Job hunting is often described as a full-time job in itself; so it's no surprise that it can sometimes become challenging and stressful – especially when you are not achieving the results you want. We often make changes to process and work-methods to become more efficient in our days jobs; so the same approach can be taken when looking to become a more effective job seeker. Here are six simple changes you can make to streamline your job hunt and quickly land more interviews.
Although you are likely to be applying for numerous similar jobs throughout your job hunt, it just not good enough to fire off the same CV for every job application in a bid to send out as many CV's as possible. In the employment game; quality is certainly more important than quantity, so spend some time ensuring that your CV meets the job requirements for each role. If you have the necessary skills mentioned in the job advert but they are hidden at the bottom of your CV; nobody will see them. You need to prioritise your own skills in line with what the job advert is asking for so move the most important skills to the top of your CV to make sure the recruiter can instantly see that you are a good fit for the job. Conversely, if you have a lot of experience in an area that isn't being asked for in the job advert, then you may want to play it down a bit in the CV to avoid looking unsuitable.
Industry terminology and jargon is constantly changing, which means that in the modern job market there can often be dozens of terms to describe one type of job. For example a Salesman could just as easily call himself a Business Development Officer or a Sales Executive, but still be performing the same role. So remember this when searching job websites; be creative and use a few different job titles to increase the number of suitable roles you find. If you struggle to find variations of your preferred job title; have a browse through your connections on LinkedIn and see what titles they are using, as well as checking out industry publications and blogs online.
Job hunting can sometimes become a little tiresome but try not to get sloppy when sending applications. The first hurdle to overcome is ensuring that the recruiter opens your CV, which won't always happen unless you give them a reason to do so. Use a short, professional introduction that gives a brief explanation of your suitability for the role and make sure you triple check it for spelling and grammatical errors – nothing will get your application deleted quicker than an introduction littered with errors. Add a personal touch too; remember you are addressing a person, not a machine. Address the recruiter by name (it will usually be on the job advert) and open with a simple, friendly line such as "hope you're well".
After a few weeks of job hunting, it's easy to slip into a routine where you find yourself circling the same one or two web sites repeatedly and seeing the same vacancies over and over again. The more job web sites you search, the more vacancies you gain exposure to; so therefore you increase your chances of landing an interview. Use as many of the mainstream generic sites as you can find as they have a very high volume of jobs advertised and tend to attract a lot of the big well-known brands. However don't forget to search out some of the lesser-known industry specific sites as they tend to attract some of the smaller niche firms and you will often be able to side step the competition in to some lesser known vacancies.
All too often job seekers will pour tons of time and effort into finding and applying for a dream job; only to forget all about it days later. If you don't get an instant response from a job application, don't give up. Just because you don't receive an instant call back, doesn't necessarily mean that you are not suitable for the role. Your CV will often be sitting an inbox amongst dozens of other similar candidate CV's; so if you don't hear back for a few days – a quick call to the recruiter can be exactly what's needed to put you ahead of the competition. A quick chaser call will not only draw instant attention to your CV, but will also give you a chance to build a rapport with the recruiter and sell yourself into interview stage.
With thousands of recruiters and hiring managers logging on to LinkedIn every day, it's an absolute must for modern day job seekers. However you can't just create your profile, sit back and wait for the job offers to flood in. If you want to make LinkedIn work for you, you need to stay active on it and build your professional network. Reach out to recruiters and industry peers to introduce yourself and explain what you have to offer them – they will not always have immediate vacancies for you, but it's good to be on their radars for when opportunities arise. You can also keep up to date with what's happening in your industry via your connection's posts and participating in professional group discussions.
Author: Andrew Fennell is an experienced recruiter and Director of Professional CV Writing Company StandOutCV.


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One of the most common issues that people find when they are updating their CV is that it is too long.
Editing a CV can be a really tricky task. For most people, their experience is hard-earned and to see a four year vacancy reduced to a dribbling two-sentence description can feel like a crushing denial of blood, sweat and tears.
– Hand your CV to a savvy friend and ask them to draw a thick line through all of the bits that they think are just waffle.
– Tailor your CV: if you're applying to just one specific job, save a version of your CV that removes EVERYTHING that is not strictly relevant to the job you're applying for.
– Put your personal details on one (or two) lines using bullets.
– Better still, put your two-line contact details into the HEADER of the document you're using. (If the CV is longer than two pages you can choose to remove the Header from pages other than page 1).
– Put any bullets you have into a two-column format. This isn't always an easy-fix. If your sentences are long this can make a CV look very messy. The bulleted sentences should be short, sharp and straight to the point for this to work.
– Change the size of the text. Okay, okay…this sounds obvious. But varying the size of the text throughout the document is useful; so for 'main body' chunks of text (short summaries of roles and responsibilities, for example) these can be reduced – sometimes by just .5 – so that the difference is barely noticeable but across the entire document this can make quite a difference, particularly if you have just crept onto the second page and need to pull things back a little.
– Check your margins. At the top and the bottom of the page you can extend the print-space of the document. A small tweak to both of these can change the reach of a document and pull your CV back onto the last page very neatly.
– Play with fonts. Some fonts take up huge amounts of space so be careful here and play around with the font settings.
– Line spacing. Just as with font size, line spacing can be varied at different points in the documents. Some chunks of text can accomodate lines that might normally seem cramped and this is even more so if you create breathiong speace elsewhere.
Should I Put Colour On My CV?


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text:
Fears about community rights under REDD+ are justified despite tenure ...
Killed for keratin? The unnecessary extinction of the rhinoceros
Asia Pacific negotiators hope for decision on REDD+ financing in Durban
Fears about community rights under REDD+ are justified despite tenure reforms
BOGOR, Indonesia (21 November, 2011)_The fears of forest-based communities about their rights under REDD+ schemes are justified, concluded a comparative study of recent forest tenure reforms conducted by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Rights and Resources Initiative.
Karin Holzknecht
Monday, 21 Nov 2011
A 100-year-old farmer in the Juma Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo courtesy of Neil Palmer (CIAT).
"Indigenous organisations have been among the most vocal critics of REDD+ schemes, warning against risks to their land rights and the need for indigenous participation at all stages," said CIFOR scientist Anne Larson, who led the comparative study of forest tenure reform.
"The communities in our study all faced obstacles even after winning tenure rights, so we can say with certainty that community concerns about REDD+ are valid. For REDD+ to be effective and sustainable, there must be a substantial effort to challenge the status quo in forest governance, particularly in community tenure rights."
CIFOR and its partners studied the reform processes supporting greater local forest rights in 10 countries and surveyed more than 30 communities benefiting from reforms. The study found that, from Bolivia to Nepal, tenure reform faced obstacles at every stage.
In the first place, when rights are granted, they differ in extent and permanence. Some communities argue that their rights have been reduced, because their formal rights are attached to an area much smaller than the one they customarily claimed. With new rules restricting resource use, new rights may actually result in decreased access for communities. And in all cases the central issue is how secure the new rights are, and under what circumstances they can be withdrawn.
"Formalising forest rights sometimes ends in both winners and losers even among customary users. In Nepal, for example, granting rights to settled communities ignored the customary rights of pastoralists in Nepal's high hills. And this is not an isolated example," explained Naya Sharma Paudel, leader of the Nepal research team.
Once the new rights are granted on paper, implementing them is the next challenge. Resolving competing claims from other communities and businesses or conservation interests relies on effective community organisations and alliances and determined supporters within government.
"Access in practice may not be related to rights. Communities in particular need state support when their granted forest areas are invaded by others, but this is rarely provided, or sometimes is even given to the other side," explained Larson.
"Implementation also faces internal governance challenges. It is risky to assume that communities have appropriate institutions and mechanisms for governing local access and control of resources; the new rights may not reach all community members or even the community at all. For example, obtaining the rights to a community forest in Cameroon is so costly that communities are forced to depend on local and sometimes external elites for funding, who hijack the process and take the benefits for themselves.
"In Nicaragua and Bolivia, indigenous communities have received land titles to large territories for which they have had to create new governance structures – these may start out weak, inexperienced and vulnerable to corruption."
These problems highlight the next challenge in the tenure reform process: ensuring that communities are able to obtain livelihood benefits from the new rights. This includes making it easy and worthwhile for communities to access, use and sell forest resources.
Most often, state bureaucracies impose heavy and costly regulations on using and selling forest resources, particularly timber, rather than promoting local forest management and recognising effective local rules where they exist.
"Some communities have succeeded in gaining greater or more secure rights to forests and forest resources, but they have paid for this in effort and cost, through grassroots organisation, national and international networking, court cases, time and money," said Larson.
Failing to secure and defend community tenure rights would clearly have a detrimental impact on communities. It could also affect REDD+ schemes, with conflict increasing transaction costs or leading international donor agencies to withdraw their involvement and their funds. Alienated communities may even voice their protest by intentionally destroying forests.
If these outcomes do not convince governments interested in REDD+ to transform their governance systems to protect community rights, Larson suggested that binding agreements, included in the conditions for REDD+ schemes, would be more effective.
"Communities have every right to be concerned by the political, technical and conceptual obstacles that are at the root of these tenure problems. Unless governments address these problems, there is little reason to believe the results under REDD+ will be particularly favourable for communities," said Larson.
As countries prepare for further REDD+ negotiations at the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) in Durban, South Africa on 4 December, Larson is circumspect as to what outcomes there may be for community tenure rights.
"It seems unlikely that significant and binding safeguards for forest communities will be approved in Durban, and unfortunately, even if they were, enforcing them on the ground is still a huge challenge. But it is still worth the effort. The debates and negotiations on climate and REDD+ have been catalysts for getting indigenous and community rights issues on the table."
CIFOR will have a team of experienced writers covering the climate change negotiations and events of COP17 to be held in Durban, South Africa from November 28 to December 9. Follow stories related to forests, REDD+, food security and climate change on CIFOR's Forests Blog and @CIFOR_forests on twitter. Get involved in Forest Day 5, the biggest global platform on forestry and climate change, by tracking the hashtag #FD5 on twitter.
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Forest tenure reform in the age of climate change: lessons for REDD+
The recognition of forest rights in Latin America: Progress and shortcomings of forest tenure reforms
Tenure: What will REDD mean for forest communities?
Despite progress, forest tenure reforms in Latin America still have a long way to go
Forest tenure rights and REDD+: From inertia to policy solutions
Rights to forests and carbon under REDD+ initiatives in Latin America
More by Karin Holzknecht
BEST OF 2012: Supernatural powers play key role in forest use
Reference emissions levels decision helps forested nations step closer to REDD+
See all stories by Karin Holzknecht
What can tropical deforestation models tell us?
The impact of fuel collection on forests
Willingness to pay for environmental services
Structural adjustment and Bolivian forests

