text:
\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:intro}

\noindent The identification of the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is still an open issue, and in fact a tricky business. The excellent information from the two large experiments, the Pierre Auger Observatory in the South, and the Telescope Array in the North, on spectrum~{\cite{Fenu:2017hlc, Matthews:2017hlc}} and chemical composition~{\cite{Unger:2017fhr, Abbasi:2018nun}} hardly constrain source scenarios, as these properties are difficult to predict from first principles and are usually chosen in any scenario suitably to fit the data. A new hope to eventually identify sources has been risen by the tentative claim of intermediate-scale anisotropies of the arrival directions of UHECR above a few tens of EeV~{\cite{Matthews:2017hlc, Aab:2018chp}}. If they can be further corroborated, one may compare them with sky-distributions of putative sources.

Given the complexity of the physics of cosmic-ray acceleration and propagation, however, it can hardly be assumed that na\"ive comparisons with astronomical catalogs will be conclusive. What needs to be done is to develop a parameterized source model attached to known individual astronomical objects (an example for radio galaxies is presented in these proceedings by Rachen \& Eichmann, \pos{PoS(ICRC2019)396}), as well as a realistic setup for extragalactic and Galactic magnetic fields including the uncertainties in their modeling. The propagation of UHECR in such a setup has then to be probed in extensive simulations, following the individual trajectories of a very large number of particles. Only the results of such simulations, when compared with real arrival direction distributions, will allow to conclusively constrain UHECR source scenarios. The currently most advanced tool to perform such simulations is CRPropa~\cite{2016JCAP...05..038A}, which has all processes relevant for UHECR propagation implemented and can apply them to calculate realistic 3D trajectories, potentially even considering cosmological evolution during long propagation path (then called a 4D simulation).

There is a fundamental problem with these kind of simulations, though. Sources of UHECR are almost certainly extragalactic~{\cite{Aab:2017tyv}}, and may be spread over a volume of at least 300\,Mpc radius. Neglecting effects of our Galaxy for the time being, we may then consider a putative detector -- called an observer sphere -- of the order of the size of our Galaxy, roughly 30\,kpc, placed in the center of this volume.\footnote{
The reason for this common choice is not that propagation effects inside the Galaxy is ignored, but that a different method is used in CRPropa to describe them.
We will use the terms ``observer sphere'' and ``detector'' synonymous throughout this paper.
}
The task to hit this observer sphere is comparable to hit the inner bull of a dartboard from 12 meters distance -- with the darts blown around by strong whirlwinds (i.e., the magnetic fields). The worst part of this dart game, however, is that the players' eyes are blindfolded and they do not know where the board hangs.

While the large distance and the whirling are given by nature and we have to deal with them, the blindfolding is actually an unnecessary complication of the game. If we allow ``the players'' (i.e., our cosmic-ray simulation) to ``aim'', we can significantly increase the number of ``hits'', i.e., simulation candidates which can be used for astrophysical analysis, while at the same time avoiding any bias in the obtained results as long as we are able to correct for the aiming in a mathematically proper way. In this paper, we introduce the mathematical foundations of such a targeting mechanism, demonstrate its efficiency in a prototype implementation with CRPropa\,3, and briefly discuss how it may be implemented as a fixed part of future CRPropa versions.

\section{The probability distribution of event counts}
\label{sec:event_counts}

\noindent We are interested in modeling the statistical detection probability of particles emitted from a source. In our simulations we assume to have an ideal detector, meaning if a particle hits the detector the event is registered in the $i$-th pixel of a sky map with probability one.
Consequently, the conditional probability distribution for detector events can be expressed as:
\begin{equation}
\Pi(\mathrm{event}_i|\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p) = W(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p) \, ,
\end{equation}
where $\alpha_p,\,\delta_p$ are the right ascension and declination of the $p$-th particle at the detector, and $r_p$ the distance passed by it at arrival time. The detector kernel $W(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p)$ is one for parameters that hit the detector and otherwise zero.
In fact, we are not interested in the conditional distribution but in the marginal distribution of events given as:
\begin{equation}
\Pi(\mathrm{event}_i) = \int \mathrm{d}\alpha_p \, \mathrm{d}\delta_p \, \mathrm{d}r_p \Pi(\mathrm{event}_i|\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p) \, \Pi(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p) \,
\end{equation}
where $\Pi(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p)$ is the distribution of arrival directions and distances to the detector as calculated by the CRPropa code. Note, that this distribution can be written as the marginal distribution over the initial conditions of the CRPropa simulation given by the emission angles $\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p$ as:
\begin{equation}
\Pi(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p) = \int \mathrm{d}\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p \, \mathrm{d}\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p \, \Pi(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p | \alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, \Pi(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, ,
\end{equation}
where $\Pi(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p )$ is the distribution of emission angles at the source. In general, for an isotropic source, emission angles are uniformly distributed over the full $4\pi$-geometry. Given these equations the distribution of detected events can be expressed as:
\begin{eqnarray}
\Pi(\mathrm{event}_i) &=& \int \mathrm{d}\alpha_p \, \mathrm{d}\delta_p \,  \mathrm{d}\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p \, \mathrm{d}\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p \,  \mathrm{d}r_p \, \Pi(\mathrm{event}_i|\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p) \,
\Pi(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p | \alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, \Pi(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, \nonumber \\
&=& \int \mathrm{d}\alpha_p \, \mathrm{d}\delta_p \,  \mathrm{d}\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p \, \mathrm{d}\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p \,  \mathrm{d}r_p \, W(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p) \,  \Pi(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p | \alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, \Pi(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, .
\label{eq:event_integral}
\end{eqnarray}
In principle this is a statistical description of the CRPropa simulation framework: the CRPropa code simulates individual realizations of the joint distribution $\Pi(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p | \alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, \Pi(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p )$ via the following process:
\begin{itemize}
\item draw random emission angles at the source ($\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p$)
\item follow particle trajectories to calculate the particle positions at arrival time ($\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p$)
\end{itemize}
Note, that since it is possible to draw random realizations of the joint parameter set $\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p,\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p$ and $\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p$, it is possible to estimate the integral in equation \ref{eq:event_integral} via a Markov approximation as:
\begin{eqnarray}
\Pi(\mathrm{event}_i) &\approx& \frac{1}{N} \sum_p  W(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p)
\label{eq:event_est_stan}
\end{eqnarray}
where the index $p$ labels different random particle simulations performed with the CRPropa code. Also note, that the detection probability is proportional to the total intensity of observed particles at a given solid angle in the sky.
A particular issue arises from the fact that, when simulating particle propagation through cosmological volumes, it is very hard to find trajectories that will actually hit the rather small observer sphere. This is particularly owed to the fact that, due to physical considerations, it is reasonable to assume an isotropic emission of cosmic rays from the source. Consequently, a large fraction of randomly simulated particle trajectories is of no interest to predictions of observational properties since they miss the detector. This problem renders 3D and 4D cosmic-ray propagation simulations a numerically challenging problem.

The integral given in equation {\ref{eq:event_integral}} can also be solved in a slightly different fashion via an importance sampling approach:
\begin{eqnarray}
\Pi(\mathrm{event}_i) &=& \int \mathrm{d}\alpha_p \, \mathrm{d}\delta_p \,  \mathrm{d}\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p \, \mathrm{d}\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p \,  \mathrm{d}r_p W(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p) \; \Pi(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p \,|\, \alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, \Pi(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, \nonumber \\
&=& \int \mathrm{d}\alpha_p \, \mathrm{d}\delta_p \,  \mathrm{d}\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p \, \mathrm{d}\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p \,  \mathrm{d}r_p W(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p) \, \nonumber \\
& & \phantom{\int} \times\; \Pi(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p \,|\, \alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, \Pi'(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \frac{\Pi(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p )}{\Pi'(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p )} \,
\label{eq:event_integral_imp}
\end{eqnarray}
where in the last line we introduced a one and the probability distribution $\Pi'(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p )$ can now be freely chosen without changing the value of the integral. One can now draw realizations of the joint distribution $\Pi(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p | \alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) \, \Pi'(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p ) )$
with $\Pi'(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p )$ chosen such that it increases the probability of hitting the detector target.
The corresponding Markov approximation for the event distribution is then simply given by:
\begin{equation}
\Pi(\mathrm{event}_i) \;\approx\; \frac{1}{N} \sum_p  W(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p)\, \frac{\Pi(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p )}{\Pi'(\alpha^{\mathrm{init}}_p,\delta^{\mathrm{init}}_p )}\, \nonumber
\;\;=\;\; \frac{1}{N} \sum_p  W(\alpha_p,\delta_p, r_p)\, \omega_p \, ,
\label{eq:event_est_gen}
\end{equation}
where the weight $\omega_p$ accounts for the modification of the statistical distribution of emission angles. Equation \ref{eq:event_est_gen}, therefore, is a generalization of the standard estimator presented in equation \ref{eq:event_est_stan}.

\section{A simple algorithm to target}

\noindent This work aims at providing optimal emission directions for sources in the CRPropa code, such that the yield of simulated particles trajectories hitting a distant detector is maximized. Because particles do not necessarily travel in straight lines, but their trajectories may be bent due to magnetic fields or other kinds of interactions, the optimal emission direction at the source does not necessarily point directly to the source. Moreover, random magnetic fields or scattering events can broaden the emitted particle distribution, such that the shape of the target looks blurred from the perspective of the source. For an arbitrary source in a general CRPropa simulation, the exact optimal direction and the width of the emission direction are not known and need to be identified on the fly during runtime.

