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Webpages with more general information
Webpages with more detailed information.
One of the major constraints for agricultural development in Tidal Swamps is the limited availability of labor. Farmers own mostly 2 Ha or more; too much for rice cultivation based on manual labor.
This limitation has a major impact on the potentials of the rice and how the rice is cultivated in Tidal Swamps.
This page will focus on the influence of Mechanization on the potentials in the Swamps. Its information is mainly based on a Publication by AARD, Jakarta/ Bogor (Badan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Pertanian, Departemen Pertanian, 2000), with the title;
PENGEMBANGAN ALAT DAN MESIN PERTANIAN. Menunjang Sistem Usahatani dan Perbaikan Pascapanen di Lahan Pasang Surut di Sumatera Selatan
The big question is how will farmers change to mechanized farming in Tidal Lowlands. At the moment the ministry of Agriculture is promoting a system called UPJA (Unit Pelayanan Jasa Alsintan). This is a private village organization that organizes the equipment and machines for mechanization with the Ministry of Agriculture and takes care for the operation and maintenance of the needed mechanical inputs. Farmers can hire machines for land preparation, harvest and post-harvest management. They can find credit to start the input payments. These organizations could be connected to the other farmers organizations such as the Water Users Associations and the Agicultural Farmers Groups (Kelompok Tani).
This system looks very promising presently and proved to be much better than providing the farmers directly with mechanical equipment. In that case they take little interest in maintenance of the machines as already has been proven frequently.
When there is no possibility for mechanized land preparation by hand-tractor, the farmers will do the land preparation manually. That means land preparation will mainly concentrate on burning and/or slashing the weeds or using herbicides. This land preparation will be carried out with no or only little soil tillage. Planting of seedlings will be done by making a hole with a stick and planting the seedling in the hole.
Allthough this is a sensible way to cultivate the land in the swamps when there is a lack of labor, it has severe negative effects on potentials.
When improved rice varieties can be introduced after the introduction of plowing by hand tractors, many farmers will also prefer a broad-cast system of the seeds to reduce the long time needed for transplanting. AARD recommends also the use of a manually operated row seeder to be more effective for weeding, pest control and harvesting etc., but most farmers still use the broad-cast system in Telang.
For more information about problems with second crop: See the PowerPoint presentation for farming system technology (Should be viewed using Internet Explorer and not Mozilla Firefox)
1) It will become possible for the farmers to change from local varieties to high yielding varieties. Also the cultivation of two rice crops per year might become a possibility
2) The inputs for two crops of rice per year will cause major changes in the physical environment of the Tidal Swamps
To encourage the farmers to cultivate two crops per year, the following conditions are required:
Physical ripening of the soil
Reduced and more efficient labor use during the post-harvest period
An important limitation for the farmers to grow a second crop is the long time it requires to harvest the first crop, do the threshing of the padi, and to dry the husked rice during the wet season.
For the second crop it is also important that there is additional water supply and the land is flooded during land preparation to puddle the soil. In most cases extra water by pump irrigation will be required for the second crop. (The wet season rice crop in most cases does not have that problem, as there is enough water from rainfall and tidal irrigation)
At the moment BULOG have installed for the first time a Rice Mill with post-harvest facilities in Telang I, South Sumatra province. The Ministry of Agriculture build a second Rice Mill now. See Post Harvest investments promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture: DG of Land &Water Management. (Also only good visible using Internet Explorer and not Mozilla Firefox)
A pilot area will be monitored for three years. See for some pictures also : Tidal Lowlands project for Guidelines Development.
(Bulog= Indonesia Logistic Bureau and controlling the rice market in Indonesia)
Land Preparation starts with using herbicides in August to kill the weeds on the land. Wait one month and plow the land in September and wait at least 1 month again until October/November before using the rotator and harrow and start broadcasting the seeds of rice including part of the needed fertilizers.
For the second crop the main limitation is the lack of time to repeat this procedure for two/three months land preparation. This means that the plowed remnants of first crop cause fermentation in the soil that increases temperatures in rootzone of the soil and there will be competion between young rice seedlings and the fermentation process for the applied fertilizers and the young rice seedlings of the second crop will suffer. Yields rarely become higher than 1.5 ton/ha in that case.
This problem could be solved by using quick working herbicides. But also EM4 applications might help solve the fermentation problem such that planting would be possible within 1.5 month after harvesting the first crop. Another possibility that works will be cutting the rice remnants of the first crop until the roots, collect these remnants and ferment them using EM4 at the corner of the field.
For more detailed information collected by the Community Organizers from the successful farmers (with participation of my grandson Xander).
According Webhits you are visitor No. of this web site since 1 January 2003
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Saxon Arch
Saxon archThe Saxon Arch is believed to be the oldest surviving within the City. It stands in the west end of the nave, a reminder of the foundation of the church in the second half of the 7th century.
Roman tiles are set into the arch which is without a keystone and is large for the period, suggesting a larger church building on this site.
The full extent of the arch was revealed in 1940, when the bomb blast which destroyed the medieval church blew down the wall which was covering it. Saxon artefacts, including the base and part of the top of a wheelhead cross fell out of the nave pillars, and can now be seen in the Undercroft Museum.
Return to previous page and continue the tour


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Power showers combine the water from hot and cold supplies to reach the perfect temperature, while using a pump to offer incredible water pressure.
Here, we run through how to install a Mira Event XS thermostatic power shower. Remember that only a qualified professional should attempt power shower installation and you should always ensure that both the plumbing and electricity supplies are shut off before installing a power shower.
The following installation procedure is based on a bottom-entry pipework configuration (rising hot and cold water supplies) and a top-entry electrical supply configuration (via miniature trunking from above). Using this procedure as a guide, adjust the steps for alternative water supply or electrical supply configurations as appropriate.
- Decide on a suitable location for the Mira Event XS, avoiding buried cables and pipes. Leave a minimum distance of 200mm from the ceiling to allow for the fitting and removal of the cover. Ensure that when the hose retaining ring is placed on the lowest position on the slide bar, there is a minimum distance of 25mm between the handset and the bath or shower tray spillover when the handset is hanging down.
- Fit the three rubber feet into the recesses in the case. The feet will reduce the noise transmitted by the power shower through the wall.
- Remove the temperature knob concealing cap.
- Insert the end of the push-fit tool under the temperature control knob, in line with the temperature override button, and lever off the temperature knob.
- Unscrew the three retaining screws sufficiently to remove the shower cover. The cover retaining screws are captive and need not be removed.
- Using a spirit level, position the Mira Event XS on the wall and mark the three fixing points. Ensure the marked fixing points are not in line with buried cables and pipes before drilling.
- Drill 9.5mm holes and fit the rubber wall plugs supplied.
- Cut away and trim the thinned section in the top of the case to allow the electrical supply cable to run down the cable channel in the back of the case.
- Run the electrical supply cable into the surface-mounted miniature trunking (not supplied). Allow sufficient cable to connect to the Mira Event XS terminal block (approximately 275mm). Strip back approximately 30mm of outer cable insulation.
- Run the hot and cold water supply pipes at 28mm centres, ensuring that the pipe ends project into the Mira Event XS by 30mm to allow connection into the inlet manifold.
- Ensure that the end of the supply pipework is cut squarely and that it is free from burrs, which can damage the inlet manifold seals. Chamfer the end of the pipe to assist insertion into the fitting and to prevent the 'O' seal from tearing. Do not insert fingers into the push-fit connectors, as this can result in injury. Thoroughly flush the incoming hot and cold water supply pipes to remove debris before connecting the Mira Extreme shower.
- Push the supply pipework inside the inlet manifold until resistance is felt. Do not force it.
- The collet and 'O' seal will automatically make a hydraulic seal.
- This Mira Event XS must be fixed to the wall at all three fixing positions. The fixing holes are elongated to assist in vertical and horizontal alignment.
- Screw the Mira Event XS T to the wall using either the supplied wall screws or alternative fixings, depending on the wall structure. Do not over-tighten. Ensure that the electrical supply cable is correctly seated in the channel in the back of the case.
- Connect the conductors of the electrical supply cable to the terminal block. The supply cable earth connector should be sleeved.
- Turn the flow spindle fully clockwise so that the flat is facing towards 11 o'clock.
- Turn the flow knob fully clockwise on the cover so that the indicator is pointing to the off position.
- Refit the cover and secure with the three cover retaining screws.
- Refit the temperature control knob and the concealing cap.
Read our full manual for diagrams and instructions on commissioning and operating the shower.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Car maker Audi has introduced a goods-to-person system at its Ingolstadt plant using driverless transport.
It is currently testing the new method with the commissioning of driver's manuals at the plant.
Axel Bley, head of logistics concept development, said: "Autonomous goods conveyance is another pioneering development towards the factory of the future. By means of intelligent connectivity, we achieve additional efficiency and flexibility, while easing the work of our employees."
Audi describes the new warehouse as a "supermarket of the future," because the system knows which parts the commissioners need and provides them with the right goods at the right time.
Driverless transport systems, known as carries, bring the goods to the commissioners autonomously. To do so, they drive under the shelves, lift them up and transport them automatically to a central picking station.
There, symbols on a monitor show the employees which goods they have to put into which place. Unlike the previous person‑to‑goods commissioning, a DTS does not need wide lanes and picking bays, so the shelves can be positioned much closer together. That reduces space requirements by 25 per cent.
A fleet-management system coordinates the carries so that they always arrive at the commissioners' workplaces punctually. This means that the employees never have to wait for their goods – a shelf change at the picking station takes four seconds. The robots receive the order to bring a shelf for commissioning by wi‑fi.
When in motion, they orient themselves by means of QR codes on the floor, which are read by a camera installed under the DTS. The autonomous transport systems move in a separate area from where the employees work.
"All the shelves are mobile, so where they are located is no longer important," said Bley. "With the increasing number of parts, it is enormously important that we can react flexibly."
The autonomous transport systems are equipped with eight rechargeable batteries with a running time of approximately seven hours. When their charge status has fallen to 40 per cent, they automatically return to their charging stations. There, they are recharged for two hours via induction plates in the floor, and then automatically return to work in the transporting shelves. When charged, the robots accelerate to a speed of 3.6 kilometres per hour, irrespective of the weight of the material carried. They can transport a maximum of 600 kilograms.
The commissioning of the owner's manuals for the Audi A3 models is the first task for which the new supermarket concept is being tested. Next year, additional commissioning stations at Audi will take over the goods‑to‑person principle.


