text:
ASNet Forum
Addiction Science Forum
Discussion Forum for the Addiction Science Network
Tags: translational research
The KISS Version Revealed
10/28/12 | by the professor | Categories: Announcements, Kiss Versions (short reposts)
Link: http://addictionscience.net/ASNdiscussion.html
Some commentaries that receive sufficient interest to merit revision will be reissued as a succinct statement that incorporates highlights from the subsequent discussion and/or follow-up commentaries (i.e., highlights of related commentaries). These new summaries are designed to summarize the main discussion in a simple, concise manner. The Keep It Simple Stupid approach is affectionately referred to as the "KISS version" and will include a trackback to the original commentary or commentaries and any relevant discussion for those who would like to read the full version or retrace the original discussion(s). The KISS versions are provided as a convenience to those who don't wish to read through the entire original posting(s) and subsequent replies that generated the proverbial 'bottom line.' This should be especially useful for the 'speed surfers' who peruse a lot of material, very quickly on the Internet and help viewers to determine which commentaries merit slowing down to ponder the discussion. Some commentaries that address interrelated topics (often interspersed with unrelated commentaries) will be consolidated into a single KISS version as will select commentaries that have later podcasts appended.
Criteria for generating a KISS version include:
sufficient interest as evidenced by the number of viewers and/or replies to the posting,
significant revision to the original posting, either changes in actual content or simply an easier, more concise way of conveying the primary information,
KISS version consolidates several interrelated commentaries addressing a common theme (e.g., provides an integrative overview) with the original commentaries left to explore the individual topics in more depth, and
time to accomplish the task of revision.
Perhaps this KISS announcement will merit a KISS itself.
www.AddictionScience.net
Tags: addiction science, addiction technology transfer, asnet, drug abuse, drug addiction, drug dependence, kiss, podcasts, summary, translational research
ASNet Update 12J19
10/19/12 | by the professor | Categories: Announcements, Drug-Regulation Policy, Recreational Drug Use, Harm-Reduction Strategies, Addiction Technology Transfer Initiative, Prescription Opioid Regulations & Availability
Link: http://AddictionScience.net
This update lists new material on the Addiction Science Network (ASNet) website including the ASNet Discussion Forum. Beginning with "Theories of Addiction," podcasts will be available only as downloads for playing on your mp3 player. We thank Podomatic.com for providing storage for the earlier streaming audios which remain available from their website. Click on the links below for direct feed to the new material.
New commentaries added to the ASNet Discussion Forum:
Addiction is an Equal Opportunity Affliction
Why marijuana is unlikely to ever be approved for medicinal use in the United States
There's No Excuse for Overdose Deaths from Opioid-Based Medications
What will be Obama's New Policies on Marijuana and Other Illicit Drugs during His Second Term as U.S. President?
New presentations available from the ASNet Podcast Channel:
A Primer on Psychopharmacology (part-3): CSA/DEA drug regulations & "medicinal" marijuana
A Primer on Psychopharmacology (part-4): LMA, dopamine, mood & affect
A Primer on Psychopharmacology (part-5): tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal reactions
A Primer on Psychopharmacology (part-6): characterization of sensitization and its proposed role in drug addiction
A Primer on Psychopharmacology (part-7): using translational research to estimate the period of increased vulnerability for relapse to cocaine addiction
A Primer on Psychopharmacology (part-8: importance of conditioning effects)
Theories of Addiction (part-1: introduction & overview) [download only]
Theories of Addiction (part-2: personality-disorder through tension reduction models) [download only]
This concludes update ASNet12J10.
Tags: addiction science, addiction science updates, anet updates, asnet, drug regulation, marijuana, president obama, translational research
10/06/12 | by the professor | Categories: Drug-Regulation Policy, Harm-Reduction Strategies, Addiction Technology Transfer Initiative, Prescription Opioid Regulations & Availability
Most of the adverse effects associated with overdose from opioid-based medications could easily be prevented or rectified by simply making naloxone more widely available. It seems as if the medical establish is afraid that letting people know that their overdose can be quickly and effectively reversed will give patients a green light to abuse their opioid medication. Undoubtedly it will for some, but for most it should not. And there is no doubt that it would save thousands of lives!
Naloxone hydrochloride (Narcan) is a selective narcotic antagonist that rapidly and effectively reverses the effects of opioids including those associated with overdose (e.g., respiratory depression). As long as the circulatory system has not collapsed and the naloxone is able to reach the brain, it binds preferentially to opiate receptors blocking the effects of heroin, morphine, oxycodone, methadone, hydromorphone, fentanyl, opium, L-alpha-acetylmethadol, well, you get the idea, opioids.
Naloxone has no effects in people not receiving opioids. It simply blocks the effects of licit and illicit opioids regardless of who or why the drug was administered. (Yes, I know about endogenous opioid peptides [EOPs], wrote a paper or two involving those neuromodulators myself, but the effects of disrupting the EOPs are disappointing for we neuroscientists who were hoping back in the 1980s they would hold the key to everything from overeating to some forms of mental illness.) Naloxone is virtually unnoticeable in someone who has not been receiving opioids and has a very wide margin of safety for dosing in humans.
It's shame on the medical establishment for withholding this critical information from the public. Should the medical establish and individual physicians be held responsible for these needless deaths? Is it THEIR decision to make, who will live or die based on the availability of this life-saving drug? Why aren't patient-advocacy groups confronting the medical establishment, lobbying more strongly and unrelentingly for take-home Narcan?
Naloxone has been around for a long time. In fact, my first research using this compound was in 1975 and my first publication with it was in 1977 when I (along with Prof. Larry D. Reid) demonstrated that naloxone hydrochloride effectively and rapidly blocked morphine's facilitatory action on electrical brain stimulation reward. I continued using naloxone in many of my experiments for the next two decades.
There are certain precautions that must be exercised when using naloxone, and proper medical training is strongly advised. (Self-instruction cards are included in some naloxone rescue kits so that more people can be reached with this life-saving treatment, although professional training is always advisable.) Two of the most important areas for concern involve the precipitation of intense withdrawal reactions and the short half-life of naloxone.
Naloxone administered to a person physically dependent on an opioid can precipitate immediate and intense withdrawal reactions. What is normally an unpleasant but relatively safe experience can quickly become a medical emergency, even fatal. The usual procedure is to give the naloxone in graded amounts, increasing the dosage if the overdose victim does not respond within a few minutes. The lowest effective dose of naloxone is desired because it minimizes the adverse effects of precipitated withdrawal.
Naloxone's half-life, which determines its duration of action, is much shorter than that of most opioids. Because naloxone only blocks the opioid's occupancy of the opiate receptor and does not eliminate it from the body, when the naloxone antagonism wears off there may be sufficient amounts of opioid remaining in the system to cause the victim to relapse back into a coma and die. For this reason, hospitalization and careful monitoring even of patients that seem normal and who feel totally revived (they actually are, until the naloxone effect wears off) is essential for the well-being of the overdose victim. One of the realistic fears that healthcare workers have is that if people are revived without the aid of trained medical personnel they will simply ignore the warning to seek proper medical attention once revived. It is the responsibility of those with the overdose victim to insure that proper medical attention is sought (dial 911 immediately).
On-site resuscitation with naloxone (Narcan) is not an excuse to avoid immediate professional medical attention. For those who are concerned about getting into 'trouble' for their heroin overdose, consider how much trouble you or your friend will be in if you're dead! Furthermore, naloxone is not a CSA/DEA controlled substance nor is having an illicit drug in your bloodstream an illegal act to the best of my knowledge (but then, I'm not an attorney, so I'll "rest my case" with the first 'argument' – you'd be in more trouble if you're dead).
While trying to quickly locate information online about New York State's naloxone rescue kit program, I found a well-written, very informative article from Pain-Topics.org. Please refer to that excellent article for much more detail and discussion regarding this important topic.
New York State is to be commended for being among about a dozen U.S. states and several European and Asian countries where naloxone rescue kits are legally available. Unfortunately, while trying to 'fly-under-the-radar' of possible adverse public opinion, New York and other states make it difficult to find information about this important program. The public needs better education about the nature of drug addiction (and while we're at it, so do America's physicians!), and politicians need the proverbial fire lit beneath their butts to get them moving and starting to change attitudes about harm reduction. It's ironic perhaps to some people that the "rescue kits" are available mostly to illicit drug users, and the aging baby-boomers being increasingly prescribed opioid-based medications do not usually have access to this program. Well, at least it seems somewhat ironic to this baby-boomer (e.g., we are the least likely to "abuse" the "kits" in any sense of the word).
I have been advocating take-home naloxone for years as part of a harm-reduction strategy for illicit opioid users, but now there's a whole new group (and generation) that could benefit from this policy as well -- patients prescribed opioid-based medication who are sometimes overdose victims. This commentary is focused on this 'new' group, although my position on naloxone as part of a comprehensive harm-reduction strategy remains ever strong. Perhaps there should be a warning to politicians regarding this issue like the warnings that appear on the opioid medication bottles -- caution: prescription opioid-users vote!
Finally, I just have to state the obvious because I know that this is going to escape the attention of too many people. It's not just about accidental overdose in the person prescribed the opioid-based medication; it's also about the grandchildren who despite ones best efforts find and play with the pills and about the little puppies who quickly grab and devour anything accidentally spilled on the floor by fumbling old hands as if it were a tasty treat. THESE are the other potential victims, perhaps even more deserving of our concern!
This information is not intended as medical advice nor is it a substitute for proper medical training. It is strictly intended to bring this topic to the forefront of discussion and to argue for the widespread availability of take-home naloxone. Write your state and federal representatives in support of this program and acquire and learn to properly use naloxone rescue kits whenever practical (cost estimated under $10).
Click here if you would like to listen to the podcast of this commentary
(length: 9 minutes). Click here for our podcast directory.
Tags: heroin, methadone, morphine, naloxone, narcan, narcotic antagonist, overdose, oxycodone, oxycontin, rescue kit, translational research
09/26/12 | by the professor | Categories: General, Harm-Reduction Strategies, Addiction Technology Transfer Initiative
A central theme that I've been teaching in my courses on drug addiction for the past 30 years is that "drug addiction is an equally opportunity affliction." Unfortunately, this is 'news' to too many of my advanced undergraduate psychology students. After just a few weeks of examining the diversity of case studies and then provided with a simple model that unifies the many 'paths to addiction' to a single common 'cause,' students become excited about the 'recent progress' in understanding addiction and fully expect that neuroscientists will find 'the cure' in short order. That is, now having recognized what really drives addiction, shouldn't scientists be able to quickly resolve this disorder which extracts such a horrific toll on the individual, on their friends and families, and on society?
The message is what we (i.e., basic scientists) have known for years, but popular media, many clinicians, and even too many misguided drug-addiction specialists have managed to keep the pond muddied by stirring up the waters with popular discourse and dramatic portrayals played out in endless psychodrama that captivates audiences every time across time. In my primary drug addiction course alone I've taught nearly 3,000 400-level students during the past 26 years at the University at Buffalo. Surely there should be a multiplicative effect of my training as they go out and spread-the-word as the next generation physicians, clinical psychologists, counselors, sociologists, and even politicians. And there's the scores of other professors just like me, some teaching this simple theme even longer. But at last, popular misconceptions like superstitions are just too damn hard to kill off. And "today's insight" will probably remain a "new discovery" for another 25 years as this professor retires and hopefully the next one caries the torch educating and enlightening thousands more during his/her tenure as a university professor. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The psychobiological model (Bozarth, 1990) that I teach is rather simple; it's based largely on what is termed the "exposure model of addiction." Basically, exposure to an addictive substance and the subsequent effect on brain reward and motivation pathways leads to addiction for many people. The varieties of personalities and subcultures that become addicted is also a product of exposure but with the added feature of psychosocial factors which govern such variables as (1) who has access to the drug, (2) who will experiment with the drug, (3) the cost and purity of the drug, (4) which drug or drugs are popular and how are they administered (e.g., "crack" cocaine is probably more addictive in some respects than is powered cocaine because of the routes they are administered despite being two forms of the same active chemical), and (5) who will find sufficient extrinsic rewards in the culture of their drug-taking behavior (e.g., peers who encourage actual drug taking and its ancillary behaviors) and thus continue their drug-taking behavior long enough for the critical neuroadaptive effects to occur which are ultimately responsible for an addiction. This is where the psychological and sociological variables exert an important influence on who is and is not likely to ultimately become an addict—during the early acquisition stage of developing an addiction. There is plenty of room for popular psychosocial and cultural variables to play a role in addiction and to present cyclic variations in "types" of people who become addicts; the role is just much different that commonly perceived. There are also high-risk groups, some genetically predisposed to experience an exceptionally strong motivating effect from their early drug-use experience and there are co-morbid disorders which may introduce a variety of secondary influences on the drug's pharmacological effects (e.g., ADHD?, psychological depression?). Nonetheless, the "exposure model" provides a point of convergence for the sundry personalities and subcultures that find the allure of the drug irresistible. The drug is guilty; the addict makes one critical mistake—they sustain their initial use of the 'wrong' drug sufficiently long for the neurochemical sequel to develop which leads to addiction.
The popular media, from talk shows to Hollywood movies, will probably never get on the page and portray the real story behind addiction. They will continue to promulgate the popular myths about addiction finding better dramatic material in the cases that admittedly have an interesting story to tell about why they began their illicit substance use, while obscuring the fact that it wasn't actually the perverted "Uncle Albert" but the drug which is the responsible agent for the addiction. The truth simply doesn't make a good story. Mary sexually abused by her grandfather, Tom bullied as a child, Nancy stressed out by her failed sex-change surgery are much more entertaining to watch and read about, and they elicit much more empathy from viewers who can relate to various aspects of the anguish that leads to their addiction. Watching young people experiencing the intense rush produced by "crack" cocaine, bouncing from stranger to stranger on the street looking for money for the next fix to feed their cocaine craving has the home audience chanting in unison "they get what they deserve" and then quickly turning to another program. The market writes the message.
During Alan Leshner's tenure as director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (1994-2001), "addiction is a brain disease" became the mantra of the Institute. Whether it's a "disease, disorder, or syndrome" may be debatable, but it's certainly a "brain" something unless one wishes to accept pixie dust as the mechanism behind drives and motivations, lusts and desires. The "patterns" are easy to explain—simply examine the psychological and social-cultural variables that initiate and sustain the period of early drug-use; there your personality types, sociological sub-groups and other patterns will emerge, based on who tries the drug not on why they try the drug, no requisite personality types or pixie dust required. The 'chemicals' in the drug interact with the 'chemicals' of the brain—it's that simple.
Drug Addiction as a Psychobiological Process
Pleasure systems in the brain
Tags: addiction training technology transfer, drug abuse, drug addiction, eduction, psychopharmacology, translational research
Addiction Technology Transfer -- New Discussion Forum on the ASNet
09/23/12 | by the professor | Categories: General, Announcements
A new category is being started for open discussion and feedback supporting our Addiction Technology Transfer Initiative (ATTI). The purpose of ATTI is to bring state-of-the-art research and 'thinking' to more people regarding drug addiction. The target audience for some presentations is academic and professional, while some presentations are intended for a general, lay audience. Others are more commentaries with a mix for everyone. You may post your comments and suggestions in this category or suggest new threads for more formal discussion (e.g., podcast format, length, or content, organization of our podcast directory). We are still receiving a lot of e-mail which we simply do not have time to reply to individually. Please use our discussion forums for correspondence that is not of a confidential nature. Your questions and our replies are likely to be of interest to many people. Over the years we have not optimized (it was tempting to use the word "wasted" here ) countless hours of work by duplicating lengthy replies to individual e-mails, and we wish to provide a mechanism to share this work and maximize its impact.
This forum is open for comments from the public and from our professional colleagues. We are eager to learn more about how we can better serve our target audiences. You may 'reply' to this commentary or initiate a new thread on a specific topic (e.g., podcasts, professional training series). There is a 24- to 48-hour delay before your comments appear because of the moderation necessary to prevent spamming.
ATTI is an important component of our mission. We have a 'game plan' on how to accomplish our goals, but your feedback can be important in directing which specific component we invest in first. Otherwise, it's 'game on' with our own strategic plan. Click here to view our our earlier statement regarding this topic when our basic research program was still operational at the Addiction Research Unit, State University of New York at Buffalo.
An open, unmoderated discussion forum for the Addiction Science Network, promoting free and open exchange of evidence-based information and promoting scientific analysis of drug addiction and related topics.
Addiction Technology Transfer Initiative
Drug-Regulation Policy
Harm-Reduction Strategies
Kiss Versions (short reposts)
Prescription Opioid Regulations & Availability
Recreational Drug Use
Sponsorship & Advertising Policy
Addiction Science Network
©2020 Addiction Science Network • Contact • Miami blue skin • Credits: blog software | blog hosting


