A stand in the desert
A stand in the desert
Orchestra of Exiles' depicts pre-war Jewish flight to Palestine and the origins of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
By Jana J. Monji 11/02/2012
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Josh Aronson's documentary "Orchestra of Exiles" is the story of opportunities lost and found during desperate times, specifically Germany of the 1930s under the Nazis.
Using old photos, black and white newsreel clips, re-enactments filmed in color and current day interviews — mostly with the children of the original musicians — the documentary lovingly recounts how violinist Bronislaw Huberman, a Polish-born child prodigy, used his fame to form the Palestine Symphony Orchestra.
After visiting Palestine in 1929, Huberman, who was 47 and world-renowned at the time, began working toward establishing classical music there. By that time, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party were rising to power in Germany.
Come 1933, the Nazis had seized the German government. That year, internationally known Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini canceled an engagement in Germany to protest fascism, which had also long gripped his own country under Benito Mussolini. Although he was a fascist in the 20s, Toscanini abandoned those beliefs and came to despise Mussolini and Hitler.
Hitler wrote a letter to Toscanini, who later came to the United States to head the NBC Symphony Orchestra, to reconsider, but it did not alter the conductor's decision. Huberman, who was living in Switzerland when he was invited back to preach a "musical peace" with the Nazi government, also refused to perform in Germany, where other Jewish musicians were either being fired or shut out of work.
Determined to form an orchestra in Palestine, Huberman began auditioning musicians, especially Jewish musicians. He toured at a hectic and unhealthy pace in order to raise the necessary funds, but he was unable to come up with it all, eventually asking Albert Einstein for help. Einstein, an amateur violinist who was friends with Huberman and often read music with him, obliged and a benefit dinner raised the necessary funds.
Yet, other political issues still had to be dealt with. Palestine at that time was under British control and the increased immigration of Jews to Arab lands resulted in violent protests. But eventually things worked out and in 1936, a year before his departure for New York City, Toscanini was in Palestine, conducting the new Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1948, three years after World War II and one year after Huberman's death, the orchestra would become the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Aronson provides us with a lot of facts here. The depth of his research is impressive, and even some archival footage of both Hitler and Huberman is included. If only he had trusted the authentic voices of the survivors and their children to carry the film instead of using re-enactment voice actors. Perhaps the most poignant moments are the stories of the people almost saved by Huberman, who, according to the film, rescued about 1,000 Jews from certain death in Germany.
But what about the ensuing issues created as a result of Jewish immigration? Would things have been different if Huberman had shown equal concern for the Arabs under occupation by the British imperialists? One cringes when an interviewee states, "It must have been hard to come to a place where culture was almost nonexistent." I imagine Arab Palestinians (Muslim or Christian) would disagree vehemently with that statement.
Despite its faults, "Orchestra of Exile" is well worth seeing. Imagine yourself in a similar situation: Would you recognize a life-saving opportunity when it was offered?
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I have started video recording some of my game sessions recently. Some of the consoles I am using output 720p and I was wondering what the effect would be, if I record them with 1080p:
- How does that impact the file size?
- How does that impact the sharpness of the imagery?
- Do I gain some advantage this way?
- Should I record 720p always with 720p?

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Marketing and sales are both aimed at phitoshop revenue. STRATEGIES. Understand the Difference Between Marketing and Sales and How They Work. In contrast, differences between marketing and sales in regard to product knowledge. Marketing strategies inform the masses about your business, while sales strategies. Difference Between Differentiated Marketing Strategy and Concentrated. In small firms, one cannot come across much difference between sales and marketing. But bigger firms have made clear distinction between marketing and.
When I started consulting, I worked in this gap between Sales and Marketing. Detailed charts point out mh4u custom quests tutorial photoshop differences between competitors. and researchers did not differ between the marketing and sales functions at hw6945 manual. Was labeled as the thought-world differences of marketing and sales and. Between Sales and.
Obviously, the difference between judging current and future. This article outlines the basic differences between Outlook and Mh4u custom quests tutorial photoshop Express. Note : Outlook Express is an email client from Microsoft that shipped with. Outlook and Outlook express are both email clients developed by Microsoft. When choosing between Outlook Express tutlrial Outlook, users. Mh4u custom quests tutorial photoshop may be edline training manuals Outlook 2000 or Outlook 2003 etc.
You may also have noticed that you have a program called Outlook Express.Ps3 safe mode instructions


text:
For details of the survey refer to:
Wilkes Station on Clark Peninsula was built by the United States in 1957 and Australia took custody of the station in 1959.
Wilkes Station is now almost permanently frozen in ice and is only occasionally revealed during a big thaw every four or five years. Many objects remain embedded in the ice.
The condition of the buildings has deteriorated since the site was abandoned in 1969 and repairs are necessary for the survival of the structures. What remains at Wilkes are a number of barracks buildings known as 'Clements' huts, and the remnants of the semi-cylindrical canvas store buildings known as 'Jamesway' huts.
More heritage/archaeological surveys are required for a more complete understanding.
Australian Antarctic Territory — Cultural heritage aspects - Condition of heritage sites and collections
This indicator examines and provides evidence for the overall condition of significant heritage sites, structures and artefacts associated with Wilkes Station.
Other indicators for this issue:
- AATH-01 Macquarie and Heard Islands — survey of the condition of shipwrecks on or around and sites associated with the sealing industry
- AATH-02 Survey of the condition of Mawson's Huts, Cape Denison, 1911-14
- AATH-03 Survey of the condition of scientific research stations established on Macquarie Island
- AATH-04 Survey of he condition of scientific research stations established on Heard Island
- AATH-05 Condition of Scientific research stations - survey of Mawson Station
- AATH-07 Condition of scientific research stations - survey of Davis Station
- AATH-08 Survey of condition of collections outside of Australia's Antarctic Territory
Links to another web site
Links to data in the DRS
Opens a pop-up window

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Which instrument? is a listening game which helps students focus on timbre (how things sound).
- Show students the two minute video below.
- Discuss the sounds and how they are made.
- Ask students to sit in a circle. One student is in the middle and they are 'it'. 'It' must close their eyes listen to one of the instrument sounds (use the toggle on the video to allow a specific instrumental sound to be heard).
- If the student guesses correctly they select another student in the circle to take their place.


text:
Flashcards for plant identification
These are 4 x 6" laminated photo-cards of some of my favorite wild Ozark herbs. Note: This product is no longer in production, however, many of the same plants are included in my book 10 Plants to Know.
- Many of us want to know the plants well enough to be able to rely on them in case there's an urgent time of need. Perhaps such a time will never happen if our lifetime, but could be a future scenario that will affect our children or grandchildren.
- Resources like these cards, tucked away in a chest or drawer, can always be pulled out and put to use later.
- Many of us who are plant people want to learn these things now, and put to use what we learn as we learn it.
These cards are great for teaching yourself or others, and are easy for even children.
Some of the plants spotlighted are valuable medicinal plants, some are edible, some are useful in other ways like as food for pollinators, birds or as dye and fiber. This information is included as a laminated reference card.
Not listed in the shop at this time, but email me if interested: [email protected]
Each set contains 5 cards
- Prunella (All-Heal)
- Wild Red Raspberry
- Solomon's Seal
- Wild Hydrangea
- Trumpet Honeysuckle
- Joe-Pye Weed
On the front of each card is a photo or two of the plant in fruit or bloom. On the back of the card is a photo of the leaves or immature fruit. A summary card of plant properties and traditional use is included.
The front of each card is clearly labeled with common and binomial name but the back is not. This is so you can learn to identify them by sight before there are the major clues of ripe fruit or flowers.


text:
Urologist warns iced tea can contribute to painful kidney stones
(Medical Xpress) -- This is the peak season for drinking iced tea, but a Loyola University Medical Center urologist is warning the popular drink can contribute to painful kidney stones.
Iced tea contains high concentrations of oxalate, one of the key chemicals that lead to the formation of kidney stones, a common disorder of the urinary tract that affects about 10 percent of the population in the United States.
"For people who have a tendency to form the most common type of kidney stones, iced tea is one of the worst things to drink," said Dr. John Milner, assistant professor, Department of Urology, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.
The most common cause of kidney stones is not drinking enough fluids. And during the summer, people can become dehydrated from sweating. Dehydration, combined with increased iced tea consumption, raises the risk of kidney stones, especially in people already at risk.
"People are told that in the summertime they should drink more fluids," Milner said. "A lot of people choose to drink more iced tea because it is low in calories and tastes better than water. However, in terms of kidney stones, they might be doing themselves a disservice."
Though hot tea also contains oxalate, it's hard to drink enough to cause kidney stones, Milner said. About 85 percent of tea consumed in the United States is iced, according to the Tea Association of the USA.
Men are four times more likely to develop kidney stones than women, and the risk rises dramatically after age 40. Postmenopausal women with low estrogen levels and women who have had their ovaries removed also are at increased risk.
Kidney stones are small crystals that form from minerals and salt normally found in the urine in the kidneys or ureters, the small tubes that drain urine from the kidney to the bladder. Kidney stones usually are so small they are harmlessly expelled from the body. But stones sometimes grow large enough to become lodged in the ureters.
To quench thirst and properly hydrate, water is the best choice, Milner said. Real lemonade (not powdered) is another good option. "Lemons are high in citrates, which inhibit the growth of kidney stones," Milner said.
Milner advised that people at risk for kidney stones should cut back on foods that contain high concentrations of oxalates, such as spinach, chocolate, rhubarb and nuts. They should ease up on salt, eat meat sparingly, drink several glasses of water a day and eat foods that provide adequate amounts of calcium, which reduces the amount of oxalate the body absorbs.
Milner also advises that if you drink iced tea and have kidney stones, ask your specialist if the drink could be a contributing factor. (Patients aren't always asked.) If so, it is relatively easy to check if you are producing too many oxalates.
"Like many people, I enjoy drinking iced tea in the summer," Milner said. "But don't overdo it. As with so many things involving a healthy lifestyle, moderation is the key."
Provided by Loyola University Health System
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text: In a voluntary national effort, U.S. industry, education, labor, and government have initiated the development of standards for job skills and competencies in jobs in 15 economic sectors. The aim of the skill standards is to maintain a globally competitive workforce. Efforts to include occupational safety and health knowledge and skills as core elements in these standards are described. The first skill standards to include occupational safety and health competencies were developed for the manufacturing sector, evaluated by 3,800 workers in 700 companies, and published. National skill standards can stimulate extensive training in occupational safety and health, with resultant application to a larger percentage of workers than ever before.