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Role of C-Reactive Protein in the Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis
By Nora Hofer, Wilhelm Müller and Bernhard Resch
Submitted: February 29th 2012Reviewed: October 10th 2012Published: April 30th 2013
Home > Books > Neonatal Bacterial Infection
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Nora Hofer
Wilhelm Müller
Bernhard Resch
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From the Edited Volume
Neonatal Bacterial InfectionEdited by Bernhard Resch
Neonatal Bacterial Infection
Edited by Bernhard Resch
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During the last decades advances in neonatal intensive care have led to an impressive decrease of neonatal mortality and morbidity. However, infectious episodes in the early postnatal period still remain serious and potentially life-threatening events with a mortality rate of up to 50% in very premature infants. [1, 2] The signs and symptoms of neonatal sepsis can be clinically indistinguishable from various noninfectious conditions such as respiratory distress syndrome or maladaptation. Therefore rapid diagnosis is crucial for preventing the child from an adverse outcome. The current practice of starting empirical antibiotic therapy in all neonates showing infection-like symptoms results in their exposure to adverse drug effects, nosocomial complications, and in the emergence of resistant strains. [3]
Sepsis results from the complex interaction between the invading microorganism and the host immune, inflammatory, and coagulation response. [4, 5] Inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-15, IL-18, MIF) and growth factors (IL-3, CSFs), and their secondary mediators, including nitric oxide, thromboxanes, leukotrienes, platelet-activating factor, prostaglandins, and complement, cause activation of the coagulation cascade, the complement cascade, and the production of prostaglandins, leukotrienes, proteases and oxidants. [6]
Laboratory sepsis markers represent a helpful tool in the evaluation of a child with clinical signs and complement the evaluation of a neonate with a potential infection. During the last decades efforts were done to improve laboratory sepsis diagnosis and a variety of the above mentioned markers and more were studied with different success. Despite the promising results for some of them current evidence suggests that none of them can consistently diagnose 100% of infected cases. C-reactive protein (CRP) is the most extensively acute phase reactant studied so far and despite the ongoing rise (and fall) of new infection markers it still remains the preferred index in many neonatal intensive care units.
There is great interest in rapid diagnostic tests that are able to safely distinguish infected from uninfected newborns, especially in the early phase of the disease. [7] In fact, a delayed start of the antibiotic treatment may be no more able to stop the fulminant clinical course with development of septic shock and death within hours after the first clinical symptoms. [8] In the era of multi-resistant microorganisms, it is as well important to avoid the unnecessary use of antibiotics in sepsis-negative infants.
2. Structure and function of CRP
CRP was first described in 1930 by Tillet and Francis at Rockefeller University. [9] They observed a precipitation reaction between serum from patients suffering acute pneumococcal pneumonia and the extracted polysaccharide fraction C from the pneumococcal cell wall. This reaction could not be observed when using serum of neither healthy controls nor the same pneumonia patients after they had recovered. In view of the fact that the polysaccharide fraction was a protein the C-reactive component in the serum was named C-reactive protein. [9] By the 1950s CRP had been detected in more than 70 disorders including acute bacterial, viral, and other infections, as well as non-infectious diseases such as acute myocardial infarction, rheumatic disorders, and malignancies. [10] All of these disorders of disparate etiology had in common the theme of inflammation and/or tissue injury. [11]
CRP is composed by five identical subunits arranged in a cyclic pentameter shape. The whole protein has a diameter of 102 Å (1 Ångström = 10-10 m) and a molecular weight of 118 000 Daltons. [12] All subunits have the same orientation; therefore the whole protein has two faces, a 'recognition' face exhibiting five phosphocholin-binding sites and an 'effector' face containing complement and Fc-receptor-binding sites. [12] The principal ligand to CRP with the highest binding affinity is phosphocholin, which is found in lipopolysaccharid and cell walls of many bacteria and micro-organisms as well as in the outer leaflet of most biological membranes. [12]
After binding to a macromolecular ligand CRP is recognized by the component C1q of the complement system and activates it on the classical pathway. CRP-ligand complexes bind to the Fc-receptor on neutrophil granulocytes, macrophages, etc as well and thus promote phagocytosis of the pathogen. CRP further activates monocytes and macrophages and stimulates the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as Interleukin-1 and Tumor necrosis factor α. [12, 13]
3. CRP is part of the acute-phase-response
The acute-phase-response is a physiological and metabolic reaction to an acute tissue injury of different etiology (trauma, surgery, infection, acute inflammation, etc) which aims to neutralize the inflammatory agent and to promote the healing of the injured tissue. [11]
After a trauma or the invasion of microorganisms an acute localized inflammatory reaction is initiated by activation of local resident cells. The contact with bacterial endo-or exotoxins initiates the release of prostaglandins, leucotriens, and histamine, which results in vasodilatation, elevated vascular permeability, sensibilization of nozizeptors, and attraction and activation of further inflammatory cells.
Activated fibroblasts, leukocytes, and endothelial cells produce pro-inflammatory cytokines including IL-1, TNF- α, and IL-6. They are responsible for the development of fever, lethargy, arthralgia, and headache, they activate the vascular endothelial cells, regulate proliferation of T-and B-lymphocytes, activate macrophages, have pro-coagulatory effects on endothelial cells, and they induce the production of acute-phase-proteins in the hepatocytes of the liver.
Acute-phase-proteins form a heterogeneous group and include components of the complement system, coagulation factors, protease inhibitors, metal binding proteins, CRP, and other proteins that increase or decrease by more than 25% during an inflammatory reaction. [11-13]
The production of CRP in the hepatocytes is mainly induced by IL-6 but can be further increased by synergy with IL-1. [14] ] Some authors have aimed to determine the normal serum CRP concentration in healthy adults: In 1981 Shine et al. [15] evaluated serum concentration of CRP determined by radioimmunoassay in 468 sera from normal adult volunteer blood donors and reported on a median concentration of 0.8 mg/l with a 90th percentile of less than 3.0 mg/l. More recently, Rifai and Ridker [16] used three different high-sensitivity techniques to determine CRP distributions in their cohort consisting of 22 thousand healthy adults from the Unites States. The median CRP values for men and women were 1.5 and 1.52 mg/l, the 90th percentiles were 6.05 and 6.61 mg/l, respectively. Similarly, Imhof et al [17] examined CRP values from 13 thousand apparently healthy men and women from different populations in Europe. The reported median concentration in the single cohorts ranged from 0.6 to 1.7 mg/l, the 90th percentiles from 3.2 to 8.0 mg/l.
During the acute-phase-response the hepatic synthesis rate increases within hours and can reach levels 1000 fold. [10, 12] CRP levels remain high as long as the inflammation or tissue damage persists and then decrease rapidly. The half life time of CRP is 19 hours under all conditions, which shows the synthesis rate alone is responsible for the actual serum concentration. [18]
4. Serial CRP determinations are of high sensitivity in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis
CRP passes the placenta only in very low quantities, therefore, any elevation in the neonate always represents endogenous synthesis. [19] De novo hepatic synthesis starts very rapidly after a single stimulus with serum concentrations rising above 5 mg/l by about 6 hours and peaking around 48 hours. [20]
In diagnosis of early onset sepsis previous studies reported on widely differing sensitivities and specificities of CRP ranging from 29% to 100% and from 6% to 100%, respectively. [11, 21, 22] These extreme variations are a result of different reference-values, test methodologies, patient characteristics and inclusion criteria, number of samples taken, and sampling time. Furthermore, definitions of sepsis widely differ between studies making serious comparisons hardly possible.
The sensitivity of CRP is known to be the lowest during the early stages of infection. [23-25] For a single CRP determination at the time of first sepsis evaluation the sensitivity and specificity range from 22% to 69% and from 90% to 96%, respectively. [23, 24, 26-29] Similar results were reported for cord blood CRP. Even with low cut-off values being used [1 to 5 mg/l) sensitivities and specificities ranged from 22 to 74% and from 78 to 97%, respectively. [30-33] Thus, a single normal value at the initial sepsis work-up is not sufficient to rule out an infection [11].
On the other hand a raised CRP is not necessarily diagnostic for sepsis, as elevations may as well occur due to the physiologic rise after birth or non infection associated conditions (see below). Therefore, concerns were raised about the reliability of CRP during the early stage of the disease being neither able to diagnose nor to rule out an infection with certainty. [23]
Benitz et al. [23] found that the sensitivity in the diagnosis of culture proven early onset sepsis increased from 35% at the initial sepsis work-up to 79% and 89% when CRP determination was performed on the two following days. In a large series of 689 neonates (187 with sepsis) Pourcyrous et al. [24] reported a higher sensitivity for CRP levels determined at least 12 hours after the initial evaluation compared to the first value (54% vs. 74%). In general the sensitivity substantially increases with serial determinations 24 to 48 hours after the onset of symptoms, and several studies reported on sensitivities and specificities ranging from 78% to 98% and from 81% to 97%, respectively. [11, 21, 23-27, 34]
Some authors have suggested that serial determinations may be useful for identification of infants who do not have a bacterial infection as well: Two consecutive CRP values <10 mg/l carry a 99% negative predictive value in accurately identifying infants not infected. [6, 21, 23, 35-37] At 48 h after onset of symptoms with at least two normal CRP values and negative blood cultures infection can be ruled out and antibiotics can be stopped. [38]
Similarly, serial CRP measurements can be helpful in monitoring the response to treatment in infected neonates, to determine the duration of antibiotic therapy, and to recognize possible complications. [24, 25, 39] In a cohort of 60 neonates with early onset sepsis Ehl et al. [40] demonstrated that after initiation of a successful antibiotic therapy CRP values further increased, peaking and consecutively decreasing after 16 hours. A CRP level that returned again to the normal range may indicate that the duration of antibiotic treatment has been sufficient allowing discontinuation of antibiotics. [35]
5. CRP values can be elevated in non-infectious conditions
In adults, elevated CRP concentration was described in a large variety of disorders apart from bacterial, viral, and fungal infections including burns, surgery, rheumatic disorders, malignancies, and vasculitis. [20]
In neonates, non infection associated elevation of CRP was described in conditions of maternal and perinatal distress, neonatal hypoxia, and tissue damage. Several authors have described links of CRP to maternal fever, stressful delivery, prolonged rupture of membranes and/or prolonged labor, asphyxia, meconium aspiration syndrome, intraventricular hemorrhage, pneumothorax, and tissue injury. [19, 24, 34, 41-49] (see table 1)
-Perinatal asphyxia/ shock [34, 41, 43, 45]
-Maternal fever during labor [41, 42]
-Prolonged rupture of membranes [41-45]
-Stressful delivery or fetal distress [19, 41, 43]
-Prolonged labor [42, 44, 46]
-Clinically silent meconium aspiration[42]
-Surfactant application [48, 64]
-Intra-ventricular hemorrhage[34, 43]
-Pneumo-thorax.[34]
-Tissue injury[24]
Non-infectious conditions associated with increased CRP values during the first days of life.
However, the issue on non-infectious CRP elevations in the neonate is not undisputed. Different studies gave to some extent inconsistent results and conditions that some authors described being associated with CRP elevation were not found in other analyses. The earliest descriptions on non infectious conditions influencing CRP derive from simple observations that elevated values in not infected infants might be connected to coincidental non-infectious conditions, though no statistical confirmation is given.
Few investigations were performed on the association of CRP with non infectious conditions in healthy neonates. Chiesa et al. evaluated conditions influencing what constitutes normal CRP values in healthy neonates. In their analysis on 148 healthy term or near term neonates they identified low 5-minute Apgar score and premature rupture of membranes being significantly associated with CRP response at birth and pregnancy induced hypertension with CRP response at 24 hours of life. [45] In a similarly selected cohort of 421 healthy neonates including 200 premature infants they confirmed an association with the time of ruptured membranes and added duration of active labor, prenatal steroids, and intrapartum antimicrobial prophylaxis as variables that had a significant effect on CRP concentrations when adjusted for gestational age, gender, and sampling time. [44]
The current literature suggests that CRP may be elevated in some non-infectious conditions, of which some may per se clinically mimic a bacterial infection as well. Thus, the up to date available information lacks in robust evidence to support a claim that withholding antibiotics may be justified in infants with raised CRP in the above mentioned conditions.
6. CRP performance in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis and baseline CRP concentrations differ between term and preterm neonates
Even though advances in neonatal intensive care have led to increasing preterm birth rates and survival rates, the influences of prematurity on laboratory test results are poorly understood and have not been assessed systematically. This is also true for CRP, which is one of the most extensively studied infection markers in the neonatal period. Reports on the influence of gestational age on kinetics of CRP in infected and uninfected infants are limited:
