text:
Canada World Youth and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Voicing Indigenous Youth Issues at the World Conference on Indigenous People
MONTREAL, Q.C. (September 22, 2014) – Rita S. Karakas, President and Chief Executive Officer of Canada World Youth (CWY), and Terry Audla, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), are pleased to announce a joint partnership to send a delegation of thirteen indigenous youth to the World Conference on Indigenous People (WCIP) to be held September 20 to the 25 at the United Nations in New York.
In collaboration with the Inuit Circumpolar Council and the National Inuit Youth Council, this is an intensive hands-on learning experience for indigenous youth and an opportunity to provide them with a voice to address their issues, priorities and needs in an international forum. At the same time, this opportunity will enable youth to acquire knowledge, skills and strategies in working with United Nations mechanisms and bodies.
"Canada achieved its international reputation through the contributions of Canadians who bring knowledge, skills and commitment to organizations around the world and the United Nations. Canada's role in and contribution to international development and indigenous peoples has enabled international learning and knowledge sharing and influence around the world," explained Rita S. Karakas.
Terry Audla affirms, "We support the CWY Indigenous youth delegation to the WCIP as an investment in leadership development for our future contribution to Canada's foreign policy. Indigenous youth are well-suited to occupy positions of importance and influence in the Canadian government, civil society and industry now and in the near future."
Canada World Youth is dedicated to enriching the lives of people aged 15-35 who want to become informed and active global citizens. CWY offers international educational programs focused on building knowledge, leadership and other life skills through participation in sustainable community-driven projects, many in developing countries. Over the past 40 years, 36,000 young people and 11,000 host families have participated in CWY programs, in Canada and abroad.
About Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) is the national voice of the almost 60,000 Inuit living in the Inuit Nunangat which includes 53 communities across the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (Northwest Territories), Nunavut, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), and Nunatsiavut (Northern Labrador), land claims regions. Founded in 1971 ITK represents and promotes the interests of Inuit on a wide variety of environmental, social, cultural, and political, issues and challenges facing Inuit on the national level.
Julie Brouard, Director of Communications, Canada world Youth
514-931-3526 #310
Erin Filliter, Director of Communications, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami


Driving Golf – Blender Pipeline from creamsurfer.de on Vimeo.
Having worked for a 3D-department specialized in visualizations for automotive industry, I decided that it could be fun and useful, to do my own car-vis project. Test my tools and see how they would perform and improve upon workflow. Furthermore I am able to experiment and display my images and animations in a public portfolio as they are part of a non-commercial, free project. The car I use is a Volkswagen Golf 7 model and I use it because I am fairly familiar with it.
The software I use is Blender and its pathtracing renderer Cycles. For projects like that, the company I worked for used a combination of Cinema 4D and VRay.
Cycles is mindblowing. The integration of the renderer and the fact that you can use it in a realtime preview, makes setting up shaders and lights blazingly fast and easy. Especially using the GPU (I use two GTX 980 4GB cards in parallel). The preview is exactly what you get when you render. It doesn't matter if you use CPU or GPU* – it just looks the same in realtime preview and final rendermode. Cycles is really fast and accurate. The results are impressive and the fact that you can use renderlayers, passes and render to multilayer OpenEXR files for compositing, is just awesome. It's a huge improvement over tools I have worked with before. The speed is great! For single images and for animations.
Blender is really a great tool for professional use (in my usecases). The speed of the outliner and workflow of managing lots of objects isn't exactly the easiest (yet), although it performs quite well if you know the workarounds. Shading, lighting, rendering are great with cycles and it's hard to imagine working with a slower renderer again. Blender is really excellent in a lot of things and has basically everything I need, but it yet lacks tools for exchange to external software. This could/should be improved, in my opinion, so let's support the developers and donate.
*GPUs do not support Smoke and SSS is an experimental feature.


text:
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Migrations;
using System;

namespace HealthAndFitness.Api.data.Migrations
{
    public partial class UpdatedNavigationAndRequired : Migration
    {
        protected override void Up(MigrationBuilder migrationBuilder)
        {
            migrationBuilder.DropColumn(
                name: "Date",
                table: "ExerciseGoals");

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "Username",
                table: "Users",
                maxLength: 100,
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(string),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "ModifiedBy",
                table: "Users",
                maxLength: 100,
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(string));

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "CreatedBy",
                table: "Users",
                maxLength: 100,
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(string));

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<Guid>(
                name: "ExerciseId",
                table: "ExerciseLogs",
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(Guid),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<int>(
                name: "Weight",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(int));

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "TimeFrame",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                maxLength: 20,
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(string),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<int>(
                name: "Sets",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(int));

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<int>(
                name: "Repetitions",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(int));

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<Guid>(
                name: "ExerciseId",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(Guid),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<int>(
                name: "Duration",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(int));

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<decimal>(
                name: "Distance",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(decimal));

            migrationBuilder.AddColumn<bool>(
                name: "Deleted",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: false,
                defaultValue: false);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<Guid>(
                name: "UserId",
                table: "Exercises",
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(Guid),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "Type",
                table: "Exercises",
                maxLength: 20,
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(string),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "Name",
                table: "Exercises",
                maxLength: 50,
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(string),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AddColumn<bool>(
                name: "Deleted",
                table: "Exercises",
                nullable: false,
                defaultValue: false);
        }

        protected override void Down(MigrationBuilder migrationBuilder)
        {
            migrationBuilder.DropColumn(
                name: "Deleted",
                table: "ExerciseGoals");

            migrationBuilder.DropColumn(
                name: "Deleted",
                table: "Exercises");

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "Username",
                table: "Users",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(string),
                oldMaxLength: 100);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "ModifiedBy",
                table: "Users",
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(string),
                oldMaxLength: 100);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "CreatedBy",
                table: "Users",
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(string),
                oldMaxLength: 100);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<Guid>(
                name: "ExerciseId",
                table: "ExerciseLogs",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(Guid));

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<int>(
                name: "Weight",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(int),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "TimeFrame",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(string),
                oldMaxLength: 20);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<int>(
                name: "Sets",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(int),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<int>(
                name: "Repetitions",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(int),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<Guid>(
                name: "ExerciseId",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(Guid));

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<int>(
                name: "Duration",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(int),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<decimal>(
                name: "Distance",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: false,
                oldClrType: typeof(decimal),
                oldNullable: true);

            migrationBuilder.AddColumn<DateTime>(
                name: "Date",
                table: "ExerciseGoals",
                nullable: false,
                defaultValue: new DateTime(1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Unspecified));

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<Guid>(
                name: "UserId",
                table: "Exercises",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(Guid));

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "Type",
                table: "Exercises",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(string),
                oldMaxLength: 20);

            migrationBuilder.AlterColumn<string>(
                name: "Name",
                table: "Exercises",
                nullable: true,
                oldClrType: typeof(string),
                oldMaxLength: 50);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) has donated $125,000 to the Gemological Institute of America's (GIA) Endowment Fund for Colored Gemstone Research. In recognition of the gift, Douglas K. Hucker, AGTA's executive director, will be inducted into GIA's League of Honor on Oct. 12, during the annual dinner in New York City. A classroom at GIA's Robert Mouawad Campus in Carlsbad will be named after the organization.
AGTA and GIA have a long history of collaboration. Scientists from the AGTA Gemological Testing Center in New York City worked with GIA Research to address the sudden appearance of large Chinese freshwater cultured pearls on the market in the late 1990s. Most recently, both teams studied heat-treated blue sapphires with unusual color zoning.
The organization's donation will be invested in GIA's permanent endowment fund to generate funds for colored gemstone research as requested by AGTA.
For more information about the GIA Endowment Fund, call (800) 421-7250, ext. 4114. Outside the United States, call (760) 603-4114.


