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- Cycling0 item(s) - £0.00
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0.3 Mega Pixel Coms Sensor.2? LCD Touch Screen Display.Records VGA (640x480 pixels) 49/63fps.USB 2.0 connectivity with up to 32GB Storage Capacity. (Micro SD card *not included*)Kit includes waterproof case and shield.
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No matter what leisure activity you enjoy, whether it's skydiving, mountain biking, skiing, diving or canoeing share your experience using this waterproof Action Camera which is waterproof up to 30 metres, it also comes with a clear water proof case which will protect the camera from stratches and knocks. Sharing your precious memories with family and friends has never been easier or more convenient.
Mount Anywhere Any Time - The Action Cam can be mounted anywhere thanks to the mounts included (helmet mount, handlebar mount, suction cup mount, helmet belt, USB 2.0 cable and protective shield).
Volvo V70 Action Camera 2 Touch Screen With Clear Water Proof Case EWAKIBMHT


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6 Ways to Improve Your Credit Score
- Keep your balance low in relation to your available credit
- Pay your bills on time
- Make more than the minimum payment
- Don't open a lot of new accounts over a short period of time.
- Pay off credit card debt rather than transferring it
- Review your credit report regularly and correct errors
Keeping your credit balance to 25% or below your available credit is a good general rule. But, don't open credit accounts you don't intend to use just to increase this ratio.
Late payments make a huge (negative) impact on your score. If you have missed payments, get current and stay current.
If you make only the minimum payment on your credit card each month, it may take longer than you think to pay off your balance. For instance, say you have a balance of $1,500 on your credit card with the modest interest rate of 14.99% and make $100 in new charges each month. If you pay only a the minimum payment of $125 per month it will take you more than 10 years to pay off your credit card debt. Increasing your monthly payment to $174 per month means you can pay off that debt in 2 years and save hundreds in interest charges.
Having many "inquires" into your credit report and expanding your credit line too quickly may signal to creditors that you're on the brink of major financial problems.
Revolving your debt from card to card keeps your debt-to-credit ratio higher, increases the number of new accounts on your records, and artificially diminishes the length of your credit history because no one account is open very long. Not to mention all of the finance and interest charges you'll have to pay with all of those new cards…
By federal law, you are entitled to one free copy of your credit report per year from each of the 3 major credit bureaus. Check your credit report at least once per year to ensure that the information on it is yours, and correct.

