Reevaluation of glomerular charge selective protein-sieving function
Recently, disorders of the slit diaphragm have been considered as major causes of proteinuria in renal disease and the charge barrier function of the glomerular capillary wall has been given less attention. We evaluated the charge selectivity index (CSI) in 40 patients with podocyte disease (PD), 75 with chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN), and 8 with Dent disease, to reexamine the charge barrier function. We evaluated CSI in Dent disease because the urinary protein profile in Dent disease was assumed to be a concentrate of a normal glomerular filtrate. CSI was defined as the renal clearance ratio between IgA and IgG. CSI values (mean ± SD) in the CGN and PD groups and in Dent disease were 1.12 ± 0.25, 0.42 ± 0.31, and 0.16 ± 0.06, respectively, suggesting that the charge barrier function was defective in the CGN group and of reduced capacity in the PD group. The results suggest that functional interactions between the slit diaphragm and the glomerular basement membrane exist, and that a slit diaphragm disorder is accompanied by a decrease in the charge barrier function in PD, as argued by the conventional hypothesis.
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This study was presented at the 14th Congress of the International Pediatric Nephrology Association in Budapest, 2007.
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Correspondence to Shori Takahashi.
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Saito, H., Takahashi, S., Nagata, M. et al. Reevaluation of glomerular charge selective protein-sieving function. Pediatr Nephrol 24, 609–612 (2009).
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On October 22, 2010, the Libraries participated in the Smithsonian Archives Fair to celebrate American Archives Month. Special Collections Cataloger, Diane Shaw, delivered a presentation about the archival materials of The Russell E. Train Africana Collection, which contains several thousand manuscripts, photographs, original artwork and prints, posters, maps, ephemera, and man-made and natural artifacts relating to exploration, big game hunting, wildlife, and travel in Africa dating from 1663 to the late 1990s. Formerly part of the private collection of Judge Russell E. Train of Washington, D.C., these materials were acquired by SIL in 2004, together with over 1500 printed books, which are all housed together in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History.
The Russell E. Train Collection covers an amazing diversity of topics, with items by and about such notable people as President Theodore Roosevelt; the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone; journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley; taxidermist Carl E. Akeley; naturalist Edmund Heller; traveler Richard Francis Burton; author Ernest Hemingway; artist Sir John Everett Millais; and documentary filmmakers Osa and Martin Johnson; among others. A number of the items are also related to the history of the Smithsonian, including Theodore Roosevelt's _PHONE_ African expedition, where some of the animals now in the Natural History Museum's collections were acquired. The materials in the Russell E. Train Collection have greatly enhanced the Libraries' ability to support research in African art and natural history.
A webcast of all of the Smithsonian Archives Fair presentations is available on the Archives Month website; the Russell Train Collection presentation begins at 0:28:00. The slides from the talk are included here:
Happy King Kamehameha Day!—Elizabeth Periale
Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Volume 4, 1845, Kamehameha.
The Smithsonian is celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage during the month of May with films, performances, talks, tours, and family programs. The Libraries would also like to highlight some images from its U.S. Exploring Expedition digital collection.—Elizabeth Periale
Tahitian Girl with the Hau, Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Volume 4, 1845
Samoan Dance, Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Volume 3, 1845

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Employee & Job Seeker Blog
Employee Tips from The Alpha Group's Staffing Specialist
Practicing Mindfulness in the Workplace – Why It's So Important
It's one of those early Spring days where, after a stretch of dreary, cold weather, the sun is finally out. You step outside, turn your face to the big orange ball in the sky, and breath in deeply. For a minute, all you notice is the sensation of heat radiating on your face, the smell of the fresh, crisp air, and the sound of birds singing. You're simply in the moment. If you have ever done this before, you were practicing mindfulness and may not have even realized it.
Why Contract Work May Be for You
You're torn. During your job-hunting endeavors you come across a contract position that you know you possess all the required skills and qualifications. You want to apply but are hesitant because it's a contract position.
5 Tips on Being a Successful Conversationalist
Was that really a two-way conversation?
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone where…?
…every time you started to say something, they cut you off with one more thing they wanted to say?
…you realized, when you finished the conversation, that all you had said during the past 30 minutes was, "uh huh," "oh," "interesting," "really," or something else along that line?
Body Language in Zoom Meetings (and In-Person)
Zoom fatigue. Why are so many of us experiencing it on a daily basis? Part of the reason video calls can be so draining is that our human nature of relying heavily on nonverbal cues to listen and assess information during meetings is challenged? Some studies suggest that 93% of communication is made up of nonverbal communication (body language and voice). How does this transfer to video meetings?
Top 10 Skills for Warehouse Workers
Which ones do you have? Which ones do you need to gain or strengthen?
Have you wondered what warehouse workers do and what skills they need? Are you thinking of applying for a warehouse position and wondering what skills and experience will help you get hired? Continue reading to find out.
Page 1 of 2


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The PMEL Science Data Integration Group (SDIG) is devoted to data management, data integration management and its related software development. This group has developed core technologies that are used by various groups in NOAA as well as entities outside NOAA to manage, access and visualize scientific data assets. Other tools and frameworks, such as the Environmental Research Division's Data Access Program (ERDDAP), supplement the in-house developed software. This group supports data integration for PMEL's scientific efforts and NOAA-wide with software development, and guidance on data management.
Some of the core capabilities developed by the SDIG are:
- Ferret is an interactive computer visualization and analysis environment designed to meet the needs of oceanographers and meteorologists analyzing large and complex gridded data sets. It runs on most Unix systems, and on Windows XP/NT/9x using X windows for display. It can transparently access extensive remote Internet data sources using OPeNDAP (formerly known as DODS). Ferret is widely used in the oceanographic community to analyze data and create publication quality graphics. Recently, ferret has been extended to support python by creating PyFerret. PyFerret is a python module that is wrapped around traditional Ferret. PyFerret allows for enhanced graphics and access to computational libraries, while maintaining Ferret's advanced capabilities to retrieve, analyze, manipulate and save data.
- The Live Access Server (LAS) is a specialized Web Application framework for displaying and analyzing Earth Science data, but even so it is built using conventional Web application technologies. The LAS is a highly configurable web server designed to provide flexible access to geo-referenced scientific data. It can present distributed data sets as a unified virtual database through the use of DODS networking. Ferret is the default visualization application used by LAS, though other applications (Matlab, IDL, GrADS,...) can also be used.
- The myDashboard data submission tool introduces an intelligent, streamlined data submission process to national data archives such as NOAA's National Ocean Data Center (NODC) and the Department of Energy's (DOE) Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center (CDIAC). The web-based application also performs quality control on the data before submission and allows the data owner to place the data in a quarantined state until the data are ready for submission to a national archive for public access.
Other than software development, this group's members are involved as key members in the ESGF Compute working Team, the Observing System Monitoring Center (OSMC) and the Unified Access Framework (UAF) efforts.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Mammoth elm gives up likely tornado souvenir
Some 45-feet in the air with his tree-trimming bucket, John Carlson gets set to lop off the branch with an in-grown chunk of metal.
Tom Byrne concluded that the tree limb had about 49 rings, making it possible that the metal was blown into the tree crotch by the 1968 Tracy Tornado.
By Seth Schmidt
A behemoth elm tree that shaded the corner of Fourth and Harvey streets for generations, fell to the rasping snarl of John Carlson's chain saw last week.
The 70-foot elm had been dead since last summer, a victim of Dutch elm disease. But the tree had one last legacy to leave: likely debris from the Tracy Tornado of June 13, 1968.
About 45-feet up in the air, imbedded in a 10-inch tree crotch, a four-feet strip of metal was noticed. By the looks of the branch, the tree branch had been growing around the metal for a long time.
After lopping off the metal-infused limb, Carlson brought it into his bucket and took it to the ground for a hand-off to his assistant, Tom Byrne.
Bryne started counting the limb's rings to determine its age. He stopped after reaching 40.
"It could be!" he said excitedly. "I've counted 40 rings and I haven't got to the small outside rings. It could easily be 49-years-old."
A 49-year-old dating would be evidence that the metal strip had been blow into the tree by the Tracy Tornado.
The elm stood on the edge of the tornado's path. Less than a half-block further west, houses were obliterated by the tornado. An elementary school wrecked by the tornado was a block away.
"What else could it be?" besides debris from the tornado, Byrne asked.
The tree limb was given to the Wheels Across the Prairie Museum.
The EF-5 Tracy Tornado destroyed or damaged more than 160 houses and killed nine people. The storm path was about a block and a half wide, striking first on the southwest edge of town and proceeding northeasterly. After crossing the railroad yards near Fifth and South streets, the twister left a path of destruction between Sixth and Fourth streets before exiting the town near Swift Lake Park.


