Using this and (\[inequality1\]), we get $c\geq e/d$. We use the notation in the above proof. Since $c=e/d$, we see that in both equations (\[inequality1\]) and (\[inequality2\]) we have, in fact, equalities. The equality in (\[inequality2\]) shows that $\dim V_{(p-1)d-1}=(p-1)d(n-c)$, so we may run the same argument with $p$ replaced by $p-1$. Continuing in this way, we see that we may suppose that $p=1$. In this case, the equality in (\[inequality1\]) shows that for some irreducible component $W$ of $V_{d-1}$, with $\dim W=dn-e$, we have $\dim \pi_{d-1}(W)=n-e$. It follows that if $Z_1:=\pi_{d-1}(W)$, then $Z_1$ is an irreducible component of $Z$. Fix $x\in Z_1$. If ${\rm mult}_xF\leq d-1$, for some degree $d$ polynomial $F$ in the ideal of $V$, then Lemma \[fiber\] would give $\dim\,\pi_{d-1}^{-1}(x)\leq (d-1)n-1$. This would imply $\dim\,W\leq n-e+(d-1)n-1$, a contradiction. Therefore we must have ${\rm mult}_xF\geq d$, for every such $F$. Recall that we have degree $d$ generators of the ideal of $V$, denoted by $F_1,\ldots,F_s$. Let $L_i = \{x \in \A^n | {\rm mult}_xF_i =d\}$, for $i\leq s$. By the Bézout theorem, $L_i$ is a linear space. If $L= \bigcap_{i=1}^s L_i$, then $Z_1 \subset L$. On the other hand, by blowing-up along $L$, we see that $L$ is contained in the non log terminal locus of $(\A^n, c\cdot V)$. Therefore $Z_1 =L$. Let $z_1, ..., z_e$ be the linear forms defining $L$. Then each $F_i$ is a homogeneous polynomial of degree $d$ in $z_1, ..., z_e$. This shows that $V$ is the pull back of a closed subscheme $V'\subset\A^n/L$, defined by $F_1,..., F_s$. Since the projection map $\pi: \A^n \longrightarrow \A^n/L$ is smooth and surjective, we see that $\operatorname{lc}(\A^n/L, V') = \operatorname{lc}(\A^n, V)$ and that the non log terminal locus of $(\A^n, \frac{e}{d}\cdot V)$ is just the pull-back of the corresponding locus for the pair $(\A^n/L, e/d\cdot V')$. Note that the non log terminal locus of $(\A^n/L, e/d\cdot V)$ is defined by an homogeneous ideal. By dimension considerations, we conclude that this locus consists just of the origin, so $Z= L$. Conversely, if $V$ is the pull back of a closed subscheme from $\A^n/L$ as described in the theorem, one checks that $\operatorname{lc}(\A^n, V) = e/d$ and that the corresponding non log terminal locus is just $L$. Let $V'$ be a closed subscheme of $\P^{n-1}$ defined by degree $d$ homogeneous polynomials $F_1,\ldots, F_s$, and let $V$ be the closed subscheme in $\A^n$ defined by the same set of polynomials. Let $c =\operatorname{lc}(\P^{n-1}, V')$, and let $Z'$ be the non log terminal locus of $(\P^{n-1}, c\cdot V')$. Suppose that the codimension of $Z'$ in $\P^{n-1}$ is $e$. \[proj\_case\] With the above notation, $\operatorname{lc}(\P^{n-1}, V') \ge e/d$. Moreover, if we have equality, then $V'$ is the cone over a scheme in some $\P^{e-1}$. Note that $$\operatorname{lc}(\P^{n-1}, V') = \operatorname{lc}(\A^n-\{0\}, V-\{0\}) \ge \operatorname{lc}(\A^n, V).$$ Now the first assertion follows from Theorem \[lower\_bound1\]. If $\operatorname{lc}(\P^{n-1}, V') = e/d$, then $\operatorname{lc}(\A^n, V) = e/d$ and the non log terminal locus of $(\A^n, \frac{e}{d}\cdot V)$ is a linear space $L$ of codimension $e$. If $z_1,..., z_e$ are the linear forms defining $L$, then each $F_i$ is a homogeneous polynomial of degree $d$ in $z_1, ..., z_e$. Therefore $V'$ is the cone with center $L$ over the closed subscheme of $\P^{e-1}$ defined by $F_1,\ldots,F_s$. In [@CP], Cheltsov and Park studied the log canonical threshold of singular hyperplane sections of smooth, projective hypersurfaces. If $X\subset{\mathbb P}^n$ is a smooth hypersurface of degree $d$, and if ${V} =X\cap H$, for a hyperplane $H$, then they have shown that $$\label{ineq_CP} \operatorname{lc}(X,{V})\geq\min\{(n-1)/d,1\}.$$ It follows from Theorem \[ingred\] that $\operatorname{lc}(X, V) = \operatorname{lc}(\P^{n-1}, V)$. As it is well known that ${V}$ has isolated singularities, if we apply the first assertion in Corollary \[proj\_case\], then we recover the result in [@CP]. Cheltsov and Park have conjectured in their setting that if $d\geq n$, then equality holds in (\[ineq\_CP\]) if and only if ${V}$ is a cone. They have shown that their conjecture would follow from the Log Minimal Model Program. The second assertion in Corollary \[proj\_case\] proves, in particular, their conjecture. Application to birational rigidity ================================== Using the bounds on log canonical thresholds from the previous sections, we prove now the birational rigidity of certain Fano hypersurfaces. We recall that a Mori fiber space $X$ is called [*birationally superrigid*]{} if any birational map $\f : X \rat X'$ to another Mori fiber space $X'$ is an isomorphism. For the definition of Mori fiber space and for another notion of rigidity, we refer to [@Co2]. Note that Fano manifolds having Néron-Severi group of rank 1 are trivially Mori fiber spaces. Birational superrigidity is a very strong condition: it implies that $X$ is not rational, and that $\operatorname{Bir}(X) = \operatorname{Aut}(X)$. Note that if $X$ is a smooth hypersurface of degree $N$ in $\P^N$ ($N \ge 4$), then $X$ has no nonzero vector fields. Therefore if $X$ is birationally superrigid, then the birational invariant $\operatorname{Bir}(X)$ is a finite group. The following theorem is the main result of this section. \[X\_N\] For any integer $4 \le N \le 12$, every smooth hypersurface $X = X_N \subset \P^N$ of degree $N$ is birationally superrigid. The case $N=4$ of the above theorem is due to Iskovskikh and Manin (see [@IM]). The case $N=5$ was proven by Pukhlikov in [@Pu2], while the cases $N=6,7,8$ were established by Cheltsov in [@Ch2]. Birational superrigidity of smooth hypersurfaces of degree $N$ in $\P^N$ (for $N \ge 5$) was conjectured by Pukhlikov in [@Pu5], where the result is established under a suitable condition of regularity on the equation defining the hypersurface. We remark that there is an attempt due to Pukhlikov in [@Pu1] to prove the general case (for $N \ge 6$). Despite a gap in the proof (see the remark below), we believe that the method therein could lead in the future to the result. In fact, the proof given below for Theorem \[X\_N\] follows his method, and our contribution is mainly in simplifying and solidifying his argument. \[gap\] The following gives a counterexample to Corollary 2 in [@Pu1]. Let $Q\subset{\mathbb P}^4$ be a cone over a twisted cubic, and let $\pi_a: Q\longrightarrow R=\pi_a(Q)$ be the projection from an arbitrary point $a\in{\mathbb P}^4\setminus Q$; note that $R$ is the cone over a singular plane cubic. If $p$ is the vertex of $Q$, then the restriction of $\pi_a$ to any punctured neighbourhood of $p$ in $Q$ can not preserve multiplicities, as $q=\pi_a(p)$ lies on a one dimensional component of the singular locus of $R$. Before proving the above theorem, we recall the following result, due to Pukhlikov: \[pu1\][([@Pu1], Proposition 5)]{} Let $X \subset \P^N$ be a smooth hypersurface, and let $Z$ be an effective cycle on $X$, of pure codimension $k < \frac 12 \dim X$. If $m \in \N$ is such that $Z \equiv m \.c_1(\O_X(1))^k$, then $\dim \{ x \in Z \mid e_xZ > m \} < k$. \[pu1\_rmk\] Because we have assumed $k<\frac 12 \dim X$, the existence of $m$ as in the proposition follows from Lefschetz Theorem. One can check that the proof of Proposition \[pu1\] extends to the case $k = \frac 12 \dim X$, if we assume that such $m$ exists. Note also that the statement is trivially true if $k > \frac 12 \dim X$. We need first a few basic properties which allow us to control multiplicities when restricting to general hyperplane sections, and when projecting to lower dimensional linear subspaces. The following proposition must be well known, but we include a proof for the convenience of the readers. We learned this proof, which simplifies our original arguments, from Steve Kleiman. \[int\_mult\] Let $Z\subset\P^n$ be an irreducible projective variety. If $H \subset Z$ is a general hyperplane section, then $e_pH = e_pZ$ for every $p \in H$. As observed by Whitney (e.g., see [@Kl], page 219), at any point $p \in Z$, the fiber over $p$ of the conormal variety of $Z$, viewed as a linear subspace of $(\P^n)^*$, contains the dual variety of every component of the embedded projective tangent cone $C_pZ$ of $Z$ at $p$. A hyperplane section $H$ of $Z$ satisfies $e_pH = e_pZ$ if the hyperplane meets $C_pZ$ properly. Therefore, this equality holds for every point $p$ in $H$ whenever $H$ is cut out by a hyperplane not in the dual variety of $Z$. In the next two propositions, we consider a (possibly reducible) subvariety $Z \subset \P^{n+s}$, of pure dimension $n-1$, for some $n \ge 2$ and $s\geq 1$, and take a general linear projection $\p : \P^{n+s} \setminus \LL \to \P^n$. Here $\LL$ denotes the center of projection, that is an $(s-1)$ dimensional linear space. We put $T = \p(Z)$ and $g = \p|_Z : Z \to T$. It is easy to see that since $\LL$ is general, $g$ is a finite birational map. For convenience, we put $\dim(\emptyset)=-1$. \[proj\_mult1\] With the above notation, consider the set $$\D = \Big\{q \in T \mid e_q T > \sum_{p \in g^{-1}(q)} e_p Z \Big\}.$$ If the projection is chosen with suitable generality, then $\operatorname{codim}(\D,{\mathbb P}^n) \ge 3$. Note that $e_qT \ge \sum e_pZ$ for every $q \in T$, the sum being taken over all points $p$ over $q$. Moreover, for a generic projection, every irreducible component of $Z$ is mapped to a distinct component of $T$. Therefore, by the linearity of the multiplicity, we may assume that $Z$ is irreducible. Let $\D' \subset T$ be the set of points $q$, such that for some $p$ over $q$, the intersection of the $s$ dimensional linear space $\ov{\LL q}$ with the embedded projective tangent cone $C_pZ$ of $Z$ at $p$, is at least one dimensional. We claim that $\operatorname{codim}(\D',{\mathbb P}^n) \geq 3$. Indeed, it follows from the theorem on generic flatness that there is a stratification $Z=Z_1 \sqcup \dots \sqcup Z_t$ by locally closed subsets such that, for every $1 \le j \le t$, the incidence set $$I_j = \{ (p,x) \in Z_j\times\P^{n+s} \mid x \in C_pZ \}$$ is a (possibly reducible) quasi-projective variety of dimension no more than $2 \dim Z= 2n-2$. Let $\operatorname{pr}_1$ and $\operatorname{pr}_2$ denote the projections of $I_j$ to the first and to the second factor, respectively. It is clear that the set of those $y\in{\mathbb P}^{n+s}$, with $\dim \operatorname{pr}_2^{-1}(y)=\tau$ has dimension at most $\max\{2n-2-\tau,-1\}$, for every $\tau\in{\mathbb N}$. Since $\LL$ is a general linear subspace of dimension $s-1$, it intersects a given $d$ dimensional closed subset in a set of dimension $\max\{d-n-1,-1\}$. Hence $\dim \operatorname{pr}_2^{-1}(\LL)\leq n-3$, and therefore $\dim(\operatorname{pr}_1(\operatorname{pr}_2^{-1}(\LL))) \le n-3$. As this is true for every $j$, we deduce $\operatorname{codim}(\D',{\mathbb P}^n)\geq 3$. Thus, in order to prove the proposition, it is enough to show that $\D \subseteq \D'$. For a given point $p \in Z$, let $L_p \subset \P^{n+s}$ be an $(s+1)$ dimensional linear subspace passing through $p$. Let $\mm_p$ be the maximal ideal of $\O_{Z,p}$, and let $\PP \subset \O_{Z,p}$ be the ideal locally defining $L_p \cap Z$. If $L_p$ meets the tangent cone $C_pZ$ of $Z$ at $p$ properly, then the linear forms defining $L_p$ generate the ideal of the exceptional divisor of the blow up of $Z$ at $p$. Therefore $e(\mm_p)=e(\PP)$. Consider now some $q \in T \setminus \D'$. Let $L_q \subset \P^n$ be a general line passing through $q$, and let $\QQ \subset \O_{T,q}$ be the ideal generated by the linear forms vanishing along $L_q$. We denote by $L$ the closure of $\p^{-1}(L_q)$ in $\P^{n+q}$. For every $p \in g^{-1}(q)$, let $\PP \subset \O_{Z,p}$ be the ideal generated by the linear forms vanishing along $L$. Since $L_q$ is general and $q \not \in \D'$, we may assume that $L$ intersects $C_pZ$ properly, hence $e(\mm_p) = e(\PP)$. On the other hand, if $\mm_q$ is the maximal ideal of $\O_{T,q}$, then $\QQ\subseteq\mm_q$, which gives $$\PP=\QQ\cdot\O_{Z,p} \subseteq \mm_q\cdot\O_{Z,p}\subseteq\mm_p.$$ Therefore $e(\mm_p)=e(\mm_q\cdot\O_{Z,p})$ for every $p$ as above, hence $q\not\in\D$, by [@Fulton], Example 4.3.6. \[proj\_mult2\] With the notation in Proposition \[proj\_mult1\], consider the set $$\S = \S(Z,\p):= \{q \in T \mid \text{$g^{-1}(q)$ has al least 3 distinct points} \}.$$ If the projection is sufficiently general, then $\operatorname{codim}(\S,{\mathbb P}^n) \geq 3$. We have $\operatorname{codim}(\S,{\mathbb P}^n)\geq 3$ if and only if $\S \cap P = \emptyset$ for every general plane $P\subset\P^n$. Pick one general plane $P$, let $P' \;(\cong \P^{s+2})$ be the closure of $\p^{-1}(P)$ in $\P^{n+s}$, and let $\p'$ be the restriction of $\p$ to $P' \setminus \LL$. If $Z' = Z \cap P'$, then $Z'$ is a (possibly reducible) curve, and its multisecant variety is at most two dimensional (see, for example, [@FOV], Corollary 4.6.17). Note that $\LL$ is general in $P'$. Indeed, choosing the center of projection $\LL$ general in $\P^{n+s}$, and then picking $P$ general in $\P^n$ is equivalent to first fixing a general $(s+2)$-plane $P'$ in $\P^{n+s}$ and then choosing $\LL$ general in $P'$. Therefore we conclude that $\S \cap P$, which is the same as $\S(Z',\p')$, is empty. By adjunction, $\O_X(-K_X)\simeq\O_X(1)$. Let $\f : X \rat X'$ be a birational map from $X$ to a Mori fiber space $X'$, and assume that $\f$ is not an isomorphism. By the Noether-Fano inequality (see [@Co1] and [@Is], or [@Ma]), we find a linear subsystem $\H \subset |\O_X(r)|$, with $r \geq 1$, whose base scheme $B$ has codimension $\ge 2$, and such that the pair $(X,\frac 1r\.B)$ is not canonical. We choose $c<\frac{1}{r}$, such that $(X,c\cdot B)$ is still not canonical, and let $C \subset X$ be a center of non canonicity for $(X,c \.B)$. Note that $C$ is a center of non canonicity also for the pairs $(X,c \. D)$ and $(X,c \. V)$, where $V = D \cap D'$ and $D$, $D' \in \H$ are two general members. Applying Proposition \[pu1\] for $Z=D$ and $k=1$, we see that the multiplicity of $D$ is $\leq r$ on an open subset whose complement has dimension zero. On this open subset $(X,c\.D)$ is canonical (see, for example, [@Ko] 3.14.1). Therefore $C = p$, a point of $X$. Let $Y$ be a general hyperplane section of $X$ containing $p$. Then $p$ is a center of non log canonicity for $(Y,c \. B|_Y)$. Note that $Y$ is a smooth hypersurface of degree $N$ in $\P^{N-1}$. Let $\p : \P^{N-1} \setminus \LL \to \P^{N-3}$ be a general linear projection, where the center of projection $\LL$ is a line. We can assume that the restriction of $\p$ to each irreducible component of $V|_Y$ is finite and birational. Note that $\p_*[V|_Y]$ is a divisor in $\P^{N-3}$ of degree $Nr^2$. If $\tilde Y = \operatorname{Bl}_{\LL \cap Y} Y$, then we get a morphism $f : \tilde Y \to \P^{N-3}$. If we choose $\LL$ general enough, then we can find an open set $U \subset \P^{N-3}$, containing the image $q$ of $p$, such that $f$ restricts to a smooth (proper) morphism $f^{-1}(U) \to U$. Applying Theorem \[thm1\], we deduce that the pair $$\label{pair} \(\P^{N-3}, \frac{c^2}4 \. \p_*[V|_Y] \)$$ is not log terminal at $q$. We claim that $$\label{dim_bound} \dim \{y \in \pi(V|_Y) \mid e_y(\p_*[V|_Y]) > 2r^2 \} \le \max \{ N-6,0 \}.$$ Indeed, by Propositions \[proj\_mult2\] and \[proj\_mult1\], the map $\operatorname{Supp}([V|_Y]) \to \operatorname{Supp}(\p_*[V|_Y])$ is at most 2 to 1 and preserves multiplicities outside a set, say $\D \cup \S$, of dimension $\le \max\{N-6,-1\}$. This implies that, for each $y$ outside the set $\D \cup \S$, $e_y(\p_*[V|_Y]) = \sum e_x([V|_Y])$, where the sum is taken over the points $x$ over $y$, and this sum involves at most two non-zero terms. Then (\[dim\_bound\]) follows from the fact that, by Propositions \[pu1\] and  \[int\_mult\] (see also Remark \[pu1\_rmk\]), the set of points $x$ for which $e_x[V|_Y] > r^2$ is at most zero dimensional. Note that the pair (\[pair\]) is log terminal at every point $y$ where $e_y(\p_*[V|_Y]) \le 4r^2$. If $4 \le N \le 6$, we deduce that the pair is log terminal outside a zero dimensional closed subset. 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M. Mustaţǎ, Jet schemes of locally complete intersection canonical singularities, with an appendix by David Eisenbud and Edward Frenkel, Invent. Math. **145** (2001), 397–424. M. Mustaţǎ, Singularities of pairs via jet schemes, J. Amer. Math. Soc. **15** (2002), 599–615. A.V. Pukhlikov, Birational automorphisms of a four-dimensional quintic, Invent. Math. **87** (1987), 303–329. A. V. Pukhlikov, Birational automorphisms of Fano hypersurfaces, Invent. Math. **134** (1998), 401–426. A.V. Pukhlikov, Birationally rigid Fano hypersurfaces, preprint 2002, arXiv: math.AG/0201302. O. Zariski and P. Samuel, *Commutative Algebra, Vol. II*, Van Nostrand, Princeton, 1960.

<?php /** * Magento * * NOTICE OF LICENSE * * This source file is subject to the Open Software License (OSL 3.0) * that is bundled with this package in the file LICENSE.txt. * It is also available through the world-wide-web at this URL: * http://opensource.org/licenses/osl-3.0.php * If you did not receive a copy of the license and are unable to * obtain it through the world-wide-web, please send an email * to [email protected] so we can send you a copy immediately. * * DISCLAIMER * * Do not edit or add to this file if you wish to upgrade Magento to newer * versions in the future. If you wish to customize Magento for your * needs please refer to http://www.magentocommerce.com for more information. * * @category Mage * @package Mage_Sales * @copyright Copyright (c) 2012 Magento Inc. (http://www.magentocommerce.com) * @license http://opensource.org/licenses/osl-3.0.php Open Software License (OSL 3.0) */ /** * Order configuration model * * @category Mage * @package Mage_Sales * @author Magento Core Team <[email protected]> */ class Mage_Sales_Model_Order_Config extends Mage_Core_Model_Config_Base { /** * Statuses per state array * * @var array */ protected $_stateStatuses; private $_states; public function __construct() { parent::__construct(Mage::getConfig()->getNode('global/sales/order')); } protected function _getStatus($status) { return $this->getNode('statuses/'.$status); } protected function _getState($state) { return $this->getNode('states/'.$state); } /** * Retrieve default status for state * * @param string $state * @return string */ public function getStateDefaultStatus($state) { $status = false; if ($stateNode = $this->_getState($state)) { $status = Mage::getModel('sales/order_status') ->loadDefaultByState($state); $status = $status->getStatus(); } return $status; } /** * Retrieve status label * * @param string $code * @return string */ public function getStatusLabel($code) { $status = Mage::getModel('sales/order_status') ->load($code); return $status->getStoreLabel(); } /** * State label getter * * @param string $state * @return string */ public function getStateLabel($state) { if ($stateNode = $this->_getState($state)) { $state = (string) $stateNode->label; return Mage::helper('sales')->__($state); } return $state; } /** * Retrieve all statuses * * @return array */ public function getStatuses() { $statuses = Mage::getResourceModel('sales/order_status_collection') ->toOptionHash(); return $statuses; } /** * Order states getter * * @return array */ public function getStates() { $states = array(); foreach ($this->getNode('states')->children() as $state) { $label = (string) $state->label; $states[$state->getName()] = Mage::helper('sales')->__($label); } return $states; } /** * Retrieve statuses available for state * Get all possible statuses, or for specified state, or specified states array * Add labels by default. Return plain array of statuses, if no labels. * * @param mixed $state * @param bool $addLabels * @return array */ public function getStateStatuses($state, $addLabels = true) { if (is_array($state)) { $key = implode("|", $state) . $addLabels; } else { $key = $state . $addLabels; } if (isset($this->_stateStatuses[$key])) { return $this->_stateStatuses[$key]; } $statuses = array(); if (empty($state) || !is_array($state)) { $state = array($state); } foreach ($state as $_state) { if ($stateNode = $this->_getState($_state)) { $collection = Mage::getResourceModel('sales/order_status_collection') ->addStateFilter($_state) ->orderByLabel(); foreach ($collection as $status) { $code = $status->getStatus(); if ($addLabels) { $statuses[$code] = $status->getStoreLabel(); } else { $statuses[] = $code; } } } } $this->_stateStatuses[$key] = $statuses; return $statuses; } /** * Retrieve states which are visible on front end * * @return array */ public function getVisibleOnFrontStates() { $this->_getStates(); return $this->_states['visible']; } /** * Get order states, visible on frontend * * @return array */ public function getInvisibleOnFrontStates() { $this->_getStates(); return $this->_states['invisible']; } private function _getStates() { if (null === $this->_states) { $this->_states = array( 'all' => array(), 'visible' => array(), 'invisible' => array(), 'statuses' => array(), ); foreach ($this->getNode('states')->children() as $state) { $name = $state->getName(); $this->_states['all'][] = $name; $isVisibleOnFront = (string)$state->visible_on_front; if ((bool)$isVisibleOnFront || ($state->visible_on_front && $isVisibleOnFront == '')) { $this->_states['visible'][] = $name; } else { $this->_states['invisible'][] = $name; } foreach ($state->statuses->children() as $status) { $this->_states['statuses'][$name][] = $status->getName(); } } } } }

* { margin: 0; padding: 0; } #igs { margin: 10px auto; width: 700px; height: 320px; position: relative; } .ig { position: absolute; } #tabs { position: absolute; list-style: none; background-color: rgba(255,255,255,.5); left: 300px; bottom: 10px; border-radius: 10px; padding: 5px 0 5px 5px; } .tab{ float: left; text-align: center; line-height: 20px; width: 20px; height: 20px; cursor: pointer; overflow: hidden; margin-right: 4px; border-radius: 100%; background-color: rgb(200,100,150); } .btn{ position: absolute; color: #fff; top: 110px; width: 40px; height: 100px; background-color: rgba(255,255,255,.3); font-size: 40px; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; line-height: 100px; border-radius: 5px; margin: 0 5px; } .btn2{ position: absolute; right: 0px; } .btn:hover{ background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.7); }

Q: How to get the value of a disabled text field in jsp I am having a dropdown box and a 5 textfields( all disabled). I am entering data into textfield by using javascript, from the dropdown(what ever value is present in the dropdown, goes into the text fields). Now, when the submit button is clicked, I want to get the value from this text field in the action class(java). On testing, I was getting "null" [getParameterValues("textfieldname") is what I have done]. When I removed the disabled, I was getting the value. So, how can I get the value while the disabled, is applied to the text field ? A: Instead of disable them make them readonly. <input type="text" name="nameOfTextField" readonly="readonly" />

Interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-10 induce decorin mRNA in endothelial cells, but interaction with fibrillar collagen is essential for its translation. Decorin, a small multifunctional proteoglycan, is expressed by sprouting endothelial cells (ECs) during inflammation-induced angiogenesis in vivo and by human ECs co-cultured with fibroblasts in a collagen lattice. To investigate how decorin is induced, human EA.hy 926 ECs and/or human umbilical vein ECs were treated with interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-6. Both treatments induced decorin mRNA in human ECs. IL-6 and IL-10 led to a dose-dependent mRNA increase with a maximum at 10 and 50 ng/ml, respectively. The combination of both interleukins together had a stronger effect than one alone. Immunostaining demonstrated that both interleukins caused decorin synthesis in ECs and the formation of capillary-like structures in a collagen lattice. However, immunoprecipitations of interleukin-treated ECs cultured on plastic were negative. Only interleukin-stimulated ECs grown on a collagen type I matrix or growth factor-reduced Matrigel were able to synthesize the proteoglycan. Acid-soluble collagen type I did not support decorin protein synthesis. The addition of antibodies to alpha(1) or alpha(2) integrins or the alpha(2) integrin inhibitor rhodocetin led to an inhibition of synthesis. These data show that IL-10 and IL-6 induce decorin mRNA transcription, but additional signals from the extracellular matrix are necessary for its translation.

Q: How to reset/restore to original spawn I am trying to mock spawn process using mock-spawn module. The subsequent test are failing since I am not able to restore the mock. I tried with mySpawn.resotre() but there is no such function. I checked the code still not able to figure it out. Can anyone please help me on this. A: I had similar requirement, this is the comment from mock-spawn contributor You can simply require('child_process').spawn if you need the original back. If you have overridden that, you should save the original before and reset the child_process spawn property to the saved original. Ref: https://github.com/gotwarlost/mock-spawn/issues/13#issuecomment-342589086

Q: Remove User search limit per month PDO::MYSQL How can I have PHP remove a users limit every month I have this code to increment a users search limit and if they reach their limit $search = $db->prepare("SELECT `searched` FROM `search` WHERE `user_id` =:user_id"); $search->bindValue(':user_id', $vbulletin->userinfo['userid'], PDO::PARAM_INT); $search->execute(); $result = $search->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC); if ($result['searched'] >= 100){ exit('You have reached your search limit for this month.<br>'); } $addsearch = $db->prepare("UPDATE `evomap`.`search` SET `searched` = :searched + 1 WHERE `search`.`id` =:user_id;"); $addsearch->bindValue(':user_id', $vbulletin->userinfo['userid'], PDO::PARAM_INT); $addsearch->bindValue(':searched', $result['searched'], PDO::PARAM_STR); $addsearch->execute(); /* page i want to execute if user has no reached limit */ A: You might better have a column with a month timestamp, being set to a date, when user has reached 100 searches, then checking if current month != timestamp. But you can also try MySQL events. Something like: DELIMITER $$ CREATE EVENT search_removal ON SCHEDULE EVERY MONTH DO BEGIN UPDATE search SET searched = 0; END; $$;

The effects of torrefaction on compositions of bio-oil and syngas from biomass pyrolysis by microwave heating. Microwave pyrolysis of torrefied Douglas fir sawdust pellet was investigated to determine the effects of torrefaction on the biofuel production. Compared to the pyrolysis of raw biomass, the increased concentrations of phenols and sugars and reduced concentrations of guaiacols and furans were obtained from pyrolysis of torrefied biomass, indicating that torrefaction as a pretreatment favored the phenols and sugars production. Additionally, about 3.21-7.50 area% hydrocarbons and the reduced concentration of organic acids were obtained from pyrolysis of torrefied biomass. Torrefaction also altered the compositions of syngas by reducing CO2 and increasing H2 and CH4. The syngas was rich in H2, CH4, and CO implying that the syngas quality was significantly improved by torrefaction process.

use azure_sdk_storage_core::{EndpointProtocol, ConnectionStringBuilder}; pub fn main() { let account_name = std::env::var("STORAGE_ACCOUNT").expect("Set env variable STORAGE_ACCOUNT first!"); let account_key = std::env::var("ACCOUNT_KEY").expect("Set env variable ACCOUNT_KEY first!"); let default_endpoints_protocol = std::env::var("DEFAULT_ENDPOINTS_PROTOCOL") .expect("Set env variable DEFAULT_ENDPOINTS_PROTOCOL first!"); let default_endpoints_protocol = match &default_endpoints_protocol[..] { "https" => EndpointProtocol::Https, "http" => EndpointProtocol::Http, _ => panic!("Invalid default endpoints protocol") }; let connection_string = ConnectionStringBuilder::new() .with_account_name(&account_name) .with_account_key(&account_key) .with_default_endpoints_protocol(default_endpoints_protocol) .build(); println!("The connection string is: '{}'", connection_string); }

Regulation in the neural plate of Xenopus laevis demonstrated by genetic markers. To follow the subsequent history of grafted tissue in experiments designed to study regulation and commitment in the amphibian neural plate, previous workers have relied on graft scars, vital dyes applied externally to cells, or xenoplastic grafts. Each of these methods has been criticized on the grounds that they do not indicate unambiguously the origins of individual cells within the operated host. To overcome these difficulties, homoplastic, genetically marked embryonic grafts were taken from the prospective spinal neuroectoderm of triploid and tetraploid Xenopus laevis frogs and transplanted to presumptive eye and prosencephalic regions of the neural plate of diploid X. laevis embryos. Orthotopic presumptive eye grafts also were done. Marked cells were scored in section either by nucleolar number or computerized nuclear size analysis. Of 28 heterotopically grafted embryos that survived to stage 41, when the retina has differentiated, prospective spinal cord neuroectoderm in eight animals gave rise to cell types unique to the eye. The remaining 20 survivors appeared to be mosaic. These results substantiate claims of regulation in the neural plate and extend these observations to the level of individual cell types, a level of resolution not previously obtained in other studies.

# KeyboardController [](http://cocoapods.org/pods/KeyboardController) [](https://travis-ci.org/michalkonturek/KeyboardController) [](http://swift.org) [](http://cocoapods.org/pods/KeyboardController) [](http://twitter.com/michalkonturek) Simplifies iOS keyboard handling. ## License Source code of this project is available under the standard MIT license. Please see [the license file][LICENSE]. [PODS]:http://cocoapods.org/ [LICENSE]:https://github.com/michalkonturek/KeyboardController/blob/master/LICENSE ## Usage To use `KeyboardController`, simply initialize it with an array of `UITextField` objects. ```swift let fields = [field1!, field2!, field3!, field4!, field5!] self.controller = KeyboardController(fields: fields) ``` You can interact with `KeyboardController` directly via the following methods: ```swift func moveToNextField() func moveToPreviousField() func closeKeyboard() ``` `KeyboardController`, depending on a `returnKeyType` property of an `UITextField` instance, will: * `UIReturnKeyNext` - move to next text field * `UIReturnKeyDone` - close keyboard ### KeyboardControllerDelegate You could also take advantage of delegation methods: ```swift func controllerDidHideKeyboard(controller: KeyboardController) func controllerDidShowKeyboard(controller: KeyboardController) func controllerWillHideKeyboard(controller: KeyboardController) func controllerWillShowKeyboard(controller: KeyboardController) ``` by setting a `delegate` property of a `KeyboardController`: ```swift self.keyboardController.delegate = self; ``` ### UITextFieldDelegate There is also an option of setting a `textFieldDelegate` property of all textFields that are under control of `KeyboardController`: ```swift self.keyboardController.textFieldDelegate = self; ``` This could be particulary useful if you would like to add individual behaviour to `UITextFields` objects. ```swift func textFieldDidBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) { if (textField == self.field4) { self.moveViewBy(-10) } if (textField == self.field5) { self.moveViewBy(-200) } } func textFieldDidEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField) { if (textField == self.field4) { self.moveViewBy(10) } if (textField == self.field5) { self.moveViewBy(200) } } ``` ## Contributing 1. Fork it. 2. Create your feature branch (`git checkout -b new-feature`). 3. Commit your changes (`git commit -am 'Added new-feature'`). 4. Push to the branch (`git push origin new-feature`). 5. Create new Pull Request.

Blogs I Follow * Fracking in U.S. Lifts Guar Farmers in India NY Times: “Sohan Singh’s shoeless children have spent most of their lives hungry, dirty and hot. A farmer in a desert land, Mr. Singh could not afford anything better than a mud hut and a barely adequate diet for his family. Farmers waited this month to receive free guar seeds from an Indian company. But it just so happens that when the hard little bean that Mr. Singh grows is ground up, it becomes an essential ingredient for mining oil and natural gas in a process called hydraulic fracturing. Halfway around the world, earnings are down for an oil services giant, Halliburton, because prices have risen for guar, the bean that Mr. Singh and his fellow farmers raise. Halliburton’s loss was, in a rather significant way, Mr. Singh’s gain — a rare victory for the littlest of the little guys in global trade. The increase in guar prices is helping to transform this part of the state of Rajasthan in northwestern India, one of the world’s poorest places. Tractor sales are soaring, land prices are increasing and weddings have grown even more colorful. “Now we have enough food, and we have a house made of stone,” Mr. Singh said proudly while his rail-thin children stared in awe. Guar, a modest bean so hard that it can crack teeth, has become an unlikely global player, and dirt-poor farmers like Mr. Singh have suddenly become a crucial link in the energy production of the United States.”

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor with a median survival of 12 months. Conventional therapeutic strategies of radiotherapy and chemotherapy are inadequate to eradicate GBMs because of the diffuse nature of GBM, acquired or innate resistance to therapy and the presence of blood--brain--barrier (BBB).^[@bib1],\ [@bib2]^ To alter the *status quo* that has remained unchanged over 25 years, novel targets and therapeutic strategies need to be developed. Evasion of apoptosis is a key hallmark of cancers that exhibit resistance against therapeutics,^[@bib3]^ making the reactivation of dormant apoptotic programs a favorable approach in treatment. Activating extrinsic apoptosis using death ligands, such as tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), is a promising strategy because of its tumor specificity.^[@bib4]^ Several TRAIL-based therapies such as recombinant human TRAIL and death receptor agonists have been developed and have shown success in preclinical models.^[@bib5]^ Similarly, activating intrinsic apoptosis by inhibiting the antiapoptotic Bcl-2 proteins, Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL, with BH3 peptides has shown success in preclinical tumor models.^[@bib6],\ [@bib7]^ However, the major obstacle in proapoptotic therapies is innate or acquired resistance of tumor cells to the proapoptotic agents.^[@bib8]^ Aberrant regulation of the apoptosis pathway components could be responsible for the failure of desired response to the proapoptotic agents.^[@bib3]^ One well-characterized misregulation is the epigenetic silencing of proapoptotic genes, such as death receptor 4 (*DR4*).^[@bib9]^ However, epigenetic regulation of chemotherapy response of cancer cells has been demonstrated to be dynamic and reversible.^[@bib10]^ Numerous studies have shown that overcoming TRAIL resistance is possible by using secondary agents, such as the histone deacetylase inhibitors,^[@bib11],\ [@bib12],\ [@bib13]^ corroborating the idea that the resistance can be reversed by epigenetic reprogramming. The epigenome of cells are maintained by dynamic histone and DNA modifications throughout the chromatin by a group of chromatin-modifying enzymes (CMEs) called 'writers' such as histone acetyltransferases, histone methyltransferases (HMTs) and DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs).^[@bib14]^ These modifications can be removed by 'erasers' such as histone deacetylases (HDACs) and histone demethylases (HDMs), or can be recognized by 'readers' such as bromodomain-containing proteins.^[@bib15]^ Although the molecular mechanisms leading to aberrant cancer epigenomes are becoming better understood,^[@bib16],\ [@bib17],\ [@bib18]^ most studies in GBM merely focus on DNA hyper/hypomethylation.^[@bib19]^ Therefore, an unbiased and comprehensive assessment of roles of CMEs in apoptosis resistance is needed. In this study, we aimed to interrogate the function of CMEs regulating apoptotic response in GBM and undertook a loss-of-function approach using short-hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) that were designed against a select but diverse set of CMEs and associated proteins. We have shown that loss of KDM2B -- a H3K36-specific histone demethylase -- primed GBM cells for apoptosis through the induction of proapoptotic genes and the suppression of antiapoptotic genes. Our results suggest KDM2B as a novel central epigenetic regulator of GBM cell apoptosis and identify it as a potential proapoptotic target for future of GBM treatment. Results ======= Interrogation of the CMEs reveals KDM2B as a modulator of TRAIL-induced apoptosis in GBM cells ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To identify the key CMEs regulating the apoptotic response of GBM cells, we applied a shRNA-based loss-of-function screen in U87MG cell line ([Figure 1a](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). We used a library of 60 shRNAs published before,^[@bib20]^ and expanded it to 125 shRNAs targeting 48 different CME genes with two or three separate shRNAs. The targeted CMEs included DNMTs, HMTs, HDMs, methylated DNA-binding proteins, polycomb-group proteins (PRCs) and a few transcription factors ([Figure 1b](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). We first assessed the effects of shRNAs alone on U87MG cell viability, to identify shRNAs displaying intrinsic toxicity before TRAIL treatment. Two of the 125 shRNAs were eliminated from further analysis in the screen as they caused \~100% cell death after puromycin selection, possibly due to problems with viral packaging. Accordingly, 6 out of 125 shRNAs reduced cell viability more than 2 S.D. compared with shControl ([Figure 1c](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). These were shRNAs targeting KDM5C (68±1%), KDM4C (71±1%), KDM4A (75±1%), KDM4A (75±1%), Set1A (77±1%) and KDM3B (77±1%). Five out of 125 shRNAs targeting MeCP2 (115±1%), MBD1 (115±1%), AHCY (117±5%), TCF3 (117±1%) and EZH1 (121±2%) caused minor increases in viability. However, the majority of the shRNAs did not significantly alter cell viability ([Figure 1c](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). To identify shRNAs that modulated TRAIL sensitivity, we assessed the percent viability changes after TRAIL treatment. Accordingly, we categorized CMEs into two groups based on the phenotype observed upon their silencing compared with shControl cells: (1) suppressors of apoptosis, if their knockdown sensitized the cells to TRAIL, (2) enhancers of apoptosis, if their knockdown conferred cells more TRAIL resistant ([Figure 1d](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). While TRAIL caused 25±4% reduction in the viability of shControl cells, there were seven shRNAs that sensitized cells to TRAIL. These were targeting five genes, namely *Suv39H2* (41±2%), *G9A* (42±2%), *NR2F2* (45±4%), *RING1A* (48±2 or 50±3%) and *KDM2B* (41±2 or 44±2%) ([Figure 1e](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). We then focused on the genes *RING1A* and *KDM2B*, whose knockdown led to a phenotype with two independent shRNAs ([Figure 1e](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). Taken together, our screen identified KDM2B and RING1, an H3K36-specific demethylase and an E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase of H2AK119, respectively, as novel regulators of TRAIL response. Loss of KDM2B cooperates with TRAIL to reduce GBM cell viability ---------------------------------------------------------------- To assess the function of the novel apoptosis-modulating CMEs we identified in GBMs, we first checked the knockdown efficiency of the shRNAs and observed silencing down to 17--40% ([Supplementary Figure 1](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). We then focused on KDM2B, as its protumorigenic functions have been demonstrated in various solid and hematological malignancies;^[@bib21],\ [@bib22]^ however, its function in GBMs was not defined. Quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis of *KDM2B* levels revealed that both shRNAs reduced *KDM2B* mRNA levels down to \~50% ([Figure 2a](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}). However, shKDM2B-2 led to a more robust reduction at protein levels ([Figure 2b](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}). To assess whether the shRNAs targeting KDM2B is specific, we checked the levels of other KDM family members upon KDM2B knockdown and observed no major alterations in their levels ([Supplementary Figure 2](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). To further validate the screen results, we conducted ATP-based cell viability analysis of cells transduced with both shKDM2B vectors and verified that cells with reduced KDM2B exhibit cell death significantly more than the controls ([Figure 2c](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}). To examine these differences in cell death further, we used an assay that measures cell growth in real time, where cells' electrical impedance in a well is measured and transformed into a cell index. Accordingly, silencing of KDM2B not only augmented TRAIL response but also accelerated the process of cell death ([Figure 2d](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}). There was no observable difference between untreated cells, showing that KDM2B knockdown has no significant effects on short-term (24 h) proliferation dynamics. This phenotype was also validated by live-cell imaging, where the morphology of individual cells, as well as cell death processes, was observed in real time ([Figure 2e](#fig2){ref-type="fig"} and [Supplementary Videos 1--4](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). As shown by automated quantification of cellular blebs that were indicative of apoptotic bodies, the process of apoptosis was accelerated in shKDM2B cells compared with controls ([Figure 2f](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}). The number of apoptotic bodies per frame reached its maxima within 6 h of TRAIL treatment in shKDM2B cells, earlier and significantly in higher numbers than shControl cells. To examine whether KDM2B effects can be recapitulated in additional GBM cell lines, we used a more TRAIL-sensitive line, T98G in parallel. There, KDM2B knockdown led to increased TRAIL sensitivity, in accordance with U87MG cells ([Supplementary Figure 3](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Next, as a complementary approach, we tested whether overexpression of KDM2B would result in an opposite response for TRAIL. Accordingly, KDM2B overexpression led to a modest but significant reduction in TRAIL response in U87MG cells ([Figures 2g, h](#fig2){ref-type="fig"} and [Supplementary Figure 4](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). KDM2B overexpression conferred T98G cells more resistant to TRAIL as well ([Supplementary Figure 5](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Taken together, our data suggest that KDM2B expression suppresses TRAIL response and therefore its inhibition leads to increased TRAIL sensitivity in GBM cells. Silencing of KDM2B sensitizes GBM cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis ------------------------------------------------------------------ To better understand how downregulation of KDM2B reduces viability and increases TRAIL response, we examined the components of the apoptotic machinery in shControl and shKDM2B cells. We observed a 3-fold increase in caspase-3/7 and a 2.5-fold increase in caspase-8 activity levels ([Figures 3a and b](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}). Analysis of the whole-cell lysates of shControl and shKDM2B cells revealed that caspase-7 is indeed upregulated in shKDM2B cells at the protein level ([Figure 3c](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}). Importantly, we observed that there is a significant increase in levels of cleaved PARP, caspase-3 and caspase-7, all of which are indicators of apoptotic cell death. We have also observed a very slight increase in cleaved Bid levels in shKDM2B cells upon TRAIL treatment ([Supplementary Figure 6](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). To test the functional roles of caspases in shKDM2B-mediated apoptotic sensitization, we used specific inhibitors for caspase-8, -10 (Z-IETD-FMK) and caspase-9 (Z-LEHD-FMK). In addition, we used a general caspase inhibitor that target caspase-8, -10, -9, -3 and -7 (Z-VAD-FMK), and an inactive caspase inhibitor (Z-FA-FMK) as control. In both shControl and shKDM2B cells, inhibition of all caspases abolished the TRAIL response, suggesting that the observed augmented apoptotic response in shKDM2B cells was dependent on both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis pathways ([Figure 3d](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}).^[@bib23]^ To examine whether KDM2B modulates the response of GBM cells to proapoptotic agents that trigger intrinsic apoptosis, besides the extrinsic apoptosis that is triggered by TRAIL, we conducted cell viability experiments with Bcl-2/Bcl-XL inhibitors, ABT-263 and ABT-737 ([Supplementary Figures 7 and 8](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). While ABT-263 or ABT-737 alone did not markedly decrease cell viability, combination of ABT-263 or ABT-737 with TRAIL did. We observed that knockdown or overexpression of KDM2B in U87MG cells did not affect this cell line's overall response to ABT-263 and ABT-737 individual treatments. However, knockdown of KDM2B sensitized these cells to ABT and TRAIL combination ([Supplementary Figure 7](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}), and KDM2B overexpression was able to confer GBM cells more resistant to ABT and TRAIL combination ([Supplementary Figure 8](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). These results suggested that the interplay between KDM2B and apoptosis is likely to be valid for both the intrinsic and extrinsic arms of apoptosis. Silencing of KDM2B leads to deregulation of apoptosis-related genes ------------------------------------------------------------------- KDM2B can bind throughout the genome by its CxxC-binding domain,^[@bib24]^ and its catalytic demethylase activity on the H3K36me2/me3 residues is associated with gene repression. However, the genes that are regulated in favor of apoptosis in GBM cells are unknown. To this end, we conducted RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis on shControl and shKDM2B cells. *KDM2B* expression levels were downregulated in shKDM2B cells compared with shControl cells −3.049-fold (adjusted *P*-value 7.51E−91), attesting to the validity of RNA-seq experiments. In total, 2457 genes were differentially expressed between shControl and shKDM2B cells. Ingenuity pathway analysis of these genes revealed that 'cell death and survival' and 'cellular growth and proliferation' pathways were among the top 10 that were significantly different between shControl and shKDM2B cells with --log *P*-values of 25--30 ([Figure 4a](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Five out of the top 10 altered functions were categorized as 'cell death and survival' where these gene sets were predicted to be activated with activation *z*-scores of \>2.5 ([Figure 4b](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). In addition, top 2 of these 10 categories were 'cell death and survival', suggesting that KDM2B silencing alters cell death- and survival-associated genes in GBM cells. We were particularly interested in the cell death-related pathway in the shKDM2B cells, and therefore focused our attention on individual differentially expressed genes and generated a custom list of apoptosis-related genes that, when deregulated, can affect the outcome of TRAIL-induced apoptosis ([Figure 4c](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). When we sorted the list of apoptosis-related genes based on differential expression, the most significant change was on *HRK* gene, with striking 16-fold induction in shKDM2B cells compared with shControl cells. The expression of other key apoptosis players, including *CASP7, DAPK1, BAK1* and *TNFRSF10A (DR4)* were also induced between 1.5- to 3.7-fold ([Figure 4c](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). To validate the RNA-seq results, we designed gene-specific primers ([Supplementary Table 1](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}), performed qRT-PCR and confirmed the differential expression of *HRK* ([Figure 4d](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Further, qRT-PCR analyses of apoptosis-related genes showed proapoptotic *DAPK1, CARD16, TNFAIP2, TNFRSF10c, BCL2L11, BMF, XAF1, TNFRSF14, TNFRSF11B, APAF1, CASP1, CASP7, BCL2L2* and *BAK1* were induced, while antiapoptotic *MCL1, BCL11B* and *BCL2A1* were repressed ([Supplementary Figure 9](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). These results suggest that silencing KDM2B causes genome-wide transcriptional changes and specifically alters apoptotic machinery in favor of apoptosis in GBM cells. Because *HRK* was the top induced gene in shKDM2B cells, we further tested its functional association with KDM2B. HRK is a BH3-only Bcl-2 family member that can antagonize antiapoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL.^[@bib25]^ While *HRK*'s role is mostly studied in nervous system,^[@bib26],\ [@bib27]^ its role in cancers, especially in GBM is not well defined.^[@bib25]^ To assess the increased HRK expression upon KDM2B loss, we performed western blotting and observed increased HRK protein levels in shKDM2B cells compared with controls ([Figure 4e](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). To then test the role of HRK, we used shRNA targeting *HRK* and observed significant reduction in its mRNA expression ([Figure 4f](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Silencing of HRK led to significant but partial recovery from TRAIL-induced death in both shControl and shKDM2B cells ([Figure 4g](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). These results suggest that *HRK* is potentially a downstream gene regulated by KDM2B and may facilitate TRAIL response in GBM cells. Silencing of H3K36-specific HMTs leads to the opposite phenotype of KDM2B silencing in GBM cell apoptosis --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- H3K36-specific HMTs that catalyze the opposite function of KDM2B are known.^[@bib28]^ Our shRNA library included four of these HMTs, namely SETD2, NSD1, ASH1L and SMYD2. As they carry out the opposite enzymatic activity of KDM2B, we assessed their effects on apoptotic response. We observed significant reduction in gene expression with each corresponding shRNA ([Figure 5a](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}). Individual knockdown of each enzyme did not lead to global differences in H3K36me2 or H3K36me3 levels as assessed by western blotting of histone extracts ([Supplementary Figure 10](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}), suggesting that H3K36me regulation at specific loci might be responsible for the observed phenotypic changes. While silencing of KDM2B followed by TRAIL treatment led to increased cell death, silencing of SETD2, NSD1, ASH1L, and SMYD2 individually led to significantly reduced cell death ([Figure 5b](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}). These results suggest that H3K36 methylation and demethylation at specific loci of apoptosis-related genes potentially regulate the apoptotic response of GBM cells to TRAIL. Loss of KDM2B attenuates tumor growth *in vivo* ----------------------------------------------- To examine the effects of KDM2B loss on tumor growth *in vivo*, we generated shControl and shKDM2B cells expressing both firefly luciferase (Fluc) and mCherry. The bioluminescence signals of shControl-Fluc-mCh and shKDM2B-Fluc-mCh cells were comparable *in vitro* ([Figure 6a](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}). To assess the effect of KDM2B loss on long-term GBM growth before *in vivo* implantation, we performed real-time cell analysis of shControl-Fluc-mCh and shKDM2B-Fluc-mCh cells for 200 h. We observed that knockdown of KDM2B alone reduces the proliferation rate of GBM cells in long term ([Figure 6b](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}), while within short term of 24 h the proliferation rate is comparable with control cells, confirming our previous observation ([Figure 2d](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}). Long-term analysis of tumor growth for 30 days with noninvasive bioluminescence imaging revealed that loss of KDM2B also attenuates tumor growth *in vivo* ([Figures 6c and d](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}). Immunofluorescence and histological analysis of the tumors showed that loss of KDM2B led to reduced angiogenic capacity of the tumors as assessed by regular H&E and VEGF staining. Moreover, there were significantly more annexin-V-positive tumor cells within shKDM2B tumors compared with controls ([Figures 6e and f](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}). Taken together, these results suggest that KDM2B silencing led to decreased tumor growth in long term, which may be attributable to the increased basal levels of apoptosis. Discussion ========== In this study, we have used an unbiased shRNA screen to show that the deregulation of a CME in a GBM cell line can cause sensitization to TRAIL through induction of proapoptotic machinery. Several lines of evidence support this argument. First, loss of KDM2B cooperated with TRAIL to reduce GBM cell viability and augmented the apoptotic response as assessed by the hallmarks of apoptosis upon TRAIL treatment. Further, whole-genome transcriptome analysis suggested that endogenous levels of KDM2B in GBM is correlated with suppressed state of proapoptotic machinery, whose knockdown results in induction of apoptosis by inducing proapoptotic genes and repressing antiapoptotic genes. *HRK* was the top induced gene upon KDM2B loss and its silencing partially recovered the observed sensitization phenotype, suggesting that *HRK* might be a novel and direct target of KDM2B-mediated apoptosis regulation in GBM cells. In our screen, the majority of the shRNAs (110/125) targeting CMEs did not affect TRAIL response on their own. However, some were able to prime GBM cells for apoptosis. Although our shRNA screen targeted diverse types of CMEs, such as writers (DNMTs and HMTs), erasers (HDMs), readers (methyl-DNA-binding proteins) and other chromatin regulatory proteins such as polycomb-group proteins (PRCs), it did not cover all types and members of CMEs. For example, HATs and HDACs were not included in the shRNA screen. It will be of interest to see whether shRNA-mediated knockdown of HDACs would prime tumor cells for apoptosis as their small drug inhibition were previously reported to be implicated in TRAIL sensitization.^[@bib29]^ One major hit from our screen was KDM2B. KDM2B is a H3K36me2 demethylase that is indicated as a regulator of cell growth.^[@bib22],\ [@bib30],\ [@bib31]^ KDM2B, by its CxxC-ZF domain, can bind to CpG islands and can catalyze demethylation of H3K36 or H3K4 residues through its JmjC domain.^[@bib24]^ KDM2B has been shown to be required for the tumorigenesis of acute myeloid leukemia, where it acts as an oncogene through silencing *p15/Ink4b*.^[@bib32]^ Similarly, KDM2B has been shown to regulate self-renewal capacity of cancer and cancer stem cells in hematological and pancreatic cancers, and its expression is positively correlated with advanced tumor grade.^[@bib21],\ [@bib22]^ A recent study displayed the protumorigenic role of KDM2B in a broad range of human tumors.^[@bib33]^ To our knowledge, KDM2B has not been studied previously in brain malignancies and the present work is the first study to display its novel oncogenic role in GBMs. Interestingly, we found that shRNAs targeting the H3K36-specific HMTs, namely SETD2, NSD1, SMYD2, ASH1L, known to conduct the opposite enzymatic activity of KDM2B by catalyzing the addition of methyl groups to H3K36 residues, conferred GBM cells partly resistant to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Therefore, we believe that H3K36 methylation can be a central regulator of TRAIL-induced apoptosis in GBM cells, and it would be interesting to dissect out the exact molecular mechanism by testing the function of HMTs in combination, and conducting chromatin analysis in the future. We show that short-term KDM2B loss by itself does not cause major changes in cell survival; however, long-term effect of KDM2B suppression is observed in our *in vivo* xenograft models. This suggests that while short-term loss of KDM2B can alter the epigenetic landscape of tumor cells in favor of apoptosis, long-term consequences of the epigenome alterations can reduce proliferation and be detrimental without additional external apoptotic stimuli. Therefore, it will be important to uncouple the exact mechanisms of how KDM2B regulates proliferation rate, survival and apoptosis in GBM cells. In this study, we focused on the examination of apoptotic regulation and showed that KDM2B can alter apoptotic response of GBM cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. This is consistent with a previous study showing that KDM2B regulated the apoptotic response of pancreatic cancer cells.^[@bib34]^ Our consistent results with multiple GBM cell lines and multiple proapoptotic agents such as TRAIL and BH3 mimetics suggest that KDM2B could be a global regulator of cell death in GBM cells. How KDM2B might regulate apoptotic priming in GBM cells was also examined in this study by comparing the transcription profiles of shControl and shKDM2B cells. Accordingly, among many apoptosis-related genes taking place in TRAIL pathway, proapoptotic genes such as *DR4* and executioner *caspase-7* were induced. Interestingly, *HRK*, a BH3-only Bcl-2 family member, that can antagonize antiapoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL,^[@bib25]^ was the top induced gene. As such, silencing of *HRK* partly recovered the apoptotic sensitization, suggesting that *HRK* is directly linked to KDM2B-mediated regulation. There were other genes that were modulated by KDM2B loss, such as *DAPK1* or *BMF*, which could also be partly responsible for apoptotic sensitization. DAPK1 is a proapoptotic tumor suppressor that has been shown to be inactivated in various cancer settings,^[@bib35],\ [@bib36]^ whereas antiapoptotic BH3-only BMF can also sensitize cells via directly interacting with Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, Bcl-w and Mcl-1.^[@bib37]^ On the other hand, knockdown of KDM2B led to suppression of antiapoptotic genes *MCL1*, *BCL11B* and *BCL2A1*. This could be through an indirect cascade of events or a direct consequence of partial loss of KDM2B.^[@bib22]^ Interestingly, BCL11B silencing has been demonstrated to induce apoptosis in malignancies.^[@bib38]^ BCL2A1 is overexpressed in various cancers and its upregulation is characterized as a major resistance factor against proapoptotic therapy in cancer.^[@bib39]^ MCL1 is one of the key gatekeepers regulating apoptosis and has been targeted by small drug inhibitors to sensitize cancer cells.^[@bib40],\ [@bib41]^ Further research is warranted to understand how KDM2B regulates the expression of these apoptosis regulators at the chromatin level. Taken together, we show that KDM2B regulates the apoptotic response of GBM cells by turning on the apoptotic machinery that is otherwise dormant. Therefore, combining epigenetic reprogramming drugs with standard chemotherapeutics or with proapoptotic therapies are promising therapeutic approaches. To this end, previously, several agents have been combined with TRAIL, including HDAC inhibitors. Interestingly, bortezomib,^[@bib42]^ MS-275,^[@bib11]^ and a recent drug identified by our group, mitoxantrone,^[@bib43]^ have all suppressed the expression levels of KDM2B in favor of cell death ([Supplementary Figure 11](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Therefore, it is plausible to suggest that regulators of apoptosis might be acting through regulating the central epigenetic machinery in favor of enhanced cell death ([Figure 7](#fig7){ref-type="fig"}). GBM is a complex cancer with extremely poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. Therefore, designing new and effective approaches for GBM is necessary. Drugs targeting CMEs are emerging as anticancer therapeutics.^[@bib44]^ Our results corroborate the notion that combinatorial uses of epigenetic drugs with proapoptotic agents hold great promise. To this end, specific chemical inhibitors for CMEs such as a KDM2B inhibitor can yield effective combination therapies for subgroups of GBM patients. Materials and methods ===================== Cell lines ---------- U87MG GBM cells and 293T cells were purchased and authenticated from ATCC (Manassas, VA, USA). All cells were cultured in DMEM medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 1% penicillin--streptomycin (Gibco, Grand Island, NY, USA) at 37 °C in a humidified chamber with 5% CO~2~ as described.^[@bib11]^ Puromycin selection was applied at a final concentration of 1 *μ*g/ml for 3--7 days. Reagents -------- TRAIL was commercially supplied (Enzo Life Sciences, Farmingdale, NY, USA) or produced from 293T cells as described.^[@bib45]^ Briefly, the extracellular portion of human TRAIL (amino acids 95--281) was cloned into pBabe retroviral expression vectors to produce functionally active TRAIL,^[@bib46]^ which was quantified by TRAIL ELISA according to the manufacturer's instructions (Abcam, Cambridge, UK). Caspase inhibitors (BD Pharmingen, San Diego, CA, USA) were as follows: Z-IETD-FMK (caspase-8 inhibitor), Z-VAD-FMK (general caspase inhibitor), Z-FA-FMK (negative control), Z-LEHD-FMK (caspase-9 inhibitor) and Ac-DEVD-CHO (caspase-3/7 inhibitor). Bcl-2, Bcl-xL inhibitors ABT-263 and ABT-737 were purchased from Cayman Chemicals (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) Generation of the shRNA library ------------------------------- One hundred and twenty-five of total shRNAs targeting chromatin-modifying proteins and HRK were designed using the RNAi Codex program. Accordingly, two to three shRNAs were designed using 97-mer oligos and cloning into pSMP vector system. The designed oligos were PCR amplified using the following primer pairs: (forward: 5′-GATGGCTGCTCGAGAAGGTATATTGCTGTTGACAGTGAGCG-3′ reverse: 5′-GTCTAGAGGAATTCCGAGGCAGTAGGC-3′). PCR products were gel purified, digested with *Eco*RI and *Xho*I and ligated into the retroviral pSMP vector as described,^[@bib20]^ and verified by sequencing. shRNA targeting the Fluc was used as shControl. The sequences of selected shRNAs are listed in [Supplementary Table 2](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}; viral packaging was conducted as described.^[@bib20]^ The 293T cells were seeded as 2.5 × 10^6^ cells per plate and transfected with shRNA, VSV-G and pUMVC plasmids with Fugene transfection reagent (Promega, Madison, WI, USA). The virus containing media was collected, filtered through 0.45 *μ*m filters (Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA) and stored at −80 °C. shRNA screen ------------ U87MG cells were seeded as 2500 cells per well into black 96-well plates. Next day, cells were infected with 80 *μ*l of viral supernatants with protamine sulfate (10 *μ*g/ml) in triplicates. After 2 days, puromycin (1 *μ*g/ml) was added for 3 days. Following selection, cells were treated with TRAIL (100 ng/ml) or control solution for 24 h, followed by cell viability assays. shRNAs that caused reduction in cell viability, as well as shRNAs that augmented TRAIL response in at least two independent experiments, were identified and further characterized. Cloning ------- The 4617 bp ORF of KDM2B in pCAG-puro, including 2x Strep-tag II and 1x FLAG-tag at its N terminus, was cloned by the flanking *Eco*RI cut sites into retroviral pBabe-puro mammalian expression vector. Cell viability and caspase activity assays ------------------------------------------ Viability of the cells was measured using ATP-based Cell Titer Glo assays (Promega) according to the manufacturer's instructions using a plate reader (BioTek's Synergy H1, Winooski, VT, USA). All experiments were performed in triplicates. To further validate KDM2B phenotype, stable cell lines of shKDM2B or shControl cells were expanded for three to four passages. Accordingly, 10 000 cells per well were seeded in triplicates and treated with TRAIL (0--100 ng/ml) for 24 h. To test caspase inhibition, each caspase inhibitor was used at 20 *μ*M final concentration; cells were cotreated with inhibitors and TRAIL. For caspase activity measurements, cells were seeded in 96-well plates as 10 000 cells per well in triplicates, treated with TRAIL (0--100 ng/ml) for 3 h and caspase-8 and -3/7 activities were measured using Caspase Glo (Promega) assays according to the manufacturer's instructions. Real-time cell growth analysis ------------------------------ xCELLigence RTCA SP Station and Analyzer (ACEA Biosciences, San Diego, CA, USA) was used for real-time cell growth analysis. The 1000--5000 U87MG cells per well were seeded, and impedance of the wells were measured with 20 min intervals for 24 or 202 h. The amount of cell growth was analyzed and plotted using the RTCA Software (ACEA Biosciences). Live-cell microscopy -------------------- All live-cell imaging experiments were carried out by Olympus Xcellence Pro inverted microscope (Center Valley, PA, USA) with a × 10 air objective in a chamber at 37 °C, supplied with 5% CO~2~. Time-lapse images were captured right after TRAIL treatment for 24 h as 1440 frames per minute. Five random positions were recorded per sample per well. The number of apoptotic bodies was counted on each window using the ImageJ Software (NIH Image, Bethesda, MD, USA). Particles having size (pixel\^2) of 10 to infinity and circularity of 0.60--1.00 were denoted as apoptotic bodies on each frame. qRT-PCR analysis ---------------- RNA isolation and cDNA synthesis were performed as described.^[@bib43]^ qRT-PCRs was carried out using the primers in [Supplementary Table 1](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Details of qRT-PCR are given in [Supplementary Information](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Cell lysate preparation, histone extraction and immunoblotting -------------------------------------------------------------- Cell lysate preparations were carried out as described previously.^[@bib43]^ Details of histone extraction and immunoblotting are given in [Supplementary Information](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. *In vivo* experiments --------------------- All *in vivo* experiments were approved by the institution review boards of Koç University (HADYEK no. 2014-22). U87MG cells stably expressing shControl or shKDM2B were used for *in vivo* experiments. Cells were supertransduced with lentiviral vectors encoding Fluc and mCherry as described.^[@bib46]^ mCherry expression was verified with red fluorescence, and Fluc activity was verified with *in vitro* luminescence assays. Accordingly, increasing number of cells (0--50 000/well) were seeded on 96-well plates and incubated with [d]{.smallcaps}-luciferin (10 *μ*g/ml) for 10 min. Bioluminescence was measured by BioTek's Synergy H1 plate reader. A 6--8-week-old SCID mice were used for tumor implantation. A total of 2.5 × 10^6^ cells that stably expressed Fluc and mCherry were injected in 50 *μ*l PBS subcutaneously into seven SCID mice. One day after injection, tumor cells were visualized by Fluc imaging using IVIS Lumina III equipment (Perkin-Elmer, Rodgau, Germany) by injecting mice with 150 *μ*g/g body weight of [d]{.smallcaps}-luciferin (Biotium, Fremont, CA, USA) intraperitoneally. Tumor progression was monitored with sequential Fluc bioluminescence activity over a period of 1 month. All imaging experiments were performed under isoflurane anesthesia. Following data acquisition, mean, standard deviation and sum of the photon counts in the regions of interest were calculated and plotted. At the end, the tumors were dissected and analyzed with immunohistochemistry. Immunohistochemistry -------------------- Sections of tumors were analyzed by immunohistochemistry as described.^[@bib46]^ Details are given in [Supplementary Information](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. RNA-seq and analysis -------------------- Total RNAs of shControl and shKDM2B cells were isolated, RNA-seq library for each sample was prepared based on protocols on Illumina HiSeq 2500 to generate 50 bp single-end reads. The data discussed in this publication have been deposited in NCBI\'s Gene Expression Omnibus,^[@bib47]^ and are accessible through GEO series accession number GSE81043 (<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE81043>). Differentially expressed genes between shKDM2B and shControl were detected using DESeq,^[@bib48]^ the complex biological processes induced by shKDM2B as compared with shControl were examined in the context of functional groups with Ingenuity Pathways Analysis, a web-delivered commercial application. Details of library preparation, statistical and functional analysis of differentially expressed genes are explained in [Supplementary Information](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Statistical analysis -------------------- Data were analyzed by Student\'s *t*-test when comparing two groups. Data were plotted as mean±s.e.m. and *P*-values were calculated. \*, \*\* and \*\*\* denotes *P*\<0.05, *P*\<0.01 and *P*\<0.001 on the figures. We thank Dr Halil Bayraktar for technical help with live-cell imaging. We also thank Weill Cornell Medicine Epigenomics Core for RNA-sequencing services. This work was supported by TUBITAK-115S251 (to TBO), Marie Curie CIG-618673 (to TBO) and TUBITAK-BIDEB-2210 (to ICK). We also gratefully acknowledge use of the services and facilities of the Koç University Research Center for Translational Medicine (KUTTAM), equally funded by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Development Research Infrastructure Support Program. Findings, opinions or points of view expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the Ministry of Development. [Supplementary Information](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} accompanies this paper on Cell Death and Disease website (http://www.nature.com/cddis) Edited by T Kaufmann The authors declare no conflict of interest. Supplementary Material {#sup1} ====================== ###### Click here for additional data file. ###### Click here for additional data file. ###### Click here for additional data file. ###### Click here for additional data file. ###### Click here for additional data file. {#fig1} {#fig2} {#fig3} {#fig4} {#fig5} {#fig6} {#fig7}

