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Apporiate love interest for Aptom?
By Chernaudi, December 2, 2019 in Guyver
*Chernaudi 242
Chernaudi 242
Proto-Zoalord
I posted something similar to this in the Let's Get Creating section. But since I haven't gotten much in the way or response, I'll try and post that here.
First of all, what would you think her personality would be like? Also, I know that this is for my story, so it's mostly up to me, but would she also be some kind of gifted being?
The concept that I currently have is that this character is named Naomi Ramona Vega. She's inspired by a composite of Tori Vega from Victorious, Lindy Sampson from Eye Candy, Naomi from Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, Harmony from Summer Night, Lola Martinez from Zoey 101 and even some hints of Victoria Justice, who portrayed all of those characters. Even her name refers to some of her characters, though her first and middle name do have meanings (Naomi meaning pleasant, and Ramona meaning defender).
Naomi is, as kinda implied, a pleasant, extremely nice and compassionate person. But don't piss her off, especially be threatening her friends and family--if she feels it's justified, you'll end up dead, or wishing you were. She's also 3/4 vampire, 1/4 human, and is inspired by the vampire hybrids from Twilight.
I mostly wanted to share my concept, as well as ask around for what others think a good love interest for Aptom would be like. Note, I'm basing this on Aptom post-absorbing Hayami.
Gazham 218
Lost Number
I'm not so sure that Aptom would have a love interest, he seems so preoccupied with other things.
She would have to be bad ass and as tough and as him to earn his respect, im not sure a polite girl would interest him. Some what of a kindred spirit would maybe catch his eye.
Edited December 2, 2019 by Gazham
jerrygoodman 139
Team:Guyver 1
My money's still on Valcuria. Of course, I would like to see her kick his @$$ first, but...
Well, my fan fic is after Chronos has been defeated and he and the others are battling rogue mythical creatures, which Naomi is a mythical creature (not a rouge one, though). I've hinted at this development in the What is Stronger Than a Guyver thread. And as I mentioned, this is Aptom post absorbing of Hayami. Aptom has generally become kinder and more caring and compassionate of those he considers his allies, even though he does still seem rough and ready, too.
I'm mostly wondering about my idea and what input opinions that you may have.
Matt Bellamy 313
King of Braves
I want to preface this by saying I am NOT trying to be mean or trying to stop you from creating your fan fiction... but considering the reason you stated that this post exists, I figure I should lay out some things you need to know and things to expect when doing a project like this.
Basically: Considering your fan fiction takes place outside of the standard timeline, you can practically do whatever you want with any of the characters. They could have had time to change or mellow out, as it were.
Of course this can lead to the problems with fandom not critiquing or offering opinions etc... because this means there is little interest in the topic or concept that you are using said characters in. Writing a Fan Fiction that uses official characters is always the harder option if you want other fans of the series to like it. If you take a character too far away from what they are in the main plot, it's really no longer that "character" and is just your own character that maybe walks and talks similar to the original.
So certainly, if you are writing it absolutely for yourself, great. Go right ahead and enjoy. But hoping/expecting people to comment on a subject that they aren't interested in, despite some of it being from their particular fandom isn't always a guarantee... Especially when the other fandoms involved are either completely different from this one. This is why my favorite Guyver crossover is the really Old Bubblegum Crisis crossover; Heart of the Beast (and it's unfinished sequel, Soul of the Beast. BGC and Guyver have similar DNA and fit together pretty easily (both antagonists are evil corporations, just one uses biological creatures and the other mechanical. Main protagonists are a small group in powered suits etc...).
This is something we've had to deal with a lot in our own stories... If you can't keep the essence of the characters, you might as well just create new ones for you to use. This is a big reason why the Warrior Guyver fan fiction original characters are the main characters of our stories. Yes, it is set in a modified Guyver universe, and we do use the originals in ours, but we try and keep them grounded in the reality of the original story as much as possible ( like Agito secretly creating his own Warrior Gigantic... We did that back in 2000... Over 10 years before he secretly made his own Gigantic in the manga. Still a jerk!)
So, if you go ahead and make your story ( and you should. the more writing you do, the better you get at it), try not to be disappointed when people don't seem to want to read it. It's clearly not the kind of story they like, or they just don't like the crossover concepts. We have people that loath our stories, and that is perfectly fine. It doesn't stop us from working on them. So write your story the way you want. Post it in as many places where the fandoms you crossover with might like it. If you get hits and fans, fantastic. If not, it will be an experience to help you improve, or you can use your ideas and adapt it to something more original. Remember, even 50 Shades of Grey started as a Twilight fan fic.
It could be worse I guess. It could be a straight Guyver/Victorious crossover, which IMO makes less sense than developing a character as a love interest of a Guyver character that's a composite of some of my favorite characters portrayed by my favorite actress. Guyver is a fairly serious shonen manga, while Victorious is/was a teen/kids/family sitcom on Nickelodeon. Guyver has no place on Nickelodeon, even in it's tamest states.
Granted, even with the Guyver cool down, how would a 99% absolute sweetheart who's a closet badass with supernatural abilities fit in with the other Guyver characters, considering that Naomi is also influenced by Twilight lore? Maybe compare her to Shizu on steroids?
Masamune 18
ウォータータイガー / Water Tiger
Aptom got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one...
First, minor point. I'm changing Naomi's name again, this time to Ashley Bonner. I can explain if someone wants to ask.
Bigger point, I do think that Aptom would be interested in eventually finding a mate, possibly one with some kind of supernatural ability. And Guyver isn't exactly awash with women who can kick some ass. I'm not doing this for feminist reasons, but it's more relatable to Twilight with an (ultimately) strong female lead. Guyver does have several female characters, but only two that can hold their own against Chronos' creatures and one of which is basically a villain.
Plus, I think that Aptom would be happy with a mate, especially one that can take care of herself and show him a thing or two (take that as you please )
Also having had some time to think about this, granted, this isn't 100% canon to Guyver as we know it today, but would Aptom be more likely to fall in love with a chick like Ashley, or would something happen between say Shizu or Agito?
I think Shizu and Agito would be more likely with the tone of the manga thus far. But it's your fanfiction, I wouldn't get too caught up on what others think, it's more about fulfilling your desire to write/create
Just got done watching N&ENKL, and I think I'm changing her first name back to Naomi. Just feel a connection to Naomi from No Kiss List.
Scratch that, I'm thinking of sticking with Ashley as it sounds more modern and in line with a girl born in the 1990s. I swear that I'm on crack, and going back and forth between naming her in tribute to Victoria Justice characters and an original name.
Polyonymous 239
Nostalgic Daydreamer
Team:Guyot
I read somewhere that Lost Numbers can't even breed. If that's true than Aptom is a eunuch / neutered on a cellular level and him wanting a lover is out of the question. Seeing as he can copy himself and reproduce that way. I don't really see him being able to procreate with a woman.
Edited December 27, 2019 by Polyonymous
GuyverForever 0
スタークラム / Star Crumb
Questions, you may have already stated this. But are you asking for a love interest for Aptom inside the Guyver Universe? Or someone from other Mangas/Anime that would be a good fit for him?
1 hour ago, Polyonymous said:
I took it as the form of the zoanoid can't be reproduced, not that a lost number is sterile. Anyone else chime in on this one?
I'm asking about an original character that I've come up with (basic outline for her is in the first post), and if she'd fit in. However, I'm having a big time issue with naming her now.
EDIT: Screw it, I'm sticking with her original name. I put too much thought into it and I can't come up with anything better. So Naomi Ramona Vega it is. Hey, if Yoshiki Takaya can name his characters in reference to other characters or people, why can't I? Granted, Victoria Justice fans will be the first to get it, though.
Full post I made on my personal blog about my fan fic character, now named Ashley Naomi Bonner (and yes, that name will stick!):
https://seansvariousstuffblog.blogspot.com/2020/01/hi-say-hi-to-my-little-friend-fan-fic.html
Wondering if anyone read my link or if anyone's got an opinion or thoughts.
No real opinion on the character, yet, as i haven't read any of the content. We will get a better understanding of her and how she fits in as you release any fanfic, with context, we will see how you manage to meld the 2 universes.
Is there a good place to post stuff like this? I have one chapter done (that I'll be editing) and a second nearing completion.
There's the fan fiction section on the forum menu.


"Blockage of Src by specific siRNA as a novel therapeutic strategy to p" by Li-Zhen Zheng, Hui-Juan Cao et al.
© 2015 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. © 2015 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.Vascular hyperpermeability and highly upregulated bone resorption in the destructive repair progress of steroid-associated osteonecrosis (SAON) are associated with a high expression of VEGF and high Src activity (Src is encoded by the cellular sarcoma [c-src] gene). This study was designed to prove our hypothesis that blocking the VEGF-Src signaling pathway by specific Src siRNA is able to prevent destructive repair in a SAON rabbit model. Destructive repair in SAON was induced in rabbits. At 2, 4, and 6 weeks after SAON induction, VEGF, anti-VEGF, Src siRNA, Src siRNA+VEGF, control siRNA, and saline were introduced via intramedullary injection into proximal femora for each group, respectively. Vascularization and permeability were quantified by dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI. At week 6 after SAON induction, proximal femurs were dissected for micro-computed tomography (μCT)-based trabecular architecture with finite element analysis (FEA), μCT-based angiography, and histological analysis. Histological evaluation revealed that VEGF enhanced destructive repair, whereas anti-VEGF prevented destructive repair and Src siRNA and Src siRNA+VEGF prevented destructive repair and enhanced reparative osteogenesis. Findings of angiography and histomorphometry were consistent with those determined by DCE MRI. Src siRNA inhibited VEGF-mediated vascular hyperpermeability but preserved VEGF-induced neovascularization. Bone resorption was enhanced in the VEGF group and inhibited in the anti-VEGF, Src siRNA, Src siRNA+VEGF groups as determined by both 3D μCT and 2D histomorphometry. FEA showed higher estimated failure load in the Src siRNA and Src siRNA+VEGF groups when compared to the vehicle control group. Blockage of VEGF-Src signaling pathway by specific Src siRNA was able to prevent steroid-associated destructive repair while improving reconstructive repair in SAON, which might become a novel therapeutic strategy.


