text:
Side-Channel Attacks RIDL, Fallout, and ZombieLoad Affects Millions of Vulnerable Intel Processors
Researchers found a bevy of critical vulnerabilities in modern Intel processors that, when exploited successfully, can leak or let hackers retrieve data being processed by the vulnerable CPUs. These security flaws are categorized as microarchitectural data sampling (MDS) vulnerabilities, with the side-channel attacks named ZombieLoad, Fallout, and Rogue In-Flight Data Load (RIDL).
[READ: What You Need to Know about the Meltdown and Spectre Vulnerabilities]
ZombieLoad, Fallout, and RIDL are side-channel attack methods similar to Meltdown and Spectre. These are security issues that could let hackers execute code or extract sensitive data that are otherwise protected by the Intel processors' architectural mechanisms. They are assigned these CVE identifiers:
- CVE-2018-12126 — Microarchitectural Store Buffer Data Sampling
- CVE-2018-12127 — Microarchitectural Load Port Data Sampling
- CVE-2018-12130 — Microarchitectural Fill Buffer Data Sampling
- CVE-2019-11091 — Microarchitectural Data Sampling Uncacheable Memory
The researchers who discovered and reported about ZombieLoad, Fallout, and RIDL are affiliated with the Graz University of Technology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Helmholtz Center for Information Security (CISPA), University of Michigan, KU Leuven, University of Adelaide; research groups imec-DistriNet, VUSec, and Data61; and cybersecurity firm Cyberus Technology. A list of all the researchers involved in the reports can be found in their websites.
[READ: An Overview of the Foreshadow/L1TF Intel Processor Vulnerabilities]
Like Meltdown and Spectre, ZombieLoad, Fallout, and RIDL exploit the way the vulnerable Intel processors implement speculative execution, a performance improvement feature that predicts the operations or data the processor will execute.
While there are currently no known attacks actively exploiting these vulnerabilities in the wild, they can still pose security risks.
[RELATED NEWS: Spectre Next Generation: New Intel CPU Vulnerabilities Found]
ZombieLoad takes its moniker from what the researchers termed as "zombie loads," which are data the processor cannot properly process. This data load forces the processor to use microcode, which are normally used to fix bugs, to prevent it from crashing. An application is typically only allowed to read their own data, but ZombieLoad allows that application's data to leak from the processor's core.
ZombieLoad can also be carried out to leak data loaded in virtual machines, specifically the hypervisor. This can pose a security risk in cloud environments, especially when different virtual machines run on the same server.
ZombieLoad could also allow hackers to monitor a user's web browsing behavior, e.g., fingerprint the websites' content and recover their URLs. In their proof of concept, the researchers showed how this technique can be repurposed to steal credentials. ZombieLoad affects Intel chips dating back to 2011. Processors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Advanced RISC Machine (ARM) are reportedly not affected.
[Trend Micro Research: Detecting Attacks that Exploit Meltdown and Spectre with Performance Counters]
The Fallout MSD attack can leak data from store buffers, which are used by the processor's pipeline — a series of instructions from the CPU designed to make computers run faster — to hold or store data. A hacker can then handpick what data should be leaked from the processor's store buffers.
Fallout can also be used to bypass kernel address space layout randomization (KASLR), a countermeasure against memory corruption vulnerabilities. Fallout can also leak data that the operating system's kernel writes to the memory.
The researchers noted that the measures placed in the latest i9 CPUs (Coffee Lake Refresh) to mitigate Meltdown make them more susceptible to Fallout.
[Technical Analysis: When Speculation is Risky: Understanding Meltdown and Spectre]
Meanwhile, RIDL can be used to leak data from the vulnerable CPU's various internal buffers (portions of allocated memory used to store or load data). The researchers' proofs of concept demonstrated how RIDL can be used in a Linux environment to leak root passwords, kernel data, and a string of information from another process.
The researchers noted that RIDL can let hackers steal data from other programs running on the same system. This could range from other applications/software, the operating system's kernel, cloud-based or virtual machines, and even Intel processor's own enclaves. RIDL reportedly affects devices fitted with Intel chips from as early as 2008.
[READ: Proof of concept shows how malware can hide from AV solutions via Intel's SGX enclaves]
ZombieLoad, Fallout, and RIDL exemplify a trend that Trend Micro observed in last year's threat landscape: an increase of disclosures of processor-level and hardware-based vulnerabilities. Given the complexity of these flaws, they can be challenging to mitigate. While there are no reports of in-the-wild attacks, the impact could be pervasive as they affect devices that are powered by the vulnerable processors.
The researchers have various workarounds to mitigate attacks that exploit MSD flaws, such as disabling or configuring certain vulnerable components in the processor (e.g., disabling Hyper-Threading, flushing CPU buffers). And as with any vulnerability, patching is also recommended. Intel has released a microcode update to patch the vulnerable processors. These vendors have also issued their own patches and security advisories/best practices: Amazon AWS, Apple, Citrix, Chromium, Google, Lenovo, Microsoft, Redhat, Ubuntu, and VMWare.
Like it? Add this infographic to your site:
1. Click on the box below. 2. Press Ctrl+A to select all. 3. Press Ctrl+C to copy. 4. Paste the code into your page (Ctrl+V).
Image will appear the same size as you see above.
- Post-Quantum Cryptography: Migrating to Quantum Resistant Cryptography
- Rising From the Underground: Hacktivism in 2024
- Guarding AI Models From Malicious Alterations in the AI PC Era
- Navigating the Threat Landscape for Cloud-Based GPUs
- Kong API Gateway Misconfigurations: An API Gateway Security Case Study


text:
on Jail Standards
Jail Standards
The current minimum standards are available on the Texas Secretary of State's website.
Meetings can be viewed online at the Texas House of Representatives website, and will be listed on their daily ``Video/Audio`` page.
Technical Assistance Memorandums
Informational bulletins sent to all counties by the Commission.
2024 Customer Service Survey
The Texas Legislature created the Commission on Jail Standards in 1975 to implement a declared state policy that all county jail facilities conform to minimum standards of construction, maintenance and operation. In 1983, the Texas Legislature expanded the jurisdiction of the Commission to include county and municipal jails operated under vendor contract. In 1991, the Texas Legislature added the requirement for count, payment, and transfer of inmates when precipitated by crowded conditions as well as expanding the Commission's role of consultation and technical assistance. In 1993, the legislative function expanded the role of the Commission again by requiring that it provide consultation and technical assistance for the State Jail program. In 1997, the Texas legislature affirmed that counties, municipalities and private vendors housing out-of-state inmates are within the Commission's jurisdiction. It is the duty of the Commission to promulgate reasonable written rules and procedures establishing minimum standards, inspection procedures, enforcement policies and technical assistance for:
- The construction, equipment, maintenance, and operation of jail facilities under its jurisdiction;
- The custody, care and treatment of inmates;
- Programs of rehabilitation, education, and recreation for inmates confined in county and municipal jail facilities under its jurisdiction.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Analyst: Algae offers excellent opportunities for salt replacement in bread
Figures show that bread accounted for 29% of global sodium chloride use in 2012. Brown algae is a viable alternative not only because it provides a sodium substitute but also because it fulfils a nutritional function and taps into demand for natural products, Hosafci said.
A recent study linked brown algae to a reduction in abdominal fat in humans.
However, extracting algae remains very costly and complex. The estimated cost of algal production ranges from $4-300 per kg of dry biomass, compared to table salt, which retails for less than $1 per kg, FAO figures show.
Hosafci told BakeryandSnacks.com: "Currently price is a problem or will be a problem because there is no large scale manufacturing of algae in place."
"Initial investment will be quite expensive. It is a question of how much industry is willing to invest and how many players are willing to take part in it."
Perception and colour
Some regions such as Asia are quite used to having algae, in sushi for example or algae snacks, so there is no negative perception there compared to southern Europe, according to Hosafci.
She added: "It is just a matter of marketing it properly."
"Most seaweed as an ingredient has very little taste in general because it is used in very small quantities. The issue here is more the pigmentation and colouring."
Salt reduction is typically associated with a reduction in flavour. However, recent studies indicate that brown algae's replacement of salt in pizza dough had no particular impact on taste.
The main issue is discolouration, as it could turn white bread and baguettes a shade of brown. Its application in wholegrain and multi-seed variants though, as well as pizza, could work as the dark colour will be barely noticed.
Hosafci concluded: "Brown algae's best opportunities lie in wholegrain bread in developed countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, which have a high consumption of sodium chloride and a high number of overweight and obese people."
Growing trend
The global market for salt reduction ingredients, like amino acids, yeast extracts and mineral salts is set to reach $1bn by 2018, growing at an average rate of 11% per year.
Algae is a company which collects and processes brown algae found on the North Atlantic coast to make extracts and phytocomplexes.
Last month, Algea spokeswoman, Miriam Pasciuti, said that the trend for algae in food and cosmetics was taking off and the ingredient was becoming more familiar globally.


