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LocationMóstoles, Madrid, Spain
Design ArchitectsHugo Berenguer / Francisco Arévalo / Miguel Maíza / Jacobo Ordás / Carolina Fernández / Encarna Sánchez / Gonzalo Robles / Javier Gómez / Ignacio Jaso
Basic ProjectMiguel Miguel Maíza / Jacobo Ordás / Gonzalo Robles / Javier Gómez
ModelsVictor Coronel / Fernando Mont
Computer Graphics DesignLuis Muñoz / Daniel Roris
Execution ProjectMiguel Maíza / Sigfried Burguer / Hugo Berenguer / Jacobo Ordás / Gonzalo Robles / Javier Gómez / Peter Germann / Laura Díaz / Fernando de la Fuente / Saúl Castellanos / Carmen Salinas / Ignacio Jaso
Work CoordinationMiguel Maíza / Jacobo Ordás
Cost€ 74,104,475.25
Ground Surface90,000 sqm
Built Area overground69,782sqm
Built Area underground24,923.20 sqm
Text description provided by the architects. Our recent hospitals, as health systems, effectively serve the citizens, but it takes place in a dramatic architectural space unnecessarily and sometimes depressive. Its proven effectiveness is the cause of their repeatability, so that over a quarter of a century that all are the same, or so perceived. We propose to transform the citizen into a customer, for a new type of hospital, which in addition to assist with the proven effectiveness of our healthcare system, can feel at all times the center of all care, giving them all attention.
This new hospital model is configured in three basic elements: efficiency, light and silence. The best about hospital architecture and the best in residential architecture. Conceptually, the new hospital is arranged on base that gives structure to the health care units, outpatient diagnosis and treatment. Structured in three modules or parallel buildings that reflect the best hospital main structures: flexibility, expansion, functional clarity and horizontal circulations.
On this structure are arranged two units of hospitalization, two oval crown with gentle curves drawn give a different view from the depressive sensory residential forms of the rationalist "block bar", and draw on the best of recent residential architecture: the elimination of corridors and in consequence the elimination of annoying noise, concentric circulation, light and silence around a common atrium. Two functional concepts space: base and crown, which are linked to form a new architecture, a model that offers to the professionals the opportunity to treat and to the citizens to be treated in an environment where the natural light and the silence resulting therapeutics.
Criteria 1: Overall Concept.The overall concept is based on the architectural proposal for a hospital of this nature; it should allow adaptation to the requirements of the program needs, and expected financial requirements. It has also sought to respond to the complex functional program with contemporary and attractive architecture. It has had particular regard to the human scale, solar protection and above all to distinct the patients spaces through the hospital. The build is the result of a different point of view against to the simples and common spaces in hospital architecture. Our purpose is also give therapeutics spaces, provide and architecture that serves to he rest and recovery of the patient. "To use the architecture as a medical treatment"
Criteria 2: Design approach.The design is structured on a large base, which encompasses various medical areas of the hospital, holding two volumes of glass where the ward is developed. This approach develops to a complex system of articulated spaces within three prisms that make up the base, geared to each other as if it were a machine, a "healing machine".
In addition to the functional treatment of the base, a symbolic treatment was essential to remark the towers. The space of the patients is planned only thinking in the needs and in the best way to them to feel better with harmony and light. From the first moment, it was determinate to have different spaces between the area of the patients and the other functional areas of the hospital, allowing in this area the relation between the green roof garden and the views from each room.
Criteria 3: Funtionality. Achieving a perfect functional relationship between the areas, providing maximum flexibility to the scheme between the exterior and interior spaces. Differentiate between internal and external circulation, distinguish the accesses and the specificity of vertical communication cores, allowing clarifying the scheme.
The position of the two towers, responds to the functional need to have an immediate access to the operating rooms, delivery rooms, emergency and diagnostic. The functionality of the building lays in the way of life the patients and their relatives have during the time they have to be inside.
Criteria 4: Implementation. The strategy of the implementation is the organization between all the elements that are involved in the project. The three prisms of the basement organize the circulation in an exemplary manner. In the two prisms of the edges are arranged for one to be used externally and the other internally, the block in the middle shares uses when internal and external circulations are necessary, but always without interference.
Systematize the building by structural modulation with the subsequent pre-industrialization process linked with a technological innovation in the materials and systems used; give a unique result with the last technology making the difference with the traditional hospital buildings.
Criteria 5: Sustainability. One of our main points in the building is the sustainability; considering the conditions of solar orientation, topography, built environment and the greenery nearby, without forgetting the urban conditions of application.
Incorporate in the system green materials and renewable energy technology, with the objective to save resources and optimize operating costs, providing trough the green roof the natural light and ventilation to the inside of the building.


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Newsflash - CeLSIUS is moving to UCL!
We are pleased to announce that from 1st August 2012 the CeLSIUS service and most of the current CeLSIUS team will be moving to University College London (UCL). The new team at UCL will provide the service until 31st July 2017.
The continued aim will be to provide high quality user support for the ONS LS in a timely fashion, but this will be extended from 1st August to include non-academic users (who are currently supported by a team at ONS).
There may be some service disruption during the first few weeks at UCL, especially as the 2012 Olympics will be occurring simultaneously. We shall, however, endeavour to keep any disruption to a minimum.
This CeLSIUS website will continue to provide information about the service
until a new website at UCL is up and running. We will inform current users
and subscribers to our JISCmail list by email as soon as our new contact
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contact details (email and phone) at the ONS will not change. (Current
contact details can be found on our Contact us
Welcome to CeLSIUS:
Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support
Welcome to the Web site of CeLSIUS, the support team for UK university based users of the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study (the 'LS'). We are the people to contact if you are thinking about a research project using the LS.
CeLSIUS is one of the services funded by the ESRC Census Programme and as such our services are provided free of charge to staff and students of UK academic institutions.
What is the LS?
The LS is a data set comprising linked census and event records for 1% of the population of England and Wales (about 500,000 people at any one census). It was set up in 1974 to address problems with the adequacy of occupational mortality data, and the lack of longitudinal fertility data, but since then it has been used to address a wide range of other research questions.
If you're new to the LS, take a look at our What is the LS? section for further details.
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The LS is useful for longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of census and events data. It contains:
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The LS has been used in a wide range of studies, but for certain types of study there are other data sets that might be more appropriate. To find out whether the LS is suitable for your study, look at the What data does the LS contain? section.