This blog is about photography. It will include articles discussing photos, techniques in photography, and how to use a camera (and computer) to make photographs. Everybody is a photographer. Most choose to use a camera or phone to 'take' photos. But here we are interested in the serious photographer who with skill and creative vision 'makes' a photograph, and where the camera is a tool… in the same way the paint brush is to a painter, an oven is to a chef, and a piano is to a pianist. My interest is to help you become a better photographer. I'll show what I do and how, which may be thought of as idiosyncratic! But at the end of the day a photographer is always 'judged' by their photos, no matter who they are and the processes they use.


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Posted in | News | Nanomaterials | Nanooptics and Nanophotonics
New Hollow Metal Superlattices Created for Optical Applications
Oct 27 2022Reviewed by Mila Perera
According to Northwestern University researchers, the method for creating unique hollow metal nanoparticle-based open-framework superlattices has significantly improved.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com/Gorodenkoff
The team discovered that they could create open-channel superlattices with pores ranging from 10 to 1000 nm in size, sizes that had previously been impossible to reach, by using small hollow particles known as metallic nanoframes and altering them with suitable DNA sequences.
Researchers will be able to employ these colloidal crystals for molecular absorption and storage, separations, chemical sensing, catalysis, and numerous optical applications due to their newly discovered control over porosity.
The new study highlights the generalizability of new design principles to produce novel materials by identifying 12 distinct porous nanoparticle superlattices with control over symmetry, geometry, and pore connectivity.
Nature published the study on October 26th, 2022.
The new results will have broad-ranging effects for nanotechnology and beyond, according to Chad A. Mirkin, the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern and the head of the International Institute for Nanotechnology.
We had to rethink what we knew about DNA bonding with colloidal particles. With these new types of hollow nanocrystals, the existing rules for crystal engineering were not adequate.
Chad A. Mirkin, George B. Rathmann Professor, Chemistry, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University
What Influences Long-Wavelength Moiré Superlattice Morphology?
10nm-Axial Diameter Gold Nanorods Kit - Features and Applications
"Nanoparticle assembly driven by 'edge-bonding' allows us to access a breadth of crystalline structures that we cannot access through conventional 'face-bonding,' the traditional way we think of structure formation in this field. These new structures lead to new opportunities both from scientific and technological standpoints," Mirkin added.
In addition to being a professor of chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering, and materials science and engineering at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering, Mirkin, a pioneer in nanochemistry, is also a professor of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine.
For more than 20 years, Mirkin's team has used the programmability of DNA to create crystals with unexpected and beneficial features, expanding the idea to include hollow particles as a significant step toward a more comprehensive strategy for comprehending and managing colloidal crystal formation.
Colloidal crystals are used in nature to regulate the colors of many creatures, such as the variable color of a chameleon's skin and butterfly wings. Mirkin's laboratory-produced structures will challenge scientists and engineers to create new devices, particularly the porous ones that allow molecules, materials, and even light to pass through them.
Another family of synthetic porous materials called zeolites is used in several industrial chemical processes, according to Vinayak Dravid, the Abraham Harris Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at McCormick and one of the study's authors.
There are many limitations to zeolites because these are made by physical rules that limit options. But when DNA is used as a bond, it allows for a greater diversity of structures and much larger variety of pore sizes, and thus a diverse range of properties.
Vinayak Dravid, Study Author and Abraham Harris Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University
A variety of applications are made possible by the ability to regulate pore size and connections between pores. For instance, the authors demonstrate an intriguing optical property of porous superlattices known as a negative refractive index that is not present in nature and is only possible with artificial materials.
In this work, we discovered how open-channel superlattices can be new types of optical metamaterials that allow for a negative index of refraction. Such metamaterials enable exciting applications such as cloaking and superlensing, the imaging of super small objects with microscopy.
Koray Aydin, Study Author and Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University
The scientists continue to work together to develop the project.
Mirkin added, "We need to apply these new design rules to nanoporous metallic structures made of others metals, like aluminum, and we need to scale the process. These practical considerations are very important in the context of high-performance optical devices. Such an advance could be truly transformative."
The study was supported by the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (award number DE-SC0000989), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (award numbers FA9550-17-1-0348 and FA9550-16-1-0150).
Journal Reference
Li, Y., et al. (2022) Open-channel metal particle superlattices. Nature. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05291-y
Source: https://www.northwestern.edu/
Mining Industry News
Nanoparticles & Colloids

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Site Name: Rossiter Pump House
Location: Helena (Helena Valley W Central), MT
Helena (Helena Valley W Central) MT, US: 46.6588, -112.0131
Jan. 16, 2022, 11 p.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A -1.4 μg/m3 (0) 0.0
Jan. 16, 2022, 2 p.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A -3.7 μg/m3 (0) 0.0
Jan. 16, 2022, noon N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A -1.2 μg/m3 (0) 0.0
Jan. 10, 2022, 7 a.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 37.0 μg/m3 (105) 105.0


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Home > Colorado Private Schools
Top Colorado Schools By Membership Association
For the 2018-19 school year, there are 52 top school membership associations in Colorado, serving 344 private schools (63% of all schools) and 58,429 students.
The most popular school membership associations are National Association for the Education of Young Children (18% of schools), Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) (14% of schools) and Other school association(s) (13% of schools).
St Mary's Academy Photo - Home of the Wildcats! Founded in 1864.
St. Mary's Academy Photo - The St. Mary's Academy Pre-Kindergarten program is based in a specially designed co-ed PK classroom with a dedicated outdoor space. We offer authentic learning opportunities with highly acclaimed teachers who focus on the social-emotional development of students and teach using developmentally appropriate and research-based practices.
Ave Maria Catholic School Photo - Ave Maria Campus including field, school and gym
International School of Denver Photo - At ISDenver, your children will transform from students to global citizens. We are a multicultural, multilingual school, welcoming children ages 3 - 8th grade to our inclusive, globally minded community.
Humanex Academy Photo - Students on an Enrichment Program Trip
Fountain Valley School Of Colorado Photo - Fountain Valley School sits on 1,100 acres of prairie at the foot of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Havern School Photo - A group of outstanding second graders at Havern School
The Logan School for Creative Learning Photo
Liberty Classical Academy (formerly The Garden School) Photo - Liberty Classical Academy is a K-12 school in New Castle, Colorado that strives to nurture students with the love of God, the humility of Christ and the values of faith, family, and community.
The Goddard School Photo
Holy Love Preschool & Kindergarten Photo - We Love to Paint
Advantage Learning Center Photo - Toddler Room
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The Goddard School Photo - Please stop by and donate your new or gently used books to our Denver Market Book Drive. All books will be donated to Reach Out and Read Colorado.
Bixby School Photo
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Eagle Rock School Photo - www.eaglerockschool.org
Top Colorado Private Schools by Membership Association (2018-19)
# Schools
# Students
% Minority
Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) or (School of Tomorrow)
74.65% Minority
Accreditation International
26 Schools
American Association of Christian Schools (AACS)
American Montessori Society (AMS)
Association for Experiential Education (AEE)
Association Montessori International (AMI)
9.09% Minority
Association Montessori Internationale (AMI)
Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI)
12,204 Students
Association of Christian Teachers and Schools (ACTS)
Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS)
Association of Colorado Independent Schools (ACIS)
Association of Waldorf Schools of North America
Christian Schools International (CSI)
European Council for International Schools
Evangelical Lutheran Education Association (ELEA)
General Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (GCSDAC)
Institute for Independent Education
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International Montessori Council (IMC)
Islamic School League of America (ISLA)
Jesuit Secondary Education Association (JSEA)
Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools
Montessori Educational Programs International (MEPI)
National Association for the Education of Young Children
National Association for the Gifted
National Association of College Admissions Counselors
National Association of Episcopal Schools (NAES)
- Minority
National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)
National Association of Laboratory Schools
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National Association of Private Special Education Centers
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State or regional independent school association
The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS)
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Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America
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Introduction to Serverless Functions Wrapping Up
Learning Paths:
Check out a free preview of the full Introduction to Serverless Functions course:
The "Wrapping Up" Lesson is part of the full, Introduction to Serverless Functions course featured in this preview video. Here's what you'd learn in this lesson:
Jason wraps up the course, shares resources to take learning about serverless function further, and explains that for the majority of the work done on the web, there is a possibility to refactor or greenfield code using serverless functions.
Transcript from the "Wrapping Up" Lesson
>> The sky is really the limit. If you start thinking about the work that you're doing on servers now with what you're doing with your API. And you can even do things like if you wanna run an express server, there's an express lambda server, where you can set up an express server as a server less function.
[00:00:18] So if you have a node app that you wanna migrate over, an easy path could be to use your Express app as a lambda. You can do the same thing with GraphQL like GraphQL serverless. You can run a GraphQL endpoint on there, I think it was actually called lambda.
[00:00:42] Yeah, so you can deploy Apollo server Lambda, if you wanna run a GraphQL endpoint off of a serverless function. There are a whole bunch of things that you can do, and the limits start to be more around shifting your thinking to serverless than around the practicality of it, it's definitely gonna work, or almost definitely gonna work.
[00:01:04] As a developer, I think I have to always preface everything with well, it depends, there's a chance this isn't gonna work. But for the majority of use cases, for the majority of things that we're doing on the web, for the majority of things that we're doing with servers and processing data, there's probably a path forward with serverless that would give you some opportunities to do some really exciting stuff.
[00:01:26] And in most cases, you'd be able to bring a lot of what you're already doing to that world. You just get to eliminate a lot of that server management. You get to eliminate the boilerplate, the DevOps, the routing and the kind of headache of configuration of getting all of these things set up and tuned in scaling.
[00:01:43] You get to skip past that part and go straight to the fun part, which is writing the logic and making your apps do cool things. Because you're trusting a huge cloud provider to manage all of that scaling and DevOps stuff. That's what they're good at, they're the best in the world.
[00:01:57] They hire people and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to make this stuff work. So we can trust them to keep that stuff running. And we can focus on the parts that make our apps and our businesses function, the actual business logic. And that's why I think that's what makes serverless such an exciting technology for me.
[00:02:16] And why I think it's such a powerful thing that we can do and use to really power up the things that we build and to unlock some pretty exciting possibilities without having to scale up to a full team or multiple teams to build this stuff. You as a solo developer can use this technology to build so much, to accomplish virtually unlimited things, right?
[00:02:40] Because you're not having to manage so many things. You're just writing some JavaScript. So I think that's what got me excited about it. And that's why it's what I kind of reach for when I start building any new app. I'm looking at, use that jam stack approach on the front end, try to limit the front end to be just some static files.
[00:03:05] And for the API side, I wanna use serverless functions for as long as I can. There are so many good cloud based options for custom data. We use Hasura today, the examples that I showed for stripe use fauna. Strapping is another good option. Sanity.io is another good option, these cloud hosted kind of data or content management solutions where they're really flexible.
[00:03:28] You can do whatever you want with them. And then there are all these specialized software as a service platform, Stripe is a great example. They do one thing and they do it extremely well. And they do it through an API service. So we just use a serverless function to talk to Stripe's API.
[00:03:44] We get amazing apps out of that. I think I've talked a lot about this. I'm very excited about it. I don't know if you can tell. And I'm really, really excited to see what you can build with it. So if anybody has questions, please hit me with them.
[00:04:00] If you don't have questions, please send me your ideas. I wanna know what you're gonna build. Send me the apps that you build with this stuff. Because I wanna see it. I wanna see what you're coming up with.


