text: Home > Regulation > Regulation Fitness To Teach What is Fitness To Teach Process Make a Referral Criminal convictions The Investigation process About Hearings Rules and Policies Professional Update and Fitness to Teach Outcomes Hearings schedule and decisions Fitness to Teach Statistics Regulation GTCS regulates the teaching profession in Scotland through its fitness to teach process. What is the fitness to teach process? The fitness to teach process is in place to ensure public protection and maintain proper teaching standards. The process is not about disciplining or punishing teachers, it is about ensuring that we have a teaching profession in Scotland that is and remains fit to teach so that public trust and confidence in teachers is maintained and the learning of our children and young people is protected. We investigate and make decisions about a registered teacher's fitness to teach in line with our Fitness to Teach Rules (which also set out the process followed). Our Fitness to Teach Threshold Policy explains what we investigate - we only investigate where an allegation is of a level of seriousness that the teacher presents a risk of harm. Action is taken if a teacher's fitness to teach is found to be impaired because of shortfalls in his/her conduct or professional competence. Fitness to Teach Hearings are held and Consent Orders issued in this context. With its focus on ensuring maintenance of our teaching standards, our fitness to teach process is distinct from any employer or criminal process that may also be followed. What does being "fit to teach" mean? Being fit to teach means meeting the standards of professional competence and conduct that GTCS expects. Out Standards for Registration and Code of Professionalism and Conduct set out these expectations but we could sum it up by saying that it means having the right knowledge and skills (and applying them) and doing the right thing as a professional teacher. Note: it does not mean being fit to teach in terms of health/medical fitness. When does GTCS investigate the fitness to teach of a teacher? We investigate when there is a realistic prospect that a teacher's fitness to teach would be found to be impaired based on an allegation or information that has been referred to us. We receive fitness to teach referrals from the police and other criminal justice agencies, employers and members of the public. Our Threshold Policy explains more about what we investigate under our fitness to teach process. This policy is applied when GTCS receives a fitness to teach referral. We approach assessing whether fitness to teach is impaired holistically in the here and now. We look at the shortfalls in conduct or professional competence identified alongside where the teacher is now. This includes considering what steps have been taken by the teacher to openly and honestly reflect on the issues, learn from them and make changes to ensure they will not happen again. While there are times when the shortfalls identified are so fundamental that there is no scope for remediation in this way, our approach recognises that we all make mistakes and is about providing assurance that those same mistakes will not be repeated so that the public (especially pupils) is not harmed and trust and confidence in the teaching profession is maintained. I want to make a fitness to teach referral - what do I do? You should refer to our Make a Referral page. What do you publish about your fitness to teach process? How can I learn more? You can view what Fitness to Teach Hearings are coming up seven days in advance. We also publish final Fitness to Teach case outcomes in line with our Fitness to Teach Publication Policy, as well as general statistical information about our caseload. Downloads Code of Professionalism and Conduct Fitness to Teach Rules Framework on Teacher Competence Professional Guidance on the Use of eComms and Social Media The GTCS Fitness to Teach Process Fitness to Teach Process: Information Booklet for Referred Teachers Contact T: +44 (0)131 314 6000 E: email@example.com


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Every aspect of this kid's life is in a state of change. So far we're down 12 lbs, with a significant increase in muscle mass. And an entrepreneur is being born. Check out the progress!
Highlights from Last Week's Workouts & Another from the Questions? Answers! Files
"Freedom is man's capacity to take a hand in his own development. It is our capacity to mold ourselves." – Rollo May Okay, so first up, a couple of highlights from last week's workouts; one from the field, one from the studio. Sunday, 9/2/12 – HIIT circuit, 3 rounds – 20 hand-over monkeybar "sprints" –… [More…]

subset: commoncrawl


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Saturday, Sept. 22
3:20 p.m. Citizen Assist at Trinity Pines on Elliott Rd.. Officer contact requested regard general accusations. Unable to understand reporting party, contacted Trinity Pines, subject has been contacted for safety by their staff and is not in need of assistance.
3:36 p.m. Accident at Maxx 4 Less -Arco on Skyway. Vehicle drove off with hose in vehicle, driver does not have insurance. Involved contacted, information exchanged.
5:32 p.m. Peace Disturbance at Stratton's Market on Sawmill Rd. Male subject refusing to leave, has urinated behind store. Subject lives at Alice & Richard's care home, resp contacted, will respond to take subject home.
5:59 p.m. Intoxicated Subject at Feather River Hospital on Pentz Rd. Patient is under the influence and uncooperative. Arrived in ambulance, won't state what his problem is. Subject arrested for arrested for disorderly conduct PC, booked BCJ.
6:06 p.m. Peace Disturbance at Evergreen Mobile Home Park on Skyway. Male is involved in verbal altercation with two female tenants. Parties contacted, determined verbal disturbance only.
6:31 p.m. Assault Occurred on North Libby Rd. Her brother assaulted reporting party's boyfriend. Male left on foot northbound N Libby towards Bille. Contacted involved at residence. Area checked for Fleming.
6:33 p.m. Suspicious Vehicle at Wells Fargo Bank on Skyway. Vehicle has been parked near front door not in parking spot. Area chcecked.
7:06 p.m. Traffic Complaint at Nunneley Rd/Copeland Rd. Three juveniles riding in grocery cart towards Stratton's. Area checked.
9:35 p.m. Suspicious Circumstances on Pentz Rd. She arrived home to find her front door partially open. Building checked, no evidence of forced entry.
10:00 p.m. Trespass Occurred on Clark Rd. Area check for suspicious subject's loitering in area of closed business. Completed several times during night.
11:07 p.m. Peace Disturbance Occurred at Central Park Condominiums on Maxwell Dr. , Paradise. Report of a female being drug into street by a male. Both parties contacted. Determined verbal dispute only.
11:15 p.m. Suspicious Vehicle Officer initiated activity at Paradise High School, Maxwell Dr. Out with one male, shorts/no shirt, lower track.
Sept. 23
1:04 p.m. Prowler Call on Oliver Rd. 3-4 subjects seen in neighbor's backyard. Area checked.
2:27 p.m. Suspicious Vehicleicat Buschmann Rd/Recreation Dr. Contacted two
9:06 p.m. Vandalism on Foster Rd. Owner of location, states younger brother broke out all the windows last week and have failed to replace them. Reporting party contacted, requests documention.
9:57 p.m. Burglary on Oliver Rd. Two subjects inside residence. Residence checked, determined no subjects inside.
10:01 p.m. Civil Matter Occurred on Fir St. Evicted tenant took reporting party's furnishings from above loc. Contacted reporting party.
11:38 p.m. Civil Matter at Lucky Lou Thrift on Skyway. Owner of above business has approx $10,000 worth of reporting party's property, for consignment. Reporting party contacted.
1:04 p.m. Traffic Complaint at Clark Rd/Elliott Rd. Ex-girlfriend in silver Nissan Rogue drove aggressively, cutting off reporting party and his wife in separate vehicles. Occurred at 12:45 p.m. reporting party advised to call as events occur and regarding restraining order process.
1:18 p.m. Threats on Big Tree Ln. Threatening email received from Southern California. Reporting party contacted, determined to be political propaganda, not directly threatening reporting party.


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FreeRipple has many similarities to Freebitcoin and could have the same success.


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Frosted cupcakes make the witch's head and chocolate ice cream cones make her hat for a dessert that's perfect for Halloween.
1. Place chocolate frosting in a freezer-weight zip-top bag and snip off a small corner. Pipe base of cones, dip in orange nonpareils, and set aside.
2. Place 1/2 cup vanilla frosting in a another zip-top bag and snip off a small corner. Tint remaining frosting green and frost cupcakes.
3. Turn cupcakes on sides, then place decorated cones on top. Using vanilla frosting, pipe eyes on cupcakes. Attach chocolate chips for pupils and pipe a dot onto chips. Use red icing for mouths, green icing for warts; shape candies into noses. Pipe chocolate icing onto cupcakes for hair and sprinkle with chocolate jimmies.


