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1cm Felt Balls ~ Hot Pink Pom Poms
1 cm Felt Balls ~ Hot Pink Colour Pom Pom
1cm felt balls (Pom Pom) are available in various colours. You may need different colour felt balls to finish your DIY crafts. Hot Pink colour pom pom is one more addition to the choice of colours which could be the best match for your crafts project.
Complete your decor or craft projects with our handmade 1cm hot pink colour felt balls. If these felt balls are not perfect for your needs, please have a look on our other colour felt balls.
Key Features:
- Made from 100% wool
- Bright and Soft
- Available in various colour.
- Great for making various craft projects
- Eco-friendly as there is no use of any harmful chemicals
Specification (approx.):
- Item: 1cm hot pink colour felt balls
- Felt ball Size: 12 mm +/- 2 mm
- Felt Ball Colour: Hot Pink
Felt Balls are suitable for making various types of DIY crafts projects and home and Christmas decoration like making kids toys, garland, felt ball tea coasters, trivets, jewellery, wreath, wall and ceiling hanging, picture frame decoration or just to keep as they are in the glass or basket for home and kitchen decoration


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Just when you thought how dark Batman really is, walks in The LEGO Batman movie to prove otherwise. A bucket load of fun! The LEGO Batman Movie is everything you want to see in a good comedy. Batsy is just hilarious, is everything we found him to be like in the first Lego movie, and more. The self-obsessed narcissistic image of Batman who prefers to enjoy his own company to anyone else literally owns his own movie. His preference of solitude, of him missing his family, secretly wishing for one, aids in basically steering the story forward.
Theme of The LEGO Batman Movie (Spoilers)
The LEGO Batman movie starts the moment the mandatory precursory symbols like WB and DC begin to show up. That quintessential rugged batman voice that Will Arnett has perfected, goes in the background pointing out the darndest things that we have always secretly thought about, but never really aloud.
Black. All important movies start with a black screen. And music. Edgy, scary music that would make a parent or studio executive nervous. And logos. Really long and dramatic logos.
Then he squeezes out comedy from everything that shows up on the big screen.
Warner Bros. Why not Warner Brothers?
It wouldn't be wrong to say it's a movie 1 hour 44 min well utilized sans end credits of course.
Highlighting Teamwork
Introducing characters like Robin and Batgirl highlights one thing that Batsy had been doing wrong all this time. Trying to save everyone by literally punishing his body and mind, working all by himself. He chooses to work alone even when there is useful help at hand. The LEGO Batman movie teaches you the value of family, of working together as a team and overcoming obstacles by shooting at them "Pew Pew!"
Robin: My name's Richard Grayson, but all the kids are the orphanage call me Dick.
Batman: Well, children can be cruel.
Along with that cardinal theme, the flick also banks on the concept of Phantom Zone here and unleashes supervillains from every dimension. So different worlds, be it be Harry Potter, LOTR or King Kong, walk in the middle of Gotham. All those characters you have watched over the years growing up, villains that exist, villains that you have never heard about, villains created for sheer fun, they all grace you with their presence.
Joker – The Nemesis
Jokes, as Joker likes to call himself, remains the soul of this one once again. However, the twist in the tale is that he is smitten with the concept of him being the yang for Batsy's yin. All he cares for is Batman's attention, because Batman hasn't been taking Joker seriously.
The Joker: You are seriously saying that there's nothing special about us?
Batman: There is no "us". Never will be.
He walks in with his cute perversion trying to insert that villainous element into the story. His master plan works as always cornering Bats into taking that one step that challenges him and his choices.
Meanwhile, Bane talks just the way he used to in the Nolan Universe.
You can order The LEGO Batman movie here:
The comedy doesn't spare anybody. It prods the Marvel Universe too with:
'Puter: What's the password?
Batman: Iron Man sucks!
The Unusual Pace
The only problem with the movie is its pace as far as action is concerned. It hyperjumps at the speed of light, and it's hard to focus on what's happening. It puts questions at the movie's editing that takes the focus away from it. For those who can't keep up, a second watch becomes a must.
Apart from that, it's a joyride, that is meant to be super cool, fun, and as awesome as Batman.
Batman: Who always pays their taxes? Not Batman!
The Final Verdict
The LEGO Batman Movie proves that the LEGO animation universe is here to stay owing to their brilliant slapstick humour and exceptional timing. It takes its characters and one ups their hilarity quotient. Batman was no exception to that. That being said I would like to point out that as far as animation is concerned, DC continues to rule. \m/
Check out the trailer of The LEGO Batman movie here:

subset: commoncrawl


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A touch more WWS – clarification
Add me to the fan club along with BRK. And at least my squeeing was in private as I was contacted by email. Oh, that's obscure. OK, I'll unpack.
I have said before how excellent I think WoWWebStats is. And I know the developer, Lossendil, has continued to make improvements. I stared, gasped, and squeed the other day when I got an email from him asking for healer-related suggestions. While I'm going to keep most of that discussion out of your grubby little hands — no, seriously, there IS soap by the sink — I also thought to ask about something which had me confused.
Healer focus. What the HECK was healer focus telling me? Here's his answer:
As for the focus, it is "the number of players who received 50% of the heals of this healer". The focus ranges from 0.5 to half the number of players in the raid.
A focus of 0.5 means the healer healed one and only one player.
A focus of 1 means the healer spent 50% of its heals on a single player.
A focus of 2 means the healer spent 50% of its heals on two players (could be 30% on MT2, 20% on MT3, and the remaining 50% spread on all the raid)
A focus of 12.5 in a 25 man raid, means the healer divided its heals
evenly between all players in the raid.
Coolness. Now I can USE that number more effectively besides knowing generally that 1 is nominally better than 1.5 (all I'd really figured out from what was written). Oh, it's not perfect understanding, but it's a heck of a lot better.
By the way, a quick summation of my recommendations:
I wished there was a way to pull mana use information. I was told there used to be, and probably will be again after 2.4 .
I wished for a means of determining when healers were overlapping (and so 'wasting' one of their heals). I was shown a concept (that works brilliantly) and then told it'll have to wait till a graphics frame was finished (sigh) which will be "soon". (Oh! YAY!)
So I finished by reiterating that for healers, evaluation is a matter of quality, not quantity (in my opinion, of course). For quality, there is the gross measure of overheal which is used already. All my other measures of quality are measures of efficiency and timing. Efficiency is pretty constantly a matter of mana conservation – so long as the heals are being made, is mana being used and recovered in an efficent fashion. And timing… are my heals late? Oh, sure, my target isn't dying, but could I be doing a better job of anticipation? For that matter even if my target DOES die, how far back did and should I have noticed he or she was in trouble?
Doing ENOUGH heals JUST IN TIME. That's perfection. That's the numbers I want to extract. We've got gross heals, we've got gross overheals. But mana and timing… those are what I want next. And according to Lossendil they're coming.
And by the way…
SQUEEE – I got to talk to Lossendil!!!
3 Responses to "A touch more WWS – clarification"
I think it would be great if the time spent out of the 5sr could be added to WWS. *hint hint*
I know there is an addon for that but it requires you be a FuBar user.
Is it just me or is the number scheme really stupid? Why are we measuring 50% healing so that a score of 0.5 matches with healing 1 person?
0.5 => 1
1 => 2
1.5 => 3
Right? That seems very confusing. 50% healing is arbitrary right? So assume that number can vary depending on you preference that day and we'll call it Y healing. So we want to count the number of people who got Y healed. That number should start at 1, not 0.5.
After reading it again and understanding it better I guess it makes more sense. But I'm still unsatisfied with the equation.


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Experts weigh in on climate plan
President Barack Obama's new climate change agenda may be ambitious, but experts warn it won't be enough to avoid the worst effects of a warming planet.
The climate threat is so severe, they say, that the administration must quickly pivot from the steps it's announcing Tuesday — including greenhouse gas regulations for power plants — to tackle other parts of the economy.
Story Continued Below
But that won't be easy: The president is likely to stir plenty of opposition with Tuesday's speech alone, as early reaction on the Hill on Monday made clear.
( Also on POLITICO: Obama to unveil sweeping climate plan)
"You can't do something that is unattainable," said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who famously fired a bullet through the cap-and-trade bill in a 2010 campaign ad. "It's unreasonable. What they're doing has never been done."
Climate experts say the president's plan would help move the United States toward its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade. But they say actually meeting the goal will be an uphill battle, especially because it could take as long as five years to see results from the regulations.
Obama "clearly is right to move ahead and do as much as possible," said Rachel Cleetus, senior climate economist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "We are going to need more, though."
( Also on POLITICO: Obama climate plan may ricochet on EPA pick)
Even the most unprecedented strides toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions pale next to the scope of the problem facing the planet. Still, environmental activists say Tuesday's announcements will be a big deal. They're thrilled Obama is finally refocusing on climate change in his second term.
"Really, this is a moment that has been 20 years in the making, and most of the last 20 years unfortunately has not been well spent," said David Hawkins, director of climate programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
While climate change activists and long-time observers of the ebbs and flows of environmental policy are elated, they are also quietly reminding the president that more work needs to be done.
( Also on POLITICO: In India, John Kerry talks climate change)
Richard Newell, who headed the Energy Information Administration from 2009 to 2011, said it will be difficult to keep the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide below 350 or 400 parts per million, as some activists have advocated for, without a broader approach. Scientists have warned of dire consequences if carbon dioxide levels increase beyond 400 ppm, including rising sea levels, worsening storms and species die-offs.
"Ultimately, it's going to take a comprehensive approach both in the United States and internationally. And if the goal and benchmark is something like 350 or 400 ppm, then those are very, very tough goals to meet under the current trajectory, even with these policy measures," Newell said. "But that doesn't mean they're not worthwhile."
Among other things, the administration should move forward with regulations that reduce emissions from industrial sectors like refineries, cement, agriculture and heavy manufacturing, the experts said.
( Also on POLITICO: Obama energy push could loom large in 2014)
"The biggest opportunity without question is power plants," said Kevin Kennedy, who works on U.S. climate change issues at the World Resources Institute's Climate and Energy Program. "But there really is a need to be able to move ahead on a range of sources across the economy.
"Working your way relatively quickly through a range of other sources will be important to do," he said. "Starting now with power plants is going to be a big first step."
WRI released a study in February that outlined a path toward meeting the 2020 goal, which the president committed to at international climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009. The study recommends several of the measures that the president is expected to announce Tuesday or to which the administration has already agreed, including carbon regulations for power plants and actions to boost energy efficiency and reduce other types of greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons.