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Bacterial biofilm cellulose found to differ from plant cellulose
Escherichia coli. Credit: Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH
A team of researchers with members from the U.S., Germany and Sweden has discovered that the cellulose found in bacterial biofilms differs from the cellulose in plants. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how they found the difference and what their findings might mean for developing new ways to combat bacterial infections. Michael Galperin with NIH in the U.S. and Daria Shalaeva with Moscow State University offer a Perspective piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue.
One of the reasons that bacterial infections can be difficult to treat is their tendency to form biofilms resistant to penetration, making it difficult for antibiotic agents to reach and kill them. Such biofilms, Galperin and Shalaeva note, can cause a bacterial infection to shift from an acute infection to a chronic infection. Over the years, scientists have studied bacterial biofilms hoping to find a weakness that might be exploited to make them less protective of the bacteria hiding within them. Unfortunately, up until now, little progress has been made in this area. In this new effort, however, it appears the researchers have found something in the makeup of the biofilms that might make it possible to weaken them.
To learn more about the makeup of biofilms created by Escherichia coli, the team took a closer look at some samples using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. They discovered that the cellulose that forms the backbone of the biofilms differed from the cellulose found in plants—it had a phosphoethanolamine sidechain that does not occur in plants. That sidechain allowed for the creation of a form of cellulose that was denser than is seen in plants, making it more resistant to shear forces. The researchers also found the gene responsible for it—bcsG. And when they turned that gene off in test bacteria, they found the films produced were less robust. This suggests, of course, that developing a method to turn off the gene in bacteria involved in an infection could weaken the biofilm, allowing antibiotic agents to penetrate and kill them.
More information: Wiriya Thongsomboon et al. Phosphoethanolamine cellulose: A naturally produced chemically modified cellulose, Science (2018). DOI: 10.1126/science.aao4096
Cellulose is a major contributor to the chemical and mechanical properties of plants and assumes structural roles in bacterial communities termed biofilms. We find that Escherichia coli produces chemically modified cellulose that is required for extracellular matrix assembly and biofilm architecture. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the intact and insoluble material elucidates the zwitterionic phosphoethanolamine modification that had evaded detection by conventional methods. Installation of the phosphoethanolamine group requires BcsG, a proposed phosphoethanolamine transferase, with biofilm-promoting cyclic diguanylate monophosphate input through a BcsE-BcsF-BcsG transmembrane signaling pathway. The bcsEFG operon is present in many bacteria, including Salmonella species, that also produce the modified cellulose. The discovery of phosphoethanolamine cellulose and the genetic and molecular basis for its production offers opportunities to modulate its production in bacteria and inspires efforts to biosynthetically engineer alternatively modified cellulosic materials.
Journal information: Science
Citation: Bacterial biofilm cellulose found to differ from plant cellulose (2018, January 19) retrieved 26 January 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2018-01-bacterial-biofilm-cellulose-differ.html
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Donna M. Perry Sun Journal
Donna M. Perry is a general assignment reporter who has lived in Livermore Falls for 30 years and has worked for the Sun Journal for 20 years. Before that she was a correspondent for the Livermore Falls Advertiser for five years. She covers Franklin County courts, police and spot news. She also covers police and spot news in northern Androscoggin County and town governments of Jay and Livermore Falls. In her spare time, she spends time with her family, including three grandchildren, and relaxes by reading books.
Livermore Falls voters approve spending proposals
Selectmen in their capacity as sewer trustees increased the sewer rate by 15%.
Franklin County approves $15,000 from TIF to buy property in Madrid Township
Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust will have two vacant buildings demolished to make way for the Madrid Gateway turnout on Route 4.
PHOTO: Toddler gets his balance in Farmington
Industry boy makes his way around the sand under playground equipment.
HollandStrong Summer Fest offers fun for all
All the money raised will go toward improving the RSU 73 athletic fields and first phase of replacing district's tennis courts.
Livermore Falls voters to consider amended budget articles
Selectmen will also hold a hearing to discuss a burned house on Main Street.
Fire at vacant house in Wilton under investigation
Thirty firefighters from several towns responded early Friday to the fire at 429 U.S. Route 2 West.
Crash Road Band's final performance a benefit Saturday in Jay
A supper, auction and dance will assist Kelly Dube, who grew up in the Livermore area and is living in Sabattus with family, as she battles leukemia.
Photo: Catching up in Farmington
Two women from Oquossoc and Winthrop meet once or twice a year to catch up in Farmington.
Franklin County register of probate to celebrate two milestones Friday
Joyce Morton of Farmington took a summer job working at the Registry of Deeds, left for a short time, before working in Probate Court.
New Jersey couple injured when RV rolls onto side in northern Franklin County
Speed appears to be a factor in the crash, according to deputy.