Marble Surface
Anointing of the Sick
Appointments may be scheduled by
contacting the Parish Office
anointing of the sick1.jpg
How can we decide if we should ask to be anointed?
A reasonably sure judgment is sufficient for deciding on the seriousness of an illness. For example: A sick person may be anointed before surgery, whether or not a serious illness is the reason for the surgery. Elderly people may be anointed if they have become notably weakened even though no serious illness is present. Sick children may be anointed if they have sufficient use of reason to be strengthened by this Sacrament. If you are still unsure, when in doubt, ask Father!
How is this sacrament celebrated?
The celebration of this sacrament consists essentially in an anointing with oil which may be blessed by the bishop. The anointing is on the forehead and on the hands of the sick person accompanied by the prayer of the priest who asks for the special grace of this sacrament.
What are the effects of this sacrament?
Does a person have to be dying to receive this
No. The Catechism says, "The anointing of the sick is not a Sacrament for those
this sacrament has certainly already arrived" (CCC 1514).
How Can I Schedule an Anointing?
During ordinary business hours, just call the Parish office _PHONE_ and speak
with the secretary or email _EMAIL_.
anointing of the sick 2.jpg


Hierarchies of Attention and Abstraction in Observability
When designing observability and controllability interfaces for systems of services, or any system for that matter, it is essential to consider how it connects the operator to the operational domain in terms of the information content, structure, and (visual) forms. What representation is most effective in the immediate grounding of an operator within a situation? How efficiently and accurately can the information be communicated, playing to perceptual and cognitive strengths? Here is where an abstraction and attention hierarchy can significantly facilitate the monitoring and management of a complex system, chiefly where situational awareness, understanding of dynamics and constraints, and the ability to predict, to some small degree into the future, are of critical importance.
While an abstraction hierarchy consists of multiple levels (or layers), it still relates to the same operational domain, much like situation awareness or service level management. At each level, a new model of terms, concepts, and relations are introduced. An observer of such a hierarchically organized system can decide which particular level of information and interaction is most suitable for the task (or goal) at hand, based on their level of expertise and knowledge of the system. Levels in the abstraction hierarchy regulate lower levels by way of constraints and conditions, whereas lower levels stimulate state changes in higher levels. In crossing the layered boundaries, an operator increases their understanding of the system. Moving from bottom to top, the operator obtains a greater awareness of what is significant in terms of the system's functioning and goals. While moving from top to bottom, a more detailed explanation and exploration are provided of how a system brings about higher levels' goals and plans – dynamics surface at the top and data at the bottom. It is important that there is some degree of traceability and relatability in moving in either direction.
From Stimulus to Synthesis
In thinking about an abstraction level, several internal processes and functions come to mind that occur as information flows upwards from a lower level, passing through before being translated and transformed into something more significant and relevant at a level above. It starts with some stimulus deemed as a happening, an event, originating within either the environment or a lower level if one is present. A recurring stimulus becomes a signal if it pertains to the model and has benefits in terms of constraint, correction, and conditioning. Then, depending on sensitivities, much of the noise is eliminated to prioritize what is significant or signified by signaling. Following on from significance, a process of sequence recording, recalling, and recognition results in the synthesis of meaningful patterns. It starts with measurement, passing through to the model, and ending with the memory of such. Finally, the new information produced is propagated upwards to the next level of abstraction in the hierarchy, typically in a far more condensed form that gives utmost attention to changes in patterned or predicated behavior relevant to the means employed in achieving the higher-level goal(s).
With OpenSignals for Services, there is at least a minimum of three levels of abstraction to the hierarchy, leaving out service level management, which can be layered on top. The first level of abstraction pertains to the machine world's spatial and (meta) state aspects, where a stimulus is sensed – the referent layer. Here services (or endpoints) within a distributed system of executing processes are mapped to a model consisting of Context, Environment, Service, and Name elements. The next level above, the signaling layer, is where executing instrumented code is transcribed into a series of Signal firings on references within the level below. In this second level, code execution's complicated nature across service boundaries entailing failure, retry, and fallback mechanisms are translated into a standard set of tokens. The small set of signals is akin to RISC (reduced instruction set computer) design, but instead of a computer execution architecture, it pertains to service-to-service communication across machine and process boundaries. Depending on the service Provider implementation (SPI), the signals will be scored based on sensitivity and sequencing settings, which can in part be driven by the current state in the level above, and a status inferred for each signaling Service registered within a Context. For recording and diagnostics purposes, the signaling level also allows for the registration of a Subscriber and, in turn, Callback.
Scaling to Perspectives
Finally, in the last of the minimum levels, the inference layer, the model is attuned to tracking changes in registered and signaling services' Status value. Much like the signaling layer below, this level allows for event Subscription management. As an observer moves up layers in the abstraction and attention hierarchy, the frequency of events emittance is reduced significantly, and the meaning and relevance of each element and possibility in the model relate closer to the overall goal. In this top-level, observation, analysis, and (indirect) controllability of the model centers around the switches in the transitions between Status values, the sequencing and scoring of such over periods, and the possibility of predicting near future states of the system. The scale of analysis also changes, from the signaling and operational status inference of a single service to how changes in the status of a system of (interconnected) services cascade and ripple in unexpected ways through the networked of contexts – both locally and globally. It would be near impossible to do so at the signaling level for a human, at least. At all levels of the hierarchy, the same processes are involved – seeing, sensing, signifying, sequencing, scaling, and synthesizing higher-order information for representation, reduction, recognition, recording, recollection, reasoning, retrospection, reinforcement, regulation, and rectification.


Reflections from a communications conference in Bahrain
The International Association of Business Communicators organised the first ever conference in the gulf. As the world's largest network of communication professionals, IABC bringing this two-day event to the middle east offered the region's communicators with the insights, know-how and tools that they need to help their organisations achieve strategic transformation through communications, be it external or internal. This was part of the EMENA chapters initiative, and the chair of the conference (Alex Malouf) was thoughtful in inviting an Indian delegation to be on a panel.
With six tracks covering leadership and strategy, corporate social responsibility, the impact of technology, crisis response, and the latest thinking in external and internal communications, EMENAComm was able to showcase best practices and innovations that are changing how corporations, consultancies, and NGOs are achieving success through communications. The theme was – Transformers: Communicators at the heart of driving strategic change.
I have highlighted the seven sessions that stood out:
 1. Internal Comms expert Sean Trainor sought to challenge and make one rethink the perception on an organisation's visions and values, so that one is able to better understand one's people and think critically about what matters to them.
 2. Keynote speaker Dawn Metcalfe helped attendees to – Learn how to Understand how neurobiology makes difficult conversations even harder; learn the impact of not having difficult conversations on critical areas including brand and reputation management and crisis communications; And the way to build high performing teams through kind candour.
 3. IABC's past APAC Chair Dr Rajeev Kumar shared his expertise on how figures of speech can be used to promote change and engagement internally. He explained how metaphors in Change Management can be used as guiding images of the future; creating shared understandings and cognitive reorientation; understanding individual perceptions and identifying resistance to change, unearth emotions related to change and identify gaps in individual acceptance of proposed changes and improving organisational effectiveness
 4. As communicators, if we are going to "use transformational communications to drive strategic change" we have to become better strategic advisers to the leaders we support. Communication lies at the heart of leadership, and yet leaders are often ill-prepared for the specific communication challenges change presents, and often under-served by the communication professionals who support them. Colin Hatfield revealed a few of the tools and techniques he has developed that strategic advisers can deploy with leaders to help them be more effective, inspiring and influential communicators and engage more strongly and productively with their teams.
 5. In his session, Cameron Craig shared how communication played a pivotal role in Apple's turnaround period from Steve Jobs' return as CEO to the launch of iPhone. Over this period, Apple would prove the cynics wrong and dazzle the world with its groundbreaking innovations, masterful marketing and against-the-grain approach. He shared five communications lessons from those days and how one can take advantage of these same principles for one's company or brand. Themes include the importance of keeping it simple, prioritising influencers, staying focused on the message, and leveraging outside milestones for internal momentum.
 6. Brad Jennings delivered an interesting session which covered how there is a growing movement of people who have decided that change starts with them. Across the globe, start-ups, scale-ups, social enterprises, charities, inventors, thinkers, and communities of like-minded individuals, are all making change happen through a burning ambition to create a better world.
 Communicators hold the key to unlocking human centred change in organisations. By helping people feel part of something greater than themselves, communicators have the potential to inspire people to make change happen.
 7. The finale was the session comprising India's most senior communicators which I curated and had Rachana Panda, Sunita Venugopal and Sujit Patil in conversation with Shreya Krishnan sharing their insights on how they've shifted their function from tactics and execution to becoming a strategic organisational asset. They shared insights and tips on how others can seek to do the same.
Overall, the experience was enriching. We came away richer with new learnings, new connections and new experiences.
Amith Prabhu on BloggerAmith Prabhu on FacebookAmith Prabhu on Twitter
Amith Prabhu
He can be reached at _USER_ on twitter.
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Skoddie is an experimental musician whose style spans multiple genres, but always focuses on atmosphere and mood. After a 6 year hiatus, they rediscovered their creative voice and released two albums and one EP in 2015. Today, Skoddie continues to produce music, and is also a founding member of the Unredacted online art collective.
In this episode, Skoddie discusses:
-Details about the new Unredacted online art collective, including why they started it.
-How there isn't anything on DeviantArt with a specific female and queer vibe, and how that is one of the goals for Unredacted.
-The importance of getting things started and letting them grow organically.
-Their history and first experiences with music.
-The scientific audio analysis techniques that they used to begin creating experimental music.
-How, like Jackson Pollock, Skoddie has intention behind what might seem to be unintentional music.
-Creating all of the music, and then the review process where they listen to the music and determine whether or not it moves them.
-How many artists and creative people feel as if their artwork is scarce, and how it doesn't have to be that way.
-How artists make their best work when nobody has heard of them, and the power that can come from tricking your brain into thinking that nobody will ever see what you are making.
-The importance of being able to ride the rollercoaster that is being a creative person.
-One of their hardest times when attempting to start a Kickstarter campaign that fell short of the goal.
-The importance of learning from your failures.
-One of the main goals of Unredacted to be able to showcase queer artists and focus on their artistic talent and voice instead of their queerness (like traditional media does).
-Their plans to potentially take over late-night television advertisements and fill it with art!
Skoddie's Final Push will inspire you to FINISH YOUR WORK (so it can be around for the rest of time).
"If you do all this planning but you don't actually get anything off the ground, you've got nothing."
"I got back into it in the least musical way possible."
"As long as I have some type of artistic vision behind it, I remain passionate about it."
"Just make stuff. Make a ton of stuff and let it be bad. In that sea of bad, you'll find some wonderful gems."
"I just feel like every time I fail, it makes me more savvy."
"Creating content is a much higher priority than building an audience."
"We all want to say we're going to quit our day jobs and be cool art people. And that's fantastic. But we don't make the art to feed ourselves. We like to eat and we like to make art."
"There are a good amount of female artists out there but there are very few queer artists. And the few that there are are upheld for their queerness but not as much for their artistic talents."
"We all have a stack of unfinished work but it's really special to be able to say, 'Hey, I made this. This is going to be here for the rest of time.'"
Theory of Obscurity: A Film about The Residents