Turner et al. [50] demonstrated an association of gestational age with the magnitude of clinically relevant CRP responses during the first seven days after birth. In case of a clinically relevant CRP rise >10 mg/l the proportion of a pronounced response >60 mg/l increased with gestational age from 8% in newborns from 24 to 27 weeks to 25% in newborns from 40 to 41 weeks.
Several other authors have contributed to the growing body of evidence further supporting the difference in CRP response to infection between term and preterm infants. In a cohort of 348 infants Kawamura et al. [25] reported a lower sensitivity of CRP in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis in preterm compared to term newborns (61.5% vs. 75%).
Doellner et al. [51] described a significantly lower CRP increase induced by infection in preterm compared to term infants. In their cohort of 42 newborns with either culture proven or probable sepsis infants with a gestational age less than 35 weeks had lower CRP values and lower CRP peak values compared to infants with a gestational age greater than 35 weeks (CRP values 0 vs 18 mg/l, CRP peak values 15 vs 52 mg/l).
We have recently reported on a lower CRP response to infection in preterm compared to term newborns with a lower sensitivity (53% vs. 86%), lower median values (9 vs. 18.5 mg/l), and a lower area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (0.799 vs. 0.890). [48]
What might explain the observed differences of CRP values between term and preterm newborns? One fact might be the differences in pre- and postnatal care regarding more frequent prophylactic antibiotic treatment in preterm infants and their mothers during birth. Timing of blood sampling might be another critical point being possibly earlier in preterm newborns. CRP is thought to play an important role in innate immunity, as an early defence system against infections. As far as the endogenous immune response depends on gestational age CRP responses might be lower due to a less mature immunological system of the preterm newborn.
Table 2 gives an overview on current literature on the association of CRP kinetics with gestational age and/or birth weight.
For neonates, assessment of laboratory tests occurs within a complex context of prenatal growth and neonatal development. [52] Though the current literature reveals some minor disagreement on the effect of gestational age on CRP there is a body of growing evidence suggesting that the so far reported characteristics of CRP may not be as suitable for the use in preterm as in term newborns. Their baseline CRP values may be lower and their response to infection less distinct. Prematurity of the organ systems and maturational changes in the immune system might result in a more distinct CRP response to delivery in uninfected newborns and to bacterial invasion in infected newborns. The few studies so far addressing this issue suggest that the diagnostic accuracy of CRP in preterm infants may benefit from a re-evaluation of the reference intervals in this age group. [25, 44, 48, 51]
Author Cohort
Diagnostic accuracy Sensitivity (%)
Kawamura et al. [25] 348 neonates with suspicion of infection 61.5 vs. 75 (preterm vs. term neonates)
Hofer et al. [48] 532 uninfected and infected neonates 53 vs. 86 (preterm vs. term neonates at 8 mg/l cut-off value)
Highest sensitivity in preterm infants at the cut-off 5.5 mg/l (74%) and at 10.5 mg/l in term infants (86%)
CRP concentration median (mg/l) peak (mg/l)
Doellner et al. [51] 42 neonates with probable or proven sepsis 0 vs. 18 15 vs. 52 (<35 weeks vs. ≥35 weeks)
Hofer et al. [48] 499 uninfected neonates 0.2 vs. 2.0 9.0 vs. 26.2 (preterm vs. term neonates)
33 neonates with proven sepsis 9.0 vs. 18.5 40.4 vs. 98.6 (preterm vs. term neonates)
Ishibashi et al. [46] 110 uninfected symptomatic neonates Gestational age and birth weight significantly influence hsCRP concentration within 48 hours after birth. Infants with low gestational age and low birth weight had lower hsCRP concentration (p=.013 and .024, respectively).
Chiesa et al. [44] 421 healthy neonates By regression analysis mean CRP increased by 6% per week gestational age at delivery (p<.01) and per 2.4% per 100 g increase in birth weight (p<.01)
Turner et al. [50] 3574 neonates In case of a clinically relevant CRP rise "/>10 mg/l, the proportion of a pronounced response "/>60 mg/l increased with gestational age from 8% in newborns from 24 to 27 weeks to 25% in newborns from 40 to 41 weeks.
Overview on current literature on the difference in CRP kinetics between term and preterm neonates.
7. Performance of CRP in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis can further be enhanced by combining it with early sensitive markers
An important limitation of CRP is the low sensitivity during the early phases of sepsis. By then values are often still normal, though the consequences of the bacterial invasion are already apparent and a delay of the initiation of antibiotic therapy may be associated with an adverse outcome. CRP takes ten to twelve hours to significantly change after the onset of infection. [6] Earlier in the inflammatory cascade activated macrophages release pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α) and growth factors (IL-3, CSFs) inducing the hepatic synthesis of acute-phase-reactants and the activation of neutrophils. The increase of cytokines therefore precedes the changes of CRP. Of the many mediators studied, much attention has been focused on IL6, IL8, and TNF-α.
IL-6 increases rapidly after the bacterial invasion and was demonstrated to have a high sensitivity during the early stages of sepsis (80%-100%) even when determined from umbilical cord blood (87%-100%). [29, 53) However, a short half life caused by plasma protein binding, hepatic clearance, and inactivation results in a rapid normalization of serum levels and a decrease of sensitivity during the later course of the disease, even though the infection persists. IL-8 and TNF-α have very similar characteristics and kinetic properties to IL-6. Both are pro-inflammatory cytokines predominantly produced by activated phagocytes in response to systemic infection and inflammation. [53] While studies report on a reliable diagnostic accuracy of IL-8 with a sensitivity of 69%-100%, the usefulness of TNF-α as a diagnostic marker has not been found to be as good as either IL-6 or IL-8. [53, 54]
Similar to CRP procalcitonin is another important acute-phase reactant produced by monocytes and hepatocytes. It has the advantage of increasing more rapidly after contact to bacterial endotoxin with levels rising after four hours and peaking at six to eight hours [55] In a recent meta-analysis the sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of early onset sepsis were 76% (range 68–82%) and 76% (60–87%). [56] Though the sensitivity during the early stages of sepsis may be superior to CRP, the significant rapid variations of basal levels after birth, the increase after non-infectious conditions such as asphyxia, maternal pre-eclampsia, and intracranial hemorrhage,[57] and the need for several different cut-off values with changing neonatal age, have limited its diffusion as an early marker in comparison to CRP.
Specific leukocyte cell surface antigens are known to be expressed in substantial quantities after inflammatory cells are activated by bacteria or their cellular products. [62] From the amount of surface markers studied neutrophil CD11b and CD64 appear most promising for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. CD11b expression increases considerably within a few minutes after the inflammatory cells come into contact with bacteria and endotoxins. [58, 59] The sensitivity and specificity of CD11b for diagnosing early onset neonatal sepsis are 86–100% and 100% respectively. [7, 53] CD64 has a sensitivity ranging between 81% and 96% and a NPV between 89% and 97%. [60] Though promising, estimation of cell surface markers is limited by the need for sophisticated equipment and the need to process blood samples rapidly before neutrophils die from apoptosis or the surface antigens are down regulated. [61]
Despite the favorable claims by many studies, many of these diagnostic markers fail to meet the stringent demands required for clinical practice. High costs, limited availability of specimens at the appropriate time, and complexity of the assay methods all limit the clinical applicability. More importantly, the relatively small sample size in most studies, the lack of clear reference values for many diagnostic markers still prohibit the use of most of these parameters in clinical practice.
Sensitivity is low during the early phase of infection. The performance of serial determinations 24 to 48 hours after the onset of symptoms is recommended, as it clearly improves diagnostic accuracy.
CRP is particularly useful for ruling out an infection and for monitoring the response to treatment and guiding the duration of the antibiotic therapy. Two consecutive values <10 mg/l determined more than 24 hours apart identify infants unlikely to be infected or in whom infection has resolved.
CRP values undergo a physiological 3-day-rise after birth and non-infectious confounders such as meconium aspiration syndrome and perinatal maternal risk conditions may elevate CRP values in otherwise healthy newborns.
Preterm neonates have lower baseline CRP values and a lower CRP response to infection in compared to term newborns.
Data on non infectious CRP elevations in otherwise healthy newborns are inconsistent and does currently not allow drawing recommendations on the continuation or withdrawal of antibiotics in these infants.
Up to date the most used cut-off value is 10 mg/l irrespective of the gestational and postnatal age of the neonate. Cut-off values adapted to the gestational and postnatal age may better reflect neonatal physiology.
In order to compensate for the diagnostic weakness during the early phases of infection initial CRP determination should be combined with determination of early and sensitive markers. Suitable markers include but are not limited to PCT, IL6, and IL8. Many further parameters may provide similar good results but are not yet sufficiently examined to be applied to clinical practice.
CRP facts.
At the moment none of the described current diagnostic markers are sensitive and specific enough to influence the judgment to withhold antimicrobial treatment independent of the clinical findings. Efforts were done to improve diagnostic accuracy by combining multiple markers in order to further enhance the diagnostic accuracy of these mediators in identifying infected cases.
CRP has been investigated in combination with a variety of "new" infection markers including cytokines, surface markers, and other acute-phase-reactants with promising results. Especially the combination with an early sensitive marker such as PCT, IL6, IL8, CD11b, and CD64 increases the sensitivity to values between 90% and 100% in most studies.
8. Do special subpopulations need special CRP reference values?
Especially in the early neonatal period, many physiological and metabolic processes are in change and differ from every later moment in life. These changes affect several laboratory parameters as well and many reference values and serum kinetics substantially differ to later periods. [62]
Reliable reference values are crucial for obtaining an adequate diagnostic accuracy. Upper limits for CRP during the first days of life have mainly been established from uninfected but symptomatic neonates. The cut-off values reported in the literature range from 1,5mg/l to 20 mg/l with thus wide ranging sensitivities and specificities. [11, 63] The up to date most used upper limit for CRP during the first days of life of 10 mg/l has been established in 1987 by Mathers and Pohlandt. [28] One decade later, Benitz et al. evaluated CRP levels in 1002 episodes of suspected early onset sepsis and confirmed the value being an appropriate threshold level. [23]
Use of CRP in the first few days after birth is complicated by a nonspecific rise primarily related to the stress of delivery. [11, 45] This rise of CRP starts shortly after birth and peaks with 13 mg/l in term and 11 mg/l in preterm newborns during the second and third day of life, respectively. [44] These observations raise concern about the static cut-off value not reflecting the physiologic kinetics of CRP after birth. In view of the physiologic dynamics of CRP during the first days after birth and the influence of gestational age on its response to infection, it appears reasonable to reconsider this static cut-off value and evaluate the possible advantages of the introduction of dynamic reference values. However, the current literature lacks sufficient evidence to make recommendations for the use in clinical practice.
CRP is one of the most widely available, most studied, and most used laboratory tests for neonatal bacterial infection and despite the continuing emergence of new infection markers it still plays a central role in the diagnosis of early onset sepsis of the neonate. CRP has the advantage of being well characterized in numerous studies and the extensive knowledge on its properties and limitations makes it safer compared to other, newer markers. Still, further research is needed on the topics of the influence of gestational age on CRP kinetics in infection, non-infectious confounders, and the evaluation of dynamic and gestational age dependent reference values.
ShareDownload
2.Structure and function of CRP
3.CRP is part of the acute-phase-response
4.Serial CRP determinations are of high sensitivity in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis
5.CRP values can be elevated in non-infectious conditions
6.CRP performance in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis and baseline CRP concentrations differ between term and preterm neonates
7.Performance of CRP in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis can further be enhanced by combining it with early sensitive markers
8.Do special subpopulations need special CRP reference values?
Nora Hofer, Wilhelm Müller and Bernhard Resch (April 30th 2013). The Role of C-Reactive Protein in the Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis, Neonatal Bacterial Infection, Bernhard Resch, IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/54255. Available from:
The Role of Immature Granulocyte Count and Immature Myeloid Information in the Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis
By Christina Cimenti, Wolfgang Erwa, Wilhelm Müller and Bernhard Resch
Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus InfectionEdited by Bernhard Resch
Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection
MHC Class I Ligands and Epitopes in HRSV Infection
By Daniel López