subset: commoncrawl


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Review of EU Prospectus Directive - briefing24 September 2009
by eub2 -- last modified 24 September 2009
In line with the "Better Regulation" principles, the European Commission has today put forward a proposal for the review of the Prospectus Directive. The proposal is part of simplification exercise within the Action Program of the European Commission for the Reduction of Administrative Burdens in the European Union. The proposal increases legal clarity and efficiency in the prospectus regime and reduces administrative burdens for issuers and intermediaries. It also bears in mind the importance of enhancing the level of investor protection and ensuring that the information provided is sufficient and adequate to cover the needs of retail investors. It reflects consultation with all major stakeholders. The proposal now passes to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers for consideration.
The general assessment of the overall effect of the Directive has been positive: in the five years since its entry into force, it has developed a single market for securities, boosted the cross-border capital raising and the competition among issuers. It has also generated a wider variety of products that are now available to investors, ensuring at the same time investor protection through a harmonized set of rules.
However, despite this general success, there is still room for improvement in terms of legal certainty and reduction of burdensome requirements for companies and financial intermediaries raising capital in the EU. This is in line with the Action Programme launched in 2007 by the European Commission for reducing administrative burdens of existing regulation in the European Union underlining its commitment to Better Regulation as part of the "Growth and Jobs" strategy.
Moreover, Article 31 of the Prospectus Directive required the Commission to assess the application of the Prospectus Directive five years after its entry into force and to present, where appropriate, proposals for its review. This exercise is also linked to the European Economic Recovery Plan and the financial services reform announced in the Communication of 4 March for the Spring European Council "Driving European Recovery.
2. What is the aim of the review?
The overarching goal of the current proposal is to simplify and improve the application of the Directive, increasing its efficiency and enhancing the EU's international competitiveness. The proposal keeps in mind the importance of enhancing the level of investor protection envisaged in the Directive and ensures that the information provided is sufficient and adequate to cover the needs of retail investors, particularly in the context of the financial market turbulence that started in 2007.3. Was the Prospectus Directive responsible for the financial crisis?
No, a lack of transparency and irresponsible risk management on financial markets mainly caused the crisis. As a result, the main issues triggering the turbulence will be dealt with in the new rules on Credit Rating Agencies, agreed between the Council and the European Parliament earlier this year, and a sound and consistent implementation of the securitization related Capital Requirement Directive disclosure requirements and a reliable valuation and auditing of illiquid assets see.
The current Prospectus Directive already provides a full set of disclosure requirements which enables investors to make an informed investment decisions. The review as tabled today will enhance investor protection even more and assist retail investors in their investment decisions and to ensure comparability with a wide range of other investment products, the proposal mandates a more simple, readable and substantial summary in line with the Commission's Communication on Packaged Retail Investment Products.4. How does the review fit in with current discussions on increasing transparency on financial markets?
The prospectus regime provides a sound framework of disclosure requirements in terms of investor protection. However, a balance needs to be struck of course between providing all available information to the market and a certain level of disclosure. The current "one size fits all" approach of the prospectus regime might be in certain cases too costly and not effective.
More flexibility is therefore required. In fact, the cost of producing a full prospectus might not be justified in terms of investor protection in cases of Employee Shares Schemes, Government Guarantee Schemes, Rights Issues, for companies with smaller market capitalization, and at certain conditions for small credit institutions. The proposal exempts from the obligation to publish a prospectus Employee Shares Schemes and it introduces a proportionate disclosure regime for rights issues; for companies with smaller market capitalization in the case of offers of or above
EUR 2 500 000, and for small credit institutions in the case of offers of non-equity securities referred to in Article 1(2)(j) of or above EUR 50 000 000. Moreover, issuers of securities guaranteed by a Member State, when drawing up a prospectus according to Article 1(3) of the Directive, shall be entitled to omit information about such guarantors.
A proportionate disclosure regime corresponds better to the needs and size of small firms. This will need to be further specified in implementing measures to be adopted at a later stage through comitology bearing in mind that the priority of this exercise will be to maintaining a high level of investor protection regardless of the size of the issuer.5. How does this proposal relate to other initiatives in the field of retail financial services?
In case of issuance of securities offered to non-qualified investors, the Prospectus Directive provides a set of disclosure requirements about all information which, according to the particular nature of the issuer and the securities, is necessary to enable investors to make an informed assessment of the assets and liabilities, financial position, profit and losses, and prospects of the issuer and of any guarantor, and of the rights attaching to such securities. This provides for sufficient guarantees in terms of investor protection for retail investors.
However, in the context of the current financial crisis, there is still room for improvement. In particular, in order to enable even further retail investors to make an informed assessment of offered securities, the format and the content of the summary of the prospectus can be improved in implementing measures to be adopted at a later stage through comitology, so as to enhance the simplicity and readability of the summary, and thereby improve its focus on the key information retail investors need to make investment decisions and compare the investment proposal described in the prospectus with other available investment products.
This exercise is in line with the approach to be adopted following the Commission's Communication on Packaged Retail Investment Products, which aims for horizontal requirements on pre-contractual disclosures and selling practices for a wide range of retail investment product types which will include financial instruments that fall under the Prospectus Directive and others that fall outside its scope. The Commission will seek to develop these two work streams in a consistent manner, to ensure a coherent overall approach.6. Will the proposal require an amendment of the "Level 2" implementing measures of the Prospectus Directive?
Yes. The proposal will require a further amendment of the Commission Regulation (CE) 809/2004. In particular, the format and the content of the summary and the disclosure requirements of the proportionate disclosure regime for rights issues, companies with smaller market capitalization and, at certain conditions, small credit institutions will require the adoption by the Commission of implementing measures amending and specifying the current Level 2 measures implementing the Prospectus Directive.Technical questions
1. Proposals for the simplification and increase of efficiency in the current regime of the Prospectus Directive.
1.1 Will the offering limits set in the scope of the Prospectus Directive be clarified?
The way limits of maximum offering amounts are calculated in the Directive may lead to varying interpretations in the different Member States. These may create uncertainties in the different Member States as to whether an offering is within the scope of the Directive or an exemption applies to the obligation to publish a prospectus. The proposal clarifies that the total consideration of the offers mentioned in Articles 1(2)(h) and (j) and 3(2)(e) of the Directive shall be computed on an EU-wide basis and not on a country-by-country basis. Moreover, as the limits set out in the Directive may eventually become outdated, in order to take account of the technical developments in the financial markets and to ensure uniform application of the Directive, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt implementing measures in relation to these limits.1.2 Will the exemptions from the obligation to publish a prospectus when companies sell through intermediaries ("retail cascade") be clarified?
The obligations attached to "retail cascade" offers need some clarification. A retail cascade typically occurs when securities are sold to investors (other than qualified investors) by intermediaries and not directly by the issuer. In particular, it is unclear how the requirement to produce and update a prospectus, and the provisions on responsibility and liability, should apply when securities are placed by the issuer with financial intermediaries and are subsequently, over a period that may run to many months, sold on to retail investors, possibly through one or more additional tiers of intermediaries. This may increase costs for issuers and intermediaries resulting in certain cases in duplication of disclosure requirements. A valid prospectus, drawn up by the issuer or the offeror and available to the public in the final placement of securities through financial intermediaries or in any subsequent resale of securities, shall provide sufficient information for investors to make informed investment decisions.
Therefore, financial intermediaries placing or subsequently reselling the securities should be entitled to rely upon the initial prospectus published by the issuer or the offeror as long as this is valid and duly supplemented and the issuer or the offeror responsible for drawing up such prospectus consents to its use. In this case no other prospectus should be required. However, in case the issuer or the offeror responsible for drawing up such initial prospectus does not consent to its use, the financial intermediary should be required to publish a new prospectus. The financial intermediary could use the initial prospectus by incorporating the relevant parts by reference into its new prospectus.1.3 Will the definitions of qualified investor under the Prospectus Directive and of professional clients under MiFID be aligned?
The definition of qualified investors in the Prospectus Directive is different from the definition of professional clients set out in the Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID, see IP/07/1625 )) and investment firms cannot rely on their categorization for a private placement and thus benefit from the exemption in the Prospectus Directive. This creates complexity and costs for investment firms in case of private placements: a firm has to double check whether its professional clients are registered as qualified investors or it has to renounce to place securities within its professional clients. As the categories of qualified investors in the Prospectus Directive and of professional clients in MiFID target the same classes of experienced individual investors, for the purposes of private placements of securities, investment firms and credit institutions shall be entitled to treat as qualified investors those natural or legal persons that the firms consider to be professional clients in accordance with MiFID.1.4 Does the proposal clarify the rules on the obligation to supplement a prospectus and the exercise of the right of withdrawal?
Every significant new factor relating to the information included in the prospectus, which is capable of affecting the assessment of the securities and which arises between the time when the prospectus is approved and the final closing of the offer to the public or the time when trading on a regulated market begins, triggers the publication of a supplement to the prospectus. The current Prospectus Directive creates a certain degree of uncertainty in cases where the securities offered are also to be admitted to trading on a regulated market. The relationship between the "final closing of the offer to the public" and "the time when trading on regulated market begins" requires a clarification as to whether the requirement to supplement a prospectus ends with the start of trading of the securities on a regulated market irrespective of whether the offering period has finally closed. Therefore the proposal clarifies that the obligation to supplement a prospectus shall terminate at the final closing of the offering period or the time when trading of such securities on a regulated market begins, whichever occurs earlier.1.5 Does the proposal clarify the rules on the right of withdrawal?
Yes. Every time a prospectus is supplemented in the course of an offer, the Prospectus Directive grants investors a right of withdrawal of their previous acceptances. Such right can be exercised during a period no shorter than two days following the publication of the supplement. As the time frame for the exercise of such right is not harmonised, Member States have set different periods through national implementing legislation and, in the case of a cross-border offer, it is unclear whether the time frame set out in the national legislation of the home Member State of the issuer should apply or those stemming from the legislation of each of the Member States where the offer or admission to trading takes place.
This lack of common time frame increases the costs of legal advice. Therefore, when a prospectus is supplemented, the harmonization at EU-level of the time frame for the exercise by investors of the right of withdrawal of their previous acceptances will provide certainty to issuers making cross border offers of securities. Moreover, the proposal provides flexibility to issuers from countries with traditionally a longer time frame, enabling the issuers to extend voluntarily the term for the exercise of this right.1.6 Will retail investors be able to more effectively analyse the prospects and risks posed by a security before investing?
The prospectus regime provides a set of disclosure requirements in order to enable investors to assess securities and issuers. Moreover, the prospectus already requires a summary conveying the essential characteristics and risks associated with the issuer and the securities. This summary is in practice a key source of information for retail investors in their investment decisions. However, in order to enhance even more investor protection and assist retail investors in their investment decisions and to ensure comparability with a wide range of other investment products, the proposal requires the summary to be simple and comprehensible to the targeted investors. In particular, it should focus on the key information and it should not be restricted to any predetermined number of words. Moreover, the content of the summary should be determined in a way that ensures comparability with other investment products that are comparable to the investment proposal described in the prospectus. A more substantial summary document will strike a better balance between the need for investor protection and the need for comprehensibility for retail investors and it will help targeted retail investors to make informed investment decisions. A logical consequence of having a more substantial summary document is to attach civil liability on the basis of the summary not only if it is misleading, inaccurate or inconsistent, when read together with the other parts of the prospectus, but also if it does not provide key information enabling investors to take informed investment decisions and to compare the securities with other investment products.2. Proposals for the reduction of administrative burden on issuers and intermediaries raising capital in the Single European Securities Market
2.1 Will issuers of all non-equity securities be able to determine their home Member State?
The current Directive imposes a restriction on the choice of the "home Member State" for issues of non-equity securities. The choice is available only for debt securities with a denomination above €1.000 (issuers can choose supervisors among those Member States where the issuer has its registered office or where the debt is going to be admitted to trading on a regulated market or where the debt is offered to the public). Below this threshold the home Member State mandated by the Directive is the one where the issuer has its registered office.
The threshold of EUR 1 000 is causing practical problems to issuers of non-equity securities who may need to draw up several prospectuses for a single issue, i.e. one to cover a debt issuance program within the threshold and another for the remaining debt issuance activities which might exceed that threshold. Moreover, the threshold cannot apply to certain structured products which are not denominated. Therefore, in order to make the Single European Securities Market more attractive and competitive and in order to clarify the scope of the Prospectus Directive, the limitation on the determination of the home Member State for issues of non-equity securities with a denomination below EUR 1.000 shall be removed. Such a change would not create concrete risks in terms of investor protection because the characteristics of and the risks associated with debt securities do not depend on the denomination of the securities offered or traded in a regulated market. As a consequence of this proposal, the mechanism for the determination of the home and the host Member States in the Transparency Directive shall be amended accordingly.2.2. Will the exemptions for employee share schemes be clearer?
This current exemption in the Prospectus Directive specifically for offers of securities to employees does not apply equally to all employees, but creates a less advantageous situation for the employees of two categories of companies, namely third country companies that do not have a listing on a regulated market within the EU, and EU non-listed companies or EU companies that have securities traded on EU "exchange-regulated" markets. The exemption is not available to third country issuers that do not have a listing on a regulated market because the concept of regulated market is by definition limited to the EU, as provided for in MiFID, and it is equally impossible for EU non-listed companies or EU companies that have securities traded on EU exchange-regulated markets to satisfy this condition because once again they are not listed on a regulated market in line with the applicable MiFID definition. Therefore, the exemption relating to employee shares schemes should be widened in order to cover the employee shares schemes of companies that are not listed on a regulated market.2.3 Will some types of securities issue be subject to a more proportionate disclosure regime?
As said under question 4, the current "one size fits all" approach of the prospectus regime might be in certain cases too costly and not effective. Indeed, there are cases where a reduced amount of information may be justified without impairing the level of investor protection. This is the case for Rights Issues because existing shareholders have already made the initial decision to invest in the company and they should be familiar with it. Moreover, the disclosure requirements of the Directive might be overly burdensome and costly also for companies with smaller market capitalization in the case of offers of or above EUR 2 500 000, and for small credit institutions in the case of offers of non-equity securities referred to in Article 1(2)(j) of or above EUR 50 000 000. A proportionate disclosure regime corresponds better to the needs and size of small firms. However, this will need to be further specified at the Level 2 of the Lamfalussy process bearing in mind that the priority of this exercise will be to maintain a high level of investor protection regardless of the size of the issuer. Moreover, in relation to government guarantee schemes, as Member States publish abundant information on their financial situation and this is in general available to the public, there is no added value for investors in requiring the issuer to disclose in the prospectus information about Member States, as guarantors. Therefore, issuers of securities guaranteed by a Member State, when drawing up a prospectus according to Article 1(3) of the Directive, shall be entitled to omit information about such guarantors.2.4 Will the validity period of a prospectus, a base prospectus and a registration document be extended?
The current Prospectus Directive limits the validity of the prospectus up to 12 months after its publication for offers to the public or admissions to trading on a regulated market in order to avoid that it becomes outdated. However, as this document can currently be supplemented according to Article 16 of the Directive or currently updated according to Article 12 of the Directive, and considering the costs and the time for drafting and approving a prospectus, the current validity period of 12 months of a prospectus, a base prospectus and a registration document shall be extended to 24 months, provided they are properly supplemented.2.5 Will the disclosure requirements of the Prospectus Directive that currently overlap with the Transparency Directive be repealed?
Article 10 of the Prospectus Directive currently requires issuers with listed securities to provide annually a document containing or referring to all information published in the twelve months preceding the issuance of the prospectus. As the Prospectus Directive was adopted before the Transparency Directive, this requirement has now been superseded by the Transparency Directive, which provides for a comprehensive regime for the disclosure of information about issuers with listed securities, comprising the periodic financial information (annual and half-yearly financial reports, interim management statement) and the ongoing information (market abuse disclosures – i.e. inside information, information about major holdings, etc), and therefore it shall be repealed.2.6 How can the "passport system" and the notification of the certificate of approval become more effective?
The current Directive requires that the competent authority of the home Member State shall notify the host competent authorities the certificate of approval attesting that the prospectus has been drawn up in accordance with the Prospectus Directive. However, in practice, uncertainty has arisen for the issuers as to whether and when a notification has actually been effected. Therefore the proposal amends the notification procedure of Article 18 of the Prospectus Directive so that the competent authority of the home Member State shall at the same time notify also the issuer or the person responsible for drawing up the prospectus of the certificate of approval in addition to the competent authority of the host Member State. This will reduce costs and risks for the issuer or the person responsible for drawing up the prospectus who will have certainty that it has not inadvertently contravened the law by offering securities to the public in a Member State where the passport is not yet effective due to an oversight or error on the part of competent authority of the home Member State.
EU Prospectus DirectiveSource: European Commission