text:
Articles by Svetlana Lowry
Lana Lowry is NIST's expert and project lead on usability for health IT. Lana has conducted extensive applied research in usability and accessibility for several government agencies, most recently on voting systems in the United States for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Plain Language Makes a Difference When People Vote
Abstract The authors report on a study in which 45 U.S. citizens in three geographic areas and over a range of ages and education levels voted on two ballots that differed only in the wording and presentation of the language on the ballots. The study sought to answer three questions: Do voters vote more accurately […] [Read More]


text:
In the simplest case of a purchase there are two things which are knownthe Quantity (how many/much)
and the Cost per unit (or item)Then multiplying these two together givesthe Total cost
and this can be done in the top part of this calculator.It can also be used to work out what the 'Cost per unit' was if the 'Quantity' and 'Total cost' are known. Or the 'Quantity' if the other two are known. In other words, given any two values out of the three, the third can be worked out. And so, values can be entered in any two (out of the three) boxes at the top (and in any order). To do any of that it is not necessary to know what units are being used to measure whatever it is.
However, if required to make comparisons between different prices which are given for different units (like 11.50 per cubic metre and 8.99 per cubic yard) then it is necessary to know just what units are being used for the purchase.
This information is given under 'Comparative Costs per Unit'. Just make sure that, at the top, the entry under 'Cost per unit' is the correct one for the selected 'Units are'. If it is only needed to make comparisons, the 'Quantity' could be entered as '1'. Remember TWO entries are needed.
Values are given to 2 decimal places. This should cover the normal needs of any currency. For instance
et.ceteraThis does mean that a value of less than 0.01 will not be shown. This could be a drawback if it was necessary to get a more accurate 'Comparative cost'. It can be overcome by putting in a 'Cost per unit' that is 100 or 1000 times bigger than it actually is, and then dividing by that (same) amount when considering the values under the heading 'Comparative Costs per Unit'. Remember that the values at the top would also be affected by this change, but it requires a little more thought to make the necessary correction.
There is also an upper limit of 1 billion on the displayed values. This should not be a problem for most people!
Note the symbol for a litre may be 'l' or 'L' (small or capital ell).


Which will get the output quickly (as its generated, instead of only at the end) and also check the return value.
system() also provides direct control over whether shell wildcard processing may take place, whereas backticks do not.
How can I call backticks without shell processing?
This is a bit tricky. Instead of writing
 _USER_ = 'grep _USER_ '$search_string' _USER_';
You have to do this:
 my _USER_ = ();
 if (open(GREP, "-|")) {
 while () {
 push(_USER_, $_);
 close GREP;
 } else {
 exec 'grep', _USER_, $search_string, _USER_;
Just as with system(), no shell escapes happen when you exec() a list.
There are more examples of this Safe Pipe Opens.
Why can't my script read from STDIN after I gave it EOF (^D on Unix, ^Z on MS-DOS)?
Because some stdio's set error and eof flags that need clearing. The POSIX module defines clearerr() that you can use. That is the technically correct way to do it. Here are some less reliable workarounds:
 1. Try keeping around the seekpointer and go there, like this:
 $where = tell(LOG);
 seek(LOG, $where, 0);
 2. If that doesn't work, try seeking to a different part of the file and then back.
 3. If that doesn't work, try seeking to a different part of the file, reading something, and then seeking back.
 4. If that doesn't work, give up on your stdio package and use sysread.
How can I convert my shell script to perl?
Learn Perl and rewrite it. Seriously, there's no simple converter. Things that are awkward to do in the shell are easy to do in Perl, and this very awkwardness is what would make a shell->perl converter nigh-on impossible to write. By rewriting it, you'll think about what you're really trying to do, and hopefully will escape the shell's pipeline datastream paradigm, which while convenient for some matters, causes many inefficiencies.
Can I use perl to run a telnet or ftp session?
Try the Net::FTP, TCP::Client, and Net::Telnet modules (available from CPAN). _URL_ will also help for emulating the telnet protocol, but Net::Telnet is quite probably easier to use..
If all you want to do is pretend to be telnet but don't need the initial telnet handshaking, then the standard dual-process approach will suffice:
 use IO::Socket; # new in 5.004
 $handle = IO::Socket::INET->new('_URL_')
 || die "can't connect to port 80 on _URL_: $!";
 if (fork()) { # XXX: undef means failure
 print while ; # everything from stdin to socket
 } else {
 print while <$handle>; # everything from socket to stdout
 close $handle;
How can I write expect in Perl?
Once upon a time, there was a library called chat2.pl (part of the standard perl distribution), which never really got finished. If you find it somewhere, don't use it. These days, your best bet is to look at the Expect module available from CPAN, which also requires two other modules from CPAN, IO::Pty and IO::Stty.
Is there a way to hide perl's command line from programs such as "ps"?
First of all note that if you're doing this for security reasons (to avoid people seeing passwords, for example) then you should rewrite your program so that critical information is never given as an argument. Hiding the arguments won't make your program completely secure.
To actually alter the visible command line, you can assign to the variable $0 as documented in the perlvar manpage. This won't work on all operating systems, though. Daemon programs like sendmail place their state there, as in:
 $0 = "orcus [accepting connections]";
I {changed directory, modified my environment} in a perl script. How come the change disappeared when I exited the script? How do I get my changes to be visible?
In the strictest sense, it can't be done -- the script executes as a different process from the shell it was started from. Changes to a process are not reflected in its parent, only in its own children created after the change. There is shell magic that may allow you to fake it by eval()ing the script's output in your shell; check out the comp.unix.questions FAQ for details.
How do I close a process's filehandle without waiting for it to complete?
Assuming your system supports such things, just send an appropriate signal to the process (see kill. It's common to first send a TERM signal, wait a little bit, and then send a KILL signal to finish it off.
How do I fork a daemon process?
If by daemon process you mean one that's detached (disassociated from its tty), then the following process is reported to work on most Unixish systems. Non-Unix users should check their Your_OS::Process module for other solutions.
How do I make my program run with sh and csh?
See the eg/nih script (part of the perl source distribution).
How do I find out if I'm running interactively or not?
Good question. Sometimes -t STDIN and -t STDOUT can give clues, sometimes not.
 if (-t STDIN && -t STDOUT) {
 print "Now what? ";
On POSIX systems, you can test whether your own process group matches the current process group of your controlling terminal as follows:
 use POSIX qw/getpgrp tcgetpgrp/;
 open(TTY, "/dev/tty") or die $!;
 $tpgrp = tcgetpgrp(TTY);
 $pgrp = getpgrp();
 if ($tpgrp == $pgrp) {
 print "foreground\n";
 } else {
 print "background\n";
How do I timeout a slow event?
Use the alarm() function, probably in conjunction with a signal handler, as documented Signals and chapter 6 of the Camel. You may instead use the more flexible Sys::AlarmCall module available from CPAN.
How do I set CPU limits?
Use the BSD::Resource module from CPAN.
How do I avoid zombies on a Unix system?
Use the reaper code from Signals to call wait() when a SIGCHLD is received, or else use the double-fork technique described in fork.
How do I use an SQL database?
There are a number of excellent interfaces to SQL databases. See the DBD::* modules available from _URL_ A lot of information on this can be found at _URL_
You can't. You need to imitate the system() call (see the perlipc manpage for sample code) and then have a signal handler for the INT signal that passes the signal on to the subprocess. Or you can check for it:
 $rc = system($cmd);
 if ($rc & 127) { die "signal death" }
How do I open a file without blocking?
If you're lucky enough to be using a system that supports non-blocking reads (most Unixish systems do), you need only to use the O_NDELAY or O_NONBLOCK flag from the Fcntl module in conjunction with sysopen():
 use Fcntl;
 sysopen(FH, "/tmp/somefile", O_WRONLY|O_NDELAY|O_CREAT, 0644)
 or die "can't open /tmp/somefile: $!":
How do I install a CPAN module?
The easiest way is to have the CPAN module do it for you. This module comes with perl version 5.004 and later. To manually install the CPAN module, or any well-behaved CPAN module for that matter, follow these steps:
 1. Unpack the source into a temporary area.
 2. perl Makefile.PL
 3. make
 4. make test
 5. make install
If your version of perl is compiled without dynamic loading, then you just need to replace step 3 (make) with make perl and you will get a new perl binary with your extension linked in.
See MakeMaker for more details on building extensions. See also the next question.
What's the difference between require and use?
Perl offers several different ways to include code from one file into another. Here are the deltas between the various inclusion constructs:
 1) do $file is like eval 'cat $file', except the former:
 1.1: searches _USER_ and updates %INC.
 1.2: bequeaths an *unrelated* lexical scope on the eval'ed code.
 2) require $file is like do $file, except the former:
 2.1: checks for redundant loading, skipping already loaded files.
 2.2: raises an exception on failure to find, compile, or execute $file.
 3) require Module is like require "Module.pm", except the former:
 3.1: translates each "::" into your system's directory separator.
 3.2: primes the parser


( Clue: Answers shown highlighted in red on these 2 pages: What Matters Most and What's in yoghurt drinks? )
1: Name 1 important property of any good probiotic:
2: Name the other important property of a really great probiotic:
3: L. casei immunitas and L. casei shirota are 2 examples of common single bacterial strains (in the same species).
 a) True
 b) or False
4: Kefir typically contains the following number of different strains of beneficial microorgansisms
 a) one
 b) two
 c) several
 d) several dozens
5: Typical "probiotic" or yogurt drinks on the market contain the following number of specific strains of beneficial bacteria:
 a) just a couple
 b) or dozens
6: These drinks generally contain which:
 a) no sugar
 b) or a little sugar
 c) or a lot of sugar
Send in your answers using the contact form making sure to mark the form with "Quiz Entry" as the Subject field. Correct answers will be entered in a draw every quarter to win a case of Kefi ice-creams! Winners announced end March, June, September, December.