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Clarksonmd precisava de um novo design de logo e criou um concurso na 99designs.
Um vencedor foi selecionado entre 50 designs enviados por 23 designers freelancers.
Our organization is called Amici Group. We have two areas-- one we raise private equity money from real estate investors and two we do real estate development (residential and mixed use). We need a logo.
Amici Group
Real Estate Private Equity - Real Estate Development/open to suggestion
Desired Color Scheme:
open to suggestion
Desired Style:
open to suggestion
Accepted File Formats:
jpeg; eps
We need a logo for our real estate private equity and development company. The website is at Amicigroup.com (and we will need a website for that designed in the future as well). If you go to Amicigroup.com you will see a sample logo we were thinking of, but we decided to see if someone could come up with something much better! Also that logo does not contain the word development which we think it needs. Please do not be limited by this logo. A colleague recommended this site, and is thrilled with the result. We are looking for a logo that is dynamic, sleek, professional.
Saiba como um concurso de design funciona ou leia mais sobre nossos serviços de design de logo.


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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The vague "connectivity issue" that Nasdaq said triggered the outage that paralyzed a large part of the U.S. stock market on Thursday originated as a problem between Nasdaq and rival NYSE Arca, a source familiar with the matter said Friday.
Nasdaq said the problem started shortly before midday Thursday and quickly cascaded through its Securities Information Processor, or SIP, the system that receives all traffic on quotes and orders for stocks on the exchange, preventing it from disseminating quotes.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said brief outages between exchanges occur from time to time but are short-lived.
In such instances, traders receive alerts from an exchange that essentially tell them to rout their order flow elsewhere for a period. Most of these episodes, which may occur several times a week, are resolved quickly.
Nasdaq did not respond to requests for additional information beyond a statement issued to traders on Friday. A spokesman for NYSE Euronext, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange and its NYSE Arca platform, denied Arca was involved.
Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld, in television interviews on Friday, declined to identify the source of the connectivity problem.
The precise nature of the breakdown remains unclear.
But the outage, first flagged at 11:48 a.m. EDT (1548 GMT), quickly spiraled out of control and soon left $5.9 trillion of U.S. equities - more than a third of the U.S. stock market - idle for more than three hours. Shares of three of the five largest companies by market value, Apple Inc, Google Inc and Microsoft Corp, typically also among the most active in any session, were unavailable.
A number of market participants and others criticized Nasdaq's lack of an early public statement on the outage. Nasdaq did not issue a formal press release until late Thursday afternoon, well after the trading day had ended.
"As usual the communication could have been a little bit better. They could improve the communication and the amount of communication," said Mark Turner, managing director and head of sales trading at Instinet in New York.
Nasdaq CEO Greifeld said the exchange sent messages through its trader alert system and was involved in direct communication with clients.
Nasdaq's first responsibility was to assure "fair and orderly markets," Greifeld said on Friday on Fox Business Network, and exchange officials worked first to understand and fix the problem and then to communicate with the securities industry to ensure a smooth restart.
"There was active communication going on," Greifeld said.
"It has shown how horrible the crisis management side is. Communication was horrid. There is no backup. So we have to focus on the crisis management side," Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive and co-chief investment officer of Pimco, said Friday on CNBC.
In the end, even those who criticized Nasdaq for the pace of its communications, agreed the reopening of trading did go well.
Trading on Friday transpired with no apparent hiccups. Shares of Nasdaq itself, which fell 3.4 percent once trading resumed on Thursday, gained about 1.2 percent.
While worst-case outcomes may have been averted, the outage still was among the most serious in a series of recent technological failures to hit the U.S. securities business, including a software issue at the Chicago Board Options Exchange this spring that delayed the start of trading there for half a day.
It was also the latest black eye for Nasdaq, which in May agreed to pay $10 million, the largest penalty ever against a stock exchange, to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil charges over its mishandling of Facebook's initial public offering in 2012.
The incident has already drawn the attention of regulators, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White said Thursday she would like to press ahead with new market structure regulations that Nasdaq and other exchanges have resisted.
White's predecessor, Mary Schapiro, said Thursday's events are a harsh reminder of the shaky nature of modern markets.
"Events like this contribute to investors' concerns about the stability and integrity of the marketplace," Schapiro told Reuters in an interview on Friday. "I have said many times while I was SEC chairman ... investors understand they can make or lose money when they buy a stock and the fortunes of the company change. What they don't understand and shouldn't have to understand, and shouldn't be subject to, are losses based on whether the market structure is stable."
Many market participants said it was fortunate the outage occurred during a low-volume summer day.
"We were lucky yesterday," said Sal Arnuk, partner and co-founder of Themis Trading. "If the SIP failure occurred on a 10 billion share day or any high VIX, high volume day in October - where say the Fed changes policy, then I seriously doubt they, or any exchange, would have been able to re-open 2,000-plus stocks. That is a statement to the fact that we have created and allowed and encouraged an overly complex market structure."
Writing by Dan Burns and Jonathan Stempel; Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos in New York and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Dan Grebler


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Both the upcoming Xbox One from Microsoft and Moto X from Google feature "always listening" functionality for their voice-controlled, natural language interfaces. So what about Apple and Siri? Should the next iPhone and iPads have the microphone that you can also choose to turn on and set to perpetually listen and process, and keep ready for everything and anything we say, waiting to key onto a command phrase that signals we want to use it - "Okay, Google Now!" - er... - "hey Siri!"?
There's a power concerns, of course. Xbox One is plugged in and therefore has no battery life to worry about, but the iPhone or iPad, like the Moto X, would absolutely have to do everything it can to conserve power. Beyond the technical issues, however, are privacy concerns. The news is already filled with stories of governments and companies allegedly spying on our communications, do we really trust them with constantly enabled mics? And what about simple system errors? I've had bits of conversation accidentally sent to me from Google Glass glitches, imagine the potential for mistakes with mainstream systems?
On the flip side, "always listening" can also be incredibly convenient. When your hands are full, or your device is out of reach, being able to command it with words alone is beyond useful. Likewise, Siri is already behind Google Now when it comes to functionality, including localized voice parsing, predictive responses, and more, and not doing "always listening" would put it one more feature down on the parity list.
Do you think the upcoming iOS 7 on the rumored iPhone 5s should start playing catch up? Apple's offered exclusive new features on hardware before, so would an extra processing core for onboard and persistent voice processing be interesting to you? Would you want your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad mic to be flipped on all the time, and Siri to be "always listening" for your commands?
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.
Apple's global head of accessibility interviews with Evening Standard
Apple's head of privacy Sarah Herrlinger has sat down in an interview with Evening Standard to discuss customization, design and privacy.
Someone actually grated cheese on the Mac Pro
The iFixit team has grated cheese on the Mac Pro in its uncasing and first impressions video of the new machine.
Waymo One, Google's self-driving pickup service now has an iOS app
Google's Waymo One pickup service is now available on iOS, giving some users the chance to take part in Waymo's early rider program.
Don't let the OLED screen on your iPhone X break — get a screen protector
If you want to protect your iPhone X, a screen protector is the way to go: Here are the best options you can buy right now.


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Welcome to the Home of Eureka Springs very own Mardi Gras
Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler à Eureka Springs, Arkansas!
Let the good times roll in Eureka Springs, Arkansas!
We invite everyone to come join us in celebrating Mardi Gras, Eureka Springs style.
Join in the fun, watch the parade, get a taste of New Orleans, dress up and join the masquerade. It is all about having a good time at Eureka Springs Mardi Gras hosted by the Krewe of Krazo.
It is our goal to promote year-round activities and events in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and the surrounding areas. We want to encourage local citizens and businesses to participate in events and have fun.
We want to become the anchor for a Super Mardi Gras celebration in the Ozarks comprising not just of Northwest Arkansas but the surrounding states as well.
Mardi gras is a Carnival of activities that starts in January and goes into February, sometimes until March.
Take a moment to look around the website, check out our annual events, look for updates on the progress of next year's Eureka Mardi Gras, check out our sponsors' page, and just get a taste of what we have to offer.
Help the Krew make Mardi Gras happen. Click Here to learn how.