In a first of its kind, a one-day workshop on communicating science through Madhubani folk art was organized at Mohali. The workshop was conducted by Bitasta Das (Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru) and Pratik Prabhakar (Madhubani artist and Assistant Art Coordinator at Bihar Museum, Madhubani, Bihar). The workshop was open to all students, researchers and scientists at IISER-Mohali. Today, there is widespread experimentation in using art as a tool for communicating science in the education sector.
This workshop was organized on 14 April 2018 with the aim of introducing students, young scientists and researchers in harnessing the synergy of art and science to communicate their research to a non-scientific audience.
Next India's Surveillance Laws, Then and Now: Has Anything Changed?


After studying politics in Scotland, Rachel travelled to New Zealand for a stint of skiing in 2005. Somehow she stayed, meeting her now husband and becoming the best darn instructor the Kiwis had ever known. Since then, she has studied many modalities and loves topics as diverse as women's health and shoulder functionality. She's trained in Pilates through Stott Pilates and Breathe Education.
Rachel loves teaching clients how to move efficiently and empower themselves through exercise. She's never without a smile on her face, a quick witticism and awesome leggings. Her upbeat Scottish accent may make her seem a soft and gentle type, but her classes are definitely badass and surprising.
Little known fact about Rachel: in 2012 Rachel taught Pilates in Dubai where she immersed herself in Emirati culture. She attended an Emirati wedding and was a guest of the Sheik at the Dubai World Cup.


text:
SME CFO
INDEPENDENT BUSINESSPERSON
Debt collection company
BUSINESS ORIGINATOR
Credit Consultant
Curator or commission agent
Big NHS supplier
Become our customer
Businesses and brands
Business Plan 2020-2022
Bank description
Analysts and rating
Program EMTN
Summary of Corporate Governance
Shareholders' Meetings
The value of ethics
Compulsory notices
Anti-Money Laundering and Patriot Act
Banca IFIS on Social Network
homepage › News › Banca IFIS: Three-year business plan. Net profit of 147 million Euro in 2022 with significant growth in core businesses and less extraordinary business. Investments of 60 million Euro and 190 new employees.
Banca IFIS: Three-year business plan. Net profit of 147 million Euro in 2022 with significant growth in core businesses and less extraordinary business. Investments of 60 million Euro and 190 new employees.
Price Sensitive Press Releases
REGEM 2.2
FINANCIAL TARGETS FOR 2022
– Increase in sustainable profit to 147 million Euro to further improve financial solidity and support growth, whilst also ensuring payment of a significant dividend to shareholders;
– ROTE to climb to 8.9%, indicating that the Group is well positioned in the most profitable segments of the market;
– CET 1 ratio of 12% in 2022, exceeding the current SREP threshold¹ of 8.12%;
– Investments of approximately 60 million Euro in support of organic growth and business stability;
– Stable operating costs due to monitoring and efficiency gains, despite significant investments;
– Pay-out ratio for Banca IFIS shares of 40%-45%, corresponding to a yield of over 7% at current market prices.
Profitability of all business units, with greater competitive advantage in the NPL and Factoring units; revenue growth is expected to amount to 602 million Euro, driven by:
– purchases of non-performing loans of 8.5 billion Euro (nominal amount) in the three-year period for the NPL segment;
– increase in the volumes of loans to customers during the three-year period of 1 billion Euro in the Commercial and Corporate Banking segment, driven by digital innovation, the new market coverage model and the new communications and marketing strategy.
Milan, 14 January 2020 – The Board of Directors of Banca IFIS met under the chairmanship of Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio and approved the 2020/2022 Strategic Plan.
"The new Plan confirms Banca IFIS's role as a specialist bank in support of the real economy with the primary goal of generating increasing, sustainable profit by replacing the financial component deriving from the PPA with recurring business profit, whilst also distributing value to its shareholders," explained Luciano Colombini, Banca IFIS's Chief Executive Officer.
"Today we are presenting a business plan in line with the Bank's core businesses. A plan that represents maximum transparency in the face of the market and which will lead Banca IFIS to further increase its commitment in the coming years to exploit all opportunities offered by the market in accordance with its stated objectives. The plan will be implemented by a management team of professionals with extraordinary track records, offering proven experience and complementary specialisation. We are a unique group in the banking industry due to our competitive positioning in the various markets and our distinctive business model, which we will continue to refine in order to strengthen our leadership.
The analyses of our strategic positioning and cost and capital allocation that we have conducted have shown that all our business areas remain profitable: in particular, NPLs and Factoring show the greatest competitive advantage. Diversification thus currently ensures the bank's stability and reduces its enterprise risk. Our advantage is that we operate in segments of the market with ample room for growth and we have better management skills than our competitors, in addition to exclusive know-how.
Within the Commercial and Corporate Banking business, we will further increase our presence in the SMEs segment, which has always been integral to this Bank's identity. We will do so by developing our model for serving this market through new investments in digital innovation and a marketing and communication strategy aimed at increasing the recognisability of Banca IFIS's brand. A broader product range, along with a constantly evolving distribution and operations model, will allow us to expand our customer base, including in currently less served but high-potential areas.
The plan also calls for considerable improvement in asset quality, with a reduction in the loss rate to 75 basis points in 2022, through careful management of the concentration risk and reinforcement of the loan disbursement, management and monitoring process, in addition to recovery of non-performing positions.
In the NPL segment, we will continue to operate as primary investors, leveraging on the strength of our servicer, one of Italy's top servicers: from 2020 to 2022, we estimate that we will purchase 8.5 billion Euro of new non-performing loans. Our medium-term strategy will be based on purchasing portfolios of unsecured loans by participating actively in all sale processes on the market, expanding the characteristics of the non-performing portfolios purchased to include the secured and corporate segment and constantly increasing the efficiency of the recovery process for non-performing loans.
We do not expect calendar provisioning to have substantial effects over the three-year period. Afterwards, from 2023 onwards, when the portfolios purchased subject to calendar provisioning have reached a more significant scale, the strategy will be to serve as co-investor for NPLs, while continuing to act as a primary player for the asset classes of reference.
Within the plan, a great deal of attention has been devoted to regulatory capital performance, with the CET1 ratio rising to 12% by 2022, exceeding the current SREP threshold of 8.12%, due to the increase in profits," concluded Luciano Colombini, Banca IFIS's Chief Executive Officer.
2020 CORPORATE EVENTS CALENDAR
Mestre (Venice), 17th January 2020 – Banca IFIS announces the publication dates for its 2020 financial...
follow Banca IFIS on social networks
Banca IFIS S.p.A. representing the VAT Group
with VAT number 04570150278