An adaption of the optimal foraging theory suggests that herbivores deplete, depart, and finally return to foraging patches leaving time for regrowth [van Moorter et al., Oikos 118:641–652, 2009]. Inter-patch movement and memory of patches then produce a periodic pattern of use that may define the bounds of a home range. The objective of this work was to evaluate the underlying movements within home ranges of elk (Cervus elaphus) according to the predictions of this theory. Using a spatial temporal permutation scan statistic to identify foraging patches from GPS relocations of cow elk, we evaluated return patterns to foraging patches during the 2012 growing season. Subsequently, we used negative binomial regression to assess environmental characteristics that affect the frequency of returns, and thereby characterize the most successful patches.
We found that elk return to known patches regularly over a season, on average after 15.4 (±5.4 SD) days. Patches in less-rugged terrain, farther from roads and with high productivity were returned to most often when controlling for the time each patch was known to each elk.
Instead of diffusion processes often used to describe animal movement, our research demonstrates that elk make directed return movements to valuable foraging sites and, as support for Van Moorter et al.'s [Oikos 118:641–652, 2009] model, we submit that these movements could be an integral part of home-range development in wild ungulates.
Home-range development and range-use dynamics are key components of foraging behaviour with implications for animal movement, habitat selection, and fitness [1,2]. The home range often is defined to be the area known by the animal and remembered or maintained because of its value, presumably in resources required by the animal for survival and reproduction [1,3,4]. However, simulations of memory processes alone have failed to yield stable home ranges [5,6] and the biological mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of home ranges in non-territorial animals are still missing. There is a growing body of literature on mechanistic home range models hypothesizing the underlying rules for movement or landscape structure that may define or result in the development of stable home ranges [5,7-10].
Compared to traditional techniques that describe home ranges, mechanistic models are more comprehensive attempts to unveil the processes that result in home-range behaviour. Because these models are based not only on the movements of animals but upon the underlying rules for movement, they have the ability to predict an individual's spatial use, not only describe it [9,11]. As such these models, when validated, are especially powerful tools for predicting responses to changes in habitat [9,12] either by human land-use change, or natural perturbations to the environment. Because of their potential predictive powers, numerous mechanistic home range models have been developed recently. Unfortunately, these works focus primarily on the development of defended ranges or territories of central place foragers [3,13,14], not the ranges of more diffuse foragers (e.g. most cervids) without a central place or a discrete and defended territory.
In an attempt to address this gap, a model by Van Moorter et al.  simulates home-range development combining the rules of optimal foraging theory and a two-part memory system. Foragers move between dynamically valued patches distributed across the landscape, removing food from a patch until depletion stimulates departure according to the marginal value theorem . Their movement is biased by the utility of surrounding patches and both short-term memory and long-term memory that prevent backtracking over depleted patches while maintaining knowledge of successful patches and allowing time for forage regrowth prior to return.
Seidel and Boyce [Seidel DP, Boyce MS: Varied tastes: home range implications of foraging patch selection, forthcoming] evaluated four formative assumptions of Van Moorter et al.'s model in two populations of elk in SW Alberta. Their work formed the first empirical support for this model but they did not investigate the predicted movement patterns or returns to foraging sites. Although directed movements between areas of resource abundance where animals linger to forage have been demonstrated [16-18], few studies have shown returns or recursive movement patterns in ungulate populations and none exhibit returns directly to identified foraging patches [19,20]. As such, our objective was to evaluate movement within home ranges according to predictions of a proposed mechanistic home range model for foragers.
We used a flexible space-time permutation scan statistic (STPSS) to identify and approximate the scale of discrete elk foraging patches in space and time. We first sought to establish whether and how frequently elk return to these patches. Secondly, our goal was to identify the characteristics of a patch that increased the likelihood of reuse. Connecting patch-return likelihood to attributes of these patches and surrounding landscape lays the groundwork for understanding why and how animals use various areas within their home range and allows us to evaluate the expectation that those patches that are revisited should be of higher quality than other available patches.
Using the STPSS procedure, 815 clusters were identified over the summer season with a total of 2,112 returns overall. Clusters with radii less than 15 m in length were removed, 47(5.8%) qualifying clusters, leaving 768 clusters for analysis. The average number of clusters identified in total each week was 54.86(±8.24 SD) clusters (minimum: 42, maximum: 63).
An average of 109.7(±8.36 SD) clusters per individual was identified over the 3-month season. The average radius of analysed clusters was 92.4 m (±39.1 SD) and included an average of 2.63(±1.21 SD) fixes in each cluster. SatScan output also provides number of observed fixes within the cluster. This value is often larger (but never smaller) than the number of fixes included in the cluster and represents the total number of fixes within the spatial boundaries of the cluster over the entire analysed temporal period, e.g. 7 days. The average number of observed fixes in each cluster was 2.77(±1.47 SD) indicating that animals frequently revisited the cluster within the same week but not within the chosen temporal window.
Our calculations suggested that across all animals, clusters were returned to an average of 2.75 (±2.37 SD) times over the 3-month season (including single fix returns). Animals returned to each cluster after an average of 15.38 days (±5.39 SD) and the average rate of return (#returns/timeknown) was 0.034 (±.027 SD) returns per day (or 3.34 returns per patch over the study period). Some clusters (17.1%) did not experience a return foraging event. See Table 1 for additional summary statistics on returns.
Across 7 cow elk, an average of 109.7 clusters per animal was detected in GPS relocations from summer 2012. An average of 17% of these clusters, presumed foraging patches, were unreturned to, however the percentage of patches unreturned to drops 2.6-8.7% when including single fix returns over the season which were not immediately considered foraging returns. The average number of returns per cluster, as well as maximum number of returns recorded, are presented for each animal and then averaged for the population. The "average return rate" is the average number of days between return events, not including singles and not accounting for differences in time known to the individual.
A high frequency of zeroes is often best explained by length of time that the patch was known to the elk– especially evident in Livingstone animals. For example, because E144 moved to a new area of her home range just 3 weeks before the end of the sampling period, her late-season clusters had a much shorter period of time for revisitation and account for 69.6% of her non-returned patches over only 21% of the study period. This phenomenon is explored using a Kaplan-Meier curve demonstrating that until a patch is known for about 20 days it has nearly a hundred percent chance of not being returned to but after 100 days a return is a near certainty (Figure 1).
Kaplan-Meier curve examining the influence of TMKnown on cluster visits. TmKnown, or the number of days between an individual's first visit to a patch and the end of the study period, has a noteworthy effect on the likelihood that an identified patch will be revisited. Revisited patches have, on average, been known for 85 days, suggesting that many clusters not returned to were potentially not known long enough to be returned to within the sampled season.
Returns were overdispersed (mean = 2.75, variance = 5.63) and a negative binomial distribution examined for better fit. As expected, a fixed negative binomial outperformed a fixed Poisson model by 14 AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) units and reduced the Pearson χ2 dispersion coefficient from 1.34 to 1.10. When mixed-effects models were estimated with Poisson and negative binomial families, fit was improved compared to fixed models. Unexpectedly, the mixed-effects models differed only by 0.14 AIC units (mixed Poisson 2857.92, mixed NB 2857.78) but again the Pearson χ2 coefficient indicated less over dispersion with the negative binomial (1.21 to 1.13 respectively).
To explain variation in the pattern of returns, we fit biologically plausible alternative models and identified the model with the smallest AIC (see Table 2). The best fit model by AIC indicates that time known, ruggedness, distance to road and productivity at the site most significantly influenced the likelihood of return across all patches. The AIC-selected model explained approximately 13% of the deviance when compared with the null model. The dispersion parameter for the top reported model was 34.716 (25.61 SE). The width of this standard error and the magnitude of the corrective parameter were large but the parameter estimates were stable across mixed Poisson and Negative Binomial approaches and the Pearson Chi Squared dispersion parameter, 1.13, indicates that the remaining 13% overcorrelation is within suitable bounds for use of the negative binomial distribution .
*All models with interaction effects included main effect terms of interacting covariates.
The candidate model set contained 13 models comparing the influence of vegetation, physiogeographic and disturbance variables. The top model included ruggedness, TmKnown, distance to road, and productivity, receiving 77% of support in the data.
Higher relative productivity of a patch (NDVI) increased the likelihood of return (Table 3). Elk preferred to return to patches farther from roads and the interaction parameter between herd and distance to road was included in the top model indicating the road effect on returns was magnified in the Waterton herd. Additionally, our model shows that Waterton animals return less often than Livingston animals overall. The censorship parameter, TmKnown, proved to have the largest effect size, positively impacting return likelihood almost twice as much as any other variable. The longer that a patch is known by, i.e. available to, an animal the more likely it will receive a return visit. Examination of this variable using a Kaplan-Meier survival curve further emphasizes its importance in the revisitation of patches. According to our data, patches known to an elk for less than 60 days have roughly only a 25% chance of being revisited; this chance doubles once patches have been known to the elk for at least 100 days (Figure 1).
Our results confirm that individual elk make repeated foraging visits to patches within a growing season. Furthermore, we demonstrate that distance from roads, as well as landscape ruggedness, and green herbaceous productivity contribute to increased returns at foraging patches indicating that patch value influenced the likelihood of return to a patch, just as proposed by Van Moorter et al.'s  home-range model.
Return behaviours have been shown before in wild ungulates, but to our knowledge, this is the first empirical demonstration of recursive movements specifically to identified foraging sites. Wolf et al.  and Bar-David et al.  both identified recursion events to previously used or "known" locations related to resources, or foraging behaviours, though neither estimated returns directly to identified foraging areas. By analysing return patterns to a specific location and use, we uniquely explored how foraging selection might drive movement patterns.
Differences across return distributions of individuals and across herds were noted (Figure 2A&B), with Waterton animals returning less often overall. These distributions are likely influenced by subtle range shifts over the season and by individual movement behaviours. Larger home ranges lead to fewer returns and longer time between returns at individual patches [van Moorter B: unpublished manuscript]. This is logical: when there is more space to cover and more patches to visit, the time between returns will be longer leading to fewer returns over a single season. Movement between (and thus return rates to) patches could be influenced by other environmental features such as ruggedness of terrain or overall extent of home range although we did not explore these explicitly in this analysis. We observed that Waterton cows expanded their home ranges over the course of the season, but maintained returns to the entire area, even as it expanded late in the summer down into the aspen forests and wetlands on the east shore of lower Waterton lakes where bull elk typically concentrated their summer movements. Maintenance of larger home ranges may explain a portion of the reduced return likelihood of Waterton patches.
Distribution of return frequency to clusters by (A) Individual and (B) Herd across the summer season. Histograms depicting frequency of returns to identified foraging patches are presented for each individual cow and each herd cumulatively. These histograms demonstrate the wide variation present across individual and herd return frequencies, potentially influenced both by differences in habitat and behaviour across the season.
Our top model demonstrates that at the population level, TmKnown, ruggedness, productivity, distance to road, and interactions between distance to road and herd and TmKnown and productivity were the most influential environmental covariates determining return counts at patches across the season. The importance of productivity in return models supports the underlying thesis of Van Moorter et al.'s  model which values patches based on replenishment of resources. As expected our results demonstrate that productive patches are returned to more often than less productive patches. An attraction to productive forage is consistent with previous work demonstrating that elk migration often follows the start of spring photosynthetic activity, or greenup; as new growth extends into higher elevations over summer so do elk . Forage research on elk also shows attraction to intermediate levels of biomass, often more digestible and productive than tall late-season stands, and forage abundance has been shown to encourage site fidelity in nonmigratory elk populations on short time intervals, supporting our results that productivity may strongly influence returns [23-25].
Distance to nearest road and its interaction with the Herd variable appeared in the top model, with Waterton animals being more sensitive to road proximity. Animals in national parks often seem undisturbed by roads, habituated to traffic and people, and attracted by the roadside vegetation and protection from predators that roads and human settlements offer , but in other populations, especially in those facing hunting pressure, roads and high traffic have been shown to alter movement near roads [27,28]. From the perspective of foraging, human disturbance has been shown to increase vigilance, reducing time spent foraging, foraging efficiency, and intake [29-31] and, recently, to deter foraging patch selection in elk [Seidel DP, Boyce MS: Varied tastes: home range implications of foraging patch selection, forthcoming]. Our analysis demonstrates that disturbance also might affect whether or not that animal returns to patches over time.
Inclusion of the TmKnown variable markedly improved the fit of our model to the data and emphasizes the temporal dynamics at play driving returns. TmKnown was the strongest indicator of return likelihood, with an effect size nearly twice that of any other predictor; this is a logical result. Patches visited earlier in the season have a longer period of time during which they can returned. The Kaplan-Meier estimation demonstrates clearly that patches must be known for roughly 20 days before attracting a return (Figure 1). Given the time needed for regrowth, revisits before 20 days would likely be disadvantageous giving further support to the Van Moorter et al. model . Additionally this figure demonstrates that nearly all patches known for at least 115 days were revisited and displays a sharp uptake in revisits once a patch was known for 90 days or more. Exhibition of return behaviour overall indicates that animals are not avoiding previous locations and that previous use may increase subsequent use, just as demonstrated by Wolf et al. . If this coefficient had been diminished or even negative, we would expect that animals were likely moving into novel environments, not cycling back over the season either due to range drift or possibly resource depletion or predator avoidance. In future research, it would be useful to explicitly evaluate how the demonstrated increase in return probability over time compares to probabilities extracted from simple biased random walk models (i.e. biased to a central location, considering both mono- and multi-nuclear models), or more advanced multi-phasic movement models. Such a comparison of models, using empirical data for parameterization, could be very informative and offer a unique evaluation of current proposed models for understanding movement and space use of large mammals.