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text:
Q: How to write iOS app purely in C I read here Learn C Before Objective-C?

Usually I then replace some Obj-C code with pure C code (after all you can mix them as much as you like, the content of an Obj-C method can be entirely, pure C code)

Is this true?
Is it possible to build an iPhone app purely in the C programming language?

A: Damn, it took me a while but I got it:
main.c:
#include <CoreFoundation/CoreFoundation.h>

#include <objc/runtime.h>
#include <objc/message.h>

// This is a hack. Because we are writing in C, we cannot out and include
// <UIKit/UIKit.h>, as that uses Objective-C constructs.
// however, neither can we give the full function declaration, like this:
// int UIApplicationMain (int argc, char *argv[], NSString *principalClassName, NSString *delegateClassName);
// So, we rely on the fact that for both the i386 & ARM architectures,
// the registers for parameters passed in remain the same whether or not
// you are using VA_ARGS. This is actually the basis of the objective-c
// runtime (objc_msgSend), so we are probably fine here,  this would be
// the last thing I would expect to break.
extern int UIApplicationMain(int, ...);

// Entry point of the application. If you don't know what this is by now,
// then you probably shouldn't be reading the rest of this post.
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    // Create an @autoreleasepool, using the old-stye API.
    // Note that while NSAutoreleasePool IS deprecated, it still exists
    // in the APIs for a reason, and we leverage that here. In a perfect
    // world we wouldn't have to worry about this, but, remember, this is C.
    id autoreleasePool = objc_msgSend(objc_msgSend(objc_getClass("NSAutoreleasePool"), sel_registerName("alloc")), sel_registerName("init"));

    // Notice the use of CFSTR here. We cannot use an objective-c string
    // literal @"someStr", as that would be using objective-c, obviously.
    UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, CFSTR("AppDelegate"));

    objc_msgSend(autoreleasePool, sel_registerName("drain"));
}

AppDelegate.c:
#import <objc/runtime.h>
#import <objc/message.h>

// This is equivalent to creating a @class with one public variable named 'window'.
struct AppDel
{
    Class isa;

    id window;
};

// This is a strong reference to the class of the AppDelegate
// (same as [AppDelegate class])
Class AppDelClass;

