text:
Role of Psychology in Human Resources Management
Disclaimer: This essay has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers. You can view samples of our professional work here.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UK Essays.
Human Resources Management can be considered to be responsibility of all those who manage people as well as a description of persons who are employed as specialists. It is that part of management that involves planning for human resource needs, including recruitment and selection, training and development. It also includes welfare and safety, wage and salary administration, collective bargaining and dealing with most aspects of industrial relations. The integration between the management of human resources and psychology is arguably the prime factor that bring about changes to Human Resource Management theory and practice from its more traditional personnel management origins. One of the key activity within Human Resource Management is Personnel Selection.
Gilbreth (2005) gave the following definition of the Psychology of Management: The Psychology of Management means the effect of the mind that is directing work upon that work which is directed, and the effect of this undirected and directed work upon the mind of the worker. The emphasis in successful management lies on the man, not on the work.
Seyidov (2000) also defines the management and then shows the correlation between management and psychology. Management - a science about coordination of resources of the organizations on reaching the planned purposes. There where a person exists, his psychological features that are reflected in his activity are always with him. Studying the psychology of management, we study the psychology of the person, his activity and the most important thing - influence of the mentality of the person on activity and influence of activity on psychology and behavior of the person. The psychology of management is the branch of psychology studying mental features of the person and its behavior in the course of planning, organization, management and the control of joint activity.
The human factor is considered as the central point in the psychology of management, as its essence and a core. Being engaged in studying the person in the conditions of the concrete practical activities of psychology, managers constantly face the problems that need development both of the professional work, and of the person who carries it out. Among this variety of problems, Seyidov (2000) has given the greatest attention to four basic problems or fundamental questions of the psychology of management: motivation, leadership, interpersonal relations, selection of personnel.
Motivation - activity of the person, its formation in the process of its realization and satisfaction gained from the activity.
Leadership is one of the brightest and interesting phenomena arising in the course of group activity. The efficiency of any activity depends on its adequate understanding. According to Nemov (1998) the leader - an authoritative member of a social group, whose power and privileges are admitted voluntarily by other participants of the group, ready to listen to him and follow him.
Interpersonal relations are a part of the human nature. It is shown in the form of internal requirement in communicating and establishing the interpersonal relations.
Selection of personnel - Management and Psychology most closely intertwine among themselves in a question on selection of personnel. The psychology of people as concrete participants in the process of management is on the foreground and allows us to speak about the high practical importance of psychological factors in management. If the psychological aspect of selection is guided by revealing of necessary characteristics, features, qualities and abilities of the person for successful performance of this or that professional work by means of psychological methods and techniques then selection from the point of view of management is a search and revealing of people by means of requirements of the professional work. It is necessary to combine inherently and to supplement mutually the two approaches set forth above to select the people for the purpose of the most adequate and productive use of the available human resources providing achievement of the planned purposes.
Storey's (1992) findings that selection as a key, integrated task was evident in 80 per cent of the case companies investigated provide grounds for optimism. Conversely Wright and Storey's (1997) conclusion that despite a few reported exceptions traditional approaches to recruitment and selection continue to dominate practice presents an altogether more pessimistic picture. These apparent contradictions inevitably place a question mark over the extent to which strategic Selection is really practiced by organizations.
Miles and Snow (1984) and Schuler and Jackson (1987) were able to identify human resource (HR) practices, including selection, which were congruent with the different competitive strategies of defender, prospector and analyzer (Miles and Snow,1984), and cost reduction, innovation and quality enhancement (Schuler and Jackson,1987), and found evidence of such practice in case companies.
At other times, evidence of strategic selection has emerged from studies investigating general developments in the HR practice. For example, from a comprehensive study investigating how the management of HR was developing in UK companies, Storey (1992) was able to identify 'selection' as one of twenty-seven dimensions that could be used to differentiate HRM from more traditional personnel management and industrial relations practice. Under HRM, selection was identified as an 'Integrated, key task', whereas under the personnel and industrial relations banner it was seen as a 'Separate, marginal task' (Storey, 1992: 35). In his analysis of fifteen major case companies, Storey (1992: 82) found evidence of integrated selection in 80 per cent of them.
In a review of their own case study research, Hendry, Pettigrew and Sparrow (1988) identified that strategic responses to changes in the business environment, such as restructuring, internationalization and total quality management, were leading to demands for new employee skills to support such moves. Their delivery required a more strategic approach to selection.
Kydd and Oppenheim (1990) studied four successful industry leaders with excellent track records of HRM practice and found that they were using recruitment and selection strategically to respond, albeit in different ways, to their particular labor market conditions to maintain their competitive position.
Elsewhere, case studies targeted specifically at selection have also provided evidence that the strategic variant is being practiced. In a study of Chase Manhattan Bank, Borucki and Lafley (1984) demonstrated how selection practices were adapted over time to meet different strategic imperatives as they emerged. Research by Bowen et al. (1991:35) led them to develop an alternative model of selection with a strategic thrust based on "Hiring for the organization and not the job" and illustrated how it was used by a manufacturing company to select employees into "its high-involvement organization". In a detailed case study exploring the HR practices of a paper production plant, Beaumont and Hunter (1992) uncovered strong evidence that selection was being used strategically to bring about a more flexible workforce that was necessitated by the organization's competitive strategy.
Although the evidence, based on these cases, of strategic selection being practiced is significant, there is equally a substantial literature base that raises doubts about how widespread this practice might be. For example, the conclusions of Lundy and Cowling (1996) and Scholarios and Lockyer (1996) point to selection being conducted in a much less strategic and sophisticated way.
Psychological testing in personnel selection
The application of psychological testing to human resource selection, particularly the use of instruments designed to assess personality traits, has a long, colorful, and somewhat contentious history. Personnel selection in general, and its various forms of psychological testing in particular, has its origins in the late 19th century. Much of the developmental work in the scientific methods of selection can be traced to the efforts of early industrial psychologists to support the military through two world wars, as well as their contemporaneous marketing efforts to have their craft applied to organizational problems. From the natural selection concepts that formed the foundations of Frederic Taylor's scientific management, through the informal techniques of early character analysis and to the modern application of selection instruments based on statistical analyses of test reliability and validity, the use of tests and other techniques for the improvement of personnel selection and performance has never been without controversy. Whether the tension was over the proper role of testing professionals, the appropriate balancing of management demands for efficiency and fairness to employees, or the usefulness of tests themselves, the unfolding history of psychological testing represents a microcosm of American business history.
Similarly, the study of personality has a rich and varied tradition within the field of psychology. The controversy over the desirability of using personality testing to make selection decisions has deep historical roots. Traditionally, many industrial psychologists rejected the use of personality testing because they believed the practice was unreliable and invalid. Indeed, one classic text in personnel testing devotes an entire chapter to the special problems that exist in using personality testing in selection. (1) Most of the early research on personality testing found low validity and reliability coefficients, and literature reviews dating from the 1960s that reinforced the shortcomings of personality testing (2) led to a move away from personality testing in selection. Many HR practitioners, however, have continued to use personality testing with an optimistic and enduring faith in its ability to discriminate between good and poor job candidates. (3)
Contemporary researchers have pointed to many problems in personality testing as explanations for its inability to predict job performance. Chief among these are that there has never been a generally accepted definition of personality or an agreed-upon set of personality traits. Theories and models of personality and personality traits have ranged from Eysenck's 2 basic dimensions of personality to Cattell's 171 traits and have included nearly everything in between. (4) It has not been until relatively recently that the Big Five model of personality embraced the notion that a broad definition of personality that collapses specific traits into more general personality dimensions can be used to predict the broad set of behaviors that define job performance.
This article explores the evolution of personnel selection testing in general, and of personality testing in particular. We describe the historical development of personality testing and the impact of the work of early industrial psychologists that has shaped and defined the role of testing in the scientific selection of employees. We highlight the transient nature of models of personality, the description of personality traits, and the use of personality instruments while examining the evolution of personality measures and the ways research has shaped the construct of personality and its measures. Just as many of yesterday's models have lost their luster, today's personality models and test instruments may be viewed very differently in the future. This realization opens the door to exciting research and development possibilities, as well as prospects for a renewed use for personality testing.
The Origins of Industrial Psychology
The roots of psychological testing lay in the origins of industrial psychology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The field represented the convergence of scholarship and application from the disparate fields of psychology, engineering, and business. As early as the 1880s, authors such as Henry R. Towne and Henry Metcalf had proposed that business management, viewed as an art in the late 19th century, should be thought of as a science and would benefit from engineering's professionalization because it had foundations in and proclivity for science) Although schools of management science in the engineering disciplines had been founded on the East Coast, late 19th-century universities did not readily embrace either engineering or business curricula. However, the Morrill Act of 1862 ushered in an era of change in higher education by promoting the chartering of land-grant universities that moved away from offering a strictly liberal arts education and toward technical education. (7) Several well-known and prestigious universities, including the Universities of Chicago, Pennsylvania, and California at Berkeley, incorporated management and engineering programs in their curricula by the beginning of the 20th century. (8)
