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HaSS Research Impact
Research Impact from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS), Newcastle University
Author Archives: Angie
Getting ready for the 2015 General Election
Posted on 23 September, 2014 by Angie
Professor James Law & Mr Tom King
James Law is Professor of Speech & Language Sciences, and Tom King is Statistician, both based in the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences. This blog article highlights how Save the Children commissioned James and Tom to do some analyses of the Millennium Cohort Study. The paper they produced now features extensively in a new report published earlier this month, entitled: Read On. Get On: How Reading Can Help Children Escape Poverty (PDF: 1.46MB), which has been extensively reported in UK media stories.
In the run up to the General Election lobby groups press hard to have their interests represented in the party manifestoes. With the 2015 General Election looming now is the time to line up the arguments and write the documents that will inform this process.
Save the Children, together with a number of different charities, are writing a document entitled "Reading for a Fairer Future: A National Mission to Ensure All Children are Reading Well by 11 by 2025: delivering the Read On. Get On. campaign". This draws together data from a variety of sources to make the case that parties need to be focusing on the attainment (and specifically oral language and literacy) of very young children in the early years if they are to get a grip on key policy issues flagged up by the UK's performance in the Programme for International Assessment (PISA) and other international league tables. Reading attainment amongst 10 year olds is more unequal in England than in all other countries in Europe, with the single exception of Romania. In part this an issue about the achievement of all children but Save the Children were particularly interested in the differences between children who are relatively socially advantaged and those that are not. As part of this process Save the Children commissioned Professor James Law together with SLS statistician Tom King to carry out some analyses of the UK's Millennium Cohort Study of 18,000 children born in 2000 and assessed at regular intervals since then.
What happens beyond the school gates and in homes is critical. Our work for this report shows that reading to and with children matters for both mothers and fathers, but the impact of father's reading – particularly to children after they have started school – appears even greater. Children whose fathers read with them less than once a week at the age of five had, by the time they were seven, a reading level half a year behind those who had been read to daily.
There is also a wide 'book gap' in England: almost a quarter of 11 year olds in the poorest families had fewer than 10 books in the home, which contrasts with under 4 per cent of those in the richest families. This is likely to reflect a wider attitude and approach to reading in the home: children in homes with more than 500 books are on average more than two years ahead of those growing up in households with fewer than ten books.
The 'Read On. Get On' report concludes "Achieving this goal would mean that every single child born this year would be able to read well by the time they finish primary school in 11 years' time. In order to ensure we are making progress, we are also setting two interim goals. Because the early years of a child's life are so critical and because early language development is the building block on which later reading develops, we are setting the 2020 goal of: all children achieving good early language development by the age of five by 2020. And because we need to ensure that we are on track for achieving the ultimate 2025 goal, our second interim goal will be: to be at least halfway to achieving the 2025 goal for 11-year olds by 2020" (page vii). Ambitious goals indeed, but we will only know whether they have been met if we have access to good quality national data. The next step will be the manifestoes and the response from the different political parties.
The paper based on Newcastle University's research is cited on pages vii,6,33-35,40, 42-43 and the whole of Chapter 2 of the Read On. Get On. Report (PDF: 1.46MB). See also Newcastle University's press release.
The Read On. Get On. report and/or the Newcastle University research is referred to in media stories in: The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Sun, The Times Online, ITV, to name just a few.
For more information about the Read On. Get On. campaign, see their website.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged children, education, elections, James Law, Millennium Cohort Study, Read On. Get On. Campaign, reading, Save the Children, Tom King | Leave a reply
Pints, Pubs, Policing and Paedophilia: Reflections on a Good Night Out with the Skeptics
Professor Elaine Campbell
Elaine Campbell is Professor of Criminology at Newcastle University in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology. Elaine's current theoretical interests centre on the post-political landscapes of plural policing. Plural policing denotes the mixed economy of contemporary policing, where responsibilities for crime control and the management of risk is dispersed across the private sector, the voluntary sector, the cybersecurity industries, and local communities. In this blog post, Elaine reflects on her night out with the Newcastle Skeptics in the Pub, over the course of which she explored alternative ways of policing paedophilia, and argued for an approach which she describes as `policing without boundaries'.
Ever fancied disseminating your research over a pint? I did just this at The Bridge, Castle Square, Newcastle Upon Tyne, in August 2014. Invited by the Newcastle Skeptics in the Pub to give a talk on my current research, Policing Without Boundaries, I was delighted to accept, and have been well-rewarded by an invigorating evening with an engaged, critical and attentive audience of Skeptics eager to learn more about my work. To create some context for the research focus, I started out by giving an overview of the shadowy world of paedophilia, and unpacked the secular demonology which has grown around this particular form of criminality. I went on to present a range of empirical data to illustrate how far paedophilia remains largely impervious to contemporary policing approaches which seek to map, control, manage and reduce (if not eliminate) its risks.
1/4 inch graph paper by David Swart: licensed under CC BY 2.0
I used a sheet of A3 graph paper as a prop to think about our reliance on a policing approach which centres on the surveillance, detection and investigation of paedophilia through, for example, the use of sex offender registers, CRB checks, chat room infiltrations, CEOP intelligence reports, computer forensics, and transnational, multi-sectoral policing partnerships. For me, this is a rather superficial way of going about things, and is a little like policing the two-dimensional space of graph paper. Put another way, it's a policing strategy which imagines its operational topography as a flat surface upon which the incidence of paedophilia can be plotted, its impact measured, and its precise locations identified. Furthermore, it uses these co-ordinates to predict the movement and distances between different `paedophiliac events', and mark out the boundaries for its containment. It's a strategy which supposes that, with sufficient resources, time and technological know-how, paedophilia can be known, mapped, monitored, controlled and (eventually) expelled from the family home, the care setting, the community, the computer hard-drive, the chat room, and the network. Policing within boundaries is fine as far as it goes, and it should not be dismissed as unimportant, but perhaps there are alternative, more effective and complementary ways of tackling the issue.
Crumpled paper by Sherrie Thai: licensed under CC BY 4.0
This was the point at which I scrunched the A3 paper into a crumpled ball, and invited the Skeptics to look again at the policing terrain. In place of the Euclidian geometry of the A3 graph paper (and the policing within boundaries that it represents), we were now looking at the multiple landscapes of paedophilia. There are no fixed points here, or intersecting lines; marks on a graph which were separated are now brought together in close proximity; not everything is visible in this irregular and undulating terrain; there is no inside or outside, centre or margin. In short, where there is no objective form, it is impossible to map and measure content. This pretty much describes the clandestine world of paedophiliac offending. In common with human trafficking, drugs and arms smuggling, terrorism, and the illegal trades in human organs and endangered animals, paedophilia dissolves our sense of what is close by and what is far away. The crumpled paper demonstrates quite vividly that real-time encounters (in the home, in the youth club, at school) are co-extensive with distant connections (paedophiliac tourism, international paedophile rings, the circulation of child sexual abuse imagery, child sex trafficking). So, rather than rely on arrest data, online subscriptions, credit card usage, and sex offender registers, as indicators of the locations and extensive reach of paedophilia, our attention should turn to its emergence in and through intensive social relationships – entanglements and interactions which not only blur the distinction between here and there, but also collapse the imagined binaries of safety and danger, adult and child, the virtual and the real, the local and the global. I describe such an approach as policing without boundaries.
Rubber band ball by Chris Young: licensed under CC BY 2.0
It was then time for some tricks with rubber bands. I stretched two rubber bands as far as they would go, twisted them through each other, knotted them together, and then pulled them apart with a bit of a guitar twang. The key question here is not about the different shapes and patterns which these contortions produced, but how the elements (the hydrocarbons) of the rubber bands hold together when recombined in novel and inventive ways. A real-world example might help to make the point. The role-playing, online game, Second Life, hit the headlines when adult players were found to be engaging in simulated sex with child avatars. The elements of paedophiliac practice remain in place here – intentionality, soliciting, grooming, performed abuse, sexual gratification and exploitation – but have been virtually reassembled without any `real' victims and `actual' consequences. Like the rubber bands, there's a durability about `the doing' of paedophilia which is continually in the process of transformation and realignment – in this instance reinventing itself as a `victimless non-crime'.
But what does all this mean in terms of policing strategy? These are abstract ideas which need to be developed further before anything resembling a policy framework is on the cards. This is the challenge and the task for my research over the next year or so. A first step is to strengthen the theoretical credentials of policing without boundaries. The Skeptics certainly recognised in my talk, the familiar vocabulary and insights of assemblage, actor-network and topological theories. These frameworks enable us to focus on the intensive social and cultural entanglements of paedophilia `in the making'. How does the `doing' of paedophilia bring spaces, bodies and things (such as homes, children, screens) together in ways which dissolve, shift, bypass and ultimately render irrelevant the boundaries within which policing currently tracks and apprehends offenders? Where should we be looking for paedophiliac offending, and what and who should we be looking at? This calls for an openness to the dynamics and contingencies of paedophiliac opportunities, a healthy skepticism of what we think we know about its whereabouts and prevalence, and an incredulity of pronouncements that paedophilia is being effectively managed and controlled. A good starting point is to acknowledge at outset that paedophilia creates the spaces of its own being. It draws its own maps.
I am extremely grateful to the Skeptics for affording me the time and space to work through and explore these issues in such a constructive and friendly environment. Their insightful contributions will certainly help me to refine my thinking, and take account of the different concerns which are threaded through contemporary anxieties about paedophiliac criminality. I have had very good feedback from the Skeptics, who commented that `the response has been overwhelmingly positive; I'm glad you enjoyed your time at the group too! One of the strongest areas is the Q+A/feedback section, so it's great to hear how this will impact your research'. If you want to give your research a good airing, perhaps to test the water and see if your research ideas `have legs'; or perhaps to present work which is already well-established, then just get in touch with the Newcastle Skeptics in the Pub. Please visit their site for contact information, and to see full details of their activities, venues and programmes.
The theoretical strands of the research are being presented to an interdisciplinary audience in a sub-plenary at the ESRC-funded, CRESC Annual Conference, Power, Culture and Social Framing, University of Manchester, 3-5 September 2014; and at the Decentring Security: Policing at Home and Abroad workshop, organised and hosted by the Center for British Studies at the University of California, Berkeley in December 2014.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged actor network theory, assemblage theory, Elaine Campbell, Newcastle Skeptics in the Pub, paedophilia, policing, topology | Leave a reply
Poverty Research and Social Policy Practice
Posted on 5 September, 2014 by Angie
Professor John Veit-Wilson FAcSS
John Veit-Wilson is a guest member of staff in the School of Geography. Politics and Sociology. He has been affiliated to Newcastle University since 1992, where he has previously held positions as Principal Research Associate and Visiting Professor in the former Department of Social Policy. Since working on the first British national survey of poverty in 1964 his research focus has been on what poverty and income adequacy mean, how they can be measured, and what governments in the UK and elsewhere could do to combat poverty.
In this blog, John outlines how his research has informed policy and practice, culminating in his being awarded a Social Policy Association Special Recognition Award in July 2014. As well as helping to found the Child Poverty Action Group in 1965 to put poverty research into policy practice, finally retiring as a trustee and vice-chair only in December 2013, John has been an adviser on income adequacy issues to many organisations including the European Anti-Poverty Network and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). He has also given both written and oral evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees and government consultations.
'No one agrees on what poverty means'. That's often said, but is it true? It's been a government mantra for decades, and no UK government has ever implemented an adequate income level to meet population standards of minimum decency. The only official attempt to find out was suppressed and has never been repeated (see the chapter 'The National Assistance Board and the 'Rediscovery' of Poverty' for the story), probably because governments fear the political costs of using ordinary people's standards of minimum decency for everyone.
Once you get behind the disagreements about what statistical measures to use, what relativity means, whether poverty is a personal or a structural fault, both quantitative and qualitative research shows that the UK population has long given clear answers about the minimum levels of living which everyone here ought to be able to afford from their disposable household incomes. That minimum decency level of living for social inclusion, often called 'adequacy', sets the baseline. Poverty means lacking the public and personal resources, chiefly cash, to get there. The chief focus of the research has long been to get the idea of 'adequacy' for minimum incomes accepted in place of the variety of artificial measures such as percentages of income inequalities or prescriptive budgets.
This isn't just a matter of discovering the 'contents of the shopping basket' as it's often misleadingly described, but of recognising whose minimum standards of decency, adequacy and inclusion are being used to judge it. Even the World Bank's guide to poverty concepts and methods acknowledged that it was 'the standards of society' by which the minimum level of material well-being had to be judged (Ravallion 1992: 4). The pioneer of modern sociological poverty research, Peter Townsend (1993: 36), explained that relative deprivation was not being able to 'follow the customary behaviour' expected of members of society, and poverty was lacking or being denied resources to do so. But who judges what's adequate for you and me, or what resources we need to get there? Only society can do that, so no wonder people are confused when politicians and media focus only on the personal characteristics of people in poverty (which are often shared right across society) rather than on the wider reasons why some people are deprived of adequate resources in our unequal society. The task of social policy research is to explore, analyse and explain these sociological and political issues (for more information, see the text of the 'Poverty' entry from the 2006 Routledge International Encyclopaedia of Social Policy).
The question of whose standards to use goes back more than a century. Nineteenth century investigators simply identified people in poverty by middle-class judgements of their appearance and lifestyles, as politicians still do, but that does not explain why they are poor. The chemist Seebohm Rowntree's research in York instead used a basic nutritional standard for physical subsistence alone and showed that a third of people looking poor had incomes simply too low to exist on, chiefly because of low wages, unemployment, disability or old age (see the 'Paradigms of Poverty' article for more information). The basic causes of poverty have not substantially changed today.
In spite of government resistance, some politicians do care about the connections between ideas of poverty and how to count who suffers from it, and what the income maintenance system could do. In 1989 the House of Commons Social Services Select Committee invited me to give evidence (based on the article 'Consensual Approaches to Poverty Lines and Social Security'), and in 1991 to advise on income adequacy in a joint meeting with the Social Security Advisory Committee. They wanted a UK feasibility study but as this was politically unacceptable JRF, the Nuffield Foundation and the British Council funded the study, Setting Adequacy Standards, of how governments around the world define their minimum incomes, 1992-94. At that time, ten governments based their minimum wages or other income maintenance provisions on their idea of a minimum acceptable level of living and the incomes needed to achieve it, and treated incomes below this level as forms of poverty. The findings may be dated but the theoretical foundations and discussion are still valid.
To describe these findings, the simple descriptive phrase 'minimum income standard' (MIS) was augmented with the prefix 'governmental' or with capitals to mean a third and politically-credible kind of measure (Veit-Wilson 1994) from those still conventionally used and much confused — the wide variety of arbitrary definitions and normative measures of poverty used in academia, some of which were called poverty lines, and the governmental use of statistical indicators of income distribution or of arbitrary social security benefit rates which aren't based on any evidence of the resources people need to meet minimally adequate levels of living in the UK. The idea of MIS, whether or not with prefix or capitals, has become very widely used both in research (e.g. JRF's largest ever funded research programme, the ongoing MIS project from 2006 which I advise) and in practical policy (e.g. as the basis of the Living Wage), not only in the UK but other countries (e.g. see the article on 'Active Inclusion and Minimum Incomes', and the response to the 'European Minimum Income's Network (EMIN) draft EU road map').
Using a variety of research methods to find out what are the public's minimum level of living standards and their costs does not, however, directly help a government to know at what levels to set the different parts of the income maintenance system, particularly if other kinds of evidence may also be relevant. If someone works a full week on the minimum wage shouldn't that be adequate to keep a normal household out of poverty without supplementation? But if social security for unemployment is less than this for 'incentive' reasons, won't it be inadequate for decency? What about the relationship with social security levels for long term conditions such as illness and disabilities, or old age? Questions like these demand considered judgement based on comparing evidence from research, not mere statistical formulas. When in 2000 the Social Security Select Committee reviewed the idea of integrated child benefit as a means of combating family poverty, it invited me to give written and oral evidence, and accepted that the government itself should fund such research and convene "an ongoing working party involving policy makers, academics and other interested parties to assist it to devise publicly acceptable measures of the levels of living needed to avoid poverty". The Child Poverty Act 2010 provided for a Child Poverty Commission which might fill this role but has not yet done so.
The big question remains, does having enough money make a difference to reaching decency levels, or is poverty just down to personal characteristics? JRF is funding the Money Matters research programme I'd proposed and advise, and first reports show that having money is crucial for families and the pathways by which money influences health. The next stage of the research programme aims to focus on health inequalities to find out how much money makes the crucial difference.
Ravallion, R. (1992) Poverty comparison: A guide to concepts and methods, Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Townsend, P. (1993) The International Analysis of Poverty, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Veit-Wilson, J. (1994) Dignity not Poverty. A Minimum Income Standard for the UK. IPPR for the Commission on Social Justice.
John's publications mentioned above and other papers are available online.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged deprivation, income adequacy, John Veit-Wilson, poverty, social inclusion | Leave a reply
Does the Cost of Elections Matter For Election Quality?
Posted on 25 July, 2014 by Angie
Dr Alistair Clark
Alistair Clark is Senior Lecturer in Politics in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology. His research interests revolve around electoral integrity and administration, political parties and party organisation. His current research explores various aspects of electoral integrity and election costs. In this blog post, Alistair explores a key issue of interest to both policymakers and scholars of electoral integrity: whether or not higher spending on election administration actually improves the quality of elections.
Running elections in advanced democracies is an expensive business. Yet, in many countries, the cost of politics is under pressure. This pressure extends to the 'backroom' costs of administering elections. To do so in a fair, equitable and transparent manner nevertheless necessitates a range of spending, without which the potential integrity of the electoral process is put at risk. Little however is known about the effects of such spending on election quality. My recently published chapter 'Investing in Electoral Management' (in P. Norris et al (eds.) 2014 Advancing Electoral Integrity, Oxford University Press) addresses this issue in an attempt not only to begin a debate around election costs, but to begin to provide evidence to policymakers about the effectiveness of spending on election administration.
Far from being a centralised process, running elections is hugely complex and something that must, by definition, happen close to the voter. Polling stations need to be identified and set up, poll workers employed and trained, and enough ballot papers printed. Votes then need to be kept secret and secure, counted, collated and the results published. However, electoral law is often fragmentary, with different laws made in different jurisdictions. Small problems can easily become larger ones; witness, for example, the election night queues in some English cities in the 2010 general election.
One explanation often given for difficulties in electoral administration is the lack of resources available to pay for a range of electoral facilities. These can range from the highly complex – electronic voting and counting machines for instance – to the seemingly more mundane – making sure enough part-time workers are recruited and trained to man the polls and count the votes. For example, although the Help America Vote Act 2002 mandated and provided funding to update US electoral administration in the aftermath of the Bush-Gore fiasco, it is commonly noted that the subsequent Election Assistance Commission it set up had difficulties in executing its functions because of a lack of finance. Similarly, in Britain, under-resourcing is often cited as a factor in explaining why difficulties occur.
The corollary of this argument is to suggest that if electoral administrators were better funded, there would be fewer problems and better run elections. This is an important argument, going to the heart of what must be the central aim of electoral administration: that everyone who is eligible can cast a vote, and that their vote will be counted in the same way as everyone else's. The argument is that proper resourcing helps deliver this. Under-resourcing puts it at risk. Running elections is seldom the first priority for public administrations. With current austerity policies pressuring public service budgets, running elections is likely to assume an even lower level of priority.
What is the evidence that higher levels of spending delivers better quality elections? This has remained largely unexamined because consistent data on both the performance of electoral administration and on the funding of electoral services is extremely difficult to find. This is for a variety of reasons. Public bodies are seldom mandated to monitor performance in this field, even if outside election observers often do, while accounting consistently for spending on elections across a range of local public bodies which implement the elections is extremely difficult.
Fortunately, performance and spending data collected by the UK Electoral Commission provides some insight into whether spending on election services delivers better quality elections. In 'Investing in Electoral Management' an index of electoral integrity created from returning officers performance standards in the 2009 European elections in Britain was brought together with data on spending on both electoral registration and on the practical aspects of running elections in 2008-09, immediately prior to the European elections, from almost all returning officers across Britain. This allowed a number of ideas to be tested. These are that:
Electoral management performance improves with more spending on electoral administration.
Electoral management performance improves with more spending on electoral registration activities.
Electoral management performance improves with more spending on the practical aspects of election administration.
Figure 1: Relationship between total EA spending and performance index
The findings can be stated relatively simply. Correlating overall spending, spending on registration activities, and spending on election practicalities individually with the index of electoral integrity demonstrates that there is a positive relationship between each of these aspects of election spending and increased election quality. The effects are not especially strong, but they are all statistically significant. Figure 1 provides a graphical demonstration of this relationship, taking all aspects of electoral administrative spending together. In short, the more spent, the higher the local authority running the elections performed.
A more complex analysis which attempted to control for additional issues – the type of the council administration, the region the Returning Officer operated in, and some socio-economic and demographic factors – broadly confirmed these findings. Even taking these additional factors into account, greater levels of overall spending (registration and practicalities combined) led to a gradual increase in levels of electoral integrity. In other words, spending on elections did lead to positive, gradual increases in levels of electoral integrity. In two of the models tested, these relationships were statistically significant. Curiously, however, when both spending on the practical aspects of elections and also on registration activities were disaggregated, it is spending on registration activities that appeared to have more of an impact upon electoral integrity in 2009. This was statistically significant across all three models tested.
These are important, albeit tentative, findings. They are tentative because they need to be confirmed with additional data, and under different circumstances – a national general election for instance. They are nevertheless important as they begin to put some hard evidence behind often made assertions that more spending on election administration would improve election quality. While such improvements may only be incremental, as this research suggests, the simple message is that, even in an era of austerity, elections need to be properly funded to ensure that electors' voices are heard through the ballot box.
The full reference to the research discussed in this blog post is:
Clark, A. (2014) 'Investing in Electoral Management' in P. Norris, R. Frank & F. Martinez I Coma (eds.) Advancing Electoral Integrity, New York: Oxford University Press, pp165-188.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alistair Clark, elections, electoral costs, electoral integrity | 1 Reply
Stories of Migration Old and New
Professor Karen Corrigan
Karen Corrigan is Professor of Linguistics & English Language in the School of English Literature, Language & Linguistics. She is currently engaged in an 18-month project, "Múin Béarla do na Leanbháin" 'Teach the Children English': Migration as a Prism for Viewing Ethnolinguistic Vitality in Northern Ireland, looking at historical and contemporary migration to and from Northern Ireland within the 'Connected Communities' theme led by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project is a partnership between Newcastle University, The Mellon Centre for Migration Studies and Gael Linn.
This blog post focuses on a recent public lecture delivered as part of Community Relations Week in Omagh, Northern Ireland. The lecture was the first of many events where Karen will engage with community members, educational providers and students, the heritage sector and the general public, ensuring that her research will have an impact beyond academic life.
On 16 June 2014, Karen Corrigan and Dr Philip McDermott (University of Ulster) participated in Community Relations Week in Omagh, Northern Ireland, giving a public lecture entitled Stories of Migration Old and New: Linguistic Identities in Northern Ireland and Beyond.
The talk was very well received by an enthusiastic audience who took the opportunity of the Q&A, at the end of the lecture, to explore notions of identity and diversity with the speakers and chair, Dr Johanne Devlin-Trew (University of Ulster and the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies). Feedback on the event at Omagh Public Library was gathered by Deirdre Nugent (Heritage Services Manager at Libraries, NI) and included the comment from one attendee that the talk "made me think about language diversity in our own community more" which demonstrated that the lecture not only achieved its main goal, but made an important contribution to the theme for Community Relations Week which was Building A United Community, matching the declared government strategy for social cohesion.
(L-R) Johanne Devlin-Trew, Philip McDermott and Karen Corrigan
One goal of their lecture was to discuss how migration has shaped the linguistic and cultural landscape of Northern Ireland, from Old Norse place names like Strangford to day-to-day vocabulary like scallion 'spring onion', which has Anglo-Norman roots, and words like geg 'trick', which is Scots. There are also many words that ultimately derive from the Celts who first settled the region in c.450BC, many of which are so established in Standard English that their roots as Irish Gaelic in origin is not widely known – like bog, galore, slogan and Tory. There are other words used in common parlance which, by contrast, remain stereotypically thought of as originating in Ireland such as brogue and craic. A second goal was to examine the cultural and linguistic contributions which migrants from Northern Ireland have made as a result of settling in large numbers abroad (particularly in the nineteenth century but even earlier too). Finally, the lecture explored the linguistic impact of contemporary migration to Northern Ireland as a result of the Peace Process of the 1990's, examining materials from parents, children and educators collected during Philip's doctoral dissertation and Karen's new AHRC-funded project.
Karen opened the talk with an exchange between two characters in a new play called Quietly written by Owen McCafferty. The setting is a Belfast pub now owned by Robert, a Polish immigrant. The play focuses on truth and reconciliation between the two main characters – Ian (a Protestant) and Jimmy (a Roman Catholic) who is the son of a man who Ian blew up in Robert's pub back in 1974. This was at a time when the only ethnic differences that mattered were between Protestants and Catholics. The play focuses on Jimmy's coming to terms with the past so he can begin adjusting to the present in which new cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences – like those epitomised in Robert's character – influence Northern Irish society.
Philip closed the talk with a famous quote from a 1998 book by Claire Kramsch entitled Language and Culture in which she argues that language has its own cultural value and that: "Speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language; they view their language as a symbol of social identity" (Kramsch, 1998: 3).
For more information, visit the "Múin Béarla do na Leanbháin" 'Teach the Children English' project website. Much of the previous linguistic research in Northern Ireland has looked at language within the context of the religious divide; this project turns to newer migrant populations who have come to the region in greater numbers than before in the wake of the 2004 expansion of the European Union.
The public lecture is an annual event organised by the Community Relations Council to celebrate the ethnic and cultural diversity of the region. In addition to the public lecture featured here, there were a wide variety of Community Relation Week events, including sports, exhibitions, musical and theatrical performances, workshops, and films. These events were hosted all across Northern Ireland, organised by volunteers, community groups, District Councils, libraries, and schools.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged AHRC, Irish language, Karen Corrigan, migration, Northern Ireland | Leave a reply
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The following is a guest post from Claire Wasserman of thumbprnt. thumbprnt is an alternative networking site based in NYC. We are a team dedicated to solving the need of Millennials to network with others based on ideas and inspiration and not just job titles and job postings. They were previously featured in our blog about lessons they learned at NEXT @ SXSW. Here, Wasserman tells us about life after NEXT.
You have no idea what this will be. No clue what people really need. You're not even sure these are the people you should be serving. So ask them.
Never were more enlightening words uttered. What could have defeated our startup in one foul swoop, in fact, liberated us. Armed with not much more than unreasonable amounts of energy and excitement, we had come to NEXT with the desire to build a site that would empower people to make their professional dreams a reality. How we were going to get there was another story.
The basis of our thesis: Millennials believe they should be passionate about their work. For better or worse, this generation feels entitled to a meaningful life void of meaningless jobs. They want to find themselves (think "Girls").
We knew LinkedIn wasn't working for them (corporate! cold!) and that portfolio sites were too industry-specific and also lacked personality so we tried to think of solutions.
Could we be a mentoring site? A career advice site? Collaborator matchmaking? Steve Blank told us to stop moving and to start listening. If we simply asked people what their challenges were we might just find the product we needed to build.
A funny thing happened when we started listening. Tapping into the deep-seated needs of others spurred us to do some introspection into who we were- not just as a company- but as people. Reflecting on how networking had fueled my own career, I realized that the key had always been knowing "connectors." That elusive bunch with orbits of creatives swirling around them with whom they can introduce to other collaborators. Creative matchmakers.
I met David Tisch, the managing director of Techstars New York at NEXT. I told him that we wanted to be an alternative to LinkedIn he rolled his eyes. "No," he scoffed. "You're a community." He told me to figure out how understanding the hierarchies of a community and the hunger of our market could intersect and manifest itself in a way that would be empowering. Then we would be untouchable, he said.
I thought back to those creative matchmakers and to what Tisch said. Perhaps there was actually something here that could solve a lot of problems. Now, instead business model rewrites and product feature brainstorming, we immersed ourselves in the world of "connectors"– their needs, their desires, their communities.
We still haven't "solved" anything. We've just honed what questions to ask and whom we should be asking. Keeping our early adopter group tight actually liberated us from feeling pressure to nail it from day one. Focusing on connectors also allowed us to seamlessly integrate the research phase into community and product development.
We're also trying to build something that is an enormous and a relatively abstract undertaking. A network is a circuitous and personal exchange and though people say they want alternative networking, how does that fit into the real world? Can you even replicate real world exchanges online? The unknown can be as exhilarating as it is terrifying.
So we're throwing our startup hats in the ring. Framing the approach- and a flexible one at that- is what's key; not "getting it right'. There is no one way to solve a problem. We just need to feel confident in ourselves as the ones to try and attack it. We are still working hard, thinking hard, problem solving every day. But every time I am stumped, I remind myself that its better to search for the right question than the right answer.
Why do we keep going? thumbprnt is who we are as people. How long have we been working on this, they ask? Since the womb.
Another round of NEXT courses start on April 10. Find out if there's one near you!


