There were times when the statements of U.S. presidents were made in the traditional "State of the Union" is hardly in question. It was often read between the lines, to decode the political signals. In the case of Donald Trump, it's different. This President is doing what he accuses others, his political positions walls: he uses alternative facts. Reason enough for the state of the Nation, a fact check.
Trump has justified, in his speech, especially his call for a wall was built with large problems due to illegal migrants. He considers the Migration for a state of emergency for the entire country.
The facts: , The crime rate in El Paso has reached its peak in the 1990s, and fell until 2006. With the construction of the border security measures was started in 2008. Since then, there was again an increase, reported local media, citing FBI data. The station KTSM does not quote the Sheriff of El Paso with the words: "I believe that anybody, not even the President, can say that a wall in El Paso that was what caused the crime rate to fall," said Sheriff Richard Wiles.
The facts: is The largest drug problem in the United States prevails in the case of prescription opioids, and people come over to your doctor first of all, totally legal in the tablets. Illegal drugs, in fact, mainly over the southern border into the country – but not on the "green border". They are smuggled mainly through the border crossings. "A small percentage of the total heroin, which was ensured by the border authority, was the transitions between the border", – stated in the official US drug report. The painkiller Fentanyl is sent according to the report, either directly by Post from China, or through border crossings from Mexico smuggled.
The facts: Several studies have come to the opinion that the risk to be in the USA, murdered, emanating mainly from Locals. "Migrants tend to have less crime than the Locals" found out, not least, the Cato Institute. However, it actually comes to crimes from people who are illegally immigrated. For the families of Victims, it is no consolation that this is a minority.
rating: This is hardly tenable.
The facts: The "Migration Policy Institute" about indicates that the number of arrests at the border in the long-term tendency to decline. In the financial year 2000 there was a total of 1.6 million arrests on the southwest border, in 2010, there were approximately 448 000. In the budget year 2018, the authorities have recorded approximately 397 000, such as from Overviews of the customs and border protection CBP.


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text:
Āqbulāq kan syfta på följande platser:

Iran

 Āgh Bolāgh, ort, Ardabil,
 Kūh-e Āq Bolāgh, berg, Zanjan,

Robotskapade Iranförgreningar

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Hybridity: The New Frontier
October 4th, 2014	| Published in September 2014
A new frontier has been created at Cincinnati's 21c Museum Hotel. In both the lobby level and second floor galleries, contemporary artists have represented a world in which nature has both run amok and made perfect, symbiotic, evolutionary sense of our post-post-modern, trans-everything world.
In this mesmerizing exhibition curated by 21c curator Alice Gray Stites, fairy tale landscapes and evocative digital mashups beg for closer examination. A surreal forest is presented wherein trees reveal human lungs and spines in their trunks, a woman stands knee deep in a pool of water filled with dead bees while carrying a sheep in wolf's clothing, and a lake just past the brambles appears to be more blood than water. Just outside the forest, children have horns, chickens have fur, and wild beasts roam in desolate, burned out tableaux.
Stites writes that Hybridity: The New Frontier "explores the environmental, economic, and technological conditions shaping the earth and its inhabitants today. In these still and moving images of land and cityscapes, and in the taxidermy and fabricated figures of The New Frontier, nature meets technoculture, and the new natural is both organic and manufactured."
Australian Patricia Piccinini's Surrogate (for the Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat) is an ugly, if adorable, sculptural creature. It is the first piece you are likely to encounter in the 21c lobby and, like most of the work in Hybridity, it demands a double-take. Is it part of the store? A new strange version of the ubiquitous penguin? Is it cute? Is it horrible? Piccinini explores the results of environmental change, genetic change, climate change and human behavior in her work. She explains "There is no question that there will be undesired outcomes; my interest is in whether we will be able to love them."
Russian photographer Oleg Dou also enjoys toying with the line between what is beautiful and what is repulsive; what is animate and inanimate. His chromogenic prints Rabbit and Fawn of somber, big-eyed children with horns and ears appear to be photographic artifacts from the future. American photographer Elena Dorfman explores the blurred line between a near-dead landscape and our attempts to revive it with our human presence. Whether digitally imposing graffiti in a quarry or a luxury tennis court in a scorched valley, her Empire Falling series (also shown at Phyllis Weston Gallery in 2013) shows a world that is flatlining fast.
Luis Gispert is another American photographer who illustrates our human hand in the callous neglect of our natural world. His Chanel Jetty makes a hybrid brand of luxury, consumer logos in a futuristic ATV that sits driverless at the edge of the world. Dean Byington's Omphalos unearths an amphitheater of lost societies' architecture and beauty in extraordinary detail in oil on linen.
American Anthony Goicolea anthropomorphizes nature in three works from his Pathetic Fallacy series in which trees have lungs and grow bones and lungs. One is shown under glass, as though a specimen, and the result in all is entirely, visually plausible. Why wouldn't a tree breathe with human bronchi? After wandering through the first floor forest, every other work of art is suspect. What is hiding in that branch? Is there a human face or a bone? In Chris Doyle's (American) The Larger Illusion, a gnarled tree trunk reveals a minotaur's head.
If the first floor is the forest, the second floor gallery is the sky, where birds are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Marcus Coate's (British) Dawn Chorus video installation intrigued me more when it was background music to his Ritual for Reconciliation series of crumpled photographs of exquisite birds and other animals. That same day I had read that solar flares were interrupting the ability for a homing pigeon to navigate home. Hearing Coates' bird/human chorus, while looking at such natural beauty laid waste, while considering wayward pigeons was a punch in the gut.
In the same gallery, two mixed media on canvas works from Grant Hayunga's (American) Red Peyote Series, Gabriel's Spell and Raven Headed, are the result of his visions on a Shamanic, peyote-fueled journey. They are raw and visceral, showing man's twisted discomfort as he becomes mythological beast.
It was a relief then to spend time with Laura Ball's (American) twisty, seductive watercolors. There is more whimsy than worry in her fantastical evolution and brings a light touch to darker notions of hybridization.
The beauty of Hybridity is two-fold. These are exquisitely crafted works, across media. While the wall text becomes a bit esoteric at times, the works are accessible and plausible, akin to the best moments of magic realism in literature. Nobel Prize winning Mexican poet Octavio Paz's "A Tree Within" came to mind as similarly successful in not only making the fantastical real but also in seducing us into the surreal with such ease and confidence.
A tree grew inside my head.
A tree grew in.
Its roots are veins,
its branches nerves,
thoughts its tangled foliage.
Your glance sets it on fire,
and its fruits of shade
are blood oranges
and pomegranates of flame.
in the body's night.
There, within, inside my head,
the tree speaks.
Come closer — can you hear it?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to get type of generic interface in java I have a class Bucket which is passed as a generic type in the Comparator interface. I am working with GSON to register a type adapter for this type.
The typeadapter function has the signature
public GsonBuilder registerTypeAdapter(Type type, Object typeAdapter)

I want to pass the first argument as the type object
java.util.Comparator<org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.bucket.terms.Terms$Bucket>

I tried Comparator<Terms.Bucket>.class which throws me a syntax error . What is the correct way of doing this ?

A: Generics are only used for compile time safety, then they are erased (they don't exist at runtime). So writing something like this Comparator<Terms.Bucket>.class isnt possible. You need to create a explicit class:
public class BucketComparator implements Comparator<Terms.Bucket>
{
    ...
}

After this you are able to pass the type as follows: BucketComparator.class

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Sensibility and practicality define the 2018 Mazda MX-5 Miata. With less than 20,000 miles on the odometer, this vehicle invigorates its segment with sporty proportions, generous equipment and exceptional safety! Mazda made sure to keep road-handling and sportiness at the top of it's priority list. Under the hood you'll find a 4 cylinder engine with more than 150 horsepower, providing a smooth and predictable driving experience. Both high fuel economy and flexible performance are assured by the 6 speed automatic transmission. All of the premium features expected of a Mazda are offered, including: delay-off headlights, 1-touch window functionality, variably intermittent wipers, heated seats, a power convertible roof, lane departure warning, and a blind spot monitoring system. Features such as automatic climate control and leather upholstery prove that economical transportation does not need to be sparsely equipped. Premium sound drives 9 speakers, providing you and your passengers a sensational audio experience. Mazda also prioritized safety and security with features such as: dual front impact airbags with occupant sensing airbag, front side impact airbags, traction control, brake assist, a security system, an emergency communication system, and 4 wheel disc brakes with ABS. Electronic stability control ensures solid grip atop the road surface, no matter how challenging the driving conditions. A Carfax history report provides you peace of mind by detailing information related to past owners and service records. Our sales reps are knowledgeable and professional. They'll work with you to find the right vehicle at a price you can afford. Stop in and take a test drive!