JCSM - Types of Primary Insomnia: Is Hyperarousal Also Present during Napping?
The objective of this study was to identify if hyperarousal is a 24-hour phenomenon in insomnia by comparing sleep during napping between good sleepers (GS) and Insomnia sufferers (INS) (subdivided into paradoxical "PARA-I" and psychophysiological "PSY-I") following a mentally challenging battery of cognitive tests.
Cross-sectional comparisons of GS, PSY-I, and PARA-I.
Participants slept for 4 consecutive nights in the laboratory where PSG was recorded. Upon awakening on mornings 2 and 3, cognitive testing (lasting 90-120 min) was administered, followed by a 20-minute nap.
Fourteen PSY-I, 12 PARA-I, and 23 GS completed the study, comprising home questionnaires, clinical interviews, night PSG recordings, cognitive testing, and nap PSG recordings. All participants were between 25 and 50 years of age and met inclusion criteria for PSY-I, PARA-I, or GS.
On objective nap parameters, GS had a longer total sleep time (TST; p = 0.008) and better sleep efficiency (SE; p = 0.009), than PSY-I and PARA-I, and both groups of INS were awake significantly longer than GS (p = 0.003). Also, PARA-I took significantly more time than GS to fall asleep (p = 0.014). Subjectively reported sleepiness was comparable across the three groups. Positive relationships were observed between SE over the night and SE over the nap the following day.
Results show that GS sleep better than INS during naps following prolonged cognitive testing, suggesting that, in INS, hyperarousal predominates over mental fatigue resulting from these tests. These results may parallel what is observed at night when INS experience increased cognitive load but are unable to fall asleep.
Pérusse AD; Turcotte I; St-Jean G; Ellis J; Hudon C; Bastien CH. Types of primary insomnia: is hyperarousal also present during napping? J Clin Sleep Med 2013;9(12):1273-1280.
Primary insomnia is one of the most prevalent sleep disorders.1 In fact, between 30% and 48% of the general population occasionally reports insomnia related symptoms, and more than 13% suffers from chronic primary insomnia.2,3 Important consequences resulting from this sleep disorder include fatigue, daytime sleepiness, confusion, sudden mood changes, and cognitive alterations.2 The International Classification of Sleep Disorders Second Edition (ICSD-2)4 differentiates 11 types of insomnia; paradoxical insomnia (PARA-I) and psychophysiological insomnia (PSY-I) being the most prevalent types. PARA-I is characterized by misperceptions in sleep quality and quantity. Individuals suffering from PARA-I complain about sleep difficulties although objective sleep measures (polysomnography; PSG) appear to be normal.5 On the other hand, PSY-I is characterized by "relatively" good perceptions of sleep duration and quality along with "real" sleep onset and/ or sleep maintenance difficulties and/or early morning awakenings.1 The maintenance of PSY-I results from the conditioning between sleep related stimuli (e.g. bedroom) and anxious thoughts concerning possible sleep disturbances.6,7 This conditioning contributes to the elevated cognitive activation that is typically reported in insomnia sufferers (INS).8 Irrespective of insomnia types, a difficulty in napping is one of the core features of insomnia.9–14 Thus, napping difficulties might be similar to sleep difficulties observed in INS during the night. There is also a possibility that napping reflects the hyperarousal phenomenon that characterizes insomnia. These hypotheses remain to be tested.
Current Knowledge/Study Rationale: This study was done to determine if there are differences in napping characteristics between GS and INS. These measures will allow us to identify if hyperarousal is a 24-hour phenomenon in INS.
Study Impact: In this study, INS were more hyperaroused during their naps than GS, suggesting that the high level of hyperarousal characterizing INS influences their functioning not only during the night, but also during the day. Also, this study contributes to a better understanding of the phenomenon of hyperarousal and results confirm once more that insomnia is a 24-hour problem in the hyperarousal domain.
There are several models which have attempted to explain insomnia. One of the most popular is the neurocognitive model of insomnia.15 In this model, the authors state that in order to diminish sleep difficulties, INS tend to develop maladaptive behaviors, such as increasing the time spent in bed and going to bed earlier.15 These strategies are not efficient since they contribute to the elevation of somatic, cognitive and cortical activations.16 Cognitive activation is characterized by intrusive thoughts before sleep and cortical activation is measured by cortical activity across different frequency bands. The hyper-arousal of somatic, cognitive and cortical functions contributes to alterations in sensorial and information processing and the formation of long-term memories. Although the neurocognitive model of insomnia15 has been supported by numerous studies measuring quantitative EEG during the night,17,18 it has not yet been validated during naps. Therefore, a study on nap characteristics in insomnia would allow us to identify if hyperarousal is a phenomenon that influences not only nocturnal sleep, but also diurnal sleep. Several studies using a multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) protocol reported data on objective sleep during naps in insomnia, but these variables predominantly relate to sleep onset latency. While some studies failed to find significant differences in MSLT sleep-onset latencies between primary INS and good sleepers (GS),19,20 others showed that INS had longer MSLT sleep-onset latencies than GS,13,14 even though INS reported higher levels of sleepiness.12 Other studies found that following sleep deprivation, INS had longer sleep onset latencies during daytime naps compared to GS.9–11 Previous results thus tend to imply that hyperarousal is a 24-hour phenomenon in insomnia.
It is also possible that the degree of hyperarousal during naps in INS is influenced by activities completed before napping. Knowing the impact of cognitive testing on napping could contribute to the development of new strategies to help INS nap more efficiently when managing their sleep disorder and its associated consequences. To date, the link between activities completed before a nap and hyperarousal is unknown. In the present study, a battery of mentally challenging tasks was administered to participants before their naps. These tasks would most likely contribute to mental fatigue prior going to sleep since they lasted for 90 to 120 minutes and required a high and constant level of concentration. As such, we believe that mentally exhausting tasks before napping may serve as an analogy of insomnia in GS and/or increase cognitive load in INS, which should, according to the neurocognitive model,15 contribute to the exacerbation of hyperarousal and delay sleep onset. To our knowledge, prolonged cognitive testing has never been administered to INS, as well as GS, before a nap. However, in some studies, cognitive tasks were completed before bedtime at night.21,22 In general, it was observed that after cognitive testing, GS took significantly longer to fall asleep than those who did not complete them. Nonetheless, these studies failed to observe significant between group differences on other sleep parameters such as total sleep time and sleep stage distribution.
Finally, the relationship existing between sleep parameters during the night and the corresponding nap in insomnia has been seldom studied. In one study, it was reported that the shorter the objective total sleep time was during the night, the longer it took for INS to fall asleep during the day and the greater their daytime alertness was,14 suggesting that hyperarousal predominates over sleepiness in insomnia. Another study failed to find significant positive relationships, in a population of GS, between nocturnal sleep variables and sleep variables over a nap the next day.23 Therefore, it would be interesting to investigate the relationship between subjective sleepiness before a nap and objective sleep variables over a nap protocol in INS since studies on this component are limited.12 This would allow us to determine if subjective sleepiness contributes to the level of hyperarousal typically observed in INS. There is a possibility that the subjective perception of sleepiness is enough to exacerbate the level of hyperarousal, contributing to a diminution in the quality and quantity of sleep.
Even though sleep and nap difficulties have commonly been reported in PARA-I and PSY-I alike, significant differences between these two categories of insomnia still exist in their clinical presentation. To date, naps have rarely been studied in a population of INS and when they have been, types of INS were undifferentiated. Thus, napping difficulties reported in previous studies were generalized to all types of insomnia, independently of the specific classifications. However, it is possible that one of the types of insomnia (PSY-I or PARA-I) do not face napping difficulties, especially when considering that the objective nocturnal sleep of PARA-I often mirrors that of GS.5 Therefore, individuals suffering from PARA-I and PSY-I should be classified and divided into two independent groups. This clustering would provide a more representative understanding of napping in insomnia.
This study aims primarily at determining if there are significant differences in objective sleep parameters (sleep onset latency [SOL], wake after sleep onset [WASO], number of awakenings, total sleep time [TST], total wake time [TWT], and sleep efficiency [SE]) during naps among three groups of sleepers: PSY-I, PARA-I, and GS after completing a cognitively demanding battery of tests. It was assumed that this battery of tests would contribute to a state of mental exhaustion and/or an increase in cognitive load since testing lasted for a long period (90-120 min) and required an elevated and constant level of concentration. Mental exhaustion should facilitate sleep during napping, whereas high cognitive loading should delay sleep onset by exacerbating the hyperarousal level already present in INS. Therefore, since PSY-I and PARA-I should be more cognitively loaded after testing, we hypothesized that they would have poorer sleep during naps compared to GS, suggesting that hyperarousal predominates over mental exhaustion. Since PARA-I and GS usually have similar sleep profiles, objective sleep parameters of naps would be worse for PSY-I than PARA-I. Therefore, this study seeks empirical validation of the neurocognitive model of insomnia during napping.
This study also aimed at determining the influence of nocturnal sleep parameters on the ability to nap the next day. We suggested that a negative relationship would exist between nocturnal SE and SE during a nap for GS. In fact, the better the participant slept during the night, the harder it would be for him/ her to fall asleep during a morning nap, since sleep homeostasis has been reset. Conversely, since PSY-I and PARA-I should be more hyperaroused than GS, we hypothesized that a positive relationship would exist between SE of the nocturnal sleep and the nap, confirming previous findings.14 Consequently, the less they slept, the harder it would be for them to fall asleep during a nap the next day.