9th Intelligence Squadron The United States Air Force's 9th Intelligence Squadron is an intelligence unit located at Beale Air Force Base, California. The 9th is associated with Lockheed U-2 and Distributed Common Ground System operations. The squadron was first active during World War II as the 9th Photographic Technical Unit, serving in the European Theater of Operations. The 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron was active from 1948 through 1950 and again from 1966 through 1991, primarily as the photographic interpretation unit of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. It was consolidated with the 9th Photographic Technical Unit in 1985 and the 9th Intelligence Squadron in 2009. Mission The 9th operates and maintains the $15M Deployable Shelterized System-Film, the Department of Defense's only mobile film processing capability, as part of the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System architecture. The unit also processes, exploits, and disseminates broad area, high-resolution imagery collected by the Lockheed U-2 to meet combatant commander requirements. History World War II The squadron was first organized in France during the fall of 1944 as the 9th Photographic Laboratory Section. The section would provide processing of reconnaissance photography for XXIX Tactical Air Command (Provisional). It continued this mission through V-E Day. It briefly acted as part of the army of occupation, returning to the United States in November 1945, where it was inactivated at the Port of Embarkation. Strategic reconnaissance support The second predecessor of the squadron was activated in July 1948 as the 12th Photographic Technical Squadron at Topeka Air Force Base, Kansas, where it was assigned to the 311th Air Division, which was the primary reconnaissance headquarters for Strategic Air Command (SAC). In 1949, SAC reorganized its reconnaissance assets, assigning the squadron to the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing and moving it to Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base, California as the 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron. On 1 April 1950, however, the 9th Wing mission changed from long-range reconnaissance to strategic bombardment. Ten days later, the 9th Squadron moved to Rapid City Air Force Base, South Dakota, where it was assigned to the 28th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. It was inactivated at the end of the month, with its assets forming the cadre for the 28th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron. The squadron was again organized in late June 1966, at Beale Air Force Base, California, where it absorbed the mission, personnel and equipment of the 4203d Reconnaissance Technical Squadron, which was discontinued the same day. The squadron processed reconnaissance products produced by the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing's Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and, later, Lockheed U-2 Dragon Ladys until inactivating in July 1991. Intelligence The 9th Intelligence Support Squadron was activated at Beale in September 1991, the same day its predecessor was inactivated, assuming much of its mission, equipment and personnel. The squadron dropped "support" from its name in 2003, and in July 2009, the two squadrons were consolidated. Lineage 9th Photographic Technical Unit Constituted as the 9th Photographic Laboratory Section on 25 August 1944 Activated on 5 September 1944 Redesignated 9th Photographic Technical Unit on 13 October 1944 Inactivated on 4 October 1945 Consolidated with the 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron as the 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron on 16 October 1984 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron Constituted as the 12th Photographic Technical Squadron on 29 June 1948 Activated on 19 July 1948 Redesignated 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron on 4 March 1949 Inactivated on 1 May 1950 Activated on 18 May 1966 (not organized) Organized on 25 June 1966 Consolidated with the 9th Photographic Technical Unit on 16 October 1984 Inactivated on 1 September 1991 Consolidated with the 9th Intelligence Squadron as the 9th Intelligence Squadron on 21 July 2009 9th Intelligence Squadron Constituted as the 9th Intelligence Support Squadron on 29 August 1991 Activated on 1 September 1991 Redesignated 9 Intelligence Squadron on 9 January 2003 Consolidated with the 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron on 21 July 2009 Assignments Ninth Air Force, 5 September 1944 (attached to XXIX Tactical Air Command (Provisional) after 5 November 1944) IX Fighter Command, 1 December 1944 (attached to XXIX Tactical Air Command (Provisional)) 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Group, 18 May 1945 XII Tactical Air Command, 5 August–4 Oct 1945 311th Air Division, 19 July 1948 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (later 9 Bombardment Wing), 1 June 1949 28th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, 10 April–1 May 1950 Strategic Air Command, 18 May 1966 (not organized) 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, 25 June 1966 – 1 September 1991 9th Operations Group, 1 September 1991 548th Intelligence Group, 1 December 2003 – present Stations Chantilly, Oise, France, 5 September 1944 Le Culot Airfield (Y-10), France [sic], 1 December 1944 Belgium, 16 February 1945 Gutersloh-Marienfelde Airfield (Y-99), Germany, 16 April 1945 Wiesbaden-Erbenheim Airfield (Y-80), Germany, 31 May 1945 Eschwege Airfield (R-11), Germany, 31 July–26 September 1945 Boston Port of Embarkation, Massachusetts, 3-4 October 1945 Topeka Air Force Base, Kansas, 19 July 1948 Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base, California, 1 June 1949 Rapid City Air Force Base, South Dakota, 10 April–1 May 1950 Beale Air Force Base, California, 25 June 1966 – 1 September 1991 Beale Air Force Base, California, 1 Sep 1991 – present References Notes Explanatory notes Citations Bibliography Cate gory:Military units and formations in California 0009

Zimbabwe 'A' Level Top 100 Schools 2014 This is a list of the top 100 'A' level schools in Zimbabwe in 2014. References Category:Zimbabwe education-related lists Category:2014 in Zimbabwe

Diocese in the Province of Avellino, Southern Italy. The city was established by the Lombards at an unknown period. There are sulphurous springs in its vicinity. In 1664 it was almost completely destroyed. It became an episcopal see under Gregory VII, but its first known bishop is Thomas, in 1179, when the see was a suffragan of Conza. In 1540 under the episcopate of Rinaldo de' Cancellieri, it was united to the Diocese of Bisaccia (the ancient Romulea), a Samnite town captured by the Romans in 295 B.C.; it appears first as a bishopric in 1179. Another of its prelates, Ignazio Cianti, O.P. (1646), was distinguished for his learning. In 1818 it was incorporated with the See of Monteverde, the earliest known bishop of which is Mario (1049), and which in 1531 was united to the Archdiocese of Canne and Nazareth, from which it has been again separated. The see contains 9 parishes with 40,000 souls, 45 secular priests, and some religious, 3 monastic establishments, and a girls' school. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.

2004 Tuvalu A-Division The 2004 season of the Tuvalu A-Division was the fourth season of association football competition. The title was won by Lakena United, their first title and the first time the league was won by a team other than FC Niutao. References Category:Tuvalu A-Division seasons Tuvalu football

1. Introduction {#sec1-ijerph-17-04838} =============== Recent studies show a rise in overweight and obesity among children and adolescents to 18% worldwide in 2016 \[[@B1-ijerph-17-04838]\], with one in five school-aged children in Europe being overweight or obese \[[@B2-ijerph-17-04838],[@B3-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Also in The Netherlands, childhood obesity rates are high. In 2019, 12% of children aged 4 to 12 were overweight or obese \[[@B4-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Overweight or obesity in childhood is especially problematic, since this often continues into adolescence and adulthood and is related to an increased risk of negative health consequences, such as type II diabetes, hypertension, respiratory disease and various types of cancer \[[@B2-ijerph-17-04838],[@B3-ijerph-17-04838],[@B5-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Overweight and obesity are preventable and treatable \[[@B6-ijerph-17-04838]\], especially at a young age \[[@B5-ijerph-17-04838],[@B7-ijerph-17-04838]\], by improving healthy nutrition behaviours and increasing physical activity (PA) (also called energy balance-related behaviours (EBRBs)) \[[@B8-ijerph-17-04838],[@B9-ijerph-17-04838],[@B10-ijerph-17-04838]\]. To target children's EBRBs \[[@B8-ijerph-17-04838],[@B11-ijerph-17-04838]\], multiple settings \[[@B12-ijerph-17-04838]\], such as the school \[[@B13-ijerph-17-04838]\] and home environment should be involved in interventions \[[@B8-ijerph-17-04838],[@B13-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Since children spend a large proportion of their weekdays at school, and schools reach many children, schools have been a popular intervention setting for decades \[[@B13-ijerph-17-04838],[@B14-ijerph-17-04838],[@B15-ijerph-17-04838]\]. However, the influence of the home setting on children's EBRBs is profound, especially for young children, since parents determine the food availability at home, and influence children's nutrition and PA behaviour by practices like modelling and rule setting \[[@B16-ijerph-17-04838],[@B17-ijerph-17-04838],[@B18-ijerph-17-04838],[@B19-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Therefore it is important to also focus on the home setting when implementing school-based energy balance-related interventions \[[@B15-ijerph-17-04838],[@B17-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Most effective changes in the home setting are accomplished through interventions with direct parental involvement (e.g., parents attending educational sessions, or counselling sessions) \[[@B13-ijerph-17-04838],[@B16-ijerph-17-04838],[@B19-ijerph-17-04838],[@B20-ijerph-17-04838],[@B21-ijerph-17-04838]\]. However, directly involving parents is often resource- and labour-intensive, making these types of interventions less feasible \[[@B20-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Also, the recruitment \[[@B22-ijerph-17-04838]\] and prolonged engagement of parents in these types of interventions have proven to be challenging \[[@B3-ijerph-17-04838],[@B22-ijerph-17-04838],[@B23-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Only about one-third of invited families participate in any intervention activity \[[@B3-ijerph-17-04838],[@B24-ijerph-17-04838]\], 40 to 60% of whom drop out \[[@B24-ijerph-17-04838]\]. In addition, the participants of parental involvement interventions tend to be mostly high socioeconomic status (SES) parents \[[@B25-ijerph-17-04838]\], and it is particularly challenging to engage parents with a low SES \[[@B3-ijerph-17-04838],[@B25-ijerph-17-04838]\], a lower educational level, single parents and those of ethnic minority groups \[[@B24-ijerph-17-04838]\]. This is discouraging, since these parents/families are most in need of interventions. For example, research from a large Dutch cohort study has shown that there are socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities in child health \[[@B26-ijerph-17-04838]\]. At a young age, non-Western children were more likely to be overweight compared to Dutch children, with mother's educational level being one of the contributing factors in explaining this higher prevalence in overweight in these children \[[@B27-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Beyond socioeconomic health disparities, child characteristics and the supportiveness of the home environment to perform healthy behaviours are also important predictors of children's PA and nutrition behaviour. For instance, children's nutrition behaviour is determined by their preference for healthy and/or unhealthy foods, and their PA and sedentary behaviour is associated with their activity preferences \[[@B28-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Also, children raised in an environment in which healthy nutrition \[[@B29-ijerph-17-04838]\] and sufficient PA \[[@B29-ijerph-17-04838],[@B30-ijerph-17-04838]\] are less valued are more at risk for developing unhealthy EBRBs. Therefore, vulnerability of the population is not restricted to well-known socioeconomic differences, but also includes specific child preferences and the health climate regarding EBRBs in the home environment. To involve more parents, and particularly those of vulnerable populations, the strategy of indirect parental involvement is an alternative. Even though indirect parental involvement is assumed to be less effective in changing health behaviours compared to direct parental involvement, it can lead to greater adoption and implementation rates \[[@B21-ijerph-17-04838]\]. In indirect parental involvement, parents are engaged in a way that the intervention implementers do not communicate or engage directly (i.e., face to face, or personally) with them. Instead, parents are informed via school media, or children function as the messenger. Examples of indirect parental involvement are the provision of information (newsletters, tip sheets), invitations to participate in or attend activities (events, educational sessions) and prompts or assignments directed at the child and/or parent with the aim of involving parents \[[@B19-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Previous research has shown that some of these strategies are more promising than others, for example prompting children to engage in intervention activities together with their parent(s) seems more promising than providing newsletters or invitations for optional intervention activities \[[@B17-ijerph-17-04838],[@B19-ijerph-17-04838]\]. The difference between these strategies could be described as passive (not requiring a specific action or response on the part of the parents) indirect involvement versus active (performing activities) indirect involvement. To our knowledge, there is little to no research on the participation rates of the strategy of the latter type of indirect parental involvement in school-based interventions, while this information is crucial to be able to draw conclusions on potential strategies to involve parents in (school-based) interventions \[[@B21-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Given the fact that children of vulnerable populations are less active, more sedentary and have unhealthier diets \[[@B31-ijerph-17-04838],[@B32-ijerph-17-04838],[@B33-ijerph-17-04838]\], it is possible that these children and their parents are less interested in energy balance-related interventions. Therefore, gaining insight in participation rates of children and parents in interventions using an indirect parental involvement strategy is needed. Moreover, empirical evidence is lacking on who is engaged in this strategy and therefore, it is warranted to know whether vulnerable children and parents engage in these interventions using this strategy. In the current study, we evaluated the potential of Challenge Me to engage children and parents, especially those of vulnerable populations. Challenge Me was a parental involvement intervention in which children are challenged to perform PA and nutrition-related activities by themselves and with their parents. The main aim of the current study is to examine whether conducting challenges is a feasible intervention strategy to engage children and parents in school-based energy balance-related interventions. With engagement, we refer to participation in the intervention, i.e., performing the intervention activities, and not enrolment. Additionally, a second aim is to gain insight in whether children in need for improvements, i.e., vulnerable populations, are engaged in the intervention using this indirect-involvement strategy. For this aim, we focussed on child demographics, child characteristics (preferences) and the climate towards health behaviours in the home environment. 2. Materials and Methods {#sec2-ijerph-17-04838} ======================== 2.1. Design {#sec2dot1-ijerph-17-04838} ----------- An exploratory cross-sectional study design was conducted. The Medical Ethics Committee of the Maastricht University Medical Centre and Maastricht University provided ethical approval for this study (METC163027, national number: NL58554.068.16). 2.2. Challenge Me Intervention {#sec2dot2-ijerph-17-04838} ------------------------------ ### 2.2.1. Intervention Development {#sec2dot2dot1-ijerph-17-04838} The intervention, called Challenge Me, challenged children to perform PA and nutrition-related challenges together with their parent(s) or guardian(s). Challenge Me has been developed as part of a larger evaluation \[[@B34-ijerph-17-04838]\], and is specifically focused on improving parental involvement. In the larger evaluation study, eight primary schools, located in low SES neighbourhoods (based on scoring of The Netherlands Institute for Social Research \[[@B35-ijerph-17-04838]\]) in a city in the south of The Netherlands, participated. During the development and implementation of Challenge Me in the local context, researchers collaborated with a local youth work organisation. This local organisation developed the challenges, with input from local health, education and sports professionals. Challenge Me consisted of several easy-to-perform activities, introduced weekly at school by people locally well-known by means of instruction videos (i.e., the schools' own PE teacher, local free runners, a famous vlogger and a television chef from the region). A selection of the challenges was designed to involve parents. The local nature of the intervention enhanced a fit with the schools' local context, which we anticipated would improve programme use, recognition and commitment by the children and consequently the involvement of parent(s). The result of this design process was an intervention consisting of a total of eighteen challenges ([Table 1](#ijerph-17-04838-t001){ref-type="table"}). Challenges were categorised in 'child-only' (nine challenges performed by a child on his/her own, together with other children or in class) and 'parental involvement' (nine challenges that required parental assistance). Challenges could further be categorised as PA-focussed (e.g., 'Run as far as possible with your entire class, in 2 min'/ 'Go exercise for 30 min together with your parent(s)/guardian(s)'), or nutrition-focussed (e.g., 'Find a healthy dinner recipe and bring this with you to school'/'Make a healthy breakfast for someone in your household'). To ensure active involvement of the children and parents in the intervention, children had to provide proof of completing a challenge, which was specified per challenge (e.g., by taking a picture of their exercise). The class that performed the most challenges (corrected for the number of children in each class) was awarded a prize. The prize was a PA workshop, provided by the local youth work organisation. The local youth work organisation distributed the materials. The materials included a Challenge Me poster on which the various challenges were listed ([Appendix A](#app1-ijerph-17-04838){ref-type="app"}, [Figure A1](#ijerph-17-04838-f0A1){ref-type="fig"}), an instruction form for the teacher, stickers (used to mark a challenge as completed) and four instruction videos. The local youth organisation also appointed an employee specifically tasked with the implementation and monitoring of Challenge Me. This local youth worker also provided all necessary instructions in participating classes, to limit additional workload of teachers. ### 2.2.2. Implementation {#sec2dot2dot2-ijerph-17-04838} Recruitment for the intervention took place at school level. Intervention schools (*N* = 8) already participated in a larger evaluation study \[[@B34-ijerph-17-04838]\]. These schools were invited to implement the Challenge Me intervention. Of these, four school decided to participate. Four schools declined to participate because of time constraints. Teachers of participating schools were orally informed by the local youth worker about Challenge Me and its aims, and received instructions on how to perform the intervention. The same youth worker also informed the children about the intervention and monitored the progress of the intervention. The participating schools implemented the intervention in grade six to eight (children aged 9 to 12), except for one. This school only implemented the intervention in grade eight. Each class received a Challenge Me poster. Challenges were expected to be performed during a four-week period (January--February 2019). Every week, the teacher showed one of the provided introduction videos provided by the local youth worker to kick-start the week. Depending on the challenge, challenges were performed at home, or in the neighbourhood. Children and parents participated in the intervention voluntarily. Based on the proof provided by the child, the teacher decided whether a challenge had been completed successfully. At the end of the four weeks, the local youth worker collected all the posters and decided which class had won. 2.3. Study Participants {#sec2dot3-ijerph-17-04838} ----------------------- Children from grades six to eight (aged 9 to 12) were eligible for inclusion in the study \[[@B34-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Parents received an informed consent form via the child \[[@B34-ijerph-17-04838]\]. In short, the informed consent form stated the purpose of the study, and how collected data would be handled. It also emphasised that participation in the study was voluntary, and that participants could always withdraw without stating any reason for doing so. For children to participate in the study, both parents had to provide written consent. This was based on the regulations of the Central Committee on Research involving Human Subjects \[[@B36-ijerph-17-04838]\]. 2.4. Data Collection {#sec2dot4-ijerph-17-04838} -------------------- For this exploratory study, data from the larger evaluation study were used \[[@B34-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Data were collected in March--April 2019, after the completion of the Challenge Me intervention in all four schools. During that period, both children and their parents received a questionnaire. Children received and filled in the questionnaire in the classroom, during regular school hours, with one researcher and at least one research assistant present to provide instructions. Parent questionnaires were handed out to the children in an envelope. Parents filled in the questionnaire at home, and returned it to school via the child. Children's height and weight were measured within the same week as the child questionnaire. ### 2.4.1. Performance of Challenges {#sec2dot4dot1-ijerph-17-04838} The posters provided data on which challenges were completed by whom. Data were pseudonymised and digitalised. Challenges were grouped in various categories ([Table 1](#ijerph-17-04838-t001){ref-type="table"})---PA: PA child-only and PA parental involvement; nutrition: nutrition child-only and nutrition parental involvement. Outcome measures were the percentage of challenges performed. ### 2.4.2. Child Characteristics {#sec2dot4dot2-ijerph-17-04838} Child characteristics were assessed via a questionnaire. Children reported their date of birth, gender (boy/girl), country of birth, country of birth of their mother and father, the number of brothers and sisters and whether they were a member of a sports club (yes/no). The child's age was calculated based on the date of birth. In addition, Western or non-Western ethnicity of the child was determined, based on the country of birth of both parents. A child was considered as having a non-Western ethnicity when at least one parent was born in a non-Western country, based on the definition of Huntington \[[@B37-ijerph-17-04838]\]. The number of siblings was determined, based on the number of brothers and/or sisters. Nutrition and PA preferences were also measured via a questionnaire, using an instrument developed by Rodenburg et al. \[[@B28-ijerph-17-04838]\]. This instrument ranks food, drink and leisure-time activity preferences by means of comparison. Items were visualized by means of an infographic of a child holding a food or drink item, or portraying an activity, accompanied by the description of the food, drink or activity. The items were compared in pairs, and children were asked to indicate the food, drink or activity of their preference. The food items were fruit, vegetables, sweet snacks (e.g., candy and cookies) and savoury snacks (e.g., crisps, nuts, cheese). The drinks items included sugar-sweetened beverages, light drinks (i.e., drinks that were artificially sweetened), tea without sugar, fruit juice and water (water was added to the items at a later stage). Leisure-time activity consisted of eight items, namely cycling, using the computer, watching television, playing sports, dancing, arts and crafts, reading and playing outside. In total, the instrument consisted of 44 comparisons. Items were re-categorised into active activities (cycling, playing sports, dancing and playing outside), and healthy nutrition (fruit, vegetables, tea without sugar and water). Even though fruit juice may be perceived as healthy \[[@B8-ijerph-17-04838]\], it is high in energy density and sugar content and could contribute to weight gain and overweight \[[@B8-ijerph-17-04838],[@B38-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Because of this controversy, fruit juice was left out of analysis. Children's height and weight were measured by trained research assistants, using a measurement protocol. Children were measured during a physical education class, wearing light sports clothes and without shoes. Standing height was measured using the Seca 213 stadiometer (Seca, Hamburg, Germany), to the nearest decimal in centimetres. The Seca 803 digital weighing scale (Seca, Hamburg, Germany) was used to measure the child's weight to the nearest decimal in kilogrammes. Children's BMI z-score was calculated from their weight and height, while adjusting for their age and gender, using a Dutch reference population \[[@B39-ijerph-17-04838]\]. ### 2.4.3. Family Characteristics {#sec2dot4dot3-ijerph-17-04838} Family characteristics were measured in the parent questionnaire, and consisted of postal code, level of education, family situation (partner/single) and Family Health Climate (FHC). The postal code was used to determine residential status score \[[@B35-ijerph-17-04838]\]. The residential status score ranged between −1.56 and 0.13 in the intervention region. The national mean residential status score is 0.2 \[[@B35-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Educational level of the parent was recoded into two categories \[[@B40-ijerph-17-04838]\]: (1) low (no education, primary school, secondary school, pre-vocational school or lower vocational education); and (2) high (higher vocational education or university). For two-parent families, a combined score was made, i.e., (1) low (both parents having a low level of education); (2) mixed (one parent low educated and one parent high educated); and (3) high (both parents having a high level of education). In the parent questionnaire, parents filled in the validated Family Health Climate scale (FHC) \[[@B29-ijerph-17-04838]\], which was translated into Dutch \[[@B41-ijerph-17-04838]\]. The FHC is a 31-item questionnaire measuring shared family perceptions and cognitions concerning health behaviour, i.e., nutrition (FHC-NU) and physical activity (FHC-PA). The climate concerning PA and healthy nutrition is further divided into four and three concepts respectively, namely FHC-NU value, cohesion, communication and consensus, and FHC-PA value, cohesion and information. Items belonging to these concepts are statements, introduced by 'In our family...', and are answered on a four-point Likert-scale ranging from one (definitely false) to four (definitely true). FHC-NU value (four items) measures the importance of healthy nutrition within a family ('... a healthy diet plays an important role in our lives') (α = 0.62). FHC-NU cohesion (five items) includes the importance of eating together as a family ('...everyone enjoys having meals together') (α = 0.82). FHC-NU communication (five items) covers how normalised it is to talk about nutrition, and how family members support each other in eating healthy ('...we remind each other to pay attention to a healthy diet') (α = 0.82). FHC-NU consensus (three items) encompasses the level of agreement among family members concerning nutrition ('...we usually agree on meals and food choices') (α = 0.79). A high FHC-NU score implies a high value attached to healthy nutrition within a family. FHC-PA value (five items) comprises the value attached by all family members to being physically active ('\...it is normal to be physically active on a regular basis') (α = 0.82). FHC-PA cohesion (five items) includes joint physical activities and experienced fun during such activities ('...we enjoy exercising together') (α = 0.88). Finally, FHC-PA information (four items) measures searching, sharing and using PA-related information as a family ('...we read newspaper or magazine articles on fitness, physical activity and exercise') (α = 0.80). The higher the FHC-PA score, the more integrated PA is within a family's daily life \[[@B29-ijerph-17-04838]\]. 2.5. Statistical Analyses {#sec2dot5-ijerph-17-04838} ------------------------- All results were analysed using SPSS 24.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Missing items of the FHC-PA and FHC nutrition scales (i.e., PA value, cohesion and information, and nutrition value, cohesion, communication and consensus) were imputed with the mean score of the other items of the same concept. Data were only imputed when a maximum of 10% of items per concept were missing. No other missing values were imputed. Descriptive statistics were used to assess child and parent engagement and child and family characteristics of the intervention participants. Associations between percentage of challenges (per category) performed and child and family characteristics were assessed by conducting linear regression analysis. First, the association between child and family characteristics as predictor variables and the percentage of challenges performed as outcome measures were analysed using bivariate linear regression analysis. The predictor variables used were the age, BMI z-score, gender, ethnicity (Western/non-Western), sports membership (member/non-member), preference PA and preference healthy nutrition of the child and the residential status score, the number of siblings, the combined educational level (low/mixed/high) and the FHC-PA and FHC-NU of the family. Second, multivariate linear regression analyses were performed for the PA-related outcome measures (i.e., percentage PA child-only challenges, PA parental involvement challenges) by simultaneously using PA-related child characteristics as predictor variables in the model, i.e., age, gender, ethnicity, sports membership and preference PA. The same was done to assess the associations between the nutrition-related outcome measures (i.e., percentage nutrition child-only challenges, nutrition parental involvement challenges) and nutrition-related child characteristics, i.e., age, gender, ethnicity, sports membership and preference healthy nutrition. To assess the association between PA-related outcome measures and PA-related family characteristics, i.e., residential status score, number of siblings, parental educational level (low/mixed/high) and FHC-PA, predictor variables were entered simultaneously in this model while being corrected for all PA-related child characteristics. The same was done for the association between nutrition-related outcomes measures and nutrition-related family characteristics. A *p*-value of \<0.05 was considered statistically significant. 3. Results {#sec3-ijerph-17-04838} ========== 3.1. Child and Family Characteristics {#sec3dot1-ijerph-17-04838} ------------------------------------- In total, 406 children were eligible for inclusion in the study. Of these, 226 children (55.7%) participated in the study. Children had a mean age of 10.9 years ([Table 2](#ijerph-17-04838-t002){ref-type="table"}). Slightly more girls (55.8%) participated than boys, and more children were of Western ethnicity (62.7%). The majority of the children were members of a sports club (77.9%). Children preferred active activities slightly more (mean score: 15.7 out of 28). Regarding nutrition, there was a slight preference for unhealthy food and drink items (mean score: 7.5 out of 14). Of the parents, 186 (82.3% out of 226) returned their questionnaire. Mainly mothers filled in the questionnaire (82.9%), and most of them had a partner (84.4%). Almost half of the families consisted of two children (47.7%). In the majority of the families (50%), both parents had a low educational level and in 29.9% of the families, both parents had a high educational level. On average, families scored 2.8 on FHC PA, and 3.1 on FHC nutrition (range FHC score: 1 to 4). 3.2. Performance of Challenges {#sec3dot2-ijerph-17-04838} ------------------------------ Of the 226 children participating in this study, all children (100%) performed at least one challenge and 211 children (93%) performed at least one parental involvement challenge ([Table 3](#ijerph-17-04838-t003){ref-type="table"}). Overall, PA challenges were performed more often than nutrition challenges. Only two children (0.9%) did not perform any of the PA-related challenges, whereas 85 children (37.6%) did not perform any of the nutrition-related challenges. Of the PA child-only challenges, the 'Run as far as possible with your entire class, in 2 min' challenge was completed by most children (*N* = 171, 75.7%) ([Appendix B](#app2-ijerph-17-04838){ref-type="app"}, [Table A1](#ijerph-17-04838-t0A1){ref-type="table"}). Of the PA parental involvement challenges, the 'Come to school using a means of transport other than a car' challenge was completed by most children (*N* = 176, 77.9%). Regarding nutrition challenges, challenges involving parents were performed more often compared to child-only challenges, with 126 children (55.8%) performing at least one nutrition parental involvement challenge compared to 65 children, and 28.3%, performing at least one child-only nutrition challenge. Of the nutrition parental involvement challenges, 'Make a work of art out of a piece of fruit' was performed most often (34.5%), and of the nutrition child-only challenges 'Find a healthy dinner recipe and bring this with you to school' was performed most often (24.8%). 3.3. Associations between Child and Family Characteristics and Challenges Performed {#sec3dot3-ijerph-17-04838} ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Child characteristics significantly associated with the number of challenges performed were age, ethnicity and sports membership ([Table 4](#ijerph-17-04838-t004){ref-type="table"} and [Table 5](#ijerph-17-04838-t005){ref-type="table"}). Younger children performed more challenges, specifically PA child-only challenges and nutrition challenges involving parents ([Table 4](#ijerph-17-04838-t004){ref-type="table"}). Children of Western ethnicity performed more PA parental involvement. Children who were a member of a sports club performed more PA child-only challenges. Characteristics of the family significantly associated with the challenges performed by the child were residential status score, the number of siblings and a mixed parental level of education ([Table 4](#ijerph-17-04838-t004){ref-type="table"} and [Table 6](#ijerph-17-04838-t006){ref-type="table"}). Children raised in high SES neighbourhoods (higher residential status score) were more likely to perform PA child-only challenges, and PA parental involvement challenges were performed more often by children of larger families. When compared to a low level of parental education, children of families with a mixed level of parental education completed more nutrition challenges, mainly child-only. This significant association was not found when comparing a mixed level of parental education to a high level of parental education. 4. Discussion {#sec4-ijerph-17-04838} ============= This study investigated the parent and child engagement in Challenge Me, an intervention targeting parents indirectly in a school-based intervention using PA- and nutrition-related challenges for children. Many children (*N* = 406) were exposed to the intervention. Of the 226 study participants, all (100%) participated in the intervention. Of these children, 93% performed at least one parental involvement challenge. This study showed that there was no difference in engagement in the intervention activities by children with a lower or higher BMI z-score, children with a higher or lower preference concerning active activities or healthy nutrition, or boys or girls. Also, children of families with an unhealthier or healthier climate concerning PA and nutrition did not differ in engagement in the intervention. Nevertheless, other characteristics associated with the performance of certain types of challenges could be distinguished. For example, PA challenges were performed more often by children who were already a member of a sports club, and younger children. These active children might be more used to performing PA after school time and be more motivated to do so, and are thus more likely to perform the challenges compared to children who are not used to sports or PA activities that much. The fact that younger children performed more PA activities is not surprising, given the age-related decline in PA that is visible in children in high-income countries \[[@B42-ijerph-17-04838]\], which already starts at the age of seven \[[@B43-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Western children performed more PA parental involvement challenges compared to non-Western children. This is in line with previous research, showing that non-Western children perform significantly less PA (overall) than Western children \[[@B44-ijerph-17-04838],[@B45-ijerph-17-04838],[@B46-ijerph-17-04838]\]. However, additional analyses showed that this association between child ethnicity and the performance of PA parental involvement challenges was mediated by sports membership. The association between ethnicity and sports membership was significant (β = −0.23, 95% CI −0.31; −0.09, *p* \< 0.01), with a higher percentage of children of Western ethnicity being a member of a sports club compared to children of non-Western ethnicity (83.0% versus 65.5%). Potentially, cultural differences between Western and non-Western families play a role in whether or not children participate in sports. It is unknown whether such cultural differences in PA and performance of PA and sports as a family exist in The Netherlands \[[@B43-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Our results also showed that children from larger families (i.e., having more siblings) performed more PA parental involvement challenges. Potentially, multiple siblings participated in the intervention, which meant a higher exposure to the challenges within the family. However, further research to support these findings needs to be done. Even though the FHC measures family cognitions on nutrition and PA behaviour specifically, FHC did not show any associations with parental involvement in nutrition or PA challenges performed. This could indicate that the challenges would be suited for all families, regardless of their current PA and nutrition family climate. However, both on FHC PA and FHC nutrition, families scored relatively high and variance was low, potentially limiting the probability of finding an association. Lastly, children living in higher SES neighbourhoods performed more PA child-only challenges compared to children living in lower SES neighbourhoods. This could be explained as lower SES neighbourhoods being perceived as less safe by parents \[[@B47-ijerph-17-04838]\], and could therefore be seen as less suited for children to perform PA on their own in their neighbourhood. Additionally, previous research has shown that high SES home environments are more supportive of PA in terms of availability of equipment \[[@B48-ijerph-17-04838]\]. We had expected that these factors would also influence the association between parental education level and the performance of PA challenges, with a higher performance of challenges in families of a high parental educational level, as educational level is an indicator of SES. However, we did not find children of high-educated parents performing more PA challenges (data not shown). We did see that children of families with a mixed educational level performed more nutrition child-only challenges compared to children of low-educated parents (but not compared to high-educated parents). However, we are unable to explain this association. Even though earlier studies often found a difference in performance of PA between boys and girls \[[@B45-ijerph-17-04838],[@B49-ijerph-17-04838],[@B50-ijerph-17-04838],[@B51-ijerph-17-04838]\], our study did not show an association between gender and certain types of challenges performed. It can be that the gender-neutrality of the challenges played a role in this. While boys prefer activities like soccer and basketball, girls prefer activities like dancing, gymnastics and exercising to music \[[@B52-ijerph-17-04838]\]. However, none of the challenges had any of these elements incorporated in them. Gender-stratified analyses were performed for the association between child and family characteristics and challenges performed (per category), which showed a difference in key characteristics for boys and girls. For example, being a member of a sports club was significantly associated with the performance of PA child-only challenges for boys, yet this association was not significant for girls (data not shown). Interactions between variables and the performance of further sensitivity analysis were outside of the scope of this study, but should be studied further in the future to better understand who actively participated in the intervention and adjust the intervention accordingly. Comparing the type of challenges performed, we found that in general, the children performed more PA challenges than nutrition challenges. Potentially, children regarded the PA challenges as more fun or as easier to perform. Children performed more or less the same percentage of PA child-only challenges and PA parental involvement challenges. By contrast, the nutrition challenges that were performed more often were the parental involvement challenges. Especially younger children performed more nutrition parental involvement challenges. To perform nutrition challenges (e.g., 'Cook a healthy soup'), help from the parents was required: parents had to buy the ingredients or they needed to help with the preparation of the ingredients, e.g., the cutting of ingredients, which might be particularly true for the younger children in our study \[[@B16-ijerph-17-04838]\]. For the same reasons (e.g., parents buying groceries, and thus being in control of the food availability at home), nutrition behaviour of the child might be more dependent on and influenced by the parents than PA behaviour. As a lower level of PA \[[@B10-ijerph-17-04838],[@B53-ijerph-17-04838]\] and unhealthy nutrition \[[@B10-ijerph-17-04838]\] could lead to a negative energy balance, and consequently to overweight and/or obesity, an association between BMI z-score and performance of PA and healthy nutrition challenges was expected. However, BMI z-score did not affect the number of challenges performed, suggesting that Challenge Me would be suited for children of all weight statuses. Based on the results, it is recommended to take the above-mentioned child and family characteristics associated with certain types of challenges performed, i.e., child age, ethnicity, SES and family size, into account. For example, besides gender-neutral challenges, age-appropriate and culture-specific parent-child challenges might improve uptake of the intervention in the target group, including the vulnerable population. The intervention had potential to engage many children and parents, however, to achieve behaviour change, we hypothesize that a longer implementation period is needed. Intervention effects could be enhanced by promoting PA and healthy nutrition via various channels, and integrating the promotion of healthy behaviour into the standard school curriculum or daily routine \[[@B14-ijerph-17-04838]\]. Research is needed to study the effects of this type of indirect parental involvement interventions on children's EBRBs, on children's cognitive factors, like awareness and attitude, and on the home environment (e.g., parent-child play, healthier home climate). Strenghts and Limitations ------------------------- To our knowledge, this is one of the few studies specifically aimed at investigating the engagement of children and parents in a school-based indirect parental involvement intervention. The reach of the intervention was extensive, and response rates among the participants high, with all children and over 80% of parents returning their questionnaire. Besides exploring the engagement in the intervention, we also aimed to specifically report on the characteristics of the children and parents participating in the challenges, as this information is currently underreported yet much needed to further understand and develop parental involvement interventions. Even though our study specifically reports on the characteristics of the study participants, we did not collect enough data to compare these characteristics to the characteristics of the school population and draw conclusions on the sample representativeness. To improve the match between the intervention and the characteristics, interests and needs of the children and their families, we suggest involving the target audience when developing the challenges \[[@B54-ijerph-17-04838]\]. This was not done when developing Challenge Me, resulting in some challenges being performed poorly. For example, 'Make a vlog about healthy/unhealthy food in your surroundings' was expected to be in line with children's interest, but turned out to be an unpopular challenge. Also, our study did not provide insights in the order in which the challenges were performed. All participating classes were free to determine the order in which they wanted to perform the challenges. However, the order in which challenges were introduced by the locally well-known person could have influenced children's interest during the intervention, and subsequently their performance of the challenges. If children had already lost interest in the beginning, it is possible that later planned challenges could therefore have not been performed, regardless of their content and suitability to the target group. Challenge Me posters solely provided information on whether a challenge was performed or not, based on the evidence provided by a child to their teacher. However, it is unknown how strict teachers were in ticking off these challenges, and whether this varied between teachers. Also, it is hypothesised that teachers had a strong influence on the implementation of the intervention, and consequently on how enthusiastically children reacted to and engaged in the programme. For future research, it is recommended to gain more contextual insights in the implementation of the intervention, i.e., what was the influence of characteristics of teachers, whether children motivated each other to perform challenges, and what the uptake was of an indirect-parental involvement intervention in the home setting. It is particularly interesting to establish whether one parent, both parents or even the whole family (e.g., siblings and/or other caregivers) participated, and how they valued the intervention. Subsequently, future research should be done on the long-term engagement of children and parents in such interventions. 5. Conclusions {#sec5-ijerph-17-04838} ============== This study was an important first step towards gaining insight in a strategy to enhance parental involvement in energy balance-related interventions. The use of parent-child challenges has potential in increasing parental involvement in school-based interventions. All children participated in the Challenge Me intervention and 93% of the children had involved a parent, yet certain child and family characteristics should be taken into account when further developing parent-child challenges (such as the development of age-appropriate and culture-specific challenges) to ensure that all children and parents, including families of vulnerable populations, participate in these types of parental involvement interventions. We thank the schools, children and parents for participating in our intervention and study. We also want to thank Dynamo Jeugdwerk Eindhoven for their efforts in designing and implementing Challenge Me. S.P.J.K., D.H.H.V.K. and S.B.V. initiated the project and obtained funding.; A.H.V., S.R.B.V.-J., D.H.H.V.K. and S.M.P.L.G. designed the study; A.H.V. and S.R.B.V.-J. carried out the study.; A.H.V. and S.R.B.V.-J. collected and analysed the data; A.H.V. drafted and revised the manuscript; A.H.V., S.R.B.V.-J. and S.M.P.L.G. helped draft the manuscript.; S.R.B.V.-J., D.H.H.V.K., S.P.J.K., S.B.V. and S.M.P.L.G. read the manuscript and provided feedback. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This research was funded by Fonds NutsOhra, grant number 101.253. The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results. The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding authors A.H.V. or D.H.H.V.K. The data are not publicly available because they contain information that could compromise research participant privacy/consent. {#ijerph-17-04838-f0A1} ijerph-17-04838-t0A1_Table A1 ###### Number of children performing each challenge. Category Challenge *N* \% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------ ------ PA Child only Run as far as possible with your entire class, in 2 min. 171 75.7 Try to perform as many bottle flips as possible in 1 min. 150 66.4 Jump rope as long and often as you can, together with your PE teacher. 125 55.3 Go to the town-/city centre and play a game of 'the floor is lava'. 99 43.8 Participate in an activity of your local youth organisation. 37 16.4 Challenge a local youth worker for a battle. Challenge him/her in something you are good at. 69 30.5 Watch instruction video: Free Running 133 58.8 PA Parental Involvement Help your parent/guardian with the housekeeping. 118 52.5 Ask your dad/mom/guardian/grandpa/grandma/neighbour what game they liked to play when they were young, and play that game. 49 21.7 Go exercise for 30 min together with your parent(s)/guardian(s). 39 17.3 Go walking, rollerblading, or stepping, together with your parent(s)/guardian(s) 61 27.0 Do a 'bob for a job' in your neighbourhood. 27 11.9 Come to school using a means of transport other than a car. 176 77.9 Nutrition child only Find a healthy dinner recipe and bring this with you to school. 56 24.8 Make a vlog about healthy/unhealthy food in your surroundings. 13 5.8 Nutrition Parental Involvement Cook a healthy soup. 69 30.5 Make a healthy breakfast for someone in your household. 54 23.9 Make a work of art out of a piece of fruit. 78 34.5 ijerph-17-04838-t001_Table 1 ###### Overview of 'Çhallenge Me' challenges. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Child-Only Parental Involvement ----------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PA Run as far as possible with your entire class, in 2 min.\ Help your parent/guardian with the housekeeping.\ Try to perform as many bottle flips as possible in 1 min.\ Ask your dad/mom/guardian/grandpa/grandma/neighbour what game they liked to play when they were young, and play that game.\ Jump rope as long and often as you can, together with your PE teacher.\ Go exercise for 30 min together with your parent(s)/guardian(s).\ Go to the town-/city centre and play a game of 'the floor is lava'.\ Go walking, rollerblading, or stepping, together with your parent(s)/guardian(s).\ Participate in an activity of your local youth organisation.\ *Do a 'bob for a job' in your neighbourhood.*\ Challenge a local youth worker for a battle. Challenge him/her in something you are good at.\ *Come to school using a means of transport other than a car.* Watch instruction video: Free running. Nutrition Find a healthy dinner recipe and bring this with you to school.\ Cook a healthy soup.\ Make a vlog about healthy/unhealthy food in your surroundings. Make a healthy breakfast for someone in your household.\ *Make a work of art out of a piece of fruit.* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: PA = physical activity. Challenges are numbered at random, no order of completion was specified. Challenges in Italic require parental involvement dependent on the age of the child (older children are expected to be able to perform the challenge without help from the parent). ijerph-17-04838-t002_Table 2 ###### Child and family characteristics. *N* \% Mean SD ------------------------------ --------------------- ----- ------ ------ ----- Child characteristics Age 10.9 1.0 BMI z 0.09 1.1 Gender Boy 100 44.2 Girl 126 55.8 Ethnicity Western 141 62.7 non-Western 84 37.3 Sports membership Member 173 77.9 non-member 49 22.1 Preference PA (0--28) Active 15.7 3.3 Preference nutrition (0--14) Healthy 6.2 2.8 Family characteristics Filled in by Mother 141 82.9 Father 26 15.3 Other 3 1.8 Family situation Parent with partner 157 84.4 Single parent 29 15.6 Residential status score −0.9 0.8 Siblings 0 24 10.9 1 105 47.7 2 48 21.8 3 28 12.7 4--7 15 6.9 Parental level of education Low 92 50.0 Low/High mixed 37 20.1 High 55 29.9 FHC-PA (1--4) 2.8 0.4 FHC nutrition (1--4) 3.1 0.4 Note: Numbers and percentages presented are based on complete cases. SD = standard deviation. PA = physical activity. FHC = family health climate. ijerph-17-04838-t003_Table 3 ###### Number of children who performed the challenges, per category. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 Challenges Performed (0%) At Least One Challenge Performed (1--99%) All Challenges Performed (100%) ----------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- ------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- ------ ---- ----- PA 2 0.9 224 99.1 0 0 PA child-only (7 challenges) 17 7.5 205 90.7 4 1.8 PA parental involvement\ 22 9.7 200 88.5 4 1.8 (6 challenges) Nutrition 85 37.6 139 61.5 2 0.9 Nutrition child-only (2 challenges) 162 71.7 59 26.1 5 2.2 Nutrition parental involvement (3 challenges) 100 44.2 111 49.2 15 6.6 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: *N* = number of children. PA = physical activity. ijerph-17-04838-t004_Table 4 ###### Bivariate associations between child and family characteristics and challenges performed. PA PA Child-Only PA Parental Involvement Nutrition Nutrition Child-Only Nutrition Parental Involvement ------------------------------ --------------------- --------------- --------------- ------------------------- --------------- ---------------------- -------------------------------- Characteristic Reference β β β β Β β Age **−0.153 \*** **−0.227 \*** 0.016 **−0.154 \*** −0.063 **−0.165 \*** BMI z −0.010 −0.064 0.065 0.048 0.036 0.042 Gender Boys 0.047 0.052 0.018 0.098 0.009 0.122 Ethnicity Western **−0.151 \*** −0.102 **−0.146 \*** −0.078 −0.050 −0.074 Sports membership Non-member **0.226 \*** **0.221 \*** 0.128 0.110 0.112 0.082 Preference active activities 0.091 0.073 0.073 N.A. N.A. N.A. Preference healthy nutrition N.A. N.A. N.A. 0.000 −0.055 0.030 Residential status score 0.046 0.079 −0.019 0.008 −0.041 0.032 Siblings **0.142 \*** 0.046 0.200 \* 0.065 0.040 0.063 Parental educational level (both) Low educated Mixed 0.095 0.091 0.054 0.167 0.147 0.139 (both) high educated 0.054 0.125 −0.065 0.125 0.130 0.094 FHC-PA −0.021 0.038 −0.083 N.A. N.A. N.A. FHC nutrition N.A. N.A. N.A. 0.007 0.036 −0.010 Note: β = standardised beta coefficient. PA = physical activity. FHC = family health climate. N.A. = not applicable. \* Significant result (*p* \< 0.05) shown in bold print. ijerph-17-04838-t005_Table 5 ###### Multivariate associations between child characteristics and challenges performed. PA PA Child-Only PA Parental Involvement Nutrition Nutrition Child-Only Nutrition Parental Involvement ------------------------------ ------------ --------------- --------------- ------------------------- ----------- ---------------------- -------------------------------- Characteristic Reference β β β β β β Age **−0.136 \*** **−0.208 \*** 0.019 −0.131 −0.052 **−0.142 \*** BMI z −0.008 −0.065 0.069 0.050 0.040 0.044 Gender Boys 0.030 0.047 −0.004 0.115 0.040 0.127 Ethnicity Western −0.119 −0.056 **−0.148 \*** −0.052 −0.030 −0.052 Sports membership Non-member **0.182 \*** **0.180 \*** 0.101 0.109 0.103 0.085 Preference active activities 0.095 0.070 0.084 N.A. N.A. N.A. Preference healthy nutrition N.A. N.A. N.A. −0.032 −0.064 −0.007 Note: β = standardised beta coefficient. PA = physical activity. N.A. = not applicable. \* Significant result (*p* \< 0.05) shown in bold print. ijerph-17-04838-t006_Table 6 ###### Multivariate associations between family characteristics and challenges performed (adjusted for child characteristics). PA PA Child-Only PA Parental Involvement Nutrition Nutrition Child-Only Nutrition Parental Involvement ---------------------------- --------------------- -------- --------------- ------------------------- -------------- ---------------------- -------------------------------- Characteristic Reference β β β β β β Residential status score 0.082 **0.175 \*** −0.063 −0.063 −0.097 −0.029 Siblings 0.140 −0.002 **0.247 \*** 0.091 −0.030 0.138 Parental educational level (both) Low educated Mixed 0.075 0.036 0.090 **0.214 \*** **0.205 \*** 0.169 (both) high educated −0.067 −0.020 −0.094 0.133 0.142 0.097 FHC-PA −0.002 0.047 −0.059 N.A. N.A. N.A. FHC nutrition N.A. N.A. N.A. −0.038 −0.028 −0.035 Note: β = standardised beta coefficient. PA = physical activity. FHC = family health climate. N.A. = not applicable. \* Significant result (*p* \< 0.05) shown in bold print. Multivariate regression analysis adjusted for child characteristics: age, BMI z-score, gender (boy/girl), ethnicity (Wester/non-Western), sports membership (yes/no), preference active activities and preference healthy nutrition.

Houston’s best family photo spots We asked readers to tell us their favorite place to go for a portrait session. Send a photo of your go-to spot, with the family name and photographer’s name, to [email protected] and we’ll add it to the slideshow.

