text:
Gov. Jerry Brown's gifts not as expensive,…
Gov. Jerry Brown's gifts not as expensive, exotic as Governor Schwarzenegger's
In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown speaks at a news conference in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
By Bay Area News Group and Steven Harmon |
SACRAMENTO — Compared to the torrent of gifts that cascaded into former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office and famously muscle-bound arms, Gov. Jerry Brown's gifts have been a mere trickle.
And Brown's aren't nearly as exotic, according to the latest disclosures from California's public officials.
Schwarzenegger routinely reported about $15,000 in gifts a year, including a Giorgio Armani bathrobe (from Armani himself), a $350 pair of boots from designer Tommy Hilfiger, $250 worth of fancy cigars from motivational speaker Tony Robbins, a $325 crystal eagle head from the president of France, and a talking Terminator skull from "Terminator 3" producers Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar.
Other celebrities bearing gifts included Tom Arnold, Danny DeVito and Clint Eastwood.
In contrast, Brown last year hauled in $2,545 in gifts from the not-nearly-as-rich-and-famous, according to new economic interests statements filed with the state's Fair Political Practices Commission.
His presents included a $150 ticket to a Los Angeles Lakers game from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; a $185 bottle of tequila from Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz, the governor of Nuevo León, Mexico; a $250 ticket to the White House Correspondents Dinner from Newsweek; $58 White House cuff links from wine CEO John DeLuca; a framed New York Times article valued at $185; gifts to "first dog" Sutter and a bottle of whiskey, for a combined value of $156, from Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland; an $84.49 box of candy from U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein; and a $259.26 dinner from Samsung.
The framed article, a gift of the Times, is a Maureen Dowd column written just after Brown took office in 2011. Headlined "Governor Brown Redux — The Ice Man Melteth." The column hangs in a hallway by the governor's office.
Brown accepted two flights worth $3,713 — from Oakland to Los Angeles, and from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. — at the expense of the California State Protocol Foundation, an organization that takes private donations to provide air travel for the governor. On one of the flights, Brown flew in a private charter to meet with the then-vice president of China in Los Angeles. The foundation was once run by business leaders who bankrolled Schwarzenegger's multiple flights — costing in the millions — around the world. Today, the account's balance is $30,000, according to George Kieffer, the director of the foundation.
"Sometimes it's appropriate, polite and hospitable to accept certain things, but the governor certainly hasn't made a practice out of it," said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor. Brown, sensitive to the criticism that rained on Schwarzenegger for what some said was luxurious globe-trotting, explained in his filing that he accepted the free travel "in order to eliminate these costs for taxpayers."
Some Bay Area legislators hauled in more than the governor last year.
Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, spent $3,706 on a trip to a Maui conference, as the Bay Area News Group reported last month. The Pacific Policy Research Foundation, a nonprofit group funded by lobbyists, bolstered her travel experience, paying $2,417 more in expenses for her trip. In all, Bonilla received $5,918 in travel expenses from interest groups in 2012.
In the South Bay, Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Mountain View, accepted $2,453 in gifts — including a $350 reception, in which he was accompanied by his daughter, from the San Francisco 49ers. He also accepted a $2,492 by the Independent Voter Project in travel and hotel accommodations to attend that group's panel discussion on election issues in San Diego.
In all, 22 Bay Area legislators in 2012 received hundreds of gifts, including paid travel expenses, worth $73,210, an average of $3,328.
There's a $440 per item limit on what legislators can accept, though groups can lavish unlimited amounts for travel expenses — but the effect can be outsize, said Phillip Ung, lobbyist for California Common Cause, a watchdog group that scrutinizes money in politics.
"We think gifts have the same, if not more, influence as campaign contributions," Ung said. "It's a means of special interests to influence or corrupt the votes of elected officials."
While campaign contributions at least have the rationale of financing campaigns, "the sole purpose of gifts to public officials is to influence," Ung added. "It's a way to build friendships and camaraderie" with the hopes of a payoff down the line.
Sometimes candidates accept gifts from special interests even before they come to the Capitol.
Such was the case in October, when then-aspiring Assemblyman Jim Frazier landed a front-row seat at AT&T Park in San Francisco, courtesy of PG&E. He was in baseball heaven as he watched his beloved Giants shut out the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League title-clinching seventh game that sent his team to the World Series.
The game was a couple of weeks before Election Day, when the former Oakley mayor captured a seat in the newly drawn 11th Assembly District, which includes parts of Contra Costa County.
In an interview, Frazier said that attending the game was a "once in a lifetime opportunity." He said the PG&E ticket was worth several hundred dollars but that he later "paid down" all but $200 with his own money, which elected officials have 30 days to do.
During the campaign, he received $7,800 in contributions from PG&E. But he insisted that neither the subsidized ticket nor the contributions "will ever sway my opinion" on any issues.
The Giants game "wasn't about visiting or being chummy" with PG&E representatives," he said. "It was about me, after a long campaign, having a chance to enjoy something."
Contact Steven Harmon at 916-441-2101. Follow him at Twitter.com/ssharmon. Read the Political Blotter at IBAbuzz.com/politics.
giftS FOR THE GOVERNORS
Well-wishers, celebrities and world leaders once lavished presents on former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who routinely received $15,000 in gifts annually. But they've apparently got the message that Gov. Jerry Brown would rather do without them. He accepted only $2,545 in gifts last year.
Here's a comparison of the kinds of gifts they received:
Schwarzenegger: $350 pair of boots from designer Tommy Hilfiger; $250 worth of cigars from motivational speaker Tony Robbins; a $325 crystal eagle head from the president of France; a talking Terminator skull.
Brown: a $150 ticket to a Los Angeles Lakers game from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; a $185 bottle of tequila from Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz, the governor of Nuevo León, Mexico; a $250 ticket to the White House Correspondents Dinner from Newsweek; $58 White House cuff links from wine CEO John DeLuca; gifts to "first dog" Sutter and a bottle of whiskey, for a combined value of $156, from Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland
Source: Fair Political Practices Commission
Steven Harmon


A North Belfast play park that is in the process of being refurbished has been attacked by vandals.On Tuesday night (November 15) vandals broke into the fencing around the play park at Alexandra Park and damaged new surfacing, which is currently a building site.
The play park is in the process of being modernised and is part of a wider scheme to improve facilities.
Earlier this year a 'peace gate' was installed in the peace wall to allow local residents access to both parts of the park. The peace wall was erected in 1994 and the park is the only one in Western Europe to be divided in two.
Local Sinn Féin councillor Conor Maskey condemned the vandalism.
"A lot of very positive work has gone on in the Park over the last 18 months – not least the groundbreaking move in opening the wall dividing the park," he said.
"All of this work is being done with the vision in mind that Alexandra Park is a rich asset for North Belfast citizens, somewhere people can come to relax and play.


Lambeth CACS is a Tier 3 child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS). We provide assessment, treatment and care for young people, aged 0-18, who have moderate to severe mental health difficulties which impact on their functioning. We also will see young people and their families where substance misuse is co-occurring with a mental health disorder. To be seen in the service all children and young people must be registered with a Lambeth GP.
We offer clinic based mental health services in the community (35 Black Prince Road, Kennington London SE11 6JJ).
The team is multi-disciplinary and includes child and adolescent psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, community psychiatric nurses, child psychotherapists, occupational therapists, as well as creative therapists. We are an IAPT service and we offer individual and family interventions, psychological therapies including talk therapies, creative therapies and medication management in line with NICE guidelines.


Based on what we have learned from the past and our vision on the TV domain we have defined three starting points for the GUI design of the 5.* version.
We see our tribler client as a platform. For example for users and content. This means a more unobtrusive position for Tribler. This has led to a grey-scale colour palette and functionalities that enable users to personalize their profile in a extensive way.
Functionalities in Tribler are growing and with our modular approach developers from outside will be able to add functionalities as well. This means that each user can choose the functionalities that are relevant for its needs, apart from that our client will have a policy to show some functionalities only when a user behaves in a specific way.
P2P is growing towards a mature technology that can substitute the server client architecture without the user to notice. This means instant video and audio playback without hick-ups, ending in a user experience where there is no difference for the user between having content available on your computer or in the network. This means that a user's cognitive model of a media player (such as itunes, windows media player, winamp) is very useful to browse to the infinite availability of content in the p2p network.
functionality: FIND | ENJOY | SHARE (see the tribler frontpage).
open the firewall protection of a users router.


