logo image
The 2013-14 European winter storm season has been pretty active so far. Early in the season, Windstorm Christian raced across northern Europe, followed by Xaver in early December, and then storms Dirk, Erich, Felix and Anne hit the U.K., Ireland, and northwest France over the Christmas and New Year period.
To date the season has been a great demonstration of how northern Europe is a common target for winter storms. However, this week sees the 5th anniversary of Windstorm Klaus, reminding us that storms can also impact southern Europe, affecting regions not acclimatized to extreme winds and causing severe damage.
What happened when Klaus hit and what have we learned from it?
Can such a storm occur again in the near future and more importantly, can we predict it, or at least estimate how bad it could be?
Windstorm Klaus sprung to life on January 23, 2009 in the central Atlantic, directly in line with southern France. The climate backdrop to this storm was pretty uncharacteristic. The large-scale Icelandic low-pressure system and the Azores high-pressure system were farther south than usual. Also, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) was entering a negative phase.
A positive phase of the NAO creates favorable conditions for strong storms to pass over northern Europe, as Lothar and Anatol did in 1999. But a neutral or negative phase of the NAO can lead to storms that affect southern Europe and this is exactly what happened with Windstorm Klaus.
By midnight on January 24, as Klaus approached land, it had a central pressure of 963 hPa, comparable to Windstorm Lothar. Winds reached severe gale force in the southwest of France, peaking with gusts above 140 km/h at coastal locations near Bordeaux, accompanied by violent seas with wave heights of several meters. Local infrastructure was severely disrupted by fallen trees and electricity pylons.
Over 1.7 million households were without power immediately after the storm and over 60% of maritime pines in the Forêt des Landes were destroyed. Once the damage had been appraised, Klaus was estimated to have caused insured losses of €2.5billion (US$3.4 billion).
Shortly after the event, RMS scientists Dr. Navin Peiris and Dr. Christos Mitas conducted a reconnaissance survey, which helped to enhance our understanding of building vulnerability in this region. They observed frequent non-structural wind damage, such as the uplifting of roof tiles and collapsed chimneys, but also direct wind damages from tree fall, due to the high density of trees in close proximity to properties.
Damage EUWSK laus
Source: RMS 2009 reconnaissance
Closer examination of the roof damage revealed little evidence of proper fixation, particularly along roof edges, leaving them more vulnerable to wind damage. Another observation was the use of canal-type tiles, which are prone to uplift from the build up of air pressure, caused by strong winds. Also, damage was more frequent in residential properties, compared to commercial or industrial buildings that are generally engineered in line with building codes.
This survey, combined with an assessment of claims data, provided us with an enhanced understanding of regional vulnerability differences. For example, we observed a significantly lower fragility of buildings in the Perpignan area compared to the southwest of France.
modeled and observed EUWS
Ratio of the modeled and observed losses by postcode using non-regionalized vulnerability functions. Variation supports need for distinct vulnerability regions.
This information is vital for us to continually develop and inform our models, in order to represent the risk accurately. Due to the inherent uncertainty in the climatic phenomena driving windstorms, it is not possible to forecast exactly when the next strong storm will hit southern Europe. Catastrophe models provide a range of possible events, which can help the insurance industry prepare for the next big event.
The RMS Europe Windstorm Model contains storms comparable to Klaus, including some that impart larger wind intensities and damages. The below image compares two examples of stochastic storms with the actual Klaus wind footprint to illustrate storms that could potentially cause insured losses similar to or higher than Klaus.
Klaus And Stoch
Currently we are in a close to neutral phase of the NAO, so does that mean a Klaus type storm could occur this winter? No one can answer that question for certain, but a model at least enables us to explore the possible worst-case scenarios and be prepared.
You May Also Like
February 21, 2019
Addressing the Challenges in Assessing Livestock Insurance Risks
November 16, 2015
Are (Re)insurers Really Able To Plan For That Rainy Day?
Many (re)insurers may be taken aback by the level of claims arising from floods in the French Riviera on October 3, 2015. The reason? A large proportion of the affected homes and businesses they insure in the area are nowhere near a river or floodplain, so many models failed to identify the possibility of their inundation by rainfall and flash floods. Effective flood modeling must begin with precipitation (rain/snowfall), since river-gauge-based modeling of inland flood risk lacks the ability to cope with extreme peaks of precipitation intensity. Further, a credible flood model must incorporate risk factors as well as the hazard: the nature of the ground, such as its saturation level due to antecedent conditions, and the extent of flood defenses. Failing to provide such critical factor can cause risk to be dramatically miscalculated. A not so sunny Côte d'Azur This was clearly apparent to the RMS event reconnaissance team who visited the affected areas of southern France immediately after the floods. "High-water marks for fluvial flooding from the rivers Brague and Riou de l'Argentiere were at levels over two meters, but flash floodwaters reached heights in excess of one meter in areas well away from the rivers and their floodplains," reported the team. This caused significant damage to many more ground-floor properties than would have been expected, including structural damage to foundations and scouring caused by fast-floating debris. Damage to vehicles parked in underground carparks was extensive, as many filled with rainwater. Vehicles struck by more than 0.5 meters of water were written off, all as a result of an event that was not modeled by many insurers. The Nice floods show clearly how European flood modeling must be taken to a new level. It is essential that modelers capture the entire temporal precipitation process that leads to floods. Antecedent conditions—primarily the capacity of the soil to absorb water must be considered, since a little additional rainfall may trigger saturation, causing "saturation excess overland flow" (or runoff). This in turn can lead to losses such as those assessed by our event reconnaissance team in Nice. Our modeling team believes that to achieve this new level of understanding, models must be based on continuous hydrological simulations, with a fine time-step discretization; the models must simulate the intensity of rainfall over time and place, at a high level of granularity. We've been able to see that models that are not based on continuous precipitation modeling could miss up to 50% of losses that would occur off flood plains, leading to serious underestimation of technical pricing for primary and reinsurance contracts. What's in a model? When building a flood model, starting from precipitation is fundamental to the reproduction, and therefore the modeling, of realistic spatial correlation patterns between river basins, cities, and other areas of concentrated risks, which are driven by positive relationships between precipitation fields. Such modeling of rainfall may also identify the potential for damage from fluvial events. But credible defenses must also be included in the model. The small, poorly defended river Brague burst its banks due to rainfall, demolishing small structures in the town of Biot. Only a rainfall-based model that considers established defenses can capture this type of damage. Simulated precipitation forms the foundation of RMS inland flood models, which enables representation of both fluvial and pluvial flood risk. Since flood losses are often driven by events outside major river flood plains, such an approach, coupled with an advanced defense model, is the only way to garner a satisfactory view of risk. Visits by our event reconnaissance teams further allow RMS to integrate the latest flood data into models, for example as point validation for hazard and vulnerability. Sluggish growth in European insurance markets presents a challenge for many (re)insurers. Broad underwriting of flood risk presents an opportunity, but demands appropriate modeling solutions. RMS flood products provide just that, by ensuring that the potential for significant loss is well understood, and managed appropriately.…
Laurent Marescot
Laurent Marescot
Senior Director, Market and Product Specialists at RMS
Laurent is a catastrophe risk management expert at RMS, advising some of the largest companies in the (re)insurance industry how to best manage their nat cat, agriculture, cyber and terrorism risks. He also interacts as an expert for governmental and regulatory authorities. Laurent initially joined RMS in 2008 as part of the account management team, servicing the European (re)insurance and ILS market. He then headed the model product management group for all EMEA and APAC climatic/weather risk perils, such as windstorm, typhoon, severe convective storm and flood, as well as RMS global agricultural risk.
Prior to RMS, Laurent worked 3 years at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) as a Research Associate and Lecturer, managing multidisciplinary research projects. Laurent still lectures regularly on catastrophe modeling and insurance risk quantification at universities and gives seminars and invited talks in international industry conferences.


