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I'm working with Darcy O'Neil to test a new ad system, so things are going to shift around a just bit here.
I'm also considering going with Feedburner or adopting some sort of WordPress plugin to better manage my RSS feed. I want to drive eyes to the blog to read the full content, but at the same time, I want my snippets long enough to give readers a feel for what I'm writing about. A snippet that truncates after 25 words or so isn't helpful.
For now, I'm using the More feature,
like so, to choose where to truncate my posts, but I'm open to any other suggestions any of you might have.
Also, it looks like I'm going to have another iron in the blogging fire. I'll have more details on that as I work them out.

subset: commoncrawl


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Follow RFF News on your cell phone. Text follow rff to 40404 you will receive txt messages with RFF News
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Is it true that you can only watch Elimination Station in the US?I'm from Canada:(can somebody make it work for me!!!
Oh it was so messed up last night Mike. Even the insiderclips were annoying to load. I think it has something to do with the way they did or did not insert the Sprint ad/commercial? Stupid webmonkeys
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About | Advocacy4All | CrIEPy Stories | Donate | More | Parent Handbook | Resource Guide
Help make sure no child with special needs gets left behind™
What is Advocacy4All?
Advocacy4All is a new initiative of Drive4Rebecca to help families advocate more effectively on behalf of their children with special needs.
Through Advocacy4All, Drive4Rebecca is helping to provide advocacy services to parents. Our ultimate goal is to help provide free assistance to any family in need so that every child can be their best and so that no child with special needs is left behind.
It is up to us as parents to EARN the best possible education for our children because unfortunately, in this great country of ours, no one is just giving it away.
We all have to learn how to EARN it for ourselves and for our kids.
The first step when advocating for your child is to educate yourself on the law. When our daughter was very young someone recommended meeting with a special education attorney to learn our rights. We paid a few hundred dollars and it was some of the best money we have ever spent.
There are advocates that can provide free assistance and there is a great deal of information available at Drive4Rebecca.org including links to free advocacy resources nationwide.
Once you understand the law, or have someone to help you with your situation, be proactive and assert yourself on behalf of your child, or get a friend or family member to help you.
Make sure that you copy on all email or correspondence a friend, relative, or volunteer advocate, preferably an attorney, whether or not they specialize in special education.
That way the school district will know that other people are watching and that you are not alone. They will never be able to ask you to sign a confidentiality clause which is effectively discrimination - because that allows them to hide what they are doing for one family from another.
It is critical to your physical and mental health and well being, and to your family, for you to be strong, calm and sharp as possible. Exercise, go to the movies, take a nature walk, ask a family member to babysit to give you a break, see friends, eat ice cream - whatever it takes for you to relax and have fun whenever you can so you can be the most effective advocate for your child.
Take the initiative and take control of your situation, keep on top of the latest changes in the law or find someone who can help. Speak to other families and share information. Don't let the school district hold all the cards. They have lawyers on retainer, they do this every day, and they have the upper hand. It's time to level the playing field and if we all work together we can help make sure no child with special needs gets left behind.
Why Advocacy4All
While many of the people who make educational decisions about children with special needs may have the best intentions, they have a huge conflict of interest and are ultimately guided by policies that do not put the child's best interests first. They work for the school system and must minimize public expenditures –and that comes at the expense of a child's future.
When parents of children with special needs don't know their rights or are unable to assert themselves, their children can become victims of educational child abuse by the school system. Without a powerful voice to represent them, these kids will be denied the best possible education and will not reach their potential.
Consider the family where English is a second language, the single mom, or two working parents who work so hard they barely get to see their kids. These families are at a tremendous disadvantage because of a lack of understanding of the law, an inability to communicate or, in the case of the single mom, the sheer exhaustion of just trying to keep her head above water in order to survive each day.
To kick off Advocacy 4All, we raised over $5000 from 50 different donors in a 30 day period during The Global Giving Challenge and earned a permanent spot on the Global Giving web site.
While Drive4Rebecca continues to raise funds for autism, all funds raised in connection with Advocacy4All are for the benefit of all children with special needs.
100% of the proceeds from sales of The Special Needs Parent Handbook™ are helping to fund Advocacy4All.
Please join the discussion at SpecialNeedsParentZone.org and thank you for helping to support our effort to help make sure that no child with special needs gets left behind.
Praise for The Special Needs Parent Handbook:
"Singer's book offers parents thoughtful guidance with
a healthy dose of honesty and optimism"
Ed Matthews, MyChildWithoutLimits.org
"The Special Needs Parent Handbook is a simple, easy
to read book offering practical advice"
Lisa Borges, The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism
"Timely, well written, practical ... this slim gem should
be on the shelf of every library"
Julianne J. Smith, Library Journal
Great reviews from Library Journal and the American Library Association Booklist
100% of proceeds from all sales support Advocacy 4 All - thank you!
"Advocacy 4 All" and "So every child can be their best" :Stamp Out Educational Child Abuse", Educate, Advocate, Rejuvinate, Navigate" are trademarks of The Drive for Rebecca, Inc. (c) 2009 All rights reserved.
vaccinations, asperger, autistic, jenny mccarthy, mmr, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, rimland, floor time, greenspan, gluten free, autism speaks, age of autism, andrew wakefield
The Drive For Rebecca, Inc.
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info @ Drive 4 Rebecca . org
FREE Download: PDF of The Special Needs Parent Empowerment Guide - Chapter 1 - No More Secrets - also on Amazon for Kindle