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Manage your account and access personalized content. Sign up for an Oracle Account
Access your cloud dashboard, manage orders, and more. Sign up for a free trial
Relying on paper-based processes to pay for goods and services and to resolve disputes with suppliers can be costly, inefficient, and prone to error. Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise eSettlements is a global electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) solution that enables organizations to optimize the settlement process with electronic invoices and payments, matching online approval, dispute resolution, and email notifications.
PeopleSoft Enterprise eSettlements is integral to PeopleSoft's procure to pay solution and is part Oracle's PeopleSoft Financial Management family of applications.
Streamline and Automate Invoice Management
Improve Supplier Collaboration
Streamlined Processing and Reduce Costs


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2019-2020 Calendar
Friends of the Fosdick
Visiting the Gallery
Past Exhibits
School of Art & Design
Alfred University
Gallery Home
The Fosdick-Nelson Gallery housed, in the School of Art & Design at Alfred University, is a vibrant learning center for the visual arts. Rotating exhibitions highlight work by established and emerging artists working in New York, the United States and abroad. Located in rural western New York, the Gallery is the only established contemporary art venue within a sixty-mile radius for the community to experience a diverse mix of art first hand and participate in an exciting forum of contemporary art and culture. Extended programming, including gallery lectures and special projects, gives students and members of the community an opportunity to engage with artists, curators, and scholars.
Gallery Hours
Mon - Fri 11 am - 4 pm
Sat & Sun 1 pm - 3 pm
Closed University Holidays
Fosdick-Nelson Gallery
Director, Sharon McConnell
School of Art and Design
NYSCC at Alfred University
2 Pine Street, Alfred, NY 14802


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For six decades Billy Wilder has created one movie masterpiece after another--as a writer, director, producer, or sometimes as all three. Add this extraordinary endurance record to the fact that he has not limited himself to one genre of film but has applied his talents to romantic comedies, film noir, suspense, farce, and courtroom dramas with equally splendid results--and Wilder's oeuvre becomes not just another brilliant career but the very history of American film.
Wilder began writing for films in Berlin during the late 1920s and arrived in the United States in 1934 with little English in his vocabulary, yet by 1939 he had co-written with Charles Brackett the screenplay to what is arguably the finest comedy of the 30s, Ninotchka. Three years later, he made his directorial debut with another memorable comedy, The Major and the Minor
From then on he would create a series of delicate images never to be forgotten by movie lovers around the world: Gloria Swanson as the legendary Norma Desmond descending the staircase at the end of Sunset Boulevard; Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in high heels precariously running away from killer gangsters in Some Like It Hot; a tarted up Shirley MacLaine walking the streets of Paris with her poodle in Irma Las Douce, and, perhaps most memorably of all, Marilyn Monroe surrounded by her billowing white skirt as she cools off by standing on top of a New York subway grate in The Seven Year Itch.
In addition to Charles Brackett, Wilder's other great script collaborator was I.A.L. Diamond, who began working with him in 1957 with Love in the Afternoon. Nominated some 20 times, WIlder has won six Academy Awards: for directing and co-writing The Lost Weekend (1945); and for directing, co-writing, and producing The Apartment (1960), which took Best Picture honors.


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The findings are published in the December issue of Biochemical Pharmacology.
Inflammation is necessary for maintaining good health – without inflammation, wounds and infections would never heal. However, persistent and constant inflammation can damage tissue and organs, and lead to diseases such as sepsis. Sepsis affects approximately 750,000 Americans each year, 28 to 50 percent of whom die from the condition, and costs the nation's healthcare system nearly $17 billion annually. It is a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection or injury, and occurs when chemicals released into the bloodstream to fight the infection trigger inflammation throughout the body. The result is that organs become damaged, including liver, heart, lungs, kidney and brain. If excessive damage occurs, it may be irreversible. For years, Feinstein Institute researchers have been trying to identify ways to halt persistent and constant inflammation.
Tanshinones have been used for treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Based on research on mice conducted by Haichao Wang, PhD, and his colleagues, including Kevin J. Tracey, MD, and Andrew E. Sama, MD, at the Feinstein Institute, tanshinone IIA sodium sulfonate (TSN-SS) effectively inhibited the release of HMGB1 outside of cells. HMGBI is a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) protein that mediates inflammation and, if over expressed, causes sepsis. Furthermore, Dr. Wang and his colleagues previously discovered that inhibition of HMGB1 by TSN-SS protected against sepsis-induced animal mortality and cardiovascular dysfunction in animals.
"Dr. Wang's research on TSN-SS has uncovered details that offer a new mechanism for intracellular drug delivery," said Sarah Dunsmore, Ph.D., of the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which partially supported the work. "These findings have broad significance and implications for treating a variety of conditions, including cancer, sepsis and Alzheimer's disease."
The NIH grant numbers that supported this study are AT005076 and GM063075.
The Feinstein Institute, in alliance with the Cleveland Clinic, is exploring opportunities to commercialize patent technologies relating to the use of TSN-SS in the treatment of human diseases.
"This novel therapy opens up more applications for the use of Chinese traditional medicine in western medicine, and it is my hope that it will be tested for efficacy in sepsis clinical trials in the near term." said Dr. Wang.
The Feinstein Institute and its parent company, the North Shore-LIJ Health System, have been dedicated to studying and treating sepsis. In 2010, the Feinstein Institute hosted an international Merinoff Symposium dedicated to sepsis. This symposia attracted researchers, policymakers and other opinion leaders from around the world who identified that sepsis should be categorized as a medical emergency, treatable with fluids and antibiotics within one hour of recognition. The health system mounted an aggressive sepsis prevention and early identification initiative that has reduced the health system's sepsis mortality rate by 35 in the past four years, which translates into thousands of saved lives.
About The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Headquartered in Manhasset, NY, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is home to international scientific leaders in many areas including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, psychiatric disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, sepsis, human genetics, pulmonary hypertension, leukemia, neuroimmunology, and medicinal chemistry. The Feinstein Institute, part of the North Shore-LIJ Health System, ranks in the top 5th percentile of all National Institutes of Health grants awarded to research centers. For more information visit www.FeinsteinInstitute.org
Media Contact: Emily Ng


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Hello please,
Appreciate your help here.
I have a field string that wants to find if that exists between two range strings on character basis.
String lower boundary : "ABD"
String upper boundary : "ALGKP"
field String : "ABE"
Now the field string "ABE" exists between "ABD" and "ALGKP".
Here the comparison is char-by-char. i.e
A is b/w A & A, true
B is b/w B and L, true
E is b/w D and G, true
So finally returns true.
Another example:
For the same above boundaries, if the field string is "ABC", it should return false since C not b/w D & P.
For the same above boundaries, if the field string is "AB", it should return true.


text:
Shop deals of the day online an exclusive collection of apparel, electronics, accessories and other trending fashion styles from popular brands in the USA, UK, Europe. Check out the new products by trusted brands listed at Jodyshop's store locator. Buy online directly from USA, UK all your favorite products including outerwear, footwear, watches, handbags, accessories, sportswear, jewelries and fragrances. Also, Jodyshop store provides daily great deals, guarantee the best prices, with free worldwide shipping. Products listed by QUEYUB!
Discover our best retailers items at Jodyshop.com, they offer the largest collection of high-quality and best-selling products. Get the best deals, promotional codes, and big discounts. These stores offer new items for all occasions including Christmas, Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Cultural and Commercial events, and business solutions.


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Blackboard is committed to resolving security vulnerabilities quickly and
carefully. Such resolutions may lead to the release of a Security Advisory
and/or any needed product update for our customers. In order to protect our
customers and their data, we request that vulnerabilities be responsibly and
confidentially reported to us so that we may investigate and respond.
Vulnerabilities should not be announced until we have developed and
comprehensively tested a product update and made it available to licensed
Blackboard's products are complex. They run on diverse hardware and software
configurations, and are connected to many third party applications. All
software modifications – big or small -- require thorough analysis, as well as
development and implementation across multiple product lines and versions. The
software must also undergo localization, accessibility, and testing
appropriate to its scope, complexity and severity. Given the critical
importance of our products to our customers, Blackboard must ensure that they
run correctly not only in our testing facilities, but also in customer
environments. Accordingly, Blackboard cannot provide product updates according
to a set timeline -- but we are committed to working expeditiously.
Malicious parties often exploit software vulnerabilities by reverse
engineering published security advisories and product updates. It is important
for customers to update software promptly and use our severity rating system
as a guide to better schedule upgrades. Therefore, public discussion of the
vulnerability is only appropriate after customers have an opportunity to
obtain product updates.
You should conduct all vulnerability testing against non-production instances
of our products to minimize the risk to data and services.
Confidentially share details of the potential vulnerability by sending an email to [email protected]
Provide details of the potential vulnerability so the Blackboard security team may validate and reproduce the issue quickly. Without the above information, it may be difficult if not impossible to address the potential vulnerability. Reports listing numerous potential vulnerabilities without detail will not be addressed without further clarification. Details should include:
Type of vulnerability;
Whether the information has been published or shared with other parties;
Affected products and versions;
Affected configurations; and
Step-by-step instructions or proof-of-concept code to reproduce the issue.
To all vulnerability reporters who follow this Policy, Blackboard will attempt
to do the following:
Acknowledge the receipt of your report;
Investigate in a timely manner, confirming where possible the potential vulnerability;
Provide a plan and timeframe for addressing the vulnerability if appropriate; and
Notify the vulnerability reporter when the vulnerability has been resolved.
With the agreement of the vulnerability reporter, Blackboard may acknowledge
the reporter's contribution during the public disclosure of the vulnerability
so long as the reporter complies with this policy. Blackboard does not
compensate for reporting security vulnerabilities.
Blackboard is committed to improving its security policy and as such, may
update or amend this policy at any time with or without notice to you. If you
have any questions regarding this policy, please email us at [**[email
This program crawled on the 2015-06-30 is sorted as cvd.
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From yachts catching fire to failed internet connections, this video details ten of the most unusual excuses people used in the last year to explain why their tax return was late.
All of the reasons were used in unsuccessful appeals against HMRC penalties for late returns.
Ruth Owen, HMRC Director General of Customer Services, said: "Blaming the postman, arguing with family members and pesky insects – it's easy to see that some excuses for not completing a tax return on time can be more questionable than others. Luckily, it's only a small minority who chance their arm.
"But there will always be help and support available for those who have a genuine excuse for not submitting their return on time. If you think you might miss the 31 January deadline, get in touch with us now - the earlier we're contacted, the better."
The deadline for sending 2015-16 Self Assessment tax returns to HMRC, and paying any tax owed, is January 31 2017.
The ten excuses
1. My tax return was on my yacht, which caught fire.
2. A wasp in my car caused me to have an accident and my tax return, which was inside, was destroyed.
3. My wife helps me with my tax return, but she had a headache for ten days.
4. My dog ate my tax return...and all of the reminders.
5. I couldn't complete my tax return, because my husband left me and took our accountant with him. I am currently trying to find a new accountant.
6. My child scribbled all over the tax return, so I wasn't able to send it back.
7. I work for myself, but a colleague borrowed my tax return to photocopy it and lost it.
8. My husband told me the deadline was the 31st March.
9. My internet connection failed.
10. The postman doesn't deliver to my house.