Valentine's Day is kind of a silly made up holiday, but I'll take any excuse to celebrate my loved ones. That's why I think Galentine's Day is so fun! What's better than getting together with your best gal pals just because? Whether you're hosting a Galentine's Day get together at your place, doing a Galentine's Day happy hour, or your favorite Galentine is across the country, show them how much you love and appreciate them by surprising them with fun Galentine's Day cards. I made a bunch of cute and silly printable Galentine's Day cards you can use! They're a mix of sweet and sassy and I made 11 different Galentine's Day cards to choose from. You have a couple options on how you can use them. You can either view all of the printable Galentine's Day cards in this Google doc (print them all, or pick just a few favorites), and print and fold them in half so you have a little card that you can write on the inside of. Or feel free to grab the images directly from this Dropbox folder, and share them with your Galentines digitally, whether it's a text, email, or in an Insta Story. However you share them, I hope they make your Galentine's day…on Galentine's Day! 😂 See what I did there? If you do post them on social, or take a pic of your physical cards that you print, please tag me @wtfab, as I'd love to see them! Happy Galentine's Day!


text:
#getonthearc
Sidewalk Pilgrimage
August 28, 2020 August 29, 2020 ~ Deb Vilas ~ 2 Comments
"Today the Church of the Heavenly Rest on East 90th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is launching their Sidewalk Journey for Justice.
It includes 6 icons on 90th Street with QR codes that link back to resources to learn, pray, and act against racism. This sidewalk pilgrimage offers visible witness for our neighbors with the values of human dignity & equal justice that are foundations for our faith. The project builds on the energy of the Virtual Pilgrimage for Racial Justice that the church hosted in June.
The church is launching the pilgrimage today because August 28 is the anniversary of both the "I have a Dream Speech" by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 and the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955."
— Rev. Matt Heyd
As a minister's daughter, I am cut from similar cloth as my dad, but maybe in ways that you might not expect. My father has sometimes practiced his faith and calling outside of mainstream religion. He said to me recently, "I've never been an Orthodox Christian". For him, nature breathes Spirit into him more than dogma ever could.
I have always felt God's presence in my life, and I feel that relationship most acutely when I am in nature, and also through connections with all the people who enrich my life. This includes loved ones, but also those who teach me through contrast, keeping my paradigm ever shifting and growing. Every exchange can be an adventure and opportunity for my soul to find its true north.
But my connection to a religious community has been more elusive. I've spent much of my adult life experimenting with various communities. I attended a Unitarian church for a number of years, where I taught Sunday School to 8/9 year-olds, and met one of my dearest friends. My life partner and I followed a New Thought church as it grew over a decade and then folded. During the past few years, I have been actively searching for a spiritual community that I could make my own. It took a pandemic for me to find that community in my own backyard, two blocks away from my home. It had been there all along.
And the other weird thing is that my involvement with the Church of the Heavenly Rest has been largely online.
Who knew?!
There are many reasons why this place feels like home. It is after all the denomination that I grew up in. The warmth and inclusiveness of the clergy, and the kindness of the parishioners is part of it. But the values that I see enacted are also a huge variable. The clergy and members constantly call upon us all to expand our perceptions, to make room at the table for everyone, to shoulder collective suffering and to celebrate our joys together. We are invited to be accountable for the injustice so present in our world. And most importantly, to act.
In the padlet connected to the pilgrimage website, I made this commitment today: "I commit to engaging in conversations about inequity with marginalized people so that I can stand in witness and listen to learn more about what I need to do to bring about change.
I will continue to look for opportunities to facilitate conversations about undoing White Supremacy at home."
I had a wonderful conversation today with a child life student of color who taught me a lot in one hour. It was immediate proof that listening and witnessing changes the witness and the narrator.
What is your commitment today to bend the arc towards justice? I invite you to add your commitment to the padlet link to turn your thought into action.


Utica, N.Y. – The Utica Comets fell to the Laval Rocket by a score of 4-2 Friday night at the Adirondack Bank Center.
Cam Darcy put the Comets up 1-0 with 6:31 to go in the first period, tipping a pass from Patrick Wiercioch past Rocket goaltender Zachary Fucale. Michael Chaput also picked up an assist on the play.
Kerby Rychel tied the game at one with a power play goal 53 seconds into the second period. Chris Terry and Matt Taormina had the assists. Niki Petti gave Laval a 2-1 lead six minutes later, burying a rebound past Thatcher Demko. Tom Parisi and Terry were credited with the assists. Eric Gelinas extended the lead to 3-1 with a shorthanded goal at the 14:52 mark of the second period. Markus Eisenschmid collected the assist.
Terry scored a power play goal 1:17 into the third period to make it 4-1 Laval. Rychel and Gelinas collected the assists. Tony Cameranesi brought the Comets to within two three minutes later. Darcy tallied the assist. Laval snuffed out the Comets' late comeback attempt to secure the win.
Demko finished with 19 saves and his record falls to 20-11-6. Fucale stopped 30 shots. His record improves to 10-5-0. The Comets power play went 0-4, while the penalty kill allowed three goals in six attempts.
The Comets return to the ice tomorrow night against the Belleville Senators. Puck drop at Yardmen Arena is at 7 p.m. The game can be heard on 94.9 KROCK and viewed on AHL Live.


text:
Bharti Singh Dropped From The Kapil Sharma Show Post Drug Probe? Here's What Comedian Kiku Sharda Has To Say
Updated: November 29, 2020 11:29 IST
Authors: Arunita Tiwari (Editorial Team)
Bharti Singh and husband Haarsh Limbachiyaa who were recently arrested by the NCB in a case of alleged drug consumption might see some more trouble lined up ahead. The comedian who is popular face on The Kapil Sharma Show has reportedly been dropped from the show after her recent run in with the law.
Haarsh and Bharti were arrested following a raid by the Narcotics Control Bureau at their residence a few weeks ago and after spending a night behind bars they were granted bail. The NCB reportedly recovered 86.5 grams of marijuana from Bharti and Haarsh's properties after a tip off from a drug peddler.
According to a Spoteboye report the channel wants to keep The Kapil Sharma Show a controversy free zone following which the decision of removing Bharti from the show has reportedly been taken. Kapil who is close friend of Bharti's is had to be opposing the decision of the channel and standing up in her defence. A source close to the portal informs, "It's pretty much decided Bharti will be kept out of the show. Kapil's show is a family show. They need laughs free of controversy."
Comedian Kiku Sharda who is also a member of the troop in The Kapil Sharma Show, however, reacted to reports of Bharti being ousted from the show and told Bombay Times, "We shot yesterday, and she wasn't there at the shoot. But that's quite normal as she doesn't shoot with us for every episode." He further added that he's not heard of Bharti being dropped from the show, In fact, I haven't heard of any talk of her not being a part of the show. She just wasn't there yesterday at the shoot and that's about it."
For Bharti's sake we hope that Kiku is right.


text:
Biografia
Studiò violino al conservatorio di Bruxelles con il belga Eugène Ysaÿe e composizione con Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. Dopo un inizio di carriera in Europa come docente e direttore d'orchestra, nel 1916 si trasferì negli Stati Uniti d'America dove insegnò in diverse scuole tra New York e Cleveland, e fu direttore del Conservatorio di San Francisco dal 1925 al 1930.

In seguito abitò a Roveredo dal 1930 al 1933, dove ha composto nel 1933 il suo Avodath Hakodesh (Servizio sacro per il sabato). A Roveredo continuò inoltre a coltivare la sua passione fotografica, scattando delle belle immagini della regione.

Lavorò in Europa sino al 1940, trasferendosi poi fino al 1952 in California insegnando musica alla Università di Berkeley.

Parte della produzione di Bloch risente dell'influsso della musica folcloristica ebraica e, più in generale, si può dire che tutta la sua musica è pervasa da una forte sensibilità espressa con una grande raffinatezza di mezzi. I suoi lavori principali includono l'opera Macbeth (1910), la sinfonia Israel (1915), Schelomo, rapsodia ebraica per violoncello e orchestra (1915-1916), Baal Shem, per violino e pianoforte (1923, di cui fece una nuova versione nel 1939), Concerto Grosso, per archi e pianoforte (1925), il Servizio sacro per il sabato (1930-1933), Voice in the Wilderness per violoncello e orchestra (1937), cinque quartetti per archi (tra il 1916 e il 1956), due quintetti con pianoforte.

Nel 1938 avviene la prima esecuzione assoluta nel War Memorial Opera House di San Francisco di "Evocations", suite sinfonica di sua composizione diretta da Pierre Monteux.

Nel 1950 avviene la prima esecuzione assoluta nell'Orchestra Hall di Chicago dello Scherzo fantastico per pianoforte e orchestra di sua composizione diretto da Rafael Kubelík.

Tra gli allievi più importanti di Ernest Bloch vi furono i compositori americani Roger Sessions, George Antheil, Randall Thompson e Frederick Jacobi.