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
www.unesco.org About us Introducing UNESCO Governing bodies Member States Director-General Goodwill Ambassadors Secretariat History
Programme Strategy Accountability
UNESCO House Visit us Field offices Institutes and Centres Contact us
Africa Biodiversity Initiative Climate Change Culture of Peace & Non-Violence Dialogue among Civilizations Education for Sustainable Development Foresight and Anticipation Gender Equality HIV and AIDS ICT in Education Indigenous Peoples Least Developed Countries Post-Conflict and Post-Disaster Responses Science Education Small Island Developing States Youth
Education Natural Sciences Social & Human Sciences Culture Communication & Information
Resources Multimedia Conventions & recommendations Publications UNESCO Presentation Kit Statistics
UNESCO Worldwide
Worldwide Africa Arab States Asia and the Pacific Europe and North America Latin America and the Caribbean
in countries
National Commissions Field offices Institutes and centres
Press releases Media advisories Interviews News Videos Photos Film and radio collection
Calendar of Events All Events Programme meetings Public Events UNESCO House
and partners
Networks Partners & Donors Participation Programme Fellowships
Join us Employment Procurement
Prizes and Celebrations
UNESCO Prizes Celebrations Commemorative Medals
Member States United Nations System Intergovernmental Organizations Non-Governmental Organizations Private Sector UNESCO Communities
Help preserve sites now!
Join the 130,380 Members
About World Heritage
UNESCO » Culture » World Heritage Centre » News & Events » News
Director-General welcomes UN Security Council statement on destruction of artifacts at Mosul Museum
The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has welcomed the UN Security Council's statement denouncing the attack on the Mosul Museum. "This statement is a strong testiment to the unity of the international community regarding the tragic destruction of irreplaceable heritage for all mankind," said the Director-General. "The members of the Security Council have reaffirmed the deep ...
UNESCO Director-General welcomes the reopening of the Baghdad Museum
"The reopening of the Baghdad Museum is a powerful symbol, coming in the wake of the destruction perpetrated in Mosul. To fight violent extremism and attacks against cultural heritage, we need more than ever to nurture the power of culture, supporting its fundamental role for dialogue and for social cohesion in Iraq and around the world." "I welcome this historic reopening, coming just a few ...
March 3rd is World Wildlife Day
"It is time to get serious about wildlife crime" This year's theme for World Wildlife Day is right in line with one of the key goals of the World Heritage Convention: protecting sites which are home to threatened plant and animal species. These invaluable sites are threatened more than ever, and illegal human activities such as poaching and illegal logging are some of the most worrisome. ...
UNESCO calls for mobilization to stop "cultural cleansing" in Iraq
"I was filled with dismay by images of the attack on the Mosul Museum, as well as on other archaeological sites in the Nineveh region in Iraq," said the Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova. She spoke at a press conference following the release of a video showing the devastation of the Mosul Museum in Iraq. Terrorists based in Iraq defaced many statues and bas-reliefs with an ...
Director-General requests UN Security Council meeting on destruction of heritage in Mosul
"I am deeply shocked by footage released today showing the destruction of statues and other artefacts of the Mosul Museum. I condemn this as a deliberate attack against Iraq's millennial history and culture, and as an inflammatory incitement to violence and hatred," said the Director General. "This attack is far more than a cultural tragedy – this is also a security issue as it fuels ...
International Conference on Archaeological Parks and Sites held in Oman 23-25 February 2015
A major international conference was organized by ICOMOS Oman at Dhofar University in Salalah, Sultanate of Oman to review archaeological heritage identification, management, and conservation, and to explore new approaches. Among the participants were experts from different parts of the world, representatives from Ministries and heritage agencies, Ambassadors of UNESCO Member States, the ...
Call for expression of interest for the evaluation of the African World Heritage Fund
Established as a Category II Centre under the auspices of UNESCO in October 2009, the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) is an inter-governmental organisation which was jointly initiated by the African Members States of UNESCO and the African Union. Its mission is to support the effective conservation and protection of natural and cultural heritage of outstanding universal value in Africa. ...
World Heritage Young Experts Forum 2015 in Germany "Towards a Sustainable Management of World Heritage Sites"
Prior to the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee, a Young Experts Forum will be held from 18 to 29 June 2015 in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage site and in Bonn, former capital of Germany. Young heritage experts from around the world from 20 to 30 years old will exchange ideas and provide input to the theme of this year's Forum Towards a Sustainable Management of World ...
UNESCO Director-General welcomes UN Security Council Resolution to step up protection of cultural heritage in Syria and Iraq
The Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova, welcomed the adoption of a new UN Security Council Resolution 2199 that condemns the destruction of cultural heritage and adopts legally-binding measures to counter illicit trafficking of antiquities and cultural objects from Iraq and Syria. "The adoption of resolution 2199 is a milestone for enhanced protection of cultural heritage in Iraq ...
UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture gathers Ministers of Tourism and Culture for the first time
Over 900 participants, including over 45 Ministers and Vice Ministers of Tourism and Culture, international experts, speakers and guests from 100 countries, gathered at the UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to explore and advance new partnership models between tourism and culture (4-6 February 2015). Tourism, moving more than one billion people ...
Banc d'Arguin National Park inspires young people to preserve World Heritage
With support from UNESCO's World Heritage Marine Programme, the Banc d'Arguin National Park in Mauritania organized a series of educational activities for students from four local schools who are located in the park. Throughout 2014, about 100 students participated in three-day excursions in which they learned about the biodiversity, the socioeconomic importance of the Park and the need to ...
Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) Director General, job vacancy
The secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is currently recruiting a Director General (DG). SPREP is the regional organisation established by the Governments and Administrations of the Pacific charged with protecting and managing the environment and natural resources of the Pacific. It is based in Apia, Samoa, with about 95 staff and an annual budget of USD $20 ...
Ecuador intensifies actions to reduce risks from ship stranding in Galápagos Islands
On Wednesday, 28 January, the cargo ship Floreana stranded near San Cristobal, an island that is part of the Galápagos islands World Heritage site. The vessel transported 1,400 tons of cargo and 50,000 liters of fuel among other, potentially hazardous, products. Accordingly to early government reports, products leaked from the ship. Actions are being taken to define the impacts on the marine ...
2014-2015 World Heritage Map Published
The latest version of the World Heritage map, produced by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and National Geographic Maps with the generous support of Germany, can now be ordered for a modest fee from the World Heritage Centre website. The featured image on the Map presents the Upper Middle Rhine Valley in Germany, country hosting the next session of the World Heritage Committee in June ...
UNESCO and Panasonic inspire pupils in Fujian, China, to become ambassadors of World Heritage protection
Since their first agreement signed in 2011, UNESCO and Panasonic have worked together to educate young people about protecting natural and cultural heritage. Long-term success of the program depends on the children of today, hence their involvement is of key importance. As part of the cooperation with UNESCO, Panasonic China hosted 50 pupils and teachers in a school excursion from 3 to 6 ...
World Heritage stakeholders come together to develop a sustainable tourism strategy for Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls
World heritage site managers and tourism stakeholders from Zambia and Zimbabwe came together for the first time to initiate the process to develop a sustainable tourism strategy for the Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls World Heritage site. The workshop was held in Livingstone, Zambia from 22 to 24 January 2015. The workshop takes place within the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage and ...
World Heritage N° 74: Disasters and resilience
Issue 74 of World Heritage magazine World Heritage sites are exposed to a wide variety of natural and human-induced hazards, such as earthquakes, cyclones or fires, which can have devastating effects on their value as well as on the lives and assets of the communities concerned. This issue explores the risks that sites are exposed to and different aspects of disaster risk management, ...
[in French only] 1 min read
Donate now and help preserve World Heritage sites
Extended 44th session
of the World Heritage Committee
Fuzhou, China/Online, 2021
Committee sessions Statutory Documents Committee decisions More sessions... 45th session (2022) 44th session (2021) 15th Extraordinary session (2021) 43rd session (2019) 42nd session (2018)
General Assembly 23rd GA UNESCO Paris (2021) 22nd GA UNESCO Paris (2019)
About World Heritage The Convention, Convention Text
Policy Compendium Operational Guidelines The Emblem The States Parties The Advisory Bodies The Centre Employment & Internships Who's Who
The List World Heritage List World Heritage in Danger New Inscriptions Criteria for Selection Tentative Lists World Heritage List Nominations
Reporting & Monitoring State of Conservation (SOC) Periodic Reporting Questionnaires 2008-2015 Reactive Monitoring Africa Arab States Asia & Pacific Latin America and the Caribbean Europe and North America
Partnerships Become a Partner What Partners Do Our Partners
Activities All our activities Volunteer Group Tools
Publications World Heritage Review Series Resource Manuals World Heritage wall map More publications ...
Funding World Heritage Fund International Assistance
More Contacts Site Map Become a member Donate Now!
© UNESCO World Heritage Centre 1992-2022 United Nations
Global Strategy Criteria Upstream Process Tentative Lists World Heritage List Nominations
World Heritage List New Inscribed Properties Interactive Map
World Heritage in Danger The List in Danger
The Convention Convention Text Operational Guidelines Policy Compendium
Governing Bodies The General Assembly The Committee Resolutions / Decisions Sessions since 1977
The States Parties
The Centre Employment & Internships Who's Who Director of the World Heritage
The Advisory Bodies
Funding World Heritage Fund Financial regulations International Assistance
Reporting & Monitoring State of Conservation Periodic Reporting Questionnaires 2018-2024 Questionnaires 2008-2015 Reactive Monitoring List of factors affecting the properties
The Emblem
Europe & North America
Category 2 Centres
Central Africa World Heritage Forest Initiative (CAWHFI)
Climate Change and World Heritage
Cultural Landscapes
Initiative on Heritage of Religious Interest
Natural World Heritage
Post-Conflict and Post-Disaster Reconstruction and Recovery
Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape
Reducing Disasters Risks at World Heritage Properties
World Heritage and Indigenous Peoples
World Heritage and Sustainable Development
World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme
World Heritage Cities Programme
World Heritage Education Programme
World Heritage Marine Programme
World Heritage Programme for Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
World Heritage Volunteers Initiative
World Heritage Canopy: Heritage Solutions for Sustainable Futures
Examples of the Convention at work
Paper Series
Brochures & Info kits
Resource Manuals
About this Website Terms / Policies Syndication Site Map Typography
remember my profile


