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Polluting the Prophetic Word: An Analysis of Sam Storms's Book, Practicing the Power
Tom Nettles | January 31, 2018
Editor's Note: This post addresses Sam Storms's recent book Practicing the Power. The post is long so here is a short summary: Storms argues for a fallible New Testament prophecy, distinct from Old Testament prophecy. This proposed version of New Testament prophecy regrettably compromises the truthfulness, authority, and sufficiency of Scripture. Nettles shows that Storms's claim for a fallible New Testament prophecy is without biblical warrant and irreconcilable with the nature and purpose of prophecy, when it is biblically defined. Nettles is writing a book from which this material has been excerpted.
Sam Storms's book, Practicing the Power (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017), expands his article in Wayne Grudem, ed., Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) 175-223. The book will be cited in the post below simply as "Storms" plus the page number.
A vital part of the confessional commitment of Protestantism was the finality of the written word of God in canonical Scripture. Claims of revelation resulting in the infallible authority of councils and pope were rejected. In the "Geneva Confession," article one stated, "First, we affirm that we desire to follow Scripture alone as rule of faith and religion, without mixing it with any other thing which might be devised by the opinion of men apart from the Word of God." The Formula of Concord affirmed Scripture as the final word by which all teachers and doctrines are to be judged. The Second London Confession affirms:
"The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith and obedience." The special revelation that it embodies, being absolutely necessary for a knowledge of salvation in all its parts, has been committed "wholly unto writing . . . those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people being now ceased."
Intermittent challenges to this principle of sola scriptura have been present in the church since as early as the second century with the rise of Montanism. The last century has seen an increase in the intensity and the pervasiveness of arguments for non-scripturated special revelation in the church. The present resurgence of the Third-Wave of charismata involves an aggressive advocacy clearly stating that those who believe in the cessation of these gifts rob their churches of ordained means of edification, comfort, healing, and deliverance.
Instruction in how to employ the charismata in the life of the church increasingly characterizes congregations that formerly relied solely on the inerrant word of God as interpreted within the historic confessional grid of Reformed Christianity. Prophetic ministries assuming the continuing phenomenon of spontaneous revelation to persons supposedly having a prophetic gift constitute part of the worship. Detailed instructions are provided as to how the prophetic gift should be practiced in the local church (Storms 123-147).
Two major assumptions govern the discussion. Obviously, the first is that the instruction given about the gift of prophecy in the New Testament (especially 1 Corinthians 12 and 14) means that the gift is active today. Paul's admonition in 14:1, "earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy" supports this conviction and all the instructions given as to how to discern its appropriate use.
Second, the argument is made that one has to be trained carefully in how to use the gift, for a person with a real gift might utter things under the impression that it is of the Lord and be in error. A principle of honing the gift successfully rests in the conviction that one must "be willing to be wrong" (Storms 101). Accuracy in prophetic pronouncement is not really the most important aspect of the gift, but courage and obedience are. If a person "steps out in faith" and gives a prophecy or word of knowledge that she believes God has given her, and it turns out to be "completely wrong," she nevertheless is to be applauded ("raucously") for her courage. God is not offended by our failure when we speak in his name and speak falsely; he is not more interested in prophetic accuracy than he is in our "always practicing obedience," our perseverance that results in not giving up trying (Storms 29-31).
This representation of prophetic utterance is hardly consistent with the admonition of Peter concerning the exercise of the gift of prophecy in the congregation, "Whoever speaks, as one who is speaking the utterances of God . . . so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 4:11). The person speaking does not begin a prophetic word with, "It seems that God might be saying," or "I have a strong inner impression that I believe is from the Lord" (Storms 129). Nor does it match how Paul encouraged prophetic utterances to be observed. "Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil" (1Thessalonians 5:19-22). Storms cites this passage to encourage people to hold fast to a tested prophetic utterance that is demonstrated to be good and also to evaluate "the biblical validity of its content" (Storms 128, 135).
At the same, however, the passage does not say that a supposed prophecy that is shown to be wrong can at the same time be harmless, benign, and celebrated; it is to be regarded as evil. It is not to be followed and the person uttering it should be regarded as having brought into the place of inspired instruction—whether small group or entire congregation—a positive evil. Their pretension to utter prophecy has proved erroneous, the result is evil, and they should not be seen as having the gift. Seeking to be pastorally sensitive, this requirement seems to be sidestepped and the advice is given to say something like, "Our brother (or sister) obviously acted and spoke in a way they thought was what God desired, and I want to honor them for their sincerity. However, I don't believe that what was said is altogether accurate" (Storms 135). As I will seek to demonstrate later, this way of handling pretensions to prophecy that are in fact erroneous is without precedent in the biblical record.
Storms defends this practice of erroneous prophecy by comparing it to the fallibility of teachers when they expound Scripture. "What the teacher says is occasionally wrong or tainted with error" even though their "ministry is rooted in a divine revelation (the Bible)." Only the Bible has intrinsic authority, not its teachers. As with the Bible, "we know that this revelation is true" [that received spontaneously by a prophet] but the prophet may "perceive the revelation imperfectly and consequently he may deliver it imperfectly" (Storms, Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?, 209). This comparison has utterly no validity. If a teacher misinterprets Scripture, the words, syntax, context still remain before the eyes of all who may read it. The revelation still is there and may be revisited by the teacher and any number of Christians—young, inexperienced, mature, scholarly—until it yields the proper meaning. If a prophet bungles the revelation, it is lost; none can retrieve it. We may well conclude it was a false prophecy for all we heard was the falsehood; no way to verify its truthfulness remains. This kind of comparison is an insult to the wisdom and power of God and seeks to justify error by putting the Bible on the same plane as a botched prophecy.
A Distinct and Fallible NT Prophecy Lacks Biblical Support
Another defense of this possibility of being wrong in a prophetic utterance lies in the closely-reasoned conviction that Agabus in Acts 21:10, 11 had several "minor" errors in his prediction (Storms 104-122). Storms explains the possible confusion between the actual revelation and a prophet's interpretation and application of the revelation. Storms goes on to define "the nature of prophecy" as "generally a mixture of infallible divine revelation and fallible human interpretation and application" (Storms 115).
Storms points to the narrative about Agabus to demonstrate this. "This is what the Holy Spirit says: 'In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." Storms concluded that in the two elements of Agabus's prophecy, "In both cases, Agabus was wrong" (Italics original). Though Paul was indeed bound, the Jews did not bind him, but wanted to kill him (Acts 21:30, 31). Not only did they not bind him, they did not deliver him, but had to surrender him to the Roman authorities when they arrived. "The commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains" (21:33).
Storms looks upon these as positive errors in Agabus's delivery, perhaps involving an erroneous interpretation missed with the actual revelation. "I'm inclined," Storms explains, "to believe that Agabus himself collapsed his own interpretation into the divine revelation, failed to differentiate between the two, and then spoke as if God had revealed both to Him" (Storms 117). On that basis, Storms asserts, "Christians who on occasion (or even often) prophesy falsely should not be labeled false prophets" if they are regenerate persons and do not personally deny a cardinal doctrine of the faith (Storms 120).
I find this explanation startling and the extrapolation from it discouraging and dangerous. Here we have an otherwise responsible interpreter searching out ways to demonstrate that a prophecy from one accepted as a true prophet (Acts 11:27-30) has mingled in it errors arising from his own misled perceptions about what the Holy Spirit actually said. This is a severe case of special pleading to give some biblical foundation to a practice that is otherwise without warrant.
The words of Luke, however, do not indicate any such mixture in the delivery of Agabus, though we do see a natural reaction in the response of Paul's friends encouraging him not to go to Jerusalem. Luke reports in a way that shows us that Agabus spoke without any reservation that what he said was what the Holy Spirit said. If it is otherwise, Luke did not know any better and Agabus lied, or was self-deceived to such a degree that he could never pass muster according to prevailing standards of prophetic utterance.
What, in fact, happened was exactly according to what Agabus said. Though the Jews did not take hold of Paul and bind him in order to deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles, the effect was the same. Their violent reaction to Paul set in motion the entire chain of events by which Paul was bound and delivered into the hands of the Roman commander. When the Jews saw him, "they stopped beating Paul," and this issued immediately in his delivery, or their yielding him, into the hands of the Romans and his being bound. Both the delivery and the binding were the immediate results of the actions of the Jews. Circumstances they caused naturally brought all of these things to effect.
Though Storms uses the evidence of Wayne Grudem that the word "deliver" always denotes an action that is "conscious and intentional and willing" (Storms 116-117), Arndt and Gingrich set forth a meaning of "allow, permit," and also "yield," like a fruit tree yielding fruit that is the necessary and natural consequence of its being a fruit tree and in its season (used so in Habakkuk 3:17). Even so the Jews, in light of the circumstances, yielded Paul to the Romans, allowed them to take him, permitted the subsequent actions in light of the natural consequences of their riot and the intervention of the Roman commander.
In the same way Jesus was delivered into wicked hands. Using a form, with a different prefix, of the same word for "deliver," Peter said, "Jesus of Nazareth, . . . delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death" (Acts 2:23). On the one hand, the "predetermined plan" did not actively deliver Jesus over but determined that such a thing would happen. In fact, the necessary consequence of the providential circumstances into which the divine decree brought Jesus led ineluctably to his being "delivered over" and to his death. The natural consequence of those circumstances yielded those results. On the other hand, the Jews did not "nail him to a cross," but their actions led to this result by "the hands of godless men." This statement of historical fact, a past event, by Peter has the same literary quality of the prophecy by Agabus; neither can be accused of error or of superimposing an unwarranted opinion into the stated proposition.
A Distinct and Fallible NT Prophecy Irreconcilable with Prophecy as Defined in Scripture
A second major problem with this beyond the very tenuous biblical support for the possibly error proneness of the New Testament prophet, is that it calls for a radical change in the entire canonical orientation to the prophetic without any preparation for such a change or any pattern of examples for it. The character of the Old Testament prophet is plain. "But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die" (Deuteronomy 18:20). "An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely" (Jeremiah 5:30, 31); "'Behold, I am against the prophets,' says the Lord, 'who use their tongues and say, "He says". . . . and cause my people to err by their lies and by their recklessness'" (Jeremiah 23:31, 32). Hananiah's false prophecy led to his personal doom as prophesied truly by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 28); God told Ezekiel as he spoke according to the formula, repeated over and over, "The word of the Lord came to me saying," that the exiles found him fascinating but did not embrace the moral and spiritual gravity of what he said. "Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them. And when this comes to pass—surely it will come—then they will know that a prophet has been among them" (Ezekiel 33: 32, 33). No error, personal judgment, misjudgment, guesswork, uncertainty concerning the revelation is a part of the function of the prophets. When the prophet speaks, "Surely it will come."
The same is true with the concept of the prophet in the New Testament. Nothing in the canon prepares us for a change in this expectation. The revelation they received is parallel to that received by the apostles. The apostles received divine revelation of an inerrant character and they did not mix any erroneous opinions or misinterpretations with it. That which could not be known otherwise was received by revelation and opened up the knowledge of the operations of the grace of God to the minds of those who received it and to those who heard , or read, its communication. "We speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory . . . For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God" (1 Corinthians 2: 7, 10). None can doubt the intensity of Paul's claim to revelation in Galatians 1: "For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." Nor did he misapply the revelation in his doctrinal and practical sanctifying instructions to the Galatians. Peter identified the word preached by the apostles as the "word of the Lord which endures forever" (Isaiah 40:8), when he cited the Isaiah passage and stated, "And this is the word that was preached to you" (1 Peter 1:25). John tied the spirit of error to those who did not listen to the apostles and the spirit of truth to those who did (1 John 4:1-4).
The prophets of the New Testament received revelation that was of the same quality and truthfulness as that received by the apostles. They did not have the same historical qualifications as apostles and were under the authority of the apostles. Nevertheless, their messages to and in the churches were accepted as revelatory. Since they must respond to direct apostolic authority, their function and their viability ceased with the end of the apostolic stewardship (1 Corinthians 4:1; 14:37-40; 2 Corinthians 3:6). In Ephesians, Paul stated that God's household was built on "the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone." That he referred to the prophets of the New Testament church is verified just a few verses down when he reminded the Ephesian Christians that both his speaking and writing arose from a single stream of revelation and that the prophets that functioned in their churches received revelation also: "If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generation was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:20; 3:2-5). With the completion of the "insight into the mystery of Christ" that came by revelation, so the work of the prophets would cease.