text:
By Juan Cole
The United Nations Security Council is theoretically a sort of sovereign in international law. If it designates a regime like that of Gaddafi in Libya as a threat to international peace, it can deputize the nations of the world to remove it. One major exception to UNSC authority is Israel, which routinely thumbs its nose at the world body while suffering no sanctions or other punishment.
Defying the UNSC can be extremely dangerous and costly. It demanded that Iraq dismantle its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs and destroy any stockpiles of such unconventional weapons, in a series of resolutions after the Gulf War. The Bush administration alleged that Iraq's President Saddam Hussein had declined completely to destroy those stockpiles and so was in violation of international law, and therefore claimed a sort of indirect sanction from the UNSC to invade and occupy Iraq in order to finish the job. (Unfortunately for Bush, the Baath regime in Iraq had in fact destroyed the stockpiles; this had not stopped Bush propagandists from continuing to this day to cite Saddam Hussein's alleged defiance of the UNSC as a justification for the US war on Iraq.) Saddam Hussein was hanged in December 2006.
The UNSC demanded a decade or so ago that Iran mothball its civilian, peaceful nuclear enrichment program, aimed at gaining the capacity to fuel nuclear reactors to produce electricity. Iran refused, citing the pledge in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that guarantees all countries the right to close the fuel cycle. (Note that Israel went for broke to develop a nuclear warhead, of which it has several hundred, and never suffered any sanctions at all.)
As a result of the UNSC resolutions against Iran, the Obama administration was emboldened to impose a financial boycott on Iran, having it kicked off all the major banking exchanges and making it difficult or impossible for Iran to get paid for its petroleum. Then the US went around strong-arming countries like South Korea in a bid to force them to stop importing Iranian petroleum. A simple US congressional resolution would probably not have given the US the legitimacy to pursue this financial blockade against Iran, but the UNSC resolutions were much more persuasive, combined with US threats to sanction companies that traded with Iran.
Iran's oil export earnings fell to $61.92 billion in 2013, "down 46% from $114.75 billion in 2011." That was an over $50 bn annual fine for defying the UNSC, even when it wasn't clear that international law justified the UNSC stance.
UNSC resolutions against the North Korean nuclear weapons program (a kind of military program Iran does not even have) imposed an arms embargo and even permitted other countries to board North Korean vessels at will on the high seas if they suspected that weapons were aboard– a severe attack on the country's national sovereignty.
So when the UNSC calls on Israel and on Hamas in Gaza to institute an immediate ceasefire, and they refuse, they will attract sanctions, right? These demands, everyone knows, would be full-fledged resolutions if they weren't watered down by the US. (And let us face it, Israel is the one with the firepower here; it has killed over a thousand in this round of fighting, 80% of them non-combatants; Hamas has killed four dozen or so Israelis, all but three soldiers). I mean, Saddam Hussein was hanged merely for being falsely accused of violating UNSC resolutions! And what if, as with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel not only refuses the demand for an immediate ceasefire but actually accuses the world's major powers of being accomplices to terrorism? Doesn't that sound a little bit like Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaking of "global arrogance"?
Wouldn't the UNSC do something to Netanyahu for sassing them that way? Wouldn't they devastate the Israeli economy the way they did the Iranian? Wouldn't they authorize military action to protect civilians in Gaza from Israeli war crimes, as they did in Libya?
President Obama will protect Israel from any accountability by wielding his veto.
And that is one of the reasons for the mess in the Mideast. The Israeli leadership is completely fearless because it knows that the US will protect it no matter what it does, up to and including calling high American officials terrorist sympathizers.
The truth is that Mr. Obama could end the madness fairly easily. He could just abstain when the UNSC votes sanctions on Israel for its violations of international law.
The European Union has forwarded the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the US, as an American sphere of influence. The US congress and government more generally, in turn, has been bought and paid for by the Israel lobbies, including the "Christian Zionists." Unless and until counter-lobbies are formed that effectively contest with AIPAC for influence over US representatives, the problems in the Mideast are unsolvable.
Related video
Gaza Crisis: 'Accountability & justice for both sides' says UN chief Ban Ki-moon- BBC News


text:
Since they haven't seen a NEX-7 review yet someone asked if I have given up on Sony.
No, I haven't. This is a site for all mirrorless cameras, and I'm not trying to play favorites. I am trying to make sure that I give each camera a pretty full workout, though.
I don't get loaner equipment from manufacturers, I buy it. My purchased NEX-7 didn't arrive until late April, at which point I was fully engaged with a number of other things for review. I don't just pick up a camera, play with it for a few hours, then write a review. I actually take these things on real shooting trips, use them in multiple shooting situations, and try to form a real opinion about how they perform. Thus, I'm never the first one to review something. I'm often the last. Suffice it to say, I've been shooting with the NEX-7 and will report on it when I feel comfortable that all of my conclusions are supportable from actual experience.
To cut you off at the pass: the same applies to the OM-D EM-5. And a bunch of lenses. And the new Samsungs. And the Ricoh M-mount and 24-70mm modules. As I finish with each one, you'll see reviews start to pop.
So I'm just slow. I'd rather be slow and accurate than fast and unreliable.


text:
You haven't seen many American politicians modeling themselves after Richard Nixon in the past, well, 45 years or so. Most folks in politics have a sense that things didn't work out so well for Tricky Dick in the end, what with the impeachment, resignation and all.
Well, Paul Manafort isn't most folks. He's the wily, establishment operative Donald Trump hired to run his campaign. And he thinks Nixon's the One.
At a panel in Cleveland on Monday, Manafort said Donald Trump's acceptance speech would follow the grand tradition of Nixon's 1968 convention. "If you go back and read," Mr. Manafort said, "that speech is pretty much on line with a lot of the issues that are going on today."
Given how directly Melania Trump copied Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech, it seems like a good idea to take Manafort at his word and go back to Nixon's speech in Miami on Aug. 8, 1968.
Frankly, I'm not sure what Manafort was talking about exactly. As a whole, Nixon's positions, policies and rhetoric would put him completely off the Republican spectrum to the left, generally on the right of the Democratic mainstream.
Never mind the details. "The '60s were bad, really bad," Trump recently said about Nixon's appeal. "And it's really bad now. Americans feel like it's chaos again."
Manafort and Trump are conjuring Richard Nixon, the law-and-order candidate. So maybe they'll resurrect (i.e. plagiarize) this passage from Nixon's acceptance speech:
Time is running out for the merchants of crime and corruption in American society.
The wave of crime is not going to be the wave of the future in the United States of America.
We shall re-establish freedom from fear in America so that America can take the lead in re-establishing freedom from fear in the world.
And to those who say that law and order is the code word for racism, there and here is a reply:
Our goal is justice for every American. If we are to have respect for law in America, we must have laws that deserve respect.
That isn't nearly tough enough for Trump. It almost sounds politically correct.
Maybe Trump and his speechwriters will crib this:
And let us build bridges, my friends, build bridges to human dignity across that gulf that separates black America from white America.
Black Americans, no more than white Americans, they do not want more government programs which perpetuate dependency.
They don't want to be a colony in a nation.
Trump would probably think it was classy of Nixon to assure black Americans he wasn't trying to put them in a separate colony.
Nixon also talked about what he hoped his legacy would be in words Trump would appreciate. "I see a day when the President of the United States is respected and his office is honored because it is worthy of respect and worthy of honor," Nixon said. Trump surely can relate to that.
Nixon ended his acceptance this way:
My fellow Americans, the long dark night for America is about to end.
The time has come for us to leave the valley of despair and climb the mountain so that we may see the glory of the dawn -- a new day for America, and a new dawn for peace and freedom in the world.
Again, that is kind wimpy and soft for Trump. Maybe his writers can translate it into something like this:
My fellow Americans, America is a disaster. To be perfectly honest, I'm the only guy that can fix it.
The time has some to stop losing and to starting winning. We're going to win so big. You're going to thank me.
It's possible, of course, that Manafort is thinking of some of Nixon's later speeches, like this classic from 1973:
I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service — I earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I could say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I have earned everything I have got.
But Trump says that all the time anyway.
It will be interesting to hear the echoes of Richard Nixon in Donald Trump's acceptance speech Thursday night.
If it goes well, Paul Manafort might go down in the annals of famous presidential operatives, like John Erlichman, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman and John Dean.


text: TechnologyDentist in Tacoma, WA Our state-of-the-art technologies ensure accuracy, efficiency, and comfort. Our dental equipment is safe, effective, and well-maintained. Some of our dental technologies include those listed below: Digital X-Rays Our advanced digital x-rays magnify and enhance your teeth for better diagnosis and treatment. This technology allows us to take images of your teeth and display them on a computer screen quickly and easily. With digital x-rays, we can view your teeth and surrounding structures with remarkable accuracy. These images provide the information we need to plan your dental treatment. Digital x-rays require much less radiation than traditional film x-rays. Digital x-rays are a safe and effective dental technology. Intra-oral Camera The intra-oral camera is about the size and shape of a pen. It is used to record images of your teeth, gums, mouth, and tongue from inside your mouth. Due to its small size and sleek design, it is comfortable, easy to use, and able to view a wide range of angles. The intra-oral camera is a safe and effective tool that can be used with patients of every age. The intra-oral camera is a highly valuable resource for both diagnosis and treatment planning. Each time we use the intra-oral camera, a new disposable cover is employed. This ensures your health and safety at all times. After your exam, images captured by the intra-oral camera may be digitally stored, printed out, or deleted. Cavitron The Cavitron is a handheld device used in periodontal deep cleaning. While scaling can be done by hand, the Cavitron uses ultrasonic technology to remove calculus from teeth and gums quickly, gently, and effectively. With the Cavitron, patient and hygienist comfort is increased and time spent scaling and polishing is decreased.