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Now that I've shat on mutability in prior posts, let's talk about how it pervades my game code.
I'm a fan of the component model for game-objects. Basically, an object is a unique ID, and there is a database of properties associated to IDs. This isn't a disk-based database. Rather, it's an in-memory key-value store, often implemented by hashtable (though anything fitting the
STORE signature can be provided).
This database is where most mutation is, hence the title of this post. So far this has been a nice fusion — functional code for the most part, with game-state held in a database. Updating/setting values in the database is typically done by high-level code, based on calculations performed by all the workhorse functions.
Components (a.k.a. properties)
Here's a character (pruned for brevity):
let make_severin () = Db.get_id_by_name "Severin" |> Characteristics.s {int=3;per=0;str=0;sta=1;pre=0;com=0;dex=0;qik=0} |> Size.s 0 |> Age.s (62,35) |> Confidence.s (2,5) |> Nature.(s human) |> Fatigue.Levels.(s standard) |> Virtue.(s [ TheGift; HermeticMagus; PlaguedBySupernaturalEntity( Db.get_id_by_name "Peripeteia" ); ]) |> Ability.(s [ of_score ArtesLiberales 1 "geometry"; of_score Chirurgy 2 "self"; of_score (AreaLore("Fallen Covenant")) 3 "defences"; of_score MagicTheory 5 "shapeshifting"; of_score (Language(French)) 5 "grogs"; of_score ParmaMagica 5 "Terram"; of_score SingleWeapon 3 "Staff"; of_score Survival 3 "desert"; ]) |> Hermetic.House.(s Tytalus) |> Hermetic.Arts.(s (of_score { cr=8; it=0; mu=6; pe=6; re=20 ; an=0; aq=0; au=0; co=6; he=15 ; ig=0; im=0; me=0; te=8; vi=0 })) |> Hermetic.KnownSpells.s [ Spell.mastery 4 "Acorns for Amusement" Hermetic.([FastCasting;MultipleCasting;QuietCasting;StillCasting]); Spell.name "Carved Assassin"; Spell.name "Wall of Thorns"; Spell.name "Circular Ward Against Demons"; ] |> equip_and_inv ["Wizardly Robes";"Staff"] ["Small Pouch"]
Each of the modules here represents a component which objects may have. So Severin's Age is (62,35) — that is actual age and apparent age (Wizards age slowly).
The function make_severin will return an ID. The first line
Db.get_id_by_name "Severin" looks up an ID for that name, or generates a new ID if none exists. Each component module has a function "s", which is the same as "set" except it returns the given ID. It's a convenience function for setting multiple component values at once for the same ID — which is exactly what's happening here, with Severin's ID being threaded through all of these property-setting calls.
This is the signature common to all components:
module type Sig = sig type t val get : key -> t (* get, obeying table's inheritance setting *) val get_personal : key -> t (* ignore inheritance *) val get_inheritable : key -> t (* permit inheritance (overriding default) *) val get_all : key -> t list (* for a stacked component *) val set : key -> t -> unit (* set value on key; stacking is possible *) val s : t -> key -> key (* set, but an alternate calling signature *) val del : key -> unit (* delete this component from key *) val iter : (key -> t -> unit) -> unit val fold : (key -> t -> 'a -> 'a) -> 'a -> 'a end
I've used first-class modules so I can unpack a table implementation inside a module, making it a "component". For example, in the file hermetic.ml I have this:
module House = struct type s = Bjornaer | Bonisagus | Criamon | ExMiscellanea | Flambeau | Guernicus | Jerbiton | Mercere | Merinita | Tremere | Tytalus | Verditius include (val (Db.Hashtbl.create ()): Db.Sig with type t = s) end
Now the Hermetic.House module has functions to set/get it's values by ID. In the definition of the character, earlier, you can see
Hermetic.House.(s Tytalus).
This manner of database, organized by modules, has been very pleasant to use. It's easy to create a new component-module, adding it's own types and extra functions. It doesn't need to be centrally defined unless other modules are genuinely dependent on it. In practice, I define these components where they make sense. There's no need to "open" modules, thanks to the relatively recent local-open syntax of:
Module.(in_module_scope). Variants and record-fields are neatly accessed while keeping them in their appropriate module.
One of the rationales behind a component-model like this is that you can process or collect things by property. This is where the iter and fold are useful. It's easy to grab all entity IDs which have a Wound component (and is therefore able to be injured), for example.
The database, conceptually, is the collection of components. In practice though, I want the components to be non-centrally declared otherwise all datatypes would be centralized as well — so instead, the database is ID management and table-instantiation functors.
First, you create a database of a particular key type...
(* Gamewide 'Db' is based on IDs of type 'int' *) module Db = Database.Make (Database.IntKey)
The resulting signature has functions related to IDs, and table-instantiation, something like this (I've removed the generic table interfaces, for brevity):
module Db : sig type key = Database.IntKey.t val persistent_id : unit -> key val transient_id : unit -> key val find_id_by_name : 'a -> key val get_id_by_name : string -> key val get_name : key -> string val string_of_id : key -> string val delete : key -> unit (* <snip> module type Sig *) module Hashtbl : sig val create : ?size:int -> ?default:'a -> ?nhrt:bool -> unit -> (module Sig with type t = 'a) end module SingleInherit : sig val get_parent : key -> key val set_parent : key -> key -> unit val del_parent : key -> unit (* <snip> Hashtbl.create... *) end module MultiInherit : sig val get_parents : key -> key list val set_parents : key -> key list -> unit val add_parents : key -> key list -> unit val del_parent : key -> key -> unit (* <snip> Hashtbl.create... *) end end
Creating a component (aka table, or property) can be as simple as:
(* A basic property is just a table with an already-known type *) module Size = (val (Db.Hashtbl.create ~default:0 ()): Db.Sig with type t = int)
A common alternative is shown in the
House example earlier, where the first-class module is unpacked and included within an existing module.
There are three kinds of tables which can be instantiated: no inheritance, single inheritance, and multiple inheritance. Oh, did that last one make your hair stand on end? Haha. Well, multiple inheritance of data or properties can be a lot more sensible than the OO notion of it.
The way inheritance works is that an ID may have a parent ID (or a list of IDs for multiple). If a component is not found on ID, it's parent is checked. So if I:
Size.get target, then target might inherit from a basic_human which has the size (among other "basic human" traits).
Multiple inheritance allows for the use of property collections. You might see the value of this when considering the basic_human example... say you wanted to also declare foot_soldier properties which imparted some equipment, skills, and credentials. To make a basic_human foot_soldier with multiple inheritance, they're both parents (list-order gives a natural priority).
On the other hand, if only humans could reasonably be foot_soldiers, then you might be okay with single inheritance for this case — setting basic_human as the parent of foot_soldier.
Currently I'm not using inheritance for the bulk of the game, but the GUI (work in progress) is based on components and uses multiple-inheritance. This is a fragment of the GUI code, so Prop becomes the module used for instantiating components, and it also has the parent-related functions. I've included a few of the components too:
(* GUI uses multiple-inheritance (of data), so style and properties may be * mixed from multiple parents, with parents functioning as property-sets. *) module Prop = Db.MultiInherit let new_child_of parents = let id = new_id () in Prop.set_parents id parents; id module Font = (val (Prop.Hashtbl.create ()): Db.Sig with type t = Fnt2.t) module Pos = (val (Prop.Hashtbl.create ()): Db.Sig with type t = Vec2.t) module Color = (val (Prop.Hashtbl.create ~default:(1.,0.,1.) ()): Db.Sig with type t = float*float*float)
It's not all roses. One big pain-in-the-tuchus is deleting an ID. This means removing every entry it has in any of these tables. To do this, when a table is instantiated, it's also registered with the database. The delete operation for any table only needs to know ID, the signature being
key -> unit. The real ugly part is what this means at runtime: doing a find-and-remove on every table - every time an entity is deleted. Various optimizations are possible, but for now I'm keeping it brute force.
The Source
If you want to see the source, or to *gasp* use it, here is a gist of database.ml / mli. It's very unpolished, needing fleshing-out and useful documentation. I intend to release it at some future point, along with some other code. But if you have tips or suggestions, please share them! I've been going solo with OCaml and suspect that's limiting me — I could be doing crazy or nonsensical things. Well, I'm sure I am in a few places... maybe right here with this code!