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Hi, gang. Happy Sunday. I know, since last April, we've been keeping our chats mainly Tuesday and Friday affairs, but I hope you won't mind my coming in today with one extra post because, mostly, I've got something extra to say. I've been thinking a lot about blogging.
Thing is, I've been blogging here at Food Loves Writing since 2008. Some of you have been reading here that entire time (Hi Jacqui, Kim, maybe Lan?); some of you found me through another site (like the beauties Not Without Salt, Honey & Jam, Cranny and Me); some of you had a friend who recommended the blog; some of you get nutrition consultations from my husband; some of you just came here for the first time today, through a Google search or Pinterest picture. In every case, hello. I feel honored that you're spending a few minutes here, and I hope you'll stick around long enough to say hi. I really like it when you say hi.
So when I say I've been thinking about blogging, I guess what I mean is that I've been thinking about the value of blogging. As in, Is blogging valuable? And of course, yes. When I recite to myself the long list of intangible benefits that come from this beautiful online community you and I share, I can't deny its power.
Today, just about an hour ago actually, I was talking with my friend Joanna on the phone. Joanna lives in Iowa. She's a magazine editor. I've mentioned her here before. I love Joanna. Joanna is the kind of person that breathes fresh air into a room. She's big smiles and deep thoughts and disarming vulnerability, and when I tell her about some struggle I'm facing, she empathizes and thinks and then pulls out off-the-cuff advice that is both encouraging and the sort of thing to make me stop. And I wouldn't know her if I hadn't had a blog.
While I'm typing this post to you, in the other room right now, Tim is sitting on our sofa, legs stretched out on one of our T.J.Maxx tufted ottomans—the first big purchase we made in married life. For lunch today, we ate leftover roasted vegetables in beef broth over a two-hour conversation about the differences between grace and law and how to apply those realities in life. Yesterday we pointed the car northwest and ended up in Clarksville, a sleepy town with antique stores and a shopping mall and the beautiful Dunbar Cave State Park, which is where most of the photos in this post are from. And this man I share my life, and this blog, with today? I wouldn't even know him if I hadn't had a blog.
The blog community is wildly enriching! My friend Holly, whom I met through blogs this year, talks with me about this almost every time we talk. And while we trade book recommendations or discuss hard questions like what makes us dislike people, I look at this girl sitting there, across from a table or in a living room or at a coffee shop with me, and I think how this easy conversation, this thought- and perspective-changing interaction, was only made possible by blogging.
In fact, there are few things in my life that haven't been shaped, at least in some part, by blogging, from my job to my book club to the four-by-six-foot paper photo of me and Tim hanging in our bedroom (tutorial here!). Blogging changed my life. Blogging changes my life. And I'm so grateful for it, saying I'm grateful for it sounds cliché.
But here's the thing: Blogging takes time. Blogging takes discipline (even if that discipline only means coming back here again and again, with months in between). Blogging connects you with kindred spirits, yes, but, unless you go super pro about promoting products and using affiliate links and charging for sponsorships and posts, blogging doesn't make (much) money.
And this is something I'm wrestling with right now. I'm wrestling with the very real needs of my little family and our little future and how I can and should contribute to it. I'm wondering if spending 10 hours a week (give or take) on this beloved space is a wise investment when I could be pitching articles or creating products to sell. Or to put it another way, I'm wondering if there's a way to also bring in a (small) income from a space that's already brought me so much non-monetary blessing. I'm wondering if that's fair to wonder. I'm thinking about a TED Talk I watched last week and how the future of the arts, from music to blogging to authorship, could be becoming more and more deindustrialized as people believe in supporting crafts they find valuable, and I'm wondering if that means anything for me.
I guess I wanted to tell you all this, today on this Sunday, to explain part of the reasoning behind our new Etsy shop and the ebook and the sidebar Lijit ads and the Amazon affiliate links we have now. We've tried other things that didn't feel right, so this is where we are now. I think some of you feel these same things, and I want you to be encouraged that it's normal. I also wanted to put this out there, to the community of people who have always made it safe to be vulnerable, in order to ask you for advice. I know in the audience of readers this site has, someone's got to know something about a more efficient, yet non-gimmicky way to keep this place running for all of us, so I welcome your ideas.
I love having you out there, reading. I love even more when you comment or email or stop me at a coffee shop to say you like the site (Hi, Sandy!). And I love knowing I can come here and chat with you and let us both feel a little more known.
Thanks for letting me make this little interruption, guys. Our weekly schedule is still on for the rest of the week, but the Tuesday/Friday posts may be a bit abbreviated this week.
Oh, and also, PS, speaking of the Etsy shop, we have a new 8 X 10 print available, hand-lettered and printed on cardstock, with a quote that I've been meditating on all week: "To create is to reflect the Creator and delight His heart."


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Ghazala Gardens Hotel
- All Inclusive
A tranquil oasis of calm in the very heart of Naama Bay, the Ghazala Gardens Hotel offers the very best of everything, from service and facilities to location and an impressive choice of restaurants. Relax in the contemporary landscaped gardens and large lagoon pool with an artificial beach complete with cabanas, and access to a real beach just across the road.
In a fantastic location in the central Naama Bay, just 12 km from the airport. It's 5 minutes' walking distance to the centre of Naama Bay with its shops, bars and restaurants, and 10 minutes by taxi to Sharm el Sheikh old town. Transfer time: 20 minutes.
Food and drink
2 buffet restaurants serving international menus
3 à la carte restaurants: Brazilian, Mexican and Italian
3 bars with waiter service
Plus, at extra charge:
24 hour Lobby Bar
Ice cream corner & cafe
Beach Bar at the Ghazala Beach Hotel
Nearest beachEnjoy shared access to the private beach at the Ghazala Beach Hotel, just across the road. It is 300m to the beach, which is sandy and has sun loungers, parasols and beach towels, plus a beach bar with waiter service.
Swimming poolsLarge lagoon pool (heated in winter) with artificial beach, sun loungers, parasols and beach towels.
Sports and leisureLive evening entertainment
Table tennis
Aqua aerobics
At the Ghazala Beach Hotel, at extra charge:
Dive Centre
Health club with gym, sauna, jacuzzi and massage
Additional servicesFree WiFi in Reception/Lobby area
Internet café
24 hour limousine service
Laundry service
ATM machine
Christmas and New Year gala dinners
For the family
Separate children's swimming pool – heated in winter
Maxi Kinder Club from Red Sea Hotels. Ages 4 to 12 years.
Mini disco
Maxi Baby Service
Cots and highchairs
Children's buffet including drinks, ice cream and lunch
Your room
All rooms have a balcony or terrace with pool or garden view, king size or twin double beds, bath or shower, WC, air conditioning (seasonal), hairdryer, safe and satellite TV. There is a telephone and mini-bar, both at extra charge.
Standard Rooms sleep 2 adults and 2 children or 3 adults.
Junior Suites are larger and have an open plan seating area and sleep 2 adults and 2 children or 3 adults.
Junior Suites with direct Pool Access and Inter-connecting rooms are available at a small supplement.
Child age: 2-12 years
Rooms: 280
Official Rating: ★★★★
What's included in the priceYour All Inclusive° package includes:
Buffet, breakfast, lunch and dinner
Choice of à la carte restaurants as shown (some items at extra cost)
Afternoon tea, coffee and cakes
Unlimited soft drinks by the glass – 24 hrs
Unlimited local alcoholic beverages by the glass – 10am to 12 midnight
Activities and entertainment as listed
20kg luggage allowance
Resort transfers
Late checkout room
Some facilities, bars and menu items not included as part of your All Inclusive package may incur extra charges locally.
*Extra charge payable locally.
At a glance
- We say "An oasis of calm just minutes from the centre of Naama Bay"
- Lagoon pool with artificial beach
- Choice of restaurants
- Central location
- Family friendly
- 360° Virtual Tour


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Benefits of Bowel CleansingPosted by: Jfw | Posted on: January 18, 2018
Among the various disorders of the colon identified by pros and health care products, several techniques have come on the scene. Colon cleansing products are making many claims of enhancement of health through regular detoxification.
So this is why a pure colon cleanse is the latest craze in the health sector, but the distribution of info is misleading to the people at best. In fact, limited health benefits are provided by colon cleansing, even so, this post serves to separate the truth from the myth of colon cleanse.
Colon cleansing is the removal of feces and other things of the colon through bowel irrigation and diet supplements meant to cleanse the colon. Bowel irrigation is also called colon hydrotherapy or enemas where a liquid solution is channeled into the colon as a way to cleanse the colon in preparation for operation screening exam, and in many cases reduce constipation. An oral colon cleanse is taken so as to encourage powerful bowel movements.
To clarify the colon cleanse misconceptions of the people, here we challenge some of the very most prevalent myths about digestive cleansing and colon health.
1. Regular cleaning is required by the colon just like a sewage system.
2. Wastes collect in the colon and cause plaque formation and deposits of hazardous substances.
3. Every individual should have bowel movements every single day to get rid of wastes formed from their daily meals.
4. Colon cleansing and colon cleanse supplements are the very best means to lessen weight.
The Facts
1. The digestive system cleanses itself. Until these wastes are ultimately excreted through defecation, one is capable of evacuating fecal material from the body by propelling them through peristaltic movement towards the descending colon. Thus, there is no need for day-to-day colon irrigation or laxatives to get rid of wastes because the colon itself can do the job. Just like probiotics that live in the colon consume indigestible fiber as a portion of their nutrition, and creates byproducts that keep the colon healthy. Steady colon irrigation can cause imbalances in fluid and electrolytes, too as hurt the good bacteria that keeps proper bowel movement.
2. There's no accumulation of plaques and toxins in the bowel without colonic cleansing. These are just the claims of businesses that make colon cleansing products which in reality are the components of an herbal colon cleanser, undigested fibrous herbs and substances like Senna and other ingredients, which give the chimera of removal of plaque upon a bowel movement.
3. There should be frequency between each bowel movement. Some may do it twice or once a day, and others might simply do it just three times per week or every two days. The frequency of bowel movements depends on the amount as well as the type of food eaten. The more food one eats; the more food that must be eliminated. Thus, people who usually eat a good deal or eat lots of fiber have more regular bowel movements than those who eat less. A condition called constipation is one defecates infrequently and is additionally accompanied by distressing elimination, hard feces, and difficulty passing, when. So, laxatives and other colon cleansers are not always essential when one does not removes in a day.
4. Colon cleansing is not designed for weight reduction program. Its objective is on creating a regular pattern of bowel movement, more. Other functions of cleansing are mentioned earlier such as part of training for diagnostic exams, surgical procedures, and constipated conditions.
It serves its intended goal. Here we supply accurate info to counter the public misconception of colon cleansing products and potentially unhealthy use of the procedure. On the other hand, the simple but effective sound medical practice when it comes to processes and health products is always to consult an experienced medical care provider.
You ought to ask your health care provider any time you have a medical problem.
Comments are Closed