Traditionally, simple random-walk or diffusion models have been used widely to model animal movement and, dependent on the time scale in question, can provide a realistic approximation of movement for many species . Diffusion alone however does not result in emergent home-range behaviour; using a diffusion approach, eventually the paths of an animal will expand to fill any available extent. Diffusion models with an attraction vector to a central place (e.g. a den, a nest) can result in a circular, unimodal, home ranges but empirical observation shows that animals' real home ranges generally exhibit multimodal use with non-circular edges . Mechanistic home range models have evolved in an attempt to identify and model the movement processes that can simulate emergent multimodal utilization distributions and realistic home-range boundaries (see [3,32] for further review of recent movement and home-range modelling). The Van Moorter et al.  model, predicting a foraging and memory-driven model, provides a realistic model for the intra-home-range movement in wild ungulates, without requiring presupposition of home range centers or a single attractive nuclei. Our field observations have demonstrated repeated movements among multiple nodes of attraction which are indicative of memory processes, and negate simple diffusion or central place models for ungulate home range development.
We have demonstrated that elk will return to foraging patches repeatedly over the season. Return behaviour should be driven in part by patch value, and indeed, we show that productivity, terrain ruggedness, and proximity to road all influenced the likelihood that elk would return to foraging patches. These results demonstrate that the Van Moorter et al.  model for home-range development appropriately characterizes key aspects of elk foraging and movement behaviour and furthers understanding of within home range movement of free ranging elk. Increased research into the mechanisms driving space use and empirical evaluation of theoretical home range models will improve our understanding of the dynamic nature of animal space use and movements, especially in response to human land-use change.
Elk in this study ranged freely within the montane ecosystem of SW Alberta. The study area is characterized by steep mountainous terrain to the west, abruptly transitioning in the east to rolling grasslands and agricultural land. Seven cow elk from two herds (Waterton and Livingston) were included in these analyses. The three Waterton animals ranged within the boundaries of Waterton Lakes National Park, and were predominately associated with the Park's northwestern hills and the aspen forests and wetlands southeast of Lower Waterton Lake. Tourism to the national park during summer is a unique disturbance for animals in this herd. The four radiocollared Livingstone animals ranged on both sides of the Livingstone Range, an eastern ridge of the Rocky Mountains where they encountered timber cut blocks of varying age and dense forests dominated by lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) to the west, and rolling agricultural and range lands to the east.
To identify patches used for foraging, a retrospective space–time permutation scan statistic (STPSS) was used to identify clusters in the relocation data for each individual elk using SaTScan® . The scan statistic is defined by a moving cylindrical window with a base in geographic space and height defined by time. Using this method, each relocation was considered to be the center of a possible cluster (containing a minimum of 2 fixes) across multiple spatial windows and at each available time window (i.e., over 1 day, 2 days, or 3 days). The analysis considers all relocations within a wide range of cylinders when evaluating for clusters: everything from relocations within tall poles, i.e. small spatial windows but across many days, to those that might be described to occur within wide flat discs, i.e. large spatial windows during a single day . For detailed information on the probability function underlying this clustering method, see Kulldorff et al. .
When both the number of geographic locations and the number of days within a cylinder are small compared to C, c A is expected to be approximately Poisson distributed with mean and variance U A . As such, the evidence that a given cylinder contains a cluster can be measured by a Poisson Generalized Likelihood Ratio.
Elk most actively forage during crepuscular periods [35-37] thus, to help ensure that clustering could identify patches primarily used for foraging and not some other activity, e.g., grooming or bedding, data from peak hours of day and night were removed (10:00–14:00 and 22:00–2:00) prior to clustering. In addition, all resulting clusters with a radius ≤ 15 m were removed because these likely represent GPS error on resting or bedded animals . Three decision rules had to be made prior to running the scan statistic: the maximum spatial window, the maximum temporal window, and permission for geographic overlap of clusters.
Frair et al.  used a first-passage time analysis, assessing how long an animal spends in an area of a given size, to identify the scales at which three separate movement processes occurred: resting, foraging, and traveling from 2-hr fix data. When foraging, female elk travelled an average of 265.7 m (42.5 m SD) between fixes; accounting for this previous work and given the logistical constraints of our field sampling, a maximum diameter of 300 m was chosen as an upper spatial bound for analysis. The maximum number of sequential days evaluated for clusters of points, i.e., the maximum temporal window, was left broad: including up to 3 days of points. Finally, within an individual scan (over the data of one elk for a single week), no geographic overlap was allowed between reported clusters; this is a constraint imposed to ensure that we captured unique patches in space.
After identifying the boundaries of foraging patches, we recorded all revisits by an elk to its known patches during the summer season. Patches were identified weekly from telemetry data for each animal and were aggregated from June-August 2012 for return analyses. Returns to each patch were calculated for the entire duration of the summer season. Sampling began the first week of June to reduce the likelihood of including patches encountered on spring migration to the summer range as these patches are unlikely to be used again within the season.
For purposes of our analysis, a return was defined to be a series of 2 or more sequential fixes within 300 m of the cluster point separated by more than 3 days (i.e., 36 fixes) from the previous visit. This mirrored the spatial rule used for defining clusters by the STPSS (maximum 300 m diameter) and required a temporal window that would help to ensure that animals left the general area and subsequently returned in a separate event. Elk often spend several days encamped in one area and then relocate to another distant area of their home range ; we expected these rapid relocation events to occur within our 3-day buffer and to separate one series of cluster visits from another. Single fix events within the appropriate spatial and temporal definition were denoted as "singles" but were not assumed to represent a foraging event. Biologically, we hypothesize these single fix events could represent exploratory returns to assess biomass regeneration in the presence of competing herbivores (e.g., cattle) but given their duration were not considered to be a foraging return for this analysis.
To count returns to each patch, we first imposed the spatial boundary of the patch and then tallied return events. Distances between each relocation for an animal and each cluster for that animal over the study period were calculated using Geospatial Modelling Environment (GME) . In Program R , we identified the subset of fixes within 300 m of a cluster point. This subset contained all returns to the 300 m buffer including the foraging event originally clustered, but at this point they are undifferentiated events (See Figure 3). To accurately count the number of returns to a site, we used the sequential fix numbers (adjusted for missing fixes) included in the subset table to isolate clusters in time. Using the diff function in GME, the table was read separating events of sequential fixes. In this way, nonsequential points outside the 3-day buffer represented start points of events that were isolated and tallied, separating single-fix events from multi-fix events, or returns. Based on this method, the number of returns to an area equals the (number of events in the area) – 1, accounting for the originally clustered foraging event. A correction to the returns count was needed in instances when the final record was a single-fix return: in this case, returns equal (number of events in the area) – 2, accounting for both the last single event and the original cluster point.
Example subset table for differentiating return events. This example patch has received 2 returns and 1 single fix event over the season. Note that a return can occur prior to the event clustered by the space-time permutation scan statistic.
Using counts of returns to a patch as our response variable, we sought to model how environmental covariates might influence an elk's decision to return to patches later in the season using an information-theoretic approach for model selection . All covariates were standardized to mean = 0 and SD = 1, and using mixed negative binomial regression through the glmmADMB package in Program R , we investigated which environmental covariates influenced the incidence of return count data at 768 clusters.
Our model set included 13 biologically relevant candidate models to explore the influence of environmental and anthropogenic factors on the number of times a patch was revisited (Table 2). Ungulates move to maximize forage intake and typically seek out areas of intermediate biomass with highest quality and quantity of available forage plants . As such, productivity and vegetation models were included to explain the variation in the number of returns to a patch.
Model A tests the idea that returns are solely related to relative productivity of the patch. Higher productivity is expected to shorten regrowth times and provide more available biomass over the season, potentially increasing the number of returns occurring over the time window by decreasing the number of days between returns. The normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI, an index of above-ground primary productivity, was compiled from images collected by MODIS remote-sensing satellites during May through September 2012 at a 250 m resolution every 16 days. The mean NDVI value of all clusters in each reporting period demonstrates the typical parabolic trend in productivity values over the summer (see Figure 4). Extracting the NDVI value at each cluster during peak productivity (early July) allowed us to include a covariate indicating the relative productivity of each patch during the summer season. Elk respond to physiogeographic features that determine where forage is most available (e.g. ruggedness, slope, elevation, aspect). Differences in elevation, slope, and aspect can create microclimates that affect localized productivity and available forage  and subsequently may affect elk movement .
Boxplot demonstrating mean NDVI and its variance throughout summer. MODIS satellites retrieve imagery from the study site every 16 days, twice each month. The 6 boxplots present the average and variance of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values for each photoperiod. These averages and variances are calculated from NDVI values reported at all clusters identified. The first reporting period of July (July1) has the highest mean and the lowest variance making it the best choice for a parameter demonstrating relative productivity of each cluster. The higher variance early and late in the season is likely due to timing variation of snow melt, growth, and die-off along elevation and cover gradients all of which influence NDVI values.
As a secondary variable influencing productivity, northness, or cos(Aspect), was used for interpretation of the circular variable aspect in models. Model B includes this second productivity related parameter, Aspect, to assess how hillshade may play a role in return likelihood in addition to relative productivity (NDVI). In addition to seeking out forage, research has shown that elk movement can be driven by predator avoidance [23,42]. Remaining close to or within cover is an important predator avoidance strategy for elk . To evaluate the influence of cover on return frequency, CanopyClosure was extracted from a 2005 map created by the Foothills Research Institute . This cover map is a composite of remotely sensed LandSat data with 30-m resolution on land cover and crown closure, as well as species composition, and agricultural and regeneration masks. Model C includes Canopy, Aspect, NDVI, for a full vegetation model, accounting for the importance of cover for predator avoidance , and the attraction of productive forage .
Human disturbance from road networks potentially acts as a deterrent to returning elk. The road network described in a traffic model developed for our study area  was used to obtain estimates for the distance to road, DistRd, and average summer daily traffic on nearest road, Traffic. In Waterton National Park, high levels of tourist traffic push through the park's few roads daily. In Livingstone, the landscape contains small, seldom-travelled roads. Due to the large difference in road density and traffic between the two herds, a binary and categorical covariate of Herd was included in models and allowed to interact with Traffic and DistRd variables. The Herd variable specifies whether a patch occurs within the boundaries of the Livingstone or Waterton herds and was included to account for differences in the impact of roads and traffic on return likelihood to patches across the two herds. Model D incorporates the effect of these human disturbances as well as the baseline productivity of a patch (NDVI) that we hypothesize attracted returns.
The TmKnown covariate refers to the number of days elapsed between the first ever visit to the patch by an elk and the end of the sampling period at the end of August. This variable accounts for the increased likelihood of revisitation that some patches have over others in the dataset just based on when they were first encountered in the season and the length of our sampling period. Additionally, this covariate has some simple biological relevance accounting for animal learning and memory. The longer a patch is known to an animal, and the longer we monitored returns to it, the more returns that patch is likely to accrue. Model E added TmKnown to the baseline productivity model (Model A). Similarly, Model F added TmKnown to the complete vegetation model (Model C) and Model G considers TmKnown within the productivity and disturbance model (Model D). These function as direct comparisons for the effect of TmKnown on return likelihood. Interactions between TmKnown and productivity parameters (NDVI and Aspect) were included to test for the potential temporal variation in the attraction of patches; it is possible that patches might be returned to more or less over the time they are known based on their productivity across the summer (Model H and I).
Movement by elk is restricted by rugged terrain and we hypothesize that the returns would be more frequent at less-rugged patches because they likely require less energy for travel to and within [29,44,45]. Terrain ruggedness, Ruggedness, was included in models to reflect this predicted influence on movement . Model J includes just Ruggedness and TmKnown, representing the hypothesis that returns are only explained by the accessibility of the patch and how long it has been known. In a model representing landscape terrain, Model K includes both road networks and the Ruggedness of the terrain as well as the TmKnown variable. Model L and Model M represent combinations of the terrain model with the productivity parameter (NDVI) and its interaction with TmKnown.
Individual variation in return patterns was substantial (see Figure 2A) and ElkID was included as a random effect in all candidate models to account for this variation. Although differences in terrain ruggedness were visually identifiable across herds, an interaction between ruggedness and herd was not expected to influence return frequency. That is to say, the return behaviour of Livingstone animals was not influenced differently by ruggedness than was the behaviour of Waterton animals, despite the greater overall ruggedness of Livingstone terrain. All of the observed differences between herds were attributable to the difference in tourism levels between areas and individual variation accounted for by the random effect. Finally, the influence of the TmKnown parameter on return likelihood was examined using a Kaplan-Meier survival curve built using the survival package in Program R .
The authors would like to thank all funders and partners of this project. This project was funded in part by the University of Alberta, Shell Canada Ltd., NSERC CRD funds, Mountain Equipment Coop, TD Friends of the Environment Fund, Safari Club International – Northern Alberta Chapter, and in partnership with Nature Alberta.
DPS participated in the conception and design of the study, carried out the field sampling and data collection, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. MSB participated in design, conception, and supervision of the project and helped to draft the manuscript. Both authors read and approved of the final manuscript prior to submission.