subset: commoncrawl


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- Research article
- Open Access
Efficient, sparse biological network determination
- Elias August1Email author and
- Antonis Papachristodoulou1
© August and Papachristodoulou; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2009
- Received: 29 July 2008
- Accepted: 23 February 2009
- Published: 23 February 2009
Determining the interaction topology of biological systems is a topic that currently attracts significant research interest. Typical models for such systems take the form of differential equations that involve polynomial and rational functions. Such nonlinear models make the problem of determining the connectivity of biochemical networks from time-series experimental data much harder. The use of linear dynamics and linearization techniques that have been proposed in the past can circumvent this, but the general problem of developing efficient algorithms for models that provide more accurate system descriptions remains open.
We present a network determination algorithm that can treat model descriptions with polynomial and rational functions and which does not make use of linearization. For this purpose, we make use of the observation that biochemical networks are in general 'sparse' and minimize the 1-norm of the decision variables (sum of weighted network connections) while constraints keep the error between data and the network dynamics small. The emphasis of our methodology is on determining the interconnection topology rather than the specific reaction constants and it takes into account the necessary properties that a chemical reaction network should have – something that techniques based on linearization can not. The problem can be formulated as a Linear Program, a convex optimization problem, for which efficient algorithms are available that can treat large data sets efficiently and uncertainties in data or model parameters.
The presented methodology is able to predict with accuracy and efficiency the connectivity structure of a chemical reaction network with mass action kinetics and of a gene regulatory network from simulation data even if the dynamics of these systems are non-polynomial (rational) and uncertainties in the data are taken into account. It also produces a network structure that can explain the real experimental data of L. lactis and is similar to the one found in the literature. Numerical methods based on Linear Programming can therefore help determine efficiently the network structure of biological systems from large data sets. The overall objective of this work is to provide methods to increase our understanding of complex biochemical systems, particularly through their interconnection and their non-equilibrium behavior.
- Lactis
- Gene Regulatory Network
- Glycolytic Pathway
- Sparsity Structure
- Mass Action Kinetic
Determining the interaction topology in large-scale biological systems has been an active area of research for some time now. Most methodologies that deal with high-throughput experimental data make use of information about the behavior of the system locally around the steady-state [1–3]. For example, a class of techniques that fall under the rubric of 'stationary state Jacobian Matrix Elements' analyzes the system behavior when it is perturbed locally from steady-state and looks at whether the concentration of one species is increased or decreased when another species' concentration is increased. In [4] and [5], the authors have built on this approach and determined the functional interactions in cellular signaling and gene networks by taking into account the 'modular' structure of the networks in question. Alternatively, inferences about the topology of the network can be made by introducing pulse changes in concentration of a chemical species in the network, and observing the network's response, concluding causal chemical connectivities [6]. In [3], a linear dynamical system was considered to represent a gene regulatory network, and an approach, based on Linear Programming, was proposed in order to obtain the sparsest network structure from genetic perturbation experiments.
However, most information of the system dynamics is in its transient behavior and, more importantly, many reactions that the living cell requires are actually for most of the time far from steady state [7]. The problem of determining the network structure in the case where transient time-series data for non-equilibrium behavior are available is much harder and this has been an active area of research for over a decade. The reason is that while such data are often abundant due to the development of high-throughput, effective experimental techniques, at the same time, a high computational effort is required to extract information about the network structure using traditional techniques. A recent review of available techniques can be found in [8] or [9], but earlier articles, such as [10], also list several approaches to this network identification problem.
In actual fact, identifying the interconnection topology in biological and biochemical systems is of greater importance than extracting the parameters (the rates of the various reactions) that best fit the particular time series data. There are several reasons for this: first, the parameters are often collected under noisy experimental conditions and are sensitive to the laboratory environment. Second, as is often the case with large networks, persistence of observed phenomena is robust to a large range of most parameter values and therefore identifying these parameters exactly is not of great interest. Indeed, chemical reaction networks often have the same functionality in the neighborhood of most of the nominal reaction rates. But most importantly, networks are rarely robust to the random rewiring of the underlying interconnection structure and hence determining the network connectivity is much more important than determining the kinetic parameters that fit the particular data.
where the unknown matrix encompassing the connectivity structure is A and the vector of functions f: ℝ n → ℝ m (which need to satisfy appropriate smoothness conditions to ensure local existence and uniqueness of solutions) is known. This makes (1) linear in the unknown parameters. Our main objective is to provide a procedure to identify the interconnection topology that is encapsulated in A, given experimental time-series data.
An important property of the network given by A is sparseness, i.e., it has much less edges than the full graph with the same vertex set. In this paper, we extend the results in [13] that focus on obtaining sparse interconnection networks from experimental data to general and large-scale networks. We apply the presented methodology in order to reconstruct a biochemical network from mock-up experimental data obtained through simulations. More importantly, we show its validity in determining the glycolytic pathway of Lactococcus lactis from real experimental data. Although this pathway has been investigated in great detail (see for example, [14–16]) and is the test object of many system identification approaches as a recent paper fittingly notes in its title, it is 'an unfinished systems biological case study' [14].
Finally, we suggest how the method of identifying connectivity for systems of the form (1) can be adjusted to determine the structure of gene regulatory networks, in which the unknown parameters do not enter the system dynamics in an affine way. We then apply the methodology in order to reconstruct a gene regulatory network from mock-up experimental data obtained through simulations.
ℝ, ℝ n , ℝm × nis the set of all real numbers, real vectors of length n, m × n real matrices
A ij (i, j)th is the (i, j) entry of matrix A ∈ ℝm × n
:{x ∈ ℝ n : x i > 0, i = 1, ..., n}, {x ∈ ℝ n : x i ≥ 0, i = 1, ..., n}
vec(A) is a vector which contains the columns of A stacked one below each other
e =[1, 1, ⋯, 1]T
diag(A), A ∈ ℝn × nis a vector of length n, where (diag(A)) i = A ii
diag(x), x ∈ ℝ n is a matrix in ℝn × n, where (diag(x)) ii = x i and (diag(x)) ij = 0 if j ≠ i
Chemical reaction networks
Here, S denotes the substrate, E the enzyme, ES the enzyme-substrate complex and P the final product. They are the so called species that participate in the reactions. The positive constants k1, k-1, k2 and k-2 are the reaction rate constants, edges represent reactions and vertices represent complexes (the objects that appear before and after the reaction arrows).
where v(x) is the rate vector (or flux vector), x is the concentration vector of the different species and N is the stoichiometric matrix. If p molecules of species i appear before the reaction arrow in reaction j then N ij = -p and if they appear after then N ij = p.
Determining affine and sparse interconnections in dynamical systems
where f(·) ∈ ℝ m is a vector of known functions, which satisfy appropriate smoothness conditions to ensure local existence and uniqueness of solutions. With A = Y A κ and f (x) = Ψ(x), the above description results in a dynamical system of the form given by (6). Note that the unknown parameters (which also encode the network structure) are in A, which enters the system dynamics linearly. Let neither the value of the entries nor the structure of matrix A be known. What we wish to find is the structure and entries in matrix A, given experimental data.
For this purpose, we consider the following discrete-time system:
x(tk + 1) = x(t k ) + (tk + 1- t k ) Af(x(t k )),
which is the Euler discretization of (6).
Now, the set of measurements, which we denote by , can be used to fit the unknown entries to A such as to minimize the error between the data and the model predictions, which are given by (7). It is popular to solve the minimization problem which results in the least 2-norm of the error between x i (tk+1) and (least squares minimization problem). We can write such an error metric as:
min||Ma - b||2
where a ∈ ℝ nm is a vector containing A ij , which we treat as decision variables, and M ∈ ℝ((p-1) × n) × nmand b ∈ ℝ(p-1) × nare defined by 'stacking' all such conditions obtained by manipulating the data as per (7). Here p corresponds to the number of measurements. This problem has the following analytical solution:
a* = M†b ≜ (MT M)-1MTb
There are a few drawbacks of the above least-squares approach. In the presence of extra constraints on the variables A ij (constrained regression), the problem does not have a closed-form solution, in general. Such constrained minimizations, the simplest of which is a Second Order Cone Problem (SOCP) [19], may carry a significant computational cost for large problems. The same is true if the data are contaminated with error which needs to be taken into account when producing Aleast-squares [20]. Furthermore, the solution to a least-squares problem will not be sparse in general; it will rather result in a full matrix.
In [19] and more recently in [21], the fact was mentioned that a large number of elements of the solution z of a Linear Program (LP) such as
min ||z||1,
By making and as small as possible for all k, we can ensure that the data are in close Euler-fit with the model making the approximation error as small as possible. The advantage of solving LPs is that the task can be performed using fast, efficient and readily available algorithms. Note also that the number of decision variables in (11) relates directly to the size of A and not of the data, which makes it suitable for the identification of large-scale systems. Support for the validity of above heuristic to obtain a sparse interconnection matrix A are also Theorem 1.1 of [22] and the work presented in [23].
In summary, using the above ideas, we aim to extract from data the sparsity pattern in matrix A, which is related to the connectivity of the underlying graph structure, drawing conclusions on the network interaction topology.
Obtaining the structure of a gene regulatory network
Using the same ideas, another class of a networks that can be determined are gene regulatory networks given microarray time-series data. We first briefly explain the function of gene regulatory networks and DNA microarray time-series.
In order to understand the dynamics and behavior of a gene regulatory network, three levels of information are required:
1. The network interconnection in the form of a directed graph;
2. Whether an edge from node i to node j means that transcription factor i is activating (denoted by arrow) or repressing (denoted by 'hammer') j;
3. The activation/repression rates for the transcription factors.
Time-series obtained from DNA microarrays [26, 27] are extremely helpful to obtain the structure of gene regulatory networks. This is because DNA microarrays allow observation of the presence of specific mRNA within the cell and in particular, time-series data allow measurements on how these change over time after a perturbation, or when following the cell cycle.
respectively, where x1 is the concentration of X1. (In [29], the notation is used instead of k. For clarity, we have adopted a 'simpler' notation.) Knowledge about the magnitude of activation or repression coefficient k, k > 0, and exponent n, n > 0, is part of the third level of information.
where γ i > 0 is the basal transcription production rate and d i > 0 is the degradation/dilution rate. In the above model, however, the vector field (right hand side of Equation (17)) is not affine in the unknown parameters and therefore one may think that the method proposed in the previous section can not be extended for this case; we show here how the above can be reformulated and cast in a form that allows identification using Linear Programming.
Let Δt = tℓ+1 - tℓ. A discrete-time system that approximates (17) is:
x i (tℓ+1) = x i (tℓ) + Δt(γ i + f i (x i (tℓ)) - d i x i (tℓ)).
(The latter requirements in brackets correspond to the case of uncertain production and degradation rates.) Note that as per (16)
k ij = 0 if and only if b ij = 0 or b i = 0, ∀i, j.
The following remark deals with the case when the solution of (20) violates (21). The rationale behind the idea is that by following these rules we can determine unambiguously whether activation or repression takes place.
Remark 1 Since requirement (21) cannot be implemented in a LP, we deduce the following from the solution of (20) about the connectivity of the network when (21) is violated:
- if k ij ≠ 0, b ij = 0 and b i = 0 then the production of X i is not affected by X j ; that is, it is the same case as when k ij = 0,
- if b ij ≠ 0 and k ij = 0 then X j enhances the production of X i ; i. e., it is the same case as when k ij ≠ 0,
- if b i ≠ 0 and k ij = 0 for all i then the production of X i is not affected by X j ; that is, it is the same case as when b i = 0.
Results and discussion
Numerical experiments
An artificial chemical reaction network
and have simulated the system with uniformly distributed initial conditions. The data sets were obtained by simulating the above set of nonlinear equations using SIMULINK. Ten such data sets were generated and incorporated in the LP.
which is the same as the network shown in Figure 2, but for a link between complex 1 and complex 3. Of course, this is not surprising: there is no unique reaction mechanism that can fit a data set; rather, there can be many networks which with some kinetic parameters can represent the same data within experimental error. In fact, we can only hope to invalidate a postulated reaction mechanism using data, a point we will return to in the concluding section.
and a q = [q1, ..., q8] which corresponds to nonzero entries for k31, k34, k35 k13 and k15. Therefore in this case too, a sparse topology interconnection is obtained, but the matrix in this case is not as sparse as before.
A sample gene regulatory network
b3 = 0.64, b5 = 0.80, and all other b i = 0. Following the rules given by Remark 1, we are able to reconstruct the network shown in Figure 4. As the example shows, we are able to determine the interaction network given by (24) through the LP (20) even when degradation rates are considered uncertain.
Reconstructing the glycolytic pathway of Lactococcus lactis
Note that the network topology is completely determined by A κ . Recall that
A κ = K - diag(KTe), K ij ≥ 0 ∀i, j.
Further increase of α results first in the disappearance of the links between G6P and FBP, and sequential changes do not result in 'sensible' connection topologies. Of course, this is something that in general the investigator does not know. While the pathway depicted in Figure 6(a) might be dismissed because the resulting model behavior compares badly with data, this argument does not hold for the pathway in Figure 7(a).
The error between the model dynamics and experimental data is again considerably smaller than the error shown in Figure 6(b). As we can see from Figure 8(a), a relatively sparse reaction topology was obtained.
The pathway x1 → ... → x7 was almost reconstructed. A sensible assumption to make is that the degradation of G6P which appears at α = 3 corresponds to the conversion into FBP suggested at α = 2.
our approach provides a meaningful chemical reaction network of the form (4). (This matrix corresponds to the case when α = 2.) Nevertheless, without biochemical information the superiority of this pathway to the pathway in Figure 7(a) cannot be established and it follows that experiments have to be designed to discriminate between several competing models.
We have presented a methodology for determining the interaction topology of biological networks, that are either affine in the unknown parameters or can be transformed to have this property, using time series data collected from experiments. We demonstrated the ability of our method to identify a chemical reaction network structure through several numerical examples. We have also tested our approach by elucidating the glycolytic pathway of the bacterium Lactococcus lactis. Our method respects the structural properties that chemical reaction network dynamics should have [11, 12].
In the case of gene regulatory networks, more realistic models could be used, but those would include additional parameters, first, by making the Hill coefficient in the activation and repression terms a free variable; and second, encoding the fact that when two transcription factors act on DNA, either both are required (AND) or any of them is sufficient (OR) for action. Thus, a valuable research direction is to investigate this case and establish whether similar analysis techniques to the ones presented in this paper can be used.
In (27) we introduced a free variable α whose value can change the solution considerably. Hence, it is worthwhile to explore different possible heuristics how to choose the value of this variable. (Here, we kept the balance between increasing α and keeping the model dynamics that followed from the solution of (27) relatively close to experimental data.) An iterative method can also be used, which uses 'live' information from simulations and then iterates with a simple Linear Program to find the network structure that fits best the parameters.
Finally, as shown, different methods or the same one with different constraints provide different models that represent the same data, which is an expected feature of such methods. It follows that experiments have to be designed to discriminate between competing models, in a way that 'closes the loop' between modelling and experiment (see for example [31]).
This work was financially supported by EPRSC project E05708X. The authors would like to thank Ben Recht and Mark Roberts for useful discussions about this paper.
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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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Monday, November 15, 2010
Psycho Talk
(CHICAGO, IL – November 15, 2010) For the better part of the past five years, ever since an ill-fated Kentucky Derby winner broke crookedly from the starting gate at Pimlico, the dialogue within Thoroughbred horse racing has been communicated in a zealot vernacular.
This remark will not sit well with the outspoken legions of devoted followers of Barbaro, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta; they believe what they've said has been sensibly objective. Yet, aside from the dull and persistent insider topics pertaining to takeout, integrity and synthetic tracks, just about all other recent talk has focused on the three charismatic, and somewhat polarizing, horses. And the talk of their exploits, in the main, has reflected an obsessive character.
"Internuts" have dominated the idiom. When Barbaro was sent to surgery, they kept watch of his hospice on the blog sites like guard dogs at the gates of a cemetery at midnight. When the filly Rachel Alexandra concluded her magical three-year-old season, they crowned her the Horse of the Year nearly five months before the balloting took place. The verbal jousting between forces over whether it was Rachel Alexandra's owner or Zenyatta's, who prevented the horses from facing off, was amusing and testy.
An inordinate amount of insults demurred to turf writers who dared mention, albeit well intentionally, that Barbaro's plight was futile from the start. Assumptions of bias were quickly ascribed to anyone who noted that Zenyatta was cautiously campaigned, although that's clearly the case. In some quarters, the over-promotion of these genuinely admirable competitors produced the reverse effect of what was intended. Undoubtedly, there's a current of ridicule among writers for readers unwilling to stare facts in the face. Don't expect anyone to admit it.
Wendi Gardner, an associate professor of psychology at Northwestern University, believes that the over-the-top fan worship for Zenyatta has to do with belonging. She believes that the Zenyatta fans may have attached to a group and are finding identity within the group. They are, as a matter of fact, not dissimilar from faithful TV viewers who become attached to the characters of a popular show such as Friends, for which the audience would live and die with each challenge that the cast faced.
"Getting devoted either to a person or character, or in this case an animal, is a fairly common phenomenon. It's called parasocial attachment," Gardner explained in a telephone interview. When asked why the fans of the once-beaten mare often overstepped the facts when defending Zenyatta, Gardner answered, "We, as humans, throw out logic when evaluating, protecting or defending those we love." About the insults the Zeniacs lob at people with dissimilar opinions, she then added, "Even though this seems to make no sense because these people have no real relationship with this horse in any way, their emotional attachment to the horse, like you'd have for a child, would explain the over-emotional protection they display in their behavior."
Gardner further noted that Americans, in particular, love an underdog, and suggested, perhaps, that Barbaro, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta are underdog archetypes. To wit, the tag can be easily applied to Barbaro – an injured horse that fought for his life against the odds; Rachel Alexandra – a female horse that took on male horses regularly and Zenyatta – a standard-bearer for West Coast racing that excelled despite East Coast detractors.
A reason seldom expressed for why these horses are so revered is that they seemed to possess human traits. Barbaro, upon occasioning trauma, transformed himself from a non-thinking animal to a sensible hospital patient. In holding off Macho Again, Rachel Alexandra exhibited the persistence of the goddess Selene and the daring of Amelia Earhart. Zenyatta pranced to her appointments like a prima ballerina, with an emphasis on prima. She pawed the ground, turned her gaze to her fans and exhibited a showgirl's personality in the paddock and post parade. By channeling a human dimension, the three horses became subjects of hyperbole.
For purely selfish reasons, the sport loved the chaos. Those were pink and green mass-produced signs that the fans held for cameras. The Breeders' Cup and NTRA rode the wave of hysteria to effective results – ratings climbed, attendance soared and the sport received rock star attention. In becoming an avatar of unrealized dreams, Zenyatta ascends now to the status of an idol that even life's losers relate to. There was no risk to having her run in the Classic. Horse racing would come out of top no matter the outcome.
Two weeks into the Breeders' Cup aftermath, Zenyatta's tale grows. Her fans won't give in to defeat; their adoration for her seems unshakable. Can you imagine what might happen if Jerry and Ann Moss don't say "no mas" and decide to campaign the beloved mare longer?
On the other hand, if Zenyatta is retired as expected, sometime after the crocus bloom, at a point after the embers of debate over Horse of the Year honors appear reasonably doused, the balance of power among the fan base as currently constructed will return to its natural state – a state of day-in, day-out stasis. No horse on the horizon seems suited to replace the fervent, irrational and fun draw of those gone. There'd be peace. But we'd be in for a dull spell.
You're invited to visit Vic Zast at Facebook.com/viczast and Twitter.com/viczast.
Written by Vic Zast


