text:
Serbia, Kosovo normalize economic ties, Belgrade to move Israeli embassy to Jerusalem
Deb Reichmann
Fri, 04 Sep 2020 11:13 UTC
Signing ceremony on increased economic normalization between Kosovo and Serbia
President Donald Trump announced Friday that Serbia and Kosovo have agreed to normalize economic ties as part of U.S.-brokered talks that include Belgrade moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, and mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo.
After two days of meetings with Trump administration officials, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo's Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti agreed to cooperate on a range of economic fronts to attract investment and create jobs. The announcement provided Trump with a diplomatic win ahead of the November presidential election and furthers his administration's push to improve Israel's international standing.
"I'm pleased to announce a truly historic commitment," Trump said in the Oval Office, standing alongside the two leaders. "Serbia and Kosovo have each committed to economic normalization."
"After a violent and tragic history and years of failed negotiations, my administration proposed a new way of bridging the divide. By focusing on job creation and economic growth, the two countries were able to reach a major breakthrough," the president said.
Trump said Serbia has committed to open a commercial office in Jerusalem this month and move its embassy there in July.
Serbia's decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a nod to both Israel and the United States. The Trump administration recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in late 2017 and moved the U.S. embassy there in May 2018.
The administration has encouraged other countries to do the same but has been widely criticized by the Palestinians and many in Europe because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains unresolved. Until now, Kosovo, a predominantly Muslim country, has never before recognized Israel nor has Israel recognized Kosovo.
In a rare statement issued after the start of the Jewish sabbath, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the president of Serbia for moving the embassy to Jerusalem. He confirmed that Israel and Kosovo will establish diplomatic relations and said Pristina also will open its embassy in Jerusalem.
"Kosovo will be the first majority-Muslim country to open an embassy in Jerusalem," Netanyahu said. "As I've said in recent days, the circle of peace and recognition of Israeli is widening and is expected to add additional countries."
In all, a total of four countries now recognize contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital, including the U.S. and Guatemala. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as their would-be capital.
Comment: That only four countries on the planet recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital speaks to how little support Israel has here.
The gestures to Israel are part of the Trump administration's push to support the Jewish state, which has included forceful denunciations of criticism of Israel at the United Nations and in other international venues.
Most recently, the administration brokered a deal for Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations. That was followed by the first commercial flight between Israel and the UAE, with neighboring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to allow such flights to pass through their airspace. Additional Arab states, including Sudan, Bahrain and Oman, have been identified as countries that might also normalize relations with Israel.
Comment: Indeed. And that these maneuvers are happening concurrently is notable: Israel PM: 'Many more' secret talks with Arab leaders on ties
Kosovo's Parliament declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nine years after NATO conducted a 78-day airstrike campaign against Serbia to stop a bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Most Western nations have recognized Kosovo's independence, but Serbia and its allies Russia and China have not. The ongoing deadlock and Serbia's unwillingness to recognize Kosovo have kept tensions simmering and prevented full stabilization of the Balkan region after the bloody wars in the 1990s.
"These were difficult talks for us, but I'm truly satisfied," Vucic told Serbian reporters in Washington.
He stressed that the economic agreement does not include "mutual recognition" between Serbia and Kosovo. But he hailed the talks as a big victory for Serbia and a step toward closer ties with the U.S. Despite officially seeking membership in the European Union, Serbia has been forging close political, economic and military ties with Russia and China.
Hoti said moving ahead with economic normalization was a "huge step forward." He said rail links and various other major infrastructure projects discussed will bring an estimated $1.18 billion ($1 billion euros) in major economic changes to Kosovo in the next three to five years.
Kosovo also agreed to a one-year pause in efforts seeking new membership in international organizations. And Serbia agreed to a one-year pause of any campaign against Kosovo's efforts for membership into international organizations and new recognition from other countries.
Serbia and Kosovo earlier OK'd air, rail and transit agreements, including one that would clear the way for the first flight between Pristina and Belgrade in 21 years. Trump envoy Richard Grenell said U.S. companies also could benefit from normalizing commerce.
"American companies were telling us they were pulling out — like rental car companies. Because if you rented a car in Kosovo, you couldn't drive over the border. You couldn't leave," Grenell said. "So we had American businesses beginning to pull back, saying it just doesn't make sense. And the Europeans were complaining just as much."
On Monday, Vucic and Hoti are scheduled to go to Brussels to hold talks under the auspices of the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak.
The EU has mediated the talks between the two former wartime foes for more than a decade, and the parallel U.S. effort, although focused on economic development, has not been fully embraced by some EU officials.
Serbia protests: President Vučić caught between coronavirus and color revolution
Islamic State Weapons in Yemen Traced Back to US Government: Serbia Files (part 1)
Kosovo's US-backed army: A nominal claim to statehood, revenge on EU and future NATO vassal
Team FUKUSraHell's New World Order spreads like a middle age AmeriKan's overinflated spare tire - only faster.
Tiu ·
M.I.G.A.
· 2020-09-05T20:00:57Z


text:
Is the Economy Saving Obama's Approval Ratings?
May 21, 2013 , at 8:04 AM
Filed under Barack Obama
Political coverage over the last week has focused on a series of stories that reflect negatively on the executive branch — but President Obama's approval ratings have held steady. As of Monday, Mr. Obama's Gallup approval rating was 49 percent — the same as it was, on average, in April. Mr. Obama's Rasmussen Reports approval rating was 48 percent, not much changed from an average of 50 percent in April. Mr. Obama's approval rating in a CNN poll published on Sunday was 53 percent, little different from 51 percent in their April survey. And in a Washington Post-ABC News poll, Mr. Obama's approval rating was 51 percent, essentially unchanged from 50 percent in April.
There are a lot of theories as to why Mr. Obama's approval ratings have been unchanged in the wake of these controversies, which some news accounts and many of Mr. Obama's opponents are describing as scandals. But these analyses may proceed from the wrong premise if they assume that the stories have had no impact. It could be that the controversies are, in fact, putting some downward pressure on Mr. Obama's approval ratings — but that the losses are offset by improved voter attitudes about the economy.
I first put forth this hypothesis on Sunday, but Jon Cohen and Dan Balz of The Washington Post have advanced some tangible evidence on its behalf. In the latest Washington Post survey, Mr. Obama's approval rating on the economy is 48 percent — up from 44 percent in April. This follows a series of surveys showing that consumer confidence is at or near its highest point since Mr. Obama took office. The economic mood may have been lifted by two highly visible indicators — record-breaking stock prices and rebounding housing prices — along with a series of improved jobs reports.
In the graphic below, I've compared Mr. Obama's approval ratings on the economy to his overall approval rating in Washington Post surveys dating back to the beginning of his presidency. As you might expect, the two ratings are highly correlated. There is undoubtedly a strong causal relationship as well, although keep in mind that the causality can potentially go in both directions. (Voters who are satisfied with the economy will tend to view Mr. Obama more favorably over all, but those who are happy with his overall performance may also tend to take a more favorable view of his impact on the economy — the so-called halo effect.)
There is one significant outlier in the chart, which reflects an occasion on which Mr. Obama's approval ratings were much higher than you might expect given views about his economic performance. That was in May 2011, just after the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, when a Washington Post poll put Mr. Obama's overall approval rating at 56 percent despite just 40 percent approval on the economy.
The latest readings from the Washington Post poll aren't nearly as dramatic as that instance — but there is a milder version of this same phenomenon working in the opposite direction. In other words, Mr. Obama's approval rating in the new Washington Post poll is a now bit lower than you'd expect based on where voters rate him on the economy.
Based on the historical relationship between Mr. Obama'a overall and economic approval ratings in the poll, you'd predict that his overall approval rating would be 53 or 54 percent given an economic approval rating of 48 percent. Instead, it's 51 percent. So it may be that the talk surrounding Benghazi, the I.R.S. and the Justice Department has negatively affected Mr. Obama's approval rating by two or three percentage points, but that the economy has lifted his numbers by about the same amount.
A version of this article appears in print on 05/22/2013, on page A19 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Obama's Ratings May Be Buoyed By Economy.
Nate Silver is the founder and editor in chief of FiveThirtyEight. @natesilver538
Barack Obama (515 posts) Polls (374) Economy (117) Approval Ratings (102) IRS (7) Benghazi (4)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Rubbing SALT in the Wound: Of course, some taxpayers just won't make out as well under the new rules. Higher income taxpayers, who live in high tax states, like Maine, may be hurt by the $10,000 deduction cap for the state and local taxes (so called "SALT"). Here's one explanation.
Tax Return Questions: This article provides a concise and well drafted summary of common return questions. You may still owe more tax, but at least you can dazzle your CPA and financial advisor with your questions and general tax expertise.
The Importance of Grit: It has become fashionable to talk about the importance of grit or perseverance. Is success only about talent? Apparently, determination and consistency play a major role. James Clear, a terrific writer in the field of habits and personal effectiveness, tackled this topic in a recent blog and provides a road map for increasing mental toughness. Clear posits that mental toughness is like a muscle that we build through daily habits, particularly those with a physical component.
Push-Ups Predict Heart Health: Apparently the number of push-ups you can do is a great predictor of the likelihood of experiencing heart disease. If can you do 40 or more, you have much less to worry about. But is the relationship of doing push-ups to heart health one of causation or correlation? Are people who do a lot of push-ups likely to be in better condition and eat better?
Art as an Investment? As most know, art can appreciate and be sold to realize its value although the market is much less liquid. But should it be viewed as part of an investment portfolio? We enjoyed and recommend this article on collecting fine art. Unless you are an expert in a certain market, our advice is to buy art you love and to never count on realizing appreciation. Or at least be prepared to be patient.
Credit Cards for Travelers: Travel is often a significant discretionary expense for our clients. If you do travel quite a bit, it is worth investing time in figuring how to get the best deals. This article on the best credit card for travelers caught our eye.
Fed Releases January Meeting Notes: Investors are trying to digest the just released minutes from the Fed's January meeting. Stocks are up slightly, as we write this, but the Fed's language notes the downside economic risks attributable to "the possibilities of a sharper-than-expected slowdown in global economic growth, particularly in China and Europe, a rapid waning of fiscal policy stimulus, or a further tightening of financial market conditions."
Auspicious Start to 2019: A strong January and February has historically been a good sign of positive returns for the entire year. Like everyone else, we are pleased with the excellent start year to date, but caution against complacency. We seem to live in such strange, volatile times although I guess everyone must feel that way about their era.
Feel free to send us feedback on any topic or make a request or to forward the notes on to anyone who might be interested.
A wealth advisor with more than 25 years of experience in the financial field, Dave serves as Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors' Co-Chief Investment Officer and is a Co-Managing Member of the firm. As a Certified Financial Planner® and non-practicing attorney, he provides clients with deep expertise in areas including investment management and retirement planning.


