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Test: Ruling The Countryside - 1
10 Questions MCQ Test NCERT Hindi Textbooks (Class 6 to Class 12) | Test: Ruling The Countryside - 1
This mock test of Test: Ruling The Countryside - 1 for UPSC helps you for every UPSC entrance exam. This contains 10 Multiple Choice Questions for UPSC Test: Ruling The Countryside - 1 (mcq) to study with solutions a complete question bank. The solved questions answers in this Test: Ruling The Countryside - 1 quiz give you a good mix of easy questions and tough questions. UPSC students definitely take this Test: Ruling The Countryside - 1 exercise for a better result in the exam. You can find other Test: Ruling The Countryside - 1 extra questions, long questions & short questions for UPSC on EduRev as well by searching above.
The image given depicts an important Governor General of the East India Company accepting the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa from the Mughal ruler in 1765. Name this British personality.
Robert Clive
Grant of the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the East India Company by the Great Mughal Shah Alam (1765) Introduction: After Robert Clive had conquered Bengal in 1757, imposing a Nawab (governor) of his choice, the Great Mughal offered him the Diwani (civil administration) of the province.
From the given dates, on which date did the Mughal emperor appoint the East India Company as the Diwan of Bengal?
After the Bengal Nawab and Shah Allam II huge defeat against Company, Shah Allam II, the Mughal Emporer appointed the East India Company the diwan of Bengal on 12th August, 1765, by signing the Treaty of Allahabad by Shah Allam II and his son Alamgir and Robert Clive. This treaty meant that the Company gets all the rights of Diwan in Bengal and their beginning of their rule in Bengal. From 1765, the Company ruled Bengal by forming Dual Government.
What was the chief advantage of the Company when appointed as the Diwan of Bengal?
The Company helped the artisans to sell their goods at higher prices
Agricultural production saw an increase in Bengal.
The Company became the chief financial administrator of the territory under its control and they could raise revenue
The Company could trade to whichever country they wanted.
On 12th August 1765, the Mughal emperor appointed the East India Company as the Diwan of Bengal. As Diwan, the company became the chief financial administrator of the territory under its control.The company could now administer the land and revenue resources of Bengal and could utilize the revenue to meet the expanses of the Company.
A few statements with respect to the Bengal economy after the Company had become the Diwan are given. Pick out the one that is not applicable to the Bengal economy.
The Bengal economy thrived and progressed.
Artisanal production and agricultural cultivation showed signs of collapse
The artisans started deserting villages as they were forced to sell their goods to the Company at low prices
Peasants were unable to pay the dues that were being demanded from them
The Company became the chief financial administrator of the territory under its control, and so the company had to think and plan the organisation of Bengal in a such a way that it could earn maximum profit out of the territory, profits that could be used to finance their businesses and wars. Thus the bengal economy thrived and progressed.
What happened in 1770 in Bengal so that one-third of the population was wiped out?
The British shipped a lot of locals to Britain and the met with an accident.
Robert Clive had to wage a battle with the locals and killed many .
The British and the French had a war in Bengal and many were killed .
Due to a terrible famine, ten million people in Bengal were wiped out.
In which year did Bengal witness the Great Famine?
The Great Bengal Famine of 1770 was a famine between 1769 and 1773 that affected the lower Gangetic plain of India from Bihar to the Bengal region. The famine is estimated have killed about 10 million people in Bengal.
From the given possibilities, which year did the British introduce the Permanent Settlement of Bengal?
Solution: The Permanent Settlement (also Premanent Settlement of Bengal) was introduced by Lord Cornwallis in 1793. It was an agreement between the British East India Company and the Landlords of Bengal to settle the Land Revenue to be raised. Lord Cornwallis came to India as the Governor General.
Which Governor General was responsible for the introduction of Permanent Settlement of Bengal? Identify from the picture given .
British General Charles Cornwallis, the Earl Cornwallis, was appointed in February 1786 to serve as both Commander-in-Chief of British India and Governor of the Presidency of Fort William, also known as the Bengal Presidency. He oversaw the consolidation of British control over much of peninsular India, setting the stage for the British Raj. He was also instrumental in enacting administrative and legal reforms that fundamentally altered civil administration and land management practices there. According to historian Jerry Dupont, Cornwallis was responsible for "laying the foundation for British rule throughout India and setting standards for the services, courts, and revenue collection that remained remarkably unaltered almost to the end of the British era."
According to the terms of the Permanent Settlement, who were recognized as zamindars?
Village heads
Farmers and Peasants
Rajas and Taluqdars
British officers
Solution: Rajas and Taluqdars being known by almost entire village used to own most of the lands, thus British officers assigned the duty to collect taxes of farm produce to the head who can surpass upon the farmers/villagers.
How did the Company ask the Rajas to collect revenue?
Rajas had to give it in the form of jewellery and gold
Rajas had to give it from their treasury.
Rajas had to raise revenue by selling their own land .
Rajas had to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the Company
The rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars. They were asked to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the Company.
Ruling The Countryside
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Ruling The Countryside, History, Class 8 -Test
Test: Colonialism And The Countryside


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Home > USDOI > US Geological Survey > USGS Staff -- Published Research > 1011
Use of NMR logging to obtain estimates of hydraulic conductivity in the High Plains aquifer, Nebraska, USA
Katherine Dlubac, Stanford University
Rosemary Knight, Stanford UniversityFollow
Yi-Qiao Song, Schlumberger Doll Research
Nate Bachman, Schlumberger Dhahran Carbonate Research
Ben Grau, Schlumberger Water Services
Jim Cannia, U.S. Geological Survey
John Williams, U.S. Geological Survey
Dlubac, K., R. Knight, Y.-Q. Song, N. Bachman, B. Grau, J. Cannia, and J. Williams (2013), Use of NMR logging to obtain estimates of hydraulic conductivity in the High Plains aquifer, Nebraska, USA, Water Resour. Res., 49, 1871–1886, doi:10.1002/wrcr.20151.
U.S. government work.
Hydraulic conductivity (K) is one of the most important parameters of interest in groundwater applications because it quantifies the ease with which water can flow through an aquifer material. Hydraulic conductivity is typically measured by conducting aquifer tests or wellbore flow (WBF) logging. Of interest in our research is the use of proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging to obtain information about water-filled porosity and pore space geometry, the combination of which can be used to estimate K. In this study, we acquired a suite of advanced geophysical logs, aquifer tests, WBF logs, and sidewall cores at the field site in Lexington, Nebraska, which is underlain by the High Plains aquifer. We first used two empirical equations developed for petroleum applications to predict K from NMR logging data: the Schlumberger Doll Research equation (KSDR) and the Timur-Coates equation (KT-C), with the standard empirical constants determined for consolidated materials. We upscaled our NMR-derived K estimates to the scale of the WBF-logging K(KWBF-logging) estimates for comparison. All the upscaled KT-C estimates were within an order of magnitude of KWBF-logging and all of the upscaled KSDR estimates were within 2 orders of magnitude of KWBF-logging. We optimized the fit between the upscaled NMR-derived K and KWBF-logging estimates to determine a set of site-specific empirical constants for the unconsolidated materials at our field site. We conclude that reliable estimates of K can be obtained from NMR logging data, thus providing an alternate method for obtaining estimates of K at high levels of vertical resolution.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Clare Jessup – Guest Empowerment Worker – Clare has been coordinating the Selig office since last November. Prior to that she provided specialist support and training to vulnerable young families. Clare is also the coordinator for Felixstowe Town Pastors. Clare will be supporting all of our guests and shelter assistants throughout the winter.
Linda Perkins – Linda is one of our Hope into Action Empowerment Workers, responsible for our Ipswich Hope into Action house. Linda was one of our shelter assistants last winter. Linda is part of the congregation of one of the shelter host churches.
Jacqui Goodwin – Jacqui works for Just42, a local Christian youth and children's charity working in and around Woodbridge. Jacqui was one of our shelter assistants last winter.
Finter Rose – Finter is an experienced Ipswich Winter Night Shelter volunteer and Team Leader and he is part of the congregation of one of the shelter host churches.
Kay Guest – Kay is an experienced teacher. She is keen to use her experience and skills to make a difference in another field.
Barbara Willingham – Barbara is an experienced Ipswich Winter Night Shelter volunteer and she is also the coordinator for Ipswich Town Pastors. Barbara is part of the congregation of one of the shelter host churches.
Dawn Lynch – Dawn has decades of experience of working with and caring for vulnerable adults. She is part of the congregation of a local Baptist Church.
Nigel Isgrove – Nigel is an experienced Ipswich Winter Night Shelter volunteer. He has decades of experience of Police work.


Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire.
If you are tired of making the same old presentations again and again, take a look at the "Beyond Bullet Points" book by Cliff Atkinson. In this book, the author describes an approach on how to use Hollywood-style storytelling techniques to transform a set of bullet-pointed slides into a rich, engaging, and powerful presentation.
How can you capture the interest of your audience during one of your first slides? How can you maintain this interest to the very end? Cliff answers these questions and offers a structure and process for creating effective PowerPoint® slide presentations.
I have had excellent results taking the ideas described in this book and applying them in my own presentations. Will this approach work for you? Will this approach work for your audience? Rather than applying ideas blindly, consider the goals, assumptions, and expectations of your audience. This book gives you an interesting way to structure your presentations. But it is only one of the options you have.
Ready, Set, Dominate: Implement Toyota's set-based learning for developing products and nobody can catch you.
No doubt, IRT faces serious challenges: market share is shrinking, overhead is increasing, and profits are deteriorating. Will the company be able to turn the situation around? Read this book to find out!
In the form of a business novel, the authors allow us to experience a journey towards Lean Product Development with the focus on Lean Knowledge Management. They point out common implementation mistakes and show how to effectively integrate the flow of innovative knowledge into a planned cadence of product releases.
Included with the book are case studies of two companies that have been successful at understanding and applying Toyota principles. I would like to quote one of them: "... once the desired specification was put on paper, it was viewed as an absolute requirement. No variance from the goal was acceptable. Since the requirements were not a variable, the only variables left were time and money. That meant missed schedules and cost overrruns."