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Tomorrow, 15th September 2015, marks the second patch Tuesday since Windows 2003 went out of extended support. That's a good three months' worth of vulnerabilities that have now gone unpatched in this venerable OS. If you're organisation still has Windows 2003 servers, chances are it's because the applications and services they run are considered too difficult, too pricey, or too important to risk an update. Or maybe it's just that no-one's got around to it.
This is where Fuse can help. We can help you assess the best way to move away from Windows 2003 and onto a modern server OS that is more reliable, more secure, and above all helps your organization become more productive.
Our expertise in transitioning systems into virtual machines, either on premise or in the cloud, is one option, moving old physical servers onto new hardware. We can secure the old operating against external threats by carrying out security audits and implementing threat management software. Finally, we can advise on the best path to take on updating or replacing the applications that Windows 2003 runs.
Talk to us today about migrating off Windows 2003, before it becomes a headache for your organisation.


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Our Medical Advisors
The AllergyKids Medical Advisory Team is comprised of respected Doctors, Physicians, and Pediatricians from around the country…
Home » You're Not Alone » Stories
Good To Go Organics' goal is to serve great tasting quality food to people on the go. To accomplish that goal, they have merged the traditional street cart and the roadside farm stand.
They started out in Central Park reinventing the hotdog cart and have just opened our first rest stop on a busy stretch of Rte 95 in Connecticut.
They serve good food to people on the go. The kind you want to eat. The kind that tastes good. The kind you want to tell your friends about.
Good To Go has five locations. And the only bummer is that they are all located on the East Coast. Three in New York City – two carts in Central Park and one at Chelsea Piers – one at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey and one on Rte 95 in Milford Connecticut.
Click on Locationsto get directions and hours and come join us for real food with real taste.
Fun idea? We think so, too.
Learn more here at Good to Go Organics


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- Easily used by maintenance staff right out of the box
- Instant indication
- Plan maintenance and have the spares available on time. Minimise off-hire and demurrage.
Related Products
Hydraulic Particles Test / Analysis Kit
Hydraulic oil testing, gearbox oil testing and similar is a necessary part of any preventative maintenance programme. One of the most valuable indicators is cleanliness. The presence of particle contamination in these fluids can be nothing short of catastrophic, and monitoring fluid cleanliness levels assists in identifying abnormal conditions. Used as part of a preventative maintenance programme, this knowledge can allow timely decisions to be made over the implementation of necessary corrective actions.
The Parker Kittiwake Hydraulic Oil Particles Testing / Analysis Kit is now available to provide just this early warning solution. Housed in a handy, robust carry case and supplied with an easy to follow, illustrated instruction manual, this Hydraulic Particles Test / Analysis Kit contains all that is needed to carry out indicative tests providing you with the level and type of contamination on hydraulic oils and gearbox lubricants. Test results are compared with standard comparative charts.
Spares & Consumables
|Part Number
|8µm filter patches (100)


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from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In pathology, scantiness of urine; diminished secretion of urine.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun medicine A decreased production in the volume of
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun abnormally small production of urine; can be a symptom of kidney disease or obstruction of the urinary tract or edema or an imbalance of fluids and electrolytes in the body
- noun production of an abnormally small amount of urine
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Other signs and symptoms, such as oliguria, unexplained crying (especially on urination), and edema, and any history of passing stones were recorded.
Renal effects include oliguria or anuria (little or no urine excretion) due to tubular necrosis, often preceded by the formerly mentioned effects Mercury and Iron salts.
· Associated icterus and renal signs (oliguria ...) indicates yellow fever, leptospirosis ...
She developed hypotension, oliguria, elevated white count, pyuria and renal failure.
In which of the following instances would prerenal failure be the more likely cause of the oliguria than intrinsic renal failure?
A 63 year old man recently admitted with sepsis was noted to have oliguria, with a urine output of approximately 20 ml an hour.
Symptoms of the severe stage include oliguria (decreased urine output), hypoxemia (low partial pressure of oxygen in the blood), low platelet count, trouble breathing, areas of mottled skin or a sudden change in mental state or condition.
Most of the children with stones did not have oliguria, crying on urination, edema, or passing of stones.
Of these patients, 50.3 percent were asymptomatic, 16.9 percent experienced dysuria (painful urination), 14.6 percent had infantile colic, 10.9 percent experienced oliguria or anuria (decreased urine and absence of urine, respectively) and 7.3 percent had hematuria (blood in the urine).
Low dose norepinephrine in patients with septic shock and oliguria: effects on afterload, urine flow, and oxygen transport.


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Background: Constitutively active androgen receptor variants (AR-V) lacking the ligand binding domain (LBD) may promote the development of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The expression of AR-Vs in the clinically most important metastatic site, the bone, has, however, not been well documented. Our aim was therefore to compare levels of AR-Vs in hormone-naive (HN) and CRPC bone metastases in comparison to primary PC and non-malignant prostate tissue, as well as in relation to AR protein expression, whole-genome transcription profiles and patient survival.
Methodology/Principal Findings: Hormone-naı¨ve (n = 10) and CRPC bone metastases samples (n = 30) were obtained from 40 patients at metastasis surgery. Non-malignant and malignant prostate samples were acquired from 13 prostatectomized men. Levels of full length AR (ARfl) and AR-Vs termed AR-V1, AR-V7, and AR-V567es mRNA were measured with RT-PCR and whole-genome transcription profiles with an Illumina Beadchip array. Protein levels were examined by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Transcripts for ARfl, AR-V1, and AR-V7 were detected in most primary tumors and metastases, and levels were significantly increased in CRPC bone metastases. The AR-V567es transcript was detected in 23% of the CRPC bone metastases only. A sub-group of CRPC bone metastases expressed LBD-truncated AR proteins at levels comparable to the ARfl. Detectable AR-V567es and/or AR-V7 mRNA in the upper quartile, seen in 1/3 of all CRPC bone metastases, was associated with a high nuclear AR immunostaining score, disturbed cell cycle regulation and short survival.
Conclusions/Significance: Expression of AR-Vs is increased in CRPC compared to HN bone metastases and associated with a particularly poor prognosis. Further studies are needed to test if patients expressing such AR-Vs in their bone metastases benefit more from drugs acting on or down-stream of these AR-Vs than from therapies inhibiting androgen synthesis.
Background: The first-line treatment for patients with advanced prostate cancer (PC) is androgen deprivation therapy. This therapy is initially effective, but after some time tumors relapse, predominantly within the bone, and are then termed castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The majority of CRPC tumors show androgen receptor (AR) activity despite castrate levels of circulating testosterone. AR activity could be caused by several mechanisms including; intratumoral androgen synthesis, AR amplification, AR mutations and expression of AR splice variants. The mechanisms controlling CRPC growth in the clinically most relevant metastatic site, the bone, are not fully identified. The purpose of this thesis was therefore to explore AR expression and possible mechanisms behind CRPC growth in PC bone metastases in order to find mechanisms that could be targeted for treatment and/or predict response to certain therapies.
Materials and Methods: We have examined hormone-naïve and CRPC bone metastases samples obtained from patients at metastasis surgery, non-malignant and malignant prostate samples obtained from patients at radical prostatectomy, and PC cell lines cultured in vitro. Analysis has been performed using RT-PCR, whole-genome expression arrays, immunohistochemistry, western blotting, FISH, copy number assays and gene ontology analysis. Functional studies have been made by protein overexpression and knock-down in PC cells in vitro and effects studied by evaluation of cell viability, migration, and invasion.
Results: We found that high nuclear AR immunostaining (presumed to reflect high AR activity) in bone metastases from CRPC patients was associated with a particularly poor prognosis, while no difference in AR staining was observed between hormone-naïve and CRPC metastases. Further, expression of AR splice variants (AR-V7, AR-V567es) was associated with a high nuclear AR immunostaining score and shown to be increased in CRPC compared to hormone-naïve bone metastases. High levels (levels in the upper quartile) of AR splice variants in CRPC bone metastases was related to disturbed cell cycle regulation and short patients survival. No differences in steroidogenic enzyme levels were detected between CRPC and hormone-naïve bone metastases. Higher levels of enzymes involved in late steps of androgen synthesis (adrenal gland steroid conversion) were observed in bone metastases than in non-malignant and/or malignant prostate tissue, while the enzyme levels in earlier steps (de novo steroidogenesis) were lower in bone metastases. A subgroup of metastases expressed very high levels of AKR1C3, indicating that this group may have an induced capacity of converting adrenal-gland derived steroids into more potent androgens. This was not associated to CRPC but merely with the advanced stage of metastasis. High protein levels of AR splice variants were found in bone metastases with low AKR1C3 levels, while metastases with high AKR1C3 levels primarily contained low AR variant levels. Furthermore, about half of the CRPC bone metastases showed androgen receptor gene amplification which was associated with co-amplification of YIPF6, and a gene expression pattern that pointed at decreased osteoclast activity, and consequently decreased bone resorption.
Conclusions: The majority of CRPC bone metastases show high nuclear AR immunostaining that seems to be associated with a particularly unfavorable outcome after metastasis surgery. Subgroups of CRPC bone metastases could be identified according to presence of AR amplification and expression levels of AKR1C3 or AR splice variants, which might have clinical relevance for treatment of PC patients.
Författaren är även publicerad med efternamnet Hörnberg.