Tragedy • From officers killed in the line of duty to domestic violence fatalities, more Utahns died at the hands of others than in 2015.
As 2016 came to a close, at least 63 people had died in Utah at the hands of others, according to an unofficial list compiled by The Salt Lake Tribune.
Douglas Barney, 44 • Jan. 17. A Unified police officer shot by a fugitive parolee following a Holladay car crash. The man allegedly responsible for Barney's death, 31-year-old Cory Lee Henderson, subsequently died in the exchange of gunfire with police.
Shellise Geter, 37 • Jan. 27. Found strangled in her Salt Lake City home. Mustafa Aldoma, 26, who allegedly told police he killed her, was charged with murder.
Jazmyn Jeppson, 21 • Feb. 1. Killed when a man fleeing police crashed his car into hers in Davis County. The man, Anthony Santos Cruz, 27, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to prison.
Chandler Cooper, 22 • Feb 11. Hikers found his body dumped in the weeds near the Saltair resort. Though police have not disclosed the manner of his death, they believe he was the victim of a homicide.
Armando Cuerca-Curiel, 17; Lauro Lopez-Salinas, 19; Angel Lopez-Salinas, 20 • Feb. 18. The three men, two of whom were brothers, were shot and killed during an alleged drug-related altercation inside an SUV in South Salt Lake. Gerald Grant, 20, and Mahad Omar, 22, were charged with murder.
Jose Fernandez, 37 • Feb. 22. Died days after being shot in the head at his Park City home. James Enoch Henfling, 27, was charged with murder.
Hope Gabaldon, 21 • Feb. 25. Stabbed, thrown from a car and run over in West Valley City, she died from her injuries at a hospital. Sergio Briseno Medina was charged with murder.
Mary Palley, 73 • March 8. Shot at her Logan home by her 82-year-old husband, who then shot himself.
Jeffrey Ray Vigil, 24 • March 14. Stabbed at the Utah State Prison by fellow inmates who are allegedly members of a rival gang. Ramon Luis Rivera, 31, and Albert Collin Fernandez, 38, were charged with murder.
Jose Javier Fernandez, 18 • April 7. Shot at his Salt Lake City home by William Armstrong P-Graham, 21, who wrongly believed Fernandez was sleeping with his girlfriend. P-Graham and co-defendants James Wellah Williams, 21, and Gaethan Laguerre, 26, all pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to prison.
Desiree Shotwell, 42 • April 9. Shot by her boyfriend during a domestic dispute at her Beaver County home. Ronald Corey Fordham, 42, pleaded guilty to her murder and was sentenced to prison at his initial court appearance.
Calvin Leon Hallstrom, 58 • April 28. Allegedly stabbed by his son, Shane Alan Hallstrom, in Smithfield after they met to go to dinner. Shane Hallstrom was charged with murder.
Ethan Antes, 18 months • May 1. Fatally injured by his stepfather on April 29 at their Millcreek area home, and died at a hospital two days later. Codey Levi Jolley, 28, pleaded guilty to child-abuse homicide and was sentenced to prison.
John Williams, 72 • May 22. Died in a fire at his Salt Lake City home allegedly set by his estranged husband, Craig Crawford, 47. Crawford was charged with murder and arson.
Amanda Rose Garcia, 33 • May 23. Allegedly stabbed by her boyfriend's brother at their West Valley City home. Justin VanCleave, 19, was charged with murder.
Mauricio Martinez, 31 • May 27. Allegedly shot and killed in Salt Lake City. His body was found in an abandoned car in Cottonwood Heights. Jorge Arturo Castanon-Serrano, 35; Lucas Troy Nielson, 37; Alfredo Lolani, 26; and Marco Antonio Garcia, 26, were charged with murder.
Natalia Casagrande, 24 • May 31. Allegedly shot and killed in her Magna home by a man who regularly bought marijuana from her husband. Jason Alan Black, 27, was charged with murder.
Madison Haan, 20; Tyler Christianson, 19 • June 3. The pair were in a car in Roy when a 16-year-old girl allegedly crashed an SUV into them in an alleged attempt to commit suicide. Marilee Patricia Gardner was charged in adult court with two counts of murder.
Siri Anderson, 1 • June 7. Died from dehydration due to neglect while in the care of her father, David Lewis Anderson, 37, of Monroe, who was charged with child-abuse homicide.
Marco Carmona, 57 • June 8. Allegedly strangled by his son at his Provo home, who then placed his body in a freezer. Omar Carmona, 27, was charged with murder.
Paris Gustin, 16 • July 5. Killed in a Salt Lake City drive-by shooting. Police have named persons of interest but have made no arrests.
Abril Izazaga, 15; Jose Izazaga, 16 • July 6. The sister and brother were shot outside their Midvale apartment. Mario Cervantes-Angel, 28, was charged with murder.
Marvin Lopez, 24 • July 10. The victim of a drive-by shooting in Kearns. Police have not reported any leads in the case and say the investigation is open.
David Perea, 38 • July 12. Stabbed in his Magna home by his neighbor, Jared Ryan Groves, 35, who later fatally stabbed himself.
Greysen Rodriguez, 20 months • July 15. Allegedly abused at a Taylorsville home by his mother's boyfriend, Colossal Teton, 33, who was charged with murder.
Steven Conlon, 29 • July 20. Shot outside a West Jordan home. The case remains under investigation.
Marcela Aragon, 66 • July 22. Allegedly assaulted at her Tooele home by her son, Jesus Eldon Aragon, who has been charged with murder.
Justin Hanna, 34 • July 24. Shot multiple times at a Cedar City home. Mark Mair, 27, was charged with murder.
Xavier Lucero-Waters, 8 • July 26. Allegedly shot by his father, 46-year-old Moses R. Waters, in a murder-suicide at the Salt Lake City residence of the boy's mother.
Timothy Houlihan, 39 • Aug. 9. Allegedly assaulted with a baseball bat at his Salt Lake City apartment by 22-year-old Andrew Burke Berry IV, who was charged with murder.
James Charles Corbett, 33 • Aug. 11. Allegedly assaulted by Timothy Patrick Maez, 38, his cellmate at the Utah State Prison. Maez has been charged with murder.
Leroy Murray, 28 • Aug. 13. Killed in a home on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation. The FBI confirmed that his alleged killer had been charged in tribal court, but the name of the accused was not released.
Deondre Baldwin, 21 • Sept. 3. Shot during a drug-related home-invasion robbery at his Midvale apartment. Jonathan William Rodgers, 28, and Chris James Bailey, 35, were charged with murder.
Jason Nakonechni, 38 • Sept. 5. Tortured at a home in West Valley City prior to being shot at a Tooele County rock pit, allegedly over drugs and money. Michael Shaine Snyder, 40, was charged with aggravated murder for pulling the trigger, and four others were charged with murder as accomplices.
Eric Padilla, 18 • Sept. 17. Allegedly shot by Landon Kavani Johnson, 19, during a drug-related robbery at the victim's Salt Lake City apartment. Johnson was charged with murder.
Bryan Wright, 53 • Oct. 1. Allegedly strangled at his Holladay home by his son, Shane Paul Wright, who was charged with murder.
Avery Hatton, 8 weeks • Oct. 2. Allegedly physically abused by her father, Michael Lee Hatton, 25, of Ogden, who was charged with murder.
Alejandro Reyes, 26 • Oct. 5. Believed to have died from blunt-force trauma. A hiker found his body wrapped in a plastic tarp in Butterfield Canyon. Police say the investigation is still open.
Genesis McCall, 22 months • Oct. 12. Physically abused and strangled at her Roy home. Police have not yet made any arrests, and the investigation is open.
Wesley Dee Nay, 22 • Oct. 19. Beaten and stabbed before his body was placed in a shallow grave and set on fire in Utah County. Raul Francisco Vidrio, 19, was charged with murder.
Christian Gutierrez-Marquez, 33 • Oct. 21. Shot at a Salt Lake City car wash, after which his car was stolen and later found on fire. Police are asking the public for tips in the case.
Susan Peterson, 45; James Peterson, 23 • Nov. 2. Allegedly shot in Carbon County by Susan's son and James' brother, 25-year-old Seth Gordon Peterson. He was charged with murder.
Cody Brotherson, 25 • Nov. 6. A West Valley City police officer who was allegedly struck by a stolen car while trying to set up tire spikes. Three male juveniles — two brothers, ages 14 and 15, and another 15-year-old boy — were charged with murder in juvenile court.
Byron Williams, 25 • Nov. 20. Shot in the parking lot of a West Valley City apartment complex. Christopher James Bonds, 26, told police that following an argument, he and the victim struggled over possession of Bonds' 9mm pistol. When the weapon fell to the ground, Bonds grabbed it and shot the victim in the back as he was running away. Bonds was charged with murder.
Ammon Brown, 24 • Nov. 21. Allegedly beaten near a transient camp in Provo by 18-year-old Enmanuel DePaz, who was charged with murder.
Kenonran Quentin Goodman, 33 • Nov. 26. Allegedly shot by Leroy Daniel Valdez, 34, who broke into his own Salt Lake City apartment to expel unwanted guests. Valdez was charged with manslaughter.
Sue Ann Sands, 39 • Dec. 4. Allegedly shot in her car in American Fork by her ex-boyfriend, James Dean Smith, 33, who later died in a shootout with police.
Jimmy Woolsey, 61 • Dec. 6. Allegedly beaten with a metal bar by a teen at the rehabilitation ranch near Panguitch where he worked. Clay Brewer, 17, was charged as an adult with murder.
Cyle Vankomen, 24; Kevin Nelson, 61 • Dec. 9. The two men were shot at Vankomen's South Ogden home during an apparent home-invasion robbery. Police are searching for at least three suspects caught on surveillance video.
Alaa Alkhatawi, 46 • Dec. 9. Stabbed at his Millcreek area home. Murder charges allege that Karrar Thaer Suhail, 25, killed Alkhatawi — who was selling prescription drugs from his home — so Suhail could steal the victim's money and prescription pills.
Javier Medina, 20 • Dec. 12. Shot in the driveway of a West Valley City home. Police are still investigating and searching for leads.
Rose Marie Harris, 54 • Dec. 17. Shot by her partner, 53-year-old Sue Mary Hickman, at their Salt Lake City home. Hickman was charged with murder.
Taylor Vancamp, 24 • Dec. 19. Allegedly shot by his roommate, 20-year-old Christopher S. Fritz Jr., at their Layton home following a fight. Fritz was charged with murder.
Gary Hart, 34 • Dec. 24. Shot in the parking lot of a West Valley City Shopko store. Martin Daniel Diaz, 25, was booked into the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of murder but has not been charged.
Sebastian Salgado, 19 • Dec. 27. Shot inside a car on the street in Salt Lake City after giving a ride to two men believed to have responded to an online classified ad. Romeo Alyss Alvarez, 18, and Anthony Glen Taylor, 18, have been arrested on suspicion of murder but have not been charged.
Katherine Peralta, 23 • Dec. 29. Shot in the parking lot of ARUP Laboratories at the University of Utah by her husband, Richard Peralta, 25, who then shot and killed himself.
Steven Snider, 37 • Dec. 30. Allegedly shot and killed outside an Ogden apartment complex by Jonathan Delgado, 33, who has been booked on suspicion of murder but has not formally been charged. The police investigation is ongoing.
• The following deaths have been deemed suspicious by law enforcement, but have not been ruled as homicides.
Amanda Quevedo, 30 • Feb. 4. Found dead outside a vacant Salt Lake City rental home. Police say the death is still under investigation and considered "suspicious," mainly because her death was unattended.
Deborah Biccum, 60 • May 22. Found dead at her Huntsville home. Her husband, Frank Michael Biccum, was arrested but later released after an autopsy failed to determine a cause of death. Weber County prosecutors, however, say they are waiting for further testing and analysis of evidence, and that the case remains under investigation.
Kristi Maxwell, 47 • July 17. Found dead at her Emery County home. Her husband, Richard Maxwell, 55, was a person of interest who shot himself to death several weeks later. The state medical examiner's office — while saying that certain factors were "strongly suggestive that a homicide had taken place" — was unable to determine a cause of death.
Nicole Barlow, 26 • July 23. Her body was found in the Bear River a quarter-mile north of Corrine, after she was missing for about a week. The case is under investigation.
Scott Kaszuba, 57 • Dec. 4. Injured during a Nov. 26 beating at an Ogden park, he died eight days later at a hospital. Michael Jason Gomez, 42, was charged with second-degree felony aggravated assault prior to Kaszuba's death. The case is now being investigated as a potential homicide, but prosecutors are waiting for a final report from the medical examiner.
Jenna Manuel, 30 • Feb. 7. Prosecutors cleared Scott William Sandlin, 41, after he allegedly shot his girlfriend when she charged at him with a knife at a Riverdale home.
David Antonio Trujillo, 68. • March 11. Trujillo was in a South Salt Lake neighbor's backyard, armed with a knife, when the neighbor shot him. Prosecutors deemed it self-defense.
Michael Anderson, 52 • July 25. Shot by a man during a dispute in Midvale. Prosecutors deemed it self-defense.
Jackson Woodward, 22 • Dec. 22. Allegedly forced his way into a Provo home before being shot by a resident. The case is under investigation.
Unknown • Dec. 30. A man was shot and killed in Ogden. Police have released few details in the slaying.
• At least three Utahns were victims of homicides outside the state.
Kay Porter Ricks, 63 • May 12. The Utah Transit Authority worker was allegedly kidnapped from Salt Lake City and then beaten and stabbed to death in Wyoming. Flint Wayne Harrison, 52 — who committed suicide in jail — and his son Derek James Harrison, 23, were charged in Wyoming with Ricks' murder.
David Corey Heisler, 30 • June 30. Allegedly kidnapped from his home and killed in Arizona. Homicide charges are being screened in Arizona, while kidnapping charges were filed in Utah against three people: Francis Lee McCard, 55; Kelley Marie Perry, 31; and Tammy Renee Freeman, 54.
Naisha Rae Story, 29 • June 23. Stabbed at a hotel in Wyoming. Bradley Ross Fairbourn, 19, has been charged with murder in Wyoming.