text:
Indians slam White Sox, 8-2
CLEVELAND | Franklin Gutierrez hit a grand slam in the first inning and the Cleveland Indians pulled off a rare triple steal in an 8-2 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.
Gutierrez hit a 2-1 pitch into the left-field bleachers off Mark Buehrle (2-6) for his first career grand slam. Gutierrez hit a three-run homer off Buehrle on opening day and is batting .417 (5-for-12) with two homers and seven RBIs in his career against the left-hander.
Buehrle, who has lost six of his last seven decisions, allowed seven runs in five innings. He was pulled after back-to-back doubles by Jhonny Peralta and Ryan Garko in a bizarre sixth inning that featured the official scorer crediting the Indians with a triple steal.
Franklin Gutierrez hit a grand slam in the first inning and the Cleveland Indians pulled off a rare triple steal in an 8-2 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.
With the bases loaded and Ben Francisco batting, White Sox pitcher Ehren Wasserman faked a throw to third and threw to first, which caught Jamey Carroll off the bag. First baseman Paul Konerko got Carroll in a brief rundown. David Dellucci broke from third and Konerko's throw to catcher Toby Hall was in the dirt, allowing Dellucci to score. Dellucci, Carroll and Grady Sizemore, who was on second when the play began, were given stolen bases.
Carroll started the first rally with a one-out double, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Francisco's sacrifice fly. A walk to Victor Martinez, a single by Peralta and a walk to Garko loaded the bases.
The Indians' rare offensive outburst was enough for starter Aaron Laffey (3-3), who allowed two runs in five innings.
The White Sox, who had beaten the Indians five straight times, scored two in the third on Toby Hall's double and Orlando Cabrera's single.
Gutierrez left the game with a left quad contusion after being hit by a pitch in the sixth.
Indians designated hitter Travis Hafner missed his second straight game because of a sore right shoulder. Manager Eric Wedge said Hafner could be headed for the disabled list.
Notes: RHP Jake Westbrook, who has been on the DL since April 22 with a strained left intercostals, will start Wednesday's game against the White Sox. ... RHP Adam Miller, the Indians' top pitching prospect, will have his right middle finger examined to determine if surgery is necessary. Miller is on the disabled list at Triple-A Buffalo with an open callus on the finger. ... During the team's pregame stretch, White Sox RHP Octavio Dotel and Director of Conditioning Allen Thomas got into a shouting match and had to be separated by players. It's unclear what caused the disagreement ... INF Juan Uribe (strained right hamstring) was sent to Triple-A Charlotte for a rehab assignment.


In support to the national greening program (Executive Order No. 26) of the president benign S. Aquino III, the School of Applied Economics (SAEc) has initiated the Urban Greening Project in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), – Community Environment and Natural Resources (CENRO) East and Communal Elementary School. This executive order was issued ordering and declaring the implementation of a National Greening Program as a government priority. The program shall plant 1.5 billion trees covering about 1.5 million hectares by 2016.
SAEc was able to adopt two urban areas to implement this national program. Last September 15, 2012 a tree planting activity was held at the Davao International Airport, Cabantian Road, Buhangin. Sixty-five participants composed of students, faculty and DENR officials participated in the said activity.
Two- hundred narra and mahogany trees were planted at the side entrance garden of the airport. During the occasion, a MOA signing was also conducted between DENR and SAEc, this is to formalize the partnership and to ensure the sustainability of the program.


Properties to rent, sell, buy or holiday let in the beautiful county of Devon, England.
Looking to Buy or Rent a Property? If you're looking to rent or buy a local property then why not place a FREE advertisement on Devon Houses R Us? Send us your details and what you're looking for and we'll include you on our Wanted Pages for one month. There're no fees to pay, just remember to renew your interest each month if you're unsuccessful in your search.


text:
What makes immuno-oncology therapies attractive investments?
Although immuno-oncology therapies have been around for many years, investors are excited to partner with innovators in the space who can push the boundaries of what these therapies are able to achieve. A panel of investors and business development executives discussed what exactly makes a specific candidate attractive as a business opportunity during a recorded session at the Biotech Showcase virtual event. Discuss
New immunotherapy piggybacks off polio vaccine to treat cancer
As if we needed another reason to get vaccinated, researchers have developed a technology that leverages the polio vaccine to help treat cancer for those who develop the disease later in life. The technology, conceived at Duke University and developed by Istari Oncology, uses antigens produced by the polio vaccine to trigger the immune system to eat away at targeted cancer cells. Discuss
Regulatory Roundup: Designations come through before year's end
This week's Regulatory Roundup covers activities from November 30 to December 4 and is filled with breakthrough, orphan, and rare disease designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. Several cancer, immunotherapy, and vaccine companies also submitted biologic license applications to move their candidates forward. Discuss
New model could improve vaccine, immunotherapy design
A new model used to predict the outcomes of pathogen detection systems as a function of innate immunity may lead to more effective cancer immunotherapies and vaccines against existing and novel pathogens, according to results published in Cell Systems on October 27. Discuss
Antibody fragments may be exceptionally effective against SARS-CoV-2
An engineered antibody fragment has been developed as a highly potent neutralizer of SARS-CoV-2. For the first time, one of these tiny molecules has been tested for efficacy in in vitro and in vivo infection models. The results of the collaborative study were published in Cell on September 14. Discuss
New approach to cancer immunotherapies combines 2 mAb treatments
A new approach to increasing the effectiveness of current cancer immunotherapies combines existing therapies with new monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that block inhibitory cytokines in tumor microenvironments, allowing the body to effectively eliminate tumors. The results of the study were published in Nature Communications on September 11. Discuss
New technique reins in inflammatory response of adjuvants
Adjuvants are often added to vaccines as a method for promoting an immune response in recipients. But what happens when that immune response goes haywire, causing too much inflammation? Researchers believe that adding an "immune potentiator" to adjuvants that strengthens the immune reaction and modulates excess inflammation could lead to vaccines that are better tolerated in humans, according to a September 9 article in Science Advances. Discuss
New CRISPR-repressor system improves efficiency of gene therapies
Researchers have developed a CRISPR-based system that can simultaneously provide transcriptional control and gene editing on demand to improve the efficacy of gene therapies. The details were published in Nature Cell Biology on September 3. Discuss
Study investigates pharmacogenomics of COVID-19 therapies
Human genetic variation may alter the interactions of drugs being used to treat patients with COVID-19 symptoms, resulting in a range of clinical responses -- from no effect to high toxicity in some patients, according to a study published in Nature Genomic Medicine on August 18. Discuss
Rare immune stem cells could lead to treatments for COVID-19, cancer
Rare stem cells that give rise to neutrophils in human bone marrow could offer a path to developing treatments for diseases that involve the white blood cells, according to a new article published in Immunity on August 18. Discuss


text:
package com.jtevent.controller;

import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;

public class Parser {

	boolean table;
	boolean buses;
	boolean busstops;
	StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

	public void add(String s) {
		if(buses) sb.append(s.replace("182/", ""));
		else sb.append(s);
	}

	public void setParsingSelect(String s) {
		if ( StringUtils.contains(s, "routeId")) {
			buses = true;
		}
		else if ( StringUtils.contains(s, "stopId")) {
			busstops = true;
		}
	}