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A recent twitter exchange has stimulated me to revisit the topic of 'observation' as a purposeful activity supporting clinical teaching, learning and assessment. I first wrote about observation in 2003, when contributing to some early web-based resources for clinical teachers for the London Deanery (now a well established suite of free on-line resources). I argued that observation, at it's best, was
'an active, purposeful task that stimulates deep learning and the development of professional 'know-how'. At worst it is a passive process that leads to either heightened anxiety or total 'shut down' in the learner'.
At the time, I was referring to a classic approach to clinical teaching, where students are invited to observe the practice of qualified professionals and engage in a dialogue about what was observed, afterwards. I argued that it was important to maximize such learning opportunities, by making the learning opportunities explicit, including the use of 'advance- organisers' to help structure student's observations by signaling the types of theoretical knowledge they might draw upon to make sense of the observed practice i.e. providing a framework to guide their observations. Drawing on the work of Karl Popper, I challenged the idea that observation is somehow an objective or 'neutral' process, illustrating the ways in which experienced clinicians draw upon experience and theoretical frameworks to analyse and interpret the behaviours they witness.
"Clearly the instruction "observe!" is absurd. Observation is always selective. It needs a chosen object, a definite task, an interest, a point of view, a problem." (Popper, 1972, page 46)
In the twitter exchange, I was vicariously part of a conference session, and the observation referred to was not that of student observing teacher, rather that of teacher observing a learner, in a simulated scenario. The idea that captured my imagination was around the importance of the teacher drawing upon 'objective' observations as the basis of a debrief conversation designed to support further learning. I questioned the position that teacher observation was objective, suggesting that all observation is subjective, in that it is selective; the choice of what to observe is, I believe, influenced by what the observer feels to be most important or pertinent at that particular time, or in that particular situation. So, whilst it may be possible, as the teacher, to provide a 'factual' account of what was observed (or indeed not observed) at a behavioural level, there are limits to the usefulness of such observations. We cannot see the situation with the same eyes as the person in the middle of the action; what they notice and how they respond is something we can only infer. ( I am reminded here of a wonderful digital story called 'Another person's eyes' on the Patient Voices website which beautifully captures what I am trying to express here'.)
The complexity of professional activity lies in what is not readily observable - the internal dialogue, the affective response, the reflection-in-action arising when things do not go in the way we might anticipate. The learning arising from engagement in observed work activity (whether in vivo or in simulation) is often hidden from observers view. I have blogged before about the origins of debrief being from the battlefield – where the lived experience of one participant is used as a shared resource for others around them. Asking the learner to talk you through the situation you have observed (either from memory or shared viewing of a recording) will afford insights into the ways in which they observe, read and respond to situations encountered. Inviting them to provide you with an advanced-organiser, directing you to the aspects of their performance they would most value your help with, is a powerful learner-centred strategy. Together, these approaches can form the basis of the rich, developmental conversations that support further development. By all means share your observations, drawing out similarities and differences in perspective as a way to develop insights, but be cautious about claiming objectivity!
As a footnote to this blog, I am left reflecting upon the exponential growth in the use of workplace based observations as the basis for decisions about competence. We observe a selected set of behaviours, at a given time, in a given place, for a given purpose, interpret these behaviours and make and record a judgment. This judgment is taken as an objective, portable measure of competence, i.e. a judgment that tells us about not only what was done in the observed moment, but what might be done in future comparable moments. In recording these judgments on a form, or in a portfolio, we objectify the subjective.
Popper, K. (1972) Conjectures and refutations: the growth of scientific knowledge'


