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Gambling has been present in our history for a long time, stretching back to the Paleolithic period. Gambling plays an important part in human history and was also banned in many countries at different times.
Today, gambling is omnipresent and everyone indulges in it, if not many times, then at least once in their lifetimes. Given how bookmakers and local casinos and small-time joints are everywhere to be found, it has become ever so easy to buy a ticket and wait for your match/draw.
Likewise, the internet has found its way to almost every human and therefore, even bookmakers and online casinos. New websites for betting are coming into play all the time, the newest one being the FanDuel Sportsbook so it's important to read reviews and search for people's experiences online.
Making a list of sites to avoid would take a lot of time and effort. Therefore, here are a couple of sites that you can trust with your money:
· Betway
Betway was established in 2006 and has been a trustworthy online gambling site since. They offer everything from sports and e-sports betting to casino games and poker. You can play it all and enjoy knowing that you are safe, as well as your money. You have to be of a legal gambling age, whichever that might be in your country. US residents can also play, provided that they are of legal gambling age. Many transfer options are available, including VISA cards and PayPal.
· Bet365
Bet365 is even older than the site above, dating its origin back to the year 2000. At that time, few people had access to the internet, let alone trusted the online scheme. Years after, however, people have become used to the internet and the fact that you can do everything online, even gamble. This site offers as much, casino games, poker, sports betting and e-sports betting, as well. Its long-standing presence online is only reinforced by the fact that they became better through the years. This site is as safe as they can get, so you can gamble with peace of mind.
· JackpotCity
Speaking of old and forever present sites, JackpotCity takes the lead, but by two years only, dating as far back as 1998. They offered the lights and glamor of Vegas back then and that offer still stands, albeit updated to today's standards. Over 500 casino games are available to you, including various promotions and jackpots. As for banking options, the widespread Visa, Maestro and Mastercard options are available. The payments and withdrawals are very fast as well as safe.
· Spin Palace
This list seems to include only the elderly sites and Spin Palace is no different, dating back to 2001. As its name suggests, you will encounter some slot games on this site but that is just the tip of the iceberg. More than 600 slot games, table and card games are available to you. They update their list of games frequently, adding more or improving the ones already there. Various banking methods are available to you, from Visa and Visa Electron, Mastercard and Maestro to Skrill and Net Teller.
These sites will save you money by helping you avoid the many scam and untrusted sites. Gambling, however, requires you to place your money, usually against the odds. Be responsible, even though you know which online casinos and bookmakers to trust.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Zambezi's (year 6) broadcast this week is themed around light and the eye. The students also talk about King Kong, the new London Mayor and the EU Referendum.
Listen in to hear their advice on taking SATS Tests and hear the News of the Week. Finally, can you guess what the Mystery Sound is this week? Last but not least Ms Fisher talks about her favourite artist.
If you want to know more about the mystery sound, follow this link:
Featured music this week:
School's Out by Alice Cooper
No Regrets by Robbie Williams
Mystery by Boxed In


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Letters ordered between October 31st and December 13th, 2019, are shipped to and processed by the United States Postal Service at the legendary North Pole Post Office in Alaska where they are postmarked with the coveted North Pole postmark. After December 13th, Santa's letters receive a festive holiday postmark from a local post office.
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It's true that many people are looking for ways to add income diversity to their households. This makes sense, now that the current climate has made it clear that relying on a day job for all of your income could prove dangerous to your finances. One of the ways that you can increase your income diversity is to build a dividend portfolio.
Dividend paying stocks provide regular income, since a portion of company profits are paid out to shareholders. This payout is an extra infusion of cash to shareholders, and is based on the number of shares held. The more shares you hold, the higher your payout. It's true that many dividend payouts are fairly small, and made on a quarterly basis. It's not uncommon to see a quarterly dividend payout of $0.20 a share. So, if you have 50 shares, you end up with $10 each quarter — or $40 a year. That's not exactly a large amount of income. However, building an income portfolio dividend stocks isn't about making one purchase.
Building Your Dividend Income Portfolio
One of the problems with investing is that many people have unrealistic expectations about what their returns. Building an income portfolio is the work of years. It can take seven to 10 years — or more — to build up your income portfolio. It's about planning ahead. Here are two tips that can help you build up your dividend income portfolio:
- Consistent investments: Dollar-cost averaging is one of the most effect investing tool for most "regular" folks. Consistently invest in your dividend portfolio, buying shares each month. You can even buy partial shares. Over time, you can build the portfolio up to the point where you have more shares. Over the course of eight or nine years, it is quite possible that you could amass a significant number of shares. And, if the dividends are raised consistently, you could end with a decent payout each quarter.
- DRIPs: Another option to help boost your ability to build your portfolio is to make use of DRIPs. Many dividend paying stocks offer these plans, which automatically take your payout and use it to buy more shares. It's basically like receiving shares for free. These are added to your portfolio, helping you build up faster. During the building phase of your dividend income portfolio, DRIPs can be very helpful.
You do need to be careful, though. Remember that there is always the risk of loss when you invest. You could lose your capital. It's also important to understand that companies can cut dividends when they wish — or stop paying them altogether. However, companies with a strong history of paying dividends are unlikely to cut or eliminate dividends unless something serious happens in the markets, or to the company.
Dividend paying stocks are not a fast way to riches. Additionally, you might not even build up enough to completely replace your income with dividend income. However, it is possible to add a little to your cash flow, and build up to the point where you can receive passive income from dividend paying stocks.


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Channel 4 has axed Fern Britton's teatime chat show after just one series.
The series was Fern's first effort since she quit This Morning which became famous for her giggly relationship with co-presenter Phil Schofield.
But the new show never achieved the hoped-for viewing figures and failed to compete with the 1.2 million enjoyed by Australian soap Neighbours on Channel 5.
The show's end was welcomed by TV Repair Man, the shadowy organisation pledged to ridding the daytime schedules of repetitive makeover and quiz shows and the end of "reality TV."
A communiqué emailed to EIF News & Features said: "TV Repair Man welcomes the closure of Ms Britton's chat show Fern.
"This organisation could discern no requirement for a further daytime programme featuring banal questions posed to celebrities with a show or book or record to promote.
"We made our concerns known to the producers and we are pleased they have chosen not to provoke TV Repair Man into direct action.
"However, suggestions that C4 may be in talks with soi-disant comedian Frankie Boyle are disturbing. TV Repair Man warns that Boyle will not be a welcome addition to the schedules."