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Congress must attempt to alter the course of the World Bank
For decades, leaders of the World Bank have recognized one of the surest ways to reduce poverty in developing countries is to help their residents obtain reasonably priced electricity. That farsighted philosophy appears to have been scrapped.
If the World Bank pursues the new strategy espoused by its president, American Jim Yong Kim, tens of millions of people in poor countries will suffer. It is not stretching the point to predict grinding poverty, of the type low-priced electricity can alleviate, will kill some of them unnecessarily.
Since he took office, President Barack Obama has been leading a war against mining and use of coal. Now, he is taking it global. His campaign has become a world war.
Obama nominated Kim to become president of the World Bank last year. Because the institution is supported largely by money from U.S. taxpayers, its leadership traditionally has gone to Americans.
Kim has convinced World Bank directors to cut back severely on funding for coal-fired power plants in developing countries. That comes as no surprise; Obama was aware Kim shares his radical environmental agenda when he nominated him.
But the new World Bank policy will have devastating effects.
Coal-fired power plants are the most economical means of providing electricity. Many of the countries seeking help funding them do not have access to fuels such as natural gas. They cannot afford so-called "alternatives" such as solar and wind power.
And without World Bank help, these countries will not be able to build nearly as many coal-fired power plants.
That will mean millions, perhaps tens of millions, of poor people all over the globe will be denied access to reasonably priced power, because of the Obama administration's policies.
In turn, that will result in unnecessary misery – quite likely, sickness and even death.
Modern power plants of the type the World Bank had funded during the past few years are efficient, with very low emissions. But that makes no difference to people like Kim and Obama. They are eager to force their beliefs on other people, even if that means condemning them to poverty.
That is plainly, simply crazy. Members of Congress should be looking into what, if anything, they can do to alter the World Bank's course. For some people in poor countries, that may be a matter of life or death.


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Cables & Wiring
Your solar system's wiring is the freeway for the electricity it produces. If it is designed poorly, you'll get the same results as with poorly designed roads: traffic jams, accidents, and frustration. You want to minimize the distance your solar cables and wiring run because of voltage loss, but you also need to choose the right wire gauge to carry ample amperage.
Choosing proper solar cables and wiring can be confusing, but our wire sizing chart can help (also found on page 172 of our 14th edition Solar Living Sourcebook). And of course, if you just want help from the experts, the Real Goods Tech Desk is always there to answer your cable and wiring questions (800-919-2400). Just keep in mind that local electric codes and inspectors have the final say for what's acceptable in your area.
"Some voltage drop is unavoidable when moving electrical energy from one point to another, but we can limit this to reasonable levels if we choose the proper wire size. Acceptable voltage drop for 120-volt (AC) circuits can be up to 5%, but for 12- or 24-volt (DC) circuits, 2 - 3% is the most we want to see."
Solar Living Sourcebook 14th Edition
Chapter 4: From Panel to Plug


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A JBoss ProjectRed Hat
This site is no longer current and is for archival purposes only. All relevant content is moving to http://teiid.io
Teiid Console
The Teiid Console is a graphical web based administrative tool that is written using the GWT technologies which is used to monitor the JBoss AS instances. Teiid provides an additional plugin-in into this system that lets users configure and manage Teiid along with JBoss AS.
What can Console do?
Console can help with various administrative tasks such as...
- Deploying a VDB to a running server, and undeploy
- Create and deploy a Data Source
- Check translator property
- Change deployed VDB configuration.
It also helps in monitoring tasks such as...
- Viewing and management of sessions
- Monitoring the active system health and stopping and starting services
- View currently executing queries and perform a 'cancel' if necessary
- View current system properties
- more..
Look at the Admin Guide document for how to use the Console and all the features it supports.


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For over 60 years and across two generations of renowned curemasters, we at Johnston County Hams in Smithfield, North Carolina have hand crafted "cured" country hams inspired by the techniques used by America's early colonists. Recognized by many as the best ham in America, our country hams have been featured in Esquire, Southern Living, The New York Times, Wine Spectator and many other publications. Men's Journal has proclaimed our country ham among their "100 Best Things To Eat In America."
Authentic Country Hams - Dry Cured and Finely Aged
Johnston County Country Hams have a unique, lightly smoked aroma and mellow, lightly salted taste unlike anything else and are a true gourmet delicacy. Our unique flavor is a result of our curing process that is based on the techniques used by America's early colonists. These techniques involved "salting" the hams and then letting the hams "cure" naturally though seasonal changes in temperature that occurred through the Winter, Spring and Summer, rendering the hams perfectly "cured" for the finest flavor and quality.
We at Johnston County Hams stay true to these Colonial techniques. Using today's technology that allows careful control of temperature and humidity we simulate the necessary seasons, speeding up the process a bit only because ideal atmospheric conditions remain constant. Each country ham is first hand rubbed with the "cure", a blend of primarily salt and sugar. Winter days at just above freezing are necessary to allow salt to penetrate the meat as it draws out moisture. The rising temperature and lowering humidity of spring allow the salt to equalize throughout the meat and the bone. Finally warm summer days allow the ham to age and mellow to its rich characteristic aroma and flavor.
In addition to our famous country hams, we are also pleased to offer a finely cured and delicately aged prosciutto, a sweet honey cured ham and traditional favorites from our smokehouse including dry cured bacon, and fully-cooked, brined, smoked turkey.
We're very pleased to announce that Johnston County Hams is a finalist for the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade's prestigious 2011 sofi™ Awards for Best New Product with our Mangalitsa Hams.


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A growing number of middle-aged Americans are struggling with student-loan debt – not all of it from their college days.
While borrowers over 40 account for about a third of the nation's $900 billion in student debt, they appear to be struggling with their loan payments more than other age groups, according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal. For example, the delinquency rate — the percentage of debt on which a payment has not been made for 90 days – for Americans aged 40 to 49 was 11.9% in March, compared to 8.7% for borrowers of all ages.
Expert say many of those borrowers over 40 are still paying off balances from their college years. But a growing number of parents are saddled with student loans they took out to pay tuition for their kids. Roughly 17% of parents whose children graduated from college this past spring held federal Parent PLUS loans. That's up from about 10% a decade prior, and less than 6% in 1993, according to FinAid.org.
The average balance on these loans: nearly $34,000, up 123% from a decade ago.
Meanwhile, more private lenders are demanding parent cosigners on their student loans. Because most students don't have a credit history, lenders say they turn to their parents' credit to determine whether to approve them, and at what terms. Both the parent's and the student's name appear on the loan, and the lender expects payment from either party. Missed payments will impact both borrowers' credit scores. And if the student can't pay, the parent is still on the hook for the payments.
Since the financial downturn, more than 90% of college loans from private lenders have co-signers, says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, which tracks financial aid and student loans. That's up from roughly 50% prior to 2008.
The ballooning of student loan debt for older Americans highlights a key downside to student loans, say consumer advocates: There's no way out. Unlike all consumer loans, federal and private student loans cannot be wiped out after bankruptcy.


