text:
Web- Based Appointment Scheduling – Proactive Solutions For Your Practice
Lisa West November 27th, 2011
A web-based appointment scheduling system can provide medical practices as well as sole practitioners with an organized and reliable way to manage appointment scheduling. If you and your staff seem to be spending much of your valuable time managing appointments it is probably time to take the bull by the horns and update the way those appointments are being managed: Particularly if the "system" your practice currently has in place is "pen and paper"…
Not Just For Medical Practitioners
Automated appointment scheduling is being utilized by major medical organizations throughout the United States. While an online appointment scheduler (HIPAA approved) can provide access to a reliable 24/7 scheduling system for patients and staff its use is by no means limited to medical practices and doctors. Online and self-service appointment scheduling software can be a useful asset for hairdressers, beauticians, holistic practitioners – Many different professionals from a variety of sectors can and do use automated appointment scheduling to manage appointments.
A free trial of any software or system you might be considering is a step in the right direction: this provides an opportunity to try out the features and assess which are the most useful to your business. The capabilities of the software available is varied, as are the way in which the features can be utilized.
Helpful Suggestions
Often, even a seemingly small error can have a "knock-on" effect throughout the entire day: At best! At worst, it could cost you a patient. There are certain features that can particularly help your practice use the software to maximize profitability with better time-management.
Quick and easy access is one of the most crucial aspects of any online scheduler. Being able to access schedules to stay informed and in touch can be extremely advantageous for both practitioners and their patients: Particularly for those often ´on the move´.
Automated scheduling for repeat appointments and a patient appointment reminder system can help to reduce no-shows. An online scheduler that can deal with reminder calls via email and sms text is a modern and highly efficient way to ensure your patients turn up for their appointment: Or are able to reschedule or cancel their appointment.
Being proactive with regards to patient appointment scheduling can help you maximize efficiency and so increase productivity. Take the initiative – Invest in a reliable system that meets the demands of your practice.


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For most families with kids and teens, May is an exciting month. Kids are planning graduations and proms, parents are planning vacations. The weather is warming up and parents and kids alike look forward to summer. But for at least three dozen families, May was a month of tragedy after their children came in contact with loaded, negligently stored firearms.
In May, a month with 31 days, at least 37 children pulled a trigger and unintentionally shot themselves or another person. Each month this year, the number of these incidents has ticked up by one to two shootings, but in May, the number went up by nine. There were several days in May where there were multiple shootings involving kids with access to irresponsibly stored firearms.
Incidents by month:
January: 23
February: 24
March: 26
April: 28
May: 37
(For comparison, there were 23 incidents in May of 2016.)
Of the 37 incidents in May:
3 adults were injured
24 children were injured
10 children were killed
The youngest shooter was an 18-month-old in Tennessee who shot himself in the face.
Of the 37 incidents in May:
22 of the shooters were under the age of 13
12 children shot a friend, 3 were killed
2 children shot a sibling, 1 was killed.
These types of shootings are very rare in some states. For example, between 2014 and 2016, Massachusetts, a state with safe storage laws, saw only 1 incident of a child fatally shot with an irresponsibly stored gun. On the other end of the spectrum, these shootings occur with alarming regularity in other states.
Of the 37 incidents in May, over half occurred in just five states:
Indiana: 4
Louisiana: 4
Florida: 3
Tennessee: 3
Texas: 3
In May, there were 30 states where there was not a single unintentional shooting involving a child with access to unsecured guns.
Throughout 2017, there are some states with higher numbers of incidents:
Florida: 11
Louisiana: 9
South Carolina: 9
Tennessee: 9
Texas: 9
The numbers for 2017 are up from 2016. Between January 1, 2016 and May 31, 2016, we logged 129 incidents. Between January 1, 2017 and May 31, 2017, we logged 138.
Each one of these shootings was preventable. Every gun in a child's hand must first pass through an adult. Gun violence is a complicated issue, but keeping guns stored responsibly is not complicated. There are a number of policies and recommendations that have been shown to reduce the number of these preventable tragedies.
States with child access prevention and safe storage laws experience fewer of these types of shootings. Adult gun owners should be held responsible when their choice to leave a loaded gun unsecured results in a child's injury or death. Laws that operate as a deterrent, such as DUI laws, work. While they may not prevent every incidents, they will prevent some and that's significant, especially when prevention means fewer children shot and killed.
Parents must be educated about the vital importance of storing guns responsibly. The most important responsibility of a gun owner, especially a gun owner with children, is to make absolutely certain that their gun does not end up in the wrong hands, including the hands of curious toddlers and young kids as well as tween and teens who are prone to making bad decisions.
Parents must ask how guns are stored any place their child plays or spends time, whether it is a friend's house or the home of a relative. Even if you store your guns responsibly (or don't even have guns), never assume that other parents or family members do likewise. This may especially be true of friends and relatives who don't have children. While it may feel awkward to ask, it's better than losing a child.
Pediatricians should be allowed to – and encouraged to – ask parents how they store firearms. This should be as routine as asking parents about car seats, pool safety, or smoke detectors.
Talk to your children about firearms and what to do if they encounter them. Children should be taught not to ever touch or handle a gun unless they are under the direct supervision of an adult. Even if you don't have guns, it's still important for your kids to know what to do if they find one at a friend's house or if a friend tries to to show them one that belongs to a parent or family member. HOWEVER, do not ever assume that teaching your children about gun safety is enough to keep them safe from an unintentional shooting. IT IS NOT. The onus on keeping kids safe is 100% on the adults in their lives. Simply telling a child "Stop. Don't Touch. Tell an adult" is not an effective way of preventing these shootings. Numerous hidden camera studies conducted by behavioral psychologists have shown that kids, young kids through tweens and teens, are still very likely to pick up and handle a gun even after being trained to not touch and alert an adult.
These incidents are not accidents. They are 100% preventable. Each and every one is the fault of an adult's negligence and carelessness. Safe storage saves lives. Period.
Using data from the Gun Violence Archive and news alerts, The Children's Firearms Safety Alliance tracks shootings involving children with access to unsecured and loaded guns. All incidents are logged into a searchable database
May 30 – Chickasha, OK
13-year-old Andrew White was fatally shot in the chest while at a friend's house. The police reported it to be a homicide but that they were not looking for suspects. The young boy's family said the shooting was accidental. The boy was just days away from his 14th birthday.
May 29 – St. Petersburg, FL
Several children, supervised by a teen, were playing with a gun they found. A 11-year-old boy thinking the gun was unloaded unintentionally shot a 10-year-old boy in the shoulder and arm.
May 29 – London, KY
A 15-year-old girl riding in the back of a car unintentionally shot the 16-year-old female driver in the back. The 25-year-old gun owner was in the car with the girls and was charged with unlawfully allowing a minor to possess a gun.
May 27 – Yukon, OK
A 2-year-old boy found a gun in his home and shot and injured himself in the head.
May 24 – Springfield, IL
A 13-year-old girl was unintentionally shot in the stomach by a 12-year-old boy at their grandmothers house. She later died. The boy could be charged with unlawful use of a weapon and reckless conduct.
May 23 – Tacoma, WA
A 16-year-old cleaning his gun unintentionally fired it, striking a 18-year-old male in the cheek. A nearby school lockdown occurred until it was determined where the gunfire came from.
May 23 – Milwaukee, WI
A 2-year-old found his father's loaded gun and unintentionally shot himself. The father of the child was arrested and could face charges.
May 22 – San Angelo, TX
A 3-year-old found a loaded handgun in a sofa and unintentionally shot himself in the face.
May 20 – Lafayette, IN
A 17-year-old cleaning a high powered rifle unintentionally firing it, hitting a 14-year-old girl sleeping in an apartment three apartments away.
May 20 – Campbellsville, KY
A 13-year-old boy playing with a gun unintentionally shot a 12-year-old friend. They thought it was a toy gun.
May 20 – Des Plain, IL
A 10-year-old boy unintentionally shot his 15-year-old brother in the face. He lated died.
May 18 – Clark County, WA
A 16-year-old unintentionally shot a 19-year-old friend in the leg. The victim is expected to survive. The shooter was charged with reckless endangerment, unlawful possession of firearm and theft of firearm.
May 17 – Fresno, CA
An 11-year-old boy was babysitting his younger brother at a home when he found a gun under a bed. He fired the weapon, striking his brother in the leg. The 4-year-old was taken to the hospital for treatment. He is expected to be okay.
May 17 – Jacksonville, FL
A 2-year-old was handling a loaded, unsecured gun and shot himself in the arm. The child's cousin was babysitting him at the time and has been taken into custody. No word on what she will be charged with.
May 17 – Nashville, TN
A man was bathing his children around 2am. He took the 1-year-old out and placed him on a bed and left the room, The child found a loaded gun on the bed and fired it, grazing his face. The father was charged.
May 16 – Bend, OR
A girl took the gun from her house to familiarize herself with it, and accidentally fired it while trying to "manipulate" the gun. She was treated at the scene then airlifted to a nearby hospital. No criminal charges have been filed in the case.
May 16 – St. Louis, MO
A 6-year-old suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Authorities believe that the injury was self-inflicted and unintentional. Adults and other children were home at the time.
May 15 – Orange County, VA
A 4-year-old boy shot and killed himself Monday afternoon with a gun he found at a residential child care provider, which is also the home of a Stafford County Deputy Sheriff.
May 15 – Calcasieu Parish, LA
A 6-year-old child brought a loaded gun to school and dropped it. Another child picked up and fired it, striking a nearby 7-year-old.
May 14 – Houston, TX
Two 9-year-olds were playing with a loaded 9mm gun when it discharged, striking one of the boys in the neck. The boy's family claims the gun was locked but that the 9-year-olds were able to break it.
May 13 – Goshen, IN
Two 15-year-olds were handling a gun, when one of the teens accidentally shot the other in the stomach. The injured boy was airlifted and underwent surgery. He's expected to recover.
May 12 – Nashville, TN
A 3-year-old child was staying with a man and his wife when he found a loaded, unsecured gun in a bedroom and fired it, striking himself in the foot.
May 12 – Starr, SC
A 3-year-old boy died Friday after shooting himself with a gun he found in his family's SUV outside their home.
May 11 – East Chicago, IN
A 4-year-old boy, just days away from turning five, accidentally shot and killed himself early Thursday morning after finding a gun in his home.
May 10 – Barrow County, GA
A 9-year-old had gotten off the bus from school shortly before gaining access to a gun and fatally shooting himself with it.
May 10 – Taylorsville, NC
A 15-year-old boy picked up a 9 mm pistol, accidentally causing it to fire. The teen was struck in the abdomen. Witnesses told deputies that a group of teenagers had three firearms, including the pistol, laying on a swivel stool.
May 9 – Pekin, IN
Several teens were playing with a gun in a barn when it discharged, shooting a 16-year-old in the head.
May 9 – Spark, NV
Several teens had a gun in a car when it discharged, shooting a 15-year-old in the leg. They dropped him off at a home and left him there bleeding. Police are investigating.
May 8 – Eunice, LA
A 12-year-old boy was playing with a handgun, unloaded the magazine but didn't clear the bullet in the chamber and shot himself in the head. He died later that night.
May 8 – Birmingham, AL
A 2-year-old boy was unintentionally shot in the hand.
May 5 – Houma, LA
An 8 year old boy found one of his parents loaded AK-47 in the trunk of a car and unintentionally shot himself in the leg.
May 5 – Bradley County, TN
A 10-year-old boy was playing with his parent's 9mm Glock handgun as he talked to a friend on his computer when he discharged the gun and shot himself in the arm.
May 5 – Baton Rouge, LA
Three teen/tween friend were playing with a handgun when it unintentionally fired, killing a 12 year old. Three teen friend were playing with a handgun when it unintentionally fired, killing a 12 year old. The 13-year-old was charged with negligent homicide and a 12-year-old was charged with possession of a firearm.
May 5 – San Angelo, TX
Two 15-year-old teens were playing with a handgun when it discharged, shooting one in the head. The 15-year-old shooter was charged with aggravated assault with deadly weapon. The adult gun owner, a resident in the home, was not charged.
May 4 – Smyrna, NY
Two teens were pointing rifles at each other and one unintentionally fired, shooting the 17-year-old in the shoulder. Both teens from Smyrna face charges of reckless endangerment in the accidental shooting.
May 2 – Green Bay, WI
A 17-year-old was playing with a gun in the backseat of a car and unintentionally shot a 23-year-old women in the back who was sitting in the car's front seat. The 17-year-old was was arrested and charged with first degree reckless injury and possession of dangerous weapon by a person under 18.