Thinking About the Three Minute Summary
Download the DebateUS PF app with the new NSDA times (3 minute Summary, 4 minutes Prep). The app is available on the Apple Store and the Google Play store. Our standard timer also has the traditional times.
As most students have finished competing and many are preparing for camp and thinking about next year, it is important to think about how the NSDA's new three minute "pilot" (many tournaments will adopt) Summary speech will impact debate.
In this brief post I will outline some implications I see for the time change and how it may impact your debates. As of now, these are simply a list of thoughts that are not in any particular order.
I'm also interested in adding any additional relevant thoughts that people have, so please post to the thread if you have anything to add.
The end of games. Many teams won debates by adding a substantial amount of offensive in Rebuttal, particularly the second Rebuttal. Teams would sometimes explicitly read a brief"add-on" content. that just consisted of a link card and an impact card. Sometimes they would be explicit about that fact that it was new and other times they would try to relate it to one of the arguments in the Rebuttal. Other times they would disguise it within their Rebuttal as part of a refutation of another argument.
When teams did this in the second Rebuttal, Summary speakers were very limited in the amount of time they had to answer the argument and debaters in that situation would usually lose, either because they didn't respond adequately to the argument or because their answers there would force them to undercover other positions.
If someone reads an "add-on" contention in the world of the three minute Summary, not only will people have the time to cover it but they could read at least one minute of impact turns. So, for example, imagine a pro Rebuttal speaker makes an argument that the case increases economic growth. Con speakers can now spend a minute reading evidence that says economic growth is bad. If they did this, it would be nearly impossible for the final speaker to cover this.
Rising expectations. Judges expect Summary speakers to cover the Rebuttal to a degree. Lay judges obviously have a low expectation of coverage and judges that are more experience and technical have a greater expectation of coverage. All judges, however, recognize that the Summary speaker can only cover so much in two minutes and are usually somewhat generous in what they allow to be missed. With three minutes, however, debaters will be expected to cover more.
Waiting to kick out of a contention. In order to help with argument coverage most Summary speakers will immediately ditch one of their contentions. Teams that hold the second speaker position, however, may wish to keep both of their original contentions alive in Summary to force the first Final Focus speaker to cover one of the contentions that won't matter in the end (when the last Final Focus speaker only extends one of the contentions.
Greater significance for the first speaker. In the current PF configuration the first speaker reads a 4 minute speech and then does a two minute Summary. Many teams even allow the second speaker to dominate the grand crossfire in order to set up her arguments for final focus. With a three minute speech, the first speaker will have a greater opportunity to both make an impact and to cover more arguments.


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Marketing Made Easy
Anne Ballard Comments
Posted in Articles
As an industry, self-storage has witnessed incredible growth in the last decade. This expansion has necessitated the need for more sophisticated marketing and sales/advertising plans to stay competitive. Without physically and strategically upgrading older, less-sophisticated stores--including marketing methods--these operations find it difficult to compete and keep market share. Even savvy, high-tech locations by first-time developers cannot compete and win without solid marketing programs in place prior to opening.
Large operators spend countless hours planning their marketing activities, hence their (generally) more successful incomes and sales numbers. Every facility, regardless of size, can successfully plan and execute basic marketing strategies. This article discusses the steps needed for successful marketing of today's self-storage operations:
Step 1: Understand the program goal
Step 2: Cover the basics
Step 3: Establish a budget
Step 4: Understand the unique cost per lease and set targets
Step 5: Assess the situation
Step 6: Learn to meet and greet
Step 7: Take action
Step 8: Measure results
Step 9: Compare performance
Step 10: Create awareness
Understand the Program Goal
 - Create total service-area awareness. This means defining on a map, based on traffic flows and boundaries, the store's service or market area. This is sometimes not a 3- or 5-mile ring, but an egg-shaped area due to major thoroughfares or natural boundaries. (Remember the customer perceives a 10-minute travel time convenient.)
 - Create more accurate sourcing and demographic information by gathering specific data and accurately accounting for customers' buying patterns, sources, location, preferences, etc. Use the data to frequently update your marketing programs. This way, you'll be able to create programs and services that have maximum effectiveness.
Cover the Basics
When done correctly, the basics are responsible for the bulk of our rentals. These marketing basics are:
1. The attributes and location of the store
2. The salesmanship of the team or manager
3. Customer service and conveniences
4. Advertising and promotions
5. Friendly and motivated managers
6. A complete set of knowledge
The first thing you must realize is marketing is now a normal manager function and should be discussed in the hiring process. A facility manager or team should understands basic customer-service dynamics and how important the development of awareness and community participation is to the success of the store.
Advertising and marketing expenses are normally 3 percent to 6 percent of income for stabilized stores of average size, and will be needed pre-opening as a cost of start-up. Lack of planning has caused hardships for many managers and owners in the past. Plan adequately for marketing in your annual budget, which should address 16 key areas. These allocations are unique to each store location and market area.
4. Subscriptions to industry publications.
10. Postage. Include adequate postage to complete monthly and mass mailings.
11. Local events/sponsorships. Owners sometimes sponsor local school sports teams as part of their ongoing community participation and goodwill, or participate in community flea markets, carwashes, wine tastings, etc.
12. Referral programs. Referrals are the most sought after of all rentals--their cost is the lowest, they are presold before arriving, and they can account for a significant percentage of each month's rentals.
16. Miscellaneous. A well-thought plan, properly funded and staffed with motivated, knowledgeable employees is the goal. Miscelleanous items will, from time to time, be necessary. Keep these to a minimum and include any reoccurring items in next year's plan.
Establish a Budget
Usually, two six-month plans are easier than an annual plan and allow for updates from the prior period's results. Remember to include a six-month supply of promotional items, printing and postage in each plan. Allow for a nominal amount of "extras" in the budget and then stick to it. In addition, be sure you understand all the costs associated with each action or item, e.g., labor, cost for renting mailing list, etc. I suggest tracking not only what percentage of income is used for advertising and marketing, but also the cost-per-foot expenses. Involve managers in this process and provide them expense feedback.
Understand the Unique Cost Per Lease and Set Targets
Assess the Situation
Summarize your current situation. What are your best traffic sources now? Which programs are most effective? Drive-bys and the Yellow Pages are the two most common sources of prospect traffic. Ask yourself what percentage of your total traffic each source represents. What does each cost, in total and per lease?
Understand your team's effectiveness at converting callers to visits and visits to leases. Know who your best customers are and why, how they found you, and what products or services they like best. Gauge the effectiveness of each marketing program and team member, and define what skills and actions are needed to meet targets you've set for traffic, callers and leases. The resulting conversion numbers may indicate more training or traffic is needed.
Learn to Meet and Greet
Below are the steps for a successful marketing visit, one that allows you to leave customers feeling good about having met and interacted with you. This is the goal of any cold call. If you've made a good impression, you can begin developing a rapport and start to get referrals or direct business. You can accomplish 15 to 20 of these calls in an hour or two. If you are a single store manager without other team members, stop to make one call each day on the way to or from the bank or post office--by the end of the month, you will have visited 20 to 25 new prospects.
1. Prepare for success--have all materials planned and ready ahead of time. The goal is to have a well-groomed person with great attitude visiting a targeted group and distributing a clear message.
2. Before your hand touches the door, put a smile on your face.
3. Take the lead on each call. Go directly to the first person with whom you make eye contact.
5. Timing is everything, so plan who you'll visit (apartment managers, real estate agents, retailers, etc.) and when (time of day and day of week).
6. Make a favorable impression and leave. You should be in and out within a few minutes.
7. Follow up as agreed, then call, mail, visit and repeat on a consistent basis.
Take Action
Measure Results
Compare Performance
Track the results and changes of your traffic sources. I suggest tracking six major areas: drive-bys, Yellow Pages, referrals, repeats, direct marketing and "other," which includes billboards, the Internet, hotlines, ValPak, etc. If you have multiple locations, you'll want to compare results within your group. You'll also want to compare with other industry data. The results will bear out the true effectiveness of each program and the changes made over time.
Create Awareness
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Communicating with Vocal Emotions
Talk by Oleksandr Talavera (Birmingham) as part of the Research Seminar Series of the IOS Economics Department.
This paper explores the interpersonal vocal communication of managers with analysts during earnings conference calls. We apply a novel machine learning technique on a sample of more than 20,000 earnings conference calls of S&P 500 firms to generate voice emotions measures. Focusing on analyst-manager conversations, we find evidence of reciprocal interactions when managers respond with a similar vocal emotion to analysts. We also document that managers, who dialogue with a female analyst, exhibit a more positive vocal response. Moreover, female managers and younger managers are more likely to display negative vocal emotions than their male and older colleagues. Further analysis shows that investors and analysts incorporate emotionally charged information in trading and earnings forecasts.