text:
The History of Kool-Aid
Remember that TV ad?
Well, Kool-Aid got its start right here in Hastings, Nebraska. This internationally known soft drink mix, now owned by Kraft Foods, actually started out as a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack, invented by Edwin Perkins.
Edwin Perkins was always fascinated by chemistry and enjoyed inventing things. When his family moved to southwest Nebraska around 1900, a young Perkins experimented with home made concoctions in his mother's kitchen. His father opened a General Store in Hendley, Nebraska, and it was in that store where Edwin became entranced with a new dessert mix introduced by a childhood friend (and future wife) Kitty Shoemaker. The popular powdered dessert came in six delicious flavors and was called Jell-O.
Edwin convinced his father to carry the dessert line in his store. It was at this same time Edwin sent away for a kit called "How to Become a Manufacturer." During the following years, Perkins graduated from high school, published a weekly newspaper, did job printing, served as postmaster and set up a mail order business called "Perkins Products Co." to market the numerous products he had invented.
In 1918, Perkins married his childhood sweetheart, Kitty, and developed a remedy to kick the tobacco habit called Nix-O-Tine. By 1920, the demand for this and other products was so great, Perkins and his wife moved to Hastings, which had better rail service for shipping purposes.
Another product that was proving to be popular was a concentrated drink mix called Fruit Smack. Fruit Smack, like Jell-O, came in six delicious flavors. The four-ounce bottle made enough for a family to enjoy at an affordable price. However, shipping the bottles proved to be costly and breakage was also a problem. In 1927, Perkins developed a method of removing the liquid from Fruit Smack so the remaining powder could be re-packaged in envelopes (which Perkins designed and printed) under a new name to be called Kool-Ade. (He later changed the spelling to Kool-Aid.)
The product, which sold for 10¢ a packet, was first sold to wholesale grocery, candy and other suitable markets by mail order in six flavors; strawberry, cherry, lemon-lime, grape, orange and raspberry. In 1929, Kool-Aid was distributed nation-wide to grocery stores by food brokers. It was a family project to package and ship the popular soft drink mix around the country.
By 1931, the demand for Kool-Aid was so strong, other items were dropped so Perkins could concentrate solely on Kool-Aid. He moved the entire production to Chicago for more efficient distribution, to be closer to supplies and to be able to expand even further if necessary.
During the Great Depression, Perkins cut the price in half to just 5¢ a packet, a "luxury" most families could afford. Young entrepreneurs sprung up across the country setting up Kool-Aid stands. While most of the profits were consumed by the youngsters, it was something most children enjoyed.
Perkins introduced off-shoots of Kool-Aid, including pie fillings and ice cream mixes. These products never really took off with the public. During World War II, fruit acid and dextrose rationing prevented any expansion. After the war, the demand for Kool-Aid was so great that Perkins had to expand the factory and by 1950, some 300 production workers produced nearly 1 million packets of Kool-Aid each day!
In 1953, Perkins announced to his staff that he was selling Kool-Aid to General Foods. Within a year, the popular Smiling Face Pitcher was introduced in print advertisements. Root Beer and Lemonade flavors were added to the original six flavors in 1955 and pre-sweetened Kool-Aid was developed in 1964 and redeveloped in 1970.
Kraft Foods eventually acquired General Foods and became the new owners of Kool-Aid. They refined the Kool-Aid pitcher into Kool-Aid Man and introduced new Kool-Pumps and Kool Bursts to the market. Kool-Aid continues to be a popular product with roots in Hastings. It is the official soft drink of Nebraska!
Edwin and Kitty Perkins never forgot their Nebraska ties and returned home often.
The Perkins Foundation has been instrumental in many projects in and around Hastings, including gifts to Hastings College, Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital, Good Samaritan Retirement Village and the Hastings Museum. Edwin passed away in 1961 and Kitty followed 16 years later. Both are buried in Hastings.
The Hastings Museum houses an impressive Kool-Aid collection as part of the Kool-Aid: Discover the Dream exhibit, including the original Kool-Aid Man costume worn in the television commercials.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Top 10 Culturally Significant Banjo Moments
[11 April 2012]
By Jacob Adams
When Earl Scruggs died a couple weeks ago, the music world lost one of its most innovative and indispensable figures. Rarely has any one individual influenced the way musicians play a particular instrument as Scruggs has with the banjo. His three-finger picking style has become so ubiquitous that it's what most people automatically hear in their heads when the instrument's name is uttered. In the shadow of Scruggs' death, it's worth taking a look at the role the banjo has played in American popular culture. While some only associate the instrument with backwoods hillbillies and bluegrass music, its history and usage is far more diverse.
Following are ten culturally significant banjo moments. This list is not intended to include the best banjo songs or encompass all the important masters of every genre, but rather to present ten instances in which the banjo, an often misunderstood and unjustly maligned instrument, came to the fore of popular culture, for better or worse. Enjoy!
10. The Song "Oh! Susanna" Becomes Popular
It's impossible to escape the banjo's early association with the horrors of slavery and the racial ignorance of minstrel shows. As unpleasant as these connections are, they are indispensable parts of the banjo's history. The Stephen Foster tune "O! Susanna", first introduced in the 1840s, features the famous lyric "I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee." The song's popularity in the 19th century is a reminder of the instrument's ubiquity in American culture during that time. Even into the 20th century, many American children first heard the word "banjo" when they learned this folk song. The Marx Brothers performed a parody of the tune in their 1933 antiwar comedy Duck Soup, playing upon the audience's familiarity with the song.
9. Béla Fleck Releases the Album Throw Down Your Heart
Béla Fleck has expanded the limits of "banjo music" and redefined what is possible on the instrument. As part of the groups New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, the virtuosic musician caused listeners to stand in awe of his seamless blending of bluegrass, jazz, rock, classical, folk, and world music traditions. Time and time again, he has truly proven that the banjo is more than a "hillbilly instrument". Throw Down Your Heart (2009) in particular represents a milestone for both Fleck and people's understanding of the banjo. The record itself and an accompanying documentary film show Fleck visiting Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia, and Mali to trace the African origins of the instrument. Fleck has raised awareness of the banjo's rich non-American musical history and helped audiences understand that it has vitality far beyond the minstrel show stereotypes.
8. The Reign of Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers
In the '20s, the banjo reigned supreme in American popular music. It became an essential part of not only rural blues and New Orleans and Chicago jazz, but also the old-time string music that found widespread popularity. No pop culture figure from this decade was more associated with the banjo than Charlie Poole. The fast-living, hard-drinking musician recorded a plethora of banjo tunes with his group the North Carolina Ramblers for Columbia Records. His three-fingered playing technique (the result of a baseball injury set the standard for many pickers to come and inspired the likes of Bill Monroe.
7. Grandpa Jones Plays the Banjo on Hee Haw
The CBS TV show Hee Haw, a variety program that ran from _PHONE_, broadcasted the values and culture of rural American to the entire nation. Full of cornified humor and down-home music, the show was promoted as a kind of country alternative to The Smothers Brothers. The banjo was an integral part of the portrait of rural America painted on the screen, as old-time musician Grandpa Jones picked his way to fame as he performed joyful novelty tunes on the instrument.
6. Pete Seeger Appears on The Johnny Cash Show
While many people think of bluegrass automatically when they think of the banjo, the instrument is also associated closely with the urban folk movement of the '60s. Pete Seeger in particular was known for connecting the banjo to the social consciousness and protest music of the decade. Seeger's appearance on The Johnny Cash Show near the end of the decade solidified this connection, as Seeger talked about and demonstrated the importance the instrument had in his life and music.
5 - 1
5. Steve Martin Uses the Banjo in His Standup Comedy
4. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs Form the Foggy Mountain Boys
2. The Theme from The Beverly Hillbillies Features Flatt and Scruggs
Published at:


text:
Many users are facing Gmail Server Error 007. The error usually occurs while sending mail to someone. The Gmail doesn't respond, and the user fails to send the message, and error is shown on the user's screen "server error encountered..". We have figured different causes of why the Gmail Error 007 occurs and ways to resolve it. So, you can look at the solutions mentioned below.
Howw to Fix Gmail Server Error 007
Don't worry; there are easy fixes to solve the Gmail server error 007. So, to fix the error, follow the below solutions:
1. Clear Cookies and Cache
Clearing the Cache and Cookies from Chrome is a straightforward process and can help you to fix Gmail Server Error 007. So, follow the below-given steps to clear out cookies and cache:
Step 1: At first, click on the three dots at the top, on the right side of your browser window. After that, click on Settings.
Step 2: Settings tab will appear. Now, scroll down until you find Show Advanced Settings option and then click on it.
Step 3: The next step is to click on the Content Settings option under the section Privacy and security.
Step 4: Now, click on the Cookies option. Now, under the section Cookies, click on See all cookies and site data.
Step 5: At last, click on the button. Clear Data and then the Done button.
Now check if the Gmail error 007 resolves or not.
2. Disable Browser's Extensions
Extensions can cause the Gmail Server Error 007, in case you have installed extensions just before getting the error 007. Also, if you have not installed any extension, the already existing extension can cause failure. Maybe the extension needs to be updated. So, by disabling the extension, you can fix the error. Follow the below steps to fix error:
Step 1: At first, open your Google Chrome. Now, click on the three dots at the top, on the right side of your browser window.
Step 2: After that, click on More tools and then select the option Extensions.
Step 3: The last step is to Disable all your extensions.
Now, if the error resolves, it means one of the extensions is causing the Gmail Server Error 007.
3. Disable Background Send
Another reason for Gmail Server Error 007 is that 'Background send' is not disabled. Background send means even you have exited from your Gmail window; your account continues to send an email that may cause server error. So, to disable it follow the below easy steps:
Step 1: Start with Signing in your Gmail account.
Step 2: Now, click on the gear type icon present at the top on the right side of the window.
Step 3: Next is to click on Settings and then search for the Lab tab.
Step 4: Look for Background send and click to Disable it.
After looking at the reports sent in by the users, this solution usually works for 95% of the time, and then you can freely send any email to anyone in the world without the need to worry about the Gmail Server Error 007.
4. Check for Browser Update and Virus
Another reason for Gmail Server Error is viruses in your system. Virus degrade the performance of your system and also harm the system. So, it's better to scan your system regularly for viruses. Hence, you always need to have an Antivirus Program in your system to protect it from harm.
The browser also needs to be up-to-date. Thus, whenever an update is received, you should update your browser for its proper functioning. Although Chrome updates automatically, but make sure it is up-to-date. In the case of any other browser, go to the browser's settings window and look for a 'check for updates' option.
Tips to Solve "Oops… a server error occurred and your email was not sent. (#007)"
If you have tried all the above-mentioned methods and still you got nothing. These few google technicians have encountered cases when none of the previous remedies seem to work.
1. As mentioned above, you need to disable the "Background send" lab, and if you have already done it. You just need to wait some time for it actually to come into practice.
2. Moreover, you can also try to restart and refresh your web browser page to get rid of the error. The background sends lab settings that are actually disabled.
3. The executing files may or may not harm your computer. So, you should always check for any kind of bug or virus in the files. Nevertheless, make sure that the trojan you are dealing with is the Gmail error 007. There is a time when we have similar problems. But, they have different causes and solutions.
4. However, if you are able to use the same account that you are using on your PC to send emails but on some other device. Then this means that your Gmail is working perfectly fine, but there is some issue with your PC.
5. Make sure that you are sending an email to someone, and you have some attached files along with it. Make sure that its limit is under 25MB. Else, the mail will report an error.
How to Prevent Gmail Server Error 007
Not to mention, if this problem is not resolved even after following the above-mentioned steps, you need to ensure some additional safety measures for the proper functioning of this application on your PC.
1: Make sure that you are using the updated web browser because sometimes using an older browser may cause some problems.
2: In order for the smooth and fast working of your PC, you should definitely delete all of your cache and the cookies on your PC.
3: Moreover, you can also disable the add-ons present on your web browser along with the browser extensions.
4: After completing the above steps, you should close your browser and then try re-opening it.
5: Then, you can try to open the Gmail application without any labs.
6: Lastly, you should also make sure that your virus scanner is disabled. And if the 007 server error is gone after this step, you should try and contact the parent company of the anti-virus that is used on your computer, and they may guide you better regarding this error.
Gmail Server Error 007 can easily be resolved by following the above solutions. Also, try closing your browser window and relaunching it to fix the error. Some sites ask to install their software. However, this is not authentic, so do not fall off their trap. As there can be some Trojan or Malware in their software that may hack your server. This can delete your personal data or even access it. So, try to avoid such fake sites that make such claims.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) are emerging as strong candidates for a host of important applications in semiconductor-based technology and fundamental science. At this level of miniaturization, the electric characterization of capacitive NEMS is a challenge. In fact, the high-frequency signals are normally cut off due to the limited bandwidth of the readout circuitry dominated by stray capacitance between the large amplifier and the high impedance tunneling junction. In order to overcome such limitations, some methods have been suggested: using several amplifier stages, inserting an LC resonator, or the scanning tunneling microscopy down-mixing readout technique. Nevertheless, these methods are efficient only at oscillations below the critical amplitude due to nonlinearities which induce noise mixing. In the present paper, a new characterization technique for resonant NEMS based on capacitive down-mixing has been developed and applied to M&NEMS accelerometers. The considered method is highly sensitive and permits a simple tuning of the signal to nonlinearity ratio.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Nanotechnology 2012: Electronics, Devices, Fabrication, MEMS, Fluidics and Computational (Volume 2)
Published: June 18, 2012
Pages: 223 - 226
Industry sector: Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topics: MEMS & NEMS Devices, Modeling & Applications