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Our safe and trustworthy drivers service the Fox Cities and surrounding areas including Brown, Calumet, Outagamie and Winnebago counties. We will even provide waste hauling services to extended areas upon request and approval.
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The University of Lahore admits students whose educational background is sound and who can achieve success in higher education. Applications received for admission in various programmers are reviewed by the concerned departments. The applicants are required to appear in admission test and interview. The final merit is determined on the basis of past academic performance, score obtained in the admission test and performance in the interview.
The academic programmes are spread over two semesters during each year. Total undergraduate programme is spread over eight semesters (four years). Graduate programs are taught for 2-4 years, keeping in view the type of degree. Each semester comprises of 18– 20 weeks, which includes one week of examinations. A short summer semester of 8 weeks is usually offered to cover special courses.Students who have completed all the formalities and deposited their fees and other dues on the prescribed date are eligible for registration. Each student,admitted on merit, is expected to take the full load of courses prescribed for the semester.
*The admission will be subject to passing the Law Admission Test (LAT) likely to be conducted by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HECP). http://hec.gov.pk/english/HECAnnouncements/Pages/LLB-Test.aspx
*Applicants, who have appeared in inter / degree level or pre-requisite level examination prescribed for admission in a programme and are awaiting results will be allowed to apply for admission, but they will be given admission only after they have submitted the attested copies of their certificates / degrees within three weeks of commencement of the semester.
*They will also be required to submit undertaking that they understand the rules/policy of the admissions and that if they fail to submit the required documents within the prescribed time, they will not be given admission
*For eligibility criteria reference may be made to each relevant programme / degree.
*Each successful applicant will be issued "Admission Letter" by the concerned department


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3/ Fresh nails 4/ All black OOTD
5/ Girl Gang (SD tee) 6/ Sketch art
7/ Cake at The Whitepepper 8/ LFW Day 1
9/ Hair braided by BLOW 10/ Converse HQ
11/ Killstar candle 12/ UNIF OOTD
13/ New hair by Not Another Salon 13/ Pre-Edeline Lee
This week brought the hecticity of London Fashion Week - I hate how it's always so last minute, wanted it to be over before it had even started! However, I did have a super fun time and got some great content for you guys. Now to focus on uni work again, ahh!


