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Student Ratings of Professors Are Not Gender Blind
Susan A. Basow, Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042 (written 1/94)
Copyright 1994 by Susan A. Basow.
Student ratings of professors may be biased against women in subtle but significant ways.
This is not the result reported by most field research, however, as Peter Seldin has noted ("The Use and Abuse of Student Ratings of Professors," Chronicle of Higher Education, July 2, 1993). The typical study finds that the average rating of all male instructors does not differ significantly from the average of all female instructors at most colleges. This is a very reassuring finding; it is also deceptive because most studies ignore the gender of the students doing the evaluations, the disciplines involved, and the fact that female professors are often judged on a double standard.
Researchers who consider the gender of the rater find a more complex pattern. The ratings of male professors are unaffected by student gender, but female professors frequently receive lower ratings from their male students and higher ratings from their female students. Female professors also appear to be evaluated according to a heavier set of expectations than are male professors and these expectations affect student ratings.
Research conducted at Lafayette College, a small liberal arts institution in Pennsylvania, demonstrates these complexities. In one study (Basow and Silberg, 1987), 16 female professors were matched with a male professor in the same division, at the same rank, and with the same number of years at the college. More than 1,000 students in classes taught by these 32 professors filled out two questionnaires. One was a standard student rating form consisting of 26 questions, summarized into five factor scores (scholarship, organization/clarity, instructor-group interaction, instructor-student interaction, and dynamism/enthusiasm) and an overall rating. The second (the Bem Sex Role Inventory) asked students to rate their professor on two sets of personality traits: instrumental (such as assertive or dominant), often viewed as "masculine," and expressive (such as warm or nurturant), often considered "feminine."
The results revealed a consistent pattern. On all five factor scores and the overall rating, male students rated female professors more negatively than they rated male professors--and generally more negatively than did female students in the same class. This type of interaction between the gender of the student and the gender of the professor has been found in laboratory research, but less frequently in field studies, which typically neglect to ask the gender of the student rater or fail to match professors on important variables like rank and discipline.
More recent research conducted at Lafayette College confirms the effect of gender variables on these evaluations. A study of student ratings of all professors in all classes over four years reveals that male faculty were evaluated similarly by their female and male students on virtually all questions, but female faculty were evaluated differently by their male and female students--especially female faculty in the humanities and social sciences, and particularly on certain questions.
In general, female faculty received higher ratings on questions addressing interactions with students (for example, "treats students with respect"), but female students rated female faculty even higher than did male students. On questions tapping teaching style (such as, "speaks in an appropriate manner"), female faculty tended to be rated higher than their male counterparts by their female students but lower by their male students.
Few college promotion and tenure committees look at responses to specific questions, however. They usually just review the overall rating, which appears on the surface to be unaffected by teacher gender. However, when we examined student gender and course division (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences), we found that teacher gender affected student responses regarding overall effectiveness. Male students tended to rate female faculty lower, while female students tended to rate female faculty higher on this question, especially in the humanities and social sciences. Thus, certain women professors may indeed receive ratings affected by their gender.
How should we interpret these findings? First we must understand that in college teaching, males are the norm. Men are professors, women are women professors. Thus women are marked for gender in ways men are not. Indeed, students appear to respond to male professors in a uniform manner, regardless of their own gender. Students respond differently to female professors, however, perhaps because women faculty are still a minority (less than 30% of all full-time faculty are women).
Furthermore, stereotyped expectations of women (for example, to be nurturant and warm) overlap very little with expectations of professors (for example, to be knowledgeable and competent). However, stereotyped expectations of men coincide with what we expect of professors.
Research documents that people who violate expectations generally are rated more negatively than people who behave as expected. To receive good evaluations, male professors simply must demonstrate their competence and knowledge; that is, they need to fulfill their stereotypical gender role expectations. But female professors bear a double burden: they must fulfill both their gender role by being nurturant and warm, as well as their professional role by being competent and knowledgeable.
For example, separate studies led by Sheila Bennett and Anne Statham found that women professors are judged more negatively than males if they are not more interested in and available to students than male professors. But even when women professors are more available and more helpful, their overall ratings are no higher. In order to receive comparable ratings, female professors need to do more than their male counterparts. Thus, findings of no difference between male and female professors in overall ratings may mask the fact that different standards are being used to judge male and female faculty.
In the Basow and Silberg study, female faculty who received low ratings on instructor-student interaction also got low marks on gendered personality traits, suggesting that they may not have fulfilled the double set of expectations placed upon them. In the more recent research, the higher ratings of female faculty on several interpersonal questions did not always translate into better overall ratings, especially when the rater was male. Again it seems that in order to receive comparable overall ratings, women professors must be better interpersonally when compared to their male counterparts.
Why do male students tend to rate certain female faculty more poorly than male faculty? Male students may be more influenced by gender stereotypes than are female students. Research documents that men, compared to women, hold more traditional attitudes toward gender roles and demonstrate more bias against gender-role violators. In the Basow and Silberg study, males majoring in business and economics or in engineering rated female faculty most negatively. We found that those students have the most traditional attitudes toward women and gender roles.
Ratings may also reflect gender differences in preferences regarding teaching style. Female students may appreciate a warmer and more involved interpersonal style, as perhaps found in their female teachers, whereas male students may appreciate a cooler interpersonal style but more displays of scholarship, as perhaps found in their male teachers.
The effects of gender on student ratings of professors are complex but real, and should not be dismissed with a general statement of "no effect." Although small on average, these effects may be quite marked for specific teachers. For instance, a female teacher whose direct teaching style lacks marked warmth or friendliness may find the cards stacked against her when teaching male students in a field where women are a rarity.
Studies at a wider range of institutions will help scholars better understand how and when gender factors affect student ratings, particularly teacher gender in interaction with both student gender and divisional affiliation. Until then, those of us who evaluate female faculty must be alert to the various and subtle ways in which gender bias can affect perceptions and evaluations.
Basow, Susan A. (1994). Student evaluations of college professors: When gender matters. Manuscript in preparation.
Basow, Susan A., and Silberg, Nancy T. (1987). Student evaluation of college professors: Are female and male professors rated differently? Journal of Educational Psychology, 79 (3), 308-314.
Bennett, Sheila. (1982). Student perceptions of and expectations for male and female instructors. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 170-179.
Statham, Anne, Richardson, Laurel, and Cook, Judith. (1991). Gender and University Teaching: A Negotiated Difference. SUNY Press.
People are welcome to make use of this essay as long as they cite author and title.
Susan A. Basow, Psychology Dept.
Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042-1781
Bitnet: firstname.lastname@example.com
Internet: email@example.com
Re: Susan Basow's remarks about sex bias.
From: Michael Scriven
Good to keep an eye on this possibility, but two cautions:
- Finding small differences here can't be taken into account unless there's comparable research on all other types of bias, e.g., with respect to age (a serious one), race (ditto), good looks (allegedly but probably not serious). For example, it's a common feeling among elderly male profs that they are at an unfair disadvantage in humanities courses against young female profs (partly but not only because the latter tend to have more female students). Otherwise, it seems to me that if one applied an across the board correction, women would be receiving differentially favorable treatment, though the logic for that conclusion needs careful examination. But, in very special cases (woman engineer teaching first year courses is the usual case), this possibility should be addressed.
- Small differences in overall ratings should absolutely never be given any importance, partly because small differences may be due to bias of one kind or another. In the first place, evaluation of teaching should not be done solely on the basis of student ratings. It should include knowledge of content, out of class contributions to curriculum committees, technical quality of tests and marking procedures (blind grading, etc.), grading distribution (in extreme cases only), etc., etc.
- None of this research is worth much unless it is done with respect to a defensible rating form. There are few of those, for the reasons I've alluded to here, e.g., because most of them include references to teaching style (enthusiasm, small groups, advance organizers, etc.) and that makes them almost totally invalid, because of contamination by that question (cf. interviews where just one personal-life question is raised, whether or not it is answered).
So I think research on bias should continue, should be extended to other serious types of bias, and that the first line of protection is requiring big differences to justify any action or award. But until it's done on good forms, it's extremely hard to judge whether it calls for a change in policy e.g., a correction factor.
Last modified 2005-01-19 01:17 PM


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On 6/1/05, Zeugswetter Andreas DAZ SD <ZeugswetterA(at)spardat(dot)at> wrote: > You could create a separate bufferpool per page size. Of course that > has other disadvantages. > > Is it really so difficult to create and attach another shmem segment ? Well, I don't think it is much different from having two database clusters, each with different block size. Hmm, perhaps it could be possible to make them all available through one "virtual" DB host/port using pg_pool even. :) It shouldn't be too difficult to create benchmarks testing performance of PostgreSQL under different block sizes, I guess. I wonder what perfromance win is possible... Regards, Dawid
Next: From: Simon Riggs Date: 2005-06-01 12:03:25 Subject: Re: NOLOGGING option, or ? Previous: From: Simon Riggs Date: 2005-06-01 11:54:19 Subject: Re: NOLOGGING option, or ?