We describe the optimal emission probability distribution for arbitrary distant sources by the von Mises-Fischer (vMF) distribution
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:vMF_hit_prob}
\Pi(x|\mathrm{hit}) = \left\{
    \begin{array}{ll}
      \displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi}, & \qquad \kappa=0 \\
      \displaystyle \frac{\kappa}{2\pi \left(1-\mathrm{e}^{-2\kappa} \right)} \mathrm{e}^{\kappa \left( \vec{\mu}^T\vec{x}-1\right)}, & \qquad \kappa>0
    \end{array}\right. \, ,
\end{equation}
where $\vec{\mu}$ is the Cartesian unit vector corresponding to the preferred direction of emission,  $\vec{x}$ is a unit vector of a random direction on the 2-sphere, and  $\kappa$ controls the width of the distributions of random emission directions around the preferred direction. In particular we choose $\kappa$ simply from requiring that in the case of geometrical optics a fraction $P$ of emitted particles
would hit the observer sphere. More specifically, we need to solve the equation
\begin{equation}
P \;=\; \int_a^1 \mathrm{d}y\;\;\frac{\kappa}{2\pi \left(1-\mathrm{e}^{-2\kappa} \right)}\;\mathrm{e}^{\kappa \left( y -1 \right)} \;\;=\;\;  \frac{1-\mathrm{e}^{\kappa \left(a-1 \right)}}{1-\mathrm{e}^{-2\kappa}}\, .
\end{equation}
If we assume $\kappa \gg 1 $ we can find the approximation
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:estimate_kappa}
\kappa = \frac{\mathrm{ln}(1-P)}{a-1}\, ,
\end{equation}
where $a=\mathrm{arctan}(s/D)$ is the apparent detector size, with $s$ the radius of the observer sphere and $D$ the distance between the source and the detector. By choosing the hit probability $P$ one can now adjust the amount of simulated particles that are expected to arrive at the detector. When, e.g., the particle trajectories are getting close to the diffusion regime, the naive geometric targeting will be sub-optimal, hence one should choose $P$ to have a suitable ratio of exploitation and exploration. In practice, setting $P$ is a matter of choice and of no importance to the validity of the algorithm. In the large sample limit the algorithm will converge to the correct result as the importance weights $\omega_n$ ensure that the algorithm simulates the correct emission statistics asymptotically. Typical values may range from $P=0.1$ if we want to be conservative and be sure not to miss any unexpected paths to the target, to $P=0.9$ when we are expect to be close to the case of geometrical optics.

To find the optimal emission direction and the width of the distribution, i.e., the parameters $\vec{\mu}$ and $\kappa$, we run the simulation in terms of several epochs $N_{\mathrm{epoch}}$, where each epoch simulates a batch of $N_{\mathrm{batch}}$ simulation particles. The directions of emission at the source have been
drawn from a vMF distribution, using algorithms readily discussed in the literature~\cite{Ulrich:1984:CGD,tROB04a}. We record these emission directions and follow particle trajectories through the simulation. At the end of every batch of simulations we determine new optimal parameters for the vMF and run a new batch with updated parameters. To learn the target distribution the algorithm will only rely on those emission directions $\vec{x}_n$ whose trajectories will end at the detector surface. Since these particles have been emitted according to a vMF distribution, while the true physical source would emit uniformly over $4\pi$, we have to estimate their importance weights as
\begin{equation}
\omega_n \;=\; \frac{1}{4\pi} \, \frac{1}{\Pi(x\,|\,\mathrm{hit})}
\;\;=\;\; \frac{ \left(1-\mathrm{e}^{-2\kappa} \right)}{2\,\kappa} \mathrm{e}^{-\kappa \left( \vec{\mu}^T\vec{x}-1\right)} \, .
\end{equation}
Given successful emission directions $\vec{x}_n$ and the corresponding importance weights $\omega_n$ we may now estimate the preferred emission direction as
\begin{equation}
\vec{\mu} = \frac{\sum_{n=0}^{N_{\mathrm{batch}}} \vec{x}_n \, \omega_i  }{ \left|\sum_{n=0}^{N_{\mathrm{batch}}} \vec{x}_n \, \omega_n\right|} \, .
\end{equation}
the detector size $a$ by
\begin{equation}
a = \frac{\sum_{n=0}^{N_{\mathrm{batch}}} \left(\vec{\mu}^T \vec{x}_n \right)^2 \, \omega_i  }{\sum_{n=0}^{N_{\mathrm{batch}}}  \omega_n}\,
\end{equation}
and the corresponding optimal parameter $\kappa$ of the vMF distribution is then found from eq.~\ref{eq:estimate_kappa}.

\section{Speedup test}

\begin{figure*}[tb]
\centering
 \centering
  \includegraphics[width=.49\linewidth]{./MapTargetedEmission_new.png}
  \includegraphics[width=.49\linewidth]{./MapIsotropicEmission_new.png}
  \caption{Comparison of sky maps for the reference simulation: one spherical observer with a radius of $R_{\mathrm{obs}} = 0.1$ Mpc, one source at a distance of $D = 10$ Mpc, emitting 1M protons with an energy of $E = 10$ EeV, a Kolmogorov-type turbulent magnetic field with $B_{\mathrm{RMS}} = 1$ nG,  a hit probability of $P = 0.1$ and no interactions included. Left: the map obtained using targeted emission. Right: the map obtained using isotropic emission. In both cases the same number of particles were emitted from the source. The total number of hits is $\sim100$ times larger in the left figure compared with the right figure.}\label{Fig:Skymaps}
\end{figure*}

\begin{figure*}[tb]
\centering
 \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.82\linewidth]{./Speedup}
  \caption{Test of the speedup of CRPropa using directed emission. Reference simulation: one spherical observer with a radius of $R_{\mathrm{obs}} = 0.1$ Mpc, one source at a distance of $D = 10$ Mpc, emitting 1M protons with an energy of $E = 10$ EeV, a Kolmogorov-type turbulent magnetic field with $B_{\mathrm{RMS}} = 1$ nG,  a hit probability of $p = 0.1$ and no interactions included. For the other scenarios one parameter of the reference simulation is changed while all other are kept the same.}\label{Fig:Speedup}
\end{figure*}

\noindent To test the speedup that targeted emission only (without the learning method described above for determining the optimal emission settings) can provide, we run CRPropa simulations with exactly the same settings, only changing between targeted emission and isotropic emission. The speedup is then defined as
\begin{equation}
\mathrm{S} = \frac{t_{\mathrm{iso}}/N_{\mathrm{iso}}}{t_{\mathrm{tar}}/N_{\mathrm{tar}}}
\end{equation}
with $t_{\mathrm{iso}}$ ($t_{\mathrm{tar}}$) and $N_{\mathrm{iso}}$ ($N_{\mathrm{tar}}$) the time the simulation took and the number of hits at the observer for isotropic (targeted) emission. For this test we run a reference simulation with one spherical observer with a radius of $R_{\mathrm{obs}} = 0.1$~Mpc and one source at a distance of $D = 10$~Mpc emitting protons with an energy of $E = 10$~EeV in a Kolmogorov-type turbulent magnetic field with $B_{\mathrm{RMS}} = 1$~nG and a maximum correlation length of 1~Mpc. The hit probability $P$ has not been optimised but has arbitrarily been set to $P=0.1$. For this reference simulation all interactions have been switched off. In both the isotropic and targeted emission cases 1M particles have been emitted from the source. The speedup found in this case is $S \approx 103$, already a huge computational improvement without any optimization of $P$ or other simulation settings. A comparison between the two sky maps that were obtained for this reference simulation, one for targeted emission and one for isotropic emission with the same number of particles emitted from the source, is given in Fig.~\ref{Fig:Skymaps}.

To see how the simulation parameters $R_{\mathrm{obs}}$, $D$, $E$, $B_{\mathrm{RMS}}$ and $p$ and the inclusion of interactions with photon backgrounds influence the speedup, we change one parameter of the reference simulation at a time and recalculate the speedup. The results of this procedure are given in Fig.~\ref{Fig:Speedup}. This shows that, for the scenarios tested here, the speedup can vary between $S \approx 10$ and $S \approx 6500$ depending on the simulation setup. This should be considered as a minimal speedup as no auto-tuning of $p$ or the emission direction has been included.

\section{Further development of the method and implementation in CRPropa}

\noindent In our approach so far the desired hit probability $P$ was a matter of choice, and the vMF parameter $\kappa$ and $\vec{\mu}$ were optimized only with respect to ensuring that the prior choice of $P$ matches the posterior hit probability in the given simulation setup. Certainly there is an optimal choice of $P$ for every setup, so it would be interesting to find this value by simulations, which can be done by Bayesian sampling. In practice it means to maximize the logarithmic posterior distribution given as
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:log_meta_post}
\ln\left( \phantom{\big(}\!\!\!\Pi\left(\kappa,\vec{\mu},P\,|\,\{\vec{x}\}_{\rm hit},\{\vec{x}\}_{\rm nohit}\right)\phantom{\big)}\!\!\!\!\!\right) \;\;=\;\;
\sum_{p=0}^{N_{\rm hit}} \ln\left( \Pi(\vec{x}_p\,|\,{\rm hit}) \right) +
\sum_{q=0}^{N_{\rm nohit}} \ln\left(\Pi(\vec{x}_q\,|\,{\rm nohit})\right)\quad,
\end{equation}
where $\Pi(\vec{x}_p\,|\,{\rm hit})$ is the vMF invoked for the parameters $P$, $\kappa$ and $\vec{\mu}$ chosen for the batch,
\begin{equation}
\Pi(\vec{x}\,|\,{\rm nohit})
\;=\; \frac{1}{1-P}\;\left(1- \frac{P\kappa}{2\pi \left(1-\mathrm{e}^{-2\kappa} \right)} \mathrm{e}^{\kappa \left( \vec{\mu}^T\vec{x}-1\right)}\right)\;,
\end{equation}
and $p$ and $q$ label particles that hit or miss the target, respectively. Note that this way we use information from all particles simulated in the batch, if we only had particles hitting the target the task of finding improved meta parameters would reduce to a standard vMF regression with $P$ as a free parameter. Optimal maximum a posteriori values for $P$ and the corresponding parameters $\kappa$ and $\vec{\mu}$ are then found by employing a standard numerical optimizer to maximize equation {\ref{eq:log_meta_post}}.

The functionality described here will be made publicly available in the near future as part of the main repository of CRPropa.\footnote{
\href{https://crpropa.desy.de/}{crpropa.desy.de}}
The targeting algorithm using the vMF distribution will be implemented as an extension of the {\sc Source} module of CRPropa. The learning routine to obtain the optimal parameters of the vMF distribution will be added to the main repository as a plugin to the code structure. Instructions on how to use the targeting algorithm, together with the learning routine, will be made available on the CRPropa website as part of a dedicated example page. More information on the method and its capabilities will be given in an upcoming journal publication (Jasche, van Vliet \& Rachen, in preparation).

\begin{footnotesize}

\subsection*{Acknowledgements}

\noindent This research was supported in part by the DFG cluster of excellence \textit{Origin and Structure of the Universe}.\footnote{
\href{http://www.universe-cluster.de/}{www.universe-cluster.de}}
AvV acknowledges financial support from the NWO Astroparticle Physics grant WARP and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant No. 646623).