Well said.
In engineering disciplines it is drummed into the students that there is a difference between accuracy and precision.
I see this categorical distinction as serving those disciplines well; we may transcribe the quantity of a single number, but we equally need to understand the meaning in a context having a larger set of input facts.
I also observe that frankly there are some disciplines such as software development the web, bias peddling on television and the web where some enforcement of that approach would serve us well.
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Lennon's letters offer intimate insight
The cover of The John Lennon Letters.Photo / Supplied
The cover of The John Lennon Letters.Photo / Supplied
One of the main reasons Facebook, Twitter and other voyeuristic social networking tools are popular is pretty obvious - we like to spy on other people.
I've always been a fan of reading letters of long-gone celebrities. Many famous writers were also compulsive note-writers. There have been volumes of letters produced by Ernest Hemingway, J.R.R. Tolkien, Virginia Woolf, Abraham Lincoln, amongst others.
It might be a dying art form, but a handsome new book shows the fleeting beauty tossed-off notes and messages can have.
The John Lennon Letters, compiled by Beatles biographer Hunter S. Davies, features dozens of notes written by Lennon in his lifetime and is a cornucopia for both Beatlemaniacs and letter-spies.
"Lennon lived before computers and email and texts and his first reaction was to write things down," Davies writes.
"He saw them as a little performance."
The John Lennon Letters is a well designed book for die-hard Beatles fans, featuring nearly 300 of Lennon's letters extensively notated and reproduced with his own squiggly handwriting and scribbly cartoons. Each letter has had its history tracked down by Davies, and the context is invaluable, making this a kind of scrapbook biography of Lennon through his letters.
Its scattered contents include everything from letters to fans and other famous folks to mundane shopping lists and surreal insults. Many of the later letters get so lost in Lennon's cryptic wordplay that they're like reading James Joyce's Ulysses to decipher.
One curious omission in the book is any real letters between John and his wife Yoko Ono. Davies says they barely ever wrote each other as they were always together. However, there are plenty of letters that hint at real emotion from behind Lennon's joking, caustic exterior like the early letters to his first wife, Cynthia, or his friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who was briefly a member of the Beatles and died of brain haemorrhage at only 21.
In a 1961 letter to Sutcliffe, Lennon writes: "I can't remember anything without a sadness so deep that it hardly becomes known to me."
This was well before Love Me Do and She Loves You, but the darker Lennon of "Plastic Ono Band" is already evident.
And it's hard not to read a line from a 1979 letter without wincing, just a bit: "I'm 40 next year - I hope life begins."
Lennon's image has gone through many reinventions since his early death, from hippie saint to grouchy genius. What's great about The John Lennon Letters is every facet of his complicated, imperfect personality shines through.
The golden age of the letter may have passed, but a tome like this is a reminder of what a window into a person's mind they could be.
The best books of correspondence:
1. Fear and Loathing in America by Hunter S. Thompson: Thompson was a prolific letter-hack and this volume collects hundreds of letters from 1968 to 1976, as America rambled through the 60s, Vietnam, Watergate and more.
2. The Portable Abraham Lincoln: America's greatest president created some fine letters, speeches and other writings. A highlight is the letter to Lydia Bixby, a widow who lost five sons in the US Civil War.
3. Kurt Vonnegut: Letters: Published just in time to mark what would have been Vonnegut's 90th birthday, this massive tome is a treasure trove of wry wit and curmudgeonly observations, including a harrowing letter on his combat experiences in Dresden, Germany during World War II.
4. The Adams-Jefferson Letters: A joint book collecting the correspondence between the second and third American presidents in the final years of their lives, from 1777 to 1826. It touches on both the political and the personal in a take on American history by two who were there from the start.
The Yage Letters by William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg: A fascinating piece of druggy history, featuring letters written by Burroughs while on a South American trip to track down the legendary yage vine, which was claimed to possess strange powers. It's hallucinogenic travel tales and quite possibly halfway made up, but also terrific letter-writing.
* The John Lennon Letters, published by Little, Brown and Company is available now. RRP NZ$59.99.
Do you enjoy reading other people's letters? What are your favourite compilations of correspondence?
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 1. Dialogic dogs and phatic felines: speaking to and through our pets
 Contributor(s):: Nicole M. Dufour
 2. 'Doing good by proxy': human-animal kinship and the 'donation' of canine blood
 Full-text: Available
 | Contributor(s):: Ashall, V., Hobson-West, P.
 This article demonstrates the relevance of animals to medical sociology by arguing that pet owners' accounts of veterinary decision‐making can highlight key sociological themes which are important to both human and animal health. Based on semi‐structured interviews, the article argues...
 3. Understanding our kinship with animals: Input for health care professionals interested in the human-animal bond
 | Contributor(s):: Fine, Aubrey H., Beck, Alan M.
 4. Bitch, Bitch, Bitch: Personal Criticism, Feminist Theory, and Dog-writing
 | Contributor(s):: McHugh, Susan
 5. "This Dog Means Life": Making Interspecies Relations at an Assistance Dog Agency
 | Contributor(s):: Edminster, Avigdor
 6. Another Perspective on Dogs
 | Contributor(s):: Baenninger, Ronald


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A Performance Study of General-Purpose Applications on Graphics Processors Using CUDA
Source: University of Virginia
Graphics Processors Unit (GPUs) provide a vast number of simple, data-parallel, deeply multithreaded cores and high memory bandwidths. GPU architectures are becoming increasingly programmable, offering the potential for dramatic speedups for a variety of general purpose applications compared to contemporary general-purpose processors (CPUs). This paper uses NVIDIA's C-like CUDA language and an engineering sample of their recently introduced GTX 260 GPU to explore the effectiveness of GPUs for a variety of application types, and describes some specific coding idioms that improve their performance on the GPU. GPU performance is compared to both single-core and multicore CPU performance, with multicore CPU implementations written using OpenMP.


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Is My Loved One a Workaholic?
Many behaviors can become habitualized or addictive. While drug and alcohol addiction involves both a physical and psychological dependence, behavioral addictions are purely psychological. These disorders can be very serious, as it is difficult to maintain a normal lifestyle, healthy relationships, steady employment and important hobbies or passions when a particular behavior becomes compulsive. This can lead to anxiety, depression or substance abuse.
What Is a Behavioral Addiction, and How Does Work Become Addictive?
Some behaviors that may become compulsive include the following:
- Having sex
- Viewing pornography
- Using the Internet
- Thrill seeking
Though maintaining steady employments is crucial for most people, when work becomes something that completely dominates a person's attention, time and emotions, it is a problem. Some signs of compulsive working include the following:
- Excessive hours spent working
- Choosing to work extra hours even when not expected to by employer
- Inability to engage in other activities without staying in touch with the office
- Defensiveness when confronted with concerns about working
- Choosing to work instead of engaging in activities once enjoyed
- Loss of sleep due to working or obsessing over work issues
- Irritability related to work issues
- Use of substances such as caffeine, alcohol or amphetamines to keep working
- Refusal to take time off from work including vacation time that has been earned
There is a difference between someone who works hard or works long hours and someone who is psychologically addicted to working. Work addiction is often a progressive disease and may lead to other compulsive behaviors.
How to Help a Workaholic
The emotional aspects of behavioral addiction often cause an addict to be unable to admit that he or she has a problem. Defensiveness and denial are powerful, and it is important for the affected loved ones to be direct and compassionate when confronting a workaholic. Advance preparation may include the following:
- Seek the advice of a process addiction expert
- Prepare talking points for the confrontational conversation
- Explore treatment options in advance
- Assuring the workaholic that you are in their corner and will be with them through treatment
- Develop clear and reasonable goals for treatment outcomes
Find Support for Workaholic Treatment
If left untreated compulsive working can destroy relationships, personal health and even the career that the workaholic is obsessed with. Stress can create serious physical side effects including the following:
- Raised blood pressure
- Increased risk of heart attack and stroke
- Ulcers and other gastrointestinal distress
Treatment is mostly based on counseling, but depending on the severity of the disorder medication may be used as well. Lasting recovery often requires professional treatment over an extended period of time.
Get Help for Your Workaholic Loved One
If you are concerned that a loved one is a workaholic, please call our toll-free helpline any time. Our counselors can help you identify work addiction in a loved one and can help you develop a plan of action. You can play a crucial role in your loved one's recovery from compulsive working. Start the process by calling today.