subset: commoncrawl


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Today is Monday, Feb. 13, the 44th day of 2012. There are 322 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Feb. 13, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was officially declared winner of the 1860 presidential election as electors cast their ballots.
On this date:
In 1542, the fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery.
In 1741, Andrew Bradford of Pennsylvania published the first American magazine. "The American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies" lasted three issues.
In 1945, during World War II, Allied planes began bombing the German city of Dresden. The Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans.
In 1961, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York announced that three statues in its collection, supposedly Etruscan terra cotta warriors, were, in fact, forgeries.
In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, allied warplanes destroyed an underground shelter in Baghdad that had been identified as a military command center; Iraqi officials said 500 civilians were killed.
Ten years ago: John Walker Lindh pleaded not guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Va., to conspiring to kill Americans and supporting the Taliban and terrorist organizations.
Five years ago: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney officially entered the 2008 presidential race in Michigan, the place of his birth.
One year ago: Egypt's military leaders dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and promised elections in moves cautiously welcomed by protesters who'd helped topple President Hosni Mubarak. Today's Birthdays: Former test pilot Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager is 89. Actress Kim Novak is 79. Actor George Segal is 78. Actress Carol Lynley is 70. Singer-musician Peter Tork (The Monkees) is 70. Actress Stockard Channing is 68. Talk show host Jerry Springer is 68. Actor Bo Svenson is 68. Singer Peter Gabriel is 62. Actor David Naughton is 61. Rock musician Peter Hook is 56. Actor Matt Salinger is 52. Singer Henry Rollins is 51. Actor Neal McDonough is 46. Singer Freedom Williams is 46. Actress Kelly Hu is 44. Rock musician Todd Harrell (3 Doors Down) is 40. Singer Robbie Williams is 38. Rhythm-and-blues performer Natalie Stewart is 33. Actress Mena Suvari is 33.
Thought for Today: "An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason." -- C.S. Lewis, English author (1898-1963).
(Above Advance for Use Monday, Feb. 13)
Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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Here's My Urine, So Call me Melky
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text: Dear all, MIRA V3.4.0 has been released at SourceForge. http://sourceforge.net/projects/mira-assembler/ The highlights of this version in marketing compatible keywords (and exclamation marks) on one slide: ========================== |- faster! | |- better! | |- IonTorrent! | |- PacBio! | |- more utilities! | |- better documentation! | |- update is for free! | ========================== For all others, here's the somewhat more verbose version: development of the 3.4 series of MIRA concentrated on making assemblies with 30m to 100m reads more "liveable", i.e., reduce memory and disk footprint of MIRA as well as improving run-times. At the same time, an updated assembly strategy both for genome and EST / RNASeq data was devised to reduce the influence of chimeras and intronic data on the assembly. Also MIRA is now pretty smart in handling de-novo Solexa projects with "low coverage" (<30x) as well as "high coverage" (>= 100x). While we are at it: default parameters for Solexa de-novo were adapted to work with at least 75mers. While doing de-novo assembly with smaller read lengths is still possible for MIRA, the whole concept of ultra-short-read de-novo assembly is a silly idea in the first place. So don't do it ... the additional cost for >= 75mers is peanuts on HiSeq. The new ability to handle IonTorrent data also made its appearance in MIRA as implementing support for this kind of sequencing technology was comparatively simple and straight forward. MIRA supports all kind of read lengths presently on the market (100bp, 220bp) out of the box, but longer read lengths should not pose a problem. Current IonTorrent data behaves very much like early 454 GS20 reads and I am curious whether Life will be able to perform the same length and quality improvement within 12 month like 454 did in 2006. Time will tell. For PacBio, results are a mixed bag: CCS reads as well as error-corrected CLR data works extremely well with MIRA, at least I'm happy how the E. coli C227-11 demo data from the PacBio DevNet gets assembled. I suppose MIRA will still need to get a couple more rules regarding the error profile of those reads, but I'll be able to do that only once I've seen more data. What does not work at all at the moment (and causes me some terrible headache) are the CLR reads: those with an accuracy of only 80% to 85%. I'm not sure how to tackle them efficiently. For mapping assemblies, many smaller and bigger improvements ease the daily life and improve results with those data sets. Exemplarily named should be improved mapping quality of reads in highly repetitive regions of a genome when the reference sequence is not optimal as well as the new ability to load backbone sequences and annotation from GFF3 format files (saving will follow shortly). Quality control and automated clipping has been another focus in the past few months. Notable developments there are automated clipping of known adaptors in Solexa and IonTorrent data, improvements in the detection and avoidance of chimeric reads and a some new automated editing algorithms which edit away pretty clear cases of sequencing errors. Regarding utilities, 'convert_project' has been revamped to be able to convert large assembly or data files with less memory. It also got a number of new options to get even more use cases covered. The new tool 'mirabait' enables to quickly extract reads based on matching k-mers from a huge data set. For detailed changes, please consult the src/mira/CHANGES_old.txt file in the source distribution. Reports for any error, unusual behaviour or inconsistencies in the documentation are gladly accepted via the usual channels. Have fun with MIRA, Bastien


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Celebrate National Chocolate Ice Cream Day – Take 10% Off Your Order or Get a Baskin Robbins Card Worth 10% of Your OrderJune 4, 2012 No Comments
Everybody loves ice cream! Who doesn't? This frozen dessert made from milk and cream is no doubt one of our favorite desserts. No one can beat the delectable taste only ice creams can bring, be it vanilla, strawberry, butter pecan flavor or that irresistible chocolate flavor. In fact, over ninety percent of the people in […]Tags: chocolate ice cream day, HP toners, national chocolate ice cream day, TonerBoss Coupons, tonerboss promosFeatures


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By Tom Woods
Master Gardener
Soon you will begin to see containerized fruit trees at your garden center, nursery and co-op. There are many varieties, and you will be confronted with how to choose the right tree for you in your home landscape.
Susan Brown
Horticulture Extension Agent
The holidays are here and stores are packed with people trying to find that perfect gift. In the spring, I spend all my money on outdoor plants for my garden. Once the weather changes, I start to purchase indoor plants.
Cheryle Jones Syracuse
Family and Consumer Science Staff
NC Cooperative Extension
Brunswick County Center
Well, we're in the home stretch now...past one holiday and heading fast toward the New Year. This is the week that people think about making resolutions to get the New Year off on the right track.
Many resolutions tend toward heath issues with vows to lose 50 pounds, stop eating fast food or quit smoking. While admirable goals, they are almost impossible to reach and usually quickly forgotten.
By Myra Burgess
Family Nutrition Program Assistant
Expanded Foods & Nutrition Program
County Cooperative Extension
Winter can be a drab, blah time in the garden but it certainly doesn't have to be. In spring and summer, it is easy to find color for any spot in your landscape. There aren't many plants that bloom this time of year. To add interest during the off-season, focus on interesting textures, colors and shapes.
By Cheryle Jones Syracuse
Family and Consumer Science Staff
NC Cooperative Extension
Brunswick County Center
It has finally started to cool down and look and feel more like winter. It is not quite time to throw in the towel though, if you enjoy gardening. Winter containers can be a great challenge, but a rewarding one. Containers can provide year-round interest, depending on the plants you choose.
By Tom Woods
Master Gardener
We are blessed in North Carolina to have a long growing season and a climate that allows us to grow a lot of small fruit in our home orchards. One of the easiest to grow is blueberries.
It is not only possible to raise blueberries for their fruit, but it also possible to use blueberries as a landscape plant.
By Cheryle Jones Syracuse
The holiday season can put people at risk for foodborne illnesses. Refrigerators and dining rooms are full, parties and celebrations are plentiful and some of the foods we only prepare once a year, challenging even the most experienced cook.
Test your food safety knowledge by answering the following true or false questions.
Copyright © 2017
The Brunswick Beacon is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Brunswick County, North Carolina and surrounding areas.


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A total of 15 others were injured when the vehicle travelling between the capital, Lima, and the city of Pucallpa fell 50m (165ft) into the Yurac river.
A bus company spokesman said the accident, in the region of Ucayali, may have been caused by very heavy rain.
Observers say bus crashes are common in the Andean nation, where drivers often travel at speed around mountain curves.
The rescue operation was difficult because of continued downpours, an unnamed police official in Aguaytia, the scene of the accident, told Reuters news agency.
Workers are said to have pulled victims from the submerged bus after the accident on Sunday.
"It was difficult to get them out... from among
the mangled metal bars," the official added.


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Letter to Angie
A version of this letter was printed in the Rock Island Argus on September 15, 2009
College president's advice to daughter: Learn to ask the Really? questions
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In this uncertain and rapidly changing world, parents ask me as a college president what advice they should give their children as they head off to college. I found myself emotionally invested in the response this year, because one of the eager young students I saw on opening day at Augustana College was my youngest child and only daughter. And so, not just as a college president but also as a father, here is what I would like to tell my daughter, and by extension all of the young people starting college.
Dear Angie,
Steven Bahls is president of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, where his daughter Angela is enrolled as a first-year student.


