text:
Jörg Walz
Vice President Communications and Marketing Automotive
Jakub Fukacz
Communications and Marketing Automotive
Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Celebrates one-two Finish and Maximum Points Haul at Home Race in Berlin
FIA Formula E Berlin Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Celebrates one-two Finish and Maximum Points Haul at Home Race in Berlin
Pole, one-two finish and fastest race lap – dream result for Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler
2018-05-19 | Herzogenaurach/Berlin
The Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler squad celebrated a dream result with a one-two finish in the home race in Berlin in the ABB FIA Formula E. Daniel Abt proved victorious with a flawless start-finish victory. Team mate Lucas di Grassi was 6.758 seconds behind in second place in the ninth race of the season. The most applause and celebrating for this came from one of the packed grandstands in the finish area, from where the 400 Schaeffler employees – including Klaus Rosenfeld, Chairman of the Executive Board of Schaeffler – dressed in green-white witnessed only the second ever one-two in the history of Formula E.
"What more could we wish for than a one-two in our home race – and this immediately in front of 400 of our Schaeffler colleagues, who are inspired by electromobility and work on the mobility for tomorrow," asked Prof. Peter Gutzmer, Chief Technology Officer at Schaeffler. "We know since the first race that we developed an excellent Formula E drivetrain together with Audi. And after we were regular guests on the podium again in the last few races, today everything worked out in this one-two. In fact absolutely everything because with pole position and fastest race lap for Daniel, we became the first ever team in the history of Formula E to score the maximum number of points possible."
"What shall I say? That was probably the best day of my career: pole position, victory and the fastest race lap, and on top of this Lucas in second place – all this in our team's home race. It's just completely crazy. I saw the flags waved by the Schaeffler employees in the grandstand every lap and just enjoyed it," said Daniel Abt. In March, the 25-year old Kempten born racer celebrated his first victory in the innovative electric racing series in Mexico in the fifth race of the season – the first German driver ever. For team mate Lucas di Grassi, the defending Champion, it is his 24th podium result in 42 Formula E races and his fourth consecutive second place. The 33-year old Brazilian started the race from fifth on the grid and demonstrated his exceptional class yet again with some fantastic overtaking maneuvers. In the drivers' classification, Abt holds fourth place, di Grassi sixth before the last three races of the season – one in Zürich and two at the finale in New York. In the teams' classification, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler moved up to second position.
Technology "made by Schaeffler" is found in the Audi e-tron FE04. The Schaeffler engineers developed the core element of the car together with Audi: the combination of motor and gearbox. Schaeffler is official technology partner of the team Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler in the innovative electric race series. Schaeffler also underlines its position as pioneer of electromobility on the race track since the first season 2014/2015. Since the technical regulations were opened up for the second season 2015/2016, specialists from Schaeffler developed the drivetrain for the race car of the only German team. For Schaeffler, Formula E is one of many fields of activity around which it works to form a visionary and sustainable mobility for tomorrow.
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Diverticulosis & Diverticulitis – What is the difference and why should I care?
Diverticular disease was almost unknown in 1900.
By 1970 diverticular disease was the most common disease of the colon in western countries.
Almost 60% of Americans over the age of 60 have diverticular disease.
Diverticulosis are pouch-like structures that can form through points of weakness in the muscular wall of the colon.
Diverticulitis occurs when these pouches get inflamed or infected. This can cause pain, most often in the left lower abdomen, fever, or a change in bowel habits.
Most people with diverticulosis have no symptoms and will remain symptom free for the rest of their lives, i.e. never have an episode of diverticulitis.
Individuals with diverticulosis do NOT need to avoid nuts, seeds, and popcorn. In fact, some studies suggest that these foods may reduce the risk for a diverticulitis flare.
A high fiber diet can help prevent diverticulosis and diverticulitis flares.
Regular exercise can help prevent diverticulitis flares.
If you have been diagnosed with diverticular disease and would like to better understand how to care for yourself and prevent complications of your disease, come visit our well trained staff! Our team includes a Gastroenterologist, Nurse Practitioner, Dietitian, Fitness Consultant and Behavior Counselor that will help you develop a plan to get healthy and stay healthy.
Liz is a nurse practitioner who loves empowering her patients with the knowledge they need to succeed in managing their conditions and improving well-being. Incorporating conventional and integrative approaches backed by science are at the forefront of the care she provides. The gut microbiome, irritable bowel syndrome, impaired sleep and weight management are all topics she enjoys learning about.


This workshop will present novel and engaging ways of visualising data. A key theme will be how to fully exploit the capabilities of the human visual system above what is normally experienced on a flat 2D computer display.
Workshop will be held in the Vislab, iVEC@UWA, ground floor Physics Building.


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Galaxy S10 Plus Review: The Ultimate Android Phone
Celebrating their tenth year in the smartphone market, Samsung did something amazing with their Galaxy S line-up. Launching as many as four different units (Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10 Plus, and Galaxy S10 5G), we take a special liking to the Galaxy S10 Plus.
You would, too, if you considered the lush design and vibrant colors that this device came with.
Let's not ruin the surprise. A quick peek at the Galaxy S10 Plus, shall we take?
There is just so much to be praised here.
We would start from the 6.4-inch screen on this device which looks larger than it actually is. Once again, Samsung shows us why they remain a force to be recooked within the bezel-less display market, giving us a device that carries an 89{1b09b8fb2584dfb3e4aa9a8c3ead58281d36c8ce346588358e0d991cf39b6a1c} screen to body ratio.
That is not even as impressive as the in-display ultrasonic sensor which is better than any other under-display sensor out there right now. We would say this is the South Korean OEM's answer to the unique Face ID on new generation Apple iPhones.
Beyond that, they implemented a hole punch notch unlike we have ever seen on any other smartphone. The notch placement makes it less obvious, beating the implementation of the notch on many other devices – even the iPhones.
Carrying Corning GG6 on the front and GG5 on the back, these glasses are protected against many forms of scratches and breakage. On the flip side, you can choose to pick the S10 Plus in ceramic instead.
In all, talking about the next-level design on this device is nothing compared to witnessing it in the flesh.
Also Read: The Most Durable Phones
Samsung is the king of configurations, and they have lived up to that name on the S10 Plus. Besides the exterior finishing options, they have also made the innards available in all of 8GB/ 128GB, 8GB/ 512GB and 12GB/ 1 TB. As of the time of this writing, no other OEM makes such extensive options available.
We love the fact that the S10 Plus still comes with the option for microSD card space expansion, allowing up to 1TB. However, that would only be possible on the dual SIM model.
Speaking of options, users will get the Galaxy S10 Plus with either the in-house Exynos 9820 chipset or a Qualcomm SD 855 powerhouse. Given that the latter is designed on the 7nm process, we know it would be more efficient than the latter (8nm).
But then, the one you get will be dependent on your region.
Samsung has not really improved from the Galaxy S7 era as they still offer the same 12MP main camera – although with some tweaks to match. Besides that as a main sensor, though, the Galaxy S10 Plus comes with an additional 12MP telephoto lens and a final 16MP camera for ultrawide angle capturing.
The selfie units are equally interesting, sporting a dual 10MP and 8MP lens both suited for wide angle functions. They also have the capacity to record 2160p videos at 30fps.
Samsung might have been conservative with their batteries in the past (due to the Galaxy Note 7 explosion incident), but they have since gotten things right. That ensures we get as much as 4100mAh on this model, and that is pretty impressive for a Samsung device.
Besides the fact that this battery allows 15W fast charging (nothing close to the 45W capability of the Note 10 series), the battery can also wirelessly charge other units at a stunning 9W. That would make sense for earbuds and other smaller pieces of electronics supporting wireless charging capabilities
Galaxy S10 Plus Galaxy S10 Plus Battery Galaxy S10 Plus Camera Galaxy S10 Plus design Samsung Galaxy Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus Ultimate Android Phone

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Honey and Bear is a super cute, dog-friendly café in Bowen Hills serving excellent espresso, all-day breakfast and burgers.
Customers can take-away from the pocket-sized coffee shop or dine-in with plenty of seating provided in a spacious, airy shed with hanging greenery and shutters which open to let the light stream in.
The menu is short and sweet with breakfast dishes ranging from crunchy granola served with seasonal fruit, honey panna cotta and berry compote, to broad beans and avocado on sourdough with heirloom tomatoes, mint salsa verde and grilled asparagus, and DIY breakfast tacos with scrambled eggs, chargrilled corn salsa, avocado and pickled chillies.
Lunch, available from 11am, includes panko crumbed salt and pepper squid, salami and 3 cheese jaffles, and top-notch burgers – Asian fried chicken, pulled barbecue pork and slaw and vegan lentil burger.
Coffee on pour is Single O. Otherwise, there are pots of tea, fresh juices, banana and honey smoothies and red velvet shakes.