Finally, this research will allow us to determine if the three groups differ on subjective sleepiness (The Stanford Sleepiness Scale [SSS])24 following cognitive testing. Since PSY-I should have the poorest objective sleep parameters on nights before cognitive testing and PARA-I should have the feeling of a bad night's sleep, both groups should be more tired, and therefore should report higher levels of sleepiness than GS. Independently of sleepers' group, a positive relationship would also exist between the SE during nap and scores on the SSS.
Participants were divided in 3 groups: 14 PSY-I, 12 PARA-I, and 23 GS. All participants were aged between 25 and 50 years. To be included in the PSY-I group, participants had to meet the following criteria: (a) a subjective complaint of insomnia characterized by difficulties initiating and/or maintaining sleep; (b) the insomnia must have been present ≥ 3 nights a week for > 6 months; (c) a complaint of ≥ 1 daytime consequence attributed to insomnia; (d) distress or significant difficulties in social and/or occupational functioning; and (e) SE ≤ 85%. Participants in the PARA-I group had to meet the same inclusion criteria as those of the PSY-I group, but their objective SE had to be ≥ 85% and their TST had to exceed 390 minutes. An important discrepancy also had to be present between subjective and objective sleep variables: TST (≥ 60 min discrepancy) and SE (≥ 15% discrepancy). For this study, GS had to report sleeping ≥ 7 h per night, satisfaction with their sleep, and no subjective sleep complaints. In addition to not meeting criteria for insomnia, GS had to report not using sleep-promoting agents and having a subjective SE ≥ 85%.
All participants were recruited through media advertisements as well as email sent to the Laval's university community. Following a brief telephone screening interview, eligible participants were sent a set of questionnaires to evaluate psychological symptoms (BAI and BDI) and sleep difficulties (Insomnia Severity Index [ISI],16 Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes About Sleep [DBAS-16]28 and 2 weeks of sleep diaries16) that they completed at home. Those who met the inclusion criteria for any of the 3 groups were invited to the sleep laboratory for a clinical interview. Upon arrival to the sleep laboratory, informed consent was obtained. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-IV)29 was administered to rule out major psychopathologies and the Insomnia Diagnosis Interview (IDI)16 to explore the nature of insomnia symptoms. These evaluations were conducted respectively by a graduate student in a clinical psychology program (GSJ) and a sleep specialist (CHB). Participants meeting the study criteria underwent four consecutive nights of PSG recordings in the sleep laboratory.
The mornings following nights 2 and 3, participants completed a battery of cognitive tests lasting between 90 to 120 minutes. The battery was composed of the following event-related potentials paradigms: go/no-go, distraction, and distraction delay. This procedure was approved by the ethics comity of the Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Québec (CER; # 183).
During this test, 2 types of auditory stimuli were presented to participants. Stimulus 1 was standard and frequent in occurrence and stimulus 2 was rare and either easy "target 1" or difficult "target 2." Sounds all had the same duration of 40 ms, a rising time of 2 ms, and an intensity of 70 dB. The inter-stimulus interval varied from 1.3 to 1.7 seconds. Four conditions were presented to participants: (1) Go easy consists of stimulus 1 and target 1; (2) Go difficult consists of stimulus 1 and target 2; (3) NoGo easy (same stimuli as Go easy); and (4) NoGo difficult (same stimuli as Go difficult). Each condition consisted of 200 trials. Instructions differed for each condition: (A) Go conditions: participants have to detect target sounds and ignore standard ones; (B) NoGo conditions: they have to ignore target sounds and detect standard ones.
This test consisted of 7 white letters appearing one after the other on a black computer screen. The stimuli were presented for 800 ms each, with an inter-stimulus interval of 200 ms. Participants were instructed to memorize those letters, and after the last one appeared they had to write the letters in the correct order. There were 2 different conditions, totalling 15 trials each, each trial lasting approximately 7 seconds. During the first condition, office-like noises (e.g., telephone, background noises of people chatting) were played while the letters appeared. During the second condition no noises were played.
This test is similar to the distraction paradigm, except participants had to memorize numbers instead of letters. There was a 10-sec delay before they were allowed to write down the numbers. There were three conditions consisting of 20 trials each, each trial lasting approximately 17 seconds. In the first condition, while waiting, participants heard a one-syllable non-relevant verbal sound. During the second, the sounds comprised 2 different syllables and there were 5 syllables in the third condition.
After cognitive tests, participants completed the SSS. Altogether, cognitive testing lasted between 90 to 120 min, including a 10-min break halfway through the protocol. Tests were followed by a 20-min nap opportunity during which PSG was recorded. Participants were instructed to try napping and were allowed out of bed if not asleep after 15 min (all participants stayed in bed for 20 min). This procedure was followed on both experimental days.
To evaluate psychological symptoms, the BAI, BDI, and the SCID-IV were used. To portray sleep difficulties, at-home questionnaires; the ISI and DBAS-16 were completed by participants. Adequate psychometric properties have been reported for both questionnaires in previous studies.28,30,31 Also, the IDI was used to evaluate the presence of insomnia and its contributing factors. The SSS was completed on mornings 2 and 3 after cognitive testing. This scale was used to evaluate the level of sleepiness of participants after a cognitive demand and just before napping opportunity.
Prior to the nights in the laboratory, participants completed a 2-week sleep diary.16 The sleep diary assesses subjective sleep quality, so participants had to report their sleep habits, such as the number of awakenings, the length of each awakening, the time spent in bed. From these raw data, the following subjective variables were derived: SOL, the amount of time it took to fall asleep; WASO, the amount of time spent awake after sleep onset; frequency of awakenings (FNA), the number of awakenings during the night; TWT, obtained by the sum of SOL and WASO; TST, the subtraction between the time in bed (TIB) and TWT; and SE, the ratio of TST over TIB.
PSG was recorded during 4 nights and 2 naps. The same montage was used for every recording. A standard PSG montage was used including electroencephalography (EEG; F3, F4, Fz, C3, C4, Cz, P3, P4, Pz, O1, and O2), electromyography (EMG; electrodes on chin), electrocardiography (ECG; electrode on heart) and electro-oculography (EOG; one electrode on the supraorbital ridge of the right eye and another on the infraorbital ridge of the left eye) recordings. Reference electrodes were fixed on the mastoids and the ground was on the forehead. On the first night, leg EMG (electrodes on tibialis) and breathing devices were used to detect breathing disorders and limb movements. The inter-electrode impedance was maintained < 5 kΩ. To amplify the signal from the electrodes, a Grass Model 15A54 amplifier system (Astro-Med Inc., West Warwick, USA; gain 10000; bandpass 0.3-100 Hz) was used, and PSG signals were digitized at a sampling rate of 512 Hz with the commercial product Harmonie (Stellate system, Montreal, Canada). PSG recordings during sleep and nap were visually scored (Luna, Stellate system, Montreal, Canada) by experienced sleep technicians using Rechtschaffen and Kales' criteria32 at 20-sec epochs.
In the present study, the objective sleep variables of interest were: SOL, defined as time from lights out to the first epoch of stage 1 sleep; WASO, the time spent awake after sleep onset; TWT, total time spent awake during the nap; TST, the time spent sleeping from lights out to lights on; number of awakenings after sleep onset and; and SE, the ratio of TST over TIB.
One-way ANOVAs were used to compare groups on socio-demographic variables, psychological characteristics, and subjective sleep variables from the sleep diary. Independent samples t-tests were then performed on significant main effects. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to compare groups on objective sleep parameters of nights (duration of each sleep stage and SOL) and on objective sleep parameters of naps (SOL, WASO, number of awakenings, and TWT). Bonferroni post hoc analyses were then performed on significant main effects. Repeated measures ANCOVAs were computed to compare groups on the other sleep parameters of nights (WASO, TST, TWT, and SE) and naps (SE and TST). Age was used as a covariate since it was significantly different between groups, and it was correlated with WASO (night 2: R = 0.39, p = 0.006; night 3: R = 0.29, p = 0.045), TWT (night 2: R = 0.37, p = 0.009; night 3: R = 0.27, p = 0.059), SE (nap 1: R = -0.30, p = 0.032; nap 2: R = -0.28, p = 0.065; night 2: R = -0.40, p = 0.005; night 3: R = -0.28, p = 0.051), and TST (nap1: R = -0.30, p = 0.041; nap 2: R = -0.26, p = 0.080; night 2: R = -0.42, p = 0.003; night 3: R = -0.35, p = 0.014). A Sidak correction was then performed on significant main effects of groups. Bilateral Pearson correlations were computed between SE of night and SE of its corresponding nap and between the SSS score and SE during the nap. Significance levels were set at 0.05.
Variables of participants who did not fall asleep during naps were included in the above statistical analyses; since all participants stayed in bed for the full 20 min, a value of 20 was attributed for SOL for those who did not sleep.
Statistical analyses showed that PSY-I, PARA-I and GS were similar in gender (p = 0.291), and education (p = 0.900). GS were significantly younger than PSY-I and PARA-I (p = 0.050), age varying between 25 and 49. There was no significant difference between INS groups concerning the duration of insomnia (p = 0.260), ranging from 0.25 to 30 years. Analyses also revealed that the severity of insomnia symptoms measured by the ISI varied between 0 and 9 and was significantly greater in PSY-I and PARA-I than GS (p < 0.001). Both groups of INS reported more depressive symptoms (BDI scores ranging from 0 to 20 [p = 0.001]), and anxiety symptoms (BAI scores ranging from 0 to 15 [p = 0.002]), than GS; and scores on the DBAS-16 were significantly higher for PSY-I and PARA-I than GS (p < 0.001), with scores ranging from 17 to 108. Finally, analyses revealed significant differences among groups for all variables on the sleep diary (p < 0.001), values for SOL varying from 1.72 to 116.79 min, from 0 to 105.36 min for WASO, from 223 to 552 min for TST, and from 51.90% to 99.90% for SE. Again, INS reported longer SOL and WASO while reporting shorter TST and lower SE than GS. Therefore, subjectively, INS had poorer sleep quality and quantity than GS. Table 1 illustrates means and SDs for each of the above variables.