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Here I am, playing a game of $0.25/$0.50 Texas hold'em on one of the poker sites1, reading "Pot-Limit and No-Limit poker" by Reuben and Ciaffone between hands (yes, I like Poker). The book has become technical and dry, and I'm losing interest. So, I'll blog instead.
I'm finding myself increasingly interested in the "theory" of that which makes games fun. It's interesting how certain very simple sets of rules can give rise to a dull and boring game, while a slight variation on those rules can make a rich and entertaining game.
The first commandment of a good game, I have found, is the ability to tell whether you're winning or losing. You see, because if you're winning, you are inclined to push it that much further and finish the game. If you're losing, then you feel that grandeur of coming back if you win.
Notice that a very popular game among game theorists is Nim, which doesn't possess this property. Nim is what I call a flip-flop game, where each move switches who might win. Another game like this is J.H. Conway's "sprouts." I've never found these games very entertaining, and note that no popular games have Nim roots.
But, taking sprouts and adding a goal of interconnecting several dots completely (and the opposition's goal to stop this from happening), and it becomes a fun and interesting game. That follows the first commandment, since if you've interconnected three dots, you're half way there. Sprouts was awful — you had basically to forsee the entire game to decide what to do. Not only that, but it scales horribly (forseeing a game with twelve dots is impossible for any mere mortal).
Tune in next week to find out the next commandment (supposing I figure out what it is)!
1The name of the site has been removed because they blog-spammed me.


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Bloomington, Ill. – The Transylvania softball team kicked off the 2018 NCAA Tournament in dramatic fashion as freshman catcher Janelle Hynes smacked a walk-off, two-run home run to clinch an 8-6 victory over the DePauw University Tigers at the IWU Softball Field on Friday afternoon.
The Pioneers' record now stands at 33-7 on the season after winning the first game of the Bloomington regional, hosted by Illinois Wesleyan.
Friday afternoon's game featured Transylvania, the regular-season champions of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, versus the DePauw University Tigers, champions of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Pioneers took control of the game right from the start, lighting up the Tigers for five runs in the bottom of the first inning thanks to hits from Hynes and juniors Brittany Mumford, Jessica Powell, Meg Liter, and Shelbi Poehlein.
After giving up a run to the Tigers in the top of the second inning, the Pioneers extended their lead to 6-1 on an RBI single from Liter that scored Hynes.
Senior pitcher Renae Morton got off to a strong start for Transylvania before getting touched up by the Tigers for five runs in the top of the fifth inning. Junior pitcher Tayler Thompson came in to close out the inning for the Pioneers, but DePauw had done enough damage to even the game at 6-6.
With the score tied, the two teams settled in defensively for the next four innings as neither side was ready to relinquish the winning run.
Then, following a lead-off walk by Mumford in the bottom of the tenth inning, Hynes sent a towering shot over the left field wall to seal the 8-6 victory for the Pioneers.
Freshman pitcher Kameron Bowling was spectacular in five innings of relief work, giving up just one hit and no runs en route to the victory. Bowling's record now stands at 9-2 on the season.
Transylvania will now look ahead to tomorrow's winner's bracket game against Illinois Wesleyan, the No. 24 ranked team in the NFCA Top 25 poll. The game is a rematch of last season's Lexington Super Regional, which the Titans took from the Pioneers, two games to one. The winner will advance to Sunday's 1:00 p.m. Eastern time championship game while the loser will have to play against in an elimination game at 5:00 p.m. against either Thomas More or DePauw.
First pitch between the Pioneers and the Titans is set for 12:00 p.m. Eastern time at the IWU Softball Field.
For more on Transylvania softball, follow @TransySports on Twitter


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This is the sort of posh drink you would imagine the cast of "Made in Chelsea" sipping for their breakfast, still wrapped in a White Company fluffy toweling robe and all the while discussing the latest antics of so and so on their crystal studded Blackberry…
It is also delicious and healthy and packs a good punch against free radicals so your skin will remain radiant and smooth – and Botox-free!
Ingredients list for two glasses:
- Matcha latte powder 1 tsp
- Soya milk 250 ml
- Agave or brown rice syrup 2 Tbsp
Dissolve the green Matcha tea into a little bit of cold milk, then add the rest of the milk into a pan, add the sweetener and warm this over gentle heat.
Just before boiling point, switch off and beat the liquid with a whisk to make it frothy.
Serve into two tall glasses. It should be very warm but not boiling.
You can add some more frothy milk on top like a cappuccino and decorate with a pinch of Matcha.
This is a particularly warming, lean but nourishing drink. I find it is a wacky alternative to coffee and it gives you the zing you require to go bouncing into the afternoon!
You can customise and add more or less sugar according to your taste and mood.
Tombo in Thurloe place (South Kensington) makes a very sweet and indulgent version – and I find myself regularly coming back for more… They also sell divine Mochi sweets to nibble on with your latte. I could give you the exact address but then I'd have to kill you afterwards…


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Follow the adventures of this Canadian in Edinburgh as he attempted to visit 365 different pubs in 365 days.
Friday, May 4, 2012
#209. Hamilton's, 16-18 Hamilton Pl, Edinburgh
This pub is located quite near us, down in Stockbridge. I had been avoiding it because it seemed more like a restaurant, and a bit upscale for my liking. Both of which turned out to be true.
It was bustling with the after-work crowd.
There was no place for us to sit, so we settled for the couch used by the patrons waiting for a table. At least I think that is what it was for. I drank a half-pint of Deuchars from Caledonian.
I was thinking that given the love the Scots have for all things Canadian, the pubs here should sell a nitrogen-infused Stout Mountie, made with real maple syrup from Quebec and brewed by Beaver Canoe Brewery™ of Toronto, Canada. They'd drink it up with the same fervor they have for Belhaven and Deuchars, and it would give the Rangers supporters a non-Celtic porter option.
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Lottie Moon Christmas Offering
Your gifts provide salaries and living expenses for missionaries, education for their children, language training and funds for their ministries, enabling them to work and live in global cities and extreme places. Your gifts help missionaries raise up and equip local believers to become effective leaders. Training in biblical church-planting strategy leads them to become church planters among their own people — and the nations.
Order Materials
Do you need materials to help your church promote the 2019 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering? Missouri Baptist Churches can request free promotional materials.
Free downloadable resources are available directly from the IMB via their website.


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Red 'Icy Eyes' skirt from Philipp Plein featuring a side zip fastening, a pleated design, a silver-tone logo plaque and an a-line shape.
Made in Italy
Designer Style ID: CW4602451
Models Measurements
1. Your order is usually shipped out within 24-48 hours after your payment is received.
2. The tracking number of your parcel will be sent to you after your order is despatched. You may use the tracking number to check the status of your order online.
3. The shipping fee will be auto-added in the grand total when you send payment.
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Copyright © 2015-2018 Philipp Plein Official.Powered by Philipp Plein.