	public boolean parsingSelect() {
		return buses || busstops;
	}

	public void reset() {
		table = false;
		buses = false;
		busstops = false;
		sb = new StringBuilder();
	}

	public String get() {
		return sb.toString();
	}

	public boolean parsingTable() {
		return table;
	}

	public boolean parsingBuses() {
		return buses;
	}

	public boolean parsingBusStops() {
		return busstops;
	}

	public void setParsingTable() {
		table = true;
		buses = false;
		busstops = false;
	}

	public void parseBuses() {
		table = false;
		buses = true;
		busstops = false;
	}

	public void parseBusStops() {
		table = false;
		buses = false;
		busstops = true;
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home>News>Campus>Hagg-Sauer Hall Prepares for Demolition
Hagg-Sauer Hall Prepares for Demolition
200Comments Off on Hagg-Sauer Hall Prepares for Demolition
Photos and Story by Alyssa Muench
[twitter url="http://northernstudentonline.com/2014/10/09/hagg-sauer-hall-prepares-for-demolition/" float="left"][fbshare url="http://northernstudentonline.com/2014/10/09/hagg-sauer-hall-prepares-for-demolition/" type="button"][linkedin_share url="http://northernstudentonline.com/2014/10/09/hagg-sauer-hall-prepares-for-demolition/"]
According to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System (MnSCU), Bemidji State's space on campus is underutilized. To resolve this issue, MnSCU suggests that Hagg-Sauer be demolished.
A predesign was submitted to MnSCU in 2012, requesting sufficient funds to demolish and rebuild Hagg-Sauer because of the $6 million that goes into maintaining the building. Except for the funds to tear down Hagg Sauer, this request was denied.
Along with the denied request, MnSCU recommended that the University follow through with the Hagg-Sauer Hall demolition. They suggested BSU accommodate displaced departments and classrooms within existing space across campus. They also stipulated that the University may replace Hagg-Sauer Hall only if it is an academic space that is absolutely needed.
Bemidji State's administration had drafted six routes in which they could take in dealing with Hagg-Sauer situation. However, due to MnSCU's strict recommendations, "it's fair to say we're left with three different options at this point," said Scott Faust, the Director of Communications and Marketing at BSU.
The first option is to demolish Hagg-Sauer and construct nothing in its place. This would require the University to renovate existing academic buildings to accommodate faculty offices and classrooms. "This would be great if we could wave a magic wand," said Faust, "but it could cause disruption for students and faculty." This option follows MnSCU's recommendations, and therefore has potential to be approved.
"Is it really necessary?" asked Hunter Gally a sophomore at BSU. Gally thinks the building is unappealing, but cannot justify tearing it down. "It'll disrupt our class life," said Gally, "The other project is annoying, I don't want to hear construction every day." With a construction project currently in progress, Gally does not like the idea of moving departments and students around campus.
Another option that MnSCU could potentially support requires BSU to demolish Hagg-Sauer and rebuild a significantly smaller building to be used purely as an academic space. This building could be placed as an addition to Bridgeman Hall or as a separate building connected by skyway to Bridgeman Hall. This would also require other buildings across campus to be renovated for office space as well as other instructional areas.
According to Faust, constructing a new academic building to replace Hagg-Sauer could benefit students by taking away the outdated classroom setting and creating a 21st century learning environment.
The last option is very similar. It would require demolishing Hagg-Sauer, however, a smaller academic building would be constructed to take its place. This building could be an addition to Bangsberg Hall or a separate building connected to Bangsberg Hall by a skyway.
"We're receiving a lot more push back on the Bangsberg option," says Faust. One of the main concerns the administration has received is with the parking lot becoming overcrowded. Another concern is that it will be too far from the dorms, especially during the winter months. "I have a couple classes in Hagg-Sauer, and I wouldn't want to go all the way down to Bangsberg or somewhere else for class," said Gally.
"I believe this [project] to be an act of stupidity," said Dr. Brian Donovan, a professor in the English Department, "BSU is ready to spend $11 million so it can have less space." He believes there to be nothing wrong with Hagg-Sauer Hall. The building is forty-one years old, and compared to Oxford University's buildings from the 12th century, only a baby.
Donovan may have an office in Hagg-Sauer Hall, but his concern is for the students. "One advantage BSU has had, in terms of accessibility of professors after and before class, will be much diminished if faculty and teachers are in buildings that are separate from the classes." He is also worried for the students as taxpayers to have to fund part of the project.
"When it comes to construction and capital projects, MnSCU has the final say," said Faust. To gain money for one of these projects, it must be prioritized on the system's list. The University must present a case to MnSCU and be granted their approval. From there the case is carried to the Minnesota State Legislature until a decision is reached.
As of right now, BSU must reach a decision and have a final draft of their 2016 predesign to MnSCU by early October. From there it will take six to eight months for MnSCU to approve or deny the predesign depending on how high this project is on the system's prioritized list. If approved by MnSCU it will go to the legislature in the Fall of 2015. A decision to approve or deny the predesign will be made by the legislature by the Spring of 2016. If it is approved by the legislature, the demolition of Hagg-Sauer could begin as soon as the Summer of 2016, and it is possible that it would not be completed until the Fall of 2018.
According to Donovan, bringing down another building on campus would be likely to cause another "massive disruption." With the current construction on Sanford and Memorial Halls, students are already suffering from a "great deal of disruption." Looking at this project in the long term setting, "BSU will attract more and more students, and if we reduce space now, we may be very short of space in the future," said Donovan.
Over all, Donovan believes this project will affect how students learn, and downsizing could potentially be the start of creating more online curriculum. "Students could be left out of a real college education," said Donovan.
According to Faust, the administration recognizes that demolishing Hagg-Sauer is an issue that BSU has to face, and they have accepted that. "The idea of tearing down a building that is in use feels like a loss," said Faust, "but done right, it could be a great opportunity for students."
Tagged slide3
Compiled by Mike Chambers | News Editor | 03/30/2011 3/21 Property, Found A BSU ID was found and returned to
Campus Feature Home Page News
Consultant Meets Students and Staff about Tobacco Use Ban
Dallas Steffen | Staff Writer | 03/30/2011 Ty Patterson, Co-Director of the National Center for Tobacco Policy (NCTP), consulted students,
Spotlight on Bob Hewitt
April 16, 2014 April 16, 2014 tc5087mf
By Dylan Rouse [twitter url="http://northernstudentonline.com/2014/04/16/spotlight-on-bob-hewitt/" style="horizontal" float="left"][fbshare url="http://northernstudentonline.com/2014/04/16/spotlight-on-bob-hewitt/" type="button"][linkedin_share url="http://northernstudentonline.com/2014/04/16/spotlight-on-bob-hewitt/" style="none"] [hr] [caption id="attachment_3689" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo by Alex Danielson[/caption]
BSU Alumni for Mayor


text:
Q: com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidTypeIdException: Could not resolve type id '[' as a subtype I have an abstract class called Fruit and I put the @JsonTypeInfo and @JsonSubTypes on it as follow:
@JsonTypeInfo(use = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME, include = JsonTypeInfo.As.PROPERTY, property = "fruits")
@JsonSubTypes({
    @Type(value = Apple.class, name = "sandbox.Apple"),
    @Type(value = FruitGroup.class, name = "sandbox.FruitGroup")
})
public abstract class Fruit {

    public abstract String getName();

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Fruit [getName()=" + getName() + ", getClass()=" + getClass() + ", hashCode()=" + hashCode() + ", toString()=" + super.toString() + "]";
    }
}

And my derived class looks like this
@JsonTypeName("sandbox.Apple")
public class Apple extends Fruit {

    private String _name;

    public void setName(String name) {
        _name = name;
    }

    @Override
    public String getName() {
        return _name;
    }

======[UPDATED]======
I also have class FruitGroup that extends Fruit and contains Array of Fruit.
@JsonTypeName("sandbox.FruitGroup")
public class FruitGroup extends Fruit {
private Fruit[] _Fruit;
private String _name;
private String _category;

public Fruit[] getFruit() {
    return _Fruit;
}

public void setFruits(Fruit[] fruits) {
    _Fruit = fruits;
}

public void setName(String name) {
    _name = name;
}

@Override
public String getName() {
    return _name;
}

public void setCategory(String category) {
    _category = category;
}

public String getCategory() {
    return _category;
}

}
When I tried to deserialize the jsontext into Fruit object, I found the following exception:
Exception in thread "main" com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidTypeIdException: Could not resolve type id '[' as a subtype of `sandbox.FruitGroup`: known type ids = [FruitGroup, sandbox.Apple] at [Source: (String)"{"fruits":[["sandbox.Apple",{"name": "Apple"}]],"name": "Fruit Group"}"; line: 1, column: 11]
at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidTypeIdException.from(InvalidTypeIdException.java:43)

The jsontext [UPDATED] actually was generated by jackson version 2.10.2 and I didn't put any JSON annotations on my classes formerly. After I upgrade the jackson version to 2.11.0, I also update my abstract class to put the JSON annotations in it. Then I tried to deserialize it by using jackson version 2.11.0, but I got an error instead. Could you guys help me to solve this issue?
Here's my jsontext
{
    "fruit": [
        [
            "sandbox.Apple",
            {
                "name": "Apple1"
            }
        ]
    ],
    "name": "Group of apples",
    "category": "Sweet fruit"
}