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MANUAL PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 51 OF THE PROMOTION OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT NO 2 OF 2000
("the Act")
ARCHDIOCESE OF CAPE TOWN is a religious organisation operating as a church.
Part I (Information required under Section 51(1)(a) of the Act)
Name of Body: ARCHDIOCESE OF CAPE TOWN
Physical Address: 12 Bouquet Street CAPE TOWN, 8001
Postal Address: PO Box 2910 CAPE TOWN, 8000
Head of Body: THE CHANCELLOR FROM TIME TO TIME
Telephone No: 021 462 2417
Fax no: 021 461 9330
E-mail: NOT APPLICABLE
Part II (Information required under Section 51(1)(b) of the Act)
A guide on how to use the Act is to be compiled by the Human Rights Commission in terms of Section 10 of the Act by no later than August 2003. Any queries should be directed to:
The South African Human Rights Commissioner:
PAIA Unit, The Research and Documentation Department
Postal address: Private Bag 2700 Houghton, 2070
Website: www.sahrc.org.za
E-mail: PAIA@sahrc.org.za
Part III (Copy of notice, if any, required under section 51(1)(c) of the Act) Currently not applicable
(information required under Section 51(1)(d) and (e) of the Act)
For the purposes of this manual and the Act, the records held by ARCHDIOCESE OF CAPE TOWN are categorised by the nature of the content thereof as follows:
Records kept in accordance with other legislation but not limited to:
Income Tax Act 58 of 1962;
Regional Services Councils Act 109 of 1985;
Unemployment Insurance Act 63 of 2001;
Value Added Tax Act 89 of 1991;
Pension Funds Act 24 of 1956;
Medical Schemes Act 131 of 1998;
Copyright Act 98 of 1978;
Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995;
Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997;
Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998;
Skills Development Levies Act 9 of 1999
The above records which are of public nature are available automatically without a person having to request access thereto in terms of the Act, as envisaged in Section 52.
4.2 Address lists, internal phone lists, staff handbooks, employment records and contracts, accounting and financial records; insurance records and historical records of ARCHDIOCESE OF CAPE TOWN.
4.3 Internal memoranda, general correspondence and minutes of meetings.
4.4 The website address of ARCHDIOCESE OF CAPE TOWN is adct.org.za and is accessible to anyone who has access to the internet. The website contains information in various categories relating to the company and its contact particulars.
A. The Request Procedure
I. Form of Request
The requester must have the prescribed form being Schedule 1 hereto to make the request for access to a record. This must be made to the head. This request must be made to the address, fax number or electronic mail address of ARCHDIOCESE OF CAPE TOWN.
The requester must provide sufficient detail on the request form to enable the head to identify the record and the requester. The requester should also indicate which form of access is required and specify a postal address or fax number in the republic. The requester should also indicate if, in addition to a written reply, any other manner is to be used to inform the requester and state the necessary particulars to be so informed.
The requester must identify the right that is sought to be exercised or protected and provide an explanation of why the requested record is required for the exercise or protection of the right.
If a request is made on behalf of another person, the requester must submit proof of the capacity in which the requester is making the request to the satisfaction of the head.
II. Fees
A requester who seeks access to a record containing personal information about that requester is not required to pay the request fee. Every other requester, who is not a personal requester, must pay the required request fee:
The head must by notice require the requester (other than a personal requester) to pay the prescribed request fee (if any) before further processing the request
The fee that the requester must pay is R50.00. The requester may lodge an application to the Court against the tender or payment of the request fee
After the head has made a decision on the request, the requester must be notified in the required form
If the request is granted then a further access fee must be paid for reproduction and for search and preparation and for any time that has exceeded the prescribed hours to search and prepare the record for disclosure
Part V (Other information as may be prescribed required under section 51(1)(f))
The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development has not made any regulations in this regard
(Availability of manual under Section 51(3))
An unabridged version of this manual is available for inspection by the general public upon request, during office hours and free of charge at the office of ARCHDIOCESE OF CAPE TOWN
Copies may also be requested from the South African Human Rights Commission
Part VII (prescribed form and fee structure in respect of private bodies)
The forms and fee structure prescribed under the Act are available at the website of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development under the "regulations" section as well as the SAHRC website (www.sahrc.org.za).


My Life as a "Supermom"-note the quotations...: Speak no, see no, hear no??
Often times, especially recently I realize I do not contribute to a lot of the political conversations, debates, arguments, rapport...that seems to surround me. For the longest time I feel like I a little bit like the the picture I posted... and feel guilty...like if I don't even "hear" or "see" or "speak" what is going on around me (politically-economically) then I will not feel it.
I tend to fly under the radar when it comes to debating most topics, often times, I feel like if I am not 100% educated on the topic I am debating that it seems crazy to approach it, I will be in the center of a debate, and hear something I disagree with, yet I keep silent, because I am thinking... "if you can't really back this up, don't even jump in to this conversation, girl!"
So I guess just for the record, I do have an opinion, but I choose, and have the right not to publicly share it, if your are really interested, invite me for coffee, I will share whatever is in my head, as non-linked to the news media I have tried to stay lately.
In spite of getting lost and talking the whole night to Pitts-to-the-Burghey and back, somehow we missed politics!!! Alright, let's do coffee or a LOST night - I'm VERY interested in what's inside your head!!! Love you!
Yeah, yeah!!! My blood has been boiling this week, maybe it is time I start talking...this week at work...It is stressful everyone "knows they are RIGHT!!!" and that is annoying!


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St Joseph's Catholic Church
Carpenders Park, Diocese of Westminster
Tue 10:00 - 12:00 & Fri 10:00 - 03:00 Parish Office
Oxhey DriveWatford WD19 7SW
Book a Place for Mass
Order of Mass (PDF)
St Joseph the Silent Saint
Catholic Glossary
Confession/Reconciliation
The Eucharist/First Holy Communion
Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and Lectors
Catholic Women's League
St Vincent de Paul Society
020 8428 0088Call Us
Bishops welcome return to public worship after lockdown ends
Posted on November 27, 2020 November 27, 2020 by Jacqueline Faria
The government has confirmed that collective worship can resume in churches and other places of worship from 3rd December. This decision applies across all three tiers of COVID-19 restrictions in England.
On behalf of the Bishops, the General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, Canon Christopher Thomas, commented:
'The Catholic community in England is delighted at the government's decision to allow the resumption of collective worship following the national lockdown in all three tiers.
'This decision reflects the importance of the right of all people to express their faith in worship, but more importantly, it is an acknowledgement of the active collaboration the Church has had with public officials in developing COVID-secure protocols in our churches.
'As we move forward, it is incumbent on all who come to worship God in our churches to play their part in keeping themselves and others safe by following all of the guidance that has been prepared.
'Through our encounter with Christ in the Eucharist and other sacraments celebrated in the Church, the works of charity which have been expressed through Catholic charities and communities over the last nine months finds its source and goal.'
Fr Dominic Writes: 1st Sunday in Advent
Catholics invited to respond to government consultation on faith engagement
Help! I need somebody …
BBC Lockdown Learning
The God who Speaks to us and sustains our mental health
Pope's Prayer Intention for January: Fellowship with other religions
Pope at Angelus reminds us to cherish our baptismal identity
Fr Dominic celebrates Mass at Borehamwood and you can watch via live streaming.
Donate to the parish!
With Virgin Money Giving, you can donate a one-off or regular amount to the parish with just a few clicks.
Saturday Vigil Mass: 18.00
Sunday: 08.30 & 10.30
Tuesday: Healing Mass 18.00
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 09.15
Tuesday:18.30-19.00
Saturday: 17.30
Tuesday: 18.30-19.00
Oxhey Drive
Herts WD19 7SW
Email: carpenderspark@rcdow.org.uk
Copyright © 2020 St Joseph's Catholic Church | Maintained by G A Villa


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Log Splitter Expert Witnesses
Are you searching for a skilled and knowledgeable log splitter expert witness? Log splitters are machines used for splitting precut logs into smaller pieces to be used for varying purposes. Like most types of woodworking equipment and machinery, log splitters must be properly operated so as to avoid unforeseen accidents. Log splitter expert consulting may provide essential information for cases pertaining to such issues as industrial hygiene, mechanical equipment, machine safety, forestry, timber, environmental planning, heavy equipment, product liability, personal injury, wrongful death, woodworking, mechanical engineering, and other various issues concerning the use of log splitters, each of which may become very important in the event of a possible lawsuit involving the machine.
Log splitter experts have often worked with such disciplines as logging, timber harvest, environmental compliance, environmental assessment, environmental safety and health, environmental remediation, wood, forest management, sales management, contract management, tree safety, wildfire management, vegetation, ecology, inventory control, agricultural equipment and machinery, machinery appraisal, tools, materials handling, materials safety, and other related issues. Log splitters are most often built with hydraulics or an electrical rod and piston and are usually powered by a diesel engine, gasoline, or hydraulic pump. Log splitter expert witnesses may be asked to provide an expert opinion based on an accident investigation and reconstruction in the event of an accident involving a log splitter.
ForensisGroup has been providing attorneys with the most qualified of experts from across the United States since 1991. Contact our office today and our staff will get started on matching you with a reputable log splitter expert witness for your case.
Equipment & Machines Expert Witnesses
Recent Blogs and Articles
A Letter From Mercy T. Steenwyk, President and CEO of ForensisGroup
ForensisGroup on Racial Injustice in our Society Part 2
ForensisGroup Observes Juneteenth to Support Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
ForensisGroup on Racial Injustice in our Society


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Scott Altman
Scott Douglas "Scooter" Altman (born August 15, 1959) is a United States Navy Captain test pilot and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions. His fourth mission on STS-125 was the last servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Born in Lincoln, Illinois, Scott is married to the former Jill Shannon Loomer of Tucson, Arizona. They have three children, the second oldest of whom, Alex, graduated Rice University in Houston, Texas in May 2009. Hometown is Pekin, Illinois, where his parents, Fred and Sharon Altman, currently reside. The Pekin District 108 school board voted to honor the former astronaut by naming Scott Altman Primary School in 2010. Scott's sister Sarah Beardsley is the publisher of Venus Zine, a women's music, DIY and culture multi-media company. His callsigns have been "D-Bear" and Scooter. He is a brother of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
1977: Graduated from Pekin Community High School, Pekin, Illinois
1981: Received bachelor of science degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Illinois, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia -	https://wn.com/Scott_Altman
Altman, Scott Filmography
2011, role: director
The Crackle of the Crack
2002, role: producer
2002, role: writer
Famous quotes by Scott Altman:
"Welcome back to Earth after a fantastic flight."
"Watching the sunrise and sunset, and the way it illuminated the solar arrays on the service module was just phenomenal. It sparkled like a jewel out there against the blue background of the oceans. A very, very beautiful sight for us,"
"As the commander, I've realized that going through the whole training flow, your focus really widens out and you're responsible for so much more."
"Our director of education focuses on finding innovating and interactive experiences. It's hands-on, interactive. I think that is unlocking the door to the children's awareness of what opera is, that is what's making it accessible."
scottsorchard.net
scottsorchard.org
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walterscottkilling.org
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walterscottkilling.net
scottsroad.net
ascottjakarta.com
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aaronscott.org
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scottemployment.com
scottsimpson.org
walterscott.me


ROBERTO MARTINEZ has insisted he is not feeling under any more pressure than at any other previous point in his managerial career as he seeks to prevent his Everton reign from unravelling.
The Everton manager has come under increasing scrutiny following a persistent downturn in results that has left the club languishing in 14th place in the Premier League.
Everton supporters displayed a "Martinez out" banner during Saturday's 1-1 draw with Watford, while the Spaniard fielded fans' concerns at an U21s game against Chelsea on Monday night.
Yet despite the spotlight on his tenure provoked by a run of just three wins in 13 league matches, Martinez said the demands he puts on himself remain the greatest he must endure.
"No I wouldn't say that (I feel under more pressure)," he said. "As a manager you understand there is always the pressure you put on yourself.
Everton travel to Crystal Palace tomorrow without skipper Phil Jagielka. He will also miss this weekend's home game with Southampton with a hamstring injury.
Jagielka limped off at Watford having felt the injury against Manchester United the previous and is facing a battle to be fit for next week's Merseyside derby and also the FA Cup semi-final on April 23.