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Issa Asad Explains How to Motivate Your Sales Team to More Success
Issa Asad Explains How to Motivate Your Sales Team to More Success
No matter what kind of business you own, your employees will hold the key to its success. "If you manage to create a healthy relationship with your employees, your business is bound to succeed," explained Issa Asad Florida businessman, tech guru, and entrepreneur since 1996. Mr. Asad is also the CEO of Q Link Wireless and Quadrant Holdings, both located in South Florida. "It also creates a positive image of your business."
Different companies adopt different methods to encourage their employees. Some gives out cash rewards while many companies offers several non-cash benefits to its employees. However, different employees seek different benefits. Hence, you have to be flexible and offer benefits as per the employees needs. Here are three proven methods to motivate your sales team:
1. Money
Money is the most obvious and the most common motivator. Nothing can motivate your sales team more than cash. You can reward your sales team on many parameters depending on the nature of your business. For example, if you are selling any product, you can reward your sales team on the basis of the number of items sold. And if you are in the banking business, you can reward your sales team on the basis of the number of accounts they created.
However, most companies only reward employees who are successful. But, that is very demotivating for the employees who failed to reach their target. They may get a feeling of insecurity and their productivity may decrease. Hence, you should reward everyone who does their job sincerely. The reward for completing a sale will obviously be higher. But even if they failed to complete the sale, you should still reward them to keep up their motivation. It may sound a little strange, but in the long term this strategy will help you a lot.
2. Benefits and Games
Money may not be always enough. You have to offer your team some other benefits to encourage them. For example, upon reaching a certain target, you can reward them with holidays or some leaves. You can also offer them rewards like beanbags or massage chairs. Also, sales job can get quite boring at one point of time. You need to organize some games or other fun activities to keep up their motivation.
For example, you can try out the Fantasy Sales Team game. It is a very unique team based game. Upon completion of a deal or on reaching a specific target, each team will get points. Since this is a team game, every employee will try to get the best out of the others. It creates a competitive environment which can prove to be useful for your business.
3. Career Experiences
There are many employees who may not be motivated by cash and rewards only. Those who are very ambitious will be looking for opportunities to progress ahead in their career. You have to provide them with opportunities to enhance their skills, so that they can move up the ladder. Sometimes, you should even work under any of your sales representative. Follow all their orders like taking calls and following leads. This will motivate the employees.
You should also provide them an opportunity to have a meal with the higher management staff. This way you will be able to understand the problems they are facing and you will be able to address him. Having a one-to-one conversation with a higher management staff will also motivate them.


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Did you get frustrated in the past when you wanted to upload a picture on your Instagram Stories but realized it was +24hours old so you couldn't find it unless you took a screenshot of it? Yes, we've all been facing that struggle for many months! But since the beginning of September, Instagram was testing out to remove that limit and now it's official: the 24hour limit is removed for all users. This means you can upload any picture or video you would like to share from your camera roll. And there's more to discover, but first things first: get the update and relaunch your Instagram app.
1. A new sticker has been added! If you upload a picture from another day, even several years ago, a sticker with the date will be added on it. You can remove it, change the color text (red, white or black) and do a great throwback of a nice event or vacation memory.
2. New filters on stories. Normally there are six filters available but since the update a new package of filters has been added with names of important cities such as Cairo, Mexico City, Tokyo, Lisbon, Seoul,... No Antwerp or Brussels in the list but that doesn't stop us from loving them anyway.
Which one is your favorite?
But why is this limit removal beneficial for your account?
With this new tool you won't need to post instantly or have time pressure to promote, post and show something to your customers or followers. Now you will be able to prepare and shoot everything on a day off or when you got a free moment during the day. Very important as most of the time brands didn't post any stories during the weekend due to the closing hours of the office or it was too busy in the shop to be on Instagram. To avoid this gap of posts you can now shoot during the week and keep your followers attracted during the weekend!
We're sure this will help a lot of businesses to promote and advertise all the clock around!


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Liability Risks
Companies in certain industries can find themselves at a relatively high risk of liability for legal actions or debts. Companies like pharmaceutical manufacturers, for example, can incur legal obligations in the millions of dollars for class-action lawsuits. If a company wishes to operate the same way as a partnership or sole proprietorship, but needs extra protection from personal liability, the LLC form of organization may be the right fit. LLCs provide liability protection without the possibility of losing control of the organization through the votes of stockholders, as can be the case with traditional corporations.
Tax Status
One of traditional corporation's most pronounced drawbacks is the concept of double taxation. Corporations, as separate legal entities, are taxed for their income, then the income is taxed again at the individual owner level. Business owners who wish to gain liability protection without incurring double taxation can take advantage of the LLC form, which allows owners the option to tax the business like a corporation or as a pass-through entity like a sole proprietorship.
Stock Limitations
Unlike corporations, LLCs do not have the right to sell shares of stock to the public to raise money. Thus, LLCs are best suited to business owners who do not wish to take advantage of this fundraising method. Not having the ability to sell stock can impede LLCs' growth prospects compared with corporations, which can grow large quickly through stock and bond offerings. Because of this, the LLC form may be better suited to businesses that do not wish to grow to the size of companies like Wal-Mart or Macy's, but which are designed to operate on a smaller scale.
Members of LLCs can be corporations in addition to individuals. Corporations can find it beneficial to form an LLC as a subsidiary to section off a component of their operations. Corporations looking to gain an extra layer of liability protection and managerial control over specific departments can look to LLCs for the solution. The personal investment advisory service arm of a retail bank, for example, could be a good candidate for a separate LLC with the bank as a member, due to the high risk of liability issues.


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BUSINESS brains on Merseyside have gone into overdrive in the wake of the second Kickstart competition to find jobcreating ideas.
Kickstart's hotline has been ringing off the hook with enquiries from business hopefuls.
This is the second phase of Kickstart, unveiled last year and aims to create 2,008 jobs in the small business sector by the time Liverpool is Capital of Culture in 2008.
We are already on target with more than 500 jobs created after the first year's competition, won by hi-tech firm Denbridge Marine.
The ECHO has teamed up with Merseyside Special Investment Fund (MSIF), offering a #15,000 cash prize and consultancy worth up to #10,000.
This year's winner can invest the money in equipment, premises, product development,a member of staff - anything that will help make their business more successful.
In addition to the cash and consultancy they will receive invaluable free publicity in the ECHO.
MSIF chief Mark Fuller is on the judging panel with ECHO editor Mark Dickinson and he said: "We know from the massive response last year that there is no shortage of talent among ECHO readers so it's going to bea tough judging process.
"We are looking for an exciting business which can demonstrate it has genuine, sustainable growth potential, a focused and committed and entrepreneurial team anda successful track record in the first two years of trading."
To enter, all you need to do is log on to icliverpool.co.uk and fill in an online entry form telling us about your business, your products or services.
You will need to include details of yourself and any co-directors/partners, financial information relating to the past two years and indicate why you think your business should be named ECHO Business of the Year.
Or you can pick up an entry form from MSIF or ECHO offices.
A panel of judges, including some leading-business figures, will be assessing the entrants and over the next six weeks the finalists will be revealed in the ECHO.
Businesses must be based in Merseyside, employ fewer than 250 people and havea turnover of less than #40m. Finalists will be announced in January.
To enter the competition pick up an application form through our website, icliverpool.co.uk
You can also collect them from the ECHO reception in Old Hall Street or the MSIF headquarters in the Cunard buildings on the Strand.
For more information, ring the Kickstart hotline on 0845 900 0151.