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Caring for the Souls of Children
 If a young child came to you for counsel, how would you help them? Do children need a different kind of advice than a teenager or an adult? Caring for the Souls of Children's core thesis is that their struggles, desires, and hopes are no different than adults'. Children struggle with the same desires as adults, are lured by the same lies adults fall prey to, and find hope in the same source as adults find hope. The first part of the book explains foundation and methodological issues involved when counseling children. This includes key elements when counseling and an awareness of the stages of childhood development. Part two addresses specific counseling issues that children face. These issues are in relationships, emotions, their bodies, and trauma. Given the nature of the book, it is only possible to briefly address each of these areas. Caring for the Soul's of Children is an excellent starting point to address the issues children face and how to counsel them biblically


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Several commonly used matrix transformation routines are provided. You can set up a two-dimensional orthographic viewing region with gluOrtho2D(), a perspective viewing volume using gluPerspective(), or a viewing volume that's centered on a specified eyepoint with gluLookAt(). Each of these routines creates the desired matrix and applies it to the current matrix using glMultMatrix().
The gluPickMatrix() routine simplifies selection by creating a matrix that restricts drawing to a small region of the viewport. If you rerender the scene in selection mode after this matrix has been applied, all objects that would be drawn near the cursor will be selected and information about them stored in the selection buffer. See "Performing Selection and Feedback" earlier in this chapter for more information about selection mode.
If you need to determine where in the window an object is being drawn, use gluProject(), which converts specified coordinates from object coordinates to window coordinates; gluUnProject() performs the inverse conversion.
The polygon tessellation routines triangulate a concave polygon with one or more contours. To use this GLU feature, first create a tessellation object with gluNewTess(), and define callback routines that will be used to process the triangles generated by the tessellator (with gluTessCallBack()). Then use gluBeginPolygon(), gluTessVertex(), gluNextContour(), and gluEndPolygon() to specify the concave polygon to be tessellated. Unneeded tessellation objects can be destroyed with gluDeleteTess().
You can render spheres, cylinders, and disks using the GLU quadric routines. To do this, create a quadric object with gluNewQuadric(). (To destroy this object when you're finished with it, use gluDeleteQuadric().) Then specify the desired rendering style, as listed below, with the appropriate routine (unless you're satisfied with the default values):
Whether surface normals should be generated, and if so, whether there should be one normal per vertex or one normal per face: gluQuadricNormals()
Whether texture coodinates should be generated: gluQuadricTexture()
Which side of the quadric should be considered the outside and which the inside: gluQuadricOrientation()
Whether the quadric should be drawn as a set of polygons, lines, or points: gluQuadricDrawStyle()
After you've specified the rendering style, simply invoke the rendering routine for the desired type of quadric object: gluSphere(), gluCylinder(), gluDisk(), or gluPartialDisk(). If an error occurs during rendering, the error-handling routine you've specified with gluQuadricCallBack() is invoked.
NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline) curves and surfaces are converted to OpenGL evaluators by the routines described in this section. You can create and delete a NURBS object with gluNewNurbsRenderer() and gluDeleteNurbsRenderer(), and establish an error-handling routine with gluNurbsCallback().
You specify the desired curves and surfaces with different sets of routines—gluBeginCurve(), gluNurbsCurve(), and gluEndCurve() for curves or gluBeginSurface(), gluNurbsSurface(), and gluEndSurface() for surfaces. You can also specify a trimming region, which defines a subset of the NURBS surface domain to be evaluated, thereby allowing you to create surfaces that have smooth boundaries or that contain holes. The trimming routines are gluBeginTrim(), gluPwlCurve(), gluNurbsCurve(), and gluEndTrim().
As with quadric objects, you can control how NURBS curves and surfaces are rendered:
Whether a curve or surface should be discarded if its control polyhedron lies outside the current viewport
What the maximum length should be (in pixels) of edges of polygons used to render curves and surfaces
Whether the projection matrix, modelview matrix, and viewport should be taken from the OpenGL server or whether you'll supply them explictly with gluLoadSamplingMatrices()
Use gluNurbsProperty() to set these properties, or use the default values. You can query a NURBS object about its rendering style with gluGetNurbsProperty().
The routine gluErrorString() is provided for retrieving an error string that corresponds to an OpenGL or GLU error code. The currently defined OpenGL error codes are described in the glGetError() reference page. The GLU error codes are listed in the gluErrorString(), gluTessCallback(), gluQuadricCallback(), and gluNurbsCallback() reference pages. Errors generated by GLX routines are listed in the relevant reference pages for those routines.
In the X Window System, OpenGL rendering is made available as an extension to X in the formal X sense: connection and authentication are accomplished with the normal X mechanisms. As with other X extensions, there is a defined network protocol for OpenGL's rendering commands encapsulated within the X byte stream. Since performance is critical in three-dimensional rendering, the OpenGL extension to X allows OpenGL to bypass the X server's involvement in data encoding, copying, and interpretation and instead render directly to the graphics pipeline.
This section briefly discusses the routines defined as part of GLX; these routines have the prefix glX. You'll need to have some knowledge of X in order to fully understand the following and to use GLX successfully.
Use glXQueryExtension() and glXQueryVersion() to determine whether the GLX extension is defined for an X server, and if so, which version is bound in the server. The glXChooseVisual() routine returns a pointer to an XVisualInfo structure describing the visual that best meets the client's specified attributes. You can query a visual about its support of a particular OpenGL attribute with glXGetConfig().
Several GLX routines are provided for creating and managing an OpenGL rendering context. You can use such a context to render off-screen if you want. Routines are also provided for such tasks as synchronizing execution between the X and OpenGL streams, swapping front and back buffers, and using an X font.
An OpenGL rendering context is created with glXCreateContext(). One of the arguments to this routine allows you to request a direct rendering context that bypasses the X server as described above. (Note that in order to do direct rendering, the X server connection must be local and the OpenGL implementation needs to support direct rendering.) You can determine whether a GLX context is direct with glXIsDirect().
To make a rendering context current, use glXMakeCurrent(); glXGetCurrentContext() returns the current context. (You can also obtain the current drawable with glXGetCurrentDrawable().) Remember that only one context can be current for any thread at any one time. If you have multiple contexts, you can copy selected groups of OpenGL state variables from one context to another with glXCopyContext(). When you're finished with a particular context, destroy it with glXDestroyContext().
To render off-screen, first create an X Pixmap and then pass this as an argument to glXCreateGLXPixmap(). Once rendering is completed, you can destroy the association between the X and GLX Pixmaps with glXDestroyGLXPixmap(). (Off-screen rendering isn't guaranteed to be supported for direct renderers.)
To prevent X requests from executing until any outstanding OpenGL rendering is completed, call glXWaitGL(). Then, any previously issued OpenGL commands are guaranteed to be executed before any X rendering calls made after glXWaitGL(). Although the same result can be achieved with glFinish(), glXWaitGL() doesn't require a round trip to the server and thus is more efficient in cases where the client and server are on separate machines.
To prevent an OpenGL command sequence from executing until any outstanding X requests are completed, use glXWaitX(). This routine guarantees that previously issued X rendering calls will be executed before any OpenGL calls made after glXWaitX().
For drawables that are double-buffered, the front and back buffers can be exchanged by calling glXSwapBuffers(). An implicit glFlush() is done as part of this routine.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text: PURPOSE: Asthmatics have unique characteristics that may influence cardiovascular morbidity. We tested the association of lower airway caliber, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and other asthma-related factors, with systemic hypertension (HTN). METHODS: Asthma individuals at specialty clinics completed the Sleep Apnea scale of the Sleep Disorders Questionnaire (SA-SDQ). Medical records were reviewed for diagnosed HTN, OSA and comorbidities, spirometry, and current medications. FEV1% predicted was categorized as ≥ 80 (reference), 70-79, 60-69, and < 60. SA-SDQ ≥ 36 for men and ≥ 32 for women defined high OSA risk. RESULTS: Among 812 asthmatics (mean age ± standard deviation: 46 ± 14 years), HTN was diagnosed in 191 (24%), OSA in 65 (8%), and OSA or high OSA risk (combined OSA variable) in 239 (29%). HTN was more prevalent in lower FEV1% categories (p < 0.0001), in subjects with OSA, and those with combined OSA variable (55 vs. 21% and 46 vs. 14%, respectively, both p < 0.0001). With adjustment for covariates, associations with HTN remained significant for some FEV1% categories (70-79% odds ratio = 1.60 [95% CI 0.90-2.87]; 60-69% 2.73 [1.28-5.79]; < 60% 0.96 [0.43-2.14]), and for OSA (2.20 [1.16-4.19]). The combined OSA variable in comparison with OSA alone demonstrated a stronger association with HTN (3.17 [1.99-5.04]) in a reiteration of this model. Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) at lowest doses, in comparison to no ICS use had an independent 'protective' association with HTN (0.44 [0.22-0.90]). CONCLUSIONS: In this young population, worse lower airways obstruction and OSA were associated with HTN. In contrast, lower ICS doses attenuated likelihood for HTN. Adequate control of airway inflammation at appropriate ICS doses, and screening for OSA may reduce the burden of HTN in asthma.