For travelers wishing to discover Thessaloniki we offer a 3-hour tour and a 6-hour tour. During the tour, Mr Alalipourides will drive you to the most important landmarks in Thessaloniki.
In our 3-hour private tour in Thessaloniki, we will start from the White Tower, the symbol of the city and the most popular landmark of Thessaloniki. Heading to Ano Poli we'll have the chance to take some really great photos from Roman Arch of the Emperor Galerius and Rotonda! The city's byzantine walls and the Tower of Trigonios will be our next stop. There we'll take a break to enjoy the wonderful panoramic view of Thessaloniki and Thermaikos Gulf! Our next destination will be the paleo-christian church of Agios Dimitrios and the impressive Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki which will be our last stop.
The White Tower is a round fort near the center of Thessaloniki city, which has become equivalent to the City's Symbol. It was built in the 15th century as part of the city's sea fortification. During the Ottoman Empire's Occupation, the White Tower became a synonym for terrorism, due to the bloody executions which took place there. After the city's liberation the Tower was whitewashed, so as to purify it from the blood that was shed in it. Nowadays, the internal part of the White Tower houses an exposition of the history of Thessaloniki.
The Rotonda is a circular building originally built in 306 CE as a Pantheon or a Mausoleum for Galerius. Due to the fact that it wasn't used at all in the Byzantine times, during the sovereignty of Theodosius the Great, the Rotonda was converted into a Christian Church of Saint Georgios, whereas it was converted into a mosque during the Ottoman Empire's Occupation. Don't forget to admire the unique in their kind mosaics of the 4th century CE. The iconography dates back to early 5th century, yet currently the surviving iconography are only that under the church's dome.
The castles were originally built as Thessaloniki's fortifications in earlier periods where they were of an absolute necessity for the protection of the city. The Acropolis was built on the highest location of the castles, and on the north-east peak of the Acropolis the Heptapyrgion was built to form the city's last fort. The Heptapyrgion (also known as Genti-Koule) was used as a prison until 1989. Tourists can visit the Heptapyrgion, along with the Trigonio Tower in the entrance of the Acropolis only for some days a year. In the district many scenic alleys and small traditional taverns are to be found, while visitors can enjoy a splendid panoramic view of the entire city.
The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki is classified amongst the best museums of Greece. The museum's exposition comprises of findings dating from the Neolithic Age (New Stone Era), the Iron Age (1100-700 B.C.), the Archaic Period, the Classic Period and the Roman Period, findings that have been excavated inside the city of Thessaloniki and its nearby Prefectures. The most outstanding exhibits are golden ornamental art and ancient weapons. A special museum hall houses the unique in their kind findings from the burial site of King Philip II of Macedon, unearthed in Vergina, as well as the bones of Philip found in his tomb.
Agios Dimitrios constitutes one of the most significant Christian monuments and the largest Greek Church. It was built on the remains of where the Roman Baths once stood in honor of Saint Dimitrios, the patron Saint of Thessaloniki. It was completely destroyed in the great fire of 1917 and rebuilt in 1948. The Crypt on the east end of the church, where Saint Dimitrios was tortured and killed by Roman soldiers, is currently a place of worship.
This church is the only surviving early Christian church in the same form as it was originally built in the 5th century CE. The Ahiropiitos Church was converted into a mosque in the 15th century, since the city had become a part of the Ottoman Empire and changed back into being a Christian Church as late as 1913, after the liberation of the city by the Greek army. Mosaics of the 5th century CE and frescoes of the 13th century are currently preser.
The Triumphal Arch of Galerius, also known as "Kamara", is one of the most characteristic monuments of Thessaloniki. It constitutes one of the most popular meeting points of both the residents and the visitors of Thessaloniki. It was built in 305 CE to celebrate the triumph of Galerius over the Persians. Only three pillars and one part of the upper stone construction have survived the original arch. The two main pillars are covered by marble sculptural panels. The original monument comprised four main pillars and two smaller ones on both sides, supporting the central construction.
In our 8 hours private tour in Thessaloniki, we will also visit the museum of Byzantine Culture of Thessaloniki, the Archaelogical Museum of Thessaloniki and the Roman Forum.
During the Byzantine era, Thessaloniki was the second most important city of the Byzantine Empire, next to Constantinople. The museum houses 2.900 exhibits, presenting by chronological order the Byzantine artifacts as well as aspects of everyday life of people using them back then. Frescoes, mosaics, images, early Christian tombs with their frescoes and precious church utensils and liturgical equipment reveal the religious and social life of Thessaloniki's residents dating from the 3rd century CE up to the Fall of Constantinople (1453) and as late as the 19th century.
Join us for a 4-hour private tour of Thessaloniki. We will pick you up from your hotel or from the port of Thessaloniki (if you are on cruise) and visit the most interesting places on the island of Thessaloniki. The suggested route is shown on the map and it includes: Ag. Ioannis, Ornos Village, Ag. Stefanos, Tourlos, KalafatiWe will ensure a timely return to the Thessaloniki port to board your cruise ship. If your ship is delayed and you are unable to attend this activity, your money will be refunded. You will also be issued a full refund for tours canceled due to a ship's inability to get into port.