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Ramada Limited Windsor, Windsor
- Free continental breakfast, free WiFi, and free parking
Main amenities
- 40 smoke-free guestrooms
- Outdoor pool
- Business center
- 24-hour front desk
- Coffee/tea in a common area
- Air conditioning
- Daily housekeeping
- Lobby fireplace
- Meeting room
- Multilingual staff
- Concierge services
- Picnic area
- Free continental breakfast, free WiFi, and free parking
For families
- Cribs/infant beds (surcharge)
- Rollaway/extra beds (surcharge)
- Microwave
- Refrigerator
- Connecting/adjoining rooms available
- Private bathroom
What's around
- Devonshire Mall (2.1 mi / 3.4 km)
- Ciocairo Club of Windsor (2.4 mi / 3.8 km)
- GM Renaissance Center (7.7 mi / 12.4 km)
- Joe Louis Arena (8 mi / 12.9 km)
- University of Windsor (7.2 mi / 11.5 km)
Ramada Limited Windsor, Windsor
Hotel Info: 855-239-9225from $81
- Standard Room, 2 Queen Beds, Smoking
- Standard Room, 1 Queen Bed, Smoking
- Room, 2 Queen Beds, Non Smoking
- Room, 1 Double Bed, Non Smoking
- Suite, 1 Queen Bed, Non Smoking, Jetted Tub
- Standard Room, 1 Queen Bed, Smoking
- Room, 1 Queen Bed, Accessible, Non Smoking
- Standard Room, 1 Queen Bed, Non Smoking
- Standard Room, 1 Queen Bed, Non Smoking
- Business Room, 1 King Bed, Non Smoking
- Room, 1 Queen Bed, Non Smoking, Hot Tub
More great choices
At a glance
Key facts
Hotel size
- This hotel has 40 rooms
- This hotel is arranged over 2 floors
- Check-in time 3 PM-6 AM
- Check-out time is 11 AM
Required at check in
- Credit card deposit required
- Government-issued photo ID required
- Minimum check-in age is 19
Travelling with others
- Up to 2 children (11 years old and younger) stay free when occupying the parent or guardian's room, using existing bedding
- Pets allowed *
- Restrictions apply *
- Free WiFi in public areas
- Free WiFi in rooms
- Free self parking
- RV/bus/truck parking
Other information
- Smoke-free property
- No alcohol served onsite
Nearby Two Star Windsor hotels
In the hotel
- Free continental breakfast daily
- Coffee/tea in a common area
- Barbecue grills
- Outdoor seasonal pool
- Outdoor pool
- Golfing nearby
- Business center
- One meeting room
- 24-hour front desk
- Concierge services
- Luggage storage
- Wedding services
- Multilingual staff
- Picnic area
- Fireplace in lobby
- Accessible bathroom
- In-room accessibility
- Roll-in shower
In the room
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Air conditioning
- Coffee/tea maker
- Iron/ironing board
- Private bathroom
- Shower/tub combination
- Hair dryer
- Flat-screen TV
- Premium TV channels
- Desk
- Free WiFi
- Free local calls
- Refrigerator
- Microwave
- Daily housekeeping
- Connecting/adjoining rooms available
Top Windsor hotels
Recently reviewed hotels in Windsor
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"For the most part I really enjoyed the time there it was quite and the staff very accommodating. I saw some of the same faces everyday and I liked that."Jul 20, 2017
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"The Quality Inn in Southfield is an older property but has been nicely updated. The lobby is bright and fresh with a pretty patio outside. Our room was very comfortable. The beds…"Jul 20, 2017
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"I had the room with the hot tub and it was amazing and the room was comfortable during my overnight stay. "Jul 19, 2017
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Ramada Limited Windsor, Windsor's small print
Also known as
- Ramada Limited Hotel Windsor
- Ramada Limited Windsor
- Ramada Windsor
- Ramada Limited Windsor Airport Hotel Windsor
- Ramada Limited Windsor Ontario
- Ramada Limited Windsor Hotel
- Windsor Ramada
The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation.
Pet-friendly rooms can be requested by contacting the property at the number on the booking confirmation.
Only registered guests are allowed in the guestrooms.
The name on the credit card used at check-in to pay for incidentals must be the primary name on the guestroom reservation.
Mandatory fees
Deposit: CAD 100.00 per stay
Optional extras
Early check-in can be arranged for an extra charge of CAD 40
Late check-out can be arranged for an extra charge
Rollaway beds are available for CAD 15.00 per day
Cribs/Infant beds are available for CAD 10 per day
Pets are allowed for an extra charge of CAD 20.00 per accommodation, per day
We have included all charges provided to us by this hotel. However, charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the room you book.
Is the description of this hotel not correct? Tell us


text:
Tweets from @TBHomeTeam/writers
MORE from our HomeTeam writers.
Tue. April 9, 2013 | Derek J. LaRiviere
SPRING HILL — Less than a week after the first district titles in Springstead history, the Eagles boys and girls were ousted from the postseason.
The boys put up an amazing battle against Forest in the Class 3A region semifinals Tuesday. The teams went back and forth, with everything coming down to the third set of the No. 2 doubles match.
While Patrick Deslaurier and Carl Zee overcame a slow start and began to cruise in their match against the Wildcats' Philip Libby and Grant Lovell. Deslaurier and Zee came in with a 13-2 record and regardless of the result would be making the trip to state because of their district doubles title.
Libby and Lovell (9-5) lost 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 as the other two tandems looked on periodically.
"You don't want to look over there too much," Hank Deslaurier said. "It can take you out of your game. You have to focus and do the best you can."
Hank Deslaurier and Robert Hoover lost the first set 6-4 but bounced back to win the second 2-6.
Down 5-3 in the third, Deslaurier and Hoover faced match point at 40-30. The duo rebounded to break serve and tie things at 5-5. However, Forest's Nick Wigelsworth and Tanner Weaver persisted and forced four match points before clinching victory at 7-5.
"If there was a spot where we could have done better, it would have been the first set," Hoover said. "We came out a little slow, and it cost us."
In singles, Zee took out Wigelsworth in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1. While Hank Deslaurier took the only other singles win for the Eagles with a straight sets victory over Palmer Lovell, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.
The girls were eliminated in quicker fashion as Lecanto won 4-2.
The teams did not finish the No. 2 doubles match because the Panthers had clinched with their dominant No. 1 doubles win.
"This team has come a long way," Springstead coach Sammie Hall said. "I am very proud of these girls. We went from 4-10 last year to the school's first district title this year. This is something we can build on."
Most gratifying for Springstead were the performances of Robyn Cotney and Ashley Clark, who captured the only two points with their singles victories. The wins also concluded undefeated seasons for both.
Clark (11-0) beat Andrea De la Cruz (3-2) in the No. 5 position 6-3, 6-1. Cotney (18-0) competed in the No. 4 spot, defeating Lecanto's Megan Jervis (8-4) 6-1, 6-2.
Class 2A
For the second season in a row, Nature Coast was swept by Gainesville Eastside, 7-0 in Class 2A.
Connor Schwefringhaus put up one of the best efforts against Samuel Cockey. Still, the sophomore No. 2 fell in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.
The No. 1 doubles tandem of Jesse DeWitt and Schwefringhaus also put up a battle against Hyunsoo Joo and Camille Kima, falling 6-2, 6-3.
Also traveling to Gainesville to face Eastside, Hernando's girls faced an uphill road.
The Rams didn't sweep, but the 6-1 victory was highlighted only by Lida Marie Steinkamp's victory in No. 3 singles. Steinkamp, who won the district title at No. 3 singles, knocked off Antonia Veltcheva (6-6).
Hernando senior Shelby Marrero lost for only the second time all season.


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Federal court rules centerpiece of gay marriage law unconstitutional
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday against a central provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, a groundbreaking decision that tees up a potential battle before the Supreme Court.
The three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the provision defining marriage as between a man and woman is unconstitutional in that it denies gay couples the rights granted to heterosexual couples.
The unanimous decision once again brings the issue of gay marriage to the fore of the nation's political debate. It comes just a few weeks after President Obama announced his support for gay marriage -- in the wake of that announcement, some gay advocacy groups have stepped up pressure on Washington to fight DOMA.
Considering the potential Supreme Court battle ahead, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked Thursday whether the Obama administration would actively fight for overturning the law, which was originally signed by Democratic President Bill Clinton.
Carney noted that the Obama administration has concluded the section in question is unconstitutional and will no longer defend it in court. Without commenting on what steps the administration might take in the future, he described the Justice Department as an "active participant" in the case.
"There's no question that this is in concert with the president's views," he said. "I can't predict what the next steps will be in handling cases of this nature."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/31/federal-court-rules-centerpiece-gay-marriage-law-unconstitutional/#ixzz1wTPyHifz


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Inspiration V – Railcar Fine Goods
Editor's Note: From February 8th-9th, 2013, our staff writer, David Shuck, attended the Inspiration LA trade show. Be sure to check out Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV in this multi-part series.
If you've ever handled a pair of Railcar Fine Goods denim, you've handled a product that was entirely designed, manufactured, and marketed by six people. That's right, no outsourcing for them, every single pair of jeans is made in their Arcadia, California factory just north of Los Angeles. All six members of this self-contained denim team were showing their wares at Inspiration and Celisse Villareal was kind enough to walk us through their line.
The Railcar line divides along fits and and fabrics. The men's Spikes fit comes in a variety of selvedge flavors from 13.5oz. Cone Mills shown directly below to a Japanese 14 Oz. denim in the following images.
Railcar is also one of the players in the women's raw market with their Viper fit, which is also available in Kaihara stretch denim and several types of Cone Mills. Here's Villareal's in her two-year-old Viper's:
They've continued to show their utilitarian flair for detail in touches like non-contrast triple-stitched belt loops and a super heavy veg-tanned leather patch.
How Villareal's Railcar patch aged after two years of wear:
Exclusive to Inspiration, though, was a test lot of Spikes in double redline selvedge from Kurabo Mills. Owner/founder Steven Dang told us he had to buy up all the entire Kurabo run after seeing the denim in person. Here's to hoping these make it to mainstream market!
Thus concludes our coverage of Inspiration 2013. Thanks again to The Real McCoy's, Levi's Vintage Clothing, Blue Blanket, and Eat Dust for their time. See you next year!
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text:
Techwell's TW2880 is a 16-channel video and graphic controller with HD 1080p display capability for security surveillance applications.
The device is designed to accept 16 live video inputs and playback 16 pre-recorded inputs simultaneously. Incoming live and playback video can be multiplexed, scaled up or down, de-interlaced, and displayed on two separate monitors.
The main display output can display up to 20 channels on an HD 1080p monitor via HDMI interface. The secondary display output supports VGA, S-video and CVBS. There are four analog SPOT outputs that can be used to monitor live camera inputs.
For video record, the TW2880 supports 16-channel real time and non-real time recording with flexible frame rate and resolution over 27MHz, 54MHz and 108MHz clocks. The record output ports support BT.656, BT.1120 and BT.601 data formats. Special record modes such as mixed frame and mixed field switching modes are also supported. Record output stream can be in both field or frame interleaved format. The playback input ports support BT.656, BT.1120, BT.601 and 16-bit digital RGB data formats.
Other key features of the TW2880 include triple 16-bit bitmap OSG windows, 4-color OSD, channel ID encoder/decoder, and motion detector.
- Wireless broadband developments in Southeast Asia markets
As of 2013, the 10 ASEAN nations had a total of over 700 million mobile subscriptions, with the CAGR from 2003-2013 reaching 24%. This Digitimes Research Special Report analyzes the various mobile broadband markets in ASEAN and looks at the respective trends in 4G LTE development for those markets.
- 2015 global tablet demand forecast
This Digitimes Research Special Report provides a 2015 forecast for the global tablet market and analyzes the strategies of key market players such as Google, Apple, Intel, and Microsoft.
- 2015 China smartphone panel trend forecast
This Digitimes Research Special Report analyzes the strategies of key China-based major panel makers BOE, Tianma and IVO for attacking the different market segments through technology and pricing, and their relationship to local vendors Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE, Xiaomi and Coolpad.