text:
Twenty Financial Services are currently recruiting for a Model Validation AVP for a Global Investment Bank based in London.
The main responsibility will be to validate models within market and counterparty credit risk but will also look at economic capital and operational risk models.
- Use statistical techniques and methods to validate models used by the investment bank
- Recommend model improvements where necessary, and document results from validation activity
- Ensure validation is in line with regulatory requirements and using the most up to date methodologies
- Reporting of model risk to committees and senior stakeholders
- Model validation or quantitative risk experience from an investment bank
- Knowledge of market risk and counterparty credit risk models
- Use of programming languages such as Python, Matlab, C++, R or VBA
- Traded product knowledge
- Strong educational background with a quant focussed degree


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INCREASING RAIN IN THE DESERT:
three continents come new ways of solving an old problem
Scientists believe it may be possible
to increase rainfall in arid areas. (Photo by Digital Vision/Getty
Because of a population boom in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), government
leaders are facing a fundamental challenge: keeping up with demand
for water. The mostly desert country, which has grown from about 50,000
residents in 1975 to more than 3 million today, relies on desalination
plants and underground aquifers. But desalination is very costly, and
the aquifers are quickly becoming depleted.
In the past few years, the UAE has begun to explore an innovative solution.
What if modern technology could produce more rain?
Scientists at NCAR, the UAE Department of Water Resource Studies, University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and elsewhere are analyzing
the potential for cloud seeding. They hope to find storm clouds that
can be induced to release rain over regions where the water would most
benefit society by falling on crops or replenishing aquifers.
"This is a multidisciplinary analysis that considers hydrology,
cloud science, atmospheric chemistry, and other disciplines," explains
NCAR scientist Roelof Bruintjes, who oversees the project. "Increasing
the rainfall is just one aspect. We also have to consider what the
impact would be. It might not help to seed clouds over a desert. If
90% of the rainfall evaporates, it may not be worth it."
Making droplets bigger
NCAR is building on weather modification projects it has led or participated
in over the last few years in Mexico and South Africa. The center has
refined a technique to increase the size of particles in clouds and
promote the coalescence of water droplets. Called hygroscopic
this technique uses flares mounted on aircraft to seed clouds with
small salt particles. Water droplets can bond to the particles and
grow large enough to fall out of the cloud
Initially, researchers used airplanes and a network of radars to examine
clouds that form along the UAE's coast during the winter. But
only about 10 frontal systems form during a typical winter, and fewer
than half contain the convective motions needed to produce rain.
Researchers next turned to the Oman Mountains, which form the boundary
between Oman and the UAE. Although the mountains had received little
attention from climate scientists in the past, the team discovered
that clouds there typically form and release rain during about 40 days
in the months of June, July, and August.
NCAR's Roelof Bruintjes (left) with
Al Mangoosh, director of UAE's Department
of Water Resources Studies. (Photo by Brant Foote, NCAR.)
The research team has launched a randomized experiment to seed clouds
over the mountains, measure the resulting rainfall, and trace the
movement of the water once it reaches the ground.
If cloud seeding produces significantly more rain in the area, the
UAE can compare the costs and benefits with desalination and decide
whether to launch a multiyear cloud seeding program.
In the near future, NCAR is likely to expand its research on weather
modification to other regions as well. Oman is considering working
with the center to build on the UAE program, and officials as far
away as Thailand may explore the technology.
The African nation of Burkina Faso, where many rely on subsistence
farming, may also benefit from weather modification. With technical
assistance from NCAR, Burkina Faso has implemented a pair of state-of-the-art
software systems to support cloud seeding efforts. The software is
used to display and analyze radar data about cloud systems and precipitation,
thereby guiding cloud seeding operations and helping scientists evaluate
Bruintjes cautions that weather modification is still a developing
field. In Mexico and South Africa, hygroscopic seeding trials produced
more rain 30 to 60 minutes after seeding. But researchers need to
conduct more experiments to evaluate the extent to which overall
precipitation was increased.
Even if hygroscopic seeding proves effective in the UAE, that does
not assure its success somewhere else. Only certain types of clouds
produce rain. And air pollution may complicate the situation by changing
the dynamics of clouds and precipitation.
Bruintjes stresses that nations interested in weather modification
need to conduct thorough research before launching a full-scale program.
"If cloud seeding works in one area, it may not work in another," Bruintjes
says. "We shouldn't just go out there and seed clouds
blindly and hope for the best."
More information about the UAE
rainfall enhancement project
Accurate weather forecasts are much needed in Africa,
especially where tropical cyclones and floods pose an ongoing
threat. But the continent has relatively few observing
stations for monitoring the skies, and forecasters are
limited by lack of access to data and models appropriate
for the weather conditions in their regions.
Emmanuel Kploguede of the African School of Meteorology
and Civil Aviation. (Photo ©Daily
To improve the situation, UCAR is working with collaborators
in Europe and Africa on an initiative known as the African
Satellite Meteorology and Training Project (ASMET). The
goal is to train African meteorologists to interpret data
from European satellites that gather atmospheric information
UCAR's Marianne Weingroff and the rest of the ASMET
team, including instructors at regional meteorological training
centers in Kenya, Niger, and South Africa, produce educational
modules on topics such as forecasting tropical cyclones and
integrating satellite imagery with model data. The modules
are used at the training centers to teach hundreds of African
meteorologists each year. They are also disseminated to forecast
offices to permit self-paced training. EUMETSAT, the European
Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites,
funds the project and distributes the modules on compact
discs and the Web.
Better forecasts, including daily and seasonal rainfall predictions,
are critical to Africa, where millions of lives depend on
the current year's crops from farms of all sizes. "ASMET
modules are making a real contribution to the improvement
of forecasts in Africa," says Emmanuel Kploguede, a
member of the ASMET team and instructor at the African School
of Meteorology and Civil Aviation in Niamey, Niger. "This
is particularly important because most African countries
are in the tropics where the weather can change quickly—either
helping farmers by distributing rain widely or hurting society
with strong storms that can flood croplands, livestock areas,
More Middle Eastern and African Collaborations:
Restoring Lake Victoria
of Africa's Climate
Overview | Asia | Middle
East/Africa | Oceania/Antarctica | Europe | The
Americas | Global Research | Worldwide
| NCAR | UCAR | UOP|


text:
Army animal care specialists take care of Government-owned patrol dogs, ceremonial horses, sled dogs, sea mammals, and animals used in research. Army animal care specialist supervises or provides the care, treatment, and sanitary conditions for animals.
Army animal care specialist duties:
- Provide routine daily care for animals in veterinary treatment
- Position and restrain animals for examination and treatment
- Calculate doses and administers oral and topical medications as directed by the veterinarian
- Obtain medical history from owners and/or handlers and measures and records animal vital signs
- Perform physical examinations to detect obvious abnormalities and reports findings to veterinarian
- Maintain sanitary conditions for all components of the veterinary treatment facilities to include operating room and equipment
- Assist veterinarian in surgical procedures and perform euthanasia when instructed by veterinarian
Job training for an Animal Care Specialist requires nine weeks of basic training, where you'll learn basic soldiering skills, and 11 weeks of advanced individual training, including practice in animal care.
The skills you learn as an Animal Care Specialist will help prepare you for a future as a civilian veterinary aide or assistant at a veterinary hospital. With continued study and experience, you may qualify for certification as an Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician.


text:
Buildings have loomed large in the analysis or narrative of some historians and commentators on the Victorian era, as the quotation above indicates. This module uses some key buildings, complexes, and memorial sites of the nineteenth-century as a way of exploring important aspects of the social, political and cultural history of the period: examining how their creation, design or use of these structures and places can be related to key Victorian concerns, values or anxieties. It considers the building, design and iconography, and use of these sites. It draws on architectural history, the history of design, urban history and the emergent history of spaces. It is intended to allow students, familiar from other modules in the degree programme with textual, oral and audio-visual sources, to consider evidence provided by the built environment.
Each week focuses on a particular site: either a specific case study (e.g., the Crystal Palace constructed for the Great Exhibition) or a type of building (such as seaside piers). The module uses a variety of visual sources and contemporary printed texts to interpret the site, and then contextualises it within wider social, cultural and political history. The sites or buildings are seen as helping to constitute contemporary and later understanding of Victorian culture, rather than as merely unproblematic or simple 'expressions' of Victorian culture. The module will also explore some of the Victoria-era survivals here in Plymouth: these might include the Guildhall (patched up after the Second World War), the Duke of Cornwall Hotel, and the Palace Theatre, and Victorian schools, churches and banks.