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Lucien Bianco, La récidive, Révolution russe, révolution chinoise
Lucien BIANCO, La récidive, Révolution russe, révolution chinoise, Paris : Éditions Gallimard, 2014, 517 p.
Texte intégral
- 1 http://www.histoire.presse.fr/actualite/portraits/lucien-bianco-mao-ligne-mire-01-11-2014-118116. L (...)
1The title of Lucien Bianco's magnificent study is not easy to translate into English : "The Recurrence" perhaps (as in the recurrence of a disease that has gone into remission) ; or better, "The Repeat Offence" (as in criminal recidivism). Pierre Nora apparently vetoed Bianco's original title : "La repetition," because of its theatrical connotations (it can mean a "rehearsal") ; and "La réplique," a word that can mean an "aftershock" as well as a "replica," was also considered. This, too, was rejected since aftershocks are always weaker than the initial earthquake.1 And this points us towards the nub of Bianco's argument. For against those on the left (especially in France) who once argued that Maoism marked a profound break with Stalinism, Bianco contends that Mao copied the Stalinist model, and that many of his supposed innovations were no more than exaggerations of features already present in the Stalinist original. In other words, Maoism was essentially a repetition of Stalinism and one, moreover, that in some ways was more destructive than the original. It is a bold, if not entirely original thesis, and Bianco elaborates it with subtlety and sardonic verve.
- 2 Lucien Bianco, Les origines de la révolution chinoise, P. : Gallimard, 1967. The first English edit (...)
2As the doyen of historians of the Chinese Revolution, Bianco is fully alert to the ways in which the nationalist character of that revolution distinguished it from the Bolshevik revolution, with its more universalistic, class character. In comparison with his most influential book, however, The Origins of the Chinese Revolution, which first appeared in French in 1967 and in a fourth edition in 2007, La récidive places much less emphasis on the indigenous factors that gave rise to the Chinese Revolution, stressing instead its essentially imitative dependence on the Soviet model.2 The core of his argument is that both revolutions were rooted in socio‑economic backwardness and that the fundamental dynamic shaping their development was the determination on the part of the Communist rulers to catch up with the capitalist world, no matter what the cost to their populations. He argues that for Mao, the crucial lesson he learned from the Russian Revolution was the need to imitate Stalin's "Great Break," i.e. the decision in 1929 to launch crash industrialization and violent collectivization. This was the inspiration behind the Great Leap Forward (1958‑1960). In contrast to recent tendencies to stress the determinacy of ideology, Bianco makes the case that it was the domestic and international pressure to overcome economic and social backwardness that was paramount in forging the similarities between the two regimes. While he does not deny the efficacy of ideology, his is, essentially, a structural account. At the same time, he tells us that though he was formed as a historian at a time when the Annales school was pre‑eminent, he has always sought to preserve within himself the spirit of Plutarch. And his book is indeed constantly attentive to the importance of revolutionary actors.
3The book comprises nine substantive chapters which deal, respectively, with backwardness, "catching up" economically, politics, peasants, famines, bureaucracy, culture, camps and "monsters." As this suggests, the scope is wide, but there are areas Bianco does not seek to cover. There is little about urban life or the working class (the leading class in the eyes of both regimes) or – a point to which I shall refer below – the Cultural Revolution. Given the theme of the book, moreover, we learn nothing about how the practices and language of Stalinist politics were brought to China by Chinese Communists trained in the Soviet Union before 1949 or by Soviet experts coming to the PRC in the 1950s. Nevertheless the sweep of the comparison is impressive. In the first two chapters, Bianco shows that China in 1949 was far more backward socio‑economically than Russia in 1917, and draws attention to differences as well as similarities in patterns of socio‑economic development. Urbanization in the Soviet Union, for example, advanced far more rapidly and spontaneously than in China. Both regimes improved the health and education of the populace, but he reckons the improvement was greater in Mao's China than Stalin's Soviet Union. Yet notwithstanding the CCP's more positive view of the peasantry, by the time Mao died in 1976, the average income of rural dwellers was scarcely one‑third that of urban dwellers and possibly inferior to that of their grandparents. In the chapter on politics Bianco argues that Mao was basically ignorant of marxism, familiar only with the Stalinist style of politics. He scorns the idea that the mass line ever meant more than an authoritarian top‑down mobilization of the masses. Yet he gives credit to Mao for recognizing the possibility of a new state‑capitalist class coming to power through the institutions of the party‑state. It is on this ruling class that the chapter on bureaucracy focuses. Bianco stresses the accumulation of privileges by the ruling elite in both societies, showing that Mao was far less tolerant of displays of privilege and material comfort than his mentor, yet arguing that it was essentially the work‑style of the party elite to which he objected, rather than its monopoly of power.
- 3 Andrea Graziosi, L'Urss di Lenin e Stalin : Storia del'Unione Sovietica, 1914‑45, Bologna : Il Muli (...)
4Two outstanding chapters on the peasantry and on famine follow. Bianco tells the appalling story of Soviet collectivization well. Only the export of agricultural produce could pay for rapid industrialization and it was the need to extract more from the peasantry that was the spur to forced collectivization in 1928. He makes the perceptive point that Soviet collectivization was distinguished from its later Chinese counterpart by the simultaneous liquidation of private farms and the elimination of the kulaks as a class. It was this that ensured collectivization in China was relatively non‑violent when the "socialist high tide" of 1955 was proclaimed. True, this was a result in part of the fact that the CCP had a far more detailed apparatus of rule in the countryside than had the Bolsheviks in 1928, but the fact that "rich peasants" – much reduced in status by land reform – were allowed to become members of the cooperatives meant that they escaped the murder, banishment and imprisonment suffered by their Russian counterparts. In both countries collectivization was the prelude to a harrowing famine, the prime causes of which were the ruthless pumping of resources from the agricultural sector to support a reckless rate of industrial growth, exacerbated by the ruthlessness and ignorance of the two dictators. Bianco follows Andrea Graziosi in suggesting that from autumn 1932 Stalin used famine to punish the Ukrainian people for their nationalist insolence, which is by no means an uncontroversial view.3 It leads to the debatable claim that Stalin's responsibility for the famine sprang from intention whereas Mao's sprang from delusion.
5The chapter on culture, one of the longest in the book, is consistently interesting but ultimately unsatisfactory. Bianco wrestles with his preference for Soviet over PRC literature and he seems unwilling to concede that Soviet culture was never blighted to the same extent as culture under Mao. Despite his recognition of the problem of evaluating writers in terms of whether they were supporters or critics of the regime, he tends to articulate his analysis in terms of this principle. He thus cannot accept that a writer such as Mikhail Sholokhov – a craven Stalinist or Soviet patriot, depending on one's point of view – can have been a great writer. More importantly, perhaps, the limits of comparative method are most apparent when it comes to comparing writers, for whom individuality is the defining characteristic. To compare Evgenii Zamiatin and Shen Congwen, for example, by suggesting that both were writers who struggled to keep their distance from politics, is to seize on a shared quality yet to overlook the massive contrast in their genres and styles.
6By contrast, the tightly focused chapter on the camps is an exemplary piece of comparative history, admirably illuminating the similarities and differences between the gulag and the laogai. Nearly 20 million Soviet citizens passed through the prison system between 1929 and 1955 – perhaps one in six adults – and nearly 6 million others were deported to distant regions. The proportion of those detained in China's camps and prisons was considerably smaller, reaching a maximum of 1.75 per cent of the population in 1952 and 1.05 % in 1977. The camps in the PRC were smaller in size and their populations more stable. The social profile of the inmates in the two states, moreover, was also different, with the proportion of peasants, foreigners and possibly women (wives of "enemies of people") greater in the Soviet Union. As Bianco grimly demonstrates, however, the central experience of the gulag and the laogai was a common one of hunger and poor hygiene (possibly worse in the laogai), with guards equally corrupt but apparently more cruel in the gulag than the laogai.
- 4 Thomas P. Bernstein, "Mao Zedong and the Famine of 1959‑60 : A Study in Wilfulness," China Quarterl (...)
7The final chapter is a brilliant comparison of Stalin and Mao in terms of their personalities and modes of rule. Both dictators, according to the author, were cruel and inflexible, inflicting untold suffering on their peoples ; both were cut off from society ; both sought to make sense of the world and hankered to become major theoreticians. Stalin read much, assimilated quickly, and had considerable knowledge of several areas, whereas Mao was more narrowly Chinese in his intellectual formation – at the age of sixteen he had never heard of the United States – and his educational handicap increased with age, as he fell back for inspiration on the traditional classics. Bianco then embarks upon what he calls "the impossible demonstration" : namely, an attempt to judge which of the two "monsters" of the chapter title was worse. Given his central thesis, he concludes somewhat surprisingly that it is the 'recidivist' who comes out better from the comparison. He points out that a greater proportion of the Soviet population fell prey to the Great Terror than did Chinese to Cultural Revolution, a comparison that is still to the detriment of the Soviet Union even if 30 million Chinese peasants who perished in the famine of 1969‑1961 are included. And whereas Stalin unleashed the Great Terror after declaring that socialism had triumphed, Mao saw the Cultural Revolution as about saving the revolution (although that point looks less telling if one takes into account the fact that the Soviet Union was threatened by external enemies in 1937 in a way that China in 1966 was not). Bianco's argument, however, rests ultimately on the motivations and modalities of rule of each tyrant. "On the one hand, a premeditated massacre, rigorous, bureaucratic control, a meticulous procedure launched and controlled by one man […] on the other, power at a distance, overtaken by the cataclysm that it has unleashed and by the local initiatives for which it is responsible but which it is incapable of mastering" (p. 426). This contrast between ruination wrought wilfully and ruination wrought unintentionally is by no means clear, in my view. Some would argue that the Great Terror quickly ran out of Stalin's control, while others would point out that Mao regularly set quotas for the percentage of "counter‑revolutionaries" to be arrested or put to death, long after the real danger of counter‑revolution had receded. And it is stretching things to suggest that Mao's responsibility for the famine sprang from "folly", whereas Stalin's sprang from intent. Bianco does in fact mention that if Mao had not launched a "second leap" in summer 1959 – following his fury at Peng Dehuai's daring to criticise the Great Leap – two thirds of the famine victims might have been saved. And he concedes that Mao was "pushing things towards the abyss" (p. 169). So it is hard to acquit him of a degree of intentionality (what Thomas Bernstein calls "wilfulness") in respect of the famine.4 And whilst Bianco is correct to say that Stalin's cruelty was more meticulous and vigilant than Mao's, it is doubtful whether any metric for measuring evil can be constructed that will prove to general satisfaction that Mao's cold indifference to the consequences of his actions was less morally culpable than Stalin's cold calculation. So while the comparison is a real tour de force, it is not clear that seeking to decide who was the worse "monster" is ultimately illuminating.
- 5 Bianco's errors are tiny and few. It's doubtful, for example, that agriculture in late‑imperial Rus (...)
- 6 Hebei tudi gaige dang'an shiliao xuanbian [Selected Archival Materials on Land Reform in Hebei] (Sh (...)
- 7 Michael Schoenhals, ed., "Public Security in the People's Republic of China : A Selection of Mood A (...)
8Throughout the book, Bianco, an expert on China, displays a strong command of the historiography of the Stalin era in English and French.5 This historiography, based on deep archival research, is much more extensive than the corresponding historiography of the PRC. Nevertheless, there is a nascent, archivally‑based historiography of the PRC, of which Bianco makes surprisingly little use, except in relation to the famine. This matters because the archives allow us to compare in a way that was impossible until recently the impact of the two revolutions on the lives of ordinary people. Archival sources allow us to explore the two revolutions "from the bottom up" ; and from that perspective differences start to appear as significant as similarities. To make just two very general points. First, the distinctive facets of Maoist ideology had a purchase on grass‑roots politics that made the Chinese revolution very different for its Soviet counterpart. If recent Soviet historiography has tended to highlight once unnoticed aspects of Stalinism that appear to adumbrate Maoism – one thinks of the regular recourse to campaigns or the rituals of criticism and self‑criticism within the party – there was nothing similar in the Soviet Union to the ways in which Mao's shifting thought translated into the politics of everyday life. Following his speech on handling contradiction of February 1957, for example, a new round of struggle sessions and writing of personal histories was launched in workplaces around the country with a view to identifying antagonistic and non‑antagonistic contradictions in the workforce. Similarly, in the mid‑1960s, the exalted status of Mao Zedong Thought led to hundreds of thousands of educated youngsters being sent into villages to teach peasants to memorize Mao's "three constantly read articles," which dealt, respectively, with serving the people, communist internationalism, and perseverance in the face of hardship. In the Soviet Union, of course, there was mass propaganda aplenty, but nothing akin to such sustained and massively resourced campaigns aimed at reworking the beliefs and values of ordinary people in accordance with the shifting ideology of the Great Helmsman. If ideology was far more invasive of daily life in China than the Soviet Union, new archival sources also attune us to the ways in which indigenous cultural practices shaped official policy and popular response to those policies. When work teams were sent into villages to carry out land reform, for instance, they promoted the technique of "speaking bitterness," selecting poor peasants to pour out their grievances and denounce their "exploiters" in the new language of class. In 1947 in one district of Huanghua county in Hebei province, 323 peasants spoke of how they had starved in the "old society" ; 546 told of how they had begged for food ; 115 of how they had been forced to sell sons and daughters ; 42 of how their families had been dispersed ; 116 of relatives who had been killed by bandits. This venting of suffering was suffused with extremes of emotion. The local party organisation reported that among 5184 peasants who performed "speaking bitterness," 4451 cried bitterly, 12 cried until they fainted, 195 cried until they vomited.6 This theatricalization of politics was at the heart of all Maoist campaigns and it drew on the manichean story lines of much popular culture. In the public trials that accompanied the campaign against counter‑revolutionaries in 1950‑1951, the accused were assigned roles akin to those of sinister characters in folk opera and their crimes were narrated according to the conventions of that genre. On 20 May 1951, Peng Zhen, the mayor of Beijing, addressed a crowd of tens of thousands who had turned up for the trial of 220 counter‑revolutionaries : "What shall we do with this bestial group of vicious despots, bandits, traitors, and special agents ?," he railed. "Shoot them !" the audience yelled.7 The show trials of 1936‑37 in the Soviet Union were certainly orchestrated to theatrical effect, yet there was nothing akin to the participation of the masses in the drama or to the manipulation of folk genre to elicit emotional identification on the part of spectators. While we should certainly not assume that the Maoist state had the capacity to achieve its ends, its inventiveness in devising forms through which it could disseminate its ideological categories, its systems of classification, its discursive practices, its norms and values had no antecedent in Stalinism.
9It is in the inattention to the Cultural Revolution, however, that one feels Bianco's thesis of recidivism most obviously fails to register the differences between the two revolutions. The Cultural Revolution is discussed only as a comparator to the Great Terror, and that discussion only takes up fourteen pages. Yet western scholars now tend to concur with their PRC colleagues in seeing the Cultural Revolution as lasting an entire decade, from 1966 to 1976. As a political crisis engineered by the supreme leader through the mobilization of Red Guards and rebel workers, a mobilization that quickly imperilled the regime over which he presided, the Cultural Revolution had no analogue in any other Communist state. So one might argue that to exclude it from the comparison with the Soviet Union is legitimate. Yet if one is seeking to understand what the Maoist revolution meant for hundreds of millions of people, then the Cultural Revolution was a defining experience. The mass movement to assault "those in authority taking the capitalist road" rapidly degenerated into violence, factionalism and chaos that deeply affected popular understandings of what the revolution was about. Not a state office, party organ, high school, university, factory or shop remained untouched, and even in the countryside the impact was much greater than was once thought, especially in county towns. In the Soviet Union there was nothing similar to the "wild beatings and wild killings" that tore local communities apart during 1967 and 1968, despite the violence of the civil war and collectivization, (indeed many Soviet citizens supported Stalin precisely because they saw him as the guarantor of social order). The Cultural Revolution thus reminds us that an indispensable element in any comparison between the two revolutions must encompass social history, must explore the differential impact of the revolution on the mass of the population.
10Bianco's focus on the structural dynamics and top‑down policies of the two regimes makes for a cogent case that, in formal terms, the revolutions were broadly similar. The emphasis on form, however, comes at the expense of attention to ideological and socio‑cultural content ; and once one starts to look "from the bottom up" at how the revolutions worked themselves out in the daily lives of ordinary people, then differences loom large. This criticism, however, is a response to the thought‑provoking character of Bianco's argument and is not intended to detract from his extraordinary achievement. He has written a wise and humane book, one attuned to the ironies of revolution, a testament to a lifetime of study and reflection.
1 http://www.histoire.presse.fr/actualite/portraits/lucien-bianco-mao-ligne-mire-01-11-2014-118116. Last accessed 26 December 2014.
2 Lucien Bianco, Les origines de la révolution chinoise, P. : Gallimard, 1967. The first English edition appeared in 1971.
3 Andrea Graziosi, L'Urss di Lenin e Stalin : Storia del'Unione Sovietica, 1914‑45, Bologna : Il Mulino, 2007, 361.
4 Thomas P. Bernstein, "Mao Zedong and the Famine of 1959‑60 : A Study in Wilfulness," China Quarterly, 186, (2006) : 421‑45.
5 Bianco's errors are tiny and few. It's doubtful, for example, that agriculture in late‑imperial Russia may be described as "stagnant" (p. 20) ; or that kul´turnost´ may be construed as ersatz culture or philistinism (p. 113) ; and Zhdanov's father was a biblical scholar who became an inspector of schools, not a famous pianist (p. 307).
6 Hebei tudi gaige dang'an shiliao xuanbian [Selected Archival Materials on Land Reform in Hebei] (Shijiazhuang, 1991), 163‑4.
7 Michael Schoenhals, ed., "Public Security in the People's Republic of China : A Selection of Mood Assessment Reports (1951‑1962)," Contemporary Chines Thought, 38, 3 (2007).Haut de page
Pour citer cet article
Référence électronique
S.A. Smith, « Lucien Bianco, La récidive, Révolution russe, révolution chinoise », Cahiers du monde russe [En ligne], 55/3-4 | 2014, mis en ligne le 13 avril 2015, Consulté le 09 décembre 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/monderusse/8063Haut de page
Droits d'auteur
© École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris.Haut de page