// this is the entry point of the application, same as -application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:
// note the fact that we use `void *` for the 'application' and 'options' fields, as we need no reference to them for this to work. A generic id would suffice here as well.
BOOL AppDel_didFinishLaunching(struct AppDel *self, SEL _cmd, void *application, void *options)
{
    // we +alloc and -initWithFrame: our window here, so that we can have it show on screen (eventually).
    // this entire method is the objc-runtime based version of the standard View-Based application's launch code, so nothing here really should surprise you.
    // one thing important to note, though is that we use `sel_getUid()` instead of @selector().
    // this is because @selector is an objc language construct, and the application would not have been created in C if I used @selector.
    self->window = objc_msgSend(objc_getClass("UIWindow"), sel_getUid("alloc"));
    self->window = objc_msgSend(self->window, sel_getUid("initWithFrame:"), (struct CGRect) { 0, 0, 320, 480 });

    // here, we are creating our view controller, and our view. note the use of objc_getClass, because we cannot reference UIViewController directly in C.
    id viewController = objc_msgSend(objc_msgSend(objc_getClass("UIViewController"), sel_getUid("alloc")), sel_getUid("init"));

    // creating our custom view class, there really isn't too much
    // to say here other than we are hard-coding the screen's bounds,
    // because returning a struct from a `objc_msgSend()` (via
    // [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]) requires a different function call
    // and is finicky at best.
    id view = objc_msgSend(objc_msgSend(objc_getClass("View"), sel_getUid("alloc")), sel_getUid("initWithFrame:"), (struct CGRect) { 0, 0, 320, 480 });

    // here we simply add the view to the view controller, and add the viewController to the window.
    objc_msgSend(objc_msgSend(viewController, sel_getUid("view")), sel_getUid("addSubview:"), view);
    objc_msgSend(self->window, sel_getUid("setRootViewController:"), viewController);

    // finally, we display the window on-screen.
    objc_msgSend(self->window, sel_getUid("makeKeyAndVisible"));

    return YES;
}

// note the use of the gcc attribute extension (constructor).
// Basically, this lets us run arbitrary code before program startup,
// for more information read here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2053029
__attribute__((constructor))
static void initAppDel()
{
    // This is objc-runtime gibberish at best. We are creating a class with the
    // name "AppDelegate" that is a subclass of "UIResponder". Note we do not need
    // to register for the UIApplicationDelegate protocol, that really is simply for
    // Xcode's autocomplete, we just need to implement the method and we are golden.
    AppDelClass = objc_allocateClassPair(objc_getClass("UIResponder"), "AppDelegate", 0);

    // Here, we tell the objc runtime that we have a variable named "window" of type 'id'
    class_addIvar(AppDelClass, "window", sizeof(id), 0, "@");

    // We tell the objc-runtime that we have an implementation for the method
    // -application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:, and link that to our custom
    // function defined above. Notice the final parameter. This tells the runtime
    // the types of arguments received by the function.
    class_addMethod(AppDelClass, sel_getUid("application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:"), (IMP) AppDel_didFinishLaunching, "i@:@@");

    // Finally we tell the runtime that we have finished describing the class and
    // we can let the rest of the application use it.
    objc_registerClassPair(AppDelClass);
}

View.c
#include <objc/runtime.h>

// This is a strong reference to the class of our custom view,
// In case we need it in the future.
Class ViewClass;

// This is a simple -drawRect implementation for our class. We could have
// used a UILabel  or something of that sort instead, but I felt that this
// stuck with the C-based mentality of the application.
void View_drawRect(id self, SEL _cmd, struct CGRect rect)
{
    // We are simply getting the graphics context of the current view,
    // so we can draw to it
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    // Then we set it's fill color to white so that we clear the background.
    // Note the cast to (CGFloat []). Otherwise, this would give a warning
    //  saying "invalid cast from type 'int' to 'CGFloat *', or
    // 'extra elements in initializer'. Also note the assumption of RGBA.
    // If this wasn't a demo application, I would strongly recommend against this,
    // but for the most part you can be pretty sure that this is a safe move
    // in an iOS application.
    CGContextSetFillColor(context, (CGFloat []){ 1, 1, 1, 1 });

    // here, we simply add and draw the rect to the screen
    CGContextAddRect(context, (struct CGRect) { 0, 0, 320, 480 });
    CGContextFillPath(context);

    // and we now set the drawing color to red, then add another rectangle
    // and draw to the screen
    CGContextSetFillColor(context, (CGFloat []) { 1, 0, 0, 1 });
    CGContextAddRect(context, (struct CGRect) { 10, 10, 20, 20 });
    CGContextFillPath(context);
}

// Once again we use the (constructor) attribute. generally speaking,
// having many of these is a very bad idea, but in a small application
// like this, it really shouldn't be that big of an issue.
__attribute__((constructor))
static void initView()
{
    // Once again, just like the app delegate, we tell the runtime to
    // create a new class, this time a subclass of 'UIView' and named 'View'.
    ViewClass = objc_allocateClassPair(objc_getClass("UIView"), "View", 0);

    // and again, we tell the runtime to add a function called -drawRect:
    // to our custom view. Note that there is an error in the type-specification
    // of this method, as I do not know the @encode sequence of 'CGRect' off
    // of the top of my head. As a result, there is a chance that the rect
    // parameter of the method may not get passed properly.
    class_addMethod(ViewClass, sel_getUid("drawRect:"), (IMP) View_drawRect, "v@:");

    // And again, we tell the runtime that this class is now valid to be used.
    // At this point, the application should run and display the screenshot shown below.
    objc_registerClassPair(ViewClass);
}

It's ugly, but it works.
If you would like to download this, you can get it from my dropbox here
You can get it from my GitHub repository here:

A: Objective-C is a superset of the C-language, so it is theoretically possible to write a program entirely in C, however, unless you are thoroughly versed in OpenGL ES, You'll need to do at least some objC (Even Rich's sample has a const NSString* in it), else you'll have to write the views yourself.
OK, the above is completely wrong.  Let me say, I'm astounded Rich achieved this lofty goal, so I ported it over to the mac (source here).  The files below have no headers, do not link to Cocoa, nor does the project have a nib:
AppDelegate.m
#include <objc/runtime.h>
#include <objc/message.h>

extern id NSApp;

struct AppDel
{
    Class isa;

    //Will be an NSWindow later, for now, it's id, because we cannot use pointers to ObjC classes
    id window;
};

// This is a strong reference to the class of the AppDelegate
// (same as [AppDelegate class])
Class AppDelClass;

BOOL AppDel_didFinishLaunching(struct AppDel *self, SEL _cmd, id notification) {
    //alloc NSWindow
    self->window = objc_msgSend(objc_getClass("NSWindow"),
                                sel_getUid("alloc"));
    //init NSWindow
    //Adjust frame.  Window would be about 50*50 px without this
    //specify window type.  We want a resizeable window that we can close.
    //use retained backing because this thing is small anyhow
    //return no because this is the main window, and should be shown immediately
    self->window = objc_msgSend(self->window,
                                sel_getUid("initWithContentRect:styleMask:backing:defer:"),(NSRect){0,0,1024,460}, (NSTitledWindowMask|NSClosableWindowMask|NSResizableWindowMask|NSMiniaturizableWindowMask),NSBackingStoreRetained,NO);

    //send alloc and init to our view class.  Love the nested objc_msgSends!
    id view = objc_msgSend(objc_msgSend(objc_getClass("View"), sel_getUid("alloc")), sel_getUid("initWithFrame:"), (struct CGRect) { 0, 0, 320, 480 });

    // here we simply add the view to the window.
    objc_msgSend(self->window, sel_getUid("setContentView:"), view);
    objc_msgSend(self->window, sel_getUid("becomeFirstResponder"));

    //makeKeyOrderFront: NSWindow to show in bottom left corner of the screen
    objc_msgSend(self->window,
                 sel_getUid("makeKeyAndOrderFront:"),
                 self);
    return YES;
}

static void initAppDel()
{
    //Our appDelegate should be NSObject, but if you want to go the hard route, make this a class pair of NSApplication and try initing those awful delegate methods!
    AppDelClass = objc_allocateClassPair((Class)
                                         objc_getClass("NSObject"), "AppDelegate", 0);
    //Change the implementation of applicationDidFinishLaunching: so we don't have to use ObjC when this is called by the system.
    class_addMethod(AppDelClass,
                    sel_getUid("applicationDidFinishLaunching:"),
                    (IMP) AppDel_didFinishLaunching, "i@:@");

    objc_registerClassPair(AppDelClass);
}

void init_app(void)
{
    objc_msgSend(
                 objc_getClass("NSApplication"),
                 sel_getUid("sharedApplication"));

    if (NSApp == NULL)
    {
        fprintf(stderr,"Failed to initialized NSApplication...  terminating...\n");
        return;
    }

    id appDelObj = objc_msgSend(
                                objc_getClass("AppDelegate"),
                                sel_getUid("alloc"));
    appDelObj = objc_msgSend(appDelObj, sel_getUid("init"));

    objc_msgSend(NSApp, sel_getUid("setDelegate:"), appDelObj);
    objc_msgSend(NSApp, sel_getUid("run"));
}

//there doesn't need to be a main.m because of this little beauty here.
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    //Initialize a valid app delegate object just like [NSApplication sharedApplication];
    initAppDel();
    //Initialize the run loop, just like [NSApp run];  this function NEVER returns until the app closes successfully.
    init_app();
    //We should close acceptably.
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