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Main Article Content
Ontologies and automated reasoning are the building blocks of the Semantic Web initiative. Derivation rules can be included in an ontology to define derived concepts, based on base concepts. For example, rules allow to define the extension of a class or property, based on a complex relation between the extensions of the same or other classes and properties. On the other hand, the inclusion of negative information both in the form of negation-as-failure and explicit negative information is also needed to enable various forms of reasoning. In this paper, we extend RDF graphs with weak and strong negation, as well as derivation rules. The ERDF stable model semantics of the extended framework (Extended RDF) is defined, extending RDF(S) semantics. A distinctive feature of our theory, which is based on Partial Logic, is that both truth and falsity extensions of properties and classes are considered, allowing for truth value gaps. Our framework supports both closed-world and open-world reasoning through the explicit representation of the particular closed-world assumptions and the ERDF ontological categories of total properties and total classes.


Tsushima is set during the 13th century, and its protagonist Jin Sakai is the head of a samurai clan that's fallen on hard times. The Mongol Empire invades his family's lands, taking complete control of the island of Tsushima. Sakai, his uncle, and an unlikely gang of allies band together in order to take back their lands. Ghost of Tsushima depicts a samurai clan on the cusp of being reborn into a beautiful world full of untold potential.
Sekiro takes place much later, during the Sengoku period. Rather than a rebirth, Sekiro depicts a decline. The Ashina people lost control of their lands in the past, and have been subjugated for quite some time. Eventually, they clawed their way back and took control of their lands again. But by then, it was too late. The warring states period had turned the land of Ashina into a slaughterhouse, filled with nothing but death and those who would forsake their values in order to achieve victory.
Jin Sakai and Genichiro Ashina both stand in the gap, determined to preserve their lands at all costs. Sakai indulges in assassinations and befriends thieves to get his results, much to the disappointment of his samurai uncle. A similar disappointment to his grandfather, Genichiro pursues dark arts, allies with the corrupt, and seeks immortality in order to gain the power to restore his lands.
But Genichiro isn't the main character of Sekiro. Wolf is. And Wolf is only loyal to the Iron Code, which demands that he protect his master, Lord Kuro, the Divine Heir. As it happens, Wolf's goal is mutually exclusive with Genichiro's, which leads to some of the game's most bitter battles.
If Sekiro were Ghost of Tsushima, Wolf would be the villain, most likely, rather than a hero. In Sekiro, he makes for a grim protector.
These games depict two different fantasies about the samurai: rebirth and decline.
Ghost of Tsushima is big on exploration, achievement, and restoring a community. While Sekiro is focused mainly around melee combat, leading to several intensely memorable one-on-one encounters. As you progress in Tsushima, the lands around you become more beautiful as the people reclaim their land.
Pleasure is common in Ghost of Tsushima. Even though it's a very dramatic game, the visuals and story both emphasize that Tsushima is a beautiful island populated by a beleaguered but industrious and kind people. You can take baths in hot springs and reflect on recent events, or feel so inspired that you pause to write a haiku.
Pleasure is much less common in Sekiro. Sharing sake with certain characters is one of the primary ways to gain info about the story, and those characters do tend to enjoy themselves as they reminisce about their lives. The different varieties of sake are described in glowing and unique terms as well, but Wolf himself doesn't seem to take any pleasure in sharing a cup.
Almost everyone in Sekiro, Wolf included, is focused on their duty or their selfish desires at the expense of everything else. As Sekiro progresses, Wolf only ever becomes a more efficient killing machine.
There are two subtle touches in both games that perfectly encapsulate what they're about to me.
I think of Ghost of Tsushima as a deeply romantic game, in a classic, adventure sense, It has an idealized depiction of the samurai—kinda like a samurai version of copaganda, I guess—and life in that time period in Japan.
The game is stunningly beautiful, like an enormous temple covered in red and gold. Jin Sakai knows and appreciates this throughout the game, such as when you're traveling through a field of pampas grass and he reaches out one hand to let his fingers run through it, enjoying the sensation.
Sekiro, on the other hand, is a deeply passionate game to me. Wolf has spent his entire life ignoring pleasure for the sake of duty. But, late in the game, his lord gives him a sweet sticky rice ball. When Wolf bites into it, he's surprised at how good it tastes. He describes it as delicious, one of the few times Wolf seems to be enjoying himself during the game.
Lord Kuro is pleased by his response, and shares a story about how he'd like to open a tea house some day. He's prevented from fulfilling his dream because as the Divine Heir, he is responsible for more than just himself. Similarly, Wolf is his protector, and must remain focused on his lord. There is little space for pleasure in the midst of duty.
Ghost of Tsushima is a romance, and that's reflected in the visuals, the gameplay, and even the way Jin Sakai lives and moves around the island of Tsushima. He's very comfortable here. He's at home, and the love he has is obvious and ever-present.
Sekiro is more of a passion play. You visit incredible locales, you fight a diverse group of enemies, and the game is truly beautiful, with exquisite animation and exciting combat. But the game is fundamentally about Wolf suffering while serving his lord. He's here to kill, be killed, and to rise again to kill for his lord.
david brothers, 9/6/2020
This is the second one of these I've done, closing out what I've got to say about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The first was called SEKIRO: in the blood, charting my emotional arc with the game. I've also got an irregular newsletter on TinyLetter called (me+you). If you'd rather read some fiction, check out some criticism, or download these videos, visit my Gumroad. I've done a few limited-run podcasts too, under the Brothers Before Others umbrella.
SEKIRO: in the blood
The closest thing I've felt to agony in video games is when I first played Sekiro, from From Software.
The game is very difficult. It demands a lot of you. This fight, where Wolf, your player character battles Genichiro Ashina, was the first big road block I hit when playing the game. I must've bounced off him easily forty times before I finally got a lucky break and beat him. It took me a while to learn to see his moves, and even longer to learn how to react to them. Most of my runs ended like this.
SEKIRO: in the blood
david brothers
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
"Are You Washed in the Blood?"
Elisha A. Hoffman, 1878
Pain is central to Christian doctrine. The cross has grown to be the dominant symbol of the religion, but the Blood of Christ is what gives the cross its power. The cross was just a tool for His sacrifice.
As a child, I was taught that the wages of sin are death, but the blood of Christ washes you clean.
Agony is a prerequisite for salvation.
Pain and agony are two related, but different, things to me. Pain is just stimulus, it's value-neutral. It's not good or bad. It's just an indication that you are at risk, a self-preservation response.
Agony is pain that is directed or allocated. Enhanced maybe. Pain with a purpose. You can see what I mean in monks who self-flagellate to mortify their flesh in order to push their souls closer to godliness.
But maybe that's an extreme example. I don't rightly know. But I do know "No pain, no gain" and "Nothing worth doing is ever easy."
I think of people who push themselves toward excellence by forsaking everything but their goal. That lack in their lives, that sacrifice, seems agonizing to me. The idea of looking away from love.
The feeling of pushing yourself harder than you ever have before and still failing is also agonizing. So, agony is a little broadly defined, maybe, but it's consistent for me.
Sekiro has been one of my pandemic games. The blues have been brutal this year, and falling into this game and absorbing the pain it brings with it, accepting the agony of trying and failing until I finally manage to succeed, that has felt amazing.
I've been stressing over a million things over the past few months, just like anybody else. I spend a lot of time sitting, or staring at a ceiling or wall while I process. But when I'm controlling Wolf and looking for the right opening, that split-second between swings when I can turn the fight in my favor, I feel more free. The only thing that exists in that moment is the goal, and the pain that is going to get me there.
Sekiro has a very satisfying gameplay loop. You find a wall, and it bars your way until you learn how to clear it. Learning how to clear it takes so much physical time and emotional energy that finally making it happen feels great—it feels euphoric. It's as if the agony reversed direction.
The agony of Sekiro was good for the blues. It gave me an emotional release that was sorely lacking while I shelter alone here, and a way to get some distance from my anxieties. It makes weathering the fears and worries brought on by this pandemic a little easier. And it keeps me from spending all my time on just the sad end of the emotional spectrum.
In the moment, when I'm trading blows with the boss and trying to fight my way to the deathblow, it kinda feels like meditation. The