\end{footnotesize}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


The 4412D digital phone is a 12-button digital telephone designed to provide the most common phone functions required to achieve maximum employee productivity and overall value.
12 Programmable call appearance/feature keys with twin lamps.
12 Programmable feature keys without lamps (ie. not suitable for call appearance features).
8 Fixed Feature Keys: Speaker, Mute, Conference, Transfer, Redial, Hold, Volume Up/Down.
DSS port to support 2 DSS4450 adjuncts; Auxiliary power required.


Your favorite teams topics players all on your favorite mobile devices. 1 is the worlds most famous and powerful multi- track music modifying useful toolkit for guitar lovers.
TheTruthSpy is the most powerful spy phone software with highly innovative features. Get the latest Packers news schedule, rumors from Packers Wire, photos the best Packers blog available. Manroulette Doesn' t Work On Mac! Real guitar apk full version free download.
Sign up for our SportsDay Newsletter. You can spy on virtually any phone remotely and invisibly.
It provides them the complete control over to manage their musical score bass, tablature for ukulele ee MMG Drum Kit Free Download. If you are looking to make beats that are ready to send to MMG A& R' s, look no further; this is the free MMG Drum Kit for you. Market more paid application free download New Here if you have any question please contact us : [ email New Macs.
Real guitar apk full version free download. 1 app is available in full- screen mode with. During the 300- year rule by the Spanish, Mexico became a crossroad stall of Truck Air Horn Viair System in Chevy Silverado Truck.
David installed the Dual Trumpet Truck Air Horn and 275c Viair Compressor 1 Gallon Air System in his Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab 4× 4. Including opinion video from the Hull Live team, pictures , live blogs formerly Hull Daily Mail. Many times but now that we have the ability to find every information related to the mobile number, an unknown call worries us there is nothing that we should worry about. The Bluestacks Mac Download app allows you to Download all sort of apps and games that available on your Android Play Store with that you can able easily use the app. Best of all meaning you can use them in personal , this Sound Kit is 100% Royalty- Free commercial. Real guitar apk full version free download. Why you should use Mobile Spy TheTruthSpy.
I came to your WinZip Activation Code – WinZip Serial Key – ( FREE Download. Get the latest sports news coverage opinion – all in your inbox. How To Trace Mobile Number with Name & Location Online Free – In the contemporary world technology has reached a peak where tracing the mobile number to find its owner location is not at all difficult. Hello my name is Teresa and I just wanted to drop you a quick note here instead of calling you. The culture of Mexico reflects the country' s complex history is the result of the gradual blending of native culture ( particularly Mesoamerican) with Spanish culture other immigrant cultures. Guitar Pro Crack 7. David from Fredericksburg VA emailed pictures of his install of an Assured Performance Air Horn Viair Air System he purchased from Assured Automotive Company.
First inhabited more than 10 the cultures that developed in Mexico became one of the cradles of civilization. What is Mobirise? VLC is a free VCDs, Audio CDs, open source cross- platform multimedia player , framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs various streaming protocols. Mobirise is a free offline app for Windows Mac to easily create small/ medium websites, portfolios, sport , landing pages, promo sites test news, online resumes events updates from around Hull. Search the world' s information images, including webpages, videos more.
Here the Bluestacks for Windwows 8. HiAppHere Market 1. The Official MMG Drum Kit Free Download is the ultimate collection of elements inspired by " Maybach Music Group" producers. Then form the app you can able to navigate the internet by using the inbuilt web browser you can also check your Facebook Twitter account.
1 Crack with Keygen [ Mac + Win] Latest Download. 21 blackjack card counting Manroulette Doesn' t Work On Mac Boss roulette marvel avengers alliance Hotel gasthof kasino villach austria Gamehouse slots android Lady Manroulette Doesn' t Work On Mac luck casino pa Lodge casino hotel Machines a sous casino de montreal Chatroulette haciendo hamijos multiculturales troleando Manroulette Doesn' t Work On. Google has many special features to help you find exactly what you' re looking for.
So, today we' re going to tell how to download Drastic ds emulator full version apk for free and how to play Nintendo games on your phone. Google Indic Keyboard for PC Windows & Mac: Google Indic Keyboard for PC is one of the efficient input tools for entering your text into the screen for Mac and PC. Google developed Google Indic Keyboard application.
Here is a latest and up to date version of Logic Pro X Torrent 10. 1 OS X, It is a full working link with high speed downloading.


text:
Q: Good framework for a web application for graphical query interface? I want to develop a web application allowing the user to graphically build and execute queries. Having essentially no knowledge about the hundreds of web app frameworks that seem to proliferate out there, I turn to your expert opinion and good taste. It should be:

*

*well-equipped to handle graphical objects

*easy to interconnect with DB (could be MySQL, DB2 or other)

*easy to learn for someone who painstakingly cranked out some swing GUIs years ago, but now essentially uses Python and R and MATLAB :)

*preferably permissive open source licensed

Any tutorials and do's and dont's concerning web app development are also very welcome.
Cheers

A: use the symfony php framework in php codeing. very easy to handle.
http://www.symfony-project.org/