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Two of India's most fascinating stories – Ramayan and Mahabharat – thrive on repetition. Right from the time we hear it from our grandparents to the time we are subjected to the Ekta Kapoor version, there is no suspense element in the stories. We know exactly what is going to happen, how, when and where. We are in it to track our favourite characters and their antics. And repeated viewings / hearings only make the associations stronger and lead to more layers being unearthed.
Now, there's more to this story.
We know that Abhimanyu did not know how to come out of the Chakravyuha, but how come none of the Paandavs managed to follow him inside? Arjun was engaged in a battle elsewhere. But the other four brothers were thwarted by Jayadrath. And what gave Jayadrath such powers that he managed to beat them? Jayadrath had been given a boon by Lord Shiv that he would be able to defeat all the Paandavs except Arjun for one day. Just one. And Jayadrath encashed that boon on that day, when Abhimanyu was killed.
End of story? Not quite.
On hearing of Abhimanyu's death, Arjun put the blame squarely on Jayadrath and vowed to kill him the very next day before sunset. Or else, he would self-immolate. Now this caused huge hope in the Kaurav camp. Dronacharya summarised that if they managed to protect Jayadrath for that one day, the Paandavs would lose Arjun and that would be the end of their campaign. So, Jayadrath was hidden inside a Shuchi-vyuha (eye of a needle) inside a Chakravyuha. And in a day of battle like no other, Arjun made a mad rush towards Jayadrath. However, when it became obvious that he wouldn't reach him before sunset, Krishna did a trick and covered the sun. Thinking it was the sunset, Jayadrath jumped out of his chariot and ran up to Arjun, exhorting him to immolate himself. Seeing the defenceless jerk, Krishna uncovered the sun and there was still an over of play left. Arjun hit a six and chopped his head off in one clean shot of an arrow.
All's well that ends well? Yes, but one twist was still left.
Jayadrath's father had blessed his son once by saying that if any person causing Jayadrath's head to fall to the ground would have his own head broken into a thousand pieces. Lovely. So what does Arjun do? He cuts off Jayadrath's head with one arrow and with six more arrows, he transported the severed head several hundred miles away, where his father was sitting in meditation and dropped it on his lap. Jayadrath's father saw his son's head on lap and stood up in shock, causing the head to fall on the ground. And his own head shattered into a hundred pieces.
This one small plot has enough twists, turns, dilemmas, solutions, bravery and bravado to last us a lifetime. Is it possible to learn something from the mother's womb? Was it ethical to for seven warriors to gang up against a teenaged boy? Why was it necessary for Arjun to make a promise that could have killed him? How could Krishna cover the sun when he promised not to interfere in the battle?
Recently, I bought two books on the two epics, which were summarised readings of the two along with a collection of trivia. Trivia is something that I am inexhorably drawn towards. On top of that, there are enough references in these two epics to our socio-cultural history to make them quite addictive.For example, the dyansty of Ram is documented from 63 generations before him and had Harishchandra (he of truthfulness and Dadasaheb Phalke fame) among the earlier kings. It also had a king by the name of Mandhata (estd 3458 BC) and that is why, extremely old things in Bengali are referred to as Mandhatar aamol (the age of Mandhata)!
Raam and Sita got married when he was thirteen and she was six! They remained in Ayodhya for about 12 years before their exile and in exile for about 14 years. This means, Ram became the king at the age of 39 and ruled for about 30 years before he passed away.Interestingly, the North Indian view of the world (as it existed beyond the Vindhyas) was quite partisan. The inhabitants of Kishkindhya (present day Bellary district of Karnataka) were monkeys and the inhabitants of Lanka were demons. Even if you are an Indian cricket fan and have seen this often enough, it does strike you as rather demeaning to the Lankans!
The geographical coordinates of Mahabharat are also firmly entrenched around the Delhi NCR. For services rendered in teaching the Hastinapur princes, Dronacharya was given a village on the outskirts of the capital. People started calling it Guru Gaon before DLF and Ansal made the Mall Mile and it became famous as Gurgawan!In a last ditch attempt to avoid war, the ultimate do-gooder Yudhishthir asked for five villages for the five brothers (which Duryodhan rejected by saying he won't give "enough earth to cover a needle head" without war). The five villages were the eminently recognisable Indraprastha, Sonepat, Panipat and Baghpat while the fifth one is relatively unknown Tilpat.
The two most important parts of the two epics - the two wars lasted only about 18 days each. The Mahabharat war has been documented more accurately with a day-wise casualty list, while the Ramayan war is less accurate but now signposted with festivals. The first day of the Durga Puja (Mahalaya) is when Ram invoked the goddess for her blessings when the battle got really tough and ten days later, he KO'ed Raavan on Dussehra / Vijaya Dashami (before returning to Ayodhya couple of weeks later on Diwali).And the details... the five Paandavs had codenames for each other when they were in exile (Jay, Jayanta, Vijay, Jayatsen, Jayadwal). The five brothers assumed names when they were hiding in King Viraat's court (Kanka, Ballab, Brihannala, Granthik and Tantipal). Even their conches had names (Anantavijay, Poundra, Debdatta, Sughosh, Manipushpak). Wow! Not to mention that each of them had one overwhelming sin, for which they were unable to reach heaven alive. Even the super-virtuous Yudhishthir had to go through a tour of hell for that one itsy-bitsy-teenie-weenie-yellow-polka-dotted sin that he did!
You know about that, don't you?


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Three Red Spots Mix It Up on Jupiter
This sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images offers an unprecedented view of a planetary game of Pac-Man among three red spots clustered together in Jupiter's atmosphere.
The time series shows the passage of the "Red Spot Jr." in a band of clouds below (south) of the Great Red Spot (GRS). "Red Spot Jr." first appeared on Jupiter in early 2006 when a previously white storm turned red. This is the second time, since turning red, it has skirted past its big brother apparently unscathed.
But this is not the fate of "baby red spot," which is in the same latitudinal band as the GRS. This new red spot first appeared earlier this year. The baby red spot gets ever closer to the GRS in this picture sequence until it is caught up in the anticyclonic spin of the GRS. In the final image the baby spot is deformed and pale in color and has been spun to the right (east) of the GRS. (Amateur astronomers' observations confirm that this is the baby spot that migrated around the GRS.) The prediction is that the baby spot will now get pulled back into the GRS "Cuisinart" and disappear for good. This is one possible mechanism that has powered and sustained the GRS for at least 150 years.
These three natural-color Jupiter images were made from data acquired on May 15, June 28, and July 8, 2008, by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Each one covers 58 degrees of Jovian latitude and 70 degrees of longitude (centered on 5 degrees South latitude and 110, 121, and 121 degrees West longitude, respectively).
NASA, ESA, A. Simon-Miller (Goddard Space Flight Center), N. Chanover (New Mexico State University), and G. Orton (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)