text: Ambha Amanda Roberts is a Kinesiologist, Intuitive Healer, educator and facilitator based on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She offers Kinesiology sessions both in-person and via Skype/Zoom all over the world. Ambha Amanda is the co-creator of Adventures of Staria, which includes a series of Staria cards, and an upcoming book for children (including inner children). |


text:
LA County Public Works
We plan, design, build, and maintain modern infrastructure that uplifts all communities of Los Angeles County.
Each year approximately six billion single use plastic carryout bags are consumed in the County of Los Angeles, the equivalent of 600 bags per person per year.[1] Plastic bag litter makes up as much as 25 percent of the litter stream and significantly impacts our communities and the environment.[2] In the County of Los Angeles alone, local and State governments spend tens of millions of dollars each year on prevention, cleanup, and enforcement activities to reduce litter.[3] Although single use plastic carryout bags are inexpensive and have some useful qualities, they can also be harmful to the environment when littered. Due to their expansive and lightweight characteristics, littered single use plastic bags are easily carried airborne by wind, where they end up entangled in brush, tossed around along freeways, and caught on fences.[4]
In addition, within the County's extensive and diverse watersheds, many littered single use plastic carryout bags find their way onto local beaches and eventually into the ocean, where they have been known to impact marine life that ingest them in the following unintended ways:
Whales and large birds often swallow plastic carryout bags inadvertently during feeding, which become permanently lodged in the stomach. Turtles swallow plastic carryout bags since they resemble their main food source, jellyfish.[5,6,7,8] Recent studies indicate that littered plastics such as single use plastic carryout bags can transport, adsorb, and when ingested by animals, lead to the bioaccumulation of a variety of persistent organic pollutants. Marine animals that inadvertently ingest single use plastic carryout bags and other plastics are therefore subjected to numerous potential health impacts. In addition, plastic bags can smother coral, restricting growth and destroying the natural habitats of many different species of marine wildlife.[9,10]
Single use plastic carryout bags also affect domestic land animals, such as cows, goats, and horses, which occasionally eat plastic carryout bags found on the ground or entangled in brush. Single use plastic bag litter is found to have similar undesirable health impacts on these animals.[11,12]
The North Pacific Gyre is an area located roughly 1,000 miles from the California coast line, where several ocean circular currents meet, creating an accumulation of marine debris, especially plastics. Since plastics do not biodegrade, they often accumulate in the Gyre from multiple northern Pacific Rim countries.[13]


text:
The START package is available for ISO 45001. Below you find the description of the baseline START package that we offer.
A set of guidelines and collateral that builds knowledge on the new standard(s) and migration process. This is complimented with a suite of eLearning, classroom and/or on-site courses delivered by our professional trainers. Get a deeper understanding of the new standard and requirements, building effective competence for the journey ahead:
- Guideline: the standard(s) and requirements
- Explanation of changes: main changes compared to the previous standard version
- Migration process guide: a road-map and guidance on the migration process
- New ISO 45001 – explanation of changes
- Risk based thinking (e-learning)
- High Level Structure, leadership and context of the organization (e-learning)
- Migration courses (public course or e-learning)
Key benefits
- Build an understanding of the new standard(s), requirements, rationale and logic.
- Immediately understand where to focus.
- Gain complete understanding of the process of migrating to the new version.
- Get insight into possible opportunities for improvement .
- Obtain indication of your readiness to adopt the new requirements.


text:
A fully nonlinear potential model for ship hydrodynamics directly interfaced with CAD data structures. Proceedings of the 24th International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference, Busan, 2014. 2014 .
. Nonsingular Isogeometric Boundary Element Method for Stokes Flows in 3D. [Internet]. 2014 . Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/6326
. Potential Model for Ship Hydrodynamics Simulations Directly Interfaced with CAD Data Structures. In: The 24th International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference. Vol. 4. The 24th International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference. International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers; 2014. pp. 815–822.
. A robotic crawler exploiting directional frictional interactions: experiments, numerics, and derivation of a reduced model. Proceedings of the Royal Society A 470, 20140333 (2014). 2014 .
. Shape control of active surfaces inspired by the movement of euglenids. [Internet]. 2014 . Available from: http://urania.sissa.it/xmlui/handle/1963/35118
. Spontaneous division and motility in active nematic droplets. [Internet]. 2014 . Available from: http://urania.sissa.it/xmlui/handle/1963/34902
. Attainment results for nematic elastomers. SISSA; 2013. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/7174
. Crawlers in viscous environments: linear vs nonlinear rheology. International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics 56, 142-147 (2013). 2013 .
. Macroscopic contact angle and liquid drops on rough solid surfaces via homogenization and numerical simulations. ESAIM: Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis. 2013 ;47:837–858.
. One-dimensional swimmers in viscous fluids: dynamics, controllability, and existence of optimal controls. [Internet]. 2013 . Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/6467
. A stable and adaptive semi-Lagrangian potential model for unsteady and nonlinear ship-wave interactions. Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, 37(1):128 – 143, 2013. [Internet]. 2013 . Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/5669
. Computing optimal strokes for low reynolds number swimmers. In: Natural locomotion in fluids and on surfaces : swimming, flying, and sliding / editors Stephen Childress, Anette Hosoi, William W. Schultz, and Z. Jane Wang, editors,. Natural locomotion in fluids and on surfaces : swimming, flying, and sliding / editors Stephen Childress, Anette Hosoi, William W. Schultz, and Z. Jane Wang, editors,. Springer; 2012. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/6445
. Crawling motility through the analysis of model locomotors: two case studies. The European Physical Journal E, Volume 35, Issue 9, September 2012, Article number85 [Internet]. 2012 . Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/7017
. Hybridization in nanostructured DNA monolayers probed by AFM: theory versus experiment. Nanoscale. 2012 Mar; 4(5):1734-41. 2012 .
. Linear elasticity obtained from finite elasticity by Gamma-convergence under weak coerciveness conditions. Ann. Inst. H. Poincare Anal. Non Lineaire [Internet]. 2012 ;29:715-735. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/4267
. Mathematical and numerical modeling of liquid crystal elastomer phase transition and deformation. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings. Volume 1403, 2012, Pages 125-130 [Internet]. 2012 . Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/7020
. Ogden-type energies for nematic elastomers. International Journal of Non-Linear mechanics . 2012 ;47(2):402-412.
. Quasistatic evolution for Cam-Clay plasticity: properties of the viscosity solution. Calculus of variations and partial differential equations 44 (2012) 495-541 [Internet]. 2012 . Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/3900
. Reverse engineering the euglenoid movement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Volume 109, Issue 44, 30 October 2012, Pages 17874-17879 [Internet]. 2012 . Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/6444
. A stable semi-lagrangian potential method for the simulation of ship interaction with unsteady and nonlinear waves. In: 17th Int. Conf. Ships Shipp. Res. 17th Int. Conf. Ships Shipp. Res. ; 2012.
. Cytoskeletal actin networks in motile cells are critically self-organized systems synchronized by mechanical interactions. PNAS 108 (2011) 13978 [Internet]. 2011 . Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/4358
. An Existence and Uniqueness Result for the Motion of Self-Propelled Microswimmers. SIAM J. Math. Anal. [Internet]. 2011 ; 43:1345-1368. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/3894
. Gamma-convergence of energies for nematic elastomers in the small strain limit. Continuum. Mech. Therm. [Internet]. 2011 ; 23. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/4141
. Metastable equilibria of capillary drops on solid surfaces: a phase field approach. Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics [Internet]. 2011 ;23:453–471. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00161-011-0189-6
. Numerical Strategies for Stroke Optimization of Axisymmetric Microswimmers. Mathematical Models and Methods in Applied Sciences 21 (2011) 361-387 [Internet]. 2011 . Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1963/3657


text:
General availability: Disaster recovery for Azure IaaS virtual machines
Published date: June 05, 2018
Disaster recovery for Azure IaaS virtual machines using Azure Site Recovery is now generally available.
You can easily replicate and protect IaaS-based applications running on Azure to a different Azure region within a geographical cluster without deploying any additional infrastructure components or software appliances in your subscription. The cross-region DR feature is generally available in all Azure public regions where Site Recovery is available.
To get started, see the Replicate an Azure VM to another Azure region article. For more details, see the blog post.


text:
The account of Jesus cursing the barren fig tree is found in two different gospel accounts. First, it is seen in Matthew 21:18-22, and then also in Mark 11:12-14. While there are slight differences between the two accounts, they are easily reconciled by studying the passages. Like all Scripture, the key to understanding this passage comes from understanding the context in which it happened. In order to properly understand this passage, we must first look at the chronological and geographical setting. For example, when did this occur, what was the setting, and where did it happen? Also, in order to fully understand this passage, we need to have an understanding of the importance of the fig tree as it relates to the nation of Israel and understand how the fig tree is often used in the Scriptures to symbolically represent Israel. Finally, we must have a basic understanding of the fig tree itself, its growing seasons, etc.
First, in looking at the general chronological setting of the passage, we see that it happened during the week before His crucifixion. Jesus had entered Jerusalem a day earlier amid the praise and worship of the Jewish people who were looking to Him as the King/Messiah who was going to deliver them from Roman occupation (Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11). Now, the next day, Jesus is again on His way to Jerusalem from where He was staying in Bethany. On His way, both Matthew and Mark record that He was hungry and saw a fig tree in the distance that had leaves on it (Mark 11:13). Upon coming to the tree expecting to find something to eat, Jesus instead discovered that the fig tree had no fruit on it and cursed the tree saying, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" (Matthew 21:19; Mark 11:14). Matthew records the cursing and the withering of the fig tree all in one account and includes it after the account of Jesus cleansing the Temple of the moneychangers. Mark explains that it actually took place over two days, with Jesus cursing the fig tree the first day on the way to cleanse the Temple, and the disciples seeing the tree withered on the second day when they were again going to Jerusalem from Bethany (Mark 11:12-14 and Mark 11:19-20). Of course, upon seeing the tree "withered from the roots up," the disciples were amazed, as that would have normally taken several weeks.
Having reviewed the general chronological setting of the story, we can begin to answer some of many questions that are often asked of it. First of all is the question, Why did Jesus curse the fig tree if it was not the right season for figs? The answer to this question can be determined by studying the characteristics of fig trees. The fruit of the fig tree generally appears before the leaves, and, because the fruit is green it blends in with the leaves right up until it is almost ripe. Therefore, when Jesus and His disciples saw from a distance that the tree had leaves, they would have expected it to also have fruit on it even though it was earlier in the season than what would be normal for a fig tree to be bearing fruit. Also, each tree would often produce two to three crops of figs each season. There would be an early crop in the spring followed by one or two later crops. In some parts of Israel, depending on climate and conditions, it was also possible that a tree might produce fruit ten out of twelve months. This also explains why Jesus and His disciples would be looking for fruit on the fig tree even if it was not in the main growing season. The fact that the tree already had leaves on it even though it was at a higher elevation around Jerusalem, and therefore would have been outside the normal season for figs, would have seemed to be a good indication that there would also be fruit on it.
As to the significance of this passage and what it means, the answer to that is again found in the chronological setting and in understanding how a fig tree is often used symbolically to represent Israel in the Scriptures. First of all, chronologically, Jesus had just arrived at Jerusalem amid great fanfare and great expectations, but then proceeds to cleanse the Temple and curse the barren fig tree. Both had significance as to the spiritual condition of Israel. With His cleansing of the Temple and His criticism of the worship that was going on there (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17), Jesus was effectively denouncing Israel's worship of God. With the cursing of the fig tree, He was symbolically denouncing Israel as a nation and, in a sense, even denouncing unfruitful "Christians" (that is, people who profess to be Christian but have no evidence of a relationship with Christ).
The presence of a fruitful fig tree was considered to be a symbol of blessing and prosperity for the nation of Israel. Likewise, the absence or death of a fig tree would symbolize judgment and rejection. Symbolically, the fig tree represented the spiritual deadness of Israel, who while very religious outwardly with all the sacrifices and ceremonies, were spiritually barren because of their sins. By cleansing the Temple and cursing the fig tree, causing it to wither and die, Jesus was pronouncing His coming judgment of Israel and demonstrating His power to carry it out. It also teaches the principle that religious profession and observance are not enough to guarantee salvation, unless there is the fruit of genuine salvation evidenced in the life of the person. James would later echo this truth when he wrote that "faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). The lesson of the fig tree is that we should bear spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23), not just give an appearance of religiosity. God judges fruitlessness, and expects that those who have a relationship with Him will "bear much fruit" (John 15:5-8).


