text:
DESIGN MONITORING AND EVALUATION SYSTEMS : DESIGN MONITORING AND EVALUATION SYSTEMS PRINCIPLES 1 ANDREW MSAMI LEARNING OBJECTIVES : LEARNING OBJECTIVES To identify benefits and purpose of tracking performance, measuring results and reporting progress
To define terms; monitoring, evaluation and reporting
To outline essential elements in developing a successful monitoring, evaluation and reporting systems
To determine organization different audiences with their information need 2 ANDREW MSAMI INTRODUCTION : INTRODUCTION Workplace HIV/AIDS programme Managers efficiency and effectiveness lies on regular access to information on implementation and success of plans.
Managers therefore need to invest on monitoring and evaluation systems
The session attempt to address organization objections on investment on monitoring and evaluation of workplace programmes 3 ANDREW MSAMI IMPORTANCE OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION : IMPORTANCE OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION Inform management of levels of change from interventions
Guide and control changes
Linking desired change (Vision) with action (Mission)
Vision: A health society with low HIV prevalence rate
Mission: Provide quality health services to reduce morbidity and mortality of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) refer to the extended example 4 ANDREW MSAMI Slide 5: WHY CONSIDER MONITORING AND EVALUATION IMPORTANT? 5 ANDREW MSAMI REASON 1: : REASON 1: Monitoring and Evaluation provides organizations with a tool to evaluate how effective the organization is in promoting change. 6 ANDREW MSAMI REASON 2 : REASON 2 Provide organizations with a tool to monitor how efficiently the organization promotes change 7 ANDREW MSAMI REASON 3 : REASON 3 Fosters public and political cooperation and support particular information needs of target audiences (employee, managers, funders) 8 ANDREW MSAMI REASON 4 : REASON 4 Provide managers with a tool to gain timely information on the progress of programme activities, allowing them to compare what was planned to what is actually occurring. 9 ANDREW MSAMI REASON 5 : REASON 5 Promotes organizational learning and encourages adaptive management action in response to learning. 10 ANDREW MSAMI DEFINITION OF TERMS : DEFINITION OF TERMS Monitoring and Evaluation is based on three separate but interrelated concepts:
Reporting 11 ANDREW MSAMI MONITORING : MONITORING Is a systematic process of collecting, analyzing and reporting information tracking the efficiency of the organization in achievement of goals. 12 ANDREW MSAMI MONITORING : MONITORING PROVIDE FEEDBACK ON
Economic and financial results
Comparison between planned versus actual events 13 ANDREW MSAMI EVALUATION : EVALUATION Is a systematic process of collecting and analyzing information to assess the effectiveness of the organization in the achievement of goals 14 ANDREW MSAMI EVALUATION : EVALUATION PROVIDES FEEDBACK ON ACTIONS
Sustainability 15 ANDREW MSAMI REPORTING : REPORTING Is a systematic and timely provision of information at periodic intervals 16 ANDREW MSAMI REPORTING : REPORTING PROVIDE FEEDBACK THAT HELPS INFORM STAKEHOLDERS
Lessons learnt 17 ANDREW MSAMI KEY TERMS IN MONITORING, EVALUATION AND REPORTING : KEY TERMS IN MONITORING, EVALUATION AND REPORTING EFFICIENCY
EFFECTIVENESS 18 ANDREW MSAMI EFFICIENCY : EFFICIENCY Measures how productively inputs-money, time, equipment, personnel-were used in the creation of outputs. 19 ANDREW MSAMI EFFECTIVENESS : EFFECTIVENESS Measures the degree to which organization action have been able bring about change.
Effectiveness take into consideration outputs put to use to bring about change (outcome and impact) 20 ANDREW MSAMI ESENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESS MER SYSTEM : ESENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESS MER SYSTEM MER PLAN
ORGANIZATION/PROGRAMME STRATEGIC PLAN 21 ANDREW MSAMI MER PLAN : MER PLAN CONTENTS OF A MER PLAN
Data collection and analysis methods
Reporting procedures 22 ANDREW MSAMI STRATEGIC PLAN : STRATEGIC PLAN Mission
Key activities 23 ANDREW MSAMI QUESTIONS TO ANSWERED BY MER SYSTEM : QUESTIONS TO ANSWERED BY MER SYSTEM Information needs: WHAT, WHO, WHY, WHEN
Information source: methods, frequency, location of data to be collected
Responsibilities for MER 24 ANDREW MSAMI DETERMINATION OF AUDIENCES INFORMATION NEEDS : DETERMINATION OF AUDIENCES INFORMATION NEEDS MER requires that users of information are clearly determined before hand to inform other processes for data collection, analysis and reporting.
Note: information without a user is as good as no information 25 ANDREW MSAMI DETERMINATION OF AUDIENCES INFORMATION NEEDS : DETERMINATION OF AUDIENCES INFORMATION NEEDS Identify and categorize your audiences based on the information needs
Determine Why they need such information
Determine when they need the information
Focus on the most important audience and information needed
Strategic plan informs this exercise.
Refer to audience tool attached 26 ANDREW MSAMI Slide 27: THE END 27 ANDREW MSAMI


Pachón Navarro
Pippa Elliott
Dr Pippa Elliott (BVMS MRCVS, University of Glasgow)
Photo of adult Pachón Navarro
Have an image we can use? Message us here!
Do you know there is a breed of dog that has a double nose? The breed is called the Pachón Navarro: This hound has a nose that is fully divided down the centre so that it looks as if he has two noses. The double nose came about by selective breeding for dogs with a superior sense of smell. As it happened, having the appearance of two noses makes no difference when following a scent. But it's easy to see why previous owners in centuries gone by might think this.
Indeed, the Pachón Navarro is an old breed. They hale from a region close to the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain, called Navarre. A working dog that excels at tracking birds, he makes a friendly and active companion for the right person.
About & History
The Pachón Navarro is a venerable breed originating from Spain. They reached peak popularity amongst Spanish nobility in the 18th and 19th century. However, after the Spanish Civil War their numbers declined dramatically to the point of dying out altogether.
It took the work of dedicated Pachón Navarro enthusiasts to save the breed from extinction. They toured rural Spanish villages to find the last remaining dogs and then undertook controlled breeding to resurrect this distinctive dog's numbers.
The Pachón Navarro is sometimes also referred to as the Old Spanish Pointer. This is a little confusing because the breed is a close descendent of a breed with the same exact name (Old Spanish Pointer) but is not identical. Sadly, the original Old Spanish Pointer now no longer exists, but their legacy includes several other closely related breeds including the Majorcan Pointer, Galician Pointer, and the Burgos Pointer.
Intriguingly, the Pachón Navarro's ancestor, the Old Spanish Pointer, is thought to have shared blood with the ancient (and now extinct) Talbot Hound with roots dating back to the 12th century.
The Pachón Navarros is a medium to large sized dog, and every inch a pointer-type. He has a stout, workmanlike body; strong, heavy legs; a straight tail; and delightful drop ears. To look at him is to see echoes of other pointer type dogs, such as the German Shorthaired Pointer. However, he is slightly heavier boned and may have pronounced skin folds, especially around the jowls and chin.
The Pachón Navarros has a unique feature in the distinctive anatomy of his nose. Instead of having a discrete crease marking the centre of his nose, the Pachón Navarros' nose is completely divided into a distinct left and right. This gives the appearance of having two separate noses. In fact, this is an optical illusion, but it's an understandable mistake to make, that the Pachón Navarros might be blessed with a superior ability to track odours.
Nose aside, the Pachón Navarros usually has a short coat. However, occasional pups are born with a longer coat, which is soft and silky to the touch. Typically the coat colour is a white background with tan, liver, or orange patches or flecks. The latter is officially known as ticking, and refers to localised flecks of hair that are a different colour to the main white coat.
Character & Temperament
The Pachón Navarros is an active character that loves to track and hunt, especially birds. He is an active dog that thrives on plenty of outdoor exercise, preferably off-leash. This makes him a great companion for active owners, but a poor match for sedentary apartment life.
One of the great things about Pachón Navarros is how they love the company of people. They love it so much to the point that this breed will be miserable if kept in an outdoor kennel away from his owner. The Pachón Navarro also has a laudable reputation for being friendly and even tempered. He's prepared to live and let live, be that with people, children, or other dogs. But he does draw the line at birds. That instinct to hunt and retrieve birds is too deeply ingrained to make for an easy relationship with our feathered friends.
However, whilst the Pachón Navarro doesn't look for trouble, he's no push-over. When challenged, he will protect and defend, and this courage makes him a good watchdog. Lastly, one of the sweetest traits of the Pachón Navarro's character is for retrieving. From a young age, these pups love to pick up objects and carry them around. But beware if they don't get enough exercise and mental stimulation, because the love of having things in their mouth is easily diverted into chewing.
A sociable dog that likes human company, the Pachón Navarro can be a quick learner. Their natural intelligence and eagerness to please makes them ideal candidates for reward-based training methods. This doesn't mean an owner should accept anything less than exemplary behaviour though.
As a pack dog, the Pachón Navarro can be inclined to do their own thing rather than listen to their handler. This trait needs correction by getting the dog's attention focused on their owner. Clear rules and consistency are key to good behaviour in this breed.
Rescued from the brink of extinction, modern day Pachón Navarros are off-spring of a narrow gene pool. Sadly, this can mean they are at greater risk of certain inheritable diseases than other breeds. These include:
Cleft Palate
That distinctive double nose is a hereditary trait. However, the gene coding for a fissure in the dog's nose are closely related to those for a cleft palate. Puppies born with a cleft palate have difficulty nursing. Milk can pass from their mouth up into the nose and down into their lungs. These poor pups are likely to develop aspiration pneumonia, which is usually life-threating at such a young age.
Surgical correction of a cleft palate is technically possible, but anaesthesia in very young pups carries a high risk. Once successfully correct, that individual should not be used for breeding as their offspring are at high risk of having the same problem.
Epilepsy refers to a seizure condition where no underlying reason for the fits can be found. Symptoms can develop in young dogs and range in severity from mild to life-threatening.
Epilepsy can be controlled, but not cured. Fortunately, modern anti-convulsant drugs allow most dogs to lead normal lives, provided they continue to take their medications.
The Pachón Navarro is prone to having underactive thyroid glands. A lack of thyroid hormone leads to a sluggish metabolism. This is evident as a lack of energy and tendency to weight gain. This is another condition that can't be permanently 'cured' but is easy to control with a simple thyroid supplement taken daily for life.
Hip Dysplasia
Poor hip anatomy leads to inflammation of the hip joint. For mildly affected dogs, simple pain relief may be sufficient. However, those most severely afflicted live in constant pain and can have difficulty moving around. For these dogs, the best solution is total hip replacement surgery, which is expensive.
Allergic Skin Disease
The signs of atopy or allergic skin disease are severe itchiness. The dog may scratch and lick to the point of developing sores and infection. There are many different treatment options for controlling the itch, which range from inexpensive steroids through to state-of-the-art immunotherapy injections that cancel out the immune response to allergens.
Exercise and Activity Levels
Like the lettering in a stick of Blackpool rock, the Pachón Navarro has a hunting instinct that runs through their very core. They are an active dog for whom tracking a scent and being energetic are as basic to them as breathing. In short, it's essential to their health and well-being that the Pachón Navarro gets plenty of exercise. This means hours of strenuous activity each and every day. Ideally, this should also be off leash so that they get a chance to put their awesome ability to track to use and explore where that distinctive nose leads them.
On the flip side, the Pachón Navarro is ill-suited to the life of a couch potato or the confines of an apartment. They have an inbuilt energy budget for the day and if they don't get to spend it in constructive exercise, they will divest themselves in inappropriate ways, such as chewing or destructive behaviours.
The short coat of the Pachón Navarro is easy to care for. Weekly brushing helps to spread natural conditioning oils and keep the coat in good order. Take care not to bathe your Pachón Navarro too frequently though, for fear of stripping out those oils and causing dry skin.
Famous Pachón Navarros
For beautiful photos of this unusual breed visit this page on Pinterest.
As a breed that narrowly avoided becoming extinct, breeders have focussed their efforts on maintaining numbers of purebred dogs rather than diversifying into hybrids.
User comments
There are no user comments for this listing.