Register for programs at the Reference Desk, on the 3rd floor, or call Morley Library at 440-352-3383. To register online, simply click on the date and time of the program, then fill out the form completely. Thank you!
Teens (and parents) - see our Teen Events page!
Join Tim Bader, Fisheries Biologist, for a talk about the history of Wildlife Conservation in Ohio, including the pollution problems during the 60's and the clean up that followed during the 70's. Tim's talk will continue towards the present and include information about the Fairport Harbor Fisheries Research Station and their role in Wildlife Conservation.
Louise Kloss, Adult Services Librarian at Morley Library hosts relaxing adult coloring at the Concord Township Community Center. Coloring pages and supplies will be available for your use. Follow the sound of soft music and laughter, and color in the company of friends. Beverage provided by the Concord Community Center, and a snack will be provided by Morley Library.
Register with The Concord Community Center Recreation Department by phone 440 639-4650 or on their website.
De-stress and relax with Libby Hill, from Family Karate. The class is free and will last for 30 minutes. Class size is limited to 12 participants: the first 12 to arrive will be admitted to the class.
Make-n-take a paper lantern, paper fan, or an origami dragon in celebration of Asian & Pacific American Heritage Month. We'll sample some island sounds while we work, too. Aloha!
This month's selection is H Is For Hawk by Helen MacDonald.
As an author, how do you build a brand people will remember? Join staff from TKI Designs & Publishing as they share practical tools geared to help you develop a strong brand and increase your visibility as an author.
Tips for using the Clevnet Catalog for finding materials held at Morley Library; tips for searching for materials are held and libraries throughout the Clevnet Library System and tips for searching the digital catalog for downloadable eBooks & eAudiobooks.
This month's selection is The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows.
Welcome to Medicare presentation - for those who are turning 65 or otherwise new to Medicare. There will be a presentation followed by a question & answer period.
Hosted by the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program and the Lake County Council on Aging.
If you have a passion for writing, then this group is for you. No experience necessary. Each participant brings a double spaced copy of something he or she has written that takes 5 minutes or less to read. Then, group members may ask questions about what is written and offer suggestions for improving the work.
This month's selection is Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land.
This month's selection is The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. Film of the same title.
Tom Pescha presents a short history of the Painesville Depot and the Railroads that served Painesville area. The first Painesville station was built in 1850 and replaced with the current brick and sandstone station in 1893. The Painesville Railroad Museum is in the process of restoring her back to her glory. We have spent over $60,000.00 in restoration in the last 4 years with a 100% volunteer membership.
You are cordially invited to attend the House Morley Game of Thrones feast. Make merry in your finest tunic or gown. Prepare yourself for a test of your sword-wielding skills (a.k.a. craft using scissors). Meat pies, Hodor-itos, and ale (as in ginger) for all!
We're kicking off our summer reading program with a "stellar" movie. Come watch Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope. We'll provide pop and popcorn!!
Every day is Earth Day when you grow a garden! Come start off the summer by planting some flowers and veggies to grow in our beautiful rotunda. All materials provided. All ages welcome.
Spring Clean & Recycle Your Old T-shirts - Crochet a T-Shirt Yarn Rug. Beginners level Crochet Project. Spring clean your T-Shirt collection. Please bring: 2-4 T-Shirts and We will supply the rest. You supply the willingness to enjoy trying something new or revisiting something you may have enjoyed in the past.
Danny Greene and John Nardi tried to muscle in on the Cleveland Mob's operations. The result was a bloody mob war that left Cleveland with the moniker "Bomb City USA!"