Thursday, February 2, 2017 Do you know the story of Jacob’s ladder? We have Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, trying to flee from his twin Esau who had vowed to kill him. Esau was angry with Jacob for taking away his inheritance. On his way to his relative’s house, Jacob laid down to rest, and dreamt of a ladder descending with God’s angels upon it. Jacob saw God standing above it, repeating his promise of support that he had made to Jacob’s father and grandfather, saying “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you….” (Genesis 28:15) In the book of Genesis, Jacob’s ladder is the long link between earth and heaven, God’s promise of redemption and support. This image has revisited my mind so many times in the last few weeks. When I have read of bans and detentions. Of outcry and protest. Of fear. Let me tell you another story, of a woman who is tired and traveling with a fractious 2-year-old which has only made her more so. She is missing her mother, too ill to travel and visit her in America, but now she is looking forward to seeing her husband and making sure he is eating. Her neighbors will look in on him, she is sure but still. This trip had been planned for months. Money scraped together to make the visit. And it was a wonderful one. But there is a problem. Her greencard will no longer permit her entry into the United States. The TSA agent has detained her. And her child sensing her fear, begins to cry. She tries to call her husband, who is frantic with worry. He tells her he is trying to find someone to straighten everything out. He asks if she is well, if their daughter is all right? As the hours pass and the tension mounts, and she is regarded with piteous suspicion she looks forward to the double doors that clear customs and wonders if she will see her husband on the other side. Then there is another mother, who hasn’t seen or smelled or considered home in over a year. Ever since she had to flee with her child and her brother-in-law, when she had to barter and steal to make sure her family could eat, when she worried about the anger forming in her nephew’s eyes as he struggled to understand that asylum can also mean “trapped.” She has not bathed often and even when she has, it has been in cold water. Her digestive system is in ruins because she eats rarely, preferring instead to give her portion away to the children. She has been forced to undress in front of strangers and sleep on floors. Her university education and love of poetry no longer matter. Another woman in the temporary camp she lived in for 6 months told her that her husband’s cousin, a law professor, was now a check-out clerk. Despite the humiliation she has endured she says she will do the same. Anything was better than worrying if she was going to be alive by the day’s end. She prays constantly. And finally, the interviews are over and she is here, in the United States. But she is barred entry. Her accented flawless English, cultivated from years of pouring over the Romantics, is mocked. She closes her eyes, and takes a seat. And waits. In a clean airport, at least, she does not have to fear being raped. But she has not stopped asking God for deliverance. Her eyes seek heaven. When everything on earth is gone. When someone is vowing to kill you for stealing a birthright, you look towards heaven with profound faith. Your clothes, food and any other cultural marker has vanished. Your faith is all you have left. And that carries you all the way to a new shore. Jacob’s ladder. I will not be the one to break the rung of another's faith; I will help her hold on to it. I have hurt while watching voracious and blatant attacks on social media with unverified links from both sides. And since it seems that so many get their news from social media where anyone can post anything with an email address and a pseudonym, truth and justice is being pulled further away and fear is the sole resounding rallying cry. A dangerous wail of frustration. When fear moves us, the ladder stretches even higher. The rungs increase in spacing and number. We forget entirely about bringing the kingdom of heaven here, and we forget what that means. We forget kindness. We forget love. We breed our own terror. My son wrote in his notes about the Boston Massacre, “In 1770, a snowball was thrown at a British solider and he then fired his musket killing 5 colonists.” Can you imagine an environment of such tension and fear that a simple snowball would result in the spark that began a war? Because when I see the fear in the eyes of protestors, the fear is mirrored in those detainees. And such fear will culminate in an extraordinary way, if we do nothing. Let me explain by relaying a part of a particularly frustrating conversation I had with someone recently: “I’ve seen the order—there is NO BAN.” Me: “It doesn’t matter.” “What do you mean it doesn’t matter?! These people are protesting for nothing. There isn’t a ban, it is the same document that has been instituted by administrations over the last 16 years!” Airport Demonstration Me: “I don’t care.” “You have to care. This is crazy. People are just willing to protest anything.” Me: “They’re afraid— ” “Afraid? Of what!” “It no longer matters what the language says. All that matters is the fear that it inspires. That should we start turning away those in need of help— ” “It’s temporary.” “Tell that to the detainee. Tell her it’s only temporary after she traveled a lifetime to get there. Tell him that his business, his family, the life he created after leaving another behind is no longer his to claim. Tell him he must wait even though he’s paid taxes, met with his daughter’s teachers, volunteered in his community, gone to public meetings. Tell him.” “Come on.” “No. No come on. I saw on Facebook, a woman I know posted, ‘I guess we’re all immigration experts now,’ complete with an eyeroll. But she doesn’t understand, that this is just now too much. That the democracyde Tocquevillecritiqued is becoming realized while the ideals the Founders stood for seems to be radically misunderstood.” “No, wait a minute.” “No. These people? They are afraid. And maybe for too long we’ve all just passively accepted that those elected officials embody the ideals they are sworn to uphold. We haven’t kept an eye on them. Now their grandstanding seems divided on party lines, exacerbated by the tension in the air.” “That’s not the law. That is not what it says. We have a responsibility to the citizens of this country. And we have a court system and Congress that were created to check and balance one another. You know that.” “It doesn’t matter. It’s the state of the union. And unless this President addresses this fear. A very real fear to the people he represents, something will happen that will be bigger than a snowball fight.” “A snowball fight?” “Never mind. It’s just that they’re afraid. And while fear can be irrational, it needs to be taken seriously. I would never send my child back to bed to face the monsters he believes are there. I will go. I will turn on the lights. I will recheck the closet and under the bed. I will stay and hold his hand until he feels safe. I will do it so he feels he doesn’t see monsters everywhere when he is older and when it is the bright light of day. For some people the monsters never go away and the shadow they cast becomes real, because no one took the time to explain that they are NOT real. My cousin is Muslim. Another came into this country seeking asylum. I am a first-generation immigrant. I took the oath of citizenship just shy of my 18th birthday, the original oath promising to defend America and bear arms against any enemies foreign or domestic. I am proud to have grown up here, for the intense sacrifices and scrutiny my parents have borne to raise me here. My father said that there is nowhere else on earth where dreams can be realized. Where if someone worked hard enough success would come despite family name or the circumstances of birth. This, for me, is deeply personal. Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images There has not been a single year in my memory when I haven’t been witness to a parent (or I myself) being told to “get out of the country and never come back.” Through the years of both party administrations, the racism and sexism has kept coming: My mother was given threatening letters at work during theIran hostage crisisand told to “watch [her] back, that [someone] would be coming for [her].” When my mother showed her supervisor, she looked the other way and shrugged. I was jovially, loudly (and repeatedly) warned by Mr. Adams, my high school Biology teacher, not to be found riding the elephant in the rotunda at the Natural History Museum before getting off the bus for our field trip. I was asked for my contact information because the little boy in my grocery cart looked so well cared for, was I available then to nanny for [her] family? “He’s my son,” I said quietly and placed the packages woodenly on the belt. “He’s my son and I teach in the English Department at ----- College.” My father had full cans of soda thrown at him during his lunch walks in Georgetown and screamed at and called everything but a child of God. At the park when Joe was a toddler, I went to grab something from the stroller, and saw Joe reaching over to say hi to another little boy. They spun wheels on the playground together. When I walked over to see him, his mother, a lovely blonde just like her little boy, abruptly picked him and said in a carrying whisper, “We don't play with those people.” My father was punched and his cheekbone crushed by a drunken African American orderly when my father told him he couldn’t touch one of his patients in that condition. We have had bricks thrown through our window. Years ago, I was told I was taking away good American jobs, I remember looking up from the vegetable bins at the market and said, “I wasn’t aware you were looking for an Assistant Professorship in Literature?” So none of this language, as bad as it has gotten, is surprising for me. In fact, as a minority woman, in an interracial marriage, I can tell you I’ve experienced much worse. If any good can come out of this intense unrest and pain—such excruciating pain—we are witnessing, it is this: that people are understanding the process of Democracy. They are looking to understand how government works. They are learning the names of their representatives and calling them. Accountability is becoming important, passivity can no longer be the order of the day, no matter who is in charge. --Jamal Joseph “There is no expiration date on dreams and there is no start date on activism.” But there has to be a purpose and a common one, of a better and kinder and more decent world. To be even more personal, I’ll share with you an insight a therapist once told my husband and myself, “You know I think you both needed this. Your marriage needed this. You needed to hit a bottom in order to rebuild and begin again to talk to one another. To learn to talk to one another.” A hard reset. Maybe this is a truth for us all now as well. We need a call-back to the gravity and courage of the founding of this country that sought liberty from any kind of oppression. I hold those truths very dearly indeed and have explained to my children that despite our personal disagreements we have to look at the manner in which the country works, and allow that process to continue. And yet, this order? The rationale is not sound and the agents involved to carry it out, do not seem to be equipped to undertake it. With one brief exception, I have not found any TSA agent to be especially kind or helpful. I have found them to be uniformly brusque, rude and having serious misconception of their authority. One team in Tampa took aside my then 4-year-old son, and removed him from my presence as he looked at me in panic. They tested his small palms for gunpowder residue: twice. And yelled at him when he, so scared and shocked, as I could see through the partition, was too nervous to place his hands palm up. He had tears in his eyes as he was delivered back to me. Through clenched teeth, I said, “you are not allowed to take a minor away from his parents to search him.” The man grinned, winked and said, “have a nice day Paki.” So these are the people who have to enforce these restrictions. These men and women are in full charge of people who have been traumatized once, twice, many many times over? “We have to let this play out in the court system.” “No we cannot. We cannot. How much longer does a permanent resident have to wait before moving beyond those double doors? The court system? And if one such detainee can by some miracle find a lawyer just beyond the door to file an injunction, what form needs to be used? No. There is no more time.” “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are alone in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Step-by-step, rung by rung we have to climb this ladder. We cannot do it alone. And we must help each other reach further. Fear cannot divide us. We have to confront it; we have to ask the hard questions of why we are scared. We have to recall Japanese-American internment, Chinese labor camps, and the lingering shock and acrid residue of war; we must face our fear. Your humanity and decency calls upon you to act in kind to another. To believe in both of those ideals despite any evidence to the contrary and to see them in another. We must try. Remember that woman, that mother trying to calm the racing of her heart and seeking with eyes to find recognition of her humanity in another's? That woman could have easily been my mother in 1973. That child—me. That man seeking asylum and rest? Jesus. There can be no greater evidence of God than our love for one another in the face of our differences. I have to thank you for reading this, when you are most likely tired and weary of reading so much on the same. When you have seen and witnessed and borne pain yourself, watching friendships end and relationships crumble. The first person I know I must reach is the person whose views are in absolute contradiction to my own. So I foresee many formidable arguments in my future. But it’s worth it. Change cannot come without discomfort, and challenge will sharpen our own ideas. Combined is a path toward cooperation and a willing hand to continue the climb. In its undertaking, I wish you peace, strength, and above all else, courage. What the story said...my reviews on goodreads “You must understand, this is one of those moments.” “What moments?” “One of the moments you keep to yourself,” he said. “What do you mean?” I said. “why?” “We’re in a war,” he said. “The story of this war—dates, names, who started it, why—that belongs to everyone. [….] But something like this—this is yours. It belongs only to you. And me. Only to us” (56). This moment, in Téa Obreht’s lyrical first novel, The Tiger’s Wife, tells you the entirety of the story of love and loss, of memory, maps and war, of science, fables and imagined histories. The tale, set in a fictional Balkan province, is about the relationship between the narrator, Natalia and her grandfather who is a doctor. And the story involves the wars that have ravaged that area for years. If you think back to the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia, you may remember the horror and shock of those years of unending war. The bombing of a 400 year old bridge, the massacres, the deadening of Sarajevo. While none of these events are overtly, or even covertly, covered in the novel, their echo remains. This is a novel whose strength lies in the ability to translate myth and fable, to make the moments that seem almost unknowable known. The excerpt offered in the beginning of this review is an example of that, the Grandfather takes the young Natalia past curfew to witness the surreal site of a starving elephant being led on the city streets to the closed city zoo, the place of their weekly pilgrimages. During mercurial times, there was this moment of placidity and fantasy. The war which raged and continued and was irrational as wars are, there is the fantastical presence of an elephant sloping up the quiet neighborhood street. While Natalia frets that no one will believe her, her grandfather corrects her idea by telling her that history can be something personalized and intimate. Not meant to be shared by the world, but by those who you love and trust to see your vision. It makes sense, because when histories are challenged and threatened, documents concerning your birth, the death of your families are challenged or lost, history becomes something far more ephemeral. Far more illusory unless it is placed in the permanence of your own heart. She begins Chapter 2 by saying, “Everything necessary to understand my Grandfather lies between two stories: the story of the tiger’s wife, and the story of the deathless man” (32). So it is between these poles of myth and story that we can locate the history of this narrator and her grandfather, both physicians, both straddling the line between science and home remedy. I could tell you at length about both, but that truly would be spoiling the journey of the story for you. But I will say that the language Obreht uses is so languid and lush, masterful and mindful that you begin to be seduced by it all. So reason, the questions of markings of slippery occurrences of war that do belong to the world that could ground the reader in the world Obreht is translating is lost because that is the moment she is NOT choosing to share. But here is the thing. I needed it. Even in a footnote or an afterward. I needed a timeline of the events that brought the destruction of these people to such impossibilities of existence. Because even though it is a public history, it is one I do not know well. It would be wrong to assume the knowledge on the part of a Western audience I think, it’s unfortunate that this is not a familiar landscape or language. I know, in the recesses of my mind I know the wars in the Balkans. The horrors, the rape camps of Bosnia, the destruction, the evacuation of Serbians…but I don’t know enough, not nearly enough to be lulled into this lush tale. A part of me refused to be completely seduced by it. Because I didn’t understand enough about it. There is a way in which myth sustains us when horrors are too much. When person and home and identity fall away, and where you cannot locate your birthplace on a map, because it has been eliminated, what do you hold onto except your stories? As the author writes, “We had used a the map on every road trip we had ever taken, and it showed in the marker scribbling all over it: the crossed-out areas we were supposed to avoid…. I couldn’t find Zdrevkov, the place where my grandfather died, on that map. I couldn’t find Brejevina either, but I had known in advance that it was missing, so we had drawn it in” (16). Map lines, map dots, erased and redrawn because of war. How do you locate who you are, if you cannot really know where you are from? The erasing of history, of place, of belonging, of self is such a legitimate tragic legacy of war. So it is understandable that the novel moves between these two myths to bookend it, asking the reader to locate the grandfather and the narrator in its midst. I just think that the novel, which is a remarkable achievement for such a young writer, would have been that much more strong, viscerally, had it had the historical reference points it alluded to. That being said, though, it is a novel of quiet questions and loud answers and makes you wonder long after you’ve set it aside. Questions like, “What is the moment you have? The one you find that belongs to you? Who will you share it with and what familiar myth might you create?”

News broadcasting News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting of various news events and other information via television, radio, or internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or television studio newsroom, or by a broadcast network. It may also include additional material such as sports coverage weather forecasts, traffic reports, commentary, and other material that the broadcaster feels is relevant to their audience. Television news Television news refers to disseminating current events via the medium of television. A "news bulletin" or a "newscast" are television programs lasting from seconds to hours that provide updates on international, national, regional, and/or local news events. There are numerous providers of broadcast news content such as BBC News, NBC News, CNN, Fox News Channel, and Al Jazeera, as well as numerous programs that regularly provide this content such as NBC Nightly News. In addition to general news outlets, there are specialized news outlets, for example about sports ESPNews, Fox Sports News, and Eurosport News, as well as finances, including CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and Fox Business Network. Television news is very visually-based, showing video footage of many of the events that are reported; still photography is also used in reporting news stories, although not as much in recent years as in the early days of broadcast television. Television channels may provide news bulletins as part of a regularly scheduled news program. Less often, television shows may be interrupted or replaced by breaking news reports ("news flashes") to provide news updates on events of great importance. Radio news Radio news is similar to television news, but is transmitted through the medium of the radio instead. It is based on the audio aspect rather than the visual aspect. Sound bites are captured through various reporters (generally through audio capture devices such as tape recorders) and played back through the radio. News updates occur more often on radio than on television – usually about once or twice an hour. Structure, content, and style Television Newscasts, also known as bulletins or news program(me)s, differ in content, tone, and presentation style depending on the format of the channel/station on which they appear, and their timeslot. In most parts of the world, national television networks will have bulletins featuring national and international news. The top-rated shows will often air in the evening during "prime time", but there are also morning newscasts of two to three hours in length. Rolling news channels broadcast news content 24 hours a day. The advent of the internet has allowed the regular 24-hour-a-day presentation of many video and audio news reports, which are updated when additional information becomes available; many television broadcasters provide content originally provided on-air as well as exclusive or supplementary news content on their websites. Local news may be presented by standalone local television stations, stations affiliated with national networks or by local studios which "opt-out" of national network programming at specified points. Different news programming may be aimed at different audiences, depending on age, socio-economic group, or those from particular sections of society. "Magazine-style" television shows (or newsmagazines) may mix news coverage with topical lifestyle issues, debates, or entertainment content. Public affairs programs provide analysis of and interviews about political, social, and economic issues. News programs feature one or two (sometimes, three) anchors (or presenters, the terminology varies depending on the world) segueing into news stories filed by a reporter (or correspondent) by describing the story to be shown; however, some stories within the broadcast are read by the presenter themselves; in the former case, the anchor "tosses" to the reporter to introduce the featured story; likewise, the reporter "tosses" back to the anchor once the taped report has concluded and the reporter provides additional information. Often in situations necessitating long-form reporting on a story (usually during breaking news situations), the reporter is interviewed by the anchor, known as a 'two-way', or a guest involved in or offering analysis on the story is interviewed by a reporter or anchor. There may also be breaking news stories which will present live rolling coverage. Television news organizations employ several anchors and reporters to provide reports (as many as ten anchors, and up to 20 reporters for local news operations or up to 30 for national news organizations). They may also employ specialty reporters that focus on reporting certain types of news content (such as traffic or entertainment), meteorologists or weather anchors (the latter term often refers to weather presenters that do not have degrees in meteorology earned at an educational institution) who provide weather forecasts – more common in local news and on network morning programs – and sports presenters that report on ongoing, concluded, or upcoming sporting events. Packages will usually be filmed at a relevant location and edited in an editing suite in a newsroom or a remote contribution edit suite in a location some distance from the newsroom. They may also be edited in mobile editing vans, or satellite vans or trucks (such as electronic news gathering vehicles), and transmitted back to the newsroom. Live coverage will be broadcast from a relevant location and sent back to the newsroom via fixed cable links, microwave radio, production truck, satellite truck, or via online streaming. Roles associated with television news include a technical director, floor director audio technician, and a television crew of operators running character graphics (CG), teleprompters, and professional video cameras. Most news shows are broadcast live. Radio Radio news broadcasts can range from as little as one minute to as much as the station's entire schedule, such as the case of all-news radio, or talk radio. Stations dedicated to news or talk content will often feature newscasts, or bulletins, usually at the top of the hour, usually between three and eight minutes in length. They can be a mix of local, regional, national, and international news, as well as sport, entertainment, weather, and traffic reports, or they may be incorporated into separate bulletins. There may also be shorter bulletins at the bottom of the hour, or three at 15-minute intervals, or two at 20-minute intervals. All-news radio stations exist in some countries (most commonly in North America), primarily located in major metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Toronto, which often broadcast local, national, and international news and feature stories on a set time schedule (sometimes known as a "wheel" format, which schedules the presentation of certain segments focused on a specific type of news content at a specific point each hour). News broadcasting by country Canada Terrestrial television Unlike in the United States, most Canadian television stations have license requirements (enforced by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) to offer locally produced newscasts (or any local programming, for that matter) in some form. Educational television stations are exempt from these requirements as are multicultural television stations, however some stations licensed as multicultural outlets do produce local newscasts in varied languages (such as the Omni Television station group). Canadian television stations normally broadcast newscasts between two and four times a day: usually at noon; 5:00, 5:30, and 6:00 p.m. in the evening, and 11:00 p.m. (there are some variations to this: stations affiliated with CTV usually air their late evening newscasts at 11:30 p.m., due to the scheduling of the network's national evening news program CTV National News at 11:00 p.m. in all time zones; most CBC Television-owned stations formerly carried a 10-minute newscast at 10:55 p.m., following The National, these were expanded to a half-hour and moved to 11:00 p.m. during the fall of 2012). Some stations carry morning newscasts (usually starting at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m., and ending at 9:00 a.m.). Unlike in the United States, primetime newscasts in the 10:00 p.m. timeslot are relatively uncommon (three Global owned-and-operated stations in Manitoba and Saskatchewan – CKND-DT, CFSK-DT, and CFRE-DT – and Victoria, British Columbia independent station CHEK-DT are the only television stations in the country carrying a primetime newscast); conversely, pre-5:00 a.m. local newscasts are also uncommon in Canada, Hamilton, Ontario independent station CHCH-DT, whose weekdaily programming consists largely of local news, is currently the only station in the country that starts its weekday morning newscasts before 5:30 a.m. (the station's morning news block begins at 4:00 a.m. on weekdays). Like with U.S. television, many stations use varied titles for their newscasts; this is particularly true with owned-and-operated stations of Global and City (Global's stations use titles based on daypart such as News Hour for the noon and early evening newscasts and News Final for 11:00 p.m. newscasts, while all six City-owned broadcast stations produce morning news/talk programs under the umbrella title Breakfast Television and its flagship station CITY-DT/Toronto's evening newscasts are titled CityNews). Overall umbrella titles for news programming use the titling schemes "(Network or system name) News" for network-owned stations or "(Callsign) News" for affiliates not directly owned by a network or television system (although the latter title scheme was used on some network-owned stations prior to the early 2000s). CBC Television, Global, and CTV each produce national evening newscasts (The National, Global National and CTV National News, respectively), which unlike the American network newscasts do not compete with one another in a common timeslot; while Global National airs at the same early evening time slot as the American evening network newscasts, The Nationals 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time slot competes against primetime entertainment programming on the private broadcast networks, while CTV National News airs against locally produced 11:00 p.m. newscasts on other stations. The National, which has aired on CBC Television since 1954, is the longest-running national network newscast in Canada. All three networks also produce weekly newsmagazines: CBC's The Fifth Estate (aired since 1975), Global's 16x9 (aired since 2008), and CTV's W5 (aired since 1966 and currently the longest-running network newsmagazine in Canada). CTV's Canada AM, which has aired since 1975, is the sole national morning news program on broadcast television in Canada, although it has since been relegated to semi-national status as most CTV owned-and-operated stations west of the Ontario-Manitoba border dropped the program during the summer and fall of 2011 in favor of locally produced morning newscasts. The Sunday morning talk show is relatively uncommon on Canadian television; for many years, the closest program having similarities to the format was CTV's news and interview series Question Period; Global would eventually debut the political affairs show The West Block in November 2011, which closely follows the format. Cable television Canada is host to several 24-hour cable news channels, consisting of domestically-operated cable channels and news channels operated outside Canada or North America. Domestic national news channels include CTV News Channel and Sun News Network, which offer general news programming; Business News Network, which carries business news; and The Weather Network, which offers national and local forecasts. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation operates two national news networks: the English-language CBC News Network and the French-language Réseau de l'information (RDI). Other Canadian specialty news channels broadcasting in French include general news networks Argent and Le Canal Nouvelles, and MétéoMédia, a French-language sister to The Weather Network. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission authorizes carriage of some cable channels from foreign countries on domestic cable and satellite operators provided that they are linked to a Canadian network. Amongst news channels, all four major U.S. cable news networks: CNN, HLN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel are available on most providers, along with channels from outside North America such as Al Jazeera English from Qatar, BBC World News from the United Kingdom, Deutsche Welle from Germany, and RT from Russia. Regionally-based news channels are fairly uncommon in Canada in comparison to the United States. Two 24-hour regional news channels currently exist in the country: the Toronto-centered CP24 and the Vancouver-focused Global News: BC 1 (although CHCH-DT, a general entertainment station with a rolling daytime news block on weekdays (currently from 4:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.) that has existed since August 2009 and hour-long local newscasts nightly at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m., serves as a de facto regional news channel for Southern Ontario's Golden Horseshoe region); CityNews Channel formerly operated as a competitor to CP24, although that channel shut down after a year-and-a-half of operation in May 2013. United States Broadcast television Local newscasts Local TV stations in the United States normally broadcast local news three to four times a day on average: commonly airing at 4:30, 5:00, 5:30, or 6:00 a.m.; noon; 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. in the early evening; and 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. Some stations carry morning newscasts at 4:00, 7:00, 8:00, or 9:00 a.m., midday newscasts at 11:00 or 11:30 a.m., late afternoon newscasts at 4:00 or 4:30 p.m., or early evening newscasts at 5:30 or 6:30 p.m. Many Fox affiliates, affiliates of minor networks (such as The CW and MyNetworkTV), and independent stations air newscasts in the final hour of primetime (i.e., 10:00 p.m. in the Eastern and Pacific time zones or 9:00 p.m. in the Mountain and Central time zones in the U.S.). Stations that produce local newscasts typically broadcast as little as one to as much over twelve hours of local news on weekdays and as little as one hour to as much as seven hours on weekends; news programming on weekends are typically limited to morning and evening newscasts as the variable scheduling of network sports programming (if a station is affiliated with a network with a sports division) usually prevents most stations from carrying midday newscasts (however a few stations located in the Eastern and Pacific time zones do produce weekend midday newscasts). From the 1940s to the 1960s, broadcast television stations typically provided local news programs only one to two times each evening for 15 minutes (the normal length for many locally produced programs at the time); usually these programs aired as supplements to network-supplied evening news programs or leadouts for primetime programming. Reports featured on local and national television newscasts during this time were generally provided via film or still photography; eventually, videotape began to be used to provide live coverage of news events. The 1950s also saw the first use of airborne newsgathering; most notably, in 1958, Los Angeles television station KTLA began operating the "Telecopter", a helicopter equipped for newsgathering use that was the most advanced airborne television broadcast device of its time. The modern-day coverage of major breaking news events came to fruition following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963; the news of Kennedy's death was first announced by Eddie Barker, the news director at KRLD-TV (now KDFW) in Dallas, who passed along word from an official at Parkland Hospital; Barker's scoop appeared live simultaneously on CBS and ABC as a result of a local press pool arrangement. Many local and national news organizations such as Dallas station WFAA-TV and CBS News provided continuous coverage of the events and aftermath for five days. The November 24, 1963 assassination of Kennedy's accused killer Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby was fed to NBC by a remote unit on loan to its Dallas affiliate WBAP-TV (now KXAS-TV) from competitor KTVT, and was the first murder to have been witnessed live on U.S. network television. The coverage provided by the local stations eventually led to further investments and technological developments to provide real-time news; newsgathering vehicles equipped with satellites began to be used on the local and national levels beginning in the 1970s. During the 1960s and 1970s, many stations began to provide additional news programming, beginning with midday news programs; in the late 1970s, the first local morning news programs debuted. Additional changes in local news content came during the 1980s and 1990s; in January 1989, WSVN in Miami became the first to adopt a news-intensive programming format; rather than fill its schedule with syndicated content as other Fox stations did at the time it joined that network, Ed Ansin (owner of WSVN parent Sunbeam Television) chose instead to heavily invest in the station's news department, and replace national newscasts and late-prime time network programs vacated as a result of losing its NBC affiliation (the byproduct of an affiliation switch caused by CBS and WSVN's former network partner NBC buying other stations in the market) with additional newscasts. This model was eventually replicated by many other stations affiliated with the post-1986 television networks as well as some news-producing independent stations (beginning with Fox's 1994 deals with New World Communications and SF Broadcasting that saw several major network stations change their affiliations), and also resulted in even NBC, CBS, and ABC affiliates adopting similar scheduling formats (tweaked to account for the larger amount of network programming that those networks carry). In 1990, WEWS-TV in Cleveland conceived a concept known as the "24-Hour News Source" (which has its origins in a news format used by short-lived Boston independent station WXPO-TV when it signed on in 1969), in which supplementary 30-second long news updates were produced at or near the top of each hour outside regular long-form newscasts during local commercial break inserts shown within network and syndicated programming. The format spread to other U.S. television stations (most notably, WISH-TV in Indianapolis, one of the few remaining users of the concept), most of which eventually disposed of the hourly update format by the early 2000s. Since the early 1990s, independent stations and stations affiliated with a non-Big Three network have entered into "news share agreements," in which news production is outsourced to a major network station (usually an affiliate of ABC, NBC, or CBS), often to avoid shouldering the cost of starting a news department from scratch or because of a lack of studio space. These commonly involve Fox, CW, and MyNetworkTV affiliates (and previously affiliate stations of the now-defunct predecessors of the latter two networks, The WB and UPN) and in some cases, independent stations; however such agreements exist in certain markets between two co-owned/co-managed Big Three affiliates. News share agreements are most common with stations co-owned with a larger network affiliate or whose operations are jointly managed through a shared service or local marketing agreement. In cases where a station with an existing news department enters into a news share agreement, it will result either the two departments merging or the outright conversion of newscast production from in-house to outsourced production. Minor network affiliates involved in news share agreements will often carry far fewer hours of local newscasts than would be conceivable with an in-house news department to avoid competition with the outsourcing partner's own newscasts, as a result, minor network affiliates involved in these NSAs often will carry a morning newscast from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. (in competition with the national network newscasts instead of airing competing with the Big Three affiliates' newscasts) or a primetime newscast at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific or 9:00 p.m. Central and Mountain Time, with limited to no newscasts in other traditional news time periods (midday, late afternoon, or early evening). Because of the increased presence of duopolies and outsourcing agreements since the early 2000s, the number of minor network affiliates and independent stations that produce their own newscasts has markedly decreased compared to when duopolies were barred under Federal Communications Commission rules prior to 2000 (as of 2013, there are at least 15 minor network affiliates or independent stations that produce their own local newscasts, most are located within the 20 largest U.S. media markets). Duopolies and outsourcing agreements have also affected Fox stations in a similar manner; although Fox is considered to be a major network on the same level as NBC, ABC, and CBS and has urged its affiliates since the early 1990s to broadcast local news, about half of its stations broadcast local news programming through news share agreements with many of the remainder operating their own news departments. Several stations affiliated with Spanish-language networks (such as Univision and Telemundo) also broadcast their own newscasts, these stations often produce a substantially lower weekly newscast output compared to its English-language counterparts (usually limited to half-hour broadcasts in the evening, and often airing only on weeknights). Unlike international broadcast stations which tend to brand under uniform newscast titles based solely on network affiliation, U.S. television stations tend to use varying umbrella titles for their newscasts; some title their newscasts utilizing the station's on-air branding (such as combining the network affiliation and channel number with the word "News"), others use franchised brand names (like Eyewitness News, Action News and NewsChannel) for their news programming. Conversely, the naming conventions for a station's newscast are sometimes used as a universal on-air branding for the station itself, and may be used for general promotional purposes, even used in promoting syndicated and network programming (such as KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which uses the uniform news and general branding NewsChannel 4). Many stations title their newscasts with catchy names like Daybreak, Good Morning (city or region name), First at Four, Live at Five, Eleven @ 11:00, or Nightcast. These names are intended to set one station apart from the rest, especially for viewers who are chosen for audience measurement surveys. If the respondent was unable to provide a channel number or call letters, the newscast title is often enough for the appropriate station to receive Nielsen ratings credit. Network world news programs The Big Three broadcast television networks produce morning and evening national newscasts. These newscasts are focused on world news, national news, and sometimes local news items that have some national significance. (America This Morning, Good Morning America, and ABC World News are broadcast by ABC, CBS broadcasts the CBS Morning News, CBS This Morning, and the CBS Evening News, and NBC produces Early Today, Today, and NBC Nightly News) as well as weekly newsmagazine series (NBC's Dateline; ABC's 20/20 and Nightline; and CBS's CBS News Sunday Morning, 48 Hours, and 60 Minutes). Network morning newscasts usually air at 7:00 a.m. (English-language network morning shows air live in the Eastern Time Zone and tape delayed for the remaining time zones, while the Spanish-language morning shows air live in the Eastern, Central, and Mountain time zones and are tape delayed in the Pacific Time Zone); network evening newscasts usually are broadcast live at 6:30 p.m. on the East Coast and broadcast live in both the Eastern and Central Time Zones, with a secondary live broadcast (otherwise known as a 'Western Edition") at 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Today was the first morning news program to be broadcast on American television and in the world, when it debuted on January 14, 1952; the earliest national evening news program was The Walter Compton News, a short-lived 15-minute newscast that aired on the DuMont Television Network from 1947 to 1948. All four major English networks and the two largest Spanish networks also carry political talk programs on Sunday mornings (NBC's Meet the Press, ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, Fox's sole news program Fox News Sunday, Univision's Al Punto, and Telemundo's Enfoque); of these programs, Meet the Press holds the distinction of being the longest-running American television program as it has aired since November 6, 1947. The U.S. is one of the few countries in which broadcast networks provide overnight or early morning national news programs, in addition to those airing in the morning and early evening. CBS and ABC are currently the only networks that produce overnight news programs on weeknights in the form of Up to the Minute and World News Now, respectively; NBC previously produced overnight newscasts at different times, both of which have since been cancelled: NBC News Overnight from 1982 to 1983, and NBC Nightside from 1991 to 1998 (NBC currently does not offer a late night newscast, although the network currently airs rebroadcasts of the fourth hour of Today, and sister network CNBC's Mad Money on weeknights). Spanish-language news programs are provided by Univision, which produces early and late evening editions of its flagship evening news program Noticiero Univision seven nights a week (and was the only nightly newscast on the major Spanish networks until Telemundo resumed its weekend newscasts in October 2014), along with weekday afternoon newsmagazine Primer Impacto and weekday morning program Despierta America); Telemundo, which has a daily flagship evening newscast Noticiero Telemundo, along with weekday morning program Un Nuevo Día and weekday afternoon newsmagazine Al Rojo Vivo; MundoFox, which produces the weekday-only flagship newscast Noticias MundoFox, along with a weekday afternoon newsmagazine MundoFox ¡Y Ya!; Estrella TV, which produces the weekday-only flagship news program Noticiero Estrella TV and the primetime newscast Cierre de Edición; and Azteca América, which produces morning, early and late evening newscasts on weekdays under the umbrella title Hechos. In the cases of Univision and Telemundo, both of their evening news programs compete with national evening news programs on their English-language competitors. Fox, The CW, and MyNetworkTV do not produce national morning and evening news programs (although Fox made a brief attempt at a morning program from 1996 to 1997 with Fox After Breakfast; many CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates and independent stations air the syndicated news program The Daily Buzz, while some Tribune Broadcasting-owned CW and MyNetworkTV stations air a similar program called EyeOpener). Cable television 24-hour news channels are devoted to current events around the clock. They are often referred to as cable news channels. The originator of this format from which the name derives is CNN (which following its 1980 launch, spun off other national and international networks using the brand such as CNN International, CNN en Español, and CNN-IBN), originally standing for Cable News Network in reference to the then-new phenomenon of cable television. As satellite and other forms of television have evolved, the term "cable news" has become something of an anachronism, but is still in common use; many other television channels have since been established, such as BBC World News, BBC News Channel, Sky News, Al Jazeera, Newsmax TV, ABC News 24, France 24, STAR News, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. Some news channels specialize even further, such as ESPNews (sports news; sister channel to ESPN); The Weather Channel (weather, although its status as a specialty news channel has become ambiguous due to its recent incorporation of non-news entertainment programming) and WeatherNation (weather); CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and Fox Business Network (financial news). Conversely, several cable news channels exist that carry news reports specifically geared toward a particular metropolitan area, region, or state such as New York City's NY1 (which focuses on the entire New York metropolitan area) and News 12 Networks (which serves portions of the area outside Manhattan), Orlando's News 13 (which is also carried in areas surrounding Greater Orlando), Tampa, Florida's Bay News 9, and Washington, D.C.'s NewsChannel 8. These channels are usually owned by a local cable operator and are distributed solely through cable television and IPTV system operators. Some broadcast television stations also operate cable channels (some of which are repeated through digital multicasting) that air the station's local newscasts in the form of live simulcasts from the television station, with rebroadcasts of the newscasts airing in time periods between the live broadcasts. A term which has entered common parlance to differentiate cable news from traditional news broadcasts is network news, in reference to the traditional television networks on which such broadcasts air. A classic example is the cable news channel MSNBC, which overlaps with (and, in the case of very significant breaking news events, pre-empts) its network counterpart NBC News; in some cases, viewers may have trouble differentiating between the cable channel and either a counterpart network news organization or a local news operation, such as is the case with Fox News Channel and the Fox network's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates (most of which use the Fox (channel #) News brand for their newscasts), due to the network's controversially perceived conservative-leaning political content that differs from the Fox broadcast stations' independent and generally nonpartisan reporting. Most U.S. cable news networks do not air news programming 24 hours a day, often filling late afternoon, primetime, and late night hours with news-based talk programs, documentaries, and other specialty programming. Radio More often, AM radio stations will air a 6½-minute newscast at the top of the hour, which can be either a local report, a national report from a radio network such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, NPR, Fox News Radio, or ABC News Radio, or a mix of both local and national content, including weather and traffic reports. Some stations also air a two-minute report at the bottom of the hour. FM stations, unless they feature a talk radio format, usually only air an abbreviated weather forecast. Some also air minute-long news capsules featuring a quick review of events, and usually only in drive time periods or in critical emergencies, since FM stations usually focus more on playing music. Traffic reports also air on FM stations, depending on the market. In some countries, radio news content may be syndicated by a website or company to many stations in a particular region or even the entire country. A notable example is Israel, where there are groups of radio stations that broadcast the same hourly news capsule by an Israeli news website and television station. There are currently two groups of local Israeli stations: one broadcasts news from YNET, the other broadcasts them from Channel 10. Israeli Army Radio general public stations broadcast the same news capsule every hour, and IBA's Kol Israel stations broadcast theirs. See also List of news channels Template:Japanese television networks Television news music package List of news presenters United States cable news United States television news Television news screen layout Live streaming world news Footnotes Further reading Charles L. Ponce de Leon, That's the Way It Is: A History of Television News in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Category:Broadcast journalism Broadcasting Broadcasting Category:Television terminology

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> <meta http-equiv="charset" content="ISO-8859-1" /> <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="English" /> <meta http-equiv="vw96.object type" content="Document" /> <meta name="resource-type" content="document" /> <meta name="distribution" content="Global" /> <meta name="rating" content="General" /> <meta name="robots" content="all" /> <meta name="revist-after" content="2 days" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="../../../favicon.ico" /> <title>The Original Hip-Hop (Rap) Lyrics Archive</title> <!-- link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://ohhla.com/files/main.css" / --> <!-- BEGIN SITE ANALYTICS //--> <script type="text/javascript"> if (typeof siteanalytics == 'undefined') { siteanalytics = {}; }; siteanalytics.gn_tracking_defaults = {google: '',comscore: {},quantcast:''}; siteanalytics.website_id = 180; siteanalytics.cdn_hostname = 'cdn.siteanalytics.evolvemediametrics.com'; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src='http://cdn.siteanalytics.evolvemediametrics.com/js/siteanalytics.js'></script> <!-- END SITE ANALYTICS //--> </head> <body> <a href="javascript: history.go(-1)">Back to the previous page</a> <div> </div> <div style="width: 720px; text-align: center; color: #ff0000; font-weight: bold; font-size: 1em;"> <!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style="margin: auto 0 auto 0; padding-left: 185px;"> <a class="addthis_button_facebook_like" fb:like:layout="button_count"></a> <a class="addthis_button_tweet"></a> <a class="addthis_button_google_plusone" g:plusone:size="medium"></a> <a class="addthis_counter addthis_pill_style"></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-4e8ea9f77f69af2f"></script> <!-- AddThis Button END --> </div> <br /> <div style="float: left; min-width: 560px;"> <pre> Artist: The Roots Album: The Tipping Point Song: Duck Down! Typed by: [email protected] [Black Thought] Yea we gettin' ready to break y'all it's winner take all The game is locked we down to the eight ball The time is now, it ain't nothin' to wait for I'm a king by blood a soldier by nature I'm somthin' like a threat to y'all space cadets 'Cause you never met brother nothin' like me yet So push another slice into your toast and tighten your vests Cause it's a warrior you seein' here tonight in the flesh I give you somthin' high voltage double dosage Runnin' with these vultures givin' me ulcers Which one of these hustlers bringin' the thunder 'Riq Geez not another man takin' us under Nigga please which Philly cat doin' his own thing Might say black my give you a code name Round my neck see the microphone hang Have your lady lips singin' like on soul train The niggaz that's a problem is minimal margin The Colonel, Capitan, Lieutenant, General Sergeant Black, one man army move in on your squadron You sittin' still you know you a target You heard you better duck down! [Chorus: repeat 2X] See me comin' better tuck those chains Cause you don't wanna feel them thangs If you want it, you can get it baby You know you need to get low Duck Down! (Duck Down!) [Black Thought] Yea we gettin' set to get rid of y'all that's what it's headin' for The underdog knuckle and brawl with the bigger ball I spit what your wig absorb sicker than sycamore I'm creatin' a circumstance that you a victim of The rebel or the renegade out on the quest The super black man runnin' wit a S on his chest And stand for the straight struggle to escape the stress You think it's sweet tryin' to eat, you ain't taste this yet So make y'all steps precautious into the darkness Thoughts cold and heartless makin' me nauseous Gettin' more remorses for what I done If the lawyers and courts wonder what I run You see the liberty it's free but just for some How you a gangster and you scared to bust your gun For the call, trust your fam' and trust nobody at all Seein' brothers gettin' struck down You better duck down! [Chorus] [Verse 3: Black Thought] Yeah I can feel somethin' for sure, I've been up in here before A gladiator in a colliseum ready for war That old timer holdin' his revolver set to blow Just like a gladiator at whoever stick his head in the door And one who been through it all, anything go Rather give it to you straight 'stead of speakin in codes Cuz man, that bullshit can get you riddled with holes If you ain't insured than the hospitals is close You got to go up-town while ya leakin' on the ground In cases like these, you need to duck down You're five dollar toys, I'm a million dollar man Esquire 'Riq Geez go according to plan I'm thinkin' outside the box, off the blocks An outside your concept of time, off the clocks for real Well it's Black Thought your boss DJ Whatever you brothers weigh that's what ya gonna pay [Chorus] - 2X</pre> </div> <div style="float: left;"> </div> </body></html>

Note: If your concern is about subscribing, please be aware of that Since Paypal has just modified some mechanism features. It delays in IPN, therefore your payment might be confirmed immediately or up to 24 hours later after the order placed. Your account will be active in "Free Download Group" once your payment is fully confirmed. HOT DEAL: Just now, hurry up to get 25% OFF on Paragon NTFS for Mac purchaseHere Toggle Bar D16 Group Sigmund 1.0 D16 Group Sigmund for Mac 1.1.0 Introduction D16 Group Sigmund for Mac is a D16 Group Audio Software Release delay effect, Sigmund is a very powerful effect on enhancing delay unit suitable for Mac and windows systems device. Sigmund includes four delay lines, each with its own independent set of parameters, provides incredible sound shaping freedom. Each of the delay lines are There are built-in supplementary module, with independent feedback loop, multi-mode filter, overload, amplifier modulator. These supplemental reached without an infinitely powerful structure, its potential is almost endless, and often difficult to achieve results is provided . Four Sigmund delay line can be almost every way interconnected to each other. This plug-in provides a select nine different route patterns, given the scale of the new sound creation. a signal can be routed sequentially through each processing block processing without loss of quality from one to another when, and does not increase the adverse artifacts design process the signal path from start to finish without the slightest compromise : In fact, the quality of the sound is very high, the process is so pure, even at the lowest latencies, even less than one tenth of milliseconds also will not have artifacts Each type has large original factory preset library, intuitive design default browser lets everything has regulations and can easily locate Four independent delay lines Four delay units in one box for expanding sound shaping capabilities beyond imagination High quality delay line algorithm To have delay times precisely adjusted in very wide range, which makes the unit being multi-purposefull. Delay, Chorus, Flanger? You name it! Multipurpose modulators Different types of modulation can be applied on several delay lines' parameters via two multipurpose modulators

Expression of acetylcholinesterase messenger RNA in human brain: an in situ hybridization study. The distribution of messenger RNA coding for acetylcholinesterase was studied in human post mortem brain and rhesus monkey by in situ hybridization histochemistry and compared to the distribution of acetylcholinesterase activity. Acetylcholinesterase messenger RNA had--similar to acetylcholinesterase enzymatic activity--a widespread distribution in human bain. Acetylcholinesterase messenger RNA positive cells corresponded to perikarya rich in acetylcholinesterase activity in most but not all regions. Examples for mismatches included the inferior olive and human cerebellar cortex. The presence of hybridization signals in cerebral cortex and an enrichment in layer III and V of most isocortical areas confirmed that perikaryal acetylcholinesterase in cerebral cortex is of postsynaptic origin and not derived from cholinergic projections. In striatum the expression of high levels of acetylcholinesterase messenger RNA was restricted to a small population of large striatal neurons. In addition, low levels of expression were found in most medium sized striatal neurons. Cholinergic neurons tended to express high levels of acetylcholinesterase messenger RNA whereas in cholinoceptive neurons the levels were moderate to low. However, some noncholinergic neurons like dopaminergic cells in substantia nigra, noradrenergic cells in locus coeruleus, serotoninergic cells in raphé dorsalis, GABAergic cells in thalamic reticular nucleus, granular cells in cerebellar cortex and pontine relay neurons expressed levels comparable to cholinergic neurons in basal forebrain. It is suggested that neurons expressing high levels of acetylcholinesterase messenger RNA may synthesize acetylcholinesterase for axonal transport whereas neurons with an expression of acetylcholinesterase confined to somatodendritic regions tend to contain lower levels of acetylcholinesterase messenger RNA.

Q: Is there a way to get a non-node result from MSXML XPath evaluator? I understand that the name of selectNode/selectSingleNode methods actually suggests that they are designed to return a node, however maybe there is some other way or a setting available to enable XPath evaluator to return data of other types (that are also valid XPath results) oDocument.selectSingleNode("'1'"); throws an error "Expression does not return a DOM node" I want to query oDocument.selectSingleNode("concat(@day, '-', @month, '-', @year") and get a result (that is possible with standard DOM XPath API). Indeed I can query for nodes and then traverse them with DOM, however this would be way to inefficient. A: selectSingleNode() and selectNodes() select nodes identified by an XPath expression. Their return values are of type IXMLDOMNode and IXMLDOMNodeList, respectively. Nothing else can be returned. Expressions that do not return a node set (but otherwise are valid XPath expressions) will result in an error.

Q: Steamer with single vent instead of bottom holes My family has owned a stainless steel steamer for a long time with a single raised vent to let steam into the upper compartment. It's great because there's no way for food to get into the bottom compartment so it (mostly) never has to be washed. It only ever contains water. I really want to buy one of these but the only steamers I can find for sale have a perforated bottom in the upper compartment. Does anyone know where I can buy one or if any company still manufactures these? A: I have a stainless steel steamer/juicer similar to the one picture w/o perforation. It has a tube that dispels the juice into any container you choose right from the middle pan as it extracts. I purchased mine from Amazon and it is a product of Cook N Home.

Strictly speaking, this and the preceding panel are part of the same scene. Rather than showing St Nicholas in the guise of a holy man in the midst of the other pilgrims (in keeping with the text), the artist has shown him reaching out from his shrine to issue his warning. As well as strengthening the spatial correlation between saint and shrine, this has fortuitously positioned St Nicholas standing outside his shrine in the top right hand panel, as if framing the whole narrative.

Junior point guard Shelton Mitchell has gone from regional to national recruit over the last year. On Friday night, Mitchell capped his rise when he announced via Twitter that he has committed to Wake Forest. Mitchell drew college coaches from the Demon Deacons, North Carolina and North Carolina State to the Holiday Invitational at Raleigh (N.C.) Broughton High last week. He averaged 22.3 points per game with a high of 30 against Hampton (Va.) High and Wolfpack point guard signee Anthony Barber. Mitchell said some of the college coaches gave him a heads up that they were coming to watch him. "It was good, and I knew coming into this that during my whole high school career, I knew about this tournament and playing in front of big crowds," Mitchell said. "I talked to [UNC assistant] Coach [C.B.] McGrath, [Wake Forest assistant] Coach [Jeff] Battle and Coach Roy [Williams of UNC], and they all said they were coming." When Mitchell plays with the Chris Paul All-Stars, he's more likely to aim for double-digit assist totals than gaudy scoring numbers. "CP3, if they need me to score, I'll attack more and be aggressive, but with this team, [it's scoring] all the time," Mitchell said. "CP3 has a lot of guys that can get hot and same with this team [at Cuthbertson]. I just have to be a little more aggressive with this team." Cuthbertson coach Mike Helms is appreciative of the work ethic and leadership Mitchell has displayed. "Shelton is the hardest working kid I've ever coached," Helms said. "The kid is back in the gym. He's texting me, 'How can I get back in the gym the next day?' He wants to get in there and get better in all facets of his game, and he has. He has continued to improve and knows there are areas he still needs to improve. "He is a kid, I have no question he will reach his ceiling. He is going to be the best player he can be before it is all said and done." Rivals.com ranks the lanky 6-foot-3 point guard No. 60 in the country in the class of 2014. The Nike Elite 100, which took place in St. Louis last June, helped boost his stock nationally "That was huge," Mitchell said. "Playing then, I wasn't as known as I am now. Being able to go against guys that were ahead of me, and basically on the same path as me, and competing against them was huge." Mitchell has been well-known in Charlotte circles since playing in the eighth grade for Covenant Day and winning the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions. In that tournament, he played with Team United's Kennedy Meeks (UNC signee) and Sindarius Thornwell (South Carolina signee). Mitchell grew up in Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Ore., before settling in the Charlotte area for middle school. He transferred to brand-new Cuthbertson High his ninth grade year and helped them finish second in the NCHSAA 2A playoffs. Cuthbertson fell to Kinston 58-55 in the title game, despite 22 points from Mitchell. Cuthbertson and Kinston were able to renew their rivalry in the losers bracket at the Holiday Invitational. Mitchell and senior wing Isiah Cureton sparked a second half comeback to pull out a 50-47 win over Kinston back on Dec. 28. Mitchell had 19 points in the big win and looks like he has improved since last March. "I've gotten a little stronger, though he [Helms] might not believe that," Mitchell said. "I'm more mentally tough. Even when things aren't going my way, I still keep my head in the game. Last year, I think I got down on myself at times. This year, I just keep playing."

#include "ExtractionOptionsJsonObject.h" #include <regex> namespace polycube { namespace service { namespace model { ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::ExtractionOptionsJsonObject() { m_swapOnRead = false; m_swapOnReadIsSet = true; m_emptyOnRead = false; m_emptyOnReadIsSet = true; } ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::ExtractionOptionsJsonObject(const nlohmann::json &val) : JsonObjectBase(val) { m_swapOnReadIsSet = false; m_emptyOnReadIsSet = false; if (val.count("swap-on-read")) setSwapOnRead(val.at("swap-on-read").get<bool>()); if (val.count("empty-on-read")) setEmptyOnRead(val.at("empty-on-read").get<bool>()); } nlohmann::json ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::toJson() const { nlohmann::json val = nlohmann::json::object(); if (!getBase().is_null()) val.update(getBase()); if (m_swapOnReadIsSet) val["swap-on-read"] = m_swapOnRead; if (m_emptyOnReadIsSet) val["empty-on-read"] = m_emptyOnRead; return val; } bool ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::getSwapOnRead() const { return m_swapOnRead; } void ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::setSwapOnRead(bool value) { m_swapOnRead = value; m_swapOnReadIsSet = true; } bool ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::swapOnReadIsSet() const { return m_swapOnReadIsSet; } void ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::unsetSwapOnRead() { m_swapOnReadIsSet = false; } bool ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::getEmptyOnRead() const { return m_emptyOnRead; } void ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::setEmptyOnRead(bool value) { m_emptyOnRead = value; m_emptyOnReadIsSet = true; } bool ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::emptyOnReadIsSet() const { return m_emptyOnReadIsSet; } void ExtractionOptionsJsonObject::unsetEmptyOnRead() { m_emptyOnReadIsSet = false; } }// namespace model }// namespace service }// namespace polycube

Words of Healing with Kaotik the Poet Hey everybody I’m back again, and this time I got to speak with another inspirational artist that goes by, Kaotik the Poet. Our talk was very spiritually nourishing. We got a chance to speak about passions, desires, and inspirations. As well as, the power of expressing your thoughts through words. I believe people’s artistry can heal; therefore, I hope you are healed by our conversation with Kaotik the Poet. Q: Can you please give use your name, background, business name, and business background? A: My name is Louis Caldwell. I own Caldwell Services, and Sweet Lou’s Bar B Que. Caldwell Services is an automotive core purchasing service. I buy warranty parts from dealerships and sell them to rebuilders. I started these businesses because I wanted to leave something to my kids. Q: Who is the Kaotik poet? How does he differ from you I everyday life?A: Lol, who is Kaotik Poet? He is the manifestation of my passions and desires. He is the compromise between flesh and spirit. My expression of self in its purest form. He is the moment that I leave this plane and mentally let it all hang out. I don’t have to dumb it down for others. I am him and he is me in many aspects, yet I am bridled somewhat in real life. I find myself having to hold back, lol, I don’t think the World is ready. Kaotik Poet does this on some levels as well. Some things they just can’t handle. Q: Why do you leave your poetry without a title?A: Most of my poems are left without titles because, titles make them so impersonal. It’s like they have no beginning and no end. I don’t want to tell the reader what they’re about, I want their hearts to do that for me. Now mind you, In a lot of my earlier writing they have titles. Q: Where does your inspiration to write come from? What is your creation process? A: My inspiration to write comes from my past, present and hope for the future. It derives from an overwhelming need to teach, guide and love. Hmmmm, creation process, I don’t think I have one. It’s like my words just fall atop me all at once. I can be sleep and they come to me. I have dreamt of entire ideas for stories…lol. I know that sounds crazy but true. Someone may say something. I don’t know. The world feeds me its needs, and I am its speaker. Q:When you state, “I just returned from war I did. With its smokey mouths and hidden lies. It’s hurried red lights and busy bodies with no business of their own. I just emerged from the battlefield where there were no soldiers, just drama Kings and Dairy Queens. From 9-5 I fought this war. From the country sides to the concrete jungles. I did indulge in civil gore,” what struggle did you overcome at that point? A: This poem came to me while sitting at a red light. I am a people watcher. I sat and watched all of the soccer moms, the restless teens, the exhausted fathers. I saw how they all watched this red light. For that moment they all had one thing in common, that light. That light offered them a moment peace, which they rejected. I watched how they glared at one another. No love, no compassion. Like the light belonged to them. I then pushed on through my day and lent my attention to more observations. We fight our way through our days. Leaving behind casualties, whether it be emotionally, mentally or spiritually. We are on a course to slaughter one another. We are at war. Q: What new projects are you working on? How can we expect your poetry to evolve? A: Currently I am gathering up my writings. I have found someone to help me with editing and organization. The problem is there are over five hundred manuscripts that I know of. I have my work cut out for me. I believe my poetry will evolve into a more pure truth. I want to take some writing classes, but we will see. Whatever is in God’s will. Q:What do you want people to take from your poetry? A: I want people to take from my poetry, that they are not alone in any journey, any struggle. We have all gone through it. Don’t be afraid to speak your truths. I want them to know that I have lived every word I wrote. Know That I am my brother’s keeper, and he will be kept. Hopefully you were touched and took something from the Kaotik Poet. Moving forward I hope you let your spirit free and can inspire through your words. If you were moved by this interview please follow Louis @kaotikpoet on Instagram. Tune in on Friday to hear from a visual artist Diane Roka. I will leave you with a poem by Kaotik the Poet! Killing Me Slowly Someone help me I’m bleeding words, my pen has become a scythe and it’s killing thoughts by the second. It’s a lyrical psychopath going straight for the jugular, it’s become a verbal juggernaut. I’m running but I’m in slow motion, my pen is in flow motion, with each poem it’s picking up momentum…. Someone help me, I’m bleeding words. I am hemorrhaging words, my passion is falling away from me, help me, I struggle to catch my misery, I lay in a pool of ink, pumped from my flesh. From the center of my bones did this ink spill. Help me. With surgical precision this pen will expel my deepest pains. I’m dying indeed, my soul has been taken, I’mlying in need, I can’t feel my heart where my words did feed. Someone help me I’m bleeding words. I have found my peace, do not mourn me, weep for my words for they are lost to my mind, they have known me for a time, but are now dead to me, I wade within the dark corridors, for I am sightless,, my words gave vision, but now I don’t feel clearly, I’m sightless, my purpose has departed. I’m fight less. I am beyond help I’m bleeding words. When I have past the last wisp of my living breath, tell them of these words that did die. Lay me within a shallow keep where I may write from the grave, that I mayspeak from behind the vail of the permanent sleep, from the unending dream my words did form. Upon my stoned head, may my truths be perched, I will lay not where you searched, I’m lurking about the bones of the slumbering poets where sorrows are heard……I have bled my words……..LTC3

Ask HN: Minority Report with NSA data? - klasdfakaf Just a thought experiment. Can we prevent crimes from happening with NSA backed data? Can we use AI to predict the actions of individuals and then take action before they do? Like using browser history patterns and linking it with suspicious phone calls and online posts etc. ====== w_t_payne In a sense, yes, but it will not look like the highly accurate oracle that the film presents. What you will be able to do is to, for example, rank people by how similar they are to specific examples. Say, for example, you were a dictator that wanted to cement his authority on the nation. You could rank your entire population by how similar their behaviour appears to be to known dissidents, and then implement strategic discrimination based on that ranking: targeted imprisonment, punitive taxation, barring from positions of power & property ownership etc... etc...

Estimation of changes in alveolar-arterial oxygen gradient induced by hypoxia. The alveolar-arterial oxygen tension difference provides a useful clinical indication of ventilation-blood flow mismatching in the lungs. In some clinical situations involving alveolar hypoxia (e.g., patients with chronic obstructive lung disease flying in commercial aircraft or normal humans at high altitudes) it would be useful to know this tension difference to predict the likely arterial PO2 under such potentially stressful conditions. Such estimates would require multiple arterial punctures performed under a variety of trying circumstances, conditions usually far distant from a suitable analytic facility. Consequently, we induced controlled hypoxia in 23 healthy humans and calculated changes in the alveolar-arterial oxygen tension difference during the hypoxic challenge test. We plotted this difference as a function of the alveolar oxygen tension over a range from 35 to 110 mm Hg. In addition to a series of control studies in which multiple arterial blood samples were obtained, we calculated arterial PO2 by converting the arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation (measured with an ear oximeter) into partial pressure of oxygen. During hypoxic procedures in which levels of oxygenation fell on the steep section of the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve, fixing PCO2 at constant predetermined levels allowed accurate predictions of arterial PO2. We were able to demonstrate that the alveolar-arterial oxygen tension difference narrowed with decreasing alveolar oxygen tension, and that measurement with an ear oximeter provided data that allowed a reasonable estimate of the tension difference during hypoxic conditions.

Peter Quigley | Kelly Services US Peter Quigley is executive vice president of Kelly Services, a global leader in providing workforce solutions. He is one of two EVPs reporting to George Corona, president and chief executive officer. In his role, he is responsible for both operational and functional support areas. On the operations side, Mr. Quigley serves as president of Global Staffing where he oversees the Company’s staffing operations in the Americas and EMEA regions. In terms of functional responsibility, he is the general manager of several corporate administrative departments including IT, Global Service and Global Business Services. Prior to his current role, Mr. Quigley was chief administrative officer for Kelly Services, responsible for Corporate Communications, Facilities, Global Business (Shared) Services, Global Service, Human Resources, IT, Legal, and Risk Management. He also served as the Company's General Counsel. As a key member of Kelly's senior leadership team for more than 10 years, Mr. Quigley has progressed through the leadership ranks since joining the Company in 2002. He led the Contracts Administration team for three years before being promoted to associate general counsel in 2005, at which time he also assumed responsibility for the Risk Management, Workers' Compensation, and Unemployment Compensation groups. In 2008, Mr. Quigley left the Law department to manage what was then termed the "Office of the President Accounts" and later, was responsible for account management and business development functions that is now Global Solutions. Prior to joining Kelly, Mr. Quigley worked at Lucent Technologies and AT&T Corporation in a variety of roles, as well as serving on the management committee of Lucent's internal venture capital business. Earlier in his career, he practiced law in Washington, D.C. He earned a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) with honors from the National Law Center at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and a bachelor's degree with distinction from the University of Michigan. He is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and the District of Columbia Bar. He is on the boards of Persol Holdings Co., LTD (formerly TempHoldings) and PersolKelly APAC, a joint venture between Kelly Services and Persol Holdings Co., Ltd. In addition, Mr. Quigley serves as an active board member of the American Staffing Association (ASA), serving as second vice chairman of the ASA's board of directors, vice-chair of the thought leadership task force, and a member of the legal and legislative committee. Mr. Quigley has been named to the Staffing Industry Analysts Staffing 100 List for three consecutive years (2017, 2018, 2019). The list recognizes the industry's most influential leaders across the workforce solutions ecosystem.