text:
Luke Easter
I've Got Your 6 (Lololol) V. Operation Red Dragonfly - Poem by Luke Easter
I've seen the, "I've Got Your 6" commercials & I have to laugh,
Military sexual assault victims are afraid of superior's wrath,
When over 25,000 per year victims report this type of crime,
It is a single digit % their assailants will do little if any time.
What about, "Pay Day Loan" companies who fleece via greed,
Military families needing assistance while spouses are overseas?
Then there are those mortgage brokers who hurriedly foreclose,
When the U.S. Government has told them time and again, "No! "
And yet, Salem-News Editor In Chief, Tim King has to ride,
The entire continental 48 states because Uncle Sam will hide,
Information regarding toxic waste stored on military grounds,
U.S. Government's responsibility for sicknesses going around.
However, close to 100% of Veterans health claims are denied,
So if, "I've Got Your 6" works then arises the question, why? "
Same for PTSD battle fatigued claimant's doctors will dismiss,
Even where there's crystal clear evidence trauma readily exists.
These incidents aren't theory but fact in other words truth not lies,
A reason for, "Awareness Missions" by Operation Red Dragonfly,
How many military bases were knowingly filled with toxic waste?
With all the evidence, why is the Military still trying to save face?
What about LaVena Johnson, Morganne McBeth & Amy Tirador?
Just a few of the tens of thousands you have never heard before,
I get it, "6" means the number of feet buried, covered with dirt,
Well, one good thing about being deceased, it will no longer hurt.
A motorcycle ride across the U.S. called, "Operation Red Dragonfly, "
It takes a seasoned veteran to assail the lonely trek and find out why,
Long after covered-up deplorable conditions surfaced at Walter Reed,
Hospital just a couple miles from the White House, yet there's a need.
A need for honesty from our government to attack problems head on,
When soldiers are rushed into battle, treatment shouldn't take so long,
As fast as outdated weapons & technology are shipped to battle lines,
Attacking problems should be more prevalent than enemy left behind.
I've Got Your 6 commercials are nothing more than Operation Dr. Spin,
It's an attempt to put a lid on inadequate care before Americans begin,
To realize the plight that most enlisted personnel will face, but when?
To the U.S. Government soldiers are simply throwaway cheap hit men.
Highly recognized celebrities versus a one man traveling show,
Is it possible these mega-stars the truth they really don't know?
Or has the dollar amount clouded their reception hiding the fact?
U.S. Government is lying when they say, "I've Got Your Back? "
Veterans Vic Pittman, Jon Daggett, Jamal Belica have added a lick,
Why use movie & TV celebrates in their spots for, I've Got Your 6?
Simply a smoke screen because if the program was actually for real,
U.S. Government would not go that route to make it such a big deal.
Maybe Uncle Sam is getting into the comedy business, they are funny,
Every year they loose billions of dollars but it's only taxpayer's money,
Our current president is more openly concerned with the rights of gays,
And thinking like General MacArthur today's soldiers will just fade away.
Comments about I've Got Your 6 (Lololol) V. Operation Red Dragonfly by Luke Easter
Douglas Scotney (8/12/2013 9:29:00 PM)
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Famous Poems
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
Still I Rise
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If You Forget Me
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Caged Bird
Maya Angelou
Rudyard Kipling
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe


text:
[Old Thread] Applications hang when converting or adding more than 1 book at a time
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Well trained by Cats
Posts: 20,579
Karma: 20259518
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: (The original) Silicon Valley, USA
Device: K4NT, Galaxy Tab 2
Originally Posted by
All applications hang when converting more than 1 book at a time. I have a library with about 15k books. I have no problems when i convert an e-book individually but if i try to convert 20 books or so, all applications including calibre and internet explorer hang. After 2hours , everything returns to normal and the applications no longer hang. If i try to convert 100 or more books, all applications including calibre hang and after 5-6 hours, a message pops up that calibre is no longer working and that i should shut it off. Typically any conversion that is more than 50 books will cause all applications to hang immediately and many hours later eventually a message will pop up saying that calibre is not working. I'm a newbie and not sure what information to provide. Pls let me know I'm tried switching off my antivirus but that does not help. I have no idea what to do.
Would really appreciate it if someone could help me. I'm using a 32 bit system with windows 7 home by the way.
That's not a 'Hang"
That's your system gasping for spare CPU cycles
Conversions are intensive use of CPU and I/O
Win 7 on a 32 bit machine
. IMHO That puppy needs to be maxed-out in RAM.
your Anti-virus to Ignore Calibre program Directory AND your Library folder (Note that The A/V normally scans your book before it is imported and the downloaded Calibre program before it is installed. Moving the book into a Library/converting needs no further scans.)
In Calibre; Preferences; Behavior;
Set Job priority to LOW
, that will let other processes function a bit.
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text:
Adult High School Diploma
Adult students can earn credits toward completion of a high school diploma under the guidance of an instructor and support staff. Coursework is offered in small group instruction, computer aided instruction, and individual study. A cap and gown graduation is held on the Mt. SAC campus in June to honor students receiving high school diplomas.
Credits for the required courses and/or electives may be awarded in the following ways (Accredited Institutions only):
- Adult School Courses
- Previous High School Courses
- Work Experience (Must be verified)
- College Credit
- Training Programs
- Out-of-Country/International Schools (transcripts must be evaluated by an approved evaluation service)
How the Mt. SAC Adult Diploma Program Evaluates High School Transcripts.
General information:
- 160 credits required to graduate (click here for requirements)
- Work experience credit given for electives or vocational education
- No homework, all coursework completed in class
- Average completion rate: approximately 75-80 hours per 5 credits
- You must be 18 years old or 60 days from your 18th birthday or past your graduation date to enroll
- Must attend a mandatory orientation and obtain a Mt. SAC ID before starting class
- Two assessment tests, taking approximately 1 hour each are needed before starting class
For information call (909) 274-4937
Fax (909) 274-2934 or e-mail abeinfoAT_mtsac.edu
Monday - Thursday 8:30 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Friday 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Monday - Friday 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Monday - Thursday 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Students may attend both day and evening classes
Summer Hours May Vary
Adult High School Diploma Student Guide


text:
To Bigotry No Sanction, to Persecution No Assistance...-George WashingtonOn August 17, 1790, President George Washington wrote a letter to Moses Seixas and the Jewish congregation of Newport, RI. Washington did so in response to a letter sent by the group when Washington visited their city. The account is on the Library of Congress website and provides important historical context for debates over freedom of religion for Muslims.On August 17, 1790, the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode … [Read more...]
Today in history: George Washington on religious freedom
August 17, 2010 by 77 Comments
Bryan Fischer too far right for the AFA?
August 16, 2010 by Leave a Comment
I wondered if this might happen. The AFA now issues a disclaimer that Bryan Fischer's views are his and not theirs.This information comes via Right Wing Watch:And now Fischer's blog posts on the AFA website, like this new one calling the Cordoba House the "Timothy McVeigh Mosque at Ground Zero," are carrying this disclaimer:Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Ra … [Read more...]


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Tori Jarosz returned tonight after missing three games and Lakeland beat rival Panas, as did freshman standout Allison Silfen, who helped Blind Brook defeat Hamilton.
Here are all of last night's scores:
Lakeland 49, Panas 33: At Lakeland, Tori Jarosz led the Hornets with 14
points and Kristen Pappalardo had 12. Michelle Dyckman led Panas with nine points.
Nyack 84, Ramapo 64: At Nyack, Rachel McNair led the Indians with 26 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists. Lindsey Sundvik had 12 points and Mary Gray added 10 points and six steals. Yolanda Juste led Ramapo with 32 points.
Briarcliff 60, Rye Neck 17: At Rye Neck, Savina Reid had 15 points for the Bears. Teammate Brianna Reid had 11 points. Paige O¹Donnell had six points for the Panthers.
Albertus Magnus 56, Spring Valley 51: At Spring Valley, Felicia DaCruz led the Falcons with 16 points and Maeve Parahus had 14. Jasmine Sutherland led Spring Valley with 16 points.
Westlake 68, Pleasantville 52: At Westlake, Amy Marron led the Wildcats with 19 points and nine rebounds and Tina Karaqi had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Erika Schmid added 14 points with 12 rebounds. Kristina Howe led Pleasantville with 14 points.
Ursuline B 57, Roosevelt 23: At Roosevelt, Julia Tarascandola and Meagan McCarthy each had eight points for Ursuline. Sarah Fields-Ingram had 12 points for the Indians.
Dobbs Ferry 62, Sleepy Hollow 43: At Sleepy Hollow, Lisa Tessitore scored 24 points for the Eagles. Jaclyn Giuliano added 21 points. Kerry Olivera, Tauress Campbell, and Brionna Gamble each scored 12 points for the Headless Horseman.
Valhalla 46, Keio 29: At Valhalla, Tamara Triblle had 11 points for the Vikings. Rei Adachi had 10 points for the Unicorns.
Rye 51, Somers 29: At Rye, Catharine Greer and Lillian McCabe each had 13 points for the Garnets and Grace Leishman added 10 points and seven rebounds. Marisa Gardineer led Somers with 29 points.
North Salem 45, Dover 36: At Dover, Danielle Fiacco led North Salem with 14 points, 16 rebounds, and six blocks. Jamie-Rose Zappolo added 11 points.
Haldane 48, Pawling 33: At Haldane, Victoria DesMarais had 13 points, and Liz Milner had 12.
Brewster 46, Yorktown 24: At Brewster, Lauren Quattrocchi led the Bears with 16 points, four assists, and six steals. Emily Tapio had 12 points, eight rebounds, six steals, and six assists. Jenna Gambino led Yorktown with 10 points.
Hackley 44, Fieldston 41: At Fieldston, Ali Piscina had 16 points.
Byram Hills 55, Fox Lane 40: At Byram Hills, Beatriz Williams had 24 points and 13 rebounds for the Bobcats. Teammate Jenna Hogan had 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Allison Lombardi had 17 points for Fox Lane.
Blind Brook 48, Hamilton 30: At Blind Brook, Lea Saliba had 14 points, five rebounds, and five steals for the Trojans. Eight of Saliba's 14 points came in the third quarter, when the Trojans outscored the Red Raiders 19-2. Teammate Samara Meyers had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Maia Hood scored nine points for the Red Raiders, who trailed by just three, 19-16, at halftime.