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Hajj and Umrah (E-Visa)
The Saudi Arabia government has decided to provide E-Visa facility to Pakistani pilgrims those who willing to perform Hajj and Umrah in the current year read more
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50 Downloads
Updated 04 Jan 2016View Version History
MatScat is a MATLAB package which contains different solutions for the
scattering of electromagnetic radiation by a sphere (Mie theory) or an
infinite circular cylinder. Most of the code has been developed during my PhD
work [3]. The multiple cylinder near field solution has been implemented
afterwards and has been presented in a seperate publication [4].
Make sure that the root folder and the folders '/bessel', '/expcoeff' and
'/util' are in the Matlab-Path. The files in '/test' can be run to check if
everything works fine.
The functions to start the calculation can be found in the root folder.
These are:
calccyl.m - calculate the far field solution for a single (stratified) cylinder
calccyl_nf.m - calculate the near field solution for a single (stratified) cylinder
calccyl_multi.m - calculate the far field solution for multiple cylinders
calccyl_multi_nf.m - calculate the near field solution for multiple cylinders
calcmie.m - calculate the far field solution for a single (stratified) sphere
calcmie_nf.m - calculate the near field solution for a single (stratified) sphere
If you use these functions in your research work please cite my work [3,4].
Please also cite the theoretical work underlying my implementation which is:
calccyl, calccyl_nf, calcmie and calcmie_nf are implemented based on [1].
calccyl_multi and calccyl_multi_nf are implemented based on [2,4].
The stratified cylinder/sphere solution is implemented based on [1,5].
[1] Bohren, C. F. and Huffman, D. R., Absorption and scattering of light by
small particles, Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1998.
[2] Lee, S.-C., Dependent scattering of an obliquely incident plane wave by a
collection of parallel cylinders. J. Appl. Phys. 68(10), 1990.
[3] Schäfer, J.-P.,Implementierung und Anwendung analytischer und numerischer
Verfahren zur Lösung der Maxwellgleichungen für die Untersuchung der
Lichtausbreitung in biologischem Gewebe, PhD thesis, Univerität Ulm, 2011,
[4] Schäfer, J. and Lee, S.-C. and Kienle, A,, Calculation of the near
fields for the scattering of electromagnetic waves by multiple infinite
cylinders at perpendicular incidence, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Trans.
113(16), 2012.
[5] Kerker, M., The scattering of light and other electromagnetic
radiation, Academic Press, 1969
If you have questions or remarks about the MatScat package or if you find any
bugs in the code please send an email to jan.schaefer(at)maxwellsolutions.de.
Take a look at my website at http://www.maxwellsolutions.de.
Have fun!
Copyright 2012 Jan Schäfer, Institut für Lasertechnologien (ILM)
Author: Jan Schäfer (jan.patrick.schaefer(at)gmail.com)
Organization: Institut für Lasertechnologien in der Medizin und Meßtechnik an
der Universität Ulm (http://www.ilm-ulm.de)
Jan Schäfer (2020). MatScat (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/36831-matscat), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .
Thank you for sharing this code with us.
The codes in asmcyl.m should change. The present form in v 1.4 is this;
C.sca(1) = 4/k*(abs(bnp(1)).^2 + 2*sum(abs(bnp(2:end)).^2));
C.sca(2) = 4/k*(abs(ann(1)).^2 + 2*sum(abs(ann(2:end)).^2));
it should be like this:
C.sca(1) = 4/k*(abs(bnp(1)).^2 + 2*sum(abs(bnp(2:end)).^2+abs(anp(2:end)).^2));
C.sca(2) = 4/k*(abs(ann(1)).^2 + 2*sum(abs(ann(2:end)).^2+abs(bnn(2:end)).^2));
Dear Jan Schäfer, thank you for your excellent work and it helps a lot in my graduation project. However, I found there is a small mistake in the calculation of scattering coefficient a extinction coefficient. in the file 'assmie.m'. The error happens on the 44th and 45th row, where the corrected code should be 'C.ext = 2/x^2*sum(n2.*real(an + bn));' and 'C.sca = 2/x^2*sum(n2.*(abs(an).^2 + abs(bn).^2));'. And don't forget to import variable x given by 'x=k*r' in 'calcmie.m' into 'asmmie.m' before running the modified code. I modified the code on my PC and verified the result by comparing the one given by online mie theory calculator found on 'https://omlc.org/calc/mie_calc.html' and the result can match with the modification aforementioned applied.
Best regards!
Thank you. It's a great help to me.This code is very interesting.
Dear Dr. Schäfer, thanks for sharing your code in the public domain. With its clarity, simplicity, it helps me a lot understanding the Mie code! Well done!
However I got a problem in understanding the near-field enhancement result. By executing the file test_calcmie_nf.m, I got the Poynting amplitude (intensity) in the x-y plain, for lamda = 800nm and R_np = 50 nm. By normalizing the intensity to the incident intensity, which I calculated from the formula E0^2*n_m/Z0=3.53e-3. Here, E0 is the incident E-field in x polarization direction, n_m is the refractive index in water and Z0 is the wave impedance in vacuum. After doing so, I have a maximum near-field enhancement about 1.3, which is far below the value of 20 calculated from this source: Tejerina et.al. (2014), "Nanosphere Optics Lab Field Simulator,"https://nanohub.org/resources/nsoptics3D, DOI: 10.4231/D3FF3M064. I'm thinking where comes the discrepancy... I check the codes. Everything seems O.K.
Looking forward to your reply.
Uni Luebeck
an excellent working, thanks very much!
This is absolutely a 5 star work!
I haven't used it yet , but the code style is really fascinating!
This help me a lot in my research. Thank you very much.
My apologies, I had a mistake in my code! Please ignore my comment in August 2014, the bessel functions are properly calculated.
It seems to be a bug in expcoeff_mie( x, m, conv ) using Octave
x = 0.0010000
xix =
Columns 1 through 3:
3.3333e-07 - 1.0000e+03i 2.6645e-10 - 3.0000e+06i
the second order differs from wolfram alpha SphericalHankelH1[2, 0.001]*0.001 = 6.66667 × 10^-11 -3.00000 × 10^6 i
Hi Jan,
I´m a student and I´m using your programmes. They´re fantastics! I have one question: I´m plotting the maps of the near field for a single sphere, and I want to plot not the total |E| but |E|/|Eincoming|. I can´t find the value of Eincoming in the programmes, if you can help me...
Thank you for your attention!
Can anybody explain this? (in test_calcmie). What is fctr?
%% Differential scattering cross sections
fctr = 2/pi/C.k;
dCsdOp = fctr*squeeze(abs(S(1,1,:).^2)); % parallel
dCsdOn = fctr*squeeze(abs(S(2,2,:).^2)); % perpendicular
dCsdO = 0.5*(dCsdOp + dCsdOn); % unpolarized
I believe the derivatives of the Ricatti-Bessel functions are implemented incorrectly. When differentiating by parts, the sqrt(pi/(2x)) term on the spherical bessel functions is left out when dbesselj is called.
I downloaded and extract this code and when I tried to run the tests from the test directory, I have got the following messages:
>> test_calccyl
Undefined function 'dbesselj' for input arguments of type 'double'.
Error in expcoeff_cyl (line 47)
djneta = dbesselj(n, eta);
Error in calccyl (line 91)
[anp, ann, bnp, bnn] = expcoeff_cyl(x, m, zeta, 1, conv);
Error in test_calccyl (line 30)
[T, C, ang] = calccyl(dia/2., ns, nm, lambda, nang, zeta);
>> test_calccyl_multi
Undefined function 'dbesselj' for input arguments of type 'double'.
Error in expcoeff_cyl (line 47)
djneta = dbesselj(n, eta);
Error in calccyl (line 91)
[anp, ann, bnp, bnn] = expcoeff_cyl(x, m, zeta, 1, conv);
Error in test_calccyl_multi (line 25)
[ Ts, Cs, angs ] = calccyl( dia/2., ns, nm, lambda, nang);
Undefined function 'calccyl_nf' for input arguments of type 'double'.
Error in test_calccyl_nf (line 45)
[Ep, En, Hp, Hn, Sp, Sn, T, C, ang] = calccyl_nf(dia/2., ns, nm, ...
>> test_calccyl_nf_multi
Undefined function 'calccyl_nf' for input arguments of type 'double'.
Error in test_calccyl_nf_multi (line 53)
[ Ep1, En1, Hp1, Hn1, Sp1, Sn1, T1, C1, ang1] = calccyl_nf( dia/2., ...
>> test_calcmie
Undefined function 'calcmie' for input arguments of type 'double'.
Error in test_calcmie (line 30)
[S, C, ang] = calcmie(rad, ns, nm, lambda, nang, ...
>> test_calcmie_nf
Undefined function 'calcmie_nf' for input arguments of type 'double'.
Error in test_calcmie_nf (line 49)
[E, H, P, S, C, ang] = calcmie_nf(dia/2., ns, nm, ...
Is anything that I have to update?
Thank you for the submission. While I don't want go through the theory behind I want to make myselft sure about the interpretation of the results for the near field solution. Light is incident upon the particle from the z direction, the particle is placed in [0,0,0], right?
So if I want to obtain solution of the Efield in the plane behind the sphere with radius 25um, I have to set all values of zf to 25 um (file test_calcmie_nf.m). Is this correct?
Thank you in advance.
Inspired: to generate 16 combination of 1 and -1, Mie Electric Field Simulation for Spheres, IMPLEMENTATION OF FIXED POINT THEORY ON IMAGE INTEGRITY AUTHENTICATION, verify_magic( A )
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Melissa Schroeder's 10th Aniv Blog Hop
In celebration of Melissa's 10th Anniversary of the Harmless series, she's re-releasing A Little Harmless Sex. This book started the series, but has a new cover. Very sexy, yes? Congrats, Mel, on your 10th anniversary of sexy "Harmless" reads! (Click … Continue reading
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Hops, Guest blogs, #prizes and a review!
Today I'm the in-house Guest Chef on PetitFoursAndHotTamales with a snippet from a brand new 4-star review for A SUITABLE WIFE by Angie Just Read… (reviewer) @ TRR And tomorrow starts the Summer Reads Blog Hop that runs July 17th … Continue reading
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If you speak in a fun, happy way, he will know you are talking about a game or a walk. If you speak to him with a growl in your tone of voice, he will realize that you are not happy with him. If you growl a "No!" at him, he will associate your displeasure with what he is doing at the time. He won't get it right away, which is why you have to be consistent and "No!" him every time he repeats that behavior. He will eventually quit the behavior because he doesn't want to make you cross with him.
Do you understand your dog's body language? What is he trying to tell you?
When he drops to his elbows, with bottom in the air and tail waving like a flag in the breeze, his body language is saying "let's play." If you get down and adopt the same position, he will know what you mean too!
When a dog wags its tail, does it always mean it's happy? Actually, no; he might be overwhelmed and unsure of how he should act.
When your dog puts his ears back, flat to his head, is he going to attack you? No, but he may be unsure or scared.
You will learn lots about your dog and his "language" just by watching him and being tuned in to what he is doing.
Why is it so important to be the leader of the pack?
Dogs have descended from wolves, and wolves live in packs. Even though the dog has been domesticated for 15,000 years, they still carry much of their wild ancestors' ways.
So the dog is a pack animal, with an inbuilt sense of the complicated pack hierarchy that has been passed down as a result of numerous generations. There may be only a single leader in a pack, and only the very strong would dare to challenge his authority.
The leader of the pack always eats first, and the others eat in turn according to their level in the pack. The pack leader decides where the pack will travel, where they will sleep and what they will attack for food. He quickly puts all other dogs in their place, which is downline from him.
Does this help you see why you must the top dog in your pack? Even if your pack is just you and him, you have to be the pack leader; otherwise he will think he has to lead you. He will try to put you in your place – under him.
How do you establish your place as the leader of the pack?
There are a number of strategies you can use, but here are a few:
Make eye contact with the dog and hold his gaze. Make him be the first to look away.
Don't allow the dog to rush through a doorway ahead of you. Make him wait until all humans have gone through first.
Make sure you win games like tug. These are games of strength to a dog, and so the pack leader must win.
When your dog sits beside you, don't allow his feet to be in front of yours. This is a subtle indication that he thinks he is top dog.
With a strong-willed or assertive dog, you may have to constantly reinforce your leadership, as he may want to keep challenging your authority. Be firm but not rough. You want your dog to respect you, not fear you.