Degrees of Separation
Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism
Schneur Zalman Newfield
Book Cover
PB: $34.95
EAN: 978-1-4399-1896-8
Publication: Apr 20
HC: $99.50
EAN: 978-1-4399-1895-1
Publication: Apr 20
Ebook: $34.95
EAN: 978-1-4399-1897-5
Publication: Apr 20
228 pages
6 x 9
How exiting ultra-Orthodox Judaism is not a single act of defiance, but an interactive process that extends for years after leaving
Read a blog entry by the author
Read an excerpt from Chapter 1 (pdf).
Those who exit a religion—particularly one they were born and raised in—often find themselves at sea in their efforts to transition to life beyond their community. In Degrees of Separation, Schneur Zalman Newfield, who went through this process himself, interviews seventy-four Lubavitch and Satmar ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews who left their communities. He presents their motivations for leaving as well as how they make sense of their experiences and their processes of exiting, detailing their attitudes and opinions regarding their religious upbringing. Newfield also examines how these exiters forge new ways of being that their upbringing had not prepared them for, while also considering what these particular individuals lose and retain in the exit process.
Degrees of Separation presents a comprehensive portrait of the prolonged state of being "in-between" that characterizes transition out of a totalizing worldview. What Newfield discovers is that exiters experience both a sense of independence and a persistent connection; they are not completely dislocated from their roots once they "arrive" at their new destination. Moreover, Degrees of Separation shows that this process of transitioning identity has implications beyond religion.
"At its most compelling, Degrees of Separation offers numerous inside(r) portraits of the emotional cost of exiting.... Degrees of Separation should be received as a significant contribution to the emergent field of OTD studies. (off the derech, or path, way) In light of the current vogue of memoirs, novels, film, and television shows by and about the so-called formerly Orthodox, Newfield cautions against partial or breezy generalizations; his intervention highlights the limits of our current understanding of what 'going OTD' represents in its religious, sociological, and psychological dimensions."
—Contemporary Jewry
"Degrees of Separation offers a fresh perspective on…following those who have chosen to exit Hasidic communities…. The book takes readers on a generally convincing journey into how exiters become something new while never fully separating from the people they used to be…. Degrees of Separation is a welcome addition to a nascent body of literature looking into Jewish ultra-Orthodox life from the vantage point of its restless, unruly, and permeable social margins."
—American Journal of Sociology
"(T)his book is an important contribution to the field and is ideal for graduate or advanced undergraduate courses in the sociology of religion or social psychology. It is an interesting read, the writing is accessible and relatively jargon free, and Newfield allows the data to do most of the talking. Moreover, as an exiter himself, Newfield writes in an engaging, empathic way that does not exoticize the Ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community. Overall, this book will make a great addition to the library of anyone interested in religious exit, identity transformation, and the social construction of reality."
Symbolic Interaction
" Newfield's book on the exiting of Ultra-Orthodox Jews from their communities is a welcome addition to the sparse literature on this topic.... The book is informed by sociological theory and concepts and describes the historical context of these two Hasidic movements.... The book is well conceptualized and contains rich examples of the reported experiences of exiters."
—American Jewish History
" Newfield's book offers a deep, descriptive accounting of the experiences of exiters from ultra-Orthodox Judaism. In so doing, it contributes substantial insight into ultra-Orthodox communities. It also provides clear evidence of liminality in the lives of ultra-Orthodox exiters, as they navigate between their worlds of origin and their new communities."
—Contemporary Sociology
"(Newfield) builds on interviews with 74 men and women from the Chabad and Satmar Hasidic communities to focus on the 'exit process' they underwent.... Sociologists will appreciate how much Newfield employs from sociological theory, especially the concepts of liminality and hybridity, and how he compares exiting Hasidism to exits from other 'total institutions,' such as convents, prisons, and totalitarian countries.... (N)o scholar of "exiting" should ignore Newfield.... Summing Up: Recommended."
"(An) excellent analysis of exiting from ultra-Orthodoxy.... (T)his is a most opportune book.... (Newfield) is to be congratulated on this exemplary work of scholarship and also on his contribution to public sociology."
Social Forces
"(A)n important scholarly work precisely because of popular interest in sensationalist stories of departure (liberation!) proffered in books and films."
"Degrees of Separation is an original and imaginative investigation of the character and consequences of exiting closed and closely knit religious communities. On the basis of extensive interviews and observation of two Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in New York—Lubavitch and Satmar—Newfield examines the experiences and consequences of exiting. He rejects the taken-for-granted assumption that exit can be clean and decisive and hence prefers to talk about 'exiting.' Like whistleblowers, exiting individuals are typically subject to symbolic attacks and are often regarded as psychologically unstable by the community. Exiting can never be complete, because individuals have deeply ingrained habits acquired from early socialization in the community. Degrees of Separation is not simply a study of religious communities; it offers important insights into membership of and exit from any community or 'total institution.'" —Bryan S. Turner, Presidential Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and author of The Religious and the Political: A Comparative Sociology of Religion
"Degrees of Separation is a nuanced, sensitive book about 'exiters'—those who leave their Hasidic communities of origin—for all kinds of reasons. Newfield's account moves beyond a simple binarism, that of staying or going; instead he foregrounds the complicated ways that exiters experience long-term liminality, simultaneously attached to and independent of the totalizing communities in which they grew up. Newfield has written an accessible, fascinating book sure to be of great interest to a wide audience—a real accomplishment.—Ayala Fader, Professor of Anthropology at Fordham University and author of Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age
"Newfield treats both his subjects and their former communities with fairness and empathy. He presents the world of these exiters as they see and experience it, with admirable clarity and honesty. Degrees of Separation is truly an excellent book. It follows the gaze of Newfield's subjects back at their former communities. But it's the complexities of the hybrid lives they are living now that are the real and enduring revelations here."
"This is a fascinating book in which Newfield attempts to understand why people leave (Ultra-Orthodox Judaism). The complexities of life and religious experience are such that there is not a single answer. However, a common thread is that many exiters had deep questions that were either not answered or minimized.... What parents and educators can learn from this book is that sophisticated questions must have an equally sophisticated response."
Jewish Link
" Newfield has made a significant contribution to the body of social scientific analysis of contemporary Hasidism through his book.... There are a number of key findings.... Beyond shedding considerable light on the specific phenomenon of those who choose to leave Hasidic communities, the book also offers the reader important insights into the communities they have left.... (T)his book goes a long way towards filling a significant gap in our knowledge of communities whose increasing presence and importance make them well worth knowing on a more than superficial basis."
Ethnic and Racial Studies
Table of Contents
1. You Can Check Out, but You Can Never Leave
2. Permeable Boundaries
3. Exit Narratives
4. Habits of Action and Habits of Thought
5. Strategies for Managing Liminality
Appendix A: Three Structural Factors That Enable Exiting
Appendix B: Demographics and Method of Study
Appendix C: Interview Protocols
About the Author(s)
Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences, Human Services, and Criminal Justice at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. Visit him online at


Christianity and Literary Torture Scenes
I am a Christian, as I stated before in my sister blog post: Christianity and Literary Sex Scenes. I was raised to believe in doing what is right, and to distinguish that which is right from wrong. I do not condone the torture of any living persons or animals of any kind. With that being said, I want to make you aware that as an author, you are essentially the Creator of your world. As the Creator, you have a say in what goes into your universe. You can choose to not have violence or torture of any kind, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, in my world, The Vincent Series, there is a great evil and lesser evils that live throughout. Vincent and Jeebs often face these evils, and eventually, torture does come into play.
There are two reasons why I write torture scenes.
1. When a character is tortured, they are brought down to a very venerable level. There is a saying that comes to mind, you cannot experience the highest of highs if you do not experience the lowest of lows. When a character is venerable, you can reveal their true nature.
2. After their true nature is revealed the reader can experience how the character overcomes such a difficult time in his or her life.
People relate to sadness, but overall they want to know that they can triumph over that sadness. If a character can overcome that horrific event. If they can still grow and succeed in living a happy life, then maybe we can overcome our own worldly problems.
This leaves the question: How can I as a Christian write a torture scene and not feel guilty?
The best scenes are the scenes that are left to the reader's imagination. When I was in college, I wrote a Short Film script called Enthusiastic Intern. The script involved two characters, one a female, the other a male. The male was a student who recently passed his CPR/ Rescuer training and was enthusiastic to use his skills. He grew impatient and decided to spread skittles and marbles on a jogging path in order to treat those who had fallen.
During the middle of the short film, a woman trips and he goes to her aid. Underneath his normal clothes, he is wearing a full set of scrubs and goes to work on the woman's sprained ankle. She doesn't want his help, but he insists by quoting from the medical manual. "If a patient is unconscious, then the caretaker can provide medical assistance under the Complied Consent Rule." He proceeds to knock the woman out with the rulebook and she falls off-screen.
The next shot consisted of just the "Doctor's" upper half with the woman just out of shot underneath him. The man then begins to pull out saws, hammers, medical supplies, a straitjacket, etc. In the end, the woman looks very comically wrapped in gauze, and a variety of bandages, including the straitjacket. The point is, I did not show the woman, I left it up to the reader's imagination to fill-in-the-blanks. These techniques also apply to Literary Torture Scenes.
This next part contains SPOILERS
(In Vincent the Quest for light, Vincent James Aralias, a 100-year-old vampire, perpetually stuck in his 30s searches for the cure to walk in the daylight. He returns to his home and finds that he cannot keep the truth from Rodolfo, Leader of the South American Vampire Clan (Quetzalcoatl). Vincent doesn't want the gift to walk in the light to fall into the wrong hands so he lies about having it, and that costs him his freedom.)
Below I am going to give you two examples of torture scenes, one implied and the other a little more written:
Implied Scene:
There were never less than three vampires monitoring me at all times. They traded shifts keeping me awake and constantly prodded me for answers. Rodolfo was smart. He already knew that I was no longer just a vampire, but he needed proof. I found out a few things about myself during those long weeks. I learned that I had a great resolve for torture. I also came to the understanding that the ingestion of dead coagulated blood mixed with an injected dose of silver nitrate made me very ill. It was only by the end of the fourth, or maybe the fifth week, that I was beginning to think that no matter what they did. No matter how much I wished it all to end. I couldn't die.
Rodolfo's frustrations only made it worse. He instructed his guards to hold me down and pry open my mouth. My fangs rejected their action but they were useless and I was too weak to fight them. Rodolfo asked me his barrage of questions one last time. "What really happened in Tibet? Were you successful in obtaining the light cure? Are you a Talduel?"
I pulled against my restraints. I had stopped talking altogether two or three days ago. Rodolfo was not amused. The vampire behind me pulled my head back and pried open my mouth with some type of metal crank. I had seen a similar device used at a dentist office. I couldn't remember the name, but it sure did as it was designed to do.
I couldn't shut my mouth. Rodolfo poured three cups full of dead blood down my throat. It was thick. I felt the need to purge my stomach. The guard removed the metal crank and gagged my mouth preventing me from doing so. The room was spinning as the blood worked its toxic magic. Rodolfo's voice burned my ears and the light overhead stung my eyes. I viewed the world through a blurred haze for the next few days.
I implied the long hall of the torture, as you can see above. This allowed the story to move forward where my character as in a venerable state without adding too much horrific detail. Rodolfo wants information, and Vincent won't give it to him. Essentially, this is a push and pull type of scene. This is where Vincent is weakened but not broken fully. That is why later in the book I followed up with a more in-depth torture scene. However, you could have your character break with just an in-plied method. Unfortunately, my book called for more, and because I was open the needs of my character and the plot I didn't feel guilty writing the deeper scenes.
More in-depth torture scene:
The door was left open only to allow Rodolfo admittance. He held a staff in one hand and walked halfway to me. "So, it is true." He remarked. "You bear the light cure."
I kept quiet.
"How did you accomplish this?"
I watched him and the metal staff in his hand.
He snickered at his thought. "How did a spoiled brat like you get such power?"
I spat the remaining blood from my mouth and shifted my weight trying to anticipate his next move.
"No matter." He stepped to one side walking only a few feet from me. I cursed that he was just out of reach. "The point is." He swung his staff high bringing it down on my back.
"Ah!" I fell to the floor. My back popped and a few of my ribs cracked. I coughed and slowly got back to my knees as one of my ribs snapped back into place. An odd sensation crawled over my skin but I ignored it.
"You lied to us." He continued and brought the bar back down on me again. I grunted against the incredible blow. "You lied to your family." I tried to get back to my knees. I was barely able to lift my shoulders when he struck me again. "You swore an oath to your Clan." He walked around me and hit my back a fourth time. "And you failed them." Then a fifth.
My broken bones began to mend themselves back into place. It was a slow grueling process. My heart raced and skipped as my ribs shattered and reformed. I then noted a new sensation. My skin was crawling again just under the surface. It was spreading throughout my body. My skin was burning and my blood was boiling. I couldn't move. Rodolfo was behind me and brought the bar around to the front of my neck. He pulled back on my throat, crushing my vocal cords.
He continued to pull until I could see him over me. My spine was bent unnaturally backward compressing my bones. My arms were still bound preventing me from reaching the bar at my throat. My lower back was broken and I could not move my legs. Rodolfo leaned over me grinding the bar until I bit my tongue. Breathing was near impossible. He wanted me to see his face and pressed harder if I shut my eyes. He commanded me to open them and I obeyed.
I used dialogue to break up the different acts of pain. The dialogue in itself can be used to humble your characters as well as break up lengthy action scenes. When I wrote this scene it was a little different than the implied scene. I actually had two different characters with two different motives. Rodolfo is a traditional vampire and Vincent upset his beliefs. So, not only did Rodolfo want answers from Vincent, he also wanted to let him know that this was personal. The scene goes a little more in-depth, but I don't want to spoil the book for you. Rodolfo was essentially scared of change and Vincent represented the biggest change of them all. He brings Vincent to his breaking point and that fuels the desires, or lack of desires, in Vincent leading into book two.
Writing a scene whether it consists of Sex, Torture or other immoral acts should only be placed in a book if it