View.m
#include <objc/runtime.h>
#include <objc/message.h>
#include <ApplicationServices/ApplicationServices.h>

// This is a strong reference to the class of our custom view,
// In case we need it in the future.
Class ViewClass;

// This is a simple -drawRect implementation for our class. We could have
// used a UILabel  or something of that sort instead, but I felt that this
// stuck with the C-based mentality of the application.
void View_drawRect(id self, SEL _cmd, CGRect rect)
{
    //make a red NSColor object with its convenience method
    id red  = objc_msgSend(objc_getClass("NSColor"), sel_getUid("redColor"));

    // fill target rect with red, because this is it!
    NSRect rect1 = NSMakeRect ( 21,21,210,210 );
    objc_msgSend(red, sel_getUid("set"));
    NSRectFill ( rect1 );
}

// Once again we use the (constructor) attribute. generally speaking,
// having many of these is a very bad idea, but in a small application
// like this, it really shouldn't be that big of an issue.
__attribute__((constructor))
static void initView()
{

    // Once again, just like the app delegate, we tell the runtime to
    // create a new class, this time a subclass of 'UIView' and named 'View'.
    ViewClass = objc_allocateClassPair((Class) objc_getClass("NSView"), "View", 0);

    // and again, we tell the runtime to add a function called -drawRect:
    // to our custom view. Note that there is an error in the type-specification
    // of this method, as I do not know the @encode sequence of 'CGRect' off
    // of the top of my head. As a result, there is a chance that the rect
    // parameter of the method may not get passed properly.
    class_addMethod(ViewClass, sel_getUid("drawRect:"), (IMP) View_drawRect, "v@:");

    // And again, we tell the runtime that this class is now valid to be used.
    // At this point, the application should run and display the screenshot shown below.
    objc_registerClassPair(ViewClass);
}

prefix.pch
//
// Prefix header for all source files of the 'CBasedMacApp' target in the 'CBasedMacApp' project
//

#ifdef __OBJC__
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <AppKit/AppKit.h>
#endif

A:
I read here Learn C Before Objective-C?

Usually I then replace some Obj-C code with pure C code (after all you can mix them as much as you like, the content of an Obj-C method can be entirely, pure C code)

Is this true?
Could I build an iPhone app purely in the C programming language?

The quoted passage is true, but the answer to your question is no.
To illustrate what answerer Mecki on that other question was talking about:
- (void) drawRect:(CGRect)dirtyRect { //Objective-C

    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();  //C
    CGContextSetRGBFillColor(context, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0); //C
    CGContextFillRect(context, dirtyRect);                 //C

} //Objective-C (balances above "- (void) drawRect:…" line)

There is nothing but pure C code within this method, but the method itself is Objective-C code, as is the class that contains this method.
So it is possible to do what Mecki said, but you can't (practically—as Richard J. Ross III showed, it's technically possible but quite a lot of typing) write a whole Cocoa Touch program in pure C.

A: Actually, some of the code posted here, while written in C, is still calling objective-C code :). I don't know if that actually fits the scenario from the original poster when he asked

Is it possible to build an iPhone app purely in the C programming
  language?

but I would agree with the people saying that, generally speaking and for an app with a GUI, you would need to write your GUI in OpenGL (which is C).
I think that is what most games do, right? Although I'm not sure if there's access to the iPhone's I/O (the touchscreen for example) in C.
Last but not least, the guys that wrote the code above rock! :)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
GOP Struggles With Timetable
By Emily Pierce
Posted April 15, 2005 at 6:20pm
Democrats' ongoing refusal to consider President Bush's proposal to create private investment accounts under Social Security continues to give Congressional Republicans fits as they try to hammer out a timeline for possible action on legislation this year.
"Without bipartisan support, we are going through an exercise that is unlikely to be successful," Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (Pa.) said Thursday. "We'll be very lucky to get something done by the fall of this year."
Santorum added that, if Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) continues to be "able to hold all of his people, the chances of us getting something done here is going to be pretty tough."
Even Bush administration officials tacitly acknowledge that they are between a rock and a hard place without Democratic support.
"The president has made it very clear that he believes that no solution works unless it's bipartisan," said Allan Hubbard, director of the Bush administration's National Economic Council.
The White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill have repeatedly hinted that they are privately meeting with "open-minded" Democratic lawmakers and are optimistic that they will soon have a bipartisan coalition in favor of the president's proposal to allow workers to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into private investment accounts, in exchange for a lower guaranteed Social Security benefit.
"There are three, four, five different folks talking [to Republicans], who are at least open to the idea of talking," said Santorum, who did not name the Democrats to whom he was referring.
But Reid spokesman Jim Manley said he could find "no evidence" of Republicans penetrating Democrats' resolve to oppose President Bush's "privatization" plan.
The continuing stalemate between Democrats and Republicans manifests itself most noticeably in GOP predictions — or lack thereof — about when they will be able to move a specific bill.
Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was noncommittal last week when pressed on exactly when he would bring up a Social Security bill in his committee.
Asked to give more specifics on his comment that he would take up a Social Security bill in his committee "this summer," Grassley demurred, saying it was a "pretty general" timeline. Later he said, "I think I said July."
Still, Republicans on Capitol Hill and in the White House continue to brainstorm ways of convincing Democrats to begin negotiating on a Social Security bill. But because most of their proposed strategies have leaked to the media before they could even be attempted, Democrats have become even more wary of GOP overtures.
Told that Republicans were urging President Bush to talk more about making Social Security solvent than about his private investment account plan, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) questioned Republicans' commitment to making Social Security financially sound beyond its projected insolvency in 2041.
"Is this just a way to get the process going [with Democrats] and then attach private accounts to it?" asked Stabenow, who is heading up the Democratic Social Security public relations effort.
Stabenow reiterated the Democratic mantra that they will refuse to work with Republicans unless the GOP gives up on trying to create private investment accounts under Social Security.
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has said he is open to listening to the president's private investment account proposal, but he criticized the administration for sidestepping the solvency issue, particularly since Bush has acknowledged that private investment accounts will not solve Social Security's dwindling ability to pay promised benefits to retirees, the disabled, and widows and their children.
"They need to sit down and solve the solvency question first and then talk about other things," Nelson said. "People are interested in solvency. … They don't hear the White House talking about solvency."
Though Bush has been talking in very general terms about how to shore up Social Security, his focus on private investment accounts has largely drowned out his attempts to link the two issues.
Indeed, Grassley urged the White House and his Congressional colleagues last week to refocus on the solvency issue.
"I don't know to what extent to put this on the back of the president," Grassley said. "We have not pushed enough discussion of the solvency issue. … We need to be concentrating on that. I don't think we've done enough of that."
Meanwhile, Republicans are still looking to fill the void caused by Bush's refusal to send a detailed bill to Congress.
"I feel a real sense of urgency for us to come up with more proposals, so the president can get a sense of the landscape up here," said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who will introduce his own bill in the next few weeks. DeMint's bill would allow workers to divert as much as 5 percent of their income into personal accounts, a proposal significantly bigger than the accounts Bush has proposed.
But both Republicans and Democrats have been urging Bush to be more specific, something the administration has promised to do when Bush wraps up his "60 Stops in 60 Days" Social Security public relations campaign.
"The more specific he becomes, the more heat he takes, but the more pressure on the [Congress] to answer specific plans," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), according to an April 13 Associated Press report.
But Nelson said that only the White House could fill the void.
"Until you have some indication of where the White House is going to be, I think people will continue window shopping," he said.


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Q: Bootstrap em modelo de regressão linear - Calcular importância de variáveis Estou calculando a importância de variáveis para regressão múltipla com a função varImp do pacote caret. Porém ao fazer pelo usando função e bootstrap não consigo recuperar os valores como consegui para R².
Como posso salvar os valores de importância de coeficientes em .csv, por exemplo?
Exemplo replicável:
library(boot)
library(caret)

imp_lm <- function(data, indices) {
  d <- data[indices,]

  fit.all <- lm(d$mpg~.,data=d)
  return(varImp(fit.all, scale = FALSE))
}

results <- boot(data=mtcars, statistic=imp_lm, R=10)

Error in t.star[r, ] <- res[[r]] :
   incorrect number of subscripts on matrix

A: Note que no help da função boot, o argumento statistic tem a seguinte descrição (grifos meus):

A function which when applied to data returns a vector containing the statistic(s) of interest.