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This post is to help clarify some of the most commonly asked questions about downloading and viewing offline Help for CS6 . I'm writing this post in an FAQ format to ensure that I don't just ramble on and miss any important details.
1. How does offline Help for CS6 work?
You can access CS6 Help offline as downloadable PDFs.
The very first time you launch Help (press F1 or select Help > Product Name Help) from your Adobe CS6 product, the Adobe Help manager launches in the background and checks for the availability of new or updated content. Note that you need to be connected to the Internet for the Help manager to perform this check.
If no new content is available, the Adobe Help manager will shut down until the next time you select Help.
If new content is found, a small pop-up notification will be displayed on your desktop (usually in the lower-right corner of your screen) like this:
2. How can I download the CS6 Reference PDF to my computer?
If the Adobe Help manager finds new content, you see a small pop-up notification. When you click the notification message, the Help Manager launches and displays all the content available for download (under Local Content). The content available for download is indicated by a "Pending Download" status like this.
You just have to select the CS6 Reference PDF that you want to download and click the Update button. Once the PDF is downloaded, the status changes to "Current".
3. I'm using more than one CS6 product, can I download the reference PDFs for all these products at once?
Yes, you can.
To do so, go to the Download Preferences panel in the Adobe Help Manager, select the products for which you wish to have offline Help content available, and click Done.
Then, launch Adobe Help Manager, go to the General Settings panel, and click the Download button:
Important: The total download size for all of the available content is displayed. Large updates may take several minutes or more to download. For example, if you have CS6 Master Collection installed, it make take you some time to download PDFs for all the products in the suite. During the download, the status of the PDF being downloaded (under Local content) is shown as "Queued".
4. Can I view CS6 Help even when I don't have access to the Internet?
Yes, you can, provided you've downloaded the required PDFs to your computer. When Internet access is not available, the Help Manager automatically switches to offline help. When you press F1 or select Help > Product Name Help from your Adobe CS6 product, the downloaded PDF opens.
5. Can I set offline Help as my default?
If you prefer to have your Adobe products use the locally installed Help PDF by default, select Yes for Display Local Help Content Only in the General Settings panel of the Adobe Help Manager.
By doing so, the downloaded CS6 reference PDFs will be displayed even when you are connected to the Internet.


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By Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is escaping deflation, the government said on Friday as data showing rising prices, falling unemployment, higher incomes and factory activity gathering momentum pointed to an ongoing recovery in the world's third-largest economy.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Bank of Japan have gambled on massive fiscal and monetary stimulus to spark life into the economy, and the accumulating signs of an upswing are seen strengthening the case for a planned sales tax increase.
Friday's data painted a brightening picture for a country seeking to escape 15 years of debilitating deflation: core consumer prices posted their biggest rise in nearly five years, unemployment fell to its lowest since late 2008, factory output rose and is expected to rise further, and workers' incomes rose.
"Japan is escaping from deflation," Economics Ministers Akira Amari told reporters.
Pessimists have argued that the benefits of "Abenomics," a three-pillar strategy of fiscal and monetary stimulus combined with a long-term growth strategy, may be short-lived and won't prompt companies to spend more on investment and wages.
And while the rise in prices has been driven largely by higher electricity bills and a weaker yen that has pushed up import costs, the job market strength and rising incomes bode well for personal consumption, which has been a key driver of the recovery.
"The output figure confirms a moderate recovery in factory activity, and both core CPI and the core-core CPI excluding energy indicate that the economy is heading for the end of deflation," said Yasuo Yamamoto, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo.
Core consumer prices, which includes oil products but not fresh food, rose 0.7 percent in the year to July, a second straight month of increase and the largest since a 1.0 percent rise in November 2008, data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed.
The Bank of Japan has a target of lifting inflation to 2 percent in about two years, a goal many analysts see as optimistic given the deflation that has dogged the economy.
"The majority of gains in consumer prices still come from energy, and the upward pressure on energy prices is likely to start to slow in coming months," said Shuji Tonouchi, senior fixed income strategist at Mitsubishi UFG Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo.
"Things are basically on track for the BOJ, but I would not get overly optimistic on prices just yet."
The core-core inflation index, which excludes food and energy prices and is similar to the core index used in the United States, was down 0.1 percent in the year to July, a slower pace of decline than June's 0.2 percent fall.
Separate figures showed factory output rebounded 3.2 percent in July and manufacturers expect further gains in the coming two months, consistent with a PMI survey showing manufacturing grew for a sixth straight month in August.
And the jobless rate improved for the second straight month to hit 3.8 percent in July, the lowest since October 2008.
Household spending edged up in the year to July as the feel-good sentiment prompted consumers to eat out more and spend more on travel and leisure. Wage-earners' incomes also rose an annual 1.3 percent in July, increasing for the fifth straight month.
With domestic demand resilient and underpinning industrial activity, it alleviated some concerns that sluggish growth in emerging markets may weigh on the export-reliant economy.
At its policy review next week, the BOJ is expected to maintain the stimulus it launched in April, with the focus on whether the board revises up its assessment of the economy to say more convincingly that it is recovering.
Japan's economy grew an annualized 2.6 percent in April-June to mark the third straight quarter of expansion as a pick-up in exports added to sustained strength in personal consumption.
But the growth was slower than expectations, offering ammunition to those seeking to change a plan to raise the 5 percent sales tax rate to 8 percent next April and 10 percent in October 2015.
As the economy strengthens, the debate is focused on whether to double the tax in two stages or increase it more gradually, rather than whether or not to increase the tax.
"I think it would be a matter of whether to make tax hikes incremental or not, but putting off the tax hike itself won't be an option," said Mizuho's Yamamoto.
Abe is expected to make a decision on the tax by early October, with the Bank of Japan and ministers in his cabinet keen to push ahead to demonstrate a commitment to fiscal reform.
"If it's a question of whether today's data is positive or negative for implementing the sales tax, then you could say it's positive," Economics Minister Amari said.
(Additional reporting by Stanley White; Editing by John Mair)


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What's special about open data in Kenya?
On July 8th 2011, President Mwai Kibaki launched the Kenyan Open Data Initiative, making key government data freely available to the public through a single online portal. The 2009 census, national and regional expenditure, and information on key public services are some of the first datasets to be released. Tools and applications have already been built to take this data and make it more useful than it originally was.
This is, so far, the story of open government data in many other countries; what's special about Kenya?


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All items > Knives > Automatic Knives > Boker (Auto) > Boker Kalashnikov > Kalashnikov
- Length:3.00"
- Width:2.00"
- Carry:Neck
- Material:Kydex
- Color:Yellow
- Brand:Linos
- Model:Kalashnikov Sheath
- Country of Origin:USA
- Product Type:Sheath
This safety yellow colored Linos Kydex sheath was designed to fit Boker Kalashnikov automatic knives. It offers a durable neck carry option for full size Kalashnikov models. Linos sheaths include a paracord neck tie for comfortable concealed carry.
Click HERE to see our full line of Boker Kalashnikov knives in stock.
This listing is for the Kydex sheath and cord only. The sheath is made to fit tightly for security. Because these are hand made, each sheath will vary slightly.


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|Assistant Coach
|First Season
|Previous College:
|Auburn University Montgomery '09
The Georgia College men's basketball program and head coach Terry Sellers have added David Gallagher to the coaching staff as an assistant coach.
Gallagher spent last season as the Assistant Boys Varsity Coach at John Milledge Academy, picking up the honor of Georgia Independent School Association (GISA) All-Star Team Assistant Coach. He helped guide the Trojans to the AAA State Tournament Elite 8. He also served as a middle school football assistant coach.
Prior to the move to Milledgeville, Gallagher was the Head Boys Varsity Basketball Coach at Advanced Math & Science Academy Charter School in Marlborough, Mass. for two seasons. The 2011-12 Worcester County Athletic Conference (WCAC) Coach of the Year, he guided AMSA to a spot in the Central Mass Division III Playoffs.
A 2009 graduate of Auburn University Montgomery, Gallagher was the two-time AUM Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He added Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Male Honor Student of the Year in 2009 as well. A member of three NAIA National Tournament Teams in his four years, AUM picked up two conference titles and one conference tournament title with him on the roster.
Gallagher's wife, Tinna, is the Assistant Coach for Bobcat soccer.