text:
Focus on Argynnis niobe in the dunes of North HollandMichiel Wallis de Vries (De Vlinderstichting)
The Niobe Fritillary (Argynnis niobe) has shown an alarming decline since 1997; it is now an endangered species in the Netherlands. As the coastal dunes constitute the species' stronghold, we carried out a survey of the species distribution in the dunes of Kennemerland with the help of volunteers. The Niobe Fritillary was found in 42 out of 107 km squares investigated. Distribution has shrunk by more than 50% in the last two decades, and the survey suggests that the decline is continuing. More research is needed on host plant use in these calcareous dunes. It is clear, however, that the main cause of decline lies in the vast encroachment of tall grasses and scrub, especially Black Cherry (Prunus serotina), facilitated by low rabbit numbers. Extreme drought, such as in 2003, presents an additional threat. In several areas, restoration measures are being taken. Nectar and host plants will benefit from scrub clearance and creation of a more open vegetation. Hopefully, our monitoring schemes will reveal a recovery of this endangered butterfly in the coming years!
Laatste wijziging: 27 oktober 2009


text:
Lumber from Antimary forest ready for transport.
Credit: Mario Osava/IPS
Making a Living from Lumber Without Destroying the Amazon
By Mario Osava
Forest management helped multiply 20-fold the value of native forests in the Brazilian Amazon state of Acre. But how do those who dedicate themselves to sustainable extraction of Amazon lumber get by?
RIO BRANCO, Brazil, Oct 18 (Tierramérica).- The Zolinger family, typical example of those who migrated from southern Brazil to the Amazon in search of land and fortune, now has a second chance in the lumber industry, after contributing to the devastation of the forests in Rondônia state, where they settled in 1979.
"We have worked here for at least 15 years," said Sergio Zolinger, 39, with 23 spent in the forest. He was referring to the State Forest of Antimary, in the northwestern state of Acre, where logging since 2005 has been done under a certification process.
The lumber taken from that forest is considered sustainably produced.
Before, in the neighboring state of Rondônia, the landowners "gave us just a year to remove the timber" from their vast tracts of land, because they wanted them cleared quickly in order to use it for livestock or farming, he told Tierramérica.
Some landowners thought the lumber prices were too low, "so they preferred to burn the whole forest," and destroyed even the mahogany and other commercially valuable trees, he said. Mahogany, which is an endangered species as a result of excessive logging, is now banned for extraction. Other tree species have also disappeared from the legal market.
That waste through burning forced loggers to seek commercially valuable wood in increasingly far-flung areas, said Zolinger. Now, more than 1,300 km west of his home in Vilhena, in the far east of Rondônia, he and his father and older brother are participating in a novel experiment in Acre.
Antimary, officially designated an area of conservation and sustainable use in 1997, is a pioneer in the controlled harvest of its resources, including non-timber, such as cashew nuts, natural latex and various seeds. It was far ahead of the 2006 Forestry Concessions Law, and it wasn't until 2008 that it began to generate the first contracts for up to 40 years.
The Zolinger family business won a contract to extract timber according to a management plan for a 47,000-hectare forest, under management by the Acre State Forestry Secretariat. This year they can cut down trees that have been precisely identified across as much as 4,000 hectares.
The Zolingers had the same limit for 2009, but only covered a little more than half because their team is just 12 people, in addition to the three bosses, who also work hard. Furthermore, the rainy season extended until early June, and they could only begin work in May.
The work is limited to the Amazon "summer" -- the four or five months with least rainfall. Any amount of precipitation can make it difficult to transport the heavy tree trunks along the slippery and hilly dirt roads.
A detailed map of the forest identifies by number the commercial tree species and appropriate sizes. But trees cannot be taken if they are located in the "blue band," a strip 30 meters wide along rivers and streams that is set aside for permanent conservation, explained the father, Oscar Zolinger, 67, the one responsible for getting his family involved in the lumber trade.
That protected strip could be cut in half if a bill to revise the Forestry Code is successful in Congress. The Brazilian environmental movement strongly opposes such a move.
The measure would boost the amount of lumber extracted from the Antimary forest by 25 percent because it would allow felling "more trees, even the taller ones and those of best quality," said "Chico" Zolinger, the eldest son. He estimates that the actual forest yield is seven to eight cubic meters of lumber per hectare, and reaches 10 cubic meters in the best areas.
The "suaúma" (Ceiba pentandra, or kapok) is a huge, fast-growing tree with white wood. It is the most harvested tree in Antimary, where previously ignored trees are also logged, because now they have a market, due to the shortage of "more noble" species, said Chico Zolinger.
Management plans also require preservation of large trees in order to ensure strong genetic transmission to future generations of the species. Nevertheless, there are forestry experts who are skeptical about sustainable management in the long term, due to the genetic deterioration that results from logging the best trees in each area.
Antimary is a "unique experience" in Brazil because it is managed by the community -- "in an unburdensome way" -- not by a lumber company, and the profits from lumber sales are divided among the 56 resident families, explained Carlos Duarte, the state forest secretary, known here by the nickname "Resende," his hometown.
Raimundo Tavares da Silva, 34, has been living in the forest six years, and is one of the beneficiaries, along with his wife and two young children, as members of one of the three associations. Last year he earned 3,200 reais (1,850 dollars), and this year already received the first part of 2,172 reais (1,280 dollars).
In addition, each family is given 100 hectares of forest where they can harvest nuts, other fruits and latex, and have permission to deforest up to 20 percent of the area, at a rate of one hectare per year, in order to farm or tend up to 30 head of cattle, he explained.
There are also schools for the local children. And the lumber extraction led to the construction of a 30-km road. Although it turns into mud when it rains, it allows residents to reach the paved BR-364 highway. "It used to take nine days to reach the nearest city" by foot, said Silva.
In Acre state, "there are no private forestry concessions," noted Resende. The idea is to extend the Antimary experience to the three other existing state forests, and to two more to be designated as state forests. It requires training the residents and helping them overcome food insecurity ahead of time so that they don't continue deforesting the area.
Eighty-eight percent of Acre's forests are preserved, and the state will plant more native and productive species, like rubber trees, nut trees and açaí trees, which produce a fruit now in high demand, announced the official.
Forest management has helped multiply the value of Acre's native forests by a factor of 20, which 12 years ago was just 35 reais (20.5 dollars) per hectare. And this is important for preventing deforestation, concluded Resende.
* IPS correspondent.