Ao rodarmos a função varImp, obtemos o seguinte:
fit.all <- lm(mpg ~ ., data=mtcars)
resultado <- varImp(fit.all, scale = FALSE)
is.data.frame(resultado)
## [1] TRUE

Portanto, o resultado da tua função imp_lm retorna um data frame, pois a função varImp retorna um data frame. Uma maneira de contornar isso é alterar a tua função, colocando return(varImp(fit.all, scale = FALSE)[, 1]) ao final e, assim, extraindo a primeira coluna do resultado que calcula a importância das variáveis:
imp_lm <- function(data, indices) {
  d <- data[indices, ]

  fit.all <- lm(mpg ~ ., data=d)
  return(varImp(fit.all, scale = FALSE)[, 1])
}

results <- boot(data=mtcars, statistic=imp_lm, R=10)
results

## ORDINARY NONPARAMETRIC BOOTSTRAP
##
##
## Call:
## boot(data = mtcars, statistic = imp_lm, R = 10)
##
##
## Bootstrap Statistics :
##       original     bias    std. error
## t1*  0.1066392  0.8799646   0.7188905
## t2*  0.7467585 -0.1206878   0.4692999
## t3*  0.9868407 -0.1654184   0.5865589
## t4*  0.4813036  0.5936594   0.7967201
## t5*  1.9611887 -0.8193792   0.5743548
## t6*  1.1234133  0.2350501   0.7057048
## t7*  0.1509915  0.9933979   0.8952965
## t8*  1.2254035  0.5388327   1.3083746
## t9*  0.4389142  0.6839702   0.8997836
## t10* 0.2406258  0.9177274   1.3346145


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Home » Pope Francis calls Chechens and Buryats 'the cruelest' Russian troops fighting in Ukraine | CNN
Pope Francis calls Chechens and Buryats 'the cruelest' Russian troops fighting in Ukraine | CNN
November 29, 2022 No Comments Politics
Pope Francis has described two of Russia's ethnic minority groups, the Chechens and Buryats, as some of the "cruelest" troops fighting in Ukraine.
The pontiff was speaking in an interview with a Jesuit magazine, America, which was published on Monday but took place on November 22, according to the outlet.
"The cruelest are perhaps those who are of Russia but are not of the Russian tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryats and so on," he said. "I speak of a people who are martyred. If you have a martyred people, you have someone who martyrs them."
Chechens are an ethnic group originating from Chechnya in southern Russia. Ramzan Kadyrov, the pro-Kremlin leader of the region, has largely been supportive of the war in Ukraine, and has even reportedly sent his own sons to fight there.
The Buryats are an ethnic group from eastern Siberia, in an area which borders Mongolia.
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, defended Russia's ethnic makeup on her official Telegram channel.
"We are one family with Buryats, Chechens and other representatives of our multinational and multi-confessional country," she said. "And together we will definitely pray for the Holy See, each in his own way."
In the interview with America, the Pope also addressed the anniversary of the Holodomor, a man-made famine that led to the death of millions of Ukrainians in 1932-33.
The anniversary of the famine, which is widely attributed to the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, is usually marked on the fourth Saturday of November.
"The genocide that Stalin committed against the Ukrainians [in 1932-33]. I believe it is appropriate to mention it as a historical antecedent of the [present] conflict," the Pope said.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has also caused tensions between Francis and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In June, the Pope described the war as Russian "expansionism and imperialism," and in May urged Kirill not to "become Putin's altar boy."
Two planned meetings between officials from the two churches have been canceled since the Russian invasion in February.
The first was due to take place in Jerusalem in April, and the second in Kazakhstan in September.
The leaders of the two churches have only ever met once, in Cuba in 2016, since the Great Schism in the 9th Century.
belief catholics and catholicism Caucasus Chechnya Christianity conflicts and war continents and regions eastern europe Europe minority and ethnic groups misc people north caucasus papacy and the pope Pope Francis religion and spirituality religious groups Russia russia-ukraine conflict Society Ukraine unrest
Man accused of severely beating and kidnapping Oregon woman knew his victim, police say, as manhunt for him continues | CNN
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Gender Statistics 2021
Date: Monday, 19 December 2022
Gender Statistics 2021 presents gender data on population, marriage, political life, occupations, labour force, poverty, family life, education, disability, violence and safety.
Time Use Survey in Georgia: 2020-2021
Date: Tuesday, 13 December 2022
Women and men engage in a range of activities on a daily basis. These include paid and unpaid work, domestic work, care work, volunteer work, education and learning, culture and sports, socializing and leisure, and personal care. Time Use Surveys provide data on the time spent on these various activities by women and men and allow for the analysis of gender-based differences in time allocation patterns across these activities. They are the only source for SDG indicator 5.4.1.
Moving towards the Gender Equality Index Bosnia and Herzegovina 2022
Moving towards the Gender Equality Index, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2022 presents data and index scores for two full domains, Knowledge and Power and the partial data and index sources for Work and Health as set by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) methodology on analysing the state of gender equality in a society. The report will support the establishment of an evidence base for future effots in achievieng gender equality.
Women and Men in North Macedonia - a statistical portrait of trends in gender equality
Women and Men in North Macedonia - a statistical portrait of trends in gender equality examines the trends in gender equality in several key areas, while analysing 12 editions of the Women and Men in North Macedonia, a signature publication by the State Statistical Office of North Macedonia, published in the period 2000 - 2021.
Gender Equality Facility (GEF) in North Macedonia - Project Factsheet
Date: Friday, 14 October 2022
The Gender Equality Facility (GEF) in North Macedonia project factsheet provides general overview of project objectives, funding, duration and partnerships behind the works at central level to increase long-term capacities and skills of key Government personnel mandated for European Integration and Gender Equality, so GE goals are increasingly reflected in the country's planning and policy processes.
Changing attitudes and behaviour of police officers in Tuzla Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina, using communications for behavioural impact (COMBI), Evaluation Report
Date: Thursday, 2 June 2022
This evaluation report documents the results of the "Changing the attitudes and behavior of police officers through the implementation of norms for the protection of victims of violence in the Tuzla Canton" project in relation to its specific objectives and expected results. It further identifies good practices and lessons learned to inform designing of similar interventions in the future.
Project brief: United Nations Joint Programme on Prevention of Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) in Turkey - Second Phase
This project brief describes the Second Phase of the "UN Joint Programme for the Prevention of CEFM", financed by Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), which will identify and address the socio-economic needs of families experiencing multidimensional poverty where girls (and boys) are at risk of CEFM and improve their access to high-quality social services.
Unstereotype Alliance Turkey Marketing Communications Playbook
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Youth As the Agents of Change for Gender Equality
This report describes the results of an eight-month Youth Engagement Initiative led by UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO), aiming to provide a space for young activists not as recipients and beneficiaries, but as active agents of change in the processes of transformative actions of the Generation Equality journey.
Building Culture of Experimentation for Gender Equality in Europe and Central Asia: Best Practices by UN Women Offices
This brief is a consolidation of some of the best practices introduced in 2020 across UN Women ECA offices on building a culture of experimentation. It showcases innovative approaches that can be further replicated across the region to provide solutions for promoting gender equality and women's empowerment.
Gender Equality Index of the Republic of Serbia 2021: Digitalization, future of work and gender equality
Date: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
To measure gender equality in the country, UN Women joined forces with the Coordination Body for Gender Equality, Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and SeCons, to calculate and analyze trends in six key domains: labor, money, knowledge, time, power, health, as well two satellite domains: cross-inequalities and violence against women.
Assessing the Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in Uzbekistan: What Data are Available?
Date: Thursday, 30 September 2021
This brief summarizes the key findings of the assessment, which looked into the availability of data that can be used to evaluate the gendered impacts of COVID-19 in Uzbekistan. It showcases available data and key data gaps in five thematic areas, and highlights the need for more and better gender statistics and sex-disaggregated data to guide the development of a gender-responsive approach for effective mitigation and recovery efforts.


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Q: Diferença semântica de "Malloc" e Calloc" Estava na aula de programação com C e me surgiu a dúvida sobre a diferença entre Malloc e Calloc, mas não no que cada uma faz, mas no significado do "M" e do "C".
Sei que Malloc vem de memory allocation, já o Calloc eu não faço ideia.

A: Se você der uma pesquisada, vai encontrar que não existe uma resposta certa para o caso do calloc. O "m" do malloc vem de memory allocation. Já o "c" do calloc é uma questão dividida.
Segundo este livro Linux System Programming não existe nenhuma fonte oficial que define o significado do calloc.
Mas a título de curiosidade algumas pessoas acreditam que o "c" vem da palavra em ingles clear que significa limpar. Isso se deve porque o calloc garante que o pedaço de memória retornado vem limpo e inicializado com o valor zero.
Espero ter ajudado.

A: O nome calloc() certamente é uma abreviação de clear-allocation, equanto malloc() vem de memory-allocation.
Porém, as funções de alocação dinâmica da biblioteca padrão stdlib.h possuem comportamentos diferentes:

*

*calloc() inicializa a memória alocada com "zeros";

*malloc() não inicializa a memória alocada.

Segue uma possível implementação de calloc(), que basicamente é a combinação das funções malloc() e memset():
void * calloc( size_t nmemb, size_t size )
{
    size_t len = size * nmemb;
    void * p = malloc( len );
    memset( p, 0, len );
    return p;
}


Master bedroom with king size bed and shower room en suite.
2 Bedrooms with queen size bed and doors to large terrace.
Bedroom with queen size bed with shower room en suite.
Shops and restaurants 5mins walk down the hill.
Tennis Club 5 mins walk.
Montpellier International Airport is 20 mins drive.
Spacious and sunny house with pool, just 10mins from Montpellier Medieval city center, and 20mins from the beaches. The house is located in a very quiet and exclusive residential area at the North of Montpellier. It is surrounded by a large garden and with a south facing swimming pool. The house benefit from being right next to the most exclusive tennis club in Montpellier with spa and gym facilities (Club7).


Warwick District Council will meet a crucial stage in the £1.2 million (Heritage Lottery Funded) restoration of Leamington's Pump Room Gardens later this year, with the start of the renovation of the iconic Victorian bandstand.
Prior to the renovation starting, the council will be carrying out some precautionary works to the structure, which will require the bandstand to be screened and fenced off from 21 to 25 August. The rest of the gardens will remain fully accessible to the public.