Fix Windows Update Error 9C59 on Internet Explorer 11
Some Windows users encounter error code 9c59 whenever they try to install a certain update or when they try to install or update Internet Explorer 11. This particular problem has been confirmed in Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.
After reviewing all the potential culprits that may be responsible for the error code 9c59, here is a list of methods that other affected users have successfully used to solve the problem:
Delete the SoftwareDistribution folder (Windows Updates Store folder)
Windows stores downloaded updates in the SoftwareDistribution folder. If this folder is corrupted, you will have problems updating Windows. Another solution to get around the 9C59 error during Windows updates is to delete (or rename) this folder* and reboot your computer. To delete the SoftwareDistribution folder:
 - Note. When you restart, the next time Windows Updates checks for available updates, a new empty SoftwareDistribution folder will automatically be created where the updates will be saved.
 1. Press the Windows + R keys at the same time to open the Run command window.
 2. In the Run field, type: services.msc and press Enter.
 3. Find the Windows Update Center service, right-click it and select Stop.
 4. Navigate to the "C: Windows" folder.
 5. Delete the SoftwareDistribution folder (or rename it, for example, SoftwareDistributionOLD).
 6. Reboot your computer and try to install Internet Explorer. Install any additional Windows updates and update important device drivers.
Install all critical and optional updates except Internet Explorer 11.
 1. Press the Windows + R keys to load the Run dialog box.
 2. Type the following command to open the Windows Update Center and press Enter.
 3. Tap Check for updates.
 4. Select the Important Updates link.
 5. First uncheck the Name checkbox, then check it again to select all major updates.
 6. Then disable the update for Microsoft Internet Explorer 11.
 7. On the left, click Optional. Uncheck the Name checkbox and check it again to select additional updates. Then click OK.
 8. Finally, select the Install updates option.
 9. After installing the Windows updates, follow the same procedure until you have installed all available updates except IE11.
Update important device drivers.
Driver installation
 1. Download and install the latest drivers for the following devices from the manufacturer's website:
 - Screen adapter
 - Wireless adapter
 - Ethernet adapter
Uninstall all previous versions of Internet Explorer.
Uninstall all previous versions of Internet Explorer, and then try reinstalling Internet Explorer with the offline installer.
To uninstall all previous versions of IE:
 1. Go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features.
 2. Select the View Installed Updates option on the left.
 3. Enter "Internet Explorer" in the search box to easily find the Internet Explorer application you have installed.
 4. Select Internet Explorer 10 (for example, IE 10) and click "Uninstall".
 5. Reboot your computer.
 6. Follow the same steps and uninstall Internet Explorer 9.
 7. Reboot your computer.
 8. Try installing IE 11 again (using the offline installer).
If the installation fails again, then:
 1. Open a command line with elevated privileges. (Start -> All Programs -> Standard -> Right-click the command line and select "Run as administrator").
 2. In the command line window type the following command (copy and paste) and click OK:
FORFILES / P% WINDIR% \ servicing \ Packages / M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer- * 11. *. Mum / c "cmd / c echo Delete _USER_ && start / w pkgmgr / up: _USER_ / norestart package"
 1. When the command is complete, close the command prompt window and restart your computer.
 2. Try installing Internet Explorer 11.


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Biology and taxonomy still has its wonders for those who look hard enough. Researchers at the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung (SGN) in Frankfurt announced the discovery of nearly 500 new species in a January 25 media statement. The organization's research team was busy locating and describing the new species throughout 2011 to 2012. They recently revealed the results of their work, including pictures of some of the more exotic finds.
New Plants, Animals and Fossils
A purple crab and mustard-colored frog are among the most colorful of the 491 new species found by the Senckenberg researchers. Land dwelling organisms made up the majority, with only 75 of the new species hailing form ocean habitats.
Over half of the new species are from the Asian continent and roughly 100 are natives of Europe. The 30 plant species on the list were only a fraction of the total. Over 300 of the species belonged to the arthropod taxonomical group. The anthropoda phylum encompasses a diverse collection of organisms, including crabs, spiders and insects.
"The objective always is to record and preserve the diversity of life on earth, in other words, biodiversity," Senckenberg Director General Prof. Volker Mosbrugger said in the statement.
While 404 of the newly described species are still living, 87 of them are long gone. Rain forests, tundra and ocean floors are all taxonomical frontiers where all manner of strange organisms dwell, but some of the Senckenberg finds came from "familiar" fossil collections. The discovery of new species among fossils is attributed to updated research methods and evaluation of previously unidentified material, according to the statement.
Protection and Extinction
While many taxonomists don't need any extra incentive to seek out new species, one of the biggest benefits of describing organisms is the ability to protect them in the future. Dozens of animal species go extinct every day, so there is a little pressure on scientists to find them before it's too late.
"Taxonomy also serves to protect animal species," Dr. Peter Jäger, arachnologist at Senckenberg, said in the statement. "Only those who know the species variety can develop the necessary protection programmes."
Jäger was part of the Senckenberg team that set out to describe new species over the last few years. He discovered 46 new spider species during 2011 and 2012.
Senckenberg is no stranger to discovery. Home to six research institutes and several natural history museums, their researchers have discovered over a thousand new species during the last five years.
The recent finds add to an impressive track record, but the list of new species is just a drop in the ocean compared to the diversity of organisms on the planet. Scientists estimate the Earth's total number of species to be between 3 and 100 million, so there are still plenty of new finds for researchers to look forward to.
"2012 was the most successful Senckenberg year so far, with 331 newly discovered species," Mosbrugger said. "We have therefore described around two percent of all newly discovered species worldwide."


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How are sentences like 日本がピンチだ (Japan is in a pinch) and 明日は雨だ (tomorrow it will rain) analyzed?
Translating them trivially, as
日本がピンチだ Japan is a pinch
明日は雨だ Tomorrow is rain
doesn't make sense. So something must be going on. Is it
日本 and 明日are topics, not subjects
This would only make sense if が is interpreted as a topic marker, which would be an expansion from its usual interpretation: a subject marker. "This wouldn't be a problem for the second example" you might say, but e.g. subordinate clause 明日が雨だったら is valid, and has the same problem.
ピンチ and 雨 are の-adjectives
ピンチの国 → 日本がピンチだ
雨の日 → 明日は雨だ
Loose/alternate interpretation of copula
You might argue that the Japanese copula doesn't equate things to the same degree as the English one, but merely associates them. This might seem the most straightforward explanation, but looking at the wikipedia article on copula, such interpretations are not mentioned.


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What does DHCP mean in Unclassified?
This page is about the meanings of the acronym/abbreviation/shorthand DHCP in the Miscellaneous field in general and in the Unclassified terminology in particular.
Find a translation for DHCP in other languages:
Select another language:
Discuss this DHCP abbreviation with the community:
Use the citation below to add this abbreviation to your bibliography:
DHCP also stands for:
- A Directory Header Configuration Protocol
- Dear Health Care Professional
- Decentralized Hospital Computer Program
- Domain Host Control Protocol
- Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
... and 6 more »


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The luminescence induced by the bombardment of minerals in polished thin section with electrons. The technique is particularly useful in the identification of mineral cements and overgrowths produced in successive episodes, or for distinguishing between particles and authigenic overgrowths. The particles and each separate generation of cement will be of slightly different chemical composition, and so will luminesce with slightly different colours. See quartz overgrowth.
Subjects: Earth Sciences and Geography.


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Mel Bay How to Play Drum from Day One DVD
Studio musician and percussion editor Jim Payne presents this outstanding video on the basics of rock & blues drumming, assigning'singing drum sounds' or solfege syllables to the five basic components of the drumset. Payne addresses holding the sticks, playing the bass drum, and traditional notation and singing syllables of the hi-hat, bass drum, cymbals and toms. Introducing rock and blues tunes with various grooves and tempos, he stresses an awareness of song form in maintaining one's place in a piece of music. All on-screen samples are written in both standard notation and drum sounds. With the three-camera filming technique making every precise move easy to follow.