text:
Why Do 2 Carat Engagement Rings Cost So Much More Than 1 Carat Rings?
Author Lynelle Schmidt
Date Feb 15, 2021
2 carat diamond rings are breath-taking. They stand out on her finger and catch the eye of everyone around her. The ring becomes the center of attention, and you get to proudly stand there as she shows off her gorgeous rock to all her friends and family.
But when it's time to buy the diamond, you can easily end up shocked when you start seeing what 2 carat diamonds are worth.Spoiler alert: 2 carat diamonds cost much more than 1 carat diamonds.
It seems logical that if you can get a 1 carat diamond for around $4,000, that you'd be able to get a 2 ct diamond ring for just over $8,000...right? Unfortunately, that's not how diamond pricing works.
Let's take a step back and look at the factors that affect diamond prices to see why a 2 carat stone will end up costing you a lot more than its 1 carat counterpart
An Overview of 2 Carat Diamonds
Carat size refers to the unit of measurement for the weight of a diamond. One carat equals 400 milligrams or 0.4 grams. As the standard of measurement for diamonds, it is common for shoppers to think of carats as a measurement of the overall size (length and width). But since it's a unit of weight, the overall size will differ depending on the diamond cut. For example, some carats cut in longer shapes such as oval or marquise will appear slightly larger despite being the same weight.
What contributes to the price of a diamond?
TThere are a lot of different factors that contribute to the final price of a diamond. It would be impossible for us to say a 1 carat diamond costs X amount, a 1.3 carat diamond will cost you X, etc. It doesn't work like that. A one carat diamond can range anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000 depending on a number of different factors.
Visit the Long's Diamond Calculator to see more on diamond pricing >>
So what are these factors? Well, one of the biggest influencers on a diamond's price is something you've probably heard of by now - the Four Cs. A diamond's cut, clarity, color, and carat weight all heavily influence the value of any stone.
Cut refers to the angles and proportions of a diamond that will reflect light back to your eye in a certain way. If a diamond is cut properly, chances are that the light will enter the diamond and be reflected back to your eye in a way that shows the stone's brilliance...aka sparkle.
Clarity refers to how many inclusions or imperfections are present in the stone. Stones that are flawless (no inclusions) will be much more expensive because they are more rare and beautiful.
Color is a measure of the amount of color that can be seen in the stone, usually yellow or brown. Colorless stones are always more valuable than those with yellow or brown hues.
Carat weight affects pricing because the heavier diamonds are, the more costly they become. However, this isn't a straightforward increase. As you'll see below, there are additional factors affecting why 2 carat diamonds cost more than 1 carat.
What is the typical cost of a 2 carat diamond ring?
Now that we know all of the factors that can contribute to a diamond's price, let's explore what a two carat diamond ring might cost. We know that there isn't one price that would cover every 2 carat stone in the market. However, the typical range for 2 round carat diamonds is somewhere around $8,000-$50,000. Pretty vague right? That's because if you choose a 2 carat diamond that is flawless, colorless and perfectly cut, then you'll end up paying closer to $50,000 or more. If you choose a 2 carat diamond that has slight inclusions and noticeable color, then the price might be closer to $8,000 or less.
Shop the online engagement ring collection at Long's >>
Why does a 2 carat diamond cost so much more than a 1 carat?
The fourth "C" that we didn't cover in our last explanation was carat weight. Carat weight can heavily influence the price of a diamond. As a diamond gets larger and increases in carat weight, it becomes more rare. That's because it's much harder for a diamond cutter to find a good piece of raw material to cut into a beautiful 2 carat stone than material to make smaller diamonds.
The price mechanics for a diamond don't always make sense at first. You would think that a 1 carat diamond that costs $4,000 would cost only $8,000 as a 2 carat stone, a 3 carat diamond would be $12,000, etc. However, as we've discussed already, as diamond carat size goes up, so does the stone's rarity. The price of a stone goes up exponentially as the carat weight increases. Here's a chart that illustrates this point:
This chart represents average prices for round diamonds with a G color, VS1 clarity and ideal cut. You can see from this chart that a 1 carat round diamond with these characteristics starts around $7,000 and increases all the way up past $20,000 for a 2 carat diamond. As the carat weight increases, the price rises quite significantly.
How does shape affect your 2 carat diamond ring price?
Diamond shape affects pricing in a few ways - first, some shapes retain more of the original stone, leading to less wastage, and second, there is higher demand for fancy shaped diamonds leading to higher prices.
A 2 carat round diamond ring will likely cost more compared to any other fancy-shaped cut. Other diamond cuts will generally be consistently less expensive for roughly the same weight and quality. For example, the equivalent 2 carat pear or oval diamond ring will likely be roughly 10-15% less in cost, while a 2 carat cushion cut, princess cut, or emerald cut diamond ring could be as much as 20-25% less in cost.
But...she still wants a 2 carat diamond engagement ring
If she's expressed to you that she wants a 2 carat stone, it's important to understand what she really wants. If she genuinely wants a 2 carat ring and it's way above your budget, it might be time to have a discussion to get on the same page.
There are also many ways to achieve the look of 2 carat diamonds without having to break the bank. Here are some alternatives to a 2 carat ring below.
A trick we often tell people is to go for a diamond halo setting. By adding a ring of smaller diamonds around the center diamond, it creates the illusion of a much larger stone. It's a big reason why this is the top trend for engagement rings over the past few years.
Another trick is to add diamonds along the side of the ring's band. You can have the entire ring add up to be 2 carats total weight with smaller diamonds surrounding the center diamond. You'll still be able to get a beautiful, sparkling ring without having to pay for a rare 2 diamond center stone.
Another technique is to find a slightly lower carat diamond with a high-quality cut as this can help the diamond appear larger.
Ready to pop the question? Browse the Long's online engagement ring collection or make an appointment with one of our diamond experts who can help you through every step of the process!
Fine / Fashion Jewelry


text:
Procambarus adani — вид прісноводних десятиногих ракоподібних родини Cambaridae. Описаний у 2021 році.

Назва
Вид названо на честь Адана Енріке Гомеса-Гонсалеса.

Поширення
Ендемік Мексики. Виявлений у печері Сотано-де-Луча на межі штатів Чіапас та Оахака.

Опис
Тіло майже непігментоване, білясте з дрібними помаранчевими крапками на спинці. Очі зменшені, без рогівки та зорових пігментів.

Примітки

Річкові раки
Ракоподібні Північної Америки
Тварини, описані 2021

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
San Antonio TikTok star Adam Martinez models Target's new Latinx collection
Entertainment // Arts & Culture
Sarah Martinez
Complete with poppin' blue nails, Adam "Rosa" Martinez is working this "Si Se Puede" tee.
Courtesy of Target
Adam Martinez is doing more for Latinos than just bring our lovable, comedic antics to one of the biggest social media platforms. Now, he's modeling products made by Latinos that also represent the culture.
Martinez, perhaps better known as his alter ego "Rosa," acknowledged Hispanic Heritage Month (its official name, although many refer to it as Latino Heritage Month) by collaborating with Target. On Thursday, the TikTok star shared photos of him sporting a "Si Se Puede" ("Yes we can") T-shirt and surrounded by mercado swag.
In the caption, Martinez writes that Target "UNDERSTOOD the assignment" with the collection (that's a compliment).
A post shared by @adamrayokay
"I love that I can represent my culture, my background, my roots and feel SEEN," exclaims Martinez.
Adam Martinez, San Antonio's TikTok star, is doing more modeling for Target's Mas Que collection.
The T-shirt, available on the Target website on October 3, is part of Más Que, the chain's Latino Heritage Month collection that was "created and imagined by Latino team members, creators, designers and entrepreneurs," according to a spokesperson for the company. The "Si Se Puede" tee is part of Target's Well Worn brand.
In addition to the Well Worn line, the Más Que collection puts a spotlight on Latino-owned artists and businesses through their clothing, accessories, school supplies, and drinkware. You can shop the collection here.
Martinez's photos come nearly a month after he perfected a Selena look in a very Latino-focused Target ad.
Read more from Sarah
- 'Ahhhh': An analysis of and love letter to the San Antonio laugh
- From Bexar to Huebner: Why non-natives struggle to pronounce Texas names
- San Antonio professor is unearthing long-gone stories at San Fernando Cemeteries
Stay up to date on the latest stories from San Antonio and beyond by signing up for our newsletters here.
Sarah Martinez is a digital producer for MySA. She is a San Antonio native and an alumna of Syracuse University. | @smartinezwrites


text:
• C&EN Classifieds
• Cover Story
CENEAR 80 17 p. 11
German Chemical Industry, Union Settle
PATRICIA SHORT
In marked contrast to the current labor unrest in Germany's metalworking industry, IG Chemie--the union that represents chemical industry employees throughout the country--has reached an agreement that raises wages by a total of 3.6% over the next 13 months.
The deal, which covers some 570,000 employees in the western German chemical industry, includes a 3.3% pay increase starting April 1, and a 0.3% increase to narrow differences in wages between salaried and nonsalaried employees. The union had opened bargaining with a demand of 5.5%.
Among its key points, the pact contains increased flexibility for workers to share profits in good years, while helping to protect plant sites and jobs in less profitable years. The settlement also gives the industry flexibility in paying Christmas bonuses, note officials at Germany's chemical industry employers' association, BAVC. It is, says BAVC President Rüdiger Erckel, "a new dimension in comprehensive union settlements."
The agreement undercuts efforts by IG Metall, the metalworkers' union, to gain countrywide pay raises of 6.5%, against an offer by employers of 2% for 2002 and 2003. IG Metall has threatened strike action if its demands are not met. The deal struck by the chemical union, traditionally considered more pragmatic and willing to negotiate, has already been praised by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as being "economically responsible."


Twist Ponytail for Long Hair. An Easy Tutorial.
Follow this quick tutorial to transform your long, messy ponytail into an elegant twisted bun.
Use the Messy Bun Maker to create a ponytail (follow our instructions here).
Grab the entire ponytail then twist it loosely.
Wrap the hair you just twisted around the Messy Bun Maker.
Use another elastic band to secure the remaining hair. This completes your ponytail to hair bun transformation.
Get FREE Shipping On Your Order Today!
Get free shipping on your order today! Plus, join our mailing list to receive the latest hair news and updates from The Messy Bun Queen.
to get free shipping on your order.