text:
Preschool principals, this one is for you!
In the recent years, we have noticed an upturn in preschools organising preschool graduation camps on top of the regular graduation ceremonies. While different preschools will have different ideas and objectives specific to their schools, some requirements are common among the preschools we have worked with. Here is the ULTIMATE checklist to an AWESOME Preschool Camp!
☑ Safe, clean and temperature-controlled campsite
Rain or shine, there is never a need to worry! Activities can be conducted indoors like they do outdoors. Additionally, students can pitch tents and still experience the "outdoors" in comfort, away from the elements. Teachers and instructors get to rest in modern facilities at the High Achievers' Adventure Academy. A win-win solution!
☑ Multiple spots for activities
With Sentosa Island as the larger training grounds, activities can also be conducted in a multitude of spaces according to your specific objectives and needs. From History and Heritage Trails to Night Walks, there are a variety of scenic locations where activities can be conducted.
☑ Diverse Flora and Fauna
Sentosa Island is home to eight different habitats, with species so rare they cannot be found on mainland Singapore. Other than giving your students a break for the hustle and bustle of city life, Sentosa's nature spots allow for out-of-the-classroom learning for natural sciences.
☑ Activities related to Education and Career Guidance (ECG)
In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on ECG in MOE schools. We believe that it's never too early to expose students to different types of careers and take small steps in discovering their aspirations. The ECG Curriculum taught in schools might not be sufficient to allow students to discover their career aspirations. As the High Achievers Adventure Academy is nestled within KidZania Singapore - an internationally award-winning edutainment theme park - students will get to Learn, Work and Play to discover their interests, abilities and career aspirations.
Comments will be approved before showing up.


text:
The name Basil, has origins from the male Greek name Βασίλειος ("Basileios"). It is derived from Gr. βασιλεύς a word of pre-Hellenic origin meaning kingly or royal from "basileus" which means king. The female version is Bασιλική ("Vasiliki").
In Arabic, the name means "brave" and the name has been derived in different languages to include: Basile in French; Basilius in German; Basilio in Italian and Spanish and Vasil in Albanian.
Basil has many variant forms: Basile, Basilic, Basilides, Basileios, Basilie, Basilio, Basilius, Bazeel, Bazeelius, Bazil, Bazyli, Vasil, Vasile, Vasileos, Vasilije, Vasilios, Vasilios, Vasilius, Vasilus, Vassilis, Vasili, Vassili, Vasily, Vassilij, Vassily and Wassily.
There are several saints named Basil, including the following:
- Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea (January 1)
- Basil of Ancyra, Bishop of Ancyra and 4th century martyr (January 2)
- Memory of St. Basil the Great's family (January 8)
- St. Basil, or St. Eustratios the Wonderworker (January 9)
- Miracle of St. Basil the Great (January 19)
- Basil the Confessor, Archbishop of Thessaloniki (February 1)
- Basil the Confessor, Bishop of Parium (February 28 and April 12)
- Basil the Martyr (February 6)
- Basil of Ostrog, Metropolitan of Zahumlje and Herzegovina (_PHONE_) (April 29) - (Serbian, Saint Vasilije)
- Basil of the Kiev Caves (August 11)
- Basil (August 16)
- Basil the Blessed, the Fool-for-Christ (Russian) (August 2)
- Basil the Macedonian Emperor (August 29)
- Basil, Bishop of Trebizond (October 20), ruled from 1332.
- Basil the Martyr (October 25)
- Basil the Martyr (October 26)
- Basil the Martyr (October 28)
- Basil (December 15)
No commemoration Date
- Basil of the 300 Alamanous Cyprian martyrs and Bishop No commemoration
Historical Byzantine emperors
- Basil I the Macedonian, Byzantine E. (811-886, ruled from 867)
- Basil II Bulgaroktonus, Byzantine E. (_PHONE_, ruled from 976)
- Basil (Essey) of Wichita (1948-Present)
- Basil (Osborne) of Amphipolis (unknown-Present)
- Basil (Rodzianko) of San Fransisco (_PHONE_)
Basil (Ocimum basilicum)
The naming of this plant comes from the Greek basileus, meaning "king", as it is believed to have grown above the spot where St. Helen discovered the Holy Cross. This plant is used within Orthodox worship, particulary to bless the waters.


text:
Research, Commercialization and Outreach
All research conducted by Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi employees or students, involving any of the agents/materials listed below, must be approved by the Texas A&M - Corpus Christi Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) prior to initiation:
- Pathogens and potential pathogens of humans, animals or plants;
- Materials potentially containing human pathogens (including human blood, tissue, and cell lines; non-human primate blood, tissue, and cell lines);
- Recombinant DNA (and RNA) including creation or use of transgenic plants and animals;
- Select agents & toxins
(see _URL_ including strains and amounts exempted from the select agent regulations;
- Any material requiring a CDC import license or a USDA permit.
Attention Doctoral Students
The Research Compliance Officer must have ONE of the following on file to sign your Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Hearing Request Form:
- Completed IBC protocol application
- Doctoral Student Compliance Certification
The Doctoral Student Compliance Certification should be submitted in cases when the student is ready to propose and has not yet submitted a completed IBC protocol application.
Difficulty Downloading IBC forms?
Please use either Internet Explorer or Safari to download the IBC forms. When downloading these forms using Firefox and Chrome, please "right click" to save the document to your computer first, and then open the form from the saved location.
Some researchers have reported difficulty downloading forms. Two Web browsers - Firefox and Chrome - will not open fillable PDF forms within a browser window.
The various workarounds to this issue include:
- Use Internet Explorer or Safari. Both of these browsers appear to fully support fillable PDF forms.
- Right-click (PC) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the link that opens the pdf form and save the form to your desktop.
- Adjust your Firefox or Chrome settings to open pdf documents in Adobe rather than in the Web browser.


How to document the scene following a car crash
| Jan 7, 2021 | Personal Injury
A New York car crash may leave you reeling, but the actions you take right afterward may have a big impact on the outcome of your case, should it go to court. The more you do to document the crash scene and gather evidence that supports your side, the better, and there are some important steps to take when doing so.
According to Edmunds, once you exchange information with any drivers involved in the crash or any witnesses who were on the scene, you should start taking pictures of the crash site and vehicles involved.
What to photograph
When documenting the crash scene, use your cellphone to take pictures. In addition to photographing your vehicle and any damage it suffered during the wreck, take pictures of any obstructions, conditions or other hazards in the roadway or near it that may have played a role in your crash.
You should also take photos from multiple angles. Start about 10 feet away from your car or truck and then work your way toward it, snapping pictures along the way. Make sure, too, to zoom in close on any damage done to your vehicle during the crash.
When to photograph
It is wise to photograph the scene anytime you find yourself involved in a crash that warrants exchanging information. It is also wise to do so even when you believe you might be at fault. The images you snap may provide evidence of other factors that may have contributed to the crash, potentially reducing your liability.
Assessing safety should always be the first step following a car crash. Once you determine that there are no serious injuries, move forward with documenting the scene.