Although psychologists, as practitioners of the traditionally scholarly discipline of psychology, resisted the application of psychological models and theories to managerial problems, individuals such as Walter Dill Scott and Hugo Munsterberg founded the field of industrial psychology when they began to explore the serious application of psychological principles to problems in education, law, marketing, and management. (9,10) The following years saw rapid growth in the application of industrial psychology in the area of market psychology by practitioners who wanted to address complex business problems. Among the tools those researchers deployed were psychological tests aimed at addressing the growing problem of identifying individuals who would be effective employees.
The Role of Scientific Management
The historical developments in management science and psychology that lead to the general acceptance and application of psychological testing are underexplored. One of the most influential pioneers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was Frederic W. Taylor, who was an 1883 engineering graduate of the Stevens Institute of Technology and an employee of Midvale Steel Company. Taylor's influence began with the publication of his "A Piece-Rate System, Being a Step Toward Partial Solution of the Labor Problem" in 1895.
The article was a prescriptive piece that addressed industrial efficiency problems by scientifically analyzing work behaviors, establishing performance standards, and selecting laborers using scientific methods. (11) Taylor's model of scientific management allowed managers to use scientific principles to address the problem of soldiering (i.e., employees working at a contrived slow pace) and to establish job redesign and incentive motivation systems. (12)
Importantly, Taylor also suggested that a rational justification for employment policies was making wages contingent on meeting standards for job performance. The standards Taylor proposed were based on time and motion studies of optimal job performance. The idea was that tying payment to piece rate accelerated natural selection and that individuals who were best suited to a task would earn the highest wages while increasing productivity and lowering labor costs. (13)
Taylor thought that scientific management would usher in what he called the "mental revolution," and he advocated scientific selection and training as the principle for hiring, cooperation over individualism, and an equal division of work best suited to management and employees. (14,15) Taylor thought that efficiency started in the mind of the worker. In Taylor's system of HR management, workers must be motivated by incentives that are appropriately arranged to create drive and block soldiering. He held that managers could establish contextual rewards that reach the internal mental state of the worker and channel it into productivity. Thus, the roots of applying scientific principles to the selection and other aspects of managing employees were established in both the practice of management and the university training of HR professionals in the early 1900s. (16)
After Taylor's death in 1915, his successors, including Herrington Emerson (founder of one of the first U.S. management consulting firms) and Frank Gilbreth (famous refiner of motion studies related to bricklaying), carried on the scientific management method and refined it by attempting to account for the mindset of workers and the psychological aspects of the worker-manager relationship. (17) Subsequently, the supporters of scientific management in industry and academia began to have closer alliances with psychology Lillian Gilbreth's The Psychology of Management was an early bridge between the disciplines of management engineering and applied psychology. In 1919 Harlow Person was appointed managing director of the Taylor Society, and he, as scientific management's chief spokesperson, broadened the group's alliance with psychology to deal with the weaknesses of approaching the human element in management strictly through quantitative methods. These events stimulated a close relationship between HR selection and management and psychology that led to numerous psychologists publishing industrial psychology articles in the Taylor Society's journal.
Concerns about balancing business and industry needs for efficiency with workers' needs were thrust to the forefront as proponents and practitioners of scientific management began to discuss such constructs as "mental revolution," "natural selection," and "optimal productivity." The danger of seeking productivity and efficiency at the expense of treating workers humanely loomed as the potential of scientific management was increasingly applied to the workplace.
Scientific management became so popular in the early decades of the 20th century that governments began to use its principles in the military. (18) Opposition grew to this HR strategy, however. By 1911 union opposition was so great that labor denounced scientific management and called for strikes to combat it. (19) The U.S. Congress investigated the management system, and while laws limiting the application of statistics to the hiring, retention, and promotion of employees were considered, none were ever enacted.
The Roots of Psychological Testing
At the same time that this management revolution emphasizing the use of human engineering within the business and engineering communities was occurring, psychologists were applying scientific principles to business problems. And the first marketable application in psychology was the psychological test.
In order to market themselves to businesses during the early 1900s, psychologists began to describe themselves as "human engineers." Most specifically, psychologist wanted to solicit support for the use of tests for the scientific selection and evaluation of employees. (20)
The use of psychological testing in law and business were promoted by psychologists such as Hugo Munsterberg in the early 20th century. (21) A German immigrant who desired to make a positive impact upon American society, Munsterberg used popular media to take psychological testing out of the research laboratory and to the attention of industry and society. (22) By 1916 Walter Dill Scott became the first American academic to carry the title of professor of applied psychology, and students could get a graduate degree in applied psychology with private business support at Carnegie Technical Institute. Scott later headed the Committee on Classification of Personnel for the Army and developed rating scales for officer promotion. He also developed the U.S. Army's tests for skill assessment and established personnel departments in all of the Army's divisions. (23)
During 1916 the National Academy of Sciences created the National Research Council (NRC) to organize scientific support for the impending U.S. war effort. The NRC subcommittee, called the Committee of Psychology, was led by Robert Yerkes, who was then the president of the American Psychological Association. In the spring of 1917 the United States entered World War I, and a prominent group of Harvard University psychologists, including Yerkes and doctors Thorndike, Thurstone, and Otis postulated that the war effort could be helped by psychological methods to select, categorize, and make assignment and training decisions for troops. (24) Walter Dill Scott lobbied for the importance of placement testing for placing soldiers into jobs that matched their abilities. Scott and his committee developed 112 tests to place people in 83 different jobs for the military, and they administered their tests to about 3.5 million soldiers.
Although there was considerable reluctance by many in the military to accept the legitimacy of testing, the fact that the government budgeted for testing and accepted test results provided a degree of public validation of testing. (25) The wide use of psychological testing for selection and classification, motivation, and training decisions had begun by the end of World War I.
Psychological Testing After World War I
During the years between World War I and World War II, the business environment continued to evolve, and organizational complexity increased at the same rate as organizational size. The pressures organizations felt regarding competition and increased labor regulation provided even more impetus for the development of rational management systems and the application of scientific methods to improve performance. As a result, a number of individuals referred to by Van De Water as "entrepreneurial psychologists" attempted to address managers' and employees' needs by expanding the boundaries of psychology through self-promotion and the establishment of professional organizations, journals, and consulting services. (26)
One movement responsible for the marketing of psychological testing and the application of scientific and psychological principles to business problems originated in 1916, when G. Stanley Hall, John Wallace Baird, and Ludwig Reinhold Geissler founded the Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP). During the first 12 years of that journal's publication, business leaders were invited to participate, and many prestigious companies submitted material. By 1930, however, the practitioner content was largely replaced by empirical articles that critically examining a number of vocations and business practices, especially employee selection techniques. Several selection tools, including employment interviewing, letters of reference, character analysis, and photographs as employee selection instruments were discredited by studies reported in JAP. Psychological instruments were developed to address these problems. (27)
As psychologists used experimental studies and the scientific method to discredit competitors' instruments and to establish the value of their own instruments, standards for test development and use emerged. Also, recommendations for the training of industrial psychologists were developed, and test publishing companies like the Psychological Corporation appeared. Increasingly, industrial psychologists drew a clear distinction between industrial psychology and scientific management. (28) Psychologists emphasized the importance of individual human factors such as personality and intelligence as determinants of work behavior, in contrast to scientific management's focus on contextual factors such as incentive systems. (29) Time and motion studies were discredited by industrial psychologists who saw scientific management's failure to consider the human element in the workplace to be a critical weakness. They saw job performance as related to individual differences in satisfaction, personality, or intelligence, all of which could be measured by psychological techniques. (30) With this shift in paradigms, psychologists attempted to seize the high scientific ground of developing, evaluating, and validating employee selection and placement techniques and instruments.
World War II and Formal Military and Industrial and Organizational Psychology
At the start of World War II, the U.S. military, having considerable experience with psychological testing during wartime selection and placement processes, set up the personnel testing section of the National Guard's Army Adjunct General's Office. The federal government also set up the NRC Emergency Committee on Psychology and its subcommittee, the Committee on Service Personnel Selection and Training, as well as the Army Air Force Aviation Psychology Program. (31) During the war, military psychology and psychological services were firmly established as essential to the nation's defense efforts. By the early 1940s, psychologists were able to assess and validate the techniques of classification and training, and significant advances were made in the analysis of the role of human factors in the design and operation of equipment, job performance evaluation, testing, training technology, and adaptation to special environments. In 1946 the American Psychological Association established the Division of Military Psychology (Division 19) to create a forum for military research and to advance psychology in the military.