Opere

Orchestra
Sinfonia in do diesis minore (1902)
Inverno-Primavera poemi sinfonici per orchestra (1905)
Tre poemi ebraici per orchestra (1913)
Israel per 2 soprani, 2 contralti, basso e orchestra (1916)
Schelomo per violoncello e orchestra (1916)
Concerto grosso per archi e pianoforte (1925)
America, rapsodia epica per coro e orchestra, dedicata a Walt Whitman e Abraham Lincoln (1926)
Helvetia, affresco sinfonico (1929)
Voce nel deserto (Voice in the Wilderness), poema sinfonico per orchestra e violoncello obbligato (1936)
Concerto per violino e orchestra dedicato a Joseph Szigeti (1938) nella Severance Hall di Cleveland, Szigeti diretto da Dimitri Mitropoulos
Concerto sinfonico per pianoforte e orchestra, dedicato a Mary Tibaldi Chiesa (1948)
Sinfonia breve dedicata a Nathalie Koussevitsky (1952)
Concerto grosso per orchestra d'archi (1952)
Due ultimi poemi (Maybe...) per flauto e orchestra (1958)
"sinfonia in mi bem.  (1954)

Musica da camera
Quartetto per archi n.1 (1916)
Suite per viola e pianoforte (1919)
Sonata n.1 per violino e pianoforte (1920)
 Baal Shem per violino e pianoforte (1923)
Paesaggi per quartetto d'archi (1923)
Quintetto per pianoforte e archi (1923)
Sulle montagne per quartetto d'archi (1924)
Sonata n.2 per violino e pianoforte, Poéme mystique (1924)
 Abodah per violino e pianoforte (1929)
Quartetto per archi n.2 (1945)
Meditazione e processionale per viola e pianoforte (1951)
Quartetto per archi n.3 (1952)
Quartetto per archi n.4 (1953)
Quartetto per archi n.5 (1956)
2 suite per violoncello solo (1956)
Suite n.3 per violoncello solo (1957)
 Secondo quintetto per archi e pianoforte (1957)
Suite modale per flauto e pianoforte o orchestra (1956?)
Suite n. 1 per violino solo (1958)
Suite n. 2 per violino solo (1958)

Tastiera
Ex voto (1903)
Nirvana (1923)
Enfantines raccolta di brani per giovani pianisti (1923)
Sonata per pianoforte (1935)
Visioni e profezie (1936)
6 preludi per la sinagoga, per organo (1950)
4 marce nuziali per organo (1950)

Discografia

 Concerto per violino. Poemi marini. Suite sinfonica, Oleh Krysa, violino; Orchestra Sinfonica di Malmö, dir. Sakari Oramo (BIS, CD-639)
 4 episodi. 2 poemi. Concertino. Suite modale, Orchestra Atlas Camerata; Elementi dell'Orchestra Filarmonica di Israele; Orchestra sinfonica della Radio Slovacca, dir. Dalia Atlas (Naxos, 8.570259)
 Concertino per flauto, clarinetto e archi. Baal Shem, suite. Sulle montagne. Concerto grosso n. 2, Roberto Sawicki, violino; Michel Westphal, clarinetto; Robert Thuillier, flauto; Orchestra di Lancy-Ginevra, dir. Roberto Sawicki (Gallo, CD-1066)
 Vision and prophecies. Five sketches in sepia. Sonata. Enfantines. In the night. Nirvana, Margareth Finger, pianoforte (Chandos, CHAN-9887)
 Macbeth Opera completa edizione La Coruna 1997 collezione cd dvd opera Maison de La Lirique

Note

Bibliografia

Voci correlate
 Ebraismo in Svizzera

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

 Alla Collezione Belknap di Arti Performing, Università di Florida, USA

Ebrei svizzeri
Ebrei statunitensi


text:
package Daytime.conconexion.cliente;

/**
 * Esta clase es un m�dulo que proporciona la l�gica de aplicaci�n
 * para un cliente Daytime que utiliza un socket en modo stream para IPC.
 * @author M. L. Liu
 */
public class ClienteDaytimeAuxiliar2 {

	public static String obtenerMarcaTiempo(String nombreMaquina,
										    String numPuerto) throws Exception {

		String marcaTiempo = "";

		int puertoServidor = Integer.parseInt(numPuerto);
		// instancia un socket en modo stream y espera a que se haga
		// una conexi�n al puerto servidor
	    /**/System.out.println("Petici�n de conexi�n realizada");
	    MiSocketStream miSocket = new MiSocketStream(nombreMaquina, puertoServidor);
	    // ahora espera hasta recibir la marca de tiempo
	    marcaTiempo = miSocket.recibeMensaje();
	    miSocket.close( ); // implica la desconexi�n
	    return marcaTiempo;
    } // fin
} // fin de class

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Is Fitbit about to buy Pebble for $40m?
By Luke Johnson December 1, 2016 8:41 am GMT
Pebble helped bring smartwatches to the masses, but the original Kickstarter giant could soon be no more. Sob.
According to insider sources, Pebble is prepared to be taken over by wrist-based fitness tracking giant Fitbit just months after it laid off a quarter of its workforce.
With Pebble facing serious financial issues, including supplier debts of around $25 million (£19.94m), it's been suggested the wearable firm has been seeking a buyer for some time.
Although reports have yet to be confirmed, Engadget has claimed the takeover could see Fitbit fork out anywhere between $34 million and $40 million (£27m – £32m) in order to acquire the brand.
Related: Pebble 2 review
Despite being a significant sum, this is considerable less than takeover offers Pebble has turned down in the past.
Back in 2015, the company rejected a $740 million offer from Citizen, instead banking on the success of its upcoming Pebble Time Round watch.
When the circular smartwatch failed to hit heady heights, a $70 million offer from Intel was also rejected.
Sadly, this looks set to be the end to Pebble devices. Instead of making use of the firm's brand standing, Fitbit reportedly wants Pebble in order to make use of its technologies and intellectual properties.
Neither company has as yet commented on the claims.
WATCH: Fitbit Blaze Review
A fan of wearables? Would you rather buy a Fitbit or a Pebble? Let us know in the comments.
By Luke Johnson
Luke Johnson contributed technology related news to Trusted Reviews between 2012 and 2017. …


RueLaLa is offering a FREE $10 credit for new members!
There are lots of great things but if you don't see something you like today then you can always check back! They even have a section of gifts that are all under $25!
The credit expires December 31, 2011.


text:
Retrojrpg
Loving fanblog about the best and the worst of the genre
‹ Dream Maze: The Kigurumi Adventure • Sorcerer's Kingdom / Sorcer Kingdom ›
Academically Interesting
July 8, 2010 in Definitions, Genesis / Megadrive, meta, NES, PS1, PS2 by Rav | No comments
One danger in a review is becoming academic about a topic. For simplicity, I'll make an example of a book. George Elliot's Daniel Deronda is largely considered to be a flawed book by the author, scholars, and readers. The main flaws are the length, a difficult topic handled poorly, and a subplot that barely intersects with the main plot. However, the ways that the book are flawed and the difficult topic are exactly the sorts of things that academics find interesting. While I would say the book is interesting, I definitely would not say that it should be someone's first Elliot novel, and I would not read the book again for pleasure.
Gate hacking uses items taken from enemies to unlock forbidden areas in .hack//.
A lot of critics would say that most games tend to be more boring than noticeably flawed, but there are still games that fall into the academically interesting category. Most SaGa games fit this. They tend to have unusual mechanics and unique gameplay and it's usually accompanied by very good music. The actual act of playing a SaGa game is trying to figure out how the gameplay systems work and then exploting them so you can finish the game. This usually results in obsessive gameplay that breaks immersion. (Of course, some SaGa games are easy enough that you can just play the game and let what happens happen. However, this tends to give a suboptimal story and very difficult areas. Since SaGa endings tend to be simplistic, this means that the game can feel unrewarding.)
This SaGa Frontier boss is impressive, but that does not mean that the game isn't flawed.
Why should you care about the distinction between "flawed and interesting" and "academically interesting"? Again, this comes down to personal taste. If something is flawed in interesting ways, or has interesting good points among the flaws, then a player might think the game is worth playing despite the poor aspects. Usually an academically interesting game isn't flawed in an amusingly terrible way. Instead, you tend to find earnest attempts at a game, mixed in with flawed elements.
Traysia (Nihon Telenet / 1992) is a good example of a game that is academically interesting.
"What were they thinking?" is a common question when looking at an academically interesting game. Traysia's odd bug involving infinite defense and the poorly translated plot is a good example of this. The plot seems to have some kind of circles of hell element, and something that seems like a nuclear metaphor. Unfortunately, the translation is rather poor, so it's hard to say if the interesting elements are merely reading between the lines or actually intended in the plot. The battle system is an interesting strategic system, however it basically amounts to nothing since you can get basically infinite defense.
Dragon Quest II (Enix / 1987) was the first Dragon Quest game with multiple characters. The game does not handle it well, but it is significant historically.
Another characteristic of academically interesting games is an eye toward history. This may be a strategic battle system when they're uncommon, or a new feature poorly implemented. Obviously, this means that other players may not care that the game was unusual at the time. Innovation rarely emerges in a perfect state.
This cutscene in .Hack//Quarentine shows Emma Wielant preserved in the MMO, in a scene where she recites part of her epic poem.
.Hack// is another example of an academically interesting game series. While the series was basically designed to make the maximum money for the company possible, the games do have some interesting elements. For example, the games are set in a MMO in the far future. This means the games are flawed, since they include much of the grinding that is hated in MMOs. Characters in the game have an online life as well as an offline life. So, for example, a busy housewife playing a mage has to leave from a scene quickly due to burning dinner. The MMO is based around an epic poem, so you get surreal scenes about the poetry. Changing servers uses a randomized keyword system. You log into the server (labeled with Greek letters,) and then make a combination of keywords to play areas. This makes flavorful names like "Delta Merciless Grieving Furnace" but the actual areas are similar dungeons. Another "interesting meta element but poor implementation" is gate hacking. Accompanied by graphical glitching, your hero literally breaks the game graphics as he starts the gate hacking procedure, and flashes into a new area when it is complete, appearing hanging breathlessly in the air before the game continues. Mechanically speaking, you kill enemies with a specific attack until they drop enough cores to unlock the gate, and then you plug the gates into the spaces as needed.
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At Holy Family School we use The Oxford Reading Tree as our main scheme. Mixed in with this we have books from many other schemes intended to broaden the children's reading experience at every level. Children move through the reading scheme at various rates, reading more, or fewer books from each level according to their own personal reading development. Your child's teacher will always be happy to provide more information about how we teach reading at Holy Family.
In year four, we have guided reading every week practising reading and comprehension skills. The children are encouraged to read five times a week at home and are given a certificate if they can achieve this. If they achieve this four times in the month they are the reader of the month.