text:
Average Temperatures in Palmerston N, New Zealand
- The annual mean temperature in Palmerston N, New Zealand is mild at 13.3 degrees Celsius (55.9 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Average monthly temperatures have a variation of 9.7 °C (17.5°F) which is a very low range.
- The hottest month (February) is somewhat warm having a mean temperature of 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
- July is the coldest month (a little cool) having a mean temperature of 8.3 degrees Celsius (46.94 degrees Fahrenheit).
Average Temperatures Table for Palmerston N
|Average Temperature °C ( °F)
Palmerston N Average Temperatures Chart
The average temperature charts use a fixed scale so that you can easily compare temperatures between two or more locations. Simply line up the charts in separate tabs in your browser and toggle between tabs to visualise the differences. The charts have major grid lines at intervals of 10 °C on the left axis corresponding with intervals of 18 °F on the right axis. Minor gridlines mark intervals of 2.5 °C and 4.5 °F. The charts show the relationship between the Celsius and Fahrenheit measuring scales. Locations in the northern hemisphere run from January to December and in the southern hemisphere from July to June so that the middle of the chart always corresponds with the high sun period (for the hemisphere).
Average Temperatures Nearby Palmerston N

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
International Journal of Intelligent Systems
The Role of User Models in Cooperative Interactive Systems
January 1, 1989
For interactive systems to communicate in a cooperative manner, they must have knowledge about their users. This article explores the role of user models in such systems, with the goal of identifying when and how user models may be useful in a cooperative interactive system. User models are classified by the types of knowledge they contain, several user modelling characteristics that serve as dimensions for an additional classification of user models are presented, and user model representations are discussed. These topics help to characterize the space of user modelling in cooperative interactive systems — addressing how they can be used—but do not fully address when it is appropriate to include a user model in an interactive system. Thus, a set of design considerations for user models is presented, while a final example illustrates how these topics influence the user model for a hypothetical investment consulting system.
Downloads: 1240 downloads


Skip to definition.
Verb: singe (singeing) sinj
 1. Burn superficially or lightly
 "I singed my eyebrows"
 2. Become superficially burned
 "my eyebrows singed when I bent over the flames";
 - scorch, sear
Noun: singe sinj
 1. A surface burn
 - scorch
Derived forms: singes, singeing, singed
Type of: blacken, burn, char, combust, scorch, sear
Encyclopedia: Singe


We get many questions about feeding horses yeast, what kinds there are, and if some are better for horses than others. We have our own understanding about feeding with yeast. Horses are by nature "large intestine fermenters," and we experience that feeding with yeast has more downsides than advantages. I thought I would clarify information about different types of yeast since that is usually what the questions we get are about.
Yeast are fungi, but does it belong to the animal or plant kingdom? Researchers thought long about it and came to a conclusion that it is its own art. Fungi do not have the green substance chlorophyll that plants have in order to produce their own nutrients. Since Fungi lack chlorophyll, they have to obtain nutrients like animals. However, they do not consume like animals, but instead suck nutrients from the ground or in its habitat. Fungi are therefore neither plants nor animals, and are categorized into a separate kingdom.
Living yeast
A packet of yeast is made up of yeast cells, saccharomyces cerevisiae, and water. Yeast is a unicellular fungus that is composed of protein, carbohydrates, fat, minerals, and B vitamins. Most of the protein is made up of enzymes, which are definitive in the fermentation process.
Unicellular organisms, the group yeasts belong to, have a very intensive metabolism and growth. That is why yeast cells can multiply so quickly. Each yeast cell can give off 20-30 new identical cells, which then give off just as many, and so on. In favorable conditions, a "starting culture" of 10 milligrams can grow to 150 tons in a week! In the right environment, fermentation has its peak. The environment in the intestine is suited for fermentation; just as 38 degrees Celsius is ideal when fermenting dough, it is the ideal temperature in the intestine.
How does it work?
What affects and decides the growth of yeast are the access to nutrients and oxygen, as well as the temperature of the yeast culture. By lowering the temperature, the activity level decreases, which is the reason that ready yeast is stored in cold temperatures. When the temperature is increased again when yeast is dissolved in the dough liquid (intestinal gruel), the cells are activated again. During the actual baking the temperature increases significantly in the bread and at 50 degrees Celsius the yeast "dies."
Killed Yeast"
During the pelleting process (heat of 50 degrees Celsius), living yeast cells are killed. It is said that it is only used to increase the protein levels and B vitamin levels. However, B vitamins are also sensitive to heat, so how can that be explained?
In a great deal of products, the yeast has been made thermally stable during production so that the living yeast cells can handle the pelleting (however it is done)
Other feeding yeast
Some feeding yeast is mixed into wheat feeding flous (wheat gluten) for the most part.
Brewer's Yeast
Brewer's yeast is one of the most common staples for feed that is used as a supplement. Brewer's yeast is a residual product and staple in the production of beer. The living yeast microbes are cooked in order to be killed off before drying and sacking. It is rich in proteins, enzymes that are crucial to the fermentation process.
What the horse owner that is feeding with yeast notices is that the horse's stomach condition improves, and there is no watery stool. What is actually happening is that the horse is starting an abnormal fermentation of the feed, which causes an injured intestine membrane. This type of fermentation causes the PH value to become more acidic, decreasing the number of good intestine bacteria and causing the bad intestine bacteria to multiply. In the end this can cause LGS (leaking gut syndrome), in other terms, toxic substances leak out through the membranes out into the blood stream.
The blood that is to be purified in the liver and kidneys cannot keep up with all the new toxins that are transported there, so the toxins follow the blood through several circuits in the body and eventually have to be stored somewhere. They often end up in the muscles, tissues, skin, and hooves. The immune system is weakened, and the horse gets various disease symptoms that are not always associated with feeding of the horse (the horse's stools improved)
There are also yeast fungi belonging to the Candida family, which are part of the body's normal flora. Candida have the task of making sure unwanted bacteria do not attach and harm the flora of the intestines. When the Candida's normal nutrients run out, the candida divides and spreads throughout the body through the damaged membrane, to the blood stream and feeds on the sugar that is supposed to be transported to the cells. This process in turn causes a large strain on the horse's wellbeing and immune system and can even begin developing into different disease symptoms and allergies.
Some examples of what fungal infections can cause: thrush, fungal onset on the skin that can appear as discoloration, fungi in the ears and milk ducts of mares. Watery stool is just one symptom that can appear due to yeast being fed to a horse.
Products to use
In Europe: Colofor
In Northamerica: Colomin


Thread profiling in Python - Amjith Ramanujam
Tags: django, djangocon, python
Amjith Ramanujam recently wrote a thread profiler in Python and it was rediculously simple. He works for New Relic, which is all about performance and expecially performance measuring.
Python comes with batteries included, so it also includes a C profiler that works pretty well. But it doesn't work nice for django because the output is so huge. If you use the GUI RunSnakeRun, it is more managable that way.
Additional problem with cProfile: it has about 100% overhead, so you can't run it in production (which they need).
You can do more targeted profiling. For instance in Django. The way a web framework processes requests is normally always in the same way. You can use that during profiling.
There are two important stages: interrupt and inquire.
A statistical profiler looks how often a function is called and by who. For this it needs to interrupt the regular process. You could set an OS-level signal to call your profiler every x miliseconds so that it can do something. It only works in linux, btw. Another way is to create a python background thread that wakes up every x miliseconds. It is cross-platform and mod_wsgi compatible. It is less accurate for CPU tasks and it cannot interrupt C extensions.
You can use sys._current_frames() to get yourself the frames ("stack trace") from the current thread. Here you can extract the filename, line number and so of the most interesting frames. He's building a "call tree" structure, mapping how often a function is called, preserving the parent/child relation between functions. The tricky part was visualizing it :-) In the end they did it with d3.js.
There's some 3% overhead in the thread approach, so that's real good. They can switch it on for a type of request and it'll profile the next 100 requests of that type.
blog comments powered by Disqus logo
About me
Weblog feeds