subset: commoncrawl


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States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut
|July 31, 2009
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text:
Did I tell you that when I was going to see ancient cavern by road with my friend. On the way of the lumbridge we saw many mushroom trees, it was looking so pretty and I really enjoyed that journey. But at one place we could find the exact location where to go so we tried to find the way via map. While travelling I had a very old habit to read any book or novel so I was on reading my book and my friend doing something in his mobile phone.
After reading a very long time I got bored so I asked him what he was doing so far with his phone. Then he told me about gambling and all stuff which he usually played when he got some free time and make money with it. I asked him to teach me about all of this. He told me about the most popular slot named fairy ring, designed by the microgaming. So he suggested me to see the video which will help me a lot in playing. He sent me some links of online casinos which give the best payout and offers for the gamblers who played consistently.
This is a classic and traditional pokie and like a very special one because it gives the small betting amount for playing so those players who want to play more in a small budget then you must go with this one along with many special features. So I started playing with it, first I tried it with free spins and I can I say it was my good luck and I won that chance with just double amount which I bet. Overall it was an amazing experience for me with this slot machine and would surely say that you should play it with high quality graphics and sound.
Apart from this if you are particularly looking for online pokies of Brisbane, then you can easily find them online, there are plenty of them that stays open late night or you can say 24/7 and you don't even have to drive much after getting in the city you can find them near airport as i did.