No significant differences between groups were found for all objective sleep parameters of nights (0.208 ≥ p ≥ 0.293); SOL ranging from 0.67 to 75.33 min, SE from 68% to 97%, WASO from 3.33 to 151.33 min, TST from 349 to 519.33 min, and TWT from 6.33 to 131 min. For the duration of sleep stages, no effect of groups was found for any stages (0.253 ≥ p ≥ 0.813). The duration of stage 1 varied from 0 to 267 min, from 147.33 to 360 min for stage 2, from 0 to 68.67 min for stage 3, from 0 to 49.67 for stage 4, and from 65.67 to 169.33 for REM sleep. Since no significant differences were found between groups for objective sleep parameters on either night, no sleep patterns between groups could be identified. See Table 2 for more details on objective sleep parameters of both nights.
On objective sleep parameters of naps (naps were treated separately), analyses revealed main effect of groups for SOL (p = 0.008), values ranging from 0 to 20 minutes. Post hoc analyses indicated that PARA-I had a significantly longer SOL than GS (p = 0.014), and the difference between PSY-I and GS was marginally significant (p = 0.078), PSY-I having a longer SOL than GS. A significant difference was also found for TWT (p = 0.003), with PSY-I (p = 0.019), and PARA-I (p = 0.010) spending significantly more time awake during their naps than GS. Values of TWT varied from 0.33 to 20 minutes. No main effects of groups were observed for WASO (p = 0.110) and number of awakenings (p = 0.427), with WASO varying from 0 to 19.67 min and number of awakenings from 0 to 3.
When controlling for age, analyses showed a significant group effect for TST (p = 0.008), where TST was significantly shorter for PSY-I (p = 0.021) and PARA-I (p = 0.034) than GS. Values of TST ranged between 0 to 20 min. Finally, values of SE varied from 0 to 98% and was significantly different between groups (p = 0.009), SE being significantly higher for GS than PSY-I (p = 0.025) and PARA-I (p = 0.036). Conversely, when analyses compared objective measures from the first nap with those of the second one, no main effect of naps was found. Therefore, objective nap measures were similar on both napping opportunities. In sum, analyses on objective sleep parameters of naps showed that GS had a better capacity to nap than PARA-I and PSY-I. See Table 3 for more comprehensive details on objective parameters of naps.
For the subjective sleepiness measure, analyses revealed no effect of groups for the SSS (p = 0.204), and scores varied from 1 to 5. Table 3 illustrates means and SDs for subjective sleepiness before naps from the SSS.
Bilateral Pearson correlation between SE of night 2 and SE of nap 1 was significant (R = 0.35, p = 0.015). Also, SE of night 3 and SE of nap 2 were significantly positively correlated (R = 0.31, p = 0.038). For both bilateral Pearson correlations, Mahalanobis distances confirmed the absence of bivariate outliers at a critical value of p ≤ 0.001. Figure 1 illustrate these relationships on scatterplots. When analyses were computed on each group separately, no significant correlations were found between night 2 and nap 1 (PSY-I: R = 0.38, p = 0.201; PARA-I: R = 0.22, p = 0.500; GS: R = 0.24, p = 0.276) as well as between night 3 and nap 2 (PSY-I: R = 0.40, p = 0.179; PARA-I: R = 0.26, p = 0.467; GS: R = 0.15, p = 0.509).
(A) Correlation between sleep efficiency (SE) of night 2 and SE of nap 1. (B) Correlation between SE of night 3 and SE of nap 2.
No significant correlation was found between the SSS and SE of nap 1 (R = 0.22, p = 0.313) as well as with SE of nap 2 (R = 0.33, p = 0.129). Mahalanobis distances revealed no bivariate outliers for both correlations at the critical value of p ≤ 0.001. When bilateral Pearson correlations were performed on each group independently, no significant correlations were found between SSS and SE of nap 1 (PSY-I: R = 0.18, p = 0.568; PARA-I: R = -0.22, p = 0.517; GS: R = 0.22, p = 0.313) or between SSS and SE of nap 2 (PSY-I: R = 0.19, p = 0.543; PARA-I: R = 0.25, p = 0.483; GS: R = 0.33, p = 0.129).
In the present study, GS and INS, classified in psychophysiological and paradoxical types, were compared on sleep parameters and characteristics during naps following a mentally challenging battery of cognitive tests. Socio-demographic data revealed that both groups of INS were significantly older than GS. Until now, there has been no data available to our knowledge to illustrate the impact of age on PSG recordings variables during a single nap. However, a review paper on MSLT revealed that age contributed to a significant increase in MSLT latency.33 Since groups were significantly different in age, this was factored in our statistical design. Therefore, we could ensure the significant difference of age between groups did not contribute to the significant differences between groups found for some nap parameters.
Data from the SSS completed at the end of cognitive testing and before napping support previous observations and confirm the present hypothesis, that hyperarousal contributes to the inability to nap. In fact, even though the analyses did not reach significance for the SSS, PSY-I had higher scores than PARA-I and GS, and the scores of PARA-I on the SSS were greater than GS. These results suggest that after prolonged cognitive testing PSY-I reported being the sleepiest, followed by PARA-I and then GS. So, both groups of INS subjectively reported being sleepy, but they were, in general, unable to nap, which suggests again that hyperarousal predominates over sleepiness in insomnia. That said, it could be suggested that GS were as mentally exhausted as PSY-I and PARA-I after testing, but since they were not as cognitively aroused, they slept better. There is also the possibility that partial sleep deprivation explains napping abilities in GS.
We found significant positive correlations between SE during the night and SE of the nap on the next day. As such, it appears that the better participants slept during the night, the better was their ability to nap the next day. The opposite is also true; a low SE for the night led to a low SE during nap on the following day. These results are difficult to reconcile with the literature presented earlier and with other results. Still, nightly and daily sleep efficiencies varied together only when the total sample was taken as a whole and not when groups were studied independently. It is possible that the few observations in each group lead to a lack of power, hence a lack of within-group significant relationship between night and day. Nonetheless, it is also possible than instead of varying with the present night of sleep, daily SE might vary with the SE of the subsequent night of sleep. As is often acknowledged in CBT-I (in the sleep restriction module and/or sleep hygiene instructions16), napping during the day may well influence or borrow on the following night of sleep in INS but not on the nocturnal SE of GS. Our sample had more GS than INS as a whole and might just reflect this last statement. Still, this hypothesis remains to be tested in a larger sample and also on subsequent days and nights.
In general, the results have shown no significant differences between PSY-I and PARA-I for nap parameters. Even though diagnostic criteria for PSY-I and PARA-I are different,4 there is a possibility that the level of hyperarousal during the day is similar for both groups of INS, which would explain why no significant differences were found between these two groups for objective nap parameters. Also, if levels of hyperarousal are independent of the amount of nocturnal sleep obtained objectively, it would explain the subjective reports of poor sleep in PARA-I.5 Nonetheless, the distinction between PSY-I and PARA-I is not as clear when hyperarousal is taken into account. Future studies on objective nap parameters in INS should take this into consideration and combine PSY-I and PARA-I since there is a possibility that hyperarousal influences to a comparable extent the quality of naps in both types of insomnia. However, this hypothesis also remains to be tested.
The small number of participants in each group limits the interpretations of our results. Therefore, we have to be careful when generalizing and a replication with a larger sample is warranted. Also, to ensure participants actually experienced mental fatigue after completing the battery of cognitive tests, a scale of mental exhaustion should have been used. This would have allowed determining as to whether mental exhaustion contributed to the difficulty in napping in INS. Moreover, we also assume that cognitive testing had an impact on sleep characteristics of naps, but it is possible that the same results would have been obtained in the absence of mentally exhausting tests. Therefore, the presence of a nap not preceded by cognitive testing would have been useful to identify if the results obtained were influenced by the tests or if they had no impact on naps. It would have allowed us to determine if diagnosis alone was sufficient to explain between-group differences on sleep parameters during naps or if prolonged cognitive tests contributed to the results.
To conclude, it seems that INS, independent of type, are more hyperaroused than GS during napping. This observation suggests that the high level of hyperarousal characterizing insomnia influences their functioning not only during the night, but also during the day. Finally, this study contributes to a better understanding of the phenomenon of hyperarousal and gives some insights for future research in the field of insomnia. Additionally, these results confirm once more that insomnia is a 24-hour problem, particularly in the hyperarousal domain. Nonetheless, more studies need to explore nap parameters in a population of INS in order to support these results.
This was not an industry supported study. This study was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR; # 49500, 86571) and les Fonds de Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ; # 23028). The authors have indicated no financial conflicts of interest. The study was conducted at Laboratoire de Neurosciences Comportementales Humaines du Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Québec, Québec, Canada.
The authors thank Sonia Petit for analysing PSG recordings and all the research assistants who helped in cognitive testing and data entry.
American Academy of Sleep Medicine. International classification of sleep disorders, 2nd ed; diagnostic and coding manual. 2005. Westchester, IL: American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Morin CM, author. Insomnia: psychological assessment and management. 1993. New York: Guilford Press.
Gross RT, Borkovec TD, authors. Effects of a cognitive intrusion manipulation on the sleep-onset latency of good sleepers. Behav Ther. 1982;13:112–6.
Beck AT, Steer RA, Brown GK, authors. Manual for Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II). 1996. San Antonio, TX: Psychology Corporation.
Rechtschaffen A, Kales A, authors. A manual of standardized terminology, techniques, and scoring system for sleep stages of human subjects. 1968. Los Angeles: Brain Information Service/Brain Research Institute, University of California.