Views over Quamichan Lake and sunsets on Mt. Prevost, welcome to beautiful Rockwood Terrace in Maple Bay. This lovely main level entry home has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Home is spacious with very nice floor plan, and is situated in one of the best locations in the project with optimal views over the lake. This home has a large back yard and patio area to enjoy private outdoor living. Dining and living rooms with natural gas fireplace, family room opens out onto the patio. Home is well built with great attention to detail. Experience this excellent location close to walking trails, minutes from Cowichan amenities and 5 minutes to Maple Bay's beautiful oceanfront. Adult oriented, 1 small pet allowed, no rentals.


text:
import sys
if (sys.version_info > (3,)):
  import http.client
  from http.client import BAD_REQUEST, CONFLICT, NOT_FOUND, OK
else:
  import httplib
  from httplib import BAD_REQUEST, CONFLICT, NOT_FOUND, OK
from flask import request, session, make_response
from flask_restful import Resource
from cairis.daemon.CairisHTTPError import ARMHTTPError
from cairis.data.CountermeasureDAO import CountermeasureDAO
from cairis.tools.JsonConverter import json_serialize
from cairis.tools.MessageDefinitions import CountermeasureMessage, ValueTypeMessage,CountermeasureTaskMessage
from cairis.tools.ModelDefinitions import CountermeasureModel, ValueTypeModel,CountermeasureTask
from cairis.tools.SessionValidator import get_session_id, get_model_generator

__author__ = 'Shamal Faily'

class CountermeasuresAPI(Resource):

  def get(self):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)
    constraint_id = request.args.get('constraint_id', -1)

    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    countermeasures = dao.get_countermeasures(constraint_id=constraint_id)
    dao.close()

    resp = make_response(json_serialize(countermeasures, session_id=session_id), OK)
    resp.contenttype = 'application/json'
    return resp

  def post(self):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)

    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    new_countermeasure = dao.from_json(request)
    dao.add_countermeasure(new_countermeasure)
    dao.close()

    resp_dict = {'message': 'Countermeasure successfully added'}
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(resp_dict), OK)
    resp.contenttype = 'application/json'
    return resp

class CountermeasureByNameAPI(Resource):

  def get(self, name):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)

    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    countermeasure = dao.get_countermeasure_by_name(name=name)
    dao.close()

    resp = make_response(json_serialize(countermeasure, session_id=session_id), OK)
    resp.headers['Content-type'] = 'application/json'
    return resp

  def put(self, name):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)

    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    req = dao.from_json(request)
    dao.update_countermeasure(req, name=name)
    dao.close()

    resp_dict = {'message': 'Countermeasure successfully updated'}
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(resp_dict), OK)
    resp.headers['Content-type'] = 'application/json'
    return resp

  def delete(self, name):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)

    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    dao.delete_countermeasure(name=name)
    dao.close()

    resp_dict = {'message': 'Countermeasure successfully deleted'}
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(resp_dict), OK)
    resp.headers['Content-type'] = 'application/json'
    return resp

class TargetsAPI(Resource):

  def get(self, environment):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)
    reqList = request.args.getlist('requirement')
    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    targets = dao.get_countermeasure_targets(reqList,environment)
    dao.close()
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(targets, session_id=session_id), OK)
    resp.contenttype = 'application/json'
    return resp

class CountermeasureTasksAPI(Resource):

  def get(self, environment):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)
    roleList = request.args.getlist('role')
    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    tasks = dao.get_countermeasure_tasks(roleList,environment)
    dao.close()

    resp = make_response(json_serialize(tasks, session_id=session_id), OK)
    resp.contenttype = 'application/json'
    return resp
    dao.close()

class GenerateAssetAPI(Resource):

  def post(self, name):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)

    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    dao.generate_asset(name)
    dao.close()

    resp_dict = {'message': 'Asset successfully generated'}
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(resp_dict), OK)
    resp.headers['Content-type'] = 'application/json'
    return resp

class GenerateAssetFromTemplateAPI(Resource):

  def post(self, name, template_asset_name):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)

    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    dao.generate_asset_from_template(name,template_asset_name)
    dao.close()

    resp_dict = {'message': 'Asset successfully generated'}
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(resp_dict), OK)
    resp.headers['Content-type'] = 'application/json'
    return resp

class SituateCountermeasurePatternAPI(Resource):

  def post(self, name, security_pattern_name):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)

    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    dao.situate_countermeasure_pattern(name,security_pattern_name)
    dao.close()

    resp_dict = {'message': 'Security pattern situated'}
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(resp_dict), OK)
    resp.headers['Content-type'] = 'application/json'
    return resp

class AssociateSituatedPatternAPI(Resource):

  def post(self, name, security_pattern_name):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)

    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    dao.associate_situated_pattern(name,security_pattern_name)
    dao.close()

    resp_dict = {'message': 'Situated pattern associated'}
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(resp_dict), OK)
    resp.headers['Content-type'] = 'application/json'
    return resp

class RemoveSituatedPatternAPI(Resource):

  def delete(self, name, security_pattern_name):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)

    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    dao.remove_situated_pattern(name,security_pattern_name)
    dao.close()

    resp_dict = {'message': 'Situated pattern removed'}
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(resp_dict), OK)
    resp.headers['Content-type'] = 'application/json'
    return resp

class CandidatePatternsAPI(Resource):

  def get(self, name):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)
    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    spNames = dao.candidate_countermeasure_patterns(name)
    dao.close()
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(spNames, session_id=session_id), OK)
    resp.contenttype = 'application/json'
    return resp

class CountermeasurePatternsAPI(Resource):

  def get(self, name):
    session_id = get_session_id(session, request)
    dao = CountermeasureDAO(session_id)
    spNames = dao.countermeasure_patterns(name)
    dao.close()
    resp = make_response(json_serialize(spNames, session_id=session_id), OK)
    resp.contenttype = 'application/json'
    return resp

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


In 1991, a small group of dedicated volunteers interested in supporting the not-for-profit Hospice San Antonio formed Friends of Hospice San Antonio.
The purpose of Friends of Hospice is to educate members of the organization and the community about hospice services, to promote and publicize the hospice message through various community events and activities, and to raise funds in support of continuation and expansion of superior hospice services.
The pomegranate, an ancient symbol of life bursting out of death; the olive branch, a symbol of rest and healing; the circle, a symbol of harmony and continuity; the color green, a sign of hope and renewal; the color red, a symbol of love.


text:
Q: Grub does not boot into Windows Currently I have GNU GRUB version 2.02beta2-36ubuntu3.18 installed and Ubuntu and windows installed.
When I turn on my computer and I choose Windows Boot Manager on grub, it boots back into grub again and I am not able to boot back to windows. It boots the Ubuntu normally when I choose Ubuntu.
Looking forward to your help.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
<?php
	class Kebutuhan extends CI_Model
	{
		function __construct()
		{
			parent::__construct();
			$this->load->database();
		}

		function insert_batch($data){
			$this->db->insert_batch('kebutuhan',$data);
			return 0;
		}

		function get_where($data){
			$q = $this->db->get_where('kebutuhan',$data);
			return $q->result();
		}

		function update($where,$data){
			$this->db->where($where);
			$this->db->update('kebutuhan', $data);
		}

	}


MTU Aero Engines' headquarters is Munich. This traditional aviation site is inextricably linked to the history of powered flight, its roots reaching back to the beginning of the last century. It is from here that the affiliates and most of MTU's research and development activities are controlled.
Engines are here assembled and components manufactured for shipment to the big engine OEMs. In Munich, moreover, spare parts are manufactured and innovative repair and maintenance techniques developed for use at the company's affiliates. And it is also at this location that MTU has set up a center of excellence for blisks for which it has built a new, highly advanced production shop.
Furthermore, MTU is the German industrial lead company for the engines flown by the country's military, with all military programs focused at the Munich location.
At Munich airport, take rapid transit S1 headed for Munich central station (Hauptbahnhof). Get off at the Moosach stop and take a taxi to MTU's main gate. The total travel time will be about 30 minutes. Alternatively, from the Moosach stop, take bus No. 176 or 710 headed for Karlsfeld and get off at the Kristallstraße stop, which is right across MTU's main entrance (for frequency of service, see below).
From Munich central station (Hauptbahnhof), the best way to get to MTU is to take rapid transit line S1 and subway line U2.
S1: Take rapid transit S1 headed for Freising/Flughafen (airport) and get off at Moosach rapid train station. On weekdays, buses No. 176 and No. 710 headed for Karlsfeld leave every 20 minutes beginning at 5:01 a.m. Get off at the Kristallstraße stop, which is right across MTU's main entrance. Between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and between 3:00 p.m and 7:00 p.m., trips depart every 10 minutes. The total travel time is about 35 minutes.
U2: Take subway line U2 in the direction of Feldmoching and get off at Feldmoching subway station, which is the final stop. Take bus No. 172 headed for Karlsfeld and get off at the Kristallstraße stop. Beginning at 5:19 a.m., bus No. 172 departs every 20 minutes. The total travel time is about 30 minutes.
At MTU Aero Engines' Erding facility MTU experts and specialists of the German Armed Forces have jointly been providing support for all EJ200 (Eurofighter Typhoon) and RB199 (Tornado) engines as well as for the MTR390 engine, which powers the Tiger combat helicopter. The co-location of the German Armed Forces and MTU's activities at a single location ensures cost-effective maintenance operations also in future.