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Okay, I'm finally ready to tell you all about this race. I apologize for the SERIOUS delay in writing this recap. I was busy for a while, then traveling, and then just lazy. 🙂
That being said, let's begin.
FIRST: I am still counting my blessings that the effects of Hurricane Sandy did not factor into this race as much as it was originally anticipated to. For the few days leading up to the race, weather reports said it was going to be a rainy and blustery day for us marathoners. And honestly, I was VERY unhappy about it. But, the rain held out, and it was about 50ish degrees at the start, perfect marathon weather for me!
For this race, I was determined to stay even and relaxed, and make sure I was properly hydrated and fueled. So, I started my morning with some oatmeal and a bottle of water. I had this around 6:30 as I was getting dressed. This was the first race that I had more than a quarter of a bagel for breakfast, and I think it worked out for me.
I met up with my friend, and we took the obligatory pre-race omg-we're-so-excited-this-is-going-to-be-awesome pictures. We were so ready!
And we were off!
Mile 1-4 : Super crowded. Spent most of these miles weaving in and out of people, trying to catch up with my friend (she like to get OUT for races). It was so frustrating that at times, I was running on the curb, or the grass. I was also trying really hard to stay calm about my calf. It wasn't feeling tight yet, so I was doing okay.
Miles 5-10: Finally just gave up trying to stay with my friend, and settled into my pace. Tried to really enjoy my surroundings and the race, but unfortunately, my calf started to get reeeeally tight. Stopped to stretch it around mile 7.
Miles 11-18: Found my friend again! Yay! But then lost her when I stopped for the bathrooms on Hains Point (I knew there would be real bathrooms here, so I took advantage of that J). But then I found her again a few miles later! Woohoo! At that point, we decided to just split up and run our own races. I was starting to get really smiley and happy and just really enjoying the race. BUT, my calf was still bothering me, and I was unnecessarily worried that I was going to tear a muscle. Yet, I continued on!
Miles 19-23: I tried to stop and stretch somewhere around mile 19, and some lady behind me was like "you can't stop now! You're doing so well and you're getting me motivated!" So obviously, I had to keep going! And that one comment fueled me for a few miles! I passed mile 20 and was feeling super strong, and I couldn't help but smile the biggest smile ever! And in Crystal City, I actually enjoyed the crowds this time! It seemed like everyone was out cheering for the marathoners!
Miles 24-26.2: After leaving Crystal City, I just wanted to be done. There weren't many spectators around this time. Just me, the other marathoners and the road. I just kept telling myself, "you can run any pace for 20 minutes". I kept trucking along, just knowing that once I finish, I can relax. I saw my friend, and she really inspired me to push strong until the very end. And I charged up that monster hill before Iwo Jima and sprinted to the finish. DONE!
4:22 – A 7 minute PR
I actually enjoyed this marathon, even though I was pretty off my goal of 4:15. It was a great experience, I felt strong, and I'm actually sorta looking forward to another!


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Movie Poster And Trailer For "Bekikang" Are ReleasedViva Films has come out with the movie poster and trailer for the movie "Bekikang," which stars Joey Paras in his first major movie. The film was directed by box-office director Wenn Deramas.
It follows the story of Bekikang (Paras) who grew up to loving parents Gorio and Maristela. Although he is bullied outside their home, he nonetheless grew up with so much love to give because of his parents. However, tragedy soon strikes as Maristela died and his father Gorio married another woman by the name of Anacleta.
Bekikang and Anacleta never saw eye to eye, which led to Bekikang's miserable life in his once happy home. The only upside is he met Fortunato. They instantly hit it off and became friends. Fortunato, on the other hand, met Natalia, a waitress at a local cafeteria.
Bekikang soon found out that Natalie and Fortunato fell in love, and are already expecting a baby. Soon thereafter, Natalie gave birth to Potpot. She left for Japan, leaving her son to Fortunato. Needing to go abroad and work for his family, Fortunato left Potpot to Bekikang with a promise of a monthly support.
All these promises were left unfulfilled, so Bekikang had to work for Potpot's future. Seven years have passed when Bekikang saw Fortunato and Natalie together. They have reconciled and living a life of luxury. What worse is they want to get Potpot from Bekikang's custody.
Potpot, however, run away to find Bekikang, who he considers his family.
Tom Rodriguez, Carla Humphries, Nikki Valdez, JM Ibanez and Tirso Cruz III joins Joey as cast members.
"Bekikang: Ang Nanay Kong Beki" will hit theaters nationwide on October 23, 2013.


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No. 21 N.C. State upsets No. 1 Duke, makes ACC statement
Surprisingly, juggernauts Duke and North Carolina were not picked to win the Atlantic Coast Conference at the beginning of the season. North Carolina State, playing with expectations reminiscent of the Jim Valvano era, was picked to win the ACC behind second-year coach Mark Gottfried.
BOX SCORE:No. 21 N.C. State 84, No. 1 Duke 76
VIDEO:Fan in wheelchair rushes the court with N.C. State students
Not as surprisingly, Duke got off to a hot start and became the No. 1 team in the country, starting ACC play once again as a favorite to win the league and leaving the upstart Wolfpack forgotten as contenders.
Gottfried's veteran N.C. State group reminded the country Saturday why the Wolfpack are a force to be reckoned with in the ACC and the country, upsetting top-ranked Duke 84-76 for its first loss of the season.
"I think we had lot of toughness, we rebounded the ball better in second half and defended them well," Gottfried said on ESPN after the game. "We went in last year, played well and didn't win. Our guys remembered that and accepted the challenge (Saturday)."
"I'm proud of them," Gottfried said of his players. "I hope they all enjoy it."
After the final buzzer and the win was finalized, N.C. State fans erupted into pandemonium and immediately rushed the court.
"I saw the whole court and I couldn't see a bit of court," said senior star C.J. Leslie, who paced the Wolfpack (14-2) with 25 points and six rebounds. "I couldn't see one part of the floor. It was just people everywhere. So that's going to be a remembrance that we'll never forget. We'll always keep this in our minds."
Senior forward Richard Howell plucked a whopping 18 rebounds to go with 16 points. Junior guard Lorenzo Brown contributed 12 points and dished out 13 assists. N.C. State started 3-0 in the ACC for the first time since 1989.
"They've got better chemistry right now," ESPN analyst Bruce Pearl said of N.C. State. "Too many weapons on this team."
Seth Curry led Duke with 22 points, while Mason Plumlee had 15 points and 11 rebounds.
"They played well," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I thought we played our butts off. … Our kids played with a lot of heart, their kids played with a lot of heart, and they were a little better than we were."
The Blue Devils played the final three-plus minutes without Curry, who crumpled to the court after slipping on a wet spot on the court. They were already without starting forward Ryan Kelly, who it out indefinitely with a foot injury and was on crutches on the Duke bench for this one.
With Duke's loss and No. 3 Arizona and No. 25 Wyoming's losses earlier in the week, No. 2 Michigan is the last undefeated team in the country.
Contributing: The Associated Press