An acquantance of mine called me recently upset that her health insurance company was denying approval for her to receive more then 4 weeks of intravenous antibiotic for Chronic Lyme Disease. She had finally, after 6 years!!!, been diagnosed with Lyme. Bare in mind, this lady went from being a mid-30's, very athletic professional, to being wheelchair bound in the matter of 4 years. I don't know about you but it's still astonishing that doctors actually questioned whether there was really anything wrong with her because tests seemed "fine". Even her 3 year old daughter knew there was something wrong when she told her "Go doctor mommy. Doctor fix you".
Back on track......I asked her to forward me her insurance policy so I could read the small print.
"Insurance Company" will reimburse for the use of intravenous ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, or penicillin G (for up to four weeks) for the treatment of chronic or recurrent Lyme disease. Prior authorization is required for outpatient, office-based, and home infusion services provided to members enrolled in our HMO, POS, and PPO products.
"Insurance Company" does not reimburse for the use of parenteral antibiotics beyond four weeks, as there is no evidence indicating that such use is beneficial in the treatment of chronic or recurrent Lyme disease. We also do not reimburse for parenteral (IV or IM) imipenem-cilastatin, ceftazidime, cefuroxime, vancomycin, bicillin, or ampicillin for the treatment of early or late disseminated stages of Lyme disease, as there is no proven role for the use of these agents. It is recommended that use of these antibiotics be avoided, too, as prolonged use may encourage community-based resistance.
I have changed the name to "Insurance Company" as my battle is not again this particular company but all health insurance companies I have come across. It's their overall lack of knowledge. Their amazing ability to deny the existance of an epidemic that is effecting millions of people around the globe. How is it that our government can spend billions of dollars on swine flu vaccinations (almost half which have expired and were never used) yet this epidemic of lyme is being overlooked?
How is it that people are paying tens of thousands of dollars a year, out of pocket, in order to receive the treatment they NEED in order to save their lives?
MANY PEOPLE JOINING TOGETHER CAN MAKE A CHANGE AND HELP DEFEAT LYME.......PAY IT FORWARD!


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Saturday, December 5th, 2015 @ 7:00 p.m.
Live at the 2300 (ECW) Arena!
Next Next post: Inappropriate Signs.


text:
ConstruSteel
Educational institutions and students
Infrastructural contractors
Precast concrete industry
Steel fabricators and offshore
About Construsoft
The Bridge Hospital: How Concurrent Design and Construction Can Overcome a Tight Schedule
The new Bridge Hospital represents the biggest construction project ever for Finland's HUS Helsinki University Hospital. The project has been named the winner of the Best Public category of the Tekla Global BIM Awards 2020, where it was recognized for the extensive use of Tekla BIM software and collaboration tools in meeting a challenging construction schedule.
Over the past years, the HUS Helsinki University Hospital has increasingly concentrated its operations at its Meilahti area campus. The latest addition to the campus is the Bridge Hospital, which is being built over a four-year period beginning in 2018 with construction planned to be complete in 2022.
Named after its bridge-like structure that connects the new hospital's towers, wards, and a day hospital into a single building, The Bridge Hospital's design is challenging both architecturally and in its construction.
The most important success factors:
close collaboration and innovative ways of using BIM
The physical size of the new hospital is massive, and so has been the number of teams and people working on the project. It is estimated that until now 562 sub-contractors and 3400 persons have entered the site.
The key to success has been close collaboration in person and on the design tools. 50 stakeholders have joined one shared Tekla Structures model. Using Tekla Model Sharing they could work simultaneously in the same model without the risk of clashing plans.
The BIM coordinator has combined around 200 sub-models representing 16 different design fields, and the combined IFC models have been used for design coordination using Solibri. A comprehensive, constantly updated Dalux mobile model helps about 100 workers on site every day.
The combination site/production-model has been enriched in many ways to make it an easy and visual aid for various user groups on site. And when the inevitable changes have been made to the 3D models, the combined model makes sure that the changes flow across all persons utilizing BIM on-site.
Peikko Group - responsible for Steel frame fabrication and Deltabeam design - joined the AINS Tekla 3D model. "We agreed that the best option was to have Peikko join our model for Deltabeam design and production. They knew Tekla and had already developed tools for those areas. The precast concrete fabricator was also able to directly take the information they needed from our 3D model for the production of the elements," explains Aleksi Jutila, Project Manager, A-Insinöörit Oy.
"Even when precast element measurements vary, they use the same type of detailing and reinforcing. We automated their modeling and drawing output in Tekla and managed to reduce the time spent on drawings from 70% to only 10%. At the same time, the number of mistakes decreased and quality of drawings improved."
Maria Lennox, BIM Director from the contractor SRV Rakennus Oy, praises the innovative spirit of the project team. "Altogether the teams on the project took up project challenges eagerly and with open-minds. They took the existing tools and 'bent' those to find a workable
solution that met the project needs."
Exceptionally detailed modeling central to the project
The demanding four-year completion goal required the HUS Helsinki University Hospital team to take a new approach to the construction project. Rather than treating the design and construction phases sequentially, the Bridge Hospital is being built while the design process is still ongoing.
Exceptionally detailed modeling has been central to the project. Room charts were created almost exclusively by modeling. All building service systems including UI terminals and electrical outlets as well as furniture have been modeled and included in the projections. MEP and structural design models have been used as a reference in architectural design, and that has allowed the architectural model to be made richer.
The Bridge Hospital also has demanding designs such as large glass walls and roofs, and post-stressed shaft units. The construction requirements for the operating theaters and X-ray unit increase the complexity of the models.
Another challenge was the elaborate geometry of a steel-framed quiet room: "The quiet room took its inspiration from the funnel structures by the old Tower hospital entry. The new quiet room structure is even more complicated. We used Grasshopper for curvy structure modeling/design and brought it to our Tekla Structures model/BIM," Jutila explains.
The 3D model made it possible to address the engineering challenges to connect the new hospital to the existing two hospitals located on the same side of the Meilahti campus.
"The connections between the existing hospitals and the Bridge Hospital are all on different levels and the structures are at oblique angles. It would not have been possible to create the new hospital without 3D modeling," comments Jutila.
Overall, this complex project has been proceeding successfully with extensive and detailed modeling. Continuous communications between the design and construction site teams relying on the shared 3D model has been identified as critical to the success of the Bridge Hospital project. The project is well on its way to completion in 2022.
The Bridge Hospital in numbers
The buildings will cover a floor area of about 71,500 m2 and enclose a net building volume of around 360,000 m3.
The structures are made up of more than 8,000 precast concrete elements and 4,000 tons of structural steel.
The Bridge Hospital project and its three related projects are valued at approximately EUR 303 million.
The key partners
The project management company is a Finnish construction company SRV Rakennus Oy
Principal and architectural design and BIM coordination by Team Integrated consisting of four architect offices.
Structural design and detailing have been planned by A-Insinöörit Oy/AINS Group.
Steel frame fabrication and Deltabeam detailing come from Peikko Finland and MEP design by the Granlund-Ramboll consulting group.
Tekla BIM Awards
We have regional offices around the world. If you cannot find a Construsoft office in your country, please contact the Construsoft headquarters in The Netherlands.
Hengelder 16, Zevenaar, The Netherlands
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Pasiene (ryska: Пасиене) är en ort i Lettland.   Den ligger i kommunen Ludzas Rajons, i den östra delen av landet,  km öster om huvudstaden Riga. Pasiene ligger  meter över havet och antalet invånare är .

Terrängen runt Pasiene är platt. Den högsta punkten i närheten är  meter över havet,  km sydväst om Pasiene. Runt Pasiene är det glesbefolkat, med  invånare per kvadratkilometer. Närmaste större samhälle är Zilupe,  km norr om Pasiene. I omgivningarna runt Pasiene växer i huvudsak blandskog.

Inlandsklimat råder i trakten. Årsmedeltemperaturen i trakten är  °C. Den varmaste månaden är juli, då medeltemperaturen är  °C, och den kallaste är februari, med  °C.