A: Your code fails because in your json file you have "fruits": [], so you are associating fruits with an json array while in your abstract Fruit class you expect the "fruits" property referring to the name of the subclass you want to deserialize your json. So if you modify your json like below :
{
    "fruits": "sandbox.Apple",
    "name": "MyApple"
}

You can then deserialize it to the Apple subclass of the Fruit class:
Fruit fruit = mapper.readValue(src, Fruit.class);
System.out.println(fruit); //<-- Apple(_name=MyApple)

So you can either decide to change your json format to match your java classes or decide to change your java classes to match your json file.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


3 events found on Lot 99's timeline.
Lot 99 is a 28.87 m / 94′9″ luxury sailing yacht. She was built by Nautor's Swan in 2017. With a beam of 6.92 m and a draft of 4.4 m, she has a composite hull and composite superstructure. The sailing yacht can accommodate 6 guests in 3 cabins. The yacht was designed by German Frers.


text:
The Grenfell Elections: How Decent Housing Became Horribly, Brutally Possible
On December 12th, the British people have an opportunity to break with the catastrophic economic doctrine which claimed the lives of 72 people in the Grenfell Tower disaster.
In the early hours of Wednesday 14 June 2017, a fire broke out at the Grenfell Tower apartment block on a housing estate in the West London borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Starting from a malfunctioning freezer, the blaze quickly spread across the building due to a combination of flammable external insulation and combustible cladding on the building's facade. It eventually claimed the lives of 72 people.
The Grenfell fire and its aftermath seemed to capture in one tragic moment the country's various deep, underlying issues, which had already been exposed bit by bit during the course of the general election campaign that had concluded the week before.
Now, two and a half years later, despite the country's evident need for a radical transformation, in housing and in society at large, it feels like things haven't changed at all: the country is now in the midst of another general election (thanks to the parliamentary deadlock created by the last one) and, as a recent fire in a block of student flats has shown, it has barely begun to reckon with the underlying causes of the fire.
Before we get to that, it's worth revisiting this 2017 campaign, because, despite its inconclusive result, it offers a glimmer of hope for the kind of radical change needed to address the problems which caused the Grenfell Fire.
Framed initially as an election about Brexit and about the inevitable return of a "strong and stable" Conservative government, the narrative rapidly changed in the ensuing weeks. Seven years of austerity had by then taken their toll on the country and, in turn, much of the British public. It was this austerity-fatigue which in turn prepared the ground for the opposition Labour Party's manifesto, by far the most radically progressive programme from a major British political party in decades. The widespread enthusiasm generated by this manifesto made clear that the public were concerned about things besides Britain's relationship with the European Union: like the huge increase in the use of food banks, NHS waiting lists, exorbitant utility bills, crumbling transport and housing infrastructure and rising inequality.
The salience of these last two points, in particular, was brought to the fore by the Grenfell Fire.
Grenfell was a solid block of social housing that had been built back in the 1970s, at the tail end of the postwar era of mass state-sponsored housebuilding. The neighbourhood of North Kensington in which the tower is situated is one of the most unequal in the country. Here, social housing sits right next to brand new blocks of luxury apartments that sell for millions. It's an almost perfect symbol of the ever widening divide between rich and poor in Britain today.
Over several decades, the tower had been seriously under-maintained by the local municipality and subsequently Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), the "arms-length management organisation" set up to maintain it. For several years leading up to the fire, a blog run by Grenfell Action Group (composed of residents of the tower) had been warning of major safety problems, only to be met with legal action by the municipality for defamation and harassment. As this behaviour suggests, the Conservative-led local government cared little for these particular constituents. After all, they were occupying highly valuable land and weren't going to vote Conservative anyway.
This lack of concern was itself summed up by the cladding that caused the fire. The likely reason it covered the building in the first place was to prettify a brutalist façade which was deemed unsightly for the residents living in the new luxury apartments. In an article written shortly after the fire, Guardian journalist Aditya Chakrabortty speculated that it would have cost a mere £2 extra per square metre to purchase a non-flammable alternative. This is how much the municipality valued the lives of the Grenfell residents.
Top of Grenfell Tower a few days after the one-year anniversary.
Carcharoth/Wikimedia
Like the Kensington and Chelsea municipal administration, the national Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Theresa May, had treated the British public with contempt throughout the prior general election campaign, barely engaging with ordinary people other than through a succession of highly stage-managed events. May's own pathetic response after Grenfell, in which she was slow to meet any of the victims and only did so behind closed doors, was redolent of her behaviour during the campaign, in which she seemed incapable of expressing warmth or empathy with people she encountered.
Meanwhile, the opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn didn't hesitate to visit the Grenfell site and console those affected, further disproving the image created of him by a near universally hostile media establishment, which had characterised him as some kind of easily irritated, out of touch, socialist throwback. Emerging from the radical left of the Labour Party, Corbyn had led an insurgent movement which came close to winning the election, despite starting the campaign over 20 points behind in the polls. At Grenfell, we saw in stark detail how long it had been since a leading politician had so resolutely cared about the harsh reality of life for Britain's poor.
That the causes of the fire have yet to be addressed is confirmed by recent news of another fire, this time at a student apartment block in Bolton. In this instance, thankfully no one died, but it was only the most recent of a succession of (albeit less severe) apartment block fires that have occurred in the UK since Grenfell. As a recent article by Luke Barratt for The Guardian highlighted, 2019 alone has seen at least five major fires in apartment blocks like Grenfell. Barratt attributed the frequency to the government's glacial response to fire safety since the Grenfell disaster.
The inquiry into the Grenfell Fire has been divided into two stages, dealing first with the immediate events surrounding the fire and then with the actual causes of the fire. Unsurprisingly, the first report devoted much of the criticism to the fire brigade, without addressing any of the wider conditions which impacted their ability to respond effectively. The second report may not be published for another two or three years. Which means that a proper discussion of the systemic issues which caused the fire, may only take place five years after it happened, by which time, there will likely have been another deadly fire.
Overall, it's difficult not to conclude that the problem is systemic. Successive UK governments have allowed the country's housing stock (and much of the rest of the country's infrastructure) to become increasingly dilapidated. At the same time, they have pursued policies which have progressively deregulated and privatised the housing market. As a result British people (especially its younger generations) are overwhelmingly at the mercy of private landlords, living in housing that remains the oldest housing in Europe, frequently damp, poorly insulated and generally a risk to people's health.
In a recent column for The Guardian, Olly Wainwright spells out the choice facing the British people at the forthcoming election: "continuing the status quo, with a million families on social housing waiting lists while landlords reap ever-higher profits; or a fundamental shift towards imagining a time when affordable, good quality shelter is accepted as a basic human right for all."
This is why the election on 12th December is so important, and not just for the UK. If the British people vote for Labour and against the status quo, they will show the world that here, in one of the first places where this extreme free-market logic took firm root, there is an alternative.
The second half of the title is taken from a tweet by right-wing journalist Iain Martin, complaining about Labour's policy on universal free fibre-optic broadband.
Header image courtesy of the Catholic Church of England and Wales/Flickr.
Thursday 5 December 2019 / Future Failure / Space Battle
The Grenfell Disaster Shows That Architecture is Always Political
Gary Davies
#05 London Undone: Gaika and Ash Sarkar Discuss the City's Past, Present and Future
London Becomes Museum
George Kafka


Very cute! I find masculine cards really hard...I'm always reaching for the flowers and pink glitter.
love that lamb! Very cute!
Karlee, this is ADORABLE!!!! Great job bestie!!
Very cute Karlee! This little lamb is one of my absolute favorites!!!
Such a great card. You did a great job keeping it "manly" which is so hard for most of us. Thanks for sharing.