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Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
The Power of the Situation is the nineteenth program in the DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY series. This program explores psychologists' attempts to understand human behavior within its broader social context. It also examines how beliefs and behavior can be influenced and manipulated by other people and subtle situational forces.
Experiment: Simulating Prison Life
In the early 1970s, Craig Haney, Curt Banks, Carlo Prescott, and Philip Zimbardo conducted a landmark situational study at Stanford University. The experiment tested the fundamental attribution error: our tendency to attribute causes of behavior to personal factors, underestimating the influence of situational conditions.
For this study, a small group of college students volunteered to be subjects and were carefully tested for sound psychological and physical health. Half of the students were randomly selected to act as prisoners, the other half to act as guards. The study took place in a simulated jail facility in the Stanford University Psychology Department.
Once the study subjects entered the simulated jail, uniforms, rules, and other details distinguished the two groups from each other, and blurred the line between the reality of the study and life in prison. The students spent much of the day cramped in tiny cells, undergoing physical trials, and enduring the overall claustrophobic atmosphere of a small jail 24 hours a day. The guards, however, were allowed to return to their homes and normal surroundings after their shifts.
What happened during the study, originally planned to last two weeks, was more dramatic than anyone had anticipated, even the researchers themselves.
As the days passed, the boundary between roles and real life disappeared. Civilized students became aggressive guards, while formerly active students became listless, disengaged prisoners who passively underwent their trials and became depressed or disoriented. Some of the prisoners were so overpowered by the situation that they developed extreme stress reactions and had to be released from the study.
Eventually, after only six days, the study was forced to end. The behavior induced by the situation and physical environment shocked everyone, both students and researchers. But through this extreme example of situational manipulation, new understandings of social psychology, as well as the dynamics of life in a prison environment, were gained. When the study was over, the students returned to their normal lives, and extensive follow-ups have shown no negative long-term effects on the students.
An extensive Web site for the Stanford Prison Experiment, including day-by-day summaries, as well as images and video clips, is available.
Discovering Psychology: Home | Series Info | Series Glossary | Pioneers | Site Map | Credits
Program Pages: Text Links to Programs 1-26
Explorations: History | Research | Brain | Development | Approaches
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Disruption, Heart, Soybean sprout, Meloidogyne hapla, Human and Animal, 10^11 to 10^12 bacteria
BigPrep™ Lysing Matrix D
50 mL tubes containing 1.4 mm ceramic beads designed to grind human, animal and plant tissues.
BigPrep™ Lysing Matrix A
Tubes containing garnet mixture and 1/4" ceramic spheres designed to grind human, animal and plant tissues, bacteria, yeast and fungi.
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Pictured: Aisha Price
Photo courtesy: Gil Talbot Photography
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The Harvard women's water polo team suffered an 18-10 loss to No. 7 Michigan, the top-seeded squad, in the first match of the Eastern Championship. The Crimson, the No. 8 seed in the field, will now play the loser of the Bucknell/Princeton matchup, Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Harvard put the pressure on the Wolverines early as Shannon Purcell scored on a man-up opportunity after 55 seconds on action. Michigan responded with two goals less than two minutes apart. Aisha Price knotted the score at 2-2 with a rising shot from the left wing. Ita Barton-Kettleborough gave the Crimson the lead with 2:23 remaining in the opening stanza with a skip shot. The Wolverines tallied an equalizer before the first intermission. In the second period, Michigan potted nine goals and limited Harvard to just three scores as the Wolverines owned a 12-6 lead at halftime. Michigan kept the pressure on by adding three goals in the third quarter. The Crimson managed to find the back of the net once in the period. In the fourth stanza, Harvard and Michigan each notched three scores.
Barton-Kettleborough paced the Crimson with a hat trick while Price and Shannon Purcell each buried two markers. Devan Kennifer, Elise Molnar and Monica Zdrojewski all tallied a goal in the contest. Between the pipes Laurel McCarthy registered six saves.


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For all of you bargain loving fashionistas out there, I have incredible news. Hall's (a Kansas City favorite) synonymous with high fashion and cutting edge style is having a blowout Designer warehouse sale that will be open to the public for 5 days only.
The past few years, Hall's has sent their clearance merchandise out of town to make space for new arrivals. But this year, president Kelly Cole decided to offer these incredible deals to local shoppers."Instead of sending the bargains out of town as in seasons past, we thought why not make them available locally?" says Halls President and CEO Kelly Cole, adding that "leasing a site at 133rd & Metcalf not only frees up needed space at our Plaza and Crown Center locations for Spring inventory, but gives Halls a way to reach out to our Johnson County neighbors."
Go armed and ready my friends...with savings like this, it might get crazy. No fighting over the Tory Burch ladies!!!


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NaCTeM Geniatagger API - Source Code
The service provides text mining functions to academic researchers in the U.K. It polls large collections of published text documents to retrieve instances of specified concepts and terms and discussions relevant to those ideas. It aggregates results from a range of more specialized services mining sources, especially in medical fields such as MEDLINE. API methods support submission of a text string providing a set of terms or text passage for analysis. Methods generate semantic cues relevant to the input string and retrieve matching documents from academic publications.


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Do you have an Asian Food store near by? You can get tons of rice noodles there...I second Tigers suggestions of ice noodles and corn tortillas. Also, if it's gluten you are allergic too, and not just whaet, you'll have to cut the oatmeal, too. Heid i
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Thank you for your interest in the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce.
Statistics report that chamber members have the highest rated customer service in the industry. Doing business with members in our chamber will be one of the best decisions you can make in your next purchase.
Membership is a great investment in the future of Castle Rock, Douglas County and your business. See how you can get connected to our business community, Join Today!
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Family, stars help honor Posey for NL MVP Award
SAN FRANCISCO -- For having a reputation as being the kind of guy who wouldn't even want a cake on his birthday, Buster Posey is going to have to get used to this.
Alongside his parents, grandparents, wife, two children, four former Giants National League MVPs and in front of a warm AT&T Park crowd, Posey got his NL MVP and Silver Slugger Awards during a pregame ceremony Saturday near the pitcher's mound.
"I am extremely honored to have my name etched alongside these winners," Posey said.
There were also video highlights and a speech by Jeff Kent, the 2000 NL MVP for the Giants. During Posey's speech, he thanked his wife, his parents, his family, his coaches and his current teammates, who watched the ceremony from the dugout. Lastly, he thanked the fans, most of whom had Posey bobbleheads from the game's giveaway.
He earned the MVP award for his remarkable comeback 2012 season in which he returned from a devastating leg injury to win the NL batting title (.336 average), hit 24 home runs and 103 RBIs, and record a .408 on-base percentage and .549 slugging percentage.
In manager Bruce Bochy's view, there will be a career full of Buster's special days. After all, Posey is only 26.
"This guy is going to be talked about for a long time," Bochy said. "At his age to accomplish what he has already is truly amazing."
In 2012, not only did Posey help lead the Giants to their second World Series in three years, he also took home the Silver Slugger and the Hank Aaron Award as the league's best offensive player.
"I've been fortunate to be doing this for a while, managed some great players," Bochy said before the second game of the three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals. "But he's as good as I've had and I just think we're all going to enjoy watching this ceremony."
On May 25, 2011, against the Marlins, Posey suffered a broken left fibula and three torn ankle ligaments during a home-plate collision with Scott Cousins. What Posey did on the field --- the statistics, mainly --- is just as valuable as what he did off the field, according to pitcher Matt Cain.
"I think it's more of what he does off the field, more as a teammate," Cain said. "He's a guy you can talk to any time -- I think anybody can. He'll be straightforward usually. He's just a good teammate, and he finds ways to win and finds ways to help guys get better."


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Marketed as the "world's first chuckable drill powered pencil sharpener," C.H. Hanson's $7 Pro-Sharp Finishing Pencil Carpenter sounds much more scientific than it actually is. Just attach it to where you'd normally screw in the drill bits; whack a pencil in, and zooooooooom, off you go to sharper-pencils nirvana. And breathe! [Amazon via Notcot]
Does This Mean Power Drills Are Allowed in Classrooms Now?


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GPE 2020 is the GPE's strategic plan covering the years 2016-2020, which aligns the partnership's vision and mission to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. In doing so, it recognizes the essential role that education plays in achieving all other Global Goals.
The plan includes 3 goals and 5 objectives that the partnership will pursue over the 5-year period. They outline what must be done to support stronger education systems and ensure that inclusive and quality education for all.
These goals and objectives are hard-wired to the results framework, which is the main tool to track progress and hold all members of the partnership to account.