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As labs go, this one is pretty unimpressive. It looks almost like someone's garage or basement workshop, save for the fact that there are test tubes and beakers filled with curious colored substances everywhere. Some of them are boiling or bubbling, I'm not sure which. I wonder vaguely what any of that has to do with the matter at hand. It's not exactly filling me with confidence in the abilities of the lab's owner to do what he's promised. After all, this mess seems a little too 'movie set', rather than an actual workspace. It's almost like someone has watched a bunch of films about mad scientists and thrown this place together as a result. I don't have long to ponder the usability of the lab, however, as three horrible prepubescent girls are busy driving me insane.
They're triplets, I suppose. Or sisters at the very least. They all have the same dark hair and the same deep brown, almond shaped eyes. One of them is wearing a pink terrycloth track suit. Her hair is cut long in the front, shorter in the back. She's sitting on a stool similar to the one I'm on, only she's spinning around and around in hers, stopping only to shout "Weeee!" and giggle, before doing it again. And again. Ad nauseam. Another of the three is wearing what looks like a school uniform of some sort, knee length plaid skirt, starched white shirt with a Peter Pan collar, and a weird little bow tie. Her hair is split into two braids and a pair of rimless glasses sits on her small nose. She's making an effort to shush her relation, but the effort is completely useless and only adds to the clamor. The last of the trio is by far the most annoying. She's wearing a matching short set with light and dark blue flowers all over it, and rolled cuffs and sleeves. She has a similar patterned headband capping of her long, flowing hair and a big, bulky digital watch on her wrist. She's ignoring what I assume are her sisters and is instead poking me in the side.
"So, who are you?" she asks, in a high, whiny, demanding voice.
"I'm no one," I reply, not wanting to get into details with her.
"Oh, please. No one wouldn't be here. No, you're someone alright. So who?"
"Like I said, no one. Besides, I'm not here for me."
"They never are," she says mysteriously, letting it hang in the air like a fog. I want to ask her what she means by that, how many more there have been before me, but just then, Doctor Nguyen enters the room. All three girls snap instantly to attention, the pink clad one so dizzy she nearly falls off her stool.
"Hello," the doctor smiles, "I'm glad you were able to come."
"Right," I think, "I'm sure it had nothing to do with the cool million I paid you for the privilege."
He picks up a clipboard and I see him flipping through the forms I'd emailed him, my picture stuck to the first one with scotch tape.
"Well, I have everything I need. Let's get going."
The lump rises in my throat at last. I'd been expecting it for quite some time, but it hadn't appeared; not when I'd met with the good doctor, not when I'd sent in my forms, and not when I'd arrived in this cluttered basement made up to look like a child's idea of a laboratory in a mad scientist's castle. But now, now that he's here and we're going, the lump has made its appearance. I choke, trying too hard to swallow it back down and pretend I'm not afraid. But I am, oh how I am. Only, I'm not sure what frightens me more… whether this works, or whether it doesn't.
The doctor leads me through an unassuming looking doorway and into what appears to be a garage, only instead of a car it holds something that looks like Jacques Cousteau's submersible, if it had been built with about a thousand erector sets. My confidence in this endeavor is at an all time low.
I expected the girls to follow us in, but they don't. That lifts my spirits a little. Whatever happens, I won't have to endure any more of their laughter or their shushing or their inane personal questions.
"That's… that's really it?" I ask, trying to hide my disappointment and my doubt.
"Oh, yes," Doctor Nguyen chuckles, "What was it Han Solo said? Something about a bucket of bolts, but she'll get you where you're going?"
"Star Wars references?"
At this, Doctor Nguyen breaks into fits of laughter, as if my concern were the funniest thing in the world to him. He nods, breathless, and points at the spray paint emblazoned side of the vessel he expects me to climb into. It says "FALCON" in blue and silver. I suspect he's shortened it because the full name of Han's ship wouldn't fit.
"Now, I know you signed off on the rules, but I want to be sure you understand. You have 10 minutes, and only ten minutes, in which to change anything that needs changing, so I hope you've thought this through." I nod that I have, though it's an understatement. The hours upon hours upon hours I've spent thinking about exactly what I'd change and when and how, down to the second. Even before I knew about the existence of Doctor Nguyen or his wondrous invention. I've tortured myself, wishing I could fix things, that I could somehow undo what had been done, and save my brother's life. Now, it seems, I'll have that chance, and it has all been worth it. Selling off everything I own, borrowing money from anyone who'd lend it to me, even stealing.
"After that, you'll be able to observe things for a while, but nothing you do will have any impact on future events. Do you understand?"
Again, I nod my acceptance.
"The machine is calibrated to bring you back automatically when it's ready, probably around the thirty minute mark. I'd make sure you're inside it by, oh, say, 25 minutes. Just to be safe." I nod a third time.
"Can I bring this?" I ask, holding up my cellphone, the latest model Samsung Galaxy.
"Sure," Nguyen chuckles, "You're not going back to the 1500s, after all. Just try not to leave it back there."
His cavalier attitude has only made me more nervous, the feeling growing in the pit of my stomach like one of those little sponge capsules my brother and I played with as kids. So what if it doesn't work? I've only given him everything I have, and then some. Yes, only that.
Doctor Nguyen walks around to the side of the quirky little vessel and pulls up on a handle, lifting a door just large enough for me to enter through. I bite my lip hard enough to taste blood and nod again, dumbly. Then I climb inside.
The Doctor leans down and smiles reassuringly as he adjusts and clips my seat belt. "Don't worry," he soothes, "there's nothing to worry about. It's all automatic." He leans away, shuts the door, and clicks home some kind of mechanism on the outside. The silence leaps out at me like a physical thing.
I'm shocked by how sparse the cabin is. I expected it to be like something out of Back to the Future, all bright gizmos and digital display boards, something like his 'lab' would've suggested, but no. The dashboard is smooth and black, with only a single blinking LED to indicate that it's receiving any sort of power.
I'm just about to call out to Doctor Nguyen, to ask if something is wrong, when I'm thrown back in my seat with a jolt and my my eyes are burned by searing brightness. Jeez, he could've warned me about that! And then, more silence.
I open my eyes and my heart drops instantly. This isn't right. This can't be right!
I'm staring at some sort of Colosseum, with steps and columns and bright Grecian sunshine. I should be looking at a grimy little trailer in southern Florida in the middle of the night less than five years back.
My heart flaps in my chest like a frightened bird, full of panic and fury. "No," I think, "No! this is all wrong!" and then, my heart seizes with a sharp jerk as I think, "What happens when someone comes and sees me here, like this?"
But it turns out, I needn't have worried. Two women dressed in long, draped garments appear at the top of the stairs, conversing with one another. My breath catches in my throat like a butterfly trapped in a spider's web, anticipating the looks on their faces when they see me in my futuristic scrapheap sitting there. Then they turn and continue along their way as if nothing were amiss in their ancient (to me) world. Well, what do you know? The time machine must be equipped with some sort of cloaking device. Makes sense, I guess, I just hadn't considered it myself.
"Alright," I decided, "I'm not in any immediate danger. That's good. I'll just sit here until the machine recalls me and I'll explain to the doctor that he left off a digit or something and he sent me to the wrong place. He'll have to send me back to the right one!" Then I decide to get some proof. After all, I have my cell phone, equipped with video and photo capabilities. So I lean back in my seat to get a good angle, and take several dozen still photos and capture nearly a minute of video to prove my point and, secondarily, as a nifty souvenir of my journey.
I've settled in to await my return to what is to me the present day, when there's a thud from behind me and my seat is jarred. I turn sharply and look behind my seat.
One of the triplet is there, curled up and tucked in behind me. She stares up at me with a mischievous grin on her face. Shit.
"Did you sneak in before I left?" I ask her, incredulous.
Her smile widens as she nods.
"That's… that's not good," I tell her. She shrugs.
"Well, whatever. Here we are. Just stay back there until the ship brings us back." At this, she sits upright and kicks open the tiny door, squeezing through and bolting outside before I can stop her. Her white sneakers are all I can see as she dashes up the stairs away from me. Double shit.
I can't leave her here, wherever or whenever here is. Maybe the doctor has some way of getting her back, but it hasn't been 10 minutes yet and she could screw up something major in that time. Plus, I'm sure the people of this time period won't take kindly to an annoying, strange looking child running around. What if they decide to kill her for being a witch or something?
My decision made, I climb out of the ship and follow her up the stairs, vowing to make sure her father grounds her until college.
We end up in some kind of marketplace, with stalls and screaming vendors. No one seems to notice the girl as she runs around from stall to stall, giggling and snatching things, knocking things over, and generally making a nuisance of herself. They do not grant me the same lack of attention. Everyone turns and stares, including my young quarry. She's laughing so hard I think she might collapse, and I'm reminded of her father and his Millennium Falcon 'joke'.
Ignoring the gasps, the stairs, the fingers all pointed at me, I race up to the girl and grab her by the wrist, holding her in place. Her clunky watch beeps at me. I look down at it as the realization hits me. It's a cloaking device like the one on the time machine. That's why no one notices her presence.
"What are you doing?" I hiss at her, "You're going to get us killed!"
"Us?" she chortles, "Us? No. You, maybe." She points behind me at a pair of guards, armed with cruel looking spears. They're heading our way – my way – with determined looks on their brutish faces.
"Time to let you in on the secret, I guess. Those other girls aren't my sisters, they're me from different timelines. And my father didn't invent that machine, I did."
My jaw drops, confusion clouding my brain and preventing me from dashing away, back to the imagined safety of the cloaked machine.
"W…why?" I ask her.
"Well, it's a scheme, of course. Daddy gets your money to finance… whatever." she shrugs.
"But.. you obviously have the technology, why didn't you just send me back so I could save my brother?"
She shrugs again, "It's more fun this way!"
She does an obnoxious little finger wave as the guards grab my shoulders. I struggle and manage to get free for just a moment. The annoying girl's laughter is the last thing I hear as the spear plunges through my chest.
A Nightmare (Really!)
As labs go, this one is pretty unimpressive. It looks almost like someone's garage or basement workshop, save for the fact that there are test tubes and beakers filled with curious colored substances everywhere. Some of them are boiling or bubbling, I'm not sure which. I wonder vaguely what any of that has to do with the matter at hand. It's not exactly filling me with confidence in the abilities of the lab's owner to do what he's promised. After all, this mess seems a little too 'movie set', rather than an actual workspace. It's almost like someone has watched a bunch of films about mad scientists and thrown this place together as a result. I don't have long to ponder the usability of the lab, however, as three horrible prepubescent girls are busy driving me insane.


text:
IOMAC 2019 - Admiral Hotel - May 13-15
Final call for abstracts
16 Aug 2018
The 8th International Operational Modal Analysis Conference (IOMAC) and exhibition will be held at Admiral Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark May 13–15, 2019. Submission deadline for abstracts is October 31, 2018.
On behalf of the local organizing committee, we are happy to announce that the 8th IOMAC will be held at the Admiral Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark from May 13–15, 2019.
Submission deadline for abstracts is October 31, 2018. Find more information here.
The IOMAC conference and parallel exhibition focuses on Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) and related topics such as Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). From its first two sessions in Copenhagen in 2005 and 2007, IOMAC has been held every second year in a different city around Europe. Based on measuring only the output of a structure and using the ambient and operating forces as unmeasured input, OMA is used instead of classical hammer and shaker modal analysis for accurate modal model identification under actual operating conditions and in situations where it is difficult or impossible to artificially excite the structure.
OMA is a well-proven and widely used application for modal analysis in several market segments, such as automotive, aerospace & defence, space, rotating machinery, wind energy, consumer products and civil engineering.
For more information about IOMAC – including abstract submission, important deadlines, conference topics, special sessions and keynote lectures – please visit the IOMAC official website.
We look forward to seeing you at IOMAC 2019 – back in Copenhagen.
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Welcome to Mosaic Unitarian Universalist Congregation's Pagan page. If you are curious about how people used to worship or how modern Pagans worship now, this should be a good read. First, let me point out that the word "Pagan" is a Roman word that means "country person." It was a little derogatory for early Christian Romans to call everyone else Pagan because they didn't practice the Roman way; also, a bit hypocritical because not long before that, they were Pagan, too! Just the little jokes we share when we study history.
What Paganism Is
Paganism is the ancestral religion of the whole of humanity. This ancient religious outlook remains active throughout much of the world today, both in complex civilizations such as Japan and India, and in less complex tribal societies world-wide. It was the outlook of the European religions of classical antiquity – Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome – as well as of their "barbarian" neighbors on the northern fringes, and its European form is re-emerging into explicit awareness in the modern West as the articulation of urgent contemporary religious priorities.
The Pagan outlook can be seen as threefold. Its adherents venerate Nature and worship many deities, both goddesses and gods.