text:
Mercedes-AMG GT R spotted testing in snow all hardcore
Jan 25th 2016 at 8:28AM
Image Credit: KGP Spy Photography
Well, what have we here? It looks like a prototype for an even harder-core version of the Mercedes-AMG GT. And it's been spotted romping through the snow to make sure it can stand up to the cold while turning up the heat.
This latest variant, slated to slot in above the GT and GT S, is expected to be called the Mercedes-AMG GT R – with apologies to its rival from Nissan. That means more power, more aggressive aero, a stiffer suspension, larger rolling stock, upgraded brakes, and a cockpit even more focused on all-out performance than those of the existing versions. It's also tipped to get active aerodynamic elements, adaptive shocks, and four-wheel steering. Consider it the next Black Series model, then, but going by another name.
We spotted a similar prototype running laps around the Nürburgring the better part of a year ago. But while some new models under development at this point would be shedding camo, this one has put on even more. All the better to disguise the front end in particular, which appears (from the penetratingly illuminated nighttime shots especially) to borrow more heavily from the competition-spec Mercedes-AMG GT3 – albeit toned down and raised up a bit for the road. Although all those swirls are meant to throw us off the scent, the prototype appears to be wearing aerodynamic flicks at the corners of the front bumper to channel airflow over and around the front wheels, a much larger diffuser than existing versions, and a fixed rear wing even more aggressive than the previous prototype's and approaching that of the racer's.
One thing the GT R won't likely adopt from the GT3 racing model, however, is the engine: Where the road-going model uses a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, the racing engineers in Affalterbach opted instead to slot the big 6.2-liter atmospheric V8 from the outgoing SLS AMG GT3 into the new GT. Expect the straßenversion to go with the smaller turbo engine, but don't expect it to give up much ground to the racer as far as output is concerned. Current GT3 racing regulations limit output to between 500 and 600 horsepower (depending on the vehicle's weight in a balance-of-performance calculation), and as it is, the GT offers 460 hp in base spec and 503 in the GT S. We wouldn't be surprised to see the GT R version, then, offering up around 550 hp to give even the Porsche 911 Turbo S a run for its money around the streets of Stuttgart, down the Autobahn, and around the Nordschleife.
Featured GalleryMercedes-AMG GT R: Winter Spy Shots