text:
[Editorial]The Supreme Court's decision on Takae lawsuit is unjustifiable
June 19, 2014 Ryukyu Shimpo
The Okinawa Defense Bureau filed a lawsuit against local residents who protested against the construction of U.S. military helipads in Takae, Higashi. The helipads are a condition of a partial return of the U.S. military's Northern Training Area. The bureau accused the protestors of obstructing traffic.
The Second Petty Bench of the Supreme Court turned down an appeal from one of the residents. The court ordered the resident to stop activities aimed at blocking the construction of the helipads. The resident lost the lawsuit.
The ruling is unjustifiable from the viewpoint of democracy in Japan.
The case attracted nationwide attention as a "SLAPP" suit, a strategic lawsuit against public participation.
The resident opposing construction asserted that he invoked his constitutional rights to express his ideas freely. He regarded the lawsuit by the defense bureau as vexatious and unjust. However, the court turned down his appeal without explaining reasons, asserting that the lawsuit did not go against the Constitution. The court also turned down a petition for acceptance of a final appeal, without explaining specific reasons.
The decision made by the court lacked substance and was not adequately considered. It amounts to an abandonment of its mission to guard the Constitution and uphold human rights.
In the appeal court decision, the judge stated the obstruction of traffic was beyond the limits of acceptability for the government. However, it did not give a specific explanation for the limits of acceptability. The Supreme Court followed that decision.
Conversely, "the limits of acceptability" is an expression appropriated by residents to refer to issues such as noise pollution in lawsuits against the government. According to the principles of constitutionalism and popular sovereignty, the court has mistaken the essential for the insignificant by turning down the appeal from the resident on the grounds that the resident's activities were over the limits of acceptability for the government.
If the judiciary supports the government 's stance, it has a big influence on society.
We cannot rule out the possibility the government could sue protesters against building a new base in Henoko, Nago to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma based on the Takae lawsuit.
We fear the court decision in the Takae case will lead to suppressing citizens' right to express themselves and protest against the government. We are also concerned the Japanese judiciary system will prioritize what the government and big companies want to do over human rights and democracy.
The Act on Protection of Specified Secrets will come into force within this year.
If the judiciary supports the government's movement to suppress free speech and protest,and strip democracy of all its contents, we have to say the Japanese society will be "doomed."
However, we must not stop protecting human rights and democracy.
The residents who lost the lawsuit, pledged to keep doing what they have been doing.
We, as an organ of public opinion, will make sure we continue to work to protect human rights and democracy.
Previous Article:EVA Airways launches flights between Taipei and Naha
Next Article:Toyota Tsusho Corporation plans to start juvenile bluefin tuna farming in Nago
Takae resident loses High Court battle
Supreme Court turns down Takae lawsuit appeal
Dugong lawsuit appealed to U.S. High Court
OPG loses lawsuit against Land Minister's decision to cancel OPG's revocation of land reclamation permission
Court orders Okinawa to cancel documents disclosure decision in Japanese government lawsuit
Itoman tug-of-war held to pray for abundance and fertility


Obtaining socks and slippers for individuals who may suffer with swollen feet can be problematic, especially as feet conditions may vary greatly between each person.
Knitwitz have produced a knitting pattern for swollen feet, (based on the Sloppy Joe slipper sock) that shows you how to make slipper socks to fit individuals who need the benefit, warmth and comfort of a slipper sock, but one that also allows circulation in the feet and ankle regions to be maintained.
Swollen feet can be referred to medically as an Oedema, which can occur when fluid is retained in the spaces between body cells. A typical leg Oedema can effect feet, ankles and lower legs.
The Oedema slipper knitting pattern form Knitwitz, covers all adult feet size ranges. The slippers are knit on one pair straight knitting needles size 5.5 mm UK (size 9 US) . Yarn required will vary depending on the size of foot you are tailoring the slipper to, but we allow typically up to 400 grams of double knit yarn to make a knitted slipper for a large mans size.
If you require specific advice for any individual regarding measurements etc. Please feel free to Contact. The Oedema slipper knitting pattern is available as a laminated knitting pattern shipped worldwide or as an instant download. Knitwiz can also make this design to order for those who are unable to knit, but who need slippers. Please contact for further details.
Ron from the USA. The Sloppy Joe's are WONDERFUL and warm for sleeping, and around the house. Thank YOU again... Ron. "