The capacity of psychological tests to find and predict merit was well documented by military psychologists in the United States and other countries by the 1940s. (32,33) Because of the successes of psychology during World War II, Congress established the Office of Naval Research to support scientific research. (34) The National Science Foundation was established in 1950 to provide a continued federal research effort, and the, and the U.S. Air Force eventually merged several programs in 1954 into the Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center, which became the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory in 1968. (35) The Personnel Research Section of the Army Adjutant General's Office evolved into the current Army Research Institute for the Behavioral Sciences in 1972.
The need to classify and select large numbers of recruits for military service led, in 1940, to the formation of the Committee on Classification of Military Personnel. The committee was established to work with the adjutant general's personnel testing section.
The development and dissemination of the Army General Classification Test to replace the U.S. Army's system of alpha and beta developed in World War I was a major development in personnel selection and classification testing. Psychologists developed aptitude tests and tests of special skills, developed assessment center techniques, and set the stage for the later development of the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). (36) In what became the nation's largest personnel system--processing over 800,000 recruits annually--psychological tests for justifying selection, placement, and training decisions became institutionalized and accepted by the 1950s.
Personality Testing: A Field in Search of Respect
The disparate fields of psychology, engineering, and management eventually merged to address the practical application of their respective fields to organizational problems. However, the acceptance of psychological testing and that measure's successful application to organizational issues was not uniform across all areas. While some forms of psychological testing gained wide acceptance and public support, other forms of testing did not. For example, the utility of cognitive ability tests in selection is well established, and one can make the case that the very precise effectiveness in these tests and their ability to predict job skill acquisition and certain types of performance on an individual and reference group basis is one of the reasons for such careful regulation of these tools. The economic value of using these selection instruments has been well established, with research indicating that high selection cut of scores on valid selection tools can identify superior workers that produce outcomes that are as high as 48 percentage points higher than the average categorical worker on outcome measures for managerial or professional positions. (37)
Personality tests are a somewhat different stow. The use of these tests in employment selection is much more controversial. In contrast to cognitive tests, the prevailing view of personality testing in personnel selection is that it lacks validity, that the tests are easily faked, and that the tests are generally unsuitable for preemployment screening. Blinkorn and Johnson concluded that the generally low validities of personality measures and the problem of faking make it difficult to recommend personality measures as an alternative in employment selection. (38)
Many of the problems in personality testing stem from historical controversies over the essence of personality, its definition, the descriptions and measures of personality traits, and how personality traits interact with behavior and with each other. Prior to the development of the Big Five personality models, general agreement on the dimensions of personality was lacking. (39) Indeed the Handbook of Industrial and Organization Psychology, in its 1976 chapter on personality, describes a confusing set of motivation models, trait theories, and personality instruments originating from Hippocrates and continuing to the 1960s. While an examination of these models and theories is far beyond the scope of this article, the ideas' range and breadth serve to underscore the problems in defining suitable personality measures for selection purposes. Indeed, the textbook chapter provides a list of more than 30 personality instruments, including brief and long self-report measures, measures of values, vocational interest measures, and projective techniques. (40) The problem is that many of these measures are clinical or developmental instruments inappropriately used in personnel selection, while others have not demonstrated sufficient reliability or validity to be adequate as selection measures. (41)
Thus, the usefulness, of personality testing in selection has traditionally been a source of controversy subject to widely varying opinions. (42) While common sense tells us that personality should influence performance, and studies show that there is fairly consistent agreement on the sets of personality traits commonly possessed by successful managers, historical reviews of the research exploring the validity of personality testing has generally pessimistically concluded that personality testing has little utility. (43,44) Recent research in personality testing has altered these conclusions, and there seems to be considerably more optimism about the role of personality testing in selection. (45)
Selection Process and Methods
The selection process is concerned with identifying, attracting and choosing suitable people to meet an organization's human resource requirements. Selection is essentially concerned with finding, assessing and engaging new employees or promoting existing ones. As such, its focus is on matching the capabilities and interests of prospective candidates with the demands and rewards of a given job. Selection decisions are amongst the most important of all decisions that managers have to make because they are a prerequisite to the development of an effective workforce.
Selecting the right employees is important for three main reasons. First, your own performance always depends in part on your employees. Subordinates with the right skills, knowledge and attributes will do a better job and the company. Employees without these skills will not perform effectively, and your own performance and the firm's will suffer. Second, it is important because it's costly to recruit and hire employees. Third, it's important because of the legal implications of incompetent hiring. Various selection techniques are available, and a selection procedure will frequently involve the use of more than one.
Interviewing is universally popular as a selection tool. A single one-to-one interview may give way to a series of 1-to-1 interviews or interviews with many - the panel. We can analyze the interview in terms of how it is structured, the processes of interaction, the problems of interpersonal decision-making, the relationship between job-related questions and personal questions.
The interview is an examination - a face-to-face encounter via which each side seeks to make a decision about the other. The employer is in the dominant position. Even where the short-list is very short and the employer is desperate to fill the post - it is unlikely that an applicant perceived as being a rogue or maverick will be employed. The employer at all times will seek to protect their interests.
The face-to-face selection interview is the traditional method - yet it is fraught with problems of subjectivity, interpersonal judgment, interpretation and miss-interpretation. Why we still use interviews even though if they are so subjective and unreliable.
1. The interview plays key part in differentiating between candidates for the same job.
2. The interview serves the employing organization is a social entity. Owners/members want to determine who they are going to be working with. Selectors have positions of power within the organization. In their decisions they want to appoint the most competent person technically but not someone who will not "fit into the culture". If the candidate will become a loyal contributor (according to their perception of what is important to the organization) the person choice itself may enhance the interviewer's own status within the organization.
3. The interview - for candidates who are short-listed - provides a setting in which documented information, test measurements and interpersonal, social value-judgments are made.
4. Factual information is exchanged and clarified by both sides at an interview e.g. what did the applicant decide on a specific career move, what expertise do they have on a given area and what is the evidence for this?
5. The interview brings together data from several sources - application forms or curriculum vitae, test results, job data. These can be assessed and intangibles - would this person fit into the team (given what we know of their expectations and behavior!). A social meeting is necessary.
6. Applicants want to present themselves rather than be judged mechanically e.g. on the basis of a clinical test or form.
So even though the interview is known to be unreliable - it still dominates and is unlikely to be abandoned. It is however now the subject of increasing external inspection by the courts. The selection process emerges as a matter for human rights. The managerial response is likely to be more defensive in terms of seeking to improve the processes which generate evidence that the selection decision was based upon job criteria and measurable
Tests may be designed or bought in to "measure/evaluate" a candidate's knowledge or skills. The test may be specifically job related - a typing test or test for fork-lift truck driving, debugging a computer program or making a sales presentation. The test may be generic - knowledge of labor law or verbal/numeric comprehension and fluency (tests of cognitive ability).
Typing tests, spelling test, arithmetic test, bricklaying tests, fork-lift truck driving tests, the Graduate Employability Test - These require the "subject" in a test situation (arguably realistic in terms of job similarity) demonstrating what he/she is supposed to know and can do.
For the test to be valid the competences being tested must be required by the job/task. If not, then the results from the test may have nothing to do with job performance. The results are likely to be poor predictors - so why use the test?
For employment test design, a very thorough job analysis is needed to establish the knowledge, skill level (mastery) and to elicit the contexts or environmental circumstances within which the job holders will perform with competence.
Will the employee be performing in a busy, noisy environment?
Will they be carrying out a multitude of tasks at once?
Will there be supervision, advice and assistance? Is there a high level of risk and initiative required?
These and many other questions indicate that competence requires mastery. I can play a Mozart piano sonata perhaps to Royal College of Music Grade 2 standards but not to Royal Festival Hall concert standards.
Thus for a typing test - we must define expected speed, error/time ratios. A typing test may test ability to layout a page. It may be extended to evaluate ability to use a range of word processing functions. Of course such a requirement is likely to relate to the specific word processing software being used in the office. Alternatively a more general test might be devised to test concepts of word processing and transferable skills.
Psychometric Tests
These include tests of cognitive ability (traits of general intelligence such as verbal, numerical and logical ability). They also extend to self-reporting tests (questionnaire inventories) about the candidate's self-perceived behavior, personality, life/work orientations and value systems. Completion of the application form and the interview are both tests. There are also group exercises which are used as tests. In addition to these devices there are hundreds of off-the-shelf tests on the market.
A test is an instrument, designed to measure something. The "something" has to be measurable - either in a concrete sense (we can weight it!) or in a comparative sense - we can compare the results of individuals against the results of groups who have been measured using the same instrument and for whom "norms" exist. If we use tests there needs to be a clear correlation between possessing the quality being tested and subsequent success in learning and performance.
An employer may devise a test or buy one in off-the-shelf. Someone has to administer the test properly and have the ability to interpret the results. From a test's results, the employer may judge that the applicant does not have the necessary qualities.
However, if the test is unreliable or invalid, litigation may knock on the door. If the applicant is a woman or from - say - a minority group or is disabled then the employer is obliged (natural justice and statute) to offer evidence relating to how the conclusion about "unsuitability" was arrived at.
Cite This Essay
To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below:


