text:
Q: Swift - Cannot specialize a non-generic definition I have a function that is responsible for making the HTTP requests in the app. Basically, it sets up all the required headers, timeouts, etc... etc...
Then, when the request is complete, I run 2 functions (provided by the developer): whenSuccess/whenError (depending on the result of the call) and whenComplete (regardless the result of the call). I want the last one to be able to receive the result of the whenSuccess function.
I have the doRequest function declared as
private func doRequest<S>(whenSuccess: (_ json: JSON?)->(S?),
                       whenError: (_ description: String)->(),
                       whenComplete: Optional<(S?)->()>) {
        // yada yada yada
}

So, the developer provides a function that gets a JSON and returns a generic. If the whenError is called, the whenComplete is called with nil as parameter.
I'm invoking it with
doRequest<Int>(whenSuccess: { (json) -> (Int?) in //Cannot specialize a non-generic definition
            return 5
}, whenError: { (error) in

}) { (success) in

}

I get the error commented:

Cannot specialize a non-generic definition

Any idea if this can be done and how?

A: In Swift you must not explicitly specialize generic functions. Instead, generic functions automatically get specialized via type inference from theirs arguments.
The call you you're trying to make should look like this:
doRequest(whenSuccess: { json -> Int? in
    //...
}, whenError: { error in
    //...
}, whenComplete: { success in
    //...
})


The visits to the Balneario Vichy Catalan thermal centre offer the possibility of combining the therapeutic aspect to the amenities of a grand hotel and the tranquility and landscape of the region of La Selva.
Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 21:00.
Saturdays from 09:00 a 21:00.
Sundays from 09:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 21:00.
Monday to Saturdays from 09:00 a 21:00.
Tour of the different thermal pools with Bicarbonated Sodic and Alkaline waters of the Vichy Catalan spring at 36ºC (originally they sprout at 60ºC). In the tour we find Jacuzzi, Underwater jets, Thermal water cannons, Chromoterápia, Bitérmica Shower, Cubo Shower, Foot Bath, Filandesa Sauna and Thermal Sauna (Hamman).
For all those children between 6 and 13 who are accompanied at all times by an adult, they can do it within the Children's Schedule.
For more information consult the Thermal Charter.
Manual massage performed by a therapist under multiple streams of Vichy Catalan thermal water that run over the body from head to toe. Its anti-inflammatory and relaxing action eases muscular tension, resulting in general state of well-being.
Body massage performed with a highly invigorating and toning jet of Vichy Catalan thermal water.
All over manual massage with a relaxing effect. Its rhythmic and firm manipulations loosen the muscles, activate the blood flow and calm the nervous system.
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Perfect combination of the benefits of chiromassage with the aromatic effects of essential oils. This combination provides the nervous and muscular system with deep and long lasting relaxation.
Special massage for muscle ailments with a Natural product based on Arnica, Marigold, Hypericum.
Main Effect: Relaxation of the muscular system, activation of circulation and evasion of the mind.
Recommendation: We recommend that you carry out these treatments after any thermal water bath with the aim of enhancing deep relaxation, relief of tension and muscle contraction.
Complete treatment with volcanic stones rich in iron, whic gives them their great thermal conductivity. The application of hot stones on specific areas of the body and a massage with other hot stones generates a pleasant sensation of muscular and nerve relaxation.
Complete treatment with hot chocolate. Cocoa contains anti-oxidants, mineral salts, and vitamins that we combine with long and rhythmic movements to moisturise and nourish the skin whilst improving your mood.
Gentle and rhythmic manual massage technique with a drainage effect. Gentle pressure activates the surface lymphatic sistem responsible for eliminating the bodily fluids that cause oedema.
Specific manual massage technique that stimulates the reflexive areas of the feet to restore physical, emotional and energetic balance while letting you enjoy a pleasant massage and putting your feet into a state of complete relaxation.
Localised massage in a specific area of the body with a relaxing effect.
Applying a clay plaque and paraffin in the treatment area. Large anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect is ideal to apply before any manual therapy.
- Monday from 4pm to 5.30pm.
- Wednesday from 10.30 am to 12 noon.
- Friday from 4pm to 5.30pm.
Integral massage with aromatic oil suitable for massage lovers, as in one treatment session includes a foot massage, a full body massage and massage craniocervical.
Massage treatment performed by two therapists working in coordinated right and left side of the body.
Aromatic Massage and Facial Massage with essential oil 100% natural.


A proposed agreement designed to ease compliance with the container weight reporting requirement set to take effect July 1 is getting support from a major trade association.
The Department of Homeland Security recently extended for a third time the deadline for complying with a congressionally mandated requirement of 100 percent scanning of U.S.-bound maritime cargo containers. However, DHS is also soliciting new ideas on how to meet this requirement, an effort that has some business groups concerned.
For the first time, domestic and foreign food facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food and are required to register as food facilities (with some exceptions) will be required to prepare and implement a written food defense plan that assesses significant vulnerabilities to deliberate contamination where the intent is to cause wide-scale harm to public health.
40 Nations, One Economy Certified to Export Shrimp to U.S.
New rules on transitioning to the International Trade Data System, export controls and boycott reporting are among the items listed on the Department of Commerce's most recent semiannual regulatory agenda.
As of that date electronic entry and entry summary filings for specified entry types (in addition to those already required in ACE as of that date; click here for more information) must be formatted for submission in ACE and will no longer be accepted in ACS.
The International Trade Commission released May 18 a report stating that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement would likely have small but generally positive effects on the U.S. economy. However, critics objected to the ITC's review methodology and said its estimates for previous agreements have been erroneous.
The AFL-CIO and five Colombian labor organizations have filed a petition with the Department of Labor alleging that Colombia has failed to comply with labor obligations in its free trade agreement with the U.S. The petition comes a month after the U.S. issued a report praising Colombia for its progress on labor rights but noting that more still needs to be done.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced May 17 regulatory and other amendments intended to support trade with Burma, facilitate the movement of goods within Burma, allow certain transactions related to U.S. individuals residing in Burma, and allow most transactions involving designated financial institutions.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a final determination concerning the country of origin of two pieces of exercise equipment that may be offered to the U.S. government under an undesignated government procurement contract.
The next step in the transition from the Automated Commercial System to the Automated Commercial Environment will take place May 28 with the mandatory filing of additional entries and entry summaries in ACE. CBP has also announced that most electronic entries and entry summaries for goods regulated by the Food and Drug Administration must be filed in ACE as of June 15.


text:
Start your free trial now, and begin learning software, business and creative skills—anytime, anywhere—with video instruction from recognized industry experts.
All Authors Sharon Ross
Sharon Ross is a character designer for Family Guy. She has worked for Disney and Nickelodeon.
Sharon Ross is an artist who feels very lucky to be doing the work she loves. Coming from a small town in Kansas, she started her career at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City and ended up in Los Angeles, where she has worked for Walt Disney Company, Klasky Csupo, Nickelodeon, and Fox Television Animation. She is currently a character designer on the animated TV series Family Guy. Sharon is also an illustrator and visual development artist, and has contributed to games, books, and other products. She works digitally with a Cintiq but also uses traditional media, and sometimes a combination of the two. The rest of her time is spent pursuing personal art, hanging around Joshua Tree, traveling the West Coast, and working on one of her favorite things: children's picture books.
Sharon Ross: Character Designer for 2D Animation
with Sharon Ross
Get insights from a real character designer. In this interview, Sharon Ross explains how she went from art student to illustrator to character designer for Family Guy.
10m 56s Intermediate Views: 4,038 Jan 15, 2016
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Home › Could space aliens on hefty super-Earths be trapped by their own gravity?
Here's a problem that probably hasn't occurred to you: A lot of space aliens might have difficulty becoming a spacefaring species.
Michael Hippke, an affiliate at Germany's Sonnenberg Observatory, explains the problem in a new paper. It's because most of the exoplanets we think would be suitable for spawning intelligent beings are larger than Earth. They're "super-Earths," with diameters that are typically 1.2 to 2 times that of our own world. Such porky planets are 50 percent more common than Earth-sized worlds, at least among the exoplanets we've found so far.
What does this have to do with alien space programs? As Hippke notes, aliens using chemical rockets like ours would have a hard time launching anything into space from such worlds, simply because the gravity there is stronger.
Well, that's true. On a planet whose diameter is twice that of Earth, you'd weigh twice as much as you do on terra firma. Lamentable. But if you assume that sending a spacecraft into the void from such a planet would require a rocket twice the size of its terrestrial counterpart, you're wrong. At least you're wrong if you're talking about a rocket of the type we use.
Consider SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. It weighs 1,500 tons and can heave 17 tons into deep space. On the larger of the super-Earths (twice our world's size and with eight times its mass), a scaled-up Heavy would weigh 15,000 tons to do the same. All other things being equal, it would be a little over twice as high as the Falcon, or 40 percent taller than the Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to the moon.
That would be an impressive hunk of hardware to have in your front yard, but nothing that Earthlings — or Vulcans — couldn't build. For most super-Earths, which are smaller than we've considered here, the engineering challenges would be even less formidable.
Some of Hippke's calculations seem to be in error, leading him to overestimate the challenges to space programs on super-Earths. But even if stronger gravity delayed the inhabitants of these worlds from getting off their planet by 50 or 100 years, you have to ask: so what? Does that bump in the road matter more than the fact that the larger size of their planet would delay the laying of telegraph cables from one continent to another, or that long-distance transport would be slower, simply because the distances would be — well — longer?
Besides, a heftier world might have certain advantages. More gravity would mean a thicker atmosphere, which might speed the development of aviation. Greater acreage might bring a wider diversity of animals, possibly producing intelligence sooner than happened on Earth. And one could expect more abundant natural resources on an oversized world.
Planets of differing size offer differing challenges to their inhabitants. But the really significant problems are unlikely to include the fact that kerosene rockets would be a bit harder to build. The presence of a large, nearby moon — a tempting target for space exploration — might be a greater factor in the development of spaceflight.
Three centuries ago, Gottfried Leibniz suggested that we live in the best of all possible worlds. That might or might not be true. But I would hesitate to judge the worth of our planet, or anyone else's, by the size of its rockets.