This work is derived from five hours spent at Enderby's Wharf on the Thames foreshore at Greenwich, recording the river flow and tides in the area under the Enderby's Wharf jetty. These recordings were used to create a series of contrasting soundscapes (Litus Expromo) exploring rhythm and frequency. A first version of the work, Litus Expromo External, was played through speakers attached to the Wharf over the weekend of 13th and 14th September 2014, stopping passers by in their tracks and making them question the veracity of sounds they were hearing. On the evening of Saturday 13th, members of the public and the Hackney Secular Singers choir were invited to perform the vocal work Fundamental 94 based on the resonant frequency under the jetty. At the gallery, all five sections of Litus Expromo were available on a listening post: 1. Fundamental 94 (4'53"), 2. Tidal Liminal (4'02"), 3. Hammer 143 (5'57"), 4. Over Heard (4'58"), 5. Deep Breath (6'19"). The work was again played through speakers in the Kings Presence Chamber at the Queen's House on September 26th 2014.


Self-referral by telephone is the quickest way to access the service, please ring 0207 871 0545. To access the patient leaflet, please click here.
For additional information on physiotherapy, podiatry and especialist services, please check Camden MSK website.


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Home Headlines Wesmen Cougars Defeat Wesmen 81-70, Winnipeg To Play Alberta For Bronze
Cougars Defeat Wesmen 81-70, Winnipeg To Play Alberta For Bronze
PUBLISHED ON March 04, 2017 Headlines, Wesmen,
SASKATOON, SK - The University of Regina's women's basketball team earned an automatic berth to next weekend's U SPORTS Championship and will play for a Canada West title after an 81-70 win over Winnipeg on Friday night in a Canada West semifinal game at the Physical Activity Centre on the University of Saskatchewan campus.
Christina McCusker had a huge game for the Cougars, scoring a career-high 22 points to lead the U of R while Avery Pearce added 13 points and Kyanna Giles scored 11.
The Cougars will square off with Canada West Final Four host Saskatchewan on Saturday night (7:00) as the two provincial rivals meet in the conference championship game for the second time.
The loss overshadowed a fine performance by Winnipeg's Antoinette Miller, named the Canada West Player of the Year earlier this week. Miller led all players with 28 points and added eight rebounds for the Wesmen.
Besides Miller's 28-point performance, Winnipeg also got 16 points and eight rebounds from Faith Hezekiah and 12 points from Lena Wenke. The Wesmen will play Alberta tomorrow night (5:00) to decide a third-place finish at the Canada West Final Four.
Winnipeg jumped out the gate quickly, forcing an early Cougar timeout after a Wenke three-pointer put the Wesmen up 7-0 two and a half minutes into the game. But Regina got right back into it, scoring on three consecutive possessions soon after the timeout and taking their first lead at 19-17 off a McCusker bucket following a turnover forced by Kyia Giles. Miller hit a mid-range jumper at the buzzer to send the two teams into the second quarter knotted at 19-19.
But the second quarter was all Cougars. They scored the first nine points of the period and 16 of the first 20, and ended up taking a 51-36 lead into halftime after outscoring Winnipeg by a 32-17 margin during the second. Regina caught fire in that quarter, shooting over 63% from the field and getting a pair of three-pointers from Pearce – her second and third of the game – and one triple apiece from Katie Polischuk, Sara Hubenig, and Michaela Kleisinger.
The Cougars took their largest lead of the game at 58-39 four minutes into the third, but Winnipeg – which was an impressive 18-2 in Canada West play this season – had a response. The Wesmen ended the third on a 14-4 run to get within six points after three quarters, but that was as close as they'd get. Regina opened the fourth quarter with six straight points, including a huge transition three by Polischuk to put the Cougars up 73-61 two minutes in. Regina held Winnipeg to just nine points in the final period to seal the win.
Source: http://wesmen.ca/sports/wbkb/2016-17/releases/201703041yr6gi


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Rise of Christianity with Fall of Roman Empire
After reading this article you will learn about the rise of Christianity with the fall of Roman Empire.
The rise of Christianity and its overall importance characterized the Middle Ages. This ascendency of Christianity was accelerated by Roman philosophy, institutions and, above all, by the Roman emperors, particularly Constantine.
The establishment of Christian religion and Christian church in a unified form became so important that it began to control the medieval political thought. Towards the declining periods of Roman Empire, Christian religion spread rapidly and this received a further impetus when the Roman emperor Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of the state.
Declaration of Christianity as state religion brought about several far-reaching consequences. First of all, it cornered the pagan beliefs. Towards the end of the Roman imperialism pagan beliefs were almost in a dying condition.
At that opportune moment Christianity attacked paganism and clipped its wings. Christian beliefs made heavy inroads into Teutonic barbarians. The Christian religion spread so rapidly that soon it became the legal or official religion of the Roman Empire.
This elevation of Christianity was really surprising. The emperor, in collaboration with the church, exercised supreme authority and this helped the latter to be involved in active politics. This involvement became the characteristic feature of medieval political thought and supplied the fuel of conflict between the church and the state.
The declining condition of the Roman Empire also signalled the weakness of the emperor. This happened during the last century of the empire. Erosion of the imperial power encouraged the ecclesiastical authorities to enter into active politics. The church fathers began to accumulate more and more power and their involvement in political affairs began to increase in astronomical proportions.
The weakness of the Roman emperors failed to stop this growth of power. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the political tradition and institutions also faced crisis. This again facilitated the growth of the influence of the church. It appeared as the representative of Roman tradition and emphasized the unity and integrity of the empire.
We have noted how political changes brought the church into limelight. These and other changes hastened a central organization and made it more powerful. Rome was the political capital of the empire and naturally it became the capital of the religious world.
As a result of the disintegration of the Roman Empire and gradual decline of the imperial power, authority and power were transferred from palace to the church, and, in course of time, the church became a hot-bed of politics. Pope and clergymen threw their weight in favour of intense political propaganda.
The church was the real authority and decisions of all affairs would come from the church. "In the absence of emperor from Rome, the bishop became the most important official in the city, and considerable power of local political administration passed into his hands. In this way there was added to the large ecclesiastical power of the Roman bishop the practically independent political government of a little state."
Originally it was the duty of the Pope to look after religious affairs. But circumstances led the Pope and the church fathers to play the role of the potential actor in the political fields. This role reached the zenith towards the beginning of the seventh century.
At this time, in fact, there was no political authority in real sense. Every decision on political matters emanated from the church and the emperor had not the courage to alter or defy the decision.
The unified church established almost a parallel government or administration to Rome. It created a vast network of religious institutions through which politics was controlled. It has been claimed that the church also controlled the intellectual world of Europe. Rise of church or Christianity eclipsed the importance of state and politics in the Middle Ages.
Home ›› Politics ›› History ›› Medieval Political Thought ›› Rise of Christianty
Notes on Ambrose of Milan and St. Gregory (Medieval Political Thinkers)
Conflict between the Church and the State | Medieval Period
Political Ideas of the Church
7 Causes for the Rise of Imperialism – Explained!
Politics, History, Medieval Political Thought, Rise of Christianty
Political Ideas of Romans: Theory of Law and Other Ideas


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The Bailey and Massingill General Store is a historic commercial building in downtown Lakeview, Oregon, United States. Lakeview's first commercial establishment opened on the same site in 1876, and was purchased by partners Harry Bailey and W. A. Massingill in 1897. A large fire on the night of May 22, 1900, destroyed much of Lakeview, and Bailey and Massingill suffered the largest financial loss in town ($18,000) with the complete destruction of their store. The partners immediately rebuilt their business, opening the present building on the same site in the same year. Drawing lessons from the fire, they incorporated a unique set of fire preventive features into the new building, including metal-sheathed walls and a fire awning (no longer present) that could be dropped to protect the windows and entry. With these features, the building successfully survived another large fire in 1902, and continued as one of Lakeview's most important commercial enterprises.