text:
Not adding up: La Jolla teacher and some parents 'beyond frustrated' with new SDUSD math initiative
The La Jolla Cluster Association discusses the San Diego Unified School District's new math program Feb. 24.
(Elisabeth Frausto)
Feb. 26, 2022 9:30 AM PT
Following two La Jolla Cluster Association meetings about a new San Diego Unified School District math initiative, Muirlands Middle School math teacher Rob Tindall says he is "beyond frustrated" and wants the local association to consider invoking part of an agreement with the district that allows schools to request adjustments to the curriculum.
Tindall relayed his concerns during the Cluster Association's Feb. 24 virtual meeting. The group is composed of parents and staff from the five SDUSD schools in La Jolla.
As presented to the cluster in December and January, the initiative, called San Diego Enhanced Mathematics, is designed to modernize SDUSD's math instruction through new curricula, course offerings and assessments.
But Tindall said he has been asking the district math department questions about the new program for two years without receiving answers.
"I've heard several people talk ... about meaningful engagement of stakeholders," he said. "I'm feeling like we're being engaged but not meaningfully. We're not being heard."
At a time when local news is more important then ever, support from our readers is essential. If you are able to, please become a supporter of the La Jolla Light today by clicking here.
Local parent Eren Efe echoed Tindall's frustration, saying she has asked for months for a chart to compare the current math pathways with those proposed, without a response. Other parents expressed support for such comments in the meeting's Zoom chat.
"There are significant changes being proposed by the district ... that our math department at Muirlands is 100 percent in disagreement with," Tindall said. "I don't think parents really understand what's happening. I don't think parents know what our math curriculum pathways currently look like, let alone what the future ones are."
Wendy Ranck-Buhr, leadership and learning instructional support officer for San Diego Unified, told the La Jolla Light that "our SDEM leadership team is committed to community outreach and input and we continue to consult with our external SDEM steering committee, a group of mathematicians and educators represented from UC San Diego, San Diego State University, S.D. Community College District and the S.D. County Office of Education. We have multiple opportunities for interested staff, parents and community members to provide input and learn more about ongoing planning for the math initiative."
Families can enter questions and feedback about the initiative at bit.ly/SDEMForm.
But Tindall said Muirlands math teachers would like to invoke a clause in the original memorandum of understanding between the La Jolla Cluster Association and San Diego Unified "that allows schools to make adjustments to curriculum, as we might see fit, in agreement with the district."
However, he wondered whether "the cluster agreement is actually an active binding document anymore."
SDUSD Area 5 Superintendent Mitzi Merino said she would research the issue.
Three La Jolla schools project enrollment declines as S.D. district expects 'big hit' in funding
The San Diego Unified School District is facing funding challenges exacerbated by enrollment declines, including among the public schools that make up the La Jolla Cluster.
Item III of the agreement states "the district recognizes that LJC schools desire greater authority to manage, operate and administer the educational programs in the LJ cluster and that, from time to time, LJC schools may wish to alter the courses of study, scope and sequence, curriculum, instructional strategies, text selection, staffing configurations, professional development, assessment content and timeline and the methods to meet state graduation guidelines ... for the LJC schools."
The MOU spells out a process through which cluster schools can request a change to an educational program. The request ultimately requires agreement from the district.
"The purpose of the cluster was to get together and discuss common problems and issues and to try to share solutions and resources and, when necessary, ask for support from the district," Tindall said. He added that recently, most meetings focus on the cluster's successes.
"We need to hit the reset button," Tindall said.
La Jolla Elementary School Principal Stephanie Hasselbrink said: "I feel like we're in a bit of a different time. That doesn't mean I'm saying we shouldn't activate something. I have to read that section of the MOU, and I think we've got some learning to do."
"I would love a way to figure out how to have some more open dialogue and discussions so people don't feel like we're just presenting all the good stuff and not getting into what's really important, because that's a waste of everyone's time," she added.
Cluster Association co-chairwoman Heather Polen said one of the three cluster meetings left in the school year will be devoted to the math department to discuss changes.
The cluster agreement can be revisited at another future meeting, Polen added.
Association members also discussed forming a math subcommittee. Polen said she would email cluster members to gather interest in joining the committee. ◆
News Education


What Happened When I *Finally* Decided To Give Up Junk Food!
Last year, I was living away from my family and that's the reason I frequently ate junk food. There were times I tried to cook for myself, but it was too hard to come back from a long day at work and start the tedious cooking process. It was too hectic, so I always ended up ordering a pizza or a burger.
A few months ago, I moved back home and started eating home-cooked meals that my father lovingly prepared for all of us. I loved it. I suddenly felt like junk food was such a waste of money, and it also messed up so much of my diet and my body.
To finally come out of this phase, I decided to change my lifestyle: I started with more home-cooked meals and a gym membership. And in my quest to be healthier, I challenged myself to give up eating junk food for one whole month. Trust me, the thought of it was scary!
That meant no chips, no coke, no burgers or pizzas. Nothing!
And guess what? I actually managed to do it! And there's so much that I learned about my body and food in that one month. One of the lessons was that we actually DON'T need junk food in our life. We are so much better without it.
So, it was on a Sunday when I had finished my month of not eating junk food and then I realised that I deserved a treat after eating healthy and working out for an entire month. With this purpose of celebrating in mind, I got the whole deal - a burger and a box of fries. I couldn't contain my happiness at this sight.
I did feel good; it was all I'd hoped for. The crispy fries and the cheesy chicken burger and coke were HEAVEN to me but then I went back home and I felt bloated.
I never imagined I would be one of those people who would write something bad about burger and fries, but I definitely regretted eating it after four weeks of a healthier lifestyle. I didn't feel good about myself for a while.
According to a study on fast food and heart health, someone who eats junk food more than once a week has a higher risk of obesity. Eating fast food more than twice a week has been associated with a higher risk of metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions including high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol and hypertension, leading to heart diseases and strokes.
It will change your metabolism, reduce the ability of your muscles and also lead to poor digestion. Eating fast food also leads to a few other things like depression, dental distress, shortness of breath and bloating and puffiness.
Trust me, the list of disadvantages of eating junk food goes on, but does that mean I will stop eating junk food? Maybe not entirely. Experts do believe that this way of eating can also be balanced. Which means, you can either tone it down a little and substitute it with healthier options, or always try to opt for something that won't ruin your health. Like maybe go for water instead of an aerated drink when you're eating a burger. Or, order a salad along with your burger. There's no way to stop eating junk food, but we sure can eliminate it from our daily lives.


text:
Snyder signs bill setting deadline for petition signatures
Kathleen Gray
LANSING - People organizing petition drives for ballot proposals will have to adhere to a strict 180-day window to gather signatures under a bill that was signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Rick Snyder.
The law signals the final blow to petition drives that would have banned fracking and legalized marijuana in the state. Both groups had worked to gather the signatures -- and in the case of the marijuana ballot, had gathered more than enough signatures, but not in a 180-day window.
Snyder said he signed the legislation because the time limits to gather signatures was appropriate.
"Establishing reasonable time limits on when signatures can be collected helps ensure the issues that make the ballot are the ones that matter most to Michiganders," Snyder said in a statement.
Related: State: Marijuana legalization group short 106,000 signatures
But opponents of the legislation, which passed on mostly party-line votes in both the House and Senate with only Republican members supporting the bill, have said the law impedes the people from having a voice in their own government and challenging legislation passed by the Legislature.
The MiLegalize group, which turned in 354,000 petition signatures last week for their proposal to legalize marijuana, are considering challenging the law in court as unconstitutional.
The Secretary of State's office said the MiLegalize petition is invalid because 137,029 of the signatures were gathered outside the 180-day window. The State Board of Canvassers will meet on Thursday to consider the Secretary of State's findings on the ballot proposal.
Right now, people collecting petition signatures for a constitutional amendment or legislative initiative have to gather those signatures in a 180-day window. If some of those signatures are challenged by opponents to the proposal as being collected outside that window, that objection can be challenged.
But the new laws remove the ability to challenge the exclusion of petition signatures and sets a hard 180-day window to gather signatures.
Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal


text:
Q: Sensu /checks API call appears empty I am running Sensu as a series of Docker containers (sensu-server, sensu-api, n sensu-clients, rabbitmq and redis). While the clients successfully register themselves and run checks requested by the server, and whose checks will be reported via handlers and via /clients, API calls to /checks return nothing.
Server config:
{
  "rabbitmq":{
    "host": "rabbitmq"
  },
  "redis":{
    "host":"redis"
  },
  "api":{
    "host":"api",
    "port":4567
  }
  "handlers": { ... },
  "checks": { ... }
}

API config:
{
  "rabbitmq":{
    "host":"rabbitmq"
  },
  "redis":{
    "host":"redis"
  },
  "api":{
    "host":"api",
    "port":4567
  }
}

Client config:
{
  "client":{
    "name":"openshift-{{ .Env.AVAILABILITY_ZONE }}",
    "address":"{{ .Env.HOSTNAME }}",
    "subscriptions":[
        "{{ .Env.AVAILABILITY_ZONE }}",
        "any-client"
    ]
  },
  {
    "rabbitmq":{
      "host":"rabbitmq"
    }
  }
}

A: I solved this in a similar scenario - our configuration didn't give the api & servers (which ran inside separate docker containers) a copy of the check definitions.
Here's the Github issue that lead me to it: https://github.com/sensu/uchiwa/issues/83#issuecomment-51917336


How to Find a Moulding Company in Pedro ?
When you look for a End of Arm Tooling (EOAT) that develop a Moulding Company in Pedro, looks for experience and not only pricing.
When looking for a design house that designs a Moulding Company in Pedro don't look just in Ohio , other States also have great providers.