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Exploiting Earth Observation data
ESRIN is continuously adding to its archive of Earth Observation data, the largest collection of its kind in Europe. This information is a unique source of environmental information that serves as the basis for a steadily widening range of applications.
The scientific community remain the leading users of Earth Observation products, and it is scientific research employing that data that originates most operational applications of satellite data.
It is ESRIN's responsibility to make its data available to scientists, to liaise with the scientific community and to harness their input into future satellite missions, sensors and products.
Researchers can apply to receive Earth Observation data at cost price through the ESRIN-hosted Earth Observation Principal Investigator Portal. They are expected to report on project progress at least twice a year through this Portal, and also to publish intermediate results in this way.
Regular Announcements of Opportunity are also accessed through the Portal. These give researchers the opportunity to make use of Earth Observation data completely free of charge within particular designated fields.
ESA researchers based at ESRIN work with external scientific partners to calibrate and validate the outputs of ESA's many orbiting Earth Observation sensors, and refine the processing algorithms that turn raw data into useful geophysical values. This activity is essential to ensure the reliability of satellite data. ESRIN also regularly hosts major scientific conferences and workshops concerning topics related to Earth Observation.
Turning science into services
Another part of ESRIN's role is to increase the wider take-up of satellite data by supporting development of innovative Earth Observation-derived information products and services. ESRIN does this through a series of programmes that foster partnerships between research institutions, service companies and user organisations.
The Data User Element (DUE) is aimed at institutional users who are tasked with acquiring specific geographic or environmental information but who currently do not make use of Earth Observation data.
A DUE project involves the creation of sample Earth Observation products or services tailored to the user's operational requirements. Having raised a participating institution's awareness of the applicability of Earth Observation to their day-to-day activities, the intention is then to transform project results into a self-sustaining service.
The Earth Observation Market Development (EOMD) programme complements DUE by working from the service provider side, seeking to build overall industrial capacity in the Earth Observation field.
EOMD does this by fostering links between complementary companies to generate end-to-end service chains to turn scientific satellite results into commercial products that can be offered for sale by self-supporting businesses. The GMES Services Element (GSE) is establishing a suite of operational Earth Observation-based services aimed at supporting the work of scientists, policy makers and implementers within government agencies, non-governmental organisations and key international scientific bodies. GSE is the first step in ESA and the European Commission's far-reaching Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) endeavour, intended to bring together all available information sources to develop an independent capability to gather accurate and timely global information in support of European environmental and security goals.
International cooperation
International cooperation is a significant way of leveraging the returns from ESA Earth Observation activities. ESRIN liaises with international bodies including the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS) that coordinate space agencies' mission planning, data products and policies in the field of planetary monitoring.
In addition, ESRIN is the centre overseeing ESA's participation in the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, which puts Earth Observation resources of its member space agencies at the disposal of civil protection authorities in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.
The centre also provides support to various international ESA initiatives including the Tiger Initiative, supplying satellite data to African users in support of fostering sustainable development in the field of water management, and the Dragon Programme, an initiative between China and ESA to encourage joint European and Chinese research across a number of thematic areas, concentrating on Chinese territory.