text:
How to set PHP upload file size limit in PHP
If you've got a web application that uploads files to the server through a PHP script, you might have noticed that by default you can't upload terribly large files. Depending on how you host your website (or application) there are different ways to change the PHP settings.
The reason the limit is set fairly low by default is for stability and security reasons – a malicious script or attacker could attempt to DoS your server with large file uploads and temporarily shut your application down.
The default settings of PHP will restrict the size of any file to be uploaded to 2 MB maximum. This arise a lot of problems for those who want to upload a file which is greater than 2 MB.
To increase the upload size you have to change three settings present in the php.ini file:
- post_max_size : This is the combined maximum size of all files sent on the form. If you have 2 file fields on your form, the total file size of the 2 files must not exceed the post_max_size value.
- upload_max_filesize: This is the file upload limit of each individual file.
- memory_limit: PHP scripts have a memory limit, and generally speaking this can prevent some uploads from working. The limit should be set at a reasonable level, of course you won't need 20mb for a simple 'hello world' script. Try slowly increasing this value if you find that uploads still aren't working.
You can set the values by using a numeric value followed by M for the amount of MB you want to allocate for each variable.
If you host your site remotely, you should check their documentation on how to change the PHP configuration settings.
Change php.ini directly
If you host your site on a server that you have access to, you can change your php.ini file directly. This is the easiest approach. Your php.ini file should exist in the PHP installation directory. Open it in your favourite text editor and search for these lines and change them:
memory_limit = 8M
post_max_size = 8M
upload_max_filesize = 2M
Indeed, some applications need the PHP upload_max_filesize to be at least 40 MB. Unfortunately, you cannot have such a high value on the shared server because of possible server overloads due to excessive memory usage.
The upload_max_filesize on our shared servers is set to 24Mb and it cannot be changed. In most cases this is more than enough and you will not experience problems because of it. In rare cases where 24Mb are not enough, we recommend using an FTP client to upload the necessary file.
How does Php.ini Increase Upload File Size Limit?
The answer to this question can fully be given but first of all we should be familiar with the following terms:
PHP originally stood for Personnel Home Page but now it is stand for Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP is an open-source server-side scripting language designed for Web development to produce dynamic Web pages.
A special file for PHP and several zests such as suPHP is named as Php.ini. The Php.ini file is the default configuration file for running applications that require PHP.It is used to control the variables such as upload sizes, file timeouts, and resource limits. The server's php.ini file is located at /usr/local/lib/php.ini.
File Upload :
File Upload allows the visitors to send files to the web server using standard forms. File Upload was not supported in Internet Explorer 3.0 but was soon afterwards added in version 3.02. The file upload limit is usually set pretty low by shared hosting providers. All hosting providers does not allow their customers to increase the file upload limit.
Php Upload File :
Now we will discuss that how does Php upload file to the server:
If we want to allow users to upload a file to the server, then we have to provide a form for them to specify which file they want to upload. Once the submit button of the form is being clicked, the action page is called. This is the page that needs to contain the PHP code to process the uploaded file.
The Input Form :
Before a user can upload a file, an interface that allows the user to select a file should be provided to them and thus the upload is being initiated.
The following code is an example of an input form. There are a couple of important things to note about this code:
- The actions attribute points to a.php file. This is the file that will process the uploaded file.
- There is an attribute called enctype, and its value is multipart/form-data.
- One of the input fields has type="file".
The Action Page :
Once the user uploads a file, the file is uploaded into a temporary directory on the server. If the file will not be moved then it will disappear. Therefore, the action page needs to move the file to another location where it can stay as long as it is required.
Whenever a file is uploaded, you can find out certain information about the file including its name, type, size, as well as the name of the temporary file on the server. These details are made available to you via a PHP array called $_FILES.
Therefore, we are well known with fact that how PHP upload file.
Now we will discuss about the fact that how does Php.ini Increase Upload File Size Limit. The Php.ini Increase Upload File Size Limit in a following way:
The server's PHP setting determines the upload file size. The default values for PHP will not allow us to go beyond the maximum 2MB upload file size. The page for upload modules depends on two PHP setting i.e.
The upload module limits the size of a single attachment to be 50% of post_max_size, or 100% of upload_max_filesize, whichever is smaller. The default PHP values are 2 MB for upload_max_filesize, and 8 MB for post_max_size.These two PHP variables can be changed in a number of places by mean of most likely being php.ini or.htaccess(depending on our hosting situation).
This can further be understood by mean of the following instance:
If we want to increase the limit on uploaded files to 10 MB then we have to act in a following manner:
Add the following to the relevant php.ini file, if it can be accessed. This is a system-wide setting for some hosts. However, if hosts are running PHP as a CGI script with suexec (for example) then these directives can be put in a php.ini file in the root directory.
- upload_max_filesize = 10M;
- post_max_size = 20M;
Add the following to the.htaccess file in the root directory.
- php_value upload_max_filesize 10M
- php_value post_max_size 20M
The Php documentation expounds that the memory_limitsetting also affects file uploading. It is but natural that memory_limit should be larger than post_max_size. If such an issue arises then add this:
- in php.ini, memory_limit = 18M;
- in.htaccess, php_value memory_limit 18M
Hence, how can PHP increase upload file size limit is different from the fact that how can Php.ini Increase
Upload File size Limit as in the above written section we are increasing memory size limit.


Best Ways to Fix ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID Error on Your Google
The question here is how do you fix the err_cert_date_invalid, or else also known by the message 'Your connection is not private.' Most people tend to face this problem, quite strangely, on reputable domains like Facebook, YouTube, and Google. This message might show up randomly, and oddly enough, you will still be able to access the 'blocked' site. Is this a serious issue?
As an answer, err_cert_date_invalid is a system error that is also known by the name 'your connection is not private' that is mostly seen on Google Chrome. This error is mostly seen when you are trying to access specific websites, even if they are trustworthy and legitimate. However, you might not enjoy your browsing experience while visiting these web pages.
The err_cert_date_invalid error simply means that your device or internet connection is not allowing Google Chrome to open that particular web page, simply because it is not secure and accessing it might potentially pose a risk to your privacy. Hence, you might not be able to access popular websites like Facebook, Amazon, Google, YouTube, etc.
Most people who tend to receive this err_cert_date_invalid message usually try to close the browser or simply the particular tab; this is considered the simplest solution. However, if the err_cert_date_invalid error is seen for PUP (Potentially Unwanted Problem) or a cyber-threat based on malware, this simple answer might not provide you with the solution you are looking for.
Sadly, once the system already gets damaged by a malicious program, you will need to visit an IT specialist at once! But, we would recommend that you first run a complete system scan with a reputable malware removal software that might help you get rid of the err_cert_date_invalid error message.
PS: here, you will figure out how to perform Google Chrome Parental Controls and what is Google Chrome Helper.
Detailed explanation: What is the err_cert_date_invalid error?
The err_cert_date_invalid error is mostly seen in sites that run on HTTPS (or should be running on it). Whenever you visit a new web page, the browser will first send a request to the server where the site is being hosted. The browser will then validate the certification installed to make sure that it is withholding all updated privacy standards. Some other things that are checked include decryption of the certificate, the certificate is checked by the authorized body, and the TLS handshake.
If the browser finds out that a particular website is not valid, it will try to prevent you from visiting that page. Most popular browsers today are fitted with this feature to protect the users. If the certification has not been set up as it should, it means that the web page has not been encrypted as it should, thereby rendering the site as unsafe, especially those that process payment information or with logins. In this case, you will be greeted by a message that reads, 'your connection is not private.'
Besides, click here to fix Error 0x80070032 and ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE on Google Chrome easily.
Is it fine to ignore this warning about ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID?
No, it is not fine to click to proceed and ignore this warning. This err_cert_date_invalid error means that the device or internet connection is preventing you from loading a certain page properly because it poses a threat and is insecure.
Also, learn more about how to fix err_connection_reset Chrome and The certificate for this server is invalid issue effortlessly.
How do you determine whether the problem is with your computer or the website?
Once you land on the error page in Google Chrome, you need to tap on the err_cert_date_invalid text; this will expand the message. You will see two dates labeled as 'Expires on' and 'Current date'; these dates will tell you where the problem is originating from that is triggering the err_cert_date_invalid error message on your Chrome browser.
 1. The 'Expires On' date should be in the future. If it is expiring currently or earlier, this means that the web page has an invalid SSL certificate.
 2. If the 'Current Date' section is incorrect, you can troubleshoot the issue with your computer.
And if you face any of the above issues, some simple hacks that can help you include:
Fixing an expired SSL certification
If the security warning tells you that the SSL certification of the website has expired, you might have to install an updated version of the SSL certification on the website.
Now, if you do not happen to be the owner of that web page, you might need to contact the website's owner and send them a few things like:
 1. The URL of the site that you want to visit
 2. A screenshot of the err_cert_date_invalid error message in front of you
 3. A resource to solve the issue. For example, the link to this blog
If you do on the web page, you can easily and quickly fix the problem. All you need to follow these steps one-by-one:
1. You will first have to buy a new SSL certificate. Some different types you can make use of include:
 - If you have a financial or e-commerce site, you will have to obtain an EV certification to enable the green address bar
 - If your website consists of different sub-domains, you might need a wildcard SSL certification
 - For basic HTTPS security, a basic DV certification should be more than enough
2. You need to complete the entire validation process; it can be done either by uploading a verification file to your web page or via email.
3. Once you get the updated SSL certification, you can install it on your site. For step-by-step instructions for common website platforms, you can look for it in our SSL knowledgebase.
Fixing the ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID issue with your computer
If the err_cert_date_invalid error is caused by your computing device, you can make use of the following to resolve it:
 - You can try to check the time and date setting on your computer
 - Shut down the browser and restart it
 - Check your internet connection
 - Scan your computer for unknown threats and malware problems
 - Disable third-party plugins
 - Clear browser cache
 - Delete and reinstall Chrome
By the way, click here to fix Video_Dxgkrnl_Fatal_Error and Safari can't establish a secure connection to the server issue effortlessly.
A detailed guide of the above has been explained below.
In this guide, here are some methods that can help you fix this err_cert_date_invalid error on Google Chrome and stop that irritating 'your connection is not private' messages. Also, it is suggested that you try all these techniques since there is no guarantee that only one out of these will be able to help you out.
Different methods of getting past the err_cert_date_invalid error and removing the 'your connection are not private' problem
Unfortunately, the primary culprit of the problem has not been identified as of now. However, many tech-savvy enthusiasts have come up with solutions and tips that should help you get rid of the err_cert_date_invalid error on Google Chrome. Here is what you need to try your hands on first:
 1. If you are connected to a public network like a WiFi hotspot, this means that the connection might not be private. In these cases, the err_cert_date_invalid error message might be displayed; it is recommended that you stop browsing immediately and disconnect from the public network.
 2. With the help of professional anti-malware software, you can scan your entire system; you can make use of software like Reimage for this purpose. It is likely that a virus or a malicious application has compromised your browser.
 3. On the affected web browser, disable all the third-party extensions that you find doubtful.
 4. Uninstall and reinstall the affected web browser.
 5. Check the Time and Date settings. It is also possible that the problem is being caused by these wrong parameters. Fix them, if needed.
If you are unable to solve the err_cert_date_invalid error problem with the help of these methods, you can try some more ways of removing the 'your connection is not private' message.
Method 1: Clearing the cache of your browser (Google Chrome)
 - 1. You need to open the browser and tap on the Menu button
 - 2. Look for History and then select Clear Browsing Data
Clearing the cache of your browser
 - 3. Ensure that you clean Chrome's cache and history
Clearing the cache of your browser
 - 4. Wait for the cleaning to be done fully and then close and reopen the browser
Method 2: For some time, disable your system's firewall
 - 1. Tap on the Windows Key and type in Windows Firewall
 - 2. Select the first option and open the section labeled as Turn Windows Firewall Off or On
 - 3. Using this dialog box, switch off the firewall and check if the problem persists
disable your system's firewall
Method 3: Interchange the current DNS servers with those of Google
 - 1. Right-click on the Windows Key and open Control Panel
 - 2. Here, head over to Network and Sharing settings
 - 3. Right-click on the network adaptor and tap on Properties
 - 4. Select the option Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4); then open Properties
 - 5. Choose the option of 'Use the following DNS server addresses' and use these server addresses
Interchange the current DNS servers
 - 6. Save these changes and restart your computer