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module Pohoda
  module Builders
    module Stk
      class PictureType
        include ParserCore::BaseBuilder

        def builder
          root = Ox::Element.new(name)
          root = add_attributes_and_namespaces(root)

          if data.key? :action_type
            root << Typ::ActionTypeItem.new('stk:actionType', data[:action_type]).builder
          end
          root << build_element('stk:id', data[:id], data[:id_attributes]) if data.key? :id
          root << build_element('stk:filepath', data[:filepath], data[:filepath_attributes]) if data.key? :filepath
          root << build_element('stk:description', data[:description], data[:description_attributes]) if data.key? :description
          root << build_element('stk:order', data[:order], data[:order_attributes]) if data.key? :order

          root
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Gabilliet, Jean-Paul: "Comic art and bande dessinée. From the funnies to graphic novels." In: The Cambridge History of Canadian Literature. Hrsg. v. Coral Ann Howells und Eva-Marie Kröller. Cambridge [etc.]: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009, S. 460–477.
Added by: joachim (09 Jan 2010 11:22:55 Europe/Berlin)	Last edited by: joachim (14 May 2019 10:04:06 Europe/Berlin)
DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521868761.025
BibTeX citation key: Gabilliet2009
Keywords: Historischer Überblick, Kanada
Creators: Gabilliet, Howells, Kröller
Publisher: Cambridge Univ. Press (Cambridge [etc.])
Collection: The Cambridge History of Canadian Literature Views: 8/289
English-language comics and French-language bande dessinée have been vivid elements in the landscape of Canadian news and entertainment media since the mid-nineteenth century. Before comics there was political and satirical cartooning. One prominent early figure of Canadian cartooning in the late nineteenth-century was Henri Julien. M. Hirsh and P. Loubert's 1971 study The Great Canadian Comic Books introduced post-war generations to the previously neglected part of their national heritage. The 1960s was a time of change for comics: the medium in which output had from the early twentieth century traditionally been geared to children then became an important means of expression for the counter-culture. Unlike its American and European counterparts the Canadian literary avant-garde used comics to produce innovative expressive forms. The scattered small-press production of comic books riding the wave of Western counter-culture and local cultural nationalism in the late 1960s evolved into a small-scale industry. The graphic novel typifies the medium's ability to engage fiction and autobiography.


Do anda like the spot's banner and icon? If not feel free to give suggestions.
what kind of neko do anda like best?
who do anda like better as a neko?
everyone had telah diposkan stuff over a tahun is this sight old atau something?


Most restaurants tend to feature an in-your-face bar: at Lavelle, theirs gleams and at Lena it takes up half a floor. La Banane replaces theirs statement bar with a cold seafood station instead – oysters, shrimp, and crab are displayed prominently and as enticingly as any bottle of alcohol.
In the end, it's the Alaskan king crab ($52) we settled on, which takes a bit of work, but the crab's salty tang is a succulent treat. In terms of condiments, the tried and true cocktail sauce was good, but the thick helping of crème fraiche needed an extra boost of herbs to stand up to the crab.
Covered with a thick paste of dill, brown butter, and caper tapenade, the topping on the albacore tuna ($16) was tasty but the thick layer excessive against the ratio of fish. After scraping some off, the briny bite goes wonderfully with the delicate fish, the rest I used to dip pieces of complimentary pretzel bread into.
Having seen pictures of their Eurobass en croute ($32), an entire fish wrapped in a salt pastry, it's a dish I wouldn't miss. First presented fully intact, the fish is then whisked back to the kitchen to have the top layer of pastry and skin removed before being re-presented with an ample boat of tangy yuzu beurre blanc.
Wow, can you taste the salt that permeates all the meat. Really, you don't even need the citrusy butter sauce, although it was delicious. If only there weren't strange orbs of zucchini dotting the fish. Personally, I'd imagine using zucchini ribbons to replace the lattice of pastry would look and taste better.
At La Banane, seafood dominates the menu. To balance out the sea, we opted for the duck breast ($28), a protein that the French does so well. Hence, when I cut through what looked like well rendered skin to find it soggy and chewy, the dish took a dive. Another taste with the bitter grilled endive didn't improve my perception.
I'd stick with the flatiron steak ($25), the beef wonderfully tender and the soubise sauce incorporating an unexpected kick of grainy mustard that compliments the rich beef beautifully. The bar of pommes Anna (think scalloped potatoes but using ultra-thin slices of potatoes and butter in lieu of cream) was perhaps the best part of the meal. Why isn't this a side that you can get more of?!
Rather, everyone seemed to get a pot of their pommes aligot ($12), the mashed potatoes incorporating so much mozzarella that its stringiness was taller than a supermodel's legs. Think you can simply lift your spoon higher to get the cheesy potatoes out of the dish? Good luck.
Indeed, the molten fondue nature of the aligot is impressive, but you really have to love cheese. Aside from the gooey mozzarella, there's something stronger (gruyère and emmental perhaps), just a few spoons and I had to tap out.
We couldn't bring ourselves to shell out the $50 to try to Ziggy Stardust disco egg. As a person who generally doesn't like chocolate, after seeing the chocolate egg filled with truffles being presented at a neighbouring table, I'm glad we opted for the gateau à la banane ($12) instead. In spite of the cake looking like something a child makes in an Easy Bake oven, the flavours are spot on (a wonderful vanilla base with a creamy banana finish) and the slightly caramelized crust along the outside was fantastic.
For an almost healthy dessert, La Banane offers a roasted ananas ($10), the pineapple encapsulated in a lovely sugary crust that turns the fruit into dessert. It really didn't go with the tofu pudding, but I rather enjoyed the beany hit from the tofu, which could have been a touch sweeter.
For the most part, La Banane's food is good and the atmosphere is glitzy while still welcoming and comfortable. It's their service that needs fine tuning. By no means are they unfriendly or inattentive, if anything, it might be too attentive.
Working in pairs, rather than a person per section, it seems like everything gets repeated – being asked if I wanted water when there's already a glass in front of me or wondering if I needed a drink while waiting for dining companions. Moreover, I understand the importance of ensuring people are happy with their food, but when a group's deep in conversation and dishes are relatively clear, I'd rather not have someone interrupt at each course. If anything, a touch point in between the appetizer and main course and at the end of the meal would be sufficient.
Perhaps I'm being nit-picky. After all, I'd rather enter a French restaurant without the Parisian snobbery. As for the overall experience, La Banane's seafood is fresh and their sauces très délicieux, but all these best new restaurant accolades? I don't get it. For me, they're like a banana: dependable, but common.


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Askeryds kyrkby is een plaats in de gemeente Aneby in het landschap Småland en de provincie Jönköpings län in Zweden. De plaats heeft 51 inwoners (2000) en een oppervlakte van 5 hectare.