As of the latest source code commit, Json.NET 3.5 supports running on the .NET 2.0 framework. Yes you read that right all you dot-net-two-point-oh-ers, next release expect a hot, hot Newtonsoft.Json.Net20.dll coming your way.
The main barrier to getting Json.NET running on .NET was LINQ – both usages internally inside Json.NET and unsurprisingly for LINQ to JSON. Fortunately getting LINQ running in a .NET 2.0 application is just a couple of steps.
The first thing you will need is VS2008 – it has the syntax support for extension methods and lambda expressions. VS2008 also has the ability to target a project against a specific version of the .NET framework. By setting the target framework to .NET 2.0 Visual Studio will remove all the assemblies from that project that have been added post 2.0 such as WCF, WPF, LINQ to SQL, LINQ to XML, etc.
Although VS2008 projects targeting .NET 2.0 still support extension methods and lambda expressions in code, without the LINQ assemblies added in 3.5 none of the LINQ extension methods (Select, Where, OrderBy) are available to use.
The solution is LINQBridge, an open source reimplementation of the LINQ classes and assembly methods. LINQBridge looks and acts exactly the same as LINQ in .NET 3.5, right down to the System.Linq namespace. Just add a reference to LINQBridge.dll to the project and you're done. Enjoy LINQ in your .NET 2.0 application!
This step is only necessary if you're targeting multiple framework versions using multiple projects. The preprocessor lets you enable and disable portions of code based on conditional compilation symbols defined in a project. The Newtonsoft.Json.Net20 project defines the NET20 symbol and is used to disable portions of code that deal with functionality not available in .NET 2.0.
If you don't want to distribute LINQBridge.dll with your application then ILMerge is a free command line app from Microsoft for merging .NET assemblies together. In my Json.NET build script I have used ILMerge to build LINQBridge.dll into Newtonsoft.Json.Net20.dll. The end user will never have to worry about the additional file.
And that's it. The next version of Json.NET will include the new 2.0 assembly or download the source code for yourself now.


New Hope for Children Orphanage: Father paralyzed, mother abandoned him: Anil now knows the love of Jesus!
"I am P. Anil. I am 8 years old and studying in 3rd grade. I like to play volleyball and cricket. My favorite school subject is English, and when I grow up I want to be a doctor. My father was paralyzed and my mother abandoned me. I do not know where she is. I love to study and New Hope Children's Home provided me hope of a future. They also gave me good food, shelter, and an education. The caretakers look after me like I'm their son. I know Jesus and I'm glad he died for me on the cross. He told us to be righteous and to not sin because He didn't sin. I am in need of a sponsor."
CLICK HERE TO SPONSOR ANIL!


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Slim Bounty: Your Thanksgiving meal might be affected by this summer's heat wave, shipping and sup
NWNews | By Anna King,
KUOW's Ruby de Luna
Published November 22, 2021 at 10:02 AM PST
Anna King
Heirloom turkeys huddle in a rusty stock trailer awaiting the abattoir at Windy N Ranch outside of Ellensburg.
More than a dozen heirloom turkeys huddle together in a rusty horse trailer.
They're awaiting the abattoir.
They don't gobble much, but swivel their heads to and fro in sync. A broody flock of chickens observes from a distance.
Greg Newhall, a tall man with tall rubber boots, owns Windy N Ranch in the hills outside of Ellensburg. Today his ranch in the bluffs is enshrouded in a macabre dense fog, as his son and another worker prepare the knives. Steam drifts out the door of the farm's abattoir.
"We'll butcher the frozen ones today," he explains. "And then Sunday, we'll butcher the fresh turkeys.
Newhall says it's almost like turkeys look for a way to die.
"Hunters will say that they are very smart. That's not been our experience," he says with a wry smile. "Turkeys more than any other fowl are just extremely fragile."
Newhall says he lost nearly 100 young turkeys in this June's heat dome event. So this year, there are less birds for his customers.
Traditional Thanksgiving favorites might be harder to come by … or cost more. Last year, a lot of people hunkered down at home instead of making a feast. That contrast is reflected in higher than usual year-over-year inflation numbers for food. Add to that pandemic-related supply chain and shipping issues. And the summer's extreme heat also has reaped a strange harvest. Holiday shoppers may need to be less picky this year.
At a QFC grocery store, stacks of boxed stuffing, canned green beans and other Thanksgiving essentials are prominently displayed in different corners of the store.
"We're in a pretty good spot right now, for the holidays," says store spokesperson Tiffany Sanders.
She says the store has been preparing for the past several months to avoid a repeat of the early days of the pandemic, when people were in a panic and buying more than they needed.
"I think we learned a lot through that as far as what kind of supply to have on hand," Sanders says. "It helped us to kind of further look down the road."
But she adds that there might be a few instances where customers will have to try a different brand than their normal choice. For example, take mushrooms. Sanders says one of the store's fresh mushroom vendors was having an issue.
"What we've done is secured other varieties of mushrooms," she says. "We've also secured some dried mushrooms." She says that gives shoppers options for their favorite stuffing.
Sanders says QFC is working with more shipping ports so if there's a problem at one port, they can shift to another.
Those could be more expensive this year. Heat took out many potato crops. But the heat also made everything that's going into storage a bit smaller and less reliable. Some farmers fear their potatoes won't last through the winter. Chris Voigt leads the Washington State Potato Commission.
"Once you get one bad potato rotting, it kind of spreads within the storage," Voigt says. "And literally you can rot the entire storage building. These buildings are the size of a football field, stacked 20 feet high with potatoes. So, just imagine the mess of a football sized building with rotted potatoes."
Voigt says customers can expect to pay 30-40 percent more for big baker potatoes, while smaller potatoes in bags will be about the same as last year.
"Let's say you're having a prime rib for your Thanksgiving dinner and you want some real nice baked potatoes to go with that prime rib -- well you're going to be paying a bit more," Voigt says.
Whether it's in stuffing, salad or side dishes, nearly every meal for Thanksgiving uses an onion somewhere. But this year onions could be more expensive. This unusually hot summer yielded smaller crops of some varieties -- like reds and Walla Walla sweets. Other onions grew smaller. And farmers are worried about how onions might hold up over the winter.
Jason Walker runs the packing shed at Bybee Produce outside of Prosser, Wash. Beyond the heat, Walker blames increasing production costs.
"We've gotta have those prices to again cover the costs that we're incurring and the labor shortages," Walker says. "You know materials are going up. Again, labor's going up. You know everything is going up which is making it really difficult to compete."
At the Ballard Farmers Market in Seattle, fall is a busy season for Felix Mahr. He owns Bloom Creek Cranberries in Olympia. Most growers flood their fields when they harvest, but Mahr dry picks them with a machine. He harvests what he'll sell at the market, leaving the rest to stay on the vine longer. "They just keep getting sweeter and sweeter," he says. "More flavorful."
Mahr likes the flavor profile of Willapa Red berries.
"Some people say it's tart," Mahr says. "I think it's got more tannins in it, you know, like oaky flavors."
But the heat wave whacked the size of Mahr's Willapas.
"There seems to be enough fruit, but there were patches in our bog. There were vines that were scorched," he says.
Fortunately, Mahr says, the heat didn't affect the crop's flavor.
Cheers to your Thanksgiving
Like cranberries, grapes did better than many other items on your Thanksgiving table. So another bright spot this season is Northwest wine.
This past year's heatwaves, Covid-related shipping delays and inflation may affect future vintages. But because it takes time to produce any bottle of wine, Washington and Oregon vintages from a few years ago are ready for your glass.
Northwest wine experts recommend buying your wine as soon as possible, though, to let it rest. A condition called bottle shock can make your pour taste a bit funky. But if the wine has a bit of time to settle down after being moved around, it will surely complement the meal.
Copyright 2021 Northwest News Network. To see more, visit Northwest News Network.
Northwest News Network
Anna King calls Richland, Washington home and loves unearthing great stories about people in the Northwest. She reports for the Northwest News Network from a studio at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. She covers the Mid-Columbia region, from nuclear reactors to Mexican rodeos.
See stories by Anna King


If you wish to purchase a copy of the Showcase 2017 photo album please complete your request here via this event setup.
If unable to collect then postage will be an additional charge and invoiced separately.
Orders close Tuesday 24th April 2018 midnight.
Note: Requests that are not paid for by the close date will not be included in the order. It is up to the individual to ensure they make payment by 24th April, 2018.
Please allow up to 6-8 weeks for printing and delivery.
In the event you wish to order after the 24th April, pricing increases to $49.95 plus if required to be posted additional charge will be invoiced separately.


The town council has postoned a plan to build a passive pedestrian park in a tiny wedge of land the town owns along the Intracoastal Waterway just south of Ocean Avenue.
Fulton Park, on East Pine Street between South Dixie Highway and the waterway, is one of 11 tracts owned by the town that provide easements, or rights of way, to the waterway. If built, it would include border fences, a boardwalk, benches, trash cans and landscaping. It would not have vehicle parking or boat access.
The park would be named for Bill Fulton, a council member from 1983 to 1986, who lived on Pine Street; Fulton died at 78 in March 2006.
Mike Hanratty, whose home abuts the proposed park, told the council he fears people will park their vehicles nearby.
And resident Dale McCurley, who lives across the street, told the council he worried about the safety of those in nearby homes — he said he already has been burglarized 10 times in a decade — and also believes few people will use the park. And, he said, it will hamper "a pristine and unobscured view of the Intracoastal."
But resident Joe Farrell, who is running for the town council in March, supported the park, saying, "it helps Lantana. It helps everybody. And if we do all 11 easements, so much the better."
Council member Lynn Moorhouse said other town easements are in far worse shape and he'd rather beautify one of those first. And Vice Mayor Philip Aridas said he wasn't ready to pull the trigger without getting more feedback from neighbors.
But council member Tom Deringer said the tract already was public property and "I have to think of the entire town." And, he said, "people could walk down there now." He also said he doesn't believe the view of the waterway will be impeded. But he also was willing to spend more time studying the idea. The vote to postpone was 4-0.


text:
Q: Firestore rules: condition check fails when data is number Below is a sample rule that fails when the document field used in the condition has a data type of number-
match message_box/{user_id}/inbox {
      allow read: if get('..../users/$(request.auth.uid)).data['user_id'] == user_id
}

This rule always fails because in data the field value is number, but in path variable {user_id} it is captured as string.
Following two tests validates that it is an actual issue-

*

*In rules, by using a hardcoded integer value on right side of the comparison (e.g.- data['user_id'] == 456), and then the read succeeds. Or-

*In data, set the data type of user_id field to string. In that case the
match rule specified at the top of this post succeeds.