text:
Ten Questions for Lenders
Once you've narrowed the lender field to a short list of finalists, it's time to compare their offers.
Here are the 10 key questions to ask at application time to help you find the best overall mortgage loan. If you have already selected a lender and are ready to apply, make sure you have the answers to these questions first.
1. What is the interest rate on this mortgage? To determine exactly what you'll pay over the term of the loan, you need to know the rate. Rates change quickly, and if your credit is less than perfect, you may not be offered the lender's lowest figure.
To effectively compare different lenders' programs, ask for the annual percentage rate (APR) of the mortgage interest, which is generally higher than the initial quoted rate because it includes some fees. But beware: the APR found in advertisements can be misleading. Mortgage lenders don't always include all the fees they charge in the calculation that determines APR, so customers who use that figure to shop rather than an itemized breakdown of rates, points and fees may end up comparing apples to oranges.
2. How many discount and origination points will I pay? Lenders may charge prepaid mortgage interest points to lower your interest rate or other points that have no benefit to you at all. Find out how many you'll be expected to pay and which kind of points they will be.
3. What are the closing costs? Mortgages come with fees for various services provided by lenders and other parties involved in the transaction. You want to know what those fees will be as early as possible. Lenders are required to provide a written good-faith estimate of closing costs within three days of receiving a loan application.
4. When can I lock the interest rate, and what will it cost me to do so? Your interest rate might fluctuate between the time you apply and closing. To prevent it from going up, you may want to lock the rate, and even points, for a specified period. Ask your lender if lock fees apply. Also, find out what the experts are expecting rates to do: read the Rate Trend Index.
5. Is there a prepayment penalty on this loan? There may be a prepayment penalty on your loan. Some penalties are 1% of the loan amount, others are equal to six months' interest, some apply only when you refinance or reduce the principal balance by more than 20%, and some kick in if you sell your home. Find out the duration of any penalty period and how the penalty is calculated. Some lenders offer lower interest rates to buyers who accept prepayment penalties.
6. What is the minimum down payment required for this loan? The rate and terms of your loan will be based on a down payment figure, typically 3% to 20% of the buy price. If you can put more money down, you may be able to lower your rate and improve your terms; if you come up short, you may be required to get mortgage insurance.
7. What are the qualifying guidelines for this loan? These requirements relate to your income, employment, assets, liabilities and credit history. First-time homebuyer programs, VA loans and other government-sponsored mortgage programs typically offer easier qualifying guidelines than conventional loans.
8. What documents will I have to provide? Most lenders will require proof of income and assets before approving your loan, and may require other documents as well. Buyers with excellent credit may qualify for a no-documentation or "no-doc" loan, but they can expect to pay a hefty down payment and higher interest rate.
9. How long will it take to process my loan application? The answer will depend on a number of variables. When the loan business is brisk, underwriters get backed up, verification takes longer, appraisals move slower and other bottlenecks develop along the loan pipeline. Lenders may say two weeks, but 45 to 60 days is probably more realistic in most cases. You'll need their best guess to determine how long to lock in your loan.
10. What might delay approval of my loan? If you provide the lender with complete, accurate information, the loan process should run smoothly. If the underwriter discovers credit problems, however, there could be delays. Make sure you notify your lender if you change jobs, increase or decrease your salary, incur additional debt or change marital status between the time you submit an application and the time the loan is funded.
Put these 10 questions to your leading candidates and compare their answers. The results should lead you toward the mortgage lender that is right for you.


text:
How to nominate your project
Nominating is an easy online process comprising of five simple steps:
- If you don't already have one, set up your DxD account. From here you'll be able to control all aspects of your submission.
- Go into the awards program that you are trying to nominate and click on the program's category list. Here you can work out where your nomination best fits into the awards.
Create your nomination. Simply fill out the online form with the relevant information regarding your submission and upload any supporting media. We accept all major image files. Video footage must be submitted in the appropriate YouTube or Vimeo format.
If your nomination is a client commissioned project, this is the time to notify your client for their input and approval - the awards process is about recognition for both creators and commissioners. - Edit your nomination. Feel free to return to your nomination and edit it any time before the final deadline. Remember to click save so as not to lose your updated work.
- Submit your nomination. When you're happy with your nomination click submit to make your final submission. The nomination fee is payable online and please remember that your nomination can't be reviewed until it's been submitted and paid for.
- Provide interesting copy. The more relevant and interesting your nomination is, the more likely people are going to engage with it.
- Supply great imagery. Highlight your nomination's innovation and design through simple clean images. The better the imagery is, the better your nomination will look on the site. You can include up to 10 images.
- Include everyone. Make sure you bring all parties to the table, including the Project Creator - usually the design studio or agency - and the Project Creator - normally the client or project sponsor. Don't forget to list the Project Team and any collaborators or suppliers.
- Focus on the user. Really show how the user engages with your project by focusing on the user experience and relevancy.
- Get in early. The sooner you enter the awards the longer your nomination is visible on the site. This means more exposure.
- Promote. Let your community know about your nomination by adding your nomination URL to your website, social media and email newsletters.


text:
Hey, kids, what time is it? It's appliance recall time! Yay!
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.
Name of Product: Frigidaire and Electrolux ICON Smoothtop Electric Cooktops and Frigidaire Slide-in Ranges with rotary knobs and digital displays
Units: About 122,000
Manufacturer: Electrolux Home Products Inc., of Charlotte, N.C.
Hazard: Liquids can pool under the control knob and cause the surface heating element to turn on unexpectedly, heat to temperatures other than expected and then not turn off, posing a risk of fire and burn hazards to consumers.
Incidents/Injuries: Electrolux has received 70 reports of incidents, including three reports of fires that resulted in property damage. Three minor burn injuries were reported.
Description: This recall involves Frigidaire and Electrolux ICON smoothtop electric cooktops and Frigidaire slide-in ranges with rotary knobs and digital displays. Model and serial numbers for the slide-in ranges can be found inside the oven door on the left side of the unit or on the underside surface on cooktop models. The following model and serial numbers are included in this recall:
Frigidaire Serial Number Range and Models Serial Number Range: NF501XXXXX through NF952XXXXX Model Numbers GLEC30S9EB
Electrolux ICON Serial Number Range and Models Serial Number Range: NF501XXXXX through NF045XXXXX Model Numbers E30EC65ESS E36EC65ESS Sold at: Mass merchandise and independent retail stores from January 2005 through August 2010 for between $500 and $2,500.
Manufactured in: Canada
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using and unplug the recalled ranges or power off cooktops at the circuit breaker. Contact Electrolux for information on how to obtain a free repair kit.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Electrolux at (888) 281-5310 between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. ET Monday through Saturday or visit the firm's website at www.smoothtoprangerecall.com (Frigidaire) or www.cooktoprecall.com (Electrolux).
Sample smoothtop slide-in range with rotary knobs and digital displays
Sample smoothtop cooktop with rotary knobs and digital displays
Slide-in serial plate—left side of oven with door open
Cooktop serial plate—underside of unit—CPSC is still interested in receiving incident or injury reports that are either directly related to this product recall or involve a different hazard with the same product. Please tell us about it by visiting https://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/incident.aspx
This recall is brought to you by the Consumer Products Safety Commission and Electrolux Corporation.