Abstract: In the 1960s, Nova Scotia experienced a substantial increase in the number of museums across the province. Although most were cultural tourism sites, several were small industrial museums. The expansion of industrial museums peaked in the 1970s when the Nova Scotia Museum greenlighted the construction of the largest museum in Atlantic Canada – the Museum of Industry. A series of delays hindered the operations of the museum, and heated political debates led to the temporary closure of the Museum of Industry. This thesis details the origins of industrial heritage tourism in Nova Scotia and the extent to which it offers a romanticized narrative about the past. Further, it considers how and why the Museum of Industry became politically contentious in the 1990s. It also reflects on the place of the museum within the industrial community of Stellarton, and, more broadly, in Pictou County, the heart of Scottish tourism in Nova Scotia.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-150).


text:
David Diao
Photo by Jens Komossa.
Born Chengdu, China, 1943
officebaroque.com/david-diao
postmastersart.com/artists/david_diao/david_diao_collectionofworks.html
tanyaleighton.com
i had been in discussion with my landlord to move from my long-term home and studio to another floor in the same building... I finally accepted to do this thereby gaining much more space. However this move incurred much expenditure of time and money... It cost close to $10,000 just for the move alone... Much of the year also went towards the preparation and much work in connection with a major retrospective showing of 125 paintings from my 47-year career. The show was hosted by the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing and ran from September through November.
- David Diao, December 9, 2015
David Diao is an artist who began making paintings in 1964, nine years after moving to New York from Hong Kong. His work is devoted to the lineage of abstraction and is grounded in his personal history as an immigrant of Chinese heritage. His works riff on famous Modernist paintings and borrow images and motifs from works by artists such as Ad Reinhardt, Jackson Pollock, Kasimir Malevich, and Barnett Newman. He uses catalogues, archival photographs, and ephemera as points of reference. The works are both tributes to, and interrogations of, the subject-artists' careers.
With the support of his 2015 Grants to Artists award, Diao prepared for his retrospective at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, which included 125 paintings. Since 1969, Diao has had solo and two-person exhibitions at Paula Cooper Gallery and Leo Castelli Gallery, and solo and group exhibitions at Postmasters Gallery, Chern Piin Gallery, Taiwan; Tanya Leighton Gallery; Courtyard Gallery, Beijing; the Arts Club of Chicago; Galerie "Westersingel 8" in Rotterdam; MC Contemporary, Madrid; the Musée d'Art Moderne in Saint Etienne, France; and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut. In 2014, the University of Strasbourg hosted a colloquium on his work with a dozen papers presented by various art critics and historians.
Diao's work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the High Museum in Atlanta, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the Akron Museum in Ohio, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Blanton Museum at University of Texas at Austin, The Brittany Regional Contemporary Art Fund in France, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Prior to his FCA support, Diao received and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in painting (1973), grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (1990), and an Adolph and Esther Gottleib Foundation Grant (1993).
Diao received his B.A. from Kenyon College and was on faculty at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program from 1970 to 2000.
The starting point of my work has been a certain devotion to the lineage of abstraction as developed in high modernism. But unlike the formalist use of abstraction, I employ these forms to the specific tasks of troubling the history of modernism itself, and also my own personal history of over forty years as an artist. The earliest works from the late-1960s onward were referred to as the formalist abstraction of the postwar New York School. In the mid-1980s, with an assist from the debates around appropriation, I dove back into the European avant-garde of the 1910s and 1920s. This, and my observations of the art world, led me into analyzing the mechanism of how art history is written and value consigned. But this is done by painting as I am a painter and not anything else.
Installation view of FCA-supported "David Diao," 2015. Photography by Eric Gregory Powell, courtesy Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.
Black and White, 1984-88, acrylic on canvas, 66" x 85." Photo by Robert Puglisi.
Glissement, 1984, acrylic paint on canvas, 70" x 100." Photo by Robert Puglisi.
Slanted MoMA, 1995, acrylic and vinyl on canvas, 46" x 75." Photo by Robert Puglisi.
Lying 1, 2000, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 79" x 115." Photo by Robert Puglisi.


text:
Health bosses issue advice after spike in number of cases of Scarlet Fever
There has been a rise in the number of cases in the Bristol area over the past week
Heather PickstockNorth Somerset reporter
Scarlet fever (Image: NHS)
Health bosses are urging people to take steps to limit the spread of Scarlet Fever – following a rise in cases across the Bristol area.
Seven cases of the disease have been confirmed across the area, with three people diagnosed in Bath and North East Somerset in the past week.
Another three have reportedly contracted the illness in south Somerset while there has been a further isolated case in Sedgemoor.
The number of new cases has been confirmed by Public Health England.
It is the second week running that seven new cases of scarlet fever have been reported across the county, bringing the total number of people diagnosed in the past fortnight to 14.
In contrast, the previous four weeks had seen 15 confirmed cases.
The 'Victorian' illnesses leaving hundreds in hospital
There have been further outbreaks across the West Country, with three new cases in Wiltshire in the last week, while two others have suffered with scarlet fever in Bristol.
Public Health England (PHE) has now issued advice on how people can help limit the spread of the disease.
Dr Theresa Lamagni, Head of Streptococcal Surveillance at PHE, said: "It's not uncommon to see a rise in cases of scarlet fever at this time of year.
(Image: NHS)
"Scarlet fever is highly contagious but not usually serious and is easily treatable with antibiotics to reduce the risk of complications and spread to others.
"It is important to take antibiotics, as instructed by your GP, to minimise the risk of complications.
"Public Health England (PHE) reminds parents to be aware of the symptoms of scarlet fever and to call their GP or NHS 111 for further advice or assessment if they think their child might have it.
Mum speaks of horrific moment she was told her daughter was going to die
"To limit the spread of scarlet fever it is important to practice good hygiene by washing hands with warm water and soap, not sharing drinking glasses or utensils, and covering the nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing."
PHE is currently investigating possible reasons for why there has been a rise in scarlet fever cases over the last few years by studying the strains of bacteria causing disease and the spread of infection in different settings and patient groups.
What are the symptoms of scarlet fever?
Scarlet fever can cause a very red face
The symptoms of scarlet fever include a sore throat, headache and fever accompanied by a characteristic pink red rash that feels like sandpaper.
Your GP can usually diagnose scarlet fever by looking at the rash. Sometimes they may use a cotton bud to remove a bit of saliva from the throat so it can be tested.
Your GP will prescribe antibiotics (or liquid for young children) to take for five or 10 days.
Scarlet fever usually clears up within a week, although the skin may peel for a few weeks after the other symptoms have passed.
The infection is contagious from before the symptoms appear, until:
• 24 hours after starting antibiotic treatment
• up to two or three weeks later if you don't take antibiotics
Uber offering all NHS staff free rides or Uber Eats meals this Christmas - how it works
Scarlet fever is contagious. It's spread in the tiny droplets found in an infected person's breath, coughs and sneezes.
You can be infected if the droplets get into your mouth, nose or eyes – either by being in close contact with an infected person, or by touching something that has droplets on it.
Stock picture of rash caused by Scarlet Fever
To help stop the infection spreading:
• keep your child away from nursery or school for at least 24 hours after starting antibiotic treatment – adults should stay off work for at least 24 hours after starting treatment
• cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze – throw away used tissues immediately
• wash your hands with soap and water often, especially after using or disposing of tissues
• avoid sharing utensils, cups and glasses, clothes, baths, bed linen, towels or toys.
Swingers club reopens
Residents hit back at scathing reviews
Nightclub gets three police call outs
Flight in emergency over Bristol Channel
For the latest news in and around Bristol, visit and bookmark Bristol Live's homepage.
Bath and North East Somerset


This commodity/consumer grade "server" has stood the test of time – Uptime of 1088 days with zero issues!
When my IT consulting business really got moving around 2004-2005, I was living in a small house in Myrtletown, CA, and ran the business from there. That house later became my company's dedicated office (it just happened to be zoned for commercial use, with a lease and landlord combo that I wasn't willing to let go). There was an odd closet in the center of the home where I built a makeshift server cabinet using basic lumber and fence brackets to create vertical-mount 19″ spaces to hold rack-mount gear, as well as some shelves for miscellaneous hardware. The house had a spacious attic and crawlspace, making it easy to run power and network cables wherever I needed. I wired up a couple of bathroom fans to move air from under the house, though the closet, and into the attic for rudimentary climate control. This worked well thanks to the cool coastal climate along the Humboldt Bay.
Being on a limited budget, but still needing to run real services for my staff and general business infrastructure, I filled the closet with various machines pieced together with old parts or cheap used bits from eBay. I didn't have enough depth in the closet to mount proper enterprise servers, like the Dell PowerEdge series I now run almost exclusively in our critical production environments, so I wound up with two or three short-depth 1U machines loaded with random components. At the height of my company's tenure in Northern California that little cabinet was humming along and as busy as ever.
Since there were no colocation facilities in Humboldt County, CA, and I had yet to move my critical infrastructure to a proper data center in the SF Bay Area, we actually hosted production services from our small office. Though we did have both a DSL line and a cable uplink (using some clever firewalling and routing configs on a multi-homed machine appropriately named intersect), at the time there was only one fiber line for the entire county, which was buried along Highway 101 to an uplink provider north of San Francisco. This meant county-wide outages every time a contractor severed the fiber during roadwork along Highway 101. Nonetheless, we were primarily doing development work for local businesses, on-site tech support, hardware repair, and other jobs that didn't involve a lot of internet service hosting. That said, I have always hosted my company's email and web services on hardware I own and have physical control over. On top of all that, we deployed a high-power 802.11g public wifi hotspot to serve the Myrtletown area, which not only got us on the front page of the local paper but also provided dozens of local residents with free internet access. At least one individual in the hills north of Myrtletown pointed a directional antenna at our office and was able to get surprisingly good network performance over a distance of at least two miles!
The work we were doing at the time required typical on-premises services: networking gear (switches and routing/firewall machines); web, mail, and DNS; a file server hosting code repositories, staff home folders, backups, and other miscellaneous services; and of course UPSes to keep us up and running during power outages. While I didn't skimp on the file server (proper RAID isn't exactly cheap), those little cheapo half-depth boxes full of used consumer parts weren't exactly expected to last long; we merely needed a stop-gap solution during the growth phase. The cases were perfect for my closet server rack, particularly because they were designed to expose hardware ports at the front rather than the back. Over the years, as the business moved to Austin and eventually Northern Nevada, these little 1U machines played countless roles in our infrastructure and were nearly bullet-proof. Perhaps a dead disk or a worn out fan here and there, but otherwise they ran in production environments for at least seven years, with two eventually being retired to free up valuable rack space.
Yet one machine remains in service. I have not upgraded or replaced any components since it was built 10 years ago. It currently lives in our rack at Roller Network's world-class colocation facility in Reno, NV. The machine runs only our monitoring systems: nagios and related trending/graphic tools. Being multi-homed, it is able to monitor the various dedicated VLANs we provide for our hosted clients while also handling remote monitoring services across the internet for customers with their own hosted environments. While I do plan to eventually virtualize these services to free up rack space, I am amazed at how well the piddly "server" has performed and how much value it has provided to my business. And the entire thing cost less than $200 a decade ago. When I rebooted it tonight (remotely, of course) I half expected it to never come back online. But it was up and running in under three minutes, humming away.
This hardware is so old, it actually has an ISA bus.
Anyway, that's my linux nerd story for the day. I wrote this while waiting on some fairly massive database jobs to run in a development environment so I can bang out a bit of code to try to get ahead of my workload this week.