Should You Buy ENI S.p.A. (NYSE: E) At This P/E Multiple?
ENI S.p.A. (NYSE: E) trades at a P/E multiple of 16.7x, which is lower than the Energy sector median of 17.1x. While this makes E appear like a stock to add to your portfolio, you might change your mind after gaining a better understanding of the assumptions behind the P/E ratio. In this article, I will break down what the P/E ratio is, how to interpret it and what to watch out for.
Understanding Valuation Multiples and the P/E Ratio
A multiples valuation, also known as a comparable companies analysis, determines the value of a subject company by benchmarking the subject's financial performance against similar public companies (peer group). We can infer if a company is undervalued or overvalued relative to its peers by comparing metrics like growth, profit margin, and valuation multiples.
P/E Multiple = Stock Price ÷ Earnings Per Share
The P/E ratio is not meant to be viewed in isolation and is only useful when comparing it to other similar companies. Since it is expected that similar companies have similar P/E ratios, we can come to some conclusions about the stock if the ratios are different. I compare ENI S.p.A.'s P/E multiple to those of TOTAL S.A. (NYSE: TOT), Statoil ASA (NYSE: EQNR), BP p.l.c.(NYSE: BP) and Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS.B) in the chart below.
E P/E Ratio vs Peers Chartsource: Benchmarks: P/E Multiples
Since ENI S.p.A.'s P/E of 16.7x is lower than the median of its peers (19.8x), it means that investors are paying less than they should for each dollar of E's earnings. As such, our analysis shows that E represents an undervalued stock. In fact,'s P/E Multiple Modelcalculates a fair value of roughly $48.50 per share which implies approximately 31.0% upside.
E P/E Valuation Calculation
Note that the selected multiple of 21.9x in the analysis above was determined by averaging ENI S.p.A.'s current P/E multiple with its peer group.
Understanding the P/E Ratio's Limitations
Before jumping to the conclusion that ENI S.p.A. should be added to your portfolio, it is important to understand that our conclusion rests on two important assumptions.
(1) the selected peer group actually contains companies that truly are similar to ENI S.p.A., and
If the first assumption is not accurate, the difference in P/E ratios could be due to a variety of factors. For example, if you accidentally compare ENI S.p.A. with higher growth companies, then its P/E multiple would naturally be lower than its peers since investors reward high growth stocks with a higher price.
E Net Income Growth and Margins vs Peers Tablesource: P/E model
Now if the second assumption does not hold true, ENI S.p.A.'s lower multiple may be because firms in our peer group are being overvalued by the market.
What This Means For Investors
As a shareholder, you may have already conducted fundamental analysis on the stock so its current undervaluation could signal a potential buying opportunity to increase your position in E. However, keep in mind the limitations of the P/E ratio when making investment decisions. There are a variety of other fundamental factors that I have not taken into consideration in this article. If you have not done so already, I highly recommend that you complete your research on ENI S.p.A. by taking a look at the following:
Valuation Metrics: what is ENI S.p.A.'s free cash flow yield and how does it compare to its publicly traded peers? This metric measures the amount of free cash flow for each dollar of equity (market capitalization). Analyze the free cash flow yield here.
Risk Metrics: what is ENI S.p.A.'s cash ratio which is used to assess a company's short-term liquidity. View the company's cash ratio here.
Efficiency Metrics: return on equity is used to measure the return that a firm generates on the book value of common equity. View ENI S.p.A.'s return on equity here.
Leave a Reply


text:
What does the Constitution really say, and what did the Founders intend to achieve with the government they established?
At a time when our leaders seem to be ignoring the Constitution more than ever, as citizens we must understand the Founders' intent and reclaim this vital tradition. Now ISI is proud to offer an invaluable introduction to the pivotal debates surrounding the Constitution four authoritative and accessible books that lay out the essentials for understanding how we got the Constitution we did and how to understand it today in light of the Founders' debate.
And there was a debate then, as two volumes from ISI's acclaimed Lives of the Founders series make clear. These two concise, engaging biographies capture the lives of Gouverneur Morris and Luther Martin leaders of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist camps, respectively. Another title in this set is Vital Remnants, in which leading scholars from various conservative perspectives revisit the sources of America's greatness and suggests means to restore its weakened foundations. And rounding out the series is Russell Kirk's masterful work Roots of American Order, in which Kirk describes the beliefs and institutions that have nurtured the American soul and commonwealth from the Hebrew prophets to Philadelphia in 1787.
A vital education in four short books all for one great price.
Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet
An Incautious Man
The Roots of American Order


forest habitats, which are moose wintering areas. In north-eastern Poland, such conditions occur in 240,000 ha of the wetlands of Biebrza National Park and neighbouring large forest areas. The other core area, Polesie Lubelskie (about 110,000 ha), should be located at the Polish-Ukrainian border and include the wetlands of Polesie National Park and adjacent forest areas.
2. In 2 areas, viable moose population size must be calculated. A sustainable harvest may take place only outside of National Parks and it should be lower than recruitment rate. These 2 populations will act as source populations for rebuilding the moose population elsewhere in Poland. Moose population objectives for these areas should be developed with input from the Polish Hunting Association, the State Forest Service, and National Parks. It will be a very difficult task because moose are an attractive target for hunters and ecotourists. At the same time, they cause serious damage to young forest plantations. Therefore, it would be necessary to establish moose wintering areas that would be mainly deciduous and mixed deciduous forests growing on wet and bog sites. In the moose wintering areas, acceptable levels of forest damage caused by moose should be much higher than in lowland commercial forest. Forest management in winter moose concentration areas should result in an increase in the biomass of winter browse and should be based on natural forest succession.
3. After the moose population targets for these areas have been reached, harvest quotas should be based on reliable population estimates and annual population recruitment rates. Estimation of population numbers should be based on snow tracking along line transects. These line transects have been successfully used for a few years for estimating the numbers of big game animals in north-eastern Poland. It appears that the maximum sustainable harvest under Polish conditions is around 30% of population numbers estimated after each hunting season. This is higher than that applicable to the moose population inhabiting Scandinavia (Solberg et al. 1999) and similar to that for moose living in the Baltic countries (Baleishis et al. 1998). Polish guidelines currently recommend a high harvest rate for calves and young bulls. This policy has caused the disappearance of males older than 10 years, which are an attractive target for hunters and ecotourists. Appropriate proportions of calves and young males in the harvest should be decided on through computer simulation models. These models should include the age structure of males.
This research was supported by the International Institute of Ecology, Limited, and grant G- 1328/KZZ/00-03 from Agricultural University, Krakow, Poland.
BAILEY, B. J.R. 1980. Large simultaneous confidence intervals for multinominal probabilities based on transformation of cell frequencies. Technometrics 22:583-589.
BALEISHIS, R., P. BLUZMA, A. ORNICANS, and J. TONISSON. 1998. The history of moose in Baltic countries. Alces 34:339-345.
BOBEK, B. 2002. Log w Polsce--strategia restytucji. Brac Lowiecka 55:14-15.
--, M. BAJDA, W. BUDZYN, B. LUKS, P. LANSKI, G. LUKACIJEWSKI, M. MARECKI, D. MERTA, R. PASZKIEWICZ, A. PAWLAK, M. PODYMA, J. POLITYNSKI, M. SZKUTNIK, E. WIDERA, I. WIERZBOWSKA, A. WIERCINSKI, and T. ZAJAC. 2001. Liczebnosc zwierzyny grubej oceniona nowa metoda w Bieszczadach i w Beskidzie Niskim. Lowiec Polski 1:17-21.
--, and K. MoRow. 1987. Present status of the moose (Alces alces) in Poland. Swedish Wildlife Research Supplement 1:69-70.
--, M. PLUCINSKA, and R SULKOWSKI. 2002. Moose recovery program in Poland. Page 22 in Abstracts 5th International Moose Conference Oyer, August 4-9, 2002.
CHERRY, S. 1996. A comparison of confidence interval methods for habitat use-availability studies. Journal of Wildlife Management 60:653-658.
DZIECIOLOWSKI, R., and Z. PIELOWSKI. 1979. LOS. PWRiL. Warszawa, Poland.
GEBCZYNSKA, Z, and J. RACZYNSKI. 1992. Dynamics and management of moose population in the Biebrza River Valley. Pages 631-635 in B. Bobek, K. Perzanowski, and W.L. Regelin, editors. Global Trends in Wildlife Management. Proceedings of the 18th IUGB Congress, Swiat Press, Krakow-Warszawa, Poland.
--, and -- 1998. Dlaczego moratorium na odstrzat? Lowiec Polski 11:12-14.
KONDRACKI, J. 1998. Geografia regionalna Polski. PWN Warszawa, Poland.
KRAJOWY ZARZAD PARKOW NARODOWYCH. 2000. Analiza dziatalnosci parkow narodowych. Warszawa, Poland.
LENCEWICZ, S., and J. KONDRACKI. 1964. Geografia fizyczna Polski. PWN Warszawa, Poland.
Morow, K. 1975. Moose population characteristic and range use in Augustowska Forest. Ekologia Polska 3:493-506.
SERAFINSKI, W. 1969. Reproduction and dynamics of moose (Alces alces L.) population in the Kampinos National Park. Ekologia Polska A. 17(37):709-718.
SOLBERC, E. J., B. -E. SAETHER, 0. STRAND, and A. LOISON. 1999. Dynamics of a harvested moose population in a variable environment. Journal of Animal Ecology 68:186-204.
Boguslaw Bobek (1), Dorota Merta (1), Pmemyslaw Sulkowski (2), and Alicja Siuta (3)
(1) Department of Ecology, Wildlife Research, and Ecotourism, Pedagogical University of Cracow, Podbnezie 3, 30-054 Krakow, Poland; (2)Polish Hunting Association, Nowowiejska 10, 00-653 Warsaw, Poland; (3) Department of Animal Nutrition, Agricultural University, Mickiewicza 24/28, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Table 1. Estimation of moose population size by the line intercept
track index in Augustowska Forest (110, 200 ha), north-eastern
Poland. Data were collected by using 225 line transects of a total
length of 735 km in February 1998.
Days of tracking 1 2 3 4 5 Mean
Number of tracks 37 32 36 35 34 34.80
Tracks/km/day 0.050 0.043 0.049 0.048 0.046 0.047
Population density
 (N/1000 ha) 1.74 1.51 1.68 1.67 1.56 1.63
Population size (N) 192 167 185 184 172 180 (1)
(1) Accuracy of mean at 95% confidence
level is 6.3%; i.e., 167-191 animals.
Table 2. Moose population estimates and densities estimated by (A)
the line intercept track index and (B) official population estimates
developed by the Forest Wildlife Service and the Polish Hunting
Association for selected forest habitats of north-eastern Poland.
Ninety-five percent confidence intervals are given in parentheses.
Name of forest Year Forest area sampled Population density
 (ha x [10.sup.3]) (Moose/ 1000 ha)
Augustowska 1998 110.2 1.63
Borecka 1998 63.8 0.44
Piska 2002 124.5 0.45
Romincka 1998 13.1 0.92
Total/mean 311.6 0.88
Name of forest Population size (N)
 A B
Augustowska 180(67-191) 263
Borecka 28(23-33) 64
Piska 56(46-66) 61
Romincka 12(11-13) 15
Total/mean 276 403
(1) weighted mean.
Table 3. Annual variation in the moose population and harvest in
the Augustowska Forest in northeastern Poland. [N.sub.1] is the
population size estimated using the line intercept track index in
February. [N.sub.2] is the calculated population size before
hunting season in September. [N.sub.1(L+1)]/[N.sub.1