Any easy way to run it smooth? Don't see a way to cast int to string in rules documentation.

A: This question was referenced here.
In case anyone runs into this in the future, check out these docs on converting data types in the Firestore rules:
String -> Integer
Integer -> String
Examples:
int("2") == 2
int(2.0) == 2

string(true) == "true"
string(1) == "1"
string(2.0) == "2.0"
string(null) == "null"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Python: Creating 16-bit source and destination ports for a packet header I'm creating a networking protocol in application space on top of UDP in python for homework. I need to represent the source port and destination port as 16-bit numbers. All attempts have failed.
The way I'm testing this is by creating a udp socket and looking at the return value of sendto(). Here's your typical socket code:
import socket
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
addr = ("127.0.0.1", 1234)

Ports range from 0 to 65535. Let's say I choose a port of 65000. I want sendto() to return 2 (2 bytes = 16 bits sent). Here's what I've tried:
I call the following and get:
>>>mySock.sendto(655000, addr)
TypeError: must be string or buffer, not int

Ok, let's try using bytes()
>>>mySock.sendto(bytes(65000), addr)
5

Hm, that's not what I want. That is making each number into a character that is a single byte.
What if I bitwise or it with 0x0000?
>>>mySock.sendto(bytes(65000 | 0x0000), addr)
5

Well, darn it! The closest thing I've come to is messing around with hex() and bytearray(). See below.
>>>hex(65000)
'0xfde8'
>>>mySock.sendto('\xfde8', addr)
3

Shouldn't that say 2 bytes? I'm not sure how this works. Also, when the number is less than 16384 I want to preserve the preceding 0's. So, for example, if the port number is 255 (0b0000000011111111) I want it to remain as a 2 byte data structure (0x00FF) rather than truncating down to 0xFF or 0b11111111.

A: If you want to send binary data, please use module struct. That will help you to encode the string and to make sure that you are using the proper endianness. For example:
>>> import struct
>>> struct.pack('!H', 65000)
'\xfd\xe8'

That's 65000 as an unsigned short, in network order (big endian)


text:
Bassorah (ou Bassora ou Basra, en arabe : al-Baṣra, ) est la deuxième ville d'Irak, après Bagdad, la capitale, avec une population estimée en 2008 à environ . C'est la capitale de la province d'Al-Basra. Principal port du pays, la ville est située sur le Chatt-el-Arab, estuaire commun des fleuves Tigre et Euphrate, à  en amont du golfe Persique et à  de Bagdad.

Bassora est, avec Koufa (située plus au nord), un ancien « misr » (au pluriel « amsar » : ville-camp), bâtie en 638 par Omar, le deuxième calife bien-guidé, lors de la conquête musulmane de la Perse. Afin de maintenir la distinction entre « croyants » (les convertis à l'islam) et les autres populations, les musulmans y vivaient. Ce confinement ethnique et religieux a, à maintes reprises, fait de la ville un lieu de bouillonnement idéologique.

Le secteur entourant Bassora jouit de ressources substantielles de pétrole. De nombreux puits y sont situés et la raffinerie de la ville a une capacité de production de  par jour. L'aéroport international offre une desserte rapide.

Un réseau de canaux a traversé la ville, lui donnant le surnom de « Venise du Moyen-Orient ».

Bassora est une région fertile, avec une production importante de riz, de maïs, d'orge, de millet, de blé, de dattes et de bétail. Pendant longtemps Bassora produisait des dattes très réputées.

Les musulmans de cette région sont principalement adeptes du chiisme duodécimain. Un grand nombre de sunnites et un nombre restreint de chrétiens vivent également à Bassora. Vivent aussi parmi eux les restes de la secte gnostique préislamique des mandéens.

Géographie

Climat

Histoire

Sous les califats

Sous les Rachidoune (656—661)
Bassorah a été fondée au début de l'ère islamique en 636 comme un campement de garnison pour les membres des tribus arabes constituant les armées du calife bien guidé Omar. Un tell à quelques kilomètres au sud de la ville actuelle, indique toujours l'emplacement original de la colonie, qui était un site militaire. Tout en battant les forces de l'Empire sassanide, le commandant musulman Utbah ibn Ghazwan a érigé son camp sur le site d'une ancienne colonie militaire persane appelée Vaheštābād Ardašīr, qui a été détruite par les Arabes. Le nom Al-Basra, qui signifie en arabe "celle qui voit tout", lui a été donné en raison de son rôle de base militaire contre l'Empire Sassanide. Cependant, d'autres sources affirment que le nom provient du mot persan Bas-rāh ou Bassorāh qui signifie « où de nombreux chemins se rejoignent ».

En 639, Omar a transformé le campement de Bassorah en une ville composée de cinq districts, et a fait d'Abou Moussa al-Achari son premier gouverneur. La ville a été construite selon un plan circulaire conforme à l'architecture Partho-Sassanide. Abou Moussa a mené la conquête du Khouzistan de 639 à 642 et a reçu l'ordre d'Omar d'aider , puis de combattre les Sassanides à partir de , un nouveau misr situé plus à l'est. En 650, le calife bien guidé Othman réorganisa la frontière persane, installa Abdallah ibn Amir comme gouverneur de Bassorah, et plaça l'aile sud de son armée sous commandement bassorien. Ibn Amir a mené ses forces à leur victoire finale sur Yazdgard III, le chahanchah sassanide.

En 656, Othman est assassiné à l'issue d'un  et Ali est nommé calife. Ali a d'abord installé  comme gouverneur de Bassora, puis Abdullah ibn Abbas. Ces hommes ont tenu la ville pour Ali jusqu'à la mort de ce dernier en 661.

Période Omeyade
Les Soufyanides ont tenu Bassorah jusqu'à la mort de Yazīd  en 683. Lorsque Muʿawiya devint calife en 661, il renomma Abdallah ibn Amir au poste de gouverneur de la ville, avant de l'écarter du pouvoir en 664 au profit de Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan, surnommé "Ibn Abihi" ("fils de son propre père"), qui deviendra tristement célèbre pour ses mesures draconiennes concernant l'ordre public. Lorsque Ziyad mourut en 673, c'est son fils Ubayd Allah qui lui succéda. En 680, Yazid ordonna à Ubayd Allah de prévenir une insurrection à Koufa, où Hussein, le petit-fils de Mahomet avait gagné en popularité. Hussein envoya son cousin Moslim ibn Aghil comme ambassadeur aux habitants de Koufa, mais Ubayd Allah l'exécuta par crainte d'un soulèvement populaire. Ubayd Allah amassa une armée de milliers de soldats et écrasa l'armée d'Hussein composée d'environ  dans un endroit appelé Kerbala, au nord de Koufa. Ce fut la Bataille de Kerbala : Hussein et ses partisans ont été tués et leurs têtes ont été envoyées à Yazid en guise de preuve.

Période Abbasside
Un événement marquant du règne abbasside fut la révolte des Zanj, esclaves agricoles. Elle marqua le début du déclin du grand Califat de Bagdad. La ville fut tout au long du Moyen Âge un centre important de rayonnement et d'innovations scientifiques et culturelles ; elle donna naissance à de nombreux savants, souvent spécialisés en théologie islamique. La cité et sa région connurent grâce au commerce - favorisé par une position géographique exceptionnelle - une prospérité assurant à ses habitants un haut niveau de vie, malgré les très nombreux bouleversements politiques de l'ère islamique. Le grand intérêt économique que représentait Bassorah faisait d'elle un objet de grande attention de la part du pouvoir central bagdadien, et sa vie culturelle ajouta prestige à son épanouissement urbain, marqué notamment par les innovation architecturales successives (universités, canaux, réseaux d'assainissement...).

Cet âge d'or prit brutalement fin avec les Invasions mongoles qui ont dévasté l'Irak au cours du .

Bas Moyen Âge

Époque moderne
La ville fut marquée par un tiraillement entre les empires Ottoman et Perse.

Époque contemporaine

Guerres du Golfe
À cause de sa localisation proche de la frontière, Bassorah a subi beaucoup les guerres contre l'Iran ainsi que la guerre du golfe (guerre de libération du Koweït). De plus, Bassorah fut l'origine de l'insurrection de 1991.

Depuis les guerres de 1991 et 2003, Basra est contaminé par l'uranium appauvri employé comme une munition par les armées américaine et britannique. Les niveaux extrêmes de malformations congénitales et cancers ont été liés à des munitions qui restent dans le sol autour de la région. Les États-Unis et l'Organisation mondiale de la santé sont accusées de cacher aussi bien l'usage d'uranium appauvri que les conséquences délétères. Entre 1994 et 2003, le nombre de malformations congénitales pour  vivantes à la maternité de Bassorah avait été multiplié par 17, passant de 1,37 à 23 dans le même hôpital.

Occupation britannique

Après la guerre qui emporta le régime de Saddam Hussein, le secteur du sud de l'Irak a été confié aux soldats britanniques de la coalition.

Le , un grave incident a opposé les militaires anglais aux policiers irakiens. La foule s'en est prise aux blindés en jetant des cocktails Molotov.