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YORK, Pa. - The York College women's lacrosse team beat Stevens 11-5 on a cold, blustery Saturday at Kinsley Field in a non-conference matchup. Spartan goalkeeper Ashley Smith (Cinnaminson, N.J./Cinnaminson) and the defense helped seal the deal for the Green White.
With the win, the Spartans improve to 5-1 overall this season. The loss drops Stevens to 3-3.
The Spartans got things going right away. Kim Wayson (Harwood, Md./Southern) rocketed the ball past the Steven's goalkeeper to put the Green and White up 1-0 just 1:30 into the game. Less then six minutes later, Erica Mulford (Crownsville, Md./Seton Keough) added an unassisted goal of her own to give the Spartans a 2-0 lead. York continued to dominate control of the game, but could not seem to get off the shot they were looking for. Mulford tallied her second goal of the game at 16:35, pushing the Spartan lead to three.
The Ducks were not ready to back down, their offense buckled down after York's three unanswered goals and scored three unanswered goals themselves to tie up the game with only 3:58 remaining in the first period. The Spartans took a timeout to get themselves composed and were able to finish the half with the momentum. Sarah Castle (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis Area Christian) notched her sixth goal of the season off a pass from Mulford to give the Spartans the lead back heading into halftime.
The second half saw the Spartans settle into a rhythm. The Green and White scored the fifth goal of the game at 23:06 off a shot from Wayson. Three minutes later the Spartans extended their lead to three again off a goal from Megan Stine (Stevensville, Md./Annapolis Area Christian), her second of the season. Melissa Ritchey (Hampstead, Md./North Carroll) recorded the assist. The Ducks continued to fight back, but thanks to a strong defense and excellent goalkeeping they could not seem to score. Smith made some huge saves for York in net. She helped stop Stevens from gaining any momentum in the second half.
With 16:32 left in the game, Lauren Kula (Frederick, Md./Governor Thomas Johnson) tallied a goal off a pass from Megan Stine. A few minutes later, Mulford added her third goal of the game. Just 22 after that, Mulford showed the Ducks she was not done yet and hauled down the field to score the Spartans ninth goal. Castle stretched the lead to seven with a goal off a free position shot at 10:25. With 6:07 remaining, Castle gave the Spartans their largest lead of the day with another free position goal.
With time running out, the Ducks pushed the pace. Despite getting two quick goals off of free position shots, Stevens was too far behind for it effect the outcome of the game.
Leading the way on offense for the Spartans was Mulford. She finished the game with four shots, all goals and one assist. Castle also added three goals of her own, as well as four draw controls and two ground balls. Wayson chipped in two goals, while Stine and Kula tallied one goal each. Megan Strauch (Baltimore, Md./Perry Hall) had a strong defensive game with three caused turnovers.
Smith earned the win for the Spartans in goal. She played all 60 minutes and recorded six saves on 11 shots, while allowing five goals.
Stevens used two goalkeepers against the Green and White. Meg Collins was credited with the loss for the Ducks. She gave up 10 goals and made nine saves in 49:35. Mel Welcome played 10:25 and allowed one goal.
The Ducks offense was lead by Kara Rafferty and Erika Wilcox who recorded two goals each. Caitlyn Hughes also added a goal.
York finished the game with a 12-6 advantage in draw controls and 23-10 advantage in ground balls. The Spartans also outshot the Ducks 30-17.
The Spartans return to action on Thursday for a home matchup against Dickinson at 4:00pm.


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ABC news reports that there is already 2 feet of water at some parts of the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant:
Although the Fort Calhoun plant … is surrounded by an eight foot tall and 16 foot wide protective berm, two feet of water have already made its way to several areas of the Fort Calhoun plant, but authorities say there is no immediate danger at either plant.
CNN confirms:
U.S. nuclear regulators say two Nebraska nuclear power plants have protected critical equipment from the rising waters of the Missouri River even though flooding has reached the grounds of one of them.
Parts of the grounds are already under two feet of water as the swollen Missouri overflows its banks. But the Omaha Public Power District, which owns the plant, has built flood walls around the reactor, transformers and the plant's electrical switchyard, the NRC said."They've surrounded all the vital equipment with berms," Dricks said.An 8-foot-tall, water-filled berm, 16 feet wide at its base, surrounds the reactor containment structure and auxiliary buildings, the NRC says. The plant has brought in an additional emergency diesel generator, water pumps, sandbags and firefighting equipment as well, according to regulators.
The 2 feet of water is in areas like parking lots, not within the reactor building itself.
The Omaha World-Herald notes that the river is expected to rise an additional 4-5 inches in the very near future at the Fort Calhoun and Cooper nuclear plants:
On Tuesday, the Army Corps of Engineers announced that releases from Gavins Point would increase another 7 percent to 160,000 cubic feet per second.
That will add about 4 to 5 inches in the river's level at Fort Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Stations, according to information from the corps and the National Weather Service…
The NRC has added two inspectors and a branch chief to the permanent two-person inspection crew at Fort Calhoun station, said Lara Uselding, spokeswoman. They are providing around-the-clock oversight there.
Fort Calhoun's chief nuclear officer Dave Bannister says that the river would have to rise another 3 1/2 feet above where it stands now to pose a danger to the reactor. See this and this.
Hopefully, no dams will break, and the emergency measures will work.
Here are photos of the Aqua Dam installed outside the Fort Calhoun plant courtesy of the official OPPD Flood and Outage blog:
June 10th (AquaDam protecting the Administration Building at Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station):
(Click the above image, and then zoom in … you can see a man walking across the bridge on the left side of the picture to get a sense of scale.)
June 15th (AquaDam protecting the nuclear station):
There are also dry cask storage units at the facility, outside of the main building. Here are pictures of the dry casks being delivered to the facility.
The area in red shows where one writer (Tom Burnett) believes the dry cask units are located.
Here is a clearer version of the photo (click image for larger version):


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Bill Maher Reignites Gun Control Debate With CMA Awards Joke
Controversial comedian and talk show host Bill Maher has upset country music fans and sparked chatter on both sides of the gun control debate.
During the New Rules segment of last week's 'Real Time With Bill Maher,' the host joked that conservatives were planning a mass shooting at the CMA Awards in response to the mass gay wedding that took place at the Grammys last month.
"Now that liberals have forwarded their agenda by inserting a mass gay wedding into the Grammys, conservatives must match them tit-for-tat by having a mass shooting at the Country Music Awards," Maher said during the HBO show.
The quip comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with Maher or his show, as he's a frequent advocate for gun control. Reaction this time was swift and passionate -- and often profane. Fans on both sides of the issued battled in the comments section beneath posts on Huffington Post and Politico.
A photoshopped picture of Carrie Underwood was used at the punchline of Maher's joke. During the same segment, he also took aim at 'Duck Dynasty' star Willie Robertson's signature red, white and blue bandana.
"Somehow everybody is cool with this 1840s gold prospector sweating goose grease into the stars and stripes," he said.