text:
A tale of two cities: What happened when factory jobs moved from Warren, Ohio, to Juarez, Mexico
February 17, 2017 | Kate Linthicum & Katie Falkenberg | Los Angeles Times
Chris Wade reached into the darkness to silence his blaring alarm clock. It was 4:30 on a frigid winter morning in Warren, Ohio, and outside a fresh layer of snow blanketed the yard.
Thank God, Wade thought to himself. He would be able to get out his plow and make some quick cash.
Money never used to be a problem for Wade, 47, who owned a house with a pool back when he worked at Delphi Automotive, a parts manufacturer that for years was one of the biggest employers in this wooded stretch of northeastern Ohio. But 10 years after taking a buyout as part of Delphi's ongoing shift of production out of the United States and into Mexico and China, the house and the pool were gone.
Berta Alicia Lopez, 54, is the new face of Delphi. On a recent chilly morning, she woke before sunrise on the outskirts of Juarez, Mexico, and caught an unheated bus that dropped her an hour away at the Delphi plant.
Lopez earns $1 an hour assembling cables and electronics that will eventually be installed into vehicles – the same work that Wade once did for $30 an hour. A farmer's daughter who grew up in an impoverished stretch of rural Mexico, Lopez is proud to own a used Toyota sedan and a concrete block house.
She frequently thanks God for the work, even if it is in a town troubled by drug violence, even if she doesn't see many possibilities for earning more or advancing.
The two workers live 1,800 miles and a border apart and have never met. But their stories embody the massive economic shift that has accompanied the rise of free trade.
In the United States, that shift has contributed to the loss of jobs that once helped workers buy homes, pay for health insurance and send children to college. In Mexico, it brought jobs – though they didn't create the kind of broad, middle-class prosperity they once had in America.
President Trump has pledged to bring factory work back. But it may be too late to turn back the clock on the powerful forces shaping the lives of Wade and Lopez and two cities, one American and one Mexican, that remain inextricably linked by the geography of global economics.
An empty Delphi plant known as Plant 8 in Warren, Ohio.To hear Trump tell it, free trade deals and globalization have produced clear winners and clear losers.
Delphi had been reducing its U.S. workforce for years before it moved most of its operations overseas in 2006.
"Every time I see a Delphi and I see companies leaving, that wall gets a little bit higher, and keeps going up," Trump promised at a campaign rally in Ohio a few days before the election. "We are going to fight Delphi and other companies and say, 'Don't leave us, because there are going to be consequences.'"
He has pledged to tax imports from Mexico and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which eliminated most tariffs on the continent and, in Trump's view, enriched Mexico at the expense of middle America.
But the real legacy of NAFTA, which took effect in 1994, is more complicated.
Nobody disputes that the loss of manufacturing has left a bruising mark in parts of the U.S., especially in places like the Rust Belt, where lower paying service industry jobs are increasingly replacing middle class factory positions. But many economists say changes in technology, along with competition with China, are more to blame than NAFTA.
The period of steepest decline in manufacturing jobs, which fell from 17 million to 11 million between 2000 and 2010, is substantially attributable to the free import of goods manufactured more cheaply in China and increasing reliance on machines to do the jobs humans once did, according to Gordon Hanson, an economist and trade expert at UC San Diego.
South of the border, free trade has indeed helped modernize Mexico by creating millions of jobs since the passage of NAFTA, boosting investment flow and helping to diversify the country's manufacturing sector. Mexican workers now help build everything from Whirlpool washing machines to Bombardier jets.
But wages have remained low, so that Mexico remains attractive to manufacturers who might otherwise be tempted to locate in China or elsewhere in Asia. Since NAFTA went into effect, there has been no change in the number of Mexicans living below the poverty line – more than half.
Now, as Trump pushes companies to cancel plans for new factories in Mexico and vows to renegotiate trade deals, it appears more dramatic change is on the horizon.
His administration has proposed a 20% tax on imports from Mexico and other countries with which the U.S. has a trade deficit. Economists say the plan poses a serious threat to Mexico, which sends roughly 80% of its exports to the U.S., and whose peso has plummeted amid fears of what the Trump administration may do.
"It's a new era," Mexico's president, Enrique Peña Nieto, said in a recent speech, warning that if trade deals are opened up, everything – including Mexico's cooperation with the U.S. on matters of immigration and security – will be up for negotiation.
Lopez is only vaguely aware of Trump – she's too busy for politics.
Wade said he just wants things to go back to the way they were.
But even he sometimes wonders: "Is it too late?"
After shoveling a client's driveway, Chris Wade shovels the walkway. Wade worked at Delphi Automotive Systems for 13 1/2 years before taking a buyout in 2006 as part of the company's ongoing shift of production out of the U.S. Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles TimesThe snow kept falling, so Wade called up some buddies he works with and fired up his plow.
He sipped coffee from a thermos as he wove along a country lane through a landscape that looked like a Thomas Kinkade painting, with cornfields and churches and quaint clapboard houses all cloaked in white.
His first job was to clear the driveway of an industrial park that once belonged to Delphi.
"That's when times was good," Wade said in his raspy drawl. "That's when I liked this place."
Delphi began as Packard Electric, which started out in Warren in 1890 making light bulbs, but later branched out to auto parts. It became a division of General Motors in 1932, eventually expanding to include factories across the U.S.
The company's factories in Warren paid middle class wages and helped build a prosperous city, with bustling streets lined with handsome brick buildings.
Both of Wade's parents worked for Packard, earning enough to take the family on summer vacations and build a swimming pool in the backyard. Growing up, Wade heard stories at the dinner table each night about what had happened that day on the factory floor.
By then, Packard had started reducing its U.S. workforce by moving some of its operations to Mexico to take advantage of lower labor costs in cities such as Juarez, which was inviting foreign companies to build factories there while paying minimal taxes. The threat that more jobs could be shifted overseas forced union representatives in Ohio to make concessions in salaries and benefits.
Still, Wade's brother and sister-in-law went to work at the Warren factory after high school and Wade figured he'd land there too.
By the time he did – in 1993, after a stint in the Navy that ended with a knee injury – the union workforce in Warren had dropped to less than 9,000, compared with 13,000 a decade earlier.
Still, Wade was happy with his life. He worked nights on the assembly line and cashed his paychecks every Thursday at the bar across the street. On days off, he went duck shooting with his chocolate Labrador, Hunter.
By the early 2000s, after Packard had been renamed Delphi Automotive Systems and spun off as a company independent of GM, Wade had the house and pool. His wife drove a brand new Trailblazer, and he drove a new Chevrolet pickup.
He had no idea what was coming.
Lopez grew up in Bermejillo, a dusty town in the state of Durango, where her stepfather spent his days in the sun, irrigating cotton and melon fields. Her mom had pulled her out of school when she was in fifth grade.
"Why study if you're just going to work and have babies?" her mother told her.
Sure enough, by the time she was 17 she had a son, the first of her five children.
For centuries, people in Bermejillo made their living in the fields, and Lopez had little reason to think she would be any different.
But NAFTA made things hard on small Mexican farmers, who found themselves competing with imports from giant U.S. agribusinesses, many of which received healthy subsidies from the U.S. government. In places like Bermejillo, a generation of young people were suddenly out of work, and many headed north to the U.S.
Others went to frontier towns such as Juarez.
As NAFTA took effect, Juarez was transformed overnight from a desert oasis best known for its nightclubs and casinos into a sprawling grid of concrete industrial buildings intersected by dirt roads. The population grew faster than officials could build highways, schools and other infrastructure.
Migration to cities like Juarez also marked a cultural shift. Parents worked all day, and without extended family to look after them, children often found themselves alone. Drug cartels, whose power was growing, found easy recruits. As the city erupted into gang warfare, murders spiked, along with suicides and violence against women.
Lopez had been working in a cafe for $5 a week when a truck driver passing through town told her about new factory jobs up north. She arrived in Juarez in 1996 with her husband and five children. Her eldest son, then 16, who had not been able to find work in Durango, immediately found a job at a maquiladora, as they call the U.S. factories that had begun to proliferate along the Mexican side of the border.
So did Lopez, at Delphi, where on her first day she was so nervous she offered to clean the bathrooms instead of working on the floor.
"God helped me," she recalled. "However good or bad, at least we had work."
She took to factory life – gossiping with the other workers on breaks, earning the equivalent of a GED in classes offered after her shifts, making peace with living in a big city far from home. Then in 2001, her second eldest son committed suicide.
She was so despondent after his death that for the first time she stayed home from work. One of her managers at Delphi traveled to her neighborhood and gently persuaded her to return to the factory floor.
Lopez thought about returning to Durango, but she knew there would be no good jobs there. She resigned herself to the fact that the Delphi factory was probably the best place she'd ever work, and that Juarez was now her home.
"If I didn't have the job, I wouldn't eat," she said.
The sun sets over Juarez, Mexico, where many maquiladoras are located. Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles TimesDelphi had its own listing on the New York Stock Exchange, but its fortunes still rode on General Motors, its biggest customer. When the car company slumped in 2004, the transnational auto parts maker went into a tailspin.
The next year – amid an accounting fraud scandal in which the SEC fined several top executives – Delphi filed for bankruptcy.
Its board hired a new chief executive, Robert Miller, who complained that the company's U.S. workers were overpaid, with labor costs triple that of other unionized auto suppliers.
In March 2006, Delphi announced it was closing or selling 21 of its 29 American plants, a move that eliminated more than 20,000 jobs, or about two-thirds of its total workforce. Operations were shipped to factories in China or Mexico, where Delphi now has about 70,000 employees working at factories in 20 cities.
Most of the plants in Warren remained open, but with a much smaller workforce. While Miller got a sendoff package that by one account was worth $35 million, workers were urged to take a buyout and warned that if they stayed, their wages would drop from an average of $29 an hour to $16.50.
On the day he walked away from Delphi with a buyout package worth $140,000, Wade was, as he put it, "fired up." "The CEOs and the guys at the top make millions while everybody else can barely survive," he said. "It's not right."
In Trumbull County, the former manufacturing and steel stronghold where Warren is located, the Delphi cuts felt like kicking a guy who was already down.
Wade's post-Delphi years were not easy. Shortly after leaving the factory, he went through a divorce and narrowly avoided prison after being pulled over while drunk and with unlicensed guns in his car.
He had received his truck driver's license, but the DUI eliminated that career plan. He earned a certification to sell insurance, but that didn't pan out either.
He works in roofing now during the summer and plows snow in the winter. After a decade, he's making about what he was when he worked at Delphi. But he doesn't have the security of a pension, paid vacation or health insurance. If he had kept his job at Delphi, he would be just seven years from retirement.
Wade doesn't want to hear about the Mexican workers who replaced him. He boils when he hears what low wages they get paid, and is equally angry about immigrants who work illegally in the U.S.
He liked that Trump called out Mexico on the issue. It was the kind of talk that helped persuade Wade, a lifelong Democrat and union member, to give Trump his vote. He was joined by many others in Trumbull County, which voted Republican for president for the first time since 1972.
Brian Lutz, shop steward with the union that once represented Wade, said he understands the anti-establishment anger.
"I hear all the time people who say why would I continue to vote for a Democrat when all the people I worked with are gone and the Democrats haven't done what we sent them to do?" he said.
His union recently negotiated a contract that starts workers at $13 an hour. That's about 10 times as much as Lopez takes home from the Delphi plant in Juarez today, two decades into her career there.
Lopez's home is in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Juarez.
Lopez cleans her home on her day off. For the last couple of years, every spare peso has gone to pay the college tuition for her youngest son. Photographs by Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times
At the end of the shift in Juarez one recent afternoon, hundreds of workers streamed out of the Delphi factory toward the long line of white buses that take them home. Lopez climbed onto No. 6621, which headed east along the U.S. border, past dozens of other factoriesand a slew of big box stores.
It dropped Lopez in New Lands, a grid-like housing development that rises from the sand on the outskirts of the city. Overweight and suffering from diabetes, she shuffled past the Toyota in her driveway.
Trump's warnings to companies to keep their business in America are already having an effect on the Mexican economy.Last month, after being criticized by Trump on Twitter, Ford announced it is canceling plans to build a new $1.6-billion factory in Mexico, opting instead to hire workers in Michigan.
Trump claimed credit, though the company said market demand was a bigger factor. The Mexico factory was designed to build small cars, but as gas prices have fallen, demand has shifted toward bigger models made in Michigan.
But some companies that produce goods in Mexico say there's no going back to the U.S. That includes Delphi.
The company just announced a plan for more layoffs in Warren, where only 1,500 employees remain.
Speaking at Barclay's Global Automotive Conference in New York in December, Delphi's chief financial officer Joe Massaro explained what he thought would happen to Delphi under several Trump trade scenarios.
If Trump were to close the border with Mexico outright, "in less than a week, all the people who voted for him in Michigan and Ohio would be out of work," Massaro argued, underscoring the fact that many factories in the U.S., including car makers in Detroit, depend on parts made in Mexico.
If the United States were to withdraw from NAFTA and start taxing imports from Mexico again, Delphi would continue doing business in Mexico, he said. The company would pass on the extra cost to its suppliers or to consumers, or would find a way to reduce its production costs – which could mean layoffs or salary cuts in Mexico.
What it all means for Lopez and her family, she is not sure.
Of her four children, three work in factories.
For the last couple of years, every spare peso has gone to pay the college tuition for her youngest son, Sergio, who is studying computer engineering. He dreams of starting a software company that can compete with U.S. firms.
He has watched his mom's life, and wants to earn more than factory wages.
"It's a lot of work for little money," he said.
Lead art: After shoveling his client's driveway, Chris Wade shovels their walkway. Wade worked at Delphi Automotive Systems for 13.5 years before taking a buyout in 2006 as part of the company's ongoing shift of production out of the U.S. He works in roofing now during the summer and plows snow in the winter. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
This story was reported in part with a grant from the International Women's Media Foundation. kate.linthicum@latimes.com Twitter: @katelinthicum
Kate Linthicum is a correspondent in Mexico City for the Los Angeles Times, covering Latin America. Since joining the newspaper in 2008, she has covered immigration, local and national politics,… Read More.
Katie Falkenberg
Katie Falkenberg is a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times. Raised in Ohio, Falkenberg began her career in Washington, D.C., covering the White House and Capitol Hill as a… Read More.
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Hello! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving however you may have celebrated - be it a loud and boisterous occasion with all the people you love, a more quiet and relaxed gathering with those dearest to you, or anything in between. Patrick and I traveled to my hometown and feasted on a wonderfully prepared Thanksgiving lunch with local family. It was nice to spend the day with family. Unfortunately we didn't have long to spend with them as we only made it a day trip. The rest of our weekend was spent changing the color of our walls - that's right, we've been painting! More on that soon but needless to say it makes cooking after those long spans of painting not nearly as enjoyable as usual. We made it happen but had to splurge a bit on Sunday.