15 May 2018 | Technology
The Four Ways Unstructured Data Can Improve Your Business
Dig unstructured sources for data that reveals valuable insights into customer transaction behaviors
With changing behaviors and buying preferences, it can be a challenge for distributors and manufacturers to fully grasp a complete understanding of customer needs. As discussed in a previous post, decision makers often rely on easily accessible digital channels such as e-commerce or punch-out for customer transaction insights. Extracting information solely from those sources however, does not provide a complete picture of customer transactions. They might be overlooking a great deal of other valuable insights. Unstructured data that remains in unorganized and hard to access formats such as e-mail orders can provide new actionable business intelligence.
Deploying Sales Order Analytics to extract and map unstructured data helps easily derive and manage information from emailed orders. With an in-depth look into customer transaction trends, decision makers have the opportunity to access data points that might have previously been missed. Tapping into unstructured data from email orders helps reveal new patterns and trends. Distributors and manufacturers can then gain a better understanding of which sales and customer service processes may require improvements and base strategic decisions on more accurate and complete insights.
Four hidden opportunities that can be uncovered from emailed orders:
 - Timing Patterns: Understanding when purchase orders typically get placed during the day allows distributors and manufacturers to allocate staff accordingly. This information can also help to time discount offers or promotions to target customers during peak times, increasing opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell.
 - Order Volume: Additional insight into periods of high/low order volumes help distributors and manufacturers manage inventory. This is because they now have a more accurate sense of the time and volume of products customers need during a given period. Understanding when orders are placed as well as the quantity of orders enables distributors to ensure inventory is appropriately stocked and guarantees order fulfillment.
 - High-Traffic Channels: With data from all sales channels including but not limited to e-mails, decision makers can identify the channel with the highest customer traffic. They can then adjust operational requirements and introduce digital solutions as needed to increase efficiency. For example, if e-commerce is the most used platform, consider document automation to process orders placed online into existing ERP systems.
 - Buyer Habits: Core to growth is understanding and responding to customer needs. Therefore, information on customer transaction preferences and buying habits are essential to profitability and productivity. A comprehensive snapshot of customer transactions enabled by data from all sales channels ultimately creates a more competitive business. Customer profiles created using this data can be used by sales reps to deliver targeted sales messages and personalized service.
There is a substantial amount of usable data sitting in unstructured sources like emailed orders. In today's challenging marketplace, smart distributors and manufacturers must consider new ways to maintain a competitive edge. Digging into untapped data sources can lead to more advantages and opportunities to better serve customers.


[Python-ideas] An identity dict
Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk qrczak at knm.org.pl
Wed Jun 2 00:05:31 CEST 2010
2010/6/1 Benjamin Peterson :
> My contention is that an identity dictionary or at least a dictionary with
> custom hash and keys is a useful primitive that should be in the standard
> library. However, I also see its advantage in avoiding bad performance of id()
> based identity dicts in non-CPython implementations.
> It is useful to let the implementation optimize it any time there is moving GC
> as in Jython and IronPython where id also is expensive. (Basically a mapping has
> to be maintained for all objects on which id is called.)
Here is how I designed this for my language:
You can request the ObjectId of the given object. If an ObjectId
corresponding to the given object is still alive, you always get it
back again, but it can be GC'ed and later created afresh. ObjectIds
are hashable and comparable (with an arbitrary ordering). Hash values
and the ordering are preserved when ObjectIds are kept alive, but they
may be different if ObjectIds are created afresh. An ObjectId contains
an integer index which is unique among ObjectIds being alive at the
same time.
You can make a dictionary with a specified key function. It is
internally backed by something equivalent to f(k) -> (k, v) dict. A
dictionary with ObjectId constructor as the key is an identity
dictionary; it works because it keeps both k and f(k) alive.
An advantage of this scheme is that with a moving GC the id mapping
must be maintained only for objects for which the program keeps their
ObjectIds alive.
A disadvantage is that the program must be careful to not use
ObjectIds in a manner which does not keep them alive yet expects
consistent hashing and ordering. In particular a key-mapped dict which
would store only (k, v) pairs and compute f(k) on the fly would not
work. Also ObjectIds cannot be used to generate printable unique
identifiers which would be valid without having to keep ObjectIds
alive, like in Python's default repr.
Marcin Kowalczyk
More information about the Python-ideas mailing list


ane H10-3 LH2/LOX upper stage. This stage has a gross mass of 12,310 kg and dry mass of 1,570 kg, at a 445 s Isp. I'll round off the mass values to 12,300 kg and 1,600 kg, so 10,700 kg of propellant.
 The delta-v to insert into lunar orbit is 900 m/s, and the translunar injection(TLI) delta-v is 3,140 m/s making up the 4,040 m/s delta-v to go from LEO to low lunar orbit(LLO), as shown in the table above.
 Use 9 mT for the crewed mass of the Orion, and 13.7 mT for the SEV plus lander. Now burn only 6.9 mT of propellant for the lunar insertion, retaining 3.8 mT of the propellant after the lunar orbit insertion in order to be able to return Orion back to Earth. Then:
445*9.81ln(1 + 6.9/(1.6 + 9 + 13.7 + 3.8)) = 960 m/s, sufficient for lunar orbit insertion.
 Now for the return of the Orion, we have:
445*9.81ln(1 + 3.8/(1.6 + 9)) = 1,340 m/s, sufficient to go from low lunar orbit back to LEO, according to the table above. (Actually other sources give the required delta-v to break lunar orbit as only 900 m/s, same as to enter orbit, so it may be possible to make this stage even smaller.)
 Now we need a stage to do the translunar injection(TLI), requiring 3,140 m/s delta-v. The Centaurs have the best Isp and mass ratio of any upper stages so we'll use those. You could use two of them firing together in parallel or get better mass to TLI by firing them serially. For simplicity I'll use the twin, parallel Centaur format. Rounding off, the Centaur has 21 mT propellant and 2 mT dry mass, with 451 s Isp. So two together would be 42 mT propellant and 4 mT dry mass. The Orion, SEV, and cryogenic stages together mass 35 mT. Then:
451*9.81ln(1 + 42/(4 + 35)) = 3,230 m/s, sufficient for TLI.
 Then the total mass that needed to be lofted to orbit would be 81 mT. The leeway between this and the 95 mT, and likely higher, payload capacity of the SLS would probably allow even hypergolics to be used at least for the departure stages, both from the lunar surface and from lunar orbit.
Increasing Mass Ratio to Improve Performance.
 An even better option than the twin Centaurs would be to use the proposals of ULA (United Launch Alliance) to scale the Centaurs up larger, widen their diameters, and use lightweight aluminum-lithium instead of the steel now used. ULA suggests by doing this their mass ratio can be increased from 10 to 1 to 20 to 1. This is discussed by Jon Goff on his site, Selenian Boondocks.
 Scaling a rocket stage up is known to increase mass ratio. Widening them improves mass ratio because the closer a tank is to sphere the better the storage efficiency, a sphere having the best mass efficiency. And in regards to strength compared to weight, Al-Li can be as much as twice as good as steel.
 These weight saving methods should also be applied to the smaller cryogenic stages to improve their performance. For instance the Ariane cryogenic stages I used above may be able to reach 10 to 1 mass ratios by following this. ULA has discussed improving mass ratio as the best way to improve performance at the NewSpace 2012 conference.
 A Centaur-style stage with these weight saving techniques applied at a 40 mT propellant load and 2 mT dry mass using the best vacuum Isp for a RL-10 series engine at 465.5 s can transport 5 mT from LEO to the Moon and back as a single stage:
465.5*9.81ln(1 + 40/(2 + 5)) = 8,700 m/s, sufficient for the round-trip according to the table above.
 Actually since the delta-v of a launch to LEO is just a little more than this delta-v for a round-trip lunar mission, I like to think of this example as a stealth SSTO. ULA in maximizing the mass ratio of a Centaur-style stage while at the same time using the highest Isp engine would unwittingly also create a SSTO, capable of significant payload to orbit.
 For this SSTO to have an engine that can operate at sea level, the nozzle extension would have to be retracted at launch and extend while the engine is firing. According to Henry Spencer, this has already been successfully tested.
RL-10-B2 with nozzle retracted.
2001: A Space Odyssey.
 Another version of this high mass ratio upper stage would put it in the from of a sphere. Since a sphere has the best mass efficiency for a tank this would get an even better mass ratio, and could carry more payload. This would be most useful for the lunar transport case since you would not have to worry about the high air drag of a spherical launcher as in the ground launched case.
Aries Lunar Shuttle.
 This would be interesting since it could serve as an homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Bob Clark
Update, Sept. 28, 2013:
 Finally, NASA has acknowledged that the Block 1, first version of the SLS to launch in 2017 will have a 90+ mT payload capacity not the 70 mT always stated by NASA:
SLS Dual Use Upper Stage (DUUS).
 This is important since it means we will have the capability to do manned lunar landing missions by the 2017 first launch of the SLS:
SLS for Return to the Moon by the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11, page 5: A 90+ metric ton first launch of the SLS.
 1. Hi Bob;
 Last I heard, and it was sometime ago, there were serious thrust instabilities with the 5-segment SRB design, vs the 4 segment design that flew with the shuttle. Yes, it'll lift a lot more. No, it's not at all certain it'll really work. I may have obsolete info, but last I heard, I'd consider it a show-stopper for that particular SRB. That's not a problem you can solve with dampers: sooner or later, it'll blow up.
 2. OK. I had heard about it for the Ares I in regards to launching crew. In any case I would prefer the SLS not be used for crew anyway. For manned BEO missions, I'd prefer a separate manned launcher to get the crew to orbit.
 Bob Clark
 3. I've been informed by email that in the section "A Simple, Low Cost Upgrade" I didn't consider the heavier core stage compared to the ET to explain the reduced SLS payload compared to the shuttle.
 The shuttle did have a payload capacity of 30 mT, before it was limited to under 25 mT for safety considerations, this even when the ET still weighed 30 mT. For a fueled orbiter mass of 100+, this is a total of 160+ mT to an elliptical orbit, prior to the OMS burn(s).
 Then for the SLS, with a 63 mT core stage and an added 2 mT cryogenic upper stage, we would still be able to get 95+ mT to LEO. Again this is just for the Block 0 SLS with the added cryogenic stage.
 Then with the Block 1 if it really does have the increased payload to 95 mT, then adding on the small cryogenic stage would give it a payload capacity to ca. 120 mT.
 Bob Clark