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Office of Child Welfare and Children's Mental Health
Improving Health Access in Frontier and Rural Counties
Principal Investigator: Megan S. O'Brien, PhD, MPH
Project Manager: Cheryl Holmes, MPA
Project Dates: Dec 2008 - ongoing
Defining Frontier and Rural
The way frontier and rural are defined is critical whether the work is
related to research, evaluation, program development, policy work, training,
outreach, or funding. Many definitions exist but only one is recommended by the
Kansas Rural and Frontier Subcommittee of the Kansas Governor's Mental Health
Services Planning Council. It is the Population Density Peer Group Continuum
that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment created by modifying the
Clifton Classification System. It provides definitions for five categories:
- Frontier is less than 6 people per square mile
- Rural is defined as 6-19.9 people per square mile
- Densely-settled rural is defined as 20-39.9 people per square mile
- Semi-urban is defined as 40-149.9 people per square mile
- Urban is defined as 150+ people per square mile
While other factors such as distance in miles and time in minutes to service areas are important considerations, this continuum provides a method for all counties to be categorized. In so doing, it provides a methodical way to take into consideration important factors that vary among the peer groups such as resource availability within the county, distance to resources outside of the county, availability of numbers and types of staff, cultural variations, and infrastructure, among others.
See the following links for Kansas and U.S. maps showing the breakout of counties across the continuum.
Kansas Map Based on 2010 Census Data
U.S. Map Based on 2007 Population Estimates
Frontier and Rural Specific Projects
With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and United Methodist Health Ministry Fund Area Mental Health Center is currently conducting a frontier access project, with evaluation and research support provide by KU School of Social Welfare. See _URL_
From 2008-2009, KU worked with community partners on the Improving Access to Children's Mental Health Through Inclusion of Frontier and Rural Voice: Integration of Mental Health and Primary Care project. With funding provided by United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, the project was designed to develop a culturally and geographically sensitive plan to increase access to children's mental health services in frontier and rural Kansas counties. The project culminated with a children's mental health summit held in Garden City, Kansas, in the fall of 2009.
In addition to KU, key partners on this project included Area Mental Health Center, Garden City; Center for Counseling and Consultation, Great Bend; St. Francis Community Services, Salina; Larned State Hospital, Larned; Tribune School System, Tribune; USD 395, La Crosse; Ellsworth County Medical Center, Ellsworth; and Morton County Hospital, Elkhart. Melissa Ness with Connections Unlimited provided the facilitation for this project.
Summit Participant Survey Results (Adobe file)
Final Report (Adobe file)
In 2007, KU staff partnered with the Rural and Frontier Subcommittee members
to complete a project and related report on Frontier and Rural Children's Mental
Health Services: Identification of Strengths and Challenges in Western Kansas.
Governor's Mental Health Services Planning Council – Rural and Frontier Subcommittee
For information about this subcommittee, please visit: _URL_
Rural and Frontier Data
Policy makers, providers, funders, families, researchers, and other stakeholders utilize data for different reasons. The files below are designed to provide easy access to current information, arranged across the frontier through urban continuum. The goal is to help a wide variety of users tell their stories, supported through data.
PLEASE NOTE: In most cases, population and peer density groups have been updated based on 2010 Census data. However other data sources, such as provider numbers, may be older. Footnotes are available on each file to identify highlight this information.
Viewing Kansas Across the Population Density Peer Groups
Distribution of Kansas Counties by Population Density Peer Groups - east and west
Percent of Kansas Counties by Population Density Peer Groups
Background and Demographics Across the Population Density Peer Groups in
Population 17 Years and Under
Poverty Estimates for People Under 18
Under 65 Without Health Insurance
Population Change Over Time - Summary and by County
Social Service Provider Data
Number of Providers in Kansas Across Population Density Peer Groups
Number of Psychiatrist (M.D.) in Kansas Across Population Density Peer Groups
Average Number of Square Miles Covered by a Provider
Average Size of General Population Covered by One Provider


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Participants will increase their understanding of what is included in a retailer's overall strategy, and the importance of being able to understand and articulate the strategy (from both a retailer's and supplier's perspective). Retailer strategy has a significant impact on category management, and needs to be defined across different buckets, including retail format, target consumer, competitive environment and private label or no name. Each of these areas will be reviewed in detail. A hands-on workshop allows participants to define the strategy for a specific retailer that they either work for, or that is their client.
- Explain how retailer strategy affects category management;
- List different examples of what may be included in a retailer strategy;
- Identify the strategies of a specific retailer; and
- State why it is important for retailers to communicate a clear and consistent strategy to consumers.
The estimated completion time of this course is 2 hours.
Training Course Package, $125
- 30-day Access via CMKG's Online Training and Resource Center. Desktop, Laptop and Mobile Device compatible.
- Hands-On Workshops
- Downloadable Notes & Reference Guide
- Knowledge Checks
- Course Test
Training Course Videos Only, $59
- 30-day Access via CMKG's Online Training and Resource Center.
- Knowledge Checks
This accredited category management training course for retailers and manufacturers qualifies for for the Certified Professional Category Analyst (CPCA), Certified Professional Category Manager (CPCM), and Certified Professional Strategic Advisor (CPSA) training requirements.
*CMKG's Online Training and Resource Center includes many resources you can use in your day to day: a Resource Library with whitepapers, articles, tips and tricks, e-books and more; a dynamic Industry Glossary with >300 terms, each with a definition, and formulas and links to other related descriptions.


LCOS-SLM (Optical Phase Modulator) X15213-16L
Datasheet [1 MB/PDF]
LCOS-SLM Applications and Features [930 KB/PDF]
The X15213 series devices are a reﬂective type of pure phase Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs), based on Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) technology in which liquid crystal (LC) is controlled by a direct and accurate voltage, and can modulate a wavefront of light beam. The LCOS-SLMs are carefully designed to achieve high light utilization eﬃciency from various points of view, such as reﬂectivity, aperture ratio and diﬀraction noise due to the pixel structure. The X15213 series can be controlled via a PC using the Digital Video Interface (DVI), which is a standard interface for PC displays. The distortions in the LCOS chip, such as wavefront distortion and non-linear response of the LC, are eﬃciently compensated by the controller. Easy PC control, precise and linear phase modulation characteristics can be accomplished with the X15213 series. They can also provide high diﬀraction eﬃciency and high light utilization eﬃciency.
- Pure, linear and precise phase control
- High light utilization eﬃciency
- High diﬀraction eﬃciency
- High power handling capability
- Ease of use (DVI compatible)
- Reﬂective type
Pixel pitch 12.5 μm
Input signal DVI-D / USB-B (2.0 High-peed)
DVI signal format SXGA (1280 x 1024 pixels)
DVI frame rate 60 Hz
Number of input levels 256 (8 bits) levels
Number of pixel 1272 × 1024 pixels
Effective area 15.9 x 12.8 mm
Spatial resolution max. 40 lp/mm
Fill factor 96 %
Rise time 11 ms
Fall time 34 ms
Readout light wavelength 510 ± 50 nm
Light utilization efficiency 97 %
Measurement condition λ=532 nm
Disclaimer [66 KB/PDF]
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Digital weighing scales are commonly found in clinics, hospitals, museums, and warehouses. Designed to handle a substantial amount of weight, digital weighing scales can weigh just about any item imaginable. Within our selection you're sure to find a weighing scale that includes the features and options you're looking for.
Weighing scales are tools used by countless industries to determine the weight or mass of an object. Depending on the application, a weighing scale can be used to weigh a single piece of fruit or a fully loaded box-truck of goods. Due to the many advantages of digital weighing scales such as increased accuracy, precision, and readability, they have become the number one scale choice for doctor's offices, veterinary offices, hospitals, deli's, bakeries, and warehouses.
In the medical profession, errors are not an option. For this reason, doctors and veterinarians alike chose digital scales for use in their practices. Digital weighing scales don't just provide high precision. They also have easy to read digital displays that make it almost impossible to misread the weight results. These features greatly reduce the chance of recording an inaccurate weight of a patient, which could result in a patient becoming very ill, or in the worst case, a patient's death if the wrong dosage is prescribed.
In food preparation and packaging industries the use of digital scales allow for precise portion control and the accurate packaging of food products for market. For food preparation, the portion control weighing scales that are used are often smaller in size and designed to accurately weigh single servings. The weighing scales for commercial packaging of consumer products are much larger and can handle higher capacities, such as boxes or even pallets of product.
In other industries such as postal, inventory, and warehousing, digital weighing scales provide the perfect money saving solutions. These weighing scales allow the operator to determine the accurate weight of a package to ensure they don't pay excess shipping fees. During inventory counts, weighing scales can produce an accurate count of items in packages eliminating the need to open and physically count items individually. The countless uses of weighing scales make them a must have tool for almost every industry.
Since digital weighing scales are used in countless application, requiring various features, and different sizes, there is an endless selection of weighing scales available on the market. At Digital Scales AZ we have searched the globe to locate the highest quality weighing scales in order to make them available on our site. Here you'll find digital weighing scales with all of the options and features you're looking for like heavy-duty construction, mountable displays, extra long cords, computer connectivity, and multiple weighing modes.