text:
LAW6057 Cultural Diversity and the Law
This module explores how legal systems manage cultural diversity, which includes religious, ethnic and linguistic diversity. The module takes the English legal system as the core case study and compares it to the experience of other legal systems in the management of cultural diversity. The comparative study of legal approaches to cultural diversity includes an exploration of legal pluralism, the significance of long-standing and newer diversities introduced through immigration, the problems of assimilation and integration, and paradigms of citizenship, multiculturalism and secularism.
100 per cent exam


text:
DURHAM, N.C. – Stem cells that respond after a severe injury in the lungs of mice may be a source of rapidly dividing cells that lead to lung cancer, according to a team of American and British researchers.
"There are chemically resistant, local-tissue stem cells in the lung that only activate after severe injury," said Barry R. Stripp, Ph.D., professor of medicine and cell biology at Duke University Medical Center. "Cigarette smoke contains a host of toxic chemicals, and smoking is one factor that we anticipate would stimulate these stem cells. Our findings demonstrate that, with severe injury, the resulting repair response leads to large numbers of proliferating cells that are derived from these rare stem cells."
Stripp said this finding could be related to the increased incidence of lung cancer in people with chronic disease states, in particular among cigarette smokers.
The findings were published in the advance online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of May 25.
"On the positive side, I think that it might be possible to improve lung function in the context of disease if we could understand which pathways regulate lung stem cell activation and then target these pharmacologically," said lead author Adam Giangreco, Ph.D., from Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute. "In terms of lung cancer susceptibility, however, our observation that stem cell activation leads to clonal expansion after injury could, in the context of additional mutations, promote the development of cancerous or precancerous lesions from activated stem cells."
The scientists used a chimeric mouse model, part wild-type and part with green fluorescent protein-tagged cells (GFP), so that the behavior of different populations of duplicating lung cells could be evaluated with high-resolution imaging methods. By understanding the extent to which GFP-positive and GFP-negative cells were mixed, the investigators were able to show that the abundant population of progenitor cells that normally maintain the epithelial layer in the lung could be rapidly wiped out with a strong chemical, naphthalene. Then the rare proliferative cells became active and grew into large patches.
The researchers at Duke and Cancer Research UK used a unique whole-lung imaging method to examine and identify the location of stem cells in the lung tissue of mice, and determine the role they play in both healthy and damaged mouse lungs.
They found that, while the stem cells don't appear to be involved in the normal maintenance of healthy or moderately injured lungs, they do play a vital role in repairing severely damaged lungs.
Even though this repair mechanism is important for restoring lung function, it can come at a price. An acquired mutation in that rare cell or its descendants leads to clonal patches of many identical cells. Secondary mutations in any one of these cells may provide the signals needed for unregulated cell growth and tumor progression.
"This work provides a plausible mechanism to account for this type of event that we previously didn't have," Stripp said.
The study was supported by grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, Cancer Research UK, the University of Cambridge and Hutchison Whampoa.
Other authors include Joshua Snyder from the Duke Department of Medicine; Esther Arwet and Fiona Watt of Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute; and Ian Rosewell with Cancer Research UK at the London Research Institute in South Mimms. Dr. Watt is also with the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research at Cambridge University.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


text:
var myString = "Hello Thur!";
//This is how you would access a property
var myProperty = myString.property;
//This is how you would access a function
var myFunctionResult = myString.function(argument1, argument2);
As you can see, the most important part to accessing string properties and functions is to first create them. In this case, myString was our guinea pig.
What's a String Property?
A property is just some basic information about the object. For example, a string object has a length property which stores the number of characters in the string.
What's a String Function?
The string's functions are useful for finding out more about your string. For example, the string function split lets you take a string and chop it into pieces whenever characters that you supply, appear.
It is important to note that these functions do not actually change the string itself. Rather, they return new strings that you can store for use elsewhere. In our example, we stored the result of our make-believe function into myFunctionResult.
String Functions and Properties
Found Something Wrong in this Lesson?
Report a Bug or Comment on This Lesson - Your input is what keeps Tizag improving with time!


text:
intuitive when you think about it -- those who must smoke the quickest after
waking, are likely the most addicted to cigarettes. And smokers who are
most addicted, likely use more cigarettes on average, and thus have a higher cancer risk.
This straightforward hypothesis has been upheld in a pair of studies currently previewed in the journal Cancer.
State University College of Medicine researcher Joshua E. Muscat,
Ph.D, was the lead author on both studies.
The first study surveyed 4,776 smokers with lung cancer, and 2,835 smokers
without lung cancer (7,611 total smokers). It found that those who smoked
within half an hour of waking up were 80 percent more likely to have lung
cancer than those who waited an hour. Those who waited between 30 and 60
minutes were 30 percent more likely than those who waited a full hour.
The second study told a similar tale when it came to neck and throat cancers.
Those smoking between within 30 minutes of waking were 60 percent more
likely, and those who smoked within 31-60 minutes were 40 percent more likely
to develop these cancers than those waited more than an hour.
Based on these results, one would expect early morning consumption to also be
linked to other tobacco-related ailments, such as brain damage.
Dr. Joshua Muscat suggested the possible link between level addiction and how
quickly one had to indulge in a morning smoke, stating, "These smokers
have higher levels of nicotine and possibly other tobacco toxins in their body,
and they may be more addicted than smokers who refrain from smoking for a half
hour or more."
Nicotine, the primary addictive chemical in tobacco smoke, has a half life of 2
hours in the body, meaning half of its dose is metabolically consumed within two
hours of intake via inhalation. Thus by six hours a mere 12.5 percent of
the previous evening's dose remains, and by eight hours, only 6.25 percent,
assuming the smoker lit up just before bed.
Despite the seemingly intuitive nature of this line of reasoning, the study
authors, include Muscat emphasize caution, writing, "It is uncertain what
explanation there is for the relationship."
Ultimately, the reason for the trend may be less important than the trend
itself. By identifying a high-risk subgroup within smokers, doctors have
a new, target to focus their most concerted smoking cessation efforts on.
Smoking and cancer were first linked by studies in the 1950s, but smoking was
not categorized as a physiological and psychological addiction by the American
Psychiatric Association until 1980.