Measure Radiation With Military Surplus
13 thoughts on "Measure Radiation With Military Surplus
 1. i just checked its now only $70 from the same people
 the time and effort required to track down, strip, test, re-certify, package and reship the outdated tubes is far more than selling the ready built un-calibrated counters to hobbits who can easily recalabrate them, them selves
 wont pass the health and safety standards but works great for my projects
 1. The difference between gamma-rays and x-rays is their origin, not how dangerous they are. Gamma-rays are photons produced by nuclear decay; x-rays are photons produced by accelerating photons, for example by striking electrons into tungsten target in an x-ray set. Many years ago, gamma-rays were higher in energy (and more penetrating) than could be achieved with x-rays, but nowadays linear accelerators easily achieve x-ray energies far higher than gamma-radiation.
 The damage caused by ionising radiation depends on the amount of energy deposited multiplied by a quality factor that depends on the type of radiation (photons, alphas etc.). Gamma and x radiation share the same quality factor. Higher energy photons are not necessarily more damaging than lower energy, it is just that their energy is deposited over a different volume of tissue as they are more penetrating.
 2. For anywone interested in doing gamma spectroscopy: Look for Bee Research GS-1100A or B, it's an USB interface to drive scintillation probes and output audio pulses which can be analysed by software (freeware and open source software available for this purpose). It's also far cheaper than buying bulky multichannel analyser hardware.
 BTW, anyone know what the advantage is of a scintillator probe over a geiger muller tube? If you want to count pulses it seems that it's easier and cheaper to get a GM tube. With some shielding they will only detect gamma.
 3. Some tubes have quite a sharp "knee" above which they are totally unstable,
 this can be rectified by varying the inline resistance, some tubes "like" lower than 2M2 while others seem to work best with 10M or even 22M.
 Discovered this the hard way after my SBM11 tube was nearly discarded as "bad" when it was caused by voltage instability and possibly a resonance between count rate and Vtube.
Leave a Reply to MRC Cancel reply


text:
Genus: Notocrypta de Nicéville, 1889
Species: paralysos Wood-Mason & de Nicéville, 1881
Sub-species: varians Plötz, 1882
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 33-36mm
Caterpillar Local Host Plant: Costus lucanusianus (Costaceae, common name: African Spiral Flag).
Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:
Above, the wings are dark brown. The forewing has a large white band consisting of conjoined spots in spaces 1b, 2 and the distal end of the cell. There is usually a small white hyaline spot in space 4 of the forewing. The hindwing is unmarked. Underneath, the wings are brown and dusted with purplish scales next to the termens. The purplish hue is more readily observed in pristine specimens. The antenna has a pale whitish band just below the club.
Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:
Banded Demon is moderately common in Singapore. The adults are rather localized and are typically found in the vicinity of its host plant in the fringe of the nature reserve. The adults are fast fliers among the ground cover and shrubbery. They visit flowers for nectar, and at times perch on sun-bathing spots with half-open wings.


text: Tracking primary radiation-induced processes in matter requires ultrafast sources and high precision timing. While compact laser-driven ion accelerators are seeding the development of novel high instantaneous flux applications, combining the ultrashort ion and laser pulse durations with their inherent synchronicity to trace the real-time evolution of initial damage events has yet to be realized. Here we report on the absolute measurement of proton bursts as short as 3.5±0.7 ps from laser solid target interactions for this purpose. Our results verify that laser-driven ion acceleration can deliver interaction times over a factor of hundred shorter than those of state-of-the-art accelerators optimized for high instantaneous flux. Furthermore, these observations draw ion interaction physics into the field of ultrafast science, opening the opportunity for quantitative comparison with both numerical modelling and the adjacent fields of ultrafast electron and photon interactions in matter.


Learn German with poetry and music - courses and workshops
Περιοχή/Γειτονιά: Friedrichshain
My name is Britta, and I offer workshops and courses that include the use of poetry and music to help you learn the German language.
During each workshop, we will look at one particular topic. Some workshops will focus on a grammatical topic and others will focus on speaking about the music and building up some German vocabulary. We will listen to German songs from different times and styles (traditional German folk music, classical, pop or rock music) that relate to the topic. The focus will always be on the German language.
During the ongoing courses, we can go into the language in greater depth. These courses are designed to offer a more comprehensive introduction to the German language than the workshops and will use both poetry and music to support the process, where appropriate. We can listen to songs that contain the grammatical structures we are working with, and also talk about the rules and use the grammar in converstaion. If it turns out that you find particular words or structures difficult to memorise, we can also work with rhythm. We might write new lines to songs or we can use music to relax while listening to verb forms. If participants wish, we can also do some singing - but there will be no pressure to do so! Our main focus is always learning the German language and music will only be used where it supports the process of learning this language.
The workshops and courses are suitable for people who have an interest in music and would like to try a different approach to learning German. No particular musical skills or training are required.
I am a qualified teacher for German as a Foreign Language. I also hold qualifications in musicology, German literature and music therapy. I have about ten years of experience teaching languages, as well as in the music therapy field (using music to help people reach various non-musical goals).
If you would like some more information and a more detailed timetable, just drop me a line!
I look forward to hearing from you!
Επικοινωνήστε με αυτόν τον διαφημιστή


text:
雅思写作中有这样一道考题：Do you agree or disagree university should not provide theoretical knowledge, but to give practical training benefit to society.你支持哪种观点呢?
Some people think that university should not provide theoretical knowledge, but to give practical training benefit to society.
Do you agree or disagree. use your own experience and knowledge to support your idea.
Most universities and colleges spend a rather long period in fundamental theories and elementary courses. But students regard these kinds of knowledge useless, and pay less attention to them. They suggest school pay more time for practical training instead of providing theoretical lessons. In my opinion, however, theoretical knowledge is necessary. And one will definitely benefit from it.
Firstly, fundamental theories, such as math and physics, are the basis of other knowledge. To a student who majors in automatic control, the course of control system is the most practical and useful in the future. But if he isn't good at math and circuit, he will hardly be able to understand the principles and methods of how to control a subject or process. It is just like constructing a building. How can you imagine a spectacular high-rise without a firm groundsill? That is, theories and practices are interrelated. We can ignore neither of them.
Moreover, theoretical basic knowledge provides not only the knowledge itself, but also a way that how to learn and research. University is a place for scientific research and invention. So it is necessary for students to have the skill of doing research. Seeing from another angle, science and techniques are exploding so quickly that present skills will soon be out of date. If one learnt nothing except practical skills, he would also fall behind the society. But if one could master the method of research, he would be able to refresh himself continuously with advanced technology.
From all the commentaries above, we can learn the important role of
theoretical knowledge. Although pragmatism is very popular today, we should pay enough attention to the basis and principles.


Specification by example
You can write anything using reStructuredText to provide context and explain the tests themselves. It's a perfect possibility for stakeholders to ensure they have the same understanding of what's going on.
*** Settings ***
Library OperatingSystem
*** Variables ***
${MESSAGE} Hello, world!
${FILE_PATH} /tmp/test.txt
*** Test Cases ***
Temporary Directory Must Be Writable
 [Documentation] Let's create a file into the tmp directory
 Create File ${FILE_PATH} ${MESSAGE}
 Should Exist ${FILE_PATH}
Obviously, this is a proper RST file and can be processed by sphinx for instance.
This Page


text:
Concave Mirror Images
Why is that you can see a REAL image in a concave mirror
when you are looking into the mirror?
A real image is not necessarily an image that is really you. A real image
is one that really has light coming together at it. Place a piece of paper
where the image appears to be located. If you see a picture on the paper,
then the image is real. An image that appears to be in front of the mirror
is usually real. An image that seems to be behind the mirror is virtual.
The light does not go behind the mirror. A real image can be used to expose
film, creating a photograph. This cannot be done with a virtual image. To
use a virtual image for this, you must use a lens or another mirror to
create a real image on the film.
Dr. Ken Mellendorf
Illinois Central College
Some what belated, but the web site below explains it pretty well:
Click here to return to the Physics Archives
Update: June 2012

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Optimizer estimates
RUNTIMESTATISTICS show the optimizer estimates for a particular node. They show the optimizer's estimated row count and the optimizer's "estimated cost."
The estimated row count is the query optimizer's estimate of the number of qualifying rows for the table or index for the entire life of the query. If the table is the inner table of a join, the estimated row count will be for all the scans of the table, not just for a single scan of the table.
The estimated cost consists of a number, which is a relative number; it does not correspond directly to any time estimate. It is not, for example, the number of milliseconds or rows. Instead, the optimizer constructs this number for each possible access path. It compares the numbers and chooses the access path with the smallest number.
Related concepts
Statistics timing
Statement execution plan
Optimizer overrides
Understanding XPLAIN style database tables


DetailSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
 def validate_age(self, age):
 if age < 0:
 raise serializers.ValidationError('Age must be a positive number.')
 return age
 class Meta:
Complex validations
Sometimes you need to define a more complex validation inside the serializer class. An example is validating constraints between fields. A good way to do that is with the validate function: validate(self, data).
In summary, serializers are a good way to validate incoming data. In the previous example, PersonDetailSerializer is attached to the Person model. So by default, it does basic validation related to the model. For example, if the incoming name length is bigger than 50 characters, then the serializer raises an exception, because the maximum length was defined in the model. You don't need to make that explicit in the serializer. With Django, you can also define serializers that aren't attached to models, nest serializers and relationships between them, and more. Serializers are very powerful.
Finally, let's talk about templates. As I mentioned, they're great for generating dynamic code in Django. For example, template files can be used by the project frontend or to send emails.
Tip: Be aware of the order of apps defined in the project configuration, INSTALLED_APPS list.
It's important to take order into account because it's common for several apps to provide different versions of the same resource like a template or static file. If that happens, Django's default behavior is to first check in the templates folder of the first app in the list. But that can cause problems. Order matters. By knowing this, we can change the order of the INSTALLED_APPS according to our needs. Or we can just explicitly define the desired paths for specific resources. For a configuration example, read the Django docs.
Session management
Most web applications have users and authentication methods. In the spirit of don't reinvent the wheel, I recommend using an existing customizable solution for session management: django-rest-auth. You can easily integrate this set of REST API endpoints with your project. It resolves user registration, sign in, and sign out, as well as social account integration. Just use the provided endpoints and customize the models and functions to adapt them to your needs. For more information, see the Django REST authentication docs.
Create efficient programs
No matter what technology you use, it's always a good practice to create efficient programs.
Django has a database-abstraction API to makes queries easily. As an example, let's take another look at our Person model. First, we query the database for instances of people who are over 18 years old with this code:
over_18_people = Person.objects.filter(age__gte=18)
As its name suggests, the filter function filters the query according to our criteria. __gte means greater than or equal to.
Now imagine that we also have people's pets in our database:
from django.db import models
from applications.people.models import Person
class Pet(models.Model):
 owner = models.ForeignKey(Person, related_name='pets', on_delete=models.CASCADE)
 name = models.CharField(max_length=30)
ForeignKey defines a relationship between Person and Pet. A pet can belong to one person, and one person can have many pets. We might want to print the name of each person and the information about each person's pets for everyone in the system. This example shows an intuitive way to do that:
for person in Person.objects.all():
 print('pets info:')
 for pet in person.pets.all():
This solution works well, but how many times do the queries have to run? The answer is N + 1 times: once to get all the people and N times to get each person's pets, assuming N is the number of people in the database. If the value of N is very large, that makes a lot of queries.
Let's look at another solution to the same problem:
for person in Person.objects.all().prefetch_related('pets'):
 print('pets info:')
 for pet in person.pets:
This code also solves the problem, but the number of times it accesses the database is 1. That's a big difference.
Tip: Minimize the number of queries.
Finally, let's imagine your database is in another server, and a single query takes 1 ms to run. If there are 10,000 people in it, then the solution in the first example solution would take about 10 seconds to get things done. That's much longer than the 1 ms it would take with second example.
To save time and resources, write code that minimizes the number of accesses to the database. The Django API has lots of functions that do the exact same thing in lots of different ways. Choose the ones that minimize the number of queries because it's always faster to work in memory. Learn to write efficient code by exploring Django's documentation about attributes and functions.
The importance of testing
I won't say that testing is a good practice because it's way more than that. Testing is essential for every project. Every application needs testing, and I take that for granted.
Tip: Use Factory boy and Faker.
In most of the cases, you'll need to generate initial data for testing. So a programmer might run tests that have an "initial system" with previously loaded instances and relationships between them. This improves the quality, maintainability, and velocity of testing.
You can load initial data with Django, using fixtures, migrations, and other functionalities. Now let's look at a JSON fixture that takes the Person class:
 "model": "applications.person",
 "pk": 1,
 "fields": {
 "name": "Rick Sanchez",
 "age": 70
 "model": "applications.person",
 "pk": 2,
 "fields": {
 "name": "Summer Smith",
 "age": 17
By defining this fixture, we provide two instances at the beginning of the tests, and we generate new test cases with this as starting point. What if we want to test a bigger list of people? It would be cumbersome to enter info for each person manually, and the fixture file would need a huge number of lines. Fortunately, we don't have to do that because the named tool Factory boy gives us a better way.
Factory boy
With Factory boy, you can generate test data with a just few lines, which improves maintainability. You can also define classes attached to the model classes. So at the same time that you run tests, you can easily create instances in memory or in the database and also replace any static hard-to-maintain fixtures. This example is related to the Person class:
import factory
from applications.people.models import Person
class PersonFactory(factory.DjangoModelFactory):
 name = factory.Sequence(lambda n: 'John Doe{0}'.format(n))
 age = 25
 class Meta:
 model = Person
To generate 100 instances of people for my tests with this definition, I run this command:
As you can see, it's very simple. Whit the name defined as Sequence(lambda n: 'John Doe{0}'.format(n)), the tool generates users with the names John Doe0, John Doe1, John Doe2, and so on.
The Faker tool is a package that generates fake random and realistic data. When you integrate it with Factory boy, it generates more significant tests with more realistic initial data. To see this integration in action, let's change the factory class:
import factory
from applications.people.models import Person
class PersonFactory(factory.Factory):
 name = factory.Faker('name')
 age = 25
 class Meta:
 model = Person
Now, if we execute the create_batch(100) function, we generate 100 people with realistic random names. Faker has a pyint function that generates random integers for age. To learn more about this package, read the Faker docs.
Tip: Use tools to replace static fixtures.
Define good initial data for testing and keep it maintainable. For more ways to integrate these tools with Django, take a look at the common recipes in the Factory boy documentation.
What to avoid
Excessive use of signals
Django and Django REST have many tools and methods to attack several problems in a lot of ways. Signals are a good tool but they can cause problems if they're used the wrong way.
Signals implement the observer design pattern, and it's important to understand these concepts:
 - A Signal is an element that corresponds to an event. A signal can send notifications about the related event to it. In the observer pattern, the signal corresponds to the subject.
 - Receivers are the callables connected to a given signal. In the observer pattern, they correspond to the observer. After the associated event occurs and triggers the signal, each receiver is notified by that signal.
With the signals tool, you can send a notification after some predefined event. Some examples are when a new object in a model is created or destroyed, or a change is made in a relationship between models. To explore all the functionalities of signals, read the Django signal documentation.
Tip: Be careful with signals.
Overuse of signals often generates mysterious side effects that degrade maintainability. These problems happen because signals are triggered after selected events. Programmers who forget that or simply don't know it sometimes run unwanted code in the wrong places.
Whenever you change something about the events that trigger a signal, you might need to make changes in the corresponding signals. It's easy to forget to check that because these signals are defined in other files.
To save time and effort, avoid the overuse of signals. For example, you might have two apps A and B, where


text:
- Highest Ratings
Quality: We've got the awards to prove it!
- Fastest Shipping
- No-Hassle Returns
- USA Support Techs
- Best Value
- Our Guarantee
Chevy S10 pickup
Blower Motor Resistor
What is a Blower Motor Resistor and where is it Located?
The blower motor resistor, also commonly referred to as an A/C blower motor resistor or a heater blower motor resistor, is an important component to your vehicle's HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) system. While a blower motor is what actually forces the hot or cold air through ducting and your car's interior vents into the cabin, the resistor is what regulates the speed of the blower fan by reducing voltage going to the fan. It allows you to vary the settings of the blower motor so that you can lessen the amount of air that comes into the cabin, as opposed to only being able to have it blasted at you. The blower motor resistor works between a vehicle's heater and A/C controls and the blower motor and is typically attached under the dash to the heater ducting near the blower motor to help keep it cool while in use.
Basically, there are two types of blower motor resistors – one that uses coil wires and one that uses transistors and a circuit board. The wire-type, which is more common in older cars, uses a different size coil of wire for each fan speed with different resistances, while the transistorized blower motor resistor, found in more modern cars, consists of a printed circuit board with a fully integrated circuit.
Blower Motor Resistor Failure
On most vehicles, the highest blower motor speed setting bypasses the blower motor resistor to give the fan full vehicle voltage (typically between 12 and 14.4 volts). If the blower motor still works on high, but will not work on any other speed, it usually points to a bad blower motor resistor. Since the part gets hot and draws a lot of power from the electrical system, a failed blower resistor may also melt part of the wiring harness when it fails. When a blower motor starts to go bad, it can draw more power than the resistor is rated for and cause it to fail. Lastly, a malfunctioning heater core can leak coolant into the car and damage the blower motor and resistor as well.
Replacing a Bad Blower Motor Resistor
Replacing a bad blower resistor typically requires only a screwdriver or wrench to unbolt it from the HVAC ducts. In the case of a burnt or melted connector, the replacement will be a bit more involved. While soldering and shrink wrapping the new connector is the best method, crimping the new pigtail in place will also suffice.
Need a Blower Motor Resistor Replacement?
Without a properly functioning HVAC blower motor resistor, your car or truck will not be able to blow hot or cold air through the interior vents on lower settings, and will work only on one speed – high. This of course can get pretty annoying rather quickly and you will likely be itching to fix the problem immediately. Luckily, if you are in need of a replacement blower motor resistor for your car, truck, SUV or van, then you have come to the right place. At 1A Auto, we carry a full line of high quality, aftermarket replacement blower motor resistors for many makes and models.
At 1A Auto, shopping for an aftermarket replacement blower motor resistor is easy - we're here to help you select the right part for your vehicle! Call our customer service toll free at _PHONE_ if you have any questions about our products, warranty, compatibility or to purchase, or you can buy online. Bring your heating and A/C blower system back to good working order and purchase a replacement resistor from 1A Auto today!
Welcome to 1A Auto....
We employ USA based, knowledgeable support technicians. They'll help you through your project. We always make sure you get the right part. And we boast the industry's most generous returns policy. You won't find a company more passionate about auto parts than 1A Auto.


text:
Annotate and Collaborate Everywhere with the Cloud
With cloud features, EZWrite 5 streamlines classroom discussions by making it smoother than ever for teachers and students to share ideas, notes, and opinions as if they are annotating on the same whiteboard regardless of where they are. Furthermore, with AMS service teachers will be able to access teaching materials stored in cloud storage and start the class directly with BenQ's IFP.
Smooth Real-Time Collaboration
Packed with teacherand student-friendly features, BenQ's EZWrite 5 is the leading annotation solution for interactive and collaborative classroom scenarios. Teachers and students can enjoy enhanced interactivity by using EZWrite Cloud Whiteboard to collect, categorize, edit, and share notes between the IFP and mobile devices.
EZWrite 5 allows teachers to directly download and upload files to cloud services, such as Google Drive and Dropbox. Exclusive to EZWrite 5, this convenient cloud access makes it easy for teachers to modify their materials and bring them everywhere.
Step.1 Download a file from your cloud stroage
Step2. Open the file directly in EZWrite 5
EZWrite 5 comes with dual pens that allow two users to write or draw simultaneously with different colors, making it ideal for lively classroom activities.
EZWrite 5 is ideal for creative, inspired creation in art classes. Users are guaranteed to enjoy an effortless experience that feels like writing and drawing with actual pens and brushes.
To further ensure uninterrupted learning for students, RM7502K streamlines the steps for teachers to start classes with BenQ Launcher. Created to aggregate all key tools in one hub, BenQ Launcher allows teachers to start using EZWrite whiteboard as well as accessing to variety input sources in a single tap without logging into their accounts. Teachers can also put announcements on the message board. Additionally, BenQ Launcher comes with SwitchQ, a task switcher, letting teachers effortlessly switch between recent apps and input signal sources at fingertips.