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And Some More Headshots! {Rhode Island Photographer}
It is always fun to photograph a friend – especially when they are gorgeous! When she's not modeling for me, she is busy with her Discovery Maps business, which currently features some of the best places to visit in Narragansett and Block Island!
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The weather was a little chilly, but between the gorgeous location and the beautiful smiles on these gals, we got lots of great shots!!


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National parks are home to flora and fauna which engross the beauty of world. The top 10 most visited national park will help you to gauge the clandestine creative of God which can be found only in national parks. The United States have been blessed to have the most beautiful and beguiling national parks in the world and ranked highest in the list of most visited national parks to surprise the world. Find out the number of visitors and get astonished to know the facts about popular national parks.
Top Ten Most Visited National Parks in the World
Check out the list to find whether your favorite national park comes in Top Ten Most Visited National Parks or not and get astonished to see the amount of visitors visiting them each year.
1. Great Smoky Mountain
Great Smoky Mountains is the busiest national park in the world as it welcomes more than 9 million visitors per year. It's located in Tennessee and North Carolina. It has another name as Wildflower national park as it has plethora of exquisite flowers that can be seen only in this park. It offers its visitors 800 miles for trekking and 700 miles of stream to do fishing.
2. Grand Canyon
The immense size and dramatic landscape makes this National park one of the most popular tourist attraction site in Arizona. Grand Canyon ranked second on the list of top 10 most visited national parks in the world with the variety of fossils which are embedded in rocks.
3. Yosemite
If anyone has fascination about verdant scenery and waterfalls then Yosemite national park is the place to visit. Yosemite is famous in the world and counted more than 4 million visitors in a year. The 317-foot Vernal Fall, and the Horsetail Fall are two of the popular waterfalls in Yosemite National Park.
4. Yellowstone
Yellowstone has been established in 1872 and it is the oldest national park in U.S. Bison, grizzly bears and wolves have home in this national park. Over 3.5 million visitors visit Yellowstone national park to get astonished to see the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. The maximum number of hot waters springs and geysers in the world add up to the specialties of this popular national park.
5. Rocky Mountain
The great topographical diversity of this national park makes it one of the most popular national parks. Approximately 3 million visit this park to view the beauty and 150 lakes with 450 miles of stream. The elevations in the hiking trail can range from 7,500 to above 12,000 feet. The wildlife is of black bears, moose, bighorn sheep, and the mule deer. The Longs Peak, at 14,259 feet, is one of the prime attractions at this national park.
6. Olympic
Olympic National park has beaches which embrace the Pacific Ocean, peaks which are crested with glaciers, and the stunning rainforest valleys. The sea stacks has able to attract 3 million visitors in a year. Olympic National Park spans three distinct ecosystems, containing a staggering array of flora and fauna. The great variety of animals found in Olympic National park which makes it more attractive to animal lovers.
7. Grand Teton
With 200 miles of hiking trails and 100 miles of roads to explore Grand Teton in Wyoming has become the top 10 most visited national parks in the world. It has been named Grand Teton after the highest peak of 13,770 feet. Jackson Hole and the Jackson Lake are able to attract 2.5 million visitors in a year to this beautiful national park.
8. Zion
Zion national park situated in Utah and has the beguiling red or cream or pink color cliffs which are quite unique and can be seen in this national park only. The Virgin river flows through the Zion National Park. The wilderness trails in this national park, spread over 100 miles. Zion encounters 2.8 million visitors in a year.
9. Acadia
Acadia resides in Maine where it touches the Atlantic Ocean and comprises Islands, lakes, forests and seacoast. The park has 11 amphibian species, 28 species of fish, and 338 species of birds. It is one of the prime locations for bird-watching. Over 2.3 million visitors visits Acadia National Park and enjoy the 120 miles of trails for hiking.
10. Cuyahoga Valley
Cuyahoga valley was established in year 2000 and has recorded 2.1 million of visitors in year which itself is a astonishing number for a new park. It is located in Ohio and the only national park in the region. The wildlife in the Cuyahoga valley includes white-tailed deer, gray and red foxes, raccoons, and various species of birds and fishes. The scenic beauty and 186 miles of trail for hiking is another advantage you can have while exploring Cuyahoga valley.