Oppo, better known as Groat, is a dwarf from across the narrow sea.
Oppo and his sister Penny make their living as entertainers who ride atop a pig and a dog while mock fighting each other. Oppo rides the Pig. He and his sister were Groat and Penny after: the two smallest coins.
Oppo and Penny were hired by a man known as Oswell to entertain the guests in King's Landing during Joffrey Baratheon's wedding to Margaery Tyrell by riding a pig and a dog while in painted wooden armor. Unknown to the pair this stunt is arranged by Petyr Baelish in order to provoke a quarrel between Tyrion Lannister and Joffrey in order to add further false evidence against the dwarf when he would be accused of Joffrey's murder.
Quentyn Martell sees Oppo and his sister perform whilst in Volantis.
Oppo is later killed by sailors from Westeros who believe him to be Tyrion Lannister.
At the start of the Battle of Slaver's Bay, as they ready themselves, Penny tells Tyrion Oppo thought Cersei Lannister was beautiful when he saw her when they jousted for King Joffrey Baratheon. Tyrion thinks privately to himself that Groat was a stunted little lickspittle with a stupid name.
His blood is on my sister's hands, and the hands of the brutes who killed him.


Don't Stand So Close to Me (S03E10) is the tenth episode of season three of "Grey's A... More Don't Stand So Close to Me (S03E10) is the tenth episode of season three of "Grey's Anatomy" released on Thu Nov 30, 2006. Over 12,794 TV Time users rated it a 8.5/10 with their favorite characters being Patrick Dempsey as Derek Shepherd, Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey and Sandra Oh as Cristina Yang.
MY HEART JUST BROKE WHEN MEREDITH HUGGED HER MOTHER AND THEN SHE RECOGNIZED HER DAUGHTER!!
"You're my sister,you're my family.You're all I've got"
GEORGE USED TO BE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM. I MISS THE OLD GEORGE.
elena and two brothers, they must be vampires, right? wait, that's not on this show? sorry. bye.


text:
Malilangwe
Home / Destinations / Zimbabwe / Malilangwe
Meaning Call of the Leopard in the local language, Malilangwe is set on 130,000 acres of pristine wilderness in the southern corner of Zimbabwe, bordering the Gonarezhou National Park.
Run as a non-profitable trust which involves local communities in its management and development, Malilangwe has thankfully escaped most of the wildlife poaching which has affected other wildlife sanctuaries in the country as a result of Zimbabwe's recent political and social upheaval.
Famously home to one of the highest concentrations of the endangered black rhino in Africa – introduced by The Malilangwe Trust – Malilangwe boasts not only the big 5 but also to 17 species of antelope, including klipspringer, Sharpe's grysbok, grey duiker, steenbok, Livingstone's suni and oribi.
Lichtenstein's hartebeest, aardvark, painted hunting dogs (wild dogs) and caracal (lynx cat) can also be found, alongside 400 species of birds (including 14 species of eagles) in an area which is also well known for its Mopane forests, majestic Baobab trees and over 100 rock art sites that date back more than 2,000 years.
The Malilangwe Trust, formed in 1994, has also ensured vital sustainability in the area by implementing an energy efficiency and recycling program; eliminating both waste and harmful carbon emissions.
Please see below for accommodation in Malilangwe.
Pamushana
Chilo Gorge
To find out more about travel to Malilangwe and to arrange your tailor-made trip, get in touch with us today.


According to Public Policy Polling, only 21 percent of Republican voters in Iowa believe in global warming (and only 35 percent believe in evolution). Within the G.O.P., willful ignorance has become a litmus test for candidates, one that Mr. Romney is determined to pass at all costs.
So, yes, Krugman's warning is valid. There is an excellent chance that the Republican nominee in any given year will be anti-science. In a two party system, there is a high probability that sooner or later the Republican nominee will be elected.


text:
Constant Interface Or Constant Class?
By longer, August 6, 2008 in Programming
longer 0
I always use classes to hold constants instead of interfaces. Recently my co-worker started using Interface to hold constants for the same project.I think it's good to share with him some points of view from the following books which justify why should you avoid 'Constant Interface':Philip Heller and Simon Roberts, "Complete Java 2 Certification StudyGuide":"In the first place, to say that a class implements an interface really means that the class exposes the public methods listed in theinterface. Interfaces are for defining types and should be used exclusively for that purpose. Constant interfaces only contain data, so they definitely don?t define types.The second disadvantage is a bit more complicated. Suppose someone you work with writes some code that uses an instance of Scales. This person can legally reference that instance with a variable of type Conversion, even though doing so would be quite inappropriate. Later, if you wanted to eliminate the Conversion interface, you couldn?t do so, because your misguided colleague would be relying on the existence of the interface."Joshua Bloch, "Effective Java - Programming Language Guide":"The constant interface pattern is a poor use of interfaces. That a class uses some constants internally is an implementation detail. Implementing a constant interface causes this implementation detail to leak into the class's exported API. It is of no consequence to the users of a class that the class implements a constant interface. In fact, it may even confuse them. Worse, it represents a commitment: if in a future release the class is modified so that it no longer needs to use the constants, it still must implement the interface to ensure binary compatibility. If a nonfinal class implements a constant interface, all of its subclasses will have their namespaces polluted by the constants in the interface."Although it's like preference for different people, Interface is for defining types, and not solely for holding constants.Further more, we can use import static in Java 5 so we can type as less as using interface. Finally he accepts the changes and move to his code from interface to class:)
dimumurray 0
Location:Bronx, NY
If an interface is used purely as a holder for constants then there won't be much of an issue. I think problems crop up when faced with the option of being able to implement the interface as well. You can treat the 'Constant Interface' as you would any Class with static members defined on them by just using the interface name and referencing the desired constant using 'dot' form like so:
[interface_name].[constant_name]
You just have to resist the temptation to implement the interface. Static imports should also apply to interfaces with constants so you're pretty much good to go either way. I can see your point though. 'Constant Interfaces' don't adhere to the ways in which you would traditionally use interfaces, but that is sometimes the nature of a design pattern. They sometimes eschew conventional practice in favor of achieving desired functionality. There are always trade offs.
Have you considered using enums? They are more bloated than say a class with constant static members but they provide a less dubious format for your constants.
Edited August 7, 2008 by dimumurray (see edit history)


This may seem like an odd question — after all, he's won — but it opens up some deep philosophical issues surrounding probability. David Spiegelhalter investigates how probability can be defined.
We live in a world full of information and it's a statistician's job to make sense of it. In this article Dianne Cook explores ways of analysing data and shows how they can be applied to anything from investigating diners' tipping behaviour to understanding climate change and genetics.
Victoria Gould has always known she would be an actor, and went straight from studying arts at school to running her own theatre company. But she eventually had to come clean about her guilty secret - she loves maths - and has since managed to combine a career as a research mathematician and teacher with a successful acting career on television and in theatre. She tells Plus why she needs to use both sides of her brain.
Browse all articles from the Plus sports page.
So basic, yet so tricky: prime numbers are the atoms among natural numbers and lie at the centre of some of the most difficult open problems in maths. This package brings together all material we have on primes, from prime number algorithms to new discoveries. And you will find out what all that's got to do with David Beckham.


text:
\section{Introduction}

\noindent The interest for the possible existence of
multiquark hadrons has been raised twenty years ago by Jaffe,
who suggested that states of two quarks - two antiquarks \cite{1} and
of six quarks \cite{J2} could be bound.

In the following years this problem has been studied within a
large variety of models. Some earlier studies in MIT bag
indicated the presence of a dense spectrum of tetraquark states in
the light sector \cite{1} (and more generally of multiquarks
\cite{aerts}). Later on, tetraquark systems have been
examined in potential models \cite{2,3,4,5} and flux tube
models \cite{6}.  Weinstein and Isgur
showed \cite{2} that there are only a few weakly bound states of
resonant meson--meson structure in the light
$(u,\,d,\,s)$ sector. Usually the ground state
of these systems lies closely above
the lowest $(q\bar q)+(q\bar q)$ threshold.
The other extreme result, as compared to MIT bag model, was obtained by
Carlson and Pandharipande \cite{6} in their flux-tube model with
quarks of equal masses, where no bound state was found.%

Altogether the theoretical predictions about the existence of these bound
states are still unclear.

As far as the experimental situation is concerned,
there are some candidates for non-$q\bar q$
states, but data are not yet conclusive. Furthermore, even if a resonance
would be clearly identified as an exotic (not $q \bar q$ or $qqq$) state,
nevertheless a careful phenomenological study would be necessary in order
to understand its internal structure among many different possibilities
(multiquarks, hybrids, glueballs,...).

The description of these candidates and of the phenomenological properties
which permit a distinction between different exotics is beyond the purposes of
this proceeding and we refer to  Ref.s~\cite{7,NC} and the last issue of Review of
Particle Properties \cite{8} for further details.

Anyway, a well-established theoretical result is that
systems with a larger mass difference among their components
are more easily bound \cite{R3,3}.
For example, for a
system of two heavy quarks and two light antiquarks
$QQ\bar q\bar q$ ($Q=c$ or $b$, $q=u,\,d$ or $s$) stability can be
achieved without spin--spin interaction, provided the mass ratio
$m(Q)/m(q)$ is larger \cite{3} than about 15, which means that $Q$
must be a $b$-quark.

Recently, the interest for multiquark systems containing charm
quarks has grown, considering that new experiments are
being planned at Fermilab and CERN, to search for new  hadrons  and
in particular for doubly charmed tetra\-quarks \cite{9,10,11}.

In this context, we have carried out \cite{nos1} a study of
the $QQ \bar q \bar q$
system in the framework of the chiral quark model of Glozman {\sl et
al.\/} \cite{12,13}. This model is somehow quite ``extreme'' because it includes
meson-exchange forces between quarks and entirely neglects the
chromomagnetic interaction. However it permits a very good description
of the baryon spectrum, it is thus worth testing it in
further predictions.

Considering that in this model light-quark mesons are
``quasiparticles''
with a spectrum which must be assumed and cannot be evaluated directly
(this is of course rather an unpleasant feature of the model), multiquark
systems represent an obvious testing ground for it.
Other possible tests could come from a careful analysis of the
 spectrum of charmed baryons \cite{nos}.

\section{The Glozman model}

Before presenting our results about multiquarks, let us briefly
consider the Glozman {\it et al.} model and compare it with other potential models
used in hadron spectroscopy.