text:
Recent jitters in the mining sector have not slowed activity in Western Australia's strained hotel sector, where a number of new projects have been announced and there is news Qatar Airlines is looking to build its own hotel in Perth.
Two new projects in the Pilbara are seeking national or international developers, just three months after Hilton announced it was building a DoubleTree brand hotel in Karratha.
Despite major mining companies Fortescue Metals Group and BHP Billition scaling back their Pilbara expansion plans because of the falling iron ore price, the WA government hopes to attract another major hotelier to the region.
A spokesman for Regional Development Minister
The spokesman said demand for accommodation in the region remained strong despite recent volatility in the mining sector, and more hotel rooms were vital to increase tourism in the region.
Jones Lang LaSalle vice-president of investment sales Aaron Desange said interest from international hotel chains would depend on whether they, like Hilton, believed in the state government's vision for a vibrant and sustainable Pilbara.
"Some believe the story, others are beginning to doubt . . . but generally the view about the region is still upbeat," he said.
"It's really going to be dependent on what [resources] projects move forward, and the iron ore price."
The 144-room, four-star DoubleTree hotel will open in mid-2014.
Mirvac is also building a high-end, 178-room hotel in Port Hedland, where the local council announced yesterday it was seeking proposals for a 200-room airport hotel to be rated at least 3.5 stars. Port Hedland is one of the busiest regional airports in the country, with more than 450,000 passengers passing through each year.
Development is also continuing in Perth, following the announcement last month that Crown would build a six-star hotel near its casino complex in Burswood.
Tourism Minister
Dr Hames said the airline's decision followed state incentives to spark development, including plot ration bonuses and the release of crown land. Bids for the first of the sites, the former home of the state's Fire and Emergency Services Authority, are due at the end of next month.
The Australian Financial Review


text:
Morty's TV Showcard
to Show Index
dates and titles for all 161 episodes
.wav format from SoundAmerica.com
Avengers and Me
By Patrick Macnee & Dave Rogers
The Complete Avengers: Everything You Ever Wanted
to Know About the Avengers and the New Avengers
by Dave
IMdb has complete cast information on this show.
on DVD & VHS
The Avengers: '63 Set 1 [DVD] DVD
This two-disc boxed set opens with Steed and
Mrs. Gale looking into a shady rest home
catering to millionaire clients and a scheme to
infiltrate the government with duplicates in
"The Undertakers/Man with Two Shadows." A
missing list of double agents and a surprising
bequest from a late aide of Steed's are the
elements of "The Nutshell/Death of a Batman,"
while the agents foil a plan to blow up
Parliament and a massive gold heist in "November
Five/The Gilded Cage." 5 1/4 hrs. total.
Standard; Soundtrack: English; photo gallery.
The Avengers: '63 Set 2 [DVD] DVD
Steed and Cathy uncover the link between a blind
millionaire's planned eye transplant and
smugglers, and the link between a dead girl in a
Turkish bath and a plan to discredit a drug
company, in "Second Sight/The Medicine Men."
This collection also features "The Grandeur That
Was Rome/The Golden Fleece," in which the
Avengers deal with a Caesar-obsessed would-be
world dictator and a Chinese restaurant that's a
front for gold smugglers, and "Don't Look Behind
You/Death a la Carte," which finds Cathy pursued
in an empty house by a mysterious foe, and Steed
playing chef to protect a visiting Arabian
ruler. 6 hrs. total on two discs. Standard;
Soundtrack: English; photo gallery.
The Avengers: '63 Set 3 [DVD] DVD
Will Cathy Gale have to kill Steed when she
poses as an assassin with a global crime
syndicate, and is an unbreakable ceramic worth
its weight in human lives, in "Intercrime/Immortal
Clay"? This set also includes "Box of
Tricks/Warlock," with Steed and occasional
partner Venus Smith (Julie Stevens) ducking a
magician's stunts to learn who's stealing NATO
secrets, followed by Steed and Cathy mixed up in
missing fuel formulas and black magic. Plus, a
virus hidden in eggs and shady doings at a
university are the elements in "The Golden
Eggs/School for Traitors." 5 1/4 hrs. total on
two discs. Standard; Soundtrack: English.
The Avengers: '63 Set 4 [DVD] DVD
Steed works with Cathy Gale to solve an
astronomer's murder and Venus Smith to discover
how a government clerk turned up in a carnival
hall of mirrors after he was killed in "The
White Dwarf/Man in the Mirror." Clowns and Mafia
drug smugglers and death beneath the waves are
the order of the day in "Conspiracy of Silence/A
Chorus of Frogs," the latter Venus' series swan
song, and the agents face shady shipbuilders, a
boxing gym that fronts a smuggling ring, and
sinister sibling solicitors in "Six Hands Across
a Table/Killerwhale/Brief for Murder." 6 hrs.
total. Standard; Soundtrack: English.
The Avengers: '64 Set 1 [DVD] DVD
A vanished pachyderm and some dolls filled with
microfilm add up to danger for Steed and Mrs.
Gale in "The White Elephant/The Little Wonders."
Also included in this set are "The
Wringer/Mandrake," with Steed accused of treason
and a Cornish cemetery that find business
booming; and "The Secrets Broker/The Trojan
Horse," where a wine shop and a scheming medium
are followed by shady dealings at the races. 5
1/4 hrs. total on two discs. Standard;
Soundtrack: English; photo gallery.
The Avengers: '64 Set 2 [DVD] DVD
"Build a Better Mousetrap/The Outside-In Man,"
in which John Steed and Cathy Gale investigate
two spellcasting old ladies and try to stop an
assassin from disrupting peace talks, leads off
this collection. The Avengers team up with enemy
agents to battle a common foe and keep a
visiting Russian pianist safe in "The
Charmers/Concerto," then battle rebel Scottish
highlanders out to conquer London, and a chess
piece holds the key to a murder, in Honor
Blackman's final episodes, "Esprit de
Corps/Lobster Quadrille." 5 1/4 hrs. total on
two discs. Standard; Soundtrack: English; photo
The Avengers: '65 Set 1 [DVD] DVD
Emma Peel makes her debut, joining Steed to look
for missing agents in a seemingly quaint coastal
town and then track down a missing radar-jamming
device, in "The Town of No Return/The
Gravediggers." The pair battle super-strong
robot assassins and go undercover (and behind
the counter) at a swank department store in "The
Cybernauts/Death at Bargain Prices," while a
visit to a sinister Scottish castle and a club
of seemingly criminal geniuses add up to trouble
in "Castle De'ath/The Master Minds." 5 1/4 hrs.
total on two discs. Standard; Soundtrack:
English; photo gallery.
The Avengers: '65 Set 2 [DVD] DVD
In this two-disc set, Steed joins a marriage
bureau that's a front for a murder-for-hire
operation, and he and Emma must pull the plug on
a scientist's rain-making device, in "The Murder
Market/A Surfeit of H20." Then, Steed's RAF
reunion turns into a mystery and someone is
killing London's top stockbrokers by phone in
"The Hour That Never Was/Dial a Deadly Number,"
and the Avengers face lethal plants, a Russian
double for Steed, and a "twisted" Dickensian
holiday party in "Man-Eater of Surrey
Green/Two's a Crowd/Too Many Christmas Trees."
312 min. total.
The Avengers: '66 Set 1 [DVD] DVD
"Silent Dust/Room Without a View" finds Steed
and Mrs. Peel stopping a secret weapon from
wiping out the English countryside and
recovering abducted scientists; and "Small Game
for Big Hunters/The Girl from Auntie" has an
African "death curse" reaching its way up to
England, and Steed teaming up with a fake "Mrs.
Peel" to find his real comrade. Then, a golf
course and a dancing school are the unlikely
settings for intrigue in "The 13th
Hole/Quick-Quick Slow Death." 5 1/2 hrs. total.
Standard; Soundtrack: English; photo gallery.
The Avengers: '66 Set 2 [DVD] DVD
The Avengers have their hands full with a club
of thrill-seeking ex-military men, and a modern
version of the infamous 18th-century Hellfire
Club wants Emma as their "Queen of Sin," in "The
Danger Makers/A Touch of Brimstone." This
two-disc set also features Steed going
undercover as a gentleman's gentleman and
freeing Mrs. Peel from a mad scientist's revenge
scheme in "What the Butler Saw/The House That
Jack Built"; and the duo deals with murder at
school, a sinister secretarial school, and a
Middle Eastern prince whose harem includes a
disguised Emma in "A Sense of History/How to
Succeed...at Murder/Honey for the Prince." 6 2/3
hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English; photo
The Avengers: '67 Set 1 [DVD] DVD
There's murder in the stars for Emma and Steed,
who then must stop whoever is eliminating
businessmen's rivals by scaring them to death,
in "From Venus with Love/The Fear Merchants";
while a time machine and an invisible man (but
no H.G. Wells) are their targets in "Escape in
Time/The See-Through Man." Next, a dead man
found clutching a bag of bird seed has the
agents suspecting "fowl play," and a comic-strip
hero seemingly comes to life, in "The Bird Who
Knew Too Much/The Winged Avenger." 5 1/4 hrs.
total. Standard; Soundtrack: English; photo
The Avengers: '67 Set 2 [DVD] DVD
What is behind a long-dead English duke's sudden
reappearance, and what is turning England's
housecats into savage killers, in "The Living
Dead/The Hidden Tiger"? This two-disc set also
has Steed and Mrs. Peel batting murderous enemy
agents and "unkillable" scientist Christopher
Lee in "The Correct Way to Kill/Never, Never Say
Die," and Emma becomes the star of a demented
director's latest film, while Steed is marooned
on a desert island with six other expert
fighters in a battle to the death, in "Epic/The
Superlative Seven." 312 min. total.
The Avengers: '67 Set 3 [DVD] DVD
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the
Station/Something Nasty in the Nursery" has Mrs.
Peel and Steed searching for thieves of naval
secrets along the British rail system and facing
some very un-Mary Poppins-like nannies. An
imprisoned man launches a revenge plot against
Emma, and the Avengers' minds are switched with
enemy agents' in "The Joker/Who's Who???"; while
a government conference is threatened by deadly
dreams and the pairs' most dangerous foes are
back in "Death's Door/Return of the Cybernauts."
312 min. total.
The Avengers: '67 Set 4 [DVD] DVD
An important dispatch box hidden in a wealthy
auto racing enthusiast's home and a dead man
with a fortune in gems in his stomach offer
Steed and Emma a pair of tantalizing mysteries
in "Dead Man's Treasure/The $50,000 Breakfast."
A deadly blackmail scheme and a man who kills
with his "electric touch" are featured in "You
Have Just Been Murdered/The Positive Negative
Man," then the agents enter a village whose
residents specialize in murder, get cut down to
size by a scientist's shrinking ray, and say
farewell to each other--and hello to new Avenger
Tara King--in "Murdersville/Mission...Highly
Improbable/The Forget-Me-Knot." 364 min. total.
The Avengers: '68 Set 1 [DVD] DVD
Join John Steed and new partner Tara King as
they stop the spread of a deadly "concentrated
cold virus" and battle window-washing thieves in
"You'll Catch Your Death/The Super-Secret Cypher
Snatch." This two-disc set also features the
pair outwitting a games-obsessed villain and
uncovering a conspiracy of lies in "Game/False
Witness," and a computer search for a traitor
and a personality-transfer scheme are the
elements of "Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique
Stroke XR40/Split!" 5 1/4 hrs. total.Standard;
Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; photo
The Avengers: '68 Set 2 [DVD] DVD
This two-disc set opens with Steed being
targeted for assassination by the head of Murder
International, and a elderly man's antique
dagger holding the clue to a priceless treasure,
in "Noon Doomsday/Legacy of Death." Tara
investigates goings-on at a lighthouse and must
stop an enemy double of Steed from blowing up a
peace conference in "All Done with Mirrors/They
Keep Killing Steed," and "Have Guns...Will
Haggle/Look (Stop Me If You've Heard This
One)...But There Were These Two Fellers" finds
the agents tussling with gunrunners and a team
of vaudeville villains led by Mr. Punch. 5 1/4
hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English; photo
The Avengers: '68 Set 3 [DVD] DVD
Steed and Tara must stop renegade colonel
Christopher Lee from stealing secret information
right out of agents' heads, keep a madman's
dry-rot virus from devastating England, and
tackle a strange outer space cult in "The
Interrogators/The Rotters/Invasion of the
Earthmen." This two-disc collection also
features "Killer/The Morning After/The Curious
Case of the Countless Clues," with the agents
dealing with a computer programmed to kill, a
general holding the government up with a nuclear
bomb, and a murder mystery with one clue too
many for Steed. 5 1/4 hrs. total. Standard;
Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; photo
The Avengers: '68 Set 4 [DVD] DVD
Tara and her uncle are held prisoner at his
luxury hotel, a hypnotized Steed is sent to
assassinate Mother, and the agents must clear
Mother of defection charges in "Wish You Were
Here/Stay Tuned/Take Me to Your Leader," the
first in this two-disc set of classic "Avengers"
whodunits. Then, a modern-day Jack the Ripper
threatening a peace conference, the biggest art
heist in British history, a book that compels
people to fall in love, and a trio of Russian
spies with a "chameleon potion" add up to
trouble in "Fog/Homicide and Old Lace/Love
All/Get-A-Way." 5 1/4 hrs. total. Standard;
Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; photo
The Avengers: '68 Set 5 [DVD] DVD
A deadly device that feeds on electricity, a
plot to hypnotize Tara as part of a plan to
steal a fortune, and a witness targeted for
elimination by Murder International keep the
Avengers busy in "Thingumajig/Pandora/Requiem."
This two-disc set also features Steed and Tara
saving an international conference, being
accused of treason, stopping a scheming
psychiatrist, and locating a cemetery's missing
bodies--before the pair get shot into space!--in
the series' final episodes, "Take-Over/Who Was
That Man I Saw You With?/My Wildest
Dream/Bizarre." 6 hrs. total. Standard;
Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; photo
The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Megaset
Collector's Edition [DVD] DVD
All 51 black-and-white and color "Avengers"
episodes featuring the glamorous Diana Rigg as
Patrick Macnee's leather-clad partner in
crimefighting, Emma Peel, are collected in this
deluxe boxed set. Also includes three episodes
from the first season ("Hot Snow," "The
Frighteners," "Girl on the Trapeze") and the
documentary "Avenging the Avengers." 48 1/2 hrs.
total on 17 discs. Standard; Soundtrack:
English; photo gallery.
Omissions? Drop me a line: Click Here
Copyright © 2015 MKH Industries - Mount
Laurel, NJ USA. All rights reserved.