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Key factsPrint summary
FULL SERVICE HISTORY + WIND DEFLECTOR + With Contrasting Full Black Heated Dakota Leather Upholstery, Unmarked 19" Alloy Wheels, Angel Eye Headlights, Bluetooth Connectivity, Rear Park Distance Control, Electric Sport Seats With Drivers Memory, Dual Zone Climate Control / Air Conditioning, Rain Sensor Wipers, Auto Dimming Rear View Mirror, Automatic Headlights, Wind Deflector, Sun Protection Glass, Cruise Control, M Sport Body Styling, Chunky 3 Spoke Leather Multi Function Steering Wheel, Dynamic Stability Control, Start Stop Technology, F1 Paddle Shift Gear Change, Sport / Eco Mode, On Board Computer, Two Keys, HPI Clear With Full Report, New MOT, One Former Keeper, This Very High Spec 320d M Sport Convertible Is Presented For Sale In Superb Condition Throughout, Part Exchange Welcome, Competitive Finance Packages Available, Viewing By Prior Appointment, Call Valentine To Arrange A Viewing On 01454 558927 , Alpine White, 2 owners, £12,995
This car comes with
18in Light Alloy Star - Spoke Wheels with Mixed Run - Flat Tyres, Air Conditioning, Automatic with Two - Zone Control, Alarm System (Thatcham 1), BMW Professional Radio with Single CD Player (with MP3 Playback Capability), Cruise Control, Electric Adjustment Front Seats, Drivers with Memory, Electric Windows - Front and Rear, with Open/Close Fingertip Control, On - Board Computer (OBC), Park Distance Control (PDC), Rear, Tyre Puncture Warning System (TPWS), Upholstery - Dakota Leather with Sun Reflective Technology
- 201906058698626
- 2013
- 13
- £12,995
- 1300
- 42,000
- Cars
- f18iqKVvQOs=
Vehicle summary
|Body style
|Engine size
|1995 cc
|Fuel type
|Number of doors
|Number of seats
|Gearbox type
|CO2 emissions
|149 g/km
|Insurance group
|Standard manufacturer's warranty (miles)
|No details available
|Standard manufacturer's warranty (years)
|3 years
|Standard paintwork guarantee
|3 years
Performance & economy
|Fuel consumption (urban)
|39.8 mpg
|Fuel consumption (extra urban)
|60.1 mpg
|Fuel consumption (combined)
|50.4 mpg
|0 - 60 mph
|8.4 seconds
|Top speed
|140 mph
|Engine power
|184 bhp
|Engine torque
|280.29 lbs/ft
|1384 mm
|Height inclusive of roof rails
|No details available
|4580 mm
|2760 mm
|1782 mm
|Width including mirrors
|No details available
|Fuel tank capacity
|63 litres
|Minimum kerb weight
|No details available
|Interior features
|Exterior features
|Interior Trim, Dark Aluminium Glacier Silver
|Exterior Mirrors - Heated, Electric Adjustment, Automatic Dipping Parking Function for Passenger Side Mirror
|Outside Temperature Display
|18in Light Alloy Star - Spoke Wheels with Mixed Run - Flat Tyres
|Rear - View Mirror, Automatically Dimming
|Exterior Trim High-Gloss Shadowline
|On - Board Computer (OBC)
|Windscreen Washer Jets, Heated
|Sport Seats - Front
|Headlight Wash
|Smokers Package
|Body Colour Bumpers
|BMW Professional Radio with Single CD Player (with MP3 Playback Capability)
|Cruise Control
|Electric Adjustment Front Seats, Drivers with Memory
|Floor Mats, Velour
|Loudspeaker System with Six Speakers
|Armrest - Front, Centre with Storage Compartment
|Centre Console
|Cup Holders, Front
|Multi - Function Steering Wheel
|Air Conditioning, Automatic with Two - Zone Control
|Heated Rear Screen
|M Sport Steering Wheel
|Leather Steering Wheel
|Sports Seats-Front
|Electric Windows - Front and Rear, with Open/Close Fingertip Control
|Steering Column with Manual Reach and Rake Adjustment
|Upholstery - Dakota Leather with Sun Reflective Technology
|Drivers Airbag
|Alarm System (Thatcham 1)
|Dynamic Traction Control (DTC)
|Front Passenger Airbag with Deactivation
|High Level Third Brake Light
|Power - Assisted Steering, Hydraulic
|Head Airbags for Driver and Front Passenger
|Child Seat ISOFIX Attachment, Front and Rear
|Front Anti - Whiplash Head Restraints and Rear Head Restraints
|Xenon Headlights and Daytime Running Lights
|Park Distance Control (PDC), Rear
|Tyre Puncture Warning System (TPWS)
|Drivers and Passengers Side Airbags
|Anti - Lock Braking System (ABS)
|Central Door Locking - Remote Control
|Electronic Brake - Force Distribution (EBD)
|Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) Comprising Automatic Stability Control (ASC), Cornering Brake Control (CBC), Dynamic Brake Control (DBC)
|Engine Immobiliser
|Seat Belts - Front, Inertia Reel with Pyrotechnical Belt Latch Tensioner and Belt Force Limiter
|Foglights, Front
Please note
This includes MPG figures which are calculated under European Standards, in test conditions, and will vary under normal driving conditions. The information displayed above describes the typical specification of the most recent model of this vehicle. It is not the exact specification for the actual vehicle being offered for sale which may vary. Specifications for older models may also vary. Please contact us prior to purchase to confirm the exact specification of this vehicle.
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Beaufort County and Bluffton need strong leadership to help it get to the next level. It takes a village to make a difference and the greater Bluffton and Beaufort County area is growing every day.
While we applaud the efforts of the people already on board the leaderhsip team or just new to the growing team, we think there is an opportunity to make some new hires or to bring different people into the fold that will make the region even stronger.
We encourage a diverse group with different backgrounds, experiences and life lessons. Each and every person brings a unique perspective to the table and that can only lead to needed dialogue about issues and opportunities.
It's no secret that Bluffton and Beaufort County have plenty of opportunity. Capitalizing on that opportunity and making sound decisions that are in the interest of the greater good is all we ask of any leadership team.
As Weston Newton takes his seat in Columbia as a state representative from Bluffton representing a new district, his replacement on Beaufort County Council will have an opportunity to pick up where Newton left off or to forge new ground.
A special election to fill Newton's seat will be held and two candidates have come forward. Voters should be active and engaged about finding out what they can about each and making an informed decision. We'll do our part as we will publish profiles on the candidates in print and online.
Beaufort County also is in the middle of hiring a superintendent of schools. This also is a critical opening and with new members on school board it will be up to them to help make a decision that will benefit all schools in the district from Beaufort to Bluffton to Hilton Head Island.
The school board elected a new chair last week as did County Council. Sometimes a change is good and gives other people a chance to take the heat or to be more involved with the board decisions - or at least they feel like they are more involved.
Our community is not especially at a crossroads in every category, but there are issues that need special attention and leaders who are willing to set aside personal feelings, politics and even egos, to get the work done. We cannot afford to be left at the table when it comes to education, health care, economic development, road construction and planning.
There are seats on local committees and boards that need to be filled with residents who want to get involved and want to learn more about what goes into approving a sign ordinance, enacting a curfew or banning farm animals in residential areas. Being part of the process is the best way to find out how and why decisions are made. We always encourage people to be part of the solution and not the problem.
Bluffton and Beaufort County's future is bright. We need strong leadership to continue to help shape and mold that future.


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Flip Murray Signs with Hawks
Posted Aug 13 2008 4:06PM
ATLANTA, GA, August 13 --- Seeking to add additional depth to its backcourt, the Atlanta Hawks General Manager Rick Sund announced Wednesday that the club has signed free agent guard Ronald "Flip" Murray to a contract. Per team policy, no other details were released.
"By signing Flip, it provides us with another experienced player who has the ability to play multiple positions for us," said Sund. "Because of his versatility, he will be a valuable asset for us as a reserve, and we look forward to the contributions he'll bring this season."
A 6-3, 197-pound combo (point/shooting) guard, Murray is a six-year veteran who last played for the Indiana Pacers. He saw action in 23 games after he was signed a mid-season free agent (March 1) following his release from the Detroit Pistons, and he averaged 11.0 points and 3.5 assists (.425 FG%, .389 3FG%, .754 FT%) in those contests.
He started the final 15 games at point guard for the Pacers last season during their playoff push (Indiana went 10-5 during that stretch), and he averaged 11.0 ppg (.439 FG%, .450 3FG%, .703 FT%) in his 17 overall starts with Indiana.
In a season-and-a-half with the Pistons (88 games, 2006-07 and '07-08), Murray tallied 6.9 ppg and 2.9 apg (.406 FG%, .694 FT%).
He brings career marks of 9.3 points, 2.4 assists and 2.0 rebounds to the Hawks, having played for five teams (Milwaukee, Seattle, Cleveland, Detroit and Indiana) over his six seasons. In addition, Murray has played in 29 postseason games with totals of 5.1 ppg, 2.0 rpg and 1.4 apg.
The NCAA Division II Player of the Year during his senior season at Shaw University, Murray was selected in the second round of the 2002 Draft by the Bucks. He saw limited action as a rookie and was traded during that year (along with Ray Allen, Kevin Ollie and a conditional 2003 first-round pick) to the Sonics (for Gary Payton and Desmond Mason), where he developed into a scoring threat one year later (2003-04) while subbing for Allen who missed 26 games due to injury. Murray turned in 12.4 ppg, 2.5 rpg and 2.5 apg in 82 contests (18 starts) and connected on .425 FG% and .715 FT%.
He spent two more seasons with the Sonics before being traded to the Cavaliers during the 2005-06 campaign, and he scored 13.5 points in 28 games in helping Cleveland reach the playoffs. He recorded his career-best playoff numbers that year, with 8.1 ppg, 3.2 rpg and 1.6 apg.