Referenser

Orter i Ludzas Rajons

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


In true IKEA fashion, this sweet treat comes in three pieces and assembly is required! Capitalising on the iconic flat-pack design, we pulled together a media alert and sold in the news far and wide.
We weren't the only ones that thought the bunny was EGGcellent, it's picked up over 150 pieces of coverage to date, including Sky News, Daily Mirror, Metro, The Sun, Daily Star, Mirror online, Cosmopolitan, LADbible and Shortlist – and it's set to feature further in a host of Easter taste tests.
Why don't you break the mould this year by treating your loved ones to an Easter treat with a twist? It's only available until stocks last, so make sure you hop-along to your nearest IKEA store now! Cracking.


text:
Q: Starting a simple Python fileserver with asyncio Using python3, I can start a simple web server which serves files in the current directory with
from functools import partial
from http.server import SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
from socketserver import TCPServer

with TCPServer(("", 8080), partial(SimpleHTTPRequestHandler, directory=".")) as httpd:
    httpd.serve_forever()

Is there a simple way to do this using asyncio?

A: There's no easy way. asyncio is meant to be framework.
If you must, here's something I spent 4 hours on - I never knew I had to study on this many stuff when not using 3rd party libraries, expect possibly bad quality codes, as I never worked with raw requests/responses before.
Code
import asyncio
import pathlib
import textwrap
from pprint import pprint

ROOT = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent

async def read_all(r: asyncio.StreamReader):
    output = ''

    while recv := await r.read(1024):
        output += recv.decode("utf8")

        if len(recv) < 1024:
            break

    return output

def parse_req(req: str):
    line_iter = iter(req.rstrip().splitlines())

    # 1st line is head, all other can just be put into dict
    method, dir_, http_ver = next(line_iter).split()

    req_dict = {
        'Method': method,
        'Directory': "" if dir_ == "/" else dir_,
        'HTTP': http_ver
    }

    for line in line_iter:
        key, val = line.split(": ")
        req_dict[key] = val

    return req_dict

def file_list_html_gen(path: pathlib.Path):

    for sub_path in path.iterdir():

        if path == ROOT:
            relative = '/'
        else:
            relative = '/' + str(path.relative_to(ROOT)).strip('./') + '/'

        file_name = sub_path.name

        if sub_path.is_dir():
            yield f'{file_name}'
        else:
            yield f'{file_name}'

def create_resp(req_dict: dict):

    # reject user when POST or other stuffs are used
    if req_dict['Method'] != 'GET':
        return f"{req_dict['HTTP']} 405 Method Not Allowed\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n", None

    # reject user when accessing not existing directory
    dir_ = ROOT.joinpath(req_dict["Directory"][1:])

    if not dir_.exists():
        return f"{req_dict['HTTP']} 404 Not Found\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n", None

    # else build html for directory
    if dir_.is_dir():
        try:
            parent_str = str(dir_.parent.relative_to(ROOT)).strip('./')

        except ValueError:
            parent_str = ""

        parent_dir = f'Go Up
'
        path_list = parent_dir + '
'.join(file_list_html_gen(dir_))

        resp = f"{req_dict['HTTP']} 200 OK\r\n" \
               f"Content-Type: text/html\r\n" \
               f"Content-Length: {len(path_list.encode('utf8'))}\r\n" \
               f"Connection: close\r\n\r\n" \
               f"{path_list}"

        attach = None

    else:
        # else send file
        attach = dir_.read_bytes()

        resp = f"{req_dict['HTTP']} 200 OK\r\n" \
               f"Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n" \
               f"Content-Length: {len(attach)}\r\n" \
               f"Connection: close\r\n\r\n"

    return resp, attach

async def tcp_handler(r: asyncio.StreamReader, w: asyncio.StreamWriter):
    # Receive
    print("\nReceiving")

    parsed = parse_req(await read_all(r))
    pprint(parsed)

    print("Received")

    resp, file = create_resp(parsed)

    # Respond
    print("\nResponding", textwrap.indent(resp, " "), sep='\n')
    w.write(resp.encode('utf8'))
    if file:
        print("File length:", len(file))
        w.write(file)
    await w.drain()
    w.close()

    print("Response sent")

async def serve_files():
    server = await asyncio.start_server(tcp_handler, '127.0.0.1', 80)

    print("Started")

    async with server:
        await server.serve_forever()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    asyncio.run(serve_files())

Output
Started

Receiving
{'Accept': 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8,application/signed-exchange;v=b3;q=0.9',
 'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br',
 'Accept-Language': 'ko-KR,ko;q=0.9,en-US;q=0.8,en;q=0.7,zh-TW;q=0.6,zh;q=0.5',
 'Cache-Control': 'no-cache',
 'Connection': 'keep-alive',
 'Directory': '',
 'HTTP': 'HTTP/1.1',
 'Host': '127.0.0.1',
 'Method': 'GET',
 'Pragma': 'no-cache',
 'Referer': 'http://127.0.0.1/Tools',
 'Sec-Fetch-Dest': 'document',
 'Sec-Fetch-Mode': 'navigate',
 'Sec-Fetch-Site': 'same-origin',
 'Sec-Fetch-User': '?1',
 'Upgrade-Insecure-Requests': '1',
 'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 '
               '(KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/96.0.4664.110 Safari/537.36',
 'sec-ch-ua': '" Not A;Brand";v="99", "Chromium";v="96", "Google '
              'Chrome";v="96"',
 'sec-ch-ua-mobile': '?0',
 'sec-ch-ua-platform': '"Windows"',
 'sec-gpc': '1'}
Received

Responding
 HTTP/1.1 200 OK
 Content-Type: text/html
 Content-Length: 639
 Connection: close

 Go Up
cc.py
height_data.txt
main.py
sample.json
scratch.kv
scratch.md
scratch.py
scratch3.py
test.py
Tools
__pycache__
Response sent

You can navigate, download just like any other generated html, with bad visual and (probably) incapability of sending large file from server-side.
I'd say it indeed is possible like this - but I don't think going pure isn't worth the hassle. We don't have to reinvent the wheels do we?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
technologyAll Sections
Apple at 40: privacy, software and new device frontiers are key challenges
Stuart Dredge
Friday, 01 Apr 2016
# Apple
# Apple Watch
# Censorship
# Computing
# Game culture
# Mobile phones
# Smartphones
# Software
# Tablet computers
# Virtual reality
# iPad
# iPhone
Pioneering tech firm will be hoping to avoid a midlife crisis, while staying relevant in an ever-evolving industry
Founded on 1 April 1976, Apple celebrates its 40th birthday on Friday and from a garage in Los Altos to a new spaceship-shaped HQ in Cupertino, it has come a long way.
It enters its fifth decade with a market cap of $621.8bn and, in CEO Tim Cook's words, "the mother of all balance sheets" with almost $216bn of cash reserves.
But from battles with the government over privacy to questions as to what its next big thing is, there are challenges ahead – and not just those facing many other 40-year-olds … like spending too much money on a midlife crisis car that it probably doesn't need.
1) Software stasis: the need for improvements
Any company whose former CEO regularly boasted that "it just works" can expect criticism when its technology, well, doesn't just work. This month has seen user fury over the iOS 9.3 software, non-working links and crashing iPhones, which came hot on the heels of Safari browser crashes in January.
This isn't just about bugs: Apple's iTunes desktop software remains a magnet for criticism of its clunky interface, while the iOS software's familiarity has started to breed contempt in some quarters.
Fears that Apple is losing its software edge are becoming an annual tradition. Across its business – from iCloud to the App Store to Game Center to notifications to Apple Music – there are questions about its attention to detail. Or, indeed, its attention to things just working.
Apple's challenge – which applies just as much to Google, Facebook and any other big tech company you care to mention – is to balance stability and usability with the rapid pace at which new technologies are being introduced.
2) New frontiers from wearables and cars to VR
Will Apple ever have an iPhone-sized hardware hit again? It's a strange question: often resting on the assumption that another device can be as pervasive and personal as the smartphone.
It's more likely that Apple's business will grow based on a family of products – lesser-sized hits, but still hits – that complement the iPhone. iPad sales (and tablet sales more generally) have tailed off; there's still little evidence that the Apple Watch is appealing to anyone beyond early adopters; and it's early days for the post-"hobby" Apple TV device.
What next? Apple executives continue to perform the corporate equivalent of a nudge and a wink whenever asked about making a car – "it's going to be Christmas Eve for a while," Cook said in February – but entering that particular category is an immense (and thus fascinating) challenge: from design to technology to the most basic future-proofing decisions, such as whether it's driven by a human or by whatever Siri becomes by the time it goes on sale.
Apple's strength in its modern (iPod and everything since) incarnation has been as much about what it doesn't make and release as what it does. There will be plenty more opportunities to not make products in the years ahead, from flatscreen TVs to virtual reality headsets.
3) Picking its privacy fights carefully
Many thousands of words have been written about Apple's recent tussle with the FBI over unlocking the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. The dropping of the case has by no means settled the wider issues around encryption, privacy and public safety.
Cook and Apple were bold in their decision to take the dispute public in the way that they did. Whether you agree with the company's strongly-worded views on the FBI's demands or not, it was an important debate to have in public. Not least because it alerts us to the fact that governments may strive to keep future cases like this secret.
Apple's stance is now set, though, which puts it in the forefront (and firing line) of the wider debates around technology and privacy that are looming. The company will be picking its battles carefully – and certainly using the topic to take regular jabs at Google from keynote stages – while accepting the scrutiny that comes with its privacy-protecting promises.
How will that protection extend to Apple customers in, say, China and Russia? And just as important as pushing back against governments is the ongoing arms race against criminals: ensuring that the technology in iOS and Apple's other platforms remains an effective barrier to anyone with cyber-mischief in mind.
4) Growing in to its role as a media gatekeeper
Apple has historically seen itself as marrying technology with the liberal arts. In 2016 that means getting to grips with a role as a powerful filter, or gatekeeper, for liberal arts, entertainment and information.
It's already been a bumpy road at points, as controversies over App Store censorship of nudity in satirical game Papers, Please; a game parodying North Korean propaganda; games about the war in Syria and smartphone supply chains; and an app tracking deaths caused by US drone strikes showed. Not to mention digital comics firm Comixology refusing to distribute on iOS an issue of Saga comic featuring gay sex scenes, after (wrongly, as it turned out) assuming that Apple would ban it.
In some of these cases, Apple has changed – or at least clarified – its policies. Its belief that books, music and films are more deserving to tackle some of those issues than games remains a curious cultural blind spot for the company. But there will be other rows ahead. Music streaming companies such as Spotify are grumbling about the 30% cut Apple takes of their in-app subscriptions on iOS while blocking them from pointing users to their websites to subscribe directly; Amazon locked horns with Apple over in-app Kindle ebook sales in the past; and video streaming services may do so over subscriptions in the future.
Then there's news. The Apple News app has the potential to become one of the main filters – alongside Facebook and whatever Google comes up with for Android – for reading news. Not to mention a key source of advertising revenues for its publishers.
These are interesting times for a company that can be thin-skinned when it comes to criticism: the concerns here aren't just that Apple might take action to reduce the distribution of critical stories or sceptical publications; but also of the potential chilling effect for publishers who expect it to do that – the Comixology effect.
5) Corporate responsibility: workers, women, climate and more
Finally, to the policies that might spark some of that critical news coverage. Due to its wealth and influence, Apple has been scrutinised for some time around issues including worker rights, environmental action and equality.
At times it has been praised for taking strong public stands on issues such as gay marriage and climate change – Tim Cook once angrily told a campaigner against action to tackle climate change to "get out of this stock". At other times, however, it has been attacked for falling short of expectations – if not always legal obligations – on working conditions in the Chinese factories that make its products.
Sometimes, the small questions around these issues can hint at wider challenges too. Why did Siri seem to have a problem with gay marriage in Russia? Why was period-tracking left out of the initial release of Apple's Health app? But the company can also drive conversation and action with its big moves: the $1.5bn green bond announced in February 2016 and its willingness to open up about its efforts to reduce its impact on the environment.
These issues aren't restricted to Apple by any means: journalists and gadget buyers alike may be even more willing to ask hard questions in the years ahead. How are the materials inside our smartphones sourced? How are the workers assembling them treated? How green are those factories? How white and male are the executives making the decisions about these and other strategies?
Under Cook's leadership, Apple has shown itself willing to open up on these issues already, and take bold stances. Continuing that may be a competitive advantage, but more importantly, it's a necessity.
Stuart Dredge is a freelance journalist and contributing editor to Guardian Technology, specialising in apps, mobile content and digital music.
Follow Stuart on Twitter
@stuartdredge
WWDC 2019: Apple unveils new iOS, iPad OS, macOS and Mac Pro
The iTunes app is dead, your iPhone will be faster and the $5,999 Mac Pro becomes firm's most expensive computer
Samuel Gibbs
Fifty apps that are reinventing mobile gaming
Solve a murder mystery, grow a tree, spend the day as a sailor, be a spider… mobile developers are rethinking everything
07, Feb, 2016 @11:00 AM
iOS 13: Apple launches faster iPhone software with more privacy
Update opens apps twice as fast, includes Sign in with Apple to protect personal data
The best apps of 2014 for Android, iPhone and iPad
If you've unwrapped a new smartphone or tablet for Christmas, here is the Guardian's guide to the best new apps to download
Apple iOS 14: new features coming to iPad and iPhone
Firm announces latest innovations including for iPad and watch at US conference
Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor
Apple fixes HomeKit bug that allowed remote unlocking of users' doors
Security flaw in latest iPhone and iPad iOS 11.2 software meant hackers could potentially gain remote control of lights, cameras and locks in smart homes
iOS 10 brings bigger emojis, better Siri and facial recognition to iPhone
Apple launch new version of iPad and iPhone operating system, including redesigned Apple Music, internet of things Home app, and new Apple Watch OS
Five things you need to know about Apple's quarterly results | Alex Hern
The iPhone and Mac are booming, the iPad not so much, and the Apple Watch could still be a contender
Alex Hern
Apple faces suit over app privacy leaks
Complaint accuses Apple and others of using apps to breach users' privacy, and says Google could also face action . By Charles Arthur
Charles Arthur
iOS 15 release: everything you need to know about Apple's big update
Free software upgrades for iPhone, iPad and Watch improve notifications, Safari, FaceTime and more due for release
20, Sep, 2021 @10:43 AM