text:
Unusual subdural empyema in a homeless patient diagnosed by molecular approach: a case report
Cécile Brin ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7738-01341,
Wladimir Sougakoff2,
Franck Bielle3,
Samya Abi Jaoude4,
Isabelle Bonnet2,
Elie Haddad1,
Eric Caumes1,5 &
Stéphane Jauréguiberry5,6
We report a case of subdural empyema in a homeless patient caused by Bartonella quintana. B. quintana is a facultative intracellular bacteria for which bacterial growth is fastidious. The molecular biology approach has been a real help in establishing the diagnosis.
A 59-years old homeless patient, with a history of chronic alcohol abuse, was brought to the emergency department with a massive subdural empyema. Extensive microbiological evaluation didn't reveal any pathogen in the pus collected before antibiotic treatment. B. quintana was detected in the pus from the empyema using a 16S rRNA-based PCR. Histology of intraoperative samples was consistent with the diagnosis and a serological assay was positive. The patient responded well to a treatment that included craniectomy with drainage of the loculated pus, total removal of the infected capsule and a combination of antibiotics.
This unique case of B. quintana-related empyema illustrates the risk of secondary infection of subdural hematoma with B. quintana since such infections have recently reemerged, predominantly among the homeless populations. Patients with subdural empyema in at-risk populations should be systematically evaluated for B. quintana with an appropriate diagnostic approach involving molecular biology.
Bartonella quintana is a Gram-negative bacterium transmitted by the human body louse (Pediculus humanus corporis) Although lice are animal vectors, humans (and some other primates) are the only known animal reservoir hosts [1].
B. quintana was first characterized as the agent of trench fever in 1915. The clinical spectrum of the disease is wide, including chronic bacteremia, endocarditis, bacillary angiomatosis and lymphadenopathy [1]. We describe a unique case of subdural empyema secondary to B. quintana infection and highlight the crucial contribution of molecular biology to the final diagnosis.
A homeless 59-year old man was admitted to the emergency department because of confusion in a public place. Physical examination revealed confusion, a Glasgow Coma Scale of 10 with complete aphasia and right symmetric hemiplegia. There was no evidence of louse infestation, scratching lesions or "vagabond's" leukomelanoderma. The patient presented an increased C-reactive protein level at 39 mg/L (normal value < 5 mg/L), polymorphonuclear neutrophils count at 10.8 Giga/L (normal range 2,5–7,0 G/L), creatine phosphokinase at 11187 UI/L (normal value < 195 UI/L) and transaminases (SGOT/SGPT) at 271/68 UI/L (normal values <40UI/L).
A non-contrast brain CT scan performed upon admission showed a massive left hemispheric subdural collection resulting in a midline shift and subfalcine and uncal herniation with at least two intraparenchymal hypodense lesions suggesting abscesses (Fig. 1).
CT brain on admission, axial section. CT brain showed massive left subdural collection (white arrowheads) with mass effect on the adjacent parenchyma
Emergency neurosurgical evacuation was undertaken with a craniectomy, drainage of the loculated pus and removal of most of the infected capsule. Antibiotic treatment was started with intravenous cefotaxime (12 g/day), oral rifampicin (600 mg oad) and oral metronidazole (500 mg bid) for 4 days without signs of improvement. A remaining collection near the frontal sagittal sinus was not responding to medical treatment. Thus, a new neurosurgical debridement was undertaken.
Pus from the empyema, obtained prior to antibiotic treatment, with no microorganism identified after Gram staining, was cultured on blood agar (TSH, Biomérieux, France) growth medium under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, and chocolate agar (BD, USA) growth medium under microaerobic conditions for 10 days with an incubation at 37 °C and turned to be negative. However, the 3 broths (Schaedler, Biomérieux, France), corresponding to the 3 samples taken during the surgery, grew after 3, 6 and 30 days of incubation at 37 °C with contaminants (C. acnes, S. epidermidis), which may have inhibited the detection of B. quintana. No mycobacteria, fungi or yeasts could be identified after cultures on specific growth media. Pathological examination of the membranes that were removed during the surgical procedure showed epithelioid and gigantocellular granuloma and necrosis (usually absent in spontaneous or traumatic subdural hematoma) without evidence for any organism (Fig. 2). This fibrous tissue limited a cavity containing a hematoma.
Histopathological aspects of cerebral empyema. a, hematoxylin & eosin (H&E), 20X. b,c, H&E 200X. d, CD163 immunolabeling, 200X. Micronodules (dash line in a) correspond to epitheliod granuloma, containing epithelioid macrophages (arrowhead in b) associated with lymphocytes and plasma cells. Necrosis (c) and multinucleated giant cells (d) are also present
Given the negative stains and culture results, the cerebral pus was also tested using a 16S rRNA-based PCR. Only the "short" 16S amplification strategy was successful and produced directly from the cerebral pus a 500 bp fragment that could be sequenced. The long (1200 bp) 16S pcr failed from the clinical sample, despite repetitive attempts. The results of the comparison of the 500 bp sequence by BLAST using the mined database BIBI (http://umr5558-bibiserv.univ-lyon1.fr/lebibi/lebibi.cgi) [2] clearly identified Bartonella quintana with an identity of 100% over a stretch of 412 base pairs in the 16S sequence (Additional file 1). Serology (IgG antibodies) of Bartonella quintana was positive twice 2 weeks apart with an identical titer of 1/256 (indirect immunofluorescence Eurobio*, positive threshold of 1/50).
Doxycycline (200 mg oad) for 6 weeks and intravenous gentamycin (3 mg/kg/day) for 14 days were added to ceftriaxone (2 g oad). Infectious endocarditis was ruled out. Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, body CT scan, prolonged blood cultures and plasma PCR were negative. After surgical debridement and the change of antibiotics, the patient gradually recovered.
We describe here a case of subdural empyema caused by Bartonella quintana as demonstrated by PCR-sequencing detection of B. quintana DNA in the pus, histological results, and a positive antibody response to B. quintana.
Subdural empyema is a relatively rare clinical entity and usually results from contiguous infection such as sinusitis [3]. Subdural empyema occurs in 1% of chronic subdural hematoma [4]. In the largest literature review including 47 cases, the microorganisms associated with subdural empyema were most often E. coli, Salmonella species, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus specie s[5].. To the best of our knowledge no case of B. quintana subdural empyema has been previously described.
During B. quintana infections, neurological involvement has been rarely described. So far three such cases have been reported in the literature including one case of meningoencephalitis in an immunocompetent patient [6], one case of encephalopathy complicated by Guillain-Barré syndrome and hydrocephalus [7], and one case of encephalopathy in a pediatric patient [8].