W3 : character data is not allowed here html validation error
Error: Line 144, Column 6: character data is not allowed here
This is the most common error message that once may receive while trying to validate their HTML page. The reasons that may cause this error,
 1. There might be some character's in your code that is not allowed.
 2. You might have some text in your html body that is not a part of any of the tags like div,span, p or any other.
 3. You might have forget to surround an attribute value with single or double quotes.
 4. If you are using HTML 4.01 doctype, make sure that you do not have any self closing tabs (/>) if yes then
 5. remove those slashes.
Note : Sometimes some unwanted characters may get added to your file (copy + paste file format issues) that may cause this issue, in such a case you must check that the file encoding format is UTF-8, if not just do that using Text-Editors like Notepad++ or SublimeText.
 Topics: Pages | 2015 | Tutorials | Questions | Python


text:
How Do Mice Communicate With One Another
Mice can be one of the more difficult pests for people to handle. These little critters can get inside everything, chew through your bedding and anything boxed up, and will leave feces throughout your home. They're also great communicators and quite smart, good at getting around traps and working together to get what they want – which is to make your home their home too. So how do they actually communicate with one another? There are three main ways that they communicate: sound, action, and urine.
Sing a Song
Mice can squeak, chirp, and sing to one another to communicate. Their songs are actually quite complicated, just like how birds sing to one another. It can be a song from a mother mouse to her pups, or from a male to attract a female for mating. They can also make sounds that are called ultrasonic vocalizations. Ultrasonic vocalizations are so high pitched that human hearing cannot pick up on them. These are generated in rodents by the larynx and are an effective way to communicate without alerting humans that they have taken up residence in their home.
My Chemical Romance
Their urine cannot send messages as clear as their squeaks, chirps, and singing does, but it does carry pheromones that carry information to other mice. And these chemical conversations do communicate quite a bit. While male mice sing to attract a mate, a female uses pheromones in her urine to communicate to male mice that she is ready to breed. Male mice also mark out their territory using urine, and every single male mouse has a unique marker in their urine to communicate who they are. More dominant male mice are therefore avoided by less dominant mice, as they view the territory as dangerous and so do not trespass. This also goes for their vermin cousins, rats. Both types of rodents effectively use urine to communicate.
The same way that humans have non-verbal communication – think of glowering versus smiling – mice do too. One way that mice communicate their affection towards their colony mates is through grooming. Grooming can also be used by more dominant male mice against less dominant male mice to establish authority over the colony. Another way that mice show aggression is through their tails. When they bang or drum their tails against the ground, it is a signal that they are ready to attack. If your home has both mice and rats within it then you may hear their drumming more often than you would like. Some mice also drum their front paws on leaves to communicate, but no scientific reason for this behaviour has been identified yet.
Tame the Beast
Mice are incredibly intelligent creatures, and while some people enjoy keeping them as pets, there is a huge difference between a tamed pet mouse and a mouse that is wild and may be carrying disease and tearing up your house. Learning how they communicate, and what to listen for and look for if you think you have mice can give you an edge in the fight for ownership over your home. If you do have a mouse infestation, the best thing to do is to contact a professional, who can help you get rid of the mice as quickly as possible. The team at Gilpin's Pest Control are happy to help and want you to win the fight against the little invaders who have made house in your home.


text:
Great post from Millward Brown's head of research, Nigel Hollis, on some Thinkbox research which validates research from the 80s by Millward Brown founding partner, Gordon Brown.
For an ad to be effective Gordon concluded, "There must be some connection between that which is interesting and involving in the commercial and both the brand and the message." This concept was later dubbed "The Creative Magnifier."
On simplicity and non-distracting creative:
The Thinkbox research also highlights the "attentional blink" described by Graham Page and Professor Jane Raymond in their 2006 paper "Cognitive Neuroscience, Marketing and Research: Separating Fact from Fiction.' The blink refers to the time the brain takes to process a chunk of information. During this time, the brain's ability to process new information, such as recognizing a brand in a commercial, is briefly impeded. Here again, Gordon Brown anticipated these findings by saying "Creative and involving strands/elements within a commercial can actually distract from communication elements that occur at around the same time."
Interestingly enough, for online advertisers, integration is key:
Online advertising is more effective when viewers are primed by seeing the ad on TV first. The Thinkbox research finds that engagement with that online advert is more than 20 percent higher if the ad is screened on television first. Contextual memory processing – the processing that enables viewers to remember the brand being advertised – doubles when the ad is shown first on television and then online.