text:
Pitchers and catchers are due to report one week from today, and for the most part the Yankees' pitching staff is pretty much set. Ivan Nova and David Phelps will battle for the fifth starter's job in Spring Training, with the loser presumably sliding into a swingman role. Injury is pretty much the only thing capable of changing the other four rotation spots or other six bullpen spots at this point.
No team ever makes it through a season using just five starters and just seven relievers, of course. At some point the loser of that Nova-Phelps battle will move into the rotation, just like guys who start the season in the minors will find themselves in the Bronx. It's inevitable. Assuming Dellin Betances continues pitching in relief as he did during the Arizona Fall League, the Triple-A Scranton rotation will likely feature righties Adam Warren and Brett Marshall and lefties Shaeffer Hall and Vidal Nuno. That leaves one starting spot for a veteran, a low-risk minor league contract guy — like Ramon Ortiz last season — to serve as depth. A seventh/eighth starter type.
The free agent market is pretty desolate at this point of the winter, but here are four pitchers who could fit the bill.
LHP Dallas Braden
Braden, 29, has not thrown a pitch in either the Majors or minors since April 2011 due to a pair of major shoulder surgeries — torn capsule (May 2011) and torn rotator cuff (August 2012). He attended Texas Tech's alumni game about two weeks ago but did not pitch, and that's the closest thing I can find to a rehab update. In other words, there is no update.
Braden was very good for the Athletics from 2009-2010 before getting hurt (3.66 ERA and 3.77 FIP), though his strikeout (5.30 K/9 and 14.2 K%) and ground ball (39.0%) rates didn't exactly stand out. He's always been a soft-tossing — average fastball velocity from 2009-2010 was 87.6 mph — changeup specialist, so losing velocity due to the shoulder problems might not be the kiss if death. Given the typical rehab time associated with rotator cuff repairs and the unlikelihood that he can contribute at all in 2013, Braden is more of a candidate for a David Aardsma contract — one-year with a super-low base salary plus a club option — than someone a team could count on for depth this summer.
RHP Derek Lowe
Back in October we heard the 40-year-old Lowe would look for a job as a starter before deciding whether to return as a reliever, and apparently the offers to start have been scarce given his continued unemployment. I wrote a mailbag post about re-signing the sinker baller back in late-December, saying I liked the idea of bringing him back as a swingman candidate on a minor league contract. Anything more than that would be pushing it, and Lowe doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would bide his time and wait for an injury down in Triple-A. I think he would sooner retire.
RHP Dustin Moseley
Another former Yankee, the 31-year-old Moseley had surgery to repair his rotator cuff and labrum last April. Like Braden, I can't find any updates on his rehab beyond the initial reports. Considering how long these things usually take, he's probably not going to be ready to return to game action until midseason. That alone makes Moseley, who pitched to a 3.30 ERA (3.99 FIP) in 120 innings for the Padres in 2011, a less-than-ideal candidate for Triple-A depth. He would have been a great fit if healthy, but no dice.
LHP Jonathan Sanchez
Sanchez, 30, just finished a nightmare season that saw him pitch to a 8.07 ERA (6.60 FIP) in 64.2 innings for the Royals and Rockies. He walked (53) more batters than he struck out (45), and his fastball velocity continued its gradual decline.
That said, Sanchez is one year removed from a 4.26 ERA (4.30 FIP) with the Giants in 2011, when he posted his third consecutive season with more than a strikeout per inning (9.06 K/9 and 23.0 K%). The walks (career 5.00 BB/9 and 12.6 BB%) are a concern and after nearly 800 big league innings, it's getting to be time to stop hoping for improvement. Sanchez has shown swing-and-miss stuff in the recent past, so as long as he isn't hiding an injury, he'd be a pretty good reclamation project for the Triple-A rotation. The problem is that he's reportedly close to a deal with the Pirates.


text:
"The Legacy of Religious Violence in Judaism"
Lecture by Gideon Aran at The Graduate Institute, Geneva
Tuesday 29 April 2014, 18:30 – 20:00
The lecture discusses the Jewish case of religious violence. This by no means implies that Judaism is more (or less) violent than any other religion. In fact, we witness an impressive legacy of non-, or, anti-violence in Judaism.
However, I will rather focus on the dialectical relationship between religious tradition and violence in Jewish history and mythology, and in the contemporary Jewish world, particularly in the Jewish State. My argument regarding Jewish violence implies a general theoretical model of religious violence that can be applied in a comparative context.
This lecture offers a partial survey of the components of Jewish tradition relating to violence while analyzing and illustrating their development and influence along three Millennia from biblical times, through the middle ages and modernity to these very days.
I'll analyze the various transformations that these violent motifs have undergone, their linkage to ever-changing social and cultural circumstances, their social-political roots and implications, and their relationship to other Jewish traditions.
I'll trace how ancient motifs have emerged and been processed over time, and observe present day violent behavior in the light of ancient motifs. Along the way, I will explicate the dynamics that characterizes the Jewish violence tradition and its paradoxical natureby clicking here


text:
The 400 MW Cimarron Bend wind farm can generate around 1.8 TWh annually
Construction of the project required an overall investment of about 610 million US dollars
The power and renewable energy credits from Cimarron Bend are being sold under two separate PPAs to Google and to the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities
Cimarron Bend is the first plant in Enel's North American portfolio to provide energy to a corporate off-taker
Enel S.p.A. ("Enel"), through its renewables subsidiary Enel Green Power North America, Inc. ("EGPNA"), has brought online the 400 MW Cimarron Bend wind farm in Clark County, Kansas, United States. Cimarron Bend is the largest wind farm in Enel's global portfolio.
The wind facility, whose construction required a total investment of approximately 610 million US dollars, is owned by EGPNA Renewable Energy Partners, LLC ("EGPNA REP"), an equally owned joint venture between EGPNA and GE (NYSE: GE) unit GE Energy Financial Services. Cimarron Bend can generate around 1.8 TWh annually, providing enough energy to meet the annual consumption needs of more than 149,000 U.S. households, while avoiding the emission of around 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 each year.
"We are pleased to announce the entry into service of this major wind farm, which is also the first in Enel's US portfolio to generate energy for a corporate off-taker" said Rafael Gonzalez, Head of EGPNA. "Thanks to this significant achievement, in Kansas we are now managing our largest portfolio of North American wind farms and we are further strengthening EGPNA REP, the joint venture which is supporting our dynamic, sustainable growth in North America."
The power and renewable energy credits from Cimarron Bend are being sold under two bundled, long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). The first PPA, with Google, began at the end of 2016 with the entry into service of the first 200 MW of the facility. The second PPA is with the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and for the 200 MW that have just begun operating.
EGPNA owns four additional wind farms in Kansas – Caney River (200 MW), Smoky Hills I and II (250 MW combined) and Buffalo Dunes (250 MW) – totaling 1.1 GW of operating capacity, representing more than 1.7 billion US dollars in investment made in Kansas.
EGPNA is present in 23 US states and two Canadian provinces with more than 3.2 GW of managed capacity, spread across four different renewable energy technologies: wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower.


text:
Toontrack has announced the release of Death & Thrash, the second installment of Dirk Verbeuren's Library of the Extreme MIDI drum grooves.
The new "Library of the Extreme – Death & Thrash" has all the beats that youd need, meaning the Skank beats, the Carpet Rolls, the D-Beats, all the double-bass stuff, etc, etc. Together with "Library of the Extreme – Blasts & Fills" this pack makes a really unique encyclopedia of metal beats!
This MIDI pack is not for the faint of heart, or the musically meek. We're talking about a collection of MIDI grooves that will pummel your tracks into oblivion. This is the perfect marriage of speed and power.
Library of the Extreme – Death & Thrash is available to purchase for 15 EUR.
More information: Toontrack / Library of the Extreme – Death & Thrash


text:
JN Fibers Inc., a manufacturer of recycled polyester staple fiber products, is establishing a new manufacturing facility in Chester County. The $45 million investment is expected to generate 318 new jobs.
"We are pleased by the opportunity to establish new operations in Chester County. South Carolina is the perfect fit for our business' needs. With an excellent business environment and access to markets, as well as top-notch workforce talent, we look forward to getting our operations in Richburg up and running. We appreciate all the support we've received from state and local officials," said, Mark Bachner, senior vice president of operations for JN Fibers Inc.
Headquartered in Zhejiang, China, JN Fibers Inc. will establish its new production facility in an existing building at 1247 Frederick Drive in Richburg. The new plant will recycle discarded soda and water bottles and transform them into recycled polyester staple fibers for use in home textiles, furniture, upholstery and automotive industries.
"Today's announcement is another big win for one of our state's rural areas. We celebrate JN Fibers' decision to invest $45 million and create 318 new jobs in Richburg. This announcement shows that South Carolina has done the right things to be competitive on the global stage," said Gov. Nikki Haley.
The company plans to upfit the existing building as well as add building space on the facility's campus, for a total of 600,000 square feet. The JN Fibers plant is expected to begin operations in the third quarter of 2014 and hiring for the new positions in the second quarter of 2014.
"South Carolina's manufacturing renaissance is getting a big boost from today's announcement by JN Fibers. Every one of these new jobs will have an impact in Chester County and throughout the state. We welcome JN Fibers to South Carolina, and look forward to the company's success here," said Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt.
Since January 2011, South Carolina has recruited more than $9 billion in capital investment and more than 26,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector.
"It is an exciting day for everyone in Chester County as we celebrate the addition of an outstanding new corporate citizen that will provide quality, good-paying jobs for the citizens in our community. JN Fibers' decision to locate here is another sign that our economic development efforts are paying real dividends in attracting world-class companies and new job opportunities," said Chester County Supervisor R. Carlisle Roddey.
"We are delighted and very proud JN Fibers made the decision to 'Choose Chester' County for their new location," said Mike Enoch, chairman of the Chester Development Association. "Their decision to locate here is a testament to the quality of our community and the determination of the team that worked to make this investment possible."
"The South Carolina Ports Authority welcomes JN Fibers to the state as a valued customer and user of Charleston Harbor," said Jim Newsome, president and CEO of the South Carolina Ports Authority. "We wish them much success as they locate in Chester County and we look forward to facilitating the growth of their business."
"JN Fibers Inc appreciates Mr. Ling Xinwei (John Ling) from the South Carolina Department of Commerce China Office for guiding us through the process and helping us get to know South Carolina and making the project a reality," Bachner added. "Everyone at the Department of Commerce and the Governor's office has been so helpful during the site selection."
JN Fibers Inc. will operate the factory and market their products under their subsidiary Sun Fibers LLC.
The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved a rural infrastructure grant of $800,000 and approved job development credits.
About S.C. Department of Commerce
As South Carolina's leading economic development agency, the Department of Commerce works to recruit new businesses and help existing businesses grow. The state was ranked first in attracting jobs through foreign investment by IBM-Plant Location International. Commerce has been part of recruiting world-class companies to South Carolina such as Boeing, Bridgestone, Continental, Monster.com, Heinz, ZF Group, BMW and Google Inc. Commerce supports small and existing business, rural development initiatives and offers grants for community development. Commerce partners with the S.C. Technical College System via readySC to support workforce training and recruiting, and with the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce, which provides worker training and employment opportunities within the state. For more information about Commerce, visit www.SCcommerce.com.
There are no comments
Please login to post comments