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Soccer Betting Glossary A-H
Advantage rule: a clause in the rules that directs the referee to refrain from stopping play for a foul if a stoppage would benefit the team that committed the violation.
Advantages: situations where a team has possession of the ball and outnumbers the opposition near the opposing goal.
American football: a term used by non-Americans to distinguish the popular U.S. sport of football from soccer which they also call football.
APSL: American Professional Soccer League — the nation's only outdoor professional soccer league since 1991, consisting of 8 teams in the U.S. and Canada (expanding to 12 by 1995).
Assist: the pass or passes which immediately precede a goal; a maximum of two assists can be credited for one goal.
Attacking midfielder: the most forward-playing midfielder, playing right behind the forwards; he supports the offense by providing passes to forwards to set up goals.
Attacker: any player on the team that has possession of the ball.
Attacking team: the team that has possession of the ball.
AYSO: American Youth Soccer Organization — an administrative body of youth soccer which sets rules and provides information and equipment to youth league referees, coaches and players.
Back: a defender.
Back header: a player's use of his head to direct the ball backwards.
Back tackle: an attempt by a defender to take the ball away from a ball carrier by swinging the defender's leg in front of the ball from behind.
Ball carrier: a player that has possession of the ball.
Banana kick: a type of kick that gives the ball a curved trajectory; used to get the ball around an obstacle such as a goaltender or defender.
Beat: to get the ball through or around an opponent by dribbling or shooting.
Behind the defender: the area between a defender and his goal.
Bicycle kick: when a player kicks the ball in mid-air backwards and over his own head, usually making contact above waist level; an acrobatic shot.
Break: when a team quickly advances the ball down the field in an attempt to get its players near the opponent's goal before the defenders have a chance to retreat; also called an advantage.
Breakaway: when an attacker with the ball approaches the goal undefended; this exciting play pits a sole attacker against the goalkeeper in a one-on-one showdown.
Bundesliga: The German professional soccer league.
Cap: a recognition earned by a player for each appearance in an international game for his country.
Carrying the ball: a foul called on a goalkeeper when he takes more than 4 steps while holding or bouncing the ball.
Caution: see Yellow card.
Center: a pass from a player located near the sideline towards the middle of the field; used to get the ball closer to the front of the goal; also called a cross.
Center circle: a circular marking with a 10-yard radius in the center of the field from which kickoffs are taken to start or restart the game.
Center line: see Midfield line.
Center spot: a small circular mark inside the center circle that denotes the center of the field from which kickoffs are taken to start or restart the game.
Central defender: a player who guards the area directly in front of his own goal in a zone defense; does not exist in a man-to-man defense.
Charge: to run into an opponent; legal if done from the front or side of the ball carrier; illegal against a player without the ball or from behind.
Chest trap: when a player uses his chest to slow down and control a ball in the air.
Chip pass: a pass lofted into the air from a player to a teammate; used primarily to evade a defender by kicking the ball over his head.
Chip shot: a kick lofted into the air to try to sail the ball over the goalkeeper's head and still make it under the crossbar into the goal.
Clear: to kick the ball away from one's goal.
Cleats: the metal, plastic or rubber points in the bottom of a soccer shoe used to provide a player with traction; term also used to refer to the shoes themselves.
Club: a team that plays in a league.
CONCACAF: The Confederation Norte-Centroamericana y Del Caribe de Footbal — the regional organization of North American and Central American soccer under which World Cup qualifying matches are played; member countries include the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Central American and Caribbean countries.
Consolation match: a tournament game played between the losers of the 2 semifinal matches to determine the third-place team.
Corner arc: a quarter-circle with a radius of 1 yard located at each of the 4 corners of the field; on a corner kick, the ball must be kicked from inside this arc.
Corner area: see Corner arc.
Corner flag: the flag located at each of the 4 corners of the field, inside the corner area.
Corner kick: a type of restart where the ball is kicked from the corner arc in an attempt to score; awarded to an attacking team when the ball crosses the goal line last touched by the defending team.
Counterattack: an attack launched by a defending team soon after it regains possession of the ball.
Creating space: when a player from the attacking team moves without the ball to draw defenders away from the ball carrier and give him space.
Cross or crossing pass: a pass from an attacking player near the sideline to a teammate in the middle or opposite side of the field; used to give the teammate a good scoring opportunity.
Crossbar: the horizontal beam that forms the top of a goal and sits on top of the two posts; it is 24 feet long and supported 8 feet above the ground.
Cut down the angle: when the goalie comes out of the goal several feet to make himself closer and larger to an attacker, leaving the attacker less net to shoot at.
Cut off: when a defensive player keeps his body between an attacker and the defender's goal, forcing the attacker out towards the sidelines.
Dangerous play: when a player attempts a play that the referee considers dangerous to that player or others, such as trying to kick the ball out of the goalie's hands, even if no contact is made.
Defenders: the players on the team that does not have possession of the ball.
Defending team: the team that does not have possession of the ball.
Defense: a team's function of preventing the opposition from scoring.
Defensemen: the 3 or 4 players on a team whose primary task is to stop the opposition from scoring; also called fullbacks.
Defensive midfielder: the player positioned just in front of his team's defense; he is often assigned to mark the opposition's best offensive player; also called the midfield anchor.
Defensive pressure: when one or more defenders closely mark a ball carrier to harass him into losing the ball.
Deflection: the ricochet of a ball after it hits a player.
Direct free kick: a kick awarded to a player for a serious foul committed by the opposition; the player kicks a stationary ball with no opposing players within 10 yards of him; a goal can be scored directly from this kick without the ball touching another player.
Diving header: a ball struck near ground level by the head of a diving player.
Draw: a game that ends with a tied score.
The Draw: the selection of World Cup teams to place them into playing groups for the tournament and the event surrounding this selection.
Dribbler: a player who advances the ball while controlling it with his feet.
Dribbling: the basic skill of advancing the ball with the feet while controlling it.
Drop ball: a method of restarting a game where the referee drops the ball between 2 players facing each other.
Drop kick: when a goalie drops the ball from his hands and kicks it just after it hits the ground.
Endline: see Goal line.
English Football Association: an association of English soccer teams founded in 1863 to set soccer rules.
European Cup: the championship tournament played between Europe's top national teams.
F.A.: Football Association; often used to refer to the English Football Association, who, along with FIFA and other football associations, helps maintain the rules of soccer.
Fake or feint: a move by a player meant to deceive an opposing player; used by a ball carrier to make a defender think the ball carrier is going to dribble, pass or shoot in a certain direction when he is not.
Far post: the goalpost furthest from the ball.
Field: the rectangular area where soccer matches are played.
FIFA: Federation Internationale de Football Association — the official governing body of international soccer since 1904 which established the World Cup tournament; helps set and revise rules of the game, called the 17 Laws.
FIFA World Cup: a solid gold statue given to the champion of each World Cup tournament to keep for the next 4 years.
Flick header: a player's use of his head to deflect the ball.
Foot trap: a player's use of his foot to control a rolling or low-bouncing ball.
Football: name for soccer everywhere except in the U.S.; also, what American's call their popular team sport which evolved from soccer and rugby.
Formation: the arrangement into positions of players on the field; for example, a 4-3-3 formation places 4 defenders, 3 midfielders and 3 forwards on the field.
Forward line: the 3 or 4 forwards who work together to try and score goals; consists of two wingers and 1 or 2 strikers.
Forward pass: a pass made towards the opposition's goal.
Forwards: the 3 or 4 players on a team who are responsible for most of a team's scoring; they play in front of the rest of their team where they can take most of its shots; strikers and wingers.
Foul: a violation of the rules for which an official assesses a free kick.4-2-4:a formation that consists of 4 defenders, 2 midfielders and 4 forwards.
4-3-3: a formation that consists of 4 defenders, 3 midfielders and 3 forwards; the most common formation used by teams.
4-4-2: a formation that consists of 4 defenders, 4 midfielders and 2 forwards.
Free kick: a kick awarded to a player for a foul committed by the opposition; the player kicks a stationary ball without any opposing players within 10 yards of him.
Front header: the striking of a ball in the air by a player's forehead; the most common type of header.
Front tackle: an attempt by a defender to kick the ball away from an attacker by approaching him from a head-on position.
Fullbacks: see Defensemen.
Goal: a ball that crosses the goal line between the goalposts and below the crossbar for which a point is awarded; also, the 8-foot high, 24-foot wide structure consisting of two posts, a crossbar and a net into which all goals are scored.
Goal area: the rectangular area 20 yards wide by 6 yards deep in front of each goal from which all goal kicks are taken; inside this area, it is illegal for opposing players to charge a goalie not holding the ball.
Goal kick: a type of restart where the ball is kicked from inside the goal area away from the goal; awarded to the defending team when a ball that crossed the goal line was last touched by a player on the attacking team.
Goal line: the field boundary running along its width at each end; also called the end line; runs right across the front of the goal; the line which a ball must completely cross for a goal to be scored.
Goalie: see Goalkeeper.
Goalkeeper: the player positioned directly in front of the goal who tries to prevent shots from getting into the net behind him; the only player allowed to use his hands and arms, though only within the penalty area.
Goalmouth: the front opening to each goal.
Goalposts: the two vertical beams located 24 feet apart which extend 8 feet high to form the sides of a goal and support the crossbar.
Hacking: kicking an opponent's legs.
Halfback: see Midfielder.
Halftime: the intermission between the 2 periods or halves of a game.
Halves: see Periods.
Hand ball: a foul where a player touches the ball with his hand or arm; the opposing team is awarded a direct free kick.
Hat trick: 3 or more goals scored in a game by a single player.
Header: the striking of a ball in the air by a player's head.
Hook: the curved trajectory of a ball due to spin imparted on it by a kicker, such as in a banana kick.
The next part of the glossary is here: /soccer-betting-glossary-i-z/