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We recently talked to the great singer songwriter and author Josh Ritter on Monsters of Talk (with Margaret Cho & Jim Short). We had a lovely chat about music, poetry, horror movies, Antarctic explorers, Arctic explorers and cannibalism. Listen to the podcast here!
He is playing in LA on Jan 21st and he has generously given us 2 tickets to give away to listeners of Monsters of Talk! There are lots of ways to enter and it's super easy. Details below!


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When we talk of Laser treatment, it uses a narrow, focused beam of light Which helps the cancer cells to shrink or it destroys cancer cells completely.in Mumbai cancer laser Treatment Centreare using laser therapy to cut out malignant tumors without damaging other tissue. Laser treatment is often given with the help of a thin, lighted tube inserted inside the body. Thin fibers at the end of the tube are used to direct the light at the cancer cells, it can also be used on the skin. Lasers are also used on the skin.
Laser treatment is done cancer patients in many different ways, like it is beneficial to destroy tumors, Laser therapy can be used to Shrink tumors that are blocking the stomach, colon, or esophagus etc. laser treatment is also used on pre-cancerous cells removal. it also helps in certain Cancer symptoms like excessive bleeding, Unwanted swelling, it basically feels the nerve endings after the surgery is performed which in return reduces the amount of pain that the patient has to be, it also seals the lymph vessels post-surgery to reduce swelling and keep tumor cells from spreading for the in the body of the patient.In Mumbai cancer laser treatment centre provides laser therapy which is also used along with radiation and chemotherapy
There are many parts for which laser treatment can be done Light treatment for breast cancer, brain cancer, Mumbai tongue cancer treatment, skin cancer, cervical cancer, head and neck cancer also.
There are different types of lasers that are used in treatment of cancer like carbon dioxide laser, argon laser, Nd:Yag laser.
There many benefits of using laser therapy for cancer treatment in comparison with the traditional form of surgery are that Text message time, it is more precise and damages the tissues less, it gives less pain compared to the traditional means, white bleeding infection and scarring and it can be off. Done at the doctors clinic without hospitalization. there are some downsides in case of laser therapy, that there are not many doctors are trained to use it in Mumbai for cancer laser treatment, it is considered be much more expensive compared to the attention means of treatment. the effect of laser therapy is not long lasting and that means the treatment as to continue for a long period of time and many many sessions need to be given for the treatment of cancer with the use of laser therapy. Orchid Cancer Centre, is one of the centres for the treatment of cancer with the use of laser therapy in Mumbai and they are known for their experience and the good work.
Cancer one word that can shake your life completely. It is a human psychology for what we call one of the scariest moments of our life is if we have to go through cancer.
They been so many cases that we see of people suffering with cancer that we are scared of the thought itself even if it goes well and is not as scary as it seems to be.
Mumbai has cancer laser treatment available at many hospitals where the treatment is less painful and comes with fewer side effects unlike In case of chemotherapy.
Laser light used to remove cancer or to relieve symptoms of cancer. It is used to treat cancer on the surface of the body or the lining of internal organs.
Mumbai cancer laser treatment therapy is done through a thin tube called an endoscope, which is inserted in opening in the body to treat cancer or precancerous growth inside the windpipe, esophagus, stomach, or colon.
Laser therapy causes less bleeding.
The effects of laser surgery may not be permanent, so the surgery may have to be repeated if needed.
Laser therapy uses high-intensity light to treat cancer cells. Lasers can be used to shrink and destroy tumors. Lasers are most commonly used to treat superficial cancers like skin cancer and the very early stages of cancers, like cervical, penile, vaginal, vulvar, and non-small cell lung cancer. Lasers also may be used to relieve certain symptoms of cancer, such as bleeding or obstruction. Lasers can seal nerve endings to reduce pain after surgery and seal lymph vessels to reduce swelling and limit the spread of tumor cells.


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Processes of River Erosion, Transport, and Deposition
Compiled by Mark Francek (more info) at Carleton College (more info) (SERC) (more info) and Central Michigan University (more info)
Click here to browse the complete set of Visualization Collections (more info) .
Terrestrial Animations This set of animations from the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) group contains 16 movies of various river processes. Movies include meander formation, floodplain evolution, floods, river engineering, landscape evolution, dams and more.
Graded Stream, Wiley This Flash animation, with accompanying audio, loads slowly but this is a worthwhile portrayal of the graded stream concept. The relationship between flow, erosion, and deposition is depicted for a steep and gentle stream profile. The graded stream concept is also applied for a flood scenario.


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Tanana Athabascan
Tanana Athabascan is now spoken only at Nenana and Minto on the Tanana River below Fairbanks. The Athabascan population of those two villages is about 380, of whom about 30, the youngest approaching age 60, speak the language.
Michael Krauss did the first major linguistic fieldwork on this language beginning in 1961, and this was continued by James Kari. Recent publications in the language include the 1992 edition of stories told by Teddy Charlie as recorded by Krauss in 1961, and a preliminary dictionary compiled by Kari in 1994. In 2009, a Lower Tanana pocket dictionary was published by Siri Tuttle.
(Common expressions in Tanana and other Alaska Native languages)