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Florida woman arrested for giving nude photos of ex-husband to his parents and co-workers
By Jessica Schladebeck
Eva Gaitan, 32, was jailed after distributing naked photos of her ex-husband to the man's employer and parents. (Police Handout)
Florida police officers arrested a 32-year-old woman on Monday for allegedly distributing naked pictures of her ex-husband to his employer and parents.
Eva Gaitan was jailed on a stalking charge for supposedly loading up a CD with explicit images of her former spouse after the crumbling of their marriage in February, according to court records.
According to the same documents, Gaitan "mailed a CD of the nude images to her ex-husband's parents," and she also "hand delivered packages of CDs containing the victim's nude photographs to the victim's employer."
She labeled the discs: "Requires Immediate Attention."
Gaitan, who has not yet pleaded guilty, confessed to stealing her ex's flashdrive, burning the images onto the disc, and then giving out the CDs. According to The Smoking Gun, Gaitan is being held in lieu of $1,000 bond and has been ordered not to have contact with her former spouse.


If SQL Monitor is configured to authenticate users with Active Directory, and you're locked out of your Active Directory service account, you need to switch the authentication mode back to the default, restart the Web Service (or website, if you're using IIS), and then switch back to Active Directory authentication.
You won't be able to log in to SQL Monitor (even as an administrator) to switch the authentication mode back to the default. Instead, you need to run a SQL script to do this.
Run the script against the SQL Monitor database.
Restart the Web Service (or website, if you're using IIS).
To restart the Web Service: from the Start menu, open Services, right-click SQL Monitor Web Service, and select Restart.
To restart the website (if you're using IIS): open IIS Manager and, under Connections, right-click the website SQL Monitor uses. Click Manage Website, and select Restart.
Switch back to Active Directory authentication.