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OpenChannels News
"MPA Tip" is a recurring feature that provides advice on MPA planning and management gathered from practitioners and publications. The following tip was adapted by MPA News from Managing Marine Protected Areas: A Toolkit for the Western Indian Ocean, published by the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA). Consisting of a series of themed briefs, the toolkit offers guidance on a diverse array of MPA management topics and is available online at www.wiomsa.org/mpatoolkit/Home.htm.
Multiple new tools, publications, principles, and guidelines to aid MPA practitioners were announced at the IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC), held 5-14 October in Barcelona, Spain. Convened every four years to discuss solutions to conservation challenges, the WCC produced a consensus statement on speeding up MPA designations, new web-based tools for the field, a revised definition for the term protected area, several guidebooks on planning and management, and a set of principles for governing the high seas.
Australia's portion of the Coral Sea should be designated as a giant no-take marine reserve, according to a new campaign led by the Pew Environment Group (a US-based NGO), several Australian marine scientists, and former Australian Navy officials. The proposed Australian Coral Sea Heritage Park would stretch from the offshore boundary of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in northeast Australia to the edge of the nation's maritime boundaries with Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia.
Greenpeace dumps boulders in MPA to discourage trawling
Comprehensive ocean zoning (COZ) is potentially a powerful tool for integrating marine management at ecosystem scales. In this issue of MEAM, we look to places where zoning is being implemented, and address the following questions:
Editor's note: The goal of The EBM Toolbox is to promote awareness of software tools for facilitating EBM processes, and to provide advice on using those tools effectively. It is brought to you by the EBM Tools Network (www.ebmtools.org), a voluntary alliance of leading tool users, developers, and training providers.
By Sarah Carr
To provide comprehensive decision support for ocean zoning, toolkits will need to help stakeholders to:
Define their social, economic, and ecological objectives;
Editor's note: Elliott Norse is president of Marine Conservation Biology Institute, a marine conservation NGO.
By Elliott A. Norse
Editor's note: Jon Day is director of conservation for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) in Australia.
By Jon Day
Most people associated with managing marine or coastal areas have heard of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Many also know that the GBR is an extremely large marine park and may even be aware that there are different zones that prohibit various activities in certain areas. There are, however, many misconceptions about the zoning scheme.


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We have moved this example here.
Periodic Key Validation (offline)Most Viewed Article
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(154 out of 250 people found this article helpful)
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Hi there,
Just a quick question with this method an example sample code.
Would this require use to store the serial key? In order to re-authorise with the server after a 30 day period? I.e. that serial key isn't able to extracted from their local key (if it is present)?
What I am meaning to say is:
Day 30 ticks over and the first offline activation fails – how do we retrieve the serial key the user originally registered with to be able to re-activate online. Can we do this without needing to prompt the user?


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Business formation is a necessary early step when starting a business, it can have an impact on how much you pay in taxes, the amount of paperwork your business is required to do. Any personal liability you may face, plus your ability to raise business capital. Organizing your business and providing structure for growth now, from the outset will make you more effective as your business grows.
Click below to see different industries, business strategies, and how to get started.
The purpose of registering your Business Name is to prevent confusion over who is legally responsible for the business. A legal requirement to conduct business in each state. Any individual, partnership or corporation seeking to do business must operate under a name not currently in use by another similar business name or trademark operating in the state. Check your state for the individual requirements for your business setup with the local government. Depending on the business type, may also require special permits. Visit SBA website to see updated links for each state to see what your requirements are.
Wikipedia defines sole proprietorship as a type of enterprise that is owned and run by one person and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business entity. The sole proprietor is the simplest way to operate a business. Operating as a sole proprietor requires no paperwork, all you do is simply go into business. The owner just has to keep track of all the business income and expenses and report it on a Schedule C with their personal tax return. Although you do not have to file paperwork to set up a sole proprietorship, you may still have to acquire special business licenses and permits.
A DBA is setup with a fictitious business name, assumed brand or business name, or trade name. It is a way for sole proprietors to use a business name without having to using their own personal name. Most states require a DBA to be registered with a state or county agency. You alone own the company and are responsible for its assets and liabilities. Advantages are operating and advertising under business name. Prevent other businesses from using the name within your state. Operate with a bank account under your business name.
Employer Identification Numbers are a nine digit number issued by the IRS identifying a business entity for purposes of tracking the business and determining what taxes it and the parties related to the business owes the government. Most banks require and EIN to open a business account and it can reduce the risk of identity theft. You can apply and receive your EIN in minutes on the IRS website.
The biggest drawback of the sole proprietorship or a DBA is the owner is personally liable for any debts of the business. If your business runs into financial trouble, creditors can come after your personal property and savings. Because there is no legal separation between you and your business, you can also be personally liable for any lawsuits brought against the business. This risk extends to any liabilities incurred because of employee actions.
Another drawback for sole proprietorship's and DBA's is the IRS, showing losses over three years could face an audit. Compered to 7 years for a LLC, to 15 years for an INC. Speak to your account for the best course of action for you.
Click below to see different industries, business strategies, and how to get started.


text: I'm always on the hunt for that elusive shoe that's somewhere between a high heel and a flat – comfy, but dressy. I tube all over London for events on a regular basis (I know, poor me) so tottering about in heels never appeals, and neither does taking a huge handbag to cram them into it. These hit the spot exactly – while I'm not one for pink, this dusky shade is more vintage than bubblegum, helped along by the fact they're velvet, and you may have realised by now I'll buy ANYTHING that's velvet. These were out of stock for ages but I was alerted they were back in by some kind stranger on Instagram. Sadly, I can't find the velvet ones at the moment – keep an eye out as they do regularly restock – but the leather ones are here.