text:
Honda VF750F Interceptor
Claimed power: 86hp @ 10,000rpm
Top speed: 132mph (period test)
Engine: 748cc liquid-cooled 16-valve DOHC 90-degree V4, 70mm x 48.6mm bore and stroke, 10.5:1 compression ratio
Weight (wet): 551lb (250.5kg)
Fuel capacity/MPG: 5.8gal (22ltr)/37.3mpg (period test)
Price then/now: $3,498/$3,000-$5,500
An Interceptor is a fighter aircraft specifically designed to repel enemy missions. Relying on high speed and powerful armament, they were once seen as the first line of air defense. So did Honda's first Interceptor, the 1983 VF750F, have the fleetness and firepower necessary to beat the competition?
It's been said that Honda rushed its V4s to market after the launch of the Suzuki Katana, and in anticipation of a new world-beater from Yamaha that became the FJ1100. As the Eighties dawned, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha seemed bent on deposing Big Red as the default Japanese brand. Honda appeared to have taken its eye off the ball, perhaps because of its new range of four-wheelers. Its mainstream bikes were seen as sturdy and reliable, but stodgy and dated. While Honda relied too long on its single overhead cam design from 1969, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki, formerly 2-stroke dependent, had all developed dual overhead cam inline 4-stroke fours. Though technological tours de force, neither the Honda Gold Wing, nor the CBX — not to mention the CX twin — were considered mainstream: Honda's volume marketplace lead was slipping.
Then the V4s arrived, like a squadron of F-22s to intercept and scatter the intruders, creating a sensation along the way. In 1982, Honda introduced the V45 Sabre and Magna for the U.S. market, and the VF750S for Europe. All had liquid-cooled, hugely over-square 70mm x 43mm bore and stroke engines, 6-speed transmissions and shaft drive. The short stroke, 4-valve V4 was state of the art, and buyers anticipated high-revving, high-power performance.
The VF750F joined the U.S. range a year later, in 1983. Aping Suzuki's 1981 Katana, the VF sported a frame-mounted headlight fairing. But while the Katana was in many ways a dressed-up late-Seventies GS1100, the Honda was just about all new. Though based on the V45 Sabre, the VF featured an all-new GP-derived frame, a revamped power train and several other race bike goodies.
The Honda VF750F Interceptor was the offspring of a metaphorical marriage between the revolutionary 996cc V4 FWS1000 U.S. Formula 1 Championship Superbike racer Honda introduced in 1982 and a change in AMA Superbike rules. For the 1983 season, 4-cylinder bikes were limited to 750cc and were required to be production based. Honda management decided to build a new street bike around the Sabre engine, but with the right stuff to form the basis of a Superbike contender. The 1983 Honda VF750F Interceptor was the result.
The innovations were immediately apparent. An all-new perimeter frame made from square-section steel tubes enveloped a strengthened version of the 750cc V4, which was tilted back to allow for a shorter wheelbase and better weight distribution. The VF750F engine shared most components with the Sabre, though detail changes to cam timing and combustion chambers resulted in extra horsepower. A more race-suitable chain final drive replaced the Sabre's shaft, while the number of cogs in the transmission went, curiously, from six to five. Apparently, reconfiguring the tranny for chain drive meant less room for gears, and rather than make the gears narrower, which would increase their loading to an unacceptable level, Honda chose to drop one.
The transmission also included a new slipper clutch, with half of the clutch plates driving the clutch hub through sprags, so the clutch was only 50 percent effective on the overrun. This provided for some slippage if rear wheel traction was compromised under heavy braking. And here you thought slipper clutches were something new …
Using similar engine internals to the Sabre meant the Interceptor retained the Sabre's chain drive to the four overhead cams, carrying forward tensioner and cam wear problems that were just showing up on the 1982 bikes. Though Honda had developed a multi-gear camshaft drive for their V4s, it was reserved at that time for the European-market VF1000R. But in 1983, the issue of cam wear had yet to make the front page.
Completing the racer-on-the-road formula was a 16-inch front wheel attached to fully adjustable, air-assist Showa forks fitted with Honda's TRAC anti-dive system. Sixteen-inchers were all the rage on the track, though whether the faster-turning characteristics were a result of reduced rolling mass and radius or a shorter steering angle was open to argument. Rear suspension was Honda's own Pro-Link system with a fully adjustable air-assist Showa shock. Comcast alloy wheels (the demise of the sketchy composite Comstar wheels from the CBX era disappointed no one) carried floating discs, two at the front and one at the rear, each gripped by twin-pot calipers.
As well as the prodigious thrust provided by 77 rear-wheel horsepower (Honda claimed 86 at the crank), testers noted that the Honda VF750F Interceptor was a Japanese Superbike with a chassis that really and truly handled. Unlike the rubber-mounted Sabre engine, the Honda Interceptor engine bolted directly to the wide perimeter frame, providing very effective cross-bracing. The well-triangulated steering head, rigid cast alloy swingarm and cross-braced front fork also helped resist twisting loads. The inclusion of 4-stop, adjustable preload for the rear suspension and adjustable air assist at both ends provided dial-in settings to optimize springing and damping for the weight of the rider and for the type of surface — including the racetrack.
So was the VF750F just a repli-racer on the street like today's screaming 600s — peaky power, nervous steering and a 20-minute riding position? Not according to period reports: An "incredibly docile powerplant" combined with "a fine balance in the location of seat, bars and pegs" to produce "a supremely versatile motorcycle, one that's neither a posturing dandy with delusions of trackside grandeur nor a surly, petulant racer-cum-roadster," said Cycle Guide of May 1983. "Steering response is textbook neutral," it went on, making the Honda VF750F Interceptor "as useful to the Monday-through-Friday commuter as it is to the Sunday morning racer."
But there was trouble in paradise. Issues with rapid camshaft wear and disintegrating cam chain tensioners started surfacing regularly, and Honda's belated response was a series of service advisories that attempted band-aid solutions under warranty rather than a full recall. Unfortunately, the damage to the VF's image was done, and within two years the VF750F was replaced by the VFR750 with gear-driven cams and a twin-spar alloy frame.
The original Honda Interceptor had itself been intercepted.
In 1983, Jeff Barger was riding his 1974 Honda CB750 through his home city of Milwaukee when he tangled with a drunk driver. Though the bike was badly damaged, Jeff made a speedy recovery.
"I was getting interested in watching motorcycle racing at about that point," he says, "and getting pretty hyped up about it. I'd taken Keith Code's California Superbike school at Road America." And the new Honda VF750F Interceptor had just arrived in dealerships.
"A lot of the good motorcycles, the more racing-oriented motorcycles, only went to Europe," Jeff says. "This was one of the first bikes that the Japanese companies said, 'OK, we're gonna send them a bike we wouldn't typically have sold in America in the past.' It was the first bike with a 16-inch front tire. Everyone said it was the closest thing to a race bike out there. I had to have one."
So with the insurance money from his crash, Jeff bought one. And amazingly, he's managed to hang on to it, even after starting a family. "When I bought the bike, I was dating the gal who became my wife. Jane always knew I loved bikes. At that time, used Japanese motorcycles weren't worth a lot of money. And my wife knew if I sold it, I was just going to buy another," Jeff says.
That may be true, but you don't keep a bike like this if you don't actually like riding it, and Jeff says the VF is an entertaining bike to ride, even if he hasn't exactly piled the miles on. "It steers aggressively because of the 16-inch front tire," Jeff says. "When I bought the bike, the dealer told me a guy had bought a similar bike the week before, left the parking lot and threw it right down. He didn't even get across the road. It steers a lot faster [than other bikes] with much less effort. I just had to learn the style of riding that it demanded."
Not only has he kept it all these years, he's also kept the Honda Interceptor completely stock. "Everybody that bought those bikes had been modifying the hell out of them and racing them, and I thought, 'I'm going to keep mine really clean,'" Jeff says.
Although common engine parts are readily available, one thing that's getting harder to find is that 16-inch front tire. "It's a little trickier," Jeff admits. "There aren't as many options now. I've got a really good parts guy at our local Ducati dealership, and they've been finding me tires." Jeff is also a devout Ducati fan.
And has Jeff run into any of the cam wear issues that many Honda V4s suffered? "The cams do wear faster," he says. "The last time it was in for a service, I took some pictures of the top of the cam lobes when they had the heads off. They replaced the cams with ones with a harder metal."
In fact, it was that reputation for cam wear that kept Jeff from piling too many miles on the VF. Although he's put more than half a million miles on various motorcycles, Jeff's Honda VF750F Interceptor shows just 13,077 miles on the odometer. He's looking forward to riding it again this year, though his focus has been on fixing up a Honda 550 Four for his son, who's back from serving in Afghanistan, so they can ride together.
"It was with me at special points in my life," Jeff says of the Honda VF750F Interceptor and why he still has it. "It was there when I got engaged, it was there when I was raising my kids. I have pictures of my kids on it when they were little. It's just meant a lot to me. A motorcycle is much more special to you than a car, especially if you have a long history with it. It's almost like it's a family member. It's the bike I'll always own. I've decided I'm never going to sell a motorcycle again; I'm just going to acquire more!" MC
"The handling is a treat, the power more than adequate and the appearance, the Interceptor's primary thrust, spells out its job: To boldly go where only racebikes have gone before."
– Cycle World, December 1982
"On tight, twisty mountain roads the Honda does everything you ask of it; flick it from side to side, up hills or down, with the brakes on or off, and it responds willingly, instantly and precisely."
– Cycle, May 1983
"Beneath the single-purpose, one-dimensional trappings … lies a supremely versatile motorcycle, one that's neither a posturing dandy with delusions of trackside grandeur nor a surly, petulant racer-cum-roadster."
– Cycle Guide, May 1983
"This is truly a motorcycle for the expert rider. I have reservations about seeing an inexperienced rider try to cope with the bike's highly sensitive brakes, powerful engine and virtually unlimited ground clearance as he searches to prove to his riding buddies that the fastest machine makes the fastest rider."
– Rider, July 1983
"We count this motorcycle as a landmark, one that in years to come will be remembered for playing as important a role in moto-history as the transverse-four CB750 of 1969."
– Cycle Guide, August 1983
I own 2. Had my first since 1984. The best bike I have ever own. If it was for ethanol in our gas it would be my daily driver still.
I bought (my first-ever eBay purchase) the actual VF750F that won the 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges its first year out (and was club-raced for years thereafter), and put enough street stuff back on that I rode it on the street for two years. It had a huge flat spot between 5000 and 6500rpm, so you had to pick your riding mode. Below 5000, its engine felt kinda like an 883 Sportster -- no kidding. Between 5000 and 6500, there was so little that it wouldn't pull through that range in 4th or 5th; but if you got on top and stayed there, it was a wonderful demon! Don't wish I had her back, but I'm glad she was part of my life.
While this model Honda may be a milestone in many ways, it certainly is NOT the first "sport" bike. Virtually every generation of bikes has had it's sport bikes. Actually, many features of more modern bikes were already used in the past...Manx Nortons, BSA Gold Stars.....the Scott Flying Squirrel, with a water cooled two-stroke...Vincent with a horizontal single rear shock....Moto Guzzi singles with the shocks laying under the engine...not to mention the original Guzzi V7....a 125 mph sport bike in the early 70's....may not have had the power of the first Honda four, but was definitely better handling and more sporting....The Tonti frame of the V7 is so good, it is the frame under my 2000 Guzzi Jackal, a cruiser that handles like a sport bike....
I had a 83 CB1100F when a friend across the street from me bought a VF750F. I took it for a ride through our local hills and it was like the bike was on rails. I was really impressed with the handling more then any other bike I'd ever ridden. It was impressive.
The latest classic motorcycle events and tours.LEARN MORE