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The staff at Noble's Pond is always up for a challenge and the Ice Bucket ALS challenge was no exception. Nominated by Lindsey Ostafy, seven staff members were put on ice. You can see The Girls (Colleen, Jessica, & Mary) get dunked, The Guys (Steve, Stephen, & Justin) and of course our very own Dorothy Carey gets a double drowning. Visit the Noble's Pond FaceBook page to view the videos.


text:
@import XCTest;

#import "FDDataClient.h"

@interface FDDataClientTests : XCTestCase

@end

@implementation FDDataClientTests

- (void)testExample
{
	XCTAssertNotNil([FDDataClient new]);
}

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Protoevangelij ali tudi predevangelij je novozaveznim svetopisemskim knjigam podoben spis, ki ga Cerkev ni sprejela v svoj seznam svetopisemskih knjig, čeprav ni kazal na krivoverstvo. Iz njega izvemo tudi nekatera svetopisemska imena.

Najbolj znan predevangelij je Jakobov protoevangelij. Spada med apokrife, opisuje pa »predevangeljsko« zgodovino, to je čas pred Kristusovim rojstvom, natančneje življenje Device Marije ter njenih staršev svete Ane in svetega Joahima. V njem je najzgodnejša znana navedba o Marijinem večnem devištvu, ki jo je Cerkev kljub apokrifnosti besedila spoznala za resnično.

Glej tudi
 Novozavezni apokrifi

Evangeliji

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Retirar da conta quando valor for 0 Tenho a seguinte query:
SELECT
ROUND((( notaAmbiente  +
    notaApresentacaoDasPizzas +
    notaQualidadeDosProdutos +
    notaVariedadeDeSabores +
    notaAtendimentoNaLoja +
    notaAtendimentoNoTel +
    notaAgilidadeNaEntrega +
    notaCustoBeneficio +
    notaPromocoes +
    notaSite +
    notaSatisfacao + notaSatisfacao) / 12) / 0.5, 0) * 0.5 AS mediaNotaOpiniao
FROM tbOpiniao

Nessa query eu pego as notas de cada tipo de avaliação, somo e divido para obter a média. Porém no meio dessas notas pode existir o valor 0 (referente a "Não sei dizer" no preenchimento do formulário que cadastra no banco), logo não posso usar esse valor na divisão, pois afetará a avaliação de forma errada.
O que eu gostaria de fazer é retirar a coluna da conta de divisão quando o valor dela for 0, subtraindo 1 do valor 12, que é a quantidade de colunas que uso pra fazer a média.
Pensei em colocar no lugar de 12 algo do tipo (SELECT COUNT(*) WHERE coluna <> 0), mas existem outras colunas além dessas do select na tabela.