In a general Hamiltonian, which would approximate the low energy limit
of QCD, one can introduce both a chromomagnetic interaction and
a me\-son-ex\-chan\-ge contribution, obtaining an explicit form as
$$
 H=\sum_i{\vec{\rm p}_i^{\,2}\over 2m_i}-{3\over16}
    \sum_{i<j} \tilde{\lambda}_i^{\rm c}\!\cdot\!
\tilde{\lambda}_j^{\rm c}\,
               V_{\rm conf}(r_{ij})
$$
$$
\,\,\,
{}-\sum_{i<j}\tilde{\lambda}_i^{\rm
c}\!\cdot\!\tilde{\lambda}_j^{\rm c}\,
\vec{\sigma}_i\!\cdot\!\vec{\sigma}_j\,V_{\rm g}(r_{ij})-
\sum_{i<j}\tilde{\lambda}_i^{\rm F}\!\cdot\! \tilde{\lambda}_j^{\rm
F}\,
\vec{\sigma}_i\!\cdot\!\vec{\sigma}_j \,V_{\rm F}(r_{ij}),
\eqno(1)
$$
where $m_i$ is the constituent mass of the quark located at
$\vec{\rm r}_i$; $r_{ij}=\vert \vec{\rm r}_j-\vec{\rm r}_i\vert$
denotes the interquark distance; $\vec{\sigma_i}$,
$\tilde{\lambda}_i^{\rm c}$,
$\tilde{\lambda}_i^{\rm F}$ are the spin, colour and
flavour  operators, respectively. Spin-orbit and
tensor components may supplement the above spin-spin forces for
studying orbital excitations (they give no contribution for $L=0$ systems).
The potential in (1) has three parts
containing the confining, the chromomagnetic and the meson-exchange
contribution.

Usually, the confining term $V_{\rm conf}$ is assumed to include a Coulomb plus
a linear term,
$$
V_{\rm conf}=-{a\over r}+b r+c.\eqno(2)
$$
In the following, we shall either use  the very weak linear potential
of Glozman {\sl et al.\/} \cite{13} corresponding to
$$
(C_1)\qquad a=c=0, \qquad\hbox{and}\qquad b=0.01839\;{\mathrm GeV}^2,
\eqno(3)
$$
or the more conventional  choice
$$
(C_2)\qquad a=0.5203, \qquad b=0.1857\;{\mathrm GeV}^2,
\qquad c=-0.9135\;{\mathrm GeV},\eqno(4)
$$
which has already been applied to the study of tetraquarks by
Silvestre-Brac and Semay \cite{4}.%

The term $\sum_{i<j}\tilde{\lambda}_i^{\rm
c}\!\cdot\!\tilde{\lambda}_j^{\rm c}\,
\vec{\sigma}_i\!\cdot\!\vec{\sigma}_j\,V_{\rm g}(r_{ij})$
is the chromomagnetic
analogue of the Breit--Fermi term of QED. In the interaction
between a quark and an antiquark (as e.g. in a meson) one finds
$\tilde{\lambda}_1^{\rm c}\!\cdot\!\tilde{\lambda}_2^{\rm c}=-16/3$.
Then a positive $V_{\rm g}$ shifts
each vector meson above its  pseudoscalar partner, for instance
$D^*>D$ in the charm sector. For baryons, where
$\tilde{\lambda}_1^{\rm c}
\!\cdot\! \tilde{\lambda}_2^{\rm c}=-8/3$ for each quark pair,  such
a positive $V_{\rm  g}$ pushes the spin 3/2 ground states up, and the
spin 1/2 down, for instance $\Delta >N$. For the radial
shape, as an example, we mention
$$
V_{\rm g}={a\over\mathstrut m_im_jd^2}
{\exp-r/d\over\mathstrut r},\eqno(5)
$$
which was used in Ref.\ \cite{4},
with the same value of $a$ as in Eq.~(4) and $d=0.454\;$GeV$^{-1}$.

Finally, the last term of $H$ corresponds to meson exchange, and an explicit
sum over $F$ is understood. If the system contains light quarks only (as in
Ref.s \cite{12,13}),
the sum over $F$ runs from 0 to 8, {\sl i.e.} over the members of
the $J^{PC}=0^{-+}$ nonet,
which represent the Goldstone bosons of the
spontaneusly broken $SU(3)_{A}$ symmetry
 ($1-3\rightarrow\pi$, $4-7\rightarrow
K$, $8\rightarrow\eta$  and  $0\rightarrow\eta'$). If a heavy flavour
is incorporated,  a phenomenological extension from
SU(3)$_{\rm F}$ to
SU(4)$_{\rm F}$ would further extend the sum to  ${\rm F} = 9-12$
corresponding to a $D$-exchange, ${\rm F} = 13-14$ to a
$D_s$-exchange and ${\rm F} = 15$ to an $\eta_c$-exchange
(of course in this case the interpretation as Goldstone bosons is
not really possible). Similar terms
should then be introduced if one includes the beauty sector as well.
The radial form of $V_{\rm F}\neq0$ is
derived from the usual  pion-exchange potential which contains a
long-range part and a short-range one
$$
\sum_{i<j}\vec{\tau}_i\!\cdot\!\vec{\tau}_j\,\vec{\sigma}_i\!\cdot\!
\vec{\sigma}_j
{g^2\over 4\pi}{1\over 4m^2}\left[\mu^2{\exp(-\mu r_{ij})\over
r_{ij}}-4\pi\delta^{(3)}(r_{ij})\right],\eqno(6)
$$
where $\mu$ is the pion mass.

When constructing $N\!N$ forces from meson exchanges, one
usually disregards
the short-range term in Eq.~(6), for it is hidden by the hard core,
and anyhow the potential in that region is parameterized empirically.
For example, when  T{\"o}rnqvist \cite{14}, Manohar and
Wise \cite{15} or Ericson and Karl \cite{16}
considered pion exchange in multiquark states, they used
the Yukawa term $\exp(-\mu r)/r$ acting between two well-separated quark
clusters. Weber {\sl et al.\/} \cite{17},  in
their model with hyperfine plus pion-exchange interaction, studied both the
cases with or without delta-term, showing
that good results could be obtained
without it in baryon spectroscopy.
Thus the relevance of an {\sl ad-hoc\/} regularized delta-term
\cite{12,13} in the study of baryon spectroscopy is somehow surprising.
Nevertheless, this ansatz permits to give a good description of
the baryon spectrum and, in particular, allows one to solve the problem
of the ordering of the lowest  parity-odd and parity-even states
of $N$, $\Lambda$ and $\Sigma$ resonances, which did not find a
solution in conventional chromomagnetic models \cite{Chromo}.

Incidentally, this result is not completely unexpected, in fact
Buchman {\it et al.}
had shown, already some years ago,
that this term is essential for obtaining a good description of
magnetic moments \cite{buch}.

For the sake of completeness we report here the explicit form
of the regularized delta-term \cite{13}
$$
V_\mu=\Theta(r-r_0)\mu^2{\exp(-\mu r)\over
r}-
{4\epsilon^3\over\sqrt\pi}\exp(-\epsilon^2(r-r_0)^2),
\eqno(7)
$$
where
$r_0=2.18\;$GeV$^{-1}$, $\epsilon=0.573\;$GeV, and
$\mu= 0.139$ GeV for $\pi$, $0.547$ GeV for $\eta$ and $0.958$ GeV for
$\eta '$. Furthermore, the Yukawa-type part is cut off for $r\le r_0$.
This smearing should account for
the fact that both the pseudoscalar mesons and the constituent quarks
have a finite size and that boson fields cannot be described by
a linear equation near their source.

The explicit form of the Hamiltonian
which extends the results of Ref. \cite{12} from SU(3) to SU(4)
is given in Ref. \cite{nos1}.
It includes also the exchange of $D$, $D_s$ and $\eta_{c}$ mesons.
However, considering that little
$u\bar u$ or $d\bar d$ mixing is expected in $\eta_c$, this
contribution can be
neglected when considering systems with none or one charm quark.
Moreover when the meson mass $\mu$ reaches
values of a few GeV as for $D$ or $\eta_c$ the two terms in Eq.~(6)
basically cancel each other and one recovers practically the
SU(3) form \cite{12}.  This is in agreement
with Ref.~\cite{18} where it has been explicitly shown that the dominant
contribution to the $\Sigma_c$ and $\Sigma_c^*$ masses is due to
meson exchange between light quarks and the contribution of the
matrix elements with the $D$ ($D_s$) and $D^*$ ($D^*_s$)
quantum numbers (which are evaluated phenomenologically,
fitting the mass difference $\Sigma_c - \Lambda_c$)
play a minor r\^ole. In the following
numerical calculations we will neglect the exchange of heavy mesons.%

Finally one has to fix quark masses. The light quarks ones are fixed to
$0.34$ GeV according to Ref.s \cite{13,4}.
The heavy quark masses $m_Q=m_c$ and $m_b$ are adjusted to reproduce the
experimental average mass $\overline{M}=(M+3M^*)/4$ between the
$0^{-}$ and $1^{-}$ $M=D$ or
$B$ mesons by a variational calculation, where a trial wave function of
type $\phi\propto\exp(-\alpha r^2/2)$ is used (with $\alpha$ as a variational
parameter). It has been checked that the error never exceeds a few
MeV with respect to the exact value. The variational approximation
is retained for consistency with the treatment of 3-, 4- and 6-body
systems discussed below. This leads to $m_c=1.35$ GeV and $m_b=4.66$ GeV
for the potential $C_1$ and $m_c=1.87$ GeV and $m_b=5.259$ GeV
for $C_2$.

Before proceeding further, let us briefly discuss the calculation of
baryons masses in the model of Glozman {\it et
al.\/} The explicit form of the Hamiltonian integrated in the
spin--flavour space is :
$$
H=H_0+{g^2\over48\pi m^2}
\left\{
\normalbaselineskip=20pt
\matrix{
&\!\!\!\!\!15V_\pi-V_\eta-2\left({g_0/
g}\right)^2V_{\eta'}\quad\hbox{for}\quad
N\cr
&\!\!\!\!\!\phantom{1}3V_\pi+V_\eta+2\left({g_0/g}\right)^2V_{\eta'}
\quad\hbox{for}\quad\Delta\cr
}\right.
\eqno(8)$$
with
$$
H_0= 3m+\sum_i{\vec{\rm
p}_i^{\,2}\over
2m}+{b\over2}\sum_{i<j}r_{ij},
\eqno(9)
$$
where $g^2/4\pi = 0.67$ (which leads to the usual strength
$g_{\pi N\!N}/4\pi\simeq14$ for the Yukawa
tail of the nucleon--nucleon potential) and $(g_0/g)^2 = 1.8$.
We have performed variational estimates with a wave
function $\phi \propto \exp(-\alpha (\rho^2 + \lambda^2)/2)$,
where $\vec{\rho}= \vec{\rm r}_2  - \vec{\rm r}_3$,
$\vec{\lambda}=(2\vec{\rm r}_1-\vec{\rm r}_2-\vec{\rm r}_3)/\sqrt{3}$:
our results agree with  the more elaborated Faddeev
calculations of Ref.~\cite{13}.