subset: commoncrawl


text:
by Category:
FREE SHIPPING available on orders of $50 or more using Standard US Postal Service.
A First Look at Family Break-Up
Pat Thomas - All books by this author
A First Look at...Series - All books in this series
This unusual picture book for younger children explores the issue of divorce. The author of this book is a psychotherapist and counselor and helps children to face their fears, worries and questions when their family is going through a break-up. A special feature, "What About You?" sidebars appear frequently with questions directed at the child reading the book. The questions encourage children to explore their own feeling about the situation. Full color illustrations throughout. (Ages: 4-8)
From the Reviews:
"This [is an] attractive book...While encouraging children to talk about their feelings and reassuring them that their parents will continue to love them, the text does not minimize the changes, difficulties, and pain that come with the territory...Informative and reassuring, this book will be a good starting place for many families discussing divorce."
Booklist, May 1999
Paperback / 32 Pages / 10 9/16 x 8 9/32 / 1999


text:
Deposit checks right through your smartphone with Sunmark's Mobile Remote Deposit feature!
Can't make it to a branch? Don't want to mail your checks? With Sunmark's Mobile Banking app, depositing checks is as easy as a few taps on your mobile device!
This FREE service is available to Sunmark's members* — no credit checks or lines of credit required!
Download the app to your iOS or Android device and make deposits using a few simple steps:
- Log in to your account on the Sunmark app
- Tap the "Deposit Checks" button
- Follow the on-screen prompts to take pictures of the front and back of your endorsed check
- Verify the transaction details and confirm your deposit
Don't need to deposit checks? You can also check balances, make payments and transfer funds right from your mobile device, all within the Sunmark app. It's easy and free for our members!
Get started today by downloading the application from the iOS App Store or Google Play!
* To qualify, members must be in good standing and have been a member of Sunmark for at least 30 days. Business members are not currently eligible.
Deposit Terms and Funds Availability: The maximum daily limit for mobile deposits is $5,000. Deposits up to $200 will be available on the next business day for withdrawal. Deposits exceeding $200 will be available after two business days.


text:
Article Options
Latin American AIDS Database Network
The Latin American AIDS database network is called CCASAnet, an acronym recognizing its Caribbean, Central and South American partners. An estimated 2.1 million people were living with HIV and AIDS in this region in 2003—nearly 6 percent of infected people worldwide.
In 2006, team members and their countries included:
ARGENTINA: Pedro Cahn, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues at the Huesped Foundation in Buenos Aires.
The non-governmental, non-profit foundation is Argentina's best-known program for HIV prevention and care for people living with HIV/AIDS, and it has enrolled approximately 1,800 patients in clinical studies during the past decade.
BRAZIL: Mauro Schechter, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, leaders in the field of HIV/AIDS research and care since the beginning of the Brazilian epidemic.
Schechter also is principal investigator of the Anti-retroviral Therapy in Lower Income Countries Collaboration, a network of HIV/AIDS treatment programs and cohort studies in 13 African countries, Brazil, India and Thailand.
CHILE: Marcelo José Wolff Reyes, M.D., and his colleagues at the University of Chile School of Medicine in Santiago. Reyes directs the Arriaran Foundation in San Borja Arrairan Hospital, the nation's largest public AIDS care center for adults.
HAITI: Jean William Pape, M.D., and his colleagues at the GHESKIO Centers in Port-au-Prince, the oldest non-governmental organization working with HIV/AIDS care and research in the world. Pape and his colleagues were the first to report a case of AIDS in a developing country in 1983.
HONDURAS: Elsa Palou, M.D., head of the infectious disease service at the National Institute for Thoracic Diseases in Tegucigalpa, a national hospital that follows 1,200 patients with HIV/AIDS and which also trains health care personnel.
PERU: Eduardo Gotuzzo, M.D., professor of Medicine, Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia in Lima, and director of the Alexander von Humboldt Tropical Medicine Institute, a leading research institution in Latin America.
A past president of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, Gotuzzo also co-founded the Gorgas Courses in Clinical Tropical Medicine Course in conjunction with the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It is the only U.S. board-certified course in tropical medicine for graduates in a developing country.
Other Vanderbilt faculty members involved in CCASAnet include:
Sten Vermund, M.D., Ph.D., the Amos Christie Chair in Global Health and a co-founder of the Gorgas Courses;
Richard D'Aquila, M.D., director of the Vanderbilt-Meharry Center for AIDS Research;
Catherine McGowan, M.D., director of research at the Comprehensive Care Center in Nashville, the state's largest out-patient HIV/AIDS program;
View Related Article:
Skipping the 20th Century: Wireless science in resource-poor countries


text:
- Worldwide Rank #69,620,696
- Follower/Following Ratio 0.84
- Daily New Followers 0
Ruru Twitter Stats
@0926Ruru - Tracking Ruru Twitter profile since December 18, 2012
1*21三銃士inSeoul 1*23Seoul music awards 2*11ペンミ大阪 3*2ペンミ幕張 3*3三銃士in東京3*9SHINeeWorldⅢinSeoul5*16.18宮in東京
Ruru's story
Ruru, also known as @0926Ruru has a reasonably significant presence on Twitter and is ranked by us in the 30% percentile for account strength. Active on Twitter since June 2012, Ruru made it to having a respectable 152 Twitter followers and to being ranked 69,620,696 for number of followers among all Twitter users.
Uh-oh... seems like someone has fallen asleep while on duty and is dropping in social relevance. The plot thickens when considering Ruru's follower-to-following ratio, which is 0.84. This actually doesn't reflect so well on this account's strength.
Tweeting is apparently one of @0926Ruru's favorite pastimes, with an average of 0 tweet(s) per day in the past 30 days. That's pretty consistent with a total of 9,007 since @0926Ruru joined Twitter.
This account is tracked by us for quite some time now, actually since December 2012. As of August 16 2018 we track 290722354 Twitter accounts, so feel free to search for other accounts you're interested in and reveal their Twitter story!
Ruru Tweets
@0926Ruru has posted 0 tweets in the last 30 days, which translates to an average of 0 tweets per day.
Ruru Twitter Followers
@0926Ruru has 152 followers on Twitter.
This account is #69,620,696 in the worldwide rank of the most popular Twitter users.
Ruru Following on Twitter
@0926Ruru is following 180 Twitter accounts.
Last month this account followed 84 users.
Ruru Predictions & Milestones
@0926Ruru will hit 150 followers in the next 3 months, and 145 in one year.
You are on Ruru's Twitter stats page
We track these Twitter stats since December 18, 2012 . You can see how many followers Ruru lost or gained and what the prediction is for tomorrow or the next 15 days, together with all kinds of other stats like rank compared to all Twitter users, tweets etc.
Why don't you give it a try and compare Ruru to yourself ? Or if you are Ruru get even more feature rich & up-to-date stats with our premium Twitter Stats.
Twitter Counter is the #1 Twitter stats site powered by Twitter. It all started in June 12, 2008 and we grew rather rapidly because of our Twitter Counter badge. The button is a nice small image that shows your visitors how many followers you have on Twitter. Within a year the button was on many many blogs around the world and we displayed more than 100 million buttons in one month. We track follower stats for over 290.722.354 users now.


text:
The "typical" chaser is always on the chase trying to get those 30 seconds of Tornado video that will make for a good news clip. Every once in a while we find these beautiful works of art. Beth Allen was able to capture the Leoti supercell in all of it's glory without a flinch.
Home Best Storm Video Ever Beth Allen's AMAZING Leoti, KS Supercell Timelapse 5/21/16


text:
Interblocks is a leading provider and innovator of integrated, electronic payment processing solutions that empower banks and financial service providers across global markets. By empowering clients with the ability to provide customers with truly pervasive, personalised financial service experiences, Interblocks dramatically changes the way financial transactions are conducted today.
By utilising its key iSuite platform to drive a broad range of solutions in service delivery, payments, cards, virtual banking and mobile commerce, Interblocks combines strong financial transaction integrity and tight data security into all its solutions, delivering a totally integrated, consistent and rich experience across all customer touch points.
Since its beginnings in 2000, Interblocks has blazed the trail in the payments industry. The company pioneered web-enabled payments solutions in Sri Lanka while competitors were still reinventing their legacy systems, and continues to break new ground in the industry with the addition of mobile solutions to its expanding product suite.
Interblocks' IFX-based solutions have the flexibility to adapt to new technology developments and compliance requirements with ease. The company's experience and focus on the payments industry makes Interblocks the ideal partner for clients looking to offer innovative new payments services to customers.
Global Development Labs
Level 2, 240 Highlevel Road
Colombo 00600
Sri Lanka
Tel: +94 115 415 415
Fax: +94 114 513386
Interblocks Pte Ltd
10 Anson Road 13-16
International Plaza
Singapore 079903
Tel: +65 9642 2518
Fax: +65 225 0855
Interblocks Information Technology Inc
Unit 407-A
The Manila Bank Condominium Building (TMBC)
6772 Ayala Avenue
Makati City
Tel: +63 2 752 5124
Fax: +63 2 752 5124
Interblocks (Pvt) Ltd
Apeejay Business Centre
12 Haddows Road
Chennai 600 006
Tel: +91 044 282 24949
Fax: +91 044 282 62447
Interblocks Americas Inc
2680 Matheson Blvd
Suite 102
Mississauga, ON
Tel: +1 905 267 3398
Fax: +1 905 267 3401
URL: www.interblocks.com
Email: email@example.com