text:
i am new to c++ but i know some other languages. I have been programming in c++ for about 5 hrs now and i am having a problem with my program. when i guess for the first time it is like it doesn't count. no matter what i type it will tell me that my guess is too low. can anyone help me?
#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>
using namespace std;
int main()
long guess = 0, x = 0;
const long MAX = 500, MIN = 1;
x = (rand() % (MAX - MIN + 1)) + MIN;
while (guess != x)
cout<< endl;
cout<<"Enter a number between 1 and 500" << endl;
cin>> guess;
cout<<"The secret number is " << x;
if (guess < x) {
cout<<"You was too low, Try again"; }
else if ( guess > x) {
cout<<"You was too high, Try again";}
else {
cout<<"Invalid guess";}


text:
A report by the Freedonia Group Inc. has forecasted US demand for natural polymers to grow 6.9% annually to US $4.6 billion in 2016. Growth will stem from continued trends favoring natural ingredients in the food and beverage industry. In particular, this will support demand for cellulose ethers, as well as natural gums. Growth will continue to be impacted by the climatic and political uncertainties associated with natural products that are derived from plants that are grown only in certain parts of the world.
Cellulose ethers represent the largest natural polymer type, accounting for over one-third of the market. Methylcellulose will continue to lead the category, although demand for microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), and hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) will also be significant. Many of these materials are frequently used in cosmetic products.
Exudate and vegetable gums are projected to enjoy the most rapid gains through 2016, with guar gum accounting for the vast majority of growth. This will nevertheless represent a deceleration from the stellar gains achieved between 2001 and 2011, when demand for guar gum skyrocketed due to the rising use of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling in the US oil and gas industry.
Among the other types of natural polymers, starch and fermentation products will see particularly healthy gains, supported by the rising use of xanthan gum in oilfield applications and the increasing availability of polylactic acid. In the protein-based polymer sector, collagen will find greater use in wound dressings, but will face competition from alternative materials in the cosmetic injectables segment. Marine polymers will be restricted by their use in mature applications and by competition from other natural polymers.


text:
Unvaccinated people are 11 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated, new research has found, bolstering evidence that the inoculations continue to provide powerful protection, even against the delta variant.
The latest studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Friday also found that vaccinated people were nearly five times less likely to get infected and 10 times less likely to get so sick they ended up in the hospital.
The CDC "looked at COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in 13 states and offers further evidence of the power of vaccination," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said at a White House COVID-19 briefing on Friday.
"As we have shown, study after study, vaccination works," she added.
However, the studies — which analyzed data from 600,000 Americans between April 4 and July 17 — suggest that the effectiveness of the vaccines may have dropped as the delta variant became dominant. One explanation could be waning immunity. A second is that the variant is better at evading the immune system. It also could be some combination of the two factors.
Another study examining data from nine states from June through August indicated that the Moderna vaccine may be the most effective of the three available in the U.S.
The research found that across all ages, vaccine effectiveness was "significantly higher" among Moderna vaccine recipients — at 95% — than among Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients, with vaccine effectiveness of 80% and 60%, respectively.
As of Friday, White House officials say nearly 75% of eligible Americans — those 12 and older — have gotten at least their first shot, and the CDC reports about 54% are fully vaccinated.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
How to Use Hashtags: How Many, Best Ones, and Where to Use Them
Former VP of Marketing @ Buffer
This post originally published on April 8, 2014. We've updated it here with new info, screenshots, and a special episode of the Buffer podcast – The Science of Social Media.
Have you ever found yourself explaining how to use hashtags to someone whose only connection with the word is as a telephone button?
Internet language has evolved considerably over the past few years as social media has taken off. Hashtags are a huge part of this evolution. What once was a telephone button is now a social media phenomenon. No wonder people are curious.
When they ask, I tell them that hashtags are a pound sign immediately followed by a keyword. They're used for categorization on social media. Yes, they can be annoying if overused. And yes, I've seen the hashtag video of Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake.
Hashtags also have the potential to be truly valuable. The stats and info below make a pretty clear case that we should be understanding, using, and appreciating hashtags.
Interested in listening to this post in the podcast format? We invite you to check out an episode on this topic in Buffer's very own podcast – The Science of Social Media!
Research says you should be using hashtags
If you're looking for a completely cut-and-dry ruling on the topic of hashtags, then here it is: You should be using hashtags.
The proliferation of hashtags is truly incredible. What began on Twitter has now spread to Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Google search, and almost everywhere in between. (LinkedIn experimented with hashtags for awhile before giving up.)The widespread acceptance of hashtags should give you plenty of reason to consider using them. I also really enjoy the case laid out by Steve Cooper, writing for Forbes.com:
As ridiculous as hashtags might seem to marketing veterans who remember a time before Twitter and Facebook, the younger generation and potential customers/clients don't. To them, using hashtags is as natural and common as typing their query into the search box.
Not only could people be typing in your hashtag on a Google search, but they could very well be doing it in Twitter, too. In this sense, a hashtag will make your content viewable by anyone with an interest in your hashtag, regardless of whether they're part of your clan or not.
A hashtag immediately expands the reach of your tweet beyond just those who follow you, to reach anyone interested in that hashtag phrase or keyword.
But how to use hashtags is a different story completely. How do you find the best ones for your content and make sure you've got them in the right number, on the right social network? Let's break it down.
Hashtags on Twitter
Tweets with hashtags get two times more engagement than tweets without.
This data, courtesy of Buddy Media, is one of the most-cited examples of the effectiveness of hashtags, and for good reason: doubling your online engagement is a big deal! Imagine going from four retweets to eight or 10 retweets to 20. And all it takes is a simple # or two?
Apparently so. Although, you'll want to keep it to no more than two.
Buddy Media's research also showed that the volume of hashtags bears monitoring: one or two hashtags appear to be the max. When you use more than two hashtags, your engagement actually drops by an average of 17 percent.Twitter's own research into hashtags confirms that there is significant advantage to using them. Individuals can see a 100 percent increase in engagement by using hashtags (the same bump as seen in the Buddy Media study). Brands can see a 50 percent increase.
Engagement, as measured in these studies, can include clicks, retweets, favorites, and replies, yet if it's only retweets your after, hashtags still would be a smart bet.
Tweets with one or more hashtag are 55 percent more likely to be retweeted.
Dan Zarella discovered this effect in a study on retweeting behavior that included more than 1.2 million tweets. The large scope of the study made for a 99.9 percent confidence interval with the results.
The one caveat to hashtags on Twitter might come for those brands looking to gain clicks on Twitter ads. In the case of advertisements, Twitter found that tweets without a # or @-mention generate 23 percent more clicks.
The reason? Hashtags and @-mentions give people more places to click inside a tweet instead of focusing solely on a call-to-action.
Hashtags on Instagram
Instagram is another hotspot for hashtags, and the good news for those who love to extensively tag photos is that there doesn't seem to be a saturation point.
Interactions are highest on Instagram posts with 11+ hashtags.
A rule of thumb could be: Don't sweat your amount of Instagram hashtags.
The best part about this recommendation is that the data comes from a set of users with 1,000 or fewer followers—a group that likely includes small businesses and those just diving in to Instagram. In other words, hashtags could be your best bet for growing a fast following on Instagram.
The Instagram Shadowban
There has been a lot of talk recently among marketers about what's called the Instagram Shadowban. Essentially, a shadowban is when Instagram withholds the distribution of your photo or video on Instagram due to "inappropriate content." Inappropriate content can vary widely, but usually it has to do with the content of the photos or videos themselves or spam-like behavior such as using bots to engage with users or banned hashtags.
Later put together an interesting and insightful guide on how to navigate the Instagram Shadowban in order to keep your account in the green and your photos/videos seen. In that article, Later shares a direct statement from the Instagram team regarding the proper use of hashtags on the platform:
How to avoid shadowbanning on Instagram
Alex Tooby, Instagram expert and influencer, shares her top tips on how to avoid the Instagram Shadowban. Here's a quick overview so that you can keep your account in the clear today:
- Avoid using banned or broken hashtags in your caption and/or comments
- Avoid using any type of software that violates Instagram's terms of service
- Avoid any big surges in your Instagram activity (ex., liking or commenting with bots)
- Avoid being reported by users by posting only appropriate content to Instagram
Looking to learn more about the Instagram Shadowban? We cover that and more in this episode of our Buffer podcast – The Science of Social Media!
Hashtags on Facebook
So yes, Twitter and Instagram are clear winners for hashtags. But what about Facebook? Here's where the recommendation gets a little trickier.
Facebook posts without a hashtag fare better than those with a hashtag.
Hashtags have only been around on Facebook since June 2013, and three months later, research from EdgeRank Checker found that using hashtags on Facebook has zero positive effect on reach. Posts without hashtags outperform those with hashtags.
A lot could have changed since September, when this data was first released. Should you abandon hashtags on Facebook solely due to this research? It's probably best to test. There's still a lot of analysis left to be done. For instance, Social Bakers studied posts in February of this year and found that using hashtags might not be the main worry, but rather using too many hashtags (just like the advice on Twitter).
Hashtags on Google+
On Google+, your posts are given hashtags automatically based on their content, but you can also edit them or add your own. Also unique about Google+: You can add hashtags in your comments as well as your post – double the opportunities to be found.
And since Google+ is Google's social network, hashtags are now built right into Google searches. If you type in a hashtag search, you'll get the normal search results plus a sidebar of relevant Google+ posts. Hashtags have truly arrived!
Google+'s "related hashtags" also offer smart marketers a brainstorming opportunity to discover new content ideas and gauge interest level in specific topics.
Tools to find and manage your hashtags
Using the right tools, you can use hashtags as an organization system for your social media campaigns. With everything collected under one hashtag banner, you can see at-a-glance the reach of your campaign and the discussions happening around the topic.
One of the most complete hashtag tools you will find, Hashtagify.me has reams of data you can use to analyze hashtags. The most helpful could very well be the first data you're shown: related hashtags and their popularity. When you type in a hashtag, the service will show you other hashtags to consider and will display visually how popular each hashtag is and how closely it correlates to the original.
2. RiteTag
RiteTag helps ensure that the tags you use are well-chosen by showing you how good, great, or overused a particular hashtag is. The visual organization of hashtags into colored bars works great for quick analysis at-a-glance.
TagboardWith Tagboard, you can see how your hashtag is used across multiple networks. The results pages on Tagboard show hashtagged posts from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Vine, and App.net
4. Twitalyzer
Though not an explicitly hashtag tool, Twitalyzer does show hashtags as part of its audit of Twitter accounts. Input the username of someone you want to investigate, and Twitalyzer can tell you what hashtags he or she uses most often. This can be really helpful in finding out how your niche's influencers tweet.
5. TrendsmapLocal businesses might find value in Trendsmap, which shows you relevant hashtags that are being used in your geographic area. (#wrestlemania is a popular one where I am in Idaho.)
4 steps to find the right hashtag to use
Using the tools above, you can hone in on a few ideal hashtags to start with, and like most things online, test and iterate from there.
1. Learn from the best: What hashtags are influencers using?
Twitalyzer can give you a good foundation of where to begin for your hashtag search by showing you how influencers are using hashtags. Grab a handful of usernames of people and brands in your industry whom you admire, and input the accounts into Twitalyzer. At the bottom of the results page, you'll see a section for their most commonly-used hashtags. Add the relevant ones to your list of potential hashtags.
Let's say I wanted to find some hashtags to use in promoting social media marketing content. I might start with a list of names like Jeff Bullas, Jay Baer, Mari Smith, and Ann Handley. Here is what the hashtag results on Twitalyzer look like for Jeff Bullas:
Info like this would lead me to start a short list of hashtags like:
- #socialmedia
- #contentmarketing
- #social
- #content
- #marketing
2. Cover all your bases: Are there related hashtags you should be considering?
Armed with an idea list of hashtags, you can then hop into Hashtagify.me to see which related hashtags might also be worth pursuing. While you're doing this exercise, take note of the circle size on your results: The larger the circle, the more popular the hashtag.
Again, following our social media marketing example, here is what the results page would look like for a search of #socialmedia:
Not every hashtag listed here will be relevant to you, but it does help to see some that you might not have previously considered. In the case of our example, I might add #business, #infographic, and hashtags of specific network names like #twitter and #facebook.
3. Identify the all-stars: Which hashtags are the best to use?
Popularity and volume can be good indicators of the value of your hashtag, but you may wish to go one step further. Hashtagify.me has advanced, premium tools that let you go deeper into statistics on individual hashtags. In a pinch, you can also get some solid data from RiteTag and their visual expression of
how much each tag can boost your post's reach.Among posts that contain the word "marketing," RiteTag shows these tags as the most likely to be great, good, or overused. (There's that #wrestlemania tag again!)
4. Double check: Could your chosen hashtags mean something else entirely?
One last check before you finalize your list of hashtags should be whether or not the hashtag you've chosen is being used elsewhere in an entirely different context.
The worst thing that can happen when using a hashtag is to realize after it's tweeted that the same hashtag is used for an entirely different topic.
Jawbone tried a #knowyourself campaign on Instagram, only to find that the hashtag was already being used generically by thousands of users in all sorts of different contexts. This didn't necessarily ruin Jawbone's campaign, but it may have made life a little more difficult for the marketing team.
Hopefully you've learned the value of hashtags here and a few neat ideas on how to find some to use in your social sharing. If you're looking for a simple rule of thumb for hashtagging posts, I think there's a lot of truth here in this advice from The Next Web:
Rule of thumb: 1 – 3 tags is best over all platforms.
- Twitter: to categorize
- Pinterest: to brand, and be specific (tags are only clickable in pin descriptions)
- Instagram: to build community, and be unique/detailed
- Google+: to categorize; autogenerates tags based on what it thinks your post is most relevant to
- Tumblr: to categorize interests, can be specific and general (has a "track your tags" feature)
- Facebook: sort of a hashtag fail – if your audience is very business-minded, follow Twitter rules; if it is community-oriented, follow Pinterest/Instagram rules
What hashtags do you routinely use on social media? I'd love to hear how you've put hashtags to work in your social media strategy.
P.S. If you liked this post, you might enjoy our Buffer Blog newsletter. Receive each new post delivered right to your inbox, plus our can't-miss weekly email of the Internet's best reads. Sign up here.
Image credit:mikecogh, Unsplash, IconFinder, Pablo, Quick Sprout
Try Buffer for free
140,000+ small businesses like yours use Buffer to build their brand on social media every month
Get started nowRelated Articles
If you always feel like you're chasing the tail-end of audio trends on the app, you've come to the right place. In this article, I'll guide you through all the methods you can use to find the most popular music and sounds on Instagram before they drop off the charts.
All the features on Bluesky, plus how to use them.
I put Meta Verified — and the coveted blue check — under the microscope for two weeks. The results were definitely not what I expected.