A: Como você usou o zero para indefinido, basta somar 1 ao divisor pra cada não-zero (ou 2 pra notaSatisfação, que tem peso 2 no seu exemplo):
SELECT
ROUND ( ( (
   notaAmbiente  +
   notaApresentacaoDasPizzas +
   notaQualidadeDosProdutos +
   notaVariedadeDeSabores +
   notaAtendimentoNaLoja +
   notaAtendimentoNoTel +
   notaAgilidadeNaEntrega +
   notaCustoBeneficio +
   notaPromocoes +
   notaSite +
   notaSatisfacao * 2
) / (
   IF( notaAmbiente, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaApresentacaoDasPizzas, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaQualidadeDosProdutos, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaVariedadeDeSabores, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaAtendimentoNaLoja, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaAtendimentoNoTel, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaAgilidadeNaEntrega, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaCustoBeneficio, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaPromocoes, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaSite, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaSatisfacao, 2, 0 )
) ) / 0.5, 0 ) * 0.5 AS mediaNotaOpiniao
FROM tbOpiniao

Explicação: O IF( condicao, seVerdadeiro, seFalso) testa a condição, e retorna o respectivo valor. Para cada verdadeiro, somamos o peso correspondente ao divisor.

A: Como você usou o zero para indefinido, basta somar 1 ao divisor pra cada não-zero
IF( notaAmbiente, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaApresentacaoDasPizzas, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaQualidadeDosProdutos, 1, 0 ) +
   IF( notaVariedadeDeSabores, 1, 0 ) +

...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Tre-Verb, Bubbler Chorus, Lost Highway Phaser, The Pinwheel, MTG Tube Distortion and Downtown Express join the line-up.
With the Tre-Verb, Fender has combined independent tremolo and reverb effects – each featuring three modes – into one pedalboard-friendly stomper.
The tremolo modes are Optical, Bias and Harmonic Vibrato. The Optical mode harks back to mid-60s Fender amps, Bias is based off earlier, smaller amps that use power tube bias, and Harmonic Vibrato is derived from Brownface amps.
The reverb modes, on the other hand, are '63, '65 and Plate. '63 is based on the iconic standalone reverb tanks and '65 is derived from the reverb built into Fender amps. Plate, however, is a modulated plate reverb that has a chorus-like feel, according to the brand.
This is an analogue chorus stompbox with switchable slow/fast speed settings and individual rate and depth controls. Fender says it's "a great way to add some dimension to your guitar tone", describing its sounds as "thick, wide and rolling". There's also a wave switch to toggle between sine and triangle waveforms, and a sensitivity knob that governs modulation rate change based on your pick attack.
The Lost Highway Phaser is an analogue four- and eight-stage phaser that aims to provide a simple solution to adding resonance on the go. It features a similar control system to the Bubbler Chorus, but also adds blend and feedback knobs.
On this pedal, the individual rate and depth controls allow you to switch between anything from sluggish phasing to distorted modulation, according to the brand.
This is a rotary speaker emulator, an effect that has become increasingly popular in recent times. This pedal has a three-way toggle switch that provides three discrete voicings, including Fender's very own Vibratone – a Leslie made by the brand from '67-'72. It features similar slow/fast settings and sensitivity control as the two pedals above, but also has some onboard overdrive for some snarl.
Fender's new dirt box makes use of an actual vacuum tube – a NOS 6205 preamp tube – to achieve its distortion tones. It also sports a three-band EQ with tight control to manage low-end, and a switchable boost with independent boost and level knobs.
Another interesting aspect of the pedal is its switch-mode power supply that converts the incoming nine volts to 150 volts, and then applies it to the tube's plate – similar to a real amplifier.
The Downtown Express is a bass pedal with overdrive, compressor and three-band EQ functions rolled into one multi-effects unit. On its faceplate you'll find pretty standard controls for each effect type, catering for a user-friendly experience. Each of the three effects are switchable on their own, but there's also a handy mute switch that cuts the signal for tuning. Other thoughtful touches on the pedal include direct outputs and LED-illuminated knobs.


Character/Pairing: ... Do I seriously need to do this? It's the SOS brigade! VS THE COMPUTING CLUB, in an EPIC SHOWDOWN THAT WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY!
Disclaimers: ... whut? I didn't make this?
300 is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of THE EXTRA DESKTOP in which Haruhi Suzumya and her brave SOS brigade fight to the death against the computer society and their massively l33t forces. Facing insurmountable odds, their dedication and ability to type fast than the average human can think, drawing a line in the sand for the right to blackmail people for personal gain. With boobies.
Because it's funny! 300 is a movie that alway works well with parody due to its hyperboles over the top type phrases and speeches. This amv if you are familiar with the series Haruhi Suzumiya, perfectly manages to take the scenes and match them to the dialogue telling a coherant story that is enjoyable to watch.


Firearm injuries and death are a serious public health concern in the U.S. Firearm-related injuries account for tens of thousands of premature deaths of adults and children each year and significantly increase the burden of injury and disability. Firearm injuries are also costly to the healthcare system, accounting for nearly $3 billion in emergency department and inpatient care each year.
Last Updated: 10/29/2018, 5:18 PM Copyright © 2019 National Academy of Sciences. All Rights Reserved.