At Evolve, your own fitness sanctuary, you work out on state-of-the-art equipment. A personal Trainer knows each and every piece of equipment and how to use it!
Motivation ~ When you exercise with a trainer you will always work harder than you would on your own.
Safety ~ Spending time one-on-one with a trainer will help you understand how your body moves. Our trainers address biomechanics and will help improve your movement, maximizing safety both in and outside of the studio.
Accountability ~ People that work out with a trainer tend to stick to their program. With the motivation a trainer provides, you will see the results you desire! It's easy to get caught up with a hectic schedule and lose sight of our goals. A trainer will keep you focused and keep track of your objectives.
Specialized ~ A trainer will keep you on task and use your time efficiently. With their skills your workouts can be tailored for a specific goal such as a 5K, triathlon or high school reunion.
Versatility ~ A qualified trainer has an abundance of exercises for every muscle group. They stay current on new developments and trends in fitness. They keep your exercise regime interesting.
Confidence ~ A good trainer will explain how an exercise works, and will make sure you can do it alone. Then you will feel more confident working out on your own or amongst others.
Companionship ~ Exercising can be boring or a bit lonely. With a trainer, you always have someone to talk to while they encourage you to keep going. They are both a coach and cheering section! It's great having a non-judgmental fitness partner.
No Additional Fees and Lots of Space ~ At Evolve you can meet with a trainer without paying a membership fee like you would at a big box gym. Plus, you will have plenty of space and equipment with no waiting.
5 classes - feel the difference 10 classes - see the difference 20 classes - experience a new you!


The FGC15N-FGC33N series is built to help protect the operator and surrounding personnel. Each unit comes standard with the Integrated Presence System (IPS), which is designed to disengage all powered travel and some hydraulic functionality when the operator leaves the normal operating position. Additionally, warning alarms sound and indicators are shown on the display panel, informing the operator and surrounding personnel that the system is engaged.


text:
Post-NAFTA North America
Post-NAFTA North America pp 169-194 | Cite as
Post-NAFTA Deepening and Widening Trends: Towards the Continentalization of Energy Markets and the Enlargement of the Southern Periphery
Isidro Morales
Part of the International Political Economy Series book series (IPES)
For years, Europeans have debated about the virtues of strengthening communitarian institutions and inter-state political cooperation for ensuring the consolidation of a single economic and social space. The 'deepening' of integration has generally been translated into a further pooling of states' sovereignty to communitarian institutions, such as the European Commission, the European Court or the Parliament. The debate has split opinions about the virtues of deepening commitments with only a few members — say, the original six founding members — or enlarging the 'acquis communautaire' to new ones, but without extending the commitments agreed by an 'inner circle'. Europeans have in fact shown that they can do both without putting too much pressure on the communitarian architecture.
Market Access Energy Market Dispute Settlement Government Procurement Energy Information Administration
© Isidro Morales 2008
1.Area of Public Administration and GovernmentInstituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de MonterreyMexico
Morales I. (2008) Post-NAFTA Deepening and Widening Trends: Towards the Continentalization of Energy Markets and the Enlargement of the Southern Periphery. In: Post-NAFTA North America. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London
DOI https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230582859_7
eBook Packages Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies Collection


Tuten Chatterjee, a mathematical whiz-kid with an uncanny knack for finding patterns. chances upon a webchat between two mysterious webchatters-HICKORY and DICKORY, and learns about the deep conspiracy brewing inside SHIVAN Computers. Things take a murky turn when a software innovator is murdered in a packed auditorium by an invisible killer,an unseen assassin kills a software visionary in a locked room,and a mysterious masked man sabotages a server room and vanishes with Lord-a cutting-edge software invention form India. The trouble heightens when Raja,Chairman of Shivan Computers,hatches an accounting fraud of unimaginable proportion by manipulating the accounting book of LoRD.
Sundip Gorai is a Btech from IIT and an MBA form IMT with fifteen years of experience in Business Intelligence and Analytics.He currently heads the business Intelligence and analytics practice (North America) of a leading software company.
and tell us why you want to read more ?
This story is about someone with a TRUE talent! I agree when people say that many IIT'ians are going by "The by-heart system". (If theres any engineering students here, dont mind! ) The reason im saying this a hell lot of people appearing in IITs or studying there lacks something aka "basic common sense!". This is from a personal experience which i've come across a hell lot of times. Anyway going back to the book (WARNING: im NOT going to use any spoiler tags!) who knows the situation could be similar as many of his friends have already been recruited! Remember, reputed companies judge you by your Marksheet! Quite often the true capabilities are ignored. 210's grade maynt be good enough to get him hired but still his aptitude to Dr.Sarin is impressing, how he talked to the famous Dr.Sarin, how he answered his questions..all these proves that 210 is a really 'good and truely talented' boy at heart..these qualities is missing in many engineering students.
Also, the other character (antagonist-like) Vishnu is pretty hilarious. Remember Jonah Jones in SpiderMan? The boss of a local newspaper? The two are quite similar!
210 is a guy who dreams high even when theres no hope of doing something 'great' (so to speak as hes an engineering student). From the way he performed in the viva exam conducted by Vishnu hes like a simpleton of course, but he has a deep knowledge of things..some even dating back to centuries old! Thus hes able to analyze things clearly (if n0t exceptionally) and learns a lot. Now tell me this: how many IIT'ians know about 'centuries old scientific history'?
And gawd knows why the author refers to him as "210!" ROFL!
Now, can i have this book please? I cant wait to continue reading the whole story!


text:
Jeremy Kost - Seismic Dreams – Circus of Books
Jeremy Kost
Jeremy Kost - Seismic Dreams
SKU: Z Jeremy Kost - Seismic Dreams
Seismic Dreams by Jeremy Kost
SELF PUBLISHED - DECEMBER 2019
162 UNCENSORED IMAGES
Limited to 750 signed and numbered copies, SEISMIC DREAMS continues the investigation of painting and Polaroid that Jeremy began with his last book, Isolated But Not Alone. It is a substantial 194 pages and features 162 new oil painted Polaroid works, all made between October 2018 and October 2019.
While he has built an audience of more than half a million followers on his Instagram account, exhibitions and books are still the only way to view his work in an uncensored form.
New gestures recall dreamlike hazes, swirling brushstrokes, and seismic heartbeats while packing a poetic punch of intense color, all over Jeremy's signature, male-nude polaroids. These new marks are more painterly, more intentional, more whimsical, and more romantic. The Polaroids are sharper, with stronger definition and deeper range. The resulting works stand in contrast to the overly-saturated, high-contrast photography we see in today's Instagram world. Two-dimensional snapshots become textured and alive. Contrast is distilled. The paint acts as an energetic punch against the muted, dreamlike tones of the Polaroid.
Rather than disguise or obscure, the paint brings both the figure and landscape of the original image into sharper relief, while repeating the conversation of figure and ground again with paint to Polaroid.
Whether staring back at the camera or captured at a distance, the men in Kost's work exude a true sense of intimacy. They offer a canvas for our own projections and fantasies. The paint fractures the image, almost puncturing a reverie, reminding us of the vulnerability of that moment and inviting us in while also keeping us at a distance.
In addition, the book contains a short but poetic introduction by Emmy and Tony Award winning actor, Billy Porter.
Seismic Dreams is an essential addition for fans of Kost's work and a brilliant introduction to his work for new audiences.
Jeremy Kost has been a tireless chronicler of gender, sexuality, and nightlife for more than 15 years. Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, he now lives and works between Los Angeles and New York City. Traveling the world to make images, whether they're of male models in the Californian desert or drag queens strutting through Pittsburgh, is a nonstop pursuit.
Kost is strongly influenced by Warhol in both his choice of subjects and technique. Extending the creative potential of Warhol's favorite tools, Kost makes use of the Polaroid camera, silkscreen processes, and textured paintwork. He might bejewel his Polaroids with oil paint, use them as the basis for silkscreen paintings, or amass them together in elaborate, multilayered photo-collages.
Kost's work is included in multiple private and public collections across the globe, including LACMA, Museo Jumex, MoCA Los Angeles, MFA Houston, The Studio Museum Harlem, The Nerman Museum, and many more. He has exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Galerie Nuke, Paris, and Galerie Charlotte Moser in Geneva. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including State of the Art – New Contemporary Photography, NRW Forum, Dusseldorf, Germany; Dress Codes, International Center of Photography Triennial of Photography and Video, New York, NY and many others.
His bibliography includes It's Always Darkest Before Dawn, a monograph published (2011) by powerHouse, Fractured, published by Damiani (2014), and Like One Of Your French Girls, his first self published effort (2017).


Professor Dyer is an assistant professor of accounting at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. His research focuses primarily on the determinants and outcomes of both disclosure and information retrieval choices by capital market participants, with a particular interest in capitalizing on new statistical analysis techniques such as machine learning. His research has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Financial Reporting, and Auditing: a Journal of Practice and Theory. Before joining Cornell University, he obtained his PhD in Accounting from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. He currently teaches financial statement analysis for the MBA programs.
Cassell, Cory; Drake, Michael; Dyer, Travis. "Auditor Litigation Risk and the Number of Institutional Investors" Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory. (forthcoming).
The Ever-Expanding 10-K: Why Are 10- Ks Getting So Much Longer (and Does It Matter)?