When the meson--exchange terms are switched
off, the $N$ and $\Delta$ ground states are degenerate at
1.63 GeV. Introducing the coupling  the nucleon mass drops
stronger leading to a reasonable splitting ($\approx 0.3\;$GeV).
It is interesting to notice that in this model one has an attraction both
for the $S=0$, $I=0$ and also, albeit smaller, for the $S=1$, $I=1$
diquarks. Then both the nucleon and $\Delta$ masses decrease when the
interaction is turned on. The diquarks $S=0$, $I=1$ and $S=1$, $I=0$
on the contrary are repulsive configurations. The situation is thus
different from the chromomagnetic case where one has a smaller
attraction for the $S=0$, $I=0$ diquark and repulsion for the $S=1$,
$I=1$ one.

We have also calculated the ground state of $cqq$ baryons using
a trial wave function $\phi \propto
\exp(-(\alpha \rho^2+\beta\lambda^2)/2)$ and found
$\Lambda_{c} = 2.32\;$GeV and $\Sigma_c = \Sigma^{*}_{c} =
2.48\;$GeV, close to the experimental values and consistent with the
findings of Ref.~\cite{18}, although the Hamiltonian, its treatment,
and the input parameters are somewhat different there.

\section{Evaluation of multiquarks masses}

Due to arguments at the beginning of this contribution, here we discuss
tetra\-quarks containing heavy flavours, i.e. $QQ \bar q \bar q$,
studying the most favourable
configuration:  $\bar 3 3,\,S=1,\,I=0$. This means that $QQ$ is
in a  $\bar 3$ colour state and $\bar q\bar q$ in a 3 colour state.
The mixing with $6\bar6$ is neglected because one expects
this to play a negligible r\^ole in deeply-bound heavy
systems \cite{3}. Then the Pauli principle requires $S_{12}=1$ for
$QQ$, and $S_{34}=0,\, I_{34}=0$ for $\bar q\bar q$ (which we have seen
to be the diquark with the largest binding), if the relative
angular momenta are zero for both subsystems. This gives a state of
total spin $S=1$ and isospin $I=0$.

The tetraquark Hamiltonian integrated in the colour--spin--flavour
space, and incorporating the approximations discussed in the former
section, reduces to
$$H=2(m+m_Q)+{\vec{\rm p}_x^2\over m_Q}+{\vec{\rm p}_y^2\over m}
+{m+m_Q\over2mm_Q}\vec{\rm p}_z^2+\sum_{i<j}V_{ij},\eqno(10)
$$
where
$$
V_{12}={1\over2}\left(-{a\over r_{12}}+b\, r_{12}+c\right),
$$
$$
V_{ij}={1\over4}\left(-{a\over r_{ij}}+b\, r_{ij}+c\right),
\qquad i=1\;\hbox{or}\;2,\;j=3\;\hbox{or}\;4,
\eqno(11)
$$
$$
V_{34}={1\over2}\left(-{a\over r_{34}}+b\, r_{34}+c\right)
+9V_\pi-V_\eta-2V_{\eta'}.
$$

The momenta $\vec{\rm p}_x$, etc., are conjugate to the relative
distances $\vec{\rm x}=\vec{\rm r}_1-\vec{\rm r}_2$,
$\vec{\rm y}=\vec{\rm r}_3-\vec{\rm r}_4$, and
$\vec{\rm z}=(\vec{\rm r}_1+\vec{\rm r}_2-\vec{\rm r}_3-\vec{\rm
r}_4)/\sqrt2$. The wave function is parameterized as
$$
\psi\propto\exp[-(\alpha x^2 +\beta y^2+\gamma z^2)/2],
\eqno(12)
$$
and the minimization with respect to $\alpha,\,\beta$ and $\gamma$
shows that both the $cc \bar q \bar q $ and $bb \bar q\bar q$ systems
are bound whatever is the potential, $(C_1)$ or $(C_2)$, provided
meson exchange is incorporated. This is in contradistinction to
previous studies based on conventional models where the flavour-independent
confining potential is supplemented by one gluon exchange.
For example the authors of
Ref.\cite{4} found that the $cc \bar q \bar q$ state is
about $20$MeV above threshold (while the $bb \bar q \bar q $ is bound of
$135$ MeV). A similar situation is also obtained in Ref. \cite{Don}, where
studying the four quarks  states in a diquark model only
the $b b \bar q \bar q $ is found to be bound (by $50$MeV, while $cc
\bar q \bar q$ is $30$ MeV above the threshold).

Quantitatively  in our model we find that using the confining potential
$C_1$ plus meson exchange the double charmed tetraquark is bound by
$185$ MeV and the double bottom one by $226$ MeV. Using the potential
$C_2$ the results are nearly two times larger ($332$  and $497$ MeV
respectively) and also much more different from each other.
The reason is that ($C_2$) contains a Coulomb part which binds more, heavier is
the system, leading thus to a larger separation among levels as well.
This is related to the fact that
the potential ($C_2$) has been fitted to reproduce the $J/\Psi$ and the
$\Upsilon$ meson masses (anyway it also gives overall good results
both for other mesons and baryons) while, by construction \cite{12,13},
the potential ($C_1$) was designed
and fitted to light baryons only.
Altogether, our results shows that the prediction of binding
for the $c c \bar q \bar q$ is substantially independent on the choice
of the confining potential.

Considering this result one could rise the question if in the model
of Glozman  {\sl et al.\/} a
proliferation of multiquark systems appears. We have therefore tried
to investigate $QQqqqq$ and $q^6$ systems as well.

As a general procedure, for a given multiquark system,
one searches for the  spin-isospin wave functions corresponding to
a colour singlet, then selects the most favourable configuration.
The contribution of global spin-flavour-averaged interaction is
reduced to the calculation of the matrix elements of the two body
operator $(\vec{\sigma}_i\!\cdot\!\vec{\sigma}_j)
(\vec{\tau}_i\!\cdot\!\vec{\tau}_j)$; this is accomplished by
using Clebsh--Gordan coefficients of the permutation group
according to Ref.s \cite{19,PS}.

Let us begin with $QQqqqq$. In this case the most favourable
configuration is the one where the light quark subsystem
has $S=1$, $I=0$, which leads to the  spin-flavour-averaged interaction
$$
\langle V \rangle=10 V_{\pi} - 2/3 V_{\eta} - 4/3(g_0/g)^2
V_{\eta '}.
\eqno(13)
$$

In the numerical calculation we have used the variational
Gaussian wave function
$$
\Psi \propto \exp [-(\alpha x^2 + \beta y^2 + \gamma (u^2 + v^2 + w^2)]
\eqno(14)
$$
where appear the Jacobi variables
$\vec{\rm x}=\vec{\rm r}_1-\vec{\rm r}_2$,
$\vec{\rm y}=\vec{\rm R}_q-\vec{\rm R}_Q$,
in terms of $\vec{\rm R_q}=(\vec{\rm r}_1+\vec{\rm r}_2)/2$ and
$\vec{\rm R_Q}=(\vec{\rm r}_3+\vec{\rm r}_4+\vec{\rm r}_5+\vec{\rm r}_6)/4$,
$\vec{\rm u}=(\vec{\rm r}_3+\vec{\rm r}_4-\vec{\rm r}_5-\vec{\rm r}_6)
/\sqrt{2}$,
$\vec{\rm v}=(\vec{\rm r}_3-\vec{\rm r}_4+\vec{\rm r}_5-\vec{\rm r}_6)
/\sqrt{2}$,
$\vec{\rm w}=(\vec{\rm r}_3-\vec{\rm r}_4-\vec{\rm r}_5+\vec{\rm r}_6)
/\sqrt{2}$, where indices $1,2$ refer to the heavy quarks and $3,4,5,6$ to the
light ones.

The result of the numerical calculation is that this potential is largely
insufficient to bind both the $cc q qqq $ ({\sl e.g.} of $500$ MeV with the
potential $C_1$) and  the
$b b qqq q$ systems. Incidentally, at this workshop results about
heavy hexaquarks were presented also by Lichtenberg {\sl et al.}
\cite{Don2},
in their diquark model. Albeit they do not treat directly the case
$cc qqqq$, they find that the system $csqqqq$ is unbound, while the one
containing a beauty quark instead of the charm is bound.

For the sake of completeness we have also made a study of  the $q^6$ system.
The most favourable
configuration is $S=1$, $I=0$, leading to
$$
 \langle V \rangle=
11 V_{\pi} - 5/3 V_{\eta} - 10/3(g_0/g)^2
V_{\eta '}
\eqno(15)
$$
Our result shows that, also in this case,
the system is largely insufficiently bound  (by almost $1.5$GeV with
the potential $C_1$) for being under
the two baryons threshold.

\section{Conclusions}

In conclusion, considering the success of the Glozman {\sl et al.} model
in describing the baryon spectrum, we have searched for
new possible tests of
this model. Unluckily the model does not permit an analysis of mesons
(light-quark mesons at least), which are interpreted as
``quasiparticles'' related to the breaking of
flavour $SU(3)$. Further tests of it would then involve multiquarks
systems.
 We have thus studied four and six-quark systems involving two
heavy quarks, showing that  the Glozman {\sl et al.} model leads to predictions
 for the $c c \bar q \bar q$ which differ from the ones of more
 conventional models.
In fact this system is found to be strongly bound. The search of such a
resonance in
forthcoming experiments will therefore be a good test  for understanding
the dynamics which produces the hadron spectrum.

We have also found that the $b b \bar q \bar q$ state is bound, but this result
is obtained also in other models and the possibility to observe this resonance
is relegated to a more remote future.

Finally we have found that the six quark system with two heavy quarks is
unbound, also this result does not differ from the one of other more
conventional models. However, together with the outcome that also the
$q^6 $ system is unbound, it is a useful indication that in the
framework of the model under
investigation there is no proliferation of multiquark bound states.

\section*{Acknowledgements}
We thank D.B. Lichtenberg for enlighting discussions and the organizers
for the stimulating atmosphere of this workshop.

\vskip 1cm

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Here's the thing about procrastinating on…oh…pretty much everything. Or being stuck, or blocked or whatever. Something is bound to get accomplished at some point. I mean I've been avoiding writing this post for over a week. So why am I writing it right now? Because I sat down to plan the details of my daughter's mermaid birthday party. So I'm doing this to avoid that. I guess my issues about THAT are bigger than my issues about THIS. Which is not to say I have issues about planning a birthday party, at least I didn't think I did. But who knows. Maybe I do. Mermaids can be scary. They kind of seem like clowns with long hair and no legs, except they are under water and they sing and they don't even juggle. Like I said — scary.
Some of you may wonder how I could have an issue about writing about a Sumo Tangerine. (And for those of you who take that completely in stride, may I just raise my glass to you with a hearty "cheers!") It's not like I haven't written about tangerines many times before. My answer is that I don't really know. Sometimes you get stuck. Sometimes, every single March for three years in a row, you get stuck.
So instead of particularly writing about the Sumo Tangerine (you can read a great LA Times article about it here, which includes criminal activity, 10+ years of tracking and some good old-fashioned citrus drama), I give you this pig because that is what is in my heart. I like pigs and I like this tangerine. So there you have it.
Cute. Y'know, if you just look at the photos w/out the exposition it appears as if the tangerine pig is doing that foot stomping dance the rikishi do as they begin a match. He just needs a mawashi around his little belly. Was that intentional?
Good luck with the birthday. I say make it a swim party, watch the Disney movie, but don't include a pinata. I witnessed the dismemberment of a mermaid pinata by preschoolers and found it distressing, no matter how creepy fish-girls are.
to quote my favorite arachnid.
Megan – Ha! I just looked rikishi and I see what you mean. It wasn't intentional – but um..awesome!! Thanks for pointing that out. So fun!
Adam – SOME PIG. I love love love it. Great quote.