text: With the advancement of photo editing software, digital documents can easily be altered, which causes some legal issues. This paper proposes an image authentication method, which determines whether an image is authentic. Unlike many existing methods that only work with images in the JPEG format, the proposed method is image format independent, implying that it works with both noncompressed images and images in all compression formats. To improve the authentication accuracy, some strategies, such as overlapping image blocks only on concurrent directions, using a two-scale local binary pattern operator, and choosing the mean deviation instead of the standard deviation, are applied. A back-propagation neural network (BPNN) is used instead of support vector machines (SVMs) for classification to make online learning easier and achieve higher accuracy. In our experiments, we used the CASIA Database (CASIA TIDE v1.0) of compressed images and the Columbia University Digital Video Multimedia (DVMM) dataset of uncompressed images to evaluate our image authentication method. This benchmark dataset includes two types of image tampering, namely image splicing and copy–move forgery. Experiments were performed using both the SVM and BPNN classifiers with various parameters. We determined that the BPNN achieved a higher accuracy of up to 97.26 %.


text:
- For Teachers
Can someone tell me the difference between the verbs to strike and to hit
I have teaching practise in a few days so I will be grateful if you can give me some ideas on this.
And if anyone knows the best way to teach to Strike to students.
Shall I use pictures, which examples etc
The words are basically synonyms. Except in baseball where a strike is the opposite of a hit.
And, of course, "to strike" can mean "to refuse to work" for some reason, usually to get something you want or to show your opposition to something that has happened, is happening or is going to happen.
Remember - correct capitalisation, punctuation and spacing make posts much easier to read.
However, I would still argue that "a strike" is not the opposite of "a hit" if for no other reason than the umpire may call either "a strike" or (in my opinion, the opposite) "a ball" without the batter swinging his/her bat.


text:
Pistachio Day celebrates the popular nut, which
The Chinese are the greatest consumers of the nut. It is thought that pistachio nuts have been eaten by humans for at least 9000 years. Legend even has it that the Queen of Sheba restricted the eating of pistachios to the royal court and forbade commoners to grow them!
Pistachios are not just eaten as a snack – they are also used in cooking, while their sweet flavour sometimes finds them used in desserts, such as Lebanese dish baklava. You can sometimes find pistachio ice cream alongside more common flavours such as chocolate or strawberry.
Studies have even suggested that eating moderate amounts of pistachios can help keep your heart healthy!


text:
Coughs can be very unpleasant, straining muscles, disturbing sleep, and leaving you utterly exhausted. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners believe that coughs can be caused by either external pathogens or internal functional imbalances.
Coughs caused by external pathogens can be recognized by their sudden onset and short duration. Coughs resulting from internal functional imbalances, meanwhile, tend to develop more gradually, last longer, and are more likely to turn chronic. In both cases, pathogens target the protective qi of the body – its immune system – which is governed by the lungs.
Treating Coughs With Traditional Chinese Medicine
In order to treat a cough, TCM physicians first need to determine its root cause, taking into consideration the main characteristics of the cough, such as its sound, the part of the day it is most frequent, and the color and texture of the sputum.
Treatment for Coughs in Cincinnati
Call our office at _PHONE_, or use our online contact form to request an appointment with Peter Sheng, MD for cough treatment using Traditional Chinese Medicine.


text:
Student: I forgot my password. What should I do?
Please remember that your password is case-sensitive (i.e. this password Pa$sT3!E is not the same as pa$st3!e), and must meet the following requirements:
- at least 8 characters in length (up to a maximum of 32)
- at least one lowercase character
- at least one uppercase character
- at least one numerical character
- at least one special character
If the password your entering does not fulfill these requirements, you are most likely entering the wrong password and will need to reset it.
Online password reset
If you do not remember your password or it is not working, you may be able to set a new password over the Web. When your UH Username was activated, you were asked to select two questions and provide the answers to these two questions. If you know the answer to these two questions, you may visit the UH Account Management page and select the Forgot Your Password link to set a new password. The new password could take up to 5 minutes before it is ready to be used.
In Person password reset
If you do not remember your password and the answer to the two questions, you will need to visit a campus representative and show an official government issued photo ID (i.e. driver's license, state ID, or passport). The new password could take up to 5 minutes before it is ready to be used.
Student out-of-state, abroad, or those with medical hardships
If you cannot reset your password online, and you are not able to visit a campus representative in person, you may file drop or fax in a request for a password reset. The request must include the following required information:
- Full name (first, middle, last)
- UH Username
- UH Number
- A copy of your government issued photo ID (i.e. driver's license, state ID, or passport)
- Month/day of date of birth
- Your ticket number (contact the ITS Help Desk if you do not have a ticket number)
- Your telephone number
Please file drop the request to _EMAIL_ OR fax the request and the required documents to the ITS Help Desk at _PHONE_. After your documents have been verified, ITS personnel will call you with the new password.
File Drop Procedures
- Visit _URL_ and enter your name and email address in the "Non-UH Users" section (as you cannot log into the UH Users section if you've forgotten your password).
- Enter _EMAIL_ as the recipient.
- Check Require authentication; it is unchecked by default.
- In the comment section, include your name, reason for the request, and ticket number (contact the ITS Help Desk if you do not have a ticket number).
- The comment/description section should NOT include any personal identifying information such as UH number and MM/DD of date of birth.
- Click Proceed.
- Click Choose File, and navigate to the document you created containing the required information (listed above).
- If not included in the previous document, include a second file containing a scan/picture of your government issued photo ID.
- Click Start Upload.


text:
Benefits of Ionisation
This electrical charge makes ions highly reactive since they are in an unstable state and they will react with the first ion of opposite charge they encounter, in an attempt to return to a neutral uncharged state.
Ions of silver and copper are positively charged, having lost an electron and will therefore react with atoms or molecules, which carry a negative charge.
The outer membrane of most bacteria is negatively charged and ions of silver and copper are therefore preferentially attracted to bacteria, where they react and cause cell death.
Silver-Copper ionisation works when a low voltage DC current is passed between a pair of electrodes each composed of an alloy of copper and silver.
This flow of current causes some of the outermost atoms of the positively charged anode to lose electrons, thus forming positive ions, which are then attracted to the negatively charge cathode.
However, since the electrodes are placed in a stream of running water, some of these ions are carried away by the flow and released into the bulk of the water.
Both copper and silver are active against a wide range of bacteria, fungi, algae and viruses, including the pathogenic organisms found as pollutants of surface water systems.
The positively charged ions form electrostatic bonds with negatively charged sites on the organisms" cell walls, creating stresses, which lead to, increased cell wall permeability. This result in entry of the ions into the cells, where they interfere with enzymes responsible for cellular respiration and bind at specific sites to DNA, thereby killing the cells.
In the presence of 0.4 ppm chlorine, copper and silver ions have been shown to effect a 3.7 log reduction of Legionella pneumophila in 90 seconds in laboratory trials.
In large complex systems with long standing biofilm contamination it may take up to six months for ionisation to remove all traces of biofilm, but once this has been achieved the system will remain free of contamination indefinitely.
Compare the pros and cons of the most common sanitising systems with Enviroswim using the following links: Chlorine Salt Ozone Ioniser Enviroswim


text:
1. Most people are motivated primarily by self-interest. As a creative community organizer, you are always trying to figure out people's common self-interest, the glue that binds political organizations and movements.
2. Institutions and people that hold power over others are rarely as united as they first appear. If you can't get a person or institution to support you, you want to do everything in your power to convince them that it's in their best self-interest to stay out of the fight.
3. Start the process of strategy development by imagining that instant just before victory. Then, working backwards, do your best to figure out the steps that will lead to that moment.
4. It is generally useful, as a part of any creative community organizing campaign, to advocate for a positive as well as to oppose a negative.
5. The more complicated a strategy or tactic, the harder it is to carry out, and the less likely that it will be successful. You can ask a few people to do a lot of things, particularly if they're committed activists. If you want hundreds or thousands of people to participate in a campaign, you need to ask the great majority of them to do one thing, and only one.


Background Bumble is a self-declared "feminist" dating app that gives women control over initiating conversations with potential matches. Analysis Through a material-semiotic analysis of Bumble's software and online media about the app, this article critically investigates how gender, sex, and sexuality are produced and given meaning by Bumble's programmed infrastructure.
Conclusions and implications Since the epistemological underpinnings of Bumble's design centre gender as the solitary axis of oppression, the authors argue that the app's infrastructure generates an ontological relationship between gender, sex, and sexuality that narrows the capacity to achieve its creators' stated social justice objectives. Several infrastructural failures are detailed to demonstrate how control and safety are 1) optimized for straight cisgender women, and 2) contingent on the inscription of an aggressive form of masculinity onto straight male bodies.
Computer science, Electronic culture (internet-based), Feminism/ gender, Sociotechnical, Technology
Canadian Journal of Communication
Communication & Media Studies
Bivens, R, & Hoque, A.S. (Anna Shah). (2018). Programming sex, gender, and sexuality: Infrastructural failures in the "feminist" dating app Bumble. Canadian Journal of Communication, 43(3), 441–459. doi:10.22230/cjc.2019v44n3a3375