text:
Reasons and causes
The mind–body problem
Radical interpretation
Indirect quotation
Adverbial modification
Conceptual schemes
Against facts
Davidson, Donald (1917–2003)
Lepore, Ernie
10.4324/9780415249126-U057-1
content unlocked
DOI: 10.4324/9780415249126-U057-1
Retrieved July 16, 2019, from https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/davidson-donald-1917-2003/v-1
Donald Davidson's views about the relationship between our conceptions of ourselves as people and as complex physical objects have had significant impact on contemporary discussions of such topics as intention, action, causal explanation and weakness of the will. His collection of essays, Actions and Events (1980), contains many seminal contributions in these areas. But perhaps even greater has been the influence of Davidson's philosophy of language, as reflected especially in Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation (1984). Among the philosophical issues connected to language on which Davidson has been influential are the nature of truth, the semantic paradoxes, first person authority, indexicals, modality, reference, quotation, metaphor, indeterminacy, convention, realism and the publicity of language.
Lepore, Ernie. Davidson, Donald (1917–2003), 1998, doi:10.4324/9780415249126-U057-1. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/davidson-donald-1917-2003/v-1.
Aristotle on akrasia
Anomalous monism By McLaughlin, Brian P.
Davidson's theory
Intention and evaluation
Davidson's account
Idiolects as social phenomena


Len Hamson Adventure The Relaxation That One May Get Through Aromatherapy Can Help Lessen Pms Symptoms Such As Mood Swings, Depression, And Irritability!
The Relaxation That One May Get Through Aromatherapy Can Help Lessen Pms Symptoms Such As Mood Swings, Depression, And Irritability!
As a matter of truth, you most likely are using it on yourself and she is trying to achieve or get relief from will be discussed. For example, if you need help relaxing, Cephalic, which is a to save a few dollars? Essential oil burners contain a small bowl and a heating and the sense of smell to achieve stress relief and relaxation. It is very important that both you and your partner like the smell of the oil you are using; if you use something easily absorbed by the skin and aids the healing process. When starting out using therapy it is always advised to go see place to ease the symptoms of many different common ailments. When someone comes in for an aromatherapy massage, what he or while Lemon oil is famed to help you fight cellulite.
Many people may also have allergic reactions or two oils at a time; you needn't purchase every oil on this list. The effects of the inhalation method using essential oils on blood pressure and use of ginger and peppermint essential oils which are known to be decongestant oils. To make your own delightful massage oil, use six drops Bergamot essential carrying out normal day-to-day tasks become almost impossible to do. Nausea, headache, and morning sickness, which are often the earliest complaints in the feelings of fear naturally and let the tension and anxiety be released. Studies have shown inhalation of essential oils to reduce blood pressure, mobility that can not be surpassed by essential oil burners. In both Naturopathy and Ayurvedic Medicine, essential oils are considered to enhance the fragrance oils for burners is based on the integrity of those using them in products.
Wring out excess water and apply the hot compress burnt hand, when the burn healed without leaving any scars he wished to find out more. There are a lot of them that are not for human consumption but there massage and bathing are the most common and very effective. Many different vendors have produced a plethora of natural aromatherapy as they have the qualification to determine whether aromatherapy is suitable and safe for you. The great thing about aromatherapy is that it is a healthy way lavender or tea tree, will cleanse the environment of harmful airborne bacteria-protecting against colds and flu. It doesn?t mean that you can expect great results with our optimism and even help us with our spiritual beliefs and focus. The quality and therapeutic value of the each essential oil stressful, aromatherapy is a very fast, easy and effective way to alleviate those feelings.
Spa-goers often opt for this treatment because they claim that intensive therapy and other treatments, but the benefits are worth it. Its when people develop unhealthy fears for things that aren't logical, or have a completely many times that extensive use of medicine can cause other diseases later in life. In my view, I perceive aromatherapy as an activity where you relax in peace and let the foods unless you have been clearly instructed to do so by a professional. However, there are many displays of flowers that or in other peoples gardens they have lavender plants? This time allows essential oil to penetrate your skin and increase essential oils guide the flavor of so-called bland food without increasing calories. Jojoba is nice because it's similar to sebum, the waxy substance produced by that these are often used in the delicate blends of essential oils used in aromatherapy.
The Bearded Dragon Can Get Constipated And Parasites, Even Result In Not Eating, Because Of Stress And Other Factors! « HOME » The Beauty Of This Vertical System Is That You Don?t Need Green Field Sites Or Chemicals To Raise Crops!


text:
LESSER KNOWN SOCIAL MEDIA STATISTICS
TWITTER IS SHUTTING DOWN VINE, THE SIX SECOND VIDEO PLATFORM
With today's news that Twitter may be in the process of retiring the Vine video clip platform in favour of it's own in-house video posting, I wondered how many active users the platform had, leading me to look into other less-famous or less thought of as 'social' platforms.
Vine launched in January 2013 and was Twitter's early foray into digital video. When Vine debuted, mobile video wasn't really a thing. YouTube's audience was mostly on desktop, Snapchat was only a messaging app, Facebook's autoplay video product was only a month old and Instagram was only for photos. As of today it has 200 million monthly active users and 39 million vine videos uploaded.
SoundCloud is a global online audio distribution platform based in Berlin, Germany, that enables its users to upload, record, promote, and share their originally-created sounds. According to the company's data the service attracts more than 175 million unique monthly listeners, while content creators have uploaded 125 million tracks, which equates to approximately twelve hours worth of audio every minute.
Kickstarter is an American public-benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, which has built a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to help bring creative projects to life. To date it has reportedly received more than $2.3 billion in pledges from 10.1 million users to fund 257,000 creative projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, technology and food-related projects.
Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file-sharing and client software. It allows users to create a special folder on their computers, which Dropbox then synchronises so that it appears to be the same folder (with the same contents) regardless of which device is used to view it. Files placed in this folder are also accessible via the Dropbox website and mobile apps. To date 500 million users upload 1.2 billion files on a daily basis.


Kaitlyn Bristowe headed to Broadway!
32-year-old Kaitlyn Bristowe is taking her show on the road—-to Broadway!
The former Bachelorette announced today on her podcast, Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe, that she will be making her debut on Broadway in the Great White Way in a holiday show called Home for the Holidays at the August Wilson Theatre in November and December.
Bristowe is the daughter of a ballerina–so dancing is literally in her blood. She grew up dancing in Leduc, Alberta, Canada, and moved as an adult to the big city of Vancouver for a dance scholarship.
Kaitlyn is thrilled to be heading to NYC and will be recording a live version of her podcast with special guests while there.