The store was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Lake County, Oregon

References

External links

1900 establishments in Oregon
Buildings and structures in Lakeview, Oregon
Commercial buildings completed in 1900
Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon
National Register of Historic Places in Lake County, Oregon

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
package org.keycloak.connections.jpa.updater.liquibase;

import org.keycloak.Config;
import org.keycloak.connections.jpa.updater.JpaUpdaterProvider;
import org.keycloak.connections.jpa.updater.JpaUpdaterProviderFactory;
import org.keycloak.models.KeycloakSession;
import org.keycloak.models.KeycloakSessionFactory;

/**
 * @author Stian Thorgersen
 */
public class LiquibaseJpaUpdaterProviderFactory implements JpaUpdaterProviderFactory {

    public static final String PROVIDER_ID = "liquibase";

    @Override
    public JpaUpdaterProvider create(KeycloakSession session) {
        return new LiquibaseJpaUpdaterProvider(session);
    }

    @Override
    public void init(Config.Scope config) {
    }

    @Override
    public void postInit(KeycloakSessionFactory factory) {

    }

    @Override
    public void close() {
    }

    @Override
    public String getId() {
        return PROVIDER_ID;
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


We love it when our members share stories with us. Whether they have been good or bad experiences, when they turn to us for help that lets us know who they trust.
Recently, a member purchased a new GM vehicle from a big, local dealership. This member ALWAYS finances his vehicles with us. He knew about the opportunity to save some money with the "love my credit union" program on new GM vehicles. He mentioned the program to the salesperson and negotiated his deal.
The dealership proceeded to tell the member that he must arrange his financing with the dealership's credit unions in their finance department to take advantage of that program. He didn't understand that since we promote it on our website, but went ahead, agreed and proceeded. After the deal was complete and the paperwork was signed he drove away happy with his new vehicle.
About a week later he gets a packet in the mail from a national bank that typically finances GM vehicles. The member was very confused expecting that he was financed with a credit union, having received the "love my credit union" discount.
The member proceeded to set up the national bank's app on his smart phone, and set up his account to make his payments. Before his first payment was due, he logged in to make his payment only to find his information was wiped out. He attempted to contact the large national bank and waited longer than 30 minutes on hold. They couldn't explain what happened and the information would have to be set up again, with no help from the person on the other end of the line.
This is coming from someone that knows a little bit about our business, knows a lot about trading vehicles because he does it a lot. He still fell victim to one of the tricks at the dealer.
We love to make things easy for our members. Everything we do revolves around YOU! Please, believe us when we say, you are the only reason we are here!
We do not participate in dealership financing because in the end, it is usually not a good deal for you. Financial institutions that participate in indirect lending pay the dealerships for every loan that they receive from them and essentially those costs are passed along to you in fees in your paperwork.
We want to make your payments affordable for you! We are one of the few institutions around that offer weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, semi-monthly, and monthly payment frequencies. This is a huge convenience for you. It makes it easy to budget and you can even set up transfers to pay your loan directly from your direct deposit or transfer it right out of your account. If you choose to do this, we give you a discount on your rate.
The other products sold at the dealer (i.e. Extended Warranty, GAP) are usually marked up so high that they make it seem like you are getting a good deal when they say they will knock off $100 or $200. We offer those products too, and at a fair price to begin with.
In the end, it's always our goal to make sure our members receive a fair deal at a good price when they finance a vehicle with us. We see so many situations where people have been taken advantage of. If you ever question a situation, know that we are here for you. We are your trusted financial partner!
Thank you to our member for sharing your story, you know who you are!


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Fancy, Free and Farewell – A Guide to New Year's 2016 in Atlanta
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Between its many festivals, parades and concerts, Atlanta knows how to have a good time, and ringing in the new year is no different. Whether celebrating with a low-key hang out or a Gatsby-inspired party, Atlanta has a way to welcome 2017 for any crowd or mood.
While saying hello to 2017, Atlantan's will also have the chance to say farewell to one of the city's signature events, the New Year's Eve Peach Drop at Underground Atlanta. The 28-year-old tradition will make its final appearance at the shopping and entertainment district created from a former railroad corridor as it prepares for a new phase of redevelopment. Fireworks and live performances will accompany the 800-pound peach's final fall in the last seconds of 2016.
The Georgian Terrace, one of Atlanta's landmark hotels, is often associated with luxury with its marble staircases, grand chandeliers and list of notable guests including past presidents, world leaders and famous actors. The hotel's basement speakeasy-style bar, Edgar's Proof and Provision, will play host to a different crowd during its 2017 New Year's celebration, "White Trash Bash." The low-key celebration will include free beer cocktails, passed appetizers and most notably, doesn't require a reservation. Attendees are encouraged to wear their grungiest attire and can come away with a bottle of Edgar's Truth Bourbon for being the "worst" dressed.
For those looking to ring in the new year with a new tradition, one of Atlanta's hot-spots, Ponce City Market, is hosting a night to remember atop the building's newly-opened rooftop beer garden, 9 Mile Station. The restaurant, named after the nine-mile street car circuit that ran from Atlanta's Downtown to the Virginia-Highland neighborhood more than 100 years ago, will feature a night of gourmet hors d'oeuvres, champagne toasts, unique performances and unobstructed views of the Midtown skyline. The roaring twenties-themed party is not only a chance to don a flapper dress and bowtie, but also pays homage to the building's past as the 2.1-million-square-foot Sears, Roebuck and Co., completed in 1926.
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The French Senate has voted in favor of a resolution designed to lift EU-imposed sanctions slapped on Russia in 2014 over the crisis in eastern Ukraine and reunification with Crimea. The proposal calls for a "gradual relief" of restrictive measures imposed by the West.
The vast majority – 302 senators – voted for the move, with only 16 being against the lifting of anti-Russia sanctions. In all, 335 politicians were present at the meeting in the Luxembourg Palace.
The motion is non-binding, however.
The initiatives of deputies and senators, aimed at pressuring the government, have "no binding force because the renewal of the embargo is made in Brussels and requires unanimity of the 28 Member States," Le Figaro reported.
In late April, 55 members of the French National Assembly supported a similar resolution, submitted by 85 French MPs calling on the government not to extend EU-imposed sanctions on Russia. The debate on canceling sanctions was held at the National Assembly for the first time. Thierry Mariani, a member of the center-right Republicans party, who initiated the parliamentary debate, said anti-Russian sanctions should be lifted because they only cause harm.
"We are demanding that the sanctions be lifted because they are totally ineffective and they are dangerous for our economy," he told the Assembly.
"I have seen our minister of agriculture standing in front of our farmers and say 'We have to lift the sanctions.' I've seen the minister of finance reiterate the same thing. And all they do is say 'We can't do anything, Europe is to blame'," the MP told RT in April.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said last week that a number of EU states are reluctant to extend anti-Russian sanctions. The big question is whether the 28-nation bloc will nonetheless decide to renew them after they expire on July 31.
"The sanctions are there to ensure a political solution," Steinmeier told reporters last Tuesday. "I don't know what the European Council will decide on Russia sanctions," he said, adding that the recent release of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko from jail would hopefully "bring a new dynamic into the talks between Russia and Ukraine."
A number of prominent European policymakers and businesses have emphasized that sanctions have proven pointless and economically damaging for all parties.
Italy and Hungary said last month there could be no automatic extension of EU sanctions against Russia, Reuters reported.
In mid-May, the council of Italy's Veneto region adopted a resolution calling for the country's government to work toward lifting sanctions against Russia. Twenty-nine out of 51 members of the regional council voted in favor of the resolution, while nine voted against, Interfax reported.
Italian lawmaker Stefano Valdegamberi told Sputnik that in just one year the Veneto region lost over €600 million ($679.8 million) due to the slump in exports to Russia.
Some, in contrast, have been calling on Brussels not to relax sanctions on Moscow until the Minsk peace agreement is fully implemented. Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski has recently warned that lifting sanctions would weaken the bloc's position vis-à-vis Russia.
"The European Union's authority ... in the future depends on the successful influencing of Russia through sanctions," Szymanski told Reuters last week.
Since 2014, EU and US sanctions against Russia have targeted Russia's financial, energy and defense sectors, along with a number of government officials, businessmen and public figures. Moscow responded by imposing an embargo on agricultural produce, food and raw materials against countries that joined anti-Russian sanctions. Both sides have since repeatedly broadened and extended the sanctions.