This position receives reinforcement from the fact that Paul took Silas with him on his second missionary journey. Silas was a prominently gifted man from the Jerusalem church who accompanied Paul and Barnabas to Antioch to deliver the decision of the Jerusalem council. He was a prophet (15:32) and had preached a lengthy message there. Prophets in the New Testament received special revelation from the Holy Spirit in order to teach with authority in the churches. All churches needed to have revealed truth as the full implications of the person, work, and words of Christ were being brought to maturity. The prophets fulfilled that need, since apostles could not be in all the churches on all occasions.
New covenant communities needed a constant inflow of revealed truth; on that account, God gave prophets to receive that revelation until the apostolic message reached its final maturity and so ceased. With the completion of the message, the need for the revelatory gifts was also complete. (See Ephesians 2:20; 3:5; 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:10, 28; 14:1, 3, 6, 22, 24, 25, 29-32). Silas had been confirmed in the Spirit and in the eyes of the church as a prophet and was commissioned by the church at Antioch to go on this second missionary tour with Paul. He functioned as an equal partner in labor, teaching, suffering, and preaching. Read Acts 16:22-34 for the record of Silas's participation with Paul in the full task of apostolic missions and teaching the gospel even in its virgin voyage into Europe.
The ministry of the prophets bore the marks of seriousness, gravity, and truthfulness as did that of the apostles. Their reception of revelation was of the same errorless quality as that of the apostles. To argue for the continuation of this ministry is to say that the message of the mystery of Christ was not completed in the apostolic age and we stand in need of existential manifestations of the revelation beyond the written text of Scripture. If, at the same time, we argue for errors in the prophetic message, we must make room for errors in the apostolic message. If we question the revelation of the one, we question the revelation of the other. We question, therefore, the full veracity of what is written and the completely trustworthy stewardship of the apostles in handing down to subsequent generations that which was delivered to them. Since their revelation is the same, how do we know that the deposit, now written as Scripture, is not compromised in some way by a misinterpretation of revelation?
Peter wrote, "No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20 NASB). The word "prophecy" is used to characterize both the Old Testament prophets and the apostolic message. The denial of "one's own interpretation" means that in prophecy the idea of personal opinion or unwarranted surmising is rejected. Prophecy is either true or false, and prophets are either true or false.
Peter was insistent on the reality of his position as a witness—his calling in light of his having seen the Lord during his earthly ministry, seen him after his resurrection, and seen him taken up in glory. The witness of the apostles was not a fabrication, a matter of creatively constructed stories, or an expression of personal opinion. Their reports came from sober observation—both eyewitness and ear witness (2 Peter 1:16-18). The event and the subsequent revelatory work of the Holy Spirit to the apostles moved forward, both by providence and inspiration, the authoritative inscripturation of divine revelation.
In this event, Peter, wrote, "We have the prophetic word made more sure" (NASB) or "confirmed" (NKJV). One no longer has to wonder as the prophets did, according to 1 Peter 1:10, 11, about the person or the time of the Christ. He was now before them with the glory around him and the voice of the Father from heaven. This is a similar idea to that voiced by John when he wrote, "And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Peter knew that the prophetic word received its clear and certain fulfillment in the person of Christ. His present testimony clearly fulfilled previous prophecy. As Christ was the person to whom all the types, promises, and prophecies of the Old Covenant point, so the apostolic word is the culmination of the divine revelation.
In 1 Peter 1:24, 25, Peter cited Isaiah 40:6-8, the "word of the Lord [that] remains forever," as identical with "the gospel that was preached to you." Even so now, when he writes, "to which you will do well to pay attention," he means "Pay attention to what I am writing to you now, even as you pay attention to the already-written prophets." His testimony is the fulfillment of prophecy in Christ as reported by the apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. To that culminating word they must pay attention.
To confirm this, Peter invoked the well-established doctrine concerning the origin of Scripture. Scripture does not arise from human investigation and interpretation of events (verse 20), or one's misapplication of a revelatory word. Earlier Peter had reminded his readers of this very truth regarding his writing ("we did not follow cleverly devised myths"). In the past, the prophets spoke the word of the Lord when it came to them and then recorded their speaking as the Holy Spirit carried them along. In that process, their speaking the audible word became graphe, the written word, that is, Scripture. Even so, the preaching of Peter and the other apostles became Scripture.
Peter continued the parallel between the inspired truthfulness of the prophets and the same of the apostles in 2:1: "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you." Paul's argument in 2 Timothy 3:10-17 sets forth the same parallel. He reminded Timothy of "my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith" etc. as something that marked him off from the false teachers (13) and demonstrated that he had "kept the faith" (4:7). Timothy, therefore, was to continue in what he had learned because he had learned it from Paul himself (14) as well as from the "sacred writings." Inspired Scripture includes the witness of Paul, as Peter himself testified (2 Peter 3:15, 16). Peter's confidence that his written witness held the status of Scripture (2 Peter 3:1, 2; 3:15) warranted his admonition that they do well to take heed. Scripture, including this apostolic message about Christ, is a "lamp shining in a dark place." We are to give heed to Scripture until the "day dawns," until Christ himself returns (Philippians 1:6; 2 Timothy 1:12). "The day" is the day of Christ. That will be the time when "the morning star rises in your hearts" – our complete conformity to Christ (1 John 3:2). Scripture—the complete canon of the Old and New Testaments—will show us Christ and conform us to Christ until that day when the brightness of his glory completes that process of "being transformed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
That Peter puts this discussion in the context of "prophecy"—"the prophetic word" (19), "prophecy" (20), "prophecy" (21), "false prophets" who "exploit you with false words" (2:1, 3)—makes it difficult if not impossible that a change in the concept of prophecy had taken place. He believed that prophecy occurred, both in its spoken and written forms, as "men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." The revealed/inspired word of the apostles and the revealed/inspired word of the prophets had no qualitative distinction. The "prophecy of Scripture" will be our sole authority in faith, virtue, worship, and world view until the "day dawns." It alone will prepare us thoroughly for that time when the "morning star [Jesus himself] rises in our hearts."
The Necessity of Fallible NT Prophecy Inconsistent with Sufficiency of Scripture
It is surprising how transparently Storms challenges the sufficiency of Scripture. He rightly points out that the purpose of each gift is to build up the body of Christ. We have not progressed beyond the need for edification and, therefore, according to Storms, have not progressed "beyond the need for the contribution of the charismata." If spiritual gifts were essential for the birth of the church, "why should they be any less important or needful for its continued growth and maturation?" (Storms, Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?, 205).
Does he not really see the answer? The complete revelation of the apostolic era has produced a written revelation of all the truth we need for life and godliness. Scripture is sufficient. Storms, however, contends that Scripture is not sufficient. We need a revelation that gives edification beyond the truth of Scripture. Prophecy, spontaneous revelation to an individual which may often be lost in the presentation or application, is "needful for its continued growth and maturation."
The contention of Storms, therefore, that we should "resist any temptation to minimize, or worse still, to dismiss entirely the spiritual gift of prophecy as if you and your church can get along well enough without it," is a direct challenge to the sufficiency of Scripture. He strengthens his resistance to sola scriptura and the sufficiency of Scripture by closing his argument on this point with an admonition to "step out in faith and take those risks, apart from which people may well go without the blessings that prophecy can bring" (Storms 146).
Really? What blessing will be omitted in our total reliance on Scripture? We are called to rest our faith on what is not written. Apart from the kind of prophecy that has the aura of error always hovering around it, we "may well go without blessings." What has become of Scripture in this urging? Are we now void of understanding all the "spiritual blessings in the heavenly places" that are ours in Christ Jesus if we are left to Scripture alone? Storms presses for just that kind of spiritual insufficiency in those who affirm the completeness of revelation and the cessation of the miraculous that characterized the age of the apostles when he contends, "If you are a cessationist of some degree or if you question the presence of the miraculous in the present church age, it is unlikely you will pray with much expectancy or anticipation of God saying yes to your request" (Storms 71).
Without minimizing the joy of physical healing in this life, I fervently contend that written revelation gives us abundant promises connected with prayer far beyond any event, by miracle or medicine, of physical healing. To affirm that God "upholds all things by the word of his power," is in a constant state of manifesting the absolute dependence of all things on him, and will hear our prayers through the mediation of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:1,2; Romans 8:26-28) and will grant all that we ask according to his will (1 John 5:13-15) is a sufficient source of pleasing expectation and anticipation for any Christian. To believe in the good sovereignty of God and that he "works all things after the counsel of his own will" (Ephesians 1:11), provides a constant influx of hope and encouragement to the Christian without gravitating to the position that those gifts of revelation and healing given to the apostles and the prophets must also operate now.
No expectation can possibly transcend the written revelation validating the prayer that God would "grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you being rooted and grounded in love [electing, bleeding, and regenerating love, Ephesians 1:4, 5; 2:4], may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height, and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." And then, as if the unending glory and anticipation of such a written promise in prayer were not enough, Paul added, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generation forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:16-21). Though Storms implies in a sermon at the Converge conference that the word "power" refers to the continuation of the charismata, one need go no further than the written revelation of the powerful work of sanctification, hope, and assurance of answered prayer placed in our hearts by the gift of the Holy Spirit whereby we cry "Abba," Father.
Do we wait for another revelation, possibly erroneous, to expand what already has been set before us: the riches of knowing God now in an ever-increasing, inexhaustible way and throughout eternity; the depths of meditation on electing, redeeming, regenerating, and resurrection love; the powerful internal operation of the Spirit in sanctification; the assurance that though the outer man is wasting away yet the inner man is being renewed day by day; the revealed truth that "if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;" the acknowledgement that "while we are in this tent we groan, being burdened," yet we look forward to being with the Lord in an incorruptible state, for God has "prepared us for this very purpose" and "gave to us the Spirit as a pledge." (2 Corinthians 4:16; 5:1-5).
We have the revealed prayer about realities of expectation and joy that our "love may abound more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be found sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God" (Philippians 1:9-11). Christians, even cessationists, may be fully occupied with deeply moving, exuberant, transcending anticipation about the things that are promised, about the immeasurably glorious realities that should occupy our desires and our prayers with revealed expectations that they will not fall short.
If our spirituality depends on confidence in more revelation and in the continuation of signs and wonders, under the assumption that the depths and heights and certainty of what is written does not meet our needs, then we too have embraced a view of God unfounded in Scripture.
A Concluding Plea for Doctrinally Sound Spirituality
To find fullness in an expression of Christian worship, confidence, and discipleship dependent on continuing revelation that is not secured from mixture of error and mistaken judgments has the necessary effect of compromising the full truthfulness, the sole authority, and the absolute sufficiency of Scripture.
If we stay with "what is written," looking to its exposition in its doctrinal outcome as the foundation for knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves, our discipleship and our worship will arise from a constant abiding source of renewed challenge and purification. We will discover with no regret that the "sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us," and that "momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all expectation" (Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 3:17).
When we preach doctrine, we look with absolute confidence to the reality that the original revelatory speaking of the prophets, whether the Old Testament prophets, the Apostles, or the New Testament prophets was preserved in its authoritative form in writing, the Scriptures. Though we recognize that there is yet more light to break forth from his word, we never will have to examine, reject, or correct, or hesitate concerning the absolute truthfulness of the source of what is spoken. Storms writes that we should not expect within the continuing gift of revelation rock-solid, absolute truthfulness, for "revelatory gifts are inescapably subjective, and the people through whom they operate are unavoidably prone to error" (Storms 122). That sounds nothing like the confidence that the prophets and apostles had in the word of revelation they received, the result of which was the written outbreathing of God.
If we faithfully proclaim the doctrine of what is written, we will never have to substitute something unwritten for the proper place of Scripture alone for "doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).
Confessions, Corporate Worship