À l'été 2018, de graves manifestations se sont produites à Bassorah contre le chômage, ainsi que les pénuries d'eau et d'électricité mais les mesures prises ensuite par le gouvernement ont évité qu'une telle situation ne se reproduise en 2019.

Politique et administration

Jumelages
La ville de Bassorah est jumelée avec plusieurs villes, majoritairement des villes du Moyen-Orient :
  ( à vol d'oiseau)
  ( à vol d'oiseau)
  ( à vol d'oiseau)
  ( à vol d'oiseau)
  ( à vol d'oiseau)

Elle est aussi jumelée avec une ville irakienne
  ( à vol d'oiseau)

Population et société

Religions
Bassorah était autrefois le siège du Perat de Maïsan (ou Perath-Mesenae en latin, ou Maishan), une province de l'Église de l'Orient, érigée en 410 et devint par la suite une archéparchie de l'Église catholique chaldéenne.

La communauté juive de Bassorah remonte au . Selon ses archives, cette communauté a secouru financièrement l'Académie de Soura et a fait des affaires avec Bagdad.

Culture et patrimoine

Personnalités liées à la ville
 Rabia al Adawiyya, née à Bassorah entre 714 et 718, mystique soufie
 Al-Moubarred, né à Bassorah en 826, grammairien
 Abdul Wahid Aziz (1931-1982), haltérophile, médaillé olympique
 Qusay Munir, né à Bassorah en 1981, footballeur international

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Bibliographie
 U. Abū l-Nasr, al-ˁIrāq al-jadīd (le Nouvel Irak), Beyrouth, 1937.
 Abbas al-Azzawī, Taʾrīkh al-ˁIrāq bayna ihtilālayn (Histoire de l'Irak durant l'occupation), Bagdad, 1955.
 R. W. Bullard, , Londres, 1950.
 Henry A. Folygfgkhgfkgfiytster, , Oklahoma, 1935.
 Kāmil al-Jādirjī, Mudhakkirāt Kāmil al-Jādirjī, Beyrouth, 1970.
 S. H. Longrigg, , Londres, 1925.
 Majid Khadduri, , Oxford, 1951.
 Bernard Vernier, l'Irak d'aujourd'hui, Paris, A. Colin, 1963.

Articles connexes
 Province d'Al-Basra
 Antiquité :
 Ports antiques du Golfe persique
 Characène (ou Mésène), Charax Spasinu

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Although the cloud has been around for a while, cloud services are still an unknown entity for some who may have only dipped their toes in the water. Once the CIO has completed the analysis for the proof of concept, done the RIO analysis and the risk assessment, then the governance reporting, and when they're confident that the cloud is the next step to deliver IT services – what's next? It's now time to get ready to migrate.


text:
Q: Error with docker login: no such host After starting up a private docker registry from the registry docker image, doing a login to the registry
docker login http://docker.mydomain.com:5000

causes the following error after typing in name, password and email:
FATA[0007] Error response from daemon: v1 ping attempt failed with error: Get https://docker.mydomain.com:5000/v1/_ping: dial tcp: lookup docker.mydomain.com: no such host. If this private registry supports only HTTP or HTTPS with an unknown CA certificate, please add `--insecure-registry docker.mydomain.com:5000` to the daemon's arguments. In the case of HTTPS, if you have access to the registry's CA certificate, no need for the flag; simply place the CA certificate at /etc/docker/certs.d/docker.mydomain.com:5000/ca.crt

Trying an insecure login does not work too:
docker login --insecure-registry http://docker.mydomain.com:5000

Any suggestions? Thanks!

nmap localhost
Nmap scan report for localhost (127.0.0.1)
Host is up (0.000010s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
22/tcp   open  ssh
80/tcp   open  http
5000/tcp open  upnp

Visiting http://docker.mydomain.com:5000 on browser:
true

Visiting http://docker.mydomain.com:5000/v1/_ping on the browser:
{}

A: You are misunderstanding the --insecure-registry flag - this is for your daemon not your client. As stated in the error message:

please add --insecure-registry docker.mydomain.com:5000 to the daemon's arguments.

You will need to add this to your daemon and restart it if you want to use your insecure private registry. Otherwise, just put it behind a web server that uses https and proxy it.


Dollar Academy teacher Jilly McCord has sealed her place in the final of one of TV's most popular competitions.
The history teacher, who recently moved from Inverkeithing to Cramond with partner Kimberley Fergus, is one of just five people left in this year's BBC's Masterchef.
She 41-year-old former rugby internationalist wowed judges with her dish of venison loin with pickled blackberries and celeriac mash, served with winter veg, with food critic Amol Rajan declaring it the best venison dish he had ever eaten.
Presenter Gregg Wallace described her as the bravest cook in the room.
Earlier, Jilly had described the adrenaline of the contest as being similar to that experienced when preparing for a rugby match.
Jilly was one of eight contestants to make it through to this week's semi-final and said pupils at her Clackmannanshire school had been rooting for her.
Boarding children had been gathering in the evening to watch her in the Masterchef kitchen, while day pupils viewed the programme at home with their families.
"Cooking has always been my hobby. When I was young I used to stand next to my dad when he was cooking, asking him what he was doing, and you pick it up," said Jilly, who was first to be picked as a finalist by judges Wallace and John Torode.
"The bravest cook in the room today for me was Jilly," said Wallace.
Jilly and her fellow finalists will next be on screen on Tuesday when they head to the Royal Society in London to cook a five-course tasting menu to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Transglobe expedition, hosted by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
The following night, the final four will embark on a culinary adventure in Hong Kong.


text:
Heritage College may refer to:
Heritage College (Gatineau) in Gatineau, Quebec
Heritage College (Calgary) in Calgary, Alberta
Heritage College, a trade school in Las Vegas, Nevada; now a campus of Brightwood College
Heritage Colleges (Australia) a group of Christadelphian schools in Australia
Heritage College, Perth, Christadelphian school in Perth, Western Australia
Heritage University, formerly Heritage College, in Toppenish, Washington
Heritage College & Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario

See also
 Heritage (disambiguation)
 Heritage School (disambiguation)
 Heritage High School (disambiguation)
 American Heritage School (disambiguation)
 Christian Heritage School (disambiguation)
 Heritage Academy (disambiguation)


text:
Acrylic on Masonite - 20" X 30"
For the first book in Anne McCaffrey's now legendary Dragonriders of Pern series, Michael wanted to create a literal visualization of the title. He selected an aerial point-of-view and tilted the horizon to simulate the dizzying sensation of flight.
Anne's dragons aren't really dragons per se, but an alien life form with similar attributes. They had been portrayed by other artists, but he was determined to create the dragons more faithfully to her description. He studied crocodiles and bat wings and wrote to Anne with many questions. After all that, it was somewhat of a letdown to have the editor Judy Lynn del Rey tell him that based on their descriptions, it would be physically impossible for the dragons to fly. It's because they "think" they can, that they do.
Acrylic on Masonite
Anne McCaffrey (Del Rey)
To the nobles who live in Benden Weyr, Lessa is nothing but a ragged kitchen girl. For most of her life she has survived by serving those who betrayed her father and took over his lands. Now the time has come for Lessa to shed her disguise—and take back her stolen birthright.
But everything changes when she meets a queen dragon. The bond they share will be deep and last forever. It will protect them when, for the first time in centuries, Lessa's world is threatened by Thread, an evil substance that falls like rain and destroys everything it touches. Dragons and their Riders once protected the planet from Thread, but there are very few of them left these days. Now brave Lessa must risk her life, and the life of her beloved dragon, to save her beautiful world. . . .
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Powell's


text:
Ebola patient spent time in Akron after Cleveland flight from Dallas
Amanda Harnocz, cleveland.com
ebola.dallas.jpg
Protect Environmental workers on Monday move disposal barrels to a staging area outside the apartment of a Dallas nurse, identified in news reports as Nina Pham, who tested positive for Ebola after treating Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia, who died last week.
(Brandon Wade, Associated Press)
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The second Texas nurse confirmed with Ebola who flew to and from Cleveland recently spent time visiting her family in Akron from Oct. 10 to Oct. 13, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
The Dallas Morning News is identifying her as Amber Joy Vinson.
She traveled by air from Cleveland to Dallas on a Frontier Airlines flight two days ago and may have been contagious at the time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the airline. The CDC is now working to notify passengers on the flight -- Flight 1143.
"As of right now we do not have a case of Ebola in Ohio, but we are going to be working to identify any close contacts that the individual was in contact with in the state," said Dr. Mary DiOrio, ODH's state epidemiologist. ODH is working with the Summit County health department right now, but may work with others as well, she said.
If you've spent time at Cleveland Hopkins Airport or in Akron while Vinson was visiting, are you concerned? Tell us in the comments.