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The current gold-standard method of diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is polysomnography, which can be inefficient. We therefore sought to determine a method to triage patients at risk of OSA, without using subjective data, which are prone to mis-reporting. We hypothesized that acoustic pharyngometry in combination with age, gender, and neck circumference would predict the presence of moderate-to-severe OSA.
Untreated subjects with suspected OSA were recruited from a local sleep clinic and underwent polysomnography. We also included a control group to verify differences. While seated in an upright position and breathing through the mouth, an acoustic pharyngometer was used to measure the minimal cross-sectional area (MCA) of the upper airway at end-exhalation.
Sixty subjects were recruited (35 males, mean age 42 years, range 21-81 years; apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) 33 ± 30 events/h (mean ± standard deviation), Epworth Sleepiness Scale score 11 ± 6, body mass index 34 ± 8 kg/m2). In univariate logistic regression, MCA was a significant predictor of mild-no OSA (AHI < 15). A multivariate logistic regression model including MCA, age, gender, and neck circumference significantly predicted AHI < 15, explaining approximately one-third of the total variance (χ2(4) = 37, p < 0.01), with only MCA being a significant independent predictor (adjusted odds ratio 54, standard error 130; p < 0.01).
These data suggest that independent of age, gender, and neck size, objective anatomical assessment can significantly differentiate those with mild versus moderate-to-severe OSA in a clinical setting, and may have utility as a component in stratifying risk of OSA.
DeYoung PN; Bakker JP; Sands SA; Batool-Anwar S; Connolly JG; Butler JP; Malhotra A. Acoustic pharyngometry measurement of minimal cross-sectional airway area is a significant independent predictor of moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea. J Clin Sleep Med 2013;9(11):1161-1164.
Symptomatic moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is known to affect 6-13% of the population.1 The current gold-standard method of diagnosing OSA is in-laboratory polysomnography, which can be cumbersome and expensive. Anthropometric characteristics and subjective sleepiness questionnaires have limitations in accurately predicting OSA.2,3
The current study examined the potential for acoustic pharyngometry as a method to triage efficiently patients at risk of OSA. Acoustic pharyngometry is a noninvasive method that uses sound reflection to assess quickly (< 5 min) the cross-sectional area of the upper airway as a function of distance from the oral opening.4,5 Based on the observation that anatomical compromise predisposes to OSA, prior studies have suggested that acoustic pharyngometry may be useful to predict the presence of snoring with or without OSA in both adults6–10 and children.11 Acoustic pharyngometry has also been used to assess heritability traits, such as narrow airways, in African American populations.12 Based on our experience with anatomical measurements and our work in occupational clinics where self-reports (ESS, morning headaches, SF-36) can be unreliable,13 we sought objective measurements which have good predictive value for OSA.
Current Knowledge/Study Rationale: Due to health care reform, this study was conducted to obtain an inexpensive objective measure to predict moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.
Study Impact: This study shows acoustic pharyngometry is an effective measure to efficiently triage patients at risk of OSA.
In a prospective clinical study, we aimed to assess whether acoustic pharyngometry used in a daytime sleep clinic setting provides additional power to predict OSA severity beyond routine demographic and body habitus characteristics. We tested the hypothesis that acoustic pharyngometric measurement of minimal upper airway cross sectional area (MCA), in combination with objective clinical characteristics (age, gender, and neck circumference), would predict the absence of moderate-to-severe OSA, defined as an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≥ 15.
Adults (≥ 18 years) with suspected OSA were recruited from a local sleep clinic (N = 51) as well as a control group from the community (N = 9). Exclusion criteria were use of stimulants (for example amphetamines, modafinil), known head injury, dementia or retardation, alcohol or drug abuse, and pregnancy. All subjects gave informed written consent. The study was approved by Partners' Institutional Review Board.
The subjects recruited from the sleep clinic underwent a standard overnight laboratory polysomnography (PSG) (electroencephalogram, electrooculogram, chin and anterior tibial electromyogram, electrocardiogram, airflow using nasal pressure and oronasal thermistor, respiratory excursions using inductance plethysmography, and pulse oximetry). Those recruited from the community underwent a home sleep test level II (electroencephalogram, airflow using nasal pressure, respiratory excursions using inductance plethysmography, and pulse oximetry). All study data were manually scored by a blinded certified scorer using American Academy of Sleep Medicine alternative criteria (hypopneas defined as 50% decrease in airflow associated with 3% desaturation and/or arousal).14 We defined the presence of moderate/severe OSA as AHI ≥ 15 events/h. Clinical characteristics including body mass index (BMI) and neck circumference were measured by an experienced medical assistant naive to research study objectives during the daytime clinic visit.
Pharyngometry data were collected as previously described15 between the hours of 08:30 and 14:30. Briefly, while seated in an upright position on a straight-back chair, subjects breathed orally through a pharyngometer (Eccovision Acoustic Pharyngometry Sleep Group Solutions, Miami FL) with the aid of a nose clip. A disposable mouthpiece was used to stabilize the tongue and provide a reproducible bite position. At normal resting lung volume (functional residual capacity), subjects were instructed to pause breathing at end-exhalation while maintaining a relaxed airway, during which acoustic measurement of upper airway cross-sectional area was made (≥ 10 pressure pulses). Measurements were repeated 3 times (see Figure 1). During a fourth measurement, subjects were asked to close their airway; subjects were coached until this occurred at the level of the glottis as observed on the pharyngo-gram.5 Data were plotted as cross-sectional area versus distance from the incisors. This pharyngogram was inspected and the minimal cross-sectional area (MCA) was measured between the oropharyngeal junction (OPJ) up to but excluding the glottis (7-18 cm from the incisors).
In this example, the minimal cross-sectional airway area is 0.95 cm2.
Example tracing of the recording from pharyngometry showing cross-sectional area as a function of distance from the incisors. In this example, the minimal cross-sectional airway area is 0.95 cm2.
(more ...)
The first 3 individual MCA measurements were pooled to obtain the mean. The purpose of the fourth measurement was to determine the location of the glottis. These 4 measurements took less than 15 min per subject.
Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (Version 20, IBM, NY USA). Between-group differences in continuous data were assessed using t-tests or Mann-Whitney tests as appropriate for parametric and nonparametric data, respectively. Between-group differences in categorical data were assessed using χ2 tests. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression forced-entry models were used to assess the ability of hypothesized variables to predict AHI < 15. Based on our sample size, 3 predictor variables in addition to MCA were prespecified for inclusion.16 Predictors were chosen to encompass potential independent covariates or confounders of the relationship between MCA and AHI. Potential multicollinearity was investigated by assessing variance inflation factors and simple correlations. Statistical tests were considered significant when p < 0.05. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was created, and positive/negative predictive values were calculated.
Among the 60 subjects studied, 30 patients had moderate/ severe OSA defined as AHI ≥ 15 (Table 1). The OSA (AHI ≥ 15) and mild/no-OSA (AHI < 15) groups were significantly different in terms of measures of apnea severity, BMI, age, and neck circumference. The median MCA of the OSA group was 1.66 (IQR 0.42) compared with 2.22 (IQR 0.44) in the control group (p ≤ 0.01).
Characteristics of patients with moderate-severe OSA and mild/no OSA
Results of the univariate and multivariate logistic regression models are shown in Table 2. Age, neck circumference, and MCA were all significant univariate predictors of AHI < 15, with age and MCA remaining as significant independent predictors of AHI < 15 after controlling for gender and neck circumference. Overall, the model had a pseudo-R2 of 0.46 (χ2(4) = 36.79, overall p < 0.01). The area under the ROC curve for MCA predicting AHI < 15 was 0.85. The optimum MCA cutoff point for detecting an AHI < 15 was 1.86 cm2 (95% CI 0.69 to 0.96); at this point, the positive predictive value was 0.87 and the negative predictive value was 0.87 (true positive: AHI < 15 and MCA < 1.86 cm2).
Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models with outcome AHI < 15 events/h
Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models with outcome AHI
The current study demonstrates that MCA, determined by acoustic pharyngometry, can significantly differentiate between those with mild/no-OSA versus moderate-to-severe OSA. When analyzed alongside other variables such as gender, age, and neck circumference, acoustic pharyngometry was the only independent predictor of detecting the absence of moderate-to-severe OSA. This easily obtained measurement thus has potential utility as a component in a diagnostic algorithm for OSA. With healthcare reform, sleep testing may become less readily available, making decisions to prioritize testing in certain patients important.
Acoustic pharyngometry may also be a useful objective tool in occupational health clinics. The population in certain environments may minimize subjective symptoms in sleep questionnaires, leading to the need for simple and cost-effective tools for objective assessments. In conjunction with basic anthropometric characteristics, pharyngometry can help objectively determine those at high risk for OSA.
Other anatomical assessments have been used in the literature,17 although each has limitations. Neck circumference is easy to measure but underestimates OSA in lean individuals,18 and did not perform as well as pharyngometry in the present study. Computed axial tomography involves ionizing radiation exposure19 and is not readily available in many sleep clinics or other offsite centers; moreover, it is time consuming and costly. Similarly, cephalometrics require radiation and only have modest predictive value for OSA.8,20 Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) avoids ionizing radiation and provides excellent definition of parapharyngeal soft tissues,21 but is also expensive, and thus unlikely to replace PSG as a method of choice for initial risk assessments of OSA. However, MRI does have theoretical advantages over pharyngometry when tissue definition and specific identification of certain tissue structures are needed, for example in preoperative assessment to determine preferred surgical procedure.
Some of the prior literature with acoustic pharyngometry has focused primarily on the OPJ, rather than the MCA per se. We chose to focus on the MCA for a number of reasons. We could reliably identify the MCA in all patients, whereas in some patients the OPJ was either difficult to identify or unclear based on review by multiple experts. We also aimed to identify a strategy which was easily implementable by clinicians in practice and thus did not rely on measurements that required expertise or experience to obtain. In addition, there are significant variabilities in anatomical factors compromising the pharyngeal airway in OSA and thus we did not want to limit our observations to the OPJ.22
Despite the study's strengths, we acknowledge a number of limitations. First, we had a limited sample size, in large part due to the move towards home sleep testing, currently very strong in Massachusetts, and few patients without complications are undergoing clinical in-laboratory polysomnography. This trend toward home testing was a major motivation underlying the present study. Second, pharyngometry does not provide insights as to the mechanisms underlying airway obstruction. For reproducibility reasons, acoustic pharyngometry is best used while awake and seated.23 We would also note that although supine sleep is clearly relevant to OSA pathogenesis, our assessments of patients during upright wakefulness still provided good predictive value in distinguishing OSA patients from controls. Thus, our data do not speak to the mechanism of decreased MCA, but do describe the phenomenon adequately. We encourage further efforts into anatomical assessment of the upper airway to determine the role of tongue anatomy, fat deposition, and mandibular structure. Third, multiple mechanisms underlie OSA, including but not limited to upper airway dilator muscle activity, endexpiratory lung volume, and ventilatory control instability. Thus, we would not expect anatomical assessments to account for all of the variance underlying OSA.24 This concept suggests the need for further efforts into apnea phenotyping,25 such that the mechanisms underlying apnea can be determined by clinicians caring for afflicted patients. Despite these limitations, we believe our findings are robust and worthy of further testing.
In conclusion, we have demonstrated that acoustic pharyngometry provides an objective and simple test with strong independent predictive value for the presence or absence of moderate-to-severe OSA. Further efforts will be required to validate these findings in an occupational setting, where self-report is often unreliable, and may contribute to the identification of mechanisms underlying apnea and promoting individualized therapy for OSA in the future.
Pharyngometry equipment and support of its use was provided by Sleep Group Solutions; no other financial support was obtained for this project. Dr. Sands is supported by an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Malhotra was a consultant for Philips Respironics, SHC, SGS, Apnicure, Apnex, and Pfizer, but has relinquished all outside personal income from May 2012. The other authors have indicated no financial conflicts of interest.
apnea-hypopnea index
body mass index
minimal cross-sectional area
magnetic resonance imaging
oro-pharyngeal junction
obstructive sleep apnea
receiver operating characteristic
standard error
The authors thank the staff at Brigham and Women's Hospital Sleep Disorders Research Program for being amazing.
Peppard PE, Young T, Barnet JH, et al., authors. Increased prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing in adults. Am J Epidemiol. 2013 Apr 14. [Epub ahead of print].
Rowley JA, Aboussouan LS, Badr MS, authors. The use of clinical prediction formulas in the evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep. 2000;23:929–38. [PubMed]
Maislin G, Pack AI, Kribbs NB, et al., authors. A survey screen for prediction of apnea. Sleep. 1995;18:158–66. [PubMed]
Fredberg JJ, Wohl ME, Glass GM, et al., authors. Airway area by acoustic reflections measured at the mouth. J Appl Physiol. 1980;48:749–58. [PubMed]
Kamal I, author. Normal standard curve for acoustic pharyngometry. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2001;124:323–30. [PubMed]
Hoffstein V, Zamel N, Phillipson EA, authors. Lung volume dependence of pharyngeal cross-sectional area in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1984;130:175–8. [PubMed]
Bradley TD, Brown IG, Grossman RF, et al., authors. Pharyngeal size in snorers, nonsnorers, and patients with obstructive sleep apnea. N Engl J Med. 1986;315:1327–31. [PubMed]
Mostafiz W, Dalci O, Sutherland K, et al., authors. Influence of oral and craniofacial dimensions on mandibular advancement splint treatment outcome in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Chest. 2011;139:1331–9. [PubMed]
Jung DG, Cho HY, Grunstein RR, et al., authors. Predictive value of Kushida index and acoustic pharyngometry for the evaluation of upper airway in subjects with or without obstructive sleep apnea. J Korean Med Sci. 2004;19:662–7. [PubMed Central][PubMed]
Kamal I, author. Acoustic pharyngometry patterns of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea patients. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2004;130:58–66. [PubMed]
Monahan KJ, Larkin EK, Rosen CL, et al., authors. Utility of noninvasive pharyngometry in epidemiologic studies of childhood sleep-disordered breathing. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2002;165:1499–503. [PubMed]
Patel SR, Frame JM, Larkin EK, et al., authors. Heritability of upper airway dimensions derived using acoustic pharyngometry. Eur Respir J. 2008;32:1304–8. [PubMed Central][PubMed]
Zhang C, Varvarigou V, Parks PD, et al., authors. Psychomotor vigilance testing of professional drivers in the occupational health clinic: a potential objective screen for daytime sleepiness. J Occup Environ Med. 2012;54:296–302. [PubMed Central][PubMed]
Iber C, Ancoli-Israel S, Chesson A, Quan SF, authors. The AASM manual for the scoring of sleep and associated events: rules, terminology and technical specifications. 2007. Westchester, IL: American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Kamal I, author. Test-retest validity of acoustic pharyngometry measurements. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2004;130:223–8. [PubMed]
Miles J, Shevlin M, authors. Applying regression and correlation: a guide for students and researchers. 2001. London: Sage.
Chi L, Comyn FL, Mitra N, et al., authors. Identification of craniofacial risk factors for obstructive sleep apnoea using three-dimensional MRI. Eur Respir J. 2011;38:348–58. [PubMed]
Davies RJ, Stradling JR, authors. The relationship between neck circumference, radiographic pharyngeal anatomy, and the obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome. Eur Respir J. 1990;3:509–14. [PubMed]
Haponik EF, Smith PL, Bohlman ME, et al., authors. Computerized tomography in obstructive sleep apnea. Correlation of airway size with physiology during sleep and wakefulness. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1983;127:221–6. [PubMed]
Redline S, Tishler PV, Hans MG, et al., authors. Racial differences in sleep-disordered breathing in African-Americans and Caucasians. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 1997;155:186–92. [PubMed]
Schellenberg JB, Maislin G, Schwab RJ, authors. Physical findings and the risk for obstructive sleep apnea. The importance of oropharyngeal structures. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2000;162:740–8. [PubMed]
Kezirian EJ, White DP, Malhotra A, et al., authors. Interrater reliability of drug-induced sleep endoscopy. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2010;136:393–7. [PubMed]
Martin SE, Marshall I, Douglas NJ, authors. The effect of posture on airway caliber with the sleep-apnea/hypopnea syndrome. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 1995;152:721–4. [PubMed]
Eckert DJ, White DP, Jordan AS, et al., authors. Defining phenotypic causes of obstructive sleep apnea: identification of novel therapeutic targets. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2013 May 30. [Epub ahead of print].
Wellman A, Eckert DJ, Jordan AS, et al., authors. A method for measuring and modeling the physiological traits causing obstructive sleep apnea. J Appl Physiol. 2011;110:1627–37. [PubMed Central][PubMed]