So, yeah, I just mopped the kitchen floor. I hate mopping.
Last night, just as I was setting dinner on the table, Edison came down with a stomach bug of epic proportions. It was like that scene in Stand By Me with the pie eating contest. I'm talking everywhere. Not sure he could have hit more surfaces if he had tried. Basically, he ran for the bathroom, and just missed the toilet, and when it splashed off the rim, it hit the rest of the powder room like spin art.
I scoured that room last night, cleaned and disinfected the family room rug, (though I still think we might need to just burn that), and then today I did the kitchen floor with a little more elbow grease than I had the time for last night.
Also last night, I watched the second half of Tess of the D'Urbervilles on PBS's Masterpiece. It was good, but the end was kind of a downer. Plus, you know, it was one of those BBC productions. There are plenty of good looking Brits. You got your Clive Owen, your Jude Law. I don't swing that particular way, but neither Kate Winslet nor Kate Beckinsale is hard on the eyes. So, what then is with the BBC productions? Other than Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice…with a few exceptions in every production, it's a lot of horse-faces. We don't claim to look like Brangelina or anything, but Manfrengensen says it's like watching a propaganda ad against socialized dentistry.
The actress who played Tess was attractive, but then in the end, don't want to ruin it for you, but her horse-faced husband ends up with her sister and I kind of felt sorry for them for a number of reasons, the very least of which was their fates. Not that I am superficial or anything, but you know, if I want to get into a romance, I don't need Fabio, but for me, they need to throw in a little more eye candy. I don't think I am alone here, I mean, that's why Colin Farrell's the leading man and Bob Hoskins isn't. I mean no disrespect to Mr. Hoskins, mind you. He's a fine actor, but I don't want to see him strip down to his tighty whiteys, if you know what I mean.
He's Irish, I know, but you get what I'm saying.
Tess was one of the books we had to read at my Catholic girls high school, along with The Scarlet Letter and A Light In August. The fates of wayward women were big in that literary curriculum.
I have like fifty pages left in Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette. Overall, the book has been excellent. I think I will read Naslund's Ahab's Wife next. Love her writing. Ethereal and accessible. A book I think about all day and cannot wait to find time to get to.


What Did We Make of Angel Di Maria's Manchester United Debut?
Angel Di Maria played his first 70 minutes as a Manchester United player in a goalless draw with Burnley at Turf Moor. So what were the first impressions of Manchester United's record-breaking signing?
Angel Di Maria made way for Anderson in the 70th minute, presumably exiting the match after suffering cramp around the hour mark.
You've heard it everywhere - the Premier League is a fast-paced league and it takes players some time to adapt. Di Maria however was quicker than most despite his first few passes being easily cut out.
It took just three minutes for Di Maria to really take the reins of the game, charging through with a trademark run. On that particular occasion, his pass went out for a goal-kick.
After Burnley cut out his next two passes, he delivered in a troubling ball that was razor close of opening the scoring. From beyond the half way line, he lifted it over to Robin van Persie but the Dutchman was fantastically thwarted.
He began t fit the mould more progressively into the game. Considering his native preferences he thrived in the central role and definitely performed better than Juan Mata.
There's no mystery in Manchester United's lack of flare, but Di Maria patched that up with one delightful play that was just a Mata strike away from goal. He flicked on a header then broke away down the left, but Mata mis-kicked the cross in.
Soon after, his ball to Rooney almost created another chance but was just off.
These were all signs of promise for the Argentinian International. While it was far from perfect, some more training and adaptation to the style and philosophy will make huge strides in unearthing all of what lays beneath that substantial sum of £59m+.
His winging tendencies that he displayed in the game proved that his adaptation will be key. You never know, if he didn't go off in the 70th minute, he really could have untapped a winning goal.
What we also learned from his debut reiterates that he hasn't fully fixed Manchester United, and as I wrote earlier this week, Van Gaal still has some spending to do.
With full match fitness and RVP back to fitness as well, expect that to rise.
TheSportMatrix • We Live For Sport: What Did We Make of Angel Di Maria's Manchester United Debut?
A look at how Di Maria performed against Burnley in his Manchester United debut.


The MAAP Limited Edition Giro Synthe MIPS Helmet combines MAAP's style with all the performance features of Giro's top of the range road helmet. The MIPS brain protection system will keep you safe in case the worst should happen and this lightweight helmet has a race-proven aerodynamic profile housing 26 wind tunnel vents for the highest levels of ventilation. Practical features include a sunglasses port and ponytail compatibility.
In a collaboration with Giro, MAAP have designed the Limited Edition Giro Synthe MIPS Helmet. With stylish looks and weighing a mere 254 grams for a size medium, this helmet will assist you in your best performances, being both aerodynamic and cool enough for the most gruelling climbs.
The MIPS brain protection system is revolutionary in its design and provides the highest levels of safety. A thin, ventilated layer is installed between the shell and the liner and is kept in place by composite anchors with multi-directional flex. This allows a small amount of movement in the case of angled impact so rotational forces are spread out instead of being transferred to the brain.
The webbing straps and Slimline buckle are extremely light and comfortable and, along with the Roc Loc® Air fit system with two-way fit tuning, allow for easy adjustability and a customisable fit. With a ponytail port and a dock for your eyewear, this helmet is suitable for every rider and in all conditions.
26 wind tunnel vents and aero mesh panels ensure you'll stay cool even when pushing your limits, and the aerodynamic profile makes this helmet suitable for all levels of rider.
Aero Mesh Panels with a dedicated port for securely docking sunglasses as you ride.


I was just randomly surfing around YouTube when I came across this video and knew I had to share.
As I looked more I found all of his shorts rather amusing. You can find more stuff by PES at EatPes.com.
Just some AMAZING stuff there…thought I would share! Enjoy!


text:
Q: Swift main loop for updating a view I'm new to Swift and trying to implement a simple test Single-View app: Upon running, it should keep appending text lines in a UITextView automatically.
However, all I get is a blank screen with the following code:
import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    @IBOutlet weak var m_logView: UITextView!

    private let m_log = Log()
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        addLog(msg: "Hello World!")

        while true {
            m_log.requestLog{ [weak self] (data: String) in
                self?.consumeLog(log: data)
            }
        }
    }

    func consumeLog(log: String) {
        addLog(msg: log)
    }

    func addLog(msg: String) {
        m_logView.text += msg + "\n"
    }
}

class Log {
    func requestLog(consume: (_ log: String) -> Void) {
        let log = "Data from wherever"
        consume(log)
    }
}

I suspected that I'm trying to update the UITextView at a wrong place. The above code simply blocks the viewDidLoad() from completing itself and showing the UITextView.
So I found viewDidAppear, but this time it gets stuck there and shows only "Hello World!" in the view.
import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    @IBOutlet weak var m_logView: UITextView!

    private let m_log = Log()
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        addLog(msg: "Hello World!")
    }

    override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        while true {
            m_log.requestLog{ [weak self] (data: String) in
                self?.consumeLog(log: data)
            }
        }
    }

    func consumeLog(log: String) {
        addLog(msg: log)
    }

    func addLog(msg: String) {
        m_logView.text += msg + "\n"
    }
}

class Log {
    func requestLog(consume: (_ log: String) -> Void) {
        let log = "Data from wherever"
        consume(log)
    }
}

Most iOS MVC tutorials I found teach how to implement the user interactions, but stay away from  how to update the view by programmtically changing the model from the backend.
I'm probably looking for a callback/delegate where I can refresh UITextView linked with its data model whenever the data changes, but where is it?

A: The while loop is completely inappropriate because it causes a deadlock.
Use a Timer which works asynchronously
Replace
while true {
    m_log.requestLog{ [weak self] (data: String) in
        self?.consumeLog(log: data)
    }
}

with
Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 0.01, repeats: true) { [weak self] _ in
    m_log.requestLog{ data in
        self?.consumeLog(log: data)
    }
}

And you might update the UI explicitly on the main thread
func addLog(msg: String) {
    DispatchQueue.main.async {
        m_logView.text += msg + "\n"
    }
}

Note:
According to the Swift naming convention name variables lowerCamelCased for example mLogView

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Flamin' Groovies
Burger Boogaloo Announces 2016 Line Up
Oh, East Bay, it's near that time of year again! Burger Records and John Water's Burger Boogaloo has just announced the line up for their upcoming 2016 event!
The party animals at Burger Records have a lot coming up in 2016. They've just announced details for their annual two-day Burger Boogaloo which will happen June 25 & 26 at in Oakland, CA's Mosswood Park. John Waters returns as host, and he's bringing his Cry-Baby star Traci Lords with him. The musical lineup includes Thee Oh Sees, The Intelligence, Shannon & the Clams, The Trashwomen, Mummies, Young Fresh Fellows, Angry Samoans, Flamin' Groovies, The Dwarves, and more. Ticket sare on sale. Full daily lineups are below.
Elsewhere: the 2016 Burger Revolution, a one-night worldwide event of burger-fueled rock n' roll uprising, will happen on March 5. New York shows are still being worked out, but you can see all scheduled shows (and join the Revolution yourself) here. Burger will also be at SXSW and while details or what they've got planned is still TBA, they will be hosting Burger Records Hangover Fest IV at San Antonio's Paper Tiger on Sunday, March 20 with Shannon and the Clams, Night Beats, La Luz, White Lung, Guantanamo Baywatch, All Dogs, Vaadat Charigim and more. Tickets are on sale. You can watch a promotional video and check out the complete announced lineup below.
SATURDAY, JUNE 25TH HOSTED BY JOHN WATERS
MEET & GREET WITH TRACI LORDS
THE TRASHWOMEN
REAL KIDS
THE LYRES
THE INTELLIGENCE
OKMONIKS
ANGRY SAMOANS
AMPLIFIED HEAT
PSYCOTIC PINEAPPLE
YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS
SUNDAY, JUNE 26TH HOSTED BY JOHN WATERS
KING KHAN & THE SHRINES
FLAMIN' GROOVIES W/ ROY LONEY
TERRY & LOUIE (EX-EXPLODING HEARTS)
SETH BOGART
BUCK BILOXI
GIORGIO MURDERER
SODA BOYS
FADEAWAYS
(originally published in Brooklyn Vegan)
Young Gresh Fellows