School drug testing faces test in court
High court weighs tests for those in after-school activities.
By, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
The US Supreme Court today will weigh how far public schools can go in imposing random drug tests on students who participate in extracurricular activities  from cheerleading to the Future Farmers of America.
The case involves Lindsay Earls, who wanted to sing in the school choir, march in the school band, and compete on her school's academic team. Instead, the high school sophomore found herself in the girl's washroom with three faculty members listening intently outside a stall as she attempted to fill a plastic vial.
It was part of a policy adopted by the school board in Tecumseh, Okla., requiring that all students in grades 7 to 12 seeking to participate in school activities submit to random drug tests.
Recommended: Could you pass a US citizenship test?
To Ms. Earls, now a freshman at Dartmouth College, the process was degrading and insulting. To the school board, it is an effective deterrent that helps teens overcome peer pressure to use drugs.
Today, the high court will consider whether what happened to Earls was a violation of her constitutional right to privacy, or an acceptable effort by school officials to combat the scourge of illegal drug use among America's youths.
"The best way to keep kids away from drugs is to get them involved in the choir and the band and these other activities. You don't want to set up obstacles to these activities, and that is what the school is doing," says Graham Boyd, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, who is arguing the case on behalf of Ms. Earls.
Lawyers for the school board counter that school officials have determined that there is a drug problem in the Tecumseh schools and that random testing is an appropriate tool to address it.
"Tecumseh has the authority and responsibility, as the tutor and guardian of its students, to ensure that the health and safety of its children are safeguarded at all times while they are in the custody of school officials," says the brief of Linda Maria Meoli, an Oklahoma City lawyer with the Center for Education Law, which is representing the school district.
The issue is significant because a decision upholding the Tecumseh policy could open the door for blanket drug tests for virtually all 24 million public secondary-school students across the country. On the other hand, a decision striking down the Tecumseh policy could help strengthen the privacy rights of public-school students by clarifying the limits of antidrug policies adopted by school officials.
At the center of the case is whether random drug tests must be aimed at a specific group of students deemed to be at a higher risk of drug use, or whether the potential deterrent effect of such random drug tests is enough to justify applying the program across a broader population of students.
Courts are divided on the issue. State courts in Colorado, Indiana, and Pennsylvania have struck down random drug tests for those participating in extracurricular activities. Federal appeals-court panels in both the Seventh and Eighth Circuits have upheld similar programs.
'Hostile to' a blanket search
Mr. Boyd says America's Founding Fathers cherished privacy from intrusive government so much that they guaranteed it to all Americans through the Constitution's Fourth Amendment. "Throughout American history, the notion of a blanket search of any group is one that we have been very hostile to," he says.
But others say the stakes are too high when the health and safety of children are at risk. "We have an epidemic in this country with drug abuse, and it is a growing epidemic with young people," says Calvina Fay, executive director of Save Our Society From Drugs in St. Petersburg, Fla.
"If we have a tool [random tests] to intervene and fix the problem, why would we not use that tool," she asks. "What are we going to do as a civilized society  sit back and wait until our children are so addicted that we can't help them?"
Ms. Fay says random testing has proved successful in the workplace and helped dramatically reduce drug use in the US military to about 4 percent. The same techniques would work in schools, she says.
In earlier cases, the Supreme Court has upheld suspicionless drug tests for railroad employees involved in accidents and US Customs Service agents working in drug law enforcement.
But the high court has also struck down a Georgia state law that required candidates for certain public offices to submit to drug tests.
By far, the closest case to the Tecumseh policy is a 1995 decision in which the Supreme Court upheld a policy adopted by a school board in Vernonia, Ore., requiring random drug tests of all student athletes.
The majority opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, found that the policy was not an "unreasonable search" under the Fourth Amendment, because a serious drug problem existed at the school and athletes had been identified as being leaders in the student drug culture.
The justices reasoned that student athletes had a lower expectation of privacy than other students because they underwent preseason physical examinations and showered and changed clothes together in the same locker room.
In addition, the justices expressed concern that illegal drug use by athletes might contribute to certain sports-related injuries.
The key to that case, according to Justice Scalia, was whether the drug-testing policy was one that a "reasonable guardian and tutor" of children in a school setting might undertake.
The justices made a special effort to warn lawyers and school board members against reading the opinion too broadly. "We caution against the assumption that suspicionless drug testing will readily pass constitutional muster in other contexts," Scalia wrote.
Tecumseh's rules
The Tecumseh policy was adopted in September 1998. It requires as a condition of participating in extracurricular activities that students agree to random drug tests throughout the year.
Extracurricular activities offered at Tecumseh schools include: sports, academic team, band, chorus, Future Homemakers of America, Future Farmers of America, and cheerleading.
Earls and another student challenged the policy in court with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. A federal judge upheld the policy, but a divided panel of the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver struck it down by a 2-to-1 vote.
The appeals court said that the possible deterrent effect of tests wasn't enough to justify their use as a precondition to participation in extracurricular activities.
A decision in the case is expected by late June.
Share this story:


What does it mean to "show, not tell"? Using sensory words in your writing helps paint a picture of the scene in readers' minds, and is more interesting than simply telling what is going on. Young writers get to see the difference sensory words can make as they read sentences describing the same event, and select the one that's the most interesting.


text:
RECYCLING of plastic waste is crucial for efficient management of environment. Recognising this, Plastindia, an organisation of the plastic manufacturers in India has decided to fund the setting up of a Indian Centre for Plastic Environment (ICPE) in Hyderabad. The centre will develop new technologies for recycling plastic waste and improving waste management techniques.
The governing council of the center will comprise specialists from the industry and officials from the environment ministry. According to chairperson of Plastindia Vijay Merchant, the center will also build a database and national information system on plastic waste in the country.
Merchant said the centre will also conduct educational and awareness programme regarding plastic waste management. Merchant said that it has been decided that the minimum gauge of the polythene bags would be 20 microns and above and those made out of plastic waste will be a minimum of 25 microns.


text:
Romans 14 The Fallen Ones
Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.
Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
Romans 14 (vs. 4)
Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no
man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.
Romans 14 (vs. 13)
The theme of the Fallen Ones unites Isaiah 14 (The Fall of Lucifer), Romans 14,
and Revelation 14 (The Fall of Babylon). This is one of those very
obvious thematic links that has been long recognized in the Jewish Tradition. The Talmud teaches
(Berachoth 4b) that the Letter Nun represents the
(Nephalim, Fallen Ones). This tradition is also found
in the Zohar, and is often repeated in Jewish Homilies. It is deeply integrated with Scripture
in many ways. I begin with the Rabinnical explanation
for an anomoly found in the Alphabetic Psalm 145,
in which the verse corresponding to Nun is missing.
The Rabbis teach that the Nun is missing because it alludes to the fall of Israel, but that it is
included as a prophecy of the rise of Israel in the next verse, corresponding to Samekh
The LORD upholdeth (Samekh) all that fall
(Nephalim), and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
Just as Gimel and Dalet are linked together as
Giver and Poor, so Nun and Samekh are linked as
Fallen and Supporter. It is then with some wonder that we behold exactly the same pattern governing
the chapter sequence of Romans! Look at the words quoted at the head of this chapter!
They are nearly identitcal
to the Samek verse of Psalm 145! Furthermore, Romans 14 speaks specifically about not causing
a brother to fall, while
Romans 15 opens with words that sound like they could have been written by the Apostle James,
under inspiration of the letter Samek (Romans 15.1):
We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not
to please ourselves.
How bright is the Light of God! Give glory to Him who upholds the Fallen!


text:
Martin Seligman is a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. In one of his studies on happiness he found that people fall into one of three categories:
- Pleasure Seekers – These are individuals who seek happiness on a daily basis. People in this category seek happiness through consumption – buying things or buying experiences. They purchase expensive cars, expensive homes, boats, planes, the latest gadgets, furniture, cloths, etc. They also spend their money on experiences: exotic vacations, cruises, travel to foreign countries, skydiving, Las Vegas to gamble, helicopter skying, amusement parks, zorbing, running with the bulls, etc. They pursue the acquisition of things or experiences that result in immediate gratification. For these individuals, happiness is always elusive. Once the novelty of their purchase wears off or the experience ends, they are back to being unhappy.
- Dream Seekers – These are individuals who pursue some dream. They immerse themselves for years in activities that will one day pay dividends in the form of realizing a dream. Those dividends often take the form of more wealth and more freedom to do things they could never afford to do. They find happiness in the pursuit of achieving the goals that eventually lead to the realization of their dreams. Since realizing a dream requires many years, they experience happiness every time they engage in their dream activity. This happiness can last for many years.
- Fulfillment Seekers – These individuals pursue activities that bring meaning to their lives. They are focused on adding value to the lives of others. They may or may not be pursuing a dream. They may or may not be interested accumulating wealth. Wealth, to them, is not the goal. Doing what they love, what they are passionate about, is the goal. Fulfillment seekers are the only true happy people. They are happy every day they are able to do what they love.


There are a variety of methods to achieve adaptation but I looked at the most standard model, called von Kries's model or the chromatic adaptation transform. The underlying principle is that in order to change the apparent illumination of a photo, we need to excite the same LMS cone responses in the eye as with our desired illuminant. Typically, we assume that this is possible with a diagonal scaling of the axes after a transformation from XYZ to a space that more resembles the LMS cone space. In other words, once we're in the right space, we simply need to divide out our estimated illuminant and apply our desired illuminant separately for each channel. In matrix form this is represented as:
The choice of the transformation matrix, MA, is the subject of research [1]. It can be optimized to a variety of criteria, such as mean ΔEab or statistical distribution testing [5]. In any case, the goal here is to implement these different transformations and to gain some intuition about their performance.
Our desired lighting is the D65 CIE standard illuminant, which represents spectrum of the sun at mid-day. This is the white point for the sRGB color space that most monitors are calibrated for.
The available transforms are:
 - von Kries
 - Bradford
 - Sharp - based on sharpened sensors, min. XYZ errors
 - CMCCAT2000 - fitted from all available color data sets
 - CAT02 - optimized for minimizing CIELAB differences
 - XYZ
Implementation: cbCAT.m
function outMat = cbCAT(xyz_est,xyz_target,type) %outMat = cbCAT(xyz_est,xyz_target,type) % Chromatic adaptation transform via von Kries's method. % type chooses the LMS-like space to apply scaling in, valid options: % 'vonKries', 'bradford','sharp', 'cmccat2000', 'cat02', 'xyz' % See _URL_
 1. Set up transformation matrices. % the following are mostly taken from S. Bianco. "Two New von Kries Based % Chromatic Adapatation Transforms Found by Numerical Optimization." if strcmpi(type,'vonKries') %Hunt-Pointer-Estevez normalized to D65 xfm = [.40024.7076 -.08081; -.2263 1.16532 0.0457; 0 0.91822]; elseif strcmpi(type,'bradford') xfm = [.8951.2664 -.1614; -.7502 1.7135 0.0367; 0.0389 -0.0685 1.0296]; elseif strcmpi(type,'sharp') xfm = [1.2694 -.0988 -.1706; -.8364 1.8006 0.0357; 0.0297 -0.0315 1.0018]; elseif strcmpi(type,'cmccat2000') xfm = [.7982.3389 -.1371; -.5918 1.5512 0.0406; 0.0008 0.239 0.9753]; elseif strcmpi(type,'cat02') xfm = [0.7328 0.4296 -.1624; -.7036 1.6975 0.0061; 0.0030 0.0136 0.9834]; else xfm = eye(3); end
 2. Compute diagonal scalings from the estimated illuminant XYZ and D65 XYZ. gain = (xfm*xyz_target)./(xfm*xyz_est);
 3. Create the matrix M, then include transformations from sRGB to XYZ and back. outMat = xfm\(diag(gain)*xfm); sRGBtoXYZ = [0._PHONE_ 0._PHONE_ 0._PHONE_;... 0._PHONE_ 0._PHONE_ 0._PHONE_;... 0._PHONE_ 0._PHONE_ 0._PHONE_]; outMat = inv(sRGBtoXYZ)*outMat*sRGBtoXYZ;
Gray World
The difference between CAT spaces is subtle. XYZ seems to produce a more saturated output. I think it's very difficult to judge which space is the most accurate and as far as my eye is concerned, it's a complete toss-up.
Robust Auto White-Balance with CAT
Sensor Correlation