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The Lives and Loves of Samuel Clemens
The Singular Mark Twain: A Biography
Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years
"My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Everybody drinks water," Mark Twain observed, in a note. Was he bragging or complaining? Did he realize that two of his books, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Life on the Mississippi, were among the richest word-wines ever vinted in America? Long before the nineteenth century ended Mark Twain was a world figure—in the field of letters our only world figure. His white suit and white hair were recognized everywhere. He traveled widely and even had an honorary degree from Oxford, not to mention Yale and the University of Missouri. His cranky, abstemious admirer George Bernard Shaw went so far as to say that it was Mark Twain who taught him that "telling the truth was the funniest joke in the world." But did Twain's enormous success have much to do with truth-telling, or did he, like Shaw, treat truth like a bicycle that could be abruptly kicked aside when the author couldn't make it go as fast or far as he wanted it to go?
A huge herd of scholars, critics, and biographers have long been attempting to answer these and all other questions pertaining to Samuel Clemens/ Mark Twain. A walk past the Twain shelves in my bookshop or virtually any large bookshop is an experience likely to give even stout readers a sudden case of the languors: here's W.D. Howells, Albert Bigelow Paine, Van Wyck Brooks, Bernard DeVoto, Dixon Wecter, Henry Nash Smith, Maxwell Geismar—all these from the rapidly dimming past—plus a new wave cresting, I guess, with Justin Kaplan's Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain (1968, Pulitzer) and surging on through many short studies, the Clemens family memoirs, Twain's Letters (at last), monographs and critiques galore; and now the present bounty, which, besides Fred Kaplan's big biography and Karen Lystra's look at Twain's last years, include a very welcome reprint of Twain's Letters from the Earth,* an assemblage of diverse and sharply satirical odds and ends put together by Bernard DeVoto in the Thirties but withheld because of the objections of Clemens's surviving daughter, Clara. It finally saw light in the Sixties. Miscellaneous gleanings from the great archive at Berkeley will no doubt still be appearing decades hence.
There is much of value, both in critical insight and biographical discovery, in these many books, but they raise in the mind of at least this reader an awkward conviction, which is that Mark Twain is one of those authors who is, invariably, more interesting to read than to read about, which is far from being the case with every writer.
Frankly, it's day-to-day and touch-and-go whether I'd rather read Henry James or read about him. Ditto Joseph Conrad and, I fear, many other important writers—the drear fact is that many writers' lives are more interesting than their work, but this is not the case with Mark Twain, whose…
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Jonathan Mayhew, a third-generation fisherman from Martha's Vineyard, Mass., knows firsthand that a school of northern Atlantic bluefin tuna is a marvel to behold. A former spotter pilot, Mr. Mayhew used to routinely gaze down on schools of 60, 80, and sometimes 200 of these torpedo-shaped fish, each weighing many hundreds of pounds.
He also knows that schools of giant tuna are a rare sight these days.
"The stocks are not there," Mayhew says. "The biomass of bluefin that comes into the Gulf of Maine is either nonexistent, or it's going elsewhere."
Scientists concur. "Our giant fishery has disappeared," says Molly Lutcavage, director of the Large Pelagics Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, Durham. "The overfishing has gone on too long and it's finally taken down what was once a big fishery."
So far this year, fishermen have pulled in only 12 percent of the 1,533-ton US quota, the worst of several years of steeply declining catches. For US fishermen, the apparent collapse of a fishery once valued $19 million (it was valued at $3.3 million in 2006) is only the latest in a series of setbacks that make it tougher to make a living.
New information on just how far this migratory fish travels has scientists thinking that overfishing in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic may be depleting bluefin numbers closer to the US. Others think that, perhaps due to human-driven climate change, shifting conditions in the North Atlantic are further stressing already weakened stocks. Warning of collapse, many are calling for a moratorium on bluefin harvesting, both to allow stocks to rebound and to give scientists a chance to figure out what's happening.
"We had all these complicated regulations to control the fishery [that] seem to have largely failed," says Clay Porch, a research fishery biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in Miami. "Drastic measures need to be taken to put us back on track."
At stake is not just the continued existence of a remarkable fish, but a favorable resolution to a greater conundrum: Will humankind figure out how to sustainably manage nature's bounty before there's not much left to manage?
The answer, so far, seems to be no. Despite calls by US lawmakers and scientists for a moratorium on bluefin harvesting, the International Commission of the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which decides bluefin quotas, did not meaningfully lower quotas when it convened in November. (Acknowledging overfishing, the European Commission did ban bluefin fishing for the rest of 2007.) As in past cases where regulators didn't act in time, a multitude of competing interests – in this case the 42 countries that participate in ICCAT – forestalled greater, but necessary cuts, experts say.
With the fate of bluefin hanging in the balance, scientists are now calling for a more comprehensive and, presumably, effective "systems" approach, one that takes the entire ecosystem into account when setting fishing quotas.
"Nobody's really done it," says Don Perkins, president of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) in Portland. "And the regulatory system is not set up to consider an individual species from a multispecies perspective." But, he says, by necessity, that's where fishery management is headed.
Fisherman face an Atlantic divide
The warm-blooded bluefin, the largest of the tuna species, travels vast distances during its life. Living up to 30 years, adults fatten up in highly productive northern waters, like, historically, those in the Gulf of Maine, and then spawn in the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean.
Since the early 1980s, managers have treated North Atlantic bluefin as two separate populations: eastern and western. A north-south line that bisects the Atlantic divides the two stocks. Many scientists assumed a mere 4-to-5 percent exchange between eastern and western tuna. But "no fisherman that I know of ever believed for a second that the two-stock theory was viable," says Mayhew. Enabled by new tagging technology, studies conducted during the past decade substantiate Mayhew's hunch.
"Since the late '90s, we've confirmed that the mixing is much greater than assumed," says Dr. Lutcavage – up to 30 percent. The new evidence has US scientists worried about what's happening in the East, particularly in the Mediterranean. Even by European scientists' account, bluefin catches there are currently at unsustainable levels. The Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS) recommended a quota of 15,000 tons in 2007. But the ICCAT set the allowable catch at 29,500 tons. Worse, studies put the actual catch somewhere around 50,000 tons. And, says Lutcavage, while 73 inches (about 250 pounds) is the minimum harvest size in US waters, it was only 10 kgs (22 lbs.) in European waters until recently. In late November, ICCAT raised the minimum catch size there to 30 kgs (66 lbs.).
"If you're taking 70,000 metric tons [77,000 tons] and it's much smaller fish, the number of fish you're taking is much greater," she says. For each 250-pounder caught here, up to 10 were potentially removed there. Presumably, these fish never came west.
The Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean leave distinct chemical signatures on fish that swim their waters. A laboratory at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, is currently analyzing bluefin ear bones to better determine their origin, the results of which should be available early next year, says Dr. Porch.
Calls for a moratorium ignored
In October, meanwhile, Bill Hogarth, director of NMFS, called for a three-to-five year moratorium on bluefin fishing. In November, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling for the same. But despite warnings from both sides of the Atlantic that collapse was imminent, ICCAT implemented only a small reduction. By 2010, the eastern quota will drop to 25,000 tons yearly.
The World Wildlife Foundation called the decision the "final blow for Mediterranean tuna." Rich Ruais, executive director of the Blue Water Fishermen's Association in Salem, N.H., and an adviser to the American delegation to ICCAT, characterizes it as "an utterly preposterous inadequate response to the crisis at hand.... The European Community has just totally refused to address the issue."
The fault, he and others say, lies with tuna-farming interests in the Mediterranean. The recent boom in capturing and fattening tuna in mobile sea pens has created a powerful lobby worried about recouping its investment. "There's nowhere else to point the finger," Mr. Ruais says.
But other ocean anomalies have some thinking that eastern fishing fleets aren't the only stress on western tuna.
The few tuna that still swim the western Atlantic are showing up quite lean. "The quality of the fish that I've seen has definitely declined over the last few years," says Bob Campbell, manager of the Yankee Fisherman's Cooperative in Seabrook, N.H.
After analyzing 14 years' worth of Mr. Campbell's logbooks, Walter Golet, a PhD candidate in Lutcavage's lab, agreed. Bluefin "come here for one reason – they come here to feed," says Mr. Golet, who recently published his findings in the journal Fishery Bulletin. But "they don't seem to be obtaining the forage that they were getting 10 to 15 years ago." (This year, which was not included in the study, has seen a slight rebound in tuna quality, says Campbell.)
This thinning has some wondering about what bluefin eat, particularly herring, a keystone species in the northern Atlantic.
Herring biomass seems high, similar to the way it was before the advent of modern industrial fishing fleets in the 1960s. But both fishermen and conservationists consider this five-inch-long fish important enough that they've formed an alliance devoted to its protection. Known as CHOIR, the Coalition for the Atlantic Herring Fishery's Orderly, Informed, and Responsible Long-Term Development, has repeatedly called for large herring trawlers to leave New England waters. The coalition fears that if herring numbers greatly diminish, everything that feeds on them, from tuna to cod, will suffer.
Indeed, while herring biomass seems healthy, scientists have noted that an individual four-year-old herring is smaller than in the past. "The size at that age has decreased over the last decade or so," says Bill Overholtz, a senior scientist with NMFS in Woods Hole, Mass. The most obvious cause is the "density effect," he says: There are so many herring that each one eats less, making them smaller. And smaller herring could mean that feeding tuna have to work harder for each meal.
Climate change may shrink stocks
But some think that changing oceanic conditions driven, perhaps, by global warming, may be responsible for the tuna's woes. Warmer temperatures explain the abundance of young tuna in the Gulf of Maine. "These are fish normally found off the mid-Atlantic states," says Lutcavage. "Are these fish shifting north because of ocean warming?" (Mayhew says they've always been abundant, but they never return as adults.) Climate change could also explain why Canadian fishermen continue to catch bluefin while their US counterparts don't. "It may be that since herring and bluefin are associated with cooler water … those conditions are better farther north than they used to be," says Dr. Overholtz.
A warming Arctic could also be having a more direct effect on the food chain. In the late 1990s, the western North Atlantic saw an increased inflow of low-salinity water from, scientists think, melting ice and permafrost. (The influx seems to have tapered off more recently.) Andrew Pershing and Jeff Runge, two marine scientists who divide their time between the University of Maine in Orono and GMRI, suspect that the meltwater caused an algal bloom.
Weighing less than the surrounding ocean, the low-salinity water formed a distinct layer at the ocean's surface. Usually limited by churning water, the algae had increased access to sunlight in this relatively still layer. Small shrimp-like creatures called copepods then gorged on the algae, and grew in number. Herring fed on the copious copepods, and multiplied as well. But a decade later, "there are so many adult [herring] now that they're reducing their own food," says Dr. Pershing.
Another possibility: More arctic meltwater knocked the herring-copepod feeding cycle out of synch. Copepods have several stages of development. Not coincidentally, herring spawn when copepods are most fatty – or at least they used to. The freshwater pulses, and perhaps changing wind patterns, may have reduced the number of fat copepods when the herring arrive to feed.
"In the past few years, the abundance of these [fatty] copepods has been low," says Runge. "It may be [that] the numbers ... that are present when the herring need them is changing."
Runge has begun higher frequency plankton sampling from a greater number of sites in the hope of better gauging the climate-plankton link. He's also looking at how copepod and herring abundance relate. Pershing hopes to determine if the changes observed in the Gulf of Maine hold across a greater area. And Golet plans to analyze herring logs the way he did for tuna. Results indicating a decline in herring quality that jibes with other changes in the North Atlantic would greatly solidify these hypotheses.
But the greater story is one of what Perkins calls "a transition to a more systems approach to ecosystem management."
Take everything, from shifting currents and plankton blooms to tuna, sharks, and humans, into account when setting quotas, he says. Otherwise, "When you look at a species in isolation, you miss really important factors," he says. "You could miss the problem or construct a solution that hurts rather than helps."


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As station wagons go, the A6 Avant is pretty neat. Wagons are almost a thing of the past, but, thank goodness, Audi gets it that some buyers don't want a crossover, while some don't want to give up their cool just yet and buy a minivan.The A6 Avant combines luxury and function for a family on the go — and I do mean go. I knew the3.2-litre V6 engine had 255 horsepower, but something in my brain prevented me from recognizing that so many horses should translate into power.
After all, it is a station wagon, and the last one I sat in had wood on the sides and the rear glass slid down. I think it had 90 hp.The A6 Avant boots, while the quattro all-wheel-drive system was brilliant in the snow. I'd like to see an Audi versus Subaru all-wheel-drive test because these two automakers have it down perfect.
On several occasions, I was able to make it up snowy and icy hills without feeling wheelspin or sudden fishtailing. It acquitted itself around corners and was smooth on the highway at higher speeds.It's a good thing,too. With a base price of $62,800, one should expect a few guarantees– a quality ride should be one of them.Looking at the A6 Avant from the front doesn't provide any clue it's a station wagon.
Its low stance and aggressive lines scream sedan. It isn't until you move around to the side to discover that the roof doesn't disappear into a trunk that you realize there will be absolutely no problem getting your ski gear in this wagon.Sitting behind the wheel provides the same sense of speed and cool versus slow and frumpy.
Known for its excellence in design, Audi has styled the interior to stay true to its roots with a simple and clean interface.The Avant features Advanced MMI (Multi Media Interface), which controls a slew of operations usually found in the centre stack. Located just behind the shifter, it is easy to operate. After a week, I felt as comfortable with it as I do my television remote. With a few flicks of the dial, I could change radio stations, operate the navigation system and control the temperature.There should be no confusion — this station wagon doesn't need any wood trim on the side.