A: I'd prefer Rails, but if you are fluent in Python, then you might try Django.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
ViroBlogy
Virology-related and hopefully educational posts for people in the field or learning about it
Zambia fever, again
It looks as though this is petering out – in its Johannesburg incarnation, anyway. From Health24 30th October 2008:
The virus that killed four people and infected another appears to have been contained.
The virus, identified as a member of the arenavirus family, which also includes the germ [sic] that causes Lassa fever. "There are currently no additional suspected cases," the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said in a posting dated October 26, based on information received last week. "The outbreak appears to be contained and has been confined to individuals with very close contact in a health-care setting." ….
The patients first experienced flu-like symptoms, but the illness worsened over the course of a week with diarrh[o]ea, a sore throat and a rash on the face and throat. Bleeding was not a prominent feature among the fatal cases, all of which lasted about nine to 12 days and ended in rapid deterioration with troubled breathing and circulatory failure, the report said.
Reuters Health, October 2008
OK, so the outbreak appears to be winding down: no new cases, old cases resolved – and no clue yet as to where the virus came from, or what the reservoir is.
Another news item from the same source:
Genetic testing indicate that the mysterious haemorrhagic disease which killed three people in the country is a new type of arenavirus, the SABC reported on Monday.
"We don't know why it is so pathogenic. It is a new virus, not like Lassa," Dr Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York Lipkin told a news conference at a meeting of infectious disease experts.
And then this, on 31st October 2008, also from Health24:
Arenavirus identified: authorities
Last updated: Thursday, October 30, 2008
"A new type of arenavirus has been identified as the cause of the deaths of four people since September, specialists at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Johannesburg said on Thursday.
"There is no doubt we are dealing with a newly emerged virus," said Janusz Paweska, head of the special pathology unit at the NICD. The virus belongs to the "old world" arenavirus, but until two weeks ago, they did not know they were dealing with a new virus.
Virus still to be named
The NICD worked with a network of specialists globally, and the virus was identified by themselves and a laboratory in Atlanta in the USA. At a press conference in Johannesburg, they said a name was still being chosen for the virus.
Professor Robert Swanepoel, a consultant for the specialist pathogens unit, said they would have to settle on one which did not create negative connotations for the area from which the first patients came. Traditionally viruses are named after the area that the first patients are known to originate from, for instance the Ebola and Marburg virus.
Swanepoel said they would not want to wipe out tourism in an area or create fearful associations.
– (Sapa, October 2008)
Shades of the fuss surounding the naming of the hantavirus causing a fatal pulmonary disease first described from around the Four Corners region of the US around 1993: this was first called Four Corners virus, then, when people there objected, Muerto Canyon virus with the same result, then Sin Nombre virus [=virus without a name in Spanish]….
I could suggest Bamba zonke virus [=take all], but that is frivolous – and It doesn't matter what it is called. It is just a really good idea to get out there and find it, and all its potential relatives, in their natural hosts.
So that we know what the potential threat is.
Tags:arenavirus; Zambia; rodent; outbreak
Posted in General Virology | 6 Comments »
Zambia Fever Revisited
Apologies for not updating more often; little things like HIV Vaccine conferences get in the way…B-) More on that later – for now, news:
From SAPA / News24.com today:
Virus: Nurse responds to meds
24/10/2008 14:31 – (SA)
Johannesburg – The nursing sister fighting an arenavirus is showing signs of responding to her treatment, although she is still in a serious condition, the Morningside Medi-Clinic said on Friday.
Meanwhile, the number of people being monitored after coming into contact with patients who had developed the viral haemorrhagic fever associated with the virus, has dropped from 94 to 31, spokesperson Melinda Pelser said.
Three people are known to have died from the virus.
Paramedic Hannes Els became ill after accompanying Cecilia van Deventer from Zambia to South Africa in September when it was thought she had tick bite fever, and clinic nurse Gladys Mthembu died before the virus, which is associated with rodents, could be identified.
"Antiviral treatment continues and there are indications that she is responding to this treatment," said Pelser of the nursing sister currently being treated.
Monitoring of the remaining 31 people is done while they are at home and at work and so far nobody has presented with the virus.
And from close to two weeks ago:
Mystery virus identified
Johannesburg – The mystery viral haemorrhagic fever which killed three people in South Africa has been provisionally identified as an arenavirus, the National Institute for Communicable diseases and the Department of Health said on Sunday.
"The causative agent of the disease… may be a rodent-borne arenavirus related to the lassa fever virus of West Africa," said NICD's Dr Lucille Blumberg.
She said tests done by the NICD and the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, US indicated that the disease seemed to be a kind of arenavirus.
Arenaviruses cause chronic infections in multimammatic mice – a kind of wild mouse – who excrete the virus in their urine which can then contaminate human food or house dust.
More tests needed
Viruses similar to the lassa fever virus have been found in rodents in Africa, but other than in West Africa, have not been found to cause diseases in humans.
Therefore further tests still need to be done to find out whether this current strain is an undiscovered member of the arenavirus and what its distribution is.
Arenaviruses are enveloped ss(-)RNA viruses with 2-component genomes. The ones affecting humans are generally rodent-associated, and are transmitted to humans by contact with rodent urine and/or faeces. Perhaps the best known example from Africa is Lassa fever, which is found in West Africa.
Lassa fever virions: from Wikipedia
From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
What are the Arenaviridae?
From the WHO:
New virus from Arenaviridae family in South Africa and Zambia – Update
13 October 2008 — The results of tests conducted at the Special Pathogens Unit, National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) of the National Health Laboratory Service in Johannesburg, and at the Special Pathogens and Infectious Disease Pathology branches of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, USA, provide preliminary evidence that the causative agent of the disease which has resulted in the recent deaths of 3 people from Zambia and South Africa, is a virus from the Arenaviridae family.
So we have what looks like a new arenavirus, popping up out of Zambia most unexpectedly. People who knew the index case – Cecilia van Deventer – are most concerned, as they know of no risks that they are not also associated with.
Watch this space….
Tags:arenavirus, rodents, Zambia
Posted in General Virology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Zambia fever virus: latest
Latest links:
"120 people under observation for killer virus" SABC, October 8th
"Killer-fever link found by luck " Independent On-Line 08-10-08
And just as a reminder that life goes on: a Congo fever patient from here in South Africa.
Tags:fever, virus, Zambia
Posted in General Virology, Uncategorized, Viruses | Leave a Comment »
Nobel Virology 2008
It gives me great and unalloyed pleasure, as someone acquainted with one of the new Nobellists, and who has followed the science behind the awards ever since the beginning, to feature the three virologists who were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2008.
Discoverers of AIDS and Cancer Viruses Win Nobel Prize – NYTimes.com via kwout
To quote the NY Times article, written by Lawrence K Altman:
"The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded Monday to three European scientists who had discovered viruses behind two devastating illnesses, AIDS and cervical cancer.
Half of the award will be shared by two French virologists, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, 61, and Luc A. Montagnier, 76, for discovering H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Conspicuously omitted was Dr. Robert C. Gallo, an American virologist who vied with the French team in a long, often acrimonious dispute over credit for the discovery of H.I.V.
The other half of the $1.4 million award will go to a German physician-scientist, Dr. Harald zur Hausen, 72, for his discovery of H.P.V., or the human papilloma virus. Dr. zur Hausen of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg "went against current dogma" by postulating that the virus caused cervical cancer, said the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, which selects the medical winners of the prize, formally called the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
His discovery led to the development of two vaccines against cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. An estimated 250,000 women die of cervical cancer each year, mostly in poor countries."
The news is all the more welcome, because I am very familiar with the entire history. The HIV pandemic has paralleled most of my career: I remember vividly my then Honours student – now a distinguished Professor in her own right – coming to me in 1984 to tell me that "…they have found the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome". Again, it was greatly of interest when Harald zur Hausen initiated the work that would lead to his award, as it was some of the first hard evidence that viruses were implicated in cancer – which suddenly made learning and teaching Virology a whole lot more sexy. Especially in view of the mode of transmission of the viruses concerned…I like to think I may have put more people off casual sex by talking about viruses like herpes, HPV and HIV and what they can do to you, than any ten school guidance counsellors – but I digress.
The news is also welcome because I now work with both HPV and HIV: thus, reward for the people who invented our main field of endeavour is especially pleasing.
But as ever, the Nobel awards are not without controversy. Altman again:
"In 1983, Dr. Montagnier and Dr. Barré-Sinoussi, a member of his lab at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, published their report of a newly identified virus. The Karolinska Institute said that discovery led to blood tests to detect the infection and to anti-retroviral drugs that can prolong the lives of patients. The tests are now used to screen blood donations, making the blood supply safer for transfusions and blood products.
The viral discovery has also led to an understanding of the natural history of H.I.V. infection in people, which ultimately leads to AIDS and death unless treated.
H.I.V. is a member of the lentivirus family of viruses. The French scientists were cited for identifying a virus they called L.A.V. (now known as H.I.V.) in lymph nodes from early and late stages of the infection.
"Never before has science and medicine been so quick to discover, identify the origin and provide treatment for a new disease entity," the Karolinska Institute said.
…Nobel Foundation rules limit the number of recipients of its medical prizes to a maximum of three each year, and omissions often create controversy.
The dispute between Dr. Gallo and the French team spanned years and sprawled from the lab into the highest levels of government. Dr. Gallo, 71, now at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, worked for many years at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.
While in Bethesda in 1984, a year after the French team's report, Dr. Gallo reported finding a virus that he called H.T.L.V.-3 and that was later shown to be nearly identical to the French L.A.V. After additional studies, Dr. Gallo said cultures in his laboratory had accidentally become contaminated with the French virus.
In 1986, Dr. Gallo and Dr. Montagnier shared a prestigious Lasker award, given in the United States; Dr. Montagnier was cited for discovering the virus and Dr. Gallo for determining that it caused AIDS.
In 1987, President Reagan and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac of France signed an agreement to share royalties and credit for the discovery.
But Maria Masucci, a member of the Nobel Assembly, told Reuters on Monday that "there was no doubt as to who made the fundamental discoveries."
Dr. Gallo told The Associated Press on Monday that it was "a disappointment" not to have been honored with the French team. Later, Dr. Gallo issued a statement congratulating this year's Nobel Prize winners and said he "was gratified to read Dr. Montagnier's kind statement this morning expressing that I was equally deserving." "
We've been waiting for this for a long time…and the result is interesting indeed, for many of us virologists. Satisfying too…. I remember wondering at the time how the US team could blithely rename a virus that appeared very similar to one described a year earlier – and was even more fascinated to see how the story unfolded, with LAV becoming HTLV-III becoming HIV, as eventually sense and taxonomy overtook hubris.
The HPV award seems not to be controversial at all, and Professor zur Hausen is seen by everyone I have spoken to as a most worthy recipient. Now, just to get that vaccine into people who need it….
Tags:HIV, Nobel, papillomavirus, vaccine
Posted in General Virology, HIV, Vaccines: General | 3 Comments »
Deadly Zambian fever: deja vu all over again
The news media are presently fascinated by the appearance of what looks like a new and nasty virus from my old home country, Zambia: see a link to The Times article of 7th October for the official word.
Which is "Don't Panic", written in large, friendly letters across the face of the newspaper….
From The Times article by Sashni Pather:
"Disease transmitted via bodily fluids
THE deputy director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases has assured the public that there is no need to panic, despite the fact that four people have been killed by an unknown, highly contagious virus.
Doctor Lucille Blumberg, who also heads up the NICD's epidemiology unit and consults to its special pathogens unit, referred to the death of Cecilia van Deventer, 36, as an "isolated case" and said test results were not yet available.
…A paramedic, Hannes Els, 33, who treated the critically ill Van Deventer in Zambia, and brought her to the Morningside Medi-Clinic in Sandton on September 12, died last Thursday after being infected with the highly contagious disease.
On Sunday a nurse and a cleaner, who had possibly been exposed to the disease, died.
Blumberg said: "The cause of death of the cleaner is still being investigated. We are busy conducting tests on all four deceased. The cleaner might not have been killed as a result of the virus.
"This is an isolated case. There have been no other reported cases in Lusaka, Zambia. ""
OK, so no obvious panic there, then – but disturbing echoes of another incident from 1996, when a Gabonese doctor was medevacced in to South Africa, and passed on an Ebola virus infection to a theatre nurse, Marilyn Lahana. He recovered, and she died – and there was close to panic in the land, as chronicled here. And here we are again…. Incidentally, anyone who wants to see how the first Ebola outbreaks of the electronic age unfolded can see a day-by-day history here, on my original Ebola pages. Still accessible, to my surprise!
That wonderful institution that is ProMED – who were the first people to break hard news of the Kikwit Ebola outbreak back in 1995, came to the attention of the serious medical reporting world as a result – has a slightly different view of the whole thing – and some interesting details not in the general news story. In this morning's digest:
UNDIAGNOSED FATALITIES – SOUTH AFRICA ex ZAMBIA (02)
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
Date: Mon 6 Oct 2008
Source: South African Broadcasting Corporation News online [edited]
<http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/health/0,2172,177844,00.htm>
A 4th person with viral haemorragic fever (VHF) symptoms has died. The virus has already claimed the lives of a Zambian national and 2 other people at the Morningside Clinic in Johannesburg. The woman was a cleaner at the clinic.
The National Health Department has issued an alert in Gauteng following these deaths. Unconfirmed tests indicate they may have died of [a] fatal viral haemorragic fever. An Outbreak Response and Tracking Team has been set up to contain any further spread. The department's Zanele Mngadi says investigations are still underway into the cause of the deaths.
Mngadi confirmed the death of the 4th person, who was admitted at the Leratong hospital last night [5 Oct 2008]. The patient, who showed symptoms of VHF, was transferred to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg
Academic Hospital, where she died. The health department says there is no need for South Africans to panic. The department's Frew Denson says the fever is highly contagious but is only transmitted through body fluids.
It is reported that the virus can kill a person within 72 hours. VHF is an extremely infectious and life-threatening disease caused by [several different] viruses, including Ebola virus. The death rate [in the case of Ebola virus] can be as high as 90 percent. Symptoms vary but include fever, vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding.
Communicated by:
Rabelani Daswa <rabedaswa@gmail.com>
From: Amy Cantlay <inka@iwayafrica.com>
I have just read the posting (Undiagnosed fatalities – South Africa ex Zambia: RFI 20081005.3139) on your site, and it appears to be rather misleading. The chronological order of events (as I can gather) is as follows (None of this information has yet been confirmed.):
4 Sep 2008 – Index Case – female South African, (living in Zambia for many years) begins to suffer from flu-like symptoms.
9 Sep 2008 – She is slowly deteriorating. She sees multiple doctors in Lusaka.
11 Sep 2008 – She is admitted to hospital and deteriorates over night.
12 Sep 2008 – Paramedic is called in to evacuate her to South Africa. He does the transfer, along with another Dr assisting.
13 Sep 2008 – Index Case dies.
14 Sep 2008 Paramedic starts to develop flu-like symptoms.
14-27 Sep 2008 – Paramedic slowly deteriorates.
27 Sep 2008 – Paramedic is diagnosed as very sick and medivaced [sic] to South Africa. Nurse who treated Index case begins to get flu-like symptoms.
30 Sep 2008 – Paramedic dies.
1 Oct 2008 – Nurse who treated Index Case is admitted to hospital.
5 Oct 2008 – Nurse who treated Index Case dies.
The information that I can gather is the following:
1. Incubation period is as little as 2 days (paramedic), but as long as 14 days (nurse).