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November election likely to be interesting
Editor, the Record:
After Tom Wolf's Democratic opponents attacked him unfairly, justice was served in the primary when he trounced them. He won every county in Pennsylvania. Fortunately, the heated climate for the governor's race did not carry over to our contest for state Senate in the newly-created 40th District. Mark Aurand emerged as the victor, but without rancor for, or from, his noble opponents. Aurand is smart, well-spoken about the issues and a likable fellow who has a united party behind him. Republican political veteran Mario. Scavello will likely find that using school children as campaign props by stunts like giving them free T-shirts or substituting birthday greetings for substantial legislation may not be enough to get him a promotion.
On the Republican side, the only primary candidate to bring up taxing the natural gas corporations, Dr. Anthony Diecidue, was rejected by the tea party tipsy crowd. He deserved better. The result, however, sets a clear choice for Pocono voters on one dominant issue: tax funding for education. Notice that abortion was absent from discussion, and the court's decision that allows same-sex marriage took that issue away. The Republicans are running on the HB-SB76 poppycock that would eliminate property tax support for our schools. Rather than tax relief, this proposal would impose job-killing sales taxes, raise the state income tax and wipe out the federal income tax deduction for local property taxes. To the ordinary middle-class homeowner, HB-SB76 means paying an average of $2,500 more to the federal government each April 15. HB-SB76 is a gimmick, a word that fuses "gimme" with "wreck." But a lot of people, including the Stroudsburg School Board Gang of 5, believe in it. The Democrats propose taxing the natural gas extraction instead. Substance vs. gimmick: This should be a lively November.
ANTHONY M. STEVENS-ARROYO
© 2023 www.poconorecord.com. All rights reserved.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Minichromosome maintenance (MCM) proteins may be pre-cancer markers
M R Alison1,
T Hunt2,
S J Forbes3
1Department of Histopathology, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, London, UK and Histopathology Unit, ICRF, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX, UK
2Histopathology Unit, ICRF, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX, UK
3Histopathology Unit, ICRF, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX, UK and Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, London, UK
M R Alison;
m.alison{at}ic.ac.uk
Barrett's oesophagus
minichromosome maintenance proteins
oesophageal squamous epithelium
Aberrant overexpression of proteins called minichromosome maintenance (Mcm) proteins at the mucosal surface of dysplastic oesophageal squamous epithelium and Barrett's mucosa may indicate proliferation potential
Oesophageal cancer contributes about 3% of the cancer burden in the UK, 5% of cancer mortality, and the five year survival is a dismal 6% (www.crc.org.uk). There are two major types of oesophageal carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and adenocarcinoma, each with different risk factors and epidemiologies. SCC arises from squamous cells lining the oesophagus and the geographical distribution of the disease shows wide variations, being virtually unknown in North Africa but common, for example, in eastern Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and northern China; high risk areas are generally associated with local food preservation practices that favour the generation of nitroso compounds from mould growing on pickled vegetables. In Western populations, heavy alcohol and cigarette consumption are well known risk factors for oesophageal SCC. Most adenocarcinomas on the other hand appear to arise from within areas of metaplasia known as Barrett's oesophagus, the metaplasia probably being caused by prolonged reflux of gastric acid and digestive enzymes (reflux oesophagitis). With the passage of time the epithelial lining becomes progressively more abnormal as it passes through a series of sequential steps that eventually result in the development of invasive adenocarcinoma. These steps include the development of glandular dysplasia, signalled by an increased nuclear:cytoplasmic ratio and loss of nuclear polarity within the cells lining the metaplastic glands: presumably morphological correlates of the underlying genetic alterations (commonly seen in neoplastic progression in other tissues) that are found in such glands.1
In the colon, the adenoma (by definition dysplastic)-carcinoma sequence is reasonably well understood, with large severely dysplastic villous adenomas having the most sinister reputation. Moreover, prophylactic removal of adenomatous polyps is the "norm", such is the seemingly inevitable progression of such lesions. The natural history of oesophageal dysplasia to invasive adenocarcinoma is not as clearly defined, and herein lies the problem. For example, two recent articles report somewhat different outcomes for severe dysplasia: Buttar et al found a cumulative cancer incidence at three years of 56% among patients initially presenting with diffuse (affecting >5 crypts or in multiple biopsies) high grade dysplasia,2 whereas Schnell et al found a five year cumulative cancer incidence of only 9% among a group of 79 high grade dysplasia patients.3 These apparent discrepancies may be partly attributable to the ways in which the pathology is "read"4; nevertheless, high grade dysplasia is an ominous finding. In this issue of Gut, Going et al report the aberrant overexpression of proteins called minichromosome maintenance (Mcm) proteins, along with Ki-67, at the mucosal surface of both dysplastic oesophageal squamous epithelium and dysplastic Barrett's mucosa [see 373].5 As expression of Mcms was observed in almost all surface cells in high grade dysplasias, anti-Mcm antibodies may thus have a significant role in the recognition of this important precancerous state.
Initiation of DNA synthesis in eukaryotes is a complex multistep process involving the sequential loading of initiation factors into prereplicative complexes (pre-RCs) at replication origins, resulting in particular regions of chromatin being "licensed" for replication in the ensuing S phase.6–9 The process begins with the binding of the origin recognition complex (ORC), and recruitment of Cdc6 and Mcm2–7 (minichromosome maintenance). The Mcms are highly conserved and were originally discovered and named as factors that supported minichromosome maintenance in yeast; the assembled Mcms are presumed to act as an enzymatically active (DNA unwinding) helicase.10 As cells enter S phase, Cdc6 is released and other factors are added to the replication origin to initiate DNA replication; critically, Mcm proteins gradually dissociate from chromatin as the DNA is replicated. This negative regulation ensures that each region of DNA is replicated only once during a single cell cycle because replicated DNA lacks functional pre-RCs.
In non-neoplastic tissues, expression of Mcms is generally confined to the proliferative compartment in a pattern similar to conventional proliferation markers, such as Ki-67.11, 12 As such, conventional proliferation markers have not made a huge impact on tumour pathology diagnosis or cancer management, although they have been useful in areas such as the differential diagnosis of smooth muscle tumours, grading of soft tissue sarcomas, and prediction of metastases in thin melanomas. However, Mcms are not your average proliferation marker; even in some normal tissues such as premenopausal breast, Mcm expression far exceeds that of Ki-67 and may identify mammary gland progenitor cells.12 Thus Mcms may be biomarkers of cells with replication potential (licensed to cycle!). In this respect, Mcms came to the attention of histopathologists/cytologists from work originating from the same stable as the current study of Going et al. In CIN of the ectocervix, where Ki-67 labelled approximately 10% of surface epithelial cells, by contrast Mcm5 and Cdc6 expression was observed in almost all surface cells. Such a huge discordance suggested that Mcm expression had utility as a marker of dysplasia and may identify that rare ("litigation") cell that might be missed by more conventional staining.13 Likewise, in a variety of other dysplastic states (actinic keratosis, Bowen's disease, colonic tubulovillous adenomas) Mcms are more highly expressed than Ki-67, for example.14 The present study by Going et al also suggests that Mcm expression may be a useful adjunct in identifying dysplasia in the oesophagus although curiously they did not observe the large discrepancy between Ki-67 and Mcm labelling seen in the cervix, epidermis, and colon. However, in common with previous studies,14 Mcm expression was inversely correlated with tumour differentiation (keratinisation), supporting the notion that Mcms are indicative of proliferation potential.
The incidence of Barrett's oesophagus is increasing rapidly in the Western world and identification of high grade dysplasia within an area of Barrett's oesophagus has profound implications for the patient and gastroenterologist alike. If there is a method of surveillance for high grade dysplasia within patients who have Barrett's oesophagus that is practical, sensitive, and specific, and there is a defined treatment option which results in increased survival, then it would seem reasonable to pursue this surveillance programme. Although surveillance guidelines have been produced by the Practice Parameters Committee of the American College of Gastroenterology,15 other workers have found little enthusiasm for pursuing unselected Barrett's surveillance programmes.16 This is where detection of Mcm expression may prove useful; Mcm expression along with other molecular markers may help in stratifying patients into low and high risk groups.17 Furthermore, within an area of Barrett's oesophagus the endoscopist cannot biopsy all tissue and hence Mcm expression may allow detection of deregulated cell proliferation in a wider area than can be recognised on morphological criteria alone or perhaps allow brush cytology sampling of a wide area.
In summary, evaluation of Mcm expression probably represents an incremental step in the armamentarium for the detection of oesophageal dysplasia (particularly of high grade type) in Barrett's oesophagus, and thus may help facilitate the identification of a cohort of patients most at risk of disease progression.
Jankowski JA, Harrison RF, Perry I, et al. Barrett's metaplasia. Lancet2000;356:2079–85.
Buttar NS, Wang KK, Sebo TJ, et al. Extent of high-grade dysplasia in Barrett's esophagus correlates with risk of adenocarcinoma. Gastroenterology2001;120:1630–9.
Schnell TG, Sontag SJ, Chejfec G, et al. Long-term nonsurgical management of Barrett's esophagus with high-grade dysplasia. Gastroenterology2001;120:1607–19.
Spechler SJ. Disputing dysplasia. Gastroenterology2001;120:1864–8.
Going JJ, Keith WN, Neilson L, et al. Aberrant expression of minichromosome maintenance proteins 2 and 5, and Ki-67 in dysplastic squamous oesophageal epithelium and Barrett's mucosa. Gut2002;50:373–7.
Dutta A, Bell SP. Initiation of DNA replication in eukaryotic cells. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol1997;13:293–332.
Tye BK. MCM proteins in DNA replication. Annu Rev Biochem1999;68:649–86.
Labib K, Tercero JA, Diffley JF. Uninterrupted MCM2–7 function required for DNA replication fork progression. Science2000;288:1643–7.
Lei M, Tye BK. Initiating DNA synthesis: from recruiting to activating the MCM complex. J Cell Sci2001;114:1447–54.
Labib K, Diffley JF. Is the MCM2–7 complex the eukaryotic DNA replication fork helicase? Curr Opin Genet Dev2001;11:64–70.
Todorov IT, Wemess BA, Wang HQ, et al. HsMCM2/BM28: a novel proliferation marker for human tumors and normal tissues. Lab Invest1998;78:73–8.
Stoeber K, Tlsty TD, Happerfield L, et al. DNA replication licensing and human cell proliferation. J Cell Sci2001;114:2027–41.
Williams GH, Romanowski P, Morris L, et al. Improved cervical smear assessment using antibodies against proteins that regulate DNA replication. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA1998;95:14932–7.
Freeman A, Morris LS, Mills AD, et al. Minichromosome maintenance proteins as biological markers of dysplasia and malignancy. Clin Cancer Res1999;5:2121–32.
Sampliner RE. Practice guidelines on the diagnosis, surveillance, and therapy of Barrett's esophagus. The Practice Parameters Committee of the American College of Gastroenterology. Am J Gastroenterol1998;93:1028–32.
Macdonald CE, Wicks AC, Playford RJ. Final results from 10 year cohort of patients undergoing surveillance for Barrett's oesophagus: observational study. BMJ2000;321:1252–5.
Bani-Hani K, Martin IG, Hardie LJ, et al. Prospective study of cyclin D1 overexpression in Barrett's esophagus: association with increased risk of adenocarcinoma. J Natl Cancer Inst2000;92:1316–21.
Aberrant expression of minichromosome maintenance proteins 2 and 5, and Ki-67 in dysplastic squamous oesophageal epithelium and Barrett's mucosa
J J Going W N Keith L Neilson K Stoeber R C Stuart G H Williams
Gut 2002; 50 373-377 Published Online First: 01 Mar 2002. doi: 10.1136/gut.50.3.373