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Sutro Tower digital antenna conversion schedule
June 9th, 2009
As of 11:59 pm Friday, June 12th, all analog television transmissions will be discontinued. Stations will be broadcasting only digital signals. Sutro Tower stations will broadcast on the same antennas they are now using for digital transmission with the exception of KGO-TV Channel 7.
KGO-TV will broadcast on a new auxiliary antenna during some parts of the work day from Monday, June 15th through Wednesday, June 17th. Beginning Thursday, June 18th, KGO-TV will operate full time on the auxiliary antenna for 4-5 weeks while the old main analog antenna is removed and a new main digital antenna is installed at the top of the tower.
Since analog transmissions will be discontinued and KGO-TV operates at a much lower power than the other stations, the R-F exposure will be the same or lower than it is today.
After the new KGO antenna is installed, new main antennas will be installed at the top of the tower for the other stations. This may require some or all stations to operate on auxiliary antennas during some parts of some work days. You will be notified with a more specific schedule in a few weeks.
Before multiple stations begin using the auxiliary antenna, R-F exposure will be measured to insure levels are below Federal Communications Commission safety standards. You will be notified when these measurements are scheduled.
Gene Zastrow
General Manager, Sutro Tower Inc.
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized


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Game 2 advance; emphasis on starting pitchers.
Nobody ever accused him of being a rocket scientist -- OK, so a few people have -- but there's also no doubt that Curt Schilling is one of the most studious people in baseball. On days in between starts, Schilling devours video and scouting reports until his eyes turn red, so one can only imagine how what he's gone through this week. As he prepares for his start against the Colorado Rockies in Game 2 of the World Series on Thursday, Schilling has some personal files that could suit him well. Whatever he consulted prior to his June 13 start against them didn't help a bit. In that game, the Sox right-hander lasted only five-plus innings, giving up nine hits and six runs (five earned), including the Brad Hawpe three-run home run that led to nine straight runs by the 12-2 winners. It wasn't pretty. Schilling's explanation was simple. "They're good," he said Wednesday. "I mean, they were good. I would like to think it was a combination of not throwing well, not executing well, but that's a good team. They were a good team then and they swung the bats well then. "I've been watching that game and I certainly didn't command the ball well at all, but it's a pretty good offensive team. It's one of the few teams I think we've played over the last couple of years in the National League that was structured more offensively like an American League team with a lot of guys swinging the bats. And some guys as the season went on (started) coming into their own. The game I pitched, the change-up for the home run was kind of the back breaker. But that game, that series, I mean, in most senses has no effect on this series, other than maybe for them to get to know us a little bit and us to get to know them." Schilling faced Josh Fogg, who'll start Game 3 of the World Series, that night, and will go against rookie Ubaldo Jimenez this time around. Schilling has faced the Rockies 26 times in his career, going 11-6, 4.44, so he has the track record, but this is a different Colorado team-and this is certainly a different Schilling, who after physical problems from 2004-06 has had to completely alter his throwing style, going from power to finesse, and suffering the growing pains that go along with it. "Well, the frustrating part of it is gone," said the veteran. "That was part of getting to the point of using the stuff effectively, getting past the frustrating part of it, accepting the fact that I'll go out and get loose and whatever it is, it is, and whatever I have has to work. "You know, I think what it really has done is placed a lot more emphasis on the preparation aspect of it, and the amount of time and effort I have to put into watching video and going through the scouting reports, whereas before it might have been I'm not comfortable doing 'X' or 'Y,' I can throw my fastball here. Now it's having to find multiple ways to do things to different hitters, for a Todd Helton, for example, that I faced literally 80, 90 times." Actually, the Rockies first baseman has 59 plate appearances against Schilling, but he's also batted .333 against him, with five home runs and 11 RBI. Helton went 0-for-2 with a walk against Schilling in June, but when Schilling was relieved after loading the bases, the next batter-Helton-hit a bases-clearing double. "I'm a very different pitcher now," Schilling said. "He's a different hitter, but not that different. So whereas I used to be able to exploit with one pitch exclusively, now I've got to be able to use multiple pitches in different spots. I mean, the frustrating part of it went away during the second half, and now it really has become a matter of more preparation and more effort in the pregame stuff." "His preparation has always been off the charts," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "I've been with a lot of teams, but I haven't been with every team, so I can't comment on every pitcher. But Schill's preparation has always been phenomenal. That has never changed or wavered. If anything it's probably gotten better." One pitcher Francona could comment on was Jimenez. "He's got a good arm," he said. "Good stuff. Electric. You can prepare as much as you can prepare, but until you see a guy in a batter's box, there's something to be said for that." The only Red Sock who's ever faced Jimenez is Julio Lugo, who's 1-for-1 against him. "Jimenez is -- that stuff will be electric," said manager Clint Hurdle. "That's the kind of stuff that every once in a while you step back and you go, wow, that's special. He's shown some special poise for a young pitcher. And he's got good stuff. Any time you get a swing and miss pitch against a good offensive club and you're playing in a small park, that's important." As for Schilling, this is the most important start of his career for many reasons, not the least of which could be the fact that it could be the last in a Red Sox uniform. "I've thought about it," said the upcoming free agent. "I've had a couple starts now where it could have been my last one. It's not something beyond the initial disappointment of the possibility. I haven't really thought about it in depth. I'm playing in my fourth World Series and second as a Boston Red Sox, so I certainly have nothing to be upset about or regretful for." The Patriot Ledger


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Senate votes 50-0 on bill to help disabled veterans
A bill meant to further relieve the financial stress of disabled veterans in the state has won the unanimous support of the Iowa Senate.
The Senate voted 50-0 Tuesday to expand a homestead tax credit already in place for disabled veterans. The legislation now goes to the House for consideration.
Under current law, eligibility for the credit is limited to disabled veterans who have an income of $35,000 or less and have acquired their home through certain federal programs.
The proposal would make the tax credit available to disabled veterans regardless of income and how the home was purchased, and extend the credit to surviving spouses or children.
Sen. Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, says the bill is a small way to better help disabled veterans financially.


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45 degree mid depth bladed that runs 2' to 4'. Not many lures can claim to catch almost any fish that swims in fresh water. But Super Vibrax Spinners always have and always will. The flash and action of these lures is truly legendary.
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Running Time: 99 minutes
Released: 07/2017
Studio Name: Dark Alley Media
Series: Gang Bang Breeders
Director: I Que Grande
Description: For those dirty, slutty guys that never think one is enough and take as many big-cocked men that we can fit into one room. Joseph Rough, Billy Warren, Dylan Saunders, Kyle Ferris and Jackson Davis demonstrate what it really means to be a power bottom four scenes, twenty studs and buckets or cum-flooded holes.
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Starring: Billy Warren Luke Harding ... More Details
Stars: Billy Warren, Luke Harding, Killian James, Cody Winter
Sex Acts: Oral Sex, Male On Male Action, Masturbation, 3-Way, Anal Sex, Rim Job
Positions: Standing, Standing Missionary, Suspended/Inverted
Settings: Generic Room
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Starring: Jackson Davis Mario Cruz ... More Details
Stars: Jackson Davis, Mario Cruz, Saxon West, Brett Bradley
Sex Acts: Oral Sex, GangBang, Masturbation, Anal Sex, Rim Job
Positions: Kneeling, Laying, Missionary, Side Saddle, Standing, Standing Missionary, Standing Doggy Style
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Low(redirected from lowermost)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia.
In the context of general equities, this is a specific minimum limit required by a seller in execution an order ("I'll sell 50 with an eighth low."); implies a not-held limit order. Antithesis of top.
The smallest price of a stock over a given period of time, especially when the price has first been reached. That is, when a stock's prices have dipped below the previous record for a given period of time, analysts and reporters say that prices have reached "a new low." This is generally considered a bearish sign, especially when other indicators are also bearish.


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To begin, I will attempt to lay out the problem a little more thoroughly and give the theory behind the prototype.
In the case of the Institution, there is a set of machines that are behind a very robust firewall. This firewall allows VERY little to go through. As far as connecting out to the Internet, many things, including access to HTTP, FTP, secure shell, etc., are allowed. As far as connecting in, none of those are allowed.
You can imagine the firewall as a set of machines on the edge of our internal network. There is a lot of unsecured traffic within our internal network, which has both private networks and internet addressed clients within it. To be allowed to do any of the things that require a connection INTO the network from the Internet, a server allowing the connection must be on the periphery of the network (i.e. part of the firewall).
The desire has been to be able to access the internal network sufficiently to do work from home (on par with doing work in the office), but without opening up the firewall such that our unsecured traffic would be exposed to the Internet. There is also sensitive, internal data within the internal network that can be accessed, that should neither be copied to the home machine (laptop, etc.) nor printed at the home machine.
So the question becomes: how do you allow enough access to give certain people the ability to do their jobs from home and still protect the sensitive information and the network as a whole? Other security considerations that came up were:
The answer that came to my mind was to give the users a boot CD that they could place in a machine (whether at Uncle Joe's, their own house, or the internet cafe at the airport) and use to boot into their internal work desktop. The theory is that connecting to a server on the periphery of the network, which then gives them access to their desktop, is at least as secure as if they had accessed the network from their internal desktop, and that a great deal of control can be exercised over when and how that access is granted. Being a boot CD, no on-site OS configuration will be required, nor will extra precautions concerning malware, spy-ware, or viruses need to be taken. In the next section, Technologies, I will examine some of the ways this can be implemented, and in the Implementation section I will explain how we actually did it.