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The Phytonide have not always been as the residents of Aelion now know them to be. Having come from their home world of Koch, they were a technologically advanced humanoid civilization in ancient times. They were able to tap into the ether and get energy out of it and in doing so learned how to control the forces that some worlds called magic and other worlds psionics.
Interestingly, the touch of magic to technology in their society not only gave them massive momentum to their development, but had also nearly ruined it. Instead of trying to combine these two great powers, the mages of Koch tried to subdue the sects of society prone to technology. This led to a long and bloody civil war. Mages and their supporters won, thanks in part to the appearance of their first immortals. The mages however were faced with the dire consequences of their war: monstrous pollution, dangerous anomalies, contaminated air, and a variety of deadly diseases - were just a few of the them. The population had rapidly declined, and with it melted the immortal's strength.
The story of intelligent life on Koch would have ended there if not for one of the first immortal mages - Tonzar. Tonzar was the main ideologist of the war and had found a way out of their disastrous situation. With ether he planned to change the very biology of race, to adapt it to the changes occurring on the planet. He wanted to transform his race into a plant like species that could adapt and survive on the poisoned planet's surface.
The first successful results of his experiments were extremely impressive. Tonzar managed to introduce into the bodies of volunteers a fundamentally different mechanism of power, based on photosynthesis. It seemed the perfect solution to the problem of the hunger that resulted after the war. Tonzar received the approval and assistance of his colleagues, and continued to develop his success while gradually becoming a more and more significant figure to their new society. Since not all mages who participated in the war were immortal, Tonzar and a few of his colleagues were eventually the only witnesses to the pre-war past. For them, it was easy to reshape history to fit their needs, and with it the whole of society.
Techniques had changed which in turn allowed to create real miracles. Many centuries had passed and the previous race remained only a memory of Tonzar. Koch now home to a new kind of race. They are capable of rebuilding their body into the required configuration with just their minds. However, this process takes a long time - from months to centuries and leads to irreversible changes of the consciousness. The progeny of the Phytonide are born being already fully adapted to their new bodily functions.
Such, for example, the Triffids, in which there is nothing humanoid left in them. These creatures are fully covered by plants and now reproduce by means of seeds. However, even they have present a simple form of the mind and its ability to strengthen a team of their own kind. Due to the numerous amounts of Triffids and similar creatures, faith was in plentiful amounts for the Phytonide Great God.
Humanoid Phytonide, like the Dryads, are far removed from their own humanoid ancestors. They, as well as more complex creatures like Entids, are mostly made of hermaphrodites as asexuality reproduction being the most effective method for the modified race. In addition, some higher forms of the Phytonide are capable of creating simplified copies of themselves via seeds. These creatures are primarily use to quickly increase the combat power of their invading armies. These higher Phytonide themselves have become the backbone and support of this civilization. Also having strong will and reason, they perform complex orders for the great god and grant him the main source of faith.
Over the past century the Phytonide managed to completely clean their planet of pollution. Now it looks like a blooming world in which lives a lot of amazing creatures and all of which are plants of varying degrees of intelligence.
Already being a senior god Tonzar realized the connection of his power to the number of his followers. To increase his strength, he raised beings, capable of moving in space, and for several centuries mastered the surrounding worlds. The growing number of believers brought Tonzar enough power to become the Phytonide great god, Machavann.
Prior to his arrival to Aelion, the Phytonide had only colonized uninhabited worlds. Having not expected inhabitants his ships were easily destroyed by the inhabitants of Aelion. Machavann remembered the war on Koch as he watched his ships be destroyed. His conscious having changed so much over the centuries, the site of the technological advanced Aeliens had disgusted him. So instead of trying to make more peaceful ships meant for colonizing uninhabited worlds, he created ships and rapidly reproducing armies to invade the technologically advanced enemies. This army, in case of enemy victory, could all be reborn in stages on their ships and go on to destroy the world of Aelion again with their unwavering loyalty to Machavann.
About six centuries ago, this new army arrived at Aelion, and ever since then Machavann has not stopped in his relentless attempts to put his ship's roots into Aelion's soil. Over the past century he has accumulated a large sum of strength, and intends to overcome the resistance of the Aelion defenders.
Do not assume that Machavann is a monster devoid of reason. He is a great God, which is a bitter opponent of technological civilizations. He saw what it had led to his world and other worlds. Machavann is fully convinced that the technological development of civilizations will inevitably end with a devastating war in which civilization and their world die. In this sense, technology it considered too dangerous and must be destroyed at all cost. Even if it cost the deaths of millions or even billions of to destroy technology. Machavann does not care for the Great Gods or the people of these technological worlds as for him, this is just the natural circle of life.
- Triffids
- Diones
- Dryads
- Entids


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Computed tomography, also known as CT or a CAT scan, is a diagnostic test that utilizes x-ray beams to produce images of inside the body. Unlike traditional x-rays, CT images provide information of soft tissues inside the body and when combined with intravenous contrast also allow non-invasive evaluation of blood vessels. CT scans are fast, painless, non-invasive, and accurate.
Tell your doctor if there's a possibility you are pregnant and report any iodine or contrast allergies. You will be instructed not to eat or drink anything for a few hours beforehand. If you have a known allergy to contrast material, your doctor may prescribe medications to reduce the risk of an allergic reaction. These medications must be taken 12 hours prior to your exam. Leave jewelry at home and wear loose, comfortable clothing.
Click on the following links for information about your exam.


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The Securian AM Real Asset Income Fund, managed by Securian Asset Management, seeks above-average income and long-term growth of capital, with a secondary objective of reduced volatility compared to broader equity markets. The Fund is designed for investors seeking higher income than investment-grade fixed bond funds, without the volatility of stock mutual funds and also seeks to protect investors against inflation. The Fund invests primarily in dividend-paying securities issued by real estate investment trusts (REITs), utilities, oil and gas and other dividend-paying companies, and also selects instruments and securities that help manage volatility and inflation, or that provide exposure to certain sectors of the market.
Joseph Betlej, CFA
Vice President and Portfolio Manager
Lowell Bolken, CFA
Vice President and Portfolio Manager
Craig Stapleton, CFA, FRM
Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager
Joe is a lead portfolio manager for the Real Asset Income Fund. He has been active in the real estate industry since 1984. He entered the securities industry when he joined the firm in 1987. Joe's experience includes investing in public and private placement of commercial real estate equity and debt for client accounts, with an additional focus on dividend-oriented stocks.
Joe is a CFA Charterholder, a member of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and an Advisory Board member of the Applied Real Estate Securities Program at the University of Wisconsin. He is also a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society of Minnesota.
As Vice President & Portfolio Manager, Lowell is involved in the management of the Real Estate Securities and Real Asset Income portfolios. Active in the investment industry since 1989, Lowell's hands-on experience in the real estate market includes property management, leasing, negotiating sales and placement of financed debt. Prior to joining the firm, Lowell was the head of Corporate Bond Research at RBC Dain Rauscher, focusing on utilities and other higher yielding sector investments.
Lowell is a CFA Charterholder, a member of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, and a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society of Minnesota.
Craig is one of the co-portfolio managers of the Stabilization Funds. He is also involved in the quantitative analytics and risk management of the Real Asset Income Fund. Craig is a member of Securian Financial Group's Risk Council.
Craig is a CFA Charterholder, and a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society of Minnesota. He holds the Financial Risk Manager designation from the Global Association of Risk Professionals. Craig has an MBA in Finance and Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, both from the University of Illinois.
Institutional - VSDIX
Inception Date
Gross Expense Ratio
Net Expense Ratio*
*Securian Asset Management, Inc. has contractually agreed to reimburse expenses through December 29, 2020.