How to keep your home fire protected?
At rexfireinc.com we use different fire extinguishing systems to help you solve all your fire related needs. One of the best known fire extinguishing systems we use is fire suppression systems which is use of chemical agents and certain inert gases to extinguish fire. It's best known as Clean Agent Fire Suppression and is standardized by NFPA a body that put measures on use of Clean Agent Fire Extinguishing Systems.
The fire suppression systemmakes use of an agent, agent storage containers, fire detectors, agent release valves, fire detectors, dispersion nozzles and agent delivery piping. It also makes use of fire detection systems such as actuation signaling and wiring control panel. In few cases, the agent can also be delivered through a solid propellant gas generator that can give off chemically active gas or inert gas.
There are four methods used to suppress fire using the agent, in the industry its well known as Fire Tetrahedron. Here are the four methods of extinguishing fire along with their representative agents.
At any given time there are two ways to apply agent when on fire extinguishing mission, i.e. total flooding and local flooding.
i)	Total flooding- systems that work on total flooding applies extinguishing agents to a 3-dimensional enclosed area. The agent is allowed to be concentrated to reach a certain volume percentage of the agent in air. When the specific volume is reached, it is already adequate to put off a fire. Such systems are operated automatically using detection controls. It can also be operated manually using a system actuator.
ii)	Local application- systems working in this type of method applies extinguishing agents directly to the fire using a 2-dimensional are or a 3-dimensional region that surrounds the object on fire.
Local application usually encloses fire using a physical barrier while total flooding does not require enclosure. When using automatic fire extinguishing systems, the term local application does not mean that the fire suppression system is using wheeled machines or portable fire extinguishers.
When you in any fire suppression mission there several fire precaution that you should put in place to avoid mishaps and injuries in your work. I.e. Suffocation- Due to the presence of carbon dioxide as the major representative in fire extinguishing system there is high risk of suffocation. Most of the time it has been reported of people dying due to suffocation, to prevent the risk of suffocation; we install safety systems that turns on when they sense fire outbreaks. These safety systems warns people by a sounding siren that tells depicts presence of carbon dioxide. Also we try to make sure proper awareness of the effects of carbon dioxide and maintenance of fire extinguisher systems should also be taken care of to ensure safety in the premises at all times. Another important precaution that people should understand during fire extinguishing mission is the pressure caused by the fire extinguishing system which is know to break windows and walls.
Copyright © 2007-2012 Rexfire.com. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Q: Use a Microsoft account in a chrome extension? I'm making a chrome extension that needs to work with outlook to do things such as read and forward emails.
Is there any way to easily log in to Microsoft through chrome extensions so that I can call the APIs?
I've tried a few things, like a separate website to log in, but it seems far too complex for what I'm trying to do.
Thanks!


The Office of the Registrar is pleased to announce the launch of Schedule Planner, a new web-based tool designed to simplify and streamline the process of finding the ideal class schedule.
Please review the Using Schedule Planner (PDF 2.2MB) guide to get started.
YOUR DEGREE PROGRAM MAY REQUIRE YOU TO MEET WITH AN ADVISOR PRIOR TO REGISTERING FOR CLASSES.
All new undergraduate students are expected to attend New Student Orientation. At orientation you will meet your faculty, learn about the many services the university has to offer, meet your classmates, take a tour, learn how to get involved on campus, and much much more. Learn more about orientation or call us at (314) 516-5291.
In the Registrar's Office, Room 269 Millennium Student Center. Hours: 8:00am - 6:00pm Monday through Thursday 8:00am - 5:00pm Friday.
Undergraduate Fall/Spring Semesters, 19 or more credit hours.
Graduate Fall/Spring Semesters, 13 or more credit hours.
SPECIAL CONSENT COURSE: If "Special Consent Required" is indicated in the Schedule of Courses, you may NOT register for the course without a Permission Number. You may obtain the permission number from the department offering the course.


text:
Manu Bennett Net Worth and Biography
December 10, 2020 March 26, 2020 by Kenneth
Manu Bennett is a New Zealand actor who has a net worth of $1.5 million dollars. He is known from popular TV series "Spartacus", where he played the role of Crixus, and "Arrow", where he played the role of Slade Wilson.
Net Worth of Manu Bennett
As of 2020, Manu Bennett has an estimated net worth of $1.5 million dollars.
Manu Bennett was born on October 10, 1969 in Rotorua, New Zealand. Bennett's father was a singer in New Zealand and his mother was an Australian bikini model. The family moved to Australia when Bennett was a few months old. On his father's side, Bennett is of Maori and Irish descent. His mother is Scottish and Spanish. He grew up mainly in Sydney and Newcastle, Australia.
When Bennett was 15 years old, he lost both his mother and brother in two different car accidents. In 1986, Bennett returned to New Zealand to study at Te Aute College. When he returned to Australia, Bennett was selected to play in the New South Wales Schoolboys Rugby team.
But, he was also interested in modern dance, classical ballet and piano. In the end, Bennett dropped out as a rugby player to study dance and drama, before leaving for Los Angeles to study at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.
Manu Bennett is known from the TV series Arrow (starring Stephen Amell as the Green Arrow) and Spartacus. We've seen both series and his acting is fenomenal. Bennet has a net worth of $1.5 million.


text:
July 17, 1839 Ephraim Shay, an influential entrepreneur, and railroad engineer was born in Sherman Township in Ohio. He served during the Civil War in the Union Army's 8th Missouri Volunteer Infantry. In the early 1870s, Shay moved to northern Michigan and began operating a sawmill and general store in the vicinity of a lumber... Continue Reading →
July 16. 1957 U.S. Marine Corps Major John H. Glenn set a transcontinental speed record when he piloted a Vought F8U Crusader jet aircraft from Los Alamitos Naval Air Station in California to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City. Glenn dubbed this cross-country effort "Project Bullet" to emphasize the plane's high-speed capability. Glenn completed... Continue Reading →
July 13, 1858 A new lighthouse began operations at Cape Borda on Kangaroo Island in the colony (present-day state) of South Australia. Cape Borda Lightstation was built to help guide ships being pushed along by the strong "Roaring Forties" trade winds in that part of the world and – via the Investigator Strait between Kangaroo... Continue Reading →
July 12, 1809 In England, renowned pedestrian Robert Barclay Allardice (widely known as Captain Barclay) completed a mile (kilometer)-per-hour walk of 1,000 miles (1,609.3 kilometers) in 1,000 consecutive hours in the town of Newmarket. When he finished his ambitious walk at 3:37 on that Wednesday afternoon, he did so – in the words of an 1813... Continue Reading →
July 11, 1905 The Scott Special, a train operated by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, set a new speed record for travel between Los Angeles and Chicago. The Scott Special arrived at Chicago's Dearborn Station at 11:54 a.m. – 44 hours and 56 minutes after the train had departed Los Angeles for a trek... Continue Reading →
July 10, 1901 One of the world's first passenger-carrying trolleybus systems was launched in the southeastern region of the present-day Federal Republic of Germany. (At the time, this area was part of the German Empire.) The Biela Valley Trolleybus system was built and operated by Dresden native Max Schiemann, who is credited with using a... Continue Reading →
July 9, 1930 A bridge was officially opened in northeastern Montana to a great deal of fanfare. The new structure, spanning the Missouri River between McCone and Roosevelt counties in the Big Sky Country, was named the Lewis and Clark Bridge. (In May 1805, the Corps of Discovery Expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William... Continue Reading →
July 6, 1881 In central Iowa, a potentially horrific passenger train wreck was averted thanks to a heroic teenage girl. The girl was 17-year-old Katherine Carroll "Kate" Shelley, who lived in that region of the Hawkeye State with her family. Kate had been born in Ireland, and she and her family immigrated to the United... Continue Reading →
July 5, 328 A Roman Empire bridge built across the river Danube made its formal debut. This opening of the bridge took place in the presence of Constantine I (also called Constantine the Great), who reigned as Roman emperor from 306 to 337. The structure, which has become known as Constantine's Bridge, was constructed in... Continue Reading →
July 3, 1886 The Benz Patent-Motorwagen, which is widely regarded as the first functioning automobile, made its debut when inventor Karl Benz officially unveiled the motorized vehicle in the city of Mannheim in the present-day Federal Republic of Germany. (At the time, Mannheim was part of the German Empire state known as the Grand Duchy... Continue Reading →


What if rewriting your destiny means that you must sacrifice the one you love? Serena St. Michael has forsaken her future—for him. Tristan Gallagher has renounced the throne—for her. The Vergina Sun prophecy has been fulfilled, but at what cost? Their love has renewed an ancient war. With Serena gone, will Tristan save her in time? Or will the dark army of Diablo Fairies descend upon the Royal Protector Academy, destroying the London clan's legacy and ending the existence of the gargoyle race forever?
Nox is the final novel in the Royal Protector Academy series. This dangerously exciting and darkly romantic conclusion will take your breath away. It can be read as a stand-alone trilogy or after the bestselling Revelation series. Intended for mature readers (18+) due to language, mild violence, and sexual situations.


The Holidays are here and the Reagen Blouse will be your go to top. The Reagen has a collar neck with key-hole detail, front and back pleats, plus the perfect wrist tie. We love the Reagen as a cocktail blouse for a date night or with jeans for coffee with the girls!