text:
Samsung One UI 2.0 review: The best (and worst) Android 10 features
This is undeniably still 'Samsung' software, with the latest standards from Google baked in.
Andrew Martonik and Harish Jonnalagadda
One UI 2.0 isn't a big update when you consider that it doesn't have many visual changes, but it includes a ton of features that were introduced in Android 10, including important changes to permissions, notifications, dark mode and more. Samsung also took the opportunity to make a few subtle interface tweaks as well.
The update started rolling out at the start of 2020 for the Galaxy S10 series, and was installed out of the box on the Galaxy S20 series. With millions of Galaxy phones around the world now running One UI 2.0, here's everything you need to know about the update.
Samsung One UI 2.0 review:
Android 10 basics are here
There's a new gesture navigation system
You'll still find legacy UI elements
Battery life is great as always
One UI 3.0 is coming soon
The Galaxy S20 is packing all the features that you care about. The 120Hz AMOLED screen makes it an absolute joy to use the phone, and under the hood you'll find the latest internal hardware. The camera at the back has been overhauled and now comes with 8K video recording, and you get a massive 4000mAh battery.
The Android 10 basics are implemented properly
Source: Android Central
Android 10 isn't the biggest update we've seen, but makes a few important changes to the experience of how every person uses their phone every day. And Samsung did a really good job integrating Google's platform changes into its own system without feeling tacked on or out of place.
Samsung did a great job implementing Google's platform changes without feeling tacked on.
The biggest change in my eyes is the location permission model, which now lets you manage which apps can have access to your device's location — and have the crucial middle ground of "only while using the app." Samsung's implementation is the exact same as you'd find on a Pixel 4, including giving you reminders when apps have been given your location in the background with a quick option to restrict that.
Android 10's notification management has also been carried over whole cloth, giving you better management of individual notification categories in each app. This still necessitates some micromanagement of each app's notifications to get things just right, but the way Android 10 does it straight from the notification shade makes it as easy as it can be right now. And being able to explicitly silence low-priority notifications to show separately in the notification shade makes the management worth it.
Samsung has also thankfully ditched its own dark mode implementation in favor of leaning into Google's. That doesn't make a difference for Samsung's own interface elements, which all look the exact same in Android 10's dark mode as they did in Android 9, but it really matters for third-party apps and widgets. With the proper Android 10 dark mode enabled, you get an immediate flip to the dark mode version of any app or widget that properly targets Android 10 — that means no random jarring switches to bright interfaces.
Figuring out Android 10 gestures with a curved screen
The only part of the core Android 10 experience that's been a bit of a mixed bag is the new gesture system. One small peeve is Samsung for whatever reason chose to have the phone vibrate anytime you use a gesture, which is unnecessary and a little annoying considering the Galaxy S10's less-than-stellar haptics. But functionally, the issue to note here is how the side-based back gesture system combines with Samsung's aggressively curved screens.
The curved screen edge can make it tough to land on the actual edge of the screen as far as the software is concerned, which takes a lot of getting used to. But more frustratingly is what the back gesture zone does to your ability to slide in an edge drawer in an app, which has an even smaller detection area. It's particularly tough when you're using the phone in your right hand and trying to swipe in that drawer on the left — I basically have given up at this point and use my left hand to do so.
Unfortunately, Samsung can't do much to fix this situation — there isn't much that can be done to defeat the physics of that curved edge. It gives you the choice of using traditional back/home/recents buttons, or Samsung's pre-Android 10 bottom-bar gestures, if you'd prefer to use either of those to solve the problem. And if you do choose Android 10's gestures, you can adjust the sensitivity of the back gesture — meaning you can make the system register an edge swipe as a "back" gesture easier, but this only helps with the back gesture, and leaves the slide-in drawer issue just as bad (or worse) because its recognition area is still incredibly small.
It's something you can get used to, just like any other muscle memory change — like never touching the Bixby button, for example — on a new phone. But even after weeks of using my Galaxy S10+ on One UI 2, I still struggle to consistently get the gesture I want on the first try.
It's still Samsung software — for better and worse
Source: Andrew Martonik / Android Central
The biggest thing that will hit you when you update a Samsung phone to One UI 2 is that ... nothing really changed visually. As noted, Android 10's most notable changes are more in the experience and individual features instead of sweeping interface changes. And Samsung didn't use this update to make any big design or feature changes of its own, either.
The biggest thing you'll notice is that the general design is unchanged from Android 9.
There are subtle changes to the lock screen and always-on display, with new options to tweak the look of both. That includes getting fresh photos on the lock screen every time you turn on the screen, and better customization options for the always-on display style. And the confusingly-named "edge lighting" (which actually includes notification pop-ups) has been expanded with its own set of customization options and support for just about every app you'd want.
Nobody should expect this sort of update to bring sweeping camera quality improvements, but Samsung did make a couple changes to the camera app that improves the overall experience. You can customize the main interface by choosing which camera modes go in which places, making it easy to swap between your most-used modes while hiding things you'll never use. You can also now use the dedicated night mode with all three cameras, which is at least a small improvement to the overall experience even though Samsung's low-light quality itself isn't stellar.
There are still a lot of ways that Samsung could stand to modernize its software.
There are still a lot of ways that Samsung could stand to modernize its software, even though its interface is actually running on the latest platform version. The One UI 2 launcher still feels stuck in the past with overdone animations and clunky folders, its notification shade is a bit too spaced out with unnecessary interface elements, and you can still get stuck in multiple levels of settings pages just trying to get simple things done.
This is both good and bad, of course, because nothing can be simple when it comes to supporting a customer base this large. Samsung has to balance making improvements, which are ostensibly providing ongoing value to customers who crave getting the latest and greatest, while not rocking the boat too much for the general consumer who just wants their phone to keep working the way they expect. Hopefully a forthcoming smaller update that brings the visual changes and features launched with the Galaxy S20 can provide a nice addition to the underlying changes made in this One UI 2 release.
Battery life and performance don't take a hit
I've had a mixed history with Samsung software updates, having dealt with some that really mess with the phone's performance. A couple times the situation was bad enough to require a factory reset to sort out, which is never a fun process. Thankfully, that hasn't been the case (so far) with my Galaxy S10+.
It's always a relief when you can apply a full platform update with no ill effects.
This isn't a fresh-out-of-the-box phone, either — I've been using this GS10+ for months, and I haven't factory reset it once since getting it nearly a year ago. Even with dozens of apps installed and all of my data, the One UI 2 update slotted into place perfectly with no noticeable impact on performance or battery life.
Of course this is what you'd expect to happen, especially with a latest-generation phone, but I'm still happy to report anytime I can apply a full platform update with no ill effects. I know there are big differences in how each person has their phone set up and which apps they have installed, but I hope my experience is representative of what everyone else experiences.
One UI 3.0 is coming very soon
Samsung is now readying the One UI 3.0 update based on Android 11. One UI 3.0 promises to deliver a host of new features and tweaks to the UI, and it will offer all the new features in Android 11.
With Samsung now committing to three Android version updates for its flagships and select mid-range phones, more users will be able to receive updates for longer. If your phone is running One UI 2.0, it is likely to receive the update to One UI 3.0 once it becomes available in a few months.
Get More Galaxy S20
Samsung Galaxy S20, S20+ & S20 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy S20+ review
The best Galaxy S20 cases
The best Galaxy S20 screen protectors
The best Galaxy S20+ cases
The best Galaxy S20+ screen protectors
The best Galaxy S20 Ultra cases
The best Galaxy S20 Ultra screen protectors
From $1000 at Amazon
long-term problem
New report highlights cause of global chip shortage, no relief in sight
The U.S. Department of Commerce releases its findings after inquiring about semiconductor supply chain issues.
another year, another phone
Everything you need to know about the upcoming Galaxy S22 series
Samsung's leaky offices have already given plenty of hints of what the S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra could look like. Do you want a tiny S22 flagship or a Note-replacing S22 Ultra with an S Pen? Both could be within your grasp come early 2022.
2022 flagship
Samsung confirms Galaxy Unpacked date and time for Galaxy S22 reveal
Samsung announced its next Galaxy Unpacked launch event for early February, where the company is expected to launch the Galaxy S22 series.
Pick your color
Which color Galaxy Watch Active 2 looks best on your wrist?
Looking to grab the old Galaxy Watch Active 2 now that prices have dropped? If so, join the club. We've provided a breakdown of the color options so you can choose the best for your style.
Andrew Martonik
Andrew was an Executive Editor, U.S. at Android Central between 2012 and 2020. You can reach him on Twitter at @andrewmartonik.
Harish Jonnalagadda
Harish Jonnalagadda is the Asia Editor at Android Central. A reformed hardware modder, he now spends his time writing about India's technology revolution. Previously, he used to ponder the meaning of life at IBM. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