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TeSLA – FACTS FIGURES
The TeSLA Project provides to educational institutions, an adaptive trust e-assessment system for assuring assessment processes in online and blended environments.
It will support both continuous and final assessment to improve the trust level across students, teachers and institutions. The system will be developed taking ino account quality assurance agencies in education, privacy and ethical issues and educational and technological requirements throughout Europe.
• 12 countries
• 8 universities
• 4 research centers
• 3 companies
• Alpha version of TeSLA
already up and running
• 600 students involved so far
and more than 2.000 activities already tested
During the last six months the team in charge of Project Management has performed a day-by-day management related to effective work and control of deadlines, work plan follow-up, deliverables and milestones follow-up, project advancement, problems to be solved, decision-making processes, motivation and cooperation, quality assurance, peer review workflow for deliverables, risk management and contingency plans.
As well, the quality assurance plan and the risks and its corrective actions have been periodically checked and updated during the project and the development of the pilots. As a result of this work, a specific deliverable will be submitted by January 2017 covering and updating the risk management aspects found both during the execution of the first pilot and in the preparation of the second pilot of TeSLA.
Management activities are now focused on the preparation of the second Pilots of the project, as well as the proper performance of the ongoing tasks and minor rescheduling, so that all activities are aligned and harmonised.
From the management point of view, all the legal, ethical, quality, technical and educational aspects for the first pilot are being aligned from all the partners involved into the project as well as the communication protocols inter-intra partners to undertake the pilot.
The communication and dissemination activities are also ongoing as is expected through the schedule across the project.
In summary, the project plan is on track, with minor deviations.
After several month of work, the evaluations, analysis, architecture and schedules concerning the instruments have been already finished. The implementation of each system started last August 2016 and it will finished totally by the end of 2017.
Although it was originally planned to integrate one instrument after the other and use the instruments in the pilots as soon as they become available, further investigations and the integration approach using "Docker" containers, have changed this original scope and now all instruments have been enabled to integrate at the same time, so that nearly all instruments will become available in the 2nd round of pilot starting in February 2017.
Due to the availability of all authorisation and author verification instruments in the 1st pilot (last quarter of 2016), the project will benefit from two more iterations of performance optimising, trouble-shooting and development of automated tests, which will ensure the quality of the overall system.
On the other hand, and from the global architecture point of view, the component connecting all the instruments with each VLE (via a Plug-in provided by TeSLA also) is the TeSLA E-assessment Portal or simply TEP. Taking into consideration the new approach of instruments integration at once, a functional version of TEP will be finished by the end of the 1st iteration to be used by the 2nd pilot.
In fact, the first functional version of TEP was already by December of 2016. This successful integration of the instruments in the first iteration, allows to be focused on programming with non-instrument related topics like scalability, performance, trouble-shooting or security.
Thanks to the task already done about population definition, and the evolution of TeSLA development, the planning of the first pilot execution was carried out since June until September 2016. The pilot plan included the dates and the duration of each pilot, the number of learners and teachers involved, the type of the courses and the assessment activities for testing the tools for each institution.
The Small Educational pilots started in October and ended in December 2016. A special report on the execution of this pilot was elaborated in order to establish to what extent the main objectives of the 1st pilot were achieved, what strategies the pilot institutions used for their implementation, what difficulties they encountered and how the problems were addressed, and most importantly what experience they gained and what lessons they learned that can be useful for the successful execution of the Medium Test-Bed pilots.
The main focus of the first pilot according to the Grant Agreement was to test the coordination between all partners and the defined protocols and data flows. The objectives of the Small Educational pilots did not envisage testing the tools for authentication and antiplagiarism but during the Consortium meetings it was agreed that some tools will be introduced and tested during the 1st pilot in order for the pilot institutions to gain experience and so that the level of risk for the 2nd pilot be reduced.
The first pilot aimed to test the protocol of communication among partners for pilots' execution, the implementation protocol at partner level, and to select the most suitable activities for the e-assessment process at subject level. 7 universities are conducting this small-scale pilot with a sample of approximately 600 students.
The universities are Open University (United Kingdom), Open University of Netherlands (Netherlands), Anadolu University (Turkey), Jyväskylä University (Finland), Open University of Catalonia (Spain), Sofía University (Bulgary) and Technical University of Sofia (Bulgary).
UNamur analyses data privacy and ethics related to the TeSLA Project. The educational quality assurance agencies are beginning to select and train experts to evaluate all pilots.
During last year, TeSLA has been supported by the acceleration of external dissemination and exploitation activities. Several industry contacts have been consolidated during this period, in addition to other European organisations interested in the possible applications of TeSLA (Learnosity, Digiexam, TAO, Proctorexam, Unplag, just to mention some of them). There have also been initial touch points and conversations with related European projects like OP4RE, and InnoVal.
New processes have developed in order to improve the communication and organisation of our tasks among all the partners in the Project. In the same way, we have been collecting information about the different activities or events than have been covered by some of the partners of the Project, supporting them with the creation of collateral materials.
Regarding Exploitation and IP management, several discussions have been held in order to settle down the basis for these agreements and get a final consensus. Local IP managers have been assigned and we are starting to work together all the partners on the definition of tangible and intangible project objects and outcomes.
Four experts talk about the evolution of the TeSLA
from different points of view:
Roumiana Peytcheva as Pilot Manager
Jose Janssen as Educational Manager
Josep Prieto as Technical Manager
Pablo Langa as Innovation Manager
After finishing the first round of pilots, where the number of students involved has exceeded the expectations, we have been able to test not only the approaches agreed but also to test the usability of the tools as well as the evaluation instruments which is beyond of the original scope.
The statistics show that considerable number of activities were carried out in most of the pilot institutions – 841 activities were conducted for testing the face recognition tool, 579 activities for testing the voice recognition tool, and 873 activities for testing the keystroke dynamics tool.
As well, the integration of the technology in the 1st pilot helped the pilot institutions to gain very valuable experience which will be of great value in the 2nd pilot, and also enabled the technical team to gather a significant amount of data which will support the training of the TeSLA tools for the next two rounds of pilots.
Valuable experiences from the first pilot have been gathered through focus group interviews and online questionnaires. From an educational perspective the process of inviting teachers for the first pilot and discussing the TeSLA aims and instruments provided valuable insights as well. For instance, an important question arising from discussions with teachers concerns the use of forensic analysis in learning scenarios where students receive (peer)feedback to improve written assignments.
Discussions like these help shape future pilots and make sure a diversity of learning scenarios enabling us to explore the boundaries of the technology and, possibly, push it further.
From the technical point of view, the first semester of 2016 was dedicated to the analysis and design of the TeSLA system, which is already completed and agreed by all the technical partners. During the second part of the year we finished the development of the first alpha version which will be used in the 2nd pilots in February 2017.
Without any doubt, the development phase is being a great challenge, provided that we have to integrate the different components of the TeSLA infrastructure which are developed by different partners and also to integrate this infrastructure with each VLE used by each institution of the Project.
We also provided a testing infrastructure not only to perform the integration and ensure the correct operation of each component, but also to ensure the quality of the final product.
I make a positive assessment of the technical progress made so far. I am very satisfied with the results obtained and appreciate in general the good atmosphere of the work team, despite the high technical complexity of the project, the multitude of development environments that exist and the variety of entities involved.
TeSLA has been born based on research and with an innovation DNA. This innovation is reflected in the way TeSLA is combining scattered existing technologies like biometric recognition systems, forensic analysis, plagiarism control and time-stamp tools, applied for the first time, all together to the challenge of e-assessments and accredited online initiatives in the education field.
This project was born as an ambitious alternative to support fully digital and fully online continuous identity and proof of work assessment, avoiding virtually the requirement to be present in campus or in a testing facility, like face-to-face final examinations.
This innovation is needed beyond the internationalization and online learning growth. One of the most remarked challenges of the system is to provide an alternative for students who have some kind of disability or come from low-income social groups.
Travelling and accommodation can be a show-stopper for attendance or completion of a specific learning activity by students.