text:
DHAKA, 22 March 2010 - Urgent action is needed to address arsenic contamination of water and food in order to mitigate its impact on the health of millions of Bangladeshi people, according to a document released today by the Government of Bangladesh and the United Nations.
The publication titled Towards an Arsenic Safe Environment in Bangladesh was officially launched in Dhaka on the occasion of World Water Day by Begum Matia Chowdhury, Minister of Agriculture, Syed Ashraful Islam, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development & Co-operatives, and Dr. A.F.M Ruhul Haque, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, and the UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, Renata Lok Dessallien.
According to the presentation made by Dr A. Atiq Rahman, a leading author of the publication and renowned environmentalist, arsenic contamination poses major challenges to achieve the goal of safe water for all by 2011. A recent survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF reveals that 12.6 per cent of households equivalent to about 20 million people still drink water containing arsenic above the Government standard of 50 micrograms per liter.
In addition scientists have identified emerging threats in the health and agriculture sectors. There is now more evidence of the health impact of arsenic, which can significantly increase mortality from various cancers, heart attacks and cardio-pulmonary diseases. It is also recognised that arsenic can impair the intellectual function of children. Research also suggests that rice irrigated with arsenic contaminated water can contribute substantially to the daily intake of arsenic in Bangladesh because it is the main staple food.
'As we celebrate the World Water Day with the theme of 'Clean Water for a Healthy World', it is time to take stock of progress made so far and devise a new plan in order to provide arsenic safe water to the 20 million people still at risk', said Syed Asharful Islam, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and Co-operatives. 'A sector development plan is already being devised, taking into account the latest situation assessment.'
In addition to water, recent data from south-western districts of Bangladesh indicate that rice also contains arsenic due to water irrigation. The average daily intake of arsenic from rice for a Bangladeshi adult is estimated at approximately 100 micrograms arsenic while the WHO Potential Maximum Tolerable Daily Intake (PMDTI) for a 65 kg adult is 140 micrograms. Arsenic may enter the food chain through rice straw used to feed cattle. Food security is also at risk as accumulation of arsenic in the soil through the use of groundwater irrigation may reduce crops yields.
'The Ministry of Agriculture has taken steps to ensure the proper management of surface water including rainwater conservation', said Begum Matia Chowdhury, Minister of Agriculture. 'We will have to augment the use of surface water and simultaneously limit the use of both surface and groundwater to reduce accumulation of arsenic in crops and food sources.'
According to the publication, arsenic poses health risks to a significant proportion of the population. Children are particularly vulnerable to arsenic poisoning. The well-know skin lesions caused by arsenic are only the tip of the iceberg of many health consequences, including cancers, lung and heart diseases.
'Raising awareness among people on the danger of arsenic is essential', said Dr. A.F.M Ruhul Haque, Minister of Health and Family Welfare. 'Health workers can disseminate arsenic-related core messages, while the Government will continue to invest in screening and treatment of arsenicosis patients in affected districts.'
Towards an Arsenic Safe Environment in Bangladesh includes clear recommendations for mitigating the impact of arsenic in the three sectors of water, health and agriculture, providing a road map for the Government and development partners. Robust arsenic monitoring and screening system are necessary in all sectors while overall coordination is essential to ensure that mitigation in one sector does not negatively affect efforts made in other sectors.
'Urgent action is needed to re-focus the attention of the nation towards an arsenic safe environment', said Renata Lok Dessallien, UN Resident Coordinator in her speech. 'Concerted efforts by the Government and all stakeholders are necessary to reinvigorate arsenic monitoring and mitigation efforts and conduct comprehensive research on emerging threats.'
Three UN Agencies, FAO, UNICEF, WHO and the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank have been providing continuous support to the Government in addressing the unprecedented challenge of arsenic contamination. This has included several large-scale initiatives to provide access to alternative safe drinking-water supplies; research into the health impacts, patient management, and arsenic presence in the food chain; capacity building through training of health sector and water supply sector staff, and strengthening of institutional capacity.
For more information contact:
FAO: Mr Shahidul Islam, National Consultant,
Tel: _PHONE_ / 01732608833,
UNICEF: Christine Jaulmes, Chief, Communication and Information,
Tel: (+88)02 _PHONE_ Ext 209,
WHO: Mr. Mahfuzur Rahman, Public Information consultant;
WSP (World Bank): Mehrin Ahmed Mahbub, Communications Associate,
Tel: 880-2-_PHONE_ ext. 4251,


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dc.contributor.authorPierre, Darren Eric
dc.description.abstractFew studies have been conducted looking at the experiences of graduate students within student affairs/higher education administration program. The purpose of this study was to investigate the coming out experiences of gay men in student affairs/higher education administration programs. The study was conducted with 11 participants, representing seven different student affairs/higher education programs across the United States. The study was intended to answer the following research questions: 1) How do gay men talk about their coming out experience when it occurs during their student affairs preparation program? 2) What environmental factors impact gay men's coming out experiences? 3) What connections do gay men make between the graduate preparation program and the coming out process? Each of the participants took part in two in-depth interviews. The first interview was a life-history interview. The second interview focused primarily on the participants coming out experience and the factors leading to that decision. The findings of this study offer greater understanding on the experiences of gay men in student affairs/higher education preparation programs. First, participants spoke of coming out being a fluid process. Meaning, disclosing one's sexual orientation is an on-going process, not always defined by words, but more often by acts, thoughts, and behaviors. Secondly, environmental factors such as the role of faculty, staff, and classmates, as well as the opportunity to attend graduate school away from home served as support structures for participants in their decision to come out. Third, the academic program contributed to participants' decision to publicly disclose their sexual orientation. Participants discussed the role of the academic curriculum, which provided them the opportunity to engage in conversations on topics germane to gay identity development. In addition activities such as self-reflective exercises allowed the men in the study to make meaning of their sexual identity. In close, three main themes were produce from the data that offer implications for practice, teaching, and future research.
dc.subjectStudent affairs preparation programs
dc.subjectcoming out
dc.subjectgay identity development
dc.subjectgraduate education
dc.titleNo place like home
dc.title.alternativethe coming out experiences of gay men in student affairs and higher education administration preparation programs
dc.description.departmentCounseling and Human Development Services
dc.description.majorCollege Student Affairs Administration
dc.description.advisorDiane L. Cooper
dc.description.committeeDiane L. Cooper
dc.description.committeeMerrily Dunn
dc.description.committeeKathleen deMarrais
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text:
Dear East Penn Parent/Guardian,
If you have not done so already, I invite each of you to complete the Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (CSCI) survey. The survey is designed to assess perceptions of school climate, including feelings about safety, relationships, learning, the environment, and communication within the school.
The survey should take approximately 20 minutes to complete and must be completed in one sitting. Your feedback is important to helping our district understand and improve the specific climate issues in our schools. The link to the survey was emailed to you by your child's building principal today. The window closes tomorrow, April 12.
Thank you for your support!
Dr. Michael Schilder


The monitoring and prudent management of liabilities is an important element of comprehensive national financing strategies and is critical to reducing vulnerabilities. We welcome the efforts of IMF, the World Bank and the United Nations system to further strengthen the analytical tools for assessing debt sustainability and prudent public debt management. In this regard, the IMF-World Bank debt sustainability analysis is a useful tool to inform the level of appropriate borrowing. We invite IMF and the World Bank to continue strengthening their analytical tools for sovereign debt management in an open and inclusive process with the United Nations and other stakeholders. We encourage international institutions to continue to provide assistance to debtor countries to enhance debt management capacity, manage risks and analyse trade-offs between different sources of financing, as well as to help to cushion against external shocks and ensure steady and stable access to public financing.


text:
Assembly: Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics (in microsoft.xna.framework.graphics.dll)
In the XNA Framework, all two-dimensional (2D) images are represented by a range of memory called a surface. Within a surface, each element holds a color value representing a small section of the image, called a pixel. An image's detail level is defined by the number of pixels needed to represent the image and the number of bits needed for the image's color spectrum. For example, an image that is 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels high with 32 bits of color for each pixel (written as 800 x 600 x 32) is more detailed than an image that is 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels tall with 16 bits of color for each pixel (written as 640 x 480 x 16). Likewise, the more detailed image requires a larger surface to store the data. For an 800 x 600 x 32 image, the surface's array dimensions are 800 x 600, and each element holds a 32-bit value to represent its color.
All formats are listed from left to right, most-significant bit to least-significant bit. For example, ARGB formats are ordered from the most-significant bit channel A (alpha), to the least-significant bit channel B (blue). When traversing surface data, the data is stored in memory from least-significant bit to most-significant bit, which means that the channel order in memory is from least-significant bit (blue) to most-significant bit (alpha).
The default value for formats that contain undefined channels (Rg32, Alpha8, and so on) is 1. The only exception is the Alpha8 format, which is initialized to 000 for the three color channels.


text:
Definition of cost-cutting in English:
The reduction of costs, especially in a business: the company would take a hard look at a new round of cost-cutting [as modifier]: the most extensive cost-cutting exercise in Canadian history
More example sentences
- The danger is not so much the hit to consumers but a new round of corporate caution and cost-cutting.
- It has no plans to suspend the granting of stock options as part of its cost-cutting programme.
- Quality and service should not suffer in any way due to this cost-cutting exercise.
- Example sentences
- Over time, of course, diligent cost-cutters can make city services cheaper to deliver.
- E-mail holds great promise, both as a cost-cutter and a revenue-generator, but it's just one part of an increasingly complex company-customer relationship.
- In 1992, he became chief operating officer and metamorphosed into a tough cost-cutter.
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
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text:
Strategic litigation, or the use of the courts to achieve structural reforms in institutions and legislation, is a common practice used by civil society organisations (CSOs) in Latin America. In this 7.57 minutes video, Alvaro Herrero, Executive Director of the Association for Civil Rights (ADC), describes the process undertook by ADC to compel the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses to disclose the methodology used to calculate the Consumer Price Index. Focusing on the context of Argentina, he explains the reasons why it is sometimes necessary to resort to strategic litigation and the challenges faced by CSOs in using the strategy to enforce the right to information.
Herrero, A. ELLA Multimedia: Video: Using Strategic Litigation to Enforce the Right to Information in Latin America: a Case from Argentina. (2012)