text:
Master tea whisk by Tango Tanimura
Origin: Nara, Japan
Material: bamboo
Dimensions: 6.5 x 12.5 x 6 cm
To write a review, please log in.
(Only purchasers can write a review.)
Tango Tanimura, born in 1964 in Takayama, Ikoma City, Nara Prefecture, belongs to the Tanimura family who have produced tea whisks for almost 500 years in the town.
Takayama has been the center of tea whisk manufacturing in Japan for more than five centuries. The Tanimura's are one of the only three remaining families today of the 13 tea whisk making families that were granted surnames by the Tokugawa government during the Edo Period (1603-1867).
Mr. Tango Tanimura is the head of the 20th generation of the Tanimura family, and he has mastered the secret production techniques passed down from father to son just as his ancestors did.
The customs duties do not belong to our competence. It may occur that duties have to be paid on receipt of the parcel. About the current rates of customs duties in your country please contact local authority.
Goods will be dispatched within 10 business days after confirming the inventory of the product quantity you have ordered.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Before first use, let it set in hot water for a few minutes.
Hold it under running water before every use to have it damp.
Carefully rinse it under running water. If needed, use your fingers to gently remove remaining matcha. Do not let the bamboo sit in water.
Do not use dishwasher, dryer or dish soap!
Best way to store is on a Kusenaoshi (chasen holder) to help keep its shape. If you don't have a holder, keep it looking upwards. Storing it that way may cause it to "close up", straighten out. In that case, dampen it in running water and gently unfold it using your fingers. Never do that while dry!
Storing it in a too warm, dry place might cause the bamboo to split.
The lifespan of a chasen depends very much on how it is handled and how frequently it is used. As soon as the ends of the straws start to break off, we recommend purchasing a new one, for the ends can even break off while preparing matcha.
So******, 2018-07-20 21:20
What are Sazen Reward Points?
In the Sazen Tea webshop registered and logged in users can collect points for each items bought. 1 point means 1 Yen, that can be used at the subsequent purchase.
The points to be received for a product can be found on the product page, and it grows when choosing bigger quantities.
When can I get points?
The registration and activation of the received points happens after the purchase.
By choosing the online payment method, it occurs after the successful transaction immediately, while when choosing the bank transfer or payment on delivery options, the activation occurs after the money has arrived to our bank account.
How can I use the points?
Points can be used at a later purchase to reduce the sum to be paid.
Registered and logged in users can redeem their points on the 'Billing and shipping information' page while confirming their purchase. Points can be redeemed for the net sum (Subtotal) of the basket, but they cannot be used for shipping costs or other additional costs.
There are no new points collected for the value of redeemed points.
Points cannot be exchanged to cash.
How long are points valid?
The received points are valid for one year. After each purchase or receiving points the expiry date is extended and is counted from the date of the last purchase.
Expired points cannot be revalidated, our system deletes them automatically.
How can I check my points?
After logging in, you can find yourcurrent point balance and the history of your points in the MySazen menu.
We wish you happy shopping and point collecting.


text:
|Choose your service below
When you have questions, we're here to help. Call us seven days a week (8 a.m.–8 p.m. Monday–Friday, and 8 a.m.–4 p.m. weekends and holidays) or send an email—we will respond. Don't forget to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, Youtube and LinkedIn as well. We often have giveaways on Facebook—we've given away Amazon Kindles and other great prizes in the past. Like us for your chance to win!
Most common questions can be answered just by clicking through these pages. If you don't see something mentioned here, let us know and we'll be sure to add it.
For a separate monthly charge, BELD Broadband now offers a Protection Plus plan for residential customers who subscribe to our services. It's an optional plan that covers service calls for repair to wiring used to provide BELD Broadband services.
ProtectionPlus is just $2.99 a month for peace of mind. The service will pay for itself if you have only one service call per year. The cost is included on your monthly bill and can be canceled at any time. Call 781.348.BELD (2353) for immediate coverage!


text:
Print Book
Add to Cart
Kindle Book
Add to Cart
Fun Funky Butterfly Art
Fun Funky Art Coffee Table Series
Butterflies are colorful and brighten our days. They are also great subjects for art to enhance their beauty. In this book we have fun, funky butterfly art that we hope you enjoy and that will make you smile.
Flowers With Wings – Photo Book Series
Butterflies have always fascinated photographers and writers Deborah Carney and Vinny O'Hare. In this series of books features their photographs of butterflies with quotes, proverbs and poetry about butterflies.
A Butterfly Lights Beside Us
A butterfly lights beside us, like a sunbeam…
and for a brief moment it's glory
and beauty belong to our world…
but then it flies on again, and although
we wish it could have stayed,
we are so thankful to have seen it at all.
~ Author Unknown
All our butterfly photographs are taken of live butterflies in the wild or in sanctioned butterfly conservatories.
Buy Flowers With Wings – Volume 1 for the Kindle
Butterfly Art and Photo Gallery
Butterfly Art and Photography by Deborah Carney
*Lady Butterfly* A Poem by Christine Senter
She glides on wings,
with colors bright.
Looking a little,
Like soft dancing light.
A modern day fairy,
that flitters around
A colorful sprite,
that makes not a sound.
Floating so freely,
on warm summer days.
Across the tall grasses,
she gingerly sways.
Beautiful lady,
a flower in the sky,
So timid and graceful,
Lady Butterfly.
Christine Senter
CHRYSALIS – A Poem by James Elmore
The membrane between you and I
Grows thin enough to pierce
My thrashing head has
Worn it smooth
The ridges of my brow
Lacerating streaks of light
Insight ending suffocation
I am becoming
And on the day of birth
When you will come for me
And we return as one
This agonizing process
Will leave an empty shell of dust
I will not miss it or account it much
After love and I unite
Visit James Elmore's website


text:
Efficiency, One and Two bedroom apartments
Pool on site, scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend.
Heat and Hot Water included!
Welcome to Trafalgar East Apartments
Quaint East Greenwich Apartment Living
Stylish Living...
Nestled in 14 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, Trafalgar East Apartment homes is where an outstanding living experience meets stylish living.
Trafalgar East Apartments is in close proximity to the Goddard State Memorial Park, quaint neighborhood shops, schools, beaches, outstanding dining, nightlife and many other attractions from the historical city of East Greenwich. You will find the perfect blend of comfort and convenience here at Trafalgar East Apartments with some of our finest features; heat and hot water, complimentary storage, wall to wall carpeting and large spacious closets.
Professionally managed by Property Advisory Group, Inc. we strive to deliver unmatched customer service and maintain exceptional quality standards. PAG provides superb maintenance, superior customer service and quality living in our property that is thoughtfully planned, tastefully decorated and finished with picturesque landscaping. For more information and to learn how to make Trafalgar East Apartments your new home contact our leasing office today for more details! You could even stop by to see what it's like to call Trafalgar East home!
Our Community Features
Professionally managed by Property Advisory Group who is committed to provide an outstanding living experience to our residents by our dedicated and highly trained staff.Learn More
Apartment Features
Trafalgar East has many features for your life style.Learn More
Apartment Floor Plans
Trafalgar East features various floor plans to choose from: Efficiency, One Bedroom and Two bedrooms that you can call home.Learn More


text:
Our mission is to bridge the gap between the organization and its users when it comes to Enterprise Content Management.
At Informed Consulting, we believe that successful implementations of Enterprise Content Management require the right mix of corporate and end-user requirements. That is why we branded our vision as 'Connecting People to the Enterprise'. Since 2006, Informed Consulting has been helping its customers successfully implement solutions based on EMC Documentum and Microsoft SharePoint.
Jeroen Jansen, former employee of EMC, started Informed Consulting. Today we service customers in 20+ countries with a team of 35 – mainly senior – proven professionals and a network of 20 qualified freelance consultants.
Our consultants have more than 20 years of experience. With more than 100 successfully finished projects for companies worldwide, we are experts in Enterprise Content Management. Our staff is skilled in both Documentum and SharePoint. Understanding both products, has resulted in the development of our own products under the Informed Products brand: SharePoint Add-in for Documentum (SPA4D), SharePoint Add-in for Life Sciences (SPA4LS) and EQMS Light.
In those 10 years, we've grown in every aspect but our mission never changed: bridging the gap between organizations and its users.
Corporate Facts
- Offices
- Utrecht (Netherlands)
- Antwerp (Belgium)
- Cork (Ireland)
- Specialism
- Enterprise Content Management services including project delivery and license reseller.
- Product Focus
- Documentum (Dell EMC), Office 365 and SharePoint (both Microsoft)
- Vertical Focus
- Life Sciences, Energy & Engineering
- Strategic Partnerships
- EMC Consulting Preferred Partner Program (C3P)
- Microsoft Gold Competency in Collaboration and Content.


text:
Skip to comments.Using inverters for emergency power
Posted on 11/08/2012 3:43:08 PM PST by virgil283
"Looking for some low-cost power backup? Given recent storms and the growing number of blackouts, you certainly have companyand perhaps fresh memories of spoiled food, a flooded basement, no heat or air conditioning and (if you have well water) no water for bathing or household chores....We found that inverters can keep at least some of your homes essentials energized. But youll need to prioritize: Even the smaller, 900-watt PW900-12 was able to run a freezer, two refrigerators, two sump pumps, lights, and chargers for various electronics for our staffer at homebut not all at once. ."
Read Instapundit
I wouldn't recommend any inverter over about 1500 watts. You will not be able to power it off of your car battery without heavy cables and even then you will have to keep your engine running. If you are looking for 2500 watts or more you are better off buying a generator.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


text:
So i have a 10K Gallon Above Ground Pool. Here's the situation.
We just bought our house and it came with this pool. The preivous owners had a pool fitting (shown below with a lightbulb in it) that had a light in it. The problem with this fitting however, was that it didn't contain the 1.5" hole that most automatic pool cleaners seem to refer to in their instructions (ie: Polaris 65, Kreepy Crawly-type pool cleaners) . Needless to say, I chose to take out this fitting and install a more 'standard' fitting.
Bought a new fitting and brought it home to try and install. When I took the existing fitting off and tried to put the new one on, i had some trouble. Turns out the 'lightbulb' fitting actually required less space to stick through the whole in the pool wall so this new fitting that I was trying to put on needed to be pushed through the hole with some force. I got it through and did notice that some of the plastic material that makes up the threads (part SP-1419-D below) had been shaved off. Screwed it on and filled the pool. Next day I have small beads of water dripping out.. Went back to the store, bought another fitting and repeated the process. I'm still getting a leak though and I've tightened the fitting really tight. I'm at a loss as to how to solve this. And I'm not even sure what to ask you guys on this forum to do or suggest.
Is there anything you can think of ? Is there a standard way to put the fitting on that I didn't adhere to above ?
Previous Pool Fitting with Smaller Insert and Lightbulb :
New Pool Fitting :