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Kaletra and Maraviroc in Antiretroviral Therapy (ART)-Naive Patients (KALMAR Study) (KALMAR)
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01068873
Recruitment Status : Terminated (Poor enrollment)
First Posted : February 15, 2010
Last Update Posted : June 6, 2014
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- No Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
|Condition or disease
|HIV Infections
|Drug: lopinavir/ritonavir plus maraviroc
|Phase 4
As patients with HIV are living longer it is important to explore antiretroviral treatments which may reduce the development of long term complications while preserving future HIV treatment options. This trial explores an antiretroviral treatment regimen which does not include the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor class which is thought to have long-term toxicity. This is a non-randomized, open label trial in participants meeting entry requirements.
Participants will be evaluated at screening, baseline,and weeks 4, 8, 12, 24, 36, and 48 to include clinical assessments as well as laboratory assessments.
An interim analysis will be performed when all patients have reached the week 24 visit.
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|1 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Single Group Assignment
|None (Open Label)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|Kaletra and Maraviroc in Antiretroviral Therapy-Naïve Patients - KALMAR Study -Version 1.0 Amendment 2
|Study Start Date :
|April 2010
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|June 2014
|Actual Study Completion Date :
|June 2014
Experimental: open label single arm
Drug: lopinavir/ritonavir plus maraviroc
Drug: lopinavir/ritonavir plus maraviroc
Lopinavir/ritonavir 400 mg/100 mg two tablets twice daily with Maraviroc 150 mg one tablet twice daily will be administered for 48 weeks to participants meeting entry criteria.
Other Names:
- Assess proportion of participants with HIV RNA levels <50 and < 400 copies/mL. [ Time Frame: week 48 ]
- Assess proportion of participants with HIV RNA < 50 and <400 copies/ml. [ Time Frame: week 24 ]
- Assess the proportion of participants at study termination with VL < 50 copies/ml. [ Time Frame: week 48 ]
- Determine the time to viral suppression (VL < 50 copies/ml). [ Time Frame: 48 weeks ]
- Determine the median change in VL from baseline to week 24, to week 48 and to study termination. [ Time Frame: week 24, week 48 ]
- Assess the changes in CD4+ T cell count. [ Time Frame: week 24, 48 ]
- Assess development of HIV resistance mutations and in HIV co-receptor tropism changes in participants who develop virologic rebound. [ Time Frame: week 48 ]
- Assess safety and tolerability including any lipid changes. [ Time Frame: week 48 ]
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- The patient has signed and dated approved informed consent form.
- There is confirmed laboratory diagnosis of HIV infection (positive ELISA HIV antibody test confirmed by Western blot, p24 antigen assay, quantitative HIV-1 RNA assay, or HIV culture).
- The patient is at least 18 years of age.
- ART-naïve, lopinavir/ritonavir susceptible on genotypic testing, CCR5-tropic virus on Trofile testing (ESTA).
- Negative pregnancy test within 72 hours prior to start of study for women of childbearing potential.
- Females of childbearing potential and males must utilize effective barrier contraception.
- HIV RNA greater than 1,000 copies per mL at entry.
- Liver enzymes (AST, ALT) < 3 times the upper limit of normal.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Patients who are pregnant or breast-feeding.
- Active alcohol or substance abuse sufficient, in the Investigator's opinion that makes compliance to the study protocol unlikely.
- Suspected or active HIV-related opportunistic infection or condition requiring acute therapy within 30 days of entry into the trial.
- Patients on therapy for hepatitis B.
- Patients with hepatitis B surface antigen, or any evidence of active hepatitis B such as positive hepatitis B DNA and/or presence of hepatitis e antigen or e antibody.
- Acute hepatitis B or C within 60 days of entry.
- Patients harboring preexistent co-receptor CXCR4 tropic or dual-or mixed-tropic HIV.
- Patients harboring HIV resistant to lopinavir/ritonavir on genotypic testing.
- The presence of decompensated heart failure, myocardial infarction within 1 year, bypass surgery, severe vascular disease, or active hepatobiliary disease.
- Concomitant use of rifampin, ergot derivatives (i.e. dihydroergotamine, ergotamine), cisapride, lovastatin, simvastatin, triazolam, orally administered midazolam, carbamazepine, phenytoin, St. John's wort, ketoconazole, itraconazole, clarithromycin, telithromycin, amiodarone, bepridil, flecainide, propafenone, quinidine, voriconazole or nefazodone.
- Patients with concomitant diagnosis of malignancy or cancer other than basal cell carcinoma within the past 5 years.
- Concomitant use of investigational agents including the use of any investigational vaccines.
- Any other clinical conditions or prior therapy that, in the opinion of the investigator, would make the patient unsuitable for study, or unable to comply with the dosing requirements.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01068873
|United States, Pennsylvania
|Temple General Internal Medicine
|Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19140
|Principal Investigator:
|Mary van den Berg-Wolf, MD
|Temple University
|Responsible Party:
|Stephanie Brictson, Administrator, Temple University
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|Other Study ID Numbers:
Temple IRB 12848
|First Posted:
|February 15, 2010 Key Record Dates
|Last Update Posted:
|June 6, 2014
|Last Verified:
|June 2014
Protease Inhibitor
CCR5 Co-receptor Antagonist
treatment naive
HIV Infections
Lentivirus Infections
Retroviridae Infections
RNA Virus Infections
Virus Diseases
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes
Immune System Diseases
HIV Protease Inhibitors
Protease Inhibitors
Enzyme Inhibitors
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
Anti-HIV Agents
Anti-Retroviral Agents
Antiviral Agents
Anti-Infective Agents
Cytochrome P-450 CYP3A Inhibitors
Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme Inhibitors
HIV Fusion Inhibitors
Viral Fusion Protein Inhibitors
CCR5 Receptor Antagonists


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UnNews:Paris Hilton found guilty of driving without valid license, sent to bed without supper
This article is part of UnNews, your source for up-to-the-microsecond misinformation.
5 May 2007
LOS ANGELES, California-- Earlier today, a Los Angeles judge sent a tearful Paris Hilton, the prominent heiress and star of an extremely blurry sex video, to bed without her supper as punishment for her driving drunk last week.
Last month, Hilton hopped in her car and shot off down the highway at 85 miles per hour. The trouble started when she attempted to change the batteries of her Cell phone, eat a hamburger, drink vodka, and drive at the same time. "I got confused," she said tearfully, "one of my songs came on on the radio, and I was so excited I lost track of what I was doing!"
The fact that one of her songs was on the radio, combined with the fact that she was drunk and choking on her cell phone caused her to lose control of her vehicle. She regained control, but only after having run over an entire girl scout picnic. As punishment, her license was revoked. However, only five minutes after her license was revoked, she hopped in her car again. She drove for a total of ten seconds before running over an old woman. She attempted to run from the scene, but couldn't get her seatbelt unbuckled because it was "too confusing".
So, she was put on trial for violating her probation for her previous traffic offense. The judge was 90 year-old Micheal Sauer. Hilton's principle claim was that she thought it was her fishing license that had been revoked. However, most of her testimony was difficult to understand, because through the majority of the trial she was eating a cheeseburger with fries and attempting to talk at the same time.
The judge seemed entranced by her testimony. However, he seemed to be shocked out of his trance when she got up and walked out of the room to order some more french fries to go with her hamburger. The jury passed a verdict of guilty, and all that was left to decide was her sentence.
"At first, we wanted to Spank her," says the judge, "but we decided that was a little too harsh. We were going to have her spend five minutes in jail, but she didn't want to have to walk to her cell because her thighs were killing her. Then, we decided to make her sit in a corner. But we decided against that, too, when we saw the horrified look on her young, innocent, multi-million dollar face. We ultimately decided to send her home without being able to finish her french fries. It seemed like an adequate punishment."
After the verdict was read, Hilton burst into tears, and her mother screamed at the prosecutors, "How could you do that to my little girl, you big lugs?!" Paris is reportedly extremely scarred by the horror of the verdict, and may not be ready to film another season of her hit show, The Simple Life.
Courtroom officials deny accusations that the heiress received special treatment, but these rumors of favoritism still are being circulated. They are fueled by the fact that Paris went on trial wearing a bath robe, and spent the entire trial sitting in a luxurious armchair, with a butler shining her shoes.
|This article features first-hand journalism by an UnNews correspondent.
- Gorman, Steve "Paris Hilton sentenced to 45 days in jail". Yahoo News, May 5, 2007