Plaats in Jönköpings län

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Who Will Prevent the Next Chernobyl? (Op-Ed)
By Timothy Jorgensen 2016-04-26T00:36:11Z
Chernobyl used four Soviet-designed RBMK-1000 nuclear reactors, a design that's now recognized as inherently flawed. This system uses enriched U-235 uranium fuel to heat water, creating steam that drives the reactors' turbines and generates electricity. The nuclear core in the RBMK-1000 actually became more reactive as it produced steam, creating a positive-feedback loop known as a "positive-void coefficient."
(Image: © Chernobyl image via Shutterstock)
Timothy Jorgensen is director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection graduate program at Georgetown University, and author of "Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation" (Princeton University Press, 2016). Jorgensen contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
In the past two months, we have marked two anniversaries of catastrophic nuclear power plant accidents. March 11 was the five-year anniversary of the Fukushima accident in Japan , and April 26 was the 30-year anniversary of the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine . Both accidents involved reactor-core meltdowns, both accidents received the highest severity rating by the International Atomic Energy Agency (level 7), both accidents involved the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents, and both accidents still have people waiting to return to their homes. The accidents left a legacy of large-scale radioactive contamination of the environment, and that radioactivity will persist for years to come, despite the best cleanup efforts that money can buy.
Both accidents should have underscored the necessity for personnel highly trained in the radiation sciences to be stationed onsite, and marked the beginning of a redoubling of efforts to better educate the next generation of radiation-protection professionals to prevent future nuclear catastrophes. But ironically and sadly, they did not.
The U.S. federal government's investment in the training of radiation personnel has dropped, rather than risen, during the years since these nuclear accidents and is now at its lowest point in decades.
Admittedly, Chernobyl was a much bigger accident than Fukushima, both in terms of the amount of radioactivity released and the public health impacts. But there is another major distinction between Chernobyl and Fukushima: The Chernobyl accident was an entirely man-made event. It was the result of a "safety trial" gone terribly amiss, compounded by incompetence, and made even worse by misinformation and secrecy. The accident could have been prevented completely, and its consequences could have been mitigated, with effective training, management and regulatory oversight.
Fukushima, in contrast, was the unfortunate consequence of a natural disaster — an earthquake followed by a tsunami that breached seawalls and flooded reactor buildings. But even in the case of Fukushima, human error contributed to the problem. The true risks of tsunamis went underappreciated by the nuclear power industry, despite the evidence, so seawalls were of insufficient height. The reactor backup power supplies should not have been placed in the basements of the reactor building but rather on higher ground, well above a level that would pose a flood threat.
Moreover, there were engineering design errors at Fukushima. For example, a programming error resulted in a "fail-safe" switch automatically closing the valves in the cooling system that should have remained open, resulting in the core meltdown in Reactor Unit 1. Additionally, communication between the power company (Tokyo Electric Power Co.), the government and the public completely broke down, making it hard to manage the problem during the crisis.
Even though the earthquake and tsunami could not have been prevented, better foresight and training would surely have mitigated its consequences and possibly prevented the nuclear core meltdowns altogether. [Mutant Butterflies Linked to Japan's Nuclear Disaster ]
So what have we learned from Chernobyl and Fukushima, the two worst nuclear accidents of all time? Human errors, rather than outside forces, were largely to blame, and poor decisions by professional personnel are the major reasons we are still living with the environmental consequences many years after the events .
One would think that more and better-trained radiation professionals would be the key to preventing nuclear mishaps, and that such personnel would represent the first line of defense in averting future nuclear power plant accidents. Yet, amazingly, that has not been the prevailing trend in the United States. Fewer students are being trained in the radiation professions now than at the time of the accidents, and radiation training programs are closing down at an alarming rate, largely due to a lack of federal support for radiation education.
If you're a topical expert — researcher, business leader, author or innovator — and would like to contribute an op-ed piece, email us here.
The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) — a U.S. federally-chartered scientific organization that provides advice on radiation protection issues — recently convened a workshop to address the problem. The workshop findings concluded that "the country is on the verge of a severe shortfall of radiation professionals such that urgent national needs will not be met." The basic problem is that there are not enough radiation professionals currently being trained to replace the ones that are due to retire.
In the United States' nuclear power industry, the personnel shortfall has largely been masked by the movement of military radiation professionals from the nuclear Navy into nuclear power plant jobs in the civilian sector, but this personnel flow is not sustainable, and the NCRP anticipates severe shortages in qualified radiation professionals within 10 years.
Given that it can take two to seven years of graduate studies to become fully trained, there is not much lead time to reverse this ominous trend.
There is no doubt that training, management and oversight are expensive. But the cost of establishing and maintaining these preventive measures is but a fraction of the cost of cleanup.
For the kinds of money that has been spent on cleanup at Chernobyl and Fukushima, we could have trained and maintained an army of highly skilled and competent nuclear engineers, health physicists, reactor inspectors, risk managers, communication specialists and other radiation professionals.
With such an army, nuclear power could be among the safest of all energy options, in terms of both public health and environmental impact, even accounting for the insidious risks of natural disasters. But as long as we, as a society, neglect prevention and fail to provide funding for training of highly competent radiation professionals, we will always be living with the real threat of someday having to pack up and get out of town, leaving our radioactivity-contaminated lands to the wildlife.
Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science .
The Surprising Condition That Causes 1 in 5 Deaths
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Trying to Conceive: 10 Tips for Women
'Gay' Penguin Couple Had No Egg of Their Own. So They Stole One.
Mystery of Orb in a Record-Breaking Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Deepens


text:
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The Gospel of Citizens United: Hobby Lobby
FSFP Legal Director Ron Fein Discusses Our Legal Challenge To Rep. Madison Cawthorn's Candidacy for Reelection Under Fourteenth Amendment's Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause On CNN.
Posted on January 28, 2022 (January 28, 2022)
FSFP Legal Director Ron Fein recently joined Erin Burnett Outfront on CNN to discuss our legal challenge to Rep. Madison Cawthorn's candidacy for reelection under the Fourteenth Amendment's Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause, based on evidence that he helped facilitate the January 6, 2021 insurrection. "When we have Members of Congress or other officials who are taking
Citizens United Anniversary.
Twelve years ago today, the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission swept away a century of precedent that barred corporate money in our elections and opened the floodgates to corporations spending limitless sums of money to take over our elections. And lower federal courts have gone even further, prohibiting Congress from
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Come join the campaign to reclaim democracy for the people by fighting for free and fair elections, and accountability for presidential corruption and abuse of power, in the summer of 2022! Free Speech For People, a national nonpartisan nonprofit organization, was founded in 2010 after the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC decision. We're working
Posted on March 28, 2014 (March 28, 2014)
A new report, The Gospel of Citizens United: In Hobby Lobby Corporation pray for the right to Deny Workers Contraceptions released by People For the American Way Senior Fellow, Jamie Raskin chronicles what's really at stake in the Hobby Lobby case:
"The outlandish claims of the company involved would not have a prayer except for Citizens United, the miracle gift of 2010 that just keeps giving. Hobby Lobby is a big business that wants to deny thousands of its female employees access to certain contraceptives, like Plan B and certain IUDs, which are supposed to be available to everyone under Obamacare but which the company says it finds theologically objectionable. Ironically, Hobby Lobby's private insurance plan fully funded these religiously incorrect forms of birth control for several years before the 2010 passage of the Patient Care and Affordable Care Act and the Department of health and human services' issuance of its "preventive services" rule, which made coverage for them obligatory. So it was the workings of Obamacare that apparently gave this business entity its corporate epiphany that these forms of birth control were sinful and the will to fight the contraceptives it had once been perfectly content to subsidize. Amazingly, this challenge produced an off-the-rails decision by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the tenth Circuit that the company's "religious" rights had been violated."
Click here to read the full report.
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Q: Running an "Application Reference" I need my application (Master) to run another application (Worker) on a particular event.
If I distribute my Worker application as a standard executable, then all is well, and I can use Process.Start with no problems and happily pass in arguments and call WaitForExit.
If I distribute my Worker application as a ClickOnce Application, it creates an Application Reference, which I can start with Process.Start (once I put a copy of it in the same directory as my Master.exe), but I cannot pass it arguments or use WaitForExit.
I want to be able to do both. I suspect the call to the reference starts another process which the Worker executable actually runs in.
My code:
// This works as I expect, and returns a valid Process.
Process p0 = Process.Start("Worker.exe", "DoSomeMagic");
// This seems to work, but returns null.
Process p1 = Process.Start("Worker.appref-ms");
// This also returns null, but does not pass the argument to Worker.
Process p2 = Process.Start("Worker.appref-ms", "DoSomeMagic");

My question:
How do I do this "properly"?

A: ClickOnce applications do not allow the passing of command-line arguments (or, in their case, arguments by query string) by default. You need to configure the appropriate option in the manifest file in order to allow them, but even then there are several caveats to consider. The whole ClickOnce platform imposes some very nasty limitations on how your applications can execute, as well as how they can be started. Of course, this is all under the guise of security, but personally I think it's short-sightedness.
More info here on how to pass arguments to ClickOnce apps: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms172242.aspx

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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A group of teens and good Samaritans rescued a boy dangling from a ski lift
Posted 9:22 AM, March 4, 2019, by CNN Wire
Some teens are being hailed as quick-thinking rescuers for coming to the aid of an 8-year-old dangling from a chairlift at a Vancouver ski resort.
An 8-year-old boy on a chairlift at Grouse Mountain had slipped and was dangling, held up only by his father.
Fourteen-year-old James MacDonald, who had been skiing and snowboarding with his friends, told CNN that when he saw the boy, he didn't think the child would be able to hold on much longer.
"He was starting to flail about and get extremely panicked," MacDonald said.
MacDonald said he asked a man nearby to retrieve some orange netting typically used to indicate out-of-bounds areas. The idea was to stretch out that netting and use it to break the boy's fall.
By this time, MacDonald's friends had come down the hill they were skiing and pitched in to help, as did the man and a woman who was near the stopped chairlift.
Twelve-year-old Josh Ravensbergen said he and the man stripped some padding off a pole and put it on top of the netting as a cushion.
Ethan Harvey, another of the teens, said that while all this was going on, their friend Gabriel Neilson was trying to help the boy stay calm. Once everything was in place, Neilson told the child to take his skis off and asked his father to trust the young rescuers.
The father let go of the child, who dropped safely into the net.
Julia Grant, a spokesperson for Grouse Mountain, said in a statement that the child was attended to by the resort's patrol and sent to the hospital as a precautionary measure. He was found to have no injuries.
Grant added that an investigation of the incident, which happened on Wednesday, was underway.
"Safety is our top priority and we will be taking appropriate action based on the results of the investigation," the statement said.
Grant also said that Michael Cameron, the president of Grouse Mountain, met with the rescuers to thank them personally and that the resort gave each of them a complimentary season pass.
"Grouse Mountain is incredibly appreciative of those who assisted in Wednesday's chairlift incident," the statement said. "Their quick thinking and immediate actions are commendable."
Topics: ski lift, teens, Video
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text:
Q: R : Calculate a P-value of a random distribution I want to get the P-value of two randomly distributed observations x and y, for example :
> set.seed(0)
> x <- rnorm(1000, 3, 2)
> y <- rnorm(2000, 4, 3)

or:
> set.seed(0)
> x <- rexp(50, 10)
> y <- rexp(100, 11)

let's say that T is my test-statistic defined as mean(x) - mean(y) = 0 (this is H0), the P-value is then defined as : p-value = P[T>T_observed | H0 holds].
I tried doing this :
> z <- c(x,y) # if H0 holds then x and y are distributed with the same distribution
> f <- function(x) ecdf(z) # this will get the distribution of z (x and y)

then to calculate the p-value i tried this:
> T <- replicate(10000, mean(sample(z,1000,TRUE))-mean(sample(z,2000,TRUE)))
# this is  supposed to get the null distribution of mean(x) - mean(y)
> f(quantile(T,0.05)) # calculating the p-value for a significance of 5%

obviously this doesn't seem to work, what am i missing ?