2. Disease course is generally 4-7 days of flu-like illness with patient only becoming critically ill in 2nd week of disease.
3. Further information is that Index Case reportedly had an eschar on one of her feet, thought to be from a tick-bite. She had also been in contact with horses from Congo in the weeks preceding her illness. Transmission is hypothesized to be by 2 means: tick-borne 1st (which may have brought the disease into the human population from the animal population) followed by direct contact with bodily fluids (resulting in human to human transmission).
4. It appears further hospital staff are now critically ill in Zambia, though this has not been confirmed.
5. If the incubation period is as long as 2 weeks, then we should still be closely watching all "contact-cases" for any signs of the disease. Those in contact with the Index case should be in the clear by now, while those in contact with the paramedic and the nurse (as well as any hospital staff who are currently sick) are still at high risk. One should probably work on a 21-day incubation period/quarantine period to be safe.
6. Chances are this is a new virus (or new subtype of virus) in the [family _Filoviridae_]. The only 2 known viruses in this group are Ebola and Marburg. It looks as though [the infection] may have entered Zambia from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through a tick (carried on a horse), but again this cannot be confirmed.
This comment assumes that labs in South Africa have already tested all known VHFs. It is unlikely to be pneumonic plague, as this would have been discovered in South Africa; however, it is still a possibility that this [putative] viral disease has been in the Southern Province of Zambia (and that the 4 reported cases seen there were not diagnosed or wrongly called pneumonic plague).
7. The important steps in control are 1. effective quarantine of sick patients, and 2. monitoring of all "in-contact" cases, with quarantine as soon as any signs of flu or fever are noted. The government should also ideally make a statement to calm the panic and prevent people from fleeing the capital (potentially carrying the disease countrywide). This disease only spreads to people who are in very close contact with sick individuals. Those family members who are potentially incubating the disease should be encouraged to stay
around Lusaka, so that signs can be picked up quickly and treatment issued rapidly….[section on use of ribavirin – effective only against Lassa fever – edited out].
Dr Amy Cantlay BVSc.MRCVS <inka@iwayafrica.com>
Mkushi, Zambia
[ProMED-mail thanks Dr. Cantlay for her commentary, which contributes some interesting detail. At this point, it would not be useful to speculate further on the identity of the infectious agent responsible for the deaths of the 4 Zambian patients. No doubt a firm diagnosis will be available shortly from a South African reference laboratory. Several different viruses cause viral hemorrhagic fever. Of these, Ebola, Marburg, Lassa or Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses have not been recorded in Zambia up to the present. A comprehensive account of these and other viruses responsible for hemorrhagic fevers can be found at the US CDC website: <http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/virlfvr/virlfvr.htm>.
So: an unknown fever-causing agent, possibly associated with a tick bite in the index case, but which seems definitely to be transmitted quite efficiently via exposure to (presumably) body fluids, in a hospital setting…which does not appear to be known strains / types of Marburg or Ebola viruses, or Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus.
Loose in Johannesburg…part of a greater conurbation housing some 9 million people….
Should we be worried??
And the answer would be – NO.
If Ebola didn't spread out of Kikwit in 1995 – a city of 500 000+ with no decent infrastructure to speak of – even to get as far as Kinshasa, then why should it spread in Johannesburg, or even Lusaka, where the infrastructure is MUCH more sophisticated?
I will leave this with a couple of quotes from posts I compiled on Ebola back in August 1995 from the fondly-remembered virology group at bio.net:
"To: virology@net.bio.net
From: ED@molbiol.uct.ac.za ("Ed Rybicki")
Subject: Re: The Ebola virus – the end of the civilized world
Date: 18 Aug 1995 05:53:07 -0700
I would say you – and many others – are being unnecessarily
frightened by a concerted media campaign designed at selling lurid
books and films. Listen – for a change – to what experts tell you,
and react accordingly.
That is, RELAX!!!!!"
From: york@mbcrr.harvard.edu (Ian A. York)
Subject: Re: Ebola: the greatest threat, continued
In article <99792FA2E69@ida.ruc.dk>, wrote:
>Ebola is another ballgame. There is no way to protect effectively
>against this disease, and we have seen at mutation of this virus, Ebola
>Reston, that evidently was airborn (luckily it only affects monkeys).
Ebola has killed less than 400 people in the past decade. By contrast, typhoid fever kills over 600,000 people per year; measles kills 1,000,000 (one million) people per year. If you think Ebola has the potential tokill anywhere near that many, you don't understand the virus. The Ebola outbreak in Kikwit *was* the worst-case scenario; *everything* went wrong. 300 deaths. Not trivial. But a tiny fraction of the real killers.
Lobby and try to get measles vaccine in Africa, if you want to do some good. So don't waste your time worrying about Ebola."
Amen to that! Pity we have to keep revisiting The Threat From Darkest Africa – maybe we can sell the rest of the world some vaccines against them sometime soon…B-)
Tags:Congo fever, Ebola, Marburg, outbreak, South Africa, Zambia
Posted in General Virology, Uncategorized, Viruses | 2 Comments »
HIV: roots run deeper than we knew
I have previously posted a number of articles on "molecular archaeology" of viruses, and how one can use extant sequences, archived tissue samples, or even blood of pandemic survivors to speculate on the origins of specific viruses, of viruses generally, or on the nature of old pandemic strains.Now HIV falls under the spotlight – again – as the 2nd October issue of Nature publishes three articles (one letter, a commentary on it and an independent commentary) on the origins of HIV-1 pandemic strains.I picked up on the first news – evidence for an older-than-previously-thought origin for HIV-1 – via our local paper this morning. Now this is VERY impressive; they usually keep science news for a slow day, and here they were telling us about a Nature paper on the day it was published! Accessing Nature brought up the Nature News commentary by Heidi Ledford, titled "Tissue sample suggests HIV has been infecting humans for a century". Essentially, the commentary summarises the findings of Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona and his colleagues, who managed to amplify and sequence HIV-specific cDNA and DNA from a paraffin-embedded lymph node biopsy dating from 1960 from a woman in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) in what is now the DR Congo. To quote Ledford:
"Their results showed that the most likely date for HIV's emergence was about 1908, when Léopoldville was emerging as a centre for trade."
Their findings added credibility to an earlier demonstration of HIV-1 in a 1959 sample, also from Kinshasa. What was interesting was that the sequences of the two viruses differed by 12%: this indicates that there was already significant divergence in the HIV-1 strains infecting people as early as 1960, pointing to a longer history of human infection than the previous estimate of the 1930s.Which led on to the Comments section, where one finds gems like this:
"This is one of the most stupid discovery I have ever heard. You will blame every single human plague on Africa, This is against all the Theories of evolutionary biology where The descents of the people that lived in the area might have developed a kind of resistance instead of being vulnerable to a new strain of the Virus."
"HIV is older than your great-grandparents, uh-huh! And I'll bet that the US bio weapons effort is just ecstatic about this deflection. So now these members of science play to the bio-jackboot population controllers with this 'revelation' that those sex-crazed Africans of course just couldn't stop themselves from pulling chimpanzees (I thought the original scientific theory was "green monkeys") out of the trees for a quickie."
I couldn't take this, so I replied:
"It continues to amaze me, as a teacher of virology who tells big classes every year where HIV comes from, how every year some clique of students takes the African origin of HIV personally, as a direct affront. I echo the correspondent above: it is a virus, people. Viruses infect animals, they infect people, and sometimes spread from one to the other – and back, if you are a zoo animal and catch something from your handler. The AIDS pandemic is an accident of sociology, demography, access to high-speed, long-distance travel – and truck routes, and truck drivers. It happens that it originated in Africa. So did the human race – only a lot longer ago. Inevitably, as humans encroached on apes, things get passed across. And don't spread, much, until…someone puts a road through the village.Why don't people get more exercised about the origins of HTLV, another retrovirus that almost certainly jumped from monkeys to humans? Except that happened many thousands of years ago, and in south-east Asia, not Africa. And for the same reasons: people eat monkeys and great apes. For that matter, it is speculated that chimpanzees got SIV-CPZ from vervet (I HATE the term "green") monkeys – and that it may have caused a population bottleneck, some 100 000 years ago. I note that chimpanzees are known to eat vervets, incidentally – so they caught the virus the same way we did.
Ah, well…. In any case, Paul Sharp of the University of Edinburgh – and phylogenetics guru – and the godmother of HIV/SIV diversity, Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama (from whom I got the chimp-vervet virus link), have an independent commentary in the same issue, wherein they speculate on "The prehistory of HIV-1". They make this very interesting comment:
"If the epidemic grew roughly exponentially from only one or a few infected individuals around 1910 to the more than 55 million estimated to have been infected by 2007, there were probably only a few thousand HIV-infected individuals by 1960, all in central Africa. Given the diverse array of symptoms characteristic of AIDS, and the often-long asymptomatic period following infection, it is easy to imagine how the nascent epidemic went unrecognized."
They also make the important point that the findings of the Worobey group were replicated – with similar but non-identical virus sequences being found – by another group working independently with the same tissue sample. This is important because it nails down the findings more firmly, as HIV sequences within an individual do differ, and:
"…the distance along the evolutionary tree from the group M ancestor to the ZR59 or DRC60 sequences is much shorter than those between the ancestor and modern strains, consistent with the earlier dates of isolation of ZR59 and DRC60, and confirming that these viruses are indeed old".
a, The HIV-1 genome fragments that were successfully amplified from DRC60 (red) and are available for ZR59 (black). The numbering for the HIV-1 sequences corresponds to the HXB2 reference sequence (Supplementary Table 1). b, The A/A1 subtree from the unconstrained (in which a molecular clock is not enforced) BMCMC phylogenetic analysis. 1960.DRC60A is the University of Arizona consensus sequence, and 1960.DRC60N is the Northwestern University consensus sequence (that is, the sequences independently recovered in each of the two laboratories). The DRC60 sequences form a strongly supported clade with three modern sequences also sampled in the DRC.
Reproduced with permission from Nature Publishing Group (RightsLink License No 2041420001096) from:
Direct evidence of extensive diversity of HIV-1 in Kinshasa by 1960
Michael Worobey, Marlea Gemmel, Dirk E. Teuwen, Tamara Haselkorn, Kevin Kunstman, Michael Bunce, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, Jean-Marie M. Kabongo, Raphaël M. Kalengayi, Eric Van Marck, M. Thomas P. Gilbert & Steven M. Wolinsky
Nature 455, 661-664(2 October 2008) doi:10.1038/nature07390
So where did the virus infecting humans come from? The best guess, from the paper and the commentaries, is that it originated – as do the extant chimpanzee virus supposed to have descended from the common origin – in chimpanzees somewhere in southeast Cameroon.How did it get into people? Sharp and Hahn again:
"The simplest explanation for how SIV jumped to humans would be through exposure of humans to the blood of chimpanzees butchered locally for bushmeat."
No sex, no weird practices…just eating our cousins. And how and why did it get to Léopoldville? Trade…and in those days before widespread truck routes, that would have been via rivers – which, Sharp & Hahn point out, drain from southeast Cameroon into the Congo River, which flows past what is now Kinshasa. The Worobey paper has some interesting history in it, documenting times of founding and rates of growth of cities in equatorial west Africa: Léopoldville/Kinshasa was and probably still is by far the fastest-growing of these, and was the earliest founded (in 1885). All that was needed to seed a pandemic, then, was that people infected by a virus as a result of butchering chimpanzees, moved some 700 km down natural trade routes to an emergent trade centre – and settled, and passed it on.Then, of course, it is the same old story, told so well by Jared Diamond in "Guns, Germs and Steel": increased human population density and breakdown in social structure leads to increase in rate of transmission and incidence / prevalence of a disease agent, until it reaches the threshold necessary to break out. It is interesting that it took so long to become noticed – but then, HIV is passed on considerably less efficiently than Hepatitis B virus, so the pace of the epidemic was necessarily slow.But very sure….
Tags:Congo, Evolution, HIV, origin, zoonosis
Posted in General Virology, HIV | 4 Comments »
A Timeline of TMV
eBooks on Viruses
Inaugural Editorial
Introduction to Viruses – Part 1
The Truth About HIV/AIDS
Virus Discovery Timeline
Endlessly revisiting a bad idea
Influenza and History of Discovery of Viruses ebooks
A new vaccine hope for African horse sickness, from an unlikely source
Teaching Virology With Social Media
1918 Influenza Pandemic Case Fatality Rate
A Short History of the Discovery of Viruses - Part 1
Jewel Austin on Test version of a Introduction…
likuoo on Teaching Virology With Social…
Ed Rybicki on A Brief History of Influe…
Penny Shaida on A Brief History of Influe…
Antibiotics vs. Anti… on Viruses as nanomachines! Or: w…
upload.wikimedia.org/wiki…
Alan Cann's new textbook on Facebook!
An Electronic Introduction to Molecular Virology
Microbiology in Slavic!
MicrobiologyBytes
MicroBlogy
Mystery Rays from Outer Space
Twisted Bacteria Site
UCT Molecular & Cell Biology Department
Virology and Bioinformatics from Virology.ca
virology blog: about viruses and viral disease
Virology News: Ed Rybicki's Scoop.it page
Add new tag adenovirus AIDS arenavirus bacteriophage biofarming biopharming bird flu BSE cancer CDC cervical cancer circovirus Congo Congo fever contamination CROI DNA vaccine DNA virus Ebola Evolution flu flu vaccine geminivirus H1N1 H5N1 herpesvirus history HIV HPV Influenza killer flu mad cow Marburg marine virus measles metagenomics microbicide mimivirus MMR morbillivirus MSV nanotechnology pandemic papillomavirus plants Polio poxvirus prevention prion Protalix protection recombination replication retrovirus rinderpest rolling circle rotavirus siRNA smallpox South Africa supervirus swine flu T-cell Thailand Uganda vaccine vaccines vaccinia virology viromics virus VLP XMRV Zambia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Guardian: Cocaine was found after the parties organized by Truss and Johnson
According to the newspaper, flour remains have been found in the prime minister's official residence and in the mansion used by the foreign minister.
Mixed Remains of cocaine have been found in the official residence of the British Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, and in the Chevening mansion, which is usually used by the foreign minister, in the southeast of London. The staff has made the findings of the former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Trussin after the parties they organized.
A British newspaper tells about it The Guardian. According to the newspaper, neither Johnson nor Trussia is suspected of drug use. According to the newspaper's sources, the use of cocaine at the highest levels of the British government is by no means unique.
Conservative politician LIz Truss, 47, served as British Prime Minister for a record short term from September to October. He was appointed to the position by the foreign minister.
According to The Guardian's information, Truss organized two receptions in the three thousand square meter Chevening mansion, built in the 17th century, just before his term as prime minister. The first guests were in the village with the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of August and the next at the beginning of September.
According to the information, the staff found white flour residues after both guest nights. Flour was found, for example, on the side table of the billiard room. According to the quick test, it was cocaine.
Downing The cocaine finds on Street 10, on the other hand, are related to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 58-year-old party during the corona lockdown. According to previous information, the host of the official apartment himself did not participate in the two parties after which cocaine was allegedly found.
According to the newspaper, the first cocaine discoveries in the prime minister's official residence were made after Christmas on December 19 in 2020. Cocaine stains were found among empty bottles, cans and food wrappers.
Another party was organized by the prince Philip's Around the time of the funeral in April 2021. According to The Guardian, cleaners found traces of cocaine in the bathrooms of the prime minister's official residence at the time. The finds also included plastic bags with blood and vomit.
One table had cocaine stains and a discarded voucher from the beauty, health and pharmacy chain Boots. There is no information about its owner.
Boris According to Johnson's spokesperson, the ex-prime minister is surprised by the accusations. "Because no allegations of drug use at 10 Downing Street have been previously brought to his attention".
Now Prime Minister Rishi Sunakin the information officer of the official apartment in use was equally outraged by the claims. "The Guardian has not presented any evidence to support its claims," the spokesman commented. "If these were serious allegations, we would expect them to be reported to the police."
Dalich: "The Moroccan team has high-quality, high-spirited players, it will be a difficult game"
"For us, Croatia is the center of the world, not a province," DP responded to Plenkovi. You're not deserving of her.
Africa: Teacher poisoned and fed to crocodiles