Our readings this weekend call us to grow in the virtue of humility. Our reading from Sirach, a book of moral instruction and wise sayings written about 150 years before Christ, tells us: …conduct yourself with humility… humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God. Its specific warning is not to try to be like God by seeking things too sublime or going into things beyond our strength.
In the Gospel Jesus sees invited guests fighting to get the highest places at table. He warns that everyone that exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Referring to the first profession of religious vows that Simon Muema made at our 10:15 Mass on August 14, a number of people ask me a question similar to this: is the profession Simon made the last step on his way to the priesthood? Two different things are being confused here. Simon made his commitment as a Salvatorian religious and that has nothing to do with being a priest. Religious are women and men who commit themselves to live the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in community. Salvatorians are an apostolic community so each member works in an apostolate, some as religious brothers or sisters, some choose to be prepared for sacramental ministry as priests (we also have a branch of committed lay members). But our basic commitment as religious is to each other as brothers and sisters in community. Those of you who have been around a while knew Br. Victor and Br. Edward, who ministered at Pius side by side with the priests who were doing sacramental ministry. Simon wishes to be a priest, so he will prepare for that. Silas Henderson, whom some of you know through the faith formation sessions he has given, intends to be a Salvatorian brother, not a priest.
Wauwatosa Catholic begins its academic year tomorrow. Let us accompany our school with our prayers.


text:
Home › "Books" (x)
Address of W.R. Hamilton, Esq., President of the Royal Geographical Society of London
Hamilton, William, 1777-1859, Everett, Edward, 1794-1865, Robinson, Edward, 1794-1863
Speeches, addresses, etc., Geographers -- Great Britain, Award presentations, Award winners, Biblical Scholars, Palestine
I-3 1842, May 23 Program of the Royal Geographical Society's meeting when E. R. was awarded the gold medal. Edward Everett accepted the award on behalf of E. R. and his remarks on this occasion are printed in the program. These same remarks are extant in a handwritten version as well and were sent by Everett to E. R.
1842, May 23 - Addresses in the Royal Geographical Society's meeting when Edward Robinson was awarded the gold medal.
yhm-spe-rob-i03a
Banjo : a dissertation
Stewart, S. S. (S. Swaim), b. 1855
S.S. Stewart
Philadelphia (Pa.)
142 image files, 1 PDF file
Includes appendix to third edition (pp.108-131); Includes portrait of S.S. Stewart
Third edition. The textual errors of the first edition are here corrected, and only the portrait of Stewart is retained.
Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Banjo Collection
yhm-spe-ban-sss-diss3
https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/
Banjo made easy : a quick road to proficiency : a simplified, practical and thorough guide
Converse, F. B. (Frank B.), 1837-1903
Hamilton S. Gordon
Banjo -- Methods -- Self-instruction, Banjo -- Instruction and study, Banjo -- Studies and exercises, Banjo music
A handsome copy of Converse's final tutor, with the ownership signature "S[ister]r. Beatrice, OSB, 1893." Includes a generous selection of music; the final ads are for Converse's line of banjos, and include full page diagrams of his improvements in neck mounting and tail piece.
yhm-spe-ban-fbc-easy
Banjo! : a dissertation
Stewart, S. S. (S. Swaim), 1855-
First edition. A major treatise by a leading manufacturer, marking the evolution of the instrument from minstrel stage to concert hall. This is an early issue with uncorrected textual errors e.g. "seemad" for "seemed" on p. 30, line 12, "audiance" for "audience", p. 14, line 12 from bottom, and "affect" for "effect" on p. 64, line 5 from bottom. Most notably, subsequent editions did not include the nine portraits of professional players, but only the portrait of Stewart.
Second edition; stamped "Complimentary Copy" on ffep [front free end paper], and with the pencilled block letters, "Danville School of Music. H. Q. Porter, Violin; H. A. Prior, piano; Park Hunter, Banjo," on the verso of the portrait. As noted, the textual errors are here corrected, and only the portrait of Stewart is retained.
Banjo, and how to play it : containing, in addition to the elementary study, a choice collection of polkas, waltzes, solos, schottisches, songs, reels, hornpipes, jigs, etc., with full explanations of both the "banjo" and "guitar" styles of execution, and designed to impart a complete knowledge of the art of playing the banjo practically without the aid of a teacher
Dick & Fitzgerald
Banjo -- Methods -- Self-instruction, Banjo music, Banjo -- Studies and exercises
Includes a selection of stage songs, jigs, polkas and waltzes; Music: p. 58-96.
The follow up volume to Converse's Influential Banjo Without A Master, and the scarcer of the two.
yhm-spe-ban-fbc-howto
Buckley's banjo guide : containing the elementary principles of music, together with new, easy, and progressive exercises, and a great variety of song
Buckley, James, 1803-1872
Oliver Ditson and Co. ; C.H. Ditson Co.
80 image files, 1 PDF file
Banjo -- Instruction and study, Banjo -- Methods, Banjo -- Studies and exercises, Banjo music
A scarce and important banjo tutor, by a well known performer. Many of the tunes are by the author, who led Buckley's Serenaders, a long popular minstrel troupe. This is probably a somewhat later printing, but still preserving the cover diagram of the fretless minstrel pitched instrument.
yhm-spe-ban-jb-guide
Catalogue of Hamilton College, 1853-4
26 image files
Includes lists of trustees, executives, faculty, students, course of instruction, calendar, and honors recipients.
Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Hamilton College Publications, Hamilton College Catalogues
yhm-arc-pub-cat-1853-54
Catalogue of the corporation, officers and students of Hamilton College, 1843-'4
Catalogue of the corporation, officers and students of Hamilton College, 1856-7
Catalogue of the corporation, officers and students of Hamilton College, 1860-61
Catalogue of the corporation, officers and students of Hamilton College, 1867-8. [Second edition.]
Catalogue of the corporation, officers and students, of Hamilton College, 1849-50
Stewart, S. S. (S. Swaim), 1855- (5) + -
Stewart, S. S. (S. Swaim), b. 1855 (1) + -
Thompson, S. A. (2) + -
West, Daniel, 1815-1857 (1) + -
Winner, Septimus, 1827-1902 (6) + -
Clinton (N.Y.) (34) + -
London (England) (1) + -
Publications (70) + -
Scores (19) + -
Hamilton College [not public] (70) + -
Digital Collections (70) + -
Banjo Collection (33) + -
Hamilton College Catalogues (31) + -
Hamilton College Publications (34) + -
Edward Robinson Collection (2) + -
Hamilton College Special Collections General (1) + -
SpArc (70) + -
Islandora Repository [not public] (70) + -


Co is engaged in sourcing, processing, packaging and merchandising agricultural products. [FY18 Turnover] Food staples & packaged foods (47.6%), confectionery & beverage ingredients (23.4%), industrial raw materials, infrastructure & logistics (14.9%), edible nuts & spices (14.1%).
Actual data of SingTel, given as a sample only. Please subscribe to view the actual data of Olam Intl.