A: c(x,y) is just the entries in x followed by the entries in y.  You want t.test(x, y), which returns
    Welch Two Sample t-test

data:  x and y
t = -11.934, df = 2759.7, p-value < 2.2e-16
alternative hypothesis: true difference in means is not equal to 0
95 percent confidence interval:
 -1.2768896 -0.9164975
sample estimates:
mean of x mean of y
 2.968341  4.065034

Enter ?t.test at the R command prompt to view the documentation for this function (including how to do things like change your desired value of $\alpha$ or use a one-sided rather than two-sided test).
Note that this is using the t-test for the difference in means between X and Y.  Since your other example involves a pair of exponential distributions, you might be asking for an equality of distribution test.  A standard one is Kolmogorov–Smirnov:
> ks.test(x, y)

    Two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test

data:  x and y
D = 0.2185, p-value < 2.2e-16
alternative hypothesis: two-sided

See paragraph 4 of the Wikipedia page on Kolmogorov-Smirnov for references to some other common tests of equality of distribution.


text:
Мајкл Чиклис () је амерички глумац, рођен 30. августа 1963. године у Лауелу (Масачусетс).

Филмографија

|-
| 2002−2008. || Прљава значка || -{The Shield}- || Вик Меки || ТВ серија
|-
| 2005. || Фантастична четворка || -{Fantastic Four}- || Бен Грим / Створ ||
|-
| 2007. || Фантастична четворка: Успон Сребрног Летача || -{Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer}- || Бен Грим / Створ ||
|-
| 2021. || Не гледај горе || -{Don't Look Up}- || Ден Покети ||
|}

Референце

Спољашње везе

Рођени 1963.
Амерички глумци
Добитници награде Еми
Добитници награде Златни глобус
Амерички гласовни глумци


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Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet† Daily Value not established.
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Suggested Use : Mix 1 serving (1 scoop) with 4 to 6 oz or mix 2 servings (2 scoops) with 8 to 12 oz of cold water or skim milk in a glass or shaker cup. Use between major meals and after exercise. Drink 8 to 10 glasses of water daily. For maximum results, consume 4 scoops of Nitro-Tech daily for a minimum of six weeks.
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A Family Dentist that Cares: Making Dental Health Affordable in Dentist.
Everyone deserves a beautiful smile. But, does everyone have the means to achieve it? While it may come as a surprise, the answer to this question is a resounding yes. The key is that you must be willing to be an active participant in developing and maintaining that smile – and you have to work with a dentist that is dedicated to making it a reality. Finding a family dentist that cares about your health will not only put you on the road to flashing your pearly whites, the right dentist will also develop a plan with you that is affordable and realistic.


text:
The 2001 Swedish Rally (formally the 50th International Swedish Rally) was the second round of the 2001 World Rally Championship. The race was held over three days between 9 February and 11 February 2001, and was won by Peugeot's Harri Rovanperä, his first and only win in the World Rally Championship.

Background

Entry list

Itinerary
All dates and times are CET (UTC+1).

Results

Overall

World Rally Cars

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

FIA Cup for Production Rally Drivers

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

References

External links
 Official website of the World Rally Championship

Sweden
Swedish Rally
Rally


text:
. 1, or Lee's Mill retreat up the peninsula Williamsburg Hanover Court House Seven Pines Jackson's wonderful valley campaign. While these new regiments were forming, the North Carolina regiefense. Preceding and preliminary to the great approaching battles around Richmond, occurred Jackson's remarkable campaign of 1862 in the Shenandoah valley. Jackson's matchless soldiership and alJackson's matchless soldiership and almost inspired energy brought new zeal to the Southerners, whose enthusiasm had been somewhat chilled by the reverses in North Carolina and in the Mississippi valley. Only to Kirkland's Twenty-first d Wharton's battalion of sharpshooters was accorded the honor of representing North Carolina in Jackson's foot-cavalry, and participating in his brilliant victories. The sharpshooters were regular mve them through the town. In the midst of a wild ovation that the citizens of Winchester gave Jackson's soldiers, and while every form of edible was being thrust upon the hungry North Carolinians,
Richmond (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 5
many Northern writers, show an entire misconception of the purpose of this battle. They seem to think that it was part of Johnston's purpose to hold permanently the Fort Magruder line. Keyes says in his official report: If Hancock had failed, the enemy would not have retreated. This is far from the true state of affairs. As Colonel Maury observes: General Johnston had no intention of tarrying at Williamsburg, nor was the place defensible, for the enemy now had control of both York and James rivers, on each flank, and intended to push Franklin's division, kept on transports . . . rapidly up the York river in the vain hope of getting in our rear. General Johnston says: It was an affair with our rear guard, the object of which was to secure our baggage trains. Johnston's Narrative. General Webb, of the Federals, observes: The demonstration of the Union cavalry the previous afternoon, and Hooker's pressure the next morning, compelled them to face about to escape being run ov
United States (United States) (search for this): chapter 5
or Clark for the defense of his own State against the Federal army at New Bern, and then in camp in North Carolina, but not yet armed. Major Gordon, who is thoroughly familiar with the affairs of the adjutant-general's office at that time, gives the following account of the negotiations for these regiments: On or about the night that General Martin received his commission as brigadier-general, the governor of North Carolina received a communication from the war department of the Confederate States giving him in full the plan of the campaign to crush McClellan's army, and asking the governor's co-operation with the North Carolina troops in camp, but not then turned over to the Confederate government, and also attempting to reconcile him to the moving of all the other troops in the State to the State of Virginia. The statement above that the war department would communicate the plans of one of the most famous campaigns of the world more than a month before a shot was fired, might
Rochambeau Village (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 5
Chapter 4: The Federal movements against Richmond Peninsular campaign Dam no. 1, or Lee's Mill retreat up the peninsula Williamsburg Hanover Court House Seven Pines Jackson's wonderful valley campaign. While these new regiments were forming, the North Carolina regiments already transferred to the army of Virginia were engaged in the famous Peninsular campaign and the battles around Richmond. Just a few, weeks after the battle at New Bern, McClellan's army began to land e Union army, but to strike, if need be, and to protract the giving up of the lines as long as possible. Accordingly, on the nearer approach of McClellan the Confederates fell back upon the Warwick line of defenses. On the 16th of April, at Lee's Mill, or Dam No. 1, the first sharp trial of strength between the opposing forces took place. Gen. W. F. Smith's division was ordered to attack the Confederate works there, the object being, according to General McClellan, to force the enemy t
Georgia (Georgia, United States) (search for this): chapter 5
ol. J. H. Lane; the Thirty-seventh, Col. C. C. Lee; and the Thirty-third, Lieutenant-Colonel Hoke; and also two temporarily attached regiments, the Twelfth North Carolina, Col. B. O. Wade, and Forty-fifth Georgia—in all seven regiments—and Latham's North Carolina battery, that joined him the night before the battle. In view of the hard fight that Branch gave him, it is not surprising that General Porter, writing the day after the battle, should say that Branch's force comprised about 8,000 Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia troops. But for General Webb, writing in 1881, and claiming to have sifted and collated for careful investigation the new material gathered by the war department, and now for the first time made a basis of the history of that time, Preface to Peninsula Campaign. to say—for him to say in the face of such a claim as that—that Branch's command must have been about 10,000 strong is, as the Federal General Palfrey sweetly says in commenting on some of McClellan'
ring from one intrenchment to another, the North Carolina soldiers, in common with all their comrade, was commanded by Gen. L. O'B. Branch, of North Carolina, and of the seven regiments present all weng. There, as at Hanover, an officer from North Carolina directed the fiercest and most protracted et an intelligible idea of the part of the North Carolina troops in this great battle, it will be nesion as brigadier-general, the governor of North Carolina received a communication from the war depaut explanation, seem incredible. The State of North Carolina had at this time fifteen regiments, ean was fully made known to the governor of North Carolina. In brief, the plan, as told me by my chould find out the defenseless condition of North Carolina and move forward. Every night he telegrap000 strong. At the close of this campaign North Carolina had forty regiments in Virginia. The fiftd been somewhat chilled by the reverses in North Carolina and in the Mississippi valley. Only to Ki[11 more...]
Boonsboro (Maryland, United States) (search for this): chapter 5
thusiasm for such daring, Those two regiments deserve to have immortal inscribed on their banners. Whether the Fifth and Twenty-fourth would have succeeded in routing Hancock had they not been ordered to fall back, or had the other two regiments pushed rapidly to their assistance, must, as General Hill says, forever remain an undecided question. Colonel McRae evidently thought they would. However, the student of the Confederate war history knows from the slaughter at Malvern Hill and Boonsboro, at Gettysburg and Fredericksburg, how well-nigh impossible it is for the most dauntless infantry to drive an American foe from an artillery and musketry crowned plateau. Even if the rest of the brigade had come when sent for, it hardly seems possible for two regiments, already crippled by many casualties, numbering together not over 1,000 before any loss, aided by only two fresh regiments, all without any artillery, to have put to flight five full regiments and ten pieces of artillery, p
Fredericksburg, Va. (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 5
ce, must, as General Hill says, forever remain an undecided question. Colonel McRae evidently thought they would. However, the student of the Confederate war history knows from the slaughter at Malvern Hill and Boonsboro, at Gettysburg and Fredericksburg, how well-nigh impossible it is for the most dauntless infantry to drive an American foe from an artillery and musketry crowned plateau. Even if the rest of the brigade had come when sent for, it hardly seems possible for two regiments, alreral General Palfrey sweetly says in commenting on some of McClellan's figures, one of those extraordinary, inconceivable, aggravating things that stirs up everything that is acrid in the nature of those who follow his career. Antietam to Fredericksburg, p. 39. What was the Confederate strength? Branch, in his congratulatory order to his brigade (July 24th), states that his total force was about 4,000. This would make his seven regiments average about 600 men to the regiment, a high a
Balaklava (Ukraine) (search for this): chapter 5
's horse was killed and he was disabled. Captains Garrett, Lea and Jones were all shot down, as were many of the subalterns Among them were Lieut. Thomas Snow, of Halifax, who was killed far in advance of his company, cheering on his men; and Lieutenants Boswell, Clark and Hays. Four hundred and fifteen men of this regiment answered to morning roll-call on that day; before night, the blood of 290 fed the soil of that bleak hill. Such losses are rarely chronicled. The Light Brigade at Balaklava took 600 men into action and lost only 247. Twenty-four commissioned officers of the Fifth regiment led their men up that slope; only four came out unhurt. No wonder that their antagonist for that day, General Hancock, said, in a generous burst of enthusiasm for such daring, Those two regiments deserve to have immortal inscribed on their banners. Whether the Fifth and Twenty-fourth would have succeeded in routing Hancock had they not been ordered to fall back, or had the other two regi
West Point (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 5
, by the picturesque figure on his right, the discomfiture of his left. But reading between the lines, the highest compliment was for the two Confederate regiments. From Manassas to Appomattox. Draper, the New York historian, adds: The manner in which the Confederate rear guard turned upon their pursuers at Williamsburg and gave them a bloody check will always exact the applause of military critics. Civil War in America. On the 7th of May, at Eltham's landing, nearly opposite West Point, Va., Franklin's division of McClellan's army disembarked from transports for the purpose of getting in the rear of Johnston's retreating army. The purpose, however, was frustrated, for Franklin found G. W. Smith on the ground, and Whiting's division attacked him there. Captain Reilly's battery and Colonel Pender's Sixth North Carolina regiment were under fire, but not seriously engaged. The next battle in Virginia was at Slash church, near Hanover Court House, on the 27th of May. This