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Spectral Phase
Definition: the phase of the electric field in the frequency domain
German: spektrale Phase
Categories: light detection and characterization, optical metrology, light pulses
Formula symbol: φ
Units: rad
How to cite the article; suggest additional literature
Author: Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta
The electric field of an optical pulse may be described in the time domain or in the frequency domain. In the frequency domain, it can be of interest to know not only the power spectral density (i.e., the intensity spectrum) but also the spectral phase. This is defined as the phase of the electric field in the frequency domain, i.e., the complex phase of the function
Complete pulse characterization includes measuring not only the optical spectrum, i.e. the squared modulus of E(ν), but also the spectral phase, which contains additional information. This is possible e.g. with the methods of frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) and spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER, → spectral phase interferometry).
Spectral Phase and Group Delay
The group delay can be defined as the derivative of the spectral phase with respect to angular frequency. This means e.g. that the group delay of all spectral components is zero if the spectral phase is constant. If this is not the case, the group delay may be frequency dependent: different frequency components can then be considered to arrive at different times. However, this kind of interpretation is somewhat problematic, as becomes apparent e.g. when considering that the instantaneous frequency may acquire a certain value more than once within the pulse duration, whereas the group delay for a particular frequency can have only one value. For simple pulse shapes, however, the group delay can be used to describe the position of the pulse maximum of the whole pulse, or of the pulse obtained after a bandpass filter.
It is instructive to consider the changes of spectral phase associated with certain operations:
- A constant change in temporal phase translates directly into the same change in the spectral phase (for time-dependent phase changes, the relation is much less obvious).
- A time delay by T corresponds to a change in spectral phase which is 2π ν T, i.e. proportional to the optical frequency. In cases where the temporal position is not of interest, the spectral phase can be made less arbitrary by temporally shifting the pulse so that the linear term in frequency vanishes.
- Chromatic dispersion directly affects the spectral phase. For example, the effect of third-order dispersion corresponds to adding a term to the spectral phase which varies with the third power of the frequency offset.
When the spectral phase is constant or depends linearly on the frequency, the pulse is unchirped, which implies that it is at the transform limit. A chirp in the time domain is associated with a nonlinear frequency dependence of the spectral phase. A dispersive pulse compressor basically has the task of applying spectral phase shifts so that the resulting spectral phase is constant (or changes only linearly with frequency). The deviations from a flat spectral phase are more informative measure of the quality of pulse compression than e.g. just the pulse duration achieved.
The spectral phase can be useful for understanding the phenomenon of spectral interference. For example, consider two identical pulses with a relative time delay T. The difference in spectral phase, which is linear in frequency (see above), causes a spectral modulation. See the article on spectral phase interferometry for more details.
Modifying the Spectral Phase
There are pulse shapers which can be used to modify the spectral phase of pulses. Such a setup consists of, e.g., a first diffraction grating to separate different frequency components spatially, a liquid crystal modulator for applying position-dependent phase shifts, and a second diffraction grating to recombine the frequency components.
By properly adjusting all the phase values, it is possible e.g. to obtain transform-limited pulses, being as short as the given spectral width allows, or to form longer pulses with complicated temporal shapes. Conditions for such capabilities are that the full optical bandwidth can be processed, and that the spectral resolution (related to the maximum occurring group delay) is sufficiently high. On the other hand, a fast optical modulator is not required.
|J. P. Heritage et al., "Picosecond pulse shaping by spectral phase and amplitude manipulation", Opt. Lett. 10 (12), 609 (1985), doi:10.1364/OL.10.000609
|I. A. Walmsley and V. Wong, "Characterization of the electric field of ultrashort optical pulses", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 13 (11), 2453 (1996), doi:10.1364/JOSAB.13.002453
|C. Iaconis and I. A. Walmsley, "Spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction of ultrashort optical pulses", Opt. Lett. 23 (10), 792 (1998), doi:10.1364/OL.23.000792
See also: optical phase, chirp, transform limit, pulse characterization, spectral phase interferometry, pulse compression, double pulses
and other articles in the categories light detection and characterization, optical metrology, light pulses


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Compton Audit: Dubious city-issued credit card users identified
The mayor, and City Council, along with a succession of city managers, have mismanaged hundreds of thousands of dollars
MasterCard credit card purchase. Informedmag.com
State controller names staff behind questionable city-issued credit card, travel expenditures, skirting petty cash policy
The City of Compton's reckless disregard for accounting controls in budget expenditures and adherence to protocols in city contracting, are two of the reasons the city could face a probe by the Los Angeles District Attorney.
The mayor, and City Council for the current administration, along with a succession of city managers for the better part of two decades, have mismanaged hundreds of thousands of dollars, while critical needs like the city's streets have lingered unfixed.
To now, the incriminating information lacking in these reviews of the California State Controller's audit has been which specific individuals were responsible for excessive expenditures using city-issued credit cards minus any substantiation, receipts or documentation that the charges were for city business.
Excessive, undocumented travel
The state controller released names to the Compton Herald for five questionable travel expenditures totaling $24,404, between Feb. 10, 2015, and June 11, 2016. The sum accounted for approximately 47 percent of the total charges. As with most of the excessive charges to the city-issued credit cards, as determined by the state controller, the reason for the travel expenses was unclear, excessive or not properly documented.
- On Feb. 10, 2015, $1,193 was charged for airfare to Washington, D.C.; the purpose of the charge was missing and unsupported. The individual named in the state audit authorizing the expenditure was former City Manager G. Harold Duffey, who was let go for "no cause" by the city in Sept. 2014. Per the credit card statement, the plane ticket was for an individual identified as Renea Ferell. Beyond that, there was no further information on Ferell or her business with the city.
Interestingly, Duffey may have been pegged by the state controller as the person to whom the city credit card was issued, but the authorization for its use on Feb. 10, 2015, more than likely came from someone else, as Duffey had been gone from the city four months.
- On May 22, 2015, $1,028 was charged for lodging in Hartford, Conn.; the state controller could not establish whether the charge was for city business or not, and no supporting documentation was provided. The individual named in the state audit as having been issued the credit card was Johnny Ford, the current assistant city manager, who was serving as acting city manager at the time. According to the state controller's audit, the reason for the expenditure and for whom it was made was never documented.
- On June 24, 2015, a total of $1,494 was charged for round-trip airfare to Miami, Fla, and an unknown period of lodging there. The credit card was issued to Acting City Manager Johnny Ford. The expenditure was for Compton Successor Agency Director Kofi Sefa-Boayke with no record of justification for the trip or supporting documentation.
- On Dec. 12, 2015, $1,492 was charged for one night of lodging in New York, NY. The credit card was issued to Roger L. Haley, who was hired as the permanent replacement for Duffey. According to the state controller, the charge was "unsupported and excessive," and it is unknown for whom the purchase was made.
Haley, the former city manager of Lynwood who was fired after seven years, was hired by the City of Compton as the permanent replacement for G. Harold Duffey, suffered a similar fate — let go with "no cause."
- On June 11, 2016, $708 was charged for one night of lodging in Las Vegas, Nevada. The charge on the credit card issued to Haley, was deemed excessive by the state controller. There was no documentation for whom the purchase was made or whether it was for city business.
Ford also authorized credit card use for expenditures on April 29, May 30, and Dec. 3, of 2015, for $1,990, for office supplies for the city council, for which there was no receipts or documentation; $1,975 for "unknown" supplies; minus documentation; and $1,274 to an electronics store for a camera of unknown make and type. As with the other purchases, there was no record to justify if the expense was for city business.
As reported earlier by the Herald story, the state controller found evidence of city employees circumventing the petty cash reimbursement policy, which clearly outlines on the claim that petty cash may only be used for items up to $100. However, the state audit found purchases in excess of $100 that had been split into amounts less than $100, so that employees could be reimbursed from the Petty Cash Fund.
Two individuals identified by the state controller as violating the policy were Melissa Freeny, chief of staff for Mayor Aja Brown, and Debbie Curtis, executive secretary for the mayor.
Special Projects and Events expenditures by city council
Council expenses, with Councilmember Isaac Galvan having spent the most, are the following:
- Galvan's expenditures for Fiscal Years 2015-16 and 2016-17, were $110,478 and $36,017, respectively, for a total of $146,495.
- Mayor Aja Brown's expenditures for Fiscal Years 2015-16 and 2016-17, were $68,060 and $46,761, respectively, for a total of $114,821
- Councilmember Janna Zurita's expenditures for Fiscal Years 2015-16 and 2016-17, were $25,354 and $32,549, respectively, for a total of $57,903.
- Councilmember Tana McCoy's expenditures for Fiscal Years 2015-16 and 2016-17, were $2,776 and $42,852 , respectively, for a total of $45,628.
- Councilmember Emma Sharif's expenditures for Fiscal Years 2015-16 and 2016-17, were $4,493 and $19,751, respectively, for a total of $24,244.
The total city council expenditures for Fiscal Years 2015-16 and 2016-17 amounted to $389,091, which exceeded the approved council budget of $180,000.
When monies for joint programs, citywide programs, and other expenses were added, the total swelled to $403,734 – vastly over budget by $223,734, nearly a quarter million dollars.
Lack of consistent leadership
During our review of, we noted that the city experienced a high degree of management turnover, which can result in a lack of consistent leadership, lack of operational stability, and inefficient provision of services to its citizens. Between Jan. 1, 2010, and Jan. 18, 2017, the City of Compton has had 10 different city managers – a drastic turnover rate for the city's top financial officer.
Those serving in that position for the city since 2010 have been Barbara Kilroy, Charles Evans, Willie Norfleet, Bryan Patist, Lamont Euell, G. Harold Duffey, Johnny Ford, Roger Haley, Ray Groomes, and currently Cecil W. Rhambo.
It is no small wonder the city cannot generate any positive fiscal momentum with such a "chopping block policy."
According to the state audit, the city also did not have a permanent Controller for the nine months before it filled the position on March 20, 2017.
The high turnover has contributed to a lack of leadership and, in some cases, a lack of management oversight.
The city plans to fill some vacant management positions, notes the state controller, however, the position of the city's Human Resources Director — the recruiter — has been vacant for more than three years, significantly delaying the hiring process for critical positions within several city departments.