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C Vijayakumar, CEO, HCL Technologies Named Chairman of World Economic Forum's IT Governors Community
Software, Technology, Data management, Security, Economy of India, HCL Technologies, Organizations, Business, World Economic Forum, C Vijayakumar, Anant Gupta
HCL Technologies (HCL), a leading global technology firm, today announced that its President & CEO, Mr. C. Vijayakumar, has been named Chairman of the IT industry Governors community of the World Economic Forum.
The Forums IT Governors community convenes CEOs of the worlds top Information Technology companies in order to help them responsibly shape the future of their industry.
We are looking forward to next steps and tackling urgent challenges together, said Eric White, Head of the IT Industry at the World Economic Forum.
HCL Technologies (HCL) empowers global enterprises with technology for the next decade today.
Putting a Stake in the Ground for the Future of Brokerage
Professional services, Data management, Security, Technology, Mobile, Wireless, Software, Finance
Built by expert traders, software engineers and designers, Stakes seamless platform was created from scratch to provide an enhanced brokerage experience.
Despite digital brokerage becoming more accessible in recent years, Stake believes investors are still experiencing the limitations of the services on offer and falling prey to opaque pricing systems.
Stake is a global brokerage app and website that was established solely to give users direct access to trade US stocks from outside America.
For more information on the Brokerage Packs and how to access Stake, visit: https://hellostake.com/pricing/ .
Cubro Announces the Concept of Visibility Automation
Networks, Data management, Mobile, Wireless, Technology, Software, Information science, Automation, Information, Contents
Network Automation is an enduring trend in our industry because networks are becoming larger and more complex.
Cubro is formally announcing the concept of Visibility Automation.
Cubros automation uses several network metadata sources, from in-band telemetry to DPI, that are correlated within the Cubro controller to generate a dynamic picture of the network and follow network changes automatically.
Cubros Next Generation Packet Brokers have been designed, from the ground up, to bring visibility to these networks.
Mobile, Wireless, Technology, Security, Other Technology, Telecommunications, Software, Networks, Internet, Hardware, Data management, Cloud computing, Digital technology, Computing, Cloud infrastructure, Agile software development, DevOps, Information technology management, Software development process, Kubernetes
Sysdig, Inc., the secure DevOps leader, today announced that is has established a Japanese subsidiary, Sysdig Japan GK.
The establishment of Sysdig Japan GK illustrates the Sysdig commitment to the Japanese market.
Suresh will meet with current Sysdig Japanese customers and speak with enterprises embarking on their container and Kubernetes transformation.
Cloud adoption is on the rise and we will be here to enable Japanese enterprises to confidently run cloud-native workloads in production, said Suresh Vasudevan, CEO at Sysdig.
Saviynt and STEALTHbits Technical Alliance & OEM Agreement Combines DAG with IGA to Bring Governance to Unstructured Data
Data management, Security, Technology, Software, Networks, Internet, Checkbox, Database
To bring Saviynts data access governance capabilities for cloud-based data stores and collaboration solutions back to ground, Saviynts Identity 3.0 platform will combine STEALTHbits StealthAUDIT and StealthDEFEND capabilities to provide access governance over on-premises data structures.
DAG and IGA have been on a collision course for years, said Adam Laub, STEALTHbits Chief Marketing Officer.
However, many who have tried their hand in either space have learned that neither discipline is a trivial task, nor a checkbox exercise.
Currently, unstructured data such as documents, presentations, spreadsheets, photos, and webpages represent over 80 percent of all data within an organization.
Teledyne Technologies Reports Fourth Quarter Results
Technology, Other Defense, Engineering, Other Technology, Aerospace, Software, Manufacturing, Audio, Video, Hardware, Defense
Software, Construction & Property, Insurance, Finance, Banking, Professional services, Technology, Residential Building & Real Estate, Finance, Economy, Money, Radian Group, United States housing bubble, Securitization, RDN, Mortgage loan, Mortgage-backed security
Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN), announced today the sale of Clayton Services LLC to Covius Holdings , a leading provider of technology-enabled solutions to the financial services industry.
Clayton Services, acquired by Radian as part of Clayton Holdings, provides loan acquisition, RMBS securitization and distressed asset reviews and servicer and loan surveillance services.
The sale is consistent with Radians strategic focus on its core mortgage and real estate businesses and reflects the repositioning of its Services segment initiated in 2017.
Approximately 550 employees supporting Clayton Services will join the Covius team.
Software, Proprietary software, Freeware, Steam
A new Matatalab Lite also recently joined the product collectionsand enriched the lineup and consumers' choices.
With the usage of Matatalab's simple sign blocks and diversified activities, educators have found it easy to introduce the concept of coding to nonliterate children.
Chief Operating Officer Tony Zheng introduced his insights into the future of education and demonstrated the Matatalab Coding Set for the audience.
Matatalab is an education technology company dedicated to providing innovative STEAM education solutions for educational institutions and families worldwide.
Other Philanthropy, Technology, Aerospace, Logistics, Supply chain management, Manufacturing, Other Travel, Transportation, Travel, Small business, Other Transport, Finance, Consulting, Banking, Air, Accounting, Transport, Professional services, Philanthropy, Software, Foundation, Johnsen
Zeevo Group LLC (Zeevo), a business, finance, and information technology consulting services firm, today announced that its Principal and Chief Executive Officer, Joey Johnsen, has been elected to the Board of Directors of Advancing Women in Aviation Roundtable (AWAR), an internationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to promoting the development and advancement of women leaders in the aviation industry.
Johnsen has dedicated her career to enhancing enterprise and shareholder value through finance leadership, transformation, and compliance.
I have tremendous respect for Amelia and the other board members, and I am honored to be joining their Board.
AWAR sees this opportunity and I look forward to joining forces with AWAR Board members and supporters to drive change at all levels of the leadership pipeline, concluded Johnsen.
Data management, Security, Technology, Mobile, Wireless, Software, Networks, Internet, Cloud computing, Cloud infrastructure, Digital technology, Computing, DevOps, IBM cloud computing, Kubernetes
Sysdig will use the funds to extend market presence and leadership in enabling enterprises to confidently run cloud-native workloads in production.
With the Sysdig Secure 3.0 update in November, Sysdig became the industrys first runtime threat prevention, incident response, and audit tool for Kubernetes.
96 percent of new enterprise accounts in 2019 purchased the complete Sysdig Secure DevOps Platform, validating the secure DevOps approach.
IBM expanded its global IBM Cloud Service agreement that designates Sysdig Monitor as the default monitoring service, to include the entire Sysdig Secure DevOps Platform.