text:
Association of tumour necrosis factor alpha variants with the CF pulmonary phenotype
J Yarden1,
D Radojkovic1,2,
K De Boeck3,
M Macek Jr4,
D Zemkova4,
V Vavrova4,
R Vlietinck1,
J-J Cassiman1,
H Cuppens1
1Department for Human Genetics, KULeuven, Herestraat 49, O&N6, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
2Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Vojvode Stepe 444a, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
3Department of Pediatrics, UZ Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
4Charles University Prague and University Hospital Motol, V Uvalu 84, CZ 15006 Prague, Czech Republic
Dr H Cuppens
Department for Human Genetics, KULeuven, Herestraat 49, O&N6, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; harry.cuppensmed.kuleuven.ac.be
Background: The pulmonary phenotype in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), even in those with the same CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) genotype, is variable and must therefore be influenced by secondary genetic factors as well as environmental factors. Possible candidate genes that modulate the CF lung phenotype may include proinflammatory cytokines. One such protein is tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα), a member of the immune system.
Methods: Three polymorphic loci in the promoter (−851c/t, −308g/a, −238g/a) and one polymorphic locus in intron 1 (+691g ins/del) of the TNFα gene were typed by a single nucleotide primer extension assay in CF patients and healthy controls. Spirometric data and first age of infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa were collected retrospectively from patients' medical records.
Results: An association was found between the TNFα +691g ins/del polymorphic locus and severity of CF lung disease. Patients heterozygous for +691g ins and +691g del were more likely to have better pulmonary function (mean (SD) forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) 79.7 (12.8)% predicted) than patients homozygous for +691g ins (mean (SD) FEV1 67.5 (23.0)% predicted; p = 0.008, mean difference 12.2%, 95% CI 3.5 to 21.0). Also, patients heterozygous for +691g ins and +691g del were more likely to have an older first age of infection with P aeruginosa (mean (SD) 11.4 (6.0) years) than patients homozygous for +691g ins (mean (SD) 8.3 (4.6) years; p = 0.018, mean difference 3.1 years, 95% CI 0.5 to 5.6). An association was also found with the −851c/t polymorphic locus. In the group of patients with more severe FEV1% predicted, a higher proportion of patients were homozygous for the −851c allele than in the other group of patients (p = 0.04, likelihood ratio χ2, odds ratio = 2.4).
Conlusion: TNFα polymorphisms are associated with the severity of CF lung disease in Czech and Belgian patients with CF.
CF, cystic fibrosis
CFTR, cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator
FEV1, forced expiratory volume in 1 second
MBL, mannose binding lectin
TNFα, tumour necrosis factor α
tumour necrosis factor α
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/thx.2004.025262
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a common lethal autosomal recessive disease affecting the white population with an incidence of about 1 in 2500.1,2 Certain phenotypes of CF are clearly associated with different CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) genotypes such as pancreatic insufficiency, but pulmonary disease is strongly influenced by other factors.3 There are many genes that may affect the CF phenotype. These genes may affect secondary symptoms, such as genes encoding proteins involved in lung defence (immune system, inflammation processes, protection against oxidative stress) or genes encoding proteins which directly or indirectly interact with CFTR. Phenotypic differences among patients with the same CFTR genotype are most likely caused by differences in the function of such proteins and/or by environmental factors. Previous studies have shown an association between variant alleles and the severity of the CF phenotype—for example, it was found that polymorphisms in the mannose binding lectin (MBL) protein, which result in low or no functional MBL, contribute to more severe CF lung disease.4,5
Tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα), an endogenous factor of the lung involved in host defence,6 is therefore a possible modulator of CF pulmonary disease severity. TNFα is a proinflammatory cytokine largely produced by macrophages,7 whose gene is located on chromosome 6p21.3.8 It is prothrombotic, promotes leucocyte adhesion and migration, modulates haematopoiesis and lymphocyte development, induces other cytokines, and has an important role in macrophage activation and the immune response in tissues.9 Even though there are many polymorphisms in the promoter region of TNFα, much attention has been given to the TNFα −308g/a polymorphic locus. In a previous study of CF patients from a UK CF clinical centre, an association was found between the −308a allele and a more severe CF phenotype.10 A modulating role of a genetic factor with disease, based on association studies, should however only be treated as tentative until the finding of an association has been replicated in other studies. Moreover, we broadened the search with additional polymorphisms for an association between TNFα and severity of lung function in CF patients. We therefore investigated whether the TNFα −308g/a polymorphic locus, together with the −851c/t, −238g/a promoter polymorphic loci and the polymorphic locus +691g ins/del in intron 111, are associated with pulmonary function, body mass index (BMI), and susceptibility to Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in Belgian and Czech patients with CF.
Only CF patients homozygous for the F508del CFTR mutation were included in the study in order to exclude variability in CF disease because of the CFTR genotype. 180 patients with CF were recruited to the study, 58 from the Belgium University Hospital Gasthuisberg and 122 from the Czech Republic CF Center Prague University Hospital Motol. The control population comprised 85 healthy adult blood donors from Belgium and 63 healthy adult blood donors and 55 newborn infants from the Czech Republic. Controls were ethnically matched to patients.
For Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium testing, all unrelated CF patients were included. For the actual association study of TNFα polymorphisms with the CF pulmonary phenotype, only 113 CF patients (41 Belgian and 72 Czech) between the ages of 12 and 15 years (mean age 13.4) were included; 49% were male. Indeed, a modulating gene may only become penetrant by age so it will only be detected in association studies using a well defined group of CF patients of a particular age or age range. All clinical data were retrieved from the patients' case records. The BMI was measured and percentage predicted values of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) were calculated according to Knudson et al.12 Statistical analysis of lung function was performed on the last FEV1 % predicted value between the ages of 12 and 15 years.
The age of first infection with P aeruginosa was available from the case records of 119 of the total group of 180 CF patients. Patients were followed at the outpatient clinic at a minimum of 3 monthly intervals. At every visit, sputum samples (or throat swabs in patients who did not expectorate) were taken. The age at which P aeruginosa was isolated for the first time is referred to as first infection with P aeruginosa.
The association studies were approved by the ethical committees of both universities.
PCR and single nucleotide extension assay
We developed multiplex single nucleotide primer extension assays in which the TNFα single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were included. This study is part of a much larger study involving semi-high throughput analysis of tens of SNPs, so gap filling experiments were needed for the samples in which a genotype could not be obtained for the first time. However, from a practical point of view, complete gap filling is not possible in such a large study because the DNA of some samples becomes exhausted. Thus, the number of genotypes/alleles obtained for each SNP may differ between different SNPs. For the single nucleotide primer extension assay, the SNP detection kit (SNaPshot; Applied Biosystems) was used. The primers used for amplification of the genomic regions covering the SNPs in TNFα and the single nucleotide extension oligonucleotides are shown in tables S1 and S2 respectively, available on the Thorax website at http://www.thoraxjnl.com/supplemental.
Database management and statistical analysis were performed with the SAS statistical package release 8.01 (SAS Institute Inc, Cary, NC, USA) and the SYSTAT package release 7.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA). Statistical tests were considered significant when their type I error was less than 0.05. Differences between the mean FEV1 % predicted values of Czech and Belgian populations were assessed using a two-sample t test after checking whether the variances of the populations were equal or not. Comparison between one independent and one dependent qualitative variables were assessed using the χ2 likelihood ratio test or by the Fisher exact probability test when more than 20% of the cells had an expected count of less than 5. When the independent variables were qualitative and the dependent one was quantitative, a parametric analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done. Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated to test the goodness of fit of one independent quantitative value and one dependent quantitative value in a linear regression model.
The TNFα promoter polymorphic loci −238g/a, −308g/a, −851c/t and the TNFα intron 1 polymorphic locus +691g ins/del were typed in 180 CF patients and 203 controls. We tested for the possibility of population stratification because of differences in ethnicity, age, and sex but found no significant differences. Furthermore, no differences were found between the Belgian and Czech cohorts with regard to the distribution of alleles/genotypes (see table S3 available on the Thorax website at http://www.thoraxjnl.com/supplemental), mean FEV1 (68.9% for Belgian patients and 68.4% for Czech patients, p = 0.91, mean difference 0.5%, 95% CI −9.3 to 8.3, two-sample t test), and mean FEV1 % for each genotype (−308g/a: p = 0.71, −851c/t: 0.83, and +691g ins/del: p = 0.65, ANOVA), so the data from the two populations were merged. In the combined groups there was no significant difference in allele and genotype frequencies between all CF patients compared with all controls (table S3).
FEV1 % predicted values of CF patients decline with age13 and females have a steeper decline in pulmonary function than males.14 FEV1 % predicted values calculated according to Knudson are corrected for sex and age.12 Nevertheless, we determined whether the FEV1 % predicted values were truly independent of sex and age in our age selected cohort of patients and found no influence of age (Pearson correlation coefficient r2 = 0.006) or sex (p = 0.21, mean difference 5.4%, 95% CI −13.7 to 3.0, two-sample t test) on FEV1 % predicted.
We then determined whether the values of FEV1 % predicted in CF patients were dependent on the distribution of TNFα genotypes. Given that a modifier effect may only become penetrant by age, as has been shown for MBL2,5,15 only CF patients aged 12–15 years were included in the actual association study. The mean FEV1 % of the age selected cohort of CF patients was approximately 70% predicted, so patients with an FEV1 less than 70% predicted were compared with those with an FEV1 of more than 70% predicted. The distribution of +691g ins/del was found to be significantly different between the two groups, with a higher proportion of those in whom the FEV1 was more than 70% predicted being heterozygous for the two alleles at the +691g ins/del locus (table 1). More importantly, the mean FEV1 % predicted values differed significantly between the two groups, patients with the +691g ins/+691g del genotype having a higher mean FEV1 % predicted value than those with the +691g ins/+691g ins genotype (table 2). Both these tests were significant even when a conservative Bonferroni correction (correction for multiple testing for four SNPs) was performed.
Distribution of TNFα genotypes according to FEV1 % predicted
Differences in mean FEV1 % predicted values according to TNFα genotypes
The distribution of −851c/t genotypes did not differ significantly between patients with FEV1 values above and below 70% predicted (table 1). However, in a dominant/recessive model, a significantly higher proportion of patients with an FEV1 lower than 70% predicted were homozygous for the −851c allele than in the other group of patients (table 1). The mean FEV1 % predicted values were not significantly different between the three genotypes of −851c/t separately or in a dominant/recessive model (table 2).
The −308g/a and −238g/a polymorphic loci were not significantly associated with FEV1 values above or below 70% predicted (table 1). Also, the mean FEV1 % predicted values were not significantly different between the three genotypes, separately or in a dominant/recessive model, for −308g/a or −238g/a (table 2).
Records of the age at first onset of P aeruginosa infection were available for 119 patients with CF. We examined whether the age of first infection with P aeruginosa was associated with SNP alleles or genotypes in TNFα and found that +691g ins/+691g ins homozygotes were colonised with P aeruginosa at a significantly earlier age than +691g ins/+691g del heterozygotes (table 3). The mean first age of infection with P aeruginosa for the +691g ins/del genotypes did not differ between the Belgian and Czech CF cohorts (p = 0.21, ANOVA), indicating that there was no skewing to either of the two centres. No other variants were significantly associated with the first age of infection with P aeruginosa when the genotypes were tested separately or in a dominant/recessive model.
Distribution of mean first age of infection with P aeruginosa according to TNFα genotypes
We also tested whether the BMI of the age selected cohort of patients was associated with SNP alleles or genotypes in TNFα. None of the TNFα variants was significantly associated with the BMI of these patients (see table S4 available on the Thorax website at http://www.thoraxjnl.com/supplemental).
The patients in this study were derived from two white European populations. We decided to group the patients in order to strengthen the statistical power of the study. In order to exclude variables that might affect the phenotype, the following precautions were taken. Only patients homozygous for the F508 deletion in the CFTR gene were included in order to exclude an effect of the CFTR genotype on disease. Patients were included from only two centres in order to exclude variability in treatment which might affect disease status and the measurement of clinical parameters of the patients. Only patients between 12 and 15 years of age were studied. It is important to neutralise age variability because a modulating genetic factor may only become penetrant by age,5 which can only be detected in studies in age selected groups of patients. Furthermore, FEV1 % predicted values of patients with CF decline more rapidly with age than in the general population,13 and therefore may interfere with results when testing pulmonary function as a dependent of genotype distribution. The fact that FEV1 % values did not differ with the age of the patients in the present cohort of age selected patients supports the credibility of the chosen age group. We also determined whether we could compare the disease severity between subjects without the influence of sex since female CF patients are known to have significantly lower FEV1 % predicted values than males.14 No significant difference in sex corrected FEV1 % values between male and female patients were seen in our cohort of age selected patients. The frequencies of the tested alleles/genotypes and FEV1 % predicted values were not significantly different between the two populations, allowing us to group the patient populations together. All genotype distributions were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium except for −238g/a in the total Czech patient subgroup. A technical artefact is unlikely, given the fact that this marker was in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for all control groups and the Belgian patients with CF. Since the Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium is only observed in the Czech CF patients and not the Czech controls, and since it is caused by the presence of two homozygotes for the −238a allele instead of the expected 0 to 1 homozygote, it is possible that the Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium was observed because of the small sample size. The mean FEV1 of the age selected cohort of CF patients in the current study is approximately 70% predicted, so patients with an FEV1 of less than 70% predicted were compared with those having an FEV1 higher than 70% predicted. We found an altered distribution of two TNFα polymorphisms depending on pulmonary function. Specifically, the presence of the +691g del allele was more likely to be associated with better pulmonary function and −851c homozygotes were found to be associated with worse pulmonary function than −851c/−851t + −851t/−851t CF patients. In our cohort of CF patients the −308g/a and the −238g/a polymorphic loci were not associated with severity of pulmonary disease. It should be noted that the functional consequences of these polymorphisms on TNFα are not known; however conflicting results have been found for the −308a allele, which has been associated with increased levels of TNFα and the −238a allele which has been associated with lower levels of TNFα, although others have found that −308a and −238a do not affect the levels of TNFα.16–18
Apart from the association of +691g del with better CF pulmonary function, this variant was also significantly associated with an older first recorded/observed age of infection with P aeruginosa. The most common pulmonary infection in the lungs of patients with CF is P aeruginosa,19 and progression of lung disease unequivocally accelerates after colonisation with this organism.20 Therefore, the younger the first age of infection with P aeruginosa, the more rapid the decline in pulmonary function. Mucoid P aeruginosa is a key factor in accelerating the decline in pulmonary function in patients with CF.21 TNFα plays an important role in the innate resistance to P aeruginosa and its clearance from the respiratory tract.22,23 Polymorphisms in the TNFα gene may lead to changes in levels of TNFα16 which may, in turn, increase the ability of the lung to clear P aeruginosa. On the other hand, increased concentrations of TNFα have been found in lung secretions of CF patients7,24 which may contribute directly to neutrophil influx and elastase activity that eventually destroy the CF lung.7 Furthermore, if a certain TNFα allele has a quantitative or qualitative effect on the TNFα protein, it would most likely have a knock on effect on the secretion and synthesis of other members of the cytokine cascade.9 There is probably a balance between its activity in protecting the immune system against pathogens and its destructive side effects. It is feasible that this balance may be tipped in one or other direction when a patient has a certain polymorphic variant in an important mediator of the immune system such as the TNFα gene. Interestingly, the variability in FEV1 % predicted values in patients with the +691g del variant is small and in the mild range, but not the most mild (fig 1). This may be due to the balance between the beneficial and detrimental properties of the TNFα protein.
Box plot showing median FEV1 percentage predicted values with 25–75% quartiles. The mean (SD) FEV1 % predicted values of CF patients with the +691g ins/del TNFα genotype (79.7 (12.8)%, n = 13) and those with the +691g ins/ins TNFα genotype (67.5 (23.0)%, n = 100) were significantly different (p = 0.008, two-sample t test).
The +691gins/del SNP was not associated with the BMI in the age selected cohort of patients; however, analogous to the results for FEV1 % predicted and age of first infection with P aeruginosa, patients with the +691gdel allele tended to have a slightly better BMI than those homozygous for the +691gins allele.
Both variants of the +691g ins/del and −851c/t polymorphic loci were found to be associated with the degree of severity of CF disease. Variants of the +691g ins/del locus were associated with the severity of CF lung disease in three separate tests. In contrast to +691g ins/del, −851c/t was associated with pulmonary function in only one test and was not associated with pulmonary defence. The association of +691g ins/del variants with the severity of CF pulmonary disease therefore seems to be more important than the −851c/t variants. Of course, it is possible that these observed associations with CF disease severity are caused by another mutation in linkage disequilibrium, either in this gene or in neighbouring genes. In this regard, TNFα alleles have been shown to be in linkage disequilibrium with HLA alleles—for example, +691gdel is linked to DRB*11*13 and DQB1*301.25
In a previous study by Hull and Thomson10 in which an association was found between the −308a allele and a more severe CF phenotype, no other TNFα polymorphisms were tested. There have also been a number of investigations into the possible association of the TNFα −308g/a polymorphic locus with susceptibility to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but their conclusions were conflicting.26 In the present study no significant association was found between −308g/a polymorphic variants and severity of CF disease. Furthermore, we found that the −308g allele tended to be associated with more severe CF disease, although not significantly. Possible explanations for these dissimilar results might be explained by the fact that we selected only F508del homozygotes in order to exclude disease variability because of the CFTR genotype, while Hull and Thomson10 included patients who were either F508del homozygotes or heterozygotes. Also, we tested more than twice as many patients, and our patients were all aged between 12 and 15 years with a mean age of 13.4 years compared with the previous study where the patients were all aged 8 years.
The allele frequencies of the TNFα polymorphisms in this study were very similar to those found among French controls by Herrmann et al.11 In that study, six different haplotypes from these polymorphisms could be constructed. One haplotype contained the +691g del allele, the −851c allele, and the −308a allele. The +691g del allele is only observed on this haplotype while the −308a allele appears on this haplotype and an additional haplotype.26 This may explain the conflicting data of the association of TNFα −308a in CF lung disease in the study by Hull and Thomson,10 and possibly the association of TNFα −308a in COPD.27–30 Indeed, it is feasible that only one of the two haplotypes on which −308a resides is the causal one, but which of them cannot be discriminated when typing the −308g/a SNP alone. This might also explain why several studies have found that the rare −308a allele is associated with increased levels of TNFα while others have found that −308a does not affect levels of TNFα.16
Our findings might be of interest from a pharmacogenetic point of view. Our results show that particular polymorphic TNFα loci are associated with better lung function. Anti-inflammatory agents are currently being used for the treatment of CF31—for example, ibuprofen was found to reduce the rate of decline in FEV1 values in CF patients under 13 years of age.32 Since ibuprofen seems to lessen the effects of TNFα,33 it may be important to determine the genotype of TNFα polymorphic variants of a patient before deciding on treatment with anti-inflammatory agents. Indeed, administration of such drugs to CF patients may be of therapeutic value in some patients but detrimental in others, based on the TNFα genotype. It should be noted that ibuprofen was not administered to any of the Belgian CF patients in this study but it was given to six Czech CF patients (+691g ins homozygotes) for a few weeks only.
In conclusion, we did not find any evidence that the −308g/a TNFα polymorphic locus is associated with CF lung disease in Belgian and Czech patients with CF. However, our results indicate an involvement of TNFα in the modulation of CF disease since the +691g ins/del and −851c/t loci are associated with lung disease severity. Functional studies are needed to confirm this association and to unravel the mechanism of modulation.
Welsh MJ, Tsui L-C, Boat TF, et al. Cystic fibrosis. In: Scriver CR, Beaudet AL, Sly WS, et al, eds. The metabolic and molecular basis of inherited disease. 7th ed. Vol 3. New York: McGrawHill, 1995:3799–876.
Sheppard DN, Welsh MJ. Structure and function of the CFTR chloride channel. Physiol Rev1999;79:S23–45.
Santis G, Osborne L, Knight RA, et al. Independent genetic determinants of pancreatic and pulmonary status in cystic fibrosis. Lancet1990;336:1081–4.
Garred P, Pressler T, Madsen HO, et al. Association of mannose-binding lectin gene heterogeneity with severity of lung disease and survival in cystic fibrosis. J Clin Invest1999;104:431–7.
Yarden J, Radojkovic D, De Boeck K, et al. Polymorphisms in the mannose binding lectin gene affect the CF pulmonary phenotype. J Med Genet2004;41:629–33.
de Boer WI. Cytokines and therapy in COPD: a promising combination? Chest2002;121 (Suppl 5) :S209–18.
Bonfield T, Panuska J, Konstan M, et al. Inflammatory cytokines in cystic fibrosis lungs. Am J Respir Crit Care Med1995;152:2111–8.
Spies T, Morton CC, Nedospasov SA, et al. Genes for the tumor necrosis factors alpha and beta are linked to the human major histocompatibility complex. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA1986;83:8699–702.
Roitt I, Brostoff J, Male D. Immunology. 6th ed. London: Mosby, 2001.
Hull J, Thomson AH. Contribution of genetic factors other than CFTR to disease severity in cystic fibrosis. Thorax1998;53:1018–21.
Herrmann SM, Ricard S, Nicaud V, et al. Polymorphisms of the tumour necrosis factor-alpha gene, coronary heart disease and obesity. Eur J Clin Invest1998;28:59–66.
Knudson RJ, Lebowitz MD, Holberg CJ, et al. Changes in the normal maximal expiratory flow-volume curve with growth and aging. Am Rev Respir Dis1983;127:725–34.
Corey M, Edwards L, Levison H, et al. Longitudinal analysis of pulmonary function decline in patients with cystic fibrosis. J Pediatr1997;131:809–14.
Davis PB. The gender gap in cystic fibrosis survival. J Gend Specif Med1999;2:47–51.
Davies JC, Johnson M, Booth C, et al. Age-specific effect of the cystic fibrosis modifier gene, MBL-2. Pediatr Pulmonol Suppl2002;24:223–3.
Hajeer AH, Hutchinson IV. Influence of TNFalpha gene polymorphisms on TNFalpha production and disease. Hum Immunol2001;62:1191–9.
Pociot F, D'Alfonso S, Compasso S, et al. Functional analysis of a new polymorphism in the human TNF alpha gene promoter. Scand J Immunol1995;42:501–4.
Huizinga TW, Westendorp RG, Bollen EL, et al. TNF-alpha promoter polymorphisms, production and susceptibility to multiple sclerosis in different groups of patients. J Neuroimmunol1997;72:149–53.
Ratjen F, Doring G. Cystic fibrosis. Lancet2003;361:681–9.
Kosorok MR, Zeng L, West SE, et al. Acceleration of lung disease in children with cystic fibrosis after Pseudomonas aeruginosa acquisition. Pediatr Pulmonol2001;32:277–87.
Parad RB, Gerard CJ, Zurakowski D, et al. Pulmonary outcome in cystic fibrosis is influenced primarily by mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection and immune status and only modestly by genotype. Infect Immun1999;67:4744–50.
Yu H, Nasr SZ, Deretic V. Innate lung defenses and compromised Pseudomonas aeruginosa clearance in the malnourished mouse model of respiratory infections in cystic fibrosis. Infect Immun2000;68:2142–7.
Harder J, Meyer-Hoffert U, Teran LM, et al. Mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa, TNF-alpha, and IL-1beta, but not IL-6, induce human beta-defensin-2 in respiratory epithelia. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol2000;22:714–21.
Osika E, Cavaillon JM, Chadelat K, et al. Distinct sputum cytokine profiles in cystic fibrosis and other chronic inflammatory airway disease. Eur Respir J1999;14:339–46.
Low AS, Azmy I, Sharaf N, et al. Association between two tumour necrosis factor intronic polymorphisms and HLA alleles. Eur J Immunogenet2002;29:31–4.
Joos L, Pare PD, Sandford AJ. Genetic risk factors of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Swiss Med Wkly2002;132:27–37.
Sakao S, Tatsumi K, Igari H, et al. Association of tumor necrosis factor alpha gene promoter polymorphism with the presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Am J Respir Crit Care Med2001;163:420–2.
Keatings VM, Cave SJ, Henry MJ, et al. A polymorphism in the tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene promoter region may predispose to a poor prognosis in COPD. Chest2000;118:971–5.
Higham MA, Pride NB, Alikhan A, et al. Tumour necrosis factor-alpha gene promoter polymorphism in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Eur Respir J2000;15:281–4.
Ishii T, Matsuse T, Teramoto S, et al. Neither IL-1beta, IL-1 receptor antagonist, nor TNF-alpha polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to COPD. Respir Med2000;94:847–51.
Konstan MW, Davis PB. Pharmacological approaches for the discovery and development of new anti-inflammatory agents for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. Adv Drug Deliv Rev2002;54:1409–23.
Konstan MW, Byard PJ, Hoppel CL, et al. Effect of high-dose ibuprofen in patients with cystic fibrosis. N Engl J Med1995;332:848–54.
Zapolska-Downar D, Naruszewicz M, Zapolski-Downar A, et al. Ibuprofen inhibits adhesiveness of monocytes to endothelium and reduces cellular oxidative stress in smokers and non-smokers. Eur J Clin Invest2000;30:1002–10.
The tables are available as a downloadable PDF (printer friendly file).
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[view PDF] - Tables S1 - S4
These investigations were supported by a CF-PRONET (QLG1-CT-2001-01005) grant from the European Commission, an Interuniversity Poles of Attraction Program (P5/25-H) grant, grant (GOA 99/07) from the Onderzoeksraad KU Leuven, grant Alphonse and Jean Forton-Koning Boudewijn Stichting (2000 14 R7115 B0), grant 1417 from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Republic of Serbia, MZ CR-00000064203, 6464-3 and MSMT CR-LN00A079, 111300003. J-J Cassiman is holder of the Arthur Bax and Anna Vanluffelen Chair of Human Genetics.
Copyright 2005 Thorax
Wisia Wedzicha
Thorax 2005; 60 263-263 Published Online First: 24 Mar 2005. doi: 10.1136/thx.2005.awapr