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Dear Gavin,
My sweet little boy. Time is going by so fast. It seems like I blinked and here you are already 6 months old.
|Rolled into a cute little ball of chunk!
You are such a happy little guy. You're generally a very smiley baby and only get upset when you're hungry or tired. You love to look at everything around you and watch what's going on. You especially love to watch your big sister hop around and do generally crazy things. You get the biggest smile on your face when she's around. And she generally likes you too, except when you grab her hair. You LOVE hair and are constantly grabbing any hair you can get your hands on.
You are growing so fast. At your 6 month checkup you weighed 16 pounds and are 27 1/2" long. You are rolling around like crazy these days and are constantly kicking your little chubby legs. I put you in your baby tent out on the deck the other day and ran inside to grab something. When I looked out the window to check on you I found you'd rolled right out of it! Oops! Guess your days of sleeping on the bed by yourself are over.
|Tying flies with Daddy
|Hanging out with Mommy
Love, Mommy


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Get DVD Talk Feeds
If Lockout sounds like a lost Escape From New York sequel, that's because it basically is, complete with a little wristband locator device telling Snow where his objective is. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if co-director/co-writers James Mather and Stephen St. Leger (with an assist from producer Luc Besson) wrote it as a dream project and eventually just changed the names. As such, there isn't really anything here in the way of story, just a character for the audience to enjoy and things or people he needs to retrieve.
To that end, Mather, Leger, and Besson offer us Pearce, who is a surprisingly perfect fit for the pseudo-Plissken role. I don't know how serious viewers consider Pearce to be, but he's just so right for the smart-ass action type that it's hard to believe he doesn't have a boatload of Lockout-style action under his belt already, evoking a healthy dose of Bruce Willis in addition to Kurt Russell, along with his own matter-of-fact charm. His Snow is a hero so likable that the audience will even let him get away with punching Emilie in the face when they have to blend in among MS-One's general population. Grace and the dependably slimy Peter Stormare are decent, but only Pearce really manages to make an impression.
Mather and Leger's directorial style is, in a word, fast. Fight scenes display a disappointing amount of modern shaky-cam, quick-cut nonsense, but the pair take speed to a new level: an early and mercifully short vehicular chase is a mess of CG and weird speed-ramping that makes it look as if Snow's driving 200MPH, and a major moment near the end -- you'll know it when you see it -- features maybe the fastest journey of characters from point A to point B the movies have ever depicted. It's almost like Besson demanded the directors challenge American ADHD by trying to beat them to the punch.
Then again, this might also be a result of Lockout's one glaring problem: the PG-13 rating. Like Taken, another Besson production, the film was shot with bits of violence that would've landed the film an R in the States, and these moments have been unceremoniously hacked out, leaving a film that feels like it's missing the exclamation points at the end of several sentences. Lockout is an entertaining film, and in theory I'd like to see more of them (more of Pearce's Snow, anyway), but it's hard to recommend paying full ticket price to see the film when a better version is waiting in the wings. It's enough to move the film from popcorn fun to on-the-fence prospect, but viewers in the mood for dumb fun and one-liners could still do worse.


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The Industry Playing Fields provide a visual performance forecast for 14 different industries in countries paired together in the Euro 2016 tournament.
Scoring the industries performance outlook
With the European football championship 2016 advancing into the Round of 16 and quickly moving towards the finals, we have produced Industry Playing Fields comparisons. These visual match-ups will analyse the industries performance forecast for countries which are paired together in the actual football tournament.
Atradius will provide a score for the match-ups, ranking the outlook for each sector as Bleak, Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent. The country with the better industry outlook compared to its opponent scores a goal, symbolised here by a football.
The Industry Playing Fields are available in the following languages: English and German, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian and Czech on our local websites.


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There are many great debates in the country today: Democrat vs Republic, Charter schools vs Public schools, Robert Frost vs E.E. Cummings, Lebron vs Kobe, McDonald's vs Burger King … the list goes on and on. We'd like to weigh in on one of the most important debates of our time: The SAT or the ACT?
College-bound students today are having this debate in numbers that their predecessors, ancestors, and older siblings never did. In part due to the ubiquity (SAT word!) of acceptance of either test, and in part due to the growing awareness of testing options, students are now more frequently asking themselves "which one should I take?" The answers are as varied as are the answers to all of the debates mentioned above, and as passionately defended. We're going to try to be the voice of reason and help you make the decision by providing as much information and perspective as we can. There are a lot of factors that go into making this decision, from what a particular school is looking for to what subjects the student excels in, but here's something else to consider: fee waivers. Or more specifically, what fee waivers do and do not include. Today's post will help you understand this often overlooked difference and how it might help make the difference for you.
SAT Fee Waiver:
- Allows registration for two administrations of the SAT and up to two for SAT Subject Tests at no fee.
- Fee waivers cannot be used for late registration (except for the October test) or for standby registrations.
- Includes a total of four flexible score reports (in addition to the 4 that come with regular registration) that can be ordered any time after you register.
- Also covers the fee for either the Question-and-Answer Service (QAS) or the Student Answer Service (SAS).
- Offers a discount for The Official SAT Online Course if you register online.
- Covers the international processing fee, if applicable.
- Covers the additional security fee for students testing in Pakistan or India, if applicable.
- Can include up to four application fee waivers at many colleges.
ACT Fee Waiver:
- Those who are eligible may use a maximum of two separate fee waivers.
- Only covers the basic registration fee for the ACT, including up to four college choices.
- Does not cover late registration fee, test date or test center changes, standby fee, etc.
Fee Waiver Throwdown Verdict: The SAT definitely has the ACT beat in terms of fee waiver perks, including comprehensive benefits, score reports, and additional resources. Check each site for eligibility requirements, and contact your high school counselor for more information!
If you want more information on the differences between the two test please sign up for one of our free events to chat with one of our test prep experts.


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Agency Mental Health Nurse
Sector: Nursing Care
Consultant: Sophie Wood
Salary: £25 - £37
Job Status: Temporary / Full Time
Seven Nursing is looking for a an experienced RMN to work within a fantastic private client outside the Halifax area.
The role:
You will be working closely with people who are suffering from various mental health conditions to help them recover from their illness and improve their general quality of life. This role includes assessing patients, providing care/support, developing risk assessments, administering medication, managing patient documents and all other general nursing duties.
Key Responsibilities:
- Working within a multidisciplinary team delivering patient-centred care, whilst promoting and supporting service users and carer involvement.
- Responding to the needs of patients in an honest, non-judgemental and open manner, respecting the rights of individuals and groups.
- Planning implementation and evaluation of care plans for individual patients with challenging behaviours.
- Working closely and effectively with colleagues and external agencies to ensure that clinical services are delivered to the highest standard and in accordance with current evidence-based guidance.
- Delegating actions according to role and responsibility, while adhering to the policies and procedures necessary.
- Complete admission and discharge procedures and ensure the safety of the unit via risk assessments and the management of these.
- Understanding and co-ordinating the escort of patients, ensuring numbers and skills mix and that staff are appropriately and fully briefed on their required role; carry out assessments prior to leaving the ward.
- Ensure all medication is safely stored and locked away.
- Preparing nursing reports for ward rounds, CPA, clinical reviews and Mental Health Review Tribunal Hearings.
Applicant Requirements:
Qualifications: A BSc (Hons) degree in mental health nursing.
Experience: 2+ years working as an RMN within in the UK.
Compliance: Up to date DBS and NMC registration. ALL MANDATORY TRAINING AND PMVA TRAINED.
Hours: 37.5 – 69 hours p/w.
Working with Seven Nursing:
Established in 2011, Seven Nursing is a leading provider of nursing professionals to Hospitals, Private Healthcare Organisations and Care Homes. We provide both locum and permanent solutions, working with nurses in band 5, all the way up to band 8D.
Seven Nursing is the recruitment service that guarantees experienced, qualified and available staff exactly when you need them. Our expert talent acquisition team seamlessly connect professionals to all areas of nursing; including General Nursing, Mental Health, CAMHS, Case Management, Intensive Care, Staff Nursing and everything in between.
After being shortlisted for multiple awards in 2018, we are proud of our nationwide reputation for providing a world-class recruitment service that is underpinned by honesty, integrity and attention to detail.
Refer a friend, family member or colleague for £250
If you're not the perfect match for this role, but you know a Nurse who is, help them find their dream job by referring them to Seven Nursing. As a little 'thank you' from us, you will receive £250 for every referral that is successfully placed into a new role.