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Windows Cloud coming to Microsoft PDC
For much of this year, Microsoft has been trying to convince people that it's serious about Software as a Service (or "Software Plus Services," as Microsoft calls it … always gotta be difficult, don't they?).
Yesterday, the company took its boldest step yet. CEO Steve Ballmer told partners at an event in London that Microsoft will announce a "cloud operating system" at the Professional Developers Conference later this month, according to InfoWorld. He dubbed the OS "Windows Cloud" for the time being, and here's how he described it, according to The Register:
Just like Windows Server looked a lot like Windows but with new properties, new characteristics and new features, so will Windows Cloud look a lot like Windows Server.
Many partners and analysts have been skeptical about Microsoft's SaaS strategy because of the company's dominance in the on-premise software market. There's concern that Microsoft is only getting into SaaS because of pressure from Google, Salesforce.com and other online-only competitors.
Kind of surprisingly, Ballmer admitted as much yesterday.
"We're not driving an agenda towards being service providers," he said. "But we've gotta build a service that is Windows in the cloud."
The PDC is shaping up to be a major show, because that's where Microsoft will also give out pre-beta copies of Windows 7, its next desktop OS. And it seems like we're entering a new era that is about to redefine the OS as we know it.
Windows 7 is rumored to support touch-screen technology. Windows Cloud, if successful, could go a long way towards legitimizing SaaS among the masses. Then, of course, there's VMware's new Virtual Data Center Operating System, which came with a declaration from CEO Paul Maritz that the OS as we know it is dead.
These changes will undoubtedly affect the channel, but the question is how. Let me know what you think about this shift and its effects on your business.