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Nurse who drove drunk to work at care home is banned
By Court Reporter
Marjorie Murray pictured outsiide court
A NURSE who drove drunk to work in a Kilwinning care home has been banned from driving.
Marjorie Murray was arrested as she started her shift at Buckreddan Care Home earlier this year and found to be more than four-times the legal drink-drive limit.
Police were given a tip-off that 54-year-old Murray was driving under the influence and found her car parked at the Little Deers Nursery, next door to her work.
Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard Murray came forward to admit the car was hers and police reported smelling alcohol from her when she spoke to admit driving to work that night.
Fiscal Stewart McMillan told the court: "Police officers were given certain information about a particular motor vehicle at 7.35pm.
"They located that vehicle at what is described as a nursery and nearby there's a care home.
"The accused came forward and was identified as working in the care home there was a smell of alcohol from her and she accepted that she was the driver of the vehicle.
"She failed the roadside breath test and was arrested."
Defending Murray, Colin McLaughlin said his client had turned to drink earlier in the day after hearing her husband – whom she was separated from – was engaged to be married to someone else.
Mr McLaughlin said: "She had resorted to drink on this occasion as she had received some upsetting news regarding her husband. Although separated they had a financial link and that had come to an end.
"She has been told he was engaged to be married despite the fact that they were still married. It was a shock to her system and she took alcohol and thought she had slept it off before she headed to work.
"You can imagine the impact it has had on her. She was taken to the police office at 8.30pm and spent the night in the cells which was a shock."
The court was told that Murray had never offended before this incident and was now facing losing her job because of it.
Mr McLaughlin added: "She is appearing here today very much as a first time offender. She's been a qualified nurse for a long number of years.
"There's ongoing disciplinary procedures pending the outcome of this and it is likely she will lose her profession.
"She's mortified and fully aware of the consequences of what could have happened and is apologetic to say the least.
"It's been a sobering experience for her."
Sheriff Shirley Foran fined Murray £500 and disqualified her from driving for two years.