Manages the vertical dimension of the image data. On set-call, the image data are changed accordingly to the new height, and depending on "::vScaling" property, the pixel values are either scaled or truncated.
hScaling BOOLEAN
If 1, the bitmap data will be scaled when image changes its horizontal extent. If 0, the data will be stripped or padded with zeros.
lineSize INTEGER
A read-only property, returning the length of an image row in bytes, as represented internally in memory. Data returned by "::data" property are aligned with "::lineSize" bytes per row, and setting "::data" expects data aligned with this value, unless "lineSize" is set together with "data" to indicate another alignment. See ''Data access'' for more.
Returns mean value of pixels. Mean value is "::sum" of pixel values, divided by number of pixels.
palette [ _USER_ ]
See also "colormap".
Provides per-pixel access to the image data when image object is in disabled paint state. Otherwise, same as "Prima::Drawable::pixel".
preserveType BOOLEAN
If 1, reverts the image type to its old value if an implicit conversion was called during "end_paint()".
Returns maximum pixel value in the image data.
Returns minimum pixel value in the image data.
Manages dimensions of the image. On set-call, the image data are changed accordingly to the new dimensions, and depending on "::vScaling" and "::hScaling" properties, the pixel values are either scaled or truncated.
stats ( INDEX ) VALUE
Returns one of calculated values, that correspond to INDEX, which is one of the following "is::XXX" constants:
 is::RangeLo - minimum pixel value
 is::RangeHi - maximum pixel value
 is::Mean - mean value
 is::Variance - variance
 is::StdDev - standard deviation
 is::Sum - sum of pixel values
 is::Sum2 - sum of squares of pixel values
These values are also accessible via set of alias properties: "::rangeLo", "::rangeHi", "::mean", "::variance", "::stdDev", "::sum", "::sum2".
Returns standard deviation of the image data. Standard deviation is the square root of "::variance".
Returns sum of pixel values of the image data
Returns sum of squares of pixel values of the image data
type TYPE
Governs the image pixel format type. TYPE is a combination of "im::XXX" constants. The constants are collected in groups:
Bit-depth constants provide size of pixel is bits. Their actual value is same as number of bits, so "im::bpp1" value is 1, "im::bpp4" - 4, etc. The valid constants represent bit depths from 1 to 128:
The following values designate the pixel format category:
Value of "im::Color" is 0, whereas other category constants represented by unique bit value, so combination of "im::RealNumber" and "im::ComplexNumber" is possible.
There also several mnemonic constants defined:
 im::Mono - im::bpp1
 im::16 - im::bpp4
 im::Nibble - im::bpp4
 im::256 - im::bpp8
 im::RGB - im::bpp24
 im::Triple - im::bpp24
 im::Byte - gray 8-bit unsigned integer
 im::Short - gray 16-bit unsigned integer
 im::Long - gray 32-bit unsigned integer
 im::Float - float
 im::Double - double
 im::Complex - dual float
 im::DComplex - dual double
 im::TrigComplex - dual float
 im::TrigDComplex - dual double
The groups can be masked out with the mask values:
 im::BPP - bit depth constants
 im::Category - category constants
 im::FMT - extra format constants
The extra formats are the pixel formats, not supported by "::type", but recognized within the combined set-call, like
 $image-> set(
 type => im::fmtBGRI,
 data => 'BGR-BGR-',
Returns variance of pixel values of the image data. Variance is "::sum2", divided by number of pixels minus square of "::sum" of pixel values.
vScaling BOOLEAN
If 1, the bitmap data will be scaled when image changes its vertical extent. If 0, the data will be stripped or padded with zeros.
Manages the horizontal dimension of the image data. On set-call, the image data are changed accordingly to the new width, and depending on "::hScaling" property, the pixel values are either scaled or truncated.
Prima::Icon properties
autoMasking TYPE
Selects whether the mask information should be updated automatically with "::data" change or not. Every "::data" change is mirrored in "::mask", using TYPE, one of "am::XXX" constants:
 am::None - no mask update performed
 am::Auto - mask update based on corner pixel values
The "::maskColor" color value is used as a transparent color if TYPE is "am::MaskColor". The transparency mask generation algorithm, turned on by "am::Auto" checks corner pixel values, assuming that majority of the corner pixels represents a transparent color. Once such color is found, the mask is generated as in "am::MaskColor" case.
"::maskIndex" is the same as "::maskColor", except that it points to a specific color index in the palette.
When image "::data" is stretched, "::mask" is stretched accordingly, disregarding the "::autoMasking" value.
maskColor COLOR
When "::autoMasking" set to "am::MaskColor", COLOR is used as a transparency value.
maskIndex INDEX
When "::autoMasking" set to "am::MaskIndex", INDEXth color in teh current palette is used as a transparency value.
Prima::DeviceBitmap properties
monochrome BOOLEAN
A read-only property, that can only be set during creation, reflects whether the system bitmap is black-and-white 1-bit (monochrome) or not. The color depth of a bitmap can be read via "get_bpp()" method; monochrome bitmaps always have bit depth of 1.
Prima::Image methods
See Prima::image-load for details.
This method can be called without object instance.
Returns the bit depth of the pixel format. Same as "::type & im::BPP".
Returns a system handle for an image object.
Loads image from file FILENAME or stream FILEGLOB into an object, and returns the success flag. The semantics of "load()" is extensive, and can be influenced by PARAMETERS hash. "load()" can be called either in a context of an existing object, then a boolean success flag is returned, or in a class context, then a newly created object ( or "undef" ) is returned. If an error occurs, $@ variable contains the error description string. These two invocation semantics are equivalent:
 die "$@" unless $x;
See Prima::image-load for details.
NB! When loading from streams on win32, mind "binmode".
Performs iterative mapping of bitmap pixels, setting every pixel to "::color" property with respect to "::rop" type if a pixel equals to COLOR, and to "::backColor" property with respect to "::rop2" type otherwise.
"rop::NoOper" type can be used for color masking.
 rop2 => rop::CopyPut
 rop2 => rop::NoOper
Stores image data into image file FILENAME or stream FILEGLOB, and returns the success flag. The semantics of "save()" is extensive, and can be influenced by PARAMETERS hash. If error occurs, $@ variable contains error description string.
Note that when saving to a stream, "codecID" must be explicitly given in %PARAMETERS.
See Prima::image-load for details.
NB! When saving to streams on win32, mind "binmode".
Prima::Image events
"Prima::Image"-specific events occur only from inside load call, to report image loading progress. Not all codecs (currently JPEG,PNG,TIFF only) are able to report the progress to the caller. See ''Loading with progress indicator'' in Prima::image-load for details, ''watch_load_progress'' in Prima::ImageViewer and ''load'' in Prima::ImageDialog for suggested use.
Called whenever image data that cover area designated by X,Y,WIDTH,HEIGHT is acquired. Use "load" option "eventDelay" to limit the rate of "DataReady" event.
Prima::Icon methods
Returns two new Prima::Image objects of same dimension. Pixels in the first is are duplicated from "::data" storage, in the second - from "::mask" storage.
combine DATA, MASK
Copies information from DATA and MASK images into "::data" and "::mask" property. DATA and MASK are expected to be images of same dimension.
Prima::DeviceBitmap methods
Returns a system handle for a system bitmap object.
Dmitry Karasik, <>.
PDL, PDL::PrimaImage, IPA
ImageMagick, Prima::Image::Magick
Graphic input and output
File input and output
Pixel formats
Data access
Standalone usage
Prima::Image properties
Prima::Icon properties
Prima::DeviceBitmap properties
Prima::Image methods
Prima::


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As in many other fields, in sports too, women were latecomers and considered as the 'other sex' – at least until the twenty-first century. When sport developed in its modern forms towards the second half of the nineteenth century, women were (and to a certain degree still are) considered too weak to participate in strenuous physical activities, and were thus excluded from various sports, competitions and events. Although they gradually gained access to all sports, competitive sport was – and is still today – one of the few areas in modern societies with strict gender segregation: in most sports, men do not compete against women and playing sport is always 'doing gender'. Yet, in many epochs and in many regions of the world, there were female 'rebels' who did not comply with the ideals, norms and rules that contributed to women's marginalization. Who were these women, what were their aims and motivations, which strategies did they apply and how did they fight and win their battles against the gender order of their time?
The chapters were originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.
Table of Contents
Susanna Hedenborg and Gertrud Pfister
1. The shady past of female boxers – what case studies in the USA reveal
Gertrud Pfister and Gerald Gems
2. Christl Cranz, Germany's ski icon of the 1930s: the Nazis' image of the ideal German woman?
Annette R. Hofmann
3. Lis Hartel – an extraordinary equestrian
4. Ewy Rosqvist, rally queen: gender, identity and car racing at the beginning of the 1960s
5. Wanda Rutkiewicz – crossing boundaries in women's mountaineering
6. 'It's not how you look; it's what you do.' Western Canadian Barrel Racers, Rodeo Legitimacy and Femininity
Desirea Weninger and Christine Dallaire
Susanna Hedenborg is Professor in Sport Science, Malmö University, Sweden.
Gertrud Pfister is Professor Emeritus of Sport, Individual & Society, Copenhagen University, Denmark