Chronic asymptomatic bacteremia with B. quintana are common in homeless people [9]. A recent review identified B. quintana as the most frequent cause of vector-borne infections in homeless and marginalized populations in the United States of America and Europe [10]. As an example a study showed rates of 30% for Bartonella quintana seroprevalence and 14% for chronic bacteremia in homeless patients in Marseille, France [11]. Obviously, bacteremia can lead to secondary locations of the infection. Thus the mechanism of this B. quintana related subdural empyema could have been through hematogenous spread to an underlying subdural hematoma during chronic bacteremia in an homeless patient known for chronic alcoholism. The patient's age, homelessness, alcoholism, and probable contact with body lice, despite the lack of cutaneous lesions in our case, are known risk factors associated with B. quintana infections [12].
B. quintana is a facultative intracellular bacterium and its identification remains challenging. Serologic testing is the most widely used method to diagnose Bartonella infections (indirect immunofluorescence is the reference method) and it contributed to the diagnosis in our case. Immunoglobulin G titers > 1:50 indicated B. quintana infection (titers > 1:800 predicts endocarditis) [1]. However, the IFA is not regarded as sufficiently species specific and serological tests may not reliably distinguish between antibody responses to Bartonella spp. [13]. Previous studies documented seroreactivity among the six Bartonella spp. ranging between 11.2–56.2%, with the lowest percentage reactivity (11.2%) to B. quintana [14]. Others serologic assays like cross-adsorption and western immunoblotting techniques have been reported to reduce cross-reactivity but are not used routinely [15]. The most efficient diagnostic method is the subculture of blood culture broth into shell vials and immunohistochemistry for detecting B. quintana in tissues. But both techniques required specific labs and expertise [16].
PCR amplification and sequencing of regions within the universal 16S rRNA gene has been proven to be effective in the detection and identification of B. quintana from blood, bone marrow or tissues, with studies reporting sensitivity varying from 13 to 66% and specificity of 100% [17, 18]. Here, our diagnosis was confirmed from subdural empyema pus by using Sanger sequencing of DNA amplicons obtained by 500 bp 16S rRNA PCR which is the most reliable tool in this setting. In the absence of positive cultures, the short-range 16S identification could not be confirmed by a long-range 16S sequencing. Nevertheless, the contribution of molecular biology was decisive for the correct diagnosis of the bacterial species and the adaptation of the treatment, highlighting that the assessment of B. quintana infection in patients with subdural empyema by this molecular approach should be systematically carried out in at-risk populations.
The most common treatment relies on the association of gentamycin (3 mg/kg body weight once daily) for 2 weeks which is bactericidal for B. quintana and doxycycline (200 mg daily for 4 weeks) which is not bactericidal but penetrates erythrocytes [19]. The patient was treated for 6 weeks because of the localization.
Subdural hematoma, a condition frequently associated with chronic alcoholism, is a potential site for secondary bacterial infection with B. quintana in at-risk persons. Such cases may be underdiagnosed, due to the difficult diagnosis of B. quintana. Homeless patients with subdural empyema should be evaluated for B. quintana infection by means of the detection of specific 16sRNA.
The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Quintana: bartonella quintana
Oad:
Once a day; bid: bis in die (twice a day)
BLAST:
Basic local alignment search tool
E. coli :
IFA:
Immunofluorescence assay
Foucault C, Brouqui P, Raoult D. Bartonella quintana characteristics and clinical management. Emerg Infect Dis. 2006;12(2):217–23.
Flandrois J-P, Perrière G, Gouy M. leBIBIQBPP: a set of databases and a webtool for automatic phylogenetic analysis of prokaryotic sequences. BMC Bioinformatics. 2015;16:251.
W.B. Gormley, R. del Busto, L.D. Saravolatz, M.L. Rosenblum. Cranial and intracranial bacterial infections. J.R. Youmans (Ed.), Neurological surgery (4th ed), WB Saunders, Philadelphia, PA (1996), pp. 3191–3220.
Sawauchi S, Saguchi T, Miyazaki Y, Ikeuchi S, Ogawa T, Yuhki K, et al. Infected subdural hematoma. J Clin Neurosci. 1998;5(2):233–7.
Dabdoub CB, Adorno JO, Urbano J, Silveira EN, Orlandi BMM. Review of the management of infected subdural hematoma. World Neurosurg. 2016;87:663.e1–8.
Kooli I, Loussaief C, Ben Brahim H, Aouem A, Toumi A, Chakroun M. Méningo-encéphalite à Bartonella quintana chez un sujet immunocompétent : Une observation rare. Pathol Biol. 2014;62(6):342–4.
Mantadakis E, Spanaki A-M, Psaroulaki A, Fitrolaki D, Minadakis G, Michaeloudi E, et al. Encephalopathy complicated by guillain-Barre syndrome and hydrocephalus and associated with acute bartonella quintana infection. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2007;26(9):860–2.
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The authors declare that they don't have sources of funding.
APHP, Hôpitaux Universitaires Pitié Salpêtrière-Charles Foix, Service des Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales, Paris, France
Cécile Brin, Elie Haddad & Eric Caumes
APHP, Hôpitaux Universitaires Pitié Salpêtrière-Charles Foix, Service de bactériologie, Paris, France
Wladimir Sougakoff & Isabelle Bonnet
APHP, Hôpitaux Universitaires Pitié Salpêtrière-Charles Foix, Département de Neuropathologie, Paris, France
Franck Bielle
APHP, Hôpitaux Universitaires Pitié Salpêtrière-Charles Foix, Service de Neurochirurgie, Paris, France
Samya Abi Jaoude
Sorbonne Université, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Institut Pierre-Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique, Paris, France
Eric Caumes & Stéphane Jauréguiberry
APHP, Hôpital Kremlin Bicêtre, Service des Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales, Paris, France
Stéphane Jauréguiberry
Cécile Brin
Wladimir Sougakoff
Isabelle Bonnet
Elie Haddad
Eric Caumes
C. B and S. J drafted the manuscripts. W. S, F. B provided information and participated in writing the manuscript. E. C and I. B reviewed and revised the manuscripts. E. H, S.A-J, C. B and S. J cared for the patient. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Cécile Brin.
The patient gave written consent for their personal or clinical details along with any identifying images to be published in this study.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests with the content of the manuscript.
Result of the BLAST method on the mined database BIBI [2], with detailed alignments for B. quintana and B. senegalensis (the 4 differences in B. senegalensis are indicated in bold)
Brin, C., Sougakoff, W., Bielle, F. et al. Unusual subdural empyema in a homeless patient diagnosed by molecular approach: a case report. BMC Infect Dis 20, 357 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-020-05088-2
Bartonella quintana
Subdural empyema- 16sRNA