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Dear Editor,
Many people are inherently attracted to the same sex; this is a reality. Intolerance and ignorance do not have to be present for people to have different legal opinions. Marriage is not in the same category as other historical wrongdoings and mistakes. I do believe that society will be affected if children are increasingly raised in homes without a male and female parent present. It makes sense that negative public service consequences would result from Referendum 74. This basic definition change also opens a very real and steep "slippery slope" for other legal topics that we currently take for granted. Current definitions provide representation for two opposing beliefs. Civil unions and marriages legally solidify relationships with all benefits. Referendum 74 molds these two definitions into one, literally erasing the second of those valued viewpoints. Legal definitions are the only solid and confident voice that many children, teens and young adults will ever know. They deserve to hear both sides. Please vote no on Referendum 74.
Shara Jackson


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by Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) Dec 05, 2012
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), which owns the plane maker Airbus, said on Wednesday that it has agreed to a new equity structure that will reduce the role of state shareholders while preserving their strategic interests.
The deal will leave France and Germany each with 12-percent holdings and Spain with 4.0 percent, a statement said, as the German automaker Daimler and French conglomerate Lagardere curtailed their own stakes.
"This agreement aims at normalising and simplifying the governance of EADS while securing a shareholding structure that allows France, Germany and Spain to protect their legitimate strategic interests," a statement issued by the company said.
EADS added that it would buy back up to 15 percent of its free-floating capital in the first half of next year, subject to market conditions, a move that would underpin the share price as Daimler and Lagardere sold their stakes.
EADS shares jumped by 2.46 percent to 27.73 euros on the Paris stock exchange, which closed before the announcement on Wednesday with a gain of 0.28 percent overall.
The agreement allows for the percentage of freely floating EADS shares to jump from 49 percent at present to more than 70 percent, the group said.
A statement issued by the French presidency emphasised that the deal would "guarantee the interests of the French, German and Spanish states within the group."
It would also give EADS "the freedom of movement it needs to pursue its development," the French statement added, while underscoring that the group's headquarters would remain in Toulouse, southern France.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the deal as well, saying in a statement that as a result, "the Franco-German partnership within EADS can advance in a balanced manner. The spirit that existed when the group was founded is thus respected."
EADS was created in July 2000 via a merger of the German defence company DASA, France's Aerospatiale-Matra and the Spanish group CASA.
According to the French presidency's statement, the new agreement "reinforces the protection of the nation's strategic defence interests via a specific agreement between EADS and the French state."
In particular, Paris would have a priority to buy shares in the French aerospace company Dassault, in which EADS owns a stake of 46 percent, should it be put up for sale.
Officials in Paris and Berlin have been in talks for several months on how to handle the exits of key EADS shareholders Daimler and Lagardere, a development that was set to shake up the original equity framework.
According to the EADS statement, the "present shareholder pact (is) expected to be replaced by a normal company governance scheme."
EADS, which is officially registered in the Netherlands, is active in building satellites, rocket launchers, helicopters and defence systems in addition to its main unit, Airbus.
The group recently tried to seal a tie up with the British defence group BAE Systems, but that deal, said to be worth $45 billion (34 billion euros) fell through, reportedly owing to German concern that it would be sidelined within the merged entity.
Britain was said to be concerned about undue state influence over a new global aerospace giant.
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At the beginning of October, Speaker John Perez appointed me to the Select Committee on Ports. The jurisdiction of this committee is to focus on ports, infrastructure, and trade expansion. California ports support more than a million cargo-related jobs in our communities and countless more through inter-connected industries such as construction and manufacturing. I am honored to join this committee and take a more proactive role in preserving and expanding port infrastructure and trade-based jobs.
The Committee held the first informational hearing since my appointment earlier this week. We met at the Port of Los Angeles, the number one port by container volume and cargo value in the United States. Port Energy: Powering the Future of Goods Movement was the topic and among the presenters were representatives from Los Angeles, San Diego and Oakland ports, along with several others representing transportation, energy and shipping merchants and shipping industries.
Much of the discussion centered on how we can stay competitive with other national and international ports, while balancing the emission and energy requirements set forth in AB 32. Rising energy costs and the mandates that require ports to produce lower emissions have potential to slow growth in this sector. The ports and trade industries in California employ more than one million people. Given our state's fiscal troubles we need to do everything we can to drive this industry.
The effort to run our trade industry on cleaner energy has been making progress. Recently the Port of Long Beach received a $1.34 million EPA grant to deploy cleaner cargo-handling equipment. The Southern California International Gateway is a $500 million, 153-acre facility that, when completed, would drastically reduce the amount of cargo trucks on the 710 freeway. These examples of pushing the industry forward are exactly what needs to continue happening. However, we have to take steps to reduce the burdensome impact that AB 32 has on industry costs.
Not only that, but we must ensure the power supply that the ports are functioning on is a stable and reliable one. When power is lost it brings movement to a screeching halt. It is not merely as simple as flipping the breaker to get things moving again. Equipment and machines need to be reset and safety checks need to be completed. A small outage can be a general disruption but any prolonged period without power can cost millions of dollars to the trade industry as a whole. When we examine how we will meet our future energy needs we must look at reliability as well.
If California does not act now to invest in our ports we will lose trade-related business to ports in other states and other countries. As the 11th largest exporter in the world we must make this a priority. Across the nation states are investing billions to upgrade their infrastructure to attract new trade. The competition will only become fiercer. California must step up to the table and I look forward to working with the committee and ports industry in the coming Legislative session to do just that.
Source: http://arc.asm.ca.gov/inc/article.aspx?id=253263