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Incidence of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2000–2015: The Interplay Between Social Determinants and Behavioral Risk Factors
Deepa Jahagirdar ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1267-86071,
Magdalene Walters1,
Avina Vongpradith1,
Xiaochen Dai1,
Amanda Novotney1,
Hmwe H. Kyu1 &
Haidong Wang1
AIDS and Behavior volume 25, pages 145–154 (2021)Cite this article
HIV incidence in sub-Saharan Africa declined substantially between 2000 and 2015. In this analysis, we consider the relative associations of nine structural and individual determinants with this decline. A linear mixed effects model of logged HIV incidence rates versus determinants was used. The data were from mathematical modelling as part of the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study in 43 sub-Saharan African countries. We used forwards selection to determine a single final model of HIV incidence rate. The association of economic variables and HIV knowledge with incidence was found to be driven by education, while ART coverage had the largest impact on other determinants' coefficients. In the final model, education years per capita contributed the most to explaining variation in HIV incidence rates; a 1-year increase in mean education years was associated with a 0.39 (− 0.56; − 0.2, t = − 4.48 p < 0.01) % decline in incidence rate while a unit increase in ART coverage was associated with a 0.81 (− 1.34; − 0.28, t = − 3.01, p < 0.01) % decline in incidence rate.
The global HIV epidemic underwent a series of transformations since the turn of the century. The introduction and wide disbursement of antiretroviral therapy (ART) drove a decrease in deaths and incident cases of HIV in many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. In 2000 ART coverage averaged 0% across SSA; by 2015, coverage averaged 43% across all SSA locations. The rise in ART was accompanied by a large decrease in the number of deaths in the regions, with a 27.85% reduction between 2000 and 2015 [1] .
Beyond ART, developments related to sexual behaviours, social determinants and awareness also assisted in influencing the HIV epidemic. Increases in condom usage, awareness of, and attitude towards HIV and HIV prevention are associated with declines in HIV incidence [2]. For example, in Kenya, information campaigns were found to be effective to increase the knowledge required to prevent HIV infection. This change was seen to reduce the risk of HIV infection [3]. Other determinants, such as school attendance, years of education completed [4] and lagged distributed income (LDI), a weighted average of Gross Domestic Product per capita [5], also impact HIV incidence. These factors have improved substantially in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2000 and can additionally have direct impacts on transmission and access to treatment [6]. For example, increased education and school attendance has been found to be associated with protective sexual behavior in women and girls, including an older age of sexual debut, lower numbers of sexual partners and use of condoms [4]. Though wealth is inconsistently associated with lesser HIV burden at an individual level [7], improvement in traditional economic indicators are associated with reduced HIV [5] and are also considered indicators of overall health system quality [8]. Conversely, high levels of sexual violence have been found to often drives higher HIV rates in women [9].
While HIV-related behavioral change and social determinants of HIV have often been explored, less work has characterized the interplay between these variables. Most often, studies focus on the impact of one risk factor and/or several variables at once on HIV outcomes. However, this approach precludes understanding the relationships between factors [10, 11] which can also drive their association with HIV incidence. Quantifying variables that are operating through other factors is relevant to planning as well as reducing the risk of biased estimates in causal analysis of risk factors on HIV outcomes [12]. For example, the change in the impact of education on incidence when we adjust for HIV knowledge scores could enable understanding factors' explanatory power, as well as contribute to further studies that rely on understanding mechanisms.
This analysis examines the associations between various sociobehavioural and economic factors on HIV incidence rate, when sequentially controlling for each other. We investigate the nuances of the relationships between these factors and HIV incidence and select the most parsimonious model of HIV incidence. Specifically, we sought to: (i) Describe the relationships between socio-behavioural factors and economic determinants known to influence HIV incidence; (ii) Quantify the association between these factors and HIV incidence rate.
We included 43 countries in our analysis with yearly data on HIV incidence and covariates from 2000 to 2015. These countries comprise the Sub-Saharan Africa super region as defined by the Global Burden of Disease studies, which have experienced a disproportionate HIV burden in the past three decades.
Covariates
We included economic/structural and socio-behavioral factors, as described below.
Economic and structural factors included lagged distribution income (LDI), HIV cure and treatment financing per capita (henceforth HIV spending) and education per capita. LDI is the weighted average of GDP per capita for a 10-year period preceding the year of interest. Decreasing weights are given to GDP per capita values from years further away from the year of interest. The estimates of spending on HIV care and treatment used herein (unpublished) are similar to those published previously [13, 14].Footnote 1 Education was represented in this study by average years of education received in adult age groups. We also included the prevalence of non-partner sexual violence. Both were estimated as part of the Global Burden of Disease Study [15].
HIV-specific knowledge and attitude scores and modern contraceptive use were additional covariates. Briefly, HIV-specific knowledge was based on individual-level data for 12 HIV knowledge and attitude indicators (yes/no questions) including, for example, knowing where to obtain an HIV test, that condom use prevents HIV, and that having one partner reduces HIV risk. The number of 'yes' answers to these questions formed the bases of the knowledge and attitude scores. This information was extracted from 267 surveys and collapsed to country-level estimates (Online Appendix Table 1). A spatiotemporal Gaussian progress regression was then used to provide a complete time series since year 2000 for knowledge and attitude scores at the country-level for all countries in sub-Saharan Africa [16]. This model allowed us to borrow strength from 'data-rich' time and space points to fill in the sparser locations and years.
Modern contraceptive prevalence was the proportion of all women of reproductive age (15–49 years) who are currently using, or whose sexual partner is currently using, at least one form of modern contraception. Methods included male or female sterilization, male or female condoms, diaphragms, cervical caps, sponges, spermicidal agents, oral hormonal pills, patches, rings, implants, injections, intrauterine devices (IUDs), or emergency contraceptives [17]. Detailed description of the estimations of these covariates can be found elsewhere [18, 19].
Finally, ART coverage rate was measured as the total number of people on ART divided by total prevalence in each country-year. ART and prevalence were an additional output of the model for incidence rates described under Outcome.
The HIV incidence rate per person among all ages and both sexes was estimated for the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study using the Estimation and Projection Package-Age Sex Model (EPP-ASM) [20]. This model was originally developed by the UNAIDS Reference Group on Estimates, Modelling, and Projection, and extensively built upon as part of the GBD [1], specifically to model HIV outcomes. EPP-ASM determines incidence at every time point as a function of the transmission rate among the un-treated population. It uses available data on HIV, prevalence, ART coverage and population demographics.
Transmission rate was modelled using the 'r-hybrid' model, in which transmission follows a logistic function until 2003, a linear interpolation until 2008, and a random walk process thereafter. These different forms reflect the initial spike and peak of the HIV epidemic, followed by a period of stabilization. Demographic and treatment inputs including population, migration, fertility rates, and treatment progression rates inform the integrated natural history model, allowing for a complete population projection of HIV incidence, prevalence, deaths and ART coverage in every year, age and sex.
The demographics inputs were from GBD 2019 Demographics estimates, while treatment inputs were from UNAIDS public release country files. Prevalence data were from country-reported antenatal care (ANC) clinics and nationally-representative household surveys. These consist of both Demographic and Health Surveys with HIV testing and Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (PHIA) surveys (data sources by country are available in Online Appendix Table II). The number of people on ART and prevention of maternal to child transmission are also reported to UNAIDS by countries in publicly available data. These are used as in inputs in this model. The methods have been previously described in full detail [21].
Analytic Method
To describe trends in incidence, we derived the percent change in the HIV incidence rate between 2000 and 2015 for each country in our sample. The evolution of variation across countries was explored using the standard deviation of incidence rates.
We then developed a model of incidence rate as a function of the independent variables described under Covariates. First, crude correlations between predictor variables in 2000 were assessed. We employed a rule of thumb of 0.8, meaning when a pair of variables showed Spearman rank correlations of 0.8 or higher, we excluded one of these from further analysis. We then modelled the association between the covariates and the outcome using a linear mixed effects model that accounted for within country correlation in incidence across years for all analyses as in Eq. (1).
$$Y_{it} = \beta K_{it} + \left( {\lambda + u_{oit} } \right)X_{it} + \varepsilon_{it} + u_{1i}$$
where Y is the log incidence rate per person in country i at time t, K is a vector of country and time specific covariates with estimated coefficients \(\beta\), u1i is the country-specific random intercept term, and εit is the random error. A priori, we found that trends in LDI, Xit, varied across countries, so we allowed a country-specific deviation, uoit, from the coefficient λ on this variable in all models, i.e. a random slope.
In a modified forwards selection procedure [22], we sequentially added each covariate, starting with an intercept-only model. Traditionally, in an automated procedure, previously added covariates are dropped when adding another one means it no longer helps to improve the model, i.e. all covariates in the model do not meet some criteria. However, prior to dropping covariates, we determined the impact on all the coefficients when each covariate was added. This allowed describing which variables were acting as confounders. We then dropped covariates step-wise that were observed to lose statistical significance after adding another covariate. Rather than relying entirely on significance which is problematic due to underestimation of standard errors in selection procedures [23], we employed other model comparison metrics including the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) and model deviance to confirm they remained stable after covariates were dropped.
We determined the relative magnitude of the covariates' contributions to explaining variation in the outcome using each variable's sums of squares from an ANOVA decomposition of fixed effects [24]. The sum of squares for each fixed effect in the model, and an F statistic (the sum of squares divided by the residual variance times the degrees of freedom) was used to help to informally judge significance.
Uncertainty from the EPP-ASM HIV model described under Outcome was propagated into the mixed effects model. We ran the mixed effects models 1000 times each, each time drawing one of 1000 resampled outputs of the HIV statistical model. The final standard error was derived as:
$$SE_{final} = E(\varepsilon_{it} + u_{i} ) + SE\left( {\emptyset_{x} } \right)$$
where \(\emptyset_{x}\) is coefficients estimated on each × draw (1–1000). The result was an inflated final variance that accounted for both uncertainty in the outcome from the HIV model and uncertainty from the mixed effects model.
All analyses were performed in R [25] using the lme4 package [26].
Country Characteristics
Overall, the mean HIV incidence rate declined from 6.15 per 1000 (SD = 0.54) in 2000 to a mean of 2.35 per 1000 (SD = 0.17) in 2015. All countries except three (Angola, Madagascar, Equatorial Guinea) experienced a decline over this time period, though the percent changes ranged from − 86 to 51 percent (Fig. 1) The decline in standard deviation demonstrates the gains were not skewed. Characteristics and percent changes by country are available in Online Appendix Table III. Incidence time series are visualized in Online Appendix Figure I.
Percent change in mean incidence rate in 2000 versus 2015
The theme of overall improvement during 2000–2015 was also evident in the trends of most of the covariates. All covariates improved except non partner sexual violence which increased slightly between 2000 and 2015. ART rates were effectively zero on average in 2000 but rose to 38% by 2015, while LDI increased by 62.9%, spending on HIV by 194% and contraception prevalence by 85%, from 12% in 2000 to 23% in 2015 (Table 1).
Table 1 Mean percent change between 2000 and 2015 for 43 countries in sub-Saharan Africa
Correlation Between Covariates
The covariates had moderate to strong correlations with each other and independently with HIV incidence rate (Fig. 2). HIV-related knowledge and attitude scores were the most strongly correlated with each other (R = 0.82), thus we removed the attitude scores for the remaining analysis. All the other correlations were below 0.8, the highest being between HIV-related treatment spending and attitude scores with R = 0.77. There was virtually no correlation between ART coverage rates and non-partner sexual violence (R = 0.01), which was the lowest crude correlation observed. The crude correlations countered background knowledge; higher HIV incidence was associated with higher values of all covariates except for ART rates (Fig. 2).
Spearman correlations between all covariates included in the analysis in the year 2000
Results When Sequentially Adding Covariates
All results are displayed in Table 2. Sums of squares tables for each model are available in the Online Appendix Table IV, and model fit statistics for all models are available in Online Appendix Table V.
Table 2 Full sequential modelling results of the association between covariates and logged HIV incidence ratea
In the LDI-only model, a 10% increase was associated with a − 17 (− 29.7; − 4.3, t = − 2.63, p < 0.01) percent decline in incidence rate, and the sum of squares of LDI was 0.17. Comparatively, when we added HIV spending, the coefficient on LDI was closer to the null, though the magnitude of the association between incidence rate and spending was lower at − 1.6 (− 2.2; − 0.9, t = − 4.87, p < 0.01) for a 10% decrease. HIV spend made a larger contribution to explaining variation in incidence rate than LDI (sum of squares = 5.5).
When we introduced knowledge scores and years of education per capita to the model, the association with the economic variables were no longer statistically significant. The latter were thus standing as partial proxies for education. Initially, a 10 unit increase in knowledge scores was associated with a 24.2 (− 33.1; − 15.2, t = − 5.3, p < 0.01) percent decline in incidence rate, but once we introduced education years, this association was no longer statistically significant. A one year increase in education years per capita was associated with a − 0.51 (− 0.67; − 0.36, t = − 6.36, p < 0.01) percent decline in incidence rates. The sum of squares for knowledge scores and education years were similar (5.31 and 5.02, respectively).
Introducing modern contraceptive prevalence [B = − 0.88 (− 2.6;0.8), t = − 1.03, p = 0.24] did not impact the coefficients on the other variables, suggesting that, for example, it does not drive the association between the economic variables and incidence rates. The sum of squares was lower than all other covariates included to that point (0.14), and it was also statistically insignificant. The magnitude of the association between modern contraceptive prevalence and incidence rate remained consistent when we added non partner sexual violence to the model. The latter was associated with a statistically insignificant percent increase in incidence rate of 4.1 (− 1.64; 9.84, t = 1.4, p = 0.15) per unit increase. Non partner sexual violence made a larger contribution than contraception to explaining incidence rate variation (sum of squares = 0.18).
Finally, adding ART rates to the model impacted the coefficients for several covariates. The associations between LDI, education years per capita, and non-partner sexual violence and incidence rates all moved closer to the null or even flipped, potentially suggesting that ART coverage operates partially as a mediator between these variables and the outcome, as well as a confounder. A 1% increase in ART coverage rate was associated with a 1.02 (− 1.64; − 0.4, t = − 3.24, p < 0.01) percent decline in incidence rate.
Results After Covariate Selection
We first removed LDI and HIV curative care spending from the sequential model when knowledge score was added, which did not significantly affect any other coefficient. The AIC, BIC and deviance stayed nearly the same, corroborating these variables' lack of importance once we account for knowledge scores (Online Appendix Table V).
We then removed knowledge score, which had lost statistical significance when education per years capita was added. The statistical significance (p-value) and magnitude of the association between years of education and incidence rate increased in this model [B = − 0.55 (− 0.67; − 0.42 t = − 8.38 p < 0.01)] (Table 3). We also obtained nearly identical model fit statistics (Online Appendix Table V). Finally, we removed modern contraceptive prevalence and non-partner sexual violence which also resulted in similar fit statistics, confirming their lack of importance in our data (result not shown).
Table 3 Modelling results of the association between covariates and logged HIV incidence rate, after removing HIV spending, LDI and knowledge scoresa
Final Model
The final model included education years per capita and the ART rate (Table 4), in addition to the random intercepts for country and random slopes for LDI. Each of these variables contributed to improved model fit statistics. Education years per capita contributed the most to explaining variation in incidence rates (17.43), a notable increase from its contribution in the full sequential model described above. A 1-year increase in mean education years was associated with a 0.39 (− 0.57; − 0.22, t = − 4.48 p < 0.01) % decline in the HIV incidence rate. Education was followed by ART coverage (Sum of squares = 1.1), which was associated with a 0.81 (− 1.34; − 0.28, t = − 3.01, p < 0.01) % decline in incidence rate (Table 4).
Table 4 Final model of the association between covariates and logged HIV incidence ratea
After accounting for ART coverage rates and education years per capita, non-partner sexual violence, contraceptive prevalence, HIV spending, LDI and HIV knowledge scores did not contribute to explaining variation in HIV incidence rates between 2000 and 2015. Both education-related variables mediated and/or confounded the effect of HIV spending and lagged distribute income on incidence rate. Our findings underscore the importance of general education and treatment availability to address HIV incidence.
We found that improvements to education-related variables including formal education and HIV-related knowledge mattered more to explaining declines in HIV incidence rates than economic variables. Economic variables such as wealth have had mixed associations with HIV burden in Sub-Saharan Africa. With most conditions, health outcomes improve with wealth; poverty has similarly been assumed as a driver of HIV [27]. However, infections have skewed towards people in better socioeconomic circumstances [28], potentially because of risk factors such as the number of sexual partners [7] that also increase with wealth. Relative inequality is associated with HIV prevalence [29], which may also reflect differential access to education. Not many countries have analyzed their successes, but some countries with relatively low GDP have seen significant gains in tackling HIV. For example, Zimbabwe is not ranked highly in terms of African GDPs, yet its decline was attributed to successful campaigns for behavior change which spread through word of mouth [30].
HIV spending on care and treatment may also operate least partly through HIV knowledge and education. At the turn of the century, countries were motivated by the Millennium Development Goals which included achieving universal access to treatment and health services, and reversing the course of HIV by 2015 [31]. The developing world had large gains in ART coverage rates and strengthening of health infrastructure and systems for prevention and treatment [32]. Our findings suggest the importance of spending to reduce HIV incidence, however the association reduced once we adjusted for HIV knowledge and education. Thus, spending may operate through improvements to other socioeconomic determinants. These mechanisms can be material, for example, improving treatment access, but also qualitative as it can serve as a catalyst for more effective responses generally [33]. Despite this, compared to all health focus areas, the growth rate for global health spending on HIV reduced the most after the 2009 global financial crisis [34].
Modern contraceptive prevalence and sexual violence did not retain statistical significance in our model but are also highly linked to education. In the crude correlations, HIV knowledge scores and education both had high correlations with modern contraceptive prevalence. Contraception could reduce HIV incidence through reduced unintended HIV positive pregnancies which are also correlated with education [35]. In countries targeted by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the number of unintended HIV positive births averted by contraceptive use ranged up to a maximum of 120,000 in South Africa [36]. Contraception use is also more cost-effective to prevent HIV-positive births than nevirapine [37]. Sexual violence reduces the likelihood of contraception use and increases unintended pregnancies. Female sex workers face a higher risk of sexual violence and, in this group only, hormonal oral contraception was actually found to increase susceptibility to HIV, suggesting the strong presence of unobserved risk factors [38]. In our modeling, we also found that the presence of HIV knowledge scores reduced the associations between contraception and sexual violence with HIV incidence rate, further suggesting an interplay. However, there is limited work on HIV knowledge sores in relation to these other variables to date.
Deciding the best use of global health dollars, planning government campaigns and programs, and deciding areas of focus for on-the-ground initiatives requires strong evidence on mechanisms to reduce HIV incidence. Default thinking around infectious disease epidemics may revert to standard economic indicators, such as GDP, and consequent investment in general development. However, this study demonstrates the importance of additional nuance to HIV drivers. GDP improvements without improvements in social determinants such as education may have little effect. At the same time, investment in ART and treatment alone is not enough, and may be less effective than addressing social and structural factors such as access to education.
From a research perspective, our study contributes to understanding possible pathways between social determinants of HIV, individual behavior changes and risk factors and HIV outcomes. Analyzing a multitude of covariates' effect on each other's association with HIV incidence rate is a prerequisite for developing conceptual frameworks or directed acyclic graphs, an important tool for epidemiologic studies [39]. These diagrams assist in understanding exposures, outcomes, confounding, bias and, ultimately, pathways to causation. Including many covariates in a model without hypothesizing their pathways has the potential to introduce bias [10]. Blindly adjusting for different covariates can even cause the outcomes' association with covariates already in the model to invert [11]. Evidence-based background knowledge, such as the information generated from this study, on pathways between covariates is essential for further analyses to decompose covariate effects and infer causation.
Our study has several limitations. First, forward selection has been extensively criticized as a method of reducing data dimensionality. However, our application and purpose renders it less problematic. The method may lead to underestimation of standard errors which can lead to falsely including or excluding variables [23]. However, with our limited sample size, there is a greater risk of over-estimating standard errors. We mitigated against this by also examining the impact on other coefficients and model fit statistics, and ensuring we understood the impact of each variable. An additional critique includes over-estimation of variance explained [22], however we mainly considered the relative explanatory power of our variables. It is however plausible that employing a different selection procedure may yield a different final model, moving away from the assumption that there is in fact 'one true model'.
Second, we had a limited number of candidate covariates. Though this enabled us to decompose the impact of adding each of them, additional covariates could help to further understand confounders of the variables in our model. In particular, we did not account for inequality within countries, which may act as a mediator between any of the variables we included and the outcome. Considering the impact of relative inequality is a possible future direction for studies based on this research.
Third, our model could be criticized as circular because ART coverage is also used in the model that generates incidence rates. However, ART was important to include in both models. The scarcity of incidence data means that ART must be input into the model that estimates incidence. It is not possible to exclude it from this analysis either, as it is a key determinant of incidence rate and changed considerably during the 2000–2015 time period.
Future research should focus on examining different combinations of social determinants and behavioral risk factors and their effects on more epidemiological transmission parameters and demographic variables used in the HIV estimation model. This also allows adding more social determinants such as health care access and quality. Such a modeling strategy should enable us to decompose the impacts of different social determinants on the changes in HIV-related behaviors and incidence, prevalence and mortality at the country level during the last three decades.
We found that ART coverage and education years per capita were important to explaining temporal variation in HIV incidence rates between 2000 and 2015 in Sub-Saharan African countries. Education reduced the effect of economic variables including LDI and HIV spending on incidence rate. Future studies can capitalize on this work to better understand the interaction pathways between the socio-behavioural and economic determinants of HIV incidence.
Code Availability
Code available on request.
See Sect. 5 of the supplementary methods appendix of the 2020 publication for details about methods and data used to generate the retrospective estimates.
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Research reported in this publication was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the NIH (award P30AG047845), and the National Institute of Mental Health of the NIH (award R01MH110163).
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Seattle, WA, USA
Deepa Jahagirdar, Magdalene Walters, Avina Vongpradith, Xiaochen Dai, Amanda Novotney, Hmwe H. Kyu & Haidong Wang
Deepa Jahagirdar
Magdalene Walters
Avina Vongpradith
Xiaochen Dai
Amanda Novotney
Hmwe H. Kyu
Haidong Wang
DJ contributed to designing the analysis and drafted the paper. MW contributed to the analysis and paper drafts. AV assisted in preparing the manuscript for publication, tables and figures. XD conducted the analysis to derive covariates. AN and HK contributed to revising drafts. HW helped design the analysis and reviewing drafts. All authors revised the manuscript.
Correspondence to Deepa Jahagirdar.
Supplementary file1 (DOCX 374 kb)
Jahagirdar, D., Walters, M., Vongpradith, A. et al. Incidence of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2000–2015: The Interplay Between Social Determinants and Behavioral Risk Factors. AIDS Behav 25, 145–154 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03279-9
Issue Date: November 2021
Economic determinants
HIV incidence