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Plasco Energy Group Inc., the company once hailed as the future in waste management for the City of Ottawa, has filed for creditor protection.
Ottawa severs ties with Plasco as company files for creditor protection
On the same day that city officials recommended that Ottawa end its relationship with Plasco Energy Group, the home-grown waste-management firm filed for creditor protection, resulting in the loss of 80 jobs and the end of an era for a company once considered a shining light in the local clean-tech industry.
The city's relationship with Plasco is "for all intents and purposes" done, Mayor Jim Watson said Tuesday after learning of the news. "While it's regrettable the Plasco arrangement did not work out, the fact is we have to move forward and find other technologies other than burying garbage in a hole."
The 80 laid-off employees — all local — are to receive one month's salary and benefits, as well as any vacation and other time owed to them. The remaining 25 employees, including president and CEO Ray Floyd, have been retained because they are considered key in helping Plasco move into whatever its next phase might be, according to a source with knowledge of the proceedings.
It appears Plasco simply ran out of time and money. An attempt to secure a grant from the Sustainable Development Technology Canada fund was unsuccessful at the end of January. (The federal fund had granted Plasco $9.5 million in 2005.)
Then on Feb. 1, Plasco missed a $3.5 million payment owed to a creditor, according to court documents. Following a grace period of 10 days, the creditor could have demanded immediate payment of $18 million.
But the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act proceedings has bought Plasco protection from its creditors and time to figure out what to do next. It's still unclear how long the stay of proceedings is, but the usual time is 30 days.
Although it has raised more than $300 million over the years, Plasco was unable to secure financing for its commercial plant by Dec. 31, missing its third and final deadline under the 20-year contract that would have paid Plasco $9.1 million a year to take up to 300 tonnes of garbage a day.
That final missed deadline opened the door for the city to walk away from the contract and explore other options. Early last month, the city posted a Request for Information for residual waste management technologies and received 37 submissions from places as far away as Korea, Japan, Germany and Spain, as well across Canada and the United States.
Only four firms provided the city with documentation that demonstrated the operation of a commercial-sized facility that processes municipal solid waste, according to a report to the environment committee by city manager Kent Kirkpatrick. However, the report recommends that council not proceed with the procurement strategy for residual waste management until after the green bin program review is completed later this year.
While the city's contract with Plasco called for the company to build the commercial plant, the capital costs for the various technologies described in the report, which include incineration, range from $50- to $275-million, while annual operating costs range from $3- to $75-million.
As for Plasco, Kirkpatrick seeks council's permission to terminate not just the contract, but the lease for the company's demonstration facility on city land.
The lease agreement gives the company 18 months to decommission its site. The company will not be required to pay rent during that time and has provided a $300,000 decommission security. The city can use the money to complete the decommission of the site should Plasco fail to do so.
Plasco also owes the city $27,824.
The report to the environment committee had already been prepared when news broke that the company had applied for creditors' protection, so questions remain over how exactly the city can move forward when the committee meets next Tuesday.
It's not clear what's next for Plasco, which appears to have sold many of its assets and is leasing them back. Randall Benson, a partner and turnaround specialist with KPMG, was hired by the company to oversee the restructuring of the company. In a statement, he said that "Plasco will explore potential strategic alternatives that may provide the company the funding required to pursue commercial development of its technology."
It's also possible that in addition to financial troubles, Plasco may have also been dealing with technical issues. In November, Plasco informed the Ministry of Environment that it planned to reduce its plant size, which included changes to its drying and cooling system, storm-water management, and a reduction in engines from 10 to seven. Plasco did not publicly address why it was making those changes.
In 2005, Plasco was a company with eight employees led by a bullish Rod Bryden who was set on proving that the company's proprietary technology could use plasma — a very high-temperature gas — to convert garbage into energy. By 2008, Bryden had convinced a council led by then-mayor Larry O'Brien to provide city land for a demonstration project. After years of trials — and promises from Bryden that the approvals to expand the operations were imminent — Plasco finally received its certification from the environment ministry in 2011, which allowed the company to move ahead with a commercial plant.
Later that year, Plasco and the city entered into an agreement, but the terms of the contract were ultimately not met. In November 2013, Bryden was replaced as CEO by Floyd, who brought with him experience as a senior executive at General Motors, Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy.
Bryden, who remained executive chairman, said Tuesday only that he was "sad and disappointed."
Plasco has signed a number of international agreements, but none of them were confirmed contracts to construct commercial plants.
With files from Vito Pilieci
A timeline of the Plasco Energy Group
June 9: Rod Bryden, president and CEO of Plasco Energy Group announces a pilot project to generate electricity from waste ('plasma gasification') at the Trail Road Landfill. An agreement with the City of Ottawa says Plasco will build the project at no cost and run it for up to two years. The plant is to be in full production by April 1, 2007, and will be a solution to growing pressure on landfills. The City will pay for treatment of 75 tonnes of waste per year and will receive royalties from Plasco worth up to $37 million over 10 years, once other cities have plants in operation. Financed with help from a government environmental fund, it will cost about $31 million.
Sept. 19: Plasco officially begins construction of a $27-million demonstration project near the Trail Road landfill. It is to start operation by March, 2007.
Feb. 16: Bryden says that construction of Plasco's pilot project plant, is proceeding well, a little behind schedule and a few million dollars over the projected cost, and that by May, power will be flowing from the plant.
April 27: Minister of Health Promotion Jim Watson says Ontario will invest $4 million in Plasco, diverting 85 tonnes of garbage per day into clean electricity. Environment committee chair Counc. Jan Harder, admits initially she thought the technology sounded "too good to be true." After visiting a Plasco test plant in Spain, Harder thinks it could work in Ottawa.
Dec. 3: The Citizen reports that Plasco has raised $54 million in new funding, with a U.S. backer promising $115 million in 2008. The firm plans to add 100 jobs to the current 85 at its Ottawa operations.
Feb. 7: Plasco has its first full demonstration, converting a load of municipal garbage into electricity that is sold to Hydro Ottawa.
Feb. 27: Bryden says that Plasco is gearing up for full-time operation next month, saying, "So far it's done exactly what we've expected it to do." He says the facility isn't operating at full capacity because it is still testing equipment and adjusting its conveyors.
June 3: Plasco offers to build a $125-million plant near the Trail Road Landfill to take the 400 tonnes per day of Ottawa's non-recyclable residential garbage, if council approves the deal. The plant could be running by early 2010. Mayor Larry O'Brien says, "This is a very exciting technology … exactly where every modern city in the western world should be heading when it comes to waste management."
June 10: The City of Ottawa agrees to go ahead with its partnership with Bryden to move from testing its garbage-to-power technology to building a full commercial-size plant.
July 9: City council unanimously approves a plan to exempt Plasco from paying $72,000 per year in municipal taxes.
Sept. 8: Bryden calls a two-month plant shutdown 'planned', having nothing to do with high sulphur dioxide emissions in July.
Sept. 16: Controversy arises when Counc. Jan Harder and Ottawa's top garbage bureaucrat take a trip to Port Moody B.C. on Plasco's tab to attend a public meeting demonstrating the company's technology. Critics say public officials should not be involved in Plasco's sales pitches.
May 12: Plasco lays off 57 engineering staff because of delays raising project financing for a $90-million project in Alberta. The temporary layoffs are to last up to 12 weeks.
Sept. 21: Bryden says Plasco's bugs have been worked out and facility could be ready by 2011. A contract to finalize an $8 million agreement to process Ottawa's garbage could be signed within the next few weeks.
Jan. 14: The Citizen reports that a contract is expected to be finalized imminently between the Plasco and the City, and will deliver 140,000 tonnes of garbage per year. .
Feb. 17: Plasco signs an agreement that is to see it begin to treat municipal solid waste in Poland.
May 24: The Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) finds the Plasco plant struggling with smog-causing emissions, and has not yet proven it can be successful. Bryden says they won't sign a contract with the city for a full-scale plant until the problems are resolved.
June 24: Plasco says it expects to have the first of several Chinese plants in operation in two years. Meanwhile, an Alberta environmental agency gives a $10 million grant to Plasco Alberta to build the Red Deer plant announced two years previously.
July 28: Plasco raises $110 million in private funding to help it begin construction of waste-to-energy conversion facilities around the world. Cash will be allocated to help the Trail Road test facility pass the MOE emissions tests.
Dec. 22: Plasco says it has completed operational and environmental testing at its Trail Road plant, and will need to apply for a new operating certificate in order to run its plant permanently.
Jan 6: Plasco's plant on Trail Road is slated to shut down on Jan. 21, the expiry for the pilot project, while the company pursues approvals from the MOE to expand,
March 22: Plasco receives $140 million from a group of private investors.
Oct. 27: Ottawa officials continue negotiating a long-term $8 million annual contract with Plasco after it receives both air and waste certificates of approval from the MOE.
Nov. 15: A long-term deal to have Plasco process Ottawa's garbage into energy could be presented to city councillors as soon as December, city manager Kent Kirkpatrick reports.
Nov. 26: The Citizen reports that Brian Guest, a senior executive at Plasco with close ties to Mayor Jim Watson and Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli has worked as a top consultant on three of the biggest City Hall files this year, including while negotiations over a long-term deal for Plasco to dispose of city garbage intensified.
Dec. 1: The City of Ottawa quits a provincial waste-management trade association after it sent a letter requesting the city stop negotiating with Plasco Energy Group following the Brian Guest revelations.
Dec. 5: Mayor Jim Watson calls the not-fully finalized contract with Plasco a good deal for taxpayers. The city willbpay $9.1 million a year to Plasco to take up to 300 tonnes a day, (about a third of Ottawa's household waste production) of garbage.
Dec. 14: Pinning their hopes to a pledge that Ottawa taxpayers are supremely well protected from any financial risks A 22-1 vote by council seals a 20-year deal with Plasco Energy Group. Only Councillor Diane Holmes of Somerset ward dissents. Under terms of the agreement, Plasco's new plant would have to begin operating between 2014 and 2016. The company would need all necessary construction financing in place to the city's satisfaction, and would have had to award at least $5 million worth of equipment manufacturing contracts by the end of March 2013, or the city could get out of the contract.
March 24: Bryden says Plasco has worked out all pieces of its garbage-processing contract with the city.
Nov. 20: After many delays and missed deadlines, the city's contract with Plasco Energy Group could be inked by mid-December, says city council's environment committee chair Maria McRae.
Dec. 15: One full year after the two parties came to a $180-million-plus, 20-year agreement, the city finally signs a contract wherein Plasco will process 109,500 tonnes of city waste annually. The 20-year contract has four, five-year extensions at the option of the city. The city is to pay the Ottawa company $83.25 for every tonne of garbage it processes. it is clear that Plasco will not be able to meet a March 2013 construction and financial milestone.
Feb. 27: As the March 31 deadline looms, city council grants Plasco another five months to pull together the financing and start letting contracts for the garbage-to-energy plant the city wants it to build near the Trail Road Landfill.
July 12: As the clock ticks on the city's provisional deal with Plasco, city manager Kent Kirkpatrick sends a letter to Plasco "starting the 60-day notice period" to terminate the contract between the city and the company.
Aug. 15: Plasco says it won't have financing lined up until the end of 2014, blowing its original deadline by nearly two years. City staff recommend keeping the contract alive.
Aug. 28: By a 17-5 council agrees to extend an imminent deadline for Plasco to put together the $200 million it needs until December, 2014
Nov. 1: Plasco announces that board member Raymond Floyd will immediately replace Rod Bryden as chief executive officer of the company. Bryden, 72, is to remain on the company's board of directors as executive chairman.
Jan. 30: Rod Bryden announces his departure from Plasco.
March 8: The Citizen reports that the promised scheduling of a technical briefing with Plasco CEO Ray Floyd for February has not come to pass.
Aug. 14: Plasco lays off 12 employees after the company decides not to keep spending money on operating its demonstration plant at full capacity. The company employs 110 people.
Dec. 31: Plasco misses its third deadline set by the city to prove it has secured the financing it needs to build a waste-to-energy plant in Ottawa by 2016. The city now has the power to terminate the contract. A company spokesman says that Plasco representatives will be at the Feb. 17 environment committee meeting to bring councillors up to speed on the company's plans.
Feb. 10: Mayor JimWatson says the city is done with Plasco as the company files for creditor protection.