All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Introduction {#sec001} ============ Ecosystem services are defined as the benefits that nature provides to society \[[@pone.0235320.ref001]\]. Ecosystems such as forests, grasslands, croplands, coastal zones, and urban areas offer different services to society. These include provisioning services (food, water, wood, and fibers), regulation services (which affect climate, flooding, disease, waste, and water quantity and quality), cultural services (recreational opportunities, aesthetic, and spiritual values), and support services (soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling) \[[@pone.0235320.ref001], [@pone.0235320.ref002]\]. Regulating services are obtained directly from ecosystems without any transformational process \[[@pone.0235320.ref001]\]. Water regulation is one of such services, which has great importance to society by providing adequate quality water and maintaining the water cycle \[[@pone.0235320.ref003], [@pone.0235320.ref004]\]. Water regulation in forest ecosystems involves the processes that take place after precipitation. These include interception, evapotranspiration, surface and subsurface flow, infiltration, soil erosion control, water quality, and groundwater replenishing, among others \[[@pone.0235320.ref001]\]. These water and soil movement-related processes are affected by various climatic and topographic factors, as well as by soil and vegetation cover types. In a forest system, a portion of the rain is intercepted by the top and other layers of the canopy. The intercepted rain evaporates and returns to the atmosphere, while the non-intercepted portion reaches the ground and deep parts of the soil \[[@pone.0235320.ref005]\]. Forest cover plays an important role in intercepting, capturing, and channeling rainfall. In addition, it is one factor that can be directly manipulated by resource managers using silvicultural practices that consist of different harvesting techniques of various intensities. For the purpose of this study, we focused on the processes that regulate water movement, starting from the canopy, to the forest floor, and into the stream channels. This includes the processes of throughfall, stemflow, and surface runoff. Throughfall refers to the amount of water that passes directly through the forest canopy or drips from branches and leaves of trees \[[@pone.0235320.ref006]\]. It accounts for 60 to 90% of rainfall \[[@pone.0235320.ref007]\]. Stemflow is the fraction of the water that comes in contact with the forest canopy and runs down the trunks of trees and bushes, before being deposited on the ground \[[@pone.0235320.ref008], [@pone.0235320.ref009]\]. It is often ignored in rainfall studies because it is thought to be insignificant and expensive to measure, particularly when forests are composed by rough-barked trees \[[@pone.0235320.ref010]--[@pone.0235320.ref012]\]. Stemflow values represent between 1 to 4% of total rainfall, although some studies reported values up to 20% for certain forest types \[[@pone.0235320.ref007], [@pone.0235320.ref011], [@pone.0235320.ref012]\]. In many areas, particularly semi-arid ones, stemflow creates important islands of soil moisture and nutrients around the stem and contributes to streamflow and groundwater generation \[[@pone.0235320.ref007]\]. Surface runoff refers to the rainfall that flows over the surface of the soil directly into nearby channels and bodies of water \[[@pone.0235320.ref011]\]. It is often referred to as sheet flow, e.g., the water that resembles a braiding pattern of threads, without forming channels larger than rills and gullies \[[@pone.0235320.ref013]\]. In addition to vegetation and other surface obstructions, the rate of flow is dependent upon soil characteristics. There are numerous studies that describe the effect of soil infiltration capacity on surface runoff \[[@pone.0235320.ref014]--[@pone.0235320.ref017]\]. However, there are only a few studies that have addressed the impacts of vegetation cover on surface runoff in Mexico. Furthermore, there are only a limited number of studies in Mexico that have assessed the relationship between surface runoff and forest density, which, as we said above, can be manipulated through direct silvicultural treatments. Silvicultural treatments affect hydrological fluxes. Intensive silvicultural treatments (e.g. stand thinning from above or clear-cutting) change forest density \[[@pone.0235320.ref018]\], eventually modifying throughfall and stemflow at both stand level and individual tree level \[[@pone.0235320.ref019]\], while increasing surface runoff \[[@pone.0235320.ref020]\]. The potential impact of the increased water from the surface flow may eventually affect site productivity and the provision or regulation of other ecosystem services (e.g., plant diversity, soil erosion control, carbon sequestration, etc.) \[[@pone.0235320.ref021], [@pone.0235320.ref022]\]. Varying levels of tree density affect water cycle components (namely interception, evapotranspiration, infiltration, and surface runoff), causing variations in water soil movement and groundwater reserves \[[@pone.0235320.ref021], [@pone.0235320.ref023]\]. For example, heavy rainfall occurrences, following highly intensive vegetation cover treatments (such as clear-cuts), result in increased surface runoff causing soil erosion, flooding, and water turbidity \[[@pone.0235320.ref023]\]. For short periods, large water and soil movements can modify the quality, quantity, and distribution of water resources \[[@pone.0235320.ref024]\]. This study used hydrological models to analyze throughfall, stemflow, and surface runoff in a managed pine-oak forest in northern Mexico. Hydrological models, which relate the flow of water to some stand variables, enable an evaluation of the impact of changes in forest cover on the water resources within a watershed \[[@pone.0235320.ref025]\]. The models can help determine the best forest management scenarios in places where regulation services are combined with provisioning ecosystem services. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects that forests, in terms of some forest tree and stand variables, have on throughfall, stemflow, and surface runoff in a temperate area of northern Mexico. The working hypotheses are that throughfall and stemflow are different depending on tree size and genus, and that stand density affects surface runoff. Materials and methods {#sec002} ===================== The study area is located in the mountainous region of the Sierra Madre Occidental, within the municipality of Durango, which lies in the southern part of the state of Durango. The experimental site is located in a private property known as Molinillos ([Fig 1](#pone.0235320.g001){ref-type="fig"}). The owners of this 2,866-hectare property have played a leading role in promoting a healthy silvicultural management, biodiversity conservation, and ecotourism in the region \[[@pone.0235320.ref026]\]. They allowed us to conduct research and field measurements on their property. The current management plan includes the application of non-intensive tree regeneration methods (selective harvesting) as well as intensive methods (seed tree retention or clear-cuts) in different parts of the property \[[@pone.0235320.ref018], [@pone.0235320.ref026]\]. Of the total area, about 2,050 ha are under timber management, with the following treatment distribution: clear-cuts 3.5%, tree retention 14%, thinning 27%, and individual selection 55.5% \[[@pone.0235320.ref026]\]. {#pone.0235320.g001} The climate in the region is temperate and sub-humid, with moderate levels of rainfall in the summer and parts of December and January. In the coldest month (January), daily temperatures can reach anywhere between -3 °C and 18 °C. In the warmest month (June), daily temperatures vary between 15 °C and 35 °C. Historical records show that the mean annual temperature varies from 8 °C to 26 °C, while the annual average is 13.3 °C. The annual rainfall varies from 443 to 1450 mm, with an average of 917 mm \[[@pone.0235320.ref027]\]. Regional elevation ranges from 1,500 to 3,000 meters above sea level. However, the elevation in the plots is closer between 2,360 and 2,630 meters. The typical slope ranges between 20% and 60%. Runoff water flows toward the hydrographic system of the Acaponeta River basin and eventually into the Pacific Ocean. The natural, pine-oak forests include mixtures of *Pinus strobiformis*, *P*. *cooperii*, *P*. *durangensis*, *P*. *engelmannii*, *P*. *teocote*, *P*. *leiophylla*, *Quercus coccolobifolia*, *Q*. *ruogosa*, *Q*. *sideroxilla*, *Q*. *obtusata*, and *Arbutus* spp. The type of soils are Regosol, Litosol, Eutric Cambisol, and Luvisol cromico types \[[@pone.0235320.ref026]\]. Tree and stand variables {#sec003} ------------------------ The information of the tree and stand variables was obtained from eight circular plots of 1,000 m^2^. Even though there were some silvicultural treatments applied in the area, this research is not evaluating the treatment effects; instead, it is assumed that they were already applied before and their effects were observed within a range of levels of tree density. In any case, the plots were located according to the stand density levels existing in the area. Where there were not enough sites with the desired basal areas, we waited until forest managers applied the needed prescribed silvicultural treatments. Density levels used in the study ranged from 0 to 32 m^2^ ha^-1^ of residual basal area, with a mean of 13.6 m^2^ ha^-1^. In each plot, in addition to the taxonomic identification of trees, diameter at breast height (DBH), canopy radius at each cardinal direction (*e*.*g*., N, S, W, E), and total tree height were measured for all trees with a DBH equal to or larger than 7.5 cm. Age was measured for four representative pine trees that vary on the basis of their diameter class. These measurements were used to calculate total tree volume (VOL), basal area (BA), and canopy cover (CC) at the plot level ([Table 1](#pone.0235320.t001){ref-type="table"}). The goal was to determine any possible associations between throughfall (TF), stemflow (SF) or surface runoff (SR), and the stand variables. For example, the functional relationship of SR to the stand variables is described as follows: $$SR = f\left( CC,DBH,VOL,BA \right)$$ where *SR* can be replaced by SF or TF. 10.1371/journal.pone.0235320.t001 ###### Site and stand structural characteristics of the experimental plots. {#pone.0235320.t001g} Variable Mean Minimum Maximum Std. Dev. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- --------- --------- ----------- DBH (cm) 17.2 7.5 85.7 11.4 Height (m) 10.0 0.3 30.0 5.5 BA (m^2^ ha^-1^) 13.6 0.0 32.4 9.5 Annual growth (m^3^ ha^-1^) 2.2 1.9 3.7 0.5 Age (years) 53.5 39.0 69.0 9.2 Canopy cover (%) 54.3 40.0 73.8 9.1 Timber volume (m^3^ ha^-1^) 147.2 101.8 188.8 28.2 Pine (%) 46.9 30.1 73.9 18.3 Oak (%) 44.7 19.3 67.2 19.1 Madrone (%) 7.72 0 36.14 14.1 Elevation (m) 2451 2366 2629 69.4 Slope (%) 41.3 10.0 66.0 13.8 Incident precipitation (mm)[\*](#t001fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} 31.4 7.0 69.0 16.8 Throughfall (mm)[\*](#t001fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} 19.9 1.5 69.0 16.7 Stemflow (mm)[\*](#t001fn001){ref-type="table-fn"}[^a^](#t001fn002){ref-type="table-fn"} 0.37 0.001 9.86 1.07 Surface runoff (mm)[\*](#t001fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} 0.26 0.003 2.54 0.38 \* Average per event. ^a^ Values for all genera. Source: Present study and Perez-Verdin et al. \[[@pone.0235320.ref028]\]. Throughfall {#sec004} ----------- Throughfall (TH) is one of the three components of rainfall partitioning. Rainfall is the sum of throughfall, stemflow, and interception \[[@pone.0235320.ref006]\]. Three rain gauges with a 70-mm capacity were randomly placed in each plot under forest cover (one of them anywhere in the catchment sub-plot intended to measure surface runoff), to manually measure throughfall. Four gauges were placed in open spaces near to the plots to measure incident precipitation (Pi). The measurement period covered the months with dominant rainfalls (July to September) of 2016 and 2018. The data for 2017 were partially collected and later discarded for analysis due to logistical problems resulting from a lack of timely financial resources to continue water measurements. Stemflow {#sec005} -------- Stemflow (SF) is the other component of rainfall partitioning \[[@pone.0235320.ref029]\]. Along with throughfall, but excluding interception loss, they form the net precipitation that reaches the forest floor \[[@pone.0235320.ref030]\]. To measure and evaluate SF, four trees were selected from each 1000-m^2^ plot. The selected sample included at least one tree from each genus that consisted of pines, oaks, and madrones. If only one species was present in the plot, then all four selected trees belonged to that particular species. In total, the study used 32 sampled trees. In each tree, a rubber collar was placed around the main stem in a spiral pattern to catch and direct the water towards a 20-liter container ([Fig 2](#pone.0235320.g002){ref-type="fig"}) \[[@pone.0235320.ref029]\]. The water collected in the container was poured into a plastic beaker to measure the SF volume per tree. Measurements were recorded for every rain event or for every other event while preventing container overfill to avoid any spilling. The volume was then converted into depth (mm) using the tree crown projected area \[[@pone.0235320.ref029]\]. {#pone.0235320.g002} A useful measure that links precipitation, SF, and dasometric variables together in a single index is the stemflow funneling ratio (SF~r~) \[[@pone.0235320.ref006], [@pone.0235320.ref031]\]. While stemflow represents the quantity of rain water captured by a tree, SF~r~ represents the efficiency the same tree has in capturing rainfall and generating stemflow \[[@pone.0235320.ref032]\]. Thus, SFr measures a tree's ability to funnel precipitation at the base, relative to its stem size and different levels of precipitation \[[@pone.0235320.ref006], [@pone.0235320.ref031]\]. The relationship is described as follows: $${SF}_{r} = \frac{SF}{P_{i} \bullet B_{t}}$$ where *SF*~*r*~ is the stemflow funneling ratio (dimensionless), *SF* is the stemflow yield (L) generated by a tree (*t*), *B*~*t*~ is the basal area of the tree (m^2^), and *P*~*i*~ is incident precipitation (mm). When *SF*~*r*~ is greater than one, the funneling ratio indicates that SF is greater than the incident precipitation expected in a rain gauge occupying an area equivalent to the tree basal area \[[@pone.0235320.ref031], [@pone.0235320.ref032]\]. The funneling ratio was modeled as a function of tree variables. Surface runoff {#sec006} -------------- Surface runoff is generated by three mechanisms, infiltration excess runoff, saturation excess runoff, and return of subsurface storm flow \[[@pone.0235320.ref014], [@pone.0235320.ref033]\]. The first mechanism (often called Hortonian runoff) occurs when the infiltration capacity of the soil is exceeded by rainfall. The second (sometimes called Dunne flow) occurs when the storage capacity of the soil is reached so that the soil cannot retain any more rain, thus resulting in surface runoff \[[@pone.0235320.ref013]\]. The third mechanism refers to the case when water returns from subsurface storm flow to the surface, but it is mostly detectable in larger areas or during longer evaluation periods \[[@pone.0235320.ref033]\]. Due to the steep slopes of the terrain, this study is concerned with the infiltration excess (Hortonian) runoff. This type of runoff resembles a shallow sheet flow formed by a braiding pattern of water threads. It can be measured by isolating a small plot on a slope corralled by metal or plastic sheets at the top, sides, and a gutter at the bottom \[[@pone.0235320.ref013]\]. This method has been used to evaluate the effects of forest management practices on SR \[[@pone.0235320.ref034]--[@pone.0235320.ref036]\]. In this study, the SR experiment involved construction of 16-m^2^ sub-plots (8 x 2 m) in each of the eight 1000-m^2^ plots. The perimeter of each SR plot was surrounded by a sturdy geomembrane fence inserted into the soil to a depth of 15 cm. Another 30 cm of the fence was left above the surface to guide movement of the collected runoff into a container located on the lower part of the slope ([Fig 3](#pone.0235320.g003){ref-type="fig"}). Unlike metallic or wooden fences, the geomembrane can easily accommodate to the terrain irregularities. Surface runoff measurements were conducted after a precipitation event by collecting the runoff and pouring it into a plastic graduated beaker to estimate its volume (L). The standard measure for any component of the water balance is expressed in mm depth, which is obtained by dividing the water volume by the catchment area (16 m^2^). Each SR amount measured after a precipitation event was used as the main data input to find the best relationship between SR and tree density. This type of data collection approach allowed the consideration of more variable rainfall input rather than using average data. {#pone.0235320.g003} To reduce the heterogeneity of site conditions (e.g., soil texture, grasslands, herbaceous vegetation cover, etc.) and their effects on SR, the plots were established close to each other. The average (Euclidean) distance between plots was 560 m (minimum 80 m, maximum 2.1km). Thus, stand density (as expressed in terms of basal area), would be one of the most important factors explaining the SR variability. Statistical analysis {#sec007} -------------------- Correlation estimates and scatter graphs were used to detect any preliminary associations between forest stand variables and water flow, as described in [Eq 1](#pone.0235320.e001){ref-type="disp-formula"}. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine the normality of the flow variables. Given that some variables were not normally distributed, parametric and non-parametric models were used to find the best fit model. The Kruskal-Wallis' non-parametric test was also used to determine any significant differences in the SF produced by the three genera (i.e. oak, pine, and madrone). Linear regression by quantiles models were used to find the best relationship between SR, SF, and stand variables according to [Eq 1](#pone.0235320.e001){ref-type="disp-formula"}. Unlike the ordinary least squares model, quantile regression does not assume a defined distribution for the dependent variable, nor does it assume a constant variance \[[@pone.0235320.ref037]\]. The former model uses the conditional mean, but it does not consider the conditional variance of the response factor given a predictor \[[@pone.0235320.ref038]\]. In addition, quantile regression of intercept estimates are not dependent on the typical normal error distribution that ordinary least squares regression always assumes \[[@pone.0235320.ref039]\]. The *τ* symbol (Tau) if often used to specify the quantile levels. Quantile regression is robust to response outliers and easily deals with rate parameter estimation for changes in the quantiles of the distribution of responses, given the independent variables \[[@pone.0235320.ref039]\]. This cannot be equal for all quantiles in models with heterogeneous error distributions. However, quantile regression is often criticized because it is computationally intensive and requires a fair amount of data to perform properly \[[@pone.0235320.ref038]\]. Nonetheless, its efficacy to model stochastic processes is recognized, particularly in those cases where data dispersion is frequent \[[@pone.0235320.ref037]\]. The statistical analyses were conducted using the free access software R version 3.5.1 \[[@pone.0235320.ref040]\], as well as the SAS^®^ system for plotting quantile regression estimates \[[@pone.0235320.ref038]\]. Results {#sec008} ======= Between 40 and 50 precipitation events were registered in the main rainy seasons. For the years 2016 and 2018, the average incident precipitation was 626 mm and 704 mm, respectively. The months with the highest precipitation were August (51%), followed by September (29%) and July (20%). On average, throughfall accounted for 68% of the incident precipitation while stemflow amounts only 1.3% of the rain event ([Fig 3](#pone.0235320.g003){ref-type="fig"}). Stemflow and funneling ratio {#sec009} ---------------------------- The number of valid stemflow records for pines, oaks, and madrones were 98, 127, and 110, respectively. On average, the proportion of SF to incident precipitation was 0.6% for pines, 2.3% for oaks, and 0.9% for madrone. The Kruskal-Wallis test for the sampling period revealed significant differences among the genera (*χ*^*2*^ = 7.055, *p*\<0.03). Therefore, we performed the analysis for each genus. We first attempted to analyze the relationship between SF (volume and depth) and DBH for each genus, but the results were not significant, even with transformations of variables. Interestingly, the relationships for depth-DBH and volume-DBH, were negative and positive, respectively. This contrast highlights the potential differences between volume and depth stemflow modeling. Thus, we evaluated the stemflow funneling ratio (*SF*~*r*~) as a function of DBH and obtained statistically significant results. The median *SF*~*r*~ values for pines, oaks, and madrone were 1.27, 2.38, and 3.72 (*χ*^*2*^ = 47.71, *p*\<0.01), respectively. Since these values are greater than one, they suggest that a tree funnels more water to its base than what would be expected if a rain gauge of equal cavity area had occupied the same basal area as the tree trunk \[[@pone.0235320.ref006]\]. In addition, for all species combined, the median *SF*~*r*~ value for large trees (i.e., DBH ≥30 cm) was 0.10, while for small trees was 1.37 (*χ*^*2*^ = 75.05, *p*\<0.01). A quantile regression model was eventually adjusted for each genus. The quantile regression equation for the *SF*~*r*~ was: $${SF}_{r} = \beta_{0} + \beta_{1}\left( {{\text{log}\mspace{360mu}}\left. DBH \right)} + \varepsilon \right.$$ Coefficient values for BA were negative for all species and quantiles ([Table 2](#pone.0235320.t002){ref-type="table"}). This indicates that the stemflow funneling ratio decreases as tree diameter increases. This relationship is similar to the one depicted by SF depth (mm) and DBH, though as we said earlier, it was not significant. [Table 2](#pone.0235320.t002){ref-type="table"} shows the results of quantile regression for 0.1, 0.5, and 0.9 levels; however, as in many cases of quantile regression applications \[[@pone.0235320.ref039]\], we estimated the coefficients for all quantiles calculated between these numbers. [Fig 4](#pone.0235320.g004){ref-type="fig"} shows the entire grid for the DBH parameters in the interval (0, 1). The shaded blue area represents the 95% confidence limits for the quantile regression estimates. For all three genera, the slope estimates (*β*~1~) decrease exponentially as the quantile level increases. Moreover, this figure reveals that, for all types of genera, the parameter estimates and confidence limits for DBH are negative across the majority of quantile levels, which suggests that, although they are always negative, they exhibit different rates of change. In the case of oaks, the slope estimates change from -0.32 in the 0.1 quantile (*p*\<0.01) to -6.34 in quantile 0.9 (*p*\<0.01). The same exponential relationship, but positive, occurs for the intercept estimates (*β*~0~). Both slope and intercept estimates differ across quantiles because the variance in *SF*~*r*~ changes as a function of DBH. Thus, DBH not only has an impact in the median of *SF*~*r*~, but also in its variance. This variation cannot be observed using the ordinary least squares method, since only the value for the conditional mean is obtained (dashed line, [Fig 4](#pone.0235320.g004){ref-type="fig"}). {ref-type="disp-formula"}) for each genus. The dashed line in each figure represents the ordinary least squares estimate of the conditional mean effect.](pone.0235320.g004){#pone.0235320.g004} 10.1371/journal.pone.0235320.t002 ###### Quantile regression estimates and goodness-of-fit statistics for the relationship between stemflow funneling ratio and diameter at breast height (cm) in Molinillos, Mexico. {#pone.0235320.t002g} Genus Quantile levels (*τ*) Parameter[\*](#t002fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} Estimate SE Pr(\>\|t\|) Pseudo-R^2^ --------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------------------------------ ---------- -------- ------------- ------------- Pine (*n* = 98) 0.1 *β*~1~ -0.27 0.04 \<0.01 0.66 *Β*~0~ 0.93 0.15 \<0.01 0.5 *β*~1~ -0.68 0.25 0.03 0.36 *Β*~0~ 2.66 0.89 0.01 0.9 *β*~1~ -1.86 0.97 0.05 0.65 *Β*~0~ 8.67 3.55 0.02 Oak (*n* = 127) 0.1 *β*~1~ -0.32 0.09 \<0.01 0.51 *Β*~0~ 1.08 0.32 \<0.01 0.5 *β*~1~ -1.09 0.44 0.02 0.36 *Β*~0~ 3.84 1.43 \<0.01 0.9 *β*~1~ -6.34 1.25 \<0.01 0.91 *Β*~0~ 25.16 4.16 \<0.01 Madrone (*n* = 110) 0.1 *β*~1~ -1.19 0.69 0.09 0.50 *Β*~0~ 3.58 1.79 0.05 0.50 *β*~1~ -5.03 0.93 \<0.01 0.36 *Β*~0~ 15.8 2.63 \<0.01 0.1 *β*~1~ -11.82 3.63 \<0.01 0.91 *Β*~0~ 37.04 9.67 \<0.01 \*Model parameters are based on [Eq 3](#pone.0235320.e003){ref-type="disp-formula"}. Surface runoff {#sec010} -------------- A total of 249 surface runoff (SR) records were collected during the measuring seasons (2016 and 2018), with a minimum of 0.05 l (0.003 mm) and a maximum of 40.6 l (2.54 mm). The average monthly SR was recorded in August (5.24 mm), followed by September (3.2 mm), and July (0.9 mm). Surface runoff represented about 1.9% and 0.8% of the incident precipitation for 2016 and 2018, respectively. It was mainly correlated with BA, meaning that the SR modeling was estimated with this variable alone. The quantile regression model, described by the following equation, yielded the best results: $$SR = \beta_{0} + \beta_{1}*{{\text{log}\mspace{360mu}}{BA}} + \varepsilon$$ where *SR* is expressed in mm, *BA* is the basal area per hectare (m^2^ ha^-1^), *β*~*i*~ are model parameters, and *ε* is regression error. The relationship between SR and BA was moderately strong for the 0.5 quantile, which yielded a modest adjustment (Pseudo R^2^ = 0.45), compared to the much better results obtained from the other two quantiles (0.10 and 0.90) ([Table 3](#pone.0235320.t003){ref-type="table"}). The forest vegetation in the study area is overwhelming mixed, making it difficult to separate the individual effect of each type of species on SR. Therefore, we generated an all-species model for SR. The goal was to determine the cumulative effect of managing natural, mixed forests on the amount of flow at different stand densities. 10.1371/journal.pone.0235320.t003 ###### Quantile regression estimates and goodness-of-fit statistics for the relationship between surface runoff (mm) and basal area (m^2^ ha^-1^) in Molinillos, Mexico (*n* = 249). {#pone.0235320.t003g} Quantile level (*τ*) Parameter[\*](#t003fn001){ref-type="table-fn"} Estimate SE Pr(\>\|t\|) Pseudo-R^2^ ---------------------- ------------------------------------------------ ---------- -------- ------------- ------------- 0.10 *β*~1~ -0.034 0.003 \<0.01 0.98 *Β*~0~ 0.115 0.009 \<0.01 0.50 *β*~1~ -0.081 0.01 \<0.01 0.45 *Β*~0~ 0.320 0.05 \<0.01 0.90 *β*~1~ -0.152 0.046 \<0.01 0.96 *Β*~0~ 0.818 0.138 \<0.01 \*Model parameters are based on [Eq 4](#pone.0235320.e004){ref-type="disp-formula"}. While positive across all quantile levels, the intercept estimates (*β*~0~) have different rates of change. They increase as the quantile levels also increase ([Fig 5a](#pone.0235320.g005){ref-type="fig"}). The slope estimates (*β*~1~) decrease as the proportion of quantile increases ([Fig 5b](#pone.0235320.g005){ref-type="fig"}). These findings suggest that there is greater data dispersion at lower values of BA and lower variability at higher values of BA ([Fig 5c](#pone.0235320.g005){ref-type="fig"}). Again, this is a unique advantage of quantile regression. Unlike the ordinary least squares, which coefficients are represented by horizontal, dashed lines, quantile regression allowed the estimation of parameters for the upper and lower tails of the basal area distribution. {#pone.0235320.g005} The maximum SR values were observed in the plots in which the BA was zero, while the minimum SR values were observed in BA values higher than 20 m^2^ ha^-1^. Nevertheless, the SR remained relatively constant after BA reached 15 m^2^ ha^-1^ in all quantiles. At this level of tree density, the slope of the curve approaches zero, which implies that there is a balance with SR ([Fig 5c](#pone.0235320.g005){ref-type="fig"}). Discussion {#sec011} ========== This study was developed to analyze the influence of tree and stand variables on stemflow and surface runoff in a temperate forest area in northern Mexico. The results confirm that stemflow is affected by tree diameter and it significantly varies with genera. Likewise, surface runoff is strongly influenced by levels of stand density, expressed in terms of tree basal area (m^2^ ha^-1^). Some studies agree with these findings, while others do not. These contrasting viewpoints are discussed in some detail in the next section. Stemflow and funneling ratio {#sec012} ---------------------------- Results showed that SF was higher for oak trees, followed by madrone and pine species. Similar results were presented by Pérez-Suarez, et al. \[[@pone.0235320.ref041]\] who reported that SF in oak forests was 25% higher than in pine forests, and up to 22% higher than in mixed forests in central Mexico. Cantú-Silva and González-Rodríguez \[[@pone.0235320.ref042]\] found that the proportion of SF to incident precipitation was 0.6%, 0.5%, and 0.03% for pines, oak, and mixed pine-oak stands, respectively. The difference in the SF between genus (e.g. madrone, oak, and pine) may be influenced by the characteristics of each group (e.g., bark roughness, leaf area, and tree architecture). In particular, oak trees are part of the co-dominant forest structure, have a thick, rough bark \[[@pone.0235320.ref043]\], and can direct water to the stem base in greater quantities than pines and madrone. The study did not find a clear relationship between SF and tree DBH. There is a positive, but not significant, relationship between SF volume and DBH. The relationship between SF depth and DBH is negative, but again without being significant. Theoretically, the size of the tree (expressed in terms of DBH, height), the shape and size of the canopy, and the bark and angle of insertion of the branches modify the canopy catchment area and thus affect the amount of SF produced \[[@pone.0235320.ref010], [@pone.0235320.ref044]\]. However, it seems that literature does not completely agree on how these factors affect stemflow. Martinez-Meza and Whitford \[[@pone.0235320.ref045]\] reported a direct relationship between SF and the canopy area in a Chihuahuan desert species. Chen et al. \[[@pone.0235320.ref046]\] also reported a direct relationship between SF and DBH, mostly when rainfall was less than 15 mm per hour. Above this threshold, the effect of tree size was not significant. Pérez-Suarez et al., \[[@pone.0235320.ref041]\] found a positive relationship between DBH and SF for oak species. Other studies like that of Marín et al. \[[@pone.0235320.ref005]\] did not detect a clear relationship between SF and BA. Yet, León-Peláez et al. \[[@pone.0235320.ref047]\] observed an inverse relationship between DBH and SF for pine and other species. Navar et al. \[[@pone.0235320.ref048]\] likewise, found a negative relationship between SF and DBH in a Tamaulipan thornscrub forest. These studies suggest the need to continue carrying out more research on site characteristics with varying topographic, soil, climatic, and vegetation conditions to establish their effects on SF. Germer et al., \[[@pone.0235320.ref049]\] suggest that *SF*~*r*~, unlike the typical stemflow measure, offers more reliability to compare stemflow generation in concentrated point sources of water in forests with a diversity of tree sizes and species. This is because *SF*~*r*~ is normalized for basal area and precipitation. We found significant statistical results between the stemflow funneling ratio and DBH in the quantile regression analysis. Our results showed that there is an inverse, significant relationship between the tree funneling ratio and DBH, for all species and for all quantiles. Findings suggest that the *SF*~*r*~ decreases as a tree becomes larger. Many reasons can explain this inverse relationship. On one hand, as a tree grows, its bark gets thicker \[[@pone.0235320.ref050], [@pone.0235320.ref051]\]. According to Herwitz \[[@pone.0235320.ref031]\], bark has a greater water-holding capacity than foliar surfaces. Thick-barked trees have more interception storage capacity than thin-barked trees \[[@pone.0235320.ref011], [@pone.0235320.ref012]\]. On the other hand, larger trees transfer more precipitation to throughfall than smaller trees \[[@pone.0235320.ref011], [@pone.0235320.ref046]\]. In large trees, the probability of water reaching the soil by directly dripping from branches and leaves increases. Consequently, less water is transferred to stemflow and more to throughfall \[[@pone.0235320.ref010], [@pone.0235320.ref032]\]. Other studies also agreed that *SF*~*r*~ values are greater in small trees \[[@pone.0235320.ref032], [@pone.0235320.ref046], [@pone.0235320.ref048], [@pone.0235320.ref049]\]. The fact that small trees are more efficient in capturing water at their base, and thereby creating important islands of soil moisture, brings additional insight to future stemflow studies \[[@pone.0235320.ref049]\], which should include these type of trees. The presence of small trees, along with a diversity of species, may affect subsurface flow, saturation overland flow, and groundwater recharge \[[@pone.0235320.ref032], [@pone.0235320.ref048], [@pone.0235320.ref049]\]. A greater dispersion of *SF*~*r*~ values was also observed in small trees. For instance, the statistical range of *SF*~*r*~ for small pines (i.e. with a DBH less than 15 cm) was 10 whereas the range for large trees (DBH larger than 40 cm) was only 2. Many factors can explain this variability, among others, bark thickness, angle of branches, leaf index, and length of crown \[[@pone.0235320.ref032]\]. Quantile regression was able to deal with this DBH dispersion because it not only estimated the impact of DBH in the median of *SF*~*r*~, but also in its extreme values. Surface runoff {#sec013} -------------- Overall, the SR quantile regression models were highly significant for each quantile tested ([Table 3](#pone.0235320.t003){ref-type="table"}). Surface runoff is influenced by precipitation, the more of it, the more amount of water converts to SR. High intensity, short duration rainfall events produce more SR and soil loss in many vegetation types \[[@pone.0235320.ref035]\]. Quantile regression can eventually help predict the impact of varying levels of precipitation, including extreme rain events that occur during a period of study. Pérez-Verdín et al. \[[@pone.0235320.ref028]\] generated a non-linear model of SR using BA as the independent variable. They also found a negative relationship between SR and BA. However, their model was only fitted to the mean observed values, unlike our study, in which we also modeled the upper and lower quantiles. Results indicated that the higher the tree BA, the lower the SR. Bosch and Hewlett \[[@pone.0235320.ref052]\] mentioned that SR increases significantly with heavy thinning and clear-cuts. Lack of vegetation cover, after intensive harvesting, reduces canopy interception and evapotranspiration resulting in larger amounts of runoff and downstream channel flows \[[@pone.0235320.ref053]\]. However, SR and streamflow responses to forest removals declined over time as forest and understory vegetation grew. Establishing plantations or increasing cover in areas with scarce vegetation decreases SR \[[@pone.0235320.ref054], [@pone.0235320.ref055]\]. The reason for this inverse relationship is because of the high tree density, which stimulates interception (and evapotranspiration) and decreases the amount of water reaching the forest floor. Depending on the slope and type of soil, it can further infiltrate deeper into the ground \[[@pone.0235320.ref034]\]. Conversely, excessive harvests reduce forest density, which in turn disturbs and exposes surface soil to rainfall, thus increasing erosion due to SR \[[@pone.0235320.ref020], [@pone.0235320.ref021], [@pone.0235320.ref036]\]. The consideration of other predicting variables such as soil texture, grasslands, and shrublands in future studies will help broaden the scope of SR models. Chen et al., \[[@pone.0235320.ref035]\] showed that some grass and shrub species can decrease SR up to 50% compared to forestlands with poor ground cover. The inclusion of this type of variables will also help analyze the effects of diverse forest structures not only on SR but on soil erosion as well. Surface runoff remained relatively constant after BA reached 15 m^2^ ha^-1^ in all quantiles. This may suggest that there is some compatibility with timber production. Below this range, not only will SR be impacted, but so will many other ecosystem services \[[@pone.0235320.ref028]\]. Perez-Verdin et al., using multicriteria decision-making techniques, found that the most appropriate BA for the management of some ecosystem services, including SR, was between 17 and 21 m^2^ ha^-1^ \[[@pone.0235320.ref028]\], which is within the range we considered as compatible. This information can be useful to forest managers for prescribing better silvicultural treatments in this type of ecosystem. The Hortonian SR starts when the intensity of rain begins to exceed the infiltration capacity of the soil. In our study, the lowest SR was recorded in the first days of July, which coincides with the beginning of the rainy season in the area. The SR increased with high rainfall intensities in late July, August, and September. In the beginning of the rainy season, there is a low SR due to a high infiltration capacity in response to gravity and metric potential that pulls the water down into dry soil \[[@pone.0235320.ref056]\]. But, as the rainy season progresses, the soil infiltration capacity starts to decrease and eventually reaches a constant that approaches the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil \[[@pone.0235320.ref016]\]. Eventually, swelling of the soil colloids and the closing of small cracks lower the infiltration capacity below the saturated hydraulic conductivity \[[@pone.0235320.ref056]\]. This process results in having more overland flow over the soil surface. Conclusions {#sec014} =========== This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of tree and stand variables on stemflow and surface runoff in temperate forests of the state of Durango, Mexico. We did not find a clear relationship between stemflow and stand variables. However, the stemflow funneling ratio was significant to tree diameter at breast height changes. The stemflow funneling ratio was greater in younger trees, suggesting the need to consider this type of trees in future stemflow-related studies. Stand density, expressed in terms of basal area, had significant effects on surface runoff. Denser stands intercept more precipitation and expose it to evaporative loss, allowing less water to turn into surface runoff. Less dense forests, on the other hand, permit precipitation to reach the ground with less impedance and produce more surface runoff. Surface runoff remained relatively constant after basal area reached 15 m^2^ ha^-1^ in all quantiles. Overall, the models developed in this study show moderate statistical fit for both stemflow funneling ratio and surface runoff. Quantile regression is useful for predicting different scenarios concerning the upper and lower tails of the predictor distribution. In addition, the generated models are simple and practical to use, since DBH or BA are the only independent variables used. These variables are important measures for selecting the most suitable silvicultural treatments. Furthermore, by knowing the interactions of these variables with hydrological fluxes of interest, they can readily be used to help determining forest management regimes compatible with the quantity and quality of other ecosystem services in this type of ecosystem. Supporting information {#sec015} ====================== ###### (XLSX) ###### Click here for additional data file. We thank the owners of the Molinillos private estate for allowing us to execute this study on their property. We are also grateful to Celina Perez and three anonymous reviewers for their invaluable inputs in an early manuscript. [^1]: **Competing Interests:**The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Occupational stress in veterinary support staff. A mixed-method study was used to characterize the occupational stress, health status, and coping strategies of 104 members of the Alabama Veterinary Technician Association. A Web-based survey was used to administer three validated and reliable instruments to gather the quantitative data, and interviews were conducted to gather qualitative data. Quantitative and qualitative data validated each other in all aspects of mental health, indicating that veterinary support staff's mental health status was low. Participants' mental health scores were lower than the US norm of 50, and a correlation between health status and occupational stressors indicated that those with higher perceived stress had lower mental and physical health. Interviews supported this finding. The results suggest that workload, death and dying, and conflict with veterinarians were prominent sources of stress and that veterinary support staff experience high stress that affects their health. Coping strategies were found to be related to mental health status, and those used by this workforce have been linked to negative outcomes. This study's findings indicate that staff health may have negative economic implications for practice owners and staff members.

Pedunculated early ampullary carcinoma treated by ampullectomy: report of a case. A 30-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for treatment of an ampullary tumor. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed a pedunculated tumor in the ampulla of Vater with a diameter of 50 mm, which was biopsied and diagnosed as tubulovillous adenoma with moderate atypia. Endoscopic ultrasonography demonstrated a hypoechoic tumor limited to the mucosa and without evidence of lymph node metastasis. Since endoscopic resection was not indicated because of the large size and pedunculated morphology with a long stalk, the patient underwent ampullectomy and papilloplasty. Histological examination revealed well-differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma in tubular adenoma with severe atypia limited to the mucosa. The patient remains well with no evidence of recurrence 10 months after resection. Ampullectomy is an established method for ampullary tumor, but such a tumor with a long stalk is rare.

Optical fibers and electrical wires are optically or electrically connected to respective opposing optical fibers and electrical wires to transmit signals between the respective connected fibers and wires, which may occur in the operation of data storage and transmission devices. Respective opposing optical fibers and electrical wires are held at their ends by connectors. To establish connections between respective opposing optical fibers and electrical wires, the respective opposing optical fibers and electrical wires are attached to each other or are both attached to adapters. Connections between respective optical fiber connectors and electrical wire connectors, the electrical wire connectors and wires held thereby often being termed wiring harnesses, are often made using a click-to-lock configuration, as in the case of optical fiber “LC connectors.” This configuration prevents pullout of connectors when they are connected to each other or to a corresponding adapter and also provides a tactile feedback to alert a user attaching connectors to each other or to a corresponding adapter that a full connection in which pullout has been prevented has been made. Sometimes, incomplete connections between connectors or between a connector and an adapter, which may be undetected by users, are made. Additionally, fatigue or other stresses induced through use of the connectors may weaken mechanical connections between connectors or between a connector and an adapter causing connections to be broken or inadequate. Such incomplete or broken connections have caused reduced system performance or even complete system failure. Therefore, there exists a need for detecting that proper respective optical fiber and electrical wiring connections are made and maintained.

Why preventive care is important Remember the old saying that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"? This can be especially true when it comes to preventive health care. Maintaining or improving your health is important - and a focus on regular preventive care, along with following the advice of your doctor, can help you stay healthy. Stool ova and parasites exam Apr 30, 2005 Viewed: 267 Alternative names Parasites and stool ova exam Definition Stool ova and parasites exam is a test for the presence of a parasite or worm-like infection of the intestine from stool analysis. Ova refers to the egg stage of a parasite’s life cycle. Some parasites are single-cell organisms such as amoeba, Giardia, and trichomonas, while others have a worm-like appearance. How the test is performed Adults and children: There are many ways to collect the samples. You can catch the stool on plastic wrap that is loosely placed over the toilet bowl and held in place by the toilet seat. Then, put the sample in a clean container. One test kit supplies a special toilet tissue that you use to collect the sample, then put the sample in a clean container. Infants and young children: For children wearing diapers, line the diaper with plastic wrap. If the plastic wrap is positioned properly, isolating the stool from any urine output, mixing of urine and stool can be prevented for a better sample. A small smear of stool is placed on a microscope slide and examined. How to prepare for the test You will be given a specimen container for the stool sample. Do not mix urine or toilet tissue in with the stool specimen. How the test will feel There is no discomfort. Why the test is performed The test is performed if a parasitic infestation is suspected, for prolonged diarrhea of unknown cause, or other intestinal symptoms. Normal Values The presence of normal bacteria and other microorganism in the stool is normal. What abnormal results mean Parasites or eggs are present in the stool indicating parasitic infestation. See also: Medical Encyclopedia All ArmMed Media material is provided for information only and is neither advice nor a substitute for proper medical care. Consult a qualified healthcare professional who understands your particular history for individual concerns. It's easy to make a financial decision based on what you need right now, but making an informed choice will benefit you in the long run. Meet a former Red Sox pitcher who picked security over an uncertain future

[Brachytherapy for oesophageal cancer]. The main indication of oesophageal brachytherapy is palliative: it can improve dysphagia in patients with a tumor not suitable for surgery or chemoradiotherapy. A randomized clinical trial showed that survival without dysphagia and quality of life was improved by endoluminal brachytherapy in comparison to self-expansible metallic stents. It also increases the duration of palliation after laser deobstruction. Its role as a curative treatment of locally advanced tumors is still discussed: in combination with external beam radiotherapy, it seems that brachytherapy increased the rate of severe toxicity (haemorrhages, fistula, stenosis). In superficial lesions, brachytherapy with or without external beam radiotherapy seems logical but large prospective studies are missing in this setting.

Papio Papio En ligneHors ligne motion graphics, 3d animation, video. We can make it. I am a versatile producer / designer with seven years of senior-level production experience in advertising, fiction and documentary television with a current emphasis in international projects. I speak english, spanish and italian fluently, and have knowledge of french, german, dutch and norwegian. I also ran a small production company in Buenos Aires. I am accomplished at taking projects from conception to completion and have produced advertising campaigns that were successfully picked up. I work very well in challenging, high-pressure situations and have experience on multi platform projects (video+web+graphic+realtime 3d). As a Producer, I am adept at crafting engaging, entertaining and informative stories while simultaneously overseeing all aspects of a production including managing crew, staff, budget, and production schedule. As a designer, I am experienced at working with technical crews, agency reps, clients, and artists to realize compelling pieces from web to cinema. I am also a skilled and creative Shooter, Editor and English-Spanish simultaneous interpreter. I've developed business plans for video e-marketing solutions to a regional government in Italy and am experienced writing proposals for a variety of projects including advertising, tv, cinema and web. Specialties production, advertising, photography, motion graphics, graphic design, postproduction, international liaison, web 2.0, branding, cgi, 3d, videogames, mmorpg, concept art, illustration, realtime Digital Artist Big Buddha Jan 2005 - Jan 2007 (2 years) Planning and execution of projects for several international companies as Coca-Cola, Siemens, Playboy TV, Chevrolet, etc. Coordination of tailored crews for specific projects, both for tv and viral advertising.

Disclosed is a mold-BGA-type semiconductor device which has: a semiconductor chip which includes insulating resin film formed on at least a part of the surface of the semiconductor chip except a pad; a conductive layer formed in a region on the insulating resin film, the region including at least part...http://www.google.de/patents/US6218728?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6218728 - Mold-BGA-type semiconductor device and method for making the same Mold-BGA-type semiconductor device and method for making the sameUS 6218728 B1 Zusammenfassung Disclosed is a mold-BGA-type semiconductor device which has: a semiconductor chip which includes insulating resin film formed on at least a part of the surface of the semiconductor chip except a pad; a conductive layer formed in a region on the insulating resin film, the region including at least part corresponding to a position where a solder ball is mounted; a first metal thin wire which is wire-bonded between the pad and the conductive layer; a second metal thin wire which is wire-bonded on the conductive layer; resin part which seals the semiconductor chip, the resin part including a hole to expose part of the second metal thin wire; and a solder ball which is mounted on the hole. Bilder(5) Ansprüche(4) What is claimed is: 1. A mold-BGA-type semiconductor device, comprising: a semiconductor chip which includes insulating resin film formed on at least a part of the surface of the semiconductor chip except a pad; a conductive layer formed in a region on said insulating resin film, said region including at least part corresponding to a position where a solder ball is mounted; a first metal thin wire is wire-bonded between said pad and said conductive layer; a second metal thin wire having a first end and a second end which is wire-bonded on said conductive layer; said second metal wire is substantially U-shaped, said first end and said second end of said metal wire are both wire bonded on said conductive layer; resin part which seals said semiconductor chip, said first wire and partially seals said second wire, said resin part including a hole to expose part of said second metal thin wire for accommodating a solder ball; and a solder ball which is mounted on said hole. 2. A mold-BGA-type semiconductor device, according to claim 1, wherein: said insulating resin film is polyimide film. 3. A mold-BGA-type semiconductor device, according to claim 1, wherein: said conductive layer is an aluminum layer. 4. A mold-BGA-type semiconductor device, according to claim 2, wherein: said conductive layer is an aluminum layer. Beschreibung FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a mold-BGA (ball grid array)-type semiconductor device and a method for making the same. BGA means to connect arranging an array of ball solders on a main plane of substrate. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A conventional mold-BGA-type semiconductor device is, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, structured by adhering a buffering elastic material called elastomer 10 onto the surface of a chip 1, thermo-compression-bonding a copper wiring 12 to a pad 2 of the chip 1, sealing with a sealant 13. FIG. 1A shows a state that the pad 2 is disposed at the center of the chip 1, and FIG. 1B shows a state that it is disposed peripherally. Also, Japanese patent application laid-open Nos. 3-94438 (1991) and 8-204062 (1996) disclose examples of mold-BGA-type semiconductor devices where solder balls are disposed on the surface of resin package on the front-face side of semiconductor chip. As one example of them, the semiconductor device disclosed in Japanese patent application laid-open No. 3-94438 (1991) is shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. FIG. 2A is a cross sectional view showing the semiconductor device before forming the solder balls, and FIG. 2B is a cross sectional view showing the semiconductor device after forming the solder balls. As shown in FIG. 2A, it is fabricated by forming a dummy support 15 uniting with a die pad 14 on which a semiconductor chip 1 is to be mounted, adhering the semiconductor chip 1 onto the die pad 14, bonding between the pad 2 of the semiconductor chip 1 and the dummy support 15 through a wire 5 (metal thin wire), resin-sealing the whole members. After resin-sealing, as shown in FIG. 2B, outsides from the line B-B′ and line C-C′ in FIG. 2A are cut down and separated, thereby allowing part where the semiconductor chip 1 is mounted to be remaining. The surface of the remaining part and the wire 5 are polished to expose the surface of wire 5 until having a predetermined thickness. Solder balls 6 are formed on the exposed and polished part of the wire 5. However, in the BGA-type semiconductor device in FIGS. 1A and 1B, there are the problems that the cost for material becomes expensive because the wiring structure from the pad 2 to the solder ball 6 uses a polyimide tape 11 and the elastomer 10, and that the fabrication process is complicated because of the adhering structure. Also, in the BGA-type semiconductor device in FIGS. 2A and 2B, there is the problem that the cost for material becomes expensive because the dummy support 15 is used. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a mold-BGA-type semiconductor device where the connection with solder ball through wire can be made at a lower cost. It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for making a mold-BGA-type semiconductor device where the connection with solder ball through wire can be made at a lower cost. According to the invention, a mold-BGA-type semiconductor device, comprises: a semiconductor chip which includes insulating resin film formed on at least a part of the surface of the semiconductor chip except a pad; a conductive layer formed in a region on the insulating resin film, the region including at least part corresponding to a position where a solder ball is mounted; a first metal thin wire which is wire-bonded between the pad and the conductive layer; a second metal thin wire which is wire-bonded on the conductive layer; resin part which seals the semiconductor chip, the resin part including a hole to expose part of the second metal thin wire; and a solder ball which is mounted on the hole. According to another aspect of the invention, a method for making a mold-BGA-type semiconductor device, comprises the steps of: forming insulating resin film on at least a part of the surface of a semiconductor chip except a pad; wire-bonding between the pad and the conductive layer and wire-bonding on the conductive layer; resin-sealing the semiconductor chip; forming a hole through the sealing resin to expose part of a metal thin wire which is wire-bonded on the conductive layer; and mounting a solder ball on the hole. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be explained in more detail in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein: FIGS. 3A and 3B are a plan view and a cross sectional view showing a mold-BGA-type semiconductor device in a preferred embodiment according to the invention, and FIGS. 4A to 4F are cross sectional views showing a method for making a mold-BGA-type semiconductor device in a preferred embodiment according to the invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The preferred embodiments of the invention will be explained below, referring to the drawing. FIG. 3A is a plan view showing a mold-BGA-type semiconductor device, whose resin is partly removed, in the embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 3B is a cross sectional view of FIG. 3A. As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, laminated metal layer 4, such as aluminum, is formed by vapor deposition etc. on polyimide film 3 formed on a chip 1, connected with a pad 2 by a wire (metal thin wire) 5A. Further, on the laminated metal layer 4, inverted-U-shaped wiring is provided. Solder balls 6 are bonded to the inverted-U-shaped wire exposed by holing resin 7 after sealing with resin 7. Next, a method for making the above mold-BGA-type semiconductor device will be explained using FIGS. 4A to 4F. First, as shown in FIG. 4A, polyimide 3 is formed on the surface of the chip 1, and aluminum 4 is vapor-deposited at part to dispose the solder ball 6. As shown in FIG. 4B, wire bonding from the pad 2 to the aluminum layer 4 is conducted with the wire 5A. The position of the pad 2 is varied depending on a circuit on the chip 1. Therefore, wiring to the part to dispose the solder ball 6 is conducted with the wire 5B. Next, as shown in FIG. 4C, wire bonding is conducted on the aluminum layer 4. Further, as shown in FIG. 4D, resin sealing is conducted with resin 7. Then, as shown in FIG. 4E, a solder-ball hole 9 is formed by laser light 8 to expose part of the wire 5B formed in FIG. 4C. The solder-ball hole 9 can be also exposed by polishing, but it can be exposed without hurting the wire when using laser light. Finally, as shown in FIG. 4F, the solder ball 6 is mounted on the solder-ball hole 9. Advantages of the Invention: As explained above, in the present invention, due to a conductive layer formed on insulating resin film of chip, the cost of material for wire-binding can be reduced, thereby making the semiconductor device at lower cost. Also, the bonding of solder ball and metal thin wire can be easily conducted. Although the invention has been described with respect to specific embodiment for complete and clear disclosure, the appended claims are not to be thus limited but are to be construed as embodying all modification and alternative constructions that may be occurred to one skilled in the art which fairly fall within the basic teaching here is set forth.

Stash Report When I was going back and forth to my doctor appointments I’ve also been periodically stopping at the thrift stores. I was able to find some fabric. The purple floral is destine to be the back of the quilt…the purple plaid is flannel and I think that will back a baby quilt. The others are just fabrics that will go into my collection. While I was there I also found this…Goodies to make sock monkeys!! There should be plenty of socks and stuffing to make two sock monkeys and that’s perfect. I think I’ll make them next Christmas..one will be for Carver and the other for Scott, Buck’s girlfriend’s little guy. This all made me super happy. I’ve made a couple of sock monkeys before. They are quick, easy and lots of fun too. Now I have to somehow remember that I have the goodies and get them made. It’s a happy coincidence that they were there. I likely wouldn’t have thought of making them had I now found the socks. To see what others are doing with their fabric collections check out Patchwork Times.

At Rainy Day Reviews you will find my personal reviews on books as well as reading challenges, weekly memes I participate in, and all other bookish topics. Thank you for stopping by my blog:) I hope you enjoyed yourself and hope to see you again:) It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! D This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! This past week I kept it real easy since I am potty training my daughter. I knew it would suck up my daytime reading a lot with keeping a special eye on her. So far so good. Except for the other day when my older sister and I took her to get her Easter pictures done and were gone for five hours doing so; so her potty training was kind of put on pause. Anyway, this past week I read and review two books. I also had to put The Opposite of Me to the side since two other books came in the mail for review and I only have a few days between the reviews. Friday, April 15, 2011 Do you find yourself living in memories, imaginations, and fears more than in the current moment? As Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe writes, "My past may discourage me and my future may frighten me, but 'the life I now live' today can be enriching and encouraging because 'Christ lives in me' (Gal. 2:20)." In Jesus in the Present Tense, Dr. Wiersbe explores the I AM statements of God- from His burning-bush conversation with Moses, to His powerful reassurances to the Israelites to Jesus' startling claims to be the Light of the World, the Good Shepherd, and the True Vine. The better you understand God's I AM statements from both the Old and New Testaments and apply their truths to your life, the more you will abide in Christ and bear fruit for His glory today. Then you will be free to live, serve, and know God more richly in the present tense- which is just where He wants you to be. I loved this book. I honestly could not put it down. It was so interesting and educational and real. I didn't find it preachy either. I liked that Dr. Wiersbe had scriptures through-out the book to back up he was saying. He shows that just because the Bible is old and just because we aren't in those biblical times anymore, people dealt with most of the same issues we deal with today and how we can use His Word for our everyday life even if we think the Bible is outdated. The chapter I liked the most was chapter eight, " The Way, The Truth and The Life." He gave a full chapter to the I AM statements of Christ. Giving a bunch of scriptures backing them up then explaining the scriptures in such a way making them easy to understand and explain to other people which I found handy. I can't gush enough about this book! I soaked this book up in a couple of nights. I also found that this book would be good for a bible study group. He even has notes at the end of his book for each chapter. I am looking forward to reading more of Dr. Warren's books:) I would totally recommend this book, it wasn't boring in the least. Presley Thurman, a sassy, thirty-something redhead, lover of shopping and Starbucks had just been fired so she decided to follow her dream. With her feisty nature and a spirit to not "sweat the small stuff," she was ready to tackle any challenge (even if she had no idea how she would pay the bills). However, the new job turned into murder-in her hometown! Presley was excited - she hadn't seen so much buzz since the spring sample sale at Saks. Presley was able to discover the Senators wife, Helen, had been having an affair...with her best friend's boyfriend! Did Helen kill the Senator? Or was it the Senators love of gambling that got him killed? And what was Cooper's secret tie to the mob boss Garrison Palozzo? But could she find the killer and write her story while resisting the good looks and charm of old flame Cooper. Presley was betting her favorite pair of Manolo's she will find the killer...but will time run out? * * * I was pleasantly surprised with this book. I'm not usually a fan of books with romance being a main key in the storyline. Yet I fully enjoyed this read. I loved the mystery and shoes;) And even though I had a hunch what may take place or not take place, I had to keep reading to find out for sure. Laina really does have a gift for writing this style of book. I enjoyed the main character, Presley. She is independent and goes after what she wants. She deals with what I think all women who get to a certain age that are single deal with. And that is that their mother won't stop trying to connect them to men they think are right for them because they want to see their daughter(s) happy and they want grand-kids. Heck, I know some mothers who ask if the man is single (and after getting a yes) shove him at their daughters lol. I loved how real and well developed the characters were. I could see myself at the cafe with Presley having a large black coffee with cream and two sugars talking about all the men in the town or sitting at her and her best friend growing up Katy's table at La Casa sipping on a margarita looking at the all the men and getting filled in on all the gossip while wishing I had half of Presley's wardrobe or Katy's figure lol! I could get along with Presley and a few of her friends but Presley's ex Brian seemed a bit immature and desperate; especially after they had gone out for coffee. They hadn't seen each other in a few years and he got upset and left her stranded at the coffee shop because she wasn't for getting back together. I also think that it was a hidden blessing that Presley got the online magazine job that sent her back to her hometown for a few days because Presley did a lot of growing up and finding out who she was and growing more confident in herself and in her own skin and not just portraying it on the outside or convincing herself that she was happy. You gotta read this book. Bottom line. Laina has a great writing style and seems to have a knack for making her characters real and imaginative. I would recommend this book and I can't wait for her next book! I have added Laina as a 'fav author'. This was a fun read with twists and turns and I couldn't wait for her next book:) I like this Presley Thurman;) Thursday, April 14, 2011 To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions...• What are you currently reading?• What did you recently finish reading?• What do you think you'll read next? I am currently reading: Stilettos & Scoundrels by Laina Turner-Molaski and The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen I am reading Stilettos & Scoundrels for review/blog tour:) Review will be up later tonight. Though I haven't read much of The Opposite of Me in the past few days as I have been busy finishing up reading and writing my review. I also have been reading Jesus in the Present Tense (Victory in Jesus) by Warren W Wiersbe for review (up later tonight:) I recently finished reading a few books by Kerry Cohen-Hoffmann:The Good GirlIt's Not You, It's MeEasyAlso,A Conversation with God by Alton Gansky Tuesday, April 12, 2011 Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current read Open to a random page Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! I have two teasers this week starting with the book I am continuing to read this week: "Glad you still find this so amusing, Dad" Presley said, rolling her eyes. "What can I say? It's what I live for," he joked back. "It wouldn't seem the same if you two didn't bicker all the time." Page 37-38 Stilettos & Scoundrels by Laina Turner-Molaski "He's probably got a chippie on the side," one of them hissed as they shot him dirty looks. All in all, a bit lacking in the ambience department. Page 27 from The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen Monday, April 11, 2011 It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! D This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! Along with this weekly meme I strongly encourage you to visit as many other participants as possible:) Well my reading plan hasn't changed too much.... This past week I have been reading:The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen Stilettos & Scoundrels by Laina Turner-Molaski (for review/blog tour- at the end of this week!) I hope to finish these in the next couple days then get started on following:Testimony by Anita Shreve Thursday, April 7, 2011 What great books did you hear about/discover this past week? Share with us your FRIDAY FINDS! :D After reading Possession by Rene Gutteridge I went to see is she had any other books out. I had a dork moment and instead of typing her name I typed Snitch. That, to my surprise had a few responses that I have added to my tbr not only because of what the book is about but because (yes I am a book cover snob!) either I liked the cover and/or it intrigued me. One made me raise an eyebrow and I am willing to bet you can figure which had this affect on me. So my first few friday finds are by different authors same title: A book by Desi Arnaz looks interesting to me because he called it A Book. And I haven't read any of his work yet but I like the movies I have seen him in so far so I want to check that one out as well. I recently finished reading:Easy by Kerry Cohen HoffmannWIt's Not You, It's Me by Kerry Cohen HoffmannThe Good Girl by Kerry Cohen HoffmannA Conversation with God by Alon GanskyChasing Zebras by Barbara Barnett What I plan to read next: The Wiersbe Bible Study SeriesI also have a few books from the library that need to be read but I'm not sure which I should add to my 'next to be read' and what should wait. We shall see... Tuesday, April 5, 2011 If you'd like to play along on Teaser Tuesdays, just click the button above. Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: * Grab your current read * Open to a random page * Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) * Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! My teaser: "Are you trying to tell me that if I am not nice to you, you are going to fire me?" "I'm not doing anything. This is your choice." David sat back in his chair looking smug, as if he really thought sh would change her mind. Hon Hoh, a teacher of the Revelation, takes readers on a riveting journey Do each of us play a role in the kingdom of God? Can the choices we make affect God’s timing of future events? Hon Hoh examines these questions while taking his readers on a riveting adventure in The Trigger: A Novel on the Revelation. Through twists and turns, readers will be led on a powerful journey. The Trigger follows three individuals (a pastor, a spy, and a missionary) from three continents (the United States, China, and Australia) who find their lives merged in a single divine purpose: to win the last unreached people group on earth and usher in the Second Coming of Christ. They must succeed in order to release the trigger for the return of the Lamb as declared in Matthew 24:14. In their way stands a legion of demonic principalities intent on destroying the plan. Against the backdrop of unprecedented persecution and the onslaught of cataclysmic events, they must remain steadfast in order to carry out the priority revealed to them by God. It is evident that no believer will escape the greatest tribulation in human history and that only the matchless return of the King can deliver mankind from evil’s reign. The climactic battle between Good and Evil unfolds as Lucifer executes his definitive act of defiance: the global genocide of all Christians. With the sound of the trumpets reverberating throughout the heavens, the events that have been set in motion must now complete their course. Eternity and the fate of the earth are at stake, and there is no plan B. Far more than just another End-Times novel and theologically distinct from the Left Behind series, Hoh will alter the way you see the world and prepare you for the future. This novel is based closely on Hoh’s theology expressed in his book Risen Lamb, Empowered Saints: The Book of Revelation Made Easy.Although the events described are entirely fictional, they are but one of many plausible scenarios in which the end could occur. Though these depictions may not arise for more than another hundred years, it is conceivable that they could begin to unfold within the next decade—or less. Hoh has written a thought-provoking and exciting novel that looks at the events leading up to the Second Coming and challenges us all to follow the plans that Christ has for our lives. Monday, April 4, 2011 It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! D This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. I feel very good about myself this week with bookish things. Because Hubby and I moved a few weeks ago I have been busy with unpacking, putting away, organizing, getting new things for our place plus keeping up with life. That said, this past week I posted two reviews: Imagine that it is just you and God…Have you ever looked into the night sky and asked, "Why?" It's not unusual to ask questions. But it's rare to find reliable answers since so many of our questions involve difficult issues or mysteries too great for our comprehension. But there is One who knows. A Conversation with God was created because life is challenging and your heart longs to understand. In this book you will find fifty-five of life's greatest questions and the answers you've been seeking about the past, the present, and the future. This book wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. It was better. I couldn't read it fast enough. I loved how the author really made you feel like you reading one of those Q and A's you read about authors, celebrities and such. It didn't feel preachy either and I liked that. It makes it easier for me to recommend this book to people who aren't sure about God and His hand in the why, where, how and why, etc. It was a fun, delightful, educational and informative read that was a complete page turner. I read it in a couple of nights while lying in bed. The first night I got into bed around midnight, picked it up to look it over and get a feel of the book. The next thing I know it's two thirty in the morning and I am about halfway through the book. I loved how the author wrote it in a conversation style. I loved the questions he brought up. Like, are we really living in the end time? If you love us, why do we suffer? There are so many religions, an each says it's the only one that has things right. Is there just one way to heaven, or do they all work? There are so many other questions with answers from the Bible with scripture(s) where to find the answer(s). Bottom line, it's a reference book in conversation style. And I loved it. I highly recommend this read to everyone. This is a good resource to use for kids askingtough questions, Bible study groups or for your own study, debates, etc. I lent it to my older nephew who has questions and he told me just last night that so far it is being a big help and that he likes that it isn't preachy and tell you where to find it in the Bible. Medical students are taught that when they hear hoof beats, they should think horses, not zebras, but Dr. House's unique talent of diagnosing unusual illnesses has made House, M.D. one of the most popular and fascinating series on television. Inside this book, Barbara Barnett, widely considered a leading House expert, takes fan deep into the heart of the show's central character and his world, examining the way the medical Sherlock Holmes colleagues and patients reflect him and each other; how the music, settings, and even the humor enhances our understanding of the series' narrative; what the show says about modern medicine, ethics, and religion; and much more. When I first saw the opportunity to read and review this book, I was excited. I haven't ever really seen the show. But I know people who like the show and follow it. So I figured reading this book was a way for me to see what everyone is talking about. To get the inside look on the show and characters. To see what all the fuss is about. I have learned that finding the person to play the main character (Dr. House) wasn't easy because he isn't the pretty guy type (but not ugly either). House' character has horrible bedside manners, he rude, a pill popper and is a cripple that walks with a cane. I also learned that he seems to have a niche for solving medical cases at the last moment. He doesn't go for simple. He digs beneath the surface. And he usually gets little faith from his colleagues/friends for his ways of doing things and his ideas of what is wrong with a patient and how to fix them. But he is usually right. I had so much fun reading this book. I also think I am going to start watching the program and be able to talk with family and friends about the show. Especially my father; he thinks that House is the biggest jerk but is absolutely addicted to the show. He is now reading Chasing Zebra's. I like the cover of this book. I think it is very fitting. I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone; in particular to people who like the show or House himself of course. I received my copy for review from Pump Up Your Book Thank you Dorothy for letting me be part of this blog tour! I loved the book!