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The HIV-AIDS Debate Is Over
What to Tell Your Patients When They Ask if HIV Causes AIDS
February 1997
Epidemiologists have documented the presence of the human immunodeficiency virus (or antibodies to HIV) in more than 95% of the world's AIDS patients (1-6). Scientists who have examined the clinical data collected from AIDS patients are convinced that it is HIV, and no other etiologic agent, which causes the gradual decline in CD4 cell counts that leads to severe immunosuppression and AIDS. Why, then, is there any lingering doubt about the cause of AIDS? Why, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, do a small number of scientists -- and a larger number of infected individuals -- continue to insist that HIV does not cause AIDS?
A decade ago, when a highly regarded molecular virologist named Peter Duesberg first suggested that AIDS was caused not by HIV but by a combination of recreational drugs, hyperstimulation of the immune system, and possibly even antiretroviral drugs themselves (7), the scientific community felt obliged to respond to Duesberg's hypothesis. The fact that his argument was largely rhetorical, and was unsupported by the preponderance of the data then available, made Duesberg's claim dubious, but it did not altogether rule out his theory. Erring on the side of excessive caution, respected members of the scientific community gave Duesberg's hypothesis more serious consideration than the data alone seemed to merit -- and they rejected his theory as untenable (1, 4, 8-10).
On the face of it, Duesberg's counter-theory made little sense. If AIDS was caused by recreational drugs like nitrate inhalants, also known as "poppers," and prescription drugs like zidovudine, also known as AZT, then how could one account for the millions of cases of AIDS that had occurred in Third World countries, where these drugs were not available? And how did one explain AIDS in hemophiliacs, transfusion recipients, and infants born to HIV-infected mothers -- none of whom had used poppers or AZT?
Duesberg's answer was, frankly, bizarre. He simply announced that these AIDS patients -- the vast preponderance of those infected worldwide -- did not actually have AIDS. They had something, of course -- and they were dying of it. But it wasn't AIDS, Duesberg insisted. The fact that these patients tested positive for the presence of HIV or antibodies to HIV, that they had declining CD4 cell counts, and that they developed the opportunistic infections that are regarded as AIDS-defining illnesses did not seem to trouble Duesberg, whose principal research had been with cancer-causing retroviruses in chickens.
Duesberg's assault on the epidemiology and clinical pathology of AIDS -- an assault mounted by someone who had little experience in either discipline -- blindsided workers in the field. Initially, at least, they were disconcerted by the volume and volubility of Duesberg's attacks on their data, and they were temporarily disarmed by this scientist who disdained reasonable scientific argument and scientific proof.
With each passing year the evidence that HIV causes AIDS grew more persuasive and less refutable, even at the purely rhetorical level. But even as this evidence mounted, Duesberg and his minions grew increasingly shrill and hectoring (11-15). Their unsupported but high-decibel jeremiads garnered some media attention -- in 1993, for instance, the London Times labeled the epidemic "a tragic myth" -- and even respectable scientific journals felt obliged to address the issue again and again (8-10, 16-18), simply because Duesberg and his outspoken supporters raised the issue again and again.
In a singularly sensational and reckless response to this furor, a 65-year-old Florida clinician actually inserted a syringe into the finger of an AIDS patient and then injected himself with the same syringe -- to emphasize his conviction that HIV infection does not cause AIDS (19). In the same vein, Duesberg himself once proposed to let Robert Gallo inoculate him with HIV. That Duesberg never went through with this publicity-generating ploy leads one to wonder if he has reservations about his own theory.
The HIV-AIDS debate grew more acrimonious, and more futile, with each exchange, and it eventually became apparent that no amount of scientific evidence, no matter how unimpeachable, would silence the naysayers. Indeed, the decade-long controversy culminated last year with the publication of Duesberg's 772-page polemic, Inventing the AIDS Virus, a farrago of rhetorical hubris, unsupported speculation, and selective critiques of the tens of thousands of papers written by scientists who are persuaded that HIV is the etiologic agent in AIDS.
In the end, Duesberg's alternative explanation for the AIDS epidemic was little more than an indictment of a certain kind of gay lifestyle, one that is popularly perceived as consecrated to casual sex and equally casual drug-taking (16). As such, his hypothesis was but a variant of the mean-spirited fundamentalist belief that people with AIDS are victims of their own vices.
Over the past decade Duesberg's counter-theory has found two natural audiences, neither with rigorous scientific training. First, he has found an evergreen audience among certain voracious investigative journalists of the lay press. Controversy and conspiracy theories sell better than sobersided factual analysis, especially in fringe publications, and Duesberg has provided those publications with more than his share of both. But even redoubtable journals like Science and Nature have repeatedly featured Duesberg's arguments, generally under the rubric of point-counterpoint (8-11, 16, 17, 20-22). The controversy surrounding Duesberg's claims has doubtless been perceived as good copy by the publishers and the readers of all of these publications.
Duesberg's second, and far larger, audience is men and women who know (or strongly suspect) that they are infected with HIV. There is a certain irony in this, of course, since these adherents to Duesberg's counter-theory are implicitly joining in his condemnation of their life-style choices. But there is also pathos in this situation. Antibody-positive individuals have been given a near-certain death sentence . . . if HIV causes AIDS. But if something else -- poppers, prescription drugs, African swine fever virus -- causes AIDS, and if that causative agent can be identified, then maybe, just maybe, their prognosis is less grim.
Denial is a device for coping with death-dealing illnesses, and it is hardly limited to patients with HIV infection -- as any clinician who has ever treated a chronic smoker can attest to. The dilemma here is that the form of denial that is manifested by the HIV-infected individuals who espouse Duesberg's views thwarts our best efforts to prevent the spread of HIV and treat those who are infected.
How HIV fulfills Koch's postulates
The mainstay of Duesberg's counter-theory is that HIV cannot be the etiologic agent in AIDS because it does not satisfy Koch's famous postulates -- postulates that must be fulfilled before it can be concluded that a particular bacterial agent causes a particular disease. Robert Koch, the discoverer of the anthrax bacillus, first posited his three postulates in the late nineteenth century (23), and although minor modifications have been suggested over the years -- chiefly to accommodate technological advances (24, 25) -- the basic tenets remain essentially unchanged. For more than a century Koch's postulates have served as the litmus test for determining the cause of any epidemic disease:
During the early years of the AIDS epidemic, both defenders and critics of the theory that HIV causes AIDS agreed that HIV failed to completely fulfill Koch's postulates (1, 7, 13, 14, 25). As defenders of the theory were quick to point out, a number of other diseases, notably typhoid fever, diphtheria, and leprosy, also fail to meet these stringent tests of causality -- yet there is no controversy about what causes these illnesses. We know the pathogens that produce these diseases; what we cannot do with consistency is culture those pathogens in vitro.
This was the problem with HIV as well, until recently. There was little question, even among the counter-theorists, that HIV clearly satisfied the first and second of Koch's postulates, but it proved considerably harder to show that HIV also fulfilled the third. Today, however, overwhelming epidemiological and experimental data have been assembled to fulfill all three of Koch's postulates, establishing to a virtual certainty that HIV causes AIDS (26).
Demonstrating the epidemiological concordance of HIV exposure and AIDS was relatively straightforward, once the etiologic agent had been identified. Numerous studies have shown, for example, that prompt and progressive depletion of CD4 lymphocytes -- and a subsequent diagnosis of AIDS -- follows HIV seroconversion in the vast majority of HIV-infected hemophiliacs (27, 28), and HIV antibodies have been detected in more than 90% of transfusion recipients who received blood from donors who were HIV-positive. In the latter group seroconversion has likewise led to progressive depletion of CD4 cells and the onset of AIDS (27-29).
Two recent cohort studies of HIV-positive hemophiliacs have provided an even more direct link between HIV infection and mortality: They show a ten-fold increase in deaths among antibody-positive patients compared to uninfected individuals, irrespective of the severity of the subjects' hemophilia (30, 31). Significantly, since the screening of donated blood for the presence of HIV was instituted, new infections have dropped almost to zero among hemophiliacs and transfusion recipients -- further proof that HIV is the cause of AIDS.
The fact that HIV itself (or antibodies to the virus) can be detected in more than 95% -- but fewer than 100% -- of AIDS patients worldwide is explained by the relative insensitivity of the early tests for the presence of HIV in patients' peripheral blood. By the more sensitive HIV RNA assays now used to detect the virus, it is possible to confirm the presence of HIV in individuals who have as few as 20 viral particles per mL of blood (see "The HIV RNA Assay: A Valuable New Diagnostic Tool," Vol. 2, No. 2).
Sensitive as these new diagnostic tests are, they will not detect HIV in all profoundly immunocompromised patients -- not because the virus fails Koch's test for pathogenicity but because other disorders cause the body's immune system to collapse (32, 33). Certain drugs also produce immune suppression, as do chemical carcinogens, irradiation, and cigarette smoke.
The isolation component of Koch's postulates has been repeatedly demonstrated since the discovery of HIV. Scores of isolates have been cultured from AIDS patients; the virus has been cultivated in fresh human T lymphocytes; and cultured-cell lines have been developed for in vitro propagation (10, 34). This leaves only Koch's third postulate -- transmission pathogenesis -- as a matter of contention. Ethical considerations preclude the experimental inoculation of uninfected individuals with HIV, and this makes empirical verification of Koch's last postulate exceedingly difficult.
Difficult, but not impossible. For while we cannot deliberately infect anyone with HIV merely to satisfy Koch's postulates and Duesberg's curiosity, we can examine the evidence that has been gathered on healthcare workers who were accidentally infected with HIV in the course of their professional work. Take, for example, the cases of three laboratory technicians who were inadvertently exposed to the HTLV-IIIb strain of HIV-1 while working with that strain in their laboratories (35). All three of these technicians developed antibodies to HIV, and within five years all three showed marked CD4 lymphocyte depletion. Two had their CD4 counts fall to less than 200 cells/mm3, and one of those developed PCP.
In all three of these cases it was possible to establish the precise phylogenetic type of the virus that had infected the laboratory workers. When genetic sequencing tests were performed on the laboratory virus and on viral samples taken from the three workers, the sequence divergence was less than 3% (36). This low level of divergence is equivalent to the variation observed in cases of HIV transmission from mothers to their infants -- and it is less than one third as great as the extent of variation seen when viral samples from unconnected patients are compared (37, 38). Thus, these three unfortunate individuals provide prima facie evidence of transmission pathogenesis, Koch's third postulate.
This same high level of genetic concordance was also seen when the C.D.C. compared viral samples taken from a Florida dentist who died of AIDS with samples taken from five of his patients who tested positive for HIV and who had no HIV risk factors other than multiple visits to the dentist for invasive procedures (39, 40). Two independent research groups reached the same conclusion after examining the HIV gene sequences of these six individuals: the dentist had almost certainly infected his patients in the course of those invasive procedures, although the experts could not say exactly how those infections had occurred (41-44).
It is unlikely that we will ever learn how transmission occurred in this unique cluster of infections, but the genetic data gathered from the victims of this tragedy teach us an important lesson: They establish, as conclusively as science can establish such things, that when HIV is inadvertently transferred from a person with AIDS to an uninfected host, it does indeed produce AIDS in that host (45). And thus it satisfies the last, and most rigorous, of Koch's postulates.
Pathogenesis has also been demonstrated in various animal models. HIV-2, a less virulent strain of HIV largely restricted to West Africa, causes CD4 depletion and AIDS-like pathology in yellow baboons (46), and at least 12 strains of simian immunodeficiency virus, a close cousin of HIV, induce CD4 depletion and cause AIDS-defining illness in Asian macaques (47-51). Given that Koch's third postulate can be fulfilled by transmission to either man or animal, these examples offer strong supplemental evidence that HIV causes AIDS.
The last year has seen dramatic breakthroughs in the treatment of HIV infection, and these advances reinforce the causal role of HIV in AIDS. Triple-drug combination therapy has resulted in dramatic reductions in viral burden, sometimes to undetectably low levels, and these reductions are generally accompanied by increases in CD4 cell counts.
The discovery that certain chemokines are crucial secondary receptors for HIV infection (52) led to the discovery, in my laboratory and others, of a deletion mutation in the CKR5 gene that confers protection against HIV infection (53). In homozygous individuals this mutation prevents infection, and in heterozygous individuals it delays disease progression by several years (see "Genetic mutation appears to confer immunity to HIV," Vol. 2, No. 5). If HIV were not the cause of AIDS, the new antiretroviral "cocktails" would not work and CKR5, a key receptor for HIV infection, would not delay the onset of AIDS.
It is time to recognize that the HIV-AIDS debate is over, as an academic exercise and as a practical matter. This decade-long debate may have been constructive at first, because it obliged scientists to give careful consideration to the epidemiological and clinical data they were gathering, but it has become a dangerous diversion. The doubt that it has fostered, particularly among our patients, carries the potential for great harm: it can lead those at high risk of infection to ignore prevention messages, and it can keep those who are infected from benefiting from recent advances in therapy. The debate should cease, and all energies should be directed toward developing an effective vaccine against HIV and curative treatments for those who are infected.
Stephen J. O'Brien, Ph.D., is Director of Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD.
Back to the February 1997 HIV Newsline contents page.
This article was provided by San Francisco General Hospital. It is a part of the publication HIV Newsline.