So, someone did Jingai Shunman 5 before me. Looking at it, besides the typos, I don't really see anything wrong with it. I wouldn't have worded some things like he did, but that's just my personal preference. So, I won't be doing my own version.
Please, enjoy; I certainly did when I first read it a while back. The bat girl was incredibly cute despite border-lining my attractiveness scale thanks to the anorexic look.
This entry was posted in General and tagged Monster Girl, Niku Drill. Bookmark the permalink.
That's fine, we still love you.
Oh, no! I don't want that, if there's a fine scanlation for it already, I'm quite happy. Hell, I hadn't even been able to start on my translation, so there isn't even any wasted work.
I will admit, I'm slightly disappointed at not being able to work on it myself (since I enjoyed the story quite a bit), but reading has always been a far more enjoyable experience for me than translating, and reading in English is a lot easier to me than Japanese. So, thank you. Your work was quite enjoyable.
here is latest SHD will you translate it??


text:
Q: DOCTYPE in the head of the page causes session_problem i had this error in my site:
Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter -
headers already sent (output started at /home/rentedco/public_html/try6.php:2) in
/home/rentedco/public_html/try6.php on line 2

i have created a simple php file containing only the beggining of the other pages:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<?php session_start();
echo 'fsdf';
?>

and i discovered that if i remove the DOCTYPE i dont get this problem anymore, my problem is that i dont want to ruin something else by removing this header.
can i remove it? can i pt it after the session_start call?

A: Yeah, putting the doctype out there pushes data onto the PHP output buffer, but the session_start() requires writing cookie data to the header. The doctype is part of the HTML page, and not the header, so it should be safe to put it in after the session_start().

A: session_start() should always be written at the beginning or else it will not work same as header() function.

A: Session start has to be called before any output gets sent to the browser change your code to
<?php session_start(); ?><!DOCTYPE html>
<?php
    echo "fsdf";