Q: Is it possible to use a value from a result to union another result into the previous resultset? So let's say that I have a table, BMST. I use this query to find a result set: SELECT PARENT, CHILD, LEVEL, QTY FROM BMST WHERE PARENT = '111' In the result set are PARENT part numbers, as well as CHILD part numbers such as: PARENT | CHILD | LEVEL | QTY ----------------------------- 111 | 222 | 0 | 2 111 | 333 | 0 | 1 111 | 444 | 0 | 1 The table gives information on all the CHILD parts that are used to make the PARENT part, as well as the QUANTITY of CHILD parts used in each PARENT part. The LEVEL column has a value of '0' because part '111' is the origin part that we care about. We do not care if part '111' is a CHILD part to another larger PARENT part. It is possible for CHILD parts to be PARENT parts as well if they are made up of smaller CHILD parts. For example, this query: SELECT PARENT, CHILD, LEVEL, QTY FROM BMST WHERE PARENT = '222' would return: PARENT | CHILD | LEVEL | QTY ----------------------------- 222 | 555 | 1 | 1 222 | 666 | 1 | 1 222 | 777 | 1 | 1 The LEVEL value in this new table is '1' because the part '222' is a CHILD part of a LEVEL = '0' PARENT part. Going even further, the CHILD parts of part '222' could have CHILD parts themselves, so that a similar query for part '777' would return: PARENT | CHILD | LEVEL | QTY ----------------------------- 777 | 999 | 2 | 2 My question is, would it be possible to create a query that would return the first result set, and then check all of the CHILD part values within that result set to see if those have any CHILD parts, and then checks the resulting CHILD parts for even more CHILD parts, etc. until there are no more CHILD parts, and then UNION those that do into the first result set so it looks like: PARENT | CHILD | LEVEL | QTY ----------------------------- 111 | 222 | 0 | 2 222 | 555 | 1 | 1 222 | 777 | 1 | 1 777 | 999 | 2 | 2 222 | 888 | 1 | 1 111 | 333 | 0 | 1 111 | 444 | 0 | 1 The LEVEL value needs to increment for every step deeper that the query goes, and the end result set should show every single part that goes into the requested PARENT part. Is there a way to do all of this in SQL? Or do I have to use VB6 or another program to iterate through the loops? Any and all feedback is appreciated. A: To do what you want you will need something called recursion. Ofcourse, you can parse it line by line (with T-SQL, or with VB, or whatever language you are comfortable in), however, this problem (recursion) is very easy to solve with something called Common Table Expressions or CTE. With a CTE you are able to union against your result, so a PARENT-CHILD relation where the CHILD can be a PARENT is solveable in this case. I have created this script to show you how. First i populate some Temp tables, after that i am querying using the CTE if object_id('tempdb..#BMST') is not null begin drop table #BMST end create table #BMST ( PARENT varchar(5) , CHILD varchar(5) , LEVEL varchar(5) , QTY varchar(5) ) insert into #BMST select '111', '222', 0, 2 union all select '111', '333', 0, 1 union all select '111', '444', 0, 1 union all select '222', '555', 1, 1 union all select '222', '666', 1, 1 union all select '222', '777', 1, 1 union all select '777', '999', 2, 2 Blow is the CTE. A Common Table Expression always has to be the first statement, so a semicolon is used for that. After that a with xxx as () construction starts. The results is a fictional name and can be anything. (In this example i used a new colom SECONDLEVEL to show you the new level) ;with results as ( select * , 0 as SECONDLEVEL from #BMST b union all select b.* , r.SECONDLEVEL + 1 as SECONDLEVEL from #BMST b inner join results r on r.CHILD = b.PARENT and b.LEVEL > r.LEVEL ) select * from results As you can see, i am using an UNION ALL operator. The top part is querying the #temp table, and it the bottom part it is using that to join to results that are already fetched. And that's it. You have recursion now.

This invention relates to four quadrant-loading article handlers and more particularly to a straddle-type loader wherein the operator station moves with the load. As is known, industries are constantly faced with the problems of the lack of space for storage of industrial goods, parts, rolls, cases and the like. Since enclosing space for storage purposes has increasingly become more and more expensive, the trend has been to construct relatively high storage facilities to avoid lateral expansion which requires greater land use. Thus, the density of storage facilities has increased with minimum aisle space being provided. Thus, order-picker trucks are commonly used wherein the operator stands on the platform on the fork of the truck and the platform elevates to the desired height in the storage area. The articles are then manually moved either from the shelves or bins to the truck platform or from the truck platform to the storage shelves. This, of course, is a hazardous, time consuming and arduous process. Prior art shows various approaches to the problem. U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,825 discloses a side-loading handling device which incorporates a carriage adapted to be moved at right angles to the prongs of the fork. A turntable is rotatably mounted on the carriage and includes a mast structure which, in turn, is provided with a carriage adapted to be moved vertically. The arrangement disclosed is, in effect, a double order-picker arrangement, each acting independently of the other to perform its function. U.S. Pat. No. 3,323,664 discloses a side-loading fork truck which includes an upright post or mast that is fixedly mounted on the truck body and supports a vertically movable carriage. A guide arrangement is mounted on the carriage for angular movement about a vertical axis. A load-handling fork is arranged on the frame for guided movement in a horizontal plane. U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,242 discloses a truck having a mast and a lifting carriage supported thereon. On the carriage, there is a turntable which is supported by the mast. On the turntable is a guide means for a horizontally movable carriage which supports a fork arrangement for reaching purposes. German Pat. No. 1,026,668 discloses a truck having a vertically movable mast adapted to carry a frame, the frame being mounted on the mast for transverse movement relative to the mast. A fork mechanism is carried by the frame for movement with it and for rotation and lateral movement.

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Finally someone did it! // YESSSS OH MY GOSH I HAVE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS I'M CRYING // THIS IS SO AWESOME------ yes it's perfect but if u were a true disnerd u would have noticed that the line is, "a horrible decision, really". Amateurs. :)

Antinociceptive activity and preliminary structure-activity relationship of chalcone-like compounds. Chalcones belong to a class of alpha,beta,-unsaturated aromatic ketones which occur abundantly in nature, especially in plants. They are promising and interesting compounds due to their vast applications in pharmaceuticals, agriculture and industry. Several studies have shown that these compounds exert important biological activities in different experimental models. The present work deals with the antinociceptive activity, evaluated against the writhing test, of three series of chalcone-like compounds obtained by the Claisen-Schmidt condensation, using different aldehydes and substituted acetophenones. The results reveal that the compounds synthesized show a significant antinociceptive effect compared with nonsteroidal drugs such as aspirin, paracetamol and diclofenac. They also show that the electronic demand of the substituents is the dominant factor of the biological activity.

How to market my NoSQL technology - tom_andersson I have been developing a technology which best can be described as an object oriented / graph NoSQL database, and I need some ideas on how to market it. Check out my web site at: http://www.clear-objects.com/clearodb<p>The end users would be software developers who writes distributed applications. I haven't thought to much about it's use for web site development, but maybe that could work too.<p>I am a bit lost as to what approach to take to get this out. I think, the best way is to somehow find individual users who can see the value and that way step by step build up a customer base. I don't think open source is necessarily the way to go (in my life as a professional developer, I have never made a decision to use a technology based on whether it is open source or not, but rather whether it will save me time). I guess the main problem is to convince people that this technology will save them time.<p>Questions: - Anyone who has launched products to a similar market who has any experiences to share? - Any thoughts on whether an open or closed source approach is better? Would I be more successful in making money long term, if I have a large number of users who use it for free? - I don't really want to sell this as a database technology, but rather a cost saving tool for creating distributed applications (that was really the problem I tried to solve in the first place, it just turned out to be a graph database). Any thoughts on this? ====== opendomain There are over 100 different NoSQL databases - so you have to definately show something on how your software is better. Most NoSQL are open sourced and are free to use for limited installs, so it will be very hard to make money with licensing. Some offer a base version for free, but offer clustering or other advanced features at a cost. Some charge money for consulting. Where does your db sit on the CAP spectrum? How is it the best for a specific use case? ~~~ tom_andersson Yeah, I realise there are quite a few nosqls around. But only a few have just recently started to gain momentum. It is still very easy to find developers who have never heard of anything but traditional relational databases (not sure if I would dare to say the majority of all developers). In most cases relational databases is the best option for what they are doing, but I think there are many situations where people choose the old sql just because they don't know better. So, although there might be a point in comparing and competing between different NoSQL technologies, I think all within the NoSQL movement can gain from better marketing to all these relational database users. Anyway, I think what you are saying is I need to be very good at describing why my technology is better than others, which as a developer I find very difficult. It is easy to be technical about it, but how to describe something at a level that makes sense to the average guy is something I am still trying to learn. What my solution does very well is integration with object oriented languages and where the data is described by complex inheritance structures and ownership relations (say a financial model with different types of financial instruments, different types of market data, static data, deal data, etc which would be described by a number of class hierarchies; and all linked together). With the risk of getting too technical, if you are building a C++ application for example, you only create your C++ classes (with any inheritance structure which can be single/multiple etc), and you can use pointers to other objects (polymorphic pointers and cyclic graphs are ok), use standard collection classes etc. Basically what you would normally do when designing a C++ application. You use a minimum amount of declarative code as C++ doesn't have built-in reflection. You send your C++ classes to the database and receive the data as your C++ classes. It traverses your objects to find all linkages to other objects prior to sending and links objects together upon retrieval. In short, the solution tries to make life as easy as possible for an application programmer. What my solution does in terms of CAP and ACID: Atomicity - A transaction is either committed in full or not at all. A transaction may consist of one or multiple objects. Consistency - No consistency checks in the sense that there are defined constraints on the member fields. However, all objects are versioned, and if two clients are trying to commit the same version of an object, the second client will fail and it would have to retrieve the most recent version before updating the object. Isolation - All transactions are processed in isolation, i.e. all objects in a transaction are locked prior to being updated Durability - Transactions are never overwritten, i.e. new transactions are always added to the end of the data store. If a transaction has completed successfully, you can be certain that the transaction will be completed even after a server crash. Availability - Concurrency is handled by locking objects. Many clients can read simultaneously, but if you try to read an object that is locked for writing by someone else, you will have to wait (there is room for improvement here). If you try to write to an object that someone else is writing to, you will fail. I have not looked into performance of a large number of clients, however the simple answer is that consistency is prioritised above availability. Partition Tolerance - None at the moment. I have not looked into distributing the database yet. ~~~ opendomain Please contact me - I would love to discuss. [username] at NoSQL dot com

Wise Words "Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot." - Morpheus, The Sandman - Dream Country (Neil Gaiman) "A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensly right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt." - Mark Twain "At the beginning there was the Word - at the end just the Cliche." - Stanislaw J Lec Small Press I’ve been really looking forward to the release of this book and it’s finally here in paperback as well as ebook. The ebook has been out for ages, but I saved mentioning it here until the print edition was available too. It contains my story, “Shadows of the Lonely Dead”, which is probably the most personal story I’ve ever written. I drew extensively on my experiences surrounding the deaths of people very close to me in the writing of it. It’s sharing the pages with a plethora of amazing people and I’m sure their stories will be excellent. Here’s the skinny and some sweet blurbs: “Disquieting and at times terrifying, SUSPENDED IN DUSK shows that horror can, and should, have substance.” ~ Kaaron Warren, Shirley Jackson Award winner, and author of Slights, Mystification, Walking the Tree. “SUSPENDED IN DUSK offers a delicious assortment of chills, frights, shocks and very dark delights!” ~ Jonathan Maberry, Bram Stoker Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of Fall of Night and V-Wars DUSK A time between times. A whore hides something monstrous and finds something special. A homeless man discovers the razor blade inside the apple. Unlikely love is found in the strangest of places. Secrets and dreams are kept… forever. I decided it would be really cool to put together a list of great books by Australian Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror writers so people could essentially have the best Xmas shopping list of Aussie SFF and horror books ever. After drowning in an inbox full of Aussie spec fic goodness, I now have this sweet megapost of Aussie spec fic goodness. It’s far from definitive – there are loads more out there – but it’s pretty impressive nonetheless. There really is something for everyone. Have a scroll through, enjoy the covers, read the blurbs – if you like it, buy it! Links to places of purchase are right there with every book. Books are listed alphabetically by author surname. And don’t forget to buy loads of books for your family and friends for Xmas too. There’s really no better gift than a book. (Unless you need a new bodily organ or something, but you know what I mean.) Amazon allows you to gift ebooks as well, don’t forget, as do several other outlets and publishers. Have it at! Dean J Anderson Unnaturals Unnaturals tried to kill Mason Douglas and his family. Big mistake. He became The Butcher, a cold relentless Hunter with a vendetta that took him across the world. And now, on his return home to Australia – to mend his heart, soul and family – his destiny collides with a millennia-old struggle between strange Gods. Their prize is Earth. Their warriors are warring races of Unnaturals: the Bloodells and the Darkells. As an unlikely alliance forms between Natural and Unnatural – between the Douglas clan and the Darkells – Mason’s family grows in unexpected ways… not all of whom are human. In a far future where technology is all but indistinguishable from magic, Tanyana is one of the elite. She can control pions, the building blocks of matter, shaping them into new forms using ritual gestures and techniques. The rewards are great, and she is one of most highly regarded people in the city. But that was before the “accident”. Stripped of her powers, bound inside a bizarre powersuit, she finds herself cast down to the very lowest level of society. Powerless, penniless and scarred, Tanyana must adjust to a new life collecting “debris”, the stuff left behind by pions. But as she tries to find who has done all of this to her, she also starts to realize that debris is more important than anyone could guess. The bitter war between the sinister Puppet Men and the nebulous Keeper for the control of the ancient city of Movoc-under-Keeper has intensified. For Tanyana, imprisoned within her extraordinary suit and cast down as a lowly debris collector, choosing a side should be simple. But when even her own suit becomes aggressive against her, Tanyana must weigh some very personal issues against her determination to serve the greater good. The grand city of Movoc-under-Keeper lies in ruins. The sinister puppet men have revealed their true nature, and their plan to tear down the veil between worlds. To have a chance of defeating them, Tanyana must do the impossible, and return to the world where they were created, on the other side of the veil. Her journey will force her into a terrible choice, and test just how much she is willing to sacrifice for the fate of two worlds. Enter a world where terrible secrets are hidden in a wind chime’s song Where crippled witches build magic from scrap And the beautiful dead dance for eternity The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories collects the finest science fiction and horror short stories from award-winning writer Joanne Anderton. From mechanical spells scavenging a derelict starship to outback zombies and floating gardens of bone, these stories blur the lines between genres. A mix of freakish horror, dark visions of the future and the just plain weird, Anderton’s tales will draw you in – but never let you get comfortable. Alex Caine is a martial artist fighting in illegal cage matches. His powerful secret weapon is an unnatural vision that allows him to see his opponents’ moves before they know their intentions themselves. An enigmatic Englishman, Patrick Welby, approaches Alex after a fight and reveals, ‘I know your secret.’ Welby shows Alex how to unleash a breathtaking realm of magic and power, drawing him into a mind-bending adventure beyond his control. And control is something Alex values above all else. A cursed grimoire binds Alex to Uthentia, a chaotic Fey godling, who leads him towards destruction and murder, an urge Alex finds harder and harder to resist. Befriended by Silhouette, a monstrous Kin beauty, Alex sets out to recover the only things that will free him – the shards of the Darak. But that powerful stone also has the potential to unleash a catastrophe which could mean the end of the world as we know it. Alex Caine is looking for direction and trying to build a new life with his recently acquired magical talents, and Kin girlfriend, Silhouette. He is recruited by a secret organisation to head off an impending doom, foretold by Seers as already somehow linked to his destiny. Claude Darvill is desperately trying to get in touch with his father, Robert Hood. When the company, Black Diamond, reveals that Hood had gone missing after chasing Alex Caine, Darvill takes over control of Black Diamond and starts hunting Caine himself. Alex and his crew close in on three amateur mages in Britain’s north, who think they have uncovered ancient magic that will reveal great powers. But they are caught in a vortex and pulled through to a strange lost city, isolated in the void. Trapped in a place removed from everything they know, ruled by a hierarchy of monsters, Alex and his friends must find a way to escape Obsidian. Alex Caine has been suffering the weight of the world, and some days it’s hard to even get out of bed. Alone one night, a band of Fey overwhelm him and steal him away from the mortal realm. Silhouette, desperate to save her lover, calls in Armour, but the organisation seems reluctant to help. Claude Darvill, his fragile alliance with Alex at an end, is still searching for the remains of his father, Robert Hood. In frozen wastes of Iceland, Darvill is driven by a deep-burning grudge and a need for revenge. His efforts are backed by all the considerable resources of Black Diamond Incorporated. Silhouette must overcome her greatest fears and use all her skills to locate Alex. But even if she can find him, that’s only the start of their problems. In this third Alex Caine book, sequel to the bestsellers Bound and Obsidian, old enemies and new share a common goal. Alex Caine hates to be the centre of attention, but he and Silhouette need to pull together as the world is threatened once more and only Alex can save it. The future does not belong to us anymore. The mighty Wolfen of Valkeryn, descendants of the canines of the era of man, have ruled for many millennia. But now their kingdom has fallen to the monstrous hordes and the remaining Wolfen scattered. Arnold ‘Arn’ Singer, a youth from the past and perhaps the last human being alive on the planet, finds himself cast into this maelstrom of chaos and horror. He seeks answers to the missing Ancients – mankind itself. But back in his time the world continues to destabilize. The portal through which he fell is destroying the planet. The portal must be closed. Arn holds the key, and our world and its future is at stake. Colonel Marion Briggs leads a team of Special Operations soldiers into the distant future, fully armed and with one order – bring back Arn or his body. But there are more dangers in this strange and beautiful world than anyone knew. More horrors dwell in the deep jungles, below the inland seas and deep below the earth. There are things that can change the shape of two worlds, tear at sanity, and stretch friendships and loves to the limit. Valkeryn is an epic adventure that spans worlds and time itself. “… mixed in fantasy with hard, biological, and evolutionary science. Beck has yet again created fast-paced, literary escape that I just couldn’t put down.” War is Hell… Soldiers fight to survive. They fight each other, and they fight the demons inside. Sometimes, they fight real monsters. SNAFU collects stories of ancient myths, time travellers, horrors in the old west… And the soldiers who fight them. Featuring some of the best writers working in the field today. Jonathan Maberry, Weston Ochse, Greig Beck and James A Moore lead the way, with a contingent of emerging authors to back them up. Fight or die. Available on: Amazon, Kobo, Nook, and as a signed limited edition from the publisher. In a climate-changed future, after the gene and borders wars of the 2060’s, and in a world governed by the Alpha-Omega Accord and its Interplanetary Exchange, Capra Jane fights a never-ending battle against crime. Things change in unexpected ways, however, when she is teamed up with the enigmatic and beautiful Zanzibar Black of HomeWorld Security, and Decker, a returned astronaut who’s never been in Waking in Anaskar Prison, covered in blood and accused of murder, nobody will listen to Notch’s claims of innocence until he meets the future Protector of the Monarchy, Sofia Falco. But Sofia has her own burdens. The first female Protector in a hundred years, her House is under threat from enemies within, the prince has made it clear he does not want her services and worst of all, she cannot communicate with her father’s sentient mask of bone, the centuries-old Argeon. Without the bone mask she cannot help anyone — not herself, and certainly not a mercenary with no powerful House to protect him. Meanwhile, far across the western desert, Ain, a young Pathfinder, is thrust into the role of Seeker. Before winter storms close the way, he must leave his home on a quest to locate the Sea Shrine and take revenge on the people who drove his ancestors from Anaskar, the city ruled by the prince Sofia and Notch are sworn to protect, whether he wants their help or not. The stories you are about to read showcase a wonderfully talented writer; someone with a vivid imagination and the unique ability to create stories that can just as easily shock and frighten as they can move and disturb (often all in the one story). These are serious works, not merely light entertainment designed simply to give the reader a quick jolt or a nervous chuckle, but designed to make you think and feel. You’re about to embark on a dark and wondrous journey through the mind of a very talented young writer. Be prepared to visit strange worlds and even stranger beings. Horror and violence abounds, but there’s also time for reflection, to ponder some of life’s most important questions. – Brett McBean, 2014 Caeli-Amur: an ancient city perched on white cliffs overlooking the sea; a city ruled by three Houses, fighting internecine wars; a city which harbours ancient technology and hidden mysteries. But things are changing in Caeli-Amur. Ancient minotaurs arrive for the traditional Festival of the Sun. The slightly built New-Men bring their technology from their homeland. Wastelanders stream into the city hideously changed by the chemical streams to the north. Strikes break out in the factory district. In a hideout beneath the city, a small group of seditionists debate ways to overthrow the Houses. How can they rouse the citizens of the city? Should they begin a campaign of terror? Is there a way to uncover the thaumaturgical knowledge that the Houses guard so jealously? As the Houses scramble to maintain their rule, it becomes clear that things will change forever in Caeli-Amur. What would you do if you woke in a room filled with strangers, with no memory of how you got there, and no way out? Morgan Drimmel wakes to find herself in the midst of this nightmare. The gouged, blood-splattered walls scream of terror and torture, and the unrelenting light that shines between the cracks in the walls fills her with dread. When the others in the room wake, they form alliances, and Morgan finds herself drawn to rogue biker Slade Rivers. But dependence, for her, has always come with a deadly price. Those inside the room have secrets too; dark secrets they will go to any length to keep from getting out. When evil rears its ugly head, Morgan will not only have to fight to survive—she will also have to trust. The newly widowed Queen Ellyria just wants her sick triplet sons to live, each ruling over a third of the kingdom as their dying father decreed. When she finds herself trapped in a deadly bargain with a dark spirit, she recruits a band of young mages to help – but a terrible curse takes over. Young guitar virtuoso Clarice Marnier is on the verge of success when she crosses the wrong A&R man. Suddenly, instead of being signed to the major label that’s been courting her, she finds herself blacklisted. So Clarice makes a deal with the Devil: the soul of her greatest enemy for a record deal and a second chance. As Clarice and her band, Bloody Waters, begin their ascent to rock stardom they are are beset by a strange array of enemies. Has-been guitar heroes, popstar succubi, spell-slinging DJs, angry divas and killer angels—every occult freak and music industry player in LA wants something from them, whether it’s a slice of their fame or a bite out of their souls. Clearly, there’s more at stake than just a record deal—but what does the Devil really want, and how far will Clarice go to protect what’s hers? An exciting adventure story in the style of the classic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure series. Seven companions set out to free the woman trapped in the moon, and change the world along the way. In this exciting story that allows the reader the choice of following different characters, young, sheltered Branguin discovers that his ancestor, Marama, has been trapped in the moon, and sets out to free her. But he must first unravel the mystery of how she got there, confront and defeat the sorcerer Raul, and counter a menacing new force that’s assembling an army to attack the capital. Branguin deciphers the clues with the help of his companions, several lost relatives along the way. The Lunation Series is a modern-day moon myth about ordinary people discovering their inner strength and overcoming extraordinary challenges, in order to solve a great mystery. Follow murderous trails into the bloody foothills of Kathmandu; destroy yourself with obsessive sexual jealousies; disappear into the drug-hazed dust of the Baluchistan desert; and share health-conscious recipes with a gourmet cannibal. Read Paul Haines’s dark, hard-edged fantasies about real people dealing with strong emotions in impossible situations and experience the paranoia, fear and lust that lurks in the shadowy recesses of the human soul. With an introduction by Jack Dann, this anthology contains twenty-one stories, including the Aurealis Award and Ditmar winning novella “The Last Days Of Kali Yuga”. It also includes two previously unpublished stories “Burning From The Inside” and “Mnemophonic”. Paul Haines sliced through the Australian writing scene with his twisted and murderous black humour in 2002. he has since won many awards and praise for his dark and surreal stories that make you think twice about his sanity and good taste. Published here together for the first time are the Ditmar winning story “The Devil In Mr Pussy”, the Aurealis Award shortlisted horror story “Doof Doof Doof” and the complete “Slice of Life” series of stories, including the previously unpublished “Slice of Life – A Spot of Liver” which also won the Aurealis Award 2009 for Best Horror Short Story. HAINES’ SLICE OF LIFE – seventeen glistening stories, sweating with twenty first century paranoia and anxiety from the decaying mind of the winner of the 2005 Ditmar for New Talent. These are the last days … Travel the blood-stained trails of Kathmandu. Explore doorways to other worlds. Fight for humanity’s darkening soul. … when the powers of the Gods wane and evil walks the Earth. The Last Days Of Kali Yuga is dark urban fantasy at its darkest. You won’t find traditional vampires or werewolves in Paul Haines’s stories. Instead, you will stare deep into the heart of the cruelest monster of all: man. Paul Haines is one of Australia’s and New Zealand’s leading dark fiction authors. He pioneered the ‘backpacker horror’ sub-genre with stories of Westerners confronted by dark powers and corrupted souls in India and Asia. His novellas “The Last Days of Kali Yuga”, “Doorways for the Dispossessed”, and “Wives”—all of which appear in this book—have won Australia’s highest honours for speculative fiction. The Last Days of Kali Yuga is a collection of Paul Haines’ best work. “Paul Haines knows what it is to be human, in all our cruel beauty, with all our vile dreams. His stories tear the masks off our civilised faces and expose the raw, bleeding apes beneath” – Sean Williams, New York Times Bestselling author of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and the Books of the Cataclysm series. “Paul Haines has an unnerving sense for the softest, most secret corners of the male psyche, and in this collection dissects them excruciating skill. There is no better horror writer working in Australia today.” – Max Barry, author of Syrup and Jennifer Government. Lisa L Hannett’s debut collection, Bluegrass Symphony, deals with cowboys and fallow fields, shapeshifters and rednecks, superstitions and realities in harsh prairie country — and a whole bunch of other things thrown in the mix. Introduction by Ann Vandermeer. Finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Collection. In The Female Factory, procreation is big business. Children are a commodity few women can afford. Hopeful mothers-to-be try everything. Fertility clinics. Pills. Wombs for hire. Babies are no longer made in bedrooms, but engineered in boardrooms. A quirk of genetics allows lucky surrogates to carry multiple eggs, to control when they are fertilised, and by whom—but corporations market and sell the offspring. The souls of lost embryos are never wasted; captured in software, they give electronics their voice. Spirits born into the wrong bodies can brave the charged waters of a hidden billabong, and change their fate. Industrious orphans learn to manipulate scientific advances, creating mothers of their own choosing. From Australia’s near-future all the way back in time to its convict past, these stories spin and sever the ties between parents and children. When Mymnir flees the devastation of Ragnarok, she hopes to escape all that bound her to ?sgar?r ? a heedless pantheon, a domineering brother, and her neglectful father-master, ??inn. But the white raven, a being of memory and magic, should know that the past is not so easily left behind. No matter how far she flies, she cannot evade her family? In planting seeds of the old world in the new, Mymnir becomes queen of a land with as many problems as the one she fled. Her long-lived Fae children ignite and fan feuds that span generations; lives are lost and loves won because of their tampering. Told in thirteen parts, Midnight and Moonshine follows the Beaufort and Laveaux families, part-human, part-Fae, as they battle, thrive and survive in Mymnir’s kingdom. Midnight and Moonshine is a collection of interconnected tales with links between them as light and strong as spider-silk. From fire giants to whispering halls, disappearing children to evening-wolves, fairy hills to bewitched cypress trees, and talking heads to moonshiners of a special sort, Midnight and Moonshine takes readers on a journey from ninth century Vinland to America?s Deep South in the present day. Hannett and Slatter have created a mosaic novel of moments, story-tiles as strange as witchwood and withywindles. Midnight and Moonshine is a rich tapestry of dark fantasy, fairy tale and speculation. One false step could undo everything the Timekeepers hope to accomplish… Earth’s ancient past, the future of the planet Kila – the Timekeepers universe of origin, the primordial era when the Nefilim first ruled the galaxy and a timeless universe of utter darkness are all vital periods to advancing human consciousness. After surviving Ancient Zhou, the Timekeeper’s efforts turn to rescuing Kila from its ill-fated future. But a mishap in the remote mountains of Tibet before departure provides a nemesis with the perfect opportunity to launch a time-hopping vendetta against them. There is no where in this universe to hide. The discovery of a gate thought to lead to several universes promises more than just the means to undermine their stalker; it offers the chance to remember their lives as the Grigori, who once dwelt with the fallen Elohim in the dark universe beyond the Eternity Gate. Steam clouds rise off the water as a ferry approaches a jetty in ancient China. On board is Hudan, one of the mysterious Wu who reside on the sacred mountain of Li Shan. The Wu have been living in isolation for decades, while the arrogant Shang emperor and his enchantress have ruled the land. It has been a terrible time for the common people and the noble Ji brothers – Dan and Fa – are keen to bring the emperor’s reign of terror to an end. They are told a Wu prophecy has predicted the fall of the emperor, but first they must journey to Li Shan to learn the truth. When the Ji brothers join forces with the enigmatic Hudan and her equally mysterious tiger sister, Huxin, they begin a powerful journey of love and adventure. But the Shang emperor is not their greatest threat. There is a dark curse that has plagued the rulers of the land for generations. The mysterious Sons of the Sky who visit Hudan in her dreams have a plan to destroy it., but can they be trusted? Dreaming of Zhou Gong is a beautiful, evocative journey through ancient China. Lissa Wilson’s life hasn’t been quite the same since people she cared about started getting themselves killed. By vampires. And Lissa learnt that the opposite of life is not always death. On the plus side, she made a new friend. Gary Hooper may be the worst best-friend a librarian could have – and easily the worst vampire ever – but he has taught Lissa the real meaning of life. Gary’s world view has also improved remarkably since meeting Lissa, but all that could be lost if she discovers what services he provides Melbourne’s undead community. Meanwhile, as their friendship brings him closer to the humanity he lost, it also puts them both in grave danger. And there’s a big chance that the evil stalking them could them both killed – in his case, for good this time. Fifty years after a second Dark Age has nearly destroyed humankind, the World Union is now confronted with a new threat that doesn’t just challenge their survival but also the nature of life and civilisation itself. The Hunt for Pierre Jnr is the first book in a trilogy of futurist thrillers that follows the attempts of a powerful world government to track down and kill a telepathic eight-year-old boy. In Manifestations, a mysterious new threat has been unleashed that destroys an entire city. As tensions with the psis rise and political fortunes shift, the World Union appears perilously close to collapse. From geopolitical convergence to emergent online super organisms, the future is coming. Henley’s books explore themes of technological evolution, species diversification and takes the ‘all-powerful creepy child’ theme to a scary new level. In a land where no stars appear in the night sky, a group of strangers with ancestries reaching back to an earlier apocalyptic disaster come together to track down a resurrected corpse whose very existence portends the End of the World. Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead is an epic tale of greed, dying magic, distorted monstrosities and a motley group of heroes, with a strange and breathless climax you won’t easily forget. “This is a tale of heroes. It includes all sorts — born of the gods, descended from ancient, magical bloodline, member of a legendary order, reincarnated, last of their tribe and way too intimate with their own sentient weapon — cycling through various degrees of reluctant and unlikely. There is a villain, of course, although he’s thoroughly sick of the whole business; dark gods, giant monsters and an ancient magical artefact. But principally it is a tale of heroes, heroism and what it means to be in such an uncomfortable position.” (Review, Kyla Ward) She hates school and only has a few friends. She has an obsession with angels and fallen angel stories. Life was boring until she one day decided to steal a famous painting from a small art gallery. Her life will never be boring again. She meets a stranger at the gallery who claims to know her. She stumbles into a world where cities float in the sky, and daemons roam the barren, magma-spewing crags of the land far below. But not all is well. Maree is turning into something she loves but at the same time, fears. Most fearful of all is the prospect of losing her identity, what makes her Maree, and more importantly, human. Guardian of the Sky Realms takes the reader on a journey through exotic fantasy lands, as well as across the globe, from Sydney to Paris, from the Himalayas to Manhattan. He thought he’d return from Hell a hero. But things are never easy when your business is Death. Steven de Selby gave up his love, his life, and his lucrative position as Head of Mortmax, the corporation in charge of Death. Then he found himself banished to the briny depths of hell. But hell has never held him before … Now Steven’s back from hell, after escaping from the cruel Death of the Water, but he’s not sure how or why, or even if. No one at Mortmax trusts him, and he’s running out of time to prove he is who he says he is. Steven is about to discover that hell really is other people, and the worst of them may well be himself. On remote Rollrock Island, the sea-witch Misskaella discovers she can draw a girl from the heart of a seal. So, for a price, any man might buy himself a bride; an irresistibly enchanting sea-wife. But what cost will be borne by the people of Rollrock – the men, the women, the children – once Misskaella sets her heart on doing such a thing?Margo Lanagan weaves an extraordinary tale of desire and revenge, of loyalty, heartache and human weakness, and of the unforeseen consequences of all-consuming love. Daniel Rolan is bored. Not your average, everyday kind-of bored. The seriously mind-blowing I’m-stuck-here-at-the-end-of-the-universe-surrounded-by-nerds kind of bored. Living on a space station might sound like an adventure straight out of a science fiction movie, but in reality – as Daniel was discovering day after boring day – it was really, well… mostly boring. But Daniel will soon come to regret wishing for an action and adventure filled life. One seemingly innocent decision – and a catastrophe he could not have foreseen – is about to change his world forever. It will set him on a path he never imagined, introduce him to new friends and even aliens he could not have thought up in his wildest dreams. Eventually it will even challenge his notion of where the end of the universe actually is. Meanwhile, on the alien world of Nomassaii, the larger of the two planets through the Veil, Jacdan would love a bit of boredom. He has far more action and adventure in his life than he’d like. Sentenced to die in the arena, he’s fighting – battle by battle – to survive another day. But it’s one thing to fight for your own life – quite another to discover you are fighting for your little brother’s life, as well. These alien worlds are about to collide, changing the lives of Daniel and Jacdan forever. In a post-apocalyptic Australian landscape dominated by free-wheeling cyborgs, a young man goes in search of his lost lover who has been kidnapped by a rogue AI truck – the Brumby King. Along the way, he teams with Sinnerman, an independent truck with its own reasons for hating the Brumby King. Before his final confrontation with the brumbies, he must learn more about the broken-down world and his own place in it, and face his worst fears. I am in a world deeply strange and strangely deep, a world as different from my old life as it’s possible to be, and it feels completely natural. An unexpected encounter with a handsome stranger in a Russian wood changes the life of 22-year-old traveler Helen Clement forever, catapulting her into a high-stakes world of passion, danger, and mystery. Tested in ways she could never have imagined, she must keep her own integrity in a world where dark forces threaten and ruthlessness and betrayal haunt every day. Set against a rising tide of magic and the paranormal in a modern Russia where the terrifying past continually leaks into the turbulent present, Trinity is a unique and gripping blend of conspiracy thriller, erotically charged romance and urban fantasy, laced with a murderous dose of company politics. With its roots deep in the fertile soil of Russian myth, legend, and history, it is also a fascinating glimpse into an extraordinary, distinctive country and amazingly rich culture. A girl in a tower. An underground kingdom. A crystal heart split in two, symbolising true love lost . . . When Kasper joins the elite guard watching over a dangerous prisoner in a tower, he believes he is protecting his country from a powerful witch. Until one day he discovers the prisoner is a beautiful princess – Izolda of Night– who is condemned by a prophecy to die on her eighteenth birthday. Kasper decides to help her escape. But their hiding place won’t remain secret forever. Will they find their happily ever after? ‘A deftly woven tale of warring kingdoms and the redeeming power of love. Another winner from Sophie Masson.’ – Juliet Marillier, author of the Shadowfell series . Antoinette and Jacqueline have little in common beyond a mutual antipathy for their paranoid, domineering mother, a bond which has united them since childhood. In the aftermath of a savage betrayal, Antoinette lands on her sister’s doorstep bearing a suitcase and a broken heart. But Jacqueline, the ambitious would-be manager of a trendy Melbourne art gallery, has her own problems – chasing down a delinquent painter in the sweltering heat of a Brisbane summer. Abandoned, armed with a bottle of vodka and her own grief-spun desires, Antoinette weaves a dark and desperate magic that can never, ever be undone. Their lives swiftly unravelling, the two sisters find themselves drawn into a tangle of lies, manipulations and the most terrible of family secrets.” The debut collection from multi-award nominated author Andrew J McKiernan brings together 14 of his previously published short stories and novelettes, plus two brand new tales unique to the collection. Often defying conventions of genre and style, these stories range from fantasy and steampunk to science fiction and horror, but always with an edge sharper than a razor and darker than a night on Neptune. From the darkly hilarious “All the Clowns in Clowntown” to the heart-breakingly disturbing title story, the collection pulls no punches. Delving deep into what scares us most, McKiernan’s tales are by turns heartfelt and gut-wrenching. With an Introduction by Will Elliott, Last Year, When We Were Young is a collection of horror and dark fantasy from one of Australia’s finest new authors that should not be missed. There are people involved. That’s the first mistake. Scientists were never meant to be part of history. Anything in the past is better studied from the present. It’s safer. When a team of Australian scientists – and a lone historian – travel back to St-Guilhem-le-Désert in 1305 they discover being impartial, distant and objective just doesn’t work when you’re surroundedby the smells, dust and heat of a foreign land. They’re only human after all. But by the time Artemisia is able to convince others that it’s time to worry, it’s already too late. ‘Viscerally powerful, deeply felt, strongly written: Langue[dot]doc 1305 challenges reader expectations of time travel, of ‘Grim-dark’ and of mediaeval life and brings a haunting, authentic voice both to the past and to the struggles facing the present.’ Elizabeth Smith, recently made redundant, thinks that her life is deadly dull. She feels like cellophane like people look right through her, like she’s not even there. A simple redecoration job involving a mirror turns her life upside down. Through ominous horror and an unexpected romance Liz learns to become a whole person someone who takes up space in the world, and demands to be herself. Part gentle love story, part bizarre horror tale, but never, ever boring, Ms Cellophane is a revealing look at one woman’s nightmare transforming her reality in unexpectedly amusing ways. In 2010 the best-selling book at the world science fiction convention was…unexpected. Humankind carries the past as invisible baggage. Thirteen brilliant writers explore this, looking at Australia’s cultural baggage through new and often disturbing eyes. Baggage explores layers and complexities that are oddly Australian. If you think Australian culture is all about surfboards and mateship, you may find Baggage distressing. What is Australia? What baggage do Australians carry? Pick up this book. Have a read. You know you want to. “Baggage collects many of the finest voices in Australian speculative fiction. Each author contributes a unique cultural perspective, with stories ranging from the deeply personal to the highly disturbing. Baggage is an anthology not to be missed.” Shane Jiraya Cummings, OzHorrorScope “Baggage is a fascinating exploration of Australian issues through characters and situations that feel immediate and real. There’s little in the way of escapism here, but instead much subtlety and nuance, combined with stunning writing. From the incendiary, no-holds-barred ‘Acception’ by Tessa Kum to the quiet power of K.J. Bishop’s ‘Vision Splendid’, and beyond, this anthology tackles difficult and diverse subject matter.” Rawk is one of the great Heroes. He has travelled the world for forty years, hunting exotic creatures, battling magic and fighting evil wherever he found it. But he has been fighting mostly mundane battles since Prince Weaver outlawed magic. And with no great deeds left to be done, Rawk is afraid he’ll soon be the old man in the corner of the tavern, dreaming of the good old days and telling tales for anyone who will buy him a drink. But when a huge wolden wolf is spied from the walls of Katamood for the first time in a decade, Rawk is the man the city looks to once more. He’ll save them. He always has. Rawk will fight to ensure the Age of Heroes doesn’t slip away into history, but what if the good old days aren’t quite as good as he remembers? Links… Welcome back to the magic and pathos of Angela Slatter’s exquisitely imagined tales. The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings returns to the world of Sourdough and Other Stories (Tartarus, 2010), introducing readers to the tales that came before. Stories where coffin-makers work hard to keep the dead beneath; where a plague maiden steals away the children of an ungrateful village; where poison girls are schooled in the art of assassination; where pirates disappear from the seas; where families and the ties that bind them can both ruin and resurrect and where books carry forth fairy tales, forbidden knowledge and dangerous secrets. The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings is enhanced by eighty-six pen-and-ink illustrations by artist Kathleen Jennings. In the cathedral-city of Lodellan and its uneasy hinterland, babies are fashioned from bread, dolls are given souls and wishes granted may be soon regretted. There are ghosts who dream, men whose wings have been clipped and trolls who long for something other. Love, loss and life are elegantly dissected in Slatter’s earthy yet poetic prose. Blurb Black-Winged Angels is a collection of 10 incredible contemporary retellings of fairy tales, and will be available in a limited hardcover edition illustrated by the multiple World Fantasy Award nominated Kathleen Jennings. The book will appeal to fans of Angela Carter (“The Company of Wolves”) and Emma Donoghue (“Kissing the Witch”). Murder and betrayal in deep space, with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance… Thirty-four light years from Earth, the explorer ship Magellan is nearing its objective – the Iota Persei system. But when ship commander Cait Dyson wakes from deepsleep, she finds her co-pilot dead and the ship’s AI unresponsive. Cait works with the rest of her multinational crew to regain control of the ship, until they learn that Earth is facing total environmental collapse and their mission must change if humanity is to survive. As tensions rise and personal and political agendas play out in the ship’s cramped confines, the crew finally reach the planet Horizon, where everything they know will be challenged. “Refreshingly plausible, politically savvy, and full of surprises, Horizon takes you on a harrowing thrill-ride through the depths of space and the darkness of the human heart.” – Sean Williams, New York Times bestselling author of the Astropolis and Twinmaker series Journey beyond the borders of the real with our first annual collection of stories appearing in Dimension6 magazine, with all new stories from some of the best speculative fiction authors working in Australia today including Richard Harland, Dirk Strasser, Jason Nahrung, Alan Baxter, Robert Hood, Cat Sparks, Robert N Stephenson, Steve Cameron and Charlotte Nash. A businessman staying in a Scottish manor makes the mistake of deciding to spend the evening in the library. A group of unpopular teenage girls uses witchcraft to pursue their aims. A rich banking tycoon has forgotten his university days when he and his friends dared to imagine a world ruled by social justice and working class ideals. The estranged family of a deceased aristocrat bicker over their inheritance. A botanist’s love for his plants is unnaturally deep-rooted. “Hoffman’s Creeper and Other Disturbing Tales” is the first short story collection from Cameron Trost. It plunges the reader into a world of mystery, suspense, obsession and greed. From the Scottish highlands and the jagged peaks of the Pyrénées to the streets of Brisbane and the Australian countryside, Cameron Trost provokes the reader by ensnaring recognisable characters in disturbingly plausible situations. His writing seeks to entertain while exploring the absurdities and peculiarities of society and the human mind. Subtropical Suspense Anthology of Suspense and Mystery Tales set in Brisbane “Cameron Trost has brought together a dark pantry of crime stories and mysteries, and cooked up a gumbo rich and spicy enough to befit any of the world’s sultry cities… but these happen to be set in Brisbane. Sixteen short stories take the reader from Morningside to Indooroopilly, from Hamilton to Acacia Ridge. There is baking sun and flooding rains, police procedurals and criminal capers, murderous mermaids and poison pens… all give a ripple of pleasure to the reader who knows Brisbane – or wants to know it – and who has wondered why stories of murder, malice, and magic couldn’t be set here. And of course, they should be: Brisbane’s shadows are as dark and good to hide in as any in the world – and Subtropical Suspense revels in this.” Clair and Jesse have barely been reunited when the world is plunged into its biggest crisis yet … It’s the end of the world as Clair knows it – and it’s partly her fault. A brilliant science-fiction thriller, the second in the Twinmaker trilogy. This edition includes a bonus short story. Stranded in the desert, the last of mankind is kept safe by a large border fence… Until the fence falls. Squid is a young orphan living under the oppressive rule of his uncle in the outskirts of the Territory. Lynn is a headstrong girl with an influential father who has spent her entire life within the walled city of Alice. When the border fence is breached, the Territory is invaded by the largest horde of undead ghouls seen in two hundred years. Squid is soon conscripted into the Diggers – the armed forces of the Territory. And after Lynn finds herself at odds with the Territory’s powerful church, she too escapes to join the Diggers. Together Squid and Lynn form an unlikely friendship as they march to battle against the ghouls. Their journey will take them further than they ever imagined, leading them closer to discovering secrets about themselves, their world, and a conspiracy that may spell the end of the Territory as they know it. Arrabella Candellarbra is like no one you’ve ever met before; even though her questy thing is the stuff of legend. Arrabella, a beautiful, flaxen-haired maiden trained in all things warrior-like by The Reginas – the most famous warriors of all – embarks on a quest to claim her birthright and to wield the power of all the lands. The Four Adventurers soon find themselves pitted against the Evil Betty-Sue – the meanest of evil beings in all of the lands – and her scary minions: the Saw-Toothed Bunnies, the Viscous Tongued Frogs and the Barella Monkeys – to rescue The Reginas from… something! Arrabella Candellarbra and the Questy Thing to End All Questy Things, a fairy tale for grown-ups, features love and lust, action and inaction, battles, incantations, sexual shenanigans and high-kicking sing-a-longs. And it promises that all those epic questy things will never be the same again. Fourteen year old Byron James wishes he’d never been dragged to Parkton. It’s a crazy sideshow of a town in the middle of damn nowhere, and he’s stranded there. To make matters worse, his two new friends – his only friends – turn out to be class rejects with an unhealthy interest in monsters. They want to discover the truth to the infamous monster house at number 809 Jacob Street. Joey Blue is an old bluesman who fell into his songs and couldn’t find his way out again. Now he’s a Gutterbreed, one of the slinking shifting shadows haunting the town’s alleys. When an old dead friend comes begging for help, Joey’s world is torn apart. He is forced to stare down the man he has become in order to rescue the man he once was – and there is only one place he can do that. The house on Jacob Street calls to them all, but what will they find when they open its door? By now you all know I’m good friends with Angela Slatter. You should also know that I’m a huge fan of her work – it’s great when one of your friends is also one of your favourite writers. One of the best books I’ve read in recent years was Sourdough & Other Stories, Angela’s collection of short stories published by Tartarus Press. Not only is it a collection of brilliant stories, it’s a beautiful artifact of a book too. Tartarus make wonderful things. Well, Angela was supposed to write a sequel collection, but being the contrary writer she is, she wrote a prequel collection instead. It’s called The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings. Tartarus agreed to publish it and Angela scored the amazing Kathleen Jennings to do internal illustrations for it. The result is a book even more beautiful than Sourdough, and equally chock full of amazing stories. I know that, because I’ve read it. The book’s not out til September 1st, but we’re friends, remember? So I got Angela and Kathleen to talk a bit about it and the process of its creation. You can read that below. At the end is a link to the Tartarus Press website where you can pre-order the book, and I really, really recommend that you do. And if you haven’t read Sourdough, buy that too and you can read it while you wait. I’m not just talking up my friends here, either – Sourdough was nominated for the World Fantasy Award and the Aurealis Award for Best Collection. These are books you do not want to miss. Over to Angela and Kathleen. *** Angela: My Author’s Note to Bitterwood goes thus: The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings is intended as a prequel to Sourdough and Other Stories. It was meant to be a sequel, but the tales were determined to defy me—they insisted upon telling what had happened before, to show how the books of Murcianus came to be, how Ella came into the world, where Hepsibah Ballantyne—who appears only as a name on a headstone in Sourdough’s Lodellan cemetery—began the chain of events that are traced through the mosaic of this book. Bitterwood expands and builds upon the world of Sourdough and, I hope, makes readers feel they are coming home once again. I’d written “The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter” in 2011 as a standalone story for Steve Jones’s A Book of Horrors anthology, and that seemed the place to start. Hepsibah had gone from being a name on a grave to a powerful presence, so that story is one that threads through the whole of Bitterwood. As I wrote the stories fell into place and I can honestly say that this collection was one of those rare things that a writer dreams of: knowing exactly what was going to happen, when, and to whom. I was able to weave together so many of the things I love: elements of history and myth and fairy tale and folklore. There are little nods to writers as diverse as Umberto Eco and Kim Newman. There are vampires, boarding schools for assassins, pirates who are being hunted to extinction, a brazen head that tells the future, bakeries and rats, transformed badgers and dreadful revenges − and books. So many books. As the narrative came together I started to think not about a cover, strangely, but about internal illustrations. I love Kathleen Jennings’ artwork and I knew she had an ambition to do endpapers, so I asked if she would like to beta read the stories as I finished them and, if perhaps the spirit moved her, do some illustrations as she read? She said yes, which was lucky for me; luckier still the lovely people at Tartarus took both the collection and agreed to use Kathleen’s illustrations. I feel very fortunate and privileged to have drawings done that truly capture the spirit of the tales I wrote. And of course there was the absolute wicked delight of having Kathleen text me photos of what she’d done as she read a story. It was such a pleasure to work with her and I hope I was a well-behaved author! I don’t think I was critical or asked for any kangaroos to be added to The Last Supper. I’m doubly spoiled because Kathleen also did the artwork for my limited edition collection of Black-Winged Angels (Ticonderoga Publications), which echoes the silhouette technique of Arthur Rackham, but has its own wonderful unique beauty. Kathleen: Angela would keep dropping hints about the most beautiful parts of her stories, often before they were written – badgers (sigh) and a school for poison girls, doors in trees, dangerous quilts… so any workload-related resolve was fairly well weakened by the time she sent me the manuscript, because now they were here! They were real stories in the world, and I could read them! I spent a lot of time in cafes, reading and sketching, sending Angela texts with reactions and pictures – each gaining energy from the other’s excitement! We’re still doing this, if you saw our comments back and forth when Tartarus released pictures of the Actual Book. It was a lovely way to work, actually: just a free hand to sketch my way through the book. Because the original plan was to try and sell Tartarus on the idea of endpapers, I was going for multiple small images and the individual pressure was off – I could just draw anything that caught my fancy. And then Angela would edit it out of the manuscript. But anyway. I’m still haunted by images from this book. Images and titles (‘Now all pirates are gone’). And Tartarus did a lovely job of putting the pictures in just where they ought to be – Angela and I had to check in with each other to say, “Did you see where they put the badgers? I knowwww!” This has come up a couple of times in various conversations recently, so I thought I’d talk about it here. Ebooks are here to stay, obviously. While there will always be print books too, even if that does eventually reduce to Print-on-Demand and collector’s folio editions, ebooks will only continue to gain strength. There’s the whole format and DRM thing to still sort out – Amazon aren’t about to give up the mobi format any time soon, and a lot of places are struggling with where they stand on DRM – but these are all ongoing teething problems. I’d like to imagine a utopia where ePub is the standard across all vendors and publishers (which it already is if you don’t include Amazon) and where DRM is a thing of the past. But regardless of how it all shakes down, ebooks are mainstream now. I love ebooks. I dig that I can carry hundreds of books around on my phone. Honestly, how living-in-the-future is that shit? And I do read on my phone. But primarily I read from an iPad Mini. I love my Mini – it’s the perfect size and does all the things I want. Plus, I have this sweet leather cover for it that makes it look like a cool old hardback book. Here it is: Pretty sweet, huh? I use it for internet, email, videos, TV, games and loads of other stuff as well as reading. It’s just the best thing ever, technology-wise. But I didn’t always read ebooks on the Mini and I use several apps even now. Other people I’ve spoken to use a variety of devices and all swear by them. Some people consider dedicated ereaders a cul-de-sac technology that’ll die down to almost nothing because tablets are so much more versatile, while others love their dedicated ereader precisely because it’s just for reading and has no other distracting functions. I got onto the whole ebook bandwagon pretty early on. For example, when I originally self-published RealmShift back in the day, it was the 376th book to be uploaded to Smashwords, as evidenced by its URL there. There are now over 300,000 books on Smashwords. I would read ebooks on my PC from very early on too. I guess I knew right off the bat that this technology was going to quickly become the norm and it most certainly did. Interestingly, that massive rush into the mainstream that ebooks made was largely encouraged along by Amazon and their Kindle device. They really saw an opportunity and exploited it with expert (some might say evil) skill. After reading on my laptop and phone for a while, my first dedicated ereader was an old generation Kindle 3, like the one pictured on the left, and I got hooked fully into the Amazon ecosystem. I was already there really, using the Kindle app – I even converted ePub files to mobi to use on the Kindle. I didn’t mind at all at the time – Amazon always had the most content, you could buy with one click and it would roll straight onto your reader. And the battery life of the Kindle is awesome. The reading experience is great too, with no backlight and all that jazz. Apparently, the new Paperwhite is even better, but I’ve yet to see one of those in the flesh… plastic… whatever. But I don’t use my Kindle any more. My wife uses it a bit and I do actually miss it in some ways, but it became superfluous to my needs. I used the Kindle app on my phone while I used my Kindle 3 and that was awesome. If I was out and had ten minutes to spare, I could dial up whatever book I was reading and the app would automatically sync it to the last place I’d read. But I began to get more and more disillusioned with Amazon and at the same time, more or less, got my iPad Mini. The Kindle was no good for comics and I read a lot of those, so an iPad was a great choice. I got the Kindle app for it and discovered that the backlit screen really doesn’t bother me at all. So the Kindle 3 became unnecessary luggage. Now my phone and iPad are all I carry, and they do all I need. But I’m not all about Kindle any more. There are so many reading apps out there. Rather than buy in to the Amazon ecosystem entirely, I started looking at other options. I found that a lot of publishers sell direct from their own websites, a lot of small press use places like Smashwords as well as Amazon, and I recently discovered that the Kobo store is great. All of these use ePub, and don’t tie you to Amazon. And I particularly like ePub because I discovered a couple of years ago an app called Marvin. It’s only for iDevices at the moment, but apparently an Andriod version is in the works. It’s my favourite ereader now and I’ll always look for an ePub file that I can sideload to Marvin as my first port of call when I want a new book. If I can’t find that, I’ll shop at Kobo and use the Kobo app. As a last resort, I’ll go back to Amazon and read with the Kindle. I also still use the Kindle app to read PDFs and Word documents that I send myself using my Kindle email thing. It’s really a case of what’s best for any given situation, but always looking for ePub first. So while I almost exclusively read ebooks on the iPad Mini now (with occasional forays on my phone), I do it with a variety of apps and stores. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a dedicated ereader. And I read about 50/50 ebook/print, so I’ll certainly never abandon paper books. I’m an utter bibliophile and love my bookshelves. I love to get beautiful editions, especially hardbacks, of my favourite books, though income doesn’t allow me to indulge that as much as I’d like. And if I read an ebook that I really enjoy, I’ll get the paper edition for my shelves. Most recently that happened with Nathan Ballingrud’s amazing debut collection of short stories called “North American Lake Monsters”. I bought the ebook, absolutely loved it and, as soon as I’d finished reading, I flipped from the reading app to the browser on my iPad and bought the last signed hardcover from the Small Beer Press website. All without leaving my couch. There’s that living-in-the-future shit again. So brilliant. So what about you? What’s your ereader of choice? How do you shop for ebooks? Let me know in the comments and let me know too about any great apps or readers I might have missed out on. I’ve been going on a lot lately about Bound. It’s no surprise, really. I have a book out from a major publisher and it’s on shelves in bookstores and everything! I’m still finding it hard to believe, but I’m certainly enjoying it. However, now I want to spread the love – I’ve been going on so much lately about myself, it’s time I talked about other people a bit. Below are the books and stories I’ve been really enjoying lately and I highly recommend you check them out. Let’s go: The Hunt for Pierre Jnr By David M. Henley (the sequel, Manifestations, is out now too.) As the blurb says, “He can make you forget, he can control you and he is only eight years old. Three months after his birth he escaped. An hour later he was lost to surveillance. No one knows where he has been for the last eight years … Now Pierre Jnr is about to return.” Sounds good, right? It is. Last Year, When We Were Young by Andrew McKiernan. I had the pleasure of MCing the launch of this excellent debut collection of short stories. It’s fantastic and Greg Chapman sums it up nicely in this review here. Exile by Peter M Ball. Okay, I haven’t read this one yet as I’ve only just bought it, but Peter Ball’s stuff is always good and I expect this novella to be up there as well. So I’m including it here. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. I mean, really, it’s enough that it’s by Gaiman, right? But this is a wonderful book and very British in style and setting. As an ex-pat Brit, that appealed to me a lot. But whether you’re British or not, it’s well worth your time. SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Horror edited by Geoff Brown and A J Spedding. I had the honour of writing a foreword for this collection of military horror short stories. There’s fantastic variety here and it’s a tremendous collection. You’ll be surprised at the scope. Trucksong by Andrew Macrae. A post-apocalyptic Australia with sentient trucks fighting and fucking and stuff. I know, right? It’s written in an incredibly well-developed Australian voice and is something quite different. Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto. This is the guy who wrote True Detective, which is some of the best television I’ve seen in recent years. This is a southern crime noir kinda thing, fantasically written. I loved it. North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud. Possibly the best short story collection I’ve read in recent years. Again, I reviewed it for Thirteen O’Clock, so go here to read me gushing about it. Lexicon by Max Barry. My book of the year last year and it won an Aurealis Award. A fantastic story about the power of words and language and modern magic rolled up with science and it’s a thriller and… and… Just read it. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. A superb supernatural serial killer, crime thriller thing. This book has had loads of attention and all of it well-deserved. A must read. And next up on my list are Guardian by Jo Anderton (which will be great because it’s book three after Debris and Suited, which were great), Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes (after the awesomeness of The Shining Girls, I can’t wait for this one) and Dreaming of Zhou Gong by Traci Harding (which I only got yesterday, signed no less, and I’m looking forward to a lot). Very exciting reading ahead, I think. A quick web search will reveal any of these to you, so off you go and get some good stuff. Let me know what you think. And if you’ve read something simply brilliant lately, drop a mention in the comments and we can keep this sharing of good stuff going. You guys have heard me talk about Angela Slatter plenty before. She’s a good friend of mine, but more than that, she’s one of the best writers I know. Specialising in dark fantasy and horror, she’s the author of the Aurealis Award-winning The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, the World Fantasy Award finalist Sourdough and Other Stories, and the Aurealis finalist Midnight and Moonshine (with Lisa L. Hannett). And that’s just a fraction of her bio. She’s the first Aussie to win a British Fantasy Award too. Check out all about her publications and awards here. Angela has a new chapbook out from Spectral Press called Hearth and Home. It’s a great read and I’ve asked her five questions about it and about horror and her writing in general. The questions are below, but before you read them, go and get the chapbook, as it’s limited edition and there aren’t many left. You can send an email to spectralpress[AT]gmail[DOT]com or maybe get one of the last ones from Angela herself by emailing me[at]angelaslatter[dot]com You won’t be sorry. So, on with the Qs: 1. What’s “Hearth and Home” all about and why did you write this story? Well, it’s about a woman whose teenaged son has come home after a lengthy trial. He was found innocent but things are not as they should be, life doesn’t return to ‘normal’. Basically it’s the story of Caroline’s journey through figuring out just how far from normal things are. I wrote it because Simon Marshall-Jones from Spectral Press had said ‘Sooo, hey, how about a chapbook story?’ And I’d seen the work he’d done with other authors such as Gary McMahon in the chapbook series and thought ‘Yep, get me some of that!’ 2. What’s the real draw card for you with horror? I don’t mind gore if it’s well used and cleverly placed for maximum effect, but I really, really hate explicit shock for the sake of shock. It has a numbing effect after a while and that is not the point of horror for me. Horror is about the creeping shiver that becomes a full-blooded scream … I enjoy the psychology of that journey, that’s what wraps me up in a good horror story. 3. Chapbooks are still cool. Why? I think they’ve never really gone out of fashion in particular, i.e. genre, quarters, and they’re now riding the wave of small press resurgence. I think that’s because small presses are in a unique position to create books that aren’t your traditional trade paperback with the imperative to sell millions. That’s not to say they don’t want to make money, but there’s definitely a place for books are collectable artefacts that remains even in an age of e-books and the throwaway paperback. I also like to think that you can see the craft in them, they don’t necessarily look like something that’s from a cookie cutter … there’s an individuality to them that feels very human and person-made. 4. If you could organise one of those haunted house murder mystery dinners, who would you invite? And who would be the killer? Oooooh. I’m going to ask the living and the dead, the real and the imagined! Angela Carter and Tanith Lee, Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Shearman and Lisa Hannett, Mark Gatiss and Christopher Lee, Helen Marshall and Helen Mirren. And Neil Gaiman, who would be the killer and whom no one would suspect coz he always seems so nice. 5. What’s next for Doctor Slatter? Dr Slatter has three books out this year: The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings (from Tartarus Press), Black-Winged Angels (from Ticonderoga Publications), and The Female Factory (written with Lisa Hannett and coming out from Twelfth Planet Press). No matter what anyone tells you, I am open to working with publishers that don’t start with the letter ‘T’. I currently have a novel called Vigil doing the rounds; I am finishing my novella for Spectral Press, which is called The Witch’s Scale; and I’m finishing up my collection The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales, which is the result of my Queensland Writers Fellowship year; I’m working on another novel called Scandalous Lady Detective, and going back to an old novel called Well of Souls to finish it off. In between I am occasionally offering an editing and story development service, but it’s starting to feel like a bit of a time-squeeze at this point! My story, “Shadows of the Lonely Dead”, is coming out in the Suspended in Dusk anthology (Books of the Dead Press, due mid-late 2014) and the editor, Simon Dewar, has just released the full list of contributing authors and their stories. It’s a stellar bunch: That’s alphabetical, of course. The final order of stories and a cover reveal are apparently coming soon. I think this is going to be a great book. A few of those stories are reprints, but the majority are original, and all follow the theme of “suspended in dusk” to some degree. Should be well worth a read. And can I just point out that I’m going to be in a book with Ramsey Campbell. Achievement Unlocked! Issue 14 of SQ Mag is out. It’s the Australiana Special Edition and includes loads of great stuff like new stories from Kaaron Warren and Sean Williams, lots of other top stories and features, and my novelette, The Darkness in Clara. I’m really proud of this story and I hope other people like it too. I was honoured to learn that it inspired the cover for this issue. The best thing about SQ Mag, apart from the stellar content obviously, is that it’s all free to read online. Here’s the opening to my story: The Darkness in Clara by Alan Baxter Michelle saw Clara’s feet first, absurdly suspended a meter above the ground, toes pointing to the carpet, ghostly pale and twisting in a lazy spiral. The rest of the scene burst into her mind in one electric shock a fraction of a second later; Clara’s wiry nakedness, limp arms, head tilted chaotically to one side. Her tattoos seemed faded against ashen skin. Her so familiar face grotesque and wrong, tongue swelling from her mouth like an escaping slug. And her bulging eyes, staring glassy and cold as Michelle began to scream. Light from the bedside lamp cast Clara’s shadow across the wall like a puppet play, glinted off the metal legs of the upturned chair beneath. I bought her that belt, Michelle thought, as she stared at the worn black leather biting deep into the blue-tinged flesh of Clara’s neck, and she drew breath to scream again. I got a wonderful surprise on Saturday when a few messages started coming in saying something along the lines of, “Congratulations on your Ditmar nomination!” I hadn’t realised the Award shortlist had been released, but it only took a moment to see social media alive with the news (at least, spec fic related social media in Australia.) It turns out that my story, Not the Worst of Sins, published in issue 133 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies magazine, has been noninated in the Best Short Story category. Thanks so much to everyone who voted for that, it’s a real honour. The Ditmars are an Australian national award decided by popular vote. Anyone active in the SF scene and fandom can nominate works, then anyone who was at the previous year’s NatCon (National SF Convention) or has a full or supporting membership for this year’s NatCon can vote for the winners. This year, the NatCon is Continuum X in Melbourne in June. The awards ceremony will be held there. If you went to Conflux in Canberra last year, or you’re going to Continuum this year, you can vote in the Ditmars. I really recommend that you do vote, as the more people who get involved, the more the winners will reflect the opinion of the wider community. If you’re not going to the cons, but you want to vote, you can buy a supporting membership for Continuum X for just $35, which gives you several benefits including voting rights. And you can vote online in a matter of minutes. Couldn’t be easier! Voting is open now until one minute before midnight AEST (ie. 11.59pm, GMT+10), Wednesday, 28th of May, 2014. I’ll post the full list of nominated works in all categories below, but here are a few relevant links: So please do get involved. My own inclusion notwithstanding, I honestly think this is one of the strongest Ditmar Award ballots for years, in every category. You could do worse than getting hold of everything on this list (and anything on the Aurealis Awards list from last month) and you’d be set up with some fantastic reading of Aussie spec fic.The AAs and now the Ditmars are showing very clearly that Australian spec fic is stronger than ever. So, get your membership and get voting (or if you went to Conflux last year, just get voting!) and if you’re going to NatCon this year in June, I’ll see you there! * Tsana Dolichva, for body of work, including reviews and interviews in Tsana’s Reads and Reviews * Sean Wright, for body of work, including reviews in Adventures of a Bookonaut * Grant Watson, for body of work, including reviews in The Angriest * Foz Meadows, for body of work, including reviews in Shattersnipe: Malcontent & Rainbows * Alexandra Pierce, for body of work, including reviews in Randomly Yours, Alex * Tansy Rayner Roberts, for body of work, including essays and reviews at www.tansyrr.com Best Fan Artist * Nalini Haynes, for body of work, including “Defender of the Faith”, “The Suck Fairy”, “Doctor Who vampire” and “The Last Cyberman” in Dark Matter * Kathleen Jennings, for body of work, including “Illustration Friday” * Dick Jenssen, for body of work, including cover art for Interstellar Ramjet Scoop and SF Commentary Saturday was a big day. I drove down to Canberra, took part in the Conflux Writer’s Day minicon, where I did a highspeed “Social Media for Authors” presentation, then went for a quick change of clothes in order to attend the Aurealis Awards ceremony. Nicole Murphy, who organised everything that day, did a truly amazing job. The writers day and awards ceremony were both superb. We caroused and drank and laughed, and fantastic Australian fiction scored very well-deserved awards. Here are all the fantastic nominees and winners. If you want a sampler of excellent recent Aussie spec fic, here’s your huckleberry: (The winners are separated at the top of each list of nominees.) Best Science Fiction Novel Lexicon, Max Barry (Hachette) Trucksong, Andrew Macrae (Twelfth Planet) A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists, Jane Rawson (Transit Lounge)