The website of this five-year project from National Geographic and IBM exploring how genetics can reveal the deepest history of the human experience.
The website serves as the centerpiece to The Genographic Project, providing information to the public about the project, encouraging public participation, and offering secure, confidential results to those participants. Participants each receive a unique code, which gives them access to lengthy essays, original videos from the project's director, interactive maps, and unique genetic results revealing their haplogroup.
The Genetics Overview presents online activities that help explain the science behind the anthropology, from genetic drift to mutations, to the parts of the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA that geneticists study in this project.
A database and CMS helps editors keep up with announcements, updates, and new discoveries.
"You may ask yourself, 'Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?' On this National Geographic site you'll find a wealth of information answering those questions, from a genetics overview to an interactive atlas. The Genographic Project invites you to uncover your own genetic migratory profile." Yahoo! Picks, April 26, 2005.
"The story of how you got there to that desk chair you're currently occupying is told, through the wonders of genetics, at this absorbing National Geographic site. Our hats off most sincerely to the designer who worked out the presentation of this material in an absolutely clear format that you just can't stop clicking through." USA Today Web Guide, April 22, 2005.


text:
Jim Jordan Says 'Real America' Is Done With COVID As Cases Rise In His Own State
December 2, 2021, 12:00 PM ·2 min read
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) declared Thursday that "real America" is done with COVID-19 ― a day after the first case of the new omicron variant was found in the U.S. and as coronavirus infections rise around the country, including in his own state.
"Real America is done with #COVID19," Jordan tweeted, ignoring data, experts and reality. "The only people who don't understand that are Fauci and Biden."
He is referring to, of course, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and President Joe Biden. Both have renewed their urgent calls for Americans to get fully vaccinated and get to booster shots to avoid potentially getting seriously ill or dying from contracting the virus.
The World Health Organization has warned that the omicron variant, which has been found in 24 countries so far, poses a "very high" global risk because of the possibility that it spreads more easily. It also may resist vaccines and immunity in people who have been infected with previous strains.
"This variant is a cause for concern," Biden said Monday at the White House. "Not a cause for panic."
Hi, I'm Congressman Jim Jordan. I spread misinformation about a deadly virus to make a Democratic president look bad. (Photo: Tom Williams via Getty Images)
There were 119,604 new reported cases of COVID-19 in the United States on Tuesday, according to a data tracker from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of reported daily cases in the country has slowly ticked up this week: Over the past four days, it has jumped from 49,054 to 52,354 to 102,759 to 119,604.
Jordan's home state is seeing an increase in cases, too. There were 6,745 new reported cases in Ohio on Tuesday, per the CDC's data tracker. The day before, there were 5,731 cases. The day before that, there were 4,245 cases.
Just a couple of weeks ago, health experts in northeast Ohio warned that COVID cases were rising at an alarming rate as flu season set in.
"Now we are starting to see flu and influenza creep into the picture," Erie County Board of Health Commissioner Pete Schade told Ohio's Fox 8. "We have several people in our COVID wards fighting this virus."
More than 780,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since March 2020.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Related...
Biden Administration Will Require Insurers To Cover At-Home COVID-19 Tests
Biden Set To Extend Mask Mandate On Public Transit Through Mid-March: Reports
GOP Senator Says Fauci 'Overhyped' AIDS Just Like COVID-19
5 New Things Experts Just Discovered About COVID
Casselberry police investigate deadly Saturday morning shooting
Kali Lewis named Bucyrus' interim city auditor
Telegraph-Forum
Taunton girls basketball falls behind early to NB in Rodrigues' first game against Whalers
Taunton Daily Gazette