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How did I pick? The site tells me that a round excellent cut diamond with 0.35 carats, an E color grade, and a clarity grade of VS1 can cost you $1007. Meanwhile, another exceptional cut diamond with 0.4 carats, a color grade of I, and an SI1 clarity grade cost you $603. The artists behind the site ensured that nobody would see the gap. The choice became so easy for me. If it sounds too technical for you, don't worry. The staff is very accommodating; they will actually give you a rundown on what you will need to know in case you ever get stuck.
Their Service is Remarkable!
The jewellery artists supporting Fascinating Diamonds are amazing! They had been so meticulous in how they managed my requests, big or small. At times, they would even throw in their own suggestions and choose the style that will fit me best. This was unlike any experience I had with retail shops. They handled all my questions so well.
It was clear that they do, however, considering they customize your ring to satisfy your needs. They also ship out of New York, too! Since the store's established in New York and I am not, I was hoping that the transport might last longer than normal. But the entire interaction was really smooth and I was really delighted with my ring when it arrived. Best Diamond Blade To Cut Asphalt
What You Need To Know First Best Diamond Blade To Cut Asphalt
I think it's best if you do a bit of research on rings prior to customizing your own. There's a lot that you need to know about jewelry first before getting into this, especially once you want to check into how much you are spending.
While the artists were adapting, I honestly feel that this can't be for someone who's has not done their research on diamond rings beforehand. It's also a lot easier if you already have a certain style in mind. But then again, it was fun playing around with the styles and the colors it was simple to change my mind.
Conclusion Best Diamond Blade To Cut Asphalt
For someone who knows what they need but can not find it everywhere, fascinatingdiamonds.com is the perfect place for you.
But if you're a bit indecisive about what you really want, it is also the ideal place to explore what you like and what you do not like.
It is honestly like one of those video games where you choose exactly what you get. It was an awesome experience for me and I couldn't be happier with the results.


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Issuer, Owner
Ludwig van Beethoven Institut für Klavier und Cembalo in der Musikpädagogik
Rennweg 8 (RW A)
1030 Wien
Phone: +43 1 71155-4401
Fax: +43 1 71155-4499
Responsible for the content
Univ.-Prof. Mag.art. Johannes Marian
Online team
Univ.-Prof. Mag.art. Johannes Marian
ao.Univ.-Prof. Mag.art. Manon Winter
Univ.-Prof. Mag.art. Mag.art. Dr. Albert Sassmann
Gabriela Fischer-Dinhof
Data Protection Declaration
This Web site may contain information about other proprietary rights and copyright that must be observed. This applies in particular to logos, images, sound files and videos. Downloading, printing and saving files from this Web site is permitted for personal use only. Any other use requires the express approval of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna assumes no liability for loss of data or other technical problems that may arise when viewing or downloading data from this Web site. The University is not responsible for the content of external Web sites to which this Web site has links.
The information on this Website is carefully checked and regularly updated by the University. The University makes no guarantee as to the completeness, up-to-dateness or accuracy of the information published on this Web site. Errors and omissions excepted. The University further reserves the right to change the content and design of this Web site without prior notice.


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This course is delivered by the School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering in the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing.
The Faculty's wide selection of undergraduate and postgraduate courses covers a diverse range of subject areas, from aerospace to geography; from maths and computing to biotechnology; and many more. Our collaborative set-up provides new opportunities for our students, and we design our courses with industry professionals to ensure you stay up to date with the latest developments.
The School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering offers a range of teaching and research activities, delivering a portfolio of courses from foundation degrees right through to doctoral level.
The School has a hands-on teaching approach. Our courses encompass applications from all areas of engineering, providing our students with the knowledge and flexibility they need to work across many industries, both in the UK and overseas.
"I have extensive research and teaching experience in the fields of modern manufacturing and resource management with expertise in areas such as just-in-time and lean manufacturing, discrete simulation modelling, resources optimisation, quality management, supply chain management, operation management, project management and logistic distribution.
As course director, I lead an experienced teaching team to deliver skill-based modules in Engineering Projects & Systems Management MSc and Advanced Industrial and Manufacturing Systems MSc.
The teaching team constantly review the course syllabus and its relevant applications in leading engineering industries, and in association with the School's Industrial Advisory Committee. This practice ensures that the course objectives and materials always reflect the skill sets which are sought after by industry. Graduates will be taught and trained to possess the required abilities so that they can take on the challenging role in senior management in their respective industry.
If you have any specific questions about the course please email me at firstname.lastname@example.com."
020 3308 9931*
*Calls cost 7p per minute from a UK landline plus your phone company's access charge. Calls to this number from mobiles are normally deductible from your inclusive minutes.
This course is taught at Roehampton Vale
020 3308 9931*
*Calls cost 7p per minute from a UK landline plus your phone company's access charge. Calls to this number from mobiles are normally deductible from your inclusive minutes.
This course is taught at Roehampton Vale


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DescriptionPumpkin is a fruit of the plant of the same name and belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family that also includes gourds. It is quite similar to gourd in its appearance and is believed to have originated in North America. However, there is no fixed shape of pumpkins and they usually vary from being oblate to oblong. The rind is smooth, lightly ribbed and usually, orange or yellow in color. With a high nutritional value, pumpkins are associated with a lot of health benefits. Apart from the flesh, even the seeds of pumpkins boast of a large number of nutrition benefits. Read on to know more about the nutritious 'pumpkin'.
Health & Nutrition Benefits of Eating Pumpkin
- Pumpkin is very rich in carotenoids, which is known for keeping the immune system of an individual strong and healthy.
- Beta-carotene, found in pumpkin, is a powerful antioxidant as well as an anti-inflammatory agent. It helps prevent build up of cholesterol on the arterial walls, thus reducing chances of strokes.
- Being rich in alpha-carotene, pumpkin is believed to slow the process of aging and also prevent cataract formation.
- Pumpkins have been known to reduce the risk of macular degeneration, a serious eye problem than usually results in blindness.
- The high amount of fiber, present in a pumpkin, is good for the bowel health of an individual.
- Being loaded with potassium, pumpkin is associated with lowering the risk of hypertension.
- The presence of zinc in pumpkins boosts the immune system and also improves the bone density.
Health & Nutrition Benefits of Pumpkin Seeds
- They promote overall prostate health, apart from alleviating the problem of difficult urination that is associated with an enlarged prostate.
- They comprise of L-tryptophan, a compound that has been found to be effective against depression.
- They are believed to serve as a natural protector against osteoporosis.
- They have been known to reduce inflammation, without causing the side effects of anti-inflammatory drugs.
- Studies have revealed that they help prevent calcium oxalate kidney stone formation.
- Being rich in phytosterols, they have been associated with reducing the levels of LDL cholesterol.


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FHCS Grandparent's Day!
We are looking forward to seeing many grandparents on Monday, September 11. Please let them know to arrive by 8:15am. Grandparents of secondary students will go to first period classes by 8:20am while grandparents of elementary students will accompany their grandchildren to the playground for a brief playtime before returning to the classroom by 8:25am. After a sharing time in all classrooms, we will meet in the gym for a short program and snacks. We should be finished by 9:30am or shortly after.


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Preparing organizations to lead in a new technological era
Today's systems and devices firms face a shrinking talent pool of global leaders with the coveted, deep functional experience necessary to succeed in this challenging sector. This competition for key talent forces organizations to make major people decisions ever earlier in their leader's careers. Accurately identifying and accelerating the development of high-potential talent is a necessity.
We build solutions to help systems and devices firms identify, nurture, and retain the talent needed to navigate and lead in today's market. We leverage new technologies and proprietary data sources to help companies design their organization - the structure, roles and responsibilities - to seize opportunities. And we build solutions that help them confidently execute on talent strategy, build positive corporate cultures, smooth transitions, and ensure their ongoing success.
Preparing organizations to lead in a new technological era
Talent solutions for a maturing digital world
Leveraging big data for real-time decisions
Leaders who embrace change-driven growth
Embed the ability to constantly transform into your organization's DNA
Visionary solutions for the service sector
Smart solutions for software and services
Exploring employee engagement at VodafoneLearn More
Watch this series to discover the results of our Digital Sustainability IndexLearn More
Questions? Call 800-633-4410 to speak to a Korn Ferry representative or complete the form below.