-i - 7 = -8*i. Calculate i*v(q) + 3*h(q). q**3 Let k(p) = -20*p**3 + 17*p**2 + 23*p + 14. Let q(w) = w**3 - 18*w**2 - 17. Let j be q(18). Let v(n) = -7*n**3 + 6*n**2 + 8*n + 5. Give j*v(b) + 6*k(b). -b**3 + 2*b - 1 Suppose -4*q = 20, -q + 5 = 4*u - 6. Let v(a) = -a**2 - 4*a - 4. Let i(c) = -3*c - 3. Calculate u*i(r) - 3*v(r). 3*r**2 Let t = 7 - 12. Let s = -1 - t. Let k(z) = 3*z - 2. Suppose 0 = 2*l + l + 15. Let x(a) = 4*a - 2. Calculate l*k(o) + s*x(o). o + 2 Let b(d) = 13*d**3 + 3*d**2 + 4*d + 3. Let r(a) = -12*a**3 - 4*a**2 - 5*a - 4. Give -4*b(h) - 3*r(h). -16*h**3 - h Let q(i) = -4*i + 1. Let j(w) = 13*w - 2. What is 4*j(k) + 14*q(k)? -4*k + 6 Suppose 125*b - 20 = 129*b. Let i(k) = k. Let y(x) = 5*x + 1. Let d(o) = -11*i(o) + 2*y(o). Let p(c) = c - 1. What is b*p(f) - 3*d(f)? -2*f - 1 Let h(a) = -8*a + 1. Let z be h(-1). Let l(y) = y - z*y**2 + 9 + y**3 + 0*y**3 - y. Let k(j) = 2*j**3 - 22*j**2 + 22. Determine 5*k(m) - 12*l(m). -2*m**3 - 2*m**2 + 2 Let w(o) = -7*o - 4. Let d(n) = -6*n - 4. Give -4*d(x) + 3*w(x). 3*x + 4 Let g(k) = -7*k - k**3 - k**3 - 5*k**2 + 0*k + 5. Let p(a) = -2*a**3 - 4*a**2 - 6*a + 4. Let q(c) = -c**2 + 16*c + 5. Let n be q(16). Give n*p(d) - 4*g(d). -2*d**3 - 2*d Let c(v) = -12*v - 11. Let d(f) = -6*f - 6. Give -6*c(h) + 11*d(h). 6*h Suppose -g + 20 = 3*l, -4*l = -3*g - 16 - 2. Let m(a) = -7*a**2 + 7*a + 4. Let i(t) = t**2 - t - 1. Give l*i(w) + m(w). -w**2 + w - 2 Let u = -16 - -10. Let b(k) = -13*k - 7. Let q(d) = -14*d - 7. Let v(y) = -5*b(y) + 4*q(y). Let i(t) = -5*t - 4. Calculate u*v(j) - 11*i(j). j + 2 Let l(c) be the third derivative of -c**4/6 - 7*c**3/6 - 3*c**2. Let y(q) = 0*q + 3*q + 1 - 2*q. Calculate l(p) + 6*y(p). 2*p - 1 Let i(r) = -2*r**2 + 4*r + 6. Let s(y) = y**2 - y - 1. Let m be (-2)/(((-1)/3 + 0)*6). Calculate m*i(u) + 4*s(u). 2*u**2 + 2 Suppose 4*h - 10 = 2*i, 11 = -2*i + 2*h + 3*h. Let r(n) = 2*n + 5. Let v(m) = 3*m + 9. What is i*v(f) + 5*r(f)? f - 2 Let x(j) = -9*j + 5. Let l(o) = 0*o - 3 - 4*o + 5. Suppose -2*w + w = -5. Calculate w*l(p) - 2*x(p). -2*p Let j(z) = -z**2 + 3*z + 4. Let s(i) = 2*i**2 - 5*i - 7. Let c = -104 - -107. Give c*s(m) + 5*j(m). m**2 - 1 Let d(c) = 4*c - 3. Let w(l) = 63*l - 48. Let k(u) = 42*u - 32. Let v be ((-3)/(-2))/((-3)/(-10)). Let r(h) = v*w(h) - 8*k(h). Calculate -11*d(m) - 2*r(m). -2*m + 1 Let c(o) = 4*o**2 - o - 2. Let i be 3 + 3 + -1*8. Let k(s) = 9*s**2 - 3*s - 5. Give i*k(p) + 5*c(p). 2*p**2 + p Let d(a) = -a - 1. Let x(y) = 2*y**2 - 2*y - 3. Calculate 3*d(u) - x(u). -2*u**2 - u Let f(u) = 16*u + 4. Let b(n) = -4*n - 1. Calculate 9*b(w) + 2*f(w). -4*w - 1 Suppose -5*r - 6 = -16. Let k(g) = 10*g**3 - 9*g**2 - 9*g + 9. Let p(v) = -v**3 + v**2 + v - 1. Let h(d) = 19*d - 1. Let n be h(1). Determine n*p(o) + r*k(o). 2*o**3 Let p(c) = -c**2 + 2*c - 3. Let n(z) = z**2 - z + 2. Give -5*n(t) - 3*p(t). -2*t**2 - t - 1 Let c(z) = 1 + 2 - 1 - z**2. Let h(b) = -2*b**2 - b + 5. Give 5*c(o) - 2*h(o). -o**2 + 2*o Let z(r) = -15*r**2. Let a(h) = -8*h**2 - 5*h**2 + 10*h**2. Determine 11*a(x) - 2*z(x). -3*x**2 Let m(u) = -16*u + 4. Let c(y) = -5*y + 1. What is 7*c(w) - 2*m(w)? -3*w - 1 Let w(p) = -p**3 + 4*p**2 - 2*p. Let c(r) = 5*r**3 - 17*r**2 + 9*r + 1. Determine 2*c(a) + 9*w(a). a**3 + 2*a**2 + 2 Let n(i) = 2. Let k(g) = 2*g + 25. What is -k(b) + 5*n(b)? -2*b - 15 Let b(a) = -a**2 - 3*a + 1. Let y(u) = -u**2 - 2*u + 1. Give -3*b(s) + 5*y(s). -2*s**2 - s + 2 Let i(r) = 2*r**3 - 2*r - 2. Let o(g) = g**3 - 2*g - 1. Suppose 3*s + 2 = -7. Let v be 3 + s*2/(-6). What is v*o(z) - 3*i(z)? -2*z**3 - 2*z + 2 Suppose 5*m - 2*a + 30 = -7*a, -2 = 2*a. Let f(n) = 22*n**2 - 16*n - 16. Let j(o) = -7*o**2 + 5*o + 5. Determine m*f(t) - 16*j(t). 2*t**2 Let m be (-77)/44 + 5/(-4). Let r(w) = -w**3 + w**2 + 3*w. Let n(a) = 3*a**3 - 2*a**2 - 8*a. What is m*n(i) - 8*r(i)? -i**3 - 2*i**2 Let r(m) = -15*m**3 - 13*m**2 - m - 17. Let a(i) = 7*i**3 + 6*i**2 + i + 8. Determine -13*a(b) - 6*r(b). -b**3 - 7*b - 2 Let f(c) = 3*c + 2. Let o(j) = -4*j - 3. Let w(r) = -3*f(r) - 2*o(r). Let d(y) = 2*y - 1. Determine -3*d(m) - 4*w(m). -2*m + 3 Let m(a) = -a + 1. Let i = -118 + 122. Let f(q) be the second derivative of 0 - 1/2*q**2 + 1/6*q**i - 2*q + 1/6*q**3. Calculate -f(d) - m(d). -2*d**2 Let c(k) = k. Let u(p) = -6*p + 4. Give -3*c(o) - u(o). 3*o - 4 Let d(x) = -x - 4. Let p(z) = -7 - 2*z + 5 - 18 - 2*z. Give -14*d(b) + 3*p(b). 2*b - 4 Let m(q) = 11*q + 5. Let v(i) = -5*i - 5. Let y(x) = x - 1. Let a(j) = -v(j) + 2*y(j). What is 8*a(p) - 5*m(p)? p - 1 Let r(f) = f + 1. Let a(v) be the second derivative of v**3/6 + 13*v. Give a(p) - 2*r(p). -p - 2 Let v be ((-22)/(-8))/(4/(-16)). Let c be 2/v + 2/11. Suppose c*t + 1 = t. Let h(i) = -i + 1. Let w(z) = 2*z - 2. What is t*w(m) + 4*h(m)? -2*m + 2 Let w(r) = -7*r**2 - 9. Let s(u) = -1. Determine -18*s(f) + 2*w(f). -14*f**2 Let n(x) = x**2 + 3*x - 4. Let b be n(3). Let u(l) = l**2 - b*l - 4*l**2 + 2*l**2 + 13*l. Let k(y) = 2*y**2 + 5*y + 1. Give -k(r) - 3*u(r). r**2 - 2*r - 1 Suppose 0*j - 6 = 2*j + 4*w, j = -5*w. Let n(o) = -8*o**3 + 5*o - 5. Let k(l) = -l**3 + l - 1. Calculate j*k(b) + n(b). -3*b**3 Suppose -4*i + 0*z - 5*z - 9 = 0, 3*z = i - 19. Suppose 3*f = i*f - 1. Let u(n) = 2 - f - n + 0. Let k(p) = p**2 - 5*p + 1. What is -k(h) + 3*u(h)? -h**2 + 2*h + 2 Suppose 3*s = 5*i - 26 + 8, -5*i - 5*s = -50. Let h(u) = 2*u + 11. Let g(o) = -4*o - 23. Let b(c) = i*g(c) + 13*h(c). Let j(f) = 2*f + 4. Give -4*b(n) + 5*j(n). 2*n Let s(a) = -3. Let r(b) = b + 10. Let m(u) = 2*u - 49. Let t be m(21). Calculate t*s(z) - 2*r(z). -2*z + 1 Let x(d) = -1. Let n(c) be the second derivative of -3*c**5/20 - c**4/12 - 5*c**2/2 + 3*c. Calculate n(a) - 5*x(a). -3*a**3 - a**2 Let l(g) = g**3 - g**2 + 1. Let x(o) = 13*o**3 - 6*o**2 + 4. Determine -4*l(b) + x(b). 9*b**3 - 2*b**2 Let n(b) = 3*b**3 + b**2 + 6*b + 6. Suppose -j = -108 + 103. Let f(w) = 2*w**3 + w**2 + 5*w + 5. Determine j*n(l) - 6*f(l). 3*l**3 - l**2 Let w be 6/10 + (-12)/20. Suppose w = -5*s + 4*s + 5. Let p(a) = a + 3. Let k(g) = 1. Give s*k(c) - p(c). -c + 2 Let r(z) = -210*z + 85. Let d(j) = -5*j + 2. Determine 255*d(q) - 6*r(q). -15*q Let o(m) = -5*m**3 + 8*m**2 + 7*m + 5. Let d(v) = 4*v**3 - 7*v**2 - 6*v - 4. Determine -6*d(t) - 5*o(t). t**3 + 2*t**2 + t - 1 Let v(p) = -989*p**3 + 115*p + 115. Let h(t) = 26*t**3 - 3*t - 3. Determine -115*h(l) - 3*v(l). -23*l**3 Let x(t) = 6*t**2 - 5*t + 7. Suppose -2*q + 3*i + 2*i = 2, -5*q - 40 = 5*i. Let u(z) = 2 + 7*z**2 - 11*z + 6 + 5*z. Calculate q*x(d) + 5*u(d). -d**2 - 2 Let j(d) = d + 2. Let k = 28 + -23. Let b(i) = 2*i**2 - 11*i + 2. Let v be b(k). Let u(z) = 1. What is v*u(a) + j(a)? a - 1 Let n(x) = 3*x**2 - 6*x. Let c(m) = -m - 12. Let p be c(-11). Let i(a) = 8*a + a - 8*a - 2*a. Give p*n(f) + 5*i(f). -3*f**2 + f Let t(k) = -13*k**3 - 11*k**2 - 15*k + 9. Let h(i) = -7*i**3 - 6*i**2 - 8*i + 5. Calculate 11*h(g) - 6*t(g). g**3 + 2*g + 1 Let x(f) = 3*f**3 + 5*f**2 - 6*f + 1. Let s(m) = -4*m**3 - 6*m**2 + 7*m - 1. Suppose 188 = 2*t + 16. Let p be t/18 - 16/(-72). Give p*s(j) + 6*x(j). -2*j**3 - j + 1 Let o(f) = 16*f**2 - f + 1. Let x(y) = 15*y**2 - y + 1. What is -4*o(n) + 3*x(n)? -19*n**2 + n - 1 Let q(p) = 2*p + 4. Let v(u) = -4*u - 8. Give -9*q(l) - 4*v(l). -2*l - 4 Suppose -4*a + 315 = 3*l, -2*a + 210 = 2*l - 0*a. Let f(u) = 105*u - l*u + u**2. Let z(k) = -k**3 - k**2. Give f(h) + z(h). -h**3 Let o(p) = 4*p**3 - 10*p**2 - 10*p - 10. Let k(h) = h**3 - 3*h**2 - 3*h - 3. Determine 20*k(g) - 6*o(g). -4*g**3 Let i(z) = 320*z. Let s(d) = 11*d. Give -6*i(g) + 176*s(g). 16*g Let f = -12 - -15. Suppose -f*m = -2*m - 4. Let v(w) = -5*w**2 - 14*w + 6. Let j(x) = 2*x**2 + 5*x - 2. What is m*v(t) + 11*j(t)? 2*t**2 - t + 2 Let i(g) = -3*g**2 + 7*g - 8. Let h(j) = j**2 - 3*j + 4. Suppose -1 - 5 = f - d, 0 = -2*f + 3*d - 13. Determine f*h(a) - 2*i(a). a**2 + a - 4 Let y(c) = 6*c**2 + c**3 - 2*c**2 - 3*c + c**3. Let h(l) = l**2 - l. Give -4*h(j) + y(j). 2*j**3 + j Let p(u) = u**3 - u**2 + u + 1. Let x be -2 + (-3)/(6/(-8)). Let y(i) = i**3 + x*i**2 + 6*i**2 - 7*i**3 - 5*i - 5 - 3*i**2. Determine 5*p(b) + y(b). -b**3 Let u(t) be the first derivative of t**3/6 - t**2 - 4*t - 5. Let o(s) be the first derivative of u(s). Let z(j) = 2. Give 2*o(n) + 3*z(n). 2*n + 2 Let w(r) = 5*

Wednesday, November 30, 2011 The following sounds like a description of an airplane, like something you might hear from somebody like Bert Rutan: when we addressed the wing, we started with a complicated rule, to limit what a designer could do. We added more and more pieces as we thought of more and more outcomes, and we came to a point where it was so complicated—and it was still going to be hard to control, because the more rules you write the more loopholes you create – that we reverted to a simple principle. Limit the area very accurately, and make it a game of efficiency. But it's not from Rutan at all; it's an excerpt from Wings, the Next Generation, an article discussing the sailboats to be used in next summer's America's Cup qualification matches. Now, everybody knows that sails, and airplane wings, actually have very much in common, so it really isn't surprising that this sounds like aerospace design. However, as Paul Cayard notes in the article, the wings on a competition sailboat have a few special constraints: the America’s Cup rules don’t allow stored power, so two of our eleven guys—we think, two—will be grinding a primary winch all the race long. Not to trim, but to maintain pressure in the hydraulic tank so that any time someone wants to open a hydraulic valve to trim the wing, there will be pressure to make that happen. It will be fascinating to see these boats in person, racing on the bay, but I'm glad I won't have to be one of those grinders! Tuesday, November 29, 2011 Over the long weekend, a number of people seem to have picked up and commented on Mikeal Rogers's essay about Apache and its adoption of the source code control tool, Git. For example, Chris Aniszczyk pointed to the essay, and followed it up with some statistics and elaboration. Aniszczyk, in turn, points to a third essay (a year old), by Josh Berkus, describing the PostgresQL community's migration to git, and a fourth web page describing the Eclipse community's migration to git. (Note: Both Eclipse and PostgresQL migrated from CVS to git). I find the essays by Rogers and Aniszczyk quite puzzling, full of much heat and emotion, and I'm not sure what to take from them. Rogers seems to start out on a solid footing: For a moment, let's put the git part of GitHub on the back burner and talk about the hub. On GitHub the language is not code, as it is often characterized, it is contribution. GitHub presents a person to person communication system for contributions. Documentation, issues, and of course code, travel between personal repositories. The communication medium is the contribution itself. Its value, its merit, its intention, all laid naked for the world to see. There is no hierarchy or politic embedded in the system. The creator of a project has a clear first mover advantage but the possibility is always there for its position to be supplanted by a fork, creating a social imperative to manage contributions in a satisfactory manor [sic] to her community. This is all well-written and clear, I think. But I don't understand how this is a critique of Apache. In my seven years of experience with the Derby project at Apache, this is exactly how an Apache software project works: Issues are raised in the Apache issue-tracking system; discussion is held in the issue comments and on mailing lists; various contributors suggest ideas; someone "with an itch to scratch" dives into the problem and constructs a patch; the patch is proposed by attaching it to the issue-tracking system; further discussion and testing occurs, now shaped by the concrete nature of the proposed patch; a committer who becomes persuaded of the desirability of the patch commits it to the repository; eventually a release occurs and the change becomes widely distributed. This is the process as I have seen it and participated in it, since back in 2004, and, I believe, was how it was done for years before that. So what, precisely, is it that Apache is failing at? Here is where Rogers's essay seems to head into the wilderness, starting with this pronouncement: Many of the social principles I described above are higher order manifestations of the design principles of git itself. [ ... ] The problem here is less about git and more about the chasm between Apache and the new culture of open source. There is a growing community of young new open source developers that Apache continues to distance itself from and as the ASF plants itself firmly in this position the growing community drifts farther away. I don't understand this at all. What, precisely, is it that Apache is doing to distance itself from these developers, and what does this have to do with git? Rogers offers as evidence this email thread (use the "next message by thread" links to read the thread), but from what I can tell, it seems like a very friendly, open, and productive discussion about the mechanics of using git to manage projects at Apache, with several commenters welcoming newcomers into the community and encouraging them to get involved. This seems like the Apache way working successfully, from what I can tell. Aniszczyk's follow-on essay, unfortunately, doesn't shed much additional light. He states that "what has been happening recently regarding the move to a distributed version control system is either pure politicking [sic] or negligence in my opinion." So, again, what is it that he is specifically concerned about? Here, again, the essay appears to head into the wilderness. "Let's try to have some fun with statistics," says Aniszczyk, and he presents a series of charts and graphs showing that: git is very popular lots of job sites, such as LinkedIn, are advertising for developers who know git There is no 3. At this point, Aniszczyk says "I knew it was time to stop digging for statistics." But again, I am confused about what he finds upsetting. The core message of his essay appears to be: The first is simple and deals with my day job of facilitating open source efforts at Twitter. If you’re going to open source a new project, the fact that you simply have to use SVN at Apache is a huge detterent [sic] from even going that route. [ ... ] All I’m saying is that it took a lot of work to start the transition and the eclipse community hasn’t even fully completed it yet. Just ask the PostgreSQL community how quick it was moving to Git. The key point here is that you have to start the transition soon as it’s going to take awhile for you to implement the move (especially since Apache hosts a lot of projects). Once again, I'm lost. Why, exactly, is it a huge deterrent to use svn? And why, exactly, does Apache need to convert its existing projects from svn to git? Just because LinkedIn is advertising more jobs that use git as a keyword? That doesn't seem like a valid reason, to me. Note that, as I mentioned at the start of this article, the PostgresQL team migrated from CVS to git, not from Subversion to git. I can completely understand this. The last time I used CVS was in 2001, 10 full years ago; even at that time, CVS had some severe technical shortcomings and there was sufficient benefit to switching that it was worth the effort. So I'm not at all surprised by the PostgresQL community's decision. The article by Berkus, by the way, is definitely worth reading, full of wisdom about platform coverage, tool and infrastructure support, workflow design, etc. So, to summarize (as I understand it): PostgresQL and Eclipse are migrating from CVS to git, successfully (although it is taking a significant amount of time and resources) Apache is working to integrate git into its policies and infrastructure, but still uses Subversion as its primary scm system Some people seem to feel like Apache is making the wrong decision about this But what I don't understand, at the end of it all, is in what way this is opposed to "the Apache way?" From everything I can see, the Apache way is alive and well in these discussions. UPDATE:Thomas Koch, in the comments, provides a number of substantial, concrete examples in which git's powerful functionality can be very helpful. The most important one that Thomas provides, I think, is this: It is much easier to make a proper integration between review systems, Jenkins and Jira, if the patch remains in the VCS as a branch instead of leaving it. I completely agree. Working with patch files in isolation is substantially worse than making reference to a branched change that is under SCM control. Certainly in my work with Derby I have seen many a contributor make minor technical errors while manipulating a patch file, that on the whole just adds friction to the overall process. Good point, Thomas! But there is very little else. George Trimble's homepage no longer exists, and most of the links from the existing summary pages at Wikipedia and elsewhere point to articles in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, which (like Bloom's original paper at the ACM site) is protected behind a paywall and can't be read by commoners. Computer Usage Company is credited with being "the world's first computer software company", but it seems on the verge of disappearing into dust. It's a shame; you'd think the software industry would work harder to keep information about these early pioneers alive. I wonder if the IEEE keeps any statistics regarding how many people have actually paid the $30 to purchase this 20-year-old, five page memoir? I would have been intrigued to read it; I might even have paid, say, $0.99 or something like that to get it on my Kindle. But thirty dollars? Saturday, November 26, 2011 It's amazing to me that Stanford are, at this point, clinging to hopes for a BCS at-large bid. Should it really be this hard to get two Pac-12 teams into the BCS? I guess that the SEC are still hoping they will field 3 teams in the 10 team BCS schedule... The interviewer, who goes by the handle "moshboy", describes the intent of the project here: all I wanted to do was get some words of insight out of a few independent videogame developers that weren’t known to put many of their own words ‘out there’. In the beginning, the idea was to interview those that had rarely or never been interviewed before. Both reconciliation and deduplication can be abstracted as the problem of efficiently computing the set difference between two sets stored at two nodes across a communication link. The set difference is the set of keys that are in one set but not the other. In reconciliation, the difference is used to compute the set union; in deduplication, it is used to compute the intersection. Efficiency is measured primarily by the bandwidth used (important when the two nodes are connected by a wide-area or mobile link), the latency in round-trip delays, and the computation used at the two hosts. We are particularly interested in optimizing the case when the set difference is small (e.g., the two nodes have almost the same set of routing updates to reconcile, or the two nodes have a large amount of duplicate data blocks) and when there is no prior communication or context between the two nodes. The paper itself is well-written and clear, and certainly worth your time. It's been particularly rewarding for me because it's taken me down a path of investigating a lot of new algorithms that I hadn't previously been studying. My head is swimming with Invertible Bloom Filters (a variation on counting Bloom filters, which in turn are a variation on basic Bloom filters, an algorithm that is now 40 years old!) Tornado codes Min-wise sketches Characteristic Polynomial Interpolation Approximate Reconciliation Trees and many other related topics. I hope to return to discussing a number of these sub-topics in later posts, whenever I find the time (heh heh). One of the things that's challenging about a lot of this work is that it's based on probabilistic algorithms, which take some time getting used to. I first studied these sorts of algorithms as an undergraduate in the early 1980's, but they still throw me when I encounter them. When studying probabilistic algorithms, you often encounter sections like the following (from the current paper): The corollary implies that in order to decode an IBF that uses 4 independent hash functions with high probability, then one needs an overhead of k + 1 = 5. In other words, one has to use 5d cells, where d is the set difference. Our experiments later, however, show that an overhead that is somewhat less than 2 suffices. The question always arises: what happens to the algorithm in those cases where the probabilities fail, and the algorithm gives the wrong answer (a false positive, say)? I believe, that, in general, you can often structure the overall computation so that in these cases the algorithm still gives the correct answer, but does more work. For example, in the deduplication scenario, you could perhaps structure things so that the set difference code (which is trying to compute the blocks that are identical in both datasets, so that they can be eliminated from one set as redundant and stored only in the other set) fails gracefully on a false positive. Here, a false positive would need to cause the overall algorithm to conclude that two blocks which are in fact distinct, but which collide in the data structure and hence appear to be identical, are treated as distinct and retained in both datasets. That is, the algorithm could be designed so that it errs on the side of safety when the probabilities cause a false positive to be returned. Alternatively, some probabilistic algorithms instead fail entirely with very low probability, but fail in such as way as to allow the higher-level code to either simply re-try the computation (if it involves random behaviors, then with high probability it will work the next time), or to vary the computation in some crucial aspect, to ensure that it will succeed (which is the case in this particular implementation). Most treatments of probabilistic algorithms describe these details, but I still find it important to always keep them in my head, in order to satisfy myself that such a probabilistic algorithm is safe to deploy in practice. Often, the issue in using probabilistic algorithms is to figure out how to set the parameters so that the behavior of the algorithm performs well. In this particular case, the issue involves estimating the size of the set difference: To efficiently size our IBF, the Strata Estimator provides an estimate for d. If the Strata Estimator over-estimates, the subsequent IBF will be unnecessarily large and waste bandwidth. However if the Strata Estimator under-estimates, then the subsequent IBF may not decode and cost an expensive transmission of a larger IBF. To prevent this, the values returned by the estimator should be scaled up so that under-estimation rarely occurs. That is, in this particular usage of the probabilistic algorithms, the data structure itself (the Invertible Bloom Filter) is powerful enough that the code can detect when it fails to be decoded. Using a larger IBF solves that problem, but we don't want to use a wastefully-large IBF, so the main effort of the paper involves techniques to compute the smallest IBF that is needed for a particular pair of sets to be diff'd. If you're interested in studying these sorts of algorithms, the paper is well-written and straightforward to follow, and contains an excellent reference section with plenty of information on the underlying work on which it is based. Wednesday, November 23, 2011 I mostly avoid political topics on my blog, but the current events on the University of California campuses are very important and need more attention. Here is a superb essay by Professor Bob Ostertag of U.C. Davis about the events of the last week, and a follow-up essay discussing ongoing events. Meanwhile, it's interesting that some of the most compelling and insightful commentary is being published outside the U.S., for example this column and this column in the Guardian. I don't know what the answers are. But I do know that the debate is important, and I salute the Davis and Berkeley communities for not backing down from the questions, and for opening their minds to the need to hold that debate, now. Our universities, and our children, are our future. Both articles are extremely interesting, well-written, and deeply and carefully considered. Here's an excerpt from the WSJ discussion: The strategies that people use to assert privacy in social media are diverse and complex, but the most notable approach involves limiting access to meaning while making content publicly accessible. I’m in awe of the countless teens I’ve met who use song lyrics, pronouns, and community references to encode meaning into publicly accessible content. If you don’t know who the Lions are or don’t know what happened Friday night or don’t know why a reference to Rihanna’s latest hit might be funny, you can’t interpret the meaning of the message. This is privacy in action. And here's an excerpt from the First Monday article: Furthermore, many parents reported that they helped their children create their accounts. Among the 84 percent of parents who were aware when their child first created the account, 64 percent helped create the account. Among those who knew that their child joined below the age of 13 — even if the child is now older than 13 — over two–thirds (68 percent) indicated that they helped their child create the account. Of those with children who are currently under 13 and on Facebook, an even greater percentage of parents were aware at the time of account creation. In other words, the vast majority of parents whose children signed up underage were involved in the process and would have been notified that the minimum age was 13 during the account creation process. And there are actually many reasons why I would want to allow her to do that. First and foremost, this is the opportunity for me to monitor her interactions on Facebook — requiring she be a friend at least for a few years. That allows me some access and the ability to educate. Second, all of her friends were on Facebook. This is where tween interactions occur. Finally, I actually think that it is the evolving means of communication between people. To cut off a child from that seems like cutting them off from the future. I can entirely sympathise; my wife and I had similar deep discussions about these questions with our children (although at the time it was MySpace and AOL, not Facebook ). They are your kids; you know them best. In so many ways, Facebook is just another part of life that you can help them with, like all those other temptations of life (drugs, sex, etc.). Talk to them, tell them honestly and openly what the issues are, and why it matters. Keep an eye on what they are doing, and let them know you'll always be there for them. There are no simple answers, but it's great that people like boyd and Gans are pressing the debate, raising awareness, and making us all think about what we want our modern online world to be like. Here's boyd again: We must also switch the conversation from being about one of data collection to being one about data usage. This involves drawing on the language of abuse, violence, and victimization to think about what happens when people’s willingness to share is twisted to do them harm. Just as we have models for differentiating sex between consenting partners and rape, so too must we construct models that that separate usage that’s empowering and that which strips people of their freedoms and opportunities. This isn't going to be easy, but it's hard to think about anything that is more important that the way in which people talk with each other. So don't just "get over it". Think about it, research it, talk about it, and help ensure that the future turns out the way it should. This morning, the O'Reilly web site is running a condensed interview with Jonathan Stark, discussing, with the benefit of several months of hindsight, the intriguing "Jonathan's Card" events of the summer. If you didn't pay much attention to Jonathan's Card as it was unfolding in real time, this is a good short introduction, with a summary of the events and some links to follow-up material. Tuesday, November 15, 2011 If you have any interest at all in the software industry, you'll be absolutely fascinated to read this detailed article at the GrokLaw website about the legal dispute between Microsoft and Barnes & Noble over Android-related patents. The Microsoft-created features protected by the patents infringed by the Nook and Nook Color tablet are core to the user experience. and Our agreements ensure respect and reasonable compensation for Microsoft's inventions and patent portfolio. Equally important, they enable licensees to make use of our patented innovations on a long-term and stable basis. However, what has never been known (until now), is precisely what those patented innovations are. As Mary-Jo Foley observed more than 6 months ago, Microsoft refuses to identify the patents, and why it believes Android infringes upon them, unless a Non Disclosure Agreement is signed agreeing not to reveal that information. Barnes & Noble apparently refused to sign that agreement, and instead found counsel to represent them, and now the information about the patents in question is no longer a secret. According to the Barnes & Noble filings, the primary Microsoft patent which Android infringes is a 16-year-old patent (U.S. Patent 5,778,372), which patents: A method of remotely browsing an electronic document residing at a remote site on a computer network and specifying a background image which is to be displayed with the electronic document superimposed thereon comprising in response to a user's request to browse to the electronic document. Apparently, changing the background on your screen when a document is displayed is patented. I understand software quite well. I don't understand law at all, and specifically I don't understand intellectual property law. However, I find the GrokLaw analysis of the Barnes & Noble v. Microsoft dispute absolutely fascinating. These Internet-scale datacenters have really taken off in recent years. Last month the Open Compute community held their second Open Compute Summit, and part of that effort was the establishment of a foundation to guide the work as it moves forward; read more about that effort here. I haven't seen too much technical information flowing from the Open Compute Summit, although James Hamilton of Amazon posted his slides online here: here Meanwhile (was this part of the summit, or independent?), the team at AnandTech have done some independent testing of the Open Compute server components; in their conclusion, they commend the Open Compute work as showing tremendous potential: The Facebook Open Compute servers have made quite an impression on us. Remember, this is Facebook's first attempt to build a cloud server! This server uses very little power when running at low load (see our idle numbers) and offers slightly better performance while consuming less energy than one of the best general purpose servers on the market. The power supply power factor is also top notch, resulting in even more savings (e.g. power factoring correction) in the data center. While it's possible to look at the Open Compute servers as a "Cloud only" solution, we imagine anyone with quite a few load-balanced web servers will be interested in the hardware. So far only Cloud / hyperscale data center oriented players like Rackspace have picked up the Open Compute idea, but a lot of other people could benefit from buying these kind of "keep it simple" servers in smaller quantities. Lastly, since much of the activity in this area of computing has to do with power efficiency, let me draw your attention to this interesting work on power management in Android. Cheaper, faster, and more power-efficient: the future of computing beckons! Monday, November 7, 2011 This month, the IEEE's Spectrum magazine publishes its special report, Fukushima and the Future of Nuclear Power. It's an immense and detailed report, with multiple articles, multi-media presentations, and lots of material to dig through. A good place to start is the lead article, 24 Hours at Fukushima. This article summarizes the events of the critical first 24 hours after the earthquake, with a focus on specific events and actions that seem like they represent learning opportunities. The article has all sorts of fascinating details about the events of that day, such as the fact that it was hard to bring emergency equipment to the site when the roads were full of evacuations headed from the side; the observation that, after the earthquake but prior to the tsunami, an emergency cooling system was intentionally shut down because it was cooling the reactor too fast; the detail that, once power went out, electric security locks on building doors and fences had to be first broken before emergency equipment could be moved through them; and the observation that, when reactor 1 exploded, debris from the explosion ripped through the emergency backup power cable that had been installed to bring emergency power back to the plant. And much, much more. There are so many small breakdowns, and decisions, and implications, that can be considered and thought about and studied. The article notes that many of the subsequent problems arose from the fact that backup electrical power was lost, and could not be restored, and suggests several lessons that should be learned, including various ways to ensure that backup electrical power would be less likely to be lost, more likely to be subsequently restored, and perhaps even less likely to be needed; specifically, the article calls out 6 "lessons": LESSON 1: Emergency generators should be installed at high elevations or in watertight chambers. LESSON 2: If a cooling system is intended to operate without power, make sure all of its parts can be manipulated without power. LESSON 5: Ensure that catalytic hydrogen recombiners (power-free devices that turn dangerous hydrogen gas back into steam) are positioned at the tops of reactor buildings where gas would most likely collect. Not all of these lessons seem self-evidently obvious to me; for example, it seems like the recommendation to store backup power trucks "very close to the power plant site" would simply have resulted in leaving those trucks vulnerable to the same event that took out the main building power systems. As we know, the 14-meter tsunami washed away much larger and more resilient structures than backup power trucks. Still, the lessons seem well-meant and clearly point out starting points for the discussions to come about improvements and enhancements. I love lesson 2 in particular, as it points out one of those "obvious in hindsight" mistakes that clearly represents an opportunity for all operators in every such site to review their similar equipment and ensure that it doesn't suffer from the same design flaw. Engineering is hard. Things happen that you didn't expect, and you have to study your mistakes, learn from them, explore alternatives, test systems, and revise, revise, revise. As the article notes, we've learned a great deal from the tragedy at Fukushima, and we need to continue to learn more. I'm not a nuclear engineer, but I am immensely grateful for efforts such as this one, to help us interested lay-people try to come to grips with what happened, and why, and what does it mean, and how do we make it better in the future. Certainly, it makes me more motivated to return to my own designs, and to study them, and test them, and continue to learn from my own failures and make my future work better. I recommend this article highly; I think you'll find it interesting and well worth your time. This is the second major release since I joined the team, and I'm quite excited about it. Although I played only a minor role in this release, I had a chance to get involved in many of the new features, and there are some really powerful enhancements in this release. Engineers love releases (really, we do!): the whole point of writing software is to build something that gets used, and in order for it to get used, it has to get released. So even though a release is a whole lot of work, the result is that a new version of the product becomes available, and gets used, and that's always exciting! This is the sort of book that takes you about 2 solid hours to read, if you try hard. And I'm not exactly sure why you would try hard, because it isn't really a book that rewards that. It is a very transparent book: it sets a simple goal, and it achieves it, completely: If you've ever wondered, while browsing the web, "Why is this weird thing popular? Who cares about this stuff? How does this thing have so many views? Why do people waste their time with this? Where did it come from and where is it all going?" then read on. Stryker's book succeeds: it helps you understand the concept of Internet memes; it shines a little light into the odd, strange corners of the Internet; it gives you some context for approaching some of the aspects of Internet life that probably seemed, if not downright horrifying, at least hard to comprehend: What are memes? Why is anonymity such a big deal on the Internet? What are griefers, trolls, noobs? If you've never heard of Anonymous, 4chan, lolcats, Rule 34, Star Wars Boy, or Encyclopedia Dramatica, then you should probably just pass this book by; its subject matter is of no interest. But if you've heard of those topics, yet been slightly intimidated, and slightly unsure of how to proceed, then you might find this book helpful: it de-mystifies much of those lesser-known areas of the Internet, sets them out in plain terms and simple descriptions, and gives you at least enough knowledge to decide for yourself whether you want to know more. As I reflected on the book, and tried to understand what I had learned, and how to summarize it, I found myself drawn to a particular passage. Stryker is describing an old (1986) computer game called Habitat, which was an early investigation of human-versus-human gaming: One contentious game play element in Habitat was "Player vs. Player" or "PvP" killing. Experienced players were able to handily murder noobs, which made the game less fun for everyone but those who'd been there the longest. In addition, the very concept of virtual murder was controversial. It didn't take long for trolls to start randomly killing other players as they wandered around the virtual town. But if the engineers were to disallow PvP killing entirely, they would rob players of the thrill of danger and the joys of conquest. The moderators held a pool, asking if killing should be allowed in Habitat. The results were split 50/50. So they compromised. Killing would be disallowed inside the carefully manicured urban areas, but the moment you left town and headed out into the frontier, you were announcing to other players that you were down to scrap, if need be. This clever solution pleased most players, and continues to be the standard for many massively multiplayer games. So will the Internet continue to look. Those who value safety over freedom will hang out on Facebook and other proprietary communities and mobile apps walled off with identity authentication. And those willing to brave the jungles of the open Internet will continue to spend time in anonymous IRC channels and message boards like 4chan. It's an interesting metaphor, and I think it's insightful. In a new world, it's important to have a discussion about rules. And to have that discussion, there has to be a certain amount of discussion about where (and when) the rules apply. As Stryker notes: /b/ is significant because it's the only board on 4chan that has no rules (the only thing prohibited is committing or plotting actual crimes, the same rules that apply to any public forum on or offline). Actually, as it turns out, there are more rules than these, but to a certain extent in order to understand the rules, you have to be a member of the community. The Internet is still young, and we are still learning how we want to behave in this new cyberspace. Places like 4chan, although almost certainly not your cup of tea, are still worth understanding and thinking about, and Stryker's book is a step toward opening the discussion and having those debates. This is great news, and really emphasizes not just the excellence that is currently manifest in the top levels of chess, but also its growing spread, as the top list includes players from several countries not previously known for chess prowess (Carlsen is from Norway, Anand from India, and Wang Hao from China is in the top twenty as well). But McClain goes on to claim: But ratings inflation — caused in part by looser rules guiding them — makes it difficult to compare different eras. The ratings system was actually never intended for such comparisons. It was created in 1960 by Arpad Elo, a physics professor, as a snapshot of each player’s ability and a tool for predicting games’ outcomes. The system has been tweaked over the years, but it has held up well. McClain provides no evidence for this claim, which is a shame, as from what little I know, the evidence in fact shows entirely the opposite. As I described in a short blog post last summer, a fairly detailed study by students at the University of Buffalo recently concluded that there has been little or no ‘inflation’ in ratings over time—if anything there has been deflation. This runs counter to conventional wisdom, but is predicted by population models on which rating systems have been based Regardless of whether or not the ratings are being inflated, there is no doubt in my mind that today's chess players are playing some wonderful chess. As we look toward next year's World Chess Championship, there is lots of reason to be excited about the world of chess! Friday, November 4, 2011 Gibson, of course, is one of the greatest science fiction writers ever, the man who coined the term "cyberspace", who gave us (so far) nine spectacular novels, with hopefully more coming. What will you learn if you go read the interview? Well, all sorts of things! You'll learn about Gibson's fascinating writing techniques: never planning past the first sentence, constantly re-working and re-considering his story: Every day, when I sit down with the manuscript, I start at page one and go through the whole thing, revising freely. ... I think revision is hugely underrated. It is very seldom recognized as a place where the higher creativity can live, or where it can manifest. I think it was Yeats who said that literary revision was the only place in life where a man could truly improve himself. letting the work flow from someplace hard to describe: I’ve never had any direct fictional input, that I know of, from dreams, but when I’m working optimally I’m in the equivalent of an ongoing lucid dream. That gives me my story, but it also leaves me devoid of much theoretical or philosophical rationale for why the story winds up as it does on the page. The sort of narratives I don’t trust, as a reader, smell of homework. You'll learn about Gibson's view on whether science fiction writers are writing about the future, the past, or the present: Nobody can know the real future. And novels set in imaginary futures are necessarily about the moment in which they are written. As soon as a work is complete, it will begin to acquire a patina of anachronism. I know that from the moment I add the final period, the text is moving steadily forward into the real future. ... all fiction is speculative, and all history, too—endlessly subject to revision. You'll learn what Gibson, surprisingly, finds to be the technology that is most characteristic of the human species: Cities look to me to be our most characteristic technology. We didn’t really get interesting as a species until we became able to do cities—that’s when it all got really diverse, because you can’t do cities without a substrate of other technologies. There’s a mathematics to it—a city can’t get over a certain size unless you can grow, gather, and store a certain amount of food in the vicinity. Then you can’t get any bigger unless you understand how to do sewage. If you don’t have efficient sewage technology the city gets to a certain size and everybody gets cholera. You'll get some great anecdotes that will totally drop your jaw: For years, I’d found myself telling interviewers and readers that I believed it was possible to write a novel set in the present that would have an effect very similar to the effect of novels I had set in imaginary futures. I think I said it so many times, and probably with such a pissy tone of exasperation, that I finally decided I had to call myself on it. A friend knew a woman who was having old-fashioned electroshock therapy for depression. He’d pick her up at the clinic after the session and drive her not home but to a fish market. He’d lead her to the ice tables where the day’s catch was spread out, and he’d just stand there with her, and she’d look at the ice tables for a really long time with a blank, searching expression. Finally, she’d turn to him and say, “Wow, they’re fish, aren’t they!” After electro­shock, she had this experience of unutterable, indescribable wonderment at seeing these things completely removed from all context of memory, and gradually her brain would come back together and say, Damn, they’re fish. That’s kind of what I do. It's a thrilling roller-coaster of an interview, with so many choice bits that you'll find yourself returning to his ideas again and again. I think that most of this blogging activity has been inspired by Ben Horowitz, who is by far the most active and best blogger of the bunch. But the other blogs are quite interesting too, and there are some additional interesting materials on the site. If you're interested in the software industry, and more specifically in the VC-funded software startup industry, there is a lot of interesting material to see here, including blogs from: I know from my own experience how much time and effort it takes to write a blog. I'm pleased that this group, who have lots of experience and knowledge, are investing the energy into sharing their thoughts and opinions; hopefully it will inspire others to do the same, and in the meantime it means more interesting essays to read! Tuesday, November 1, 2011 Legacy software, so goes the old saying, is any software that actually works. Of course, there is a fair nugget of truth to this aphorism, for once a system is running we start to be increasingly unwilling to change it. Yet software is soft for a reason; it can be changed, and it can be improved. It's always interesting to watch this process at work, for the improving of software can be a messy business, not just for technical reasons, but also because of social, cultural, and business reasons. A major event recently was Google's decision to take a new direction with their proposed new Dart language. As Weiqi Gao observes, this has grown into quite the discussion, with some backers wanting to continue to improve JavaScript, while others feel that it's time to embark on designing a new language (such as Dart). Major discussion has ensued, and some of the emotions have been rather heated: I respect the people involved and believe they’re for the most part making their own choices. But Dart and other unrelated Google agenda items do impose clear and significant opportunity costs on Google’s standards actiivities. "Unrelated"? I think that is an overly strong critique. Surely Dart is strongly related. What is the best way, then? Continue to improve the existing language, or work on building new languages? Can we really not do both? After all, Dart is not the only new language built on top of and closely related to JavaScript: consider CoffeeScript, for example. It is another new language which is designed for the web, and is implemented by being compiled into JavaScript. CoffeeScript is interesting; it pushes the envelope in other directions, such as borrowing the "whitespace is structure" paradigm from Python (a technique I've always found fascinating, even if I can barely manage to maintain decent indentation standards in my own code). I think such experimentation with new languages is wonderful, which is why it's so great to see techniques such as Source Maps, which allow tools like IDEs and Debuggers that were written for one language to be used, in a semi-interpreted style, with other newer languages built atop those old languages. Clever! So, just as Weiqi Gao does, I applaud the invention of these new languages, and I hope the experimentation continues. And I applaud the improvement of compilers and VMs and language runtimes, to enable such language experimentation and innovation. Even though I continue to earn my living coding in Dennis Ritchie's good old C language, all these new ideas and new approaches help us all think about problems in new ways, and find better techniques to solve problems.

Popular Searches The Village people sang, "Every man ought to be a macho macho man; to live a life of freedom, machos make a stand." Let's be honest, all of us who drive Jeeps consider ourselves to be fairly macho men, but after a long day at work, climbing in and out of our high-clearance Jeeps can make it difficult to "make a stand"—we just want to sit. A quality set of Jeep truck steps can solve this problem in no time flat. Jeep truck steps give you that little extra boost that helps take the load off your legs. CARR Super Hoop Truck Steps Reviews Thank You Auto Anything! Product rcvd a couple of days earlier than the expected date and in great condition. Exactly as advertised, I wanted something different than the Nerf Bars you see on most jeeps and this not only made the grade for looks but also are very functional. My wife really appreciates the fact that the steps are wide and stable enough to allow you to take a easy step up. Thank you again for the honest advertising! We find that lots of drivers prefer the smaller Jeep truck steps over the larger and more noticeable nerf bars. After all, it really only takes a small foothold to get the job done. Jeep truck steps come in a variety of finishes so you can tweak the look of your rig and get it just the way you want it. They are easy to install and AutoAnything carries Jeep truck steps from all the best manufacturers. As you focus in on the right set of Jeep truck steps for your vehicle, remember our 1-year lower price guarantee.