A: Try this idea. You can start and stop the php interpreter as many times as you like, but session_start() must happen before your start sending any html to the browser.
<?php
    session_start();
?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
....
....
</head>
<body>
<?php
    echo 'fsdf';
?>
</body>
</html>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
For debate in the Standing Committee see Rule 47
Pour débat à la Commision permanente – Voir article 47 du Règlement
Doc. 8098
Budgets of the Council of Europe for the financial years 1998 and 1999
Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme
Rapporteur: Mr Miguel Angel Martínez, Spain, Socialist Group
Each year, the Parliamentary Assembly transmits to the Committee of Ministers its opinion on the Council of Europe's budget for the current year (1998) and on that for the following year (1999).
As regards the 1998 budget, the Assembly notes that after the substantial budget increase approved for the 1997 financial year, the 1998 budget is characterised by relative stand-still. It also regrets that the Committee of Ministers was not able to finance a greater part of the Assembly's requests for its own budget (vote III).
With respect to the 1999 budget, the Assembly welcomes the fact that for the first time, it has been able to formulate its Opinion after having received the Secretary General's initial proposals for the budget of the coming year. It looks forward to further collaboration with the Committee of Ministers in the future on budgetary matters.
In general, the Assembly questions whether the level of the budget proposed by the Secretary General can provide adequately for the implementation of the decisions and proposals resulting from the 2nd Summit and whether it is consistent with the pan-European vocation of the Organisation. In particular, it calls upon the Committee of Ministers to make an exceptional provision for the Organisation's 50th Anniversary, to review financing arrangements for the Council's pension scheme, to consider translation arrangements with regard to working languages and to continue review of personal policy.
Finally, the Assembly calls upon the Committee of Ministers to continue its work towards structural reform, notably in the light of advice from the Committee of Wise Persons.
1. Draft opinion
1. The Assembly welcomes the fact that, in accordance with the Committee of Ministers' reply, adopted on 16 April 1998, to Recommendation 1344 (1997) on enlargement of the Council of Europe: the budgetary and administrative powers of the Assembly, for the first time, the formal document by the Secretary General on budgetary prospects and the proposal for the ceiling has been transmitted for information to the Assembly's Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme.
2. The Assembly also notes with satisfaction the intention of the Committee of Ministers to hold an exchange of views with the Assembly before taking the final decision on the budgetary ceiling, and that it envisages regular consultation with the Assembly on all issues of common interest in the budgetary and administrative fields.
3. However, the Assembly believes that these welcome initiatives could still further be improved upon were the mechanisms for consultation to be more clearly defined. The Assembly also considers that in so replying to Recommendation 1344 (1997), the Committee of Ministers has only partially satisfied the Assembly's request for control over its own budget. It therefore takes this opportunity to reiterate this request.
4. With regard to the 1998 budget,
i. notes that after the substantial budget increase and additional posts approved for the 1997 financial year, the 1998 budget is characterised by relative standstill, with the Ordinary Budget increasing by just over 15 MF (1.51%) compared with the 1997 consolidated budget (ordinary budget plus the extraordinary supplement to the 1997 budget).
ii. welcomes the clarity and transparency brought about incorporating the unspent appropriations of the 1996 financial year in the budget of receipts.
iii. regrets that the Committee of Ministers was not able to finance a greater part of the Assembly's requests for its own budget (Vote III), where an increase of 1 MF was granted in comparison with a request of just over 6 MF.
5. With regard to the budget prospects for 1999,
i. notes that the Secretary General's current proposals for the 1999 budget, would increase the Ordinary Budget by some 50.6 MF to a total of 1 061.8 MF, ie by precisely 5%,
ii. notes also that this increase would be used to finance
- inflation and statutory adjustments (15.9MF)
- new needs of the Single Court (9.7 MF)
- follow-up to the 2nd Summit (25 MF)
and that for other new needs the Secretary General proposes to adhere to the principle that such expenditure be financed within the total of the previous year's budget,
iii. notes that in his document 'Preliminary estimate for 1999 of additional costs arising from implementing decisions of the Summit', the Secretary General advanced an estimate of between 32.1 MF and 48.9 MF for the Ordinary Budget, but proposes budgetary resources of only 25 MF for this purpose,
iv. notes that these estimates include no financial provision for activities to be carried out by the Assembly, and indeed contain only one proposal for such an activity – the conference on terrorism (Summer 1998),
v. notes that with the sole exception of reference to activities coming naturally to term within the framework of the Intergovernmental Programme of Activities, the Secretary General's proposals for re-deployment of existing resources are limited to the savings that could be made if the health insurance of staff were to be provided by a private insurer, and not the French national scheme,
vi. notes that at this stage, little detailed information is available as to the proposed apportionment of the budget between the various sectors – Assembly, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Intergovernmental Programme of Activities, etc., and neither is there mention of staffing policy,
vii. notes that no follow-up is proposed to the recommendation of the Assembly, contained in its Opinion No. 203 (1997), that the Committee of Ministers set up a guarantee fund to guarantee payment of pensions.
6. In the light of the foregoing, and of its recommendations in previous years, the Assembly calls upon the Committee of Ministers
i. to examine whether the level of the budget proposed by the Secretary General can adequately provide for the full implementation of the decisions and proposals resulting from the Second Summit and is consistent with the truly pan-European vocation of the Organisation,
ii. to pay close heed to the legitimate concerns and wishes of the staff when examining any proposal for alteration of their health insurance system,
iii. to consider alternative financing arrangements for the Council's pension scheme, so as to alleviate the increasing budgetary impact of the states' share of the cost of the scheme and to provide the staff with the guaranteed rights earned by their contributions to the scheme,
iv. to make adequate financial provision for events and activities to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Organisation, whilst at the same time taking care that this exceptional item of expenditure should not be to the detriment of recurrent activities and other priorities,
v. to consider, in the light of increasing use of working languages, providing the Organisation with an in situ translation capacity between those languages and the Organisation's official languages,
vi. to continue to re-assess all of the organisation's activities so they constitute as concrete a response as possible to member states' most pressing needs,
vii. to continue its review of personnel policy (flexible job management, leaving allowances, early retirement, creation of temporary posts or short-term established posts),
viii. to continue to work towards structural reform, particularly in the light of the recommendations of the Committee of Wise Persons, so as to maximise efficiency and optimise use of resources.
II. Explanatory report by the rapporteur
1. Each year, the Assembly is required to submit an opinion to the Committee of Ministers on the political implications of the Council of Europe budget as a whole. The Assembly's opinion makes general recommendations on the Council's operation, which are based on:
i. the budget for the current year (1998)
ii. budget forecasts for the following year (1999).
2. This year I particularly welcome the fact that, in accordance with the Committee of Ministers' reply, adopted on 16 April 1998, to Recommendation No. 1344 (1997) on Enlargement of the Council of Europe: the budgetary and administrative powers of the Assembly, for the first time, the formal document by the Secretary General on budgetary prospects and the proposal for the ceiling (CM (98) 51) has been transmitted for information to the Assembly's Committee on the budget and the intergovernmental work programme.
3. I also note with satisfaction, the intention of the Committee of Ministers to hold an exchange of views with the Assembly before taking the final decision on the budgetary ceiling, and that it envisages regular consultation with the Assembly on all issues of common interest in the budgetary and administrative fields.
4. However, I believe that these welcome initiatives could still further be improved upon were the mechanisms for consultation to be more clearly defined. I also consider that in so replying to Recommendation No. 1344 (1997), the Committee of Ministers has only partially satisfied the Assembly's request for control over its own budget. I therefore take this opportunity to reiterate this request.
B. 1998 budget
i. General remarks
5. I first note that after the substantial budget increase and additional posts approved for the 1997 financial year, the 1998 is characterised by relative standstill, with the Ordinary Budget increasing by just over 15 MF (1.51%) compared with the 1997 consolidated budget (ordinary budget plus the extraordinary supplement to the 1997 budget).
6. I welcome the clarity and transparency brought about incorporating the unspent appropriations of the 1996 financial year in the budget of receipts, but am bound to observe, with regret, that the Committee of Ministers was not able to finance a greater part of the Assembly's requests for its own budget (Vote III), where an increase of 1 MF was granted in comparison with the Assembly's request of just over 6 MF.
ii. Breakdown by votes
7. The breakdown of the 1998 ordinary budget by votes is given in Appendix I.
8. With regard to the Assembly's own appropriations, Vote III, I regret that the Committee of Ministers was not able to finance a greater part of the Assembly's requests and granted an increase of only 1 MF, in comparison with a request of just over 6 MF.
9. It should be noted that appropriations under Vote IV (operational expenditure of the European Court and Commission of Human Rights), provision has been made for first months of the coming into service of the Single Court.
10. 1 also note with satisfaction that the Committee of Ministers has granted a very significant increase, some 1.25 MF, and has up-graded a vacant A2/A3 post to A4 in respect of the European Committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In this connection, I recall that in Recommendation No. 1323 (1997) on the strengthening of this Committee's machinery, the Assembly called for increase of the human and budgetary resources of this Committee.
11. For 1998, programmes under Vote II amount to 88 189 000 F, a marginal increase of about 0.39% over the 1997 figure. Appropriations for permanent and temporary staff, the cost of premises, production of documents and administrative expenses are made under Vote I (common expenditure). Appendix II shows the programme's budget for the financial years 1997 and 1998.
12. Appendix III shows the Partial Agreement budgets granted for 1998, as compared with the 1997 appropriations.
C. 1998 budget
13. The draft budget for 1999, as proposed by the Secretary General, would increase the Ordinary Budget by some 50.6 MF to a total of 1 061.8 MF, ie by precisely 5%, with this increase being used to finance
For other new needs the Secretary General proposes to adhere to the principle that such expenditure would be financed within the total of the previous year's budget. I note however that in his document 'Preliminary estimate for 1999 of additional costs arising from implementing decisions of the Summit' (CM(98)26, appended to CM(98)51), the Secretary General advanced an estimate of between 32.1 MF and 48.9 MF for the Ordinary Budget, but proposes budgetary resources of only 25 MF for this purpose.
14. I also note that the proposals contained within document CM(98)26 include no financial provision for activities to be carried out by the Assembly, and indeed contain only one proposal for such an activity – the conference on terrorism (Summer 1998).
15. I feel bound to question whether the level of the budget proposed by the Secretary General can adequately provide for the full implementation of the decisions and proposals resulting from the 2nd Summit and is consistent with the truly pan-European vocation of the Organisation.
16. I note as well that with the sole exception of reference to activities coming naturally to term within the framework of the Intergovernmental Programme of Activities, the Secretary General's proposals for re-deployment of existing resources are limited to the savings that could be made if the health insurance of staff were to be provided by a private insurer, and not the French national scheme.
In this latter connection, I consider it vital to pay close heed to the legitimate concerns and wishes of the staff when examining any proposal for alteration of their health insurance system.
17. At this stage, little detailed information is available from the Secretary General as to the proposed apportionment of the budget between the various sectors – Assembly, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Intergovernmental Programme of Activities, etc., and neither is there mention of staffing policy. In these regards, I consider important that the organisation pursue its review of personnel policy (flexible job management, leaving allowances, early retirement, creation of temporary posts or short-term established posts, etc.), that it continue to re-assess the organisation's activities so they constitute as concrete a response as possible to member States' most pressing needs, and that work towards structural reform be continued, particularly in the light of the advice of the Committee of Wise Persons, so as to maximise efficiency and optimise use of resources.
18. For the moment, the Secretary General signals no intent to follow-up the recommendation of the Assembly, contained in its Opinion No. 203 (1997), that the Committee of Ministers set up a guarantee fund to guarantee payment of pensions. I therefore recommend very strongly that consideration be given to alternative financing arrangements for the Council's pension scheme, so as to alleviate the increasing budgetary impact of the States' share of the cost of the scheme and to provide the staff with the guaranteed rights earned by their contributions to the scheme.
19. I also consider it necessary, in the light of increasing use of working languages, to recommend that the Organisation be provided with an in situ translation capacity between those languages and the Organisations official languages.
20. Lastly, I would urge that the Organisation's budgetary authorities make adequate financial provision for events and activities to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Organisation, whilst at the same time taking care that this exceptional item of expenditure should not be to the detriment of recurrent activities and other priorities.
ORDINARY BUDGET 1998
BREAKDOWN BY VOTE
(in thousands of French francs)
in FRF
VOTE I
+ 1,88%
VOTE II
VOTE III
VOTE IV
VOTE V
VOTE VI
+ 18,16%
VOTE VII
VOTE VIII
VOTE IX
not significant
VOTE X
TOTAL BUDGET
(*) Consolidation of the ordinary budget and the extraordinary supplement to the ordinary budget
Appendix II
BUDGET OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL PROGRAMME OF ACTIVITIES FOR 1997 AND 1998
Intergovernmental programme of activities
General reserve
I. Democratic cohesion
- Democracy
- Human rights
- Rule of law
II. Social cohesion and quality of life
- Social policies
- Health
- Environment and rational
regional/spatial management
III. Cultural cohesion and cultural pluralism
- Education, higher education, culture and heritage
- Youth
TOTAL VOTE II
Appendix III
PARTIAL AGREEMENTS
Partial Agreement in the Social and Public Health Field
European Pharmacopoeia *
Social Development Fund
Pompidou Group
Eurimages Fund:
- operational expenditure
- programme expenditure
European Commission for Democracy through Law
Partial Agreement on the Youth Card
Enlarged Partial Agreement Establishing the European Centre for Modern Languages
(Graz)**
*Pharmacopoeia: including "development, research and multimedia" subsidiary budget (1998).
** "Graz" Partial Agreement: 1998, Austria, France and the Netherlands cease to make an additional contribution to the special programme account
Reporting committee: Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme.
Budgets of the Council of Europe for the financial years 1998 and 1999.
Reference to committee: Standing mandate.
Draft opinion adopted by the committee on 21 April 1998.
Members of the committee: MM. Schreiner (Chairman), Theis, Goovaerts, Koulouris (Vice-Chairmen), Aleffi, Anusz, Atac, Begaj, Behrendt, Ms Bielikova, MM Bordas, Bulic, Ms Calner, MM Cangemi, Cherep, Fernandez Aguilar (Alternate : M. Martinez), Gill, Gregory, Jonsson, Kittis, Kriedner, Ms Luhtanen, MM. Luis, de Marco, Mautner Markhof, Muravschi, Ms Novakova, MM Oorzhak, Pantelejevs (Alternate : M. Lambergs), Plattner, Lord Ponsonby, MM Popovski, Rise, Rupar, Soendergaard, Stanoiu, Stoyanova, Szalay, Valk, Zhirinovsky.
NB The names of members who took part in the meeting are printed in italics.
Secretary of the committee: T. Cartwright.