text:
Q: Why isn't an enum checked by the C compiler? The following text is an excerpt from C Programming Language, 2nd Edition, written by the creator of the C language (so I presume it is correct):

Although variables of enum types may be declared, compilers need not check that what you store in such a variable is a valid value for the enumeration.

I have some doubts:

*

*For what cases in the C language doesn't the compiler check the value of an enum?

*enum constants are not checked for some reason. Why not?  What are the reasons?

*Since enum is not checked by the compiler, is using enum error-prone? Please explain.

A: *

*An enumeration is like a fancy integer, and it's better than defining a whole load of constants or preprocessor macros as names for the constant values you want to store, because a compiler (or editor) can check that you're using the right names and values to go with the right type. On the other hand, being just an int, there's nothing stopping you putting in a value you didn't make a name for, which is occasionally useful.

*They can't be checked in every case. What if you add two numbers together to get the value that's going to be put in the enum-typed variable? It could be any value, generated at runtime, so it can't be checked (without a lot of overhead, at least).

*Everything in C is unsafe; there's practically no feature which the compiler can totally prevent you from abusing. enums are safe because they are effective at preventing programmer error and confusion, not because they stop you doing something stupid.

A: You can do a enum like
enum status {
    ST_READY = 1 << 0, /*  1 */
    ST_WAIT  = 1 << 1, /*  2 */
    ST_ERROR = 1 << 2, /*  4 */
    ST_HALT  = 1 << 3, /*  8 */
    ST_ETC   = 1 << 4, /* 16 */
};

Then define an object of that type
enum status status;

and set it to the bitwise OR of some 'simple' statuses
status = ST_WAIT | ST_ERROR; /* recoverable error */

Note that the value ST_WAIT | ST_ERROR is 6 and that that value is not part of the enum.

To answer your questions:

*

*C compiler lets the programmer shoot himself in the foot.

*C compiler lets the programmer shoot himself in the foot.

*C compiler lets the programmer shoot himself in the foot.

A:

*

*At what all cases in C language doesn't the compiler check the value of an enum. [edited]

When you assign to it. Assignment from bare integers is allowed, so you can do:
enum E { A, B } x;
x = 10000;

without compiler error. Also, switches in enums are not check for exhaustiveness.

2)Why enum constants are not checked, for some reasons? What are those reasons?

People like to put integers in them. eg.
enum E { END_OF_EVERYTHING = 5 };

where 0-4 are meant as ordinary values, and 5 is kind of special.

*Since enum is not checked by the compiler, using enum is error prone?

Yes. Since enums only have values of the least number of bits that can take all enum values, you can get strange results:
enum E { A = 1, B = -1 };

This enum only contains 2 bits of data (values -2, -1, 0, 1). If you assign 10000 into it, strange things may happen (actually seen).