Genome sequencing and assembly are essential for revealing the secrets of life hidden in genomes. Because of repeats in most genomes, current programs collate sequencing data into a set of assembled sequences, called contigs, instead of a complete genome. Toward completing a genome, optical mapping is powerful in rendering the relative order of contigs on the genome, which is called scaffolding. However, connecting the neighboring contigs with nucleotide sequences requires further efforts. Nagarajian et al. have recently proposed a software module, FINISH, to close the gaps between contigs with other contig sequences after scaffolding contigs using an optical map. The results, however, are not yet satisfying.
To increase the accuracy of contig connections, we develop OMACC, which carefully takes into account length information in optical maps. Specifically, it rescales optical map and applies length constraint for selecting the correct contig sequences for gap closure. In addition, it uses an advanced graph search algorithm to facilitate estimating the number of repeat copies within gaps between contigs. On both simulated and real datasets, OMACC achieves a <10% false gap-closing rate, three times lower than the ~27% false rate by FINISH, while maintaining a similar sensitivity.
As optical mapping is becoming popular and repeats are the bottleneck of assembly, OMACC should benefit various downstream biological studies via accurately connecting contigs into a more complete genome.
Genome assembly is essential for various downstream biological studies. De novo genome assembly, however, is still challenging mainly because of the presence of repeats in genomes . It is even more daunting with next-generation-sequencing (NGS) data because NGS sequences, often called NGS reads, are shorter than traditional Sanger reads . With shorter reads, more DNA segments become repeats. As a result, state-of-the-art assemblers turn NGS reads into a set of assembled sequences, called contigs, instead of one complete genome even for small microbes . Although contigs already provide useful information, a complete genome is still superior because of its accurate and comprehensive genetic information .
Sequencing technologies keep evolving toward completing genomes. These include paired-end and mate-pair technologies , third generation sequencing , and optical mapping . All the advances generate "long distance" information or longer reads to tackle repeat problems in genome assembly. Among these technologies, optical mapping is unique because its long distance information can go up to hundreds of kilobases (Kb) while other methods stay at the range of a few Kb. Unlike sequencing, optical mapping does not give bases. Instead, it digests a long DNA sequence into fragments of different lengths by a restriction enzyme, and collects the length information . The resulting optical map allows one to align contigs to the map and infer their order on the genome (see Figure 1 for illustration). Completing genomes is then easier with the ordered contigs, also called scaffolds, as a backbone. Optical mapping was first proposed about 20 years ago , but the commercial machine by OpGen appeared only recently.
OMACC workflow. OMACC runs in four steps: 1) aligning contigs (colored lines with an arrow indicating the orientation) to the optical map (top rectangle) using SOMA2, and obtaining the relative order of contigs on the map, 2) rescaling optical map via comparing the lengths of restriction fragments on the map to the corresponding lengths on the contigs, 3) searching contig graph for all possible paths of contigs that connects each pair of neighboring contigs, and 4) determining the best path whose length is a closest match to the gap size.
Scaffolding contigs, however, is not equivalent to completing a genome. One still needs to close the gaps between contigs with nucleotide sequences. Several gap closers have been proposed [10, 11]. But they are not suitable for filling gaps in the scaffolds obtained via optical map because the gaps are often dozens of Kb in size and can be more than a hundred Kb long. For such big gaps, Nagarajan et al. proposed using other contig sequences for gap closures (their program called FINISH here) . Given two neighboring contigs, FINISH searches the so-called contig graph (see Figure 1 for illustration) for a path of contigs that connects the two neighboring contigs. A contig graph describes all possible connections between contigs. As an example, from the contig graph in Figure 1 one learns that the 3' end of the red contig is connected to the 3' end of contig A and 5' end of contig D. Such connections suggest that the red contig is a repeat that appears twice in the genome and connects to two different sequences at its 3' end. When many repeats are present, contigs are usually interconnected in a complex way, forming a network of contigs, i.e., contig graph. This network reveals how one contig can be linked to another via other contigs. It is common that two or more paths of contigs exist between any two contigs. FINISH, however, does not pick the correct contig path for gap closure in some cases.
In this work, we present a computational program OMACC, an Optical-Map-Assisted Contig Connector. OMACC is advantageous because it takes into account gap size carefully via rescaling optical map and applying length constraint on selecting the path of contigs for gap closure. In addition, it applies an advanced graph search algorithm to efficiently infer the correct number of repeat copies in the gap between two contigs. We apply OMACC and FINISH on both simulated and real data sets. OMACC achieves a >90% accuracy, higher than the <73% by FINISH, and more than doubles the contig N50 lengths. OMACC also maintains a similar sensitivity as FINISH does. Thus, OMACC should benefit various downstream biological studies via accurately connecting contigs into a more complete genome with the assistance of optical map.
The E. coli data came from the SOMA2  package, which contained contig graph information ("454Contigs.ace") and two synthetic optical maps by the restriction enzymes AflII and NheI. We parsed the "454Contigs.ace" file to obtain all contig sequences, including those shorter than 500 bp. For Myxosarcina sp., GI1, we ran 454 sequencing and optical mapping on the genomic DNAs. The 454 sequencing was performed on GS FLX Titanium at Mission Biotech, Taiwan. The optical mapping was performed using the restriction enzyme AflII on the OpGen ARGUS system at Yourgene Biosciences, Taiwan. The optical mapping data were assembled by MapSolver (v0.5). All experiments were done following the manufacturers' protocols. We used Newbler  (v2.6) to assemble the 454 reads of GI1 into contigs and obtained the contig graph.
OMACC requires contig sequences, the contig graph, and the optical map as input. With these data, it runs in four steps (Figure 1). First, OMACC aligns contigs to the optical map using SOMA2  and obtains the relative order of contigs on the map. Second, it rescales the optical map via comparing the lengths of restriction fragments (RFs) on the map to the corresponding lengths on the contigs. In the third step, for each pair of neighboring contigs, OMACC searches the contig graph for all possible paths of contigs connecting the two neighboring contigs. Lastly, it determines the best contig path whose length is a closest match to the gap size. We describe each step in details below.
For each contig, SOMA2 computationally recognizes all the restriction sites and cleaves the contig into an ordered set of RFs. It then matches the RF sizes on the contig to those on the map (Figure 1). SOMA2 outputs both unique and non-unique matches. By default, OMACC closes the gaps between the uniquely aligned contigs because their relative positions on the map are of a higher confidence. OMACC also offers an option to include non-uniquely aligned contigs.
During alignment, sometimes two or more RFs on a contig are matched to one RF on the optical map (or vice versa), forming a so-called RF block (between two dashed lines in Figure 1). These are often the results of non-perfect enzyme restrictions or sequencing and assembly errors. OMACC selects the RF blocks with only one fragment on both the contig and the map. The length ratios were calculated (see Figure 2 for example) for deriving a rescaling factor. Because length ratio often varies a lot for small RFs, OMACC uses only the RFs at least 10 Kb long for deriving the rescaling factor, which is defined as the mean of the length ratios.
Ratio of restriction fragement lengths on the optical map to those on the contig sequences (GI1 data). The ratio varies when the contig length is below 10 Kb. For contigs of length at least 10 Kb, a consistent ratio 0.9174 is obtained.
For each pair of neighboring contigs on the optical map, OMACC uses a modified depth-first-search (DFS) algorithm (Figure 3) to search the contig graph for all possible paths of contigs between the two neighboring contigs. The modified DFS algorithm considers contig orientations, i.e., contig connections at 5' or 3' end. More importantly, it applies length constraints, uniqueness of contig alignment, and a loop-path recording method to avoid deep recursion. OMACC defines the gap between two neighboring contigs as from the rightmost restriction site of the left contig to the leftmost site of the right contig (Figure 1). A gap size is the total length of the RFs within the gap. Note that when a RF on the map is shorter than 2 Kb, OMACC sets the RF length as 2 Kb. In our experiences, RFs shorter than 2 Kb may disappear from the map. Our modified DFS stops a search when the contig path length exceeds 1.2 fold of the gap size. It also stops a search when a uniquely aligned contig is encountered along the path because it should appear only once on the genome. Finally, it records a loop when encountering a contig that has been visited on the path and avoids searching the loop again. This avoids deep recursion and makes the algorithm more practical. The recorded loop paths will be used later for determining the number of repeat copies.
Pseudo-code of our modified DFS algorithm.
OMACC selects from all possible contig paths the one whose length is closest to the gap size. When a loop of contigs is detected along a contig path, the best number of loop copies resulting in a length closest to the gap size is calculated. When two or more loops of contigs are detected along a contig path, OMACC obtains the best number of loop copies for each loop. However, it does not consider the combination of loops to avoid the exponentially increasing number of combinations. In addition, OMACC requires the length difference between the two best contig paths to be greater than a cutoff (2Kb by default) to ensure the validity of the best contig path. Finally, when the best contig path length is within 2 Kb from the gap size, OMACC connects the two neighboring contigs using the sequences of the contigs on the best path.
In this work, we analyzed the data of two species, Escherichia coli K12 and Myxosarcina sp., GI1, a cyanobacterium strain (Methods). The E. coli assembly contained 126 contigs, among which 88 were large (length ≥ 500 bp). The total length and N50 length of the large contigs were 4,552,797 bp and 112,233 bp, respectively. The contig graph contained 225 connections between 123 contigs and all the contigs were in the same connected component. The optical map of E. coli comprised 508 RFs with a total length 4,622 Kb.
The 454 sequencing of GI1 resulted in 440,104 reads with an average length 386 bp. We assembled the 454 reads into 267 contigs (Methods), among which 217 were large. The total length and N50 length of the large contigs were 6,997,371 bp and 84,919 bp, respectively. The contig graph contained 291 connections between 234 contigs. The majority, 220, of the 234 contigs were in the same connected component. The optical map assembly resulted in six maps with a total map size 7,289 Kb, similar to the total contig length. The largest map was 5,291 Kb in length and comprised 654 fragments, and was circular. We studied only the largest map in this work.
Before applying OMACC and FINISH to the E. coli data, we aligned the E. coli contigs to its known reference using BLAT  (option: -minMatch = 1) and determined the contig order as follows. On the reference genome, we first picked the longest contig alignment and excluded other alignments overlapping the longest one. This procedure was repeated for the next longest alignment until no alignment remained. Because some short contigs were missed during alignment, we checked all pairs of neighboring contigs with a ≥10 bp gap in between. We filled in these gaps if a short contig could be found matching the sequence at the gap. In addition, we checked the contigs that were not fully aligned and replaced it with another contig if that could be fully aligned to the position. The resulting alignments and order of contigs were shown in Table S1, Additional file 1. Among the 126 contigs, 118 were aligned to the reference genome. Most contigs were well aligned as only three had more than five unaligned base. The genome was covered almost completely (>99.96% aligned). Among the 118 contigs, 42 appeared twice or more times, indicating non-simple repeat structures. We used this contig order to evaluate the performance of E. coli contig connections.
Among the 88 large contigs of E. coli, SOMA2 aligned 41 uniquely to the optical map (Table S2, Additional file 2). Since the E. coli genome is circular, there were 41 gaps between pairs of neighboring contigs. OMACC closed 22 (53.7%) gaps (Table 1) while FINISH made 30 (73.2%) gap closures (Table 2). Although FINISH closed eight more gaps, OMACC achieved a higher accuracy. That is, 20 of the 22 (91%) gaps closed by OMACC were correct. In contrast, FINISH only correctly closed 21 of the 30 (71%) gaps.
Connections of the E. coli contigs by OMACC. For contigs, the number, "+/-", and ":" stand for the contig index, strand, and connections, respectively.
The last column indicates whether the best contig path matches the true contig order in Table S1, Additional file 1.
*True contig path not in the contig graph.
Connections of the E. coli contigs by FINISH. The notations are the same as in Table 1.
For the two mis-connections by OMACC, "16+:83+:33-" and "1+:117+:23+", the correct contig paths were "16+:83-:34+:83+:33-" and "1+:23+", respectively (the number, "+/-", and ":" represented the contig index, strand, and connections, respectively). In these two cases, OMACC made mistakes simply because the correct path did not exist in the contig graph. That is, the connections "16+:83-" and "1+:23+" were missing in the contig graph. In fact, the differences between gap size and contig path length of the two mis-connections were the two largest ones (Table 1), suggesting their lower confidence.
Among the nine mis-connections by FINISH, the true contig paths of seven cases did not exist in the contig graph (Table 2). Although these errors could be partly attributed to the non-perfect contig graph, OMACC avoided five of the seven mis-connections using length constraints. In one of the two remaining cases, FINISH connected contigs "120+" and "105-" with "115-:43-:103-:39+:104+:113-:100-:73-" while the true contig path was "115-:43-:103-:39+:40+:114-:113-:100-:73-". In fact, OMACC found both paths, but did not select one for output because the two paths differed by only five bp in length. This indicates a possibility of incorrect gap closure by FINISH when two plausible paths exit. For the last mis-connection, "22+:116-:2+", the true contig path was "22+:116-:68-:11-:53+:81-:116-:2+". This path contained a loop of contigs and was correctly obtained by OMACC. Via this example, we demonstrate the robustness of OMACC in managing repeats for contig connections.
FINISH made two correct contig connections, "54-:101+:84-:87-:25-:122-:123-:118-:116-:32-" and "46+:101+:84-:87-:25-:122-:120+", that were not output by OMACC. In fact, the two contig paths were found by OMACC. However, OMACC also detected two other paths "54-:101+:84-:94-:25-:122-:123-:118-:116-:32-" and "46+:101+:84-:94-:25-:122-:120+", which were similar to the correct paths except that contig "87-" was replaced by "94-". Because the two contigs, "87-" and "94-", were equal in length, OMACC did not decide on the correct path. These pieces of information were recorded in the intermediate output of OMACC.
Among the 217 large GI1 contigs, 61 were aligned uniquely to the optical map (Table S3, Additional file 3). OMACC and FINISH closed 21 (34.4%) and 22 (36.1%) of the gaps, respectively. Because no reference genome was currently available, we checked the difference between gap size and contig path length. By design, all the contig connections by OMACC were consistent, i.e., length difference less than 2 Kb (Table 3). In contrast, only 16 of the 22 (72.7%) gaps closed by FINISH were consistent (Table 4).
Connections of GI1 contigs by OMACC.
The last column indicates whether the contig path length is consistent with the gap size, i.e., difference in length ≤2 Kb. *Gap closure unique to OMACC. **Best contig path different from those by FINISH.
Connections of GI1 contigs by FINISH. Note that although FINISH does not rescale optical map, the rescaled gap sizes are shown here.
*Gap closure unique to FINISH. **Best contig path different from those by OMACC.
OMACC and FINISH closed gaps for the same 19 pairs of neighboring contigs. However, the two methods made five different contig connections because of loops of contigs (Table 3 and 4). For example, between contigs "26+" and "44+", the contig paths obtained by OMACC and FINISH were "26+:199+:193-:199+:44+" and "26+:199+:44+", respectively, and differed by a loop. The contig path length with the loop (17,305 bp) was closer to the rescaled gap size on the optical map (17,568 bp) than the contig path length without the loop (15,881 bp). The path with the loop was further supported by read coverage. The 454 read coverage of the contigs "26", "193", and "44" were 24.7, 26.2, and 25.6X, respectively (data not shown). The contig "199" had a coverage 44.9X, indicating two copies of "199" in the GI1 genome. Thus, we demonstrate with real data that OMACC is more robust in managing repeats.
On the E. coli data, OMACC closed two more gaps, "60+:116+:85+" and "118-:116-:32-" (Table 5a), when including the nine non-uniquely aligned contigs (Table S2, Additional file 2). The true contig path of the first gap, "60+:85+", did not exist in the contig graph. Consistently, its difference between gap size and contig path length was the second largest. The second contig connection was correct. When including non-uniquely aligned contigs, FINISH closed seven more gaps (Table 5b). However, five original contig connections disappeared because the non-uniquely aligned contigs disrupted the original neighboring contig pairs. For example, contigs "81+" and "52-" were inserted between "38+" and "76-" (Table S2, Additional file 2). This disruption should not be problematic if "81+" and "52-" were in the contig path from "38+" to "76-", which did not hold true. In this case and many similar ones, both contig connections before and after adding non-uniquely aligned contigs were incorrect. One disruption, contig "118-" inserted between "54-" and "32-", was acceptable because "118-" was on the contig path from "54-" to "32-". In this case, the contig connection remained correct. Overall, adding non-uniquely aligned contigs did not alter much the performance of OMACC and FINISH on the E. coli data.
Differences in contig connections before and after (indicating by "<" and ">" in the first column, respectively) including non-uniquely aligned contigs for (a) OMACC on E. coli data, (b) FINISH on E. coli data, (c) OMACC on GI1 data, and (d) FINISH on GI1 data.
*These contig connections are not disrupted by any non-uniquely aligned contig, but disappear when non-uniquely aligned contigs are included, indicating a bug in FINISH.
On GI1 data, OMACC closed two more gaps while disrupted two contig connections (Table 5c). Again, all the contig connections of these altered cases were consistent in length by design. FINISH closed three more gaps and disrupted three contig connections (Table 5d). All the new contig connections and two of the three disrupted ones were inconsistent in length. Thus, adding the non-uniquely aligned contigs reduced one consistent contig connection by FINISH.
The major differences between OMACC and FINISH are that FINISH does not take into account length information in an optical map and it does not find all possible paths between contigs. We find that alternative contig paths and loops of contigs in gaps are not uncommon. Because FINISH outputs the first path of contigs detected, the correct one may not be selected when alternative contig paths exist. In contrast, OMACC filters the contig path whose path length is not consistent with the gap size, increasing the chance for the correct contig paths to be selected. Note that if alternative contig paths still exist after filtering, OMACC does not close the gap; instead it outputs the paths to an intermediate file. These pieces of information can be helpful if additional information is available. For example, between the two E. coli contigs "46+" and "120+", OMACC finds two paths "101+:84-:87-:25-:122-" and "101+:84-:94-:25-:122-", identical in length and differed by one contig. On the reference genome, "94-" is on a path "82+:84-:94-:25-:122-" (Table S1, Additional file 1). If paired-end or mate-pair information supports only the proximity between "101+" and "87-", then one can close this gap correctly.
In terms of algorithm, OMACC is also more comprehensive. FINISH avoids deep recursion by limiting the number of contigs (default 15) on the searched path. In contrast, OMACC records all loop structures and avoids visiting them again. This allows OMACC to deal with long paths of contigs, which appear often because of nested or tandem repeats. Combining with length constraints, OMACC in principle can return all possible combinations of repeat structures. But it does not do so because when two or more loops of contigs exist, alternative contig paths are often found, leading to unclosed gaps. In any case, as repeat problem is the bottleneck of complete genome assembly, OMACC should move assembly closer toward complete than FINISH.
On the E. coli data, OMACC and FINISH made two and nine mis-connections, among which the true contig paths did not exist in the contig graph in two and seven cases, respectively. Detailed investigations reveal three major reasons for the absence of the true contig paths. First, some true contig paths are not continuous on the genome. For example, the true contig path between "85+" and "48+" is "85+:116+:112-:18-:52+:95-:51+:11-:53+:125+:80+:111+:48+" (Table S1, Additional file 1). Along this path, all the neighboring contigs connect without gaps (>2 bp) except "52+" and "95-", in-between which a gap of 166 bp exists. It is likely that this gap region is not sequenced at all. As a result, the two contigs "52+" and "95-" are not connected in the contig graph. Strictly speaking, the path should not be called a true contig path because there should be a contig between "52+" and "95-", but the contig is missing. This scenario applies for the neighboring contigs "74+:30+", "93-:92+", and "52+:95-". Second, some neighboring contigs connect well (e.g., "93-:110-") or even overlap (e.g., "38-:99-") on the genome (Table S1, Additional file 1), but their connections are not indicated in the contig graph. Checking the assembly ACE file, we found that no read can bridge the two neighboring contigs long enough for them to be connected by assembler. Again, this indicates the depletion of 454 reads at the junctions between the contigs. The missing connections of "38-:99-", "1+:23+", "93-:110-", and "73-:119+" in the contig graph fall into this category. The above two types of missing connections may be avoided if the sequencing depth is increased. In the third scenario, we found that the contig connections indeed exist in the assembly ACE file, but the SOMA2 script "get_graph.pl" failed to parse them out. When a contig is flanked by the same repeat, e.g., "83-:34+:83+", "get_graph.pl" only outputs one of the connections between the two contigs. This happens in two other cases, "92+:109+:92+" and "43+:121+:43-". Thus, "get_graph.pl" should be used with caution. On Newbler assembly, we thus recommend using the "454ContigGraph.txt" file instead of parsing the contig graph from ACE file when applying SOMA. Note that OMACC parses "454ContigGraph.txt" directly for contig graph.
We further tested whether restoring these missing connections improved performance. Indeed, adding the missing connections eliminated the two mis-connections made by OMACC (data not shown). That is, OMACC became error-free with a comprehensive contig graph. In contrast, FINISH made four more connections, among which one was incorrect (data not shown). The overall accuracy of FINISH still remained as 71%. In general, we expect an even higher accuracy by OMACC, but not by FINISH, if the contig graph is improved.
Rescaling optical map can alter contig connections by OMACC. On the GI1 data, OMACC determined the best contig path between "26+" and "44+" as "26+:199+:193-:199+:44+", which contained a loop of contigs. Without rescaling, the gap size dropped from 17,305 bp to 15,876 bp, compared with which "26+:199+:44+" would be selected as the best contig path. Supported by read coverage, there should be two copies of "199+" in the genome. This example shows the importance and validity of our map rescaling.
On the rescaled map, we observed a trend that optical map claims longer RFs when the RFs are shorter (below 5 Kb). In principle, we can apply length dependent rescaling factors. However, the not uncommon large deviations from the fitted curve lower the confidence on length inference. It will be ideal if a mechanic model can be proposed to explain the trend, and the deviations can be explained in the future. Note that most gaps between pairs of neighboring contigs are longer than 5 Kb (38 of the 41 gaps and 57 of the 61 gaps for E. coli and GI1, respectively). Thus, our rescaled gap sizes should be accurate in most cases.
It is possible to apply read coverage as another constraint on the number of repeats in the genome. When more than one repeat contig appears on a path, this may resolve the concern of exponentially increasing number of combinations. However, read coverage can fluctuate across genomes. For example, GC content has been known to affect read coverage . Although the effects of GC bias can be tuned, the fluctuations still seem too noisy to render accurate estimation of copy numbers.
Although non-uniquely aligned contigs did not alter much the performance of OMACC and FINISH on E. coli and GI1 data, we found them potentially harmful. In the E. coli case, seven of the nine non-uniquely aligned contigs (Table S2, Additional file 2) are not properly placed on the genome (Table S1, Additional file 1). In contrast, all the uniquely aligned contigs are correctly placed. Although this may not be a good example since the E. coli optical map is synthetic and the data probably has been optimized, it is certain that uniquely aligned contigs are more likely to be placed correctly on the genome. Thus, we decide to turn off this option by default. However, this option can be useful for OMACC. For example, combining the GI1 results before and after including non-uniquely aligned contigs gave two more consistent contig connections. Note that the newly closed gaps did not disrupt any original contig connections because they occurred at different loci on the genome (Table 5 S3, Additional file 3). That is, the newly closed gaps were consistent with all original contig connections.
In addition to 454 data, we also studied the performance of OMACC and FINISH on Illumina data. For comparison, real Illumina paired-end reads of E. coli K12 MG1655 were obtained from NCBI SRA  (accession SRX131053). We used Velvet [18, 19] to assemble the Illumina data and optimized the assembly for fewer contigs and longer N50 length via scanning kmer values. The optimized assembly contained 89 large contigs (≥500 bp) and the N50 length was 132,586 bp, which were comparable to the statistics of Newbler assembly of the E. coli's 454 data. On this dataset, however, OMACC and FINISH could not close any gap between contigs. Detailed investigation revealed that only seven contigs were uniquely aligned to the optical map (data not shown), and all the seven contigs were considered to be on different scaffolds by SOMA2. Compared with the 454 contigs, we found many more small insertions or deletions in the Illumina contigs, which could explain the worse alignments at least partly. This raises the possibility that the SOMA2 alignments may be improved if the small assembly errors can be reduced using Illumina reads with fewer errors. For this concern, we simulated several Illuimina PE libraries without any errors and repeated the analysis. Still, OMACC and FINISH could not close any gap on the perfect Illumina data (data not shown). Thus, even though the 454 and Illumina assemblies are comparable, optical map is much more useful for improving the 454 assembly than the Illumina assembly of E. coli. Note that it is still possible that optical map can improve Illumina assembly if other assemblers, e.g., ALLPATHS-LG, are used. However, we did not try those because many Illumina assemblers do not output the contig graph information.
In principle, OMACC should also benefit the finishing of complex eukaryotic genomes. However, there still exist practical challenges. First, SOMA2 alignment takes a much longer time when treating a large genome. For example, the SOMA2 alignment of the E. coli and GI1 contigs finished in a few minutes. However, for an ~11Mb genome, the alignment took about 16 hours (data not shown). For a genome of ~24 Mb, the alignment cannot be finished within a week. Thus, efficient alignment of contigs to optical map is necessary for treating eukaryotic genomes. Fortunately, this is possible because SOMA2 applies dynamic programming for alignments, which can be speed up using seed matching. Second, the current version of SOMA2 treats only two maps at most. This seems problematic because complex eukaryotes often have more than two chromosomes. One solution is to separate chromosomes by pulse field gradient gel electrophoresis before doing optical maps, which has been shown effective .
OMACC is written in Perl and requires SOMA2. By default, OMACC takes as input contig sequences in FASTA format and a contig graph in Newbler format ("454ContigGraph.txt"). OMACC also offers a script to convert the optical map file generated by OpGen, currently the most popular optical mapping platform, into the required format. Although OMACC does not improve the Velvet assembly of the E. coli, it may works for other species. Thus, OMACC still contains scripts to treat contigs and contig graph generated by Velvet. Finally, OMACC holds a script to connect the contig sequences together. With this script, OMACC raised the contig N50 length of E. coli and GI1 from 112,233 bp to 294,887 bp and from 84,919 bp to 180,233 bp, respectively.
Toward completing a genome, optical map is helpful in scaffolding contigs. However, many scientists still have to conduct experiments and manually fill in the gaps between the scaffolded contigs. To reduce these costly efforts, we present a computational program OMACC that closes the gaps between scaffolded contigs with a higher accuracy compared with a similar tool. As accuracy is of a great concern at the stage of completing genome, OMACC is useful for finishing genomes. We expect OMACC to benefit many scientists because genome assembly is the fundamental of many biological studies.
We thank Dr. Arthur Chun-Chieh Shih and Dr. Tien-Hao Chang for their careful readings and suggestions for our manuscript. This work is supported by National Science Council, Taiwan (NSC 102-2627-B-006-003 and NSC 103-2911-I-006-301).
The publication fee is supported by National Science Council, Taiwan (NSC 102-2627-B-006-003).
YMC performed sequencing and optical mapping experiments, and wrote the paper. CHY conducted data analysis. CCH wrote the paper. TL conceived OMACC, conducted analysis, and wrote the paper.