text:
The Borders and Diversity Research Program conducts critical social inquiry on contemporary cultural diversity and the intensifying presence of borders that govern labour, life and movement. Conditions of 'uneven globalisation', including the current global pandemic, are radically shifting our capacities to move across various social and political boundaries, as well as our existing practices of diversity and inclusion at local, national and transnational scales. The growing momentum of campaigns such as BLM, recognition of Indigenous sovereignty through decolonisation approaches, and climate change displacement further point to critical ruptures in the logic of internal and external borders. These ruptures suggest that the future of most polities is reliant on a deeper understanding of border regimes, and a more meaningful implementation of cultural diversity principles.
The Program is oriented around two core questions. First, how to assess and grow the value of cultural diversity in a range of community and institutional settings? Second, how to understand social, cultural and political life under emerging border regimes that condition geography, politics, culture and society? Drawing on interdisciplinary methods across cultural studies, sociology, geography and communication and media studies, our researchers have extensive expertise in conducting research with culturally and linguistically diverse populations across a number of strategic contexts, including education, housing, technology practice, refugee and migrant settlement, diversity in media representation and urban and community planning. We work with national and international partner organisations and end-users in policy, social services, education, health, technology and the media on projects that amplify institutional and community impact and cross-sector knowledge translation.
Current major projects include: evaluation of civic engagement of Chinese communities across three Sydney local government areas; barometer surveys of refugee settlement and belonging across NSW; comparative analysis of family approaches to Australian education across ethnic groups; and exploration of the capacity of AI consumer technology for social inclusion at the intersection of disability and cultural diversity.


text:
The module that appears as most suitable for you is called HTML import. This module will divide one single large HTML document into a structured Drupal book where the heading level hierarchy is respected. This module works with HTML exported from Word; HTML document converted from PDF as well as HTML document exported from Adobe InDesign.
This makes it possible to use a single HTML page, created in a word processing program and saved as HTML, or other structured HTML, to create a multipage Drupal book in a single step. You actually need to collate the output from all your
.docx files into a single HTML-file before converting to HTML to use HTML import in a single step.
In case your requirements are beyond what HTML import is capable of, below is a list of all the (usable) Drupal modules I am aware of that can be used to bulk import HTML (and some other formats) into a Drupal site:
- HTML import - Import a single HTML page created from MS Word and split it up into an hierarchical Drupal book structure consisting of a set of interlinked Drupal nodes.
- HTML2Book - This also imports a single HTML page and split it up into an hierarchical Drupal book structure consisting of a set of interlinked Drupal nodes, but requires you to clean up the tagsoup created by MS Word first.
- Import HTML - Import all of an existing, static HTML-site into a Drupal site as nodes.
- Feeds - Import or aggregate data as nodes, users, taxonomy terms or simple database records.
- Migrate - Provides a flexible framework for migrating content into Drupal from other sources, including HTML.
- Node import - Allows users to import content (node, user, taxonomy) from CSV or TSV files. Requires you to convert from HTML to CSV. (no Drupal 7 version)
Of these, the simplest to use are HTML import and HTML2Book. However, both can only handle a single HTML page. For more complex conversion tasks, where you need to convert a large static HTML-site made up of several interlinked pages, one of the other modules may be more suitable.
Also: Whatever tool you use, never experiment with bulk import on a production site. Unless you're a lot more clever than me, there are going to be false starts and botched imports. Cleaning up thousands of nodes damaged by an import gone wrong is not fun. Always experiment with bulk import on a throwaway staging site that just can be discarded wholesale when things go wrong. Transfer the settings and do the import on the production site when you're sure you have a working set-up.


What is a Worm Drive?
B. Nolta
B. Nolta
The tuning heads on guitars are worm gears.
The tuning heads on guitars are worm gears.
In the world of manufacturing and machinery, a worm drive is a geared arrangement that is generally used to either change the rotational speed of a larger mechanism or modify the amount of torque applied. The arrangement gets its name from the worm gear, a cylindrical gear in the shape of a screw. When the worm gear turns, the threads of the screw rotate and apply motive force to a gear wheel, which in turn rotates and transmits power to the larger mechanism.
The term "worm drive" can be a confusing one, as it is common to use the term when talking about only the worm gear itself, even though the definition covers the entire gear system. To further complicate matters, "WORM drive" was an early term for drives that burned data to CD-R discs. WORM stood for Write Once, Read Many in that context. This usage of the term, however, has fallen into disuse, so most contemporary usages of the term refer to the gear system.
Worm drives are commonly used due to their relative small size and simplicity. Since the rotational force of the worm gear and the gear wheel mesh at a 90° angle, the gears can be placed in line with, or on top of, each other. This allows for a more compact arrangement of the gears. Since the gear ratio depends on the length of the screw and number of teeth along the shaft of the worm gear, the ratio can be readily modified while maintaining a small volume. In addition, a basic worm gear usually will only turn in one direction, which means the worm drive is self-locking unless specifically engineered to be otherwise, either through precision engineering of the gear meshing angles and surfaces or through the addition of additional worm gears. Finally, due to their simplicity, worm drives tend to be reliable, long-lasting and relatively easy to maintain.
Worm drives and gears are found in a wide variety of applications. The tuning heads on guitars, violins and many other stringed instruments, for example, are worm gears. Many hose clamps are also examples of worm gears; the twisting of the head spins the worm gear, which in turn causes an aperture to tighten and thus apply pressure. Other common examples of worm gears include electric motors in toys, rudders on ships, automotive differential systems, as well as lifting mechanisms such as elevators.
You might also Like
Readers Also Love
Discuss this Article
Post your comments
Forgot password?
 - The tuning heads on guitars are worm gears.
 The tuning heads on guitars are worm gears.


- 2 minute Read
This Humanoid Robot Sweats To Keep Cool While Doing Push-Ups
Now if only we could outsource our gym workouts.
Humans get hot when they work out, and so do robots. Just as our muscles generate heat when they work, a robot's motors get hot enough that heat concerns can limit their performance. To cool down, humans sweat. Now, a robot can do the same.
The conventional way to cool a robot is to either just let the heat dissipate into the air, which doesn't work well because air is a poor conductor of heat. The other solution is to add water cooling, which requires pumps, tubes, and heat-sinks to radiate away the excess heat. Now researchers at the University of Tokyo's JSK Lab have built a humanoid robot that sweats. Its name is Kengoro.
Kengoro uses his metal skeleton to sweat, and the key is, as ever these days, 3D printing. The Tokyo team 3D printed the metal bones using a process called sintering, in which powder is deposited a layer at a time and cured with a laser. The process allows the designer to vary the porosity of the metal. In the case of Kengoro's bones, they were made to allow water to permeate the metal, seeping out at a rate slow enough not to start dripping, but fast enough to evaporate and carry away excess heat along with it, just like an animal sweating.
"Usually the frame of a robot is only used to support forces," project leader Toyotaka Kozuki told IEEE Spectrum. "Our concept was adding more functions to the frame, using it to transfer water, release heat, and at the same time support forces."
The sintering process is so precise that the porosity can be varied to make permeable channels to guide the water through the skeleton. In tests, Kengoro's cooling system performed three times better than air cooling, as well as beating plain-old water circulation. It doesn't do as well as a dedicated pumped-water-with-radiators setup, but it is also a lot less bulky, and simpler.
One curious side effect of Kengoro's perspiration-based cooling is that it needs to stay hydrated. It doesn't take much, though. Just a cup of water is enough to keep Kengoro and its 108 motors cool all day long.
"In practice," writes Spectrum IEEE's Evan Ackerman, "this means that Kengoro can run at full power longer, letting it do push-ups for 11 minutes straight without burning out its motors."
I can't even imagine 11 straight minutes of pushups, but one thing's for sure. If you managed it, you'd end up smelling a lot worse than Kengoro.
About the author


text:
Fuzzy sets on 2D spaces for fineness representation
MetadatosAfficher la notice complète
Fuzzy setsFeature extractionImage analysisTexture modeling Human perception
The analysis of the perceptual properties of texture plays a fundamental role in tasks like semantic description of images, content-based image retrieval using linguistic queries, or expert systems design based on low level visual features. In this paper, we propose a methodology to model texture properties by means of fuzzy sets defined on bidimensional spaces. In particular, we have focused our study on the fineness property that is considered as the most important feature for human visual interpretation. In our approach, pairwise combinations of fineness measures are used as a reference set, which allows to improve the ability to capture the presence of this property. To obtain the membership functions, we propose to learn the relationship between the computational values given by the measures and the human perception of fineness. The performance of each fuzzy set is analyzed and tested with the human assessments, allowing us to evaluate the goodness of each model and to identify the most suitable combination of measures for representing the fineness presence.


text:
Q: What was the precise cause of death in those who were crucified?
A: The cause of death from crucifixion has long been a source of debate among pathologists (for a recent review, see "Execution by crucifixion", by J. E. Holoubek and A. B. Holoubek, Journal of Medicine vol 26, p1).
For many years it was believed that the principal cause of death was asphyxiation, a conclusion based on eyewitness accounts of the crucifixion of prisoners of the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War, and of concentration camp inmates at Dachau.
Victims left hanging by their arms, their feet off the ground, were seen to have severe difficulty exhaling which was caused by hyperexpansion of the lungs, and drew themselves up by their arms to relieve their suffering. After a short while the muscles of the victims went into spasms and, unable to lift themselves and exhale, they died...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.