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Classic House Versailles Silk Button Bed Frame
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Leather New York TV Bed including LG Television
Kaydian Durham Modern Leather Bed Frame
Revival Collection Ambassador Solid Pine Bed
Frank Hudson Louis XV Collection Bed
Hypnos Ortho Super Deluxe 1300 Pocket Sprung Divan Bed
Revival Collection Ambassador Four Poster Solid Pine Bed
Komfi Eco Bed Frame
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Classic House Cream Faux Croc Leather Sleigh Bed Frame
Classic House Valbonne Heavy Carved Bed Frame
Jensen Vision Continental Bed Set Including Sofline I Topper
Absolute Beds - Best Price Promise Conditions
At Absolute Beds We Both strive to offer and believe Abebooks web The Highest quality mattresses and bedroom furniture at the cheapest prices. We are dedicated to your total completely Call satisfaction and we will not be beaten on price? That is our promise! If you can find our products cheaper elsewhere, WHETHER it is online or in stores, we will not only match the price, we will better it by 2% !! We make this offer Because We want you to be happy with your product and the price you pay. You can always be assured of our dedication to competitive pricing. So shop around and we look forward to seeing you back here very soon.
Price Promise Terms:
Show us a lower price, we will match it 100% and give you back 2% of the purchase price as a reward. We will Consider the offer Either before you wish to purchase gold After You-have you purchased up to 24 hours. Price Promise offer only applicable for the Goods over £ 350.00 The Price Promise will only apply to the person purchasing the goods, and is not transferable to --other persons. Offers are not accumulative nor Can They be back dated. The claim must be made in writing, and must be substantiated with documentation as proof Supporting. Furthermore, the claim must be made au moins un week prior to delivery.
Our price promise is applicable only where:
the same product with the same specifications is found at a cheaper price (the brand, model and size must be identiques);
the product comes from a reliable and trustworthy source (Legally trading retailer);
the lower price is the price at the qui competitor sells the item to customers Generally, not a gold Negotiated special price for Particular Individuals (eg Their Own store card holders.) or for a Particular reason (eg store is closing down.)
the product is available at a competitor's store normal (ie not market stalls, duty free shops or membership clubs.);
the product is new (not used, shop soiled, refurnished, discontinued or damaged);
the product is not hand job lot of dirty gold clearance from a company in liquidation;
the product is not already under special offer on our website;
the product is offert was like for like payment option;
the lower price is a genuine price and not a pricing error;
Both prices include VAT and transport;
Absolute Beds can verify the availability and comparability of the competitor? S goods and prices on the internet Either or by print advertising.
The approval of the retailer is up to the discretion of Absolute Beds In the event of error or omission, we remind You That Absolute Beds reserve the right to decline, terminate or revoke the Price Promise request made by the customer. No money will be Given back if the refund is Greater Than the item price. Promotions are not cumulative retroactive gold.
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SleepShaper Original 25cm Memory Foam Mattress with Outlast? Adaptive Temperature Control
SleepShaper Duo Pocket Spring & Memory Foam Mattress with Outlast?
Visco Therapy Memory Gold Mattress
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SleepShaper Original 20cm Memory Foam Mattress with Outlast? Adaptive Comfort?
Kaydian Kenton Faux Leather Bed
SleepShaper Streamline Memory Foam Mattress
Dorlux Contourflex Lift Up Ottoman Storage Bed Base
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