text:
Our management & Contacts ICON CofaNet
About Coface
Our management & Contacts
Geographical presence
Our purpose: What drives us
Worldwide leader
Our human resources
Our challenge: your success
Helping businesses grow
Connecting with the world
Growing in an inclusive community
We are looking for talents
About Credit Insurance
Coface Business Credit Reports
Portfolio Watch-Monitoring
Credit Risk Management Consulting
Customer portal CofaNet Essentials
Customer app CofaMove
Coface 2015 results: net income €126M and proposed dividend stable at €0.48 per share (5)
Country risk and economic studies
Growth in turnover: 3.4% at current scope and exchange rate (+1.2% at constant scope and exchange rates)
Loss ratio net of reinsurance stabilized over the last six months; combined ratio at 83.1%
Net income (group share): €126M for 2015, €28M in 4Q
Stable net income per share at €0.80, distribution rate5 60% of net income
Xavier Durand takes over as CEO as of today
Unless otherwise stated, variations are expressed in comparison with results at 31 December 2014
Published results for 2014 have been restated to take into account the impact of IFRIC 21
The annual results 2014restated from IFRIC 21 are equivalent to those published in 2014
At the end of 2015, a year marked by a deterioration in the global economic environment, Coface recorded a slight increase in net income (group share), at €126M (€125M in 2014). Turnover for the year grew by 3.4% (+1.2% at constant scope and exchange rate), supported by emerging markets. The Group's loss ratio net of reinsurance has stabilized over the last six months, at 52.5%. Coface is prepared for Solvency II, which came into force on 1 January 2016. The ratio of capital required to cover subscribed risks stands at 147%7, a level in line with Coface's risk appetite and dividend pay-out policy of 60% of net income.
On the basis of its net income per share, stable at €0.80, the Group will thus propose a dividend5 of €0.48 per share.
Key figures as at 31 December 2015
The Board of Directors of COFACE SA examined the consolidated financial statements for FY 2015 during its meeting on February 9th 2016. These were subject to review by the Audit Committee. Non-audited financial statements; they are being certified.
In 2015, Coface's consolidated turnover was €1 489.5M, up 3.4% compared with 2014 (+1.2% at constant scope and exchange rates). This increase is a consequence of the commercial strategy implemented by the Group, based on product innovation, multi-channel distribution and the strengthening of its sales processes and sales monitoring.
New contract production was lower than in the previous year, which was marked by the signature of some large contracts. Retention of our client portfolio was good, at 88.2%.
The competitive environment and sound profitability of contracts in mature markets weighed on pricing throughout 2015. However, this price pressure remained controlled: the price effect on contracts was stable compared to 30 September 2015, at -2.4%.
Growth in the Group's turnover was supported by emerging markets. In the United States, the reorganization of the entire country's agency network explains the contraction in performance. In mature markets, where contracts profitability is higher, competition remained fierce and put pressure on prices.
The loss ratio net of reinsurance stood at 52.5%, stabilized over the last six months as a result of reducing exposure to the most fragile companies and sectors. During this period Coface continued to reduce its coverage, particularly in emerging markets, and the effects of this approach are materializing progressively, depending on the payment behavior.
Internal overheads remained under control: excluding exceptional items3 these decreased by 1.8% at constant scope and exchange rates (-0.5% at current scope and exchange rates), a level significantly lower than growth in premiums, which was up 2.0% (+4.7% at constant scope and exchange rates). The distribution costs grew faster than premiums in 2015, due in particular to stronger turnover growth in regions where contracts are commercialized through brokers or partners. The cost ratio net of reinsurance was 30.5% at 31 December 2015, and 29.5% excluding exchange rate effects and exceptional items, an increase of 0.2 points compared with 31 December 2014.
In total, the combined ratio stood at 83.1% at 31 December 2015, up 3.4 points compared with 31 December 2014, reflecting the deterioration in the macro-economic environment over the last year.
Financial income
Thanks to the diversification of the financial portfolio, illustrated by investments made in non-quoted pan-European real estate funds, financial income4 was €53.1M (of which €4.5M externalization of capital gains) at 31 December 2015, against €42.8M (of which €8.4M externalization of capital gains) in 2014.
Operating income and net income
Excluding restated items, operating income2 stood at €194,1M and net income (group share)2 at €140.9M.
On the basis of net income per share of 0.80, a dividend5 of €0.48 euro per share will be proposed for 2015, an amount stable compared with 2014.
Financial solidity – Solvency II
At 31 December 2015, IFRS equity (group share) was €1 760.9M. The change in equity is mainly the result of positive net income of €126.2M offset by the distribution of €75.5M to shareholders and a decrease in re-evaluation reserves of financial assets ready for sale.
Coface is prepared for the new regulatory framework, Solvency II, which came into force on 1 January 2016. In this context, Coface plans to complete its capital management tools and intends to set up a contingent capital line to protect its solvency during extreme case scenario6.
Calculated on the basis of the standard formula, the coverage ratio of required capital to insurance and factoring risk coverage was 147%7, a level in line with the Group's risk appetite and dividend5 pay-out policy of 60% of net income per share, proposed again this year.
Ratings agencies Fitch and Moody's reconfirmed the Group's ratings (IFS) at respectively AA- and A2 (stable outlook), on 17 September and 13 October 2015.
Transfer of public guarantees activity
Work is on-going by Bpifrance to prepare for the transfer of public guarantees activity currently carried out by Coface on behalf of the French State. The transfer is subject to modification of the applicable legislative and regulatory framework8, which will come into effect by decree. Coface will continue to be remunerated by the French State until the transfer of this activity becomes effective, at a date which is not yet known.
The current macroeconomic environment is demanding (weak growth in advanced economies, greater risks in emerging markets, and the volatility of financial markets), and no significant change in this situation is anticipated for the year 2016. In the absence of significant rebound in global activity, and taking into account the transfer of the management of the public guarantees activity, the targets of growth and profitability (return on average tangible equity or RoATE) that Coface settled two years ago for the period ending 2016, will not be achieved. However, Coface's business model, its financial strength, and its pay-out ratio of about 60%, are not undermined.
As announced on January 15th 2016, Xavier Durand takes over from Jean-Marc Pillu as CEO of Coface with effect as from today. Xavier Durand, 52, a graduate ofPolytechnique, spent most of his career in GE Capital. Over the last 25 years he has acquired senior-level operational experience in general management of regulated financial services in more than 30 countries.
Commenting on his new appointment, Xavier Durand,CEO of Coface, said:
« I am proud to be at the head of this great company: Coface is a world-wide recognized brand and the Group has in-depth expertise.
My priorities will be the following:
Risks: our exposure was adjusted between 2014 and 2015, and we will continue to make adjustments for as long as it is necessary; the effects of this will be seen over time.
Costs: we will study and put in place the structural changes required to improve the Group's operational efficiency.
In this context, my mission is also to identify the levers and means to re-boost the Group's commercial activity.
With my leadership team, and after an initial settling-in period, I will define the actions to strengthen Coface's profitable growth over the long-term. I begin this work today and I will take the opportunity of our quarterly updates to keep you informed of our progress. »
1 Constant scope and exchange rates. Published results for 2014 have been restated to take into account the impact of IFRIC 21.The annual results 2014restated from IFRIC 21 are equivalent to those published in 2014
2 See annex, "Reconciliation table", for the calculation of operating income excluding restated items. For the calculation of net income (group share), a normalised tax rate has been applied to restated items for fiscal years 2014 and 2015.
3 Internal overheads are restated to exclude an exceptional provision of €3.2M
4 Investment income net of expenses, excluding cost of debt.
5 Distribution subject to approval by the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on May 19th 2016.
6 Subject to the signature of the agreement regarding the establishment of this contingent capital line
7 Coverage ratio calculated according to Coface's interpretation of Solvency II standard formula. Preliminary calculation.
8 Finance Law No. 2015-1786, Article 103, from December 29th 2015
ANNEX - Reconciliation Table: Operating income excluding restated items
Download this press release : Coface 2015 results: net income €126M and proposed dividend stable a... (519.50 kB)
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Acquired through a donation from the Carpenter/Kasenga Family in 2015, the historic Shimer Mansion is being restored by the Pohatcong History & Heritage Society. It will open to the public as a community meeting place and gallery for local artist.
Please join our mailing list to hear about the progress at Shimer Mansion and to help.
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Enjoy Medieval songs : Celtic, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Sephardic – sung by early music specialists Friends in Harmony, accompanied by Newlyn lutist, Denys Stephens, with narration by Michelle Brown of words from pilgrims who walked the Camino, set against a backdrop of a Feast of images; ancient and modern.
Entertainment followed by a delicious Spanish buffet and drinks by Penwith College catering.
Including an Exhibition of artwork and film by local Schools as part of the 'Stepping St Michael's Way' project with Tough Dough.


Managing a business requires skills and knowledge of product or service being offered along with the understanding of current market scenarios and consumer behaviour. Executive MBA in Entrepreneurship is systematically designed to prepare working professionals for such challenges along with the know-how of product development, service management and new venture creation. This course also equips them to view situations from different perspectives and apply strategic thinking to tackle various business issues.


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Alexander Müller (born 17 July 1969) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). Since 2017, he has served as a member of the Bundestag.

Early life and education
Müller graduated 1988 from the Bischöfliche Gymnasium in Koblenz and, studied Informatics engineering.

Political career
Müller joined the Young Liberals and the FDP in 1990. He has been described as libertarian.

In 2017 Müller became a Member of the German parliament (Bundestag). Since the 2021 elections, he has been serving as his parliamentary group's spokesperson for military procurement.

In addition to his committee assignments, Müller served as deputy chair of the German-Polish Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2018 to 2021.

References

External links
 Biographie at Deutscher Bundestag, October 2019.
 Speeches in parliament of Alexander Müller, retrieved 2 February 2020.

1969 births
21st-century German politicians
Members of the Bundestag for Hesse
Living people
Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany)
Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021
Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025


Theodore Villa's work has been shown at many museums, including the Museum of Northern Arizona, The Kimball Art Center, UT, Centro Washington Irving in Madrid, Spain, The Heard Museum, AZ, the Center for Contemporary Arts, WA, Millicent Rogers Museum, NM, Institute of American Indian Art, NM, the Taylor Museum, CO, the Museum of the Rockies, MT, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, CA, Palais de Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, ID, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, Purdue University Gallery, IN, Newport Harbor Museum of Art, CA, Palm Springs Museum of Art, CA, the Minneapolis Museum of Art, MN, the Laguna Beach Museum of Art, CA, and the San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA.
Born in Santa Barbara, California, Theodore Villa was raised by his maternal grandmother of White Mountain Apache (Coyotero) and Spanish ancestry. He gained a Bachelors of Fine Arts, followed by a Masters, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His grandmother's stories and legends are one of the primary sources through which Villa culls his inspiration for his watercolor paintings. Rendered in vibrant washes, the compositions reverberate with echoes from the past while delivering their message in dynamic contemporary terms. A tactile quality carries throughout his works, beads render a shiny brilliance, buckskin looks like hand-tanned leather, fur looks real and feathers warrant closer inspection. In opposition to most static museum displays, Theodore's works have life, motion and humor. Fringe floats, balance emerges—that between illusion and allusion.