/* Mantis PCI bridge driver Copyright (C) Manu Abraham ([email protected]) This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. */ #include <asm/io.h> #include <linux/ioport.h> #include <linux/pci.h> #include <linux/i2c.h> #include "dmxdev.h" #include "dvbdev.h" #include "dvb_demux.h" #include "dvb_frontend.h" #include "dvb_net.h" #include "mantis_common.h" #include "mantis_reg.h" #include "mantis_i2c.h" #define TRIALS 10000 static int mantis_i2c_read(struct mantis_pci *mantis, const struct i2c_msg *msg) { u32 rxd, i, stat, trials; dprintk(MANTIS_INFO, 0, " %s: Address=[0x%02x] <R>[ ", __func__, msg->addr); for (i = 0; i < msg->len; i++) { rxd = (msg->addr << 25) | (1 << 24) | MANTIS_I2C_RATE_3 | MANTIS_I2C_STOP | MANTIS_I2C_PGMODE; if (i == (msg->len - 1)) rxd &= ~MANTIS_I2C_STOP; mmwrite(MANTIS_INT_I2CDONE, MANTIS_INT_STAT); mmwrite(rxd, MANTIS_I2CDATA_CTL); /* wait for xfer completion */ for (trials = 0; trials < TRIALS; trials++) { stat = mmread(MANTIS_INT_STAT); if (stat & MANTIS_INT_I2CDONE) break; } dprintk(MANTIS_TMG, 0, "I2CDONE: trials=%d\n", trials); /* wait for xfer completion */ for (trials = 0; trials < TRIALS; trials++) { stat = mmread(MANTIS_INT_STAT); if (stat & MANTIS_INT_I2CRACK) break; } dprintk(MANTIS_TMG, 0, "I2CRACK: trials=%d\n", trials); rxd = mmread(MANTIS_I2CDATA_CTL); msg->buf[i] = (u8)((rxd >> 8) & 0xFF); dprintk(MANTIS_INFO, 0, "%02x ", msg->buf[i]); } dprintk(MANTIS_INFO, 0, "]\n"); return 0; } static int mantis_i2c_write(struct mantis_pci *mantis, const struct i2c_msg *msg) { int i; u32 txd = 0, stat, trials; dprintk(MANTIS_INFO, 0, " %s: Address=[0x%02x] <W>[ ", __func__, msg->addr); for (i = 0; i < msg->len; i++) { dprintk(MANTIS_INFO, 0, "%02x ", msg->buf[i]); txd = (msg->addr << 25) | (msg->buf[i] << 8) | MANTIS_I2C_RATE_3 | MANTIS_I2C_STOP | MANTIS_I2C_PGMODE; if (i == (msg->len - 1)) txd &= ~MANTIS_I2C_STOP; mmwrite(MANTIS_INT_I2CDONE, MANTIS_INT_STAT); mmwrite(txd, MANTIS_I2CDATA_CTL); /* wait for xfer completion */ for (trials = 0; trials < TRIALS; trials++) { stat = mmread(MANTIS_INT_STAT); if (stat & MANTIS_INT_I2CDONE) break; } dprintk(MANTIS_TMG, 0, "I2CDONE: trials=%d\n", trials); /* wait for xfer completion */ for (trials = 0; trials < TRIALS; trials++) { stat = mmread(MANTIS_INT_STAT); if (stat & MANTIS_INT_I2CRACK) break; } dprintk(MANTIS_TMG, 0, "I2CRACK: trials=%d\n", trials); } dprintk(MANTIS_INFO, 0, "]\n"); return 0; } static int mantis_i2c_xfer(struct i2c_adapter *adapter, struct i2c_msg *msgs, int num) { int ret = 0, i = 0, trials; u32 stat, data, txd; struct mantis_pci *mantis; struct mantis_hwconfig *config; mantis = i2c_get_adapdata(adapter); BUG_ON(!mantis); config = mantis->hwconfig; BUG_ON(!config); dprintk(MANTIS_DEBUG, 1, "Messages:%d", num); mutex_lock(&mantis->i2c_lock); while (i < num) { /* Byte MODE */ if ((config->i2c_mode & MANTIS_BYTE_MODE) && ((i + 1) < num) && (msgs[i].len < 2) && (msgs[i + 1].len < 2) && (msgs[i + 1].flags & I2C_M_RD)) { dprintk(MANTIS_DEBUG, 0, " Byte MODE:\n"); /* Read operation */ txd = msgs[i].addr << 25 | (0x1 << 24) | (msgs[i].buf[0] << 16) | MANTIS_I2C_RATE_3; mmwrite(txd, MANTIS_I2CDATA_CTL); /* wait for xfer completion */ for (trials = 0; trials < TRIALS; trials++) { stat = mmread(MANTIS_INT_STAT); if (stat & MANTIS_INT_I2CDONE) break; } /* check for xfer completion */ if (stat & MANTIS_INT_I2CDONE) { /* check xfer was acknowledged */ if (stat & MANTIS_INT_I2CRACK) { data = mmread(MANTIS_I2CDATA_CTL); msgs[i + 1].buf[0] = (data >> 8) & 0xff; dprintk(MANTIS_DEBUG, 0, " Byte <%d> RXD=0x%02x [%02x]\n", 0x0, data, msgs[i + 1].buf[0]); } else { /* I/O error */ dprintk(MANTIS_ERROR, 1, " I/O error, LINE:%d", __LINE__); ret = -EIO; break; } } else { /* I/O error */ dprintk(MANTIS_ERROR, 1, " I/O error, LINE:%d", __LINE__); ret = -EIO; break; } i += 2; /* Write/Read operation in one go */ } if (i < num) { if (msgs[i].flags & I2C_M_RD) ret = mantis_i2c_read(mantis, &msgs[i]); else ret = mantis_i2c_write(mantis, &msgs[i]); i++; if (ret < 0) goto bail_out; } } mutex_unlock(&mantis->i2c_lock); return num; bail_out: mutex_unlock(&mantis->i2c_lock); return ret; } static u32 mantis_i2c_func(struct i2c_adapter *adapter) { return I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_EMUL; } static struct i2c_algorithm mantis_algo = { .master_xfer = mantis_i2c_xfer, .functionality = mantis_i2c_func, }; int __devinit mantis_i2c_init(struct mantis_pci *mantis) { u32 intstat, intmask; struct i2c_adapter *i2c_adapter = &mantis->adapter; struct pci_dev *pdev = mantis->pdev; init_waitqueue_head(&mantis->i2c_wq); mutex_init(&mantis->i2c_lock); strncpy(i2c_adapter->name, "Mantis I2C", sizeof(i2c_adapter->name)); i2c_set_adapdata(i2c_adapter, mantis); i2c_adapter->owner = THIS_MODULE; i2c_adapter->algo = &mantis_algo; i2c_adapter->algo_data = NULL; i2c_adapter->timeout = 500; i2c_adapter->retries = 3; i2c_adapter->dev.parent = &pdev->dev; mantis->i2c_rc = i2c_add_adapter(i2c_adapter); if (mantis->i2c_rc < 0) return mantis->i2c_rc; dprintk(MANTIS_DEBUG, 1, "Initializing I2C .."); intstat = mmread(MANTIS_INT_STAT); intmask = mmread(MANTIS_INT_MASK); mmwrite(intstat, MANTIS_INT_STAT); dprintk(MANTIS_DEBUG, 1, "Disabling I2C interrupt"); intmask = mmread(MANTIS_INT_MASK); mmwrite((intmask & ~MANTIS_INT_I2CDONE), MANTIS_INT_MASK); return 0; } EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(mantis_i2c_init); int mantis_i2c_exit(struct mantis_pci *mantis) { u32 intmask; dprintk(MANTIS_DEBUG, 1, "Disabling I2C interrupt"); intmask = mmread(MANTIS_INT_MASK); mmwrite((intmask & ~MANTIS_INT_I2CDONE), MANTIS_INT_MASK); dprintk(MANTIS_DEBUG, 1, "Removing I2C adapter"); return i2c_del_adapter(&mantis->adapter); } EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(mantis_i2c_exit);

chef-integration-test_1.1-1_amd64.deb ruby extra

Containment of Yosemite fire now 23% as blaze climbs record books Firefighters capitalized on a blanket of moist air that settled over the mountains near Yosemite National Park on Tuesday night to increase containment of the Rim fire to 23%. The blaze – now entering its 12th day – has burned 187,466 acres and is on pace to soon become the sixth-largest fire in state history. Containment was up from 20% Tuesday. Advertisement Overnight, firefighters continued to build and strengthen containment lines and conduct backfiring operations to slow the blaze as it rages farther into Yosemite National Park. Authorities also ordered evacuations for residents in the fire's path south of California 120 and north of Old Yosemite Road. The U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday that ground crews planned to work through the night to build containment lines on the northern flank of the fire. Communities north of the blaze, along the Highway 108 corridor from Tuolumne City to Pinecrest, also remained under evacuation orders. Officials said crews on the southeast flank in Yosemite were planning to conduct extensive backfires, a dangerous tactic in which firefighters burn vegetation inside a fire line to help contain a rapidly spreading blaze. Nearly 4,100 firefighters are taking part in the effort. The blaze has destroyed 111 buildings, including 31 homes, and was the seventh-largest fire in California history. The fire was spewing out huge clouds of smoke that drifted into Nevada. The blaze had spread across 281 square miles. The Rim fire, said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant, was "burning its way into the record books." A number of structures were lost in the Tuolumne Berkeley Family Camp, which includes three commercial properties and 85 tent cabins and outbuildings, the Forest Service said. While firefighters have used the Tuolumne River and granite formations on the fire's northern edges to set up defenses, crews have found little to work with on the blaze's eastern front south of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. "They're in scouting mode," Dick Fleishman of the U.S. Forest Service said of fire crews. "There's not a lot of real good areas to get out in there and do a lot of work." The Stanislaus National Forest is taking the brunt of the blaze, with the Groveland Ranger District making up most of the southern flank. The region has been hit hard by fires in the past, the most significant in 1987, which claimed the life of a firefighter. This week's fire has brought sorrow among the district's employees, who not only recall the past devastation but also begrudge the current damage. The fire burned though an area that had a pending $1-million timber sale, said Maggie Dowd, district ranger in the Groveland Ranger District. "The economic impacts are real, but we haven't begun to estimate them yet," Dowd said Tuesday from her office in a building shrouded in smoke.

version: '2' services: web: image: nginx:latest ports: - "8080:80" volumes: - ./code:/code - ./site.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf networks: - code-network php: image: php:fpm volumes: - ./code:/code networks: - code-network networks: code-network: driver: bridge

Multiple familial seborrheic keratoses. The early occurrence of seborrheic keratoses is described in 3 members of a family. The autosomal dominant transmission of seborrheic keratoses in this family provides further evidence for a genetic (polygenic) predisposition to seborrheic keratoses.

Ballymena Ballymena (, ) is a town in County Antrim, and the eighth largest in Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. It had a population of 29,551 people at the 2011 Census. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I in 1626, on the basis that the town holds two annual fairs and a free Saturday market in perpetuity. , the Saturday market still runs. It is a popular shopping hub within Northern Ireland and is home to Ballymena United F.C. Ballymena incorporates an area of and is home to large villages such as Cullybackey, Galgorm, Ahoghill and Broughshane. The town used to host Ireland's largest one-day agricultural show at the Ballymena Showgrounds. The town centre has many historic buildings. The Town Hall was built in 1924 on the site of the old Market House, and was refurbished in 2007 at a cost of roughly £20 million. History Early history The recorded history of the Ballymena area dates to the Early Christian period from the 5th to the 7th centuries. Ringforts are found in the townland of Ballykeel and a site known as Camphill Fort in the townland of Ballee may also have been of this type. There are a number of souterrain sites within a radius of the centre of Ballymena. north in the townland of Kirkinriola, the ancient parish church and graveyard possess several indicators of Early Christian settlement, including a souterrain. Also in 1868, a gravedigger found a large stone slab on which was carved a cross with the inscription ord do degen. This refers to Bishop Degen, who lived in Ireland during the 7th century. This stone is now in the porch of St. Patrick's Church of Ireland, at the end of Castle Street. At the end of the 5th century, a church was founded in Connor, south of Ballymena. This was followed by a monastery at Templemoyle, Kells. In 831, however, the Norse invaded the Ballymena area and burned the church. In the 12th century, the Normans conquered much of County Antrim and County Down after having taken over England the century before. They created the core of the Earldom of Ulster. During this campaign, they built great mounds of earth topped by wooden towers, referred to as mottes, as defensive structures. The Harryville (Ulster-Scots: Herrieville) area's motte-and-bailey is one of the best examples of this type of fortification in Northern Ireland. Some sources, however, credit the Uí Fhloinn with building the mid-Antrim mottes and baileys in imitation of the invaders; the Uí Fhloinn defeated and repelled the Earl of Ulster, John de Courcy, in 1177 and 1178. In 1315, Edward Bruce (brother of King Robert I of Scotland, known as "Robert Bruce") invaded Ireland. On 10 September 1315, at the Battle of Tawnybrack ( south of Ballymena at Kells), Edward conquered the army of Richard De Burgo, the Norman Earl of Ulster. Post-medieval In 1576, Queen Elizabeth I granted land, including the town of Ballymena, to Sir Thomas Smith. The lands had been forfeited to the crown after Shane O'Neill's resistance in the 1560s. Smith brought English settlers to the area, among the first pioneers in planting English and Scots settlers in Ireland. By 1581, Smith's settlement failed and the lands reverted to the crown. On 10 May 1607, King James I granted the native Irish chief, Ruairí Óg MacQuillan the Ballymena Estate. The estate passed through several owners, eventually passing into the possession of William Adair, a Scottish laird from Kinhilt in southwestern Scotland. The estate was temporarily renamed "Kinhilstown" after Adair's lands in Scotland. The original castle of Ballymena was built in the early 17th century, situated to take advantage of an ancient ford at the River Braid. In 1626 Charles I confirmed the grant of the Ballymena Estate to William Adair, giving him the right to hold a market at Ballymena on every Saturday. He hired local Irish as workers on the estate; they served as tenant farmers for much of the next two centuries and more. In 1641, the local Ballymena garrison were defeated by Irish rebels in the battle of Bundooragh. Ballymena's first market house (on the site of the present town hall) was built in 1684. In 1690, the Duke of Württemberg, a Williamite general, used Galgorm Castle as his headquarters. Sir Robert Adair raised a Regiment of Foot for King William III and fought at the Battle of the Boyne. By 1704, the population of Ballymena had reached 800. In 1707, the first Protestant (Church of Ireland) parish church was built. In 1740, the original Ballymena Castle burned down. The Gracehill Moravian settlement was founded in 1765. During the 1798 rebellion, Ballymena was occupied from 7 to 9 June by a force of around 10,000 United Irishmen. They stormed the Market House (now the Town Hall), killing three of its defenders. The first modern Roman Catholic Church in Ballymena was consecrated in 1827. By 1834 the population of Ballymena was about 4,000. In 1848 the Belfast and Ballymena Railway was established. In 1865 Robert Alexander Shafto Adair (late Baron Waveney) started building Ballymena Castle, a magnificent family residence, in the Demesne. The castle was not completed until 1887. In 1870 The People's Park was established. Twentieth century In 1900, Ballymena assumed urban status. Under the provisions of the Irish Land Act of 1903, the Adairs disposed of most of their Ballymena estate to the occupying tenants in 1904. The "old" town hall building, which also contained the post office and estate office, burned down in 1919. Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI) laid the cornerstone to the new town hall on 24 July 1924, and it was officially opened on 20 November 1928. The Urban District Council petitioned for borough status and the Charter was granted in December 1937. The first meeting of councillors as a borough Council was held on 23 May 1939. The population of Ballymena reached 13,000. Ballymena Castle was demolished in the 1950s. In 1973, the Urban and Rural District Councils were merged to create Ballymena Borough Council. Following local government reoganisation in 2015, the Borough Council was merged with the Boroughs of Carrickfergus Borough Council and Larne Borough Council. During the Second World War, Ballymena was home to a large number of evacuees from Gibraltar. They were housed with local families. In the 1950s St Patrick's Barracks in Ballymena was the Regimental Training Depot of the Royal Ulster Rifles (83rd & 86th). Many young men who had been conscripted on the United Kingdom mainland, along with others who had volunteered for service in the British Army, embarked upon their period of basic training in the Regimental Depot, prior to being posted to the regular regimental battalions. Many of these young men were to serve in Korea, Cyprus and with the British Army of the Rhine. In 1968 due to a series of government austerity measures, the remaining three Irish regiments, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (27th) Royal Ulster Rifles (83rd & 86th) and the Royal Irish Fusiliers (89th) merged to become the Royal Irish Rangers. Early in the 1990s the Royal Irish Regiment, whose Regimental Headquarters was at St Patrick's Barracks, was granted the Freedom of the Borough. Like other towns in Northern Ireland, Ballymena was affected by the Troubles, a lengthy period of religious and partisan tensions and armed confrontations from the 1960s through 1998. A total of eleven people were killed in or near the town by the IRA and various loyalist groups. During the later half of the 20th century, Ballymena, like many other once prosperous industrial centres in Northern Ireland, experienced economic change and industrial restructuring; many of its former factories closed. Since the 2010s Ballymena has seen a decline in its retail and manufacturing sectors. Both Michelin and JTI have left the area. Local firm Wrightbus is also struggling citing a downturn in orders. It is hoped that the creation of a manufacturing hub at the former Michelin site will attract businesses to the area. In March 2000, the actor Liam Neeson, a native of Ballymena, was offered the freedom of the borough by the council, which approved the action by a 12–9 vote. The Democratic Unionist Party objected to the offer and drew attention to his comments from an interview in 1999 with an American political magazine, George. Neeson declined the award, citing tensions, and affirmed he was proud of his connection to the town. Ian Paisley was eventually made a freeman of Ballymena in December 2004 instead. Ballymena is described by some observers as being at the heart of Northern Ireland's equivalent of the Bible Belt. It has a large Protestant majority. In the early 1990s the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)-dominated town council banned a performance by the ELO Part II in the township, saying they would attract "the four Ds Drink, Drugs, Devil and Debauchery". The Council banned the screening of Brokeback Mountain (2005), starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, as it featured a homosexual relationship. An impersonator of comic Roy 'Chubby' Brown was also banned. The majority of the town's Catholic population is situated around the Broughshane and Cushendall Road areas. Recently there has been tension in the Dunclug area of the town which now has a Catholic majority. These tensions have been associated with internment bonfires and the flying of republican flags; the town has tried to reduce tensions. Recreational drugs have been a major problem in the town, earning it the moniker "the drugs capital of the North". However major steps have been taken in recent times to deal with this. In 2011 it was revealed that Ballymena has the third-highest level of legal gun ownership in Northern Ireland. Slemish Mountain Ballymena is about from Slemish Mountain, the legendary first-known Irish home of Saint Patrick. The mountain rises about above the surrounding plain, and it is the central core of an extinct volcano, commonly known as a volcanic plug. According to legend, following Patrick's capture and being brought as a slave to Ireland, the young man worked as a shepherd at Slemish Mountain for about six years, from ages 16 through 22, for a man named Milchu (or Miluic). During this time Patrick turned to frequent prayer in his loneliness. In a vision he was encouraged to escape and return home. He did, became a Christian priest and returned to Ireland, allegedly to convert his old master. The legend tells that his true conversion occurred when he was on Slemish out in all weathers, communing with nature and praying continuously. As Patrick was not the first Christian bishop to visit Ireland, his ministry was confined to the North. Here he established churches and an episcopal system. One such church is thought to have been founded at the nearby site of Skerry Churchyard. Large animals have been reported. Slemish Mountain is open year-round, and on Saint Patrick's Day (17 March), large crowds hike to the top of the mountain as a pilgrimage. The 1.5-kilometre round walk to the summit and back takes approximately one hour in good weather. Excellent views can be had of the Antrim and Scottish coasts to the East. Ballymena town, Lough Neagh and the Sperrin Mountains are all normally visible to the West whilst the Bann Valley and the higher summits of the Antrim Hills can be seen to the North. Troubles Ballymena, throughout the course of The Troubles, had a large paramilitary presence in the town. The UDA South East Antrim Brigade was stationed here. Economy Ballymena was traditionally market town. The 1980s were a time of job losses in Ballymena as industry suffered and this has reoccurred in the 2010s Notable employers were Michelin in Broughshane, JTI Gallaher in Galgorm and Wrightbus November 2012, the Patton Group, a major builder entered administration with the loss of 320 jobs. October 2014 JTI Gallagher's would be closing with a loss of 877 jobs. November 2015 Michelin decided to close their Ballymena factory after 50 years, resulting in the loss of up to 850 jobs. Notable persons Arts and Media Ian Cochrane, novelist. Graham Forsythe, the Canadian artist, was born in Ballymena. Jackie Fullerton, BBC Sports broadcaster. Joanne Hogg, a vocalist, was born in Ballymena. Ronald Mason, a Head of Programmes for BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Head of Radio Drama, was born and raised in Ballymena. David McWilliams, singer, songwriter and guitarist was born in Belfast and moved to Ballymena at the age of 3. George Millar, singer, founding member of musical group The Irish Rovers, born and raised in Ballymena. Liam Neeson, the Oscar-nominated actor, was born and raised in Ballymena and was awarded the Freedom of the Town on 28 January 2013. The Key to the City was also provided pending approval from the magistrate. James Nesbitt, actor, born 15 January 1965 in Ballymena. Clodagh Rodgers, pop singer Politics Roger Casement, human rights activist in the Congo Free State and Peru, and Irish nationalist, was educated as a youth in this town. His father died and was buried here; relatives on both sides of his family cared for Roger and his brother Tom when they were orphaned. James McHenry, signatory of the United States Constitution. Ian Paisley, the former First Minister and founder of the Free Presbyterian Church, was raised in Ballymena. Richard Seymour, Marxist writer, activist and owner of the blog Lenin's Tomb. Academia and science Professor Darwin Caldwell, robotics expert and leader of iCub project. Sir Samuel Curran, physicist, inventor of the Scintillation Counter, and founder of Strathclyde University, was born in Ballymena. Religion Alexander Campbell, leader in the Restoration Movement in the United States. Military Joseph Dyas, led the Forlorn Hope at the Storming of Badajoz on two occasions in 1811 whilst serving with 51st (2nd Yorkshire, West Riding) Light Infantry. He was buried in Ballymena in 1850. Alexander Wright, a Victoria Cross recipient during the Crimean War, was born in the town. Business Timothy Eaton, the Canadian businessman who founded Eaton's department store, was born in Ballymena. Sport Steven Davis, Rangers F.C. and Northern Ireland International midfielder was born in Ballymena, though raised in Cullybackey. Jamie Hamilton, motorcycle racer. David Humphreys, Ulster and Ireland fly half. Ian Humphreys, Ulster and Ireland fly half and brother of David. Sharon Hutchings (née McPeake, born 22 June 1962) is a former high jumper from Northern Ireland. She won a silver medal at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh with a lifetime best of Eamonn Loughran, former WBO World Welterweight Champion Matt McCullough, Ulster and Ireland rugby jock. Tom McKinney, Jed-Forest rugby union; Salford, Warrington, St Helens, Great Britain rugby league footballer. Syd Millar, the former Ireland rugby player and current chairman of the IRB, was born in Ballymena; in 2004 he was awarded the Freedom of the town. Colin Murdock, Accrington Stanley F.C. and former Northern Ireland International. Mary Peters, Northern Irish Olympian, was raised in Ballymena. Jonathan Rea, MBE, motorcycle racer and five-time World Superbike champion. Brendan Rodgers, current Leicester City and former Watford F.C., Celtic F.C., Liverpool F.C. & Swansea City A.F.C. manager Jamie Smith, Irish Schools, Irish Universities, Ulster Rugby and Gwent Dragons ex Rugby Union player. Raised in Ahoghill. Has nickname of "Big Ahoghill". Nigel Worthington, the former Northern Ireland, Ballymena United and Sheffield Wednesday left back, as well as being the former international team manager. Bryan Young, Ulster and Ireland international rugby player. Demography On Census day (27 March 2011) there were 29,551 people living in Ballymena, accounting for 1.63% of the NI total, representing an increase of 2.9% on the 2001 Census population of 28,717. Of these: 19.20% were aged under 16 years and 17.61% were aged 65 and over; 52.00% of the usually resident population were female 48.00% were male; 65.76% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' religion and 26.71% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic religion; 65.51% indicated that they had a British national identity, 27.66% had a Northern Irish national identity and 11.25% had an Irish national identity (respondents could indicate more than one national identity); 39 years was the average (median) age of the population. 17.67% had some knowledge of Ulster-Scots and 5.66% had some knowledge of Irish (Gaelic). Education There are a number of educational establishments in the town: Ballymena Academy Cambridge House Grammar School St Louis Grammar School, Ballymena Slemish College Dunclug College Ballee High School (closed 2014) St Patrick's College Cullybackey High School Northern Regional College Transport Ballymena railway station opened on 4 December 1855. A station was opened at Harryville on 24 August 1878, but closed on 3 June 1940. The Ballymena, Cushendall and Red Bay Railway operated narrow gauge railway services from Ballymena to Parkmore from 1875 to 1940. The Ballymena and Larne Railway was another narrow gauge railway. The line opened in 1878, but closed to passengers in 1933 and to goods traffic in 1940. Between 1878 and 1880 the line terminated at Harryville, but was then extended to the town's main railway station. Sport Ballymena RFC Ballymena United F.C. Ballymena United Allstars F.C. Wakehurst F.C. Ballymena and Antrim Athletic Club Carniny Amateur & Youth F.C. All Saints GAC Ballymena Lawn Tennis Club Ballymena Road Club Braid Angling Club Ballymena Cricket Club Ballymena Bowling Club Town Twinning Gibraltar, Gibraltar Castlebar, Republic of Ireland Sister City Morehead, Kentucky See also Market Houses in Northern Ireland List of localities in Northern Ireland by population References Other sources "Battle Over Ballymena's Heroes." (8 March 2000). Belfast News Letter, p. 1. Judd, Terri. (9 March 2000). "Old hatreds Flare Over Neeson Freedom Award." The Independent (London), p. 7. Watson-Smyth, Kate. (23 March 2000). "Row Over Religion Sours Ballymena's Award to Actor." The Independent (London), p. 12. Ballymena on the Culture Northern Ireland website. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Antrim V111, Vol 23, 1831–5,1837–8. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queens University Belfast. External links Ballymena Directory for 1910 BBC crime figures for Ballymena Category:Ballymena

[Neuron-glia interrelations in the cerebral cortex of rabbits in the presence of a polarization dominant]. Neurochemical and morphological studies of individual cellular structures of different cortical layers suggest that the formation of "polarization" dominant is due to the activity of the V cortical layer. Primary involvement of interneurones and neuroglia has been revealed in the organization of the dominant trace effect and in processes related to memory. Comparison of electrophysiological and morphological characteristics of the "polarization" dominant shows that the reorganization of summary electrical activity of the neocortex tending to the predominance of delta-frequencies in the power spectrum and enhancement of biopotentials correlation within this frequency range, are determined by processes taking place in lower cortical layers.

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<?php final class PhabricatorFileDropUploadController extends PhabricatorFileController { public function shouldAllowRestrictedParameter($parameter_name) { // Prevent false positives from file content when it is submitted via // drag-and-drop upload. return true; } /** * @phutil-external-symbol class PhabricatorStartup */ public function handleRequest(AphrontRequest $request) { $viewer = $request->getViewer(); // NOTE: Throws if valid CSRF token is not present in the request. $request->validateCSRF(); $name = $request->getStr('name'); $file_phid = $request->getStr('phid'); // If there's no explicit view policy, make it very restrictive by default. // This is the correct policy for files dropped onto objects during // creation, comment and edit flows. $view_policy = $request->getStr('viewPolicy'); if (!$view_policy) { $view_policy = $viewer->getPHID(); } $is_chunks = $request->getBool('querychunks'); if ($is_chunks) { $params = array( 'filePHID' => $file_phid, ); $result = id(new ConduitCall('file.querychunks', $params)) ->setUser($viewer) ->execute(); return id(new AphrontAjaxResponse())->setContent($result); } $is_allocate = $request->getBool('allocate'); if ($is_allocate) { $params = array( 'name' => $name, 'contentLength' => $request->getInt('length'), 'viewPolicy' => $view_policy, ); $result = id(new ConduitCall('file.allocate', $params)) ->setUser($viewer) ->execute(); $file_phid = $result['filePHID']; if ($file_phid) { $file = $this->loadFile($file_phid); $result += $file->getDragAndDropDictionary(); } return id(new AphrontAjaxResponse())->setContent($result); } // Read the raw request data. We're either doing a chunk upload or a // vanilla upload, so we need it. $data = PhabricatorStartup::getRawInput(); $is_chunk_upload = $request->getBool('uploadchunk'); if ($is_chunk_upload) { $params = array( 'filePHID' => $file_phid, 'byteStart' => $request->getInt('byteStart'), 'data' => $data, ); $result = id(new ConduitCall('file.uploadchunk', $params)) ->setUser($viewer) ->execute(); $file = $this->loadFile($file_phid); if ($file->getIsPartial()) { $result = array(); } else { $result = array( 'complete' => true, ) + $file->getDragAndDropDictionary(); } return id(new AphrontAjaxResponse())->setContent($result); } $file = PhabricatorFile::newFromXHRUpload( $data, array( 'name' => $request->getStr('name'), 'authorPHID' => $viewer->getPHID(), 'viewPolicy' => $view_policy, 'isExplicitUpload' => true, )); $result = $file->getDragAndDropDictionary(); return id(new AphrontAjaxResponse())->setContent($result); } private function loadFile($file_phid) { $viewer = $this->getViewer(); $file = id(new PhabricatorFileQuery()) ->setViewer($viewer) ->withPHIDs(array($file_phid)) ->executeOne(); if (!$file) { throw new Exception(pht('Failed to load file.')); } return $file; } }

Dynamic Opinions and Views “The Tea Party: a Movement Running Out of Steam!” by jim_worthPosted: Friday, 3/12/2010 What started out as a ‘Grass Roots’ movement is low on steam. By definition grass roots is: ‘ordinary people regarded as the main body of an organization’s membership. Therefore, the ‘main body’ of the Tea Party is a collection of ordinary people with a common interest. So what is the common interest of the members of this Tea Party: government spending, or taxation, or a return to the Constitution, or seeing President Obama’s birth certificate, or maybe the elevation of Sarah Palin? Which ever it is, it is clearly evident that even the members of this ‘grass roots’ movement aren’t sure which it is. From the moment of the first demonstrations, Tax Day, Wednesday, April 15th, it was evident that the movement was destined to struggle! People screaming of “no more taxation” when there hasn’t been any new taxes in more than 6 years. Some were adamant about government spending which was creating a deficit that was untenable, despite the fact that the Bush administration had more than doubled government debt in his 8 years in office. But, any party that has Sarah Palin at the heart of it’s national agenda or platform is in serious trouble. Sarah referred to the Tea Party Movement as the ‘future’ of politics. But, contrary to what the Tea Partiers believe, there is no future for any group as fragmented as this movement is. The Tea Partiers do have one thing right. This country is ripe for revolution. But their anger is misplaced and they’re attacking the wrong target. As I stated in an article entitled “The MadHatter’s Tea Party,” written and submitted to the Los Angeles Times on Tax Day last year, the movement has no clear direction. Nor is it a ‘grass roots’ movement when it’s organized and supported by right wing lobby organizations and Fox Views. Those who are pushing the Tea Party movement have become more ‘grass roots’ in their attempt to affect change. Several different factions have sprouted up in an attempt to keep their varied agendas moving forward. In order to be ‘truly’ grass roots the Tea Party needs to shed organizations like Freedomworks, Human Events, and Fox. They must avoid the talking points these self-absorbed organizations use to manipulate the message and adopt platforms and an agenda of their own. The newest agenda of some Tea Party organizations is to promote candidates for many elected positions on the local, state, and national level. Their intent, to replace incumbent elected officials, is admirable. There is a growing nationwide desire to clean up government by removing corporate bought partisan congressional representatives and replacing them with individuals who will work ‘for the people.’ The Tea Party thinks they have the solution! A few of the small Tea Party leaders visualize their ideals as the seeds of a third National Party. But to many outside observers they appear to be the Libertarian Party without the clear focus. There are some pretty smart people who have joined the movement, who have some good ideas, and a ‘real’ desire for positive change. They could help the Tea Party movement survive if their ideas and plans are embraced by the members. The big question—will their voices be heard above the din? Or will the crazies drown out the voices of the sane? The recent Tea Party Convention was an attempt to bring Tea Party factions together. But it only served to further fracture the fragile movement. Despite attempts by the organizers to declare the event a success, the low attendance and late withdrawals of featured attendees was evidence of the struggles the embattled movement faces. Convention organizers, Judson and Sherry Philips, founders of Tea Party Nation, had high hopes for the first National Tea Party Convention, but the event ran into early troubles over fees and payments to speakers. The low attendance, estimated at about 600, the exodus of Representative’s Marsha Blackburn and Michelle Bachman, and the disjointed speech by ex-congressman Tom Tancredo were all signs of fractures within the movement. As the keynote speaker they chose Sarah Palin, whom, reportedly, was paid over $100 thousand for her appearance. Those deeply committed to the movement are enamored by Palin who feigns the suggestion that she is their potential leader. Her bubbly, charismatic presence clearly energizes the Tea Party base, but her star is fading outside the movement as more people realize she has little substance in her convictions. Her speech to around 1,000 people at the convention was a series of the same tired talking points. Rarely does she advance any issue with facts. Even her charisma will not get her beyond mere talking points. And as Palin’s leader role runs out of steam, so, too, does the Tea Party movement. Unless someone rises with a clearer platform Tea Partier’s will begin to lose interest. And if things improve in the economy and unemployment, the passion for revolt will die. Regardless of whether they survive or not, the Tea Party movement has proved one thing. It proves there is a strong and pervasive level of unrest throughout the nation. A stirring nation that has tired of politicians who no longer represent the interests of ‘the people’; career politicians who treat their constituents with utter disdain, no longer listening to their needs. Unless the factions of the Tea Party coalesce their ideas, narrow their scope and message, find some dynamic leaders with vision, it will lose steam. But even in failure the movement will have left an indelible mark on the political landscape. This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Politics, Tea Party. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Gallium arsenates have been widely used in the manufacturing of communication and LED optical electronics products. Hydrogen arsenate gas is one of the compounds that chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process used. Wastewater containing soluble arsenic is generated due to waste gas wash by scrubbers. Currently, the conventional precipitation method is able to treat wastewater containing arsenic. However, it generates a large amount of hazardous sludge, which cannot be disposed of easily and economically; and a wastewater containing arsenic in excess of 10 mg/L, which is much higher than the regulated effluent concentration of 0.5 mg/L. It is, therefore, readily apparent that the development of an environmentally friendly method of treating the arsenic-containing wastewater is urgently called for. U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,493 discloses a process for the removal of metals, in particular heavy metals, from the wastewater in the form of their sulfides by mixing the wastewater with a water-soluble sulfide. According to the invention the metal-containing wastewater is thoroughly mixed with the water-soluble sulfide at a suitable pH in a reactor of the fluidized bed type provided with an appropriate bed material, on which the metal sulfide crystallizes out, whereby the thus obtained bed material covered with crystalline metal sulfide is removed from the reactor and new bed material is added to the reactor from time to time. Usually as water-soluble sulfide, an alkali metal sulfide, alkali metal hydrogen sulfide, ammonium sulfide or ferrous sulfide is used, whereas the use of sodium sulfide, sodium hydrogen sulfide, potassium sulfide or potassium hydrogen sulfide is preferred. According to this prior art process, the following metals: Ni, Sr, Zn, Cu, Fe, Ag, Pb, Cd, Hg, Co, Mn, Te, Sn, In, Bi or Sb may be removed. However, only Hg was removed from water at a pH value of 4–10 as shown in the examples disclosed in this prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,662 discloses a process of removing heavy metals (arsenic, tin and lead) from aqueous solutions (groundwater) by precipitation of a salt thereof, wherein an oxidizing agent (ozone, hydrogen peroxide, sulfuric acid, nitric acid or hydrochloric acid) is optionally used to increase the valence of said metal, and a precipitation-enhancing agent (calcium sulfate, arsenic trioxide, calcium arsenate or cupric oxide) is added to maximize particle size of the precipitate and to facilitate its separation from said solution. This prior art process will generate sludge with water content of 60–80%, which is not only bulky but also difficult to be resourced due to various contaminations contained therein.

--- abstract: 'The standing wave nodes of nonradial oscillations on a neutron star crust will drift with a definite angle velocity around rotational pole due to the rotation of neutron stars. This is called the nonradial oscillation node precession of neutron stars. This article estimated the precession velocity and pointed out that it merely lies on the star’s rotation velocity and the angular order of spherical harmonic $l$ by one order approximation. If we suppose that oscillations effect the particles’ escaping from the polar cap of a neutron star, so that the antinode and node areas of the standing waves have different radiative intensity, several unusual conclusions are acquired by reviewing the observation of pulsars which had already been taken as neutron stars. For example, the drifting subpulse period $P_{3}$ can be gotten from the width of subpulses and order $l$; the larger velocity drift may produce the peak structure of average pulse profiles; the dissimilar radiation phenomena between neighboring periods generated from drift provide a reasonable explanation of interpulses which have been found on some pulsars.' author: - | [Haochen Li]{}\ [Physics Department, Washington University]{}\ [St. Louis, MO 63143]{} date: 'March 28, 2001' title: The Nonradial Oscillation Node Precession of Neutron Stars --- =-2mm =-1.50mm =6.7in =8.5in Introduction ============ #### Boriakoff (1976) had detected quasi-periodic micropulsations within the subpulses of PSR 2016+28, and inclined to take it as nonradial oscillations of neutron stars. In the pulsar polar cap model (Radhakrishnan and Cooke 1969) the radio pulse is produced by the coherent radiation of particles escaping from a certain surface area of the star(polar cap)along the magnetic field lines. Because of the high particle velocity, the radiation is emitted in a narrow cone, the axis of which coincide with the velocity vector of particles, which is tangential to the magnetic field lines. Since these are periodically distorted by the star’s vibration, the radiation cone will periodically change directions, switching on and off the radiopulse illumination of the observer(modulation). Van Horn (1980) pointed out that rotating, magnetized neutron stars can support a rich variety of oscillation modes and firstly suggested a possible association of subpulse drift and torsional oscillations. The special terms of the neutron stars are considered for calculating one order approximation of the frequency split of the torsional oscillations in Section 2. And using this result, we will discuss phenomena such as drifting subpulses, average pulse profiles and interpulses of pulsars in Section 3. Section 4 is the summary. Theory of Neutron Star Oscillation Node Precession ================================================== #### Ruderman (1968) firstly pointed out torsional oscillation modes of neutron star crusts. Hansen and Cioffi (1980) calculated the periods of those for a range of stellar models and found those associated with fundamental modes have periods of around 20 ms. We can use this result to estimate the lowest frequency of torsional oscillation of neutron stars as$$\omega_{0}={\frac{2\pi}{20ms}}=100\pi s^{-1}.$$ The rotation angular velocity of neutron star can be considered as $2\pi s^{-1}$, thus the ratio is $$\epsilon={\frac{\Omega}{\omega_{0}}}=0.02.$$ We can see that although the angular velocity of neutron star rotation is much larger than that of common stars, it is still small compared with the frequency of self-oscillation. This inspires us that the oscillation node precession theory which has been established on other heavenly bodies can be used on neutron stars (also because the torsional oscillation is little sensitive to sphere models, see Van Horn 1980, and its results is simple). That is, we can take rotation effect as perturbation to solve the sphere oscillation equations just as Ledoux (1951) did on gaseous stars and MacDonald and Ness (1961) did on the earth, and the frequency of free oscillation of sphere crust is the sum of the undisturbed frequency plus the perturbation frequency:$$\omega=\omega_{0}+\omega^{1}.$$ As one order approximation for torsional oscillation,$$\omega^{1}={\frac{m}{l(l+1)}}\Omega,$$ where $l$ and $m$ are integers denoting angular orders of spherical harmonic. As the theory of oscillation of stars (Ledoux 1951) and the earth(MacDonald and Ness 1961) has noted, each value of $m$ has two travelling waves associated with it. In the case of the earth one wave travels eastward, and its rate of travel is decreased by the angular velocity of earth rotation; the other travels westward, and its rate is faster. The waves corresponded with neighboring values of $m$ have relative angular velocity $${\frac{\Omega}{l(l+1)}}.$$ The combined effect is to produce a standing-wave pattern that for a given value of $m$ moves westward with the angular velocity $${\frac{\Omega}{l(l+1)}}$$ of its nodes, which is well known in seismology as the node precession of oscillations. And this is just the result we will use next to recur to the attempt which Van Horn (1980) had made to connect the torsional oscillation of rotating neutron stars with the observation phenomena of pulsars. Discussion ========== Drifting Subpulses ------------------ #### We suppose that the node and antinode of the standing wave separately correspond with those of subpulse radiate wave pattern, i.e., drifting subpulses reflect the node precession. Then the degrees of subpulse drift in one period of a pulsar rotation (Manchester and Taylor 1977) is $$D_{\phi}={\frac{\Omega}{l(l+1)}} P_{1}={\frac{360}{l(l+1)}},$$ where $P_{1}$ is the pulsar rotational period and 360 of longitude are equal to one pulsar period. We can see that when $D_{\phi}$ is smaller than the width of subpulses (the drifting subpulse observation results are exactly so, see Manchester and Taylor 1977), then we get the subpulse drifting-band spacing $$P_{3}={\frac{\frac{P_{2}}{P_{1}}\times360}{D_{\phi}}}={\frac{l(l+1)}{\frac{P_{1}}{P_{2}}}}$$(in units of $P_{1}$),where $P_{2}$ is the subpulse period (converted from degrees of longitude). We calculated the values of $P_{3}$ for several pulsars using the observational data from Van Horn(1980) and Wright and Fowler(1981). The results are listed in Table 1. Note that these are acquired with larger values of $l$, with which the values of $P_{3}$ increase. Several proximal values have been enumerated in the table for compare. The difference between theoretical and observational values probably due to error and disconsidering of the coupling of several values of $l$. The different values of $P_{3}$ in one pulsar are deemed to mode switch of different $l$. Average Pulses -------------- #### Theoretically we have no reasons to believe that the drifting pace of subpulses is always small. Then, for convenience we define drifting rate as $$V={\frac{\frac{P_{1}}{P_{2}}}{l(l+1)}},$$ which represents drift space (in units of $P_{2}$) in each rotational period of a pulsar. Because we could not find the integer drifting space (integer $V$), so the practically observed rate $V'$ rest with the decimal part of $V$. For example, if $V=3/2$ or $1/2$, then $V'=1/2$; if $V=5/3$, then $V'=2/3$ or $-1/3$(minus sign represents opposite drift direction). Here it implies that ${\frac{P_{1}}{P_{2}}}$ is integer which goes on the fact that it here represents the node number of the standing wave along the longitude of the sphere. When $l=1$ or $2$(the fundamental mode which the oscillation is most likely on), it is easy to determine that $V'$ will frequently get $1/2$, $1/6$, $2/6$(the same as $4/6$), etc. Unlike the smaller drifting pace discussed in Section 3.1, these values of $V'$ are too great to be detected as the drift we commonly mean (we do not know whether PSR 2303+30 listed in Table 1. belongs to these small $l$ modes). But in this situation subpulses will appear more frequently at the several fixures in the general radiate windows. The average pulse profiles imitated by computer program through adding a great many drifting periods show peak structures as displayed in Fig.1. Interpulses ----------- #### If the pulses of pulsars can embody the node precession of standing waves around the longitude of neutron stars, then according to the observed drifting pace $V'$ discussed above, it must have the circumstances that neighboring periods of pulses have different observational pictures especially when the standing wave length is longer than the general radiate window. For instance, once we see a pulse which practically is a fraction of the standing wave length(a node or nearby), then next period we see the antinode or nearby($V'=1/2$ is very common), therefore the different intensity pulses alternately occur along with the integral periods of rotation. This can give an natural explanation of interpulses (Manchester and Taylor 1977). The weaker pulse will be surely inclined to the nearby node(or antinode) area which should have stronger radiation. That is why the degrees between neighboring pulses are not exactly 180(Manchester and Taylor 1977). If this is true, it means that the real periods of the interpulse pulsars are only half of those we believe now. Summary ======= #### The sphere free oscillation has been proved by theory and observation to be a very common phenomena in the world of stars and planets. Many prior works have supposed this happens on neutron stars which have so great density and so rapid rotation (Cheng and Ruderman 1980; Harding and Tademaru 1981; McDermott, Van Horn, and Hansen 1988; Cordes, Weisberg, and Hankins 1990). Although the mechanism of radiation affected by oscillation has not been clearly discussed ( which obviously is a very important problem), it gives a very natural explanation to drifting subpulse phenomena, the generalization of which reasonably gives clear pictures of pulsar’s fundamental observation facts such as average pulse profile, interpulse, etc. The theory also has great potential in explanation of mode changing, micropulses, and glitches which maybe the author will discuss later. #### It should be pointed out that although the theoretic values of $P_{3}$ we get in Section 3.1 using bigger $l$ are in good agreement with the observation values(see Table 1.), it does not mean that the actual oscillation orders are always high. The lower modes (small $l$) are not considered in the calculating of $P_{3}$ is because the larger scale drift devote little observational effect(this can be seen from the discussion of Section 3.2). Actually it is most probable that more than one mode of oscillation are simultaneously sustained on the star crust, and the observation phenomena is only the coupling of these modes. In mode switching, the dominant precession rate changes sequentially. The advanced job need to determine the relationship of $l$, $m$ and the width of subpulses, so that we can know exactly the parameters of the stars’ oscillation and more detailed knowledge about a given pulsar. #### I wish to thank Xinji Wu and Xiaofei Chen of Peking University for the helpful discussions. Boriakoff, V. 1976, Ap.J. Lett., [**208**]{}, L43. Cheng, A. F., and Ruderman, M. A. 1980, Ap.J., [**235**]{}, 576. Cordes, J. M., Weisberg, J. M., and Hankins T.H.1990, A.J., [**100**]{}, 1882. Hansen, C. J., and Cioffi, D. F. 1980, Ap.J., [**238**]{}, 740. Harding, A.K., and Tadermaru, E. 1981, Ap.J., [**243**]{}, 597. Ledoux, P. 1951, Ap.J., [**114**]{}, 373. MacDonald, G.J.F., and Ness, N. F. 1961, J.Geophys.Res., [**66**]{}, 1865. McDermott, P. N., Van Horn, H. M., and Hansen C. J. 1988, Ap.J., [**325**]{}, 725. Manchester, R. N., and Taylor, J. H.1977, Pulsars (San Francisco: Freeman). Radhakrishnan, V., and Cooke, D. J. 1969 Ap.Lett., [**3**]{}, 225. Ruderman, M. A. 1968, Nature, [**218**]{}, 1128 Van Horn, H. M. 1980, Ap.J., [**236**]{}, 899. Wright, G. A. E., and Fowler, L. A. 1981, IAU Symposium 95, Pulsars, ed. W. Sieber and R. Wielebinski, p.211 Fig.1. The sketch maps of average pulse formed by great pace drifting. The abscissa is longitude and the ordinate is intensity, and the numbers only have relative meaning. 1) is single pulse which indicates our suppose that there are only two gaussian subpulses in one general pulse window and this measures up the observational fact; 2)-3) are both average pulses with $V'=1$, distinct at the original positions; 4)-6) are $V'=1/2$, $2/6$, $1/20$ separately. The adding times are all $10^{4}$. It is obvious that the figures will keep stable on more adding times. Table 1. The periods of drifting subpulses. PSR $P_{1}$(s) $P_{2}$(ms) ${\frac{P_{1}}{P_{2}}}$ $l$ $P_{3}$(Theory) $P_{3}$(Observation) --------- ------------ ------------- ------------------------- ----- ----------------- ---------------------- 19 18 1944+17 0.440 21 21 20 20 20 21 22 8 4.2 9 5.3 10 6.5 4.5 0031-07 0.943 55 17 11 7.8 6.8 12 9.2 12.5 13 11 14 12 15 14 8 1.7 2.11 0943+10 1.097 26 42 9 2.1 or 10 2.6 1.90 16 10 0809+74 1.292 50 26 17 12 11.0 18 13 18 3.8 1919+21 1.337 15 89 19 4.3 4.2 20 4.7 18 5.9 0301+19 1.387 24 58 19 6.6 6.4 20 7.2 13 1.7 2303+30 1.575 15 105 14 2.0 $\approx2$ 15 2.3 8 2.14 1237+25 1.38 41.0 33.7 9 2.67 $2.8\pm0.1$ 10 3.26

Gustavo Cañete Gustavo Cañete (born April 4, 1977 in Salamanca, Spain) is a Paraguayan footballer currently playing for Espoli of the Serie A of Ecuador. Teams Cerro Porteño 1997-1998 América 1999 Atlante 1999-2000 Guaraní 2000-2001 Veracruz 2002 12 de Octubre 2003 Tigrillos 2003-2004 San Luis Potosí 2004-2005 3 de Febrero 2005-2006 Millonarios 2007 Deportivo Pereira 2007 Deportivo Azogues 2008 Espoli 2009–present External links Profile at BDFA Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:Paraguayan footballers Category:Paraguay under-20 international footballers Category:Paraguayan expatriate footballers Category:12 de Octubre footballers Category:Cerro Porteño players Category:Club Guaraní players Category:Club América footballers Category:Atlante F.C. footballers Category:C.D. Veracruz footballers Category:San Luis F.C. players Category:C.D. ESPOLI footballers Category:3 de Febrero players Category:Millonarios F.C. footballers Category:Deportivo Pereira footballers Category:Liga MX players Category:Categoría Primera A players Category:Expatriate footballers in Mexico Category:Expatriate footballers in Ecuador Category:Expatriate footballers in Colombia Category:Association footballers not categorized by position

ABOUT US The doctrinal standards of the Methodist Church of the Bahamas are as follows: The Methodist Church of the Bahamas claims and cherishes its place in the Church universal, which is the Body of Christ. It rejoices in the inheritance of the apostolic faith and loyally accepts the fundamental principles of the historic creeds and of the Protestant Reformation.It ever remembers that in the providence of God Methodism was raised up by God to spread scriptural holiness throughout the land by the proclamation of the evangelical faith and declares its unfaltering resolve to be true to its divinely appointed mission.The doctrines of the evangelical faith which Methodism has held from the beginning and still holds are based upon the divine revelation recorded in the Holy Scriptures. The Methodist Church of the Bahamas acknowledges this revelation as the supreme rule of faith and practice. These evangelical doctrines to which the preachers of the Methodist Church of the Bahamas both ministers and lay persons are pledged are contained in Wesley's Notes on the New Testament and the first four volumes of his sermons.Wesley's "Notes on the New Testament" and "The 44 Sermons" are not intended to impose a system of formal or speculative theology on Methodist preachers, but to set up standards of preaching and belief which should secure loyalty to the fundamental truths of the gospel of redemption and ensure the continued witness of the Church to the realities of the Christian experience of salvation. Christ's ministers in the Church are stewards in the household of God and shepherds of His flock. Some are called and ordained to this sole occupation and have a principal and directing part in these great duties but they hold no ministry differing in kind from that which is common to all the Lord's people and they have no exclusive title to the preaching of the gospel or the care of souls. These ministries are shared with them by others to whom also the Spirit divides gifts severally as the Spirit wills. It is the universal conviction of the Methodist people that the office of Christian ministry depends upon the call of God who bestows the gifts of the Spirit the grace and the fruit which indicates those whom He has chosen.Those whom the Methodist Church of the Bahamas recognizes as called of God and therefore receives into its ministry shall be ordained by the imposition of hands as expressive of the Church's recognition of the minister's personal call.The Methodist Church of the Bahamas holds the doctrine of the ministry of all Christians and consequently believes that no ministry exists which belongs exclusively to a particular order or group of persons but in the exercise of its corporate life and worship special qualifications for the discharge of special duties are required and thus the principle of representative selection is recognized.The Methodist Church of the Bahamas recognizes two sacraments namely Baptism and the Lord's Supper as of divine appointment and of perpetual obligation of which it is the privilege and duty of members of the Methodist Church of the Bahamas to avail themselves.

Vehicle Safety Quiz The Articulate e-Learning Heroes Challenge of the week #159 was to design how multiple choice quizzes are used in e-Learning. I decided to use “show me, tell me” vehicle safety questions that driving examiners can ask in a car driving test.

The ultimate objectives are (1) to place our understanding of the mode of action of the peptide antibiotics and hormones on a conformational basis and (2) to develop the spectroscopic approach to the study of conformation and conformational averaging in peptides. The experimental approach involves the combined use of (a) solid phase peptide synthesis (b) correlation, double resonance, and difference NMR spectroscopy (c) fluorescence and circular dichroism (d) thin film and equilibrium dialysis and (e) model building. In addition, we intend to investigate the interaction of the peptide antibiotics and hormones with a view to understanding (a) the sites for detergent and fluorescent probe binding (b) the rates and mechanism of cleavage by crystallographically defined proteases and (c) the structure and thermodynamics of peptide micelle formation. The availability of conformationally characterized peptides lends those studies uniqueness; they also have considerable importance for control and regulation of hormone levels--hormone homeostasis.

IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO) is pleased to announce its support for MEF as an analyst partner at the MEF18 networking event, held October 29 to November 2, 2018, at the JW Marriott LA LIVE in Los Angeles, California. Despite unabated network usage, global telecom revenue is on track to grow just 1.1 percent in 2017 over the prior year, according to a new report by business information provider IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO). IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, conducted in-depth interviews with global service providers that have deployed software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) or will do so in the future and found that respondents identified Cisco/Tail-f, Nokia and Ciena—including Cyan—as the top SDN vendors. As service providers seek service agility and operational efficiency in their networks to stay competitive, the global market for carrier software-defined networking (SDN) software, hardware and services is expected to grow from $103 million in 2014 to $5.7 billion in 2019, according to IHS (NYSE: IHS). IHS (NYSE: IHS) conducted in-depth interviews with telecom carriers around the world to determine their plans for evaluating and deploying network functions virtualization (NFV) and found that 35 percent are planning to deploy NFV in 2015. IHS conducted in-depth interviews with telecom carriers around the world to determine their plans for evaluating and deploying network functions virtualization (NFV) and found that 35 percent are planning to deploy NFV in 2015. Architectural changes based on virtualization and packet-optical technologies will hold the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the worldwide service provider router and switch market to 2.1 percent over the 5 years from 2014 to 2019, according IHS. Infonetics Research, now part of IHS Inc, released excerpts from its 2014 Telecommunications Equipment Vendor Scorecard, which profiles and analyzes the 6 leading suppliers of telecom infrastructure, software and services.

Lille Egholm Lille Egholm is a small privately-owned Danish island in the South Funen Archipelago, lying 150 meters southeast of Store Egholm. Lille Egholm covers an area of 0.04 km². References Category:Danish islands in the Baltic Category:Islands of Denmark

Stationers' Register The Stationers’ Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England. The Register itself allowed publishers to document their right to produce a particular printed work, and constituted an early form of copyright law. The Company's charter gave it the right to seize illicit editions and bar the publication of unlicensed books. For the study of English literature of the later sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries—for the Elizabethan era, the Jacobean era, the Caroline era, and especially for English Renaissance theatre—the Stationers' Register is a crucial and essential resource: it provides factual information and hard data that is available nowhere else. Together with the records of the Master of the Revels (which relate to dramatic performance rather than publication), the Stationers' Register supplies many of the certain facts scholars possess on the works of William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and all of their immediate predecessors, contemporaries, and successors. By paying a fee of 4 to 6 pence, a bookseller could register his right to publish a given work. One example: the Stationers' Register reveals that on 26 November 1607, the stationers John Busby and Nathaniel Butter claimed the right to print "A booke called Master William Shakespeare his historye of Kinge Lear, as yt was played before the Kinges maiestie at Whitehall vppon Sainct Stephens night at Christmas Last, by his maiesties servantes playinge vsually at the Globe on the Banksyde." (They paid sixpence.) Enforcement of regulations in this historical era was never as thorough as in the modern world; books were sometimes published without registration, and other irregularities also occurred. In some cases, the companies of actors appear to have registered plays through co-operative stationers, with the express purpose of forestalling the publication of a play when publication was not in their interest. In 1710, the Copyright Act or Statute of Anne entered into force, superseding company provisions pertaining to the Register. The company continued to offer some form of registration of works until February 2000. References Sources Arber, Edward, ed. A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London 1554–1640 A.D. 5 Volumes, London, privately printed, 1875–94. Chambers, E. K. The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923. Eyre, G. E. B., and G. R. Rivington, eds. A Transcript of the Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers from 1640–1708. 3 Volumes, London, privately printed, 1913–14. Greg, W. W., and E. Boswell, eds. Records of the Court of the Stationer's Company, 1576 to 1602. London, The Bibliographical Society, 1930. Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964. Jackson, William A., ed. Records of the Court of the Stationers' Company 1602 to 1640. London, The Bibliographical Society, 1957. External links The Stationers' Company Register (1556–1695) Official site of the Stationers' Company in its current incarnation 2011–2013 project led by Giles Bergel. Category:Bibliography Category:English Renaissance plays Category:Media in the United Kingdom

This renewal proposal continues our exploration of the vasa vasorum (the microvessels perfusing the arterial wall) in coronary artery disease. The long-term objective is to clarify the role of solute transport across the arterial wall in the initiation and/or progression of atherosclerosis. The relevance of this knowledge to the mission of NHLBI is that it should provide insight into possible early treatments to arrest or reverse arthrosclerosis and thereby reduce major public health problems resulting from advanced atherosclerosis causing coronary artery stenosis and myocardial infarction. This proposal is designed to test the overall hypothesis that the vasa vasorum can play an important role in the initiation of coronary atherogenesis by virtue of disturbed solute transport within the arterial wall occurring prior to cellular invasion and/or proliferation. So far the question of mere association of changes in vasa vasorum (W) with early atherogenesis has already been answered in the affirmative by our studies. What remains to be determined is to what extent the W actually play a primary or facilitating role in the initiation of the artherosclerotic process or merely respond to that process. Our approach is based primarily on use of micro-CT-based imaging methods including our novel, in-house developed, cryostatic micro-CT method and also by in-vitro characterization of isolated W contractile state. This will involve analysis of coronary arteries of pigs with diet-induced hypercholesterolemia or renal artery stenosis (stent-induced) arterial hypertension, both being risk factors for atherogenesis. AIM I: Explore individual W trees' perfusion territories', function in terms of location, shape, size and washin/washout characteristics. The 3D geometry and solute transport localized function of these territories will form the basis for understanding of lipid accumulation in the arterial wall. AIM II: Explore the role of endothelial permeability in the W and coronary artery using cryostatic micro-CT scans. Use micro embolism to cause acute occlusion of single W near their origin to evaluate the ability of W contiguous in perfusion territories, to compensate for the localized loss of perfusion. AIM III: Following chronic recovery from micro-embolization of some of the W, the relationship between location and size of coronary arterial wall perfusion-voids on the one hand and histologically localized 'lipid1 deposits on the other will be a direct test of the pathological consequences of alterations in solute transport characteristics of W. The specific significance of this proposal is that if W play an important role in the initiation or progression of atherosclerosis, a possible therapeutic benefit that may result from acquiring this new information is that either stimulation (or inhibition; depending on our findings) of vasculogenesis of W could retard the onset and/or severity of atherosclerosis.

3 years( again) Jan 19, 2005 dr.young I wrote to you asking abpot my vl and tcells a month ago.thank you fore your response.I was asking you why my tcells have increased so much over the past 3 years from 240 to 1350 and my vl went from 704,000 to 200. you mentioned that the concern is that such a low viral load might lead to some resistance.I did forget to mention that in the past 3 years my cd4's have always increased but there where a few times that my vl increased also.one of my tests revealed that my vl went frome like 900 to like 2500 i dont remember the excact numbers.at that time i told my doctor i wanted a resistance test wich came back that i wasnt resistant to my meds.my next test my vl was back down again.also my latest labs where my vl went from 170 to 800 and my cd4's went from 1350 to 1170.a couple points to note: 1 I did my blood work a 7am and ii herd thet your cd4's are lower in the morning then afternoon,2 it seems to me when i do my labs after haveing been sick with the flue or a cold my numbers seem to be worse and 3 these latest labs that i gave you i did in nov of 2004 after being ill for awhile.( cold i think )and at 7am,I am retesting in feb just to see whats going on if infact these increases in vl and decreases in cd4's infact where do to being ill.so my question is what do you think about being ill affecting your numbers and about the fluctuation in vl over the years with my test saying i had no resistance? Response from Dr. Young Hello again, 3 years, You're correct on all points-- there is a lot of variability to the viral load test, and illness (even something as insignificant as a cold) or immunizations can cause small increases in the measurement. The later nearly always occurs in the abscence of resistance. Such could be the case when your viral load is higher. I certainly recommend that patients defer getting their viral load and CD4 cell counts during periods of such illness; wait a couple of weeks before getting the tests done. That said, it's rather unlikely that you're always sick when your lab tests are done-- I still am puzzled about cases like yours, but rest assured that there are others like you. This forum is designed for educational purposes only, and experts are not rendering medical, mental health, legal or other professional advice or services. If you have or suspect you may have a medical, mental health, legal or other problem that requires advice, consult your own caregiver, attorney or other qualified professional. Experts appearing on this page are independent and are solely responsible for editing and fact-checking their material. Neither TheBody.com nor any advertiser is the publisher or speaker of posted visitors' questions or the experts' material. The Body is a service of Remedy Health Media, LLC, 750 3rd Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10017. The Body and its logos are trademarks of Remedy Health Media, LLC, and its subsidiaries, which owns the copyright of The Body's homepage, topic pages, page designs and HTML code. General Disclaimer: The Body is designed for educational purposes only and is not engaged in rendering medical advice or professional services. The information provided through The Body should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or a disease. It is not a substitute for professional care. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, consult your health care provider.