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Over 400 diverse projects have been successfully delivered, often competing in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 Contractor segment. Our head office is in Sydney and we have completed projects in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria for a client base including public and private sector entities, owners, institutions, and investors.
We are dedicated to providing professional project management and construction services of excellence, delivering quality projects based on long term interest or end user requirements.
Infinity currently employs over 60 permanent staff all of whom possess a diverse range of skills from disciplines such as civil engineering, quantity surveying, construction management and environmental science.
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Magic at Bulls: Orlando plays final road game
The Magic wrap their road schedule Monday in the Windy City.
By Evan Dunlap Apr 13, 2014, 11:08pm EDT
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D.J. Augustin
The Orlando Magic's 2013/14 season continues to wind down Monday as they visit the United Center to take on the Chicago Bulls. The game marks Orlando's final road contest of the season. It's already assured of finishing with the worst road record in the team's 25-year history.
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Tipoff between Orlando and Chicago is set for 8:00 PM Eastern on Fox Sports Florida and ESPN 580 AM in Orlando. The Orlando Pinstriped Post GameThread will appear at 6:00 PM in this StoryStream and on the cover.
Orlando's last time out: The Magic led the Brooklyn Nets by as much as eight points Sunday, but the host Nets drained seven three-pointers in the telltale third quarter to take command of the game, which they won by a 97-88 final. Tobias Harris scored 18 points and hauled in a team-high-tying seven rebounds off the bench.
Chicago's last time out: The New York Knicks snapped the Bulls' seven-game winning streak Sunday, 100-89, as six players reached double-figure scoring. The Bulls shot just 39.2 percent from the floor, but All-Star center Joakim Noah put together a fine performance: the Florida product tallied 13 points, 17 rebounds, nine assists, a steal, and a blocked shot in defeat.
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The last meeting: Orlando dropped a triple-overtime thriller at home to Chicago on January 15th, 128-125. Rookie swingman Tony Snell made the go-ahead basket with 49 seconds remaining in the third OT, and Jimmy Butler added a pair of foul shots to provide the final margin. The Magic's starting backcourt of Jameer Nelson and Victor Oladipo combined for 66 points, 10 rebounds, 18 assists, and four steals. Noah posted 26 points, 19 boards, six assists, two steals, and two blocks of his own.
Magic at Bulls: Orlando's road schedule ends in second leg of back-to-back
Magic end road schedule with loss to Bulls