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https://www.incomeinvestors.com/sbra-stock-a-9-3-percent-yielder-with-huge-growth-potential/32647/ SBRA Stock: A 9.3% Yielder With Huge Growth Potential Jing Pan, B.Sc., MA Income Investors 2017-12-04T06:07:06Z 2017-12-04 06:07:06 sbra stock sabra health care reit inc. reit growing dividend Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBRA) is special. The company not only pays generous dividends today but is growing its payout at an impressive pace. Dividend Stocks,News,Sabra Health Care Stock https://www.incomeinvestors.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/SBRA-Stock-150x150.jpg
SBRA Stock: A 9.3% Yielder With Huge Growth Potential
By Jing Pan, B.Sc., MA | December 4, 2017
iStock.com/Photobuay
Collect a Growing Dividend Yield of 9.3%
In today's market, the blunt reality is that high yield stocks don't offer much in terms of growth potential. This means investors have to choose whether they want a high current payout, or high growth potential.
And that's why Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBRA) is special. The company not only pays generous dividends today, but is growing its payout at an impressive pace.
As the name suggests, Sabra is a real estate investment trust (REIT) with a focus on the health care sector. The company was created as a spin off from Sun Healthcare Group Inc in November of 2010. Since then, Sabra has expanded its portfolio quite a bit through a series of acquisitions.
Headquartered in Irvine, California, the company's portfolio currently consists of investments in 530 properties, including skilled nursing/transitional care facilities, senior housing communities, and specialty hospitals. They are diversified across 73 different regional and local health care providers. (Source: "REITWorld: NAREIT's Annual Convention," Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc., last accessed December 1, 2017.)
At the same time, the company also invests in mortgage loans, construction loans, and preferred equity.
Thanks to rental income and interest payments from its investment portfolio, Sabra Health Care REIT can generate stable cash flows and pass some of that cash to shareholders in the form of dividends.
Dividend Investing: 3 Healthcare Stocks Yielding Up to 9.4%
Right now, the company pays quarterly dividends of $0.45 per share, giving SBRA stock an annual yield of 9.3%.
The payout has been growing, too. Consider this: in 2011, Sabra declared and paid total dividends of $0.96 per share. This year, the company is on track to pay total dividends of $1.73 per share. That's an increase of 80.2%.
SBRA Stock Dividend History
(Source: "Dividend Information," Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc., last accessed December 1, 2017.)
Going forward, there is a powerful demographic trend that could become a catalyst for SBRA stock: population aging. Between 2020 and 2030, the number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to increase by 18 million. (Source: "Aging in the United States," Population Reference Bureau, last accessed December 1, 2017.)
As more people enter their golden years, the demand for health care services and long term care facilities will likely increase. With a large and well-diversified health care real estate portfolio, Sabra stands to benefit from this demographic tailwind.
In fact, business has already started to show significant improvements. Sabra reported earnings last month. In the third quarter of 2017, the company generated normalized funds from operations (FFO) of $0.63 per share, representing a 16.7% increase year-over-year. (Source: "Sabra Reports Third Quarter 2017 Results and Improved Balance Sheet With Leverage Lowered to 4.79x; Increases Quarterly Common Stock Dividend by 5%; Reports Smooth Integration of CCP and Subsequent Investments; Reaffirms 2017 and 2018 Guidance," Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc., November 1, 2017.)
Like most REITs, Sabra borrows money to finance its investments. The good news is, the company has an investment grade balance sheet and a well-laddered maturity schedule. Moreover, most of the borrowings are fixed rate debt, so when interest rate rises, the increase in the company's debt repayment burden will likely be limited.
Sabra also has plenty of liquidity. As of September 30th, 2017, the company has unrestricted cash and cash equivalents of $30.6 million. On top of that, its revolving credit facility can provide borrowings of up to $749.0 million. That adds up to $779.6 million of total liquidity.
With a growing business, solid financials, and a generous dividend policy, Sabra Health Care REIT is well-positioned to deliver rising dividends for years to come.


You are a global company and you need a global expense management solution in order to keep thriving.
Your company operates in countries around the world, with travellers who work from different time zones and must go beyond the language barrier while paying attention to different currencies. You need your employees to comply with local policies as well as corporate policies.
More and more global companies are using MobileXpense to improve travel and expense management, and there are seven main reasons why it is truly a global expense management solution.
Our global expense management solution is available in 33 languages. Beyond that, you can create a custom dictionary with terminology that is specific to your company or field of activity, which is a big plus when it comes to getting a tailor-made expense management software.
Our customers use the MobileXpense solution in English, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Czech, etc. We can set up additional languages very rapidly and every end-user can choose his or her preferred language for alerts or automatic messages in the app.
Being a global solution, MobileXpense ensures cross-entity reporting for all your data even when languages and terminology differ among your offices in different countries.
Our global expense management solution supports 170+ currencies and we upload exchange rates daily based on xe.com or National Banks for countries where exchange rates are nationally regulated.
Every time you require an exchange rate calculation, our app will take care of it automatically so that you no longer need to struggle with exchange rates when travelling or checking an expense report.
In order for you to enjoy the benefits of your expense management solution as soon as possible, MobileXpense offers a cloud-based application that is easy to set up. The implementation process process can last as little as a few weeks.
You can be sure that your cloud-based application is easy to operate, because MobileXpense ensures that the app is adapted to your needs and working style. We offer everything your company needs from hosting to support, and you will never have to worry about interfaces.
MobileXpense's mobile application offers the required support for a dynamic company like yours, ensuring the best possible experience for travelling employees by offering a new way to manage travel expenses on the go. The app can be installed on any mobile device that works with Android or iOS operating systems.
Once the mobile app is installed, your business travellers can create expenses, enter mileage or allowances, create expense reports and obtain approval using the mobile app named SpendCatcher. The mobile app brings numerous benefits to your employees and your company. You will start to notice a decrease in human errors and the time spent submitting receipts, as well as a decrease in the time spent checking and correcting reports, while the satisfaction and the efficiency of your employees will increase.
At MobileXpense, we want to support all your expense management processes with flexible solutions, which is why we offer integration with your preferred partners. Our company is an open partner that understands that managing expenses usually involves several third-parties which may differ within the same group.
In order to offer you a global expense management solution, we ensure effective integration with ERP systems, payroll and HR systems, your preferred travel agencies or online booking tools as well as credit card issuers.
You want to improve productivity and efficiency in your company while keeping expenses as low as possible. Compliance with the expense policy plays an important role in achieving this objective. Choosing and implementing a global expense management solution means your company is preparing the corporate travel policy of the future.
MobileXpense helps you automate compliance with the internal rules and travel policies. Based on your needs, our solution helps you automate approvals, set warnings and even prevent expense processing according to the expense management policy applied in your company.
Along with corporate policy compliance, MobileXpense helps you comply with local regulations in more than 80 countries. As multiple functions are automated, it is much easier for your managers, controllers and employees to be aware of and comply with local regulations. With MobileXpense, your company is able to manage mileage, allowances, DSA rates, VAT and exchange rates directly from the app.
Over 80% of our customers have entities in multiple countries and, among those, 61% use our solution on more than one continent. All our clients enjoy the global expense management solution implemented by MobileXpense and they achieve their goals in short order after starting to use our app.
Our consultants and specialists are ready to offer you their knowledge in expense management software and business efficiency, so we invite you to learn more about our solution below.


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International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation
6th February is International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. It also sees the launch of the Red Triangle campaign which runs until International Women's day on 8 March. This is a national campaign to encourage people to provide the police with information that can help detect and prevent FGM in the UK and abroad.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that involve altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons. FGM is child abuse and a form of violence against women and girls. The practice is extremely painful, very traumatic and has serious physical and psychological health consequences both at the time when the mutilation is carried out and in later life including mental health problems, difficulties in childbirth and/or death. FGM is a deeply embedded social norm, practised by families for a variety of complex reasons. It is often thought to be essential for a girl to become a proper woman, and to be marriageable. The practice is not required by any religion; rather, it is rooted in culture.
Globally, it is estimated that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM. It has been estimated that over 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are at risk of FGM in the UK each year; and that 66,000 women in the UK are living with the consequences of FGM. The first annual statistics produced by the Health and Social Care Information Centre in 2016 were collated from acute hospital trusts, mental health trusts, GP practices and community services within mental health trusts. The data shows between April 2015 to March 2016 there were 8,660 total attendances where FGM was identified or a medical procedure for FGM was undertaken. This includes newly recorded cases where women and girls had their information collected for the first time, and cases where the woman may have been cut many years ago. Of the total number of newly recorded cases, 43 involved women and girls who self-reported to have been born in the United Kingdom. In 18 cases, the FGM was undertaken in the UK, including 11 women and girls who were also born in the UK. These figures are likely to be an under estimation due to the hidden nature of the abuse.
FGM has been a criminal offence in the UK since 1985. The law was strengthened in 2003 to prevent girls travelling from the UK and undergoing FGM abroad; and in 2015 to provide for life long anonymity for survivors, to prevent FGM being done outside the UK by a UK national or a person who is resident in the UK, a new offence of failing to protect a girl from FGM, and a mandatory duty for specified professionals to notify the police of FGM. To date, no-one has been convicted in connection with FGM in England and Wales.
In July 2015, new civil provisions came into force, making it possible to apply to the Family Court for a 'Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order' ('FGMPO') to protect against FGM.
FGMPOs are unique to each case. They contain whatever prohibitions, restrictions, requirements, conditions and directions the court thinks appropriate to protect a person at risk of FGM in their individual case. This could include, for example, the removal of travel documents and/or passports where the courts believe there is a danger that a girl will be taken overseas, and an order for mandatory medical checks. This flexibility enables the family court to offer comprehensive protection to women and girls in a wide range of circumstances.
Legal aid is available to make an application for a FGMPO subject to the likelihood of an application being successful and an applicant being financially eligible
Breach of an FGMPO is a criminal offence. The maximum penalty for breaching an FGMPO is five years imprisonment.
Figures from the Ministry of Justice show 97 applications were made for and 79 FGMPOs had been granted up to the end of September 2016.
Help is available if you are concerned that you or someone you know has suffered or is at risk of suffering FGM. Our accredited solicitors can work closely with other agencies to provide advice on all of the options open to you.
AuthorAlpa Ghelani
An Important new case on Secure Accommodation Orders
The Court of Appeal recently gave a judgment in the matter of B (Secure Accommodation Order) [2019] EWCA Civ 2025 which has provided much needed clarification on the interpretation of the Section 25 criteria. This was an appeal by the Local Authority against...
AuthorRadhika Shah
Accommodation Pending Review
What happens when a homeless applicant is refused accommodation when the local authority are reviewing a decision made on their homelessness application? When a local authority makes a negative decision on an applicant's homelessness application, the...
AuthorMichael Sherlock
Deprivation of Liberty & the Court of Protection - upcoming changes
What happens when an adult cannot make decisions about their own welfare and they are subject to restrictions where they live? Some adults are unable to make decisions for themselves at the time when they need to be made – they "lack mental...
AuthorMonica Kreel
TVE client obtains damages for unlawful disabled child policy
The London Borough of Haringey has agreed to pay substantial damages to a teenager with autism and his mother following a legal challenge. The family took Haringey to court under the Equality Act and Human Rights Act, after being denied a service for nearly...
AuthorEmma Baillie
A new legal authority has been published which clarifies when divorce proceedings can be started in England where the spouse starting the divorce has significant links to another EU country. While the position may change when the UK leaves the EU, there will...
AuthorHannah Perry
The Supreme Court recently gave a judgement in the case of Williams v London Borough of Hackney (2018) UKSC 137 ( https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2017-0037-judgment.pdf ) which has provided clarification on the scope of local authority powers...