This piece was written in Chinese by Xiao Han. It was translated into English by Caterina Poh.
It was a special day: I was bringing my boyfriend Zhihao home to meet my parents for the first time. We had arranged to meet for dinner. Mother was extremely excited and instructed the cooks to prepare something special.
He had taken the bus and alighted across the street from our house holding gifts in both hands. He grinned foolishly when he noticed me. I burst out laughing when I saw his goofy appearance, his face hidden behind a bouquet of flowers. I took the flowers and wine from his left hand, so that he had a hand free to hold mine.
"Will… will he beat me up?" Zhihao asked, his eyes wide and his expression earnest. I guffawed as I answered, "Nope." "There's nothing to be afraid of then. After all, I'm so macho and strong." He puffed out his chest and made a show of having a muscular build. I burst out laughing, almost dropping the wine in my hand.
Mother heard our antics from a distance and activated the electronic gate to let us in.
"Welcome!" She reached out her right hand warmly to shake hands with Zhihao and gestured at us to enter the house through the side door of the kitchen. Something must have happened in the brief time I was away that required clearing up. That must have been why we could not go through the living room.
"Your house is…huge," Zhihao whispered through gritted teeth out of the corner of his mouth. "Why haven't you told me you're a rich man's daughter?" I poked him in the ribs with my elbow to remind him that Mother was within earshot.
Mother heard him and turned around to look at me with a playful twinkle in her eye. She answered his question in a voice dripping with sarcasm: "That's because my daughter thinks that her parents' financial situation has nothing to do with her. If you think about it in a positive way, she's just being sensible. If you think about it in a negative way, she thinks that she is above all this." Zhihao nodded, his square-jawed face reddening.
I said nothing as I stood next to them. Mother was right. Our family empire would already have had an heir had I cared more about money.
Zhihao and I had seated ourselves in the dining room when Housekeeper Liu said: "Miss, Madam said that Second Uncle and the others heard you would be bringing a friend over for dinner so they wanted to come take a look. They are on the way. I can prepare some snacks for you first if you're hungry." I shook my head and thanked her.
Zhihao and I had skipped lunch so we could get off work early, so I was actually feeling as though there was a pigeon cooing in my tummy. But I endured. "Father takes dinner very seriously. He would not be happy if he knew I ruined my appetite with snacks," I told Zhihao.
My freeloading relatives finally began to show up one after another. Housekeeper Liu invited everyone to get seated once she saw that most of the guests had arrived and instructed the cooks to start dinner service.
Everyone pulled up a chair and sat, smiling and glancing at each other, leaving the two seats at the end of the long table empty; they were reserved for Father and Mother. Much to my annoyance, no one said a word even though they were obviously curious about Zhihao. But I kept silent for the sake of my parents.
Everyone followed Mother's lead and waved at the camera as she mentioned them. Some of the relatives, obviously trying to gain some benefit from my family, were especially solicitous. Others took the chance to tell Father about their plights, that they were tight on cash and needed some money to tide things over. My mum paid them no heed and moved her camera on to the next person before they could finish their sob stories.
I expected Zhihao to be caught out when Mother pointed the camera at him. To my surprise, he introduced himself effortlessly — "Hello uncle, my name is Zhihao" — and reached out his hand to shake Father's right hand. From the surprised look on Zhihao's face, I guessed that Father's hand must have been icy cold.
When the servants started serving the appetizers, Housekeeper Liu came over to inform Mother that her dinner had been set aside on the stove, to be reheated when she was ready.
The kitchen had prepared some spring rolls and salads as appetizers. Father did not like these dishes, so Mother just waved a green probe over the food. She pointed the camera at the food before turning it towards the people at the table for him to 'take a look' at everyone gobbling the food down. The next dish was spicy fried chicken wings. Mother knew that this was Father's favorite, so she picked up a piece with a pair of chopsticks and began deboning it in Father's bowl.
"Should your dad be eating such unhealthy food?" Zhihao asked in a low voice, looking slightly worried. I moved my index finger to my lips and pointed in the direction of my parents, indicating that he would understand if he watched carefully.
Mother took out a red probe from a bag at the front of Father's wheelchair, inserted that into the bowl and began slowly moving it around. About two minutes later, Mother took Father's gloved hand, and put it on a cup of cold water before putting the red probe into the water as well.
Zhihao watched, dumbfounded, his chopsticks suspended in mid-air, forgetting that he had wanted to get some chicken wings for himself.
"Look at how mum is pressing the probe into the meat. This is to let dad know the texture of the meat and how crispy the skin is, as if he was actually chewing it. The green probe is to collect information about smell, and the blue gloves collect information relating to touch. Red for taste, green for smell, blue for touch. You already know about the camcorder and microphone." I felt a growing sense of pride as I explained to Zhihao. Father was a true genius, one who found a way to enjoy food without having to actually eat.
"I…I get it," Zhihao said, though he did not have much of a response for a long while after that.
The sumptuous dinner was quickly consumed by the unwelcome guests, who left once they finished eating. Zhihao was left sitting amidst the mess of crockery on the dining table, more quiet than usual.
I steeled myself for the barrage of questions he would surely ask: What happened to your dad? Why do you keep him alive this way? Are you sure he can sense all the things you're doing for him? Who came up with this idea? Why do you stimulate him this way instead of letting him rest peacefully?
"But he can't be like us…" I wanted to explain but Zhihao grasped my hand and stopped me from continuing.
"You've thought up all ways to make him part of your lives even in his comatose state so that he could continue to feel the warmth of his family. This means that in your hearts, he's not in a persistent vegetative state. That's something I truly respect." He placed his right hand on his chest to indicate that he really meant it.
Mother poked her head out from the kitchen door behind Zhihao. She put up ten fingers. She had given Liu Zhihao a score of ten. Full marks.
Yes, I finally found a man who loved me before he knew I was from a rich family. My family's wealth drew people who found various excuses to drop by, as well as men, and boys, who, for money, would try all means and ways to win my favor. To deter these hangers-on, we used the excuse that Father needed to recuperate and moved frequently. We could not shake off our relatives, but at least there were fewer of the greedy suitors.
I blame this on my family fortune, which came when Father had a brilliant idea one day to combine his own inventions with Mother's family business, a travel agency. This grew into the Bedroom Travel Agency, a name familiar to everyone today as the supplier of the Bedroom Travel Package.
They say that Father was a sensory and artificial intelligence engineer in the early days, who had been involved in research on the electronic nose: a semiconductor sensor constructed from several types of metals. This was a bionic smell-detection system that combined intelligent learning, pattern detection, and recognition algorithms. It was meant to be used for environmental analysis, like testing for air pollution and analyzing odors. But Father discovered that the technology could also be used for sight, smell, hearing, and touch. One could bypass the sensory organs to send the data directly to the brain, transmitting information that stimulates the nerves through probes.
For example, even if you do not open your mouth to eat a lemon. I can send data to your brain containing information on the degree of sourness of the lemon; I guarantee you'll salivate.
During the period that Father and Mother were dating, the world saw several natural disasters, wars, and plagues, which discouraged many from going on overseas vacations. At the same time, inflation caused the prices of goods to rise in many popular tourist destinations. Overseas travel became a luxury that most people could not afford.
This did not curtail the desire to travel. People just went online to read about travel and buy native products from exotic countries. Some satisfied their travel fantasies by watching foreign films. Crowds would pack the annual mid-year and end-of-year travel fairs. But while there would be many people browsing, few would actually buy travel packages. Grandfather's travel agency eventually reached the verge of collapse.
Father could not bear to see the business empire of his then future father-in-law go down the drain, so he ventured a bold suggestion. Grandfather made the tough decision to close nine branches and fired more than eighty per cent of his staff to cut costs. He started revamping his business with the target of reopening in a year. Grandfather would never have to work with airlines and hotels again because his new business would involve providing a service that would allow people the novel experience of 'travelling without stepping out of the house'.
3D movies had long become commonplace by that point. Some cinemas even claimed to offer a '4D experience', but they over-estimated what technology could do. The master of this technology was Father.
You could feel as if you were in Paris, having a coffee near the banks of the River Seine, while remaining next to your own bed. You could feel the warmth of the cup, smell the rich aroma of the coffee, as you admire the chicness of Parisian ladies, even as your ears take in the accordionist playing Bach's 'Minuet in D Minor' from 200 meters away. To make the experience even more realistic, Father would occasionally include wafts of the smells of the Seine as you listen to the evening breeze fluttering by your ears.
Or you could feel like you were in neon-drenched Mongkok in Kowloon, eating dim sum that melted in your mouth, then tasting a steaming bowl of fish ball noodles, before shopping at the Ladies' Market, the busy sounds of bargaining bombarding your ears. The realism of the visuals, combined with the vivid information from your other senses, would make it almost impossible not to believe that you were actually buying a piece of clothing from the hawker.
With Father's help, bedridden individuals could fulfil their dreams of setting foot on the Great Wall of China. He also told me that for the experience to feel more realistic, the users would be made to feel as if they were perspiring and that their joints were aching. The Bedroom Travel Package could deliver any type of sensory stimulation a user wants to experience.
Priced affordably, the package did away with the hassle of packing, flying, and sleeping on unfamiliar beds. One need not fear being robbed, acclimatization problems, or infectious diseases. Father helped Grandfather reverse his losses and later naturally took over the position of Chairman of the company.
But Father did not forget to give back to society. He provided the package free of charge to the Association of People with Disabilities so that they could enjoy the thrill of going on vacation like anyone else. Even if you were blind, as long as the related part of your brain remained active, Father would have a way to send a visual signal to allow you to 'see' the magnificent Sydney Opera House sitting on the water, or the yellow cabs that clogged the streets of New York City. When Father was forty and I was five, he was awarded the prestigious Most Distinguished Person of the Year Award, and then again for two consecutive years. Standing beside the blue company sign, Father was awe-inspiring.
The Bedroom Travel Agency had the world's largest team whose members travelled to 600 destinations around the globe collecting data that would allow the experiences to be reconstructed after analysis. Father had personally embarked on the research trip to the Amazon River. He had wanted to allow a certain precious little girl (it was me) to experience the mysteries of the rain forest without having to worry about poisonous snakes or spiders, and to be able to brag about it to friends after the trip. He had told me that he would throw in a special giveaway in this package just for me: the experience of being stung by mosquitoes.
That was the last time I heard Father's voice and felt the warmth of his hugs.
No one knew what happened. There were rumors that Father had been too cocky, and because destruction pursues the great, he had provoked jealousy among his peers, who poisoned him. There were no needle marks on his skin nor any spoiled food in his stomach, so the doctors had no way of knowing what antidote to give him. After hours of effort, they could only revive his cardiopulmonary functions; he no longer responded to external stimuli.
According to Mother, Father seemed to have had a premonition that something bad would happen before he left for South America. Before leaving, he gave her a full set of probes connected to a computer, and instructed her to put it on him if anything were to happen, as long as he was not brain dead. In that way, he could continue to feel like he was living in this world with us.
After telling Zhihao all this, I felt despondent. I missed my dad dearly. He would not have travelled to South America himself were it not for me. My tears finally began to fall at this thought.
Zhihao looked at me tenderly, leaned over and hugged me around my waist. He held me and rocked gently, his chin on the top of my head, softly humming a melody. I could feel his Adam's apple moving, as if he was trying to not cry. I knew he understood; he too had lost his father a few years ago. We were two sad souls on the same boat.
I felt a bit better as I leaned against his muscled torso and breathed in his scent. After trying so many times, I had finally got it right.
I took another deep breath. Satisfied, I reached into my pocket and switched off the small green device inside. I was the only person left in the dining room. Today's test would stop here.
"How was it?" Mother asked as she walked over.
"Not bad, the upgraded version responded more quickly. There was no visual lag during our conversation like the last time." I carefully removed the electrodes attached to my head, neatly arranging them in their storage case.
"Blessed will be the single women of the world," Mother said with an awkward laugh.
I did not agree, as I had yet to achieve what I had set out to do. I had a clear purpose in mind when I initiated this project. It was easy to reproduce shallow men who knew how to flatter women, but creating a virtual version of a great man requires time.
Xiao Han is a contributing writer for Nu You magazine, and has columns in Zan and Lianhe Wanbao. Her first book of illustrated essays, Yan Lei Shi Jiao Nang, was published in 2011, and has since had four reprints. Her novel, Wu Zhi Xing Fu, was published in Singapore in 2012, Malaysia in 2014 and China in 2015. Based in Singapore, she is a seven-time winner of the Best Lyricist award at the Singapore Hit Awards and the first Singaporean lyricist to be nominated twice at the Golden Melody Awards. She has penned lyrics for many best-selling singers, as well as for musicals, movies, and events, including the National Day Parade (2008, 2009), and 2013 Chingay Parade ("Xue Zhong Hong").


Channel your inner superhero into your daily essentials with the Marvel Icons Socks, courtesy of Stance. Decorated with iconic superheroes from the Marvel universe, they work the brand's instantly recognisable logo down the side, and are elevated by the padded heals and toes. Suitable for casual attire.
Marvel print, microfibre stitching detail, ribbed material, padded heal and toes.
Composition and Care: 50% combed cotton, 34% polyester, 10% nylon, 6% elastane. Machine wash.


text:
namespace omaha {

class NetworkRequestCallback;

class HttpRequestInterface {
 public:
  virtual ~HttpRequestInterface() {}

  virtual HRESULT Close() = 0;

  // Sends a fault-tolerant http request. Returns S_OK if the http transaction
  // went through and the correct response is available.
  virtual HRESULT Send() = 0;

  virtual HRESULT Cancel() = 0;

  virtual HRESULT Pause() = 0;

  virtual HRESULT Resume() = 0;

  virtual std::vector<uint8> GetResponse() const = 0;

  virtual int GetHttpStatusCode() const = 0;

  virtual HRESULT QueryHeadersString(uint32 info_level,
                                     const TCHAR* name,
                                     CString* value) const = 0;

  virtual CString GetResponseHeaders() const = 0;

  virtual CString ToString() const = 0;

  virtual void set_session_handle(HINTERNET session_handle) = 0;

  virtual void set_url(const CString& url) = 0;

  virtual void set_request_buffer(const void* buffer,
                                  size_t buffer_length) = 0;

  virtual void set_proxy_configuration(const ProxyConfig& proxy_config) = 0;

  // Sets the filename to receive the response instead of the memory buffer.
  virtual void set_filename(const CString& filename) = 0;

  virtual void set_low_priority(bool low_priority) = 0;

  virtual void set_callback(NetworkRequestCallback* callback) = 0;

  virtual void set_additional_headers(const CString& additional_headers) = 0;

  virtual void set_preserve_protocol(bool preserve_protocol) = 0;