text:
46th annual Greasing of the Poles means Fat Tuesday just around corner
5 years 11 months 1 week ago Friday, February 05 2016 Feb 5, 2016 February 05, 2016 4:50 PM February 05, 2016 in News
By: Brock Sues
NEW ORLEANS - The French Quarter's annual Greasing of the Poles was held Friday morning, kicking off one of the biggest party weekends in the Big Easy as Carnival really gets going.
It was the 46th iteration of the event, held at the Royal Sonesta on Bourbon Street. The tradition was initially started to keep rowdy revelers from scaling the poles to gain access to balconies during Mardi Gras. Now, it has become a major event that draws huge crowds, comprised of tourists and locals alike, every year.
"It really has become the kickoff to the great Mardi Gras weekend. Ten o'clock every year on Friday. It's a tradition. It's just gotten bigger and bigger," said Al Groos, the general manager of the Royal Sonesta. "New Orleanians have a great sense of humor, so this event fits right in."
When the clock struck 10 this morning, burlesque dancers dressed in sassy versions of French Revolution period costumes were there to kick off the festivities, which bear the theme of "Let Them Eat Cake" this year.


Took my camera and the longest zoom lens I have and went for a walk in the snow looking for a good subject for a zoomed in landscape. I thought this one would be easy but it actually proved more challenging than I expected since how do you do a zoomed in landscape and highlight the fact that it's zoomed in? Eventually I decided to revisit a spot I went to for week 2's traditional landscape and redo it but this time zoom in and use the trees to frame Signal Hill. It worked out well, obviously a landscape and the trees framing it show I'm zoomed in. Since I've visited this spot in Autumn and now Winter maybe I should revisit it again in Spring and Summer to complete the set, a challenge within a challenge.
Finally, yes, this is week 14. What happened to week 13? Well I had to skip week 13 since I know exactly what I want to do for that shot but I need some new flash gear that is on it's way, somewhere between Montreal and here. Yes I could do something else but this is a style of portrait I want to learn so I'm waiting. Hopefully it arrives before Week 15 and I'll do the shot then.
As promised yesterday when I finally posted Week 11, here is the image for Week 12. Since week 13 starts tomorrow this just about puts me back on schedule.
This week is Artistic Transportation so I kept an eye out for something different and found it when I went sledding with my daughter. We bought a blue sled and spent some time going down a little hill in our garden. She is 3 and I am Irish so neither of us are experienced sledders, small hills suit us just fine. After a while she got bored and started playing with the snow so I took the chance to take some photos of the sled coming down the hill to try and get just the blue sled on the white snow. Took a few attempts pushing it up the hill with one hand and holding the camera in the other to grab the shots as is slid back down. Got this one which matched what I had in mind, plus had the slide marks in the snow to give some context.
This one is very late. I should have posted it before Christmas but with all the holiday commitments, a photoshoot and just being laid back over the holidays I couldn't find a suitable subject. A couple of months ago I was surrounded by mirror smooth ponds and loads of reflections. Now the ponds are frozen and snow covered and all the glass seems to have a layer of salt.
Last night I went to our local camera club (Camera35) and one of the other members had taken a self portrait at home reflected in a Christmas ornament on his tree. That gave me the idea for this shot. I took a ball from the tree at home and hung it on a tree on a path near work.
I've already got the next photo, I was waiting to get this one and post them in the correct order, but I'll post that tomorrow.
The first proper snow of the winter fell last night. It's just the start and if the forecast is correct it'll probably be gone by the weekend but it was enough to get me out at lunch time to take some photos around work. The snow isn't deep but it's cold, -15 wind chill. As the winter goes on the lake will freeze over, last year people played hockey on it. I'm hoping to get some photos if something similar happens this year.
One of the local novelty attractions of the year is the frozen waterfall down at Middle Cove beach. I finally got down to it at the weekend to take some shots before it melted. Unfortunately many others had the same idea and there was a constant flow of people taking photos and selfies in front of the falls. Thankfully I had thrown my long exposure filters in the bag before leaving and decided to set up for 2 minute exposures which blurred out most of the people except those who stood in the same spot. That happened in this shot but what was weird was the fact that it appears the person standing in the shot didn't move a muscle for at least a minute of the two. I don't remember anyone like that, a couple of other photographers with monopods and the like but none where someone just stood arms at their sides. It's a bit spooky.
On a side note, I recently had a bit of a problem with my WordPress installs, they got wiped in an upgrade and though my hosting provider manager to restore from their own backups I still took the opportunity to revamp the template for my blog. Then because I am a real glutton for punishment I decided to reformat my laptop so it took me a while to get back up to speed again, especially since I forgot to copy over my Lightroom Presets and Templates, which are not stored with the catalogs, so I had to go hunting through Time Machine backups. Lesson learned.