31 March, 2009
EurekaLog's anti-freeze feature
As you know, EurekaLog is a great tool to catch exceptions in your application. Though there are some cases which you want to consider as "bugs", but there is no exception to catch it!
For example, consider your application is deadlocking. How about endless cycle which loads CPU core up to 100%? What about do not updating your UI for 10 minutes? Are those issues bugs or not?
Yes, all these cases are bugs in your application (*). But no exception is raised in such cases - your application simply stops working. Those cases can be very nasty and hard to diagnose, because your application doesn't show any error message and doesn't generate any log files.
So, how can you catch them?
Okay, if you look in the EurekaLog's project option - you can see something called "Anti-Freeze Options" on the "Advanced Options" tab:
"Advanced Options" tab in EurekaLog's options.
You can read the EL's documentation to find out that if you enable this option then EurekaLog will detect when your application became frozen. What does it mean exactly and how does it work? Some of you can say: "Whoa, that one is cool! Let's use it!", enable the option and then face the strange behavior. You should understand what are you doing before enabling it.
There is no clear definition what does "hung application" mean. Usually the "hung application" is either deadlocking or busy with some heavy processing/computations. However from the user's point of view, your application has stopped working - therefore it is a bug.
To detect such cases you can periodically check if your application is still responding.
Okay, back to EurekaLog. The EurekaLog uses the common technique by using the WM_NULL message. The WM_NULL is a special message that performs no operation. The application should process this message by simple ignoring it. You can use it in many situations. And you can use it to detect hung application too.
What does it mean that application is hung? Deadlock, endless cycle, not updating the UI have one thing in common: they do not process the window messages. In all those cases application is busy with some work and it doesn't call Peek/GetMessage. Therefore, you can send a WM_NULL message to application to see if it'll respond to it in specified time. If you don't get a reply within, say, 30 seconds interval - then the application is probably hung. Notice that "probably" word. Application may really perform some actual work (accessing network or perform complex computations, etc) and it'll come back to life later. Yes, technically this is not an error. But the end-user doesn't care about this stuff. His application has stopped responding - therefore it is a bug.
EurekaLog launches a helper thread (TFreezeThread) at application start up. This thread will constantly asks your main thread with the WM_NULL messages. If you are unable to answer in the specified amount of time then this helper thread starts consider you as "hung" and raises an EFrozenApplication exception. Since this is an exception - the exception can be handled by standard EurekaLog's hooking code. The EurekaLog will generate a full bug-report and send it to you. By default the application will not be terminated after processing the exception. Therefore the exception will be raised a few more times and then the "Restart application" check-box will appear in the exception dialog:
If you don't like this standard behavior - you can easily change it. For example, I personally prefer adding a new exception filter (there is a "Exceptions Filters" tab in the EL's project options) on EFrozenApplication class and changing it's action to "Restart" or "Terminate".
It is important to note that the exception itself is raised from the main thread (and not the helper thread) - therefore a call stack for the exception will contain the proper place where main thread was hung. And by analyzing this call stack, you can detect the source of the problem. Well, raising the exception in the another thread is certainly a dirty trick, involving direct manipulations with thread's context than in rare cases can lead to memory leaks (**) - therefore it can not be used in regular situations. But it is okay in such emergency case - it is better to have bug-report on hung application with (little possible) mem-leak than do not have bug-report at all.
BTW, there is run-time control too! So, if you want to do some heavy lifting in your Button3Click, you can disable anto-freeze checking before and restore it after. To do so, you can play with the CurrentEurekaLogOptions.FreezeActivate property. Setting it to False will abort monitoring helper thread and setting it to True will create a new monitor thread:
procedure TForm1.Button3Click(Sender: TObject);
 CurrentEurekaLogOptions.FreezeActivate := False;
 // <- here goes your actual code
 CurrentEurekaLogOptions.FreezeActivate := True;
Okay, what does it all means to us, if you'll enable this option?
First: your application will receive WM_NULLs (which is 0) periodically. That is how EurekaLog checks if you are alive or not. This should not care you, since you are not supposed to do any processing of WM_NULL message.
Second: you should design your application very carefully. If you write some "bad" code in your Button1Click (and by "bad" I mean code that performs long-time operation) - your application may encounter a "bug". If you have some code that can potentially takes a long time to complete (connection to DB, for example) - now it is a good time to unload such code in the helper thread (and do not forget to abort or kill it after some period of time if it doesn't complete his job).
Third: do not make check-timeout too short. Or you'll be flooded with false bug-reports - only for the reason that Button2Click takes a whopping two seconds to complete instead of half a second on your developer machine. A minute or two is usually a good estimate.
Fourth: the anti-freeze feature starts working only after your main form is created. The start up of more or less complex application usually takes a little time due which the application does not respond to the messages. It is normal behavior and therefore EL wait for application to start up.
Fifth: nothing is free and there is a certain overhead for using this feature. Specifically: a) there is a one more thread in your application and b) it is constantly pumping your message queue with WM_NULL messages. "Constantly" means few times per second here (of course EL do not want to eat 100% of your CPU just to check your activity :) ). From CPU point of view - the helper thread is napping almost always. Therefore those overheads are very low and I don't know why anyone should care about it - but I've mention it just in case.
Sixth: it is important not to mix EurekaLog anti-freeze feature with TIdAntiFreeze or similar Delphi component - those are entirely different things which have only similar name in common.
(*) Well, the last case (not updating UI) is not a bug for you, the developer - since after 10 minutes your application will suddenly come back to life. But this is certainly an error from the end-user's viewpoint.
(**) Consider, what happens with such (typical) code:
SomeObj := TSomeClass.Create();
 //...
What, if the EFrozenException will be raised right after your code exits constructor, but before assigning the object pointer to SomeObj variable? The try-finally block will be skipped, since exception was raised before try. But even if FreeAndNil will be executed - it has nothing to free: the SomeObj is empty. The object reference is forgotten - therefore it is a memory leak. Well, as I said: this is a very rare scenario. You can ignore it when using in such case as hung application - since hung application is already a bug, therefore you don't make the situation worse. But you surely shouldn't use such dangerous technique in the common code.


text:
A green sea slug appears to be part animal, part plant. It's the first critter discovered to produce the plant pigment chlorophyll.
The sneaky slugs seem to have stolen the genes that enable this skill from algae that they've eaten. With their contraband genes, the slugs can carry out photosynthesis — the process plants use to convert sunlight into energy.
"They can make their energy-containing molecules without having to eat anything," said Sidney Pierce, a biologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Pierce has been studying the unique creatures, officially called Elysia chlorotica, for about 20 years. He presented his most recent findings Jan. 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Seattle. The finding was first reported by Science News.
"This is the first time that multicellar animals have been able to produce chlorophyll," Pierce told LiveScience.
The sea slugs live in salt marshes in New England and Canada. In addition to burglarizing the genes needed to make the green pigment chlorophyll, the slugs also steal tiny cell parts called chloroplasts, which they use to conduct photosynthesis. The chloroplasts use the chlorophyl to convert sunlight into energy, just as plants do, eliminating the need to eat food to gain energy.
"We collect them and we keep them in aquaria for months," Pierce said. "As long as we shine a light on them for 12 hours a day, they can survive [without food]."
The researchers used a radioactive tracer to be sure that the slugs are actually producing the chlorophyll themselves, as opposed to just stealing the ready-made pigment from algae. In fact, the slugs incorporate the genetic material so well, they pass it on to further generations of slugs.
The babies of thieving slugs retain the ability to produce their own chlorophyll, though they can't carry out photosynthesis until they've eaten enough algae to steal the necessary chloroplasts, which they can't yet produce on their own.
The slugs accomplishment is quite a feat, and scientists aren't yet sure how the animals actually appropriate the genes they need.
"It certainly is possible that DNA from one species can get into another species, as these slugs have clearly shown," Pierce said. "But the mechanisms are still unknown."
- Top 10 Scariest Sea Creatures
- Hard Labor: How 10 Animals Struggle to Survive
- Amazing Animal Abilities


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Comment: Migrated to Confluence 5.3
Tree Based Syntax
Groovy has special syntax support for List and Maps. This is great because it gives a concise representation of the actual object being defined, so its easier to keep track of what a program or script is doing. But what about programs which contain arbitrary nested tree structures. Surely, they are the hardest ones to keep track of what is going on. Isn't that an area where syntactic help will be most beneficial?
The answer is definitely yes and Groovy comes to the party with its builder concept. You can use it for DOM-like APIs or Ant tasks or Jelly tags or Swing widgets or whatever. Each may have their own particular factory mechanism to create the tree of objects - however they can share the same builder syntax to define them - in a concise alternative to XML or lengthy programming code. See How Builders Work
[Note: the syntax in some of these examples is slightly out-dated. See chapter 8 of GINA in the mean-time until these examples are updated.]
Here's an example:
Code Block
def f = frame(size:[300,300], text:'My Window') {
 label(bounds:[10,10,290,30], text:'Save changes')
 panel(bounds:[10,40,290,290]) {
 button(text:'OK', action:{ save close })
 button(text:'Cancel', action:{ close })
Code Block
def f = frame(text: calculateFieldNamefoo, 1234){
 // lets iterate through some map
 for e in map {
Using this simple mechanism we can easily create any structured tree of data - or provide an event based model too. Note in Groovy you can just overload the invokeMethodname, arguments to have a simple polymorphic tree creation - such as for DOM is structures or Ant tasks or Jelly tags etc.
Here's an example of some HTML using some mixed content which is typically hard to do neatly in some markup languages
Code Block
html {
 head {
 title"XML encoding with Groovy"
 body {
 h1"XML encoding with Groovy"
 p"this format can be used as an alternative markup to XML"
 / an element with attributes and text content /
 ahref:'' ["Groovy"]
 / mixed content /
 p [
 "This is some",
 "text. For more see the",
 ahref:'' ["Groovy"],
 p "some text"
Finally here's an example of creating some name-spaced XML structure XSD...
Code Block
def builder = NodeBuilder.newInstance()
def xmlns = new groovy.xml.NamespaceBuilder(builder)
def xsd = xmlns.namespace('', 'xsd')
def root = xsd.schema(xmlns:['foo':'http://someOtherNamespace']) {
 annotation {
 documentation("Purchase order schema for")
 //documentation(xmlns=[xml.lang:'en']) ["Purchase order schema for"]
 element(name:'purchaseOrder', type:'PurchaseOrderType')
 element(name:'comment', type:'xsd:string')
 complexType(name:'PurchaseOrderType') {
 sequence {
 element(name:'shipTo', type:'USAddress')
 element(name:'billTo', type:'USAddress')
 element(minOccurs:'0', ref:'comment')
 element(name:'items', type:'Items')
 attribute(name:'orderDate', type:'xsd:date')
 complexType(name:'USAddress') {
 sequence {
 element(name:'name', type:'xsd:string')
 element(name:'street', type:'xsd:string')
 element(name:'city', type:'xsd:string')
 element(name:'state', type:'xsd:string')
 element(name:'zip', type:'xsd:decimal')
 attribute(fixed:'US', name:'country', type:'xsd:NMTOKEN')
 complexType(name:'Items') {
 sequence {
 element(maxOccurs:'unbounded', minOccurs:'0', name:'item') {
 complexType {
 sequence {
 element(name:'productName', type:'xsd:string')
 element(name:'quantity') {
 simpleType {
 restriction(base:'xsd:positiveInteger') {
 element(name:'USPrice', type:'xsd:decimal')
 element(minOccurs:'0', name:'shipDate', type:'xsd:date')
 attribute(name:'partNum', type:'SKU', use:'required')
 /* Stock Keeping Unit, a code for identifying products */
 simpleType(name:'SKU') {
 restriction(base:'xsd:string') {
There's a converter from XML to groovy markup so you can try out this new markup language on any XML documents you have already.
Special cases
To output elements or attributes with a '-' in their name, you need to quote the names. For example, to generate a web-app descriptor for a Servlet app:
Code Block
def builder = new groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder()
builder.'web-app' {
 'display-name' 'My Web Application'
Code Block
 My Web Application
Read from external variable
Most builder examples are inline usage. To use a builder to build for an external variable, you may use:
Code Block
class MyConfig{
 static nodes = {
 'first entry'( key: 'value')
def result = new YourBuilder().invokeMethod('rootNode', MyConfig.nodes )
Andy Glover introduces builders through an astronomical example


%0 Book %E Frickel, Scott, %E Albert, Mathieu, 1959- %E Prainsack, Barbara, %I Rutgers University Press %D 2016 %C New Brunswick, New Jersey %G English %B American campus. %@ 9780813585918 %@ _PHONE_ %@ 9780813585901 %@ _PHONE_ %T Investigating interdisciplinary collaboration : theory and practice across disciplines / edited by Scott Frickel, Mathieu Albert, and Barbara Prainsack ; foreword by Helga Nowotny. %U _URL_ %U _URL_ %X Universities in North America and Europe increasingly provide financial incentives to encourage collaboration between faculty in different disciplines, based on the premise that this yields more innovative and sophisticated research. Drawing from a wealth of empirical data, the contributors to Investigating Interdisciplinary Collaboration put that theory to the test. What they find reveals how interdisciplinarity is not living up to its potential, but also suggests how universities might foster more genuinely collaborative and productive research.