How many people in the United States die from snake bites every year?
 1. 0 Votes
 The United States has an extremely low fatality rate from snakebites – only 10 or fewer people die each year. In other countries, however, the rate is much, much higher. In Sri Lanka, for example, about 421,000 people are bitten by poisonous snakes each year, and of those at least 20,000 people die. In the U.S., about 7,000 or 8,000 people are bitten per year, but of those only about 1 in 500 actually die of the bite.
 2. 0 Votes
 The number is small. Only 12 people a year die from snakebites.
Please signup or login to answer this question.


National Criminal History Checks
Willyama makes it easy to conduct fast and accurate background checks on your current and potential employees.
Understanding a National Criminal History Check
A Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check—or police check—is often required when applying for employment, Australian citizenship, an appointment to positions of trust and a variety of licensing and registration schemes.
It helps organisations make informed decisions about the suitability of applicants for employment in sensitive or otherwise specialist roles.
What's involved in completing an application?
Applicants will be required to provide personal information and documentation to prove their identity. Providing robust and accurate information will help ensure a timely and accurate assessment. Applicants must also provide informed consent.
Timely & Accurate Results
Willyama aims to provide 95% of national ciriminal and police history checks within 10 business days or less. Around 70% of checks are completed in minutes.
How long will a national criminal history check take?
Willyama aim's to process 95% of police checks within 10 business days, noting that:
 - around 70 per cent of police checks are completed in real-time with results being returned to the organisation that requested the check within minutes
 - around 30 per cent of police checks are referred to one or more police agencies because a 'potential match' is found. On limited occasions, this process can take longer than 10 business days to process, due to the complexity of the check.
A 'potential match' may be found if the applicant shares similar details with other individuals recorded in police systems, particularly if they have a common name. Processing of a police check in these instances can take longer to progress.
Ready To Get Started?


text: The purpose of this study was to assess the decay resistance of wood modified with a variety of chemicals and to attempt to further understand the mechanism by which chemical modification protects wood from decay. Corsican pine (Pinus nigra) sapwood was modified with three cyclic anhydrides; succinic anhydride, alkenyl succinic anhydride (a derivative of succinic anhydride with a 16-18 carbon alkenyl chain) and phthalic anhydride, and with two more widely studied modifying chemicals; acetic anhydride and butyl isocyanate. All reactions were carried out using pyridine as solvent and catalyst. Modified wood was tested against decay fungi in a pure culture test against basidiomycete fungi (Coniophora puteana, Gloeophyllum trabeum, Trametes versicolor and Pycnoporus sanguineus) under different moisture content regimes, an unsterile soil soft rot test, a fungal cellar test and a field trial. Butyl isocyanate proved the most effective modifying chemical at protecting wood from decay, followed by acetic anhydride and then alkenyl succinic anhydride. Uneven distribution of the modifying chemical in wood was evident using each of these three chemicals, particularly in the case of acetic anhydride. Despite its apparent ability to control decay by basidiomycete fungi, alkenyl succinic anhydride was unable to completely protect wood from soft rot fungi. Phthalic and succinic anhydride modifications both proved susceptible to hydrolysis and leaching, and neither were effective as wood protection chemicals. Phthalic anhydride modified wood performed well in the pure culture test, apparently through biocidal action, but was susceptible to decay in unsterile conditions. The approach made in this study to understanding the mechanism of protection was to analyse physical properties of the modified wood cell wall. This involved the measurement of adsorption isotherms, volumetric swell due to water soak, and cell wall pore size (using the solute exclusion technique). Neither the moisture content of modified wood nor its cell wall moisture content (measured as the fibre saturation point from the adsorption analysis) provided a good explanation of decay resistance. In several cases, the relationship between volumetric swell (due to water soak) and weight loss (to a given fungus in pure culture) was found to be consistent between modification types. From this it is concluded that the extent by which water swells modified wood is important to decay resistance. A reduction in cell wall pore volume was measured using the solute exclusion technique, though no further conclusions could be drawn from this test. It is proposed that the mechanism of resistance to decay by basidiomycete fungi involves the blocking of cell wall pores, which restricts the access of degradative agents released by decay fungi. The amount by which wood swells is important in this theory since this will determine by how much transient pores in modified wood can open, and whether enough space is created to bypass this blocking effect. The possibility of the role of site substitution in decay resistance is not discounted, and may contribute to decay resistance, particularly against white rot fungi. Pore blocking is not thought to be the mechanism of protection against soft rot fungi. In this case the substitution and shielding of decay susceptible sites are thought to be more important.


a list of forbidden foods. The list included several kinds of fish--the whistle-fish, gurnet, crab, and mullet. In all probabihty the whistle-fish is that known as Scicena aquila, a Mediterranean fish that makes a noise under the water which has been compared to bellowing, buzzing, purring, or whistling, the air bladder being the sound-producing organ. The whistle-fish and crab were held to be impure, the first because it laid its eggs through the mouth, and the second because it ate filth which other fish rejected. The gurnet was rejected because of its fecundity as witnessed in its annual triple laying of eggs, but, according to some riters, it was rejected because it ate a fish which was poisonous to mankind. It may well be that other fish were interdicted, but archeologists and historians agree Porphyry was probably exaggerating when he said that all fish were forbidden.
Birds bred at home, such as chickens and pigeons, were also on the banned list, as were beans and certain vegetables which were forbidden for a mystical reason which Pausanias said he dare not reveal save to the initiated. The probable reason was that they were connected in some way with the wanderings of Demeter. Pomegranates were, of course, forbidden, from the incident of the eating of the pomegranate seeds by Persephone, causing her annual return to the Underworld.
Eggs are a controversial matter. They are attested as banned foods in the Orphic Tradition, appear in lists attested to Pythagoras, and those of several other wise men. While there is no direct relation to the Eleusinian mysteries, Most--if not all--of the other foods listed as banned within the Eleusinian Mystery Tradition also appear on the lists of these other (Mystery) Traditions. As such, for me personally, I abstain from eggs as well. It makes sense seeing as they came to be through the process of a birth--something attested to being miasmic.
We do not encourage our members to go on a ten day fast, eating only ad night. What we do encourage is a one day fast, in the daylight hours of October 2, the day of the actual initiatory rite. Now, a few words of warning and wisdom: fasting is a practice that's reserved for healthy adults and non-pregnant women. It's not suitable for children, the elderly, pregnant women or anyone with medical or psychological conditions which may be triggered by a lack of food. If you're struggling with eating disorders or anything else that may be triggered by a fast, pick something that does not involve food or drink, like electronic devices. Go through the day without using a cell phone, your computer, the radio or the T.V.. Especially in a religious setting, it's the 'going without' part that matters most.
"Is Khaos considered a deity?"
The ancient Hellenic philosophers and mythographers were in agreement that the Gods created the universe--or are the universe itself. There are many variations of the divine family tree, and in the ancient writings, there are also creation stories that range beyond this basic framework. When Hesiod wrote his Theogony, he was adament about the sequence the Gods appeared from Khaos. Within the nothingness, Khaos appeared, then Gaia as the earth Herself, the Tartaros and Eros. The Gods and Godesses who rule over the cycle of night and day followed after and then, slowly, the earth itself took shape. The pre-Olypic and Olympic deities came into being. the universe as we know it was born.
 - Protogenoi
 - Uranides
 - Titanes
 - Olympic Gods
 - Heroes/deified mortals
The Protogenoi are the Gods from which the universe is made. They are Gods like Khaos, Gaia, Ouranos, and Nyx. In general, these Theoi are more abstract and less defined than, say, the Olympians. They are cruder, more powerful Gods who, together, form the tapistry of earth and life. We simply could not live without Them as They are the air we breath, the earth we walk on, the water we drink and the death that eventually lays us to rest. And yet, neither we, nor the ancient Hellenes revered them often. They are distant and have very little to do with the individual's lifecycle. But they are Gods and They deserve due honours.
"I am trying to understamd Nyx's family a bit more. Could you help? And was she worshipped in Greece?"
Nyx (Νυξ) is the deep Night, born from Khaos (Χαος) and the sister-wife of Aither (Αιθηρ, 'Light'). In Hellenic mythology, Nyx draws a veil of darkness between the shining atmosphere of the aither and the lower air of earth (aer) at set times in the day, bringing night to man. In the morning, Her daughter Hêmera (Ἡμερα, 'Day') removes this veil, and exposes the Earth once more to Light.
Nyx and Hêmera continually work to both create and dissolve darkness on Earth; Selene (the Goddess of the Moon) moves with Nyx, and Helios (God of the Sun) with Hêmera, as heralded by Eos. In this recap, it is quite obvious we are yet missing a speciffic time of the day: dusk, or the evening. This was in the domain of the Nymphs, in this case the Hesperides (Ἑσπεριδες), who--depending of source--are either the daughters of Nyx or Atlas.
In ancient Hellas, Nyx was only rarely the focus of cult worship. Pausanias mentions She had an oracle on the acropolis at Megara, but that is about it. More often, Nyx was worshipped in other major cults, alongside the main deity: there was a statue called 'Nyx' in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Spartans had a cult of Sleep and Death, conceived of as twins, with Nyx being worshipped as Their mother, etc.
"Hi I'm a Hellenic Polytheism... my family just know that I don't like to go to the church and (I do it anyway - I'm a teenager and live with them) they are Catholics. I'm the only one in the whooole family that don't share that faith. They say to me things about sin, the hell and stuff... they scares me, ok, although I believe in the Theoi and I feel my soul is relatively safe (nobody knows what would happen after dead). But... idk, the fear that maybe I'm doing something "wrong" is there."
You know, I am a hard polytheist; I believe all Gods exist. That includes the Christian God. It's the bible I don't really put much stock into, but I have a healthy dose of respect for the Christian God.
I believe religion is a choice. If all Gods are real, and mythology tells you what They are like, theology is basically marketing for Gods. Eventually, something evokes an emotional response and whatever resonates most with you, you end up sticking with. Without going all philosophical on you, I thus believe that what it says in the brocure is what you get in the end of the day. For us, that means we go to Haides and wander the Meadow. If we did really well, we get a version of paradise on the Isle. If you choose the christian brosure, you get either heaven or hell, depending on the tally against you.
If you believe you are doing something 'wrong', I think you haven't made your final choice yet. You might feel drawn to Hellenismos, but you are still tied to Christianity. Some of us, we can let go of whatever religion we were raised in or wandered into on our own easily. Others take a bit of time. But I truly believe that once you get more comfortable in Hellenismos as a religion and lifestyle, the feeling of 'wrongness' will go away.
What I usually suggest to those breaking away from an existing religous bond in favour of a new one is to conciously say goodbye. Go to church and thank the Lord of Christianity for all He has done for you in the years you were under His protection. And then ask him to kindly let you go so you may present yourself to the Theoi. Then do that, present yourself to the Theoi and ask to be placed under Their protection instead. This way, proper respect is show for all involved and it should be easier for you to fully emerce yourself in Hellenismos.
This was an announcement long in the making: for the first time in the history of Elaion, we will be hosting the celebration of the Eleusinian Greater Mysteries. As a basic viewpoint, Elaion believes that the Mysteries need not be pursued; they are not a spiritual 'formula' that experimentation will eventually rediscover. That said, we also acknowedge that it's a festival many have been drawn to--both then and now--and we want to give our members a chance to celebrate it in a way that is as Recon as possible once you accept that we know far too little about it to ever accurately be so. Since the proceedings of the Eleusinian Mysteries