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Equatorial Guinea's President, Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, signed a presidential decree last week, granting full pardon to 22 persons, who were convicted last year for State security and conspiracy crimes; the prisoners were released today. President Obiang has taken several steps to improve the political system, such as calling for legal reform and a revision of the constitution. This is an effort by the government to systematically and progressively pursue greater democracy and pluralism as the nation develops.
President Obiang said the decision was taken freely for humanitarian reasons under the Pardon Law that the Fundamental Law confers on him, which states that "the ideals of peaceful coexistence, civility and reconciliation that encouraged the actions and legitimized the change in policy operating in the country since August 3, 1979, are still valid on the activities of the public powers that constitute the foundation of peace, order and harmony prevailing in the country." He went on to say the benefactors of this pardon know the people of Equatorial Guinea expect them to go through social rehabilitation to ensure a peaceful coexistence and political stability, both essential predications for the development of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.
In March, President Obiang recommended the creation of a Senate, which would convert the nation's Parliament from a unicameral to a bicameral legislature, and proposed limiting the president to two four-year terms of office.
To read the complete Pardon Decree, please visit http://guineaecuatorialpress.com/noticia.php?id=1638


text:
We moved to the brown house a few months after I turned one.
For my second Birthday, my mom set a big tall candle in the middle of the dining room table and let me blow it out as soon as it had burned from the "1" to the "2." For the next five Birthdays, I would sit at the same table with the same candle.
That house holds some of my strongest and happiest memories from childhood. A good portion of the stories I have written about are from this time, including the year I wouldn't come out of my room on Christmas morning because I was convinced Santa had brought me coal.
In my mind's eye, I can see every corner of it.
The swing that was bolted underneath the second-story deck, where I would pump until my feet touched the underside.
Our dog Sparky, who I may or may not have blamed for pushing my sister down the stairs one time.
The day my dad brought home a wrapped box, and when I opened it I read "T-Ball" but didn't know what it meant. He told me we would play with it together after supper, which was all the information I needed to love it.
My grandmother taught me how to swim a few miles from the brown house.
I can still feel the pull my mom's hands, tugging my wet boots off after hours in the snow.
It was exactly what childhood should be, and albums of photographs have preserved the days of the brown house.
Where I welcomed a baby sister into the world.
And played on a soccer team called the "Brown Bombers" that never won a game.
I listened to records and did gymnastics waiting for my dad to come home from a business trip. After awhile I stopped dancing and stared into the dark night, willing his car to pull in the long driveway so I could stand on his feet and dance with him.
I had my first crush there, and subsequently my first heartbreak.
Once I stuck my head through the slats on our porch, only to realize that my ears prevented me from pulling it back through. It wasn't nearly as alarming as it was comical, and truth be told I don't remember how we ever did get me out of there.
There was always snow in winter, bright sky in summer.
It was idyllic, really.
I would hasten to say I have exhausted Todd with my stories over the years
Unfortunately, it's also the house that reminds me of the way I was afraid to sleep. I can remember sitting up in bed, staring straight ahead and waiting to see my parents walk to their room.
One night I thought there were snakes in my bed so I screamed until my mom came. They were actually not snakes, but rather the tails of the mickey mouse images on my bedsheets. We decided Holly Hobbie was a better option after that.
I can smell the humidifier, puffing and piping steam while my sister cried a few doors down.
I got my first scar at the brown house. My mother was sitting behind me, blowdrying my hair, and I swung my legs and lost my balance. I landed on my chin and split it open. I still remember the man at the hospital telling me it wasn't exactly stitches, but something about a butterfly instead, which sounded better than bleeding.
One of the hardest days of my childhood was the first day of school.
I vividly remember being concerned that my hair wasn't quite long enough to be braided the way I wanted. I watched my mother make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and as her hands moved from one side to the other and I stared at the back of her head, wishing she would let me stay with her instead.
I didn't smile for a single picture, because I was petrified. I gripped the handle of my lunchbox and pleaded with my eyes.
In light of everything that has happened in the past several days, this particular photograph has taken on new meaning.
Beautiful, precious, and full of a lifetime of days I hadn't seen yet.
I was six- a Kindergartner.
At Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.
I look at myself, standing in a kitchen where another child likely stood last week, and the weight of it all overwhelms me.
We sat as a family today and we each prayed for everyone involved. We begged God to be present with the families affected, and to work in supernatural ways to bring healing.
It's familiar to me, this town.
It's as much a part of me as any other place I've been.
But this grief, this upside-down, twisted inside-out devastation that is wreaking havoc on streets I used to run…it's more than I can bear.
I cry as they show images of women, panicked and running with their children. I fold over myself as the first images are released and I am face to face children who are Kate's age.
I've tried to write this post over and over, and I just can't get through it. I am so terribly broken for all of those who have been affected, and I fear my pen can never reach the depth of these emotions. There are beautiful and right things to say about our hope as Christians, but some days it's a fight to feel the peace we profess.
I await the day when it will be made right, and in the meantime, I will fix my eyes on Jesus. I will pray for these families by name, and will never forget the tiny faces that flash on the nightly news…
Lord, we don't understand. We are trusting in Your goodness, leaning hard into you instead of what's all around us.
Please, Jesus…have mercy. We are broken and devastated over a loss like this…we need you, Father.
Come Quickly.


text:
How to Request a LinkedIn Recommendation
In an ideal world, you'd never request a recommendation. A happy colleague or boss would just automatically post a raving recommendation on LinkedIn. But the reality is that most likely only your raving fans and very heavy LinkedIn users are going to make unsolicited recommendations.
Be prepared, though: Some people feel that recommendations should only be given freely, and they may be taken aback by receiving a recommendation request. So it's imperative that you frame your request with a personal message, not just a generic message from LinkedIn.
Don't be afraid to consider off-line methods of requesting a recommendation, such as a phone call or a face-to-face meeting, to make the request more personal and more likely for the person to say yes.
When you identify the person (or people) you want to write you recommendations, you're ready to create a recommendation request. To get started on authoring your request, follow these steps:
1Click the Profile link from the top navigation bar to bring up your profile. Click the drop-down arrow next to the Edit button (in your Summary box).
Click the Ask to Be Recommended link.
2After the Ask for Recommendations page loads, click the drop-down arrow (right there at Step 1) to choose what you want to be recommended for from the list provided.
LinkedIn ties this recommendation to a particular position or school attended from your profile, so you need to select the position (or school you were attending) where the recommender observed you and is providing his recommendation.
3Under the Who do you want to ask? header, type the name of the person you want to request a recommendation from into the Your Connections text field.
You can add the names of up to 200 people in this text field, and all will get a recommendation request.
If you click the little blue In icon to the right of the text box, LinkedIn opens up a new window containing the list of your connections, which you can select by selecting the check box next to someone's name in the window.
As you start typing the name of the person, you should see that name pop up. Clicking the name adds it to the list of names visible in the Your Connections field. You can now type in another name if you would like to send this recommendation request to more than one person.
4Type your message in the field provided.
The same etiquette is recommended here as in other requests: Don't just accept the boilerplate text that LinkedIn fills in, but rather customize it to create a personal note. You can customize not only the body of your message, but the subject line as well.
Don't forget to thank the person for the time and the effort in leaving you a recommendation!
5Check your spelling and grammar.
You can write your message first using a program like Microsoft Word, run the Spelling & Grammar check, then cut and paste your message into the space provided, if you like.
6Click Send.
The recommendation request is sent to the intended recipient.
Giving people some context as to why you're making the request helps motivate them more effectively, especially if they're nervous or unaware about how to use LinkedIn. Let them know you're available for any technical or follow-up help.
Also, even though you should be asking only people who would be comfortable recommending you (you are, aren't you?), you still want to give them a gracious way to decline. After all, you're asking a favor. The person you're contacting is in no way obligated, so don't expect anything, and you won't be disappointed.
There's really no such thing as too many recommendations as long as the quality is good. Once you start accepting mediocre recommendations, though, on the assumption that something is better than nothing, people will start to think that a lot of them are fluff. LinkedIn doesn't give you control over the display order, either, so you have all the more reason to make sure the recommendations displayed are good quality.


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Free DocuSign account details
Customers who purchase an Office 365 Business Premium plan are eligible to redeem a free DocuSign account. This account includes:
- 10 free signature requests: You can send up to 10 documents out for others to sign. You can set the signing order, and place sign here tags and fields to guide signers.
- Unlimited signing: There is no cap to the number of documents you can personally sign and return. (Example: If someone sends you a document to sign you can upload it to DocuSign, fill it out, sign it, and return the completed document.)
- DocuSign Office 365 apps: The plan also includes free applications to connect Office 365 products directly to DocuSign.
- Word: Go straight from document creation to signature.
- Outlook: Sign and return attachments that are sent to your inbox.
- Mobile Apps: DocuSign's mobile apps are included with the service. You can use the mobile app to prepare and send documents for signature, complete in-person signing, and get visibility into your document status; all directly from your smartphone or tablet. DocuSign mobile apps are available in Apple's iOS App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone, and Windows stores.


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The guy recording this video of an impending storm says it best: Holy freak! Usually you KINDA see shapes in clouds, and you have to convince your friend that it totally looks like a bunny. Or an elephant. Or your grandma with her big glasses. But there's no convincing necessary with this one. Abraham Lincoln is clearly about to throw down some thunderbolts in Canada!
Honest Abe makes his appearance around 1:40.
[Accuweather via LiveScience]