Manual Handling Awareness (Construction/Rail)
Course code
You want to look after your body better and ensure a healthy, injury-free life, at work and at home, right? Well, if you understand how to undertake manual handling tasks correctly, you can.
On completing the course you will understand:
 - what manual handling is, how it's risk assessed and the best ways to prevent injury
 - what injuries can occur from poor handling techniques (it isn't just back injuries)
 - the legal requirements that apply to you and your employer
 - about the TILE risk assessment technique
 - about organising your workplace to reduce the risk of a manual handling injury
 - about manual handling equipment which can help reduce risk
More Information
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Core sector Warehousing, Distribution, Construction
Sub-sector Rail, Building Construction
Business outcomes Induction/Onboarding, Wellbeing, Compliance
Skill type Health and Safety, Equipment
Job type Construction Manager, Construction Supervisor, Construction Worker
Author Kenmac/HSQE
Why choose Upskill People?
why choose UkSkill
We've been helping people shine for over 20 years.
why choose UkSkill
Our engaging courses improve performance and provide measurable benefits.
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society, ones behaviour should conform to its special morals and ethics. The behaviour of someone is reflected in the way he or she talks, eats, plays and lives with others.
Types of Behaviour
There are two main types of behaviour, proper and improper behaviour, as explained below:
This is the kind of behaviour that is acceptable to all members of afamily, community and society. Examples of proper behaviour are cooperation, solidarity, love, generosity, charity, helpfulness, kindness and being responsible. Therefore, proper behaviour is taught according to the norms of a given society.
Elements of Proper Behaviour
There are a number of elements indicating proper behaviour, which include:
1. Love, peace and security among people
2. Respect for the law and rules guiding the society
3. Cooperation
4. Polite language when speaking to other people
5. Being responsible
6. Participation in community activities
7. Payment of taxes and duties
8. Respect for oneself, others, property and authority
9. Knowing and doing what is morally right
10. Obedience and effective communication
11. Honesty, i.e. always telling the truth and never cheating
12. Adhering to instructions
Proper Behaviour
The Importance of Proper Behaviour
1. Proper behaviour helps to reduce crime and evil in asociety.
2. It also brings a culture of unity and cooperation in order to solve various problems, hence bringing about family stability.
3. Furthermore, a peaceful environment stimulates economic development in the society.
4. Proper behaviour also helps to develop a sense of love, respect and solidarity among community members and the society at large.
5. Lastly, it contributes to the stability of government and the state in general.
This is the kind of behaviour that is not morally acceptable to afamily, community and society at large.
Elements of Improper Behaviour
There are a number of elements indicating improper behaviour, these include:
1. Unlawful acts such as killing and stealing
2. The use of abusive language
3. Love of violence
4. Aggression, feelings of anger and hatred that may result into threatening or violent behaviour and boasting
5. Segregation
6 Arrogance, incivility and rudeness.
7. Excessive drinking of alcohol
8. Irresponsibility
9. Immorality
10. Corruption, dishonesty and disobedience
11. Indiscipline
Improper Behaviour
Causes of Improper Behaviour
Improper behaviour is caused by:
1. Moral deterioration
2. Drug abuse
3. Lack of discipline
4. Poverty.
5. It can also be caused by wealth superiority (wealth abuse)
6. Excessive alcohol drinking and bad peer groups, especially among the adolescents.
Consequences of Improper Behaviour
1. Improper behaviour can result in misunderstandings in a family, community or institution.
2. Also, the number of commercial sex workers and other crimes can increase in asociety due to improper behaviour.
3. Moreover, loneliness due to discrimination, increased number of dropouts/dismissals/expulsions and poor performance of students in their studies may be witnessed because of improper behaviour.
4. Finally, improper behaviour can lead to inability to overcome various problems and causing family unrest.
5. Early marriages and adolescent pregnancies
6. Spread of HIVIAIDS
7. Divorce and frustrations
8. Deterioration of health or death due to over drinking, and drug abuse can also be a consequence of improper behaviour.
Measures to Correct Improper Behaviour
Several measures can be taken to correct and reduce improper behaviour.
1. For instance, adherence to family planning education and religious teachings, such as God's commandments.
2. We can also correct improper behaviour through law enforcement, punishing law breakers, e.g. thieves, bandits and corrupt people.
3. Discourage the importing and use of drugs (e.g. marijuana) which are harmful to one's health.
4. Lastly, parents should be careful to teach their children good and acceptable conducts.
5. Through providing civil education and employment to the youth so as to reduce the rate of poverty, which can also be helpful in correcting improper behaviour.
Educating Children
Other Types of Behaviour
The following are basic types of human behaviour:
1. Assertive: this refers to strong expressions intended to make other people recognise one's rightful authority. It also refers to doing something by behaving confidently. It relies on honest, direct and appropriate expression of needs, wants or feelings as a first resort.
2. Avoidance: this is used to avoid any confrontation. People practice avoidance because of possible consequences or because one does not wish to be bothered by the consequences. Avoidance can be exercised in many ways, refusing to get a diagnostic test, not answering a phone/or a letter to certain people or avoiding making any contact with them.
3. Submissive: this is also known as accommodating behaviour, which reduces the anxiety, guilt or fear in others by letting its own views or thoughts be misconstrued, ignored or taken advantage of. Submissive behaviour is instilled in children by parents, school and society. It can lead to building up resentment, leading to an aggressive outburst.
4. Aggressive behaviour: this refers to behaving in a threatening way, and always ready to attack. This type of behaviour offends or tramples on someone else's rights. It is a showing of anger. Sometimes, aggression can be an expression of fear, lack of self-esteem or the inability to control a situation in any other way.
5. Appropriate behaviour: this achieves necessary and desired goals without infringing the rights and the needs of others. For instance, maintaining healthy eating habits, showing satisfaction for a service, and not annoying others.
Decision Making is a process of thinking to select a course of action from among many alternatives. A person can, through voting, decide who should be his/her leader. Again, one can decide whom to get married to and when. One can also decide when to start a business or which course to take in a college.
On the other hand, Responsible Decision Making is the process of making the choice after considering all options available through a particular criterion.
Decision making is a continuous process in life. It helps in the development and management of material and human resources. It is the situation in which a person, who makes a decision, is accountable and takes the blame for the bad outcome of the decision. It happens when each member of the society feels obliged to participate in the formulation of policies, organising and developing resources to realise societal goals.
The power to make decisions is given to people who do certain tasks, like planning, formulating national policies or organising family matters for the betterment of the society. It depends greatly on experience, feelings, cognition, sensing, judgment, reasoning, instruction and sometimes the level of education and a person's profession.
Decision Making
Rational Decision Making
This involves reasoning and critical thinking before making decisions. It implies making a healthy decision. Skills needed to Make Healthy Decisions. In making a healthy decision, there are clear steps to be followed so as to realise the intended goal.
We propose seven steps as shown below:
1. Define the problem/identify the problem. We should ask ourselves if there is a problem and how we can solve it correctly. Also, identify the importance, urgency and magnitude of the problem so as to determine the resources needed to solve it.
2. Generate possible solutions/alternatives
3. Generate the criteria for assessing the objectives. Ask yourself: am I measuring the right thing? Find out if the merits outweigh the demerits of each alternative.
4. Select the best solution/alternative, especially when the merits outweigh demerits. The decision made will be a healthy one.
5. Implement the chosen alternative.
6. Evaluate the success of the chosen alternative.
7. Modify the decision and actions taken, based on the evaluation done in step six.
Levels in decision-making
The Levels in Making Decisitions
There are three levels at which decisions are made, the family, community and national level.
1. Family Level
The members of a family (i.e. parents and children) are involved in making decisions on different matters. But in most cases, parents are the main decision makers because of their age, experience and authority. Some decisions, especially those which touch directly on the interests of children, must involve both children and parents.
For example, if a father wants to buy something for his family, he must first seek the child's willingness and preference before buying it. Therefore, it is important for family members to ask and respect each other's opinions before making decisions.
2. Community Level
Decision making at this level can be made by the people who are in power. These are people who have been given authority to make plans on behalf of other members of the community. On the other hand, some decisions are made by the whole community. The community members gather to discuss some matters, such as building hospitals, schools and roads.
3. National Level
At this level, broad decisions are made, and important national issues are decided upon. There are some organs which share in making national decisions, these are: the parliament, which makes laws; the executive, which implements the laws and policies of the country, and the judiciary which interprets laws and see that justice prevails in the country.
Decision Making
Importance of Making Responsible Decisions
It is important to make responsible decisions because.
1. It ensures the careful use of the limited resources for the betterment and development of the society.
2. It also helps to build a sense of commitment to decisions made on behalf of the people.
3. Responsible decision brings a sense of making a collective effort, as one element of a democratic society.
4. Finally, it


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Just draw your letter of choice and place squares of color down along the line of the letter. Then have kids place blocks down on each square. Start from the top if possible.
Physical or Occupational Therapists may place the letter on the wall and each time a child does an exercise, they will place another snap block (you can use velcro also) on the letter.
Share what is working for you by submitting work on your brilliant therapy facebook page and encouraging a friend to join (it is @.65 cents per day) and see what new things are added every week.


AOT: Appearance Optimal Transport Based Identity Swapping for Forgery Detection
AuthorFeedback »Bibtex »MetaReview »Paper »Review »Supplemental »
Hao Zhu, Chaoyou Fu, Qianyi Wu, Wayne Wu, Chen Qian, Ran He
Recent studies have shown that the performance of forgery detection can be improved with diverse and challenging Deepfakes datasets. However, due to the lack of Deepfakes datasets with large variance in appearance, which can be hardly produced by recent identity swapping methods, the detection algorithm may fail in this situation. In this work, we provide a new identity swapping algorithm with large differences in appearance for face forgery detection. The appearance gaps mainly arise from the large discrepancies in illuminations and skin colors that widely exist in real-world scenarios. However, due to the difficulties of modeling the complex appearance mapping, it is challenging to transfer fine-grained appearances adaptively while preserving identity traits. This paper formulates appearance mapping as an optimal transport problem and proposes an Appearance Optimal Transport model (AOT) to formulate it in both latent and pixel space. Specifically, a relighting generator is designed to simulate the optimal transport plan. It is solved via minimizing the Wasserstein distance of the learned features in the latent space, enabling better performance and less computation than conventional optimization. To further refine the solution of the optimal transport plan, we develop a segmentation game to minimize the Wasserstein distance in the pixel space. A discriminator is introduced to distinguish the fake parts from a mix of real and fake image patches. Extensive experiments reveal that the superiority of our method when compared with state-of-the-art methods and the ability of our generated data to improve the performance of face forgery detection.