text:
What is Die Cutting?
Die cutting is a very unique book binding technique that adds a very engaging dynamic and new dimension to your product. Using die cutting, you can cut out windows in pages, dust jackets, or even covers to reveal images or text below. Done correctly, this can create a beautiful and creative effect.
Die cutting can be used in lots of different projects. One possible use is as a nice subtle touch to develop a theme. A bullet hole through the dust jacket makes a murder mystery that much more visceral, for example. But where die cutting really shines is in artistic projects that are heavy on graphics. Photography books are one example of this. Graphic and visual arts books are another, allowing the author to use the book itself as a medium. Children's books are also great for die cutting, as kids will love the hide and seek effect it creates.
For a few examples of die cutting pushed to its fullest creative potential, check out this list from Brain Pickings. These five books show how die cutting takes the concept of a book as an art form to the next level.
Advantage Book Binding offers professional die cutting for all of your books and paper product. This binding technique will really make your book stand out and catch the eye. Talk to us today about your next publishing project!
Advantage Book Binding has been in the book binding business since 1985, when we were founded on the principle "we do a quality book on time." Since then we've seen plenty of changes both in and out of the industry. While some have sounded the death knell for books and other physical media, we believe that the fact that we continue to be an industry leader into the 21st century is a testament not only to our longevity as a company but to that of our craft. We think it's important to keep books and physical media on the shelves, which is why we dedicate ourselves to providing you with the highest quality book binding and post press services available.
Keep up with us on Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and LinkedIn.


text:
Welcome to the Village Studios
In every decade since its founding, The Village has produced the favorite songs of that era. As the look and sound of music changes, so does The Village. From legends like Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, B. B. King and Bob Dylan to current artists like Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Taylor Swift and John Mayer you would be hard pressed to find an artist who hasn't recorded here.
In addition to creating chart topping albums, The Village is well known for its impressive list of movie soundtracks. From The Bodyguard and Shawshank Redemption, to Walk the Line, The Help and Crazy Heart, we are equipped to handle any and all situations while also solving each and every need of our clients.
Music is everywhere, but it sounds better at The Village.