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Warning: Some coarse language(s),offensive and obscene content(s) may included in this article. Using or reading this article may violate the law of the location. Read EVCHK:Statement of Contents (Chinese only) for more information and consider whether you should read this article.


In among all the gloomy predictions for the next decade is one that is astonishingly cheering. In the near future neurologists will be able to halt the process of Alzheimer's disease. At present they can treat only the symptoms but soon, having detected the disease in its early stages with biomarkers, they will be able to stop it getting any worse with drugs that are neuro-protector agents.


text:
Andrew Ponzi (January 20, 1903–April 11, 1950) was an American pool player and world champion.

Biography
Andrew Ponzi was born Andrew D'Allesandro in Philadelphia. As a boy, he injured his right hand as a result of a trolley mishap. He went on to improve it by practicing pool.

At 16, D'Allesandro was already a skilled player who won numerous money matches. By that time, the infamous swindler, Charles Ponzi, was in the press. Thus friends gave him the nickname Ponzi.

In 1934, Ponzi won his first world pool title by defeating Erwin Rudolph.

Ponzi won the world title again in 1940 by besting Jimmy Caras.

In 1943, Ponzi won his third world championship, subduing Willie Mosconi. He won the world title for the fourth and final time by defeating Irving Crane that same year.

He suffered a heart attack while participating in a tournament in 1950. He died two weeks later at age 47.

Ponzi was inducted in the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 1988.

Titles & achievements
 1934 NBAA World Straight Pool Championship
 1940 NBAA World Straight Pool Championship
 1943 BAA World Straight Pool Championship
 1943 BAA World Straight Pool Championship
 1988 Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame

References

1903 births
1950 deaths
Sportspeople from Philadelphia
American people of Italian descent
Trick shot artists
World champions in pool
American pool players


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