  // Gets the user agent for this http request. The default user agent has
  // the following format: Google Update/a.b.c.d;req1;req2 where a.b.c.d is
  // the version of the client code and req1, req2,... are appended by
  // different http requests. For example:
  //    User-Agent: Google Update/1.2.15.0;winhttp;cup
  // indicates a WinHTTP+CUP request.
  virtual CString user_agent() const = 0;

  virtual void set_user_agent(const CString& user_agent) = 0;

  virtual void set_proxy_auth_config(const ProxyAuthConfig& config) = 0;
};

}   // namespace omaha

#endif  // OMAHA_NET_HTTP_REQUEST_H__


This is the third of my road trip posts and you can see San Francisco to Mendocino here and Mendocino to Eureka here. For this day I drove from Eureka to Crescent City with a detour up to the Oregon stateline and back. You can easily use this post for a trip all the way to Brookings, Oregon or on to the coast of Oregon but for me I headed back to Crescent City. Here are my recommended stops.
Before leaving Eureka I stopped at the famous fisherman statue on Wooley Island which you can find by Googling "Woodley's Bar" then driving to the end of the island (thanks to a reader for commenting this below). The statue is dedicated to those who live off the sea and those the sea has taken, this is a beautiful statue that deserves a visit.
One of the most picturesque and famous houses in Northern California, Carson House, is said to have inspired Disney and Alfred Hitchcock. It is privately owned, so you cannot tour it, but you can take a picture from the outside.
One of the things I love about driving North is the small coffee shops that start to pop up. Dutch Brothers is one of my favorites as they have a lot of crazy drinks. It is an easy stop and one that I recommend for coffee fans before leaving Eureka.
Either in Eureka or Arcata, there is a Los Bagels which is my recommendation for breakfast. This is a great, relatively cheap restaurant that has a ton of options for everyone in the family. I got a guacamole bagel, and the wife got a blackberry and cream cheese bagel. It has a fun vibe and great food; we went twice.
Like the name says, this is the Guineas Book of World Records world's largest totem pole. I was not ready for how big it was, at 160 feet this thing is gigantic. It is randomly behind an auto parts store in a small shopping center, but it is worth a picture. You can find it by driving behind the Safeway in McKinneyville.
The town of Trinidad is a great little coastal fishing village with a unique history. I recommend stopping at the Trinidad Lighthouse that has been moved to a great location overlooking the coastline below. It is a fantastic place to sit and each your bagels or just soak in the view for a few minutes.
As the best non-redwoods park in this area, Patrick Point State Park is a fun place for a stop. You will need to pay $8 to get in, but when you are in you can tour an old Native American town and climb to the top of Wedding Rock. You can also walk down to the picturesque beach which features massive rocks that the waves crash on for your enjoyment.
After driving up the highway for a little while you will see the signs for the visitor center of the Redwoods National Park. I recommend stopping by and picking up a map so you know what trails you would like to visit in the park. The docents are super helpful so they will be able to direct you to wherever you would like to go and there is a lot of great info here on the Redwoods themselves.
If you only have time for one walk in Redwoods National Park make it Lady Bird Johnson's Grove. Named after the First Lady who loved this area, this grove features a beautiful collection of towering coastal redwoods all within a 1.5 mile walk through the forest. It feels like something out of Jurassic Park and you should love it.
About 10 minutes down the road from the grove is another drive-thru tree. I figured I might as well drive thru every one I came upon so I drove thru this one as well and paid my $5. This one is literally just a tree to drive thru and there is not much else here. There are emus across the street though!
I would be lying if I said you could do all of the stuff on this post and Fern Canyon in the same day, that would be tough. I did Fern Canyon on the way back though, and it was one of the best places I have ever visited in California. Read the full post on it here.
Even if you don't visit the Trees of Mystery themselves you must stop to see the 60 foot Paul Bunyan and his trusty 30 foot Ox Babe. It is such a fun picture. If you want to explore the Tree of Mystery as well it will be $15 but I highly recommend it as it has a lot of unique trees, a gondola ride and a lookout platform. It will take about an hour to do everything.
For lunch I recommend Hensels in Crescent City. This small little shop has some of the best fish tacos I have ever eaten and the owner catches the fish himself that he cooks. Don't let the appearance fool you it is exceptional food. Since Hensel's is now closed a reader suggested Vita Cucina as a good backup option for sandwiches and baked goods. Let me know if you have other suggestions in the comments.
In the West end of town there is a little island where a lighthouse sits on it. Apparently the road that leads to it washes out in high tide (it is never driveable but you can walk to it) so I was not able to go. I sat on the beach for sunset though and it was still one of the most amazing pictures I have taken, especially with the high tide turning the lighthouse area into an island. I highly recommend a visit to it.
I didn't go myself, but I know a lot of people that love this small aquarium in Crescent City. If you like these types of things then you may want to go as well.
Fifteen minutes outside of Crescent City on the Smith River is a fish hatchery for Steelhead. You can call to schedule a tour, but if you just drop by when they are open then you can walk around at your leisure and look at what the non-profit is doing. It was a lot of fun to see the growth process of the fish of the fish up close and to walk around the river right outside the hatcheries backyard.
This was also closed when I went, but there is a massive ship that sits on the land right before the Oregon State Line and has a gift shop and museum you can explore. I took pictures from the outside and would love to hear if anyone has been in it.
As the Northernmost State Beach in California, Pelican State Beach is pretty worn down, but it still is a beautiful place to explore. The road leading to it has a ton of potholes and when I was there no one else was. It was a beautiful beach though with driftwood all along the sand and views of both the California and Oregon coastlines.
As the last stop on this trip, it was a little bittersweet to see the Oregon State Line sign. I took pictures here and celebrated the last three days of driving and all of the amazing adventures we had.
You can continue to the town of Brookings or go back to Crescent City like I did. If you want to continue the drive all the way up to Seattle, check out this post. All in all, it was an amazing way to see the California coast and I recommend the trip to everyone, feel free to let me know what I left off in the comments.


text:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<TITLE>
Uses of Package org.hibernate.event.internal (Hibernate JavaDocs)
</TITLE>

<META NAME="date" CONTENT="2013-10-23">

<LINK REL ="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="../../../../stylesheet.css" TITLE="Style">

      Overview
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Uses of Package
org.hibernate.event.internal

Packages that use org.hibernate.event.internal

org.hibernate.ejb.event

org.hibernate.event.internal

        This package defines a default set of event listeners that
        implements the default behaviors of Hibernate.

Classes in org.hibernate.event.internal used by org.hibernate.ejb.event

AbstractFlushingEventListener

          A convenience base class for listeners whose functionality results in flushing.

AbstractReassociateEventListener

          A convenience base class for listeners that respond to requests to reassociate an entity
 to a session ( such as through lock() or update() ).

AbstractSaveEventListener

          A convenience bas class for listeners responding to save events.

DefaultAutoFlushEventListener

          Defines the default flush event listeners used by hibernate for
 flushing session state in response to generated auto-flush events.

DefaultDeleteEventListener

          Defines the default delete event listener used by hibernate for deleting entities
 from the datastore in response to generated delete events.

DefaultFlushEntityEventListener

          An event that occurs for each entity instance at flush time

DefaultFlushEventListener

          Defines the default flush event listeners used by hibernate for
 flushing session state in response to generated flush events.

DefaultMergeEventListener

          Defines the default copy event listener used by hibernate for copying entities
 in response to generated copy events.

DefaultPersistEventListener

          Defines the default create event listener used by hibernate for creating
 transient entities in response to generated create events.

DefaultSaveEventListener

          An event handler for save() events

DefaultSaveOrUpdateEventListener

          Defines the default listener used by Hibernate for handling save-update
 events.

Classes in org.hibernate.event.internal used by org.hibernate.event.internal

AbstractFlushingEventListener

          A convenience base class for listeners whose functionality results in flushing.

AbstractLockUpgradeEventListener

          A convenience base class for listeners that respond to requests to perform a
 pessimistic lock upgrade on an entity.

AbstractReassociateEventListener

          A convenience base class for listeners that respond to requests to reassociate an entity
 to a session ( such as through lock() or update() ).

AbstractSaveEventListener

          A convenience bas class for listeners responding to save events.

AbstractSaveEventListener.EntityState

AbstractVisitor

          Abstract superclass of algorithms that walk
 a tree of property values of an entity, and
 perform specific functionality for collections,
 components and associated entities.

DefaultPersistEventListener

          Defines the default create event listener used by hibernate for creating
 transient entities in response to generated create events.

DefaultSaveOrUpdateEventListener

          Defines the default listener used by Hibernate for handling save-update
 events.

ProxyVisitor

          Reassociates uninitialized proxies with the session

ReattachVisitor

          Abstract superclass of visitors that reattach collections.