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Las Brisas Acapulco
Acapulco, Guerrero, Pacific Coast, Mexico
See All Acapulco Hotels
Large rooms feature terraces with views of Acapulco Bay or Pacific Ocean
All rooms include private or semi-private plunge pools
Two gigantic saltwater pools and freshwater pool with swim-up bar
Restaurants and bars offer gorgeous views over the bay and ocean
Free continental breakfast delivered in rooms
Some rooms feature bathrooms with rainfall showerheads and step-down baths
Retro ambience and a long history of celebrity guests
Relaxing spa with private treatment rooms
Free Wi-Fi throughout
Free shuttles provide transportation around the property
Modern fitness center with attractive views over the hilly surroundings
Many room categories include a free bottle of wine and canapés
Daily resort fee
No direct beach access
Few dining options within walking distance
Pools located at separate beach club accessible via shuttle
Las Brisas Acapulco is a four-and-a-half pearl hotel set in the hills overlooking Acapulco Bay. Its 263 bungalow-style rooms and facilities are well-maintained but also pay homage to the hotel's 60-year heritage with retro-chic touches. The property is designed to highlight its stunning hillside views over the surrounding bay and ocean. Each of the rooms includes terraces with private or semi-private pools; however, there are no beaches within walking distance and guests need to take a short shuttle ride to reach the common pools. Continental breakfast, Wi-Fi, and a fitness center are free, but there's a daily resort fee. For direct access to a beach and pools, consider the Pierre Mundo Imperial -- but know that its views aren't as spectacular and its rooms aren't as nice.
Private Pool Casita
Freshwater Pool
Best Luxury Hotels in Acapulco
Most Romantic Hotels in Acapulco
Hotel Class:	Luxury
Iconic 1950s hotel with an approachable yet upscale atmosphere
Constructed in the 1957, Las Brisas has become a local institution over the decades as well as a symbol of Acapulco's Golden Era glamour. Past guests at the hotel have included everyone from Frank Sinatra and Natalie Wood, to John Travolta and Denzel Washington. Many of the hotel's celebrity guests are immortalized in the lobby, their handprints set in pink cement and framed on the walls.
Despite its substantial history, the hotel doesn't feel like some stuffy old grand dame. Instead it exudes a laid-back whimsy with its pink-and-white color scheme and retro-chic style. Wicker chairs are topped with pink cushions and placed on stone floors in the lobby. Staff dressed in pink-and-white uniforms whiz around in matching jeeps, shuttling guests across the 40-acre property or delivering room service orders -- deftly balancing platters out of jeep windows on one hand while driving with the other.
The property is located in the hills above Acapulco Bay, and every area is designed to make the most of the exceptional views. The hotel is built on a former Mexican fort, with stone walls lining the hillside and antique cannons can be spotted here and there. Rooms that can accommodate children are clustered in a single area of the property, helping to preserve the calm, romantic ambience elsewhere for couples.
Out-of-the-way hilltop location on the southern edge of the city
Las Brisas is set in a relatively isolated location, a 20-minute drive from Acapulco's main tourist strip. Its neighbors include other hotels and restaurants, but few are within walking distance of one another. After five miles, the same road transforms into busy Avenida Costera Miguel Alemán, which is packed with restaurants, bars, and shops.
The beaches of Playa Puerto Marques and Playa Condesa are located about a 20-minute drive away in opposite directions. Acapulco International Airport can be reached in a 20-minute drive. The Chapel of Peace viewpoint is less than half a mile away from the hotel.
Bright, elegant rooms cleverly balance modern amenities with hints of nostalgia
Guest rooms at Las Brisas feature the hotel's signature pink-and-white color scheme. Plantation shutters, wicker chairs, and pink-trimmed pillows impart a '50s ambience, which is balanced by modern flat-screen TVs and clean-lined furniture. Wet bars are found in wall-to-wall closets, or in cabinets out on the terrace. Rock-tiled walls and lamps made from driftwood add an intriguing earthy element.
This earthy theme is picked up by the neutral-toned marble lining the walls and floors of the large bathrooms. All bathrooms include basic showers and Neutrogena bath products. Some suites feature rainfall showerheads and step-down baths, along with additional rock wall tiling that creates a secret grotto-like feeling.
All rooms offer terraces with private or semi-private plunge pools (semi-privates are shared with one to three neighboring rooms). Housekeepers sprinkle hibiscus blossoms into the pool water daily, and all terraces face towards Acapulco Bay or the Pacific Ocean. The area is furnished with pairs of loungers as well as tables and chairs shaded by simple tents. Terraces in some suites include large outdoor seating areas and jetted tubs.
Private beach club with three large pools, restaurants and bars with striking panoramic views, and free continental breakfast delivered in-room
Las Brisas has luxurious features that are in keeping with the rooms and views. On-demand shuttles transport guests to the hotel's La Concha Beach Club, which is located less than a five-minute drive down the road. The club encompasses two enormous saltwater pools (one of which was closed for renovation during our visit), which face Acapulco Bay, as well as a freeform freshwater pool. There's a swim-up bar in the freshwater pool, in addition to a small snack shack. The club also usually offers dining at La Concha restaurant, but it was closed during our visit. The pool area is surrounded by a concrete deck dotted with soft lounge chairs shaded by white beach umbrellas. The whole space is large enough that it rarely feels crowded, even when the hotel is busy.
Tiny open-air Sunset Bar is open for a few hours each evening during sunset. There are some high-top chairs set along the small bar, but most seats are lined up to face toward the Pacific Ocean. The views are equally spectacular on the large terrace of Bellavista Restaurant, which overlooks Acapulco Bay. Open for dinner and drinks, the chic interior area of the restaurant features large windows that take advantage of the beautiful views. Breakfast is typically offered at El Tulipan, but the restaurant was closed during our visit. Bellavista offered breakfast service in its place.
Room rates include a daily continental breakfast of coffee and sweet rolls. Breakfast is delivered to the magic box, a small two-door compartment outside the casita that allows guests to pick-up deliveries at their convenience and without having to speak to staff. Many room rates also include a welcome bottle of wine as well as hors d'oeuvres delivered to the magic box at the evening of arrival. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout, and the hotel's meeting spaces can accommodate groups ranging from 10 to 280 people.
There's a moderate-size business center with leather couches, a few personal computers, and printing facilities.The hotel's cozy little spa offers facials, massages, and body treatments. Next to the spa is a modern fitness center with a universal gym, cardio machines, and lovely views over the surrounding hills.
Holiday Inn Acapulco La Isla
Holiday Inn Acapulco La Isla is a three-pearl business hotel with a modern, tropical vibe in Acapulco's Diamond Zone. The 101 guest rooms are bright and beachy with clapboard-accented walls and doors and flat-screen TVs. The hotel caters mostly to business travelers and has meeting…
Holiday Inn Resort Acapulco
The Holiday Inn Resort Acapulco is a three-and-a-half pearl oceanfront hotel along crescent-shaped Acapulco Bay. The resort's 220 rooms are a mix of Suites, Superior, and Standard Rooms with bright interiors, natural-toned wood-veneer furniture, flat-screen TVs, and private ocean-view balconies. The ocean-view restaurant gets mostly…
Ritz Acapulco
Ritz Acapulco is a lower-middle-range hotel located in the city's Golden Zone on prime beachfront of Acapulco Bay, making the hotel a convenient base for water sports, shopping, and bar-hopping. Its 240 rooms are generic but clean, with the majority featuring furnished balconies and shower/tub…
The 17 Best Bang-for-Your-Buck Luxury Hotels in Mexico
Balconies with jetted tubs, gourmet restaurants, and swish ocean-view pools are just some of the perks of many luxury hotels in Mexico. Although we love a good budget option, sometimes that means sacrificing posh rooms and excellent features. With that in mind, we set out to find amazing hotels in Mexico that are both luxurious…
Beauty / Hair Salon
Hotel Los Flamingos
Princess Mundo Imperial
Elcano Hotel
Emporio Acapulco Hotel
Banyan Tree Cabo Marques
Encanto Acapulco
Grand Hotel Acapulco And Convention Center
Copacabana Beach Hotel
Camino Real Acapulco Diamante


In his jihad against Christianity Paul Bilal Williams likes to go on the twitter accounts of Christian scholars, theologians, pastors, and/or apologists in order stalk them with tweets assaulting the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Since the best way to deal with stalkers is to give them a taste of their own medicine, I have therefore decided to make it a chief aim of mine to go after Williams until and unless he learns his lesson by stopping his harassment and stalking of my fellow Christian brothers and sisters.
In his most recent stalking spree, Williams cited 1 Corinthians 15:24 to contest noted Christian scholar John Piper's tweet that America and her presidents will be a footnote in history, whereas the kingdom of the Lord Jesus shall never end. Williams' distorts the words of the risen Lord's blessed Apostle in order to argue that Christ's rule shall come to an end.
In light of this shameless and perverse manhandling of the words of Holy Scripture I am now going to teach Williams a lesson by not only refuting his claim, but by also showing how Paul's inspired words prove that Muhammad is one of the enemies of Christ whom the risen Lord will bring (and already has brought) under his glorious feet and shall destroy with an everlasting destruction.
As such, it is quite clear that both the Old and New Testaments emphatically testify that the Lord Jesus, who is long-awaited Messiah Son of David, is an eternal King who reigns over an everlasting and indestructible kingdom.
With that said we are ready to proceed to the second part of our rebuttal to see whether the blessed Apostle Paul, the beloved servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, proclaimed this same divinely revealed truth.