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Q: Necessary and sufficient conditions of a well-ordered set to be of order type $\omega$. I want to find some necessary and sufficient conditions of a well-ordered set to be of order type $\omega$.
To be specific, let $A$ be a well-ordered set, if each element of $A$ except the smallest one has an immediate predecessor, then is the order type of $A$ "at most $\omega$"? (Selfishly by the words "at most $\omega$" I mean there is an order-preserving injection from $A$ to $\mathbb{Z}_+$.) I feel it is true intuitively, but I don't know how to find the order-preserving injection.
Could you tell me whether the proposition is true and how to prove it? Thanks a lot.

A: Yes. An uninteresting proof is trivial: If the order type is not at most $\omega$ then it is at least $\omega+1$, which means there is an element, namely $\omega$, which does not have an immediate predecessor.
Maybe slightly more interesting: Show by induction that every element of $A$ has only finitely many predecessors...


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The biology and ethics of banking fetal liver hematopoietic stem cells for in utero transplantation.
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Transplantation of fetal liver hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in utero has the potential to treat a variety of hematologic, immunologic, and metabolic diseases. One prerequisite for broad clinical application is the establishment of a bank of fetal liver HSC tissue. The authors describe their methods for processing fetal liver free of known human pathogens while maximizing HSC activity after cryopreservation. METHODS: The authors developed a protocol that separates the abortion decision from the donation decision and preserves confidentiality between donor and recipient. Human fetal livers (12 to 14 weeks' gestation) were procured from aborted specimens and the light-density hematopoietic cells isolated by density centrifugation. Total viable cell count increased with gestational age and averaged from 4.36 x 10(7) cells for 12-week livers to 2.0 x 10(8) cells for 14-week livers. RESULTS: Flow cytometric analysis demonstrated the presence of early progenitors in fresh and thawed specimens and a low number of T cells in each group. The functional capacity of fetal liver progenitors was assessed with colony-forming assays before and after cryopreservation. Thawed specimens showed an average 63% recovery rate for the high-proliferative potential colony-forming cells, a primitive subset of progenitors thought to include HSC. However, the more mature fraction of low-proliferative potential colony-forming cells had a recovery rate of only 35%. These data suggest that fetal liver HSC maybe more resistant to the detrimental effects of cryopreservation than mature progenitors. The fetal liver was screened for bacterial, fungal, and viral contaminates and the serum from donor mothers was screened for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis A, B, and C, human T-cell lymphoma virus (HTLV I/II), rapid plasma reagent (RPR), cytomegalovirus (CMV), and toxoplasmosis IgM. The bacterial contamination rate was 14% (n = 28). The maternal serum was positive for CMV in 78% of cases, and positive for hepatitis C in 0.7% of cases (n = 28). However, all fetal liver specimens were culture negative for CMV. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that human fetal liver HSCs can be procured ethically and processed to ensure a safe graft with a small number of T-cells, and a high yield of progenitors after cryopreservation. A bank of fetal liver HSC will prove useful in treating a variety of genetic diseases before birth by in utero HSC transplantation.
Rice, Henry Elliot
Mychaliska, GB; Muench, MO; Rice, HE; Leavitt, AD; Cruz, J; Harrison, MR
Journal of Pediatric Surgery
Fetal Diseases
Fetal Tissue Transplantation
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
Tissue Banks


Legend:Legacy of the dragons MENTORS site - UK Quests.
As you may be aware already, the Underground Knights quests might be one of the most important quests for anyone interested in gaining valour. The quests can be divided into 2 parts: Pre-initiation, and Post-initiation.
Agudars 1st Feat of Valour: Win 6 engagements of CC in a row.
Agudars 3rd Feat of Valour: Destroy the guards in the enemy base camp and bring 'Imonyan of Cave Sentry' (10 pieces) to the keeper of the underground knights.
Agudars 4th Feat of Valour: Battling in the Ancient Temple of the Chosen, gather Energy Sphere (20 items) and bring them to the expert on crystals.
Agudars 5th Feat of Valour: Contending at the Arena of underground Knights, gather Badge of 5th Victory (10 pcs.) and bring them immediately to the Knight of the Arena.
Chain of Victory in the Crystalline Caves: Win 2-5 Crystalline Caves in a row. Each win increases chain by 1, each loss or draw reduces by 1.
Chain of Victory in the Ancient Temple: Win 2-5 Ancient temples in a row. Each win increases chain by 1, each loss or draw reduces by 1.
First of all, read this guide: before starting any of the CC quests.
Secondly, if you are serious about gaining valour once you hit level 3 - you should forget about gaining experience. Try not to kill mobs, do not do any quests, and such.
If you follow the two rules above you are guaranteed an elite rank before level 5.
Quest 2: You must find the lost signet. This is the easiest UK quest and can be done in about 7 minutes. All you need to do is go to the Eastern Fork (located between red and green caves) and click on the cart on the right end of the screen. Quest done. You don't even have to win the CC - though some extra valour will never hurt. Quest awards: 7000 valour, 500 experience, 20 UK reputation.
Quest 3: You need to get 35 green and blue crystals. As well as with the Quest one you do not have to mine and drop them off in one CC. Quest awards: 15000 valour, 500 experience, 30 UK reputation.
Quest 4: You need to win 3 CCs in a row. This might be a bit of a challenge for people with gray items, and my gide primarily concerns people with sets, since they are much more likely to be trying to gain valour. Do not go alone. Get a group together and once there are 5 of you all with set items and summons (bears or tigers, since you presumably didn't do any quests you can only buy them only in arsenal, do not buy zigreds, your only hope in that case is that your enemy dies of laughter). Do not forget to listen to experienced players, to guarantee victory you might need to cover weaker miners, or mine yourself. Quest awards: 20000 valour, 1000 experience, 50 UK reputation. you may now start the other quests. An alternative way to do this quest is killing 70 members of the opposing race and handing over their scalps to the keeper of Arsenal.
At this point in time you will be around or at the beginning of level 4, that's ok.
Agudars 2nd Feat of Valour: My least favorite Feat of valour. Not because it's hard, but because it requires 100% teamwork, and unfortunately some of the less experienced players are incapable of it. In a nutshell: You need to mine and drop off 113 green crystals in the duration of 1 CC. Your best bet is to o with 8 other people with 2 of them standing in front of the Green cave, 1 - on the eastern fork, and others keeping the other caves in order to ensure a victory. Assuming that happens - you are still limited by time - be sure to have at least 19 free slots in your backback, better - 23. if you do not have 19 spaces free - you will NOT be able to finish the quest within 2 hours. With 19 slots you will need 6 trips, with 23 - only 5. To get more slots buy extra backpacks in the shops in the Wolf Wasteland. With a good cooperating team this quest becomes very easy.
Agudars 3rd Feat of Valour: You need to kill 10 Sentries on the opposing team's base. This is the only Feat that is much, much easier to do on later levels. If you do decide to do it - fing a group, in which each person will buy tiger wraths and will stand on the enemy crossroad waiting for your signal. You should enter and attack the sentries through hunting. Usually you will get 2 of them per fight, but sometimes - all 5, and that's when you have a problem. 1 sentry requires 8 tigers to be killed, your best bet is to kill 3, but for the other 2 you will need a team member. Sentries revive each half an hour, so it is possible to kill all 10 in 1 CC with a good team, but if you do not - don't worry, Imoonyans live for 1 whole day.
Agudars 4th Feat of Valour: Practically impossible to do since most players do not visit the temple on 3-4 levels. Though if you do get in, the strategy is: 2 people get a ton of arsenal wraths and do not mine crystals, just wander around sending off the wraths on the enemies, meanwhile you collect 5 spheres and win. If you are lucky enough to do this 4 times within 3 hours - Feat is done.
Agudars 5th Feat of Valour: The longest quest, takes up to a few weeks. you need to win the Arena battlefield 5 times in a row 10 times within 10 days. Sounds confuising? it's not, just a lot of hard work and a good teammate. Only one advice - don't ever, EVER go alone, and don't go with a person of the same combat style with you - i e 2 mammoths are bad, mammoth and exe is good. This Feat takes up to 30% experience on level 4.
For each Feat you get 50000 valour, 1000 experience, and 100 UK reputation. For completing all 5 of them - additional 100000 valour, 3000 experience and 200 UK reputation.
The chains of victories quests can be completed every 2 days. Rewards vary based on the number of wins you have - from 10 to 40 reputation for Ancient Temple and 20 to 80 for the Caves.
Dirty Hands quest can be completed every 4 days, and gives you 500 valour, 15 reputation, and 50 experience for smearing all 5 posts on the poll. The buckets with resin can be found in the Eastern and Western passages. You can only take 1 lump of resin at a time.