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Jim Belushi is suddenly going very serious, and breaking out of a long-running lame comedy rut might be the best thing that ever happened to him.
The "SNL" performer is returning to the drama side with a CBS pilot "Defenders."
The project, from CBS Studios, centers on two charismatic and fiery Las Vegas defense attorneys who go to the mat for their clients, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In a sign that the world is not turning on its head, Belushi will work familiar territory as one of the attorneys with marital problems who drinks his sorrows away.
Belushi has been slumming it in the ABC family sitcom "According to Jim" which hasn't exactly enhanced the Belushi comedy name. But he had a brief and bald-headed serious moment in Roman Polanski's "Ghost Writer" where he displayed more bite than he's shown in years. He was almost unrecognizable not only in his features, but also in snarl.
Long may that continue.


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With stroke of the pen inside Springfield�s City Hall Monday, Gov. Deval Patrick established a requirement that utility companies fix and closely monitor what state Rep. Lori Ehrlich, D-Marblehead, and others have long urged is an epidemic of�leaky gas pipes, which pose a statewide public-safety hazard.
Under the law, Grade 1 leaks, those determined to pose an immediate danger, will now be fixed without delay. Grade 2 are to be repaired within the next 12 months and Grade 3 pipes will undergo �re-evaulation,� according to the Patrick administration.
The law is the first of its kind in the U.S. It�is expected to have broad implications beyond the repair of approximately 25,000 identified leaks and the monitoring of about 5,700 miles of pipe.
�This law will ensure public safety, protect the environment and reduce the cost of utilities,� Patrick said in a statement.
Top priority will be given to leaks within a 50-foot radius of any school.
�This law is a big step forward on public safety in nearly every neighborhood in Massachusetts,� said Ehrlich, who had filed bills to address gas leaks each session since 2010. Her four years of persistence finally brought results Monday.
She continued, �I�m thrilled we are compelling gas companies to track their own leaks in a more transparent and uniform way.�
Ehrlich said she filed her initial bill upon learning that the gas industry was not devoting adequate resources to upgrading and replacing the state�s archaic infrastructure.
Replacing and repairing pipes over the next 20 years is expected to spur job growth, save ratepayers tens of millions of dollars and reduce environmental degradation.
State Rep. John Keenan, D-Salem, noted the legislation �encourages improvement of natural-gas distribution� infrastructure, �which will help many households and small businesses lower their energy bills by taking advantage of a cleaner, cheaper energy source.� Keenan, House chairman of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, and Ehrlich have sparred over Footprint Power�s plans to construct a gas-fired power plant in Salem but found common ground on the gas-leaks issue.
Under the law, utility companies will be required to submit plans that include timelines for addressing ailing pipes. Thereafter, every five years, they will provide summaries of leaks they have fixed and detail ones scheduled to be fixed within the next five years.
The state will also levy fines on utility companies that violate federal �gas-pipeline safety� statutes, enforced by the Massachusetts Department of Utilities. Companies can now be fined between $100,000 to $200,000 per violation, up to $2 million.
While lauding the new law, some say crucial provisions were removed during negotiations between the House and Senate, most notably a requirement that the least serious, Grade 3 leaks be fixed.
Joel Wool of the self-declared nonpartisan environmental organization Clean Water Action Massachusetts, said the law rightfully prioritized the most hazardous leaks but ignores lower-level ones.
�This is progress, but we�re hardly finished,� he said. �Gas leaks are a significant source of global warming.�
Until there is a more comprehensive plan to address the entire gas infrastructure, �companies will continue to bill ratepayers� for gas that escapes through leaks, which also negatively impacts the environment, Wool added.
Mark McDonald, president of the New England Gas Workers Association, had similar tempered enthusiasm for the new law.
�We got something to work with here, and it�s a good start,� McDonald said.
Yet, McDonald argued that the new law should have required Grade 3 leaks to be fixed. He would have also liked to have seen companies be forced to divulge to the public the location of leaks and conduct �gas patrols�during the winter.
Because those provisions were removed, the public remains vulnerable to explosions, he argued. However, he praised Massachusetts officials for having gone further to address the issue than anyone else.
�This is now the only place where gas leaks are regulated under state law,� he said.
Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey, who has filed federal legislation modeled after the new state law, called Ehrlich�s bill visionary.
�My federal legislation reflects Rep. Ehrlich�s bill, and I hope that my colleagues in the U.S. Senate will follow the lead of the Massachusetts state Legislature and Governor Patrick,� Markey said on Tuesday. �We should take this incredible Massachusetts leadership and expand it to the entire country.�
Gas-leak bill becomes law
With stroke of the pen inside Springfield�s City Hall Monday, Gov. Deval Patrick established a requirement that utility companies fix and closely monitor what state Rep. Lori Ehrlich, D-Marblehead, and others have long urged is an epidemic of�leaky gas pipes, which pose a statewide public-safety hazard.


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First Galileo satellite to be presented at ESA/ESTEC
ESA PR 49-2005. Galileo, Europe's novel satellite navigation system, is getting ready for launch, preparing the way for the delivery of a new and advanced global civil positioning service for the benefit of citizens in Europe and worldwide.
The first two satellites in the Galileo constellation, two experimental trail-blazers dubbed GSTB-V2/A and GSTB-V2/B, are at an advanced stage of preparation, ready to make the first step (*) under the In-Orbit Validation phase of the Galileo programme. Both are currently in the last-tests phase before commencing their mission into orbit. The first, GSTB-V2/A, is at present undergoing its final environmental test campaign (solar simulation, acoustic and vibration checks) on the test facilities at ESA's ESTEC centre in Noordwijk (The Netherlands). The second, GSTB-V2/B, is undergoing its final integration tests at the Alenia Spazio facilities in Rome (Italy).
The two launches will be performed by a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome, the first by the end of 2005. The second launch is planned for later on in 2006.
On Tuesday 9 November, media representatives will have a unique opportunity to get an in-depth Galileo background briefing given by several experts. After the briefing, Ms Karla Peijs, Dutch Minister of Transport, Public Works & Water Management, and Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's Director General, will share with the media an opportunity to see the first spacecraft at ESA's Test Centre at ESTEC. At the same time, Minister Peijs will announce the chosen names of the two experimental satellites.
The programme at ESA/ESTEC will include:
|Arrival and registration at ESA/ESTEC
Opening address
(Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General)
|"ESA - Discovery and Competitiveness" (video)
ESA's Navigation programmes
(Giuseppe Viriglio, ESA Director of European Union and Industrial programmes)
Galileo: Europe's vision becoming a reality"
(Representative of the Galileo Joint Undertaking)
The Galileo In-Orbit Validation phase
(Javier Benedicto, Galileo project manager)
|Questions & Answers
|Buffet lunch
ESA Director General welcomes Ms Karla Peijs,
Minister of Transport, Public Works & Water Management, The Netherlands
|Address by Minister Peijs
"The EU perspective"
(François Lamoureux, Director General for Energy and Transport, European Commission)
|Visit to inspect the first European navigation satellite at the ESTEC Test Centre and official name-giving ceremony
|Interview opportunities with the Minister and senior ESA staff
|End of event
Media representatives wishing to attend are kindly requested to fill in the attached Registration Form and fax if back to:
ESA/ESTEC Communication Office,
Fax. + 31 71 565 57 28 (Phone + 31 71 565 3006)
by Friday 4 November.
(*)This "first step" in the Galileo programme is known as the Galileo System Test Bed (GSTB) and comprises the launch of experimental satellites to secure the frequencies allocated to Galileo by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to test in-orbit-critical technologies and the novel navigation signals specifically developed for this programme.
For further information:
Dominique Detain
D/ EUI Communications Manager
+ 33 (0) 1 53 69 77 26
+ 33 (0) 1 53 69 7286 (fax)
ESA/ESTEC Corporate Communication Office
Phone + 31 71 565 3006
Fax + 33 1 71 565 5728
Background Note for Editors
The GSTB-V2/A satellite currently undergoing tests at ESA/ESTEC is being developed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (UK). It is intended to fulfil the following main objectives: securing frequency filings, validation of key technologies such as rubidium clocks, characterisation of the orbital environment and signal experimentation using two transmission channels in parallel.
GSTB-V2/B, which is intended to fulfil similar objectives, is being developed by Galileo Industries, a European consortium including Alcatel Space Industries (F), Alenia Spazio (I), Astrium GmbH (D), Astrium Ltd (UK) and Galileo Sistemas y Servicios (E). The satellite provides for complementary features such as a passive hydrogen maser clock and transmission using three simultaneous transmission channels.
The Galileo programme is being implemented in three phases:
- Definition
- Development and In-Orbit Validation
- Full Deployment and Operations
The In-Orbit Validation phase will be completed by deploying a constellation of four satellites (the minimum number required to guarantee the exact position/time at test locations) along with the provision of a number of associated ground stations. After that, the Full Deployment phase will cover the manufacturing and launch of the 26 additional satellites and the completion of the ground segment, an extensive network of stations and service centres.
Galileo is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the European Space Agency. It is the first satellite positioning and navigation system specifically designed for civilian purposes and will offer state-of-the-art services with outstanding performance in terms of accuracy, integrity, continuity and availability.