Epaulette (/ˈɛpəlɛt/; also spelled epaulet)[1] is a type of ornamental shoulder piece or decoration used as insignia of rank by armed forces and other organizations. In the French and other armies, epaulettes are also worn by all ranks of elite or ceremonial units when on parade. It may bear rank or other insignia, and should not be confused with a shoulder mark – also called a shoulder board, rank slide, or slip-on – a flat cloth sleeve worn on the shoulder strap of a uniform (although the two terms are often used interchangeably).[2]
Officer of the French Republican Guard with epaulettes
Components and structure the epaulette of an Imperial Russian lieutenant colonel, 46th Artillery Brigade
1. Lining
2. Button
3. Spine
4. Attente/shoulder strap
5. Stars (or pips)
6. Branch insignia
7. Field
8. Unit number
9. Neck (bezel)
10. Fringe
[clarification needed]
Epaulettes are fastened to the shoulder by a shoulder strap or passenten,[3] a small strap parallel to the shoulder seam, and the button near the collar, or by laces on the underside of the epaulette passing through holes in the shoulder of the coat. Colloquially, any shoulder straps with marks are also called epaulettes. The placement of the epaulette, its color and the length and diameter of its bullion fringe are used to signify the wearer's rank. At the join of the fringe and the shoulderpiece is often a metal piece in the form of a crescent. Although originally worn in the field, epaulettes are now normally limited to dress or ceremonial military uniforms.
Épaulette is a French word meaning "little shoulder" (diminutive of épaule, meaning "shoulder").
Louis XIV wearing shoulder ribbons, an early type of epaulette of the late 17th century
This US Navy coatee from ca. 1862 has initials on the epaulettes that stand for Medical Service. The length on the epaulettes distinguishes rank; in this case the 2.5-inch length indicates the rank of assistant surgeon.[4]
Epaulettes bear some resemblance to the shoulder pteruges of ancient Greco-Roman military costumes. However, their direct origin lies in the bunches of ribbons worn on the shoulders of military coats at the end of the 17th century, which were partially decorative and partially intended to prevent shoulder belts from slipping. These ribbons were tied into a knot that left the fringed end free. This established the basic design of the epaulette as it evolved through the 18th and 19th centuries.[5]
From the 18th century on, epaulettes were used in the French and other armies to indicate rank. The rank of an officer could be determined by whether an epaulette was worn on the left shoulder, the right shoulder, or on both. Later a "counter-epaulette" (with no fringe) was worn on the opposite shoulder of those who wore only a single epaulette. Epaulettes were made in silver or gold for officers and in cloth of various colors for the enlisted men of various arms. Certain categories of cavalry wore flexible metal epaulettes referred to as shoulder scales, rarely worn on the field.
By the early 18th century, epaulettes had become the distinguishing feature of commissioned rank. This led officers of military units still without epaulettes to petition for the right to wear epaulettes to ensure that their status would be recognized.[6] During the Napoleonic Wars and subsequently through the 19th century, grenadiers, light infantry, voltigeurs and other specialist categories of infantry in many European armies wore cloth epaulettes with wool fringes in various colors to distinguish them from ordinary line infantry. "Flying artillery" wore "wings", similar to an epaulette but with only a bit of fringe on the outside, which matched the shoulder seam. Heavy artillery wore small balls representing ammunition on their shoulders.[citation needed]
An intermediate form in some services, such as the Russian Army, is the shoulder board, which neither has a fringe nor extends beyond the shoulder seam. This originated during the 19th century as a simplified version for service wear of the heavy and conspicuous full dress epaulette with bullion fringes.
Modern derivations
Airline pilot uniform shirts generally include cloth flattened tubular epaulettes having cloth or bullion braid stripes, attached by shoulder straps integral to the shirts. The rank of the wearer is designated by the number of stripes: traditionally four for a captain, three for senior first officer or first officer, and two for either a first officer or second officer. However, rank insignia are airline specific. For example, at some airlines, two stripes denote junior first officer and one stripe second officer (cruise or relief pilot). Airline captains' uniform caps usually will have a braid pattern on the bill. These uniform specifications change depending on the company's policy.
Belgian Grenadiers with red fringed epaulettes
In the Belgian army, red epaulettes with white fringes are worn with the ceremonial uniforms of the Royal Escort while fully red ones are worn by the Grenadiers. Trumpeters of the Royal Escort are distinguished by all red epaulettes while officers of the two units wear silver or gold respectively.
Canadian officers in mess dress or mess kit
Epaulettes of Provo Wallis, Maritime Command Museum, CFB Halifax
In the Canadian Armed Forces, epaulettes are still worn on some Army Full Dress, Patrol Dress, and Mess Dress uniforms. Epaulettes in the form of shoulder boards are worn with the officer's white Naval Service Dress.
After the unification of the Forces, and prior to the issue of the Distinct Environmental Uniforms, musicians of the Band Branch wore epaulettes of braided gold cord.
Until 1914, officers of most French Army infantry regiments wore gold epaulettes in full dress, while those of mounted units wore silver. No insignia was worn on the epaulette itself, though the bullion fringe falling from the crescent differed according to rank.[7] Other ranks of most branches of the infantry, as well as cuirassiers wore detachable epaulettes of various colours (red for line infantry, green for Chasseurs, yellow for Colonial Infantry etc.) with woollen fringes, of a traditional pattern that dated back to the 18th Century. Other cavalry such as hussars, dragoons and chasseurs à cheval wore special epaulettes of a style originally intended to deflect sword blows from the shoulder.
In the modern French Army, epaulettes are still worn by those units retaining 19th-century-style full dress uniforms, notably the ESM Saint-Cyr and the Garde Républicaine. The French Foreign Legion continued to wear their green and red epaulettes, except for a break from 1915 to 1930. In recent years, the Marine Infantry and some other units have readopted their traditional fringed epaulettes in various colours for ceremonial parades. The Marine nationale and the Armée de l'Air do not use epaulettes, but non-commissioned and commissioned officers wear a gilded shoulder strap called attente[citation needed], which original function was to clip the epaulette onto the shoulder. The attentes[citation needed] are also worn by Army generals on dress uniform.
Epauletten, and the corresponding shoulder knots of the German Empire _PHONE_
Until World War I, officers of the Imperial German Army generally wore silver epaulettes as a distinguishing feature of their full-dress uniforms. For ranks up to and including captain these were "scale" epaulettes without fringes, for majors and colonels with fine fringes and for generals with a heavy fringe. The base of the epaulette was of regimental colors. For ordinary duty, dress "shoulder-cords" of silver braid intertwined with state colors, were worn.[8]
During the period 1919-45, German Army uniforms were known for a four cord braided "figure-of-eight" decoration which acted as a shoulder board for senior and general officers. This was called a "shoulder knot" and was in silver with the specialty color piping (for field officers) and silver with red border (for generals). Although it was once seen on US Army uniforms, it remains only in the mess uniform. A similar form of shoulder knot was worn by officers of the British Army in full dress until 1914 and is retained by the Household Cavalry today. Epaulettes of this pattern are used by the Republic of Korea Army's general officers and were widely worn by officers of the armies of Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador and Bolivia; all of which formerly wore uniforms closely following the Imperial German model. The Chilean Army still retains the German style of epaulette in the uniforms of its ceremonial units, the Military Academy and the NCO School while the 5th Cavalry Regiment "Aca Caraya" of the Paraguayan Army sports both epaulettes and shoulder knots in its dress uniforms (save for a platoon wearing Chaco War uniforms). Epaulettes of the German