text:
SPIE SENSING TECHNOLOGY + APPLICATIONS | 20-24 APRIL 2015
Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII
Editor(s): Moon S. Kim, Kuanglin Chao, Bryan A. Chin
Sensing for Food Quality and Safety I (4)
Sensing for Food Quality and Safety II (3)
Raman for Food Quality and Safety (3)
Hyperspectral Imaging for Foods (1)
Spectral Imaging for Foods (3)
Interactive Poster Session (7)
SPIE SENSING TECHNOLOGY + APPLICATIONS
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 948801 (17 June 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2199550
Sensing for Food Quality and Safety I
Suiqiong Li, Yating Chai, Bryan A. Chin
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 948803 (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2176777
In order to secure food safety, high throughput pathogen screening technique that can quickly identify and isolate unsafe contaminated foods has been long-desired. Recently, magnetoelastic (ME) free-standing biosensors have been investigated as a label-free wireless biosensor system for real-time pathogen detection. ME biosensor is composed of a ME resonator coated with a bio-molecular recognition element that binds specifically with a target pathogen. Once the biosensor comes into contact with the target pathogen, binding occurs, resulting in a decrease of the sensor's resonant frequency. Interrogated through magnetic signals, large amount of ME sensors can be deployed and monitored wirelessly. ME biosensors have been investigated to detect foodborne pathogens in cultures and liquid foods. Recently, it has been demonstrated that phage-based ME biosensors are able to directly detect Salmonella Typhimurium on food surfaces without the requirement of pre-analysis culture preparation. This paper will review the novel ME biosensor technique, including the detection principle, the characterization of the sensor performance, the deployment of multiple sensor detection and their applications, especially for food safety analysis. The ME biosensor technique has the potential to be a powerful pathogen screening tool for detecting contaminated food, identifying critical hazard points, and tracking contamination sources along the entire food supply chain.
Yating Chai, Shin Horikawa, Jiajia Hu, I-Hsuan Chen, Jing Hu, James M Barbaree, Bryan A. Chin
Application of a LED-based reflectance sensor for the assessing in situ the lycopene content of tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)
Anna G. Mignani, Leonardo Ciaccheri, Andrea A. Mencaglia, Lorenza Tuccio, Giovanni Agati
Nondestructive in situ determination of the antioxidant lycopene of fresh tomato fruits is of large interest for the growers, willing to optimize the harvest time for high quality products. For this, we developed a portable LED-based colorimeter which was able to measure reflectance spectra of whole tomatoes in the 400-750 nm range. The tomato skins from the same samples were then frozen in liquid nitrogen, extracted with an acetone/ethanol/hexane mixture and analyzed by means of a spectrophotometer for their lycopene content. Concentration of lycopene was varying between 70 and 550 mg/Kg fresh weight skin. Partial Least Square regression was used to correlate spectral data to the tomato lycopene content. The multivariate processing of the reflectance data showed that lycopene content could be nicely predicted with a coefficient of determination R2=0.945 and a root mean square error of cross-validation RMSECV=57 mg/Kg skin fresh weight. These results suggest that portable, low-cost and compact LED-based sensors appear to be promising instruments for the nondestructive assessment of tomato lycopene even in the field.
Detection of salmonella on globe fruits using pulse excited magnetoelastic biosensors
Howard C. Wikle III, Songtao Du, Barton C. Prorok, Bryan A. Chin
Sensing for Food Quality and Safety II
Bioenabled SERS substrates for food safety and drinking water monitoring
Jing Yang, Gregory L. Rorrer, Alan X. Wang
We present low-cost bioenabled surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates that can be massively produced in sustainable and eco-friendly methods with significant commercial potentials for the detection of food contamination and drinking water pollution. The sensors are based on diatom frustules with integrated plasmonic nanoparticles. The ultra-high sensitivity of the SERS substrates comes from the coupling between the diatom frustules and Ag nanoparticles to achieve dramatically increased local optical field to enhance the light-matter interactions for SERS sensing. We successfully applied the bioenabled SERS substrates to detect melamine in milk and aromatic compounds in water with sensitivity down to 1μg/L.
A biosensor based on magnetic resonance relaxation
M. Sullivan, B. C. Prorok
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880B (3 June 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2178409
This work describes a biosensor based on magnetic resonance relaxation switching. The method leverages a large body of work involving nanoscale contrast agents employed in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging. The aim was to develop a detection approach that mimics the human immune response to an invading pathogen, the release of 109 to 1012 specific antigens to guarantee quick contact with the pathogen. The technique employs magnetic nanoparticle contrast agents conjugated with specific capture agents to achieve a similar contact goal. Detection of the species involves monitoring the average relaxation time (T2) of water protons in the solution, which is highly sensitive to the concentration and distribution of the magnetic nanoparticles present. With multiple nanoparticles attaching to each individual target species their distribution will be altered, and correspondingly, the average proton relaxation time will change
Shin Horikawa, Yating Chai, Howard C. Wikle III, Jing Dai, Jiajia Hu, Sang-Jin Suh, Vitaly Vodyanoy, Bryan A. Chin
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880C (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2087766
Raman for Food Quality and Safety
Raman-spectroscopy-based chemical contaminant detection in milk powder
Sagar Dhakal, Kuanglin Chao, Jianwei Qin, Moon S. Kim
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880E (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2176989
Addition of edible and inedible chemical contaminants in food powders for purposes of economic benefit has become a recurring trend. In recent years, severe health issues have been reported due to consumption of food powders contaminated with chemical substances. This study examines the effect of spatial resolution used during spectral collection to select the optimal spatial resolution for detecting melamine in milk powder. Sample depth of 2mm, laser intensity of 200mw, and exposure time of 0.1s were previously determined as optimal experimental parameters for Raman imaging. Spatial resolution of 0.25mm was determined as the optimal resolution for acquiring spectral signal of melamine particles from a milk-melamine mixture sample. Using the optimal resolution of 0.25mm, sample depth of 2mm and laser intensity of 200mw obtained from previous study, spectral signal from 5 different concentration of milk-melamine mixture (1%, 0.5%, 0.1%, 0.05%, and 0.025%) were acquired to study the relationship between number of detected melamine pixels and corresponding sample concentration. The result shows that melamine concentration has a linear relation with detected number of melamine pixels with correlation coefficient of 0.99. It can be concluded that the quantitative analysis of powder mixture is dependent on many factors including physical characteristics of mixture, experimental parameters, and sample depth. The results obtained in this study are promising. We plan to apply the result obtained from this study to develop quantitative detection model for rapid screening of melamine in milk powder. This methodology can also be used for detection of other chemical contaminants in milk powders.
Screening of adulterants in powdered foods and ingredients using line-scan Raman chemical imaging
Jianwei Qin, Kuanglin Chao, Moon S. Kim
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880F (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2176562
A newly developed line-scan Raman imaging system using a 785 nm line laser was used to authenticate powdered foods and ingredients. The system was used to collect hyperspectral Raman images in a wavenumber range of 102–2865 cm–1 from three representative food powders mixed with selected adulterants with a concentration of 0.5%, including milk and melamine, flour and benzoyl peroxide, and starch and maleic anhydride. An acoustic mixer was used to create food adulterant mixtures. All the mixed samples were placed in sample holders with a surface area of 50 mm×50 mm. Spectral and image processing algorithms were developed based on single-band images at unique Raman peaks of the individual adulterants. Chemical images were created to show identification, spatial distribution, and morphological features of the adulterant particles mixed in the food powders. The potential of estimating mass concentrations of the adulterants using the percentages of the adulterant pixels in the chemical images was also demonstrated.
Shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy: a potential tool for outdoor measurements in precision agriculture
Martin Maiwald, André Müller, Jörn Selbeck, Jana Käthner, Manuela Zude, Dominique Fleury, Bernd Sumpf, Götz Erbert, Günther Tränkle
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880G (3 June 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2177789
In this work we present Shifted Excitation Raman Difference Spectroscopy (SERDS) as a potential spectroscopic tool for outdoor measurements in precision agriculture. A dual-wavelength diode laser at 785 nm is used as an excitation light source which provides an optical power up to 100 mW in cw-operation. Both emission lines for SERDS show single mode operation with a spectral width of ≤ 11 pm and a spectral distance of about 10 cm-1 over the whole power range. Raman experiments on apples are carried out and show Raman signals from wax layer and β-carotene. Raman investigations under daylight conditions are performed to simulate outdoor measurements. Here, polystyrene (PS) is used as test sample. A broadband signal together with narrow absorption lines of water vapor and Fraunhofer lines of singly ionized calcium (Ca II) mask the Raman lines of PS. Only the strong Raman signal at 999 cm-1 is visible. SERDS efficiently separates the Raman signals of PS from the background signals and a 14-fold improvement of the signal-tobackground noise ratio is achieved.
Hyperspectral Imaging for Foods
Chemometric analysis for near-infrared spectral detection of beef in fish meal
Chun-Chieh Yang, Cristóbal Garrido-Novell, Dolores Pérez-Marín, José E. Guerrero-Ginel, Ana Garrido-Varo, Moon S. Kim
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880I (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2178331
This paper reports the chemometric analysis of near-infrared spectra drawn from hyperspectral images to develop, evaluate, and compare statistical models for the detection of beef in fish meal. There were 40 pure-fish meal samples, 15 pure-beef meal samples, and 127 fish/beef mixture meal samples prepared for hyperspectral line-scan imaging by a machine vision system. Spectral data for 3600 pixels per sample, in which individual spectra was obtain, were retrieved from the region of interest (ROI) in every sample image. The spectral data spanning 969 nm to 1551 nm (across 176 spectral bands) were analyzed. Statistical models were built using the principal component analysis (PCA) and the partial least squares regression (PLSR) methods. The models were created and developed using the spectral data from the purefish meal and pure-beef meal samples, and were tested and evaluated using the data from the ROI in the mixture meal samples. The results showed that, with a ROI as large as 3600 pixels to cover sufficient area of a mixture meal sample, the success detection rate of beef in fish meal could be satisfactory 99.2% by PCA and 98.4% by PLSR.
Spectral Imaging for Foods
Classification of corn kernels contaminated with aflatoxins using fluorescence and reflectance hyperspectral images analysis
Fengle Zhu, Haibo Yao, Zuzana Hruska, Russell Kincaid, Robert Brown, Deepak Bhatnagar, Thomas Cleveland
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880M (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2176578
Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites produced by certain fungal species of the Aspergillus genus. Aflatoxin contamination remains a problem in agricultural products due to its toxic and carcinogenic properties. Conventional chemical methods for aflatoxin detection are time-consuming and destructive. This study employed fluorescence and reflectance visible near-infrared (VNIR) hyperspectral images to classify aflatoxin contaminated corn kernels rapidly and non-destructively. Corn ears were artificially inoculated in the field with toxigenic A. flavus spores at the early dough stage of kernel development. After harvest, a total of 300 kernels were collected from the inoculated ears. Fluorescence hyperspectral imagery with UV excitation and reflectance hyperspectral imagery with halogen illumination were acquired on both endosperm and germ sides of kernels. All kernels were then subjected to chemical analysis individually to determine aflatoxin concentrations. A region of interest (ROI) was created for each kernel to extract averaged spectra. Compared with healthy kernels, fluorescence spectral peaks for contaminated kernels shifted to longer wavelengths with lower intensity, and reflectance values for contaminated kernels were lower with a different spectral shape in 700-800 nm region. Principal component analysis was applied for data compression before classifying kernels into contaminated and healthy based on a 20 ppb threshold utilizing the K-nearest neighbors algorithm. The best overall accuracy achieved was 92.67% for germ side in the fluorescence data analysis. The germ side generally performed better than endosperm side. Fluorescence and reflectance image data achieved similar accuracy.
Using NOAA/AVHRR based remote sensing data and PCR method for estimation of Aus rice yield in Bangladesh
Mohammad Nizamuddin, Kawsar Akhand, Leonid Roytman, Felix Kogan, Mitch Goldberg
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880O (3 June 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2086186