The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority on Monday said Nigeria had attained another high level safety rating, which placed it among the world leaders in aviation safety.
The NCAA made the announcement in a statement by its General Manager, Public Relations, Sam Adurogboye and obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
The statement stated that the country climbed to Level three State Safety Programme, Implementation Process, joining countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom and others in the echelon.
The statement said: "This categorisation is dependent on the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which tracks the SSP implementation process of member-states via its Integrated Safety Trend Analysis and Reporting System.
"Member states in tandem, therefore, deploy this platform to undertake Gap Analysis, define their action plans and benchmark their progress.
It stated that Nigeria is striving to achieve Level Four, which is 100 per cent, by the end of 2017.
According to the statement, the SSP process is inaugurated in member countries in compliance with the ICAO requirements as contained in Annex 19 on Safety Management.
The statement added that Nigeria's advanced level had put its SSP implementation process among states that defined an action plan for all non-implemented Gap questions.
It said in other words, Nigeria had completed its Gap Analysis, implemented 43.6 per cent of the required SSP tasks.
It stated: "In addition, the country has developed a detailed action plan for the accomplishment of the outstanding tasks with an established and approved timeline.
"In pursuant to this, Nigeria has commenced the implementation of the SSP processes and has achieved several milestones.
"These include the completion of the SSP Gap Analysis and the establishment of the Implementation Plan approved by the Director General-General, NCAA.
It said the approval and publication of the State Safety Policy Statement, the Enforcement Policy in an SSP-SMS environment, including Nigeria's Voluntary and Confidential Reporting System, were among the tasks that have been concluded.
According to the statement, the ICAO Aviation Safety Plan has recognised the relevance of establishing and maintaining fundamental safety oversight systems as a prerequisite to the full implementation of an SSP.
It said: "Member-states with robust safety oversight system have been called upon to progress towards full implementation of SSP.
"An SSP is an integrated set of regulations and activities aimed at improving aviation safety which will be monitored through Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme and Continuous Monitoring Approach after such a state has achieved an Effective Implementation of over 60 per cent.
"It is required that states that have achieved EI levels of over 60 per cent should endeavour to fully implement SSP by 2019.
It noted that with the achievement, the NCAA would continue to ensure that air transportation in Nigeria was seamless, safe and secure at all times.
It, therefore, urged airline operators to take advantage of the robust regulation and adhere to all safety regulations contained in the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations.