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09 Monument Service Road, Olivanna, Krugersdorp, Republic of South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 11 668 4600 | Fax: +27 (0) 11 668 4619 | Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Fastening Systems
Vibration and shock can quickly impair joint integrity and affect overall product performance. Applications where a high level of vibration is prevalent demand the use of vibration proof fasteners to ensure that the integrity of structures is maintained. The Swagefast Fastening System offers a highly vibration resistant joint owing to its unique design in which the collar is swaged into the annular locking grooves of the Swagebolt – ensuring a permanent lock.
Proven for use in multiple industries, the Swagefast fastening system is ideal for heavy duty, high vibration applications, combining shear strength with quick and easy installation – resulting in a virtually fool proof solution that gives the assurance of long term joint reliability.
The majority of fasteners in the Swagefast system have been designed to meet or exceed SAE Grade 5 or ASTM A-325 and ISO (8.8) strength requirements, ensuring high clamp force and, tensile and shear strength, depending on the application.
The Swagefast Fastening System includes:
- Standard Swagebolts
- Step Down (SD) Oversized Swagebolts
- Blind Rivet Swagebolts (BRL)
- Stump Swagebolts (SL)
- Flush Break Mono Fasteners (MB)
- Flush Break Maxi Fasteners (MGB)
- Bodytainer Fasteners (BF)
- Flush Break Multi Fasteners (MGL)
Features and Benefits:
- Vibration resistant
- High shear strength
- High tensile strength
- Uniform clamping force
- Fast and easy installation
- Visual inspection
- Lower installed fastener costs
- Improved fabrication quality
- Reduced rework and scrap charges
- Minimal inspection costs
- Lower installer training costs
How to get maximum performance with Swagebolt pins and collars:
- Swagebolt pins and collars are lubricated to provide proper driving characteristics and should not be degreased.
- Installation surfaces should be 90° to the Swagebolt pin axis for normal conditions and spot face for other conditions.
- Collars may be driven on surfaces inclined to a maximum of 1 in 20 from the Swagebolt pin axis.
- Collars may be driven on curved surfaces with a minimum radius of 3 times the Swagebolt pin diameter.
- Collars should be removed from the application by splitting them axially with a collar splitter.
- In the case of replacement – if the hole sizing is not worn or oversized, a Swagebolt pin of the same diameter must be used. If the hole sizing is worn or oversized, a larger diameter Swagebolt pin should be used.
Considerations for selecting your Swagefast Fastening System:
- The material of the fastener or its coating should be compatible with the application's material.
- The fastener diameter is determined by the shear and tensile strength required.
- The fastener length is determined by the total material thickness that requires fastening. Order by diameter required and the total material thickness that requires fastening.
- It is recommended that a standard (CS) collar is used where the holes on the application do not exceed the maximum hole sizing specifications.
- It is recommended that a flanged (CF) collar is used where the holes on the application are worn or sizing exceeds the maximum hole sizing specifications.
- Fastener head styles are determined by clearance requirements.


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Niall de Buitlear sez,
A member of Athlone Town Council is trying to have a state-owned piece of art removed from a public art gallery.
The artwork by Shane Cullen features transcripts of messages smuggled in and out of the Long Kesh Prison by members of the IRA in the late 70s and early 80s. The work is part of the collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art and was made in the mid 90s.
Cllr Mark Cooney, of the main government party Fine Gael, tabled a motion calling for the removal of the work from the Luan Gallery, Athlone. Cllr Cooney, compared the work to a piece glorifying Hitler "extolling the merits of exterminating the Jewish population". Cllr Gabrielle McFadden also of Fine Gael supported Cllr Cooney saying that public galleries should not show politically contentious art.
Independent Cllr Sheila Buckley Byrne suggested the matter be referred to the board of Athlone Art and Heritage of which she and at least one other Councillor are members. The Councillors voted in favour of this proposal.
Attempt to Remove Artwork from Luan Gallery, Athlone
(Thanks, Niall!)


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Technical Excellence With Heart
We are a family with a common purpose: to glorify God in all that we do, to display technical excellence in our work, to support our war fighters, and to sustain a creative, supportive, constructive work place for our employees.
Our People
SimVentions is a company of individuals built on a strong culture of talented, engaged employees focused on delivering high quality solutions to our customers while maintaining a positive environment. That is why we built SimVentions from the ground up with people, family, and the community in mind.
Founded in 2000 by four experienced leaders in technical support of the U.S. military, today SimVentions is headquartered just south of Washington D.C. in Fredericksburg, VA. Our company continues to be focused on technical excellence and customer and employee satisfaction. We are consistently thinking, working and succeeding together. Because of this SimVentions is a thriving small business supporting the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, other joint Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, non-profits and commercial businesses.
We exist to help you succeed. We work hard to understand the challenges you are facing and provide innovative solutions that go beyond the expected. Our dedicated service teams are here to help you with your most pressing needs and reaching your long term objectives.
We're here for you — today and tomorrow. Learn about our values or contact us today to find out more.
Meet The Team
SimVentions has a full and seasoned leadership team. Highly experienced in their respective fields, they pride themselves in the work they do and the people they lead.
Larry Root, CEO
Responsible for creating, planning, and implementing the strategic direction of the company. Leads SimVentions Board of Directors and sets SimV's Mission, Purpose, Vision, and Core Values.
Joe Caliri, President
Provides executive leadership, executes SimV's Mission, Purpose, and Vision, and ensures customer and employee satisfaction.
Megan Shepherd, COO
Oversees the day to day operations of SimVentions as well as managing the Cybersecurity Engineering team.
Blaine Alexander, VP/BD
Blaine is responsible for establishing and coordinating business growth objectives for the company.
Paul Gustavson, CTO
Oversees development and integration of technological capabilities and processes.
Steve Goss, CFO
Ensures financial support to the US Government and compliance with IRS and DCAA regulations.
Adam VanderWijst, Dir/HR
Responsible for planning, development, organization, and implementation of the company's human resource function.
Paul Gatanis, CIO
Oversees equipment upgrades, supervises IT team members, and presides over IT-related projects.
Matt Wilson, Vice President
Oversees the development of tools and technologies for the company and leads the Technology Solutions Group.
Randy Walker, Chief Engineer
Provides technical direction to the application of engineering process, policy, and practice.
Robert Fidler, Vice President
Provides leadership and management for the Electronic Warfare and Combat Systems Group.
Troy Sizemore, Dir/Contracts
Responsible for leading and managing the SimVentions contracts and purchasing department.
Jason Doering, Vice President
Provides leadership, management, and engineering support for the Asymmetric Warfare Group.
Scot Forry, Dir/Security
Responsible for managing and implementing industrial site security for SimVentions.
Herb Kaler, Sr. VP
Advises Strategic Initiatives efforts for SimVentions using his extensive Navy and DOD Contractor experience.
George Hughes, Sr. VP
Oversees Strategic Initiatives for SimVentions using his extensive DOD Contractor experience.
SimVentions. Built for Your Success.
Your Success is Our Honor. These five simple words express our culture: to deliver solutions that go beyond the expected. Centered around customer and employee satisfaction we believe it can only be accomplished by understanding our customers' needs, providing innovative solutions and doing what it takes to ensure your success.
Our culture helps foster imagination, creativity, exploration, and discovery. This has helped us build a dedicated team with passionate hearts and unmatched capabilities, as evidenced by referrals from existing customers, positive employee feedback, and numerous awards including being one of Virginia's best places to work.
SimVentions is not only committed to excellence in our work, but to serving the surrounding community as well. We believe is it an honor and a responsibility to use our time and talents to serve in both the business and public sector, which we do through local fund-raising events, as well as international missions and service projects.
SimVentions' leadership team is comprised of a core group of experienced professionals who know how to effectively communicate, connect with, and lead others. We leverage our experience to enable innovation and foster a corporate culture which yields positive change by bringing ideas and concepts to life.


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FDE PF940CL 80% FrameSKU: PF940CLFDE
This Item is NOT Eligible for return
The industry's only 80% Compact Longslide Polymer Pistol Frame offers our enhanced ergonomics and features with a twist. The hybrid design combines the advantages of the longer PF940v2™ slide and barrel with the concealability of the PF940C™ grip. Built with high-strength reinforced polymer construction, the PF940CL™ comes with everything necessary to complete a Gen 1-3 Glock® 17/22-compatible pistol frame.
DISCLAIMER: At 80P Builder, we by no means provide legal advice or legal counsel. Every builder needs to research their respective State laws and Federal laws. We DO NOT provide gunsmithing advice. 80P Builder is not responsible for improper builds, damage or injury due to user error.
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Join us for what will be one of our most fun events ever!!! Wednesday night April 30th from 9:30-1am at Cafe Habana in Malibu (The place owned by Cindy Crawford's husband Rande Gerber). We will be raising money for Yorkie Rescue of America. You never know who will turn up for the celebrity filled Wed night Karaoke night. In the past, Sting has dropped by, Kid Rock is a regular and many many more. This will be a fun night for a great cause!!! Suggested $10.00 donation at the door.
Wednesday April 30th
9:00 pm – 1:00 am
Cafe Habana Malibu
$10.00 suggested donation
RSVP to email@example.com


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Brand: ISM
Price: £ 82.50
Another choice in the Performance Recreation line, this seat is loved by all types of riders from casual to professional. The PR 2.0 is perfect for hybrids, road bikes, triathlon bikes, or mountain bikes. Enhance your cycling experience with the ticket to long-mile comfort and wellness. Introduced in 2011 and all about performance! ISM's winning design allows for increased hip rotation, thus decreasing a rider's aerodynamic drag and opens the diaphragm for easier breathing. Riders report an increase in wattage due to the more aggressive positioning. Sloped front arms provide extra relief to the superficial perineal space. From the start gate to the finish line, you will slice through the competition.