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Elsa in Taupe
Hand knotted of the finest wool from New Zealand, the Elsa Collection is among the most premium and luxurious rugs in the Loloi line. Drawing inspiration from centuries-old traditional design, we designed Elsa to celebrate heritage while modernizing the aesthetic through current colors and distressed pattern. While the extremely soft wool serves as a base for the rug, the design is accentuated by low and high levels of bamboo silk for textural appeal and lustre. Hand crafted in India.


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Market News
|July 15, 2013
China Protest Forcing Nuclear Retreat Shows People Power
|Protests in a southern Chinese city last week that forced local authorities to abandon plans for a uranium-processing facility highlight the growing willingness of ordinary people to challenge the state on environmental issues.
The proposed Longwan Industrial Park project won't be approved "in order to fully respect the opinion of the masses," the government of Heshan, Guangdong province, said in a statement on its website on July 13. A "social-stability risk assessment" of the proposal that was released for public awareness generated "much opposition," it said.
Heshan is the latest local authority to back down in the face of pressure from a public increasingly empowered by its ability to sway officials who fear social unrest. Governments in cities across the country have canceled or delayed plans for industrial projects over the past year after confrontations with residents concerned about safety and pollution.
"Chinese civil society is getting stronger," said Willy Wo-Lap Lam, an adjunct professor of history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "People now realize if their numbers are big enough, if they are united and stand their ground, the government will back down," he said.
Opposition to the uranium facility underscores growing concern among China's expanding middle class that industrial plants damage the environment and people's health. Pollution has replaced land grabs as the primary cause of social unrest with many of the protests erupting in more prosperous coastal cities such as Shanghai and Ningbo where residents have deployed smart-phones and used social media to organize their campaigns.
Party's Survival
President Xi Jinping, who is also head of the ruling Communist Party of China, said last month that "winning or losing public support is an issue that concerns the CPC's survival or extinction," according to a June 18 report by the official Xinhua News Agency. Xi spoke at a conference about a yearlong campaign starting in the second half of this year to improve ties between the party and the people, Xinhua said.
Heshan authorities backed down over the 37 billion yuan ($6 billion) uranium-processing project a day after more than 1,000 demonstrators rallied outside government offices in Jiangmen city, which administers Heshan. China National Nuclear Corp. and China General Nuclear Power Group had planned to build the 229-hectare (566-acre) plant to enrich uranium and fabricate fuel, according to an earlier statement on the Jiangmen government's website.
Improve Communication
Officials initially pledged to extend a consultation period to 20 days from 10 and improve communication with the public before announcing on July 13 that they had scrapped the project.
Pan Jianming, a Beijing-based spokesman for state-owned China National Nuclear, didn't respond to calls and faxes seeking comment on Monday. Calls to the offices of China General Nuclear and the Jiangmen government also went unanswered.
"The current central government has requested economic development must be pursued with environmental protection and at the same time social stability is a line that can't be crossed," said Ma Jun, a Beijing-based environmentalist and founder of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. "It's evident that in this case the local government largely acted to keep social stability."
Resume Approvals
Protests in Shanghai in May forced battery maker Shanghai Guoxuan New Energy Co. to abandon plans for a factory on the outskirts of the city. Demonstrations in the southwestern city of Kunming took place the same month to oppose plans for a petrochemical plant planned by China National Petroleum Corp.
China's State Council said in October it would resume approvals of nuclear-power plants after a suspension imposed in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant in Japan in March 2011. The world's largest energy consumer intends to more than triple its nuclear-power capacity by 2015, according to a government white paper released that month.
The country currently has 17 nuclear reactors in operation and another 28 being built, according to the World Nuclear Association. An additional 38 have been planned and are preparing to start construction, according to the association.
China plans to increase nuclear power to as much as 6 percent of its energy mix by 2020, up from less than 2 percent currently, according to a presentation given by Zhu Xuhui, adviser to China National Nuclear, at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation in January.
Coastal Regions
The Heshan facility would have been the first nuclear-fuel-processing plant on the southeast coast and would have supplied the power plants of Dayawan, Taishan and Yangjiang, according to a July 13 report from Xinhua. China has built a majority of its processing facilities in the west of the country and most of its generating plants in eastern coastal regions, the report said.
"In future, especially in coastal developed regions, these kinds of public demonstrations may be the norm as we've seen in the West, where such projects face growing 'not in my backyard' sort of opposition," said Ma. "In the future, large projects in China will need a longer and longer time to get approved like they do in the West."
At the same time, the Heshan plant may have been expendable because of its economics.
"This project was still in the phase of doing feasibility studies and could have just gotten canceled because of low power demand in addition to resistance from local residents," Patrick Dai, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., said by phone today. "This won't cause a material change to the nuclear policy of China."


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Candy Crush, Cotton (M)
Product Code: PUN1506
A pink cotton kurta with gorgeous black embroidery on the front, back and around the cuffs. The intricate patterns, fine cotton texture and attractive colours give a brilliant look to the kurta. Pair it with cream or white pyjamas or trousers to form a fine, summer ensemble.
Size Specifications
Chest = 43", Shoulder = 17.5", Length = 42"


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Volunteer at Washington Business Week
At Washington Business Week, high school students learn crucial life skills as they role play as industry professionals, launch a company, and solve real-world challenges. The success of Washington Business Week depends heavily on the support of committed volunteers. We have impacted over 60,000 students and 6,000 professionals since our inception in 1976. Lend a hand in your community by helping to support the programs that are shaping the leaders of tomorrow!
- Must attend training.
- Must pass a background check.
Questions? Please contact WBW at 253.237.3545 or email@example.com.
The first step to becoming a Washington Business Week volunteer is to apply on the link "apply now". The Washington Business Week staff will contact you and provide you with more information about the volunteer opportunities that match your preferences.
Time commitments vary according to the volunteer position and your preferences. The specifics will be discussed with you by our staff once your application has been received.


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By Isolde
Skane, Sweden
What is the name of this bush? Would love to plant it in my garden, but to be able to buy I need a name :-(
Any one?
- 6 May, 2010
looks abit like the ribes.R.odoratum.but i could be wrong.
flowers april and grows about 7ft tall.
6 May, 2010
Thanks Plantmaiden! Just put (today, Saturday) new, better pictures and a new question regarding this bush. Do you mind to have another look at it? Thanks!
15 May, 2010
Previous question
Next question


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Radeon Fury X 4096MB HBM PCI-Express Graphics Card (21246-00-40G)
- Core: 1050MHz
- Memory: 4096MB 1000MHz HBM
- Stream Processors: 4096
- DirectX 12 Support
- AMD CrossFireX Ready
- AMD Eyefinity
- AMD Mantle
- Dolby TrueHD
- 2 Year Warranty.
Stock Code: GX-368-SP
Manufacturer: Sapphire
+44 (0)1782 44 44 55
Radeon Fury X 4096MB HBM PCI-Express Graphics Card (21246-00-40G)The new AMD Fury X graphics card ships with 4GB HBM. HBM is a new high-performance memory standard with vertically stacked DRAM dies and fast microscopic interconnects called through-silicon vias (TSVs). AMD Fury X graphics card features a wide-interface 4096-bit HBM memory architecture enabling higher bandwidth performance and over 3X the performance per watt of GDDR5. To fully harness the power of the GPU technology,
AMD LiquidVR™ Technology enables liquid-smooth visuals and high frame rates, which will provide broad compatibility, plug-and-play ease of use, and stable platform support for tomorrow's VR vendors and technologies. Get quality that rivals 4K, even on a 1080p display while playing your favorite online games thanks to AMD's VSR. Microsoft® DirectX® 12 brings new levels of visual realism to gaming on the PC and gets top-notch performance. Moreover, the card uses PCI Express 3.0 as the standard interface, doubling the data bandwidth of PCI Express 2.0.
- Watercooled
- Vulcan Support
- Mantle API
- DirectX 12
- Open GL 4.4
- Open CL 1.2
- AMD Virtual Super Resolution
- AMD Free-Sync Technology
- AMD XMDA Crossfire Technology
- AMD Liquid VR Support
- Frame Rate target control
- Dual BIOS
- HDMI 1.4a / 4k Video Support
- GPU: Fiji XT
- Stream Processors: 4096
- Core Speed: 1050MHz
- Memory Speed: 500Mhz (1000MHz Effective)
- Memory interface: 4096-Bit
- Memory capacity: 4096MB HBM
- PCI-Express X16 lane required
- 500W or greater PSU required
- Power Connectors: 2x 8-pin required
- Display Outputs: 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
- Dimensions: 195(L) x 110(W) x 40(H)mm
- Warranty: 2yr
More links for "Radeon Fury X 4096MB HBM PCI-Express Graphics Card (21246-00-40G)"
Customer review
Cool, Quiet & Fast
All the downsides of the reference 290X card have been solved with the Fury X. No longer will you see high temps in the 80c or 90c range. No longer will you be deafened by a reference cooler from insert vendor here.
The card is built with quality in mind and it looks wonderful in any case. I never get tired of glancing to my right and see the Radeon logo glowing red.
If you're looking for competitive Graphics performance at 1440P-2160P then you can't go wrong with the Fury X.
Word of warning, you will have to become used to seeing GPU temps around 50C under full load while gaming. This can take some used to depending on what GPU you owned previously.