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Lambda Archives of San Diego Announces New Board Members
Lambda Archives of San Diego has announced the induction of three new members to their Board of Directors. Members Conor Foley, Mary Marchan, and Thomas Negron Jr. were recently elected to the Board at Lambda Archives' Annual Meeting on December 1, 2012.
Conor Foley studies LGBT Studies and English at SDSU and plans to graduate this spring. Foley chose to serve on Lambda Archives' Board of Directors to supplement his pursuit of a Master's in Library and Information Science. He currently works in SDSU Library's Special Collections and University Archives Department, and volunteers at the Hillcrest Youth Center.
In Mary Marchan's own words, "I am a queer woman of color in a local riot grrrl band, Mermaid. I have been involved in several events in and outside of San Diego to educate and mobilize people around issues of social justice, particularly women's issues." Marchan recently completed her Bachelor's in Women's Studies at SDSU this past winter.
Thomas Negron Jr. began working for the LGBT community in the Imperial Valley, where he helped to create the first conference with a focus on LGBTQ Youth in the region. With SDSU's recently established LGBT Major, Negron took the opportunity to move to San Diego and learn more about the history of queer people. Negron currently studies Liberal Studies and LGBT Studies at SDSU.
Maureen Steiner and Mel Merrill continue as President and Treasurer, respectively.
For inquiries related to Board service, contact email@example.com.


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LOWELL -- When City Councilor Marty Lorrey walks the city's neighborhoods to talk to residents, he says they often highlight to him a nearby vacant and blighted property they have concerns about that they would like to see addressed.
A recent example was 603 Chelmsford St. The single-family home has sat empty for years, and neighbors told Lorrey they wanted to see the place boarded up to make sure children don't get inside and that it's not home to crime.
Notices have been issued to the property by the Health and Building Department over the years for minimum maintenance and code violations, but most were returned undelivered, according to city officials. The city is now considering taking the property through tax-title foreclosure and hoping a new owner will purchase the home and fix it up.
To help Lowell officials bolster their ongoing efforts to address such properties so they don't drag down the neighborhoods, Lorrey has filed a motion for Tuesday's meeting calling on City Manager Bernie Lynch to establish a problem-property task force similar to one Boston has.
The task force initiated by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino includes 10 cabinet leaders. Members of the different departments, including Inspectional Services and the Police Department, team up to identify properties with records of code violations and criminal incidents.
A problem property is defined as one that has had a combined four or more calls or complaints made against it in the preceding year to the Police Department for criminal offenses, to Inspectional Services for unsanitary conditions, or complaints to the commission that handles noise issues.
Once identified as a problem property, the city can increase surveillance of the property by the Police Department, increase fines for code violations and seek foreclosure proceedings if the property owner owes back taxes. The city also publicly posts the addresses of the properties online with the names of their owners.
In its first year, Boston's task force investigated 144 properties, and named 18 of them problem properties.
The city's investigative and enforcement efforts resulted in a 55 percent reduction in police calls for service to those addresses, as well as a resolution of a number of sanitary-code and building-code violations, according to the panel's recently released first annual report.
In Lowell, Lorrey said, the task force should include the police chief, fire chief, head of Development Services and possibly a fourth member chosen by the city manager.
Monthly meetings could be held to identify any problem properties according to established guidelines to and discuss enforcement, Lorrey said. He envisions Lowell's task force having just as much success as Boston's has had.
"It gives us a standing team of people to tackle these issues, no matter who is the manager or who is in those positions," Lorrey said. "It also gives us set guidelines, set rules and set penalties.
"If you have even three properties across the city taking up most of the calls, they will be targeted now," he added.
Assistant City Manager Adam Baacke said the city already has a number of efforts under way to address blighted properties to try to minimize their impacts on neighborhoods, including strategies similar to Boston.
Those efforts include Development Services working closely with the Fire Department and Police Department on a regular basis to target properties with fire-safety hazards, potential criminal issues and code-compliance concerns.
The registration and property-management requirements as part of the city's vacant and foreclosing ordinance also allow the city to track such properties and monitor their compliance with code.
But Baacke said Lorrey's motion, if successful, could help the city in the long run with its ongoing efforts.
"Councilor Lorrey's proposed motion may be valuable as a vehicle for institutionalizing the partnerships among the three departments so they are not dependent on the current staff who have worked very collaboratively with one another even without a formal 'task force,'" Baacke wrote in an email.
The city has other tools in place to focus on the most blighted properties, including a receivership program in which courts appoint a party to improve the properties and recover their costs through liens on the properties.
Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee told The Sun his department examines repeat call locations at its bi-weekly meetings to review crime data and develops strategies to deal with the problems.
Follow Moran on Twitter @lylemoran.


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Pau Escalé was was not only an incredible strong ice climber and alpinist but also had the ability with his kind and loving personality to open everyones heart. Pau Escalé was an athlete of the Arc'teryx team and leaves a big gap in the alpine world and in our hearts.
Our deepest sympathy goes out to Pau Escalé's family and friends. Pau, thanks for being our athlete and for everything you did for us. We will miss you a lot.
Pau was born in Spain between the Costa Brava and the Pyrenees, Catalunya in 1979.
Since childhood his parents took him to the mountains and began climbing on ice when he was 20 years old.
When he was 22 years, after an industrial accident, he had 2 surgeries on his left knee and the doctors said that he would not be able to continue climbing. That was the first day Pau really started to climb!
Because of the surgeries Pau currently only ice climbs and mountaineers. He's always in search of the intense feelings climbing brings. His favorite spot is the frágils ice falls in the Alps.
In 2010, Pau had the good fortune of being able to climb two Seracs. Since then his motto is: Alpine climb is Serac! And for the next two winters you will be able to find Pau in Fer a Cheval.


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The quotes community has hundreds of quotes on anxiety, gratitude, depression, and hope. These stress-relief quotes serve to inspire those living with anxiety.
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Lorell Fortress Series Bookcases
34.5" x 13" x 30" - 2 x Shelf(ves) - Putty - Powder Coated - Steel - Recycled
Two-shelf bookcase features fully adjustable shelves for flexible storage solutions. Shelves adjust in 1" increments, and each offers a 200 lb. capacity. The bottom shelf is fixed. Welded steel construction offers a powder-coat finish for durability. Bookcase meets or exceeds ANSI/BIFMA shelf standards.
List $208.00 - 1 EA
General InformationManufacturer: Lorell
Manufacturer Part Number: 41281
Brand Name: Lorell
Product Line: Fortress
Packaged Quantity: 1 Each
Product Type: Bookcase
Physical CharacteristicsColor: Putty
Material: Steel
Height: 30"
Width: 34.5"
Depth: 13"
Product InformationTotal Number of Shelves: 2
Number of Adjustable Shelves: 1
Number of Fixed Shelves: 1
Finishing: Powder Coated
MiscellaneousCertifications & Standards:
Recycled: Yes
Recycled Content: 28%
Post-consumer-waste%: 16%
Assembly Required: Yes
Country of Origin: United States


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I have been a fan of yours since I was 7 yrs old. I found an album of yours in my aunts hope chest when she died. It was Joshua. I listened to that ablum over and over until my mom said enough.. My favorite song was Chicken ever Sunday. I would run around the house singing it. Hoping when I got older I would become a famous singer like you. Well that did not happen..LOL You have been my favorite singer, 2nd was Tammy Wynette. I was so saden when she died.. You and her sang great together. And I love Best little whole house in Texas. Anyways. My son got married last April and they moved to TN. I am going up in April. I told them all I want to do is go to Dollywood. I am so excited to finally get to go. Dolly You have been my idol and I think you are the greatest. I went last year to your comcert here in Jacksonville Florida. I was beside myself. That was my 2nd concert I have been to of yours. Anyways. I hope that you will be in Dollywood on April 8th. My dream is to one day meet you. Just to say hi and to let my family know I finally meet her. I have always told my family that on my death bed You are the one I want to meet. Most people want to meet football stars and other not me Just you. Well I quest I am just rattling. ANyways you are the greatest. Keep it up
Your greatest Fan
Tammi Bowles


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We are glad to be with two projects at PROGETTO CIBO - La forma del gusto by Beppe Finessi, exhibited in the quality MART museum in Rovereto (Trento) - investigating the multiple relations between food and design. Our Slow Wood sandwich and our pasta shaped Avventurina from our last Opuscula Miscellanea are in really good company!
Progetto Cibo is open until the 2nd of June (and all the current exhibitions really worth the visit!). Yummy.