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Fifteen years ago, most companies housed private on-site data centers, and they only occasionally used colocation facilities as a backup solution or a place to host less important applications and data.
Now, " ... the world has changed," says Lex Coors, chief engineering officer of InterxionSM, a cloud and carrier-neutral data center provider based in Europe. Coors explains that, "This has all changed because the colocation industry has taken a leading role in efficiency and in designs. Today, the larger companies see us as their prime facility."
Not only are these massive data centers incredibly reliable, they operate at never-seen-before efficiency levels. And they have to. With over 80,000 square meters of white space throughout 11 countries, Interxion must be energy efficient and sustainable for the sake of both responsible computing and wise accounting. Coors notes, "If you think about Interxion — 34 data centers — we have to be committed to managing our resources responsibly and constantly improve the way we operate our data centers. From that perspective, sustainability, especially with energy prices in Europe, it makes sense. You need to save energy."
Transforming efficiency together
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Together, Schneider Electric and Interxion are making new data center efficiency and sustainability standards possible.


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Technically, both the Xbox 360, and the Playstation 3 are superior machines. Both support HD resolutions up to 1080p, both have a more robust online community, both are able to rip music off of CDs, both are able to play DVDs, and the Playstation 3 is able to play Blu Rays. From a core gamer's perspective, the PS3 and 360 should be head to head, fighting for the top position, while the Nintendo Wii sits in third place. This obviously isn't the case, though. There are many places around the world where it is still very difficult to find a Nintendo Wii, and with titles like Wii Music, and Wii Fit high on casual gamers lists, this Christmas will no doubt be another huge success for Nintendo.
Of course, most core gamers could care less about Wii Music, or Wii Fit and will be stuffing their stockings with the likes of Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead, Resistance 2, Little Big Planet, and Call of Duty: World at War; but the reality is that Wii Music will probably sell more than all of these games individually. This current console war should be worrisome to core gamers. With the success of the Nintendo Wii, and the high sales of games such as Guitar Hero, and Rock Band, it is clear that there is an enormous casual market in the video game industry. This current surge of casual gamers has prompted Microsoft and Sony to advertise their casual titles much more than they used to, such as the above mention Guitar Hero, and Rock Band. It is clear that Sony is also trying to appeal to the casual crowd with the recent game Little Big Planet, but it is still unclear as to how that will work out until the holiday season is over.
The Nintendo Wii has changed the video game industry forever. It has proven that the game with the better graphics won't always sell more, and that the console with the most high quality games won't always be number one. The Nintendo Wii has the most games that have received a low score, as well as the least amount of exclusives that appeal to the core gamer, yet the Nintendo Wii is still outselling both the Xbox 360, and the Playstation 3 easily each month.
Sony and Microsoft may have done what was expected of them this generation by releasing an obviously superior console to their predecessors, but what about their next consoles? Will Sony and Microsoft be confident in releasing another console geared towards the core gamer that will be over $500 at launch? It's entirely possible that Sony, and Microsoft will try to make their consoles appeal more towards the casual crowd. Core gamers often forget that Sony and Microsoft are companies. Companies want to make money. If the video game industry has shifted towards casual gamers, then more games will be developed for the casual crowd. It's the game developers that want you to experience games like Shadow of the Colossus, for example. Game developers want you to interpret their games as art, however the Corporate Heads of companies such as Microsoft and Sony couldn't care less about how amazing a video game experience is.
If a game like Wii Fit sells more than a game like Shadow of the Colossus, then it is going to be promoted a lot more. Developers are going to be encouraged to make games to appeal to the largest crowd. Don't be surprised if the next consoles are geared more towards the casual crowd. This may be the worst possible news for the core gamer, but it also may be a harsh reality.


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Known for his blunt but accurate opinions on the quality and function of infant and toddler gear, baby planner Jamie Grayson is the chief product reviewer here at StrollerTraffic. We trust him implicitly, and are excited to announce his new monthly column: The Gear Guy Guide, where Grayson will rant and rave about the most buzzworthy products to hit the market.
BabyBjorn Comfort Carrier
I love when people prove me wrong. This year, two companies have made me eat my previous words of contempt: one is Bugaboo, whose Bee I formerly hated, and now enjoy. The other is BabyBjorn.
The new BabyBjorn Comfort Carrier was presented to me during a lovely breakfast at the Waldorf and arrived via UPS today. Designed to carry babies and toddlers from 3 months (minimum 13 pounds) up to 31 pounds, the Comfort Carrier is a front-only carrier; the child can look in or face out. The difference between this and the previous Bjorns? This one is actually comfortable. It resembles many of the soft carriers on the market by distributing the weight onto the wearer's hips. The shoulder straps can also be tightened or loosened to adjust the weight on your shoulders. It is shockingly comfortable. The seat is also more ergonomic for the child, supporting him or her by the booty and thighs rather than by the crotch as before. What really sets this carrier apart is the interior seat design: the material is slick, so that the child slides right into position. There's also a safety feature unique to this carrier—if the waist buckle, God forbid, comes undone, your nugget is secured in a breathable mesh pouch—he's going nowhere.
The Comfort Carrier retails right under $200—higher than other carriers that you can use from birth and that offer positions other than front-carrying. Is it worth it? That is not my decision. All I can say is, I am adding this to my arsenal of suggested carriers with absolutely no hesitation.
Britax B-Ready
I am very, very excited to report that Britax has created a game-changer in the stroller industry—the B-Ready. I met with Britax in the library of the Hudson Hotel on a rainy morning, not really looking forward to the preview, as I have never been a big fan of their stroller line. I was blown away by what they showed me—a stroller that resembles the Uppababy Vista in many ways (reversible seat, great foot rest, huge undercarriage bag, suspension in all four wheels, adjustable handle, terrific canopy) . . . all wonderful features. But here are the details that really floored me:
It converts into an in-line double stroller with an attachable back seat that reclines FLAT for a newborn. The harness is adjusted via a slider on the back of the stroller, so you don't have to re-thread the straps (genius). It has 14 configurations, and can hold two car seats, two upright seats, a bassinet and a seat, etc. The adapters for the Britax Chaperone car seat are included with the stroller, and you can actually leave them on the Chaperone when you install it in your car (an industry first!). The stroller folds extremely compact as a single (like the Vista), and is only 2 inches bulkier when folded with the double seat attached. Lastly, the toddler cup holder (sold separately) has an adjustable angle, so as you recline the seat, beverages won't tip over. Age range: 6 months-55 pounds in top seat; birth to 35 lbs in back seat; can be used from birth via separate bassinet or car seat attachment; retails for $499.99.
I am curious to see how this amazing stroller performs in the market against the big boys, and I really hope the public will give it a chance. Trust me, people—it's amazing.
Normally, bathtubs don't get me going. But this new-to-the-U.S. tub has joined the Puj Tub as one of the best baby bath options I've ever seen—primarily because of its compact nature. It folds flat, accordion-style, and snaps shut. It's made from "good" plastic, and comes in fun colors. There are no crevices, so cleaning is a breeze, and draining the tub is quite easy via the rubber stopper in the bottom. What's also really interesting about this tub is that it has rubberized joints, so it will "give" with your child, and allow a bit more room for play—very cool. The recommended age range is 0-4 years, but I would use this as a companion piece to the Puj Tub—after you little guy is able to sit up on his own. Retails around $40.
Follow Jamie Grayson on twitter: @thebabyguynyc