Runway Model SDK
These documents serve as a reference for the Runway Model SDK. With a few lines of code, you can port existing ML models to the Runway platform so they can be used and shared by others.
This SDK supports both Python 3.6+. You can install the module using either pip or pip3 like so:
pip3 install runway-python
Published versions of the SDK are hosted on the PyPI project website.
Runway Models
A Runway model consists of two special files:
 - A python script that imports the runway module (SDK) and exposes its interface via one or more runway.command() functions. This file is used as the entrypoint to your model.
 - runway.yml: A configuration file that describes dependencies and build steps needed to build and run the model.
Runway models expose a standard interface that allows the Runway app to interact with them over HTTP. This is accomplished using three functions: _USER_.setup(), _USER_.command(), and
Any Python-based model, independent of the ML framework or toolkit, can be converted into a Runway model using this simple interface. For more information about the runway module, see the module reference page.
This is example code for demonstration purposes only. It will not run, as the your_image_generation_model import is not a real python module.
import runway
from runway.data_types import category, vector, image
from your_image_generation_model import big_model, little_model
# The setup() function runs once when the model is initialized, and will run
# again for each well formed HTTP POST request to http://localhost:9000/setup.
_USER_.setup(options={'model_size': category(choices=['big', 'little'])})
def setup(opts):
 if opts['model_size'] == 'big':
 return big_model()
 return little_model()
inputs = { 'noise_vector': vector(length=128, description='A random seed.') }
outputs = { 'image': image(width=512, height=512) }
# The _USER_.command() decorator is used to create interfaces to call functions
# remotely via an HTTP endpoint. This lets you send data to, or get data from,
# your model. Each command creates an HTTP route that the Runway app will use
# to communicate with your model (e.g. POST /generate). Multiple commands
# can be defined for the same model.
_USER_.command('generate', inputs=inputs, outputs=outputs, description='Generate an image.')
def generate(model, input_args):
 # Functions wrapped by _USER_.command() receive two arguments:
 # 1. Whatever is returned by a function wrapped by _USER_.setup(),
 # usually a model.
 # 2. The input arguments sent by the remote caller via HTTP. These values
 # match the schema defined by inputs.
 img = input_args['image']
 return model.generate(img)
# The function triggers a call to the function wrapped by
# _USER_.setup() passing model_options as its single argument. It also
# creates an HTTP server that listens for and fulfills remote requests that
# trigger commands.
if __name__ == '__main__':'', port=9000, model_options={'model_size': 'big' })
If you are looking to port your own model, we recommend starting from our Model Template repository hosted on GitHub. This repository contains a basic model that you can use as boilerplate instead of having to start from scratch.
Example runway.yml
Each Runway model must have a runway.yml configuration file in its root directory. This file defines the steps needed to build and run your model for use with the Runway app. This file is written in YAML, a human-readable superset of JSON. Below is an example runway.yml file. This example file illustrates how you can provision your model's environment.
version: 0.1
python: 3.6
entrypoint: python
cuda: 9.2
framework: tensorflow
 - image_dataset/*
 - pip install runway-python
 - pip install -r requirements.txt
Continue on to the Runway YAML reference page to learn more about the possible configuration values supported by the runway.yml file, or hop over to the Example Models page to check out the source code for some of the models that have already been ported to Runway.


text:
Some aspects of the energy balance closure problem
- Department of Micrometeorology, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany
Abstract. After briefly discussing several reasons for the energy balance closure problem in the surface layer, the paper focuses on the influence of the low frequency part of the turbulence spectrum on the residual. Changes in the turbulent fluxes in this part of the turbulence spectrum were found to have a significant influence on the changes of the residual. Using the ogive method, it was found that the eddy-covariance method underestimates turbulent fluxes in the case of ogives converging for measuring times longer than the typical averaging interval of 30 min. Additionally, the eddy-covariance method underestimates turbulent fluxes for maximal ogive functions within the averaging interval, both mainly due to advection and non-steady state conditions. This has a considerable influence on the use of the eddy-covariance method.


Translation of "evidence" - English-Turkish dictionary
noun [ U ] uk us /ˈevɪdəns/
B2 something that makes you believe that something is true or exists
evidence of global warming
[ + that ] There is no scientific evidence that the drug is addictive.
information that is given or objects that are shown in a court of law to help to prove if someone has committed a crime
He was arrested despite the lack of evidence against him.
give evidence UK
to give information and answer questions in a court of law
delil göstermek, kanıt vermek
She was called to give evidence at his trial.
be in evidence formal
to be noticeable
gözönünde/görünürde/meydanda olmak
(Translation of "evidence" from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary English-Turkish © Cambridge University Press)


Skip to main content
Rudolf Valenta
Rudolf Valenta
Position: Professor
T +43 1 40400-51080
Further Information
Allergy and Immunology
Research interests
 1. Investigation of the evolution of allergen-specific immune responses in childhood
 2. Development and clinical evaluation of therapeutic allergy vaccines
 3. Development of allergen-specific strategies for preventive vaccination and tolerance induction for allergy
 4. Development of IgE-targeting strategies for allergy therapy
 5. Investigation of respiratory virus-induced exacerbations of asthma, COPD and ACOS
 6. Development of diagnostic tests and immunotherapy strategies for celiac disease
 7. Development of a rhinovirus vaccine for asthma prevention
 8. Development of a therapeutic HIV vaccine
 9. Development of preventive and therapeutic vaccines for hepatitis B infections
 10. Diagnostics and vaccines for SARS-CoV-2
SFB programm "Towards prevention and therapy of allergy"
PhD-Program Molecular, Cellular and Clinical Allergology


text:
Constant flow of information – ecology of the devices. Sensory architecture.
The ecological system is in constant and dynamic flow of information - sensors register instability in the system – in this case the human presence therefore a reaction in the system is provoked 20. Each member of the system is connected in a sensor network. The system has reflexes and the sensors could be referred to the sensuous cells in the nervous system – they are receptive and respond to the changes surrounding them. The computer is the mind; it has a preprogrammed behaviour like an organism. There is a definite relationship between the parts of the single device (the surfaces of the devices are built in such a way that the arrangement follows a specific order), between the devices themselves (they move in choreographed arrangements) and between the devices and the environment – the observers in the case. The whole system is a unity of dependences and relations – an organism is created, yet an artificial one but with organic qualities.
Such an approach for designing arise the possibility of building environments and systems that "regulate themselves and survive. They adapt and compute. They invent. They co-operate and compete. Naturally they evolve rapidly." 22
The suggested design is a different and extraordinary definition of space – without solid boundaries and walls – the space is created by the network of relationships and is given a final touch by the personal experience of the observers and their perception. A medium between physical and immaterial world is formulated.


text:
This study aimed to verify that Xuefu Zhuyu decoction (XFZYD) can improve asthenozoospermia caused by asthma, and explore its potential mechanism. Ovalbumin solution is used to induce asthma rat models. Sperm concentration and motility are used to evaluate semen quality. Immunohistochemistry (IHC), Western blotting and real-time reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) are used to detect proteins and mRNA related to rat testis tissue. Haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was used to observe changes in testicular tissues. Through network pharmacology, eriodictyol, 18-β-glycyrrhetinic acid, naringenin, chrysin and Hispidulin were prominent active ingredients of XFZYD. We found that XFZYD regulates the expression levels of albumin (ALB), vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA), interleukin 6 (IL-6) protein and mRNA, thereby improving the histopathological morphology of the testis, increasing the concentration and motility of spermatozoa. We suggest that future research can increase the detection of hormones and oxidative stress and other related indicators, so as to conduct more in-depth exploration.© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.
About The Expert