text: JJ Carpentry & Maintenance ltd - Home - Carpenters London Welcome to JJ Carpentry and Maintenance - the expert carpenters in London. With over 15 years experience as one of the finest carpenters and joiners in London, we provide all aspects of household carpentry, from windows and doors to fencing and decking. As a small family business we take great pride in our work and make sure that you are 100% satisfied with everything we do. Our carpenters in London provide first - class building work and bespoke carpentry for homeowners throughout the area. We'll discuss your needs and provide designs and detailed quotations with no obligation, but we're confident that with our combination of expertise and very affordable prices, you'll choose JJ Carpenters in London for all your wood work!For a full list of services browse our site today, but here's just a sample of the work our carpenters in London undertake: Traditional Timber Sash Windows supply and fittingSash Windows Renovation and Restoration Windows Draught Proofing Wooden Bi Folding * Patio French * Front doors Fitted Wardrobes * Shelf'sCustom build Cupboards Bookcases * Alco CabinetsWindows Seats Wooded Flooring fittingStaircases * Balustrades Bathroom Refurbishment Kitchen Fittings Conservatories Small Extensions Loft Conversions Fencing - Decking even Wooden Playhouses and many moreExterior and Interior Deroration works Since our foundation we've been recommended and referred by a huge number of our clients, and we're committed to maintaining that growth as top notch carpenters. London homes and flats vary in shape and size enormously, but we've yet to meet a project that our joiners in London haven't completed to our customer's total satisfaction. Whether you need a loft conversion or sash window restoration, our team of expert joiners in London can take care of almost any carpentry requirements you have. From the smallest cabinet that's custom built for an awkward corner, to a full conservatory or solid wood floor, every job is handled by our team of professional, reliable carpenters in London. As our reputation grows, we're covering even more areas and can now offer a full range of services as builders, decorators and carpenters in the London areas plus the South West, South East and across Kent too. Call the best carpenters in London todayon 0208 698 8763, we'll be happy to chat with you about your joinery needs, and if you can't find what you need on our site, let us know – our London carpenters work wonders with wood!


text:
Please try one of our supported browsers.
Chrome | Firefox | Safari | Internet Explorer
Please check your internet connection and refresh the page.
You can visit our support center if you're having problems.
Australia's ONLY Daily Football Show
Powered by Outside90
🎙 | 4pm Monday to Friday
📹 | 11am Sunday
Enquiries: email@example.com


text:
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. >> When the horn sounded after week six Friday night, Ballston Spa boarded its bus after another loss and was looking at a post-season that hopefully would include two crossover contests. For Shenendehowa, the 41-7 victory represented another step towards the No. 2 seed in the Empire Division as it continues to rebound after a week two loss at the hands of Saratoga Springs.
The common thread is that both the Plainsmen and the Scotties are evolving.
"Right now we're extremely young," second-year Ballston Spa coach Ray Toohey said. "We love our seniors, they just isn't many of them, including a couple of key injuries there, so our seniors will be very missed. On the positive side we are filled with juniors and sophomores.
"Our goal is to improve our skills as much as possible over the next couple weeks, stay positive and try to get some momentum in the off-season. Hopefully wrap-up with a couple of victories here and get some momentum going to enthuse our kids to have a good off-season training-wise, skill camp-wise, things like that."
The Plainsmen (4-1 Empire Division, 5-1 overall) took a different approach on offense against the Scotties (1-4 conference, 1-5 overall) as it prepares for the upcoming post season.
"Since Saratoga it's been a lot of fast-paced, a lot of tempo offense, trying to score as many times as we can," Shenendehowa coach Brian Clawson said. "We wanted to huddle, we wanted to be able to possess the clock, we wanted to be able to execute on critical downs and that's what we did."
That included seeing senior Griffin Wallner score three touchdowns on just 10 carries and rush for 127 yards. He credited the painful 28-14 loss to Saratoga as resetting the mindset of his Plainsmen teammates.
"Before the first game (of the season) we had a really great practice and a strong bond as a team," Griffin Wallner said. "After the loss to Toga we had some struggles, but we've been climbing back up the mountain right now. We've had great practices all week this week and last week, so we're on a climb."
The Shenendehowa defense again continued to step up, giving up just five scores in its last four contests after the loss to the Blue Streaks.
"From when we played 'Toga we didn't have a lot of people going after the ball, it was more like one player in the open field," senior defensive tackle Nick Kraus said. "Now we're all getting to the ball, we're all playing hard; we're playing as one defense."
Despite the lopsided score, Ballston Spa tested Kraus and his teammates as Jason McCarthy ran for 54 punishing yards on 15 carries along with Zach Washington 13 times for 27 yards.
"They're good, they're aggressive off the line, they don't really give up," Kraus said. "It's better competition for everyone if you go against somebody harder, it's better for you as a player. (McCarthy) was aggressive, I love going up against a guy like that."
Efforts like that keep the future bright for Ballston Spa's future.
"We've evolved a lot this year," Toohey said. "In the off-season we invested endless hours into schemes that ended up being not all that fruitful. That's part of the game of football.
"We have made a lot of progress in terms of positive yardage, getting first downs and so forth. It's just not showing up on the scoreboard right now. There are a lot offensive steps in the right direction."
Shenendehowa will host Christian Brothers Academy (3-2, 3-3) next Friday for its senior night and Ballston Spa will host Niskayuna (2-4). The Plainsmen need a win to secure the No. 2 Empire Division seed and the Scotties are looking to continue to improve.
"The AAs are no joke," Toohey said. "We don't care who we're playing, some teams have better records as of now, but they're all good teams and our goal is just to get better personally on our own and then eventually more points and wins will happen. Every single week we're just looking for it to be a step in the right direction."


text:
Luke Grimes Previews New Character on Brothers & SistersMatt Richenthal at . Comments
The Walker family expands tonight on Brothers & Sisters.
A new sibling will be added a twist to the mix this evening, as Ryan Lafferty arrives on the scene after his existence was discovered earlier this season.
He's the product of an affair, lost his mother, and now faces a new loss when he learns the truth about his past.
Actor Luke Grimes spoke with TV Guide about the character:
Can you tell us about your character, Ryan Lafferty?
He goes to the Berklee School of Music. He lived a pretty happy life up until a certain point when his mother died. And then he was very shocked to find out that the father who raised him is not his real father ... and his real, biological father's dead. So he finds out at a late age that he's an orphan. The rug's been pulled out from under him. He's a complicated guy.
Is Ryan sticking around for a while?
It depends on how everyone responds to it, and if the audience likes it. I know I have a four-episode guarantee, and after that it's fate.
Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.