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Repêchage is offering you the chance to win a $50.00 Gift Card*, redeemable on www.repechage.com for consumer purchases by posting a review of C-Serum with hashtag #C-SerumPromoEntry: on Repêchage's C-Serum page. In order to qualify, your review with hashtag #C-SerumPromoEntry: must be received between March 8, 2016 9:00AM EST and March 15, 2016 5:00PM EST. We will randomly select five (5) winners by March 31, 2016 and notify the winners via Facebook and/or email by March 31, 2016. No Purchase Necessary. Only one (1) entry per person during promotion period. Any shipping or handling charges, federal, state or local taxes, if applicable, are the sole responsibility of prize winners. By entering the promotion you agree to be bound by the Official Rules and you agree for your name to be posted on Repêchage's Facebook page, Repêchage's YouTube Channel, Repêchage's Twitter, Repêchage's Linkedin, website, blog or other social media. Sarkli Repêchage, Ltd. reserves the right to cancel, modify, suspend or terminate the promotion if it cannot be conducted as planned, at its sole discretion, without liability.
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Current Address: ICRAF (World Agroforestry Centre), SD6 United Nations Avenue, P.O. Box 30-677 Gigiri, Kenya
Current Address: Centre de Bio-Archéologie et Ecologie (CBAE), Laboratoire Paléoenvironnements et Chronécologie (PALECO), Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, UMR 5059, Institut de Botanique, 163 rue A. Broussonnet, F-34090 Montpellier, France
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
The monitoring of herbaceous fuel moisture content is a crucial activity in order to assess savanna fire risks. Faced with the difficulty of managing wide areas of vegetated surfaces, remote sensing appears an attractive alternative for terrestrial measurements because of its advantages related to temporal resolution and spatial coverage. Earth observation (EO)-based vegetation indices (VIs) and the ratio between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and surface temperature (ST) were used for assessment of herbaceous fuel moisture content estimates and validated against herbaceous data collected in 2010 at three open savanna sites located in Senegal, West Africa. EO-based estimates of water content were more consistent with the use of VI as compared to the ratio NDVI/ST. Different VIs based on near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) reflectance were tested and a consistent relationship was found between field measurements of leaf equivalent water thickness (EWT) from all test sites and Normalized Difference Infrared Index (NDII), Global Vegetation Moisture Index (GVMI) and Moisture Stress Index (MSI). Also, strong relationships were found between fuel moisture content (FMC) and VIs for the sites separately; however, they were weaker for the pooled data. The correlations between EWT/FMC and VIs were found to decrease progressively as the woody cover increased. Although these results suggest that NIR and SWIR reflectance can be used for the estimation of herbaceous water content, additional validation from an increased number of study sites is necessary to study the robustness of such indices for a larger variety of savanna vegetation types.
Savanna fires play a major role in ecosystem dynamics in dry tropical areas [
Considering the varying spatial and temporal dynamics of vegetation biophysical variables such as canopy water content, the use of earth observation (EO) data is a great opportunity for acquiring real-time continuous information on vegetation status [
Since the mid-1990s, several studies [
Studies on the monitoring of vegetation water content by remote sensing for fire risk assessment are numerous, and many have focused on ecosystems located in midlatitudes [
This study aims at testing relationships between vegetation indices based on (1) NIR/SWIR reflectance data, (2) the combined use of NDVI/ST and field measurements of herbaceous water content in the Senegalese savanna ecosystems, to assess the ability of remotely sensed information to predict herbaceous water content for improved fire risk assessment. Both daily and eight-day composite products from 2010 are tested to study the importance of image acquisition timeliness when monitoring a highly fluctuating biophysical variable like vegetation water content. Extensive validation data, collected in the field, cover three different savanna types to account for spatial and ecological differences in the sensitivity of the indices tested. The focus in this study is on herbaceous vegetation water content, since most fires in the semi-arid to sub-humid areas are mainly surface fires fueled by the herbaceous vegetation layer.
Three sites were selected following a north–south gradient taking into account the main eco-climatic regions of Senegal along an increasing rainfall gradient (Sahelian area, northern Sudanian area and southern Sudanian area (
The first site is located at 15°16′3″N, 14°51′55″W near the village of Barkedji in the northern part of the country. In the central Sahel, the rainy season extended from July to September with annual rainfall ranging from 200 to 400 mm [
The second site is located at 13°52′59″N, 15°25′0″W near the village of Maka in central Senegal. Over the northern Sudanian region, the rainy season extended from June to October with annual rainfall ranging from 700 to 800 mm. The relative humidity ranges from 34% to 79%. The average annual temperature is
The third site is located at 12°49′0″N, 14°52′0″W near the village of Dioulacolon in the southern Sudanian area. During the rainy season (May to October), annual rainfall varies from 800 to 1,200 mm. The relative humidity ranges from 37%–89% and the annual mean temperature is
In each of the three sites, a quadratic experimental plot of 1 km2 was established including nine sub-plots of 250 × 250 m (
The specific location of the experimental plots was selected based on landscape physiognomy at the 1-km2 level and the sub-plots were selected to include the dominant herbaceous species in the area. Measurements of herbaceous water content must occur at the right time and for the most representative grass cover, in order to properly capture the variations of water content that vary over space and rapidly declines at the end of the rainy season. Data collections were conducted in each site on a daily basis starting eight days after the last rain in 2010. This timing allowed comparing trends of water content for the three sites at the early dry-season. To be able to start the collection of biomass eight days after the last rain, we used predictions (through a personal communication) of the potential period of the end of rainfall season in different areas of Senegal from the National Agency of Meteorology in Senegal (ANAMS). Due to the distance separating sites, three teams carried out the field work, simultaneously applying an identical methodological protocol. For 32 days, we conducted daily data collection at 14–15 h coinciding with the driest period of the day (Sow, unpublished data). Aboveground herbaceous biomass in each 1 m2 quadrat was harvested. In each plot of 250 m, four samples were collected, and weighed directly in the field to avoid water loss [
The direct method for the estimation of the herbaceous water content was made on the basis of two different metrics: (i) the fuel moisture content [
Similarly, leaf
The average water content at the plot level was then compared to the VI of the corresponding geographic pixels. For the part of the analyses including comparisons to the eight-day MODIS data, daily field-based water content estimates were averaged to produce eight-day values.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface reflectance product was used due to the high spectral and temporal resolution required for this study. The MODIS sensors onboard the Terra and Aqua platforms have daytime crossing over Senegal at about 10 h and 14 h, respectively. We selected the MODIS Aqua data for this study to minimize the time difference between satellite acquisition and the samples collected in the field (between 14 and 15 h). MODIS Collection 5 data were downloaded from the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) (
Surface reflectance and land cover data products are available in a 500-m spatial resolution, whereas the land surface temperature (LST) product has a spatial resolution of 1 km. The MODIS data sets are provided in Sinusoidal (SIN) mapping grid. The MODIS data were therefore reprojected to Universal Transverse Mercator System (UTM) and re-sampled using Nearest Neighbor using the MODIS Reprojection Tool (MRT, see
The daily MODIS and eight-day MODIS composite data products include a data quality assessment (QA-data) product providing information on overall usefulness and cloud condition on a per-pixel basis. For the daily MODIS reflectance observations (MYD09GA) the Reflectance Data State QA "cloud state" parameter was used (bit 0–1) to screen for clouds. "Clear" was considered cloud free, whereas "cloudy" and "mixed" were considered cloud contaminated. For the daily LST observations the Daytime LSTE quality control "Data quality flag" parameter was used to screen for clouds (bit 2–3). "Good quality" was considered cloud free, whereas "Other quality" was considered cloud contaminated. Only observations being labeled as cloud-free were used in this study.
Similarly, for the eight-day MODIS composite (MYD09A1), the 500-m Reflectance Band Quality "MODLAND QA bits" parameter was used (bit 0–1). "Corrected product produced at ideal quality all bands" was considered cloud free, whereas "corrected product produced at less than ideal quality for some or all bands" were considered cloud contaminated. For the eight-day LST composite, the quality control for daytime LST and emissivity "data quality flag" parameter was used to screen for clouds (bit 2–3). "Good data quality of L1B in 7 TIR bands" was considered cloud free, whereas "other quality data" was considered cloud contaminated.
In this study, we focused on the vegetation indices combining the satellite channels in the NIR and SWIR. Ideally, a VI should be sensitive to the type of dynamics of the vegetation cover to be studied, insensitive to changes in the soil layer and affected by atmospheric effects to a minimum [
Several VIs have been proposed over the years as based on observations from different satellite sensor systems including measurements in the SWIR wavelengths (primarily Landsat, SPOT and MODIS). These indices focus on the characteristics of water absorption in the SWIR (sensitive to changes in leaf water content) and the NIR (sensitive to changes in leaf internal structure) of the spectrum being designed as ratios or normalized ratios of broad wavebands in the NIR and the SWIR. Amongst the most referred indices are Normalized Difference Water Index—NDWI [
Several studies demonstrated that the combined use of NDVI and surface temperature (ST) provides stronger relationships with water content than either of the two variables alone [
The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was computed from MODIS reflectance data using NIR and red bands as following [
The 500-m NDVI data were re-sampled to 1 km using the Nearest Neighbor algorithm to facilitate comparison with MODIS LST 1-km data.
The MYD11 L3 land surface temperature (LST) product, produced by NASA using the Generalized Split-Window (GSW) algorithm [
All statistical analyses were carried out using the software R [
Finally, the potential application of detecting changes in herbaceous water content at the end of the rainy season during the early fire-season was tested. For this, the best relationship computed using
During the 32 days of sampling collection of biomass for herbaceous water content estimates, the EWT results showed that the herbaceous water content increased from the north (Sahelian savannas) to the south (Sudanian savannas) following the rainfall gradient (
At the site level, the vegetation indices NDII(2.6), MSI(6.2), GVMI(2.6) and NDVI/ST (computed from daily data) were in most cases highly correlated with both EWT and FMC (
Based on the best correlations of EWT (as compared to FMC) with field observations, it was chosen only to focus on EWT estimates in the linear regression models for predicting vegetation water content from remote sensing data. The linear relationships between EWT and VIs derived from daily MODIS Aqua data were all highly significant (
Maps of estimated herbaceous fuel water content over Senegal were calculated using the strong significant relation found between eight-day NDII(2,6) and EWT. The six consecutive eight-day periods confirmed that the drying of vegetation followed a regional north–south gradient (
The monotonous trend in herbaceous water content reduction in the Senegalese savanna landscapes evolved from largely lush herbaceous vegetation (Doy 273–280) to widely senescent herbaceous vegetation with very limited water content (Doy 313–320), with a temporal lag related to geographical location (from North to South).
According to Dauriac [
EWT is difficult to operationally measure in the field, because it requires the calculation of leaf area [
Despite these potential uncertainties, our results showed a consistent relationship over the studied region between VIs based on NIR/SWIR and EWT as many studies have found previously for different ecosystems [
Although the relationships between the ratio NDVI/ST and EWT were relatively strong (r2 = 0.72), the following VIs (NDII(2,6), GVMI(2,6), MSI(6,2)) tested generally provided the most satisfactory results on predicting herbaceous water content. All the indices, using the bands 2 and 6 located respectively in the NIR (where water absorption is weak) and SWIR (where water absorption is strong) wavelengths were found to be highly correlated with the field measurements of EWT and therefore deemed useful in estimating herbaceous water content. As part of the validation of GVMI in Senegal, Ceccato
The correlations between EWT/FMC and VI decreased moderately with decreasing aridity from north (site 1) to south (site 3). This difference was most likely related to the site-specific differences in tree cover: with a low woody cover (11%) at site 1, 29% at site 2 and more closed woody cover (50%) at site 3. This suggests that such NIR/SWIR-based indices are less successful in the estimating of herbaceous water content for more dense woody cover. During the period of herbaceous senescence (as studied here) woody foliage will typically retain water from deep root water access. Optical satellite remote sensing methods have limited capabilities of separating the reflectance signal of herbaceous and forest canopy, when both layers are still green and when the sub-canopy herbaceous layer withers below a green forest canopy. Hence, the reduced ability of NIR/SWIR VIs to explain the variability in EWT is to be expected for an increased woody cover.
Overall, the drying of herbaceous vegetation followed a regional north–south gradient mirroring the withdrawal of rains (controlled by the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)) from north to south.
Forest fire managers have traditionally collected
In this study, satellite remote sensing has proven useful for estimating herbaceous water content. Vegetation indices computed using MODIS bands 2 (0.858 μm) and 6 (1.640 μm) located in the near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) wavelengths, respectively, showed a strong significant relationship with leaf equivalent water thickness (EWT) for different sites representative of different Sahelian and Sudanian savanna ecosystems. This relationship was found to decrease moderately as a function of the woody cover as reflected by the selection of the three sites ranging from sparse woody cover (<11%) in the north, to medium dense woody cover (approximately 50%) in the southernmost site. Remote sensing has proven to be a powerful tool for monitoring the drying process of herbaceous vegetation. Looking at the results, remote sensing could provide a good opportunity for forest managers in the assessment of herbaceous water content. In addition, this information is useful because of the importance of herbaceous water content in the management of savanna fires.
This work received financial support from the French International Cooperation (French Embassy in Senegal), the International Foundation for Science (IFS), the Senegal Government through the "Fonds d'Impulsion pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique" (FIRST program), the U3E Project of the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar and French International Cooperation, and the West African Network for Studies of Environmental Change (Wansec)/DANIDA.
We thank NASA for the providing of MODIS data, the laboratory of Senegalese Ministry of Mines where the biomass samples were dried. We thank also Fabien Tinquaut for his help in automating the processing of satellite images, and the four anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
MODIS (MCD12Q1) land cover classification and location of biomass sampling sites in the main ecosystems of Senegal (Source NASA:
Composition and distribution of vegetation typical for the three sites: (
The experimental design for biomass collection covered 1 km2, including nine plots of 250 × 250 m from which four samples were collected at random locations using a 1 m2 quadrat. The geographic coordinates of the MODIS 1 km2 LST pixel corners were used to outline the experimental plot area for the best possible match of footprints from MODIS data and ground observations.
Temporal evolution of herbaceous moisture content from field observations at the three sites (
Linear relationship between field observations of equivalent water thickness (EWT), vegetation indices and land surface temperature. Black dots and line represent the daily data while gray dots and dashed line represent the eight-day composite data.
Changes in vegetation moisture content from DOY (day of year) 273 to 320. EWT was retrieved from eight-day MODIS using the equation of the linear regression between NDII and field measured EWT (
Characteristics of the MODIS products used in this study.
|MODIS/Aqua Surface Reflectance Daily Level 2 Global 500 m SIN Grid Collection 5
|MODIS/Aqua Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Daily Level 3 Global 1 km SIN Grid Collection 5
|MODIS/Aqua Surface Reflectance Eight-day Level 3 Global 500 m SIN Grid Collection 5
|MODIS/Aqua Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Eight-day Level 3 Global 1 km SIN Grid Collection 5
|MODIS/Terra + Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly Level 3 Global 500 m SIN Grid Collection 5
Algorithms for the computing of vegetation indices extracted from literature. MODIS Band 2 (center μm) = 0.858 μm; Band 5 = 1.240 μm; Band 6 = 1.640 μm; Band 7 = 2.130 μm. NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index); NDII (Normalized Difference Infrared Index); SRWI (Simple Ratio Water Index); MSI (Moisture Stress Index); GVMI (Global Vegetation Moisture Index).
Correlation coefficients between field measurements of herbaceous moisture content and (1) vegetation indices and (2) ratio NDVI/ST. Fuel Moisture Content (FMC), Equivalent Water Thickness (EWT), Moisture Stress Index (MSI), Normalized Difference Infrared Index (NDII), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Global Vegetation Moisture Index (GVMI), Simple Ratio Water Index (SRWI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Surface Temperature (ST).