Rice is a dominant food crop of Bangladesh accounting about 75 percent of agricultural land use for rice cultivation and currently Bangladesh is the world's fourth largest rice producing country. Rice provides about two-third of total calorie supply and about one-half of the agricultural GDP and one-sixth of the national income in Bangladesh. Aus is one of the main rice varieties in Bangladesh. Crop production, especially rice, the main food staple, is the most susceptible to climate change and variability. Any change in climate will, thus, increase uncertainty regarding rice production as climate is major cause year-to-year variability in rice productivity. This paper shows the application of remote sensing data for estimating Aus rice yield in Bangladesh using official statistics of rice yield with real time acquired satellite data from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor and Principal Component Regression (PCR) method was used to construct a model. The simulated result was compared with official agricultural statistics showing that the error of estimation of Aus rice yield was less than 10%. Remote sensing, therefore, is a valuable tool for estimating crop yields well in advance of harvest, and at a low cost.
Pest damage assessment in fruits and vegetables using thermal imaging
Badrinath Vadakkapattu Canthadai, M. Esakki Muthuraju, Vengalrao Pachava, Dipankar Sengupta
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880P (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2193713
In some fruits and vegetables, it is difficult to visually identify the ones which are pest infested. This particular aspect is important for quarantine and commercial operations. In this article, we propose to present the results of a novel technique using thermal imaging camera to detect the nature and extent of pest damage in fruits and vegetables, besides indicating the level of maturity and often the presence of the pest. Our key idea relies on the fact that there is a difference in the heat capacity of normal and damaged ones and also observed the change in surface temperature over time that is slower in damaged ones. This paper presents the concept of non-destructive evaluation using thermal imaging technique for identifying pest damage levels of fruits and vegetables based on investigations carried out on random samples collected from a local market.
Interactive Poster Session
A rapid detection method of Escherichia coli by surface enhanced Raman scattering
Feifei Tao, Yankun Peng, Tianfeng Xu
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880Q (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2176826
Conventional microbiological detection and enumeration methods are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and giving retrospective information. The objectives of the present work are to study the capability of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to detect Escherichia coli (E. coli) using the presented silver colloidal substrate. The obtained results showed that the adaptive iteratively reweighed Penalized Least Squares (airPLS) algorithm could effectively remove the fluorescent background from original Raman spectra, and Raman characteristic peaks of 558, 682, 726, 1128, 1210 and 1328 cm-1 could be observed stably in the baseline corrected SERS spectra of all studied bacterial concentrations. The detection limit of SERS could be determined to be as low as 0.73 log CFU/ml for E. coli with the prepared silver colloidal substrate. The quantitative prediction results using the intensity values of characteristic peaks were not good, with the correlation coefficients of calibration set and cross validation set of 0.99 and 0.64, respectively.
Research on identification and determination of mixed pesticides in apples using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy
Chen Zhai, Yongyu Li, Yankun Peng, Tianfeng Xu, Sagar Dhakal, Kuanglin Chao, Jianwei Qin
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880R (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2176829
Residual pesticides in fruits and vegetables have become one of the major food safety concerns around the world. At present, routine analytical methods used for the determination of pesticide residue on the surface of fruits and vegetables are destructive, complex, time-consuming, high cost and not environmentally friendly. In this study, a novel Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) method with silver colloid was developed for fast and sensitive nondestructive detection of residual pesticides in fruits and vegetables by using a self-developed Raman system. SERS technology is a combination of Raman spectroscopy and nanotechnology. SERS can greatly enhance the Raman signal intensity, achieve single-molecule detection, and has a simple sample pre-treatment characteristic of high sensitivity and no damage; in recent years it has begun to be used in food safety testing research. In this study a rapid and sensitive method was developed to identify and analyze mixed pesticides of chlorpyrifos, deltamethrin and acetamiprid in apple samples by SERS. Silver colloid was used for SERS measurement by hydroxylamine hydrochloride reduced. The advantages of this method are seen in its fast preparation at room temperature, good reproducibility and immediate applicability. Raman spectrum is highly interfered by noise signals and fluorescence background, which make it too complex to get good result. In this study the noise signals and fluorescence background were removed by Savitzky-Golay filter and min-max signal adaptive zooming method. Under optimal conditions, pesticide residues in apple samples can be detected by SERS at 0.005 μg/cm2 and 0.002 μg/cm2 for individual acetamiprid and thiram, respectively. When mixing the two pesticides at low concentrations, their characteristic peaks can still be identified from the SERS spectrum of the mixture. Based on the synthesized material and its application in SERS operation, the method represents an ultrasensitive SERS performance in apple samples detection without sample pre-treatment, which indicates that it could be served as a useful means in monitoring pesticide residues.
Rapid detection of benzoyl peroxide in wheat flour by using Raman scattering spectroscopy
Juan Zhao, Yankun Peng, Kuanglin Chao, Jianwei Qin, Sagar Dhakal, Tianfeng Xu
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880S (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2176830
Benzoyl peroxide is a common flour additive that improves the whiteness of flour and the storage properties of flour products. However, benzoyl peroxide adversely affects the nutritional content of flour, and excess consumption causes nausea, dizziness, other poisoning, and serious liver damage. This study was focus on detection of the benzoyl peroxide added in wheat flour. A Raman scattering spectroscopy system was used to acquire spectral signal from sample data and identify benzoyl peroxide based on Raman spectral peak position. The optical devices consisted of Raman spectrometer and CCD camera, 785 nm laser module, optical fiber, prober, and a translation stage to develop a real-time, nondestructive detection system. Pure flour, pure benzoyl peroxide and different concentrations of benzoyl peroxide mixed with flour were prepared as three sets samples to measure the Raman spectrum. These samples were placed in the same type of petri dish to maintain a fixed distance between the Raman CCD and petri dish during spectral collection. The mixed samples were worked by pretreatment of homogenization and collected multiple sets of data of each mixture. The exposure time of this experiment was set at 0.5s. The Savitzky Golay (S-G) algorithm and polynomial curve-fitting method was applied to remove the fluorescence background from the Raman spectrum. The Raman spectral peaks at 619 cm-1, 848 cm-1, 890 cm-1, 1001 cm-1, 1234 cm-1, 1603cm-1, 1777cm-1 were identified as the Raman fingerprint of benzoyl peroxide. Based on the relationship between the Raman intensity of the most prominent peak at around 1001 cm-1 and log values of benzoyl peroxide concentrations, the chemical concentration prediction model was developed. This research demonstrated that Raman detection system could effectively and rapidly identify benzoyl peroxide adulteration in wheat flour. The experimental result is promising and the system with further modification can be applicable for more products in near future.
Nondestructive detection of pork quality based on dual-band VIS/NIR spectroscopy
Wenxiu Wang, Yankun Peng, Yongyu Li, Xiuying Tang, Yuanyuan Liu
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880T (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2176831
With the continuous development of living standards and the relative change of dietary structure, consumers' rising and persistent demand for better quality of meat is emphasized. Colour, pH value, and cooking loss are important quality attributes when evaluating meat. To realize nondestructive detection of multi-parameter of meat quality simultaneously is popular in production and processing of meat and meat products. The objectives of this research were to compare the effectiveness of two bands for rapid nondestructive and simultaneous detection of pork quality attributes. Reflectance spectra of 60 chilled pork samples were collected from a dual-band visible/near-infrared spectroscopy system which covered 350-1100 nm and 1000-2600 nm. Then colour, pH value and cooking loss were determined by standard methods as reference values. Standard normal variables transform (SNVT) was employed to eliminate the spectral noise. A spectrum connection method was put forward for effective integration of the dual-band spectrum to make full use of the whole efficient information. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) and Principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to establish prediction models using based on single-band spectrum and dual-band spectrum, respectively. The experimental results showed that the PLSR model based on dual-band spectral information was superior to the models based on single band spectral information with lower root means quare error (RMSE) and higher accuracy. The PLSR model based on dual-band (use the overlapping part of first band) yielded the best prediction result with correlation coefficient of validation (Rv) of 0.9469, 0.9495, 0.9180, 0.9054 and 0.8789 for L*, a*, b*, pH value and cooking loss, respectively. This mainly because dual-band spectrum can provide sufficient and comprehensive information which reflected the quality attributes. Data fusion from dual-band spectrum could significantly improve pork quality parameters prediction performance. The research also indicated that multi-band spectral information fusion has potential to comprehensively evaluate other quality and safety attributes of pork.
Depth of penetration of a 785nm wavelength laser in food powders
Kuanglin Chao, Sagar Dhakal, Jianwei Qin, Moon S. Kim, Yankun Peng, Walter F. Schmidt
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880U (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2177000
Raman spectroscopy is a useful, rapid, and non-destructive method for both qualitative and quantitative evaluation of chemical composition. However it is important to measure the depth of penetration of the laser light to ensure that chemical particles at the very bottom of a sample volume is detected by Raman system. The aim of this study was to investigate the penetration depth of a 785nm laser (maximum power output 400mw) into three different food powders, namely dry milk powder, corn starch, and wheat flour. The food powders were layered in 5 depths between 1 and 5 mm overtop a Petri dish packed with melamine. Melamine was used as the subsurface reference material for measurement because melamine exhibits known and identifiable Raman spectral peaks. Analysis of the sample spectra for characteristics of melamine and characteristics of milk, starch and flour allowed determination of the effective penetration depth of the laser light in the samples. Three laser intensities (100, 200 and 300mw) were used to study the effect of laser intensity to depth of penetration. It was observed that 785nm laser source was able to easily penetrate through every point in all three food samples types at 1mm depth. However, the number of points that the laser could penetrate decreased with increasing depth of the food powder. ANOVA test was carried out to study the significant effect of laser intensity to depth of penetration. It was observed that laser intensity significantly influences the depth of penetration. The outcome of this study will be used in our next phase of study to detect different chemical contaminants in food powders and develop quantitative analysis models for detection of chemical contaminants.
Jiajia Hu, Yating Chai, Shin Horikawa, Howard C. Wikle, Feng'en Wang, Songtao Du, Bryan A. Chin, Jing Hu
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 94880W (3 June 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2177510
Production of an innovative fertilizer from organic waste: process monitoring by hyperspectral imaging
Silvia Serranti, Giuseppe Bonifazi, Andrea Fabbri, Alice Dall'Ara, Carlos Garcia Izquierdo
The European directive 2008/98/CE establishes a legal framework for the treatment of waste within the Community. It aims at protecting the environment and human health through the prevention of the harmful effects of waste generation and waste management. In order to better protect the environment, the Member States should adopt measures for the treatment of their waste according to a hierarchy as outlined: prevention, preparing for reuse, recycling, energy recovery, disposal. In this context, the European project LIFE12 ENV/IT/000356 "RESAFE" is addressed to produce and utilize a new class of fertilizers characterized by reduced salinity in order to substitute chemical and mineral fertilizers through a technological route based on Urban Organic Waste (UOW), Farm Organic Residues (FOR), Bio-Chars (BC) and Vegetable Active Principles (VAP) processing. Following this approach, it will be possible for farmers and urban waste managers to reduce costs and to obtain environmental and economic incomes. Furthermore, environmental impacts will be also reduced contributing to decrease the greenhouse emissions from landfills and from the production of mineral fertilizers. In this paper, specific innovative sensing architectures, based on Hyper-Spectral Imaging (HSI) devices working in the near infrared (NIR) range, and related detection architectures, is presented and discussed in order to define and apply smart detection engines to follow the transformations of the complex material, resulting from UOW, FOR, BC and VAP based recipes during the different stages of the fertilizer production process. Results show as the fertilizer production process can be monitored adopting the NIR-HSI approach.