text:
Nobel prize-winner tells seniors to be agents of change
by Jim Patterson May. 12, 2011, 2:22 PM
Read a transcript of Maathai's talk.
A Vanderbilt University graduate is a "potential great change agent," Nobel Peace Prize-winner Wangari Maathai told seniors the day before their Commencement ceremony.
"You are ready," Maathai exhorted students in Memorial Gymnasium. "Go forth then, the world is waiting."
Maathai spoke May 12 as part of Vanderbilt's Senior Day activities. She received Vanderbilt's Nichols-Chancellor's Medal given by Vanderbilt "to those persons who define the 21st century and exemplify the best qualities of the human spirit."
The award is supported by an endowed fund created by Edward C. and Janice Nichols of Nashville.
Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos lauded Maathai's "selfless dedication to vulnerable people in vulnerable places," adding that it matched Vanderbilt's mission.
Senior Day speaker Wangari Maathai (John Russell/Vanderbilt)
Maathai is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, which focuses on women's groups planting trees to conserve the environment and empower themselves by improving their quality of life. More than 39 million trees have been planted across Kenya as a result.
In 2004, Maathai became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace." She is the first women in East and Central Africa to earn a doctoral degree, has served in the Kenyan Parliament and is now assistant minister for environment and natural resources.
Maathai shared an anecdote from the New Testament about the disciples Peter and John encountering a beggar. Instead of giving him money, Peter ordered him to stand up.
"He was no longer a beggar, no longer dehumanized," Maathai said. "Now he could go and take care of himself with dignity and self-respect."
Maathai said the Green Belt movement serves a similar purpose: preparing people to be ready when the opportunity for self-improvement comes along.
"Your years at Vanderbilt have prepared you to be perfect Peters and Johns," she said. "You are in a position to be a great blessing to those who will present themselves before you. … Vanderbilt has made you. You are a potential great change agent."
Senior Day continued with faculty seminars for students and their guests on subjects including solar energy, brain development, Gregorian chant and anthropology.
Chancellor Zeppos will deliver the traditional Commencement address on May 13 on Alumni Lawn, or Memorial Gymnasium if the weather is inclement. The 9 a.m. ceremony will be broadcast at the Vanderbilt homepage.
Lane Change: Vanderbilt experts say the future of urban transportation relies not on one solution, but on many
Why does it take humans so long to mature compared to other animals? Look to your neurons!
myVU releases commencement2011 featured myvu featured story Nichols-Chancellor's Medal nobel peace prize senior day wangari maathai