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Welcome to the CRG Discussion Forum!Forum registration problems: Make sure you enter your email correctly and you check your spam box first. *Then* email KurtS2@gmail for help.Classified ads are not allowed on the forum.
Copy this into your browser...This is a set of used of .030 JE piston for sell...http://www.ebay.com/itm/DZ-302-PISTONS-/290772270972?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item43b360bf7c&vxp=mtrEddie
Sealed Pro used to be made by TRW.. but that was long ago..?


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|Jepson Flora Project: Jepson Interchange
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Jepson Interchange (more information)
©Copyright 1993 by the Regents of the University of California
Annual to subshrub
Leaves generally basal and cauline, alternate, generally simple; stipules 0
Inflorescence: generally raceme
Flower bisexual; sepals 4, free; petals (0)4, free, generally white or yellow, often clawed; stamens generally (2,4)6, generally 4 long, 2 short; ovary 1, superior, chambers generally 2, septum membranous, connecting 2 parietal placentas, style 1, stigma simple or 2-lobed
Fruit: generally capsule ("silique") with 2 deciduous valves, sometimes breaking transversely or indehiscent
Seeds 1many per chamber
Genera in family: 300+ genera, 3000+ species: worldwide, especially cool regions; some cultivated for food (especially Brassica, Raphanus ) and ornamental
Recent taxonomic note: Recently treated to include Capparaceae [Rodman et al. 1993 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 80:686699; Rollins 1993 Cruciferae of Continental North America. Stanford Univ Press]
Family description, key to genera by Robert A. Price.
TANSY MUSTARDAnnual, biennial, rarely per; hairs generally minute, generally multibranched, fewer simple, some glandular
Stem branched
Leaves 1many-pinnately lobed to compound; basal often rosetted but withering
Inflorescence elongating; bracts generally 0
Flower: petals < 3 mm, yellow or whitish, blades obovate, obtuse
Fruit linear to ± obovate, straight or uneven-margined, generally ± cylindric; style < 0.8 mm or 0, stigma generally head-like, entire
Seeds: 12 rows per chamber, generally < 1 mm, elliptic, plump, gelatinous when wet; wing 0; embryonic root at back of 1 cotyledon
Species in genus: ± 40 species: worldwide temp
Etymology: (F. Descourain, French botanist, 16581740)
Reference: [Detling 1939 Amer Midl Naturalist 22: 481520]
Relationships, characters of species difficult.
May be TOXIC to livestock.
D. incisa (Engelm.) BrittonAnnual; hairs generally nonglandular
Stem 1, generally branched above, rarely below
Leaves: basal ± 12-pinnately lobed or -compound, 510 cm, obovate, soon withering; cauline reduced, generally simpler upward
Inflorescence elongate; hairs on axes minute, glandular and not
Flower: petals ± 2 mm, spoon-shaped, yellow
Fruit < 1 mm wide, linear to narrowly oblong, generally ± curved, cylindric, glabrous; both ends acute to acuminate; pedicel slender
Seeds: 1 row per chamber
Ecology: Open sites, scrub
Elevation: 10003100 m.
Bioregional distribution: Cascade Range, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, Great Basin Floristic Province
Distribution outside California: to British Columbia, New Mexico
4 subspp. total.
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Retrieve Jepson Interchange Index to Plant Names entry for Descurainia incisa
Retrieve dichotomous key for Descurainia
Overlay Consortium of California Herbaria specimen data by county on this map
Show other taxa with the same California distribution | Read about bioregions | Get lists of plants in a bioregion
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University & Jepson Herbaria Home Page |
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Education | Related Sites
Copyright © by the Regents of the University of California


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Name: Linda Bell
Age: 64
Address: The Buford community
Family: A son, Travis and a grandson, Hunter, 7
Job: Retired elementary school teacher
Church: Pleasant Dale Baptist Church
Hobbies: I enjoy spending time with my grandson, watching Gamecocks football, gardening and exercising
The jet-setting lifestyle came easy for J.T. Franklin. It's no wonder he was smiling.
His grin came from helping estimate, design and oversee the electrical components of facilities like the $143 million Mecklenburg County Courthouse with its 39 courtrooms, the $27 million Billy Graham Library and 44 hospitals from coast to coast.
When it comes to adding variety, flavor and aroma to foods, herbs and spices have been used for centuries.
"Spices were once so costly only the wealthy could afford them. In 11th century Europe, many towns paid their taxes and rent in pepper," said dietitian and educator Alice Henneman, author of "Add a Little Spice (& Herbs) to Your Life!"
While it is a given that spices and herbs both come from for plants, that's where the similarity ends, said Ann Hertzler of Virginia Cooperative Extension Service.
Name: Becky Harper
Age: 44
Address: West Doc Garris Road
Family: Husband, Tim, 45; a son, Joshua Rhyner, 21, a stepdaughter, Meg, 20, and a stepson, Richie, 18
Pets: A rat terrier, Abby; a Chesapeake Bay retriever, Hercules, and a quarter horse, Ruby
Job: Stylist at Mane Street Hair Designers
Church: Second Baptist Church
American diarist and suffragette Ellen Birdseye Wheaton one wrote, "All my scattering moments are taken up with my needle."
Van Wyck seamstress Janie Straight knows that truth first hand.
A self-professed former hippie in 1970s California who has worked as a waitress, journalist, typesetter and sign painter (to name a few), Straight, 56, left the chaotic world of Los Angeles and settled in South Carolina with husband, Dennis, 16 years ago.
Times are pretty lean for a lot of folks right now.
I hate to paint a bad picture, but they're gonna get tougher before we see a turnaround.
The stock market is moving like a roller coaster again.
Some of us older folks have been on this ride before.
We have leadership in Washington, D.C., that is capable of giving folks a leg up, but there are others who condemn them for helping the hurting.
Nancy K. Starnes found this Peach Pound Cake recipe in the S.C. Farmers Market Bulletin. Submitted to the publication by Jackie Blanton of Gaffney, Starnes said the recipe took first place honors at the 2004 Gaffney Peach Festival.
"I thought some readers may enjoy it since some peaches are still available," she said. "I've made this cake two times and it is simply delicious. It makes a large pound cake and is worth every bit of the trouble."
Peach Pound Cake
– Editor's note: Mr. Evans is taking a well-deserved break this week. Due to reader response, we are reprinting this Remember When column, which was originally published in the July 26, 2009, edition of The Lancaster News. It is especially timely with the Lancaster County Fair opening Tuesday.
They called it a carnival. For me, it was more or less a county fair wannabe.
This small outfit popped into town during the lull of my summer vacation.
Name: Yvonne Hodge
Age: 36
Address: Logging Road
Family: Husband, Tommy, 41; children, Shakina, 20, Samantha, 18, and Justin, 18
Pets: Four dogs, Caramel, Coco, Eight Ball and Sasha
Job: Accounts manager at The Children's Clinic, P.A.
Church: Sandhill Baptist Church
Bless Pete, the whole house was shaking. No, I'm not referring to the recent earthquake that one of the Buford fellas compared to a washing machine that was acting up.
It was indeed my granddaughter's clothes washer acting up.
Now, it's safe to say there was some small measure of a family disagreement as to when a new washer would be ordered.
I was smart enough to stay out of it. That kind of "ain't got no dog in this fight" wisdom comes with age.
A new pair of shoes for a child may last a school year, but a smile, a few words of encouragement and the words, "Jesus loves you," may just last a lifetime.
That is exactly why volunteers from Renew Church, Covenant Baptist Church and Team Church Kershaw joined hands and hearts to distribute shoes to local children in need.
Name: Joe Poston
Age: 49
Address: Rock Springs Road
Family: Wife, Teague
Pets: Two dogs, Emerson and Moose
Job: Restaurant manager (Grinders)
Church: First Methodist Church
Hobbies: Traveling and riding motorcycles
Favorite books: Mostly history and non-fiction
Sir Thomas Lipton had been dead for almost 20 years when a dry onion soup mix bearing his name hit the markets.
But just like the tea business he had perfected, it was an instant success, especially among the working class the Scottish-born entrepreneur dearly loved.
A marketing genius, a 17-year-old Lipton came to the United States from Scotland in 1864, just as the Civil War was ending, said Michael D'Antonio, author of "A Full Cup: Sir Thomas Lipton's Extraordinary Life and His Quest for the America's Cup."
HEATH SPRINGS – There's a little piece of Lancaster in Tena, Ecuador, right now.
If you don't believe it, just ask someone from Flint Ridge Baptist Church. That piece is there, all right – on the edge of the Amazon rain forest, and it's there to stay.
That little piece of Lancaster?
It's their hearts. They were left behind in a Bible that Peter Wing left with a 10-year-old boy named Jimmy after the two became friends.
Kids have tough times too, but this year, Mother Nature sure has been giving us older folks a run for our money.
In April, it was a hailstorm. In the last two weeks, it was an earthquake and right of top of that, a hurricane.
Since I'm in Maryland visiting kin right now, I had the honor of experiencing all three.
You know, I just have a knack for bein' at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Name: Kaye Hoffman
Age: 55
Address: Knotthead Road
Family: A son, Weston, 14, and various foster children
Pets: Too many!
Job: Mental health specialist
Church: Heartland Freewill Baptist Church
Hobbies: Animal rescue
Favorite book: The Bible
Seventy-six-year-old Ruthie Hayden believes in the power of prayer.
When the Northwest Apartments resident hits her knees these days, it's to lift up her neighbors, and not to duck from random gunfire that used to be heard outside her front door.
"When you put enough prayer on 'em, they have to either start living right or get out," she said. "That's the only choices they have. They're going to live right if they live here."
For many, Labor Day signals the last great grilling get-together of the summer months.
According to the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association, almost 44 percent of Americans shut down their grills after Labor Day and all but quit cooking outdoors during the fall and winter months.
The last grilling hurrah can also be used as a learning experience when it comes to cooking in the great outdoors.
A visit to see what was growing at Uncle Perry Scott's farm in Winnsboro was a big change compared to our Victory Garden.
Everybody there had red clay beneath their fingernails, with farms all over the place.
However, there's not as many people plowing right now. Uncle Perry said most of the local boys are wearing military uniforms and fighting in foreign fields.
A friend of Uncle Perry had this big old farm, which supplied bunches of vegetables to the Fort Jackson Army base.
A new school year means many new things to consider and choices to make for your child.
One of these choices is what extracurricular activities to sign your child up for.
Scouting is something that may spark and interest in both you and your child and may be just what you are looking for.
Scouting is an affordable activity for most families, with the cost to sign up being just $12 for Girl Scouts and $15 for Boy Scouts.
Copyright © 2019
The Lancaster News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Lancaster County and Lancaster, South Carolina, and the surrounding area..