Apple finally joined Google and Amazon in the home assistant race, with their latest release, the Apple HomePod. If you're an Apple person, and you swear by all Apple products, then this device is for you!
This Siri speaker is said to offer the best sound quality, when compared to other devices. The HomePod is equipped with spatial awareness, allowing it to tune its seven speakers and automatically adjust to produce the best sound quality. Apple's goal was to eliminate background noise and effects that might be created from the room the HomePod is placed in. What does all this mean? It means that the Apple HomePod will sound richer and fuller than most speakers.
Not only do the speakers deliver superb sound quality, but the microphone is also amazing. The Apple HomePod's microphone can detect the "Hey Siri" command over loud music, from other rooms, through behind closed doors, and even rooms with echoes.
Other Features of Apple HomePod
The Apple HomePod can handle everything from giving you the latest news, traffic, and weather updates to controlling your smart home products. Because the device is heavily integrated with Apple Music, Siri will learn your taste in music, and become your own, personal DJ. You can even ask Siri for more information about any of the songs that are playing on the pod.
Some other features include:
 - Sending and receiving text messages
 - Changing the device's voice. If you don't feel like using Siri, you can choose either a male or female voice that has a British, American, or Australian accent.
 - Using the HomePod as a speakerphone. While you can't make phone calls, you can use the HomePod as a speakerphone. Once the call is in progress, you can transfer it from your phone to your pod.
 - Disabling Siri. While the point of this device is to have Siri readily available, you can tell Siri to stop listening. Once you're ready, you can easily reactivate her.
 - Writing and editing notes. It may not seem like much, but this skill sets the HomePod apart from other devices. If you'd like to write a note, just say Hey Siri, create a note," then dictate whatever you need.
If you'd like to get the most out of your HomePod, it's best to have an Apple Music subscription and your smart home devices integrated with the Apple HomeKit platform.
You can purchase the Apple HomePod at Apple, starting at $349.99
Apple HomePod


Sleep Newzzz
Men and Women: Different When It Comes to Sleep
Is there really a difference in men and womens sleep cycles?
Men and Women: Different When it Comes to Sleep
This article in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye recently—it's a great roundup of recent research on the differences between the way men and women sleep. Gender differences in sleep are a fascinating and important area of study. We all know that men and women have different sleep tendencies—think of all those early bird/night owl partnerships out there—but we're now beginning to understand more about why gender matters when it comes to sleep.
I was particularly interested in a couple of the most recent studies, which show evidence of some fundamental biological differences between men's and women's sleep. One suggests that there are marked differences in the circadian rhythms of men and women. In this study, researchers observed the circadian cycles of 157 men and women between the ages of 18 to 74, measuring melatonin levels and body temperature in order to track the 24-hour sleep-wake cycle. Over the course of a month-long inpatient sleep period, researchers found significant differences between men and women in both the timing of their circadian clocks—which help govern sleep times and wake times—and the duration of the circadian clock itself. Among those differences:
Find a Therapist
Search for a mental health professional near you.
 - Women's circadian clocks are set to an earlier hour than men's, making them more inclined to fall asleep earlier and also to wake earlier. Women showed a stronger inclination for activity earlier in the day than men.
 - Circadian cycles were actually shorter for women than for men, by six minutes. Even a slight difference can have significant impact on nightly sleep and on energy levels during the day. Think about a clock that runs a handful of minutes behind every day. Over time, those minutes really add up!
 - Not only did women's circadian clocks generally run earlier and shorter than men's, but also many more women had internal clocks that ran a full cycle in under 24 hours.
Another recent study found that women tend to perform better than men when low on sleep, and also can rebound more quickly from mild sleep deprivation when they get restorative sleep. I was really interested in this one because it looks at the question of making up for work-week sleep deprivation with extra rest over the weekend. Women and men were asked to sleep for only six hours per night, over six consecutive nights, to approximate the typical sleep deprivation that many of us experience during a busy work week. The participants then spent two nights "catching up" on their rest with extended overnight sleep. Researchers found that women scored higher on performance tests during the period of low sleep, and that their performance improved more than men's after two nights of extended sleep. (Take note: Neither men nor women in the study were able to truly "catch up" on their sleep over the two nights. Both fell short, but women simply came closer than men.) We know that women spend more time than men do in deep, slow-wave sleep stages over the course of a night. Time spent in deep sleep is restorative and memory boosting, which likely explains the advantage women have in performing under low-sleep conditions.
Women may reap real benefits from deeper sleep, but there is also evidence that they are in other ways more vulnerable than men to sleep disorders, and to the health risks associated with lack of sleep.
The biological phases of a woman's life—menstruation, pregnancy, menopause—and the hormonal shifts that accompany them make women more likely to experience disruptions to their sleep. Women in general are more susceptible than men to sleep disorders such as insomnia. Because of their propensity for deep sleep during the first part of their lives, women may receive protective benefits early on. But particularly after the age of 40, women's sleep often deteriorates.
 - Research suggests women have a different relationship with sleep when it comes to illness. One study showed that women who got less than 8 hours of sleep demonstrated an elevated risk for heart problems. Men in the study who got the same amount of sleep also saw increased risk, but the increase was not as significant as it was for women. The results of a recent study on cancer and sleep found that women were significantly more likely than men to suffer from insomnia while undergoing cancer treatment.
I'd like to see even more research that sets out to explore differences in the ways men and women experience sleep. The more we understand about how gender influences sleep, the better we'll be able to develop targeted, effective remedies for sleep problems for both men and women.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep DoctorTM
The Sleep Doctor's Diet Plan: Lose Weight Through Better Sleep
Everything you do, you do better with a good night's sleepTM
twitter: _USER_
Subscribe to Sleep Newzzz
Current Issue
Let It Go!


Using Accented Characters In Excel
Adding accented characters into your Excel workbook is commonly achieved by using the Insert –> Symbol menu options to select the character you want, however while this is fine for inserting the odd symbol every now and again, if you have to enter lots of different symbols then things can become very tedious indeed.
Fortunately Microsoft have provided a fairly quick and easy method to enter the common accented characters by remembering a few shortcuts. It is possible to enter an accented character by one of two methods:
 1. By holding down the 'Alt' and 'Ctrl' keys, and then pressing the letter on the keyboard you want accented.
 2. By holding down the 'Alt' key and typing a number code on the numeric keypad.
Below is a table showing the most commonly used characters, just remember that when entering numbers you need to use the numeric keypad.
á Ctrl+Alt+a Á Ctrl+Alt+A
é Ctrl+Alt+e É Ctrl+Alt+E
í Ctrl+Alt+i Í Ctrl+Alt+I
ó Ctrl+Alt+o Ó Ctrl+Alt+O
ú Ctrl+Alt+u Ú Ctrl+Alt+U
à Alt+0224 À Alt+0192
è Alt+0232 È Alt+0200
ì Alt+0236 Ì Alt+0204
ò Alt+0242 Ò Alt+0210
ù Alt+0249 Ù Alt+0217
â Alt+0226 Â Alt+0194
ê Alt+0234 Ë Alt+0203
î Alt+0238 Î Alt+0206
ô Alt+0244 Ô Alt+0212
û Alt+0251 Û Alt+0219


text:
Some Famous Clocks
One of the most famous clocks is in the cathedral of Strasbourg; the clock was first placed in the cathedral in 1352, and in the 16th cent. it was reconstructed. In the 19th cent. a new astronomical clock (so called because it shows the current positions of the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies in addition to the time of day) similar to the original clock was constructed; its elaborate mechanical devices include the Twelve Apostles, a crowing cock, a revolving celestial globe, and an automatic calendar dial. Among other well-known clocks of the world are the clock known as Big Ben in the tower next to Westminster Bridge in the British Houses of Parliament and the tower clock in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company building, New York City.
Sections in this article:
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on clock Some Famous Clocks from Fact Monster:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Technology: Terms and Concepts


text:
In this chapter, we explored three major sets of architectural issues
related to prefetching: basic architectural support for prefetching,
possible enhancements to achieve even larger gains through prefetching,
and alternative latency-hiding techniques that require hardware support.
We now briefly summarize each section below.
The key issues in providing basic architectural support for prefetching
are the following:
- Unlike normal loads, prefetches are non-binding, non-blocking, and non-excepting. By giving prefetch instructions
unique opcodes, the bits normally used to specify a destination register
can be used instead for prefetching hints (e.g., exclusive-mode vs. shared-mode prefetches).
- While dropping prefetches is a complex issue, the best approach
appears to be dropping prefetches on TLB misses, and not dropping them
on full prefetch issue buffers (given selective prefetching).
- When performing a prefetch access, the caches should be checked
while searching for the data, and the data should be placed directly in
the primary cache.
- The main hardware support necessary for prefetching is a
lockup-free cache. Supporting up to four outstanding misses is useful,
and buffering more than four outstanding prefetch requests offers only
a limited advantage.
The following are the major issues in achieving even larger gains through
- Profiling feedback can potentially improve performance, but has
some important drawbacks. A more attractive technique for exploiting
dynamic information may be to generate adaptive code. Both of these
techniques will benefit from user-visible hardware miss counters.
- Providing associativity through either set-associative caches or
victim caches is an important step toward dealing with cache conflicts.
Neither of these solutions is as attractive as eliminating the problem
- To avoid excessive prefetching overhead, the compiler must be
careful to avoid register spilling. To reduce overheads further, block prefetches may be useful when spatial locality exists.
Finally, prefetching compares with other latency-hiding techniques as follows:
- Software-controlled prefetching appears to be superior to
hardware-controlled prefetching, since the software approach results in
better coverage and requires less hardware support.
- Prefetching and relaxed consistency models are complementary.
Relaxed consistency models eliminate write latency, and prefetching
addresses the remaining read latency.
- The interaction between prefetching and multithreading is
complex, and appears to be complementary only with very small numbers of