text:
The Challenges of Building the Hubble Telescope's Replacement
Since 1990, the Hubble telescope has brought us photos that are as beautiful as they are scientifically important. But there's a limit to what Hubble can see—so space agencies from around the world are collaborating to create a better, more powerful, and literally bigger telescope: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is projected to launch in 2018. In the SXSW panel "Beyond Hubble: Building NASA's Next Great Telescope," scientists and engineers discussed what the Webb telescope will look for and all the engineering challenges that go into actually building the instrument.
What JWST Will Do—And How It Will Do It
According to Alberto Conti, Innovation Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Webb telescope is a versatile instrument that has four main goals: To find the first stars, study galaxy evolution, study planet formation, and find habitable planets that might contain water (and, therefore, might also have life). "We build telescopes because they're time machines," Conti says. "They tell us about how the universe came to be, and how it works." Scientists hope that Webb will answer questions like: How did the universe form? Is our solar system unique? Are we alone?
In order to answer these questions, JWST needs to be big—really big. One hundred times more powerful than Hubble, the four-story-tall, infrared optimized telescope will be comprised of 18 hexagonal mirrors that total 21.3 feet in diameter which will allow it to take pictures of faraway worlds, and an 80-foot-long sun shield that will keep the telescope's eyes cold enough to snap those photos.
While Hubble can capture images of planets the size of Jupiter, JWST will be able to look for planets from the size of Neptune down to the size of Earth, according to Charles Mountain, the director of the Space Science Telescope Institute. And it will do it by looking for infrared spectrums. "On the infrared spectrum, there are three planets that we know a lot about: Venus, Mars, and Earth," Mountain says. If, using JWST, they can find planets with infrared signatures similar to Earth's, they might be goldilocks planets—just right to have life. "If we find life, it'll be as profound as Darwin and Copernicus rolled into one," Mountain says. "It will bring about a change in our world—we'll realize we're not as special that we thought, that evolution happened elsewhere."
Looking for life begins by looking for stars, because planets that can harbor life will be orbiting around stars. JWST can also use infrared to peer through clouds of gas. "The idea is that we can see thousands of stars embedded in gas clouds because we have the right set of eyes," Conti says. By looking at the spectra of the disks, Webb will be able to determine what constituents of those disks create planetary systems.
The Engineering Challenges
Building JWST hasn't been a cakewalk. It has required both creativity and tons of collaboration between scientists, engineers, and companies in the private sector to get it done. Here are the engineering challenges behind key elements of the telescope.
In order to see distant objects, JWST needs a big mirror. Blake Marie Bullock, the campaign lead on JWST at Northrup Grumman Corporation, explains the need for a big mirror this way: If you leave a coffee can out overnight in a storm, in the morning, the water in the can will be two inches deep. If you leave out a kiddie pool in the same scenario, the pool will also have water two inches deep—but there will be a lot more water in it. In a telescope, "the same thing is happening with photons," Bullock says. "If you have a bigger bucket, you can have more photons, and see fainter objects."
This mirror is so big that it won't fit in a traditional rocket (Webb will go up in one of the European Space Agency's Ariane 5 rockets), so engineers had to create a mirror that will fold. "There are 18 hexagons, but three of the hexagons [on each side] are folded down like leaves on a dining room table when it's stowed," Bullock says. Once in space, the telescope "unfolds like a flower. Figuring out how this process works takes a lot of engineering."
Even more complicated is figuring out the prescription. "As you're manufacturing that mirror on the surface of the Earth, gravity pulls it down and bends that structure," Bullock says. But when the mirrors are up in space, the gravity is gone—so on Earth, the prescription actually has to be perfectly wrong so that it will be right once the telescope goes into space. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of calculations.
In order to be as precise as the mission requires, JWST's mirrors have to be very, very smooth. So smooth, Bullock says, that "if you took one of these hexagons and stretched it out to the size of the state of Texas, the biggest bump would be 1 centimeter tall."
Hot vs. Cold
Infrared is sort of like heat, Bullock says, and because JWST is looking for heat, it doesn't want to see heat. So engineers are building a five-layer, 80-foot long sun shield that will take photons away from the telescope's eyes, which much be cold to function. And because there's such a huge difference in temperature between the hot side of the observatory, where temperatures will reach 185 degrees Fahrenheit, and the cold side, which will be a chilly -388 degrees Fahrenheit, engineers have to think about things like how glue and other materials might behave. Engineers also have to wrestle with how to handle things like the sun shield so that it doesn't have any creases once it's deployed.
The bigger something is, the heavier it is—and the more difficult it is to get it out of Earth's orbit. JWST is no exception. "As the telescopes get bigger, engineers have to think about how to make it light enough to get into space," Bullock says. Hubble is just a couple of hundred miles above Earth's surface, but Webb will be a million miles away, where it is both dark—to make imaging planets and stars easier—and cold (so the telescope functions properly).
No facility is big enough to test Webb in its entirety, so its components are being tested at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The facility's cryogenic chamber, according to Bullock, hasn't been used since the Apollo missions, so it's been retrofitted to test JWST's components. The gold-coated mirrors are being tested six at a time, but the chamber isn't big enough for the 80-foot sun shield. "That means a lot more math to make sure everything will work the first time," Bullock says.
Given all of these challenges, how can scientists be sure JWST will work? Nothing is 100 percent, but engineers are working hard to make it happen. "Every piece is tested incrementally, verified, put into a larger system and tested again," Bullock says. "We'll spend two years testing it to make sure that it works."


text:
Sorry, something went wrong and the translator is not available.
Sorry, something went wrong with the translation request.
Return to English
Also known as pyelitis or upper urinary tract infection, pyelonephritis is an inflammation of the kidney, specifically of the parenchyma and renal pelvis.
Pyelonephritis is a common condition that frequently shows no symptoms, so it is usually not recognized until the signs become severe. It may not be diagnosed until tests are done on the kidney after the pet's death. The frequency of pyelonephritis increases with age.
It is caused by a bacterial invasion. The organisms invading the kidney may cause local or widespread lesions that destroy enough kidney tissue so as to cause kidney failure.
The kidney infection may come from the bladder through the ureters, through the bloodstream, or have invaded through other organs. Infection via the bladder/ureters is the most common route. The bloodstream route of infection may be caused by bacterial endocarditis, diskospondylitis, abscesses, and dental disease. Urinary stasis, urethral obstruction, kidney stones, trauma, and depressed immunity may predispose the pet to pyelonephritis.
Diagnostic tests include blood work, urinalysis, urine sedimentation, X-rays and ultrasound of the kidney, urine culture, and other specific kidney tests.
Treatment requires long-term antibiotic therapy. The antibiotics are chosen by sensitivity testing. It may only be necessary for 4 to 6 weeks, but some pets may need it for the rest of their lives. Because the disease is so difficult to cure, frequent testing is required to make certain the treatment is still working.
Monitoring and Prognosis
Urinalysis and urine culture are done 5 to 7 days after antibiotics begun, and done again one week after finishing them. Urine cultures are also done at 1, 3, and 6 months after completion to monitor for recurrence or reinfection. The pet's urine specific gravity is monitored frequently over the course of therapy, especially if the urine concentrating ability was initially impaired. A decrease in specific gravity after finishing the antibiotics may indicate a recurrence.
The prognosis for pyelonephritis varies. Overall, it is considered fair to good. Infections that involve the renal medulla are more difficult to get rid of, so those cases have a poorer prognosis. Patients with predisposing endocrine disease, persistent urinary abnormalities (e.g. nephroliths, neoplasia), or progressive renal disease have a worse prognosis.
The content of this site is owned by Veterinary Information Network (VIN®), and its reproduction and distribution may only be done with VIN®'s express permission.
The information contained here is for general purposes only and is not a substitute for advice from your veterinarian. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk.
Links to non-VIN websites do not imply a recommendation or endorsement by VIN® of the views or content contained within those sites.


text:
Self Service
You can arrange many HR matters yourself in Self Service. This includes booking and requesting permission for vacation, submitting travel and other expense claims, selecting flexible benefits in the terms of employment individual choices model and viewing your payslip.
Log in to SAP from home
Please note: If you want to log in from a workspace outside the university or from a Mac or Linux computer, first log in to the Remote Workspace and click on the folder 'Self Service SAP' to gain access to the system.
Log in to the Remote WorkspaceLog in to SAP from a university workplace
You can directly log in to Self Service from all university workspaces with your ULCN account. Please use Internet Explorer to log in, as other browsers, such as Chrome or Firefox, can't display certain functions of Self Service.
Log directly in to SAP Self ServiceYou can manage the following in Self Service:


text:
Tenant Affidavit to Vacate a Default Judgment
Ce programme pour annuler un jugement obtenu par défaut est en anglais. Une traduction française est disponible dans les menus contextuels dans le programme. Cliquez sur le lien intitulé français: c'est facile, c'est gratuit et c'est en français. Vous devez répondre en anglais sinon le tribunal rejettera vos documents.
This free and easy program will ask you questions and make papers that help you tell a judge why you missed your court date or didn't answer a petition in a New York City nonpayment or holdover case. When you finish the program, you can print a paper called an "Affidavit in Support of an Order to Show Cause," which you must give to the Clerk in the Housing Court. The papers ask the judge to let you come back to court.
You should only use this program if there is a judgment against you.
It is helpful to have a copy of the petition with you when you use the program.
Go to the Tenant Affidavit to Vacate a Default Judgment program
If this program is not for you, learn more about
vacating a default judgment or visit one of the Civil Court's
Help Centers and speak to a help center attorney free of charge, or you can see if there is a court
Who Can Use These Programs?
You can use DIY Forms if:
- you're a court user and you don't have a lawyer;
- you're a legal services provider;
- you're a pro bono lawyer. Pro bono lawyers filing a DIY Form must submit thispro bono affirmation.
- you're from a low-bono (reduced fee) program recognized and authorized to use the DIY Form programs by the NYS Courts Access to Justice Program. You must submit this low-bono affirmation with the filing.
Commercial use is prohibited and no one may charge for using these programs. When you begin the program, you will be asked to accept these terms of use.
Computer Requirements
In order to use DIY Form programs, make sure you have the following:
- Attached printer
Help Using DIY Forms
See Frequently Asked Questions for help using DIY Form programs.
Please Note: It is always better to talk to a lawyer, if possible.


text:
As you'll remember, we recently dropped a five spot on sparkle271, Girl Psychic. We wanted to know if we should take the Canadian publisher's contract offer for The Atheist's Daughter or if we should publish the thing ourselves. We didn't expect much of a response. Sparkle271 isn't a take-the-money-and-run kinda woman, though. She rolled up her sleeves and went to work.
The critter above isn't in the grass, of course, but only because our home is sorely lacking in vegetation. This particular reptile was passing from greenbelt to greenbelt and did a shortcut through our place. With summer surrounding us, we've recently spotted all kinds of wildlife. In the last few weeks, we've seen rabbits, coyotes, bats, a bobcat, quail, chipmunks, and a six pack of javelina.
To keep this post short, we're offering an abbreviated version of sparkle's prophecies. Know, then, that the following words are ours, not hers, but we hope we've offered a faithful translation.
The Tarot Reading said that self-publishing would be rewarding but tough, and profits would come slowly. Traditional publishing would give us a chunk of money, and fast, but would prove less financially worthwhile in the years to come. Plus, our traditional publisher would be a tad demanding and refuse to compromise on ... uh, anything.
Spodomancy (the art of reading ash) predicted financial success, should we self-pub, but it wouldn't come easily or quickly.
The rune reading/Celtic Cross not only said we should self-publish but also suggested we make this a long-term endeavor. Sorry, Random House.
The pendulum said we should go the independent route. Furthermore, it warned us that the publisher who offered us a contract isn't trustworthy. Those bastards.
Bibliomancy (divination using books) reveals, "There is a long wait ahead" ... and acts as if that's enough info. Get your act together, bibliomancy.
Ceromancy (the art of reading candle wax) predicted great growth and success. Of all the mystic arts, we've always liked you, ceromancy.
The tea leaves warned of a long journey ahead, should we remain independent. It warned, too, that we must beware of deception and false friends.
Crystal gazing (you know this one) suggests self-pub will be difficult but success will come gradually. Again, we're warned to "watch our backs" and be cautious.
Bottom-line, what does our future hold? Well, if sparkle271 is correct, self-publishing is the way to go, it ain't gonna be easy, one fine day in the distant future we'll make a little coin ... and we should trust no one. Except, naturally, you and you.