text:
Description of the project (KA2 Erasmus Strategic Partnership Project)
COPE is complementary with the E2MP project and is developed by the same consortium. While E2MP trains youth managers, COPE trains young people, both projects target young people with fewer opportunities directly or indirectly.
COPE's rationale is focused on two key elements of the EU policies: social inclusion and unemployment amongst youth with fewer opportunities.
COPE can be considered as one of the EU's affirmations' solution: "Young people need the opportunity to develop the skills and competences which will help them to find their place in the labour market and in society as a whole."
COPE aims to:
- Connect young people in Europe with the aim of increasing social inclusion, promoting EU values, diversity, acceptance and inter-cultural and social dialogue.
- COPE encourages youth to support their peers in need through volunteering and learning exchanges.
- Fight against long-term work/training inactivity.
- Increase the basic skills of young people with fewer opportunities through simplified training and peer learning;
- Connect young people with fewer opportunities with job centres and inform them about projects such as; European job support and initiatives
- Make Erasmus+ accessible to everyone and motivate young people with fewer opportunities to take part in a mobility project with the aim of:
- Increasing the employability and social skills of young people with fewer opportunities;
- Decreasing the fears young have about mobility through guidance.
Young people including young people with fewer opportunities in Europe
- Training kit
- Introduction to European Union and international mobility grants
- What do I need to know when preparing my departure
- Online platform for youth – OPY


text:
|Central Arizona Highlands|
The Central Arizona Highlands push themselves up in between the dramatic desert landscape of the Sonoran Desert to the south, and the vast Colorado Plateau to the north. This transition zone of ancient, eroded mountains lies like a sash across Arizona, from Kingman in the northwest all the way down to Safford and the Sitgreaves Apache National Forest in the southeast and beyond.
Exploring our trails you will discover a microcosm of the greater Central Arizona Highlands region – ponderosa pine forest, juniper-piyon woodland, chaparral-covered hillsides, a precious shaded creek system, and ancient geologic formations.
This diversity of plant life results in a wonderful richness of wildlife species, offering us all a wealth of opportunities for exploration, discovery, and learning. For more information about all the geologic zones of Arizona, CLICK HERE


RAMADAN 2010 - The 3rd Day
RAMADAN 2010 - The 3rd Day
The easiness of Islam is a blessing from Allah
Color Change According to the Environment
Do living creatures only make use of color to protect themselves against their enemies? Definitely not. Some animals protect themselves also from cold and heat by means of enzymes giving color to the hairs covering their bodies. In animals that live in cold regions, the hairs covering the tip of the legs, ear and nose, which are the most sensitive parts of the body, are dark colored. Dark colored hairs provide more heat energy for animals thus helping them to warm easier, just like humans who try to benefit from the sun better by wearing dark colored clothes in winter. Color change is very common in land animals. For example, in summer, the fur of the northern fox turns white, because their body temperature is high. In winters, however, as it becomes colder, their body temperature drops and a more suitable environment for the enzymes to work easily is provided. For this reason, in winters, the fur of the northern fox darkens. Rabbits, foxes, weasels, and polecats living in northern latitudes turn brown in summer and white in winter.
While some birds become completely white in winter months, they take on a new appearance in spring matching the color of the ground and vegetation.
Warning Colors
Living creatures make use of color for varied purposes. Using it as a mean of warning is one of these purposes. In the following pages, we will give some examples of this.
Colors in Birds
One of the most important features of the multicolored feathers of birds is that they are lifeless structures. The reason why a feather maintains its color exactly, even after it is shed, is that a fully developed feather is completely lifeless.
Since these formations, which are made up of the substance keratin, are soon worn down by environmental conditions, they are regularly renewed. Yet, each time, the bird regains its colorful feathers. This is because the feathers of birds continue to grow until they fully reach the necessary length, and the characteristic color and pattern of that specific kind.
Due to their different structure, feathers can have an appearance similar to that obtained by a glass prism breaking light into different colors. Colors that are formed through refraction of light in this way are brighter and more metallic than those that are colored by pigments. The colors of these feathers shift from blue to green, and from orange to red. Generally, the green, blue, and metallic colors in birds are formed through the reflection and refraction of light. Yet, some of the colors of feathers come from pigments.
There are mainly three kinds of pigments in birds. These are melanin pigments that produce black, brown or dull yellow, lipochrome pigments that produce red, yellow or orange, and carotenoids. Blue, green and some other bright colors in birds are created by microscopic bubbles in the keratin of the feathers that refract the light. The feathers absorbing the full spectrum of light and only reflecting blue, on the other hand, creates the blue color of some birds.
Hormones also play an important role in color change in birds. The color difference between the male and female members of some species is caused by sex hormones. The different colorings and feather shapes of cocks and hens, for example, depend on the estrogen hormone.
The colors of birds are important for their adaptation to their habitat as well as for male and female members' recognition of each other and the males' courtship of females in the mating season. In addition, pigments, which give color to feathers, enhance the strength of the feathers, store energy coming from the sun and prevent harmful ultraviolet rays from entering the body.
 Muslims turn away from worthless things.
The Remover of Tribulations
From Najul Balaga: The lord of believers (saas) said: He [Hazrat Mahdi (as)] will hide from people, AND EVEN IF TRACKERS LOOK FOR HIM THEY WILL FIND NO TRACE OF HIM...
(Kitab al-Ghayba, [Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 51], Ansariyan Publications, Collected by: Muhammad Baqr al-Majlis, Iran-Qum, 2003, p. 186)
The hadith says that as a result of tip-offs by hypocrites, Hazrat Mahdi (as) will be looked for, but to no avail. WITH THESE TIP-OFFS FROM THE HYPOCRITES, described as "vile and loathsome entities like the weevils that try to damage the wheat from the inside," (see _URL_ TRAPS WILL BE SET FOR HAZRAT MAHDI (AS). But even if trackers seek to gather information in order to arrest, exile or imprison Hazrat Mahdi (as), they will never succeed. THEY WILL BE UNABLE TO UNEARTH ANY INFORMATION AGAINST HIM AND THEIR TRAPS WILL NEVER WORK.
Darwinists' ''Artificial Life'' Deception
Mycoplasma Mycoides
Clarifications on the subject are as follows:
- Moreover, and most important of all, the research in question HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOW LIFE BEGAN. The study does not eliminate the dead-end that Darwinists are in regarding the origin of life. This profound dead-end, that effectively demolishes Darwinism, is growing still worse and leading Darwinism to a state of total collapse.
- After artificially synthesizing one Mycoplasma genitalium (Mycoplasma mycoides) in the laboratory, the American scientist J. Craig Venter then installed it in the cell nucleus of another mycoplasma, and the cell continued functioning with this DNA.
- The procedures carried out are no different to the techniques known as cloning.
- A copy taken from the DNA of Mycoplasma mycoides, consisting of 1.08 million base sequences, was arranged under laboratory conditions and transferred into the cell of another living thing.
- No new DNA was manufactured, no information that did not exist before was produced, and no artificial DNA sequence was manufactured from nothing in the laboratory. DNA already exists in the cell. The procedure carried out is nothing more than existing DNA with its extraordinary information being taken and re-arranged and transplanted into another cell.
- The re-engineering in question was carried out under the control of conscious scientists aware of the extraordinary complexity of the information in DNA, in the most advanced laboratories and under controlled conditions, using an existing specimen that Allah had created from nothing, and experimenting for many years.
- This cloning procedure performed on a single bacterium could only be performed as the result of longer than 10-year research costing $40 million, by a core team of 20 scientists, with thousands of others in the background.
- This effort made by scientists in order for a single pre-existing specimen to be transferred by conscious individuals in a conscious environment revealed that not even one copy of the complex structure in question could be manufactured without an existing specimen, without conscious intervention and without technical equipment.
- The development in question is an excellent one in the name of science. As genome research progresses, it will be possible to copy DNA from living cells and transplant these into other cells. By Allah's leave, this research will be used in many beneficial ways, such as curing various diseases. But all these things are conscious intervention in existing structures. To portray these conscious and controlled experiments performed on already existing structures as evidence for evolution is not only deceptive, but also an indication of Darwinists' despair. It is feeble speculation used by Darwinists unable to explain the beginning and complexity of life.
- If Darwinists wish to prove their claims, then they must BE ABLE TO PRODUCE the components of life FROM NOTHING. After that, they have to explain how this might have come about as the result of blind chance, in an uncontrolled environment exceedingly dangerous to life, in the absence of any conscious intervention. The fact is that Darwinists are unable to produce EVEN A SINGLE PROTEIN under controlled conditions and as a result of conscious intervention. And it is impossible for them ever to do so.
- By this research, Darwinist scientists have once again proved, by their own hand, the complexity of life and that not even the smallest component of life can come into being by chance.
- It needs to be made clear that this result DOES NOT EQUATE TO LIFE. The living cell is a whole consisting of countless complex components, and only forms when all of these are present at the same time and place and combine to produce a complex organization. The transplanting of a single extraordinarily complex DNA is nothing more than replicating a very small part of an already existing system. Darwinists rejoicing at the existence of DNA obtained by copying are a far cry from accounting for the first living thing, in other words living cell, they imagine, and there are insuperable obstacles to their doing so.
 Jim Collins, professor of biomedical engineering from the University of Boston, opposed the speculation about the cloning research in question in Nature magazine, saying:
"The work reported by Venter and his colleagues is an important advance in our ability to re-engineer organisms; it does not represent the making of new life from scratch." 1
One feature of Darwinists is that they include their efforts to reproduce structures exhibiting the glory of Creation in the whole Darwinist furore, using all the Darwinist publications at their disposal and very large capital letters. Darwinist furore has recently begun being extensively used in this time when science has been shown to refute the theory of evolution. This means that Darwinists are in a terrible bottleneck.