Breakfast Banana Split
Prep time: 5 minutes
Yield: 2 servings
Serving Size 1/2 banana split
Nutrition Facts: View Label(s)
Kid friendly
small banana
1⁄2 cup
oat, corn, or granola cereal
1⁄2 cup
low fat vanilla or strawberry yogurt
1⁄2 teaspoon
honey, optional (skip for children under the age of one)
1⁄2 cup
canned pineapple tidbits or chunks
 1. Peel and split banana lengthwise. Place half in two separate cereal bowls.
 2. Sprinkle granola over banana, reserving some for topping.
 3. Spoon yogurt on top and drizzle with honey.
 4. Decorate with reserved granola and pineapple.
 5. Serve immediately.
 6. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.
 - Try other flavors of low fat yogurt or even cottage cheese.
 - Try other fresh, frozen, or canned fruits.
 - Some foods can cause choking in young children. Be sure that fruit pieces are very small and soft for toddlers. Avoid grapes, chunks of pineapple or melon. Instead, use softer canned fruit, such as fruit cocktail.
 - Honey is not recommended for children under 1 year old.
Last updated: 10/09/15
User login
Create an Account


text:
How do I register my borehole? How do I get permission to drill a borehole? These are common questions that come up from both domestic and commercial groundwater users. In this article, Ernst Bertram explains what is required in terms of the National Water Act. And one of the important factors he points out is that it's not the borehole that's the focus, but rather the groundwater use. The amount of groundwater you plan to use, and the purpose for which the water will be used, will determine whether you need to register your use, or obtain a licence.
Let's start with some background to the National Water Act of 1998 and how it is different to the repealed Water Act of 1956.
If you'd like to skip the background, scroll down to the heading "It's the groundwater use you're registering, not the borehole".
The National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998) – a progressive piece of legislation
When it was enacted in 1998, the National Water Act was hailed internationally as the most progressive water act in the world.
Not only was Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) written into the Act, but equitable distribution and sustainable utilisation of water were also set as guiding principles. The explanatory note to Chapter 1 states:
'These guiding principles recognise the basic human needs of present and future generations, the need to protect the water resources, the need to share some water resources with other countries, the need to promote social and economic development through the use of water…'
Changes from the repealed Water Act of 1956
A major change for groundwater lies in the following two statements:
- The Minister of Water and Sanitation is in terms of section 3(1) of the NWA the public trustee of the nation's water resources. A water resource includes in terms of section 1(1) 'an aquifer'.
- According to the preamble to the NWA it is recognised that 'water is a scarce and unevenly distributed national resource which occurs in many different forms which are all part of a unitary, interdependent cycle.'
The definition of an aquifer is 'a geological formation which has structures or textures that can hold water or permit appreciable water movement through them to the extent that it can be abstracted economically' and groundwater is the 'water contained in an aquifer'. A borehole is the mechanism that the groundwater can be accessed and/or abstracted from the aquifer.
The words 'national resource' implies that groundwater is no longer regarded as the property of the land owner on which it is found, as it was under the repealed Water Act of 1956 (Act 54 of 1956). According to section 5(1) of the repealed Water Act 'the sole and exclusive use and enjoyment of private water shall vest in the owner of the land on which such water is found.' The provisions of the NWA dealing with groundwater cannot be regarded as an arbitrary deprivation of property (private water) as envisaged in section 25(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996.
The purpose of the NWA is to bring about sustainable use of all water within the natural water cycle to the benefit of all users. It gives effect to the legal principle res omnium communes (natural resources falling outside the legal commerce and which are available to all people). There is a constitutional requirement for water reform to bring about equitable access to the water resources and to redress the results of past racial discrimination.
All lawfully exercised rights to groundwater before the commencement of the NWA are replaced with allocations under the NWA. Further, those who have not exercised rights to groundwater when the NWA commenced, have the right to apply for a licence. These applications would be evaluated to determine whether a licence should be issued or not, taking into consideration all the relevant factors.
It's the groundwater use you're registering, not the borehole
When dealing with licencing and registration of water use, it's important to point out that a person does not need any permission to drill any borehole nor to register a borehole. However, once the borehole has been drilled and water found, the registration of the water use, which in this case is groundwater, must be done depending on the ultimate usage.
The course of action, i.e. whether to register the water use or not, will be based on the intended uses and limits. The following scenarios apply:
- Schedule 1 – use within the set limit = carry on and use the water;
- General Authorisation (limits are published and reviewed every 5 years) = register your water use;
- For volumes abstracted above the limits of the General Authorisation = apply for a water use license.
If groundwater use falls under Schedule 1 – no permission required
As part of the new allocation system incorporated into the NWA, a land owner, or legal occupier of the land, has a right to reasonable use of water taken from an aquifer on that property. This 'reasonable use' is defined in Schedule 1 to NWA as:
- 'reasonable domestic use in that person's household';
- 'small gardening not for commercial purposes';
- 'the watering of animals (excluding feedlots) which graze on that land within the grazing capacity of that land'.
Schedule 1 water uses do not require any permission or registration.
Although an upper limit for Schedule 1-uses has not been set in the NWA, a catchment management agency may in terms of item 2(e) of Schedule 3 limit the taking of water under Schedule 1. For the purpose of applying these provisions, it is assumed that if a person uses more than 10 kilolitres of groundwater per day (10 000 litres/day) for a 'non-commercial small garden', then they are exceeding the limits of Schedule 1, and the water use should be registered.
If groundwater use is above Schedule 1, but below General Authorisation limits – groundwater use must be registered
Any water use that is more than is allowed under Schedule 1, or which is not an existing lawful water use, should be authorised, under either a General Authorisation or a licence.
The General Authorisation serves as blanket permission; thus no licence is needed. This has been done to limit the administrative burden, as it covers a large portion of the groundwater users. However, as with any licence there are certain conditions. These are:
This water use is limited in the volume that may be abstracted. See Government Notice 399 in Government Gazette 26187 dated 26 March 2004, time application extended by Government notice 498 in Government Gazette 35477 dated 28 June 2012 (and corrected by Government notice 970 in Government Gazette 35909 dated 30 November 2012) for the limits applicable;
This water use must be registered if more than a certain volume is abstracted (see the latest General Authorisation for details).
If groundwater use is above General Authorisation limits – a licence is required
A licence will be required only if the groundwater use is above General Authorisation limits.
For more information on registration and applying for a licence, visit this website.
The borehole data being generated during drilling for water is crucial for the cost effective development and sustainable utilisation of the groundwater resources of the country. The adage 'you cannot manage what you do not measure' applies to natural resources as much as it applies to financial and human resources.
This brings me back to the provisions of section 3(1) of the NWA, i.e. 'the Minister of Water and Sanitation acts as the public trustee of the nation's water resources'. Implicitly this means that the Minister of Water and Sanitation also acts as the public trustee of the data related to the water resources of the country. This concept has been built into the National Groundwater Archive (NGA). The NGA is a web-based database and any person can register to extract data from it.
In the light of the legal mandate that the groundwater resources of the country should be developed cost-effectively and managed sustainably, it seems natural that the data generated during the drilling of boreholes could not be confidential and thus should be submitted for capturing onto the NGA. Being web-based, the NGA allows any duly-registered external groundwater data suppliers to capture data themselves.
- One does not register a borehole, but the groundwater use;
- No permission to drill a borehole or use groundwater for Schedule 1 use is required;
- Groundwater use above Schedule 1 use and not exceeding the General Authorisation limits, must be registered;
- A license will be required for all groundwater use above the General Authorisation limits;
- If a newly-drilled borehole replaces a collapsed borehole, and the water use from that borehole was lawful, the water use from the new borehole will constitute an existing lawful use.
Having worked at the Department of Water and Sanitation for many years, Ernst Bertram is a specialist in the application of water legislation to domestic and commercial borehole installations.


Strategies for finding the right email frequency
Stefan Pollard at Email Labs has written a good article that looks at the factors that dictate how often you should send marketing emails.
Clearly, finding the right frequency for emails is vital - emailing customers too often can put them off, while not emailing often enough can cause the same problems.
Stefan outlines three strategies for determining the correct frequency:
1. Understand who controls frequency
Stefan points out that customers are becoming savvier when managing inboxes, and many will delete, unsubscribe from, or report as spam any emails they may find annoying.
In addition, customers will often consider annoying emails as spam, even if they have a relationship with that company. In a DoubleClick survey, 49% of respondents classified spam as '"email from a company I have done business with but that comes too frequently''.
This means that customers are the ones who should be determining the frequency of emails they receive.
2. Listen to customer feedback
Take note of what people are saying when they unsubscribe. They may be telling you they are receiving too many emails, or that the ones they receive are irrelevant to them.
Give customers a chance to tell you how many emails, and what kind of emails they are happy to receive, either when they opt-in in the first place, or through the emails you are sending them. The more relevant the messages you send, the more frequently you can send them.
3. Respect your subscribers' choices
You should stick to your promises about email frequency, even if you have a deal you know your customers will love. While many will forgive one or two extra emails, it could be the tipping point for others.
Stefan recommends:
"Instead of sneaking in another mailing, refine your list description that specifies a general number but allows you to reserve the right to send relevant messages between regular scheduled mailings.
"Specify a range of mailings in a given time rather than a specific number, but be as realistic in your expectations as you can."
The article also warns against not sending emails often enough, as customers may forget they subscribed after a while and treat your email as spam. He recommends that customers should be emailed at least monthly.
Further reading:
How often should you email your customers?
Topics: Email & eCRM
Add your own
Reader comments (0)
Log in to post a comment