text:
[Sponsored] Read an excerpt from Miss Benson's Beetle—a funny, heartwarming and magical read that'll lift your spirits
December 10, 2020 December 10, 2020 The JRBLeave a Comment on [Sponsored] Read an excerpt from Miss Benson's Beetle—a funny, heartwarming and magical read that'll lift your spirits
Penguin Random House SA has shared an excerpt from Miss Benson's Beetle, an uplifting and redemptive story of a glorious female friendship against the odds, from Rachel Joyce, the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Music Shop.
Find out more about the book on The Reading List
The Golden Beetle of New Caledonia, 1914
When Margery was ten, she fell in love with a beetle.
It was a bright summer's day and all the windows of the rectory were open. She had an idea about sailing her wooden animals across the floor, two by two, but the set had belonged to her brothers once and most of them were either coloured-in or broken. Some were even missing altogether. She was wondering if in the circumstances you could pair a three-legged camel and a bird with spots when her father came out of his study.
'Do you have a moment, old girl?' he said. 'There's something I want to show you.'
So she put down the camel and the bird, and she followed him. She would have stood on her head if he'd asked.
Her father went to his desk. He sat there, nodding and smiling. She could tell he didn't have a proper reason for calling her: he just wanted her to be with him for a while. Since her four brothers had left for war, he often called her. Or she'd find him loitering at the foot of the stairs, searching for something without seeming to know what it was. His eyes were the kindest in the world and the bald top of his head gave him a naked look, like an egg.
'I think I have something that might interest you, old girl,' he said. 'Nothing much but maybe you will like it.'
At this point he would normally produce something he'd found in the garden, but instead he opened a book called Incredible Creatures. It looked important, like the Bible or an encyclopaedia, and there was a general smell of old things but that could well have been him. Margery stood at his side, trying hard not to fidget.
The first page was a painted illustration of a man. He had a normal face and normal arms but, where his legs should have been, a green mermaid tail. She was amazed. The next picture was just as strange. A squirrel like one in the garden, but this had wings. And it went on, page after page, one incredible creature after another.
'Well, well, look,' her father kept saying. 'Well, now, goodness me. Look at this chap, Margery.'
'Are they real?'
'They might be.'
'Are they in a zoo?'
'Oh, no, dear heart. If these creatures live, they've not been found. There are people who believe they exist, but they haven't caught them yet so they can't prove it.'
She had no idea what he was talking about. Until that moment she'd assumed everything in the world was already found. It had never occurred to her things might happen in reverse. That you could see a picture of something in a book – that you could as good as imagine it – and then go off and look.
Her father showed her the Himalayan Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, the Patagonian Giant Sloth. There was the Irish Elk with antlers as big as wings. The South African Quagga, which started as a zebra until it ran out of stripes and became a horse. The Great Auk, the Lion-tailed Monkey, the Queensland Tiger. So many incredible extra creatures in the world and nobody had found a single one of them.
'Do you think they're real?' she said.
Her father nodded. 'I have begun to feel comforted,' he said, 'by the thought of all we do not know, which is nearly everything.' With that upside-down piece of wisdom, he turned another page. 'Ah!'
He pointed at a speck. A beetle.
Well, how nothing this was. How small and ordinary. She couldn't see what it was doing in a book of incredible creatures, never mind whether it was not yet found. It was the sort of thing she would tread on and not notice.
He told her the head of a beetle was called the head, the middle was the thorax and the bottom half was the abdomen. Beetles had two pairs of wings – did she know that? One delicate set that did the actual flying, and another hardened pair to protect the first. There were more kinds of beetle on God's Earth than any other species, and they were each unique in remarkable ways.
'It looks a bit plain,' she said. Margery had heard her aunts call her plain. Not her brothers, though. They were handsome as horses.
'Ah! But look!'
He turned to the next page and her insides gave a lurch.
Here the beetle was again, magnified about twenty times. And she had been wrong. She had been so wrong, she could hardly believe her eyes. Close up, that small plain thing was not plain, not one bit. Oval in shape and gold all over, it was incandescent. Gold head, gold thorax, gold abdomen. Even its tiny legs were gold, as if Nature had taken a bit of jewellery and made an insect instead. It was infinitely more glorious than a man with a tail.
'The Golden Beetle of New Caledonia,' said her father. 'Imagine how it would be to find this one, and bring it home.'
Before she could ask more, there was a ring on the outside bell and he eased himself to his feet. He closed the door gently behind him, as if it had feelings, and left her alone with the beetle. She reached out her finger to touch it.
'All?' she heard him say from the hall. 'What? All?'
Until now, Margery hadn't shared her father's love of insects – he was often in the garden with a sweep net, but it was more the sort of thing he would have done with her brothers. Yet as her finger met the golden beetle, something happened: a spark seemed to fly out and her future opened. She went hot and cold. She would find the beetle. It was that simple. She would go to wherever New Caledonia was, and bring it home. She actually felt struck, as if the top of her head had been knocked off. Already she could see herself leading the way on a mule while an assistant carried her bags at the rear.
But when the Reverend Tobias Benson returned, he didn't seem to remember anything about the beetle, let alone Margery. He walked slowly to the desk and rifled through papers, picking them up and putting them down, as if none of them were the things they should have been. He lifted a paperweight, then a pen, and afterwards he stowed the paperweight back where the pen had been, while the pen he seemed to have no clue about. It was possible he had completely forgotten what a pen was for. He just stared, while tears fell from his eyes like string.
'All of them?' he said. 'What? All?'
He took something from the drawer and stepped through the French windows, and before she realized what had happened, he'd shot himself.
Source: Penguin Random House SA (PDF)
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Q: Algorithm not functioning for sort squared array based off of input I'm working on building an algorithm that sorts in place for an array of nondecreasing integers, and it's not passing some of my tests. I was wondering why? I've included a sample input and output as well.
import java.util.*;

class Program {

  public int[] sortedSquaredArray(int[] array) {
        int[] res = new int[array.length];
        int leftPointer = 0;
        int rightPointer = array.length - 1;
        int counter = 0;
        while (counter < array.length) {
            int leftSquared = array[leftPointer] * array[leftPointer];
            int rightSquared = array[rightPointer] * array[rightPointer];
            if (leftSquared < rightSquared) {
                res[counter] = leftSquared;
                leftPointer++;
            } else if (rightSquared <= leftSquared) {
                res[counter] = rightSquared;
                rightPointer--;
            }
            counter++;
        }
        return res;
  }
}

"array": [-50, -13, -2, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 19, 20]

expected output:
[0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 4, 4, 9, 169, 361, 400, 2500]

what I'm getting:
[400, 361, 9, 4, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 4, 169, 2500]

A: If the array was specified to be in increasing order, your attempt was very close:
Just fill the result from larger squares to lower.
(If the array starts with a non-negative value, just return (a copy of) the input array.)

A: Just as @greybeard wrote: your mistake is to fill from the lower end, but you do not know the lowest square yet, since you are checking the two numbers with the BIGGEST square value.
This function should do what you want:
    public int[] sortedSquaredArray(int[] array)
    {
        if (array.length == 0 || array[0] >= 0)
            return array;

        int[] res = new int[array.length];
        int leftPointer = 0;
        int leftSquared = array[leftPointer] * array[leftPointer];
        int rightPointer = array.length - 1;
        int rightSquared = array[rightPointer] * array[rightPointer];
        int counter = rightPointer;
        while (counter >= 0)
        {
            if (leftSquared >= rightSquared)
            {
                res[counter] = leftSquared;
                leftPointer++;
                leftSquared = array[leftPointer] * array[leftPointer];
            }
            else
            {
                res[counter] = rightSquared;
                rightPointer--;
                rightSquared = array[rightPointer] * array[rightPointer];
            }
            counter--;
        }
        return res;
    }

Note the optimisations in line 3 and 4 and calculating the squared values only when needed. Also this function is NOT doing in-place sorting! It is returning a new array with the sorted squares. Doing an in-place sorting could be accomplished by re-assigning the values from the sorted array to the passed-in array before returning or using the passed-in array directly but having to move around the array-values a lot, if the left pointer is pointing to the bigger value.
You can watch the code in action with your example data here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Information reaching our newsdesk, indicates that all is now set for the second term inauguration of Chief Willie Obiano and Dr Nkem Okeke, as Governor and Deputy Governor of Anambra State, today, Saturday, March 17, 2018, just as a three-day celebration has been declared, reports ITRealms.
Disclosing this weekend, the Chairman of the Second Term Inauguration Committee, Hon. Ifeanyi Ibezi, said that a three-day programme of activities has been put together as the inauguration ceremonies.
Also, a press statement sighted by ITRealms, quoted Ibezi as saying that the programmes of activities include a business roundtable with a theme "Consolidating the Vision", which will take place in Awka, the state capital.
This will be followed by the formal inauguration ceremony at Ekwueme Square, Awka, on Saturday, March 17, 2018.
According to Ibezi, the concluding part of the inauguration ceremonies will be a thanksgiving Mass to be held at St. Patrick's Catholic Cathedral, Awka on Sunday, March 18, 2018.
The Chairman explained that the convocation of the Anambra Business Roundtable is to signpost the trajectory of Governor Obiano's second term which is targeted at ushering in a "Greater Tomorrow" for Ndi Anambra.
Ibezi stated that the business round table will bring together critical stakeholders from the public and private sectors to highlight growth opportunities in the emerging industries in the state, adding that at the end of the roundtable, new partnerships would be established aimed at making lives better for ndi Anambra, through sustainable value creation.
He further disclosed that Mr. Edward Kallon, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, will be leading international development partners to this very important roundtable.
On day two of the inauguration programme, Honourable Ibezi disclosed that Ndi Anambra would witness and participate in a swearing-in ceremony, the first of its kind not only in Anambra State, but also in the entire South East geo-political region.
He pointed out that already all the various twenty-one local government areas in the state have been sensitized to participate in the ceremony adding that preparations at Ekwueme Square, venue of the swearing-in ceremony, were almost completed.
Ibezi further disclosed that the swearing-in ceremony would be witnessed by dignitaries from across Nigeria and some selected foreign countries. According to him, invitations had been distributed since three weeks ago.
ITRealms recalled that Governor Willie Obiano and his Deputy, Dr Nkem Okeke, recorded a landslide victory during the November 18, 2017, Governorship election, winning in all the twenty- one local government areas of the State.
"That victory is not only the first of its kind in Anambra State, but also in any of the States of the federation," he declared.