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Worlds Biggest Sports History Project Comes to Tipp
The history of the GAA in Tipperary is the focus of a major history project about to be carried out.
The GAA Oral History Project is one of the biggest sporting history projects ever undertaken in the world and will leave a remarkable legacy for future generations.
Commissioned by the GAA and being carried out by a team based at Boston College-Ireland, the project is collecting a unique body of material that will ultimately be stored at the GAA Museum in Croke Park.
Already hundreds of interviews have been carried out across Ireland and overseas and an extraordinary collection of documents and photographs has been put together. Some of this material has already been used in the best-selling book, The GAA: A People's History which was written by the project's directors, Mike Cronin, Mark Duncan and Paul Rouse.
Now, the plan is to record the history of the GAA in Tipperary.
A researcher from the project, Regina Fitzpatrick, is coming to Tipperary this January. Regina is looking for people to record interviews with, including GAA members and supporters and anyone who has ever had any contact or involvement with the GAA.
In addition to recording interviews, andin order to reach the largest number of people possible, the GAA Oral History Project is also providing questionnaires for people to fill out or people can simply send the project a letter or email about the place of the GAA in their lives.
The ambition of the project is that people from every parish, from every club and from every school will contribute, either by doing an interview, filling out a questionnaire, writing a letter or donating material. The project also aims to collect the memories of the members of all the organisations under the umbrella of the GAA, including Ladies Football, Camogie, Handball, Rounders and Sc?r.
Regina said: 'We want to hear the opinions and stories of everyone. We want to develop an archive that represents every viewpoint on the GAA, good, bad and indifferent. You do not have to know a lot about the GAA or have a lot to say to take part. Without your help, your story and the story of your club, your school and your county cannot be told. Take this opportunity to get your club involved.'
'The interviews that are conducted and the questionnaires that are collected will allow current and future family members of participants to hear and see their ancestors, to view their handwriting, to learn about how they lived and the place of the GAA in their lives.'
'We are hoping to gather photographs, videos and recordings of the social life surrounding the GAA, whether they are of families having a picnic on the way to or from a match, of spectators at a match, of supporters on the train or bus to a match, of homecoming celebrations and commiserations, or of social events.'
'We are also hoping to collect posters, letters, songs, poems and prayers relating to the GAA. We would like material relating to social events organised around the GAA, records and minute books, correspondence and financial material from counties and clubs and anything which tells us the stories of the people behind the organisation – the jersey washers, tea makers, stewards, grounds-staff, ticket collectors, bus and car drivers, officials, coaches, managers, backroom teams, committee members, players and supporters.'
As this project is developing a digital archive, you do not necessarily have to donate the material permanently. The project will take the items on loan for a short time, digitise them and then return them. Some of the material that has already been collected can be seen on the website www.gaahistory.com.
The project also hopes to involve as many primary and secondary school children as possible. Special curriculum-based packs have been designed to help teachers and students who wish to take part.
Finally, the project is looking for people to volunteer to help carry out its work.
For further information on any aspect of the project, please contact Regina on 01 6147454 or contact the office of the GAA Oral History Project Team on (01) 662 5055. Alternatively you can write to the project at GAA Oral History Project, 42 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, or send an email to email@example.com.


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Most folks that brew tend to get stuck on IBUs when talking about bitterness in a beer. That's fine but ultimately what really counts is the balance of IBUs (international bittering units) to the gravity of the beer. I guarantee that thinking in terms of balance will improve ALL of your recipes after reading this article. So how do you create a homebrew recipe with balanced bitterness?
First start with the style you are shooting for (pale, IPA, barley wine, brown ale, etc). Once you have a style in mind go try to find some good examples of the style. I like to use the book Clone Brews by Tess and Mark Szamatulski. It's got a great collection of beers and most importantly, they aren't all super obscure so chances are you can find them in your area. For a more theoretical approach check out the book Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. It gives a great run down of American, English, and German styles. Each section shows the main components of the style and gives some pointers on how to brew them.
Once you have the style squared away it's time to create a bitterness ratio. The bitterness ratio is a simple equation: IBU / gravity points. You can calculate the IBUs using a program like proMash or you can use the online calculator Beer Calculus. Either way you need to find a calculator because the equation is complex and depends on hops along with the gravity of the beer. The gravity points are just the specific gravity - 1 * 1000.1 (so a SG of 1.060 becomes 60 points). I've gotten into the habit of saying the gravity of my beer in points rather than the SG because it sounds cooler (my beer has 100 points! Wow!!). The goal is to create an IBU to gravity points ratio that is comparable to the style you want to brew. For example: In my next brew I want to make a saison. Clone Brews lists the IBUs and SG of Saison Dupont as 25 and 1.064 respectively. 25 divided by 64 equals 0.39. Personally I'd like to lower the gravity a bit because last time I brewed it I drank waaaaaayyyy too much on account of the tastyness. The next morning however was not so tasty. I'm going to back the recipe down to 55 points (1.050 SG). This means I'll need only 21 IBUs. To find out what that means for my recipe I'll get out a homebrew calculator like the ones I mentioned earlier and play with the recipe until it's just right.
Once you have the ratio of IBUs to points you can start to think about the flavor balance. The flavor balance is how the beer actually tastes so you can't use some fancy math to get this right. Specifically, is the hop character in the beer bitter, aromatic, flavorful (citrus, floral, spicy, etc)? Those three kinds of hop "taste" come from when the hops are added to the boil. Bitter hop flavor comes from additions at the beginning of the boil. Most of your IBUs in any recipe will come from this addition. So called flavor hops (citrus, floral, spicy, etc) come from hop additions with 30 to 15 min. left in the boil. Hop aroma comes from late additions with 15 to 0 min. left in the boil. Notice that the flavor and aroma ranges are next to one another. Strictly speaking this isn't true; in reality they overlap to a great degree but it's more practical to think of them this way. If you are shooting for a bitter as sin beer you can add nearly all of your hops at the beginning of the boil saving some as late boil aroma hops. If you prefer a more subtle beer in the style of a pale ale bump up the mid and late boil hops and keep the early bittering hop additions low. Knowing the best time to add your hops is an art but thankfully it's one that's really fun to learn.
Before I close I want to mention malt bitterness. Malt bitterness is something that I didn't pick up on in beers for quite a while while friends of mine can't get past it (specifically girls that like hefeweizen and no other beers). To me malt bitterness just isn't unpleasant so it doesn't stick out. You can learn to recognize the flavor by munching on some roasted barley next time you visit your local homebrew shop. This bitterness is different than hop bitterness but it will add to the overall bitterness of your beer. This is one of the reasons why really dark malts like roasted barley aren't used in large amounts. To counteract the bitterness make sure you don't over-do-it with IBUs or brew strong beers when you want to use a lot of really dark malts.
There you have it, the three main ways to balance hops in your beer. The bitterness to gravity ratio, which is the most important; the subtle art of hop bitterness, flavor, and aroma balancing; and the malt vs hop bitterness. Think about these balances next time you create a recipe and I guarantee that you beer will be much better for it.
Most folks that brew tend to get stuck on IBUs when talking about bitterness in a beer. That's fine but ultimately what really counts is the balance of IBUs (international bittering units) to the gravity of the beer. I guarantee that thinking in terms of balance will improve ALL of your recipes after reading this article. So how do you create a homebrew recipe with balanced bitterness?