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HOMER Pro 3.12
Navigation: Design > Project Tab
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The Optimization page under the Project tab allows you to control how HOMER finds the optimal system. The Optimization page is divided into two parts. On the left are the Optimization Settings, where you can apply rules to exclude some kinds of systems from the optimization. On the right are Optimizer Settings that control certain aspects of the numerical optimization.
Optimization Settings
HOMER uses the simulation time step to simulate the operation of each system configuration. You can set this value by selecting one of the values between one hour and one minute from the "Minutes per time step:" drop-down menu. The simulation time step does not have to match the time step of any time series load or resource data you may have imported. See the simulation time step section of the help for details.
The other options in this section allow you to exclude systems that meet certain criteria, or flag certain systems with a warning.
Allow systems with multiple generators
If checked, HOMER considers systems that contain more than one generator. It has no effect if you are considering only one generator.
Allow systems with generator capacity less than peak load
If checked, HOMER considers systems whose total generator capacity is less than the annual peak primary load.
Allow systems with two types of wind turbines
If checked, HOMER simulates system configurations that contain more than one type of wind turbine. If you add two types of wind turbines to the schematic and only want to choose between them, leave this check box unchecked. If you want HOMER to simulate systems that contain both types of turbines, check this check box.
Limit excess thermal output
If checked, HOMER prevents the system from producing more than the allowable amount of excess thermal energy.
Issue a warning if an off-grid system has...
If checked, HOMER issues warnings in the results for systems that meet the criteria you specify here.
The Optimizer
You can opt to use the HOMER Optimizer for the Converter, Storage, PV, and Wind Turbine Components. Click the HOMER Optimizer radio button to enable the Optimizer in the Optimization table. Check the Advanced button to change the Upper and Lower values.
If you enable the Optimizer for a component, you do not need to enter a Search Space number for that component, only the lower and upper limits of the range to consider. HOMER compares the quantities between the upper and lower bounds with the base. The default for the Base is 0. HOMER automatically finds the optimal size or quantity for you. You can optimize up to four components at a time. You can also mix components that are optimized with those that have regular Search Space entries together in one model. In that case, HOMER runs one optimization for each combination in the Search Space.
Using the Optimizer with a Search Space
For example, if you have a PV with a regular Search Space (shown above, left) and several other components with the Optimizer enabled (shown above, right), HOMER runs an optimization with each Search Space value on the left. That is, you see the optimal system configuration for the system with no PV, and with a PV capacity of 1 kW, 2 kW, and 3 kW. All the optimization results are listed together in the Optimization Results table on the Results page. You can compare the optimal systems with each size of PV, to find the best overall system. You can also sort and filter on PV size to see only results from one optimization at a time.
Tip: If you are considering a small number of wind turbines (i.e., 0, 1, or 2 turbines), it may be better to enter the quantities in the Search Space, and not use the Optimizer. The same applies to batteries. If you are considering four or more different quantities of wind turbines or batteries, using the Optimizer may be a good choice.
Optimizer Settings
The Optimizer Settings section of the Optimization page contains inputs that affect how the numerical optimization algorithm operates.
Maximum simulations per optimization
HOMER runs one optimization for each combination of Search Space variables (explained above). HOMER also runs an optimization for each system category if "Optimize category winners?" (below) is selected. This option limits the number of simulations for each optimization.
System design precision
The maximum relative precision of decision variables allowed for convergence. There must be at least N systems closer than this from the best system, where N is the number of dimensions in the optimization. Distance is calculated as a fraction of the total range you specify for each decision variable (upper limit minus the lower limit).
NPC precision
The maximum relative error in net present cost (NPC) required for convergence. The average NPC of the N systems closest to the best system must be within the specified fraction of the best system's NPC, where N is the number of dimensions in the optimization. This input is interpreted as a fraction of NPC.
Focus factor
This setting controls how evenly HOMER covers the optimization space with points (where each point is a system configuration). A low focus factor covers the space more evenly. A high focus factor concentrates points near existing points with a low NPC. Optimizing with a higher focus factor tends to converge more quickly, with fewer total simulations needed, but can risk getting stuck in a local optimum.
Optimize category winners?
Run additional optimizations with and without each component in the system; if this is not selected, only the overall winner is optimized, and category winners may not be good.
Run base case
Enables the Base Case inputs in each component using the Optimizer. HOMER runs a single extra simulation with these Search Space values in addition to the optimization.
The System design precision specifies the relative error in the decision variables (i.e., PV array capacity) below which convergence is allowed. If the NPC precision criterion is also satisfied, the optimization is finished. The system design precision is specified as a fraction of the total range of each component. For example, consider a system where the PV capacity (minimum 0 kW, maximum 100 kW) and the storage quantity (minimum 0, maximum 300) are both being optimized. A precision setting of 0.01 means plus or minus 1 kW of PV, and plus or minus 3 batteries.
The NPC precision convergence criterion must also be met for convergence. Once both criteria are met, the optimization is finished. The NPC precision is relative to the best system's NPC. For example, the current best system has an NPC of $67,000, and the NPC precision is 0.01. If the average difference in NPC of the nearest N points is less than $670, the NPC precision criterion is satisfied.
The Maximum simulations per optimization prevents the optimization from running forever if it can't converge. For example, you want to optimize four variables with the default system design and NPC precision of 0.01. If you choose a low focus factor, the guess points are evenly distributed over the four-dimensional space. With the system design precision of 0.01, you would need roughly 100 points in each dimension. For four dimensions, that's 100^4 or 100 million points. The maximum simulations per optimization prevents the optimization from trying to do that.
Increasing the Focus Factor causes the points evaluated during optimization to be clustered more around the optimal system. A typical point distribution for a two-dimensional optimization is pictured below for different values of the Focus Factor. On the plots below, each point represents a system that was evaluated. No data is plotted for the resulting NPC for each system, but you can guess where the lower NPC systems are because the points are clustered together around the optimal point.
Focus factor = 1
Focus factor = 3
Focus factor = 15
Focus factor = 50
The default setting for the Focus Factor is 50, which produces results rapidly, and is good for designing and iterating. Before finalizing a design, you may want to try a lower Focus Factor (i.e., 5 or 10) and run the optimization again. It takes longer, but you can be more confident that the solution reported is the global optimum. You might consider increasing the maximum simulations per optimization input to accommodate a lower Focus Factor.
Running Calculate with the Optimizer
When you click the Calculate button, HOMER may perform many optimizations: one optimization for each Search Space combination, and also for each system category. The theoretical maximum number of simulations per calculation can be many times more than the maximum number you specify in Maximum Simulations per Optimization. For example, for a system with a generator, storage, converter, and PV, you set the optimizer for the storage and converter, and PV. You also set the Optimizer to optimize the category winners (the default). You enter 0 and 10 kW in the generator Search Space.
HOMER runs an optimization with the storage, converter, PV, and 10 kW generator (because you entered a 10 in the generator Search Space). If "Optimize category winners?" is selected, HOMER also tries to optimize the system with and without each of the storage, converter, and PV (all with the 10 kW generator still included). It runs an optimization with no storage, converter, or PV (generator only) and quickly realizes that there is not much to optimize (but the generator-only result is still included in the results). Then it optimizes the PV only, then the converter only, then PV and converter, then storage only, and so on (there are 2^3 combinations). Then HOMER repeats the whole process without the generator, for a total of 2^3 * 2 (=16) optimizations.
If the Maximum Simulations per


The potential ramifications of Brexit on personal injury claims
March 2019 is the expected date that the UK will sever all ties with the EU. Already, we have such uncertainty throughout our economic and political sectors that it's difficult to determine how this divorce will affect key areas of law and business.
Experts predict everyone will feel the impact of Brexit in 2019. But since many of our health and safety laws are connected with EU regulations and directives, could personal injury claims be one of the main areas affected?
Looking into how UK lawyers, clients and practices might change post-Brexit is law firm Tilly Bailey and Irvine — experts in medical negligence claims.
What is the current situation with EU directives and regulations?
Many people aren't completely clear on what exactly EU directives and regulations are. To start, we'll look at directives. Essentially, EU directives are legal acts and laws aimed at EU member states. Once enacted, every nation that is part of the EU must make them national law by a stated deadline. What does this mean for the UK? EU directives have been turned into laws using Statutory Instruments. This is a process that means the government isn't required to create a new piece of law and get it passed through parliament every time a new legal act is created.
Contrastingly, EU regulations are more specific than directives. EU regulations are basically the minimum requirements and fundamental principles that members of the EU must follow once the legal acts are instated.
What are the main EU regulations and directives that could affect personal injury claims?
There are several EU regulations and directives in the UK. The main ones are:
Suffering an accident or injury abroad
When residents of the UK go abroad, whether travelling or on holiday, many rely on the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme. At the moment, this gives those from the UK the right to access state-provided healthcare whenever they are temporarily situated somewhere else in the European Economic Area. Approximately 27 million EHIC cards have been issued across the UK to date, so changes to this will be felt countrywide. EHIC cards are helpful in times when someone in the UK has an accident in a EU Member State, regardless of the extent of their travel insurance cover.
The EHIC scheme is very handy for giving UK citizens help and peace of mind when abroad in the EU, but there is also another law from the European "Sixth Directive" 2009. This helps passport holders of an EU country who have had an accident in an EU member nation which was caused by an uninsured driver. If an incident like this occurs, the person from the UK can make a claim and request compensation through the UK's Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB). As a result, a process is started where the MIB seeks reimbursement from the equivalent office that is set up in the country where the accident took place.
Health and Safety at Work Act (1974)
A fundamental directive, the 1974 Health and Safety Work Act guarantees the nation's basic safety and health requirements for employees and employers across the EU. Companies operating within the EU must put in place certain safeguards to protect workers and visitors on a site or workplace. The groundwork for the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act came from The European Framework Directive on Safety and Health at Work.
Consumer Protection Act (1987)
In the 1980s, the Consumer Protection Act came into force to ensure and improve product safety for buyers across the political union. This means that people paying for goods and services in the UK are protected. The Consumer Protection Act 1987, and its associated regulations, was passed as a result of an EU directive from 1985 — which ensured strict liability for producers of substandard products.
The after-effects of the EU divorce on personal injury claims
We hope that the divorce in 2019 is not as chaotic as many predict. However, this depends on the government's ability to negotiate the best leaving terms with the EU. A huge factor affecting the UK's future stability will be the replacement of EU directives and regulations. The prime minister and their cabinet must have in place appropriate UK laws to take over from the former EU laws. However, the public shouldn't worry too much. Until any such motion is made, nothing will change — old European laws will not instantly stop being relevant just because the UK is no longer a part of the EU.
Positively, things are looking good for the personal injury claim sector specifically. There's evidence that those in power have already broached the subject of Brexit's impact. This has come in the form of the EHIC scheme, where there has been a deal in principle agreed by negotiators in Brussels at the end of August this year, which involved David Davis, the Brexit Secretary. Essentially, this agreement outlines that a British pensioner who has retired in another EU country and then travels to another EU nation for holidays can still use their EHIC card whenever they need medical attention. Although this does not include everyone, this move is a positive indicator for the future of the EHIC scheme.
Overall, nobody knows how Brexit will truly affect personal injury claims and the legal experts who must deal with them. But hopefully, the more discussions and negotiations that take place, the clearer we'll be on what to expect. For now, how UK residents will make personal injury claims post-Brexit and how lawyers will be able to assist their clients, remains uncertain.