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How do you choose a cremation service you can trust in Elko New Market, MN? Many funeral homes in the area offer cremation as an add-on service to the larger funeral packages. But, the costs can be expensive when you are paying for the use of the funeral home and the other fees that are added to the bill. If you are looking for quality services at rock-bottom prices, then you need to talk to our team here at Scott County Cremation.
We specialize in cremations. Instead of offering a wide range of funeral services, we keep our focus on the core services that are required for cremation. This focus allows us to cut costs and optimize the quality of service that is offered. We understand the best way to handle cremation, giving you the peace of mind to know that we don't cut corners on the services that are provided.
Why should you choose a basic cremation instead of the services of a full funeral home? You need to consider your goals for the event to ensure that the services match your needs. If you want a big gathering and a large funeral, then our services won't match what you need. On the other hand, if you are looking for a stress-free solution, then we invite you to learn more about the services that we provide.
Direct cremation means that we offer the basic services that are required to complete the cremation. But, we don't offer facilities for a funeral or memorial. If you want to have an event in addition to the cremation, then you can plan the gathering according to your preferences.
It's up to you to decide on the services that align with your family's needs. We understand that direct cremation isn't the right answer for every person. So, we never pressure you into choosing our services. Instead, we are here to answer your questions and help you determine if your goals match the services that we provide. If it is a good fit, then we are here to support you through every step of the cremation process.
How much do families spend on full funeral services? The costs vary depending on the funeral home that handles the details. But, these expenses can be a financial burden on the family. It can be hard to cope with the loss of losing a loved one and bear the burden of paying for the funeral at the same time.
If you are looking for a solution to save money, then you need to talk to our team about direct cremation services. Our costs are a fraction of the price that you would pay to a large funeral home. We have cut the overhead expenses that are required to maintain a big facility. Instead, our core services are focused on the basic things that are necessary to complete a respectful cremation.
Rest assured to know that we are always clear about the pricing of our services. You can talk to our team about a breakdown of the services and prices. Or, download the price list here on our website. We offer cremation packages according to your needs. Any extra costs are priced to match the details on the price list. There is no need to stress about add-on fees or extra expenses. We stick by the price that you are quoted.
We know that it is important to simplify the cremation process as much as possible. So, we have developed an online system that makes it easy to choose the details of the cremation. You can read information about the services that we provide. Then, you can pick the options that match the goals of your family.
Once you have finalized your decision, you have the opportunity to pay for the funeral costs online. All you need is a credit card to complete the transaction. Then, you will have access the forms that need to be completed for the cremation services. We will request statistical information as well as details that need to be provided for the death certificate and medical examiner reports.
Even though these details are online, you always have the support of our team every step of the way. You can call us any time if you have questions about the choices that are available. We are working hard to ensure that it is a seamless, stress-free process for your family.


text:
StartupsTop Stories
Cryosa, A Startup Dealing With OSA Secured $8.2 Million in Funding
TBW StaffJuly 21, 20200 Comment1355
A Roseville-based medical startup managed to raise money when the world is going through a pandemic. The grant is for the development of treatments that are utterly unrelated to COVID-19 as it raised $8.25 million just to wrap up Series A2 funding round. Cryosa a medical company founded in 2018 in Minnesota works on developing novel but permanent and less invasive treatments for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).
Texas-based Sante Ventures, Life sciences firms, and Japan-based HOYA Corporation ("HOYA") led the funding round with some institutional and individual investors. The Company said, "this latest obtained funding will be used for the purpose of engaging first-in-human clinical trial and company already has completed all the pre-steps which were pre-clinical testing, efficacy, and safety."
Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a disorder in which breathing stops for a short period during sleeping, this happens when the upper airways soft tissue collapses. An individual with OSA may stop breathing for 10 seconds, experience lower oxygen saturation which results in the person waking up, this can happen quite a lot of times in a single night.
According to the sleep foundation, OSA with disrupting sleep can lead to other potential diseases if untreated and undiagnosed. It affects almost 22 million people in America alone. Cryosa founder Dr. Donald Gonzales said, "The currently available treatments of OSA are invasive and do not focus on curing the root cause of the disorder. Cryosa was founded to develop minimally invasive and permanent therapies."
Read More: $35 Million Raised By ClickUp Through Craft Ventures
Dr. Donald Gonzales also serves as the company's Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Before Cryso, Dr. Gonzales was the CMO for Entellus Medical which was acquired by Stryker in 2018. He also founded several other companies specializing in the nose, ear, and throat sections including ENTrigue and Spirox Medical. Mark Christopherson, the CEO, and president of Cryosa brings 25 years of medical device industry experience to the company. He was the confounder of NxThera and inspired medical research and development during pivotal trials and commercialization, prior to the company's acquisition by Boston scientific in 2018.
Dr. James Eadie, partner at Sante ventures and Cryso board member said, "There is a large, unmet medical need for a minimally invasive OSA therapy." He also said that "Crysoa's approach is elegant and backed by a strong team of medical device engineers and entrepreneurs." Rubal Bedi, Global Head and VP of Corporate Venture Capital at HOYA said, "Market for OSA therapies is substantial and continue to grow".
He also added that "Cryosa is well-positioned to help the needs of patients living with this sleep disorder." Currently, the prevalence of childhood OSA estimation is very difficult as various monitoring techniques are present and the prevalence of habitually snoring in children is as high as 10 to 20%.
CEO of the Cryosa also said that "Recent research on OSA shows that there is a connection between fat deposited in the tissue of upper airway and the severity of OSA." He also added that "By focusing on methods and treatments to selectively reduce adipose/fat tissue, they believe that Cryosa can help reduce instances of OSA and help people sleep better at night".
Cryosa
TBW
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How to Invest in Cryptocurrency – Best Ways to Invest Crypto in 2020
TBW StaffOctober 21, 2020
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text:
Laché Wilkins, Sharon Green-Hennessy, Ph.D.
African American Mental Health Treatment Preferences: Understanding the Role of Religion, Mastery, and Psychopathology
There has been much attention paid to the gap between mental health need and mental health treatment. Research has broadly shown that whereas individuals with a mental disorder underutilize mental health services, African-Americans, as a whole, utilize these services even less than other groups (National Institute of Mental Health, 2014). Whereas African-Americans are more likely to report psychological concerns than Whites, they receive mental health treatment at a lower rate than Whites (Meyer, Saw, Cho, & Fander, 2015; Office of Minority Health, 2014). Although research has identified stigma, mistrust of health professionals, and lack of access to care as contributing barriers to the decreased mental health treatment in African Americans (Barksdale & Molock, 2009; Broman, 2012; Hines-Martin, 2002), there is less information regarding those who do seek such care and why. Emerging evidence has noted a preference for African-Americans, as a group, towards informal, non-professional resources (e.g., social networks, clergy) for mental health care (Chatters et al., 2011; Dupree, Watson, & Schneider, 2005). Culturally salient factors including religiosity, community-based social support, and coping mechanisms might illuminate the care path African-Americans take and why. Religious participation and employing active coping mechanisms that emphasize control, resilience, and determination have been demonstrated to be protective factors for emotional and psychological well-being in African-Americans (Chatters et al., 2008; Ward, Mengesha, & Issa, 2013). In order to close the gap in African-American mental health care treatment it is important to understand how religious participation, coping strategies, and psychological distress influence decision making.
The present study will analyze data from the National Study of American Life: Coping with Stress in the 21st Century (NSAL), a national representative study conducted between February 2001 and March 2003 of African-Americans, Caribbean descent Blacks, and non-Hispanic Whites 18 years or older in the U.S. (Heeringa et al., 2004; Jackson et al., 2004). Mastery, psychological distress, religious participation, and mental health treatment provider type are the variables I will examine. Mastery is an active coping strategy that relates to an individual's appraisal of his/her ability to control or influence outcomes. (Pearlin, Menaghan, Lieberman, & Mullen, 1981). Psychological distress is measured by the Kessler Psychological Distress scale, a 6-item measure of global distress (Kessler et al., 2002). Religious participation is a measure of both organized and non-organized religious activities such as religious service attendance, prayer, and watching or listening to religious programming. The proposal will examine the extent to which mastery, psychological distress, and religious participation are associated with African-Americans decision making in regards to mental health treatment preference. Specifically, this study will look at the extent to which these factors are significant predictors of one's propensity to seek informal versus formal mental health care among African-Americans in need of mental health treatment by utilizing logistical regression analysis.


text:
Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection
Developer Westwood Studios (original) | Petroglyph Games, Lemon Sky Studios (remaster)
Publisher Electronic Arts
Current Version 1.153 with data update 745903
DRM Steam API (Steam) | Origin DRM (Origin)
Buy Steam | Origin
What is the Remastered Collection?
Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection is a remastered version of the 1995 real-time strategy computer game Command & Conquer, its 1996 sequel Red Alert, and their respective expansion packs, announced on 14 November 2018. The original games were developed by Westwood Studios, while the remaster was done by Petroglyph Games and Lemon Sky Studios under supervision from EA.
Combining all the content from the PC and console versions of the originals, this remaster was released as a single package containing two games, named C&C Remastered Collection on 5 June 2020 on Steam and Origin, including cross-play between the two platforms. It also includes mod support (including Steam Workshop integration), switching back-and-forth between remastered and original graphics in singleplayer, upscaled cutscenes, remastered soundtracks and included bonus tracks by Frank Klepacki and The Tiberian Sons, unlockable extras in the form of briefing B-rolls and outtakes, unreleased music tracks, behind-the-scenes photos and more. Much of the games' source codes (including that of the map editor) have been made available to the fans both in the game directory and an official GitHub repository for the fans to tinker with and create mods and editor changes with greater freedom than before.
The Remastered Collection has been hailed for attention to detail and a very competent infrastructure upgrade, and is de facto treated as the best RTS remaster outside of the Age of Empires franchise. An open-source release and a total absence of modern monetization methods and DRM (save for very basic Steam API calls) set a precedent for the publisher, much to the pleasure of the fans.
ESRB: Teen | Blood, Violence, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol, Use of Tobacco
PEGI: 16 | Violence
RARS: 16+
OFLC (AU): TBA
GRAC: 15+
ClassInd: 14
GSRR: 15+
We have collected all the information and pictures to date regarding the game, and you can look at it all by browsing the navigation menu to the right.
C&C Remastered Collection
Remastered Collection forum
Concept art & renders
C&C Arsenals:
GDI units
GDI structures
Nod units
Nod structures
Red Alert Arsenals:
Allied units
Allied structures
Soviet units
Soviet structures