text:
TheHands
Everything posted by TheHands
Valid sources
TheHands replied to Rozovian's topic in Site Issues & Feedback
Little Big Planet has an OST that uses music that was possibly not written for the game, but in many cases is only well known because of the game. There is also music that was specific to the game. What is the exact call on these songs? Like for LBP, is it only music done by Daniel Pemberton that's allowed, or the other themes too? Also, as a point of interest, apparently all music in The World Ends With You was written for the game but used outside vocalists (except "Lullaby For You," which I think was an external song). Are these still fair game, or because they're attributed to the vocalist
Space Invaders Extreme 1/2
TheHands replied to Arek the Absolute's topic in Community
I've been considering SIE for a while, but always talked myself out of it. Ended up getting Exit DS, Dark Spire, and Civilization Revolution whenever I did. That hasn't worked out as well as it probably should have.
Pokémon Remix [Into the Palace]
TheHands replied to Jakerno's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
Wow, failure on my part. I directed it towards the wrong person, sorry Quirk. Redirect to Horatio.
I like this mix, I think the opening piano would be better if it were played in a different register. It's not mudding up the guitar, but it's not too far away from it. Swapping an octave up or down might be the better choice. The rest of the piano work feels solid. Personally, I feel like the section with the opening theme is the strongest. I'd say to just run with that song instead, or make it feel more like a cameo-solo thing in this one. It would need a lot of variance and playing with, but it could work out to be fantastic. The guitar recording is very loud. That's not really a bad thing,
finished Final Fantasy V Remix (Medley): Dragon Wings
TheHands replied to Archangel's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
The woodwinds made me fall in love <3 Submit this, I don't picture it being rejected.
finished Maple Story - Kerning Street Disco (Kerning City ReMix)
TheHands replied to Twitch's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
I'm hearing WAY too much of the original. I've wasted more time than I'd care to admit playing Maple Story, and I can honestly say it needs much, much more variance from the original. Also, the drums annoy the hell out of me. The only time they get interesting is for the weird roll that happens. Otherwise I hear a lot of hat, and that's about it. Disco drums aren't in-your-face either, but they're much, much more fitting for the songs they fall into. This doesn't feel like disco (which generally has less choppy, more fluid soundscapes going on). The sticatto bass can work with disco, but only
WCT - [COMPETITION OVERHAUL - NEED IDEAS] The Writing Competition Thread
TheHands replied to HalcyonSpirit's topic in Competitions
I has notes. Waiting for the chance to put them to prose.
I feel like a douche for forgetting to vote this time. Then again, I don't know if it would've changed the outcome at all. Either way, grats to all who were involved. I'll read in a bit and critique as I find time to make up for the lack of vote.
OCR01993 - Mega Man Zero 2 "Moving Forward"
TheHands replied to djpretzel's topic in ReMix Comments/Reviews
I don't know the original piece, but I do know metal. This is awesome, I want to hear more heavy stuff on this site. Perhaps with vox. Great work AMT.
resubmission
mod-review Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Temporal Tower Remix
TheHands replied to TGH's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
I agree with Rozovian, the snare needs to come down a little. The rest of the instrumentation is pretty good, but seems like they need to cut through various frequencies a little more distinctly. The keyboard solo and flue follow up is pretty cool, I actually think I'd like to hear more of the flute through the mix (but I'm a sucker for wind instruments). Nice work so far.
Are there any games you guys play over and over again?
TheHands replied to atmuh's topic in Community
Besides the obvious answers (Tetris, Final Fantasy, etc) I played the hell out of Road Rash 3D. It hasn't aged very well, but the game was amazing to me when I started playing.
Final Fantasy VII Battle Theme on Guitars
TheHands replied to haigashod's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
There's definitely a drum track. The middle is an acoustic used to accent bass. It's slightly less strummy than one would expect. However, the hats and can't be replicated by a guitar in the way they're shown.
This is pretty awesome.
Final Fantasy 7 remix (You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet): The Planet is Dead
TheHands replied to Nekofrog's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
The opening clean/acoustic sound feels like it needs more dynamics used. It isn't bad, and for the build to the first real push it works, but it almost seems like it could work better. Otherwise, I'm really, really digging this so far. A good song from a favorite of mine done in a style that isn't fucking trance finally = win.
Hey I just made a hip hop Parappa Remix
TheHands replied to Navi's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
I am amazed/amused/hopeful that this goes through.
I've been set back somewhat in my time, I'll try to get something out before the (new) deadline.
Vinyl Fantasy VII
TheHands replied to Brushfire's topic in Community
This is pretty awesome, good find.
The OverClocked Plaid Muffins - Kirby Super Star - Ska Buffet - ACCEPTED!
TheHands replied to Level 99's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
This sounds like a good idea. It'd be like the album having a single with radio play... but on the internet. That would be doubly badass.
Potential New York City Meetup - Two Gentlemen of Lebowski
TheHands replied to The Pezman's topic in Community
Finally got everyone who was interested to agree on it... and they were vapor. However, I'll still arrange to be in the area for some kind of meeting, I'll just miss the awesome of the show.
I think I'm more excited about this than I am anything else I've heard in progress for a while. I'm not as big on ska, so most feedback I could give wouldn't be all that constructive. I would, however, like to hear the bass slightly louder.
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Arcade Stick
TheHands replied to XZero's topic in Community
No worries, I won't. I know how quickly these things are moving/how quickly tickets can disappear.
I'm still verifying the people of mine. I should know by tomorrow.
I'd like to think that this game will sell well, even if only because of the popularity of the previous Vs. Capcom games. No one in the US knows what the hell Tatsunoko is, but that doesn't mean that they don't want to kick the crap out of their characters. The stick sounds awesome, by the way. Might get one now.
New AAI:Miles Edgeworth Great Revival Hard Rock Remix...
TheHands replied to TheUllas's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
This, to a degree. Things like counterpoint melodies and harmonies (sometimes even things as simple as changing the time signature) can make any mix new. You don't need to rewrite melodies, you just need to work around them in a way that brings them new life. For example, with this piece, consider having a rhythm instrument in the pitch you already have. Don't make it play melody except when a specific harmony is called for, instead consider a melody that falls under it in the way that a chord would. Or consider crunchy, rhythmic chords as a background. There's a number of ways to approach it.


Agriculture remains the most important sector of the Cambodian economy in terms of its share of the gross domestic product (GDP), and it employs the vast majority of the workforce. Rice is Cambodia's major crop, its principal food, and, in times of peace, its most important export commodity. Rice is grown on most of the country's total cultivated land area. The principal rice regions surround the Mekong and the Tonle Sap, with particularly intensive cultivation in Bătdâmbâng, Kâmpóng Cham, Takêv, and Prey Vêng provinces.
Cambodia traditionally has produced only one rice crop per year because it has lacked the extensive irrigation system needed for double-cropping. Under traditional patterns of agriculture, planting normally begins in July or August, and the harvest period extends from November to January. Where there is little irrigation, the amount of rainfall determines the size and quality of the crop.
The government of Democratic Kampuchea made great efforts to build irrigation systems throughout the country. The results occasionally were notable, and in a few parts of the country farmers were able to grow two or, more rarely, three crops of rice per year. In some cases the irrigation works were poorly conceived and hastily built, and they soon collapsed. Most of those that survived were abandoned after 1979. Another significant problem is that millions of land mines remain in Cambodian fields from the years of warfare; this has severely restricted the amount of land available for cultivation.
In addition to rice, other food products include cassava, corn (maize), sugarcane, soybeans, and coconuts. The principal fruit crops, all of which are consumed locally, include bananas, oranges, and mangoes, and are supplemented by a variety of other tropical fruits, including breadfruits, mangosteens, and papayas.
Cattle, particularly water buffalo, are used principally as draft animals in the rice paddies and fields. Hog production has also played a large role in agriculture. Efforts to replenish the number of livestock—depleted by years of war—have been hampered by uncertain social conditions and the prevalence of animal diseases.
About three-fourths of Cambodia was forested in 1970, but by the early 21st century that portion had decreased to roughly half, with Cambodia carrying one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. The provinces bordering Thailand and Vietnam continue to be logged by large companies to whom the government has granted concessions, as well as by smaller entrepreneurs, many of whom do not obtain official permits. Illegal logging is a persistent and serious problem despite efforts to curb it.
Fisheries are important in the domestic economy. Fish in its various forms—fresh, dried, smoked, and salted—constitutes the most important source of protein in the Cambodian diet, and subsistence fishing is part of every farmer's activity. The annual freshwater catch includes perch, carp, lungfish, and smelt. For larger-scale fishing, the government sells two-year leases to harvest segments of the Tonle Sap and inland rivers. Revenues from these sales have been significant at times, but the program has been fraught with corruption. Overfishing and environmental degradation around Tonle Sap have decreased the fish supply and driven up prices, and the sustainability of freshwater fisheries has become a matter of public concern.
Cambodia has few known mineral resources. Some limestone and phosphate deposits are found in Kâmpôt province, and precious stones are mined in Bătdâmbâng province. Cambodia's small quantities of iron and coal have not justified commercial exploitation. Most electric power is generated at thermal plants fired by imported oil. Hydroelectric generation from facilities along the Mekong and its tributaries is being rapidly expanded and provides the remainder of the country's electricity. Prospecting by foreign firms for petroleum and natural gas at offshore areas adjacent to sites being exploited by Vietnam has yielded sizeable deposits.
Until the mid-1990s, industrial development in Cambodia remained at a low level, contributing a relatively small portion of the gross domestic product (GDP). Efforts had been made to build a modest industrial base suitable for domestic needs, and timber processing and rice milling, which were important before 1975, were revived in the 1980s. Toward the end of the 20th century, however, plants were established to produce soft drinks, paper, cigarettes, building materials, cement, and cotton textiles. Although Cambodia's industrial sector initially found it difficult to compete with mass-produced goods from the more economically developed countries of the region, those countries have invested heavily in Cambodian garment factories, and manufacturing has contributed an increasingly significant proportion of annual GDP.
Cambodia's commercial banking system was established in 1989–90. It is headed by the National Bank of Cambodia, which functions as the central bank and issues the national currency, the riel. The Foreign Trade Bank, originally established to manage commercial relations with other communist countries, facilitates the financing of the country's commercial activities. Most other banks are either foreign-owned or joint ventures with a foreign partner; the first of these ventures was established in 1992 between the central bank and the Siam Commercial Bank. Foreign bank branches are concentrated in Phnom Penh. The remaining banks are small, private entities, many of which are suspected of engaging in money laundering in connection with regional drug trafficking.
The banking system actually plays only a minor role in public or private finance. Most of the population has little contact with banks, preferring instead to put their limited savings into gold or U.S. dollars. Rather than use the credit services offered by banks, small-scale business owners and farmers borrow from relatives, business associations, shopkeepers, or other nonfinancial entities and are often charged exorbitant interest rates.
The government has encouraged foreign investment, particularly through legislation providing tax incentives for foreigners, which has increased capital flow into the country. Hotel construction has intensified, as has foreign investment in the garment industry. Investor confidence, however, has continued to be restrained because of concerns about political instability.