text:
Owner Information:
Primary Veterinarian Information:
Notation on check - Luigi - Client #386121
Luigi's Client Number is critical to be posted to correct account
either when calling with a credit card or mailing a check. Thank you.
UPDATE - April 18, 2013
This is my last year as a teacher, as I am retiring in October 2013 after 35 incredible years. It is going by faster than I can keep track, and, I apologize for not being more "present" in the Zoo! But, it's all good...
We took Luigi for his ultrasound and liver enzyme panel today - one year ago yesterday he finished his 16 rounds of radiation! As soon as we entered the small animal clinic at Tuft's, at least 25-30 came running to us - screaming "Luigi"! (When I grow up, I hope I'm as popular as my dogs!)
Anyway, while waiting for his tests, we met too many pups going in to oncology - but, hopefully gave them some hope, that they're in very good hands.
Luigi's ultrasound was as good as it can get! Everything looks the same, no new growths around his liver, etc. His liver enzyme levels were perfect, too! They said he acts like a 6 year old in spirit, which continues to be a good sign also!
I went to cash out after the applause - all for Luigi- and was more than pleasantly surprised by a beautiful monetary donation applied towards our bill! They made a copy of a fund raiser letter from last fall 2012 - I'm so sorry I didn't know about receiving this sooner, I would have thanked you all! What a blessing it was to get this applied to our bill today! Bless you all!
So, I'll share some pics with you now:
The first one is on Rocco's 7th birthday - February 9th - Nemo hit with about 28" of sno...what a gift for doodles!
The second is what we all began to do after one too many snow storms hit the Northeast...and, this is on Luigi's 12th birthday - February 17th -
The next one is of our "hero" Ben with Luigi...Ben took him to all the radiation treatments...this is taken today after our good news...
And, this is me...finally, no more snow...after today's appointment...
Thank you, one and all for for prayers, positive thoughts, reassuring words, and, charitable donations! I am almost done with the retirement paperwork (oy vay!) and all the other school stuff - it's truly been a busy year. But, I'm back at the Zoo and should have more free time to visit much more often. I so look forward to daily walks with my puppies in retirement!
Luigi says, "Thanks for caring!"
Marcelle, Ben, Doodles & the Bichon
Update - May 4, 2012I have started to write this several times since Wednesday (5/2/12) – believe it or not, it's been 4 weeks since Luigi's last radiation treatment. Anyway, my eyes keep tearing up because I cannot find the words to express the amount of joy, relief, gratitude, awe, and love I have for everyone who has touched our lives – especially over the last 3 months – Luigi's tumor has dissipated! His blood tests came back normal, too!
Update - April 14, 2012
Update - March 24, 2012
Luigi is halfway through his radiation treatments! His Radiation Oncologist, Dr.Michele Keyerleber, called to say that his blood work at this time is normal, although they are keeping a watch on the T4 level in his Thyroid function.
He just began 2 daily doses of 750mg cephalexin (antibiotic) and 1 nightime dosage of 15mg prednisone (anti-inflamatory steroid) in preparation for radiation side effects.I also have an e-collar and aloe lotion at the ready, as we could begin to see side effects developing...and, currently, he is very itchy! The skin at the sites of the radiation will thin out, so we need to be monitoring skin breakdown, excessive drooling, fever, bloody stools, etc.
All-in-all, he's looking pretty good. He and Rocco(with ball in mouth) woke me at 4:45AM this morning -tails wagging and ready to go out and play! I said, "Guys, it's Saturday!". But, my heart said, "Go outside and enjoy a moment of good health and spirits!". I followed my heart! They can be silly & I love them so much.
I think of people like Nancy & Jeff, Ru's mom, Kathryn (Keegan - who I met at a romp), and others, and realize that I am very blessed right now to still have these guys wagging their tails around me. My heart breaks/aches for them!
Remember when I wrote the initial story for Luigi and stated that the bills were around $1500.00? Well, when I regrouped my brain cells & submitted them to Vet Pet Ins., it was more like $4095.26. The good news is that we should be getting $3133.72 back!
I have another $600.00 bill (2 days before radiation - checking the liver nodes they found) and the 75% payment required before they began radiation which was $3700.00. On the last day of radiation, I think we will write another check for about $1600.00.
He may not need chemotherapy; and, if the tumor shrinks enough, they may be able to remove it...these are the hopeful words of his vet teams at Tufts. However, we're taking one day at a time.
Other doodle news:
Our Rocco is responding to medication - not enjoying the bland diet at all, but, I think he's just reluctant to eat. He has a different insurance plan and his diagnostics began at $500.00 last week, not including meds and follow-ups. He'll be susceptible to future bouts of pancreatitis and monitored for diabetes, etc. As long as he regains his health, you just can't put a price on his (& Louie's & Dino's) precious life!
Luigi's story
After raising house bunnies for 10 years, my husband, Ben, said that we could get a dog…so I did my due diligence and researched the web for allergy free/smart/energetic dogs. I found a list with about 16 different breeds…a "Golden doodle" was on this list. It was such a different name that I knew I had to learn more about this breed. That was the best decision I made.
I always consider Luigi my best Internet buy – only because I was unaware of any local breeders of this wonderful dog. He was born on February 17, 2001.
I remember picking him up at Bradley International Airport on April 18, 2001 – he already had a group of admirers playing with him! I picked him up, cradled him in my arms and he began to wrap me around his dew claws.
Luigi went to Puppy kindergarten, advanced obedience classes, agility training classes and became a social therapy dog. Currently he is registered as a Therapy Dog through TD INC. Luigi was the social high light at the Jewish Healthcare Center where my mother-in-law resided for 3 years (2004-2007). Luigi visited 3 floors of patients, all in various stages of life, dishing out his "Louie Love", as they came to call it.
Luigi is a very social dog who loves to be around people. While the other dogs in the family will eat or sleep, Luigi is awake and stands beside all who enter our home – it's as if he wants everyone to feel comfort – and, all he takes in return is a good chin scratch.
Luigi loved going to doodle romps that were held in our state. It seems that being around other doodles at the romps brought out that frisky, energetic nature that seems to be inherent in this breed. His gusto for life has always fed us when we were feeling low. However, he'd always find the smallest dog at the park (usually not a doodle) and befriend it. His last doodle romp friend was a Chinese Crested dog named "Cosmo"…what a pair!
In 2007, we "adopted" another goldendoodle from the local animal shelter, who we named "Rocco". After some re-defining of the ranks – of course Luigi is top dog, Rocco earned his place in our home. In 2009, one of my husband's clients was trying to find a home for a puppy …yeah, you guessed it, "Dino" entered our band of doggie brothers. They have been best buddies since, and Rocco stays by his "brother's" side…sniffing and giving kisses as he passes him. Dino will bring him a stuffed animal from time to time, too. It's as if they realize that Luigi is going through a rough patch.
Over the years, Luigi has had several lipomas develop and aspirated to make sure they were benign. In June of 2011, we noticed one on his neck, which would also be aspirated several times over the next 5 months. His local veterinarian sent the biopsies out and cancer never seemed to be in the cards. He was given the antibiotic Amoxi 500mg/Clavulinic Acid 125 mg, for several weeks, hoping to clear up what we thought may have been an inflammation of his mandibular salivary gland. When he didn't respond to this treatment, our vet recommended having it biopsied/removed at Tufts University Hospital. That was to be done on Thursday, February 16, 2012, the day before his 11th birthday.
Our lives have changed since that day. The surgeon attempted to remove it, but it is quite vascular in nature, and began to bleed. He couldn't take a "wedge" sample because of that very fact, too. So, he took what he could, a scraping, did a ligation on several veins, and closed him up. The surgeon is very nice and spent an hour with us explaining the possible options for treatment – because this was definitely a cancerous tumor. One thing he stated was that, through all his treatments that day, Luigi is one of the most loving, soulful dogs he has had the pleasure of treating.
We were referred to the oncology department at Tufts University. On Wednesday, February 29,2012, they did another FNA (fine needle aspirate) of his mass to determine what type/stage of cancer he has as this will help decide the most appropriate treatment plan. While doing an ultrasound of his abdomen, they noticed nodules on his liver. These may or may not be related to the cancer on his neck.
On Monday, March 5, 2012, Ben will drop Luigi off at Tuft's to have his nodules biopsied via FNA with an ultrasound accompanying the procedure to locate the nodules. They will do blood coagulation profiles before the procedure to make sure they can proceed with the nodule biopsy safely, without any problems related to clotting.
If the liver nodules are cancerous, Luigi will enter into a chemotherapy treatment plan immediately. If the nodules are not cancerous, we will begin a 3-4 week treatment of "palliative radiation". After that, chemotherapy can be administered to make sure this cancer hasn't spread to any other organs/systems in his body. Of course, every procedure dictates that he is under heavy sedation – that alone makes me nervous.
I will post updates after each treatment that Luigi endures. He is the most precious gift of life in the form of a dog. We will do anything for him. Currently, we have paid close to $1500.00 on surgery, FNB's, and ultrasounds. We've been quoted possible costs beginning at $6500.00 for the radiation treatments. However, until we know what will be diagnosed & the following protocols, we just don't know what the total cost is in reality.
Thank you for offering this forum for doodle owners. The support offered over the last two weeks has helped ease my tension and heavy heart. We love Luigi.
About Luigi's Cancer:
Mast Cell cancer is not uncommon in canines, however, by the time a lump or nodule is seen or felt, the dog may be considered in serious condition and medical intervention is necessary. The lump may change shape and size on a daily or weekly basis often found in cells which trigger allergies in dogs. If the tumor is accessible it may be removed and biopsied, if not, a needle biopsy may be done to decide the course of treatment. In Luigi's case, his mass "mast" is in the right clavicle close to and involving the neck and it's critical veins, arteries, and muscles to the nasal, mouth, ears, and brain.
Surgery was ruled out because of these complications. Radiation and chemotherapy are now considered the course of action. Luigi has already had exploratory surgery, however, his tumor involves organs and nerves that were not encapsulated thus a needle biopsy is required for the amount and duration of chemotherapy and radiation. Luigi's treatment will begin in early March of 2012 at Tufts University with the Department of Veterinarian Oncology.
Merck manual
Virtually all Veterinarian sites on the Messenger's Resources page


text:
Advances in biotechnology, and our understanding of molecular genetics, have profoundly impacted agricultural practices and our nation's farmers.
In this three-day workshop, July 22-24, 2014, we'll examine the science behind recent agriscience applications of biotechnology. Using student friendly hands-on activities, we will dig into the sequencing of plant genomes, the technology behind GMOs and linkages between modern biotechnology and crop development.
Teachers will receive 16 hours of professional development and take home materials and other resources for use in their classrooms. Housing and travel stipend is also provided.
This workshop is made possible thanks to support from the State of Alabama.


text:
Byat Sunday, September 11, 2011
After what seems like eternity, it looks like Netflix has finally solved the miseries of those Android users who run Android 2.2 Froyo or Android 2.3 Gingerbread on their devices. The Netflix Android app has been updated to add support for Android versions 2.2 and 2.3.
However now with this new Netflix update, around 80% of all Android owners will be able to use this app and the service. To use the Netflix streaming service on your Android smartphone, you will first have to download this 20 MB app on your device. Then you have to create a Netflix account and subscribe to the streaming service which costs $7.99 per month.
Tablet devices running Android have been left out of this update. Only two Android devices are compatible with the Netflix app and surprisingly support for all tablets hasn't been added in Netflix for Android version 1.4. It is expected that tablet support will follow in the next update. Let's just hope that it comes out sooner.
If you found this post useful, dont forget to click the +1 button =>


text:
I thought I'd share some of the fantastic model painting performed by our gaming group at Clockwork Comics, CT. I will post more pictures as space allows…. stay tuned!
Painting blog of Affinity Studio
Book reviews by Vince Darcangelo, courtesy of Transgress Magazine
Bringing personality to tabletop gaming.
Painting, converting, and gaming in the 31st millennium
miniatures, painting, and more
Because great photographs don't make themselves
The Art of Dave Monty The Mini Painter
A blog for creativity.
Author - Husband - Father
Miniatures. Painting. Stupid.
Set your mind on the things above
Games from the perspective of a caffeine addicted misanthropic girl.
My wife thinks I am having a second childhood but actually I never left the first one
But time you enjoy wasting, is not wasted time...
Cos' they don't make dragons like they used to.
A site about Ed and the games he plays
A blog about gaming. All kinds of gaming.
a wargaming blog (plus some other stuff)