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Principal Investigator: Dr Neil Davies
Institution: University of Bristol
Tags: 8786, causal inference, education, health, morbidity, mortality
1a: Research question: what are the causal effects of education on morbidity and cause specific mortality? Outcomes: all-cause and cause-specific mortality, coronary heart disease, lung cancer and income. Exposure: education. Synopsis: On average people with more years of education live longer and are healthier. We do not know whether this is because more educated people are less likely to engage in risky behaviours such as smoking, or if there are other differences, such as cognition or social class, which cause some people to be both healthier and more educated. We will address this hypothesis using statistical techniques for differentiating causation and correlation. 1b: Low education is a major risk factor for a wide range of diseases. We will use data from the UK Biobank to improve our understanding of how individuals' educational choices early in life affect their long term health outcomes. Ultimately, knowledge from this project will help policy makers and practitioners mitigate these differences. Furthermore, our results will provide evidence about the consequences of the recent decisions to further increase the minimum school leaving age to 18 and to widen access to higher education. 1c: We will use data on all individuals from UK Biobank with information on date and country of birth and age at which they left full time education. We will investigate differences in health outcomes by duration of education. We will present adjusted results adjusted for known confounders (such as income, cognition). We will use the raising of the school leaving age in 1972 and genetic variants known to associate with education as a natural experiment (instrumental variable) for educational achievement to identify the causal effects of education. 1d: We will use participants born outside the UK as a negative control population to provide further validation of our methods (1). We do not expect the changing of the school leaving age to affect the educational attainment of individuals born outside of the UK. PROJECT EXTENSION – APPROVED 21.07.2015: Twin studies suggest that happiness has a heritability of around 50%. Currently we do not know of any individual genetic variants which robustly associate with happiness. We would like to extend project 8786 to conduct a genome-wide study of subjective well-being. We will use variable happiness (ID=4526). This analysis will be conducted as part of the Social Science Genetics Association Consortium (SSGAC) led by Prof. Dan Benjamin and Prof. David Cesarini. This analysis has been approved as part of application 11425. We will conduct a GWAS using the imputed data and will include the following covariates – sex, standardised age at the time of assessment, age squared, the 15 principal components of population stratification and indicators for genotyping array. We will restrict the analysis to unrelated white British individuals – the 112,338 individuals recommended by the imputation documentation. We do not need any further data for this extension. FURTHER UPDATED BY UK BIOBANK: PROJECT EXTENSION – Approved 26.08.2015 "We would like to investigate the relationship between a genetic risk score for ADHD and educational attainment and socioeconomic position. This research involves Evie Stergiakouli, who's a colleague of mine at Bristol. This project would not require any additional data." FURTHER UPDATED BY UK BIOBANK: PROJECT EXTENSION – Approved 14.10.2015 "Our paper proposes methods for estimating the causal effects of risk factors or exposures using individual genetic variants as instrumental variables. The method allows for unbiased estimation when some of the instruments are invalid. We would like to investigate the effects of BMI on educational attainment, using the 97 variants published in Locke et al. (2015) as instrumental variables for BMI." FURTHER UPDATED BY UK BIOBANK: PROJECT EXTENSION – Approved 21.01.2016: "Collider bias – an illustration within Biobank – effects from artefact – Collider bias is appearing as a pervasive factor in the analysis of complex phenotypes and is of particular concern where analysts were preferentially turning to genetic data for properties of inter-variable independence (often quoting Mendel's laws to justify such manoeuvres). It is of course sensible to think of the utility of phenotypic adjustment for the clarification of otherwise opaque genetic association signals, however the implications of adjusting for an additional phenotype which has a non-independent biological contribution to outcomes of interest may have the knock on effect of stratifying (and thereby correlating) otherwise independent genotypes. In studies of transgenerational effects adjusted for child genotype, comparisons of genetic sharing across phenotypes, or other analytical scenarios (Aschard et al ASHG 2015) these effects have the potential to be just as complicating as the original position before adjustment despite the aim to gain additional clarity. We propose in to undertake an investigation of this within the UKBiobank data, in a manner nor dissimilar to that already seen (Day et al BioRXiv 2015), but where spurious associations are shown to be delivered through the undertaking of analyses adjusted for pertinent colliders. This will be based not he analysis of confounder traits and cardiometabolic phenotypes and be for the purpose of demonstrating the potential impact of collider bias, man important analytical phenomenon." FURTHER UPDATED BY UK BIOBANK: 2 PROJECT EXTENSIONS – Approved 29.05.2016: The relationship between myopia and educational attainment. Educated individuals are more likely to be short sighted. However, we do not know why this association occurs, it may be because educated individuals spend more time studying, and reading, or alternatively, short sighted individuals may be less likely to engage in non-academic activities like sports. We will apply a bidirectional Mendelian randomisation approach to investigate whether recently discovered genetic variants, which are known to associate with educational attainment, are associated with myopia, and whether genetic variants which are known to associate with myopia are also associated with educational attainment. This will allow us to determine whether education causes myopia or if myopia causes educational attainment. The relationship between fatty acids and educational attainment. Fatty acids are thought to be vital for normal brain development, in utero and in infancy. Fish consumption provides a major source of fatty acids, and has been found to be associated with IQ. However, there are substantial socioeconomic differences in fish consumption, and the observational association of fish consumption may be due to residual confounding. During this project we will use genetic variants, which have been found to be associated with fatty acid levels in metabolic studies, as instrumental variables for fatty acid levels in biobank participants. We will conduct a two sample study to maximise our statistical power. FURTHER UPDATED BY UK BIOBANK: 2 PROJECT EXTENSIONS – Approved 05.01.2017: 1) Visual acuity amendment Visual acuity (VA) is a measure of an individual's clarity of vision. In the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort we have detected a region of genome strongly associated with VA. This association has been replicated in Generation R. There is evidence for the same locus being associated with educational attainment in the Okbay et al. (2016) study. Due to the high linkage-disequilibrium (LD) in the region, it has been difficult to attribute the cause of association to a single gene in the region. We would like to use UK Biobank to replicate the finding. We expect that the larger sample will give better resolution for understanding the LD structure in the region. If a clear functional mechanism of association can be established between variant and VA, we plan to use the variant as an instrument to test the causal effect of visual acuity on educational attainment. No additional variables are required. Reference Okbay, Aysu, Jonathan P. Beauchamp, Mark Alan Fontana, James J. Lee, Tune H. Pers, Cornelius A. Rietveld, Patrick Turley, et al. "Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies 74 Loci Associated with Educational Attainment." Nature 533, no. 7604 (May 26, 2016): 539–42. doi:10.1038/nature17671. 2) Selection bias amendment We will compare polygenic risk scores for key attributes (BMI, schizophrenia, ADHD, ASD, education, smoking, height) across cohorts where we expect different selection mechanisms to operate – from Biobank (where we expect a high degree of selection related to some characteristics, e.g. it has been reported that the level of smoking in Biobank participants is much lower than in the general population) to population-based birth cohorts (e.g. ALSPAC) where we expect a lesser degree of selection. We will calculate the polygenic risk scores for each participant in each cohort, and then compare the distributions of the polygenic risk scores across cohorts. This will initially be by comparing the means, using linear regression. However, it is possible that the selection mechanism has little effect on the means, but may affect just the tail(s) of the distribution – e.g. if only individuals with a very large BMI are less likely to participate, then cohorts will have similar average BMI but very different skewness and percentile values. We will thus also conduct between-cohort comparisons of: 1) the 5, 10 and 25 percentile values of each polygenic risk score 2) the skewness and kurtosis of each polygenic risk score FURTHER UPDATED BY UK BIOBANK: PROJECT EXTENSION – Approved 04.04.2017: "We would like to investigate the causal effect of education on fertility. Many studies have reported the association between educational attainment and fertility. However, we do not know whether educational attainment has a causal effect on fertility decisions. We would like to investigate this using the raising of the school leaving age in 1972. We will need additional data on variables 2405 and 2734. Secondly, we would like to investigate the impact of education on primary presentation, such as taking statins or anti-hypertensives. There are strong associations between educational attainment and longevity. However, again it is not clear whether these associations are due a causal effect of education. We have published some initial results using UK Biobank that there may be causal effects of education on mortality. We would like to investigate whether these effects are being mediated via treatment decisions and interactions with health care such as statin and anti-hypertensive use. To do this we need the following variables: treatments 20003." Project extension August 2017: "What are the causal effects of education on morbidity, mortality and other health related phenotypes?' This amendment seeks to estimate the effects of educational attainment on a range of outcomes. We will use a range of methods to identify the effects of schooling, including (but not limited to) Mendelian randomisation and regression discontinuity design using the raising of the school leaving age in 1972 as a natural experiment."
Project extension:
Research question: what are the causal effects of education on morbidity and cause specific mortality?
Outcomes: all-cause and cause-specific mortality, coronary heart disease, lung cancer and income.
Exposure: education.
Synopsis: On average people with more years of education live longer and are healthier. We do not know whether this is because more educated people are less likely to engage in risky behaviours such as smoking, or if there are other differences, such as cognition or social class, which cause some people to be both healthier and more educated.
We will address this hypothesis using statistical techniques for differentiating causation and correlation.
We would like to extend our study to evaluate the performance of a new methodology to account for sample selection bias. To this end, we will be producing an illustrative example looking at the effect of educational attainment on BMI. This association will be estimated using two approaches. Firstly, a Mendelian randomisation approach using the 1,271 genome-wide significant SNPs identified in the latest GWAS by Lee et al (2018). Secondly, an IV approach based on the raising of the school leaving age in 1972 (ROSLA) as in Davies et al (2018). The IV will be a dummy variable indicating whether the individual turned 15 before or after the reform. To ensure uncounfoundedness, we will only analyse individuals who turned 15 one year before or one year after the reform.
Control variables to be included in one or both of the analyses are the top 20 principal components of the genetic relatedness matrix, genotyping batch fixed effects, sex dummies, fixed effects for age at measurement of the phenotype and birth-month dummies (January, February, etc.).
While these extensions are planned, the method we are evaluating cannot currently handle multiple instruments or control variables. Therefore, the MR analysis will be carried out by constructing a single polygenic score from the genome-wide significant SNPs. The control variables in both analyses will be partialled out of the exposure, outcome and instrument, and the IV estimates will be calculated over the residuals. Implicit in this approach is that the associations among the controls are assumed to be unconfounded by selection, which is unlikely to be true in UK Biobank. This caveat will be noted.
Last updated Feb 1, 2019
Incorporated in England and Wales, registered number 4978912, and registered as a charity in England and Wales, number 1101332.
Charity registered in Scotland, number SC039230.
© Biobank 2019