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Related Links
- Stormwater Main Page
- Map of Ongoing Construction Projects
- Construction Compliance Evaluation Plan
- Stormwater Pollution Prevention Bulletins
- Stormwater Pollution Prevention Training Courses
- Construction Storm Water Coordinators [docx]
- Permit Enforcement Response Consultant Contract
Additional Links
- Stormwater Quality Handbook Project Planning and Design Guide
- Environmental Stormwater Management Program
- State Water Resources Control Board Caltrans Program
- State Water Resources Control Board Water Quality
- California Stormwater Quality Association
- CSUS Office of Water Programs Stormwater
- International Erosion Control Association
- Certified Laboratory Lists
Stormwater Quality Manuals and Handbooks
About Construction Site Best Management Practices (BMPs) Manual and SWPPP/WPCP Manuals
"The Construction Site Best Management Practices (BMPs) Manual" and the "Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and Water Pollution Control Program (WPCP) Preparation Manual" incorporate the requirements of the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit, Statewide Stormwater Permit and Waste Discharge Requirements for the State of California, Department of Transportation (Order No. 2012-0011 -DWQ, NPDES No. CAS000003) and the NPDES General Permit, Waste Discharge Requirements for Discharges of Stormwater Runoff Associated with Construction Activity" (Order 2009-0009-DWQ, NPDES No. CAS000002).
Construction Site Monitoring Program Guidance Manual August 2013 [pdf]
Description: This manual presents guidance for Caltrans staff and contractors to use in the planning and implementation of stormwater monitoring programs at construction sites, in compliance with:
- Construction General Permit, Order No. 2009-0009-DWQ, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit No. CAS000002.
- Caltrans Stormwater permit, Order No. 2012-0011 -DWQ, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit No. CAS000003.
This manual also contains Construction Site Monitoring Program (CSMP) requirements based on:
- Caltrans Statewide Stormwater Management Plan (SWMP), (Caltrans, 2016).
- Caltrans Standard Specification.
- Caltrans Standard Special Provisions.
This manual is designed and organized to provide descriptions of the processes used to plan and implement a successful water quality monitoring program specific to runoff from construction sites and complements Caltrans' Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and Water Pollution Control Program (WPCP) Preparation Manual (Caltrans, 2011), particularly the Caltrans SWPPP Template. This manual should be used to complete SWPPP template Section 700 CSMP based on project specific information.
Standard Operating Procedures for Turbidity, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, and Conductivity January 2012 [pdf]
Description: These Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) provide for the uniform execution of field measurements of turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen and conductivity , ensuring that every person who performs the tasks does it the same every time it is performed. These SOPs provide all the required details necessary to perform a given procedure and are intended to be followed without deviation.
Summary of Changes - Revision of SWPPP & WPCP Preparation Manual, SWPPP and WPCP Templates, May 2012 [pdf]
Description: This technical memorandum summarizes the changes that were made and provides detailed section by section comparison of the 2007 version of the SWPPP/WPCP Preparation Manual, SWPPP template, and WPCP template to the 2011 version of the manual and templates.
Preparation Manual March 2011 [pdf]
Description: This document guides Contractors and Caltrans staff through the process of preparing a SWPPP and WPCP. The SWPPP and WPCP Manual provides detailed step-by-step procedures, instructions, examples and a template that contractors shall use to prepare the SWPPP/WPCP. The SWPPP/WPCP is a document that must assess the site conditions, sources of sediment and other pollutants in Stormwater and non-Stormwater discharges, identify the BMPs that will best suit the construction activities and meet Caltrans and the Clean Water Act pollution control objectives.
Construction Site BMP Manual May 2017 [pdf]
Description: This manual provides instructions for the selection and implementation of construction site BMPs. Caltrans requires contractors to identify and utilize these BMPs in the preparation of their SWPPP or WPCP. Construction site BMPs are best conventional technology/best available technology BCT/BAT)-based BMPs that are consistent with the BMPs and control practices required under the Clean Water Act.
Updated NS-2 Dewatering Operations BMP Fact Sheet [pdf]
Updated WM-8 Concrete Waste Management BMP Fact Sheet [pdf]
SWPPP/WPCP Review Guidance Manual [pdf]
Description: This document is a tool for Resident Engineers and those who are responsible for the review and approval of the SWPPPs & WPCPs submitted by the Contractors. This Manual includes checklists that identify all relevant reference materials that are necessary for a detailed and comprehensive review and outline a step-by-step systematic review process to assure that all crucial project specific elements of a SWPPP or WPCP are adequately addressed. The checklists are prepared to complement the SWPPP/WPCP Preparation Manual March 2003.
Construction Site Stormwater Quality Sampling Guidance Manual [pdf]
Description: This guidance manual provides information on how to design and evaluate a construction site water quality sampling plan to comply with Caltrans and the General Construction Permit requirements. Included in this guidance manual are model sediment/siltation or turbidity and a non-visible pollutant sampling andanalysis plans.
11x17 Non-Visible WPCDs [pdf]
11x17 Sediment WPCDs [pdf]
Stormwater Management Enforcement Guidance Manual [pdf]
Stormwater Management Enforcement Guidance Manual Appendices
Description: This manual is a resource for construction staff on the applicable contract requirements, laws, regulations, and permits applicable to Stormwaterpollution. Additionally, the manual identifies effective methods for enforcing Stormwater requirements applicable to contractors.
Construction Stormwater Coordinators (DCSWC) Manual [December 2017] [pdf]
Description: This Guidance Manual summarizes the responsibilities of the District Construction Stormwater Coordinator (CSWC) as defined in the Caltrans Construction Manual and the Caltrans Statewide Stormwater Management Plan (SWMP), and as identified by Headquarters and District CSWC staff throughout the state. The Guidance Manual also provides copies of referenced forms, useful samples of working documents, andsuggestions for the CSWC to facilitate the implementation of the statewide and District-specific responsibilities for water pollution control.
Guidance for Temporary Soil Stabilization [pdf]
Description: The main purpose of this Guidance for Temporary Soil Stabilization document is to help direct the planning, selection, and implementation of Caltrans-approved temporary soil stabilization Best Management Practices (BMPS). The document also identifies solutions to common soil stabilization problems experienced on the Caltrans right of way.
BMP Field Manual and Troubleshooting Guide 8 1/2 X 11" version [pdf]
BMP Field Manual and Troubleshooting Guide 5 1/2 X 8 1/2" pocket version [pdf]
Description: The Caltrans Construction Best Management Practices (BMPs) Field Manual and Troubleshooting Guide provides guidance for installing, maintaining and troubleshooting water pollution control BMPs. This guide discusses each BMP regarding appropriate applications and key points for installation, limitations, inspection and maintenance. Preventive measures and troubleshooting problems are also discussed for each BMP.
Field Guide to Construction Site Dewatering [pdf],June 2014
Description: This Field Guide provides Caltrans Resident Engineers and appropriate field staff with the information necessary to manage dewatering operations on construction sites to maintain compliance with Federal and State water quality protection regulations.
To view the list of publications available for sale go to http://caltrans-opac.ca.gov/publicat.htm
Copies of the these manuals are also available from Caltrans Publications Distribution Unit. Publications staff can be reached at: (916) 323-5606, (916) 445-3520 or by fax at: (916) 324-8997. Or California Department of Transportation Publication Distribution Unit 1900 Royal Oaks Drive Sacramento, CA 95815-3800


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