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The startup company turning waste into coal, saving Ghana's environment
In 2013 Amin Sulley Abubakar in his final year at law school took a risky decision of using money meant for his school fees to begin testing and production of an innovative idea he had – producing charcoal from organic waste.
When he started working on the idea no one believed in him and none was unwilling to invest in it. The only option he had left, was to risk using his school fees to start the project which has now turned into a company providing direct employment to six more people.
His startup company is Zaacoal which makes charcoal from organic waste.
"The idea came out of curiosity – the whys, hows, and what to do with the waste that has engulfed the city. It took a lot of reading, researching, trials and failures to get it right," he said.
The initiative which started on a small scale in his home at Fadama in Accra now has a production house where about hundred bags of organic waste are turned into charcoal daily.
"I first started from my house in Fadama and I didn't even know what I was doing," he said.
As with most entrepreneurs starting a business, he faced the challenges of funding and the technical know-how and he is still experiencing these challenges while growing.
He relies on the services of coconut and sugar cane sellers for organic waste materials for production. "We have partnerships with these waste generators where they supply it to us for a fee."
His innovation is helping to reduce the chunk of filth generated in Accra daily.
Reports available indicate that Accra alone produces 2,200 tons of solid waste daily and about 300 to 500 tons are not collected.
"Zaacoal is different from traditional charcoal because it produces very little to no smoke at all, burns very fast and clean, lasts much longer than the traditional charcoal and has higher energy," he emphasized.
Additionally, it is saving the forests and trees because while the traditional charcoal is produced through felling of trees, Zaacoal relies on waste materials for coal production.
According to the Ghana Forestry Commission, the country at the turn of the millennium had a forest cover of over 8.5 million hectares, but this has reduced to 1.2 million hectares as at 2008 and the charcoal industry is part of the problem.
Report elsewhere also indicates that felling of trees for charcoal and firewood is a very lucrative business and hence difficult to stop because charcoal happens to be the major source of energy for cooking in most Ghanaian homes. It is estimated that, about 90 per cent of Ghanaians use charcoal or firewood to cook at home.
"My co-founder, Zakari Mahmud who is also the production manager has been very helpful from day one. We began selling on a small scale last year because we worked manually but now we have a production house and so we are able to produce more than we started with."
Zaacoal sells its products through local community women in Fadama, Abeka and Darkuman. They also have a website where people could order their products online.
On how he is managing with the competition from the traditional charcoal sector, he said "It's quite a tough competition as people are used to traditional charcoal but we are changing minds one bag at a time."
The startup is self funding for now but hopes to be the preferred choice of clean energy in Africa.
Zaacoal produces five products in a neat and an attractive package – Zaacoal regular, Zaacoal quick light, Zaacoal activated charcoal, Zaacoal shisha charcoal and Zaacoal cooking and grilling briquettes.
He had his first degree in Community Development Studies from the University of Development Studies and also holds an LLB from the University of London International Programme.
Abubakar's word of encouragement to young people is that "Young people should take up the challenge of starting their own businesses. It is tough though but it will pay off at the end."
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George Annan says 6 years ago
Thank you Mr Sulleyman for showing us the spirit of true entrepreneurship. For sometime now I have been thinking of the Ghanaian economy and its development, and what I found out is that, the problems of unemployment and backlogs in our economic development is not duly a cause of government. But, these problems to a large extent, arise as a result of lack of creativity, mental laziness, drive and the lack of entrepreneurial spirit of Ghanaians.
Read many of the Americans business companies, which has now become giants and you will realise their humbly start. Money was not the first motivating factor, it was initiative, drive and creativity, that brought them to where they are. Seeing opportunities and ceasing it, through relentless researching efforts, is the main ideal of a true entrepreneur. And in Ghana, opportunities abound: in science, education, agriculture, production, energy etc. Even the sand that we walked on is money…! Ghanaians should be up and doing and stop blaming the government for everything.