Evening English Language Classes Now Available!
We are now offering two evening classes per week for those who want to improve their English but are only available in the evening.
Classes take place Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30 – 7:30pm. Our small, personalised classes have proven to increase our students' English language skills more quickly and effectively than other, larger classes.
Please contact us on 01225 334 577 or by email: info@bathacademy.co.uk for more information. Also visit here to get more details and book online.
Each year CIFE hosts an inter-college quiz in London, and every year Bath Academy sends a team of clever students to participate. The questions test teams across a wide range of subjects. This year our international team included Maddie, Will, Oma, Luke, and Olga who came in 6th overall for a great result!
Our international students had the honor of attending a Civic Reception held at the historical Pump Rooms in Bath at the end of November. Hosted by the Mayor of Bath, this annual reception is organised especially to welcome students from abroad.
Each student was personally welcomed by the Mayor of Bath, followed by a drinks reception and inspiring speech from the Mayor himself.
Bath Academy is an independent college and language school that specialises in a personalised, tailored education. We offer tutorial support in both Academic and English Language courses to match individual needs of students, helping them to achieve their academic potential in any direction they may choose.
For the past seven years, I have had the pleasure of seeing Bath Academy grow, thrive, and transform into a vibrant, international college. Students from different backgrounds and various cultures continue to carve out their individual academic journey with us and progress beyond our expectations.
With tailored teaching and support, we give students the best chance to apply successfully to high quality universities, and have had a record year of students offered university places at their chosen destination.


At many businesses today, people can receive pay increases based on seniority or "what they've done" years prior. This often can create a very unlevel playing field. Team members that have been with a company a long time tend to not have to try to improve themselves as much. On the contrary, more recent employees, who have been working hard to learn their position, tend to not receive as much recognition for their effort.
Several years ago, we implemented a merit-based program where team members are rewarded at the end of each year, based solely on successfully reaching their goals.
Once a year we hold a "Growth Conference" where each team member sits down with their manager, one-on-one, to discuss their own strengths and weaknesses. Then together they plan out what they'd like to do about it. Even if someone has been working for 15 years, there are always aspects of that job where they can grow and learn new things.
As an example, the team member may say, "I want to become proficient at taking x-rays or I want to be certified with Microsoft Excel." The Coordinator will then help that person create an action plan to get them to where they want to be a year from now. Perhaps they may have to take continuing education classes or train with someone. When the Growth Conference is completed the team member will now have a plan to accomplish their goals.
For our Coordinators, there may be other areas we want them to learn about or become proficient in. For example, we have Coordinators that have mastered their positions and want to challenge themselves to pursue skills in public speaking or becoming proficient in Powerpoint so they could professionally speak to our whole practice or at a dental conference.


Great location to build and raise a family with pets and animals allowed . NO deed restriction out of the normal country ranch style living . Quiet peaceful area ,yet close to all shopping and family needs . Minutes to I-75 interstate for work travel. Bring Horses and all! This 1.25 acre property has no neighbors to see. Great trees and property to hide away!


ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) comprises of a commercial software package that promises the seamless integration of all information flowing through the company - financial, accounting, human resources, supply chain and customer information.
The Oracle Applications Consulting Practice of Telkite adheres to the Application Implementation Methodology (AIM), which was developed by Oracle Corp to implement Oracle Applications.
Fast-forward approach follows a fixed scope, set price offering for rapid implementation of Oracle Applications, thereby reducing complexity, time and cost without sacrificing functionality. This approach is most suited for mid-sized business operations.


Author: - January 25, 2018 0	Was Australia once part of North America?
But sometime after their deposition this "ribbon" of land, which is the present-day Georgetown in Australia, broke off. Before the supercontinents that eventually split up into the present-day configuration, there was a supercontinent called Nuna.
It continued: "As a sign of appreciation for the Pebble community's continued enthusiasm for wearable technology, we will be offering Pebble users who still own a device with a valid serial number $50 off a Fitbit Ionic smartwatch". Pebble will be dead from 30 June 2018. The latest versions of both Pebble apps remain compatible with current versions of iOS (iOS 11) and Android (8.1 "Oreo").
The news comes after Google announced it would be integrating "full" Google Assistant to its Android Auto in-car operating platform. "You can also get a free preview of the book to make sure you're hooked on to the story and enjoy listening to the narrator's voice", Google said in a statement .
If Apple kills iPhone X this year, it won't be because of low shipments. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.50 earnings per share. "At a high level, noise in the supply chain appears most pronounced about Apple's March quarter, consistent with the fact that sequential declines could be in line, or worse than recent history", Sacconaghi said.
It also intends to reduce the number of ex-DIA stores by 273. The group said it was aiming to receive roughly one-third of its sales from its own-branded products and increase organic food revenue by more than 300% to €5bn by 2022. The company added that the potential acquisition of a stake in Carrefour China by Tencent and the signature of a strategic partnership with Tencent paves the way for opportunities for Carrefour in the country, notably in food e-commerce.
With responses from almost 4,000 game developers, the results reveal that 12 percent of respondents are now developing games for Nintendo Switch - which represents a significant jump compared to last year's survey when it was only 3 percent.
The Galaxy S9 would not bring over a brand new design. Samsung's official website has listed out three types of ISOCELL camera sensors - Bright, Fast and Slim. The Chinese original equipment manufacturer is said to have chose to postpone the announcement of its newest high-end offering in order to avoid a direct clash with the Galaxy S9 , Samsung's upcoming mobile device lineup that was already confirmed to be launching at the Barcelona, Spain-based trade show late next month.
Apple has since apologized for the entire episode and has now confirmed that iOS 11 .3 will bring the ability to opt out of this functionality when the software update is released this spring. Another health-related improvement focuses on emergencies: Apple is adding support for Advanced Mobile Location (AML), which in supported countries will automatically include the caller's current location when they call for emergency services.
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket uses power that hasn't been seen since the ambitious early days of space exploration in the 1960s and '70s, and today viewers around Cape Canaveral's historic LC-39A launch site got to see it in action during a static test fire.
That's changing now, though. It's going to provide a new tool that lets users keep an eye on the data that's being sent to Microsoft by their Windows 10 machine. Browsing History data is from the Microsoft Edge browser, while Inking, Typing, and Speech Utterance data are typically associated with the Cortana service.
This is something the studio became all too familiar with during development of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition . Also, the mere nature of Anthem as a consistent multi-player game means its way more acceptable for it to have problems at launch that will be fixed over time.
PST and end February 27 at 5 p.m. PST. During the event, the company typically reveals more details about the next version of Android , new products, enhancements to existing platforms, and the tools developers will have at their disposal.
Microsoft ( NASDAQ:MSFT ) is expanding its Game Pass option for Xbox owners, adding new first-party games to the digital smorgasbord the same day that they hit the market. The first major game to be released on Xbox Game Pass the same day as its regular release will be Sea of Thieves , the much-anticipated open-world pirate game exclusive for Xbox One and PC.
This is also the second super moon in the same month (the last one happened on January 2) and hence called a blue moon as well. At 4:51 a.m., totality will begin, with best viewing between about 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. "Set your alarm early and go out and take a look". At the time of the lunar eclipse, the temperature on the moon varies much faster. For those in the eastern US, the eclipse will begin at 5:51 a.m.
On Tuesday, the X Prize Foundation said that after consulting with the five finalists over the past several months, they have concluded that no team would be ready to launch a spacecraft by the March 31, 2018. While the nonprofit said that it "did expect a victor by now", it may move forward with a new sponsor to fund a prize if possible or reframe the Lunar XPrize as a non-cash competition.
Some industry insiders are suggesting that these new orders - which according to sources speaking to Digitimes will ramp up to 600,000 units a month by the end of 2018, compared to 300,000 units now - could mean that Apple is preparing to release an entry-level MacBook without the touchbar.
The Reliance Jio nearly lost his chunk previous year while competing with the telecom companies such as Airtel and Vodafone similar plans. The Rs. 149 recharge came with unlimited calling benefits with 100 daily free SMS per day. All the plans which offered 1GB data per day will now offer 1.5GB data per day as part of the Jio Republic Day offer. Reliance Jio has announced a revision to its prepaid plans yet again.
Aside from listening to audiobooks on your phone, Google audiobooks are also available across a wide range of Android devices , including tablets and PCs, and can be played back using the Google Assistant, which will let you navigate or skip pages using your voice.
All of these updates are available now. While macOS High Sierra received its Spectre and Meltdown patches last week, those holding onto older versions of Apple's desktop and notebook system will see updates come through today. Spectre and Meltdown are not only affecting different Mac models but overall the entire industry is at stake and tech giants have been working to get it straight.
Author: - January 24, 2018 0	Man Bites iPhone Battery Causing It to Explode!
The video of the incident captured by the CCTV cameras of the store was uploaded to Chinese video sharing platform Miaopai , since then it has got 4.69 million views. It's a problem associated with knockoff battery chargers and other dubious third-party accessories that are rampant in China, which may have explained why the man was biting the battery in the first place.
Back last July we drove the prototype of the Range Rover from 1969, which was badged Velar at the time, because it was best name that engineers could think of that used the Land Rover letters that were available in the parts bin. Inside, meanwhile, the SV Coupe will certainly be striking. Ahead of the Geneva exposition here's a sneak peek at it - or at least of what Land Rover calls its "supremely refined" interior, boasting "peerless refinement and uncompromised sophistication".
The HomePod will now begin shipping on the 9th of February in the UK, US and Australia. Siri will be able to send messages, become an iPhone speakerphone, set timers and reminders, and allow users to listen to the news, check the weather and control smart home devices connected to Apple's HomeKit .
It is similar to the God of War Digital Deluxe Edition , which is available worldwide, This includes a digital copy of the game, the digital art book, the digital copy of the #0 comic, the theme and the two pieces of DLC. The God of War Collector's Edition is another worldwide release. "The 9" statue was crafted by our team in collaboration with the incredible folks at Gentle Giant.
It also has an impressive 21 minute flight time if there's no wind. "This is the most portable, intelligent and powerful drone ever", DJI's director of North America claimed at the NY launch. Most drones require a memory card to store the footage but it doesn't matter if you forget your card with the Mavic Air as it has 8GB of internal storage.
First, there's Official Stories - these are from a small group of notable Snapchatters, including top celebs like Phillip Schofield, Dua Lipa, Chris Froome, Stormzy, Anthony Joshua, Joe Wicks, Millie Bobby Brown, Rita Ora, and Niall Horan.


Is there a way I can set this so that it will not remove the red or blue fonts when I do the format? Also, is there an option whereby I can keep a large font for a default after I do a format using this style and format cleaner?
I like to put footnotes in red or blue, placing the footnote immediately after the paragraph where it originates.
Sorry, there are no options other than what is presented in the configuration screen. The main reason the Cleaner was added was to remove the very kind of formatting you are wanting to keep, so I don't think it's going to work in your case.
Thanks much. I guess it pays to look before you leap - I had never read all that stuff that you included in the above message. I'll try to not stay in the corner with my dunce cap on too long. Again thanks. MGB.