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New Limited Mike Tyson Pin Mate from Mike Tyson Mysteries!
Bif Bang Pow! proves some of the best things do come in small packages with their Mike Tyson Mysteries Mike Tyson Pin Mate Wooden Figure - Convention Exclusive - only at Entertainment Earth!
This coveted Mike Tyson Pin Mate wooden figure is based on the animated Adult Swim series MIKE TYSON MYSTERIES™. A collector must-have, this uniquely numbered wooden figure is featured as the first its series - with the number "1" labeled on the bottom of the figure as well as on the packaging.
Designed in a retro-style and measuring a mere 2-inches tall, each figure is wrapped in 360-degree, hand-painted artwork that includes some decal elements. Limited to only 1008 pieces, the personalized production of the hand-painted artwork gives each figure a one-of-a-kind authenticity that cannot be duplicated, which makes this already highly collectible piece even more collectible! Ages 18 and up.
Available for the first time on July 20, 2016 at the Entertainment Earth booth #2343 at San Diego Comic-Con, fans will have the first opportunity to grab these individually numbered and limited edition exclusives!
Not attending San Diego Comic-Con 2016? *PRE-ORDER at Entertainment Earth now!
(*NOTE: This item will first be sold during San Diego Comic-Con 2016 at Entertainment Earth Booth #2343. If supplies remain after the show, pre-orders will be filled and shipped to you then - in August 2016.)
Continue to check Entertainment Earth for the latest convention exclusive news.
See all Bif Bang Pow! Mike Tyson Mysteries collectibles - only at Entertainment Earth.
MIKE TYSON MYSTERIES and all related characters and elements © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s16)
Mike Tyson Mike Tyson Mysteries Pin Mate


text:
S1 bus crash leaves several injured
Photo: Lower Austria Police
A tour bus apparently full of passengers from Ukraine had a serious accident in the early hours of Monday morning, according to a report in the Kurier newspaper.
The accident occurred on Vienna's outer ring motorway S1, near the Schwechat junction. Several people have been injured, some seriously.
According to fire department spokesman Franz Resperger, there were 14 passengers on board, all from Ukraine. There were no children on board.
When emergency services first arrived at the scene, they could only find 11 of the passengers, as three had wandered away, some in a state of confusion.
The bus had broken through a guard rail, and was seriously damaged.
Fire, police and rescue services mounted a full-scale operation with up to 70 personnel involved. The S1 was closed, and major traffic delays were reported on the A4 as a direct result.
Brexit: Why won't the EU act to protect the rights of Britons in Europe?
Forget flying! The best way to see Europe is via bus and rail. Oh, and it's usually cheaper and often faster than taking to the skies. The Local rounds up some top tips for planning your next European adventure.
12 things you only get once you've celebrated Christmas and New Year in Austria
Why Salzburg is Austria's most inspiring city
Australian dies after hit by bus in Vienna
Stunt pilot dies in air show crash
Two Britons killed in mountain road crash
S-Bahn delays after train collision in Vienna
Austrian emergency services chase 7,000 chickens blocking the motorway


Electrochemically mediated charge transfer effects on single-walled carbon nanotubes.
This thesis is based on experimental work on electrochemically mediated charge transfer effects on Single-walled carbon nanotube bundles. The study of these effects are very important towards understanding the sensitivity of gases on nanostructures like single-walled carbon nanotubes. Chapter one covers the introduction and overview of carbon nanostructures including single-walled carbon nanotubes. Chapter two covers the experimental techniques involving sample preparation, experimental setup and data acquisition. Chapter three consists of Results and the Discussions explaining the mechanisms based on charge transfer mechanism. In the final chapter, implications and the importance of the study are explained. Single-walled carbon nanotubes are used as chemical gas sensors due to its high sensitivity and rapid response to various gases. Studying the electrical properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes increased the interest for further study related to sensor properties. Intrinsic properties of SWNT thin films have been studied extensively by measuring in situ thermoelectric power and 4 probe resistances. Recently, it has been shown that the conductivity and the type of SWNT material change dramatically due to exposure of SWNT sample to various gases. Even though several mechanisms have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, it has been a controversial since the presence of water vapor barrier is not taken into consideration for explaining the mechanism. Electrochemically mediated charge transfer has been studied by its effects on the surface conductivity of diamond. And It has been shown that a pronounced conductivity been observed in Hydrogen terminated diamond even though it shows an insulating properties. We proposed a mechanism for the change of intrinsic properties of semiconducting SWNTs by systematically shifting the Fermi energy level by the exposure of different pH saturated water vapors. Due to the change in chemical potential of the redox couple of various gas saturated water vapor and Fermi energy of SWNT will result in charge transfer from water layer to SWNT or vice versa. The changes in thermoelectric power and Resistance data correlate with relative position of the Fermi level with respect to the chemical potential of the aqueous layer. SWNT samples were prepared by Pulse Laser Vaporization technique and purified by standard chemical methods. Experiments were performed using ambient oxygen and ammonia which have been bubbled through acid and basic solutions of different pH values at atmospheric pressure and room temperature.
Abeyweera, Buddika KA. 1980-, "Electrochemically mediated charge transfer effects on single-walled carbon nanotubes." (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 8.


Signal: How did the FBI read James Wolfe's encrypted messages to reporters?
Former security director of the Senate Intelligence Committee James A. Wolfe was arrested for lying to the FBI.
Journalists were dismayed to discover that prosecutors were actually able to quote the Signal messages in the indictment. Wolfe allegedly wrote to one reporter, "Good job!" and "I'm glad you got the scoop." The reporter messaged back, "Thank you. [MALE-1] isn't pleased, but would deny that the subpoena was served." Signal is generally regarded as one of the most secure encrypted messaging apps available, and many reporters rely on its services to communicate with confidential sources. So does this indictment proof that Signal isn't as protected as we all thought?
As SlashGear and others have pointed out, Signal does offer robust end-to-end encryption, which ensures that only the people involved in a chat can see the messages. But it does not automatically delete messages from your devices. It's unclear how exactly investigators were able to retrieve the messages in this case, but they could have theoretically seized a phone belonging to Wolfe or one of the reporters and simply read the messages on the app.
The best way to safeguard against snoopers is to turn on Signal's "Disappearing Messages" feature every time you start a new chat, which lets users determine how long messages will be retained in the app after they've been sent or received. You can also manually delete all of your chat history. It's also important to make sure the person you're communicating with has this setting enabled and isn't taking pictures of your chats.
This is the second time this week that we've learned of a Washington insider attempting to use an encrypted app, only to discover that investigators had found a workaround. On Monday, special counsel Robert Mueller filed court documents accusing former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of using Telegram and WhatsApp to engage in witness tampering. Investigators were able to read backups of the conversations on his iCloud. The people he was trying to securely contact also ended up just handing investigators the messages.


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Starbucks To Hire 10,000 Refugees Over Next 5 Years
Filed Under:Starbucks
File. (Credit: LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Starbucks says it will hire 10,000 refugees over the next five years, a response to President Donald Trump's indefinite suspension of Syrian refugees and temporary travel bans that apply to six other Muslim-majority nations.
Howard Schultz, the coffee retailer's chairman and CEO, said in a letter to employees Sunday that the hiring would apply to stores worldwide and the effort would start in the United States where the focus would be on hiring immigrants "who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel."
Message from Howard Schultz to @Starbucks partners: Living Our Values in Uncertain Times https://t.co/WoHkS3N9fB
— Starbucks News (@Starbucksnews) January 29, 2017
Schultz, a supporter of Hillary Clinton during the presidential run, took aim at other parts of a Trump agenda focused on immigration, repealing former President Barack Obama's health care law and restructuring trade with Mexico. The letter said that Starbucks would help support coffee growers in Mexico, provide health insurance to eligible workers if the health care law is repealed and back an Obama-era immigration program that allows young immigrants who were brought to the country as children to apply for a two-year reprieve from deportation and a work permit.
The move reflects the increasing complexity that businesses face when dealing with the Trump administration. Trump has met with CEOs at Ford, General Motors and Boeing and asked them to create jobs in the United States, while touting each announcement about new factory jobs as a success even if those additions had been planned before his presidential victory.
But not all corporate leaders have embraced Trump. Schultz added that Starbucks would aim to communicate with workers more frequently, saying Sunday, "I am hearing the alarm you all are sounding that the civility and human rights we have all taken for granted for so long are under attack."
SNL Does Skit About Sacramento Kings
Two Shot In Elk Grove Near Heathermist Way and Fallbright Way
Identity Released Of Woman Shot, Killed At Midtown Sacramento Parking Garage