We seek to encourage the restoration of Christ centeredness throughout the Body of Christ via the prayer movement.
To promote the hope of revival in the Church, leading to the completion of the Great Commission.
To encourage a united voice among leaders in prayer that speaks lovingly to central issues in prayer and revival, preparing the way for a supernatural work of God in our churches and in our neighborhoods.
We recognize our absolute dependence on God and our desperate need for divine intervention. We believe God is urging us to call all Christians to unite in humility and repentance across ethnic and church boundaries to pray persistently for a moral and spiritual awakening in the Body of Christ.
Some examples of these efforts can be seen by clicking on one of our project titles listed below.
Some examples of Projects we hope to begin.
The purpose of the Corporation is to engage in religious, charitable, educational, literary, scientific and health activities; to receive and property by way of gift, bequest or devise, to administer such funds and property on a nonprofit basis; and to donate and distribute such funds for religious, educational, literary, scientific and health purposes within the meaning of those terms as used in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Learning to Share, Living To Give is an innovative educational initiative seeking to maintain and enhance a civil society.
EMPOWERS youth to take voluntary citizen action for the common good in their classrooms, their lives and their communities (behavior).
Each day leaders from emerging democracies come to the United States with a relatively surprising question. They want to know how they can create a third sector in their countries. They ask for guidance on teaching democratic and philanthropic principles to their children, and about systems for passing on the tradition of private citizens working for the common good. They come to the United States because they recognize that the third sector in America is fundamental to building and sustaining a secure democracy, supporting government, and to making our heterogeneous society function.
Their questions echo many of those posed by teachers and civic leaders in the United States: How do we engage children in civic life? How do we harness youthful idealism and combat growing cynicism? How do we teach caring about others, particularly those less fortunate? What is missing from our courses in government, history, economics, sociology, psychology, and philosophy that results in young adults without understanding or passion for the noble ideas of their society?
It is astonishing, but true: the United States has difficulty answering questions from emerging democratic nations because, until recently, the transmission of the philanthropic tradition from one generation to the next was informal, and so effective as to be transparent. There has never been a formal curriculum for teaching the facts or inculcating the values of the independent sector.
In this country, history is taught without serious attention to the role of volunteers in building the first black colleges or the role of private donors in funding the Salk vaccine for polio. Psychology and sociology, frequently focused on behaviors outside the healthy and normal, often do not explore the motivations and the relationships involved in setting aside self-interest for the benefit of the community.
When economics is taught, the curriculum frequently does not directly discuss the 13% of the economy represented in the activities of the nonprofit sector as it does the value of government and manufacturing. The teacher often does not address the 20 billion volunteer hours each year, which add value to the economy and promotes our common community interests. The role of the nonprofit corporation as an integral part of the civic fabric, a citizen, is not discussed.
Education in civics often does not elaborate on the nonprofit sector as the source of new ideas that lead to social policy changes, or the third sector as the place that develops the skills that are needed for public discourse and democratic compromise. The relationships between social activism, a healthy democracy, and active engagement of citizens in government are seldom discussed.
School-to-work programs often ignore the opportunities for employment in the third sector found by 12.5 million Americans, nearly one in 9.5 workers in the United States.
We have relied in the past on churches, families, friends and neighborhoods to teach children the value and significance of service and giving. We have assumed that our children know their heritage as citizens who do not need to be "empowered" by an outside agency, but who are born empowered as their inherent right of citizenship. It is sadly ironic that today, as emerging foreign democracies seek our assistance in establishing philanthropic traditions of their own, the traditional forces for teaching this ethic to children in the United States are eroding.
The very skills and community cohesion necessary to offset forces of social disintegration, especially in an increasingly diverse culture, are skills and experiences found in the nonprofit or third sector. Yet an understanding of this sector remains a mystery to many American children.
We have teamed up with the Community League who with The Council of Michigan Foundations and a Steering Committee of thirteen collaborating leaders in education, volunteerism, and nonprofit leadership have successfully completed a unique effort to write, field test, implement and disseminate high quality K-12 curriculum lessons, units and materials on philanthropy.
The long-term goal of the project is to develop and replicate curriculum lessons, units, and materials for perpetuating a civil society through the education of children about the nonprofit or independent sector, and to achieve their commitment to private citizen action for the common good.
Learning to Share looks to successfully launch and move rapidly to fulfill its potential in thoughtfully and systematically transmitting the philanthropic tradition to the next generation.
Multi purpose tractor-trailer. The trailer has a drop down stage with projection screens and a closed awning that has AC and seats up to 100. The other side of the trailer has a large tip out to create additional room for the Chapel/ learning center on board. It is being sold as a learning center with on location classes for elementary kids teaching the dying art of philanthropy in their time, talent and gifts (tithing). The curriculum has already been written by our partners at http://www.learningtogive.org/ and http://www.communityleague.org/. They are very excited to work with us and all of this will be faith based. The Chapel/ Learning center and trailer logos will reflect the National Governors' Prayer Team. It's second purpose will be an on location chapel to our nations state capitals. This vehicle will be on the road 52 weeks a year and manned by three separate missionary teams and alternate. They will be supported on the ground by local GPT/NDP coordinators & affiliates and also local teachers.
Our proposed Marriage Education and Marriage Enrichment project, submitted under for those with very pressing needs in the Deaf Community. This cultural group lacks viable, up-to-date statistical information on marriage and family life. We researched many websites, including government websites, Gallaudet University's website, and various state and local non-profit service providers' websites, but find no statistics directly speaking to Marriage and Family in the Deaf community.
90 percent of Deaf children are born to hearing parents. Many of these parents do not have the necessary communication skills in Sign Language to properly nurture these deaf children to love and to form meaningful human relationships. As a result, many deaf grow up without firm ideas on what constitutes genuine love and lasting mature relationships.
Deaf families have problems understanding themselves (who they are), and this has direct repercussions on how they grow up and assume family responsibilities. Many of their relationships are not caring ones. Thus, when children come along, many deaf couples are unable to successfully make the transition from partnership to parenthood.
Communications problems in deaf families are common. When hearing children are born to deaf couples, they often encounter communications problems with their parents. These children often experience an identity crisis and lack the necessary skills to love and to assume responsibility for their lives and with their own families (long after they have left home). These children are often called CODA, meaning Children of Deaf Adults. Our project leader's children are CODA. Only 10% of deaf families have deaf children.
Deaf families often have problems providing a nurturing environment for their children to grow and develop. Many of their hearing children do not respect and honor their deaf parents. There are constant emotional needs that are not met in Deaf families, and as a result, their marriages suffer.
Deaf families need Marriage and Family classes to help them develop independent marriage and successful family living skills, financial planning classes that relate how to properly save for their children, obtain life insurance, car insurance, buy homes successfully and find employment to support their families and their children. Poor financial management has resulted in poor marriage outcomes in the Deaf community, and some results are drug addiction, domestic violence, and heavy dependence on government aid.
Illiteracy is also very prevalent among deaf families. Vital statistics reveal that about 70 percent of the deaf population still read at the third grade level. Schools for the deaf might be good for some of them, but not for all. Our project leader has taught in schools for the deaf, including Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. and he believes that many of the deaf graduated from these secondary schools with very little ability to function independently in society.
Scholarships and Stipends for students entering the new 4-year Deaf counseling degree program. This degree program will continue on after the grant period ends. Its qualified faculty will enable Deaf students to be trained to counsel in their own culture. The Deaf program will also welcome hearing students who wish to prepare to work cross-culturally with the Deaf. It is the intent of the department that, as a result of successfully completing its program, students should be excellent examples of cross-cultural communicators, serving the Deaf community to positively impact their marriages and family life.
Our Project Leader will do research specifically on the issue of Deaf Marriage and Family relationships and on related family issues such as substance abuse, depression, domestic violence, and the higher instances of child abuse and STI)s to determine what services are available and how are they are publicized for those who need help.
Our Course Developer has developed education for both the hearing and deaf communities on these special needs and related services available, to include seminars, college classes, i.e. ASL, and marriage and family counseling. In cooperation with CBC He will initiate a new academic program. By offering a Bachelor of Interpreting degree graduates will be included on the registry of certified interpreters (Beginning in 2008 interpreters must show that they are enrolled in a Bachelor of Interpreting degree, by 2010 all interpreters must have this degree be included on the registry of certified interpreters).
Internships will be offered through our Marriage Enrichment program for the Deaf allowing for even greater project impact to occur.
Both the Project Leader and the Course Developer will immediately begin counseling willing participants referred to us by our proposed partners: Behavior Corp, Indiana School for the Deaf and the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors. We will also publicize these new services through an email service for the deaf.
We will facilitate reconciliation, building awareness and unity between the deaf and hearing communities in Indianapolis to address the need to strengthen marriages and families.
The local deaf community has been part of our Multiethnic Conferences in the past. This new emphasis will center on Marriage and Family relationships and will involve the cooperation of the CBC staff and students.
We have identified some pressing problems in Deaf families through inputs from our Project Leader and from our Course Developer, both of whom are already working as Deaf counselors and teachers in other areas of the country.
Because we are unable at this time to provide current, accurate, and complete statistics on the instances of the identified problems in Deaf families, the task of providing specific measurable criteria to be used to evaluate results, explaining the methodology that will be used to determine if the needs identified and discussed are being met, and how we will evaluate whether or not the project results and benefits are being achieved is difficult at this time.
During the development phase of our new program, we will be conducting research into the statistics specifically relating to the identified problems. We will at that time develop and be happy to provide program reviewers our measurement criteria, our methodology used to determine if the needs identified and discussed are being met, as well as providing project results and benefits achieved.
We do offer comments below to describe our intent to evaluate this new outreach program as we go and our desire to make it a success over the project life and our budget shows estimates by year of the costs that may be incurred in its development and implementation.
Our evaluation metric for this new program is focused on one basic goal: to be an excellent service provider that is culturally-sensitive and understanding of the values of Deaf people from all ethnic backgrounds. In order to achieve this goal, we will employ Deaf individuals as counselors, and we will partner with other faith-based organizations that reach out to people from varying cultures that now live in the United States.
There are only four colleges in the US offering a Bachelor of Arts in American Sign Language degree program and non of them have a Marriage Enrichment program for the Deaf. In cooperation with CRBC we will train other Colleges and their staff�s to offer this degree program and most importantly the method of internship through a Marriage Enrichment program for the Deaf.
Some comments from two interviews illustrate the need for Marriage and Family counseling for the Deaf both in terms of the Deaf culture, as well as in a multi-cultural ethnic sense.
We interviewed Bobbie Lemere, Director of Behavior Corp in Indianapolis (www.behaviorcorp.com) This Company is certified by the State of Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addictions, is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, is a Medicaid and Medicare provider, and provides Deaf services as part of its work in the community.
She stated that more Deaf counseling is most definitely needed, and that she was unaware of any agency that offers counseling geared towards strengthening the marriage and the family core unit.
She told us that Behavior Corp deals only with mental health issues, mainly in pre-teen and teen years. They are one of only three agencies in the state that provides this service. The other two are in the East Chicago area, 130 miles northwest of Indianapolis, and in Lawrenceburg (100 miles southeast). Their clientele includes Iranian, Pakistani and Hispanic patients, as well as African-Americans and Caucasians. Given cultural and language differences, she said it is sometimes very hard to communicate with these folks, because they need an interpreter who is hearing and speaks these language to assist in the counseling sessions.
Ms. Lemere was interested in our project and asked that we keep her informed on the outcome. She went on to say that, �what services and specialists are available to the deaf community are overloaded - there are just not enough personnel, social workers, and interpreters to handle the need�.
This sounds like a good thing that you are doing. I'll just give you a little of my perspective. I would venture most Deaf people would tell you that, even if their Marriage/Family stresses are only similar to those of any hearing person, and they are more difficult, the difference is, that, the Deaf Community tends to be vastly underserved. As you can imagine, there aren't many programs that provide counseling or these types of services to Deaf individuals in Indiana that are culturally-sensitive and understand the values of Deaf people. There are even fewer that employ Deaf individuals as counselors.
As stated above, because many of the service providers we contacted made verbal statements confirming the shortage of services to Deaf individuals in Indiana and the US as a whole, our measurement criteria is first and foremost to be one new service provider that is culturally- sensitive and understanding of the values of Deaf people. We will also be one new service provider that employs Deaf individuals as counselors.
Our desired outcome, at the end of the day, is strengthening Marriages and Families in the Deaf community.
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