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CAMBRIDGE – Jim Yong Kim's appointment as World Bank president may have been predictable, given the long-standing tradition that renders the selection an American prerogative. But even the appearance of competition between Kim and the other candidates, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and José Antonio Ocampo, served to expose a deep fissure within the field of development policy, because Kim and his two rivals represented dramatically different approaches.
The vision for which Kim stands is bottom-up. It focuses directly on the poor, and on delivering services – for example, education, health care, and microcredit – to their communities. This tradition's motto could be, "Development is accomplished one project at a time."
The other approach, represented by Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo, takes an economy-wide approach. It emphasizes broad reforms that affect the overall economic environment, and thus focuses on areas such as international trade, finance, macroeconomics, and governance.
Practitioners in the first group idolize NGO leaders like Mohammad Yunus, whose Grameen Bank pioneered microfinance, and Ela Bhatt, a founder of India's Self-Employment Women's Association (SEWA). The heroes of the second group are reformist finance or economy ministers such as India's Manmohan Singh or Brazil's Fernando Henrique Cardoso.


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Jennifer Love Hewitt Is Schoolgirl Chic (PHOTOS)
Apparently, Jennifer Love Hewitt still has a lot to learn. The former Ghost Whisperer star was in New York on Tuesday filming her guest appearance on cop drama Law & Order: SVU, decked out in a schoolgirl outfit, knee-socks and all.
Hewitt will be playing a rape victim who becomes too terrified to leave the house. But let's accentuate the positive by checking out the photo gallery of the 31-year-old actress making the grade in her school uniform.
And make sure to hit up our Actors on Set gallery for more of how biz's best and brightest putting in an honest day's work.