/** * Durandal 2.0.1 Copyright (c) 2012 Blue Spire Consulting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. * Available via the MIT license. * see: http://durandaljs.com or https://github.com/BlueSpire/Durandal for details. */ /** * The viewLocator module collaborates with the viewEngine module to provide views (literally dom sub-trees) to other parts of the framework as needed. The primary consumer of the viewLocator is the composition module. * @module viewLocator * @requires system * @requires viewEngine */ define(['durandal/system', 'durandal/viewEngine'], function (system, viewEngine) { function findInElements(nodes, url) { for (var i = 0; i < nodes.length; i++) { var current = nodes[i]; var existingUrl = current.getAttribute('data-view'); if (existingUrl == url) { return current; } } } function escape(str) { return (str + '').replace(/([\\\.\+\*\?\[\^\]\$\(\)\{\}\=\!\<\>\|\:])/g, "\\$1"); } /** * @class ViewLocatorModule * @static */ return { /** * Allows you to set up a convention for mapping module folders to view folders. It is a convenience method that customizes `convertModuleIdToViewId` and `translateViewIdToArea` under the covers. * @method useConvention * @param {string} [modulesPath] A string to match in the path and replace with the viewsPath. If not specified, the match is 'viewmodels'. * @param {string} [viewsPath] The replacement for the modulesPath. If not specified, the replacement is 'views'. * @param {string} [areasPath] Partial views are mapped to the "views" folder if not specified. Use this parameter to change their location. */ useConvention: function(modulesPath, viewsPath, areasPath) { modulesPath = modulesPath || 'viewmodels'; viewsPath = viewsPath || 'views'; areasPath = areasPath || viewsPath; var reg = new RegExp(escape(modulesPath), 'gi'); this.convertModuleIdToViewId = function (moduleId) { return moduleId.replace(reg, viewsPath); }; this.translateViewIdToArea = function (viewId, area) { if (!area || area == 'partial') { return areasPath + '/' + viewId; } return areasPath + '/' + area + '/' + viewId; }; }, /** * Maps an object instance to a view instance. * @method locateViewForObject * @param {object} obj The object to locate the view for. * @param {string} [area] The area to translate the view to. * @param {DOMElement[]} [elementsToSearch] An existing set of elements to search first. * @return {Promise} A promise of the view. */ locateViewForObject: function(obj, area, elementsToSearch) { var view; if (obj.getView) { view = obj.getView(); if (view) { return this.locateView(view, area, elementsToSearch); } } if (obj.viewUrl) { return this.locateView(obj.viewUrl, area, elementsToSearch); } var id = system.getModuleId(obj); if (id) { return this.locateView(this.convertModuleIdToViewId(id), area, elementsToSearch); } return this.locateView(this.determineFallbackViewId(obj), area, elementsToSearch); }, /** * Converts a module id into a view id. By default the ids are the same. * @method convertModuleIdToViewId * @param {string} moduleId The module id. * @return {string} The view id. */ convertModuleIdToViewId: function(moduleId) { return moduleId; }, /** * If no view id can be determined, this function is called to genreate one. By default it attempts to determine the object's type and use that. * @method determineFallbackViewId * @param {object} obj The object to determine the fallback id for. * @return {string} The view id. */ determineFallbackViewId: function (obj) { var funcNameRegex = /function (.{1,})\(/; var results = (funcNameRegex).exec((obj).constructor.toString()); var typeName = (results && results.length > 1) ? results[1] : ""; return 'views/' + typeName; }, /** * Takes a view id and translates it into a particular area. By default, no translation occurs. * @method translateViewIdToArea * @param {string} viewId The view id. * @param {string} area The area to translate the view to. * @return {string} The translated view id. */ translateViewIdToArea: function (viewId, area) { return viewId; }, /** * Locates the specified view. * @method locateView * @param {string|DOMElement} viewOrUrlOrId A view, view url or view id to locate. * @param {string} [area] The area to translate the view to. * @param {DOMElement[]} [elementsToSearch] An existing set of elements to search first. * @return {Promise} A promise of the view. */ locateView: function(viewOrUrlOrId, area, elementsToSearch) { if (typeof viewOrUrlOrId === 'string') { var viewId; if (viewEngine.isViewUrl(viewOrUrlOrId)) { viewId = viewEngine.convertViewUrlToViewId(viewOrUrlOrId); } else { viewId = viewOrUrlOrId; } if (area) { viewId = this.translateViewIdToArea(viewId, area); } if (elementsToSearch) { var existing = findInElements(elementsToSearch, viewId); if (existing) { return system.defer(function(dfd) { dfd.resolve(existing); }).promise(); } } return viewEngine.createView(viewId); } return system.defer(function(dfd) { dfd.resolve(viewOrUrlOrId); }).promise(); } }; });

The mechanism for emergence of viral drug-resistance. Antiviral drug was firstly reported regarding thiosemicarbazones developed for poxviruses in 1951. Then, human beings have been developed antiviral drugs using the latest technolo- gies including drug-design by computer, selection from huge compounds, antibodies and ge- nome editing. However, drug-resistant viruses always emerge because viruses are able to easily mutate. Although Favipiravir, which is a broad-spectrum antiviral drug, became a hot topic by having antiviral activity to several viruses including ebolavirus, viral drug-resistance would have been appeared by mutation in chikungunya virus. In this paper, the herpesvirus, HIV and influenza virus were focused to introduce development of antiviral drugs and the mechanism for emergence of drug-resistance.

Ценовая категория Склад Корзина Хотите получать наши предложения? Введите свой электронный адрес Горячие предложения Вы смотрели strict warning: Declaration of publishing_options_facet::build_root_categories_query() should be compatible with faceted_search_facet::build_root_categories_query() in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/faceted_search/publishing_options_facets.module on line 165. strict warning: Declaration of taxonomy_facet::build_root_categories_query() should be compatible with faceted_search_facet::build_root_categories_query() in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/faceted_search/taxonomy_facets.module on line 402. strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 879. strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter::options_validate() should be compatible with views_handler::options_validate($form, &$form_state) in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter.inc on line 589. strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter::options_submit() should be compatible with views_handler::options_submit($form, &$form_state) in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter.inc on line 589. strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter_boolean_operator::value_validate() should be compatible with views_handler_filter::value_validate($form, &$form_state) in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter_boolean_operator.inc on line 149. strict warning: Declaration of views_plugin_row::options_validate() should be compatible with views_plugin::options_validate(&$form, &$form_state) in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/plugins/views_plugin_row.inc on line 135. strict warning: Declaration of views_plugin_row::options_submit() should be compatible with views_plugin::options_submit(&$form, &$form_state) in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/plugins/views_plugin_row.inc on line 135. strict warning: Non-static method view::load_views() should not be called statically in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 837. strict warning: Non-static method view::db_objects() should not be called statically in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/includes/view.inc on line 1367. strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 879. strict warning: Declaration of views_plugin_style_default::options() should be compatible with views_object::options() in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/plugins/views_plugin_style_default.inc on line 25. strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/eurolink/public_html/shop/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 879.

Comparison of acid reduction in antiulcer operations. Three acid-reducing operations have recently been described for the laparoscopic treatment of peptic ulcer disease. These consist of a posterior truncal vagotomy combined with either (1) an anterior seromyotomy (SERO), (2) an anterior highly selective vagotomy (AHSV), or (3) a linear stapled lesser curvature excision (STAP). The purpose of this study was to investigate the physiologic effects of these procedures in terms of basal and maximal acid outputs. Fifty New Zealand rabbits were prospectively randomized into five open laparotomy groups (n = 10): a control group without vagal manipulation (CON), a bilateral truncal vagotomy with pyloromyotomy group (VP), a SERO group, an AHSV group, and a STAP group. All animals underwent placement of a gastrostomy tube for subsequent gastric secretory analysis. On postoperative day 6, basal acid outputs (BAO) and maximal acid outputs (MAO) following IV pentagastrin stimulation (30 microg/kg/h) were measured. Results were compared statistically using the ANOVA method. Pentagastrin stimulation was associated with a significant increase in MAO in the CON group (p < 0.05 vs BAO); however, this response was effectively blunted in all the experimental groups. There were no differences in BAO or MAO between any of the vagotomized groups (SERO, HSV, STAP, VP). We conclude that the three acid-reducing procedures modified for laparoscopy are equally efficacious in reducing gastric acid secretion and that they compare favorably with VP. To our knowledge, this is the first report comparing basal and stimulated gastric acid secretion between these new acid-reducing techniques.

Is decreased appetite for food a physiological consequence of alcohol consumption? Despite the overwhelming evidence linking alcohol to the development of disease, the contribution of alcohol toxicity to ill health remains controversial. One of the major problems facing researchers is the fact that alcoholic beverages, which contribute little to the nutritional requirements of the body, are often substituted for food and nutritional deficiency alone can promote cell damage. Long-term alcohol intake can decrease the total amount of food consumed when food is freely available and the alcoholic individual is often held accountable for their irregular eating behaviour. Assessment of meal composition has highlighted that appetite for food-containing carbohydrate (in particular) is altered in moderate-heavy drinkers but at present there is insufficient biochemical evidence to confirm or deny this observation. The biochemical processes associated with appetite are many and it would be impossible to address all of these events in a single paper. Therefore, the aim of this review will be to focus on one of the major biochemical markers of appetite for carbohydrate in order to put forward the suggestion that a decreased appetite for food could be a physiological consequence of consuming some forms of alcohol.

Influence of sex-linked feathering phenotypes of parents and progeny upon lymphoid leukosis virus infection status and egg production. Data were collected on egg production, livability, lymphoid leukosis virus and antibody incidence, and hemagglutinin response to sheep red blood cells for slow- and fast-feathering female progeny from slow- and fast-feathering dams with known lymphoid leukosis virus infection status. Analyses of these results indicate that when the offspring or the dams are of the slow-feathering type, the offspring experience an increased rate of horizontal infection. This infection seemingly leads to an immunologically tolerant condition with an inability to produce specific lymphoid leukosis virus antibodies, thereby allowing the viremia to persist. This immunologically tolerant condition, which also occurs in the progeny of virus positive dams due to congenital transmission, is associated with depressed egg production performance. However, a hypothesized lack of immunological competence was not found in the hemagglutinin response to sheep red blood cells late in life. Our results suggest that fast-feathering progeny of slow-feathering dams may also be adversely influenced by increased congenital infection from their dams.

It gets worse. When Patton saw the picture of Thicke with his hand on another woman’s backside at one of the VMA after parties, she supposedly “went nuclear.” The couple reportedly never recovered. Last week, Paula told Robin it was over, but he is trying desperately to win her back, but will it twerk? The singer confirmed the rumors to TMZ, telling the site, "I'm just trying to get her back." See the video below.

This past Tuesday, I had two photo sessions planned.First, with the amazing vocalist Jo Wymer in Freehold (previews coming soon!).. Later that day, with the adorable Katie and Nick scheduled to get married this coming fall. That morning I looked out the window.. and saw huge sheets of fog everywhere. I knew I’d be safe with Jo’s session, because it was very inland. Katie and Nick took off work that day for the occasion so I knew I’d be have to work with the fog.. not against it. I was... Read The Rest →

Q: DQ currents of BLDC I am trying to apply FOC scheme with SVPWM for controlling a BLDC and comparing the resuls with trapezoidal commutation. I have my BLDC model and it is working correctly with trapezoidal commutation. My sign convention is positive speed CCW and when the motor is turning CCW, stators are located as A-B-C, stator A is located at electrical 0 degree. When i drive the motor with trapezoidal commutation i am measuring the phase currents and applying the DQ transformation to measured currents. When i apply the transformation i can see that trapezoidal commutation forces D current to stay as close as to zero, however Q has negative value under this sign convention. The thing that i am trying to understand is if i force D current to be zero in FOC (as it suggested in all papers), Q current supposed to have negative reference for positive speed but in the suggested FOC schemes, Q reference is generated with speed reference and has positive sign for positive speed references. When i apply the FOC scheme it simply does not work because of this problem, Q goes negative for positive set points whereas controller tries to drive Q to a positive value. A: Nice show. Your Clarke/Park seem to work properly. You have almost zero Id and almost constant Iq with ripples, which is normal if you run in six-step commutation. From my intuition, you have wrong current measurements. Everything behaves as the phasor diagram is flipped, that means that Ia = -Ia, I =-Ib, Ic = -Ic. Could be current sensor swapped, or the opamp measuring configuration.

This invention relates generally to gas generant materials. More particularly, this invention relates to the manufacture of gas generant formulations such as may be suited for use in the inflation of automotive inflatable restraint airbag to cushions. It is well known to protect a vehicle occupant using a cushion or bag, e.g., an xe2x80x9cairbag cushion,xe2x80x9d that is inflated or expanded with gas when the vehicle encounters sudden deceleration, such as in the event of a collision. In such systems, the airbag cushion is normally housed in an uninflated and folded condition to minimize space requirements. Upon actuation of the system, the cushion begins to be inflated, in a matter of no more than a few milliseconds, with gas produced or supplied by a device commonly referred to as an xe2x80x9cinflator.xe2x80x9d While many types of inflator devices have been disclosed in the art for use in the inflating of one or more inflatable restraint system airbag cushions, inflator devices which rely on the combustion of a pyrotechnic, fuel and oxidizer combination or other form of gas generant to produce or at least in part form the inflation gas issuing forth therefrom have been commonly employed in conjunction with vehicular inflatable restraint airbag cushions. Sodium azide has been a commonly accepted and used gas generating material. While the use of sodium azide and certain other azide-based gas generant materials meets current industry specifications, guidelines and standards, such use may involve or raise potential concerns such as involving one or more of the handling, supply and disposal of such materials. The development of safe gas generant material alternatives to sodium azide for commercial application in inflatable restraint systems commonly involves the oftentimes conflicting goals or objectives of increasing the gas output of the gas generant material while reducing or minimizing the costs associated with the gas generant material, including the costs associated with ingredients and the processing thereof. The incorporation and use of ammonium nitrate as an oxidizer in such gas generant formulations has been found to be one generally cost-effective approach for exceeding the current state of the art gas generant formulation gas yield of about three moles of gas per 100 grams of gas generant formulation. In particular, ammonium nitrate is relatively inexpensive and, when burned with guanidine nitrate fuel, generally combusts to all gaseous species resulting in gas yields approaching 4 moles of gas per 100 grams of material. Unfortunately, the general incorporation and use of ammonium nitrate in pyrotechnic gas generant formulations has generally been subject to certain difficulties. For example, ammonium nitrate-containing pyrotechnic gas generant formulations have commonly been subject to one or more of the following shortcomings: low burn rates, burn rates exhibiting a high sensitivity to pressure, as well as to phase or other changes in crystalline structure such as may be associated with volumetric expansion of various forms of such formulations, such as may occur during temperature cycling over the normally expected or anticipated range of storage conditions, e.g., temperatures of about xe2x88x9240xc2x0 C. to about 110xc2x0 C. Such phase or structural changes may result in physical degradation of the form of the gas generant formulation such as when such gas generant formulation has been shaped or formed into tablets, wafers or other selected shape or form. Further, such changes, even when relatively minute, can strongly influence the physical properties of a corresponding gas generant material and, in turn, strongly affect the burn rate of the generant material. Unless checked, such changes in structure may result in such performance variations in the gas generant materials incorporating such ammonium nitrate as to render the gas generant material unacceptable for typical inflatable restraint system applications. In view thereof, efforts have been directed to minimizing or eliminating such volume expansion during normal temperature cycling and the effects thereof. In particular, it has been found that the incorporation of a minimum of about 15 wt. % (based on total oxidizer content) of a transition metal diammine dinitrate such as copper diammine dinitrate, nickel diammine dinitrate or zinc diammine dinitrate, for example, in ammonium nitrate, may serve to phase stabilize the mixture and minimize or eliminate volumetric expansion during normal temperature cycling associated with such inflatable restraint applications. Further, ammonium nitrate stabilized with such transition metal diammine dinitrates are typically advantageously less hygroscopic than ammonium nitrate phase stabilized by other methods and the use of such transition metal diammine dinitrates has also been found to result in combustion products which form a more easily filterable clinker. Ammonium nitrate phase stabilization via the incorporation of such transition metal diammine dinitrates, however, is typically at the cost of an associated reduction in gas yield. For example, the gas yield of a typical formulation containing guanidine nitrate, silicon dioxide (5 wt. %) and ammonium nitrate stabilized with 15 wt. % (based on total oxidizer) of such transition metal diammine dinitrate is about 3.8 moles of gas per 100 grams of gas generant material. The gas generant formulation incorporation of such transition metal diammine dinitrates at levels greater than 15 wt. % (of the total oxidizer) has been found to increase burn rate and reduce pressure sensitivity of a corresponding gas generant formulation to levels realistic for typical inflatable restraint system applications. The maximum effect on burn rate has been found to generally occur when 100% of the oxidizer is composed of the transition metal diammine dinitrate. The gas yield of a typical formulation containing guanidine nitrate, silicon dioxide (5 wt. %) and such transition metal diammine dinitrate as 100% of the oxidizer is about 3.3 moles of gas per 100 grams of gas generant material, well above the current state of the art gas generant formulation gas yield of about 3 moles of gas per 100 grams of gas generant formulation. A traditional method of incorporating such a transition metal diammine dinitrate into ammonium nitrate is to react the corresponding metal oxide with ammonium nitrate. For example, for the incorporation of copper diammine dinitrate, cupric oxide and ammonium nitrate can be reacted according to the following reaction: CuO+2NH4NO3xe2x86x92Cu(NH3)2(NO3)2+H2Oxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1) This reaction occurs at elevated temperatures (e.g., in excess of 140xc2x0 C.) in either a solid state reaction or in an ammonium nitrate melt. The rate of such a solid state reaction is temperature dependent and under normal processing conditions (a processing temperature of about 170xc2x0 C.), such reaction typically requires, dependent on the rate of heat transfer achieved, about 30 minutes to 2 hours to complete. As will be appreciated, such extended processing times typically can render such processing regimes commercially unattractive or not feasible. Further, the conducting of such reaction in an ammonium nitrate melt generally requires specialized equipment since the material would normally have to be melted, reacted, and cooled, returning to a solid form, while simultaneously being granulated. In the case of either such solid state or melt processing regimes, the temperature required to perform such reactions is only about 20xc2x0 C. to about 30xc2x0 C. below the temperature at which such corresponding pyrotechnic formulations may begin to decompose. Thus, such processing may not afford a thermal safety margin as sufficiently large as may be desired, particularly for large scale applications. Further, such high temperature heat treatments can constitute an added processing step that may detrimentally affect process economics. Thus, there has been a need and a demand for a method of making a gas generant formulation which contains a transition metal diammine dinitrate which desirably avoids such high temperature processing. In particular, there has been a need and a demand for a method of making such a gas generant formulation and which can desirably be implemented within typical or existing processing equipment and such as may be accomplished over a relatively short time period, such as may be desired in a typical commercial application. To that end, the above-identified prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/454,041 discloses an improved method of making a gas generant formulation which contains a transition metal diammine dinitrate. In accordance with one preferred embodiment disclosed therein, such a method includes the steps of: combining at least a nitrate of at least one transition metal with an ammonia source in an aqueous slurry to form a corresponding reaction mixture; forming a spray dryable precursor to the gas generant formulation, the precursor comprising the aqueous slurry reaction mixture, a gas generant formulation fuel component and a sufficient quantity of water to render the precursor spray dryable; and spray drying the precursor to form a gas generant powder containing a diammine dinitrate of the at least one transition metal. In particular, an appropriate metal nitrate (such as cupric nitrate) can be reacted with an appropriate ammonia source (such as ammonium bicarbonate, ammonium carbonate or ammonium carbamate) in a concentrated water solution to form a desired metal diammine dinitrate. In addition, there is a need and a demand for a method of making ammonium nitrate phase stabilized via the presence of a selected metal diammine dinitrate and which method avoids undesirably high processing temperatures, i.e., processing temperatures which are undesirably near the decomposition temperature of ammonium nitrate, and which avoids isolation of metal tetrammine nitrate complexes such as may raise shipping and handling concerns. To that end, the above-identified prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/454,958 discloses a method of making phase stabilized ammonium nitrate which includes drying and heat treating an aqueous slurry containing ammonium nitrate and a combination of at least one transition metal nitrate and an ammonia source to form a phase stabilized ammonium nitrate. In the slurry, the ammonia source is present in at least a stoichiometric amount relative to the at least one transition metal nitrate for formation of a corresponding transition metal diammine dinitrate. While such methods of making a gas generant formulation which contains a transition metal diammine dinitrate and such methods of making phase stabilized ammonium nitrate may desirably reduce the equipment and processing costs associated with the production and supply of the respective gas generant formulations and phase stabilized ammonium nitrate, there is a continuing need and demand for alternative processing schemes for the production and supply of gas generant formulations which contain such transition metal diammine dinitrate and for ammonium nitrate phase stabilized via the inclusion of a suitable phase stabilizing amount or proportion of a desired metal diammine dinitrate. In particular, there is a need and a demand for alternative such processing schemes such as may permit the use of alternative, potentially lower cost, raw materials, preferably without significantly detrimentally impacting the processing costs associated therewith. A general object of one aspect of the invention is to provide an improved method of making a gas generant formulation which contains a transition metal diammine dinitrate. A general object of another aspect of the invention is to provide an improved method of making phase stabilized ammonium nitrate as well as an improved resulting phase stabilized ammonium nitrate. A more specific objective of the invention is to overcome one or more of the problems described above. The general object of at least one aspect of the invention can be attained, at least in part, through a method which includes the steps of: combining at least an ammine carbonate of at least one transition metal with nitric acid in the presence of water to form a corresponding reaction mixture; forming a spray dryable precursor to the gas generant formulation, the precursor comprising the reaction mixture, a gas generant formulation fuel component and a sufficient quantity of water to render the precursor spray dryable; and spray drying the precursor to form a gas generant powder containing a diammine dinitrate of the at least one transition metal. As detailed below, certain preferred embodiments of the invention may also include a relatively mild heat treatment of the processed material, either as a part of the spray drying or subsequent to such spray drying. The prior art generally fails to provide a method of making a gas generant formulation which contains a transition metal diammine dinitrate which method while desirably avoiding high temperature processing such as processing at temperatures undesirably near the decomposition temperature of corresponding pyrotechnic formulations and which method can desirably be implemented within typical or existing processing equipment and/or within relatively short processing time periods further utilizes or permits the use of alternative raw materials such as may reduce either or both material or processing costs. The invention further comprehends a method of making a gas generant formulation which contains a gas generant fuel component and an oxidizer component comprising at least one transition metal diammine dinitrate selected from the group consisting of copper diammine dinitrate, zinc diammine dinitrate and combinations thereof. In accordance with one preferred embodiment, such method includes the steps of: combining an ammine carbonate of at least one transition metal elected from the group consisting of copper, zinc and mixtures thereof with nitric acid in the presence of water and in relative amounts to form a corresponding reaction mixture containing nitric acid in no more than a stoichiometric amount for reaction of the ammine carbonate and the nitric acid to form a corresponding diammine dinitrate; forming a precursor to a spray dryable gas generant formulation, the precursor comprising the aqueous reaction mixture, additional gas generant formulation components including at least one gas generating fuel material and at least one performance additive selected from the group of aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide and combinations thereof, and a sufficient quantity of water to form a spray dryable gas generant formulation precursor slurry; and spray drying the gas generant formulation precursor slurry to form a gas generant powder; and heating the gas generant powder to a temperature in the range of about 125xc2x0 C. to about 135xc2x0 C. to form a gas generant formulation which contains a gas generant fuel component and an oxidizer component comprising a diammine dinitrate of the at least one transition metal. In accordance with still another embodiment of the invention, a method of making a gas generant formulation which contains a gas generant fuel component and an oxidizer component including at least one transition metal diammine dinitrate selected from the group of copper diammine dinitrate, zinc diammine dinitrate and combinations thereof is provided. Such method includes the step of combining a quantity of at least one ammine carbonate of a transition metal elected from the group consisting of copper, zinc and mixtures thereof with a quantity of nitric acid in the presence of water to form a corresponding reaction mixture. In such reaction mixture, the quantity of the transition metal ammine carbonate and the quantity of nitric acid are in relative amounts sufficient such that the reaction mixture contains no free nitric acid after reaction of the at least one ammine carbonate with the nitric acid. A precursor to a spray dryable gas generant formulation is formed. The precursor includes the reaction mixture, additional gas generant formulation components including at least one gas generating fuel material and at least one performance additive, and a sufficient quantity of water to form a spray dryable gas generant formulation precursor slurry. In particular, the at least one gas generating fuel material can desirably be selected from the group consisting of oxygenated nitrogen-containing organic compounds, organic compounds with a high nitrogen content, complexes of at least one transition metal and combinations thereof. The at least one gas generating fuel is included in the precursor in an amount sufficient that about 20 wt. % to about 70 wt. % of the gas generant formulation constitutes such fuel material. The at least one performance additive is preferably selected from the group of aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide and combinations thereof. More particularly, the precursor contains between about 30 wt. % to about 35 wt. % water. The gas generant formulation precursor slurry is subsequently spray dried to form a gas generant powder. The gas generant powder in turn is heated to a temperature in the range of about 125xc2x0 C. to about 135xc2x0 C. to form a heat treated gas generant powder which contains about 30 wt. % to about 60 wt. % of an oxidizer component, wherein the transition metal diammine dinitrate constitutes about 15 wt. % to about 100 wt. % of the oxidizer component. Another aspect of the invention relates to a method of making a phase stabilized ammonium nitrate. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, such method includes drying and heat treating an aqueous slurry containing ammonium nitrate and a combination of at least one transition metal ammine carbonate and nitric acid to form a phase stabilized ammonium nitrate. In the slurry, the nitric acid is present in more than a stoichiometric amount relative to the at least one transition metal ammine carbonate for formation of the a corresponding transition metal diammine dinitrate. The invention, in accordance with another alternative preferred embodiment of the invention, still further comprehends a phase stabilized ammonium nitrate. In particular, such phase stabilized ammonium nitrate is desirably made by drying and heat treating an aqueous slurry containing ammonium nitrate and a combination of at least one transition metal ammine carbonate and nitric acid, present in no more than a stoichiometric amount relative to the at least one transition metal ammine carbonate for formation of a corresponding transition metal diammine dinitrate. Other objects and advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the appended claims. The present invention provides an improved method of making a gas generant formulation. In particular, the invention provides an improved method of making a gas generant material which contains a transition metal diammine dinitrate and which such gas generant material may desirably be used in the inflation of inflatable devices such as vehicle occupant restraint airbag cushions. Gas generant materials and formulations prepared in accordance with the invention typically include an oxidizer component including, at least in part, a transition metal diammine nitrate oxidizer material, a gas generating fuel component and, if desired, at least one performance additive such as in the form of a metal oxide such as added to improve either or both slag formation or burn rate properties or qualitites. For example, such improved slag formation can be useful in either or both facilitating retention within an inflator device of certain combustion reaction products whose presence in airbag cushion inflation fluids is generally undesired and providing or resulting in a generally more uniform flow of inflation fluid from such an inflator device. Burn rate property or quality improvements realizable through such additive inclusion include such resulting gas generant materials or formulations exhibiting improved or increased burn rates. In accordance with certain preferred embodiments of the invention, between about 30 wt. % and about 60 wt. % of the subject gas generant material constitutes such an oxidizer component. In particular, gas generant materials and formulations in accordance with the invention advantageously contain an oxidizer component of which at least 15 wt. % up to about 100 wt. % is composed of a transition metal diammine nitrate oxidizer material, prepared as described herein. Preferred transition metal diammine nitrate oxidizer materials for use in the practice of the invention include copper diammine dinitrate, zinc diammine dinitrate and combinations thereof. If desired, the balance of the oxidizer component of the subject gas generant materials may constitute a suitable supplemental oxidizer material, such as ammonium nitrate in accordance with one preferred embodiment of the invention. In accordance with a preferred practice of the invention, such transition metal diammine nitrate oxidizer materials are preferably formed during processing in a manner such as avoids or eliminates the need for subsequent high temperature treatment undesirably near the decomposition temperature associated with the such corresponding pyrotechnic formulations. Further, practice of the invention desirably avoids extended durations of heating, such as may be associated with at least certain prior art techniques. As disclosed in the prior pending patent application Ser. No. 09/454,041 identified above, such transition metal diammine dinitrates, such as where the transition metal is selected from the group consisting of copper, nickel, zinc and combinations thereof, have been found to be advantageously formed during a process in which the corresponding transition metal nitrate is combined with an ammonia source in an aqueous slurry such as to form a reaction mixture and which reaction mixture is processed as described herein. In particular, the metal nitrate can desirably be combined with a stoichiometric amount or more of ammonia from one or more of the following sources: ammonium bicarbonate, ammonium carbonate, ammonium carbamate, ammonium hydroxide, anhydrous ammonia or mixtures thereof, relative to the corresponding metal diammine dinitrate such as in accordance with the following reactions relative to the formation of copper diammine dinitrate: a) via ammonium bicarbonate, Cu(NO3)2xc2x72.5H2O+2NH4HCO3xe2x86x92Cu(NH3)2(NO3)2+2CO2+4.5H2Oxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2) b) via ammonium carbonate, Cu(NO3)2xc2x72.5H2O+(NH4)2CO3xe2x86x92Cu(NH3)2(NO3)2+CO2+3.5H2Oxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3) c) via ammonium carbamate, Cu(NO3)2xc2x72.5H2O+NH2CO2NH4xe2x86x92Cu(NH3)2(NO3)2+CO2+2.5H2Oxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(4) d) via ammonium hydroxide, Cu(NO3)2xc2x72.5H2O+2NH4OHxe2x86x92Cu(NH3)2(NO3)2+4.5H2Oxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(5) e) via anhydrous ammonia, Cu(NO3)2xc2x72.5H2O+2NH3xe2x86x92Cu(NH3)2(NO3)2+2.5H2Oxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(6) In accordance with a particularly preferred practice of such embodiment, such reaction mixtures desirably provide or result in at least two moles of ammonia per mole of metal provided by the metal nitrate. Further, while the reactions (2)-(6) have been shown above employing cupric nitrate in the 2.5-hydrate form, the broader practice of the invention is not necessarily limited by the particular hydrate form of the ingredients. For example, similar reactions can be shown employing cupric nitrate trihydrate. Now, in a new embodiment, such metal diammine dinitrates, such as where the metal is a transition metal selected from the group consisting of copper, zinc and combinations thereof, have been found to be advantageously formed during a process in which the corresponding transition metal ammine carbonate is combined with nitric acid in the presence of water to form a corresponding reaction mixture and which reaction mixture is subsequently processed as described herein. In particular, the metal ammine carbonate can desirably be combined with a stoichiometric amount or more of nitric acid, relative to the corresponding metal diammine dinitrate such as in accordance with the following reactions relative to the formation of copper diammine dinitrate: Cu(NH3)2CO3+2HNO3xe2x86x92Cu(NH3)2(NO3)2+CO2+H2Oxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(7) In accordance with a particularly preferred practice of such embodiment, such reaction mixtures desirably provide or result in at least two moles of nitrate per mole of metal provided by the metal ammine carbonate. As will be appreciated, copper diammine carbonate (CDC) can be relatively easily prepared by dissolving copper metal in ammonium hydroxide and bubbling carbon dioxide through the resulting mixture. The CDC precipitates from the mixture and can be isolated and purified. Further, nitric acid is a relatively low cost chemical, readily available on the open market. Thus, at current chemical costs, the raw material costs for copper diammine dinitrate production via such a CDC/nitric acid method is about 20% less than the raw material costs associated with copper diammine dinitrate production via the cupric nitrate/ammonium carbonate method described above, with the labor and equipment costs for both methods being about the same. In accordance with certain preferred embodiments of the invention, between about 20 wt. % and about 70 wt. % of the subject gas generant material constitutes such a gas generating fuel component. Preferred fuel materials for use in the practice of the invention are non-azide in nature. Groups or categories of fuels useful in the practice of the invention include one or more various oxygenated nitrogen-containing organic compounds, one or more organic compounds with a high nitrogen content, and one or more complexes of at least one transition metal. Specific examples of oxygenated nitrogen-containing organic compounds useful in the practice of the invention include guanidine nitrate, aminoguanidine nitrate, triaminoguanidine nitrate, nitroguanidine, nitrotriazalone and mixtures thereof. Specific examples of organic compounds with a high nitrogen content useful in the practice of the invention include dicyandiamide, triazalone, tetrazoles, triazoles and mixtures thereof. Specific examples of transition metal complexes useful in the practice of the invention include transition metal complexes of tetrazoles and triazoles, transition metal nitrate complexes of nitrogen containing organic compounds and mixtures thereof. In particular, such complexes of transition metals such as copper, cobalt, and zinc, for example, can be used. As will be appreciated, the gas generating fuel component of particular gas generant compositions in accordance with the invention may be comprised of individual such fuel materials or combinations thereof. Gas generant materials or formulations prepared in accordance with the invention may additionally desirably contain one or more performance additives such as in the form of a metal oxide such as added to improve either or both slag formation or burn rate properties or qualitites. Particular examples of suitable such performance additives are aluminum oxide and silicon dioxide. In practice, such additives may desirably be included in relative amounts of between about 2 wt. % and about 10 wt. % of the gas generant formulation. The incorporation and use of such silicon and aluminum oxide materials are particularly effective in facilitating the production of a slag material which is relatively easily filtered from the gas stream of an airbag inflator. In accordance with the invention, such gas generant formulations can desirably be made via a method which includes combining a transition metal nitrate with an ammonia source in an aqueous slurry or, alternatively, combining a transition metal ammine carbonate with nitric acid in the presence of water, such as to form a corresponding reaction mixture, such as described above, and forming a spray dryable precursor to the gas generant formulation, the precursor including the reaction mixture, desired additional gas generant formulation components including at least a gas generating fuel and a sufficient quantity of water to render the precursor spray dryable. While the broader practice of the invention is not limited by the specific amount of water added during such processing, it has been found generally desirable that water be added in sufficient quantity that the spray dryable gas generant formulation precursor slurry contains between about 30 wt. % and about 35 wt. % water. It will be appreciated that various processing arrangements are available whereby such a spray dryable precursor can be formed or arrived at. For example, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, such spray dryable precursor is formed via the above-identified aqueous slurry reaction mixture being prepared such as to contain the desired quantity of water to render the precursor spray dryable. Alternatively, an additional quantity of water may be required to be added to the aqueous slurry reaction mixture to render a spray dryable precursor. In accordance with one preferred practice of the invention, it is generally desirable that additional gas generant formulation components such as either or both a gas generating fuel material and, if used, a performance additive, such as described above, be added to the above-identified aqueous slurry reaction mixture, such as after completion of reaction of the combined transition metal ammine carbonate and nitric acid, such as evidenced by the completion of the evolution of carbon dioxide therefrom. Such post-reaction addition is generally preferred as the possibility of undesired reaction between one or more of such additional gas generant formulation components, either alone or in combination with either or both the transition metal ammine carbonate and nitric acid can accordingly be avoided or limited. The spray dryable precursor can then be appropriately spray dried, in a manner such as is known in the art and so as to form a gas generant powder containing a diammine dinitrate of the at least one transition metal. Following such spray drying and as detailed below in the examples, a relatively minor or mild heat treatment (i.e., heating of the material to a temperature of no more than about 135xc2x0 C., e.g., a temperature of approximately 125-130xc2x0 C. and holding the heated material at that temperature for a duration of at least approximately 5 minutes) of the material resulting upon such spray drying, may be desired or required in order to ensure or complete conversion of the transition metal species to the desired transition metal diammine dinitrate and such has been found to remain in a stable form. The application of more severe heat treatment processing (i.e., processing involving either or both heating the material to a higher temperature, such as a temperature in excess of or greater than 135xc2x0 C., or for significantly longer periods of time, such as for durations of 10 minutes or more) is generally not preferred or desired. In particular, such more severe heat treatment processing generally has associated therewith correspondingly higher processing costs without necessarily providing or resulting in concomitant processing or product benefits or improvements. Those skilled in the art and guided by the teachings herein provided will appreciate that post-spray dry heating can desirably be avoided where, for example, sufficient heat treatment is achieved or realized during the drying process. Alternatively, however, such heating can be relatively easily implemented into a processing scheme such as via in-line fluid bed dryers such as may be incorporated between a spray-dry tower and an associated collection bin, for example. In either case, such heat treatment is generally either or both at significantly lower processing temperatures or for significantly shorter durations than associated with prior art processing techniques. The resulting gas generant powder can be appropriately processed or shaped, such as by being tableted or wafered, for example and is generally known in the art, and such as may be desired for particular applications of such a gas generant formulation. While the invention has been described above with reference to the making or processing of gas generant formulations which contain a transition metal diammine dinitrate, it will be appreciated that the invention can, if desired, be applied to the making or processing of phase stabilized ammonium nitrate. In particular, the invention can be applied to provide a method of making a phase stabilized ammonium nitrate such as may desirably be used in gas generant formulations such as used in the inflation of inflatable devices such as vehicle occupant restraint airbag cushions. In accordance with this aspect of the invention, a metal ammine carbonate, particularly a transition metal ammine carbonate, such as described above, is combined with nitric acid, the nitric acid present in no more than a stoichiometric amount relative to the at least one transition metal ammine carbonate for formation of the a corresponding transition metal diammine dinitrate, to form a first precursor. In accordance with one preferred embodiment of the invention, a second precursor to the phase stabilized ammonium nitrate is formed to contain the first precursor and ammonium nitrate. As further detailed below, such second precursor desirably is in the form of a slurry, e.g., an aqueous slurry. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art and guided by the teachings herein provided, such precursor can be arrived at by various techniques or specific processing steps without deviating from the general principles and guidelines herein provided. For example, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the ammonium nitrate in the xe2x80x9csecond precursorxe2x80x9d or a desired portion thereof may be added to the first precursor material, prepared as described above. In accordance with an alternative preferred embodiment of the invention, the ammonium nitrate or a desired portion thereof may simply be added to or included in the aqueous slurry from which the first precursor, as described above, is formed or produced. In particular, the presence of ammonium nitrate in such slurry mix is believed to advantageously serve to stabilize such metal diammine dinitrate or various related forms such as may be formed therein from subsequent, undesired reactions, for example, from subsequent hydrolysis reaction. This precursor slurry is, in turn, dried and heated to form a phase stabilized ammonium nitrate. In particular, such phase stabilized ammonium nitrate desirably contains a phase stabilizing quantity or relative proportion of the diammine dinitrate of the transition metal of the nitrate used above. In practice, the relative proportion of such transition metal diammine dinitrate required to be present in ammonium nitrate to effect desired phase stabilization will typically vary dependent on the particular application and conditions of operation. In general, however, such phase stabilizing quantity or proportion of transition metal diammine dinitrate typically constitutes the transition metal diammine dinitrate being present in the ammonium nitrate in a relative amount of at least about 1 wt. %, preferably at least about 10 wt. % and, most preferably, at least about 15 wt. %. For example, in typical vehicle occupant inflatable restraint system applications, the inclusion of at least about 15 wt. % of such transition metal diammine dinitrate in ammonium nitrate is generally desired to achieve a desired level of ammonium nitrate phase stabilization such as may avoid unacceptable performance variations in corresponding gas generant materials as such as would otherwise render such gas generant materials unacceptable for typical inflatable restraint system applications. In particular, such drying treatment can be variously accomplished, as those skilled in the art and guided by the teachings herein provided will appreciate. For example, tray drying such as involving the use of a vacuum or convection oven, for example, can be used. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, such precursor slurry is desirably spray dried such as to form a precursor to the phase stabilized ammonium nitrate and which precursor desirably has the form of a powder. As will be appreciated, spray drying may advantageously provide or result in high processing throughputs while avoiding subjecting the treated materials to elevated temperatures for prolonged periods of time. Following such spray drying and as described above, a relatively minor or mild heat treatment (i.e., heating of the material to a temperature of no more than about 135xc2x0 C., e.g., a temperature of approximately 125-130xc2x0 C. and holding the heated material at that temperature for a duration of at least approximately 5 minutes) of the material resulting upon such spray drying, may be desired or required in order to ensure or complete conversion of the transition metal species to the desired transition metal diammine dinitrate and such has been found to remain in a stable form. As will be appreciated, such subsequent heat treatment can desirably be accomplished in a solid state, thus desirably simplifying processing and handling, for example. In accordance with one preferred embodiment of the invention, such drying and heating can desirably be conducted or accomplished in a single processing step such as where sufficient heat treating of the processed material is accomplished during the drying process. In an alternative preferred embodiment of the invention, such drying and heating are conducted or accomplished in separate processing steps, such as may be conducted in sequence. In accordance with one such alternative embodiment, such relatively minor or mild heat treatment can be relatively easily implemented into a processing scheme such as via in-line fluid bed dryers such as may be incorporated between a spray-dry tower and an associated collection bin, for example. In either case, such heat treatment is generally either or both at significantly lower processing temperatures or for significantly shorter durations than associated with prior art processing techniques. The application of more severe heat treatment processing (i.e., processing involving either or both heating the material to a higher temperature, such as a temperature in excess of or greater than 135xc2x0 C., or for significantly longer periods of time, such as for durations of 10 minutes or more) is generally not preferred or desired. In particular, such more severe heat treatment processing generally has associated therewith correspondingly higher processing costs without necessarily providing or resulting in concomitant processing or product benefits or improvements. Those skilled in the art and guided by the teachings herein provided will appreciate that post-spray dry heating can desirably be avoided where, for example, sufficient heat treatment is achieved or realized during the drying process. Alternatively, however, such heating can be relatively easily implemented into a processing scheme such as via in-line fluid bed dryers such as may be incorporated between a spray-dry tower and an associated collection bin, as described above. In accordance with a preferred practice of the invention, the resulting phase stabilized ammonium nitrate powder desirably contains a phase stabilizing quantity or proportion of the diammine dinitrate of the associated transition metal, as detailed above. As will be appreciated, such phase stabilized ammonium nitrate can find various applications. For example, such phase stabilized ammonium nitrate can find application in various gas generant formulations such as used in association with inflatable restraint systems and such as otherwise known in the art. In particular, such phase stabilized ammonium nitrate can be easily implemented into various gas generant formulations such as those prepared or produced via extrusion or granulation, for example. Such a processing method allows for preparation of metal diammine dinitrate phase stabilized ammonium nitrate without isolation of explosive metal tetrammine nitrate complexes. Further, the final relatively mild heat treatment, such as may be desired to ensure complete formation of metal diammine dinitrate, can desirably be done or preformed in a solid state, not in a melt. Thus, facilitating and permitting the preparation of phase stabilized ammonium nitrate, in accordance with the invention, via the use or processing of existing spray dry/fluid bed dryer equipment.

The goal of this application is to develop a research network for "Harmonization of cross-national studies of aging to the Health and Retirement Study (HRS)." This network will support the development of new international studies with harmonized data, maintain harmonization and data development among existing comparable studies, and develop a cross-national research agenda. Harmonization of cross-national studies of aging to the HRS is one of the specific targeted emerging research areas identified under the PAR-09-233 Network Infrastructure Support for Emerging Behavioral and Social Research Areas in Aging. To foster cross-national studies of aging, we propose to develop a research network, bringing together leading scientists, data producers, and users ofthe HRS family of surveys. Through the proposed network support activities, we will accomplish the following five aims: (Aim 1) Organize an annual harmonization meeting, bringing together the principal investigators of all HRS-family surveys. The purpose of these meetings will be to maintain and improve harmonization among existing HRS-family surveys and to support development of new HRS-like surveys. (Aim 2) Document the comparability, prepare harmonized measures, and provide training on the HRS family of surveys. Using the HRS User Guides and the RAND HRS documentation as a model, we will prepare documentation about the concepts, measures, and questions in each HRS-family survey as well as on their comparability in seven specific domains (e.g,, labor force participation and retirement, chronic diseases). (Aim 3) Support small-scale pilots for establishing cross-nafional comparability. (Aim 4) Create network opportunities for users of the HRS family of surveys through biennial user conferences and the Internet discussion board, and provide technical support for users. (Aim 5) Disseminate the resources developed for harmonization (e.g., user manuals, conference proceedings) and the findings from cross national studies using the HRS family of surveys through public websites including those of RAND and each of the surveys. RELEVANCE (See instructions): The proposed research network activities will facilitate harmonization of the HRS family of surveys and cross-national studies on aging, health, and retirement. These network activities will provide immediate benefits for the producers and users of the HRS family of surveys and broader benefits for the entire research community.

Water-curable compositions based on thermoplastic polymers having hydrolyzable silane moieties are becoming increasingly interesting as environmental, health and safety concerns increase for other curing technologies. Such compositions have excellent properties of weather-, chemical- and water-resistance, since the alkoxysilyl group is connected to the polymer chain by a carbon-silicon bond, rather than a labile carbon-oxygen-silicon linkage; therefore water-, alkali- and acid-resistance are remarkably improved compared to a system with silicates or silanes added by physical mixing. One disadvantage of water-curable silylated polymer compositions, however, is that they tend to crosslink, especially if dispersed in water, under normal conditions of preparation, handling and storage. As a result, the relatively poor shelf life of such compositions has tended to limit their wide commercial acceptance and has kept the use of silylated polymers to those with very low silane concentrations, typically less than 1.0 weight percent, in waterborne polymeric products. Modification of water-curable compositions to alleviate the problem of premature crosslinking is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,930 which teaches relatively water-stable, melt-processable, thermoplastic polymers with hydrolyzable silane moieties. These silylated polymers are only activated or made readily water-curable by the reaction herewith of an organotitanate having at least one readily hydrolyzable group, which ester exchanges with an ester group of the silane. Although the titanate functions as a silanol condensation catalyst, it is dispersed in the alkylene-acrylate solid matrix, not in water. Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 6025502 teaches a composition comprising a polymer emulsion obtained by adding a tin catalyst (a diorganotin carboxylate) which is insoluble in water, to silylated vinyl polymers after emulsion polymerization. The addition of a water insoluble tin catalyst, however, is not suitable for such films because defects result from the heterogeneous catalysts and the emulsion polymer mixtures, such as formation of craters and granular particles on the surface and uneven crosslinkage in the film structure. Moreover, the silanes taught therein have alkoxy groups of at least eight carbons long and generally of a straight chain. This Japanese patent application also teaches non-discriminate curing catalysts generally used for silane/ester hydrolysis and condensation reactions. Similar examples of catalysts for silane ester and silanol-containing compositions can be found in the literature, which disclose catalysts dissolved in organic solvent-based systems to ensure a proper cure. For example, it has long been known that diorganotin dicarboxylates are catalysts for polymerization of organosilicon compounds. However, in spite of their proven utility, the diorganotin dicarboxylates suffer from several disadvantages. One is the relative instability of the compound as shown by loss of activity upon standing, particularly under moist conditions. The phenomenon is even more pronounced when the catalyst is in the form of an aqueous emulsion. Many tin compounds may also undergo hydrolysis during prolonged storage and revert to catalytically inactive forms. Thus, it is clear that there is the need for one component, water-based dispersed silylated polymeric systems that have good stability during storage in water and which produce films of good quality upon application and drying.

[Alcohol drinking behavior in a sample of students]. In 1988 we interviewed approximately a quarter (n = 395) of the female students enrolled at Ulm/D. University in order to get knowledge of their alcohol-drinking habits. There was no selection of whom we asked. The results encourage us to the conclusion that we might have got a representative survey. Of the students inquired about 11% lived abstinently, less than 2% consumed alcohol daily, most of all took alcohol repeatedly per month. The predominant part of the students questioned, stated an intake of less than 40 g alcohol per day. The average quantity of alcohol consumed per month was smaller than with a group of female students interviewed in Spain as well as with a group of young women comparable in age in Northern Germany.

Recent advances in fluorescent and colorimetric conjugated polymer-based biosensors. Conjugated polymers recently have drawn much attention as an emerging sensory material due to their meritorious signal amplification, convenient optical detection, readily tunable properties, and easy fabrication. We review the molecular design principles of sensory conjugated polymer recognition events, which can trigger conformational change of the conjugated polymer, induce intermolecular aggregation, or change the distance between the conjugated polymer as an energy donor and the reporter dye molecule as an energy acceptor. These recognition/detection mechanisms result in mainly three types of measurable signal generation: turn on or turn off fluorescence, or change in either visible color or fluorescence emission color of the conjugated polymer. In this article, we highlight recent advances in fluorescent and colorimetric conjugated polymer-based biosensors.

Q: Solve RTL children ordering in Chrome In the following MWE, a span and a div are placed inside an RTL div, and their order is swapped in Firefox but not in Chrome (no idea what it shows in IE...). <html> <body> <div dir="rtl"> <span id="empty-span"></span> <div>This is arabic!</div> </div> <script> var anchorEl = document.getElementById('empty-span'); var anchorRect = anchorEl.getBoundingClientRect(); console.log(anchorRect); </script> </body> </html> Firefox places the span to the right of the div, while Chrome keeps it to the left. (The exact value shown in the console depends on your screen size.) Firefox: ClientRect {left: 700, right: 700, ...} Chrome: ClientRect {left: 8, right: 8, ...} I need the Firefox behavior, because the span is the target of a tooltip that should be placed near the text. I'm fairly new to web development, so what is the best approach: use another type of hidden element to anchor the tooltip, place the span differently depending on the browser, or what? Just for clarity, there's no dir="rtl" attribute in fact, but the problem shows in Arabic and Hebrew locales. I just used it so people won't need to change their default language to reproduce. A: In my opinion, handling of the dir attribute isn't especially well specified, which could explain why different browsers handle your situation differently. I'm guessing that since your <span> element is empty, and since it is retaining its default display property of inline, it no defined dimensions on the page. Chrome is optimizing by simply not bothering to apply the rtl formatting to it. When you change the display property to inline-block, you're giving the <span> a height and width, albeit 0. Chrome is "smart" enough to optimize when the element has no height and width defined, but it doesn't go the extra step of optimizing when the element has a defined height and width of 0. That's just a guess, though. FWIW, I've found the CSS direction property to be more reliable than the dir attribute.

Multifunctional mesoporous silica nanoparticles mediated co-delivery of paclitaxel and tetrandrine for overcoming multidrug resistance. The objective of the study is to fabricate multifunctional mesoporous silica nanoparticles for achieving co-delivery of conventional antitumor drug paclitaxel (PTX) and the multidrug resistance reversal agent tetrandrine (TET) expecting to overcome multidrug resistance of MCF-7/ADR cells. The nanoparticles were facile to prepare by self-assemble in situ drug loading approach. Namely, PTX and TET were solubilized in the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) micelles and simultaneously silica resources hydrolyze and condense to form nanoparticles. The obtained nanoparticles, denoted as PTX/TET-CTAB@MSN, exhibited pH-responsive release property with more easily released in the weak acidic environment. Studies on cellular uptake of nanoparticles demonstrated TET could markedly increase intracellular accumulation of nanoparticles. Furthermore, the PTX/TET-CTAB@MSN suppressed tumor cells growth more efficiently than only delivery of PTX (PTX-CTAB@MSN) or the free PTX. Moreover, the nanoparticle loading drugs with a PTX/TET molar ratio of 4.4:1 completely reversed the resistance of MCF-7/ADR cells to PTX and the resistance reversion index was 72.3. Mechanism research showed that both TET and CTAB could arrest MCF-7/ADR cells at G1 phase; and besides PTX arrested cells at G2 phase. This nanocarrier might have important potential in clinical implications for co-delivery of multiple drugs to overcome MDR.

There has been a significant need in many fields for high quantum efficiency, high speed response light detectors, particularly in the blue and near ultraviolet, (200 to 500 nm) as well as for particle detection, and low-energy X-rays. In many applications there is a further need for miniature, portable, rugged, field ready devices, which drives requirements away from photomultiplier tubes and towards solid state devices. In many applications requiring such solid state devices there is a need for relatively large surface area devices. Larger area devices intrinsically have lower signal to noise (SNR) and longer response time than smaller area devices. Many nuclear detection devices utilize scintillators that convert nuclear energy to light. Most scintillators emit light in the region of 200 to 500 nm. This light must be read or monitored with an appropriate light detector. In many applications a scintillating crystal or ceramic is mounted directly onto a solid state detector such as an avalanche photodiode. This method of direct coupling significantly improves the efficiency of detection. In medical applications such as PET and CT scanning high sensitivity and short response time are required to reduce the patient's exposure to radiation as much as possible. Thus, there is a critical need in nuclear medicine for high quantum efficiency, high speed response, and often large surface area devices. In other medical applications where detectors are in direct contact with the patient there is the further requirement that the bias voltage that drives the device be as low as possible for reasons of patient safety. There is also a need for high quantum efficiency, high speed response, and often large surface area light detectors in military applications, such as tracking, targeting, and ranging devices. This is particularly the case for daylight applications where military operations are conducted in the presence of large amounts of visible and infrared light. The human eye has little sensitivity at wavelengths below 400 nm. For laser exposure, there is an “eye safe” UVA region between 315 and 400 nm (ideal, for instance, for operation with tripled Nd:YAG lasers at 355 nm or with solid state lasers emitting in this spectral band region). Solar radiation is minimal in the UVA band and can be significantly further reduced by use of appropriate band pass or short pass filters. These filters can, in many instances, be directly coated onto the detector or an appropriate filter can be placed in the path of incoming light. For tracking and targeting applications it may also be advantageous to use positional sensitive detectors, based on arrays of detectors and/or proportional detectors. Scientific research instrumentation often requires high quantum efficiency, high speed response, and often large surface area devices in the spectral region between 200 and 1050 nm. Such applications include, but are not limited to, radiation detectors employing scintillators, radiation detectors based upon Cherenkov radiation, radiation detectors for X-ray detection, radiation detectors for ionizing particle detection and astronomical measurements in this spectral region. Over the past two decades, free-space optical communication (FSOC) has proven to be a viable way to transfer large packets of digital information. Capable of achieving Gbit/s transfer rates over several km, relatively compact systems for local area networks are commercially available. However, the technology required to deploy robust system architectures, such as those used on temporary or mobile platforms operating in a range of daylight and temperature conditions, has yet to be fully realized. A significant operational barrier for FSOC is the need to maintain eye-safety, which limits the permissible signal power and thus system ranging capabilities. Poor weather conditions, the need for direct line-of-sight, and interference with solar radiation within the receiver's line-of-sight are also factors that can significantly degrade the system performance. Despite these factors, FSOC offers significant advantages over commonly used microwave links. These advantages include: smaller size, weight and power requirements for the transmitter and receiver; higher immunity to electromagnetic interference; faster data transfer rates; and higher security due to directionality. Such optical communication systems consist of two primary components; namely the transmitter and the receiver. Medium-range FSOC systems have been realized thanks to advances in laser transmitter and LED technology in the ultraviolet (UV). Compared to systems that utilize red or near-IR sources, the advantages of using a UV source include higher permissible transmission levels and reduced interference from solar radiation. Strong absorption and Rayleigh scattering in the atmosphere greatly reduces the solar background in the deep UV (wavelengths<280 nm). However, this same scattering and absorption may also reduce the distance over which the communication signal can be relayed, particularly at sea level where water content is high. As a result, the use of deep UV has been proposed for short range non-line of sight (NLOS) operations where the scattered light is used to relay the signal around objects [2]. For medium to long range communications, therefore, longer wavelengths near the blue-UV region of the spectrum (350 to 380 nm) are preferred. The advantage created by recent advances in transmitter technology for UV FSOC has been dampened by the lag in the development of matching receiver technology for the UV. In particular, the highest quantum efficiency (QE) (the ratio between the number of photon-induced electrons collected and the number of incident photons) is approximately 50% for detectors at UN wavelengths, compared to >90% at the longer wavelengths. Table 1 compares the QE of various large-area UV-blue sensitive detectors when operated in proportional mode at the common laser wavelength of 355 nm (Nd:YAG). TABLE 1Detector typeGainQE (at 355 nm)Silicon detector 150%Avalanche Photodiode20050%Photomultiplier Tube  10625%Silicon Carbide 1<10%  Silicon detectors have the highest QEs at 355 nm, which is two to three times higher than photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and six to seven times higher than silicon carbide detectors, which have a peak response at shorter wavelengths. Silicon p-i-n photodiodes are compact, rugged high-speed optical receivers that are relatively inexpensive and require low operating bias. However, their signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is much lower than detectors with internal gain structures, such as APD's or PMTs. As a result, post-amplification circuits are often needed to generate appropriate signal outputs, further reducing the SNR. Avalanche photodiodes (APD's), like the PMTs, exhibit internal gain created by impact ionization, when a strong electric field is present in the detector. However, APD's are much thinner than PMTs, which increases design flexibility, enabling improved light collection geometries. Unlike the PMT, the APD is very rugged, does not require a recovery period (several to tens of minutes) following intense illumination from an unexpected signal or background source, can be operated in magnetic fields, and can be mass produced at low costs. As a result, APD's are often the detector of choice for field-ready instrumentation such as FSOC. An exemplary APD is depicted in FIG. 1. The substrate contains different regions that correspond to differing amounts of dopant present in that region. For example, an APD may include a photosensitive neutral drift p-region 100 located at, or adjacent to, the top surface of the APD. A depleted p-region 102 may be located beneath the neutral drift region. A depleted n-region 104 may be located beneath the depleted p-region. A neutral n-region 106 may be located beneath the depleted n-region. In some cases the APD may also include a passivation layer 108 disposed on top of the neutral drift p-region. During use an electrical potential may be applied to the APD such that when a photon is absorbed by the photosensitive neutral drift p-region, an electron-hole pair is formed at photon absorption site 110. Due to the applied electrical potential the charge carriers, i.e. the electron and hole, move in opposite directions within the APD. This initial migration of a charge carrier towards the bottom of the APD is indicated by arrow 112 which corresponds to minority carrier transport. As the charge carrier is accelerated due to the applied electrical potential it causes additional electron hole pairs to be formed within the depleted p-region and depleted n-region due to impact ionization which then exhibit similar behavior. This process is referred to as avalanche breakdown and is indicated by enlarged arrow 114. This phenomenon is responsible for the signal gain exhibited by avalanche photodiodes. After passing through the depleted p-region and depleted n-region the generated charge carriers undergo majority carrier transport to the neutral n-region which includes electrical contacts for outputting the generated electrical signal.

What do we wish most for our children? Next to being healthy, we want them to be happy, of course. Fortunately, a wide array of scientific studies show that happiness is a learned behavior, a muscle we can help our children build and maintain. Drawing on what psychology, sociology, and neuroscience have proven about confidence, gratefulness, and optimism, and using her own chaotic and often hilarious real-world adventures as a mom to demonstrate dos and don’ts in action, Christine Carter, PhD, executive director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, boils the process down to ten simple happiness-inducing steps. With great wit, wisdom, and compassion, Carter covers the day-to-day pressure points of parenting—how best to discipline, get kids to school and activities on time, and get dinner on the table—as well as the more elusive issues of helping children build healthy friendships and develop emotional intelligence. In these ten key steps, she helps you interact confidently and consistently with your kids to foster the skills, habits, and mindsets that will set the stage for positive emotions now and into their adolescence and beyond. You will discover the best way avoid raising a brat—changing bad habits into good ones; tips on how to change your kids’ attitude into gratitude; the trap of trying to be perfect—and how to stay clear of its pitfalls; the right way to praise kids—and why too much of the wrong kind can be just as bad as not enough; the spirit of kindness—how to raise kind, compassionate, and loving children; and strategies for inspiring kids to do boring (but necessary) tasks—and become more self-motivated in the process. Complete with a series of “try this” tips, secrets, and strategies, Raising Happiness is a one-of-a-kind resource that will help you instill joy in your kids—and, in the process, become more joyful yourself. Download and start listening now! bf3q Quotes & Awards “This collection of research, personal stories, and advice couldn’t be more smoothly organized and accessible. With Emily Durante’s sunny performance making it sound even more appealing, it’s an audio message that will help parents open up to new possibilities for helping their kids—and themselves.” [ShoppingCartItemsAddedOnMerge] audiobook(s) were left in your cart from a previous visit, and saved to your account for your convenience. You may view or remove these audiobooks on the shopping cart page.